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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Question on factions and faction choice

Author
Vrakis Muvila
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#1 - 2013-02-06 16:55:28 UTC
Hello everyone.
New Eve Player here.

So far i have had a good time with my trial. Love the richness of Eve and what it offers. there are a lot of things that interest me, which is great.

I have a question though on choosing your faction.

Is choosing your faction purely just a preference thing? Or does it come into play anywhere down the road? I think someone mentioned that your faction choice only really matters when it comes to Factional Warfare?

Can anyone clarify that for me?

Secondly, what is the most popular faction and less popular faction? Is this pretty consistent, or does it fluctuate?

Just wanted to ask.

having a great time so far. Looking forward to more.

Best,

Elena Thiesant
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2013-02-06 16:57:36 UTC
Vrakis Muvila wrote:
Is choosing your faction purely just a preference thing? Or does it come into play anywhere down the road? I think someone mentioned that your faction choice only really matters when it comes to Factional Warfare?


It affects your appearance, your NPC corps and the frigate and weapon skills that you start with, that's all.

A Gallente can join Caldari factional warfare if they like, can fly Amarr ships, can live in Minmatar space
Sentar Dethahal
Wohlstandsgesellschaft
#3 - 2013-02-06 17:28:25 UTC
The only other time it matters is if you are interested in roleplaying with that character later.

In regards to popularity...per Eveboard, the distribution is as follows.

Caldari - 59,151
Gallente - 39,918
Minmatar - 31,294
Amarr - 28,449

I don't know how accurate that is overall, but that would probably be the same way I would have broken it down if I had to guess. I would say that stays relatively consistent. It is possible Gallente/Minmatar might swap around, but I believe Amarr have pretty much always stayed least popular.

That link also further breaks it down by bloodlines chosen, and gender, if you are interested.

And as Elena mentioned, race in faction warfare does not matter whatsoever.
Vrakis Muvila
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#4 - 2013-02-06 17:47:37 UTC
Sentar Dethahal wrote:
The only other time it matters is if you are interested in roleplaying with that character later.

In regards to popularity...per Eveboard, the distribution is as follows.

Caldari - 59,151
Gallente - 39,918
Minmatar - 31,294
Amarr - 28,449

I don't know how accurate that is overall, but that would probably be the same way I would have broken it down if I had to guess. I would say that stays relatively consistent. It is possible Gallente/Minmatar might swap around, but I believe Amarr have pretty much always stayed least popular.

That link also further breaks it down by bloodlines chosen, and gender, if you are interested.

And as Elena mentioned, race in faction warfare does not matter whatsoever.


Great.
Thanks for answering my questions. I really appreciate it.
Sentar Dethahal
Wohlstandsgesellschaft
#5 - 2013-02-06 17:49:42 UTC
Glad I could help. To be honest, I didn't know the information was available, so I rather enjoyed getting actual numbers too. Even if they aren't 100% accurate, it does give a decent picture.
Lost Greybeard
Drunken Yordles
#6 - 2013-02-06 17:58:44 UTC
Which faction you _roll_ does not matter.

Which faction you _work for_, in the sense of doing missions, alters what you can buy with the primary mission-running currency reward (loyalty points), and alter how well you can reprocess stuff, set up POSes, and make jump clones. If you aren't somewhat discerning in which missions you take, it can also result in the opposed faction siccing its NPC navy on you whenever you enter their space.

All faction standings are reversible (though not necessarily easily) and you're never "locked in" to anything, either standing-wise or training-wise. You can always train into another race's ship lines and so on regardless of your standings with that faction and your character's base race, at no penalty.
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#7 - 2013-02-06 19:16:14 UTC  |  Edited by: J'Poll
Vrakis Muvila wrote:
Hello everyone.
New Eve Player here.

So far i have had a good time with my trial. Love the richness of Eve and what it offers. there are a lot of things that interest me, which is great.

I have a question though on choosing your faction.

Is choosing your faction purely just a preference thing? Or does it come into play anywhere down the road? I think someone mentioned that your faction choice only really matters when it comes to Factional Warfare?

Can anyone clarify that for me?

Secondly, what is the most popular faction and less popular faction? Is this pretty consistent, or does it fluctuate?

Just wanted to ask.

having a great time so far. Looking forward to more.

Best,



If you talk about faction in the way of your character:

It really doesn't matter. Character choice only changes your appearance, starting location and starting skills (which is like less then 1 day of training for any other race).

This used to be different and Caldari at that point was the faction which had the most optimal attribute maps, so most people started as Caldari characters. Now a days you will still see this, but now a days it is usually because Jita is the main trade hub in EVE and it's located in Caldari space. So why make an alt that then has to move 10+ jumps to get to Jita for price checking / trading.

