PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download,Retail | Retail Price:$29.99 | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
| ESRB:T
At A Glance: EVE 14 Day Trial
At A Glance articles are designed to give readers an accurate overview of an MMO's free trial. For two weeks, Laura Genender has been playing in EVE Online and today, she shares her experiences with us.
Starting off on my first day in EVE I felt like a 7th grader who, by some error of the education system, had been transferred into senior year of high school. I was alone, very small, and quite unprepared for my future – all I had to my name was a lonely little pod, a handful of skills, and a very stubborn nature.
14 days ago, I downloaded EVE Online and registered for the trial. All the feedback and activity on our forums about this somewhat eccentric Sci-Fi game eventually ate away at my curiosity, and brought me to the game’s official website. I jumped into the game with a fairly casual attitude, choosing my race more by flavor text and appearance than anything practical – the EVE website has a (perhaps overly) thorough starter’s guide, but with only 14 days to explore, I wanted to shoot, not read! I decided that the in-game tutorial by my helpful electronic assistant Aura would be more than enough. Of course, at this point, I didn’t understand how important my somewhat hastily made character decisions were – I didn’t even know that different races piloted different ships!
That’s how I found myself sitting in my Ibis (the Caldari starter frigate) somewhere near Kisogo. I had some general knowledge of how to progress my character and how to pilot my ship, plus a courier mission sending me on to my first NPC agent, but not much else. I was a strawberry blond, and looked sort of like the girl from Spiderman. My cargo bay was full of Veldspar, one of the most common unrefined ores.
The sheer size of the game world was overwhelming; when your waypoints start measuring themselves in Astronomical Units (149,598,000 kilometers each), you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. Even in my little starter system, Kisogo, I found myself warping up to 18.7 AU to reach a destination.
And that’s just one system. EVE’s world is made up of hundreds of systems.
I decided that the only way I’d get anywhere was to think small and focus on my progress, so I set to work on my tutorial missions and earned myself ISK (the game’s currency), skill books, and even a pair of new frigates. While traveling around space I browsed the ship and weapons markets to decide what it was I wanted to do, and what kind of ship I wanted to fly.
;)
There are a ton of ship options. The starter ships are frigate class ships – they’re cheap, which is great, and each race gets about 5 frigate choices with varying purposes. Some are great PvE ships, with long distance missiles or strong armor; some have larger cargo holds for beginning mining, and some are quick and excel at “tackling” in PvP (I’ll explain tackling later in this article).
After piloting a frigate, players normally move on to destroyers. These ships are fairly flimsy and don’t have many missile options, but they have a bunch of turrets and are basically the anti-frigate ship in PvE or PvP. There are dozens of ship options which determine what role you play and what strategies you use in PvE and PvP. I won’t go into all of them, but it’s very, very… varied – some ships have speed, some can snipe from great distances; some have specialties like cloaking or the ability to drop anti-warp bubbles. Every day I had a new “goal ship”; it was impossible to pick one.
Through browsing, I also learned that ships weren’t race-specific but it helped to be a Minmatar when flying a Minmatar ship. Your starter skills in Ship Command and Gunnery are geared to your race’s specialties; to fly another race’s ship, even at the very beginning, would take at least a day of skill training and multiple days to become proficient at it. Unfortunately, I am a woman of great indecision. While my native Caldari ships had a lot of range with either missiles or turrets, the Minmatar ships had the speed and I like speed. I decided to spend a day training up basic Minmatar skills so I could try both ship types and decide which I liked.
;)
Moving from my Caldari Merlin to my Minmatar Rifter, I lost a lot of shielding and distance, but gained a lot of that speed that I’d been craving. The Rifter is also one of the best PvP frigates, and I decided to check out the PvP world with an in-game friend I had met while running faction missions. There are three areas of space in EVE: Hi-Sec (high security), Lo-Sec (low security) and No-Sec (you’re on your own, buddy). While I wasn’t quite ready for No-Sec, my buddy brought me out to Lo-Sec space and taught me how to tackle.
Tackling is a beginning PvP technique where you basically bum-rush the enemy. EVE wars are always wars of attrition – the goal of each battle is to waste as much money as possible from your opponent’s team. This means blowing up the big, fancy, expensive ships…not the little cheap Rifters like me. My job was to equip a webber (a gun that debuffs the enemy’s speed) and a warp scrambler (a gun that prevents the enemy from warping away). I had to get close enough to my enemy to scramble it, then web it so my team could kill it and it couldn’t get away. Sadly, our Lo-Sec explorations were fruitless and I never had the chance to tackle an enemy.
I returned to running missions and eventually earned enough ISK and skill points to pilot a destroyer. As mentioned above, this ship is great at taking out frigates. As most of the level 1 missions are full of frigates, I was able to coast through endless missions, gaining agent and cooperation standing – but it was pretty boring. I decided to find myself a corporation to keep me company.
Looking for a corporation as a newbie is tough. First of all, most of the corps that were remotely interested in my membership were a little trashy. Everyone I spoke to asked me whose alt I was, and I felt like my search was hopeless. Then, lo and behold, someone in the recruitment channel recommends me to a corporation school.
;)
Some of the larger corporations, as well as some independent universities, provided university corps for new players to learn the game. Some of these were casual groups of people willing to answer questions – others (like the one I joined) were more hardcore, and actually had scheduled classes and homework (ew, assigned reading!). Newbies are fairly cheap to upkeep, and this benefited the big corps for recruitment purposes. They could watch us little guys and pick out those of us who had potential.
The university gang was extremely friendly, and explained a lot of the nuances that Aura (remember, that’s the tutorial’s name) just couldn’t handle. For example, why was everyone asking me whose alt I was? As mentioned before, wars in EVE are all about attrition, and this is not limited to the battlefield. One popular technique in war-time was spying on or sabotaging your enemy. Make a new character and get access to another corp’s corp chat, or earn their trust and then rob their coffers blind. Everyone in EVE is automatically suspicious of new players.
The corporation also helped me out with ship decisions, and getting started on level 2 missions. They recommended I move into a cruiser once I had the required skills, and here I not only had missiles and turrets but I got access to my first drones!
Drones are the pets of EVE – small AI ships that are under your command (approach my target, attack my target, return to bay, return and orbit, etc.). My specific cruiser did not have a large drone bay, but playing around with one or two of them was endlessly amusing.
