Last year I had a crack at Eve Echoes alpha testing and I liked what I saw. The testing phase ended and Little Wookie took my iPad for a bath and so I couldn't test anymore anyway. But on the 13th August 2020 Netsafe Games released Eve Echoes to the masses. I joined the realm on the 16th because I hadn't realised it was out there. It's now 3rd September and here's my story.
Eve Echoes is the mobile version of Eve Online. Eve Online is the largest MMORPG on the planet. It's basically World of Warcraft in space and is so involved it's been nicknamed Spreadsheets in Space. As nerdy as that sounds you'll come to realise that having a spreadsheet in employ will help you keep track of what you're doing in game so much easier. To say Eve Echoes is huge is like saying the ocean is wet. It's true but you look like a tit saying it. Eve puts the "Massive" in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. 8000 solar systems are at your beckon call.
There's a couple of caveats to Eve Echoes. First it's not as full as Eve Online (henceforth to be called Eve Main). This is because Eve Echoes is not a mobile version of Eve Online but a parallel version of Eve Online. What is here feels very much like Eve main but it is missing a lot of features like ships and modules. These will come back but when is the ultimate question.
Second Eve Echoes is a very different beast. You could call it Eve Lite but that's quite a disservice because it's very much Eve simplified. It's simplified not because it's less of a game but because it's got a simpler, more refined interface that works well on a touch device. For years I've decried CCP (the developers of Eve Online) as a bunch of talentless hacks who have produced an amazing game but a crap Mac client. In fact calling the Mac client a Mac client is a misnomer because it's a Windows app wrapped in a Linux engine bought to the Mac. As such the Mac "client" has been bollocks for years. In fact I gave up on Eve Online about 4 years ago because it just stopped running reliably since then. Eve Echoes actually proves my point. Eve Echoes is developed by Netsafe Games under licence by CCP and it proves just how woeful CCP is at developing Mac games because Eve Echoes is the client we SHOULD have had on the Mac. I suspect once iOS 14 and macOS 11 comes out this will be the case except that it won't be because Eve Echoes is NOT tied to Eve Online. You can't import your characters from Eve main which means you all start at square one again. This is fine by me actually because it feel like we're at ground zero for something huge, like getting in with bitcoin before it took off. Many Echoes players are like myself, Main players returning to the universe after not being able to play.
So what is Echoes like to play? Brilliant. It's a simple interface to pick up. You do want to run through the tutorials to get it but once you've mastered it you won't forget it too quickly. It can be a bit slower than doing it with mouse and keyboard but some things can also be a lot faster. All in all it's not something to worry too much about because like many things when you compare between mobile and desktop there's pros and cons. However there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE pro to Echoes over Main... it... runs... on... a... phone. Seriously, this client working on an iPad or iPhone SE is smooth like butter. It plays just as well on an iPhone SE as it does on an iPad and there's no chug or whatever. I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is being forced to play Eve Echoes on an iPhone SE after Little Wookie has absconded with my iPad and not even have to worry about how the interface works because it works just as good. I'm not kidding. It is more than playable on a small screen device. And the device doesn't even kick in the thermals. Hell, that's something to hear because I just managed to fire up Eve Main client and just sitting in station the fans of my ageing MacBook Pro from 2011 have the fans going mental. I'm not even doing anything. Netsafe Games have some programming chops that's for sure and CCP Games needs to take heed. Also, I can play for hours before needing to put iPad on charger. Minutes in Eve Main.
So what have I been up to in game? Well, I'm reprising my role as a care bear. A care bear is basically someone who mines and reprocesses and builds stuff. In fact care bears are single handedly the most important characters in the game because every ship flown, every gun fired, every shield, mining laser, drone, etc was all manufactured by players in the game from asteroid mining and planet mining. The only things the bang bang crew provide are the wrecks that we reprocess and get the components out of.
Eve has an internal market where players buy and sell everything in game. If you're an Alpha clone you can only sell at Trading Hubs but if you're Omega you can trade anywhere and if no one is buying around you you can create sell orders and people can buy later from you. It sounds complex but anyone who's used to trading on the financial markets will have no problems. Buy low sell high and all that jazz.
Skilling up is different than in Eve Main and I prefer Echoes skilling mechanics to be honest. For starters there's different tech levels. There's 10 levels in total but anything above 7 can only be accessed with an Omega clone (paid account). Then there's skill points needed for each skill book to train. The cool thing about Eve Echoes over Main is that when you're not training you accrue SP automatically to be used on everything from skills to upping Tech levels.
Alpha clones are free accounts. You can do quite a bit with a free account but training is slower. However, Eve has an two game currencies called PLEX and Aura. Think of these as being cryptocurrencies before cryptocurrencies became a thing. PLEX can be bought and sold in game. Aura can only be bought using real money. PLEX is used to upgrade your character and can also be bought with real money. But it is possible to sell enough stuff in game market that you don't need to pay anything. I just aim for the Basic because you only need about 15 million ISK (ISK is the main currency in the game but it has no real world interaction unlike PLEX and AUR). So it's literally possible to have a paid Omega account simply by playing. In fact it's so easy I did it within two days. That gives me 1 month of high end access paid entirely in game.
Encounters are really cool as well. Having a tech 6 character allows me access to advanced encounters. There's some great missions where you supply Pyroxeres and get 250,000 ISK. So an ore hold of even the smallest mining ship will give you about 1 million ISK if you find enough of those missions.
The other thing I've managed to do is hook up with a corporation. What's cool about searching for corporations in Echoes is that you can find corporations based on the timezones you live in. The corporation I've joined has decided to live in null sec (0.0 - -1.0 security level). It's the first time I've really hung out in null sec because the corp I was in in Eve Main never really ventured that far in. But this corp has a great little home that is pretty quiet so mining is quite profitable.
All in all Eve Echoes is an amazing game. It works on iOS and Android but I suspect it will come to macOS with Catalyst soon so that's going to be cool. Echoes is a ground up refresh of Eve Main and they've done a great job bringing Eve Online to mobile devices. Sure there's still a lot missing but the development will bring more to the game soon. What's here is huge and doesn't really stop anyone enjoying the game. The camaraderie that you had in Eve Main is right there in Eve Echoes. It sucks though because my ScreenTime is going off the rails. 😈