So after 13 years...EVE is going F2P

[Flarecobra]

Originally Posted by Tev

I mean ISK grinding. I'm really not familiar with how skill grinding works in EVE, short of the normal internet jokes that in EVE, if you want to level your character, the best thing you can do is not play (as your skills train while you are not actually playing the game).

Basically, this?

[RobinStarwing]

Originally Posted by Flarecobra

Basically, this?

Yep, especially when you need a break and want to go play other stuff.

Though it is more fun to do stuff in a game. I would be happy to fly out to where ever you guys want to roll a toon for and help ya out.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

It was even better in Dust; You still had the passive xp gain like EVE (1 xp every 3.6 seconds I believe, so basically 1k per hour) but you could also gain xp by playing normally. But only to a limit (I think the daily cap was 24k per day, though it changed a few times over development). After hitting the daily cap you'd get almost nothing, except more isk, which also wasn't nothing (average payouts for missions were around 200-350k per battle, before the costs of your lost suits and weapons (I generally ran with a loadout that cost me around 30k, so I could afford to die maybe half a dozen time in a fight before it started impacting my profit margins)).

This was better in that you actually had to play the game to level up at a decent rate, whilst still being able to leave for months and come back and still make progress in the meantime, but also meant that once you hit your daily cap you felt a lot less incentive to play for the rest of the day sometimes. Also there were real cash money boosters you could buy, both for the active and passive gains (1 xp every 2.4 seconds for passive, or 36k daily cap for active). So an average day playing to your cap limit would net you a nice 48k xp, or you could pay up and double up on boosters and get 74k per day, which if you played every day of the week would certainly add up fast.

Though just like in EVE there was a theoretical limit to how much xp you can effectively bring to a battle; there's only so many shield upgrades, sprint boosts, stamina duration boosts, armor and weapon levels etc, that you can have on a character at once, additional xp then just becomes a matter of versatility in that it allows you to switch loadouts mid battle for an equally upgraded merc, or the ability to call in a decent tank or dropship should you need it. The same applies to EVE and ships, so you can say, go all in on an amazing cargo ship and spent 6 months getting all the relevent upgrades, or spend the same amount of time splashing xp all over the place and get semi decent with a number of different classes. It's pretty good in that someone joining the game years after other players only has to spend a specific amount of time playing before they can effectively match them in a fair fight 1 on 1, with the only advantage the veteran player having more intricate game knowledge and generally more versatility in that they can switch loadouts.

[RobinStarwing]

Originally Posted by Hawk

Though just like in EVE there was a theoretical limit to how much xp you can effectively bring to a battle; there's only so many shield upgrades, sprint boosts, stamina duration boosts, armor and weapon levels etc, that you can have on a character at once, additional xp then just becomes a matter of versatility in that it allows you to switch loadouts mid battle for an equally upgraded merc, or the ability to call in a decent tank or dropship should you need it. The same applies to EVE and ships, so you can say, go all in on an amazing cargo ship and spent 6 months getting all the relevent upgrades, or spend the same amount of time splashing xp all over the place and get semi decent with a number of different classes. It's pretty good in that someone joining the game years after other players only has to spend a specific amount of time playing before they can effectively match them in a fair fight 1 on 1, with the only advantage the veteran player having more intricate game knowledge and generally more versatility in that they can switch loadouts.

I bolded this as it is essentially a truth. The advantage itself can be negligible if you study your opponent and work out the best counter. OPFOR using short range weapons? Kite them the fuck out! Cap-dependent enemies? Neut them out. Long range with fast lock times or kiting you out? Caldari or Gallente EWAR is the answer as it cuts their ability to target completely or blocks out their range advantage.

I myself am taking up Covert Ops Frigates (Two flavors here. The first link is to an Exploration/Deep Scout ship. The second is a Stealth Bomber...as it says on the tin. It flies in cloaked, uncloaks, unleashes the payload...and leaves), Recon Cruisers (Of which come in two flavors as well; Combat Recon and Force Recon. The former can't be detected except with Combat Scanner Probes. The latter can use a Covert Ops Cloak and warp while cloaked in a manner similar to the Covert Ops Frigates), and Black Ops Battleships after my Fleet Doctrine training. And these stealth ships are all about dictating combat on YOUR terms.

EDIT: This meme is getting life again.