I am a new player who would like to buy a ship that can do various missions. I don’t mind doing some mining or other mundane work to earn money, but will probably gravitate towards military or exploration work. I recently was killed in my intro mining frigate after unwisely trying to kill the rogue drones, so its clear that I need something more capable than what the early game supplies. There are so many ship types and options that it is overwhelming. I’ve got 180 million ISK to spend and would value ship type and outfitting advice.
Thanks.
Few questions.
(1) What race is your character? Do you have any preference of racial ship line? Are you Omega or Alpha status? Do you intend to switch between Omega and Alpha in the future?
(2) What are you intending to do with your ship? Frigates and cruisers are the bread and butter of exploration, but we’ve no idea what your goals are in terms of “military” work.
(3) When considering military work, which of your race’s weapon systems (Amarr = Lasers, Drones, Missiles; Caldari = Hybrids and Missiles; Gallente = Hybrids and Drones; Minmatar = Projectiles and Missiles) are you interesting in developing first?
Security missions up to Level 2 are well done in a Cruiser. The skills may be obtained within the first week. Also you need medium guns and medium armor/shield and propulsion modules. A well fitted Destroyer may do the job too, but I was very happy to buy my first Thorax (and not so happy to lose my first Thorax some days later).
Funny thing in EvE: There’s always better ships than those you have.
BTW: I recently went roaming in a venture, we managed to kill much bigger ships. It’s not the ship, but the fitter and the pilot who loses a fight 
I chose Minmatar, mostly at random, but I assume I can buy any type of ship, not just Minmatar.
I am Omega. I intend to remain Omega.
In other games I gravitate towards sniper/archer/remote shooter types.
I don’t care what type of weapon I develop first. I want a weapon system(s) that can deal with typical early game threats.
I’m thinking some stealth, good protection, decent weapons, … the ability to try various early game missions without being a sitting duck, or taking the lifetime of the universe to finish them is really what I want.
I am an adult and can spend some real world currency to buy more Plex if needed.
Thanks for your interest.
Hi Diesirae,
You’ll not find one ship that covers all tasks. And I’ll agree, the range is daunting. Quelza is right that it depends on your current skill sets, although long term you may cross train into different areas and races.
The most effective mining ships are made by ORE. Don’t underestimate the Venture, they are very effective for their price.
Each race has the same range of ships. Ignore any of the advanced (T2) ships at the moment - they are long training times and expensive. The basic, T1, hulls are very effective.
The hull bonuses tend to define the roles:
For Frigates,
There are combat oriented hulls with bonuses to damage from the weapons and to defences. The Punisher is a good example: a tough little combat focused ship.
There are exploration focused hulls with bonuses to scanning and hacking, such as the Magnate.
There are tacklers, such as the Executioner, with bonuses to warp disruption and speed - optimised to trap enemy ships.
There are support ships with bonuses to e-war (Crucifier) or remote repair (Inquisitor)
Destroyers are designed to fight frigates efficiently. With firepower rather than being defence focused.
The four cruisers each race has typically cover the logistic/repair role, an e-war specialist, a manoeuvrable damage dealer and a well defended combat ship.
Fitting a ship: play to its strengths and bonuses. So if a ship has bonuses for range and tracking then it’s probably a better long range damage dealer than a toe to toe brawler. If it can fit turrets and carry drones, but has bonuses for drones, then go for drones as the main damage dealing weapon. Play to the strengths.
Good resistances make repairers or shield boosters more efficient.
Eve University has good fits for all ships. You can get inspiration there. They also have a good general fitting guide.
I’ve given Amarrian examples. You can see the same patterns in the other races.
The only other consideration is over the main defence you have. Armour or Shield (don’t mix them). Amarrian and Gallente ships are normally armour fitted, Caldari ships and the Minmatar rust buckets are normally shield based. They both have advantages and disadvantages - it’s not that one is better than the other.
Mining ships are normally shield fitted.
There is no such thing as “the best ship” they all work well in their niches, with various strengths and weaknesses. Learning to play to those characteristics is one of the great challenges.
Costs: including fitting you need to budget
8m ISK for frigates,
15m ISK for destroyers,
30m ISK for cruisers.
The fittings are normally a lot more expensive than the empty hull.
The usual “don’t fly all your money in one ship” rule applies.
I hope the above is of use, if you are around Amarr EFA then say hello.
Eloise,
SFRIM.
No, I want a recipe that I can follow. Wahhhh! Just kidding. : ) Thanks for the advice. I had more or less convinced myself that it didn’t matter greatly at the start, but after being summarily dispatched I thought perhaps there were some magic formulas that I might need.
I am, btw, a physicist in real life and I find it strange that the ship dynamics are so wrong: Ships in space coast to a halt once the thrust is turned off? Maximum speed is that of a rifle bullet even when engines are burning full blast? Orbiting another ship? Bank to turn in a vacuum? Isaac Newton is turning over in his grave (I am willing to accept warp drives and star gates, just for the fun of the game, but Newtonian dynamics are easy, so why not use them?).
Sorry to be so ignorant, but what is Amarr EFA? What do you mostly do in the game? I’m happy to be an apprentice if you do fun things that I could help with.
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(a theoretical physics degree here - so I know what you mean. It’s more “underwater physics” than spaceflight.)
Hi,
Amarr in Domain is the central system of the Amarrian Empire. The Emperor Family Academy station above Oris (Amarr VIII) is the main trading station in the Empire. I run my industrial operation from there and work to further the Society’s work when I have time.
Happy to show you around the Empire, though you.may find it a fair journey from Metropolis.
Eloise,
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque.
