So I finally got a bit of time to have a crack at the new EVE Factional Warfare thing last night, only it didn't quite go how I was anticipating, and I'm quickly learning that the whole PvP-Lite, Jump In and Face-Shoot aspect of it isn't nearly as accessible as I was imagining. I shouldn't be surprised really; this is EVE Online, not Planetside, and I think I'd somewhat lost track of what 'casual' actually means in this particular game, compared to most other MMOs.
I'm keen! I want to give it a go, as I suspect it might be the kind of thing I've been looking for, but failing to find, all along; meaning-less PvP in internet spaceships, and perhaps half an hour's quick fun zerging about the galaxy, allowing me to at least get some kind of introductory inkling even, of what EVE is really all about; PvP, but tailored for my own kind of quite hectic schedule - a schedule which would make me worthless to any proper PvP corp of any skill or reputation.
Factional Warfare comes with a pretty hefty pricetag; namely that taking part will massively alter your standings, and eventually make you kill-on-sight in certain parts of the galaxy, a hassle that my main could do with out.
The other concern I have is that by sheer dint of long subscription and training, my character has far out-levelled me. A curious concept, but it hinges on the Golden Rule; 'Don't fly what you can't afford to lose'. These days, my available EVE playtime is now no longer comfortably sufficient, for me to afford to buy clones on a regular basis anymore, let alone replace Battleships - one replacement 'me' costs about the same as the bounty take from an average Agent 4 mission, which can take several hours. Effectively, I can't afford to lose myself! Not exactly the kind of drop-in and blast gamestyle I'm after.
So it's a newbie alt, created specifically for the purpose of playing in the new wargames. At the very new end, you don't even have to pay for a clone at all until you hit 900,000 SP or so, which I've only just done. More importantly, with no implants and barely any SP over the default clone threshold, I don't care if I get podded anyway - I literally have nothing to lose. I still have to pay for new ships when I get ganked, but again, at the newbie end, I can keep the alt in T1 Frigates for as long as needed, with only the occasional cash handout from my safely hidden away money-earning main - turfing over the cost of one of my main's clones to the alt will probably buy and fit about 20 Rifters.
I'm going Minmatar for this one; In Rust We Trust and all that, and once through the tutorial, (which seems to hand out a decent bundle of freebies these days), I was all set to sign up, which is when I hit the big roadblock; I must have 0.5+ Faction Standing with Minmatar. It seems such a trivial figure really - my main is about 5.0 with Caldari - but the tutorial only put me at 0.07 with my own race.
This figure can be increased in one of three ways.
There's the old-fashioned way: doing normal PvE agent missions. Every 16 of the normal ones you do, you get given one which will alter your faction standings. At the agent 1 end, which is all my woefully underskilled newbie can manage, these Storyline Missions seem to increase the standing by 0.02 to 0.03 points a go, making something like a hundred agent one missions to be ground out. They're not so bad, I guess; comfortable in a Rifter with moderate gunnery skills, and take five to ten minutes a time, if you don't bother stopping for loot and salvage. Even so, that's quite a lot of work if you're not in there five hours a night.
Another way is to buy your way in, via the Data Centres. At these special locations, you can turn in sets of NPC Pirate tags for immediate and repeatable faction standing increase. However, these tags are rare enough at the best of times, and predictably enough, enterprising marketeers have sent the price of the basic entry level ones in my region to about two million isk a pop. As these are needed in groups of ten, and probably multiple times for the total increase I need, this all makes it a bit rich for my blood - the point of this exercise for me is No-Risk, No-Reward PvP! I'm not sure a 100 million ISK entry fee is quite in the spirit of it all, to be honest!
A third way exists; the long abandoned COSMOS constellations - a previous attempt to 'questify' EVE A bit. It didn't take that well, but the various NPCs are still out there, and although only being useable once each, do offer faction standing increase after only two or three missions for each, rather than 16. Trouble in my case, is that not many of them are level one - I still have to be able to complete their tasks, afterall. I did one or two in the Ani constellation, which did indeed help (I'm currently at 0.09!), and if I was in a Battleship, there would be easily enough work here to get the whole 0.5, I'm sure. Alas, I'm not, so the Ani Constellation can only help a little, not get me all the way there.
A bit of research revealed that things which will NOT work include: the actual regular missions themselves - Storyline only for Faction Increase; ratting - belt rat kills do nothing to improve any standing, only Sec Status; training Connections - the Militias want an unmodified standing of 0.5; helping other people on their Storyline Missions - faction standing increase is not shared by the gang.
I'm unsure if flying to Amaar Prime and attempting to kill Amaar Navy Customs Armageddons would help, but it probably a tad optimistic for newbie me in my newbie Rifter!
Joining a player corp that is already in the Militia would allow me to get right into the action, but as the corp's faction standing is an average of all it's members, I'd still have to get my own +0.5, and quickly before the aggregate faction of the corp goes below 0.5 and they get all kicked out because of me! For this reason alone, I suspect few Militia Corps would even consider newbie members fresh out of Tutorial. (Mind you, assuming that FW Success also gives you Faction Standing, as long as your first few outings are victorious, this ought to correct quite quickly. No pressure!)
Given my erratic playing hours of late, all of the above means that it is likely to be a fair number of weeks before I've managed to bang out the appropriate missioning and even start on Factional Warfare. Don't get me wrong - this whole piece is not a complaint - it's more of a caveat or warning; I can see why they've done it like this, and it probably is necessary - a test of commitment, a deterrent to casual alt-spies and so on.
It just seems a bit unfortunate in my own case, and perhaps Factional Warfare is not quite the casual drop-in thing I was hoping for. Mind you, I shouldn't be surprised - not a lot about EVE is casual, on the whole. I'm am quite surprised by just how much PvE you have to do, in any of the above methods, to be able to start on the new form of PvP, which seems a bit odd.
I'll keep picking away at the faction entry requirements, of course, and it is good to have a goal, but those expecting to fire it up from scratch, jump in and get right to the face-shooting should be aware - you still have to be this tall to go on the ride...
More on what it's actually like when I 'grow up' enough!