EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I have a question. Could some one please explain to me what the meta lvl really means to the new player. I have look at many items and the stats are almost exactly the same except the price and the meta lvl. Some time the power or cpu is less or more but not by much. Example steip miner I. Has cycle rate of 180s and mini ng amonut of 540m3. Meta lvl 0. Strip miner II is 180s, 360m3 plus needs crystals meta lvl 5. Is the T2 strip miner better? By the numbers it lookS like no its not, but I don't know jack. Please explain in simple terms.

Thanks for the keeping with the strip miner example. I was talking with my coworked about the diffrences. But as he is just as new as iam we where lost. But could you be more specific as the higher meta lvl is better. Can it be quantified? Thw strip miner is a good ezample but say a MWD. Sam thrust power need and cpu needs most of the time. Somw time only diffrence is the multipler and that's not much sometimes. Or should I look at it like a formula one car. They are fast super high tech but very ex pensive beacuse of the matrials. But there are going afyer even the smallest gain in performance.

When looking at T1 versions (meta levels 0 to 4) you'll find things generally becoming easier to fit (lower CPU and Powergrid), and possibly more effective.

A gun might have a better damage multiplier, or a resistance module have a better modifer.

T2 (meta 5) will often be worse for fitting, with a similar modifier to the Meta 4 version. But they come from players, at a consistent rate, which generally leads to better prices, rather than the NPC drops for the meta modules.

The compare tool, as Salpun mentioned, is very useful. It's on the variations page of a module's show info.

I think what's going on here is that iam making this more complicated than it is. I understand a lot more now. Sometimes the little advantage is what's that's needes for some.

I would recommend looking into EFT. It is a program that you can download and test your ship builds offline. It will let you set the level of skills the character flying the ship has, so you can make sure "you" can fly the build (not just a perfectly skilled pilot). I am unsure if EFT is used for mining ships per the specific example above, miners comment here?

In general you will find that higher level meta modules are easier to fit (require less power grid / cpu) and have a higher benefit (whatever the module is suppose to be doing) than lower level meta modules. That being said, it is not always the case. It pays to do a quick scan of what is on the market in Jita (or ideally use EFT) and find the best module you can fit (skill or power grid / cpu space wise) on your ship. Make sense?

Copy/pasting an recent post on this topic:

Tech 1 and Tech 2 modules are created by players. There are other mods called "meta" modules or "named" modules which are dropped by npcs and can't be made by players. If you click the "attributes" tab in the info window you can see the "meta number" which gives you a rough idea how effective the module is.

Here is the order:

-Tech 1 (Meta 0)
-Meta 1
-Meta 2
-Meta 3
-Meta 4
-Tech 2 (Meta 5)
-Storyline, Faction, Deadspace, Officer (meta 6 - 14)

For a new player, fitting "meta" mods is very useful. The Meta 1-4 modules only require the skills of the tech 1 variant, but give better performance. Sometimes the meta 4 version is actually slightly better than tech 2. In most cases, the meta modules are also easier to fit with respect to CPU and powergrid so they are sometimes used by players than can use tech 2 variants but have tight fitting requirements.

If you aren't sure which module to buy, select any of them and show info. Then go to the variations tab and click compare to compare the statistics of each. Sort by meta number and first look at the attribute you are interested in (HP for a shield extender for example). Then compare the CPU and powergrid needs and choose the one that best suits your needs.

It's a "Shiney" rating .. the bigger the number, the "Shinier" the item.
It's no different to WoW's I-Levels (sorry wow haters).
You can think of it as a form of item/material quality like you get in other MMO's or RPG's etc

If you look at projectile materials over time within our own history you get something like the following
flint (ML0), copper, bronze, iron, steel, tungsten alloys, depleted uranium (ML11)


a Meta-Level 1 Gun does exactly the same thing as a Meta-Level 11 gun
Range or DPS may be slightly different
Skill & Fitting Requirements may be slightly different
Cost to Purchase will be significantly different (usually)