EVE-Mag.com

Eve Newb: Following the Gang

Published on 13. Nov, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … One of my enjoyments in flying in 0.0 space is joining alliance-ran roaming gangs. Every corporation and alliance runs their gangs slightly different and most even has a couple different ways. For example: running ship or tactic-specific types of gangs depending on the goal of the roaming gang.

This is lesson #1 in the newb’s guide to flying in roaming gangs: There are different types of roaming gangs, be sure that you can fly a ship that is conducive to the type of gang you will be flying. Don’t bring a big, slow ship to a gang setup for fast, strike and move tactics. Likewise, don’t bring a non-stealth ship to a stealth gang setup. One of the best things you can do is to outfit at least a couple of ships in order to participate in as many types of gangs as you can.

There are a few things that roaming gangs can be setup to do. Indeed, in some cases it is not even unheard of to have a gang participate in several of these operations over the course of their flight time:

• Keeping a corridor clear. A corridor is defined as a semi-permanent series of systems leading from your home system in 0.0 to another area of space – usually empire space, but perhaps to a sibling home system within your corporation or alliance. In this operation, you fly from one end of your corridor to the other and back again. The goal is to attack or chase off any neutral, hostile or war targets that may have entered the corridor for whatever reason.
• Gate camping. When I first encountered my first couple of gate camps, I figured all gate camps are the same. Indeed, to the untrained eye, they are. However, there are some subtle differences. Mainly it comes down to reasons and tactics used for the gate camp to begin with. A roaming gang that engages in gate camps will usually do so in otherwise hostile areas and combine this other roaming gang operations – such as keeping a corridor clear. They will usually operate a bubble, or mobile bubble outfitted ship and a stealth ship to mark targets before they jump into a gate camp.

This brings us to lesson #2 in the newb’s guide of flying in roaming gangs: Whenever you see a neutral or hostile in system with you and they are still there after awhile in local… and you don’t know where they are? They’re stealthed. And if they aren’t moving out of system in a decent amount of time? Chances are VERY high that this is a scout for a gate camp somewhere after exiting the system you are in. This applies equally to low sec and null sec systems.

Other operations that roaming gangs participate in include:

• Search and destroy. This is probably my favorite roaming gang operation type to engage in. In this type of operation you are flying along back lanes in null sec, in an attempt to find, isolate and destroy neutrals or hostiles, usually in and around your home systems and corridors. Often, intel will be provided in corporation, alliance or intelligence channels on where possible targets are and if a roaming gang is on a search and destroy operation within a couple of jumps will attempt to find and take out the target.
• War operations. Whenever there is a war, there are pilots everywhere in operations – from huge fleets for fleet to fleet combat, to POS destroying fleets, to the roaming gangs. A roaming gang in a time of war is the guerilla strike force of the universe, often times providing as much if not more offense, by taking their operations into hostile territory as they provide defense and guarding the corridors to the home system.

As a newb you can get involved in these roaming gangs very easily. It is going to require you to put in some effort on your skills though, however it won’t take you long nor will it be complex. It has been mentioned before and will be again, right here: tackling is one of the easiest and shortest in terms of skill training you can do to get involved in roaming gangs. You need to be able to use a warp disrupter and a webifier. That’s it. Anything else is secondary.

There are two main ways to tackle. The more dangerous way and common way, is for you to warp in on a target, tackle them and call in the reinforcements. If, you find yourself doing this a lot, then train up tanking skills as much as you can. The second way, and the way I find myself tackling the most often, is to warp in as a gang (or wait for your target to warp to you) and while everyone locks on and fires away, you then lock on to tackle first, provide DPS second. In this scenario you will often be overlooked long enough to survive and take out your target. If, you find yourself in this type of situation more often than not, I can not stress the need for speed! So train up accordingly.

Other great ways to provide support in a gang as a newb will include the following – but may take a little longer to get the skills up that is needed:

• EW: Electronic Warfare
• Warp Disruption Bubbles
• Scouting. Best if you have stealth/cloaking skills and can use a scanner
• DPS. Bring the biggest guns you have and blow ‘em away!
• Logistics. Train up remote shield and/or armor rep and help out your team mates!

Finally, let me give you some tips for the first timer:

• It may take a few minutes to get everyone coordinated at the beginning of a trip. So be patient.
• Do NOT wait until last minute to join a roaming gang. Unless, you know the region VERY well, you will find yourself left behind and can lose your gang within a couple of jumps easily.
• Expect to lose a ship. This is no ones fault, as much as you might want to blame the FC or your team mates. It is bound to happen, learn to accept this before hand.
• Don’t do it for the ISK. If you’re looking to make ISK, there are better ways of doing it. If you’re looking for glory, fame and bragging rights though – go fly in a gang!

Fly safe! Wait, you’re in a gang …

Continue Reading

A Newb’s Look at the Quantum Rise Expansion

Published on 12. Nov, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … It seems like in every MMO, there is more negative attention paid to expansions than positive ones, yet statistically expansions usually end up having more players’ active post-expansion than they did pre-expansion. The same goes with Eve Online. From a newb’s perspective, I am excited about the expansion and it’s features and in this article I share why.

Alchemy. Apparently this new feature allows industrialist to take more common minerals and turn them into rarer ones. I am still working up to the point on my industrialist alt to work with these types of minerals, so it is reassuring that at some point I can have access to rarer minerals at lower risk.

