EVE Online

[Naheal]

I'm curious to see if there's anyone who plays this game who would be alright with giving me an overview. I've been told that it's completely unlike anything that's out there at the moment and that I, being someone who enjoys macro management, strategy, and the idea of economic takeover, might actually enjoy.

Also, what are your thoughts on the game in general? Is it forgiving? Does it require a great deal of patience and time (I have an ample supply of them, so it's not an issue, I just want to know what I'm getting myself into)?

 

[NotSoNimble]

If you have to ask, you haven't got a clue about what the game is really like.

It has a rather steep learning curve..... don't bother to start it unless you want to give your life to it.

It's different from WOW, it has a soul.... and players can rip it from you.

It is a unique experience that you will not walk away from. You may give up, but the world will live on.

Tread lightly, for this is no regular game.

 

[Blue_vision]

I know people (2 of them) that play it, and I personally don't understand it. I mean, I can understand why the concept would be cool, but being a MMO, it just drains your time and I think the formality involved in it kind of ruins what might be good concept. But I don't really like MMO's, so take that opinion for what you want.

And I haven't actually played the game. Just a couple hours of backseat piloting over the shoulder and advising that the shit should be blown out of the next ship that comes by.

 

[Picosaurus]

It has a rather steep learning curve.....

Understatement of the century to learn how to play this game properly alone will take you more time than to get to lvl 30 in WoW. xD

 

[octafish]

I've heard it said that EVE Online is a second job that you pay to work in.

 

[Naheal]

I've heard it said that EVE Online is a second job that you pay to work in.

The same can be said about WoW.

 

[3dfx]

A lot of people play this, and they say it's the best MMO out there, I'm an astronomically huge sci-fi fan, and I don't think it is. It's the best Sci-Fi MMO, but it's still lacking, not to mention being the best sci-fi MMO isn't much of a feat with today's available titles.

I've always assumed these die hard EVE fans look at the game for what it's going to be in the future, when they finally implement the ability to go down to planets and walk around in the space stations, etc... but I really don't understand the die hard fans of this game. However I can appreciate the game from a developers stand point, one server can hold every player, the graphics are very detailed, the space scape may get a bit redundant to some, but I think it's beautiful especially with the great ambient sound track they have. EVE only eats about 10mb of bandwidth every 30 minutes or so, which is a ridiculously small amount of transfer for an MMO or even an RTS. Among many other things, it's a very well done game but it's just... lacking.

If you break it down to the basics, there's really not much you can do at this point, it's either PvP or Make ISK (money). Whether you use the market to make money, farm ore, salvage ships, whatever. I heard in Dominion or Apocrypha they added the ability to travel into uncharted space, or use wormholes or something, but still there's not much to do other than grind pirates and mine ore. The auto-pilot feature is in absolutely no hurry to get you to your destination... it's really bad. I suppose there's some sort of balancing issue or something, so it needs to drop you one million meters from your next jump-gate, but it's extremely annoying.

The game is unique, and the idea of it is excellent, but the delivery is very stale. The missions get extremely redundant, extremely fast, depending on what type of ship you use, combat feels very slow paced. Though the ship upgrade system is brilliant and very fun, once you've spent 30 minutes figuring out what you need to learn in order to apply your upgrades, then spent 2 weeks (yes literally 2 weeks, some training takes that long) learning the skills, you're very bored. Yes the PvP raids are fun, and destroying someones billion ISK ship and taking their stuff, then podding them is amazing. There's really not much to do outside of that.

I think CCP has a good idea going, and I may come back later when they've added more to do, different missions, more rewards for exploring space (other than pirates and ore), and the ability to leave the ship, but until then I just don't see what's so great about it.

If you're still interested in playing, give it a shot, you can get a 21 day free trial from a current subscriber I believe. My tips for a new player that doesn't have any RL friends that play:

Run through the tutorial, once or twice depending on how dense you are when it comes to learning. Start running missions, hang out in the newbie channel until you think you're getting the hang of things.

Once you've ran some missions and are interested in expanding your horizons join a good trainee corp for one of the bigger corps. Usually very helpful in your second learning stage, they'll teach you the basics of PvP etc...

Edit:

I've heard it said that EVE Online is a second job that you pay to work in.

The same can be said about WoW.

The same can be said about every MMO ever, that's what they all basically are, a second life.

 

[strum4h]

- A lot of text -

I've heard it said that EVE Online is a second job that you pay to work in.

The same can be said about WoW.

The same can be said about every MMO ever, that's what they all basically are, a second life.

There is an MMO called "Second Life."

 

[Tibike77]

This should help :
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.70442.7938798

EDIT : WARNING !!!
THIS ABOVE IS _NOT_ A LINK TO YAHTZEE'S REVIEW.
IT'S A LINK TO A POST DEEP IN THE DISCUSSION THREAD !
JUST LOOK TWO POSTS BELOW _THIS_ POST FOR FULL QUOTE, YOU DON'T HAVE TO CLICK THE LINK ABOVE.

