When I started I picked my ancestry and a school. How much do these matter? If I chose something more military, would i be a better fighter, etc?
Also, is there a way to change my character’s name?
Lastly. Once I get to a point where i can actually attack someone, are we supposed to be leaving our chosen race alone, as if they are allies or something? That is, is there a penalty for attacking someone of your own race?
Thanks.
It doesn’t matter.
Nope.
You can attack anybody. Make your own rules.
You can create another toon in the same account though and just start a new career. Be aware only one of them can be skilled at a time, for parallel skilling you need to purchase MCT (multiple character training).
Your starting skills maay fluctuate a teeny bit here and there (like… a few hours worth of training in terms of difference).
Otherwise no. All races, ancestries, and schools can (in theory at least) become just as good as any other character from any other background.
One thing that makes EVE kinda cool is that…
Nope. Pick your name carefully because this will be how you build a “reputation.” And because power mostly comes from being social, “reputation” is everything.
Technically you can attack anyone right now. 
Whether you will be effective is a different story.
Though… technically you COULD be effective within a day. But only within certain situations.
Unless you are role playing… anyone and everyone is “equal” as far as the game mechanics are concerned.
If your fellow Minmatar brother or sister smacktalked you or… gods forbid… scuffed up your brand new turret… you could attack them and it would be no different than if you attacked an Amarrian slaver scum.
But PvP in general is a whole other subject and one that can’t really be distilled into a single post.
There are many, MANY mechanics behind it.
TLDR: Race is only a “flavor” in EVE. There are no arbitrary mechanical benefits or repercussions regarding race, bloodlines, or schools.
Choose your race based on looks/backstory you prefer.
Likewise… choose your ships based on what you like.
Example: I am a Gallente of Gallente ancestry.
I was once part of the Minmatar Militia (Faction Warfare).
I killed players regardless of race… sometimes in Amarrian ships… sometimes using Gallente drones or Caldari Fleet ammunition… and often swapped down to Minmatar frigates on suicide runs against people using Gallente ships in Caldari space.
I did mining for awhile. I explored. Manufactured. Scouted. Transported.
My character’s past is no limitation for what I want to do. 
TL:DR
No, Yes, Sort Of and It depends on what you want.
Which is a very Eve answer.
The bit you now don’t need to read:
A lot of good answers here - basically, if you view this as a game of internet spaceships then your initial character selection has almost no impact - and definitely no long term impact.
There are initial slight tweaks, a Caldari character will have level II in shields and armour, the others have Level III armour and Level I shields, but that is only a difference of a few hours to level out either way - the start just reflects the preference of the Caldari for shield fitted ships.
(in which case why don’t the Minmatar get “sticky tape III” as an initial skill??)
You get basic skills in the faction specific ships, Amarr Frigate I for Amarrian characters and Small Energy Turrets I - the Amarr weapon of choice. But you can buy the other racial weapon and gunnery skills cheaply enough. And you get the skill for the relevant racial hauler so you can lump stuff around if you have the urge.
An Amarrian character starts in Amarr space, Caldari in Caldari space, the Gallente in a brothel somewhere and the Minmatar in a state of general victim-hood. But you can always better yourself - unless you are Amarrian where you’ve started as god’s chosen already (it’s a high perch, try not to fall off it).
There is no limit to who you can attack or defend or your objectives except those you place upon yourself. You drive all of what you do and what you want out of Eve - it never holds your hand and says “your next objective on the step to Hero status is to get the Golden Sword of McGuffinism to enable you to defeat Ming the Not Happy without killing any of the villagers”. Real life doesn’t do that. Why should Eve?
The name you choose when you create the character is the name you will keep for that character for your entire life in New Eden. You may have thought of something humorous, but it’s like naming your son: “Sunshine Moonflower” may have sounded really sweet - but imagine when he becomes Head of Engineering at a respected Technology Company: “Mr Moonflower” signing his name “Yours, Sunshine” isn’t possibly the image he would hope for. particularly if he turns out six-foot five and built like a brick outhouse. OK Sunshine?
You can not change your name, gender or racial characteristics. You can resculpt your body at a price.
The decisions you make in Eve are permanent; there’s no ability to undo or roll-back to a “game save”. It is this that makes Eve a rare game - more like life - and that’s why it appeals to many players.
The first of these decisions is “Who are you?”
There is one important aspect: Eve has a deep lore and history. It is a place where people can take up the role of their character and play it as a role playing game, mentally or openly writing in back stories for their characters. This is Role Play in the more free flowing D&D nature than in the Skyrim pre-programmed paths and options nature. Players engaging freely with a wider narrative. A fair few players do this to a greater or lesser extent with greater or lesser levels of seriousness. The game mechanics of standing with the different factions supports this - work steadily for Amarr and eventually you’ll be PNG’d in Minmatar and Gallente space (stroppy buggers).