The Orca. Malori, my mining and industrialist alt loves this! Pretty soon, Malori will be able to fly Hulks and the step beyond that had planned on going into a Roqual eventually. Now, that the Orca is arriving, it gives Malori another goal in between the Hulk and Roqual – this is a good thing.

Cloaked Industrials. Woot! Having lived in low sec for awhile and no in null sec, I cringe whenever I have to use my industrial to transport stuff, whether I have an escort or not. Now that I will be able to fly cloaked it gives me hope that I might be able to survive more.

Weapon Grouping. I like this idea and makes sense to me. I am surprised that this hadn’t been implemented already to be honest. For myself I plan on using the weapon grouping to deal with various weapons I have outfitted which due to weapon type/ammo being used, have different optimal ranges.

Speed Nerfs. I am not sure how this nerf will affect me directly as I haven’t flown a nano-ship. The web nerf will affect me somewhat though as I am usually a tackler. The jury is still out on this one, and we’ll see how it goes.

Certificates! I absolutely love this implementation. Between this and Eve Mon, it means less dead ends, and more affective skill training!

Medals! One of the biggest things that draw me so much to Eve is how much control the players have in this game. The medals to me are an extension of that; uniqueness, player to player recognition and immersion value all rolled up into one simple thing: a medal.

There are a few other main features in this expansion, but I’ll be honest; as a newb I have no idea how they will affect me or my game play until after I have lived with it for awhile. So I guess we’ll see together how those things go. In the meantime, I look forward to flying into Quantum Rise!

Continue Reading

Running an Eve Corporation Website

Published on 05. Nov, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … In any MMO, one of the hardest things to accomplish is giving your guild, clan or corporation a stable presence on the web that is useful and used by not only visitors, but the very members of your organization.

It is my belief, that in most cases this is due to poor planning and implementation of the web site itself and communication within the game to encourage members to get their information from the web site versus in-game communication.

I highly recommend for starters, that the CEO of a corporation finds talent within the corporation first and then outside for recruiting into the corporation. I call these types of leaders “tech savvy” and while they may not have authority on a day to day business within the corporation, they do a great service for the corporation as a whole, they should be considered leadership and included in leadership meetings and planning.

Here is a list of items I believe should (or should not) be on an Eve corporation web site and why.

• Splash page: Splash pages are nice for the “wow” factor they can impart on visitors. Indeed, a splash page will most likely only be seen by visitors and the first time or two a regular member comes to the site. After that, they tend to simply bookmark other pages within the site and skip the splash page altogether.

Now there are a couple of different ways you can go with a splash page, but I would advise that unless there is a “wow” factor involved, it should be skipped altogether. One way is simply an incredible detailed image that reflects both the game and what your corporation stands for, or a short animation sequence of the same. This page needs to load very fast, so some technical issues may arise and should be accounted for. It should also include a quick link near the top of the page to “skip intro” – especially if your splash page takes longer than a couple of seconds to download.

• News Page: The news page should be the first page beyond the splash page or if you do not go with a splash page, should be the first page on your web site period. This page needs to be updated often! Even, if it is going to contain mundane information, I would recommend it being updated at the very minimum once a week and if it can be updated twice a week, even better.

Since one of the main types of visitors you will be getting on your web site is potential recruits, a solid splash screen will grab their attention and the News page will display to them that your corporation is fairly active. Both of these things help in attracting new members.

The News Page, should include a mixture of news about what is going on in the corporation – even if it is directing members to other sources of information within the site – like an upcoming Op on the calendar and news that is happening in the alliance and in the game overall.

• Forum: This is a big one and should be laid out in an organized and attractive. If, you can afford it (or have members willing to donate to the cause), consider doing a non-free forum host as this option can give you more and better options than that of the free ones.

I am a big believer in having several sections in a forum. In the beginning though, this can work against you as forums sometimes tend to be slow starters. However, an extensive forum section can increase the amount of information to be found down the road. This is important to members who may not be available in game but can still be in communication out of game.

• A Calendar of Events: I can not stress enough to have one of these and put out events! A small corporation can get by with an event or two a week, but medium and larger corporations should be striving for several events a week.

You don’t have to use the Calendar of Events for just planning ops. You can and should include member’s birthdays, anniversaries, outside gaming events for the corporation, like a monthly lunch out, etc.

• Roster: A roster is nice to use so that everyone can see who the corporation is made up of and in general what their specialty might be. Which means include this information in the roster as well.

This serves a couple of purposes. For starters, officers can quickly find out who is in the corporation and if they are trying to find specific needs for a planned Op, they can find out whom to approach. In a large universe such as Eve, some of your members may become a little more known than others – this is a place where those so inclined, may decide that since they know someone by reputation may decide this is a corporation for them.

• Rules, bylaws, charter and Contact Info: This one should be self-evident, but I am attempting to be thorough here.

It is very important that this information is included on the web page because this is vital information potential members and current members need to be aware of.

The rest is purely cosmetic but should be included as well:

• Themed graphics to your corporation
• Your corporation logo
• Corporation banners

Optional:

• Photo album of members
• Gallery for screenshots
• Guide and article section for members to read and research on their own
• A link page to good resources within the Eve, again for the betterment of your members

I hope this guide has helped out a little, whether you are planning your new corporations web site or updating or upgrading your current one.

