EVE General Discussion

So I’ll share some unsolicted newbie opinions given the rash of “I’m quitting” posts. Also some suggestions, though I don’t pretend that these are so original that nobody has suggested them before.

My background is that I’m a 40-something gamer with kids and a busy life. I play maybe 2-3 times a week for 2-3 hours at a shot. I did the trial and signed up for 3 months to give Eve a good chance and I’ve played for about at month now (approx 1M SP). I’ve got a buddy who joined about the same time and we try to get together and try things like scanning down sites. I’m not a big MMO player - my last big commitment like that was in an old-school MUD which also had a very player-driven world and where PvP was the norm. The complexity of that world is what I liked about it, and it’s what I was looking forward to in Eve.

Play Styles
It seems like a lot of people like to be loud that their play style is the only right way to play Eve. That’s not what attracted me. Having lots of play styles is what makes it a complete sandbox game. So forcing everyone to want to live the nullsec life or the highsec life, the solo life or the corp life, that kind of argument just detracts from the game. Debating the merits of each is great - try to convince people to join your side. But why should we pretend that everyone wants to be an extroverted social player or everyone should be an introverted solo player?
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts about Eve, and it seems like there are plenty of people who want to bring chaos to highsec and make it all like nullsec, or abolish highsec. Maybe that’s the nature of the kind of people who want to make podcasts. Frankly I don’t care if you’ve been playing since 2003 and I’m a noob - if you want to destroy half of the playing options in the game you just don’t get what draws people like me to Eve.
Which brings me to...

HighSec and Immersion
I like the idea that pirates can swoop in and kill people in highsec. I’d actually like it if Concord wasn’t as instant-death, no-escape as it is. The idea that escaping Concord is by definition an illegal exploit just feels wrong to me. I’d rather than Concord ships be really badass, but not be a guarantee. If you kill someone illegally in highsec then Concord agents should be looking for you until they do get you, but it doesn’t have to be instantly. Does Concord or factions put bounties on people? That would make sense too. The whole idea of a pile of people being able to wander into highsec and kill someone, then come right back in again and be welcomed seems very weird.

Does death have consequence?
I thought I read in the ad copy for Eve that death had consequences but I must have been wrong, because clearly it doesn’t. Yeah, sure you lose a ship, and that could really hurt. As a newbie I sure know that. But the idea that suicide gank is a standard practice proves the point. The idea that someone would do a dozen suicide ganks in a row just adds unrealistic insult to the gameworld. You get to be a bully and never face consequences for it. If you’re on the Concord “most wanted” list you should get podded, and getting podded should cause a loss that matters - presumably skill points as if your clone could only handle 95% of your SP or something. This might be harsh for first time - maybe the first death in 24 hours is no loss, then it starts accelerating from there. The realistic alternative would be that Concord arrests the characters, but taking someone out of the game (even for just 24 hours) seems problematic.

Do factions matter?
Right now factions seem pretty passive and impotent. Seriously - we just had a huge blow to Caldari sovereignty in Burn Jita and where are the consequences? Are faction forces retaliating against the attacking corps? Are there now huge bounties on the heads of the directors of those corps, and longterm kill-on-sight orders issued to Concord? What, nothing? Seriously?
I think in an ideal Eve universe for me there might be no NPC-run factions. Everywhere would be run by players. The problem solved by having highsec and Concord is presumably that there aren’t players who would want to be policeman in sufficient quantities to match what would be needed in a “realistic” world, so that part might not be worth trying to abolish. To take a page from some old school MUDs I used to play, what if players did run the factions? Gallente might elect officers yearly by one-person=one-vote. Others might vote with dollars, have a more feudal system, or have an annual tournament of 5-man gangs to establish a ruling quintumvirate (or however you’d spell that). The winners would be able to direct faction NPC forces, which might include fighting wars at the command of players. This would also make them be able to respond “realistically” to attack.
I’d love it if a player corp could kick the Caldari out of Jita - that’s why I mentioned earlier that I don’t think Concord ships should be all-powerful. But for the supposed great powers world to carry on like nothing happened just makes no sense.

Most of these things are theoretical to me. I’ve only had one close call with someone who was probably ready to jump a friend and I in lowsec, but I saw them coming and ran. Either that or I was paranoid. I’m sure it will happen. Hell, the way some people here seem to get all worked up I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hunts me down and suicide ganks me for this post as if to prove that they’re right and I’m wrong.

Like I said, I’m giving this three months. Maybe by then all of these things will seem normal to me. Basically I want to try a little bit of everything before that three months is up. Maybe I should stop reading the forum and listening to the podcasts and just enjoy what I see. As I get more into it I’ll probably learn more and adjust these opinions, but there they are.

your suggestions aren't dumb per se but it's very noticeable that you haven't played for long - any sort of bounty is only a donation to the guy you put it on (and there's no way to "fix" this), a grossly overpowered "faction leader" position would of course attract all the wrong people (or the right ones if you just like to see things burn), your suggestion of SP loss would imply up to 0.5m SP lost (for one suicide gank!) given current SP totals (people are nearing 200m SP, you want to treat them as if their clone could only hold 190m and of the uncovered 10m SP they would lose 5%) and would only lead to an even increased usage of low SP alts for that sort of thing but not do much to discourage the committed gankers (once upon a time people thought that removal of insurance payouts for ships that are destroyed by CONCORD would reduce ganking...), ...

you would do good to remember that any form of RP is the exception and not the rule in EVE - especially characters are created, used, bought, sold and destroyed like any other in-game asset.

(fun fact: in 2003 players were actually allowed to fight as champions in the Amarr succession trials Linkage - the winner did not only determine the next Amarr Emperor but also got a planet in Kor-Azor Prime named after him)

This is the best advice you have given. Remember that 90% of active Eve players barely come to the forums and most that do never post.

You can't do it all in 3 months but I am sure you will have a taste or Eve and know if its the game for you. After 8 years of play I am just trying wormholes for the first time and enjoying the "instant" nature of this gameplay.

Please do try the corp thing before leaving because its where the best fun in Eve comes, the co-op nature of Eve can be very rewarding. -

I did too.

It's unfortunate that CCP is giving every impression of letting things swing to only one direction as of late though. Serious mistake. And the numbers are starting to show that.

CONCORD are wizards that magic ISK into the economy

They are the worst keepers of the game due to bounty payouts.

Replace with something else ( player controlled perhaps)

It's transitioning from the game, to the meta.

Being a 4-week newbie myself I agree with your view upon death: Coming from Everquest, where you sometimes spent a whole evening to recover your corps, it was annoying to see that in Everquest 2 (which I nevertheless played for many years) the impact of death was soon nerfed and people finally used dying as a means of transportation.

In a difficult and demanding game (which EVE promises to be) getting killed should have consequences, you should try to avoid it, not happily seek it. I like the SP loss you are suggesting - yes, people might use low-sp alts then, but you can't do everything with low-sp alts.

to the OP i hope you stay EVE need more players like you

Fly smart , fly safe but most important Fly sexy

No, they are tired of CCP, a Company, not providing a Quality Experience for ALL players in thier 'so-called' (and that's where it is right now) sandbox.

If they take the word 'sandbox' out of their ads, then things might be more accurate and UNCONTESTABLE.

In the meantime, Real Life ISK shall flow elsewhere.

The highlighted part is what THEMe PARK mmos do.

This poster is the perfect example of what I just said lol.