Filed under: Professions

EVE Evolved: Trading: Advanced trading

by Brendan Drain Nov 22nd 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Forums, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, PvP, Making money, Tips and tricks, PvE, Hands-on, Academic, Education, EVE Evolved

In the first part of this guide I covered the basics of trading in EVE Online and some of the jobs best suited to newer players. There's a lot more to trading than buying low and selling high and in this week's installment, I'll cover some of the more advanced trading and marketeering tactics that have proven themselves effective in EVE. From margin trading on the market to making a living off the contracts page, anyone with enough dedication can learn to rake in hundreds of millions of ISK per day without even leaving the station. For the gamblers and risk-takers among you, market speculation and price manipulation can produce incredible short-term profit but with significant risks attached.

In this second part of my concise guide on trading, I look at margin trading on the market, playing the contract pages, market speculation around patches and the dirty art of market manipulation.

EVE Evolved: Trading: The basics

by Brendan Drain Nov 15th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, Making money, Tips and tricks, PvE, Hands-on, Academic, Education, EVE Evolved

Of all the moneymaking endeavours you can take in EVE Online, trading is perhaps the one with the highest potential for profit. While mission-running profit tops out at a few tens of millions per hour and the profit margin from production isn't that big, trading is limited only by the amount of effort you're willing to put in and is much improved by inherent business talent. At the low end of the trading spectrum, beginners can make a healthy income ferrying items from A to B. At the other extreme, a market-savvy individual can pull billions per week out of the players in EVE's great conglomerated marketplaces.

In this first guide in a short series on trading, I look at the different types of trading options available to newer EVE players.

Details on Final Fantasy XI's new Synergy system

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 6th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Patches, Crafting, Professions, Grouping

We've been seeing a great deal of news and information coming out from Final Fantasy XI -- which probably means the end times are coming, but be that as it may. Just the other day we found out about the upcoming Evolith system, with its cryptic mentions of the integrated "synergy" system and a promise of more details shortly. Sure enough, we already have an idea of what synergy will look like when it drops alongside the rest of the filled-to-bursting November version update. And it promises to be quite a deviation from the status quo for crafting right away -- it's an art practiced not by one person, but by a full six-person party.

In keeping with the extant nature of Final Fantasy XI's crafting, synergy doesn't promise to be simple. A number of reagents and elemental energies are dumped into the pictured "synergy furnace," at which point the entire part must begin carefully modulating and controlling the flow of elements therein. Crystals can be used to help alter the elemental composition, but will not be absolutely necessary from the sound of things. A failed synthesis can cause the whole mess to blow up in your face -- literally -- while success yields both slotted items and "cinders" that can be turned in for equipment to help boost your skill at the craft. There's a lot to digest here, so take a look and get ready for the most mold-breaking crafting yet seen in FFXI.

CCP reaching out to potential EVE players with "Get a Clone"

by James Egan Nov 5th 2009 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Professions

EVE Online creators CCP Games are taking a different approach to promoting the game with a new website. All players in EVE's setting of New Eden are "capsuleers" -- starship pilots who have attained immortality through cloning technology. CCP's "Get a Clone" site invites you to "Clone yourself. Not the way you are, but the way you want to be." The site belongs to Duvolle Laboratories, one of EVE Online's NPC corporations, and provides an in-character introduction to some of the basic career paths a pilot can explore in the game.

But first, Duvolle Labs asks you five questions that pin down how morally flexible you are (as a game character). Would you rather build or tear down? Would you risk your life for money or glory? Is success is measured by profits or progress? Your responses to five questions Duvolle Laboratories asks places you in one of four broad career paths - military, exploration, business, or industry.

Goal Time brings soccer to Free Realms

by Rubi Bayer Oct 5th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Expansions, Professions, News items, PvE, Free Realms, Kids

Soccer fans in Free Realms have a brand new update to enjoy. The Goal Time update brings fans a new Soccer Star job and a 3D soccer minigame.

The soccer minigame offers players the chance to round up some friends and play 3 on 3 matches at the Snowhill soccer fields, or play against the AI in one of 15 scenarios. Goal Time offers a choice of three themed fields for variety, and six full sets of soccer clothing and gear so players can pass, shoot, and defend in style. Players can also buff their speed and toughness on the field during play, and give their skills a boost with a selection of accessories and shards.

As always, Free Realms makes it easy for all players to check out the new content and participate. The Soccer Star job offers a free trial up to level five before it becomes members only. Level progression climbs all the way to level 20, and there is a soccer tutorial that will remain available to everyone. The Goal Time update is now available in game, so enjoy!

