EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I would very much like some advice on early isk earning.

Trying to fit these ships is a costly endeavor. As a noob, I'll look up fits for particular ships I'm flying, purchase parts and then a) have to train new accompaning skills which costs more isk and b) sometimes find out too late that I still can't fit them on my ship lol. On the plus side, my hangar has plenty spare parts, but I know it will be challenging whenever I start actually losing ships.

currently I am running lvl 1 missions since most of the skills I have been training are combat related and that's where my interest is. SOE epic arc allowed me to get my first cruiser. How long does it usually take to grind up to lvl 3 missions?

I recently started to train skills for planetary interaction to put myself in a position to make some passive income. I get the idea that I will probably need industrial skills at that point too in order to pick up my merch. Any advice on PI in general?

Finally, looking at trade, are there any suggestions for systems that border different regions so it will be easier to check prices?

Thanks for humoring me!

should only take a day or three to hit L3 missions -- if you train up "Connections" to level 3/4.

Though, if you're having trouble with L1/2 missions, I'd say stay away from them for a while ...

If you're really bored and/or unemployed and you focus on agents for a specific corporation you can unlock L3 missions in about a day, 20 hours of play or so. Honestly, I'd advise not worrying about it too much and instead:

-- Work up several corporations in the same empire at once, or just take your time as skills train, and spread that out over a week or two. Work out how all your guns and equipment works in L2s where you're probably not going to die from a stupid mistake.

-- Find a mission buddy that does L4s, follow them with Fleet and wipe out the pesky webber drones and frigates for them so they can focus on the stuff that their BS is designed to kill. You get rep, practice working in a fleet, and a share of the bounties, they get a faster mission completion, and you both get to be slightly less bored than solo mission running.

-- Focus on security agents so you're at least shooting things instead of just warping back and forth delivering stuff.

Additionally, some general pointers:

-- You'll probably want to have a Battlecruiser on hand, fitted, before you start doing L3s. You don't necessarily have to use it since a cruiser can do a lot of L3s, but when you find you do need it you'll want to be able to just hop into it and go.

-- You'll also probably have a better time if you stick with the L3s for a couple months and flesh out all your support skills, gunnery/missile secondary skills, and so on. Because of the way that gunnery upgrades work, you may even want to wait until you can use medium tech 2 guns of your chosen type before you make the jump to Battleships and L4s. This is not to say you _can't_ do L4s with, say, Gallente BS II, a Dominix, and T2 small/med drones with T1 large drones... it's just kinda boring, and a good way to burn out of the game.

-- A good jump up from L3s that's usually worth more money is to sort of jump sideways into C1/C2 wormholes instead. The sites there are solo-able (though more fun in pairs) in a medium-sized ship (BC or T3 cruiser-- the latter can often handle C3 systems as well). Bonus, it gives you an actual use for all those scanning skills and archaeology and so on that you probably found mostly useless up until now.

-- If you haven't notice the running theme here, find someone you enjoy flying with, regardless of what you're doing. Solo work is more profitable in many cases, but it's also a good way to completely burn out on the game and end up only logging in to fix the skill queue or not logging in at all.

Don't listen to that advice. Training social, and negotiations to V is a huge waste unless you're running many level 4 missions. Training connections to V is a huge waste for practically anyone. Train social, connections, diplomacy, and negotiations to level 3 instead. Takes about a day and well worth it (diplomacy in particular). Then if you decide later to be a dedicated mission runner, you can train more at your discretion.

Never blindly follow anyone's advice to train a certain skill to level V, especially in your first few months. There are certain skills which are highly valuable at level V to almost any pilot, but you're much better served as a young pilot by training 4 skills to level IV than one skill to level V, until you have a solid understanding as to why such a skill at V is the right choice.

In addition to PI and missions, check out other income-generating ideas in the Making ISK guide.

As to Looting & Salvaging your Low Level Missions ... yes ... there is some time spent on that but if what you are after is money - and trying to support yourself with what you are getting from your missions - then the loot/salvage can amount to a significant percentage of what you get out of a mission.

Blitzing the Low Level Missions will get you to a higher level faster - but - will YOU be ready to fly the ships you want to have if you get there quickly? Will you have the money to buy them?

Level I & II missions pay very poorly. If you get one Armor Plate piece of salvage - it's probably going to equal or exceed the mission rewards and bounties.



The problem with Salvaging - is that it's hit or miss, like spinning a roulette wheel, and some areas tend to produce better salvage than others.

Melted Capacitor Consoles used to be worth as much as Armor Plates - but they aren't now ... so that has hurt salvaging in Amarr Space.

Caldari and Gallente space salvage also isn't that good.

Minmatar space however has much better salvage because of the greater number of Alloyed Tritanium Bars recovered there. Like Armor Plates - those are worth a good bit.



One of the things you need to look out for as a new person - is advice from veteran players who have forgotten what it's like to be new. Often times, they will advise YOU to bring up a new character the way THEY would. The thing is - THEY already have a significant income source to fund their new characters. So - for them - it is a mistake to fool around with Low Level Mission Salvage - they don't need the money - but for YOU it might not be.


My Advice on this - is to try salvaging your missions for a while - keeping track of how much money you get out of it and the time you spend doing it - THEN - decide it if is worth while for YOU.


If you do decide to salvage your missions - the way to do it - is to bookmark a wreck in each zone of the mission - then turn in the mission and go fly some more. Salvage lasts two hours, just like jet cans. Open your people and places tool, go to the people and places tab - and then Sort by Date. You will see your most recently created bookmarks at either the top or bottom of the list depending on how you sorted. Click once to sort, then click again if you want it sorted the other way. Looking at the time a bookmark was created will give you an idea of how long you can wait before coming back to the wreck to salvage it. Be aware that the wreck timer starts as soon as the wreck was created - so bookmarking them right after creating them will give you a more accurate figure on how long they'll last.

Once you've run several missions, then get in your salvager ship and warp around salvaginng all your wrecks - then haul them back to the station and dump them there.


Now - here is where play style comes into consideration. For *me* I'm not going to spend more than two hours running missions without taking a break - so I run all the missions I want to run, go around and salvage them all - then get something to eat or quit for the day. That way - the time I spend salvaging has little effect on the number of missions I run in a given session. If you are in the habit of running missions for more than two solid hours - without a break - then that is going to cut into your mission running time.


The big thing to realize - is that there is no one way to play EVE. Listen to other peoples advice - and then think about how it applies to you.



Now - if you're running Level IV missions with another guy in your corporation - he may not want you salvaging his wrecks - or - he may not care. Level IV Salvage is worth a LOT more than Level I and II salvage.


So - again - think about your situation, how much money you are getting and what you are trying to achieve - then do what works best for you.


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My usual advice for younger toons is to never train anything to V unless it's a prerequisite for an item (or another skill) that you want to use. Honestly when it's time to start putting any skill to V just for the bonuses, they'll have enough experience with their own playstyle to know that it's time (and which skills are worth it to them) without asking us.