StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I finish my exams in a few weeks, after which my 12 week summer break will commence. I'm probably going to have quite a bit of spare time, and I can't spend all of it in the pub or at the beach, so I'm thinking of joining an MMORPG.

I hate fantasy, so that puts most out the window. I've tried SW Galaxies before, but found it to be a fantasy MMORPG with 'Star Wars' pasted on the front. Eve catches my eye as being different and perhaps slightly similar to Freelancer (one of my favourite games) but in MMORPG form.

But, with no experience of these games at all (only played SWG for about 8 hours), I don't really know how to get into it. Does/has anyone else played it? Are there forums? Clans that accept noobs and help them out?

Played it for 4 years, but on a break for half a year now. I might pick it up again in the future. Got an international BBQ this weekend with some of my old corpmembers, so it'll be tempting to start again

Are there forums?

Official forum has a helpfull community (just stay the hell away from the corporations & alliance section if you want to live).

scrapheap-challenge is also a very popular forum

Clans that accept noobs and help them out?

The clans in Eve are named corps (corporations). For new players, I've heared good things about Eve-University (they learn you the basics, give you some cash to get you started). Eve is NOT a newb-friendly game but finding the right corp takes makes you do your preferred playstyle helps you a long way

I play Eve. There is a nasty learning curve*, so my advice for you is to read through all the tutorials and extra information when it shows up. Read the guide on the website.

When you start a new character you are placed into a starting guild (called corporations in Eve), and you will remain there until you join a player corp. So use the corp chat window to ask for help, especially as some people chose to remain there for years.

If they haven't changed things, you will also have the help chat window open every time you login for a few weeks (longer than the trial period). You can try using it, but other peoples problems usually make it scroll to fast to be useful.

When creating a character there are three important steps:
- Choosing your race and bloodline, which gives you attributes.
- Adding some attribute points to where you want them.
- Choosing an ancestry, which adds some more points.

Having the ancestry step after the custom step is an annoying place, but I have this link showing the attributes of and bloodline + ancestry combination, which should make planning your attributes easier. For most players the best setup is low charisma, with the rest balanced and as high as possible, making Achura monks and stargazers the best choice (if you can stand their appearance).

But higher attributes only make you learn skills faster, and with the training time formula being approximately 1/attribute, a fully balanced attribute layout isn't much worse after taking learning skills and implants into account.

There is no penalty for training another races ships and I have yet to hear of a non-roleplay corp caring about which race your character is.

Also if you get scammed, don't bother whining about it since scams are well within the code of conduct. But if you can't see how they pulled it off it is usually best to ask so that they don't hit you again.

*I can't resist posting this picture:

Lazarus wrote: Are there forums? Clans that accept noobs and help them out?

Penny Arcade has a clan called The Merch Industrial. Here's the general discussion thread which also has links in the OP to other EvE-related threads. They're always willing to help out new players, and seeing as they're a (very small) part of one of the major factions in EvE, there will be a lot of space you can play in without worrying about random players griefing you.

Speaking of scams, the leader of the Guiding Hand Social Club occasionally posts there.

bilateralrope wrote: When creating a character there are three important steps:
- Choosing your race and bloodline, which gives you attributes.
- Adding some attribute points to where you want them.
- Choosing an ancestry, which adds some more points.

And like most RPG's, avoid spending points in charisma

*I can't resist posting this picture:

WoW has a learning curve? A rising learning curve?

Thanks for the links, the eve compendium looks like it'll be really useful, and I'll have a look at Eve-University too.

Also if you get scammed, don't bother whining about it since scams are well within the code of conduct. But if you can't see how they pulled it off it is usually best to ask so that they don't hit you again.

Scammed? As in someone says 'sell you this for monies', I give them the monies then they leg it or something?

Thing bigger, more complex. The metagame is all that makes EVE interesting; most of what you actually DO is boring as shit, but the setting and rules allow you to do all kinds of fucking cool stuff. The steep (by MMO standards) makes all kinds of things exciting simply by the significant risk, and the markets let you fuck people all kinds of ways.

Reminds me of the day when our corp extorted... I mean asked for protection money against our victims... I mean clients. It was a pretty fair deal; pay us 2 billion or suffer 4 billion in damages. Good times

If you have a Somethingawful account I recommend joining Goonswarm. They're extremely friendly to noobs and will throw millions of isk in your direction once you join, which you won't have to pay back. This is good as they're in the middle of a war and are currently fighting for control of roughly one third of the game universe against another alliance called Band of Brothers.

Losonti Tokash wrote:. This is good as they're in the middle of a war and are currently fighting for control of roughly one third of the game universe against another alliance called Band of Brothers.

Still?

wautd wrote:

Losonti Tokash wrote:. This is good as they're in the middle of a war and are currently fighting for control of roughly one third of the game universe against another alliance called Band of Brothers.

Still?

Last I checked, yeah.

