EVE New Citizens Q&A

There is plenty of PvE, in all security levels of space, including incursions, which would be similar to raids. HOWEVER you don't get a choice about PvP, there are no duelling arenas, and you can be attacked almost anywhere, even highsec. It'll take you the same amount of time as any other player to skill into larger ships, because eve uses a time mechanic, not a grind based mechanic for skills.
Not trying to put you off, but trying to avoid PvP is going to take you away from one of the most interesting and engaging parts of the game. Even trading on the market is PvP, the economy is player driven.
There are no instances, no private deep space areas, if you're in space, you can and will be attacked at some point. Learning how and when to fight is something that will keep you thinking constantly.

At the risk of sounding harsh, I'll echo the views of many bittervets here; maybe EvE isn't the game for you. I'd still say give it a try, be open minded about everything, including PvP, who knows, maybe you'll find you love it!

Welcome to Eve!

A quick disclaimer before I dive into your questions: I am a 99.99% PvP player so I might be wrong about a thing or two regarding PvE.


There is nothing in Eve that is "instanced". That is, there's nothing you can do that another player cannot help (or interfere/hinder) with. If you are in a fleet with someone, they can follow you anywhere you go and help out. That said, most missions (as in, the stuff NPCs give you to do) are intended for solo pilots, and usually very unprofitable if you run them with a group.

There are group PvE activities, such as:

• Incursions - Invasions of powerful Sansha's Nation forces into random systems across Eve. Nigh-impossible to solo, and they have a reward scheme that encourages group play. For the biggest payoffs a relatively big group is needed, though (20 or so people, but I may be wrong). More info here: http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Incursions
• Combat exploration - Certain exploration sites involve blasting through a lot of NPCs to get to the possibility for sweet loot, or maybe unlocking an "expedition" chain of escalating exploration sites that get harder and harder as they get more profitable. However, the most fun of these happen in lowsec and nullsec space, so some PvP background is recommended.
• Wormhole PvE - Unmapped "w-space" has a lot of exploration opportunities, fighting powerful Sleeper NPCs. However, w-space operates like null-sec, with the extra feature of not listing people in the Local channel, so you need to know how to not die to the occasional raider.

Outside of missions and incursions, it's hard to have "pew-pew" PvE without opening yourself to PvP as well, because the best combat PvE happens in non-hisec.


Most sub-capital ships can (and are) used successfully in PvE. Sometimes crazy people use capital or supercapital ships to do PvE in nullsec. Dreadnoughts and carriers make an appearance in w-space PvE for some of the most difficult sites, but they have to be built locally (they don't fit through wormholes).

So, there is plenty of ship/equipment progression, especially if you focus on having fun more than having the most super-optimal setup you can.


PvE is not only in hisec. The higher the risk, the higher the reward (at least, in theory). All areas of space have PvE activities and potential. Hisec PvE is very common, though, because NPCs are far more predictable than players, which means risk is much more easily minimized. Effective anti-NPC setups are typically very vulnerable against players, and vice versa, which means that PvE in dangerous areas requires a mixture of knowledge, situational awareness, friendly support, and at times, innovative fitting.

For example, incursions that occur in lowsec or nullsec space are almost never run. While they are more profitable than hisec incursions, the kinds of ship setups required to take down an incursion are very vulnerable to interfering pirates, who want to kill you and take the modules off your ship, with no interest in taking down the incursion themselves.

(pirates like me )


No. The AI has some "intelligent" coding to identify priority targets (e.g. remote repair ships, electronic warfare ships), but neither the number nor strength of NPCs scale with the player force present. Also, incursion and Sleeper NPCs are smarter than normal NPCs, and can be a real pain.


I personally find the PvE experience repetitive and boring, but I've seen plenty of people enjoy PvE, so I'm not judging. Almost all angles of Eve are however driven by player conflict. I don't mean just "shooting each other" conflict. I also mean theft, extortion, ruthless market gaming, politics, scamming, etc. If you're looking for a game where you can do what you want without other players affecting your play, Eve isn't it.

If you're looking for a game where a lot of people do a lot of different things in constant competition and conflict in a simulated universe, that's Eve. Welcome to the jungle.

1. Yes. All very possible. Just about everything in eve is possible to do as a group and generally more engaging too.

2. The biggest ships are actually extremely boring and not really worth the training unless you need them for a very specific reason. People use everything from frigates to capitals for both PvP and PvE, and it's very possible to earn enough either way.

