Retro Game Walkthroughs for Eve Online (PC Games)
Submitted By: Tallan
So, a walkthrough for a MMOG, eh? And one for a game as open-ended as Eve to boot. Just as well I packed the sandwiches.
Character Creation
So, lets start at the start, and take a look at the miracle of creation. The indepth creation process can be left to the computer to pick all of your stats and attributes, but it is best to take control and do this yourself. Firstly, decide what type of character you think you'll want to play. Do you want to be a scientist, or a miner? Perhaps an interstellar trader or agent runner? Or maybe you fancy the pirate lifestyle, or the bounty hunter? Also what race do you want to be? Gallente, Minmatar, Amarr or Caldari, the choice limits your access to certain ships and technology early on in the game, although all items are accessible to all characters when the right skills are aquired. Take a look at the description for each, and decide what you'd like to be. After this is the fine balancing of your skill points - more points to the areas you want to focus on, eg weapon use for you pirates! Lastly you need to create the face of your avatar. The morphing system here is alot of fun, so take your time and play around with those settings. Name your character and thats it, off you go!
Tutorial
Your first few steps in the world of Eve should be with the tutorial. Miss this at your peril! The tutorial will take you through all the basics, including movement, combat, mining and trading. After completion of the tutorial, you'll find yourself in a local space station with an invite to a level 1 agent. It is advisable to go speak to this agent, as he/she will give you an assignment that will give you some money, and teach you a bit more about courier missions and combat. This agent will then refer you to a proper level 1 agent who can periodically give you missions, if you fancy the life of an agent runner. At this stage, you are now on your own. What you do next is entirely up to you.
Its good to talk...
One of the most fundamentally helpful tools in Eve is other players. This is a Massively Multiplayer game, and the strong community that has evolved are always willing to lend a hand to newcomers. On the chat you will usually have two channels open - the local and corporation channels. Local channel shows all other players that are in the same system as you, and corp channel shows all the players in your corporation. Any time you get stuck, or want some advise, just jump on one of the channels and ask! There is also a dedicated help channel available to speak to experienced players and GM's.
Corporations
Through the chat channels you will make friends quickly, and more often than not get offers to join player run corporations. These corporations are set up and run by players, usually with a specific aim in mind. For example, if you fancy the life of a manufacturer, look out for a corp that aims to manufature and sell items and you can't go wrong. Even if you feel like becoming a freelancer (like I did for a while), there are corporations out there that are formed for this, whos members can go off and do exactly as they please but still have familiar people around to talk to and to assist. And at the end of the day, if you don't like your corp, or can't find one to suit your needs, just go off and create your own.
ISK
When you first appear in the game, you will be floating in space in your shiny new frigate. While this ship is good enough to begin with, you'll soon want to upgrade to a bigger, better model with go faster stripes. But the latest models in interstellar travel don't come cheap. To buy ships and equipment you'll need money. As moma always said, 'money don't grow on trees', so how do you go about raking in that dough? The ingame currency is called ISK, and anything you need, be it ammo, skill packs, trade goods, minerals or ships, can be bought with it. The easiest way for a new player to make money is by mining asteroids for minerals, that can then be sold. The tutorial that you did (you did do it, didn't you? ;) ) will have shown you the basics of mining and refining. Following this process you can soon make a few isk for that new rail gun you've got your eye on, but how on earth can you make enough for a new ship? Mining in groups is the way to go. Get a few people together, and head out to the 'roids. Get one person hauling minerals back to base while the rest of you mine into a can, and the money will soon stack up. Once you've got enough, sell the ore and spit the profits. Used wisely, your bulging wallet of isk can get your ship kitted out for other, more profitable adventures. You can get a better mining setup, or go for some big guns and NPC pirate hunting, or maybe a bigger cargohold for agent running and trading. Again, talk to people, find someone who does what you'll be interested in, and ask to join up with them.
