Very new player, here goes!

New Citizens Q&A
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I normally spend several weeks in a new game researching before I ever post on forums etc., but I’ve read some brilliant stories about the social side of EVE so figured I’d post here first before tackling the learning…go easy on me!

I’ve looked at EVE for years and always wondered if I should start, but ruled it out as it always seemed mysterious, complex and pretty intimidating :joy: So I’ve played, temporarily enjoyed, and then been disappointed by, far too many MMOs, and on my last attempt to pick up a new game (Albion Online), and being out of challenges 24 hours in, I thought - heck if this is inspired by EVE, why don’t I just play EVE?!

There are tons of resources, and I’ve got plenty of time put aside this weekend to run through the tutorial, but short of the obvious materials to read, has anyone got any tips or experiences they had when they first started?

Guess it’s going to take time to learn all the lingo too - it’s like another language!

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Find a good corp first and foremost, one focused on your interests (or focussed on a bit of everything if you aren’t sure)

Also take everything said in these forums with a pinch of salt and on the thickest part of your skin. EvE is notorious for the nature of it’s players, if you are at all sensitive to this take great care here!

ED: I really can’t stress the first point enough, other players are the absolute best resource available to you WRT learning aspects of the game. No tutorial even comes close (beyond teaching you the basics of the UI)

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Joining a decent corp is a great first step. Would recommend the likes of Brave or Pandemic Horde, both are very active in PVP and have fun communities that put a lot of time and energy into teaching new players how to play and enjoy the game.

If you can think it, you can build it. If you can see it, you can take it and if you join a highsec industry corp, you’ll have a bad time and leave within a month.

You should focus on finding what you enjoy and getting good at it. Unlike most other MMOs, there’s no grinding for skills, you must however grind for an income, so it’s super important to find something that pays well enough and you hopefully enjoy.

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There’s a lot of other meta stuff to do too, make sure to try as much as you can.

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  1. When taking the time to do research on ships/modules/etc, use the in-game market button to look up items. It provides an easily sortable and formatted place to really see ship/module differences among the dizzying amount of options available. Also, “compare” tool in the info screen is your friend.

  2. If you’re dead-set on purchasing that slick looking destroyer but realize that it will require depleting your ISK balance, take a second to think about it before you purchase. Maybe stick with rookie ships or frigates until you get a little bit more cash or have a stable income stream.

  3. Realize the game is ultimately about personal(group) goal setting/achievement, there are no fixed gameplay rewards available (apart from those shiny loot drops ;). Seriously consider finding a group that fits your personality/goals.

  4. It’s a game, don’t be afraid to just do something zany or ill-advised. What’s the worst that can happen? Oh and don’t be afraid to die, these are all just screen pixels!

EDIT: Oh, and careful on the forums… Eve players are the nicest, most friendly players in gaming, but, spin them up about the most insignificant in-game thing and the resultant negativity becomes unbearable.

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Be careful joining one of the big newbie corps before you have basic knowledge about the game and mechanics. The Horde and Co. will certainly teach you how to play … how to play in order to serve as entertainment and income for their veterans. As a newbie in player-owned nullsec space you will be totally on the mercy of the people living there … and welcome to the politics.

More serious, try to get a grasp of everything first, before you do an informed decision which corp you join. Lowsec is the best part of space in New Eden …

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I’d argue that WH space is the best part, if you can cope there you can cope anywhere :smiley:

I would agree about joining the bigger corps immediately though, start smaller. If you want fleet combat fun join one of the public roaming outfits now and then in something you don’t mind losing.

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The learning curve is huge. Even after a long period of playing you will realize that you do not know everything that there is to know about this game.

A single toon will not be enough. A minimum of two toons on different accounts is the way to go. One for indy/hauling training another for pvp.

Understand the difference between having the trained skills to activate a ship and having the experience to really fly that ship through space.

Learn what mass is, what signature radius is, how the turret tracking works and the missile mechanics.

You will lose ships. Be prepared for that.

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Welcome to Eve.

