Eve Echoes is the biggest game in the mobile world. I'm not talking big as in "most popular". I'm talking about big as in this game is huge.
Most MMORPGs cover a vast area on feet. The problem is that you can go for a literal 24 hour day and not see anyone but you're still in a limited area. Eve Echoes has 8000 star systems. Within each of those star systems you'll have a sun, planets, moons, asteroid belts, cosmic anomalies... You might have stations as well. These can be NPC (non-player character) or actual player corporation owned.
This game is so big that to do this game justice I cannot do it in one post. So for the purposes of this post I will explain what Eve Echoes is and what you can expect to see in later posts.
So to start I need to explain that Eve Echoes is a mobile version of Eve Online. Eve Echoes also proves a point that I've been saying for over 10 years now. CCP (Eve Online's developers) couldn't program a macOS client for crap. Let me explain.
To say there is a Mac client for Eve Online is true enough. There is a Mac client only it's NOT a macOS client. The so-called Mac client is the Windows client, wrapped in WINE. In essence what this means is that the client is Windows, then converted to a UNIX system. WINE let's Windows applications and games run on non-Windows machines - like macOS. There is a glaring issue with this. You see, Eve Online - like many Windows games - uses DirectX. WINE takes those DirectX calls and maps them to OpenGL ones so that the game can run. This is "on the fly" translation. This creates a massive performance hit. All those people that say "Macs suck for games" do so because there are very few true Mac games. Eve Echoes is proof that I'm right. If there was a proper macOS client for Eve Online it would have amazing performance. This is due to the Metal2 engine. Whether Eve Echoes uses Metal2 on iOS is something I can't find but because it doesn't use WINE it runs flawless. I can play this game on my iPhone SE with zero slowdown at full graphics. That is a huge difference to the lumbering sloth that is the Mac Eve Online client. To play on a cellphone a game that can stall a powerful desktop computer proves that I've been right for 10 years or so. CCP Games don't understand Macs. I can say that because Eve Echoes is not developed by CCP Games. It's developed by Netease Games.
But that rant is now over and we will continue with Eve Echoes from this point on.
Eve Echoes is not currently a full clone of Eve Online though. It's only a year old and so there's a lot missing. Eve Online is big, not only in physical distance but in complexity. This is the reason why this series needs to run over a series of posts. Each post will cover a specific aspect of the game. But the differences between Eve Echoes and Eve Online aren't much. It's modules and ships that are missing at the moment. There is also one thing called Project Discovery which is missing but will be here soon.
The controls are different as well because they are for touch-screens. For a game this complex they work astonishing well.
There are some contenders to Eve's crown. But on closer examination they are pretenders. The complexity makes Eve definitely not a pick up and play for 5 minutes type of game. It's more of a simulation. So intense it's had universities study its Market and the social aspects of this game. It shares as much with chat systems as it does with crypto markets. There's as much psychology as there is empire building. So to think this game will be a good bash while waiting for the bus you're completely wrong.
From this point on I'll be explaining the backstory so you can get a started a little easier.
New Eden
Eve is set in New Eden. A bunch of people entered a wormhole which collapsed and cut them off from Earth. 15,000 years later and you've got four main races and a few pirate factions.
Races
You get to choose from 4 races. These are:
- Minmatar
- Gallente
- Amarr
- Caldari
Choosing a race doesn't affect much in the game. It doesn't affect what you use. What it does affect is training and start locations of your new clone. It also affects what ships you get provided when you lose your ship and sent to an empty station.
If you're Minmatar you can use Gallente ships and vice versa. So races don't affect your ability to play the game. I like Minmatar because their back story is the coolest of the lot. They were slaves who rose up against their Amarr captors with ships made from scrap. I love this story. Amarr are douches.
Skill books
Unlike most MMORPGs, Eve uses skill books to upskill rather than battles. This lessens the pay to win structure of most MMORPGs but you can upskill faster with a paid clone.
Each skill trained increases your skill points. Although no skill in training queue increases these as well. These skill points fill until you can get enough to increase in Tech Levels.
Tech Levels allow you to use better ships and weapons.
Clones
This aspect of Eve mimics most MMORPGs where you respawn rather than die. It's a better back story though. You are a capsuleer who are a group of people who clone themselves. When you die your consciousness gets uploaded from your pod to your new clone.
There are two types of clones. These are Alpha and Omega. Alpha clones are the free way to play Eve. You can't go higher than Tech Level 7 and you can only have 100,000 skill points for use at all times.
Omega are the paid clones. There are three ways to get Omega clones though. You can trade ISK (Interstellar Kredits) for PLEX (Pilot Licence EXtension). 170 PLEX will give you a Basic Omega clone which allows you to unlock everything for a month. This route requires more attention to the game but it allows you to play for free. At writing it works out to be about 1.8 million ISK for one PLEX so you need to earn around 10 million ISK a day. Tough to do at the start but with lower sec space or mining barges like Procurer you can do it easy.
The second way to upgrade to Omega is trading AUR for PLEX. To get AUR you need to pay real world money. This introduces a paid plan. AUR can also get used for ship skins which change the colouring of your ship. I never worry about AUR if I'm being frank.
The third way is to out and out buy an Omega clone. This is the way most players do it. From here you can buy three levels. For $4.99(USD) you can get a Basic Clone. This increases training speed by 117%. $12.99(USD) gets you a Standard Clone which increases training speed by 183%. You can buy a Duo Bundle which includes both of these clone types and also gives you a bonus 544PLEX. That's an extra month for free. Training for this clone is 200%.
All Omega levels unlock contracts which allow you to trade with other players direct. If I buy a clone I prefer to buy
Security levels
Eve space has three levels of security. High Sec is everything from 1.0 to 0.5. Concord patrols this space and will blow away anyone who attacks any players who are not currently in a war. This is the safest place for new players because it allows them to mine and do Cosmic battles without fear.
Low Sec is space from 0.4 to 0.1 Concord will attack but they will only do so with gate guns so won't send police to your location.
Null Sec is everything 0.0 to -1.0. Don't expect any help, even from corporation members you belong to. You're on your own often so "don't fly what you can't lose".
These are all the basics. We'll start looking at the other stuff in more detail in later posts.