Hello there!
So a couple of days ago I decided to try EVE Online for the first time. (created the account quite a while back but never actually tried to play the game). So I did the tutorial and chose Enforcer as my carreer path (which I think is PvE combat? The game is really not clear on what the difference between Enforcer and Soldier of Fortune is). The career agent quest chain is actually quite nice and I learned some basic stuff. Then the game just drops you into the universe without any guidance, which is really bad in my opinion. But ok I did some googling and someone said to do the Sisters of EVE epic arc.
So I did that. Which was fine I guess but I never felt like I did anything meaningful besides wasting time. Up until the end where you get 2 quests to kill a specific âBossâ enemy (forgot their names). Those were interesting as they forced me to actually think and prepare. Now I again think the game does a very bad job at actually teaching you what to look for. Some basic introduction quest like âlook this guy got high resistance against x, you should use y instead!â would really go a long way. But EVE isnât the first game with terrible ingame informations I have played. So after some mighty Google-Fu, market browsing and napkin math later I managed to use some of the money I earned during the epic arc to get myself a ship that was able to do the job. (was some destroyer ship using rockets)
So again I am at the point of âWhat to do next?â I am sure there is something. But during all this time I realised that nothing I did in the game actually progressed me. Everything seems to be either locked by time and/or money (ISK or whatever it is called). So to get to my question:
Is there any point in actually playing the game? I did some googling but I never find an answer to this. It appears to me that your character has to learn some skills and then you can use the items/ships you unlocked. Since the skills seem to be solely tied to a timer and getting your ship/equiptment is just a question of money it does appear to me that actually playing the game is really pointless. Is this true or did I miss something big?
In the games I play I really like the process of becoming stronger but I donât enjoy just being strong. So if it all boils down to me having to wait for a timer to run down like in some garbage facebook game and then spending money to buy a ship/item I really donât think I can enjoy the game. I have seen that you can spend RL cash to speed up both things but I donât really want to do that. Can I do something in the game to meaningfully progress my character in the career as an enforcer?
To get it exactly: If I decide to play EVE for 10 hours tomorrow, is there a way for me to be stronger (or progress in a meaningful way) than if I decide to not play EVE that day at all and just buy the same amount of money I could have earned ingame using RL Cash?
Sorry if this comes off as whiny (this is not my intent) but I am just trying to decide if it is worth it for me to invest more time into the game or if it is fundamentally designed in a way I dislike. Most new player tutorials never talk about how the basic concept of the game and progression in it actually work. They seem to be more concerned with telling people what not to do.