EVE New Citizens Q&A

EVE is a bit different because there aren't engaging quest lines to jump to after your tutorial or a clear cut path to max level.

You're in a sandbox. Tutorials give you the basic skills to survive and leave the rest up to you. I recommend you find a good, new player friendly corp. Also, start the Sisters of EVE epic arc if you haven't. The lack of direction is a little staggering, but I think you'll see that's just part of the game.

As for PVE, it's not one of EVE's most shining accomplishments. Mission running gets a little more exciting (or at least profitable) once you hit level 4s but even then you'll end up running the same handful of missions until you get bored.

What do you think that you want to do? Don't think about what the game may want you to do, what do you think you want to do with yourself in Eve?

Agreed. Eve is a sandbox, what you 'are' in Eve is a result of your actions. Nor are you limited to choosing any finite number of things to do, so don't feel like you need to choose some singular path that you will be locked into forever.

Most things in Eve can be 'dabbled' in with a minimum time investment, so again, don't fear being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades at first. There is little reward for power-gaming Eve. Try a few things out, see what catches your interest, and then you will know what to focus training on.

Make friends. Eve is an MMO, and it is entirely designed around the fleet concept. Total newbs stuck grinding crap low end PvE would be shocked at how much higher content they could attempt with a friend or two. They'd also be surprised at how dangerous in PvP even fail-fit T1 ships can be in small packs.

With buffs to T1 logi, Ceptors, Dictors, etc, a complete newb can be a vital part of a PvP fleet, doing any number of roles almost from his first days in the game. This was not always the case.

The upshot of this low barrier to entry for PvP means that it need not be an all-consuming skill sink. Often in Eve people feel you can only really do one or the other- industry or PvP. But anyone can fly Dictors in minimal time, and if that's all you ever fly besides mining barges, no one will complain and you can live in null sec and mine all the rare ores you want- usually with help only a holler away on TeamSpeak.

Thank you all for the responses, although as usual some sent me to Google to figure out terminology.

I think I might not have explained myself well in the first post. I am pretty sure I want to at least start toward mining in dangerous space. The idea of resource gathering in places people don't normally do it interests me. I'm sure I'll run across other activities that strike my fancy as time goes on though. The mechanics behind scanning and exploration I just did for the exploration agent seem interesting as well.

My biggest problem is money, I has none. Or at least I don't think I have enough to recover if I go out and loose the few ships that I was given by the tutorials.

I think I understand the sandbox idea. I came to the game knowing that I could do “anything I choose” in time. What I kinda expected though was to have a few paths I could follow for essentials like paying the bills so that I could look for or do whatever really interested me. I think the tutorial guys were pretty good. It just feels like I was kinda left out in the cold once they finished showing me how to fly a few ships.



I realize in EVE one of the draws is “being the bad guy”. I had to look up what awoxing is, but I am pretty sure I would feel too guilty for ruining someone else's day if I joined a corporation just to steel stuff or blow up allies' ships just because. I also am already a bit worried about trusting a corporation which makes me hesitant to even look into joining one just yet. Not sure I want to became one of the reasons why I've been told repeatedly so far to “trust no one”. I do appreciate the suggestion though. It has definitely given me something to think about.

After the tutorial missions, you should start the Sister's of Eve Epic Arc. It's a 50-mission arc that will give you some good starting ISK, teach you some basic combat skills, and boost your faction with your given empire, which will give you faster access to good missions.

I would recommend it even if you are interested in mining, as even miners need some basic defensive skills.

Oops, just saw Tau already recommended it. Sorry, Tau. H/T

This is good advice.

My attitude toward newbies is that they have nothing to steal (yet) and will be the future of EVE. Look after them, help them learn, and fatten them up for future slaughter... :)

As for feeling a moral aversion toward betraying people - let me ask, do you feel the same if you set a cunning trap in chess and destroy the board state your opponent worked hard to create? Do you feel bad about knifing someone in the back in Diplomacy? Or beating your (RL) friend in a poker hand? Of course not. Bring the same attitude to EVE - in game everyone is a rival at best and an enemy at worst, including any EVE players you know IRL.

