EVE Online is Going to Free-to-Play in November with the New Clone States Expansion

[ffronw]

EVE Online is Going to Free-to-Play in November with the New Clone States Expansion

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1346/1346836.jpgCCP has announced that with the launch of its new Clone States expansion in November, EVE Online will be free-to-play.

If you've ever wanted to dive into the world of EVE Online but couldn't bring yourself to pony up the monthly fee, you'll finally be able to play for free come November. CCP Games announced today that when the game's next expansion launches in November, it will include a free-to-play option.

The new Clone States expansion is described by CCP as,

"Cloning scientists in New Eden have been hard at work with the aim of bolstering their military capability of capsuleers for use by the Empires. In the process, they've developed a new method of cloning that revolves around two new clone states, Alpha and Omega."

Alpha clones are the standard state for unsubscribed players. They'll have access to race-specific skill sets, and will be able to fly tech one Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers with essential weapons and modules. Their skill training will also take place at a reduced rate.

The Omega clone state is attained by subscribing to the game. It involves "augmenting basic clones using neural expanders and cerebral acceleration technology, granting unlimited skill access." This state is exactly like being subscribed now.


If you let your subscription lapse, your clone status will revert back to Alpha, and any skills that an Alpha
clone doesn't have access to will be locked. You won't lose them, but you will lose access to them. If you re-up your subscription, you'll get all of those skills back right where you left them.

It will be interesting to see what effect this change has on the total player counts for EVE, as well as the subscriber numbers. You can find a much more in depth look at the upcoming changes in this official blog post [https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-clone-states-and-the-future-of-access-to-eve-online/].

The Clone States expansion will launch in November of 2016.

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[moggett88]

Interesting - the main reason I stopped playing was the price. I guess we now have the option of not paying, mining enough to PLEX up, then essentially playing the current game for free

 

[Daymo]

Interesting - the main reason I stopped playing was the price. I guess we now have the option of not paying, mining enough to PLEX up, then essentially playing the current game for free

I tried getting into EVE many years too late it felt like but I still sometimes look at the PLEX markets. I'm more curious as to how this will affect the price of PLEX for in-game currency and issues of botting, could be an interesting case study.

 

[senobit]

Might have look when it happens - I stopped playing eve as my corp disbanded(imploded would be more accurate)and it just stopped being fun, also I like the F2P model as people can get a real feel for the game and looking at the skill list they will be able to fly frigates reasonably well.

 

[09philj]

I'll go back to it if I have time. 😐

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I tried to like EVE. I really did. It just felt so boring as a starter character.

 

[Karadalis]

Sorry no deal, crippling your free players is simply a no go for me.

A f2p game should get its money through premium content NOT by locking BASIC gameplay behind a barrier.

As a free player you allready are content for the subscribers and help keeping the game alive

Whats the point in trying to get new players if you treat them like second class citizens? Way to make the newcomers feel welcome.

The prize for PLEX will skyrocket for sure too if they dont put a system in that will discourage people from simply running mining bots.

 

[Remus]

Sounds too much like P2W to me. I view this game best as an outside observer and not as a participant. I admire CCP's ability to keep an organized space sim with governing bodies, trade treaties, and all the bells of a space-faring NATO, but that's entirely too much work for me to actually enjoy this as a game.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Sorry no deal, crippling your free players is simply a no go for me.

A f2p game should get its money through premium content NOT by locking BASIC gameplay behind a barrier.

As a free player you allready are content for the subscribers and help keeping the game alive

Whats the point in trying to get new players if you treat them like second class citizens? Way to make the newcomers feel welcome.

The prize for PLEX will skyrocket for sure too if they dont put a system in that will discourage people from simply running mining bots.

It's the same old story, making an MMO "Free to Play" in order to attract new players, then make it as annoying as possible to actually BE a Free player to force those players to subscribe. Every MMO whether it was Free to Play in the first place or not eventually does this kind of crap.

 

[Leg End]

If only the subscription prompt didn't actually feel so obnoxious.

Sorry no deal, crippling your free players is simply a no go for me.

A f2p game should get its money through premium content NOT by locking BASIC gameplay behind a barrier.

The thing is, what you described would work for literally any other game BUT EVE. The gameplay isn't actually locked away and you have access to most of the stuff that many players would describe as core ships and modules without going into Tech 2 items or above cruisers. At the moment, CCP's offer of "premium" content are insanely overpriced ship skins and the various clothing items. If it was to be anything in relation to game content, you'd actually have active riots like what happened during Monaclegate, which was CCP toying with the idea of adding things to the game which would qualify as Pay To Win, which is the ultimate hostile action against the sandbox and the players in it. The major draw to the sandbox itself is minimal outside intervention and the players controlling mostly everything, and soon to be absolutely everything in all areas of space.

As a free player you allready are content for the subscribers and help keeping the game alive

Whats the point in trying to get new players if you treat them like second class citizens? Way to make the newcomers feel welcome.

