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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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"How did you Veterans start?"

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Ahost Gceo
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#61 - 2014-05-29 06:36:35 UTC  |  Edited by: ISD Ezwal
*Snip* Please refrain from personal attacks. ISD Ezwal.

On the other hand, I started my first week and made the isk for a Thrasher. I thought it was the best ship ever, it was a baby train, kawaii style. So what did I do? Scan down a wormhole and try a Sleeper site. I was almost insta-popped by one Orthrus, and managed to scream all the way in warp to a planet with my baby train on fire. I sat there for 5 minutes before a Loki ended my miserable existence...

Fast forward about three months, I had tried leading my own corp full of newbies and we had a POS in lowsec only a few jumps from Amarr. We tried sites, and one of my guys warped his Omen repeatedly to sites at 0, and lost two of them which I funded (the lolz were hilarious). We ended up getting ransomed by pirates, at which point I tore down the POS and managed to get everything out except the tower. So we tried our luck in Gallente space. One of the dudes in corp at the time who was roaming around got popped by a guy I know as Trail Stevens who belonged to a wormhole group named Obstergo. When the corp was staring to die because all the members were just trial accounts, I contacted Trail and asked him about joining. With only 4m sp, I somehow managed to show enough willingness to learn to be accepted into their corp.

My very first day, while I sat in my tech 1 neut fit Dominix (it was awesome yo) in the recruit POS wondering what the hell I had just gotten myself into, they needed me to help take down an Archon they tackled in nullsec. BAM! I got my first capital kill. From that day my eyes were opened and the lust for blood and glory pushed me to learn everything I could about wormhole space and PvP...

Fast forward almost three years, and through triumph and failure and lots of hard work and training, I had experiences that at the beginning of the game I could never have imagined happening. Even now, as I sit detached from the corporation and the people who raised me as an EVE player, I can confidently say that I have played the game. I have memories I enjoying reminiscing about. Sure there are dull times where I am simply bored and barely want to log on, but remembering my past always motivates me to keep pushing forward and to motivate those around me to enjoy the game just as much as I have.

You newbros should do the same, every one has a trace of leader inside them. EVE is a social game, and purely focusing on the game itself instead of the people you play with will eventually cause you to throw in the towel.

Fly dangerous capsuleers!

CCP ignore me please, I make too much sense.
Bagrat Skalski
Koinuun Kotei
#62 - 2014-06-23 16:03:27 UTC  |  Edited by: Bagrat Skalski
ShahFluffers wrote:
Good stories so far. Let's keep it up.


I double-clicked the Icon.

Custom ship skins, character creator style "repaint". Bring it!
Ontaku Oroa
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#63 - 2014-06-24 11:16:14 UTC
I started, back when EVE was still ugly, by getting my shiny new Thrasher blown up in Thukker space by some random pirates.

Since then, I learned how to use cloaking devices and safespots really, really well.
Aeana K
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#64 - 2014-06-24 12:17:14 UTC  |  Edited by: Aeana K
keep telling your stories guys!

It is amazing to read, like having an old guy telling you about his life.

EDIT: +1 to ShahFluffers. Very nice idea this topic.
Toshiro Hasegawa
Blackwater USA Inc.
Pandemic Horde
#65 - 2014-06-24 13:17:12 UTC
I started a long time ago. Beta round 2 if memory serves - like October 2002 ,, maybe. I was playing Planetarion - a web based sci-fi MMO when i hear about this EvE game being developed.. someone said i was like Elite .. and i was hooked. Started haunting forums and IRC chats .. and was lucky enough to be in a IRC dev chat and everyone there go invited to the beta.

My first experience was being picked from the IRC channel the day we were to get into the beta as a small group of people to test mining. I think people were CTDing when they turned the lasers on. I logged in .. figured out how to undock and the proceeded to fly straight for a long time as i tried to figure out how to steer the dam Ibis. Game was beautiful. So it was sorta nice just to float along .. trying AWSD and moving the mouse .. took a while but eventually starting flying around ..