A few things to bear in mind as you start your journey:

  • Eve is a sandbox. The developers give us tools, but it’s not their job to entertain us. We can build sandcastles or destroy them, interact with other players cooperatively or competitively but we entertain ourselves (or each other). The PVE content in the game is pretty basic and largely intended as an income source to fund other activity.

  • Your interaction with other players can be synchronous or direct - as in a battle. You both need to be in the same place at the same time. It can also be asynchronous or indirect - as in the markets where you don’t need to be logged in at the same time as the player(s) you are interacting with.

  • It will take you years to master this game. In the real world it takes us about 20 years to gain the knowledge, skills and experience to thrive on our own. Eve isn’t quite that bad but it’s still it’s still a complex, adaptive system of human interactions where player knowledge and experience are a lot more important than character skill.

  • We have a player driven economy in a game where nothing wears out or goes obsolete - destruction is essential. You will contribute whether you want to or not! Learning to survive as prey takes time but it can be done. I fly billions worth of cargo around the cluster every day in a paper thin hull (Blockade Runner) and haven’t lost one in 18 months.

  • Enjoy the tutorial but don’t expect the game to be like that - it’s a theme park ride in the sandbox. Complete the career agent missions. PVE in Eve is more like that. Try the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/The_Blood-Stained_Stars Look for a player corporation with a playstyle you think you’ll enjoy. Don’t look for perfection - it doesn’t exist. You can leave a corporation any time if you got the fit wrong.

  • Arguably the best resource for new players is Eve university https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Getting_Started_in_EVE_Online Head for their wiki anytime you need help.

Last but not least, enjoy yourself. Sometimes we forget Eve is a game. If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.

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While it comes down to personal preferences for sure, be sure to not join some ■■■■ tier alliance of scrubs, that are just content magnets that churn out nothing but shitfits and tears.

If you’re interested, feel free to join my discord, i’ll be happy to sit down with you and help find a corp to get you started, as well as answer any questions you may have.

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Don’t feel that you have to know everything about something before you even try it. A lot of the learning in this game will be in the school of hard knocks.

So if you think that you have a conceptual understanding of some basic thing then go out and try it so you can know it experientially.

Also you should not be afraid to try things, even weird nonsensical stuff. For example you would take one ship and try out different fits and have some of the fits be weird non-standard fits or hyper exaggerate one aspect of the ship just to see how it affects things. In that case you are not looking for the perfect fit but looking to get a feel for how different mods affect the ship.

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Cheers a lot guys, lots of useful insight and advice here.
Admittedly it’s been a bit of a slow Friday at work…unless you take into account the number of pages of EVE related info I’ve trawled through so far!
@Do_Little thanks for the SOE arc mention, I saw that earlier on and figured I’d run through that after finishing the tutorial.
After that I’ll have a good think about aims etc. and start looking for a corp that fits!
The mentality of the game, sandbox/ship is consumable, is all sounding good, I was very sick and tired of the carrot on a stick type play of other games, and EVE has been in the back of my mind for a while. Plus, this is really making my inner trekkie happy…
Will get out and start learning!

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Hi!

  • head to lowsec in a corvette
  • go as deep as needed until someone kills you
  • contact the aggressor, express curiosity and learn, maybe even find friends.
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Heya, welcome to Eve.

For me again, what makes this game so special is the people you meet, the things you do with them in game and the relationships that creates out of game as well. It may take time to find that special group of players for you but you will eventually and it makes the wait worth it.

I won’t give you suggestions on how to get going, as so many of the suggestions that others have given are good ones. But I do look forward to seeing you in game. Fly safe o7

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Hello and welcome to Eve.

Everybody has given lot’s of good advice and info, so I’ll just tell you what I did when I first started.

Course back in 2008 there wasn’t really a tutorial available, basically you started in a Rookie ship in a private deadspace location, was told to destroy an NPC pirate and mine some Ore, then dock in a station, refine it and sell it. That was it. The rest you had to figure out for yourself.

