EVE Online

Originally posted by n00bit

 

At this point in the game, is it possible to catch up to other players in terms of upgrade and level(do they even have levels)?

Yes mostly, you will be able to fly ships just as well as a vet with a little time, just not as many as well as them.  I've played for 2 1/2 years now and I feel like I can go toe to toe with anybody regardless of how much longer they have played than me.

How does the PvP work...turn based, twitch, a mix?

Think naval combat, range, fire control, speed are what is important, not like flying a plane or wing commander.

I've heard a lot about being able to train abilities offline, how does that work?

Skills are time based, set to learn a skill and X amount of time later it is completed.

Once I reach the max level, or the peak of my upgrading, what is there to do?

Will not happen.

How long will I have to play before I can start contributing to the community through PvP or crafting/gathering?

A day or so.

Is it true that the GMs are corrupt and favor certain guilds?

Not in my opinion, and I have played a while.  There have been isolated incidents but steps have been taken to prevent this in the future.

That's all I can really think of at the moment; I'd appreciate any input from honest players. I'd rather not have a fanboi come into the thread and tell me that god himself created the game =).

Originally posted by ventcg

Far enough off the mark?

Let me see, I said that you will never reach the max level while you were still interested in the game....ok you said 50+ years to reach the max level, how was that wrong?

I said you will never catch up to someone who has been playing since release....you concur with that.

My reference about the corps was correct in MY point of view, which is how I wrote the original response.  Just because you got lucky and found a corp that works together, doesn't make your point of view more accurate.

How is that wrong? Clearly, I suppose you are correct, I could have read your original post to mean that "you'll get bored of playing eve way before you cap out because it will take 50 years."

However, you and I both know that's not what you implied. Your post was articulated in such a way as to imply that eve was boring, and since some skills at "end game" take 60 days or more to train, you'll leave before then.

And no that wasn't how you wrote you original post. You were generalizing EVE from your point of view perhaps. However, when you generalize the whole game instead of expressly saying "other people really like it, and have a different opinion than me" you are asserting that your "point of view" is the objective "how it is" of EVE online.

Originally posted by n00bit

I've heard a lot about it over the past years, both good and bad. I tried out the trial a while back and cried a little when my first quest was to mine some ore. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy gathering resources and crafting, but it just didn't seem like the first thing I wanted to do when I floated out into space. I uninstalled it after that quest, deciding that the quest had personally insulted me. Anyways, here I am again thinking about trying it out and actually giving it a decent shot this time. Before I do, I've come to he forums to ask if its worth starting at this point. A few things I'd like to ask:

 

At this point in the game, is it possible to catch up to other players in terms of upgrade and level(do they even have levels)?

How does the PvP work...turn based, twitch, a mix?

I've heard a lot about being able to train abilities offline, how does that work?

Once I reach the max level, or the peak of my upgrading, what is there to do?

How long will I have to play before I can start contributing to the community through PvP or crafting/gathering?

Is it true that the GMs are corrupt and favor certain guilds?

That's all I can really think of at the moment; I'd appreciate any input from honest players. I'd rather not have a fanboi come into the thread and tell me that god himself created the game =).

I can sum it up very simply for you.I'm not here to try and turn players away from the game, but i do like people to know the real truth before spending there money.The basis of the game is to fight ship vs ship.The graphics during the fight sequences are extremely weak.Like most games that have been around you can go straight out and buy the best upgrades and ship through RMT.The skillset IMO is again very weak,it offers no real USER skill but just click some skills you want raised and they auto start to upgrade over set times depending on the skill.Docking into stations,really isn't like docking,it's merely a screen that gives you a few choices.

So if you consider user thinking[wich skillsets to rise]as a great skill agenda and don't mind very weak graphic battles,then you might like the game.I found travel[distant travel]very hard to figure out as a noob,you got all the constelations linking to other constellations and hundreds of galaxies and planets to try and remember where each is.There is some kind of system that allows you to auto pilot, but been quite awhile since i played so i can't explain it that well,but auto piloting IMO ,why bother to play if that's what you gonna do.I am sure most do auto piloting because travel becomes boring very early in your noob game.

I think EVE and it's ideas had/have a lot of potential,but the game is very old looking and needs to be re done but with modern code and graphics,basically make it a game that plays like a modern game.

Originally posted by binjuice

Can we stop kicking the bloody horse...?

Yes a CCP GM got caught cheating, yes it happened. But you name me ONE MMO  where a GM hasn't cheated, and thats ever in the life of the game. Its bound to happen and so, why discuss something that has no relation now? Look, your going to find that theres a little bit of favouratism here and there but thats life, CCP employees are allowed to play the game they make, so it was bound to happen sooner or later. The only reason it became a BIG issue is because the CEO was away at the time and the senior management mis-handled the situation letting an incident that should have been easily dealt with turn into something large and stupid.

