Talking About Eve

I have been neglecting this blog for a few days now, but it’s not my fault. Eve is the culprit!

No, I’m not talking about a girl here. EVE Online is an MMORPG that I started to play – again – on the 16th. I’m actually not sure what attracts me to that game. But let’s start with a description!

EVE Online is an MMORPG based entirely on space ships. You don’t have some character to run around with, you’ve got vessels floating in the endless void of our universe. There are starbases where you can dock, but even then you don’t ever see more than the face of your character. And the ship, of course. I can’t say much about the graphics, because there has been an optional graphic update that my computer wouldn’t cope with. The old graphics look nice, though.

Gameplay: You start with a frigate, run a tutorial and a few missions that show you the ropes, and then you’re left alone. The learning curve in EVE is pretty steep, but luckily there are a lot of helpful people around who answer most questions, even the really dumb ones. That’s something that not every MMORPG has: a community that actually helps newbies. Most of the time. Since EVE is supposed to be one huge sandbox where you can do what you want, there are also a lot of people with… evil intentions. Pirates, scammers – you name it. Anyway, the sandbox: You can mine ore from asteroid belts, you can process that ore into minerals and use them to build ships, equipment and other stuff, you can do missions for non-player characters (the “quests, more on them later), you can transport stuff for a living, just play the market or you can engage in player-versus-player combat. This last thing is what most people see as the core of EVE.

And indeed: PvP is everywhere. Especially when you know its definition as seen by the developers: PvP is any action that puts you into a conflict with other players. Like trying to strip all the asteroids in a belt before anybody else can. Or trying to controll the prices for certain items. Well, by this definition, every online game has lots of PvP and thus I don’t think it’s well suited to define EVE Online. But combat PvP is still a very important thing: Pirates will try to attack and rob other players or maybe hold their ships to ransom. Anti-pirates either hunt the culprits actively or accept mercenary contracts. Some corporations (groups of people with one or more leaders, headquarters, maybe even a player-owned starbase) wage war on eachother. There’s always lots of fighting going on in EVE Online

By the way: Fights are more tactical than in other games because the vessels aren’t controlled by keyboard, but by giving movement commands with the mouse. Changing directions takes some time due to inertia (and sometimes lag).

The peaceful activities (mining, producing, trading, courier services) don’t need much of an explanation. Generally higher risks net higher rewards. Asteroid belts in dangerous systems provide more valuable ore than safer systems. And no matter what you do, if you leavea station you can be attacked by other players.

But PvP isn’t the only combat there is. Asteroid belts are plagued with non-player pirates and many missions include fighting computer-controlled enemies. The rest of the missions are non-combat ones. The missions, by the way, are downright boring. Most enemies won’t stand a chance against a decently equipped player and more often than not you can just warp to safety, repair everything and come back to where you left off. And since there aren’t that many missions, they get repeated quite often. That’s why a lot of players think that missions are the only risk-free way to generate money in this game.

Anyway, a very important part of any RPG is character advancement. In EVE, this is handled in a very convenient way: Trainable skills. A player sets one skill to be trained. This takes some time, but it’s done in the background and in real-time. Yes, a player can be offline without the training stopping! This is the best thing about EVE in my opinion. And there’s no end to the skills that can be trained. It would take decades for a character to learn everything there is to learn. Because of that it ist best to concentrate on those skills that are necessary for what the character should do, e.g. mining skills, production skills, science, fighting…

Some players think that they could never catch up with a player that has been training skills for years. This is not true. There are only so many skills benefit a specific activity. After a few weeks of training, a character will be just as effective at flying battleships as a player who has trained his for years. But the older character might be able to fly interceptors too, and maybe be quite proficient in mining.

Anyway, to cut this whole story short: EVE is a great game for anybody who doesn’t mind a harsh environment. Killing other players regardless of where they are and how strong they might be is a commong practice. Complaining about that is laughed upon by most and not cared about by others. Peaceful activities carry that risk, but that makes them more fun in my opinion. Otherwise they would be extremely dull. The sandbox experience is great, since one can really do anything. That’s something I miss in most RPGs where you can’t be anything else than a fighting hero. Oh, and the skill training is a great idea. Of course it’s bad news for people who want to reach the highest level there is as fast as they can, but the lack of levels should keep those away anyway.

Oh, and this is a picture of EVE’s learning curve (not by me!). Let it be a warning…

Supreme Commander

Warning: long post incoming!

I bought «Supreme Commander» some time ago. I’m pretty sure it was shortly after its release, because I was a big fan of its predecessor series, «Total Annihilation».

Anyway, I haven’t been playing it for a long time now and I wasn’t sure why. So I gave it another shot. I remember now: My computer just can’t cope with the requirements. Don’t get me wrong, it can run the game, but it gets laggy as soon as more than a few units move around at the same time.

The graphics aren’t the problem. «Supreme Commander» calculates a lot of physics. Every single shot, I’m told. And when things get rough there are a lot of missiles, bullets, plasma beams and laser rays flying around on the battlefield.

