EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi,
I've only just started in EVE but after a couple of tutorial missions I was left wondering if I am missing something important within the combat system. I have my pea-shooter equipped and after accepting a mission to clear an area of pirates I targetted my quarry and attempted to close the distance to 400m (optimum distance for pea-shooters). I'd already set the option to 400m however the targetting option that sets the distance dosn't seem to bring my ship in to 400m and seems to keep me at about 7-800m instead. Any ideas why? Anyway - I used "approach" instead and that was fine. However - the combat itself seemed extremely uneventful. I ground him down gradually and he ground me down gradually. I topped up my shields every now and then and he did not, so eventually he died. There was no manœuvres as such, just a steady flight around each other and there were no decisions to be made mid-fight.

Is this a fair reflection of combat in EVE or is it symptomatic of low-level combat? I am more used to RPGs where combat is more dynamic.

Yup that's just cause it's the simpler stuff.

PVE doesn't evolve a whole lot more then that though....or at least baring WH sleepers and Incursions.

In PVE it really press F1-F8 and wait for it to die. Sometimes the NPC bring electronic warfare, sometimes they warp scramble, sometimes they drain your cap but if you stay cool and prepared for it you'll be fine and there isn't much to it.

Now for Incursions and WHs...

Incursion NPCs even though they are labeled as Sansha are MUCH scarier then their cousins found in belts and in missions. Incursion NPCs will use a variety of e-war while mission NPCs tend to stick to one specific to their race (for instance Guristas always use ECM jammers and Angels use Target Painters) so Incursions NPCs can do things like warp scramble, web, cap neutralize, and ECM jam all in the same site. They are also smarter then most NPCs... traditionally an NPC rat will simply shoot at you until you or it dies and not much else, Incursion NPCs will change target to whoever they see is easier to kill or is more of a threat.

WHs are a bit more of a step up and down depending on how you look at it. The Sleepers in WHs have the same dynamic targeting of the Incursion rats but don't change target quite as often. They will employ things like webs, warp scramblers and neutralizers but not much else aside from that afaik. The part that makes them a step up though is how you have to stay on your toes. All of WH space is considered 0.0 space so anyone can shoot you provided they get a target lock. In addition to that local is in a "delayed state" which means no one shows up in the local channel until they say something. This means that an entire fleet can be in system with you and you not know it unless you keep and eye on the scanner.

So that's pretty much it for PVE...

In PVP things get even crazier cause now players aren't tied to fighting in a specific location or site like NPCs are. You can be followed around a solar system, fall into a warp bubble, get hot dropped by capital ships, sniped at range, get stricken by any type of e-war, and most people make use of cap boosters to make sure their vital cap dependent modules stay online in a fight as well as there is overheating to push your weapons or hardeners over the edge to survive. The management of the capacitor levels, making sure guns don't take so much heat damage that they burn out, making sure you are are the correct range and have a optimal transversal velocity to them all in the heat of battle can make thing s quite hectic.

I've been playing since 2007 and still have an imperfect knowledge of game mechanics. EVE is just complicated like that.

Good luck.