All About EVE Online

Balancing the Books (4 of 10)

Mission Log: Lady D’Mentia (that’s me), Capt. Well it looks like the pirates are getting more organized. They have a listening post in the area that they use to find where the shipping lanes are. My job is to take it out and any rats that might be there as well. Then I get to hack through their systems and recover some data for my agent. Well it took several runs of the codebreaker but it finally got the datachip for me. Now to take it back to my agent and get my reward.

- End Log -

• As I mentioned before when you get “Your attempt at —– failed this time” or something like that, it does not mean you cannot do it, just that it will take more time. Just let the module run until you succeed and then open the can (in this case). If you cannot do it the message will be more like you do not have the skills, or that it is too difficult for you. Again the Civilian codebreaker really only works for the tutorial missions.
• Tech II items are invented from Tech I (or standard) items. But they tend to require extra parts. These parts can be found/purchased/made. Hacking sites are a good place to find them. I will cover more on Inventing in other blogs.
• If the tutorial was running you should have gotten “Contracting” and “Negotiation” skill books from Aura.
• If you find datacores during you missions, get them you may need them in upcoming missions.
• Remember to take the datachip with you once you open the can.

Cash Flow for Capsuleers (3 of 10)

Mission Log: Reginald Mental (that’s me), Capt. This mission was in the same system. The goal was to find the rats that stole a secret document, take care of them and return the document safely to the agent. The agent offered me some rocket launchers, which would have gone well with the new ship, but I choose to use old faithful with the two 75mm Gatling Rail I and the Antimatter charges. Of course the real reason was, I don’t know how to use those darn rockets, at least not yet. The ships computer Arua, must be psychic or something. She found a Civilian Stasis Webifier somewhere. I could have used it to slow down those drones, dang they move quickly. Lucky I got some good hits in and took them out. Just needed to through the wrecks for loot and find the missing document, which had been ejected and was floating in space in a cargo container from that last drone. Then I simply warped back to station and checked in with the agent and collect my reward and bonus. Reloaded those 75mm Gatling Rail I’s with more ammo. Still have not put some in my cargo hold.

- End Log -

• Remember to check the prerequisites of item before you put them on the ship. If you cannot use them, or your ship can’t handle them, they will not work.
• If you can handle new weapons, like the Rocket Launchers I’s, remember to find the right size missiles or rockets. In this case you would need ‘Standard Rockets’. There are four types of these rockets (Firefox, Gremlin, Phalanx, and Thorn) and they do different types of damage (Thermal, Electromagnetic [EM], Explosive, and Kinetic). Shields, armor and structures are resistant to certain types of damage, but that means they are also more sensitive to another. The trick is to find the type of damage that the enemy ships are susceptible to and load up on those. There are charts in my other blog that tell you which weapons to use on which rats.
• If your tutorial help was on, it would have offered you the Civilian Stasis Webifier. Civilian items don’t need skills to use, but they are also the weakest, most limited items there are.
• Again remember to loot the wrecks and check your journal to make sure you have everything you need before checking in with your agent.

Balancing the Books (3 of 10)

Mission Log: Lady D’Mentia (that’s me), Capt.  A simple mine and refine mission. It’s in a secluded belt in Deadspace. This means an acceleration gate, and most likely rats at some point. Since this a secluded belt I most likely won’t have to deal with can flippers or thieves so I can use a jet can. Just need to remember to name it and empty it before 2 hours goes by. Found the acceleration gate and went through it. Found a single rock of veldspar. I hope there is enough here for my needs, I’m not trained in ore processing yet. Target locked the rock, got within range of my civilian mining laser (cheap piece of junk) and started mining. Just as my cargo hold was getting full I jettisoned the ore into space in a jet can. Opened the jet can and now every time the mining laser cycles I can place the ore in there. Renamed it with the time I launched it, I think that’s what all the miners do. Ok there’s the rat, I swear they are attracted to mining lasers. He was easy to dispatch. Ok the rock popped and so that all the ore from this belt, now for the several trips it going to take to get it to station but I know it’s faster than running each cargo load one at a time as I’m mining. Ok all the ore is now at station and now it’s time to process it into trit. I know that if I had the skills I could do this with little or no waste. I got enough of the mineral and even some extra. So called the agent and collected my reward and bonus.

