EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello everyone, I just have a few questions for the veterans just to give me a little bit of general direction. A little bit about me: I did a trial about 5 or 6 years ago but was entrenched in WoW so and did not want to "take on" another game during my college years. Now, having said that, what draws me to EVE and what drew me in the past is its depth, complexity, and community. I remember back in my trial those many years ago I actually was doing missions with a guy literally 2 hours from my home and we had met at random doing missions. Sorry for giving my abbreviated EVE life story, but it has been brief.

Now, I have started a trial buddy account, thanks to J'Poll, and am looking at subbing in the next few days. My time is very limited in game, maybe 5-6 hours a week .

So, that being said...I am interested in a number of things career-wise, such as exploration and covOps, but in general, without doing anything more than what the tutorial missions tell me to do, i don't know precisely what I am going to like doing with the limited time I have.
So here goes
1. For running combat missions, would it be best to fly in a Frigate, Destroyer, or train up to Cruisers?
2. Are assault ships, if I choose to train up to them, still considered frigates and can they be used in the lower level missions
3. When is a good time to start the sisters of eve epic arc? I have completed the combat tutorial, will need to log in and finish the Mountains out of Molehills tutorial, and have began the surveying tutorial
4. Am I on the right path? I have multiple certificates (i know they don't do anything but show what skills i have trained) and just want to be sure my training time is not wasted.

Thanks!

That is it for now I think...any advice is welcomed and appreciated.

Missions are fairly linear in terms of what ships you should fly. Level 1 and 2s can be done in a frigate, destroyer, or a cruiser... level 3s usually need a battlecruiser to power through efficiently... level 4s almost require the use of a battleship**.

**Note: I say "almost require" because when you get your skills high enough, you CAN run level 4s in battlecruisers or Heavy Assault Cruisers.



Yes. Assault Ships (or Assault Frigs as they are commonly known) are basically "beefier" frigates with more "punch" than a normal frigate. Think of them as a sort of "mini-cruiser." Be aware though that it is still a frigate and lacks the flexibility that a Tech 1 cruiser can provide.



Just do it. It gives you some cash to "start up" with and is mildly entertaining. I spent my first 2 weeks in EVE casually running the different missions.

Some advice that may help you:
- do train up to use an industrial and fit it so that it can hold about 10,000 m3. The SoE arc will require you to move around a lot and so it's nice to be able to carry all the necessary equipment with you.
- (related to the above) try not to "rig" your ships so that you can easily repackage and store your ships in your hauler. "Rigging" a ship means that it cannot be repackaged... at least... not without destroying your rigs and losing your hard gained ISK.
- Destroyers can do almost all of the beginning missions with little to moderate difficulty... but the later missions in the arc almost mandate the use of a cruiser (for a newbie at least).
- When in doubt, ask for help. You may get lucky and get a more advanced player to help you... possibly leading to you into getting into a decent corp.



Know this... there is no such thing as "wasted training time"... at least... not when you are looking at things from a long term point of view. Eventually you will have to train multiple skills in quite a few different areas to assist you in your efforts.

That said... there is also no "right path."
Since there is no "end game" per se in EVE, you must set goals for yourself (which may or may not include other people) and use any skills (both in-game and RL) to your advantage.
Moreover, certificates can help give you direction you in your efforts, but they are, in the end, merely guidelines. Asking and learning from other players will help FAR more than anything else.

Thank you for the advice. And yes, I am having fun :)

Don't follow the certificates too closely. While it's true that there's no wasted training time, there is misprioritized training time. Most of those certificates, especially the higher level ones, have a lot of time-consuming requirements that may not really benefit you at all with what you're trying to do in the game.

You'll want to start with basic fitting skills, basic navigation, and basic gunnery / gunnery support skills relevant to your preferred ship. Start looking at getting these all towards level 4, for now. By the time you do, you'll probably have been in game long enough to get a better idea of the direction you'll want to initially go.

Your negative, nay-saying attitude is why EVE only has 300k subs.

Where's the positive?

Why not point out to the new pilot that the best achievements in this game are the ones you arrive at through coordination with other players? Why not point out that regardless of what ship you're flying, you're twice as strong the moment you fly with another pilot? Why not point out that there are a huge range of options for things to do in EVE Online?

Don't go telling people they're going to hate the game. Show people the possibilities, suggest things to do that they will enjoy.

Here, pick up my "Day 0 advice for new players" thread, and see if you can add something constructive to help people interested in PvP to find something fun to do? Talk about RvB or Faction Warfare, or point people at the recruitment requirements for your pirate corporation.