Tag: newbies

Welcome to EVE Online

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

It all started with a trailer

Last friday CCP published a new EVE Online trailer – one that was solely based on player comms. It’s great and if you haven’t seen it yet, I really recommend you do so now (please mind there are explicit words there)

If you are here because of that trailer, welcome! EVE Online is an amazing game with a huge world to explore, and multitude of things you can get involved with. The trailer is focused on player-versus-player combat, which is one of the most important features of EVE. But it’s just one side of the medal. Where there is destruction, there must also be creation, like Yin and Yang, intertwined in an endless cycle of life.

Got an account yet?

Did you start your account yet? If not, you can use this link to create a 21-day free trial account (it’s completely free of charge).

What should new players do in EVE once they start an account?

First off, familiarize yourself with the game and the interface. Do the initial tutorial. Once you’re done with the tutorial, I really recommend you run at least some of the advanced tutorials called “Career Agents”. These will show you some of the professions and game mechanics, once you’ve learned the basics. Remember: in EVE you are not bound or limited to any particular profession. If you like something, train the skills required and try it!

Skills in EVE are very much different from other games, because your character is training all the time, even when you are offline. There is also only five levels for each skill, which means that new players can quickly catch up with veteran players in a particular field. Yes, veteran players are experts at almost everything, but they don’t use all their skills on a daily basis.

For combat-oriented pilots, the best place to start is Brave Newbies. It is an alliance in EVE Online, where newbies are not only welcome, but they are the base of their fleets. In EVE numbers are somewhat important, and a group of newbies can easily kill experienced solo players. In BRAVE you will jump into action right off the bat on day one.

Make sure to have voice comms installed (the program they use is  called Mumble – here’s a link to the setup guide)

For players interested in EVE in general (not just destruction) the best place to start is still the famous EVE University:

EVE University is a neutral, non-profit training corporation in EVE Online that exists to train new players in the basics of life in New Eden. Founded on March 15, 2004 by Morning Maniac, the University continues to uphold a strong reputation through previous wars, robust management, knowledgeable graduates and instructors, and quality students. The heart of the corporation resides in teamwork through wars, events, and cooperative help in the chat channel.

New Eden is a dark and harsh world

Most players are generally friendly towards newcomers, but there will be also black sheep who’d rather kill you, knowing that as a new player you will not know how to properly defend yourself. EVE is a game where PVP combat is non-consensual. Everyone can attack everyone else, anywhere. Of course there are places more secure than others, but in EVE you are never truly safe. High sec areas (systems with Security Status between 0.5 and 1.0) have NPC police known as CONCORD, which will always kill the agressor. But they might not be able to kill the offender before he manages to pick off your ship.

Therefore heed these simple rules:

  • never fly something you can’t afford to replace
  • avoid moving cargo worth more than the ship
  • stay vigilant and have your eyes open

There is more to EVE, than just EVE

First off, there is EVE forums. If you want to talk to the devs, this is the first place to look for them. Secondly, there is the #tweetfleet hashtag on Twitter. CCP Games devs are usually quite active here as well. Also make sure to look up the EVE community page for news and information. One of the things you’ll find there is the upcoming changes in EVE, which will be delivered on December the 9th in Rhea release.

CCP Games also offers a special API access to their game servers, so players can write third party programs which integrate with the game. The APIs are read-only, so their main purpose is progress tracking, information sharing and coordination.

You can create and manage your API keys here, and then you can use the keys to run one of the mobile apps for EVE:

Further reading

There is many player written guides about EVE, one of them is this guide on the game wiki. There is many things you can do in EVE, and each activity has their own guide. One of the best player created guides to EVE is ISK the guide vol 3.

How did it all start – my first year in New Eden

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , , ,

August 22nd, 2005

It was a sunny summer morning. I got up early, even though I still had over a month of summer holidays. This is one of the aspects of student’s life I miss a lot: three months break in the summer. I started browsing the internet, looking for something on sourceforge. And there it was: this little banner of EVE Online.

A friend, who attended classes with me, told me about the game earlier the same year. A colleague of his started the first polish fansite of EVE: eve-centrala.pl. My friend didn’t say much about the game itself apart from the fact it’s about spaceships, but this was enough to get me started. I have browsed the EVE website and a couple of fansites which I could find on google. I liked the setting and I liked the concept, but didn’t want to start playing a game with subscription.

So this morning, when I saw the EVE banner, I have decided to give it a try. I have signed up for the trial quickly and downloaded the 500 megabyte client package. I was to learn later that this was the ‘Cold War’ edition, which then had little meaning to me.

