User:Kalaya Corin/Skills Story

Skills, Skills, and More Skills

At The Beginning there was Aura

A calm voice, more calm then we would ever be once we traveled far from our first station and our first career agents.

We were skill feed along the way. And they were fast. Real fast. We could start the training and move on to the next mission and be skilled up and ready to go when we got there. But this expectation would soon be damped by the hard truths of the skill rank -- the demon that lowers our skill point rate and dampens our mad rush to perfection (or at least level IV). This would be our first lessons -- skilling up is not easy.

The second lesson

Once free of our career agents we were left to our own, which is to say we had no idea what to do -- beyond that of the SoE Story Missions. And if you joined a player corp soon after those first career lessons, you no doubt learned very quickly how unskilled you were against all those war targets. That was the second lesson -- skilling up is critical to success in New Eden.

The third Lesson

What were we to do? As far as I have come today, I still don't have a definitive answer. The answer I choose at the time was "certificate training". Surly that was the way to go. But what Order? How far in?

The answer must be Careers! Yes, of course -- career based training! And after all those career missions, we must know what career that is. Yes? Sadly, no -- at least not for me and my girls. (Yes, all my toons are girls, but that is another story)

So I set about to limit each of my toons to 3 careers (maybe 4). That should do it. Then train certificates to level I in the first career before training to level I of the second and so on and so forth. But wait! A career in PvP (or PvE for that matter) required a lot of skills in more than one certificate! OK -- so all certificates for a given career to level I before lower priority careers got any training. Seemed reasonable. But what seems reasonable to a Nob is often the symptom of a misunderstanding.

Some time passes and the question arises, how do I improve my mining while training up cruiser hulls? How do we manage all the intertwining skills required for the mission, ships, and activities? We are told by the old and wise -- EveMON. Yes, there is salvation! EveMON, A third party tool that will solve all your skill up problems. A silver bullet no doubt.

So a single plan for each of the careers. Then merge them to the main plan -- that should work. But eventually it dawns on us that 4D of training on this and 12D of training on that is 16D of training -- no matter how you order it. So when do we decide to wait 16D before we complete a separate 4D train? Ah ha! train the skills that are gates for other necessary skills first. Yes! That is the equation!

We continue to walk, believing we are running -- but not just yet.

You are called to a fleet to fly DD ... but you have to meta the standard fit. (What's a meta we wonder? ... well it means you are outside of the standard training expectations -- a.k.a too dumb to fly a proper ship.) A bit dejected yes, but you are thankful your corp is "NewBro friendly".

Soon after your first fleet you join a shared can blowing up some rocks. You quietly thank the stars (all 5000 of them), that this is a shared can. At the rate you mine it would take days to clear a belt while your corp mates melt away the rocks at a blinding pace -- you are still on your first rock when they clear the belt. You wonder if spreadsheets would be a better use of your time.

And then there is the exploration gig, or the Logistics class, perhaps industry was the call you got. Soon we all realize that everything for everyone is a renaissance dream. You stumble on that "City Slicker" truism -- one thing. Yes, choose one thing. The sense of lose, the despair of lost opportunities. Which one thing?

This is the third lesson. Without focus, you train nowhere even though it looks like you are training everywhere. The third lesson -- do one thing well, very well. The corollary -- have an Alt or two for the other things.

The Forth Lesson

The joy you begin to realize is in the doing.

I have 1 alt that carries out research, and invents T2 BPC exceptionally well. But if she had to fight anything but a common rat -- well that's what clones are for.

Another Mines like she was born to bore. But don't ask her to sell her ore -- the taxes are such a dent in the cash flow.

Yet another that built our player corporation, with the hope of one day deploying a moon array -- yes hope can be fun too!

And then there is my main. She has put her focus into PvP. To fight for the Uni (actually more like to die for the Uni -- very little training needed for that).

So as a few weeks or a month goes by there is always a toon that can say "Awesome, I can now fly this or do that"! With one step at a time, we experience joy in the journey. The journey to the day we reverse our kill board trend from down in the ranks to up. The day we start making more ISK then we spend (and stop selling those PLEX to cover our ship losses -- which is more like very expensive Fit Losses). The day we just get out there with our corp mates and do whatever it is they are doing with the Alt. that does that well.

When we get this far we have learned the forth lesson. Train to what we do and do it well. Along the way, enjoy the journey of getting there.

I have yet to complete the fifth lesson, whatever that may be. I look forward to discovering it.

Fly Safe! Be Dangerous!