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Questions about EVE Online
Deepfry
Member Posts: 13
I am thinking of subscribing to EVE Online, but before I take the plunge, I would be grateful if any EVE Online players could answer these three questions:
1. Is being a merchant/trader a viable and fun career to choose in the game? I remember when Elite came out on early computers (Atari) many many years ago, I really enjoyed buying goods cheap on one planet, selling them for a profit on another planet, and gradually earning enough to build bigger and better ships with which to trade. Is this sort of experience viable in EVE?
2. Space Combat: do you have to be a joystick, mouse and/or keyboard wizard to cope with space combat?
3. Is the game "newcomer-friendly"? I read somewhere (can't remember where) that EVE has been around for so long that it is very hard for new players to create their own niche and to make effective progress.
Thank you 
PS: If you think of anything else it may be useful for me to know, all advice is welcome!
Comments
1.) While being a merchant/trader isn't my cup of tea, it is certainly a viable play style and I have a number of friends who enjoy it and feel successful at it.
2.) No joystick. Combat, at it's most basic, is a matter of targeting and activating modules. You aren't having a space "dog fight". Certainly there can be a lot more to the combat, such as overheating modules and such, but it isn't going to be like an FPS or anything.
3.) There are a number of tutorials available to new players now. Additionally, you get a bonus to your skill training for the first 1.6 million or so skill points so that helps. Progression in this game is not like progression in most other games. You can certainly create your own niche, but it isn't going to be so tied to being "x" level.
One thing you might look at is the EvE Career guide http://www.eveonline.com/careerguide/. It's a lot of information, but it is put together pretty decently and might be useful to you.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
1. You will not find a game more suitable for playign a merchant. Some people claim keeping track of various price charts and graphs and whatnot is more fun that most anything else EVE has to offer. I'm not one of them but then, I'm not the merchant type of player.
2. EVE is not a space flight simulation, you do not control the ship yourself. You giver order. Approach this, keep at such-and-suc hdistance from that, circle around target at specified distance, etc. Positioning can be extremely important but you are usually a lot more concerned with a million other things, such as keeping track of targets, activating and deactivating modules, coordinating with your fleet...
3. This depends on what newcomer-friendly means to you. Some people are very put off by the fact that you can never be "better" than people who have played the game longer than you have. This is absolutely true, but it doesn't mean much. Within a month you can be a good frigate pilot and every fleet needs frigates. People who have been in the game for years still fly frigates occasionally. It takes a while to get to flying a battleship, and even more time to fly a capital ship, but a battleship is not "better" than a frigate or a cruiser. It is simply bigger. It has a higher damage output but couldn't hit a frigate orbiting around it if it tried.
Since you're interested in market, there are TONS of market-related skills you'll want to learn. You can start trading immediately, but if you want a trading empire and the ability to keep track of and adjust hundreds of market orders from a kazillion jumps away (actual distance is very important), you need skills.
It pretty much boils down to the fact that the longer you play, the more options you have. Some options aren't accessible to you right away, some are but you can't cover all of 'em at once. An interesting side effect of this is that every advance you make, every new option you reach, actually matters to you and it feels like you accomplished something.
Theres not much more to say about the questions and hasnt already been answered. I have have a question tho, Have you tried EVE before, throu a trial or anything? If not, you can always get the trial to have a look around. But when being on a trial account, you cant learn specific skill-books. But you can always upgrade the trial acount to a full account, if you feel that EVE could be anything for you. ^^
Theres the normal trial you can download from EVEs homepage, or longer trials from members, but then they need your Email, so they can send it to you. I think the normal trial is 14 days, while the longer one is 20..? I think. Anyways, its a bit longer.
I could send you one of the longer trials if you'd like.
Anyways, my point is that I think the best way to know, is to try yourself. -hehe-
There is a 14 day free trial, which downloads fairly fast and lets you experience the game in full, minus some of the more advanced skill training. But it will allow you take a couple of weeks and do the beginning missions and learn a little bit about the game before you decide to subscribe. I actually just started playing myself and I am enjoying the game thus far, although the learning curve is quite steep as compared to other games. I will attempt to answer your questions:
1. As I am new to the game I don't know the most profitable means and methods to succeed in the game, but from what I've gathered so far being a merchant type of player is very profitable.
2. There is no joystick or WASD type of movement in the game. Everything you do is via mouse clicks and there is auto targetting and free camera movement. Really the only keyboard input is for the chat window.
3. Just like any game that you are new to, there is going to be a breaking in period and you will have to spend some time catching up to the veterans, but in EVE anyone has the potential to compete with anyone else from the start. There is no "best" ship and a 1 day old player could very easily take down a 3 year old veteran under the right circumstances. Obviously you won't be able to afford the most expensive ships from the start, nor will you even come close to having the skills learned, but like I said before everyone can and will lose their ship.
Hope this helps.
Phew, this is gonna be hard.
