Is it worth getting into EVE online?

[J Tyran]

if you choose Caldari whose ships are mostly missile based you will be at a serious disadvange for big fleet, and fleet commanders don't want them due to it taking time for the missiles to reach their target. Caldari pwn for PVP though..

Missiles have been used in fleets and gangs, large and small since 2007-2008. Longish range, no cap use and less management and and general lag resistance in really big fights. It even got to the stage when you would see gangs of several hundred missile focused battlecruisers, nerfs have calmed that down and the meta has moved on but missiles are still used. Back in the days of sniper battleships your comment was true but they died a long time ago.

Do you mean the 0.0 big fleet battles too? I would have thought the high number of ships would make missiles wasteful.

Yep the huge fleet battles too, remember this was after the changes in the meta introduced useful logistic ships and triage carriers as well. For sub Capitol ships the days of killing a ship in one or two volleys was over, when Doomsday devices where nerfed sniper BS where less and less useful. This was reinforced when Motherships where turned into 12,000 DPS (more than Dreadnoughts) monsters that obliterated anything the size of a battleship or larger which made RR battleships obsolete too, insane tracking on Titan turrets didnt help either. Large sub caps become nonviable in anything bigger than a small gang, poor mobility made it to easy to get hotdropped, Titan bridged on and large ships where more vulnerable to Fighterbombers and Titan turrets. Stealth bombers played a part in this too, you could drop stealth bombers on a BS fleet and wipe them out in short order.

Regarding logis and triage 20 Ships being repped could get effective tanks in 10s or 100s of Ks in DPS depending on the size of the fleets. 400 drakes spamming missiles might be able to break that, if not the FC will switch up targets to try and confuse the other fleet. The missile travel time helped here actually as it would be hard to see who exactly was under fire and where to apply the reps breaking up the RR circle jerk.

The meta has been moving on again for a while so Drake blobs have been getting rarer and rarer, Tengus and Drakes are still great in medium gang fights though but the days of the 400+ blobs seem to be over and over the last 18 months BS are coming back.

 

[Ranorak]

Here's an article which is gonna give you a pretty accurate picture about EVE and how hard/easy it is to get into it. The writer gives a couple tips and his view on things, as well as a few reason why it's worth playing.

Also, here's a pretty educational infographic which most people agree with:

That is the single most greatest thing I have ever seen and it is right on the money.

OT: When you create a character make sure you have the highest INT possible, it reduces the time to learn new skills. I would suggest 0.7 to 1.0 sec areas, the NPC pirates in 0.6 and lower might be to tough. Stick to scavaging missions, bounty missions and mining. and you WILL be doing A LOT of mining.

I'm guessing you started either a long time ago, or never made an alt, because those stats are no longer changeable during character creation.

The Tutorial has been vastly improved as well, though there still is a steep learning curve.

All I can say is, try a trail, see if it's your thing or not. And don't be discouraged by the many many items and options, they will, eventually, become clear to you.

 

[Griffolion]

There are a number of droll thralls for people on this site who will make remarks about excel spreadsheets, etc. Don't listen to them.

Yeah, there's economics involved if you're into trade and what not. But if you're into trade, you'll enjoy the "spreadsheets" anyway. Otherwise, it's quite a fun strategy game when in combat. The social dynamics of corporations are unlike any other MMO. Or creating a research empire, or manufacturing high grade parts for corporations for billions at a time.

It requires dedication, and you need to survive the initial harshness. But the tutorials are vastly improved from times gone by, and there are a number of "newbie" friendly things in place, such as double skill learning rate up to a point to get you started.

My advice: get into a corporation as soon as possible. Try a bit of everything, and find your niche.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I have thought about it to. Reading all the stories from what happens in eve makes it fun. But im just not prepared to play it for many weeks or months just to get to the good fun stuff. Just not worth it. I played WOW for a month and was totally bored, just constant grind without fun, i got to level 28 and a friend said that the good stuff happens after 50. Screw that.

I played Frontier Elite 2 to death on the Amiga, loved that game. Maybe they should bring that out again with upgraded graphics and zero bugs.

 

[nexus]

You either like it or you don't.

I'm an off and on "casual" player of EVE. I've played since 2007 here and there, but never actually committed to being 100% active, in a Corp for instance.

For me, the initial undock into the cold, dark space of EVE was intoxicating. I couldn't believe how large the environment was, and how far you could actually go. Everything was dangerous, and it was unlike anything I ever played. I went through my newb months, and got heavy into mining, later into research and manufacturing, trade. Then I got into wormholes, exploration, then just fighting.

The game has it's moments.

