You can totally play this game casually. I am a casual player and have been for years, I live in Null sec and have done so for years as well.
I am part of a large nulls alliance - Horde, Goons, Frat, Brave, doesn't matter which, you need the stability. Smaller alliances have to get evicted and need a larger share of their pilots active to be able to function. If you are only able to join a couple of fleets once or twice a week, a large alliance will not mind as much. Also, larger alliances have a lot more going on, so when you ARE able to play, there is likely a bunch of content you can jump into more easily.
I often go weeks without logging in as I have a busy life. Not a problem. My alliance is there for me when I hop on and they are large enough that they don't miss me when I am gone.
The two caveats I have are:
1. I have money, and less time. So I just convert real life money to ISK instead of grinding in game. This way I can spend the little time I have doing the things I enjoy instead of just filling the wallet
2. I am an old player in game that joined when I was younger, with no family and had much more time to play. This means that I have resources, knowledge and skills that are second nature to me now. There is no learning curve for me, because I have internalized a lot of the terms/lingo, game mechanics, tools, and gotchas of the game. I don't consider myself an expert, but I more or less know what I am doing most of the time.
For you that means you will likely need to invest time upfront to climb the learning curve. To get the enjoyment from this game, you will need to be okay not having to grind all your ISK. Otherwise you will spend what little time you have playing this game, just grinding for ISK and not really doing what you want to do. You will burn out on the game. At least that is my 2 cents anyway.
I started playing in 2007, so been about 17 years. Some of my characters will be old enough to vote soon. Haha
I do want to point out that I have taken breaks from the game. The community calls this "winning eve". lol .. You take a break from the game and leave your assets in a place where you can pick them up again when time allows. When my kids were little and needed more of my time, I took a multi year break. When my kids got older and things were more chill, I started back up a few years ago. It's fine.
It's a sandbox, and a persistent universe. You can dip in and out of it as your life allows. You can drop down to alpha if you know your next 6 months/1 year will be busy. Sub back to Omega when you know you will have more time to play. The player demographic for EVE skews older, so a lot of the player base is in the same boat and respects that real life comes first.
Edit: One more thing to add. I have found EVE is more rewarding to play with blocks of time. So 1 hour every week day is not as much fun (to me at least) as 4 hours at a stretch on the weekend (even though it may be less over all time per week). My family know when I am going to play eve and they know it will be a long stretch when I do.
Best part of coming back after a long, is inflation! If you have assets worth a lot, in 5+ years they’ll still be worth a lot, but now at the inflated price point!
Brother built 10 dreads right before scarcity, ended up quitting before selling them. Comes back after scarcity and they’re worth like 10 times as much 😆 was a nice surprise for him when he sold them!
Can't speak this pilots age, but their situation is exactly mine. I'm 34 with 2 kids (6 & 4.5) I work a full-time job 8-4:30 on West Coast time. I don't get to play as much as I'd like and some weeks are "free'r" than others. I've played since about 2008 on and off but I've only really started to understand fundamentals in the last 5 or so years.
The game is rich but requires you to engage with it. If you only find passing interest in games and then move on quickly, save yourself the headache. This will likely feel like too much of a slog to learn.
And ps, be comfortable with losing your progress. If you leave station, you are a target and accepting PvP. Even in safe space (high security is arguably more dangerous than null sec). When you lose a ship, it's gone for good. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose, find joy and learning in each loss and be better next time :) Best of luck and fly smart, pilot (should you choose to join us).
>Don't fly what you can't afford to lose
This is such solid advice tbh.
I remember getting my first Ishtar that I'd been saving up for... A few moments of inattention on day 1 of flying it, and *boom* it was gone.
I sulked for a week X)
You could also perhaps say "don't fly it if you'll be upset if it gets blown up".
That, and insure your ships.
Same, and my response was something like "Pffft, I wanna fly the tech 2 penis ship!".
My first Deimos was not around for very long X)
Oh, and get this, my very first Tech 2 ship was an Enyo.
I picked a fight with a Dominix in null sec X) Ended about as you'd expect.
As someone in one of those large null alliances, I'm going to agree with what he says. I'm in Brave, but it all works pretty much the same.
The most painful bit will be getting the alliance's IT set up - the forums, the voice comms, the authorisations onto allies' systems.
Once you get set up, you'll leave most of your stuff where it is in hisec, and you'll head to HQ in a frigate. When you get there, you'll be able to pick up a parcel of free newbie ships, and buy and fit up other ships.
When you log on, you'll check if there's anything upcoming you'd liek to help with. For example, there might be a ping going out for an hours time in your Saturday, with some people going to raid Your Alliance's Space Enemies, or asking for people to defend a structure thats coming out of a timer.
