Welcome to New Eden

EVE Online makes the mainstream gaming news every few years on account of the large scale wars among player factions in the online universe of New Eden. While it is easy to dismiss this as just another video game, I was curious to know more. What I really like about EVE Online is its realistic economy and the meta game.

New Eden is a collection of regions in space, each populated with a collection of constellations. Each constellation has a number of solar systems with planets, asteroid belts, anomalies, etc. The total number of systems amounts to ~7800 (there has been only one pilot who visited all of them and that project took 10 years)! As a player in this game you simply start as a pilot with no objectives. There are many things to do in this game and it is up to the player to decide how to have fun with it.

While this is a game set in space where you fly a spaceship, you are far from actually flying it. This is not a flight simulator or an action shooter. This is more of a tactical game as a ship commander, requiring quite some study and experience to get better at. Its quite a lot like having a job.

Take a closer look at the star systems in this video here.

Ships can range from a few meters in length to a couple of kilometers. Take a look at the scale ship sizes here.

The most popular thing to do is of course to build large spaceships and attack other players. This is fun, especially when you can engage in a war with hundreds of other players and carve out a piece of New Eden for yourself. Coordination is key to victory in such large melees and organizing this many people requires some real managerial skills. Player factions have evolved over years to control their own sovereign territory in space. These factions consist of alliances between corporations that are united in a common interest. These wars last months and don’t just end in the game, but usually spill out as a propaganda war onto reddit, twitter and twitch.

Everything is made by players

Fighting a war starts with building a ship and fitting it with the right parts. Almost everything in this game is player made and sold in markets all over New Eden. This requires trade between players and gives birth to a number of new career opportunities. The foundation of the economy begins with the mining of asteroids for minerals, which are then sold in the market. These minerals are bought and processed into a number of other derivatives which are then again sold in the market and so on. The goods are traded in the currency ISK.

Mining is one of the first things you are introduced to. You can start with a basic mining vessel fit with a mining laser. Simply travel to the asteroid belt, mine asteroids for ore and transport them back to a station. This ore can be sold or reprocessed into minerals which can be then used to make components or sold on the market for other players to buy.

This is a very boring and inefficient way to play the game! For example, alternatively, you can maximize your efficiency by joining/forming a corporation. This involves a little more than simply mining as a group. With the added numbers it is possible to specialize. A group of players can focus completely on mining while another player can fly a cargo ship that takes care of hauling the mined ore, hence reducing the downtime in a mining operation. Additional members can also assist in providing security to the miners, allowing for the harvesting of rarer minerals in less secure systems. Mining specific volumes of different minerals, aimed at fulfilling the purchase orders in the market makes a more fun and profitable experience for everyone. The creative solutions that the game allows, makes it a lot like running a business in this universe.

A large scale mining operation in progress involving a few dozen players.

Day trading in New Eden

Building and blowing up ships costs ISK (a lot of it)! It is impossible to bankroll the destruction of endless ships without a suitable source of income. The economy in this game is balanced by faucets and sinks. Since most of the trade is between players and most items are player made, ISK is simply transferred between players. There are only a limited number of ways in which the game can remove or inject currency into the economy, setting a cap on the total ISK in circulation. Faucets introduce ISK into the game and sinks remove them from it. Examples of faucets are payment rewards for killing pirates, rewards for completing missions, claiming insurance on a lost ship, etc. Examples of sinks include taking out an insurance, sales taxes, broker fees, etc. These systems balance the total amount of currency in circulation. Another way the system is balanced is the time it takes to produce goods and the skills required. More specialized and advanced equipment can take weeks or even months to make, not to mention the weeks/months it takes to train the required skills to make these goods. It is impossible to be good at everything without spending a decade playing this game. A smart way would be to identify a fun and enjoyable activity that can be exchanged as a service/product on the market.

Such a sophisticated market allows for making ISK simply as an experienced trader. Items are sold in stations and have to be physically moved to be sold in other stations. This incurs the risk of being attacked for the transported cargo. At the same time, quick access to ammunition, ships and parts can change the tide of war. Trade is managed through buy and sell orders at player determined prices. It is not uncommon to see the price of ammunition spike up in staging systems close to a war zone. It is also simply easy to profit by buying goods at a low price and selling them at a much higher price in another system. Events in the game dictate the price of goods in the game. Understanding indicators, such as the meta politics and engagements between the player factions is crucial to predicting the rise and fall of prices over time. Carefully placed bets can be wildly lucrative.

The game developers CCP generate a monthly economic report detailing the trade balances, imports/exports, production and destruction, total mined value, etc. These figures can be used to quantify the virtual GDP of factions in the system (check out a detailed analysis in this video).

