What to do, what to do?

[Dingoniner]

I just started playing Evochron Legacy. I'm pretty blown away by it. I'm an ex-EVE player, and Evochron looks like it's going to be a very nice replacement for that. I also find that people here are responsive and helpful.

I've read all of the manuals, FAQs, etc. I went through the entire training session in the game itself. I spend about half of my evening reading whatever I can on forums and websites, and half of the time playing.

But I'm running into a wall here. What does one actually DO in this game? I just seem to be accepting and running contracts (the ones I can complete), and doing some mining. I went down to a planet, pressed ALT-B to "mine" water, and went and made myself a sandwich. Sold the water for a small profit. But what else?

- I can't seem to figure out the economy. I did do one "buy low, sell high" run, but I think I just got lucky. I watched a couple of videos on the economy, but some things in the video just don't seem to work for me. Prices that I estimate by looking at the economy overlay on the nav map don't line up at all with the actual price of an item once I get to that system.

- I tried to do a contract where I had to deliver medical components to a planet. However, there were no medical units available in that sector, and as soon as I left the sector to go find some, the contract failed.

- I made contact with an NPC, who told me something about finding data drives in planetary rings...but I don't have any idea what that means.

- Multiplayer is sooooo needed, and so.....well, dead. I host a public server, and I'm one of three people that do. No one ever visits my server (granted it's only been a few days), and I've never seen anyone else in the other two. I think that interaction with other players would really make a huge difference in this game. I know it's what made Eve Eve for me.

Is there a place to go to learn what there is to actually do in the game, after the mechanics of playing are figured out? Maybe something entitled "Your First Twenty-Four Hours in Evochron."

This game has such huge potential to be awesome, and rather than just walk away from it, I'm GOING to figure this out. I'm sitting here in a station, really wanting to like this game, but if I have to go capture five more flying animals on a planet again.... :-)

Thanks in advance.

[Vice]

I just started playing Evochron Legacy. I'm pretty blown away by it. I'm an ex-EVE player, and Evochron looks like it's going to be a very nice replacement for that. I also find that people here are responsive and helpful.

Hello and welcome.

I've read all of the manuals, FAQs, etc. I went through the entire training session in the game itself. I spend about half of my evening reading whatever I can on forums and websites, and half of the time playing.

But I'm running into a wall here. What does one actually DO in this game? I just seem to be accepting and running contracts (the ones I can complete), and doing some mining. I went down to a planet, pressed ALT-B to "mine" water, and went and made myself a sandwich. Sold the water for a small profit. But what else?

In a freeform game such as this, the first step I'd recommend is evaluating what kinds of things you -want- to do. Evochron is primarily designed to be a space flight simulator first with additional significant emphasis on combat. So that tends to be where a lot of core flight control and gameplay objectives are a foundation of its design. For players who enjoy flight simulations (ie X-Plane, FSX, etc)... I am such a simulation fan myself and come from that background, such players often enjoy simply flying around from location to location and enjoying scenery while funding their travel costs to do so through peaceful activities. Others might enjoy a lot of combat, so they'll head to a war zone or hostile enemy faction space and engage in a lot of battles. Many activities are also available as alternatives, often in kind of a quick access, instant action, and/or configuration relevant format (solar array cleaning, item recovery, item delivery, fuel delivery, mining, imagery, racing, etc). Some might like that kind of quick 'bite sized' gameplay objective approach, some may not. Other objectives/options require a little more time and planning (distress calls, passenger transport, colonization/building, territory conquest, exploration, etc). And if you prefer a more structured step-by-step objective approach in more of a guided/narrative format, you might want to try one of the included quests.

So a lot of it will likely come down to what you are interested in and if such options might be available in a game like Evochron.

- I can't seem to figure out the economy. I did do one "buy low, sell high" run, but I think I just got lucky. I watched a couple of videos on the economy, but some things in the video just don't seem to work for me. Prices that I estimate by looking at the economy overlay on the nav map don't line up at all with the actual price of an item once I get to that system.

The overlay should be pretty close overall in a regional average sense. But also consider that economy types have an effect as do station-vs-planet variations. So while a regional value might be displayed, a pocket of high or low value for a particular item or range of items might be found due to the economy type of the nearest planet (displayed with a letter after the planet's name). So you may find unique variations as you explore a system.

- I tried to do a contract where I had to deliver medical components to a planet. However, there were no medical units available in that sector, and as soon as I left the sector to go find some, the contract failed.

Yes, they will often ask for what they don't have and can't get, hence the distress call/request. For such distress calls, they need to be planned for in advance. That is, you acquire what you anticipate may be needed at some point in advance of the request being received. Then when/if it does, you can pull it out of storage to deliver it where needed for the reward. So it's often a two step process, unless you happen to have such cargo on board your ship at the time a request comes through.

- I made contact with an NPC, who told me something about finding data drives in planetary rings...but I don't have any idea what that means.

There are data drives scattered around the quadrant that can provide a few historic details or even templates to build things in the engineering lab. You can find them by using probes to scan and explore for their locations. If that's something that would interest you, working toward acquiring a deploy constructor might be a good next gameplay step to add into the mix.

- Multiplayer is sooooo needed, and so.....well, dead. I host a public server, and I'm one of three people that do. No one ever visits my server (granted it's only been a few days), and I've never seen anyone else in the other two. I think that interaction with other players would really make a huge difference in this game. I know it's what made Eve Eve for me.

Yes, the online public multiplayer is generally pretty quiet. Not too many seem interested in that mode of online play, although IM tends to meet up on Sundays as a regularly scheduled match time. Players these days generally seem to meet up with friends/family on their own private servers and most of the e-mail inquiries I get these days are along those lines. When I've played/helped with tech support for people over the last year or two, it's almost always been on private servers. I was actually doing that just today for some players on a direct IP server. The playerbase for this game is also a small fraction of a fraction (of a fraction... etc) of what Eve would have You may have better results by arranging game times in advance (for the time being, I've been offering the multiplayer section of this forum for that kind of thing).

Is there a place to go to learn what there is to actually do in the game, after the mechanics of playing are figured out? Maybe something entitled "Your First Twenty-Four Hours in Evochron."

This is a pretty good place to start, imo. A number of threads on the topic are available and might be of interest. If you are the type of person who wants to figure things out on their own, quite a bit of it can also be a self-learning process as your explore the options, space, and items in the game at your own pace.

This game has such huge potential to be awesome, and rather than just walk away from it, I'm GOING to figure this out. I'm sitting here in a station, really wanting to like this game, but if I have to go capture five more flying animals on a planet again.... :-)

Certainly avoid what you don't want to do :-) And hopefully, the game will offer some new/different avenues of gameplay that you find fun and engaging. Evochron isn't for everyone and I certainly didn't create it to be that, so it may provide some or much of what you'd be interested in or it may not. But there are quite a few optional avenues of gameplay available that you may enjoy.

[Dingoniner]

Hey Vice, I sincerely appreciate your in-depth response. Seriously, unexpected and welcomed. It's great to see, you're obviously very committed to the game, and that's inspiring.

I'll take what you've said and apply it, and I'm sure I'm going to enjoy myself here. I'll probably make a push to run a 24/7 dedicated server, and try to recruit some people who want to socialize around the game on a regular basis, create their own space here, and possibly even have an affect on the economy and territory of the game itself.

I was a member of a club that got together regularly in the evening for a glass of scotch, a good cigar, and Eve Online. We called ourselves the SCE club ("Scotch, Cigar, Eve"). I think I'll start a spin-off-- we won't even have to change the initials!

I have a lot to learn, obviously, but your response is a great start. Thanks again.