Tell me about EVE Online

[Zsofia]

I've heard that EVE Online might just me my kind of MMPORG - you don't even really have to fight, it's more about community, etc. Is that true? Also, is it fun for somebody who isn't very good at a lot of games?

I played A Tale in the Desert for a little while and really enjoyed it, although there was kind of a lot of grinding - that one's kind of hard to explain to other people. "So... who do you fight?" "You don't fight." "What do you do, then?" "Make stuff. It's kind of a community thing." "You don't fight?"

So tell me about EVE - is it too "matured" for a newbie? Is it fun? Is it something you can do and enjoy without sinking a metric ass-ton of time into it?

[Lute Skywatcher]

These earlier threads should be useful (the search can work for three letter words if they're in quotes).

Tell me aobut EVE online (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=335723&highlight=eve+online) (9-19-05)

Eve Online (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=360657&highlight=eve+online) (2-26-06)

Calling all Eve Online players! (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=416624&highlight=eve+online) (4-14-07)

[Bosstone]

EVE Online is my idea of a perfect MMO, and I wish I could play it more. But the friends I like to hang out with are on other games, so.

EVE is less of a game and more of a persistent virtual world (galaxy, really). The economy is one of the most robust I've ever encountered, and it is in fact possible to have a fulfilling career on the game and never engage in fighting.

That's the key word, though, 'career'. A lot of it is more like work than goofing off. If you get a kick out of numbers and resource management and profit, you'll love it.

EVE takes place in a galaxy several millenia in the future, with humans having evolved into four similar but disparate races and cultures. Each of these attained spacefaring technology in their own ways, and by making use of warpgates they've been able to travel between solar systems. You play as a ship pilot, and it's wholly up to you to decide how to make a profit in the game.

It's not that the end goal is to make a profit, but to do much of anything you'll need cash. To play with some of the bigger ships and more advanced systems, you'll need a lot of cash. As I said before, the economy is very robust and players are involved in almost all steps of the process; there's very few money fountains or sinks. The basic economic cycle operates roughly as such:

Miners extract raw ore from asteroid belts. They sell it to refiners, who turn the ore into minerals which they sell to manufacturers. The manufacturers create ship systems which everyone buys. Combat pilots earn money primarily by collecting bounties on computer-controlled pirates and selling salvage to other players. There's also a few other professions who contribute to the economic cycle, such as scientists and such, but I never delved that deeply into those areas. There's also traders, who run cargo from one station to another.

The important thing to note is that the game is not based off a class system. You don't select Miner as your Profession when you start. Instead, the game is entirely skill-based; the better your Mining skill is, the more efficiently you can extract ore. You can learn any skill for which you have the prerequisites; the only limiting factor is time. Low-level skills can take under an hour to train up to a usable state, while high-level skills can take several months. This allows for an organic growth in your character. Mine started out as a fighter pilot, but eventually learned mining, refining, and trading skills. By the time I stopped playing I almost never engaged in combat.

The game is player-versus-player at all times. However, each solar system is rated for its security level on a scale of 1.0 to 0.0, 1.0 being almost completely safe and secure with 0.0 being utterly lawless. (This refers to computer-guided security; if a player group chooses to patrol a 0.0 sector, that area may be safe as well.) You can have a fulfilling career never straying outside the 1.0-0.8 range and you'll never encounter someone who wants to destroy you. On the other hand, the lower the system security, the better chance of earning good rewards in combat or mining.

Player groups are known as corporations. You start in the newbie corporation, and from there you can find your own.

I think that's really it. EVE is basically notable for involving players in every step of the economy and giving them an unprecedented amount of control over what they do in game. It's a little spartan and can be difficult, but if you like resource management and crafting then you'll love EVE.

