EVE New Citizens Q&A

There's no good reason to run missions in lowsec, especially not L2 and 3. The rewards are little better and it's just not worth it. Stick to highsec missions. If you insist on taking lowsec missions, then learn d-scan and gtfo when ANYTHING shows up. A PVP-fit frigate will shred a PVE-fit battleship. But seriously lowsec missions aren't worth it.

That said, missions aren't obligatory. Exploration gets ISK. If you're into PVP then factional warfare lets you shoot people and get paid for it. Trading. Ransoming other players, etc

If you want to PVP, get out and do it! Frigates to start (they're cheap when they go boom, and they will). Bigger is not better, far from it, it's just a more expensive loss.
Join a player corp that's into PVP, you can learn from them far, far more than you'll ever learn from the NPC corp you're in. Brave Newbies comes to mind, or apply to EVE University for more structured learning (the Brave guys are crazy, but have a load of fun being so)

EVE is perfectly playable for brand new players and there's 0 expectation that someone's going to be playing L2 missions for 2 years, no way.

Edit: With the recent influx of new players, there's probably a much higher ratio of new:old now, and it's not 1% new players. Lots of new people around.

In general, PVP is a group activity. If you really want to give it a try, then your best option is to find a PVP corp.

Yes, there are solo PVPers, but in general they are very experienced and spend most of their time flying around trying to find a vulnerable target. Solo is advanced PVP.

For starter PVP, group up with other PVPers.

No they don't. I ran L3s for SoE for a while and they definitely give you highsec and lowsec missions. Either decline the lowsec missions, or if you don't like doing that, move to an agent that's in a constellation that doesn't have lowsec systems.

Now the only highsec L3 SoE security agent is 2 jumps from lowsec, so if you don't like the lowsec offers, switch corp, run missions for someone else. There are lots of corps, lots of agents.



Warp scrams are short-range (~9km unless bonused). Get out of range. Better, don't get caught in the first place. see previous comment about d-scan and gtfo. A PVE-fit ship will die to a PVP-fit one, hence the rule is not to get caught.

You need never go into low sec running missions levels 1 to 4. That is a ridiculous statement.

At times you need to do things you dont particularly like to enable yourself to do the stuff you do like, im like yourself i not going to live of handouts etc, so i did mining, made over a billion in isk in first couple of weeks playing, that allowed me leeway to do what i wanted, lost the billion and well went an mined again, not aslong this time as the skills had went up so mining went faster.

Anyhow you get the picture and it a longer route to my goal of what i want to do cause i split my skills between things that can earn me isk an things i actually wanted to learn to have fun but as i said sometimes u just need to nuckle down an do that bad to get the good

BRAVE is known for throwing small ships at everything.

Red Federation and Blue Republic (Red vs. Blue, or RvB) typically don't use anything bigger than a cruiser; small ships are the order of the day, and they've destroyed more than anyone else in EVE.

TEST apparently has a TEST_FREE hangar for small ships.

Karma Fleet, the Goon version of BRAVE, is also rookie friendly.

Goonswarm is famous for their "Every Rifter Counts" motto.

The newest ships added to EVE are two destroyers.

...

There are plenty of opportunities for a new pilot in EVE.

" I think I can say I gave this game a reasonable chance considering that I am by myself so what I can try is limited. But hey, its normal I just joined the game."

As always, the length of how much you play a game often has little to no relevance to how much you've experienced or learned.

"Notice, I said my Vexor "was" my bread and butter ship? As I was struggling to complete L3 missions in my Vexor, another ship (T3 Cruiser, very cool looking) entered the 0.3 zone, warped near me and vaporized my biggest asset in a matter of minutes while my 5 Hammerheads and my 4 guns did not even scratch his shields. He didn't even bothered to loot my wreck (what did he get from this?). So now I am back to my Destroyer, barely able to do L2 missions, which I must cherry pick. "

This probably was completely avoidable, especially as you're in k-space. You have local to ring warning bells, being in a mission pocket itself requires the other player to use combat scanners to even find you.

Basically using one of the very simple tools in the game (which you ironically even made a forum post about) would have saved you with plenty of time to spare.

"What I get from my month old experience, is that Low Sec (and probably Null Sec) is off limit for new unsupported players. I don't care what people say, if you are going through the game without any support from well funded friends, you cannot affort to lose your ships and therefore the risk of low sec is way too high. How many L1 mission do you need to run to afford a Cruiser to do L2 reliably?"

It's most definitely not off limits, you just need to understand a few things in order to live there safely. Solo pvping in something you built for missioning will get you killed no matter how long you've been playing this game, its happened to me before.

And you mention unsupported, i notice that even after this month you are still in an NPC corp. The best and largest part of this game involves it's players. I feel it's unfair that you've said that you gave this game a good chance when you've basically missed out on half of the game.

"In a way, it makes sense. In every game you need to earn you passage rights to higher end content. If I dare to compare with WoW, you would not send a lvl 20 character in the end zones...period."

Except that eve is nothing like that, you can bring a new character into "end zones" and they will still have a purpose. In wow if you bring a level 20 into max level zone you will not even have a tiny chance to fight anything. Game mechanics physically prevent you from even scratching monsters even a few levels higher than you.

In EVE that's not the case, you can apply damage or warp scramble or use ewar as long as you have the skills and the will t do it.

"The problem is that Eve is not built this way. If you want to be a mission runner, you will be exposed to low sec for L2 and L3 missions pretty fast. "

No? Clearly you've assumed this and never thought that it could be an different. There are plenty of locations to do any level mission far far away from low security space.

