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Eve Online now Free to play


Delestor

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Hey there!

just noticed that eve online has become free to play.
Never played it before, but want to give it a try while waiting for DU release.
Just wondering if there is anyone here still playing eve online so we can play together!

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It may be free to play but you are seriously restricted on what you can do, fly and train skill wise without a paid subscription. My existing characters can not fly any of their ships, which are much higher tier then starting ships. I'm not sure where the line is drawn as to that you have access to though.

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2 hours ago, Delestor said:

Hey there!

just noticed that eve online has become free to play.

It was 'free'-to play for at least one year already. Now they are planning to extend list of skills that you can get on free account. Not much fun until you like to fly on some trash or to suicide someone in secured space. 

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I wouldnt say it's a sign of desperation necessarily.  EVE has always had a problem with bringing in new players who haven't played before because of the harsh nature of the game at times, and the relatively steep learning curve.  To me it's them trying different strategies to bring in new blood.

 

As far as I'm aware EVE is not in danger of failing but bringing in new players to a 10+ year old persistent universe is difficult to begin with and people quit over time.

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Yeah, the free to play is wonderful, for beginners, I wanted to play just a bit today and saw most of my learned stuff is locked since I don't have a subscription anymore, but it still costs 20 euro's the month for one or 39 dollars for 3 months, bit expensive to only play for some time... even after 10 years

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14 minutes ago, Replic TuaniOne said:

Yeah, the free to play is wonderful, for beginners, I wanted to play just a bit today and saw most of my learned stuff is locked since I don't have a subscription anymore, but it still costs 20 euro's the month for one or 39 dollars for 3 months, bit expensive to only play for some time... even after 10 years

You can buy pilot license in game market anytime. I dont know about now, but 2 yers ago i maked maney in incursions.

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41 minutes ago, FrozenFace said:

You can buy pilot license in game market anytime. I dont know about now, but 2 yers ago i maked maney in incursions.

Today incursions are also a good source of money. 

But the fastest stable farm is on motherships in nullsec, it gives you stable 300-400 mil/hour income. So in worst case it takes 5 hours to buy subscription. Side effect is that mothership costs ~23-25 bil now.  

 

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EVE going f2p after 15 years is no real shocker,  F2P is where games go to die. CCP is building a new title, they want to snuff out the old one to make way for the new one.  Until then they pimp out EVE to get some eztra out of the old girl.

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18 minutes ago, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

EVE going f2p after 15 years is no real shocker,  F2P is where games go to die. CCP is building a new title, they want to snuff out the old one to make way for the new one.  Until then they pimp out EVE to get some eztra out of the old girl.

Actually when you are playing for free, it's just endless trial period. You won't be able to do most of interesting and profitable things in the game.

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2 minutes ago, Miamato said:

Actually when you are playing for free, it's just endless trial period. You won't be able to do most of interesting and profitable things in the game.

I fly Stratios, the new free to play "expansion" makes me able to play my Stratios for free. Stratios is the best ship for WH and / or missions up to 6/10.

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4 minutes ago, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

I fly Stratios, the new free to play "expansion" makes me able to play my Stratios for free. Stratios is the best ship for WH and / or missions up to 6/10.

I can fly/craft anything except titans, and also used Stratios much, from my point of view it's not the best ship. For WH and DED complexes Tech III ships are much better and efficient. For farming WH of 5-6 class you should have Dreads. For efficient mining - you need other cool stuff. And playing on free account you won't have all of that. Free account limit you greatly, even having cap of 20 mil sp (only 5 can be trained without paying for subscription or injectors) - you lose a large portion of gameplay that EVE can offer. Probably for some people it's fine, but most active players will continue paying for the game. 

