Eve Online Hits 100K Subscribers 129
CCP Games' Massive Title, Eve Online, now boasts 100,000 subscribers. Though there are many games with more users Eve Online is a very different title, set inside ships in the depths of space. They currently hold the record for most concurrent users, set at 23,178 simultaneous users on a single server. From the article: "To help accommodate its growing population, CCP will complete a hardware overhaul, allowing the game to handle more users, expand its universe, and run smoother." Ethic, over at Kill Ten Rats, has been writing about Eve a lot lately. His posts cover intergalactic war and courier missions, and might give you a sense of what gameplay is like. If you're interested in that sort of thing.
EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:2, Insightful)
I remember the days before Counter Strike was sold on store shelves... way more mature.
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:5, Informative)
The people who make up the majority of the community are people who stay with the game. There may be a few hundred accounts or so that are 14-day trial people that act like they are still in WoW, but the majority of the gamers will be players who have been playing the game for a while. It just happens that those people tend to be less annoying and "OMG I PWNED J00 N00BZ0RZ LOLOLOLOL."
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:2)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:5, Informative)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:1)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:1)
Plus, if you don't do it, and you ask for help, you won't be very well recieved.
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:3, Informative)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:2)
Mine shit. Boring.
Run supply missions (and the occasional NPC fight mission). Boring. And repetative- bad random mission generator.
PvP. Might be real fun, but you can't actually do it (due to skills) for weeks.
Craft. If you have the skills to. THat takes weeks again.
On top of that, the universe is huge but absolutely empty. Noone around anywhere.
Overall- very little to do, and nothing fun that doesn't require weeks of rl time befo
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:1)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:2)
Honestly, I am. I have more skill points in industry than in all of my combat skills combined... (I am in the middle of fixing that)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:1)
But that doesn't change the fact that I think mining is boring
Yup (Score:3, Interesting)
And many people didn't like EVE's 3-hours-of-boredom/jumping-for-ten-seconds-of-comb at PvP system. (I didn't.)
I had my account for a year starting at release, so in terms of skill points I wasn't far behind most other people. (I was deficient in combat skill points, given that I intentionally planned to be a commerce/production/science guy and my main character was Gallente because of that.)
For those not familiar with EVE, your character's stats affected
TW2002 anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:TW2002 anyone? (Score:2)
I played Eve for about 2 years. Now I play WoW. Honestly, Eve is the better game, but you can only stay in the thick of alliance politics, wars, etc for so long before going slightly insane. It's nice to just log on and kill orcs for an hour or two without having to worry about anything.
You can still play TW2002 (Score:2)
Click on BBS, which will connect you to an old skool BBS.
There, you can play a bunch of doors including TW
Inflammation of the tree? (Score:1)
I don't think that's very likely, given that the game is set in deep space.
--
Sig nell
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:2)
Re:EVE-Online, not just for everyone (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, the game tells you how many players are logged in at the moment, and how many are trial accounts (if you are a trial account yourself, that is).
Not that you would stand a chance to do anything decent in the 14 days you get for a trial account.
AND, actually, there are 100,000+ accounts with fees paid for "NOW".
That's what "active game subscribers" means to me, anyway.
Well, not bad, 1.5 mil $ p
Diversity in gameplay (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Diversity in gameplay (Score:1)
And if you're talking about the two guys who tricked a bunch of "investors" looking to split costs on the blueprints for some big ship, I'd hardly call it a "massive" effort.
Re:Diversity in gameplay (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Diversity in gameplay (Score:2)
Heave and Hell, WoW and EvE (Score:2)
Re:Heave and Hell, WoW and EvE (Score:1)
Re:Heave and Hell, WoW and EvE (Score:2)
Re:Diversity in gameplay (Score:2, Informative)
23k a record? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:23k a record? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:23k a record? (Score:2)
Re:23k a record? (Score:1)
Re:23k a record? (Score:1)
Re:23k a record? (Score:1)
Re:23k a record? (Score:1)
I might have to take a look into the free trial, I almost did right before I deployed here to Iraq, but I figured if I wanted to check it out I would save it for when I get back.
Thanks for the update. I didn't know about all of that stuff, as I'd only briefly looked over how the game is before deciding not to engross myself in another venture.
Re:23k a record? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. EVE has only one "server", which is a cluster of IBM hardware with a large Texas Memory Systems solid state disk. I'm not certain what operating system is running on the cluster nodes, but I know the database is MS SQL Server.
The game is implemented in so-called "stackless" Python. I believe they are using a now rather obsolete version of stackless. I continue to wonder when and how they will address that problem. Perhaps they have been maintaining an internal stackless Python fork...
Re:23k a record? (Score:5, Informative)
As far as Stackless goes, they aren't doing the coding themselves -- last I heard, they have the creator of Stackless at CCP doing the work. Going to 64-bit is a huge win though -- systems like Jita and Lagsulert (whose real name is Oursalert, but you get the idea) are now approaching 500 people in that system in prime time. Considering the number of agent missions they are running, and all the market activity that goes on, you've got to start getting close to your 32-bit architecture memory limit.
