Returning player - overwhelmed and underwhelmed

Communications Center General Discussion
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After nearly 11 years out of the game, I logged back into my 2 accounts today (used to dual-box a Miner + Hauler, 2 combats, and a trader + manufacturer) and found many changes in my absence.

The biggest is obviously the Omega vs Alpha funding model. Most of my high-end skills (and therefore ships) are now inaccessible, and I can’t dual-box with an Alpha which limits my in-game productivity.

The cost of playing has doubled since I last logged in, and aside from tackling the learning curve all over again, I’m not sure I’ll be getting value for money any more with Omega. Potentially the cost of CCP supporting EVE has doubled over the last 10 years, but that doesn’t mean I’m getting double the enjoyment for that cost.

I’m assuming that the funding model is now basically, “serious” players fund free-to-play for noobs (?)

I’m currently sitting on about 7B isk in cash, and probably the same or more in assets. I’m thinking about playing for a month with 2 Omega accounts to see if I can get back into the game, but does anyone have advice on the best way to reintroduce myself, or comments on the current funding model that is relevant to my situation (not looking for CCP-flaming, genuine advice only please).

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Were you ever able to dual-box with an Alpha?

Also, skills and ships available to Alphas haven’t changed. That’s how they have been from the start. Your skills and ships aren’t inaccessible to you. You just have to pay Omega to use them like back when you got those ships in the first place.

CCP raised the subscription cost from 15 eur a month to 20 eur a month a while ago. That’s 33% increase, not 100%.

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For those paying 3 months at a time…its just a 25% increase.

Hmm. Various changes to EVE…

  1. You can no longer set Alphas to red status in highsec.

  2. Mining ships have had various changes…for example Procurer has one less mid slot and longer align time.

  3. The TTT station is gone…or rather there is a wreck where it once stood.

  4. There’s a whole bunch of new ships…and capabilities such as breacher pods.

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Hi Dante,

Welcome back.

You wrote: “I’m currently sitting on about 7B isk in cash, and probably the same or more in assets. I’m thinking about playing for a month with 2 Omega accounts to see if I can get back into the game, but does anyone have advice on the best way to reintroduce myself, or comments on the current funding model that is relevant to my situation (not looking for CCP-flaming, genuine advice only please).”

A single PLEX, based on how you choose to purchase it, costs around 5 million ISK. If you find the New Eden Store from within your player account and look up the cost in PLEX for 1, 3, 6, 12 or 24 months of OMEGA play you will sometimes see it running at a discount. For instance at the moment 12 months of OMEGA is 2,700 PLEX. In other words it will cost you around 13.5 billion ISK. So you will certainly have enough residual ISK to run both your accounts for around 3 months if you look for the right deals. So using your ISK to fund both accounts for a month is well within your budget.

As for getting back into the game a lot has changed in the past 11 years. But if you want to mine, haul, trade and manufacture it is still largely the same in principle. So you should get into the flow of the game very quickly.

One thing I like is the veteran player base is now much more senior. You will commonly run into players in the their sixties and seventies now still playing the game. Most of these people are really chilled out and have diversified into light corporations running in set areas of the map where High Sec and Low Sec are not so attractive to major corporations. So mature players can freely enjoy the game at a far less stressful level. I ran into a pleasant 75 year old the other evening and we spent most of our time just chatting. In this respect Eve has become much more social. Also on the belts now most people running an Orca freely allow players into their fleet once they have been spotted visiting the area to mine for a little while. So there is far less emphasis on null corporate behaviour along with the nerd fights as players have now carved out an entirely new game for themselves in areas of High Sec bordering on Low Sec.

To help you out with setting up your HUD, you will find this material, even if it is a few years old, much more helpful than some newer material on offer https://www.youtube.com/@NewbEden/videos A number of new guides are really little more than plagiarism from some core guidance produced in earlier times. So rather than picking up a pre-made overview, learn to make your own as this will help you to better understand how much has changed in the past few years. Just take it slowly, day by day, rather than overloading too much on yourself to start with. In short just see if you can learn to enjoy it once again and most importantly only play at your own level.

If you have any rare ships from the past, and there are quite a few around, keep them docked up for now until because these can now be very valuable. The price you can sell some of these for will make your current ISK savings appear quite paltry. So check the price of any novelty ships you might have first and then check the price of your items next. Just incase you are actually an Eve trillionaire without knowing it.

All good things and take your time learn to fly all over again, possibly by starting a new character to do all the tutorials first. That way you will find most of the answers out for yourself.

Andrew Earth

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Back then alpha didn’t exist and outside the short trial period you couldn’t play at all without paying the subscription. So you’ve always paid for 2 accounts regardless of multiboxing or not.

No it hasn’t.

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Welcome back, it’s changed a lot since then. The miner/hauler model has been replaced with the miner/booster model using the larger ore holds now available in some of the mining ships.

