EVE New Citizens Q&A

I see sometimes people talk about how they have mining alts, hauling alts, etc. and I was wondering if it's that necessary to have alts. There's so many cool things in EvE that I wanna specialize in it all without having to have ten different toons for every specialization, is this a bad way of playing eve?

Well... there is certainly no rule that says you can't generalize. There are two ways of going about it.


1. Dabble in Everything: This is something more than a few people will recommend early on. Train up a whole bunch of skills in a bunch of different things and see what you like.

Pros:
- you have more variety in what ships you can use
- you have more variety in what tactics you can use
- you have more options in weapons and tanking styles... meaning that you can, at least half-ass, take part in more types of group doctrines

Cons:
- because you are not be training up "all the way" in any specialty before you move on, you will not be as good at any one thing compared to your peers who choose to specialize.
This will put you at a disadvantage in smaller engagements or 1v1s where your only support will come from your piloting skills, your ship's fit, and your skills.
- because you have not specialized in anything, you may be "left out" from more "specialized" gang/fleet doctrines (example: Stealth Bomber gangs, Assault Frigate "wolfpacks," etc).


2. Specialize then Move on: This is basically what it sounds like. Pick a specialty or ship type you like, train up to its maximum potential, then move on to the next one.

Pros:
- by mastering one ship type, you become quite powerful relative to your peers within your niche. If you are really good, people will remember you and ask for you to fly with them when they need that specialization
- certain specializations can lead to ships which are very good within that specialty (example: specializing in missile-use and the Kestrel can lead to you using the Hawk... which is a beefier, harder hitting missile frigate)

Cons:
- you are limited to your niche before you can move on. This can get boring
- if you keep using the same ships and tactics, people can catch on and fit their ships specifically to deal with you
- not all specialties mesh well with all types of gang/fleets (example: your Shield ships will not function well in an Armor-based group)
- This method takes time



I dislike making real life comparisons... but in this case it is apt:

It is the difference between getting a General Education certificate in a junior college versus getting a certificate in a specialized field in junior college.

The former will afford you more variety in what you can do... but it doesn't look too appealing to others and will require you to go back to school and "enhance" your skills at a later time to be good at any one thing.

The latter will afford you a solid foundation in a field... but will "lock" you in that field until you go back to school and get more training and certificates.


Speaking from experience, you will do both and get all the skills you want and need over time.
At that point, you will be able to do many, many things.
Just be patient and "do you."

There are many ways to play Eve - that's the benefit of an unscripted sandbox. I believe these tend to fall into two categories.

There are players who participate at a tactical level - invested in their character as an extension of themselves - a true avatar. Their game time is focused on what their character is doing.

I tend to play at a more strategic level. I am running a business and my characters are employees - not avatars. Much of my enjoyment of the game is planning. Most of my "activity" is background - my factories, labs and markets really don't care if I am logged in or not.

People like me tend to have lots of characters - why not, each character generates a profit, most only login for a few minutes a couple of times a week to submit industry jobs or update PI programs. These characters are specialists with very focused skillsets.

My main, on the other hand has level 4 in just about everything except capital ships and he'll start working on them when he gets the queue back. I've changed course a couple of times in the game and have little doubt I'll change course again at some point in the future. Eve is a big game, lots of things I haven't tried yet!

Yes, totally feasible. I'm actively playing only this char for 3.5 years including the meta game and still do and have done almost everything which does not require a second account. Fleet and solo PvP, trading, manufacturing, hauling, PI, mining, exploration, missions, etc. Over time I trained and perfected one profession after the other, enjoy playing one while training for and looking forward to the next. Today I'm in the comfortable situation that I can just pick whatever I like for the login session, also thanks to the knowledge and connections making SP less important.

Of course there are some restrictions or boundary conditions to that kind of life. As you can see, Tipa is still in her starter corp*, which restricts the participation in highsec PvP but gives immunity to wardecs on the plus side. The NPC tax is of no relevance to me, since my income is almost purely from player ISK (manufacturing, trading, PI). I'm living in Perimeter and surrounding for money making, and to have access to all kind of space in short time. Fast travel is so easy with ceptors, jump clones, Thera and wormholes. Now in lowsec solo, later in nullsec fleet, then back to highsec starting the manufacturing jobs for the next day. Combining lowsec PvP with highsec hauling requires to keep your sec status in check, but thanks to tags this is just a matter of ISK.

Capital handling is where you must have a second account, and in most serious corp memberships, to reduce the inherent dependencies (other players, space your are living in, intel, ISK making efficiency) this comes with.

* To be clear, being in an NPC corporation all the time is by no means necessary. For me it's the desire to be self-sufficient and to stay independent from others, keeping the play kind of non-committal for the health of my RL.

Game is set up to let you train whatever skills you want. So, sure, it's possible to generalize, just takes longer time.

The only limits are:

- max 300-some market order slots per character
- max 21? public contracts per character
- max 6 PI planets per character
- max 10 production lines and 10 blueprint research lines per character
- only one character can have an active skill queue training (unless you pay for more)


And capital ships have a requirement for their jump drive:

- need someone to provide you with a cyno beacon, for your capital ship to move via jump drive; typically it's much safer to have your own alt light the cyno beacon than to trust strangers


Otherwise we just use alts for convenience:

- convenience of having someone in Jita to quick check prices (can be done with www.eve-central.com )
- convenience of anonymity while posting crap on the forums (Hi!)
- convenience of separating PVP from PVE because enemies won't stop shooting you just cause you want to take a break

While I have alts to do other tasks (Mostly hauling through highsec as this main is a criminal), this character is highly diverse:
I can do:
PvP
PvE
Mine Ore/Ice/Gas
Reprocessing Ore/Ice
PI
Manufacturing T1/T2
Invention
Exploration
Minor hauling
Trading

Now, am I highly efficient in all of those fields? No, but i can still do them with decent efficiency and have fun at the same time!

Edit: Salvage too!

Like other's have said it is totally feasible to play and do everything on one character.

If you are asking if there are times where it makes more sense to have multiples then that depends on what it is that you want to do.

For example if you enjoy null sec or wormhole life and want to live deep into null sec or in a wormhole somewhere but also want to get involved in market trading then it might make sense to have one character skilled up in ship combat related skills and another sitting at a trade hub and skilled up in market related skills.

Bottom line for me is that if you don't have a need for an alt right now then there is no sense in paying for a second account. If ever your playstyle changes and you have need for one then worry about if it is worth the extra $15 a month at that point.

One thing that I can point out is that in the above example you could train up the market alt to your satisfaction and then transfer the character so in the future you would not have to pay for both.

But again if you had a specific need or desire that an alt would facilitate making happen then there would be something to discuss.

Jack of all trades here o/

Thanks for all the responses, I appreciate it!