EVE New Citizens Q&A

Okay I'm like 2 says old, and I've figured a lot out. But one of the things i have seen is "don't autopilot" I understand null space and low sec zones (.4 or less) but

So my question is why is autopilot bad, if not when should and shouldn't be used? What are the advantages vs disadvantages?

Short answer: Autopiloting makes you an easy target. A REALLY easy target.

Long answer: When you autopilot the game will slightly penalize you by only warping within 15km of your destination (be it gate or station) and then cruise at your ship's natural top speed (NOTE: it will not activate your Microwarpdrive or Afterburner) until you reach activation range (either jumping the gate or docking).

What this does it make you a slow moving target for a long period of time relative to everyone else who manually warped and jumped/docked.
You can be scanned by hostiles more easily, hostiles will have more time to organize against you, and hostiles will have more time to get into range to shoot you***.



Basically... in EVE, you do not want to be the "slowest gazelle" on the safari.



***Footnote: in high-sec, the greatest risk you will face (outside of wars declarations) will come from "suicide gankers." These players willfully shoot other players in high-sec and lose their ships to the NPC police (see: CONCORD) in the hopes of destroying their target and getting enough loot to pay off their losses and/or earn a profit.
Some suicide gankers are more careful and will only choose targets that are "squishy" and full of valuable stuff.
Other suicide gankers simply want to see the world burn and will shoot anything "squishy."

There are many tricks and tactics you can use to avoid becoming a victim of suicide gankers. Most of them fall along the lines of...
- tank your ship: This will raise the amount of people necessary to kill you... possibly discouraging random / ragtag groups with little manpower.
- don't carry too much valuable stuff in one load: You want the ganking attempt to cost more than the potential payoff of killing your ship. This will discourage more selective gankers who are looking to make the most of their time, effort, and resources.
- minimize your exposure to any potential risk: Warp as quickly as possible, take alternate routes, have a friend assist you, etc.

Advantage : can alt tab , grab a beer and watch Netflix

Disadvantage : by the time you alt tab back your ship and pod may well have been violanced to death.

Fyi, borde mercanaries will war dec you if they see you auto piloting anything expensive.

If you are in a cheap or free ship or a cheap or free pod there is no reason that you can't autopilot. Just know that you do run the risk of having your ship and / or pod blown up. However if you don't have much into them isk wise there is no reason that you can not autopilot.

Like most things in this game you need to balance what you are risking versus the potential benefits.

If anyone did ever blow up your cheap ship you would get a kill right and have the ability to go back and have some fun with the gankers.

Outside of not caring if you loose whatever ship and pod combination that you are flying or farming kill rights you should not autopilot.

Here i stand corrected, i really did not know that because i never ever touched that button from the start.

You wouldn't necessarily know because you can use the functionality of planning your route without ever realising that it's technically part of the autopilot system.

As a fellow newbie, I can give some limited experience here:

Only autopilot if you are okay with losing your ship (and possible implants). If this is not acceptable, even in HiSec space, manually fly- ALWAYS.

If you must autopilot, realize it triples the time it takes to get to the destination, so if it's really far, yeah, get ready to watch a LONG movie.

Don't even try autopilot through LoSec or NullSec, it won't work unless you know the route is clear and not populated.

HiSec space is not as safe as PVE'rs want it. It's not as risky as PVP'rs want it. So, I guess it's balanced in that sense, but there are some things that are incredibly wrong with the game mechanic that allow HiSec to become LoSec. As was pointed out, a War Declaration against your corp makes you immediately vulnerable in HiSec.

Personally, I think War Dec's are too cheap as is and single sided War Dec's should cost 2x what the normal War Dec is (logically, to cover each side paying for the War Dec). NEVER haul anything worth more than a War Dec unless your corp/alliance is big and bad enough to keep someone from doing a War Dec. Sadly, "War" is a little too easy in the game for my thinking, then again, a bunch of players would probably say it's too hard, so whatever, just don't carry too much loot.

If you must run expensive loot, do it at a lull time in the game. Some PvP'rs are savvy enough to actually look for haulers at those times, but even if the risk is lowered, that might be enough to get the cargo through.

Good luck... see you around the stars!