Re:23k a record? (Score:2)
*chuckle*
the great eve scam (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:the great eve scam (Score:1)
If not it is hilarious-- i've never played the game but laughed quite a bit as i read this tale of mischief- and i picked up a new sig.
Re:the great eve scam (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying it's bollocks or anything, but many Eve veterans do say so. Either way,
Re:the great eve scam (Score:2)
Though, somehow, I suspect I won't be investing in any battleships blueprints.
Re:the great eve scam (Score:2)
This is a story about a COMPUTER GAME. Jesus christ.
Loved this game... (Score:5, Interesting)
The only downside to it was the proliferation of griefers on the system, who would attack when you were at your most vulnerable state, often exploiting the flaws in the software leaving you feeling freshly fucked, but not in a good way. I left it when PvP was too big an obstacle to play the game the way I wanted to.
That being said, if I ever find a game of the same scale and ambition again, I could easily part with $15-$20 a month to join in, as long as the griefing was under control.
Re:Loved this game... (Score:3, Interesting)
What you call an exploitation of the game is actually what makes EVE's end-game so damn satisfying. You want to move that high price blue print original accross low security space? Then you better bring friends. You want to transport an assload of high price cargo? Bring friends.
Pirates e
Re:Loved this game... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
How is the player to player market in EVE? I really enjoyed playing a Master Chef in SWG, is there a comparable experience in EVE?
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
Eve also sports an intricate system for creating items. To make an item you need to acquire a bluepri
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
Interesting... and can players affect the quality and characteristics of the items they craft?
Re:Loved this game... (Score:1)
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
Getting to the point where manufacturing or trading will make you millions takes between 2 weeks and a month, depending on your strategy for making money.
This presents no problem at all, after all in SWG to become a Master Chef you had to bake millions of cakes and acquire hundreds of tons of all kinds of raw materials from energy to water to wheat, just to grind on. We had an outfit called Intergalactic Outfitters on the Tempest server, specializing on the most advanced c
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
Well, Eve's gonna be a little different then. There's no grinding. You gain your skills after a specified amount of real-time passes (the time is different for each skill, and goes up for more advanced skills, and has a bunch of complexity I'm gonna ignore here.) It's sort of like in the mov
Re:Loved this game... (Score:2)
Eventually the EVE developers fixed that problem, but there were others and it always seems like when you needed the best response time you'd always be incapable of responding due to lag. I quit EVE almost 2 years ago, so many
Re:Loved this game... (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, the podkill zones are still infested by griefers... but that is the entire point of those areas. CCP engineered that mechanic into their game specifically to increase the risk of traversing those systems.
Dear CCP.. (Score:1, Troll)
Think you could spare some staff for Blizzard? They seem to have problems implementing this idea.
Re:Dear CCP.. (Score:1)
Re:Dear CCP.. (Score:2)
It would appear that Blizzard was beat pretty hard by their own unexpected success. I don't think they ever anticipated the load they now have to deal with.
Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:1)
http://startrek.perpetual.com/GalClassHubDeck7Sci
Re:Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:2)
Re:Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:2)
You wanna do EVAs [wikipedia.org]? That's some weird tastes you have, sir.
Re:Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:2)
x2 has these.
Re:Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:2)
Re:Sounds like every space sim I've ever played (Score:2)
Only 99,999 members! (Score:1)
So they only have 99,999 users!
No way. (Score:1)
I think they meant to say that the CURRENT record for concurrent users is 23,178 for EVE Online - not a record for All MMOs. I'm sure that Lineage has had a higher concurrency and WoW's concurrency is reported to exceed the population of Chicago.
Re:No way. (Score:1)
Re:No way. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No way. (Score:1)
Re:No way. (Score:1, Insightful)
how many cpus is that?
sure many MMO games like linage and COH can do 5k per server but they are tiny
inexpensive boxes.
you need to clearly define what this server is so that apple to apple comparisions
can be made.
WoW Fans: EVE Uinverse = Single realm (Score:5, Informative)
So where as a single WoW realm (hosted on a cluster of servers?) can accommodate about 2000 concurrent online players the EVE Universe(realm) has now supported over 23000 concurrent online players.
Now that is something special.
Big Deal? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Big Deal? (Score:3, Informative)
Rendering terrain (or not) is a function of the game client and has no effect server-side.
Everything in the game is merely a list of data - object type, stats, position, vector, state/animation etc. How that looks graphically is down to the client.
EVE's concurency *is* impressive since it implies they have a server farm capable enough to access a single database at high speed
In contrast, the idea behind seperate "realms" (like WoW) is to limit the size of each database for speed purp
Re:Big Deal? (Score:2)
Re:Big Deal? (Score:2)
Object collision? Pathing issues? I prefer not falling through the terrain, and having the NPCs navigate properly.
