EVE New Citizens Q&A

It’s safe to assume that the X Series (like X3 Terran Conflict) and Eve Online are probably the two closest games to each other but one being an MMO and the other not. I realize that Eve is probably 100x more involved than the X series but I have been playing X games for many years clocking in hundreds if not thousands of hours and I wanted to see what the differences were before I dove into Eve Online for the FIRST time. I need advice on someone who has extensively played both X3 and Eve online and tell me what the differences are in each of the major areas and what I can expect to be different. Some examples include:

Q1: FIGHT – In X3 you start off as a small peon ship and eventually build and upgrade to a huge capital ship. I’m assuming this is the same in Eve. I know that X3 is flown with a joystick while Eve is more mouse click and autoflying. I have also heard that some of the biggest ships in Eve cannot be flown in the “everyday flying” sectors but more like warped into different sectors from OTHER player ships. In X3 it’s usually whoever has the biggest ship with the biggest guns wins but with Eve, skill becomes a bit more involved especially when it comes to team work. What would be some of the major differences in the FIGHT aspect in this game from X3 to Eve Online?

Q2: BUILD – In X3 you can build any type of structure in the game. Everything from ship yards to defensive towers. It’s fairly simple as long as you have the ship to build them and the money. You can build up specific structures that support another type of station to build a type of complex super hub so to say. You make money by selling wares that these structures produce. You also need to protect them if a large capital ship decides to attack it. I’m assuming these types of structures in Eve are a massive undertaking and require the work of cooperation. Do individuals have their own structures or would that just be easy work for a pirate to come by and blow them up? They need to be constantly supervised by a large cooperation to protect their assets? What would be some of the major differences in the BUILD aspect in this game from X3 to Eve Online?

Q3: TRADE – In X3 you can trade any of the types of wares in the game to other factories or other NPCs. It becomes more of a supply and demand type of issue where a factory that produces lasers that needs a specific ware is out they are willing to pay more to continue their production. In Eve online I’m assuming this is kind of the same? Possibly a type of auction house for people to trade their wares? Do you only trade with other people or can you trade to NPC’s as well that need these resources? What would be some of the major differences in the TRADE aspect in this game from X3 to Eve Online?

Q4: THINK – In X3 you play god by having every single ship and factory that you built at your disposal and can give commands to everything you have to do particular functions. In Eve online you can only control one ship. Do you need to multi-box and have at least two active accounts to be a “productive” member and get anywhere in the game? Since you can only control one ship, can I only focus on one activity at a time while using that particular ship? Like I can’t fly around doing combat missions while I give my ore collector orders to collects ore. I have to physically be in my ore collecting ship? X3 Has missions and a storyline. Is there any point to Eve online when it comes to quests, missions, epic missions, storylines, epic storylines, ect. Or is this game just solely player to player interaction and there’s no such thing as NPC driven events? If there is, are these NPC events a good way to start off and make money or build up experience? What would be some of the major differences in the THINK aspect in this game from X3 to Eve Online?

Q5: I heard there were options in the character creation screen that if aren’t chosen correctly can seriously hinder your character development for the future. If I remember correctly it was something like wisdom that made your skill advancements progress quicker and you wanted that maxed out or something??? I’m just kind of going off the top of my head with what I heard a few years ago. Any tips like this (maybe like what race to choose) would be helpful. Thanks

Just a quick background about me and what I’m expecting. I consider myself a veteran MMO player but I’m starting to feel the “burnout” of all the noobish World of Warcraft clone MMO’s out there with their “theme park” type gameplay and just one disappointment after the next (I grew up playing games like Everquest and Final Fantasy XI where you didn’t get your hand held and told what to do) From a single player side, I ONLY play massive open-ended sandbox types of games. Some examples include Flight Simulator X or IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 instead of H.A.W.X or Ace Combat. The original Operation Flashpoint or Arma II instead of pewpew Call of Duty, Forza 4 & GT5 instead of Need for Speed, etc.

I feel like Eve online is my last hope for an MMO especially since I am in-love with open sandboxed space games. I know it’s massive and never ending because everything is player driven. There’s no theme-park ride and it’s as open sand-boxed as you can possibly get. I’ve had trouble getting into it over these past few years going through half a dozen trail accounts and ending up not proceeding any further. Depending on the answers to this thread I may go ahead and read the 400 page “manual” that’s online to get myself familiar with the game. Thank you for your time I’m sorry it was such a long post.

First of all, WOW I thought I was the only one who could make never ending walls of text on the forum.

To the point:

A1: In EVE you also start in a really small ship and can progress to get bigger ships. But unlike X3TC in EVE bigger isn't always better. Small ships have their use too, and even small frigates can kill a battleship. Also you're right about capital class ships, the majority can't acces the thing they call high-security space (this is excluded for Orca's and T1 and T2 freighters). EVE isn't flown by joystick or WASD but entirely by clicking stuff with the mouse (there is some sort of manual flying possible but it's limited, not like X3TC). In case of fighting in EVE, unlike X3TC it doesn't come with who has the biggest guns on the biggest ship, but it also doesn't mean more SP wins. EVE fights are mostly won by having the right ship(s) to counter your enemy, a good fleet of ships can take on ships that are larger or fleets bigger in size. It all comes down to what you use and also how your actual skill is in EVE (not the ingame skillpoints). True in some extend size (both ships and fleet) does matter, as if you can just utilize blob-warfare (drop too much ships on your enemy to counter it) you can win battles.

