Thinking about starting Eve Online

aedan · May 2005

Im thinking about starting eve online and i would like to know the good and the bad, and what happens when you die.

Lanmoragon · May 2005

Well there are many good things about it, among them:
1) Extremely long levitivity. If you are looking to play a game for years and really grow your character than this is for you.
2) Excellent graphics, some of the best I have seen. Although this game isnt the newest thing out there, dont let that fool you into thinking the graphics are not up to par.
3) If you are looking to get away from the typical hack and slash fantasy MMO, then this is for you. I admit, the learning curve is huge, but thats a good thing because it lessens the repetitive-ness that most games have now-a-days. You are always learning something new.
4) The most open ended skill system I have seen in a game. You can do anything you want; the game dev's have left it open for you to decide what to do. You can be in a PvP corp fighting for control of certain areas of space alongside your alliance mates. You can become a pirate(though this is a tough way to make your living). You can become a miner(to many people this is very boring, but some like it). You can become a trader, looking for cheap resources and goods and selling them for huge profits in other systems.

I am sure I have missed some of the good things, so wait for some more replies.

The Bad:
1) This game is not for everybody. Many find it boring and cannot get into it.
2) Traveling around in the game can take a LONG time depending on what ship you are flying and how far you have to go.
3) The skill system isnt like other games. You pick a skill to train and then it trains up whether you are online or not. The bad thing about this is when training a skill from rank 4-5 it can take a VERY long time, as in 18 days or so.

As you can see the good outweigh the bad, but if you cant stand a game that takes a while to get into, then this might not be for you. Give it a try though, there is a free 7 day trial on these forums and I believe there is still a 14 day trial going on, not sure though.

Lanmoragon · May 2005

Forgot to add what happens when you die. There can be alot of risk involved in death. There are different security zones in EVE online, ranging from 1.0 sec space in which its the safest part to fly in because if you attack somebody the Concord police come after you. The lowest security of space is 0.0 there are virtually no laws. Anything can happen and anything goes.

A good tip is if you get a new ship, always buy insurance. Anything can happen at any time, regardless of what security you are in, so its better to be safe then sorry. Dont let the risk involved put you off of the game. It makes for alot more interesting of a game than those that you die and just run back to get your corpse. Having risk involved when you go into PvP makes it alot more fun, as you have to plan out your attacks and use actual tactics.

As to what happens when your ship blows up, you get podded. Somebody else will have to explain this because I have only been playing for 2 1/2 months and have yet to be blown up. Good luck.

dakilla666 · May 2005

When you "die" as in, your ship blows up, you get sent into your pod. Pod's have instant acceleration and are hard to lock onto so are extremely difficult to kill BUT ...

If you get killed in your pod, we say you got "podded". When this happens, you are sent back to the cloning station. What this means is:

1) ALL implants you had are now gone, yeah, they get blasted right out of your skull. Heh, thought it was bad when your ship blew up, there goes everything else you had.

2) A picture of your brainwaves at the moment of death is sent to your cloning station and is integrated into your new self. Since clones vary in quality, this can mean a direct hit to your skill points. This can be avoided by simply keeping a clone which covers MORE skill points than you have total. So, if you have say 4,000,000 skill points, make sure you have a clone of more than 4,000,000 skill points. If you have a 3.2M SP clone, when you get "reactivated", you will receive a letter informing you that whatever skills we're in the 0.8M SP's not covered, have now been "forgotten". That means, you just lost skill points because you were lazy and cheap (clones aren't expensive).

Once that is over, it is time to replace what you have lost. Your clone (after reactivation) is reset to basic clone (32,000 SP?) so, re-upgrade incase you get podded in the near future (especialy if you are at war).
Get yourself back into a ship and start mining/mission running/pirating to your hearts content.

Hope I covered everything, not very fun to die (unless you wanted to) ... pod travelling is the fastest way to travel in the game (expensive but MAN is it fast).

aedan · May 2005

Thanks and i would like to know what anyone who plays or has played Eve online still not sure if i should start this game, and i cant find it in any stores, do you have to download it of the net, any replies would be greatly appreciated.

