Skills to invest in?

[CactusCraze]

A bunch of people were telling me to restart if I didnt use the friend code thing so im going to do just that. My goals in this game are to make my own ships and manufacture different items (more into manufacturing then anything else honestly) I also want to focus on exploring, mining and fighting. What skills are a good investment for a new player? Also as a side note, do I need to have a premium account to have mining drones or am I understanding this wrong?

[Sadpan]

Yes you'll need omega time to use mining drones (which you'll only use in an Orca which is a giant mining ship that can give boosts to other miners in the area, which makes it super useful for fleet mining). I don't recommend getting too far into mining because it's not very lucrative except in nullsec or wormhole space. Moon mining can be good but again is only lucrative in the dangerous parts of space (risk vs reward).

As you are an alpha, it doesn't really matter what direction you pick because you can't train everything available but you CAN train everything for Alpha accounts within 2 months.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by ZzcactuszZ:

A bunch of people were telling me to restart if I didnt use the friend code thing so im going to do just that. My goals in this game are to make my own ships and manufacture different items (more into manufacturing then anything else honestly) I also want to focus on exploring, mining and fighting.

You literally just listed the overarching categories for every activity in the game right now. That's kind of the opposite of "focus"!

Anyway, some practical advice:

- Manufacturing isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's impossible to make profits for low-end manufacturing activities. Also, manufacturing is something that's done on "alt" characters.
- "Making your own ships" might sound romantic, but it's usually quite inefficient and wasteful. It's much more efficient to sell specific products that you focus on, and buy what you need to use directly, as the need arises.
- Mining is also not recommended. The profits are too low compared to other activities when you're mining on a small scale.
- It's highly advised that your first character be geared toward combat, both because it will be more efficient and fun starting out that way, and because understanding combat will empower you with crucial skills and knowledge of game mechanics that will enable you to better survive dangerous space and hostile actions in the future.

[CactusCraze]

Thanks for the answers. I was only doing mining for short term money because I didnt know what else to do. What else can I do besides mining thats relatively low risk? Ill stay clear from manufacturing for now but id like to know how to actually make a profit. Also is there any way to make ship making profitable?

[Verios44]

General, non career specific skills but are needed for everything

- Engineering
Skills like power grid management, capaciter management, electronic system upgrades, weapon upgrades, etc. these are considered core skills and effect everything.
- navigation. At least get the basics like fuel conservation, afterburner, high speed manuvering, navigation, warp core operation, and evasive manuvering
- targeting, allows you to lock more stuff and the sensor skills make you more resistant to jamming

That is just a wuick example of universal skills that affect everything.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by ZzcactuszZ:

Thanks for the answers. I was only doing mining for short term money because I didnt know what else to do. What else can I do besides mining thats relatively low risk? Ill stay clear from manufacturing for now but id like to know how to actually make a profit. Also is there any way to make ship making profitable?

Tell me: why does it have to be low risk?

Would you rather choose to perform a low-risk activity that pays you 1 million ISK an hour with no losses, or a higher risk activity that will pay you 10 million ISK an hour, even with the losses factored in?

Don't fall into the same mental trap that so many other new players fall into.

Start learning how to probe, and do exploration content.

[Myriad]

I'll add my 2 cents worth.. I haven't played in a while so I might have some terminology mixed up, but don't go Omega until you've trained everything in Alpha. There's a 5 million(?) skill point limit on what you can train in Alpha. Once you reach that point limit, you can't train anything else unless you upgrade to Omega. 5 million sounds like a lot of skill points for a new player doesn't it? But really it's nothing.

The reason I'm saying this is because I started off as Omega, trained a bunch of skills, even bought PLEX to get me more skills (because I was impatient and really wanted certain things,) only to have my Omega run out and left high and dry, unable to train anything anymore. Basically the free 5 million skill points were wasted, and even though I got every skill point playing as Omega, when I finally became Alpha again, I don't get a chance to get my free 5 million anymore, which leaves me feeling a little cheated.

On top of that, I have MANY Omega skills that I can't use, AND I can't train any more Alpha skills that I could use. So unless I resubscribe (which I'm not going to do right now because it's summertime, and I won't get the most out of a subscription,) I'm basically gimped, so I haven't played since. I would have continued to play, but that, money grabbing, move by CCP left me thinking, ♥♥♥♥ You CCP.

And on top of that, when you're Omega, CCP doesn't give you any inclination of what skills are Alpha. You can see them when you're Alpha, obviously because you can't train Omega skills, but if for instance you are Omega, and wanted to knock off all the Alpha skills first just in case you don't resubscribe immediately, there's no way to tell which is which unless you write them all down ahead of time, which I'd recommend you do.

