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Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

polygon.com

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Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#71

Post by Qworg »

hannesfostie wrote: post #65
nyrina wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's amazing that it has kept growing more and more hardcore. I have the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running a titan(?) It's somewhat the opposite with WoW, that it's been consistently dumped down since Vanilla. I've been playing for all 10 years, thoroughly enjoyed all of it (although some expansio…

It's easy to think that EVE is not worth playing unless you already have been playing for years, or that it's only worth doing so at the highest level. Though if you dig a bit deeper you'll see there's much more to the game than that. Sure, there's the steep learning curve to beat. But once you get the sandbox concept and realize you can make a dent in the universe, however small, you can start to have some fun. Find…

I would never say that EVE doesn't reward playing at any level. I'm just wired to do things bigger - and I have a hard time playing at a lower level in most anything.

I would recommend getting into a good corp/alliance though - there's nothing that improves gameplay more than that.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#72

Post by meowface »

mattmanser wrote: post #14
davidw wrote: post #4

It actually looks like a pretty cool game - the description reminds me of Elite brought up to today's standards. I can't help but think of this, though: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/online_gaming

It's nothing like elite. The combat involved in this battle is sorting a list by name, double clicking a square and then pressing F1. Once that square disappears, double click another square and then press F1. Oh, I forgot, you might align your camera in a direction of a different square, which represents a local planet, and double click. Occasionally, and especially if your name starts with an a, the whole screen wi…

Yep, that's EVE's biggest weakness. It's a well-designed game, and the player interactions, politics, and general sandbox gameplay are fantastic, but the combat is absolutely terrible and unfathomably boring.

There are actually some games out there that have EVE's sandbox features, but with combat that takes significant skill (usually in the style of a first-person shooter/slasher). Unfortunately, few of them have become very popular due to poor funding and the inclination of the general public to avoid very "hardcore" games.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#73

Post by sanswork »

talmand wrote: post #64
sanswork wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're high up in an alliance or have paid for one yourself and lost it on the alliances behalf no alliance is going to toss you a titan. No corp has hundreds of titans lying around either. PL is rumoured to have ~20 on unsubbed accounts but thats the biggest stockpile.

The statements in the article disagree with your numbers. It was stated that one side had lost 18-23 titans and had destroyed more than 40 titans on the other side, with "more to come". I guess we could debate semantics over what "lying around" means in this case, but it seems to me that the big corps have access to a large amount of titans if they are losing them in those numbers. They don't even seem to be particul…

Some members of those alliances still certainly have titans. But the alliances themselves don't have them laying around to redistribute to those who lost them and it will be difficult for them to replace them since the build time on a titan is over 2 months each and there are not that many builders in game capable of making them.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#74

Post by pdpi »

somnium_sn wrote: post #29
nyrina wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's amazing that it has kept growing more and more hardcore. I have the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running a titan(?) It's somewhat the opposite with WoW, that it's been consistently dumped down since Vanilla. I've been playing for all 10 years, thoroughly enjoyed all of it (although some expansio…

I think there is a huge misconception of how eve works. It's not really necessary to fly one of the big ships nor train them. But then I started 2 years ago and have 2 super carriers and a titan. It's about getting into the right corporations find the right source of ISK and play the game the way you want it. If you want to fly a titan, you can do it within two years (or less) if you are smart about it. However what…

> However what makes EVE every unique is that a new player is valuable as a 10 year old veteran if they are willing to learn.

This is one of the most important bits, and people coming from other games might think it's hyperbole.

For mostly every other game out there, there's always some upgrade to be had until you've hit the very highest level of gear. In EVE, there's a larger set of roles than the Tank/Healer/DPS holy trinity, and while some roles can be quite cash/skill intensive (like piloting capital ships), there are other important roles (like tackling) where you can have near-optimal gear and skills within a very short while.

There is no linear progression of ships in EVE PvP. You don't need, or want, a capital ship for tackling. You want a small, fast, ship capable of literally flying circles around the big ships, fast enough that the big guns can't really hit it. If you focus your skills on it, you can get to the point where you're an effective tackler within a few weeks at most, and within a couple of months you'll have a character that's tackling with the best of them. At that point, it's really up to whether _you_ are up to snuff.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#75

Post by alex_c »

nyrina wrote: post #16
Qworg wrote: post #11

I miss EVE but it is all consuming, especially when you're part of a great alliance/corp. As an member of Goonfleet/Goonswarm, I ran the logistics for the Battle of XZH, where a scrappy group of upstarts from Syndicate waged a weeks long insurgency against a better funded, better equipped force. We won, at least until they "bought out" the system underneath us, through superior numbers, tactics and logistics. We had…

I think it's amazing that it has kept growing more and more hardcore. I have the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running a titan(?) It's somewhat the opposite with WoW, that it's been consistently dumped down since Vanilla. I've been playing for all 10 years, thoroughly enjoyed all of it (although some expansio…

I have the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running a titan(?)

