EVE New Citizens Q&A

Just finished my first week in EVE. I have a couple of questions for more experienced players and some comments for other noobs.

First, the questions.

1. I've read Louis's epic skill guide, but it's somewhat out of date now. What do experienced players think are the most essential skills for new characters? How far should we go in each of them in the first 2-3 weeks?

2. For the overview, I've also read Louis's guide on that, but again it's out of date. I ended up reading the Eve University guide to overviews and adding a combat tab and a mining tab. Do you experienced players have any advice on this?

Loius, if you ever read this, thanks for the guides! They really did help, and they led me to other helpful links.

Now for a noob's advice for other noobs. Some of the advice from experienced players seemed more appropriate for people in month 2 rather than week 2, so this is just for players in weeks 1-2. Everyone feel free to chime in and correct me or add your own advice for weeks 1 & 2.

1. Eve has a reputation that encourages paranoia. You should assume everyone is out to scam and kill you. HOWEVER, I found a lot of people in the Rookie Help channel that were happy to give advice and help me out.

2. When you do the tutorial missions, if warping to the mission site dumps you in front of an acceleration gate and there's nothing else around, take the gate. (Not knowing that was very confusing in my first hour.)

3. I read Louis's epic skill guide, v. 1.1, and it recommends getting a number of basic skills to IV ASAP, but in the first week III is enough. You don't need anything at IV in the first week, I think.

Why not go to IV in the first week? Because it can take a day or more to get one skill from III to IV, and you'll want to keep some flexibility for skillbooks you get from tutorial missions and for other stuff you decide you want to learn during the tutorials. At this stage, level II can be useful and usually takes an hour or less to train to. Level III is for filling your queu while away from the game and will often take 3 - 10 hours per skill. Level IV is for when you'll be away from the game for a couple of days or more. (In week 2 I noticed the first skill I wanted that required another skill be at IV.)

Also, if you're on the trial version, then you only have a 24 hour queue, but you can go over that if one skill requires more than you have. E.g., you could load up 20 hours of skills, then add one skill that takes 20 hours, and now you have 40 hours in your queue. This reduces your flexibility, but if you're out of the game for a couple of days, it's nice.

4. Tutorial missions will get you lots of frigates. I did all of the Caldari tutorial missions and by the end of them I had received a Bantam, Heron, 2 Merlins, 2 Ventures, & 2 Badgers. I also got a destroyer at the very end. I don't remember how much I spent during the tutorials on ammo, skill books, etc., but my bank account was about 10 million ISK when I finished all of the tutorials. You can get Caldari frigates for around 500K and the destroyer for around 1M, to give you some perspective.

5. Mining with a Venture for 20 minutes made me a lot more cash than most missions. Mining is also a good way to take a semi-break from the game. I am mostly interested in fighting and exploration, but when it's time to answer some email, make dinner, or whatever, mining in high-sec is a good way to rake in some cash to buy ammo, modules, skill books, and ships. I can easily mine enough in an hour to replace any of my frigates. (I'm mining as I write this, for example.)

Here is a good guide on a starting skill plan. Even if you don't follow it to the letter, or focus on non combat skills, it's still a good read and lays out a good way of approaching the skill system in this game.

http://blog.beyondreality.se/Newbie-skill-plan-2

Having used it when I started in July, I can say it's a great starting point, and I'm very satisfied with my capabilities now, and the foundation they've provided for the glorious future.

As for overview:
SaraShawa Overview Pack - Hyperion Update

Sorry, but I just glanced over your questions. I'll look closer when I get a chance later (about to go into a meeting).

It looks like your first week has rolled out as it has done for many of us.

If you're looking for informational sources you've already found Eve Uni's wiki. Also in that theme you'll find their public Help and recruitment channel as a great source of many helpful people. It can be found in the chat channel's list under "Help", normally second after the English help channel. It's called "E-Uni." Most in there are not Uni members but a lot of regulars that are willing to help and of course Uni recruiters.

You can also take their public classes. I attend these fairly regularly and being able to listen in and interact with the teachers and the attendees is great. You can find details here. They even have a wiki page with recorded classes.

You'll find that Eve is a game best played with others. You'll want to find a group or a player corp that you feel suits your outlook and needs.

My post-o-links and other useful info:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1263560#post1263560

The CCP Official New Pilot FAQ

Do take a look at the linked ISK The Guide (a bit outdated, but still useful as a general guide).

The only link in there I see that has changed:

Ombey is gone, but his maps remain (the Internet never forgets):
https://web.archive.org/web/20140702113015/http://www.ombeve.co.uk/Eve_Regions.pdf
Dotlan has it uses, but sometimes I prefer Ombey's maps.