EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I started this whole internets spceship game about 6 days ago. This isn't my first time playing EVE, just the first time I am prepared to give it a honest go. I'd spent some time researching things and reading forums/websites to get a feel how things are currently set up. I had decided I didn't want to just jump into the game and run around like a chicken with my head cut off. You'll notice my corp/alliance tag and see that I was handed some very solid advice on the way's to play, what you can do in game, how to not be space poor etc. Some of you will also hate my very existence because of said corp tag or assume this is some big troll/scam. I assure you it's nothing more than one new players point of view and experience in the game.

I'd like to do a brief rundown of the tutorials and the character creation process. The character creation process was really simple and really nicely done graphically. Kudos to the dev's. I wish they spent a little more time explaining what races flew what ships and there general playstyle other than a quick couple lines when you hover over them. Maybe a quick cutscene with say a 30 second video showing common ships in action? It's not perfect but could help in the long run. I luckily had decided my race before hand. I am still unsure what type of ship I am interested in after I skill into an interceptor. Maybe a armor/gun ship. Maybe a missle/shield ship. Maybe some other combination of them. Minmatar seemed to have the best "flexibility" and with my plan it was a no brainer. And once I have those core armor/shield/turret/missle skill cross training to other races becomes really easy. At least that's my plan.

The two biggest things facing a new player is what to train, and how to make isk. These are hands down the biggest "obstacles" I think a new player see's in front of him. I myself think one's biggest worries should be "what the hell do I want to do, and can I logically achieve it being new." To each his own. As more often than not what you want to do will influence how you train and how much isk you'll "need". This isn't a typical MMO where you pick a class, and then level up and get the old carrot on a stick to push your progression. EVE is what you make of it. There isn't an "end game" in EVE. I see in my corp lot's of guys with a lot more skill points then me flying comparable ships to what a new guy could fly. I see Tristans, Rifters and tons of interceptors all over Syndicate. Some of these guys can fly any ship in the game up to and including titan's and yet they find things to do in ships I could fly. That right there should give any new player a hint. Sure it'll take a month or so to get into a t2 fitted interceptor, but once you have the skill you are in a ship that will serve you the rest of your EVE career.

Don't ask what to train. Ask what do YOU want to do. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to play EVE. There is room for miners, pirates, explorers etc. The trick is to focus on your goal. I want to pvp. That's pretty much all I want to do. My training reflects that. Building up my core fitting skills, weapon skills and tanking skills. Anything else I don't have the time for. Sure I am spreading skill points over several types of weapons and tanks but at least I am not dropping points into trade and industry. So while I am not as focused as say a Gallente character would be this early I am still moving towards MY goals with no fluff. If i was a miner I'd have a far different training goal. And if I wanted to do production it'd be different again. My point isn't train for PVP, it's make a goal and stick to it. Don't get distracted by other people's shiney's or what they can fly that you can't.

ISK. The great dilemma for new players. You can mine, you can play the market, you can build things, you can mission and that's just the easy stuff off the top of my head. Personally I made an honest assessment of my play time and went the easy route. I bought my way out of poverty and plan to continue that. I went and bought a couple PLEX and sold them on the market. Is that for everyone? I know CCP would love it if it was but it probably isn't. I have more disposable income than time and decided it's right for me though. At the least weight the option if you are new. How many hours doing something to support the things you want to do in game is $35 worth to you? My plan is to buy a couple plex every 3 months and sell them to replenish my inevitable losses.

My last piece of advice is to find a corp that is doing what you WANT to do. Corps that do "everything" is a sure sign no one is doing a damn thing, at least well. Want to mine? Find an active mining corp with people who will give you real world advice on how to accomplish your goals. Want to mission? Find a mission runners corp and get advice how to do this. Want to fly around in little ships looking for small gangs and to die horribly a couple times a day? Send me 500mil isk and I'll get you into the Goon's (jokes, jokes). The point is to get out of that silly NPC corp and to find guys/gals who are doing what you want to do and learn how to do it. I think this is the single most important thing a new player needs to learn. FIND A DAMN CORP!!!

I plan to update this thread from time to time with my failures, my triumphs and my further observations. Hopefully someone can learn a thing or two about being new and develop a plan how to move forward. Until then if you're in Syndicate and see me in local feel free to fight me as I'll be doing my best to find you. After all it's all in good fun and just pixels on a screen.

