Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:53 am**

Move this where you see fit.

Well, future pilots... let's see where do I start now. This game is so deep that it is impossible to write everything in my head down, so I'll just run through some of the points I picked up.

First of all. Character Creation.
We are all pretty much using the Caldari Empire guys for now.
Since there is only one "shard" with 70k active guys. If you choose something different, you will be literally hours away! There are two bloodlines you can choose. Deteis and Civire. You will probably want to go to war school, and get Standard Missles(not advanced, not defender). Your choices determine your base Attributes (Perception, Memory, Willpower, Intelligence, Charisma) ordered by personal preference.

As you go through the builder, pay attention to what each choice does to your attributes. Lots of options but keep in mind that:
1) Perception/Willpower/Intelligence are key to weapons and ships. Perception being highest valued.
2) Memory lets you train skills that boost 1+ per level of each of the attributes, even itself, so it is pretty important as well.
3) Charisma is not imporant... at all... don't get it... you've been warned.

Play around with the professions till you get somethign you like.

+perception,memory
-charisma

SKills
Training skills is kind of like "The Matrix" you buy skill books, plug them in and they go at it. You can only do one at a Time. These train in Real-time.

Each skill has a primary and secondary attribute. Example, Caldari Frigate is 1st Perception 2nd Willpower. THe higher your skill value The less real time it takes. The primary will reduce the time more than advancing than the secondary.

The higher levels take longer, example Level 1 Caldari Frigate takes x, Level 5 takes 5x. Where x is the time amount derived from your Attributes.

Don't worry you'll figure it all out in a bit.

Important Skills

Electronics ( Improve CPU on your ship = more stuff)
Engineering (Improve powergrid on your ship = more stuff)
Missle Launcher Operation (missles fire faster)
Missle Bombardment and Missle Projection (missles fire longer)
Learning (faster skill training!)
Basic Learning skills improve attributes (there are 10 of these 5 basic, 5 advanced)
Navigation (speeds up the ship)
Afterburners ( Lets you mount a rocket that REALLY speeds up the ship)
Shield Upgrades (Get this early, lets you use all kinds of toys)
Hull Upgrades Let's you use Damage Controls, which I personally bought 10 of at a very low price, just so everyone could have one, find me in game for yours.
**insert more as they arise**

We are caldari, we like Missles and shields... therefore:

Stuff that keeps you alive longer:
Shields Boosters (Basically converts ship energy to Shields)
Speed (Faster= harder to hit + less damage from missles)
Shield Resistance (Get shield upgrades, In missions where you know who you will be fighting, you can outfit yourself ahead of time)
Offense (get your missles firing faster, longer and with more damage. basic gun skills are cool too)

Ships
Notes:
Speed is good, Armorments are good, Mining capabilites... are boring. If we want to do mining, we will be protecting the miners with our leet combat ships, and taking a piece of the action!

Train Caldari Frigate 2 ASAP
Starting out we can choose

Condor (great little missle boat)
Bantam (Miner.. don't mine)
Griffin (Pretty good, but stick with the condor)
Heron (Electronic Warfare Buggy, don't worry about it)

Advanced (Caldari Level 3)
Kestral (Potent, but fragile, 4 Missle Launchers if you can outfit it correctly)
Merlin ( Very tough, good mix of everything)

Kestral can finish missions faster, but the Merlin can do the harder missions where Resistance and Shielding toys are more important. I've taken mine to the depths hard level 2 missions.

Ammo.

This can be overwhelming at first. There are 4 different missles for the 4 damage types and about 8 types of charges for Hybrid Turrets. Just keep in mind a few things.

1) Many of our ships get bonus' for KINTETIC missles. Bloodclaw Light Missles are the ones we want. Other missles do better shield or armor damage, but not both. Bloodclaws are balanced, + our missle ships get a bonus to the damage they inflict with them.

Note:Drones get owned by Sabertooth Missles, as they are all shields and Sabers do all shields damage. There are a few other good reasons to use sabers too... so consider them Secondary, while Bloodclaws are primary.

2)Hybrid Shots, again too many to count.
Antimatter- Lots of damage, no range to speak of- use with faster ships
Lead- Medium in all respects- great default
Iron Lots of Range, not much damage. Slower ships, or with opponents who stink at range.

** Free Ammo **
I can make ammo for people who message me in game. I'll be away till Sunday night, but message me after and I will make some and leave it in Escrow (effectively holding it for you to pick up from the station I make it in) Bloodclaws, Sabertoothes, Anti matter and Lead. For the Caracel users out there I can also make Scourge heavies

Missions

I never did the tutorial missions, I'm a rebel.

As soon as I learned to fly, and after a brief run at mining (less than an hour) I went and began work for the NPC corporation the Spacelane Patrol. Their missions are all pirating hunting. I highly recommened either using Spacelane Agents, or Caldari Navy agents. Both give the same "kill stuff" missions. Look for stations with either of them, or search for Corporation: Spacelane Patrol or Caldari Navy. Then use the Agents tab to find one nearby that you can use.

Do you missions, take your loot. Re-process what you cannot use, and sell it on the market.

You can message some of the people who have played a bit longer for help. Keep in mind that after two weeks, I understand less than 10% of this game. If you have questions, don't use Rookie Help, it's a feces fight. Use the "Help Channel" it's in one of the buttons on the left under "Channels and mailing lists."

