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EVE Online Review: Apocrypha Review - Edit
8.7
Great
| Pros |
 
|
 A skill queue that takes the annoyance out of training short skills. Four new, customizable ships. Improved character creation and tutorials for new players. New graphical effects. Thousands of new |
| Cons |
 Only one Epic Mission Arc avaliable at the moment. Sleeper/Wormhole content isn't that accessible for solo players. |
Once you're done with one, or all of the career mission arcs, the agent will point you in the direction of the Sisters of Eve Bureau located in the Arnon solar system, and it is here that you can find the agent for the very first Epic Mission Arc. Missions in EVE are seen as something to be grinded through, completed, and salvaged as fast as possible, with many players making almost all of their money from running these missions exclusively. The Epic Mission Arc is, hopefully, a sign of CCP taking a different approach to the mission system.
"The Blood-Stained Stars" takes you through dozens of missions that are linked by one big narrative, with a couple of "branch points" that let you choose different paths through the story. Currently, there is only one Epic Arc in the game; it's very much an extended introduction of the EVE universe, and is aimed at younger players. It takes you through the space of the four main factions as you work for various agents, and each mission description usually provides you with little bits of information or history about New Eden. This won't be very attractive to players that only see missions in terms of money per hour, but it should be interesting for solo players that just want to cruise through the universe, and there are some cool sights to see on your journey. It's a nice prototype to show off what the Epic Arc system can do and hopefully we'll see more of them in the future.
The graphical updates and additions to the New Player Experience are a substantial part of this patch, but, at its core, Apocrypha is the exploration expansion. There's the new scanning system, which gives players a more intuitive, graphical interface to use when scanning down cosmic signatures, and the number of exploration sites has also been doubled. Amongst the various hidden asteroid belts and pirate bases there are also the new wormhole anomalies. Wormholes are quite possibly the biggest change to the landscape of EVE that has ever occurred. These randomly spawning gateways link to other solar systems (also at random), and can even lead to one of the thousands of new unknown systems that have also been added. Players will need to tread carefully though, as the wormholes will collapse after a certain ship mass or time limit has been reached, leaving them "lost in space" until they can find another exit. Inside, there are a whole host of exploration sites that contain, amongst other things, the artifacts and materials to build the new tech three Strategic Cruisers.
;)
The four Strategic Cruisers function a little different than other ships. Instead of buying a single ship hull, there is a base hull with slots for five different subsystems (electronics, engineering, offensive, defensive, and propulsion) that affect the stats and abilities of the ship. This allows you to tailor the ship to specific roles, and they can only get more diverse as new subsystems are released. Although, at the moment, there are only three versions of the five systems for each of the four races, but a fourth one is already in development. However, if you want the resources to build them, then you'll need to fight the guardians of unknown space, the deadly Sleepers.
These enigmatic drones are something we haven't seen before. They are very dangerous, and they don't like you. It's no secret that the NPC AI in EVE isn't that great, and the Sleepers are using a brand new AI system that makes them much more challenging to fight. They can web and scramble targets from long range, switch targets intelligently, and repair each other. Their damage and tanking abilities are also high enough that it takes teamwork to bring down all but the easiest of Sleeper spawns.
;)
With wormhole space, CCP has created tiny pockets of lawless 0.0 space for players to dip their toes into, and built a system around them that's open enough for players to interact with in their own way. Everyone can get involved in WH space, from miners to pirates, and it's not tied to any specific region. The weeks since the release of Apocrypha have been full of the stories that make EVE great, tales of heroic success and unfortunate tragedy as expeditions run into Sleepers, or each other.
With the revamped New Player Experience making EVE more accessible, I want to give Apocrypha a higher score, but it's clear that it will take time for the success of some of the bigger features to become apparent. Will Strategic Cruisers become more than just a toy for rich players? As I write this, the handful of parts that are available on the market are stupidly expensive. Is the flurry of activity in wormhole space just a "gold rush" that will end soon? If tech three is a flop then the incentive to go exploring through wormholes will drop substantially. Whatever happens, there is one thing we can be sure of: nothing has changed New Eden like Apocrypha.
The big "con" is definitely the group-only-ness of the wormhole systems. Aside from the fact you can get ganked by players, the sleepers themselves can do the job just as well, so what does that mean? You have to bring in overwhelming firepower. Like usual. It isn't that the AI is vastly improved. Its just harder to kill and uses a few tricks that the old AI didn't. There isn't any "skill" involved in fighting them, you just have to have enough people to tank the damage and dish the damage. Like before, except it requires a lot more people.
