All Posts by Rabiator

The concept of ship control in EvE:

If I fly only one ship at a time, I'd prefer to pilot it manually. Like in Wing Commander or Freelancer. That's why I've applied for the Jump Gate Evolution beta:

A MMO version of Freelancer would be one of the very few things that could beat EvE for me. And JGE might pull it off

Originally posted by methodd

I have the same problem with EVE. I really like this game, it's truly different from other MMO's. The bad thing is, if you want to PVP you need a regular income. As my character is quite newbish, I find doing missions the easiest way to grind ISK thus in the same time it's very boring and I loose interest quickly. I'm sure there are other options how to get to ISK, but, for a freshman (4mil SP), mission grind is the only way and that saddens me.

I found trading and manufacturing quite lucrative, but they work best for people with more ISK and industrial skills.

For the first months, mission running is indeed the most lucrative activity. You can improve things a bit if you learn salvaging, destroyers and tractor beams (prerequisite Science 4).

Then you go through the enemies with your combat ship, make bookmarks in each pocket and collect the wreckage with your salvage destroyer - that's the most convenient way.

Originally posted by anubis93

I am surprised I haven't heard many people comparing this to an improved version of Anarchy Online.  That is if it's good and lives up to what it says it will with the skill and crafting system.  The lore is even somewhat the same.  If this is good then Anarchy Online could bite it when this releases. 

Since we're at picking comparisons:

To me it looks like an improved version of Neocron. Which was way ahead of its time on features, but unfortunately the implementation sucked. Otherwise it might have supplanted Star Wars Galaxies  when SOE fucked that one up...

Originally posted by Z3R01

If anyone would be so kind to give me a rundown of what JGE is offering features wise it would be helpful.

OK, I'll try to condense my reading of the JGE forums into a few bullet points:

1) It will be more like a "space sim" in the sense of Wing Commander or Freelancer. More manual handling of the ship, not just giving orders and waiting for them to be executed.

2) Players will fly mostly small ships, think frigates in EvE. Except transports which might be like the industrials of EvE. Capital ships are limited to NPCs, at least for now.

3) There will be crafting and trading, but not as complex as in EvE.

4) The devs have promised a NPC AI that can be quite a challenge.

5) There will be three large factions with subfactions. Maybe comparable to factions ans (NPC)corps in EvE but details have not been released.

For me personally, 1) and 4) are reason enough to give it a try. And if JGE looks good overall I might switch games. As good as EvE is, a JGE that keeps its promises might beat it

I've noticed that the price of game time codes, when paid in ISK, has gone up dramatically. Maybe that is already a sign of the global financial crisis, with less people wanting to spend money on GTCs only to exchange them for ISK ?!?

Anyway, I'v gone back to a normal subscription for now. Paying the next three months per direct debit (again)

Xix,

I think the problem exists only for miners who actually go out and are exposed to ganking. There will certainly be crafters, if only because people make alts for crafting. Which will then sit in a safe zone for crafting and have their materials delivered.

Personally, I prefer an EvE style skill system, and a "roleplay" server with only one char per account would be OK for me. So the Earthrise announcements so far look interesting to me

I think macros should be allowed but the game should be somewhat unpredictable to make successful AFK play difficult. Automate routine stuff, but require a bit of thinking.

Since someone mentioned EvE, I'll use it as example:

For that game, I'd let the occasional strong pirate NPC spawn appear in highsec. That would take the fun out of macromining, while other players could see the threat and warp out. 

Originally posted by schawo

PvE is like playing an offline game, just the others disturb you, thats the multiplayer part. When I want to shoot, butch, kick etc that *ing mob, and one steals my prey, and I can't shoot the thief, I get annoyed. I would rather play offline to grind.

Unfortunately, that is true for most of Eve's PvE. Doing missions as a group is usually not necessary. With very few exceptions you can solo anything. 

