So... You're New to Eve?!?

First off, for those of you who love background information: About EvE Online

I have a shiny new frigate, what can I do?
     Just like anything in EvE this has many answers.  If you're looking to mine asteroids dry then your are just a few skills and a mining frigate away.  If you're passions lean to the more violent you can follow a different path and jump into some PvP with just a little training.  Somewhere between these two is the tried and true art of mission running.  We will discuss how to get started in each of these professions in seperate posts.

EvE is complicated! Help!
     EvE is a rewarding and entertaining game but there are times when anyone can find themselves overwhelmed by the many player paths and choices. If I could go back and give myself some advice when I first started it would be this: download EVEMon!!!  You can get EVEMon here: EVEMon Download
     This tool allows you to plan out your characters skill progression based on ships and/or modules you would like to use.  Trying to do this without EVEMon can make EvE far more complicated than it needs to be.
     In order to use EVEMon you will need your Limited API Key from EvE.  This allows the program (and others) to download the details of your character automatically.  You can get the key from EvE's website here:  Limited API Key

Okay, I'm ready to setup some ships and play
     There are a few tools to assist in ship setup and fitting.  In order to take advantage of all the work other people have put in agonizing over ship setups you should check out the EvE forums: EvE Forums Ship Setup
     One of the best tools for creating your setups is EFT (EvE Fitting Tool).  You will also need your API key for this if you would like to see how you skills affect the ship, but it isn't required otherwise.  This little app allows you to play around with ship setups and see how each piece interacts.
     Another great tool for ship setups is EvEHQ which combines EVEMon and EFT in one tool.  I have written a little bit about EvEHQ here: EvEHQ Post

What's next?!?
     If you've decided what you would like to try first, or even if you haven't, keep reading.  Next we are going to dive into a few of the various options for a new player.

• Mining; It's Dirty Job...
• Battle Hardened, or Soon to Be...
• I Eat Your Missions For Breakfast...
• New Player: Next Steps?

If you are ready to move up a bit then I suggest reading some of the great guides Mendolus has put out there for us, starting with Ship Grimoire; Chapter 1 Cruisers.  As well as a pair of definate must reads on surviving low and null security space: Low Security - Travel and Null What You May Not Know

Mining; It's Dirty Job...

     When it comes to mining as a beginner; each race has a specialized mining frigate which you can jump in relatively quickly. You should receive the skills and a bit of practice in mining during the tutorial missions. If you find that you enjoy mining you should focus on moving to a specialized mining vessel as soon as possible. Below is a basic fitting and skill plan that will allow you to pilot a simply fitted Retriever class mining barge (in less than 2 weeks with any luck).

Retriever, Simple Fit

High Slots:  2x Strip Miner I

Mid Slot:    Empty

Low Slots:  2x Expanded Cargohold II

Skills Required

• Science IV
• Mining IV
• Astrogeology IV
• Industry V
• Mining Barge III
• Hull Upgrades II

     You will notice a great improvement in your mining ability when stepping up from a mining frigate to the Retriever.  The next step from here would be a Hulk class Exhumer.
    
     However, before moving on from this point I would like to advise that any new player take some time to train their support skills, chief among these being the learning skills, followed by ship support skills.  Your learning skills will allow you to learn new (and exciting) skills much faster as you progress in EvE and will benefit you for the remainder of your career.  The ship support skills will also benefit you for a long time and will help you become better at flying every ship, including the ones you are already in.
     EVEMon will help by suggesting the learning skills that can speed up your training in the bottom lefthand corner (click on the link).  It can also help you with your ship support skills.  You may want to consider learning the first level of all the "Core" certificates under EVEMon's "Certificates" tab (right click to add to queue).

Battle Hardened, or Soon to Be...

     If you're dream is to become a crusty, scarred PvP pilot then fear not; you don't have to spend years in training to make a valuable contribution to fleets.  One of the most important parts of any fleet is the "tackler."  This player (or group of players if possible) is responsible for getting as close to the target as possible and disrupting their warp engines.  The great thing about this role is that a new player can do this without too much training.  The key ingredients to being a tackler are speed and the ability to fit Warp Disruptors.