Just what Eve didn't need. More empty group oriented zones.
Aside from all that, the question has to be asked: "Why go there at all?"
1) Tech 3 cruisers? Heh. Not worth it, even if they were cheap. Sure you can min/max them more than a normal one, but they're still cruisers. And who's gonna use them for pvp when they cost billions and aren't that much better than a ship that cost a few million?
2) Mining? Nope. The dangers involved in moving a mining operation into WH space are too great to justify the effort. Why mine veldspar in WH space when you can mine it in safety in High-Sec?
3) Exploration sites? Well, again, they're surrounded by sleepers who'll roast your exploration ship in seconds, so what's the point here?
That's about all there is to do, unless you're just looking to gank someone.
I've only played the Eve trial a few times before, and the learning curve was quite ridiculous, so I may give it another whirl here pretty soon. I had heard about Eve devs making a system for exploring out of your ship, with your player-character. Did that not make it into this expansion?
I realize if something that big had made it in it would have been mentioned in this review, but you never know.
It's called "WIS" walking in stations ;)... and no, its "sometime this year".
Walking in station, now i have Earth and Beyond feedbacks !
The new player experience is actually much worse than the old one.
The first thing It asks you to do is go kill something, but neglects to tell you how to warp, how to approach how to orbit or any of those basics. A few friends of mine have tried it, I thought id just let them to it and see how far they get. Most couldnt figure out how to kill the first Rat.
WHspace is fun and different, the skill really is figuring out how to tank them, and they swap targets all the time so you have to be carfeull. CCP Said "Wspace represents a place of greater risks and greater rewards" Well, they got half of that statement correct, you can actually get more rewards farming misisons in safe space.
But as usual CCP waive their hands and give us the "talk to the hand" routine
Yeh the new player experience I found to be much worse and the character creation wasn't all that different apart from you don't have control over your attributes anymore. I didn't see the problem with the old system because it explained it to you and people who have played WoW and coming over to EVE or any RPG get what attributes mean without reading. I also found that it takes you much longer to get into the game now than it ever did before because you basically start off with jack shit and that put my mate off from coming back and trying the game. The actual character creation is still as shit as ever though all the characters look ugly or gay and I really hope they change it soon because it doesn't do the game any favours. The removal of the voice on the tutorial is also really dumb because I liked just listening to her before so I didn't have to read wlals of text.
I have no problem with having to group in Workhole space because you have to group everywhere else anyways. CCP have created a group only game where soloing is tedious and very boring. What CCP need to do however is make it easier to find a good corp in game cause most people don't even go to the forums. I have no interest going to the horrible community at them forums and I have no interest in talking on EVE's in game chat because they are morons there too.
Erm....
EvEs community here dont like you because you flame them at every chance you get, calling us morons and idiots, gankers, griefers, lamers, nutjobs, etc. You expect a warm welcome after that?
Solo is doable in EvE, grab a tech 1 cruiser, head out to lowsec and pump that scanner. You'll learn or die. You i think will take the second option, then run to the forums and whine about it for a few weeks before flaming the people trying to help you with advice and even the nice person offering you money. Sounds somehow familiar.
The new expansion is good, tech3 stuff i think we still need to wait on until people actually have the ships to lose, but the exploration system changes are pure win, not tried out the new player experience but apparently its a lot easier now. As far as the box rerelease goes, I think CCP have been let down by Atari, not many places seem to want to stock a "5 year old game" or give it prominent shelf space.
The 1.1 patch coming soon promises to be awesome, a load of tweaks (including black ops buffs) which put together can only spell W-I-N. I for one welcome my newly "nerfed" falcon overlords with shield buffered blaster fits. My new favorite solo ship.
Oh wait, you cant solo eve, its too hard. (lol)
both you and the poster above yours dont know what your talking about. It really shines to see how you do not realize the huge difference from before and to what it is now.
Before you wasted alot of time creating your char if you wanted to be the best caldari fighter at start you were FORCED to choose the new race introduced to caldari in order to start with the best stats to becomming a fighter. If you didnt like how your char looked you were stuck with it due to the fact that that race had the BEST stat layout. Also you as a new player were also FORCED to check websites on HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT FIGHTER FOR EACH FACTION. you had to know what options to choose to make the right pilot.
