Be Excellent To Each Other

Eve-Online

What is it?

It's a MMORPG set in space. Space, here, is the galazy cluster known as 'New Eden'. There is over 5000 seperate solar systems, all of which you can visit, if you so wish. These systems are linked via stargates, so from system A you can go to system B and C, but to reach D, you have to go through B, or the long way around through C, E and F. More on that later. The game is on a constant world server (23 hours a day, 1 hour or so a day for downtime) and has about 20,000 on at any one time.

In EvE, you start by rolling a character from one of 4 races, then the starting attributes are chosen via a 'profession'. the attributes (Intelligence, perception, willpower and charisma) will have an effect on how quickly you learn new skills. Skills are aquired through the reading of 'skillbooks' which one purchases. Once a skill is being learnt, a timer clicks down until that skill is complete. This timer is effected by your points in the two attributes it requires, so some character classes learn some skills quicker than others. A skill will give you the ability to use a piece of equipment, or if you level that skill up, use it better (fly faster for example). Attributes can be improved by 'learning skills' (one point up per level) or implants (stuff you stick in your head). Skill training is continuous and doesn't stop when you log off.

For example, I have a character that has a skill that allows me to sell things at a distance (I don't have to physically be in the station to sell item X). Without this skill trained, it is only in that station, level 1 is a different space station in the same system, level 2 is 1 jumpo away, level 3 is 10, level 4 is 20 jumps and level 5 is regionwide - subs please check). Accumulation of skills is a good thing as it allows you to shoot quicker, move faster, last longer, build more efficiently to give a few examples.


Where?

These systems have a 'security rating' from 1.0 to 0.0. 1.0 to 0.5 means that if you are attacked, or attack someone in those systems, the local police force will arrive and destroy the agressor's space ship. in 0.4 to 0.1 you can attack people without the intervention of the police force, however, do it near a stargate or a space station and the sentry guns will fire on you, anywhere else and it is fine.

Systems have a differening number of space stations, asteroid belts, complexes (Places where NPC's have set up a base and you can go shooting them).

What do I do?

Anything you want.

Miners use mining lasers to extract ore from asteroids in the cargo holds of their ships. This ore can then be refined into raw materials for construction of ships or modules for their use or to be sold on the market.

Industrialist buy raw materials off the miners and use these to construct ships and modules for their own use or for sale to the general [population.

Trader buy and sell goods either from the NPC or player characters. The discovery of trade routes has made this a very profitable operation, buying goods at one rpice and transporting them 15 jumps away to sell at double that price. The important thing to remember is that the market is player driven. Anything can be bought and sold, at any price. Trade routes often run from one region to another, does a trader take a short cut through unpoliced space to maximise cash over time, or the safer but twice as long route around?

Mission runners take orders from NPC agents, be it 'bring X number of object Y from A to B, or 'go kill NPC pirates here'. These misisons provide a steady income and give rewards in special shiny toys.

Fighting characters will either escort their corp mates when mining or running goods from A to B, protecting them and their profits, out of the goodness of their hearts or for a fee.

Pirates will attack without provocation in an attempt to remove the worldy goods of others for their own ends.

Also, some people scam other players out of high end ships and cash through a series of actions.

The prime rule is to trust no one, not everyone is your friend, and allegiences can change quickly.

Players can join corporations, which are the equivalent of guilds. A corporation is a group of people with a common playstyle or goal. Often, these will include pure idustrialists to provide ships at cost price for those fighting to protect the miners supplying them with raw goods and traders to increase the corporation's bank balance. A corporation can join other corporations in an alliance, which can grow to be many hundreds of people strong and strike forth and claim space for their own.

Corporations and alliances can declare war on each other. This means that thye pay a bribe to the police that allows them to attack, without reprimand, the other corporation or alliance. These are often bourne out of a genuine greivance, for example, to drive a corporation out of an area ensuring the spoils for themselves or something smaller (X attacked Y, X was rude to Y). These wars can take place anywhere and when at war, extra special care must be taken.

What can I fly?

There are many ships, from the super fast and sleek interceptor class frigates to the great lumbering battleships and titans that are fielded in huge powerpoint slideshows of battles. in between, there are Cruisers (offering a decent return in bang for buck), Cloakable stealth ships, massive freighters for moving huge volumes of goods about and smaller, but no less cavernous transport ships. In the game, providing one has the skills, any ship can be flown. All ships have differing bonuses (depending on the level of ship trained). One, for example goes x% faster base speed per level trained, so a character at level 5 will be going considerably quicker than one with a level one.

The aim of the game can be anything you wish it to be, it's a sandbox. Some people choose to build great empires on the outer reaches of space, with their own outposts and staking claims to whole regions. Others seek to remove the assets of others for their own use. Traders ply the most profitiable routes, making billions on a single run.

