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Aarthorn
Member Posts: 4
Hi All and thankyou for takeing the time to come read my post, hopefully someone from ccp will visit this post and take note of what it's player base says about there game.
Where to begin well lets see, the good points of this awesome sci-fi game are simply that they are constantly updateing there content and it is with any doubt the best mmorpg game out there. You can play the game in so many ways being industrial, commanding, solo or out right pirate. You don't have to play it for hours eveyday just to stay on top yer skills that you train online/offline will do that for you.
Now all that good stuff said now comes the bad parts, They have bugs and some of there bugs have there own bugs on top of them, There customer service is run by volunteer's called GM's which are actually other players in game. There Client/server relationship leaves alot to be desired as it in many ways could do with communicating with eachother far more often than it actually does.
In my opinion this is a superb game and well worth getting and playing for long periods of time like i have(1.5yrs now) But i felt it was time for the public to know what some details about the game and hopefully for ccp if this thread gets enoughs posts to start addressing there bugs more for a few mth's and let the content updates take a back seat.
Comments
Post in the pub section instead of the "EVE Online" section isn't going to get attention. Try the EVE Online forums of MMORPG.com:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/load/forums/loadclass/141
And then try the forums here:
www.eve-online.com
Then maybe 1 of the many fansites like
www.eve-i.com
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
Why would he do that? Telling people about EVE who already know about it or play it is a little useless.
For the record GM's are not volunteers...they are payed employees of CCP. The forum mods are volunteers, as is with most games. Not the GM's.
Hmm I to play EvE and I love the game as well. I have played many mmorpg's and "tried" a great many more and by far this has been one of my favorites. As far as CCP locking, modifying, or deleting posts, what publisher dosen't. Thats why I truly appriciate forums like this that are independent
Do you not feel that CCP need to concentrate on there bug fixing more tho instead of adding loads more content all the time. The overview alone can get ya killed if yer not careful in empire and the age old hardner bug where you just get ripped apart dispite the fact yer hardners are on. Alot of these bugs are simple little things that do spoil some aspects of the game.
And GM's are volenteer's that apply thru the ISD on the eve-online website, i have known a few GM's who have simply quit playing and quit being GM's because they are sick of being meatshields for the game devs.
Well, in case they're employees (which I really think they're not), CCP could employ my 6 years old daughter. She'll probably prove more helpfull that some of the staff.
But my few points:
1. Bugs are and bugs will be. I don't mind many of them, as far as CCP acknowledges them. Unfortunatelly there is no easy way to look for a "bug" and possible solution but to browse the online forums (which lack the search capabilities). CCP does maintain a small list of "what we think of", "what we develop" and "what we test", but it's not a complete list at all.
2. The Petition staff is (as far as I can tell) quite diverse ranging from highly competent to total ignorants. Example: Corp mate of me lost a connection and before he connected back, his ship was destroyed. After examining, we found out the client crashed and we do have dump file. Response from the petition guy is "we can't accept client side logs and our logs show nothing but you logged on and few moments later your ship was destroyed". First the file is not a plain text file easy to forge, second the client crashed so it's more fault of CCP than the player or ISP. So the attitude is completely hostile I'd say
3. Who does nothing, won't break anything. So from this point of view I understand there are lots of problems. But I'm sorry, if company I'm working for would deploy a patch to the client and then put most of the staff on vacation, the directors would not maintain their chairs for long. I understand that CCP wonted to put out new content and that there needs to be a bit of synchornisation in the vacations, so they can focus on the next development, but this one is really hard. It has been two months since the Cold War patch, and awful number of bugs I saw during first week after the patch (I'm lucky enough to not have any CTDs) I do see still in game.
So does CCP even care about veteran members or they just hunt for the largest number of concurrently connected users? This is a bit weird anyway, since with 11K+ players online players start to experience lags and other "unwanted" features.
But despite this problems, EVE is a great game. It just could be much better.
