First off, I know EVE in a major time “worm hole”. I wouldn’t even consider playing if my life circumstances didn’t allow me ample time to play. I’m a solo player and I’ve come to the conclusion that I really don’t (as a solo player) need more iSK. SO, I’m basically just playing to accumulate money that I really don’t need. I only fly cruisers and smaller as the bigger ships are just too slow and bore me to death. I primarily do low/null/wormhole exploration and combat sites (not wormhole). Having a Helios, a Stratios, an Ishtar and a Proteus is pretty much all I need. There are some sites (6/10 and above) which can get tricky in a cruiser so I could get a Battleship if I really wanted. I came to this conclusion when I found that I accumulate more money each month and replace lost ships with the time I spend playing. So, if I just stayed in the Dock I would really not need to play anymore. It’s just a time wasting exercise for me. Add to this the issue with PLEX (which I think really hurt the game) where you spend 20 bucks and for a couple a billion ISK so if there is anything I need and I’m lazy, I can have it in 5 minutes. I guess I could try more group play but I’m usually a solo player so not sure about that. I wish the game have more solo goals because I really do think it’s a wonderful game. I don’t think any other game (except for the upcoming single player Starfall) which would keep me interested after have played and experienced EVE.
Have you tried killing other players?
Not really my thing. And again, what’s the end goal. I like the fact that you can always be attacked. Makes exploration more exciting, but whether I’m killing PVE or PVP, the game really has no reach goal for solo players.
How do you know it’s not your thing if you haven’t tried it yet?
Make your own goals if you insist on playing solo. There are social groups/channels you can interact with as you choose during your gameplay - again, if you insist on playing solo.
Then you might be interested in Signal cartel (I think they’re still around… @Katia_Sae …do you know?
I guess I don’t. But even if I REALLY liked it and practiced to be really good at it, at best it would give me more ISK and nothing to spend it on as a solo player. The game mechanics are designed for group play (which is great) but I wish CCP put in half the effort for solo player goals
EvE doesn’t have goals, you need to define them yourself. What do you want to achieve?
That’s the question, what is there to achieve as a solo player? I was kind of hoping to get ideas from the forum
I think you’re greatly misunderstanding the motivations behind PvP.
Some say it’s the journey not the destination…
Yes I agree, I’ve LOVED the journey. I’ve been playing for quite a long time. But now, I feel there isn’t (as a solo player) anywhere worth going anymore.
I think motivation is different for each individual. I always imaged the hardcore PVPers as people who are disgruntled in real life. Need to get there aggressions out… Not really interesting to me. That probably why I spent most of my time in wormhole exploration. relaxed and alone. Hehe. I play games for the fun aspect, don’t really have any aggression to release.
Well, with that attitude, it’s no wonder you’re bored and unfulfilled.
You’re going to need to address your latent psychological issues with gaming “violence” before you start having fun in games about violence. Or just let it all fester while trying to find entertainment in grinding it up, until you finally reach your breaking point and quit like so many others do. By doing what you do, you’ve set an artificially low progression ceiling for yourself in EVE. Now, you’ll have to choose to either break through that ceiling, or you might as well just quit, because as you’ve admitted, there’s obviously no more fun to be had in the content to which you’ve limited yourself. Why prolong the pain?
(Mostly) solo player here. My passion is it to accomplish everything with one char only (+ one banker to hold my ISK). A long term goal I already achieved was to become top killer of all time in my noob corp FNA (without padding).
Another one was to become +5 with all Empires (to have access to almost all locator agents), then +7 with Trigs (and +5 with Edencom) in order to access the home systems in Pochven via gates.
Now I’m fooling around in lowsec and Pochven, and engage in combat whatever sounds promising, or roam Black Rise with my lowsec buddies. PvP is what makes the difference for me because every session is different and holds new encounters, chats, and surprises.
… and I’m not “disgruntled”, lol, I do have a challenging RL job where I have to solve complex problems every day, so solving the simple problems of EvE PvP is relaxing for me. ;D
It’s advertised as a role-playing game.
As a lonely player myself my measure for achievment jollies is to push the envelope of the in-game storyline.
It’s a hard row to plow tho and there are no badges to collect.*
Just the satisfaction of a five rank tertis when years of speculation and planing come together in the New Eden News.
