Anyone play Eve-Online? [MMO]

[Madtown]

Borrowing most of this info from the Penny Arcade forums Eve thread. My thoughts on the game are at the bottom.



What is EVE Online?

[Concept]
EVE Online is a MMORPG in space. You are represented by your space ship and a pilot portrait.

[The Player]
Characters are based on individual skills, and skill training is time based. You set a skill to be trained and in a certain amount of seconds, minutes, hours, days, whatever, then the skill will level up. You may only have one skill training at any given time. Skill training still continues when you are logged off. Therefore, there is no need to grind monsters for experience to reach some level cap. Effectively, there is no cap to a character because it would take many many years to train them all. It is, however, also relatively easy for newer players to catch up to the veterans because each ship can only use so many of your total skills at once (maxed out skills in Amarrian Battleships won't help you much when you're in a Gallente Frigate, after all), and there is a cap on how high a skill can be trained.

Further, the time to train a skill increases for each level -- training level 1 Frigates takes half an hour, while training from level 4 to level 5 might take a week -- while the benefits remain the same. So a new player can train a skill through level 4 relatively quickly and recieve 80% of the benefits that a maxed out veteran is recieving from that same skill. This means you that new players can focus on very particular skills and become productive players nearly from the start, while veterans have often mastered a handful of areas and are proficient in several more.

EVE is a sandbox with the opportunity for the player to do anything they would like. There are no professions that are set in stone, so if you'd like to mine one day and then kill some people who are mining the next day, then so be it. Professions are labels that are acknowledged by the player and not the game. Many people ask how they can become a pirate or bounty hunter, but in reality of the game, the player is whatever the player believes they are.

[PVP]
There are few restrictions on PvP which means non-consensual combat is encouraged, although there are ways to be safe, as well. If your spaceship is destroyed, then it is gone. You would have to buy another spaceship; however this also applies to other players that you kill (it is possible to buy insurance to recover some cost if your ship is destroyed). There are regions of space like high security Empire space that are relatively safe -- peacekeeping officers will pursue and destroy any player firing on another ship -- and regions of space like 0.0 security space that are no-holds-barred battlefields. However, nowhere is ever COMPLETELY safe.

[Economy]
So with spaceships blowing up left and right, EVE has a player driven economy and market. It can be profitable to acquire minerals and make ships or ship modules (equipment) using blueprints, and sell to the market. Or you can just mine for minerals and sell those to players who manufacture that are too lazy to mine for themselves. There are many different ways to get money.

[The World]
The world of EVE is on a single server, which means every subscriber is playing with every other subscriber. Currently, Eve often has between 15,000 - 30,000 players playing simultaneously. If you're (in)famous in the server, you're (in)famous throughout the entire game.

The map of the world is also player driven, with regions of space that are conquerable by player alliances.

(Updated: 12/10/06. This is a map created by a player, Joshua Foiritain, of regions that alliances control. The latest map is here.)



The Path to Kali

Kali, the codename for EVE's next large three part expansion, has already begun to see release. Kali will be separated into three stages.

Kali 1: (Revelations, released November 2006) Focus on the enhancement of game play and current systems.
- Contracts as an improvement of current Escrow and Courier system.
- Seamless map, zooming from the perspective of the ship, to solar system, to the universe.
- Combat Organization, a reorganization of the gang system into fleets, squadrons, and wings.
- Exploration in solar systems to key points also with the help of improved scanning and probing.
- Invention as a supplement to R&D (research and development) and manufacturing, but not as a replacement.
- Improve resources and benefits of 0.0 regions of space
- Salvaging of ship wrecks to gain extra materials for creating rigs that improve space ships.
- 8 new space ships (4 Battlecruisers, 4 Battleships) and 8 new 0.0 regions of space.

Kali 2: (Coming early 2007 probably) Focus on enhancing warfare.
- Factional Warfare, having the NPC empires of space fight against each other. Used to ease new players into alliance warfare.
- Improved starbase warfare, station warfare, constellation sovereignty, upgradable outposts, corporation and alliance improvements

Kali 3: (Mid 2007?) Focus on enhancing graphics.
- New ship models.
- New textures.