And this is where my first look at EVE ends. It’s a massively immersive world, with so many choices and options that there’s always something to do. It’s very, very hard to break in, and sometimes feels like a hopeless task; in a game where skill training is based on time, how do you keep up with the Joneses who’ve been playing for multiple years?
Still, the game has plenty of saving graces: you don’t have to mine, or fight, or trade – you can pick what you want to do, and what you don’t. Heck, you even have choice within your field…if your specific ship type isn’t needed, you can go hop in another ship (which is far preferable to class-restrictions in many MMOs, in my opinion). The community is cutthroat and war-hardened, yet there are also those pockets of nice, helpful people who make a “career” out of teaching and helping new players. I enjoyed my first look at EVE, and I’m sure it won’t be my last!
i am glad you liked it. i hope you are patient enough to get through the first weeks of not knowing exactly what the game is about and build a great career.
Laura, I am glad you enjoyed the game and gave it a fair shot. Eve is very complex, and only getting moreso with each patch. While it may seem impossible to catch up with those who have played for years, do not despair, you can be almost as good skillwise and get even better with practice handling your ship.
Each skill has 2 numbers, the skill level, and the skill rank (multiplier). Each level takes 5 times longer to progress than the one before it, and the multiplier is applied to the number of skillpoints. A rank 1 skill requires 250 skillpoints to reach Level 1 from 0, a rank 5 skill will require 1250 skillpoints to get to the same point. Rank 1 L2 will take 1250 to reach, but Rank 5 L2 will take 6250 points. Each level might only add a 2-20% increase in ability, and if you just train a bunch of skills to L4 you will get very good in a fraction of the time someone aiming for L5 will.
In this way, you can become very effective with veterans, good enough to compete and overcome them assuming equal gear.
It's when you get to advanced ships and skills that you have to max skills at L5. If you train up Learning skills, you will raise your attributes and gain more skillpoints in less time. It's highly recommended that you pick a path to specialize on, and train for it. You can always change your mind later. I also recommend training up the core skills for each category. These are rank 1 skills that take little time to train up, but will benefit all ships that you fly.
I'll agree that EVE has to be approached from a different perspective. As the saying goes "EVE is la a sand box with land mines, deal with it". But if you give yourself time, engage the community and keep at it, the reward is truly great.
All in all, a great review Laura!
Really good and cool game..
you can get a 2 weeks free
playing pass at www.eve-offline.nl
also more then 100 guides tools and other things..
I lovvve this game
Also, for the carebears among us (carebear pride!) Eve provides an arbitrarily deep economic game. You can specialize in things like trading on the open markets, with skills that allow you larger numbers of open trades and larger ranges of those trades being available. Some people seem never to do anything but mine ore, refine ore, and haul ore -- others get into manufacturing, inventing (developing elite technology items), or even odd little niches like salvager or archaeologist.
As you note, in the PvP game (which is really almost RvR, with huge alliances of corporations [like guilds] struggling over vast areas of fringe space) has many roles also. Tanks, electronic warfare, fast harrier ships, you name it.
But one of the joys of this game for me, in addition to the wide-open skill system is the graphics. If you love the Hubble, you will peace out on the graphics, even as you pod your enemies! :)
There's just not enough time in 14 days to really get to know the game, but maybe that's enough time to get the barest taste for it. I think when I'd been playing 14 days, I'd barely figured out which parts of the game were NPC based and which were player created -- which is a lot.
Eve can be a thinking person's game. The women I meet who play are tough (you have to be to deal with the largely testosterone-dominated chat), smart, savvy, solution-oriented -- and can make fairly complex calculations jump hoops in their heads, often enough. This is a game where I tend to meet more folks who are engineers and such in real life than any game I've played.
The economy is so complex that CCP actually has a full time economist on staff.
It's worth noting, btw, if you are thinking of making the commitment, that since you can only train one character per account at any one time, CCP is encouraging people to get 2nd accounts. "The Power of 2" gets you a 2nd account for $49.95 for 6 months.
If you'd like more info, a 14 day pass (fishing for referrals, so shoot me...:), pointers to some great sites for more information (eve-online.com being not the be-all-end-all of sites -- there's *far* more info on the fansites, and not the usual constellation of 10tonhammer et al), drop me a message on this board and I'll hook you up.
Yrs,
Shava
That was a good review!
Good article, but I feel the need to clarify the one big misconception about "how can a new player ever catch up to a veteran since skill points train in real time". Well, of course you never will, but what few fail to realize is... you don't need to.
For every ship in EVE, be it a Cruiser, Battleship Stealth Bomber or Dreadnaught, there is a finite number of skills that you need to fly it from a basic, effective and maximum perspective.
Let's make up an arbitrary example for a Stealth Bomber (A ship I fly effectively now, after 5 months of gameplay)
Your typical Stealth Bomber probably needs about 20 skills to fly in a most basic manner, 30 skills to fly effectively and 40 skills would cover every possible skill you'd ever need to fly one as total expert.
As mentioned previously, skills have 5 levels to them........and due to the fact that training between levels 4 and 5 always takes a long time (anywhere from 3 days to 60 days) no one (not even the vets) trains them to level 5 unless its a requirement to get another skill. (i.e to fly Stealth Bombers you must have Frigates 5)
The skill bonuses between levels is usually quite small, anywhere from 2% to 5%.... so even if you were to run into someone who went nuts and became the supreme SB pilot of all time....his skills would only be 5% better overall than anyone else who only trained to level 4. And trust me....5% better does not outweigh the fact that in most fights, he who shoots first and hardest, wins.....
Right now, after 5 months of play, I can fly a SB almost as well (from strictly a skill point perspective) as the leader of my Corp...and in another month... I'll have him matched almost skill for skill, level for level...and he's been playing EVE for almost 2.5 years.
Difference is... I can only fly Caldari Stealth Bombers...while he can fly both Caldari and Mimitar SB's. He can also fly a Dreadnaught, 2 races of Battleships, recon ships (something I'll start flying at the end of my 6 month) and Heavy Assault cruisers.
With my skills I'm limited right now to one race of Stealth Bomber, Ratting (PVE) Battleships (not fitted for PVP yet, but I have an alt that will be flying those within a month)
To sum up this long post.... right now my corporation needs me to fly Stealth Bombers...and I'm am fully capable of doing so in only 6 months of gameplay. If you were to specialize more you can get to this point even quicker, however if you are new to EVE and don't plan on trading timecards for ISK than you will have to do the same as I did and train to fly a PvE ratting ship, or train up some mining or trading skills as well.
