EVE New Citizens Q&A

Okay, I'm going to post a treatise because a lot of the advice given is given with the idea gamers never played any game before and starting truly as a n00b. Gamers don't just waltz into EvE, they have to either hunt it down or a friend recommends it, as it's a sandbox game with a very set audience.

Since there's an elephant in the room that has 9mil players and it has it's culture and terms, I'm going to write this for that population since it's the largest. It's easier to understand written in terms they would know.

Like in WoW EvE is a performance game. It doesn't have things like tier armor and purples, but it has it's own versions of them. T1/blues and T2/purples and T3/oranges. The goal is to get outfitted into T2s, as you're not just going to play small gang PvP forever, you'll want to run missions (dungeons/BGs), join fleets (raids/arena/RBGs) and incursions and enjoy it.

EvE is a skills based game, not level based. You're not going to get to level 90 powerleveling with skills in 3 days. This means you have to skill up and skillup wisely.

EvE has it's own addons (sadly no Curse though) and 2 of the most important addons to get acquainted with are:

1. Evemon.
2. EFT.

Evemon is an addon that shows the training trees/times to be properly skilled to fly XYZ ship. This will help in shaving off skill training times down by weeks by not wasting time training non-essential skills. You'll learn quickly -- check the level time to see what I mean -- being a Druid/Paladin/Shaman type isn't going to be fun to level, so you specialize in a role. EvE has the "holy trinity" as well, tanks/healers/DPS, with associated stats.

EFT is like a gear addon. It will offer lists of weapons/rigs/modules to increase the stats of your prefered role to be added on it's own paper doll, that you then can import into the game as a ship fitting. Terms used that are important are things like EHP (which is a combination of shields/armor/hull and resists stats). DPS is obvious, and you'll find there's 2 types (much like you see on Recount with overall and burst DPS). 88k DPS isn't in EvE, you will start with below 100 and hope to get to 800 in time.

With EFT you want to strike a balance between survival stats and DPS (if solo). In fleets if you're a DPS pilot you don't have to worry as much about survival stats (unless tanking) as there's reppers (healers) and other support to keep you up. You want to max your DPS then.

Secondly, unless you're a pure PvP toon and don't want to invest in the cost of implants, you want to invest in training to use implants. They are like meta gems, but you can have more than one. For new toons they will be training implants that raise attributes, and +3 in those stats is the usual ones to get (+4 and +5 are very expensive for new pilots). The +3 average around 12mil isk, or you can save the loyalty points (LP) from missioning to buy them.

To find a form of guild (called corps in EvE, don't call them guilds you will be ridiculed) go into your neocom and click the silver button with the gold stars and check the recruitment adds. There's filters to chose preferences. For a new player make sure to click the new player option (many corps will want more skill points than a new player would have for months. They're like the raid guilds with ilvl requirements).

When you get through with the training missions you probably want to get into EvE's form of dungeons, missions. They can be solo or group affairs, but most try to do them solo in EvE. You can take the breadcrumbs and do the Sisters of EvE missions, or you can jump into the rep grinding for faction standings.

Faction standings are much like rep standings in WoW in function (there's no tabards or commendations though). The system doesn't use the neutral/friendly/honored/revered/exalted levels, they use points. 8.0 you can use a faction's facilities to install jump clones (an important form of fast travel), so do try to get it to that level. DPS characters would want to make a beeline to the naval stations (e.g., Caldari Navy if Caldari) and begin the security level 1 missions to start them on that journey (not only for the DPS implants, the naval gear -- which has higher stats [LFR quality] and usually don't need the T2 training to use. Faction ammo is your friend, too).

The missioning serves a purpose to teach you how to fly and do combat in a more advance manner. Level 1s are like non-heroic dungeons. Level 2s are harder non-heroics. Level 3 is when you start facing heroic level ships. Level 4 (the highest solo missions you can do) are purely heroic in nature (ZA/ZG in difficulty...it can hurt if not skilled. They are usually done with Battleships, which to fly properly takes months of training. Don't so them unless trained, as you can reach level 4s with just a cruiser [which won't survive them]).

Many would say rush in and just PvP (become a tackle in a cheap ship), and that is an option. But skipping the training in how to combat in EvE is like skipping dungeons and going straight into raiding. You're not going to know what to do and may get frustrated. EvE is a MMO where you're more expected to be a self-sufficient (know your role and abilities), carrieds not only not going to last long, and have huge bills (go straight into PvP it'll be awhile to collect enough to sell to keep yourself in ships and gear). It also will help ween you of the adversion of losing ships. No longer is it 12g repair bills, it's 12+mil at the cruiser stage and refitting all the gear again...everytime you lose a ship. So consider the mission running much like trying to farm valor or CP points, with the rewards for getting to exalted (8.0) level.

