I have been playing Eve for a little over a month and just wanted to share some of the things I have learned that I wish I had known when I started. I am sure nothing I put here is new. There are a TON of resources available to people learning about Eve, but finding that information can be time consuming. Below are some of the thoughts I had when starting Eve and some of the things I have learned, mostly from other players, since.
I made it through the tutorial, now what!?!
I can honestly say that undocking in my starter frig after completing the tutorial was nerve wracking. Learning Eve is very much like learning to swim by being dumped into the middle of a lake. Filled with sharks. From a helicopter. Naked. And being given a life preserver wrapped in barbed wire.
So, what do I do you may ask? Use what you are given! Take the barbed wire off the preserver and wrap it around your squishy bits so when the shark bites you it freaking hurts them too! Eve is full of life preservers for new swimmers. One of the best is chat. Your starter corp channel is full of other swimmers swatting at the sharks and doggie paddling madly for the nearest beach. Chances are they can offer advice on the safest routes through the lake and which types of shark are out hunting near you.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I have found that the people in Eve are, for the most part, extremely helpful and patient if you explain that you just got dropped in and have found yourself bleeding out from your death grip on the spiky, floaty thing they gave you.
Be respectful and ask for clarification if you need it. Eve has its own language and looking at the chat can be intimidating. When I first started, I felt like I was missing the magic book that would let me decipher the code in chat. The amazing, mind-bending, soul consuming ACRONYMICON! I wish! There are some websites that have help on all the acronyms, but again, just ask in chat if you don’t understand what someone means when they tell you your ship would be better if you lost the MWD and got an AB and, for goodness sake, drop the neut and add HAM. That’s where your bonuses are after all! And here I just picked the ship because it was pretty…
I was just minding my own business when BLAM… I’m dead.
It was bound to happen. You had deciphered some of the language and managed to put band aids on the worst of your wounds, but the sharks never sleep… Never stop moving… You WILL be killed. Probably a lot at first. So make the best of it! Again, chat is your friend. Do more than just send a quick gf o7 in local. Request a private chat with your murderer. Ask them what you could have done differently. Look at their info and see what corp they are in. Maybe it could be a corp you are interested in and now you have a potential contact there. Most of all, recognize that just because they killed you it does not mean they are a griefer. I joined one of my first corps after having a good convo following a ganking. I was the gankee, not the ganker. They were a dedicated FW pirate crew and some of the best people I have met while playing. They ended up teaching me a lot and I will always think fondly of them and wish them the best in their evil endeavors. Try to learn from each death. Get to know the various crews that fly in the space you like to mine, mission run, explore, etc. Hang in the pub channels for the local corps and keep on flying.
There are a million other things that a beginning player has questions about. The best advice I can give is to use the best resource in the game. The pilots! You have the answers to just about anything you need to know right in front of you when playing. I’m not saying you should blindly post in local or trust everything you see in chat. That is a recipe for disaster. But it is not hard to start conversations with other pilots and learn at the same time.
Be patient, save your isk, keep your skill queue full and fly safe!