While it is true my Corp CEO can fly many more ships than I can, neither they nor I need me to be able to do the same to be effective in 0.0 PVP raids and I'm getting my share of kills and killmails... ..
A bigger issue for me now is that my ship is more skilled than I am.....there is a real trick to flying one well in every situation, and I made some mistakes last evening while camping a station that got me caught by a couple of interceptors as I tried to take flight....... and boom..... back to the station in my pod I went.
Wait till next time....
Oh yes, and to those who say, "I'm not waiting 6 months to get to the fun"...... while its true EVE requires a level of patience not seen in many newer games today, I assure you, I've been having a great time getting to this point....the journey does matter......
Nice introduction into the game, yu didn't get mortified by all the windows, options, panels, boxes, bars, menus and whatnot - that is A LOT! ;)
Great to hear you enjoyed your experience in-game and the game itself. The mechanics are dificult to learn, not to mention masteting them, but if one gives EVE a shot and finds it good... you will stay ;)
Again great to see such a decent and fair article, great to have you in the New Eden!
@ Kyleran. 5% might be the difference between 1/5th and 1/4th ..which means something might fit now, that previously didn't. Even if you only gain 1 point because of that 5%, you might just be able to fit another Coprocessor and upgrade your systems by 10%. So the last skill, is definitely not useless, you just have to decide whether it's worth it for you to spend time and virtually make no progress for a month.
I have been playing Eve for just under 2 yrs and one thing i have found in 0.0(no holds bared) space is that we need those newer guys in frigates to tackle. there is no need to spend 6 months training to be effective in pvp.
Whenever we get someone with 1 month or less under their belt we direct them into small fast ships capable of holding just about anything down so the heavy hitters can kill them. this role is completely nessesary, even with interdictors around.
So don't think you need 6 months or 3 yrs before you are in a role that is effective.. Us heavy hitters would not get any kills without the noob tackler buzzing around with a warp scrambler.
eritalker.
I play 2 years Eve,today is easy for beginning.I am create new alt and progres in making isk is speed.Before isk newer to be enough for new players.
Very nice rewiew!
First off, a well-written review, with none of the usual "this is way too hard to be a game"-comment you sometimes get from less patient reviewers.
Those who already play the game, will probably agree with what I am about to say to those who have not played the game (yet).
No review can ever do justice to a game. If you're remotely interested, do yourself a favor and try EVE out.
One of the game's strongest features, from a customer standpoint, is the fact that CCP has managed to provide new content and expand the game world since the game came out. Now there are problems, balance issues, nerfs, bugs, crashes and unscheduled server outages,.
BUT because CCP is dependant on EVE, they have an incentive to keep the game running. A sense of urgency permiates the company when it comes to serious issues, and you get the destinct impression that they actually understand the customer/business relationship (unlike some other distributors I could mention).
Natually, there are ex-customers and banned players that will tell you the exact opposite, and they may be right, but I still think the overall grades for EVE (since retail) should be:
Technical stuff: 8.5/10
Development: 9/10
Community support: 8/10
Value: 8.5/10
Hello,
i was often thinking about returning to EVE.
I didnt because because i wasnt able to figure out the so beloved "pricing USD/EUR" issue so far, but i would like to bring it up again so CCP gets aware that this is still holding potential customers back from subscribing:
Considering the current USD/EUR conversion and the fact that euopean customers get VAT charged (included), the game is still more expensive for european customers compared to USA citizens.
I know all the arguements like life-index costs etc etc etc.
Just wanted to mention without getting again into a 9876 times discussed issue.
The second thing holding back my resubscription is, that CCP is charging the first month of resubscription with 19.95 EUR, then following up with 14,95 EUR monthly.
So far i thought its ME getting "something" for spending my money again to iceland.
Im a bit "distracted" that i have to PAY to enter the "welcome back" gate to EVE....seems a bit wrong to me.
Anyway, maybe you (CCP) are reading this and think again about the policy to make customers PAY for their comeback - it sounds very wrong to me.
Besides from that, im waiting for the avatar/groundgame expansion (working title "ambulation") which gives a social aspect im missing way to much in the game so far - but thats just my playstyle which (of course) isnt valid for everyone - like any1 can see: Eve has a 200.000 + subscriptionbase which is pretty nice !
A very nice article, well done. You covered the new player experience quite well.
A slight correction to your article. Eve is made up of thousands of worlds, there were 5 thousand systems before they added the new areas in 0.0, so I do not know how many there are now, but more than 5,000 for sure.
The biggest problem with Eve is there are some very nasty things some people will do to new players and it is perfectly legal.
Eve grouping is broken big time. So only group with people you know. When I mean broken, look at this scenario, you are in a group with others and one of the people in your group gets attacked, guess what you do not have the ability to attack the aggressor, he is only flagged to the person he is attacking. Now if you have remote shield or armor repair equipment fitted on your ship you can remotely repair shields or armor on your group mates ship, those devices are not considered aggression.
But you have to be very aware of aggression in this game, targeting someone is not considered aggression, only firing on them is considered aggression. In high sec Concord takes a dim view of aggressive ships and will destroy them. Only if you have a Wardec on your corporation, which is a contract with Concord to allow you to fight another corp in empire space, can you have aggression without a Concord response. Many people will attempt to make you become the aggressor so they can pick up the remains after Concord has destroyed your ship. So shooting first is not a good idea in Empire space.
I hope you continue to enjoy your time in Eve.
This post is so very true.... my first PVP role in EVE was flying a Rifter, (and this can be done almost immediately, even during your free trial) tackling for the rest of the team. I loved bombing around in it with my micro warp drive turned on.... and even when I got blown up as along as the target died I knew I'd accomplished my goal.
Finding a good Corp makes all the difference, find one that fits the play style you like, and they will get you up to speed in less than a month.
And you said something really important, focus on attainable goals first, it is too easy to try and do too much too soon.
If any brand new players are looking for help, look me up in game, I would be happy to answer your questions.
Ragmore - HedgeKnight (Caldari Pilot)
I hear people say all the time that a newb will never catch up with a veteran, but that is simply not true. I've been playing for almost 3 years as a Manufacturer, Scientist and Tradesman. Recently, I decided that I wanted to train up to fly Dreads. There's only one problem, the specific ship that I wanted required not only a baseline of skills that I didn't have, but also my character's baseline points in Memory and Perception, that I would require to be proficient at training those skills were so low, that it would literally take me LONGER to train up my 3 year old character, than simply start a new one, plug in some implants and go to town. My calculations showed that a new character with the right beginning skills, and 2 implants valued at about 17Million ISK each, would actually take almost 2 months less time to train than my existing character.