System Security
As a rookie, you really don't want to go charging off into a nest of rats* now, so this is where the local security forces come into play. Every system in Eve has a security status. This ranges from 1.0 (very secure) down to 0.0 (lawless) in steps of 0.1. The rules of combat vary with each security status, and it is vital to know these if you are to stay safe. The basics of this revolve around the computer controlled police forces in the universe. The main enforcement agency is Concord, who police all the main four factions. Each faction also has its own military who help patrol with Concord. These guys will kill any lawbreaker they find, following these rules:
In 1.0 to 0.5 Concord will warp to and kill anyone who makes an aggressive act towards another player.
In 0.4 to 01 Concord will kill anyone who is in range, but they won't warp to a position to help.
In 0.0 no one will come to your aid, you are on your own...
*Rat - a pirate
Standings
Every player and every corporation has standings to every other player and corp in the game. This dictates how friendly you are to other people, and they to you. The major standing to take note of is your standing with the main four factions and Concord. If these fall below a certain level, you will be attacked by them when travelling through their sectors. Likewise, if you have a high standing, you may be able to aquire contacts among their organisations, in the form of agents who set you tasks in return for money and items. Alot of high level items can only be aquired through these agents so it is always worth staying on side with at least on large faction. Standings differ from security status in that they range from 1.0 down to -1.0. If your status is below -0.5 for a given faction, players can freely attack you in their space without fear of reprocussions, and sentry guns will always be taking a pop at you.
Skills
As I have mentioned before, certain skills are required to use certain items. These skills can be bought on the market, and then trained up. Training time can take anywhere from 10 minutes up to 30 days or more. Always make sure that you are training something, as it is this that takes most of the time to accomplish. Training is carried on even when you are offline, so before going to bed at night set a skill going that will take a few hours so as not to waste training time. Some learning skills raise your players stats and so helps reduce training times on other skills. It is good advice therefore to concentrate on these skills first to optimise training times.
Death
The only certainty in life is death. So how does dying affect you? Having spent several months building up that character's skills and money just to loose it all in a slight case of death would be a real setback for the ordinary person. Not so for the disconcerning pilots of Eve. Let me explain. There are two 'levels' of being killed in Eve. These are having your ship destroyed, which results in you escaping in your capsule, and having your capsule destroyed. Loosing a ship is bad, as you not only loose the ship, but also all the equipment and cargo that was on board at the time. It is possible to salvage stuff from destroyed ships, but this is usually done by the killer more than the killed. This can turn out to be costly. Fortunately you remembered to buy insurance, didn't you? Insurance does what it says - insures your ship for a fee. You need to buy insurance periodically as it only lasts a few weeks, but if you have your ship destroyed you receive a cash payout to cover the loss. If you find yourself floating in space in your pod, head to the nearest station where you will be give a replacement ship (of the rookie frigate kind) and your insurance payout. Get kitted out again and go get some revenge! Ok if you make it to the station then, but what happens if your escape pod gets destroyed? Pain, I'm afraid, and an agonising death in the cold vacuum of space. Quickly followed by your brain being scanned and the data sent to your cloning facility, where you are 'downloaded' into a new body and reactivated. Sounds dangerous doesn't it? Its perfecly safe and can leave you exactly as you were, with no skill loss or anything, as long as you dont skimp on the dough and get a good quality clone. Unfortunately, some less reputable cloning facilities will try and sell you cheap clones. Dont go down this road as the low grade biomass may not always accept all of your brain data, resulting in lost skills and memory.
To recap, always make sure you have insurance, but even more importantly, make sure you have an up-to-date clone that can cover all your skill points. You will always be given a clone, but the default one is no good for a character more that a few weeks old.
And that about wraps up the basics. I have now covered enough ground to see you on your way for your fist few weeks in Eve. There is much more to go into, including combat player-versus-player, NPC pirate hunting, deepspace mining, manufaturing, researching, courier running, the list goes on...
Like I said before, talk to others, get into a good corp and start making your way in the universe. Experience and community are the way to go. And if you see me about, don't hesitate to call out to me, I'm more than happy to lend a helping hand at any time. Just ask for Tallan.
