EVE Online Going Free-to-Play

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/eve...GSS-05-10aaa0b

Clone States being introduced to create two types of EVE Online players.

13-years after its launch, EVE Online is going free-to-play, developer CCP Games has announced. The new subscription-free experience is being introduced by way of a feature called "Clone States."

The game will create two variants of players: Alpha Clones and Omega Clones. The former are able to "train and use a specific set of skills to fly some of the most often-used ships." Although these characters are able to experience the majority of the EVE Online's gameplay experience, their character development is somewhat restricted and they train skills at a slower rate than usual. They serve as a base character for those playing for free.

The Omega Clones, meanwhile, represent the current EVE players paying for access. They have "unlimited access to skill progression and rapid skill training." An active subscription can be purchased to develop an Alpha Clone into an Omega Clone. Those that allow their subscription to lapse will revert to an Alpha state; unlocked skills exclusive to the Omega Clones will be preserved, but won't be accessible until the a subscription is renewed.

In a video message explaining the decision to go free-to-play, CCP indicated the move was motivated by a need for growth, and to ensure players don't leave as a result of having to pay a subscription.

"We know that the mandatory monthly subscription is a big barrier for new players," explained executive producer Andie Nordgren. "It's also one of our most common cancellation reasons for those who leave EVE.

"At the same time, EVE was very much designed as a subscription game from the start," she continued. "And it has been a challenge to find a way to change that without also messing with the fundamentals that we really love about the EVE."

In a blog post on the EVE Online website, CCP said more players makes the EVE universe more interesting to play in.

"As you know, EVE is a very special game. Our single shard server means that every player truly affects every other, whether through economics, resource gathering, direct combat or bad posting. This in turn means that our universe is more interesting, more exciting and more dangerous with each additional citizen.

"Part of our vision for the future of EVE has included more open access for some time, but with the interconnected nature of the game comes vulnerability. We knew that if the flood gates were opened in the wrong way, we could see anything from server meltdowns to the collapse of the EVE economy. Over time, our hardware has improved, code has been untangled (mostly!) and we’ve found a design we believe in."

Clone States will be introduced in a "big November 2016 expansion." The game's sandbox gameplay will also be improved as part of this update with the addition of Industrial Arrays, "a new class of player-built structures furthering the progress of Citadel structures introduced in April."

A "new ship, tactical adjustments to warfare links, exciting changes for the Rorqual industrial capital ship, and more" will be announced in the future.

In other CCP Games news, the studio is exploring VR and launched a first-person dogfighting game called EVE: Valkyrie for Oculus Rift. It is also working on Gunjack, which will be exclusive to the Samsung Gear VR.

[Medusa Cascade]

More meat for the grinder

[flarecde]

I feel like free-to-play is a bit of a misnomer, there's still a subscription and free accounts are very limited. It's more like an unlimited trial.

Still, it's a great change.

[Medusa Cascade]

I should join a gank corp

[dope_danny]

Not too surpising. Its not on the slowest decline but its certainly not a growing userbase as is. Gotta throw more meat into this grinder.

[Edge-]

I'm pretty K with this. Been meaning to give the game a good...eventually, hopefully I'll have cleared some MMO's/games off my list by November so I can see if it's worth subbing to Spreadsheet Simulator.

[stomination]

I'm pretty K with this. Been meaning to give the game a good...eventually, hopefully I'll have cleared some MMO's/games off my list by November so I can see if it's worth subbing to Spreadsheet Simulator.

I played it for a few days. It was fun in the regard of starting up but I didn't really see much of anyone which might have been a good thing. I prbly would have kept playing if i didn't have other games that took up my time.

[Tryuk]

So it's like the trial but without the weekly limit? Cool, essentially the same change WoW made

RIP the people who deal with recruitment for Horde though.

[Dezerte]

Worth another try then I guess, I could never justify the subscription cost to my wallet and the amount I played.

[Heathy]

holy crap really, this is gunna sting the economy, honestly for a game like Eve with its rather delicate balance doesn't half get its fair share of tree rockers.

