Monday, March 15, 2010

EBB 16: Nooby Cluey


Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!


The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: "Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you'd like to share with the wider Eve community?"

I created my first eve character early in 2005.  Eve really was the first MMO I played that was more difficult to figure out then say, Planetside or City of Heroes.

I dove in, as usual for me, without reading or even knowing much about the forums or suggestions for creating a new pilot.  In hindsight, so much I wish I had been told, and so little space, so I had better get to it!

My starter was a Caldari, to match the character my good friend had just started.  Way back then several things were very different.  Mainly, lack of good guides for new pilots, no ship fitting programs until about 4-6 months later when Quickfit first came on the scene.  Without really knowing what to expect both him and I meandered across various skill branches, doing a little bit of each.  That was a huge mistake, one I corrected with my second pilot.  
Specialization, now more so even than then, is key in becoming a useful pilot early on.  The thing to realize is that even though someone may have 100+ mil sp, they will eventually max out in skills related to the ship they are flying.  That max out point is around 10-15 mil sp for frigs(of one race) and dessy(of the same race), 20-25 mil sp for cruisers and battle cruisers(of one race) and 30-45 ish mil sp for Battleships(of one race).  The numbers are just a rough estimate btw!  You can be competitive against these skillpoints with two things.  1.  A good fit, and 2. focus on a single ship or race that you enjoy flying.

I wish there had been the resources, and I had been pointed to them, to both guide a new character as well as show proper fits and suggested uses of ships.  There is a wealth of information out there on eve, don't hesitate to go and find it!  Scrapheap-Challenge, the Eve Forums, Blogs, and talking to people in game all provide great resources for the new pilot.

Lastly I wish I had been told about learning skills earlier on my career, but then likely I would still be playing a Caldari toon instead of the trusty Minmatar one I have now.  Learning skills are terrible to train but they make everything better.

By the time I started Logan a few months later and had a much better grasp on the game I was able to train up those learning skills from the get go, and fly much more effectively by specializing in one race, and one profession, rather than spreading out sp across many fields.

If I had known more about these things when I first started playing then eve would have been a much better, much more interesting place to live in, as opposed to the doggedly difficult, sharp learning curved one I found in it's place.


List of Participants
  1. CrazyKinux: The Three Pillars of Wisdom
  2. The Elitist: Helping the new guy/gal
  3. Hands Off, My Loots: Nothing Needed
  4. Rantuket: Blog Banter 16
  5. EVE Opportunist: Nooby Cluey
  6. Into the Unknown With Gun and Camera: EVE University
  7. Zero Kelvin: We’re the young ones!
  8. I am Keith Neilson: Set Your Destination
  9. Prano's Journey: Just Like the Very First Time
  10. A Merry Life and a Short One: No Seriously
  11. Yarrbear Tales: Nublet 101
  12. A Mule In EVE: If I only knew
  13. The Planet Risk Show: Dared to be Bold
  14. Diary of a Space Jockey: WTH did I get myself into?!
  15. EVOGANDA: Why?
  16. A Memoir From Space: 16th Blog Banter
  17. Death’s Sweetest Kiss: Who What When Where Why How??
  18. Freebooted: Beyond the Shortcuts
  19. Learning to Fly: Noobing
  20. Caldari Outcast: My First Blog Banter Post!
  21. Roc's Ramblings: Financial Survival
  22. Diary of a Pod Pilot: Free Knowledge Inside
  23. Nullsec Carebear: I could've been less of an idiot
  24. Facepalm's Ramblings: Something Smells Fishy
  25. Kirith Darkblade: Do you wish to know more?
  26. Autopilot Disabled: I'm still starting...
  27. Finders & Keepers: Relax
  28. Confounded Capsuleer: What have you got to loose?
  29. Clan Oriana: Sixteen
  30. Flashfresh: EVE Blog Banter #16
  31. More to come soon...

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