This is Commander Tallan, signing off.
Character Creation
So, lets start at the start, and take a look at the miracle of creation. The indepth creation process can be left to the computer to pick all of your stats and attributes, but it is best to take control and do this yourself. Firstly, decide what type of character you think you'll want to play. Do you want to be a scientist, or a miner? Perhaps an interstellar trader or agent runner? Or maybe you fancy the pirate lifestyle, or the bounty hunter? Also what race do you want to be? Gallente, Minmatar, Amarr or Caldari, the choice limits your access to certain ships and technology early on in the game, although all items are accessible to all characters when the right skills are aquired. Take a look at the description for each, and decide what you'd like to be. After this is the fine balancing of your skill points - more points to the areas you want to focus on, eg weapon use for you pirates! Lastly you need to create the face of your avatar. The morphing system here is alot of fun, so take your time and play around with those settings. Name your character and thats it, off you go!
Tutorial
Your first few steps in the world of Eve should be with the tutorial. Miss this at your peril! The tutorial will take you through all the basics, including movement, combat, mining and trading. After completion of the tutorial, you'll find yourself in a local space station with an invite to a level 1 agent. It is advisable to go speak to this agent, as he/she will give you an assignment that will give you some money, and teach you a bit more about courier missions and combat. This agent will then refer you to a proper level 1 agent who can periodically give you missions, if you fancy the life of an agent runner. At this stage, you are now on your own. What you do next is entirely up to you.
Its good to talk...
One of the most fundamentally helpful tools in Eve is other players. This is a Massively Multiplayer game, and the strong community that has evolved are always willing to lend a hand to newcomers. On the chat you will usually have two channels open - the local and corporation channels. Local channel shows all other players that are in the same system as you, and corp channel shows all the players in your corporation. Any time you get stuck, or want some advise, just jump on one of the channels and ask! There is also a dedicated help channel available to speak to experienced players and GM's.
Corporations
Through the chat channels you will make friends quickly, and more often than not get offers to join player run corporations. These corporations are set up and run by players, usually with a specific aim in mind. For example, if you fancy the life of a manufacturer, look out for a corp that aims to manufature and sell items and you can't go wrong. Even if you feel like becoming a freelancer (like I did for a while), there are corporations out there that are formed for this, whos members can go off and do exactly as they please but still have familiar people around to talk to and to assist. And at the end of the day, if you don't like your corp, or can't find one to suit your needs, just go off and create your own.
ISK
When you first appear in the game, you will be floating in space in your shiny new frigate. While this ship is good enough to begin with, you'll soon want to upgrade to a bigger, better model with go faster stripes. But the latest models in interstellar travel don't come cheap. To buy ships and equipment you'll need money. As moma always said, 'money don't grow on trees', so how do you go about raking in that dough? The ingame currency is called ISK, and anything you need, be it ammo, skill packs, trade goods, minerals or ships, can be bought with it. The easiest way for a new player to make money is by mining asteroids for minerals, that can then be sold. The tutorial that you did (you did do it, didn't you? ;) ) will have shown you the basics of mining and refining. Following this process you can soon make a few isk for that new rail gun you've got your eye on, but how on earth can you make enough for a new ship? Mining in groups is the way to go. Get a few people together, and head out to the 'roids. Get one person hauling minerals back to base while the rest of you mine into a can, and the money will soon stack up. Once you've got enough, sell the ore and spit the profits. Used wisely, your bulging wallet of isk can get your ship kitted out for other, more profitable adventures. You can get a better mining setup, or go for some big guns and NPC pirate hunting, or maybe a bigger cargohold for agent running and trading. Again, talk to people, find someone who does what you'll be interested in, and ask to join up with them.
