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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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new player Q's
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Martin Ohaya
Zombares Fam
#1 - 2015-02-22 11:59:51 UTC  |  Edited by: Martin Ohaya
I've spent more time trying to read up on the finer details of how-to-play than actually playing and I still have a buncha q's. there's a lot to learn. it'd be great if someone could help me along w some answers about the following:

#1 I see there's a discussion about afterburners vs microwarp drives. I'm playing caldari because I like missiles and shields. (not negotiable to restart my character that I've so far built.) I understand that caldari usually shield tank since shields are their thing, but there is also speed tanking (and armor tanking, and hull tanking). I understand that I can orbit close and fast around targets in a small and fast ie ab or mwd'd ship to try to slough damage if I need (which I understand is very bad for my missile hit rate) and that is basically speed tanking. should I avoid using my ab and/or mwd if I'm trying to mitigate dmg via my shields, and just use my ab or mwd when I want to close distances or kite, or pick up loot after the fight. yes, I'm talking pve since I don't plan or want to pvp w my very low sp character.

#2 to figure out my optimal range, I know I hover over my weapons on my ship fit. For missiles, I know the range is related to the missile itself and not the launcher. Does the infobox that I get when I hover take into account skills and rigs, or do I have to adjust the figure based on that?

#3 I've been reading that its very important to fix my overview, esp from becoming too cluttered, and that I can only have 5 overview tabs. And that other players have graciously done the legwork to set things up for others w overview packs. chiefmost seems to be sarashawa's overview pack which I can access the latest/greatest via maillist overview. got that, followed the instructions... BUT I'm ratting and the overview tabs don't show me the wrecks for me to loot. I know I can right click on the tabs to edit/change the filtering. I didn't want to change the tabs even tho I don't at this time grasp or need all the different uses they have, but I do want to just add being able to see wrecks to my first tab. Instead, it invariably just shows me just the wrecks and changes what the tab previously had. how do I leave the * first tab basic settings alone and just add in being able to see wrecks... And why would none of the other default tabs show wrecks? -- certainly pvp'rs would want that to loot other players, no?

I know I have a bunch more q's but I shoulda started to write them down to ask. Figured that I'd be able to find the answers myself -- and i have dug up a lot of answers to a lot of my q's on the wiki's and such, but could use help w the above. would be appreciative of good feedback re the above. thx.
Rhett Riever
#2 - 2015-02-22 12:59:19 UTC
Welcome to Eve: reading more than you play is an occupational hazard at times:

#1 Your speed does not affect your missile damage. The target's speed does have an influence, so using a web might help bump the numbers up.
Speed tanking - if you are in tight orbit around your target, turning the prop mod off could be ok. try it and see how much it changes incoming damage. If you are not close and tight then speed is what you need and look up transversal for an understanding of that. AB gives less velocity boost but doesn't blow your sig radius up like a MWD. In PVE an AB is usually fine.

#2 Yes the mouseover will give real stats, also look up out-of-game shipfitting programs.

#3 Not familiar with sarashawa but pick a tab that'll be your pvehome, then anything you see in space can be rt-clik'd to add to overview. Anything on the overview that you don't want to see rt-clik it and remove.
If you make a change, rt-clik the tab and save overview as...(pick any name). Keep overwriting that name with future changes, and you'll end up with a file that works for you, as well as keeping sarashawa unchanged if you want to reset to it.
Do Little
Bluenose Trading
#3 - 2015-02-22 15:01:51 UTC
The range reported when you hover over your weapons is straight line. Missiles follow a curved trajectory and they take time to reach their target so, unless the target is moving toward you, you can't use the full reported range. Optimal and falloff are characteristic of turret weapons and don't apply to missiles. You hit in range and miss otherwise.

A missile will never miss if the target is in range but the amount of damage applied varies considerably depending on your support skills, the target size and speed. Large missiles do very little damage to small, fast targets.

