EVE New Citizens Q&A

I think you have been given some excellent responses, but I will add in my 2 bits. My perspective is I am an avid gamer, older, work a demanding profession, and yet spend quite a bit of time each week, almost every day, in this game.

This is a new untrained alt btw. I have been in the game about a year. I am a proven fast learner. Even so the game was a bit daunting at first. I was posting on these forums in fact when I got an offer from a corp, and it was a very good corp. That helped me, but I have still learned most of the game on my own. But all those little bits and pieces of missing information that the veterans in my corp have supplied over the last year have definitely been a real positive. They have tended to help me tie it all together, and they have filled in numerous missing portions bits and pieces. So a good corp, in addition to having good people to play and socialize with, is a factor that is hard to overstate.

I did not do most of the tutorials though. I did a few, and then used these forums, google and a ton of carefully labeled bookmarks to continue my learning and game progress from there. I may go back and do them sometime, they no doubt would help most, but no, they are not essential. At least not for someone who is able to do his own research, indexing, categorizing and use it all effectively.

Eve Online is not a game for dummies. Heck, it is not a game for the slightly above-average imho. It is a game where the bright and gifted, the persistent and determined, the focused and motivated, have the advantage and should excel.

There are other games out there, a lot of them, for the dummies, and the only slightly above-average. Nothing wrong with that at all. Not every game is for everyone. I was one who came here looking for a game that would reward me for my mental more than my youthful and athletic reflexes. When I was young and athletic, I was all for those games. Heck, I still like them. But the kids have the advantage on me in them now. I am far from old and retired, but there is a lot of room in between 18 and 67. On the other hand, my other mental traits have if anything improved, and just imho are more important in this game.

So I am glad it is so challenging. I am glad it does not become boring early on from already being an expert. I like the opportunity to create separation, even though for awhile, it will mean I am the one at the low end. I knew that would change in time, and it has, and it will increasingly now further change.

So if you are looking for an easy game to master, you are definitely looking in the wrong place. Same is true if you are looking for a game where your reflexes will always give you the win. But if you want challenge that is still there after you have been going at it hard and making real progress over a year later, and probably 5 years later, then this is your game.

Only you know what type of gamer you are.

The 'advanced tutorials' of Eve... you are already interacting with them. It's us, the other players. No AI can tell you how to best fit for expected encounters with common enemies you have yet to make.

Once you leave the NPC side of the game, start exploring for yourself with knowledge of the most important mechanics at hand, you can most definately do whatever you want and you don't need to wait a gazillion years to get anywhere. I think I'm 2-3 years old so I've seen only Eve's later years, but I've firsthand experienced that while yes, it most definately places you somewhere in a pyramid structure SP wise, that pyramid is so broad it's hardly an insurmountable problem, and more about absolute and total efficiency.

An above average intelligence, patience, experience, determination and persistance do a hundred times more then SP. In the limited time that I have played I've found a niche for myself that doesn't demand total commitment, but still has that sense of accomplishment when things work out well. For me it's more about making a plan, maybe skill up a little for it, and then set it in motion. And then watch what happens.

Eve definately is a game you have to 'stick with' but if you understand the mechanics well, you will be more successfull in any endevour then the dude that operates solo at the grace of his perfect skilling. Get in a corp, make some friends and enemies, and most of all have a good time. If you want to ignore the tutorials for a while and try something specific, go ahead and try it. There's no substitute for personal experience, especially early on. Don't be afraid to look stupid trying something new.

hell yes it is read this blog and yo
u shall see its posible to solo very quickly

http://ericshangthepirate.wordpress.com/

I have EveMon and Not Aura, but another one. None are helpful in finding what equipment I would need to refit a new ship from scratch. But I'll keep looking.

I've done guilds, which are like corps, and it never really works out. Shoot, I can't even finish missions in the bonus time frame, let alone be part of a organized group. I don't discount the the importance of a corp, I just don't have the time to be an active part of one.

thank you!

No program will EVER tell you what you should fit to a ship.

Because how you fit a ship is up to YOU and what YOU intend to do with the ship.
As the program isn't you, it can't tell you how to fit one.
It can just tell you that you lack certain skills to use modules or that you need more powergrid/CPU to make the fit work.


Also.

Guilds in other MMOs are NOT the same as EVE corporations in many many many ways.
And there are plenty of corporations out there that are very RL first suited, where they don't care if you log in each day for 14 hours or only once every month for 1 hour.

The issue is that finding a good corporation that will suit you is hard.

Yes, powergrid/CPU updgrade! But when? And the reason I ask, is because every other time I've tried this game I usually drained the bank pretty quickly. So now, I'm under the impression that I need to save all my money and let the tuts give me stuff - when it works out. Don't forget, this isn't the first, or third time I've played Eve. It just usually ends in poor and frustrated.

Mining, yes. But once again, I've expired the bonus of another mission. I can collect plenty of items, but I am losing out on the isk part of the missions.

Sigh...

Ships have mounting points, or "hardpoints", for missile launchers or turrets. Some ships have both. Some ships have more of one than the other. Some ships only have one or the other. Some ships have neither.

Check the fitting screen. There are icons of a launcher and a turret over the ship portrait on the left. Underneath each are boxes that indicate the number of hardpoints.

You can also look at the ship info, fitting, to see how many and what type of hardpoints a ship has.

Not everything you find will be useful to you. Sell it, or reprocess and sell the minerals if you will get more for them, and buy something useful for your ship. Or tuck it away and save it for later.

If it's not coming together for you, then look to the people who have been finding success in Eve. Do as they suggest in order to gain a perspective that you lack. Since we've been successful, we really are basically correct. Trust that.

Make sure you ask many questions along the way from any outlet you have available, such as Rookie Chat. And don't alienate your potential helpers.

This game is incredible after you get solid headway up the learning cliff. The initial frustration is a somewhat necessary part of something this incredible. Just bare that in mind.

And be ready to cast aside notions that are wrong when you are clearly wrong. You will know it because we tell you it's wrong. Just trust us; practically, the alternative is to quit, and what good does that do?

Eh?

Your Ibis rookie ship has two launcher hardpoints.

You're doing something very wrong if you can't complete tutorial missions within the bonus time - most of them can be done ten times over in the time allowed.

As others have suggested, you need to either join a corp or, if that isn't your thing (perfectly understandable, it isn't my thing either), engage with one of the other methods of talking things through with other players.

But don't feel bad about Military Tutorial Mission 8 - it's a really nasty surprise for a newbie. But that's the point - EVE is full of nasty surprises and you have to learn to cope with them.

In that mission you can gtfo as soon as the smartbomb hits, dock up and complete the mission. On the other hand, if you park somewhere safe while your shields repair you can get more ISK by warping back to the mission location at distance and destroying the rats. Just don't get close enough to the hotel for the smartbomb to hit you again.

One more tip: if you like rockets you can get a free Condor from the Advanced Military tutorial. One of the early missions requires you to suicide your ship into a pirate base and provides you with a Condor which the agent tells you to insure and use for the mission. Don't use it - keep it. Any frigate other than a rookie ship can be used, so if you have a Bantam insure and use that instead - don't forget to strip all fittings and empty the cargo bay.

If you know you have to log within minutes...why start a new mission.
When I ran missions, I kind of estimated the time it would take me to complete them (usually all the same mission levels take about equal amount of time with only a few exceptions). If I found out I might run out of time due to RL, I just stopped mission running and filled the time with something less time con straining (like mining, making plans for my next game time, browse market to learn about modules and ships I might want to try, etc).

Mission timers are in place to counter 1 thing...farming them endlessly.