Continue Reading

Leadership in EVE Corporations

Published on 30. Oct, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … Small corporations of real life friends and associates will often have a small circle of leaders to run the corporation. What happens however, when you want to grow your small corporation into a mega-corporation? With how scams and scandals happen within Eve and corporate espionage, it is often a risky undertaking to increase the corporation and the leadership as the corporation grows. This article is designed as a guide to help a growing corporation work through the trials and tribulations this time can bring upon your corporation.

Security
The security question is the biggest hurdle to overcome. The easy solution is to simply have those you know in real life become your leadership structure. There are some problems that arise with this type of outlook however. For starters, just because you know someone does not immediately qualify them to be good leaders. Second of all, while this approach can be (and should be) used for smaller corporations, once you start growing your corporation, this may simply not be feasible.

So how do you bring in potential leaders into your corporation while ensuring you minimize any security leaks? There are a couple of things you can do actually. While no method other than sole-leader is ever 100% safe, these suggestions can keep your security tighter. Before you let someone in your corporation anyway, you should be doing background checks. In Eve, this means checking out their employment history and contacting the leaders of the corporations they’ve been involved in. Second, while some will skip this step, you should never skip it if this person is going to be promoted into leadership – get screen shots of logins.

The first login screen should include the drop down menu of all accounts. The second and following screenshots should be the screen that shows off all of the players’ alts. This info should be considered confidential, and you can see if any of the character names sets off alarms, etc. You can and should if you have any doubts about any of the alts, do a similar background check in regards to talking to previous corporations.

The last BIG step you can take to ensure better security is to find potential leaders before you grow too big. Most scam artists are not going to target smaller corporations and sit around and wait for the ripe moment. They need to get in and get out, with as little sit time as possible for smaller corporations. For larger corporations, the wait can be an asset and so they are more willing for time to go by. So, find potential leaders early in your corporations’ history and develop them so they become loyal leaders of the future of your corporation.

There is one more way to attract leaders once you are growing and becoming larger and that is through acquisition of other players that haven’t been involved in your corporation, but may have been through alliances, friends you’ve met in-game, etc. This method allows for a “try before you buy” approach to finding good leaders, who through this method offers very little threat to security.

Leadership Types
We’re going to explore some of the various leader stereotypes and the pros and cons of each. One of the hardest things to realize and accept sometimes, is that a variety of leadership roles can be very useful to your corporation and the larger your corporation grows, the more variety in these leadership types you may need to run your corporation.

The CEO can come from any of the leadership types below, though IMO the “delegation leader” makes the best CEO’s. Various other leadership types work well with various leadership roles, for example a “dictator leader” can make a very good Fleet Commander. Keep in mind the pros and cons of the various leadership types as you recruit and promote your leadership structure and be prepared to deal with both the positives and the negatives.

Inspirational Leader
As the stereotype title implies, an inspirational leader inspires us. They are the best cheerleaders of a corporation and will often be found writing posts on the forums and in-game that always strives to make a corporation better and stronger. They are often found to be those trying to lead others as they find various conquests within a game, be it a gang, a mission runner or a miner.

The cons of an inspirational leader is that they can and will often bite off more than they can chew and lead people astray, which can cause hard feelings from those who follow them. To contradict these cons, make sure you keep inspirational leaders in check by assigning them tasks and ops that you know they both enjoy and are capable of running. By keeping the inspirational leader busy in this way, you minimize the cons and maximize the pros.

Pros for the inspirational leader are pretty self evident. Unlike the charismatic leader below, people follow the inspirational leader because they buy into their vision. This keeps your members busy with various tasks and you have a leader within the ranks. Inspirational leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• Small Gang Warfare (Faction, pirate, roaming)
• Mining Ops
• Manufacturing and Trade Ops
• Exploration Ops*

Charismatic Leader
My definition of the charismatic leader is the one most likely to be voted “most popular”. They are friends with most people in your corporation, are usually spoken well of and can sometimes be found as the leaders of “cliques” within your corporation.

The cons of a charismatic leader are the fact that they will often be in charge of various cliques within your corporation. This can be dangerous in the fact that if they feel slighted or fall out of vision for your corporation, it is often this type of leader that can pull away with them several of your members. Sometimes they can have a sense of entitlement.

Along with the bad though, comes the good. For the most part, charismatic leaders can be great people and indeed you should have at least one of them in your leadership ranks. Because of the cons though, be sure this is someone you either know outside of game or have come to know real well in-game. The reason being is that you will probably want to use this type of leader in a key position. Charismatic leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• Recruiting*
• Mission Running
• Diplomacy*

Tech Savvy Leader
These are the unspoken hero’s of leadership IMO. A tech savvy leader may not be the person leading a group of members on some quest or in war. They are however very influential to how a corporation is perceived both in and out of game. Every corporation should have at least one of these leaders if not more. Please note, that a tech savvy leader isn’t necessarily in charge of members of even the corporation itself, but rather outside of this scope and onto more non-social activities, such as the running of a forum, or web site, or keeping the in-game recruitment messages up to date, etc.

The pros should be obvious. A tech savvy leader, who has mad skillz, will make your corporation look sharp both in and out of game. Best of all they enjoy doing the type of stuff, most of us don’t want a part in.

