EVE Online - Catch All & new meat check-in

I decided to start really basic since I couldn't remember anything so I began running LVL 1 missions in Gallente space.

My first mistake was using a Vexor Cruiser fitted out with hybrids. I was too damned slow and couldn't get into range. I swear I can piss farther than those damned hybrids can shoot. The only thing that saved my ass were my medium drones, which just tore things up for me. Lesson learned: Combat is situational. Big and bad isn't always going to work.

So I set up a nice Tristan Frigate with 2x 150 mm rails, 2x missile launchers, 2x nanofibers, a reactor control unit, shield booster, 1MN burner and a cap recharger. Thing even has room for a small drone in the drone bay. I'm just tearing it up with that thing. So much more fun than the big plodding Vexor. Unfortunately, the LVL 1 missions are getting boring so its time to move on to level 2. I suppose I will have to move back to the Vexor or get my but kicked in the Tristan.

Not sure if this is old news or not, but Battle Clinic is a great site for ideas for effective ship fits.
http://www.battleclinic.com/

What podcasts and EVE radio broadcasts (besides EVE Radio, obviously) are people listening to now? The podcasts seem to drop in and out as often as I have.

I reactivated my account last night. I haven't played in two years and when I quit, I was in Metaforge (MTF) with Fstarta. I was in the middle of 0.0 inside a station and I guess my old corp was no longer around. I had a Ferox and I tried to make the jump back to Empire and I end up being podded a few jumps after my starting location. Not a huge issue really.

Another friend of mine just got back too and we will do a few level 4 missions to get used to the game again and we will start looking for a small 0.0 corp. If you guys have any suggestions for a small, but active corp, please let me know.

I would recommend BIG. Very active & friendly corp. Small enough that you know everyone. Open to everyone. I won't go into too much detail as I think the point of this thread is not advertising, but look it up.

django wrote:

I would recommend BIG. Very active & friendly corp. Small enough that you know everyone. Open to everyone. I won't go into too much detail as I think the point of this thread is not advertising, but look it up.

Like KillTrash, I would like to hook up with a good corp also. I saw from the web page that BIG requires you to give them all your money and assets and has a 100% tax on what you make. The trade-off is that they give you anything you need to do your thing, whatever that may be. It certainly could make for a strong community but I'm not sure I'm willing to turn over all my hard-earned assets to a corp.

Copingsaw wrote:

Like KillTrash, I would like to hook up with a good corp also. I saw from the web page that BIG requires you to give them all your money and assets and has a 100% tax on what you make. The trade-off is that they give you anything you need to do your thing, whatever that may be. It certainly could make for a strong community but I'm not sure I'm willing to turn over all my hard-earned assets to a corp.

I have to admit that's an interesting paradigm. But how does it work if you "need" a tricked out ship with all named gear and rigs? And then you get caught in a gate camp and need another one?

Copingsaw wrote:

My first mistake was using a Vexor Cruiser fitted out with hybrids. I was too damned slow and couldn't get into range. I swear I can piss farther than those damned hybrids can shoot. The only thing that saved my ass were my medium drones, which just tore things up for me. Lesson learned: Combat is situational. Big and bad isn't always going to work.

So I set up a nice Tristan Frigate with 2x 150 mm rails, 2x missile launchers, 2x nanofibers, a reactor control unit, shield booster, 1MN burner and a cap recharger. Thing even has room for a small drone in the drone bay. I'm just tearing it up with that thing. So much more fun than the big plodding Vexor. Unfortunately, the LVL 1 missions are getting boring so its time to move on to level 2. I suppose I will have to move back to the Vexor or get my but kicked in the Tristan.

The key with a Vexor (especially in anything lower than level 3's) is to remember that any weapon other than drones is optional. You don't need anything else to plow right through the mission, heck fit some tractors and salvagers in your highs to make extra ISK. With lower drone skills, you should stick with light drones unless you're fighting cruiser sized or larger ships, which you won't really see many of until you're into level 3 missions.

The Tristan is a very fun ship, it does suffer from schizophrenia in terms of weapon loadout though. In general mixing turrets and launchers makes you less capable than if you just relied on one weapon system. That said, I used a Tristan back in the day and enjoyed the hell out of it. I really don't recommend shield tanking it though, like most Gallente ships it works better with an armor tank.

