EVE Online, not playing is better than playing

Right now in EVE Online I have nothing important to do other than log in and set my skills to train. Running NPC missions has gotten stale. Exploring new space has gotten boring. Chatting in game has been nice, but I really have no clue what most people are talking about.

I have the ship I am going to be taking into battle. I have a bank account with 4.5 million ISK in it. The only thing lacking right now are the skills to do what I want and a corporation to join to put my skills to use.

EVE Online for all its awards and praise is a pretty shallow game if you aren't into the PvP, trading, or political game. Sadly the game does little to direct you in a feasible direction. Most corporations have steep application requirements. On top of this if you don't follow some sort of EVE players guide your first character is a toss away.

Luckily I have followed a good guide and my first character should last. I also hopefully have a corporation lined up once I am out of the free trial period. All that is left is getting the skills to outfit my ship to perform the basic PvP function of "tackling". Tackling is equivalent to being the "crowd control" class in other MMORPGs.

A "tacklers" job is to do nothing but keep a target from escaping from or moving freely around the battlefield. It is an important role I am ready to fufill, but waiting is killing me. I am playing EVE Online for the rush of war and the potential of politics.

So right now not playing EVE is a hell of a lot more fun than actually playing it.

0.3 and beyond!

I came to a realization today in EVE Online that I created my character wrong. I followed this Arsclan guide. While this is a great guide it omits one very important step in the character building process

After the first three selections in building your skills you are prompted with Advanced Command, Starship Captain, and another one I forgot the name of. The guide stops with Command being your last choice which is the third choice. It does not mention what to pick at the 4th selection. Applying my common sense I chose Advanced Command as my 4th selection because the guide says to pick command last. I needed to take Starship Captain!

Well that has now set me back about 5 days worth of skill training just to get my Racial Frigate up to level 4 and Starship Command up to level 3. I instead have a leadership skill at level 3 which I will not be using anytime soon.

While this is not terrible or end of the world type stuff... it is still a setback of time I could spend training my learning skills higher. I could just get my learning skills higher, but I want a better ship sooner than later. Within a couple days I should have a much larger and better ship.

0.3

I also ventured into 0.3 (low security) space today for the first time. I ran a quick drop off mission for a few thousand ISK and the six jumps were uneventful. While in 0.3 I decided to do some mining to see what sort of possibly better ore I could find.

During my quick mining stop I was attacked by a pirate. It was taking me down, but I was able to do a good bit of damage to it. Unfortunately if I had stuck around I would of lost. It was a much larger ship than mine, but I held my own. Luckily I had just filled my cargo hold full of ore and was able to warp away in time. I didn't make much more than a single mission would of netted me, but it was fun and a learning experience.

Now I really need to get frisky and venture out into some 0.0 space!

Why should I help open the AQ gates in World of Warcraft?

I found this thread over at Gamergod.com (now defunct, removed link) that asks "Why should casual gamers help hardcore raiders open the gates of AQ?"

From the post;

"As a casual gamer, I and many friends wonder.. Why should I help? Why bust my cute butt helping to just open more raids? There was a good article about this in the New York Times of all places, the fact is and im hoping the developers see it, is that to most casual gamers, which do make up the majority of most every mmo focusing on only raid content isnt going to make the fanbase happy."

Darniaq provides some insight into a reason why casual players might;

"In a way, it's an example of how everyone's just a cog in the great machinery of Life, or in this case, a player society. If everyone does their little bit, they all can benefit. If some people rely on others to get it done, due to complacency or laziness, well, we see that in real life too so there's no surprise there.

This unlocks access to more raiding, but it's also part of the Lore for the expansion, which comes equipped with something for everyone. Sometimes I feel people can get so focused on an incremental event they forget the larger story it's a part of. Not that this would make me partake of this uber grindfest of course. It's just academically interesting to see what sorts of people are a part of it and what sorts are not."

But I find Darniaq's reason pretty weak. I can read lore on a webpage instead of wasting my valuable in game time grinding foolishly on a quest that will never help me outside of a few reputation points and I can play the expansion whether I help with this quest or not.

So I repeat what the article says... why help the hardcore catasses with a quest that only benefits them in the end? This should hopefully be a stick in the side of Blizzard to finally step up and recognize that the gap between hardcore and casual is nearing the point of no return.

The Burning Crusade expansion may start to close this gap, but it is going to consist of finite content. Will Blizzard catch up before the casual MAJORITY is level 70 or will Blizzard just let the gap keep on growing with new catass dungeon after catass dungeon?

Update: 29 Nov, 2009 - Edited post, corrected spelling, removed broken links, and applied label.

EVE Online : Slowly, but surely

Skills

Skills in EVE Online are confusing to get started with. I was, and to a point still am, confused about which skills I should be training. I know in the long run that training my Learning based skills will reduce training times, but that makes for a pretty dull experience in the beginning.

My strategy so far has been to train several skills to level one while I am logged on. They are quick and easy to train, so I am online to switch the next skill active. When I have to log, I set my longer level 3+ skills to train. Luckily, I have plenty of skills that take 7-10 hours to train; perfect for work and sleeping.