Edited By Troy on 1136449262

Posted: **Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:10 am**

Security:

People can and will attack you when you least expect it, so there are some things to keep in mind

Systems can have security from 1.0-0.0

1-.5 You are pretty much safe, If you are attacked by someone in these systems Concord will bring the wrath of almighty god down on them. Be careful not to accidentally attack someone or the same will happen to you.

.4-0.0 THere are more pirates in this type of space than any other. The jump gates are typically safe in the higher .4, .3. However, if you are at an asteroids, hunting pirates or other spot PLAYERS CAN AND WILL ATTACK YOU! I spent a lot of time in a .4 system, and had numerous pirate encounters.

Luckily, if you can find a .4 system that doesn't have a lot of traffic, you can watch who comes and goes on the LOCAL channel. If you see a wanted man, you get ready to run. If you are doing a mission, this does not apply to you, most of the missions have a basic form of instancing.

0.0 Security is often free from pirates. Why? Because this is where the powerfull Corporation live, fight and war. Unless you want 10 Battleships asking your business, stay away for now!

So why do people go to the lower security systems?

Because as you go down the ladder from 1.0 --> 0.0 the mining gets infinetly better, the NPC pirates ("rats) have higher bounties, drop better loot, and Agent rewards in lower security is higher than in boring, higher security.

Be wary around Yellow highlighted players,Hhell, be wary around everyone.

If you see someone who is yellow + with a skull in .4 or lower space, you should be hitting the warp button ASAP.

Have fun, I'll see ya in game.

Edited By Troy on 1136445728

Posted: **Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:52 am**

I've spent all my time in high sec areas (.5-1.0) running the easy, boring missions. Troy has made about 7-8 times more money than me. I have had ZERO pirate encounters.

.3 and .4 do have protection at the jump gates as stated above (jump gates are similar to Moongates in UO for those who played), however, pirates can destroy them at a safe distance and then fly in and camp the gate. As new turrets spawn, they take them out. When traveling, you can tell your map to show systems where ships have been destroyed, or pilots pod killed in the last 1 hour. This can tip you off to a possible pirate gank at a gate. However, if it's a high sec area that has all the death and destruction, I can only assume that it's due to warring corporations or something. But anyway, check for recent kills type action when traveling into the unknown.

I did the tutorial. Not only did I end up with an item that sells on the market at around 2.5 million ISK, I also learned about autopilot and other basic, but essential things. I highly recommend doing the tutorial and all missions for the agent they refer you to. From what I've read, you can only get implants from doing story line missions. The agent you get right out of the tutorial is a story line agent. So, it's like a free 'rare' when you start out.

Everyone runs with missles. They hit the hardest. However, they also shoot the slowest. In my experience running level 1 missions:

Depending on the hit/damage rolls, I can often kill a pirate just as quick with my railgun as I can with a missle launcher.
The rail gun fires 3-4 times faster, but for 1/2-1/4 the damage. The hits from my railgun average about 46 HP (29-59HP per round), my missles are pretty consistant at about 80HP. I'm sure ammo type/shield type will skew things around and stuff. But, point being, don't ignore your gun skills. Most ships will require a gun or two to fill all your weapon slots. So, you might as well make them count.

I have a TON of small rounds as well. Many level 1 missions include small rounds as bonus payments. When I hit 30k of a round, I will reprocess 25k of them because I'd never use that many and I'll get more.

When shopping for the first few times PAY ATTENTION TO WHERE THE ITEM IS!! I bought more than one item that I will probably never pick up because it's too far away to bother with. I would end up buying another one that is closer.

People say to train as many of your training skills as you can, as early as you can. This maximizes your long term training minutes. They say it should be the training priority to get all the basics to level 5. However, you will have to balance it with being able to play the game. So, don't sit in a hanger the first 3 months of the game because you have no skills to do anything because you are training learning skills only. When in doubt, get a learning skill started. If there's a skill you need so you can play with a new toy, train it. Otherwise train learning. Etc.

You can start and stop training any skill at will. If you are in the middle of learning/training level four Caldari Frigate, but you need some basic shield skills to use a new toy, just start training the shield skill. You won't lose any progress on the level four frigate skill or anything. When the shields are done training, start the frigate training back up. If you know you are going to be gone for a long time/days, start a skill that takes days to learn so that you don't sit idle for a few days while you aren't playing. There should never be a moment that your character isn't learning something. While I play, I often train the shorter skills so I'm at the keyboard when they finish and I can start a new one. When I log, I start a different skill that will take many hours/days to hold me over till the next time I log in. Finally, you can not queue up learning. Meaning, you can't line up 4, 2 hour skills for training over night.

The skill points you see listed above your skills is not a number of points that you can spend on training. It is a value assigned to the total level of learning you have in all the skills. It could be comparable to experience points, or your level. The higher the number, the more skills you have learned. In the beginning, I could never figure out how I was gaining skill points faster than I could spend them. . . .

That's it for now.

Posted: **Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:39 pm**

I feel dumb, but now do I train "learning" and "basic learning skills," I don't see them in my profile?

*EDIT*

Nevermind, I figured out that I had my market set to solar system, so not much was showing up, and everything that was showing up was over $4MM.

All better now, found learning and something else for $35k or so.

Edited By TheCatt on 1136588183

Welcome to Thunderdome

Thoughts on Attributes, Ships, and Starting Out - Eve Online