What is EVE?

[ricefrog]

Assume I know nothing about EVE (I don't).

What is it?

Is it a video game?
Is it pay to play?

Do you drive a ship around?
Is it a shooter?
RTS?
MMORPG?
A virtual tea party?

Do you have "Levels", have to fight a dog outside the town 17,000 times until you get strong, and then go spend $15 on ebay to buy a horse?

Or is it like tribes where you jump into the server and it doesn't matter how many hours you've logged, you are able to leverage intelligence to learn your skills quickly and the only difference between you and another player exists between the seat and the keyboard?

[Eth]

[Shorin]

i havent played it long, but i will tell you what i have seen so far.

best graphics in a game by far. pay to play. no, you dont jump in like tribes and start blasting people. it takes time to gain skill, but no not like evercrack where you have to walk 4 hours to get in line to kill a tiger to get a tooth to start a mission.

it trains the skills you select if you are logged in or not. you decide what you want skill in, missles or railguns or energy weapons, or electronic warfare, maybe some cloaking. you can even train in drones and have little robots run out and attack like mosquitos while you slam some cruise missles into someone.

you can do simple mining and hauling to get your riches, or you can fight player vs computer simulated mission, or you can go after other players. you can have wars between corporations if you want, or you can bounty hunt people that have money on their heads.

you can become a scientist and create items, or you can become a manufacturer and build stuff, then sell it or use it.

good thing is, you can be a noob with a week under your belt and just haul minerals your group mined and make a good wage while learning skills.

i have seen huge battleships jump into a sector of space and take out squadrons of smaller frigates and destroyers. i have seen groups hunt down someone with a bounty as they traveled thru unprotected space.

so many items can be fitted to your ship to do different things, you cant really name them all. energy drainer, shield extenders, armor plating, all manor of jamming equipment, endless possibilities.

oh, then what kind of ship is there... again, so many to choose from, from elite frigates to dreadnoughts.

lots to learn.
_________________

[Eth]

Sounds pretty interesting. How'd you get into it?

Also is there a demo to check out?
_________________

[ricefrog]

so it's pay to play and it has a number called "skill" instead of actual skill?

i just can't imaine myself enjoying games like that, even if they have lots of cool aspects.

maybe if these games had some balance like magic: the gathering does... where owning a shit-ton of expensive cards means that you can build a really killer deck...

but that i can still go out and use a variety of cheap commons to build a well-constructed deck that will stand toe-to-toe with my buddy' somewhat sluggish $500 deck.

that game strikes a nice balance between building up your collection and it having a value, in that it allows you to build more powerful decks, but more that it allows you to build a wider variety of decks and lets you spice up your experience by trying new strange things... but at the same time there are certain harsh realities lying in wait for you when you try to get all fancy and powerful -- fast, simple and brutal can still whip yo ass if you're too busy being fancy.

so maybe like a level 20 wizard can level your whole town, but he has to take a long time to cast that spell, so before he does that he'd better combat you at a low level with quick spells that you have access to as well, until he can neutralize him... but if he's sloppy you can lock him down into a "pin" and he won't be able to cast any fancypants town levelers.



but no, that would be unfair to the guy who spent all that time ratcheting up his "skill" points!! these dog-fighting games all seem (to this outsider) like they boil down to the following:


RICEFROG vs THE DROOLING DRIBBLER:

RICEFROG CLICKS 'FIGHT'
DRIBBLER CLICKS 'FIGHT'

LETS SEE WHO WINS!??!!

SORRY RICEFROG, THE DROOLING DRIBBLER HAS PLAYED 214 HOURE MORE THAN YOU -- HE WINS!

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!




yyeahhh um so anyway /rant.

don't mind me, i'm just pissed off because i can't find a game i want to play and i'm stuck going outside and riding my bike and enjoying the weather. bleh.

[Eth]

Have you tried BF2 ricey?
_________________

[ricefrog]

BF2 > My Vid Card

is it really very different from BF:Vietnam? that's the only one i played from the series.

i would say it's an "OK" game.

i spent a lot of my time running or driving a jeep through the jungle in search of a meaningful fight, and a bit too much of my time (at first) firing entire clip after entire clip into enemy helicopters only to have it have no effect, or (later after i learned better) cowering in the bushes when enemy helis came near.

overall it could be fun, but what actually stopped me from playing it more was the ENORMOUS load times. i mean, seriously. go make a sandwich, and maybe even take a nap!


so when i think about the sequel everybody is talking about, i can't see shelling out like $250 for the game and a video card to run it.


would it be worth it?

[Eth]

I like it. Unfortunately the minute load time is still present, but there is a LOT more action to be had. I've only watched BF:Vietnam and wasn't too interested in it. But BF2 seems to keep the action going. That being said, should you shell out $250 for it? VGRD.
_________________

[Shorin]

i was on tomshardware.com and saw an advertisement for a free 2 week trial, so i tried it. found a good group, and next thing you know i am making money hand over fist, enough that i can afford many ships. while i was working, my ability to pilot the ships increased, making it possible to choose from many ships.

yes, the longer you are in, the more weapons you can use, or the faster you can move, or the bigger the ships you can use. in about a month, my friend who started after me was running around in a battleship, the premier ship to get.

its not everyones cup of tea, and i still play tribes, but while the number of players in tribes has gotten to the point that when you get put on a team randomly, you pretty much know what most of the people will be doing because you have played with the same people for years. eve is large. very large. on occasion, there are 12K+ people on at one time, and you can interact with any of them.
_________________

[Eth]

Do you have the ability to make some videos of the different action that happens in the game Shorin?
_________________

[ricefrog]

while flying do you weave and dodge and aim?

if one end of the spectrum was twisted metal with persistent build-upable cars, where it's essentially an action game, but you can deck out your ride, and some people's will be admittedly better than other, but it still takes skill...

and on the other end is final fantasy where a menu pops up saying "shoot!" "dodge!" "unleash mosquitoes!" and you CHOOSE your action instead of executing it.


where on that spectrum does the combat aspect of eve lie?

[dil]

[Eth]

So what ever happened with this game Shorin?
_________________

[Shorin]

i am playing it right now, some aspects of it are cool, its a bit slow at times. thing i like about tribes, anyone can log in, suit up, and its persons skill vs persons skill. eve is all about how long you trained certain things, but you can do so many unique setups. right now i am warping on autopilot to where i have to go, to run an npc mission, so i catch up on my surfing for the 5 to 10 minutes to get me over to that area.

the old group woe wend down like a sailor in a gay bar, i am in a new group but nobody posts here. oh well.
_________________