My favorite recommendation to newer players is to skip the whole "gotta get a bigger ship" mentality. Look into the possibility of training for an Assault Frigate (Ishkur) instead. Other than Frigate V the skills required are all important ones that 99% of EVE players train to V anyhow, so there's little to no wasted training. Once you're into an Ishkur, you can concentrate on Small Hybrid and Drone training and really get the most out of your ship instead of being forced to spread out your training program to include Medium and larger turrets and Bays. A Tech 2 fitted Ishkur will run Level 3 missions and is a ton of fun to fly.

Elycion wrote:

My favorite recommendation to newer players is to skip the whole "gotta get a bigger ship" mentality.

Yeah, it comes as standard advice that jumping into a new ship that you just trained the skill for doesn't necessarily (or even very often) mean you can be effective with it. The rite of passage seems to be everyone's first experience flying a battleship into a level 4 mission and promptly dying. I did that once, trained some more skills, and did it again. I was stubborn that way. There's no way to get around the training times apart from bringing some friends along with you.

Copingsaw wrote:
django wrote:

I would recommend BIG. Very active & friendly corp. Small enough that you know everyone. Open to everyone. I won't go into too much detail as I think the point of this thread is not advertising, but look it up.

Like KillTrash, I would like to hook up with a good corp also. I saw from the web page that BIG requires you to give them all your money and assets and has a 100% tax on what you make. The trade-off is that they give you anything you need to do your thing, whatever that may be. It certainly could make for a strong community but I'm not sure I'm willing to turn over all my hard-earned assets to a corp.

I'm not sure how I feel about that either. I don't see it as much of a problem, but my friend has a small fortune that he built in a couple years of solo playing and I'm not sure he would just give it all up like that. I'll talk to him and see what he thinks, anyways, I would not join any corp right now. I want to do some empire stuff for about a week to get to learn about the game again. I'm pretty lost at the moment.

Copingsaw wrote:

I saw from the web page that BIG requires you to give them all your money and assets and has a 100% tax on what you make. The trade-off is that they give you anything you need to do your thing, whatever that may be. It certainly could make for a strong community but I'm not sure I'm willing to turn over all my hard-earned assets to a corp.

In Communist EVE, Corporation own You!

This kind of thing can work, but you'd damned well better be sure that you absolutely love the people you're playing with in the corporation because that is the only thing you'll be playing the game for at that point.

Elycion wrote:
Copingsaw wrote:

I saw from the web page that BIG requires you to give them all your money and assets and has a 100% tax on what you make. The trade-off is that they give you anything you need to do your thing, whatever that may be. It certainly could make for a strong community but I'm not sure I'm willing to turn over all my hard-earned assets to a corp.

In Communist EVE, Corporation own You!

This kind of thing can work, but you'd damned well better be sure that you absolutely love the people you're playing with in the corporation because that is the only thing you'll be playing the game for at that point.

Well yeah, I don't know of any other corp in EVE where that thing works. But with virtually endless pockets and like-minded people, the "share-all policy" works very smoothly. PVP losses are not making a dent. You are basically provided with everything you need (or should I say want) to enjoy the game, unless you consider amassing wealth (grind) an end in itself. With the authoritarian aspect completely absent, I tend to see it more as car pooling than communism. I do understand however that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Nevin73 wrote:

Not sure if this is old news or not, but Battle Clinic is a great site for ideas for effective ship fits.
http://www.battleclinic.com/

Battleclinic isn't horrible, but TBH 99% of their fits are only efficient at getting you blown the hell up. The only reason they get highlighted in EVE Mon is the partnership. If you want good shipfitting advice from people who aren't interested in an easy killmail, go to Scrapheap challenge. Here there be PvP fits and here there be PvE fits.

On traveling in losec, shuttles are pretty much gankproof. Warp to zero, jump through as soon as you can. Once you're on the other side, take stock of your surroundings and as long as your overview is properly configured, you'll know if there's anyone on the gate who's going to try to blow you up. Once you know that, warp to the next gate at zero and press on. Bubbles aren't an issue; they can't be deployed anywhere but nullsec, and the same thing goes for HICtor bubbles. However, they can single target infinite scram which used to have the same graphic, but might not any more following the graphics display upgrades a few patches back. However, given the signature of the shuttle, they don't have much of a chance to get a lock before you're gone, unless they have some insane amount of sensor boost.