EVE Evolved: Corporate Infiltration for fun and profit

by Brendan Drain Sep 27th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Guides, Lore, Professions, PvP, Making money, Endgame, Tips and tricks, Hands-on, Politics, EVE Evolved

Of all the EVE Online stories I've heard over the years, none have impressed and inspired me as much as those detailing a well-planned corporate heist. These aren't your run-of-the-mill contract scammers or corp hanger thieves. A professional corporate spy can earn the deepest levels of trust, destroy a corporation from the inside out, rob its members of their most prized possessions and then disappear without a trace. They're the people that pull the strings of war in the background, pitting alliances against each other to meet their own ends. The Guiding Hand Social Club's famous 2005 heist remains to this day possibly the single most impressive story in EVE history and serves as a benchmark of value and style for a heist that has seldom since been matched.

When I'm not busy writing about EVE or running sleeper anomalies with my buddies, I find myself delving more and more into the dark side of EVE. From wormhole piracy and courier contract theft to full-blown corporate infiltration, this year has bestowed on me a great deal of experience in the dirty underworld of EVE. In this article, I explain how to infiltrate a corp successfully and capitalise on the opportunities it throws at you.

EVE Evolved: Organising your own PvP tournament

by Brendan Drain Sep 13th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Culture, Events, in-game, Forums, Guides, Professions, PvP, Making money, Endgame, EVE Evolved

If you've been following the latest official Alliance Tournament in EVE Online, you've probably been glued to the match videos being posted on Youtube. Every year as I watch the matches, I find myself wishing I'd entered even though my rag-tag group of pilots would probably get knocked out in the qualifying rounds. What you might not know is that the official Alliance Tournament wasn't the first PvP tournament on the block and it's certainly not the only one running. Players have been taking advantage of EVE's open-ended sandbox design to set up their own competitions and arenas for years. They routinely organise successful lotteries, industrial ship destruction derbies, space races, full on PvP tournaments and even poker championships by themselves. Some, such as the BIG lottery, have become long-standing and respected institutions. Organisers of these types of event also have the option of taking a percentage cut for themselves, which can build up to a huge amount of ISK for all the organisation effort they put in.

Have you ever wanted to set up your own PvP tournament complete with prizes and your own unique set of rules? Whether you want to start a new popular competition tradition in EVE or just want to make some ISK off the entry fees, events organising is certainly one of EVE's most rewarding freeform professions. In this article, I dish out some handy information on how to organise and set up a trustworthy tournament without putting any of your own ISK on the line.

EVE Evolved: One account is good enough

by Brendan Drain Aug 30th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, PvP, Tips and tricks, PvE, Opinion, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

In a typical MMO, players will have one main character that they dedicate most of their time and effort to. They may also have alternate characters on the same account that they use to try out different classes or starting areas. EVE Online is different in that it's not really feasible to play multiple characters on the same account. While each EVE account has three character slots, only one can be actively training skills at one time. Taking a break to train up another character means losing training time on your main one. And since any character can learn any skill, it's often better to just train those skills on your main character rather than making a dedicated alt for it. Many players suggest getting a second account but is that really necessary? And what do you do with those two extra character shots on your account?

In this article, I look at some nifty things you can do with your main account's two extra character slots without paying for a second account.

EVE Evolved: Wormhole piracy 101

by Brendan Drain Aug 16th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Guides, Guilds, Professions, PvP, Raiding, Endgame, Tips and tricks, Player Housing, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

If it seems like I've gone wormhole crazy lately, that's because I have. The wormholes that arrived with the Apocrypha expansion have infiltrated and enriched many different aspects of EVE Online, from exploration and corporate goals to small gang PvP and piracy. In previous articles, I looked at preparing for an expedition, untangled the mystery of the Sleepers and told the story of a tense week for Total Comfort alliance in the Sleeper's den. After a week spent hunting wormhole-dwellers for fun and profit, this week's EVE Evolved is dedicated to the fine art of being an interstellar cut-throat as I delve into the world of wormhole piracy.

Wormhole piracy is one of the few professions where small gang warfare is most prevalent. While many pirates have already begun including wormhole systems in their roaming gangs, our corporation (and I'm sure others) have come across a much more effective method. By setting up your own pirate staging base inside a wormhole system, your corp can use its regular outgoing wormholes to wreak havoc in systems all across EVE. Using this method, it's possible to spring attacks on people without anyone even seeing you coming. Whether you're planning surprise attacks on 0.0 systems or hunting in the 2500 new unknown sleeper systems, wouldn't you like to run your own pirate way-station?

Read on for an informative guide on using wormholes to wreak havoc around EVE and make a profit in the process.

Choose my Adventure: Lord of the Rings Online

by Shawn Schuster Aug 5th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Classes, Culture, Lore, Professions, Massively meta, Races, Choose my Adventure

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

With our Guild Wars adventures behind us, it's now time to branch out into our next game for the Choose my Adventure series. According to your votes accumulated this week, Lord of the Rings Online will be my next game to explore, with a little help from you, the readers. You also voted to keep the format the same, so I'm happy to hear that it's been working well so far.

