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?"
Well, my title maybe a bit harsh because frankly, apart from a few little details, I knew almost exactly what I was getting myself into. Unlike a lot of people who get in EVE, I knew about the games overwhelming complexity since its birth, and held back getting into it on purpose because I knew how hard it would grip me. Of course, having a good friend emphatically saying "You gotta see EVE !!!" each time I saw him kinda helped sway me, but I knew my friend's play style and I knew that it would be incompatible to mine on some aspects; I'm about as much an industrialist as Bill Gates is a poor man! But I knew what would make EVE such an awesome game for me: The PvP.
Although I will admit not just any kind of The PvP. As epic and grandiose as the big Null-sec fleet fights may be (yes I admit they are, the Youtube vids prove it), I had no intention of becoming a nameless grunt among a wall of nameless grunts fighting a wall of nameless grunts for an undetermined period of time (sleep? cancelled!) in a sea of lag so thick the game starts to look like a bad pps file. And to command those blobs? No thank you, my brain cells are already damaged enough as it is. But smaller gangs of 40 or less, down to the pure 1v1 when a good one could happen, now THAT sings to me! So from the start, even before getting into the game, I started getting information towards that direction. When I finally got in of course I had to get used to this awesome UI only a viking can make sense of, but in my early days I had plenty of outside help, first from Letrange, and through Letrange from the BOZO crew.
Two years later and has the learning process stopped? Not even a little bit. Hell, sometimes even my not-so-noob-anymore corpmate comes across something I didn't know about and vice-versa. At his start he needed more help than I did because he came into EVE cold without knowing anything about the game. Some skills he trained up are just mind-boggling! But all that is past now and he is slowly finding his path.
So the things I learned that I can share:
1- Train your learning skills. At the very least do plans in EVEmon and include the learning skills suggested (thanx Queb for that one!)
2- Don't try to fly something big fast. It will only end in tears. It's better to fly a small ship to the best of its habilities than a big one poorly.
3- Be careful about cross-training. Sure there are good ships in all the races but don't spread yourself too thin.
4- Play with EFT like a madman(woman). It's the best way to learn all those ships and modules and implants and stuff.
5- Expect PvP AT ALL TIMES! Some people may just want to "mind their own business" but this sandbox is a big one and PvP will happen.
6- And for the love of Jimi Fucking Hendrix FLY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE !!!
I've done this previously but I want to do it again. I may not be a good or great PvPer by any measure, but the following pilots need a shout-out for making me the pilot I'm becoming: Letrange, Demonfurbie, Arancia Detto, Quebnaric Deile, Teister, Cerui Tarshiel, Maelgar, Tolarus, StarHomer, Madcoy Flinstone, Matriux, Feyd/Suzuko, Sul Razzor, and more lately Suletsap III, Unzer, Cartboard Box, Havegun Willtravel, Strongpaw Griffis, the Wyldfyre family, Mokmo3, BlueQueen/Miner, and BOZO's number one fan CrazyKinux :)) If you're not in the list, you know who you are but I swear EVE wouldn't have been the same without you!
You can afford to lose it, so fly the shit out of it!
o7
List of Participants
- CrazyKinux: The Three Pillars of Wisdom
- The Elitist: Helping the new guy/gal
- Hands Off, My Loots: Nothing Needed
- Rantuket: Blog Banter 16
- EVE Opportunist: Nooby Cluey
- Into the Unknown With Gun and Camera: EVE University
- Zero Kelvin: We’re the young ones!
- I am Keith Neilson: Set Your Destination
- Prano’s Journey: Just Like the Very First Time
- A Merry Life and a Short One: No Seriously
- Yarrbear Tales: Nublet 101
- A Mule In EVE: If I only knew
- The Planet Risk Show: Dared to be Bold
- Diary of a Space Jockey: WTH did I get myself into?!
- EVOGANDA: Why?
- A Memoir From Space: 16th Blog Banter
- Death’s Sweetest Kiss: Who What When Where Why How??
- Freebooted: Beyond the Shortcuts
- Learning to Fly: Noobing
- Caldari Outcast: My First Blog Banter Post!
- More to come soon…
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