Ships & Modules

Firstly, the Thrasher is more of a projectile ship and 7 of it's 8 high slots have turret hardpoints (which means projectile turrets because thats what the Thrashers is bonused for), the Minmatar missille destroyer is the Talwar.

Generally for Minmatar most people go for projectile turrets, they can also use missiles and have a line of missile ships, but they are more projectile turret focused and that is what I would recommend. Projectile turrets come in 2 flavours, autocannons which are short range and high damage, and artillery which has longer range but lower damage. The 150mms you are using now are autocannons, the small artillery options would be the 250mm and 280mm artillery.

The Thrasher is a destroyer which uses small weapons (same as frigates) so the 150mm you are currently using can be used for your Thrasher as well, however ideally you'd want 200mm autocannons (the biggest small sized autocannon) for a Thrasher.

If you want more help you can go to the Help channel in-game, it's sometimes a bit chaotic but you can get alot of your questions answered there.

So... Probably going to miss something here but it's very generic:

Projectiles:
Instant damage, low optimal high falloff. Selective damage type, though no short range kinetic primary damage ammo.
Autocannons are short range, artillery are slow firing but high alpha. 10 second reload timer

Lasers:
Instant damage, high optimal low falloff. EM and Thermal damage only.
Pulse is short range, T2 helps a lot with Scorch ammo for range. Beams are long range, good damage, not as important with T2 early on. Instant crystal swapping, and T1 crystals never burn out. Very cheap on ammo even with faction/T2.

Hybrids:
Instant damage, variable optimal depending on ammo while falloff is fixed. Thermal and Kinetic damage.
Blasters very short range, high dmg, Rails extremely long range medium damage. 5 second reload timer.

Missiles:
Delayed damage, only optimal, range is from where they are fired, so a target that is near optimal can fly out of range and take no damage. Selective damage type.
So many names on the missile types, basically one is short the other long ;) I'm not much a missile person so someone else can probably explain them better than me.

Don't mix long range and short range weapons!! It just makes you bad at both ranges. Go for either full long range, or full short range. Try to use the short range ammo for weapons when you can, and at least for PvP carry different ranges of ammo (depends on the weapons).

For missiles some auto-target missiles is good to carry for PvP in case of jamming, but for missions I find it better to wait for the jam to stop, as auto-target missiles just hit every target nearby randomly, and does low damage as well.

Drones is indeed something I forgot to cover, as drones can be your primary damage source as well.

With the NPC agression mechanics they will only be agressed by newly spawned NPCs, or if the NPC is the proper class for it.
Frigates will attack Light Drones, Cruisers and Battlecruisers will attack Medium Drones, and Battleships+ will attack Heavy/Sentry Drones.

Most ships above frigates will have 25m3 drone bay and bandwith, so training Drones and Scout Drone Operation plus the racial drone specialization will give you access to T2 Light and Medium drones for each of the factions drones. At least getting Caldari, Minmatar and Gallente drone specialization are worth it, Amarr mostly only for Sentry drones because they have so low damage output (hopefully CCP will change this sometime). You really notice the difference from T1 to T2 drones, just remember not to leave them behind.

For PvE try to use the drone type which damage is best against the target, and Gallente against those weakest to EM. In PvP think about what the focus of your drones are. Minmatar drones are the fastest, Caldari has the most shield, Gallente the most raw damage, Amarr are just meh so not worth covering :P

Heavy/Sentry drones are mostly for ships that either has drones as primary damage type, or tied in together with another weapon system. That is certain Battleships, a few Battlecruisers and some T2 ships, plus Carriers which you shouldn't really think about for a long time.

The other drone skills are of course useful to make them deal more damage, move faster, have higher HP etc. Remember Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing stacks with Scout Drone Operation for range for ALL, for a total of 60km with both at 5.

If you haven't already you might want to check out the "New Player Training Sessions" chat channel ingame, and the training sessions already completed here's a link to the first one.

Lets start with the basics, ship modules. Every ship in the game has 3 different module slots, and rig slots. Module slots are grouped into three categories. They are high slots, middle slots, and low slots. Lastly ships have rig slots.

HIGH SLOTS

All weapon modules go into the high slots of the ship. There are many different weapon systems in eve so here is a short list by faction:

Minmatar
Short Range: Autocannons. Uses projectile ammo, has good tracking and good dps. However it has trouble hitting far targets. This weapon system does not require energy to fire.
Long Range: Artillery. Uses projectile ammo and gives good alpha strike (each shot does a ton of damage, but the guns cycle very slowly). This weapon system is good for long range, however because it has poor tracking when compared to auto cannons, can struggle hitting ships at closer ranges. This weapon system does not require energy to fire.

Amarr
Short Range: Pulse Lasers. Uses frequency crystals, has adequate tracking and can project damage very well. It has great dps. Currently, Pulse lasers are some of the strongest weapon systems in the game.
Long Range: Beam Laser. Uses frequency crystals and has astounding range. However this weapon system is never used by TL pilots because the guns require a large amount of power to use and have poor tracking.

Gallente
Short Range: Blasters. Uses hybrid ammo and is like a shot gun. It gives an extreme amount of DPS at very close ranges, and has good tracking. It struggles hitting targets at med-long to long range.
Long Range: Railguns. Uses hybrid ammo and has a very long range. However it struggles with tracking like other long range weapons and can have difficulty hitting targets at closer ranges.