I may get my Omega Clone status back in the Fall, but right now I'm a little turned off by the underhanded way I feel they do business. So in conclusion, if I had my time back I would have focused only on all the Alpha Skills (that way I could still play with ALL Alpha skills,) then when I maxed all of them, put my money to better use and go Omega and/or buy Starter Packs. It's too bad that experience is the best teacher, but you live you learn.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Myriad:

I'll add my 2 cents worth.. I haven't played in a while so I might have some terminology mixed up, but don't go Omega until you've trained everything in Alpha. There's a 5 million(?) skill point limit on what you can train in Alpha. Once you reach that point limit, you can't train anything else unless you upgrade to Omega. 5 million sounds like a lot of skill points for a new player doesn't it? But really it's nothing.

The reason I'm saying this is because I started off as Omega, trained a bunch of skills, even bought PLEX to get me more skills (because I was impatient and really wanted certain things,) only to have my Omega run out and left high and dry, unable to train anything anymore. Basically the free 5 million skill points were wasted, and even though I got every skill point playing as Omega, when I finally became Alpha again, I don't get a chance to get my free 5 million anymore, which leaves me feeling a little cheated.

On top of that, I have MANY Omega skills that I can't use, AND I can't train any more Alpha skills that I could use. So unless I resubscribe (which I'm not going to do right now because it's summertime, and I won't get the most out of a subscription,) I'm basically gimped, so I haven't played since. I would have continued to play, but that, money grabbing, move by CCP left me thinking, ♥♥♥♥ You CCP.

You weren't "gimped." You had Omega status, and used all of its benefits, such as 2x faster training, access to all T2 gear, various clone benefits, ability to log into multiple accounts at the same time, et cetera.

Now, if you were to say that you regret not following the most economical path by training for free when you were able to, and then paying when you had to, I would agree (keep in mind that it would take over 150 days to train 4.6 million skill points at Alpha rates, and using some middle-tier implants).

Still, CCP expects you to pay for the game. This isn't like a generic F2P title; EVE didn't even have a free mode until 4 years ago. The Alpha state is just for when you want to derp around without committing too much due to lack of time, or when you need to grind out some money or sell some assets to PLEX your account. It's not meant to be the full game experience.

Originally posted by Myriad:

And on top of that, when you're Omega, CCP doesn't give you any inclination of what skills are Alpha. You can see them when you're Alpha, obviously because you can't train Omega skills, but if for instance you are Omega, and wanted to knock off all the Alpha skills first just in case you don't resubscribe immediately, there's no way to tell which is which unless you write them all down ahead of time, which I'd recommend you do.

See the list here:

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Clone_states

(Expand the table in the "Alpha skill set" section.)

[CactusCraze]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Originally posted by ZzcactuszZ:

Thanks for the answers. I was only doing mining for short term money because I didnt know what else to do. What else can I do besides mining thats relatively low risk? Ill stay clear from manufacturing for now but id like to know how to actually make a profit. Also is there any way to make ship making profitable?

Tell me: why does it have to be low risk?

Would you rather choose to perform a low-risk activity that pays you 1 million ISK an hour with no losses, or a higher risk activity that will pay you 10 million ISK an hour, even with the losses factored in?

Don't fall into the same mental trap that so many other new players fall into.

Start learning how to probe, and do exploration content.

It doesnt have to be low risk I would just prefer too keep my ships. Ill probably start with combat and exploration today.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by ZzcactuszZ:

It doesnt have to be low risk I would just prefer too keep my ships. Ill probably start with combat and exploration today.

Everyone would prefer to keep their ships.

The trick is realizing that they're tools that you use in order to accomplish your goals, and not things you get attached to. Risky activities will result in regular ship losses, but over time, you will still make more money on average than if you played super-defensively and tried to prevent all asset losses.

[Myriad]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

You weren't "gimped."

I was mostly referring to the fact that I can't train any more skills, period. I can't even train Alpha skills because the Omega skills I've trained took up a lot of that 5 mil. My account is idle right now, and if I had realized this would be the way it is, I certainly would have played my cards differently. So, "gimped," in the way that I'm currently Alpha without being able to train the only skills that I can use right now.

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Now, if you were to say that you regret not following the most economical path by training for free when you were able to, and then paying when you had to, I would agree

This is basically the point I was trying to get across to the OP, or at list give new players a bit of insight so they can better decide how they want to open their EVE experience.

Originally posted by Shotgun:

See the list here:

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Clone_states

(Expand the table in the "Alpha skill set" section.)

Nice link.

[Shotgun]

By the way, you can still inject 50,000 skill points daily using the Alpha Injectors. If you can grind out about 35,000,000 ISK daily (which is quite easily done), you can keep training.

Honestly, I wouldn't feel bad about it. Sure, you didn't do things in the most efficient manner, but considering the fairly low ceiling, the difference is fairly small. Like I said, the game expects you to pay, and that's what you should do, if you're enjoying it. Fall back on Alpha status only when you know you won't be active for a while.

[burnouttx]

If you just started this game, do a google search on "EvE Online the magic 14" These will show you the first skills to get out of the road. Personally, I added Biology 5 and Cybernetics 5 to the list so I could use all the +5 attribute implants for a training omega clone and get double the effects time for any booster drugs used. Joined a newbie friendly null sec corp and ran around with a salvaging ship to make the ISK.