EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hey everyone,

So I know this question has probably been asked hundreds and hundreds of times, but I haven't really seen a topic with my circumstances, so that's why I'm making my own.

I'm a new player and I'm really REALLY interested in playing this game... The thing is is that I can't afford to spend $15/month on it because I'm going to be in college within half a year. I can definitely pay for a few months right now to get an account started and somewhat built up, but I'd just like to know about how long would it take until I could pay for my account by playing the game?

The reason why I'm interested in this game specifically is that I can AFK on it and do homework or something in the meantime. So I could probably put in about 2-3 hours a day. Honestly, I don't mind mining. I think it's pretty fun watching the cargo hold fill up over time. I think I could also get into station trading with a little guidance.

So basically what profession, based on the above info, could get me a PLEX a month, and after how long of building up an account? And are there any corps out there who would be willing to play with me and teach me some stuff about the game, and help me reach my goal?

Hopefully everyone takes this seriously, but I look forward to hearing from everyone regardless of how informative their post is.

I had a little trouble focusing on what help i wanted to provide once i got to the part where you`re saying that it`s fun watching cargo hold being filled up with ore, but i`ve pulled myself together and here`s my advice.

Well some people have started off with mining, did that for half a year and then ventured into low-sec subsequently becoming fully-fledged, successful PvPers.

One note though for you Duke. The community here isn`t very fond of miners, especially those who are shooting asteroids in an semi-AFK mode. Sure, you could find a peaceful, industrial/mining corporation, but those tend to be frequently targetted by gankers so if you really want to play this game in a casual manner, not being bothered by others i`d strongly suggest you give it a shot at trading, namely station trading. There are plenty of profits to be made, much greater than with mining although you`ll need to play around with the market and learn in order to make your wallet blink with juicy ISK transfers from your clients. No risk no reward - pretty much applies to every aspect of not only the game, but real life as well.

Here`s an additonal pool of resources for you to study should you feel interested

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Making_ISK

I once had your same mind set. With no help, no in-game friends, no corporations, I tried mining I played about an hour a day average. All I did was mine and trade some. I made around 240 million isk in two months casually playing. A PLEX at the time(July 2012) ran about 500 million isk. You will have loads more fun in game if you don't worry about the money and just pay for the subscription but everyone has to learn for themselves.

So what you're saying here is that you want to turn this game into a job? (Sorry mate, that's how you discribe it)

Okay it seems I was a bit misinterpreted there lol

Tee Kay Solus: Obviously I would rather do something a bit more exciting, but what I meant there is that I wouldn't mind mining if that would be the best way to make a quota.

Vincent R'lyeh: I meant the reason I'd enjoy this game over any other is that I can still play it somewhat when I'm doing homework, or something else. I don't have to be 100% active every single day for a couple hours. Ya, when I've got free time I'd definitely do something more exciting like exploring or pvp, but there is that option of mining or reasoning if I need to be AFK, even if it is just for chump change.

Vimsy and Dheeradj: As Sanadras said, I don't mind mining, or market speculation. If that's what it would take to keep my account subscription going then I think I could manage, and again, I'd do more exciting things on my free time.

Going to avoid telling (repeating) to you why that's stupid, and telling you that if you can't afford 15$/month then maybe your time is better spent filling out applications for part-time jobs than faffing about in pixel space, because if this is a real post and not a troll you're going to find all that out the hard way pretty fast, I imagine.

So: Missions. You want missions. You can warp out to a safe spot, AFK, and come back hours later so long as you do it before downtime to finish them. Doesn't work with exploration or mining (other people will mine your ****) or any of the other "starter" professions, really.

There, have fun with your apparently miserable and friendless existence.

Hi Duke,

I'm a fairly new player myself, so I'm by no means an expert on the topic of making ISK. However, the past few weeks I've done a lot of research and spoken to several veteran players in game and now I have made a solid plan for myself to make enough ISK a month to fund my account with plex.

Basically what most people told me is that mining is one of the least profitable ISK/per hour professions. This goes especially when you're a solo miner playing with a single account. If you do decide to make mining your main profession I'd strongly suggest joining a mining corp that has orca boosts available. Playing with a group of people has the added benefit that you can chitchat to help pass the time (mining can become quite the tedious task when all you hear is the sound of your lasers digging through ore for hours on end).

Perhaps the most reliable way of making ISK is running lvl 4 missions. The combination of salvage, loot, LP and the occasional storyline mission can net you around 15 up to 30 million an hour depending on your skillpoints, strategy and efficiency. This is my current preferred method of making ISK. Training to fly a battleship capable of running lvl 4 missions takes about 3 months. The more skillpoints you invest in combat, the higher damage you can do (and thus rats will die faster) and the more damage you can tank. This has the added benefit that the skillpoints you invested will come in handy for PvP activities whereas training industry/mining/exploration skills have little use on the battlefield.

Lowsec and nullsec exploration can be a real goldmine. The downside to it is that it isn't very reliable. One day you hit the jackpot with loot worth over 200 million and then you go weeks without finding anything worth more than some scrap metals.

As others have mentioned, be careful EVE doesn't turn into a second job. Whatever profession you pick, make sure you're enjoying it (somewhat). I've had the most fun when I combine the above three activities. I use mining as a side profession when I don't have much time to play or can't pay attention to the screen 100% of the time. Since the effort I put into is very low, the profits won't be very satisfying either. Nonetheless, it's better than no income at all. When I do have time to play for a few hours consecutively I either run some missions or hop into my magnate to scan down some exploration sites. Combined with passive income from PI, this makes me enough money to pay for a plex each month.

Final notes: Try out different things and see what works best for you. If you enjoy mining and want to make a living out of it, then go for it. There seems to be a lot of hate in the community directed at miners, which I find pretty distasteful considering this is a sandbox game and everyone is entitled to their own playstyle. Don't let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do in EVE!

...like a little fluffy kitten.

OP. You've had good honest advise there mate.

Plan C: play for a couple of months like you said, and if EvE gets inside your veins like the rest of us, clear out your ‘Man Drawer’ , sell off all the old Cells, HDD's Grafix cards etc and sub for the year.

This time next year it will be full again of more junk to sell!

Take it from another college student: save fifty cents a day, and pay for it. seriously, at college prices, 15 bucks is about 2 meals, if that. So, once a week, buy food from the grocery store instead of the dining hall, and bam, EVE is free and you can actually enjoy it rather than having to work to keep your skill queue active.

Thanks for some of the good answers so far, I really appreciate it.

For those of you telling me to get a job, I already do have a part-time job. It's just that I am paying for college by myself, and that's pretty intimidating considering the amount of debt that I'll be facing. I know a lot of people go through this as well, but I'm just trying to find a way to enjoy the game without having to pay for it, because every little bit is going to count when it comes time to pay for college. That $140 a year for an EVE sub is going to turn into about $560 if I only take 4 years to graduate... and that $560 is money that didn't go towards paying off college, so that $560 loan I had to take will turn into a couple thousand with 10 or 20 year's interest (rough estimates, but you get the idea.)

Anyways, I do believe I would enjoy ratting with a decent group, and like I said, if I have to train up for about 3 months to get to that point, then so be it. I can definitely pay that. I could pay for a year right now if I wanted to, but all I'm saying is I'd rather not.

Thanks again for all the answers.