EVE Online Information

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By FinancePortal

The Minmatar Rifter, a powerful combat frigate
The Minmatar Rifter, a powerful combat frigate

Introducing the EVE Online game

When launched 5 years ago, CCP's EVE Online broke the mould of what gamers expected from massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). Avoiding the swords and sorcery cliche, CCP launched into space, with a massive single shared universe, and a trading and combat simulation inspired by the classic BBC Micro game Elite.

The founders of CCP were originally graphics artists, and their background shone through with the breathtaking scenery and attention to detail within the game.

From the start, CCP were aiming for a player driven experience. Although there is a rich and deep back-story to EVE, the economy is modelled on real life economic systems and is driven by player production and demand. Indeed, CCP were the first game company in the world to hire an economist, expressly to make sure their economic model could grow and evolve.

Corporations replace the usual Guilds, with players able to buy and sell shares and gain dividends. Beyond that, player owned structures (POS) allow corporations and alliances to build their own space stations, laying claim to vast tracks of space.

Politics form a core part of the game experience. With 4 major Empires constantly scheming and jostling for supremacy, player Alliances can also join in, with long running wars and fragile treaties making space a dangerous - and exciting - place to be. An expansion coming this summer will allow player corporations and alliances to directly take part in the struggles of the existing Empires, adding even more depth and intrigue to an already complex game.

Apart from the shared universe, EVE's approach to gaining 'experience' and 'levels' for your character resulted in the game's unique skills.

This is what EVE is all about

EVE Online ships - the Claw
EVE Online ships - the Claw
A Tech 2 frigate, the Wolf
A Tech 2 frigate, the Wolf

How EVE Online skills work

One of the interesting aspects of EVE is that, unlike other online games like World of Warcraft, players don't have to repeat the same quests to gain experience points and advance levels. A characters ability to do everything in EVE - from trading on the market to using a specific type of weapon on their ship - is controlled by skills.

Skills can be bought on the market, or earned as rewards in missions. They can sometimes even be collected as loot from blowing up pirates. Each skill has a level, from 1 to 5. As your character trains up a level in each skill, the bonus or ability that the skill grants will increase.

So for your character to become more efficient at flying Frigates, they could train the relevant Frigate skill up to level 5, achieving the largest possible bonus from the skill. You'll see that when it comes to a specific EVE Online skill, it will be connected with one of the five attributes, whether that is Intelligence, Perception, Charisma, Willpower or Memory. The better the attribute that is associated with the skill you are trying to learn, the faster you will learn the skill.

The most refreshing part about EVE skills, though, is that you don't need to be logged in or doing anything to train them up. Simply choose the skill, then right click and select 'Train'. A status bar will show how long it will take to train the skill to the next level - and that's that. If you do something else in game, or even log off, the skill will continue to train.

This means that your character can advance in EVE without having to be logged in all the time, which is great news to players who are tired of the constant grind, or who can't spare that much time to play the game.

A Jaguar docked in a space station
A Jaguar docked in a space station

EVE Online video - the Revelations II expansion

The ultimate EVE Online ship - a Titan
The ultimate EVE Online ship - a Titan

Martin Jackson's EVE Online Guides

  • The Reasons EVE Online Private Servers Can't Exist

    CCP Games title EVE Online is run on one of the largest clustered super PCs on the planet, with five thousand star systems and one or two million unique objects in play at any particular time. Their... - 19 months ago

  • An EVE Online Guide: Handy Beginner Tricks

    EVE Online is a great game, with many thousands of players, and over thirty thousand of them hooked up to the same server at the same time. The accumulated information base of the EVE Online player... - 23 months ago

  • EVE Online Guide To Skills : Read What They Are And How They Work

    If you are taking a look at the EVE Online gaming system, than there are a couple of things that you will wish to know right away. The very first thing to consider when you encounter an MMORPG is how... - 23 months ago

  • An EVE Online Guide: Mining Tips

    In EVE Online, you can't build things out of nothing. Effort should be done with regard to gathering resources so as to reinforce a fleet. Gathering resources can be accomplished thru the method of... - 23 months ago

  • EVE Online Guide: An Introduction To EVE Online For New Gamers

    As several awards and more than 220,000 active accounts prove, it is easily seen the EVE Online game is one large multiuser online roleplaying game that you wish to get into! This game, created by... - 23 months ago

EVE Online trailer - the Trinity expansion

EVE Online character creation

Character creation in EVE will be your first introduction to the game, and it's pretty much the most important. The career paths you choose for your character will define what skills they initially gain, which in turn defines how quickly they can move on to other skills along their chosen specialisation path.

CCP have put a lot of effort in to making the skills given match up to the career chosen - from trading and social skills to refining and gunnery - but it can't be denied that some initial skills are more useful, and therefore worth more to the player, than others.

The most important skills to initially gain, and then quickly train up, are those from the Learning group. These can boost your attributes, which in turn can dramatically decrease the training time of all skills. Spend your initial gameplay time training up these Learning skills, and you will find you can quickly reduce the training time of other skills by a quarter, or even a half.

The next most useful skillset to choose is Drones. Initially, due to your characters low skill levels, activities like combat and mining will prove pretty tough. A few levels in the Drones skill will mean you can launch combat or mining Drones. At the beginning of your EVE career, Drones can greatly boost your combat effectiveness or mining efficiency, and will provid much needed help while you're training up your Learning skills.

Even later on in the game, Drones can become very powerful and very effective, so initially gaining levels in this skill group is a clever ploy whose benefits will only increase over time.

Beyond these initial skills, focus on gaining and training skills in your chosen career path. If you're a miner, you'll be looking at the Mining and Industrial skill groups to boost your efficiency at mining and refining ore. If you're wanting to dominate the market, then the Trade and Social skill groups are where you should focus your efforts.

Let me know what you think about EVE Online!

londonguide profile image

londonguide 4 years ago

I love this game, thanks for this amazing page.

giagalilea profile image

giagalilea 4 years ago

I always was puzzled by this EVE game. Thanks for such quality info.

Custom Pool Cues profile image

Custom Pool Cues 2 years ago

Your EVE Online guides, tips, and information is very well done. Resources provided are some that I had not come across yet. For someone just starting out, your summary of creating online characters is really to the point and helpful. Thanks!

swissmark profile image

swissmark 2 years ago

Wow! EVE is a killer game... 4 years ago I was hooked on another space multiplayer online role playing game.. I think I'll get into EVE for the cold Winter season. Thanks for the info.

Eve Online Guide 2 years ago

Eve is definately a killer game, especially when you know all the secrets. Thanks for describing your methods here for all to see. It's nice to see a fellow gamer giving back.

Theosophus 2 years ago

EVE is without question one of the best designed and supported online games yet. Characterizing it as a game does it an injustice. Games come to a conclusion and gather dust on your shelf. On the day God calls me home, I imagine I will say to Him, "...but I was two days from training level five on Titans!" EVE is nothing less than a hobby.

Phil 2 years ago

Hi,

Great page you have here! I'm wondering if you would be interested in taking on a job of writing an EVE mining and EVE ships guide for us? We're a website that offers various MMORPG guides and walkthroughs. Please consider this offer and let us know as soon as possible so we can start discussing terms on the contract.

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Jarret 2 years ago

Eve Online really is the best of the breed. Over and over I see WoW players find Eve and go "Whoa, this is so much better!"

new era hats 9 months ago

Very useful article for me, there is more information I have is very important. Thank you! I'm glad you could get out of it to share with us.

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