Having an incentive to play, even when you cannot play reliably

Was replying to erg cz.

Yeah, interruptions are frequent,btw
and I imagine that if I play on casual I won’t have much fun or progress. The only casual thing this game gives you is either agents (repetitive and boring) or FW. Don’t know about faction warfare, but many say it’s pretty useless and broken

Playing 2 hours a week (example), 8 hours a month = 2$ per our. Not very convenient

Since I know mostly about PvP. I’d say try out solo PvP or cloaky hunting.

With solo PvP you have full control over your own time. I’ve roamed lowsec as a solo pirate most of my eve career and lowsec is filled with stations you can just dock up in if you need to go (Obviously, you need to be at the keyboard when you engaged, but solo engagements don’t take very long). The same can be said about cloaky hunting in something like a Stratios. Since you cloaky, whenever you need to go you just cloak up.

The stratios was just an example. Since you new, you might not have money for that. But it can still be done in something like a stealth bomber, your engagement profile is just smaller.

It’s possible to play very adhoc and casual … however to get to a setup giving you that option takes some time. The setup for me looks like, that I live in Perimeter (highsec, near Jita) and most times just fool around when online nowadays.

… doing event sites every month, which needs almost no commitment, just a couple of minutes per site with the right setup (Loki, Macharial)

… looking for wormhole chains to lowsec in the nearby systems to roam a bit for solo PvP and DED sites (Loki), you can dock in NPC stations if you have to stop

… going for a relic exploration run to nullsec if Thera holes are available (Ares). This needs some hours commitment, though you can make breaks by cloaking up in system

… submit some industry jobs, if profits look good (Prowler, Mastodon, Fenrir)

… and finally take care about my market orders in Jita and Amarr, while frequenting some chats and forum.

Once or twice a week I join an NPSI public fleet with a 2-3h commitment (I can fly almost every subcap with near max skills), which can be planned. I pay my single account with cash, but have enough ISK to not worry about any losses (made from manufacturing and market speculation in the last 2 years).

3 Likes

I find myself sitting in the belt for what time allows specifically for this. If I have to quit I just recall drones and warp home.

@Tipa_Riot gives some very good options. For PvP, if your alliance is one of the big new player ones, most fleets will have a ‘newbie’ wing of tackle frigates or suchlike. When I face the same issues as you describe, I will usually fly alongside these, so if I’m called away, I lose a Rifter or some such at most. The key thing is not to take on a responsibility in a fleet that would let your friends down.

Similarly, cheap frigate/destroyer action as a pirate or faction warrior in lowsec is an ideal option. You can find fights reasonably easily, but if you have to go and lose the ship, who cares.

However, it may simply be that your lifestyle doesn’t suit a MMO like EvE, which does tend overall to require a lot of time investment to really enjoy. If you aren’t having fun or feeling that you have to ‘force’ yourself into a play style, there’s lots of other games.

2 Likes

I have 2 modes of play. One is when I can and want to commit to the game, I’ll log in a character that mostly does solo pvp, but you can substitute that with fleet stuff or whatever you want.

The other mode is my chill mode, when I can’t commit (because I can be called away or KNOW I won’t have much time) or don’t WANT to commit. Then I’ll log in a character like this one who really only does High sec space combat exploration, High sec means I can drop it pretty much any second I want or need to, it still makes good income (200-500 mil per session and generally close to 500, I’ve had 1 bil+ days, and yes this is in high sec only) and I very much enjoy doing it, also because it allows me to chat with others so i mostly hang in Rookie channel helping newbies.


So for you I’d probably suggest to make a second character which you then have to train up (doesn’t have to be long), drop it outside of null sec or WH space. This means you’re away from dangerous space that forces you to commit and it also means you’re away from the “pressure” and business of your alliance.

And then go do something that you actually enjoy doing, so it’s active but not demanding (so not more PI nonsense for instance, that isn’t exactly “playing”) while not being critical to you. You might even make a pvp alt and do low sec pvp fit with, only flying cheapo frigates. If you lose one because you had to go afk, you lost 3 mil… who cares.

