EVE New Citizens Q&A

So far EVE has been interesting for me, I first heard about EVE from Scott Manley I am a fan of his since I'm a KSP nut.

His video that sparked my interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0M7jkv3xkQ&list=PLE075E16BD11172BB

At first I was dismissive of EVE and flat out didn't like it. Losing your ships, scammers, griefers etc... ewww not for me. After some time I got interested again and did some (a lot) of research about EVE. Watched many of scotts videos, found out about Johnnypew and EVE university. I look at the game in a new light, as a really cool idea: A MMO sandbox. I love sandbox games where you can make your own goals, or accomplish common goals in your own way. EVE is known for it's many hardships and being cruel. Maybe I have not been hit with the sledgehammer of the difficulty curve yet, but to me quite a few of them can be avoided with common sense. Is this true? Hate to toot my own horn but I consider myself quite genre savvy or at least above the average.

When I heard about scammers I didn't expect this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wB2ubIIDUs
Who agrees to something without reading it! What am I, Kyle? I'll admit if I haven't read the guide I might have fallen for the margin trading one, or the one where you order an expensive item and get ganked when picking it up. But something like the "some assembly required" scam I saw in jita the other day where you have a fabulous deal for a decked out orca, when really the hefty fitting it there to generate a giant arse list of crap so you don't notice the Orca blueprint buried in there. Or the "You will need to contract your ships to us to join our corp so we can move them down to our base in X". Not buying it. What is the A-material I should watch out for?

As for player traps and PvP I'll have a tougher time with because it takes a bit more than knowledge to avoid. The general vibe I got is, don't make yourself an easy target, only fly ships you can afford to lose, know the region you're traveling in (and the people in it), you see a bear, don't poke it with a stick, BOOKMARKS, and so on. While PvP won't be my focus when beginning in EVE what/who would be a good way to learn the ropes with so I know how to deal with things when they go wrong. Would EVE UNI be a good corp to join? Also what is the danger zone for suicide ganking? I heard between 10-40mill ISK in cargo is when you look like a valid target in highsec.

I also want to play EVE as an learning experience:



You think I'm crazy don't you? But there are lessons you can learn in New Eden that applicable to real life!


Some of the stuff I gleaned from the information I gathered:

Failure is a part of life. (though it's far harder to accept in practice, this applies to all of the lessons here btw.)

From some argument about CONCORD I learned, You can't always be protected and you got to hold up your end by not making yourself an easy target.

Ignorance, naivety, greed, and impatience are things to avoid in yourself-and look for in targets

From the stories of people buying bunches of plex and try to race their way to the top. Only to have their battleship quite literally blow up in their face because they did not have the training to properly fit it or the metagame experience to use it. There a clear difference in having power and knowing how to use it. Failure to make make that connection has caused frustration to the rich and failure for many an usurper.


Another concern of mine is that this is my first MMO. MMO's have obligations to be met and I dunno If I can make them. The time invested to them is a commitment, it's not that I don't have the free time. It's that I live with 5 other people in my home, so the amount of time I go undisturbed is random, I can get pulled AFK at any moment. Which is bad for a game like EVE. Ideally I could arrange a schedule with my folks so I have say a grace period of two hours a day that I don't have to worry about people barging in my room, and asking me to do some random errand. Ideally.

Reserved. In bed now on phone but your WoT require a WoT answer so I will be back tomorrow when I have access to a proper keyboard.

Welcome to EVE. I'll try to answer some of your PvP questions.


It looks like you have the basic ideas down... just understand though that they are more "guidelines" to follow than actual rules.

- Sometimes you have to seem like an easy target to attract someone who wants to fight (either by flying a ship no one takes seriously, or sitting somewhere waiting for someone to get close).
- Sometimes flying in a place you have no knowledge of means you (or a target) may miscalculate a scenario resulting in a fight.
- Sometimes you want to smack the hornet's nest just to see what will happen (so you know what to expect for next time).
- Sometimes just "Leeroying" into danger can teach more than any guide or lesson.


Personally... I would recommend buying up a whole bunch of frigates and destroyers (with the necessary mods), have them shipped down to low-sec (there are services for this), and then see how many people you can kill before you run out of ships.
If you strike up a conversation with your killers and ask what you could have done better you will most likely be given sound advice, training, and/or even be invited to fly with them.

Even if you realize that you don't like PvP it is still a good experience to have because you begin to learn how "hunters" operate and can better protect any assets you may gain in the future.


The "danger zone" is variable.

A "gank Catalyst" can do something in the range of 300-400 damage per second and costs about 1 to 1.5 million.

In 0.5 security space CONCORD will arrive to kill any ganker within about 15 seconds (this is the longest CONCORD will take).

300-400 dps X 15 seconds = 4,500 - 6,000 damage.

Also know that all loot has a 50% drop rate.


What you want to do when hauling is keep the cargo value a little under double the value it takes to gank you.

Effort is another factor. While an industrial ship with 30,000 hitpoints and 200 million in cargo may be potentially profitable, the gankers will need a minimum of 5 or 6 guys to perform the gank... with maybe another one or two "just in case." If they do not have necessary amount of guys to pull it off, then the Industrial ship is safe (from them at least).

for buddy invites check out this thread https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=9874&find=unread players tend to offer fairly nice rewards as when you sub they get a free month (or a plex) and scamming is not allowed in that thread.



that said you seem over prepared for eve. Just get in and shoot something already!

Read the first half of your post. Yes, you are ready for EVE. Probably more so than most new players. Also, EVE Uni is a fine place to get started.

You sound like you have a great attitude and will enjoy Eve, OP.

My only caution would be to avoid highsec CEOs who will suck the life out of the game for you, while filling your head with stuff that is either blatantly wrong or a product of too many years of highsec risk-aversion. Find the biggest alliance that you can get into, lose the ships that they will give you for free, prioritise fun over isk.



A suicide ganker will gank you if they can gank you. There are enough ways to pay the bills that the profitability of a gank isn't a factor. Pay attention, be at your keyboard, and you'll be fine. Or you won't, and you'll lose a ship, and learn a lesson. It's a game, enjoy it either way.

Even 50 million ISK worth of loot still won't make you a (likely) target? How high does it go? But Yeah, I never use auto pilot, and my frigate is especially hard to catch because I have a pair of these bad boys in the low slots.

Also I think I'm going to be an explorer for my current EVE career. My heron is based on this build. Though I changed out one of the scan pinpointing arrays with a prototype freight sensor as I got it free from a rat during the rookie missions, very useful.

If your frig got attacked while on autopilot, they probably are not going after your cargo, they most likely are trying to kill your pod, as some try to kill pods just to see how much they are worth. I realize you said you don't ever autopilot that is a good thing, but I wanted you to know that some people specifically target pods and it is something that should always be kept in mind. Don't ever linger in your pod or any small ship.

True, there are people who target small ships for their cargo. I should have been more clear. I can confirm thrasher and rupture are the correct tools. However I would argue the ratio of people targeting small ships to go for the pod to people targeting them to get good cargo is very largely weighted to the former. But as you said the lesson is DONT EVER AUTOPILOT!

Looks like you have done alot of research. I'd agree that Eve University would be a good place to start.

They also have a wiki entry on the most common scams, though you seem to have identified most of the popular ones.