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atrofast · April 2006

Greetings,

I tried the 14-day trial for EVE a while back but I let it expire without buying the game. Now I don't have a whole lot of time to invest into playing this game and I was wondering how well this game could be played when you don't have a lot of time? I'm very facinated with the world they've built and I had a good time with the trial version. Thanks!

Alex

JennysMind · April 2006

Eve Online is suited for casual gamers. Moreso than any other MMO I've played. The main reason is that learning skills are time based, not action based. This means you can log out of the game and your skills will still continue training.

Cith

SobaMan · April 2006

I work full time, go to college part time, and have a girlfriend that despises Eve... and I still do pretty good. I do even better thanks to the corp I'm in.

Of course, the hardcore gamers will always do better (ISK wise) than the casual gamer, but Eve's skill training style allows casual gamers to keep the same steady pace as the hardcore gamers as far as skill training goes.

I've yet to find a game that allows me to advance (somewhat) even though I don't have time to play it every day. It's nice.

Knightblast · April 2006

The main advantages to playing more often are (1) ISK earning opportunities and (2) learning how to PvP in different situations (in terms of ship setups, strategies, combat experience and the like). The levelling system in EVE is designed to favour casual gamers over hardcore gamers, but the hardcore gamers get it back in the financial area in terms of ISK earning.

mindspat · April 2006

Originally posted by atrofast

Greetings,
I tried the 14-day trial for EVE a while back but I let it expire without buying the game. Now I don't have a whole lot of time to invest into playing this game and I was wondering how well this game could be played when you don't have a lot of time? I'm very facinated with the world they've built and I had a good time with the trial version. Thanks!

Alex

EVE Online is extremely supportive of the casual gamer.

Reason being:

You performance while playing is not rewarded through acquiring EXP to level. There is _no_ exp grind in EVE!

Character advance is done in a sense of "real time" that's attached to the EVE servers which happens to be based upon GMT time. If a skill takes 45 minutes to learn then it take 45 mintues. If that advanced version takes 14 days then by all means this would be the skill to set while your touring Europe.

A casual gamer would feel rewared by running Agent Missions while they are online. It's the closest thing to yeilding a reward based upon performance. Well, in the sense of a gaurenteed return. As you progress through higher level agents you may eventually gain the chance to get a special Navy issued battleship!!

If I 1,000 friends who were all asking me "I need a game I can play a few hours a week and possibly more on the weekend although I don't want to feel like I'm left behind if I'm not grinding 10 hours a day. What would you recomend?" I would have to repeat myself 1,000 times that "EVE is the _only_ game that supports a casual game style while rewarding the players social skills ingame."

atrofast · April 2006

Thanks for all the input guys, you convinced me to give it a go.
Decided to play Caldari, name is Aeryk Anderson if you ever feel like saying hello.

Alex

Kialey · April 2006

If any game is geared for hardcore gamers... this is it. Casual-friendly my ass. Since skills are earned based on time, you're at a MAJOR disadvantage in pvp against people playing for years. How do you propose to make that time up? You can't. I tried to play this game casually, but a typical session consisted of me logging in and getting a mission, then spending the next 30 minutes WAITING while my ship flew to the mission destination. Oh. My. God. That's casual gaming?? If you want to log in for like an hour, don't expect to get anything accomplished.

If you're looking for a casual friendly game, give Guild Wars a go.... cause this ain't it.

Aetius73 · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey
If any game is geared for hardcore gamers... this is it. Casual-friendly my ass. Since skills are earned based on time, you're at a MAJOR disadvantage in pvp against people playing for years.

After 7 months and sticking with a Caldari Ship/Missle skill set I PVP all the time with my corp quite successfully. If you focus on one path you can pull even with the vets within six months or so. I feel this statement is inaccurate if you do a good job of planning out your skills training and stay the path. However if you attempt to dabble in everything you will get good at nothing and this statement would then be true its all a matter of how you spend your training time. How much do I play? About 15 hours a week which would put me in the casual category(as the hard core guys in my alliance are on 8-15 hours a day).

WTF were you flying that require 30 minutes of travel to get to a mission? I can usually fire through 2-3 level 1-2 missions in that time(the multi part level 3 often take around an hour).Did you know that the higher the quality of the agent the closer too home they send you on the combat missions? With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Kialey · April 2006

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

Aetius73 · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

I stuck with one corporation the Caldari Navy and I got out of the multi-sector mission jump in about 1-2 weeks of mission running. Did you bounce around a lot and run missions for different corps?

