EVE Online Review: An MMORPG with Rich Interstellar Activity

EVE Online is a multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Crowd Control Productions (CCP). It lasts for around 2 decades means that the developers are exceptionally good. That said, it was released to the public in 2003, and it has improved a lot since then.

According to statistics, EVE Online has over 200k active players daily, with approximately 20k concurrent players ​[1]​. EVE Online is a space sandbox game with countless complex activities. While it may be difficult for new players, there are many options on how you want to play.

You have the freedom whether you want to join massive PvP; casual play on PvE battles; or focus on mining, exploration, and industrial options. In addition, you can join a corporation to do other advanced activities together.

This review is NOT sponsored by the CCP.

Summary

Price: Free-to-play (with in-app purchase)
Genre: Sci-fi, Space simulation, MMORPG, Sandbox
Total File Size: ~ 23 GB
Platform: PC game.
Download:
» Steam, Rating: 7.4/10.
» Epic Game, Rating: 4.4/5.
» Official site: eveonline.com.

Pros:
+ Sandbox for either casual or hardcore players
+ Player-driven economy
+ Wide universe
+ Numerous ships, items, armaments
+ Balanced systems

Cons:
– Once your ship is destroyed, it is gone
– No safe place outside stations
– PvP consent

Activities you can do in EVE Online

EVE Online is a complex game. Although the learning curve is not that steep, there are a lot of mechanics. Every activities category has its mechanics, which may be completely different from other activities.

No worries, EVE Online offers tutorials at the beginning of a player creation. Once you’ve completed the tutorial flow, the developer will assume you already know the basics. Hereafter, you will learn more about EVE in the long run.

There are many basic activities you could choose from, including missions, encounters, exploration, and resource harvesting, as in Fig 1.

In the missions agents, you could accept a task from an agent. You will get a reward when the task is finished. It is the most straightforward activity, as you will know what to do from start to finish. However, the rewards are not as high as the other activities.

In the encounter activities, you are doing battle with other fleets. For example, you could wipe out a pirate’s hideout and take any valuable loot.

Exploration activities offer different playstyles. You could explore by scanning your surrounding in the vast universe of EVE Online. The exploration may involve battle and puzzle solving, in which you may obtain various valuable items.

Meanwhile, you could also focus on an industrial playstyle, in which you could harvest raw resources and refine them into valuable products. Then, you could use or sell those products to other players in the market.

In addition, you can play together with other players as you like, and you can also join a corporation (usually called a guild in other MMOs). As you progress in EVE online, many other advanced activities require collaboration with other players. You will start to prefer advanced tasks, including Incursion, Planetary Interaction, Wormhole exploration, Faction Warfare, and Pirating and Espionage ​[2]​.

Pros

Wide universe

EVE Online has over 7800 star systems scattered in its universe ​[3]​, as in Fig 3. With such a vast universe, you may need at least 224 days to explore every reachable system ​[4]​. Since this is the fastest time taken by a player named Henrique Arnolles, a casual player will probably take several years to achieve this.

Each dot in Fig 3 is a star system, and suppose one of them is in Fig 4. Using a scanner, you may find and explore many things in just a star system. In addition, a star system may have several docking stations where you can do many things, from finding suitable missions, trading items, customizing ships, etc.

Every star system has its Security Level based on the presence of NPC (non-player character) security forces such as faction police and CONCORD ​[5]​. Usually, you can see this level next to the name of a star system, as seen in Fig 4. Security Level classified into three main classes:

• High-security space (ranging from 0.5 to 1.0),
• Low-security space (ranging from 0.1 to 0.4),
• Null-security space (ranging from -1.0 to 0.0) includes Wormhole space and Pochven.

You can consider these classes to match your playstyle, whether you want to play in a low-risk-low-return or a high-risk-high-return space.

Player-driven economy

Each docking station on EVE Online has an independent marketplace. These markets operate under the supply and demand of players independently at each station. The players can sell or buy mining materials, refined items, and valuable products according to their needs. In addition, an average regional price for each item allows for large-scale market manipulation.

Meanwhile, you can use evemarketer to analyze the price of an item. It is possible to get a high-profit margin by buying items from one station and selling them to other stations. Yet, this profit margin will depend on luck and advanced skill.

Specialization

There are numerous types of ships and modules. In this typical RPG system, you can customize your spaceship to match your playstyle.

For example, you could fill up your entire ship with the explorer modules. For example, a combination of long-range weapons, data/relic analyzer, probe scanner, and ECM burst for fast escaping. Otherwise, you may want to play with your corporation and customize your ship to be a front-line combat ship with high defense.

Whatever combination you want, you can do it on EVE Online. However, each choice has its advantages and disadvantages. Typically, with this customization system, playing with friends that cover each other weaknesses is common in EVE Online.

Cons

PvP

In EVE Online, any player could attack you (and vice versa) outside the docking station anywhere anytime. That is, the safest place is only inside a station and considers undock button as “consent to PvP.”

Several reasons why some players attack you:

• You carry valuables items.
  Yes, they scan your cargo and will attack you if your items are worth a lot more than their losses. They will kill you before they get killed by security forces. Then, their alt ships stand by there to scoop your cargo items. This often happens near trade hubs, such as in the Jita star system.
  If you really have to bring valuables items, you also need to have a lot more unique “trash” items (e.g., 30 or more unique items) in your cargo. In addition, use a ship with better armor and escaping modules (e.g., ECM burst and cloak).
• You fly cool ships.
  It will indirectly reduce the supply of that type of spaceship, thus increasing its price in the market. Although it won’t be too often, the higher your ship class, the higher the chance a random player attack you. In my experience, using a battlecruiser or higher-class ship is likely to be attacked or ganged by other players.
• They want to increase their kill rate.
  Yeah, that’s really annoying.

Something once lost will never return

Once you undock your ship and explore the universe, you put your spaceship (and its cargo) on the line. That is, any battle or lost in space, can lead to the destruction of your ship and its cargo. Your cargo may remain in space for some time or until someone takes it.

No matter how cheap or expensive your ship is, once it is destroyed, it will never return. That means you need to buy a new ship and its modules.

Tips

These are some tips for playing EVE Online ​[6]​:

1. Staying in high-security systems is probably the safest way to play EVE Online, especially for a solo player.
2. Make sure your ship has active insurance before docking.
3. Never fly something you can’t afford to lose, including your ship and the cargo (even in High-security space).
4. Big and more expensive is not always a better choice.
5. If you want to escape from your real-life primary job, don’t make EVE Online your second job.
6. Find the “Rule of Six” on youtube for the hacking (data/relic) tutorial.
7. Save location after you explored a site (e.g., data/relic site, combat site, and unstable wormhole) as your “safe spot” in that star system.
8. Player experiences and skills are essential, as there is no “ship level” in EVE Online.

References

Cover image is taken from eveonline.gallery