Hey guys, my name is Hutch. I am new to the game and have never played a game like this before. The main question I have is what are some things that one should master in the game. I currently don’t care about isk per hour. I just want to gain knowledge about the game and enjoy my time here. I plan on staying an alpha until I master the basics and understand the game.
Currently trying out market trading and finish all careers. I am also researching fw and ratting. Please feel free to help me learn the game of eve and enjoy it! One rule no fighting in this post, help me gain knowledge about eve please.
There are many career paths in EVE, though some will be blocked by your Alpha status. There is PvP, PvE, R&D, missioning, construction, exploration, trading, planetary interaction, mining, hauling, ganking, mercenary, etc…
You won’t be able to do planetary interaction as an Alpha, nor will you be able to research blueprints, use a cloak, or a multitude of other modules and ships.
EVE is a strategy PVP game. Your character trains skills in order to unlock and use various ships and their weapons / modules. The ships are tools, each has a role or special purpose, and you’re allowed to fly whatever ship you want (if you’ve unlocked it), but choose wisely. Combat isn’t like a lengthy martial arts scene you may see in recent movies, but rather about bringing the ships and the tech that match the enemy’s vulnerabilities, for a guaranteed win. Strategy, tactics. No ship is a superhero / overpowered / solo pwn mobile.
Initially you’ll be trying to master the game rules, and there are a few important topics you need to understand:
Later, similarly to Chess or other strategy games, you’ll need to switch from focusing on “how to move the pieces” to an overall strategy for “winning” (or, for this game, “having fun”). Switch from winning fights to winning the war / conquering the map / doing something. EVE allows solo play but isn’t a solo game, because anyone can bring friends into a fight at any time. So, making friends is definitely recommended, and since this is a sandbox game where you have to come up with your own goals and scenarios, joining a corp or alliance is also beneficial in that you can participate in their goals and scenarios, and not have to put in the effort of inventing your own.
EDIT:
The game doesn’t have its user interface configured all that well, the first time you start it. You should take some time to position the various windows, learn or change the keyboard shortcuts (press ESC for the game’s control panel), and reconfigure the Overview.
I think that too many players obsess about this sort of metric - the fact that you’re not letting it direct you is very likely a good thing!
This, too, I think is wise. There is plenty of scope within Alpha to test out directions and options. While there are certainly a few things that are closed to Alphas from the start, most aspects can be trained quite far before further progress is gated behind that Omega symbol. Granted, your skill training is slower in Alpha mode, but if you’re patient, this isn’t an issue.
Personally and overall, I think you’re already off to a fine start in terms of your approach and outlook. I found that in this game, being in a hurry doesn’t pay, having patience does - at least, this has been true for me. Taking things slowly and taking the time to savour all aspects, and all stages (because once you’ve outgrown a particular level of advancement/experience, you can never return to it anyhow) has been very satisfying, while I see impatient types who want to be doing “end-game content” in their first week winding up frustrated.
This is excellent advice! Also, I would strongly advise manually (as there is not actual feature for this) backing up your settings folders - every now and then, for some obscure reason, some part may wig out on you and you may want/need to restore your layout. Having to reconstruct it from scratch is something that would have even Kojak pulling out his hair. (The folder in question lives under user_folder/AppData/Local/CCP/EVE/_something_with_sharedcache_and_tranquility/ - I periodically back up the folders with “settings” in their names, and have needed to restore them several time over the past year, the most recent occasion being just two days ago!)
My starting recommendation for any newbie: Learn navigation and situational awareness before you do anything else. Pretend you are a rabbit - a prey animal - learn how to see, and how to run, before you learn how to fight.
Don’t worry about losing your starter corvette. EVE will hand you a free newbie corvette ship if you dock at a station in just your Capsule. So treat your starter ship as disposable tissue paper ships to learn the game with, test new HUD setups, etc etc.
NEVER USE AUTOPILOT. Manually warp everywhere. Autopilot dumps you far from the gate, easy pickings for other players.
Turn on the “Tactical Overlay” (left of the radial wheel) and never turn it off. It shows what direction your ship is going.
Get a better Overview immediately. A really good one can be found under the ingame E-menu, go to Social > Channels, join “Z-S Overview” without quotes. Follow the instructions there to install it.
Learn how to use both the Overview and the Directional Scanner. Put Local Chat up on the side of your screen so you can see how many, and who, are in the same star system as you. Think of Local as your earliest warning system, and D-Scan as a deep space searchlight to find where others might be … before they find you. Note: Local doesn’t work in Wormhole Systems (don’t go there until you’ve mastered everything else I’ve listed), and Cloaked ships don’t show up on Overview or D-Scan.
Learn how to make Bookmarks using the People and Places window. They can save your life and are used for a variety of purposes:
“Safe Spots” - Create one while warping
“Safe Undocks” - Instantly warp off upon undocking from a station (put one directly in front of the undock 100km or so away) to avoid station campers
“Pings/Perches” - Safely reach a stargate without running into a warp bubble (they knock you out of warp. put the bookmark 100km directly above or below the stargate)
If you warp into a system and find yourself surrounded by people, remember you are cloaked until you do something. If you don’t think you can warp off safely, run back to the gate and go back into the same gate you came in from.
Along those same lines, remember that your warp drive kicks in quicker if you’re already facing where you are going to go. “Pre-aligning” to a safe area is a good habit to get into.