This was utterly frustrating for new players as they had to spend time doing other things to get their char right. the new char creation is utterly quick and effective. you get to choose the race of each faction of your liking you can finally make a char from the start that is not gimped ect. it works perfectly.
As for the skills. New players were overwhelmed on how to start out their chars learning after making em. they had a shitload of useless skills for their chars. All they did was simply the choices to narrow down what path you wanted to choose. THATS NOT ALL. What you failed to mention is that NEW CHARS NOW LEARN 2 TIMES FASTER THAN BEFORE. so in the long run you can quickly learn your skills and get the skills that actually matter. you can quickly dive into learning and grab every skill book and learn em all. The tutorial will give you about 1 mil isk if you finish your carrer path (more to that in a bit) since you get 2 stat changers at the start if you plan to be a fighter you can easly take all the points off charisma and other stats and put them where you need them thus focusing all your points to what you want to learn. On top of quick learning youll get those wep skills and flying skills very quickly.
As for the tutorial. Did you guys actually read it. how it will even give you links to the wiki? No you damn didnt because it covers everything. when you finish the 1st tutorial and the tutorial agent quest your given 3 paths. each path will bring the tutorial up again when it is needed she will once again explain you very important things as you progress thru your carreer path. Once you finish your career path you have the option to do the other 2. this is effective to make even more money. also you get to learn how to manufacture , mine and other things all this is explained very well in this new tutorial.
each path gives you more books to learn ect and information comes when you need it, this is better off than before the patch that after the tutorial you were left on your own. you finish a path and your given a direction to the next agent ect. this is very nice for new players.
Notice if you make a new char you have the option to start docked which is the default choice and the other is to start undocked.
if you start in the station the tutorial TELLS YOU ABOUT HOW TO WARP ect. the 2nd option is more for those who know.
was never made for solo players and i hope will bee that way
was never made for solo players and i hope will bee that way
Indeed, it'll be empty and useless. My friends have all stopped going in. The excitement has worn off. The sleepers drop junk loot, risk is far greater than reward, the scanning issues of having 30 returns all clumped next to each other suck, and tech 3 cruisers aren't worth it.
It's kinda like faction warfare. A complete and utter bust.
CCP keeps trying to drive "victims" into the PvP playing field, but the "victims" don't want to go. So all you end up with is the odd pirate/griefer fleet trying to gank some newb (as usual) who wants to explore WH space.
CCP expanded "space" by 42%! Too bad it'll be as "used" as most of 0.0, which is to say, it isn't.
on the test server, they've solved the clumping issues, anything you've scanned to 100% you can exclude from scans.
carebears in scared of pvp nonshock?
EVE sounded fun, but I was never really enticed enough to try it. Now I just might...
Eve still sounds like a whole lot of work to play. How can it appeal to casual players when the PvP environment is so ruthless?
Simple, casual players can still progress. Ill never be as rich as my hardcore friends but with skill and a decent fit and plan, i can beat them.
also, theres nothing better than coming back from a month long hiatus to a brand new ship.
easy
you grind skills while you sleep. I play maybe 2 hours a night, got a full time job and kids. I have no problem grinding some isk nightly, and pvping once in a while. We run lvl 4 missions, mining runs with corp, and are looking now for a 0 sec alliance. I have close to 600million isk...own a well fitted harbinger and abaddon. 1 level 4 mission i make (with 6 others in fleet) about 5 mil. Or i go ratting in low sec make about 4 mil a night. Go pvp, you can make even more money looted your opponents :D
<-- 6 month old toon
and wormhole space is non lucrative? since when? gas clouds, hack sites, salvage sites, even npcs in there make you a crapload of money. Especially since almost all the T3 stuff is found in wormhole space, those things sell for mucho isk.
Indeed, it'll be empty and useless. My friends have all stopped going in. The excitement has worn off. The sleepers drop junk loot, risk is far greater than reward, the scanning issues of having 30 returns all clumped next to each other suck, and tech 3 cruisers aren't worth it.
It's kinda like faction warfare. A complete and utter bust.
CCP keeps trying to drive "victims" into the PvP playing field, but the "victims" don't want to go. So all you end up with is the odd pirate/griefer fleet trying to gank some newb (as usual) who wants to explore WH space.
CCP expanded "space" by 42%! Too bad it'll be as "used" as most of 0.0, which is to say, it isn't.
We got the fact the first time you badmouthed the changes that you did not like it. Posting again with the same whine just makes you a whiner who obviously can't be bothered learning something new. Just to let you know, the sleepers drop tech 3 items that sell very well.
