Hello, and welcome to my new Blog, where I will cover beginner posts for new EVE Online players. Later on I will also cover more advanced topics to show you many of the options and features EVE Online can provide you with, but most of these will be covered on my partner Blog, Foo's Eve Musings .
For now, let's look at what EVE Online is, and some common perceptions of the game. First of all, EVE Online is a Space MMO, and it's history and setting are best portrayed by this trailer:
EVE Online, together with DUST 514, plays in one single Universe, aka "The
Sandbox". This makes EVE Online unique in that you play together with all other players. There are no "instances" or "servers" or "sides" to chose from, everyone is connected. EVE has become famous throughout the media for a couple of events, here are just a few examples:
Throughout it's life, a lot of people have heard quite a few "truths" about EVE, and while usually true at their core, some are heavily overrated and distorted. Let's clean up with some of them:
1) EVE Online is hard.
There is a wide spread picture about MMO learning curves:
The truth is this: EVE is a very broad and very complex game. That in no way means it's hard to learn. Actually, most aspects of the game are very, very simple to understand. What makes it seem hard is that there are countless options and decisions you can make. Yes, mastering all aspects of EVE is a long and hard road, but starting out and finding your place isn't at all. Future posts will try to give you an edge when walking this road, and you'll be perfectly fine if you stay focused.
Let me give you an example, although this is not how a miner should go about, but these are the minimum steps for a miner to earn money in EVE:
a) Get a Mining ship and fit it with Miners
b) Undock and Warp to an Asteroid Belt
c) Lock an Asteroid and start mining
d) Wait until cargo hold is full and return to station.
e) Sell the Ore on the market
But a miners life can be more complex if he wants to, here are just a few options miners have:
a) Carefully optimize his skills to get more ore per minute, meaning more money by being able to equip better Miners, get better Mining ships, etc.
b) Expand on the business of Refining the Ore he mined, getting skills and thereby increasing his profits.
c) Not selling Ore/Minerals directly but setting up Buy orders for more profit.
d) Expand on the business of Trading by hauling the Ore/Minerals he got and selling them in a Trade Hub for more money.
e) Join or found a Mining Corp and take part in Mining Operations in Teams to profit from Fleet boosters by support ships.
There is a lot more a Miner can do to improve his income and as he progresses more complex topics and methods will come into play. The same "progression" holds true for almost all play styles in EVE Online, from Miner to Manufacturer, Trader, Pirate or Explorer.
2) EVE Online is a dark, harsh place full of scams and everyone is out to get you.
Yes, scamming is allowed in EVE Online within the game mechanics, and there are some very elaborate scams out there. But again, with a few simple steps and tips it's very hard to fall for a scam. It is also true that EVE Online has a culture of gankers and griefers, those that "feed on the tears of others". What is often neglected is that it is very easy to avoid these people. Although there is no perfectly safe place, there is a lot you can do to avoid being the target of gankers. Getting blown up is part of EVE, and if you play smart and follow a few simple rules, it won't really matter to you when it happens.
3) You can only do stuff in EVE when you belong to a major Alliance in game.
First, EVE is a multiplayer game. This means banding together in a "guild" (called Corporations, Alliances and Coalitions) in EVE can bring you a big set of benefits. On the other hand it is perfectly fine and doable to play alone. I actually recommend playing alone for the first couple of weeks and experience all the facets of EVE before considering joining a Player corporation.
4) EVE takes a lot of time to play.
Again, this is partially true. Within EVE Online "skills" are acquired only over real time passing. Some of the most advanced skills can take over 45 days to train to perfection. This doesn't mean you have to be online, though. As long as your account is active and a skill is being learned, your character is progressing. That doesn't mean you can't start doing what you want right away, most skills are initially learned within minutes, but getting perfect can take a long time. All in all, EVE takes as much time to play as you want to invest into it. It can be only a couple of minutes a week or an hour every day. The choice is yours.
5) EVE is expensive.
EVE Online costs about as much as any other MMO, so no, it's not. Actually, you can play EVE Online for free after an initial investment if you play smart. This is because you can buy Game Time from other players with In-game currency called ISK. You do this by buying an item called PLEX from the market and applying it to your account. If you play smart, you can, with very little effort, play EVE Online for free after your first month or two.
6) EVE players are unfriendly
Once again, yes, some are. But along my time playing EVE I've come along so many more nice and helpful people than rude and unfriendly ones. Every game has people that insult and try to ridicule you, and EVE is not different in that aspect. And as in every other game, there is a simple solution: Ignore them. In EVE you even have another option: Kill them. Again. And Again. And Again.
7) It takes a long time to get good in EVE
As I said, EVE is a complex game, so mastering all of it will take time. But you don't have to master everything. EVE can be enjoyed step by step. Experienced and skilled players do have an advantage over beginners, but this dwindles quickly. As an example, a perfect manufacturing character will have more parallel production slots available and will waste less resources than an absolute beginner, but you can quickly get a couple of skills and get up to par very fast. As before, perfection takes time, but you don't need perfect skills in EVE Online to be competitive. Essentially, you can do something useful within a few days of starting to play the game.
8) EVE is more a hobby than a game
8) EVE is more a hobby than a game
This one is perfectly true if your want it to be. Not only can EVE be very complex, depending on how far you want to go, it can be very time consuming, with you even "playing" without having the game running. In this state, you'll probably be "meta- gaming" aand plannig new projects. This doesn't mean you have to do this, though. You can still keep your accounts paid and running with minimal effort and make enough money to experience just about everything in the game. Just on a lower level.
9) Getting an EVE Online Titan equals "I win"
No, it doesn't. Although getting one of these ships can be a goal, it's not as rewarding as you think. They are expensive, take over a year to train just to sit in one, and another one to really be able to use it. They have very limited use, you can not dock them to stations and are very vulnerable alone. So just for now, forget about Titans. There's a lot more and rewarding things to do, and if in a year or so, you decide to go for one you'll have a lot of the basic skills trained anyways.
9) Getting an EVE Online Titan equals "I win"
No, it doesn't. Although getting one of these ships can be a goal, it's not as rewarding as you think. They are expensive, take over a year to train just to sit in one, and another one to really be able to use it. They have very limited use, you can not dock them to stations and are very vulnerable alone. So just for now, forget about Titans. There's a lot more and rewarding things to do, and if in a year or so, you decide to go for one you'll have a lot of the basic skills trained anyways.
In conclusion and closing, let me leave you with a personal comment and three more videos about EVE Online to show you some options you have. EVE Online can be a very satisfying game to play and master, but it requires patience and quite a bit of effort to make full use of all the game mechanics. But once you get there a lot of steps you've master will reward you with a good feeling and the game being fun. And what more should you expect from game? And who knows, maybe you are be the next "big bang" in the Sandbox, writing part of history in New Eden!
I hope to see you for my next post: "Getting started in EVE Online: Basic setup and Information."
I hope to see you for my next post: "Getting started in EVE Online: Basic setup and Information."
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