Eve starts off great, becomes crappy, then goes back to awesome.
Other games start off great, become ok, and a sucky boring end.
You have to group in Eve, there is just no other way, its very boring solo. In a team it's an absolute blast.
The worst part is right after noobhood, when you start training your advanced learning skills, that's the dark time right there, for about a month and a half the game sucks, then when you finish training your adv learning skills, you get some nice skill training going and the game goes back to being nice.
Once you have 8-10 mil SP the game becomes just awesome, no more worrying about training critical skills you have most of them already, now you are just training specialties.
Its the adv learning that makes the game unbearable.
I'd say most mmorpgs start off great, become okay, begin to suck, and then the endgame you either love or hate (get bored with). Eve I think starts out okay, becomes great when you figure out what you are doing, begins to suck when you really hit the SP training nightmare (~3mil - 9mil) and then can pick up or trail off depending on what you end up doing.
One of the things I loved and then hated was the SP system. It's just that I began to feel like skills were turning into work. I guess it is because I got obsessive with maintaining a constant flow of sps into my avatar's brain.
I played for 2 weeks before seeking out a corp. Once I felt I could be self sufficient if I wanted to, I felt comfortable being part of a team/corp. It can be boring if you dont know the inner workings of the game, and only know how to do a few things. But in empire space, you dont have to worry about much, except maybe the occasional macro-miner stripping the belts if youre a miner. Ive found lots of good spots to do whatever I want, with or without the corp. But the corp is always there if I need something, and I always give what I can to them - even if its just a pitance compared to what one of them can make in a day in 0.0 space. They all appreciate it, but they appreciate active players even more than lots of experience. New players are good for adding a fresh attitude to vet players. Which is good for making some good friends early on.
My best advice is to just spend your time, which it sounds like you have - just trying different things out... ratting, mining, trading, missions, etc... find things that interest you and move your skills in that direction. Then join a large corp that accepts empire (noob/safe) space members and youll find a few people that started around the time you did, then group up with them and learn together... great way to bond with nice people.
Empire members are good to have these days, there are things in Empire space that you cant get in 0.0 and visa versa, so its easy to be helpful early on. That was one of my problems was that I felt like I couldnt really contribute anything to the corp, but they all started at the same place.
There are also corps in Empire space that do nothing but help new players get used to the game. Its really a very cool thing. There are a lot of very nice people willing to help you out. Even a pirate who tried and was very close to ganking me while I was unknowingly docking at a station in .4 space offered advice on how to fit out my ship properly, once I was safely inside. Crazy, but thats part of the fun, you should have seen me jump when I started to get bombarded by cruise missles for the first time, I froze up and had no idea what to do.
But thats what frigates are for, join some military ops with your corp no matter what they are tackling, and get used to being shot at and losing your ships and maybe being podded. The more you do it, the faster you are able to react b/c you are used to getting pummeled. heh.
One more thing, train your learning skills first! alternate between learning and the memory skill until they are at lvl 5. This can take a while, but if you plan on playing the game a while, having your learning skills at the advanced lvl - beyond basic lvl 5 - you can reduce days of training time on other things.
EVE online is harder to get into than many other MMOs, the first days are particulary confusing. And I don't think EVE is for everyone. As some others said in this thread, PvP is the life blood of EVE and you should be aware that there are player pirates that will take every chance that they get to blackmail or kill you.
The threshold is a bit higher than other games, but once you get into it it's very rewarding.
Originally posted by fmerell EVE online is harder to get into than many other MMOs, the first days are particularly confusing. And I don't think EVE is for everyone. As some others said in this thread, PvP is the life blood of EVE and you should be aware that there are player pirates that will take every chance that they get to blackmail or kill you. The threshold is a bit higher than other games, but once you get into it it's very rewarding.
I absolutely agree with your first point - the learning curve is quite steep and it will take a week or so to get the hang of it - and "by the hang of it" I mean basic stuff. This does scare a great many people away... however if they had stayed to learn I can only imagine the server loads. *shudder People think they have to spend a lot of time learning, its really not as hard as most people think... its quite a shock to be thrown into space for the first time. I think its great, it weeds out a lot of bottom-feeders, perhaps I would think differently though if I knew how many potential greats got discouraged and left. Oh well, its all about survival of the fittest.
However, you can stay in .5 space and above and never ever have to worry about getting ganked by a pirate. This space is protected, and pirates get popped if they try. I have yet to see anyone try and scam me out of anything. The worst that could happen is that you venture in .4 sec space or below, a pirate locks your ship down and asks you to get out, pay x amount of isk, or die. hehe. So, he just took your shiny new ship (hopefully insured ) and he didn't make a frozen corpse out of you. I would personally do a self destruct and see if I couldn't get my pod to a station... whatever this isn't the point.