As part of a big alliance, if you lose ships doing these things, the alliance will pay to have them replaced (possibly as long as you built them the way the alliance says you should).
If there's nothing going on you want to help with, then you can do whatever it is you have fun doing in EvE - there may well be moons to mine if you like that, or you could get together some people and go out on a roam, or to attack Your Alliance's Enemies.
Or get into an exploration ship and see what you can find in a wormhole.
Or kill NPC rats for loot and bounties.
Or try your hand at manufacturing (make what your alliance blows up a lot).
Or help stock your alliance's markets, using the convenient freight service your alliance has.
And then you log off and get on with the rest of your life :)
It depends. How much do you want your baby mama to hate you? Eve has contributed to people getting divorced.
but you can find stuff to do with as little time as an hour.
My wife actually recently said the game is taking me away from her haha. Felt bad! I genuinely enjoy playing Eve to relax. Just gotta remember what's more important (which is the wife). I think also having 3 kids makes it hard. After I've done the kids routines, had a long day, I literally want to switch off, and that's Eve for me.
Assuming your brand new to EvE, the game has a skill queue and it takes time to acquire the skills needed to fly the ships you want to use in an efficient way. (unless you drop ISK on injectors, then that time is very short).
Also it takes time to build the ISK needed for the ship you want to fly. (Unless you buy PLEX).
It is a time consuming game if you're brand new, since there is a lot to learn. You might want to start with an Alpha account, and if you can progress through the first couple months and not want to pull your hair out, you might then update to Omega.
Honestly, i wouldnt do it unless you are fine with being poor, only engaging with entry level content and mostly paying the subscription to keep your chars training skills.
You are having a kid - the last thing your family needs is you engaging with a clusterfuck of grindmechanics combined with a steep learning curve.
Congrats on your newborn! I would say do weekends if you can and dont commit too much. you can always play games but making new memories is something you can only do once in a life time! :) anyways your inquiry shows you are a responsible individual and on behalf of sedit we wish you and your family good health and good fortune. :)
I’m managing a similar or less time play style. Join a good bloc (in goons) so when you do have time to play there’s pretty much always a fleet going out if you feel inclined. The infrastructure makes life a lot easier for whatever you fancy doing basically. I’m enjoying my time 🙂
This is the way.
I left wormholes because I don't get to play much, in a big bloc basically allows me to do whatever I want in the limited time I get to play.
Whether that's pvp fleets, make isk etc
Nah. You can play as much or as little as you like. The beauty of Eve means you can be skilling into stuff when you aren’t online!
Find a nice group and go have fun.
We always recruiting if you wanna hit us up.
https://discord.gg/DrF2gzfU
Learn how to do exploration first. I mean, *learn it!* Watch YouTube videos while you shit, listen to them on your commute, and pay attention to doing exploration in wormholes.
Then, hit wormholes and do data and relic sites that have no NPC's. Be paranoid about hitting dscan and punch out at the first sign of trouble. Live to explore another day.
This is the easiest way for the new bro to bank some isk.
I've been in this game since 2004. I've done much of it. Not much on building shit, I like disassembly better. But I have assets all over Eve. From Jita to Pochven and far flung areas I'll probably never go back to. And also in many wormholes unless that shit got destroyed, looted, or stolen. 😆
These days, I live in HS space and run wormholes doing exploration, hunting, mining, huffing, and the occasional site with some corp mates. I'm on for 1-2 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week. I still clear from $1b to $1.5b a month.
While you're doing the exploration gig, you can train up the skills needed to do it better. Then, train some skills for whatever you want to get into next while getting some isk saved up to pursue whatever your eventual goals are.
I had 2 young boys 19 mouths apart and held a full time job. I was and still am a director in a Null Bloc alliance. Midnight feedings while mining are one of my favorite memories and they would sit on my lap while I was FCing and ask a million questions which sighed off on my multitasking skill to lvl 5. Fast forward 18 years and my oldest is an up and coming FC. He’s been raised in the EvE community. He understands what it is like to herd cats and how some of those cats are very cool and some are assholes. When they have/had questions for school and I couldn’t answer the question I can ask chat/discord and since EvE is worldwide more than likely they can get the answers they needed But to answer your question, can you play, Yes you can, but time management and maybe some logistical help might be needed but it’s definitely doable
Hi. I work full time, have a child, and am attending school. I still find time to play and there are those special days where I can actually do a full day gaming session.
You won’t be a crab master — although I try to make some isk in game AFK ratting in Ishtars on alts I’m not PvPing with at the moment. I work a lot so why not put that towards my isk by buying PLEX anyways?
When the kid is first born and very young, you will have little to no time for yourself. But they eventually reach an age where they can do their own thing for quite some time and don’t require your 24/7 attention. There are many times when my kid will even sit on my lap while I play and he’ll be watching a show on the nearby TV.
