EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello all,

I wanted to get some insight into what players are doing nowadays besides pewing after a basic training. I've gotten Social to V and Connections, Security Connections, Negotiation, and Fast Talk to IV, and am currently working towards getting my basic skills in place, i.e pg, cpu, capacitor, and fitting skills. While I wait for that skill plan to complete I'm completing all three schools for both Caldari and Minmatar to maximize my standing with both and hoping Diplomacy will help keep me from being locked out of Amarr and Gallente space. Ideally this will open up all missions for both factions and possibly jump clones assuming an 8.0 faction standing helps with that. After that I'll have one last bonus remap of the two that I have (Totaling 3 remaps with the original yearly that I used) and I'll be looking at what I want to do. I have a few thoughts that I'll post on my own, but I'm hoping to get some ideas of other things people do straight out of a basic train from you guys.

I figure my first option is to build up a combat pilot. This is a PvP game, after all, and even though PvP can come in the ways of markets and industry, it mostly comes out of blowing the **** out of someone else's ship, or ships collectively. Another option is to stay in the PvE realm, which again would lead me to train up for combat. So either branch leads down the same path.

With the updates to industry there's always that route. I could train for mining, trading, hauling, and/or manufacturing and research.

I feel like it's an oddity to train to scanning and exploration. How gratifying is that career path?

What other paths have you guys taken that are really gratifying? What's useful in a group situation? What would you guys suggest a new pilot do in this day and age of EVE?

Thanks for your time!

Googling aside, can you talk to me a little bit about what appeals to you in regards to wormholes? What are some of your experiences? What are some things to know or train for going in?

Thank you for your feedback :)

Wormholes can be good fun.

With no local for Intel, they can be harsher than nul-sec.
d-scan, a cloak, and probing skills are kinda important.

depending on the class that your in you can go several months without seeing hi-sec, and you when you do go scooting between a home hole & hi-sec the route can take you through 1-6 low-sec systems

in smaller holes you'll be looking at cruisers to battlecruisers as your mainstays with a scanning frigate on the side
a venture is highly useful (gas mining is very lucrative) in any class of hole
in larger holes you'll be looking at BC/BS or T3 with cap support (capital, not capacitor :D)

Well my corps has only a few a) being able to understand Finnish b) having a cov ops and scanning skills at III-IV c) the rest is up to you.

Scanning skills because WHs have to be scanned down they don't show up in space or OV, hence forgetting to BM that hole where you came from can have dire consequences.

As a brand new player (a week old) myself. I was linked this that gave me some insight in what to do...

In the mean time, you could just scan wormhole chains and use them as shortcuts to nullsec so you can run exploration sites solo. No rats spawn in those sites and they pay can be pretty decent if you have your hacking and archaeology up (or if you are really good at the mini-game).

When I am super bored and don't feel like scanning 5 bajillion gas sites in the holes down our chain, that's what I do.

Good questions.

Sp barriers are one of the persisting myths of Eve. People assume they have to be X high to ride certain rides, which is generally wrong. Personally, I moved to null-sec at about 3m SP, which I suppose translates into about 3 months? I don't remember fully. At the time, I could not fit or fly much, but it was enough. But I could fly salvage destroyers, frigates, and cruisers. And as it so happens, all 3 of those have a strong place in common null-sec living.

Many organizations prefer to see pilots with a minimum level of SP to invite. Though not strictly necessary, there are some practical reasons for this.

First, it shows that the player likely has a certain minimum of understanding about the game. The game is big and complicated, making player training a difficult and often necessary task. But the more I can avoid some of that, the more time I have to spend on things I want to do. It's tough being the guy who needs to provide all the answers and walk a new guy through everything. So lots of organizations try to avoid that responsibility.

Second, it shows that you've subscribed to the game for a certain minimum amount of time. This demonstrates that you're progressively less likely to quit, having found that Eve isn't for you. When a group invests in a new guy, it's a bit of a letdown when they never show up again. And it's more housekeeping for later, as null-sec entities regularly purge their 'inactives' from the roster, for security and admin reasons.

Third, it shows that you've invested a lot of time in a character, making it progressively less likely that you're a spy. The spying meta-game in Eve is a very large factor out here. Everyone is rightly paranoid. Every recruit is a potential spy. If one can subscribe to a second account, and get him joined into an enemy corp, that alt can give you great benefit in all manner of intel. The spy can tell the friendly fleet commanders(FCs) what the foe is flying, and the FC will get his fleet to fit up a hard-counter configuration. Or the spy can leak the foe's movements, allowing the allies to corner them. Things of that sort. But it takes more patience and money to do that if the spy is forced to reach a minimum SP. So SP minimum's filter out some fraction of the potential spies.

Etc.

But there's also reasons why minimum SP's may not be required.

First, every fleet needs frigates. Cheap ships that are fast and do their role's job within one day of training. A frigate pilot charges out ahead to make sure a system is safe to jump in. They move quickly to new positions which the rest of the slower fleet can then warp to. They keep valuable targets pinned down and unable to escape with warp disruptors, ensuring the fleet gets a chance to fire. And they're very tough to kill if the enemy fleet fields only large ships, forcing them to diversify.