In summary:

The good points is that is an immersive universe and there is a lot going on. You can never not try something new or set yourself a new goal. Player interaction is encouraged andcan be quite exciting. The thrill of combat is something that I haven't experienced in any other game, my heart rate shot up and my hands were shaking as I tried to shoot the person shooting at me. The sense of loss is real. once a ship explodes, it is gone forever and represents a real in game cash loss. Brains will triumph over brawn in the most part, a new player can destory the dreams and ambitions of an older player in the short term and, as time goes by, over the long term.

The bad: It can be laggy as shit, there are stil a fair few bugs in it. Being in a corporation that you are not enjoying can be a pain in the arse. The lag in fleet fights (100+ vs 100+). The sense of loss. The sense of unfairness as you poke your nose into unpoliced space and get oyur face shot off. your first encounter with player pirates. It's also an MMO, so there is a fair amount of ISK (in game currency) sellers spamming up the chat channels and there are tossers about.

Verdict: It's a flawed work of awesome.

Metal Angel has played a metric assload of this.

If soemone wants to tidy it up a bit/add to it, then amybe stick it on 'the site' as I've not had time to involve myself i all aspects of the game/whatever.

Sounds a bit harsh.

Note to self, don't go out for a fag halfway through a sentence.

Also:

+1 good point: Brains defeats brawn a lot more than the other way around.

Sounds great, but like any MMORPG I feel like I haven't got the sheer volume of time needed in my adult life to be able to learn and enjoy it, which is almost a shame because if I was still a teenager I could quite easily see my life becoming swamped in crap like this

This does sound interesting but I'm scared of getting sucked into MMMMMRPGS. My current gaming habits are manageable, this would tip the scale.

Ditto and ditto. This sort of thing requires an investment of time that I doubt I'd have normally, let alone with two babbies. Which is a shame as it sounds ace.

EvE is acebest. Amusingly, my experiances of the game are almost the exact opposite of this, as I was a Logistics Manager. I'd be planning projects, moving the rocks around, arranging my escorts through pirate infested space, doing R&D for the Corp to build a space station and add extra things to our "List of Stuff We Can Build", trading, forging alliances, teaching newbies, almost everything except fighting.

While my character can fly lots of Frigs and quite a few Battleships, he nearly always prefers his Punisher, so nippy and agile and can actually take down a BS in a one on one. It was set up juuuuuust right. Cheap to replace too.

I hardly ever fired a shot unless in self defence or ratting, though. I wasn't a carebear as such, I just had too much else going on, I left the fighting to the guys who were good at it!

And you're all a bunch of cunts for whetting my appetite for it again and then not actually playing in BeeX Corp.

Cunts.

<cries softly into his cup of tea>

BUT ONLY IF I HAD OF KNOWN PREVIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!

As a small corp, we could do wonders, for each other and all (as long as it involved explosions and making things, and being excellent, natch.....)

I miss it loads.

Ah, well, I'd be up for a Beex corp with minimal participation demands, in other words, something that doesn't require me to toil alone for 20 hours to work out how things work. How much does this shit cost?

(maybe)

Ok, I've got a 14 day trial account and I'm downloading the software now. I hope this doesn't suck balls.

I'm guessing it's a subscription after that. Once YOU"RE ADDICTED!!!

I'm not playing anymore, so maybe CG can add to little review as my washing machine goes apeshit dogmental..

.

Have I bollocks. I've never even tried it.

I can't get on with EvE, simply because (the last time I played it at least) the movement of your ship was controlled by clicking the mouse. Damnit, I want my manual flight controls from Elite/Frontier!

Oh. In that case EvE online isn't the game I thought it was..... AHHH. I had it confused with Neocron the Bee Stabbing Wonder Game.

If enough people want to commit I'll happily make BezzieCorp and show you all around for a month. Or for your 14 days, whatever.

If you make a BezzieCorp I may have to dig up my character.

So,

Grimmy Grim Grim
Mr Gnomes and
Me

Any more for any more? 3 isn't really enough, but if people can be persuaded to grab a 14 day trial...

.

Upgrading the CPU takes a slot, so there's a limit to what you can do.


Not at all.


From flying from one space station to another if your ship is blown up, or if you're moving a load of ships around, or something.


Find someone that will do level 1 missions - asking in the in-game chat will get someone to tell you where to go - Rens system mabye. Work your way up from there.

Oh, and learn. Hit the books hard. Learn learn learn learn learn.

Yeah, I have a 'damage control', erm, thing that I could install on my ship but I don't have the skills. Presumably I can buy the necessary skillbooks from the market screen?

I can see how one could get the hang of this, but there's a poopload of acclimitisation to get done first.