A2: Almost every single thing in EVE is player build, from ships to the modules you put on them. From ammo to large structures. But unlike X3 there is no real thing like building loads of stations that produce stuff. In 0.0 space you can build 1 station in a system but that requires really deep pockets as they cost a huge amount of money to build and generally isn't a solo thing to do but more something an entire alliance does. On a smaller scale there are POS (Player owned structures) these act a bit like a station in some way, you can produce with them or store stuff in it, but you won't dock in them, you just acces stuff while floating in space (inside the forcefield of a POS). The big difference between stations build in 0.0 and a POS (which can be deployed in most space under certain game mechanics) is that stations are there forever, they can be conquered by others but can't be destroyed however a POS can be killed by enemies. A POS can be armed with autonomous guns and be runned by 1 single player but both a POS and 0.0 station are more easily runned and defended by a group of players (corporations / alliances). Also building in EVE is quite the same as X3, you need the stuff to build any item but also need a blueprint for it, so unlike X3 having a station doens't mean you cna instantly make the item. Also there are different types of blueprints (won't list them all here as this likely already becomes a reply wall of text).

A3: Nothing in EVE is build by NPCs, all stuff is made by players. NPC only supply skillbooks, blueprints (some sorts) and some basic NPC trading goods. All other stuff is made / supplied / demanded by other players. So yes you can trade (it is actually a really large part of EVE) and it just involves the basic 2 things: Supply and demand and buy low, sell high. The major difference between X3 and EVE, in EVE cause the market is player driven prices change more often and you will be competing against other players at all times.
Trading can be done in 2 ways, using the normal market with buy and sell orders or using contracts (there are 3 types of contracts: Item exchange [you get a item paying either money or another item], courier [you ship stuff from 1 station to another for a reward] or auctions [like normal auctions, highest bidder wins and gets the item]).
Keep in mind due to EVE rules you can also easily use the markets and contracts to scam other people and this is allowed.

A4: In EVE it's 1 ship only on each character at the time. So if you are you in your fighting ship and want to go mine ores, you need to reship to do it. Having multiple accounts can really help you getting to do stuff more easily, but it is not mandatory. What also helps is joining a player runned corporations (in other games called Clans, Guilds, etc.) and help each other out. Keep in mind that each account has 3 characters, but you can only use 1 of those 3 at the same time. So by having 2 accounts you have 6 available character while you can use 2 at the same time (1 on each account). Using 2 accounts it's possible to do what you gave as an example, your use 1 account to do combat missions while the other account is in a mining ship mining asteroids. Again keep in mind that EVE is a cold harsh world and you need to keep an eye on both as people can kill your mining ship while you play on the combat one, or your combat ship gets destroyed while you manage your mining ship. Dual (or multi) boxing is possible but you have to get used to how to do it safely.

Missions (or general PvE) are a big part of EVE, there are thousands of NPC agents who offer missions you can do to make money, get standings, etc. Most of these missions are just stand-alone (or just small amount of connected missions). There are also epic-arc missions which mean a chain of missions with 1 main storyline in it, beside the normal and epic-arc missions there are storyline missions but not like the storyline in X3, EVE storyline missions are given out after a certain amount of normal missions and doing them rewards you in faction standing. There are also incursions (these are fleet sized PvE events) that are large PvE battles which can net a good amount of money but also require some skills to complete and are ment to be done in fleets. In the end, PvE (and especially missions) are a good way for new players to learn a bit about EVE mechanics and make a bit of starting money.

(reply will continue in next post)

Remember the new version of the learning curve graph is over here: http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/3124/3421/learning_eve.jpg :)

Hmm well forum ate my post or something but I thing others have answered you questions already.

Thanks for the great wall-o-text's it's good to know there's still people like me around :p anyway I just had a few final question.

I'm not as "hardcore" as I use to be now that I have a family and children but I still clock in QUITE a bit of gaming time each week due to a VERY lax schedule for the next few years. This was another reason why I am considering Eve because I've heard that the "grinding" part of the game is just skill points that add up in real life time if you're online or not and you really only need to login to make money or reputation. In other words, you don't need to play 24/7 to generally be successful. Is this still the case?

I know Eve really has no "endgame" because the whole entire game is pretty much endgame but I'm wondering how the general mechanics work being in...Lets say a large successful cooperation down the road. In other MMO's it's usually two scenarios:

Open World Events - "OMG Login now XXXXX just spawned and we need to get X amount of people to kill it fast"
Closed World Events (Instanances) - "We need X amount of people to show up on X at X'o clock to fulfill these roles"

I know Eve is more PvP instead of PvE but what I can I expect being in a large successful cooperation down the road? Is it just planned events? Are people assigned jobs like "protect this structure or this team of miners from 6pm to 8pm PST every Tuesday and Thursday" Are people given job duties like "you must mine X amount of Ore each week and contribute 90% of what you make to the cooperation and in a few months we will buy you a new ship", “show up at this sector at 8PM PST on X date and we will coordinate to take down a structure to a rival cooperation” etc.

I know there's an unlimited amount of possibilities but I'm just wondering how much time/effort I would need to devote to a "generally" good corp to be successful in the game and be a contributing and successful member both for myself and for my corp.