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7 minutes ago, Miamato said:

I can fly/craft anything except titans, and also used Stratios much, from my point of view it's not the best ship. For WH and DED complexes Tech III ships are much better and efficient. For farming WH of 5-6 class you should have Dreads. For efficient mining - you need other cool stuff. And playing on free account you won't have all of that. Free account limit you greatly, even having cap of 20 mil sp (only 5 can be trained without paying for subscription or injectors) - you lose a large portion of gameplay that EVE can offer. Probably for some people it's fine, but most active players will continue paying for the game. 

Stratios in my eyes, is best cause it can scan down fast, got cloak and can do long range drones + beams.  It's not "The best" as much as there is no "best tackle". Sure, you won't run any incursion with Stratios, but for WH ganks + 6/10 DED sites. That and MAYBE Gilas - and Gilas can easily spider-tank C-4 WH PVE.

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Wh pve was nerfed to death, quite rightfully so imho.

Nightmare solo c5/6 was fun though

 

With that f2p update you can do lots of stuff to earn enough money to do the really fun and hilarious stuff in eve - solo wh PvP xD

 

I'm glad I sold though, won't touch it ever again

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I recently (2 months ago) tried Eve for the first time. I did not have an issues since I was a beginner learning and did not have any resources other than the starting. Honestly I might recommend avoiding it. Not only are the developers moving onto a new project (and likely retiring Eve eventually) but there is a lot of other issues. The "free to play" is similar to a trial, which you can basically max out fairly quickly.

 

Not to mention unless you join a large group, there is very little you can probably manage for end game.

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34 minutes ago, Shadows said:

I recently (2 months ago) tried Eve for the first time. I did not have an issues since I was a beginner learning and did not have any resources other than the starting. Honestly I might recommend avoiding it. Not only are the developers moving onto a new project (and likely retiring Eve eventually) but there is a lot of other issues. The "free to play" is similar to a trial, which you can basically max out fairly quickly.

 

Not to mention unless you join a large group, there is very little you can probably manage for end game.

There is no end game. You can literally jump into a frig after 5h and have fun with it. If you know what you're doing ofc. You don't need a large Corp or alliance behind you to achieve anything. You need guts and a brain xD

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30 minutes ago, Shadows said:

The "free to play" is similar to a trial, which you can basically max out fairly quickly.

And this was initial idea of free version - people don't need to start new trial every 14 days and can endlessly play. Is this an issue that company provides endless trial instead of 14 days in pay-to-play game? Or if you want to return to the game but first check if smth interesting appeared there - now you can just login and browse ingame items/skills/chat with people, before you had to pay first. So again what is the issue here? 

33 minutes ago, Shadows said:

Not only are the developers moving onto a new project (and likely retiring Eve eventually)

Lol, what project do you mean? Browser game, that is given to another company for development? Valkyrie that is actually developed by another wing of CCP that exists for a long time already?

37 minutes ago, Shadows said:

Not to mention unless you join a large group, there is very little you can probably manage for end game.

From what is told by NQ and people on forums - the same would be here, unless you cooperate with people - you would have either less possibilities or need to spend more effort to achieve smth.

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EVE - like DU - is a team game. If you are not a team player, you won't have fun.

EVE is more of a social experience than a space combat game or an " Excel Expansion Pack ". If you don't like socialising, you won't like DU, that's a fact. People who don't talk at all in EVE, get bored quick. Shit, selling Escalations in EVE was one of the msot involving experiences, haggling prices and all those things. It's just that people hate the idea of having to itneract with other people. All the NEwbros we had when Alphas hit EVE, those who stayed, where those who socialised, who spoke with other people and learned the game's tricks that way.

EVE is not WoW, it's not fun when you go solo, same will be with DU as DU lacks ALL sense of PVE storyline (at launch at least, can't see the future O.o ). 

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EVE has plenty of content for solo players and will easily support an alpha to sub though money earned in game. The F2P model EVE uses is actually quite good in that it allows for plenty if gameplay and will allow you to build experience and get quite proficient in PVP without paying anything. PVP is not a money making activity anyway unless you get really lucky and kill, then loot, some expensive drops. While we have a lot of corp content and activity in game, my solo (exploration) roams pay the bills and do so easily and consistently. A day 1 alpha character today can make enough ISK to go Omega with some effort.