This.

I went the typical new player route: Frigate > Cruisers > BC > BS + Tech 3 > Capitals...

Only to find out...Frigates are the MOST fun to fly.

So now I spent my days flying mostly frigates, with a very occasional cruiser or BC.
And the benefit, for the price of a capital, you can fund a LOT of frigate losses.

I sort of agree about the advanced combat, however I think that the idea was that any one of the missions would stand alone as an introduction to that specific career. The reason there was is overlap is because pve and PvP have a bit of overlap.

The 2 different quest lines do their job at introducing the basic concepts in and of thselves in my opinion. The advanced combat introduces you to the trinity of tackle as well as experiencing a ship or 2 exploding, while the basic combat series pretty well lays out the mission grind.

If anything, there could be a little more overlap in that some scanning and probing is involved in advanced combat so that series could have used at least one mission which introduces combat scanning/Intel gathering...

While i like most of your post this makes me cringe.

Yes, its true that many all around corporations are not the best ones to join, but there are many corporations out there that have a more.. "jack off all trades" aspect to them who have managed to pull it off and is doing quite well, and in some cases, especially when your new, joining a corporation like this can actually be a benefit for several reasons.

1. You have no clue what you want to do, a group that has people that deal with several aspects off the game are likely to be able to introduce you to all these aspects, and then you will have a better idea on what the different things entails.
From there its easier to figure out what you want to do long term.

2. Often there is more freedom. You want to mine one evening? Sure go ahead and do that. Want to PVP, go for it! Want to try out trading and want to just mess around on TS or corp chat? Well nothing is stopping you.

3. You are less likely to be exposed to the whole "Dont mine! Its bad! It will rot your brain!" or "Your a big mean pirate! I hate you just because your sec status is not 5.0 and obviously your a psychopath in real life because no sane human being would blow up someones ship".
In simple words, when you get exposed to all kinds of different play styles, and its your corp members, people you (often) like and respect, you have a bigger chance at learning to respect and accept all the play styles EVE has to offer.

That being said, there are bad all around corporations, just like there are bad specialized corporations.
So, no matter what corporation your joining, do research and dont join them just because they asked you to

Killboard links are not allowed in here. Suggest you take it out of the post or ISD will come and do it for you and it will look silly.

To each his own. I can do math and no one is going to convince me that skilling into multiple paths is going to make you better as a new player than picking something and skilling exclusively into that. I think a lot of you forget what it's like to be new. You see this to fly see that to fly and next thing you know you have 4 races of frigate to 3, 2 races of cruiser to 3 and are working on one races battleship. Bad gun skills, bad cap and fitting skills because you've wasted the first month playing games with wanting to do this and do that. I think my way is better. I want to PVP. So I am all in on an interceptor. Worst that happens is I decide PVP isn't for me and move to something else, but I'll always have that interceptor skill. If one wants to start by mining, get into a good mining ship with the right skills, then if it's not for you you'll always have that to fall back on and use.

Then again this is just me giving people who are interested my story. It's not the gospel, or everyone's interest. Just a new guy trying to help other new guys.

+1 to everything said here. (coming from another noob who has been learning just all this on their own the past few weeks)

Whatever you do, don't listen to the idiots saying "jack of all trades is the best route, because you might find something better", I started out just wanting to pvp, and I had no problem sticking with it. You definitely seem to have done your homework, so that's 50% of the game right there.

Flying an interceptor? Great idea, the required skills will make general pvp much easier for you in the long run. Plus going really ******* fast never gets old.

edit: Although I would definitely get very well acquainted with your race's t1 "interceptor like" frigate before you run off getting ceptors blown up. (ie: the Condor for Caldari)

Ugh, this turned quasi negative quick.

There's good advice all around. Some people know what they want to do, some don't. Take what works and leave the rest. No need to **** in someone's cheerios because you like frosted flakes.

The tutorials are an ongoing thing with CCP, they're infinitesimally better than they were when the new player experience consisted of "here's your ship, it has a crap gun and a mining laser, there's a rat try not to die." which wasn't that long ago.

I have 2 characters that are in the jack of all trades category, while they can do many things, some of them quite well because they're 3 or 4 years old, they're not fantastic at anything. I also have a new alt that will be specialising in small ship combat, hopefully it'll do that better than the other 2 are capable of.