Thinking of trying EvE

[Marqo]

Yo, guys. Marqo (from the WoW guild) here. I'm thinking about trying EvE for a bit. I'm primarily interested in fighting. I've tried the game once before a couple of months back, but didn't do much back then (I got a bit distracted y other stuff).

Could you give me a few pointers as to faction choice (are there any limitations as to what other players you'll be able to interact with etc), how combat works beyond circling your enemy and firing everything you've got at them and what THN does in the game?

Edit: One more thing: how much does it currently cost to play, and how can one pay?

EDIT2: Found out about the prices. I'm currently considering Caldari or Minmatar. What are the playstyles of those races?

[Spicypixel]

Stop, hammer time.

It's funny how out of the four races you managed to pick the two intrinsically bad at PVP. Fly Gallente or Amarr - enjoy.
Though to be honest people read the caldari description of most advanced to mean, good, when infact it means, bad.

[Rhivre]

Caldari are (mostly) missiles / rockets, so longer range
Amarr are mostly lasers
Gallente are lots and lots of drones all over the place (Kinda like pets)
Minmatar are a wierd mix of everything, with shield tanking, armour tanking, missiles, guns, drones.

The thing is, any race can fly any ship, provided you train for it, and you only start out with level one or two in your frigate, so it doesnt take any time at all to train for another races ships.

Pick the race you like the look of, then you can decide which races ships you like :)

It used to be more defined at the start, but now it is a lot more open

There are no restrictions regarding race interaction, I have Caldari and Amarr characters which mission in Gallente space, and all the corps in the alliance are very mixed.

Combat....well, that is quite tough to explain in a few sentences.

My advice would be make a trial account, poke one of the THN guys in game and see how you like it :)

[Ronin Storm]

If you're wanting to join HNW then there's no restriction on faction; we're set up to accept all races. Starting as Caldari will tend to put you closer to where we naturally operate, though we do have presence in Amarr, Minmatar and Gallente space so I wouldn't make that a prime factor.

I started as Caldari and one thing feels relatively true to me: Caldari feel a bit like playing the game dumbed down as their response to everything is more shields and "FIRE ZE MISSILES!" There's a bit more to combat if you choose a different race. I'm currently cross training into Gallente ships for the drones but take your pick.

Conversely, I have a memory of someone referring to playing Minmatar as playing EVE on hard mode.

Bob seems to be having a good time working up as Amarr...

I guess it's a suck-it-and-see situation but know that you're not locked in regardless of what you pick.

[Marqo]

Thanks for the advice so far.

I've now created a Caldari character and have completed the first few missions up to and inclufing cash flow for capsuleers (1/10).

Are there any pointers you can give me for skill training and fitting my ship? All these possibilities make me a bit nervous about making sure I don't make the wrong choices.

[thatbloke]

Thanks for the advice so far.

I've now created a Caldari character and have completed the first few missions up to and inclufing cash flow for capsuleers (1/10).

Are there any pointers you can give me for skill training and fitting my ship? All these possibilities make me a bit nervous about making sure I don't make the wrong choices.

Your best bet is to complete the 3 tutorial agent arcs and then decide what kind of stuff you prefer - you will get various skills from each mission arc and they are all useful in some way :)

[Rhivre]

Yup, do the 3 tutorial arcs, will get you some free ships, free skill books, and handy info about game basics, as well as some iskies.

Caldari are shield tanks, so if you are flying caldari ships, use only items that increase your shield in some manner.

other than that, poke one of the guys in game for pointers for training etc :)

[Ronin Storm]

What's your character name?

[Marqo]

My character's called Markus Dornwald.

[Marqo]

I've now obtained a Condor. I have no real idea what to fit it with, and what I need to know to use whatever I fit it with. Any suggestions?

[Ronin Storm]

Hehe, EVE is a game where there are a lot of viable possibilities for any given ship. Admittedly, with a Condor, those are more limited than a more advanced ship, but there are still a variety of different ways to do things. And, unfortunately, knowing that sort of helps and really doesn't at the same time.

Maybe the following (simplified) view will help.


All ships have High, Mid and Low slots to fit stuff.
High slots are for weapons.
Mid slots are for electronics (such as sensors and jammers) and things that boost your shields.
Low slots are for engineering equipment (such as overdrives) and things that boost your armour.


The Condor is focused on being a missile frigate, with 2 missile slots and 1 gun slot. You might choose to ignore the gun slot entirely and just fit two Standard Missile Launcher 1's. Consider a shield booster for a mid slot. Consider an overdrive for the low slot.