After mining Ore and killing NPC’s with my Rookie ship in High Sec space, I finally gained enough ISK to buy and fit up my first Frigate, the Minmatar Breacher, with the intention of doing long range sniper action in level 1 missions. Unfortunately that didn’t work out so well and I quickly lost it to NPC’s.

After mentioning in NPC Corp chat that I lost my ship and had to use the free Rookie ship to mine more Ore in order to buy another Frigate, one of the members gifted me 1 mill ISK to get a new Frigate. After saying I would pay him back, he told me to just do the same for another new player later on when I have plenty of ISK. Over the years I’ve done that numerous times for other new players in that same situation.

So with the 1 mill ISK, I bought another Minmatar Frigate, the Probe, and started using that to run level 1 missions again. I was able to keep from being destroyed but had to constantly warp out and do repairs in station. That was quickly eating up the ISK I had left in my wallet. After mentioning that in Corp chat, another player informed me I had bought the wrong Frigate and sent me a personal contract containing a Combat Frigate, the Rifter, already set up with a basic shield buffer tank.

He also informed me about the Core Fitting Skills which would help increase ship stats so I started training those up to max level along with every single skill related to the Rifter. I stayed in that ship for 9 months and as I advanced in skill level, I also upgraded the ship fit as well. By the end of that time I was completing level 3 security missions in a Tech 1 Frigate within the mission bonus time.

Now you may think it took me a long time but I was buying skillbooks and upgrading modules as well as buying attribute implants. Also at that time I was training up ‘Learning Skills’, a skill group that increased your attributes to train skills faster which are now no longer in the game.

Back then a lot of ISK was gained from looting and salvaging mission wrecks. Even though I was completing level 3 missions within the bonus time, most of the wrecks would quickly despawn because it was taking too long for me to complete those missions. Since I wanted to continue looting and salvaging wrecks, I decided to move up to a larger ship. Due to max training all skills related to the Rifter, I was able to easily and quickly move into a Battlecruiser, the Hurricane.

The moral of my story is don’t be in a rush to advance, take your time and become proficient first before moving on to something else. Remember the 5 P’s = Proper Planing Prevents Poor Performance. And above all else, have fun.

May you have a long and rewarding career here in Eve.

DMC

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There’s people who say we need an NPE, to teach new players how the game works; there’s people who time and time again tell their history, proving them wrong. :grin:

Older players must all have been geniuses? We’re the smartest! :smiley: One could even argue, that the NPE just seperates new players from old players even further.

This post of mine, btw, is based on what you’ve written. :smiley:

you could have researched the web for skills for cpu and pg, but you didn’t. You didn’t really need to! And when you hit a limitation, someone else helped you out. :slight_smile:

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Here’s another one:

  • go to Arnon
  • figure out the station with the least people around the undock.
  • find a jetcan miner in a belt
  • if you can fly a hauler, go get a hauler (purely optional)
  • bookmark the jetcan, have People&Places open, somewhere in a corner.
  • take. your. ore.
  • be aware of suspect state, so avoid drones and other people.
  • warp to the lonesome station, dock, unload, undock, warp back to bookmark.
  • take more of your ore.

This is a creative exercise, especially for new players, which was the norm in the more golden times of EVE. :slight_smile:

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I did do some research but there wasn’t a lot of info wiki’s or guides available back in mid 2008 like there is now.

Back then there was a lot of ‘Specialized’ Career paths in Eve that required very high skill levels and players were pretty tight about giving out info. Over the years, most of those Career paths have been ‘Simplified’ and their skill levels lowered for easy access.

In fact, the main reason I started playing Eve was due to watching youtube vids about exploration by a player named DNightmare

Here’s a link to the full video :
http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/dnightmare/Exploration_By_DNightmare.wmv

DMC

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lulz, you think 2008 was bad? When I started my first account, (not this one), back in mid-late 2005, it was worse. I was doing the tutorial, (such as it existed in that age), and I accidentally shot my own jetcan. Three seconds later I was Concordokkened, had a negative security rating, and was unable to progress any further in the tutorial. The new player experience today is YUUUUGELY better. The whole game is better.

Eve has aged better than I have, sad to say…

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meh … too offtopic.