100,000 Skill Points

I crossed the 100,000 skill point barrier earlier today. That meant updating my clone. Fortunately I am still well in the positive cash flow and it was no more than a drop in the bucket.

Unfortunately, the only station with cloning capabilities was six jumps away. I probably just missed one closer, but I am a newb and newbs make mistakes. I have a clone that saves up to 120,000 skill points, but I am by far in no rush to break it in.

Goal

I have a goal now: to train to Spaceship Command 3, Gallente Frigate 4, and Gallente Cruiser 1. Then I will look into purchasing a cruiser to fly around in. If anyone has any better ideas let me know!

Update: 8 Jul, 2007 - Edited post and applied labels.

My first day in EVE Online

My first day in EVE Online was uneventful, but still satisfying. We'll start out with character creation and finish with a new ship. Being a newb has never felt so good.

Race: Gallente
Bloodline: Gallente
Ancestry: Immigrants
School: Federal Navy Academy
Department: Operations
Field: Command
Specialty: Advanced Command

Int: 8, Cha: 8, Per: 10, Mem: 6, WP: 6

My adventure into the vast space of EVE Online started with a wonderful tutorial. It takes you over the basics of space flight, the UI, chat features, docking stations, and eventually into advanced space flight. Without the tutorial I doubt I would ever figure out how to play this game. It was so good that I may repeat it just to catch things I may have missed.

During the tutorial I spent a good amount of time goofing around and basically being a newb. Luckily there is a chat channel filled with helpful people that like to laugh. So far this is one of the better newb experiences I've had in a game and at the same time this is one of the toughest to learn games I've ever played in the MMORPG space.

My first combat experience was enjoyable as I fumbled accross advanced commands to just target and shoot things. It seems to be simpler than I am making it out to be, but in EVE you need to learn to fly first before you can get into heavy combat. Therefore I only encountered two combat situations and the first was the tutorial directed one.

The second combat situation had me confused. I had upgraded my newbie ship to a new and improved Gallente Frigate, Atron model. I outfitted it with two new guns filled with real ammo instead of the newb gun. Even riding high with this new bad ass strapped to a rocket I came into the fight with 5 on 1 odds. I was to destroy a Drone Silo defended by 5 drones and two stationary guns.

After a couple near death experiences that forced me to warp out of the fight I came back and barely managed to destroy the silo escaping the drones with only 1/4 of my ship still intact. I warped back to my agent (quest giver) flaming the entire way for a fat paycheck.

Next step: Find a ship buying guide for a newb!

Now playing EVE Online

I decided to finally take the plunge and journey into the game every MMORPG blogger seems to be enjoying: EVE Online.

So far; so good. I am about done with the tutorial and found it to be very helpful. It is actually the first tutorial that has ever explained to me the chat features in game. The newbie chat channels are full and its great to get help when needed.

The new player guide is also helping me with skill training which is one of EVE Online's mysteries to me still. Slowly, but surely, I am learning the ins and outs of the system.

Thanks to Ethic at Kill Ten Rats blog for the hook up on a few links to character creation guides. No gimp rolling here!

My name in game is Column (Heartless was taken) and you can EVE mail me if you would like.

Everquest 2 : Trial of the Isle - Fighter and Scout

Everquest 2 is a beautiful game graphically if your computer can handle it. I am fortunate enough to have recently upgraded to a top end rig that can handle the highest settings possible in EQ2. Yes you heard that right; I run EQ2 at Extreme Quality. The game runs perfectly for me and the initial tutorial on the ship at sea is quite impressive.

Still some animations seem to stutter and monsters seem to skip (especially the first set of goblins you are tasked to kill) across the land if they are moving fast. This is something I experienced the last time I played the game and it doesn't detract from the game overall. I've eliminated it being a graphics related slow down because it happens even on lower graphics settings.

I had previously claimed that EQ2 avatars are equivalent to barbie dolls. This still holds true and is highlighted by most of the elf and human related races. I don't know what they were thinking on some of the more human races, but there is so many hair sets that look like shiny plastic!

However, I will admit that some of the more exoctic races look surprisngly good. Also the Erudite with their darker skin tones and Glpyhs look very good. The plastic feel doesn't really come off on these exotic races I guess because of the darker skin tones and more colorful skin patterns.

Fighter - My first character to play was an Erudite fighter. I wanted to start out with a strong and straight forward class. Fighters are exactly that. The first noticeable improvement I found was the run speed was significantly increased on all classes. So much so that I actually think it is too fast, but that is easily forgiven when you are getting from point A to point B in reasonable time periods.

The fighter is definitely dominant on the starter island. There was literally nothing that challenged me that much. I could swath through pairs of equally challenging opponents with little fear of death. My only death came from an unfortunate invisible goblin patrol that hid underneath a bridge.

