EVE New Citizens Q&A

If you dock into a station you can amend a few things on your char and your portrait. Don't know the menu button for it off the top of my head, but if you walk to the room where the TV is and then go to the mirror, you can select it from there.

I am wondering what gaming experience that you have because you line of questioning leads me to believe that you are coming from another MMO that is based on the raiding structure. If so I would like to caution you that Eve is very different from most other MMOs.

Before focusing on Incursion I would recommend that you try various aspects of the game out with an open mind. Get to know Eve for what it is and try not to put too many expectations on Eve from other games.

Eve does not have a linear path with deep and engaging PvE content and breadcrumb questlines to lead you from level 1 to level cap raiding. Balanced, instanced gameplay does not even exist in Eve. You can pull a mission and go to do it yourself or bring friends. You can bring no friends, one friend or a hundred friends. You could also show up alone and have multiple uninvited quests show up in your mission. The same goes with incursions except that incursion show up in local so no one needs to probe you down to join you.

There is no respawn or run-back mechanic in Eve. If you loose a ship you have to buy or build another one. So there can't really be any overly challenging PvE in this game. This also means that this game is not about gear progression or progression of any sort for that matter. You can get involved in pretty much anything from day one and can be productive at it. Years from now you will still be flying small cheaply fit ships. While incursion do technically fit into what I've just stated the community that has evolved around it does have some requirements if you want to get involved with them. However still you can get into incursions fairly early on even with them. There are players that will help you get up and going in that regard.

I want to caution again against setting long training goals and waiting for skills to get to high levels before even trying something. Incursions can be very "grindy". You wind up doing the same site over and over and even between the sites there is not much variation. I'm not trying to talk you out of trying them I am just cautioning you that they are nothing like raiding in other MMOs. Incursion are just a decent source of isk that you can make while in fleet so it's more social than solo content but it's the Eve equivalent to group dailies IMHO.

Where most people agree that Eve shines and sets it's self apart from most other MMOs is in it's PvP which again is not balanced or instanced.

As a sandbox this game is game is intentionally left open-ended. The lack of questlines to lead you from A to B to C to D are not forgotten but omitted by design. You are expected to create most of your own content in this game. If you are looking for the game to show you what comes next then you are missing the point of Eve IMHO.

TL;dr
My advice to you at this point would be try lots of stuff in this game. You can aim at trying incursion but don't commit large time frames or amounts of effort into getting there until you have at least tried them.

Ditto what ergherhdfgh said, with a bit of an addition:

People or even yourself may try to push you into a 'path' to start. If you work better that way, go for it. On the way, be prepared (as ergherhdfgh) for your expectations to be changed/shattered. This is not a normal MMO and while you'll find trappings of it make it have similarity to other MMO's, it's not like the at all... just to reinforce that comment.

PvP is everywhere in EVE. Even activities you'll see described as PvE... aren't. You are always going to have to be mindful of other players.

So my advice is like that of others, find some buddies in another corporation and with their help, you can start to fully understand the depth and complexity of the game.

EVE will chew up and spit out the casual gamer. You can play the game casually if you want, but it likely won't satisfy you. If you jump in with both feet and learn to swim in New Eden, it will shock and amaze you just how deep this game is.

whatever you know/learned in other MMOs forget about them. as ergherhdfgh said, there's no "path" in EvE. you can do whatever you want in here, the difference is, the game won't guide you in what to do. there are no "main story quest" here. you need to make your own "content"

having said that, i do incursions to earn isk for my 1st main's pewpew. this character is trained and geared purely for logi (healing) . i prefer armor tanking and fly with The Ditanian Fleet. they are the 1st and oldest armor incrusion community.

install EvEMon and import this Oneiros fit for VG sites, if you choose to fly with us, to know the minimum skills needed to be trained. keep in mind that the skills required to fly this are not the only skills you need to train. you also need to train your core skills

[Oneiros, [L5] o.O VG]
Damage Control II
Syndicate 1600mm Steel Plates
Corpii A-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Centum C-Type Energized Explosive Membrane
True Sansha Power Diagnostic System

Remote Tracking Computer II
Remote Tracking Computer II
Remote Tracking Computer II
Remote Tracking Computer II

Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II

Medium Remote Repair Augmentor II
Medium Remote Repair Augmentor II

Medium Armor Maintenance Bot II x5
Tracking Speed Script x4
Optimal Range Script x4

good luck and enjoy!

EVE-Uni is certainly a very good option.

Another one is to join a newbie friendly corps sponsored by one of the major power blocs. KarmaFleet and Pandemic Hoard are two of them.

I'm not sure about Pandemic Hoard's incursion activities, but I know that KarmaFleet (by extension Goonswarm) is known to run Incursions and are happy to take along basically anyone who wants to give it a go. Skill requirements are exceedingly low by the standards of most of the major Incursion fleets. Basically any racial battleship IV, Large Guns I and a solid shield tank (skills to IV) and you can fly with them. You can be in an acceptable ship with under a month of focused training. Buying the battleship and fittings will probably set you back on the order of ~ISK500m'ish (which actually isn't as much as it might seem, and you'll make that back in a few hours). The exception is if the idea of being a Space Priest and flying a Logistics ship appeals to you. The logi skill requirements are pretty steep.

Most of the larger Incursion communities require a pretty solid SP skillset and a blinged out Autism Chariot before they'll take you. I know players who spent upwards of ISK5b on their Incursion battleship.

The major advice I can give you is that EVE is a long-form game, with no 'level cap'. As erdf pointed out, if you've come to EVE from an MMO with a more linear quest/raid structure, you'll need to forget pretty much everything you think you know as it flat out doesn't apply in New Eden.