Everlost_MI
01-21-2006, 02:53 PM
Weekend Gamer: EVE Online Impressions - Day 3-4 by Jetherik
Days 3-4 are days that are starting to bring about more changes.
Before I stopped playing on Day 2, I calculated that I had 15 hours before I could play again, and looked at which 12-15 hour skill I could start learning. When I got on the next day, the skill was learned and I had the enjoyment of planning what I wanted to learn next. This is one thing I am starting to really enjoy about EVE is the planning. Right now, because I am a newb, I can make mistakes with skills that I have and it really won't matter. In fact, I went with a custom character creation when I probably should have taken a pre-made class type; at least for the beginning. Because even though you start off as a “class” there are so many choices of skills that you will end up totally different from anyone else as time goes on. Some skills you will be forced to learn if you want to use certain ships, weapons, implants, etc.
There is a rookie chat line that is very helpful. Everyone on it is a rookie or a volunteer. You can ask any question, such as, “How do you exit the game?” Even that question, no one laughed or called the person a newb, or anything. It was answered in the same style as “how do you get new skills to train?” There are also special EVE volunteers who are on to help moderate and answer the questions.
The courier missions were starting to wear on me. I just finished up with a storyline mission when the agent told me of another agent I should look up. Unfortunately, I did not write down the agents name, and when I went to my people and places section, the name wasn’t there either. If the name was someplace, I couldn’t find it. This was frustrating (I am too used to golden exclaimation points). I had stuff I needed to sell, and the market system is really good in directing me where I need to go to get the best (or worst) price. I also decided it was time to buy a new ship and get some real weapons.
Again, the market was great, because you can look at everything for sale, get the different prices (though it will direct you to the best prices if you let it), and get all the information you need about the product. For my ship, I saw I was missing the correct skill level. Easy enough to start my training it when my gunnery skill was finished; except I didn’t want to wait. The nice thing about learning skills is if you stop the learning process of one skill, switch to another, the first skill progress stays the same until you come back and continue it.
Using the market, I bought my new frigate, and chased down some great deals on my rail gun and a light neutron phase gun. As I was going from station to station, I noticed that all of a sudden in the agent availability list, I had agents available. So I started talking to them. This lead me to my first combat mission. I could have gone out to the asteroid belts without a mission to look for pirates, but I really didn’t want to go hunting.
I flew out to the section where I was supposed to look for the pirates. Eight of them were there. I locked on to the targets and nothing. My shields were obliterated, my armor was getting damaged, so I warped out of there. I had ammunition in the weapon, and clicked on the weapon to start firing. But nothing. So I tried it again. And again, and again. I was about to ask for help when I remembered in the tutorial that if you are doubt, right click on what you are having trouble with. I did that on the ammunition, and saw that it needed to be activated to activate the weapon. Since I had learned how to repair my armor and had picked up an armor repair nanobots, I was at full strength.
Back I went, and when I locked on, activated my weapons, it was a great feeling to see my rail gun directly hit a pirate for 15 points of damage (my first weapon only did up to 3). My gunnery skill was such that I could only track two targets. It was a matter of destroying one, leaving, coming back at full strength, destroying one and damaging another and leaving, destroying two more before leaving, coming back, and finishing off the last four. I am sure that if I knew what I had been doing, understood the weapon types better, or even had better tracking, I would have done a lot better.
My last mission of the night was another courier mission, but this was perfect. The Phoenix Suns were playing and I wanted to watch the game. I had to travel 10 jumps to the pick up location, I set the destination, turned on the autopilot, and went and watched the game. When I came back at a time out, I was at my destination, docked, picked up the stuff, set the next destination, fiddle with one of my learning skills, set the autopilot and went back and watched the game.
It is weird to play a MMO with just the mouse. When I first settled in to play the game my hand automatically went to the A W D keys. They twitched as I tried to move and you can imagine my surprise when nothing happened. But, this is a game based on futuristic stuff. Computers should be auto piloting the ship. Combat should be you picking which target you want and the targeting computers figuring out range, etc.
This game is HUGE. There is a lot of space, and it should take time to get to places. If you like to craft things, you can do that, if you like to mine, you can do that, if you like to fight bad guys, you can do that. You can kill other players (but you have to do it in certain sectors if you don’t want the government ships blowing you up). If you just want to trade, you can do that. There is a place for all types of players. You want to be alone, solo all the time – go ahead (though it seems that the unsecured locations would cause you a lot of trouble). You can join corporations, form your own. Build your starbase, etc. I imagine you can build your own ship if you knew how.
This game maybe about patience, but the longer that I have played, the more depth I am finding in the game. I am really starting to glimpse at what this game can do. Where as in WoW, I can have a level 60 character in about six months – but here, I don’t think there is an end game. It is just a game that continues, with you doing whatever you want. More reports when I complete days five and six of the free fourteen day trial.
