I started my first alpha in March. Yesterday I let my ship fly back empty to Dodixie on autopilot for the first time. This morning I mined Veldspar for a half an hour while reading my Bible. I’m training my character on ‘Drones - 5’ which takes over a week… a first. It feels strange not to have reassign skills all the time. I feel like I’ve reached a new place as a player. I’m sure many of you have great ‘stages of growth’ stories when you knew you had passed a milestone of some kind. I sure I’m not the only ‘new citizen’ who would appreciate hearing a war story or two that resulted in a new level of player maturity.
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Road Trip – Going to Curse
https://forums-archive.eveonline.com/topic/252959/
My first great adventure in EVE. Post 19 is where I tell what happened to me on the trip.
People were incredibly helpful.
I went there, and came back…in an atron. 
(The same one, even.)
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When I first learned to fly a drake over a decade ago
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When I first hit 30 million SP, at the time as a solo lowsec pvper, I felt like I’d broken a barrier that allowed me to fly just about everything I needed/wanted to.
I wish I still had that feeling.
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Losing my first half billion in an Atron in Rancer, blown up even before warp was finished by several smartbombs… That was a shock, but I was able to afford the loss, so I felt like entering a new level.
I’m avoiding Rancer when hauling ever since, btw.
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The first time I came back to HS from WH in my imicus with more than 500M in my cargo hold (My wallet was around 50M). I didn’t know anything about WH and I was lost for days.
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Couple memorable ones, first cruiser (thought I was pretty deadly). first WH explored, playing cat and mouse with some pirates then escaping them while they were chasing me after I gate crashed them while I was trying to get back to hi sec.
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My first death race. That was fun.
Going on a pilgrimage to the eve gate. That was cool.
Discovering scanning and the huge part of the game that opened up. That was amazing.
I’ll help you out, friend, just because I’m a nice guy…er…gal…
Extract all your SP and contract them to me along with all your stuff. You will have that feeling again as you build back up.
No, no - no need to thank me so much. I’m just glad to help you.
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I’d say my two major points is when I first started to PvP, and when after many years, I finally got my first capital ship.
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Here’s a few for me, in no particular order:
- The first time I realized I was answering more questions than I was asking.
- The first time I lost a ship and didn’t feel remotely bad about it.
- The first time I realized that ISK is just a means to an end not a goal unto itself.
- The first time I had a ganker come after me and didn’t get mad at them (we’re both doing our thing).
- The first time I looked in my hangar and thought “I need to get rid of some of this” instead of “I need to get more”.
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- Lots of playing the game.
- Playing the game with occasionally visiting the forums
- Visiting the forums with occasionally playing the game
- Just forums.
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Just going to list a couple of the most memorable ones for me in my years of playing:
1 - Getting into my Proteus and being able to run level 4 missions in it. I am a Gallente player who loves the aesthetic and playstyle of Gallente ships, and the minute my friend introduced me to Strategic Cruisers, I was enamored with the little lump of lumpy lumps that loved blasters. It took me months to get into, and I saved like a mad-person for it. It is -still- one of my favorite ships to fly in after all these years.
2 - Using Blockade Runners to move things and explore in low-sec. I was a huge carebear when I first started, and am not always up for PvP, but I love exploration - just going into places. Using my Blockade Runner to safely watch as our POS in Low-Sec was destroyed, and feel at ease both losing that resource to reach out to the guys who were hired to destroy our research station and just have a casual chat about how pretty watching stations blow up was. Watching us lose our POS and having a chat with the guys doing it in low-sec space was a supremely surreal experience for me, and it’s still one of my fonder memories. I made friends with at least one of those aggressors for a little while after that event, which I think is the best part of the whole experience.
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I was a rather new player, about 6 months old, running level 3 missions in my Myrmidon. I was also under a war dec, but I don’t think much of it.
After finishing a mission I was met on gate by a member of the aggressing Corp, I jumped through the gate trying to get back to my station on the other side of course there were 2 more, I only remember one of the ships it was a Cynabal, the warp scrambled me and began to attack, I returned fire and got the Cynabal into about 50% armor and they started to burn away from me at that point I though I had a chance to make it, I foolishly tried to recall my drones and warp to dock, this is when I lost the fight with the Cynabal.