The cons are more on the corporation leader than on the tech savvy leader. Tech savvy leaders will often take on project after project without complaint, until the day you add too much to their basket and suddenly leave you holding the entire basket. For them, they want to enjoy the game and a lot of their work for the corporation will be just that – work. To contradict this, simply ensure you keep open and honest communication open with these types of leaders and try to spread the work around. Tech savvy leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• Logistics
• Webmaster*
• Recruiting
• Marketing*

OCD Leader
I love the OCD Leader. Really, I do. These folks are your best friend in your leadership structure. They are the simply the best at keeping things organized, I mean really who better to keep everything organized than the OCD person?

The cons are few but worth noting. For starters, an OCD leader will often be ahead of you (unless your OCD as well) on what is happening within the corp. While this acceptable for most OCD’s, if they get too far ahead of you, they can literally challenge you for the topmost leadership. An OCD leader can also get overwhelmed, so be sure to understand their limits on how much they want to control or be in charge of.

The pros way outweigh the cons though. I strongly suggest you have a couple different OCD leaders within your leadership structure, handling various tasks. They are extremely well organized (at least within their means of efficiency) and should be in key roles of your leadership structure. OCD leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• Financing*
• Trade and Manufacturing*
• Member Liaison*
• Goal Planning*
• Mission Running
• Mining Ops

Experience and Teaching Leader
Nothing beats actual experience. In this case, we’re not necessarily talking about experience in leading, but in experience in what the person is leading for. For example, if you have someone who is a Mining King, and knows every in and out of mining and has the in-game skills to back it up, this is a natural “experience leader”.

An experience leader has few cons but they can be serious ones. For example, just because a pilot has the skills that allows him to do “x”, does not mean he has the aptitude to do “x” very well. So be sure to look at both the in-game skill set of the pilot, as well as the pilot themselves before deciding if this person would be a good leader.

Sometimes you are going to luck out and have someone who is not just experienced but can also teach well! Put this person in a leadership position immediately. The payoffs are huge as you gain training for your corp members and future experienced leaders. Experience and teaching leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• Training programs*
• PvP*
• Mission Running
• Mining
• Everything/Anything (niche)

Dictator Leader
The dictator leader is probably one of the most common leadership stereotypes out in Eve. The term dictator has negative connotations, but is not necessarily all evil. In fact, I would argue that they have a place in MMO’s that have guild, clan or corporation organizations in them and in particular some aspects of Eve.

A dictator is someone who is simply used to being in charge and it comes across in their voice, in how they talk. They are used to giving out instructions and them being followed. Just like any of the stereotypes listed here there are pros and cons to this leadership style.

The cons are some people who are dictators are not the nicest people around. They demand instead of command. They shout out orders expecting them to be followed, yet the orders make no sense other than it was indeed an order. The world is full of these types and indeed you can spot them from far off in Eve.

On the positive side, someone who is confident and able to make quick decisions, that can stand by them and for the most part work out for the best, are some of the best leaders you will want in your corporation. In other games they are called Raid Leaders. In Eve, we call them Fleet Commanders. Yes, my friends, some of the best FC’s in the game are indeed the dictator leader stereotype. Dictator leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• Fleet Commander*
• Mining Ops
• Finances

Delegation Leader
In my opinion, the delegation leader is the best type of leader to be a CEO or other major officer in a corporation. Like all the other leadership types though, there are some pros and cons.

Some delegation leaders delegate so much, that they are never truly in control or charge of anything. This sometimes gives off the impression that the leader is lazy. Indeed, that is something you can and will come across in this leadership stereotype. The best way to deal with this is to give that person a set of instructions that THEY are responsible for, and a list of things they are not – i.e. that they can delegate. They can also sometimes take all the credit instead of sharing it as it should be. To deal with this, simply be in the loop of whom they have delegated what to, and remind them of how that person helped get something accomplished.

The pros of a delegation leader are that they can accomplish much with very little. This means that the more they are given the more they can accomplish, which means if they are given even more they will accomplish that much more. They are often dreamers, big dreamers even and if given the resources the sky is literally the limit. Their strength is finding others to accomplish the things that they can not, or to find others to assist with agenda items allowing the delegation leader to handle more responsibilities. Delegation leaders are good for (in no particular order, though a * indicates a stronger affinity with that activity):

• CEO*
• CFO*
• Logistics
• Command
• Mining
• Manufacturing and Trade
• Any

Conclusion
Not all leaders fall into precisely these definitions, indeed most will probably display traits of two or more of these stereotypes. This is a good thing, because it means they can handle things in different ways and often more than one thing. By being versatile a leader who fits into more than one of the stereotypes can help your corporation grow in more and better ways.

All great leaders in history have had their lieutenants, who themselves were leaders. They may not have gotten the glory as much as those on top of the pyramid, but none of those top leaders would be where they were without those sub-leaders. Best of luck in building your empire!

Continue Reading

Welcome to 0.0, Newb!

Published on 26. Oct, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … There is a lot to learn about null space and indeed where in null space you end up will have its own challenges and rewards. This article is a look at moving to null space as a newb and some of the things you should know as a fellow newb. I’ve been very fortunate in my endeavors to get into null space, having moved twice now to various points within null space there are some things I learned – both the hard way and the easy way (read: I listened to somebody) that will be of interest to someone first moving into 0.0 space. Out in 0.0 you have a few primary careers you can get into relatively easily, so let’s start there and some things you will need.<

Ratting
I absolutely love ratting in 0.0 space, as even the lowliest of spawns can net you 2 million ISK for a few minutes of PvE combat. It is essential that you have a tank that can self-repair. This means, if you are a shield tanker, then ensures you have enough passive or active shield tanking going on that you won’t drop into armor. As an armor tank, it is essential that you can armor rep on the go. In battle cruisers and battleships, the repair work can be as much as the bounties you will bring in on a good rat spawn. I’m an armor tank myself, and I can usually handle a spawn of 2 battleships and 2 cruisers in my battle cruiser with the following tank:

1x EAN (Energized Adaptive Nano)
1x 1600mm Rolled Plate
1x Medium Armor Repairer
1x Damage Control II

As you can see, it’s not that much of a tank, it doesn’t need that many skill points and this setup is highly effective for me. By the time I loot the rats, my shields and armor have been restored almost too full and I can move onto the next belt, usually 100% by the time I get there. You can also effectively rat with just a battle cruiser, which you can be able to fly and outfit in as little as a few weeks.