There are corporations and alliances that operate on an “in character” basis, engaging with the story-lines reacting and participating in events. Amarrian is probably the most active, but there are groupings within the other races - some of the largest battles in High Security space have been RP driven (and don’t suffer from the “and then someone dropped Capitals on us” problems). Many of these RP player entities will have additional rules that restrict what you may or may not do and are among the oldest player organisations in New Eden - CVA - Curatores Veritatis Alliance - down in Providence are a good example of that: attempting to bring the Amarrian Reclamation to areas of Null Sec. space, but RP groups operate across all securities, hi, low and null, and regions of space.
Well, that became a long introduction and rather more “what is Eve?” than the original question asked.
However if you want to live here, the most important thing I can say is “Welcome to New Eden”.
By His Light and His Will,
Terak Romaller.
Quoting for emphasis.
I think I’ll use this whenever someone ask “what can I do in EVE.”
Heh. McGuffinism. 
TL:DR - lots of rambling from Terak.
I sympathise with CCP’s problem with new players - virtually all games do the hand holding “do this mission/task” thing and so players come to Eve with that expectation. They get a nice tutorial set of missions - a linked story (like Skyrim, Like GTA, like a million and one other open world games) and at the end of it there’s no “and now to continue your story go to see Fred who will give you your next task, or see Joanne who has some wood that needs chopping, or help with Fredric’s vampire problem”. Eve just leaves you in your ship in a station with a “good luck” (it’s a while since I did the NPE - I vaguely recall a “you might want to fight for the Empire in the war” as well). And then the player is thinking “what do I do now?”
At that point the player wanders off to play something else.
Of course, those of us that have been here for years understand this self-direction thing well (we are a self selecting sample of possible players) and have a way of living in New Eden (Eve is less a game more a “simulation of living”) - we know how the world functions, we’ve found our niche - we are used to Eve Life. And that makes us a really bad judge of “do this, do that”. It’s like telling your child “you must go to University to be successful in life - if you do not go to university then you are doing life the wrong way” (replace “university” with “nul-sec” and you’ll see what I mean).
It is hard to say to your child “live your life in a way that makes you happy” if their way to happiness isn’t the traditional one you took - one that matches your societal norm. Happiness is a vague thing and different to different people.
It’s inappropriate for me to tell you how to be happy.
I might be disappointed if your happiness is being a cat murderer. But that’s my problem, not yours.
If you ask me for advice, I’ll give it (I’m an opinionated old fogey at heart) - but it is always going to be coloured by my experience. I can’t (OK: shouldn’t) tell you “you must”, but I’ll try to advise, explain the pitfalls before you hit them, or suggest alternatives and other ways of approaching things.
In exchange you are fully allowed to ignore me.
Anyway: That’s why CCP have implemented the Agency - it is a place you can point new players to give them missions and things do do. And of course, to those that don’t need that pointer (because we are that self selecting bunch of Old Eve Players) it’s “why have CCP wasted time…”. - we don’t need it, but new players - those used to having the pointers in other games - do.
I’d never want to see a long “you are the saviour of New Eden” type single player arc in Eve - that’s not what Eve is. It has no end: the world you live in may evolve (I’m interested in where the Triglavian Invasion is going) and I’ll adapt to it the best I can (based on forum whining some players seem to have a problem adapting to change!).
If you’ve ever played something like Skyrim or GTA did you carry on playing it after you finished the main story? Did you carry on playing it after you had done all the side missions as well? (you little completist you!). Eve starts at that point where most people end playing a game.
But that whole transition from being “propelled through the tutorial mission arc to learn the mechanics” to becoming uniquely Self Driven Eve is hard and an unusual experience for a game player, and where I suspect most player losses happen. That’s a hard jump compared to traditional Open World and MMO games.
It is (opinion piece here) an obligation on the established players to welcome in and support these new players - to help them with that jump from hand-held playing to living in New Eden wherever and however that new player wants. They don’t have to do what I did: my happiness isn’t their happiness.
And by helping new players we bring life into New Eden and keep Eve going.
Just, please, leave the cat alone and forgive my ramblings.
While I’m sure you figured everything you know about Eve by yourself as you mentioned several times, there is a vast difference between “pointers and hand holding” to a game without a tutorial for at least the basic game mechanics. The Agent Missions give you things to do but don’t give you any clue on where to start. I’m not talking about “how to win at Eve” but real-life working of the game. For instance, the explorer agent wanted me to go scan a site… that was it. Where would I know that ALT-P brings up the probe screen or that its also on the bottom of the screen? I needed youtube for that. If you dont know that, you launch probes and it seems that nothing happened.
IF the agent missions are there to teach new players it should have some instructions or just dont have them.
