EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello,

I just started playing Eve a few weeks ago , I really enjoy the game.
I was wondering if it is possible to play without buying anything from the market except for skills and blueprints from NPCs ?
I am asking because I would really like to feel the progress while I am playing , I am not sure if this is weird or not or if anyone else is using this play style , so please tell me if you have any suggestions or if playing the game like this is a bad idea

Feel... what progress, exactly? We had one of these threads a few weeks ago. It was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now.

Can you please link the thread ?

EVE is a network of players who progress mutually. The guy churning out battleships is fitting a newer player for his first L4. Yes, you can in theory get just as far on your own but it might not be as fulfilling of a playstyle as you might think.

He'd have to buy a BPO, because normal ship BPCs are only sold by players.

It is possible yes, and even in the starter missions, you get a free mining ship, the venture and the mining frigate skill book. So you don't need to sit there and mine all day in a noob ship. You can make money from killing rats depending on where you are. But it will be pretty hard to do tbh without buying stuff from the market. If you stay in high-sec then you are missing on core/high-end minerals to build things that you will eventually need. You could also reprocess mods you get from drops in missions and sites to get those high-end minerals, but after the indy patch goes into effect, that will be a bit harder to do. One of the things that I spent a bit on was selling excess minerals to buy the higher end minerals to make stuff.

Eve is what you make of it, and it's one of the wonderful things about this game, if you want the challenge, go for it and see how long you can go without using the market, but it is indeed very possible to go though and not buy anything but the skill books and BP's from the market.

I've thought about doing this in the future in FW lowsec. Once you have built up a nice library of BPO's and skills and can fly a mining barge, then go ahead. I would be able to survive in low sec doing solo PvP for fun, then mine for minerals to build my stuff along with modules from rat drops. Do a lot of people like this? Not really, but it is possible for someone a little more setup in the game to do.

There is a corp that lives this way (Pioneers?). Last I heard they were disbanding, because it just doesn't make for good longterm gameplay.

There are other services that you can still only get from NPCs or the GUI at the cost of some ISK, like clone upgrades or equipment repairs (although some modules can cover that if you're undocked, apparently) - stuff like that isn't likely to be possible through players anytime soon. Some ratting and/or missions tend to cover that sort of expense though.

Speaking of expenses, maybe you already know this, but it was handy early on for me: only NPCs get to keep items like skillbooks for sale for over 300 days, usually at fixed amounts like 555.
An alternative way to get some skillbooks (other than career missions) is through loyalty points for NPC corps - these usually seem to have only 1 to 3 books out of all of their possible offers (which can cover other handy things like implants, modules and ships), that may be common to a few different NPC corps - you can access most if not all items in the game here, and for those which can be acquired through LPs you can check wich NPC corps provide them in their respective pages: http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/market.php

There's a way to "buy" items without doing so directly with ISK - item exchange contracts, although apparently there's still an ISK fee for the transaction.
It's not an option people use often, but if you really want something, you can always get PLEX and use it to trade for a number of different things at once - not a market I've dabbled in, but by reputation alone I'd expect it to be in demand, and since travelling with PLEX is considered unsafe, while typical Jita prices may be a rough guideline to figure out what you can trade it for, if you do it from somewhere distant enough from hubs like that maybe you can get a decent deal on your own terms?

Building your own stuff to use can be extra encouragement to stick to cheaper, smaller ships - if you intend to fit them with rat drops, ISIS may help you figure out which of the lower-end ship would make better use of those, and plan your skill training (I'm working on my rookie ship masteries myself, I'll always have one of those, and that can be handy for many others) and blueprint acquisitions accordingly.

On this topic, something had crossed my mind: trying to focus on ammo-less weapons, which would narrow things down to energy weapons and drones - but I still need to research this topic a bit more to figure out how to optimize their use... likely Amarr ships or related, possibly with some capacitor-optimizing tech...

The option to offer your services for items is also possible, in my experience, even if it's an uncommon one. Getting hired to help out with some task in exchange for the equipment to perform that task sounds like a reasonable enough way to try and play the game, if there's enough trust between the interested parties to pull it off.


I researched a bit about the pioneer corp that was mentioned in this topic New Eden Pioneers - checked it last night in-game and it's disbanding, but it apparently also advertised itself on Reddit as trying to put together a self-sufficient low-sec empire, which might be a bit too ambitious for a play style that's still uncommon.
It can be sustainable on an individual level, especially within a supportive corp (some corps are known to provide their new players with ships and skill books, which can help) - even if that doesn't subscribe to the same philosophy - but it would probably need to be more common as a play style to allow people to think big with it.

@OP : You can do what you are talking about but it can be a real challenge if you want it to be. Reprocess item drops from missions to get the more rare ores. Mine the basic ores you will need or set up buy orders in the market tab and pay others to do the work for you. It would be an interesting way to play, But it would also be the most frustrating way to play.

Personally I set up buy orders on items that give me maximum return on the resources I am looking for (ie..Can't mine for it in high or low sec). As for mining for you own minerals you can always use a destroyer with multi mining lasers/cpu upgrades to go jet can mining. Use an Indy to pick up the Jet can after half an hour or so. This carries the risk of someone flying up and stealing your ore of course. Then again this is EvE, No risk no reward. The longer you play and the better you get at whatever it is you do in this game it becomes more easy or it could become a routine that slowly feels like a chore. Just don't let it bog you down and try to enjoy the little things.