Need help, need a new game...

[Littlesthobo]

Don't like starting threads this early into nubbins-land on a strange forum (doesn't smell the same as the others i troll - it's disconcerting) but im in need...

I started my MMO'ing dive into social obscurity with DAoC about a week after it went live and played it religously for about 2 years until the introduction of ToA where my casual gaming habits caused me to get my arse handed to me by the 24/7 bed-ridden brigade. I moved onto SW:G but through a combination of lag and, eventually, the combat update business led me away from that one. City of Heroes and City of Villains Beta were fun, but the novelty had worn off for me by the time it was only a week into live. Lineage II beta was fun, then the uber-skilled Koreans came to my world and... well, just damn, they must have bionic souls or something. Currently playing Planetside and have gotten the bug for the FPS, but CS is only fun if you avoid the public servers, so now im left waiting on Huxley to see if that's going to be any good.

Right now, however, i'm looking at starting a new game up but need some advice. I tried WoW on a friends account, but i have all the Disney Movies on DVD already - not really my thing.

I really am stumped for a new game to try out, so i'm turning to all you lot as you (i guess) should know your stuff and can guide my poor pixel-deprived face to something new, pretty, not-laggy and not populated by children with dillusions of grandeur?

'mon guys, help me out... i bought pie ;)

ps - i had a search about on here, but have managed to gleen no inspiration so far, was kinda hoping my shameless attention seeking might get me a better result... though it might just get burned by Woody there, seeing as it's his place and i do have a tendancy to make the place look untidy :|

[Keel61]

Eve.

http://www.eve-online.com/

Fun as hell but also hard as hell. But I mean come on, you can be a pirate.

[Littlesthobo]

Yeah, i've been looking at that - i know a couple of EvE players but none of them have really sold it to me enough to have a proper study up. If it's in the vein of the X series, or the classic Elite II then i think i might give it a go.

Whats the learning curve on it like? For a new player i mean - it's been around a while now, so i imagine the majority of the players are pretty well established - is it easy for a new player to get involved, or is it a crawl, walk, eat your greens, THEN you can go play with the grown ups kinda game?

I have to be curious cos my bank manager would punch me if i wasn't...

and thanks :)

[Keel61]

Eve has about the biggest learning curve of any game I have ever played, and many people seem to agree with that. But it's still a fun game even when you are learning. Whats great about Eve is that there are no levels so technically someone who has been playing for a week could kill someone who has been playing for six months, the whole game is based on money and your personal skills. Now the actual ingame skills are something thats very unique since it's based off real time. So something might take you three days to learn (at the highest level). Therefore it's kinda hard to "max out" skills.

It's overall a pretty sweet game, but you either love it or hate it.

[Edward]

Age of Conan is coming out in awhile, which seems pretty cool. If you liked DAoC you might want to give it a shot again since they have new expansions that added graphics and easy ways to lvl and get money, and new instances and armor and weapons :) Also, the most populated servers are the ones where ToA is disabled.

[junior]

Just to clarify the skills thing in Eve -

You learn skills literally through the passage of time. You pick the skill you want to learn, it tells you how much time is left until you level that skill up, and you leave it that way until you level it. You can switch the skill you're leveling at any time, and leveling continues even while you're not playing (though if you have multiple characters on an account, only one of them can be learning a skill at a time).

Each skill has five levels, and each level takes progressively longer to train up. Training the first level of one of the easier skills might take half an hour, while iirc level 5 of that skill will take a couple of days. Time to train a skill is based on both a base modifier of the skill, along with two associated attributes. Most skills have a pre-requisite skill or skills, which means that you're not going to be able to train in Carrier I the moment you start playing.

For fairly obvious reasons, one skill raising tactic early on is to train low levels of a skill while you're on-line and can monitor the progress (and switch to a new skill once the skill is finished training), and train high levels of other skills while you're off-line.

