Former player here, 7y. Yes, you need at least to be able to spend your sunday night, and one or two nights during the week. It is the minimum in the majority of alliances and even if you play alone you will need the half of this time to earn money.
When you start to roam there is "no way" to stop to play when you want. Because several rules of gameplay and because you will be in enemy territory, you will have to stay with your mates until the Fleet Commander decides to go back in your HQ. So you need to stay 4h and be flexible with that (5h, sometimes 6h).
It is one reason of the main reasons I quit EVE. Not because you need to spend all these hours, but because sometimes you can roam for hours and don't be able to find a fleet to fight and sometimes you need to run away because you are on the road of the main army blob of a main alliance. So you spend hours without any fun..
When you start to roam there is "no way" to stop to play when you want. Because several rules of gameplay and because you will be in enemy territory, you will have to stay with your mates until the Fleet Commander decides to go back in your HQ. So you need to stay 4h and be flexible with that (5h, sometimes 6h).
It is one reason of the main reasons I quit EVE. Not because you need to spend all these hours, but because sometimes you can roam for hours and don't be able to find a fleet to fight and sometimes you need to run away because you are on the road of the main army blob of a main alliance. So you spend hours without any fun..