Mission Running
This one you may need some help with if you are a newb. This is only available at NPC stations obviously, and depending on where you land in null space may be few and far between. However, there are opportunities out here for the mission runner. You just need the faction standings to be able to use the local agent. This is where you may need help if you don’t have the faction standing and need to team up with a player who does and run the mission together.

Mining
Mining can be a dicey proposition in 0.0 space. I highly advise going out mining in ops, this way you have better protection than you would normally on your own, including usually pilots who are there to handle rats that may spawn. If, you insist on mining alone, then be sure to have your tanking skills up high enough to tank the local rats and carry with you some offensive drones to handle the rats while you continue to mine.

The market in 0.0 is different IMO than in empire space. There are usually less items and higher costs in comparison to empire space. However, this means that there is a demand for minerals and ores which can be sold for more in 0.0 than in empire. This also means if you combine your industrial efforts alongside your mining ones, there is more ISK to be made.

PvP
This is a broad spectrum out here in 0.0 and can include roaming gangs, to gate camps, to all out warfare, to POS killing, to various types of gangs depending on what your goal is. So where does a newb fall in at? You will be surprised! In a lot of situations actually, a newb is the perfect tool, not to say it will be easy or glamorous though.

For starters, get into tackling. It’s not that hard on the skill training and is a great way to get started in PvP. The bad news is you will probably die a lot. That’s ok though because you will not be wearing implants when you PvP – not until you have learned to survive for awhile, otherwise you will be losing a lot of ISK in implants, which is something most newbs simply can’t afford. The second thing that is ok with all of this, is that you will be flying frigates and perhaps the occasional cruisers when your budget allows for it. These are relatively cheap ships and easy to replace. The modules you will be using for tackling are fairly easy to find and cheap as well. Tacklers are used in a variety of ways, most of which will get you into PvP relatively fast and easy. They are used at gate camps and many roaming gangs.

Gate camps are not necessarily the evil things they appear to be in low security space. While it is not uncommon for a pirate clan to setup a gate camp at a 0.0 choke point or along a corridor into 0.0, many gate camps are about security. For example, the corporation you are in may have a system that is “yours”. Well gate camping is a way to protect your system by simply nailing anyone who isn’t friendly to you as they come through. In 0.0 the phrase NBSI is used a lot (Not Blue, Shoot It!) and is dogma for many systems out here.

The Dangers
Everyone likes to talk about the dangers of 0.0 and I find it amusing that most of the talk about the dangers is in empire space. It’s not that the talk isn’t true, just blown out of proportion IMO and without the benefits and security that should be thrown in as well. For the most part, 0.0 space is lawless. I say for the most part, because in controlled territory there is law and order – and that is established by the controlling corporations and alliances there. This means that those not friendly are outside of that law and order and fall into the NBSI dogma. However, what is glossed over is that except when a major battle is unfolding, controlled systems can be very safe!

The purpose of being in an alliance in 0.0 is to ensure some measure of safety and a sense of law and order. Indeed alliances and corporations in 0.0 are their in 0.0 to put in their sense of society, their sense of order and law. It’s the great social experiment of our time, and indeed you will find Napolean’s and Gengis Khans, and modern day JFK’s out here.

Gate camps are a danger, however if you are in a good sized corporation or alliance then chances are you will have eyes in the systems you travel in and around, which means it will be rare to fall into a trap. More often than not, in my experience anyway, you are more likely to run into gate camps along the corridors connecting 0.0 and empire space. The most important thing you can ever do when traveling to and from 0.0 is fit Warp Core Stabilizers in your lows! This will give you a fighting – or more accurately a running chance. It is also advisable that in more heavily populated systems along your given corridor to use the warp within button. Not warp to 0 though, instead use warp to within 100km instead. This will mean some zig zagging across the system sometimes, but it also allows you to miss some bubble camps. A bubble camp is a gate camp with warp disruptor bubbles in place around it – usually in line with a popular star gate.

Of all the dangers in 0.0 the bubbled gate camp is the most serious one. However, if you find yourself in one – usually after you have jumped through a gate, or have warped to a gate – in the immortal words of Douglas Adams – DON’T PANIC! You can, with some luck and agility survive it. If you are jumping to a gate and fall into one, immediately turn around and go the other way! If you have jumped into a system and find yourself in one, then zoom out, find the closest edge and whatever may be in line with it you can jump to, ideally a planet, or if you are fortunate another star gate. Then of course head towards that edge and warp as soon as you are able.

Traveling to and from 0.0 is where most of the dangers are. If you are in a secure home system, the dangers and threats go way down. You may occasionally have to chase out an errant pilot – trust me it is essential to do this, as you want your system to have the reputation for not tolerating outsiders. This ensures that when the honest pilot comes to system, they will do so invited, or at least calling out their business on arrival. Sometimes, it is legit.

