Last night I flew to an asteroid belt to mine the most common ore in EVE, veldspar. For this task I purchased a ship called the Iteron, a slow, but spacious cargo-tugger. As I entered the belt, the overview pops up with a few cargo holds floating in space. They have names, visible to all: 30% TAX ON THIS ROCK, VELATOR CLASS SHIPS NOT WELCOME. Odd, as Velator class ships are rookie ships, the ships new players receive. I asked someone I’d started chatting to earlier and it seems that a newly formed Corporation was attempting to seize control of the area by scaring off new players, at least temporarily.
In EVE, explains my inadvertent guide, you can do anything as long as it’s permitted in the rules. This includes espionage, piracy, and seizure of areas. He makes a good point, though: the space that this Corporation is attempting to hold is Concord protected (think space policemen). If the Corporation had opened fire on anyone, Concord would appear; shooting first and not asking questions later. Protected space is designated 1.0 and this rating slips all the way down to 0.0, which is entirely player controlled. This means PvP and piracy. Even my guide, who’s been playing for five years, has a wealth of in-game knowledge and had made 70 million ISK that day, didn’t dare enter 0.0 space without his Corporation. Checking the statistics of his mining barge, I can see his shield, armour and structure are ten times greater than my ship’s. I’ve clearly a long way to go.
As I thought about the length of time (and money) involved in becoming a god in EVE my guide told me about the ability to sell game time cards in-game. Here’s what you do: buy the game time card in the real world and convert into in-game PLEX (Pilot’s License Extension). You sell PLEX on the in-game market for in-game currency. For € 19.95 you can sell your game time card for around 300 million ISK, a substantial amount of money. My guide took the opinion that if CCP allow it, it’s legal. But couldn’t this unbalance the game? If someone has a few hundred euros spare they can make a few hundred million ISK. My understanding of EVE so far is this: the game is built around skills. Some skills cost a lot of ISK and take a long time to learn. While money can get you so far, it’s not everything. Still, I find it bizarre that hardcore players can fund their game with in-game earnings. Although expensive, in theory they don’t have to pay a penny to play. If you’re going to spend eight hours a day in game, why not? As my guide said, it beats spending real life money on EVE in a recession.
The other equalizing factor is actual skill. You can buy a billion ISK and even buy a 100 millions skill point character, but when you come across a seasoned pirate, they will still own you because you haven’t “learned” the game.
There is so much that goes into knowing the market, mining, combat, fleet combat, etc etc in EVE that there really isn’t any instant shortcuts to greatness.
You can make the trip shorter, but you can’t eliminate the journey altogether.
Fly safe.
Sciroc/ISKmonster