EVE Online

[Rinnhart]

Didn't see a thread, but searching for "EVE" is a nightmare, so here it goes.

EVE Online, 14 day trial account - Nothing necessary beyond an email address.

Game's a couple years old, but it's fantastic. Even if you're not a big MMO'er, give it a try. One server, 100,000 people, a space setting, decent visuals, low requirements, pirates, mega-corporations, planet-sized ships, interesting lore, savage politics, an almost entirely player-run economy, and it's taking place in a galaxy of some 5,000 solar systems.

This game is completely nuts. The scale of it is something to behold.

Fire it up, read the "new player guide,"run the tutorial, play the two weeks and then decide if you love it or hate it. It can be as casual or time intensive as you want it to be, and you can remain competitive either way as your primary form of progression occurs at a static pace whether you're online or off. I've been at it a month and I still can't wrap my head around everything this game has going on in it.

But if anything lures me permanently away from WoW, it will be EVE's community. Completely different environment from Warcraft; much closer to EQ's in quality and attitude.

The terrible cost of glory:
- The learning curve is intense. Two weeks is enough to get your feet wet on combat, basic mining, and maybe some trading.
- Interface is clunky and at times buggy. Get used to clicking - my biggest problem with the game is the lack of keyboard shortcuts. You also do not have direct control over your ship. You can direct it to "warp there, dock here, orbit that, stay away from those" but you have no fine controls and no first person view.
- Combat. Combat, while absolutely gorgeous, is very hands-off and pvp is instant. Generally, someone outclasses their opponent and wins. Close fights tend to be whoever gets the drop. PVE combat is more a task of managing target locks over actively participating in the fight. I find it bearable enough to PVP with friends on occasion, but I generally stick to trading.

You'll love or hate the game, either way it's worth seeing what else the MMO market has to offer.

[Crusader]

This is probably a good place to bring up....

*drumrolls*

The Great Scam!

http://static.circa1984.com/the-big-scam.html

[Raven Vale]

This is probably a good place to bring up....

*drumrolls*

The Great Scam!

http://static.circa1984.com/the-big-scam.html
[right][snapback]105787[/snapback][/right]

I sat and read every word , gotta hate scammers and the like , but a great read nontheless :)

[Munkay]

This is probably a good place to bring up....

*drumrolls*

The Great Scam!

http://static.circa1984.com/the-big-scam.html
[right][snapback]105787[/snapback][/right]

Great read, thanks for that Crusader.

Cheers,

Munk

[Occhidiangela]

I sat and read every word , gotta hate scammers and the like , but a great read nontheless :)
[right][snapback]105808[/snapback][/right]

Fun read.

Occhi

[oldmandennis]

Also... this game moves at quite a slow pace. I gave it a whirl because it was free, made it far enough through the teutorial to learn to mine. Started mining an asteroid. It seemed like it took several minutes. Started mining the next one, walked away. Repeat 5 times over the course of 1/2 hour. My cargo hold wasn't full still, so I couldn't advance in the teutorial. Logged off, probably for good.

Tried planetside too. They throw the newbs in with the pro's, leading to instagibbs. Probably not gonna log into that anymore either.

[SwissMercenary]

That was an... 'Interesting' read.

[NiteFox]

This is probably a good place to bring up....

*drumrolls*

The Great Scam!

http://static.circa1984.com/the-big-scam.html
[right][snapback]105787[/snapback][/right]

Hold your horses, folks. I can recount an even more heinous incident than that paltry tale.

Linky. The gist of it is this: Someone wanted the CEO of a the Ubiqua Seraph, Mirial, dead. That someone went to the Guiding Hand Social Club, a guild of assassins basically. What happened next was simply ludicrous and amazing: The GHSC recruited Mirial's second-in-command and turned him traitor, then spent the best part of a year inserting operatives into every level of Ubiqua Seraph.

These operatives then proceeded to clean out every single communal hangar in the organisation, Mirial and her former colleague went flying around in their most expensive ships as a "show of force", when Mirial was eventually ambushed, betrayed, and podded.

