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Two Years in EvE...
x_rast_x
Member Posts: 745
First... a big wall of text
I started playing EvE in August 2007. I was tired of WoW and didn't like the direction Blizzard was taking the game so I quit. And I was bored. And even though the forums then were full of the same whines they are today - "You can't catch up in skills!" "You'll always be someone's bitch!" "This game is four years old and all the space is claimed by big alliances that never change!" etc I decided I'd give EvE a go.
I had the same trials and tribulations that all noobs do, but I can say that right from the moment I picked my first skill to train I was hooked on the concept of freeform, classless advancement. A generous vet gifted me a fully fit Rifter which made my first day a whole hell of a lot easier and I did some level 1 missions for a while.
After a few days of that I was recruited into some highsec mining corp. I hauled ore a few times, made a few million ISK, a fortune to someone only a few days old. A saw rocks popping like so much popcorn under the might of a Hulk's strip miners, and decided that I would train them and make the big bucks myself someday.
My time in that corp was cut very short though when the stark reality of EvE intervened in the form a wardec. I was like "Hell yeah let's get some frigs and teach 'em a lesson!", but the corp leadership didn't see it that way and I decided I wasn't paying a monthly fee to sit in the station and wait for reds to go away so I quit and went back to the NPC corp.
I mined solo for a while, I was up to a mining cruiser (the minnie one, Scythe) and I got flipped a few times and I got tired of it like everyone does, unlike most everyone else I had the sense to switch to an actual pvp ship before shooting it out. I won, and after that I refined my fit somewhat and always kept a pvp frig or two in the systems I mined in. Never lost a can of ore again, though that's likely more due to the hauler alt I started on a 2nd account when CCP did a Power of 2 promotion.
I got into Retrievers, then T2 strips, and eventually joiend up with the Guiding Star corporation. We did some ops, eventually I ended up out in Venal, which is NPC soverign nullsec, and me moving out there was probably the worst decision of my EvE career.
My job in Venal was keep cap ships and POSes fueled. That's it. My combat skills were still minimal, I had a Myrmidon I could rat it but only just barely, and due to the constant presence of hostiles in the area I couldn't leave the dead-end system I'd been installed in. There was no station, so my only way back and forth to Empire was to use jump clones installed on a Rorqual. In short, it sucked. A lot. And I was still in the WoW mentality of expecting EvE to have some kind of end-game so I completely missed the fact that I could go back to Empire whenever I wanted and do something else.
I quit. I tried EQ2, I tried going back to WoW, I tried DDO, but after EvE they all just felt... very lifeless. I think that's the best way to say it. So after a two month break I restarted my EvE accounts, podded myself and my alt back to Empire, and started completely over with a mere five million ISK, a Mack, and a Mammoth to my name.
I mined ice for an entire weekend. I seem to recall watching many movies, Amazon Unbox probably made a lot of money that weekend. But when I was done, I had enough money to buy a Hulk. I took my Hulk and mined a lot of Veldspar until I had enough money to buy a mission Myrm.
I stepped back, figured, "Hey, I've got all these refining skills, I'll get my standings up so I can refine perfectly most anywhere in Gallente space, buy a freighter to move ore and minerals around, then buy the ore that all these noobs mine, refine it, haul it to market, and sell it!"
And so I ran a lot of lv. 3 missions. I mined millions of cubic meters of ore. I shot at the occassional can flipper. I even mastered the art of running competing miners out of 'my' systems by flipping *their* cans and shooting them in my yarring Velator until they left so I could have the rocks to myself. And I eventually aquired the billion ISK it cost me to purchase my Obelisk, which I still have.
I mined and did ore trading. For a couple months anyway. I was back up to a couple billion liquid when, after right about my first year in EvE, the Empyerion Age expansion came out, and with it Factional Warfare! By this point I had very high Gallente standing, I lived in Gallente space, so signing on for the Gallente was pretty much a no-brainer.
My combat skills were still quite terrible, equivilent, roughly, to someone who had been playing around two months, but by this time I knew the skill system and I knew the way to win was to start small and master ship classes, and even individual ships, one by one.
So, I started a one-man corp soley for the purpose of being able to dec people (and get dec'd in return), and I took my billions and bought myself a huge pile of Tristans, all fit identically and ready to go. I flew that one Tristan fit for damn near six months, upgrading the named bits to Tech II as I trained up my core fitting and gunnery skills. My alt sat on the sidelines for most of this, mostly just running supplies out of Villore as he trained up Freighters V and a few other long skills.