That's the beauty of Eve - everything is for sale, including pilots, ships, loyalty, and power. Grinding won't get you anywhere. Being one of the big guys is a reflection of one's ability to navigate the social and power structures in Eve more than anything else - a relative newbie starting from scratch can climb the ranks much faster than someone who's been playing for years but lacks the right metagame skills. You're probably right that you'd be unlikely to be one of the big guys, but that's more because of the time commitment than because everyone else has a big head start.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#76

Post by alex_c »

pinaceae wrote: post #34

i'll be "that guy" and fuck, i'm a gamer. imagine that all this energy, time, effort and cash would be spent on some tangible issue. the revolution in ukraine, a movement for civil liberties. there are very creative minds at work within EVE, reading the mittani is amazing. those guys would run circles around the organisers of, say, occupy wall street. to put it dramatically and over the top - the world is burning and…

Some people do both - in the most literal sense. One of the top Eve players was killed in the Benghazi attack in Libya in 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Smith_(diplomat)

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#77

Post by Cthulhu_ »

somnium_sn wrote: post #29
nyrina wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's amazing that it has kept growing more and more hardcore. I have the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running a titan(?) It's somewhat the opposite with WoW, that it's been consistently dumped down since Vanilla. I've been playing for all 10 years, thoroughly enjoyed all of it (although some expansio…

I think there is a huge misconception of how eve works. It's not really necessary to fly one of the big ships nor train them. But then I started 2 years ago and have 2 super carriers and a titan. It's about getting into the right corporations find the right source of ISK and play the game the way you want it. If you want to fly a titan, you can do it within two years (or less) if you are smart about it. However what…

Yeah, this pretty much. A misconception when one looks at the game from outside is that "bigger = better", i.e. a Titan is the best ship in the game and one should strive towards it, just like someone should strive to the max level in WoW or any other MMO because that is the goal of the game.

Not so in eve. Usually, big ships can't hit smaller ships, or do effective damage. A Titan on its own is pretty useless, and it needs a support fleet of all kinds of ships to be effective (or survive).

This trickles down the ship class tree, all the way down to the lowly Frigate-sized ships, which cost a thousandth of what a titan cost, or even less.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#78

Post by Cthulhu_ »

bsamuels wrote: post #49
nyrina wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's amazing that it has kept growing more and more hardcore. I have the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running a titan(?) It's somewhat the opposite with WoW, that it's been consistently dumped down since Vanilla. I've been playing for all 10 years, thoroughly enjoyed all of it (although some expansio…

When it comes to recommending people to EVE, the following rule of thumb has been effective: If you enjoyed playing Dwarf Fortress, you'll like EVE Online. @That one other guy: When most people want to fly a titan, they don't bother training a character and just buy a titan pilot on the sanctioned character trading forum, so training time is rarely an issue for experienced pilots.

Eve has prettier graphics than Dwarf Fortress, though, :p

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#79

Post by this_user »

mathattack wrote: post #46
somnium_sn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a huge misconception of how eve works. It's not really necessary to fly one of the big ships nor train them. But then I started 2 years ago and have 2 super carriers and a titan. It's about getting into the right corporations find the right source of ISK and play the game the way you want it. If you want to fly a titan, you can do it within two years (or less) if you are smart about it. However what…

If you want to fly a titan, you can do it within two years (or less) if you are smart about it. Now THAT'S a commitment!

There are literally people who will invest months of their time to infiltrate an alliance, gain trust, rise in the ranks to then inflict the maximum amount of damage possible (a practice known as 'awoxing' after a character who made it popular a long time ago). This has lead to a level of paranoia among certain people that it would probably be easier to get a job at a Fortune 500 company than one of those groups.

Furthermore, the biggest coalitions [of alliances] consist of thousands and tens of thousands of players. Some of those operations could be considered at least semi-professional with extensive IT infrastructure and dedicated HR and financial teams.

Re: Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history

#80

Post by Cthulhu_ »

pinaceae wrote: post #34

i'll be "that guy" and fuck, i'm a gamer. imagine that all this energy, time, effort and cash would be spent on some tangible issue. the revolution in ukraine, a movement for civil liberties. there are very creative minds at work within EVE, reading the mittani is amazing. those guys would run circles around the organisers of, say, occupy wall street. to put it dramatically and over the top - the world is burning and…

I don't know, I like to think Eve has two skill trees, two progression levels. On the one side you have the in-game skills, spaceship command and weapon skills, that kinda thing. But those only get you so far; the other skills are ones you acquire IRL, things like fleet command, logistics, communications skills, organizational skills, etcetera.

Those can be used or applied IRL. I like to think.

Also, playing video games or other kinds of entertainment has a role in life. Sure, that energy could be applied to other, greater goods, but the fact of the matter is, nearly nobody has that kind of infinite energy supply, that kind of motivation, etc. There's a few that seem to do, which turn into people's role models - but those are the outliers. You can strive to be like those, but in reality, you'll just burn yourself out.

Relaxation has its role in life. Always has, too; sure, cavemen could be out hunting more food instead of sit around in their caves sharing stories of their ancestors, but they didn't. To name a random example.

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