EVE New Citizens Q&A

Dear CCP.
You have made what I'm sure is a fine game and it has been successful, with what I gather is something like 400,000 people playing at one time or another. I really believe that this number could have been so many times more than that if you had made the game enjoyable for new players .

I have put about 10 days on and off into the game and it has just been one struggle after another. Every single gindingly painful step forward has been accompanied with hours spent out of the game reading forums and "beginner" guides to the game, scratching my head trying to work out if and when the game might become in any way intuitive. I have deliberately taken the game slow, moving through the initial tutorial and then when prompted starting the career agents. Even this stage of the game is a mess. I have an agent telling me I own a piece of equipment that I do not own. He tells me I got it from the "crash course". I have done everything they have asked of me and I certainly do not own that kit. So I hit f12. Cant see anything about a crash course. I do a search for it. It dosn't seem to be anything I can find within the game interface in any way. I eventually give up and sit and wonder if this game is ever going to be worth the effort. This is the sort of counter-intuitive mess I expect at launch, not many years into a successful MMO's lifespan. This is clearly just a small problem that I could probably sort out by asking on a forum and by searching elsewhere, but the problem is that I'm having to do that for so so much of the game. I'm finding myself in that situation every day.

There will be plenty of people that will say well - if you cant stand a complex game then get out of here and play something easy. But I do enjoy big complex games. I would consider myself a gamer. I have been playing videogames for 30 years. I own over 200 boardgames. I play multiple tabletop wargame systems and I would definitely consider myself someone who is ready to embrace big deep complex games. However - that also means that I expect a decent standard of gameplay out of a big MMO and EVE seems determined to make life as hard as possible for the player in so many unnessessary ways. I don't need the game to be simple, but I just wish it would't be so so obtuse.

Also - ten days into an MMO and I'm afraid I have experienced two views. The inside of my cabin, and the orangy dust clouds of space. I understand that a game set in space will be faced with this problem but the most exiting thing I've seen so far has been a dot in the distance that I have been shooting at. I have not yet encountered anything new, I have not yet encountered any other player other than to see a ship leave the space station and fly off. I'm pretty sure that if I was to head off somewhere for some PVP that would pretty quickly be the end of me. I can't see how I can encounter other players in any way other than in distant chat or in one-sided combat.

I'm just so gutted. I really wanted to enjoy the game. The genre is so poorly served and I really hoped that EVE would provide something satisfying. I love my games, I love my sci-fi, I have disposable income and plenty of free time and I am exactly the sort of gamer that CCP could hook into for years for a game like this. However the game conspires at every turn to frustrate and to turn what should be a game into something that is just hard hard work. As soon as I think I'm making some progress I'll inevitably be faced with a small problem that has no answers in-game and requires me to leave the game and spend an hour searching the net. That is not gaming.

So, I'm sorry CCP, I really think it's likely that you could have many more subscribers than you do if you had done things differently. Not by making the game easier - just by explaining it's complexities more effectively and by designing a UI that works. I guess I'll have to keep looking for a decent space game. X3 seems my best bet. So frustrated.

Bai! o/

Your post is really wordy for what is an incredibly simple problem.

The reason things seem weird and hard to find is that EVE tutorials are in some ways separate from the rest of the game. Instead of telling you to train up the required skills to use a normal module, sometimes they just give you a civilian module that's usable by anyone but is only useful in the tutorial. This seems to be the problem here.

Click on the button on the left sidebar that looks like a safe. This is your assets page. It shows everything you own, anywhere. Either look through different stations (right click -> view contents to see stuff inside containers or ship cargoholds) or click on search and type in the name. If it's not in the cargo of your ship or shown here, then you either lost it or never got it due to a bug.

Hit F12. "Create New Petition". I don't know where you'd put it necessarily...probably Game Play -> Assets & Items. Explain the problems and the GMs will give you whatever it is you are missing (because it's a tutorial item).




...Now, about EVE being out for years...The EVE that exists today is nothing like the EVE that existed in 2003. Everything from the interface to the graphics engine to virtually every game mechanic has been changed somehow. Expecting perfect polish on everything on the basis of age is unrealistic. I'm pretty sure these new tutorials, for example, came out with the last expansion prior to Crucible.