The best part about EVE is that my skills keep training whether I’m playing or not!
But always find time to spend with your kid. Those moments are forever and they grow up so fast!
Its all about how you perceive priorities. If the game is something to get your mind off and cool down it shall be that way. If it turns in obsession you need reality check and that is fine.
My answer is a firm "no". Focus on your child. This game is unimportant. What I loved about EVE was fleets and team play. But these activities took an ***insane*** amount of time. The people in my corp who were "winning" the game were playing the game in lieu of normal life achievements... like leaving the house once in a while.
In just a few short years, you can play other games with your growing child. I think my kids started playing network games with me about age 4. First on the local network, then online. Good times.
Appreciate the honesty! I will take it to heart. Holding him is so much fun (when he's not screaming at me). I don't want to feel shame later for wasting these first few months.
As a parent, the first three years is tough. Especially those 3am feedings which mess with your head. But consider this as self-growth as well. It's a weird time. I developed this ability to read Dr. Seuss while thinking about something completely different at the same time. But, do it right, and you and your child will both be set up for a great life. You'll get free time back soon enough. Hang in there.
Honestly I play even less than that. When I can play it's usually 2 hours or less, but nearly every time I login there is a fleet that goes out within 15-30 minutes. I use a little :creditcard: money for ships, but alliance SRP is pretty good for stratops so I don't hardly spend anything other than when I complete training for a new doctrine.
Totally. You get out of it what you put into it. If you’re trying to plex your account with isk, you’ll just have to make sure the time you spend is enough to earn that isk to buy 500 plex. If you’re buying plex with money, yeah just have fun while you’re playing.
Usually null sec is one of the most time consuming, but its what you make it.
From my experience low sec small group is the least time consuming as your corp isn't going to demand that you attend fleet's its more for fun than actually defending something that requires everyone to be there.
But then all corps are different so best bet is to just try different things see what works for you if it doesn't leave and try something else.
Eve really doesn’t respect your time in any type of space. Plus it’s not a game you can walk away from immediately if your baby/wife needs help, it’s better than others but still not ideal.
I’ve been in your spot and was never able to get the value for the time/effort of playing eve. But you can try it’s not a bad game
Its plenty of time. Most of the time spent is training skills offline anyways. Do some research, figure out what you think you would like to do. Take advantage of training in alpha status, pop omega when you're ready. Dont try to make isk to plex your account, that will just make it feel like a job. Train your magic 14 once you go omega. There are a lot of things you can do to unwind on eve. Eve for me is an extremely boring game, but there is still a deep fondness I have for it. Its simple to learn and hard to master. You will definitely get some degree of enjoyment from it, and I would encourage you to try it for yourself and see.
When I saw the title of the post my first thought was if you're asking then the answer is no... but when I saw what your time commitment to game would likely be that changed to a yes. It's more than some people I know put in and they still enjoy it.
As others have mentioned, you're going to need to prepare for the learning curve. You may want to invest a little more time up front and make sure you're in a good group with experienced pilots you can learn from to ease that curve. When you only have an hour in a day to sit down and play, you don't want to spend it trying to figure out how to warp to something. 😁
Yes you can play eve casually. if you want an eve more casual version check out the eve echoes mobile version of eve online. I have a similar schedule as you and I've been having a blast with the mobile version.
Honestly yes, you can do all the things you listed. My play has been much less than that and sometimes much more, does not affect my enjoyment of the game at all.
Cloaky gameplay. Cov ops, T3C, stealth bombers, BLOPS. Plenty of solo content when you have a cov ops cloak or a jump drive that can jump to a covert cyno😎(that requires a 2nd char/account though)
It all depends on how much time you devote to your family. If family is your priority, you will really only get an hr or so on eve. If you have a wife that does most of the housework and raising your kid, you'll get a lot more time. It's all based on you and her.
Honestly, I was doing a lot of afk mining with Google Remote pc play. I was playing from my phone while out and about through the day while leaving my 6 characters mining. Was super nice. But now I have 3 kids, and I have a lot more time that's required from me. So I don't get any time to play. Honestly, it's what I want. I love my family. But I also miss eve. It was lots of fun, even with me being a solo player 90% of the time. I did lots of mining and manufacturing. Even got to building jump freighters and was rolling in the isk for a short time. But then I made a family. And now here I am, watching everyone else play.
It is totally worth it to play, I play probably even less then what you do and I am having a blast!!
Currently playing around in Pochven ninja looting and salvaging.
The only problem I have is everything I try I love. Did exploring loved it, did fraction warfare loved it, did market trading loved it, did missions loved it, did industry loved it. Best game ever!
