User:Dossoles Hunter

Repository (is that the right term?) for all the (personally) recommended weird niche fits D_H makes and how to use them effectively.
D_H is a lunatic who thinks game are fun if it tortures the players with excessive numbers and convoluted mess of incomprehensible mechanics.
The more absurd a game is, the more fun it becomes to decompile, uncovering spaghetti coding and redundant formulas that just makes everyone's life slightly harder.
Take this page as partial satire, and partial byproduct of my love toward the concept of insanity.

Alpha Theory

The Struggle

Alpha is pretty much handicapped in um... everything. You can't fly advanced ships or modules, your stats are lower, and you're kinda screwed money wise. So it is my mission to optimize moneymaking for those with the attention span of a goldfish, and this page will be dedicated to every ships I've personally tested and had a good time with even using my meager 5 mil Alpha skill with the budget of 3 mil being the cheapest, and... under 800 mil isk at worst.

You want 2 Alpha characters minimum to fly every single ships in this list. Reason being these two accs differs in missile or hybrid turret specifications. I personally cannot recommend using projectiles guns as they are very confusing to use for beginners, while I hate laser from the bottom of my heart and soul (Punisher T1 Abyss test coming soon). Caldari and Gallente ships are what I would recommend as they're the most versatile in term of application and use case, coupled with amazing ships available for Alphas especially the Pirate Faction ships.

Skill Optimization

Do NOT start with maximizing [Magic 14]. Sure they applies to practically every single ships in the game, but that doesn't mean you NEED them. Oftentimes what happens is you hit the SP cap because you maxed them to level 5 despite it not being required to fit a ship or if that skill upgrade only gives marginal improvement. Example, you main Shield tank, why would you level up your Armor to its maximum skill level???

Rule number 1: Level what you need

Get a ship, fit it, see what skill is required, train them all, figure out how those skills in training impacts your performance. If its an impactful improvement, then train it as high as reasonably so (especially if a new higher tier module you want unlocks at high skill level). If its a negligible improvement (+5% drone durability, often useless), then perhaps level it until it became too expensive to justify leveling it up (usually level 3 is where people stop at). Don't go around and start leveling skills that does not make any immediate impact (ex: battleship skills when you have no money or reason to use it). Unused skills are wasted SP.

Rule number 2: Level up supporting skills

Pick a weapon system, check the skill tree for that weapon system, and train up the supporting skills for that weapon systems. They matters. Almost every problem in life is solvable with enough DPS, and this applies in EVE Online as well. Hey look... half your dps are from these weapons supporting skills. How fun... to miss one after a year playing and hitting that 5 mil SP cap.

Rule number 3: Tier 2 Weapons!!!

Tier 2 weapons are practically mandatory upgrade you will want later on, especially for a weapon system you often use. T2 weapons have higher dps than T1 or Meta variants and allows you to load in T2 ammos which are the best in a certain field (usually dps or range). This is a huge upgrade... as long as you can fit them. You need certain skill level (Level 5 + Level 1 Specialization skill) which is an investment so make sure to have room for these skill upgrades. They are also often hard to fit as they uses a lot more fitting resources than its lower tier counterpart. Make sure you think it through when you are about to invest in them as you will use them very often

Rule number 4: Drones

Arguably the best weapon system in the game. Drones are integral to practically every single empire of your choosing, especially for gallente which features a lot of drone boats that are popular to do PVE activities. They are practically infinite ammo that has 40-80 km range (very far) and can work in tandem with your main weapon system. Take them as your summoned pet (uses no mana) that fights for you while you cast offensive magic from far far away. Skill investment for drones are not as sp heavy as investing in guns, but it is still a hefty one. Upgrading the light and medium drones to its highest level is recommended (level 4 is also fine). Make sure to maximize all supporting skills for drones with the exception of "Drone Durability" which can be left for last or ignored entirely. Faction drones are worth it... trust me. Best investment of your life.

Advice on picking skills

How to know what a good skill to pick

Ask these 2 questions before picking a skill: "Why do I need this skill?" and "How often will this skill matters?". The value of skill is based of how impactful and reliant you are to it.

Industrial

Give up on Production and Resource Processing. You wont make any money from them as an Alpha. You should only grab 1 skill in the Industrial skill tree: Gas Cloud Harvesting 2, with the sole purpose of fitting a gas huffing Venture. Make sure to get Mining Frigate 4 for Venture hull bonus

Planet Management:

Planetary Industry (PI) are a scam, never touch it since you cannot do them as an Alpha.

Others:

Corporation management is useless if you're not planning to open a corp, Fleet Support is a trap as there are no Burst Module that Alphas can use, Social is a mixed bag as it is rather useless if you are not planning to do missions (Alphas cannot do Level 4 missions) or trying to fix a bad standing.