Talking over coffee

Sugar Kyle, CSM whizz, has had the idea for a bit of a chin wag. Something that introduces yourself I guess, and the part(s) of EvE you really enjoy.

http://www.lowseclifestyle.com/2014/12/chatting-over-coffee.html

So… deep breath…. here goes….

 

Hi. I’m a person that enjoys EvE online. Have you heard of an MMO? Massively multiplayer online game. You have? Great. What about EvE? No? Oh well. It’s a fantastic game, set in space and kind of dystopian. Mankind found a wormhole not to far from earth that lead to a number of virgin worlds and we set out to colonize them. The earth tech in combination with the raw resources and new planets heralded in something of a golden age. That is, until the wormhole collapsed unexpectedly.

And the long night for those stuck at the other end began. I understand it was thousands of years before we dragged ourselves back into space. Of the four player races the Amarrians were first. Kind of religious zealots, they either enslaved or absorbed numerous cultures. They like heavily armored ships, that fire massive banks of lasers, and something called capacitor warfare. Some of their ships have a bonus to drain the battery of other ships, and those ships then can’t use any actively powered modules.

Can’t remember if the Gallente (think French egalitarialism) or Caldari (heavy industrialist and workers for the state) were next off the ground, but they managed to get themselves embroiled in a massive war. Last were the Minmatar, a loose group of tribal peoples who for a long time were enslaved by the Amarr. Each race has a particular style of ships. The Gallente favor drones and guns as their offensive weaponry and armour as their defense, the Caldari use missiles and shields, the Minmatar have a different style of guns and can do either armor and shields.

Nothing is fixed in stone though. You can learn any races ships, guns or defenses irrespective of how you start. Thats the beauty of it. You can choose to do pretty much anything you actually like in game.

For myself, even though my main character is Caldari, I have almost always flown Gallente. Partly because I liked drones. They were fire and forget for a long time until the game developers changed the AI and the NPCs started targetting them more aggressively. Had to start concentrating more on tank and guns to make up for it.

How long? Oh, I’ve been playing since 2008. Halfway through the year or so. One of the more cool things about EvE is you don’t need to be online to up skill your characters. In fact, they just changed the skill queue to unlimited, so you can stack up almost as many as you like. There is a grind, but its to obtain in game money and standings, if you want them or some seed capital.

Otherwise, you can throw yourself in the deep end and go to the dangerous parts of space immediately. There is nothing stopping you. In fact, there are some in player run corporations that specialize in assisting new players, EvE Uni and the Brave Coalition are a couple of examples. Though people helping people have been around for a long time. Boris Hotch and the HMM (Help My Mission) people spring to mind.

More recently Mike Azariah of the CSM and Sindel Pellion of the Angel project have gone out of their way to help new players. The CSM? Thats the Council of Stellar Management. Players elected by the player base that consult directly with the game producers. It’s a little like they get advanced warning of whats coming up, and help the producers avoid some of the larger goofs they could be making.

Yeah. Seriously prestigious in my opinion, and a damn good move on CCPs part. Sounds complicated? Yeah, I guess the game kind of is. But then again, a little complexity is going to hold your interest. 2008, remember? 🙂

The parts I specifically like? Well, I’m not sure if like is the right word, but I run L4 missions quite a bit. They are preset, kind of like instances you find in other games and they can be very tough. Not the best in game money spinner, but they’re always available and for a casual player like me, not too demanding on time. I understand they’re trying to make less static and a bit more dynamic. Probably harder too.

Exploration is very cool, but can be very hit or miss as far as income goes. Sometimes you don’t find anything for quite some time, then others you hit the jackpoint. You can make 400 million off one single site, even in high sec. But competition in high sec for sites, especially the competition for combat ones can be pretty fierce. Low and null sec has less competition, but there often will be other players hunting you.

Yes. That’s right. EvE has a serious PvP component too it. Ganking does happen as does scamming. Mind you, I can remember someone trying to gank me over a decade ago in Diablo 2. Sad, I know. But what do you do? Rail against humanity? The funny thing is, that extra danger, that potential for real loss drives adrenaline spikes like you would NOT believe. I’ve had the shakes after some combat. Serious, serious shakes.

The game producers? Well, the official line is they are OK with ganking and scamming in game. But target someone outside of the parameters of the game? Just watch the ban hammer swing.

I really enjoy the theory crafting too. Tweaking individual ships to produce cutting edge performance. And thats just making sure your ship is as effective as possible. Using it in game in effectively though, well…. that requires some investment in time and a wee bit of learning. Awesome when it happens though 🙂

Then there is the community. I blog about EvE online quite a bit, sometimes talking about the upcoming changes, sometimes writing short stories from a character perspective. Nerd? Yeah, I guess so. Proud to wear the label in this case. Why? Because I’m not the only one. There are a host of people, oft times focused on their particular part of the game, smart and engaged nonetheless and all writing about it.

One of the ways EvE has been described in the past by an ex-CSM chairman is this:

“This is the mostly-true saga of how a mild-mannered computer geek ran for political office in a game plagued by rampaging bands of spreadsheet-wielding internet spaceship crack-whores, only to have something absolutely horrible happen. He won!”

Yeah, I laughed too the first time I read that. And it’s largely true. EvE is populated by some seriously smart people. People who love the game. People who actually give a crap. About their corp mates. About one another. About lost comrades, and about the health of the game.

It was really nice to meet you too. My in-game name is Helena Khan. Look me up if you’re interested in having a go at a wonderfully complex game called EvE Online.

FS

H