One warning: the learning curve is very steep and can be intimidating to a new player. You may find it overwhelming at first.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, and I have to get back to work. :p

[Gorsnak]

You don't have to fight, except when you do. :p

The first thing to note about EVE is that the entire server is a PvP zone. Now, it's true that in the core starter areas, i.e. "hi-sec", players who aggress other players will have their asses handed to them by CONCORD (the NPC police, who always win). But CONCORD responds to aggression, they don't prevent it, hence threads on the EVE forums started by hi-sec traders whining about "suicide ganking", the art of blowing up peaceful traders very quickly before being blown up in turn by CONCORD, with friends or alts standing by to steal the loot. And when your ship is blown up, it's gone, lost forever. The penalty for dying is rather high compared to most mmorpgs.

That said, if you really don't want to fight it's vanishingly unlikely that you'll have to, to any extent that really matters. There are basic precautions you can take to avoid suicide gankers, and there's a massive, massive economic game that you can play that needn't involve combat of any type, vs players or npcs. The economic/industrial side of things is virtually limitless. Almost every object in the game is manufactured (or at least can be) by players. All of the best ships are strictly player-made. Billions of isk flow between trade hubs every day, and there's profit to be made all over the place. If that's your sort of thing.

Is it more about community? That would all depend on what corp you join. There certainly are corporations that are all about community.

Is it fun? Depends on what you enjoy, of course. If you're not interested in blowing shit up, that limits you to mining, production, and trading. There's a ton of gameplay there, but if playing a very detailed economic sim doesn't turn your crank, you're unlikely to enjoy it. On the other hand, if you love spreadsheets full of mineral prices, manufacturing costs, buy and sell prices, and projected profits, well, you couldn't ask for a better game.

[Bosstone]

On the other hand, if you love spreadsheets full of mineral prices, manufacturing costs, buy and sell prices, and projected profits, well, you couldn't ask for a better game.I am a horrible nerd, because I adored this part of the game. I used to spend hours figuring out where I should sell my ore, or if it was worth it to refine it first, or what trade routes I should take. There's a reason the game's client has a built-in calculator.

[Gorsnak]

It doesn't need a built in calculator. It needs a build in spreadsheet. Seriously. OpenOffice Calc works for me, though. Not that I've played much recently. Caldari Battleship V just completed and I wasn't logged in once between setting it and changing to Torps V.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I'd check into this game if I was sure my finances would support this and City of Heroes at the same time.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Maybe I'll join up as a birthday present to myself, in June, when I'm better able to afford two subscriptions.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Aw, what the hell...I'm in; I had forgotten about the extra income that I started getting last month. Got myself a trial account and finished the tutorial last night. My first character is Leo Jager, a Caldari in the Civire bloodline.

Is there a SDMB corporation?

[Etumretniw]

Aw, what the hell...I'm in; I had forgotten about the extra income that I started getting last month. Got myself a trial account and finished the tutorial last night. My first character is Leo Jager, a Caldari in the Civire bloodline.

Is there a SDMB corporation?

SDMB corporation? Never thought of that, probably there isn't.
Hope you have fun, wave if you see me (Etumretniw) in space! :)

[Lute Skywatcher]

Hope you have funThanks. I'm a veteran of Elite and Elite Plus so this is my sort of game. I like being able to do my own thing; when I'm soloing CoX I occasionally stand in a safe spot during a mission and just watch TV or read the Dope for a bit. Having an autopilot is great! So is being able to train skills when I'm not even near my computer.

I should be on EVE quite a bit this weekend when I'm not making double XP in CoX. I've already requested Friday off. :)

[Antinor01]

I've thought of trying it out, but I'm not sure I have the time to put into it. The concept really intrigues me though.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I'm not sure I have the time to put into it.That's a concern of mine as well. Your character training while you're offline is a big plus.

I made sure to log in this morning before I left for work and train a skill that won't complete until after I get home.

[Antinor01]

That's a concern of mine as well. Your character training while you're offline is a big plus.

I made sure to log in this morning before I left for work and train a skill that won't complete until after I get home.

