Walking in Stations:
The ability to interact with other players using an avatar other than your ship has always been part of CCP's long term plans. Sometimes called "
Walking in Stations" and sometimes "
Ambulation", CCP first announced that they'd begun working on the concept at the 2006
EVE fanfest. CCP's lead technical producer at the time, Torfi Frans Olaffson,
released further details in a bumper devblog shortly after fanfest. He gave a first look into the sheer depth of the project, from animation issues to rendering challenges and game-play considerations.
CCP was shooting for as realistic an experience as possible and that came with many questions to answer. How could they create realistic character movement while avoiding the "uncanny vally" effect? How would our avatars turn to look at things, push past each other in a crowded station or communicate while seeming completely natural? Was the technology even available to render hundreds of players on the same screen?
In retrospect, it was a ground-breaking project of such magnitude that perhaps we shouldn't have expected its timely completion. Developer Torfi Frans Olaffson is quoted in 2007 as saying "I always feel like we're just scratching the surface," an ominous statement that turned out to be very true. Walking in Stations was originally intended for a 2008 release but after two years of work, it was still firmly in the development stages.