EVE New Citizens Q&A

Forgive me if my subject heading sounds negative or the beginnings of someone trying to troll your game. I am an avid MMO player, but casual in that I don't stick to one game for more than a week or so before jumping back into a rotation. Right now I play some SWTOR, The Secret World, Star Trek Online, World of Tanks, Neverwinter, and Champions Online. I even play a little bit of Planetside 2 and Firefall, and Warframe. That's 9 online games if your not counting.

I have been itching for a massive scale online mech or space based game so I just downloaded EVE and Perpetuum Online which I understand is extremely similar.

Here is my question. Is everything in Eve disposable? My greatest reason to play a game is that I am consistently leveling up, or improving a character, or a group of skills. From what I have read, and I've even done the tutorial so far, there is nothing in Eve that is untouchable, or that I can count on increasing for the duration I play it. Is that a true or false statement. I get that I can get some character skills and then pay to keep some level of them after training, but is everything else able to be destroyed and/or lost?

If you can spend months saving for something or training some skill and then it is lost from PvP desctruction, where is the incentive to continue to repeat that process? I'm not worried about the free to play/buy to play/ subscribe to play model because if a game is worth it I'll pay the price to play it. I just can't for the life of me see the benefits of playing this game if everything I do is subject to loss. Is there anything in this game that cannot be destroyed and deleted from my inventory/account?

About 5 days ago they changed it to where you won't lose any skill points for any reason (no clone upgrades anymore, no skills lost in battle). And while all those shiny expensive ships and equipment look like a lot of fun, you always have to remember to 'never fly what you are afraid to lose'. This turns a lot of us into carebears in the beginning of our eve experience, but you will gradually be able to ramp up what isk you earn and what you are willing to lose. You can do a lot with skill training, I'm trying to depend more on skill training than expensive ships and fittings. My main is a 3m sp noob, for scale.

Skills, once trained are yours (specially now that SP loss on insufficient clone has been removed).

Ships, are tools. If it's destroyed, it's gone. Period.

You will have to buy a new ship and fit and go out again.
Which IMO is a whole lot better then most other MMO's where it's a click of a button and you get your stuff back. Which negates ANY risk or what so ever in your actions.

If we had a "graveyard" option in EVE, everybody in EVE would just dump a lot of money in the game, go pimp out their expensive ships and go balls deep at anything that moves. As losing really doesn't matter as I can just retrieve what I lost without an actual loss.


And as Azda said.

EVE is not your general, look I"m level "over 9000" character, I'm that good.
Or look, I have the most expenive gear, I'm invincible.

Bigger ain't always better.
More expensive ain't always better.

EVE's success is measured however you want to measure it (best killboard stats, most friends, most ISK in wallet, most succesfull SOV holder...what ever you want).
EVE has a nice balance where a small "cheap" thing can kill a big "expensive" thing, if done right.

To find a good corp use this guide.

As for how to visually show the difference between EVE corps and other MMO guilds...check this.


But as Amyclas said.

EVE is a rudeless place. So people tend to not trust anybody by default.

Trust is the most valuable resource in EVE, even more valuable then PLEX or ISK. It is very hard to earn and ooh so easy to lose.

That said, EVE although a harsh and rude place is also quite a social game. But you get out of it what you put in it.

Act like a deuce, be prepared to be treated like one and that doors will not only stay closed but will also be locked and blockaded.

Be friendly and you can make a good bunch of friends that will help you out when in need. Or just provide some nice social content when you are gaming (people to talk to, people to laugh with, people to share experiences in game with).

As it's been said already, everything is disposable except your character; you build up the skills and they unlock more ships for you to be able to use, and use better.

The ships are tools for you to achieve "fun" with. Each ship is like a class that you become: Miner, DPS'er, Jammer, Tackler, Remote Repairer, Fleet Scout, Fleet buff / bonus provider, Hauler, etc. When you switch ships, you switch classes. The weapons and modules are like abilities that you can activate: weapons for DPS, jammers, tractor beams, cloaks, repair modules, etc.

When your ship gets destroyed, you incur some financial loss, and you're basically sent away from the combat area to go pick another (or the same) class / ship. If your pod gets destroyed, you may incur some more financial loss (if you have implants), and it's basically a forced "get away from here" teleport that the enemy causes so that you can't observe / spy on the combat area anymore.

