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Eve Online Is Now Free to Play

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Eve Online Is Now Free to Play
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moza on 16/11/2016 - 09:24 eveonline.com (1123 clicks)
Last edited 16/11/2016 - 18:06 by 1 other user

After 13 years of nearly-weekly updates, Eve Online is free to play. It's a nerfed account (Alpha Clone) where you can't fly any of the big ships without paying a subscription, but there's probably a good 12 months of flying and fun before you'll start to get too restricted by this anyway. Checking now, there's over 30,000 players online atm (only one server) so it's kind of fun! worth checking out.

You get a bonus to Skill Points if you sign up using a referrer link.
The referrer earns a choice of 30 days of game time or 1 PLEX every time one of their recruits upgrades to an Omega account.
Here is mine:

http://secure.eveonline.com/signup/?invc=535bbb5b-7233-4718-…

But no worries if not - it's just cool to have some more Aussies in the game!

Check out all the latest and upcoming Free Games.
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closed Comments

  • smurfinaus on 16/11/2016 - 09:43
    +2

    Is there a list of ships which are usable in the F2P version? ( i had a sub account for a while and thinking of reactivating)

    • sallan75 on 16/11/2016 - 10:26
      +4

      Just logged in and checked out what is walled off. Can't use my Fleet Issue Typhoon or any battleships. From the quick look seems to be destroyers are the largest offensive ship. But I only had a quick look. Can't fly my Mackinaw or Covetor. The only ship besides some junkers left at various stations I could actually fly was my Noctis.

      There is many techs you can't use as well. Basically if you have been playing for a year or so a lot of the stuff you have you probably won't be able to use.

      • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 12:18
        +1

        Oh so you can use noctis for free? Seems good for a salvaging alt.

        looked at my old 3-4 million SP accounts, lol, couple of okay things to skill for free, but not much

        might be okay to still use for frigate skirmishes and the like

        • Antikythera on 16/11/2016 - 13:21
          +1

          the Alpha clones are race limited and can fly t1 ships up to cruiser i think.

          they learn at 50% normal speed and cap out at 5 million skill points. this limit is a list of skills rather than a SP pool. ie every maxed out Amarr Alpha will have exactly the same skills.

          if you had previously played, your old character will keep all its skills but while in Alpha state it will only be able to use Alpha skills.

          the best way to earn enough ISK using an Alpha to buy a PLEX is probably Faction War defensive complexing. Station trading is probably also good but i dont know how many market slots an Alpha would allow.

        • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 13:31
          +1

          @antikythera:

          Oh I remember the faction war plexing, kinda hated it, though I haven't played since 2013 so maybe its better now

    • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:04

      Someone on Reddit has made a nice spreadsheet of the skills (not ships exactly, but may give you some info): https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/50ikm5/spreadsheet_alp…

  • 0xFFFF on 16/11/2016 - 10:06
    +2

    I started playing this about a month ago. Loving it so far.

  • outlander on 16/11/2016 - 10:49
    +20

    Ozbargainer's should be very careful approaching this game. The market system in this game is incredible and sucks a lot of people in. Before you know it, your hard drive is full of spreadsheets and you're waking up every 3 hours to lower your sell orders by .01 isk.

    Here's the video that sucked me in the first time

    • scrimshaw on 16/11/2016 - 10:59
      +22

      I too, also play Eve Onl — I mean, I'm a financial director of a multinational trading company that operates simultaneously across different time zones.

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 12:02
      +1

      For people who enjoy simulated capitalism, Eve can be insanely addictive. No other game has the same sort of complexity in its trading mechanisms

    • xelfer on 17/11/2016 - 10:20
      +1

      Best eve vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdfFnTt2UT0

      • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:07

        It's surprising how accurate these promo videos are! Once you get into a corp this is the kind of thing you'll start doing quite regularly.

  • FatGPT on 16/11/2016 - 10:57
    +1

    Looks like fun, thanks OP

  • NFS on 16/11/2016 - 11:15
    +10

    Full disclosure, as the referrer he'll earn a choice of 30 days of game time or 1 PLEX every time one of his recruits upgrades to an Omega account.
    That said, I used your referral. Thanks for posting.

  • tsunamisurfer on 16/11/2016 - 11:37
    +1

    One of my favourite games in my youth was Elite….I've always wanted to play Eve Online but could not justify the spend. Now I can give it a shot, at the very least to see if it is as fun as advertised.