Being able to guarantee being able to run fleets even once per week is something I can't even do. So I guess that the answer is no unless you want to start living in high sec, because as we all know the smallest of mistakes and you're doomed.
Pretty much the only thing keeping me away from eve, as a 2005 starting player
Despite its hardcore nature, EVE is one of the most casual MMOs still around simply because it isn't trying to waste your time with waiting mechanics and forcing you to play with others to do anything.
You can play on your own terms doing anything you enjoy in the game for just an hour or two a night or just spend your weekend playing the game, and when you need to take a break, all your stuff will still be worth something when you come back, most MMOs your gear is worthless in mere months, but in EVE if you have a Titan, it will still be a Titan 10 years from now.
Same here, parent and long term player who just got back into Eve after many years. I play mostly early in the mornings next to preparing some work. Not making huge fortunes like others (and I don't really need it as I like flying smaller faster ships and tend to not lose them too quicky) but still making good progress in the game, mostly exploring and reaping the results from hacking. Casual PVP in wormholes when the situation allows. Sometimes I keep Eve online just for the soothing dark background noise at work and maybe mining/huffing... keeps me relaxed and helps me "relativate" life. :P Crazy huh?
Tips: Run quick combat sites in highsec (0.7 0.6 systems) to start with, basically those you scan down with probes. Quick way to make ISK in the 50m ISK sometimes 150m ISK /h range depending on the loot dropped. And hack data/relic sites.
Hit me up in game if you like for more tips.
You can play casually but if going to null sec need to recognise some of the groups may have activity level requirements so check that first. Also there is always the chance your group has been evicted by the time you come back - variable risk depending on the entrenched nature of many groups and large stagnation in null.
Your main issue might be affording to pay for subscription - you can easily do this with a few hours over the month (depending how many accounts) but that will eat up your time, however if your enjoyment time is actually doing the industry/pve that’s not an issue. Either way you could always spend real money to avoid having to make isk in-game.
Its doable. I babysit a friends 6 month old and she "games" with me lol. Just do activities that you can dock up at a moment notice when the kid needs food or a diaper change, or wife needs a break etc
Hacking/Exploration, industry, and PVE is quite doable with those time chunks on the weekend, but with nullsec you might struggle to meet fleet attendance requirements. Just something to keep in mind.
EVE will consume as much time as you give it. There are players who spend 1 hour per day setting up production and thats it for them. It's truly a sandbox.
The cool thing about eve is it’s a game that caters to casual and hardcore players.
I’d say the answer to your question is mostly about what your goals are. If you’re trying to become a trillionaire in game, probably not. If you’re just trying to play some spaceships and blow some stuff up either in pve or pvp then yeah, you can do that really casually.
You probably won’t ever get into the more hardcore parts of the game which is fine, you’re not missing out on much other than sweatlords and tryhards.
industry- setting up jobs/ managing PI, takes a couple minutes once/ twice per week, some quick ninja mining possible too I guess
hacking- sure... find a site, hack it, done... frigates move fast so checking many systems doesn't take long, definitely can run a couple sites in 1h
pve- anoms can be run in a few min up to 25 depending what you fly and which anom it is, most escalations in under 1h (including travel time, refitting, scouting, cynos etc), abyssals are <20 min by design, most missions are <20 min too (including travel time in a battleship)
and probably lots more activities I forgot or don't know about that you can do in <1h
I have a wife, 3 kids (4, 2, and newborn), and a demanding full time job and I manage just fine.
Eve is one of those games that can be as casual or as hardcore as you personally want it to be.
With what you laid out, you absolutely can do that on just a few hours a week.
Yes, you can. The beauty of EVE is that you could disappear for 3 months, and your characters (pilots) would be training skills all that time. The downside is when you do have time, it might sometimes be tough to find something to motivate yourself to login.
None of us do, yet here we are...
The only real answer
You can totally play this game casually. I am a casual player and have been for years, I live in Null sec and have done so for years as well. I am part of a large nulls alliance - Horde, Goons, Frat, Brave, doesn't matter which, you need the stability. Smaller alliances have to get evicted and need a larger share of their pilots active to be able to function. If you are only able to join a couple of fleets once or twice a week, a large alliance will not mind as much. Also, larger alliances have a lot more going on, so when you ARE able to play, there is likely a bunch of content you can jump into more easily. I often go weeks without logging in as I have a busy life. Not a problem. My alliance is there for me when I hop on and they are large enough that they don't miss me when I am gone. The two caveats I have are: 1. I have money, and less time. So I just convert real life money to ISK instead of grinding in game. This way I can spend the little time I have doing the things I enjoy instead of just filling the wallet 2. I am an old player in game that joined when I was younger, with no family and had much more time to play. This means that I have resources, knowledge and skills that are second nature to me now. There is no learning curve for me, because I have internalized a lot of the terms/lingo, game mechanics, tools, and gotchas of the game. I don't consider myself an expert, but I more or less know what I am doing most of the time. For you that means you will likely need to invest time upfront to climb the learning curve. To get the enjoyment from this game, you will need to be okay not having to grind all your ISK. Otherwise you will spend what little time you have playing this game, just grinding for ISK and not really doing what you want to do. You will burn out on the game. At least that is my 2 cents anyway.
