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EVE Online - You can't catch up
Hoobley
Member Posts: 421
One thing that always comes up with EVE Online is the old chestnut 'you'll never catch a player who's been going for 6 years'.
I don't think this is true at all in any way shape or form. If I may, I'll use a generic fantasy MMO as my point of comparison;
I buy the game Melons of Steel, it's a great MMO that's been out for about 3 years and I decide that I'm going to make a 'Holy Crusader' as my first character. It takes me about 3 months to level up to level 120 (the level cap in MoS) and once I get there I've got all my Holy Crusader skills under my belt and I've made a fair amount of money getting there. Enough to get some pretty good items.
Once I've got there I do a bit of PvP, some raids and what not and I see someone playing a 'Robber of Souls' and I think, hmm, that looks like fun! So I run off and roll a brand new level 1 'Robber' and start leveling up, sometimes I go back to my Holy Crusader and do stuff that I'm at max level with.
Anyway, as I'm leveling up my new Robber of Souls, I meet a guy that started playing 3 years before me and I tell him this is my new alt! He tell me that he already has 7 max level characters in the game already!!!!
How unfair, I cry! I'll never catch up to this guy! After 3 years I can have 7 max level characters too, but by that time he'll have 14!!!!
But wait, he can't play all those characters at the same time, he has to log off one to log on another - So while he's on his 'Amazon Nipple Biter' his other characters are dormant, not doing a thing!
EVE is much like this in my eyes - I can train skills to make me a perfect PvP frigate pilot. I can train up to be a kick ass mission runner in a Battleship. I can train to be a miner and manufacture things, but I can't do them all at the same time.
Swapping ships is much like logging off the Nipple Biter to play the Robber. Even though you won't be as experienced or be able to do as much as someone who's been playing longer, it's quite possible to become as good as them at one thing in a relatively short period of time. You just need to have a clear goal, then once you can do that one thing you like really well you can move on (re-roll that Robber of Souls).
Well, it's kind of a cheesy comparison I'll give you that and it also may be wildly inaccurate, but it's the way that I look at EVE and don't feel that dismay that I can 'never catch up', because I can!!!
(I apologize for beating this long dead horse as some of you might say after reading this, but it's something I wanted to get out.)
Comments
Of course you can catch up.
Character trading is a big business, and once you get a lot of ISK you could quite easily buy a character with more SP.
Its just a case of know the right people to help you
That's actually a pretty good way to look at it. Consider any one ship or profession as an equivalent to a character/class in a traditional MMORPG.
You can only go so far in becoming the ultimate Warrior in terms of level, gear etc, and then you hit the cap and can go no further. (unless new gear or new levels come along). Another player can come along and equal you in a finite period of time.
Same with EVE. I've got a character who has trained Gallente Battleships as far as it can. It has level 5 skills in all relevant areas to flying a particular ship called the Dominix. I can't gain any more skills in this ship or the systems (armor repping, weapons) than any other player.
If somone was to join today, they could equal my achievement in a finite amount of time and fly the ship at the same level as I do. (probably better, I'm not much of a pilot)
The only difference between myself and a player with a year less experience is I can fly 10 different ships well compared to their 6. (or build datacores for sale while they might be still working on mining.
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Thanks for actually reading my post there Kyleran.
Mmm isnt there a guy that multiboxes 14 drakes?
However, i agree with the OP, even the new can compete in eve in a couple of weeks in some areas, if they identify what they want to do and shape their training for it.
F2P/P2P excellent thread.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/282517/F2P-An-Engineers-perspective.html
There's always an obsessive nut-job in every game!
I remember reading an article about some guy multi-boxing 32 WoW accounts. (yup, I found a video of that too!)
www.youtube.com/watch
Well what i want to know is....
How can I get into Melons of Steel !!
Level 5 is the highest in any skill, that can take you between 3-30days to achieve... Ofc you can catch up, you just can't catch up with everything.
lol
i like to tell people, dont expect to win many 1v1's in your first 2 months, much like you wouldnt in any mmo. but you will be more usefull in EVE as a 2 month old than in other mmo's, imagine a lvl 30 in wow being absolutly crucial to the sucess of the whole raid. EVE Tacklers FTW!
Playing EVE
Played Darkfall, Played Wow,
well you know what they say, if you can't catch up.. fit an afterburner!
it doesnt even take 2 months to be useful in a roaming gang, even just a few days is enough, as long as you can fly a frigate and use a warp disruptor.. you can be very useful.. though using a afterburner at the same time is probably a good idea
well what i ment is to win 1v1's ur gonna wait, but MMO's arnt about 1v1's, you will be very wanted and usefull in a gang.
Playing EVE
Played Darkfall, Played Wow,
Umm, the point of my post is that you can actually catch up...
Well, you might want to talk to your corp. Destroyers are usually used mainly for salvaging. Their name is very misleading and always has been. The ship is junk.
Fit a Destroyer, with 8 Salvagers, full T2 Overdrives, and a T2 Afterburner... and you can salvage faster than anyone with tractor beams.
Hehe.
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Well, you might want to talk to your corp. Destroyers are usually used mainly for salvaging. Their name is very misleading and always has been. The ship is junk.
i flew a thrasher for my first 2 months of play time, had much more fun then i did if i flew a frigate. Destroyers aren't terrible, ignore the above poster.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
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This.