Eventually I was rank 10 in the Gallente militia, and finally almost ready to skill up for a brand new ship type! I learned how to fly Assault Ships, just in time for the huge buff they got from the Apocrypha expansion. Needless to say I was a very happy new Ishkur pilot for a while, and eventually came to appreciate the much-maligned Enyo, especially when paired with my alt, who was new training covops skills and could provide warp-ins.
At this point I, and most of the plexing backbone of the Gallente militia, were getting very tired of running defensive plexes so I made a decision that seemed very minor at the time but turned out to be the most important decision of my entire EvE career - I joined Microfunks, one of several Gallente FW corporations that had extended invitiations to me. They also happened to be a training corporation for a nullsec entity, Deathfunk.
I joined Microfunks because, at the time, they were trying to occupy to the Urpiken constellation in Black Rise. I moved up there and quickly ended up in a position where I was coordinating the entire campaign. My alt turned out to be hugely useful again as our base was very distant from friendly highsec and his ability to fly supplies out in a Blockade Runner is one of the key things that kept our effort going. My long-disused industry skills turned out to be very useful again as I could reprocess all the junk loot we got with only 0.5% waste and effeciently build new ships out it as anything larger than a frigate was too big to haul out in the blockade runner. It wasn't long at all before I was made a director and was directing our entire logistics effort.
I got into interceptors. I even started flying tech I cruisers a lot in pvp. But Factional Warfare on the Caldari front quickly went for a nosedive. As I said earlier, all of the major Gallente plexers pretty much quit plexing defensivly at about the same time, and either went on to offensive operations like I did, or just stopped entirely since watching a timer count down while hoping you get some action is really boring. As a result, our systems fell quickly into Caldari occupancy. The Caldari will claim they had a long, well-coordinated plexing campaign and to some extent that's true but mostly it was pure numbers - they had a lot more people than the Gallente from day 1 and with almost all of the big players from a few months earlier out of the picture they capped everything pretty quick.
With all the Gallente systems capped and seemingly little the Gallente could do about it, FW changed fairly quickly - the few remaining hotspots, like Upriken, quickly found themselves heavily outnumbered and outgunned by defenders who had no place else to go for action, and during the slow periods between downtimes the backbone of the Caldari defensive effort was interested soley in defending their occupancy and had little interest in fights, good or otherwise. So stabbed, cloaky, evasive defenders that were nigh-impossible to catch become the norm.
We came very, very close to flipping Hykanima and a couple other systems but what eventually stopped our effort was a simple expirment - we ignored plexing for a week and focused soley on pvp, and we got three times our normal number of kills. So we decided to leave Hykanima and seek greener pastures elsewhere. Another director had contacts down near the Gallente border with an alliance called 'Roughnecks' and we decided to move to Aeschee and get blues with them.
The move wasn't too much of a hassle, as my alt had recently completed training for Jump Freighter skills and moving everyone's stuff was simply a matter of getting a few cyno ship and some fuel in the right spots, and we became rather proficient pirates. I hit -10 myself after scarecly two weeks and was actually making pretty good money doing it.
But, it was not to last. Our relationship with Roughnecks was rocky from the get-go, and after about a month we mutually reset each other and I, along with most of the rest of Microfunks, joined Deathfunk and headed to Atlas space, right as I finally broke into HACs, two years into my EvE career.
Which is where I am now. I got my sec. back up to -3.9, I've done a few fleet ops, and despite the blobbiness and frustration inherent in nullsec, I'm actually having the most fun I've had in a long time. We have some of the best nullsec in the game and I'm making quite a bit of money trading and ratting in my Deimos, which is good since losses are much more frequent out here, with all the anti-escape measures that are employed in nullsec.
OK, wall of text over 
. I've been playing the same character in EvE for a long time, for sure a lot longer than any WoW or DAOC character ever held my interest. EvE has a few big things going for it:
- Your character, and the server as a whole, has a history. Your story will be unique to you, not a carbon copy of the other 45,215 people on your server that have done the same content as you.
- Characters in EvE retain their value. When I came back from my two month break my character was just as good as the day I left him, unlike other games where the constant release of new content makes old characters less and less valueable. If I went back to WoW and picked up my lv. 70 shaman he'd be no better than any two-week old character of his class.
- EvE is casually hardcore. It is casual in that you don't need to invest very much time to be successful, but the depth of it's gameplay and mechanics are most definately not casual.
- EvE's character progression is almost entirely lateral. Once the core fitting and weapon skills are mastered, which takes about six months, you train for specific ships, specific modules, and specific roles. This means the more SPs one has, the more one can potentially do but also the fewer (percentage wise) that are actually in use at any given time. Diminishing returns plays a huge factor as well - like for me, I've become quite good at flying HACs in fleets, I want to train to fly a sniper battleship, but in order for that snipe BS to be worthwhile it has to be 'better' at what it does than my HAC, which means I have to invest *more* skillpoints into it before I can use it than someone who is completely new to such things in the first place. And when I'm done, a lot of the skills that I use to fly a sniper HAC won't apply to the sniper BS.