All of those are game design choices rather than realism choices. Space flight is acceleration-based, but then combat devolves to c-fractional fly-by attacks, and there’s no fun in that. Weapon ranges being a few km (even lasers), ships stopping, etc., those decisions were made in order to force us to look at ship visuals rather than dots on a radar screen, and to be able to disable and catch prey in PVP. Because this is a game, and the devs are proud of their art assets.
Now, as for the ships, there’s a ship chart in-game; there’s a Windows-Start-Button-equivalent at the top of the bar on the left side of the screen, and you should find all the in-game apps there, including the Ships Chart. For out-of-game help, EVE University has a good wiki.
Briefly, the ships are as follows:
Tech 1 Ships - Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Battleship - versatile ships that can perform many roles, based on what’s fitted in their slots. Cheap, easily manufactured by players.
Pirate or Navy ships - enhanced versions of Tech 1 ships that offer extra fitting slots or extra performance, for exorbitant costs (for the ship itself). The cost is actually because of the player economy - acquiring these involves doing missions for the pirates out in low-sec or 0.0 space.
Tech 2 ships - Super-specialized versions of Tech 1, they focus on one task at the expense of huge vulnerabilities with everything else. These are usually for PVP, for fleets that need specific roles, with the fleet providing support and defense of said vulnerabilities. Relatively expensive, manufactured by players but require rare materials.
Tech 3 ships - gimmick ships - these usually have some built-in ability that usually requires a fleet to prep the stage for that ability to be used. Relatively expensive, manufactured by players, rare materials and blueprints.
PVE combat is about being able to survive wave after wave of NPCs, none of whom run away. You get hints of what you’ll be facing from the mission details, and you can even look up the full spoilers. For this, Tech 1 ships are the best, because you can refit them from mission to mission to match what you’ll be facing. In addition, missiles and drones are preferred over guns (lasers, projectiles, or hybrids) because you can load up the type of missile or drone that matches the mission NPC vulnerabilities. But guns work too if you prefer those. Each race has a lineup of Tech 1 ships, and to increase in “power” you’re looking at increasing in size, frigate to cruiser to battlecruiser to battleship. So, for PVE, look at the Tech 1 ships from your race lineup that are specialized with drones or missiles, or try the gun ships if you want.
PVP combat is a whole different matter, and it’s actually what the game focuses on. The ships are balanced in an overly-complex rock-paper-scissors system, so PVP combat is very fast, because you’re either facing the absolute nemesis to your ship (designed to kill you), or the perfect prey. Or a group that’s too large for you. In any case, PVP requires heavy strike DPS, maximized defenses from the start, and quite a bit of intel-gathering / spying / trying to figure out what you’ll be facing ahead of time. And it requires tackle, because everyone runs away at the first sign of actual danger to their ship. So the full spectrum of Tech 1 - 3 ships is used, in complex fleets that try to maximize power and minimize the vulnerabilities that each ship has.
To reduce the “options”, you should read some guides for fitting ships, because even versatile ships actually have a role (or a few), and fitting the correct modules and weapons for that role will make a huge difference in the performance of said ship.
So, here are some guides:
Youtube
Guide for new players
EVE University
Very briefly, it goes like this:
-
Decide what you want to do (combat, mining, etc.) and pick a ship that’s suited for it. Ship description should indicate what it’s generally intended for. A bigger ship isn’t necessarily better, because large weapons have trouble hitting small agile targets. You generally want a ship that’s about the same weight class (frigate, cruiser, battleship) as the enemies.
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For combat, decide if you want short range or long range, and fit the weapons for that range (each weapon system has a long range version and a short range version - for example rail guns and blasters are both hybrid guns).
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Support the range decision with propulsion (afterburner or MWD); you want to be faster than the enemies so you can control the range.
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Support the range decision with defenses. For frigates, speed = defense, but if you’re short range then you also want either a shield booster or an armor repairer so you can repair damage. For cruisers and bigger ships, they’re too slow to evade, and a full “tank” with repairer and resistance modules is required. For long range, you’re relying on staying out of range of the enemy guns, so fewer defenses are necessary.
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Install DPS-enhancer modules such as Heat Sinks, Magnetic Field Stabilizers, Gyrostabilizers, Ballistic Control Systems, or Drone Damage Augments in any remaining low slots. This is so you kill faster and thus eliminate damage done to you.
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For PVE, worry about capacitor, install Cap Recharger, or Cap Booster with charges, so you have energy for your weapons and defenses for wave after wave of enemies. Often there are no med or low slots left for this, so people use the ship’s rig slots for this.
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no academic degree here
i do Sister of EVE lvl 4 missions, do mining ice and ore, do building T2 ships
when i startet i saw a Stratios at a friends screen and i knew i need that ship https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Stratios
it has really good bonuses to ARMOR, DRONES and Medium Energy Turrets … all this is trained kind of fast or fast enough at least to T1 versions sou you can use meta versions of them
its a really good ship to do exploration too
but you need Amarr and Gallente Cruiser II for that ship
i was lucky to have a real life friend how gave me the plex he got for the invite he gave me … so i had the isk to buy and fit it … i planned the skilling (no injectors at that time) and then finaly i got it and used it … it worked out very well and i lost this first stratios about 10 months later at a exploration site
today i have like 15 different fitted strats and i dont know hpw many ships i have but the Stratios is one of my main ships … level 2 missions are no problem with it
if you need time to reach the Startios you can use an Astero … its the “same” ship in frigate size but it is a working horse too
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Astero
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Stratios
please skill cloacking to level 4 so you can cloack and warp … much safer and you can hop into low sec (LS) too without too much risk
feel free to ask if you need more info … you can contact me ingame too
hope you enjoy EVE … its a great game
fly safe
JuuR
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