mmorpgforum.net - Information about EVE Online

EVE Online info (at the time of this post)

NOTE: When I come up with these game synopsis, my intent is to try to create a conglomerate of the general things I think are important points to know before digging deeper into the features and story of a particular MMO. More often than not, there is no single website that provides this information and I am forced to combine my limited gameplay experience with the information available on two or three websites, and then condense it down into a manageable and informative chunk. In the case of EVE Online, I found their own website to be the single most concise and comprehensive collection available; so much so that, in many areas, I have simply copied the info available there because it's considerably better than anything I would write. I have attempted to identify copied information by placing a bold-face asterisk (*) after it. Please be aware that the marked content is Copyright CCP 1997-2006.

Owning Company: CCP

Player Base: Approximately 130,000 people (according to Mmogchart.com)

Cost: €14.95 per month in Europe / $14.95 outside Europe (with 3, 6, and 12 month plans)

Max Level: There aren't any levels. See the description below.

Races: 4 races with 2 bloodlines each (further details available at http://www.eve-online.com/guide/en/g03.asp) - race choices only affect your character's skills, attributes, and location at the beginning of the game. A dedicated player can obtain the skills to use any ship from any of the playable races, and may travel to any star system in the game, so long as the player is willing to risk the PvP aspect.

Expansions: None

Basic Storyline Primer:
EVE has a rich history and unique storyline created specifically for the game. The history, or "prime fiction," details the discovery of a natural wormhole that lead (sic) into an uncharted area of the universe. Gates were created to enable explorers to pass back and forth between the old and new worlds until the portal closed suddenly and violently, leaving the settlers cut off from the civilization of Earth’s galaxy.*
Of the settlers that survived the hardship of this harsh environment, five nations rose to power, each taking on its own unique appearance, political and religious views, strengths and weaknesses. These five nations dictate the balance of power. After generations of war and strife, players enter EVE during a time when the general political situation is one of peace, albeit a strained and sometimes fragile one, between the empires. More details about the races, their empires and their history can be found in the Background section (of the EVE Online FAQ).*

Notable Features:

No Level/XP System – There is no leveling system in EVE. Instead, there is a very extensive skill system. Players choose from a wide variety of skills, each with a number of sub-levels. Characters buy skill-training kits, which are sold like any other commodity, and are rigged neurally to the character, much like knowledge is gained by the characters in "The Matrix." Skill-training kits vary widely, both in price and availability. Once you learn a skill, you cannot unlearn it - but you don’t need to. There is no limit to the number of skills or skill points a single character can attain. *
The most interesting part of the skill system is that, rather than controlling the speed of character advancement by forcing players to gain experience and “grind out” levels, EVE Online allows you to choose a skill to learn, and then continue on with the gameplay while you wait for skill points to accumulate at a steady, metered pace. Once enough points have accumulated, a message is generated, informing the player that skill training has finished. In fact, the player doesn't even need to be logged in for the skill points to accumulate, which is good, since your character will eventually face wait times of up to 44 or more days for training to complete. One thing that sucks about logging out, though, is that you cannot setup a queue of skills to train. If you log out for 24 hours and your character finishes training 3 hours into it, you'll have lost the other 21 hours. Also, be aware that you can only train 1 skill per account. You might have four characters, but only one of them can train at any given time.
Your Ship is not you – Being shot down in EVE doesn’t always result in the death of the character. Though not visible, your character is tucked away inside a goo-filled capsule commonly referred to as a "pod," which is then nestled into the ship. (See the story The Jovian Wet Grave to better understand this concept.) Most lost battles will result merely in the destruction of a player’s ship, leaving him floating in a pod he can pilot back to a station where he has another ship stored. If the player does not have a back-up ship, a standard, no-frills newbie frigate will be given to him by the NPC insurance corporation. (Read more about ships in Section 3 (of the EVE Online FAQ))*
To kill a character, the pod itself must be purposely destroyed once the ship is annihilated. The consequences of destroying a capsule are much more severe than destroying a ship. (See Section 5 (of the EVE Online FAQ) for information about the legal and security systems in EVE.) If a capsule is destroyed and the character killed, or "podded," he will reappear in a cloned replica of himself. *
Clones (the new way to hit Save) – It's bad enough when your ship blows up. Sure you can insure your ship and that will help to recoup the cost of replacing it, but the insurance doesn't even begin to cover all the equipment you installed and have now lost. They're just adding insult to injury when the same (or a different) bad guy pods you. As with most games, there's a penalty associated with death. In the case of EVE, you may lose some of your skills. It all depends on the quality of clone you have purchased. Each quality of clone has a certain number of skill points that it retains when it is activated. If you are over that amount, you lose the most recent skills until your character is below that amount retained by your clone.
Open ended play – Since there's no max level to obtain or ultra-big-bad-boss to take down, you are free to play the game the way you want. If you want to spend all of your time turning big rocks into little rocks and selling them, go right ahead. You'll have plenty of company. Want to go kill people and break stuff? This game has plenty of opportunity for that as well. There are even a ton of NPC “agents” willing to hook you up with missions, if you would rather play the part of the mercenary. It's really all about what you are looking for, and the game offers plenty of options.
Phenomenal Cosmic Size...itty-bitty player ship – I have a feeling that, when they thought this game up, one of the developers at CCP insisted they do everything they could to make the player aware that (as they sang in Animaniacs) “it's a great big universe, and we're all really puny”. Each solar system is so amazingly huge that you'll realize, if you pay attention, that without the in-system Jump Drive it really might take months to fly from planet to planet. Traversing the void between star systems is completely out of the question, even with your Jump Drive; it's simply not an option. (...we're just tiny little specks, about the size of Mickey Rooney...)
Low system requirements – The game was designed to be run on an 800 MHz processor, a 32 MB 3D graphics card, and a 56k modem. The requirements are quite low by todays standards but the developers didn't let this stop them from creating stunningly rich scenery. The environments are simply beautiful, yet I don't recall my frame rate ever dropping below 20 frames per second (and my system is only a couple steps above the minimum requirements). CCP has announced that an upcoming patch will feature an improved graphics engine among the many features. It will certainly be interesting to see what they accomplish with the power available to the current generation of gaming systems. If you are curious, check out the full system requirements as well as other Technical Information here.

In the end EVE Online offers an amazingly diverse array of gameplay experiences that, I believe, appeal to a very large audience. If you have ever dreamed of piloting your own starship across the galaxy seeking fame and fortune, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try. A word of warning, though: except when the player is actively engaged in combat, the pace of the game is much slower than most of the other MMOs. Patience is essential, even for those looking for extensive space combat.

So you trudged dutifully through this long post and you still want more information? Wow, you're either a masochist or you're really interested. Either way, I recommend you check out these sites for more info (note, I'm not affiliated with any of them):

http://www.eve-online.com – If you don't check out any other site, go here. Trust me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Online
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22eve+online%22
http://www.eve-extra.com/

Hope this explains a bit.