EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello all. Almost hate to add to the list, but here are a few noob questions I have...

Tutorial Skill Books

I am still deep into the tutorial, and I have looted (salvaged?) some ship components off of pirates that the missions have not supplied skill books for. Should I go ahead and purchase the relevant books, or wait and see if the Agents supply them later? I cannot recall the specific names, but I know it involves things like extra cargo space and the Ghoul (some sort of energy siphon).

Manufacturing

In other MMO's, you can craft a lot of decent stuff, but the very best items are always loot from NPC's. This kind of takes some of the joy out of crafting, because you know that no matter how good you get, you'll never be making the very best stuff. In a game that is so focused on player-driven economy, can someone just starting out hope to eventually be making items that people will actually want?
Also, what percentage (roughly) of the economy is player-created items versus NPC-looted items?

I know there is much more, but I am hoping that some things will be revealed as I continue the tutorial. I appreciate any answers.

The game is pretty awesome so far!

You are going to have to buy most of the skill books. The agents give only a very small amount and if you get a duplicate skill book, you can defray your costs by selling the duplicates.
If you are worried, you should be able to easily tough it out until you are through with the tutorials and see what you get from the agents. (it won't be much but it is a start).

Manufacturing wise, there are a lot of player made stuff that sells well. But to be competitive, you will need to have all the related skills maxed out. And of course, an understanding of how the manufacturing works. It is not a slam dunk and can be very involved.

Thanks, everyone.

And the next question: Is there a process for logging out, or do I just "quit game" from the options menu?

if you press Alt+F4 or click the cross, you will get an 'are you sure?' dialog. there is also the 'safe logoff', a feature that you can use to log off in space and be sure that your ship will not be killed while you are already logged off.

edit: to clarify, if you are in space and just quit the game or disconnect, your ship stays in space for a certain amount of time. the safe logoff makes you wait out that time before disconnecting.

All Meta 0 T1 items are manufactured (Light Ion Blaster I, Small Armor repairer I)
Other T1 items, Meta 1-4, are NPC drops (Modal Light Ion Particle Accelerator I, Small 1-a Polarized Armour Regenerator I).
All T2 items are manufactured (Light Ion Blaster II, Small Armor Repairer II)
T1 ammo is a mix, it drops in missions, players make it, don't know the breakdown.
The vast majority of ships are player-made. The exceptions are the rookie ships that are free, the ships you're given in the tutorials, some faction ships you can buy from the Loyalty store and limited edition ships that CCP gives away (eg Echo, SArum Magnate)

'Ghoul' Energy Siphon is an aggressive energy transfer module (Nosferatu) that steals some cap from an enemy ship and transfers it to your own. It is a very useful module in PvP when in a smaller ship trying to take on a bigger ship utilizing Energy Neutralizers (modules that simply drain an opponents cap). I could be wrong, but I don't think there are any tutorials that will provide the relevant skillbook: Energy Emissions Systems (although Amarr might).

Tutorial agents give lots of skill-books relevant to their race and career path, but they won't provide you with all skill books. You can run tutorial agent lines for every faction, providing you with a wide base of ship & weapon skills, as well as some ships too. However, they only provide the very basic stuff. Generally, you have to purchase your skillbooks from NPC sellers, which provide most skillbooks in the game. Some skillbooks are earned through LP stores, and others are found in plexes (most commonly Mag/Radar/Ladar sites). Generally speaking, unless you are trying to build rare storyline items, or looking for drug-related skills, NPC agents and LP stores will provide you the skillbooks you need.



In other MMO's, you keep the items you have when you die. In EvE, your stuff often gets destroyed/looted. There are several classes of loot:

T1 (Meta 0) Modules: These are now 99% player made. They are generally the least effective form of an item, but are heavily used to create T2 items.

Meta Gear (Meta 1-4) Modules: 99% of these come from looting NPCs. In general, the higher the Meta the better the item: Lower fitting requirements, better performances, etc... However, this "rule of thumb," especially in regards to fitting requirements, is often not the case.

T2 Gear (Meta 5): These are 99% player made. They require a T1 item to be manufactured into a T2 item. Sometimes T2 is better than meta 4, sometimes meta 4 is better than t2. Most everyday PvP ships utilize T2 modules (with some Meta 4 modules).

Faction Modules (Meta 5-9ish): These come from a variety of sources, depending on the "faction" that makes them. Empire faction stuff usually comes form LP stores (often requiring player manufacturing from LP store BPC's). Pirate faction sometimes come from LP stores, but often come from semi-rare NPC Faction Spawns & Plex Loot. These are generally equal or better than t2/meta 4 items, but have Faction flavors that don't often follow the higher-is-better Meta Mantra.

Officer/Deadspace Modules: These come from much more rare Officer Spawns and Deadspace Plexes (and escalations). These are generally the "best modules" you can get (except for guns), but are also rare. Generally, players put these mods on their flagships (Their favorite missioning boat, their Supercarrier/Titan, etc). Really, though, they are generally vanity items, and cost a ton of isk.

With this distribution of NPC vs Player made modules, "crafting" in EvE is a very healthy profession, as 90+% of the stuff utilized (lost/destroyed) in every day PvP is player crafted (including the ships). Now, finding what to manufacture for profit takes a little bit of research. If you are space poor, and looking for a good item to start manufacturing, I suggest small & medium rigs that are commonly found on PvP ships. Good markup, good movement, and low skill requirements (many of the BPO's don't need to be Material Researched to produce at Max Efficiency.)

The two bottlenecks for a new character entering the manufacturing career are skilling Production Efficiency to V, and ascertaining researched BPOs (that allow you to produce items at the lowest material cost), which can be ascertained via contracts, or researched yourself.