"If you want to be an explorer, you have to get into low sec for a decent chance of finding anything (I tried High Sec exploration many evenings and its not profitable. Mining Veldspar is far more profitable, which says a lot). If you want to hunt higher paying Rats, you again need to hit Low Sec. And even as a Hauler, if you stick to high sec, your profit is negligible and boring (almost comparable to mining)."

The game is based around risk vs reward, how can you expect to get god rewards when you're taking no risks? Exploration is all about luck with a range of loot available, better chances of better loot the riskier you go. Makes complete sense.

"So, what is the plan for new players? Stick to high sec and do L1/L2 missions for two years to build enough assets to afford the loss of decent ships so you can venture in Low Sec? Very very boring...And please don't say that eveyone went through that because its likely false. When people started 5 to 10 years ago, the divergence between new and old players was likely much smaller. Now, new players are likely less then 1% of the total population and the old players are exponentially more resourceful (ISK and Skills). For an established player, losing a T3 Cruiser is probbaly much much less of an impact then me losing my Vexor. I am now taking a very significant step back...essentially losing weeks of gaming."

I can't say it an differently: you're doing it wrong. Nobody grinded level 1/2 missions for years. I guess most of this is stemming from the fact you are under the impression level 3 missions can only be done in low sec, but did you ever stop to think about it? Maybe ask if there were other options?

"In addition, I personally prefer to work for what I get so having a "sugar daddy" corporation funding my wrecks goes against the principle of playing a game. Its like using a cheat code. I want to discover the content myself (or while playing with others of the same level), not having the content handed to me. What is the point of flying a T3 ship if all you had to do is train skills off-line and have some friends giving the ship to you? That T3 ship really has value when you worked to get it. But from my limited experience, this is not really a possibility as Low Sec/Null sec will be off limit for the longest time and I will get bored doing L1/L2 missions way before I manage to get anything valuable. "

If you want to play with others of the "same level" then go join a new player corporation. You don't HAVE to use the ship replacement program in BNI or EVE Uni, but at least you will be surrounded by people at your "level" and also have veterans to help you along the way as well. You're also looking at ships in the wrong way.

Ships are ammunition, tools for a job.

You have the wrong idea about playing with others.

New players that get involved in active corporations aren't doing it for the "sugar daddies". Sure that happens, but there are plenty of players like you that want to earn what they have. What corporations DO provide is friendship, teamwork, experience, intelligence, and opportunities.

-Playing with friends is always more fun

-You can accomplish things in teams that you would never be able to do on your own. You could run level 2 missions for 3 years while training for a maximum skilled t3. If you take it to lowsec, you'll be greeted by three t3s that will kill you just as fast as your Vexor. There is no substitute for teamwork in EVE.

-Veterans can teach you all kinds of ways to protect yourself so they don't even need to fund your losses, as they won't happen in the first place. You are exactly right that veterans have the advantage because of their years of experience. New players can also take advantage of this experience by teaming up with older players!

-Corporations provide an excellent framework for passing intel to keep members safe. It is much much easier to do PVE when you have friendlies nearby to protect from or warn you about threats. Null sec is one of the safest places to PVE these days due to the large blocs and excellent intel channels.

-Playing solo can be fun, but joining a group is guaranteed to open up opportunities for you. Especially for a pilot with an interest in PvP, you can take part in (and make a big impact on!) fights that you could never take solo. All you need is a frigate with a warp disruptor and you are already useful to a fleet. There are plenty of other low-skill options (ie. blackbird, t1 logi) to pick from as well.

And don't forget, there are many other speed bumps out there to pick fights with, and much of successful combat is picking your fights carefully. EVE can feel overwhelming at first - especially the first few times you visit hostile space. But as you learn to be more aware of your surroundings (dscan) and get more comfortable with combat (practice) you will start to enjoy the rush. Eventually you will find you can operate mostly solo if that is what you prefer. No, you don't need a sugar daddy. Yes, you need a daddy. Someone needs to teach you how to walk, talk, and use the big-boy toilet.

It is not "cheating" if an older player gives you a stack of frigates and says, "go kill something and learn." That is someone merely giving you a helping hand by supplying you with a resource/tool worth pennies to him/her.

And FYI... rare is it that veterans give "sexy ships" to newbies. They are generally NOT newbie friendly nor cost effective unless you know damn well what you are doing.



With regards to missions... you seem to be running agents that are bordering low-sec. Move to another agent (fiddle with your map filters or use the website EVE Survival).
There is no good reason to be running level 2 or 3 missions in low or null-sdc unless it is for Faction Warfare or a Pirate faction.


As for skills and the gap between older and newer players... this is more of a perception, bordering on myth... especially with regards to the skill system (someone dig up my skillpoint speil... I am on my cellphone and can't do it myself).

I completely disagree with what you are saying. New players can pvp effectively in eve without support from older players. Of course it helps to have mentors that will show you the ropes, but you do not need them to give you isk to feed your pvp habit. The trick to eve pvp is target selection. When you start out, look for softer targets, e.g. indies, mining barges, etc. . . . If you are in a desy, go to fw areas and shoot t1 frigs. As for how to make isk, well you dont need to do missions. In fact, I almost never missioned when i started out. Instead, I did exploration and especially the ded exploration sites (I did the ded IVs in a drake and would regularly get 50-100mil drops). The isk that you get from exploration combat sites is more then enough to support a new player's pvp habit.