Now I must say, I'm certainly no stranger to either GW or LotRO (I didn't rig the polls, I promise!), but I think this can still be approached from a fresh perspective through the use of both the in-character gallery journal and the brand new character that you will help me create. So keep reading after the jump for the polls and more information to get me started in my brand new journey through Lord of the Rings Online.

EVE Online devs seek your input on improving the New Player Experience

by James Egan Jul 15th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Forums, Game mechanics, Professions

EVE Online can be a daunting game to get a handle on. Still, the New Player Experience (NPE) that greets rookies today is far better than the early tutorials that some of us at Massively, and no doubt a number of our readers, experienced 'back in the day'. There are many careers and mini-professions a player can choose to pursue in EVE, but conveying this in the NPE -- and guiding these new players towards these playstyles -- remains a challenge for CCP Games. This is the focus of the latest dev blog by EVE Online developer CCP Soundwave.

He explains how player feedback has made those first weeks of gameplay a much smoother learning experience for the game's rookies. However, he notes that they're continuing to improve the NPE for the next expansion. To that end, CCP is seeking input from the players on these questions:

EVE Evolved: Mission-running top five tips

by Brendan Drain Jul 12th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, Making money, Tips and tricks, Quests, PvE, Hands-on, Education, EVE Evolved

In the first two parts of this guide on mission-running in EVE Online, I explained the basics of mission-running and went on to give a race-by-race breakdown of the most popular mission-running ships. In this final instalment of the EVE Evolved mission-running guide, I dig up my top five tips and tricks for improving your standings, mission-running speed and general mission income in EVE.

Tip #1 - Gaining faction standing
As high faction standing unlocks the agents of every corp in an entire faction rather than just from one corp, faction standing gains are very desirable and often the ultimate goal of early mission-running. In addition to a few other methods discussed later in this article, faction standing gains can be had from COSMOS missions. These are special once-only missions, like quests in the standard MMO paradigm. They are given out by special agents-in-space located within EVE's COSMOS constellations, some at designated agent sites and some hidden away at moons or sites only able to be found with probes. Each of these missions counts as an important mission for the purposes of faction standing gains and their rewards can be extremely good. Using COSMOS missions, it's possible to boost your faction standings from around 4 to up to 6 or 8 in some of these areas.

Read on as I give my top five mission-running tips to maximise your income from mission-running.

EVE Evolved: Mission-running ship design

by Brendan Drain Jul 5th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, Making money, PvE, Education, EVE Evolved

In last week's first instalment of this guide, I explained the basics of mission-running in EVE Online and how to find your best agent. In this second part of the guide, I get into the nitty gritty details of essential ship designs for mission-runners. Choosing an appropriate ship and fitting it adequately are arguably the two most important factors in mission-running. While having a weak mission strategy and poor support skills can cause a lot of bother, a poorly designed ship is almost guaranteed death on some of the tougher missions. With the advice in this guide, a little research and a good deal of practice, you'll be well on your way to becoming a mission guru.

Read after the cut for a race-by-race break-down of EVE's most popular and effective mission-running ships, complete with links to some further reading and popular mission fittings.

EVE Evolved: Mission-running - the basics

by Brendan Drain Jun 28th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, Making money, PvE, Education, EVE Evolved

Agent missions are one of EVE Online's most popular pastimes. While EVE is most often lauded for its open-ended gameplay, player-determined markets and PvP action, a significant portion of the game's players use missions as their primary income source. There is something comforting about missions that seems to draw players in. For many, running missions and upgrading their ship with the ISK becomes the focus of their achievements and their primary measure of progress. The ability of mission-running to provide a direct translation of effort into a stable ISK income offers us a reassuringly linear work-to-reward scheme in a relatively risk-free environment. Missions and exploration are EVE's primary PvE experiences and new missions are released with each major expansion to help keep the game fresh for casual players. There are even several epic mission arcs planned for the future, long sequences of storyboarded missions much like the quest chains you might find in other MMOs.

In this multi-part guide, I will thoroughly examine the profession of mission-running, from the basics to ship fittings and finally some tips and tricks for maximising your performance. In this first part of the guide, I look at the basics of mission-running from mission types and rewards to agent standings and how to find the best agent for you.

EVE Evolved: EVE's economic underworld

by Brendan Drain Jun 14th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, Lore, Professions, PvP, Education, EVE Evolved

EVE Online's in-game economy has been the subject of intense study over the years. The markets of EVE react very effectively to accomplish goals with the same economic laws that apply to many real-life marketplaces. The game's developers CCP even hired a professional economist to analyse the in-game economy, advise them on problem issues and deliver interesting quarterly reports. The driving force behind EVE's markets is often assumed to be basic supply and demand but this isn't always the most potent component. In the hyper-capitalistic universe of New Eden, all bets are off and the only rules are those players enforce themselves with an iron fist. Cartels, market manipulation and theft run rife in EVE, with far-reaching consequences.

In this succinct article, I examine the hidden forces pushing and pulling EVE's markets and show that EVE's economic sandbox comes complete with quicksand and land mines.