3. Missions in Hisec, Lowsec and Nulsec. NPC combat, exploration & mining sites of other discriptions in High, Low, Nul and Wormholes. Incursions (like missions but err.. different) all over the place. Various static npc combat / exploration areas across the galaxy.

4. Sometimes, like escelations where more enemies can be triggered if you bring capitals for instance. Generally though, in a mission the enemies will be the same sort of difficulty regardless what / who / how many you bring. Bare in mind that missions can switch up what exact model of ship you're fighting a little each time you spawn the mission, though they will all be from a relatively similar group.

Right.. With that said here is another very important point, hear me out :)

EvE is a famously PvP driven game, and people can be pretty defensive about that. But before you write it off based on that, you should realise EvE truly is nothing like most other mmo's. Remember that to really create that feeling of a massive scary unexplored expanse, there has to be the possibility of danger. This doesnt mean you have to fight to play the game, it means you have to think about what you do a little. When you go kill those npc mission ships part of your income in from selling the loot they drop, and how much income you make is based on the current market value. Market value of near everything shifts because the entire market (almost) is player driven. Players create almost all of the items and ships using materiels collected by other players.

If there was no PvP, very few ships would be destroyed. If few ships are destroyed few ships, modules, minerals etc are bought. If nobodies buying prices crash and all of a sudden you can't make any money as a PvE player either. EvE does a fairly good job of helping new players survive as long as they're willing to put a little thought into a game.

You can make fine money pretty safely doing only PvE but it won't be a purely PvE game. Other players will pop up once in a while but with some care they won't be so scary.

Cya out there :D

Thanks for the reply guys! Like I said, I'm not much of a fan of PvP though I fully understand that "PvP can happen anywhere" ie suicide ganking.... I probably should've said I'm more interested in doing PvE than doing PvP, at least for the moment.

I'd like to do missions, production, mining, exploration, killing AI, but I guess with the open sandbox of EVE, I should always be on guard for being a ripe target for PvP. I know un-provoked killing in high-sec brings the wrath of the AI police (can't remember the name!), but killing in high-sec still is possible so I guess I should be on my toes all the time. Less chance in high-sec, but does not mean it doesn't happen ---- I guess that's what everyone is saying, right?

Thinking about it, I'd probably die in an unexpected PvP fight. I'll try to run away, or if I'm feeling cocky, I'll give it a good fight, but I know I'll panic and end up having my big behind handed to me.

My plans for the moment is to do a 21-day trial, upgrade to maybe a 3-month sub, then do the scripted missions --- I keep hearing about Sisters of EVE so I'll be looking out for that.

Since I'm doing MOSTLY PvE (no intentional PvP, and if it happens, I'll try to run away), will EVE have longevity for me? I'm really curious about the claims of being able to make the game "pay for itself" as far as subscription fees goes so if that happens, chances of me sticking around will increase and chances of me being gutsy and trying out PvP will increase as well..... let's see what happens, eh?

Hello and welcome to Eve.

Aside from what everyone else is saying here, you can have a long and rewarding career doing PvE in this game. I've been playing this game for almost 6 years and consider myself a PvE Carebear Extremist. I've made a lot of ISK from doing PvE and not just in High Sec. I travel all over the place.

Sure there's players looking to suicide gank and attack others but if you're smart and pay attention, the chances of that happening to you is very small. In fact, you can play this game for years without actually being involved in a shootout with another player if you so wish.

Starting out in PvE content would be of course to do the Aura Tutorial, then do the 5 different Career Agents followed with the level 1 Sisters Of Eve Epic Arc. After that pick an NPC corp to start working regular missions and build up Corp standing for access to Jump-clones. While doing that you can do exploration mixed in with some basic production for a change of pace. Later on in your PvE career you'll definitely want to run the high level Epic Arcs as well as do missions for Event Agents. Most Event Agents can only be completed once in the life of the character and usually require Faction standing for access. Evelopedia has a lot of info and guides available on these subjects.

After you get the core fitting skills trained up and learn the basic game mechanics this game is a lot of fun. As for the players looking to do ship wars with you, just consider that aspect of the game as a mix of 'Hide & Seek' and 'Tag' with them constantly being 'It' looking for you.