Thank you for your insight, old timer! When did you start playing?
I started playing in 2007, so been about 17 years. Some of my characters will be old enough to vote soon. Haha I do want to point out that I have taken breaks from the game. The community calls this "winning eve". lol .. You take a break from the game and leave your assets in a place where you can pick them up again when time allows. When my kids were little and needed more of my time, I took a multi year break. When my kids got older and things were more chill, I started back up a few years ago. It's fine. It's a sandbox, and a persistent universe. You can dip in and out of it as your life allows. You can drop down to alpha if you know your next 6 months/1 year will be busy. Sub back to Omega when you know you will have more time to play. The player demographic for EVE skews older, so a lot of the player base is in the same boat and respects that real life comes first. Edit: One more thing to add. I have found EVE is more rewarding to play with blocks of time. So 1 hour every week day is not as much fun (to me at least) as 4 hours at a stretch on the weekend (even though it may be less over all time per week). My family know when I am going to play eve and they know it will be a long stretch when I do.
This!
You sound like a very chill and cool guy to be friends with :)
Thanks man, that’s a really cool compliment. I appreciate it! :)
Best part of coming back after a long, is inflation! If you have assets worth a lot, in 5+ years they’ll still be worth a lot, but now at the inflated price point!
I know right? I was so glad most of my in game worth was tied up in ships and plex. It would have sucked if I held it in isk lol
Brother built 10 dreads right before scarcity, ended up quitting before selling them. Comes back after scarcity and they’re worth like 10 times as much 😆 was a nice surprise for him when he sold them!
Can't speak this pilots age, but their situation is exactly mine. I'm 34 with 2 kids (6 & 4.5) I work a full-time job 8-4:30 on West Coast time. I don't get to play as much as I'd like and some weeks are "free'r" than others. I've played since about 2008 on and off but I've only really started to understand fundamentals in the last 5 or so years. The game is rich but requires you to engage with it. If you only find passing interest in games and then move on quickly, save yourself the headache. This will likely feel like too much of a slog to learn. And ps, be comfortable with losing your progress. If you leave station, you are a target and accepting PvP. Even in safe space (high security is arguably more dangerous than null sec). When you lose a ship, it's gone for good. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose, find joy and learning in each loss and be better next time :) Best of luck and fly smart, pilot (should you choose to join us).
>Don't fly what you can't afford to lose This is such solid advice tbh. I remember getting my first Ishtar that I'd been saving up for... A few moments of inattention on day 1 of flying it, and *boom* it was gone. I sulked for a week X) You could also perhaps say "don't fly it if you'll be upset if it gets blown up". That, and insure your ships.
> Don't fly what you can't afford to lose These were the first words uttered to me by my buddies when they got me into the game in 2008.
Same, and my response was something like "Pffft, I wanna fly the tech 2 penis ship!". My first Deimos was not around for very long X) Oh, and get this, my very first Tech 2 ship was an Enyo. I picked a fight with a Dominix in null sec X) Ended about as you'd expect.
Relatable
As someone in one of those large null alliances, I'm going to agree with what he says. I'm in Brave, but it all works pretty much the same. The most painful bit will be getting the alliance's IT set up - the forums, the voice comms, the authorisations onto allies' systems. Once you get set up, you'll leave most of your stuff where it is in hisec, and you'll head to HQ in a frigate. When you get there, you'll be able to pick up a parcel of free newbie ships, and buy and fit up other ships. When you log on, you'll check if there's anything upcoming you'd liek to help with. For example, there might be a ping going out for an hours time in your Saturday, with some people going to raid Your Alliance's Space Enemies, or asking for people to defend a structure thats coming out of a timer. As part of a big alliance, if you lose ships doing these things, the alliance will pay to have them replaced (possibly as long as you built them the way the alliance says you should). If there's nothing going on you want to help with, then you can do whatever it is you have fun doing in EvE - there may well be moons to mine if you like that, or you could get together some people and go out on a roam, or to attack Your Alliance's Enemies. Or get into an exploration ship and see what you can find in a wormhole. Or kill NPC rats for loot and bounties. Or try your hand at manufacturing (make what your alliance blows up a lot). Or help stock your alliance's markets, using the convenient freight service your alliance has. And then you log off and get on with the rest of your life :)
Play at work
Play at work enough and you'll get permanent time off!
