1 year in - EVE PVP Review

Virtually all PVP in EVE is 20 vs 1. You may be on either side of that equation, but the result is the same: boredom.

Lets examine the 2 most common scenarios;

1. A Caracal stumbles into a belt in low sec to engage a pirate, the pirates 20 friends are already warping in to save the day.

2. A Ibis jumps into a system to find himself in a gate camp where 20 T2 neutrals are all spamming the 100 mil SP "I Win" button at the same time, desperately tring to to get _any_ kill mail.

People that play this game for PvP are so starved for action that they can only horde around whatever tiny ship happens to jump in. They attack like a pack of wolves that haven't eaten in weeks. And then rejoice in their 20 vs 1 win against a defenseless cruiser as if there was any possibility of failure.

What a colossal bore.

But how do you feel about it? When you are in the 20 man gank squad spending hours looking for a shuttle to 1 shot? Is that a worth while use of your time? Really?

well guess you never joined a corp and had some big fleet battles your 1 year was wasted sorry to tell ya

I've been in quite a few other scenario's that you've seemed to miss.

Shame really.

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Originally posted by windstrike1
 
Virtually all PVP in EVE is 20 vs 1. You may be on either side of that equation, but the result is the same: boredom.
 

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2 years in and I'm not bored, am I doing it wrong?

this is what pvp is like when you are not in a corp.

when you are in a good null sec corp.....a whole new world opens up for ya

Most of my kills are solo and in small ships (cruisers and frigs).  I do just fine, since my corp moved out of Black Rise I've been doing better than ever, actually.

You describe what pvp is like when you're alone - truly alone, as in no intel channels, no blues, no scouts, no nothing.  While some people can do that, that's way too hardcore, even for me :P.  This game is in no way, shape, or form balanced around solo play and nobody is going to save you from the consequences of your own poor decisions.  The people in those camps face risks as well - mostly that a gate camp is hugely vulnerable to a good roaming gang, regardless of how big it is, simply because it's at a static location and such encounters generally favor the attacker (POS warfare excepted, of course) because the attacker can dictate the terms.

Now, I hate jumping into a 20 man gate camp as much as the next guy but one thing I've learned is that no lowsec camp is inescapable - you can always get away if you're practiced and prepared.

Originally posted by miagisan

this is what pvp is like when you are not in a corp.

when you are in a good null sec corp.....a whole new world opens up for ya

tbh any corp. EVE isnt all about 0.0.

@OP: i run into alot of instances like you described, although not to the scale of 20v1. Just 20 minutes ago i jumped into a belt with 3 people, hoping they would attack (they were neuts, i didnt feel like taking a sec hit) since 2 of them were part of a pirate corp, unfortunetly they didnt engage. My guess is that they wanted 4v1 or 5v1 before deciding to engage. The majority of people nowadays are so scared that there is a blob on the other side of a gate or that the enemy ship will tear up the scared pilot and his 2 other friends that they wont bother to engage unless they have obscene odds. As for gatecamps, any gatecamp that is there just for the sake of KMs and not serving a purpose such as asset denial or blockading systems, are full of lazy people that dont feel like roaming to find a kill. Lowsec has a ton of them and they are done mostly by "wanna-be pirates", i cant comment on high-sec or null-sec as i havent spent too much time in pvp situations in either area.

Yeah this really isn't a solo game. WoW might be your cup of tea if that what you looking for. Since there is nothing at stake- you'll see a noob charge into to fight a bunch of people solo

Is this bravery? meh, of a sort. But whats more impressive is seeing that lone non-FOTM HAC pilot with hundreds of millions at stake deep in enemy terriority

Theres so many other situations you left out. But you do accurately describe some situations.

missing option:

false. you fail.

which is a shame, because apart from that it seems like a totally unbiased poll.

Actually where EvE does accommodate the solo player is that if you stumble upon 20  pirate ships you can usually get yourself out of trouble in an unfair fight....then you can find a more suitable fight.