I used to play for hours, jumping routes while listening to Carbon Based Lifeforms, Solar Fields, et al. Good times.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

Yeah I played Eve for 2 years when it first came out, Been meaning to try it out again, once I find a a prepaid account card if they even make them.

 

[Crash486]

You know, some of the best times I've had in gaming have been in Eve. Also, some of the worst... most boring times I've had have been in Eve as well. PvE in eve is garbage. If you want to have fun playing, you need to get in with a group of friends who already have some sort of substantial foothold. Best would be to join one of the megacorporations like Goonswarm or something, as they frequently have ops of 100's of space pintos going on suicide missions to lock down and destroy vastly more expensive ships.

The learning curve will take you about 3 months of commitment before you ramp up to the point where you can actually do something. Even then, you'll be of little use until you can get into some sort of t2 ship at least. Eve is very very rewarding, but it's also immensely demanding.

 

[J Tyran]

you'll be of little use until you can get into some sort of t2 ship at least.

T1 Cruisers are better than T2 Cruisers now, you can get in one of those and start shooting people in about a week.

 

[Colt47]

When I tried out Eve online it reminded me of a Sim game except in space with a little ship that flies around and mines things. Losing ships in combat or to other situations is kind of like the natural disasters of the game.

 

[5ilver]

I tried the trial several months back, and bailed as soon as it became apparent that you do not actually fly your ship. You just click a destination and it flies there. There are no actual dogfights or anything. I was... incredibly disappointed.

It can seem like that but its not true, I mean for mission running maybe but for pvp you have to fly your ship. You need to learn how to maneuver, get in the best position to do damage but take none. Avoid ECM and tackle the target. Then you have all the tactics behind the fighting.

This is a quick tutorial made by a player, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfovPbZQhBk] it shows a larger slower ship can tackle a smaller faster one by clever maneuvering. Thats just one example in one scenario.

Remember you are not just controlling the ship, you have to be aware of everything around and use tactics. You are also Managing the ships weapons and equipment, making mistakes here can cost you your ship. Its not like a single seat space fighter game, you are commanding a large ship. They are big, even frigates are 75-100m. Cruisers are 300-400m long.

You dog fight as such but you have to control and manage your ship and adapt to situations on the fly.

If anything, that video you posted proved the exact opposite of your words- ie, you don't need to fly your ship, you just give a couple commands and it does everything for you.

OT: I tried the trial for a couple hours and in that time, I noticed several things:
1) The learning curve is absolutely brutal and the tutorials are some of the worst in any MMO I've ever played, if not THE worst.
2) You can play without paying in theory but you still have to work for it. Compare this to pretty much everything being F2P at the moment.
3) As has been said, this is closer to Excel than Freelancer.
So if you're looking for Freelancer but as an MMO, this is not it.

 

[J Tyran]

I tried the trial several months back, and bailed as soon as it became apparent that you do not actually fly your ship. You just click a destination and it flies there. There are no actual dogfights or anything. I was... incredibly disappointed.

It can seem like that but its not true, I mean for mission running maybe but for pvp you have to fly your ship. You need to learn how to maneuver, get in the best position to do damage but take none. Avoid ECM and tackle the target. Then you have all the tactics behind the fighting.

This is a quick tutorial made by a player, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfovPbZQhBk] it shows a larger slower ship can tackle a smaller faster one by clever maneuvering. Thats just one example in one scenario.

Remember you are not just controlling the ship, you have to be aware of everything around and use tactics. You are also Managing the ships weapons and equipment, making mistakes here can cost you your ship. Its not like a single seat space fighter game, you are commanding a large ship. They are big, even frigates are 75-100m. Cruisers are 300-400m long.

You dog fight as such but you have to control and manage your ship and adapt to situations on the fly.

If anything, that video you posted proved the exact opposite of your words- ie, you don't need to fly your ship, you just give a couple commands and it does everything for you.

Watch it again, this time bear in mind most of the module operation and UI stuff is done by hotkeys and the random little clicks all over the screen are piloting the ships. That was a sedate little fight he picked to make his point about a certain method of tackleing, in more intense fights players are operating the controls almost as fast as high end RTS play.

 

[Crash486]

you'll be of little use until you can get into some sort of t2 ship at least.

T1 Cruisers are better than T2 Cruisers now, you can get in one of those and start shooting people in about a week.

Wait, how is that even possible? You're going to tell me a stabber is better than a vagabond, or a rupture better than a muninn? That doesn't even sound remotely plausible. How so?

 

[Toxic Sniper]

When I tried out EVE (after tons of recommendations), I found it a boring time-sink game with forgettable gameplay. And dear God, mining is hella boring. The tutorials are helpful for learning the game (As is the community), but I didn't get a subscription after my experience because I just wasn't having any fun.