That is certainly a plus. I may do the trial and see from there. I'm already in LOTRO, want to play Warhammer when it comes out, play and GM for a MUD that takes a lot of my time and have been dabbling in Pirates Online. (yea yea it's disney but it's still an interesting diversion!) I'm not sure I can spread myself any thinner game-time wise.

[FinnAgain]

EVE is, probably, the most enjoyable game I've ever played. To get a good overview of the game, I'd suggest taking a look at a 'zine that covers news, tactics and opinion, among other things, about EVE.

EVE Tribune (http://www.eve-tribune.com/) is nearing three solid years of operation, can tell you a heck of a lot about the dynamics or the game, and from what I understand, has one handsome devil of an editor.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I'm already in LOTROI was in LOTRO beta and got the Founder's sub but it didn't really hold my interest. Same for Hellgate, which could hold my interest if it didn't crash so frequently.

[Antinor01]

Ok, downloading Eve now so I can try it out. We'll see how it goes.

[Lok]

Thanks. I'm a veteran of Elite and Elite Plus so this is my sort of game. I like being able to do my own thing; when I'm soloing CoX I occasionally stand in a safe spot during a mission and just watch TV or read the Dope for a bit. Having an autopilot is great! So is being able to train skills when I'm not even near my computer.

I should be on EVE quite a bit this weekend when I'm not making double XP in CoX. I've already requested Friday off. :)
Word of Warning, using autopilot while not at your ship can cause you to lose your ship. Even if you stay in highsec systems. It stops your warp at 15 km from the gates, then you fly into range to jump. This is a clue to people suicide ganking so they target ships doing it. This is especially dangerous when traveling to Jita or systems leading to it.

I always hit Warp to 0 on the gate, then turn on Autopilot so I jump automatically when I get to the gate, and turn off Autopilot during the jump. This is when I am moving stuff with my transport. When flying somewhere in a shuttle or frigate, Autopilot is a safer proposition in high sec. It is never safe in low sec or 0.0 space.

I have been playing for just under 2 years now. I have periods when I play a lot, mostly mining, manufacturing, and mission running, then I will go for a while just logging on to change skills as they finish. That is what I am doing right now.

There is no SDMB corp that I know of. I am still in the starter corp that I was placed in when created my first character. I don't play enough to feel right about joining a corp that is active. I am almost always solo, and there are lots of people that have characters in the starter corp that are older than mine. It is the STI corp, depending on how you created your character, you may be in it since it is a Caldari corp for Science and Trade.

You might want to pick up EVEMon (http://evemon.battleclinic.com/) to keep track of your character. Once it is set up, you can just start it and it will tell you how much longer it will be for your current skill to finish training. And it has a pretty good skill training planner.

[Tristan]

I may be sold, once I get my gaming rig. My wife will understand, I think. I hope.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Word of Warning, using autopilot while not at your ship can cause you to lose your ship. Even if you stay in highsec systems. It stops your warp at 15 km from the gates, then you fly into range to jump. This is a clue to people suicide ganking so they target ships doing it. This is especially dangerous when traveling to Jita or systems leading to it.

I always hit Warp to 0 on the gate, then turn on Autopilot so I jump automatically when I get to the gate, and turn off Autopilot during the jump. This is when I am moving stuff with my transport. When flying somewhere in a shuttle or frigate, Autopilot is a safer proposition in high sec. It is never safe in low sec or 0.0 space.I still just have the rookie frigate so I'm okay, as long as I pay attention in systems lower than, say, 0.7. Got smoked last night by an NPC pirate in some 0.5 system right when I finished mining.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I may be sold, once I get my gaming rig. My wife will understand, I think. I hope.What do you have now? EVE's requirements are pretty low, even with the new graphics pack. Works fine on my old 1800.

