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Eve Online - My Review
jadeia
Member Posts: 11
in EVE Online
I thought that I would post "my thoughts" on Eve Online, as a veteran player of many years. I feel that the GAME needs to be explained away from the recent "developer controversies". It is afterall a game, and I am pushing everything aside to offer you, the reader, an insight into the game it'self.
I hope you enjoy my review.
Where to start this review to give it justice. Eve is my favourite MMO. I think I'll be playing this one until they retire it.
What is Eve Online
In essense, Eve Online is a Space combat, exploration, trading and polotics game. It is very indepth, and often overwhelms new players. The developers have put a lot of effort recently into lessening the learning curve, and a new player today starts out at a much easier and healthier position than I did nearly three years ago.
The game is played from a third person perspective. Your avatar is your ship, and you are able to pan and move the camera around your avatar and other ships at almost any angle. All of the combat and travel takes place in this third person person view in a beautifully designed space backdrop.
You also have an in-station view - which, when docked, gives you access to the myriad of tools and trading mechanics of the game. In station you will spend, and make millions of ISK (in game currency). The market is almost entirely player driven - where players invent, mine and then make all of the items and ships and then sell them. Prices go up and down based on location and demand.
Combat
Eve is a PvP world - there are no areas of the game (other than in station) that you are completely safe. That needs to be said, because ultimately, Eve is a PvP game. Combat is based on "dice rolls/chance" which are then modified by your characters Skills. Skillpoints are the measure of your character's prowess and will often determine the outcome of combat and trading above any other factor. Think of Skillpoints as Experience Points in other games.
Skill Points
The unique trick in Eve Online, is that you aquire Skillpoints in "real time". That is, you set a skill to learn, and your character begins learning that skill. Its assumed he is reading the necessary skill books, researching the information and learning it when you are offline. The speed at which you learn skills is affected by your charatcers attributes, which are similiar to other MMOs (Intelligence, Charisma, etc).
Roughly, you earn around a million Skillpoints per month - real time. The cool thing is (and the addictive thing), is that you earn SP even when offline. At the beginning, simple skills take anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours to learn, but the advanced ones can take in excess of a few months of real time to learn.
Ships and Fittings
Your avatar in the game is your ship, and thankfully, there are a hell of a lot of ships and fittings to play with in the game. Ships come shell like, basically a hull and an engine. You then fit a range of fittings to it which affect the way it performs. You can fit armour plates, weapons, lasers, tractor beams, Electronic warfare modules, radar improvemetns, etc etc. The list literally goes on for thousands of lines. Fittings are the same as you aquiring a nice sword in Lord of the Rings, or a nice ring of protection in Dungeons and Dragons. Ships, fittings and your skills are king.
Essentially, the ships are loosely based on naval terms, and you have classes of ships which relate to its size, capacity and possible armanent capabilities. You have the smallest Frigate class ships, then on to Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Battleships and then you move into the Capital class ships like Dreadnougths and Titans. Titans are so expensive (and again have to be built by platyers) and so awesome that there are only a handful of them in the game even today.
Trade & Industry
The game is open ended and allows you to pursue non violent careers. Some players even run a second account which they call an "alt" account purely for an industry based career, though the character progression system means that anyone can do it. You dont need to pick a class - you just learn some new skills.
Trade is very enjoyable, and you can and will make a lot of money if you are savvy enough. There have been some notoriously famous in game scams which have netted billions of ISK, which goes to show that the developers allow the market to act in a natural way, almost completely controlled and affected by players. There are some NPC (computer characters - non player characters) traders, which sell the basic rudimentary items, but all the good stuff is player made and sold.
Polotics
Eve Online has a complex political system, also governed by players themselves. There are basically four races in Eve Online (all decendants of a human - there are no Aliens in Eve Online), which generally dictate your basic love hate relationships.
