I’m hovering 95 m from the Acceleration Gate; for a moment, I’m lost in the steady comfort of the dull vibration emanating through the ship from the raw power the Gate is holding in reserve until I push the button. Only I’m not pushing it yet. According to the agent who gave me this gig… what’s his name… Oksarko… eh, I never remember. The joke is as long as you’d know it if you saw it, why bother to remember it? Anyway let’s see the guy says it’s pirates – figured that much – Serpentis – don’t run into those that often, but they’re probably frackin’ stupid… Kinetic damage probably… I think I’m ready. I take one last look at the console. I run the numbers on shield hp’s I can sustain before they start scratching my paint. I check the capacitor levels; run a couple of virtual scenarios through to assure me I’ll be cap stable. I take a look at the launchers, the damage per second values assure me I’m firmly capable of unleashing hell when I need to. I push the button.

I don’t feel much as the gate bends the fabric of space and time preparing to throw me into deadspace, but I suddenly remember something I should’ve thought about before. The agent said this was a routine patrol; however, I’m suddenly remembering the name they gave this mission on his datapad… Maybe it’s just me, but there’s nothing routine sounding about “Massive Attack”.

Fuckin’ Agents…

We have several new articles / guides in the works:

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4. Speed Tanks

Check back in the coming days for this new, EXCITING content! As always, thanks for reading.

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This month’s topic comes to us from me, Ga’len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility.  He asks: “What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe?  Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a ‘nerf this, boost my game play’ post like we see on the EVE forums.”

Well, this is the Edener’s very first EVE Blog Banter. We plan on participating every month from this point forward! Click read more to read the entire article.

First off, I’d like to say hats off to Ga’len @ The Wandering Druid of Tranquility for an excellent topic! Secondly, I would like to thank CrazyKinux for allowing the Edener to participate in this excellent blog topic!

Anyway, to the content!

EVE Online is a very different game, in that it requires a lot of thinking. Politics play a large role, as they generate player based content. I would love to see EVE stick to this mantra of realism in adding a stock market-esque function to the game.

The shares have been there for a while, but really, there isn’t a whole lot to the mechanism.

The market could be seeded with the basic NPC corporations, and eventually, incorporate player based corporations into the frey as well. A new interface would be used, similar to the market interface, listing the various corporations, their current value, number of shares, etc. etc.

Corporate wealth would be calculated either using the corporate wallet or a measure of assets, not entirely sure on this one.

With the new feature would come a variety of new skills to affect the players ability to manipulate the market, much like those already in place for buy / sell orders.

All of this would eventually tie into the political aspect of the game, as publicly operated companies would be required to please their shareholders. Of course, the decision to operate publicly would be left to the CEO and directors of the corporation, but the ability to do so could open a number of RP opportunities as well as opportunities to expand.

Personally, I think a stock market would have a lot to add to the game. The biggest factor is the realism, currently corporations are really funded entirely by its members, with this feature, corporations could rely on a new method of generating ISK, and ultimately, a path to success.

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The first thing you have to answer when trying to find a fight is “what kind of fight am I looking for?”. Are you a pirate, an anti-pirate, a griefer, a NBSI PvP fanatic on an epic roam of doom?! The majority of solo and small gang PvP seems to happen in low-sec empire space, with 0.0 generally sticking to the larger camps and roams, and obviously, the large scale fleet battles. High-sec has its place on the list as well, for empire wars and griefing mostly.

Let’s start with low-sec. Pick a system that you want to base out of. This could be personal preference or based on the base of operations for your corp. Now find the nearest low-sec entry points and take a shuttle or noob ship and go scout around. To be successful in low-sec, it is very helpful to know the immediate area off the top of your head. Using Rens as an example of a base, I know Amamake is the closest low-sec entry, and I know I can get to alternate high sec by going from there to Sisiede, then onto Egghelende, and finally over to Jel, in Gallente space. I can also loop from Ama, to Vard, followed by Ezarra, Arzad, Sifilar, Tzvi, Lamaa, Kourmonen, Auga, and back to Ama. I know Ama is a pretty busy pirate hub, as is Egghelende, so if I am solo, I mostly steer clear of those two systems other than to travel. This kind of awareness is one less thing to worry about once you know it, so you can think about other things while looking for a fight.

So let’s say you jump to Amamake and warp straight to Vard and jump through. You are solo, flying a Rupture. When you come in, there are three others in local. That’s good. If you are solo and there are 20 people in system, chances are if you engage one person, they will have friends, and the friends will be there soon. So you warp to the star at 100, or somewhere equally random, so as to not unintentionally land on a potential target. Using the directional scanner set to max range (roughly 13AU) on a 15 degree scan directed at a single asteroid belt, you pick up a Maller. Perfect. A good old fashioned 1v1 cruiser duel without the prospect of much interference from others in local.

