One of CCP’s biggest historical failures is not putting new players into actual corporations run by paid staff members. Most new players quit because they have no sense of purpose, and never manage to get to the stage where they find a group with which they identify. One of the main reasons why I tell fresh newbs to join groups like EVE University is not because they need to learn game mechanics (which can come naturally over time), but because I want them to get into an environment where they can start socializing right away instead of falling into the pit of despair that is so indicative of a lack of foresight with regard to the new player experience: EVE’s low-end PvE solo gameplay.
You should start looking for people to play with now, and not later, OP. And I highly advise against joining any group that focuses entirely on PvE, and especially groups like that that are also very large. The very first thing you should do when vetting them is to look them up on kill boards, and if it’s all losses and no kills, discard them. Then, past that point, look for the best fit in terms of active time zones and activity preferences.
I think the expectation was new players would do the agent missions to get a taste of what the game offers, then pick something to focus on. Maybe do epic arch stories too for some hands-on experience. EVE is a VERY experience based game.
Keep pushing that PVP stuff…
Jeez. Not everyone in the game is into the kill-Kill-KILL.
I would modify your comment to say if they have lots of losses very often. Anyone can have a spurt of bad luck. And a few losses every couple of weeks/months is no biggie.
I’m not talking about “a few losses.” I’m talking about kill board statistics that would indicate that the corporation’s leadership is negligent/incompetent and not giving members good information and advice. Seeing repeated suicide-gank hauler or mining barge losses, or non-combat losses in unsafe areas of space is highly indicative that the directors have no idea what they’re doing, or simply don’t care enough to mentor their newer members.
Newbies have to want to be mentored, ask questions before acting, and generally seek out the help.
A lot of new players want to dive in head-first and eyes closed. I think they figure it can’t be harder than Call of Duty or whatever, a few loses now and then at the start but I’ll be a pro in no time. And that’s not EVE.
It’s a tricky combination of wanting and seeking help vs. taking your own initiative.
Hint, focus on Sansha relic sites in nullsec. Stain, Providence, and adjacent regions. Learn how to travel by wormholes (including Thera, Pochven) and safely in nullsec. With a bit of training this should net you at least 100M/h, but more importantly you will learn a lot about EvE mechanics. With time and careful reflection on mistakes you will die less. Next build up a PI farm in NPC nullsec for some side income.
For groups to join, I second what was said before, look for PvP oriented players. From them you can learn how to survive in New Eden and as PvP consumes ISK also how to make ISK the least boring way.
EVE isn’t real life and all those trolls will pounce on telling you that if you even give a real-life example so you can wait a long time if you’re “eager to hear it”.
That only works for concepts that they’re aware of, but don’t yet understand. For example, someone who isn’t aware that something like high-sec ganking is a thing isn’t going to ask about how best to avoid it, because they don’t know that it exists. And that’s a very common problem in EVE; there are many concepts in the game that are hard to even imagine exist, unlike other games where there’s an expectation of certain game mechanics based on experience with other games. That’s why in EVE proactive teaching takes precedence over proactive learning for the grand majority of the player base, excluding the inquisitive elites.
No one needs to be taken by the hand and shown everything, but groups like EVE-Uni, Brave, and Pandemic Horde (I think) have various classes and tutorials. Also, I’ve been in many corporations (including those I’ve infiltrated for intel for future targets that in many cases I ended up helping), and I’ve met leaders who were actually very proactive and accessible in terms of teaching members about the game. Most, and in particular those you can find running high-sec carebear corporations, are not good leaders and teachers. That’s why telling new players to join a corporation without providing at least some advice on how to filter the good ones from the rest is a bad idea. Joining a crappy high-sec carebear corporation can actually do more harm than good to a new player, because they’ll end up hearing stuff like “we just got a wardec, everyone log off and go play a different game for a week” or get yelled at for losing a ship instead of getting an explanation with regard to what happened and how to avoid it in the future.
If you want to make money, stick with the exploration in the short term, and as I think someone said above, work on PvE combat skills. I can’t comment on joining a corporation as I’m playing solo and haven’t joined one yet.
I started in June and found that my best earner was exploration in low-sec and wormholes, followed by gas huffing in low-sec (between 15 and 40 million ISK per hour, depending on the type of gas). Kept dying, but by dropping off loot regularly at NPC stations I was earning multiples of my ship value before it got blown up. I’ve only ventured into null sec a couple of times, but find that I prefer low’s risk v. reward and that it just seems better for solo living. I found Dad Dex’s videos on using an alpha heron in a wormhole very useful in working out how to go about exploring in relative safety.
Doing this, I first plexed my account in August, and I’m now plexed through to the middle of January. You can earn plenty of ISK to allow you to do what you want, just from a heron and some T1 PvE ships.
(And yes, I’ve been using a Drake regularly in low-sec to do anything up to Chemical labs and DED 4/10s. Again, for every one I’ve lost I’ve usually used it to earn 10 times its value. And, in losing them I’ve learned how to avoid becoming prey and how to deal with harder combat sites. I even take it into wormholes and clean up on blue loot (but don’t recommend it to start with).)