Lanmoragon · May 2005

Yep you have to purchase it online. I do recommend that you try the free trial, just to make sure that you like the game. If you do like it, it will cost $20 to create an account and then the monthly fee is the normal $15.

dakilla666 · May 2005

Yeah, the 2 week free trial is really worth trying (don't even need a CC number) and on top of it, if you like the game, you can continue with the character(s) you were using from the trial.

The game price to buy is $19.95 USD, this includes 1 month of service, so, it isn't that expensive. If you purchase game cards (available at alot of game stores), it comes out to $14.95/month I believe, same for purchasing 1 month at a time from CCP's online store. Myself, I purchase the game in 3 month blocks for $38.85 or $12.95/month, which is fairly inexpensive compared to some of the MMO's on the market. And since this is done through CCP, no pesky middle man fees *cough* PayPal *cough*.

When you consider that price includes all updates and expansions done to the server (no addiontional fees for them at all) I believe EVE is well worth the time and money.

BigCountry · May 2005

Started the game this weekend. The open PvP and loot tempted me to try it (plus it was ranked 3 via the Game List). Yes I am a PK at heart..

GREAT game. I played it all weekend - even got 2 of my friends playing it atm. We are all on the 14 day trial - but will prob subscribe once it is up.

It's a little scarry at first - kinda slow, this is a THICK game (tons of content). But once you figure out the basics it becomes really fun.

baldmanpuke · May 2005

Originally posted by aedan

Thanks and i would like to know what anyone who plays or has played Eve online still not sure if i should start this game, and i cant find it in any stores, do you have to download it of the net, any replies would be greatly appreciated.

I started the free 14day trial a week ago, and I am having a blast. (Go to eve-online.com and download the game, then register an account).

A couple pieces of advice from a noob in his first week; one, get the feel for the game in your noob ship before upgrading. Start training skills immediately, and keep buying new ones. Mine ore and run agent missions for ISK. Once you have ISK and skills, upgrade your ship to whatever you can afford and suits your race/style. THEN upgrade your clone and insure your ship.

Second, some of the missions involve jumping through several systems, which can be boring. The tempation is to put the ship on auto-pilot and go AFK. Oops! My second day, I had just upgraded to a Minmatar Probe; I went auto on a mission, and took a break for no more than 2min. I came back to find myself at my original home base in my clone. Found out that the Mafia had podded me in a 0.4 sector. Luckily, I had upgraded my clone and insured the ship.

I admit I still go auto and AFK, but only in 0.7 and higher security sectors. The bad people are in 0.4 and below space - make sure you are paying attention when you hit these sectors. Good luck!

dakilla666 · May 2005

You are completely safe in 0.5 systems and above, if someone as much as opens fire on you (dosen't even have to hit you), this includes using ANY eletronic warfare modules on you, the police will show up, scramble and jam him. So, odds of getting blown up are really low since the person that attacks you will lose a ton of security standings and his ship. In 0.4, your reasonably safe at gates but, the police will not show up in belts and planets, well, they don't travel at all in fact, they just sort of orbit a single gate and fire on anything questionable hehe.

But yeah, don't worry yourself in 0.5 and above, it is just as safe as 1.0 space, it's when you hit 0.4, you gotta make sure you don't make yourself look like a juicy target (i.e. Moving Really Slowly in a Hauler). There is always the chance of getting attacked by a group of suicide caracel or kestrel pilots, but, that generally dosen't happen unless you really piss someone off.

baldmanpuke · May 2005

Originally posted by dakilla666

You are completely safe in 0.5 systems and above, if someone as much as opens fire on you (dosen't even have to hit you), this includes using ANY eletronic warfare modules on you, the police will show up, scramble and jam him. So, odds of getting blown up are really low since the person that attacks you will lose a ton of security standings and his ship. In 0.4, your reasonably safe at gates but, the police will not show up in belts and planets, well, they don't travel at all in fact, they just sort of orbit a single gate and fire on anything questionable hehe.
But yeah, don't worry yourself in 0.5 and above, it is just as safe as 1.0 space, it's when you hit 0.4, you gotta make sure you don't make yourself look like a juicy target (i.e. Moving Really Slowly in a Hauler). There is always the chance of getting attacked by a group of suicide caracel or kestrel pilots, but, that generally dosen't happen unless you really piss someone off.

