EVE General Discussion

When you install EVE.

The only such thing as a fair fight is when one or both parties screwed up badly.

\o/ we have synchronicity, control!

EVE is a complex game that isn't like any other MMO out there. This is what gives newbies a steep learning curve to overcome.

EVE doesn't "stack the deck." It doesn't need to.




Hopefully that advice includes "No one can actually trap you in a station in hisec, shuttles and pods are your friends."




Getting blown up helps the newbie overcome fear of loss, which is pretty much the single biggest obstacle to having fun in EVE. If your fun relies on not having your spaceship pixel exploded ever at any time, this is not the game for you.



The problem is that the tutorials don't set you up for the player interaction that is the bread and butter of EVE. Wardecs, AWOXers, thieves, ransoms, the tutorials do not really prepare a player to defend against or go out and do these activities. People need minimal guidance on "Lock red cross, shoot red cross, make sure you do X damage type and tank X damage type for these certain kinds of red crosses" because a brain-damaged monkey with no arms could do that.



No one's telling you that you have to PvP all the time. What they ARE telling you is that you have to anticipate someone trying to bring PvP to you, whether you want it or not. That's the sandbox: you get to do what you want, but so does everyone else. If what you want is to afk mine in a hulk all day, you can do that. Just don't cry because that leaves you vulnerable and people take advantage of that vulnerability.

I've been targeting high-sec mission runners lately, in the style described in this post. I would say that I'm only about 2% responsible for the death of any of the ****-fit battleships I've blown up in the process.

I mean, there's literally nothing I could do to them if they would just refrain from opening fire on me, right? When you get right down to it, they basically killed themselves - I just carried the bullet for a while.

I get a little thrill when they get engage, because for them to do so is so nonsensical that I always feel like it must certainly be a trap. They're going to wait for me to get into my 500m orbit, and then it's going to happen: He's going to hit me with dual webs and heavy neuts and his buddy is going to warp in and I'm going to get killed by a couple of newbs.

This never happens, but only because they don't realize they could do that.

This is representative of the type of thing that, yeah, actually can be solved by better educational resources. An educated newb in a properly fit battleship COULD bait, trap, neut, and spank me. They don't, though, because they're uneducated newbs who don't know how to fit a ship, don't understand the rules of aggression, and don't have any concept of the tactical landscape of the game, so instead they just blindly open fire on the blinky yellow guy and then spend a minute or two speaking unkind words about my mother until they pop.

PvE and mission running could definitely be more interesting, but then again, this game has so much more to offer.


Why is CCP is asking why EVE is not more popular than it is. That isn't even the question to ask, the real question is why don't more people play it, the distinction is important, since EVE is actually a very popular game among the community.

The same reason that makes EVE so unique is what makes the game difficult to play for extended periods of time. It is also what keeps the game worth playing and keeps out the idiots who just want your typical hack and slash brainless entertainment.

CCP aimed for the upper echelon of gamers and users, unfortunately there are few of us around, and even fewer with the time to play a game we love.

Hey guys, why isn't licorice more popular?

Almost everybody hates it, but the people who do like it swear by it. We should make licorice more like every other candy out there, that way the people who do like it right now won't anymore, and "the rest of us" can have it, even though we already have every other kind of candy.

New Player Experience needs to mix some more PvP/ Co-Op -centric mission lines (perhaps an agent that offers such missions, with time put into making them shine).

PvE needs something that can keep people challenged (at least for a while), encourages Co-Op play, and still allows for emergent gameplay (i.e. still scannable, still gankable, with the potential of a moderator able to control the engagement directly.

Doing these things won't kill what this game offers!
It just gives something for people to do when not engaged in
the politic of Null-sec, exploring WH with roadwarriors, engaging/disengaging in High-Sec wars (lol),
and other things.

I -don't- want EVE to become PvE-centric.

Just give us the freedom to engage New Eden's missions and other things with
more yay and less groans of pain from boredom.

Well what really irks people is that EVE isn't just licorice.. it's black licorice.

The PVP mechanics are actually pretty good, imo. The UI, on the other hand, barely gets the job done and it's quite sad and uninspired.

A complete combat UI overhaul (without changing the mechanics) would make this game truly epic. I have high hopes on a new (optional) oculus rift EVE interface within 5 years or so.

Yeah! And perhaps even more useful, selective graphical display of information based on head and eye movements.

But tbh, many improvements could be done right now. Simple example: why isn't there an option to highlight objects on- or off-gird in the overview? Or the option to set different colors for overview text, dynamically based on objects distance, or speed, or angular velocity?