So, on the patch day I already had the character created and the unpatched EVE installed. Out of curiosity I tried to login to EVE some hours before the downtime was due to be over. I was offered to download and install the Apocrypha so I did. It was a huge download, well over a gigabyte. While downloading I took a look at the EVE website. There were lots of event news coming in all the time. Having already read a couple of the recent chronicles which had foreshadowed what was on the news it felt like something big was happening in New Eden at the very moment. I enjoyed the immersion this unraveling story gave.
Then the downtime ended. There was another patch to download, but it was small. Finally, the game! Logged in and went through the Aura tutorials that popped up. After wondering a bit what to put in the skill queue I did the tutorial missions in the starter system and received more popups from Aura. Next I was given a choice about my character path: industry, trade or combat. Mission agents were referred for each of them.
I chose combat and contacted Fykalia Adaferid at Republic Military School in Hadaugago. I was given a 10 mission arc 'Cash flow for Capsuleers'. Many of these involved dealing with Angel Cartel pirates. After shooting my way through the missions I had gained only little loot from the wrecks, the real rewards were important skillbooks to inject and even implants for which I didn't have the skills to use yet. Since implants speed up skill learning I made it top priority to learn the skills required to use implants. Realizing that learning skills would be useful for the same reason I put a bit of them on the queue too. In the end of the combat arc I got a rifter - nice combat frigate.
I was suggested by an agent to sometime go see Sister Alitura at Sisters Of EVE Bureau in Arnon. It is the start for the epic mission arc, one of the new things in Apocrypha. Before heading there I decided to continue going through these tutorial mission arcs so I would be ready for any epic challenges ahead.
Next was the 10 mission trade arc 'Balancing the books'. This was given to me by Latorfani Aldimund, also residing at Republic Military School in Hadaugago. The few enemies that appeared were nothing more than target practice for my rifter, the autocannons teared through them like they were made of hot air wrapped in tinfoil. However, as easy as this was for someone from the military school, the trade arc was obviously more profitable than the combat arc. Rewards were similar to the combat arc, but more valuable - I was given implants and skillbooks, including the skillbooks for salvaging and hacking, worth 900000 ISK a piece. I also got to try out the mini-professions (salvaging, archaeology and hacking) and tried a little manufacturing by making some ammo with a single run blueprint copy. The final ship reward for this arc was a wreathe - small industrial ship with a cargo capacity of 3300m3.
At this point I was getting tired of missioning and didn't go for the industry arc. Apparently it is called 'Making Mountains of Molehills' and looks like an introduction into mining, manufacturing and invention jobs. Maybe some day... or then again, maybe not.
All in all going through at least one or two of these mission arcs seem like a very good primer to the game. The missions aren't hard and the lessons learned are useful. Some of the rewards are substantial, at least for a newbie. I have to say the time bonuses on missions I've ran after these arcs are regularly a joke. In most cases, spending a couple of minutes salvaging the wrecks from the mission considerably increases the profits even if the time bonus is lost. As the missions start to get more difficult the usefulness of salvaging profession gets more pronounced too.
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Character creation
Meow Morta came to be just before the Great Patching called Apocrypha because I thought it would be the best of both the new and the old. I would get 800000 skillpoints immediately and the next 800000 at double speed. Only problem would be to know exactly what I wanted to do. If I chose the wrong path in character creation I could have a head start at doing things I might actually never do...
What did I want from this game? Fun and excitement of course. Mostly independent play but not alone all the time. Slowly growing to become part of an economic backbone for other players... would be tedious and boring. This exciting fun would have to involve shooting, dying and cries of despair and victory. I needed a character who could fight.
I googled and skimmed through search results, read the forums and then googled some more. To be a fighter the character should have high perception and willpower and there would be very little need for charisma. Powergaming seems to be a strong trend among the players and particularly Achura of the Caldari were mentioned in more than one place. But I wanted to consider the roleplaying opportunities the different races of New Eden would give. Besides I didn't like the Achura character portraits I came across.
Amarr: fervent believers with a long history of slaving and conquering. Caldari: emerging police state where money is god. Gallente: liberal democrats. Minmatar: self-emancipated tribes of slaves. For me this clearly ruled out both the Amarr and the Caldari. Looking at pictures there was aesthetic retrofuturistism all over the Gallente and a cyberpunk twist with a splash of grunge in the Minmatar, but that wasn't nearly enough to tip the scale all the way to Minmatar.
Another thing to consider were bloodlines and ancestry. I tried to take into account the influence they had on attributes, the character portrait and roleplaying aspects. Although both the Intaki and Vherokior look nice and both reborns and mystics seem somewhat interesting to roleplay, the attributes just weren't good enough for a fighter. Out of necessity it had to be a choice between a Gallente immigrant with most extra points in intelligence and a Sebiestor tinkerer with most extra points in perception.
I chose sebiestor. I chose Republic Military School. I was ready... or almost ready. Getting the character portrait done proved surprisingly difficult. I think I spent too long at it. Luckily I had found help from the web how to avoid disconnection during character creation. After the face and background were done and I was happy enough about them I tried turning the character to left and right and up and down and every way it ended up she just didn't seem to get on terms with herself. Either she looked too arrogant, hostile or absentminded. The eyes were just stupid most of the time. Finally I found a neat stance and thought it was good and then on the next screen it had been reset. The portrait generation is frustrating and in the end I gave up. Hey, it looks nice enough on the login screen.
What did I want from this game? Fun and excitement of course. Mostly independent play but not alone all the time. Slowly growing to become part of an economic backbone for other players... would be tedious and boring. This exciting fun would have to involve shooting, dying and cries of despair and victory. I needed a character who could fight.
I googled and skimmed through search results, read the forums and then googled some more. To be a fighter the character should have high perception and willpower and there would be very little need for charisma. Powergaming seems to be a strong trend among the players and particularly Achura of the Caldari were mentioned in more than one place. But I wanted to consider the roleplaying opportunities the different races of New Eden would give. Besides I didn't like the Achura character portraits I came across.
Amarr: fervent believers with a long history of slaving and conquering. Caldari: emerging police state where money is god. Gallente: liberal democrats. Minmatar: self-emancipated tribes of slaves. For me this clearly ruled out both the Amarr and the Caldari. Looking at pictures there was aesthetic retrofuturistism all over the Gallente and a cyberpunk twist with a splash of grunge in the Minmatar, but that wasn't nearly enough to tip the scale all the way to Minmatar.
Another thing to consider were bloodlines and ancestry. I tried to take into account the influence they had on attributes, the character portrait and roleplaying aspects. Although both the Intaki and Vherokior look nice and both reborns and mystics seem somewhat interesting to roleplay, the attributes just weren't good enough for a fighter. Out of necessity it had to be a choice between a Gallente immigrant with most extra points in intelligence and a Sebiestor tinkerer with most extra points in perception.
I chose sebiestor. I chose Republic Military School. I was ready... or almost ready. Getting the character portrait done proved surprisingly difficult. I think I spent too long at it. Luckily I had found help from the web how to avoid disconnection during character creation. After the face and background were done and I was happy enough about them I tried turning the character to left and right and up and down and every way it ended up she just didn't seem to get on terms with herself. Either she looked too arrogant, hostile or absentminded. The eyes were just stupid most of the time. Finally I found a neat stance and thought it was good and then on the next screen it had been reset. The portrait generation is frustrating and in the end I gave up. Hey, it looks nice enough on the login screen.
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