Couple others useful tips for (and from) a noob; when running missions on autopilot, use the map to tell you what systems you will be running through. It will list the security level for each system. Also, the map can be set up to list how many ships/pods have been destroyed in the last 1hr or 24hr. If I had used this before going to the system where I was podded, I would have seen that there had been 20 ships destroyed there in the last hour. There are definitely gangs who set up near gates in < 0.4 systems and gank people as they come through.

P.S. One of the leading systems in ships destroyed yesterday was Rens, and it is a 0.9 sytem. Don't know why.

xEntriq · May 2005

Yeah, I think you should start Eve-online. I've been playing for 8 months now. It's a very, very great game if you're a fan of Space Sci-fi!

And if you would like some help starting off, like mining, running missions, hauling let me know, okay? Because I usually have time to burn and such. Add me ingame - 'xEntriq'

And yeah, for anybody else who'd like some help getting stabilized in Eve-online when starting off, let me know! Just make sure you're on a paying account, because I really don't help people if they're on the trial... I might be wasting my valueble time. :P

MrPopov · June 2005

Rens usually has a lot of ships destroyed for a few reasons:

Firstly a lot of people run high-level agent missions which are rather difficult, resulting in ships destroyed by NPCs.

Secondly, since a lot of people run high-level agent missions there, it creates a good market, which increases the amount of traffic, which increases the chance of two pilots from warring corporations to run into each other resulting in fierce combat between their corporations. Sometimes you undock to find yourself in the middle of a corporation war.

Fly safe and have fun.

woeba · June 2005

Let me guess: The system where your ship was destroyed was Egghelende, Sinq Laison Region ::::02::
I have to get through that system about 5 times a week, and got several scratches from the player-pirates there.
As said: As long as you are not a very advanced player, the death penalty in EVE is very low. Clones are cheap, and ships can be insured. What you can loose are the modules, which you fittet into your ship. But as long as you stick to Tech level I items (standart), the loss of modules is not much of a problem. Most player-corps even supply their members with all Tech level I modules for free.
About flying AFK: I play now over two years, and i trade a lot with one of my characters. As long as you stay in Systems with security >=0.5 (the autopilot can be configured to do so) yu are imho safe. I have never been shot while traveling AFK. But remember: if you corp has an official war with another corp, they can shoot you everywhere.

Great game.

baldmanpuke · June 2005

Originally posted by woeba

Let me guess: The system where your ship was destroyed was Egghelende, Sinq Laison Region
I have to get through that system about 5 times a week, and got several scratches from the player-pirates there.
As said: As long as you are not a very advanced player, the death penalty in EVE is very low. Clones are cheap, and ships can be insured. What you can loose are the modules, which you fittet into your ship. But as long as you stick to Tech level I items (standart), the loss of modules is not much of a problem. Most player-corps even supply their members with all Tech level I modules for free.
About flying AFK: I play now over two years, and i trade a lot with one of my characters. As long as you stay in Systems with security >=0.5 (the autopilot can be configured to do so) yu are imho safe. I have never been shot while traveling AFK. But remember: if you corp has an official war with another corp, they can shoot you everywhere.
Great game.

Actually, I was podded in the Amamake system im Minmatar space. I have been there several times since on missions, and have seen -5 pirates every time. If you check the map the Amamake system is always one of the leaders in ships destroyed - it must be the favorite local ganker hangout.

