EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi,

I am a new player (2.5mln SP). Eve has been in many places much more what I have expected. I am writing this post to help improve New Player Experience. I am staying with Eve, it is a great educative sandbox.

First, Eve is a harsh and cold place. Simple, no argument here ;). My complaints is not about it being harsh. Harsh is fine.

Second, there are plenty of grievers and bored players looking to hurt new players. There are plenty of options this can be achieved and it is easy to jump to conclusions that you may have hard time finding cool people to play with.

Third, the fact that corporate mates can kill you in high-sec without concord response restrict people willingness to join corporation.

Now, how many people decide not to join any corp because of point 1, 2, and 3? Trust is something that is earned. However, maybe a person will not trust others before a person gets bored and decides to quit.

Suggestion : Can we get some extra insurance when joining new corp? A corp can guarantee to new player that if corp mate kills a new corp mate then the corporation pays out all the costs of ship and ship fitting (sell orders on Jita). A corporation may choose to provide such guarantees to new corp members.

What are the activities a new player can do? Activities that actually are an efficient manner of earning ISKs.

1) First, mining. A very simple activity. A good way to earn first ISK. However, a very boring part of the game. It is good for afk activity. Can we have missions which explicitly requires a team of a miner and PVE need to team up to be able to finish a mission?

2) Missioning - Security missions, decent experience, learning through troubles with missions how to fight. An invaluable experience but ISK for lvl 1 and lvl 2 missions is just terrible. Often feels too much of the grind. Lvl 3 missions gets a bit more fun. Looking forward to mission lvl 4 but I need probably skill like for 1-2 months before I can fit BS for lvl 4 missions. Enjoyable. I have still plenty of things to learn.

3) Industrial activity - the margins are rather razy thin (competition is tough and requires a lot of time (for new players) to be able to get material efficiency to lvl 5, etc). Ore refining can not be done *efficiently* by a new player so need to pay the efficiency hit (bad idea due to low margins). Later, how to transport the things that are produced safely? Ore refining inefficiency, lack of blueprint research free slots, lack of skills to do invention, lack of skills to haul to market hub, ... . All those makes it rather challenging for a new player to produce things. Of course, it is useful to produce your own ammunition ;). Moreover, I have an impression that everything above Cruiser is used as a means of transporting Ore to Market hub. If the change of refining efficiency is put in place then people will be even more building ships in low sec and transporting them through worm holes into high sec for selling. My guess this will make initial industrialist life even harder. It is an interesting activity but not for a newbie without skills. Seeing ships exploding again and again in Jita it does not feel safe to buy blueprint above 50mln ISK as you may not survive leaving Jita ;).

4) PVP, I am sorry but PVP activity is at the beginning an ISK sink. Being a hired tackler to catch people off guard and benefit from somebody misfortune is not for me. I will try faction warfare eventually when each person knows what he/she is facing. I am not a carebear but picking up on easy victims is not fun for me. Sometimes, Eve feels like a game where many bullies find their sweet spot ;).

5) Hauling? Ore in Miasmos? Not the way to make money. In Iteron moving items to be ganked? It does not look like an interesting activity for newbie player without skills to fly freighter.

6) Trading, not a good idea until you get a very good understanding of it. Moreover, the amount of scammers who are wasting their time trying to rip off newbies/stupid players is just sad. I guess it works enough often. It is a great place to quickly block all the scammers ;). Again, the fees and lack of skills make it difficult too. Moreover, as a new player playing 0.01 ISK game in Jita with 100mln ISK is just not worth it ;).

I am still learning Eve. It is a very cool game because I am hardcore strategy gamer and I like the challenge. I will probably check the exploration soon, while waiting until I have skills for LVL 4 missions.

My few cents. I go back to my afk mining barge.

best,
LastGold

Hi and welcome!