What people fail to realize is that there is such a huge variety in this game that each person can make their own career decisions and become extremely proficient at a particular niche. What's funny is that my son started playing 3 months ago, and he can already use weapons that I simply do not have the skills for, and there are other weapons that he's already more proficient at than I am. It's simply a matter of what you choose to focus on.
Yes, I LOVE my little rifter :) I'm up to a Stabber now, but I still keep my Rifter and destroyers (I have a Minmatar and a Caldari) at hand. They all have their niches, and that is great.
Nice read. Show once again that it is not so hard to get into it if you give it some time. EvE is different. Noone holds your hand. That makes it so much fun at the same time.
The eve uni guys really rock. Great service to the community.
Good review!
I would just re-iterate what some of others have said here; just because you have been playing for a few weeks doesnt mean you cant compete with the OAPs in the game. Put together a gang of 3 or 4 players and all sorts of things can happen; they can take down an old player foolish enough to be roaming around alone or go raiding in null-sec or pirating in low-sec. Eve is like no other MMO for the variety of possible activities and outcomes.
"Choose your own path in Eve and tread it joyfully!"
Just to say that Even newbs can own a 4 year vet in EvE. As my recent loss testifies!!!!
Just read the article, and this game seems fun, but just one question......do you have to pvp or is it a choice? I'm not big on the whole pvp thing, but the economics of the game seem very interesting and something that would probably enjoy. Thanks.....
No you dont HAVE to PvP. Just avoid the unsafe zones.
Been playing EVE for a while now and have to say that hardest part of EVE - is start !
Geting the right race, atributes, background - all of this is important when you first start. Then its the long haul to get lerarning skills up -wich is what generaly what kills most new players.
But what comes after that is apsolutley great ! Especialy if you like PVP.
Oh and - Ivy league - Alliance for new pilots. They will teach new pilots all there is to EVE and in a fun manner.
The thing thats nice from skill-based leveling is, you don't have to be online to train. And its ONE big universe, instead of different servers. I actually like that part the most. And being rich is such a pro, and the thing is smart players can create such huge amounts of money. And the Economy is just great :D
I played EVE for about a month, and found it extremely boring and tedious. Once you learn the basics you find its a very simple game.
One Quick note tho you are NEVER SAFE from pvp in Eve.
Safe space IE 1.0 to 0.5 there are police called Concord that will PUNISH the crime, Not nesacarly Provent it. If someone has the Need or Wan'ts to kill you they can. Concord is there to kill them back tho.
If you take some basic Precautions tho, Like not careing a Billion Isk of cargo in a ship that cost less than a Million.(yes people do this and then wander why the guy at the gate Blew him up to get at his cargo
)
In Short you CAN Easly avoid PVP in Eve aslong as you are smarter than the Average lazzy git and fit your ship to Tank instead of Being Gankbait.
I agree that there were some tedious elements, such as faction/ISK grinding with agents, but I don't see how you can call the game simple; there is SO much information, I can't imagine mastering it all in years, let alone a month. So many ships, systems, skills...it's mindblowing.
Can someone explain to me the "not having to be online to train" part? I liked the setting and idea of the game, but all the skills and stuff put me off...but if I can somehow get ahead while not really being there...
in eve a short skill takes less than a day and a long skill takes more than a week, and that is Real time, so your skill still trains while you are offline, you can only have ONE skill per account training at the same time, so there really is no way to get ahead of other people by power gaming
Training a skill - lets say, mining - does not involve going out and actually mining rocks. You need a skill book for mining which you right click on to activate - this consumes the book and starts the skill training.
Dependant on your stats, implants, and the skill itself, your skill can take as little as 15 minutes to train at level 1 - or as long as 60+ days for the high level skills at level 5. This time is calculated via real life time and you DO NOT have to be online.
For example, if you have level 2 Minmatar Frigate skill, level 3 might take 18 hours and 53 minutes to train. Once you have made that your active skill (there can be only one!) it will begin counting down time - 18 hours and 53 minutes later, whether you're online or off, your character will learn Minmatar Frigate 3.
Timers can be paused to work on different skills. My general strategy was to train longer skills overnight and shorter ones while I was playing, so I felt like I was making a lot of progress (and didn't have to wake up every 2 hours to set a new skill).
Nice review..Eve is the only game I can't walk away from for long. No other game holds my interest...
I fnd using the player made program EvEMON a great help i wont link to it tho incase i get another unjust warning [rolls eyes]. But this program will be of a great help in planning what skills you want to learn and it lets you see how long you have left till its done offline and it even tells you to within 4 seconds when it will be done.
nice review!
As far as I know, EVEMON is not against the TOS for EVE. Please email me at community@mmorpg.com if you recieved a warning or ban for mentioning this program.
As one of the "old timers" around EVE (Been playing since Beta Phase 5 - January, 2003), I can safely say that EVE has something for everyone...if you know where to look for it. Admittedly, Space is big...REALLY, REALLY big, and the developers at CCC have done a wonderful job of hammering that home every time you leave a station and pan around your ship, taking in the beauty of every nebula, every star, every ship that passes you (or closes in to engage you, guns blazing).
My own experience in the game was greatly enhanced by the corporation I joined in the beginning during Beta, a corporation that specializes in building ships and mining to provide our own raw materials to build from. However, my role in my corp was primarily in the defense of my Corpmates and our corporate assets as a combat pilot...so I got to experience both the industrial/Economic side of the game, as well as the more martial aspects of the game. Over the last 5 years, I've had the opportunity to learn both sides of the game from some of the most experienced players out there, sometimes at the expense of the brand new ship I'd just been issued, and/or being "Scrambled" (EVE-slang for being podded :P). And while losses are severe and somewhat unforgiving in EVE (losing your ship, all the mounted modules, your cargo, and possibly your clone), losses are generally able to be recouped in short order.
I'm very happy, though, that you didn't let the sheer vastness of EVE deter you from experiencing the game, and as has been previously alluded to, "It keeps getting better the longer you play." Skill training that takes place while you're at work, while you're asleep, while you're helping the wife/husband/SO take care of the kids (dog/cat/goldfish/etc...), is I think one of the best points of this game, and eliminates the "grinding" aspect of being competetive in the game...though the only real "grind" is the pursuit of the "Almighty ISK".
