EVE New Citizens Q&A

Faction Warfare is a lot more small scale. Any given entity is pretty small. While the militia itself is quite big, and does occasionally group up for things, there's a lot less in the way of large-scale stuff going on. Based on what you've said you probably want to join some manner of sov-holding nullsec alliance.




Someone will come in here soon with some link to some detailed skill guides. In general, I'd focus on getting good support skills and being able to comfortably and competently fly smaller ships. Even though the alliance warfare you're looking for often involves battleships and caps, they're both costly and skillpoint intensive. Further, a good ewar or tackle frigate is a great asset to gangs of larger ships.



Missions are probably the most boilerplate answer (though missions are horrendously boring and you need level 4s to make real money). Lowsec/nullsec ratting/anomalies and exploration are good choices. Particularly in nullsec, belt ratting and cosmic anomalies are very common ways to earn ISK.


Faction Warfare may be a good starting point for you. Unless you find a very newbie-friendly nullsec alliance (which is certainly possible, don't get me wrong), nullsec requires a lot more in the way of logistics and whatnot to survive in. Additionally, FW plexing allows you to earn ISK through LP while still simultaneously looking for stuff to kill. However, as mentioned, this is usually smaller scale than nullsec alliance warfare

Addressing this, unless you find a nullsec group off the bat, I would certainly recommend using FW as a means to achieve your goal. It will be a valuable tool to learn small gang and solo PvP operations, mostly in cruisers and down; frigates and destroyers and incredibly common in FW space. You will not, however, find many of the epic fights that you've named as a goal there. FW is ruled by true 'small gang' concepts, where 20 pilots ends up being considered a big fleet. Adherence to doctrine fits is hit or miss, and really depends on the group you fall in with. FW also comes with its own built-in income system, via plexes and FW missions that pay varying amounts of LP based on warzone control.



When you use your remaps and how is up to you, but ultimately as a combat pilot, you're probably going to spend most of your EVE career in a Perception/Willpower remap, or less commonly, a split Intelligence/Perception remap. The program EVEMon can be a huge help here, allowing you to manage (or micromanage) your future skill training and remap possibilities as far as you care to take them. Having your core skills trained to decent levels is, however, a good start. What you train next depends on the goals you set for ship type, fleet comp, etc. If you know you want to fly in big null battles, setting your sights on some of the common doctrine BS fits that are used there might be a good training goal.



As stated above, if you decide to spend some time in FW, you can farm a decent amount of LP in between PvPing to keep yourself in ships and mods for some time in that environment. Other money making side projects that complement being a combat pilot are FW missions, wormhole daytrips with your friends, and exploration combat plexes. All of these can net you a couple to a few hundred million for a day's play.

Good, good. Having clear goals is a good first step.



Depends on what you like. I've had experience with both of the things you gave examples of.

In FW, most of the fighting is done in small skirmishes, or via controlling a system and shutting it down. Conquering in large part is driven by ships orbiting around immobile space structures for hours on end. It's fairly boring. It gets exciting when someone (a corp or fleet) decides to deny access to those structures to the other side. That usually leads to a lot of avoiding each other, skirmishing a little bit, waiting till the other guy logs off, and maybe sometimes a "tens vs tens" of people fight.

The good? It's fast paced, close to hisec trade hubs, pretty newbie friendly by the way the mechanics work, and there's stuff that happens daily. The bad? Consequences of conquering are very few if you don't farm for loyalty points. There are even some negative consequences to winning, like boredom (which is why my alliance recently dropped the Minmatar militia to simply shoot everything).

The real "huge fleets in epic battles" really mostly happen in 0.0. The big battles there also often have more far-reaching or spectacular consequences, and are more in the "hundreds vs hundreds" range, and sometimes more. That's the stuff that makes it into gaming news. Living in nullsec is also fairly profitable. However, there are some downsides. It's not very newbie-friendly unless your corp is very supportive. It's sparsely populated, which means that small fights do not happen as often. The big fights happen fairly seldom, and when they do, they might happen at a time that you really would hate to be on Eve for.

Lastly, being in the leadership of something like that, in particular fleet command, requires a good bit of experience and even more dedication. It can be a bit of a thankless job.