A target that is moving quickly in a circular path is hard to hit. Be that target - orbit a ship or structure with your AB running to take the least damage possible.
Cara Forelli
State War Academy
Caldari State
#4 - 2015-02-22 15:16:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Cara Forelli
Missile range is affected by missile speed and missile flight time. Both of those stats have a skill that increases them and thus increases missile range.

Here is an overview guide which is not updated to show all the GUI changes but should point you in the right direction. Essentially, you need to save the tab after you edit it.

I have many opinions on AB vs. MWD but they are all PvP focused so I will let someone else answer your question. Keep in mind that MWD increases your signature radius by a lot which means that stuff can still hit you even though you are going faster. Afterburners do not and are generally better to use for sig tanking.

Want to talk? Join my channel in game: House Forelli

Titan's Lament
Thomas Builder
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2015-02-22 16:56:14 UTC
About #1:

For starters, most ships don't speed-tank in PvE, generally you either range-tank (I.e. kiting, i.e. have longer-ranged weapons than they have and stay out of range of their weapons.) or, with better skills, just out-tank the damage. Speed-tanking against multiple enemies at once is tricky and usually only done when using a T2 or T3 ship against bigger ships. (I.e. Assault frigate in L3s, Assault Cruiser or T3 in L4s)

Speed tanking is on top of shield tanking. So your shields will work just as fine, whether you are stationary or running at full speed. The only issue is capacitor: if you are using an active shield tank, your prop mod will use capacitor that will no longer be available for your shield booster. That can be a problem.

Rhett already said that your speed will not affect your missile damage. (Only your target's speed will.) So, don't worry about missile damage. (It would affect your turret damage, which is why you should only speed tank if you have better tracking than your opponent.)

As for Afterburner vs MWD: the signature increase from the MWD cancels out any gain from the speed boost. Which is why you can only speed-tank with a MWD if your ship has a bonus that reduces that signature increase. Otherwise an afterburner is the better choice. (Also, an afterburner leaves you more capacitor for your tank.)

When kiting, your signature doesn't matter, so you could use an MWD. But in PvE, you still mostly use an Afterburner, because enemies in PvE aren't that fast and it'll leave you more spare capacitor and fitting room.
Memphis Baas
#6 - 2015-02-22 18:07:13 UTC
1. Frigates and destroyers are pretty fast and can definitely use afterburners during missions. Cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships are much slower, and also designed to sit there and take the punishment, so you may opt to not fit afterburner in favor of more shield resistances, or perhaps utility like a webifier or target painter. MWD is a quick burst of speed, after which your cap is drained, so it's more a PVP bug-out device, or for ships designed for it, such as interceptors.

2. Yes, when you hover the mouse, skills, implants, and rigs are taken into consideration and the total value is displayed. The raw gun (or missile) stats are displayed when you browse the market and show info on that particular item. View from the market = raw stats, view while installed in your ship = total stats including your skills and rigs.

3. For the overview, create your own: you want to show all player ships, all NPC ships, and various things like probes, bombs, POS towers. Save this as a preset called "ships" and then add checkboxes for wrecks and containers and save as a preset "loot". Then configure the overview to load "ships" in the first tab, and "loot" in the second. Then you can use the first tab to shoot up all the NPCs, and the second tab to loot the wrecks once they're dead.
Chal0ner
Hideaway Hunters
The Hideaway.
#7 - 2015-02-22 19:24:09 UTC
No one seems to have said it yet although you hint at it in the beginning.
In Eve you are not limited to the racial ships of your own selected race. It's perfectly viable - and most actually do - to crosstrain.
So even if you start as a Caldari flying caldari ships, you are free to fly anything you wish (and have the skills for). My character is Amarr, but flew exclusively Caldari ships in the beginning.
Donnachadh
United Allegiance of Undesirables
#8 - 2015-02-23 04:46:20 UTC
I just have a few thoughts to add based on my experiences.

Speed tanking for most PvE activities is usually not a good idea since there are so many NPC to deal with. An orbit that allows you to speed tank one ship may put you into a place you do not want to be for some or all of the other ships in the area.

