Anyone 'play' this? (www.eve-online.com).

It's MASSIVE, i.e like ELITE, on steroids and on-line. 4000 players online this evening.

Any sheffielders been there yet?

I've just watched the trailer and have to say it looks less like elite on steroids and more like elite on PCP!!!!

So have you got a copy of the game then? I assume you buy it in the shops and then go and log-on?

how is the actual gameplay? controls etc. It's all very well to look visually stunning but for me to lay out seroius money it has to have some long term appeal.

I was a Beta tester on it. A stunning game.

woh - (mouth hangs open, drool slowly forming)

Tell more - please

OK, well first things first:
It's not an action game, you play this for the long view. The combat system is pretty unexciting if you like FPS and flightsims etc. Basically it boils down to who has the most armour, shields firepower, skills and most numbers.

Combat is basically a case of point, click, engage weapons - wait for outcome. There are a thousand and one goodies to use on your enemy, but you startoff with some seriously pissant weapons.

Everything else is point and click too, no swooping through space a la starwars here,although you do get good audio space effects (i think of it as aural instrumentation like the noises old computers make)

Basically the eve client is a mini OS with a tabbed window interface that is for the most part logical and consistent, although as ever some of the icons are completely opaque. It's easy to navigate and do what you want, once you get a grip on what things are for and the order to do things in (buy and train in skills before you buy equipment that requires those skills for operation)

The game is gigantic, and is designed as a free and open arena with the emphasis on trade, production, cooperation and character development.

Players can pretty much do what they want, it doesn't get more open ended than this.

Skills are the key. You buy them and then you have to learn them. All skills have 4 levels, and each level takes longer in real time to learn. As long as you are training a skill it doesn't m,atter whether you are on or offline, it will take the same amount of time.

SKills allow you to do things like:
Start a corporation
Mine more effectively
Command bigger and better ships
Start factories and produce trade goods from raw materials
Use more sophisticated weaponry.

It is estimated that to learn all the currently available skills to their max level would take about 18 years in real time.

But to do anything, you need money. Money to buy skills, money to buy weapons, ships, trade goods, as collateral for cargo missions. And the easiest way of making money is mining asteroids and refining minerals. So there's a lot of that. A bit like actually going to work.

The way to go is to join a corporation. Corporations have formal identities and corporation members can share assets etc. By joining a corporation, you can get a sprkly new ship with brand new weapons and a big bag of skills for free, but you will be expected to provide your services in return.

People can put contracts out on your head if they want, and corporations can go to war.

All star systems have a security rating between 1.0 secure and 0.0 lawless. The less secure the system, the more likely you are to be attacked since the ingame police force will not be there to protect you. When you open fire on people or things your rating will go up and down in the interested factions. When you are out mining and you destroy a blood raider, your rating with them goes down, but youre rating within the territory goes up.

If your corporation is at war with another, then you can kill and be killed with impunity by members of the enemy corporation.

It's so big I don't know what else to say apart from the bad side:

It's a bit buggy, but it is perfectly playable.
It costs upwards of £25.00 in the shops and then you get 30 days free, and after that its $12.95 a month....

It's not a quick action game, but it is beautifully made, and the whole thing is so open ended that anything could happen. Already we have large corporations who manufacture and sell spaceships with vast mining fleets to strip the raw materials from asteroid belts. Already you can watch market price fluctuations as supply and demand dip and rise. In the future, corporations may grow large enough to build there own space stations, anything is possible.

You could be a miner all your life, or become a bounty hunter, a loyal navy pilot, a corporation CEO or even a pirate hiding out in the backwaters of the Gigantic galaxy. Corporations also need finance directors and a whole board of execs. There are shipping corporations, political corporations, economic corporations and military corporations.

there's also a steady supply of Non Player Character pirates to kill and agents to give you missions (depending on your standing) as well as NPC buyers and sellers on the open market.

I have joined a Corporation. I have another character I intend to develop solo, but to get to the level of Commanding your own cruiser packed with amazing gadgets would take months if not more. But all corporations are not the same....

GalSpan corporation is the one I joined, a neo-socialist outfit that aims to transcend the race barriers throughout the galaxy and promote benefit and responsibility through a meritocratic system. And you gets lot of free stuff (am awaiting delivery of a new punisher class frigate and a libarary of skills necessary to operate it).

But there may be an evil empire corporation forming out there, intent on galactic domination, who knows?

where do you lot get the time to play these games, the game sounds facinating, but I can imagine getting hooked and spending all night on the net. Or is that the norm for you lot

Sleep = 8 hours ish
Eating = 1hour
Work = 10 hours including travel
General chores liek washing shaving, cleaning = 2 hours

Not much left, maybe its me and I am managing my time badly.

Originally posted by mikey
where do you lot get the time to play these games, the game sounds facinating, but I can imagine getting hooked and spending all night on the net. Or is that the norm for you lot

Sleep = 8 hours ish
Eating = 1hour
Work = 10 hours including travel
General chores liek washing shaving, cleaning = 2 hours

Not much left, maybe its me and I am managing my time badly.
Sleep 5-6hours
Work 6-12 hours
Family Time 4-5 hours
everything else either playing computer games, drumming, noodling on the computer, making things. But yes, need more time in the day, too few hours.

I manage my time badly because of this game. I am suscribed to another MMOG, Aces High. I am going to have to make a choice.