When it was confirmed that EVE: Valkyrie would be coming to the HTC Vive, most assumed it would simply utilise a gamepad instead of the kit’s position-tracked controllers, much like Elite: Dangerous. That may well not be the case, however.
Developer CCP Newcastle is looking into bringing support for the Vive’s position tracked controllers to its multiplayer VR dogfighter. I heard that last week at EVE Fanfest, and decided to ask CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson about the possibility directly.
When I first asked him if the company was experimenting with support for what he calls the “Vive wands”, Pétursson flat out confirmed it was in the works. Asking after it further, the CEO told me that finding a way to fit these controls in would be “challenging” but it would be “awesome” and that motion controls in Valkyrie “should be a thing”.
So what would Pétursson like to see enabled with motion controls for EVE: Valkyrie? He talks of wanting to fire blind from behind his craft, operating gun turrets with his hands. I suggest being able to pull thrusters back and forth for acceleration and he nods in agreement. But, ultimately, Pétursson notes that whatever he or I may think up, he’s sure that the CCP Newcastle team can come up with “something way cooler”. I’d also heard that there’s no guarantee the support will come, but the CEO insists that “this needs to happen.”
Of course, you’ll still be able to play Valkyrie on Vive with a standard gamepad, which in itself raises some interesting questions. If motion control players were able to fire blindly, wouldn’t that give them a huge advantage over those with a gamepad? And how could all of this factor into the recently announced cross-platform play between the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR? Perhaps the answer lies in dedicated matches and game types. There’s also no guarantee that such support will be ready in time for the launch of the HTC Vive version, which itself is yet to be dated.
If not at Vive launch, then it’s easy to envision a motion control update for EVE: Valkyrie arriving later down the line, similar to the update planned for this summer that’s set to add a new map, Crossroads, and a Carrier Assault mode.
