FoH guide to EVE Online

[Khorum]

Nah, it's retarded because the best spies aren't 'sleepers' that sneak through the recruitment process at all. They're those disenfranchised emos that feel like thei corp has come to hate them that are turned out for spies. THOSE guys rock, those are the ones that offline POSs and aggress titans as they log off.

In other words, drama bombs.

[Radahr Manasponge]

Noobish questions!

I've read everything here EVE-related at some point. Yes, even all 8 million pages of the 'FOH Guide' thread. Unfortunately, a lot of the Guide that deals with starting the game and getting to know things is wayyyy outdated or flat-out no longer applicable as new toons nowadays are completely different then they were then.

With that preface stated, I started in on playing EVE a couple weeks ago. Things have been pretty crazy at work, so I've been playing extremely casually and often at odd hours. I'm actually still on a trial account, but will be subbing regular soon (in a 'point of view' pissing contest with the wife right now, so it's on hold another week or two), so please feel free to point out if something I ask is a restriction based on the trial status. I also have done zero PVPing thus far, as the learning curve and my own newbish stance would likely make me a quick and easy kill for almost everybody.

I've been having a pretty good time in EVE thus far. But there are some things I just "don't get" yet, and haven't seen answers to anyplace that I've looked thus far. So, now let's get down to the real bones of it:

First off, is there a skinng/UI mod movement in this game at all? I'm pretty burnt out on Teamspeak/Ventrillo/et al, but the chat interface is absolutley ass-tastic in this game. One of the good things about WoW was it's UI modding community. I do miss that.

Next up: I see lots of people referring to 'tier 1' and 'tier 2' missions (and on up the line to tier 4 and 5 and whatnot) in regards to the difficulty. what the hell is this designation? I don't see this anyplace! at what point of what setting does one move from tier 1 to tier 2? and so forth.
On this same topic of 'not getting' the mission difficulty setting; I took some agent missions over my lunch...I got three courier missions in a row (no combat, easy, low money). then I got a 'kill pirate NPCs' mission...that had two ships to blow up and done...it took me longer to warp to the accel gate than it did to kill them!
my next mission is called 'world's collide'; this takes 20 minutes of nonstop combat, i log 26 pirate NPC kills, and have 10% structure left at completion, and am out of ammo on three of my merlin's four weapons. *sheesh*
Next mission: three pirate NPCs, 20 seconds to complete
Next mission: courier, one jump away
Next mission: World's collide again, only this time I'm dropped out of warp withing firing range of 15 of them. I last long enough to shoot down exactly ONE NPC ship before getting blown out of mine....roughly 40 seconds....where the HELL did they suddenly get all this armor from?
This kind of 'progression difficulty' isn't the norm, right? I just musta gotten a wonky set from the random number generator, right?

Next question: ship gear. Those of you that have played a while are familiar with all the different flavors of what's available. It sure is a lot for a newbie to get used to!
Other than the blaringly obvious naming conventions (Missile Launcher I, Missile Launcher II, etc) or the slightly harder to see but relevant 'tech level one' and 'tech level 2', is there a way to get a handle on certain things, gear-wise? For instance, I played all four races to the top of the frigate chain thus far, so I've played with many different weapon types. But the differences within the same weapn family! The Compressed Coil 150mm might as well not even be NAMED the same as the other 150s, say the light autocannons, as glaringly different as these weapons perform...it's more than a night and day difference, it's like a centurys difference! But the range difference ALONE is 900m to 13KM. There's gotta be an easier way to compare or know what to kind of look for, OTHER than pulling up 50 different property pages and taking copius notes on each, right?

Next, progression. I get the standings (make them happy, do work for them, get better standings with a nice numeric value. straightforward). What I don't get is why I'm supposed to ... care?
At the end of the day, I understand that that EVE is a mostly PVP game, and to accomplish DICK you have to join a corp and PVP. That's fine. So what's the cutoff point for grinding NPC rep? I've been told that one you get rep over 8, for instance, you can move clones around to different stations.