 

It's interesting to see how the usual suspects have their opinion ready and will spread the usual misinformation BS about this. I have some breaking news, CCP is a business and they need to generate revenue, The bittervets farming WH PVE content or the hordes mining in Alliance paid Rorqs do not pay the bills for CCP. The changes to Alpha clonestate are not a freebee and it is not a sign that EVE is dying. It is designed to give those who come back more room to move as well as give new players access to much more ships and modules while not requiring a rolling sub. Unless you were at EVE Vegas the past days and attended the round table as well as discussed this with CCP staff you really do not know anything as the presentation which was streamed was fairly basic. It became quite clear to me, reading between the lines in comments made, that this is not a 'remodel' of the alpha close but more a second phase in a planned rollout. And it will not stop here either. EVE Vegas was amazing and certainly renewed my belief that this game will be around for quite a few years more.

 

EVE is much more a game of experience than having the skills to fly a certain ship and right now an experienced alpha can wreck a lot of Omega brains and get a good number of kills.

 

I like DU, I really do , and the promise it holds is amazing. But it will be a long time before it gets anywhere near EVE in sheer numbers of players and solid gameplay with a server cluster which really is the best money can buy. DU obviously borrows heavily from EVE in a number of aspects and that's fine. It is however a completely different game  and while there will certainly be some crossfeeding, it will have to carve out it's own place.

 

Whether or not DU is enjoyable solo depends entirely on what you want to do. I would agree that a lot of game play in DU will be a much better experience when interacting with other players in game but I certainly see, and plan for, solo activity which I believe will turn out to be very lucrative. In fact I have a separate backer account with a character just for that purpose. He will be out on his own doing what he does and will only have interaction with me when needed.

 

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3 hours ago, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

I fly Stratios, the new free to play "expansion" makes me able to play my Stratios for free. Stratios is the best ship for WH and / or missions up to 6/10.

Not really, for one it won't cloak and while CCP did not specify to what level Alpha can train Cruiser, it is expected to be L3 which makes it dangerous to fly and combined with other skill limitations you will run into both CAP and CPU problems easily. Then it won't have access to what I would expect a WH stratios to fit. While it is an OK mission runner, for (especially Sansha) 6/10 escalations it's very inefficient. T3C are far better, certainly when going solo. For higher end exploration sites Stratios simply will not hold up and die easily if anything goes only slightly off the tracks.

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17 minutes ago, blazemonger said:

Not really, for one it won't cloak and while CCP did not specify to what level Alpha can train Cruiser, it is expected to be L3 which makes it dangerous to fly and combined with other skill limitations you will run into both CAP and CPU problems easily. Then it won't have access to what I would expect a WH stratios to fit. While it is an OK mission runner, for (especially Sansha) 6/10 escalations it's very inefficient. T3C are far better, certainly when going solo. For higher end exploration sites Stratios simply will not hold up and die easily if anything goes only slightly off the tracks.

Still, don't need T2 Lasers to fly a Stratios efficiently. And even if for some weird reason co-ops cloaks are not availabe, then Gila it is. 

Max out T1 Drones (even if you can't use T2 drones), and just use EM drones for PvP or Wormhole spider-tanking sites.

And that's not even taking into account Sansha ships right? Those things can rip anyone a new one even with T1.

 

 

Or frigging Machariels.

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Anyone using lazors on a stratios needs to be taken out back and shot.. worst .. fit.. ever.. 

But let's not get into a Stratios Fitting war here, even when IMO it's drones and Neuts always and forever..

 

Actually, I completely forgot to ask about drones during the round table in Vegas.. damn.. But I'd expect that to remain a line CCP wil not cross, just like cloaking. Although there was a suggestion made to CCP to make a modified prototype cloaking device available to alpha clones; cloak 20 seconds, then have a 2 minute cooldown.