[Lok]

I still just have the rookie frigate so I'm okay, as long as I pay attention in systems lower than, say, 0.7. Got smoked last night by an NPC pirate in some 0.5 system right when I finished mining.
Yeah, if you are going to be mining, get into a Bantam. Not a great ship, but decent all around and it is a good beginner frigate. And if you are planning on playing for a while, train up your Learning skills. I got my Frigate skill up to where I could handle a Merlin, along with some secondary skills for weapons, then ran missions while I trained up all 11 Learning skills to 5. (At the time, you needed to get the lower skills to 5 before training the advanced skills, they have since changed it to only needing to get to level 4.) You need to play for a year or two to actually save enough time to make up for the time used training the Learning skills to level 5. I have been playing for 2, so it was well worth it for me.

One other thing about EVE that is unique as far as I know. You can purchase timecodes for playing with ISK. So if you get to the point you can make enough income, you are playing to pay, with no cash needed.

[Antinor01]

Got started last night with a Gallente/Gallente/miner/entrepreneur and ran a few missions. It looks like a great world (Ok, universe!) that I would love to really get into.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Yeah, if you are going to be mining, get into a Bantam.I was looking at getting one of those while in the pod. Do ships come with weapons and mining equipment as standard or are those extra purchases?

[Bosstone]

I was looking at getting one of those while in the pod. Do ships come with weapons and mining equipment as standard or are those extra purchases?Extra. A ship by itself is essentially just the chassis, propulsion, and cargo space. In order to actually do stuff, you need modules. For example, to mine asteroids all you need is a Mining Laser, which will pull ore into your cargo hold. You're usually given a decent amount of lowbie equipment to start, IIRC, and it's dirt cheap on the market anyway.

[Lok]

And you should have a decent start on money, if you did the tutorial and the first set of missions they sent you to at the start. You probably want to stay out of 0.5 even after you get a Bantam though. The rats are a bit tougher, but more importantly, there are more PC pirates there. I lost a Covetor to a pirate in a .6 system a few months ago. Was very irritating. But it did give me the impetus to finally buy a Hulk, which really increased my income.

Actually, I think I have some extra 125mm hybrids for frigates. I will check and send you an email in game if I do.

[Zsofia]

I did all the first tutorial missions, and then that guy sent me to some other guy, who has a mining mission for me - but I can't haul enough. Does that mean it's time to get a bigger ship, or what?

[Lute Skywatcher]

Extra. A ship by itself is essentially just the chassis, propulsion, and cargo space.Yeah, that's what I figured. And you should have a decent start on money, if you did the tutorial and the first set of missions they sent you to at the start.Did the tutorial, a couple of missions from my second contact, and a bit of mining. I'm up to about 160K ISK; plenty for a Bantam in The Forge.Actually, I think I have some extra 125mm hybrids for frigates. I will check and send you an email in game if I do.Cool! Thanks.

[Dunawake]

I played Eve for a while, and built up enough money and skill to use a battlecruiser, but I eventually grew tired of it. The primary reason was that quest running and just travel in general is just really slow. The combat grew stale after a while because of a lack of variety for me, and it definitely seemed to me that the game is more oriented around people for whom combat is only a small portion of the game.

The thing that really grabbed me was the interaction between people in a corporation, I was "hired" by a high-skill miner in the corporation I joined to aid him in transporting his mined ore back to the station for safekeeping and refining. I saw a lot of opportunity for enjoyable activity like that, but only if you were willing to spend a lot of time in the game and really be involved with a corporation. Playing solo quickly grew dull for me, as I would actually alt-tab out and play WoW or something else while my ship was traveling somewhere. If a game can have downtimes of 5-20 minutes for travel, I really don't feel like I'm having much fun.

Anyway, depending on your attitude and expectation, I can see Eve being really fun for a lot of people, as well as insufferably boring for a lot as well.

[FinnAgain]

I played Eve for a while, and built up enough money and skill to use a battlecruiser, but I eventually grew tired of it. The primary reason was that quest running and just travel in general is just really slow. The combat grew stale after a while because of a lack of variety for me, and it definitely seemed to me that the game is more oriented around people for whom combat is only a small portion of the game.