Since I haven't PVP'd yet, I haven't really seen the need for this. *shrug* I also don't seem to get the point of using my so-called 'loyalty points' on the tributes they occasionally offer...most of what they offer is useless and either gets instantly sold, reprocessed or trashed. Is that the way it stays? Or should I just save my points 'cause the tributes get better?

I've also spent my time in the 'relatively' safer high-sec areas. I've seen posted many times that 'ratting' is a standard 'grind' moneymaker. Wild guess: is that short for 'piRATing' in lower security areas? Just random PVPing and seeing what you get from the wreck when you win?

Lastly (for now)...I had someone tell me to start working up mining and manufacturing early. All they said was it was the king of moneymakers later. Wide question here, but is this true? if so, how does one (besides training up the obvious 'mining' skill) begin to walk this path?

I've got some more to ask, but works' busy, so that all I can type for now.

Thanks for your patience in reading my ramblings, and thanks even more if you can answer any of 'em.

[...]

Originally Posted by Radahr Manasponge

First off, is there a skinng/UI mod movement in this game at all? I'm pretty burnt out on Teamspeak/Ventrillo/et al, but the chat interface is absolutley ass-tastic in this game. One of the good things about WoW was it's UI modding community. I do miss that.

Negative, the ui is the ui. I kind of put most of my crap in the chat menu and pretend it's firefox with the tabs.

Next up: I see lots of people referring to 'tier 1' and 'tier 2' missions (and on up the line to tier 4 and 5 and whatnot) in regards to the difficulty. what the hell is this designation? I don't see this anyplace! at what point of what setting does one move from tier 1 to tier 2? and so forth.

I think what you're seeing is folks refering to agents level 1,2,3,4. level one missions are almost all frigates and newbsauce stuff. level 2 is mostly frigates with some cruisers. i think (i just started three) three does mostly cruisers with the rare BS, and 4 does BS's and cruisers and fun stuff like that.

basicly you can do 1's in anything, 2's you want to eventualy move to a cruiser, etc. You gain access to higher level agents by getting your faction up with the faction that they belong to

On this same topic of 'not getting' the mission difficulty setting; I took some agent missions over my lunch...I got three courier missions in a row (no combat, easy, low money). then I got a 'kill pirate NPCs' mission...that had two ships to blow up and done...it took me longer to warp to the accel gate than it did to kill them!

some times you just get asstastic mission locations.

my next mission is called 'world's collide'; this takes 20 minutes of nonstop combat, i log 26 pirate NPC kills, and have 10% structure left at completion, and am out of ammo on three of my merlin's four weapons. *sheesh*
Next mission: three pirate NPCs, 20 seconds to complete
Next mission: courier, one jump away
Next mission: World's collide again, only this time I'm dropped out of warp withing firing range of 15 of them. I last long enough to shoot down exactly ONE NPC ship before getting blown out of mine....roughly 40 seconds....where the HELL did they suddenly get all this armor from?
This kind of 'progression difficulty' isn't the norm, right? I just musta gotten a wonky set from the random number generator, right?

it's very random. you'll learn to spot the hard ones and get ready. build up your tank enough to where you can always get out. one thing i do in worlds colide type misisons is i warp in, make a book mark. warp back to base. then warp to my bookmark within 100km...then i'm not stuck with a million angry rats shooting me with missiles inside my falloff.

Next question: ship gear. Those of you that have played a while are familiar with all the different flavors of what's available. It sure is a lot for a newbie to get used to!
Other than the blaringly obvious naming conventions (Missile Launcher I, Missile Launcher II, etc) or the slightly harder to see but relevant 'tech level one' and 'tech level 2', is there a way to get a handle on certain things, gear-wise? For instance, I played all four races to the top of the frigate chain thus far, so I've played with many different weapon types. But the differences within the same weapn family! The Compressed Coil 150mm might as well not even be NAMED the same as the other 150s, say the light autocannons, as glaringly different as these weapons perform...it's more than a night and day difference, it's like a centurys difference! But the range difference ALONE is 900m to 13KM. There's gotta be an easier way to compare or know what to kind of look for, OTHER than pulling up 50 different property pages and taking copius notes on each, right?

look at the item's description, look at variations, then hit compare. add more and more items to the compare chart it generates to see clean comparisons given parameters you set.