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2 hours ago, Miamato said:

And this was initial idea of free version - people don't need to start new trial every 14 days and can endlessly play. Is this an issue that company provides endless trial instead of 14 days in pay-to-play game? Or if you want to return to the game but first check if smth interesting appeared there - now you can just login and browse ingame items/skills/chat with people, before you had to pay first. So again what is the issue here? 

 

From what is told by NQ and people on forums - the same would be here, unless you cooperate with people - you would have either less possibilities or need to spend more effort to achieve smth.

I feel like you may have taken my post massively out of context. First and foremost, I simply pointed out that the free version of Eve would be challenging to say the least. I have no issue with the free account, I just found that being a new player to the game it was both massively restrictive and made most avenues of the game unavailable. I especially disliked being limited to a single ship for my chosen game-play. Assuming you want to do well in Eve (measured individually of course, but for me that was defined as small corp, mining operations and a decent amount of money) I would have to put in an excessive amount of time to achieve it. 

 

In fact, if I recall from running the numbers it would take me somewhere around 1 month of solid game-play to achieve a paid account. Obviously this gets better over time (e.g. after you have the paid account you can upgrade further, better ships, etc) but that still seemed excessive. Or even the fact that I was effectively limited to a single ship (again, based on my experience of attempting to do mining runs with some friends and some missions/etc).

 

Again to be clear: I appreciate what they have done and absolutely think it was the right move adding a free-to-play version of the game. I would have never even experienced the game-play otherwise. I just personally do not think that makes the game itself enjoyable and playing as an alpha clone was monotonous when compared to the omega clone.

 

Moving on to your other comments, it has been my experience in the past that when a new title comes along for a development studio (especially if it outshines previous projects), the older projects tend to get pushed out. If you do not feel this is the case that is fine and up for speculation from all sides. I do not wish to engage in idle speculation on it though. I was simply giving my opinion. I will not comment further on CCP's other projects as I do not feel it would be productive.

 

As far as DU goes, I don't think the comparison is fair (or accurate). Everyone is on a level playing field currently - you have to pay to play the game (in effect). You can then spend that money to fund your subscription and continue progressing. On top of that, there is nothing specifically wrong with being a difficult game or one that takes a significant amount of time. I think you might be confusing my distaste for a limited state of the game versus a more challenging game (where everyone is on the same level). But again I have to stress, I don't think its wrong to have more limited states in games (quite the opposite), just that I have no interest and recommend away from them. Based on what I saw of Eve, if you either grind to the Omega subscription or simply pay for it, it is probably a much better game.

2 hours ago, Lethys said:

There is no end game. You can literally jump into a frig after 5h and have fun with it. If you know what you're doing ofc. You don't need a large Corp or alliance behind you to achieve anything. You need guts and a brain xD

I disagree, there is very clearly an "end game". Once you achieve the best ships/strongest/fastest for your chosen goals, you are likely at the end game. It may be defined differently for different people since it is open to interpretation but it still exists. Not to mention since it is an open-ended game, end game for you might be as simple as using low tier ships (since as you mentioned, you can easily do well with early game ships).

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1 hour ago, blazemonger said:

Anyone using lazors on a stratios needs to be taken out back and shot.. worst .. fit.. ever.. 

But let's not get into a Stratios Fitting war here, even when IMO it's drones and Neuts always and forever..

 

Actually, I completely forgot to ask about drones during the round table in Vegas.. damn.. But I'd expect that to remain a line CCP wil not cross, just like cloaking. Although there was a suggestion made to CCP to make a modified prototype cloaking device available to alpha clones; cloak 20 seconds, then have a 2 minute cooldown.

That would be nice to see cloaking on alpha clones. It was very disappointing when I found out there was nothing available until you upgrade. Even if it was on a heavy restriction in terms of cool-down, it would be great to be able to experience that aspect of the game.

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