The contract only specified Mirial's body as proof, and was worth one billion ISK. Total damages to Ubiqua Seraph, much of which was funelled into the GHSC, was an estimated thirty billion ISK, or $16,500 in reality according to IGE's exchange rate.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not entirely sure whether to be horrified by this or simply applaud such actions.

Of course, since I've vowed never to play a pay-monthly MMO, stuff like this really piques my interest in a game. Perhaps in a few years EO will have a free limited-account setting for us tightwads.

[Rinnhart]

That was beautiful.

[Guest]

I am an EVE player. I started a few years ago shortly after it came out. I quite for a while but I have been back for a year or so.

Its a great game.
But its not for everyone.

The player community and economy are far more advanced in EVE than in any other major MMO.

But many people find the game slow. What is cool is that PvP matters. When you lose - you can lose a lot if you fly a good ship. Of course if you want to play it safe you can.

I pay to play 2 MMOs - EvE and PlanetSide. They are both completely different except in that neither requires grinding ou levels.

[Crusader]

Hold your horses, folks.  I can recount an even more heinous incident than that paltry tale.

Linky.  The gist of it is this: Someone wanted the CEO of a the Ubiqua Seraph, Mirial, dead.  That someone went to the Guiding Hand Social Club, a guild of assassins basically.  What happened next was simply ludicrous and amazing: The GHSC recruited Mirial's second-in-command and turned him traitor, then spent the best part of a year inserting operatives into every level of Ubiqua Seraph.

These operatives then proceeded to clean out every single communal hangar in the organisation, Mirial and her former colleague went flying around in their most expensive ships as a "show of force", when Mirial was eventually ambushed, betrayed, and podded.

The contract only specified Mirial's body as proof, and was worth one billion ISK.  Total damages to Ubiqua Seraph, much of which was funelled into the GHSC, was an estimated thirty billion ISK, or $16,500 in reality according to IGE's exchange rate.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not entirely sure whether to be horrified by this or simply applaud such actions.

Of course, since I've vowed never to play a pay-monthly MMO, stuff like this really piques my interest in a game.  Perhaps in a few years EO will have a free limited-account setting for us tightwads.
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Yes, I've read that one too, masterfully pulled.

[Rinnhart]

Also... this game moves at quite a slow pace.  I gave it a whirl because it was free, made it far enough through the teutorial to learn to mine.  Started mining an asteroid.  It seemed like it took several minutes.  Started mining the next one, walked away.  Repeat 5 times over the course of 1/2 hour.  My cargo hold wasn't full still, so I couldn't advance in the teutorial.  Logged off, probably for good.

Tried planetside too.  They throw the newbs in with the pro's, leading to instagibbs.  Probably not gonna log into that anymore either.
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Planetside blows and not because they toss newbslices in with pros (that's how it works with every FPS, ever). It's just a bad game.

[oldmandennis]

Planetside blows and not because they toss newbslices in with pros (that's how it works with every FPS, ever). It's just a bad game.
[right][snapback]107023[/snapback][/right]

It seemed ok - sort of like a persistant Tribes, which also seemed like a pretty good game, it just didn't hook me for what ever reason. I'll admit I didn't play a lot of either game. Can you expand on "just a bad game" a bit?

As far as "with every FPS, ever" PS is a cross between FPS and MMORPG. If they cared they could have seperated the noobs from the pros... or even figuered a way to pit noobs against eachother.

I was talkin to some guildies tonight. I've moved on from a small friendly guild to a more agressive, larger guild. This guild actually got its start in PS before moving on to EQ, COH, and eventually WoW and EQ2. For some reason some of the burn outs are heading to Eve. I was discussing this, and several guildies mentioned getting hung up on the same spot in the teutorial as I did.

One of the EvE guys was lurking, and mentioned that one of his favorite activites was to park a large ship next to a ginormous asteroid, click the mine button..... and go watch TV for 45 minutes. I guess alot of what we do is strange, but this seemed really odd to me. To have one of your best gaming experiences to be to click and walk away for 45 min /shrug

[Rinnhart]

It seemed ok - sort of like a persistant Tribes, which also seemed like a pretty good game, it just didn't hook me for what ever reason.  I'll admit I didn't play a lot of either game.  Can you expand on "just a bad game" a bit?