The game is you verses dungion master CCP DelegateZero. He does a top-notch job of maintaining the deepest lore rabbit holes.
Read the world news, see how your words and deeds have influenced it.
*That’s not true if you count medals.
Also check out @Ashterothi The Voice of New Eden on youtube to remain informed.
Nope. Most of them, in fact, are pretty laid back and chill people. Heck, you go out to null, the biggest, most complex battles in online gaming take place, and most of the people involved tend to be chatting with the rest of their fleet in voice comms, laughing, having a good ol’ time.
For myself, what motivated me was the challenge. I’m not a big duellist, I don’t go looking to rack up kills. But when you’re running a logi wing, and your job is to keep your 40 guys alive and in position to rep the fleet while you weave through a field of 2000 hostiles looking to start off by killing the logi and cripple that fleet… that’s not easy. Especially when you’re flying through molasses. Knowing that not only was I able to handle the information management needed to track all of the hostile fleets’ movement, my own movement, and the movement of every last one of the friendly fleets well enough that my logi guys could keep our fleet alive and help rep allied fleet commanders / critical ships (like boosters and friendly logi), but that for a time, I was demonstrably one of the best in the game at it? Yeah, that had nothing to do with aggression and everything to do with challenging myself to beat myself, to constantly improve in ways no other game can even offer.
The same thing there is to achieve in every other game you play solo, from solitaire to any MMO: satisfaction. The real question is: what do you want to achieve? Have you explored every WH system? Have you beaten the hardest Abyssal runs? Have you challenged yourself to things like running lowsec and dodging pirates, going into FW to run sites, even you (try to) bail on the PvP parts?
The only limit to what you can achieve is your ability to think of goals to set for yourself.
Luckily for you, it is only a made up imaginary thing.
For the rest of us who do enjoy PVP, chilling on comms, talking with friends, sharing moments of boom and bust, we have to put up with god-awful stereotypes like this. If you wonder why people have chips on their shoulder when encountering attitudes like yours, it’s because you’re the one secreting toxic bile under some delusion that you’re “being civil” by calling folks like us “disgruntled in real life”.
None of us called you anything IRL for “doing low/null/wormhole exploration” and you’d rightfully call us out as toxic griefers if we did.
Disagree. People play sport as an enjoyable and…yes…relaxing activity, yet certainly some might consider sport “aggressive”.
In EvE every few months I go on a “walkabout” and just look at stuff. https://evetravel.wordpress.com/ is a useful resource for that. Going on a circuit through null seeing how far around one can get through before getting popped (with and without a cloak) is also enjoyable. Unarmed ship, living is winning, pitting your wits against folks who very much don’t want you on their turf.
Make your own goals and change what you do once in a while is my opinion.
o/
Not knowing you, I can only speculate based upon what you’ve written; but, I think you’ve not considered the wide variety of options available when dealing with other players…that are available to the primarily solo player.
You don’t have to join a corporation; as others have mentioned you can join a “social chat” or several “social chats” and just let the conversations there stimulate your creative thinking.
Over the years, these are some of the things I’ve done…with other players, while not being in a corporation…with any of those players, 
.
- Scouting
- I’ve built ships for players
- I’ve provided long-term reconnaissance for a corp transitioning to low sec
- War decs against corps I didn’t like
- “Private Eye” activities to determine if new players were being used/abused, and organizing activities to address the situations I did find
- I saw another player talking about market manipulation, and tried that
- I’m still working on my long-term goal of visiting every system in New Eden
- Just parking yourself in one of the new player/starter systems and talking to them (admittedly more difficult now, but…still an option)
- Try collecting…ships, modules, whatever strikes your fancy…heck, one of every holiday gift. Collecting rare items can involve a lot of “horse trading”.
- Visiting “tourist destinations”, with new players.
Let your imagination fly.
o7
Why do you play EVE?
Feels to me like you played EVE to make ISK in order to play EVE, but came to the point that you figured out you don’t really need more ISK, so now you have no reason to play either.
Have you tried playing EVE to just try new things? Explore gameplay styles you haven’t tried before? Helping new players, joining NPSI fleets, building your own ships, building a clothes collection, setting a killmark goal for a ship you enjoy… anything?
Without a goal, I too would see little point in playing.
Set a fun goal for yourself!