All things EVE

[Soln]

I've been playing EVE for about 2 weeks casually, and while I hated SWG-Jump-to-Desktop-Lightspeed  I am enjoying this game.  I'm playing casually, but the aesthetic, design, connectivity and general social environment have impressed me.  It's succeeding at doing some things very well, while not trying to do all things, and to me this is commendable management.  Basically, it's an economic and PvP Space Sim, catering maybe to more detailed and experienced gamers.  But so far so good. 

What prompted me to post this is the following email.  In maybe 7-8 years? of online gaming, I have never once received an unsolicited customer support email as a "new customer" giving me advice and explanation.  Other than the standard welcome emails as a new sub, I have never seen a game take the time to figure out who are new players and what kind of out-of-game contacts they might need.  In this case, to explain an upgrade, because I might not understand otherwise what's going on and why I can't play.  Well done.  Shows they give a shit and are organized.

Delivery-date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 17:07:43 -0400
From: EVE Online <webmaster@eve-online.com>
Subject: EVE Server Extended Downtime
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Dec 2005 21:05:31.0319 (UTC) FILETIME=[1E118C70:01C600F2]

As a new player to EVE Online, you may not be up to date with the latest
news and forum headlines. Because of this, we wanted to inform you directly
that CCP Games is releasing the new version of EVE Online this evening at
10PM GMT.

New expansions result in extended server downtime that lasts for up to 24
hours. This is normal for a game of this size and magnitude. We therefore
recommend that you begin training a skill on your character that will take
longer than 24 hours to complete.

When the server updates are completed, the client will automatically
upgrade to the newest version of EVE Online: Red Moon Rising after you log
in. You may optionally download the version directly from our website at
http://www.eve-online.com/download/.

We sincerely appreciate your patience,

The CCP Team

[Yegolev]

Congratulations on being the person that managed to tempt me to investigate this game.  Your competition consists of drunken phone calls interrogating me as to when my pig-fucking ass is going to resub to WoW, so that is quite an achievement.

[MrHat]

Congratulations on being the person that managed to tempt me to investigate this game.  Your competition consists of drunken phone calls interrogating me as to when my pig-fucking ass is going to resub to WoW, so that is quite an achievement.

Hah, never been called pig-fucker but the drunken calls I can relate to.

[Cheddar]

<Words and general happiness>

You had me at Hello.  Seems a lot of the gaming blogs I follow are switching to Eve as well.  Of course, it will take me a few days to re-activate, but I am slow like that. 

[schild]

Eve is....slow.

[HaemishM]

Eve is a spreadsheet with a pretty screen saver and the occasional loss of all your effort due to the crashing of your spreadsheet program before saving kind of game. It's great if that's what you want, but I fell asleep playing it.

[Cheddar]

Eve is a spreadsheet with a pretty screen saver and the occasional loss of all your effort due to the crashing of your spreadsheet program before saving kind of game. It's great if that's what you want, but I fell asleep playing it.

The slow play does not bother me too much, as I still have WoW and pr0n to play/watch in between flights. 

I am reaching the point of my gaming cycle where I resub and/or play a grey shard of UO.  I want to break this cycle, but the current offerings do not allow this to happen.  I am becoming jaded 1.5.

[Nebu]

Jaded 2.0 is where it's at.  I suggest you get the latest patch.

[Sky]

The story in PC Gamer sounded pretty cool.

[Yegolev]

We use "pigfucker" as a term of endearment.  Er, kind of.

"There's a new flypoint and a troll village, it's fucking sweet."
"I will still have to walk there, ass."
"We can do it, pussy."
"You always forget that I can't stealth and leave me behind, fucker."
"Your mama can't stealth."

Anyway, I almost reactivated WoW last night.  Right now I have eve-online.com loaded in a separate tab.

[Soln]

I think the micromanagement will get to me at some point, but I'm playing lightly, enjoying non-endgame aspects.  And frankly, the people playing all seem older and probably want to invest their time in an online service that so far seems very robust and non-farmery.  Dunno if you have had client problems.  The PvP game I have yet to see.  But I have logged out abruptly in mid-warp several times with no penalties.  Ultimately, it can't be anymore spreadsheet-y than SWG crafting.  Witness what I used to use for Weaponsmith crafting.  Finally, they're a small firm, and I'm pro-Indie and overly biased towards small software shops.  

