EVE Blog Banter #16: Do you wish to know more?

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: "Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. EVE is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you'd like to share with the wider Eve community?"

First, Happy birthday EVE Uni. I do hope they keep going as strong as they have for the last six years, especially if they keep coming to low-sec and giving good fights like this one last week where our mixed gang engaged a fleet of approximately twenty EVE-Uni (please excuse shameless Tusker plug).

And so to the question at hand: What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out?

A bit difficult to answer for me. I'd been doing my homework in fits and starts on EVE for a long time before I actually started playing, I read loads of blogs and websites, observed my friend using both of his characters and consequently learned loads before I took the plunge. I felt that I went into EVE truly with my eyes wide open. That said, there were still things that I learned and also some misconceptions I picked up on that perhaps might benefit from being set straight. I am going to focus on those related to Low-Sec space, so here we go in no particular order:

1. In most parts of Low-sec most gates are not camped. Faction Warfare areas do seem to be the worst for this though, so be warned.

2. The Directional Scanner can save your life.

3. There is no Sec. Status hit for shooting at someone who is Red on your overview.

4. You can shoot someone who is red on your overview anywhere & anytime.

5. If anyone shoots a "non-red" character near sentry guns, the sentries will shoot them, but not you if they shot you first, that is unless you are red yourself of course.

6. Many parts of Low-sec are empty of players most of the time.

7. Interdiction bubbles cannot be used in Low-Sec.

8. Most Low-Sec gate camps can be succesfully flown through in a frigate hull with minimal risk.

9. When you undock from a station you are invulnerable for 30 seconds unless you activate any modules or tell your ship to move. You can however stop your ship and remain invulnerable during those 30 seconds.

10. Don't fly what you cannot afford to replace immediately.

11. If you get caught and a ransom offered, think about the value of your implants and hardwirings plus the cost of clone replacement before blowing off or being abusive at the person(s) who just destroyed your ship. You are far more likely to survive the episode.

12. Not all pirates are honourable. (shocking I know!)

13. If you want some variety in your game, some risk and more of a challenge then find yourself a quiet low-sec system and think about doing some exploration, ratting and perhaps missions. If you don't then stay in High-Sec.

14. Even a Frigate can kill your Battlecruiser ;)


Disclaimer: All the above is written by a pirate, so my views may be erm....slanted?