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I don't know why I don't hate EVE
Aug. 7th, 2008 11:37 amI'll probably hate it later. Or get bored of it. Hopefully before the free trial runs out.
So far, I've found three things to do in EVE, all of them without any obvious fun value:
(a) Do missions/fight enemies.
Well, fight the interface, mostly -- the enemies instantly explode as soon as you get your weapons to start firing at them, but that's not as easy as you'd think.
You can tell that enemies are around because messages start popping up in the middle of the screen telling you that you're being shot. When you see a message like that, you first have to search through the giant scolling list of every object in the universe until you find a red icon indicating an enemy. Then, you have to check to make sure that it's actually the enemy firing at you and not some other random enemy 50 miles away. Next, right click on it and from the middle of the dozen-item popup menu, select 'lock on'. If you're a little clumsy with the mouse and pick the wrong item, out of range, have too many locked on targets already, or just seemingly at random, the lock on will fail. Otherwise, after a few seconds an icon representing the enemy will appear elsewhere on the screen. Click on it, then click on the weapon icons at the bottom of the screen to start firing. The enemy will explode in 1-3 hits. Meanwhile, he'll have shot you 20 or 30 times, doing negligible damage to your shields (or sometimes, oddly, no damage whatsoever).
(b) mine asteroids
This is the same as combat, except that asteroids are huge and don't fly around wildly, so you can just right click on them in the main window to lock on instead of having to search through the list. Then fire your mining laser at it. Unlike enemy ships, asteroids don't blow up, but after a few minutes of sitting around watching your ship fire its laser with no apparent effect, your cargo hold will be full of rocks, which you can take back to town... er, to a station and sell. Or refine, and then sell. Since the refining process is instant and involves right clicking on the ore, selecting 'refine', and hitting 'ok', you make the same amount of money either way.
(c) buy a new ship
First and most important step (after opening the market page): Change the filter on the market to 'region', otherwise you'll only see what people are selling at your specific station, which will leave you flying around in a ship festooned with guns but without any ammunition.
Then you'll see a list of ships with prices next to them. The prices are the best price available anywhere in about a half hour's flight. You probably want to select 'details' from anything you want to buy to see if you can get it almost as cheap somewhere nearby. On the plus side, no matter where it is you can buy it instantly. On the minus side, you then have to fly there and pick it up.
Oh, right, 'flying there'. On your 'assets' tab, right click the station where the items are and select 'set destination'. Then click the 'a' button to engage the autopilot. Then, go get a sandwich or something. Seriously, there's nothing you can do to make it go any faster (well, maybe shave a few seconds off the long slow approach to the warp gate by turning on afterburners), and no input for you to give.
Once you get there, you can strip everything off your old ship and install it on your new ship, then repackage your old ship and put it up on the market, or sell it immediately if someone has a buy order, or just leave it sitting there forever in case you die and need your old ship back, I guess.
To sum up, the game seems to have no redeeming value, but it kept me playing it until about 3am, just like Everquest and WoW. Buh?
So far, I've found three things to do in EVE, all of them without any obvious fun value:
(a) Do missions/fight enemies.
Well, fight the interface, mostly -- the enemies instantly explode as soon as you get your weapons to start firing at them, but that's not as easy as you'd think.
You can tell that enemies are around because messages start popping up in the middle of the screen telling you that you're being shot. When you see a message like that, you first have to search through the giant scolling list of every object in the universe until you find a red icon indicating an enemy. Then, you have to check to make sure that it's actually the enemy firing at you and not some other random enemy 50 miles away. Next, right click on it and from the middle of the dozen-item popup menu, select 'lock on'. If you're a little clumsy with the mouse and pick the wrong item, out of range, have too many locked on targets already, or just seemingly at random, the lock on will fail. Otherwise, after a few seconds an icon representing the enemy will appear elsewhere on the screen. Click on it, then click on the weapon icons at the bottom of the screen to start firing. The enemy will explode in 1-3 hits. Meanwhile, he'll have shot you 20 or 30 times, doing negligible damage to your shields (or sometimes, oddly, no damage whatsoever).
(b) mine asteroids
This is the same as combat, except that asteroids are huge and don't fly around wildly, so you can just right click on them in the main window to lock on instead of having to search through the list. Then fire your mining laser at it. Unlike enemy ships, asteroids don't blow up, but after a few minutes of sitting around watching your ship fire its laser with no apparent effect, your cargo hold will be full of rocks, which you can take back to town... er, to a station and sell. Or refine, and then sell. Since the refining process is instant and involves right clicking on the ore, selecting 'refine', and hitting 'ok', you make the same amount of money either way.
(c) buy a new ship
First and most important step (after opening the market page): Change the filter on the market to 'region', otherwise you'll only see what people are selling at your specific station, which will leave you flying around in a ship festooned with guns but without any ammunition.
Then you'll see a list of ships with prices next to them. The prices are the best price available anywhere in about a half hour's flight. You probably want to select 'details' from anything you want to buy to see if you can get it almost as cheap somewhere nearby. On the plus side, no matter where it is you can buy it instantly. On the minus side, you then have to fly there and pick it up.
Oh, right, 'flying there'. On your 'assets' tab, right click the station where the items are and select 'set destination'. Then click the 'a' button to engage the autopilot. Then, go get a sandwich or something. Seriously, there's nothing you can do to make it go any faster (well, maybe shave a few seconds off the long slow approach to the warp gate by turning on afterburners), and no input for you to give.
Once you get there, you can strip everything off your old ship and install it on your new ship, then repackage your old ship and put it up on the market, or sell it immediately if someone has a buy order, or just leave it sitting there forever in case you die and need your old ship back, I guess.
To sum up, the game seems to have no redeeming value, but it kept me playing it until about 3am, just like Everquest and WoW. Buh?