The basic fighter Heroic Opportunity doesn't look like a fighter attack you would find in most MMORPGs, but it was still very pleasing to the eye. After a bit of trial and error I mastered the actions required to perform it which made me feel good. The only downside I found though was that the HO wasn't much better than just performing my base attacks and often times the monsters died before I had the chance to complete the HO. I assume this is because of the fact these are newbie monsters.

Scout - I chose Wood Elf for my scout because I wanted to see if the plastic hairstyles could be lost in game against the background graphics. Unfortunately they look like plastic in game just like at the character creation screen.

Knowing the layout of the isle better I was able to smoke through the quest lines and to my surprise they were different than the fighter quests. A definite plus. Aiding me in the travel is the pathfinding skill for scouts. It is only an increase of 16%, but it made me feel like I was flying through the isle. I didn't time it, but it didn't seem to take more than a minute to run from end to end of the island.

Scouts also get stealth which really doesn't slow you down that much. I felt like a stealthed bomb waiting to go off as most of my ambush attacks took out most lower level opponents and some equal level enemies in a single shot. Unfortunately this means that completing my scout HO was almost impossible.

I quit after discovering the main cave on the island because no one was around to group for the final encounter. Sad, but I understand that there isn't many newbies around to play with during the daytime hours.

Next up is the priest and mage if I feel like it. While not wow'd off my feet I was amused with the game. I doubt I could get over the seemingly "off" flow of combat and the skippy movement to play further. Yet, I would still highly recommend playing at least the Trial of the Isle as it is free!

New World of Warcraft Alliance race!

Click here for all the details on World of Warcrafts new Alliance race for the Burning Crusade expansion!

Strike at Karkand, a lesson in how to not build a Battlefield 2 map

Lesson 1: Do not start both sides within sprinting distance of each other. This rewards only those players that can load in the fastest on the first round and have the first flag capped before the majority of gamers even think about moving.

Also it is prime real estate for a campfest by tanks and APCs. No one likes dieing the second they spawn because there is ZERO cover to take against a set of camping tanks and APCs.

Pushing the bases farther apart would allow for teams to set up defenses and actually be prepared for an assault before the battle is already lost. Engineers could provide a crucial role on this map, but unfortunately by the time they could get in place to set AT mines the tank and APCs are already camping the spawns.

Lesson 2: In Battlefield 2 openess is key. You can't artificially impose boundaries with non-combat areas to bottleneck the action. I could understand if the south-east corner of the map was mountains, but it is not! It is wide open and should of been left open to prevent the bottleneck that occurs currently.

Boats and other items would of made that area a key part of the map. The MEC would have to defend both their back bases and their forward bases instead of just watching the bottleneck slaughter that occurs at the forward bases.

Lesson 3: Providing tons of buildings with no interiors to hide in is a mistake. Once again the camping issue. Tanks and APCs can have field days in the alley ways as infantry have no place to run. There is also ZERO space for infantry to surprise tanks or APCs to take them out.

Lesson 4: Maximizing fast combat situations does not make the game fun. It just promotes the whoring aspect of an already flawed ranking system. Its sad that you don't have to leave the forward spawn points to get the Gold Medal. Actually those people that actually try to cap spawn points for a win usually wind up with the fewest points. The points are whored within the forward most spawn point in the mid of the rush.

Lesson 5: Don't build in a strategic bridge over a river if you are going to just allow vehicles to drive down river 10 feet to cross without a bridge. These are the type of choke points that should be in game. That way armor whores have to get out of their vehicles and fight or fix the bridge to cross.

A Final Note: Many players play Strike at Karkand with the sole excuse that they just hate air power. These players need to get Special Forces and play on maps that are built 100% around infantry combat. Most Special Forces maps are a joy to play on and are wide open from end to end. Strike at Karkand is poorly designed and is nothing more than an excuse to whore points.

This post came out of anger because I'm sick of the map. I don't play it any longer except for a game here and there. I hate the fact that its the most overplayed map in game and that without it you can't compete for rank sufficiently. Ranks are artificially harder to achieve because of the score inflation this single map causes.

You're right and I should play the game for fun, but I like to watch my stats. Fortunately I can somewhat compete playing on the other maps and I enjoy my time. EA has done a better job with each patch to make it so you can score more points on other maps than just Strike at Karkand. Hopefully EA gets a clue and rebuilds Karkand with a more open battlefield.

I'm installing Everquest 2 : Trial of the Isle

I am going to go against my better judgment and install Everquest 2 : Trial of the Isle. Actually, I am almost done installing it. Now, some may ask, how could I go do such a thing being the SOE hater that I am? For starters, I'm bored and need an MMORPG fix. Plus, EQ2 seems to be a better option currently than resubscribing to World of Warcraft. Also I would like to see EQ2, settings pumped up, on my new system. This should show the game off; compared to slideshow when I played it on my older PC.

I doubt EQ2 will turn into a subscription for me, but I figured its worth it to try the game as it is now before it goes through its major class changes. Then, I can return after the changes with a bit of perspective, and see if its something that has enhanced the newbie experience.

Update: 30 April, 2009 - Edited post and applied labels.