Once again, for those in the MMORPG community reading these reviews and are looking for a genuinely unique experience in the MMO market, EVE is one of the best examples of a beautiful, complex, and thoroughly enjoyable game that continues to innovate and lead by example, rather than follow the herd.
Warmest Regards,
Entheos
Hadean Drive Yards
"Building with Tomorrow's Technology, Today."
Sounds like the perfect game for me to be playing while I'm in school. Do you guys have any "builds" that center around making money?
Simple question, but no single answer I'm afraid. Depends on how you wish to make money. You could build for mining, Ratting/Mission running, Industrialist, Researcher or Explorer.
You'll need to do a bit of research first before you can make up your mind.....
Are any of those more...beginner friendly? I'm not looking for any immediate danger, for one.
It sounds sort of glib, but you can make money (game money, we're talking about) doing just about anything. If you mine, you can make quite a bundle if you look around and find a good place to sell your ore. If you run missions, you can make quite a bit off of some of the drops you get in cannisters; anything that isn't worth much can be reprocessed and sold as minerals. Manufacturing...well, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. There's definitely money to be made there, but it's less straight-forward; the good news is that it works a lot like skill training, in that you can set it and go on to do other things.
There's demand for just about everything in the game, and the greatest commodity is time; spend some time focused on an activity, spend some time finding where highest demand for the fruit of that activity is, and you'll end up with quite a bit of ISK.
I will say that the game highly rewards specialization. Generalizing in the beginning isn't too bad because the first box of skill training is so quick, but it's ultimately in your best interest to find the aspect of the game you like best and head towards becoming more effective at that. Eventually, you'll reach your potential in any given field, and then you can spread out a bit and try some other areas. Dabbling in frigates and mining and trading and manufacturing will make you some money, but nowhere near as much as specializing in just one of those fields would.
as a european you can pay exactly the same as a US player. just buy legal GTCs from a site like shattered crystal at the US rate, and pay for the game that way. GTCs are completely CCP sponsored.
For example you can mine Veldspar in just about any hi-sec area, but the rarer ores are found out in 0.0 where you might get shot while you're working. It's up to you - risk vs reward :)
Just to clarify, you can't actually do any mining or researching while offline, correct? That is just for skill leveling?
If you're flying a stabber, now, you might find a former corpmate of mine's stabber vid instructional:
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=396688
Please note that the pilot has excellent navigation skills and tech II medium autocannons (the latter are necessary to allow you to stay out of web range and thus not die - barrage M is your friend).
Enjoy.
Researching I believe you can do over night - mining, no.
Manufacturing jobs also continue while offline if you started them while online.
Phew...looks like I'm going to have to read the whole manual they have...see what exactly each of these do, and how they are performed. :P
EVE emulates real life approach to the most of it and if you apply common sense to it you will get the right answer w/o reading manual.
For example, if you want to build a ship you can expect it to be built the instant you hit 'produce' button. It takes a certain amount of time, the amount of time is determined by the item and the skills of the producer. Some ships can take 1 or 2 hours while others can take weeks. Once the timer starts it keeps going indifferent if you are online or not.
Same goes to copying blueprints, once you setup your lab and assign it to copy blueprint it will go off on a timer and be done after certain amount of time.
On the contrary, things like mining, ratting, exploring, etc require your direct presence. Another words, just like in real life you would expect that ore first needs to be mined, hauled and refined.
I would like to add, If you are in the trial and are having a problem feel free to ask around the EVE-Online sections of the forums. If you provide a list you can usually get the answers you need. If it all comes down to I know myself doesn't mind field questions in game through either a EVE mail or Convo, and most of the more helpful people there probably wouldn't mind a eve-mail with a question or 2 (convo's might be less welcome though.) Just if you do ask a question give us some time to answer it, some times it takes a bit to make sure we get the answer correct or we may be fielding 4-5 Conversations at once.
Well I myself have decided to give EVE a try. Just finished downloading it and getting ready to start my first character. I think I'll try my hand at combat, rather than industry. Are there any suggestions which race and skill line would be best to start out with. I assume that this game behaves the same as others, as in whichever race/skill spec I choose, eventually down the line it would match that of others. Or am I wrong?
Anyway, thanks everyone for your fyi, especially Laura for the write up.
The race you pick basically determines the ships you fly - technically, you can diverge from your 'chosen path' (like I did), but it takes a lot of time and training. And let's face it, time is the most valuable currency in EVE!
I learned a little bit about the Caldari and the Minmatar during my gameplay, but I think that other posters here are far more qualified to give a racial rundown than I am. The best advice I can give is for you to check out the ships, decide what appeals to you - do you want speed? Missiles? Long range turrets? Drones? Which ships fit your playstyle?
First of all there is shield tanking where you tank your damage on your shields.
And then there is Armour Tanking where you tank damage on your armour.
Ship capacitors store energy which you use to power guns armour repear modules etc if the cap goes ina fight before your opponent you lose.
Amarr ships are the best armour tankers generally also they have the largest capacitors and they are best used with laser wepons as they use cap for ammo and have special bonuses for lasers. Amarr ships are also slow.
Caldari ships are the best shield Tankers and have average Capacitors they are best used with Missiles unless its a ship with lots of Turret hardpints then in that cas use Railguns instead. They are also slow [tho not as bad as amarr ships]. Also these ships tend to be great for missionrunners. [ especially the raven battleship].
Mimitar ships Are average at both shield tanking and armour tanking but cant do botha t same time so chose wisely. Wepon wise they generly go for projectile wepons and some of there ships have enough missile slots to make using them worthwhile. They are also fast.
Gallente ships are generally armour tanking ships tho not as good as amarr. Wepon wise use Blasters and fit for speed so you get in close as these ships are best at close range. They also ahve the best drone storage bays so use drones [eve's version of pets].
When starting out its best to chose ONe race's ships and just train for those tht way your skillpints are more focussed.
I'm on the 6th day of the trial and loving it. I already have it set so I activate my account before the trial ends. There are really very helpful players but it helps reading the forums first.. Also to download EveMon which is a very helpful tool. Try the game but really play it for 14 days before deciding that it's not the one for you.
There's also speed tanking, where you try to outrun your enemy's turret tracking :) Minmatar are great at that!
So if you're playing in a group (if they exist in eve), it would be best to have people who have spec'd in different weapons?
well let me give you an idea of my playstyle from 'other' mmo'.
