EVE-Online Dominion, who wishes to play?

[Mr. Coffee]

Interestingly enough they've also fixed the in-game web browser enough that I could write this post while sitting around scanning for anomalies to crunch. In-game browser also has tabbed browsing, but no video support so watching porn or idiots blathering about stupid shit on YouTube is a no go.

[Lagmonster]

For the fuck of it, I installed the Steam 14-day trial. I can instantly tell I've spent my entire gaming career behind single-player games: I spent a half hour looking for someone to give me something to do before realizing that this game, unlike most games, doesn't give a shit about me or my character and quickly robbed me of any sense of being a special sumbitch savior of the universe like you get in, basically, every other role playing game ever. Not that it's bad, more of an observation that this game wants nothing to do with me as a person, and its denizens seem mainly interested in more creative forms of rape.

Finally I got the hint, said "fuck it all", and started hopping around systems looking for things to look at/loot/shoot. I must have entirely the wrong impression of the game, because I'm plodding around like a limbless bastard on ten thousand bucks finding out I can't really do anything except mine some shit mineral that's so worthless that I won't turn a functioning profit on it in my current state unless I live to be a hundred.

So I'm sitting near my home station, surrounded by pathetic thumb-sucking noobs like myself, half of whom message me five times an hour asking me for money, sometimes real money, sometimes only pretend money. I gotta get out of this system and find some fun shit to do; where does a guy go to get dead ten times a day, but like it?

Edit: I should note that I've done this before, but it was so long ago I couldn't remember how to so much as go to the bathroom in this game without the tutorial.

[Mr. Coffee]

Lagmonster, my in-game's Angus McAWESOME. PM me and I'll get you hooked up with some people that'll get you on the way to killing your fellow players and breaking their shit for fun and (hopefully) profit.

[Mr. Coffee]

Oh, yeah... While I'm thinking about it, let's touch on an in-game and a couple of 3rd party tools to make EVE a little bit easier. Unlike the bulk of MMOs out there, EVE doesn't use some XP system where you got mkill stuff or complete quests to level up your character, instead using a real-time skill learning system where you buy the skillbook for a particular skill (provided you meet the training requirements) and train the skill to advance your character along. A lot of new players get discouraged by this because they often simply have no idea what to train in order to get "good" at a particular task, be it mining, trading, or the good old "pew pew" PVE/PVP action.

First off there's the in-game certification system. Open your character sheet (left-hand menu, top button) and click the "Certificates" button o n the left of the screen that pops up. Under there is a list of different categories for various certificates, grouped by basic, standard, improved, and elite. look through the various certifications and each will list the skills needed and the training level needed for each skill in order to get the relevant certification. The certification system is real nice for training "support" skills, i.e. skills that help you be more effective at a given task (ex. training gunnery support skills to make your guns more accurate, consume less capacitor, track targets better, extend range, ect.).

For 3rd Party tools there's EVEMon and EFT (EVE Fitting Tool).

EVEMon is a skill training management suite created by the people at Battleclinic.com. Using the limited API key obtainable from the EVE Online website (go to the website and search for "API Key" or just google "EVE Api Key"), EVEMon allows you to manage, track, and plan skill training, with the ability to plan training around specific ships and fittings. Very useful tool for planning out all the skills needed to train for a particular ship/module. EVEmon also offers tips on Learning skills to train before your main plan to shorten the overall training time, and tools to show the effects of performing a nueral remap of your character or the effects of using various cybernetics on your character. Access to Battleclinic's list of player submitted ship fits also enables you to find specific ship set ups that you can then plot a training program tailored specifically for getting into just the fit you need for the ship you want to fly.

EFT is a ship fitting tool that allows you to examine the strengths and weakness of a given fitting for a given ship without the expense of having to actually buy the ships and modules (aka "Learning the Hard Way"). Once again, after inputing your character's API key, you can use EFT to find out what the precise range of your weapons are, how long your capacitor will last, how strong your tank is vs various damage types, how fast your ship can fly and turn, and how fast your ship can lock-on another ship of a given hull size. You can also corp and paste fittings from Battleclinic.com directly into EFT to see how it will work with your character's skills, find out what skills your character needs to use the fit, or what skills you can train to improve your ability to use a given ship and fit.