Just the opposite. EVE is, at its base, a PvP game. That's what a great many people do for fun, with ratting or trading, or whatever, only thrown in to make cash to afford PvP ships. "Quest running" is to combat in EVE what masturbation is to a 12 person orgy. If you're not taking part in 0.0 skirmishes against real players, then you're not getting into real combat.

For folks reading along, don't give up on the pew pew until you've actually tried fighting real, live human beings.


The thing that really grabbed me was the interaction between people in a corporation, I was "hired" by a high-skill miner in the corporation I joined to aid him in transporting his mined ore back to the station for safekeeping and refining. I saw a lot of opportunity for enjoyable activity like that, but only if you were willing to spend a lot of time in the game and really be involved with a corporation.

Hauling is just about the most boring job in EVE, bar none.
Forming up a roaming gank squad and invading enemy sovereign territory, however...


Playing solo quickly grew dull for me, as I would actually alt-tab out and play WoW or something else while my ship was traveling somewhere. If a game can have downtimes of 5-20 minutes for travel, I really don't feel like I'm having much fun.

Travel does have time. It's part of how the scale of distance is maintained, but more importantly, how the economy works. If players could get resources from Point A to Point B in no time flat, there's be no real incentive for shopping different markets, trading items in different regions, charging to haul stuff around. And transit can't be instantaneous, or PvP would be real damn odd. One of the most reliable and profitable combat strategies is the gatecamp, where you get to a chokepoint ahead of your enemies, and set up a trap on the other side of a star gate, pouncing on them once they go on through. With ultra-quick transit, there'd be no point in the different ships' roles; if interceptors don't give you more speed and maneuverability than battleships, why wouldn't every gang just consist of all battleships?

[Bosstone]

Hauling is just about the most boring job in EVE, bar none.
But oh so profitable. I sunk a lot of money into maximizing the cargo space in my Badger mk II.

[Gorsnak]

But oh so profitable. I sunk a lot of money into maximizing the cargo space in my Badger mk II.
Good lord why? If you really wanted to haul you shouldn't have been in a T1 Caldari hauler - get thee into an Itty V or at least a Mammoth. Heck even a Bestower outhauls the Badger II.

[Bosstone]

Good lord why? If you really wanted to haul you shouldn't have been in a T1 Caldari hauler - get thee into an Itty V or at least a Mammoth. Heck even a Bestower outhauls the Badger II.Patriotism? :) At the time I was sticking primarily to Caldari ships.

[Dunawake]

Just the opposite. EVE is, at its base, a PvP game. That's what a great many people do for fun, with ratting or trading, or whatever, only thrown in to make cash to afford PvP ships. "Quest running" is to combat in EVE what masturbation is to a 12 person orgy. If you're not taking part in 0.0 skirmishes against real players, then you're not getting into real combat.

For folks reading along, don't give up on the pew pew until you've actually tried fighting real, live human beings.



Hauling is just about the most boring job in EVE, bar none.
Forming up a roaming gank squad and invading enemy sovereign territory, however...



Travel does have time. It's part of how the scale of distance is maintained, but more importantly, how the economy works. If players could get resources from Point A to Point B in no time flat, there's be no real incentive for shopping different markets, trading items in different regions, charging to haul stuff around. And transit can't be instantaneous, or PvP would be real damn odd. One of the most reliable and profitable combat strategies is the gatecamp, where you get to a chokepoint ahead of your enemies, and set up a trap on the other side of a star gate, pouncing on them once they go on through. With ultra-quick transit, there'd be no point in the different ships' roles; if interceptors don't give you more speed and maneuverability than battleships, why wouldn't every gang just consist of all battleships?

That was part of what people told me going into it, was that the PVP and 0.0 sec space experience were the core of what made Eve so cool. The problem with that is the time and corp commitment needed to get to experience all that cool stuff was too time-consuming for me to get into before I got tired of it.

