EVE New Citizens Q&A

To me it seems like you really need at least one alt if you really want to get the most out of this game. I am still quite new to the game and so far I have only trained a few basic ships skills and some in exploration but I am now going more towards mining and would like to dedicate most of the training-time for mining skills.
From what I've heard, I would be better off if I create another account that I can use for PVP and focus only on PVP skills, so that I have the mining account which would primarily be for earning ISK and then the other one I can use for getting destroyed in pvp :)
Does this sound like a good plan? I would like to know because if I were to end up having to create another account or two, I'd like to start training them sooner rather than later.

Well, it all depends. Mining is a skill intensive income stream that is incompatible with PvP, so if you want to mine and pvp, then having separate characters is better than trying to do them both on one. Generally, during wars and such, you want an independent income stream, or a large saving stash to weather wars.

I have separate characters that I made during a time when they were useful, but now they are not nearly so useful. So I don't really agree with the idea that one needs separate characters to get the most out of the game . Eventually, you can do most everything on one character, but early on, having multiple characters allows one to diversify more quickly.

A scout, a cyno alt, a jita alt, a locator alt. These are good reasons to make an alt, and most of them don't require a large investment in time to skill up. I have one alt with good trading skills and little else. Another alt can do level 4 missions, and has tycoon trading skills. The other two alts were on different accounts, but i combined them all onto my main account.

Really though. To "get the most" out of the game is not a good goal. To have the most fun is a good goal. If you want to be a manufacturer, miner, ratter, explorer, booster, logistics, ewar, and everything else player, then yea, it wil take a long time to be very good at all of those. Making alts is almost required if you want to do them all soon, or buy skill points. But the truth is, very few people will enjoy doing all or even most of those things.

Find the things you enjoy and then make an alt if it becomes necessary. Don't sweat that you aren't making the most of the game.

We usually ask ourselves these questions:

1. Does the alt require a lot of training, or very little? 5M skillpoints can get you trade, PI, mining, etc., so after 10, 15 million SP you may not want to train the alt more. In this case it's better to train the alt on the same account as the main; just enable multi-character training for the couple months that it takes. Alts like this are also used for forum posting, for checking prices, etc., stuff that requires no training at all.

2. Do I need to log in 2 characters at the same time? This is the case for scouts, for cyno beacon alts, for fleet boosting, and if you want to have 1 miner and 1 hauler for the ore. If you need 2 or more at the same time, they have to be on separate accounts.

2b. Do I need privacy? Most corporations will ask you for your API so they can see what alts you have, and if you're planning on spying, scamming, or just not revealing all your alts, you need them on separate accounts.

3. How many subscriptions am I willing to pay for? This goes against the above questions; the more accounts you have, the more you pay for subscriptions.


A lot of people I'd guess make the choice to have a PVE / moneymaker, and a separate PVP / Piracy / Combat character. It makes sense, especially if you get in a war and the enemy won't stop shooting just so you can take a break and make some money. But keep in mind that you'll train a lot of the same skills on both characters, because every pilot needs the Support skills (armor, shields, navigation, engineering, targeting, etc.), and also every pilot needs to trade, to move junk or loot from one place to another in an industrial ship, and to have at least some combat / evasion skills.


EDIT: Also keep in mind that CCP is planning to change the accounts system pretty soon, so that you can still play your trained account even if you don't pay subscription anymore. Look for the dev blogs about Alpha and Omega Clone States. In any case, that will shift the choices towards separate accounts, because you can stop the subscription and still have access to all your characters.

You may just want to wait until then; CCP may offer extended trial periods, extra buddy rewards, or other promotions to entice newbies to try the game, so you could take advantage of a price reduction at that time if you create your alts then rather than now. Also New Year is coming relatively soon, and they have promotions and discounts and rewards such as ship skins etc. at that time. A few months of waiting, but may be worth it to you.

Not really, depending on your luck with the loot fairy and how your game time falls relative to down time and a number of other factors mining can be far more profitable. I can make more ISK from a single level 4 missions than I can in a several weeks worth of exploration activities, yes indeed it is sad but true that my luck is that bad. Yes I know venture forth to low and nul - been there and done that and lost more ISK in ships etc to gate camps than I ever made, told you I have bad luck.

that's the Secret To EVE right there.