 But

I ve personally seen a Lone Wolf pick apart a fleet of ships by kiting with a fast ship, drones, and long range weapons.  He would pull them one by one from the fleet-those who were dumb enough to give chase got hammered (even though the FC distinctly told people to ignore him) one or 2 at a time.

There are solo players who do very well against fleets if they have the trainable skills and knowledge of (all) ships and their capabilities.

/shrug

Game is not for everyone.   Good luck in your next game.  

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Originally posted by Blackwell99
I ve personally seen a Lone Wolf pick apart a fleet of ships by kiting with a fast ship, drones, and long range weapons.

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Which is always damn fun, i can assure you. Done it myself in a Punisher vs. Domi, Mega, Myrm and Rifter. I was 100k away from them, nuked the rifter when it cam close, and they couldn't warp on me. Then i got the hell out.

But what's really fun is a good ol' slugfest like this.

There is a 'I fail at EVE like OP' option missing in the poll...

I've been in three 1v1 fights  and a 2v3 so far today, maybe you shouldn't engage in a system with 30+ people in it?

Originally posted by brutotal

I've been in three 1v1 fights  and a 2v3 so far today, maybe you shouldn't engage in a system with 30+ people in it?

 

This is exactly the problem. The enemy will jump to random safe point as soon I enter the system unless they have a 20 people in system to back them up. Its ridiculous. The pansies playing this game will never consider engaging unless they have overwhelming odds in their favor. If they have only 3 vs me, they run before they even see that I'm flying a cruiser that they could /pwn easily. Its pathetic.

As for this idea of losing something in Eve, the ISK costs $1 per 20 million ISK via PLEX. If your allowance can't afford to lose a crow, then fly a cruiser and stop being a pussy.

That being said, I have had those 3v1's where they didn't run away and we fought to the death. And thats cool. Just wish more people had the balls to risk 25 cents in an EVE fight.

Originally posted by windstrike1

Originally posted by brutotal

I've been in three 1v1 fights  and a 2v3 so far today, maybe you shouldn't engage in a system with 30+ people in it?

 

 

 

This is exactly the problem. The enemy will jump to random safe point as soon I enter the system unless they have a 20 people in system to back them up. Its ridiculous. The pansies playing this game will never consider engaging unless they have overwhelming odds in their favor. If they have only 3 vs me, they run before they even see that I'm flying a cruiser that they could /pwn easily. Its pathetic.

 

As for this idea of losing something in Eve, the ISK costs $1 per 20 million ISK via PLEX. If your allowance can't afford to lose a crow, then fly a cruiser and stop being a pussy.

 

That being said, I have had those 3v1's where they didn't run away and we fought to the death. And thats cool. Just wish more people had the balls to risk 25 cents in an EVE fight.

A common tactic gangs use is to send in a heavily tanked bait ship to get the target to aggress. When this occurs the rest of gang jumps in and kills the would-be-predator

Another tactic is to send in one lone tackler to lock down the prey then rest of gang jumps in

A lot of people in EVE are pretty paranoid and will not engage w/o superior numbers or intel

Originally posted by PatchDay

A common tactic gangs use is to send in a heavily tanked bait ship to get the target to aggress. When this occurs the rest of gang jumps in and kills the would-be-predator

Another tactic is to send in one lone tackler to lock down the prey then rest of gang jumps in

A lot of people in EVE are pretty paranoid and will not engage w/o superior numbers or intel

Its a major flaw in the game design.  The game insists you either run away immedietly, or accept that you will probably be killed.  If you just hang in there and start fighting, waiting to see what happens, you'll be warp jamed and zerged. 

I just fly cheap crap ships and fight to the death with whatever i run into.  I almost always lose because of this.  But its a lot more fun that playing hide and seek for hours on end.

Yeah you have to be really careful. Other day an interceptor was flying around our system so I thought maybe I could get a 1v1 with him. Luckily I didnt catch him then because it turned out he had other friends a few jumps over.