As far as dangers within your secured home system, the only real threat is during war. If, you see a bunch of reds suddenly coming into system, then it’s time to fight or dock. If your corporation and alliance is well organized though, even this threat can be dealt with rather quickly.

Life in 0.0 is not for everyone. At least that’s what everyone says and many think. Personally, I think 0.0 is for everyone. The most challenging aspect of 0.0 is making it your home. In that regard, this article didn’t even start to scratch the surface, though may be a topic for another day. I have found my limited time out here to be the best I have had in the game. Not just through my latest move, but my earlier ones as well. There are dangers, it is true. Yet the dangers can be dealt with effectively and there are dangers back in empire – which IMO are more annoying to deal with. See you out here in 0.0 you’re going to love it too.

Continue Reading

A Newb’s First Kill

Published on 27. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … I always thought my first solo kill would be camping a station for a wardec or pilot I had kill rights to come flying out. Indeed, I had been a part of a couple of actions that as part of a fleet we hunted and killed, but the solo kill I thought would be a ways off for me still. Yet, there I was flying my Minmatar Rupture out of system, on my way to upgrade to medium projectile turrets, when as I arrived at the gate there was a pilot marked yellow and had a skull.

Since, skulls in our system always means trouble, I took a second or two and put it out in Corp. chat that a hostile had entered our system. Meanwhile, I noticed the pilot had started to flash and I quickly started to target him, and let the corp. know. I was under fire as the first hits flared over my shields.

I engaged the MWD, completed lock-on to the hostile and noticed just as I was coming to speed two things: I was slowing down fast and was within range of my webifier. As I hit both the webifier and the warp disruptor on my target, I couldn’t help but to chuckle as we were both tackling each other. As my weapons started to unleash on him, I knew it would be moments before help arrived. It was just a matter of whose help would arrive first and turned off my MWD.

By now, the gate guns were hitting him in his Thorax, we were both in tight orbit around each other, guns a blazin’, each locked down from warping away from this fight. I noticed his shield was out and felt the surge of victory, just knowing I could get him before he got me.

Then the sound and flash of light as the gate activated, followed by the bright flash of his ship blowing up and then I did the wrong thing… I was out of lockdown, I could of just punched my MWD and went off in the direction I was facing and all would be good, despite the two new hostiles firing at me. But no, I was elated from the kill and quickly targeted one of the new arrivals who had just started firing on me, and returned fire. Then the gate flashed again and suddenly there were two more hostiles. I was running out of time.

I switched on my webifier and my warp disruptor again, in the hopes that my incoming friends would get a couple shots off at him sitting nearly still and reported the new arrivals in corp.

Within a couple of seconds I was dead, then podded. Just as this was happening, the friendlies arrived and engaged. In the end though I was elated – I had won my first ship to ship combat, cruiser vs. cruiser and had won!

As I went about my business of collecting my insurance, upgrading my clone, buying and outfitting a new ship, one of my friends looted my ship and my enemy’s ship. Turned out that he lost more than I did, and what was salvaged from both wrecks would pay and outfit my new ship nicely.

In the end, I had my first taste of blood, not coming from a blob or superior numbers and I admit – I like it. Lessons learned though would include the following:

• Once you are out of lockdown and you are on the losing side – WARP! Or at least hit the MWD and get out of the area.
• Gate guns in low sec can be your ally, ensure they fire at your target first unless you know for sure you can tank both your target and the sentry guns.
• Remain calm and communicate as much as possible so that anyone arriving onto scene knows what is going on beforehand.
• Trust your instincts. When I saw myself being tackled, as a tackler I knew more would be jumping through the gate but I disregarded it initially. This could have been communicated and gave us an extra minute of response time.

Continue Reading

Eve Newb: What do I do now?

Published on 24. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss … So far in the Eve Newb, we’ve gone through how to get your character setup and how to find a good corporation that you will fit into. So what exactly comes next? With so many different approaches to the EVE Universe, it is easy to get lost and become undecided on exactly what it is you want to do. In the character creation process you had choices that led you down into piloting, mining or trading. Each with a couple of sub-choices to further define if you piloted better or shot better; mined or made stuff better; traded and or were more sociable.

You’ve played the game now for a few weeks, you found your social niche as a player in the corporation you are a part of and now you are ready to conquer the EVE universe. Wait, what do I do now? That’s the thought process that many newbs to the game (including yours truly) come to at this point in the game.

As with anything, knowledge is power and the first thing to help determine where we go from here is to find out – well where we can go! Let’s talk about careers first. There are several careers that we can reach towards for example right from the get-go:

Piloting, PvE:

• Mission Running
• Belt Ratter

Piloting, PvP:

• Faction Warfare
• Pirating

Mining:

• High sec mining
• Ninja mining

Industry:

• Manufacturing ship modules
• Manufacturing ships

Trade:

• Day trading
• Trade route hauling (space truckers!)

Exploration:

• Low and null sec gate jumping and exploration
  Scouting

These are just some of the careers you can go into almost immediately with some type of success. In fact, you can go into several of them at once if you wanted to. Besides figuring out what career you want to get into, you also need to find a way of making ISK. The most popular ways are:

• Mining
• Belt Ratting
• Mission Running

Any of these will make you some ISK and get you started. Depending on the type of career (or lack of one) you want to start off with, can help determine where your efforts should go. For example, if you want to concentrate on being a PvE specialist in mission running, then mission running is a bigger deal to you than say a mining industrialist. Likewise if you are a miner, than mission running isn’t as big of a deal for you (unless your doing both careers at once).