[Vverian]

You could go back to daoc. Since you played that for 2 years, there must be something you like in it. You quit it because of ToA: They have classic servers nowadays, which allow you to play with all the expansions except ToA.

I went back myself about a week ago, the upgraded graphics are good, some of the new zones look awesome. Only problem is (well problem for me anyway)that people tend to solo a lot, but the classic server I play on now doesn't seem to have that problem. I don't know the name of the server.

[naladini]

You could pick up a copy of EQ Titanium for $20 and give it a try on the progression server. There's a really strong population and no inflated economy at the moment, so its a good time to check out the game as a true newbie.

[Techguy101]

I am persoanally biased atm because I am awe strucken at guildwars factions, I made a long post about it at http://www.guforums.com/showthread.php?t=8707 if you care to read it...good thing about it to start is there is no commitment because there is no monthly fee, you buy the game and play untill you don't feel like it anymore..and then if later you do feel like playing it again you can start up again with your old account and old characters without it costing a penny, it's a life long game and if you have the 50 bucks to get it started I would definltly at least try it out :) if you do decide to start it you can go ahead and send me a private messege on this site or look at the bottom of the post I linked to and send me an e-mail if you need some guidance, of course, part of the game is making friends on your on so I won;t be disapointed if I don;t hear from you :P

Peace

[Tathaur]

Eve.

http://www.eve-online.com/

Fun as hell but also hard as hell. But I mean come on, you can be a pirate.

You are a pirate! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0yI2MQf8Tk)

Yes, EvE definetely.

Like you, DaoC was my first MMO, and I played it for about two years. EvE's PvP is better than DaoC.

Imagine DaoC, in space, where you're fighting for your territory, the politics really matter, etc...

[Tathaur]

Yeah, i've been looking at that - i know a couple of EvE players but none of them have really sold it to me enough to have a proper study up. If it's in the vein of the X series, or the classic Elite II then i think i might give it a go.

Whats the learning curve on it like? For a new player i mean - it's been around a while now, so i imagine the majority of the players are pretty well established - is it easy for a new player to get involved, or is it a crawl, walk, eat your greens, THEN you can go play with the grown ups kinda game?

I have to be curious cos my bank manager would punch me if i wasn't...

and thanks :)

I love EvE because it's the only MMO on the market other than the oldschool UO which offers real territorial wars between players, real politics, and a harsh death penality. All those combine to make a game of pulse-pounding proportions.

The learning curve is very very harsh, especially compared to games like WoW, but it's worth it. The game is so deep, you can do almost anything. There's a real, player driven economy - you can get rich by just playing with the market.

Also, a lot of newbies have the misconception that since they can never catch up to the older players in terms of skill points, they can never be equal - this is absolute rubbish, for two reasons; Older players never use their entire skillpoint total flying one ship (for instance, I have 26 million skillpoints, I'm specialized in Gallente Battleships and Cruisers mostly, but only about 10 million of my skillpoints are invested in those; I can also fly Caldari battleships, Minmatar cruisers, Amarr and Minmatar interceptors, and Minmatar Industrial ships). This means, that if a newer player specializes, he can in fact catch up in a matter of months.
The second reason is that player skill, setup, and gear has a lot bigger say than character skill. If a newer player knows what a older player is flying, he can easily setup his ship to counter it. The other day, a character created in January 2006 killed me, a player who started in April 2004, simply by outsmarting me.

All in all, EvE is a great game, but it requires you to get into a certain mindset. :)

EDIT: Here (http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=364708) you can find some nice footage of the alliance PvP tournament that's going on currently. Those are basically the best of the best duking it out. :)

[Legerdemain]

I love EvE because it's the only MMO on the market other than the oldschool UO which offers real territorial wars between players, real politics, and a harsh death penality. All those combine to make a game of pulse-pounding proportions.

*cough* Shadowbane, too, even if the first 'M' stands for medium-amount-of-players nowadays. >.> Play on Brialla and fight the Asian zerg!