Ground-based MMOs are generally more dense. In any arbitrary scene there will be more objects, more NPCs, and more players with more doodads (armor pieces, weapon models, etc.)
Re:Big Deal? (Score:2)
Eve has a wide variety of ships, and each ship has a different number of slots, which can be filled by a dizzying array of objects, and there are several variations of each object. We're not talking "small laser, big laser", but about 10-15 of variations each of "small laser", "small projectile cannon", "small missile launcher", "s
EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:4, Informative)
If you don't believe me, just trail the EVE online forums. You will see many people casualy talking about how they read a book or watch television while their ship travels/mines-ore.
In the end, even though I was quite wealthy for EVE standards (i stumbled early upon a mixed trading/manufacturing market arbitrage possibility introduced when a new type of ship components was made available in the game), i eventually left when i came to the conclusion that after all the time i had invested in it, most of the time playing EVE was composed of boring tasks, NOT fun.
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
The time-between-doing-things-requiring-immediate-acti on is one of the features we actually like.
While she mines in her huge, freakin' mining ship (lotsa shields, not much in offense) I guard with my cruiser/frigate/destroyer and whack the NPC pirates and ensure the real-life pilots mind their manners (we stay in 0.5 systems still, but that will change when I get everything to tech level 2).
In a couple hours, we pull in 1-3M ISKs betw
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
You've got the right idea here, but some friendly advice: Don't think that some shiny Tech II gear will save your butt in a fight. Yes, tech II is better, but proper fitting and tactics are what will make or b
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
OK, how 'bout just a few:
1. I *really* like the Kestrel (Caldari, as you know doubt know). Great missile ship, but no capacitance and pathetic power/cpu. It's great for NPC pirates, but that is not good for those fights you're talking about, right? (or, would better skills/implants make it more useful by upping the values a bit)
2. My current ship - a Caracal (sp?) seems to have enough highslots and power/cpu/capacitance, but one of
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
I like the basic thou
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:1)
Back in '03 I did the mining thing for my money, which wasn't all that fun in the end, I did like the PVP though. So when I started this time around I had one goal: no mining whatsoever, and outside of the tutorial where you get taught different aspects of the game I have met that goal.
So right now I have around 20 million isk, which I figure isn't that bad fo
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:1)
You do NOT have to mine to get started. I didn't make my initial stake mining, and whenever I train folks in my corp I encourage them to avoid it and teach them how (people are welcome to Evemail me ingame for help there, same moniker as here). Making a living by Trading, which is one of the options, does indeed lead to long travel times- you tend to fly slow ships over long distances. Tha
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
Love your comic BTW.
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
And actually you might have noticed I've not been frequenting them as much as I used to, and when I'm there I'm trying to be constructive.
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
Thats actually one of the high points of Eve. The forums are much more interesting to read than other MMO's. Still a fair share of flaming and such, but even that is more intelligent than you'd expect. (Corporations and Alliances anyone?)
(FYI me = Aitrus, retired pilot and forum whore)
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
That being said, you're right in that it still has the best community of any MMO around.
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:EVE-Online is mostly time-sinks (Score:2)
That's funny...because mining has to be the worst grind of any MMORPG i've ever played, and in order to get anywhere in EVE, mining is kind of a necessity.
100,001 (Score:3, Funny)
I never really liked this game (Score:1)
My problem with the game was that my accomplishments did not translate into a stronger character, only more resources. Even were I to do something really savvy and make a billion isk during the 14 day trial, I realised there was no way I could possibly reach a high enough skill level to fly something cool, because of the way skills are acquired in the
Re:I never really liked this game (Score:1)
lots of people try buying expensive ships or even whole month-old characters which is frowned-upon for some reason:
Without the knowledge on how to use them, that doesn't work too well. Spend those months honing your skills in smaller ships and figuring even more workable fittings. Try taking out an NPC cruiser with a frig.
If you can't after 14 days of skilling combat, you may want to work on your tactics instead.
Of course, if all you want is quick hour of fun after work I'd say you don't need a MMORPG.
Re:I never really liked this game (Score:2)
Also in Eve, Resources and playerskill are far more important than character skillpoints.
Re: Eve Online Hits 100K Subscribers (Score:1, Funny)
You're new here, aren't you? (Score:2)
Re:I didn't enjoy it. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I didn't enjoy it. (Score:2)
You say everything revolves around MINING ?
You meant, most of anything in EVE revolves around MONEY and time spent learning since char-creation.
Mining is one of the lowest income-generating professions, in "secure space".
I have went through 7 (yes, seven) pieces of 14-day-trial accounts before finally deciding what it is I want to do in EVE.
And that, after playing for a couple of hours on an almost one year old account of a friend, who makes his liv
Re:Starflight fix? (Score:2)
It is closer to Elite than Starflight. There really isn't any mystery out there it has turned into mostly politics with some really big battles to sort out the disagreements.
I have seen nothing since Starflight that compares well and certainly nothing in the mmorpg realm.
Re:Starflight fix? (Score:2)