EVE Online's Free-To-Play~ish Mode Arrives November 8
EVE Online's next free expansion, Ascension, will be hitting the servers on November 8, bringing with it Clone States -- EVE's answer to free-to-play. Clone states, as detailed in CCP's original announcement, will allow people to play without having to pay. However, there are limits.
Unlike WoW and some other subscription games that limit players' ability to level up and participate in the content related in those levels as well as their ability to communicate with others in the game, CCP has elected to limit the amount and variety of skills a player can have. This is akin to the level restriction system, however players are not limited to a specific area and can participate in most activities as long as those activities are not dependent upon skills they don't have.
The clone state system also allows players to slip between being paid subscribers (Omega clones) and non-paid (Alpha clones) without actually losing anything. As soon as an Alpha player subscribes they will once again have access to everything in their Omega state.
Of course, the clone system is not the only thing arriving with the new expansion. Players can also look forward to a variety of updates and additions. More information on the expansion itself is available on the EVE Online blog.
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QuintLyn is a long-time lover of all things video game related will happily talk about them to anyone that will listen. She began writing about games for various gaming sites a little over ten years ago and has taken on various roles in the games community.
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That's a lot of folks.
(Typical power hungry narcissistic GM which is found in many games, when there is no way to report them)
Didn't really bother me, was disenchanted with the game by this time, due to the infestation of the company and the game itself with numerous vile people.
(Example: A certain council member who suggests and encourages others to suggest another player kill themselves during an Eve event, and only received a slap on the wrist instead of a ban.
Eve is not a game for many people, it has a very steep and deadly learning curve, and if one has a thin skin it is especially not for them.
(Although before I left it seemed they had taken to defending certain groups over the slightest perceived persecution while ignoring (silently encouraging) attacks on others, typical PC hypocrisy)
While initially most pvp actions where small groups of roving bands, involving smaller ships (battleships and smaller), it has now become blob warfare ever since the introduction of capital and supercapital class ships.
There are still roving gangs (more the size of fleets), using whatever is the flavor of the day ship, often these are done with capitals available to "hotdrop" if things turn out badly for either side.
The game is PvP based, so if you don't like that it is certainly not for you.
Although there are certain sectors in the game that are fairly safe a common line of thought in Eve is, "You consent to PvP when you undock", even if all you want to be is a miner or mission runner.
Due to the nature of the game, alliances / corporations, meta gaming plays a huge part in the game.
During some of the more contested periods of history in the game this has entailed everything from bribing members of opposing alliances, inserting spies (alts) into various groups, hacking / disrupting teamspeak / ventrillo communications, hacking of opposing members computers, DDS attacks, numerous inside and outside of the game attacks etc.
(Using game mechanics to do certain activities within the game are certainly acceptable, doing so using outside the game are not acceptable)
Like most games, bots or cheats are to be expected.
In eve the most common of these are the mining bots.
A program is used to control any number of ships that continuously mine with out human interaction.
Often these can be spotted their actions but often by their sequenced names i.e miner, miner 1, miner 2, 12345, 23456, 34567, etc
The ore they mine is usually sold for ISK on the market, or used to build items for the market. The ISK may be used to buy Plex, or the items may be sold at a third party site for real currency.
As for the F2P aspect coming to the game:
In some form it has existed in the game for years, ever since Eve started using Plex to allow players to buy game time cards to buy playing time.
Plexes could be bought using the in-game currency ISK (or real currency).
ISK could be acquired just by playing the game, especially if in possession of certain mining belts, moons, or mission areas and by cornering the market in a certain area.
(The game allows for numerous avenues or game play, from straight PvP, PvE, mining, manufacturing, trade, transportation etc.)
Also some items could be bought from third party sites, and can still be although the carry the risk not only of being scammed but also of being banned from the game if caught.
At one time E-bay was a main third party market place where people would sell, ISK (game currency), items (ships, weapons etc), accounts or characters etc.
(This stopped for the most part when Blizzard and a few others filed lawsuits against E-bay, claiming infringement and intellectual property, even though the items never left the game.)
Due to the inclusion of Plex many players have not paid for the game with real currency in many years, and enjoy the full benefits of the game.
In conclusion, not much will change with the creation of f2p concept into Eve.
The PvP, whether consensual, ganking, suicide or other, will still continue.
The use of alts will increase, (although not by much) since they are already in rampant use for various reasons.
The only plus will be the possibility of new player sticking around longer than the limit of previous tutorial time, who might become paying players.
If not then it may be that this is a dying grasp to save the game that they created and then allowed to be ruined.
While I will check it out to see what the limitations are to the F2P accounts and to look up a few old friends if they are still about, I have no desire to rekindle playing a game which I have no passion for any longer.
I see this as a ploy to bring in new victims for the veteran griefers.
Sandbox is now synonymous with open world Player-Killing.
I'm sure they needed to release this on April fools day.
As its not f2p at all.
Its basically join & be locked in a jail.
oh..& if you want out! please pay up! for your release.
Its kind like being locked up in a corrupt nation, this isn't even close to f2p basics.
Another bad by CCP :(