Welcome to EVE Online!
When you take your first steps into the universe of New Eden, things may seem a little complex. If you ever feel lost or confused, fret not! The purpose of this Dev Blog is to arm you with the basic knowledge and links to the information that you'll need to thrive in EVE Online, so take a look at what's to follow and see if the answers to your questions are here!
We'd like to give you all a helping hand and try to ensure that you hit the ground running in what is considered by some to be one of the most rich, deep and complex virtual worlds in existence. It's good to know where valuable information is readily available to you, so below are some very good sources of information. Quite a few of them are provided by communities of other players who specialize in helping new pilots.
These sources range from those that are player created, to those created by Developers and Game Masters here at CCP.
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Above: Clockwise from top left: Amarr – Imparior, Caldari – Ibis, Gallente – Velator, Minmatar – Reaper
As a rookie pilot, you'll be provided with one of the four basic ships shown above depending on the race of your character. If you lose this ship, don't worry! Simply dock your capsule at a station and the friendly insurance company will provide you with a new one!
While you'll want to upgrade pretty soon (usually within the first few hours of gameplay), you can find more information on your rookie ship and how many new players use them on the amazing player run EVE University wiki here:
Chat Resources
First off, you will have three open chat channels when you initially create your character. Whenever one of the channels is highlighted, it means you have unread messages there.
- The local tab is your local channel. It contains all other players that are in your current system, so don't be afraid to talk there when taking your first steps and requesting assistance as required. You will start out in a system with a lot of other new players, so feel free to get to know eachother, strike up friendships, and help eachother out!
- The corp tab is your Rookie Corporation Chat. Rest assured that this channel is filled with new players just like yourself, so chat away! You may also find some experienced players in there who'll be answering questions and assisting new players.
- The last tab is the Rookie Help channel. That is absolutely the place to seek assistance and ask questions! There are a lot of seasoned players in this channel who will assist and guide you, along with members of our wonderful ISD STAR Volunteer Team who are here to help. They will be highlighted in chat with a different color of text to regular players, and the prefix "ISD" before their character name.
If you ever lose one of these channels, don't worry. You can click the little chat bubble and find them listed there. Most notably, this is where the help channels are listed under the Help category. This button will be at the top of your Neocom menu, on the left side of your screen, unless you decide to move it.
Above: The default location of the channels list in your Neocom.
Above: The default set of chat channels stacked into one window with tabs, including a surprised GM and ISD Volunteer in local.
CONCORD Protection
Above: An Enforcer-class CONCORD police cruiser on patrol duty.
CONCORD (the NPC police force in New Eden) are there for your protection, but are a reactive rather than a proactive force. They respond to incidents within high security space (0.5 – 1.0 security), taking punitive action against players who attack others.
Please be aware, however, that in the world of New Eden there are very few rules on player interaction and there may be some people out there who are looking to take advantage of others. Always be careful of who you trust, espcially when striking up deals with other players in chat channels or in space.
For a little more details on Scamming in EVE Online, see this awesome guide by EVE University!
EVE Flight Academy Videos
Compiled by our Customer Support team, the EVE Flight Academy is a series of videos that are created with new players in mind, to introduce them to the most common features and game mechanics in New Eden. These videos cover everything from your first few days in the world of EVE, through to more complicated features such as Ice and Gas Harvesting, Scanning, Hacking, Clones, Log Off & Session Change timers, Sovereignty, Joining a Corporation, Invention and many more subjects.
The list of videos is constantly expanding and is always being updated, so be sure to check them out if you'd like to learn more. You can find the EVE Flight Academy both on the EVE Online Youtube Channel, as well as at your fingertips in game under the help menu, which you can access by hitting F12, as shown below:
Above: The devilishly handsome CCP Puck narrates an EVE Flight Academy video on jump clones.
New Users On Steam
We also have a wealth of information to assist our new users on Steam and allow them to learn as they play. Our Steam Community Hub has a number of amazing player created guides and walkthroughs, as well as community created videos, artwork and screenshots.
Searching for Wingmen
There are many corporations in New Eden who are more than happy to recruit and train rookie players, and joining a corporation is one of the best ways to get a solid head start in EVE. You can find a wealth of corporations looking to recruit in the in game corporation search tool that can help you find the right match for your playstyle.
There is no better source of experience and help than the existing players of EVE. Remember that this is a single-shard server, which means everyone plays on the same server. Notable places to check are the EVE subreddit, the New Citizens Q&A forum on the EVE Online forums, the EVE University Wiki, Brave Newbies Wiki and EVE101.com. If you have a Twitter account, you can also see what other players are currently talking about by watching #eveonline and the player created hashtag #tweetfleet.
In addition to this, there is a fantastic index of new player resources compiled on the /r/eve subreddit that can be viewed here.
Social Media
At CCP, we feel that our community are of paramount importance. Without you guys mining, building, trading and declaring war on eachother New Eden would be a pretty quiet place. We maintain a healthy social media presence to ensure that we keep in contact with the community, and you can always find a member of the community team roaming twitter or facebook. Click the images below to take a look at where we appear most often on social media.
What's going on?
As well as watching our social media portals above, you can always find the latest news on the EVE Online Community Portal, as well as the latest information on features, events and updates that are coming on the EVE Updates website.
And finally!
If you experience any issues that you can't locate a resolution for, or are unable to obtain an answer from the Rookie Help channel, our friendly GM Team are always happy to assist with any issues you might have. You can check out the EVE Online Help Center for articles on all kinds of questions and issues:
You can also contact the customer support team directly from within EVE by pressing the F12 key, which will bring up the following window, allowing you to assist further support, view the EVE Flight Academy or submit a Bug Report if needed:
In addition to this, our Customer Support team also man a Twitter account, where you can find tips and tricks, along with messages regarding current issues and further community resources for learning more about the world of EVE.
We pride ourselves on the strength and dedication of our community, and hope that you'll have an awesome time getting to know fellow EVE players as you take your first steps into New Eden. We're extremely humbled and proud of our community after watching the huge level of support our amazing players have shown rookie players over the years.
Go join them, forge your own destiny in EVE and make your mark on the universe; but most importantly of all, have fun doing so!
Good luck, pilots!
CCP Falcon
EVE Universe Community Manager
CCP Games