EVE New Citizens Q&A

I hear people telling me to train the core skills right away. I did the tutorial and couldn't find mention of this.
From researching some things, I decided to train these up to V my first week.

Gunnery
Science to IV at least, so I can train Thermodynamics to V
CPU Management
Power Grid Management

I'm still trying to figure out which weapons to use. Hybrids, Projectiles, etc. I see Projectiles don't need Cap, and you can switch out ammo types. This seems to be the way I'm leaning.

Does this seem a good skill plan so far?

Newbie Skill Plan 2.2: Kronos Edition to the rescue!

EDIT:

While all of the skills you suggested are good to get to 5, it's far more 'bang for your buck' to get a wide range of skills to 3, then 4 and only take the skills that are prereqs for another to 5.

At level 4, you are about 80% as effective as someone at 5 for 20% of the time investment. It's far better to get a wide range of 4s first, THEN specialize to 5, when you 'need' it. Worry about 5s after getting a feel for all the things you can do.

QFT

THIS ^^ really.

I would add also don't be scared to break a skill plan to train something you want to try out. A few hours or days to try something else out is fine. You may really like it...

Good point. The plan above is a starting point. The main thing to take away from it is how to approach the skill system. Don't follow it to the letter 'just because'.

Oh one last thing. Definitely get those fitting skills up to at least 4, including Weapon Upgrades, soon. It'll open up a lot of options for you, far more than getting an extra 5% damage on your guns or whatever. Those should be a priority.

Don't neglect your navigation skills. Speed is life.

I manufacture my own cap boosters, as they are so huge it is no fun hauling them. It is a lot easier to haul the BPO and materials around, as they have less volume. Of course, this requires minimal skill: Industry 1.

I've also been known to manufacture shuttles, rigs, and ammo for myself.

Having some manufacturing skill is only a waste if you don't enjoy manufacturing

By core skills most "informed" people usually mean:

Power Grid Management V
CPU Management V
Weapon Upgrades V (level IV unlocks tech2 damage modifiers low slots modules)
Advanced Weapon Upgrades IV
Science IV(unlocks Thermodynamics)
Thermodynamics III

*Hull Upgrades IV (unlocks the low slot module Damage Control II)

If you're interested in pvp, any kind of it: solo,small gang, gang, fleet or blob, you'll never regret training these as soon as possible to the levels I mentioned. The reason is quite simple, you'll not going to have your fits compromised due to power and/or cpu issues, you'll going to be able to use overheating and the life saver *DCII.

Now, here is where things start to get separated depending on what type of pvp you want to engage in. The separation is not so much in what skills to train but rather what levels you'll need in order to be "bad-ass". Fleet pvp is not as demanding(unless we're talking T2 ships doctrine) skill points wise as solo pvp is.

Anyway, just take a look at the remaining skills in the Engineering, Navigation, Shield, Armor, Rigging categories and use your best judgement to decide the levels. As a general rule, try to get as many skills that work well together towards the effectiveness of the hull(s) you want to fly to III then IV (don't go straight to V unless you need it to unlock some other skill - with the exception of the skills I mentioned earlier, is not worth the time investment).

Another type of support skills are the ones associated with the weapon systems. Drones, Missiles, Turrets, EWar all have their own support skills. However, those are not the ones that usually people call core support skills.

In the first 2 weeks, you don't need ANYTHING trained to V. Training one skill from IV -> V takes a week or more, so you'll get two of those skills to V in two weeks, max, and the rest will sit there at their defaults that whole time. Bad plan.

I'm not saying the above advice to get things to V is bad, it's simply bad advice for your first two weeks.

You get far more bang bang for your training time by getting a bunch of PvP related skills to III.

There's a lot of combat related certificates (gunnery, missiles, drones, shields, etc.). Look for the skills to get them to level 1 to start out.

Once you understand the skills system better and have some PvP experience, you'll have a better idea of what you're doing with training and what it's worth investing your time in.

Also, let me suggest Propulsion Jamming III. You can pretty quickly be a tackler for a PvP gang with that.

This is why I don't expect to win many engagements right now. The people have the skills trained up. They can sustain hits longer, and overheat guns to chew me up. So many little things like overheating and bonuses that I'm still working towards.