8 Golden Rules for EVE Online

New Citizens Q&A
423

My advice is as follows;

  • Avoid caldari highsec completely, or at least until you have something of value to sell in jita.
    If you do plan to sell in jita, fly t1 hauler and tank it as best you can without penalty to your align/warp. Add speed boosts so you’re not at any gate for an extended period of time.
  • Avoid nullsec at all costs for at least the first 6 months. As a new player, you are not equipped to handle the npc pirates alone, and you will have to pay attention to a lot of things to avoid losses.
    As a t1 pilot, you have no place in any fleet operation, outside of maybe pandemic horde.
    You can learn voice comms etiquette from hundreds of highsec corps, and have plenty of fun while you prepare for possible nullsec life.
    Also, keep in mind there is no financial benefit to going to null at this point. Ore has been nerfed to only a few types, and moon rocks are very cheap and take a lot of room. “Ratting” has also been nerfed, so if you happen to get into it in a “safe” area, chances are you’re losing isk to the ess due to over"ratting" in the system.
  • Do not treat your ship as expendable. It will take hours of unrelated work to regain the money to replace your ship. Once you are financially secure, consider all ships as already blown up. Get what you can out of them before that eventual loss.
  • Do not, under any circumstances train for battle cruisers or above. You are wasting your time, money and aspirations. IF and only if you plan to do higher end missions or faction war should you consider larger ships. Stick to the smaller, cheaper ships.
  • Do not, under any circumstances consider wormhole life until you’re a paid player, and have trained and understand how to use all the appropriate skills. Alphas should never consider wormhole life. Remain in highsec and only take trips into wormholes to get that sweet loot.
    Find a couple of ships you like in the ship tree and train Specifically for them. Only after you can fly them, should you train the "magic 14’.
  • Completely and unequivocally ignore jita local chat. It is literally nothing but scams and spam.
  • Do not join a player corp until you’ve had conversations in game and on comms like discord. Take your time, and choose a group that you like, and had benefit for you. Your corp history matters, and can prohibit you from future engagement with larger, better equipped corporations. Npc corp charges 11% tax, but Only on npc pirate bounties of 100,000 isk or higher. You are unlikely to experience any income loss to that in highsec.
  • Remember that this is just a game. This one hits home for me. I’ve been playing for 3 years and have held grudges against entire groups of people for petty things that the game intends to happen.
    No group of people is bad. They all have their own playstyle, goals, and enjoy content to various degrees. Vet them before you decide if you want to interact with them.
  • If you never fly a ship you can’t afford to lose immediately, you will never fly a ship in eve. Expect loss. It’s built into the game we play.
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424

Why put things in containers? It doesn’t hide the contents from a cargo scanner, and the container as a whole is rolled for the loot drop instead of each individual piece of cargo inside it.

425

I’ve never ganked, but as I understand it, you force the ganker to make an extra click to see what’s inside. So if that’s true, multiple containers, multiple clicks. A couple of all important seconds.

426

Then you haven’t truly lived!

1 Like
427

That is not true. The containers are invisible to a cargo scanner - their contents show up, but the containers themselves aren’t listed. I suggest reading up any given subject through a reputable source, such as EVE Uni, before giving new players advice, especially if the subject is one you only have second- or third-hand knowledge of.

428

This is bad advice.
There are Newbro roams cruising through nullsec in cheap destroyers being able to kill NPC gaterats and even some other player’s ships, where new players learn a lot about using their ships, comms and interaction. And it’s also fun!

429

First question : Are these “Golden rules” CCP’s or from some “random” player(s) ?

Second:

Hmmm, I see a contradiction there.
First, “Harassment” is not prefixed with “real-life” like “real-life threats” is. So meaning that in-game harassment would be considered “not ok” and qualifies for a “shiny ban”.
But, the previous “golden rule” says scamming and unethical behavior is “not only allowed, it is encouraged”.

So, what about gankers who ask for “protection money”, or “money for a permit” to do whatever they don’t like you to do without their permission ? Like we, miners, do exist, and they don’t like it.

I’m not fully fluent in English, but attaking people and then ask them money to have a permit and be safe from them, is this a form of scam (allowed) and/or unethical behavior (allowed) or a form of in-game harassment (not allowed) ? And if I’m stupid enough to “feed the bear” and give them the 1 or 10M isk they ask for “permit” or “protection money”, I might just get scammed as the gankers may never honor the “deal”, and “You”, whoever “You” are writing this Golden Rule, says this is “encouraged”.