I like playing the melee/tank type (paladin/warrior/rogue)
Not so much into ranged effects (rangers/mages/etc)
However I like the idea of using missles vs guns, and ranged vs close combat. Can shields and armor be used together? Regarding missions, I'm aware that the early ones are easy enough to be done solo, but what about the later ones? Any missions better to take that others? Course I'm sure I'll be finding out most of this soon enough.
And not only did I get EVEMon installed, I actually used the svn repository and built my own .exe. At least I'm capable of doing something on my own.
Thanks for the insight though.
*additional*
When it comes to picking the attribute disbursment, which should I go with? Should I dump all 5 pts in one or spread evenly?
+++
And as I'm moving on through the build, even more choices. OMG!
What I have at this point is a Caldari Soldier
+++
Well so far so good. Running through the tut with Aura. As well as started training up a skill.
Good write up and nice too see all the people interested. Hope you all enjoy the game enough too stay for awhile. As has been mentioned all the possibilities that there are. The Eve-online forums are very helpful and can help you in the right direction. Also Eve University is a boon too all.
Just as a for instance my Eve character smuggles Booster's(Illegal Drugs in Eve), and does the odd Mercenary job with a friends corp when they have a juicy contract.
Just a Fair warning Carisma is by far the Most useless stat of them all.
Takeing a Char with 3 Char is about the most Inportant Advise i can give you. There are a few skills that need it butnot Nearly as many skills that you will get a beenafit from having a high Percep/Willpwoer(Combat) and Int/Wisdom(Indust/Trade/research). You will want to train a few points in Char down the line but you can get a +4 Implant for less than ANY other +3 Implant.
A Even Spread of Skills tho Is not a bad thing (Cept for Char), It will let you be a Jack of all trades(Not a goodthing Early on)
I have 2 alts Both are about a year and a half old. One has 22 Million Sp, the other 18 Mill.
My Main just toped 30 Million
and is Over 2 years old.
The Learning Skills ARE that Inportant.(Just dont train them all at once unless its on a ALT it will Drive you mad....
Asfar as tanking Goes there are 3 layers to your Ship. Shields, Armor, Structure. Shields and Armor can Both be used to Tank. Useing Both for tanking IS posable on some ships, But it will Gimp the hell outa it.(I.E. No Guns or anything to hold them in place Dammage Mods ect.) There is NOTHING that can Draw aggro away from someone, Player/Npc. But there is ECM's and Other Ewar. If you Like Missles and Shields than Go Caldari, Just rember that If you dont like a race it Might not be best to restart it. ALL Races get to use Guns Missles and Drones(Tho not every ship and all Verring lvls of use) and every ship gets a Bonus from thing like Shield/Armor tanking training and Nav skills.
Best advise is to give it all a little Try While your still in Frigets. then Learn to Fly and Shoot Well with it.
My alt was Dooing lvl 3 Missions in a Assult Ship in 2 Months of training (After the Month and a half of training ALL the Adv Learning skills to 4..) So 3 Months W/o Learning skills? She is Now Useing it VERRY Well with all T2 Equipment. Hell if i wanted i could train her for Heavy Assult Ships. She can allready use the Guns/Missles/Drones for the Thing.
Most Inportant thing to Rember is to WIN the fight you MUST be the One to set the Rules of the Fight.
NO building a ship that can do Short-Long range combat, all Short or ALL Long range, If Short Use a AB/MWD or Even on a longrange settup long. If Longrange Dont be fearfull of Running the other way to keep him Flying at you.
And rember its Scarry in Eve, Be VERRY carefull of who you Trust, and if you make friends Cling to them with one hand and keep a Cocked Blaster in the other. CCP has Made No Seceret that EvE is NOT a Simulation fo a Dark Gritty Place, It IS A DARK SCARRY PLACE. Full of Nights in Armor and Pirates Waiting to Stab you in the back. And thats just the Ship side. Things get REALLY Ugly where Money and Markets are Involved.
BEST RULE FOR EVE, If you cant Replace it DONT use it!
Good Lord...Thats a long A'word Post....
The $20 for the first month is well worth it, especially since a person with patience can go back in and make a new 14 day trial (no limit on those) and play it till the end before upgrading. This is effectively 44 days of play when done right for $20, which when coupled with the right payment plan can end up costing $10 /mo rather than the $15 seen in other high rated online games.
The thing I love most about EVE is the things they do different from other MMO's. The nerf bat swings less often, and is most of the time accompanied by an evolving universe and new equipment and skills. The balance is such that there is no one solution to all the problems, even if you have the biggest toys they can be more of a hassle in situations than an overpowered kill u all ship. (Seen as Titans, the largest ship class in the game, being sought out by corporations as targets of war.) The system keeps those that don't want to participate in pvp safe while still immersing them in the universe, and manages to explain most of what goes on as possible in terms of physics. Tho im still not sure how to explain how armor plates take up powergrid.
Somenone has told that this game is boring and simple, Laura has answered that it can be boring sometimes, but its far from simple...
I think both are right and wrong at same time. EVE is utterly simple, its pure mathematic and you can play it like you cook a cake with a cake recipe (you get first this skill, then this and then the other..), its like chess, simple and intelligent. EVE do not have a mechanic which uses the creativity of the player, instead, it uses the intelligence. The player which perceive the way to do that on this way, and this way is better will have not a huge advantage, but TOTAL advantage in the game.
Althought it seens like a sandbox, EVE is a game closed in its own mechanics, you dont have much space to move, do not have a mechanic which let you do that, and in this way, its plain simple.
No matter how intelligent it is, and it is, the game lacks imersion and creativity. There is no terrain, for example, and terrain is the major point of strategic gameplay. Having a terrain, you have (note I am using as example) a tree, which you can try a new tactic of staying behind it to avoid ranged attack, yeah, you discovered that and you will try to use it everytime, but look, you are on a terrain without tree, what to do now? In that sense, EVE seens pretty automatic, you can sense ships, or not. You can be stealth, or not. You can perceive stealth, or not. See? Its very binary, simple, dependable of logical mathematics (what you have is much more important than what you do). On a game with terrain you, at least, have the hope to do something to avoid things on a total new way (ok, you are stealth, I perceive your stealth because I have more skills on perception, however I can use the terrain on my favour, I can lure you to go to a closed place where your ranged is totally useless, or even your stealth can work fine on some territory, but not in others, tatically speaking).