Also there's no rule stating you have to join a player made corporation. You can remain in your own starter NPC corp if you want. Up side is you can do most things in Eve without having to deal with WarDec's. Down side is you won't have access to POS / Starbases. You can have lot's of friends in this game to fleet up and help you at various times without being in a player Corp. Just create a chat channel to stay in contact with them.

Anyway, good luck to you. May you have a long and rewarding career here in Eve.


DMC

Eve pve is ultimately pretty meh, and I don't think anyone that stays with eve for years does it because of the PVE. It can be interesting for a few months though, but at some point everything will become repetitive.

There are two things that I believe keep people playing EVE.
1. The social factor. Whether this is people that depend on you, or the vicarious enjoyment you get reading other players exploits, the general community at large, or pvp in all its incarnations. Player interaction either in-game or out of game is a major driver of the EVE game, where in other games player interaction doesn't really matter as much.
2. Meaningful accomplishment which requires its inverse, meaningful loss.

"End Game" eve is not a few (read less than a thousand) players dolling themselves up in their best gear and taking out some NPC diety that just respawns tomorrow. "End Game" eve is Major alliances made up of hundreds of corporations(guilds) pooling their resources over months, placing orders for the entire eve community to fill (manufacturing or trade) thus involving tens of thousands of players until a fleet is formed, then attempting to take a system (gain sovereignty). If sovereignty is won, real benefits are gained for the alliance. Whether a fight is won or lost, all those thousands of ships that were lost will need to be replaced, so the cycle repeats.

If you decide to just mission, the modules you loot and put on the market are feeding this great machine. If you only manufacture, the modules or ships you make are feeding this great machine. If you mine, the minerals you put on the market feed this great machine. Everything you do feeds the pvp machine. That is why we say that you are participating in pvp even if you are a care-bear that plays for years without getting involved in a forced encounter.

Realizing the part you play in the greater scheme of the game can greatly affect your enjoyment of the game. If you aren't into pvp, then consider other players part of the environment. Have you ever run though a max level zone as a newbie because there was another newbie zone on the other side? I have, having to walk carefully around mobs that can 1HK was a rather thrilling experience. Learning how to run away, and how to guard against attack is all you really need to know in eve. Fighting back is a choice, but keeping a good exit strategy is just prudence.

--and I think it is a bit too early for bitter vets to start saying "this is not the game for you" on a first post.

Please easy with this "PvP will find you" here ;) I am a PvE carebare mixing mission running with tourism and I was only shot down once. In low sec. It is quite enough not to:
1. go out of high sec.
2. fly gank magnet ships: battleclinic and tools like EFT or Pyfa are your friends here; EFT gives you an idea, how expensive modules add very little performance to properly fitted PvE ship and battleclinic site has some good advices how to fit ship properly.
3. join big player corp - you will get war declarations because of someone else.
4. autopilot or mine afk
5. abandon your mobile tractor units so you can not scope them in a matter of a minute.

PvE in EVE gives you not only possibility to have fun with ISK comming, it is also often opens you beautiful places in mission pockets, like Angel's cathedrals for example. And in null you can get plenty of PvE in every asteroid belt...

Missions do become repetitive, but you can change the ship and the very same boring mission in sniper fit Armageddon drone boat will becomes something very different in blaster fit Hyperion or autocannon fit Machariel.

If you have team, you can try level 5 security missions.

There are so many options you can do with your friend, just go out there and have fun, but you will always get involved in PVP of some sort.



This is not true, considering they will be used for escalations c5/c6 as you say, but they can not be brought in lower class wormholes where they are occasionally build because they are great for home defence.

Although PVP is technically possible at anytime and in any place, if you are a dedicated carebear its relatively easy to avoid pvp, almost to the point of rendering it a non-issue. The problem though is that eve pve is extremely repetitive an boring; it just hasnt aged well over the last ten years or so. What saves eve from the dustbin is its meta game - the interaction of players with other players. So, imo, if you seek to avoid pvp and just play eve as a pve game, you are missing out on the true fun of the game.

I've encountered the term "care bear" in a few posts, can anyone clarify what that means?

As for PvP and my plans, well, like I said, I don't initially want to PvP on purpose. Sure, I may do "PvP marketing" or some other form, but not direct pew-pew-pew-ing other players. I might do direct PvP later on, but that's going to be much later as I understand more of the game.

erg cz, thanks for your post, dude! That gives me hope and I look forward to PvE!