Caldari
Short Range: Unguided Missile systems (Rockets, Heavy Assault Missile, Torpedos). This weapon system gives high dps for relatively close range missiles. With the new changes in retribution, Heavy Assault Missiles are the primary weapon choice for Caldari ships. This weapon system does not require energy to fire.
Long Range: Guided Missile systems (Light missile, Heavy Missile, Cruise Missile). This weapon system was at one time extremely strong. However with the latest retribution patch, they are now much worse. I suggest not training for this system, unless you are looking at light missiles. This weapon system does not require energy to fire.


As you can see there is a trend in weapons systems by racial/faction ship.
Minmatar generally use projectile weapons. However some of their ships also use missiles.
Gallente use mainly hybrid weapons. However some of their ships specialize in drones.
Caldari use a split weapon system, which are hybrid and missile.
Amarr use lasers, with a small amount of missiles.

Each weapon system is classed by size. Small weapons are used by frigates and destroyers There are small lasers, small projectile weapons, small hybrid weapons, and for missiles there are rockets and light missiles. Medium weapons are used on cruisers and battlecruisers. There are medium lasers, medium projectile weapons, medium hybrid weapons, and for missiles: heavy missile, heavy assault missile, and rapid light missile. Large weapons are used by battleships, as well as the highest tier battlecruisers. Like the other weapons, there are large lasers, large projectile, large hybrid weapons. Missile systems are torpedoes, and cruise missiles.

There are two other offensive types of modules that a pilot can place in high slots.

Energy Neutralizers (Neut) and Energy Vampire Nosferatu (Nos). Like the weapon systems, Neuts and Nos come in small, medium, and large sizes. Neuts are modules that drain other ships capacitor. If your out of capacitor your ship cannot use modules. And in the case of hybrid and laser weapons, cannot fire. Neuts use a portion of your capacitor to drain more of the targets, until there is nothing left to drain. Nos on the other hand, will only drain capacitor from an enemy ship when your capacitor is lower. However Nos well drain an enemy ship, and place that stolen capacitor back into your ship. Think of it like a mosquito suctioning off blood from a host. Here is a quick example. Lets say your capacitor is at 80% and you turn your Nos on to another ship. That ship has a capacitor level of 60%. You will not drain energy. However if the situation were reversed, and your ship was at 60% you would start to siphon off capacitor to help power your ship.

Smart Bomb. A smart bomb is a device that emits and omni-directional pulse from the centre of the ship. This pulse does damage to anything in a very short distance inside the diameter of the explosion. Like other weapon systems, there are small, medium and large smart bombs. However smart bombs are most commonly fitted on battleships.

There are other weapons such as bomb launchers, interdiction, doomsdays and capital guns, but you'll know what they are when you get there.

Might be worth expanding on this.

Amarr mainly uses Lasers, they have a few missile ships, and some of their ships have the largest drone bays for their class. Amarr has lower bandwith (what they can use at a time) than Gallente generally, but can carry a lot more drones as backup. Mainly armor tanks all the time.

Gallente uses Hybrids and Drones equally I'd say. Some ships focus more on one than the other, but they have some of the strongest T1 drone ships (T2 as well). Mainly armor tanks, has highest hull HP of the races (don't hull tank).

Caldari loves their missiles and has been the main missile race since forever, and their hybrid ships are usually geared for longer ranges than Gallente with range bonuses instead of damage bonuses. Mainly shield race, their slot layouts and bonuses are very focused on shields.

Minmatar used to have some split weapon ships, now they have more a of a pure projectiles or pure missile ships. Slightly different approach to how they use missiles in terms of bonuses, but equally viable. Has some ships that uses drones as a secondary damage source, but most of them only have small bays for light/medium support drones. Both armor and shields, but I would say they lean more towards shields for most of their ships.

So often, a ship that has more low slots than mid slots is armor tank, and more mid slots are more often shield tankers. Bear in mind nothing prevents you from doing the opposite, but early on it can make it a bit easier so you can focus on other game elements.

Could you please elaborate this a little more? I don't really understand it, and it seems to be highly illogical: I want the pirates (later on players, but one step at a time) to be far from me, so as a Gallente it means rail guns and drones. However if the pirates do get close, I reeeeally want blasters! This seems to be the "right" way to go, but I am a newbie after all, so it's very likely I'm missing an important detail or two.

Amarr are perfect. If you engage five Amarr, then you are engaging five Amarr -- five ships, as one, with one weapon system, firing at you. Most of the ships mostly hit you, for most of their damage, most of the time. To exploit the weakness of one is to expose yourself to the strengths of the others. Where you and your friends arrive as five breakable fingers, Amarr are prepared with a clenched fist.

If you engage five Gallente, on the other hand, then you are engaging one Gallente at a time. If you take still frames of the combat, you may find a disproof: look! Five Gallente, all hugging one Amarr ship and bumping into each other! But what the still frame assures you of, the video casts doubt on. In so many of the other frames, you have to wonder who the Gallente are even fighting. Are they just there to tend to the drones?

The Minmatar and the Caldari fall in between. But this is not a spectrum, gentle gradients leading from perfection to chaos. The Minmatar and the Caldari are just differently broken. Caldari damage is lagged. Minmatar DPS is sensitive to range.

For a rookie, more important than any of this is the answer to the question "What should I train first so that I can have fun sooner and not feel like my only subscription is to EVEmon Online?"

And the answer to that question is: not drones.