My corpmates and I have spent most of the past few weeks in the worm hole areas and we have done very well, far better than fooling around in high sec for sure, probably made more than if we were doing runs in 0.0 too.
So just because you and your friends are too lazy to learn the new areas does not mean the rest of us aren't having a blast with them. Maybe you should find another game that does not challenge your intellect.
Oh and the new player experience is far far better than the old one. You obviously have not tried it, because it is a much better method of teaching someone how to play the game.
Indeed, it'll be empty and useless. My friends have all stopped going in. The excitement has worn off. The sleepers drop junk loot, risk is far greater than reward, the scanning issues of having 30 returns all clumped next to each other suck, and tech 3 cruisers aren't worth it.
It's kinda like faction warfare. A complete and utter bust.
CCP keeps trying to drive "victims" into the PvP playing field, but the "victims" don't want to go. So all you end up with is the odd pirate/griefer fleet trying to gank some newb (as usual) who wants to explore WH space.
CCP expanded "space" by 42%! Too bad it'll be as "used" as most of 0.0, which is to say, it isn't.
We got the fact the first time you badmouthed the changes that you did not like it. Posting again with the same whine just makes you a whiner who obviously can't be bothered learning something new. Just to let you know, the sleepers drop tech 3 items that sell very well.
My corpmates and I have spent most of the past few weeks in the worm hole areas and we have done very well, far better than fooling around in high sec for sure, probably made more than if we were doing runs in 0.0 too.
So just because you and your friends are too lazy to learn the new areas does not mean the rest of us aren't having a blast with them. Maybe you should find another game that does not challenge your intellect.
Oh and the new player experience is far far better than the old one. You obviously have not tried it, because it is a much better method of teaching someone how to play the game.
We got the fact that you're a fanboy and that apocrypha is the perfect expansion with nothing wrong with it the first time you posted, so why bore us again with your drivel about how wonderful it is a second time round?
Sure, if you play non-stop with a corp of people who play non-stop WH space may be as lucrative as high-sec mining veldspar, but if you don't... well.... its not.
Considering that I live in A Class 5 wormhole system I can tell you the rewards are there, NPC battleships with 5+ mill bounties (note that the bounties for Sleepers come like Navy rats with sellable tags) . The belts are nice and full, and you can make quite a bit off of gas mining and regular mining by itsself. The combat can be damn hard against the sleepers and against players with a tactical enviroment you can really through them for a loop. with things like being able to perma jam a Battleship with a single ECm module.
Sure, if you play non-stop with a corp of people who play non-stop WH space may be as lucrative as high-sec mining veldspar, but if you don't... well.... its not.
Apocrypha is the best expansion EVE has put out in the 4 years I have been playing. As for WH space, some of the criticisms listed are true, but on the other side it has opened up literarily tons of new exploration sites. These sites are worth allot of isk for both groups and solo players.
We got the fact the first time you badmouthed the changes that you did not like it. Posting again with the same whine just makes you a whiner who obviously can't be bothered learning something new. Just to let you know, the sleepers drop tech 3 items that sell very well.
My corpmates and I have spent most of the past few weeks in the worm hole areas and we have done very well, far better than fooling around in high sec for sure, probably made more than if we were doing runs in 0.0 too.
So just because you and your friends are too lazy to learn the new areas does not mean the rest of us aren't having a blast with them. Maybe you should find another game that does not challenge your intellect.
Oh and the new player experience is far far better than the old one. You obviously have not tried it, because it is a much better method of teaching someone how to play the game.
We got the fact that you're a fanboy and that apocrypha is the perfect expansion with nothing wrong with it the first time you posted, so why bore us again with your drivel about how wonderful it is a second time round?
Sure, if you play non-stop with a corp of people who play non-stop WH space may be as lucrative as high-sec mining veldspar, but if you don't... well.... its not.
Excuse me, I am laughing at your paltry income if you are mining veldspar in high sec. Actually I work full time and also go to school, plus have time for a social life, so I don't have time to play Eve that much. You are just jealous someone is having fun in the new expansion, while you can't figure out how to.
EVE actually is very casual friendly. Partially because the skill system allows you to progress while being offline, partially because combat in EVE can be very efficient even at a "low" (read: cheap) level.
A tech 1 frigate with some named fitting can cost less than a million to fit (a new player can easily make 200k an hour ratting "safely" in highsec, or making a million an hour running low level missions), and can still be good enough to both join the huge fleets, or to solo certain ships in low sec (just stay away from 0.0 solo, unless in better ships, as you'll get caught in bubbles).