So that's what you do until you're skilled enough to fly the larger ships to join in the fleets (raids/arena) for incursions or roams. Skill up, learn, make isk and get into that battleship (tier gear) properly.

It's easy to tell people to just try everything. While that's certainly the way to get into the game, you will be hardpressed to find another profession that is more suited as a starting point. I gave the reasons in my OP.

New guys asking where to go now ask that for a reason. Might as well show them a road that actually leads somewhere instead of the usual ominous "EVE is real" and "Sandbox! Do what you want!" quips. If the newb knew what he wanted, he wouldn't have posted, rendering that kind of advice irrelevant.

Of course there are people who don't like scanning. Point is, when they ask what to do after the tutorial, they don't know that yet.


By the way, your posts regarding this topic don't go above "Google it!", so you are hardly qualified to tell me about constructive and objective forum posts on this matter.


EDIT: You edited your post. See, there's now actual content in it. Fair enough. You should post that in those kind of threads instead of dumping on the new guys. Good point on the pay-to-play thing. I forgot that and should've mentioned it. Too many newbs get bogged down by thinking they have to PLEX.

But telling people to "Do what they want" when they don't know what they want is not much of a help. Of course everyone has to realize at some point that EVE is a sandbox, but getting a solid start to get your feet on the ground is important.

I *did* give my reasons for why i think a newb should look at exploration.
It's not like i just went "Go do exploration".





In other news, I changed the topic headline to make more apparent what this thread is about.

That topic title makes is better.


And you can tell a new player perfectly "Do what you want"...but you have to help him find what he wants. That's the big trick behind it. Ask questions (if possible in game) and try to find out what type of player he is, this slowly will make you believe that the player will most likely find mining/missions/exploration/PvP/trading/industry/etc. fun and you can point him towards it then.

EvE is a grind. If folks thought 5.1 faction work was painful, the skill leveling in EvE is in a league of it's own. Not even grinding LoA rep is as painful (3 years later I still don't have it even to revered!).

That flew right over your head, right? But someone who played WoW understood it perfectly.

Teaching folks about games is via communicating to them in ways they do understand. Faster learning, less alienation and they feel connected.

Telling them to do as they please and labeling it a sandbox doesn't help. It's like asking them to understand a foreign language on Pluto. Pointless and useless.

If that is true. You are playing EVE wrong.

I've been playing EVE for 2.5 years now and besides the tedious Learning skills (which got deleted) I have NEVER EVER did anything in EVE that felt like grinding.

If you find something grinding and boring, it means you shouldn't be doing it and should look for another activity.

You're insecure and you're trying to over shout it in the hopes to "win" a discussion, so yes my reply to that is perfectly on par.



The reply of someone who's out of his league

And to that link, grab a mirror.


To be more constructive:
EVE is ONLY a grind if you want it to be; there's no levelling to be done, you don't have to run missions, you don't have to mine, you don't have to grind standing heck you don't even have to do PVE. It's a CHOICE and a newbie can choose to not grind right from the start and if he is capable of not being an idiot it can work out just fine. If you like grinding or you don't want to leave your comfort zone because you're used to it in other MMO's then sure go for it, but telling newbies to grind is the same as telling him "go mine", it's wrong and you're assuming that all newbies are noobs, which they're most definitely not.

Thank you so much for this! I have been trying to map this for myself. I knew it has to exist, but I could not find it.

To comment on the attempt to map between EVE and something like WoW, I read the OP as suggesting what 'class' a new player might want to try first in order to learn game mechanics. In typical rpg's it is often suggested that you 'tank' your way along for a while, in part because you wont die as much, and then choose, for instance. I heard the OP suggesting Exploration as something that would let the new player build an informed basis for choosing. One of the difficulties with not doing something along those lines is that the new player does not actually end up choosing, but either quits or has his/her specific choices made by the agenda of some Guild or group from the very beginning.

That said, I will probably hold off on that since scanning seems to really take a lot to master. Later, once I feel a bit more confident about navigating low sec and 0.0 (without getting my brand new shiny Algos full of drones n stuff completely obliterated at the very first gate in low sec... lolololol... QQ... lolol...) I plan to ninja cloud harvest and use exploration as a means of learning low sec and 0.0.

Obviously WoW was this kids first MMO and all he knows how to relate to. Soon he will ask why we can not buy SP.

First thing someone new to EVE has to do is shed their preconceptions. And, unless you are Warren Buffet, keep your business suggestions to yourself.