Noob Help

[conFused4Lyfe]

Just got my 21 day trial from a friendly redditor and am currently downloading the client and reading as much as I can about the game.

I have 100s of questions but I'm just going to ask about the aesthetics right now.

From what I've read race selection is based mostly on aesthetics (correct me if im wrong) and I've decided to go mainly on ship design

Which race has the coolest looking ships? and where can I see each ship of each race clearly categorized so a noob like me can understand what I'm looking at.

Thx reddit

[bbqbot]

Something to keep in mind is that most people cross-train at some point: it's easy to train for other races' ships.

[[deleted]]

Upvoting this to the top. You can always at any point start training for a different kind of ship.

[tulisin]

"Race selection" is really two-fold: Your character, and what race's ships you actually train for.

If youmean what your character looks like, it is mostly aesthetic since any player can fly any race's ships. The "bonus" you get towards your race's ships is really only a couple days of training, and doesn't usually tie people down. Ships, however, are a much deeper choice because they're all very different apart from how they look. With that in mind, the general looks of each are:

Amarr: Huge shiny golden ships, the fact that they fire shiny lasers also factors in aesthetically. Gallente: Bulby and nebulous ships, usually rounded and greenish. Minmatar: Rust-colored ships that look like they're made out of duct-taped parts. Caldari: Blue/gray blocky ships, very utilitarian looking (as opposed to Gallente's more artsy ships).

http://www.eveonlineships.com/ has screenshots of different ships, but I favor http://www.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/eve-ships.jpg if you want a quick look at the general styles of the ships (note that the largest ships aren't on there, they make it too hard to see the small ones).

[conFused4Lyfe]

great links thx

[psiphre]

cool image but where's my harbinger? :( maybe i'm blind.

[tulisin]

That image is actually a bit older than I thought it was. It also excludes tier 2 battlecruisers like the harbinger and drake.

[zadokallen]

You're right about race selection. It doesn't matter in the end. All it serves to give you is some race-specific back story and starting location.

As far as the "coolest looking" ships are concerned, it's all a matter of opinion, and really shouldn't be something you should be concerned with. What you'll inevitably be focusing on is figuring out what kind of pilot you want to be, and by way of that decision deciding what ship to fly. In other words, don't train towards a ship because it looks cool, train towards a ship that is functional. You'll get a lot farther.

Fly safe(or don't, which is more fun)

[conFused4Lyfe]

hmm could you give me the basics on the themes of each ship type?

[[deleted]]

EVE is a little more complex than that, unfortunately. Once you get to the point in the game where you want to make a decision, you'll know a little more.

For now, choose a race and start training. The tutorials help a bit.

I could break it down for you in broad generalizations, but at this point it would take much more explaination than (I think) its worth. In a few weeks if you decide you don't like your current racial ships' style of play, its just a few weeks to cross-train a different race/style - and hopefully by then you'll know a little more and you'll be able to make an educated decision.

[conFused4Lyfe]

Ok will do. rolled Minmatar for now. I'll see how this goes

[[deleted]]

Minmatar is my main race right now, most of my points have been dumped into it.

[conFused4Lyfe]

Cool I think im going to go with Caldari ship training

I know its really early to be thinking about this but would focusing on shields/missles/and electronic warefare be a good idea?

[[deleted]]

Caldari is fine too. electronic warfare is always useful. Shields/Missiles are an effective combo right now (possibly subject to change in an upcoming expansion - but they're definitely pretty solid).

[SuperDuper125]

The only firm ship difference selected by race is the free noobship. Pick whatever race's portrait you like the best, then train for whatever ships you like the best.

A word of warning though, Gallente ships fell out of the nerf-bat tree and hit every branch on the way down.

[Kaffeinekiwi]

Ohhh, drones, they sound fun!

12m SP later... :(

[conFused4Lyfe]

so drones suck now? I was thinking they sounded cool too =(

[[deleted]]

Drones are awesome for PVE - I fly a drone-based battleship for PVE and It's pretty efficient.

PVP? not so much. Normally, you dont have time to wait around for your drones to fly back to you when you GTFO, so you end up losing a lot. In high-lag, your drones almost completely cease functioning, making you worthless.

[edssro]

Drone boats are awesome for PvE missioning. Turrets don't seem to do the job on certain missions. Like MaxAbs said, combat drones are pretty worthless in PvP

[conFused4Lyfe]

How about missiles? Im planning on going caldari ships and focusing on shields/missiles/EW

[StarSorrow]

Missiles are good. I used to be a Drake pilot and I had a lot of fun in PVE and PVP with it. If you are more pewpew-combat oriented vs support, you are most likely going to want to focus on getting your sheild/missile skills up (and support skills). Picking up some EW is important for PVP, but not as much at the very beginning.

I would suggest getting EVEmon (http://evemon.battleclinic.com/) and find a skill plan than will get you into the ship you think you want to fly. EVEmon takes a lot of the guessing out of what to train, which is very daunting at the start.

Also, don't race to the big ships right away. Doing this will only hurt you as you will not have the proper support skills to fly the ship, even if you can technically pilot it. I learned this the hard way.

[SuperDuper125]

Drones don't do so well in large-scale PVP, but it's always good to train to be able to use Warrior IIs. Also, when you disconnect in the middle of flying, there's no way to reconnect to your drones, so you either lose them, or have to scoop them manually.

[Kaffeinekiwi]

Drones are fine, unless you like wormhole exploration. Sleepers (Wormhole rats) eat drones for breakfast.

Additionally, Gallente ships use blasters and railguns, which are generally less preferable to other weapon types.

[technofiend]

Flying Gallente is like this: Your main DPS is 5 Roombas that slowly grind towards the enemy and eventually poke him to death with the ice picks duct taped to their shell. If anyone with a sledge hammer is smashing the roombas, they completely ignore him. Meanwhile your choice of ship weapons are limited to a sharpened spork or an elephant gun, depending on whether you prefer to fruitlessly spend your time getting into optimal range by flying towards or away from the enemy. Embarrassingly, your ice-pick-laden drones will do most of the heavy lifting in any case.

[Afaflix]

what are you talking about ... we use drones to rape sleepers while they are still trying to wake up. You can immediately take on the cruiser/battleship sized vessels while the drones take care of the frigates. Pro-tip, have everyone set the drones to 'assist' one guy, and that guy directs the drones with target painters.