It is a lot different with PvP, here numbers and coordination count. Read, you actually must work together as a fleet. IMHO Eve's PvP is the real endgame, unfortunately it is not exactly casual-friendly. Both earning the money for high end ships and defending 0.0 space require a significant time commitment.

From JGE, I hope for a flight/combat model that makes PvE more fun and interesting. If NetDevil can inject a good dose of Freelancer that would be nice. Mmmh, dogfighting between asteroids...

Originally posted by Xix13

Oh.  Damn.  I really had hopes for this one since they advertised the best crafting since pre-CU SWG.  How you gonna do that kind of crafting with no-safe-zone, full-loot PvP?   Couldn't even get to the mines on Siege Perilous to start chipping away at the rocks in UO, so I can't see how this could possibly be the crafters' paradise they're advertising.  Oh well.  At least maybe there'll be a game for you folks who enjoy this kind of torture...er...fun.

Depends on the skill system.

If it allows you to be a miner and efficient fighter, I see no problem.

If not, only guilds who can put up guards may be able to gather their materials safely.   Like in EvE Online's 0.0 areas (in the case of EvE, it is because you can fly a mining barge OR a warship, not both at the same time).

The mail says that your char will be stored for least 6 months, but from all I've read elsewhere CCP keep the chars longer. Often for years.

I bet if they CCP start cleaning out old chars, they will start with expired trial chars. Because they must have tons of those, and with a trial char it is least likely that someone will give up on EvE because he lost years of leveling.

I also think of trying something else in the not too distant future. Eve PvP is great, but grinding the ISK for the ships is a bit of a drag. So is camping at a gate for hours hoping a target will show up.

Being active in a 0.0 alliance requires a bit more playtime than I'm willing to commit to ATM.

So I'll probably try one of the following when they come out:

-Earthrise

-Fallen Earth

-Jumpgate Evolution

...and BTW I like the EvE skillsystem, because you cannot run into a level cap. Earhrise seems to have a loosely comparable system, which makes it interesting.

Originally posted by daarco

I get depressed when i read how good SWG actually was. Years before anyone else.

Anyway, FE is on the right track.

Good features alone do not make a good game. Feature-wise, Neocron was ahead of its time as well, but due to the lousy implementation it couldn't keep me. Ended up in EvE for now

Aside of that, the linked article gives a nice overview over what we can expect. More FPS-like combat sounds nice. Free for all PvP also, even if replacing looted items can be a bit of drag when you are on the loser side.

And I'm definitely looking forward to a game with deep crafting system, especially considering the history of EvE which has left latecomers like me with a lasting disadvantage (no more new Tech II BPOs). So I will probably take a vacation from EvE when FE, Earthrise or Jumpgate Evolution come out. 

Originally posted by lkavadas

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by bluealien1

Doesn't EVE have full/partial loot? That game seems to be doing just fine with it... Besides, looting makes it that much more exciting.

 

the difference is that Eve has safe zones, and Earthrise doesnt.

 

A bit disingenuous.  While there is no mechanic in the game which technically prevents a player from opening fire on another at any time there are strong, and harsh, NPC countermeasures in place in certain locations (like Sal Vitas, the capital of the city-state Continoma). 

So if you want to kill some newb get ready to have an NPC storm on top of your head.  Plus you lose all of your gear if killed whether it was insured or not.  And the massive repercussions with reputation., et cetera.

That makes it a lot like EVE. Actually there are players in EVE that will start kamikaze attacks on transports with expensive freight. If successful, a buddy of the attacker will loot the victim. But it always costs the attacker's ship.

Apart from that, EVE has both safe zones (exception from "safe" see above) and unpoliced areas with completely open PvP.

Originally posted by Boneserino

Exactly why IMO opinion the PvP player community is the fringe community in MMO gaming.

Whenever you have open PvP it will always degenerate into total chaos.  Obviously that is just human nature.  And most gamers, especially us older ones play games for fun and to relax.

Actually, if you add some support for taking and defending territory, new player-generating structures will arise. Like the 0.0 alliances in EVE. Since you obviously know EVE, I'm a bit surprised about the above statement.