As far as "with every FPS, ever" PS is a cross between FPS and MMORPG.  If they cared they could have seperated the noobs from the pros... or even figuered a way to pit noobs against eachother.

It tries to be Tribes, but Tribes it is not.

The "RPG" part of the game is stupid. Why do I need to grind in a goddamn shooter? I understand what they were going for, but I want instant gratification in my FPS. I want to run out on the field and have my actual abilities define how well I do, not what kind of ammo I have loaded in my NewbStick 1000. Yay, I got my head blow'd off because I'm wearing the wrong skirt with these heels.

Client-side hit determination can go #$%& itself and cone of fire mechanics chafe my balls.

You will never see combat beyond the same two god-forsaken islands. The same two islands covered in identicle bases.

$15 a month (yes, I know about the reserves thing) for a shooter. A bland shooter.

Worst of all- no jetpack and no stormhammer.

One of the EvE guys was lurking, and mentioned that one of his favorite activites was to park a large ship next to a ginormous asteroid, click the mine button..... and go watch TV for 45 minutes.  I guess alot of what we do is strange, but this seemed really odd to me.  To have one of your best gaming experiences to be to click and walk away for 45 min  /shrug
[right][snapback]107030[/snapback][/right]

EVE is the idyllic pond 'neath the shade of the aspen trees: deep, clear, and tranquil. Other MMO's are the rapids: silt swirling shallowly amongst the ragged boulders.

It requires a different approach. Multitasking is an excellent choice. I'm posting, checking my email, making breakfast, and hauling 10,000 cubic meters of silicon between star systems. Later, I'll check prices on the ship I've been saving for between checking my stocks.

[Occhidiangela]

Yay, I got my head blow'd off because I'm wearing the wrong skirt with these heels.
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Score one coffee spillage for Rinnhart. GG. :lol:

Occhi

[MMAgCh]

I played through the two weeks' trial a while ago.

While I really don't like the idea of paying monthly to play a game, I'm quite strongly considering in the case of EVE. (Of course, it also helps that one can buy timecards with in-game currency.)

Pretty much everything that has been said about the game in this thread is spot-on -- the learning curve is so steep it actually overhangs at certain parts, the game has an enormous depth and the scale is impressive.

Despite the fairly lengthy tutorial, you're STILL bound to be pretty clueless as to what you can do in the game. (And for what it's worth, I never had any problems with the mining part of the tutorial.) There is a great deal of things and concepts in the game which, while critical, are not at all touched on during the tutorial -- "instas" (bookmarks that allow you to drop out of warp right on top of a jump gate or station, instead of some 15 kilometres away from it) being a good example.
Luckily, I've found the players overall to be rather mature and helpful (jaded as I am by prolonged exposure to battle.net), so if you have any questions someone in the rookie help channel (or most public channels really) is going to help you. The thing is just that there are so many questions to ask. :)

Regarding the scale of the game: once I left a space station in my tiny little frigate. "Wow, my ship looks huge", I thought. "Must've zoomed in accidentally." Messing with the camera's zoom setting, however, did nothing. It took me a while to realise that a far, far larger ship was simply obscuring my puny craft. :o Wasn't even a terribly large ship by EVE standards -- might have been a destroyer or cruiser at most, which still aren't truly big considering some of the other ships in the game.
Still, it was a true "oh boy!" moment.

EVE's definitely worth giving a shot. Do keep in mind that 14 days are not enough to give you a good idea of what the game is all about, and what you can do in it; it's just enough to let you guess at what it can be about. After the two weeks are over you'll likely know whether you want to keep playing or not, though.

It does require a healthy helping of RAM to run well, though. I'll have to upgrade just to play EVE (though some will doubtlessly argue that 256Mb aren't nearly enough nowadays anyway), but it looks to be worth it.