First, let's nail down that EVE is very much like a second life. You'll do something for ISK, the ingame money, to fund the things you do for fun. If you do something specifically for the fun of gaining ISK, you're a carebear, period.
Okay, you may ask, but what should I do in EVE?
My advice is that never in your sane mind ask other people this question! I, just like people on many other places, will list a good bunch of professions you can sink your time into with your newfound hobby. Rather than asking others what you should do, ask about these. They'll be more than happy to tell a few words of their favourites, and share the downsides of their least liked ones. So, here's the list for your convenience:
Salvaging / looting
A lot of people like to blow things up. Where things go boom, there will be loot to collect. With some luck and politeness, you can find wrecks to exploit and loot to take. This profession is very newbie-friendly as all it requires is a ship and a Salvager I module to be fitted on it.
Thing you should be mindful of:
- If you have the skills to scan down ships (Astrometrics IV), you can scan down missioners and steal their loot. In most cases, they will be just angry at you, maybe warp out of missions to drop the NPC's aggression on you, or talk smack in local.
- If you take items from a wreck or container, you'll be criminally flagged towards the owner's corporation. This means that they can attack you, but once they shoot you, you can defend yourself without CONCORD interfering. You can do nasty things this way.
- Some people will let you take their loot if you ask nicely. Not all are nasty, but don't trust them blindly, maybe they are up to something, too.
Mining
Mining is a strange profession in the sense that it, in it's professional form is either a very social or a semi-afk activity. In essence, you point lazerz at rockz and get the goo into your cargo. Doesn't sound very exciting, huh? Well, it isn't... and that is its biggest feature! You can just sit and chill with people on comms, that's where it becomes very social. If you're interested in collecting the resuorces all of EVE depends on, you should google up mining guides, there are plenty of good ones, so I'll not detail it here.
When chosing mining as your focus, please bear in mind that:
- Mining can get very boring if you're not the type that enjoys very simple and repetitive tasks.
- You can do things parallel to it, such as playing with market orders or chit-chat.
- Joining a good group can prove cruicial to your career. They should be able provide you with all the help and company a new player needs.
- Some people make a sport out of harassing miners, and assume they can do nothing against them. Of course, this is not true. Harassing people harassing miners is double the fun :-)
Missioning
More people than not enjoy blowing red crosses up. The satisfaction of things goind boom with the addition of some good money gain is what missioning is all about. You need good combat skills and some of the Social tree to make them truly profitable. The downside is that it can get repetitive. More often than not will you receive around ten missions that you deem worth doing.
Things that you should be aware:
- Standing mechanics in general. Some missions will tank your standings to empires, resulting in very funny lossmails delivered by the faction's police army.
- Starting, NPC corporations rip you off. 11% taxes can really hurt when you'd be making good progress otherwise.
- Don't rush your skill training. Engineering, Mechanic and Electronics skill groups hold a lot of skills that will help you a great deal when fitting your ship of choice. Right click, Show info is your friend.
- Don't fly anything that you can't afford to replace. Putting your entire ISK reserve in a new ship you are unfamiliar with is a very poor choice and can end very badly. Insure everything before you go play with it.
- Missions can be hard to newer players, and they are unforgiving. If you mess up, your ship is lost for sure. Be ready for that and accept that you risk it every time you enter a mission, even if you've done that one a thousand times!
- The loot of level 3 and 4 missions is usually worth your time, so don't be shy to take your salvage ship back to the site.
Belt Ratting
The reason I mention this after missioning is that this 'profession' is beneficial to those of PvP mindset, because it sinergizes well with both your skill plan and the thing you want to do for fun. To kill NPCs in asteroid belts is the most basic form of combat ISK making. Basically you need a ship that can shoot the rats down before having to bail.
Bear in mind:
- It is not very profitable to rat in high sec. You'll only get frigate spawns and they're not particularly rewarding. It is, however, a good place to start.
- If you're leaving high security space and head to low sec (I advise you to do so!), you're subject to people shooting you. In fact, many will assume once they see you ratting that you're ready for some PvP. So why not be? You can rat in a PvP fit!
- Some rats (usually the size of a frigate) will warp scramble you, rendering you unable to leave the field. Be vary of this, kill them first, and always carry light drones in a cruiser or bigger ship.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing goods can be very rewarding for those that enjoy crafting items. EVE has one of the most complex and lifelike crafting system of all games I've seen. The downside is that people know this, and it takes a good deal of number crunching to be profitable. If you enjoy armchair ecomonics, this profession is pretty much for you. You can even turn it into a semi-passive activity, requiring very little attention over the course of a week if you decide you want to do something else. The key is that you should always look at the costs and gains as a whole to be successful, factoring in time as well. If you want to know more, Tegh Rhind in his podcast makes good points and gives a very good guide on such things. It's well worth listening to.