Use this stuff and have a bit of patience and you'll be on your way to having more fun at other people's expense in New Eden.

[White Haven]

If you want to kill shit, talk to Coffee. If you want to find shit, talk to me. If you want to build shit, talk to Keevan. We'll get you set up.

Oh, and accept your holiday Zephyr when you get the chance, those things will be a gold mine if you don't get it blown up.

[Mr. Coffee]

Oh, and accept your holiday Zephyr when you get the chance, those things will be a gold mine if you don't get it blown up.

Yeah, I'm holding on to mine for a few months until I see what the contract market will be like for them. If all else fails I can always sell mine to one of your wormhole delvers for a bit of quick ISK.

[Stark]

For the fuck of it, I installed the Steam 14-day trial. I can instantly tell I've spent my entire gaming career behind single-player games: I spent a half hour looking for someone to give me something to do before realizing that this game, unlike most games, doesn't give a shit about me or my character and quickly robbed me of any sense of being a special sumbitch savior of the universe like you get in, basically, every other role playing game ever. Not that it's bad, more of an observation that this game wants nothing to do with me as a person, and its denizens seem mainly interested in more creative forms of rape.

Once you get used to real games, it'll be hard to go back to mastubatory paint-by-numbers fellatio games. OH HERO DO EXACTLY AS I SAY AND YOU'LL SAVE THE WORLD (AND GET A GLIMPSE OF TIT).

Finally I got the hint, said "fuck it all", and started hopping around systems looking for things to look at/loot/shoot. I must have entirely the wrong impression of the game, because I'm plodding around like a limbless bastard on ten thousand bucks finding out I can't really do anything except mine some shit mineral that's so worthless that I won't turn a functioning profit on it in my current state unless I live to be a hundred.

There's a tutorial and career tutorials that will end with you having millions of dollars and half a dozen frigates. The game's early phase is way, way easier than it used to be; just go help, career agent, pick a thing (probably combat) and go to that guy. It's a 10-mission run, you'll get around 800k cash and 3 frigs out of it. Just don't try to apply NPC combat strategies to PvP; talk to people ingame about what works and doesn't in PvP. Every ship has cert recomendations now (although I think they're a bit optimistic) so it should be pretty easy to plan out your skills, punch them into evemon, and get set.

Frankly if you've just started and have no implants to lose, just read about how the security/crime system works and attack people at random. A surprising number of people in empire will just let you blow them up, because they assume you know what you're doing. The old 'open my can' trick still works, sadly.

[White Haven]

If you want a look at skills for entry ships for low-skill characters, load up EVEmon, make a plan, go to the ships browser, find a ship, then hit the Battleclinic loadouts button at the top. You'll see a bunch of shit you're nowhere near being able to fly. Now scroll through the list until you find something that says 'CHEAPFLEET CHALLENGE' next to it. Battleclinic did a fitting challenge a while back, all T1 gear, nothing crazy expensive, just cheap fits, and the winners got posted up there. Should be good fits you can easily get into.

[PREDATOR490]

Trial players get rather shafted in their training options due to CCP cutting off avenues to the best stuff so keep that in mind if your still running as a trial account. Additionally, as a trial account the majority of EVE will treat you like shit and wont take you in because they assume you could either be an alt spy for a rival corp or just a complete newb who wants free stuff.

If your looking to learn, EVE university is the 'legitimate' training corp for learning about EVE. I didnt go there myself but I run with a guy that has a character in there and generally it sounds like a decent environment to learn in and they get 'vets' doing training courses on occassion so you can potentially learn from 'pros' if your lucky.
The major thing to learn however, is to really pick what you want to do and dedicate the training towards it. Its easy to look at the guys in the flashy carriers or battleships and bullrush towards them but a maxed out frigate pilot can be alot more useful than a strained out battleship with a pilot that cannot properly wield it.
In this regard, I recommend starting as Amarr or Caldari if you want the 'best' start off you can get for ship options. Generally, Caldari are the masters of PVE while Amarr are the masters of PVP.

