Cyrus Rex wrote:
You guys may know me as a one game at a time kind of guy, so I am hesitant to start a new game while WoW is so much fun.
However the space aspect of Eve and the many post by Avians has really peeked my interest. I guess I never became an astronaut, but I am always looking for a way to travel the stars. In a few weeks my disposable income will be greater, and I may take the plunge into Eve.
I have read most of the Eve Posts around here, and my interest is growing. I can look at company sponsored web sites all day long, but I value your opinion and input more than anything. Please tell me about Eve and why I should give it a try. In the meantime I will reread your posts in order to pick up on as much info as I can.
-Are you tired of twitchy combat?
-Do you yern to have a capitol ship?
-Want to play in a vibrant economy with thousands of markets?
-Have you been excluded from an activity because of group limits?
-Do you dream of being able to customize your character skills to your liking?
-Have you wished you could advance your skills without a boring grind?
-Do your eyes hunger for astonishing space graphics?
-Does your heart beat faster at the thought of being able to explore over 5000 star systems?
-Have your fingers been aching for a UI that can be operated by as little as just your mouse?
-Have you envisioned being part of a fleet with capital ships so customizable to have hundreds of possible configurations?
-Has your wallet been begging you to play a game with the same monthly fee you pay in your current game that is free to download and the expansions come free as well?
-Does your inner child long to be in a world where bugs and exploits are the exception and not the rule?
-Do you have a desire to be part of a thriving bussiness with endless possibilities for profit and no combat required?
-Would you like to adventure in a world where most risk is equal or greater than the rewards and death can have tragic consequences?
-Have you been seeking a world where deep space is a long trip away, has wonderful oportunities and deadly dangers?
-Do you breath air?
If you answered yes to just one of these questions...congrats. You're still breathing.
If you answered yes to some of these questions then you should try EVE free for 14 days.
If you answered yes to most or all of these questions then EVE is the game for you!!!!
One thing that is left out of most descriptions and selling points about EVE is this. You have the capability of actually OWNING space. Territory. Whole star systems, constellations...hell, I've heard of whole REGIONS of space controlled by player corporations. And how did they gain this territory?
Through viscious fleet combat, economical and political maneuvering, or joining in alliance with other players who already own it. You can build an empire out in the reaches of space! An empire that can be developed, and an empire that needs to be defended, because in EVE there are hundereds of Corporations, each fighting for power over the other. Its the perfect situation for anyone who loves Empire building!
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of EVE
OK the good is overwealming. So I'll do the bad and the ugly first.
The Bad.
There is no ground game at all. They may one day allow you to get out of your ship at stations and walk about, but so far as I have seen in the previews of what's to come this year only atmosphearic flight is definatly in for one of the next 2 expansions and planetary bombardments. (Which suggest being able to place something on the surface to bombard at the least)
Advancement is done strictly off time. You may train one skill at a time on your account. That skill takes X amount of time to train. The time it takes to train is based off your attributes (Intelligence, Willpower, Memory, Perception and Charisma) and each skills training time is reduced by a primary and a secondary attribute. There are skills to raise your attributes as well as cybernetic implants that are lost when you are pod killed. (That being when someone destroyes the escape pod that jettisons from your ship when it is destroyed) Skills can take a few minutes to a few months to train depending on thier rank and your attributes. (Higher rank skills are more elite, but take more time) Tho I consider this a good thing because it eliminates grinding and allows you to play the whole time you are on, some might consider this a bad thing since they can't knuckle down and grind out thier character in a couple weeks.
The world of EVE is vast. There are hundreds of opportunities for adventure and exploration and bussiness ventures and warfare. But this is not apparent when you first start playing EVE. In fact even after almost 2 months of playing I still keep discovering new things I can do. New goals to strive for. But because it is not obvious from the start, many players prolly get discouraged with the limited things they are exposed to during the 14 day trial.
Travel takes a LONG time to get long distances. There are over 5000 star systems (Yes Five Thousand) and hundreds of those are in the central core of the EVE galaxy in the high security regions. (Relativly safe regions where law enforment will destroy any play that attacks another player. Only exception I found to this rule is player in the same corporation can attack eachother. I can only assume the Devs did this so I can get kicks shooting missiles at fellow corp mates.)

It took 3 people 4 hours to make about 3 trips each just 10 star systems away to move some ore we were selling. Makes deep space seem REALLY far away. Makes long trips more of a commitment. But as it was pointed out, you can AFK most travel if you lan your route to go only thru safe space.
