EVE Online

[XMEN Gambit]

Personally, I might buy one hot-selling game (such as BF2) every 3-6 months, usually for about $35 'cause I'm careful to get it on sale. Bargin-bin deals for $10-12 don't count... I can't live exclusively on a diet of MMO as I have a number of responsibilites which may require me to pause and take care of something at any time. Kids do that to you. So, it'd be borderline for me economically.

[Wildchild]

My problem is this.

I Beta tested Lineage 2 and City of Heros because I finally broke down and wanted to get into a long term game that I would enjoy. I was tired of playing a game and shelving it two weeks later. T:V did that to me actually.

I bought City of Heros because I had friends who said they would play it. I played it for a few months and no one stayed online. I left, I joined again when the Arena hype was out but never played in the arena itself. Hell I don't even know where it is.

I would play a game like EVE online, or even X2 Online if I could find a group of people with whom I could play with regularly. Like pick a night out of the week and play for a certain period of time. Or know that when I log in, someone that I play with currently is on.

EVE sounds tempting, but paying a monthly fee to solo is not my cup of tea. Now if an XMEN group could get together and play, or hook up with the TW people all of us, then that would be different and I would probably recosider. I have thought about getting EVE but soloing in a vast place like that isn't fun IMHO.

[Ambush Bug]

Situation Update:

I have since left the TribalWar corp (on good terms with the CEO... after all, they might need someone to trade with they know they can trust, if they continue on in typical TW fashion... ), and helped found a new corporation down in Empire space.

Said corp is the Malta Foundation, made up mostly of my pals from Defenders of the Night (City of Heroes) and Ravok, who's also signed on.

We've got enough corp skills to handle one or two extra members of any race, though we are primarily Gallente/Caldari, with a few Amarri thrown in for those pimpin' beam weapons.

As we're a small corp, we're not big into politics or alliances just yet, though we are feeling things out with the ArsTechnica crew for possible non-agression and trade agreements. Mostly we do a lot of PvE missions, some mining and trading, and a wee bit of manufacturing. We're currently acquiring blueprints and a mineral stockpile so we can provide 'standard issue' corporate frigates in the event of a war (or if we decide to go pirate-hunting someday). These ships are of Gallente make, but even non-Gallenteans will be able to fly them within a day or two--the ship and railgun skills are cheap and fast to train.

Mostly, we're at the 'wheels within wheels' stage right now. We had plans to maybe join up with the ISS group, but it turns out they got theirselves ejected from their alliance. A large group of pirates either from or hired by The Five have moved into the unsecure space next door, which makes things interesting for us. Given the large amount of alliance wars going on at the moment, we're kind of waiting for the dust to settle and the next patch to come out sometime this December, which should shake things up a bit more.

So, as pointed out in my review earlier... things move somewhat slowly in EVE. We're overpreparing a bit, I think, but it should be worth it in the long run. Anyone that wants to give this game a try is welcome to give the free trial a go and look me up (Alceta or Decaying Rose).

[Ambush Bug]

Oh yes, one other thing.... the deep-strike mission I'd heard rumours of? Well, turns out I heard right.

G/IRON spent a long, long time (say two-three weeks, easy) stockpiling parts, setting up routes, and scouting, and when the time was right, they sprang into action, conquering a section of space deep in the southeast and then setting up shop. When they got done with it, they had a base in enemy territory from which to attack, and attack they did. Total losses are estimated somewhere in the two to three billion ISK range so far. This is still going on, last I checked, and it's certainly drawn attention away from Empire space for the time being (not quite enough to get those neighboring pirates off their lazy asses, though).

Wheels within wheels, folks.

[TimberWolf]

Sounds like a lot of fun. Why don't you send a scout out to find new paths to avoid the pirates? Are the gates created by players or are they things created by the Devs? Are there more sectors to find or is the universe already as large as it will ever be?

It will be interesting to see how your new company grows. Maybe you can talk to others around you who also are having troubles with the pirates. A common enemy can be defeated when you join forces.

[Ambush Bug]

Well, there's multiple problems with the pirates.

1) They've moved into that system next door for the same reason we moved into the system to their west. Basically, Malta's home system, Jel, is just to the west of a system called Egghelende. Egg, as we call it for short, is a gateway into a small region of low-security space that just so happens to be the fastest route between the universe's three main market hubs, Oursulaert, Yulai, and Rens. We moved to Jel for several reasons--it has a good selection of agents, it has the factories and labs we need for manufacturing, it's close to some nice mining belts, it has cheap office rent, and it's on that trade route I mentioned. We were hoping to capitalize on that route by selling various ship parts at a good price. There's some talk of moving our office elsewhere.

