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EVE Online: Surviving Your First War
MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Sam Guss writes this report on going through his first war with his corporation in EVE Online and offers some handy tips to players who might be in the same situation.
It's bound to happen, whether you are in high sec, low sec or null sec. The WarDec (slang for War Declaration) is brought upon your Corporation and you now have to prepare for it. Your first WarDec is a tricky thing, especially if you are new to Eve Online and the gauntlet of emotions will run through you, starting with enthusiasm, going through frustration, boredom and back to excitement. This article focuses on a WarDec in low security space and as-is the nature of war, may or may not apply to your particular conflict. There are some tidbits here that should apply to every first time wartime pilot.
;)
For our corporation and alliance, our WarDec happened because we let the wrong people into the alliance. Coming to us in the disguise of offering training in PvP to our new pilots and offering some additional protection in our low security systems we control, within a week spies were implanted into our organization and they withdrew from the Alliance and WarDec'd us. That was the first wave of emotion to hit the Corporation and myself: anger. In a nutshell, these were experienced PvP pilots and many of us are on the newer side of EVE. We had presented ourselves as a target and would now have to pay the price.
Underestimation in an Eve War situation can lead to chaos, poor planning and kill mails - not necessarily in your favor either. After the initial shock that within 24 hours we would be at war with a more experienced, if smaller corporation, it was decided to give them a war of denial. Our non combat pilots left our home system to points throughout New Eden, most of us with a rule of thumb of at least 15 jumps and for many of us 25+ jumps. Seemed like a good plan at the time.
We had underestimated our enemy though. We believed they just wanted to harass us in our local systems and for the most part we were just going to lay low. What we hadn't counted on though was how willing they were to hunt us down and how vulnerable this "scatter" would leave us. Within the first day we lost 16 ships, most of which were in turn pod killed. Our kills... one. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, but after getting bloody noses all day, we decided to go hunt them. Bad decisions, inexperienced PvP pilots, new Fleet Commander and the result was the loss of several ships.
;)
One of the deadliest tools in war we found out about in that first day was the use of Locator Agents. As our ships were hunted down and blown, our pods destroyed, we found those same enemy pilots bearing down on us in the systems we reemerged in with our clones. Luckily we had enough seasoned veterans around in the corporation to remind us to upgrade our clones again and no one was the victim of a second attack, this time without an upgraded clone. In EVE, once your character dies and reanimates in his/her clone, you are given the basic clone that holds 900K skill points. Without upgrading immediately, this means you're even more vulnerable because if you don't upgrade your clone, you will lose every skill point you have past 900K. This means that if you are say a 2 million skill point character, you will lose 1.1 million skill points. Not fun.
The next couple of days required us all to go back to our home system, where we would establish gate camps and station watch for our enemy. By increasing our numbers in key systems, it was hoped that we would be better able to respond to war targets and control access to our systems. This plan has worked out a lot better for us and even resulted in taking out a couple of their ships. This in itself was a huge motivational factor in our war. In addition, we were able to - due to their own mistake - find their spy that had been in our Corporation.
During wartime, especially as a new player, there are some factors you want to be aware of, a checklist if you will on what and how to do things:
- Never, ever jump into a system without eyes already being there, unless you are scouting ahead in a shuttle. Most of our losses in the war happened on the first day and due to not gathering intel about systems we were jumping into. Thus, the majority of our losses to war targets happened due to gate camps. In wartime situation there is no "high sec" or "low sec" space and so gate camps can and will be deployed in high sec where you won't normally see them. It was of course, mostly in high sec that we lost a majority of our ships.
- Do ensure that your clone is located at a station with medical facilities and the first thing you need to do if you are podded, is to purchase a new clone. If you are killed before activating a new clone, you can lose out on weeks, or months of training which could cost you your ability to simply fly the ships you have become accustomed to flying - or running the modules you have come to depend on.
- Add any and all known enemy combatants to your buddy list. Not because you are going to contact them, but so that you know at least when they are online. Always, always ask for eyes in whatever system you fly into. If you do not have eyes, use an alt to scout in a shuttle or if that isn't possible, do it yourself - just be aware that what you scouted a couple minutes before may not still be the case.