Now I'll admit that EVE is not perfect, because it allows only large alliances to persist in 0.0 space (for no-EVE players, that is the unpoliced fringe with totally open PvP). But it works at least for those who like being in such an organization.

Probably Solrain, as I like playing an industrialist and it would fit best in that faction. 

But if other factions have nicer ships, I might be persuaded to join the Octavians or Quantar...

Originally posted by Nerf09 

Instanced housing is useless, breaks continuity, creates invulnerability issues where everything has to be reballanced.

The low level stuff would be useful if everything were destructable in a vibrant PvP war with no carebear rules.  Carebear rules are put in place because of the grinding.

I think the apartments in Neocron (postapocalyptic/SciFi MMORPG) were meant as a safe zone for the owners. So they worked as intended.

In general, it turned out that Neocron needed some safe zones, otherwise the crafters would be griefed to death as you had to specialize: Someone who put lots of skill points into science and production did not have much for weaponry skills left.

About the low level stuff: Sure it is useless for a halfway advanced player who has access to advanced stuff. But as a fallback after bad luck (lost your high end gun in combat?) and to ensure newbies can get something to start with I think it is a must have.

Edit: Sorry for getting somewhat OT but the principles apply to any MMO. I think JGE will need to have some (halfway) safe zones and fallbacks as well.

There have been no news from FE for a while, so don't be surprised when people adopt a "wait and see" attitude. After all, most topics from the existing newsletters have been discussed to death.

Personally, I found the graphics OK and would have preferred a launch instead of more eyecandy. But as this is not my decision to make, I'll join the wait and see group. So it might take a few weeks or even months until I post in this forum again

Originally posted by DonnieBrasco

Well, there are many, many FPS MMO's: Battlefield series for starters :)

But as for MMORPG that is FPS, the only 1 knew is/was Neocron.

I wish there will be a spiritual successor to that game, it could have been Da Bomb, pretty bad they screwed it :(

True, I played Neocron and in term of features and atmosphere it was outstanding. 

Unfortunately, the implementation sucked donkey balls. Frequent crashes, bugs that went unfixed for many months and too much lag for a FPS finally drove me away.

With better coding quality (and better adjusting of quests in Dome Of York), I believe Neocron could have had a steady increase in popularity, like Eve had over the years.

Originally posted by Nerf09

decay

100% player made

Housing and factory structures (space structures of course)

No Instancing

 

Without all 4, it just wouldn't work.

1) Decay or item destruction on losing a fight. Eve has the latter and it works too.

2) From my experience with Face Of Mankind, it is a bad idea to rely 100% on player economy. Because when the market for low level items runs dry, newbies are out of luck. So let NPCs sell some basic equipment and leave the better stuff for players to make. You get a 80%-90% player economy and overall happier customers.

3) Definitely yes.

4) Agree, except for housing in large apartment blocks:

Here you can have an elevator that takes you right to your instanced apartment, without a glaring break in the logic of the game. Because who cares about one more apartment in a big block?

This worked well for Neocron.

Originally posted by Tikigod

In responce to AI mining for you..... your kidding right???

 

Why would a game thats main focus is on players performing the tasks themselves introduce a system where people type a command and sod off for a day or two whilst the game does the job for them?

We have already been told that the mining system in JGE will feature a more 'active' role, where the player will not only have to find asteroids to mine, but then find veins on that asteroid in which to extract ore.

So th player has to scout the asteroids, find veins and then...

1) you could do it Eve style, with the player having to stay at the asteroid and unload the ore every  few minutes into a container, or

2) the player could deploy a mining unit on the asteroid that works automatically, with less grind. I'd pefer that one.

In both cases, the system does not need to be sod off-friendly. Every few hours, let some NPC pirates spawn that are too strong to simply ignore. Then the AFK miners will frequently find themselves without a ship .

BTW this is something I would recommend for EVE too. Macrominers are a problem there, because the better mining barges can tank the NPC pirates in highsec space.