PvP
can be forced apon you. You can be attacked anywhere, but in safe space its a good bet the law will kill the player attacking you before they can destroy your ship. So I have never actually seen this happen, but from what I understand it does occure when someone is in a ship they are willing to loose and sees someone they want to kill. Corporations can declare war on eachother, and only one side has to declare for both sides to become enemies. The majority of pod kills in safe space tend to be from corp wars. In low sec space (Deep space) players are VERY territorial and most of the time give you a single warning before they come destroy you for invading thier space. in the lawless zones (0.0 space) you prolly won't even get a warning. But you could play EVE for a lifetime and never leave safe space or in fact, never leave a station if you are a suffeciently boring person who just trades on the market and offers up currior missions to move your goods around.
Ships appearences are not customizable. A Caldari Bantham will look like every other Caldari Bantham. But you can name your ship.
The Ugly
Caldari ships are just plain hideous. I mean they look like mangled birds. Except the Ferox which rocks.
Minmatar ships look like they were built with duck tape and bailing wire. And so do the Minmatar themselves for that matter.
ok on to
The Good
Best way to compare EVE to SWG is to compare EVE to JTL. EVE has no ground game so it doesn't really compare to SWG as a whole.
Well......EVE slams JTL in every single catagory except one. Missions. In EVE there are kill missions, courier missions, crafting missions, research missions, trading missions and a variety of other missions. But JTL has escort missions and and the stories behind JTLs missions tend to be more intriging and ingrossing. EVE doesn't have the meat in it's missions that JTL does because EVE is so damned huge it would take an army of writers a couple years to put in that kind of content. But the standings system in EVE makes working for corporations or specific agents very benificial. Standing with a corporation or individual agent can make a difference in many areas of EVE.
However. Compared to JTL, EVE has much prettier graphics. FAR more ships. And those ships can be FAR more customized. Chat is not a problem even during rough engagements. controling your ship takes some getting use to, but takes little actual effort. It's not twitchy in the least. It's all stratagy, tactics and knowing your ships capabilities.
Mining in EVE is simply amazing. sevral skills and dozens of peices of mining equipment allow you to mine your way. You can have a ship that is dedicated totally to mining, have a ship that is mostly combative for fending off NPC pirats (Called rats) or anything in between. Mining operations regularly make use of TCO-E's (The corporation I belong to in EVE.) combat players as protection while specialists with mining barges and transports mine and move the ore back to the station we are operating out of.
There is no skill limit. You can litterally learn every single skill in the game. Would take you well over 3 years to do it, but it can be done.
No classes or strictures on your development except the time it takes to get there.
The ships are incredibly customizable in equipment. Early ships like frigates are limited. A few weapons hardpoints a few equipment slots, but as you get into the cruisers, battle cruisers and battleships you could litteraly have a couple hundred Battleships with no two equiped the same way.
Space is HUGE!!!!! One single star syatem in EVE is thousands of times larger than all the space in SWG combined. Star Systems are dozens of Astronomical Units (AU) accross and that's to scale. Without warp drives (Or micro warp drives) even the fastest ship would takes months or years to cross a star system. And there are over 5000 (once again that's not a typo. It's Five Thousand) star systems. You can move around planets and moons and stars. You can mine every single asteroid in an asteroid belt. (And most belts have at least 4 different resources)
Ships, stations and gates are to scale. You get up next to a Dreadnaught in your little cruiser and you are just a mosquito by comparrison. And dreadnaughts are one of the ships players can have. (Tho might take you 5 months to get the skills for it) There are also Motherships that other players can actually dock inside like a mobile station. These are Titan and Carrier class ships. (Carriers can launch fighters and assign them to Gang members)
Everything takes up space. Measured in cubic meters ####m3. Every ship has a cargo capacity and every item you put in there takes up a different portion of that capacity. Some items take up as little as .01m3 and some can take up over 700,000m3 in the case of ships or I think stations. (You can have player stations too. But I don't know much about it other than it can be done and would take you a long time to do it and prolly a lot of people working together.)
The economy is vibrant. And because the world is seperated into so many different regions, players can make a very decent living traveling from region to region buying low and selling high. Everyplace in EVE has too much of one thing and not enough of another. Crafting interdependancy is alive and well. Not because you share different skills, but because you need stuff from so many different places. And some places (Like deep space) are guarded jealously by players corporations that kill intruders. So you have an economy that thrives on trade.
There is way too much more to mention. So come try for yourself.
Come conqure the EVE universe in bussiness or military might! The best space simulation game...ever!!!!!
Come be a part of the biggest space adventure of all time. Come get back the joy of gaming. Come join EVE!!!
*Bewilderment and Awe sold seperatly*
-LA