EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi all,

It is not a question but I think other noobs should read it so I am posting it here.

During last weekend I decided to have some fun and get into pvp in lowsec. Still being under impression of Wensley's rifter guide and after reading blogs from Tuskers I took my rifter for a ride in their neighborhood - Havrice.

To be honest all that talk about how noobs should not leave hisec because behind all gates there are camps and hordes of bloodthirsty a**holes is crap. I arrived without problems through 20+ systems and nobody gave a damn about my little ship. Only once somebody flashing red showed up on my overview and that's all.

So, Havrice was pretty empty so I decided to move to nearest trade hub and that was Dodixie according to my quick google search. Idea was to buy 10 rifters, fit them with various modules and test them in pvp. You can read forums and ask question and ETF all you want but it is all worth nothing until you lock on somebody and just throw a punch. Only that can confirm or deny validity of your fit and skills.

So I bough 10 rifters and a lot of modules (diferent caliber ACs, webbers, scrams, ABs, MSEs, riggs, all toys I though worth trying) and went to look for troubles in lowsec systems nearby.

And you know what? I already lost 5 ships, got podded 4 times but had thrill and fun and don't regret my decision.

I felt into a trap engaging a small alone bait and his friend jumped on me and I was gone in 5 seconds. Few times I had to run through gatecamps and frantically clicked jump button when several ships tried to scram and web me. I chose to fight with a rifter and it just ripped me into shreds (and pilot was nice to answer few questions after that). I attacked somebody sitting on belt and suddenly second ship showed up and I barely escaped in my pod (we exchanged "gf" on local). One ship I lost when I was ratting in belt and just before I put my final blow on some NPC two guys showed up and - once again - I was gone and wake up in clone.

All above maybe does not sound like fun but believe me it was. I don't pay for opportunity to stare at screen while my laser drills into some rock. I want fight, emotions, thrill, guns blazing and lights flashing. Unfortunately I won't have time during a week to play but I will use that time to finally train small projectile turret to level 5 to be able to use t2 cannons and try them next weekend. And probably loose all my ships but damn me if I won't have fun.

Few final words that I would like to pass to all newbies:
- do what you want to do and don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it
- if you lack skills be patient and train them but don't spend your online time docked and afraid of space - you pay for having fun not more stress
- go visit places that others describe as dangerous and hostile, for f**k sake - it is only a GAME, nobody will kill you!
- don't be mad at somebody for shooting at you - afterwards just say "good fight" on local or say nothing. sometimes people who blew you up will open conversation with you and give you advice.

Ok, I think that's it for now.

Louis, thanks for linking to rifter guide, I totally forgot that obvious thing which makes noobs life easier and more exciting :)

Several times I visited 0.0 but I found it empty and boring as hell so I intend to stick with lowsec for now and keep my cloning bath hot red from usage :)

I know this but in heat of first fights I just started clicking warp button too late. Well, I see it all as a part of learning process - one more thing that you have to make your habit in EVE.

Another thing is that you can read about it and think you understand but when you see how fast your ship is losing shields and armor it is totally shocking experience. I can't imagine how one can learn to recognize the moment your ship is done without taking a few into space and just get blown up.

That's why I think that waiting for skills and that mythical moment "when you are ready" is crap. Nothing substitutes first hand experience. Sooner you come around losing ships better you will be in the long run.

At least that is what it looks like from my total noob point of view.

Toshiro, while you are probably right about money making (newbies and probably not only them can make decent isk in hisec) it is my impression that there is too much panic buzz around going outside of hisec.

And what I personally don't like there is a common attitude "oh, don't go there, bad people will hurt you if you do". uuh, me is terrified so much, I better cover my head with blanket and read ghost stories instead...

Because I paid money to see beautiful interiors of CQ and wait until I will be "ready"...

Truth is that sneaking around lowsec is fun. Nobody's in overview but scanner detects a lot of ships. You check their info (cause you are noob, you don't remember what is dangerous yet) and they are pretty nasty. "Will I make it to a gate or will they jump on me?".

Or when you find some lone ship all those thoughts running through your heads: "is he alone?... is it a trap?... do I have a chance?... will I escape if sh*t hits the fan?... omg, omG, oMG, OMG he's locking me!!!".

It is all fun, at least to me. And without those emotions I don't think I would pay my subscription. What would be an incentive to do it?

But of course it is only my point of view and of course somebody else can have his/her own. Thing is that noobs stop themselves from doing things that in fact have no real consequences. You are afraid going into lowsec and meet pirates? Well, what will you do when your car brake in bad neighborhood in real life?

Hello Schmata Bastanold,

The fearless approach you chose seems to pay off already with lots of thrilling battles. I am glad that you enjoy EVE and be assured, with your current style of play you will continue to have more and more fun. The heart beating, the hands sweating and maybe a shout of victory after you scored a victory for the first time. And you can always turn it up a few notches and risk more, flying more expensive ships.

Thank you for your excellent advice to new players: "Do what you want to do and don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it!"

Dare to be bold, pilot.

Jump clones are the answer here.

Just learn how to get your pod out when things get hairy. Most of the time it shouldn't be a problem.

That said, I did lose a full set of +4s the last (and, so far, only) time I got podded. And no, I haven't replaced them all (yet).

Well the real answer is to learn how to get your pod out, but jump clones are a useful means of limiting your losses.

They also allow you to reduce your liability while not compromising your training rate. If you are reluctant to PvP in your clone which has a +4 learning set, and a rack of +3/+5% hardwirings, worth perhaps 200 or 300 million or even more, then you can easily set up a jump clone that just has a pair of +4s to suit your current skillset (Set up one INT/MEM clone and one PERC/WILL clone), reducing your implant liability to 35M. You can go even further and use a +4 primary/+3 secondary combo; the training penalty here is minimal.

Personally, I ran around in +4s since the LP store was introduced and they dropped to ~20 mill or so, and that was when I was about 3 months in. And most of that time was spent in 0.0. I've probably lost 50 or 60 +4s over the last 5 years, but compared to the value of the ships I've lost, implant loss is a pretty minor overhead to the PvP lifestyle. In the last couple of months, I've stopped training on Malc altogether so now I have the luxury of keeping a couple of implant-free clones to use for PvP.

I always keep my eye on local, unfortunately in all cases when I was jumped on by bigger and nastier friend of my initial target it happened too fast for me to react. and still it always was only one ship so no sudden spikes to notice at all.

As for directional scanner yesterday I read some nice guide how to properly use it and one time I scanned guy out. he killed me few moments later but still I consider the fact of finding him just with scanner a great achievement of mine :) I definitely won't get any better with scanning sitting in station and only reading guides.

Lo-sec doesn't pass risk/benefit analysis.

People sit at gates and pod everyone who passes through. I've had 2 day old pilots on exploration missions podded just because it makes someone else happy.

Attacking other players in lo-sec is not worth the security loss for a newbie, because newbies operate between .7 - 1.0, and just a few points lost can bar their access.

All in all, avoid lo-sec. Either stick to hi-sec or null-sec that your Corp/Alliance owns.