An interesting look at things from a new player's perspective, one of the better NPE I've read. The thing that sruck me most is the paranoia about being suicide ganked, scammed or killed by other players. This does happen, quite a lot some times like burn jita or hulkaggeddon events. But imo it's a bit like hitchhiking. Everyone's got a horror story, and there are certain prrecautions you should take. But really, the danger is greatly exagerated. True if you go into a pvp 'zone' like null or lowsec, you're going to get killed but during peacetime in highsec you're relatively safe. Perhaps one day you're going to get ganked (if you havn't been already) but the horror is short-lived. In eve you're immortal for a reason. Admittedly the concept of actual loss when you get killed (along with the ease with which you can be killed) is a little daunting but it serves to make the pvp a rush, which you just don't get in any other game.
Also regarding your comment about pvp being the ultimate isk-sink, you're right of course. But how boring would the game be if people just farmed all the time? What would be the point in that? Conflict is always expensive, and in war it's rare for anyone to walk away richer. I never understood those people who only farm for years at a time, their money being spent on better ways to aquire more wealth. What is their end game? These people usually over-invest if/when they do pvp, they count their loss in hours-to-replace and decide it's far too costly to do. Truth is, the best pvp is cheap. Especially for new players.
You mentioned you have yet to try FW. Give it a go and let us know what you think about it. Oh and one more thing. Don't worryy if you lose 30 tech1 frigates before you get a kill, it's how it goes for most people!

Best of luck!

OP, your post is very clear and informative, I hope at least a CSM member stumbles upon it.

Finding a good corp isn't easy, this recent thread on GD has some good advice.

Keep in mind that if you never fly what you can't afford to lose and keep your ISK and in-station assets to yourself, nobody will ever be able to (virtually) 'hurt' you in EVE.

If you want to try PVP without worrying too much about the ISK, Faction Warfare is a great place to start. Have a look at this.

Welcome to EVE and good luck!

Yes we do, and I'm pointing out that it's not the only form of PvP available in game. Which leads on to the following paragraph in my post regarding trade and industry, which can be both expensive and brutal when you get it wrong.

You forgot to mention exploration (including but not limited to, hacking relic/data sites, farming highsec DEDs, or acting as a scout in a wormhole group). I used to do a lot of 'wormhole business' when I started playing, essentially finding deserted systems with desirable conditions and arranging a trade with other people interested.

Also, there is ninja salvaging in certain mission hubs which can be much more profitable than people expect at first. You can also farm low sec belts which is easily done in most destroyers. Or low level PI (both production and extraction depending on where you have access to). There's also cosmos mission farming, which can be quite profitable on the right complexes.

There's quite a lot to try out when you're new, and all these will give you much more isk than the traditional mission running and mining if you do your homework. And then you can use all this money into trading to make even more later on. Don't be afraid to try new things even if they fail at first, most of the fun in this game PVE wise comes from that - creativity and trying new things.

Imagine Eve as Real Life Space in 500 years.

In space, you can do anything, only bound by the tools that you've been given.
In space, you can try anything, only bound by the physics of the space you're in.
In space, you can kill/maim/destroy anything, only bound by the laws governing that boundary of space your in.

Eve IS an amazing sandbox that allows us to do anything we want within the confines of the tools and rules they've provided.

Just in real life, you're going to get conned, you're going to be ripped off, you'll find it 'hard' to make money unless you learn a valuable skill.

Eve isn't a 'game' it's a true virtual reality. Solo players and AFK players very quickly learn the harsh realities of a world that the developers ALLOW thievery, conning, and in general "bad-apples" to run their game. It makes the environment far more dangerous and entertaining.

Just like in real life, you'll need to make contacts and get help from people that you'll need to trust at some point. Find a Corporation that is helpful to newbies. Beware of 'fees', or "Free Ships" to join. Those are typically cons. A good corp should allow you to join on trial without bilking you.

Um, this is not accurate. You can start a new player with 5 million ISK and turn that into 1 billion in about 20 days.

edit: yes to edit other posters, stop mining/missioning and move on to better activities