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 12:05
      +1

      Well. I'm not sure how many people would suggest eve is "fun". its by the the greatest "boring" game of all time. Its absolutely based on you getting out what you put in, and if you don't try and get out all you can from it, it becomes a very boring waiting and grinding game, where you can spend forever just waiting till that next ship, and waiting until you have enough isk for that ship, and then never doing anything interesting because you are too scared of losing said ship lol

      • Antikythera on 16/11/2016 - 13:28
        +2

        the people on OZBargain are likely to love the market system. everyone loves a good deal.

        BE WARNED - scamming is an integral part of the game. dont trust anyone. even me (except with small amounts under 100 billion, then you can trust me)

        • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 13:30
          +1

          The run of the mill scams are just sad. (the give me isk and i'll blah blah)

          Some of the high end scams though are just genius haha

        • cannedhams on 16/11/2016 - 21:34
          +1

          @Pacify: apparently there are specialised players that are trustworthy and can be used as go betweens/escrow agents? I just read that somewhere. I honestly don't know really.

  • Tidy on 16/11/2016 - 11:56
    +4

    Out of curiosity, how do people with full time jobs and other commitments such as a girlfriend/wife and family, find enough time to play this game?

    I'm just a uni student with a job but I have nowhere enough time to fit this game into my life.

    This game requires A LOT of time dedicated to it.

    • 0xFFFF on 16/11/2016 - 12:22
      +1

      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      I seem to find the time. Usually I run it on one machine while doing work / something else on another.

    • outlander on 16/11/2016 - 13:36
      +1

      While it did swallow up my life for a few months, I'm sure there are other people out there, with self control and time management skills, right? There has to be…

      Anyhow, it's entirely possible to play this game casually. The PvE side of has plenty of areas where you don't need to physically be there in your chair to be playing it, such as lazily drifting through starlit asteroid fields mining veldspar, or transporting illegal cargo through a long chain of star jumps. It has an magnificent soundtrack as well, so between the amazing visuals and the beautiful music, it could easily be setup as the equivalent of a screen saver on another screen to add some background ambiance.

      I never played casually, because at $30 a month I had to get my monies worth, but now that it's free, that problem isn't there any more.

  • SaintSimeon on 16/11/2016 - 12:07
    +2

    Hmmm…now wondering if an OzBargain based clan/corp could break the economies of several star systems.

    Thanks heaps OP. Hope you get lots of referral love!

    • leznix on 16/11/2016 - 12:27

      That's a great idea, OzBargain Corp

      • Antikythera on 16/11/2016 - 13:29
        +5

        I have started this up in game. Send me 1 billion isk for administration costs with your application.

        edit: while this was a joke, and a scam like this is completely legal in EVE, I like my OZBargain account and dont want to lose it for scamming, so please do not send me ISK.

  • Tardvark on 16/11/2016 - 12:25
    +1

    An interesting move from CCP. A good way to get people to dip their toes in the water. I think the Alpha account is way too limited though, it should at least have gone to Battleships and limited capitals and super capitals to paying players.

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 12:32
      +1

      I disagree on battleships, but I feel it should have included a few more skills - its really limited in what you can train. That said, being able to go up to cruiser 4 for free is pretty good

      I think keeping it at cruisers and below was the correct choice though

    • Wraith on 16/11/2016 - 12:54
      +3

      This isn't really a "Free to play" model. It's a "Try before you buy" account. By the time you reach the limitations of the account, you'll know whether you want to commit to a paid subscription.

      It's an excellent idea. Instead of a free month, which I'd never use, they effectively get the same experience to people who don't have a lot of time. This open the market up to new people.

      • Antikythera on 16/11/2016 - 13:31
        +3

        also unlike other games where no one wants a lvl 20 in their end game group, plenty of people will want frigates, destroyers and cruisers in their fleets.

    • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:09

      There is one Battlecruiser that alphas can fly - the Gnosis. And everyone has just received 2 for free (for a 'bonus' for being a subscriber when the new free-to-play went out), so the prices of them have dropped massively while everyone places theirs on the market.

      So yea, alphas can fit a nice battlecruiser and get involved in some pretty serious PvP. I've even got a Gnosis fit for mining haha…

  • insular on 16/11/2016 - 12:29
    -2

    I remember more than 13 years ago when a TAFE lecturer was telling me about this great game that was going to come out called 'EVE'.

    I ignored him and my life is better for it.

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 12:36
      +2

      What sort of bizarre comment is that lol

      Chances are if you tried eve 13 years ago, you would have given up in frustration within a few hours :P. Tough game to play back in the day, I remember trying it a couple of times fairly early in its life, and I didn't last more than a day or two.

  • philmarcracken on 16/11/2016 - 12:43
    -1

    I got tired of the only server being hosted in london. Pretty long round trip from aus.