Only way to catch up, skill wise, is to trade for an experienced character with ISK. Problem then is getting the ISK. A decent PvP character with 20+ mil SPs costs around 4 billion ISK. The only option, for most people, is to buy that with GTC or illegal ISK sellers, either way it will probably cost you around 150 US dollars.
Doubt many people want to spend that much on one computer game.
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THRASHER ARMY REPORTING IN!
No seriously, look up Thrasher Army, a reoccuring NC event where everyone basically trains for a thrasher with t1 guns (takes a few hours max) and roams with 200+ of those disposable ships.
This.
Only way to catch up, skill wise, is to trade for an experienced character with ISK. Problem then is getting the ISK. A decent PvP character with 20+ mil SPs costs around 4 billion ISK. The only option, for most people, is to buy that with GTC or illegal ISK sellers, either way it will probably cost you around 150 US dollars.
Doubt many people want to spend that much on one computer game.
i dont people spend money on dumb crap all the time hell look at perfect world or any other f2p like that ppl blow way more then 150$
This.
Only way to catch up, skill wise, is to trade for an experienced character with ISK. Problem then is getting the ISK. A decent PvP character with 20+ mil SPs costs around 4 billion ISK. The only option, for most people, is to buy that with GTC or illegal ISK sellers, either way it will probably cost you around 150 US dollars.
Doubt many people want to spend that much on one computer game.
i dont people spend money on dumb crap all the time hell look at perfect world or any other f2p like that ppl blow way more then 150$
Not saying noone will, I spent almost 200$ to buy an Eve character because I did not want to spend 6 months training for Command ships and the skills to properly fly one. But I dont think 90% of players would do that.
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OP, good analogy. Eve rolls like that on the most part except one thing.
EVE is much like this in my eyes - I can train skills to make me a perfect PvP frigate pilot. I can train up to be a kick ass mission runner in a Battleship. I can train to be a miner and manufacture things, but I can't do them all at the same time.
I didnt quite fully understand this. You mean doing two 'professions' at once, or train for it? You can task manage. While i do missions i got stuff being produce. Training the skills, you can set yourself a skill plan Evemon works wonders. Bounce between fitting a cruiser and do some mining skills and such forth
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THRASHER ARMY REPORTING IN!
No seriously, look up Thrasher Army, a reoccuring NC event where everyone basically trains for a thrasher with t1 guns (takes a few hours max) and roams with 200+ of those disposable ships.
LOL thats awesome, that would be hilarious to see on scan as well, can only wonder what their victims thought
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
This.
Only way to catch up, skill wise, is to trade for an experienced character with ISK. Problem then is getting the ISK. A decent PvP character with 20+ mil SPs costs around 4 billion ISK. The only option, for most people, is to buy that with GTC or illegal ISK sellers, either way it will probably cost you around 150 US dollars.
Doubt many people want to spend that much on one computer game.
So it's folk like you that seed this nonsense in people's minds and stop them from playing one of the finest MMOs out there.
You should be ashamed.
What I meant was that you can't fly a frigate in PvP and do missions in a Battleship at the same time. Just trying to put across the point that in the same way, you can't play two characters at the same time in other MMOs.
You raise a good point that you can have things in production while you go off to do something else though.
This.
Only way to catch up, skill wise, is to trade for an experienced character with ISK. Problem then is getting the ISK. A decent PvP character with 20+ mil SPs costs around 4 billion ISK. The only option, for most people, is to buy that with GTC or illegal ISK sellers, either way it will probably cost you around 150 US dollars.
Doubt many people want to spend that much on one computer game.
So it's folk like you that seed this nonsense in people's minds and stop them from playing one of the finest MMOs out there.
You should be ashamed.
Technically, he's correct. That is the only (game legal) way to 'catch up' to players with more SP. Of course the point you make in your OP; that the total number of SP is not relevant, only the total number of applicable SP in any situation, overrides that.
And of course as the people who play know, all the SP in the world won't get you anywhere if you play as if SP are all you need.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Applicable SPs in a certain situation is completely correct. You can train for a T3 very easily, if you got one of these beasts and catch some guy with 100+mil SP in pretty much anything but a pvp fitted BS/CS he is dead meat, and even in those ships it only means its going to be a about even fight.
Now what really makes this example shine is that T3 are a very new shiptype. CCP will introduce new ships from time to time, and everyone, the 100+mil SP player from 2004 aswell as a 6mil SP player from 2009 will be on even footing concerning these ships.
Thats why i never consider the age of a pilot prior to engaging him. My decision to engage someone is always solely based on the ship he is flying, and the fitting i assume he is using. Thinking you can pwn someone just cause you have way more SP is going to lead to embarassing losses.
That last 3/4/5% that a skill conveys and which take so long to train are always less important than variations in the fitting of the ship that you didnt foresee.
Just to reiterate what someone else has already posted:
If you know what you are doing, you can make billions a week no problem. You can then use that isk to buy a 100+M SP character-- it's entirely legal, within the game rules, and is a part of the game.
I'm not saying it's easy-- but to say that catching up is impossible is simply untrue.