I’m a new pilot. I started the game about 3 months ago, around Christmas. I was pretty involved my first few weeks, logging on and performing all of the activities that I could. I went through the tutorial, then did the career agents, and read a lot about how to do things. I had a Coercer, and I did the Sisters of EVE epic arc, losing my ship not once, but twice to the drones. I got some friends to help do the final missions, and then I started ratting because it was a fun and enjoyable activity for me. I did all of this in high-sec.
A couple of days ago, I started moving to low-sec because bounties are worth more there and because there are harder sites. Because I’m in Caldari space, I outrange most of the ships, so I could do an L3 combat site here and there. However, they are difficult and time-consuming. Most of the time I would do L2 combat sites.
In order to do these sites, I have to orbit to make it quick, preventing me from aligning to a station to warp out. As I was doing one of these sites, someone in a Loki fitted with weapons that were way overpowered for my ship. He landed on grid and destroyed my ship in about 20 seconds, webbing me so that I couldn’t leave. Thankfully, he was nice and I had a good conversation afterwards with him, teaching me some things.
One thing he said struck me as kind of odd. He said that if anyone else is in local then warp to a station or safe spot, or get a better ship. The thing is, I’ve never learned how to make a safe spot, and I don’t have time. As for warping to a station, most of the time that takes about 30 seconds for aligning.
This leads me to my conclusion, which is that new players are afraid to go out to low-sec and null-sec because people will simply destroy their ship in 10 seconds, and the new player has nothing they can do about it. So they go back to high-sec to grind so that they can get a better ship, only to repeat the same experience. You have to have at least a cruiser or better to do anything about it, and new players don’t have that kind of money. Which drives them back to high-sec.
I understand that EVE is supposed to be a brutal game, but being destroyed in 30 seconds by someone that so outclasses you that you have no chance is not going to encourage people to leave high-sec. The funny thing is that he tried to justify it by saying that ISK will lose its value, but ISK only loses value when we say that it’s losing value. For a player like me, who is only just starting out, ISK seems like a big deal, and most losses are extremely expensive for us because we don’t have unlimited funds and we don’t know how to get there.
I don’t have any specific solution, and I know that all of the grumpy people on these forums will just say get a better ship or warp to a safe spot, but for someone like me, who doesn’t have hours to play on end, I know that this is a major reason why we would never leave high-sec. It’s because we get instantly destroyed if we do. So to all of the old and bitter vets out there, just ask the person you’re about to kill if they need some help. Just killing them for the fun of it isn’t going to encourage anyone. And who knows, maybe you’ll be able to help out a new player with clearing a site. And that would encourage new players to come to low.
That’s just my thoughts on new player retention. Please don’t devolve this thread into meaningless arguing.
Thanks!
Go to the EVE wiki. There’s a whole good write up on making “safe” spots.
In short, they aren’t “safe” in that you can still be found and attacked. But they are away from planets and usual place people run to hide.
That’s like a lumberjack using a dull ax saying: “I don’t have time to sharpen my ax! I must keep logging wood or I don’t hit my quota!”.
It’s really worth “sharpening your ax” and learn how to make safe spots. A lot of people have learned how to do it, you can learn it as well. It takes like 10 minutes of searching and reading.
Neither have most veterans. From a new player perspective, it may look like we have unlimited funds. But truth is, we only know how to avoid loss. Or only fly ships we can afford to lose into dangerous situations.
The more you learn about Eve, the more opportunities for making ISK you will find. Some require a lot of skill points. Some require little SP but knowledge and experience.
Both come with time.
The only advice I can give you in your current situation is to maybe try some other methods of making ISK as well. Or sharpen your ax and learn how to not get caught by the next Loki.
Good luck.
I’ve been playing for some 3 months as well. Started as a miner, tried missions, tried anomalies and started focussing on combat sites (which make a crap ton of money). So far I’ve avoided low sec, zero space and wormholes. I don’t like doing things I don’t understand so I’m taking it slowly focussing on one subject at a time.
I’ve made 2 new alpha accounts, one training for FW and the other is going to join some zero space alliance. Both with the intention to learn and gain experience. As I see it they’re “just” alts meaning that any failure is inconsequential and I can feed them isk from my main character and pve activity.
That lowers the barrier for me, it’s less “scary”. Might be an option for others too, especially with the 1 mil SP referral thing.
