EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi, I'm a trialist.

I've been doing some research into the game and one thing that seems to come up over and over is that 0.0 space is where the good stuff happens. You've got fleet battles, player owned buildings, special ship types, more interesting types of rock to mine, and the least restricted PvP.

So, I'm wondering...can a newbie head straight to this lawless territory and live there, instead of hanging around in Empire space?

I understand that a lot of it is owned and some friend-making might be required...but beyond that, what are the basic amenties like? Are there neutral stations where a guy can set his clone? Will there be enough economic activity to be able to buy and sell new ship types and other stuff that I'll need as a newbie, like skill injections? Will there be rats that are beatable in a little frigate and level 1 mission contacts, or is it all aimed at guys in battleships?

I'm also a little confused on how a person (without his own fleet of warships) might get there safely - I guess trial and error, mostly? Checking for ships destroyed along the possible routes into null sec? I don't mind getting blown up a few times if that's what it takes, but that wouldn't be any good if I had to keep going back to high sec to buy the stuff I needed to live out there in 0.0 (and PvP requires replacement components and ships on a regular basis, right?). I'm guessing that the big alliances just manufacture what they need, but what about smaller groups? I've heard of little teams of people living in null sec so I'd be curious if they produce their own ships and modules or have some system for ferrying it in from high sec.

If it's not possible for a newbie to go and live in null sec, then would low sec be an idea? I dislike the notion of low sec living because it seems like you get all the restrictions of high sec (assuming you play nicely) without any of the protections: but from what I'm reading those protections are pretty thin on the ground to begin with. I came across this guy who seems to have declared war on people mining in high sec, and performs "suicide ganks" and something called "bumping" which I don't quite understand, and it seems there's no way to combat that. I'm not sure if it applies to newbie mining but it's just one example of many - I also heard about a big alliance killing anyone carrying a certain mineral to manipulate the price. Extremely cool and interesting stuff, but it doesn't inspire me with confidence that high sec is a great place to play, especially as null sec sounds like more fun anyway.

There's also declarations of war. Another thing I keep hearing is "join a player corp!" and I can see why that could make things a lot more fun, but if I'm understanding it right then player corps can declare war on each other, which lets the aggressor kill the target (and vice versa) anywhere he likes with no consequences (right?), even in high sec, for an ongoing cost in ISK and only on up to three other corps at once. I'm not sure how to interpret that: on the one hand it seems like it could be a great way to get PvP while having the convenience of high sec infrastructure, but on the other hand it seems to suggest that anyone can grief a newbie who strays from the safety of the NPC corp.

On the whole it seems like nowhere's safe, which I think is a great premise for good times, but also makes me think that null sec might be the best place to be, because at least there's no pretense of safety, and the same rules apply to everybody.

Then there's factional warfare, which confuses the heck out of me. Some people talk about it like it's a den of griefing and misery, other people say it's wonderful and there's never a dull moment. It's appealing on the one hand because from what I hear it's focused on the smaller ship types, which'll be easier for a guy like me to fly, but unappealing on the other hand because it seems like a dangerous, low-sec half way house.

Thanks for listening to me ramble, I appreciate any feedback or answers.

For the time being I'll be doing newbie things like tutorials and getting a bit of money while I see what I think of the basic gameplay. I hear that mission running isn't that exciting because of the limited AI and heavy repetition, but the novelty value should tide me over.

I was extremely impressed with the character creator, that's a powerful tool they've gone and made.

Thanks for the reply.

That sounds like it might be worth a shot. Cool.

And THAT is why you do research about which corporation you are going to join.

In the sticky: New Citizen Q&A Resources there is a link to NightCrawler's guide on how to find a corporation.

Plenty of corporations in high-sec that don't wardec others, also plenty who never get wardecced.
Usually you end up with a wardec cause of certain reasons, not just randomly.



Bolded what's correct.

No place is safe, unless you stay docked and spin your ship/watch your space barbie. Undock and people can shoot you, they don't even need a reason (aka suicide gank). You can even be scammed while docked with contracts and market stuff so, only safe place is to log in, do nothing and log back out.

High-sec (again) is safe-ish, if you know what you are doing. You make it sound that high-sec is dangerous, well it isn't. IMO it's too safe. Sure, you can be ganked, but take precaution and it will not likely happen. Sure you can be wardecced, but keep low profile with a corp or have some decent fighting dudes on your side and it won't likely happen much.

In the end it's up too you. Both empire (high and low) and null-sec have their own benefits and downsides, it's what you want and where you have fun.



FW is farm-heaven atm, until they nerf it.
It's basically a faction vs faction war, you join one of the factions and fight the other. In certain low-sec regions you can actually claim systems and make money with that.



Mission AI is going to be changed in the winter expansion with the frigates overhaul too. So frigates will be more useful / awesome and mission AI will be a lot harder (already hear the AFK drone boat mission runners whine now) cause of the AI upgrade NPC rats are getting.

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If you need more advice, don't be affraid to contact me ingame by convo or mail.

*Exiting wall of text mode*

best advice i can give you is don't do anything in this game alone. Corps are not equal and the ones that have been around longer and with more people tend to provide the most opportunity to individual members eve experience. for a new player you should focus on joining a new player friendly 0.0 alliance. avoid at all costs corps that restrict what you can do. dont rush it and talk to several corps/alliances.