For newbie corps, as much as I'm disappointed with the direction they've taken following the war w/ Seppuku, I can't recommend EVE University enough. There's a TON of info on the forums, along with a bunch of good discussion regarding fittings for mission running, probing, and pretty much anything else you could want to get involved with.

I logged on at lunch to update my skill training and, bang, there was a queue. It wasn't long but I had to wait a minute or two to get in. What's up with this?

Speaking of skill training, the new training queue (new to me at least) is pure genius. It's such a good idea it makes you wonder why it took so long to implement it.

Copingsaw wrote:

I logged on at lunch to update my skill training and, bang, there was a queue. It wasn't long but I had to wait a minute or two to get in. What's up with this?

Speaking of skill training, the new training queue (new to me at least) is pure genius. It's such a good idea it makes you wonder why it took so long to implement it.

login queues happen from time to time to keep the login server from going down. They're usually not a common thing, but happen now and again during primetime somewhere in the world.

As for the training queue itself, it took so long because CCP was adamantly against making the game easier and more convenient. It's kind of nice to see them coming around on things like that though

Copingsaw wrote:

Speaking of skill training, the new training queue (new to me at least) is pure genius. It's such a good idea it makes you wonder why it took so long to implement it.

This is new to me too and it's so damn good! I'm getting a bunch of 4H skills trained now.

KillTrash wrote:
Copingsaw wrote:

Speaking of skill training, the new training queue (new to me at least) is pure genius. It's such a good idea it makes you wonder why it took so long to implement it.

This is new to me too and it's so damn good! I'm getting a bunch of 4H skills trained now.

Great way to keep the focus on meaningful interaction with the world and lore instead of the grind.

By the way, Rexneron would be me. I've been leaving EVE running while I'm at work.

Downloaded the trial and I'm checking things out. A bit overwhelming; but I think the tutorials and starting missions are leading me in the right direction.

The revamped new player tutorials and mission series really does help ease you in more gently these days. It's still a lot harder to get your mind wrapped around than most MMOs though. There's a famous chart to that effect:
IMAGE(http://awhisperinmyghost.com/pics/EvE/LearningCurve.jpg)

After a week or so I am still enjoying running solo. I finally feel like I've recaptured the ability to fit my ship and understand the various systems and parameters associated with doing so.

I know these programs were recommended earlier in this thread but, Eve Fitting Tool is a great off-line tool for playing around with fitting your ships. Fitting out your ship is an entire game in and of itself. EVEMon is also a great off-line tool for planning character skill progression.

I'm still running my Gallente Vexor Cruiser on L2 missions. I was beginning to get a big head because all the missions seemed a bit too easy ... and then I ran into Human Cattle 5 of 5. Ugh. The first mission that made me tuck tail and run. After having to warp out twice, I finally cleared it and collected my reward.

I've had my first L3 agent become available but still feel like I need to practice L2 missions a bit more. What are my odds of running L3 missions in a cruiser? I've trained Battlecruisers I and have a Brutix fitted out but I have no real experience flying anything beyond a cruiser.

I'm also thinking about taking up trading again. I can easily turn a few million ISK in profit per hour running high-sec trades in my Iteron Mark V, more if I go low-sec. I'm sure there are more lucrative ways to make money trading but I haven't figured them out yet.

Copingsaw wrote:

I've had my first L3 agent become available but still feel like I need to practice L2 missions a bit more. What are my odds of running L3 missions in a cruiser? I've trained Battlecruisers I and have a Brutix fitted out but I have no real experience flying anything beyond a cruiser.

This is one of those situations where having to ask the question in the first place lets you know that you're not ready. With good skills and experience it's definitely possible to plow through level 3 missions in a cruiser, but odds are your Vexor will be going boom since you're out of practice and don't have a solid skill base to work with.