SobaMan · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

Haven't had a single agent yet send me farther than 3 jumps away from where I got the mission. Storylines are a bit different, but even they stay relatively close. Courier missions make you travel... thus they are called "courier" "missions."

And quality has nothing to do with where they send you. Quality refers to the rewards you get for the missions and the quality of those rewards. Get it? Higher the quality... better the rewards... easy as pie...

Minsc · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

It is ENTIRELY your fault that you didn't try and find a higher quality navy agent to go do missions for once your standings were high enough. EVE doesn't hold your hand and lead you around like a spoiled child. Once the tutorial is up you are on your own.

If you didn't know how to find a higher quality agent you could have easily asked someone, they would be more than happy to tell you how.

Kialey · April 2006

Originally posted by Minsc

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

It is ENTIRELY your fault that you didn't try and find a higher quality navy agent to go do missions for once your standings were high enough. EVE doesn't hold your hand and lead you around like a spoiled child. Once the tutorial is up you are on your own.

If you didn't know how to find a higher quality agent you could have easily asked someone, they would be more than happy to tell you how.

Oh, so the game shouldn't hold my hand, but other players should? Give me a break. I shouldn't have to turn to strategy guides or the internet for guidance in how to play the game. But regardless, I found missions just fine... but those missions sent me all the way to Hell and back.

Glad to hear that things were so easy for you and that you don't consider the game to be a huge time kill, but I do.

Kialey · April 2006

Originally posted by SobaMan

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

Haven't had a single agent yet send me farther than 3 jumps away from where I got the mission. Storylines are a bit different, but even they stay relatively close. Courier missions make you travel... thus they are called "courier" "missions."

And quality has nothing to do with where they send you. Quality refers to the rewards you get for the missions and the quality of those rewards. Get it? Higher the quality... better the rewards... easy as pie...

I don't believe your claim that you haven't had a single agent send you further than 3 jumps away - hell, the starting agent sends you further than that. But, for the sake of argument, how long does it take you to do a round trip for a 3 jump mission? And don't tell me the time of the ship you took months and months to aquire - I want to know how long someone new to the game can expect to travel round trip for a 3 jump mission.

Minsc · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by SobaMan

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

Haven't had a single agent yet send me farther than 3 jumps away from where I got the mission. Storylines are a bit different, but even they stay relatively close. Courier missions make you travel... thus they are called "courier" "missions."

And quality has nothing to do with where they send you. Quality refers to the rewards you get for the missions and the quality of those rewards. Get it? Higher the quality... better the rewards... easy as pie...

I don't believe your claim that you haven't had a single agent send you further than 3 jumps away - hell, the starting agent sends you further than that. But, for the sake of argument, how long does it take you to do a round trip for a 3 jump mission? And don't tell me the time of the ship you took months and months to aquire - I want to know how long someone new to the game can expect to travel round trip for a 3 jump mission.

Without instas and using an AB, 2 minutes max per system so 6 mins each way, with instas and/or MWD, 1 minute or less per system, so 6 minutes for the whole trip max.

SobaMan · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by SobaMan

Originally posted by Kialey

Originally posted by Aetius73
With a high quality agent its often a matter of leaving the station and warping to location that takes around 30 seconds not 30 min. If it took you 30 min to get to each and every mission you are either lieing or doing something wrong which is it?

Then maybe the game should have started me with some high quality agents. It's hardly MY fault that the agents I had sent me on tremendous time kills. That seems like a simple game mechanic that should have been looked at: ie, let's not waste this person's time by sending him to B.F.E. and back. And I didn't say "each and every mission" took me that long - but many did.

Haven't had a single agent yet send me farther than 3 jumps away from where I got the mission. Storylines are a bit different, but even they stay relatively close. Courier missions make you travel... thus they are called "courier" "missions."

And quality has nothing to do with where they send you. Quality refers to the rewards you get for the missions and the quality of those rewards. Get it? Higher the quality... better the rewards... easy as pie...

I don't believe your claim that you haven't had a single agent send you further than 3 jumps away - hell, the starting agent sends you further than that. But, for the sake of argument, how long does it take you to do a round trip for a 3 jump mission? And don't tell me the time of the ship you took months and months to aquire - I want to know how long someone new to the game can expect to travel round trip for a 3 jump mission.

In my battleship (with no speed mods)...

3 jumps to the mission 5 to 8 minutes

mission itself (depending on the mission) anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours (if solo, if i'm grouped, missions that would take me 2 hours tend to only take me 30 minutes)

clean up usually takes about 30 minutes (solo, cause I don't equip tractor beams)

3 jumps back to the agent 5 to 8 minutes.

