• EVE Online announces Free 2 Play with new "clone states" feature
    62 replies, posted
Not world-shattering news by any stretch, but a pretty exciting development in one of the most ambitious MMOs of all time. [url]https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-clone-states-and-the-future-of-access-to-eve-online/[/url] [Quote] Today, we have something exciting to share with you; our plans for a new feature that will let both old and new players take part in EVE Online for free. This is a big, fundamental change to the way EVE works, so we’d like to go over the high level concept, some reasoning for it, and the kind of help we need from you to make it solid. Then, at the bottom of the blog you can find a full Q&A section which addresses points not covered in the blog itself. This feature is built around the complex biotechnology which originally gave rise to the capsuleers: clones. Technological advancements in New Eden have led to a new way of manufacturing and augmenting clones, unlocking the possibility for a variety of distinct Clone States. With this technology, clone manufacturers can now build and distribute clones which possess a base state, the Alpha state. They can be enhanced or otherwise altered to achieve other states, but the Alpha state will always exist underneath. The state of a given clone may affect its access to trained skills, its ability to train new ones, or the rate at which new skills are acquired.[/quote] [Quote]First of all, accounts won’t be changing much. Every account has three character slots. One of those slots at a time may be used to train skills. One of those characters may be logged in at a time. Account services such as PLEX, Multiple Character Training, and Skill Trading will be completely unaffected. As described above, any account with an active subscription (paid directly or via PLEX) will have all its characters upgraded to Omega state. Omega can be summed up in a very simple way: It works exactly like subscribed accounts always have. Alpha State, on the other hand, will be much different. The most important thing to know about Alpha clones is that they may only use a specific set of skills and skill levels. To begin with, we are planning that the Alpha skill set will be focused on using tech one Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers. Alpha clones will only be able to use ship and weapon skills native to their faction. If you have skills trained on a character in Alpha State, which are not part of the Alpha skill set, those skills will be locked and unusable until Omega state is reactivated. Characters will start the game with the same 400,000 skill points as they do now and will be able to train freely within the Alpha list. A fully trained Alpha will have roughly 5 million skill points. You can find the full Alpha list in the Q&A below the blog. Subscribed players will carry on as usual , but unsubscribed players will now be able to join EVE using "Alpha Clones," which offer limited access through thematic skillsets determined by character race. Certain skills will be unavailable, others will be capped, and training times will be reduced, but otherwise these free players will have unlimited access to the game.[/quote] It is, essentially, an unlimited free trial. Sounds like you'll have access to frigates, destroyers, and cruisers, which are some of the most common PvP ships, so you should be able to jump into the fight and get a thorough taste of things before deciding whether or not you want to upgrade your subscription. Or, you could play free forever using only the smaller ships if you were so inclined. Pretty interesting concept!
I think it is a good step, one of the hardest parts of Eve is the beginning and trying to get new players going because the trial simply isn't long enough.
Not sure how this is meant to attract older players? Come play for free, but you won't be able to use any of those skills you worked for years on?
What happens if you're a subbed account and stop paying? Do you get prevented from flying all of your advanced ships and blocked from taking advantage of skills that aren't allowed in free play? Nvm, read the FAQ, kind of shit tbh... it's just an unlimited trial - it's still restricted to fuck.
[QUOTE=Fire Feure;50978465]Not sure how this is meant to attract older players? Come play for free, but you won't be able to use any of those skills you worked for years on?[/QUOTE] Could be useful for alts if you want multiple characters spread through different corps or factions. Frigates, cruisers, and destroyers are all you need access to to be a useful member of a fleet, and the 5m skill point cap still represents several months of skill training. [editline]31st August 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=FalloutAddict;50978471]What happens if you're a subbed account and stop paying? Do you get prevented from flying all of your advanced ships and blocked from taking advantage of skills that aren't allowed in free play?[/QUOTE] That's what I would think, yeah. Your omega clone, and all of its associated skills, would be locked until you used another PLEX, and you would instead have access to a free Alpha Clone trained up to whatever available skill caps you have already reached. Still free access rather than a total lockout, though, which allows you to participate in the game with no other reduced functionality.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50978475]Could be useful for alts if you want multiple characters spread through different corps or factions. Frigates, cruisers, and destroyers are all you need access to to be a useful member of a fleet, and the 5m skill point cap still represents several months of skill training. [editline]31st August 2016[/editline] That's what I would think, yeah. Your omega clone, and all of its associated skills, would be locked until you used another PLEX, and you would instead have access to a free Alpha Cline trained up to whatever caps you have already reached.[/QUOTE] I can't wait for the rush of [del]fresh meat[/del] newbros.