Another benefit is that EVE has a few elements that lets you log off even when you are near combat. One option is just simply to dock up in a station. Another to cloak up. Alot of players have wife, kids, etc, so if you just say "gotta sleep, work/school" tomorrow, people will say nn/bye. Unlike in other games where you break a raid/group by just disappearing.
I'm a fulltime gamer myself, playing multiple MMO's since.. the dawn on these games. And I think it's safe to say that EVE is the most casual friendly, and RL forgiving game I've played. You can be useful in cheap ships, noone needs to access the 'endgame', noone flames you for logging off when RL calls, and you don't have to spend hours and hours griding experience, level up skills, or standings with factions.
And we get the fact that you are a WoWbot hater so your opinion counts for very little dont it?
Works both ways buddy
And we get the fact that you are a WoWbot hater so your opinion counts for very little dont it?
Works both ways buddy
Ooooh sick burn!
Mymh thank you for pointing out something that most people do not seem to get. While a lot of players seem to ahve no life outside their game the majority of us have families and a real social life that can make demands on us at inconvient times for gaming. Your post is spot on to this point.
To the reviewer, this is seriosuly one of the best and most accurate reviews I have seen done on this site. Nice to see a reviewer that actually seems to spend time playing the game.
the game looks so much fun, but its reaally had to start. I'll be playing DFO
We got the fact the first time you badmouthed the changes that you did not like it. Posting again with the same whine just makes you a whiner who obviously can't be bothered learning something new. Just to let you know, the sleepers drop tech 3 items that sell very well.
My corpmates and I have spent most of the past few weeks in the worm hole areas and we have done very well, far better than fooling around in high sec for sure, probably made more than if we were doing runs in 0.0 too.
So just because you and your friends are too lazy to learn the new areas does not mean the rest of us aren't having a blast with them. Maybe you should find another game that does not challenge your intellect.
Oh and the new player experience is far far better than the old one. You obviously have not tried it, because it is a much better method of teaching someone how to play the game.
We got the fact that you're a fanboy and that apocrypha is the perfect expansion with nothing wrong with it the first time you posted, so why bore us again with your drivel about how wonderful it is a second time round?
Sure, if you play non-stop with a corp of people who play non-stop WH space may be as lucrative as high-sec mining veldspar, but if you don't... well.... its not.
dude your full of it big time.
wormhole space is a constant battle. oh even people move there now, take a small pos, drop some ships in it and get rdy to not only harvest the area but defend themselves from others who discover a way into that space via another wormhole
the corp im in went with 6 people to one . we netted more than 1 bil isk in drops alone. we were driven out but we made our good share of isk.
your just wahhh wahh because you cannot solo it.... cry some more oh
go back to wow. yeah i damn said it you poor poor carebear.
I play EVE, im Commander Darren and i do love my Vindicater ship, im Gallente and i have a few friends on it, but i must say STO's customisableness is winning me over, and EVE can be a little to slow sometimes on learning skills etc esp when you have played it a while like i have, at least in STO, you can see the progress and not have to wait for it ..
Ill have to wait and see how STO goes but im sure it will be amazing.
"Group-only-ness"?
I am a prime example of a person who solos not only class 3 wormholes but class 6!!! DUN DUN DUuuuuuuuN!! And it's called blitzing it's not the same blitzing you do with missions because these guys have incredible tracking. Please don't rid me of my skills CCP! It's the only way an explorer like me can make a living without having many friends online.
So I don't know what you're talking about but I can go into wormholes and do whatever CCP wanted me to do and more SOLO! DUN DUN DUuuuuuUUuuUUUN!
"Group-only-ness"?
I am a prime example of a person who solos not only class 3 wormholes but class 6!!! DUN DUN DUuuuuuuuN!! And it's called blitzing it's not the same blitzing you do with missions because these guys have incredible tracking. Please don't rid me of my skills CCP! It's the only way an explorer like me can make a living without having many friends online.
So I don't know what you're talking about but I can go into wormholes and do whatever CCP wanted me to do and more SOLO! DUN DUN DUuuuuuUUuuUUUN!
Dude send me a freaking forum mail with your ship and fittings capable of soloing a Class 6 lol.
I don't really explore like that (mostly just ur regular combat sites when I get bored) but I'm really interested in knowing what you use lol.
I read about T3 ships soloing Class 4 but 6 sounds crazy.