EVE General Discussion

I’ve been playing EVE for a long time (on and off) since day one. There is a lot to do in EVE but without direction, research and initiative it can be daunting. I guess that’s why so many veterans tell new players to join a noob friendly corporation. Just as an FYI, I started a new character about 3 months ago without support (ISK or items) from my main just because I wanted to see what a new player encounters during their first few weeks in the EVE universe.

I think that the new starter missions are great to help a new pilot become acclimated to the workings of EVE. By the time you finish them, you’ve touched on combat, exploration, mining and the economics of the game. You also get a lot of your beginning ships and modules and the skills to support those items and ISK. Within 3 months, I’m in a Battlecruiser with decent skills to solo level 3 quickly and run level 4’s with another player. ISK isn’t a problem but yes, running missions can become boring after you run them for weeks on end. I think this is where people decide to leave the game because they don’t know what else to do. They get caught up in missions or whatever they know and then say,”there’s nothing else to this game!” Find a like minded corporation and do things together!

The main issue I see for a new pilot is that they won’t fully understand all the skills that are available to them. Most players start cross training early on which allocates their skill points in areas that are not necessarily relevant to them in the beginning thus diluting their skill points making it take longer to become proficient at any one thing.

The major gripe that I‘ve heard over the years is, “how can I compete with someone that has xxx million skill points more than me? I mind as well not play or log into the game until I have xxx million skill points!” I’ve also heard over and over again during the last 8 years is people complaining that they gain skill whether they are online or not but that there is no reason to log in if they are a low skill point pilot other than to train a skill. In a way, they are correct if the only thing that they are striving for in the beginning is to acquire ISK to purchase new ships, skills or modules since anyone with a credit card or PayPal account can buy PLEX and convert it to ISK. Obviously, people play for other reasons, from basic social interaction to just flat out griefing of other players… I know that there is a lot more in-between those two extremes.

I’ve lived in null and I’ve lived in empire. For some reason empire dwellers have this misconception that everyone in null is a harden criminal looking to gank them. In a way, there is some truth to that. In my mind, if you’re not in my corporation, alliance or someone I know, then you’re against me; at least that’s how I approach life in .4 systems all the way down to -1 .00 wormholes. If you live in a system long enough, you get to know the inhabitants, but at first, both you and the people you encounter are skeptical of either’s intent. The flip side to the coin is that a lot of the hardcore PVP’ers think that everyone existing in empire space are a bunch of punks hiding from them. Not everyone needs to PVP 24 hours a day, 7 days a week nor do they need to PVP to provide the PVP’ers game content.

Anyway…

This game is what you make of it. Do you want to fly missions, explore the universe, become a market mogul, mine asteroids until your eyeballs fall out, grief other players for fun…? EVE is just another social media venue where you can do what you want to do (within the confines of the game mechanics) with who you want to do it with. JUST HAVE FUN DOING IT!