- Have your eyes in local! If, you have setup your display correctly, then any war targets are going to be highlighted with a red star next to their name in local. Unless you know you have supremacy, do not undock!
- Spies are a real part of wartime aggression. Establish a password locked channel and only give this out to fleet commanders, officers, etc. so that there is a command post where important decisions can be made. If you are not part of this channel, don't get offended - trust that this is for your protection.
- Don't get discouraged. Ships will be lost. Pod kills will happen. You will get tired of hiding out in stations and it may disrupt your normal game flow. Stick together and you can and will get through this.
;)
Through it all, wartime as a new player is a combination of boredom and frustration followed by brief moments of excitement and danger. For the most part, it is better to keep your head down, your ship docked in port and only venture out with your corp mates. Not only will it be safer for you but better for your corporation as well.
I don't understand, how can someone find you in EVE when you want to hide? Especially so far as the article mentioned.
I have to admit I hev never been in a Corporation and never been involved in a war.
You don't lose all SPs above 900K, you lose some number of points. It's a relatively small percentage but it still can hurt.
Some agents are able to locate any player, for a price. They're called locator agents.
If you build enogh standing with them, they are very happy to find people for you
Plus, you never know if that neutral Character still in one of the newbie Corps in your sector isn't a spy for the people looking for you. XD
In response to MarineBoy: Locator Agents are a type of NPC agent that, for a fee, will give you the location of other players.
As mattatt says - if you have 2 million skill points and you get pod-killed with only a 900k clone you will lose 55,000 skill points from the category you have trained the most.
This is 5% of the difference between the skill points you have and the skill points your clone can take.
eg; 5% of (2,000,000 - 900,000) = 5% of 1,100,000 = 55,000
Apart from that minor error, nice article.
Yes, as we learned recently in our first time being wardec'd, unaffliated alts play a huge part of the battle. Everything from spying on and within your corporation, following your fleet around for intel, to actually suicide ganking you in smart bombing ravens, it was quite a lesson in the reality of empire combat.
As the war played out, we learned all about being camped in a station, breaking out of a camp and we chose to fight to the death, and we died by the hundreds. While most of our losses were in small ships, the count/isk count was pretty high, but as mentioned, every time we did manage to take one of them down it really heartened us and made it all worthwhile.
It was a great learning experience, and we finished every battle giving our opponents a "GF" in local. PVP is really what EVE's all about and for many of our players, was their first taste of what it involved.
Soon, we'll be unleashing some mayhem of our own. We've changed.
... nice article ...
IMHO, there is one "rule" in EVE that is very important ... "Don't use things you cannot afforde to lose"
It is hard at start but one can make decent funds just when skills are ready. Other option is to have rich friend.
We were never war-dec'd, but a member of the alliance was. This particular member was a mining corporation, so several fighters from another corps in the aliance transferred temporalily to their corp to help protect them.
What we learnt was that it's best to keep lookouts in every system entrance you need to protect, to give the miners the precious seconds they needed to jump to safety. As we were doing this scouting in full fighting ships, we had to mantain several battles for control of certain lookout areas. This is where the friend declaration of enemies came in really handy, because as we begun learning eachenemie's tactics and bigger ships, we knew how much time we could remain in battle waiting for reinforcements before having to jump out, as we knew exactly who else could join this battle on their side and the ammount of firepower he could carry.
For the members of our own corporation that transferred, it was a big learning experience.
This is a thing that I really don't like in many games, gating or gate camps. The fact that you can get from one place to the other ONLY by jumping a gate or teleporting in some sort. This makes the things limmited hence less interesting. Some players only need to post themselves to a gate and just wait. A way a solar system can very easily be sieged or locked by enemies.
In the same ideea CCP always makes a big deal that EVE is only one single server and a unique universe, which I don't find quite acurate, exactly becase of the gate/jump system. How is that one server and one univers if you have to jump from one place to another and having to face white screens? To me that is a different environment, different server ultimately. And the prove for this is the recent problem with Jita being crowded and the access banned.