A lot of people play this, and they say it's the best MMO out there, I'm an astronomically huge sci-fi fan, and I don't think it is. It's the best Sci-Fi MMO, but it's still lacking, not to mention being the best sci-fi MMO isn't much of a feat with today's available titles.

Sadly partially true. Still, I'd have a hard time naming one other MMO that is overall better.
Then again, I'm a sucker for harsh mistake penalties and making a profit out of somebody else's stupidity, and EVE is the perfect game for both of those things.

 

[3dfx]

This should help :
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.70442.7938798

My issue with YZ's review (as it pertains to newbies to EVE) is that it's a very small snip of a very large game. I don't expect him to play every aspect of the game in the 14 day trial he had, not to mention he's a cynic, a very funny one at that but it's all about the negatives. The review is hilarious for those of us who have played, because we know the frustration, but it may turn off newbies to EVE.

This is coming from someone who isn't even a fan of the game, I've just played it a bit longer than YZ did.

 

[Drexlor]

I've never played Eve and it doesn't really interest me. I hate the idea of having to pay a subscription for a game. Hear that Kotick?!

 

[Tibike77]

This should help :
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.70442.7938798

My issue with YZ's review

I wasn't talking about the review, but about the post at the linked jump. A post made by me not a few hours ago. I usually find it somewhat of a mild bad form to copypasta the entire contents of another post, and I prefer to link instead.

But, meh...

A few Hungarian EVE-Online gamers took it upon themselves to accomplish the gargantuan task of creating something that could be considered "EVE-Online's Game Manual".

The currently available version (2.01) has 416 full-color pages and is available as a 66+ MB PDF (or ZIP-packaged, but it's not much smaller that way, still over 55 MB).
The "production value" is pretty much on par with official game manuals (other than some sparsely encountered Hungarian language on the background art and the easy-to-forgive occasional spelling errors, but that's also on par with a lot of game manuals).
The sheer volume of information is staggering. Still, it BARELY COVERS THE BASICS of EVE-Online gameplay

It is available completely free of charge from their site:
http://www.isktheguide.com

They were also featured in an article on massively, which is an interview with one of the top people behind this monumental task.
http://www.massively.com/2010/08/29/eve-evolved-the-industrial-sized-knowledgebase


If you were ever turned off by the lack of documentation before you got a chance to try it, or if you tried it but hated it because of the learning curve, or even if you're just mildly interested but never bothered, it won't hurt to take a look at this completely volunteer work... if only for the pretty chapter heading graphics

There you go.

I've never played Eve and it doesn't really interest me. I hate the idea of having to pay a subscription for a game. Hear that Kotick?!

I haven't paid a single dime in several years

Aaaaah... the wonders of a nice accumulated in-game wealth and the perfectly legitimate "buy gametime from other players with ingame cash" system.
About ONE FULL QUARTER of subscribing accounts don't pay cash, but pay indirectly with the aid of in-game money.



P.S. About the 21-day invite... it actually gets MUCH better.

Not only do you get a 3-week trial account instead of a 2-week trial account, but when the 3-week trial account is activated (and the "pay indirectly with ingame cash" option is A VALID OPTION for the activation) the one that sent the invite also gets credited with 30 days of gametime.

This basically means that if I would trust you not to screw me over, I could send you an invite AND as soon as you create a character, also send you the needed ingame cash to buy a PLEX from the free market (prices are highly variable), explain how to use it right then and there... and then, I just lost absolutely nothing (it's as if I would have done that for myself, bought and applied on my own account), while you, the invitee, you get a FULL STATUS account (no limitations) that has 21+30=51 days of gametime prepaid.


P.P.S. You are limited to 3 such invites per month though.
See : http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Buddy_program
That limit (plus the fact you don't just trust any random stranger with a noticeable amount of in-game wealth) makes it a bit less attractive to assist strangers in such a way (it's called a "buddy program" for a reason, heh).

"30 Days Concord Pilot License Extension (PLEX)" is the in-game item that can be consumed to add 30 days of gametime.
See : http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/30_days_Concord_Pilot_License_Extension

"Warning: CCP has not made any special exceptions for the PLEX items. They are treated as regular in-game items with regards to market orders and contracts. Scams are easily avoidable by careful scrutiny of market orders and contracts and we urge anyone to be alert when dealing in PLEXes. PLEXes can be placed inside ships and containers, however if a PLEX is inside a ship when that ship is lost in combat then the PLEX may be looted or destroyed.

Yes, if you manage to kill somebody silly enough to fly with a PLEX on-board (he might be an inter-regional trader trying to make a profit from arbitrage) and you loot it, that DOES mean that you just got yourself some free gametime.
But then again, looting anything valuable, selling it, and using the ISK (the in-game money) to buy a PLEX would have the same end-result.

 

[3dfx]

Ah okay, my browser jumped me to the first page for some reason, crappy cell phone.

 

[Tibike77]

There was a recent controversy-sparking incident (due to the fact they were destroyed, they were in a single stack, and each stack has a random chance of dropping, somewhere about 50% or so), when somebody carrying a whooping 74 PLEXes in his flimsy ship's cargohold was destroyed in a quick highsec war encounter.
Initial thread : http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1365549 (and then it started spawning other threads about it).