If you talk about faction in the way of flying different race ships:

There is no 1 single popular faction. Each one has it's good ships and suitable ships. Specially with the current frigates and cruisers after CCP did their rebalancing.

Though for PvE (missions) the flavour of the month has been a Drake / Tengu / Raven / Raven Navy Issue for a long time cause of the long range of their missiles and the "easier" applying of damage.

For PvP it really swings all around, depending both on how CCP changes ships and also what your main enemy is flying. If they can counter your fleet ships very effectively, it's time for a new FOTM ship.

As for FW (Faction Warfare):

YOu can enroll to any side you like. So being a Gallente pilot doesn't mean you can only fight on the Gallente side in FW. You can just as well join the Gallente enemies (Caldari) if you want too.

Personal channel: Crazy Dutch Guy

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Public roams channels: RvB Ganked / Redemption Road / Spectre Fleet / Bombers bar / The Content Club

Drivicin Arnst
Pator Tech School
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2013-02-07 17:32:11 UTC
Really appreciate all the responses. Incredibly helpful.
So far, I LOVE the depth and richness of Eve. I find myself wanting to explore everything. Its a lot of fun.

One last question:

I came across this thread recently and wanted to get some feedback on it:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=149635


I bring this up because I had a thought. Right now, I created a Minmatar and Caldari pilot. Both looked pretty cool and I liked the way they looked (but all look cool really).

But my question is, it seems that Minmatar have the worst capital ships as you get higher levels? I guess what I am wonderin gis, what happens if I get my minmatar pilot really high level and find out that there are some issues? Should that even be a concern?

Thanks again for everyones help. I greatly appreciate it.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#9 - 2013-02-07 17:53:30 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
Sentar Dethahal wrote:
In regards to popularity...per Eveboard, the distribution is as follows.

Caldari - 59,151
Gallente - 39,918
Minmatar - 31,294
Amarr - 28,449

Much of that is historic, as at one time Gallente were the best to start with (example: Dr Caymus, the most skill points in EVE = a very old account), followed later by Caldari. I think Minmatar is the current favourite, but it will take a while to catch-up.

Of course it really doesn't matter anymore. Starting characters are now all equal.

I'm Caldari. I grew-up in Amarr space. I pilot all races of ships (I'm currently sitting in a Hurricane, a Minmatar Battlecruiser).

Drivicin Arnst wrote:
But my question is, it seems that Minmatar have the worst capital ships as you get higher levels? I guess what I am wonderin gis, what happens if I get my minmatar pilot really high level and find out that there are some issues? Should that even be a concern?

Not really. Some people never bother with capitals, heck, some people never bother with anything bigger than a frigate.

There is a ship re-balancing underway, and eventually capitals may get looked at.

In EVE, never plan for the flavour of the month (FOTM), instead, plan for what you have fun with and ignore the haters.
Bud Austrene
Secure Haven
#10 - 2013-02-07 17:56:05 UTC
CCP seems to be committed to a balancing theme that results in having any superiority being nerfed into line so that no race has an advantage.

You should chose your faction based on the type of role you want to play.
Each faction has a philosophy and if you chose the one that most suites you, you will start in an area where those around you have similar attitudes.
That makes finding friends and corporations that fit you easier.

This is just a place to start.
As stated by others, you can easily move into different factions.

Yes I am an alt. I see no reason to make it easy for bullies and greifers

Radius Prime
Tax Evading Ass.
#11 - 2013-02-07 18:31:35 UTC
Faction and race used to matter. Not anymore tho :). So just choose the one that matches your RPG self best.

Fly safe o/

Reopen the EVE gate so we can invade Serenity. Goons can go first.

Sentar Dethahal
Wohlstandsgesellschaft
#12 - 2013-02-07 23:20:43 UTC
Tau Cabalander wrote:

Much of that is historic, as at one time Gallente were the best to start with (example: Dr Caymus, the most skill points in EVE = a very old account), followed later by Caldari. I think Minmatar is the current favourite, but it will take a while to catch-up.

Ah ok, I wondered how accurate it would be.

Drivicin Arnst wrote:
But my question is, it seems that Minmatar have the worst capital ships as you get higher levels? I guess what I am wonderin gis, what happens if I get my minmatar pilot really high level and find out that there are some issues? Should that even be a concern?

This doesn't matter at all. First, with the upcoming changes for the summer, it should require relatively minor work to swap to a different races capitals. Second, and perhaps more importantly, your race does not affect the ships you can fly. If you decide you want to fly Minmatar subcapitals, and Amarr capitals, then you can do so. The biggest changes you will have between races are the weapon and tank systems. However, all those support skills you train will apply to everything else, so it really should not matter if you decide you don't want to fly Minmatar capitals.