Jita

After spending your entire game time in low and null sec coming to Jita is like heading to New York after living on a farm your entire life.  At first you are taken aback by how many players are zooming around and how every item in the game is available to buy.  You didn't even know that some of these items existed.  Billions and billions of isk seem to be trading every few minutes and the amount of money sorta takes your breath away.

Visually its beautiful as always, especially when you hit CTRL-F9 so that you can see things without the overview.  But local chat is a nightmare, just scam after scam.  If you play with the trading a little bit it also becomes clear that this trading is either full of bots or just full of really intense players.  Price modifications happen all the time and items are adjusted at almost a minuscule level.  For someone like me who never really spent a lot of time thinking about the items I use and shoot every day it was kind of eye opening.  I just sat stationary outside of one of the main stations and just watched as huge industrial cargo ships fly in and out.  The millions and millions of m3 being moved around the entire universe is truly amazing.  

However I'm glad I don't live here.  This seems to be the most mathematical of all the EvE players I've encountered.  Information is really power here and they don't like to share any, which I totally understand.  But this is the opposite of low and null players.  Information is traded often out in null, especially among frigate pilots.  Since we are so weak we rely on maps and planning along with communication to stay alive.  Every single person in Jita seems to exist in a world of all spreadsheets.  The one trader who I got to talk to me a bit was pretty clear that this is the whole game for him and he loves it.  He said he has been playing for over a year and playing the market was the only thing he liked to do.  It was weird to think of a player who logged in every single day but whose only ship was a shuttle.  

He gave me an idea of his net worth and I have no reason to think he is lying.  So I asked if he was ever curious about what the other players in the game were doing.  He seemed to hesitate and admitted he was not.  His trade corporation had evolved over the years to really get good at a few key markets.  The only thing he really cared about out there was when a large war was declared so he could adjust prices and suppliers.  I thanked him for his time and jetted off.  Next I'm heading to the EvE gate, 20 million isk richer thanks to a donation from the trader.  

o7

Core Skill Training Time

So I've joined Brave Newbies.  I can't say enough good things about them.  Everyone has been really nice and super helpful.  For new players I can't recommend them highly enough.  The only downside is that there isn't a lot of centralized control.  For some people this could be a good thing, but you sorta have to suit up and go out there and make your own fun.  Want to learn how to do something?  You should probably just ask.

I've also lost about 15 frigates in various fights.  The loss of the frigates doesn't bother me, but the thing that does is how critical these core skills are.  Go to your pilot info, click on certificates and look at the core skills.  Notice how they take awhile to level up?  Now go to evefit and figure out how many fits require you to have all of those skills trained.  The answer is a lot of them.  Now this kinda sucks and isn't true for all players (my miner alt doesn't need all these core skills) but for serious PvP I'm going to need to be able to fit all of the equipment I can correctly to both meet fleet doctrines and just to make myself less crappy.  So while I can still go out there and fly some PvP I'm really not going to get the most bang for my buck until I get a few more skills leveled up.  Especially if I wanted to move out of Frigates and into something a bit bigger and more stable.

So what does a new player do when faced with a week or so of training before he can fit things a bit better? Well I don't need isk, so I don't need to run missions or haul anything.  I've decided to take a speed-fit Rifter out and check out some of the sites and sounds of Eve.  http://evetravel.wordpress.com/ is the site that I'm using to plan out my course.  The first place I'm going to stop is Jita.  Since I've joined the game I've heard about Jita as if it is some massive hub of industry.  So I'm gonna go check it out in my cheap little freighter.

However the Brave Newbies have officially offered their services for sale to the higher bidder in the Fountain wars.  So my time as a space tourist might be cut short.  I intend on meeting up and firing a few rounds at whoever leadership decides needs to be shot at.  In the meantime though since I don't have to grind Isk I'm just gonna fly around and check out this huge beautiful game.  If you have any suggestions don't hesitate to post them below.

For those interested in doing the same thing this is the fit I'm using.  So far its let me travel through low and null without too much trouble.  Always try to plan a route with as few players in system as possible.

Rifter
Nanofiber Internal Structure II x 2
Overdrive Injector System II
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

200mm AutoCannon II, EMP S x 3
Rocket Launcher II, Gremlin Rocket

o7

Stories from a New Bro

I'll be using this blog to document my travels and experiences as a new EvE Online player.  The point of this will be to both serve as a template for other new players and maybe as a chance for me to remember some useful lessons along the way.