Knightblast · June 2005

Actually, I was podded in the Amamake system im Minmatar space. I have been there several times since on missions, and have seen -5 pirates every time. If you check the map the Amamake system is always one of the leaders in ships destroyed - it must be the favorite local ganker hangout.

Yes it's been a notorious pirate hangout for quite some time, as far as I can remember. Pirates like to go there and gank relatively n00b pilots b/c it is not that far from "downtown" Matari space, and yet is low-ish security. Best to avoid it unless it looks very quiet.

Knightblast · June 2005

which increases the chance of two pilots from warring corporations to run into each other resulting in fierce combat between their corporations. Sometimes you undock to find yourself in the middle of a corporation war.

Yes, corps engaged in empire wars (ie, CONCORD sanctioned wars) will often engage each other in popular systems because they can be present there in significant numbers without being noticed on the map (looking at the map for number of pilots in Rens or Niyabeinen or Yulai is fairly pointless), which makes them the perfect locale for war ganking at gates and stations.
::::40::

magik_fx · June 2005

Originally posted by Novaseeker
which increases the chance of two pilots from warring corporations to run into each other resulting in fierce combat between their corporations. Sometimes you undock to find yourself in the middle of a corporation war.

Yes, corps engaged in empire wars (ie, CONCORD sanctioned wars) will often engage each other in popular systems because they can be present there in significant numbers without being noticed on the map (looking at the map for number of pilots in Rens or Niyabeinen or Yulai is fairly pointless), which makes them the perfect locale for war ganking at gates and stations.
::::40::

Plus its good for the scavenging newbies in the system - woo free modules for everyone!

Drakolus · June 2005

(the care-bear chimes in)

Also you can do some other things instead of constant combat. There is mining, trading, transporting and limited crafting (its kind of a challenge to be able to do this though, research slots are a bit rare). I tend to stick with the mining and I occasionally run agent missions (npc generated kill/transport/mine missions).

Depending on what you enjoy you can stick to the populated systems and enjoy the company or with 1-10 jumps you can usually find a pretty quiet (pocket) system to mine or hunt rats (npc pirates) to your hearts content. If you so desire, go to www.eve-online.com and check out the forums and guides. There is a lot of good information there for the taking. One of the best things about Eve imo is its a low bandwidth game. Even with the good graphics and a heavy player load it rarely bogs down on my system. The only time I regularly hear about lag is during medium to large fleet engagements when missiles, drones and lasers and bullets are flying every which way to sunday.

I hope you continue to enjoy Eve and maybe I will see you there...I will probably be the guy in the big fat ship greedily eating rocks in an asteroid field.

P.S. Talking about eve and not playing eve is my personal torture. I really hate being at work.

magik_fx · June 2005

Originally posted by Drakolus
(the care-bear chimes in)
Also you can do some other things instead of constant combat. There is mining, trading, transporting and limited crafting (its kind of a challenge to be able to do this though, research slots are a bit rare). I tend to stick with the mining and I occasionally run agent missions (npc generated kill/transport/mine missions).
Depending on what you enjoy you can stick to the populated systems and enjoy the company or with 1-10 jumps you can usually find a pretty quiet (pocket) system to mine or hunt rats (npc pirates) to your hearts content. If you so desire, go to www.eve-online.com and check out the forums and guides. There is a lot of good information there for the taking. One of the best things about Eve imo is its a low bandwidth game. Even with the good graphics and a heavy player load it rarely bogs down on my system. The only time I regularly hear about lag is during medium to large fleet engagements when missiles, drones and lasers and bullets are flying every which way to sunday.
I hope you continue to enjoy Eve and maybe I will see you there...I will probably be the guy in the big fat ship greedily eating rocks in an asteroid field.
P.S. Talking about eve and not playing eve is my personal torture. I really hate being at work.

Good post, just wanted to point out that nearly every station i've been in with research facilities have open slots these days. I may just be lucky but the last 2 stations i stopped in with labs had 5-10 open slots. Granted they weren't in Yulai, but were in secure space.

pistolier · June 2005

all i can say is that it is definitly worth it.

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