For some ships and in some circumstances speed tanking is a viable option. As a general guideline it is best for PvE to use that slot to fit additional tank, capacitor, power grid, or mods to help your weapons systems like target painters.

Webs are good when you get into the larger ships like the battle cruisers and battle ships who's larger guns / missiles have trouble tracking and hitting small faster target. If you are flying frigates or destroyers then webs are not really that effective as your weapons are designed to hit small tagets. And like the AB / MWD for speed tanks the slot is better used for other things.

Especially in your early days as cap for your tank mods is going to be one of your biggest problem areas.
ergherhdfgh
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#9 - 2015-02-23 17:41:15 UTC
Eve is an MMO not a solo game. Make friends in game, find some chat channels join a corp what ever you do make friends. You have way too many questions here that are all over the board which is fine just not in this format.

It would help you very much if you had people that you could ask one question and get an answer then ask what ever question comes from that. Basically I'm saying you need dialog not a forum thread.

As far as starting a new character you can train any race's ships. If you decide that you want to fly other ships there is no reason that you can't do it on that character. Train what you like, fly what you like, where ever you like, your races is essentially just how you look unless you get into RP stuff.

Want to talk? Join Cara's channel in game: House Forelli
Dredd Lochness Munster
Dredd Lochness Munster Corporation
#10 - 2015-02-24 03:43:22 UTC
Martin Ohaya wrote:
I've spent more time trying to read up on the finer details of how-to-play than actually playing and I still have a buncha q's. there's a lot to learn. it'd be great if someone could help me along w some answers about the following:

#1 I see there's a discussion about afterburners vs microwarp drives. I'm playing caldari because I like missiles and shields. (not negotiable to restart my character that I've so far built.) I understand that caldari usually shield tank since shields are their thing, but there is also speed tanking (and armor tanking, and hull tanking). I understand that I can orbit close and fast around targets in a small and fast ie ab or mwd'd ship to try to slough damage if I need (which I understand is very bad for my missile hit rate) and that is basically speed tanking. should I avoid using my ab and/or mwd if I'm trying to mitigate dmg via my shields, and just use my ab or mwd when I want to close distances or kite, or pick up loot after the fight. yes, I'm talking pve since I don't plan or want to pvp w my very low sp character.
.


CCP wants decisions to be a trade-off. To that end, they did not want missiles designed to be shot at big ships to utterly devastate smaller ships with fewer hp. SO.... explosion radius and explosion velocity. The target ship's size (signature radius) and speed is compared to the missile's explosion radius and explosion velocity. Small ship hit by a missile with large explosion radius, takes a small fraction of potential damage. Fast ship hit by missile with low explosion velocity, takes small fraction of potential damage.

Now, AB increases your speed, reducing the damage you take from slow explosion velocity missiles. Good.

MWD increases your speed 5x as much as AB... but also reduces the size of your cap, AND increases the size of your ship (signature radius). So, what it takes away in damage from explosion velocity, it at least partially gives back in the extra damage from larger signature radius, the double hits you by reducing the amount of capacitor your ship has.

MWD also shuts down if you are hit with a warp scram (not warp jam, but warp scram).

For non-missiles coming at you, there is tracking speed and signature resolution. Tracking is compared to angular velocity (perpendicular speed / range). Sig resolution of the weapon is compared to sig radius of the target. So again, MWD can increase angualr velocity making you harder to hit, but the much larger sig radius gives at least some of that back.


Martin Ohaya wrote:

#2 to figure out my optimal range, I know I hover over my weapons on my ship fit. For missiles, I know the range is related to the missile itself and not the launcher. Does the infobox that I get when I hover take into account skills and rigs, or do I have to adjust the figure based on that?
.


Try this. Show info on missiles in the items hanger or ship hold. Then have the same missile loaded into a launcher, and on the ship fitting screen, click the show info for the ammo. You will see significantly different values. In the hold do not have skill and ship bonuses applied. In the launcher they do. The range shown when hovering over the loaded weapon in space is max velocity * max flight time (of fitted, with bonuses applied). Actual max range may be lower due to acceleration time, target movement, etc.