The travel time is the least of my concerns. It can take longer if I have to fly into low sec because I don't enjoy being ganked, so I travel a bit more secure... warp to safe spots, check local chanel for targets, warp to bookmark, jump, repeat.

3 jumps in a frigate should take no more than 5 minutes (much less if you've got an afterburner which is almost mandatory for me because it makes me even harder to hit) unless you travel through a giant system like Yria (which requires several warps to get through with anything less than a BattleCruiser sized capasitor).

I can see where you're coming from, man, but you're doing something wrong. Agents don't make you travel very long distances UNLESS, and I've said this somewhere, it's a courier mission (ie: bring things to some place). The higher the level for courier missions, the more you'll travel and the more low sec you'll travel through. Fighting missions rarely have me jumping more than 1 system, but they do make me travel 3 systems out once every blue moon.

The starting agent will give you courier missions to begin with because you (assumably) don't know how to fly your ship yet. There is no sense in telling you to go fight something when you don't even know how to use your weapons.

Anything else I can explain?

Kialey · April 2006

I can assure you that JUST the travel time for a three jump mission in a newbie ship is longer than 5-8 minutes. More like 8-12 minutes, at a minimum. But, going with your numbers, you're looking at 10-16 minutes of doing NOTHING for a round trip. Of just travel time. Then, when you return, you get another similar mission and are off..... which means more wait time.

If you're looking at an hour of play time and are able to run two low level missions, then almost HALF of that time is spent doing absolutely nothing but staring at your screen. I find that to be kind of ridiculous. It's why you hear people all the time talking about how the cook dinner, watch TV, etc. while "playing" EVE.

SobaMan · April 2006

So everything should be brought to you? There's no need for a universe, right? Why have such a large universe? Go the fuck back to your grind MMOs. Fine, you're right... now stop making stupid points.

OMG!! I might have to wait... 15 minutes?! The hell you say! I don't have that kind of time... why... I could take a shit in 15 minutes... I could feed my dog in 15 minutes... why should I just sit and wait for 15 minutes? Because... it's a BIG FUCKING UNIVERSE and for the sake of adding realism into the game instead of "ok, time to run the same dungeon again, *WARP*" they said... TRAVEL.... that oh so mysterious word that people of the lesser MMOs hate.

Are you done or do you have something else stupid you'd like to add?

Minsc · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

I can assure you that JUST the travel time for a three jump mission in a newbie ship is longer than 5-8 minutes. More like 8-12 minutes, at a minimum. But, going with your numbers, you're looking at 10-16 minutes of doing NOTHING for a round trip. Of just travel time. Then, when you return, you get another similar mission and are off..... which means more wait time.
If you're looking at an hour of play time and are able to run two low level missions, then almost HALF of that time is spent doing absolutely nothing but staring at your screen. I find that to be kind of ridiculous. It's why you hear people all the time talking about how the cook dinner, watch TV, etc. while "playing" EVE.

If you complete the tutorial you get an implant that sells for 2 million isk, that is more than enough to buy the top tier frigate and outfit it if you so choose. If you train the afterburner skill then that more than doubles your speed and can be trained on the first day in about 20 mins once you buy it. The newbie frigate is meant to be just that, a starter ship to get your feet wet. Most people will buy a better frigate either right after the tutorial is done, or within a day or two max...well...those that don't expect to be spoonfed everything that is.

Kialey · April 2006

Originally posted by SobaMan

So everything should be brought to you? There's no need for a universe, right? Why have such a large universe? Go the fuck back to your grind MMOs. Fine, you're right... now stop making stupid points.
OMG!! I might have to wait... 15 minutes?! The hell you say! I don't have that kind of time... why... I could take a shit in 15 minutes... I could feed my dog in 15 minutes... why should I just sit and wait for 15 minutes? Because... it's a BIG FUCKING UNIVERSE and for the sake of adding realism into the game instead of "ok, time to run the same dungeon again, *WARP*" they said... TRAVEL.... that oh so mysterious word that people of the lesser MMOs hate.
Are you done or do you have something else stupid you'd like to add?

So I travel 15 minutes... do my task... travel 15 minutes... get new mission... travel 15 minutes... blah, blah blah. Your "OMG I might have to wait" post looks pretty stupid in light of the fact that you're actualy spending MOST of your time travelling. Like I said - this entire game is basically waiting for the boat to arrive in EQ, taking the boat, then waiting all over again.

