Eve Online: That's my goal! (maybe)

SO my Eve online trail has come to an end and all things considered it has been an exciting couple of weeks for me.

After the initial information overload passed and I had completed the tutorial mission (which are a MUST for completely new players) I had sufficient money to strike out on my own and see a little more of space. With an infinite number of possibilities before me I decided to charge headlong into the unknown as a miner!

The shear excitement as I sit in an asteroid belt focusing intently upon the rocks before me cannot be put in to words, will they move, will I hear their screams as my mining laser rips through them or will they serenade my with Queens greatest hits? Excitement to one side mining is a good and relatively safe way to get started in eve and not just because it’s a stable income stream.

Mining buys you time to think, which is a much needed resource in Eve, as I sat there orbiting a rock that had a particularly stoney expression I began to look at my skills and form a plan in my head over where I wanted to go. The plan was simple get some skills behind me and get a better mining ship, I worked out what I wanted to aim for, checked the skills I would need and dutifully set myself to training them.

It was like that when I got here!

I took occasional breaks from mining to make sure I had covered all of the available tutorials and at the end of the advanced combat tutorial was pleased to be rewarded with a shiny destroyer. Having seen that I would take a mere 40 mins or so to train the skills needed to sit in it I overrode my previous skill choices and set my destroyer skill to train.

40 mins and several asteroids later I sat in my destroyer and dutifully kitted it out with all of the gear I had been given/picked up during the tutorial missions and headed off for my first level 1 security mission. Some scientists had become stranded in the middle of a gang war and I needed to go in and rescue them, so off I trotted. I cleared through the first bandits without any difficulty taking down 4 or so in my destroyer and only losing 25% of my shields in the process. 

Fuelled by the rush of victory I plunged in to the next area of space and took care of the two bandits on radar. Then their friends turned up, about 8 of them and promptly took apart my beloved destroyer in an exceptionally short space of time. I had a small bit of gamer rage at this point because I didn’t understand where I went wrong or how I could have done better, I used the best gear I had.

And it was at this point that one of the great features (which I touched on in my earlier post) saved me from quitting and missing out on this great game, the community. I posted into rookie chat that I had just lost a destroyer to a lvl 1 mission and yeah there was quite a lot of light-hearted mocking, apparently it should have been easily doable, but one of the people from the channel private messaged me and took me through the errors I had made.

First off none of the starting equipment is particularly useful, anything with civilian in front of it needs to be replaced with the real versions of it (apparently my civilian shield booster was a bit of a chocolate fireguard). Secondly because of the race I was playing and my lack of experience missiles and missile launchers were my best option to start with. So he talked my through a cheap fit and then got me to message him a copy of the fit to check I had done it right. With a nod of the head he said that was a good start and to give him a yell if I had more questions and I went on my way.

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

I returned to the room of doom with my new destroyer decked out in missile launchers and I tore through it. The massive range of the launchers meant that I could easily out range each of the attackers, the afterburner the guy had suggested meant that I stayed out of their range and a shield-booster that restored in 1 second what my civilian took 4 to do meant I was basically unscathed. 5-10 minutes of advice, that made the difference between struggling and striving.

Yes Eve is a daunting world, it is so much about how much you know, but the people are there who are willing to share their knowledge with you. I was given some advice by The Ancient Gaming Noob which I want to pass on ‘set yourself a goal’, try out those tutorial missions and think about what appeals most, then message rookie chat for advice. You will get a million and 1 opinions but it will give you plenty to think about.

Having decided that mining was the way for me, I promptly set about training as a miner and then I found exploration. This has had such an affect on my gaming life in Eve that I want to write a supplementary post about it in order to fully explain why exploration is (for me) the most addictive thing in this game so far.

You can try Eve Online for 14 days for free, with some restrictions so it’s worth checking out. However to go back to another piece of advice I received ‘you get out what you put in’ so make sure when you do take that trial you make sure you have time on your hands. Finally if you are still debating whether to join us in New Eden have a read of The Ancient Gaming Noob and pOtShOt to give you an idea of some of the fun that can be had when you get further along in the game.

And yes I have subscribed to the game!