This game kicks all kind of ass.

The entire eve universe is currently at war: http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/27167-eve-bob-lv-vs-south-east.html .

In the traditionally "safe" part of Eve, Empire space, a group of pirates called the "Privateers Alliance" allow anyone to join and declare wars on hundreds of corporations (guilds) at a time so they can attack practically anyone. The only way to be truely safe is to not join a corp.

I am in a corporation allied against Band of Brothers (BoB), the top alliance on the server filled with cocky power gamers. We have just finished completely destroying one of the other top 4 alliances in the game and now occupy their space. BoB has the most experienced players with the best equipment in the game but we have numbers and no fear of dying repeatedly until BoB is completely broken with its members scattered across crappy NPC space.

This game is simply incredible and is by far the best I have ever played.

Zitoh wrote:

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"My only issue with it is that I'm chicken."

I have that problem too.

Luckily I never had to deal with this problem. The people that play this game probably surmised from my post that I'm in Goonfleet which is different than most corps. I lost over 30 ships during my first month and I was only playing around 3 days a week. Money was never an issue since they give us free ships. Now that I have the skills to kill NPC rats in a battlecruiser the money just flows in. I lost my ratting ship a few days ago with mostly t2 gear except guns and I just bought and fit another one for around 130 million. I've been playing for around 7 months and I've lost 5 Hurricanes and 1 covops (in addition to countless cruisers and frigs) and I still have around 500 million in assets and cash.

I've heard stories about people in that play in Empire and it seems like a completely different game. As soon as I was done the tutorial I went to 0.0 space and have stayed there. The rules in lowsec and empire confuse me because I am used to being able to shoot anything that isn't an ally. I would recommend that you guys try to get into a 0.0 corp on the fun side of the war. Interstellar Alcohol Commision or Curse Alliance would probably be the best options. Of course if you are part of the SomethingAwful forums you should sign up for GoonFleet immediately and take part in the absolute best MMOG experience there is.
ps. Whisperr - are you the LV Wwhisperr that always camped the system next to RA Prime in an arazu? If so, you killed me a bunch

Also, if you guys have any questions about Goonswarm that don't violate opsec I'd be glad to try and answer them. The misconceptions and false rumors that seem to float around us are usually complete crap, but like most rumors the more they get repeated the more they become fact in the minds of most people.

An Eve political update for anyone that is interested.

When I started playing less than a year ago, there were four main powerblocks: Band of Brothers (Bob), Dusk and Dawn (D2), Ascendant Frontier (ASCN), and Lotka Volterra (LV). First, BoB destroyed ASCN. Then, we (The Redswarm Federation) killed off LV. Now, with the disbanding of D2 after weeks of pressure from BoB allies, only BoB remains of that original group.

One of the really neat things about Eve is that it is more international than any other game I've ever played. Because of the natural inclination of players to group with people that speak their native tongue, alliances are often made up of people from the same countries. In eve, when you talk about "the Germans", people knew you meant D2. My alliance, Goonswarm, is allied with the Russians (Red Alliance) and the French (Tau Ceti Federation). I think BoB was traditionally made up of British, but has become a little more international in makeup more recently.

Now we are living with a huge target on our backs. The Band of Brothers has come to destroy us, their last opposition, and become the de facto overlords of all of 0.0 space. They roam our space with their several Titan class ships (think death star from Star Wars) and blow up 300 of our pilots with a single blast. With the unexpectedly swift demise of D2, all of BoB's forces will be aimed directly at us. They are currently attempting to take back all of the space we won in our victory over Lotka Volterra. There is no longer any real thought of pushing back at BoB and achieving a conventional victory. They win by destroying us, we win by surviving.

Can we hold out where more experienced and established entities have been scattered across the universe by the most powerful alliance in the game? Most of the Eve community do not think so. In the eyes of many, the fall of D2 signals the end of this war. The common line of thinking is that our only chance was to keep BoB fighting on two fronts and that now that the northern bloc has fallen all that's left is the pillaging of our space and our alliance.

I think we still have a chance. We will pull back and make every BoB victory as painful as possible. GoonSwarm may be a bunch of talentless noobs in the eyes of BoB, but we are fearless and our allies are strong. Red Alliance in particular are some of the most ruthless motherfuckers I have ever had the pleasure of encountering in a MMOG. Every attack on our starbases and stations will be an opportunity for the Russians to spring traps on BoB capital ships. The other day they destroyed a BoB mothership, only the fourth mothership destroyed in the history of Eve.

So, that's what's currently going on in Eve from my perspective. The scope of the politics and warfare in this game is epic, and I'm having tons of fun being a part of it.

Ersiusp wrote:

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I've been thinking about giving this a try, and that story Cafu really makes me interested.

You may be interested in this graphic showing the relative size of eve ships: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/Eve_chart.jpg

Those giant ones are the Titans. I mostly fly one of those ships that appear to be specks no matter how far you zoom in.

If you decide to give it a try, there is a two week free trial you can sign up for. Convo me in game (Cafu) and I can hook you up with some cash to get you started. Make sure you do the tutorial. It is torturously long, but the game is complicated and you will be glad you did it.

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I'll be honest: there is a lot that really sucks about this game, but there is a lot that is incredible too. It runs hot/cold that way.

the good: The graphics. Skills increase even while you are out of game so no "power leveling". You can pay for your monthly fee with money earned in-game if you want. You can legally buy and sell characters if you do it through Eve. Real risk in combat: if you lose your ship, it's gone and you need to buy another - it doesn't appear at a bind point.

the bad: Sometimes can be too complex. Large fleet battles cause horrible lag and sometimes node crashes. Since there is no powerleveling, you will never be as skilled as someone that started playing 5 years ago. Flight and combat are point and click, this is not like piloting an x-wing fighter in a star wars console game.

depends on your perspective: many thing that are illegal in other games are legal in Eve. For example: scamming is legal other than a few exceptions. For an interesting read, check out this: http://eve.klaki.net/heist/ from a few years ago.

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Here is a quote that I consider kind of telling about the game. It was posted in a thread about the end of the D2 alliance on the Eve forums:

A D2 gate camp killed me and a mammoth full of 95% of everything I owned in eve 6 months ago when I was trying to escape Querious. I was trying to escape the war and move back to empire. I have been working ever since then to replace everything I lost that day, about 200 million ISK worth of stuff.

... to hell with D2 ...

This was posted in the middle of a 20 page thread full of smack talk from enemies and "good luck"s from friends. This guy is neither. He's just a guy trying to make his way in the game and he got caught in the crossfire. He doesn't care who is at war with who and which alliance is allied with whatever other alliance. All he knows is D2 blew up his hauler full of everything he owned in Eve and he hates those fuckers for it.