- Related to the above, I can train for a new role without rolling a completely new character.
- Heavy emphasis on lateral progression mechanics make EvE largely immune to database deflation, something that really annoyed about WoW. The content that was in the game in 2003 is still there and just as good as the day it was made, and people are still doing it. Everything added since exists alongside the old content and does not supplant it.
- EvE is about whatever you want it to be about, and not spinning a hamster wheel hoping to get some fancy loot drop. EvE goes completely the other way - gear is a commodity, cost effectiveness is the main consideration in using anything particularly fancy.
- EvE's skill system and open nature makes it very friendly for new players who can wrap their heads around the mechanics. I've never seen any other MMO where a day old player can group with a multi-year vet and actually be useful, be it in pvp, mining, missioning, whatever.
Of course, there's still a lot going against EvE which is why it's not nearly as big as it could be..
- The UI is really bad
- The pvp mechanics really put off a lot of people.
- The open-ness and freeform-ness of it is quite overwhelming to people who are used to being guided every step of the way through their MMO experience.
As for why I'm posting all this.. I dunno. It's been two years, it's a bit odd how it's worked that first year = highsec sec, 2nd year = lowsec and 3rd year looking like it's going to be nullsec. I think games like EvE are the future of MMOs - part game, part virtual world, where you have a history, your character has a value that doesn't fade away when you stop paying attention to it, and has game mechanics that won't break when they get old simply because they're old. I'ts not for everyone, it's not supposed to be, I expect Blizzard or a company like Blizzard that makes the next 'big' MMO to borrow heavily from games like EvE, much like WoW itself borred a lot from EQ and made it masses-friendly.
Also, people keep telling me Atlas Alliance is the new BoB. I've only been here a couple weeks and I had nothing to do with BoB, the Goons, or anyone else prior to this so I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is true, where's my free T2 BPOs? I think I earned them, and BoB's not even around anymore :P
Comments
Dude, Awesome post and thanks for sharing.
Hopfully people that are interested in eve will read this and be turned onto the game.
I first started EvE by reading a players blog just like this of his pilot history.
Thank you for the post.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
what he says is the reason why everyone should play EVE. When have you heard anyone talk about another mmo like he just did?
NEVER
Mr. Bagguns
The reason people keep telling you Atlas is the new BoB is because they believe Atlas won't be around much longer. They have been kicked out of just about every region in the game and have never really battled any alliance and actually won. They have such a huge tract of space now because they land grabbed all of the evacuated goonswarm space (which was undefended) when they went to kill off BoB in Delve and Querious.
I would also contest detroid and other Atlas space as being some of the best nullsec in the game. That honor would go to Delve, Fountain, Deklein, and Feythabolis. (pretty much in that order) The drone regions are nice, but that is really a combination of 5 or so decent regions all close to each other.
But Atlas, Bobby Atlas specifically, is almost as arrogant as Bob was, and that is a good sign of an incoming implosion.
But Atlas, Bobby Atlas specifically, is almost as arrogant as Bob was, and that is a good sign of an incoming implosion.
Calling a 100% tax CTA and then sitting in a POS for 4 hours while a fleet 1/10th the size of yours kills your POSs is also a good sign of an incoming implosion, coincidentally enough. I am sure Bobby Atlas has a master plan though (likely one that doesn't involve fighting)
And the thing is, I started two years ago as of last May and I could write an equally colorful story, however it would be quite different.
And the stories not done by a long shot. I'm currently making some arrangements to secure my finanacials and then I'll be heading over to wormhole space for a bit, want to see what those new regions can offer.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Outstanding post - really shows off the highs and lows of EVE.
Nice job!
Nice post, think it shows why EvE is so diffrent and why it has so mush more to offer it players then many other games out there.
I to could write about my time in EVE, been playing since 2005, but my story would be totaly diffrent then that of the OP. It would involve alot of Booster smugling, Covert ops operations in nullsec, and wormhole exploration
thanx for a good read
The UI really isn't that bad, it just takes some getting used to.
The pvp mechanics put off a lot of people, but that's their own fault. I love Eve pvp, and even though many think of it as "target, click orbit and activate your guns", it's so much more. Again, it takes some getting used to, and people should really not use PvE as an example of PvP. PvE is much easier, and usually a lot more "target, activate guns".
Open-ness and freedom is just a pro. The fact that people are used to getting spoon fed is, again, their own fault. Eve isn't a themepark, and you might as well accept that the second you join.
