V3.0 Updated on June 6, 2010.
Introduction:
Eve-Online is, in my opinion, a much more complex MMO then many others, so it does tend to have a fairly high learning curve. This guide will give new players the gist of what to do in the first few days and weeks of starting a character in Eve with the objective of making that learning cliff into more of a steep hill.
Please notice the words “starting off” in the title, this guide will not hold your hand all the way into late game, it’s just meant to teach you how to get your character off the ground in areas such as — Making your character, Making Isk, Setting up your first ships, and other basic concepts.
Also, keep in mind that, I’m sure that there are people that will disagree with some of the ideas and suggestions in this guide. As Eve tends to be more complex in many areas then in most MMOs, there are many times in which the answer to a question will be, “It Depends”. One example of this is to a question I hear very often from new players. “What is the best (insert ship type)?” The answer.: “It depends”
Depends on what? The situation and your skills, mainly. Say you wanted to know if you should choose a Thorax or a Vexor for your next Cruiser, and you ask, “Which one is better?” In this case, it depends on your skills. There are different weapons skills you can have, such as Missiles, Gunnery, and Drones. If you have high drone skills, the Vexor would be the ship for you, while, if you have high gunnery skills, the Thorax would serve you better.
So my point is twofold: 1. There are many questions to which there are no cut and dry answers. 2. Being a complex game with many ways of doing things, not everyone is going to agree with everyone else’s take on the “best” way.
Now, on to the guide!
Part 1 — Making a Character, well.
Back when I first wrote this guide, you had to be very careful with how you created your character. Things like your race, bloodline, and trade could drastically alter your starting attributes and starting skills.
Now, all characters start off with fairly balanced starting attributes and skills, (We will discuss attributes a little later on in the guide.) so it makes the character creation phase a lot less important then it used to be, but that doesn’t mean you should just run through it not caring about what you choose.
1. What’s he/she going to do? Are you going to be combat oriented, making your fortunes with guns blazing? Or, do you want to aim your turrets at some juicy asteroids, mining masses of valuable ore and, either selling the ore, or perhaps manufacturing goods to sell at a profit? Then again you could go the way of the trader, and look for those lucrative “Buy low sell high” chances in the markets of Eve.
(Version Note: What choices you made here used to greatly effect your starting skills, as well as your attributes. Since this is no longer the case, the importance of knowing what your character is going to be used for beforehand is greatly reduced. BUT still of importance, especially when choosing your Race.)
All of these choices are viable ways to make a living in Eve. Some pay off in late game more then early game, but none the less, all can make you money. So, it is of use to know what way you are going when making your character.
2. Choosing your Race. In Eve there are 4 races. The Amarr Empire, The Minmatar Republic, The Gallente Federation, and The Caldari State. I will briefly go into their histories below, but an extensive history of each is not the point of this guide.
If you have chosen the path of the Industrialist and wish to mine, there is little difference in what race you choose, as the biggest mining ships, called “Mining Barges” and “Exhumers,” are a non racial ship. So, you get the same bonuses, no matter what race you are.
Some will argue that it does matter, because some races mining frigates are slightly better then others. But, in my opinion, that fact matters little, because you will not be in a frigate long.
Now, if you have decided to be a combat pilot, the choice in Race makes a MUCH bigger difference, as each have very unique fighting styles. I will briefly outline each race one at a time.
-The Amarr use energy weapons that don’t use ammo as other races do. The Amarr fit their weapons with crystals that change the characteristics of their weapon, and for all intents and purposes, last forever. This can be nice, as you do not need tons of ammo sitting in your cargo taking up space. A disadvantage to the Amarr, however, is that all their weapons do EM/Thermal damage, and while that may be good for taking out an enemy’s shields (shields are inherently weak to EM), it’s not so good for taking out their armor. (Armor is inherently strong against EM.) DO NOT take this to mean the Amarr are not a good choice. The Amarr excel at large Battleship slugging matches, and other areas. Every race has a way it can be used in just about any area of game play.
-The Gallente don’t rely just on their guns for power, as they have mastered the use of drones that can fight for them. This gives them the same advantage as the Amarr in the way that your drones do not require ammo. But the Gallente are not limited to only drones. They can field powerful Hybrid weapons which fire charges that primarily do Thermal/Kinetic damage. This tends to be a better overall combo of damage types then the Amarr. (My personal opinion is that The Gallente are the best all around race for being able to dabble in just about any area of Eve. But that’s my opinion.)
-The Minmatar use projectile weapons that don’t require energy from their ships capacitor to fire, allowing them to use their energy to keep their ship alive longer. Also, this brings us to one of the biggest advantages of the Minmatar—their ammo selection is huge. Again, with the Amarr ,you only fire EM/Thermal; Gallente fire Thermal/Kinetic. But the Minmatar have different ammo types to do just about any kind of damage you need. Example of usefulness would be, if you are engaging an enemy that you know has low resistance to Explosive damage, you just unload your ammo, throw in your explosive ammo, and go to town on his exposed resistance.
-The Caldari use a myriad of different missiles, rockets, and torpedos to rain death down upon their enemies. Like the Minmatar, the Caldari have a decent selection of missile types to do different types of damage, allowing you to find, and exploit, resistance holes in your enemies’ defenses. Allow me to point out that the Caldari are considered to be very good at PVE combat.
3. Your Bloodline comes next. Think of a bloodline as a subrace. The main thing a Bloodline does is, it alters your starting skills which can have a somewhat large impact on how you start. Some of them will be geared toward weapons, or perhaps Mechanic, while others might be more aimed toward less combat oriented skills.
Now, basically you are left with one thing, Ancestry. This decides some starting skills that will determine whether you start with combat skills or industrial skills.
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