EVE New Citizens Q&A

Not really.

Obvious red flag would be a negative security status (only way to get that is by shooting people in empire space - high or low sec) but beyond that you just have to learn if you can trust someone. Another would be a very recently created character that talks and acts like a player who is very experienced with the game (indicating that it is most likely an alt of a veteran player).

I guess good rule of thumb would be to always fly with a ship you can lose without major issues and never move all your eggs in a single basket and never put all of your assets away from your direct control (anything other than your personal hangar in a NPC station equals "not under your direct control"). Consider what would be the worst that could happen to you at any given moment (usually "this friendly guy somehow leads me into a trap and my ship gets blown up. Oh, and my pod") and assume that this could, in theory, happen.

If you are very new and are invited to join a corp or otherwise do something with others, whatever you do, leave at least one fitted ship in some station and have some ISK in the wallet that you won't touch ("emergency reserve") and as long as you keep those intact, no matter what happens you can go back and pick that ship up and continue recovering from there.

Oh, and "if it sounds far too good to be true, it probably is not" also works in EVE.

It really works pretty much like walking around in the city and meeting some random person. He might be a cool guy or he might be out to mug or scam you. Act accordingly. Trust can only come over time.

Most people in EVE are not out to get you. I think. Probably.

Edit: Also don't pay anyone to join his corp and don't buy a PLEX to convert to hundreds of millions of ISK just because someone told you to do so. Neither is in any way needed in EVE and anyone asking for ISK so you could join his corp is most likely trying to scam you.

Paranoia is your friend in this game. If you are new to getting into a group (random invite to ops) and their sec status is good, still run the cheapest ship just in case its a trap - Never fly what you can't afford.

Just to let you know... its sad, but true... Trust NO ONE in game.

Tl;Dr story:

A sister corp in my alliance was doing quite well (or so I thought). It seemed that they had pissed some merc corps off (random gank fests/roams) Which was against our policy as we do business with many merc corps.

Well, after a month of war decs, the CEO of said sister corp, disappeared for a few weeks (claiming illness). We got WD by a few of the old Orphanage Merc Corps and they were out for blood. Well, some "random guy" was emailing threats to a sister corps members and the info got a little "fishy."

Come to find out, the CEO (supposedly sick) logged an alt and payed a Merc corp to WD us as he was mad cuz we wouldn't let him play in our worm hole (no pun intended). Hence, TRUST NO ONE!

There are many trustworthy players in game... don't get me wrong. But, you need to be very, very careful in what trust, with what info and assets you give them. Knowledge is power. Also, know that you may trust someone with said info, but they may blab it to an unknown and you know the saying: "Lose Lips Sink Ships."

True, it depends what the player pretends to be. In fact, best friends you can find on "rookie help" are alts of old players. Yet if the character is very new (say, less than 7 days) and getting very friendly, you need to be somewhat careful. Throwaway alt can be a throwaway alt.

But if you have some common sense, you can probably learn fairly quickly if the other guy is talking to you because he wants something from you or because he wants to be nice and helpful. If he explains to be something along the lines of "long-lost son of a Nigerian prince who needs you to loan a few million isk so he can get his luxury spaceship out of impound and can then quickly make it back (and more), leading you to untold riches", you are probably being taken advantage of...

Sounds legit!

Trustworthiness is one of the most valuable things a person can possess in this game. That said, there's a very large continuum between "total paranoia" and "Please load all my wordy possessions onto your freighter and take them to nullsec".

You shouldn't be too afraid to risk a T1 ship. At worst you'll explode, learn something, and with insurance be back on your feet inside of ten minutes (assuming you're T1 fit). If you're smart it's much more likely you'll make friends and have some fun.

Security status is absolutely not a good measure of someone's trustworthiness. The first thing anyone who wants to terrorize highsec dwellers does is rat up their sec. status to above zero so they don't scare anyone by being yellow. On the flip side, I've known very honorable people who've been -10 for months and years at a time because they live in lowsec and in lowsec NBSI is how almost everyone who lives there operates, which isn't healthy for your sec. status. You can infer something about someone's pvp activity from their sec status, but not their trustworthiness.

This is easily the best reply here, in short;

- sec status doesn't mean anything
- don't trust anyone with any high value asset of yours till they prove to you that they're worth your trust (in EVE, at some point, that will go wrong just prepare and learn from it)
- trust is the most important thing in EVE, it's up to you how to deal with that

The only people you can trust completely are those you know in real life and live nearby. That way if they screw you over ingame you can go to their house and kick them in the nuts. Speaking from personal experience of course.

But seriously, you can never completely trust anyone in eve and that's how things should be. There's only one person in eve that has a long and proven record of honesty and that's Chribba.

You can trust me too. Not that I'm honest, but rather because I'm a terrible liar and scammer. I've never successfully scammed anyone and if I ever succeed at it, I think I might feel bad about it and return the stolen goods.

Confirming this. Also confirming that Chribba is the exception that proves the rule. It's his super hero ability. Trustworthiness.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Chribba_%28Character%29

(You can also summon him to any thread by mentioning his name. Like just happened in this thread...)

the basic answer is "common sense". In this regards eve works like real life. Trust requires time and common sense.

Smaller tight knit corps are usually trust worthy individuals. It doesnt mean one individual cant screw the whole group over. But some of the corps I have been in, usually people all contribute to the benefit of all in some way.

More specifically if some one invites you to a mission they could destroy your ship if they draw you into lets say: the hazardous gas cloud part of the New Frontiers mission which does waves of 800 damage 5 or six times.

If your worried take a less expensive ship like a rookie ship. Tell them your brining your best mission ship"lie" and when you arrive see what happens. If its a trap you will have sprung it and lost nothing and you know that person is a troll.

For all the paranoia speak I have always been surprised at the great attitudes and general good will I found among players.

Then again I am very shrewd and a skeptic and dont often find myself in situations where I have trusted a great deal of any of my assets to an individual I've never met.

Golden Rule in Eve: Love thy neighbor. But lock your door.

Not trusting any one at all in game can mean you wont make it very far, or the game will get tearfully boring.