Step Into My Office.
3D mock up of an Amarr corporation office conference room
Ambulation, it has been said, will not restrict itself to the open and public spaces of stations. The shops, Bars and walk in plastic surgeons are mere window dressing compared to what I see as being the real meat of Ambulation. You will be able to walk into your corporation’s office, flirt with the (computer controlled) secretary, have a chat with the lads round the Quafe dispenser, and finally close the door of your office (if you’re rank merits one of course) put your feet up and plot your enemy’s messy demise (or you could just play with that thing with the balls on strings, whatever floats your boat).
The ideas being mooted for corp offices in Ambulation are something which lifts player interaction to a whole new level. You could have a receptionist (which you have to pay for obviously) who can interact with visitors in a variety of ways. Messages or instructions for corp members can be left with the receptionist, they’ll be a point of contact between your corp and the rest of the EVE universe. Recruitment, player missions, bounties, negotiations, will all involve the receptionist NPC. Players should be able to come and make appointments with corp officers and directors, place buy orders, issue contracts and pick up missions, all through the receptionist.
The new corp office will not just be a place for you to hang out. You’ll have a board room, and have real board meetings. A great addition would be a holographic communication system, so that a character’s avatar can be present in a meeting when they’re actually in an office half the galaxy away. Or how about a strategic map, which the various attendees of the meeting could interact with, planning campaigns, plotting intelligence data, monitoring troop movements. Think of the EVE map, but floating in the middle of a room being doodled on by you and your compatriots. The possibilities extend from drawing rude dot-to-dot pictures in 3d space at the ridiculous end to it being a real tool which provides a whole new way to plan and scheme in EVE.