Next, progression. I get the standings (make them happy, do work for them, get better standings with a nice numeric value. straightforward). What I don't get is why I'm supposed to ... care?
At the end of the day, I understand that that EVE is a mostly PVP game, and to accomplish DICK you have to join a corp and PVP. That's fine. So what's the cutoff point for grinding NPC rep? I've been told that one you get rep over 8, for instance, you can move clones around to different stations.

Personaly i think you need exactly enough to run level 4 missions, then just let the rest come. there are jump cloning service corps in the game that will let you set up clones for a cost of less than a few mission runs.

Since I haven't PVP'd yet, I haven't really seen the need for this. *shrug* I also don't seem to get the point of using my so-called 'loyalty points' on the tributes they occasionally offer...most of what they offer is useless and either gets instantly sold, reprocessed or trashed. Is that the way it stays? Or should I just save my points 'cause the tributes get better?

some times they offer good deals to turn a fast isk. some times later on you can get offered 'navy issue' ships that are a lil better. there's some good stuff and good deals but it tends to come at level 3-4 misisons i think.

I've also spent my time in the 'relatively' safer high-sec areas. I've seen posted many times that 'ratting' is a standard 'grind' moneymaker. Wild guess: is that short for 'piRATing' in lower security areas? Just random PVPing and seeing what you get from the wreck when you win?

ratting is killing random npc pirates in astroid belts. gives isk and security rating.

missioning is doing agent missions
salvaging is using salvagers to destroy wrecks you make for parts you resell. thats where some real money is. you can salvage while ratting or missioning.

other means ot make monies are mining, exploring (with probes and junk), playing the market, etc.

[quote]Lastly (for now)...I had someone tell me to start working up mining and manufacturing early. All they said was it was the king of moneymakers later. Wide question here, but is this true? if so, how does one (besides training up the obvious 'mining' skill) begin to walk this path?/QUOTE]

i honestly think (keep in mind i'm a newblett) that the best way to handle mining is with a mining account. let your combat character combat, mine with a miner. you'll cripple the progression of both. level four missions makes mad money if you salvage.

-Xel Vaugenhar.

PS. learn to salvage. it's awesome.

if i missed anything re-ask. i'm at work and need to atleast pretend to get something done

[Radahr Manasponge]

Thanks a bunch for the info ..., I appreciate it.

The part is still don't quite 'get' is this:

I think what you're seeing is folks refering to agents level 1,2,3,4. level one missions are almost all frigates and newbsauce stuff. level 2 is mostly frigates with some cruisers. i think (i just started three) three does mostly cruisers with the rare BS, and 4 does BS's and cruisers and fun stuff like that.

ok, so it's the agents that are levels 1, 2, etc.

where does one see this designation? or are they located in different locations? does each faction have a different rep level required? I took a minmatar to 10.8 or 10.9 already, and didn't see anything that looked like a level designation.

[Bizanich]

Originally Posted by Radahr Manasponge

Thanks a bunch for the info ..., I appreciate it.

The part is still don't quite 'get' is this:



ok, so it's the agents that are levels 1, 2, etc.

where does one see this designation? or are they located in different locations? does each faction have a different rep level required? I took a minmatar to 10.8 or 10.9 already, and didn't see anything that looked like a level designation.

Not sure where you're seeing the 10.8 or 10.9, things usually cap out at 10, but you can see the level and type of agent on the Agent Info tab.

[Twisten]

I'm guessing thats quality not level.
The different agents each have a set agent level and only give missions of that level so maybe you will need to find a new location when your faction is high enough to start doing level 2 missions

edit ~ and yeah try to get the salvage skill pretty quickly it makes money relatively faster than missions to start with

[Antarius]

Inside a station (or in the people and places window in the agent tab) the level is right next to their name.

EX: Toras Egassuo, Level IV, Quality 18 Division: Command

Toras Egassuo = Name
Level IV = Level 4 missions, aka Battleship +
Quality 18 = More Loyalty points earned per mission completion But a level 4 quality -13 will still give better rewards than a level 3 quality 20. However, a Level 3 quality -20 agent can give you the exact same mission as a level 3 quality 20 agent, you would just get less rewards from it.

