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EVE Online Empyrean Age: Not like the trailer but still really good
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Several months back I resubbed and joined Merch and it's been a blast. EVE is a point-and-click RPG, and it's damn fun. But you have to aggressively pursue the fun; it won't come to you. An example:
Early on in my stint in Merch I got pretty bored with just ratting to buy a bigger ship, and completely sick of fighting BoB (admittedly the game has this problem where territorial warfare with player owned structures is one of the most boring soul-destroying things sometimes, but CCP knows this at least) so I rolled an alt skilled for minmatar destroyers, got my roommate to do the trial and roll a similar character, and together we chose a likely-looking region of low-sec, formed a corporation, and war-decced one of the local mining corps (using funds provided by my main).
This provided a ton of hilarity. These guys took us seriously, so every time we showed up in their usual haunts (flying thrashers!) they immediately scrambled all their members and went on a giant hunt while taunting us and even discussing search tactics in local! (The best part of EVE is so many of its players are bad at it.) In the end we scored some cheap kills and lots of laughs, accidentally got killed by concord, ran from horribly fit battlecruisers, and it was some of the most exciting times I've ever had playing a video game.
Also, in response to some issues raised, Amarr ships just got a major buff and now have like the best sniping battleship in the game, and no, combat is not like playing a spreadsheet. It's hard to describe, but it's absolutely heart-pounding if you actually get a good fight.
There is no solo fun in EVE.*
*unless you know what you're doing.
I think that's it, right there.
They make it look like Wing commander/Freespace/Privateer. It's not, it's Homeworld, but with the RTS replaced with MMO. In homeword I wasn't disappointed with not going in the ships because it was a 3D RTS.
MMOs kind of take the assumption there interactivity between players or some kind of social aspect.
It's basically a space version of planetside, which didn't work as an MMO ether.
EVE is really fun though and does work. But as has been said, don't play it solo, and don't stay in high-sec, and you have to put a little effort in, as the game is a sandbox. Having Merch is really a fantastic opportunity.
The EVE universe really comes into its own when you have access to 0.0. Suddenly the drudgery of high-sec has a purpose when you need cheap goods (there is actually good money to be made importing) and the non-NPC-ness of null-sec means that everything - e.g. the local markets and infrastructure - is player-created, which is awesome. With hostile alliances always just the next constellation over and friendly players forming the local security forces, living in EVE can be a uniquely wonderful and exciting experience.
Basically, a lot of the things that I look for in a game in theory turn out to, in practice, be a big ol' pain.
But when you're just traveling? That stuff doesn't matter at all. It's just point-click-wait.
The way I deal with down time is amusing myself by creating ship setups and trying to squeeze that extra bit of DPS out of my ratting rig, or sometimes I only log in for PvP.
Maybe when Rath won that Ogre II bpo and was swimming in isk? I dunno, this is the first I've heard of it either.
XBL: OptimusWang
Now mind you I've got nothing against PvP, but it's difficult for me to sit down and drop multiple hours into a single operation. I generally have to be ready to AFK at a seconds notice, and when that can cost you the ship your flying or get you left behind on an op... yeah. It made things difficult, and then I found out the hard way my computer chokes at anything larger than maybe a five vs five, considering a large scale battle caused my entire machine to nearly lock up. I never DID get to do anything except sit there and die, by the time I had any control again I had already been blown up and podded.
Have they done anything to fix the lag, or have things drifted more towards small scale combat that isn't so lag-tastic?
And another thing, is it still "missiles or bust" for PvE? I might have been able to stand ratting better if I had been able to fly a Rohk or something during it rather than a Raven, as I personally hated missiles. (Going Caldari might not have been the best idea in the world but hell, I have Caldari Battleship V by now I think, so I ain't remaking.)
And hell, while I'm asking questions... does it still take a ton of training to get involved in PvP beyond tackling? As pretty much since the day I came to EVE I wanted to fly a Rohk, but it seemed like it'd take a ton of time to ever be able to fly one, much less fly one decently. Especially with training missiles for faster ratting but railguns for Rohking.
Lag is still shitty and seemingly random - sometimes a 200-person fight will be surprisingly lag-free, and sometimes it'll crash the node - but most decent PC's should be able to handle a moderate battle okay with a few optimizations. I play on a MacBook Pro/x1600 (booted in Windows XP) and I've had fights with 50-100 people in them play smoothly with premium graphics.
For what it's worth, CCP is aware of the problem and currently theory-crafting all kinds of game design that will split fights up.
No, never was.
I rat in a Dominix with drones and blasters, and I hear T2 cruisers are fun, but overall a Raven is still the simplest and most effective PvE ship in the Caldari arsenal, because missiles fly far and don't take cap to shoot. Likewise, most races have one ship that's better than the others at PvE due to the ability to fit a good tank and some kind of cap-less damage-dealing, and a Raven is probably still the best overall, but I never bothered training into one even though I have Caldari BS to level 3.
For missions you can get away with guns a lot of the time, at least on the easier ones, and honestly anything that does damage without sacrificing your tank is fine for PvE. Rat in whatever you want. EVE is a sandbox.
I hate ratting too (though I don't have anything against missiles - they look as cool as any other weapon), so I'm always running some kind of get-rich-quick scheme that usually doesn't pan out.
Um no, it never did? If you're just talking huge blob warfare of the kind GS & Co. engages in to claim 0.0 territory, then maybe. Electronic warfare is a big intermediary step and very popular in goonswarm at the moment (and Caldari currently has the best ewar so you're all set!), and there are all kinds of other roles you can aim for to aid "the blob", such as covert ops, dictor, etc. (hell, FC even). In small gang fights (which can still be had) the various combat-oriented cruisers are still a blast. Hell, I had fun shooting newbies in low-sec solo in a destroyer. You don't have to fly a fleet BS to "get involved" in PvP, and I think you underestimate how much fun tackling can be.
I am still working on battleship sniping skills, and tbh you don't really want to fly a rokh into a fight until you can afford to replace it a couple times, which means you may as well train missiles to get that cash. Still, a rokh is better on the grind front than other snipers, since you can be effective without T2 guns.
Do you want to fly interceptors? Level 5 of a ship type is typically required for tech 2 variants. Otherwise go straight for a Raven (unless, like the previous guy, you hate missiles).
They kind of cost a ton, if I recall correctly. I'd recommend cruisers first if I were you.
Also, you'd have to train a TON of other skills, including Evasive Maneuvering up to level 5.
been playing for a while just leveling skills, missions and mining and such and its getting quite boring...
Edit: But I really only wanted to work with the goons to stop the evil empire of bob... and it looks like the goons are the new evil empire
It just isn't very fun to play......
That's why this topic exists.
Being an evil empire is pretty fun too though.
Alright i guess i'll apply...
Should i just apply to a nearest Corp office or can i Convo someone and ask questions
Nos is heavily nerfed now and a lot less prevalent in PVP than it was a year ago. Amarr T1 cruisers are still in the lower half, but they have some of the best T2 cruisers and T1 battleships. Their Interdictor (T2 destroyer) is also really good at engaging small fast ships if you have T2 weapons. So Amarr is really good once you get to the higher skill requirement ships, but still a little weak for a new player.
I'm curious too.
I've been a Merch director since December. On the balance sheet I get to fly a corp freighter worth about 1 billion isk, but I consider it corp property and never use it for personal gain (and if I ever quit or take a leave of absence it is going back to the corp).
On the other side of the scale, I've also donated almost 2 billion isk worth of gear to the corp since I've become a director. I devote about 90% of my in-game time to corp business (fueling towers, putting up towers, hauling fuel for towers, hauling moon minerals between towers, hauling/refining/handling payments for the corp mineral program, scouring 4 regions for minerals for corp construction projects). I don't get (or even expect) compensation for any of this time. Hell, I've even recently taken on the task of maintaining the corp web forums (which costs about a dozen real $ each month).
I don't mind doing any of this because of the satisfaction I get from seeing the corp prosper, but I am pretty irked that someone would have the impression that directors skim from the corp.
Gave it another chance a year or so later and really started to get into it. Was mostly Mission Running and Ratting and selling Salvage to a guy I befriended, just steadily learning the game. I was flying a Vexor and had just bought a Brutix and was messing about with different weapons fittings...
