Project Legion is Dust 514 reimagined for PC
Dust 514 was released last year on PS3 as a sci-fi shooter that connected into the wider Eve Online universe. Today, at Eve FanFest, CCP announced that the same Shanghai studio that developed Dust are now working on Project Legion, a reimagined take on the same formula, this time for PC.
"It's still very early, it's been a few months the team in Shanghai has worked on it, and the idea is to really deliver on that vision, very much on that same vision, but there were a few pillars that were really important. More of a sandbox experience, more true to Eve, as an example, than necessarily Dust," Dust 514 exec producer Jean-Charles Gaudechon told Polygon.
While Dust 514 was more of a straight up team-based multiplayer shooter, it sounds like they're aiming to create something more emergent with Project Legion. There's to be different security levels, with high security areas that have an ambient threat for PvE flavour, and low security zones with friendly fire and the betrayal that comes with it.
"We have that - it's a [player versus player] contract, which Dust 514 did really well on. But what I really want to add also is that much more open behaviour... tools for people to do their own thing," Gaudechon told Digital Spy.
At this stage it's still only in the project phase, and therefore not a certainty to be released, and the Polygon report even goes as far as mentioning PS4, although to that would seem a long way off as they're focussing on PC first and foremost.
What the different voices from CCP all seem to be echoing is that they'll be talking to the community about the game, and allowing them to shape its development over time.
There's a blog post by Gaudechon that carries a significant amount of information, the bulk of which we've attached below:
When I came to CCP several months ago, it was to fulfill a vision that was our goal since DUST 514 was first announced: Merge a deep sandbox experience with an FPS in New Eden, to create a massive living world more meaningful as real life. As the team and I worked on that vision, we came to understand the effort centered around four pillars. We had to build the right ecosystem incorporating a fun and balanced competitive shooter; player vs. environment allowing for emergent behaviors; a player-driven economy that is distinctly CCP; and deep immersion that brings it all together.
We realized we would never be able to do it by iteration, any more than one could overhaul the engines of a plane in flight, and to do this right it would need to become something new -- a distinct and separate experience from what we've previously offered on DUST 514. We also feel that, to do this right, we need to do it on the PC platform first.
To achieve this, we'll need much more focus on the user experience than ever before. As I mentioned during my keynote today, the starmap will play a larger role in the way you'll interact with that huge universe. I envision New Eden's mercenaries scanning the universe for loot, battles, Guristas-sponsored tournaments and such, and then making meaningful choices from there.
Let's start with the loot. I didn't want to add drones simply to have AI to shoot at; instead we tried to find a way to make that meaningful. That's when the idea of scavenging emerged. What if the loot being dropped is gear that the other players and reclaimer drones (which, by the way, are cool so long as you don't get too close!) are fighting for in "open" scavenging grounds? In High-Security space the loot is more basic and the drones less aggressive, but in Low-Security the stakes get higher. As all those in New Eden know, with greater risk comes greater reward. So in lowsec, with CONCORD nowhere to be found, the line between friend and foe becomes very blurry - you and I might team up to go after better loot against more powerful drones... but you won't shoot me in the back and steal my stuff, right?
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A lot of work will also be going into the shooting mechanics, emergent gameplay and diversity of roles. An overhaul of the progression tree supports this effort.
Levels, environments and visuals will also be enhanced, with the sole objective of making the experience even more immersive and dense: How is the surface of a planet in the EVE universe supposed to look - exotic, scary, calm...? Should atmospheres have an effect on gameplay? That's what I've tried to demonstrate today on stage with the live demo. Even if it's still early, I hope some of that thinking was well communicated.
Finally, the economy piece, the cement of that ecosystem as I call it. A player-driven market is not a "nice-to-have", it's a must. Loot can be used or sold through the market. The ones who don't want to go scavenge can make big ISK through Mercenary contracts and restock or upgrade from the market directly.
Although DUST 514 and Project Legion will function independently of one another, and are different projects on different development paths, DUST itself has a lot more shooting-in-the-face action to come. The team and I remain committed to continuing to improve the experience on PlayStation 3, while simultaneously making sure "Project Legion" becomes the experience we've all dreamt of.
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