foofad

You still kinda sorta missed the boat. The game really, really opens up at level 20 (the cap). Trains are integral to the experience - because all XP is shared it's totally fine to hop into any old train you can find. A decent train will get you to level 20 in half an hour or less. A really good one will get you to 20 in 15 minutes. Trains can actually be pretty epic - every once in a while you'll run into a mega-swarm of enemies and fight for your life to take them all out with your train pals. My favorites are the swarms in the desert areas. It's full of crabs and goblins and stuff. Mostly crabs. Such that whenever my friends and I run into a massive one, we scream "CRAB BATTLE" and try not to get killed by the Confuse-casting dust devils.

Post-20, the game changes from being about leveling to being about loot collection. You're constantly trying to find higher tier upgrades for your gear and having to kill progressively more difficult (in theory) enemies in order to have a chance at drops. This is when it gets to be most fun, because as you get better and better loot, the fear of death and losing it all becomes stronger and stronger. It makes every near death experience an exercise in quick underwear changes. Fortunately there are lots of tricks to keep you alive, like always having a finger over the instant Nexus teleport button for obvious reasons.

Fighting gods in the Godlands is definitely entertaining, and when you do finally get to have a go at Oryx, it's a blast. Everyone in the entire instance gets teleported to his lair and you have to fight your way to him. Usually anywhere from a tenth to a quarter of the entire group that goes in gets killed - you really have to rely on the people around you to see you through to the end, especially the incredibly valuable healers. Death is often met with dramatic cries of "Noooooooooo!" over Ventrilo, but in the end death just means another chance to get into some epic crab battles.

You are right though, the game is best in doses. It's not something you can marathon for five hours.

@DrKillShot Endless Online plagiarized a lot of the art assets from Dark Ages. DA came first.

I kinda wish they're iron out the bugs first, personally.

This is what I've been using:


[Naga, Tanky Blaster Naga]

Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Void L

Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Warp Scrambler II
10MN MicroWarpdrive II

Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Tanks as well as the other BCs (51k EHP) and gets 1044 DPS with Void. It doesn't need to be a glass cannon.

@Ordegar Or the latest Splinter Cell, which is a lot more violent than previous titles.

@Utakata You won't get ganked the second you leave port. Newbie systems are protected, and high security space (which you'll be spending a lot of time in initially) has various deterrents but no true 100% protections against you getting ganked. But you won't get ganked. No one ganks random newbies, only targets worth ganking, like untanked industrial ships full of cargo. Ship insurance is a game system built in, not player run. You won't get scammed on it, unless you pay the money and then never lose the ship, in which case it's wasted.

And yes, everything you do in EVE is PVP, whether it feels like PVP or not. You are competing with someone, somewhere. There are various levels of PVP though. If you just do PVE content solo, you aren't interacting with the community very directly - but you will eventually sell things you earn through PVE, in which case you are competing with other PVEers with prices of goods. Or you can be more direct and blow up people in low or no security space.

The New Player Experience in EVE is much, MUCH better than it used to be. You'll learn a lot in your trial. Go for it.

@(Unverified) Ordinarily I wouldn't advocate head-in-the-sand behavior, and EVE really is a game where hardening up and going the extra mile pays off. That said, if you don't want to deal with the insane meta, if you pretend it doesn't exist you can really pretty much avoid it entirely and still have fun. Let the other people agonize, and just go along for the ride.

@ScottishViking It also costs less than half of what it costs to fit a Maelstrom. The point is that there are ships (well, a ship) that can effectively work a split system. But it's a moot point anyway since it'll supposedly have 8/8.

@(Unverified) The many, many Typhoons using split systems and getting over 1k DPS would like a word with you.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/54352-Typhoon-1149Dps-110k-ehp.html
http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/48480-Typhoon-1459-dps-Gank-Phoon-w-112-690-EHP.html

etc etc

@dudes Can't... tell... if... serious.