They can make enough isk to replace any destroyed ship. And in a timescale that they can can live with. For me, if I can replace a ship after three hours mining, that works for me. For others, it will be different.
There is little to learn and even less time involved. Hit top left on your screen. Select personal. Then select people & places. Leave window open. Enter your system of choice. Now fly somewhere. Anywhere, but preferably the longest distance you can. To another gate. A station. Planet. Anything. As you go, hit the button marked “add location”. At random. Quickly call it “dot”. When you arrive, you will find “dot” in your personal locations, in the same window. Fly to it. Congratulations, you have just made your first “spot”. You then decide how safe it is. Rinse & repeat from that location until satisfied. Ideally you want something more than 14.3 AU from any station or gate, but that’s not always possible.
Yup. That is why I have learned to go for align time, and running away, before learning shields/ armor. If in doubt, also switch off any microwarp or afterburner. That will also help you align faster.
It is a big deal. But, I ground out what i thought was a decent “grub steak” first, by mining, before going into low sec. So, last time I died in low sec I just went out and bought a replacement ship using my “cash reserves”. And then I made more money with that ship, low sec ratting. In fact, last time I died in low sec I wasn’t even in the ship when it went bang. I had already bailed out and was on my way to pick up a replacement. There was no point in trying to defend it.
Do what you want to do. Stuff the pirates. In fact, ever thought that your talking back to them might just encourage them to keep on keeping on? Ignore them instead. Move on and just keep practicing your own preferences. You can still make friends, they just don’t have to be bored, low sec pirates.
I feel bad because while he had a good chat with the op, he didn’t pay him for the loss. I don’t mind stomping on players in low/null/wh’s because if you came there, you should be prepared. That being said, I chat them up and as long as they will talk, I’ll pay them for the loss, usually with a little extra for their trouble.
The last guy calmed down, admitted his mistake so I doubled his payback. I gave him the best advice I could at the same time. I wish there were more pvp’ers like me! 
This is exactly what motivated me to play the game. The fact that there is always a danger and there is always a challenge no matter what activity you’re doing. Every time I lost a ship, I think I learned something and became a better capsuleer. If you don’t like challenge and danger of losing stuff in game, you may want to try other games. There are plenty of games where there is no real risk involved and you don’t lose anything when you die, you just repeat the same gameplay until you get bored.
It is obvious new players will lose ships to other “overpowered” PVPers, this should be a positive and learning experience.
There is so much knowledge in this game that go beyond skill points and having an awesome cruiser like a Tengu. All of your observations are certainly correct.
What you gotta do is find a way to side with the Tengu pilot so you can get in on his side of the action. It will make you a better missioner too.
You don;t need a better ship. You need to learn preparedness and situational awareness, which has nothing to do with your ship. Take a look at the killboard of the systems you want to go to and see who lives there, who are the killers and who are the killed. Most of the battle is won before the battle even starts. There are many camps on the “shortest route” to and from trade hubs. You can easily avoid them by entering from other directions.
The safe spots in low/null systems, you make a few prior to doing your activity so you are prepared. Then when doing the activity you can possibly fight aligned. You change alignment to different safes as you go to “orbit” but always be aligned. You can dscan for probes, and also you can think of what types of ships attack you and how they work.
For example the Loki has a delay after decloaking for a few seconds before he can try to lock you, and then there is the lock time on top of that. If you have several safes around the system, even if he decloaks right next to you, you simply warp off to the one you are aligned to before he even has a chance to lock. Also If the mission/site you are in has an acceleration gate you will see him on Dscan as he has to decloak to take the gate, giving you even more time to get out.
TLDR: You don’t need a better ship if your goal is to PVE and not fight the loki. You just need to gain more knowledge…
Every player starting solo has that kind of “first contact”. You think you are in a powerful ship ratting around, and then a jerk comes around killing you within seconds, before you even know how to react. I still know the feeling of terror and helplessness when I lost my first Vexor in Lowsec to a Stratios. And the following night, I pondered what I could have done better, as after nearly every loss in my first year.
It’s called “learning”.
A Vexor was very expensive for me at that point - but now, I lose battleships without getting mad 
And it’s still basing on mistakes like failing to maintain distance to Logi etc - there’s a million ways to die in New Eden…
I live in LowSec, been there since the first week I created this toon.
Here comes the magic phrase: Don’t Fly What Ya Can’t Afford to Lose.