Thanks for the answers.
So, if I follow correctly, fleets and corps etc are all made up of players from different races. I could set my home system to one that belongs to another race too?
Regarding ships, I know you said that SKILLS can all be learned no matter where you start. But as an Alpha I’m limited on what ships from other races I can learn to use. SO, if in imagine myself using ships that are fastest and fire from close range should I be using Minmatar ships or does that not even matter in the long run?
I guess what I’m trying to figure out if the race descriptions from when I chose mine were set and accurate. I hate the way the Minmatar ships look and may just decide to start the game all over.
Perhaps the Agents should refer to youtube, as CCP kind of relies on youtube. I also watched much youtube in my first months of EVE: DScanning, exploration, overview management, ratting, an Orca which successfully fights several Cruisers for 90 minutes, and much more.
Additionally you can ask corpmates, the newbro channel or random locals in chat.
EVE is a learning game, there’s even an EVE University (they help, too, of course). Every tutorial would be (and was) lacking interesting issues, probably that’s why the New Players Experience became smaller and smaller in the recent years, like “Learn how to F1 and get into the water!”
So actually CCP is already doing what you propose: Keep the tuts very basical and learn via interaction.
And now: Learn all these ship names by heart: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Alphabetical_Ship_List 
(OK, about half of them I don’t know either…)
Edit: Was too curious about the numbers, so I did some excelling: I’ve already flown 40%, know further 36,2%, kinda heard of further 6,4 % and have no clue 17,4 %
My ramblings were not meant to be a criticism or even directed at anyone in particular (imagine an old man talking to himself) - You are right: there has to be an introduction to the mechanics and a lead into mission running and other activities. That transition from “being taught and guided” to “self directed” is a fascinating one - some of the missions do give you little hints on mechanics and concepts as part of the briefings, but the actual “in game how to play Eve” is relatively light.
Eve is a deep pond without a handbook or hand holding.
Over the years it’s become incredibly complex, and older players forget that “V is D-scan” is something people need to actually be told. Or the jargon that’s involved in a fleet.
Agent Missions (such as a Level 3 Security Agent Mission) are different to the Tutorial Agent missions in the home systems - the Agents don’t explain much and I recall from a few years ago the Tutorial Agent missions felt a little “over view of a career idea, little on the actual interface operation” side. But that’s a “Complexity of Game” v “Complexity of Playing” debate. The New Player Experience (that “you are in the middle of a battle” starting point is better than it used to be - it was “fly to station, select Tutorial Agent”)
One problem is that Eve does leave you to find things out on your own. But the UI should be self obvious even if the depth of the Game Complexity isn’t.
There are good references (Eve University is my normal go to). And yes, I’ve probably read a fair bit of the content there just to “learn Eve”. It’s where I normally point new players. But they are good on “Game Complexity” rather than UI related “Playing Complexity”.
And an awful lot is experience - and I’m still learning that way: including the “ah, really bad standings to Blood Raiders will get you blapped by a defence fleet if one of their miners sees you” that happened to me last week.
This probably isn’t relevant to this thread.
Yes. Both. Even if you do every single quest in Skyrim, it’s still worth revisiting just to fool around with a high-level character. As for GTA V, surprisingly, I hate the online experience, but single-player is still awesome after you’ve finished the storyline. You can still find plenty to do in the city. Both games are a lot of fun.
EvE, on the other hand, is boring as ■■■■ unless you ruining somebody else’s day. The mechanics are awful, the UI sucks monkey balls, the rats are boring.
Yes. Absolutely.
However, I do know at least one corp that will only take Amarrian characters, but that’s a Role Playing thing.
Not true anymore (it used to be the case) - you can fly any ship you can train the skills for (so a Minmatar pilot can train Amarr ship and weapon skills and fly Amarrian ships). Your limits are not being able to fly any races’ advanced ships - so a Minmatar pilot can’t fly Minmatar Heavy Assault Cruisers (HACs) or Amarrian HACs or anyone elses.
Not sure if Alphas can fly Triglavian ships though.
The different races ships do feel different to fly - I’ve spent most time in Amarrian hulls, moving to flying Caldari was a strange experience and my reflexes were wrong. Especially the “shields gone, not a problem” reflex…
I agree with the look of Minmatar ships, though a few of 'em are growing on me.
Nope.
Curious what that meant, do Caldari ships work better than others if their shields are gone?
Newb here, 4 days old. I choose Minmatar pretty much because their ships look like random scrap pieced together to work. Like a belter in the expanse. Liked the idea.
