EVE Online

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-02-23 09:44am

Anyone play EVE Online? I joined up a week ago and am having a blast.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-23 10:08am

You know I am. (almost for 2 years now)

Atavarius · Post by **Atavarius** » 2006-02-23 02:59pm

Benn playing for 6-7 month now i think. Enjoying every minute of it.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-02-23 03:19pm

I've been trying to. It's a fantastic game, I just can't find the time or energy to really dig into it, which really breaks my heart because it's basically exactly what I've always been looking for in an MMO.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2006-02-23 04:17pm

I keep looking at it, but I don't think I have anything like the time to put into it (an hour or so a day at most).

I saw something about 'titan' ships in PC Gamer, though, they look tempting.

J Ryan · Post by **J Ryan** » 2006-02-23 04:34pm

Been playing for about 1 and a half years now, and still having a blast

.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-02-23 05:36pm

Vanas wrote:I keep looking at it, but I don't think I have anything like the time to put into it (an hour or so a day at most).

That's actually about enough time - one nice thing is that training takes place even when offline, though a lot of the early skills don't require much time so you'd have a lot of "dead" training time.

I saw something about 'titan' ships in PC Gamer, though, they look tempting.

144000 hit points (by comparison, most battleships have 5K or so

)

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2006-02-23 05:59pm

Training you can do offline. Getting the money to get ANYTHING done you can't, and those amounts are pretty high. Hence why I wrote it off.

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2006-02-23 07:34pm

Did the 14 day free trial, thought it sucked, haven't looked back. The main flaw of the game is the complete lack of actual interaction with other people. It has all these massive stations and ships and everything, but it doesn't matter because you can't explore them.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-02-23 08:39pm

Jadeite wrote:Did the 14 day free trial, thought it sucked, haven't looked back. The main flaw of the game is the complete lack of actual interaction with other people. It has all these massive stations and ships and everything, but it doesn't matter because you can't explore them.

Um, there's a lot of interaction with other people in the game.

Zeond · Post by **Zeond** » 2006-02-23 11:54pm

phongn wrote:
Jadeite wrote:Did the 14 day free trial, thought it sucked, haven't looked back. The main flaw of the game is the complete lack of actual interaction with other people. It has all these massive stations and ships and everything, but it doesn't matter because you can't explore them.
Um, there's a lot of interaction with other people in the game.

Must be once you get into the cruisers and industrial ships. I also did the 14 day trial and had very little interaction with other players. I liked it a lot and my final exams suffered slightly because of EVE but I no longer have any time to put into it on a regular basis. I also lost a lot of playing time due to the Red Moon Rising upgrade and all the issues around it. In fact, my only post on the EVE forums was a link to Techno to reflect my feelings regarding the constant downtime in the days after the RMR upgrade.

I also found it wierd that all worlds had a population of zero. Case in point, the homeworld for the largest nation, Amar Prime, was listed with a population of zero and there are no cities visible from orbit.

Oh well, I had a good run and managed to make 18 million creds off an implant a pirate dropped. Assuming, of course, 18 million is a significant amount of money for someone in a level 2 frigate.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-24 02:26am

Zeond wrote:
phongn wrote:
Jadeite wrote:Did the 14 day free trial, thought it sucked, haven't looked back. The main flaw of the game is the complete lack of actual interaction with other people. It has all these massive stations and ships and everything, but it doesn't matter because you can't explore them.
Um, there's a lot of interaction with other people in the game.
Must be once you get into the cruisers and industrial ships.

No, it's when politics come in to play between corporations and alliances (The big factions even use things like spies, sabotage & propanda in this game. All the dirty tricks are possible). The game is all about interaction between players. There is constant competition with other players (PvP as the most obvious but also competition to make a living out of the vastly complex market, competition trough research, crafting, ...). If you can't see that, you're either blind or you havn't tried hard enough.

So alliance wars that pull up fleets of around 100 battleships each, huge capital ships with support in campaigns that can take weeks or even months with on the background an industry replacing lost ships, making ammo, logistics to get fuels and ammo to the battlefronts,... doesn't require interaction with other people? Riiiight

Or getting the ores to build an outpost, have people build the needed components, have other people guard the contruction of the outpost doesnt require interaction either? Riiiight

2 weeks is barely enough to scratch the surface (I'm still learning new stuff after 2 years) of the deep gameplay Eve offers. That's why I'm still not bored. I simply have a lot of objectives I want to accomplisch on my to-do list. And by the time that's done, there's been another free addon or two.

If it's anything lacking it's it PvE content. Ofcourse, if I wanted to play a MMORPG for it's PvE content I would be playing WoW right now. And since Eve is continiously growing in content, so is the PvE content.

Offcourse, Eve is not for everyone. It doesn't keep holding your hand like 99% of the other MMORPG's and the complete freedom can be scary to people who lack fantasy. It weeds out the boys from the men pretty quick, leaving a motivated & mature community behind

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-02-24 04:58am

The endgame of EVE does sound nice. But you're not doing the game a service by accusing those who did not find the 14-day trial appealing of immaturity.

The problem with EVE is that you can sit here and go on about base building and alliance wars but does anyone in the trial see that? No, they see "I might as well go AFK for an hour now," in their shitheap.

They really need to overhaul the early experience. Was there even a tutorial? I can vaguely remember one about navigating the interface.

I remember thinking, "Maybe things will be more interesting when I get into a fight." Again, early game, it was point-and-click.