What I would like is to be able to fly from one solar system to another drectly without having to jump through gates, having the possibility to flee or aproach a solar system to/from any direction. That would make it more real like and more difficult for corporationa to undergo an attack or to defense and would totally elimnate gate camping.
This is a thing that I really don't like in many games, gating or gate camps. The fact that you can get from one place to the other ONLY by jumping a gate or teleporting in some sort. This makes the things limmited hence less interesting. Some players only need to post themselves to a gate and just wait. A way a solar system can very easily be sieged or locked by enemies.
In the same ideea CCP always makes a big deal that EVE is only one single server and a unique universe, which I don't find quite acurate, exactly becase of the gate/jump system. How is that one server and one univers if you have to jump from one place to another and having to face white screens? To me that is a different environment, different server ultimately. And the prove for this is the recent problem with Jita being crowded and the access banned.
What I would like is to be able to fly from one solar system to another drectly without having to jump through gates, having the possibility to flee or aproach a solar system to/from any direction. That would make it more real like and more difficult for corporationa to undergo an attack or to defense and would totally elimnate gate camping.
How did you think that this would even make sense, space is huge the gate system is so you can jump the massive areasof space between systems. It is nothing like the zoning from one real to another. Have you learned to use a scout or use your map to figure alternative routes, Go back to playing WoW if you dont like the way EvE is since it will make it beter for the people that do like it so we wont have to listen to people like you.
Actually technically you can fly from one solar system to another, but since EVE's universe is built to scale it would take you years to fly from one solar system to another even if you leave your MWD on non-stop.
True true this was what I was trying to point out to the guy in his post, I like the gem but years just to make a move from one to another sytem would suck a bit
You should have renamed this "How to be a Coward in EVE". Instead on focusing ways that you can use larger numbers of ships to beat a more experianced enemy it basically tell you to stay docked.
Wait a second here buddy you're rushing into conclusion like the virgin to get married. I have never played WoW and I am not tempted either. I have played, on the other hand and still play sometimes, Entropia Universe. Now that IS a one world as you can "jump", read teleport, using the teleporting platform, which is like a gate from EVE, from one city/place to another. The teleporting process brings you to the other side just next to the teleoprting platform from there, so pretty much like a jump but the difference is that you can choose any destination for that matter and not just one. At the same time nothing stops you from just walking/running from one city to the other through the vast continent and just enjoy the ride. It takes of course a lot longer but that it's worth the adventure. Walking/running from one place to the other is a smooth and contiguous experience as in a real real world. It really feels like one and unintrerrupted univers.
Now I realise that in EVE there is not much to enjoy in the void space but that could be very easily solved with the introduction of a ship capability, module, device, rig you name it that would allow it to make the "jumps" from one place to another like they to in Battlestar Gallactica for instance. The ships can jump by themselves whithout any fix positioned gate from any place to any place depending on coordinates. I don't suggest that a jump should be possible to any distance but to a limitted one depending on the jump device level that could be replaced with a more advanced one liek the case with other modules if your skills allow it. That's the ideea. I think this would make the game much more interesting and more flexible. That would be more like a reality even though a Sci - Fi one.
I really enjoyed this article, made me miss playing EvE even more, which is a good thing, mostly
If I'm not mistaken, cap. ships can only move from system to system via this method, but they have to have another ship to open the gate.
That's correct, MrCal. Capital ships are too large to move through jumpgates, and this is why they are equipped with jump engines. A second ship, which needs to be fitted with a Cynosural Field Generator, must be at the destination system (which, unlike normal jump gates, can actually be as many as 5, and I think at times even more, gate-jumps away), activate the field generator (which also makes a POI appear in any in-system player's overview that they can warp to, as well as making the ship running the field unable to move) and wait a certain amount of time (i'm fuzzy on details here, as I'm not a cap ship pilot, nor has it ever been me that has run the field generator), and (as far as I know, ANY capital ship, not just the one the person is opening it FOR) the capital ship jumps to it (which takes fuel, mostly deuterium and a couple other things, I think), and then must wait for its engines to cool down (somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes I think) before it can make the next jump.