And to be straight forward about it, the cheating didn't effect ANYONE, and in relevance to the game that we play now, has no possible effect. So don't let anyone throw you off from playing because of the T20 incident. BTW, to the guy mentioning trying to post the topic on the CCP forums, its gets banned and locked because it is slotted as "trolling and abusive" why? Because it is no longer a topic in need of discussion and all that a thread would achieve would be a flame war between the die hard haters and lovers. And again, why kick a dead horse?

Try the game, best answer to all your questions OP, nothing else to it. The game is nothing like anything else out there for play style and UI and environment. You have to learn it and then decide. Good Luck

the horse would stop being kicked if apologists would stop watering down the facts by saying that it was only one tiny thing one time.

that is a total and complete lie and utter bs.

so, get off the train of "oh it was just one little thing that only affected an elf in kansas" and the people who actually took offense at the plethora of PROVEN, FACTUAL cheating which has occured over the years, won't yell and scream every time.

but you know, there's also a lot of people that believe there ARE wmd in iraq and that the bush administration hasn't totally pissed on the Geneva Conventions and that they AREN'T a bunch of war criminals waging illegal wars of aggression.

Originally posted by Wizardry

Originally posted by n00bit

I've heard a lot about it over the past years, both good and bad. I tried out the trial a while back and cried a little when my first quest was to mine some ore. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy gathering resources and crafting, but it just didn't seem like the first thing I wanted to do when I floated out into space. I uninstalled it after that quest, deciding that the quest had personally insulted me. Anyways, here I am again thinking about trying it out and actually giving it a decent shot this time. Before I do, I've come to he forums to ask if its worth starting at this point. A few things I'd like to ask:

 

At this point in the game, is it possible to catch up to other players in terms of upgrade and level(do they even have levels)?

How does the PvP work...turn based, twitch, a mix?

I've heard a lot about being able to train abilities offline, how does that work?

Once I reach the max level, or the peak of my upgrading, what is there to do?

How long will I have to play before I can start contributing to the community through PvP or crafting/gathering?

Is it true that the GMs are corrupt and favor certain guilds?

That's all I can really think of at the moment; I'd appreciate any input from honest players. I'd rather not have a fanboi come into the thread and tell me that god himself created the game =).

I can sum it up very simply for you.I'm not here to try and turn players away from the game, but i do like people to know the real truth before spending there money.The basis of the game is to fight ship vs ship.The graphics during the fight sequences are extremely weak.Like most games that have been around you can go straight out and buy the best upgrades and ship through RMT.The skillset IMO is again very weak,it offers no real USER skill but just click some skills you want raised and they auto start to upgrade over set times depending on the skill.Docking into stations,really isn't like docking,it's merely a screen that gives you a few choices.

So if you consider user thinking[wich skillsets to rise]as a great skill agenda and don't mind very weak graphic battles,then you might like the game.I found travel[distant travel]very hard to figure out as a noob,you got all the constelations linking to other constellations and hundreds of galaxies and planets to try and remember where each is.There is some kind of system that allows you to auto pilot, but been quite awhile since i played so i can't explain it that well,but auto piloting IMO ,why bother to play if that's what you gonna do.I am sure most do auto piloting because travel becomes boring very early in your noob game.

I think EVE and it's ideas had/have a lot of potential,but the game is very old looking and needs to be re done but with modern code and graphics,basically make it a game that plays like a modern game.

they did update the look of the graphics with trinity and are supposedly going to add humanoid avatars in the winter patch.  i tend to agree with your take on the fight graphics though.

having said that, sometimes picking a specialty ship and training for it, is what can make the game fun and exciting for someone. 

Originally posted by n00bit

At this point in the game, is it possible to catch up to other players in terms of upgrade and level(do they even have levels)?

In overall SP, no.. in specialized areas, yes.  Think of specializations as being kind of like 'classes' that overlap to varying degrees.   Some specs you can max quickly (such as tackling, a common rookie pvp specialization), some take over a year to do from scratch (cap ship pilots), most take 4-6 months or so.

How does the PvP work...turn based, twitch, a mix?

A mix.  Honestly, pvp combat in Eve is much more about preparation, recon, and execution of a plan than anything you do once the shooting starts.  PvP fights in Eve are, as a general, very one-sided - in a sense most fights are over before they start as the steep (but realistic) death penalty encourages people to only engage in fights they know they can win.  People only fight if they're prevented from fleeing an unfavorable encounter, or they're defending a stationary objective as part of a fleet (generally a POS) that's worth losing ships over.

All that said PvP in Eve is very fun, especially with the new factional warfare expansion.  PvP in Eve isn't about duels, honor, or fair fights - it's war and piracy - treat it like such you'll be successful, whether you're in a 0.0 fleet fight or just keeping ore thieves away from your can in highsec.

