New EVE Online Expansion Detailed 96
Eurogamer reports on the EVE Online Fanfest, at which developer CCP revealed details on the game's next expansion, due out in March. It will be the biggest expansion yet for EVE, and it will "introduce 'Tech 3' modular ship designs, branching epic mission arcs, further improvements to the new player experience, and exploration of uncharted space through unstable wormholes. ... The focus of the expansion will be 'true exploration,' with players using new skills and modules to travel through wormholes into all-new, unconnected space." CCP also hinted that further graphical upgrades would be coming, and a standalone first-person shooter based on EVE may be in development for a console release.
It's going down the toilet (Score:2, Informative)
I've been playing for 2 years, and loved playing it for most of that time. Recently there was a staff reshuffle and things have gone downhill since then. So-called "game re-balancing" is nerfing months of skill training in gunnery and speed modules to make it completely useless. That means 100 euros worth of subscription money paid for training which is worthless now. Players have tested the changes on the test server and given feedback to the new CCP dev team, but it was completely ignored.
On top of that insult, they have nerfed the old feature that allowed you to continue training 1 level in 1 skill when your account expired. Apparently they think it's unfair to them if people get any training for free! This change was made with 2 days notice and resulted in the largest discussion thread ever on the forums. Also completely ignored by the CCP dev team.
I'm still playing a bit at the moment because I like talking to the friends I've made in the game, but I'll be quitting when the current months subscription expires. It's not the same game it was when I started playing, server population has been declining for the last 6 months. I think it's going to die off in a few years.
Pity, it had so much potential.
Re:I must say this: (Score:4, Informative)
You clearly misunderstood the mission system since what you are describing is only storyline missions and not regular agent missions.
You need a couple of tools to survive in eve.
1) eveinfo.com/missions Google for more support sites.
2) A friend that has played. Message me in game if you don't know anyone else My player name is Locke DieDrake or Chloe DieDrake.
3) a general introduction to missions. Read the FAQ and the Forums sticky guides. They will tell you exactly how it works.
Missions require that you have standing with agents, but even on your first day, you have standing with your faction agents and can grind missions for weeks no problem.
The problem new players have is that they aren't at all prepared for EVE to be as complex and deep as it is. WOW is a shallow stream next to the ocean of EVE.
Start a new character (or whatever) and open your bio. Go to the standings tab and select the highest ranked corp, then hit the agents tab. Pick a security, or internal security or whatever agent (those two are combat type) and select an agent, his/her location will be listed, right click, set destination, and go fly there. When you get there, dock and ask the agent for a new mission. Do the mission, and then come back to the same agent. Rarely you'll be expected to drop something off at a different location, this will be clearly marked in the mission journal and a hyperlink bookmark to the location will be provided.
It's simple, really. ;)
Re:It's going down the toilet (Score:5, Informative)
Declining? I'm showing 21 thousand on right now, and that seems about right for this time of day.
I haven't seen any major change in population status in some time, so I think obvious troll is obvious.
Re:It's going down the toilet (Score:2, Informative)
Not trolling.
http://eve.coldfront.net/status/tranquility [coldfront.net]
Re:It's going down the toilet (Score:2, Informative)
Your skills are NOT useless, why would they become useless? The fact that you can fit & use T2 large blasters is fantastic. Do you understand why people are saying blasters will become uselsess? It doesn't have much to do with blasters.. it's the weakened webifier and MWD stuff. Blaster Megathrons won't be able to zoom up tackle and kill any ship in the game anymore. You certainly will be able to refit an Afterburner instead of MicroWarpDrive and focus your attacks on other Battleships and slow vessels. This is good news for the rest of EVE, frigates will become very useful again.
Gallente have been THE pvp race for a while, it was Amarr once and Amarr are pretty balanced now. It looks like Minmatar will be a much better option after this next patch. Caldari are still pretty much the same since the birth of eve. The changes that you are worried about will affect everyone in EVE, not just Gallente.
Re:So with this round of "enhancements"... (Score:0, Informative)
Troll bait? If you kept up, you would know they've strapped down on developer intervention. There is no longer an issue.
Re:So with this round of "enhancements"... (Score:1, Informative)
They claim to have cracked down. Yet they never fired those responsible. The developers still play the game that they run. They claim this offers no advantages to the alliances that have developers among their ranks. It is of course utter bullshit. Any inside knowledge will confer an advantage, and we already know that trusting the devs to not abuse their position is untenable.
The developers should remove themselves from the game - there is absolutey no need whatsoever to be among the playerbase to develop and run the game no matter what excuses they give.
Re:I must say this: (Score:4, Informative)
I can understand your frustration from the game-play side of things, but in terms of game lore, this makes a fair amount of sense. Comparing an automobile to a space ship is pretty silly. Consumer autos are designed with a fairly standard set of controls and features, and don't vary to a huge degree in terms of capability. And I think it might take more than an hour to learn how to safely drive, say, an F1 racer.
In EVE we are talking about talking about ships far more sophisticated than the space shuttle and are generally built with very specialized functions in mind. Pretty much all of the ships are larger than the Eiffel tower (even the lowly frigate) and most are bigger the the Enterprise-D. Also keep in mind that the pod pilot replaces the entire bridge crew.
While it's essentially impossible to "catch up" to someone who's been playing longer than you (providing that he is good about remembering to have a skill in training at all times) it's not necessary to have an equal number of skill points to effectively compete with him in different circumstances. A manufacturing-focused character may have no advantage over you in combat, and the opposite is also true. Also, skills are subject to diminishing returns compared to the amount of time that is invested in them. Achieving Level V in a skill may yield a 5% improvement in one area, but take months to train. Most people don't bother. If you have the skills to fly the same type of ship and the same type of modules, generally speaking you can stand toe-to-toe with someone who's been playing for years longer than you.
Also, the advantage to this style of skill advancement is that your character's capabilities isn't connected so directly with how much time you can spend playing the game. It's more casual-friendly, in that sense.
I'm not sure what you're talking about here. EVE-Online is probably the most open-ended MMO out there. More than any other game, it is left up to the player to decide what his goals will be, and how best to fulfill them. The game gives you relatively direction, but there are many directions that you can decide to take. Yes, you will need to play for a certain minimum length of time before certain aspects of the game become fully available to you, but that's no different from other MMOs -- in EVE, at least you don't have to run on the treadmill for hours on end to get there.
Re:I must say this: (Score:4, Informative)