Additionally, if your going to actually subscribe to EVE. Its worth mentioning that if your really keen, get more than one account. Its almost standard practice for people to have more than one account so they can train more than one character to do different things and it gives you more options to play with.
For someone like me who only has one account, its quickly apparant that in the three years I have trained one character to do a dozen roles I could have trained multiple accounts to do an equal portion in a fraction of the time.
That said, I still only have one account and after three years it has served me rather well I feel. I may not be able to dual box missions or be an army all unto myself but its something of a personal satisfaction to have survived and grown into a self sustaining character through simple hard work rather than emptying a credit card worth of accounts to get that extra edge of being able to sell characters for game money.

[White Haven]

The other thing you can do if you want alts to do a given thing and nothing more is train them on another account until they have all the skills you want,t hen transfer them to your account in one of your two alt slots, and cancel the old one. You can only train one character per account at a time, but if you have, say, a hauler char that can do everything you need it to, and oyu don't need to be able to run it concurrently, that can save you some money in the long term.

[Havok]

Uh oh... Urge to play EVE rising...

Shit... are my guys even still there?

[PREDATOR490]

EVE players coming back after years of being absent is not uncommon so I would find it really surprising if anyones characters were removed.

[Havok]

EVE players coming back after years of being absent is not uncommon so I would find it really surprising if anyones characters were removed.

Well, I'm more or less addressing this to Coffee, as he may have cannibalized/sacrificed them.

[Mr. Coffee]

Uh oh... Urge to play EVE rising...

Shit... are my guys even still there?

Yes, one of them has a who hell of a lot of gunnery skills and the other was trained up as the industrial from hell.

[wautd]

Those Development Indices in the Sovereignty tab are pretty neat

[Oskuro]

Resist... urge.. to sign up... until after exams.... keep away from trial.... Shatner.... acting... rising.

[Mr. Coffee]

Resist... urge.. to sign up... until after exams.... keep away from trial.... Shatner.... acting... rising.

Join the Darkside, Oskuro...

We have cookies.

[Oskuro]

With chocolate sprinkles? And the tears of defeated enemies?

I'm seriously considering giving it a try after exams, although I'm not sure what scares me more, going to 0.0 on my own, or getting together with you guys.



By the way, this thread is cursed or something, the link won't show up in the "visited" color when I browse threads.

[White Haven]

Just don't bring your taste in music with you.

[Lagmonster]

Steam has the game on for $5 for the game plus your first month of subscription. Don't know how long the sale will last. I'm planning to get it, but I'm trying to find out first if that Steam purchase can be used to fully activate my trial account, or whether it'll set up a brand new account and leave my trial account fucked.

[Stark]

What? You don't need to buy the game, you've already got it. Just go to eveonkine.com and set up payment.

The whole idea of buying a boxed mmo is retarded.

[Lagmonster]

What? You don't need to buy the game, you've already got it. Just go to eveonkine.com and set up payment.

The whole idea of buying a boxed mmo is retarded.

It's somewhat different. If I activate the account via eveonline, I have to pay 15$ for the first month plus a 5$ activation fee. If I get the current steam deal, I get my first month for 5$ and no activation fee. Savings: 15$ right off.

[Oskuro]

Just don't bring your taste in music with you.

What?!

[Stark]

It's somewhat different. If I activate the account via eveonline, I have to pay 15$ for the first month plus a 5$ activation fee. If I get the current steam deal, I get my first month for 5$ and no activation fee. Savings: 15$ right off.

Huh. I thought it was a re-activation fee for people coming back, not some new made-up charge they invented to discourage people from signing up.

[Oskuro]

Nah, I guess it is just the same as how I got both the boxes for WAR and AOC for like 10€ each, and they come with a free month of gameplay, so I get both the cd-key to register my game and a full month for just 10€ instead of paying for the key and the month of play.

Doesn't EvE require purchase of a game key? The main site says a new account is 14€ plus a 5€ activation fee. I'm guessing the 5€ is the actual game key, and the 14€ is the first month of play.