Its is always a good time to start Eve.  If you are worried about the time issue then stop reading this and join right now.  But seriously I wouldnt worry about the fact that you will be new.  New players have to realize that there are a lot of advantages to joining a game where other players have already made many of the mistakes and can help you avoid them.  I know veteran players who dont like what they did with their skill points and start new characters for a "fresh" start.  There are also some game features that were not around before which will give you an edge that some of the older players never had.  The skill queue was not always around.  Attribute points weren't as evenly distributed before.  Career agents were not around.  All in all it adds up to making it much easier for the new player.  In the end it should boil down to wether you enjoy the game or not.  The only way you will ever know is to try it.  And if you know someone who plays ask them for a 21 day free trial.  1 extra week to try the game before you decide.

Hope that helps,

-J

I'll be coming back after trying AION, not a bad game just not my cup of tea. I honestly think my comp can handle Eve a lot better for one thing. Wormholes are a must, they bring a new element to the game, that I still don't understand. Just play the game and be part of a team. I could not do that playing Aion it felt too much like soloville.

Specialize  in one ship at a time you would be surprised  how effective that can be.

I have been thinking of giving the game a try out as well.  Been at least 2 years since I tried it last time.

I am not sure which way I want to go though and always in the past had a hard time determining whether I wanted to play PvP or Hauler and industrial.

Casual player, do not have much time to put into games any longer.  When I do, I want to be a part of what is going on.  I like being in the combat and then I also enjoy running the hauler type and watching the battles that ensue around me.  Some times it is like watching a really good sci-fi movie with the epic battles.

So, guess I will pull in the 14 day and give it a run.  Once that is done, I will see what happens.  Anyone who knows a corp that is looking for a newb Hauler, send em my way or list out the corp name.

Now is actually a pretty good time to start playing tbh.

Back when I started playing (2004) server numbers hovered around 5-6000 people online with 8000 I think being peak?  (remember everyone plays on ONE server so if you find someone else who plays eve, you can find them in game)

Now it's pretty normal to see 30-40k people with peaks in the 50k region.  That's 50000 people all playing the same game simultaneously on one server.  There have been recorded fleet fights topping 1000 people all in the same system duking it out. 

The devs are constantly working to fight lag and bring better performance to.

Add in to this, come December 1st with the new expansion you're basically getting a new game.  The devs have really set the bar high with this expansion.  0.0 (lawless space which is player conquerable) is getting a huge re-vamp.  The biggest ships in the game, Titans and Motherships are getting changed.  Faction ships are getting buffed.  There is A LOT coming in this expansion with even more planned for the next expansion, Incarna.  When that comes out you should be able to have your character/avatar leave his/her ship and walk around in station environments. 

A lot of this content may seem far away when you first hop into the game in your newbie frigate.  There are corps out there who will accept new players and bring them out to 0.0 or low sec and get them started in PVP right away.  There are ways even a new player can be useful. 

If you want to PVP, train propulsion jamming.  A tackling frigate is always welcome.  You will die a lot but keeping the enemy there so your friends can bring the big guns to bear is a HUGE part of pvp.

If you want to PVE, there are innumerable guides on how to do this.  You may even end up training salvaging and riding shotgun with a more experienced player to salvage and loot for them (specialization is your friend in eve)

If you want to do crafting/industry, train production efficiency 5 (should take maybe 2 weeks tops).  Extra production slots in a manufacturing operation are pretty welcome.

All in all, new players have a place in EVE and can be effective.  The biggest part of all this though is joining a corp and interacting with other players.  If you try and go it solo you will end up stuck in some mission high sec system grinding away your days and wondering what all the fanbois are blabbing about when they say EVE is great.

Join a corp, go blow someone up and/or get blown up.  Learn about all the ins and outs of this gigantic, miraculous, frustrating and rewarding game :).  I've been playing for 5 years now and I don't know anywhere NEAR "everything" about EVE.

And most importanlty...trust no one...but if you find someone you can trust, stick with them no matter how rough it gets.  Trustworthy friends are worth more than anything in this game.

its never too late to join Eve. there is an in game solution to pretty much everything. the "durhur hardcore!!!" players who on most mmos would run around killing off the new players and bathing in their tears are eventually forced into low sec space when their security status gets too low. 

most of those who've been playing for years are in low sec/nul sec space and generally don't pester the new players too much.

that and theres a place for everyone, even the green gilled noob who just began playing this morning. it doesnt take much at all to fit up a hauler or a tackle frigate to assist a corp in a nontrivial way. unlike most mmos where "the game starts at max level and anyone below that is a stupid *censored* noob" this game starts at character creation and never ends.

your character will NEVER stop growing. you cannot reach the top and have to stop, there will always be a skill you can be learning. to train every skill up to level 5 would take years, well beyond what this game has been out and probably well beyond this game's lifetime.... if this game doesn't turn out to be immortal until the internet gets shut down.

It's never too late to join EVE.