I've heard a lot about being able to train abilities offline, how does that work?

You earn skill points in real time whether you're logged in or not, at a rate that is determined by your characters attributes - not all of them though, just the two used by the skill.  This is also the only thing your character's attributes do, so don't sweat them too much.

Because of this, most people will suggest you prioritize training learning skills (which raise your attributes) as early as possible, as well as getting a good implant set to further increase your learning speed.

People either love or hate this feature - personally I love it since I have a demanding IRL job and I can't game for 12 hours a day, every day, just to keep up with my friends.  Others dislike it since they can't grind skills - no power leveling in Eve.  You can, however, grind all the ISK you like and in this game you need ISK since nothing you own has any permanancy and you'll need to be able to replace it all.

Once I reach the max level, or the peak of my upgrading, what is there to do?

There is no practical way to ever max your character's skills - with the game's current skill set it would take over twenty years to train them all to lv. 5.  Even the oldest, most trained player in Eve (who's over 5 years old, he was mentioned on a dev blog recently) can not possibly have more than 20% of max skills.

And the Ambulation expansion due out late this year (maybe eaprly next year, but probably this year) will add in a lot of new skills, which everyone will have to start from nothing if they want to participate in any meaningful way to the new content.

How long will I have to play before I can start contributing to the community through PvP or crafting/gathering?

Eve is really good about this - people in Eve are segregated by what they do, not by their SPs or how much ISK they have.   So if you decide to pvp, you can jump in a tackle frig on your first day (after you train Propulsion Jamming to level I) and fight right alongside battle-hardened, multi-year vets.  Same goes for mining, or trading, or even missioning.

Getting in a good corp that matches your playstyle is probably the most important thing you can do early on, after that you'll find that the fact that you might lack SPs won't really hold you back from contributing to the group.

Is it true that the GMs are corrupt and favor certain guilds?

There was one incidient a couple years ago, and the corporation involved has since fallen from power and is a mere shadow of their former selves.  And unless you participate in 0.0 stuff it's unlikely to have affected you even if you were there at the time.

That's all I can really think of at the moment; I'd appreciate any input from honest players. I'd rather not have a fanboi come into the thread and tell me that god himself created the game =).

The biggest things in Eve that people have a hard time adjusting to.. I know I did..

1. There is no 'progression' in Eve.  There is only a bunch of people doing what they think is fun.  There is no right way to play Eve - if you stay in highsec and run missions and that's what you do, that's fine.  If you decide to rob miners and steal mission salvage, that's fine.  If you band together with your friends and strike out to deep space to forge your own empire, that's fine, if you sit on gates in lowsec waiting to snipe solo faction warfare pilots, that's fine too.  Eve is about freedom - do the tutorial missions but don't become a slave to a talking NPC head or you'll miss 99% of what the game is about.
   
2. In relation to #1, Eve is all about competition.  If you mine, someone will eventually try to steal your ore.  If you steal ore, someone will try to bait you into a fight you can't win so they can loot your wreck and stroke their KB e-peen.  If you trade, others will try to outbid you, if you go hauling cargo through dangerous space, people will relieve you of it.  If you pirate, other pirates, or anti-pirates will come after you.  If you form a massive ISK-farming mining collective some pirate corp will see a bunch of soft targets and wardec you.  But you might hire some mercs and put them in the worse position.  Never forget that in Eve you will be opposed at every turn, even in the relative safety of highsec and even if there's no shooting involved.
   
3. In relation to #2, your ship will go kaboom sooner or later, so don't get attached to it, and don't 'pimp' it out unless you're loaded and have nothing better to blow your ISK on.  That said pimp ships are fun
   
4. If you get burned out, join a new corp, go somewhere new, do something else, or just quit for a while but keep your account active and your skills training.  Eve doesn't force you into any particular role and there's nothing stopping you from training for something new.
   
5. Always have a backup plan - no matter how careful you are you'll take it on the chin once in a while and having a fallback plan will make the difference between shrugging off a massive loss or scrambling to figure out what the hell you're going to do.
   
6. Anything allowed under game mechanics is legal - which means that if you trust the wrong people you can lose your shirt in a hurry.  Player politics is huge - from little stuff like, "Will this guy honor a 1v1?" to bigger things like "Is this guy going to scam me? " or "Can I trust this guy enough to let him in my corp?" or "Is this guy trustworthy enough to grant high-level privilages in my corp?  Or even make him a director?".   Your reputation is the most valueable thing your character will ever own - make sure you don't blemish it with something you don't want.

Last but not least, download Eve Fitting Tool and Evemon (google 'em) - EFT is a ship fitter and Evemon lets you see your skill training progress when you're not logged in (among many other things), both are considered must-have utilities by most of the community.

Have fun, and fly safe :)