Maybe I'll give it another shot after a while...

[Lok]

Good lord why? If you really wanted to haul you shouldn't have been in a T1 Caldari hauler - get thee into an Itty V or at least a Mammoth. Heck even a Bestower outhauls the Badger II.
The Badger II is the T2 Caldari industrial. And while an Itty V can outhaul it, you need Caldari Industrial V to fly a Charon. I didn't see any point in getting both industrial skills to level 5, so I am in a Badger II until I can afford the Charon. I may pick up one of the Transport ships, but probably not.

Zsofia, you can make more than one trip to finish the mission. A bigger ship is always good, if you can afford it.

Lute, I sent you an email in game, from Lokiathar.

FinnAgain, the PvP is not really fun for me. I don't really want to spend the time getting involved with a corp to get to 0.0 and fight there. I like playing casual, mining, making, and missions.

And since my PvP so far has been against gate campers who are not actually interested in combat, just blowing people up with the least amount of danger, I don't really think much of the PvPers in the game. I realize that there are people in the game that don't think they are hot shit because they just blew up my Badger II and pod with 2 BCs and an interceptor, but I know who I see more of. (Of course, the idiots would have made a lot more by letting me pay for safe passage then they made from the little that was left of my ship. But they didn't even ask.)

[Gorsnak]

The Badger II is the T2 Caldari industrial. And while an Itty V can outhaul it, you need Caldari Industrial V to fly a Charon. I didn't see any point in getting both industrial skills to level 5, so I am in a Badger II until I can afford the Charon. I may pick up one of the Transport ships, but probably not.
:confused:

The Badger II is a tier 3 hauler, but it most definitely isn't T2. I'm well aware of the choices faced by Caldaris wanting to haul, having a Caldari character myself. I trained up for the Impel, which is for my isk the most capable and flexible cargo ship around. Freighters are of course in an entirely different class, but I don't find my Providence's cargo capacity limiting in any respect.

[FinnAgain]

The Besty is easily the choice for casual hauling, the Itty V for dedicated T1 hauling and, IIRC, a rigged Impel for T2 hauling.

The problems with freighters, and they are some fairly massive problems, are that they're slow, make very tempting targets in lowsec or 0.0 and, perhaps most critically, cannot haul from jetcans or wrecks, making them totally useless for mining ops and/or picking up hauler spawns in 0.0.

If you need to carry components to build a mothership or something, yeah, a freighter makes sense. Same thing if you're trading huge volumes of material in Empire. But for anything else?

P.S. getting involved with a 0.0 corp or alliance shouldn't be a headache, or take a lot of time/effort. Ditto for getting good PvP with 'em. Or, for that matter, in lowsec. If the bunch of folks who you pirate with in lowsec, or the corp/alliance you fly with in nullsec are an actual drain on your resources instead of a bonus? You're in the wrong outfit, I'm afraid.

[Lok]

Don't mind me, I was thinking Bustard for some reason. But since I was flying Caldari ships, especially the Osprey for mining, which meant I was training Caldari Frigate, it made more sense to keep going for the Caldari Industrials and Freighter. And the Charon being the largest freighter was just icing on the cake.

[Lok]

(Needed to do a new reply, waited too long for editing.)

FinnAgain, I am hauling around ships to sell in Empire. Moving them to a trading hub in an Industrial takes forever, since it requires multiple trips.(5 frigates at a time is really boring, even just 6 jumps at a time.) Since I am not going into lowsec or 0.0 space, those limits don't bother me.

And the time requirement for a 0.0 corp is the fact that they want dedicated players, not someone that logs on every couple of weeks to do some mining, put stuff up for sale, switch out skills, and run a few missions. I have talked to several people in player corps that I could play with and have fun with. But I do not want to put that kind of time into the game. I don't do it for COH, which I enjoy even more then EVE.