The only difference between you and an old player like me is that I have more ships to fly. However, if you decide to concentrate on Interceptors, in about 2 months, you'll max out every skills for that ship. No matter how old I am, you'll be an equal match to me when we both fly interceptors. Now if you know your role as an interceptor pilot, you'll quickly become a well known PVPer in no time.

I've seen 3 year old players horribly dying at the hand of a 3 month old pilot.

I have a very sordid history with EVE. I beta tested it, couldn't get into it. I played probably a year later and gave up. Three years ago I tried again and got fairly into it: I leveled most of my learning skills and started working on Drones with an eye for piracy. The problem was I could never find my niche. I started in an RP/Pirate group that was pretty fun but it disbanded. I found a new corp in one of the bigger Alliances and found fleet combat to be the single most boring thing ever in an MMO. I found it took far too long to get anything done and I had zero direction.

I will say, however, that the most fun I had was probably about a month into playing I was zooming around low-sec and came upon a freighter totally unguarded. I had a pretty shitty ship (the one that looks like a camera with legs) but dove in anyway. I got the shields down before the thing tore into me and fully ended my first piracy run. I realized later that I never engaged my target jammer. Had I done so I probably would have cleaned the sucker out. This was a very cool prospect but I never had another like it.

I love the idea of EVE but am I just not fit for it? Do I try again and just keep searching until I find my place in the EVE universe? Does it just not fit my playstyle? Do I have to give up my life to really "get" EVE?

Any tips out there?

Originally posted by shipprekk

I have a very sordid history with EVE. I beta tested it, couldn't get into it. I played probably a year later and gave up. Three years ago I tried again and got fairly into it: I leveled most of my learning skills and started working on Drones with an eye for piracy. The problem was I could never find my niche. I started in an RP/Pirate group that was pretty fun but it disbanded. I found a new corp in one of the bigger Alliances and found fleet combat to be the single most boring thing ever in an MMO. I found it took far too long to get anything done and I had zero direction.

I will say, however, that the most fun I had was probably about a month into playing I was zooming around low-sec and came upon a freighter totally unguarded. I had a pretty shitty ship (the one that looks like a camera with legs) but dove in anyway. I got the shields down before the thing tore into me and fully ended my first piracy run. I realized later that I never engaged my target jammer. Had I done so I probably would have cleaned the sucker out. This was a very cool prospect but I never had another like it.

I love the idea of EVE but am I just not fit for it? Do I try again and just keep searching until I find my place in the EVE universe? Does it just not fit my playstyle? Do I have to give up my life to really "get" EVE?

Any tips out there?

Sounds like you want to be a pirate. There are plenty of non-RP pirate corps, and even a few RP ones all going strong.

I downloaded the trial and played a few hours on Sunday.  I am trying to determine if I want to subscribe or not.

Here is my delimma.  I do not have a lot of time to play any longer.  EVE does cater to this somewhat by allowing you to set up the skill training que.  If they had that at the beginning I may have stayed around a bit longer.

I also ran some missions for the tutorail and am currently running all of the missions that are there for the various job tutorials.  Still not sure what I want to do yet or if this is just a new shiney game that will lose my interest soon.

I am kinda torn on what type of function i want to focus on in EVE at the moment.  I was thinking of just soloing it a bit and see what appeals to me.  I have jumped in a few years ago and went straight into a corp without doing much if anything on the starting missions.  I got bored with it fairly quick for some reason.  I guess because I did not flesh out what I wanted to do and just jumped into a corp doing mining missions and focussing on what THEY needed and not what I WANTED to do.

Are their limitations on training more than 1 character at a time?  I know this was an area of contention in the past that did not allow it or extended the training times out. 

I think I have reached a limit on my indusctrial/ mining type with the trial limitations and was thinking of putting together a combat persona and giving it a test. 

However, I kinda like the industry side of things and wanted to give it a try out to see how I can do with it.  Hauling is ok, but the market is a bit overwhelming for me to figure out so soon into the game.  That and the travel times and buying stats and etc etc.. make it a bit daunting.  I think if I do decide to go this route it may be best to solo it til I get to a spot where I am fairly self sufficient and then find a corp I can trust ( during the solo part I should have met some peeps to put me on a corp path ).

But, I am going to try out some combat and maybe get into a corp as a rat hunter and miner protection.  Could be a good thing for my limited play times.  Something i can launch into, track down the mining teams and let them go in with full mining gear and allow me to keep them clear of rats and stuff.

I dunno though.  This game is seriously daunting to new individuals.  Exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.  I mean, every time you  turn around there is something you want to use but need to train up on.  It gets a bit frustraiting as well when you run into these stumbling blocks.

Focus on one thing at a time. If you think you might like PvP, try Red vs Blue

It's always a good time to start EVE Online.

It's not your usual MMO - there's no "race to the endgame" mentality here. You're immediately useful in the game, both to your own development and to others, and what you do is entirely up to you. When World of Warcraft becomes banal, when Lord of the Rings Online becomes boring, when other games can't satisfy, EVE does the trick.