[Edit] spelling

[bhodikhan]

EVE is great! If I didn't play EVE I would never get a chance to read all the books and watch all the movies I do. While I'm "playing" EVE I get so much more done in my life.

EVE Online -- "It's the only game to play when you need to get other stuff done"

[Yegolev]

EVE is great! If I didn't play EVE I would never get a chance to read all the books and watch all the movies I do. While I'm "playing" EVE I get so much more done in my life.

EVE Online -- "It's the only game to play when you need to get other stuff done"

I smell the sarcasm, but honestly that sounds great.

[Yoru]

I quietly picked Eve up 3 weeks ago. I first tried it about 6 months after it released and was turned off by the general lack of content and exceedingly slow pace; but then, at that time, I had a lot more free time on my hands (yay, unemployment), so active games were more my speed.

I've been playing with a couple folks from the office and we've formed a little corp to help share stuff among ourselves. So far, it's been really positive; the offline skill training that I hated earlier has turned into a big selling point, since I can't catass 2 victory. I like that I'm not compelled to come home every night and play Eve for 2+ hours to continue unlocking new content; I can check in on my skills 2-3 times a day and play with the newly-unlocked toys on my own schedule.

Combat is languid, but I see it more as a strategic combat system rather than the controlled-chaos of WoW and the other graphical dikus. It's enjoyable and, thanks to the pace, the battles don't feel binary; there's a big gray area between 'owning' and 'getting owned', and the battles switch back and forth in advantage when the sides are balanced.

My biggest annoyance is travel time. Taxiing to a stargate or station sucks.

But yeah, when I get asked about it these days, I lead off with the warning that it's a very slow-paced game, so if you prefer action or twitchy stuff, don't even consider Eve. If you liked Privateer, Elite or Trade Wars, you'll probably love it.

[Viin]

I've always had fun with EVE, even if it is pretty slow sometimes. I think you just need to be in the mood for it .. it's a good game to play while studying and generally doing other stuff.

The biggest thing for me was the travel and when I wasn't in a corp it got pretty boring if I didn't have other stuff to do or someone to talk to.

If you guys are interested in starting an f13 corp I'll join :)

[Jobu]

The story in PC Gamer sounded pretty cool.

That story got me to finally download the trial last night. Should be a nice distraction during the Christmas break. I always had a hard-on for their brand of space aesthetics. One of the better looking games I've seen in recent times.

[Strazos]

Any link to this story? The only story I have read was about a giant scam.

[Hoax]

That was a great story too, and ties in nicely with our EQvUO thread...  EvE is much more of a UO-style open ended game, which we need more of.

Its a game I really really want to like, but playing by yourself just sucks, and I'm not really in the mood to find guilds anymore.  If a game doesn't come with an established start point of people to play with I just wont bother these days I'm afraid and EvE never generated a ton of interest among friends.  I had a roommate and RL buddy who tried it but we all quit because the pacing was just too drastic a change from the fps games we were used to.

[tazelbain]

It's funny, just last week the canucks at corpnews were talking up EVE.
I wonder if EVE will be the first MMOG to start off niche and move to wider audience.

[Merusk]

My biggest annoyance is travel time. Taxiing to a stargate or station sucks.

Only the lonely people taxi to stargates.  Look up a tutorial on how to make instant bookmarks.   I only used autopilot when I needed to AFK and was traveling in >.5 space.

Eve is a fun game with it's flaws like any other.  The difference being what flaws you're willing to overlook.  Megatravel times is something  that eventually got me, but the rest of the game was stellar.  (Yes, combat is strategic rather than twitch.  Right ammo, right mix of weapons, right ship and right enhancers.  Or you can brute-force it like I did often enough.  :-D )

Those people who miss the 'good old dread lord days' should check it out and look into becoming pirates.  It's a playstyle that's supported rather than viewed as an unintended consequence of the mechanics.

[Yoru]

My biggest annoyance is travel time. Taxiing to a stargate or station sucks.