Today, I did a gang mining op with some people in my beginner corp. I had a pretty good time, but I only made 3 million on it. For the time I put in, I could have done better mining solo. But that is because we split the haul evenly, despite the fact 2 of the people were in Bantams, one was in a Retriever, and I was in a Hulk. If we had kept track, I probably easily outmined all the others combined. But it was company, I got a decent haul of minerals, and 2 people on trial accounts got 3 million ISK to play with and learned about parts of the game they didn't know.

But when I log on tomorrow night to switch skills, I won't be on that long. And I probably won't be on for anything else until that skill finishes or I need to give Lute some equipment.

[Antinor01]

I'm liking the game, the slower pace is nice but does take some getting used to. I've been running the training missions and doing a little mining on the side. (just veldspar so far since I don't know where anything else is) Did get the little mining ship reward with the 448 capacity cargo hold so that helped a bit. I'm still at only about 300k ISK but I'm getting there! So far so good, I really see the potential to dig deep into this game.

[Tristan]

What do you have now? EVE's requirements are pretty low, even with the new graphics pack. Works fine on my old 1800.


I have no doubts that it woudl probably run, but my graphics are not great (won't run Civ4, for example) and the graphics are a big selling point for me.

That, and I would hate to have to reinstall and such when I get the new box anyways.

[Captain_C]

Anyone have a good "newbie" guide for this game? I need something I can 'play' (distract me slightly) while doing all of my grad school reading, and I think it might be time I finally break down and give this a solid shot.

[sturmhauke]

Calling all Eve Online players! (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=416624&highlight=eve+online) (4-14-07)
That was my thread. I played incessantly for a few months, on and off for a few more, then not much after that. I haven't logged in at all since the Trinity expansion, at least. Still have my account, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it. I seem to be getting less patient with hugely complex games than I used to be; 10 years ago I would probably still be raving about EVE instead of making this post. Also, I may have made a mistake in joining a hardcore 0.0 PvP outfit too soon. They're nice guys, but are way more heavily invested than I am. The CEO and most of the officers have several accounts each (unlike most MMOs, this is allowed by the game license). Also, a confluence of in-game and out-of-game events kinda left my character stranded and broke, and me with little time to do anything about it.

[FinnAgain]

Anyone have a good "newbie" guide for this game?

For obvious reasons, I like this one (http://www.eve-tribune.com/index.php?no=2_21&page=5). It continues on in the two issues after this one.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I now have three ships: the Ibis, the free Condor (armed with a couple of free missile launchers), and a Bantam (armed with a 75mm and Plutonium rounds from a rat wreck).

[MJinks]

I would advise against joining a 0.0 PvP corp/alliance too soon. It's a lot of fun but the time investment is huge for the more involved corps. My old corp got dragged into huge multi-front war after war. It was fun for a while but there is a hell of a lot of 'tactical manoeuvring', which basically means sitting in safe spots for the enemy to make a mistake.

Also, while you might not need a very fast computer to enjoy most of the game (I played with a 1.66ghz Athlon, 1gb Ram and a Geforce 5200 for a long time without a problem) you will need something half decent if you want to do something in large fleet combat other than looking at a blank screen and waiting for your wallet to start flashing... You'll know what I mean when it happens, heh.

EVE was a very fun game. Not quite as fun as Ultima Online in the good ol' days but fun none the less. Just try not to bite off more than you can chew, never fly more than you're willing to lose and don't take losses too personally. Just because Empire space is 'high security' doesn't mean you can't be killed there. I left just before they introduced the 'warp to 0km' option, Empire killing might not be as bad now but you still have to align when you come out the other side...

[Lute Skywatcher]

(just veldspar so far since I don't know where anything else is) Fit your mining ship with a Survey Scanner if you haven't done so already and head for 0.7 space.

[Antinor01]

Fit your mining ship with a Survey Scanner if you haven't done so already and head for 0.7 space.

Thanks for the advice. I'll check my skills tonight and see if that's an option at this point.