Now, I came into eve knowing what it is, knowing that there is a steep learning curve and being aware that there is no hand holding and that people will disintegrate me frequently. I’m currently finishing up the career agent quests ( I saved advanced military for last ) after witch I plan on joining an established pve / pvp corp. Learn the ropes that hard and expensive way, but ultimately itll be the most effective. Who knows, a year from now I may be the most feared pirate Eve as ever known, or I might just be some lowkey miner waiting to be exploded, the mystery of eve is what attracted me to it.
Just the opposite; Caldari ships are shield-tanked. The fellow you quoted was saying that when he switches from Amarr ships, which are armor-tanked, he tends to forget that he needs to pay attention when the shields on his Caldari ship is getting damaged.
(Then there’s Minmatar, which can be either shield or armor depending on ship and situation, but that’s another can of worms.
As @Trudeaux_Margaret said - Amarrian ships have small shields and a lot of armour. You get very used to seeing the shields go fairly quickly and not worrying about it. When that happens in a Caldari ship your armour just goes in a flash because there’s very little of ita. That’s a nasty surprise because you’re not used to it.
sips chalice of wine
<velvety, croaky, semi-New Yorker voice>
Oh sweetie…
… back on OUR day we didn’t have any tutorial agents. We just got a Rookie Ship and were told to go ■■■■ ourselves.
I didn’t know that probing even existed until months later when someone warped into my mission and “probed” me, if ya know what I’m sayin.
takes a long drag from cigarette
</velvety, croaky, semi-New Yorker voice>
Jokes aside… this is quite common and something you will run into even after YEARS of playing the game.
It is literally impossible to know everything in the game.
I have been here more or less since 2009. I still only have a cursory knowledge of manufacturing and wormhole stuff… and that is being generous.
Simply put together an idea on what YOU want to do and then seek out the right players to get into it.
They will impart their knowledge willingly.
Correct.
Okay… so… here are where some racial differences lie.
Different racial ship lines have different bonuses (listed in the ship info windows) and general traits/tactics.
Certain weapons and defenses will often be boosted by these bonuses and/or rely on certain ship traits/tactics to be used properly.
Here is a very, VERY generalized breakdown of racial ship lines:
Minmatar:
– Weapons: Projectile weapons and/or Missiles
– Defense: Can be either Shield OR Armor-centric
– Pro: Generally the fastest and most agile in each ship class
– Con: Sometimes a bit thin in terms of defense, mediocre DPS (damage per second)
Amarr:
– Weapons: Energy weapons, Drones, and/or Missiles
– Defense: Are primarily Armor-centric
– Pro: Generally the most tanky in each ship class
– Con: VERY dependant on capacitor power to do anything, many ships are geared more for “fleet” warfare (see: they often require support to function well)
Gallente:
– Weapons: Hybrid weapons and/or Drones
– Defense: Are primarily Armor-centric
– Pros: Generally puts out the highest DPS (damage per second) in each class
– Con: High-dps weapons require VERY close range (see: “suicidal mentality”), drones can be shot down and are a bit expensive
Caldari:
– Weapons: Hybrid weapons and/or Missiles
– Defense: Are primarily Shield-centric
– Pros: Excel at ranged combat (even at close range)
– Cons: Often the slowest in each ship class, missiles deal mediocre damage
And then you have weapon types:
Projectile
– Short Range: Autocannons - SHORT range, fast firing, good tracking, mediocre damage per second
– Long Range: Artillery - Medium range, slow firing, terrible tracking, MASSIVE single shot damage
Energy
– Short Range: Pulse Lasers - Medium/short range, mediocre firing speed, mediocre tracking, medium to high damage per second.
– Long Range: Beam Lasers - Medium/long range, mediocre firing speed, low tracking, medium to high damage per second
Hybrid
– Short range: Blasters - Microscopically short range, fast firing, good tracking, facemelting damage per second
– Long Range: Railguns - I-can’t-see-how-far-it-goes range, Mediocre firing speed, mediocre tracking, anemic damage per second
Missiles
– Short range: Rockets, Heavy Assault Missiles, Torpedos.
– Long Range: Light Missiles, Assault Missiles, Cruise Missiles.
Note: Missiles are a bit weird in that each category of missiles is somewhat it’s own thing. Yes, there are certain sized launchers and missiles for certain ship classes… but they don’t really follow a similar linear path the way that all turrets follow.
It’d be best if a missile enthusiast came along and explained them.
Drones
Note: Like missiles, drones have their own thing. They are not class or racial-line specific. Small drones can be used by any ship class. In fact, it is often recommended that any ship larger than a cruiser carry at least 5 light drones for point-defense.
Larger drones offer up more damage, but are very slow.
They are best seen as little “mobile turrets” as they are subject to the same mechanics that turrets are (just on a MUCH smaller scale).
Cool summary!
Further details:
There’s many acronyms and words you will learn the next weeks and months. Here’s a list where you quickly find odd sounding terms from the EVE universe: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/EVE_Lexicon