Anyone here playing or played this game recently who can give it a review? I’m looking for an online game and this one looked interesting. I’m interested in something space based but Star Wars sounds like a boring suckfest.
I played it for about a month. I enjoyed it when I did play it. The thing is, I can only play games for about a month at a time before I tire of them, no matter how mind-boggingly good they are. It’s definitely a different MMORPG, so if you’re bored with the same ole same ole, give it a shot.
Disclaimer: EveOnline is an advertiser at my gaming newsletter.
Just wanted to get that out of the way.
Here’s our review by my Editor-in-Chief. He seemed to like it.
Any review which references Starflight gains immediate credibility with me no matter who is advertising on the site.
I clicked expecting a thread on our Ms Golden.
Ditto- I was thinking “She’s got a subscription site! No wonder she doesn’t visit us anymore!”
I played a 14 day free trial. Truly free, I didn’t even have to give a credit card number or anything other than my email address. They’re probably still available as I did it about 2 months ago.
I thought the game was cool. But like Electronic Chaos, I get bored of MMO games. They always boil down to repetition with no real purpose other than getting stronger. So I didn’t convert my trial account to a paying one.
I played it for a few months. It’s a great game, very fun. The only problem was, (like most MMOs) that as you progress in the game it requires greater and greater committments of time. When it got to the point of really requiring an uninterupted 2 or 3 hours to get anything accomplished, then I had to bow out.
With that in mind, it is one of the most finely developed and interesting MMOs I’ve played.
I play it. I love it. I took about a month and a half off due to computer issues and software glitch but I’m back in it and eager to get off work so I can go home and play it some more. It’s a pretty steep learning curve but it’s great. If you have any specific questions let me know.
I abandoned Star Wars several months ago for Eve and have never looked back. I think the game is simply amazing and, like Ronincyberpunk, it has started to consume a frightening part of my time. I highly recommend it but it is somewhat different from most other MMORPGs and I do feel compelled to point out a few things.
-
Your character in the game is a starship pilot and your view of yourself is always your ship. You never see your (or anyone else’s) character as anything other than a static portrait. It works quite well but may be a bit disconcerting to some people.
-
There are no levels or classes. You do select from one of four human empires and a very limited set of backgrounds at the start of the game, but other than your starting location and some of your starting skills this really has no effect on anything. Instead, everything is based on a very extensive skill listing. The interesting thing about this is that skill advancement is based only on how long (in real time) the skill has been “training”, not what your character has been doing. Skill train even if you are logged off! The only catch is that you can only have one skill training at a time and you can’t “queue up” skills. So, lots of players find themselves logging in periodically just to start another skill training.
-
By the same token, there are no restrictions on what you can do. Want to become a freelance trader and make a fortune? Go ahead. Want to mine asteroids? Sure. Become the head of an industrial/manufacturing empire? Why not. Or, go pirate and attack those previously mentioned traders and miners. That works too.
-
Which leads to the next couple of points. First, the game is 100% pure PvP. Anyone can attack anyone else at any time for any reason. (OK, anyone not docked at a station.) Now, in the central areas of the empires the attacker will probably be immediately attacked by the local security forces, but for large parts of the galaxy anything goes.
-
Second, everything in the game is PvP! The economy is almost entirely player run and can get as cutthroat in the business world as on the battlefield. And it can get rough out there. Want to hear about one of the greatest coups ever to go down in an MMORPG? Read this…
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4 -
There is only one server. Unlike most games, where the players are divided between different worlds, shards, realms, galaxies, whatevers; everyone in Eve plays in the same universe. 15-20,000 players online at one time is common.
-
The appeal of the game? Some of the most complexity and depth you will find in a game. Starships are highly configurable and customizable; players who have been in the game for years will still argue on what the best configuration for a situation is. The economic model is almost as complex as the real one. (I saw someone describe Eve as a “complex economic simulation with a starship combat front end”. That isn’t a bad description.)
-
That said, be warned that the game has a learning curve of a cliff. Once you get the hang of it everything is fairly intuitive, but expect to be overwhelmed for the first day or so.
Overall I think the game is great and recommend it but will have to say that it probably isn’t for everyone. I’d recommend going to the official website and snagging one of their 14 day trials. You can also go to mmorpg.com and read some of their reviews; Eve is consistently their highest rated game and walked away will most of their gaming awards this year… as a write-in.
As for me, I have to go. I have to get over to another station to pick up a production run of flameburst missiles then load up the cruiser to fly cover for a corp asteroid mining run. See you in space.