But, to respond to your post in turn:

WEEEEeeeeeEEEEeee! Thank God for this vast area of nothing! This is, like, so realistic! And the long wait time of doing nothing means the game is deep and HARDCORE! Pussies who like actually PLAYING games should go back to WoW or some other game I consider myself above. If only I had a real life cryochamber so I could put myself to sleep to pass the time during the long journeys... yay! Go EVE!

mindspat · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey
But, for the sake of argument, how long does it take you to do a round trip for a 3 jump mission? And don't tell me the time of the ship you took months and months to aquire - I want to know how long someone new to the game can expect to travel round trip for a 3 jump mission.

In an Amarr Executioner a 3 jump round trip, not including layover, shouldn't take more then 10 minutes. The Executioner only requires Frigate lvl 1 to pilot and can be acquired your first day playing EVE. Note, there are other racial ships that are equal if not better choices.

On average I'm betting other active EVE gamers will agree that from point of entry to warping out of a system it doesn't take more then 90 seconds. That's 90 seconds required to warp into, travel through, then warp out of and next to the next system. If you establish "insta's" for your common destination routes you should be able to pass through a system in less then 30 seconds, maybe closer to 20-25 seconds.

I moved into an Amarr Coercer class destroyer my 10th day ingame. The Coercer has the following hi/mid/low slots 8/1/4. I did all my missions with this ship and don't recall ever jumping further then 2 or 3 jumps whlie doing missions. Then again, I do not do courier missions.

If you're looking for a "free meal" then EVE may not be for you. If you're the type of gamer that needs set paths and options dictated to you which governs what, when and how you can do it then EVE is most deffently NOT for you.

For the "online strategy guide" comment: Please name a single game that does not have online guides. BEtter yet, can you give a detailed recount of your MMO experiance and how you had _never_ looked at any form of online tutorial or online strategy guide for the games you had played?

The funny thing is, there's a lot of support for EVE through it's community. There's a good reason why. The community in EVE is of a different calibre commonly found in other online games. I'm not saying this 'cs I play EVE, it's merely an observation. The hostiliy generally comes from players who lack understanding of EVE or simply suffer through emotional anxieties that impact their social skills. *not intended as a flame.

No one is trying to encourage anyone to play EVE. We simply are trying to help those who want or wanted to try it by explaining that -most- players who post " i hate eve it sux 2" are confused and would do better with some experianced guidence.

mindspat · April 2006

Originally posted by Kialey

I can assure you that JUST the travel time for a three jump mission in a newbie ship is longer than 5-8 minutes. More like 8-12 minutes, at a minimum. But, going with your numbers, you're looking at 10-16 minutes of doing NOTHING for a round trip. Of just travel time. Then, when you return, you get another similar mission and are off..... which means more wait time.
If you're looking at an hour of play time and are able to run two low level missions, then almost HALF of that time is spent doing absolutely nothing but staring at your screen. I find that to be kind of ridiculous. It's why you hear people all the time talking about how the cook dinner, watch TV, etc. while "playing" EVE.

Untrue.

The problem faced by others, I think I mentioned this, is lack of social skills. EVE is not a "kill-loot-kill-loot-rinse&repeat" type of game. Bottom line, if you are looking for instant action you need to establish yourself in EVE. I can log in and start shooting something in a handfull of minutes. I can then repeat this until my eyes are burning from teh lack of sleep.

It's very easy to look at a blank piece of paper and holar "It's blank and there's nothing on it!!" Where EVE suceeds is by allowing for the player to look at the same blank piece of paper and go "wOoT! I have a blank canvas to scribe an adventure how I wish!!"

Alliances and treaties are establish during your so-called "off-time". Do I scream "omfg!! I spent 20 minutes fitting my ship and it's wasted time I should not have to spend!!1" ? Ofcourse not. While taking a seemlessly long trip between regions I pick through the market listings looking for goodies that can be resold for a fair profit. I only look at rare modules or tech II items since they have a higher rate of return per investment. And if nothing else is going on I'm chatting with antoher corp member about planning an event or attepmting to facilitate means to reduce logisitcal problems to speed up corp responce. I may even be helping a new player like yourself if they _actualy_ show through intrest that they enjoy the potential in EVE.

p.s. new players have it pretty easy. Most existing members don't hesitate to drop ISK on someone they are helping if it appears the ISK will be well spent. My first 4 months in game I would give, on average, about 2-4 mil ISK to "noobs" per week.

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