I would recommend you get started with FW or lowsec piracy. To lead big fleets, you need to first familiarize yourself with basic combat mechanics, various popular ships and a variety of tactics and fittings, then probably start with leading small gangs, then ramp up to bigger stuff. Alternatively, you could just jump right into 0.0 and go wild. I know I did when I joined, and I don't regret it -- even though it was difficult and i exploded a lot.

Lastly, something to keep in mind: the bigger the fleet, the less autonomous its members. The bigger a fleet goes, the more discipline and standardization it requires to not fall apart, which means greater and greater stress on the FC and his/her skills. I know you're excited to lead huge fleets, but take it slowly and deliberately rather than rushing into it.


I can't tell you much about remaps/implants, since I have almost never taken advantage of them. Too much :effort:. Being able to PvP is largely independent of skill points. It is possible to max out on a frigate/cruiser very quickly, and perform as well as someone who's played for years. Playing longer (and having more SP) simply means that you can be that specialized in more things. For example, while a 1-month-old character might be able to fly a Rupture with skills similar to mine, my several years allow me to also fly all the other cruisers as well, and to be more flexible about how I react to a situation.

So far as what to train... I would recommend picking a frigate and destroyer, and trying to sort out your skills to get to flying those into combat ASAP. I don't know what race of ships you're interested in though, so I can't really go farther than that. They're all viable, but they all do fly quite differently.



Some things, like faction warfare, pay out just via their mechanics. 0.0 needs a bit more effort to cash in on, but there are still ways. At any rate, for starter levels of PvP, where you're more or less blindly charging into fights, I wouldn't recommend going above a 2 mil ISK frigate or a 5 mil ISK destroyer. Those figures are very easily achieved (and surpassed) anywhere. Plus, some corps (like mine) provide free ships/fittings to help people along.

Last piece of advice: seek a corp ASAP. Jumping right into PvP as a solo newbie is extremely difficult (probably not impossible, but close to it). The people in a corp can teach your way around, fly with you, help out with ISK, skills, and a variety of other things. That's why you should pick carefully, too. I know it's a bit much to take in, but us forum folks will always be here with advice if you need it.

Good luck!

Thank you all for the great advice so far.

It sounds like Faction Warfare is the way I should go to start out, with 0.0 Alliance Sovereignty wars as a distant, long term goal.

If Faction Warfare focuses more on smaller ships, then I can put off training for bigger ships and focus more on maxing out my Frigates. I will probably remap for Intelligence/Memory first for core and tanking skills, then Perception/Willpower for better guns and bigger ships.

And of course I will find a Gallente Faction Warfare corp to join.

Inxentas, you've certainly given me something to think about here.

One other thing I need to take into consideration is how hardcore and serious the environment is. I want to contribute meaningfully to whatever cause I decide to join and I will make an effort to do so, but above all I want this to be FUN, and not a second job (I have one of those already, and it pays actual money tyvm). I've got times I can expect to be on and times that I can't. I will happily answer a call to arms when real life allows, but I wont quit my actual job to siege a POS. That said, I do want decent discipline in place once the fleet ships out on an op.

The above is my primary concern about joining 0.0 Sov wars; from what i've read they can get VERY hardcore; too hardcore for my liking from the sound of it. As for faction warfare, I am well aware that FW conquests are pretty hollow. The main reason I was so quick to jump on it was the prospect that cheap T1 Frigates could contribute meaningfully there, but after some more thought I realize that they can also be meaningful in larger fleets as well. Perhaps my early commands would be "wolf packs" of cheap T1 frigates hunting targets of opportunity.

And then there is the one thing that could quite possibly make or break my whole EVE experience: the culture of the corp. I don't want to be a mere mook in a giant army of mooks that no one really cares about and are expected to be robotic slaves. I want a "family" of people I can get to know, have fun, and rack up the killmails with. From what i've read about 0.0 Sov wars, that doesnt seem to be the culture out there.

Considering everything, I now seem to be leaning towards low-sec or NPC-nullsec environments. As much as I would love to lead huge fleets in absolutely epic battles, in practice i might enjoy being a big fish in a small pond more. I get the satisfaction of meaningfully advancing a cause, which is even more satisfying since I might actually know the people who would directly benefit, and I might even benefit from it as well. My one concern is how I would make money to support myself there, but there are ways and i am sure i can figure something out. Might even get some advice as im looking for a corp.