System Security
As a rookie, you really don't want to go charging off into a nest of rats* now, so this is where the local security forces come into play. Every system in Eve has a security status. This ranges from 1.0 (very secure) down to 0.0 (lawless) in steps of 0.1. The rules of combat vary with each security status, and it is vital to know these if you are to stay safe. The basics of this revolve around the computer controlled police forces in the universe. The main enforcement agency is Concord, who police all the main four factions. Each faction also has its own military who help patrol with Concord. These guys will kill any lawbreaker they find, following these rules:
In 1.0 to 0.5 Concord will warp to and kill anyone who makes an aggressive act towards another player.
In 0.4 to 01 Concord will kill anyone who is in range, but they won't warp to a position to help.
In 0.0 no one will come to your aid, you are on your own...
*Rat - a pirate
Standings
Every player and every corporation has standings to every other player and corp in the game. This dictates how friendly you are to other people, and they to you. The major standing to take note of is your standing with the main four factions and Concord. If these fall below a certain level, you will be attacked by them when travelling through their sectors. Likewise, if you have a high standing, you may be able to aquire contacts among their organisations, in the form of agents who set you tasks in return for money and items. Alot of high level items can only be aquired through these agents so it is always worth staying on side with at least on large faction. Standings differ from security status in that they range from 1.0 down to -1.0. If your status is below -0.5 for a given faction, players can freely attack you in their space without fear of reprocussions, and sentry guns will always be taking a pop at you.
Skills
As I have mentioned before, certain skills are required to use certain items. These skills can be bought on the market, and then trained up. Training time can take anywhere from 10 minutes up to 30 days or more. Always make sure that you are training something, as it is this that takes most of the time to accomplish. Training is carried on even when you are offline, so before going to bed at night set a skill going that will take a few hours so as not to waste training time. Some learning skills raise your players stats and so helps reduce training times on other skills. It is good advice therefore to concentrate on these skills first to optimise training times.
Death
The only certainty in life is death. So how does dying affect you? Having spent several months building up that character's skills and money just to loose it all in a slight case of death would be a real setback for the ordinary person. Not so for the disconcerning pilots of Eve. Let me explain. There are two 'levels' of being killed in Eve. These are having your ship destroyed, which results in you escaping in your capsule, and having your capsule destroyed. Loosing a ship is bad, as you not only loose the ship, but also all the equipment and cargo that was on board at the time. It is possible to salvage stuff from destroyed ships, but this is usually done by the killer more than the killed. This can turn out to be costly. Fortunately you remembered to buy insurance, didn't you? Insurance does what it says - insures your ship for a fee. You need to buy insurance periodically as it only lasts a few weeks, but if you have your ship destroyed you receive a cash payout to cover the loss. If you find yourself floating in space in your pod, head to the nearest station where you will be give a replacement ship (of the rookie frigate kind) and your insurance payout. Get kitted out again and go get some revenge! Ok if you make it to the station then, but what happens if your escape pod gets destroyed? Pain, I'm afraid, and an agonising death in the cold vacuum of space. Quickly followed by your brain being scanned and the data sent to your cloning facility, where you are 'downloaded' into a new body and reactivated. Sounds dangerous doesn't it? Its perfecly safe and can leave you exactly as you were, with no skill loss or anything, as long as you dont skimp on the dough and get a good quality clone. Unfortunately, some less reputable cloning facilities will try and sell you cheap clones. Dont go down this road as the low grade biomass may not always accept all of your brain data, resulting in lost skills and memory.
To recap, always make sure you have insurance, but even more importantly, make sure you have an up-to-date clone that can cover all your skill points. You will always be given a clone, but the default one is no good for a character more that a few weeks old.
And that about wraps up the basics. I have now covered enough ground to see you on your way for your fist few weeks in Eve. There is much more to go into, including combat player-versus-player, NPC pirate hunting, deepspace mining, manufaturing, researching, courier running, the list goes on...
Like I said before, talk to others, get into a good corp and start making your way in the universe. Experience and community are the way to go. And if you see me about, don't hesitate to call out to me, I'm more than happy to lend a helping hand at any time. Just ask for Tallan.
This is Commander Tallan, signing off.