So this is how I play EVE:
Say I have five ships. Say out of those five ships I feel five is too many or one of them I won’t be using as much as I thought: time for that ship to die. I jump into it and do whatever I want to do until someone blows it up with me in it ( how rude ) or until I get tired of waiting to get blown up and jump through to Null… few minutes and BOOM! Mission accomplished, that ship’s toast.
On the other hand, say I don’t feel like losing a ship today. I can’t afford to fly anything then. So I just log on, get my free SP and the bs they give us at log-on and simply log back off to another game: mission accomplished, no loss of ships today. Maybe tomorrow if I feel like losing a ship I’ll undock…maybe.
PS: The nice thing about LowSec and Null and EVE in general is what I call the C.E.O, Confirmation of Expected Outcome, in that you already know for sure you and your ship will go BOOM if your toon is not at dozens of millions of SP and not flying a t2 or t3 ship with t2 modules. That being a given, it leaves you with fewer choices which in turn renders the game very simple: if you’re not the one doing the killing you’re the one it’s done on which means you have two choices left: waste your time grinding to buy/manufacture another ship that will go BOOM just as pretty as the last ship or save time and isk by not flying at all until you get into that t3/t2 ship with those t2 modules.
And that’s EVE in a nutshell for me: log on, decide if I want to get blown up today and act accordingly.
For me this is not fun. If i can warp to a place that I marked, why can’t I warp anywhere I want? There’s no sense on it. It seems just a rule that was implemented to make the gameplay harder but nothing in the lore impede us from warping anywhere we want.
Because your navigation computer can’t handle random values, but needs confirmable coordinates?
Obviously travelling in open space is kind of rocket science 
Hate to tell you this, but…
…actually, as someone who started shortly before you, may I make a few endorsements for in-game activities?
If you don’t feel like undocking, perhaps margin trading would pass the time? The returns won’t be great, since it takes a bunch of skillpoints to reduce the fees you pay on transactions, so it’s probably advisable to try to keep your number of orders low and the volume of those orders high. I’m not a market mogul though, so try experimenting with an amount you can afford to set aside. The alternative to this is the cell-scanning minigame, which is boring but pays better than lowsec bounties in my experience.
If you do feel like undocking but don’t want to be bothered, I recommend abyss diving. Start with L0s which can be done in certain standard frigates, but definitely look into tutorials on how space is different in the abyss. Don’t run into the boundary like I did my first time and cut your trip short.
I think lowsec in general varies. Certain systems are still as the grave, but some hunter might be eager to pick you apart. Others are high-traffic but people are picky about what they’ll fight. I wasted days in Black Rise trying to get people to kill me. I think the fleet finder might be handy too, maybe there’s a group that could get you some excitement in lowsec where you’re delivering explosions rather than the other way around.
Anyway, good luck out there and always feel free to shoot at me.
You need a destination to set your warp course to. Warp is different from free flight in that you can get to destination near instantly, but you do need a destination your warp drive will hook on and fling you to as a trade-off. It’s not an arbitrary rule, it’s how warp drive works. It makes a hole through space right to the destination point. Somewhat like a mini wormhole within single system.
That’s wrong assumption. A destroyer or even a frigate will suffice, just should be ready to interrupt whatever you are doing and warp off at any moment. Watch the local and whenever anyone else enters the system it’s time to be on high alert. Skill up for agility and for that very ship you are flying (see Mastery tab in the ship info). Cloaking is another useful thing outside of HS. Skill up for it and use it. They will have much harder time catching you even if they are much superior in terms of combat capabilities.
Why I can warp to the cordinates of the cosmic signature that my probe detected then? We had to be able to put a coodinate on the map and just warp the same way we do with the green cosmic signatures.
When you scan down a signature, it resolves into an object rather than coordinates. Warping is done to that object then. But it should be possible to put a probe anywhere you like within system, then scan it down with combat probes and warp to it. Thus, in effect, warping to any arbitrary point.
This seems more viable and fast than having to travel to the place where you want to mark a safe spot.
Only one problem: Most ships don’t fit combat launchers, some even can’t physically.
Making a safe spot is even easier than opening the probe window. Warp to any celestial and press ctrl+b and enter when in flight. Then fly to that bookmark (right click in space, chose the created spot).
Some further bookmark info - bookmarks are really handy.