Comment by gabereiser | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gabereiser | Hacker News Reader

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I played it from launch until around 2010 or so.

Is it worth it? No. Is there a good alternative? No. EVE Online always had an element of spreadsheets to it. It was designed that way. The original game design was done inside excel.

Personally I find it fascinating that CCP didn’t build their own spreadsheet functionality into the game considering how many players used spreadsheets to calculate mining yield returns, industrial runs, research and BP copying. The only area of EVE where spreadsheets go out the window is war.

I have probably 20,000 hours in the game. I lived on EVE from 2003-2010 and then would log on every once in a while to get my space fix.

The one thing I will say about the game, it inspired me to try to create my own back in the day. It was too much work for me but I did manage to get a demo of flying around from Star system to star system using an EVE-Online like warp and scene management.

The artwork of EVE is fantastic. The space environments are A+. The actual gameplay though is a bit stale to todays gamers. It’s more a kin to old school rpg’s where you target something and let the auto attack do it’s thing.

> The only area of EVE where spreadsheets go out the window is war.

That is very real-life-like then... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment is a very real issue in wars.

hear hear.

In reality the game is more an economics simulator where war is the instrument that engages with your numbers.

Stopped playing when the game became P2W, I miss it probably the same way a nicotine addict miss the cigarette.

>I miss it probably the same way a nicotine addict miss the cigarette.

I tried to describe what it's like to be so involved in a game and then not. This analogy is perfect!

So one thing I've always wondered about EVE. We all know about the "corporations" in the game and they seem to be ingrained in the culture of EVE. Were those "corporations" started by the creators (like the Alliance and Horde in WoW), or are they purely player created?

Purely player created. They're basically guilds in other games.

There are some built-in 'NPC Corporations' that you start on, and default back to if you get kicked out of a Corp, but they're basically just placeholders.

It's also important to acknowledge that these NPC corporations have a high tax rate so there's a financial incentive for players to leave these NPC corporations for Player driven ones. Most player corporations have a lower tax rate, less than 10% or matching if there's a war on. Sometimes a corp will increase taxes to recoup war bonds but it's only temporary.

There are both, but the NPC ones are largely holding players that are very casual or new. Most of what you read about are probably not corporations though, but alliances. Alliances are groups of player owned corporations that work together. The massive battles are mostly fought between these.

What makes Eve interesting is that all star systems except for those in the very middle of the map are controllable by players, and actually provide value to those holding them. So that's why you have these gigantic, drawn out conflicts and large battles where player blocs with thousands of players each are fighting for territory.

The player corporations and alliances are one of the game’s greatest strengths, and weaknesses.

The big alliances are empires that control many aspects of the game. The downside is that if you want to play casually and don’t like all the boot-licking and drama that comes with player corporations you miss out on a lot of the game.

> The only area of EVE where spreadsheets go out the window is war.

Not if you include all of the ship setup calculations, POS and Capitals efficiency, etc.

The X4 series is a comparable (but weaker given the lack of human element) single player alternative experience.

Correct. The multiplayer aspect of EVE is unmatched, even to this day. X4 (really the series) is a good alternative if you want a SP experience. The AI wasn't that good though.

"Is there a good alternative? No."

Check out Astrox Imperium. It's been described as "Eve Offline". It's made by just one developer, but it's really impressive for that.

I've never played Eve myself, so I can't personally say how they compare, but I enjoyed the hell out of AI.

(PS: I have no association with AI. I'm just a very satisfied fan.)

Unfortunately, there's no comparison. AI doesn't come close to the breath of Eve. It's cool. It's a good game especially for a solo-dev (very impressive!) but Eve Online has so many avenues to gameplay.

The terror of someone else showing up in a system you thought was empty while you're carrying something super valuable.

Eye on local, yes, especially in WH space... man oh man, anxiety through the roof.

Don’t keep your eye on local in WH space, that won’t work! Eyes on DSCAN, I quit Eve almost a year ago, and the key I used for DSCAN still doesn’t work, I’ve pressed it so many times.

And there's Curse even for that.

shhhhh, the learning curve gods curse you for teaching fresh meat what not to do instead of teaching them with pew pew. The cruel harsh world of nullsec.

I've read the entire ISK 3.0 before creating my first character. One sentence wouldn't help new players because of data overload and shaky hands anyway.

I know I was practically useless in my stealth bomber, but I had great fun futzing around deep in enemy space scaring their miners and leading response teams on wild goose chases.

This is the beauty of Eve. Suck rocks for ore while watching movies. Solo/team hunting pvp. Venture capitalist. Space Trucker. Honest Questor or other PVE solo/team player. Absolute troll who creates a roleplay justification to being the worst of bastards to newbies (but just inside the rules). So many playstyles.

I liked the stealth game as well. Work your way in a stealthy ship deep into Nullsec and do your thing - whether that thing is a bunny rabbit of a frigate designed to find and steal cookies and outwit the fox, or a stealth bomber that hides near the cookie jar to squash the unsuspecting. And both of these have to find a way to get back to civilization with the lootz.

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