EVE General Discussion

I find it fun and it gives to the excitement of the game. You never know what's on the other side!

Many games hold a players hand, EVE please don't change.

It's easy to get enough ISK for destroyers and basic skills. Then there's a natural gap where L2 missions, similarly difficult combat sites, and/or Venture mining don't pay enough to conform to the principle "don't fly what you can't afford to lose".

I've tested this (in an Alpha and in a new Omega). The numbers for "hours of grinding" vs "cost of a fitted ship" don't work out.

It's not an insurmountable threshold of course, but it means there are periods where the risk profile a player considers when choosing activities is a bit skewed towards the two ends of the scale. It makes sense to spend quite a lot of time grinding reliably but slowly to build up some ISK, or to spend time in throwaway T1 frigates that have a low-probability of a much higher ISK/hour payoff than the grinding option. In the second case the cost of failure (e.g. of a visit to a wormhole that leads to ship loss) is low. The middle ground (medium risk, medium income) is not attractive because it requires ships that can't be casually replaced if lost - i.e. for a small amount of grinding time, the way a T1/T1 frigate can.


Some of the other points in your post:

"Exploration" is the usual response to any comments about the income patterns faced by new players. It is a possible path, but a lot of rookies don't do it - perhaps because of the "risk polarization" I described above. And I suspect the obvious lies that are told in the help and NPC Corp channels about WH income per hour have an effect. I've seen it claimed that WH diving averages 100 mill / hour in a T1 frigate, but if someone asks if they can make a PLEX in their first month of play they an inconsistent answer. Rookies can count just as well (or badly) as old-timers :)

I don't remember all the specific skills that I found pricey. My notes mention "Security Connections", which I wanted for mission running, at 30 million or so, and that "Mining Connections" (not that useful to me) is about the same. It's a lot when you're doing L3's in an affordable ship (in my case a T1 cruiser) rather than something that can blitz them.

IIRC the issue with (early) mining is that it takes such a long time to skill up to Mining Barges + Modulated Strip Miners.
And of course there's an "opportunity cost" - if you're training for more efficient mining just to grind for ISK to pay for riskier activities, you're not training combat-relevant skills. The skill and for mining Gas Clouds are expensive though - a bit strange considering you try it out for the first time during one of the Career Agent missions.

Of course 20 to 30 million isn't much when you're nicely set up, but at the corresponding income levels from obvious new player activities like mining or missions it's a lot. When you're happy to make ten million an hour (in real hours - not "hours" made by leaving out all low/zero income time) losing a T1/T1 BC really hurts.

god is she still harping on?

At this stage we're just "playing with our food".

Every post she makes just makes the hole she's digging deeper.

Even in game where everyone is out to get you, it's still possible to have an unhealthy paranoia.

Why would anyone follow you? You aren't important.

Awww is the poor little baby feeling persecuted?

whats online sociopathy? can you define it and explain why its applicable in eves game mechanics

Whatever Zoubidah can't do and therefore does not like. There you go nice and simple definition.

Are you a medical professional specialising in psychology?

I think not.

If you were, you'd recognise that the social norms and morals present in real life are very different from those present in this particular virtual world, of which the forums are an extension. As such you shouldn't be labelling others as sociopaths based solely on your interactions with them here; many of the people you tar with that brush are capable of telling the difference between reality and fantasy, their actions and persona in a fantasy environment, IE a role playing game such as Eve, being very different from those in the real world.

Environment and context matter.

Instead of telling the rest of us that we have some psychological issues (BTW, diagnosing people via an internet game is highly unethical if you are indeed a mental health official in the U.S.), perhaps you should consider seeking help about your issues of impotence in life.

If anyone is emotionally harmed by a video game, and being serious and not making a joke, they should probably go seek some professional help. As I noted earlier, losing my nearly 8 billion JF was mildly upsetting--i.e. a few hours later after I bought another one and started working on a new strategy not to lose it in such a foolish manner I was fine. Losing my dog of 11 years that we raised from a puppy...that was mental anguish. People getting that upset over internet space ships is not good. And, again, I'm not joking or making fun of these people. Perhaps they should seek help.

And still on a serious note, because you keep harping on this, I don't think the game should be structured around players whose priorities are out of balance like in the previous paragraph. Instead of disrupting the game that tens of thousands enjoy as it currently is in favor or drastic changes for a distinct minority... that is not balanced. A better solution is to get help to those players that become enraged by losing something that really doesn't exist and actually wasn't theirs.