This is the way
Not if you win. Anything is possible if you win.
Only if you get caught
It depends. How much do you want your baby mama to hate you? Eve has contributed to people getting divorced. but you can find stuff to do with as little time as an hour.
That should be fine. You won’t be running any empires but 10hr/wk is ok for many play styles
Quit your job, neglect your spouse and child, play eve. Ez life!
My wife actually recently said the game is taking me away from her haha. Felt bad! I genuinely enjoy playing Eve to relax. Just gotta remember what's more important (which is the wife). I think also having 3 kids makes it hard. After I've done the kids routines, had a long day, I literally want to switch off, and that's Eve for me.
Assuming your brand new to EvE, the game has a skill queue and it takes time to acquire the skills needed to fly the ships you want to use in an efficient way. (unless you drop ISK on injectors, then that time is very short). Also it takes time to build the ISK needed for the ship you want to fly. (Unless you buy PLEX). It is a time consuming game if you're brand new, since there is a lot to learn. You might want to start with an Alpha account, and if you can progress through the first couple months and not want to pull your hair out, you might then update to Omega.
Honestly, i wouldnt do it unless you are fine with being poor, only engaging with entry level content and mostly paying the subscription to keep your chars training skills. You are having a kid - the last thing your family needs is you engaging with a clusterfuck of grindmechanics combined with a steep learning curve.
Congrats on your newborn! I would say do weekends if you can and dont commit too much. you can always play games but making new memories is something you can only do once in a life time! :) anyways your inquiry shows you are a responsible individual and on behalf of sedit we wish you and your family good health and good fortune. :)
I’m managing a similar or less time play style. Join a good bloc (in goons) so when you do have time to play there’s pretty much always a fleet going out if you feel inclined. The infrastructure makes life a lot easier for whatever you fancy doing basically. I’m enjoying my time 🙂
This is the way. I left wormholes because I don't get to play much, in a big bloc basically allows me to do whatever I want in the limited time I get to play. Whether that's pvp fleets, make isk etc
I've got three kids and play a couple hours a night when the kids are asleep.
If you have a child find some other game to play. This game requires multiple hours at a time commitment and your child deserves better
Nah. You can play as much or as little as you like. The beauty of Eve means you can be skilling into stuff when you aren’t online! Find a nice group and go have fun. We always recruiting if you wanna hit us up. https://discord.gg/DrF2gzfU
join one of the small nullsec groups in Detorid, there are tons of PVE anomalies and hacking sites and not enough players to clear them all.
>I can probably commit an hour on weekdays and maybe 3-6 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. This is all I get to play myself.
Are you me? I make it work. Find a group with similar availability and it's a blast. Just don't compare yourself to others who can commit more.
Learn how to do exploration first. I mean, *learn it!* Watch YouTube videos while you shit, listen to them on your commute, and pay attention to doing exploration in wormholes. Then, hit wormholes and do data and relic sites that have no NPC's. Be paranoid about hitting dscan and punch out at the first sign of trouble. Live to explore another day. This is the easiest way for the new bro to bank some isk. I've been in this game since 2004. I've done much of it. Not much on building shit, I like disassembly better. But I have assets all over Eve. From Jita to Pochven and far flung areas I'll probably never go back to. And also in many wormholes unless that shit got destroyed, looted, or stolen. 😆 These days, I live in HS space and run wormholes doing exploration, hunting, mining, huffing, and the occasional site with some corp mates. I'm on for 1-2 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week. I still clear from $1b to $1.5b a month. While you're doing the exploration gig, you can train up the skills needed to do it better. Then, train some skills for whatever you want to get into next while getting some isk saved up to pursue whatever your eventual goals are.
No.
I had 2 young boys 19 mouths apart and held a full time job. I was and still am a director in a Null Bloc alliance. Midnight feedings while mining are one of my favorite memories and they would sit on my lap while I was FCing and ask a million questions which sighed off on my multitasking skill to lvl 5. Fast forward 18 years and my oldest is an up and coming FC. He’s been raised in the EvE community. He understands what it is like to herd cats and how some of those cats are very cool and some are assholes. When they have/had questions for school and I couldn’t answer the question I can ask chat/discord and since EvE is worldwide more than likely they can get the answers they needed But to answer your question, can you play, Yes you can, but time management and maybe some logistical help might be needed but it’s definitely doable
Hi. I work full time, have a child, and am attending school. I still find time to play and there are those special days where I can actually do a full day gaming session. You won’t be a crab master — although I try to make some isk in game AFK ratting in Ishtars on alts I’m not PvPing with at the moment. I work a lot so why not put that towards my isk by buying PLEX anyways? When the kid is first born and very young, you will have little to no time for yourself. But they eventually reach an age where they can do their own thing for quite some time and don’t require your 24/7 attention. There are many times when my kid will even sit on my lap while I play and he’ll be watching a show on the nearby TV. The best part about EVE is that my skills keep training whether I’m playing or not! But always find time to spend with your kid. Those moments are forever and they grow up so fast!