The lack of terrain, and therefore the lack of a major perk of any strategy (read Sun Tzu, the Art of War) makes not only EVE totally dependable of logical math but also a void of immersion. Not to mention all ships like each other (no customization of ships, and the chars you dont even bother to see it, since its a tiny frame which mostly even avoid loading the picture on chats). And on EVE you are what you pilot.
I played EVE, its a good game, but its not my kind of game, I do like to feel myself immerse on the game, on the character, I do like to explore new territories, to have a sky over my head and a terrain under my feet. A sun shining on the sky and a moon at night, to discover a new tavern, people with different chars, emotes, with stories about a place hidden on a dark forest, near a fallen tree, in which a different kind of bear stalks. A story, to develop my character on it. To not pursue a skill , but a goal. To go on a cave where I never went, and discover that this cave can have something different which I imagine, can be used on PVE. EVE gives me the terrible sensation of cold and void, exaclty like the endless spaces which my unmodificable ship floats...
Dont get this personal, its not my kind of game, I do like to ,at least ,feel like I have more options than numbers (yes, I do know that every game ends being pure math, but the sensation of it can be reduced if you have an immersion, with different terrains and people, and mobs who act totally different, EVE throw in my face that the game is pure math, no more no less than that, and I dont like it).
My perfect game? Ultima Online (the first one, without all the expansions which killed the open PvP). This games gives you the sensation of being something on a complex, everchanging world. Another game? SWG, before NGE. You had the EVE intelligence and cold math printed specially on craft, and also all immersion you could handle.
I do respect the EVE players, though, for they are much more mature and intelligent than the majority of MMO players (yeah, I have been on WoW, its like an intelligence debuff, I had to play EVE again to get my brain back).
Well, thats my personal opinio, I hope you respect it. Thanks all for the attention of reading ALL this.
It is rather refreshing to hear a review from someone who never tried the game before. As someone who started in May 2003, it makes me feel nostalgic. A word to the wise. Try to decide early what you like otherwise you end up with a ton of useless skills and a rather large clone cost if you get killed.
Your introductory review of Eve was interesting.
I have been playing for over 2 years, and would love to see what you think after a couple years.
The problem right now is that the game has gone to the blob. Not only have the developers consistently put things in favor of blobs, they have created no technologies in the game for players that give even a remote chance of dealing with simply being out numbered by lesser ships. There is no skill involved anymore, it's either you have numbers, or you run, and it is only getting worse with the coming update. CCP has input many new ships, that favor gang tactics, and continue to degrade the power of individual ships to hold their own. In any setting, after so long, technologies would be developed to improve the chances of survival, but there are none.
Your T2 fitted Battleship (130mil to 200mil, fitted and insured) has no chance against 5 much smaller cruiser class ships, and your ship costs 3 to 4 more times to outfit, then those 5 cheap cruisers (50 to 75mil all fitted and insured), but you can't win, you can't get away, you're just dead. It is removing the need to train for months, and spend lots of money to get to flying Battleships and Carriers/Capital ships, when a group of small ships can take you out.
What they are doing is moving away from 'useful' specialized and powerful ship classes, and towards more general and weaker ship classes. Good players all say the same thing, "Pretty soon we will all be flying an Ibis with Civilian Gatling guns (the rookie ships new players start with.)
In trying to entice new players to the game, the are seriously gimping the veteran players who have invested lots of time and money to build a strong character. CCP is snatching the prize from us just before we achieve it, and folks are voting with their feet.
There are lots of other problems with the game I won't bore you with. In the world of stock trading where I come from, I say Eve-online is a mature game, lots of faults, bad decisions, all making your subscription decision a hold or sell at this point, definitely not a buy.
EVE is the best mmorpg I have ever played by far and to the last person who left a comment the new t2 bs a over 1 bil each fyi and a bc can beat 5 cruisers if he knows what he is doing.
Just a note Dominecus, while I respect your opinion, I believe you are quite wrong about UO being the best game for you. When you reminiss you usually remember the good and forget the bad, I am quite sure you are doing that with UO. UO was quite good for it's time, but it had so many flaws, which you seem to forget, that it would not fly in this day and age.
As to your complaint about terrain, there is plenty of it in planets, belts, space stations and moons in each system, you are just looking at it from the wrong perspective. Eve probably has more of your terrain than any MMO out there right now.
Eve to me has more immersion factor than any other MMO at the moment.
Like he says EvE has plenty of scenry and terrain its just in a space setting rather than on a planet thats all.
If you need any help with PvP, ship choice, or anything in general (but I mostly do piracy), feel free to convo "Kuzya Morozov" ingame, I'll be happy to help :)
But of course there is a terrain in eve. The battles can take place at so many different settings and even with different rules in 0.0, low sec or high sec. It takes a very different tactics and approach if one fights at a gate, a station (friendly/enemy/neutral) in an asteroid belt or in a plain empty safespot. Its far from being pure math also, your own individiual act in the moment will decide if u die or live another day, as anything can be countered some way, it just takes experience and/or the ability to think fast, which are all human factors not math.
great article.
one thing to consider when feeling daunted by the whole, "wow these people have been collecting skills for 3+ years" is that there is a diminishing return, plus people with massive amounts of SP typically have it spread over several disciplines. so you usually can "catch up" in a particular field, like combat, in a fair amount of time. if you focus your training you can be sporting a decent heavy assault cruiser or battleship in 6-7 months. that's a decent lifecycle in an MMO, and the great thing is you don't have to completely start over if you decide you want to try out industyr, covert ops, or corporation management... whatever.
EVE is not without it's flaws, there are many, but there are also plenty of unique things that make it a great diversion from the typical MMO. i find it to be an awesome compliment other actual "game time required" MMOs if you're a 2 subscription kinda person.
Be wary of following the advice of min/maxing your attributes. There will be a time when you attempt to learn skill requirements for either a module or a ship that will cal on those stats. Being that the rate of skill points learned uses a primart and secondart attribute as a base modifier you could be very well screwed later on.
For instance, A Paladin type of role generally tanks some damage, gives massive defensive buffs, and possibly offensive, while occasionly healing your team mates. This is a standard roll for Battlecruisers and Comand Ships! These ships excel at providing a platform to buff you allies and the modules required to grant those bonuses are in the Leardership category. Leadership skills require... Charisma! If you put that stat down to 3 and find out you'd like to play the "paly roll" you're going to wish you knew the name of the person's character who gave you the bad advice so you can pod their ass. Trust me. ;)
As stated, if you can't afford it then don't fly it!
I tend to count anything I undock as already lost. This is why I ALWAYS have the highest insurance contract taken out on my ship; you'd think they'd investigate me for insruance fraud at the rate I lose ships!
p.s.