It should also be noted that, as far as I know, capital-class ships cannot enter 0.5 or higher space. Also, I know as a certainty that titan-class ships are unable to leave 0.0, period.
Pity, because it's wrong. All capitals can enter lowsec.
The rest of your post is wrong, too.
By the way, it's impossible to "fly" into another system without the use of jumpgates, cynos or podding. There were some people who made it so far that they appeared on the map as being in polaris, but the server isn't coded to move you over to the other system..
Ohh, I didn't know massive ships jumped that way, taht means Upper warrior's wars can emply a whole set of different skills and make things far more interesting.
Hi everyone,
Thank you for your comments on my first article as an Eve Correspondant. Thanks in particular for the correction about the loss of skillpoints. As mentioned in the article, this was my first WarDec, and was definately a unique situation, as it is for anyone during their first time.
I look forward to future articles here and indeed have quite a lineup coming in the near future. See you all then and thanks again for your support!
Sam
Good article. There are corporations out there that can't stand an even fight, hence they pick on corporations that consist mainly of new players. I would not call them veterans, there is a better name for them, it is cowards.
Just one thing in the article puzzled me. It said to make sure you make a clone in a station with a medical facility. Can you explain how you could make a clone in a station without one? I don't think it is possible.
Spys are a pain. Trust is something that is hard to reconsile with in Eve. Unless you know the person in real life. To prevent alts from being used, you should always ask for a screen picture of the the persons character logon screen, so you also know the name of their alts. Of course this does not prevent a 2nd account from being used. Don't ever accept trial accounts either.
Really? Cap ships can use jump gates? Titans can enter lowsec? This is all news to me, and therefor means that this was changed in an update within the past 24 hours (so it's about as likely as MS making a stable, secure, high-quality product in the first place, then releasing it to everyone as FOSS on top of it).
Now that the sarcasm is done, I'd like to take a moment to point out that you're a flaming imbecile, at least in regard to your "corrections."
As to the last paragraph, couldn't say, never tried or knew someone that has, nor have I ever had something occur to inspire me to look it up. I agree that it would be impossible, though, as the way the game is designed, distances are all relative. Each system doesn't really exist as anything more than a list of objects in it and their distances and positions relative to each other (which is how we can have such massive spaces without truly astounding RAM usage and lagging the system out to unplayability; even games that don't feature zoning, such as Everquest Online Adventures, Oblivion, and Morrowind, just to name a few, still have delineated zones that are loaded as you move around). If you tried to load the entire "universe" into that listing to provide relative positions to everything (which would be required, by EVE's system, in order to fly to another system), it would have a similar effect on RAM usage and complete eliminationg of any chance at tolerable performance.
You can, by utilizing the "move clone" (or whatever it's called) feature at a Medical Facility. Using it, some of the stations that appear do not actually have medical facilities at the station itself, and in some cases the nearest may be several jumps away. You can also use this feature for fast travel (if you don't have any implants, change your clone to somewhere near where you're trying to go, hop in a shuttle, and self-destruct yourself; doing this you can travel dozens or even more than a hundred jumps instantly, even without the standing or skills to use a jump clone, or the associated timer, though admittedly this can be pricey for a high-skill-point character, and implants would make this a very poor solution.)
You can just leave your ship, undock in a pod, and selfdestruct it. No need to buy an expensive shuttle, self destructing it, and then self destructing the pod..
1) Where did I say carriers and motherships couldn't enter lowsec? I am, however, under the impression that they can't enter high-sec.
2) That would explain the 5-10 minute delay we've always had during jumps, thank you for the info.
3) I had always been told it took time for you to be able to jump to it. Possibly due to latency in updating? Dunno, but we always had to wait for a moment afterwards.
4) Honest mistake. I know I was always told deuterium was used for fueling jump engines, as well as stations, which was why it always sold so well when I mined it.
5) You'll excuse me for being unclear. What I think of (and I think many others do as well) when I hear "cap ship" is carriers, motherships, dreadnoughts, etc. Combat ships, not cargo.