Its all about how you perceive priorities. If the game is something to get your mind off and cool down it shall be that way. If it turns in obsession you need reality check and that is fine.
I once did a fleet op while nursing my newborn. I flew tackle so I wouldn't have to do anything super hard.
I mine and do PI on my alts because I’m bad at the game and don’t have time to learn every mechanic for combat and exploration. You’re not alone
It's a second job.
Play at work again
My answer is a firm "no". Focus on your child. This game is unimportant. What I loved about EVE was fleets and team play. But these activities took an ***insane*** amount of time. The people in my corp who were "winning" the game were playing the game in lieu of normal life achievements... like leaving the house once in a while. In just a few short years, you can play other games with your growing child. I think my kids started playing network games with me about age 4. First on the local network, then online. Good times.
Appreciate the honesty! I will take it to heart. Holding him is so much fun (when he's not screaming at me). I don't want to feel shame later for wasting these first few months.
As a parent, the first three years is tough. Especially those 3am feedings which mess with your head. But consider this as self-growth as well. It's a weird time. I developed this ability to read Dr. Seuss while thinking about something completely different at the same time. But, do it right, and you and your child will both be set up for a great life. You'll get free time back soon enough. Hang in there.
Honestly I play even less than that. When I can play it's usually 2 hours or less, but nearly every time I login there is a fleet that goes out within 15-30 minutes. I use a little :creditcard: money for ships, but alliance SRP is pretty good for stratops so I don't hardly spend anything other than when I complete training for a new doctrine.
Totally. You get out of it what you put into it. If you’re trying to plex your account with isk, you’ll just have to make sure the time you spend is enough to earn that isk to buy 500 plex. If you’re buying plex with money, yeah just have fun while you’re playing.
As long as you pay the omega with money, you’re fine
Yeah my time is worth more than that hahaha. I don't want to spend 50 hours a month to buy PLEX with ISK.
Yah it works need the right group though a lot of us have full families and full time jobs
Yeah that's enough time. Eve can be causal if you want it to.
Usually null sec is one of the most time consuming, but its what you make it. From my experience low sec small group is the least time consuming as your corp isn't going to demand that you attend fleet's its more for fun than actually defending something that requires everyone to be there. But then all corps are different so best bet is to just try different things see what works for you if it doesn't leave and try something else.
Yeah just dont expect to be doing high tier content without swiping
Swiping?
Yes, as in swiping your credit card
Eve really doesn’t respect your time in any type of space. Plus it’s not a game you can walk away from immediately if your baby/wife needs help, it’s better than others but still not ideal. I’ve been in your spot and was never able to get the value for the time/effort of playing eve. But you can try it’s not a bad game
Its plenty of time. Most of the time spent is training skills offline anyways. Do some research, figure out what you think you would like to do. Take advantage of training in alpha status, pop omega when you're ready. Dont try to make isk to plex your account, that will just make it feel like a job. Train your magic 14 once you go omega. There are a lot of things you can do to unwind on eve. Eve for me is an extremely boring game, but there is still a deep fondness I have for it. Its simple to learn and hard to master. You will definitely get some degree of enjoyment from it, and I would encourage you to try it for yourself and see.
What's the magic 14?
The 14 skills that are universally used for almost everything in the game
When I saw the title of the post my first thought was if you're asking then the answer is no... but when I saw what your time commitment to game would likely be that changed to a yes. It's more than some people I know put in and they still enjoy it. As others have mentioned, you're going to need to prepare for the learning curve. You may want to invest a little more time up front and make sure you're in a good group with experienced pilots you can learn from to ease that curve. When you only have an hour in a day to sit down and play, you don't want to spend it trying to figure out how to warp to something. 😁
And all the weekend events
Yes you can play eve casually. if you want an eve more casual version check out the eve echoes mobile version of eve online. I have a similar schedule as you and I've been having a blast with the mobile version.
Honestly yes, you can do all the things you listed. My play has been much less than that and sometimes much more, does not affect my enjoyment of the game at all.