Because they aren't second class but are now being given access to what many are calling an unlimited trial. A trial which extends to subbed players that are no longer subscribed.

The prize for PLEX will skyrocket for sure too if they dont put a system in that will discourage people from simply running mining bots.

A system that is already in place with their massive effort against botting of any kind and all forms of real money transfer. That and, it seems like the Alpha characters can't fly barges so people would be mining with Ventures at best, which pale in comparison in terms of yield.

This is pretty much the only way to introduce any kind of FTP to the game without utterly destroying the game as we know it, and I'm impressed CCP has put a fair bit of thought into how this works. Still a few flaws but I imagine in the coming months they'll be hammering the kinks out.

Sounds too much like P2W to me.

Trust me and the massive amount of people who started exploding the various Help channels when I say, it's nowhere near P2W and is just making an extended trial available for every player, which gives them more time to experience the sandbox with minimal restrictions. This is about as P2W as having a subscription at all under the current system.

Can't say I'm too enthused about subscribers being outright better than F2P'ers, but Eve is one of those games that I have been interested in, but not so much that I'd want to pay a subscription for. But with this, I'll probably give it a look, see if it tickles my fancy.

Related to the rest of my rambling, EVE doesn't quite scale that way in terms of "having X makes you instantly win against X". A well composed fleet of newer players can still utterly trash a fleet of longtime veterans in what you'd immediately say are "better" ships by virtue of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy. Specifically, bring lots of EWAR and watch the rage.

 

[direkiller]

A system that is already in place with their massive effort against botting of any kind and all forms of real money transfer. That and, it seems like the Alpha characters can't fly barges so people would be mining with Ventures at best, which pale in comparison in terms of yield.

Haven't played eve for a few years now but I still remember the loophole to this(totally never used this for shenanigans).

Eve can't kick you out of ships once you are in them. It just won't let you undock if it fails a requirement.
It's how they get around hard point changes, & nerfs to cargohold and the such.

 

[Leg End]

Haven't played eve for a few years now but I still remember the loophole to this(totally never used this for shenanigans).

Eve can't kick you out of ships once you are in them. It just won't let you undock if it fails a requirement.
It's how they get around hard point changes, & nerfs to cargohold and the such.

I imagine CCP has a few tricks up their sleeve for that old workaround. Likely forced docking at downtime for elapsed accounts that are using forboten modules or something similar. Though that makes new problems.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Havent played in many years...
But from the sound of it I think we can look forward to huge swarms of suicide kestrels murdering everything in high sec.
Unless something changed, they were a viable tactic in the era of pay accounts, they'll sure as hell be a viable tactic with free accounts.

 

[Strazdas]

Not really Free to play, more like a free unlimited time demo. You still need to pay to fly the big ships. That is not to say you cant be a successful small ship player. Corporations are always looking for more tacklers.

Sounds too much like P2W to me.

Then you dont understand eve. Ever is 10% hardware you fly, 10 % skills you have and 80% leadership and teamwork. The only thing this will limit to paid users is hardware, and even then not the quality of hardware but the size will be limited. you can be a very sucesful destroyed class pilot without paying with this setup.

A f2p game should get its money through premium content NOT by locking BASIC gameplay behind a barrier.

As a free player you allready are content for the subscribers and help keeping the game alive

Whats the point in trying to get new players if you treat them like second class citizens? Way to make the newcomers feel welcome.

The prize for PLEX will skyrocket for sure too if they dont put a system in that will discourage people from simply running mining bots.

Basic content is not being crippled though. you got access to all basic features of the game with the limitations of free player. you cannot use large ships with it, but there is very few ocassions where those large ships are required for content to be experienced. Certainly not so in the most attractive part of eve that is player interaction. Big ships does not make you win battles, it makes you a bigger target.

If i can go back to eve without paying and just live in my freigter trading at my own pace i might be coming back to this after a 3 years break. i used to run a massive trading empire but i got bored of the game.

Also mining bots wont make plex price skyrocket, it will just push mineral price down as there will be oversupply. And lets not pretend like most people werent paying for the game via plex already.

Can't say I'm too enthused about subscribers being outright better than F2P'ers

There is nothing in eve that could make certain players outright better other than things like T2 Originals that were removed from the game a decade ago and only very very old characters still have some. but even then it has very small effect on the eve market as a whole.

If it was to be anything in relation to game content, you'd actually have active riots like what happened during Monaclegate,

Hah, remmeber that one. Was there, shooting the jita monumemt, crashing the servers.

Havent played in many years...
But from the sound of it I think we can look forward to huge swarms of suicide kestrels murdering everything in high sec.
Unless something changed, they were a viable tactic in the era of pay accounts, they'll sure as hell be a viable tactic with free accounts.

ech, they may just bump CONCORD response times again if it comes to that. Done it before to curb gatehopping when being hunted by CONCORD. Also if your a prepared hauler it may not matter. They never managed to gank me despite trying multiple times.