Combatting the pirates is, truth be told, something we could do right this very second. We have enough ships and firepower to at least severely mess up their ganksquads that loiter on the low-security side of the Jel>Egg jumpgate (static gate, btw, placed by the devs). We have enough firepower to do the job, but what we don't have is the economic backing to finish it. Between all of the corp members, we have maybe 250-300 million in just ship hulls floating around, with perhaps another 100M in equipment. The typical gate-camp force in Egg usually has something like 500M in ships sitting there, and I've done enough research to know that these guys are at best 'directed' by The Five and at worst actively financed by them. The Five is huge, and can afford to lose ships for far longer than we can maintain any sort of pressure.

As for finding routes around Egghelende, that's cake... problem is they're all very long, if secure. Usually an added 20-30 minutes of travel time in a decently fast ship, more like an hour in something bigger.

A pro-forma local anti-pirate alliance, however, isn't out of the question. Problem is simply convincing folks to join up, due to suspicion of other corps being hidden allies/spies for the pirates. (And given recent events in the universe, very well-founded suspicion at that.) These kind of things take time and money to form well.

We are considering moving offices to a quieter region of space, though. There's a system about 12 jumps away that's a big hub for Federal Navy combat mission agents, and thanks to some wise ship selection, we're now able to field two groups of agent runners that can blow through those combat missions in a timely manner. The goal for the corp right now is to build up standings with several NPC corporations' research arms so that we can obtain access to better manufacturing blueprints.

Not a fast process. But a markedly fun one, as we watch the alliances shoot at each other.

[Spinning Hat]

Man I wish I had more time... It sucks that I work nights, otherwise I'd be online a LOT more between WoW and EVE...

[TimberWolf]

Hat, if your willing to pay I would be willing to play during my christmas break (3 weeks).

[Spinning Hat]

OK... Who plays EVE still? Anyone? I grabbed the new 14-day trial with the expansion, (Which was free from what I read online.) and I got through the tutorial, and am working with an agent to secure an asteroid belt for some miners from some pirates... Nothing too fancy, especially for my crappy Ibis, but I'm looking at getting a new Frigate today / tonite when I finish this next mission. If anyone is still playing, look me up: (Kenar Uthmondar) He's a Caldari, specialized in Special Ops, and currently training Ship Command level 4.

[XMEN Gambit]

I think DK still plays.

I never did get it, and now I'm into LOTRO.

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Ok LOTRO == ??

[Hot Damn]

I have two accounts in EVE (both inactive) with 4 million SP's in one and 2.5 or 3 in the other (lots of learning skills and ships skills). One is a fighter and one is a lover...erm...Industry guy.

I guess whats turns me off to the game is how hard you have to work to make ISK and how easily it gets flushed down the drain by a single LD or bored pirate in a ship that can tank a bunch.

I do enjoy the fact that you can skill train while offline, but the game moves a little too slowly for me.

[Spinning Hat]

I am finding that the vast sums of isk you need to do anything remotely fun in the game is incredibly prohibitive, unlerss you mine the crap out of everything you see. The missions seem OK to me so far, but if that's wht I'm going to do, maybe I should just spend the time to get X3 working right and play that. I never did get past the tutorial on my old vid card...

Overall tho, it is fun, and the interaction with people is always nice too if you find someone worth talking to, which amazingly enough, isn't too hard to do.

[Hot Damn]

Mining without 2 accounts (or more people, which you then have to split the profits with) is almost useless. I would run my industry guy in a Medium Barge with 2 strip miners and could tear stuff up pretty quick, but I'd still only make a few millions tops per hour (and that was with my fighting guy hauling continually). The only benefit to this is if you do have a buddy who will haul for you and you can semi-afk mine in .5 space for omber.

Mining in low sec isnt worth it unless you can get to 0.0, and by that time you've fought your way through pirates and found a nice little system away from the super corps then you have to fight off the battleship rats in 0.0 If you want to do this join a supercorp and be prepared to get shafted on the profits.

The mid level missions are sadly where the best money is for the average solo player. .4-.6 space and you can make about twice the money in an hour if you really jam on the missions and dont pick up loot (money potential is there for loot, but mid level junk usually isnt worth it IMO). You will run into some hairy missions at these levels though (I have a passive tanked Ferox and there are even a few that I had to pop a few rats or turrets at a time and warp out and then return to finish them off). You CANNOT do these missions without a battlecruiser or better that has a good tank and some reasonable offense.

Overall, big corps are probably the way to go if you want to "fully" enjoy the game and not have to worry about ISK's so much, but at the same time you become "one of the sheep" and may have to spend your time humping asteroids or doing menial crap that takes the fun out of the game in a hurry. All depends on what you're out to accomplish or want to do I suppose.

[Spinning Hat]

I like to blow ships up. There's nothing more satisfying than watching a missile leave the launcher and watch it hit followed by the impressive explosion that follows. I do have to say this about EVE: It's a beautiful game with impressive sound effects, and it's easy to get lost in the experience of it all aside from the missions and the incessant need to earn ISK to do or build or train anything.