EVE New Citizens Q&A

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Venture/Fittings or join channel Beginner Fits and see what they have. You CAN finish all the career mission without Omega.

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I will try to answer this as best I can in my intoxicated state with minimum levels of snark.


Because this isn't like those other games?


What you describe are called "freemium games"

The basic thing with those games is that they are very linear in their character / equipment power structure, economy, and gameplay.
You grind hard enough, you gain power. Or you can pay and get to the "end game" faster (or outright).
Equipment is meant only to be tossed as soon as you can equip something better.
Some equipment is unique and one-of-a-kind.


The issue with EVE is that things are not very linear (despite what you may think when looking at the ship / equipment structure).
Even the biggest, baddest, and most expensive ships and equipment can be brought down with enough players in trash-fit equipment. Hell... sometimes even a single trash fit ship can be a "hard counter" to something grossly expensive and grind it down with time.
No item is truly unique here.
Everything is destructible here. In a very permanent sense.


This goes even further.

Almost everything in the game is either harvested or made by other players.

And this is where things get dicy.


The reasons for the restrictions on Alpha accounts really comes down to these two things;

- Alphas should not be able to adversely affect the game for paying customers and upset the balance in such a way that paying customers become aggravated and quit.

- Alphas need something, like a "paywall," to encourage them to subscribe.





Now I understand that subscriptions look scary... but they really aren't.
To put things in perspective:


- a bottle of so-so wine or 6-pack of beer is about $10 and usually won't last 2 or 3 days (maybe not even a day if you're like me).

- a NICE meal at a restaurant is about $10 to $15 and won't last more than 30 minutes to an hour.

- a monthly gym membership is about $10 to $20 a month and, on average, people don't go to it more than 3 days a week for an hour or two at a time.

- a good night at the bar with friends will EASILY cost $50 (drinks, food, transport, etc) and MAYBE you remember about 3-4 hours of the experience, followed by hours of pain the morning after.

- a 12 pack of cigarettes is about $4 to $6... assuming (conservatively) that you only smoke 3 cigarettes a day, that's 7.5 packs of cigarettes a month... which comes to about $30 to 45 a month.

- taking a shower in the morning costs you around $1 to $2... if you take a shower every morning that adds up to about $30 to $60 a month.


Also... let's be honest... you have probably spent MORE money on something WAY dumber in the past.

What you get with EVE is 30 days of unlimited access to a game environment to basically do what you please (within the confines of the rules of course) with tons of other people doing the same thing.


Now if $15 a month is a "high" amount for you, you have bigger problems than affording a game... which very clearly falls in the category of "luxury service" (yes, that is what all games are, a "luxury")

This isn't like those other MMOs. EVE was always designed to be a subscription game. The introduction of a F2P mode didn't change that (nor should it). The alpha clone state is only meant to be a trial account without time limits. However, you can do quite a bit with it with a little help and guidance. Every play style in the game is available to you - but with reduced capability.

As it's been mentioned above already, Alpha clones are limited to their race's ships and weapons. So, you created a Gallente character, you're limited to the Gallente frigates and cruisers, and to hybrids (blasters, railguns) and drones.

Otherwise, keep in mind that this is a "train whatever skill you want" game, and there's a wide selection of skills, with very little height to the trees. Basically, the Alpha clones already have access to MOST of the skills.

The devs implemented the Omega restrictions by locking the skills only, and it's a fine balance where if they were to let Alphas have a skill slightly higher, it would unlock all sorts of end-game weapons or ships. There was a huge discussion about the Alpha states before they implemented it, and one of the major goals was to not flood the game with "free throwaway alts" that could be used to flood the economy or commit piracy without consequences. So that's where the system is at.

While the upgraded mining frigates, mining barges and exhumers are indeed non racial ships; Alpha clones are prevented from using them because allowing them to be used by what are effectively free accounts WILL be abused to hell and back by those of us that know how to use those ships to their maximum potential.

Here in NCQA most people get cut a lot of slack, we genuinely want to help new players like yourself to find their feet in Eve. What we don't do is give as much slack to people (generally the instant gratification crowd) that feel that they're entitled to something and demand change to suit them, your original post didn't fall in to that category so it's all good.

General discussion on the other hand tears people new ones on an hourly basis.

Feel free to ask questions in here, we'll answer them as best we can.

OP I think I see your initial confusion, laser weapons are different modules than mining lasers.

you probably don't want to use any sort of offensive turret on a venture anyways, unless you are in a venture fleet that is combat fit for lulz. If you need guns use a combat ship, eve has all sorts of specialized tools, imo it is better to use the right tool. Also insert joke about not wanting to mine anyways, as mining is one of the lowest income professions.

You are correct.

I've enjoyed your thread :) If you need anything in game give me a shout.