(PS - Ronin, where are you in game? I’m over in Gallente space in Placid at the moment but my corp is going through a bit of a shakeup and we may be moving into 0.0 soon.)
What do coordiantes I see mentioned mean? I often see “I’m going ratting in .4 space” I know that rats = NPC bad guys and ratting = going NPC killing, but I’m not sure wat 0.0 vs .x means.
When you pick one of the “races” how bad does it effect your relations with other “races”? Are things more expensive? Are you likely to killed merely because of your “race”?
Brian
The 0.0 or 0.4 or whatever you see are “security ratings” and have to do with how safe the system is. 1.0 is the most safe and 0.0 the least.
Basically CONCORD (the police force) only patrols systems with a security rating of 0.5 or higher. If you attack another player unprovoked in those systems, CONCORD will warp in and attack you.
In 0.1 thru 0.4 things are much more open. If you attack someone around a stargate or station then automatic weapons may open fire on you, but if you catch them in an asteroid belt or whatever then they are on their own.
In 0.0, anything goes. Player corporations can claim parts of 0.0 for themselves.
There are also weapons that are only legal in 0.0 space.
As far as ratting goes (btw, a rat is an NPC piRATe) the lower the security level the tougher the pirates (and the higher the bounty on them). Also, the minerals you can mine from asteroids are generally more valuable the lower the security rating (to further encourage you to go into low-sec space).
A few other terms you may hear are high-sec and low-sec which refer to systems above and below 0.5 security ratings respectively. High-sec space is also called Empire space (though it really contains multiple empires).
Race really doesn’t affect anything other than your starting location and your initial agent (mission giver). Anyone can learn to fly any race’s ships and can use other race’s stations and agents.
Individual standing matters more. For example, if I run a lot of missions for the Gallente Federation Navy against the Caldari State then my standing with the Caldari State starts dropping. If it drops too far then Caldari agents will quit dealing with me. With the next update (but not now) I may get attacked when entering Caldari space if my Caldari standing is low enough. But all of this depends on what you do once you start playing, not what your starting race is.
And there are a lot of factions to gain or lose standing with; not just the four main empires.
My character is Gallente but spent a good while in Minmatar space and flying Minmatar ships, for example.
I’ve only ever heard ‘Empire’ used to refer to non-0.0, or all territory in which the NPC empires are sovereign.
Race also has an impact on your character’s attributes. Try not to shortchange any of intelligence, perception, willpower, or memory too much. For an all-round character, those four should be fairly balanced, with intelligence and perception a bit higher than the other two. For dedicated industrial or combat characters, look for higher int/mem or perc/will respectively. Charisma isn’t terribly important unless you’re looking to train a lot of leadership, trade, or social skills.
One of my concerns with joining any sort of established online universe involves the whole newbie factor. Subspace put me off to it because basically you had vets and newbies. The veteran players treated all newcomers like trash, which to me led to the death of the game. If you were new, you couldn’t get in any decent squads or on anything but public teams. How is Eve for new players beyond the learning curve? Is it an accepting community?
I never had a problem finding a guild to join as a newbie, at least. I recall that a lot of the hardcore PvP guilds had minimum skill ratings, but honestly that’s probably for the best. It’s a pretty dynamic game so starting in a friendly, open guild and then moving out to a hardcore PvP one wouldn’t be all that frowned on I think (so long as you were cool about it, of course.)
There was plenty of room and opportunity for newbie players. Really, the universe was so vast, and there were such a large number of players, that I never had trouble finding people or guilds to join with.
Also, soloing was very doable, although more risky being an all pvp environment.
Yeah you can make a decent income in the game just by running npc missions from the agents. I make half a mill on a good day. As they said, the game is what you make of it. I have a goal of being a runner, I want to be the guy who people say “I need this moved from here” points to one end of the galaxy “to there” and points to the other. “And I need it in 4 hours.” And it’s my job to get there and stay in one piece.
So I’m working my skills to allow me to get the fastest ships with the most agility and various other tools for the trade. Will I make money doing it? Possibly. Does it matter to me? Nope.
I just want to give a big THANK YOU to The Long Road for starting this thread, and all of you who have contributed to it, especially tanstaafl.
I had never head of this game, and when I saw it, I immediately knew it was something Hubby would love. I kept the thread up on the screen when he came home, and he was really interested when he read it. We downloaded the free trial last night.
Muchos gracias!
Just be prepared to lose him for hours to play it 
Yeah. Low-sec. The other one. That’s what I get for posting at midnight… :smack: