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[EVE ON] EVE-O Appreciation Station
SpaceDrake
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Wangfleet moves out to glorious slaughter. Props to Marius Duvall for the image.
What is EVE Online?
i]Concept[/i
EVE Online is a MMORPG in space which empowers the players to create their own destinies. This is not just a "follow the questlines" kind of destiny: you are equally free to become a industrialist robber baron, a daring explorer, a rogue scientist-for-hire, a stalwart defender of truth and justice, a mercenary for hire, a bloodthirsty pirate - or any mix of the above.
EVE's unique skill system allows the player to not even have to play constantly to advance. Skills train in real-time, allowing for character advancement even while offline. Real life getting in the way of your playtime? Set a week-long skill to train, go deal with real life, and come back to shiny new toys.
Effectively, there is no cap to a character because it would take many, many years to train them all. It is, however, also relatively easy for newer players to catch up to the veterans because each ship can only use so many of your total skills at once (maxed out skills in Amarrian Battleships won't help you much when you're in a Gallente Frigate, after all), and there is a cap on how high an individual skill can be trained.
As stated above, EVE is a sandbox with the opportunity for the player to do anything they would like. There are no professions that are set in stone, so if you'd like to mine one day and then kill some people who are mining the next day, then so be it. Professions are labels that are acknowledged by the player and not the game. Many people ask how they can become a pirate or bounty hunter, but in reality of the game, the player is whatever the player believes they are. (And yes, with the new Revelations expansion, being a freelance scientist or explorer is a completely valid and lucrative career path.)
i]Player vs. Player Combat[/i
EVE is a full PvP game; at no time are you ever completely safe from the predations of other players, and if your ship goes kaboom, then it's gone forever and some of the modules (guns, armor repairers, etc.) fitted will be lost as well, though some others will survive. If this sounds gut-wrenchingly horrifying to you, then don't be too intimidated: there are fairly large areas of space where any attack on you will bring down the judgment of a mighty fleet of NPC policemen (known as CONCORD), and if you lose your ship you can get comfort in the fact that the guy who shot you also went pop.
Outside of these safe areas, space is divided into two rough areas: "low-sec", areas of space still claimed by NPC governments but not properly policed, so any transgressions will be noted on your record (and if you lose too much security standing the cops will eventually just give you the finger the instant you enter secure space), and "0.0 space", space which is claimed (almost) solely by player-run alliances. Anything goes out here, and while the risks are huge, the potential for profit is greater still. Wealth beyond imagining awaits those who can brave the cold depths of space...
i]Economy[/i
With spaceships blowing up left and right, EVE relies solely on a player driven economy and market. It can be (very) profitable to acquire minerals and make ships or ship modules (equipment) using blueprints, and sell to the market. Or you can just mine for minerals and sell those to players who manufacture that are too lazy to mine for themselves. Or, you can mine the ores yourself, refine them yourself, and assemble a fleet of ultimate destruction yourself (or get some help in doing so.) You can even blast NPCs and take the remains of their ships, refine them, and use the raw materials from that to build your own ships and equipment. Or you can go hunting for NPC (or maybe even player) ships, blast them and simply sell what you salvage directly. There is a phletora of ways to gain resources in EVE if you're willing to put your head to it.
i]The World[/i
The world of EVE is on a single server, which means everyone is playing with everyone. So far, EVE has had up to 34,000 consecutive players playing. If you're (in)famous in the server, you're (in)famous throughout the entire game.
The map of the world is also player driven, with regions of space that are conquerable by player alliances.
(Updated: 01/20/07. This is a map created by a player, Joshua Foiritain, of regions that alliances control. The latest map is here. And note with the inclusion of the new regions the map is almost too big to properly shrink to acceptable size for 1024 resolution.)
Revelations
Revelations is the name of the current expansion EVE is under, and it, along with all other content expansions since release, are included with your EVE client when you download it. With EVE, your monthly fee isn't just about paying server costs and buying the developers Ferraris - you pay money, you get content. And in EVE, content equals toys.
Revelations, as originally concieved, was a massive beast - so massive that even rapidly-growing CCP, the developers of EVE Online, have had to split it into three sections.
Revelations 1 (released November 2006): Focus on the enhancement of game play and current systems.
- Contracts as an improvement of current Escrow and Courier system.
- Seamless map, zooming from the perspective of the ship, to solar system, to the universe.
- Combat Organization, a reorganization of the gang system into fleets, squadrons, and wings.
- Exploration in solar systems to key points also with the help of improved scanning and probing.
- Invention as a supplement to R&D (research and development) and manufacturing, but not as a replacement.
- Improve resources and benefits of 0.0 regions of space
- Salvaging of ship wrecks to gain extra materials for creating rigs that improve space ships.
- 8 new space ships (4 Battlecruisers, 4 Battleships) and 8 new 0.0 regions of space.
Rev 2 (Coming early 2007 probably): Focus on enhancing warfare.
- Factional Warfare, having the NPC empires of space fight against each other. Used to ease new players into alliance warfare.
- Improved starbase warfare, station warfare, constellation sovereignty, upgradable outposts, corporation and alliance improvements
Rev 3: (Mid 2007?): Focus on enhancing graphics.
- New ship models.
- New textures.
Sweet god, those are pretty screenshots... but does the game look that nice in motion?
You bet your ass. We have a variety of movies for your perusal; to download them, right-click and "save as". You'll have to rename the file from "default.asp"; do so.
Pretty much the penultimate EVE Online trailer is available here:
EVE Never Fades
The short trailer for the most recent expansion is here:
EVE Online: Revelations
Finally, an older trailer which also gives a decent idea of the scope of EVE (although the interface shown in the video is hideously out of date) is available here:
The Caldari Outlaw
By the way: all footage, with the exception of the painting at the start of EVE Never Fades, is from the game client. All models, all lighting, everything. All of those shots are 100% possible in-game. And will run on computers 4 years old.
And it's only going to get better.
Demonstration video for the new ship graphics coming in Revelations part 3
So I'd like to play... What do I do?
Free fourteen day trials are available by clicking this sentence. No emailing other members necessary, no credit card necessary.
Creating a new character may be a little overwhelming at first. Attributes are important only for decreasing the amount of time a particular skill trains. So, if Perception is high, training for flying space ships finishes faster. A plan many like is to average all attributes besides Charisma, because Charisma is only useful to a particular sub-set of players (i.e. mission runners and fleet leaders). This will create a balanced character that doesn't take too long to train anything.
There are 4 races to choose from and have no difference besides starting attributes, skills, and portrait. (As of Revelations, they also have some different starting skills but these don't tend to vary too wildly; a summary of starting skills for "starter professions" can be found here.) Note that any character can fly any ship of any race, but each race's type of ships are described below.
Amarr - Lasers and armor tank (with a few ships specializing in drones). Lasers do not require ammo, but use crystals which can be quickly swapped for different optimal ranges. Lasers do EM/Thermal damage (which has some difficulties against armor tanks), but have the best range-to-DPS ratio in the game, with Pulse Lasers being the second most powerful guns in the game. Most Amarr ships have few mid slots for EW (Electronic Warfare), but huge racks of low-slots for massive armor defense.
Caldari - Missles, shield tank, and Electronic Counter Measures (Some ships use hybrid turrets). Missles take time to fly to hit their mark, but do static damage of a single type, giving the pilot the ability to choose damage type at will. Also, it is hard to dodge missles. ECM jams the targetted ship's targetting so the jammed ship cannot target anything.
Gallente - Hybrid turrets, drones, armor tank. Hybrid turrets focus on dealing Kinetic/Thermal damage. Railguns are the range option for hybrid guns; Blasters are the most damaging turrets in the game, but have very short range. Drones are like pets that you can control that fly in space and can do various things, including pew mans, jam like ECM, or even repair allies.
Minmatar - Jack of all trades, speedy, projectile turrets and everything else but laser and hybrid turrets. Their ships use different kinds of everything, but they're fast. Artillery projectile turrets are long range snipers that have good alpha strike but deal poor damage over time. Autocannons are short-range guns like Blasters that don't have quite the DPS of blasters, but with a bit of skill and rig trickery can vastly outrange other "short" guns. Also, projectile ammo varies on both range and damage type together; a smart Minmatar pilot can be hard to predict, damage-wise.
So you've decided to play. Remember the following, regardless of anything else:
Do the tutorial. It's long, but well worth the effort. The game is complex and overwhelming, the tutorial helps to teach a lot of the game mechanics.
Join the PennyArcade chat channel. Open up the Channels & Mailing Lists button on the left (picture of two people talking) and press Create / Join and then type in "pennyarcade".
So, is there a PA corporation?
Oh, you have no idea.
Why the tophat you ask? Well, because we're fancy lads.
What began as a small industrial corp that was barely able to defend itself has, over the course of the past half-year, evolved into something quite grand. What was (and technically still is) Merch Industrial has become the WANG Alliance. We produce nearly every type of non-capital vessel known to man, and we are on the cusp of massive capital ship production.
WANG currently operates out of two areas. The first is our old dependable fortress in Hoshoun, on the edge of the Amarrian Empire in low-sec. It has a single station which we have practically claimed for our own, abundant belts, good NPC hunting opportunities, fairly fast access to one of the game's best market hubs, and close proximity to some of the staunchest allies we've ever had.
The second area is the Scalding Pass, an area deep in 0.0 space. We have mining access in that area of space and have the assistance of another, very large alliance that you may have heard about. We provide them, currently, chiefly with materials refined from interstellar ices and assist them in combat operations, and in return we can inhabit their space.
Either area can be dangerous for a new player, but with a bit of readily available assistance from older members you can be on the way to massive profit in no time.
To join, first inquire about membership on the PennyArcade channel and let us know you are coming. Then, make your way down to one of the following systems and apply:
Hoshoun VII - Moon 17 - Imperial Armaments Warehouse (Headquarters)
Kor-Azor Prime IV (Eclipticum) - Moon Griklaeum - Ishukone Corporation Factory
Ishisomo VIII - Propel Dynamics Factory
Slays V - Moon 1 - Ducia Foundry Mineral Reserve
Mista V - Moon 4 - Ishukone Corporation Factory
Hey, who are these allies you mentioned?
Why, I'm glad you asked.
Remember those guys in Scalding Pass I mentioned that you may have heard of? Yep, we've made good friends with the GoonSwarm, who are now the largest alliance (and corp, technically!) in EVE. They've been excellent to work with and they're a joy to fly and fight with (so long as you have a sense of humor.)
The friends of our friends are also our friends. The first two alliances consist primarily of Russian and French players respectively; Imperium (which is currently known as Curse Alliance) is comprised of some of the game's most veteran players, and Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate is composed of guys who are primarily out of their minds.
Solid friends, all of them.
And last but most certainly not least, Curatores Veritatis Alliance. There are some on these forums who will smack them up for being "haughty roleplayers" or somesuch; the writer of this OP will have none of that. In all honesty, WANG likely could not have gotten as far as it has without the help CVA has often given us. They are the guardians of the area around Hoshoun, and although we can contribute quite a bit to our own defense, on the rare occasion we are overpowered CVA throws themselves to our defense without fear or hesitation. We could not ask for truer friends and the OP, for one, is glad to have them around.
So, uh, do we have any enemies?
Well, unfortunately you don't make quite as many friends and get quite as big as we do without gaining the enimity of a few of the big boys. Of major note:
Lotka Volterra is one of the largest alliances in the game. They are also currently the target of a Goonswarm invasion, in which WANG irregularly assists militarily and constantly assists in terms of supply. As such, while there is no actual declared war between the two entities, LV will pretty much kill any Merchie on sight in 0.0 and probably in lowsec as well. While the situation between GoonSwarm and LV sometimes leads to us getting pew-pew'd, the old saying of "war profits are the best" certainly applies to this conflict...
Band of Brothers is one of the hardest, most powerful alliances in the game. They are also the sworn enemies of the GoonSwarm, and if Lotka Volterra begins to buckle, then you can be sure that BoB and the Swarm will again come to blows. Given how we supply the Swarm with a fair bit of war material, it's rather doubtful they'll be too chuffed with us when that time comes. Of course, given BoB's stated goal of conquering all of EVE, it doesn't seem too likely we could avoid pew-pewing them ever, anyway.
Ushra'Khan is the alliance idealogically opposed to CVA, CVA being pro-Amarr-Empire and U'K being pro-Minmatar (and thus anti-slavery.) The problem with U'K, from the WANG standpoint, is that their anti-slavery crusade extends to violence, and unfortunately that violence also seems to extend to friends of CVA. While not nearly as huge as LV or BoB, U'K certainly makes our operations in and around Hoshoun interesting from time to time.
Additionally, WANG occasionally has to deal with random piratical twits who come after us thinking we're easy kills; as of this posting we are currently engaged in such a conflict and are roughly teaching those who declared on us that if you wish to harm the Merch, you better be ready for some fleshreaping.
Wow, that's a lot to think about. Anything else?
Nope. Just remember one thing:
You don't have to read this thread from start to finish and don't be afraid to ask questions!
And with that, gentlemen and ladies:
MAEK POAST!
SpaceDrake on
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Posts
This game sounds ballin'
I am this (picture something small here) close to subscribing to this.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Convert US$15 to Australian. I suspect electricitylikesme or one of our other Oz players can give you a precise number.
Not quite sure what you mean here. Do you have trouble losing ships and whatnot? If so, I reccomend flying mostly frigates and whatnot at first, especially in PvP. They are supremely cheap and disposable.
If you head down to Hoshoun (or, if you're feeling supremely brave, head up to Scalding Pass and 0.0) then I highly suspect the WANG can help alleviate any boredom you may encounter.
What Andorien said kind of sums things up for me. Which is strange, because the idea of EVE just seems so fucking awesome.
Hmm, was that with a timecard or with a subscription plan? The smallest subscription plan is for 30 days of gametime per billing cycle.
EDIT:
Well, as I said, head down for Hosh and hook up with us. You'll get a fair amount of excitement, although you shouldn't expect a Quake-style twitchfest out of EVE. (Which is not to knock Quake, of course; at its most fundamental level, EVE is simply more similar to games like Homeworld than it is to twitch action games.)
The remnants of a Lotka Volterra capital ship fleet:
Here is a shot of a battle in progress, also against LV.
Edit: Fixed for H-scroll rape
Damn it, stop talking! You're gonna make me join up again (every time, I think "we're gonna do this right this time!").
I accept paypal.
(Great shot tho, and I have an idea for getting a PvP ship back up to the LV wars)
We're gonna do it right this time!
I play at 1024x768 and the game looks great; also, remember that the game was designed to run on machines from 2001-2002.
Minimum system requirements from the EVE FAQ:
Also note that electricity means "faggotry" in the good way.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Ooo, something that compares and contrasts various combat MOs would be nice, too.
http://wiki.goonfleet.com
Just ignore the stuff about joining goonfleet and authorization. Unless you've got an SA account older than 3 months.
You may want to read this a little better
http://www.penny-arcade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1073846611&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Look for the part the has the merch and the word WANG in caps
You may want to read better.
This is especially true with my new OP, while it's informative I think I may have gone a bit overboard
And Roark, all you need to do is join the PennyArcade chat channel in game and you'll get plenty of help.
Edited because I'm a dimwit.
And you'll be flying cruisers by the end of the free trial which can handle the NPC pirates around Hosh with not much trouble.
Not sure how much longer I can resist getting this, do I need a joystick to pilot the ships or is it mouse controlled (god how I hated that in Freelancer)? Also, are there going to be many people playing around 8-12 GMT or would it really be best looking for a corp in a better timezone?
Oh boy, if you hated Freelancer, EVE will make you puke. It's non-direct control. You point somewhere in space and double click to move in that direction. More often than not, you'll navigate via astral bodies and other object in space - right click on a ship and select an orbital range, right click on an asteroid and select move to, right click on a planet and select Warp to etc.
There are people in the MerchI corp playing pretty much 24/7. Most of the members are US, but there's an increasing number of European members and even some antipodeans. Either way, there's certainly likely to be a fair number of people on between 8pm-12pm (or even 8am-12am).
I'm not so big on 6-jump tutorial missions.
Oh they are so FUCKED!
Edit: for the uninformed, this allows us to attack them inside the apparent safety of central empire space, instead of just around the outer lawless 0.0 regions.
This means that we can disrupt their supply lines with small gangs of pilots patrolling the pipelines into the empire trade hubs hubs and around the jump-point systems on the edge of 0.0
These systems are used as an empire base, An alliance will buy up fuel, equipment and any other items that they require in deep 0.0, they will load them into capital ships and then use the capital jump drives to transport their shit many light-years to their outposts.
The logistics involved in keeping a large alliance running just day to day is mind-boggling, let alone when it is at war.
I am a director of Goonswarm, I don't actually have an official position, I just make these propaganda videos for our recruitment drives, i also help process new applicants.
As far as ships go, I now am almost always found flying my Gallente "Arazu" Force recon cruiser. I call it my SpaceSubmarine. It has the ability to cloak and is equipped with a dazzling array of sophisticated electronic warfare modules and bonuses. I can warp in on an enemy ship unseen and cripple him with my sensor dampeners while keeping his warp drive scrambled at almost twice the range of any other ship allowing me to stay well out of range of any nasty surprises he might be packing.
We have powerful enemies by our association with the Goons, but the powerful enemies are too busy trying to keep their systems from being overrun by the Goons and their allies to pick on little ol' us.
The only people who can pick on us in high sec are people who pay for a war declaration. Normally, the cops show up in high sec and vaporize anyone who starts trouble. You can pay a fee to declare an official war be able to shoot and be shot by a given corporation or alliance, and someone has decided to declare war on us.
Even so, their corp is 22 people total, usually 7 or 8 online at once, and we generally know where they are. If you stay aware of who's in your system (there's a nice handy list next to local chat), it's not too bad.
WANG is incredibly newbie friendly. We regularly have people join who JUST finished the in game tutorial and don't know how basic modules work. We're happy to walk people through things, and you can do anything you want as a WANG member, except be a pirate.