EVE New Citizens Q&A

Low sec is 0.4 and below, until 0.1. (0.0 and below is null-sec.)

And the difference is enormous. If someone attacks you in high-sec, CONCORD will destroy their ship. Between 1.0 and 0.5, the main difference is the time CONCORD takes to show up, which gives a ganker more time to destroy you before CONCORD destroys him. And as CONCORD will always destroy the attacker, most players will only attack you if they can run a profit - i.e. if you have little tank and a lot of valuable items. And the waste majority of players in high-sec are not out there to kill you.

In low-sec, CONCORD will no longer avenge you. There is a little protection in form of gate & station guns, but other than that you are on your own. As the attacker doesn't lose his ship, the only cost of attacking someone is the ammo and people will attack you if they think they can win. Also, in high-sec, you only have survive the 18 seconds or less until CONCORD shows up. In low-sec, an attacker has all the time of the world to kill you. (Unless another player shows up and decides to kill the attacker first.) And most players in low-sec are out to kill you.

Null-sec (0.0 and below) does no longer even have gate guns, but the main difference is that some weapons only work in null-sec. Mainly bubbles and bombs. Also, while players in low sec are often solo or in small gangs, players in null-sec are usually part of huge organized alliances with good intel. In sovereign null you should assume that everyone within ten jumps was alerted to your presence.

For your other questions:

- CCP attributed the security rating. It's fixed.

- In the in-game star map, go to "World Map Control Panel" -> "Star Map" -> "Stars"
You have the option to color stars according to several criteria, at the bottom you have statistics, including kills in the last hour and the last 24h.

- There are several killboards, google for 'EVE killboard'
Personally I like zKillboard best, but it's a matter of taste.

- You cannot see another players assets nor skills, unless he chooses to shows them to you.
However you can see their age (look at the employment history) and look them up on a killboard - this gives you some idea about their capabilities.

Also pick the right barge for the job:

Mining solo? Retriever.

Mining with an Orca? Covetor.

Mining in lowsec or someplace where gankers hang out? Procurer.

Also: Pirates do not spawn in 1.0 or 0.9 systems. If you fly there you can increase your gank-tank by fitting ECM drones instead of combat drones. The chance is low, but it's still a chance, and gankers can't stand the idea of not having an automatic win button.

It's also more nimble and aligns faster. The three seconds it can save you might be the difference between being caught and getting away. Plus, you can fit ECM modules into the mids and hope for the best. But these are minor advantages and you might as well bring a Retriever to get more minerals from each trip.

In the end, I agree with you that friends are much better.

If you are mining in lowsec, any system with a hisec gate is the last place you should be. These systems are always much higher traffic and you are virtually guaranteed to be attacked within 15 minutes in most of them. By contrast, there are some dead-end lowsec systems where you could probably mine for hours without anyone knowing or caring.

1 thing to add about the sec-systems:

In empire (that is high-sec + low-sec): Any unjustified aggressive action will mean you will lose security status. How much is depending on several factors (security level of system, security status of both attacker and defender, ship shot / destroyed).

In lawless space (that is null-sec + wormholes): Anything goes in terms of shooting. So never will you receive a security status drop there.

This.

If you are going to be a miners, the "Ore processing" skills are a must have anyway.


It increases your refining yield and let you use the crystals on T2 strip miners

To get perfect yield (so that is excluding taxes):

Option A:

Refining 5
Refinery efficiency 4
Ore processing skills at 3 I believe


Option B:

Refining 5
Refinery Efficiency 5
Implant

Option B has 2 downsides. It asks for an extra level 5 training, which takes more time then training Ore processing skills needed for what you mine to 3 and it requires an implants, which can be lost when podded.