Because extortion is a thing in this game, and it seems to be not only allowed, but encouraged.

Now, I already made my word not to renew my Omega over the stupid implementation of Triglavians in High Sec gate camping and killing people in front ot Concord and Faction Navy without any consequence for them. All good, I already know the fanbois love this, no need to tell me. Clock is ticking, March 23rd is coming fast (end of Omega).

Now these stupid “golden rules” is having me thinking to just quit the game altogether, especially since I’m new and have not yet built any attachment to the game thus far. There is so many other games to spend good times (and money), without beeing forced into pvp and extortion down my throat and up my butt. And no, fanbois, I’m not asking for sympathy. You won’t miss me, and I won’t miss you.

This is a whole another subject, I guess, but the whole thing of gankers in high sec is ridiculous to me. And same as the Triglavian gate-camping : you may try to explain me during 100 years, I’ll only see non-sense spilling out of your mouth. Now, the criminal status last 15 minutes only, and during that time the criminal (let say a Gallente in a Caldari high sec space) can safely dock in a freaking Faction NPC “Navy Assembly Plant” station and use their manufacturing and fitting facility to reload for the next gank attack on a most prabably Caldari “citizen”. So the criminal is free to dock and use the facilities of an enemy faction station (the idea of Faction is thus BS in the game and really just decide what ship you are proficient with when you start on day 1). No penalty to the foreign criminal besides the loss of his ship to Concord, and a kill rights 99% of pve-ers will never use against them, because killing their attacker’s *nth 5-10M isk destroyer they use to kill your Retriever is not going to hurt them. They already have tons of them ready to fly (or manufacturing in the same station as you are dock at), and one lost in retaliation is not gonna hurt them. And it will not pay back your own lost ship either. If their was real consequence for gankers in high sec, like not being able to dock in a faction station, and a fine relative to the lost ship value (no need to send that ISK to the victim, just to draw it from their wallet and/or from their Corp wallet if they don’t have the ISK themselve). Then maybe their would be some sensical implementation in the game. But I understand this game favors, encourage, pvpers ganking pveers since 2004 apparently, so I’m not going to expect any change.

430

It is.

I think you basically answered your own question. ‘Harassment” is largely an out-of-game thing and does not apply to the normal, in-game competition and gameplay which is an open war and economy simulator.

Well clearly your expectations are in alignment with this game. There are a few core ideas he game was built upon, things like:

“Death Matters”

Or

“Nowhere is safe”

Watch some of Hillmar’s fireside chats in the last few years on the CCP YouTube channel if you want to hear a description of how the game was conceived to work, or maybe read something like this:

https://www.deadendthrills.com/fire-and-ice-the-cold-heart-of-eve-online/

Or even the guide put out by CCP:

especially chapter 7 here.

However, I guess what you are looking for is fundamentally at odds with the basic idea of an full-time, open world PVP sandbox game. If you really do understand what the game is about and it doesn’t click with you or intrigue you, it’s probably best to move on as you’ll never be happy.

With all that in mind, the Golden Rules in the OP make total sense.

2 Likes
431

It is not bad advice. It is good advice, but is bad for predatory null groups that like to suck up new players.

  • There is no financial incentive to go to null. Between ore nerfs and ratting nerfs, a new player will find themselves competing with veteran players and getting little profit, with a large investment.
  • Corp/alliance buybacks pay 90% jita, usually, and a new player is only capable of small quantities. For the risk and time, they’re better served mining in highsec.
    In null, an alpha is still limited to a venture, which will be popped by any rat in null. In highsec, they can kill the rats with only marginal risk, which lowers as they train up. Risk vs reward vs limitations.
  • Moon rocks hold little value and take a lot of space. Many indy corps require moon mining, and a lot of them require the ones with any actual value be handed over to corp for free.
  • Ratting for a new player can’t be done alone. It will take time and a lot of isk to get to the point of taking on sites alone and expecting profit.
  • With any of those activities, you also need to be in comms all the time and paying attention to intel channels, while also trying to learn the eve interface. The learning curve is real, and new players are frustrated by it.
3 Likes
432

Well, going to Nullsec and living in Nullsec doesn’t have to be the same.
For a solo Newbro, Nullsec is very hard, that’s perfectly clear, also for a Carebear you describe: “financial incentive”, “mining”, “ratting” - it’s a game, not a job! So I say you should not be scared and “avoid at all costs”, but explore and learn, also in Nullsec.
Pod Express doesn’t mind where to start its journey :wink:

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433

Thats exactly why I say rookies need to avoid nullsec. People like you are looking for easy killmails, corps are looking for meatbags to take a hit while they get their kills.
Yes, it’s a video game, not a job.
That being said, when you die you have to rebuy whatever you plan to use. That means there needs to be financial incentive that out weighs the eventual loss. If you’re always losing, you eventually stop.