Things were exactly the same and completely different back then, you didnt auto-dock .. you approached .. like in Elite, and went through a docking mechanic. They removed it as it took too long .. but i was just trying to imagine if the initial docking mechanic was in what it would do to docking games. Anyhow. There was no AP, no agents, no warp to zero, no alliances, no POS, no PI, no T2, etc.. It was a simple gentler time.

Yes by Christmas my corp had folded due to internal drama .. go Endless. There were already people excelling at commerce and combat. Players were developing techniques to get around the game mechanics .. using bookmarks to no have to warp to 10 and approach gates .. instead you would bookmark behind the gate 10km past on the vector in from the incoming gate so the BM would land you on the gate - as even when you flew to a BM it was 10km from said bookmark location.

Now for a tale of tears. With no AP - you had to plot your own routes. With no warp to Zero and no BM (of a new area) you had to fly it very very old school. Hauling was a pain in the butt .. slow and tedious and long and boring .. One time i jumped 15-20 jumps this way .. only to find .. i had left my cargo back in the station. I dont think i cried ,.. but i do think it was the end of the world. Then I had to suck it up and jump all the way back and then all the way back again... Hours of my life lost and a lesson learned. Always check cargo before you leave on a long trip.

Anyhow... Things were different but the same, same human drama, same politics - even without space to conquer, small industrialist fiefdoms .. players working the system .. it was heavenly .. aside from the bugs. For example you would crash if you jumped two systems in a row at one point. Some times your ship would turn into an asteroid.

Anyhow .. eventually the game was released and i had high hopes for my Corp to make it to release intact .. forlorn hope. At release i end up being CEO .. the main leadership had all feked off by this point .. for a myriad of reasons. We formed up .. and got to industry ,..mining and making ships to mine more to make more isk to buy BPO to make more stuff .. to make more isk .. We all know the drill. But at release there was no player economy .. the market was mostly NPC .. and we had to start everything from scratch, as pilots and corps and as a community. We did ok .. and most important we were a good small group, who got along, enjoyed each other company .. and had fun .. its a game right ?

We tried out hand at Ninja mining .. no one had ships bigger than frigs in the first few days / weeks .. so it was hard to get at the good ore. At that time high ends were seeding into empire - so we working out of northern Lonetrek. We started running into pirates at that point .. groups like M00. There was a .4 between the area we were in and developing trade hubs to the south. My real introduction to PvP after release was running away from M00 which i got good at. Although that being said i had to lose a lot of ships first. Eventually the players in the corp began to specialise .. some became better at PvP and some at PvE- but we all crossed between the two.

Many months later after a few moves .. we ended up down in Khanid, mining in some .5s We had now got a good corp, with BS for mining, Apocs and Doms (with 9 Harvesters), doing jetcan mining. We also ratted in the belts, and i lost my (the corp's) first BS to being afk in a belt that i thought i could tank ... good thing that -- the CEO looses one of the corps Domi's back when BS were rare things .. for us anyhow.

... but we had arrived at that point . What next ? Well of course the only thing left to check out was nullsec.

So we began doing ops south into Delve as far over as Catch the other way to Fountain. Alliances didnt exist in game at this point were beginning to OOG. We joined up with CFS - Coalition of Free Stars .. an noble endeavour that was doomed to failure. The intent was a loose knit group of corps .. run in a semi-democratic fashion to allow continued access to 3 regions in the south without given anyone absolute control.

You have to recall that at this point there were no stations or POS out in any of the non NPC controlled places. We worked, and argued as one would expect .. with varying degrees of success .. the main thing, as i saw it was to protect from pirates .. M00 for some reason had ended up in our neck of the woods and we spent a lot of time working in the choke points between Khanid and nullsec .. getting blown up by the likes of Lord Zap. Funny how even 10+ years later i can recall that name .. the sense of dread i felt when i ran into him in system.

History is the study of change.

