Monday, February 16, 2009

Werit and Eve Online

Eve Online is a game I really want to play. In fact, I have played it for years. My character is almost 3 years old there. However, I have only played maybe a couple months over that time. I only have 2 million skill points. That should give an idea about how little I have actually played.

While I think it is a good game, I just have never been hooked. That is surprising, as I love games like Elite and X. It is likely the social aspect, as I have never met anyone in game or joined a corporation. So when the CoWs started to talk about Eve, I got interested again. I also found that Eve was offering a free 5 day trial. So my account has been reactivated.

I am really at a loss of what I want to do. I have 2 million SP's spread around. I could go learn the Caldari Cruiser skill, but have not yet. Currently I fly around in my Badger, Kestrel or Destroyer. Money wise I have 5 million isk. In the past I have run missions, mined, built and sold ships and traded.

I really do not want to run missions anymore. Building T1 ships seems to have a razor thin profit margin, so it barely seems worth it. Mining is pretty boring.

Trading take a bit to get into. So far I have only been able to deal in Trade Goods (like Silicon). When I say trading, I really mean hauling, as I am just buying low then selling high. Buy/Sell orders seem like the way to go, but figuring out what to do takes time.

I have been considering a venture into low-sec space. I'm just not sure if there is much for me to do there in a frigate. I am a believer in only flying what you can afford, so I really do not want to take a cruiser in there. What can I do in a frigate? I would like to keep my CONCORD standing high :)

Any ideas?

4 comments:

There's always piracy, which can be very profitable and fun. But if you want to keep your standing high, then maybe anti-piracy is the better bet. That's much tougher, though, and best done in groups.

You're really probably best off getting into a good corp that will provide backup and funds to help you. That way you can run missions or PvP or anything that the corp needs.

You could try joining some factional warfare militia if you wish to have some newb friendly PvP without going pirate.

A corp is definitely needed, find some friendly vet to help build COW…

Eve players who have/are playing War are not that rare that you cannot find some one to help you…

I'm on an Eve trial account. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to take the game. On one hand, it's ridiculously great. The open-ended nature, the economy, that's all pretty amazing. On the other hand, the fact that I'll never, ever catch up to approximately 3/4ths of the player base in terms of skill points (and wealth, probably) is really daunting. All of the stuff I see myself wanting to do, like piracy or anti-piracy (PvP, in general) may very well be out of reach unless I'm constantly in large groups and have a high, steady income because my skill point total will never be adequate to hold my own against most people. I'm debating on whether or not the time investment is worth it, because 6 months from now with 3 million skill points under my belt I may realize that I'm always going to be at least one step behind in everything I do and all my time invested was essentially a waste. The point I'm making is that there's no power cap in Eve, and those at the top continually get stronger and richer. The geometric skill progression affects me at the same rate it affected/affects them.

I'm also not sure how I feel about the combat. It's not twitchy, which is good and bad. Good in that I don't have to always be on my toes or rely on my ping. Bad in that it's all based on stats and fittings, and it's a bit boring. Plus I'm a salvager, so every battle consists of 20 minutes of locking-missiling and then 20 minutes of wreck-hoppoing for salvage. Gets old. I'm only patient with it because it's lucrative. But that brings me back to my first problem. What good does money do me? Am I ever going to be able to make the time for training adequate Battleship/Battlecruiser skills? Will I ever have enough money to outfit my ship with 5 heavy missile launchers at 15 million ISK a pop, and then insure the whole thing as well as a proper clone? I'm not complaining, I'm just weighing potential pros and cons, trying to come to a decision as to whether or not I want to subscribe at the end of the trial period.

I will say one thing. If CoW manages to get 10-15 people into Eve and form a corporation, I'll be highly motivated to give Eve at least a month or two.

@Werit: Try some Faction War PVP. I can't tell you about it first-hand as I never got the chance to try it before I stopped playing Eve. From what I understand, it's a pretty good way to get some entry-level PVP experience.

@Adam: A good corporation is probably the key to enjoying the most of what this game has to offer.

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