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 12:47
      +2

      Really? I've never even noticed the ping while playing eve

      • sacah on 17/11/2016 - 10:38
        +1

        There are some situations it's noticeable. If you try and tackle someone from the EU in a small sig ship, good chance they'll get away, where as an EU person could tackle an aussie in an untacklable ship, though when this happens, lodge a ticket with CCP and they'll reimburse you.

        I've found if an EU person is warping to me, or I'm dropping on them, I won't be able to lock them as my client still tells me I'm/their still in warp, but they can lock and start shooting me, not much buffer for that in small ships.

        Outside solo/small scale PvP, you don't notice lag much.

  • Saiya on 16/11/2016 - 13:19
    -1

    So is this game just like World of Warcraft where it is just a grindfest of a game?

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 13:28

      At its core, its more of a waiting game than a grind fest.

      All skills take a certain amount of time to skill. So if you wanted you can log in once a day, week, month (depending on what you are training), and you would still progress per se.

      as for the grinding, certain paths certainly are - for example mining is very repetitive. Missions (pve-grinding for money) are also pretty repetitive.
      But the rest of the game, not really. There are so many things to do that aren't really grinding, be in corporate null sec stuff, wormholes, low sec explorations etc etc

    • Antikythera on 16/11/2016 - 13:36
      +2

      no. eve is more about being as evil as possible to your enemies and the best possible friend to your allies.

      you can steal, scam, threaten, cheat, lie, manipulate, spy, bully anyone you meet.
      http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/EVE_University_Class_Library#T…

    • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:11

      Not really. There are no 'levels' as such. As you passively gain experience, it is actually well-suited to the casual player. Can't play for a week due to work… doesn;t matter, you have leveled the same as if you'd played nonstop.

      Most of the long-train skills are for convenience, or to fly the massive, massive ships. The core ships to get in a nice fighter and start PvP or mining or whatever only takes a week or so of training to get everything you'd need. It's more about being creative with 'what' you train. You can also respec your intelligence skills etc to train certain skills faster.

  • LeavingTheWheel on 16/11/2016 - 13:33
    +3

    I sooo want to play, but I know I'll get addicted ;-)

    • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:12

      :) You may as well start, so you're passively gaining skills, and then if you do later decide to play, you'll have a nice skilled-up alpha clone waiting for you!

      • LeavingTheWheel on 02/12/2016 - 09:02

        Oh, it's tempting, if there's any form of passive improvement I can take advantage of. Generally, I find the 'Grind' is something one needs to be actively doing.

        I might look into it though. :-)

        Thanks for the tip.

  • tsunamisurfer on 16/11/2016 - 14:00
    +1

    Guys…

    For absolute n00bs…where is the best place to go to read about the game and get used to the language etc?

    • Pacify on 16/11/2016 - 14:18
      +1

      reddit I guess? Plenty of new player guides on /r/eve

    • millamber on 16/11/2016 - 14:22
      +2

      Go to https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/

      Many people have put Eve fee to play guides, and there is a lot of otehr useful info there too.

  • Rumbaar on 16/11/2016 - 15:40
    +1

    If you're a returning player looking to play for free, it's not going to be much fun. You'll not be able to fly the most basic of ships, unless it's got T1 stuff on it. I couldn't fly anything in my hanger, and had to strip them bare to get them to un-dock.

    But if you're totally new, then join the game to be exploited into a 'swarm' of cannon fodder.

  • tron07 on 16/11/2016 - 15:56
    +1

    Can I play on mobile or only PC/mac based? There is a Eve Online Portal at the app store.

    • millamber on 16/11/2016 - 17:24
      +1

      PC only. Eve portal is a companion app to the game to help manage your characters.

  • vladesch on 16/11/2016 - 16:20
    +1

    Good game if you like free for all player vs player slaughter.

    • Saiya on 16/11/2016 - 17:28
      +1

      Hrrrrm, is there any PvE zones? Not sure if I would like it getting ganked while trying to complete quests.

      • outlander on 16/11/2016 - 18:41
        +2

        Of course! Huge amount you can do without taking a stroll into the world of shadows
        It's a very newbie friendly game

  • DauntingEarth on 16/11/2016 - 17:34
    +1

    so is it like really free 'free'?

    • Antikythera on 16/11/2016 - 18:04
      +1

      its a limited account and is free forever. you are limited to a set of skills and ships. these were chosen by experts to remove complexity while still giving a good range of activities.

      unlike other games, like WOWs lvl 20 limited trial account, players who fly small ships are still relevant in end game content.

    • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:13
      +1

      Yep. I have been paying subscriptions for a few years, but will move down to the free "alpha" clone for a few months. there's enough there to keep me happy. If you want to lead a large corp, or fly huge, huge ships, you'll probably want to then start paying. But for small fights, casual players, etc, the free-to-play (alpha) is fine.

      • DauntingEarth on 01/12/2016 - 19:28

        much for me to explore, thanks folks

  • intmanofawesome on 16/11/2016 - 17:51
    +3

    Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in…

  • stonkered on 16/11/2016 - 20:13

    How will this go in a Surface Pro 3 i3 anyone know?

    • scrimshaw on 16/11/2016 - 22:41
      +1

      Min Sys requirements
      OS: Windows 7 / 8.1 / 10
      CPU: Intel Dual Core @ 2.0 GHz, AMD Dual Core @ 2.0 GHz
      RAM: 2 GB
      Video: AMD Radeon 2600 XT or NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

      This should play on just about any Haswell Core-series device. However, for your situation… the surface is not a great gaming system and it has a tendency to overheat when it's stressed, so it might perform worse as it gets hotter.

      • stonkered on 17/11/2016 - 06:55
        +1

        Thanks mate. I saw the min specs but didn't pay much attention as they are usually a little generous. Just had a look around and apparently it goes OK even on the i3, I guess it is long in the tooth now, might give it a go.

    • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:14

      I'd love to hear how it goes! Although… then i could play at work… may be a bad thing…

  • astero on 17/11/2016 - 07:04
    +2

    Thinking of giving 'Eve' a try but now that 'Elite: Dangerous' is out and in full swing I might have to give the latter a go first as it's based on one of the most famous and awarded computer game classics ('Elite') of all time.

    Has anyone managed to play both and compare the two? Also, where does 'No Man's Sky' fit in all of this in terms of playing style, type of game, etc.?

    • ranbot on 17/11/2016 - 08:48
      +2

      EVE has a larger userbase and a more involved economy due to it being entirely run by the players. You can also claim systems and build stations/ships for your corporation or alliance whereas in Elite, the multiplayer relies on P2P connections so you're less than likely to run into other players from different countries depending on which mode you picked. I've spent 54 hours in Elite and I've been progressing slowly so I can't give you a better picture of what else to expect from it. That being said, while I've only run into two other players so far, you can join groups to play with in their instance of the Milky Way galaxy. Also, some groups are PvE/PvP/PvX or have other rules which is great if you enjoy a specific type of gameplay.

      I haven't played EVE in years but in regards to combat, they're both pretty involved. The only major difference in Elite is that you actually get to steer your ship compared to EVE where you point and click et cetera. Elite also has VR support for the Vive/Rift so if you have one or plan on getting one, there's that to consider as well. I highly recommend checking out the subreddits for both games and/or join EVE University under a F2P account to figure out which one you wanna stay with.

      http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Main_Page
      https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/
      https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/

      EDIT: No Man's Sky is something I wouldn't bother with. With the broken promises, complete lack of communication from the developers aside from the last update and "hack" incident it's like yelling at a brick wall when trying to get their attention from what I've observed. Every planet has the same biome regardless if you're near the North/South pole or the equator. It also gets boring pretty quick from what I've heard unless you're playing it to relax or something. There's also no multiplayer at all. All in all, you would be better off waiting until it was less than $20 because at this point in time it certainly isn't worth $60-70 AUD.

      One more thing, it's cheaper to buy Elite: Dangerous from Frontier themselves using the British Pound as it works out to around $66.50 AUD compared to $80.18 AUD if you buy it from Steam or the Frontier store with the USD selected.

    • Neverpayretail on 17/11/2016 - 08:56
      +1

      Following I too would like to know :)

  • idonteven on 17/11/2016 - 10:12
    +1

    What are the updates like?

    I'm on rural placement for the next month with a limited data connection. Will lag affect the gameplay? I will certainly have higher ping.

    • sacah on 17/11/2016 - 10:39
      +1

      As long as you don't do solo/small scale PvP you'll be fine.

    • Antikythera on 17/11/2016 - 13:35
      +1

      the initial download can be very small and then you only download what you need. also if you prefer, i believe you can download everything at the start or when it suits you. which may be useful if you currently have a good connection but know you wont for the next month.

  • moza on 01/12/2016 - 08:02

    Currently (ie: this very second - it tells you server loads) over 40,000 players online in Eve. It's one single server, so "technically" that's 40,000 opponents, or friends, or people to be nice to then backstab to get their stuff and blow up their ship. Or 40,000 people to ignore while you do your own thing, or ….haha. It's a unique game!

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