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| EVE is a game of balancing risks and costs. Fitting a cheap ship with cheap modules means you'll barely care when you lose it, but it may not necessarily win fights. A lot of gameplay in EVE is preparing for conflict, and determining how much money you want to risk in order to achieve your objectives. Having the best ship money can buy is great, but if you spend all of your ISK on it and then lose it, it's gone. "Gear" in EVE is a means, not an end. | | EVE is a game of balancing risks and costs. Fitting a cheap ship with cheap modules means you'll barely care when you lose it, but it may not necessarily win fights. A lot of gameplay in EVE is preparing for conflict, and determining how much money you want to risk in order to achieve your objectives. Having the best ship money can buy is great, but if you spend all of your ISK on it and then lose it, it's gone. "Gear" in EVE is a means, not an end. |
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| ==Combat follows the laws of physics.== | | ==EVE combat is a game of physics.== |
| In EVE all combat is ranged combat, and it is conducted over kilometers with physical weaponry in space. The game computes hits and misses using the math of trajectories, speed and distance. Your results are always at least a little bit delayed, and sometimes you can't even get a lock on your target. Combat is fast and three-dimensional; very different from most RPGs. ([[#Combat follows the laws of physics._2|MORE]]) | | |
| | In EVE, movement in space is governed by internal rules of game physics, most of which are approximations of fluid physics (rather than the vacuum physics one might expect in space). Combat is often conducted over a range of tens of kilometers with physical weaponry that also follows these rules. Hits and misses are calculated using the math of trajectories, speed and distance. Results are always at least a little bit delayed, and sometimes you can't even get a lock on your target. Compared to other games, combat in EVE can often seem very slow, and players with even a small amount of skill will generally think much faster than their ship can react. |
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| | EVE is not a game of "biggest ship wins". The weapons on bigger ships may have the ability to deal more damage, but their weapons are large and cumbersome, and are often unable to track small, fast targets. In fact, some of the largest ships in EVE are almost completely incapable of dealing with small ships on their own, and require support from a fleet of smaller ships to be effective. |
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| | EVE is a game of math; one that balances distance, size, and speed. If you're big, you may not be able to outrun a smaller ship, but you can destroy them before they can even get close enough to damage you. If you're small, you don't necessarily have much firepower, but larger ships will have a hard time pinning you down if you're fast and get in under their guns. |
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| ==Combat "happens" in the heads up display.== | | ==Combat "happens" in the heads up display.== |
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| ==The Details== | | ==The Details== |
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| ===Combat follows the laws of physics.===
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| Combat in most online games is immediate. You take a swing or shot at your target, and you get instant feedback as to whether you hit or missed. In EVE, however, all combat is ranged combat, and it is conducted over kilometers with physical weaponry in space. The game computes hits and misses using trajectories, and your results are always affected by this.
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| For example, let's say your ship is equipped with missiles. And, let's say your missiles travel at a speed of 1K (thousand) meters per second. So, if your ship is 10K meters from a target when you fire a salvo of missiles, it will take them 10 seconds to arrive. But that's if both you and your target are standing still. Which you are not, so the game computes a time based on your mutual speeds and directions. Or, if you are using a projectile turret (think: big guns on a naval battleship), the turret will have to turn to track its target. This takes some time, so the speed of the target and the speed of the turret both figure into the likelihood of a hit.
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| {| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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| ! scope="col" width="150px" | Weapon Type
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| ! scope="col" width="275px" | Pro
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| ! scope="col" width="290px" | Con
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| | ''Short Range Turret'' || more accurate, fires faster || have to be close to your target
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| | ''Long Range Turret'' || longer range, more damage per hit || less accurate, slower firing rate
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| | ''Missile'' || never misses || you can be dead before they get there
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| |}
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| There are three types of each ranged turret: projectile, hybrid and energy beam. Each of these uses a different type of ammunition.
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| {| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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| !cope="col" width="100px" | Turret Type
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| ! scope="col" width="100px" | Ammunition
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| ! scope="col" width="150px" | Pro
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| ! scope="col" width="150px" | Con
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| | ''Projectile'' || solid chunk of matter || most damage per hit || worst range
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| | ''Hybrid'' || ion charge || highest rate of fire || kind of in the middle
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| | ''Energy Beam'' || draws from the ship's capacitor || best range || less accurate at short range
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| |}
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| In addition, weapons can do one or more of four types of damage: kinectic, thermal, explosive and/or electromagnetic pulse (EM). For more details, read the article on [[Damage_info|Damage Types]].
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| As you can see, EVE balances out the characteristics of the weapons to make each of them have benefits and penalties. In general:
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| * closer range weapons usually fire faster and hit sooner, but with less damage per shot
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| * bigger guns do more damage per hit, but take longer to fire and have difficulty hitting small, fast moving targets
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| * weapons skill training greatly ... greatly ... increases your ship's damage potential (as long as you are using the weapons for which you have trained)
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| '''THE BOTTOM LINE:''' which gear you use is not as important as your skill level for using the gear. Pick a ship category/weapons system that you think you will like and then train all of the skills for those to at least Level III. While you're training, do missions and other kinds of combat to learn how to use your weapons. [[#Combat follows the laws of physics.|(BACK)]]
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| ===Combat "happens" in the heads up display.=== | | ===Combat "happens" in the heads up display.=== |