The main focus though is on Player made corporations and alliances. Joining the right corporation is key to getting the most out of this game. Alone, you can plod along for years doing your own thing, hunting NPC pirates and playing it safe, or you can join a corporation, get into real pvp combat and tading, and make your fame and fortune. its up to you.
There are some major alliances (groups of corporations working together) in the game which rival the powers of the four in game racial groups themlseves. You can get into, or stay out of this side of the game as much or as little as you want.
Summary
Eve Online is an engrossing game. It has set the bar pretty high and it has taken a truly unique approach to online gaming.
The game, it's playerbase and the developers are openly elitist in that they do not want the types of younger players who dwell within World of Warcraft to play in their game. In fact, Eve Online is unattractive to the player who wants a light game they can have a bit of fun with for a few hours a week. Its just not that sort of game. Eve becomes your second life (or second wife), and the polotics, economy and power your avatar has will fill you with glee and dread.
If you have an addictive personality - do NOT play this game. If you are mentally unstable, or cry during episodes of Home and Away - do NOT play this game.
If you want a game that offers you a virtual world into which you can totally immerse yourself, based on a space theme - then this is that game for you.
Eve Online rocks.
I hope you enjoy my review.
| Graphics: |           |
9 |
| Sound: | |
8 |
| Role Playing: | |
9 |
| Value: |  |
10 |
| Fun: | |
10 |
| Community: | |
10 |
| Performance / Lag: | |
7 |
| Customer Service: | |
8 |
Where to start this review to give it justice. Eve is my favourite MMO. I think I'll be playing this one until they retire it.
What is Eve Online
In essense, Eve Online is a Space combat, exploration, trading and polotics game. It is very indepth, and often overwhelms new players. The developers have put a lot of effort recently into lessening the learning curve, and a new player today starts out at a much easier and healthier position than I did nearly three years ago.
The game is played from a third person perspective. Your avatar is your ship, and you are able to pan and move the camera around your avatar and other ships at almost any angle. All of the combat and travel takes place in this third person person view in a beautifully designed space backdrop.
You also have an in-station view - which, when docked, gives you access to the myriad of tools and trading mechanics of the game. In station you will spend, and make millions of ISK (in game currency). The market is almost entirely player driven - where players invent, mine and then make all of the items and ships and then sell them. Prices go up and down based on location and demand.
Combat
Eve is a PvP world - there are no areas of the game (other than in station) that you are completely safe. That needs to be said, because ultimately, Eve is a PvP game. Combat is based on "dice rolls/chance" which are then modified by your characters Skills. Skillpoints are the measure of your character's prowess and will often determine the outcome of combat and trading above any other factor. Think of Skillpoints as Experience Points in other games.
Skill Points
The unique trick in Eve Online, is that you aquire Skillpoints in "real time". That is, you set a skill to learn, and your character begins learning that skill. Its assumed he is reading the necessary skill books, researching the information and learning it when you are offline. The speed at which you learn skills is affected by your charatcers attributes, which are similiar to other MMOs (Intelligence, Charisma, etc).
Roughly, you earn around a million Skillpoints per month - real time. The cool thing is (and the addictive thing), is that you earn SP even when offline. At the beginning, simple skills take anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours to learn, but the advanced ones can take in excess of a few months of real time to learn.
Ships and Fittings
Your avatar in the game is your ship, and thankfully, there are a hell of a lot of ships and fittings to play with in the game. Ships come shell like, basically a hull and an engine. You then fit a range of fittings to it which affect the way it performs. You can fit armour plates, weapons, lasers, tractor beams, Electronic warfare modules, radar improvemetns, etc etc. The list literally goes on for thousands of lines. Fittings are the same as you aquiring a nice sword in Lord of the Rings, or a nice ring of protection in Dungeons and Dragons. Ships, fittings and your skills are king.
Essentially, the ships are loosely based on naval terms, and you have classes of ships which relate to its size, capacity and possible armanent capabilities. You have the smallest Frigate class ships, then on to Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Battleships and then you move into the Capital class ships like Dreadnougths and Titans. Titans are so expensive (and again have to be built by platyers) and so awesome that there are only a handful of them in the game even today.
