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Questions for veterans of EvE
WhiteknightI
Member Posts: 63
Hi, I'm thinkin of giving this game another shot.
1. If the skill system is in real time, how is it possible for me to ever get to a point where I can compete with other players? Rather, is it possible for me to skill up enough to compete at the higher levels?
2. The pvp looks fun. Are there other aspects of the game that are just as entertaining or is it mainly about the pvp?
3. PvP is totally open correct?
4. Is the game improving with the new expansions or getting worse? What exactly do the new expansions add to the game?
5. Do you find the game to me too much about a grind and less about enjoying it? One thing that really turned me off was spending 85% of my time heading to a jumppoint.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
Get the idea of "competing" out of your head. Eve isn't about getting to levelcap so you can be uber. Skills are capped at level 5, with a linear increase in effectiveness for each level, and a exponential increase in skilltime for each level. That means, that a skill at level 4 is just marginally less effective than a skill at level 5, but requires much less time to skill.
With a little specialization, you can afford and use tech 2 on small ships very fast, and that's all you need. Even t1 has it's use. Your age in eve just defines how many different roles you can use, but a new player can reach a good effectiveness in a role he choses very fast (matter of days/weeks). As Pvp is mainly fleet warfare, your 10% damage bonus for being a vet with maxed skills are absolutely worthless. One three day old caldari character can take one 4 year old player out of combat thanks to his griffin. Every ship can be useful in pvp, while new players often get either the role as scout, tackler or ewar-support. Our fleets consist of a good number of cheap t1 blackbirds for our caldari newbies, often financed by the alliance. A two week old player can effectively take out up to three enemy battleships out of the fight with these things..
As i said: Being "competitive" is not required. Being useful is the key. Tactics are a hundret times more important than skillpoints.
Eve is mainly about pvp. Doesn't matter if it's market pvp or shooty-shooty. It's mainly about player interaction.
Incorrect. There are rules of engagement, enforced by an npc police force, dividing the space in three types of security. Highsec, Lowsec, Empire, with Highsec being relatively safe with (nearly) any attacker getting turned to space dust.
Expansions add a number of things. Mostly new ships, gameplay balancing, and new features. Imo, eve gets better with every patch, but that's just me.
If i would have to grind, i weren't in eve.
Grind is what you make of it, and i hate repetitive things, so i don't do them. I can make money without killing countless npcs.
1. You will never "catch up" to older players in terms of skill points but yes you an "compete" and be effective against older players fairly quickly. If im sitting in my fancy T2 battleship and I get attacked by a group of frigates then my fancy BS and 45mil skill points will amount to nothing, if you add a 1 month old char in a blackbird to that then im completely screwed. I'm more affraid of that 1 month old pilot in the Blackbird then would be a 5 year vet in a battleship.
2. Honestly its all pvp. Whether your shooting it out over space or underbidding on the market.
3. Not exactly. You have Highsec (Empire), Lowsec and Nosec. Highsec is relativly safe because there is police intervention if you shoot/get shot at. Lowsec isn't safe although you do have some limited protection from sentry guns on gates and stations. Pirats mostly hang out in lowsec. Nosec is the 'free-for-all' space. This is where the major alliances fight it out for control over space.
4. IMO its always improving. I've played Eve since July '03 and Every expansion has added a bit more to the game.
5. The only grind in Eve is the money grind but you can past the grind by doing market trading, salvaging, invention or other types of manufacturing.
I would like to expand the answers given on the skill-point issue. Essentially what the previous posters have said is true. As far as combat goes, there are "support" skills that you really don't need to get to level V, and there are skills you'll need to open up ships. An older character can most likely fly more ships but he will not necessarily be more effective in doing so. And even if he is, the difference will be limited to a few percentage points.
I am taking a break from the game at the moment but I played for more than a year now and when I started, "catching up" seemed to be an impossible task. Right now I am in a 0.0 alliance (territorial warfare zone), and have gone head to head against 3+ year characters in small and large scale battles.
The skill progression in terms of combat as far as i see it goes like this:
1st month: Tackler (Keeping other ships in place), ewar (Generally being a nuisance to the enemy by using electronic warfare abilities such as breaking their locks or decreasing their range) Unfortunately learning skills still remain (And I highly recommend that you get them to a respectable level) so you have to stick to ships that do not require much SP.
3rd month: Tech II fitted cruisers / battlecruisers. Much better at money making, some very enjoyable low-size battles are done using these ships
4th or 5th month: Tech II large guns. A very reasonably fit battleship, which is practically the cornerstone of any large scale fleet. At this point, you are no different then the next guy.