You warp to the belt at 0. The Maller is there, 9km from you. From here, a flowchart would really work better. Are you a pirate?-> Yes -> Attack!…You are not a pirate, but he is flashing red -> Attack!…You are not a pirate, he has negative sec status-> Wait and let him make the first move if you don’t want to take a sec hit, if he engages, return fire, if he leaves, it wasn’t meant to be.

You do not have to be a pirate necessarily to randomly attack people in low-sec. I do it all the time. It is all just a matter of gauging the worth. If you are starved to shoot something, or if it has a high chance of dropping some very desirable loot, it is usually worth it. If you are in a cruiser on a gate and you see a noob ship, chances are losing your ship to the sentry guns is not worth looting his 1 unit of tritanium. Use your best judgement in these cases. Think about your motivations for PvPing before you go out, and it will be easier to tell yourself whether or not to open fire in a certain situation.

To wrap up, I will combine high-sec and 0.0 into one paragraph. Basically, in 0.0, everything is a target. Know your capabilities and limits, and have fun. In high-sec, 99% of the time, your only option for PvP is war targets. In my experience and opinion, empire wars are extremely boring, but if your corp is in one, follow their lead. In both of these arenas, many of the same geography rules apply; have some idea of where you are and where you can escape to, make safe spots using the bookmark tool so you can scan exit gates, etc. Also in 0.0, it is very useful to bring up the map (f10) and color stars by pilots in system in the last 30 minutes, and recent ship kills. If you are going to jump into Doril and the map says 80 in local with 35 ships destroyed in the last hour, maybe wait a while…

I hope that all helps a little in your adventures. Explaining these styles and methods is difficult; as with most PvP related knowledge, the best to gain it is to go out and try it yourself. Feel free to shoot me an eve mail with questions, complaints, and stories about your experiences in PvP, whether you used my advice or not. I would love to hear about it!

Fly safe, and check back for installment #3: “Solo-Gang-Fleet: Which One is for Me?” coming soon.

I don’t know…

See, Eve was my first one of these games, so I don’t know what WoW was like or what the pros and cons were or why everybody seems to think eve is better.

Here’s what I do know…  I’ve played EvE enough to “get it”.   When I frst started in my Batam in Empire Space, moving all the way up to an actual Cruiser, I was amazed at the level of support I received from other people in the help channel.

One memorable moment was when they suggested I get a Destroyer to salvage behind me but I couldn’t afford a Destroyer — 2 separate people sent me enough ISK to pay for 4 destroyers.   I tried to give it back… they said no.   Give it to someone who needs it once you get established.

And so I have.   I’ve even taken to helping out one Rookie per day in the Rookie Help channel — as painful as that is to monitor.

Along the way, I’ve lost ships to NPC, I’ve lost ships to players in 0.0… hell, I’ve even lost ships to my own corp members on training drills… lol.

Tonight, though, for the second time, I suffered something I could really not understand the motivation behind.

I found a wormhole.   Early this morning.   I left it alone outside of establishing it had at least 3 Sleeper Spots inside and about 9 or 10 other “anamolies”.

I waited until my friends were online and then decided to go exploring.   Only to find the wormhole on the other side camped and I was podded before I knew it.

Looking at the combat logs, I think they may have made 250 K from me.   vs. 25 -60 M from the sleepers — much less the gates that led to other more profitable areas.

3 of you at a gatecamp, that you setup cuz you’re scared to go inside the deeper layers of the wormhole — I get that.

But to sabotage anyone coming in who might be able to help you not look like such a tool in being so cowardice as to not even pursue the sleepers… I can have no respect… Sleepers are not rollover NPC’s — by the time the 4th wave hits, you’ll want all the help you can get, I would have thought.

If anyone can explain this mindset, I’d appreciate it because I always consider it us against them inside WH.

What are they?

Skills are objects that enable you to do a number of things in EVE. If you want to pilot a battleship you will need a certain number of skills to allow you to do so. Just about everything you can do in EVE requires some sort of skill.

How do you acquire them?

To learn a skill, you will need a skill book. Skill books teach your avatar whatever skill they contain. Usually, you will buy skill books off the market, you may also acquire skill books through missions, the LP store, or looting if you’re lucky.

Acquiring the skill book is only half the battle, once you have your skill book you will need to train the skill. Skills have a level attached to them, the level goes from 0 meaning the skill was just injected, and hasn’t trained yet, to 5, meaning the skill is trained fully.