434

After I got killed for the first time inLowsec, the killer gave me 50m ISK after chatting.
If I kill a Newbro in our wh in his Heron (i.e. in a Newbro Corp for a few days or weeks), he receives more than enough ISK to buy a new one - not all of us are just evil.
Once a Newbro just opened and grabbed my loot in a highsec site while I was still ratting in a Gnosis - two volleys, and his Merlin was stardust. But then we started chatting and together we’ve fitted a new and better one.

My first kills in EVE were four mobile warp disruptors, which we found on a roam in Nullsec - I was not alone, but in a group flying cheap Newbro-Talwars, but not in the corp with a task, but kind of a preschool adventure. We started in Highsec and I lived in Highsec, but the roams through nullsec were really thrilling and fun, and there was much to learn.
So don’t be scared, everything will be fine, even if you lose ships and clones.

To be honest, I pay for that game, so from a RL point of view I “lose” money.
My ISKs are not considered part of my wealth, but part of my hobby, and if I want more, I have to learn how to generate more, like PI or trading. And now I have enough ISK to buy a shiny ship from time to time, but as a carebear, I don’t lose much either - I still fly my first Epithal and Noctis. But sometimes there’s someone more cunning, and my Dominix gets killed - pity, but part of the game. So I had to go mining another week to BUILD a new one, just for fun.

TLDR: Losing ships is part of the game, in fact it’s the heart of the game.

435

I am aware that losing ships is part of the game.
My advice is to limit exposure to those losses until you have a solid financial base.
There are career missions, then regular missions, epic arcs, mining, exploration, pi etc to learn in highsec while also building the proper skills to survive in null if that’s your choice.
I’ve seen many rookies go to null, lose ship after ship because they aren’t skilled enough to survive.
All those skills, both character and player can and should be developed before you go into a situation that is ruthless.
A few people here and there that offer compensation and advice is great, and I applaud you for it, but that doesn’t change the other people that are completely and utterly out for blood.

436

Better advice would be ‘Don’t expect to survive as a solo player in null in your first six months’ rather than to blanket avoid it. There are corps who do low/null/WH roams specifically to get new players used to PvP engagements, losing ships (usually these are SRP’d fleets, so the financial hit is negligible - just have to re-buy ammo), and taking part in fleet maneuvers (what various terms mean, how to use the fleet menu, how to configure and read the combat-set overview, and as players advance/are interested, how to scout/logi/etc). We’ve taken hours-old players on roams and had a blast, whetting their appetite for PvP and helping them connect with the right players to mentor them toward additional PvP combat opportunities - solo or in fleets.

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437

That is better advice, thank you. I will edit.
I absolutely love the rookie friendly people that help them acclimate to eve life. I wish there were more like you.

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438

There are at least three alliances with major high sec presence and new player engagement I can readily name that do this - probably more. It’s nit like the corp I am in is alone in this. The trouble is the corp finder is pretty trash at connecting players to these corps organically - you basically have to rely on word of mouth (or spamming new players with EVE mails; or haunting Rookie Chat endlessly, without actually advertising because that’s not allowed; or keeping recruiter alts in all the NPC corps constantly) to get the information in front of new players. It’s one of the parts of CCP’s NPE in desperate need of an overhaul.

439

I was surprised to find this out, it’s actually brutal, I lost quickly and died. If they, whoever they were, could have market podded me I think they would have.

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440

I love this.
Reading stuff people said in response to it is really entertaining, most, if not all seem to have missed the most important part, and it’s the second word in your statement.
“Violently”.
That’s the key thing, it could be read as “if I undock and you attack me I’m going to blow you the hell up for it”. A lot of people seem to have gotten the idea that you were saying that you should be able to fly with impunity, but that’s not how I read it.
“I don’t “consent” to being blown up, and will fight back” is how I saw this, and it’s one of the rules I live by.
Sometimes it even works.

441

Which is why the vast majority of players quit within weeks to taking the game up.

442

Yeah, EVE is dying. For 18 years now - happy birthday!