As a long-time player of Elite Dangerous, Eve Online had always intrigued me. Being almost 20 years old, Eve Online is known for massive PvP battles and intrigue, ganking and its player-driven economy. I wanted to experience Eve Online to understand its design philosophy and re-examine Elite Dangerous with different eyes.

The goal was to only highlight the fundamental differences in design, intention, and appeal between Elite Dangerous and Eve Online. A detailed comparison would fill volumes. Developers also evolve mechanics and features so a detailed comparison would also quickly date.

Elite Dangerous is more intimate than Eve Online. Flying a ship in Elite Dangerous is like flying a modern-day fighter. Many use a HOTAS (hands-on thrust and stick) and enjoy the sensation of flight. Eve Online uses more abstract, high-level commands, such as fly to this navigation point, with a keyboard and mouse. Elite Dangerous has a first-person camera view. Eve Online uses a usually zoomed out third-person camera view to get a better tactical perspective.

Combat in Elite Dangerous involves manoeuvring the opponent into your weapon sights, lining up a shot and firing at the correct time. It occurs at a range of a few kilometres. Combat in Eve Online is more tactical, with the game aiming for you, and battlefields can span hundreds of kilometres.

Graphically, Elite Dangerous’ textures, models and effects are more detailed then Eve Online because you see them up close. Elite Dangerous‘ sound design is brilliant and immersive, with each ship having distinct sounds. Elite Dangerous is even more immersive in VR, which Eve Online does not support.

Eve Online focuses more on player-interaction. While both are MMOs, Elite Dangerous involves smaller groups of players and ships than Eve Online. While both have large squadrons (Elite Dangerous) or corporations (Eve Online), Eve Online has more tools for managing large corporations like alliances, inter-corporation war and in-game calendars. Eve Online’s corporate tax system sequesters a portion of each member’s income to support combined activities or reimburse members. Many play Elite Dangerous in solo mode, sharing the same galaxy but not interacting with players.

An Elite Dangerous player can exploit or ignore the in-game politics and universe around them. Eve Online players are the politics and universe, including building and destroying space stations. Before introducing Triglavians in Eve Online, the only endgame was large scale PvP. Elite Dangerous’ endgame is mainly PvE, including a detailed simulation of galactic politics called the “background simulation”.

Eve Online has a much more complex economy and industry than Elite Dangerous. You cannot construct or purchase ships or components from players in Elite Dangerous, the opposite of Eve Online. Building a ship from the blueprints you researched and from the ore you mined in Eve Online is a great feeling. At least, it is until you realize how uneconomical it is compared to specialist players.

Mining in Elite Dangerous is more involved than Eve Online, requiring prospecting individual asteroids and gathering the released ore fragments, but only translates time into credits. Mining in Eve Online is simpler, coining the phrase “AFK mining”, but provides the raw material for the broader economy and has specialist ships and skills.

Elite Dangerous is more forgiving. Non-consensual PvP is a fact of life in Eve Online – I lost more ships in my first two weeks of Eve Online to ganking than in thousands of hours of Elite Dangerous. Elite Dangerous, by comparison, has player groups like the “Fuel Rats”, who altruistically deliver fuel to players whose ships ran out of fuel. If you lose a ship in Elite Dangerous, you pay a rebuy price of 5% of the ship’s total cost and respawn in a fitted, engineered ship matching your original. If you lose a ship in Eve Online, you get back a smaller portion of the cost then must manually purchase and fit a replacement.

Eve Online comes from an earlier game design mindset where challenge and setback were necessary to contrast achievements and progress. Eve Online’s age also shows in its UI, reminiscent of Everquest, with many information-heavy windows. Elite Dangerous’ UI is less cluttered and simpler, partially driven by Elite Dangerous’ console support, but deals with less information than Eve Online. Elite Dangerous replaces Eve Online‘s sometimes ambiguous warning buzzes and tones with an unambiguous and science fiction-style cockpit voice assistant.

While both games provide tutorials, both require experimentation, help from third parties or patience to learn and master. Various tools and websites support both games, supplementing the game UIs.

Mechanically, a significant difference between the two is Eve Online’s skill system. Elite Dangerous allows any pilot to fly any ship, assuming they have sufficient credits and reputation. However, Eve Online’s skills both determine what the pilot can do and how effective they are.

Eve Online’s skill system means players can specialize in a role or type of ship. For example, one player may specialize in missile weapons and one race’s destroyers. Another may specialize in laser weapons and a different race’s cruisers. Another may specialize in mining ships and industry. This system means there is no “one size fits best” ship or fit, unlike Elite Dangerous. It creates niches and encourages cooperation. Skills are easy to learn but hard to master, so experimenting or role switching is still possible.

However, the only in-game way to increase skills is time. Skill points accumulate at a constant rate, even when not playing. The player’s actions neither predispose nor increase the rate of accumulation. Long-time players benefit, even if absent. Eve Online’s developers get a revenue stream through new players purchasing skill boosts.

This contrast highlights the different revenue models. You pay for the Elite Dangerous game upfront then, optionally, cosmetic upgrades. Eve Online has a limited free mode but frequently nags to upgrade to a monthly subscription. You can earn enough in-game currency to upgrade to the paid tier. However, it is only possible in the late game and requires a significant time investment.

Another key mechanical difference is exploration. Exploration in Elite Dangerous consists of flying to unexplored star systems, scanning then selling the cartographic data. Players have discovered less than one percent of Elite Dangerous’ over 100 billion star systems in a 1:1 model of the Milky Way galaxy. In-game photography is common, particularly when players find beautiful rings or other stellar vistas. You can land on planets and experience a “Neil Armstrong moment” as you walk on them.

Exploration in Eve Online consists of scanning known star systems for points of interest that do not appear in regular scans. These points of interest could be wormholes, hidden bases, wrecks (destroyed ships) or players not at warp. The latter is an important part of PvP in Eve Online compared to Elite Dangerous – other players can easily find you and attack you. Players can salvage wrecks for crafting components. Wormholes lead to unmapped star systems with a higher risk/reward.

These different approaches reinforce and support existing gameplay. Elite Dangerous’ exploration spreads the players out and encourages more individual play. Eve Online’s exploration supports PvP or industry.

Eve Online is influenced by the Homeworld series and Warhammer 40K with the larger fleet battles, constructing huge engines of war and trade, and emphasis on rediscovering ancient or abandoned technology. Elite Dangerous owes more to Freelancer or the Wing Commander series – a single pilot surviving and thriving in a space “wild west”. Both games have extensive lore that serves mainly to give context to the current world. Neither game is story-based or examines themes.

I liked Eve Online’s “try before you buy” model by playing an Alpha (unpaid) for a while then upgrading to Omega (subscription) temporarily with a starter kit. Elite Dangerous has a high upfront cost. However, once purchased, Elite Dangerous lacks any “pay to win” mechanics or nagging.

I also liked Eve Online’s complex industry and economy, which has no equivalent in Elite Dangerous. It opens whole new play styles, earning the moniker “spreadsheets in space” from its depth and complexity.

However, Eve Online’s Darwinian environment was frustrating. The solution, and a tenet of Eve Online, is cooperation. Whereas Elite Dangerous leans toward meditative soloing and slow constant progression, Eve Online is more tribal and brings together communities to play and progress with and against other players.

Eve Online and Elite Dangerous scratch different itches. Both games have withstood the test of time and flourish, despite a few bumps with Elite Dangerous’ recent expansion.