Trade & Industry
The game is open ended and allows you to pursue non violent careers. Some players even run a second account which they call an "alt" account purely for an industry based career, though the character progression system means that anyone can do it. You dont need to pick a class - you just learn some new skills.
Trade is very enjoyable, and you can and will make a lot of money if you are savvy enough. There have been some notoriously famous in game scams which have netted billions of ISK, which goes to show that the developers allow the market to act in a natural way, almost completely controlled and affected by players. There are some NPC (computer characters - non player characters) traders, which sell the basic rudimentary items, but all the good stuff is player made and sold.
Polotics
Eve Online has a complex political system, also governed by players themselves. There are basically four races in Eve Online (all decendants of a human - there are no Aliens in Eve Online), which generally dictate your basic love hate relationships.
The main focus though is on Player made corporations and alliances. Joining the right corporation is key to getting the most out of this game. Alone, you can plod along for years doing your own thing, hunting NPC pirates and playing it safe, or you can join a corporation, get into real pvp combat and tading, and make your fame and fortune. its up to you.
There are some major alliances (groups of corporations working together) in the game which rival the powers of the four in game racial groups themlseves. You can get into, or stay out of this side of the game as much or as little as you want.
Summary
Eve Online is an engrossing game. It has set the bar pretty high and it has taken a truly unique approach to online gaming.
The game, it's playerbase and the developers are openly elitist in that they do not want the types of younger players who dwell within World of Warcraft to play in their game. In fact, Eve Online is unattractive to the player who wants a light game they can have a bit of fun with for a few hours a week. Its just not that sort of game. Eve becomes your second life (or second wife), and the polotics, economy and power your avatar has will fill you with glee and dread.
If you have an addictive personality - do NOT play this game. If you are mentally unstable, or cry during episodes of Home and Away - do NOT play this game.
If you want a game that offers you a virtual world into which you can totally immerse yourself, based on a space theme - then this is that game for you.
Eve Online rocks.
Comments
Oh and to the OP: Its perfectly possible to play EVE casually if you aren't into the PVP side of things. The only people who have serious income issues in EVE are those who lose ships regularly (AKA: PVPers). PVE players lose ships FAR less frequently and their income more than covers their costs even if they only play a couple hours a week. Miners & Manufacturers almost NEVER lose ships and Traders only do if they make stupid mistakes.
No, EVE can cater to the casual player just fine.
One of these days I'll get around to posting my review of EVE..... Yours isn't bad, as far as it goes... bit it leaves some things that need to be said unsaid and makes a couple false statements about the game
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
YOU ARE NOT A SHIP!! Stop thinking that. Your "Avatar" is a specilized dynamic model which is entirely unique to you're chosing that is created upon Character Creation. This avatar is NOT A SHIP and is independant up your ship's of choice. When you view other players, and when they view you, this Character dynamicaly created character portrait is what will be seen.
The character is your life blood, it is everything, it is unique in the greatest of meanings. You can lose thousands of ships but losing your character, ie podded, can be more devestating then any other failure encountered in the game.
As the op claims, this is not for a casual gamer with only a few hours a week to spare? Schenanigans! I only play a few hours a week and greatly enjoy playing EVE!
Players who have real life responsibilities and enjoy cerebral games could very well enjoy EVE Online. It's the hard core PvP action seen in 0.0 which places a heavier burden on you that requires a little more time or you could be feeling out-of-the-loop.
p.s. Everything in the game is a consumable. This should have recieved much more mentioning in the OP's write up.
I'll take them all into consideration for any future works. I write how I feel about a game, and don't pretend to cover every aspect. Eve is a huge game, and I feel I have covered enough to give folks an idea of the scope involved in the game.
Its up to you whether you like it or not .