Still, the game is great in my oppinion. It’s very abstract, though. Almost no bloodshed, since the only living being on a battlefield is the commander and he’s safely tucket away in his ACU (Armoured Command Unit). Of course the ACU can be blown up (and spectacularly so) which marks the end of a battle for that commander’s army. This abstractness might not appeal to each and every gamer out there, but it serves a purpose. «Supreme Commander» lets you concentrate on tactics and strategy rather than on spilling as much blood as possible.

Sadly, the game’s lacking there sometimes. It is quite easily possible to overwhelm an enemy with an army consisting of only one type of unit. If you can avoid that, the large-scale (well, truly epic, actually) battles can be a lot of fun. Every plan you set in motion takes some time to be executed, so you have to actually think a few steps further than in other strategy games. The three armies of the conflict here aren’t very different, though. They all get the same unit types, but there are some minor differences. Harder armour, an extra weapon, stuff like that. These differences suit themselves to different styles of play. Each side has one unique unit which is basically an upgrade to a standard unit.

The biggest eye-catchers are the experimental units, though. Here the factions differ greatly from one another. It takes time to reach the technological requirements to build these and they cost a lot. Although they can take a beating, none of them can actually win a game on its own. The only exception here is a giant artillery cannon with unlimited range and pinpoint accuracy which literally takes hours to build. That, or a very strong economy. If your opponent sees you building one of these you can be sure he will do everything to take it down. Yes, it’s that strong

As I mentioned earlier, the most important unit of every army is its commander. He can hold his own in the early stages of the game and has rudimentary building abilities. He uses a lot of resources while building or repairing, but that also makes him a really fast worker. He can be upgraded in several ways. You can make him more survivable, a hard hitter or the best builder of your army, but you can’t do it all. You can revoke every upgrade, so making a mistake isn’t a big problem, but reconfiguring your commander takes some time.

Ok, enough of that. Let’s talk about gameplay. In skirmish and multiplayer modes you get the usual goals (destroying the enemy commander, destroying all of his factories or destroying all of his units) – nothing to see here, let’s move along. There’s also a campaign telling the story of the infinite war raging between the three factions. The story’s nothing special: You’re a young commander in the service of your faction and soon become the most able fighter they’ve got. Only you can save them… yadda yadda yadda. From time to time the enemy commanders try to teach you the error of your ways but you can’t actually change sides. There’s one good thing about the story, though: If you’ve played all three campaigns there isn’t actually an evil side. All fight for their cause and think the others are the baddies. Much like in real life, methinks.

The campaign missions themselves offer some twists and turns that make the whole thing more interesting. The most notable feature here is that the map expands when you get a new objective. In some missions, enemy units come from somewhere outside of your current map, but there’s always an enemy base there when the map grows larger. The missions range from fetching supplies, esorting allied units and defending an area for some time to repairing a building within a timelimit. Ultimately, though, you’re always almost asked to take out one or more enemy commanders.

Oops! Almost forgot to write about graphics and sound. I can’t say much about the former because I use the lowest settings (yep, I definitely need a new computer), but the sound’s quite nice. The music is comparable to that of «Total Annihilation», which means it’s orchestral and fits the epic mood of the game. The sound effects are ok, though the “pew pew” of lasers annoys me a bit.

Time to close this case! Summary: «Supreme Commander» is a great game for people who like big battles with a massive amount of units, for people who like to think about strategy rather then tactics and for patient folks. Make sure your computer can handle the game, though. It taxes your processor heavily.

P.S.: Updating the game takes a looooooooooooooong time, so make sure you aren’t in a hurry!

Electronics Retailer Sued for Selling Games

European customer electronics retailer Media Markt was sued by a Swiss politician for selling John Woo’s «Stranglehold». To be more precise, Roland Näf sued the manager of a local branch of Media Markt.

Now, I’ve never played that game myself. But it stands to reason that the graphics and effects aren’t particularly more violent than John Woo’s movies. This politician hasn’t sued cinemas or tv stations for featuring his films nor did he sue Media Markt for selling John Woo DVDs, despite the fact that the law he bases his charges on was specifically written for pictures both moving and static.

Now, the reason Mr. Näf is doing this is that he wants to see how effective this law is when used against video games. He states that Swiss law isn’t strict enough in that respect. Even though the video game industry voluntarily uses a system that prohibits selling overly violent games to minors, kids could still easily get their hands on them, especially since the law doesn’t forbid giving the games to them.

So Mr. Näf wants to ban video games from being produced or sold at all. He wants prohibition. As far as I can remember, prohibition never worked. People just started smuggling forbidden goods. And with games and the internet, “smuggling” games is so much easier than trying to fool customs officers. If people want their games, nothing can stop them.

What Mr. Näf didn’t think about: More and more people are playing games. The community is growing rapidly. And with the Swiss system of government being what it is, prohibiting games just won’t work. Not for long, at least.

Actually, he already tried to change the law but was turned down by the parliament. They said that the law as it is now was good enough and that no connection between video games and violent minors was evident.

Good to know that there are some politicians who actually think about the matter instead of lashing out irrationally.