The Anatomy of a Skill

Each skill have a number of attributes attached to it. First, you will have your description, giving you a basic overview of what the skill does. Next you have the attributes, attributes will list the primary and secondary character attributes that effect the training of this skill, the attribute modifier of the skill, the training time multiplier, the skill level, and finally the skill points.

The primary and secondary attributes are very important in training time. Basically, you can have a number of attributes attached to a skill: intelligence, charisma, willpower, memory, and perception. Generally, each attribute will apply to a certain skill set, intelligence is generally used in science related things, memory for industry, willpower for social, trade, leadership and spaceship command, charisma in trade, leadership, and corporation management, and finally perception for spaceship command.

The higher values you have for the primary / secondary attributes on a skill, the less time it will take to train that skill. How can you increase these values? There is a special set of skills called “Learning” skills, these skills will give you a single attribute point per level. Each attribute has 2 skills, each level giving 1 attribute point, meaning you can get up to 10 additional points per attribute if you train all your learning skills to level 5. You can also use implants to increase attribute numbers, but implants will not be discussed in this guide. You can also use neural remaps to reallocate your starting attribute points, however, this is permanent and can only be done once per year, hold the initial remap you get when you first make your character.

Next on the list you will find the attribute modifier attribute. I know this may be a bit confusing, but this attribute has nothing to do with the attributes discussed above…rather this attribute simply tells you what this skill will change. Some skill will have raw % changes on damage output, shield levels or things of that nature. For instance, the “Cruise Missiles” skill increases the damage of cruise missiles by 5%, this is listed in the description and the attribute tab.

After the attribute modifier, you will find the training time multiplier. Basically, the higher this number is, the more time the upper levels of the skill will take.

The next attribute listed will be the level of the skill, this just tells you what level that skill is currently trained to.

Finally, the skill points attribute. Each skill has a number of skill points that you must train before you will achieve a new level in that particular skill. Higher tier skills will have vastly larger numbers of required skill points to achieve level 5. Training time is calculated using skill points. Based on your attributes, you will gain a certain number of skill points per hour. The higher the attributes for that skill, the more skill points per hour you will earn, and subsequently, the quicker that skill will train.

Skill points also act as a kind of “overall level” for characters in EVE. As you play, you will accrue larger numbers of skill points (the total can be seen next to your portrait in the character sheet). The higher your overall skill points, the more effective you are thought to be, assuming you didn’t deviate from your focus career path.

What should I train?

This is always a popular question among newer players, unfortunately, there is not a particular universal skill path, it all depends on what you want to do. Here are some basic guidelines:

1. What do I want to do? - Before you go training into any particular skill path, it is always a good idea to figure out exactly what you want to do. Do you want to PvP? Mine? Manufacture? Each career has corresponding skills.
2. Support first! - One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is training the spaceship command skills before they train the support skills to fly the ship effectively. Trust me, I was a noob once, and I really, really wanted the biggest baddest ship available, however, this is simply not an effective path. Train your support skills first, otherwise you’ll lose that big beautiful ship in a matter of minutes.
3. Learning, Learning, Learning - Although learning skills don’t help you very much at the beginning, but as you get more into a specialized skill path, higher tiers of skills will require a very long time to train, sometimes in the area of a month. Having your learning skills trained will greatly reduce training time in the long term.

Certificates

A couple patches back (with Quantum Rise) CCP introduced certificates. These can be viewed by going to your character sheet, and clicking certificates. Certificates act as a kind of guide for newer players. If you know what ship you would like the pilot, you can go to the “Recommended” tab on the ships information page (right click on the item > show info) and see what certificates are required to fly this ship effectively. You can click on the information button to the right of each certificate to see what skills you need to obtain to earn that certificate.

The Training Queue

Another very useful feature that CCP implemented recently, with the Apocrypha patch, is the training queue. This can be used to queue up a number of skills to continue training after you log off. To add a skill to the training queue, go to your character sheet, go to skills, go to the skill you want to add to the queue, right click on it and select “Add to Queue”. Once a skill is added to the queue, it will automatically begin training after your current skill is finished training. Be sure to always keep your queue full! You don’t want to miss out on training time!

The only limitation with the training queue is the time frame it lets you queue up. You can add any number of skills to the queue, but after the total queue training time goes beyond 24 hours, you will be unable to add anymore skills. To work around this, put skills that only require a small amount of time at the top of the queue until its almost full, and then put a skill that will take a longer time at the very end of the queue. This will allow you to queue up for several days if you know you won’t be around.

Conclusion

Skill training is the “level” of your character in this game. Keeping a full queue and having a skill training at all times will ensure your progression, even while not playing.