Besides that, a good post. I'd write something similar from another point of view (the not-so industrial point), but I really don't have the motivation to do so. :P
Also.. I see you did as many (most) new players do when they start eve: Do missions and go mining. It puts a lot of people off, because they think it's boring as hell. But again, their own fault.
What CCP should do, is to tell people that Eve isn't a themepark. That they reward the thinkers, the people who actually want to do something. Shepherds are rewarded, sheep just follow and get the scraps.
Follow my tweet (:
I respect Kessian as a poster and contributer to eve community. He always writes top notch posts
I am just sad you joined Atlas. I didnt realize Microfunks was associated with them. They for sure do not own best space in eve online though but I imagine its a huge step up from lowsec and its gotta be better than Providence
The UI really isn't that bad, it just takes some getting used to.
The pvp mechanics put off a lot of people, but that's their own fault. I love Eve pvp, and even though many think of it as "target, click orbit and activate your guns", it's so much more. Again, it takes some getting used to, and people should really not use PvE as an example of PvP. PvE is much easier, and usually a lot more "target, activate guns".
Open-ness and freedom is just a pro. The fact that people are used to getting spoon fed is, again, their own fault. Eve isn't a themepark, and you might as well accept that the second you join.
Besides that, a good post. I'd write something similar from another point of view (the not-so industrial point), but I really don't have the motivation to do so. :P
Also.. I see you did as many (most) new players do when they start eve: Do missions and go mining. It puts a lot of people off, because they think it's boring as hell. But again, their own fault.
What CCP should do, is to tell people that Eve isn't a themepark. That they reward the thinkers, the people who actually want to do something. Shepherds are rewarded, sheep just follow and get the scraps.
Uggh, The UI is THAT bad. It totally sucks and the fact that any changes to the UI have been so minimal over the years is a bit frustrating. But, as bad as it is the UI doesn't prevent you from doing what you need to get done so ultimately that is the main thing. But it still sucks.
But, Eve is well worth playing even with that UI so don't let it stop you.
I like the concept of EVE so much and I hope we will see alot more of it in other future mmo's. The biggest problem I got with it is that its kinda ...dull to play. I just dont like the space setting so much and how they have visually designed it. I prefer standard fantasy and its avatar with swords and stuff - you know.
I hope I can one day play a fantasy game with EVE gameplay elements. Darkfall is the closest I get, but meh.
Fantastic post!!
EvE is the best game Ive ever played. Im totally obsessed with it.
I just wanted to say one thing on Eve UI.
I find Eve's UI refreshing compared to MMOs that use the same old action bar/mini map setup.
I like the UI so much if CCP decided to revamp the UI and turn it more MMO like I would consider a long vacation from EVE.
Sure it takes some time to learn how to use but its not "Bad" just different.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Also a former member of Micro's here. Though I departed when you guys went to Atlas. It was a really wild ride toward the end. So much so I'm trying to continue my career as a pirate. Yarr!
o/ Kess
Croc
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
The could use some steamlining, but yea why fix what isn't broke.
The could use some steamlining, but yea why fix what isn't broke.
I like the UI very much and while I would hate a total revamp I wouldnt mind a easier to read Fleet UI, more choice in font selection size and maybe a drone UI change.
Nothing big I actually like the Chat box, overview, map screen, scanning UI and the Cap hud/module buttons.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Great Post Op! IIve been in the game a year and Half now and know how you feel. I dont think i'll ever leave this game until it shuts down.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD
[2009.8.10 20:18:32] Wall Of Text hits you for 943458787345 damage
Great post. As others have already stated, I've also been playing EvE off and on since August 2006 and I could type up something similar yet different. I've tried just about every other MMO (pre-2008, old computer ftl) and EvE is still by far my favorite. I'm on hiatus right now but I'll be back.... Again...
I like the UI, personally. I think it fits in with EvE rather well. /shrug
Interesting read. I've skimmed over EVE in the past but I guess I'm hooked on the fantasy setting so I cant see myself in outer space. But then again with the MMOs coming out these days EVE could be very refreshing.
Thanks for the post!!
"I play Tera for the gameplay"
This is a great read man, thank you for this, I have been playing almost a year now and boy does this game have it's highs and lows ^^ but that is the beauty of the game to be honest,
I would love to tell my story but i cannot be assed lol, but our corp has recently gone to shit and I will be moving to Atlas very soon with old corp mates who have already made the move, strange how you ended up there and so will I yet my path has been completly different to yours, so may stories to be told, so little time : )...EvE is like no other.
Thnx for the read, was good.
Fantastic post, read and enjoyed the whole thing
I probably flew with you for a little while in gallente as well. I joined gallente FW for a few months alongside you guys before you left.