[QUOTE=The Aussie;50978485]I can't wait for the rush of [del]fresh meat[/del] newbros.[/QUOTE] I still remember when all players were allowed near training stations with new players. So many blown up IBIS from the cargo lure trick
On a slightly more serious note, i can confirm that major alliances fucking love new players. No matter how big a fleet is, we always need some fucking tackle. Sure, you're expendable as fuck and have the offensive power of a sharpened banana, but if you can prevent people from running away and hold them down until the big boys can rip them to shreds then you're a massive fucking help. The only other option is attempting to alpha damage people off field and that really isn't always an option for the juicier killmaills. If you guys have a reddit account you can join the reddit corp, we kick ass and i can confirm dreddit is recruiting. We aren't as fucking toxic as we used to be. You can also join Pandemic Horde (great bunch of dudes) as well for some newbro oriented action. Honestly EvE is a pretty niche game and if making it F2P makes it more popular then i'm all for it.
I once paid for my subscription on a brand new account within the 21 day trial period by flying through nullsec in an unarmed rookie ship and writing haikus for roving fleets in exchange for donations of any amount. Biggest single donation I got was 125m ISK, the median donations were around 5m. Lots of tiny little nothin' donations too, ofc. But, since I was in a rookie ship and training no skills, I had zero expenses. Any time somebody destroyed me, I just respawned in a new rookie ship and set out again. It was actually a lot of fun. Weird and wild adventures. I was invited to tag along with random fleets to watch their fights and shit.
Wonder how the factions controlling Null-sec are going to feel about this.
Intriguing, but I was flying a T2 Hurricane and working on unlocking skills for a decent Maelstrom when I quit playing, so this does nothing for me.
For returning players, from the QnA [QUOTE] [B] Q: What happens if I log in as an Alpha but I’m in a ship with required Omega skills?[/B] [B]A: You will be allowed to fly the ship until the next time you dock[/B], but any ship bonuses or attributes will not gain the benefits of Omega skills. Q: What happens if I log as an Alpha but I have modules fit that require Omega skills? A: Those modules will be set offline when you log in. Q: What happens if my training queue contains Omega skills but I am in Alpha State? A: We will pause your training queue and it will need to be manually restarted once the Omega skills are removed or the subscription is renewed.[/QUOTE]
am i wrong or havent i heard in the past you could pay for the subscription for a month, and within that time you were able to make enough of an in game money to buy another subscription indefinitely, as long as you kept playing? or is that another game? could you do that with this f2p model if so? would it even be worth playing at all if i dont plan on ever subscribing? ive never really taken a close look at eve, but i enjoyed the hell out of freelancer but i have no clue if eve even plays similarly
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50978523]I once paid for my subscription on a brand new account within the 21 day trial period by flying through nullsec in an unarmed rookie ship and writing haikus for roving fleets in exchange for donations of any amount. Biggest single donation I got was 125m ISK, the median donations were around 5m. Lots of tiny little nothin' donations too, ofc. But, since I was in a rookie ship and training no skills, I had zero expenses. Any time somebody destroyed me, I just respawned in a new rookie ship and set out again. It was actually a lot of fun. Weird and wild adventures. I was invited to tag along with random fleets to watch their fights and shit.[/QUOTE] That is one of the most creative way to make money in Eve that I've seen. I think everyone should experience the purely strange things that can happen in null sec in EVE at least once. It just emphasizes the zone so well, a lawless expanse of space with the good the bad and the ugly. Worm holes, warp bubble traps My best story from eve was convincing a dude in a pretty nicely sized corp to join my corp, but also on his way out I had him give me every single thing the corp had in their assets because he had been given access and was trusted. Watching them destroy themselves from the inside after I hauled off all their goods felt so evil, so EVE.
And hey if you can get PLEX with Alpha accounts then a person can pretty much not ever pay a cent and still access Omega, although farming PLEX is a huge grind as I've heard, it's still possible.
[QUOTE=Furnost;50978564]am i wrong or havent i heard in the past you could pay for the subscription for a month, and within that time you were able to make enough of an in game money to buy another subscription indefinitely, as long as you kept playing? or is that another game? could you do that with this f2p model if so? would it even be worth playing at all if i dont plan on ever subscribing? ive never really taken a close look at eve, but i enjoyed the hell out of freelancer but i have no clue if eve even plays similarly[/QUOTE] You can pay for your subscription in game, yeah, but I've heard that the price of PLEX has inflated quite a bit. I used to be able to grind out the cost of my subscription with about a week of ratting and salvaging nullsec anomalies out of every month, but that was about two years ago. Prices have more than doubled since then.
[QUOTE=Furnost;50978564]am i wrong or havent i heard in the past you could pay for the subscription for a month, and within that time you were able to make enough of an in game money to buy another subscription indefinitely, as long as you kept playing? or is that another game? could you do that with this f2p model if so? would it even be worth playing at all if i dont plan on ever subscribing? ive never really taken a close look at eve, but i enjoyed the hell out of freelancer but i have no clue if eve even plays similarly[/QUOTE] Yeah its certainly possible. It'd be a lot of work at the start but eventually you can get a passive plex every month by doing like 10 minutes work a day. That's assuming you're running P4 products in wormholes or null or some shit, or some trading bullcrap/moneymoons. The game's more fun if you focus on making money so you can blow shit up.