In the future, you might attempt to EXPLAIN yourself (you know, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism), rather than just get people pissed off at you for being an asshole that just says "you're wrong." I can go around just saying "you're wrong," too, it doesn't help anyone learn where they were wrong, or even show that they are.
EDIT:
Please excuse me. I remember back in the day you couldn't eject from a ship while in-station, you could only move to another ship directly, and you could only eject while in space. Also, if you think a shuttle is expensive, I'm not inclined to believe you've played for more than a few days, as 9k (NPC price of shuttle, if I recall correctly) is something you donate to some random newbie because you don't like that you don't have an even number as your bank balance.
Sorry for being unclear, i was thinking of the reason hics were introduced..to stop supercaps (titans, and moms) from being invulnerable (non-tackleable) in lowsec. Scrapped the idea of explaining that, didn't reaplace motherships with supercaps.
Want an honest answer to that? With the amount of ill-, or even completely uninformed posters writing utter nonsense on eve forums, my patience has come to an end.
You couldn't leave your ship in station before revelations. Revelations was released quite some time ago..
Btw., Npc don't sell shuttles anymore. Shuttle prices vary a lot depending on how busy the region is (i've seen regions with lowest sellorder being 1m...). But why buy something that you'll destroy anyways?
You want an exercise in patience, deal with the absolutely astronomical levels of stupidity, as well as both intentional and unintentional misinformation on the GameFAQs.com forums, and their PS3 boards especially. Luckily I type fast, so explaining isn't too much of an issue (though sometimes is as simple as saying "RTFM" and ending the post, lol).
I started EVE back before Cold War. I've been playing intermittently ever since, though I'm currently inactive. That's why I remember it. I've rarely had cause to eject in-station, so I always forget they changed that. As a result, the "buy a shuttle and self-destruct" is what came to mind.
MarineBoy,
You seem to know some about EVE, but you seem to have never actually played. Gate camps are not un-avoidable, even in null sec space where warp bubbles are allowed. With a fast ship and a little skill, any player can get away. The fun part comes when you jump into a system and carelessly don't look around first. Many pilots make it their style of play to go sneaking around in another alliance's systems, given their own alliance much needed intel.
On the issue of moving from system to system without using a gate, I believe you have never played the game. There are numerous ships that have the ability to jump from systems to system without using a gate. These include Black Ops, Jump Freighters, Capital Industrials, Dreadnaughts, Carriers, and Titans. Also of note is that Titans and some Player Owned Station structures can generate jump portals for any ship to use.
Camping a gate and seiging a fortification are military strategies that has been used since war began. Any game that does not enable these does not emulate true warfare. EVE is a game, and loosing ships and characters is part of the game. I just want to make the other team loose more than mine. In EVE speak, they pop one of your ships, you pod kill one of their pilots. Okay, I stole that from the Untouchables.
"Sorry for being unclear, i was thinking of the reason hics were introduced..to stop supercaps (titans, and moms) from being invulnerable (non-tackleable) in lowsec. Scrapped the idea of explaining that, didn't reaplace motherships with supercaps."
Oops, batolemaeus you made a slight mistake in your criticism. Titans CAN NOT enter low-sec. It is a well known fact that they are restricted to 0.0.
To the poster who said you could fly to another system without a gate or just a jump gate, it would just take a long time. That is not possible, the game was not designed with that ability in mind.
Ok, so there is something similar afterall. What is a capital ship anyway? How much does it cost and how many players, corporations can aford it?
I still think that individual ship jumping instead of gates or simply warp speed like in Star Treck that would make possible fast trips throughout the galaxy would make the game much more interesting and more flexible. As I said, gates make it to easy for attackers to get ther pray. However, these are the rules and everybody knows them so be aware and carefull at your next gate jump...
Maybe I will post ship jumping in EVEs forum as a suggestion for the game if nobody has done it yet, who knows...
Thanks, hchaver, for your reply.