On trust, it is one of the most valuable commodities in Eve, by all means trust people, as long as they're in range; and never with your stuff.

As others have said, the only endgame in Eve is the one that you set yourself.

Your motivation to steal from corporation could be the fact that if they gave you this opportunity they will give it to somebody else as well and in your interest is to get stuff for yourself before that other person do the same :)

That doesn't mean you have to be a complete douche about it, keep it classy. Most hilarious thing to see is how those who only want to do something in peace and they don't mean anybody any harm starting to spew racist slurs and threats of RL violence when you catch them with their pants down. Don't be like them, strong silent type like Tony Soprano not barking chihuahua should be your role model :)

Using a venture (a cheap ship) you can explore lower security space pretty easy. just be quick on your warps. watch your overview a lot and find a nice quiet area of low sec and start mining some other rocks. Then enjoy the challenge of getting back to high sec to reprocess it and sell it / use it to build better things for yourself.

Give yourself time to explore, maybe chat to some of the locals in the low sec pockets you might be surprised to hear that they might want you to join them.

With eve being such a sandbox anything is possible.

a couple points of advice.

1. make sure your clone is update and covers your skill points.
2. don't worry too much about losing your ship - in eve it happens, just grab a new one. a Venture will cost you around 350K isk (approx.)
3. private convo other people and ask them questions if your not sure. I find about 90%+ people in eve want you to stay and play so most are pretty helpful. just keep your wits about you in case you feel your being lead into a trap.
4. lastly if a deal sounds too good it normally is. but a lot of newish players get giving lots of free stuff from other players to help them get started.

I hope this helps you out and good luck
Tradari

Both Sabriz and Tau are worth listening to.
Personally as trust is so valuable in eve i have chosen not to betray or steal but i fully support people that do those things from the people that trust unwisely.
Before you join a corp dabble in exploration , wormholes , and any other pve that appeals (mining sucks btw)
If you really want to mine in dangerous space then don't even think of low sec you will just die over and over in a mining ship.
To mine dangerous space you need to join a nullsec renter group. Those guys mine all day long and have scouts out to spot people like me coming so you can all hide until the bad man has gone.
Honestly though don't mine it is even more dull then missions.
Sabriz makes isk from cons, theft, dodgy courier contracts, reverse awoxing and manufacturing.
Tau is a manufacturer.
I am a nullsec PVP player and make isk from manufacturing (via an alt).
You will note a common thread from 3 people with very different playstyles. We make afk isk via maufacturing and use it to fund the things in eve we find fun. (not sure what Tau does with his isk although he spends enough that he has a loan active atm).
The bottom line is find a passive isk income (manufacturing /PI/trading) or an active one you find fun (exploration in low/null or faction warfare or wormhole farming) and then spend your time in game doing something you find fun (suicide ganking/ war deccing miners/ awoxing/ theft/ low sec piracy/ null sec conquest/ null/low small/medium scale pvp).
Eve is not a themepark MMO (you move through towards an endgoal and everyone gets there if they put the time in)
It is a sandbox (you use the tools created by CCP to define your own goals and may or may not achieve them).

My alliance decided to take Sov from a large coalition about 6 months ago. They are many many times our size, have a lot more isk and many caps/ supercaps. It is a seemingly hopeless task but we enjoy undermining their morale, making their space uninhabitalbe and when we can engaging their larger fleets with superior tactics and killing them. Personally i hope we don't succeed for a long long time or even not at all because i have no idea what we would do with it once taken. This story is only told to give you an idea of what people do in the sandbox. It isn't a playstyle that suits everyone but it is why we play.

The reason Sabriz points to awoxing and theft is that it is another popular and legitimate playstyle that has nothing to do with missions /mining. Grinding isk through mining/missions is the punishment for losing more ships than you could afford to replace and is why eve pvp is such a thrill as the losses are real need work to replace.

If you have real life money then buy a plex, sell it in Jita (don't transport it. redeem it whilst docked there) and then you won't need to worry about isk for a long while (assuming cheap ships).