This response from Kremnican is a typically "automated" message from the GM's when you lose a ship or had any trouble with connecting or stay connected. I cannot count the ships alliancemembers of mine lost by lag in systems with 250 peeps and more and they all had to deal with the same reply from CCP - "BUGGER OFF". It's not like these ships cost CCP real ISK, but in the end they will lose paying customers, although it doesn't show atm with almost 14000 online at one time.
just my 2cents.
- the dark side of the moon -
Yes, the game is generally great, but, increasingly that is only because of the players themselves.
Continued bugs, poor service record, 'New' items that go against all the established game mechanics are all taking their toll on the patience of a lot of long term players.
Perhaps the worst thing tho is the attitude of the GM's
That has GOT to change. I have had enough of their automatic response that anything wrong must be user error
BTW, wether the GM's are voulunteers or not is irrelevent. As soon as they assume the mantle of GM, they become a representative of CCP. Maybe the company should bear that in mind before making appointments?
test reply
Ok first what game dosent have bugs? Eve has them yes but it has fewer than most games Ive played. Second on the topic of GM's Evergame Ive played the GM situation was laughable Ive gotten used to it. Hell the server I played on in WoW I NEVER got a GM response I always got the automated email a couple of days later. EQ the GM's on Povar thought their main job was to wander around showing of what the title gave them in the way of "power". Its easy to find the faults in any game. The trick is finding one that has what you are looking for and dealing with the faults for me thats EvE
Upsides :
Great Artistic Taste
Cool Theme
Cool Skill System
Open Ended
True MMORPG
Downsides :
Boring. It just is. I've fallen asleep to this game.
Slow.
Takes weeks/months to get anything done.
No goals except those you make for yourself.
Very corp dependent. Solo play is basically boring and worthless.
Did I mention it was boring. You need teamspeak and alcohol just to make the game playable.
Bottom Line :
Awesome concept. Too Many Bugs. More boring than Everquest (and that's a pretty big accomplishment.)
Stormwine,
Thats a cute name
Why bother posting if you dont mind being treated poorly ...and paying for it ?
Things never change with that attitude =(
Lodie
I think Stormwine is a GM himself.
Disagree Fizzle. I've been playing Eve for over a year now. Prior to that I played EQ1 for four years. I then sampled EQ2 and WOW. Eve beats em hands down.
You are right in some respects however. Its not a fast paced game in terms of repeatedly pressing buttons to attack, or choosing one attack mode over another in tactical combat. Strategically however, this game is the best.
Perhaps that is the difference between Eve and some other games: Eve provides fantastic strategic gameplay. Putting an optimum ship configuration (regardless of ship type) can take hours if not days. Researching the ship components, finding a good price, understanding the ship capacity to use the components, modifying the ship's capacity to use the components either through character skill training or proper fitting - all of these things require a level of analysis not present in other games.
So yes, on a purely tactical level, a game like WOW, EQ or even Diablo may be more exciting than Eve. But on a strategic level? No.
I played EQ for 3 years. I left with 2 level 70 toons and was able to play the highest level group content in the game (at that time). I dont think eve compares at all with the strategic planning involved in these encounters(they took days to setup and many hours to complete as a group..usually 40 to 60 people in concert). Eve is a game with many facets..although I tend to think the devs dont balance them very well. EVE suffers from one problem that will only get worse with time however. They have a single server farm (the trace route showed iceland when I did it). EQ WOW and all the other MMORPGs I have played have always spread their servers out across the world. The internet makes no guarrentees about packet delivery time..or that it will arrive at all. This makes a HUGE difference in time sensitive parts of the game..like PVP and even NPCing. I know I get NO enjoyment when I warp into a battle..only to find myself in a cloning station without ever having fired a shot =( I have a quality internet connection (4 MB/S) that has been very robust. I could ask CCP to replace my ship and its fittings..but they dont control the internet (although their single server is a factor), besides even after having played for almost a year, the same hardener bug is still around. I used to ask for my ships back for that one. CCP got tired of it after 4 or 5 ships and magically...I go tthe same answer (the one they like to use a lot) "We have no record of that in our logs." So yeah I am unhappy with them and the situation atm. Its a HUGE TIMESINK earning the isk back to replace a BS and decent fittings lost to either CCP bugs..or lag. I know there is insurance on the ship (lets not get started on how unbalanced insurance is by ship type) there is no insurance on fittings or implants. I am speaking of all ship loss here ..not just PVP combat..I realize in PVP you dont fly what you cant afford to lose. I have spent a fair part of my eve time in PVP with FIX alliance and also in corps that are PVP specific.. Atm I am just sitting round emppire grinding out resources again..debating wether to let my accounts run out. I love the ideas behind this game. I like it flexability and its pace (you set your own). I just hate the fact it is always gonna be laggy from time to time, almost always when in battle, (much more so than if I didnt have to send my packets so far) and CCP customer service seems very strained as of late. Half the time the petition system doesnt even work =( Even with all this, I am still considering whether to play on or look for something better. That says loads about the promise of the game itself.