You're right in that I have'n played too long in EVE. I have my character for several years now, but all in all in haven't played more than 3-4 months. I activate my account once in a while as I think this kind of gaming takes way to much time and energy to get to high levels. I know few things about EVE but I am still a newbie as I never got to the point to be able to gather enough wealth to even considerig buyng those kind of ships, forget about knowing about their capabilities.
Good to hear though that the "self jump" is possible for some ships but my point is that "self jump" should be the main way of travel in EVE for any ship and not gate jumps. In regards with the military strategy I doubt that gate camping really emulate true strategy. What is true afterall about jump gates? Space is space and I should be able to go in any direction I want without any restrictions. If you want me come and find me and don't just wait from me knowing that I don't have any other chance to avoid a gate. Attack the corporate station if you want, attack ships but waiting is hardly something interesting and exiting.
They made it much easier, actually. You only have to REALLY worry about gate camps in 0.0, since you can't deploy bubbles in low-sec or high-sec. They made things easier by making it so you don't need insta-warps in order to warp to 0.
Mh, yeah, right.
So i just, like, had a jumpdrive in my charon, and just had a pleasant dream of our fleets titans jumpbridging everyone through aridia.
It was just a dream...just a dream..
Titans themselves are unable to enter 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, or 1.0 systems. Period. This is common knowledge throughout the game. To enter anything from 0.1 or higher (which is, by definition, territory of one of the racial empires) is considered an act of war. This is the story reason for why they can't leave 0.0. Regardless, no matter how much you wish it to be so, and no matter how many halucinogenic drugs you take, titans cannot leave 0.0. This is common knowledge.
No, it's utter bullshit. While they can't activate their doomsday, they can enter lowsec like every other capital can.
Ask ANY 0.0 entity using titans. Bob has jump-portaled entire fleets from aridia into fountain, i have travelled from hophib to vehan via titan jumpportal...in a charon. I even organized parts of that operation..
Find links to credible precedent, then. Because every official piece of information released says they can't, not to mention every player except you.
Find some good sources to prove your points.
Here, have some of mine:
1, 2, or, well, an official new item of star fraction bringing their titan into black rise and the corresponding forum thread...
Black rise does not have a single 0.0 system. It is a mix of high- and lowsec..
Come on, Titans cannot enter low-sec. That is a well known fact. You are making yourself look silly with an argument you cannot win.
Hmm, wow. This makes Eve sound even less fun than when I wasted some months of my life in it. Now you can't even fly around in highsec without getting wardec'd and shot up by players who have, thanks to Eve's skilless wonder system, an unmatchable advantage in pilot skills, agent faction and money over you.
Every time I hear about crap like this in Eve, the image that comes to mind is schoolyard bullies conning younger kids into "playing a really fun game", then putting them all on the other team so they can gang up and beat them up to get a feeling of power. While the teachers watch and applaud, because the bullies pay the teachers more than the victims do.
How. Frickin. Lame.
Don't critcize that which you fail to fully understand. Actual pilot skill and tactics play a far more important role in combat than the mathametical diffferences in SP's.
Except that same "skilless wonder system" is designed in such a way that after a month or two of intelligent skill training you're just as good at something as that 5+ year vet. BECAUSE of the way EVE handles skills, all more time means is experience (actual, not points), money, and versatility. You can't bring all your N-million skill points to bare at any one time. You can only use those that apply to the ship you're in and its fittings. It's a surprisingly well-ballanced system, when you compare it to other game's where it's a very clear cut "if you're X levels over me, the only way I'll win is if you're AFK or braindead, if i can even do enough damage to out-do your absorb+health regen." EVE has no such problem, as, like i said, after a couple months, you're just as good at ONE thing as any other player in the game, at least stats/points-wise. There isn't a single game in tthe world that can compensate for the benefits of skill and experience.
Sadly, one cannot win an argument against stupid people.
I can't stand people spreading bullshit, though. But as i am a nice person and all, i Created a little thread, so your silly rumour does not spread further.
Although it is well known that you cant win an argument with the terminaly stupid i can confirm from personal experience that capital ships such as Titans CAN enter lowsec Via a Cyncro point using there jump drives.