My character's base attributes without implants:
intelligence: 16; Perception: 24; Charisma: 21; Willpower: 15; Memory: 17
I commonly have +3's in unless I'm running market orders in Empire which then I'll be in a clone with +4's.
Makes eve account,downloads client........... Befor this review id tryed eve but never really gave it a chance. Now i belive i will. Nice review( i read the whole thing ftw)
Fighting older players may seem like a stupid thing to do, as you'd assume that with their many years of training they must be incalculably better, but most skills you learn at that period of time are for capital ships and other things that make little difference to their skills as a frigate or cruiser pilot.
As a result, it only takes a couple of months training before you could potentially tear them a new black hole. There's one thing that's always good to remember in EVE: age doesn't equal wisdom. Just because they have the skills, it doesn't mean they know how to use them.
EVEMon is not against the TOS. In fact I believe CCP endorses the use of it. They stickied the post on the official EVE-Online forums.
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=517517
There are also special security codes that are generated by CCP to safely use the application.
And I strongly suggest using it because you can only benefit from it in the long run.
That is a great story. Best luck to you on eve. maybe i'll see u around sometime
Basic math. You are wrong... :) Even if he realizes later how much he loves being in a command ship he will be better of with higher perception and intelligence skills and the lowest possible charisma as he gonna need much more skillpoints on gunnery/missile, support and starship command skills then on leadership skills.
There is a difference between Min Maxing your character and letting it be a low stat. I did not take Charisma as a 3, I took my skills within 2-3 points of each other with Charisma being the lowest at 7. Depending on what you do you can easily end up spending a lot of SP on Charisma related skills, Corp Management, Leadership, Social, and trade all use Charisma, Try getting that Fleet Command 4 or 5. Its a stat while its seems useless it can easily put you several months back on training. Sure in 20 years it may have been better to put it in something else but lets worry about you playing for 20 years in 20 years. Not to mention who knows what skills are going to come out in the Future.
Don't even get me started on being 1 CPU short...
Great read! and i hope you return to EVE!
Can't agree more on above statement. I have been playing for 3.5 years now and I find myself jumping into smaller ships and enjoying it more. Most pilots want to grab their BattleCruiser or Battleship so there is always a shortage of tacklers. So a new player can add value immediately and for me I enjoy it more since I don't really care about losing the ship and using speed, scramblers etc. Is just fun!
Nice review but one small concern I had is the reference to flying ships and being the same race etc. Once you train your skills you can fly any ship. The bonus / buffs are on the ship and normally refer to weapon type. E.g. Raven has missile bonus so you would want to use missiles. Being a Caldari doesn't make any difference.
EVE is an out and out grown up game and the player base tends to be quite serious and take their corporation's needs to heart.
Just started playing recently, and when I'd googled Eve-Online I found my way across this article. I must say the more I read, the more I love it! Because this game seems to take a more cerebral approach , as opposed to just the typical MMO which is a HUGE selling point to me. In addition to this, it's just plain fun to play and it is oh so gorgeous.
So far I've played for 4 days now, and I've said to heck with it and upgraded to a full subscription.
At the moment I'm playing a Gallente (same name as on this forum) and aside from training a few skills to facilitate money making (salvage is SO worth it) to buy the higher end learning books. I've been mostly working on getting my learning skills to 4 which has not been too much of a torture since I've been busy with school and studying. From there I'm hoping to work on skills so I can maximize my use of the CPU, and Powergrid. After that, work on skills so I can use warp jammers, nos, and webbers. From there gunnery skills so I can really start to put a dent in people for PvP (maybe pirating :>). (I've read way too much on this on the side :>)
I am curious though, what is this "Corporation School" thing? Any source of information that I can obtain (and more personalized training to boot!), is something I would like to look into.
I am at the moment flying an Incursis for my main fighting ship since and have stuck the largest close range guns I could get ( ion beams I think?) And have been having relative success in killing the npc rats in .5 space, but am looking forward to getting the Noseftaru, and Webber to try to do some tackling and maybe even getting lucky enough to blow a ship up.
Also since I started with the special ops subset of skills, it has been made much easier to get into the destroys with little training time. So would it be worth it, when it comes to tackling etc? Or should I just go into cruisers?
Thanks :)
-Looking forward to future communications, Kusachiho
*EDIT*
Had to include this for any people who may also be starting out. If you are training skills and want to do so efficiently "EVE Mon" is your best friend! I started using that, and it has been very easy to use and taken a number of hours (about 10) off of my training times. But also broken my wallet in the process since it recommends the high end skill books early on.
Shoot me a conversation when you in-game and I'll try to answer your questions a bit better that said; EVE-University is a player corp/alliance that handles training of new players quite a bit. There are a couple of other corps that do similar things Agony Unleashed does training classes also.
Good article.
Right now its a great time to be a newb.
Trit prices are high so mine that Veldspar.
Salvaging makes money, and can be trained in a day or so.
Basically loot everything you can, then use the market to find buyers.
As far as simple/complex. I think the basics of Eve are pretty straightforward, and get complex when you try to do anything advanced. Killing rats is simple. Killing players is complex. Because they're human beings, they're not just gonna let you catch them, you have to bait them and set traps. Once people know a certain gate is camped, they are not gonna fly through, so you have to move to other gates. Sometimes you split off a smaller force to engage the other fleet, then while they're fighting you jump the bigger force on top of them.
Eve is not a FPS. Eve is an RTS.
Its like playing Starcraft, when you start out you are one of the zerglings, and eventually you grow into a more powerful creature, but you're always still pretty much useless as a single unit. So new players and old players always need each other for different things, you are co-dependent on each other.
I've been playing for around 2 years and I still learn new things. I still have never tried exploration. Just last month for the first time I tried manufacturing (didn't like it), I have never tried research. So far I've been a Miner, ratter, pvp'er, mission runner, trader, hauler, salvager, pirate (although I make a horrible pirate because I tend to feel bad for my victims).
I think ultimately it takes a certain type of person to enjoy Eve. It is not a "mainstream" game for the mouth-breathing masses.
Nice read... Eve is one of my favorite games of all time... the depth is incredible. Hope you stick it out.
Very good post and good to hear your point of view. I finally downloaded the game last night. So far, very interesting.
It's been 3 years since you gave it a try, you should jump in now and check it out. LOTS has changed. Be sure to go to Eve University to get an update on all the changes.