Days 3-4 are days that are starting to bring about more changes.
Before I stopped playing on Day 2, I calculated that I had 15 hours before I could play again, and looked at which 12-15 hour skill I could start learning. When I got on the next day, the skill was learned and I had the enjoyment of planning what I wanted to learn next. This is one thing I am starting to really enjoy about EVE is the planning. Right now, because I am a newb, I can make mistakes with skills that I have and it really won't matter. In fact, I went with a custom character creation when I probably should have taken a pre-made class type; at least for the beginning. Because even though you start off as a “class” there are so many choices of skills that you will end up totally different from anyone else as time goes on. Some skills you will be forced to learn if you want to use certain ships, weapons, implants, etc.
There is a rookie chat line that is very helpful. Everyone on it is a rookie or a volunteer. You can ask any question, such as, “How do you exit the game?” Even that question, no one laughed or called the person a newb, or anything. It was answered in the same style as “how do you get new skills to train?” There are also special EVE volunteers who are on to help moderate and answer the questions.
The courier missions were starting to wear on me. I just finished up with a storyline mission when the agent told me of another agent I should look up. Unfortunately, I did not write down the agents name, and when I went to my people and places section, the name wasn’t there either. If the name was someplace, I couldn’t find it. This was frustrating (I am too used to golden exclaimation points). I had stuff I needed to sell, and the market system is really good in directing me where I need to go to get the best (or worst) price. I also decided it was time to buy a new ship and get some real weapons.
Again, the market was great, because you can look at everything for sale, get the different prices (though it will direct you to the best prices if you let it), and get all the information you need about the product. For my ship, I saw I was missing the correct skill level. Easy enough to start my training it when my gunnery skill was finished; except I didn’t want to wait. The nice thing about learning skills is if you stop the learning process of one skill, switch to another, the first skill progress stays the same until you come back and continue it.
Using the market, I bought my new frigate, and chased down some great deals on my rail gun and a light neutron phase gun. As I was going from station to station, I noticed that all of a sudden in the agent availability list, I had agents available. So I started talking to them. This lead me to my first combat mission. I could have gone out to the asteroid belts without a mission to look for pirates, but I really didn’t want to go hunting.
I flew out to the section where I was supposed to look for the pirates. Eight of them were there. I locked on to the targets and nothing. My shields were obliterated, my armor was getting damaged, so I warped out of there. I had ammunition in the weapon, and clicked on the weapon to start firing. But nothing. So I tried it again. And again, and again. I was about to ask for help when I remembered in the tutorial that if you are doubt, right click on what you are having trouble with. I did that on the ammunition, and saw that it needed to be activated to activate the weapon. Since I had learned how to repair my armor and had picked up an armor repair nanobots, I was at full strength.
Back I went, and when I locked on, activated my weapons, it was a great feeling to see my rail gun directly hit a pirate for 15 points of damage (my first weapon only did up to 3). My gunnery skill was such that I could only track two targets. It was a matter of destroying one, leaving, coming back at full strength, destroying one and damaging another and leaving, destroying two more before leaving, coming back, and finishing off the last four. I am sure that if I knew what I had been doing, understood the weapon types better, or even had better tracking, I would have done a lot better.
My last mission of the night was another courier mission, but this was perfect. The Phoenix Suns were playing and I wanted to watch the game. I had to travel 10 jumps to the pick up location, I set the destination, turned on the autopilot, and went and watched the game. When I came back at a time out, I was at my destination, docked, picked up the stuff, set the next destination, fiddle with one of my learning skills, set the autopilot and went back and watched the game.
It is weird to play a MMO with just the mouse. When I first settled in to play the game my hand automatically went to the A W D keys. They twitched as I tried to move and you can imagine my surprise when nothing happened. But, this is a game based on futuristic stuff. Computers should be auto piloting the ship. Combat should be you picking which target you want and the targeting computers figuring out range, etc.
This game is HUGE. There is a lot of space, and it should take time to get to places. If you like to craft things, you can do that, if you like to mine, you can do that, if you like to fight bad guys, you can do that. You can kill other players (but you have to do it in certain sectors if you don’t want the government ships blowing you up). If you just want to trade, you can do that. There is a place for all types of players. You want to be alone, solo all the time – go ahead (though it seems that the unsecured locations would cause you a lot of trouble). You can join corporations, form your own. Build your starbase, etc. I imagine you can build your own ship if you knew how.
This game maybe about patience, but the longer that I have played, the more depth I am finding in the game. I am really starting to glimpse at what this game can do. Where as in WoW, I can have a level 60 character in about six months – but here, I don’t think there is an end game. It is just a game that continues, with you doing whatever you want. More reports when I complete days five and six of the free fourteen day trial.