EvE Online - 2nd and 3rd impressions

2nd Impressions :

The 2nd impression was fraught with failure.

Last time I started off as the Minmatar race. A republic. Followed the training sessions. And then continued from where I had left off. This lead to another 'Agent' (basically the quest givers) and I had to wrap in space to another solar system. Pretty cool... until I figured out that damn ! I had to load the quest item given to me (it was a courier mission) into the ships cargo hold ... oh damn ! warp back again, and back again. nothing to do - just put the ship on Auto Pilot and do something else.

Its boring after a few times.

The next mission I got said it had to be done in 24 hrs ! huh ! A time limit ?? :(

Unfortunately that does not work for me - with erratic office schedules - there is no way I am sure whether I will be online the next day or not.

There endeth the 2nd session. Not something I wanted to play.

3rd Impression


This time I started on the Amarr Race. An Empire race with a cool looking ship. The MinMatar ships looked unfinished while these ships look good !

This time I figured out that I did not need to take up the mission if I forsee not having enough time the next day. I just don't accept it - and leave my ship docked in one of the stations. I also figured out that almost everything is menu driven (shame ! bad game design !) and that once I warp to a solarsystem where I have a quest I need to warp to the quest location in the drop down menu. phew ! Much better.

The last mission I did was about meeting a rebel ship who asked me to join his side ! nice ! :)

On the whole a nice space simulation. I am still not clear about how good a game it is though. Things are confusing at most times, and this game requires me to lvl up skills - which take days. So, the longer one is subscribed to the game, the better he can potentially become. This seems to be a money gathering option for the game studio.

next blog will do a comparison with WoW - as both games , inspite of being similar are quite different.

oh .. and yes .. I play this on Linux !

EvE Online - First Impressions

After a discussion in the office about Homeworld, World of Warcraft and then EvE-Online, I decided to try out EvE.

EvE is similar to WoW that it is an MMORPG. After that the distinction ends.

So, last night, after office, I created a trial account and logged in. I had approximately 1 hr of time before i slept, and I thought I would get some action before that. In WoW you can level up 5 levels in that much time pretty easily. Thats about some 15 quests. 

The start screen in EvE is quite daunting. While WoW provides one screen for choosing a character, EvE has multiple screens to go from one to the other. Anyways, the comparison is for a later date. 

After spending 20 mins clicking , i chose a race and other attributes. I was reading all till about 10 mins, then i got bored, and just click-click-click to the next screens. 

Then the game starts with a tutorial - played out with a sulky woman's voice. I am looking for a way to shut off that audio. 

3d space is quite difficult to navigate. But the game mechanics make it quite easy. Most of the interface is based on clicking on things either in space or in the different boxes which litter the screen. The interface is quite cluttered. 

The interface

Its also lonely. 

Usually in WoW the starting areas does have atleast a few people who are questing in the same space - but in EvE - in space, you are alone. As far as you can see you have lots of ... space !

The tutorial is long - and I have not yet finished it. Hopefully, the next few days should see me progress a bit. Right now - the game looks very complex and daunting.