Sweet god, those are pretty ass screenshots... but does the game look that nice in motion?

You bet your ass.

Pretty much the penultimate EVE Online trailer is available here:

EVE Never Fades

The short trailer for the most recent expansion is here:

EVE Online: Revelations

By the way: all footage, with the exception of the painting at the start of EVE Never Fades, is from the game client. All models, all lighting, everything. All of those shots are 100% possible in-game. And the graphics are set for an upgrade in the third stage of Kali.



So I'd like to play... What do I do?

Free fourteen day trials are available at eve-online.com. No emailing other members necessary, no credit card necessary.

Creating a new character may be a little overwhelming at first. Attributes are important only for decreasing the amount of time a particular skill trains. A plan many like is to average all attributes besides Charisma, because Charisma is semi-useless. This will create a balanced character that doesn't take too long to train anything.

There are 4 races to choose from. Any character can train to fly any ship of any race.

Do the tutorial. It's long, but well worth the effort. The game is complex and overwhelming, the tutorial helps to teach a lot of the game mechanics.






-------------

Madtown's comments:

Love this game. I've played WoW and SWG and got bored of both before getting incredibly deep into them. Most MMOs make the level grind your goal, and if you get to the end of that line then you're grinding for rare lootz. Eve's time-based training means that you cannot power-level at all.

What does this mean? It means the game is probably the most casual-player friendly MMO out there. If you can only play a few hours a week, you're not going to get left behind -- you can set skills to train while you're gone (although since you can only set one skill at a time, you'll have to either set long skills or do quick sign-ins to update -- since there are plenty of long skills available early, this isn't a problem).

It also means that in order for newer players to be effective, they need to focus and plan out their training a bit. If you want to be a PVPer, you'll want to plan out what type of weapons you want to use instead of dabbling in several. If you want to be a PVEer, same thing, but you'll want to focus on weapons/equipment skills that work best for PVE. If you want to be a miner, you'll want to focus on those skills plus training to fly a hauler. You can earn decent money very early if you figure out what you want to do.

And if you have no idea, then you can always create a new character after playing a few days, or just be a jack-of-all-trades kind of player.

Every MMO has some type of grind to it. In Eve, the grind is often to earn money to buy ships and equipment. Unlike many MMOs, dying in Eve has a very serious cost -- you lose your ship. If it's a new boat you just spent half your money on, this can be frustrating, but it also forces you to learn how to either become a better fighter, or to find ways to survive when attacked by better players.

The game has a sharp learning curve. The tutorial is essential. It's also important to have a few experienced players to talk to or a corporation (guild) to join, to help point you in a direction once the tutorial is done. The game is incredibly open-ended; for many people, the first question after the tutorial is "so NOW what do I do?" The game doesn't lead you by the hand very much.

However, that open-endedness is what creates some of the most interesting stuff. The players drive Eve. Since alliances (groups of corporations/guilds that are officially allied) can take over swaths of 0.0 security space out on the fringes (see map above), politics and war are serious player-driven activities. There's only so much of that 0.0 space, and that's where the most lucrative resources lie.

Final comments:

PROS
- The game is extremely pretty for being a few years old, without sucking a ton of computer power.
- It's very casual-friendly in terms of time required to enjoy the game, although the complex game design does come with a sharp learning curve.
- Losing a fight has a legitimate cost associated with it, as opposed to simple repair fees.
- There are tons of directions you can decide to go in.
- The design of 0.0 space means there's an impressive complexity to player politics, diplomacy, and war.
- It's one of the only sci-fi MMOs I know of, besides SWG (which sucks real bad).
- All players exist in the same world, so you'll never end up on a different server from a friend who joins Eve later.
- They just redesigned the player creation. It's now easier and new players start with more skill points than previously.
- Free 2 week trial.