Be aware that:
- There are a lot of scams around the blueprint market, so be careful about your investments.
- Even the relatively redelict high sec regions can have wait times on manufacturing slots as long as two weeks, so it is definitely a factor.
- Higher volume, professional manufacturing usually scales very well with more characters, seeing that you'll require a lot of free slots and materials in place.
Exploration
Scanning down sites and wormholes is a bit of an odd ball profession. It starts of with only a few kills required, meaning that you can be very useful to larger, more experienced groups right from the start, but if you are really interested in searching for the various exploration content, it very much becomes a solo effort, requiring a wide range of skills, including combat, industry and science.
It's good to know:
- Exploration can provide you with great loot or leave you with some cheap crap, it is all chance-based.
- If you really want to make a profit out of it, you'd better get familiar with lower security status space. The low and zero sec sites are actually worth your time.
- You can see some of the most interesting art assets within exploration sites, if you are into sightseeing.
- Probing is much easier than it was a few years back, but it still takes patience to learn and routine to perform efficiently.
Trade
EVE has a complex and very lifelike economy. Almost everything - in fact, everything that really matters is player driven within it. This gives you the possibility to just sit around and compete with other people for the best deals, or transport goods from one corner of the universe to the other for high markup selling. Given my limited experiences with the art of trading, If you're interested in running your own market empire, I'm going to direct you to Tegh Rhind's podcast again.
There are a few concerns you must be aware of:
- The market is dynamic, changing in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds. Having a good understanding of EVE's items, their use, and the volumes that are traded around will be cruicial to your success.
- Given enough experience and attention, you'll gain more ISK this way than any other activity.
- The ingame economy translates very well to the real world economy, meaning that the economic knowledge you acquire ingame can be carried over to RL and vice versa. It might be an interesting experiment.
- There are a lot of guides, but the little secrets are usually left out. You'll have to figure out what fits your play schedule in terms of operation.
- Scamming in EVE is allowed, almost promoted outright. Many practices involving pixel ISK would get you jailed in the real world. So read the small script, and be vary of people trying to scam you out of ISK and assets.
Piracy
Piracy in EVE translates to aggressing other people's ships, and extorting ISK in various ways from them. You read that right, you'll be a PvPer if you become a pirate! Some people just wander around, blowing ships up, even demanding ransoms of the ones they got pinned down, then blowing them up nevertheless. This is not piracy, that is 'griefing', and it is a valid gameplay in EVE. But the knowledge of your limits and setting morals for yourself despite being an outlaw is something many people enjoy and are passionate about it.
Good to know:
- For a pirate, PVP knowledge and experience is essential. It only accumulates one way: practice. So get out there and start losing ships!
- Yes, once you engage other people in combat, you'll bound to lose your ship one time or another. In fact, losses are a good thing as long as you learn from them.
- Piracy is not a chill profession in any way. You'll guaranteed to get excitement each time you engage.
- There aren't identical fights. The process is driven by decisions that people independently make, and this means planning and gaining control of the situation is the key point in any fights.
- You must have a few tricks up to your sleeve if you plan on getting rich pirating. Since you'll sooner or later be locked out of high sec, your career usually depends on other characters supplying you with tools of the trade.
Alliance life / warfare
There aren't many alliances that invite new players with open arms, but it's well worth the effort look around. Zero security space can be controlled by player alliances, thus enabling them to exploit its resources at will and set the rules, which are usually simple: if you're in their space and not on good or excellent standings, you're a target. Livinag in null sec is very much different from being held in the arms of the empires, but there are profits and good fights to be had, so there are a lot of people out there. This is the place where the vastness of the universe can truly hit you, not seeing a soul over the course of ten jumps and stations being scarce.
You'll be in an advantage knowing that:
- Many alliances will send you away and say come back when you have x amount of SP. You're not looking for them, they're not good enough for you just yet.
- There's a lot more to learn once you've completed your tutorials. Null security space is where most of the concepts learned in high sec shuld be thrown away.
- Find people who are willing to teach you. Over time, you'll be a part of a community of hundreds, maybe thousands of people.
- You'll most likely be wanted for your combat capabilities, but there are other areas you can try and be profitable.
- In null sec, everyone must be able to defend himself. The place is harsh enough that the more self sufficient you are, the more you get out of it. Think about Wild West in EVE terms.
Closing Words
No matter what you choose and how you go about it, the name of the game is fun. It's fun that you have a ridiculous amount of choices, and decisions to make within them. Still, your mistakes count, and the losses matter. You're presented with continuous opprtunities to make a difference, so don't be shy and get your own butterfly effect rolling.