Toshiro Hasegawa
Blackwater USA Inc.
Pandemic Horde
#66 - 2014-06-24 13:18:03 UTC
I learned to hate pirates and love them. I hated losing to them.. with a passion .. verging on rage quit. But i also realised that they made the game fun. The reason my pulse quickened as i approached the choke systems was because of the mere possibility of pirates being there .. If there were in local when i jumped through .. then I was suddenly having the most fun i have ever had in a game. People always complained about the pirates and the campers and the griefers and the gankers.-- but they, in there special way, make the game exciting. Without the threat of impending doom the sweat success of not dying would wane. Ying and Yang .. Balance to the force .. ... ya ...

Anyhow where was I .. CFS.. died horribly .. a mix between internal and external pressure .. i think in part brought along by the introduction of Player Owed Stations seeded into the nullsec landscape. External pressures were other rival alliances, who were better run, and better piloted by the likes of Fountain Alliance .. the precursor to BoB. The internal pressures were conflicting personalities .. the burn out of good leadership .. the imperfect rules set for the Alliance leadership which worked great when masterful noble players were in charge and then those same rule were applied to ... twits .. led to infighting, megalomania and alot of people taking their balls and going home.

My recollection of what ships were in game is muddy. I dont know if T2 was in yet .. or mining barges .. Player Owned Structures was almost in .. I skilled up Anchoring V .. which i have never had to use .. There is a lesson in there somewhere. Once Player Owned Structures came in we put one up. .. but without jump capable ships ..the logistics of providing for the POS fuel was ridiculous for our small outfit. I was beginning to get burned out. And eventually left game to go play WWIIOnline which was a breath of fresh air after years of EvE. Still an MMO .. with a lot of smart people trying to beat each other at the macro and micro level.. but i didnt need to mine or rat to get gear .. they just gave it to you to fight (like in every FPS). After years of slaving away to buy a new ship, or some piece of equipment, or skillbook and even ammo .. i needed a break.

To this day that is how i play EvE .. I come in .. play for 2-8 months and then go away and play other games for 2-8 months .. I am a perma noob, and not a bitter vet. I forget a lot of what i once knew .. and have a hard time adapting to the changes that keep bring brought it.. which is a good thing .. keeps the game fresh and makes it challenging for me. I just got killed the other day cause i didnt know i could set drones to passive. Another lesson learned. In some ways with EvE if you dont learn something every day your doing it wrong.

Since my first bailing out of EvE .. i have come back to live in 0.0 a bunch and run with PvP and PvE corps. I have been involved with E-UNI, RVB (now), null sec sov wars, had fun going WH hunting for routes back to high sec, run complexes, got a jump capable ship, skilled up some useful alt accounts (leadership, haulers, miners), fought with and against Goons. Being kicked out of regions, kicked other people out of regions. Been in High Sec wars. I have fought in huge (not the biggest but big enough) fleet battles (before and after TiDi.). I have run blockades and sat at gate camps. I did some PI, tried T2 production, got a T2 BPO (crappy power battery thing), Ive killed and been killed (alot more). I have led and i have followed. And yet there are still tons of things i want to check out in game ..

Namely

SOE Story Arc, dont know why I want to do it but i do.( i think because its there)
I want to get Lv 4 Research Agent . which i never did for some reason,.
I would like to check out incursions .. never been into that side of the community.
Wormholes - like to join a WH corp and see whats it like to live in one .. and not just use them as a logistical tool from High to Null.
I want to join a High sec PVE industry corp .. to see what its like now - 10 years later.
I want to join a Low sec corp .. i dont know about being a pirate .. but i have avoided low sec like the plague for ever.
And of course at some point I want to go back out the nullsec to be all that i can be .. cannon fodder that is.

Anyhow there is my verbose story .. missing out about 99% of what i did and the who and the why and the what . but i think that is long enough as it is .. too long in fact .. verbose to a fault i am.

History is the study of change.

Master Sunfang
EVE Enlightened
#67 - 2014-06-25 20:54:25 UTC
I started playing EVE in 2012. It was the first MMO I have played and I had no idea of what to expect so I just did the tutorial missions and mined in my frigate while reading more about the history of New Eden. After losing a few ships to can-flippers and their friends, I decided to leave the rookie system and explore the galaxy. In the first few months I visited the remains of the EVE Gate and other interesting sites I had read about, got killed many times by rats and players while exploring low sec, and traveled to a strange COSMOS site in an area of null sec that was close to the Jove systems. I'll never forget the frustrated chat messages from the people chasing me around several null systems trying to bubble my little unarmed frigate or their praises of good fight when they finally caught me.