Lodie
Lodie, join a large corporation, in an alliance preferably. I have played many games, and Eve owns everything strategically. Its not point, click, attack. You need skills, you need to be strong of mind and will. Most of all, you have to have major amounts of patience. Also, the have one server probably becuase its all they can really afford right now, they arn't a huge corporate powerhouse like Blizzard or SOE.
On a side note, paragraphs are your friends!
I think it's the objective of your past self to make you cringe.
I don't think the server is really the issue. No matter what game you play (MMO anyway), I guarantee you having 100 people within a small area will cause lag. Also, keep in mind a lot of the lag in fleet battles is graphical, and is your frame rate going down because your computer can't keep up with all of the graphics being displayed and constantly changing. That said, some of it definitely is server side, but again, all games have that when you enter an area with large numbers of people.
As for insurance I agree it is a little expensive for the amount you get back, but keep in mind it needs to be balanced so you can't just insure and self destruct the ship, and make a profit. As for mods I don't think they should be insurable, but implants definitely should. Especially since I just spent 89M on 2 implants, it would make me feel a lot better to have insurance for them
They're jus ttoo expensive and unlike mods you can't take them out (unless you want to destroy them).
Please reread my post..I have been a member of the FIX alliance for sometime. I have experienced all levels of PVP in eve. In my experience no fleet battles nor campiagnes I have been part of in eve required 1/10 of the preperation of the highest end encounters in EQ. My main grip about the server is lack of response when you interact with the client...but mostly I get very pissed when I run into the hardener bug or just warp in ..find myself in a clone facility..and when I look in my logs..there isnt even enough damage recorded to have been able to destroy my ship..these are real issues in eve..especially if you play from america..please reread my earlier post again.
Lodie
Hi Zyke,
I am not sure if it is a server issue or a internet issue. My machine is a radeon 9800 pro, AMD 3200 with a 400 mhz FSB and 1.5 GHZ of 400 MBS memory to work with and a 10000 rpm SATA drive.
I dont have many graphical issues..when I do ( in a fleet battle usually) I know the tricks to get around them. I have run into situations where I warp from a gate in a system (0.0 ..less than 5 people in it last time this happened) to the opposite gate..only to find myself in a cloning station..this has happened more than once.
I feel there is a real problem coming from america ( not all th e time..but when it happens..its damned inconvenient ) the clinet becomes unresponsive in general. I feel confident in my hardware and system..with opver 20 years in both hardware and software work..from mainframes thru PC / networks.
I have an excellent broadband connection (4 mbs) that has been very reliable. I cant control what happens once I leave their network and cross the many routers to get to the eve server ( last traceroute showed 14 hops) and the internet is fluid..so that can vary ..both better and worse. When I played EQ..I played on a server hosted in the UK..I eventually went to a different server as the lag was just to much.
I believe the single server image (in a single location) will hurt eve..but only as more people lose ships..only to find the petition service is down..oe waiting a week thru canned responses..then hearing..we have no record of that in our logs..sorry..just spend more time online rebuilding the resources you lost =(
Lodie