Anyway, I lost interest mainly because the Corp I had joined was mostly America based and I would frequently log on and there'd only be me online and I'd be all alone like a friendless Space Lepper. Proper shit.
I reupated my client after seeing the new patch and am thinking of returning...
Does Merch have a good amount of EU timezone peeps in it? I can has friends?! D::lol:
Merchi has a fair number of euro players, myself included. Also as part of GF you can always hang out on the frontlines and do stuff with the other goons, there will almost always be something going on. You just have to learn where to look for the action.
EvE: Vetitum/Venitum
Cheers dude -- sounds perfect, I will log on when I get chance and see what's what. 8-)
Of course. And luckily for you, we have an office in 9-9 so you can re-apply in safety.
It was a toss up between using my old jump clone, or seeing how long I'd last in a shuttle that deep in goonspace without a corp..
I've reapplied, my characters name is Sewersider.
I'm going to use one of the basic builds from the goonswarm wiki, and apply at the nearest merchI office. Is there anything I need before applying?
whoops.
Anyway, how open is this game to business ventures? I want to make a risky and secretive delivery service.
Actually I just want to fly around really fast and not get ganked. Suggestions?
steam || twitter || tumblr || twitch.tv
Any hints that can be provided to someone in my field of interest would be great.
Also, what do I need to do to get on the MERCHI forums?
I'm a science/industrialist character and a carebear at heart, though I do PvP when I feel like a break. As far as a guide, science and production in EVE is the most complicated part of an already complicated game, and I could write pages about it, so feel free to convo me in game (my in game name is Vorick). Production is also fairly reliant on skills; but luckily if you're our in goonspace competition is fairly minimal, so you can get away with less in the area of skills.
By the way, the first law in EVE markets is the higher the demand, the lower the price; it goes against every law of economics but it's true. In EVE the supply isn't limited, just if it's worth a producer's time to fill a market demand. So the bigger the demand, the more the market is worth and the more competition there is, leading to lower prices. Out in Goonspace the demand is lower than in empire, so profits are high and oftentimes a product isn't available at all otherwise, giving you a monopoly; but the sales will be slow.
The most important skill for an industrialist is Production Efficiency. Each level of it reduces the materials you need to build something by 4% (kind of; it starts at 120% and someone with the max rank only needs 100%); obviously getting this skill has an enormous effect on your profit margins and any serious producer will max it out (which unfortunately takes a long time). In the busiest market hubs of EVE profit margins are only 2-3% and you wont make any profit at all without level 5 PE. If you want to get an early start on production, though, you could produce high margin, low cost items like ammo and some modules and sell them at relatively high prices in stations they aren't otherwise available at; they wont sell fast, but they will sell. Once you get PE 4 you can look into producing other T1 modules, and PE 5 will enable you to produce ships for sale, which is where the real money is.
Producing a tech 1 item requires minerals, either from mining or refining items such as NPC loot; and a blueprint for the item you want to construct. Blueprints themselves can be researched to improve things such as how long it takes to build and how many materials they need.
Important skills:
Production Efficiency: Cheaper building, as mentioned
Industry: Level 1 required to build, each level reduces the time needed to build something
Mass Production, Advanced Mass Production: Increases how many factory slots you can run simultaneously
Science: Level 1 allows you to research, each level reduces the time needed to copy a blueprint
Research: Reduces the time for productivity research (how long it takes an item to build)
Metallurgy: Reduces the time for material research (how many resources it takes to build an item)
Laboratory Operation, advanced laboratory operation: Increases how many research lines you can run at once.
Optional: Mining and refining skills if you want to obtain your own minerals
And that's only for tech 1, the "basic" production. Like I said, EVE is a complicated game. Advanced producers can expand into the tech 2 industry and science areas (Invention and Research & Development).
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
If you right click in space do you see a mission at the bottom of the menu? If so you might be able to either warp to the right spot or set destination and autopilot to the right system. If not, maybe try to go back to the space station and restart the tutorial?
If nothing works and no one else can help you won't lose much by starting a new char at this point.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Where should I pod to in merchi space to start out? Also can someone send me a little startup cash?