Alpha is an open-ended trial, not a way to play the game full time. Prior to Alphas, you could only play for free for 21 days, so high end skills have always been locked from you, and you’ve always had to pay to have two accounts online at once. Not dual-boxing isn’t what’s limiting your productivity, not paying for the game is what’s doing it.

It was US$15/mo when I started in 2005, it is now US$20/mo. That is not double, that’s 25%.

Again, Alpha is an open-ended free trial. I’ve not found anyone yet who ever thought the old 21 day trial was long enough to really grasp if you wanted to pay for this game or not. Most got drawn in by the flash and newness, only to leave bitter and disappointed because Eve isn’t what they thought it was.

My advice is to continue to sit on that cash and assets, take one Alpha and go gas huffing with a Venture in wormholes for a couple weeks. That’s a super cheap way to get back into the game by diving in the deep end, and before long you’ll be able to PLEX Omega without dipping into those assets.

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To be mathematically correct: going from 15 a month to 20 a month is a 33% increase in cost. If you go from 20 a month to 15 a month, then it’s a 25% decrease.

Not that it matters that much. Both numbers are way below 100% increase he quoted.

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Alpha and Omega didn’t exist when I last played, and you’re assuming I’m based in the US paying USD$, which I’m not. The conversion rate also factors into the price increase.

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Before Alpha, you had to have a paid subscription to even connect to the game after the trial ended.

With Alpha, new players can learn the game for free up to a certain point, and decide whether or not to buy Omega. Returning players can take their knowledge of the game and assets reserved from their last time playing, and use Alpha to accumulate the wealth to purchase Omega.

Mine gas with a Venture in wormholes. (cheap)

Blitz FW sites for LP. (inexpensive)

Run Abysses with a Worm. (expensive)

These are all valid ways for Alphas to earn the required isk to PLEX their account in a reasonable amount of time. A “filthy casual” style player can earn enough through these methods to PLEX in a couple weeks, or you could do it in a weekend if you really grind.

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CCP offers pretty big discounts when buying Omega for a longer time. Since EVE is a long-term game, buying 1-month-subs is imho absolutely not worth it, 6months packages is the least I would ever buy.

You have enough assets, I’d suggest the following:

  • stay Alpha for a few days or maybe some weeks, fly around and read a bit about what has changed. Get in contact with people. EVE sucks as a solo player!
  • look for a group that offers interesting content (no idea what you like the most in the game, but there are specialized groups for everything)
  • tell them you’d go to two Omegas if you decide to come back and get familiar with them. Join their comms, see how active they are, see what their OPs look like, what options for making profit they offer…
  • if it fits, buy two omega packs for your two chars with your assets. If you stay in the game you will easily get that money back before the omega expires
  • if you don’t stay, it doesn’t hurt you since the assets would then be useless for you anyway.
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Nope, I love being solo now.

No gate camps, no corp mining fleets, no Sanctum/Haven fleets for corp funds etc.

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Tbh, you sound like you simply don’t know what you are missing. Like you never had a good group to begin with.

Anyone wanting to play “solo” is better off with the X-series. A lot more to do, a lot less trouble with other players, no subscription model and you can pause whenever you want.

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I’ve been here over 13 years, been with both good and bad groups in that time and spent time renting in null.

Some of us don’t need to be surrounded by others all the time as we’re comfortable in our own company.

Now I find it more rewarding just chilling and doing what I want, when I want and handing out boosts now and then to perfect strangers mining ore or ice, or even offering them a spot in a lvl4 mission for the loot.

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You can do exactly that in a good group whenever you like. Plus ten times more. Highsec dwelling might suit a few rare cases of hard bittervetism. It’s the worst advice for anyone thinking about getting a sub for this game or not.

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I didn’t remember the exact year Omega-Alpha were introduced off the top of my head. Apparently it was in 2016.
What was a 14-day trial, or sometimes a 21-day trial is now the equivalent of Alpha. As others have pointed out. Bottom line: you’re not locked out of your fancy ships. Once you activate Omega — a subscription — everything in the game will be available again. You had to have the sub back in the day to fly the ships in the first place.

I quoted Euros for you:

How is that assuming you’re American? I actually didn’t assume a thing. I only know how much EVE subscription costs and has cost in Europe, since I am in EU. I can’t quote subs in any other currency for that matter.

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That would be because I used US$.

It’s what I see when I look at the store page.

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Exactly 100%..

During the past 17 years, I’ve been subbed and playing this game for most of that time… Never felt the need to join a player corp or alliance… Over the years I’ve fleeted up with other players at various times… Definitely fun to do and I’ll always jump in when needed…

However I mostly like the freedom of flying solo which fits my game play style of being a Nomadic Explorer…

As for being subbed, that gives freedom to jump into lot’s of other content… So yeah, in my opinion it doesn’t matter if you’re in a corp or flying solo, what matters is that you’re having fun playing the game the way you want, not how others think you should be playing…

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