At this point in the game you won't have much in the way of ISK so new skills and new equipment may feel hard to come by. This will get easier, especially after you're through the tutorials and get yourself signed up with HNW where we can help with providing basic equipment (sometimes mind-bogglingly so).

As Rhivre says, though, focus on missile and shields. Speed is another good thing to look for.

[Marqo]

I has just applied for HNW. I´ve fitted my ship with some missile launchers, a gatling railgun and a shield booster that seems to drain my capacitor really fast when activated.

[Ronin Storm]

Yep, Shield Boosters will do that, especially on low skills as you have at the moment. Remember to pulse the booster rather than leave it permanently on. i.e. just use it when you need to recharge the shield and then turn it off again.

I'll look for your application a bit later today.

[Marqo]

Thanks for the help.

One more question; the 5-euro deal on steam. If I buy it, will I still get the rest of my trial days?

[thatbloke]

Thanks for the help.

One more question; the 5-euro deal on steam. If I buy it, will I still get the rest of my trial days?

yes you will

[BiG D]

I believe so, it doesn't start to 'charge' days until the trial is up.

[Marqo]

Nice.

[Marqo]

I've just completed all the tutorial chains and am a bit lost. Where should I go now, and what should I do? I've been given the name of a new agent about 17 jumps away. Should I go there, and if so, with which of my ships? I've currently got quite a few. My main interest would be combat.

[BiG D]

Where should I go now, and what should I do?
That is a question that some of us who have been playing for months still can't answer :p

17 jumps seems a little harsh. There is undoubtedly mission agents much closer to you. If you bring up your star map (F10) and change the colouring to 'available agents' you should get a pretty good idea of what is where.

As far as ships go, each ship gives a bonus to something. Best to choose one that has a bonus to the type of weapons you're using.

[Rhivre]

The 17 jumps is for the epic arc

I would suggest choosing a corporation to run missions for (Caldari Navy for example)

When you are in a station, show info on one of the agents, click the agent corp logo, then it will show the faction info.

Click the faction logo, there is an agents list there, choose Caldari Navy for example, then there is a list of available agents.

For combat missions, choose agents from the internal security, security, surveillance or Intelligence :)

[Rhivre]

You should have a kestrel, or another frigate from the final part of the combat mission arc.

That would be the one to use for level 1 missions, then train either towards a destroyer, or imo, go for a Caracal cruiser training.

[silkth]

So now I'm curious :p

I like blowing things up, and I like skill-based games more than stat based (which is why being pwned by bastards in epics frutrates me in wow) - can Eve offer this?

Do you go up levels and get stronger or is it all gear/money based?

[BiG D]

No levels, and skills are trained in real time whether you're playing or not. It's mostly money based, BUT more expensive equipment is definitely not an instant win (and will likely get you laughed at when you inevitably lose it *cough*trax*cough*)

[Marqo]

Got myself the 30 days for 5 euros. I was wondering, what's the best way to get into some PvP? It's what I would like to do most.

EDIT:

And I assume there's more to combat than setting your ship to optimal range and start nuking.... Is there an easy way to learn this more in-depth stuff?

Even more EDIT:

I've been advised to join Eve Uni to learn PvP. I'd like some additional opinions on this.

[BiG D]

Best bet is likely to hit up the recruitment forum and find a PvP oriented corp that's willing to teach new players. While I can't claim to be too familiar with eve uni, I would have to think you'd get a better PvP experience in an actual PvP corp.

You could also try joining the faction wars, though that has its own issues as well.

[Rhivre]

Which sort of pvp are you after, I know of several pvp training corps, but it depends what you are wanting to do pvp wise :)

[Marqo]

What are the different kinds of PvP then?

[thatbloke]

There are varied roles in pvp - as a new player your best chance of winning a pvp encounter as a new character is to get into a roaming gang as a tackler in a little frigate - you get close enough, scramble them then because you are so small/fast they can't touch you - your gang then does the dirty and kills your enemy. Without someone scramming, he would just warp away before you got the kill :)

[Rhivre]

Well, there is normal pvp, like Corax do, roaming in lowsec etc, there is 0.0 pvp which is sovereignty based, there is piracy, both low sec and high sec.

Low sec piracy is ransoms etc at its most basic, high sec piracy is wardecs, mission busting etc.

These are the 2 pvp forum links, there are some handy resource threads at the top

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=channel&channelID=12451 - Crime and Punishment forum
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=channel&channelID=904713 - Warfare and Tactics

And this one has some handy links too:

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=channel&channelID=3509 - New Players forum