A career is important as long as you keep it in perspective to what it is you want to accomplish in the EVE Universe. It starts you on the course to make ISK, and can help determine which skills you decide to level up. It’s been said before, it will be said again: start with Learning skills! It makes things easier down the road. That said, as a newb I hate the grind of just doing straight Learning skills as it impacts on how I do things as I am not skilling up in other areas. So, here I am going to share a secret with you… It will cost me time down the road, I know this and accept it. However, I split my training times up between learning skills and other skills towards my initial goals. For one pilot it means getting into a Covert Ops ship, half my time goes into learning the other half into skills needed to operate a Covert Ops. For another pilot it meant getting into a Mining Barge, half the time into learning skills, the other half towards that goal (now for that character it is all about the learning skills). By doing this, it gets you into the game doing something you enjoy doing, without hobbling you in the beginning. Just beware that this method does mean it will take longer for you down the road.

The skills you choose should support the career you are in or trying to get in. If, for example you want to be a miner, then your skills selections should focus on that. Likewise if you want to be a belt ratter, they should reflect this as well.

So we’ve talked about careers, ISK making and skills in general. These things can tie together and benefit you as a player to a good start in the game. Next time we’re going to discuss the tools to help you refine your character even further, and more specifically by using such tools as EveMon and EFT. See you then.

Continue Reading

Painful Lessons

Published on 06. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss …

The past couple of days have been painful for me as a newb pilot. At 3 months old as a player and a month old as a character, the last couple of days have been a harsh reality check for me. Good news is that despite the last couple of days I still feel as strong about the game of Eve as I have since the beginning and despite the hurt, still enjoy the game. This article is about warnings to other newbs, and how to avoid the mistakes I’ve made. Please note, I only offer these warnings to newbs, as they may or may not apply to more senior players.

1. Never, ever feel that you are completely safe. This goes even further in low and null sec space. For the past week I had been operating out of a series of low sec systems that have been “safe”. I’ve transported goods in and out of the systems, did my share of low sec mining and had a great time. Due to a wardec, my corp had been called back to our home system and so in the wee hours I loaded my hauler and started home. I felt safe, after all the systems had been quiet and just a few minutes prior to the “incident” the systems I would be traveling through were completely empty. Then with a full hauler of about 75% of my goods and 150+ million in blueprints, I jumped into a system that was gate camped and lost nearly everything within seconds. This leads to warning number…
2. Never, ever transport a majority of your wealth in one transport unless you have full security and scouts ahead of you. The above gate camp only cost me about 250 million ISK, but when your characters net worth is only about 280 million ISK, it is a crippling blow – or at least for a couple of weeks (as a newb) to recover.
3. None of this action though had to do with the WarDec that is upon us though. It was just your standard run of the mill gate camp in what had been a quiet neighborhood. This wasn’t all I’ve lost in the last couple of days though and so the next warning is this: Never, ever jump out of a system if you don’t have intel on the other side if your enemies are online. While we’re on the subject of warnings during a WarDec…
4. Never, ever go out on your own when the enemy is known to be out hunting. Your at War, and while as a newb you may feel invulnerable (especially when no war targets are in system), they can be on top of you in NO time and if your out of station when they come into system? You have mere seconds to get safe, i.e. dock.

The last lesson I have for you today doesn’t need a number. Should go without saying but I will for sake of clarity and just in case you don’t understand yet. There is a ton of risk in Eve, in just about everything you do. More so, the lower security you go. Understand that while you may go weeks unscathed and indeed feel adequately safe, don’t ever let your guard down. I did. Undoubtedly the older players at one time or another have to. Chances are despite this warning, someday you will to. When that time comes. Remember: Eve is a game, which means that it can be frustrating at times but the joyful times always outnumber it – especially if it’s a game you like. Just be better prepared next time. In the meantime, I am back off to Eve, I have a lot of work ahead to undue these losses. In the end though, I have a list and one day I will be old enough to make ‘em pay! Yarr!!

Continue Reading

Life on the Edge

Published on 01. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss …

The nice thing about being a newb in EVE, is that everything is new and fresh and exciting; even those things that people who have been around awhile take for granted or even with a sense of boredom.

I’ve been living in low sec space now for about a month and starting to take my first jaunts into null space. These are exciting times for me and beyond what I used to experience when I lived in high sec on previous characters.

To date so far, I’ve lost two Ospreys, a Slasher and three Rifters. The Ospreys I lost to belt rats in .3 space thinking that I could tank them, which with my skills at the time I could not. Two Rifters I lost in missions, another one to a POS’s sentry guns when I got to close and the Slasher I lost in null security when I got caught in a Warp bubble. I can honestly say that none of these losses hurt whatsoever, as I was easily able to replace them and outfit them without too much trouble or even time.

