Getting Started in EVE Online: Difference between revisions

The first decision you have to make is to choose an empire for your character. There are 4 major factions in the game: [[Amarr Empire|Amarr]], [[Caldari State|Caldari]], [[Gallente Federation|Gallente]], and [[Minmatar Republic|Minmatar]]. Generally speaking, your choice of empire is purely an aesthetic choice, as every character can potentially learn every skill. That means that even as Amarr you can fly Minmatar ships when you get the appropriate skills. Your choice of empire therefore mainly determines the look of your character and (if you choose) your role-playing opportunities. You will receive a few [[Starting skills|initial skills]] in your chosen empire -- regardless of whether you are a paying subscriber ([[Clone states|"Omega"]]) or playing for free ([[Clone states|"Alpha"]]) -- but you can quickly "cross-train" to try out other empires' ship and weapon types.

The School you choose will only determine which [[Career Agents#Tutorial Systems in EVE|starter solar system]] you begin in, and which [[NPC corporations#NPC Starter Corporations|Starter Corporation]] you will be part of. There are absolutely no differences between any of them. They will give your character a permanent list of stations spread across all of New Eden belonging to that school where you can set your [[Home Station]] independently from any corporation you might have joined and independently of the location you are setting your clone from. Normaly you are only allowed to change your homestation remotely once per year, but you can always set it back to the station you started the game in.<ref group=Note>This effectively gives you the ability to set your homestation to your 'birthstation' and self-destructing to respawn there. This bypasses any cooldown from using [[Jump_clones#Clone_activation|Jump Clones]] </ref>

Pick your name carefully, especially your first name, as that will often be used as your callsign during fleet operations. If you pick a stupid name for yourself, you should prepare for some people to not take you seriously.

When you first start the game as a new character, you can go through the tutorial (called the "New Player Experience"), a story-driven experience that gives you step-by-step instructions on the basic mechanics of playing EVE. Unless you've already played the game, it's highly recommended that you follow the tutorial, as there are many particular mechanics which you may not be used to.

This is a reward program for reaching certain goals. These goals are reached more or less automatically while doing stuff in EVE. Rewards come in the form of ISK, skillbooks, skill points, [[Expert Systems]] and ships. Some example goals are completing career agent missions, buying stuff on the market and gaining standings with a corporation things you are doing anyway.

Unlike in many other MMOs, in EVE your character advances (gains new abilities, can use additional modules and ships, etc) through training skills, which are trained in real time, even when you are logged off. Therefore, you should always have a skill actively training.