EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi,

I've re-subbed after years of on-off play. I have 12m sp mostly focused around PVE, but have recently realised that treating LVL4 missions as endgame is the path to boredom and un-subbing again. I've dabbled in exploration, and had some decent success, but I now plan to use that to explore PVP.

I've never really done it before, and only ever destroyed one player ship way back in 2010 I think. I've read the blogs and all the guides etc, so I know the basic t1 frig 'explode until you learn' doctrine. The kind of pvp I had in mind was low-sec frig stuff, suicide ganking for lols, missioner/explorer baiting etc.

My question is, should I make a pirate alt?

I have a sec status of 2 atm, and I know that any amount of high-sec piracy is soon going to degrade that, and I'm not in a position currently to move into null. I understand, I think, that by baiting people into aggro I can kill them without punishment, so maybe I'm best doing that?

Do most people pirate/pvp on their mains, and if so how do they get around the big hits in security status? Or do people pvp as a main and then use trader/hauler alts for practicality?

Thanks!

different people do it different ways, but in my experience, the ones that make it successful usually separate the pvp endeavures from isk making, different character, different set of hulls etc.

One skilled char can be perfectly fine. As mentioned, buy tags to boost your sec status above -2 from time to time. Though the killrights from ganking or killing pods in lowsec will restrict your ability to mission in highsec and flying incursions. For income you can do nullsec exploration. If you get bored from solo, visit the NPSI channels like Spectre Fleet or Bombers Bar. This is what I do.

Pvp alts are a slippery slope. You make an alt cause you want to do pvp. Then you decide you need a scout for that pvp-alt so you make a scout alt. Then you decide that you need reps/logi/falcon, so you make a reps/logi/falcon alt. Then you discover that everyone has a booster alt so you need one too. Then you advance into blops and caps so you need a cyno alt. Finally you reach end game and place your toon into a titan or sc only to discover that you cant dock the thing so your toon is stuck in space in your sc or titan meaning that you need a new main pvp alt.

As a general rule, pvp alts are a force multiplier that everyone has. As you get them, you become dependent on them and you need more. In truth, just about every toon you see in space is an alt and there are really only a handful of unique players - probably just five guys in their parents garage some where.

... but the first statement has a truth, once you start playing with multiple accounts you IMO break the immersion of the sandbox and everything becomes meta and a lot less meaningful.

I use my main for PvP. This way, if I **** someone off, I can blow them up.

My alt character is mainly used for PvE, Industry, and hauling activities... mainly because each of those activities only requires a certain number of skillpoints and nothing more.

i use both my main and alt for pvp so i would say yes

my PvP alt became my main for the most part

Thanks for the replies everyone, plenty to think about.

I hadn't considered trying FW, looks (from a read of the E-Uni page) like a feasible way to dip my toe into pvp without the standing loss. Security tags also seems a pretty decent way to stop myself dropping too low.

I know that people often do use alts for all sorts of things, and I'm not averse to throwing a week or so's skills at hauling or whatever I need. I guess it makes sense at the moment to pvp with the skills I have already, as I'm already able to t2 fit all frigs. I'll see how it goes!

Thanks!

If your source of ISK is nullsec ratting, or running missions in lowsec, you'll be grinding your security status up every time you kill a pirate NPC. So that sort of offsets the security hits you're taking in piracy. At least it doesn't hurt. If you're a really nasty lowsec pirate, you could take a sabattical in nullsec to get your security status back up.

Sec status doesn't go below -10.0, so it's not possible to dig yourself into an infinitely deep hole.