I mostly just stick to fleet stuff myself and we're usually outnumbered pretty bad but its great fun when you pull off some kills

Trying to do PvP solo in this game is going to lead to mostly aggravation.  Not that its impossible, it just requires lots of intelligent decisions, being very observant, always having a plan, and tons of patience.

Anyway, your not playing the game the way its meant to be played.  But yeah, if you expect to roll around in Eve solo and get fair fights you're bound to be disappointed.

Honestly, you're doing it wrong. Seriously.

Flying alone is like going into any prison, telling every prisoner off, and hoping to get out alive. While a prisoner might kill you, and then be killed afterwards - it'll be worth it to that one prisoner.

You can easily find 1v1 in Eve, if you look the right places - if you go to 0.0, expecting 1v1, you're doing it wrong. In Eve, if you don't expect fifty people on your opponents team, you're either doing it wrong, or you're in the wrong place.

I 1v1 regularily, and it's nice. But it's not what I expect when I go into a fight. I always expect my opponent to have backup - and so do I. If my opponent doesn't have backup, well, I'll call in my own if I'm loosing. And that's how it's like in any real fight as well - if you ask me.

You don't go into hostile territory, unless you're sure you can do something to them. If you're surpised, you run. If you surprise them, you call in backup.

There's no reason in engaging in a lost battle.

Why would you play a MMO by yourself?

Hell, even a casual newb like myself found a corp/Alliance that I could do some small roaming gang pvp with.

Originally posted by JGMIII

Why would you play a MMO by yourself?

Hell, even a casual newb like myself found a corp/Alliance that I could do some small roaming gang pvp with.

 

Because like I said in the OP... Roaming around for an hour or two just to zerg a shuttle at a warp gate is not worth my time.

Originally posted by kattehus

 

Flying alone is like going into any prison, telling every prisoner off, and hoping to get out alive. While a prisoner might kill you, and then be killed afterwards - it'll be worth it to that one prisoner.

i fly solo alot, and get alot of kills. Maybe if you relied more on your skills instead of the numbers you have (depending on the engagement ofc), you wouldnt have this same outlook.

 

I 1v1 regularily, and it's nice. But it's not what I expect when I go into a fight. I always expect my opponent to have backup - and so do I. If my opponent doesn't have backup, well, I'll call in my own if I'm loosing. And that's how it's like in any real fight as well - if you ask me.

i hope this isnt an admittance to dishonoring 1v1's regularly.

 

 

There's no reason in engaging in a lost battle.

except to have fun. I go in to battles where the odds are against me and lately, i've been winning ... alot.... Learn to play the game to have fun, instead of alphaing everything in  a 30 man fleet.

 

broken outlooks on eve are broken. You can solo just fine, albeit maybe not in 0.0 that much, but in low sec sure. The great thing about soloing is chosing your battles and not haveing 10 other people slow you down. And dishonoring 1v1's just because you're losing is a pathetic excuse to dishonor a 1v1. Dont fly what you cant afford to lose.

The thing about EVE and its pvp is that it mirrors reality in many regards....

It's all about tricks, traps, maneuver and intelligence.  I've *chased* 4-5 pirates in better ships multiple jumps back to thier base because the group I flew with had a reputation for always having backup around....that one time I was solo and laughing my ass off the whole way..but they had no way of knowing. I've spent hours playig cat and mouse in a recon cruiser trying to get precise enemy numbers and ship types while two fleets maneuvered. I've made good calls as a Fleet Commander and a few bad ones that stung rather a lot.

But the bottom line is most people don't like to lose; so unless they are out in a "lolz pvp" ship and clone, they don't take many risks.

PS We never agree to 1vs1 A) because we assume the other side will cheat anyways and B) because there is nothing in it for us when we have the numbers

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Originally posted by windstrike1
Its a major flaw in the game design.  The game insists you either run away immedietly, or accept that you will probably be killed.

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Flaw in game design? How?

Note:
After reading the posts here, seems like many people would enjoy nanos back, hehe :-)