Only the lonely people taxi to stargates.  Look up a tutorial on how to make instant bookmarks.   I only used autopilot when I needed to AFK and was traveling in >.5 space.

I'm aware of how, but I'm rarely in the same set of systems long enough right now to make it worth it. I expect that, when I stop being such a nomad, I'll set some up.

[Jobu]

Any link to this story? The only story I have read was about a giant scam.

http://www.mmodig.com/?p=155

[schild]

Any link to this story? The only story I have read was about a giant scam.

http://www.mmodig.com/?p=155

The story is nothing compared to the original Great Eve Scam. That said, *I* could write a story that would make Horizons appealing. Seriously people. Fiction makes you sub to a game? Weird.

[Cheddar]

Any link to this story? The only story I have read was about a giant scam.

http://www.mmodig.com/?p=155

The story is nothing compared to the original Great Eve Scam. That said, *I* could write a story that would make Horizons appealing. Seriously people. Fiction makes you sub to a game? Weird.

Fiction has brought us to the MMOG genre from the very beginning, and why we still bother playing.  And I am not speaking of the game fiction.

[Nija]

That said, *I* could write a story that would make Horizons appealing.

Bet you can't.

[HRose]

Basically everyone is playing Eve right now :)

Dave Rickey has been catassing it and just wrote about it on his blog and I keep seeing it referenced just everywhere.

Right now I'm subscribed to Eve, DAoC and WoW and having a lot of fun in all three for different reasons. It doesn't happen often that I feel like a pleased gamer.

[Triforcer]

[Those people who miss the 'good old dread lord days' should check it out and look into becoming pirates.  It's a playstyle that's supported rather than viewed as an unintended consequence of the mechanics.

Sigh...I've been burned on the "its like the golden dread lord days" too many times.  Can you point me to any links describing the pvp and the level of tankmagedreadlordedness? 

[Malathor]

Well Triforcer, I found this link interesting.

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=172529&page=1

Our net gain from this massive heist is roughly estimated at over 20 billion ISK.

Total damages inflicted are estimated at close to 30 billion ISK.

To give a sense of scale, 1 billion ISK sells on ebay for over 200 dollars.

[MrHat]

Holy Hell.

[Strazos]

pwned

[5150]

EVE Online -- "It's the only game to play when you need to get other stuff done"

Thats comedy fucking genius!

and oh so true - its the first time I have ever felt compelled to use something I've seen posted as a sig...

[Strazos]

BTW, how long is the free trial period (without paying anything)?

[Cheddar]

BTW, how long is the free trial period (without paying anything)?

14 days.  I wish they had a trial for inactive accounts; oh well Ill just pony up the 20 USD and be happy. 

I am not a Scrooge, I am just poor!

edit.  https://secure.eve-online.com/ft/?sk=GHELL  <- Good link for free trial.  I will be on round about Tuesday, and will most likely catass all x-mas weekend.  I know one other person getting the trial.  I wonder if I can talk Tragny into joining us; mwahahaha.

Not sure if CCP has a DL for the client either; here is an alternate in case they do not. -> http://www.gamershell.com/news/17215.html

WoW derailed me from EVE due to IRL friend wanting to play, but after realizing the mentality of things I am not sure if I will continue (WoW). 

[MahrinSkel]

FWIW, this is as good a time as any to get in, they just rolled out a major content patch (Red Moon Rising) that will change a lot of the fundamentals in ship balance and PvE activity, so the veterans don't have as much of an advantage.

--Dave

[Cheddar]

FWIW, this is as good a time as any to get in, they just rolled out a major content patch (Red Moon Rising) that will change a lot of the fundamentals in ship balance and PvE activity, so the veterans don't have as much of an advantage.

--Dave

I would love to.  IF I could re-activate my account (I keep getting a crazy cannot connect to bank error).  Maybe has something to do with their server reset?  Who knows, its a MMOG!

Server is up.  They had to fix some SQL issues, and everything seems pretty now.  Time for PATCH love!

My name is Arzhel  (Yup, Cheddar was taken as usual).  If you message me and I do not message back do not get upset; I never did manage to fully figure out all the chat window thingies