Any further input is still welcome.

If you want to command big fleets right this second, join Brave Newbies Incorporated or Eve University. Anyone in either corp can lead a roam or schedule a fleet and you can just lead from a frigate.

Eve Uni has more classes which would teach you about PvE and making money but they have more restrictive rules about who you can shoot and fleet with. BNI is just a total CF of chaos, but you sound like you have pretty solid direction so maybe that will work well for you.

It sounds like long term you want to be in Sov Null. If you have a Reddit account I'd suggest you look at Fweddit or TEST.

Fweddit just started taking space, has roots in faction warfare, and is very supportive of new players.

TEST just got smashed out of Sov Null and is reinventing itself in Curse. They are also very supportive of new players, have a ton of experience in Sov Null, but historically have been mediocre PvPers and never really developed competent FC's. One upside is you can join them while they're down and help them become better.

There is also a newbie friendly PvP alliance called xXConfederacy of PizzaXx that has some REALLY good players, is very new player friendly, and has some really strong FC's. You can talk to them in the channel Pizza House. Pizza isn't really interested in Sov warfare. They're more interested in bombing other people who are interested in Sov warfare, but it would be a great place to learn Eve PvP before you try to FC fleets.

Another small, focused null PvP entity that is of decent quality and accepts very new players is Concordiat. You can try bugging Securitas Protector and see what he says. If he flips out because you annoyed him just blame me by name and point him to this post and he'll probably rage at me instead.

The other major Sov Null groups that are accessible are the CFC (Goons, Razor, Fatal Ascension, bunch of other dudes), N3 (Nulli Secunda, bunch of dudes), and Insidious Empire.

My corporation has open recruitment, trains PvPers, and is well known for producing good players, but we need you to be able to fly certain ships before you join so you can go on our fleets and we focus more on 'fun PvP' then on 'space important PvP.' There is some significant overlap, but there's also a difference in the way we do things.

Don't remap until you REALLY know what you're doing. Remaps are one of the few completely limited resources you have.

faction warfare can be profitable. you conquer complexes to push the system to vulnerability, get rewarded with loyalty points and exchange those for ISK. it's not as easy as sucking on asteroids but also not nearly as boring, plus it's a lot more profitable AND teaches you some pvp in the process.

1) Train to fly Interdictors.
2) Apply to pretty much any null sec corp.
3) Have ship replaced/reimbursed from SRP making it essentially free to fly PvP as a career. (any worthwhile null alliance runs an SRP)
4) Accept man-love from corp mates grateful to have a Dictor pilot in fleet so they can fly their shiny battleship.
5) Run null sec anoms for 20-40mil per tick between fleets to pay for any new ships you want to own.

That's all there is to making PvP your 'career' in Eve. Be useful to somebody with a standing military arm. No one is going to care if you fly the biggest and most expensive faction boat, just bring a Sabre and learn to +1.

A fully fit double bubble Sabre costs about what you get just in bounties for two or three Forsaken Hubs in null. So even out of pocket they are easily replaced and should pose no problem for a pilot to afford. They don't often last very long...but that's the life of a Dictor pilot.

Here's my newbie tip, as this line stuck out the most to me when reading.

The skill you need to train to pull this off is called "Learning Effective Leadership Styles". Sadly, it's not a skillbook that exists in EVE. This is something you're going to need to study in RL, ask questions about, and such things, if you don't already have leadership experience.

Seriously, nobody likes an ass-hole FC. YOu can tell the real bad ones just by listening to them scream, argue, and berate their fleetmates on coms during engagements.

If you think about it, leading a fleet is just like being the manager of a project at your workplace. Hell, fleets can get up to 255 people, larger than quite a few small businesses. Figuring out how to handle all those different egos, personalities, and motivations while still accomplishing your goal can be quite a challenge.


So, hit up the library. Read every book you can on how to manage effectively. Ask good leaders you know how they do it, and reflect on bad leaders you've had in order to figure out what they did wrong.


Good luck out there, and good hunting, fresh new face! I hope to read stories about your leadership of gamechanging fleets!