[QUOTE=Furnost;50978564]am i wrong or havent i heard in the past you could pay for the subscription for a month, and within that time you were able to make enough of an in game money to buy another subscription indefinitely, as long as you kept playing? or is that another game? could you do that with this f2p model if so? would it even be worth playing at all if i dont plan on ever subscribing? ive never really taken a close look at eve, but i enjoyed the hell out of freelancer but i have no clue if eve even plays similarly[/QUOTE] Yeah it's EVE where you can pay for ingame money to get PLEX's which is basically a sub for the month. But a while back some guy hoarded a shitload of PLEX's around in his shitty ship in one of the most popular systems in the game and got blown up. Which also deleted those PLEX's from the game economy and driving the prices pretty goddamn high. I need to start playing again [editline]d[/editline] double ninja
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50978588]You can pay for your subscription in game, yeah, but I've heard that the price of PLEX has I coated quite a bit. I used to be able to grind out the cost of my subscription with about a week of ratting and salvaging nullsec anomalies out of every month, but prices have more than doubled since then.[/QUOTE] ive played so many grindy mmos im no longer affected by grinds, hell if anything i covet grinds now :v: guess ill take a look at eve soon then, even though ill have no idea what im doing
[QUOTE=The Aussie;50978591]Yeah its certainly possible. It'd be a lot of work at the start but eventually you can get a passive plex every month by doing like 10 minutes work a day. That's assuming you're running P4 products in wormholes or null or some shit, or some trading bullcrap/moneymoons. The game's more fun if you focus on making money so you can blow shit up.[/QUOTE] I haven't played EVE in awhile but I can't imagine players in tier 1 frigates/destroyers/cruisers are going to be able to reasonably make enough ISK to buy PLEX at whatever godawful inflated price they are now.
[QUOTE=Furnost;50978607]ive played so many grindy mmos im no longer affected by grinds, hell if anything i covet grinds now :v: guess ill take a look at eve soon then, even though ill have no idea what im doing[/QUOTE] Your best bet is to immediately jump into a nullsec PvP corporation. They'll show you the ropes, fund your expenses, and show you how to go about making the big bucks on your own time. People mining asteroids and running missions in high security space are suckers. It's chump change compared to what you can earn in nullsec, especially as a brand new player.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;50978616]I haven't played EVE in awhile but I can't imagine players in tier 1 frigates/destroyers/cruisers are going to be able to reasonably make enough ISK to buy PLEX at whatever godawful inflated price they are now.[/QUOTE] I was operating under the assumption of the old trial system or buying plex one off as a "kickstart". [editline]1st September 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50978632]Your best bet is to immediately jump into a nullsec PvP corporation. They'll show you the ropes, fund your expenses, and show you how to go about making the big bucks on your own time. People mining asteroids and running missions in high security space are suckers. It's chump change compared to what you can earn in nullsec, especially as a brand new player.[/QUOTE] This is the best option. Don't pick brave newbies they're toxic as shit, speaking as a former member.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;50978616]I haven't played EVE in awhile but I can't imagine players in tier 1 frigates/destroyers/cruisers are going to be able to reasonably make enough ISK to buy PLEX at whatever godawful inflated price they are now.[/QUOTE] Dunno what the price is now, but I could easily grind out 50m+ a day salvaging nullsec combat anomalies in a frigate, once my corpmates had destroyed the enemies. That's about 1.5bn ISK/month, which will bankroll an almost unlimited number of PvP cruisers while still allowing for a PLEX. Definitely a grind, but it gets MUCH faster once you can use the actual salvaging ship.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50978654]Dunno what the price is now, but I could easily grind out 50m+ a day salvaging nullsec combat anomalies in a frigate, once my corpmates had destroyed the enemies. That's over a billion ISK/month, which will bankroll an almost unlimited number of PvP cruisers while still allowing for a PLEX.[/QUOTE] Why use a frigate? If the Alpha clones have access to dessies you might as well load up a catalyst or something for maximum isk/hr.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50978654][B][U]Dunno what the price is now[/U][/B], but I could easily grind out 50m+ a day salvaging nullsec combat anomalies in a frigate, once my corpmates had destroyed the enemies. That's about 1.5bn ISK/month, which will bankroll an almost unlimited number of PvP cruisers while still allowing for a PLEX. Definitely a grind, but it gets MUCH faster once you can use the actual salvaging ship.[/QUOTE] 1 billion, with occasional increases and decreases depending on how badly the seller needs the isk.
[QUOTE=The Aussie;50978674]Why use a frigate? If the Alpha clones have access to dessies you might as well load up a catalyst or something for maximum isk/hr.[/QUOTE] Pretty sure it was a destroyer, now that you mention it. Either way, worked pretty well.
When does this take effect? I'd like to see where my characters are at, I haven't played in ages.
hmm after 10+ years I may try see it again :)
[QUOTE=Dwarden;50979221]hmm after 10+ years I may try see it again :)[/QUOTE] Hard to believe it's this old. Regular updates of effects, textures, and models have kept it looking fresh.
Given how sporadically I actually played and how much time I wasted on fucking with other race's ships I'm pretty sure my actual pay-money character from years back would fall easily within the criteria for free accounts anyway, minus Battleships and Battlecruisers. Guess I might return and see what idiots in my corp actually stayed around this long.
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