The experiences I’ve had though have been outstanding! In addition to the old hat stuff you can do anywhere, such as mining, belt ratting and mission running, there has been simply more to do in low security than I had to do out in high security. So far I’ve been able to participate in:

• Two POS sieges. I wasn’t really able to do much or add much DPS in my little ship but to be a part of an Op tearing down an unwanted POS in our system was still fun to watch.
• Acted as recon twice when hunting down known pirates in our end of space. This was a fun activity that has led me down the track of recon and as a result, by the end of September I will be flying my first Covert Ops Ship. One of these times resulted in killing off a despised pirate in our system and his cronies.
• Provided escort services with other pilots on numerous occasions as we moved goods or refueled our own POS’s.
• Explored many nearby systems and setup instas and safe spots in those systems.

While many of these activities were more about time in-game than actual combat, it was still enthralling to be a part of something that had you sitting on the edge of the seat, knowing that at any moment, things could change. For myself this is the allure of low sec space and 0.0 space – the element of the unknown that could happen at any time. The next step part being: did I successfully prepare myself for whatever may happen?

There’s a lot of different character types out here in lower sec. Wannabe Napoleans, ISK-motivated Industrialist, loathsome griefers, friendly pirates (yes friendly!), lost souls and teachers. It’s a great place to be and for myself has increased the joy of the game. See you out here soon!

Continue Reading

Eve Newb Finding Your Place

Published on 01. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss.

by Sam Guss …

For the last month I’ve been playing my new characters Malori Veneer and Gustaf Matariel and in my string of articles so far, I’ve written on how to conceive and start out a character and then find them a good home in a corporation. What can you expect though in your first month of playing? If, you started playing the game and somehow came across my articles and been following along by now I am sure you may be “stuck” on what to do and when. Aside from training some skills, you may not have had the opportunity to do much except run some missions perhaps or mine or set off and explore some.

Depending on the type of corporation you are in and the location of that corporation your options may be limited or you may simply not be at a point where you understand what you can be doing by now. That’s where this episode of the Eve Newb comes in; to flesh out some activities that you can be taking part in and working towards.

The first thing we have to determine is what security of space you are flying in. That alone will dictate which options are available to you to be honest. In high security space these should be the activities that you are engaging in on a regular basis (feel free to mix and match):

1. Skill training, skill training, skill training
2. Mining
3. Mission running (preferably with corporation mates)/Belt ratting
4. Hauling/Trading

Your training should include mostly learning skills, which will help you further along the line of your Eve career and some skills that will help you fly your Frigate and/or Cruiser if you decide to push towards that. For Malori, I did push her into a Cruiser, since her interests are mostly in mining and industry and getting into an Osprey to mine versus a Frigate impacts her bottom line in ISK substantially. Now, however she is focused on Learning. Gustaf on the other hand, is just now starting to get serious on the Learning skills, as being able to fly his Frigate (and yes he is still in a Frigate) was of higher importance. Before flying anything bigger though, he is focusing on his Learning skills.

Mining by some is considered boring but truly is the foundation on which everything else in Eve is built on. Yes, one can always just go buy the minerals and Blueprints of whatever it is you want to build, however this route can in the end cost you a ton of ISK – whether you decide to build yourself or just buy off the market. Mining will get you used to some aspects of the game however. Basic navigation, how to keep your eyes open for potential threats – both NPC and PC, get you used to station services, etc. and make you either a bit of ISK or the thrill of making whatever it is you want, with the only cost to you being the BPO’s – and not even that if you are in a corporation that allows you to borrow theirs or some BPC’s.

Mission running is a very important part of Eve for a lot of people – even the PvP’ers as this impacts standings and LP (Loyalty Points) which are used to purchase a wide variety of items that cost less than if you bought them on open market. Of course there is belt ratting of course in order to make some ISK off of bounties and increase your standings as well.

Personally, I am not a big fan of high security space and prefer low security and have taken my first jaunts into 0.0 space. What you end up doing in low security space includes much of what you do in high security space as a newb but with some added excitement. In low security space as a newbie you should be engaging in the following activities:

1. Skill training, skill training, skill training
2. Mission running/belt ratting
3. Mining
4. Exploring/learning how to use scanner/learning how to make safe spots
5. Joining corporation operations when possible
6. Exploring some more

Skill training is still just as important, though you may find yourself concentrating on other skills than in high space. For example, as a newbie you are only a day or two from being able to outfit an adequate tackler, so some skills towards these skills is necessary for you to learn and may be skills that back in high security wouldn’t of been trained as early as you will in low security space.

Mission running is still part of the main way to build ISK and faction, however you are more likely to need to run with corporation members to help you get your foot in the door than you do in high security – most corporations shouldn’t mind you tagging along and if they do, then perhaps you are either in the wrong type of corporation OR in a small corporation who simply can’t afford someone of lower skill to fly with them. Don’t despair; just do what you can. This is one activity though, that you will find that you may need to be in high security space more often than low security as you build faction and the ability to fly better ships to tackle higher level missions.

Mining is still important as well, though you will find that you will need to pack up more than in high security and keep a careful eye on local for potential threats entering the system you are in.

Various corporation operations become available in low security that you don’t see as much in high security. For example, scouting in nearby systems is a must; as is defending your low security system, hunting down pirates and attacking POS’s in your home system that aren’t your own. These skills will transfer later as you move into null space and is a great way to get to know your corporation mates and get the experience you will need in flying in fleet engagements.

Using a scanner and finding safe spots is a lot more important in low security than it is in high security. You should learn the systems that you are operating in as well as those systems closest to you. Making bookmarks of critical places to jump to is something I would suggest every pilot does and in a future edition of Eve Newb we will talk more about this. Until next time, have fun!

Continue Reading