Division affects what type of missions you will get, ie: kill, transport, mine.

A rough guide is:
*** Mission types ***
Administration: 50% Kill, 50% Courier
Advisory: 34% Kill, 66% Courier
Archives: 5% Kill, 90% Courier, 5% Trade
Astrosurveying: 40% Kill, 30% Courier, 25%
Mining, 5% Trade
Command: 97% Kill, 3% Courier
Distribution: 5% Kill, 95% Courier
Intelligence: 85% Kill, 15% Courier
Internal Security: 95% Kill, 5% Courier
Legal: 50% Kill, 50% Courier
Manufacturing: 5% Kill, 95% Courier
Marketing: 5% Kill, 95% Courier
Mining: 5% Kill, 85% Courier, 10% Mining (II)
Production: 5% Kill, 95% Courier
Public Relations: 34% Kill, 66% Courier
Research and Development: 0% Kill, 50%
Courier(S), 50% Trade
Security: 90% Kill, 5% Courier, 5%Trade
Storage: 5% Kill, 95% Courier(L)
Surveillance: 95% Kill, 5% Courier


If you want: I have some other "newbie" info in my bio, if you look up my character in-game under the name "Antarius Dominus" Such as what type of damage different npcs do, and what type of damage you want to use against them. It's a pretty handy reference, even if it's a little dated.


As far as modules, eventually you'll have all the modules memorized for the ship types that you commonly use since they use the same naming conventions at each class of ships (ex: for missile launchers there is an Arbalest, Malkuth, Tech 1, Tech 2, Compact Limos, and XX-#### for every size launcher, and they all have "comparable" statistics size per size.

If you played wow, it would be like having all of your nemesis set stat's memorized if you were a warlock, but not knowing or caring wtf the different bow/xbox/gun weapons were, or having to learn anything about shot cycles on a hunter, even though you'd be pretty confortable with the concept through having to manage your own dot rotation.

[...]

agent quality level is how big of an asshole they are. the bigger an asshole they are, the more likely they are to send you way the hell off to kill a hand full of rats. you want a high quality rating where possible.

I made this handy dandy pic that shows you how to determine what an agent needs, and how to find agents!

[Antarius]

Oh, and about worlds collide, which acceleration gate you go in controls how hard the next area is going to be. One of the areas is easier than the others, so always go in the easier side.

You can research a mission before accepting it. There are mission resources all over the place, one site I use alot is eveinfo.com but if you just type in the mission name and EVE into google, you're likely to get a forum thread discussing that very mission so you know what you're getting into.

[Tripamang]

Originally Posted by ...

agent quality level is how big of an asshole they are. the bigger an asshole they are, the more likely they are to send you way the hell off to kill a hand full of rats. you want a high quality rating where possible.

I made this handy dandy pic that shows you how to determine what an agent needs, and how to find agents!

Awhile ago they patched in a hard limit on how far an agent can send you, it used to be tied to quality but they stopped that. More or less the quality and the sec status of the system the agent is in determines how many Reward Points you get per mission.

Higher quality = more bang for your buck. Though a lower quality low sec agent will typically pay off more than the higher quality high sec agent.

[Madrugan]

That pic just let me know I could browse a compiled agent list by corporation. Which I did not know I could do. Makes things a whole lot easier now. Thank you muchly.

[WillzZz]

I tend to use Kill Missions instead of eveinfo usually.

[Fog]

Originally Posted by ...

it's very random. you'll learn to spot the hard ones and get ready. build up your tank enough to where you can always get out. one thing i do in worlds colide type misisons is i warp in, make a book mark. warp back to base. then warp to my bookmark within 100km...then i'm not stuck with a million angry rats shooting me with missiles inside my falloff.

Worlds Collide is inside a deadspace, so this won't work for that specifically.

[...]

very true, said tip won't work on anything you have to jump gate too

[FoghornDeadhorn]

But it does work when you need to go back and salvage (once you've turned the mission in) keke.