OH HEY, I think I found your problem.

EVE isn't a game where random strangers will band together a lot. Join a corp. there's lots of them, many of which accept new players. EVE University is an alliance that pretty much just exists to train newbies, for example. If you wanted to get into PVP then faction warfare is always available...

But EVE is not a solo game. I wouldn't play the game solo, and I have played since 2007. As a newbie, trying to play the game solo is just masochistic.

Game Play/Agent mission in progress actually. And you will most likely have to do that. This seams to be a common bug ... for years.

You are correct. Ignore me.

When I first found Eve I really liked the look of it and spent about 2 weeks plus reading everything I could on it before I even signed up for the trial. I did all the tutorials I could back then (I don't remember there being many to be honest or it being very useful at all). I then blundered around for a few weeks mining in my Ibis and then a Bantam. Bought a Merlin from lowsec (cos I didn't realise it was dangerous) and then just generally pottered around doing this and that.

Eve didn't even start to get interesting or easier in any form until I found my first corp. I hunted around and spoke to loads of recruiters and settled on one that had a nice forum that was part of a wider gaming community. They taught me everything I need to know about getting properly started in Eve (including not mining in a Badger I).

Honestly keep plugging away, join someone like Eve University and get a very new player friendly corp to help you get over the major hurdles that are in Eve that block the path of a new player. Its totally worth it...I've tried quitting and finding a new game but I just cant do it, nothing offers what Eve does. This game is not designed to be easy, its designed to be a dark, cold and difficult and that's exactly what makes it awesome!

i would say just give it more time.

eve is hard but isn t that all the fun? you have learn things to get to know the game. there are so many things to do.

I am a new player and I am having a hard time to get around this game. but I am learning slowly. You here people talking about billions while you seems to get peanots for hard work. you fly ships that seems to fall apart if you would blow at it. but before you know it you ll be allready flying in a cruiser or other better ships.


Tutorials are quite good to learn the basics of the game. Not enough info? use the newbie channel for your questions. people are asking all the time things and you will learn alot reading it. also community is very helpfull. whenever I needed help on a mission and asked for it, it did not take long before someone would join in and help me out.

It is normal you see most people at space stations and gates. you can warp to distant locations so you don t see anyone on the way to your target.

some stations seems deserted with an occasional visitor other stations seems to spit out ships.

I would say ask for help, join with other players in fleets, join a corp, upgrade your skills ( use the certifications to help you choose the skills that you want to work towards )

Sometime ago, when I was hanging out in the "Help"-channel, a beginner asked advice about a similar problem there - a civilian salvager, needed for one of the tutorial missions, was not aviable; it either did not show up or it was blown up along with his ship.
Besides being told how to circumvent this problem, this guy ended up with 40+ mil ISK in donations to buy needed stuff from the market..... not a bad ISK/hour ration for a 5-hour old toon, I would say.

Anyway, the point of this story is to perhaps just ASK around, perhaps make some friends in the process (Eve is about teamwork, anyways); the rookie and the help channel should be open by default anyways, start there

I'd also like to advise to not try to learn it all at once. It's harder, less fun, and you really won;t be able to retain any of it for when you actually do an activity that applies some of the knowledge.

For instance it's probably going to be a while before you get into POS management.

And for even more incentive to not try to learn it all I know 5 year old vets that know less then I do, and I've been here 3 years; people find that EVE is one of those games that you can play for years and still learn something new each day.

Pick what it is you wanna do and then learn that really well.

If you wanna do combat then it's not much use to learn how to manufacture right? You could start making your own ammo and ships but taking on more levels of operation like that I think are stuff you'll wanna do later. For now, enjoy the sandbox and your path to finding your place in it.

Ask for help or advice.

Recently I answered such a call, and though I was in the wrong ship to lend proper assistance, I did my best to help. I didn't think we'd succeed (I was beginning to think it was hopeless), but perseverance paid off.


Join a corp. See the recruitment forum, or the in-game recruitment channel.


EVE may not be for you, especially if you don't take initiative or give up easy. EVE doesn't lead you by the hand.

I've been playing EVE for close to 3 years now. I have 5 paid accounts, and 2 accounts paid with PLEX. I guess you could say I really enjoy EVE. I'm always willing to lend assistance.