I started up, watched the intro and created a new character. I really liked rolling eyes in the old character creator 🙂 This day Lukas Rox was born. This is my first screenshot from EVE:

My skills were so limited, that I barely flown the rookie frigate. I was nowhere near being able to kill NPC pirates, not to mention other players. Not knowing EVE and not having anyone to guide me, I have flown around the nearby systems and kept mining Veldspar. It was the only way to make ISK I knew of at the time. In on of the high sec belts I have seen the might Megathron for the first time. It was fitted with mining lasers and pilot had a funny bio saying “If you’re mining, do it with style”. I have decided to make a career in mining. This would let me make enough isk to get better ships and time to train all the important skills. Of course learning skills were not the top priority, because I wanted to fly and use everything first. It was a costly mistake, but of course I was oblivious to that fact. Exploring EVE was a lot of fun for me, and I’ve been learning quite a lot of stuff.

Are noobs the only miners in EVE?

Career in mining was not a quick one. Skills to fly a Mining Barge were going to take a while, and mining Veldspar wouldn’t make quick ISK either. I have switched the noob ship to an AtronWarp Drive Active, and then quickly upgraded it to an Imicus. I saw a lot of people mining in Industrials, which were saving the time of warping back and forth to station. So as soon as ISK and skills allowed me to, I have switched to an IteronIteron mining Plag. I also wasn’t mining Veldspar anymore, because Plagioclase was selling for more ISK.

It was not long before I finally finished my first goal I set for myself in EVE: I have trained the Mining Barges skill and bought my first Procurer. It was Christmas, and I had some more time to play. So I made friends with some other guys and we went to mine in low sec for the first time. I flown to OulleyFirst low sec mining op in a mining barge. I didn’t yet know how stupid this was, but no one was around to teach me that lesson, so my Procurer has survived.

I also did my first level 4 mission then. A group from Center of Advanced Studies NPC corp was doing missions together, and all ship classes were invited to the gang. I was piloting a Catalyst class Destroyer to kill frigates, which were warp scrambling our tank battleship. This is what made me lots of ISK quickly, and let me buy a Retriever barge.

The nullsec adventure

The guys I met when mining in low sec invited me to join their corp. They have already settled in Q-TBHWPOS in Q-TBHW, Geminate system, and I liked flying with them, so I didn’t hesitate to join. Kahn Mer was the FC who run me down the pipe. You had to have instas – bookmarks that would land you on top of the gate – because at the time even manual warp would throw you 15km from the gate. In nullsec this is of course equal to death. I would learn later, that Kahn is extremely charismatic person, and we would form a very profitable venture together. At this moment Lukas had 3 million skill points then, and the biggest ship he could fly was a cruiser.

We have moved to Y8R-XZPOS in Y8R-XZ, Geminate, a dead end system in Geminate, and it would later become our new home. Of course we have been mining Dark Ochre and ratting, which was a nice source of ISK. The CEO trusted me with operating the POS, or rather the moon mining operation. I was to empty the silos and move all the goods to the corp hangar array.

Lukas Rox’s skillset was expanded into battlecruisers and electronic warfare, so not long after I attended my first nullsec roam. We ended up gate campingFirst PVP in nullsec, and I have scored my first kill that day. I was still worried of losing my ship, so I had warp stabs fitted. They were only cutting into my CPU, because at that time they didn’t gimp ship sensors, as they do today. I have lost a bunch of ships (and pods), but I liked the thrill of PVP. Unfortunately our alliance leadership was slowly deteriorating and a few corps engaged us in a war, that would eventually drive us out of nullsec. I have lost countless pods at this time, and have decided never to go back to nullsec again.

It’s the Torchwood Time

Kahn Mer, me, Fozzion, English Don and Torqumanda have started a new corp: Torchwood Industries. I have trained skills for production and – finally – battleships. We were mining, making stuff and running level 4 missions together. We were making more ISK than in nullsec, while in the safety of high and low sec. We even went to low sec to mine the Dark Glitter ice, but we failed miserably, losing a bunch of mining barges and other ships to local pirates. But even with this little setback our venture lasted for over a year and made me enough ISK to buy a Thanatos carrier and all the skillbooks. Pirating around The CitadelOf course we did PVP as well, because a few corps decided that bunch of industrials are a fair target. What they didn’t know however was that we knew how to defend ourselves. The first real PVP experience I gathered in Torchwood would help me later on, when I was to hone my skill and become a pirate in The Citadel low sec in late 2007.

How did your adventure with EVE begin?

Feel free to leave a comment (or if you are into blogging, I invite you to write your own post about Your first year in EVE).

Fly safe o/

PVP in EVE Online (for newbies)

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

The name EVE Online, even though written in capitals, is not an acronym. If you ask any player however, what this abbreviation could mean, you will most likely hear „everyone-vs-everyone”. EVE Online is strictly a PVP game, which does not mean there is no PVE in it – killing NPCs is one of the ways to fund PVP endavours. What’s most important, is consequence. PVP in EVE always has some consequences, which in turn brings lots of emotions.

read on ->