EVE New Citizens Q&A

Short question: See title. And what could I have done better?

Long question: I first started in 2006 and have been off and on since then. I've spent almost all of my playing time docked in hi-sec, just setting skill training, because I'm afraid of getting ganked by other players. The rest of the time I was doing L1-L3 missions with a friend. So despite 14 million SPs I'm still a very new and newb player.

This week, I did more research than ever. I found a basic PvE Raven guide, used my refunded SPs (from Learning skills), decked out my Raven that I've had for years, and finally felt confident that I was well-equipped for soloing L3s and L4s. To play it safe, I went to the same agent I'd worked for years ago with my friend, and got an L3 mission.

This mission took me to 0.4 space. I cleared the first room and felt great. As I was looting, someone warped in and demolished me in 60 seconds. I

What should I learn from this humiliating debacle? Please add your answers below like I'm a fresh player with 1 SP, because I'm pretty clueless.

1. Don't fly a ship you can't afford to lose.
2. When your agent gives you a lo-sec warning, you better know what you're doing. (I obviously didn't.)
3. ?
.
.
100. Profit

I'm trying hard not to cancel yet again due to this tremendous blow to my wallet and ego. :( Thanks!

This. You learned it the hard way with an expensive loss.

Also, what is your goal in EVE? Is it to mission? Did you always want to PVP, but you felt like you needed more SP before you began? Do you just like the atmosphere and just the act of undocking and seeing your ship in space gives you a warm fuzzy feeling that justifies you paying money for the game? (Not trying to be condescending, that's as legit a reason as any. Whatever floats your boat.)

Find what you want to do and go do it. Waiting to train up all skills to max before starting is folly. You might not even like what you thought you wanted, and now all that training time is gone. Find like minded people and learn together. Joining a corp is always a good first step.

Be proactive. This is a sandbox. You usually have fun by creating things with the sand, not just staring at it and waiting to be entertained.

TL;DR:
1. Find what you want to do.
2. Do it. Do not wait to max out your skills for it first.
3. Find a corp with like minded people and join it.
4. Play the game.
5. Profit.

What you should know...

1. Big ships can be dismantled just as easily as a small ship.

2. Big ships are slow and can be easily pinned by small, agile ships.

3. If you are new to low-sec... for the love of god, don't go in a big ship. Get into a small nano-fit Rifter/Merlin/Tristan/Punisher and poke around to get a feel for things first. Frigates are MUCH harder to catch and cheaper to replace when you lose them

4. Hurricanes (that's the ship that killed you) can easily fit medium sized energy neutralizers which RUIN active tanks.

5. PvE ships are fitted VERY differently from PvP ships (interesting fact: they both use more or less the same skillset). VERY rarely can a PvE-fit ship stand up in a straight fight against a PvP-fit ship.

6. Shield tanked ships are more easily probed than armor tanked ones.

7. Using the Directional Scanner and spamming the "Scan" button would have alerted you that a ship was incoming.

8. Watch "Local" chat to see how many people are in system. If the number jumps up then get ready to leave... "local spikes" are rarely a good thing.

9. Do some research and get familiar with different ships in the game. There are usually 1 or 2 "standard PvP" loadouts for each ship. Learn what they can and cannot do as well as their strengths and weaknesses so you can assess future situations more clearly (even if you never intend on PvPing, this knowledge is good to have so you can avoid "situations").

edit: probably the most important piece of advice...

10. When in doubt... GTFO.

Add scanner probes to your overview, and watch out for scanner probes close (within 4-8 AU) by, and stay aligned to warp out at all times (not always easy when missioning)

Alas a Raven is pathetically easy to probe out. You can make your ship far harder to probe out by using a ship like a Tengu. Although no ship is totally unprobeable, you can make your ship very difficult to probe, such that you'll have plenty of time to notice you're being probed, and only a totally maxed out pilot/ship/implant combo will be able to do it.

The greatest risk of all comes from jumping in and out of lo-sec. It's actually safer to accept missions within lo-sec, especially if you can find a nice quiet backwater.

Basically if you don't know what you're doing in lo-sec, don't PvE there, especially if you don't have an active corp to support you. But it can be very well worth learning what to do there.

EDIT: Also a PvP-fitted Drake should not only easily tank a level 3 mission, but will actually do it quicker than a Raven. A Drake is a pretty even match for a Hurricane.

EDIT 2: ECM drones. Learn to love them!

You did not learn how to hunt ppl down. You therefore didn't learn what ppl do who get away. Join a proper corp and learn to hunt ppl down. Not only will that teach you what to avoid, you will have a lot of fun in the process.

^^ This. "Hunters" are more adept at avoiding/outwitting/countering other "hunters" than "non-hunters." Learning to be a "hunter" yourself (even a bad one) will allow you to safeguard your "non-hunter" lifestyle and put you above most of the rabble in the game.

Make sure you try and fit a full flight of drones (lights or mediums) and some energy neuts if you plan on missioning in low sec - you can neut/drone small ships to death to prevent them from tackling you untill their support arrives.

In no particular order:

• Always check what system your mission is sending you to
• Check map for active players / jumps per hr / ship destroyed last hr, ect
• If going to Low Sec, fit for PvP - yes, missions take longer but you'll be prepared if any un-invited guests appear
• Nothing lasts forever - get used to losing ships
• Bring a PvP buddy along (if an option)
• Never stay near the warp-in point - If someone does warp in, it'll give you time to GTFO of dodge
• Keep an eye on local & use your onboard scan to keep a check on local vacinity

That's just a few tips to help reduce the chances of losing a ship. Not guaranteed mind but increases your chances of staying alive.

It's your fault for playing EVE.

Stop playing EVE and this sort of thing won't happen.

Sympathies. The thing to take away is that 0.4 systems and down are generally pretty dangerous for missioners, unless:-

1) You learn to spam the directional scanner (on 360 degrees, max range). Info about this is on the web. Tip: you need to be able to see combat probes in your scanner, and that's not on by default, you need to set it up. Spam directional scan; as soon as you see combat probes in your scanner, align to something, or just warp off, because if you see the probes, you've got to reckon they've probably already spotted you - they'll be using a specialist ship and skills for very fast scanning down, and either their mate or an alt will be on call to engage you (although sometimes they use the same ship for both scanning and fighting).

2) You can PvE in a PvP fit, you'll just be slower, so if you do do a mission in low sec, use a PvP fit.

3) Iif you're missioning in a PvP fit and feeling confident, just align when you see combat probes in the scanner, and wait until you see what comes in. If you think you can handle it (i.e. if you think you've got the "scissors" to their "paper") then fight, if you think you can't, warp off immediately. However, chances are if there are more than two or three people in the system, especially if they're in the same corporation, the person will have friends on call, and if you hang around to fight you may well be swamped pretty quickly. However you may get lucky and it's just one person and you get a "gf", even if you do eventually die - it's still fun.

3) Carry ECM drones - about half the time, this may give you a modicum of GTFO-ability.


But even with these precautions, you will still occasionally get ganked if you mission in low sec. Most of the time it's really not worth the risk; however, sometimes it's fun for a change, and a bit more exciting than normal missioning.

You will die a lot in EVE, especially if you try out different things, it just comes with the game.