Because this game does not have a themepark string of quests to lead you along some sort of story arc, the "fun" can be highly dependent on the quality of the friends you make. Inventing scenarios for yourself to play out doesn't do it for most people, but if you're part of a corp or alliance they typically have goals, scenarios, and organized fleet ops for you to participate in and enjoy.

That's basically the point of the game. The fun of PVP, PVE, strategies.

Welcome to EvE !

EvE allows you to set your own goals in many ways, which many new players find difficult to adjust to. Personally my goal is to see the destruction of the Amarr and my knife in their Empress , totally unachievable but I have had great fun trying for the last eight years . Once you GET eve you will not look back, just give it a chance.

Regards,

Marus

Fairly new myself so take my advice with a grain of salt, but from my experience having a fair bit of common sense and foresight of what repercussions your actions will have will help you quite a bit. Also as long it's an NPC hangar, your stuff will be safe in there.

Also: https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Golden_Rules

My favorites:

To get better so you can "get revenge." (note: "revenge" can mean anything... not just blowing up the other guy).


In all honesty though... EVE is rare in that it is a "process game" where the end result is not really the goal.
You can be one of the smartest, richest, most knowledgeable, and well connected player in EVE... and yet there will be a point in time where you will be caught with your pants down or just make a stupid mistake that costs you dearly. At that point, the only thing you can do is make a mental note of that "incident" and try again.

In a way... you have to have an appreciation for "rat races" where there is no exit.



The only things that are "off-limits" as far as gameplay is concerned are...

- skillpoints: recent changes to the game have made it so that you can never lose skillpoints (unless you are flying one particular ship type).
NOTE: Don't fall into the mentality of "more skillpoints = better." I have been playing this game since 2009 and there have been times where I was crushed by a 6 month old player.
Read this thread for more info on the skill system of EVE.

- stuff in your hanger: no one can forcibly take things out of your hanger except you. However, if you live in "outlaw" space (where systems and stations can be conquered) you can be "locked out" from your hanger (you will still have limited remote access though).

- your wallet: no one can forcibly remove ISK from your wallet. The only way someone can "get your ISK" is if they scam or ransom/blackmail you... both of which can be avoided with some basic common sense and situational awareness.

- friends: no game mechanic can stop you from accumulating allies and having friends help you. Even if everything else you own or have set up goes up in flames, any social network you are a part of will be there (for better or worse).
Just be sure you can trust them (which takes time).

Before the latest patch you would lose some skillpoints if your clone wasn't updated to hold of your current SP.
That no longer happens with the removal of clone grades, there are some ways still to lose skill points first are T3 cruisers where you lose points from T3 skills each time that you die while piloting a one.
Other way to lose SP is a more abstract which is losing SP due to having subscription lapse or because of 'inefficient' remaps.
Theory is that because you have played X hours you would in theory have a SP amount of 2700*X (2700SP per hour is the highest learning rate you can get) and if you have less then you have 'lost' SP.

Mainly you see this when bitter vets comment that "I would have 150mil SP if I hadn't done Y but I have only 130mil SP instead because of Z"

Then EVE might not be a good game for you.

The fact that everything* you build can be taken from you and has to be defended is the very nature of EVE - it what makes the game what it is and it distinguishes it from other games (MMO or otherwise). It appeals to a subset of players - we know that it doesn't appeal to everyone and that is fine. (* OK not literally everything, there are some exceptions, but close enough.)

You can play EVE as you would play a shooter - i.e. just roam around and have fun (be it solo, with friends or with strangers in a public roam). No progression, but fun times to be had. Frigates are cheap enough to not require much grind or money to sustain such a play style, but you can do it with more expensive ships as well.

Or you can try to progress in EVE by acquiring something. What exactly to acquire is your choice: it could simply be ISK or a shiny ship, but also things like a ship collection, reputation, control over a market, a null-sec space empire, "your-choice-here". The fact that everything you build can be taken from you makes your achievements more valuable. You did not simply get there by playing long enough and grinding until you got it - you had to pay attention and protect and defend your progress, lest you'd have to start again. Some types of progress can be gained with casual play, while other requires more commitment (running a space empire might require more time than your day job), but all has to be protected.