EVE New Citizens Q&A

Eve is not paced like a first person shooter. Having said that, I would recommend getting away from mining or missioning to you and direct you towards active PVP. Faction Warfare or finding a pirate corp in Faction Warfare lowsec that is active might give you a bit more excitement :)

I myself probably would have stopped playing if it hadn't been for getting into active PVP (FW).

Farming is by definition boring. Good news, though! To achieve any objective, there is almost always a different (and often, better) way than farming for it. For example, if you farm missions for the ISK, there are way more fun PvE income methods, such as exploration, incursions, or wormholes.

On the topic of repetitiveness and slowness though... Eve is not a commonly paced "action" game. It is uncommon to have extended periods of excitement, and even when they happen, the excitement is usually about the metagame, not what's actually going on on the screen. Other than that, Eve is paced slowly, deliberately, and with future consequences in mind. It sort of reminds me of OGame, another MMO that is known for its bland interface and slow pace. In fact, for some alliance managers, that's exactly what Eve probably feels like.

If it's not the deliberate pacing itself that bothers you, it may just be that you're not progressing towards something you value. The meaning of Eve being a "sandbox" is that everything you do should be a "means to an end", where the end is defined by you. If you do missions, why are you doing them? What's the objective? If you infiltrate alliances and destroy them, why? Here's some examples:

• I fly a freighter back and forth a whole day because I'm working to establish a trade hub in a minor but well traveled system.
• I camp a lowsec gate for cheap thrills and notoriety.
• I wake up at 4 AM to help my alliance shoot immobile structures for hours for the feeling of accomplishment and "patriotism".
• I run missions to get the money to fund some other activity that isn't self-sustaining.

And here are some examples of bad reasoning that leads to having a bad time:

• I fly a freighter back and forth a whole day because I'm grinding for a jump freighter to do the same thing.
• I camp a lowsec gate because there's no other PvP to be had.
• I wake up at 4 AM to help my alliance shoot immobile structures for hours because my CEO told me to, and threatened booting me from corp if I didn't comply.
• I run missions to get the money to get a bigger ship that runs missions 10% faster to get a ship that runs missions 20% faster.

"Building a treehouse" is much more fun to do than "cutting wood then hammering nails into it".

In other words, find a goal you can be dedicated to and can constantly work towards, and have at it. Especially if you're inexperienced at Eve, it can be hard to find one solo, so I strongly encourage joining a player corporation. Good corps serve as motivation, community, and support for their members, making Eve much more enjoyable.

tl;dr? Eve is what you make of it. If you make farming/grinding of it, it will be terrible. If you make something else of it, it can be much, much better.

From your description of travel it sounds like you might be using auto-pilot. Auto-pilot is a slower way to travel while afk, it warps you to each gate at 15km, then your ship must approach the gate to jump through. If you manually select 'warp to zero' or 'jump through stargate' for each gate, you will almost always land close enough to jump straight through the gate.

Please don't make the mistake so many carebears do in seeing missions and other carebear pursuits as 'the game'. I mean, if you find them enjoyable, sure, but don't feel obligated to follow any particular path in eve.

There are plenty of alternative methods to make your riches, you are limited only by your creativity and free time.

Ask yourself: How do I want to play this game?

Once you have some vague answers, do some relevant research and make a plan. Out of game tools like Eve Fitting Tool and Evemon can assist you in your planning (for example it's a grand idea to make a years' long skill-plan to maximize re-maps and implant usage).

In the meantime I'll leave you with this. Just one pursuit that takes creativity, adaptation, and adrenaline to the next level: Solo PvP. Watch how he controls his ship, you will never look at combat the same.

The best "missions", are with or against other players. It's a contradiction in terms but it's true. Missions from agents are a scut job, they're a means to an end. What that end is, is up to you.

i like missions :< they are relaxing.

Probably one of the bigger design failures EVE has with regards to the tutorials is making you think that the game is about running missions. It's not. I haven't run missions in years, because they are in fact boring and repetitive.

Now, EVE is still a slow-paced game. Even in PVP, you spend a lot more time deciding what ship to fly and how to fit it, looking for targets, attempting to catch someone and failing as they run away, examining intel, etc... than you do actually in a fight. However, all of that can be fun and stimulating whereas missions are not.

I'd advise you try some other stuff

Also...
Turn autopilot off... warp directly to what you are flying to. If it's a station or gate, it's in your overview by default.

S

This game is truly a sandbox and will be only as good as what you make of it. Much of it, as has been previously posted, is the mental aspect. This game will not lead you to an end game conclusion and thinking ahead to the future will greatly increase your enjoyment.

There is so damn much to do in this game it’s unbelievable. From theft and scamming, to creating huge industrial conglomerates, to assassin style hunting of other players, to entrepreneurial endeavors and too many more to list. The number of meta games within the game itself is only limited to what you can dream up.

Figure out what you think may be fun then try it. If it’s not fun, try something else. It’s certainly ok if you think the game is not fun too, try another game.

It's "Blackshell", not "Blackwell". Blackwell was a cool teacher of mine, but is otherwise unrelated.

Also don't worry, i take proper precautions with my freighter. Such as, for example, not owning or flying one when I have a pirate security status and live in lowsec.

ok im a noob and ive been playing for about two weeks now. your post is by far one of the best that i have seen. it definitely allowed me to properly ask the question, "why am i playing EvE?"...

that treehouse metaphor was spot on....