CONS
- The sharp learning curve and the lack of hand-holding to direct you what to do once you're out in the world means you really need an experienced player to consult or a corporation to join.
- Along the same lines, the world is HUGE, and travel can be both slow and dangerous. Very few (if any) players are drifters in this game. You tend to find a base system to work out of and stay fairly close. This will either be high-sec Empire space or whatever low/zero sec space your corporation works in. Since Empire space sucks, this is another reason to find a corporation.
- You can't power-level. This is a pro to me, but a negative to some people.
- You can't avoid combat entirely unless you stay in the highest security space like a ninny. This is a pro to me, but a negative to some people.


I just recently joined a Penny Arcade industrial corp. Their only major rule is no pirates allowed, so unless you want to be a pirate you're more than welcome to join up.

Anyone else already in this game, or anyone thinking about joining up, gimme a holla.

[Hawklet]

I'm dling it now for the trial. It definitly looks like it's worth a shot. I like some of the differences between Eve and other MMORPGs.

Hopefully this doesn't open up a can of worms that takes over my life.

[Freakin]

I've heard it's what FreeLancer should have been. If I was looking for an MMO to play, this would be it.

[Madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm dling it now for the trial. It definitly looks like it's worth a shot. I like some of the differences between Eve and other MMORPGs.

Hopefully this doesn't open up a can of worms that takes over my life.

[/ QUOTE ]

Honestly, I think that's the best thing about Eve. You can put in little to no time each week, or if you need a few months of you can set a LOOOOOOONG skill to train and deactivate your account until you return, etc and still have lots of fun during the time you ARE on. You still need to be part of a corporation really, or you're just going to be puttering around Empire noob space alone (which gets boring fast).

Or you can get super involved in a corp and involved in the politics of the game, dedicating tons of time to corp projects and growth, conquering soveriegnty over 0.0 security space, etc.

Personally I find it enjoyable where I'm at right now. The PA corp I'm in is 200+ members. We've got non-aggression pacts with two major alliances, one of whom is Goonswarm/Goonfleet (huge alliance, members are all forumers at SomethingAwful.com). These pacts mean that we've been able to take over and control a 0.1 system with access to a 0.0 system nearby -- that means secure cash flow. It also means we've got people to sell [censored] to. And the deal with Goonfleet has given us the chance to start operations in deeper 0.0 space in a newly opened region -- which means down the line, we could very well TRULY claim some space for ourselves and start building an industrial alliance.

It's an ideal spot to be part of a corporation, IMO; our numbers and our allies are strong enough that we aren't helpless -- a few small, dedicated pirate corps have declared war on us and summarily gotten their asses kicked, and random pirates that wander in are summarily killed or run off. On the other hand, you're not just another number either, since there's usually no more than 30-40 people on a time. So it's still "getting in at the ground floor" too.

Two comments:

1) I'm still very new, so when I say "we" I really mean "the corp I just joined a few days ago"

2) I just enjoy reading about all this stuff. I couldn't spend hours and hours and hours running an alliance of thousands of members. I don't know how people do it. But I do find that watching it unfold is incredibly entertaining. When I PLAY, I'm mostly just a mining guy, earning some money, maybe picking up a few things on a trip for corpmates or hauling someone else's ore, chatting. I don't spend enough time on the game to do much more. But hearing about all the stuff that's going on between corps and alliances is pretty entertaining.

Anyway, shoot me a PM if you sign up for the game Hawklet (or anyone else). I'll dig around for one of the stories I read earlier too. It was about a mercenary corp that completely infiltrated one of the corps it was contracted to fight. High espionage drama.

[ianlippert]

I've tried the game trial twice now and I really cant get past the early game. It seems like there isnt anything to do other than generic quests and mining. This game reminds me of lineage, amazing end game but terribly boring early game. This is death to a casual MMORPGer like me, I dont want to dedicate a large portion of my free time before I can get into the game. Mabey I'm missing something but I've never been able to get into this game.

[Madtown]

ian,

It's a game that's incredibly boring if you try to take a traditional MMO solo route (doing quests / mining solo).

