EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello Q&A people. I have been browsing this forum for a few days but this is the first time I am going to ask a question :)

I played EVE a few years ago for exactly 2 weeks but never renewed my SUB. It was mostly RL reasons and at the time the learning curve was just too high and I did not want to commit myself to learning the game. Long story short I am back and started with a 3 month sub and not even a trial this time.

My long term goal is to get into PVP. Solo or small scale pvp to be exact. Large fleet pvp looks awesome on videos but personally I fear that it might be terribly dull for everyone except the fleet commander. Where in small groups or solo pvp it depends more on my actions so the sense of achievement is high. In real life I own manage many people so I really do not want to get into commanding. I come here to escape from the pressures of real life! :)

My short term and immediate goals though is to make lots of ISK. The reasons are many, but for one thing I have read that learning to pvp takes time and ships. Time I have but not ships, so I want to use my initial time effectively and use it to make ISK while I learn the game mechanics, about fittings and just the universe in general. I have read what other people posted when they say experience is all that is needed. I like competing on a fairly level field though (well, as much as I can). I dont mind losings a hundred ships in that persuit. But I want to have the ISK to afford it so that will be my first thing to do.

I was thinking that I should do missions while I train the skills I need for pvp. From what I can figure out about the skills system there is many skills that overlap between pvp and pve. The big difference between pvp and pve appears to be in the fitting of the ships and the type of ships I use.

So my question is can I make a decent amount of ISK from running missions? Is there other, better alternatives that does not include trading? I have no interest in doing trading, though hauling could be a possibility if it makes good ISK. if I make alot of ISK then I can always buy a veteran character and give my learning a big boost :)

P.S. On the topic of buying a char, how much would I expect to pay for a decent starting char?

Going to address one of your questions:
You can drop a couple of bil on a starter Tengu pilot or battleship pilot.

However, please do realize that while you'll get a huge boost in effectiveness - you'll lose a lot of time that you would have spent researching and mulling over training trade offs. It's a good way to lose interest in the game, quickly.

Essentially, I can put a 14 year old kid in the cockpit of a formula 1 car - but it isn't going to mean squat to him. Give the same kid a drivers ed course, a couple of times driving a round a parking lot, and a learners permit - He's going to get a hell of a lot more out of the driving experience. By the time he's ready to sit in a racecar he'll understand the differences between it and his camry; and why they are significant.

Don't be the guy with the blinged out raven running level 4s for two months and wondering why this game is so boring.

Use your alts, by all means run missions to raise iskies for PvP.

Train up a character for the purposes of making money, and then train up one of your other 2 characters, so it doesn't affect your income, with some basic PvP skills and jump into something like RvB for cheap thrills or BNI if you're interested in playing against the big boys, and progress from there. I'd also recommend an Agony basic PvP course when you can afford it.

People also run public roams, most are newbie friendly and welcome people in frigates who aren't afraid to be hero tackle. The aim of them is to kill as many people as you can before you're all dead, have run out of ships and more importantly beer.

J'Poll is the person to speak to about those

Argh. The moment I dont have access to my laptop a nice posts that deserves a wall of text as a reply.

Basically:

Welcome back to EVE.

Yes missions can pay pretty good. But from level 3 onward. Also, at start you will lose ships ( a lot) in PvP. Start small.

Yes some skills overlap but fits and tactics are different.

Look up the following things as they might be of interest of you:

A. Faction warfare (combo of PvP and PvE - very frigate friendly).
B. RvB Ganked - public saturday roam.
C. Spectre Fleet - Hosts of public roams.
D. Redemption Road - Hosts of public roams (mainly Saturdays and Sundays but also during the week).
E. Agony Unleashed - Hosts PvP Uni classes and its highly recommended to join their BASIC class.
F. DO NOT buy a character. Just because you have the SP doesnt mean you have the skills to use a ship. A lot of EVE is not based on SP but on what YOU as a player know. It doesnt matter if you have 1 or 400 million SP if you dont know how mechanics and certain tricks work.

If you have any further questions, dont be afraid to mail me or drop by in the 2 channels listed in my signature

General:
First, welcome! Taking a look at your long term goals, I would bring up one consideration. PvP does not take huge amounts of ISK. Frankly, when you start out your going to blow up a lot no matter what you fly. There is a lot to learn mechanically, "clicking in space", and EvE strategy. You want to be flying cheap ships while you learn that part of the game. I would encourage you not to wait, join a new player friendly group and dive in now! Running missions will bring in plenty of ISK to keep you in cheap ships. As you start to grow more skilled, you can likely start looking for other ISK making opportunities with some in game knowledge.

On the character buying front, don't do it when your just starting out. As others have mentioned, it is going to put you in a situation here you have the mechanical ability to sit in ships you are not really ready to fly. EvE does not have a "worst" ship beyond the rookie ships. A better way to think of EvE ships is like classes in other MMOs. Each have a purpose. Tackle frigates are going to be a part of almost every single fleet, you can get into a decent fit tackle frigate with a few days of training. Learning to fly a tackle frigate well takes a lot of work, so there is plenty of challenge in that alone.

Most Important:
Whatever you do, find a group. EvE without a group is not only much harder to learn / play, but is also a lot less fun in my experience.

Good New Player Groups:
1. EvE University - They have classes and will walk you through everything as you learn EvE. They will introduce you to fleet fights, fitting, etc. A very structured approach.

2. Brave Newbies - Very new player friendly and very focused on PvP right now. They are currently deployed into one of the more active areas of EvE. They will introduce you to big fleet fights and all that goodness. Gets you right into some of the bigger fights.

3. Red vs Blue - They exist to fight each other. They are great for a new player learning the ropes and trying to figure out PvP.

Argh! Beaten to it. +1 to this advice.

Best to get into PVP when things are cheap and your new enough not to be scared about fight opportunities.
PVP first, make money second...

Aaaaand now I read that the day after I sent in a Eve-Uni app for my pvp alt.

If you want FW or to hang in lowsec. Once you become one of the locals it might behoove you to take a two week training break and train the two other characters on your account (edit) to fly an epithal and research PI (Planetary Interaction). The tax rates in lowsec are generally pretty good, and you can make enough running PI to fund a decent amount of ship losses.

Just do research on what PI is profitable (Fuzzworks has a great guide on net profit). Most P2 and some P3 materials are worth making.