After a while I decided to dump some cash into my account to buy heaps of expensive skill books and start training to fly capital ships. Since I also put in a full set of +5 implants and didn't want to lose them, I made an alt and sent it into E-Uni to learn more about playing EVE. I didn't really hit it off with anyone there and being a fleet meat shield seemed like a waste of time and ISK, so I bought a thrasher BPO, researched it a little and sold destroyers with my alt until I got bored and Bio-massed it. EVE then became about training the months long skills needed to fly capitals and I found myself logging in only to tweek my training queue and check markets until I let my subscription drop.

I kept reading a lot of EVE related stuff in my downtime and since recently coming back, I have changed my training plan to be able to fit ships better rather than just be able to fly the hulls. I have started grinding security missions for standing, ISK and LP while my character trains, and looking for people to play with so I don't get bored.

All in all, EVE is pretty cool and has had it's up and downs for me, but it seems worth it to stick with it.

As the random voices say "If you're going through hell, keep going"

Eye of the storm
Ky Vatta
Majority 12
#68 - 2014-06-25 23:12:20 UTC
A long, long time ago...

OK, I came to Eve in March 2004, after hearing that Earth&Beyond (a shortlived MMO) was closing down

I remember being the richest guy in my Corp for a while (I had a massive 77mill isk)

I those days the Raven was the biggest Warship, but you also had the Heavy Drone carriers, ie Thorax with 8 and
Dominix with 15 Heavy Drones (you could launch all your drones in those times, no bandwidth restrictions)

There was the Cruise Missile Kestrel, fitted with 4 Heavy Launchers (ok only 1 missile per launcher, but 1 salvo was enough)

Mining was done in Battleships, with Miner IIs (the very first t2 module)

Eve regions were still pretty empty, though there were less of them then

There were the Super Highways, where in one jump you could cross a whole region

At that time Yulai was the Main hub, not Jita....
Ranzabar
Doomheim
#69 - 2014-06-27 05:13:55 UTC
I started with a credit card.

Abide
Skinn Umid
#70 - 2014-06-27 05:43:20 UTC
Started in 2008, mining and industry corp. Built stuff for about a year and quit. Came back in 2010, mission running solo, started trading, found I had a nack for it. Made a lot of isk. 2012 I sold my char on the bazaar and purchased a new one with a lot more sp. Felt great to finally be ahead of the curve rather than behind it. Moved out to lowsec to join friend's corp in FW and pew'd it up for a year or so. Quit again in 2013 due to RL and just recently came back and hope to move into nullsec to try something new. EVE is great that way, there's just so much content to try and experience. Unless you're a completely jobless deadbeat, even with years invested into the game you can still find something that's new and exciting if you are open to modifying your usual routine.
Bronson Hughes
The Knights of the Blessed Mother of Acceleration
#71 - 2014-07-07 15:36:28 UTC  |  Edited by: Bronson Hughes
I started playing EvE in 2006 with a handful of friends that I met playing WoW. (Don't hold it against me, once I got exposed to EvE, I dropped WoW like a bad habit.) We started off doing mostly missions and mining in Caldari space, typical carebear stuff, and we kept that up for about a year in our corporation Knights of the Wild (KOTW). I was the PITA who always did things his own way (like running missions in a pre-Drake Ferox and a shiny new Rokh right after they came out) and wanted to poke around in losec and nullsec, so I was the first of us to get any real PvP experience; needless to say, I was also the one who led to most of our early ship losses. Our first forays were into losec and nullsec were in Lonetrek and Tribute; as complete rookies, we got our butts handed to us.