One scam with the new RMR patch that we've found is that if you have an npc pirate drop some loot, and someone else loots your floating cannister - this is fine if you left it there b/c whatever was in it was not worth putting in your cargo-hold, but you now have the right to kill them, and they cant kill you until you fire first. This can be a scam b/c it works both ways. I know a pilot that puts a very high value item in a can floating in a belt while he is 100km out in his cloaked ship. Many noobs will take the bait, thinking free lunch, and then be destroyed. This can happen legally in any system. So, don't loot whats not yours or be prepared to defend yourself. Before however, someone could come take anything that belonged to you that was floating in space - like your can full of minerals that you just spent 30min mining - and you couldn't do a damn thing about it. But thats EvE for you - not easy and requires a bit of thought. Even though this pilot was doing something completely underhanded, he figured out how to rack up some kill mail and whatever he could loot off your ship. Easy isk($$$).
Buying and selling stuff isn't done personally, an item is put on the market and you buy it. It is always what it says it is. No way to screw you like when you 'trade' with someone.
In 0.0 space, the corps control the systems. If you are part of the corp, you don't have to worry about getting ganked by rats, b/c they would absolutely die - trying to get into corp protected space with any sort of high dmg ship is very difficult. If your corp is at war with another... thats another story. Its the trip down to corp controlled space that is the high seas for pirates! Pirates are cool! If you didn't have them, the game would be boring, b/c you wouldn't have to worry about getting ganked by anyone unless you're at war with them, which could be never. No adventure there, and believe me, Pirates are good at what they do. If you want to travel between "protected" systems, you do it with a fleet and leap-frog your way across. Its exciting if you ask me. I don't care what ship you're in, you don't travel some systems alone - you wait for an allied convoy - and now you're job is to help protect it on its journey.
All player controlled, all the time. I cant say enough good things.
Comments
Eve starts off great, becomes crappy, then goes back to awesome.
Other games start off great, become ok, and a sucky boring end.
You have to group in Eve, there is just no other way, its very boring solo. In a team it's an absolute blast.
The worst part is right after noobhood, when you start training your advanced learning skills, that's the dark time right there, for about a month and a half the game sucks, then when you finish training your adv learning skills, you get some nice skill training going and the game goes back to being nice.
Once you have 8-10 mil SP the game becomes just awesome, no more worrying about training critical skills you have most of them already, now you are just training specialties.
Its the adv learning that makes the game unbearable.
I'd say most mmorpgs start off great, become okay, begin to suck, and then the endgame you either love or hate (get bored with). Eve I think starts out okay, becomes great when you figure out what you are doing, begins to suck when you really hit the SP training nightmare (~3mil - 9mil) and then can pick up or trail off depending on what you end up doing.
One of the things I loved and then hated was the SP system. It's just that I began to feel like skills were turning into work. I guess it is because I got obsessive with maintaining a constant flow of sps into my avatar's brain.
I played for 2 weeks before seeking out a corp. Once I felt I could be self sufficient if I wanted to, I felt comfortable being part of a team/corp. It can be boring if you dont know the inner workings of the game, and only know how to do a few things. But in empire space, you dont have to worry about much, except maybe the occasional macro-miner stripping the belts if youre a miner. Ive found lots of good spots to do whatever I want, with or without the corp. But the corp is always there if I need something, and I always give what I can to them - even if its just a pitance compared to what one of them can make in a day in 0.0 space. They all appreciate it, but they appreciate active players even more than lots of experience. New players are good for adding a fresh attitude to vet players. Which is good for making some good friends early on.
My best advice is to just spend your time, which it sounds like you have - just trying different things out... ratting, mining, trading, missions, etc... find things that interest you and move your skills in that direction. Then join a large corp that accepts empire (noob/safe) space members and youll find a few people that started around the time you did, then group up with them and learn together... great way to bond with nice people.
Empire members are good to have these days, there are things in Empire space that you cant get in 0.0 and visa versa, so its easy to be helpful early on. That was one of my problems was that I felt like I couldnt really contribute anything to the corp, but they all started at the same place.
There are also corps in Empire space that do nothing but help new players get used to the game. Its really a very cool thing. There are a lot of very nice people willing to help you out. Even a pirate who tried and was very close to ganking me while I was unknowingly docking at a station in .4 space offered advice on how to fit out my ship properly, once I was safely inside. Crazy, but thats part of the fun, you should have seen me jump when I started to get bombarded by cruise missles for the first time, I froze up and had no idea what to do.
But thats what frigates are for, join some military ops with your corp no matter what they are tackling, and get used to being shot at and losing your ships and maybe being podded. The more you do it, the faster you are able to react b/c you are used to getting pummeled. heh.
Good luck.
Vulnerant omnia, ultima necat.
One more thing, train your learning skills first! alternate between learning and the memory skill until they are at lvl 5. This can take a while, but if you plan on playing the game a while, having your learning skills at the advanced lvl - beyond basic lvl 5 - you can reduce days of training time on other things.
Vulnerant omnia, ultima necat.
EVE online is harder to get into than many other MMOs, the first days are particulary confusing. And I don't think EVE is for everyone. As some others said in this thread, PvP is the life blood of EVE and you should be aware that there are player pirates that will take every chance that they get to blackmail or kill you.
The threshold is a bit higher than other games, but once you get into it it's very rewarding.
Vulnerant omnia, ultima necat.