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Eve Newb: What do I do now?

Published on 24. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss, Tags: Articles

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.