Eve Online Diary part 1

So I've tried playing Eve Online a couple of times now, and I have never been able to really get into it at all. However, I've been reading the Eve novel 'Empyrean Age' by Tony Gonzales. I was always kind of into the Eve Online fiction, even if I couldn't stand the game, but the book is a surprisingly solid piece of Sci-Fi regardless of your knowledge of the game.

It also made me get a trial account and give New Eden another shot, and in order to make it remotely bearable, I've decided to keep up a diary. I've also decided not to fret too much about 'optimal builds' or whatever and just accept that I'll make mistakes while I play.

So first things first. What race am I going to be? These days race/bloodline choice doesn't really affect your starting skills anymore, and they're all even in terms of opportunity. However, each race has their own set of ships, and as far as I know they're mirrored across all four races. So basically you pick a race based on style rather than any particular stat boost you might get. It's also worth pointing out that, even though you're picking a 'race', you're picking from a variety of human ethnicities and nations rather than a 'species'. So no aliens.

The Amarr are a mighty theocratic empire steeped in tradition that spread across the solar system conquering and enslaving legions of people. It's not the sort of ideology I endorse, but their ships are shiny and gold, so I plumped for them.

And this is my hideously ugly guy. The likeness is impeccable.

Naturally, I called him 'Chief Illustrator'.

And this is my newbie ship. I dig the eagle-ish look to it, but it's very tiny, and very weak, as I found out to my chagrin much later. Also, before we move on, I'd like to point out, that a) this is a pretty interesting looking place to start off, and b) I am instantly overwhelmed by this hud. There is so much going on that it's easy to feel lost straight away.

The tutorial does a fairly good job of introducing it to you though, and I feel like they've definately done a good job of easing you in at first over my previous experience with the game (which was very much a case of, here you are, go).

On the left is the skills window. I don't want to dwell on this too much. But skills don't work in the same way that most MMOs handle them. They don't have a talent tree and they can't be used directly as an ability. You don't necessarily unlock new skills as your train new ones, and there aren't levels, but each skill levels individually. They also train when you log off from the game, which is a great idea but can be frustrating if you just want to get on with things and just play.

But I don't have too much time to worry about that, it's time to do some combat!

The game helpfully informed me that I must destroy this ship, helpfully labelled ingame as a 'Lurking Pirate!'. Thanks Eve.

Now, combat seems incredibly unwieldy. You have to get within x amount of metres (range is defined by your current weapons), lock on, and then hit the weapons icon (centre bottom) and wait for the game to decide who won.

Sounds easy enough, but Locking On is a bit awkward to do, as you need to right click the often tiny, moving target and it brings up a sub menu which you need to scroll through to locate the 'lock on' button (which is not on top of the menu, when I would have thought, that Locking On would be clearly your main priority in this instance). Even with my awkward mouse clicking, and moving the camera so I could locate him, I won. It is the tutorial after all.

After a few more 'go here, click this, do that' tutorial missions, I was rewarded with a 'Refining' skill book. Ostensibly ingame you can mine asteroids and sell the raw materials. Or you can refine them and either sell the refined materials (for more ISK?) or use it to build stations, ships and ship parts. I understand that mining is a popular activity in game as it's an easy enough way to make money.

Unfortunately, the refining book that the game gave me is unusable without Industry 1. Also unfortunate is that Industry 1 is not a skill you start with. It is a skill you must either find or buy off another player.

I don't know if you can see this, but the game has only deigned to give me 77,000 ISK so far, and the cheapest I can find Industry 1 for on the market is 100,000 Isk.

This is more like the Eve Online I remember!

NEXT TIME >>> Picking a career. And dying. A lot.