Economic indices in New Eden since 2003. See full report here.

Key economic figures for January 2021.

Price and volume of a certain ammunition charge from Jan-Mar 2021.

War and the meta game

I came across this news update about the most recent war that has been going on since July 2020. It even involved an engagement of over 8000 players on one system. This is where the meta game comes into play. Playing the game involves a lot more than performing activities in the game. Players have to be recruited and trained to perform different functions in the corporation. This involves speaking to other players and negotiating common interests. It involves working out the logistics of the operations you want to run, be it keeping a spreadsheet to maintain payouts to each player for time spent mining or running security, making alliances between factions, tallying production and losses, strategizing key locations in the war effort, social security and training for your members, etc. Additional tasks could even involve maintaining a website, social media pages and running a PR campaign for your corporation.

Screenshot of ships attacking keep star 9-4RP2, a staging center to stock provisions and hold a position. This was the scene of over 6000 players participating in a single battle. This youtube link shows it in all its glory.

Control of territory is one of the major reasons for war in EVE. One infamous character who I hear about quite often is the Mittani who heads the Imperium forces in Delve. He made his bones running a spy operation and rose through the ranks to lead the notorious Goonswarm Federation. A majority of his daily activities probably involve maintaining a mailing list, providing an address on the state of the war and propaganda. Most of these activities do not actually even require him to log in. He enforces his influence through his generals who execute his orders, much like a space warlord. Here is a take of the war (Mar 2021) from an Imperium army officer and amateur historian specializing in the front-lines of Delve.

Screenshot of an ongoing battle durung the Fountain war. See this youtube link.

Joining a corporation is the best way to participate and experience the big battles in EVE. A corporation usually provides social security. A pilot fulfilling his role for the corporation is worth a lot and corporations are usually willing to compensate players for personal losses in line of duty. Moreover, experienced players in these corporations also provide hands on training on the optimal way of utilizing the resources the corporation provides. Presently, in the corporation I am part of, we use a discord server which makes communication easy and is a great hangout to make new friends.

Community

There are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the game as you would like. New Eden is large enough to get lost in easily. Other careers involve specializing in science to augment the manufacturing industry in EVE, exploring space to locate highly coveted wormholes or other space anomalies, piracy, etc. It is also possible to build the meanest ship you can and fly around taking out other players. zkillboard is a leader board website tracking the most notorious pilots in the history of the game.

There are dedicated news feeds updating the progress of the wars and the state of affairs in new Eden. EVE university is a community built series of lectures on understanding the different mechanics of the game (they recently celebrated their 17th anniversary). In addition there are a number of podcasts and youtube channels that detail the happenings in New Eden. My favorites currently being Talking in Stations and Frost Ees OP. The game makers CCP, organize events often and regularly update the game to balance it and provide new content for players to engage in.

Nebulae in New Eden are computer generated but inspired by real photographs.

The reality of being a capsuleer

While I did not expect to become a fleet commander in a month, the reality of the game is a lot harder to digest than I had originally imagined. The game does little in terms of introduction apart from a brief tutorial and dropping you in a relatively safe solar system. Contrary to how it sounds, I am completely in favor of such an approach.

Losing ships is common. A popular rule of thumb is to not fly anything you cannot afford to lose. My first days were frustrating, especially when it took me hours to build a simple ship only to lose it in 10 minutes. This improves with your understanding of the game. Knowing how to use the scanner, adjusting its range and angle to detect threats or targets takes experience to master.

In game UI at a docking station.

Additionally, understanding the conflicts between factions and their zones of engagement can help identify relatively safer regions to explore. Especially when starting out with relatively weak ships without too many defensive capabilities. Joining a corporation also helped. I met a few relatively experienced players who were able to not only talk me through the mechanics of the game but also provide me an initial investment of ISK to get me started.

Guide to using the directional scanner by EVE University.

Making ISK (money) is important to survive and learn the game. Finding websites that list buy and sell order of goods helped me identify key markets in the game and high volume goods traded on them. Currently I make bank by selling charges and ships on popular docking stations. I have enough of a margin to fund the loss of several relatively cheap ships. In addition to making ISK, I am also beginning to understand the different skills I need to train in order to be skilled at the things that I like to do in the game. Both of which make the inevitable loss of ships easier to sustain.

I look forward to spending more time in this world. I would love to venture out and see the grand events unfold. The ships, stations, solar systems and nebulae are a treat to look at. Making new friends and eventually mentoring new players would be a role I would love to assume.