The absolute easiest way to move into level 3 missions (and from there on to level 4's) is to train for a passively tanked Drake. Even with only a T1 fit, a Drake can perma-tank tank level 3 missions, and once upgraded to T2 it can do the same in many level 4's.

Finally, use http://eve-survival.org/ from your in game browser. The mission reports will let you know exactly how to tank for each mission, and will let you know the important things like trigger spawns etc.

Copingsaw wrote:

I'm sure there are more lucrative ways to make money trading but I haven't figured them out yet.

I've been thinking about getting into station trading, but it's intimidating and you need a lot of isk as capital. Set buy orders and then re-sell for a profit. I'm a long way from knowing how to hang with the big boy traders in Jita. There's also all that number crunching involved.

Trading is indeed an excellent way to make some easy isk. The two main ways to approach it are station trading and inter-region trading. Generally inter-region is a bit easier to get into because you'll be selling your stuff in smaller out of the way hubs with hopefully much less competition than something like Jita, Amarr, or Rens. As pointed out before though, having some good starting capital really makes things much better. I'd say around 100m would probably be good. For beginning traders t2 drones, ammo, and faction ammo are great places to look to get started.

My advice on missions is to get to level 3's as fast as you can, preferably in a battlecruiser. I say this because the missions get a lot more interesting when you go up the levels since there are more types of AI ships for you to keep track of and make decisions about. I noticed a big jump in enjoyability going from level 2 to level 3.

On the topic of Eve podcasts, there are several to choose from. My favorite thus far has been the Podded Podcast, which offers a good mix of weekly news and analysis along with discussions of more general topics. Its also managed to remain on a consistent schedule so far which is always nice and rather rare. The Drone Bay and Warp Drive Active are two other mainstays of the Eve podcasting scene, but they tend to come in and out of being active. Right now it just so happens that both have recently put new shows out though, so they're worth checking out if you've got the time and interest.

Gunner wrote:

On the topic of Eve podcasts, there are several to choose from. My favorite thus far has been the Podded Podcast, which offers a good mix of weekly news and analysis along with discussions of more general topics. Its also managed to remain on a consistent schedule so far which is always nice and rather rare. The Drone Bay and Warp Drive Active are two other mainstays of the Eve podcasting scene, but they tend to come in and out of being active. Right now it just so happens that both have recently put new shows out though, so they're worth checking out if you've got the time and interest.

I'll have to check the Podded Podcast out, thanks. I've been listening to the backlog of Warp Drive Active episodes which are outstanding. The fact that they are over two hours long almost makes up for the fact that they only ever put one out every 2-3 months.

I've found, as a mission runner, that another good way to earn isk is to train up salvaging and drag along a couple of salvagers to fit after the mission is over. I'd often get far more extra isk from the salvaging than I would get from the mission.

Nevin73 wrote:

I've found, as a mission runner, that another good way to earn isk is to train up salvaging and drag along a couple of salvagers to fit after the mission is over. I'd often get far more extra isk from the salvaging than I would get from the mission.

You can also mine in some of the missions, which can bring in quite a bit more isk. I'm not how much anymore as I haven't really looked into it in a long time so they might have nerfed it badly, but people used to farm missions just for the mining opportunities. Of course it was generally lvl 4's and you really needed several miners to make the most of it.

Gunner wrote:

Trading is indeed an excellent way to make some easy isk. The two main ways to approach it are station trading and inter-region trading. Generally inter-region is a bit easier to get into because you'll be selling your stuff in smaller out of the way hubs with hopefully much less competition than something like Jita, Amarr, or Rens. As pointed out before though, having some good starting capital really makes things much better. I'd say around 100m would probably be good. For beginning traders t2 drones, ammo, and faction ammo are great places to look to get started.

Is mineral trading a viable way to make a living or do you need to shoot for trading ships, modules, etc (or something else) ?

Copingsaw wrote:

Is mineral trading a viable way to make a living or do you need to shoot for trading ships, modules, etc (or something else) ?

You can definitely exploit regional differences on high end minerals and make some good money in a basic hauler. For the more common high volume stuff you'll want a freighter and some decent skills, but no need to get into that unless you really want to.

Personally I find mining to be gawd-awful boring. I only do it to support a corp activity. I'd much rather be blowing stuff up.