Today almost ended up being the 'first
day I skipped playing', but the stars finally aligned to permit me to
log back in again – I wanted to complete at least one more set of
the tutorials today – I fancied taking a crack at industry. Now
here's the interesting thing. Had someone asked me going in what I
would have found more interesting, combat would have been fairly high
on my list...and yet, I've found the industry missions a lot more
fun, somehow! Right down to 'cheating' my way through one of the
missions by simply buying an item rather than manufacturing it – I
figure that it is built in, but it felt great fun doing it.
This should really have been no
surprise to me, I suppose. When I played Elite, it was always the
trading that fascinated me – though not as an end in itself, I just
wanted to get better and better ships. (Who didn't!) This has even
greater potential...and I have a feeling that I'm going to end up
going the industrial magnate route in this game, rather than the
hot-rod combat jockey. My plan remains naturally to be sensible and
complete all of the tutorials before I make any final decision, but I
have a feeling that mining is going to be a significant part of the
rest of my trial period...and the fact that I've started training
Mining 4 is no coincidence.
I've always been a big fan of Poul
Anderson's Polesotechnic League, the traders pioneering new markets,
finding new things to exploit, and that style of play certainly feels
possible in EVE – especially since I don't intend to loiter around
as a highsec miner for too long, just enough to build up a decent
little grub stake and get more of a feel for how things work. And
yes, the fact that I am now beginning to work out how I'd like my
character to go – and installed EVEMon this morning – should tell
you a little bit about whether or not I'm going to upgrade.
There's a great feel to this game, and
I rather like the low-intensity feel it has. I can switch back to the
browser for a bit, do a bit of work, then click back to monitor how
everything is going, let the ship fly itself for long hauls. (If
there's a word processor built in somewhere, I'm sold.) This really
is the Elite I dreamed about when I was a kid, isn't it...
Speaking of the industry missions – I
liked them more than the combat ones. There I struggled really to
engage with what was behind it, I felt it a bit like a point and
click exercise – here I got the feeling that I actually was flying
around to earn a buck – and again, the ability to 'trick' out of
one of the missions by hitting the markets is an excellent feature,
it really felt like I had a say in how things were going to evolve.
Then, it came to the last mission. This
required the construction of a frigate from blueprints, and I decided
– being a very lazy man – not to bother going out and mining for
the materials, instead buying them on the open market. I realized
quite quickly that I was going to make a loss on the deal...but what
the hell, I figured I'd go for it. Then I found that one element –
isogen – wasn't available on the station. Not a scrap. This was a
bit annoying, I'd have to go elsewhere to buy it, drag it back, then
build it.
At that point, I realized something. I
wasn't the only newbie here, and I wasn't the only person who would
be wanting to buy their way to easy victory. Instead of just buying
as much isogen as I needed, I filled my cargo holds, I think spending
about a million ISK, and took the lot back home. After using what I
needed, I put the rest up on sale...and it's too early to see whether
it worked or not, whether I made a profit on the deal or not, but
this has sold me on the game
more than anything else so far. I saw an opportunity to make some
ISK, and I went for it. No-one suggested it, the game didn't prompt
it. Whether I make any money out of this or not...this is excellent
stuff.
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