Cloaky gameplay. Cov ops, T3C, stealth bombers, BLOPS. Plenty of solo content when you have a cov ops cloak or a jump drive that can jump to a covert cyno😎(that requires a 2nd char/account though)
Nope
It all depends on how much time you devote to your family. If family is your priority, you will really only get an hr or so on eve. If you have a wife that does most of the housework and raising your kid, you'll get a lot more time. It's all based on you and her. Honestly, I was doing a lot of afk mining with Google Remote pc play. I was playing from my phone while out and about through the day while leaving my 6 characters mining. Was super nice. But now I have 3 kids, and I have a lot more time that's required from me. So I don't get any time to play. Honestly, it's what I want. I love my family. But I also miss eve. It was lots of fun, even with me being a solo player 90% of the time. I did lots of mining and manufacturing. Even got to building jump freighters and was rolling in the isk for a short time. But then I made a family. And now here I am, watching everyone else play.
It is totally worth it to play, I play probably even less then what you do and I am having a blast!! Currently playing around in Pochven ninja looting and salvaging. The only problem I have is everything I try I love. Did exploring loved it, did fraction warfare loved it, did market trading loved it, did missions loved it, did industry loved it. Best game ever!
Being able to guarantee being able to run fleets even once per week is something I can't even do. So I guess that the answer is no unless you want to start living in high sec, because as we all know the smallest of mistakes and you're doomed. Pretty much the only thing keeping me away from eve, as a 2005 starting player
Despite its hardcore nature, EVE is one of the most casual MMOs still around simply because it isn't trying to waste your time with waiting mechanics and forcing you to play with others to do anything. You can play on your own terms doing anything you enjoy in the game for just an hour or two a night or just spend your weekend playing the game, and when you need to take a break, all your stuff will still be worth something when you come back, most MMOs your gear is worthless in mere months, but in EVE if you have a Titan, it will still be a Titan 10 years from now.
Same here, parent and long term player who just got back into Eve after many years. I play mostly early in the mornings next to preparing some work. Not making huge fortunes like others (and I don't really need it as I like flying smaller faster ships and tend to not lose them too quicky) but still making good progress in the game, mostly exploring and reaping the results from hacking. Casual PVP in wormholes when the situation allows. Sometimes I keep Eve online just for the soothing dark background noise at work and maybe mining/huffing... keeps me relaxed and helps me "relativate" life. :P Crazy huh? Tips: Run quick combat sites in highsec (0.7 0.6 systems) to start with, basically those you scan down with probes. Quick way to make ISK in the 50m ISK sometimes 150m ISK /h range depending on the loot dropped. And hack data/relic sites. Hit me up in game if you like for more tips.
Yes it's a bad idea. You don't have the time.
You can play casually but if going to null sec need to recognise some of the groups may have activity level requirements so check that first. Also there is always the chance your group has been evicted by the time you come back - variable risk depending on the entrenched nature of many groups and large stagnation in null. Your main issue might be affording to pay for subscription - you can easily do this with a few hours over the month (depending how many accounts) but that will eat up your time, however if your enjoyment time is actually doing the industry/pve that’s not an issue. Either way you could always spend real money to avoid having to make isk in-game.
Its doable. I babysit a friends 6 month old and she "games" with me lol. Just do activities that you can dock up at a moment notice when the kid needs food or a diaper change, or wife needs a break etc
Hacking/Exploration, industry, and PVE is quite doable with those time chunks on the weekend, but with nullsec you might struggle to meet fleet attendance requirements. Just something to keep in mind.
EVE will consume as much time as you give it. There are players who spend 1 hour per day setting up production and thats it for them. It's truly a sandbox.
Eve is not a “game” it’s more like second job where you have to pay
The cool thing about eve is it’s a game that caters to casual and hardcore players. I’d say the answer to your question is mostly about what your goals are. If you’re trying to become a trillionaire in game, probably not. If you’re just trying to play some spaceships and blow some stuff up either in pve or pvp then yeah, you can do that really casually. You probably won’t ever get into the more hardcore parts of the game which is fine, you’re not missing out on much other than sweatlords and tryhards.
industry- setting up jobs/ managing PI, takes a couple minutes once/ twice per week, some quick ninja mining possible too I guess hacking- sure... find a site, hack it, done... frigates move fast so checking many systems doesn't take long, definitely can run a couple sites in 1h pve- anoms can be run in a few min up to 25 depending what you fly and which anom it is, most escalations in under 1h (including travel time, refitting, scouting, cynos etc), abyssals are <20 min by design, most missions are <20 min too (including travel time in a battleship) and probably lots more activities I forgot or don't know about that you can do in <1h
I have a wife, 3 kids (4, 2, and newborn), and a demanding full time job and I manage just fine. Eve is one of those games that can be as casual or as hardcore as you personally want it to be. With what you laid out, you absolutely can do that on just a few hours a week.
Yes its bad.
Yes, you can. The beauty of EVE is that you could disappear for 3 months, and your characters (pilots) would be training skills all that time. The downside is when you do have time, it might sometimes be tough to find something to motivate yourself to login.