TL;DR make an alt that isn’t in your main corp or alliance (or perhaps any corp), do enjoyable stuff on it that if it goes wrong doesn’t really matter to you.

How can you do that? What kind of sites do you run and what fit? :slight_smile:

FW seems interesting for my needs… for now. WIll try it with an alt

Maybe… and I say maybe… faction warfare can fulfill my fast need for blood without being bored to much or risking my “life”. The progression gives also some satisfaction :smiley:
I say this after some research and “deep thinking”

I’ve used many ships for it. From Navy omens, Phantasms, Munins, Cerberus, just to see how well they’d do. Best for this is a Sentry ishtar or Sentry stratios. A gila isn’t so great for it due to travel time on medium drones. You can start doing it just fine in a basic destroyer although you can’t do all sites then but you have to get used to it anyway. I made an alpha alt that use a Navy Omen for it and it works out just fine.

The trick is to optimise: ONLY go for very specific sites (DED and Unrated, and then only the main faction. Not drone sites and certainly not anoms), ONLY go for the main loot and not waste time with normal loot or salvage crap.

And then it’s a case of finding good systems for it that on average have a high chance of spawning a site than others (bookmark every site you find, after a while you’ll notice how some are better than others). rom there you start to optimise more: get better/faster at scanning, get better/faster at completing the sites.

Ship wise just a combat destroyer with the right damage types and resists that can do lvl 1.5 missions (that’s kinda how hard the easy sites are), and simply at a core probe launcher to it even if that means having to drop a turret or missile launcher.

A cruiser that can do the more difficult sites needs the following stats: Have a 300+ hp/s tank vs the faction type of choice, be able to do damage at 50km, preferably more than 400 dps and obviously using the right damage types.

1 Like

Those are found in the agency, right?

scanner window, alt+p, you’ll have to scan the cosmig sigs.

Sites can be found here: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Combat_sites
ONLY go for the mention DED and Unrated sites (and any escalation you might get)

Destroyers can only do the easier sites So Faction Lookout and the 3/10 of that faction.

Once you have a GOOD cruiser with a solid tank and dps, AND you put in effort to learn the sites up front (some can be nasty if you just bumrush it) you can also do the Faction Watch and Vigil sites and the 4/10 of that faction.

Don’t bother with funky frigates like Worms or Astero’s, don’t bother with T3 destroyers. They’re horrible for it.

Here’s an example loot drop from a 4/10 site. They can give up to 350ish mil so this is quite a good one. BUT it’s rng so you could do 10 sites in a row and get fck all.

Here’s what I got in about 90 minutes before down time:

But again, it IS random and only if you start to do “volume” you get an on average decent income.

I’ll attest to having picked up combat explo tips from Markus and achieving a degree of success and enjoyment for similar reasons. Bit of a lottery because of the RNG, of course, but it’s calm and allows for chatting.

As an example, my little Coercer netted me around 250 mil in a 2.5-hr session yesterday running a mixture of Sansha 3/10 DED sites and Drone sites (Desolate Site and Chemical Yard) and escalations. Doesn’t happen every day, but it can.

1 Like

You could try some DED sites and explo in a cloaky, if you need to AFK jsut warp out and cloak.

You could be a scammer.

If you don’t want to play, then you should not play.

Anyone who needs to be baited into playing, which is what “incentives” are actually about, does not actually want to play that game. When a game requires “incentives” to get people to play it, then the game’s simply ■■■■.

You having different priorities is perfectly fine. When people need to be baited into playing, then that’s a problem, because it’s borderlining really close to creating addictions.

Anyone who does not want to play a game for playing’s sake, or in other words: because he wants to play it … well … does not want to play it, and the game’s not worth being played.

1 Like

It’s almost like… incentives work… :thinking:

Nah it must be my imagination.

If my wife wont let me spend 2-3 hours a day for a hobby i say ■■■■ wife like that. She dont have any rights to force me to stop doing what i like. If she cant deal with the fact that i have a hobby… better to divorce.

Replace incentive with “reason to play actively, doing an active, non-passive activity”. Maybe I’m using the wrong words

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.