[Zeta333]

I'm pretty K with this. Been meaning to give the game a good...eventually, hopefully I'll have cleared some MMO's/games off my list by November so I can see if it's worth subbing to Spreadsheet Simulator.

Unless you plan on getting seriously into it, its just going to a basic novetly. I cant honestly reccomend the game anymore with the devs doing dumb shit after dumb shit and going down the same path i saw wow going down.

[Yunru]

It would be better if they invested into eve 2 tho. With a ability to move ships and not be forced to click.


EVE: Valkyrie kinda, but not a crappy VR. But they would have to make a fresh start.

[Halicia]

I played Eve back in beta (seriously. honestly. I did.) and I enjoyed it, but didn't form any personal connections there and ended up moving on to other things.

I more recently went back to it to give it a fair shake and *really* try to get into it, because I *really* get into the economic side of MMOs, and nothing compares to Eve in that regard. I couldn't even get past the tutorial before uninstalling it.

I'm not saying this is a fault of the game, but for me personally, the paywall is not what deterred me in the least.

If the players they're likely to attract are like me (which is a huge "what if"), then a F2P option isn't really attracting the hardcore players that the game is oriented towards to begin with.

[Zeta333]

It would be better if they invested into eve 2 tho. With a ability to move ships and not be forced to click.


EVE: Valkyrie kinda, but not a crappy VR. But they would have to make a fresh start.

Honestly i see them sinking as a company before they do this. Eve is at a turning point right now. All this new shit they try and evenutally do implement is bugged to shit and takes ALOT of work to get to mesh with the legacy jesus old code that the game was laid down with. They are going to run into more and more problems implementing new things due to clashs in old and new code that it would be better to spend a year or so rewriting the code than it would be spending all this time making it work with old code. Right now the game is in a state where we really need a solid year of them fixing shit they have released have working or broken than we need new content.

[Razael]

I'm pretty K with this. Been meaning to give the game a good...eventually, hopefully I'll have cleared some MMO's/games off my list by November so I can see if it's worth subbing to Spreadsheet Simulator.

You've been saying that for a couple years now xD

[Edge-]

You've been saying that for a couple years now xD

I swear, one of these days I'll finally get around to getting characters to end-game in the few dozen MMO's I play! And I'll try the dozens of others I've been meaning to! And I'll get to my Steam backlog! And my Netflix queue! And catch up on all the music I've been missing!

: (

[Heathy]

lots of ppl call eve a spread sheet simulator although, its really not, unless you want it to be.

I can play the game perfectly fine and only really use 1 tool, pyfa. thats all you need. maybe a wormhole mapper like siggy if you live in w-space.

the only time your going to be heavy on the spread sheet is if you go into heavy trading or manufacturing. even then once the formulas are setup your literally inputting 1 number and simply having the sheet crank out how many materials you need. like an advanced calculator. its hardly staring at spreadsheet all the time, actually for me the last time I used a spreadsheet for eve was over 4 years ago. some alliances have their timers in a spreadsheet that maybe where it comes from.

[DarkAmbient]

The number of people playing EVE has been on a downward trend these last few years and we're now back to 2007 levels of players online. CCP been busy implementing ways of extracting cash from its decreasing playerbase and now they're offering F2P. They're hoping the F2P people will spend money on the New Eden Store for cosmetic items and PLEX to buy skill injectors. I don't see EVE returning to its peak again. The game's mechanics are old and despite the eye candy - the game looks really nice - the gameplay compares very poorly to more recent titles.

[kail]

I did play the game for a good 1 1/2 years until I couldn't lie to myself anymore; the gameplay style just wasn't for me, too "indirect". Having said that, I absolutly wish the game good fortune. It's one of the rare MMOs that I believe defines the MMO genre, BDO being another.

[notanmmmonewbie]

It would be better if they invested into eve 2 tho. With a ability to move ships and not be forced to click.

I read a few years back from a dev that the reason they have click to move is to reduce latency. Instead of a WASD system that checks position and KBM inputs constantly they opted for point, click and move or simple commands like stay XXXX meters from target or orbit at XXXX meters. So the limiting factor doesnt appear to be the game or the devs.