As a newbro to Eve

Most of my information comes from a lot of reading forums, listening to The Mittani’s fireside chats, watching The Meta Show, and taking advice from my corp mates. Ninety-six days into EVE and it’s been great. I made lots of ISK through mining and corp buybacks. I started training for a VNI, as this would give instant ISK, plus I could salvage the site (if no other newbro was not going to loot and salvage). I just did this so I could do mining, ratting, and salvage to give me more to do in the game. I made a PVP alt so I could go out on fleet to kill stuff. Learning my role within a fleet is great fun, even more fun if you have to learn it all during a war.

Went to war in the north, again great stuff. I was learning new things all the time—fantastic—although the ISK was getting low, as I think the war started just a few weeks of me joining my corp and my sister downloading EVE—she started to play EVE but gave up for reasons in this article, so I took up the game. My corp was on a recruitment drive a few weeks before the war, so some newbros never came back, probably because of the war, but we will never know that one. I went back to Delve to make some more ISK so I can go out on more fleets, and pay for the skill training for the doctrine ships.

Back from the war in the North

The VNI will no longer be any use for kiting the PVE sites. So I trained up to an Ishtar. Already had the drone training, so it was less than a day to train up to the heavy assault cruiser. This ship properly fitted costs 300 million ISK. My nice new shiny Ishtar was making a lot of instant ISK ratting with this ship, higher DPS so I could clear ratting sites faster. So along comes the blackout.

The Blackout I do not mind

I know how D-scan works, have the intel channel open, and I am on all the communication channels, so I’m all sorted and ready to go. Then along comes a Stratios which blows my shiny Ishtar off the grid. A PVP ship blowing up a PVE fit? Fair enough, I said to myself. It must have been my mistake that he got me. Off to spend another 300 million ISK! This time I have more advice from my corp mates, my alliance, and the Imperium. Great. Just needed to fit a cynosural field generator with 450 units of Liquid Ozone. I’m sorted. I even updated my saved fits.

Okay. Ready to go. Logged into the right communications channel, joined the correct fleet, let’s go ratting, all going very good at the moment. Cleared two sites, nothing on intel channel to worry about, so it is off to the third site of the morning. There’s an hour to go before server restart when along comes the same Stratios.

Don’t panic. I call for help, but there is just one problem with lighting the cyno: you have to remain in place for it to work. Well, that is a problem for subcaps, as we need to fly around so as not to get damage from the rats. Another 300 million ISK gone. So even though I called for help, there was nothing they could do as they were not in the same system as me! So I have lost 900 million ISK in three days. I am now in negative ISK.

So is there any help for Ratting subcaps during this blackout?

Solo or mulitbox subcap pilots are hunting easy targets as anyone ratting is an easy target for a PVP-fit ship. They need to do less damage as the rats are doing all the damage for them. Hunters only need to scram and then finish the job. So there will never be help for subcap pilots from ratting. So I stopped ratting and went back to mining, the mining fleets provide cover for my Procurer, but it’s not instant ISK, and I do like my instant ISK.

Why give up ratting?

First, I do rat but only during the week when there are fewer pilots about. But it’s because capitals and super capitals make more ISK despite costing more, and they are static on the grid which means they can light their cynos for help. If you are not one of these capital pilots, you will continue losing ships to other pilots taking advantage of the blackout. I don’t blame these pilots, as it’s what I do when I go out on fleets. I feel there is no value given to pilots that have been invited into nullsec, If you did value your subcap pilots, you would organize support fleets for them or organize systems where they can rat that cover can be given to save them from opportunist PVP hunters. I feel we are just killmails for others.

There is only one person, I have heard, speaking up for the newbro subcap pilots and that’s The Mittani on July 27’ths The Meta Show. I thank you Mittens. Many people leave EVE because of the grind to make ISK through mining just to have their ship blown up, so they have to start all over again and again. Even if you hand out free ships, we don’t like to say ‘Sorry I have lost another ship.’

It’s embarrassing as well as demoralizing.

So what is the problem?

Well, that is an easy one to answer. CCP is mixing PVP ships in the same space as PVE ships. My answer: make the PVE NPCs cause the same damage as the PVP player ships so we can fit our subcap ship with the same defence to cope with the NPC and the PVP pilots. Or separate the two, which would not be popular; I know I would not like that. I have seen it in linear MMOs, and it is rubbish. Here’s to better balance between PVE and PVP ship fits from CCP!

So this blackout has pushed a lot of nullsec players into highsec, as you can see what is coming at you from 0.1 sec upwards in Local. I did a fly-by around some systems I knew were empty before the blackout, and there are now 15 to 20 pilots competing for what little resources in the same system, Whether that be mining (mainly ice), ratting, and relic sites (exactly what we do in nullsec), new pilots in highsec are also losing out. Especially due to a high number of PVP pilots trying to shoot them if they happen to stray into 0.5 systems and below in their search for resources.

Corps, alliances, and the Imperium need to find a way to help their newbro pilots. Recruits should be as safe as possible so that they stay playing EVE and investing their time in your corp, alliance, and the Imperium. I have started to multibox when ratting, so I can have one pilot watching the gate. Again this is self-help and not from the community, but the community is not always online, so I find this an easy option. Just one that means losing out on opportunities to form friendships in the community.

So my point

More value needs to be given to us killmail bait, as we are the capital pilots of the future. I like the game. I enjoy PVP fleets, mining, and PVE. So if pilots like myself are going to stay and commit their spare time to play EVE with a good community, we need our hands to be held, and CCP needs to focus on giving better balance to sub-capital ships and NPCs; how can a pilot that is flying a PVE ship have any hope of defending themselves or even fighting back against a PVP fit?

I would like to thank my corp mates, alliance and the Imperium for getting me to the position were I can stay ISK-positive even after surviving huge losses. Sub-capital pilots, be patient! Within a month of playing EVE, you will get into a position where you will enjoy the game for a longer time.

Fly safe, sub-capitals.