I couldn't even increase my ROF by maneuvering both weapons turrets into arc, since only one will ever fire at any given time, even if both have targets.

I like the idea of EVE, I just think it was executed very poorly in the early game and so have no desire to waste untold hours of my life doing inane cargo runs in order to advance to a point where it might start getting interesting.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-24 05:28am

GuppyShark wrote: They really need to overhaul the early experience. Was there even a tutorial? I can vaguely remember one about navigating the interface.

Afaik the tutorial should be a lot improved since I've started playing. I learned my shit by asking on the forum + I was lucky to find a decent corp early that could get me started. Reading some background before starting to play was helpfull as well. If anything, it's more noob friendly now then it was 2 years ago. Thing is, people who are used to most other MMORPG's expect that the game will tell them what to do while in Eve you have to find it out for yourself.

Imo, they've said it best in the Playground/Theme Park analogy:

One could compare this to the difference between a playground, such as EVE, and a theme park, which would be the traditional MMOG. In a playground you have access to different kinds of toys and rides, and you are allowed to use your own imagination to figure out how to create games you enjoy. In a theme park all the rides have been created for you and are either good or bad by design. The playground clearly offers more freedom but it requires you to think and be an active participant, while the theme park has taken those responsibilities away from you and you can just go with the flow. As an interesting side-note, “theme park” style MMORPGs commonly develop lines, just like real world theme parks, as players wait for monster spawns, rare items, or quest requirements.

Players that enjoy the freedom and opportunities for creative thinking an open-ended game offers have become mesmerized by EVE, while others that depend on structured, repetitive game style have not. For this reason we don't contend that EVE is for everyone, but for those that enjoy a bit more of a challenge.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-02-24 05:39am

This would begin to be a good analogy if I didn't have to spend weeks pushing the tonka trucks before I could get on a swing.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-24 05:42am

GuppyShark wrote:This would begin to be a good analogy if I didn't have to spend weeks pushing the tonka trucks before I could get on a swing.

Then don't? Do something else?

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-02-24 05:52am

But I like the swing.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-24 06:06am

GuppyShark wrote:But I like the swing.

Have you tried agent missions? Complexes? Pirating other players? (when did you try the trial by the way?)
To quote Gamesguy on the Spacebattles forum:

So I rolled a caldari pirate alt yesterday and fought a brutix with my 1 day old kestrel. I almost lost the fight(damn those drones hurt), but in the end, his guns couldnt hit me and his drones were all dead. Managed to ransom 8 mil.

Half an hour later he came back with a buddy and tried to jump me, failed cause I can warp faster than he can lock on. Now they're camping outside the station determined to kill my one day old alt, even though they dont have kill rights.

Is pirating always this...interesting?

By the way, I didn't call anyone immature if he doesn't like the game. I mean, that's ok. I don't like every game either.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-02-24 06:28am

wautd wrote:It doesn't keep holding your hand like 99% of the other MMORPG's and the complete freedom can be scary to people who lack fantasy. It weeds out the boys from the men pretty quick, leaving a motivated & mature community behind

not wautd, but someone he quoted wrote:For this reason we don't contend that EVE is for everyone, but for those that enjoy a bit more of a challenge."

Everytime I've come across an EVE discussion online, it has been the EVE players insulting everyone else for not being mature & creative enough to play EVE. It galls.

wautd wrote:Have you tried agent missions? Complexes? Pirating other players? (when did you try the trial by the way?)

A loong time ago. It was after I quit WoW the first time and before my RL friends asked me to come back because they needed a decent tank.

I'd say around August-October last year at a guess.

As for Agent Missions & Complexes, I tried one combat mission. I can't even remember if I won the fight or not. I just know the experience was not the engagement I'd hoped for. Especially since I could only fire one of the guns at a time.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-24 07:20am

For anyone who plays, this article was an interesting read

Some highlights:

MMORPG.com: Lots of people speculate when/if CCP plan's on doing something with those 43,000 gorgeous planets, as far as allowing planet-side bases and/or combat. Has CCP ever considered the addition of planet-side gameplay, allowing factions to actually fight for planetary occupation and resources? Why or why not?
Nathan Richardsson: We already have a proof-of-concept engine for planetary flight and this is something we’ve wanted to do for a very long time. However, there is simply so much left to do “in space” that we’re still focusing on getting all that to the point where we’re confident with assigning that many resources to a new aspect of the game.

How planetary gameplay will manifest itself is still very open. There are so many opportunities. Planetary interaction can range from something simple – like controlling the planet from within your station as a governor – to more involving gameplay and exploration, like a full strategic buildup of the planetary surface.

What may be more important, though, is the opportunity for large player organizations to really own planets, enabling other players or organizations to live there and build up infrastructure. We think it’s bringing a whole new twist to the concept of “housing;” you could own an industrial facility, a city or a planet.

It’s value chains like that which enable the thick, complex political gameplay in EVE. You should be able to be a link in a larger chain and take your share of the profit. This way, you have a vested interest in the chain you are part of and, as such, would participate in defending that interest. This further builds trust relationships, resulting in the complex political and social aspect of EVE.

For 2006 we have a graphics engine upgrade scheduled, we have the Kali expansion coming up and hopefully we’ll have another minor expansion release this year. We’d like to keep a roughly 6 month release schedule on major changes, so depending on the release and contents of Kali, we might be able to squeeze one in before Christmas again