Dude I'd seriously recheck everything you've ever learned about Eve in the past.
You are wrong on sooo many fronts. Granted though, Eve is a complex game that I don't even grasp fully yet after playing since Beta.
My alliance has 3 titans that I know of, and I've got 7 capital ships myself, so I should know how it works by now ;)
All caps and supercaps including titans can enter 0.0 - 0.4. Titans can't DD in lowsec space though.
Only freighters and jumpfreighters can enter 0.5 - 1.0 and jumpfreighters can only jump out of 0.5 - 1.0, not in.
Also there are actually some capital ships in 0.5 - 1.0 also from the time they were build there(pre-nerf).
Just google Cribba and "veldnaught" for his mining dreadnaught in highsec space. He's actually a tourist attraction :p
You might be mixing up the fact that Supercaps can only be build in 0.0. Caps can be build troughout 0.0 - 0.4, and tbh I wouldn't know if freighters and jumpfreighters are buildable in empire space.
The SP system is actually pretty ingenious. EVE is the only game I've played (and there's been alot of them ....) that allows a fairly new player to compete with seasoned veterans.
Don't get me wrong, the gap in skillpoints between a new player and an old player is significant, and it certainly gives the older player an advantage. But that advantage doesn't necessarily come from a direct application of his SP. The advantage mostly comes from versatility.
While a new player may quickly become fairly proficient in frigate piloting, a veteran will come at you in a frigate one day, a hac the next, a recon the next, and a battleship on the forth, flying them all with equal skill. The extra SP gives a veteran the ability to adapt, where as the new pilot is forced to exploit the few SP he has and continue flying that frigate.
However, as was stated earlier, a veteran cannot bring his full compliment of SP to bear on an enemy at any given time. He has to pick and choose, but because he's a vet, picking and choosing is an option.
The second area where SP matters is level 5 skills. This is usually all that seperates older players from newer ones. Newer players stop most of their skill at level 4. Older players will have a fair compliment at level 5. In reality, this is a mere 2 to 5% different in output, so the margin is narrow.
At the end of the day, new pilots die to old pilots because of one simple thing ... notches in their belts. Older pilots simply know what they're doing. I've take alts before with no more than 1 mil SP and gave three year old players a very hard time. In an experience based game like everquest or WoW, this could never be possible, especially with WoW's emphysis on gear. Consider this the next time you knock the sp system.
As far as gatecamping is concerned ... welcome to the "reality" of war. All theatres have bottlenecks of some sort. In the RL, it's rivers, or the main roads, or checkpoints on borders. In EVE, it's the jumpgates. And a big part of war is crippling both the mobility and supplies of the enemy.
And just an FYI ... EVE is a pvp game. If you don't like pvp, don't play EVE. Instead of coming onto forums and crying and moaning about getting shot down, just pack up, cancel your account, and go play something safer, like checkers.
MarineBoy,
You seem to be comparing EVE to level based games. EVE is all about cooperation and skills, not self improvement through leveling a character. Corporations are the best way to experience EVE. In a coporation, you team with other players who support you in various activities. I do not think it is really possible for a single player to build or buy a Titan or even a Carrier without the support of a coporation. And there is nothing like PvP in a corporate battle with a Field Commader barking orders and calling primaries. A newbie player can contribute to these battles as the more experienced players are primaried first.
As to camping jump gates, this is a valid military strategy. When moving forces, there is always a choke point whether it is crossing bridges, going through a pass, or traveling across a desert. EVE simulates this war strategy with jump gates. However, more and more arial transport of forces is also a war strategy for those armies that have the technology. EVE simulates this with the use of the self-jumping ships and use of jump portals.
EVE does allow for excapes from siege warfare with the use of new technologies. A player can stay in a station indefinitely without the need for supplies. EVE introduced the technology of Jump Clones, allowing a player to jump to another station anywhere in the galaxy. However, sieging a system is still a military option when taking control of the solar system and transfering its sovereignty to the attacking force.
In my experince, no other MMO gets so close to actual warfare. Perhaps this is the reason many military trained people play the game.
(T)Hank(s)