What Grim... said. You should have been given a Level 1 Missions Agent who will teach you the basics of ratting (killing npc pirates, really), mining, refining, research, etc. From there you should get a basic idea of what you want to do.

By the way, ALWAYS have a skill training. Even if you don't know what it is. They are trained in real time, see, so when you log off switch to a long one so it doesn't finish an hour after you've gone and then sit there doing nowt.

I recommend the "learn stuff faster skills" first. To level 1 or 2 if you're only planning on the 14 days.

I wonder if I should install it on my work PC for out-of-hours pissing about. The danger of that of course is that I might never go home. THIS is what MMORPGs do to you.

Yes. Yes you should.

If there's enough interest BezzieCorp* may be opening it's doors tomorrow morning/afternoon.


*may not be final name.

Yes, I'm up for this. Even if a corporation is only 3 people presumably it can grow if anyone else perks up.

Question: My tutorial agent has no more work for me. At the end of the last training mission they said they'd give me details about a 'friend' who needed work doing, but now I can't find any reference to that or work out how I locate said person.

Do I just go to random space stations and hope to find willing agents sitting there? What happens if all my ships get destroyed? Can I eject before my ship blows up and escape unharmed? And more!

He will be in your "People and Places" button. You can talk to him or her over the radio to check it's the right person before going to see them.

If your ship gets destroyed you escape in a Pod, and try to make your way back to where your other ships is. If your pod gets destroyed, you die. If you die, GAME OVER MAN. Death. Gone. Nothing. Unless you have a clone, in which case you will jump in to it's conciousness and start from there. If you have no ships, you have no ships. You'll have to get another, somehow. Usually by begging. Or just starting again.

I did pick up someone's corpse yesterday that was floating in space. Imagine my dissapointment when I found I could do nothing but trash it. I did briefly consider auctioning it, but I didnt' think anyone would want a useless corpse for 1 million. Arf.

I'd given this up, you bastard. I am all over this shit tonight.
Damnit.

How much does this nonsense cost, then?

I would have been up for it a year or so ago, but I'm done with MMORPGs, and don't have any time to spare. It's good to be busy.

I played Eve for a few hours, but didn't get into it. It would be significantly better playing with people I (somewhat) know, but I won't be joining in.

You guys need to post your char names.

I'm Sheepeh, natch.

I'm based out of Kakakela and can fly most frigs, a Cruiser or four, and a Badger. And various other things.

Grim... if you want to set up BezzieCorp before tomorrow, do of course feel free to do so, just let me know if you do so we don't make 2. If you're on tonight I might join you.

I'm ComicalGnome.

I've worked out I need the mechanic skill, and then the hull upgrades skill to install this mod. I have bought and am learning the first as we speak but I need more cash to buy the second. Erm, I need to find some asteroids

Good job it's Friday, innit?

I have an account I may reactivate. I can't remember the character's name.

I'm tempted. I shouldn't be. But I'm tempted.

Thank Christ I can minimise. I can set a destination, autopilot it, and get on with some work while I'm warping about. Warping takes ages.

*coff*

DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT rely on AutoPilot in any non-safe space. YOU WILL DIE. HORRIBLY.

Autopilot unwarps a few miles away from the warp gate see, and campers will kill you. If you do it manually you can warp NEXT to the gate and be on your merry way. This won't matter to you for the minute as you'll have Concord around to protect you, but it's an idea to check where autopilot decides to go. Use the map to see if it's taking you through a system that's had any pod kills in the last hour/day and avoid it's route.

This'll all make more sense once we all get in game and can tell you things a bit easier.

€15 a month, less if you buy three months, etc.

I've re-activated my account, and I'm downloading the client onto my home PC now. See you in space.

€19.95 to buy the game. Then time after that, but you can buy it in various ways including ebay, direct from the site, or with ingame money should you be good enough (you aren't).

You can set your autopilot to avoid dangerous space. If I remember correctly you'll get a warning for the first few time you try to go through low sec.

I'm off to work in half an hour, but I've got the client downloaded and will re-ac tonight. I'll be around from about 10ish, as usual. Maybe slightly earlier as it's Friday.

I certainly fancy chilling in da space with you guys tonight.

You can set it to "Safest" or "Quickest" route, and I'm not sure which one it defaults to. To most people, I think "Quickest" would seem like the best option if they hadn't been made aware of the consequences of death, so I thought I'd mention it. Like you say, I think you get a warning - but if it's minimised you won't notice.

Now look what you've made me watch.

Hmm - thanks for the info, but seems a little spenny for my liking.

By the by, do try EvE Radio in the background.

They have music, DJs, competitions like ingame races, quizzes, and other random stuff.

I've won quite a lot of their competitions. It's quite relaxing pootling about space, on a mining mission with the radio on filling in Quizzes as a Corp.