Ever the trailblazer, I followed a major trade route from Jita down to Amarr, and spent some time running missions for Republic Security Services to balance out my standings from Caldari Navy misisons. During this time, we played around with anchoring POSes in hisec, running the old CONCORD escalation missions (my mission Rokh hame in handy as a tank), but our initial handful of members had dwindled down to 3-4 active players at any given time so we were mostly playing solo.

My next foray into losec/null came into Curse. Even though it was kind of a haul from Domain, it seemed like a good entry point since there were NPC stations all throughout the entry constellation. We moved some ships down there, did some 'ratting, suffered multiple losses, and had our first taste of PvP victory. After losing a string of battlecruisers, several of which were unfit (lost while moving), I decided to switch my focus to my newly-trained 'ceptors and 'dictors, and, to this day, they're still my favorite classes of ship to fly.

We caught the attention of a local alliance, Visions of Warfare (VoW) and they invited us on a few of their roaming fleets. Sortly after my first real PvP success, I bagged my first capital ship. KOTW eventually joined VoW and we had a great time roaming around Curse, and then moving on to an exceedingly fun empire war in Tash-Murkon. These fights were where I really learned PvP, and I flew in a few different roles (tackle, DPS, bait battleship, etc.) and got my first real solo kills in a 'ceptor.

After the Tash-Murkon war, several of the corps in Visions of Warfare got an offer to join Zenith Affinity (ZA), flying with Goonswarm out of Paragon Soul. The majority of my corpmates didn't want to join, so KOTW left VoW, and I joined The. Conspiracy (T.CON), and ZA.

I didn't stay long. I can't for the life of me recall why (this was 6+ years ago mind you), but I left T.CON after only a few fairly non-productive months and returned to KOTW back in hisec.

Again, I didn't stay for long. Looking for new places to roam for PvP, I stumbled on Naguton, a losec system 4 short jumps from Amarr, and part of Fua constellation that connected to both Kador and Sinq Laison. My first time in-system, I had my first successful 1v2 encounter, bagging a pair of cruisers in my gank Thorax (back before they had 4 mids). The CEO of the pilots contacted me after a few more kills in Naguton (which happened to be their home system) and invited me to join. Thus began my tenure with ADVANCED Combat and Engineering (ACE).

Over the next two-ish years, I racked up over 20 pages of kills, split between Fua and nullsec (ACE joined Axiom Empire shortly after I joined), with some action in Aridia and hisec as well, flying everything from 'ceptors to capitals. It was here that I FC'd my first roams, exchanged fire in my first battleship fleet fights, ganked my first POSes, and did some hot-dropping. All around, these two years were easily the best gaming experience I've ever had.

But alas, all good things come to an end. For various RL reasons, I had to walk away from EvE.

Fast forward five years: I'm now divorced, in my own place, and about to get married to a wonderful woman who works nights. I had an itch, and time to kill due to her schedule, so a few months ago I jumped back into EvE. Needless to say, I had a lot of catching up to do. (Tiericide? Attack Battlecrusiers? Micro Jump Drives and Bastion Modules? Oh my!) I'm playing in a much more casual manner, so it's highly unlikely that I'll ever be active in a corp with other players, let alone an alliance, so I've pulled some of my alts into my own personal corp as a way to pool resources, and continue doing things my own way in EvE. So far, I've gotten back into losec for some PvP, gotten into exploration, and enjoyed occasionally hunting bounties of CODE. members as they gank hapless freighters in Aufay. I sold off some of my capital assets and bought a Marauder (I figured it was time to try one out and I doubt I'll ever fly capitals again), trained up a trade alt to play the market (and to help sell off said capital assets), and am prepping to get into research and production (on a small scale) just to try it out.

My current goal is just to get out there and try things, my own way, just as it always has been.

EDIT: Just to clarify, even though I live with my alts in my own corp, I do not play solo. I'm in multiple channels with contacts new and old, and it's gotten me into some interesting content. I just know I don't have the time to commit to a proper corp membership for now, so this is how I choose to roll.

Thanks for listening.

