Pondering EVE: Online

[McC]

Anybody else playing? What's it like? Etc, etc. General newbie "is this game cool" questions.

[Spyder]

It is quite cool but requires one fucker of a time investment.

Also, you really need to harrass the crap out of people in the newbie channels in order to figure out what you should do, the tutorial gives you a few ideas but it's very easy to fall into traps that make the game seem like more of a job then something fun.

[Dahak]

At first it is boooooooring, because you spend most of your time flying around and delivering stuff from A to B.
Then you spend days and days of doing more flying or mining, just to get money for a decent ship.
Afterwards it can be actually fun

[outcast]

the main draw of eve-online is the opportunities for interstellar politics.

the outer regions, which aren't policed, for instance are controlled largely by alliances which each consists of many corporations which then consists of many pilots. the largests of these can have thousands of players in them. (i used to be part of the largest and most infamous one in it's history until it fell apart due to internal strife). massive wars take place, piracy, the works!

one of the better features for those who don't feel like investing a lot of time in it is skill training. unlike in other mmogs all you do is buy a skillpack, set it to train, and then it trains in real-time wether you're online or offline. some of the higher skills and lvl of skills can take days or even weeks to complete, so you can be living it up in the carribean while you learn skills like gallente battleships lvl 5!

[Spyder]

And you could also work enough hours at burger king to be able to afford the boat in the amount of time it takes.

[McC]

Is it normal for the game to lock up and be very unstable? I've had two system crashes so far, and the game likes to hang periodically before it resumes (not like a pause, but like the gameplay freezes, and then catches up with the server).

[wautd]

Anybody else playing? What's it like? Etc, etc. General newbie "is this game cool" questions.

Its very cool... if you get past the slow-paced start. My best advice to you is quickly join a descent corporation which can tell you the stuff you need to know and give you some cash so you can quickly buy the basic skills and a better ship so you can provide you own income.

After that, the sky is the limit really. You can be a miner, a builder, a mission runner, a PvP'er, a hauler, a pirate, a researcher, etc...

The easiest, quickest but also most boring way to gain money is mining. The Osprey (Caldari) or the Scyte (Minmatar) cruisers are excellent for that (the Thorax (Gallente) isnt bad either). Jack a few miner II's on those and you'll be making good money. If you're mining solo, a good tip is mining in a can. Just jettison the ores in your cargohold to a can, name the can and keep filling it with ores. The can will last at least an hour and since it can hold a shitload of m³ you don't need to you to the station back and forth. Offcourse you'll need an industial to haul the ores in the can to the station.

The greatest feature in eve for me are the politics. Since they are done by real people you can have real wars with fleet battles, raids, conquest, etc... Here you can see the current territorial map. I say current, because it usually evolves over time.

Offcourse, the best advice I can give (like any MMORG) is: specialization is good. In theory, you can train all skill you want, but when your starting to need level 5 skills to train a next skill, than you'll need to decide your priorities.
If you are planning to play a long time, a good tip is learning the learning skills which increase your attributes (and that matters a ton in time when you're learning higher level skills).
Also, you'll find intelligence and perception the most important attributes. Charisma is the least usefull. Consider this when you'll be making a new character (or start all over if you just started playing)

It is quite cool but requires one fucker of a time investment.

since you can also play it in window mode instead of fullscreen, you can do multiple stuff at once

[wautd]

Is it normal for the game to lock up and be very unstable? I've had two system crashes so far, and the game likes to hang periodically before it resumes (not like a pause, but like the gameplay freezes, and then catches up with the server).

No

[McC]

Well, I've tried disabling sound and upgrading my video drivers and still run into this hanging problem. It renders the game pretty much too frustrating to play. I've submitted a question to CCP and also posted about in their forums, so we'll see if I get any answers.

[mauldooku]

I've been hearing lots of things about EVE recently, as many of my Starcraft friends have picked it up for a bit. While it sounds interesting later on, the fact that I have to slog through boring cargo runs immediately turns me off, especially since there's only a 14 day free trial. If there's one thing I refuse to do, it's pay cash monthly for online play.

[Sharpshooter]

I've been hearing lots of things about EVE recently, as many of my Starcraft friends have picked it up for a bit. While it sounds interesting later on, the fact that I have to slog through boring cargo runs immediately turns me off, especially since there's only a 14 day free trial. If there's one thing I refuse to do, it's pay cash monthly for online play.

Not even for good ones? Sure, I can understand those really shitty ones *cough99percentcough* but if they realy do a good job, then why not?

Heck, if I had a job, I'd be jumping on the MMORPG bandwagon this instant.

[Jaepheth]

I was in the Beta for a little while. It's an ok game.

I wouldn't pay monthly for it though.

[Hokalus]

I also played in beta and also a few months in to release. It's a fairly good game but some parts are damn tedious.

[McC]

Well, it works great on the machines at school, so I got a good block of time in playing today. I love it. Now if only I can get it working at home...

[wautd]

Well, it works great on the machines at school, so I got a good block of time in playing today. I love it. Now if only I can get it working at home...

feel free to convo me in game if you need some tips or money to get you started. Just search for a player named Waut

Incidently, there is a new dev blog up. Interesting times ahead indeed

[McC]

Well, my roommate had a spare ATI Radeon 6800 that he wasn't using (incompatible with his current motherboard, but he plans to upgrade at some point and put it in the upgrade) and sure enough, that resolved the problems I was having. So it looks like I'ma get me a new video card.

That said, I'm definitely in love with this game and am definitely going to subscribe.

Wautd, I'll be looking you up

[White Haven]

Andrew Riviera, as I poke at the game some. I'll look ye lot up.

[McC]

I'm TX 223, if anyone wants to look me up.

[Hotfoot]

I've been hearing lots of things about EVE recently, as many of my Starcraft friends have picked it up for a bit. While it sounds interesting later on, the fact that I have to slog through boring cargo runs immediately turns me off, especially since there's only a 14 day free trial. If there's one thing I refuse to do, it's pay cash monthly for online play.

HAVE to slog through cargo runs? Maybe for the first newb missions, which is only going to take most people an hour or two, tops. After that, you can go to a combat agent and just kill things for a money. If you're planning on doing science and industry, you'll want to do cargo missions, because your combat skills won't be up to snuff, but it's easy to get combat missions early and often, and if you join a decent corp right off, you can get good pvp combat training and gear early on. Believe it or not, but even week old newbs can be a threat in pvp combat.

[wautd]

Believe it or not, but even week old newbs can be a threat in pvp combat.

those would be the suicidal, I mean, nimble warp scrambling frigates. You can never have too many of those in a fleet