      Speed is very important as you must stay close to the target to keep them from escaping, it will also help keep your smaller ship alive while you orbit the enemy with as much speed as possible.  Very often you will find that the enemy cannot hit you if they are in a large ship.  Some of the skills you may need:

To go faster:

• High Speed Maneuvering (makes MicroWarpDrives work better)
• Evasive Maneuvering
• Navigation

Warp Disrution:

• Propulsion Jamming (the required skill)
• Signature Analysis (helps you target the enemy faster) this is a big one for tacklers
• Long Range Targeting (not really required but handy)

     Beyond these basics you will most likely want to train up the racial weapons systems to match the race of your favorite ships:

Gallente - Hybrids and Drones

Caldari - Hybrids and Missiles

Amarr - Energy Weapons (with very occasional Missiles)

Minmatar - Projectile Turrets and Duct Tape

     Once you get out with a fleet you will get a feel for the other ships being flown and will hopefully see something you like. 
     However, before moving on from this point I would like to advise that any new player take some time to train their support skills, chief among these being the learning skills, followed by ship support skills. Your learning skills will allow you to learn new (and exciting) skills much faster as you progress in EvE and will benefit you for the remainder of your career. The ship support skills will also benefit you for a long time and will help you become better at flying every ship, including the ones you are already in.
     EVEMon will help by suggesting the learning skills that can speed up your training in the bottom lefthand corner (click on the link). It can also help you with your ship support skills. You may want to consider learning the first level of all the "Core" certificates under EVEMon's "Certificates" tab (right click to add to queue).

I Eat Your Missions For Breakfast...

     So, you may like mining or you may like PvP but right now you just want to make a little money? That's no problem. Running missions is an old hobby in EvE and one that can serve your wallet well. You should have already run some tutorial missions so I won’t bore you with the basics of how to do that. If you haven’t noticed it already the agents that give you missions have two numbers associated with them The first number is the level which takes into account your standing with the Faction and the actual Agent to decide if you are allowed to use them. The second number is the quality of the agent which determines the reward amount (it isn’t a direct correlation so don’t panic if you like a -10 agent).
     As a new character your frigate may struggle with some missions but should get the job done if you set it up well.  When it comes to setting up your ships for missions one of the best places to look is the EvE forums.  Here you can advance from the work of others as well as ask your own questions about specific setups. 
     After you have your ship ready you will want to find an agent.  One of the easiest ways to do this is online at Eve-Agents.  You can search based on various criteria to help you find an agent that is right for you.  If you have already downloaded EvEHQ there is an agent finder built right in which you may find handy as well. 
     Okay, so you have your ship and you have accepted a mission from your agent, now what?  Well, you're going to run that mission of course.  Before you do though you may want to take a trip over to EvE-Survival to check out the mission reports.  Here you will find recon information from other pilots who have flown the missions you may be tasked with.  You can use this information to better prepare your ship or to find out exactly which enemies you need to attack.
     Once you have had some time to advance your skills and have a few missions under your belt there is quite a lot to out there.  If you feel like venturing into null-sec chaising the big bounties on those NPC battleships then you may want read about Chaining Rats.  On the other hand if you need a little bit of passive income and would like to put those hours of missioning to use again you will be very interested in using R&D Agents.  You may want to keep this in mind when looking for your first few agents:  not all factions have good R&D Agents so if you would like to take advantage of this you may want to start with a faction that does.

Dominion

 It looks like the Dominion update is on it's way tommorow. If you haven't already obsessed over them you can check out the patch notes here: PatchNotes

 One of the things I am particulary excited about is the new fleet tools.  My favorite part is the ability to post fleets in a manner similar to corporate contracts.  This is going to make ad-hoc activity of all kinds much easier and I am really excited about the possibility of just joining up a fleet in progress such as a Mendolus roam or one of the Alliance fleets.  If taken full advatage of this feature will get rid of a good chunk of the "any fleets?" or "x up for fleet" chatter.  Taking something that we have to handle manually and informally in chat and placing into a new interface is a great step forward for fleets.  Of course I am also excited to use this for pick up mining operations. 
 You can find the full details here: Now Where Did I Put That Fleet?

 Obviously this is a small part of a pretty major upgrade, but I don't really feel qaulified to discuss Sovereignty in a very detailed manner.

 I am looking forward to the update though, as I sure many people are.


 Patch Day: Be sure to set long skills to training people!

A waiting game

I, like many among us, have been particulary busy lately and have been afk a lot.  While I hate missing out on in game activities I'm glad it has come at a time when other people are in similar boats.  I am excited to return soon to both a new version of EVE and a new burst of energy to play a game I've been away from too much lately.

Thankfully Mend feels the same way so I hope the whole corp will come back with a similar energy so we can take Dominion by storm.

Until then: fly safe guys.