As the others have said, you WILL lose ships in Faction Warfare.
Here’s the thing though…
Losing the first few ships in PvP and getting used to it is probably the hardest thing to do in EVE.
A good number of players simply don’t or can’t used to the idea that a ship can be expendable like ammo or a drone.
This is not a bad thing… unless you are serious about getting into PvP. Which is what Faction Warfare is largely about.
As a newbie, you are more likely to lose more ships than others simply by virtue of being inexperienced and lacking skills.
This is okay. This is normal.
While you can’t do much in terms of skills (unless you spend large amounts of money on Skill Injectors (would not recommend)) you CAN compensate for your inexperience by teaming up with others and gaining experience through them.
12+ newbies with pitiful skills, but a solid plan is FAR more deadly than 4 or 5 veterans with max skills just lolling around by themselves.
So… here are my suggestions:
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Build up some ISK: Doesn’t matter how you do it. Missions, mining, scamming, begging, getting a sponsor, sucking someone’s- AHEM …
Make your goal about 15 to 20 million ISK. -
While doing things to achieve your ISK goal, do research. Research tactics and which ships excel in which category. Research their modules and how they are fit.
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Look up “zkillboard” as it has a record of many, MANY ship deaths… usually PvP related.
Note: Veteran PvPers can be quite vain about their killboard and will post most kills they make (and some losses they take). This is good for you as it basically make zkillboard a “library” of sorts. -
When you have your ISK and knowledge in hand, head to a tradehub and buy a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff.
Multiple frigates, modules, weapons, etc. -
After buying stuff, have it all moved to a high-sec system close to low-sec (or in low-sec if you are a “baller”). You will be looking for a place that sees little traffic… kinda inconvenient to get to.
If you feel uncomfortable doing this, you can hire someone to do it for you. Red-Frog Freight comes to mind. But you can also put a contract up on the market for anyone (just be sure to put up enough collateral and reward). -
PRE-FIT everyone in the configurations that you researched. Fill them up with ammo too.
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Set your clone to respawn in the station you are basing out of.
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Grab a ship and go into low-sec.
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Explore around with the idea that you will fight the first thing you see.
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Fight the first thing you see
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WHEN you die at the hands of a player, start a conversation with them and ask how you can improve.
Be friendly. Humor is a plus.
Keep building on this and eventually someone will take a liking to you. They may even recruit you.
Oh yeah… and below is a thread regarding Faction Warfare.
Basically the same rules as above plus a few that are specific to FW.