Second, income is available with a minimum level of SP. Mining in a venture is far more profitable in Null-sec than high- or low-sec. Anomalies can be explored within a few days of training, yielding great potential profits. Null-sec markets always have openings and margins to exploit, yielding profit for you, and an important service to your allies. Salvage can be gained by following around your older allies in a destroyer hull with a few tractor beams and salvagers. Small-time producers have far, far less competition in Null, allowing them to conduct industry in ammo, frigates, destroyers, and cruisers - a sector that's practically impenetrable in high-sec.

Third, an organization that trains their recruit from the early days, and treats them well, is likely to see benefits down the road. In Null-sec, manpower is the greatest commodity. Then followed by trust. Our ability to gain high-SP pilots is limited, since we must compete with every other null-sec group. And even if we get them, we probably cannot trust them, not for months. But by recruiting low SP pilots, a corp can tap into a larger pool of manpower to foster. It's an investment that takes time to mature, but a group that does right by it's newbies brings in more people, and inspires their loyalty. They will have more manpower over time, which is a mighty advantage.

That was a long tangent, but my point is this: You can go there now, fruitfully, if you'll find a corp that will accept you. You will likely see the most recruitment prospects after roughly 3 million SP, however.

Regarding skills. Since I've already typed a ton I'll just get right to the point.
Skill up two or three, maybe all four faction's frigates to skill 2. Train their guns to only 2. Avoid training anything to 4 or 5, as this does not gain you a lot of fast flexibility. And as a newbie, fast flexibility(not potency) is your best virtue. Do not train skills that act as weapon stat bonuses. Bad benefit per time ratio.
Similar to the above, an excellent goal is to have access to at least two factions' cruisers, hopefully 3. Do not skill them above 2 or 3.

Beyond minimal-but-broad ships and guns, 'Core skills' are your area of interest.
Core skills are defined as skills that *directly* assist your CPU, power grid, capacitor, armor, and shields. Excluded are guns/drones, e-war, stuff like that. Core skills are good in every ship, in every situation. Great benefit per time ratio. They also give you access to tech2 core modules. The potency of every ship you fly comes in large part from the potency of it's modules. Core skills grant the most applicable of modules, so when you combine that with ship flexibility, you're looking at an excellent balance of potency and versatility.

There is one potential exception on the matter of specialization as a newbie - Interceptors. After a while, look at bumping one faction's Frigate skill up to 5, Evasive Maneuvering up to 5, and get into an interceptor. That's a big boost to your ability in fleet operations.

I'm glad if it helps.

Every alliance is different.... and within those alliances, all their corps are different. And within a corp, many recruiters have different priorities. So I can't really draw much for generalities on what's open to you.

Instead, I suggest focusing on what sort of environment and community of gamers you like to be surrounded by. The people are what make it a good experience or a bad one, regardless of what activities you choose, be it mining, gate-camping, scamming, material logistics, or hundred-man fleets.

For example, I am happy in my corp because they are older with families, they don't swear often on comms or make racial slurs, nor other crass behavior, they're good to one another, and opponents too, and they like to fleet up together to blow people up. They have a lot in common with their alliance. That fits my personal preference, so I enjoy logging in to do whatever with them.

Others like a more rambunctious, unfiltered lot, where there's lots of laughs, and aggressive ambitions. Some people want things down to business, high professionalism, elite.
You make the call on that. Apply for a handful of corps, don't rush into it, give them time to gel. With low SP, you might see a lot of rejections. That's okay because there's lots of corps.

Head over to the recruitment subforum to browse. And I think there's a thread in this subforum dedicated to good practices as a potential recruit. I'm sure someone will link that.

I won't be advertising for any one group, though. Beyond what's in my signature. ;)

As or NPC null-sec - that's like an in-between of low-sec, and null-sec. What makes it different from null-sec is that the systems cannot be owned by anyone. All players can dock in those stations. Groups who live inside them don't have access to much infrastructure, which is a double-edged sword - On one hand, you don't have much you need to defend, but on the other hand, you don't gain benefit from sovereign infrastructure, and have a more difficult time gaining allies.

If you're near one of those patches of NPC space, it ensures that the wider area carries more risk of hostile interlopers. Depending on what you want, that's either a good thing or a bad thing. My group owns sovereign space next door to one of these patches. It allows us to leverage infrastructure and allies, but it also means we get a lot of bandits running through to inflict losses, and force us to defend our holdings. We're rarely bored, and that's precisely why we live here.

The flipside of the coin is that many people don't like some issues related to sovereignty. Its a big can of worms. A while back, a respected fellow corporation in our alliance decided they just didn't like sovereignty warfare, and all it entails. They moved to low-sec, and NPC-nullsec, so that they could enjoy more freedom, less responsibility. Whatever floats your boat.

*points at link in signature*

It's a collection of stories from veterans about how they began in EVE.

Please. A frigate or cruiser belt rats just fine. I belt ratted in an arbitrator, it was a little slower, but it had other advantages.