EVE New Citizens Q&A

PVE is exactly what it means - "Player versus Environment" - and is the cheapest way of learning the basics of the game. This can cover anything from how to fit out ships, learning how your guns works, setting up a tank & a myriad of other things.
And it's also the primary (and most stable) way most players generate isk to buy others things from Ships to modules. This is normally through running missions or anomolies.
All NPC's are predictable in what they do so knowing what to fly / shoot them / tank their damage with also becomes predictable.

That's the short, short verson on PVE in Eve.

PvP can be looked at on the other side of the scales. You're going up against a human. Whilst there are the obvious "cooker cutter" fits that are used for just about every ship, you don't really know how they've fitted out their ship compared to yours. This is what makes the PvP fun.. there are no wrong ways to fit your ship, just optimal ones.

Someone who's only been playing for a week could easily come across a 10 year veteran & blow them to smithereens just due to having the right modules fitted & understanding how the game works.

As for actually engaging in PvP, for non consensual combat, the universe can be looked at being divided into 4 areas:

Null Sec - Which is 0.0 space, Lawless space where anything goes and no consequences

Low Sec - Which is 0.1-0.4 space, Semi Lawless, Lots of bad people flying about ready to ransom or blow you up

High Sec - Which is 0.5-1.0 space, Known as Care-bear areas, Concord will happily blow you up if you engage in non consenual PvP

Wormhole Space - Commonly referred to as either just WH or W-space - same as 0.0 space but local chat doesn't tell you who is actually in local (unless they're daft enough to speak in there!)

You also have the War system where Corps or Alliances can wage war on each other anywhere in the unviverse with no penalties, duelling system where two pilots can have a legal scrap & also Faction Warfare (known as FW) which is between the 4 main races and are mainly set in Low Sec space.

for more in depth viewing on the above, you're better off heading over to the Eve-wiki. There's alot more info there & also explains it in much more detail than what I have.

As for PvP being "End Game"... Eve has no End game (hence the "Sandbox" comment you'll see banded around everywhere on the site)

Once you get that notion out of your head, and figure out the basics, you should find enough to keep you busy for years to come.

Honestly, if you are interested in PvP, but don't know how to go about it, or how to avoid it, join a faction warfare corp, and learn to plex. Before everyone says, hang on hold up. Hear me out.

Doing complexes in faction warfare is pretty easy. You sit around the button for a period of time and learn how to avoid PvP. This is an important first step. You can literally jump out into low sec in non-fitted ship and learn to avoid war targets and pirates. Do this successfully and you get LP which can be converted pretty easily into ISK.

Once you learn the steps on how to avoid a PvP encounter, you can then start making more intelligent choices as to when you should engage. You gain intel on each pilot in the system. You can approximate his or her SP level based on the age of the character. Checking the standings lets you judge his or her aggressiveness. Learning how to use your D-Scan, you match the intel you receive to the ship. Learning what ship he or she is flying lets you gauge the strengths and weaknesses of that particular ship and its probable set up. Ultimately you get to make better choices.

You can make better choices about when the odds are in your favor or if the odds don't favor the encounter. Finally once these skills are developed, you can start PvP without necessarily blindly throwing ship after ship into encounters you can't hope to win.

Once you learn these skills, the dangers posed by low or null sec become less daunting. They are dangerous. Sure. Will you get blown up. Of course. But you are more confident.

Eve is still however a sandbox. It exists in a status that allows you to avoid PvP almost altogether. It might be forced upon you from time to time, but hanging out in High Sec, while hauling small loads decreases the chances of being attacked. With that safety though, you are not going to be doing things that are as profitable or exciting.

Eventually you learn that going into low-sec with the proper skills is very profitable and the risk is worth the reward. There is still PvE elements but the danger of having a PvP encounter is greater. Thus, you learn the avoidance skills I described above. Eventually you might want to try out Null-Sec, which comes with its own set of rules. The point is that this game gives you a wide variety of things to do. Which includes High Sec suicide ganking to Null-Sec alliance warfare and everything in between.

Finally, throw out most everything you learned about MMO's. The only thing that applies is that you are dependent on your friends, just like most MMO's. Here, choose your friends wisely, fly safe, don't undock with something you can't afford to lose, keep your clone up to date, and ship insurance, and expect to have the ship blown out from under you.