First: EVE is unlike most of the games out there. It is more of a simulated universe than a theme park. The term is 'sandbox'. You got a lot of toys to play with but no one tells you how to play with them. And it's a dog eat dog universe. Even in secure space you can be killed. If they don't shoot you you, they try to scam you, steal your stuff, mine your asteroids or ruin you in the market game. Apart from 80% of the players, EVE is probably the best MMO that is
Your questions:
1. Merchant/trader is a career path in EVE and, if done right, maybe the most rewarding ISK (currency in EVE) wise. But EVEs economy is very complex. If you want to be a trader, you will look at spreadsheets more often than out of you cockpit. Also, without proper money to do some up front investments you wont get very far. Your "Wheat from Lave to Leesti" routine doesnt work in EVE. You can make lots of ISK, when finding the right routes and goods, but mostly from High Sec to 0.0 (or No Sec) and for this you have to fly the right ship, e.g. a blockade runner, which in turn requires some skill to fly.
tl;dr: You can do it. It is rewarding. Don't expect to do it right from start.
2. No Joystick in EVE. No twitch combat. Still player skill is mportant. And crucial in PvP.
3. That's hard. CCP created a lot of new player stuff in the last years. Still, there is so much to learn in EVE that it seems to take forever to get a grasp on that game. I played it for more than four years and still discover some things I didn't know.
My best advice is: Join a player corp. EVE is meant to be played with other people. You can do it alone, but you will miss most things, that make the game great. Also, a newbie friendly corp has tons of advice and help for new players.
There is a series of articles here on mmorpg.com, EVE survivor, a pretty goodreflection of the newbie experience.
If you don't let EVE frighten you, if you ride the tiger, you are in for an experience.
1) EVE's market was written by some Economics majors, so if you understand Supply and Demand you can make some $$. But that being said the "demand" dries up very fast in EVE, but some demands come back rather quickly. One helpful hint I can give is that if the "demand" is completely filled the buying price will go up ONCE. If the price goes down, just drop the 2nd load off at the station and wait until prices return or go find another station to sell to.
2) Nope, definitely not a FPS. EVE is a micromanagement style game.
3) Grab your pickaxe, err I mean mining laser and get to blasting asteroids to bits. Joining a Corp that caters to newbies is most likely the "easiest" way to get started. But as stated above, lowbies will not be even close to veterens in combat situations, but any pilot can man a mining laser. I think it would be even quite difficult to start out as a Trader even since you can not fly ships big enough to fill the demands of a station to get increased prices.
I would also point out that EVE is a free for all PvP game with some restrictions in place to keep griefing to a minimum, but it still happens. So "only fly what you are willing to lose". FYI: Insurance only covers your ship, not the vast millions of isk worth of the equipment mounted on it.
If you like to trade I'd recommend http://www.eve-central.com You an look at relatively real time buy/sell orders (It is updated automatically-ish by players using their software) across the universe.
if you don't like going outside the game to get guides n such, you can find gates close to a couple systems and check your own prices.
You could also train up hauler ships and look for a corp that has high-sec and low-sec bases and transport for them.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
1) There is probably no better MMO to play as a merchant/trader. Being one of the very few games with a complex economy and very few (and costly) rapid transport means, it's suited for those who like to engage in trading.
2) You have no direct control of the ship, you issue orders (go there, target that, start shooting etc.)
3) Eve has quite a polished and useful tutorial (in fact, most questions are answered there), and you will learn the basics quickly. Though basics are only a very tiny part of things you should know. Expect a lot of reading (guides, tutorials, forums & stuff).
You can start trading almost from scratch (there is some people who achieved the goal of getting 1 billion ISK in a couple weeks starting with nothing but the initial 5k ISK and the knowledge of the market without moving from a single station), though you'd better do some pve missions to form an initial capital, buy some skills, and properly fit an industrial ship. Then you might be able to do either NPC trade mission runs, trade NPC wares (it's quite low profit, as there is a limit -the ship cargospace, and the NPC buy order amounts- in how much you can get from a single run, so "big guys" with billions to invest don't engage in that stuff), or do some market nickel-and-diming (buy low, sell high: this trivial rule guides both newcomers and billionaires)...
I can send you a buddy key if you want to try the game first. 21 days is a good enough time to decide if its for you, but joining a corp is key
I'm assuming you aren't asking if its easy for new players to learn, because the answer usually is no, the game has a pretty steep learning curve. (which is well worth it IMO, but others dislike it)
Yes, new comers can join the game today an in a relatively short time start carving out an empire. (short in EVE time is about 3-6 months btw)
Given a year or so and you could become a dominant trader in key modules or ships, I've seen traders capture an entire region's skill book market (one person had over a billion ISK in skill books seeded in one spot) and there's a thousand other examples of such activity.
If you couple your trading with some industry you could have even more influence in the game and help change the flow of entire markets.
But a few caveats. Will it be easy? No, because trading is yet another form of PVP in EVE, and there will be experienced traders who will do everything they can to thwart your efforts. Can it be done? Absolutely, new people join all the time and before you know it they are out in 0.0 carving out a piece of a star empire.
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