EVE New Citizens Q&A

Paranoia is your (backstabbing) friend in this game, but don't just avoid everything "incase of trap", yes there are some people out there who will try and scam you out of the 1 trit your starter ship came with, but many others see helping newer players as an investment and hope that not only will they continue to play the game but that one day you'll join their corp/alliance/op and be a usefull and contributing member.
The stuff you stand to lose as a new player is cheap and easy to replace, the time/effort and assets of an older player trying to help you is worth billions, if they aren't activily trying to cause your grief then they're taking by far the biggest risk.

If nothing else, remember, the most valuable asset in this game isn't your ISK or your ships, it's the people you know and who you can rely on, and the only way to find those people is to take the risk.

As the others have said trust and reputation are really huge commodities in eve, a great many players underestimate their worth. Both are built up over time bit by bit with each exchange, conversation and action. The 'trick' is to make sure your exposure or risk is kept at an 'acceptable' level.

What that level is is up to you, are you brash or conservative, or somewhere in between?

Best thing about being a newbie is you don't have huge amounts to lose and recovering is a short term affair, even if it doesn't feel that way at the time.

You're really going to have to face each player on his/her own basis and get to know them, listen to your instincts and build up a relationship in order to know how far you can trust them, just like in RL.


As far as the random one off meetings are concerned, ask yourself "what can I lose if this is a trap?", if you don't like the answer don't do it.


It could also be argued that until you have lost out and been scammed a few times you'll not properly be able to gauge what is a trap... so try to keep an open mind and learn from each downfall.

There sure is. If it isn't someone you can't punch IRL if they screw you over, they aren't trustworthy. There are literally *no* exceptions.

That doesn't mean you can't work with people; not at all. Just make sure it's mutually beneficial, and in their best interests not to rob you blind.

there are a ton of very friendly and helpful people in this game and also a ton of backstabbing pirates. So, always be on the lookout for these types.

An old quote of mine from when I started - I used it in a chat session with a couple "recruiters" for a corp that offered me and 2 others some isk if we'd come to lowsec and join their corporation...

"Think of yourself as a small child in a park full of pedophiles. If they offer you anything that requires you to meet with them, don't be overly surprised at what you actually get from the encounter."

I tossed that into the chat channel. Everyone laughed - none of us went to their base to sign up.

That out of the way -

The corp I'm in has rules against scamming and the like. A complaint will net an investigation and actions - scammers and such are kicked. Few such corporations exist in the game but there are a few. If you learn which ones operate like that, you can be "safer" dealing with their members but complete safety isn't in the cards here.

Can confirm the part that not every pirate or griever is actually a bad person at all.

When I started out in EVE I joined a player corp who didn't tell me how war-mechanics worked, so I though: I'm in 0.9 space, who can touch me. Not long after I was blown up, podded and back in station. Problem is that the guys who we were at war with camped the station and killed me every time I undocked. After couple of kills one of them contacted me and explained me how war etc worked in high-sec and they even refunded every single ship I lost and some extra money. So although some people look like complete deuce-bags, generally they too have a good side.

I also have friends who went to low-sec in their first week and got blown up by others, what they did is contact the guy who killed them and ask for advice. Generally the people who kill you will give you advice on what you did wrong, how you can improve yourself and how EVE works in general. The only thing you have to do for such thing, as mentioned before, is stay polite. Don't rant on someone who killed you, be friendly and ask advice, usually they are willing to give it if you are polite and friendly. They usually do this for 1 reason, if people hate EVE, they leave which means less targets to shoot at, if people get good advice and like EVE they stick around and eventually might come back and give a good fight.

Personally I rather give advice to people to give them a good view on EVE so they stick around even if it means they will become my enemy eventually, as this means more nice and good fights to be had around EVE.

Most people can tell you that there are some really nice pirates out there,just like there are carebears who are really not the kind of person you can talk to for more then 5 minutes before you want to bash their head trough a wall.

Remember that piracy is just a play style and dosent neceraly (sp) say anything about that player as a person. Most people enjoy blowing stuff up,sorry but its a big part of EVE. The only thing that changes is what they call them selfes. From my exsperiense you can go and find the most hard core pirate out there,show him some respect and he will respect you in return.
But one of the things that gives pirates a bad reputation is that they (normally) do enjoy it when they blew up some poor noob and said noob decides to try and smack talk them or just yell at them for it. In most cases you will find that its these same people that will make hate threads on pirates in the forums.

Now for the record,im not a pirate. Im actually very anti pirate. But i know pirates,and some of them i consider good friends,and ofc some was convinsed to join the "good side"

So again...a players prferance in play style does not make them either good or bad as a person. Its all about how you treat them. And ofc there are some people out there that just are assholes,but thats how it is in any game or even real life

New players often have problems adapting to the sandbox principle of eve.
After finishing the tutorial, many expect the game to take them by the hand and lead them around- but this won't happen, the players make the stories and adventures in eve.
So, after you have finished the tutorial, I would recommend you to be trusing to other players. Just do it.
They could turn out as nice guys and you will stick together for longer time, maybe form a corp together etc.
Or- and this is much more likely- they will rob you, blow your ship up and kill your pilot- after wich you are out for revenge and try to pay it back to them some day.
Either way is good for you, because both ways will draw you into player generated content and make the game an interesting adventure for you.
If you play it safe all the time and trust no one you will be relatively safe from scamming and robbing, but the game will become so boring for you that you might quit after several weeks.

Note that if you have nothing to lose, it becomes easier to trust. If you're flying in a cheapo rookie ship or Tech 1 frigate, the only reason someone will trick you to blow you up is for some fleeting laughs, and it costs you not much except a bit of chagrin. If you're flying YOUR BEST SHIP with lots of expensive gear on it or valuable loot in the cargo, then there's an economic incentive to trick you and blow you up.

As a rookie you are largely immune to being scammed because you have nothing to take. Use the opportunity to be adventurous now, before there's a huge target over your head later.

You can trust TEST.