After I woke up back in station I quickly bought some learning implants with the LP I had made up to that point and contemplated if EVE was a game for me.
After a few minutes I realized what I had done wrong, what I should have done, and what I could do to continue to enjoy the game.
The War Dec was my turning point in EVE in regards that I learned that almost everything in EVE is replaceable and not to sweat losses, they are easy to recover from.
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My first milestone was the amazing players I came in contact with in my first alliance which happened to be in nullsec (Phoenix Coalition, FUBAR) maybe 3 years ago. Two players i remember in particular who were so helpful: one gave me lots of tips about how to make isk in nullsec as a beginner player and what skills I should train, and the other would always scout me to and from highsec at the drop of a hat through wormholes. It’s wonderful to have these memories of people who were so kind to you back when you were brand new and inexperienced. I can’t remember either of their names, but the memories are more important. I miss being in a corp like that.
I have other milestones, but I think this is the most important one - learning about sharing and caring for other players, rather than all the loud, big explosive and expensive stuff.
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My first major step of growth was probably when I came back from the nullsec renter corp I had joined in 2016 and left in 2017. I was bored of us just docking up and doing nothing when hostiles came into our pocket. Bored of the PvE.
I secretly moved all my stuff out to high sec through a wormhole in a Bestower, and put the rest on a public contract. When I was done I wrote a mail to the corp to say goodbye. I had only one ship left, which was a Pilgrim, fit for pvp and I entered a wormhole chain.
I scanned for a while and after a couple hours logged off. The next day I came accross a ballsy Astero who continued to hack after knowing I was there since I tried to catch him multiple times. Of course my cruiser was to slow to get him…
I ended up having a chat with him, and after the days I had roamed around without finding much I agreed to fight a Gila with my Pilgrim. A classic 1v1 at the sun.
Of course, I lost.
The wormholers invited me to join the corp and after thinking a bit about it, I did.
Sadly RL demanded much attention, and I did not have the time to commit, necessary to keep playing in wormholes. So I left and went back to high-sec, meanwhile skilling into T3C’s for PvE day tripping.
During the time in high sec I would join public fleets and make mistakes like that:
At this time this was a major loss for me and I still send the bulk of my ISK over to an alt so I won’t make such pricey mistakes ever again. But the fact that I could afford it, signaled a major step in my player career: I was able to buy the ships I wanted to fly without thinking much about the ISK anymore.
Fitting a Drake to take part in a public fleet? No big deal but greatly worth the investment.
I gave away the ship to a newbie later.
The next major step was when I joined my current Alliance, Blades of Grass in 2018.
This is actual null sec life with SOV and structure warfare, great level of organization, coalition sized fleets, caps, high-level industry and all the other stuff you find in null. We don’t dock up when hostiles enter our space, we form. Compared to the time living as a renter, it’s quite an improvement. I also learned a lot about structures and how fleets work in the last months and also a bit about solo pvp.
Industry is also a thing my knowledge improved on but I’m still far from the spreadsheet madness other people manage to pull off. But with the right T1 stuff it’s easy to generate a steady flow of income. I have also built my own carrier to rat in, but just as before, PvE became boring quickly.
Still, the last months have produced a couple of stories worth mentioning:
I still want to get better at solo and small-gang pvp. So I think about going back into wormholes again or maybe low sec.
You are the sum of your experience and knowledge after all.
Edit: Now that post turned out to be longer than expected…
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I’ve gotten into a kind of weekly rotation of ‘alts’… mine and train… then explore and train… faction warfare and train… good times
First loss over 50M. Good times {smile}
Guess my new PvE build wasn’t up to snuff… did jump back in with a well shielded and armored Nereus and collect what survived. Time to lick my wounds and rebuild with my Imicus.
I feel like your badge of honor as far as maturing as a player goes is directly correlated with how long you’ve been playing. Like, as long as you play, you make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes while continuing to play, you begin to age as a player… and potentially as a human.
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Hacked my first ‘Ghost Site’ yesterday and got out with 12 Million Iske worth of cargo but lost 4 drones in my haste. Now I know what to look for if anything is I scan down is named “-size- -faction- Covert Research Facility”.
players losing drones… is good business. Newbros or Vets, all lose drones, now that you know that manufacture and sell them (as a mini source of making isk). 
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