EVE: First steps

So you decided to try out EVE? You already inside it but poor (I mean less than 100M)? Then keep reading! If you are already in it and can make a few millions per hour, skip this one, more advanced posts come later. If you haven't tried it yet, there is a free trial option and everything I tell today can be done on trial account.

The very first step is character creation. There are 4 factions who differ mostly on roleplay stuff. Each of them can learn any skills and fly any ships. However if you care about even little trading bonuses, I'd suggest the Caldari faction, for having the largest freighter (you won't fly one of those in 2 months) and having Jita, the main trade hub of the game in Caldari space, making it easier for you to gain standing (reputation) in Jita. Their downside is the crappier early transport vehicles, if you want a faster start, you can pick Minmatar and fly a Mammoth in a week (which is 50% better than the Caldari Badger II that I use). Whole cargo ship comparison here.

I won't cover UI stuff, my name isn't Aura. Also I won't cover combat related stuff. I'm not saying you shouldn't do combat, however that also need skills and skills you have in short supply.

Oh, "skills"! Whenever I use the word "skill" in an EVE-post I'm talking about the points your avatar earns. When I mean something you should know, I'll use "knowledge". In EVE you earn skills in real time. Your point earning depends on your attributes, with the starter attributes it's about 30/min (messing with attributes without knowing what are you doing is bad idea). All skills have 5 ranks, and gaining them need points. The cost and time of a simple skill:

1. 250 pt, about 8 mins
2. 1164 (combined 1414) pt, about 38 mins
3. 6586 (combined 8000) pt, about 3 and a half hours
4. 37255 (combined 45255) pt, about 21 hours
5. 210745 (combined 256000) pt, almost 5 days

And this was a simple skill. There are more complicated skills, like wholesale that allows you to have much more sell and buy orders (auctions). It needs 24 days to max out. Of course you don't have to max out all skills, so don't worry. And it's not even something huge like titan ship driving or giga-corporation management. The more branches of the game you jump into, the more time you need to get the skills and the less "skilled" you will be in each. So I'd suggest to make your choice and stick to it. If it's killing things, go for it, but then get another guide. Oh, and don't try to become smart with alts, only one alt can train skills at a time.

After character creation, you meet with your first mission agent (questgiver), Aura. Do her quests. She'll send you to another star system where you meet 5 more agents. They are the "career agents". Their missions are tailored to new players and also give superior rewards compared to the random agents you can find. I strongly recommend doing all their missions. These missions will give you not only nice amount of ISK (game credit), but also ships and skillbooks to learn. One tip: don't try to finish one line, if you face harder opponents, or you need time to learn a skill needed to continue, work on the other mission. The rewards of those will help you overcome the opponent of the previous. One more tip: there will be two missions that demands you to lose your ship. Don't forget to get a platinum  insurance before you do!

You done them all? Good! Now go to this official Wiki page (you'll read this wiki a lot, and you don't even need to alt-tab, there is a built-in web browser in the game, just press F12 and click on "open EVE Wiki"). This page shows 3 locations for every faction. They are 3 starter zones, like Mulgore, Durotar and Tirisfal glades for the horde in WoW. You've just done one of them. Now open the starmap (F10), find the starmap control icon (probably left bottom) and find the search tab. Type in the name of one of the other starting systems, and it shows you where it is, set your destination there and fly there with your best combat ship (will be a destroyer you got from the military questline, don't forget to arm it up fully). Do the quests again. Then the third time too. They will not only help you completely familiarize with the controls and UI, but provide you about 10 million ISK each. No, not in cash, mostly in ships and books. Also these missions increase standing (reputation) with an NPC corporation and your home faction. The first will be handy later, the second is essential to run missions, and we'll run some (Monday post).

Selling these will be the task for the next post, coming Thursday, where the trading basics will be covered. Trading is much more complicated in EVE than WoW and need both skills and knowledge to do even in basics. Don't sell your books for half price please!

What skills to train? Train anything the starter missions gave books or you already had them at start to rank 2 at least. Then Caldari (or whatever your faction is) Industrial. You need this skill to rank 3 to drive a Badger II transport ship (or whatever equivalent your faction has. Minmatar Mammoth needs rank 4!). This skill needs your account to be not trial anymore, so if you are on trial, you have to make up your mind while doing the starter missions. The reason for that is to prevent goldfarmers on trial accounts. If you want to continue on trial to check out the trading, learn the "trade" skill itself to rank 4 instead.

Emergency tip: if you'd ever get broke (after doing something really stupid I assume), you can always start an alt, do the starter missions again and send the wealth to your main. But let's not do anything stupid please.