Incidentally, I started to play again. Yesterday. I was a bit frustrated with WoW, so I wanted to have some change.
Funny thing is, I found out my oooooold character from two years back is still there. But now I am again in complete N00b-mode...
I am starting to tackle the learning curve again

Losonti Tokash wrote:If you have a Somethingawful account I recommend joining Goonswarm. They're extremely friendly to noobs and will throw millions of isk in your direction once you join, which you won't have to pay back. This is good as they're in the middle of a war and are currently fighting for control of roughly one third of the game universe against another alliance called Band of Brothers.

It should be noted that if you don't have an SA account you can still be sponsored in...usually for a price. (I charge 250m ISK)

Eh, I reactivated my old EVE Account and started a new character. An Amarr. I'm hoping that maybe I'd become a pirate; after getting a small fortune I'd go joing a pirate corp and hunt down people who are foolish enough to go into 0.0 space without any weapons.

Commander 598 wrote:

Losonti Tokash wrote:If you have a Somethingawful account I recommend joining Goonswarm. They're extremely friendly to noobs and will throw millions of isk in your direction once you join, which you won't have to pay back. This is good as they're in the middle of a war and are currently fighting for control of roughly one third of the game universe against another alliance called Band of Brothers.

It should be noted that if you don't have an SA account you can still be sponsored in...usually for a price. (I charge 250m ISK)

Or you can join Merch Industrial and fly with the GoonSwarm for no extra charge.

Yes, and being part of the soulless juggernaut that is Goonswarm's economy is always a fulfilling role.

No, seriously, it's awesome. Strip mining whole star clusters to build part of a huge fucking spaceship big enough to affect the tides on nearby planets? Friggin sweet.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:

Commander 598 wrote:

Losonti Tokash wrote:If you have a Somethingawful account I recommend joining Goonswarm. They're extremely friendly to noobs and will throw millions of isk in your direction once you join, which you won't have to pay back. This is good as they're in the middle of a war and are currently fighting for control of roughly one third of the game universe against another alliance called Band of Brothers.

It should be noted that if you don't have an SA account you can still be sponsored in...usually for a price. (I charge 250m ISK)

Or you can join Merch Industrial and fly with the GoonSwarm for no extra charge.

Now I would like to talk a little bit about YOU getting OUT.

I've always wanted to try EVE Online out. Is there any ability to use capital ships independently? Or semi-independently, a la WesFox13's piracy or wautd's extortion? Flying around in dinky fighters in Freelancer lost its appeal rather quickly.

TC Pilot wrote:I've always wanted to try EVE Online out. Is there any ability to use capital ships independently? Or semi-independently, a la WesFox13's piracy or wautd's extortion? Flying around in dinky fighters in Freelancer lost its appeal rather quickly.

Yes ... once you've trained the skills and earned the money for one.

Lazarus wrote:Thanks for the links, the eve compendium looks like it'll be really useful, and I'll have a look at Eve-University too.

Also if you get scammed, don't bother whining about it since scams are well within the code of conduct. But if you can't see how they pulled it off it is usually best to ask so that they don't hit you again.

Scammed? As in someone says 'sell you this for monies', I give them the monies then they leg it or something?

Well a scam I hear that works regularly is someone saying "I'm leaving the game and I have x isk to give away. Send me some ISK, and I'll send you ten times that amount back."

Then there are the slightly more subtle ones where someone convinces you that an item your selling is worth much less than it is, or they charge you a fee for something that they never deliver. Or people joining corps just to rob their shared hangers.

Then there are thing like the Guiding Hand Social club, or the Eve Intergalactic Bank scam that make news outside of Eve.

wautd wrote:WoW has a learning curve? A rising learning curve?

Yes, it probably should level out a bit. Then again, I've never played WoW.

I've picked up a free trial of EvE lately, and my problem is that, once I'm done with the tutorial.... I'm not compelled to do anything else. I'm not sure where to go, what to do, or why to do it.

wautd wrote:WoW has a learning curve? A rising learning curve?

Well, you do have to learn the in-game jargon, as well as the proper techniques to piss off and grief other players.

phongn wrote:Yes ... once you've trained the skills and earned the money for one.

What sort of committment is that to obtain? Hours? Days? Weeks?

Weeks to a month for cruisers, months for battleship.

Capital ships? What's the going price on a carrier these days? 800m? Keep in mind that it takes like a minimum of 6 months to train skills for cap ships and the capital skillbooks are rather expensive themselves.

Cruisers are only >10m so if it takes you a month of work to get one you're are doing something wrong, of course it also helps if you get free handouts from corpmates or your corp's location allows you to make more money than normal at your current "level" for example: Salvaging destroyer in active Angel 0.0 space should be able to rake in plenty of allowed trit bars to pay for a cruiser in less than a week depending on several factors. In any case, even in hisec you should be able to get enough cash for a cruiser in days.

Also: Spacepoor, send isk. tia.