This is what I mean when I say it has a sharp learning curve. Once you finish the tutorial, the game dumps you in the world and says "go forth and do stuff!" It's not going to send you on a series of connected quests that lead to instanced dungeons. You have to decide what you want to be in Eve.

A big part of that is joining a corp. Without being part of a decent corp, you'll never survive long in low/zero security status (Empire is boring, I only go there to pick up stuff I can't buy elsewhere). And it helps focus your goals. And there are corps for whatever type of play you want -- piracy or anti-piracy for PVP, industrialist and trader corps, roleplay corps. Big corps where you'll be part of large scale wars that shape the landscape of Eve, small corps where you're just trying to control a tiny patch of space (but it's YOUR space).

I really can't stress enough how important it is to join a corp in this game compared to guilds in other MMOs.

[ianlippert]

Is there any ingame way to look for corporations, something similar to the LFG pane in WOW? That would probably make it a lot easier. Also, when you get in corps is it basically pvp or do you get to build structures like stations and stuff? I really want to like this game but I try to avoid mmorpgs just because they are such a time sink and I find I dont play other video games.

I feel like this game could be a simulated univers after a couple more years of upgrades. It would be cool to colonize planets and build production facilities and stuff. I thought I heard that eventually they will allow you onto stations. That would be really cool.

[Madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there any ingame way to look for corporations, something similar to the LFG pane in WOW? That would probably make it a lot easier. Also, when you get in corps is it basically pvp or do you get to build structures like stations and stuff? I really want to like this game but I try to avoid mmorpgs just because they are such a time sink and I find I dont play other video games.

[/ QUOTE ]

There isn't a GOOD way to join a corp in game. There's a chat channel for recruiting but I don't know how much it gets used.

That said, I had a dude give me 1 mil on my 3rd day and generally help me out, basically to recruit people. You'll run into people if you try.

The other option is to check the eve-online forums, which has a recruitment section. That gives you contact info for a lot of corps, both good and bad. There's even an Eve University corp that helps newbies out, and I think a fair number of corps have contact there to recruit people.

What you do once in a corp depends a LOT on the corp. If you join a pirate corp, you're going to fly around with corp members and try to ransom/kill non-pirates. If you join an industrial corp, you'll spend your time mining or building stuff or buying/selling on the market. If you join a corp that is part of a large alliance, then you'll likely be part of massive wars.

And frankly you can get a little bit of everything from any corp (except piracy -- pirates pirate and anti-pirates will not tolerate it at all, so choose wisely when you make THAT decision). The corp I'm in has some very strong combat pilots that defend our home base, because what good is an industrial machine if pirates are constantly killing your miners? We have engineers that build ships / modules for the market, for private contracts, and for corp members at-cost. We have LOTS of miners and PVE'ers to keep the money flowing. We have diplomats. We have a few corps that have declared war on us. We've got a player built outpost (I think) and are looking to build more permanent bases further into 0.0 security space in the future, depending on how things go there.

So you can do lots of stuff within any corp, but it's generally best to look around and find one that is focused on what you enjoy the most.

[ QUOTE ]
I feel like this game could be a simulated univers after a couple more years of upgrades. It would be cool to colonize planets and build production facilities and stuff. I thought I heard that eventually they will allow you onto stations. That would be really cool.

[/ QUOTE ]

They have announced that at some point they want to allow players to interact in the stations, outside their ships. However, that looks to be a couple years down the line.

Honestly, it already is its own universe though. It's got 3 years of serious history built up. Seems like every day I'm hearing about some past event -- empires that crumbled, then reformed into new empires, sudden shifts in power and lay of the land, notable players, huge con jobs, etc.

[hmkpoker]

This looks pretty sweet, but WoW has taught me lessons that were hard-learned.

[Dire]

Since you earn skill points only with time, will your character always be significantly inferior to the guys that started playing before you? Also, how's the economy? It looks like you can buy around a billion currency for $100 on eBay. That seems insane.