Then I realized it wasn't EVE that was my problem, it was MMOs. The entire appeal with the genre is the socialization and freedom, and for that there are sacrifices made in tightness and gameplay. I think if you already like MMORPGs, EVE will probably be a really fun game for you. If you don't, EVE won't change your mind.

 

[BrotherRool]

In many ways mining is a trap more than something that people who know the game actually do (unless you bot or like AFKing)

 

[Aeshi]

It's worth at least a try if nothing else. Right now I'm about 50% through the 21-day trial in my Cruiser and am seriously considering subscribing.

Also a small note, the 'official' wiki is out-of-date now, use this one [http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Main_Page] instead.


And anyone who wants something like EvE but not quite as complex may want to try Perpetuum [http://www.perpetuum-online.com/] as well.

 

[Daft Time]

So having some free time and such, and I hear alot about EVE I'm wondering is it worth putting the time into it? There seems a consensus that its a rather hard core game, but is it hard to get into? Especially if you could only put a few hours in a day.
Any tips for starting out? stuff like that?

Eve Online is a harsh game - especially learning how to play. If you're really interested, find some active players who are willing to show you some of the ropes and prepare to read a lot. I got into Eve Online when I was in a small, boring city with no commitments for a couple of months. To say the game is complex is an understatement; I've spent a great deal of my time teaching a specific subset of PvP to players. Many had been playing the game for years and still didn't grasp the things I considered the basics.

Is it worth it? Almost certainly.

There's a lot of people complaining about mining or "spreadsheets online". I've played for just over eight years now, and I've never had to use a spreadsheet, mine or mission. There's something you need to remember about Eve Online, the core of the game is other players. If you spend your time trying to play Eve like it's and other MMO you'll get bored fast. The interesting stories from Eve are the player heists, the scams or the grand politics behind incredibly large alliances.

It may seem like you're limited by your character; with only a few ships you can fly and those you can, not even particularly well. This isn't true; you're only limited by your imagination. Do you want to rob player's corporation blind? You don't need to be a veteran - you just need to be a smooth talker and know how to pick your mark. Do you want to PvP? It's not skill-points that matter, only out playing your enemy. Eve rewards those who realise this.

Look, I'm can't play the game at the moment - I'm not at "home", so no PC - but feel free to PM me if you need any advice or want me to point you in the direction of some tools, guides or even players who will make you're introduction. It's always nice to share my hobby with the uninitiated

SNIP

Respect for linking Kil2, but I doubt a video is fathomable to anyone who is unfamiliar with some of the more basic mechanics of the game. Eve's PvP is visually confusing when recorded without experience.

 

[Bertylicious]

The thing with the spaceships and skill levels and hot keys is merely the platform on which Eve is played. The real game is the way the social groups tear themselves apart, reform and are attacked. People lie about who they are for years in order to get into a position to betray hundreds of people all at once. Bullying, greifing, theft, lies and violence all played out in a wild world with no rules that transcends its own boundaries.

Eve is the greatest MMORPG that has yet been created and I will never, ever, be able to get into it because I don't think I could ever do the things you need to do to another human being in order to be truly succesful, but it fascinates me all the same.

Also it is hella boring.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

Also, here's a pretty educational infographic which most people agree with:

That certainly used to be the case, but not today.

 

[Colt47]

When I tried out Eve online it reminded me of a Sim game except in space with a little ship that flies around and mines things. Losing ships in combat or to other situations is kind of like the natural disasters of the game.

Wait, how is that even possible? You're going to tell me a stabber is better than a vagabond, or a rupture better than a muninn? That doesn't even sound remotely plausible. How so?

I never said anything about which ship is better then the other, just that losing a ship due to PvP is the same as having a city get wrecked by a tornado: You end up footing the bill.

 

[J Tyran]

Respect for linking Kil2, but I doubt a video is fathomable to anyone who is unfamiliar with some of the more basic mechanics of the game. Eve's PvP is visually confusing when recorded without experience.

True, Kil2 does a fairly good job of explaining though so it gives some idea. A lot of people think EVEs PvP is just orbiting and turning guns on, something that will get you killed the first time you face off against a player. It is a misconception born from early mission running when people try the game. Its nothing but, any EVE player with a bit of experience outside of mining and mission running knows better but its still hard to convince people sometimes.

Like the OP of this thread, he tried the games most boring activity and declared the game was boring. Few MMOs are as exciting as EVE when you are flying be the seat of your pants with a 400,000,000 ISK ship and snatch a kill instead of dying and losing your ship, then you get to take their loot too.