Relatively Notorious By Association

My Many Misadventures

I predicted FAUXs
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#72 - 2014-07-07 16:17:25 UTC
Azda Ja
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#73 - 2014-07-09 07:33:00 UTC
I still haven't even finished J'Poll's story, but holy crap this thread is amazing, and inspiring. My story so far is lots of dying in lowsec, but it's definitely going to take me places. Thanks to everyone contributing their EVE stories :). Hope I get to weave an epic one myself.

Grrr.
ISD Ezwal
ISD Community Communications Liaisons
ISD Alliance
#74 - 2014-07-16 21:09:19 UTC  |  Edited by: ISD Ezwal
I started in ISD's CCL division early November 2012 after going trough a quite long application and admission process. (It's faster nowadays) Ah, my first post as a moderator.....Smile

I will not bore all of you to dead with long winding stories about the things I've come across and have done as a member of CCL. Suffice to say I started as a humble Ensign, made a few promotions and am now a team lead...Blink


Oh, and as of now this thread is a Sticky.

ISD Ezwal Community Communication Liaisons (CCLs)
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#75 - 2014-07-16 21:16:35 UTC
ISD Ezwal wrote:
I started in ISD's CCL division early November 2012 after going trough a quite long application and admission process. (It's faster nowadays) Ah, my first post as a moderator.....Smile

I will not bore all of you to dead with long winding stories about the things I've come across and have done as a member of CCL. Suffice to say I started as a humble Ensign, made a few promotions and am now a team lead...Blink


Oh, and as of now this thread is a Sticky.


\o/ Ezwal...

Thanks for the sticky.

Personal channel: Crazy Dutch Guy

Help channel: Help chat - Reloaded

Public roams channels: RvB Ganked / Redemption Road / Spectre Fleet / Bombers bar / The Content Club
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#76 - 2014-07-16 21:35:01 UTC
ISD Ezwal wrote:
I started in ISD's CCL division early November 2012 after going trough a quite long application and admission process. (It's faster nowadays) Ah, my first post as a moderator.....Smile

I will not bore all of you to dead with long winding stories about the things I've come across and have done as a member of CCL. Suffice to say I started as a humble Ensign, made a few promotions and am now a team lead...Blink


Oh, and as of now this thread is a Sticky.

Good man, love it.

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
ShahFluffers
Ice Fire Warriors
#77 - 2014-07-20 21:38:07 UTC
ISD Ezwal wrote:
I started in ISD's CCL division early November 2012 after going trough a quite long application and admission process. (It's faster nowadays) Ah, my first post as a moderator.....Smile

I will not bore all of you to dead with long winding stories about the things I've come across and have done as a member of CCL. Suffice to say I started as a humble Ensign, made a few promotions and am now a team lead...Blink


Oh, and as of now this thread is a Sticky.

*squeeees* I guess this means I have officially contributed something other than bitterness to these forums. Big smile

Thank you Ezwal. Hopefully more people will see this thread now!

How did you Veterans start?
Dracon Darkstar
Ice Fire Warriors
#78 - 2014-07-22 17:52:47 UTC
Has anything really changed Shah? The corp thinks not... :)
Dracon Darkstar
Ice Fire Warriors
#79 - 2014-07-22 18:12:33 UTC
I started in 2008 with a few friends from Guild Wars. I was told I wouldn't like Eve and training skills ( I guess I didn't mind it too much! ) Started faction warfare right away, throwing terribly fit Tristans to their doom left and right. I found out quickly that just because you trained it to level 1 and can fly it doesn't mean you should :)
Almost 6 years later and I'm still a noob, just throwing more expensively fit ships to their doom. You find a group of people you like playing with, you laugh with them, cry with them, send severely inappropriate mails to them and they make it worth every isk win or lose.
Kerrec Snowmane
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#80 - 2014-07-24 20:24:15 UTC
Ok, in the interest of helping a "newbie", I'd like to contribute. I am around 8 or 9 months old with nearly 15 million skill points (SP). To someone reading about EVE for the first time, my character is old. However, to many of the forum dwellers that will read this, I am still a newbie to them.