Imagine THAT dropping into your lap on a fast gank... over 6 years of "free gametime"...

 

[Gerrawn]

Allow me;

Spoiler

 

[Corven]

If you find the idea of waiting several days for your skills to train high enough for you to use anything in game appealing then this game is for you. This game requires commitment more so than any other game I've ever tried.

 

[Phishfood]

Well, EVE is not grindless and yes as mention the missions get repetative. But find me an MMO that DOESN'T have quests of "go to X kill Y" as a standard. Unfortunately thats what we call a quest. The advantage to EVE is that the grind at least has different flavours. You can kill, mine, trade, build, research, salvage, explore and thats before you look at contracts and corps.

The "problem" with eve is that it IS a slow game. Don't play if you have a short attention span or want a game you can work at for a week or so and get to the top. One of the advantages is that training is time based, so you can set training going, go on holiday for 2 weeks and be "higher level" than when you left. The down side to said is that if you don't have a holiday, you have to wait the same 2 weeks for that level and can't do much to change it.

Again on the plus side, eve is a highly varied well balanced game when it comes to PVP. Want a simple tactic that will always win? there isn't one, every combat is different. PVP has a few different approaches, there are the usual DPS, Tank and Healer type roles as you'd expect but then you have to consider things like jamming and gang bonuses. Its no good having the worlds best tank and worlds best dps in one ship if some shit can fly in and jam you so you can't shoot and spend the next 3 days slowly wearing you down.

Bottom line:
I enjoy eve, I do. But its not for everyone.

 

[Tibike77]

Allow me;

Spoiler

That right there if taken seriously and literally is proof that EVE lets you travel back in time

Well, EVE is not grindless and yes as mention the missions get repetative. But find me an MMO that DOESN'T have quests of "go to X kill Y" as a standard. Unfortunately thats what we call a quest. The advantage to EVE is that the grind at least has different flavours. You can kill, mine, trade, build, research, salvage, explore and thats before you look at contracts and corps.

Also, a few of those types of grinds are not so much "mindnumbingly boring click-the-button-to-kill-NPC-or-harvest-resource" types (some are) but more of a "eventually boring mini-brainteasers" variety.

I enjoy eve, I do. But its not for everyone.

Too true... then again, that's exactly what makes it attractive to those that end up liking it, it's far more "to their taste" than "trying to please everybody a little bit" type of MMOs.

EVE, like quinine (or coffee, or beer), is an acquired taste...
...you might find yourself repulsed the first time you try it and something Bad? happens to you, but if you stick to it for a little while longer, you might just find it highly enjoyable.


14 or 21 days is just enough to have ample chance to have the first bad experience, but not long enough to get used to it... 51 days however should be enough.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

It has a rather steep learning curve.....

Understatement of the century to learn how to play this game properly alone will take you more time than to get to lvl 30 in WoW. xD

This picture says it better than i can.

Im the little stickman impaled on the spikes. I couldnt handle the effort needed simply to play the game. Its so complex.... soo complex "whimper"

 

[Tibike77]

Im the little stickman impaled on the spikes. I couldnt handle the effort needed simply to play the game. Its so complex.... soo complex "whimper"

[halfjoking]
EVE-Online : the game for people that dismiss games like WoW for being way too trivial
Or like Yahtzee put it (paraphrasing and adapting)... "for the kind of nerds that are to nerds what nerds are to normal people", "an induction course to middle management" and "a flowchart/spreadsheet paradise for executives too busy to play other types of games"
[/halfjoking]


I love EVE myself, but I can't really disagree with anything Yahtzee said in his review on a fundamental basis.
I kept laughing my ass off the entire time as he picked on a lot of things that to some degree used to annoy veteran EVE players when they were newbies themselves, and it was HILARIOUSLY accurate for the most part (as far as new player experience two years ago was - it's only slightly better now).

Still, I like EVE sometimes not just in spite of all those things... but precisely because of some of those things.
And skimming the manual//guide linked a few posts above with "just the basics" (in a 400+ page tome) might just give you an idea of what those things are WITHOUT having to suffer through the humiliating process of making a fool out of yourself in early gameplay.

That's because a fool of yourself you will make, almost everybody does - it's about how you handle the setback, not avoiding it altogether.
One of the EVE main mantras is "don't fly what you can't afford to lose".
Now, you might misinterpret it as "only fly cheap stuff" or "get a lot of cash before buying more expensive stuff", but it's at best inaccurate...
...a better way to read it is "whatever you fly now, consider it already lost the moment you leave the station - don't fly something you would go into a nerdrage over losing, because you WILL eventually lose it, it's only a matter of time before you do".

One of the new advanced tutorials (military training) drives that exact point down hard - the final mission in that particular tutorial chain (mission name : "The Last Stand") has you facing increasingly difficult waves of enemies, and the only way to win//complete the mission is by destroying at least one enemy and then eventually dying "Alamo-style".