Originally posted by: hooflung
Originally posted by: Punter
After seeing this thread I visited some others forums and the word seemed to be that if your are starting out be prepared to grind for 6 months before enjoying pvp and invest 2 years before 'owning' anyone. Seems a bit extreme, is this really the case?
That usually comes from people who abstain from PVP or are just so shell shocked from a game with actually consequence to actions they try to pass that off as EVE.
It is not the case. And as has been said GoonFleet is a shining example of how low skill point players can have impact on veterans. I have 60 million skillpoints on my main ( my third actual character since I quit for 2 months in 2004 and gave the other characters away to friends ). When I am in a jaguar in faction warfare I am using maybe at 5 million skillpoints. Afterall, two races worth of Capital ship skill training is pointless when your flying a tech 2 frigate.
Also, every player now starts out with 800k skillpoints. You are but a week and a half from creation to fly a ship I am flying right now in Faction Warfare. Sure, it won't be AS good as me because I have a lot invested into support skills but even so another jaguar pilot with say a week of careful skill investment will only 5-10% off in those areas ( each ) and player skill has as much to do with killing as your skillpoint investment.
Not to say you need a week of gameplay. You can be useful from day one if you do your homework on what you need to train.
Take your time and specialize in your ships. Don't get caught up in the rat race of 'bigger = better' because that is not true. Everyone has a role to play in combat.
Red Alliance is one of the most hardcore corporations in EVE. They are a Russian body of players that fly capitals like most people fly frigates. They had 3 capital ships blasted in the face by the Caldari Militia today AND their moon mining tower in Caldari Militia space has been put into reinforced ( it will die in 2 days if RA doesn't defend it ). That says quite a lot about how a bunch of 'newbs' are doing in FW.
Its great fun and once it settles down and people 'get it' I have a feeling a lot of good people are going to rise up out of their once carebear shells. Its good times all around.