When I created my character, I had decided to give EVE a try and had been reading up everything I could, so I would start the game running instead of crawling. I knew about the different kind of space (Hi-Sec, Lo-Sec, Wormhole and Null-Sec) as well as Crimewatch and the level of dangerousness of each space (notice I did not say level of safety... I don't want to mislead you!). I knew I was starting to play in a game that was 10 years old with plenty of established players. So I set my eyes on supplying industry by mining. I created a Gallente character (I don't remember if there was a reason for that) and started the tutorials, ie: the New Player Experience (NPE). I vaguely remember anything about the tutorials themselves other than the fact you get a bit of ISK and some ships to start your career with. One thing I do remember is almost rage quitting because of it.

I got a mission to mine (finally, since that is what I had set out to do!) and AURA (the woman/computer that leads you on the tutorial missions) told me to warp to the asteroid belt and mine with the ship and/or modules I was provided. So I undocked, found "the" asteroid fields on the right click menu in space and went there. That is when the frustration began. I couldn't see any asteroids. From my research I knew that the default Overview settings are often regarded as "a mess", so I set about googling and forum searching on how to see asteroids in Overview. Needless to say, I found nothing relevant since there is 10 years worth of obsolete posts and news and blogs to dig thru. I probably screwed up my overview more than how it started and the problem was never not being able to see asteroids in Overview to begin with. The problem was there WERE NO asteroids at all. How a newb is supposed to KNOW that, when the tutorial guide tells you to go "there", is beyond me. I have ranted about this before and been told to HTFU (long after the fact). I came very close to quitting if not for my curiosity wanting to know what was wrong. Eventually I opened up the newb chat and saw about 50 people asking the same question: "Where are the asteroids?" And one answer buried in that mess (it scrolls by so fast!) that had the answer: "This system has been mined out. There are no more asteroids, go to another system." I logged off that night thinking EVE is dumb and why not have a newb mineral to mine that is infinite, worth nothing that is only used to complete the tutorial? That night I thought I was done with EVE. But it bothered me that I was going to be one of the early quitters when so many got past it.

So I went back the next night, and jumped THREE whole systems to find a rock to mine. Now, when I chose mining as my career goal, I thought there would be some kind of game play element to it. You know, something that would make it fun. However, targeting a rock and waiting for 60 seconds to see a result, and then not even doing anything as the miner cycled for another 60 seconds and another 60 seconds until the cargo hold is full is just plain dumb gameplay. The miner tutorial is as far as I got in my mining career. Thinking I knew enough to decide on a career that early in the game was my first NOOB moment.

So I drifted around and found missions. They seemed like a win-win to me. It would force me to skill up offensive and defensive skills which would benefit in PVP, which I wanted to get into. It would earn me ISK so I could buy ships to PVP with. And it would also earn me faction, that I would turn into an easy ISK income source. Or so I thought. See, when drifting around, I would look at the market. I would see buy orders for refined materials, often system or region wide. I would also see sell orders for unrefined ore. So I thought to myself, if I get good standing with Gallente, I could fly around looking for stations where I could get "perfect refining" and buy the ore, refine it on the spot and sell it right away, with a profit. No need to haul anything. I thought I was so clever. As I did mission after mission, I theorycrafted, I made spreadsheets that factored in batch sizes, costs and what not so I wouldn't lose ISK, then one day I had enough standing to start my business thru limited NPC corporation stations (instead of the whole of Gallente space, which was my goal) where I had enough standing. That's when I discovered that the margins were so small that I could make MORE Isk doing level 3 missions for the same time I spent finding a good sell order on ore, a good buy order on refined minerals, all within range of a station where I had perfect refining and flying there to get it all done. The only silver lining to that failed business is my combat skills were much advanced because of the missioning, although I wasted a lot of time skilling up refining. Still useful and not a huge time investment, which brings me to my next NOOB moment: If it can be achieved fairly quickly, everyone else will do it too. What I mean is, why would a serious miner sell raw ore when he can make a bit more profit selling the refine minerals instead? I had worked for what I felt was so long to get my plan going that I felt like a moron when I found out I could make more profit just doing easy peasy missions.