Websites for life | RPGN.net Gaming Network | My Lyrics
I've been playing the game since the end of May, and I am still astounded at how much I know I don't know yet. (no telling how much I'm totally unaware of)
The game might not be for everyone, but I'm sure having a good time...and I'm just getting started...so much to do...so little time...
Hmm... might open a 2nd account....
"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
I think if the fighting was similar to SWG JTL it would be a lot more intense (like having to align your ship against your enemy to shoot and dog fights etc, imo thats what makes fighting fun), other than that EVE is an awesome game. EVE community is pretty mature too, it was a nice break from wow, very relaxing.
A man dies daily, only to be reborn in the morning, bigger, better and wiser.
-Playing AoC
-Playing WoW
-Retired- SWG
-Retired- EVE
-Retired- LotR
Computer (- Phenom 9600 Black Edition @ 2.81 Ghz (Quad Core CPU)- Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 - 4 Gigs of PC 8500 ram (1066)- EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS PCI Express 2.0 - WD 500GB 7500RPM - Zalman CPU cooler (air cooled)
- 24" Widescreen 1080P HD display).
I wanted to continue on from what you just posted. I think you are exactly right about the learning curve in Eve Online in that you never stop learning.
I have been playing for around three years, and I can guarantee you I still don't know how to play certain aspects of the game. I take my time with games, and only climbed into my first battleship after a year - and after three years I am only now just starting to look into invention, production and industry. That's not to say my character is in any way flawed, but with the open ended gaming system, it just means most of my knowledge and Skill Points are in other areas.
For me the constant learning of new systems and new things to do (I cant wait to start producing capital ships for example), is what keeps me interested. The fact that I can also take a nice long break for a month or so, and my character keeps learning his skills, is great. Its not like other MMOs where you will fall behind after a break - your character keeps learning his skills and is there when you come back. That prevents burnout.
Eve Online has an almost niche marketplace - it's a "hard" MMO and most people shy away from it. This is also one of the reasons I play it. As long as the game stays the way it is (Hard, unforgiving, ruthlessly satisfying and most importantly challenging through new ways to play it) - then I'll keep subcribing to it.
I have only ever had ONE single character on Eve online - I have never felt the need to start a second account purely because you are never locked into a certain class. My character now has a very healthy amount of Skill Points, and I have just started focusing on the industrial side of things but all of his other skills will never be wasted - they just add to his overall prowess.
Great game - my advice to anyone sitting on the fence is just try the 14 day trial and try to join a corp that is friendly to new players - they do exist.
Cheers,
Websites for life | RPGN.net Gaming Network | My Lyrics
The PVP -aspect is much more deeper than "Click your enemy, circle around it and wait", though. Plus, the biggest fun is rarely in 1 on 1 matches - it is in small groups fighting each other ( where team-skills actually come in handy - who tackles, who scrambles, who tanks? ). People don't call EVE the best PVP -experience for nothing, you know.
Fighting NPC's is sorta similar to how you describe but fighting other players quite simply is not.
There is so much to PVP thats its hard to fully comprehend. There are literally 1000's of posts that discuss fitting ships for pvp..and you can see dozens of different approaches for how people fit each ship. Much has to do with range, type of ammo, type of damage, transverse velocity, whether you are dampening, being damped, target jamming, being jammed, using combat drones, web drones, ew drones, whether your ship is active tanked, passive tanked, or just built for straight damage, whether you inject cap w/ boosters, or suck it out of your enemy with Nos's.
I felt much as you do about combat those first few days/weeks. Just circle the mob at range and it dies. Once i actually learned what was going on I was overwhelmed. A pilot with 5 million skpts in interceptors that KNOWS how to fight..could easily easily easily kill another interceptor pilot with 50million skpts that just thinks he has to circle his enemy at optimal range...matter of fact..the pilot that knows how to fight could probably kill two or even three veterans that dont....
So much more about HOW you fight...then what your skpts are..