(Oh yeah, and as I just learned, the cloak effect is a lie. You uncloak after jump the second you give the warp to the next location command! So make sure your ship can point and shoot as fast as possible.)

Actually the "safety" in high sec is only there for the PvPers. WIthout concord protecting them until they decide to strike players could scout ahead and clear everyone off the gates like is done in null sec. High sec is not intended to be safe and this game has a stated goal of making sure that there is nowhere that you are safe with the single exception of remaining docked.

I myself moved to null sec years ago to avoid PvP and never looked back.

If you are looking for a game that provides you with a safe place to solo run engaging PvE content then this is not the game for you. Eve is by design a PvP focused sandbox MMO. If you want to PvE and be free of war dec mechanics there is a simple answer and that is move to null sec.

You are entitled to your opinion but you are picking an uphill battle here. This game is designed to encourage conflict not safety. You don't have to like it but that is the way that it is and by design not by mistake.

So you can play this game and like that or you can play this game and not like it but if you are thinking that you might change it I just wanted to make you aware that CCP has no interest in catering to the safety minded.

The MWD/cloak trick works ...

1. You are in gate cloak
2. You align to next celestial/gate (and will decloak at next tick)
3. You enable your cloak which kicks in next tick
4. You hit MWD to get a cycle of boost to your speed
5. decloak as the MWD cycles out and you insta warp

Note whilst this works in highsec if your ship already has a cloak - throwing a cloak on a hisec only ship just to do MWD/Cloak is not necessarily a good plan.

Also note the "MJD/Cloak" thing some people try does NOT work. You LOOK cloaked in the animation as the MJD spools up but you are actually not cloaked and can be locked and shot at.

It is not intended that pve be safer in Nullsec, it is an effect of emergent gaming. Players control Nullsec, so with the exception of a drop fleet in Null there are Intelligence channels to let you know the enemy is near, what they are doing, what ships comprise the enemy fleets. Then friendly fleets form and drive the enemy away at best, at worst all friendly players know the enemy is around so they flee to the safety of pos shields or outposts.



CCP doesn't ignore anything. They have commented on this behavior many times and it isn't "decision pending" CCP does get caught by the occasional loophole, such as players avoiding CONCORD reprisals. This is something that CCP has stated is off limits. Avoiding CONCORD reprisals = ban. As long as players allow their ship to be blown up by CONCORD, then CCP says there is no problem.



It is PVP focused again because of emergent gaming. Everything any player does affects other players. You sell an item in game, and that devalues the same item for other sellers. You mine an asteroid and that asteroid is depleted for another player. You mission and make isk, this is an isk faucet, that creats isk inflation. You buy a ship to mission in, another player built that ship. But if it were just a matter of pve, then you would only need maybe three ships your entire career. It is pvp that keeps blowing up ships so that the economy stays in motion. It is major nullsec alliances determining the prices of entire sections of the marketplace in high-sec because it is high-sec where the major nullsec alliances go shopping.





The entire eve economy is a circle. But mining isn't the bedrock of the economy because mining doesn't create demand, it is a supply. PvP is the greatest cause of demand in game. pvp does cause some demand, but it is nothing like major alliances buying supplies to build several fleets of titans and subcaps for the next major war. Without mining there would still be pvp, but it all be in rookie ships. No one wants to be forced to fly in rookie ships.

PvE happens everywhere though, not just Hi-sec. The only reason it happens more in hi-sec is because the population is higher. The most profitable pve is in null, but null players then have to transport their goods all the way back to high-sec.

PvP in HS is more controlled. CONCORD (CCP) defines the rules and it basically is to create Civilization. Wars must be declared, yes they are cheap, but the main benefit of the war mechanic is it gives forewarning that an enemy is about to attack your corp. In LS or NULL the enemy just attacks, without warning. Thus in HS if someone declares war, you have some time to prepare and inform your people.

Devs have declared certain goals with eve.
1. Promote conflict.
2. Create meaningful gains. Which means meaningful losses.
3. Provoke choices.

etc.

I'm not going to go searching for the links. But what I will tell you is that you should very strongly consider googling "eve fanfest keynote" for a direct peek at the devs stated goals for the game, as well as their attitudes and you will learn a LOT.

Fanfest keynotes should be required watching for anyone interested in the future of the Eve universe.