After that you can simply go for any tech II ship. These usually involve nanoing up (making very fast ships to avoid capture and do hit and run tactics) and I'd recommend at least getting into an interceptor or "luxury accessory" such as tech II heavy drones etc that you like. Or you can simply work on your support skills.
Of course you can do these in any order you like, you can go for a tech II ship before large tech II guns or train more then one race. But as you can see, getting to the same level as the average Joe in the savage pvp area of the game, 0.0, is really not that difficult.
PS. I am not in anyway contending that 0.0 is some kind of an end-game, all areas can get you the pvp rush that you need. Low-sec areas where there is some police but not much is amazingly fun for example. Also, this is just an overview of combat and there are many other career paths out there.
See my post here for a detailed response to this.
Here is a relatively old post I wrote regarding how to set up your learning skills... it may be outdated but I really don't have the patience to re-create the wheel. It should be more than adequate to get you pointed in the right direction though.
This is a thread that had a lot of good discussion about how newer players can compete in PVP fairly quickly. It turned into a bit of a flame war but there are lots of good posts in it.
Mmm lots of people really enjoy mining, some love doing missions and some absolutely LIVE to play the market in game. It really all depends on what you're into. For me anything but PVP is just a way to make money so that I can keep PVP'ing
Not "totally". You CAN attack anyone, anywhere, at any time, but in any area that is .5 or higher security status you will get attacked by Concord (the cops) and killed if you attack someone. In 0.4 to 0.1 you can attack other players but if you attack near a station or gate the sentry guns will fire at you and, unless you are in a very well tanked ship you will get blown up by them. In 0.0 it's pretty much anything goes, though most of 0.0 is owned by various player corporations and/or alliances.
Mmmm.... I think the game itself is improving though performance has gotten a bit worse over time as player population and crowding is slowly outstripping the technology. As long as you stay in less crowded systems you won't see much lag however. Overall the game has improved year after year imo. The only 'downward' trend it has is lag... which they are constantly working to get ahead of. Hopefully eventually they'll have the technology and programming languages necessary to eliminate it.
Lag is, continues to be, and probably always will be the #1 complaint in the game. But, as I said, as long as you avoid over-crowded areas you won't run into it much. Other than those areas the only time you really see lots of lag is in huge fleet battles.
MMM well with warp-to-0 in the game for the past couple years now anyone spending 85% of their time getting to a jump-point is doing something wrong
As to the game itself? The only "grind" I have ever experienced is the need to keep making enough isk to fund my combat losses. Thankfully I'm one of those fortunate enough to not loose too many ships in combat very often so keeping ahead of the ISK curve has been easy for me. But there is definitely a bit of a 'money grind' at the higher end of the game. There are many ways to mitigate it but they all take various ammts of time. Depends on what interests you as to how you choose to tackle it. I will be the first to admit that I'm no genius at making isk. There are those who make billions in a week, personally I make about 300-400 million in a week and consider that an awesome income others find it hard to make 100 million in a week.... it all depends on you, how you go about making money, etc.
From what I have gathered in the game, though I have never really done it myself, the REAL money in EVE is in playing the market and in production/trade.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Asking EVE players do they grind you will get different responses we cant answer that directly. EVE is "grey" in almost all areas. It is open pvp, but not open pvp. Eve can be a grind, but it is not a Grind for some. You will never catch up, but you might surpass
My corpie is a 2 year vet with over 30+ skills at Level V and all that meant squat when he got ganked by a newbie other day while he was out mining...
IMHO it's how you approach the game. If you want to grind away at rats/missions feel free. If you want to do different activities each day/hour you can do so as well. There is no rush to get anywhere fast in EVE because EVE allows you to plan your goals at your own pace. There are no mega raids that will become absolute and there is no "gogogogogogo level up" mentality to get into that "ub3r" raiding guild with limit raid spots. Everything you want to do can be accomplish with patience, planning and time.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
1. Yes. Eve is not all about skills but also strategy, fitting and experience.
2. I find the economy good fun to play with via trading and industry.
3. Yes, but if you attack someone in high security space watch the police ships kick your ass without an official war.
4. The game is becoming more complex and diverse as time goes on which is keeping me interested for 5 years and I am still learning stuff.
5. Of all the MMORPG Eve has the least grind of any. In fact, if your clever, you wont ever have to grind. If your travelling lots of systems all the time then ask yourself, 'why', your probably doing something wrong.