Eve-Online

The reviews are pretty much correct...but they fail to really account for the fact that the EVE universe is just developing.

The biggest gripe I have is that the game is really buggy at the moment. For example, tonight I was playing and the star map--the device you use to set waypoints and navigate through the thousands of solar systems--would not work. Because of that, I was pretty much stuck in the regions with which I'm already familiar, and I will be until they fix the bug. Things like that pop up every once in awhile.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the first thing you need to understand is that this game is not like Wing Commander or any other games where you fight arcade-style in space. You don't really need to have a lot of reflex-skills to be good in this game. However, you do have to be smart, and a healthy dose of greed is useful since EVERYTHING is money-driven in this game.

This is definitely not a kids' game, and you better have some time to learn it because it is VERY complicated. That's why so many people complain about the menu system...they don't seem to realize all those menus are <i>necessary</i> in the context of the game!

I like the game as of now. If they don't start fixing some of the crashes, I will probably stop liking it quickly. I think this game will be unbelievably awesome when they do two things:

1. Fix the aforementioned bugs.
2. Grow the commnity to around three times the current size.

See that's one of the things about this game...the galaxy has over five thousand solar systems, and there's only 4-6,000 people playing at any given time because the game is so new. I regularly find myself flying around with an entire <i>constellation</i> to myself. Hehe!

What really makes this game is the open-ended economy. It is player driven. You don't just find equipment and treasure by killing monsters. There are weak NPC pirates to beat on, but the real way to make money is buy owning your own factory building warships, or missiles, or by being a trader, or by buying investing in your own corporation.

When this game will start to rock is when the resources start to become slimmer and the player-corporations start to compete for resources. Right now, big galaxy + smallish developing community = plenty of resources to avoid turf battles. Not for long though. Also, as of right now, quite a few elements of the game have not been implemented...like Battleships and mind-altering drugs. Those are coming, but right now they would totally unbalance the community and beg for corporate despots to rise up.

The short of it is that this is definitely not an instant-gratification type game. But, if you enjoy chatting this game moves at a good pace that lets you work or explore while chatting with a community that is very friendly and helpful. And, incidently, EVE's support staff is exremely responsive. The universe is huge and there are thousands of bugs--they are just now starting to find them all...but they still do everything they can to help you, even providing detailed workarounds on an individual basis. It can be frustrating, and there are certain things I really hope they change (like the time it takes to dock at a station) but all-in-all, the game is axciting to me just based on its limitless potential and the fact that the players own much of the universe and control the economy. Really, if it weren't for the NPC pirates, the computer AI would have almost no presence in this game.



<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:

Oh, by the way...the graphics in this game are stunning. Just awesome. Not just black space with tiny white dots for stars, but nebulae and gaseous clouds...the planets, moons, and asteroids have great detail and textures. It's pretty close to being cinematic...not quite, but close. And the player creation is cool---it lets you morph your players face in such a way that everyone can be unique.

I also like the ships...they are well though-out and each has its strenghts and weaknesses, and those strengths and weaknesses are logical.

Oh, and I really love EVE's method of skill advancement. Instead of earning points for killing monsters and crap like that, you receive a handful of skills for free during player creation. An example would be the Gunnery skill. You get it for free with certain races. At any time, you can train from level one to level two for free. But it costs you time. For example, it takes 2hours 15 minutes real time to go from level one to level two gunnery. To go from level two to level three takes 8+ hours. Level three to four takes a couple days, and so on.

May seem easy, but there are hundreds of skills, and they're all important, and you can only learn one at a time. The ones you aren't "born" with you have to buy or earn. And they're all important. If you want to put a shield on your ship, you have to buy the "Upgrade Shield" skill; if you want to use Fire-and-forget missiles, you have to buy that specific skill; and so on.

Like I said, it gets complicated. Whether or not that's good depends on what you like.


<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Twitch on 06/18/03 03:20 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

thanks alot man

interesting. esepecially the mind altering drugs! will it be an area you can research to sell on the player market? LOL i can see my future purpose in this game

as for the bugs. that doesnt bother me. ALL MMOG have them at launch. 80% have them a year after launch. its normal....


hopefully Twitch ill see you ingame this weekend. maybe you could give me a few bucks (in game) to help me get my corp started  

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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>

awesome.. your enthusiasm has conviced me  


gotta get back to work tho

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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>

one last thing:

i heard from quite a few places that the graphics are amazing as you said


have a link to the system requirments? will an 8500 Radeon cut it at full detail settings? have 384m/ram and a 1700+ AXP also

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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>

I'll give you a few bucks. And you will become my personal SLAVE muhawhawhawhaw!


Actually, I own TWO of the rarest commidities in the EVE universe: Factory slots. That means if I EVER find a blueprint for a weapon, ship, or item, I will have places to manufacture the items. I could sell them for a LOT right now, but I am greedily holding onto them, envisioning the day I get my blueprints and become a corporate monopoly, like Microsoft.

This game actually lets you make decisions like that.

Sell the factory slots now, make a ton of dough, buy a cruiser, kill people, or:

Keep factory slots, find a blueprint for cruisers, build cruisers, buy people.



<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:

I think you should be okay, but this game does require DX 9.0, so you probably won't see all effects. I mean, my system is really new, so it's hard for me to guess how it would have played on say, my old system, which was a step behind yours...

I don't hear anyone complaining about the graphics though, and I hear almost everyone rave about them, so I doubt you'll be disappointed. After all, I'd guess your system is still above-average to good, relative to what most people are using. It's 3D, but it's not an FPS, so it doesn't really need to get 60+ FPS.



<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Twitch on 06/18/03 03:45 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

hahaha personal slave

where did you find those factory slots btw? i was under the impression that this wasnt an "item find" game. like youcouldnt find most valuable stuff off NPCs?

oh and i found out that the game requires a GeForce256 minimum. so i think the grahpics arent DX9, possibly DX8 but requires DX9 for Directinput or the connection to the server (direcplay?)

but i dont know. they havent posted the minimum specs or details on the graphics ANYWHERE. i found teh only info i have on www.evegate.net in an interview they have . the developer said minimum Geforce1, but nothing else like ram or cpu requirements



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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>

Disappointment #1 !


60$ for the game and it doesnt even come with a free first month. EVERY other mmorpg ive played has. and every other mmorpg has cost less initially because of teh monthly fees. Shadowbane ? free month . Anarchy Online? free month. also got a free month 6 months after i quit to try to pursuade me to come back, which i thought was rather generous

but this one? 6 weeks live and they dont even give an introductory free month. this pissed me off more than usual because i cancelled my mastercard recently because i changed to visa, but it hasnt arrived yet and i have no payment methods (other than paybycash which takes a week to transfer funds anyways)

........grrrrrrr. 60$ plus tax. and i get to look at the box

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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>