- End Log -

• Mining in normal system space is straight forward. You right click in space, asteroid belts, warp to, or select a downward triangle from the overview of a belt and click the warp to button above. This will send you to a belt. If you are in really high security space (1.0 or 0.9) then you may end up over 100km away. Simply find a rock in the belt, right click it and ‘Bookmark” it. Warp out of the belt, then right click in space and select the bookmarked belt and warp to it, you will go right to the rock. One thing to consider while mining in normal space is that if you jettison you ore and mine into the can (known as jet mining) you can become the victim of a can flip or thieves. In deadspace mining (like for an agent mission) you don’t have this problem much, but it can happen (it requires probes and lot of scanning).
• Can flipping is when someone warps in, goes to your can and takes your cargo and puts it in one of his. His plan is that you shoot at him, so he can shoot you, or that you try and take it back so he (or his fleet, corporation, or alliance) can shoot you. Best advice when mining alone, don’t jet mine.
• Each mining laser has its own set of attributes. These could be a limit on range or yield amount per cycle, or even cycle time. Most of the standard mining lasers have a 10km range and 60 second cycle time. Strip miners (that can only be mounted on mining barges or exhumers) have a 15km range but a 180 second cycle time, but a great amount of yield. Skills, rigs and modules can improve one or more of these attributes.
• It has been said that mining laser tend to attract rats. In 1.0 or 0.9 space you do not have this problem in normal space, only in deadspace.
• You can increase your cargo hold capacity by using Expanded cargo hold modules, but these will affect you speed. Look at the attributes of these units to see the bonuses and drawbacks.
• If you allow you mining lasers to over fill your cargo hold capacity the excess ore will be lost in space. This is called ‘Dirty Mining’ in EVE. If you see that you are close to full you can interrupt the mining laser and equal amount of ore for the time/yield will be placed into your cargo hold.
• Each ore has a ‘Processing” skill. These skills reduce the amount of waste you would lose in processing the ore. To see the amount you current are losing. Mine some ore and take it to a NPC Station. Open the reprocessing plant window by right clicking on the ore and select refine. You may need to stretch the window from side to side to get all the columns’. One column will be titles waste.
• When starting out you will only have frigates to fly. Some frigates have mining bonuses (as do other ships). You can find which ones have bonuses by reading the description of each ship. You may want to consider as time goes on making a dedicated mining ship. This is a ship that you use only for mining. Then also have a dedicated fighter, this one has your weapons and spare ammo (don’t forget your ammo).
• If you have the time and there is a few mineable asteroids during a mission you may want to mine what you can. Sometimes you may need some ore or minerals and when you go to the local/normal space belts they may be mined out. It’s good to have a small stock pile.

Making Mountains of Molehills (3 of 10)

Mission Log: Reginald Mental (that’s me), Capt. My agent is still testing me, but he is giving me more to do each time. This time I need to manufacture 2 civilian afterburners, but I need some more ore so it’s back to the asteroid belts. Once I had all the ore I needed in station, it was just a matter of running it through the processor plant. Ok now that I have the Tritainum that I need I need to rent some space at the manufacturing plant and set up the system to make these afterburners. Fortunately this station had a manufacturing plant. I selected the plant, found and open slot, plugged in the blueprints and where my minerals where and where I wanted the product delivered and the number of runs. Then it was just a matter of checking over the summary and accepting the quote. I only had to wait a few minutes before they were ready, and sign for the delivery. Unfortunately the Blueprints only had two runs on them and so I never got them back. Once I had everything ready I checked in with the agent and got my reward and bonus.

- End Log -

• Ok this is going to be a bit of a work up, but I covered the gist of it in my story.
• Each Blueprint will tell you what it needs to build an item, how many items it can build at one time and if it’s a copy, how many runs (or items) it has left.
• You should be ok now with mining and processing ore to minerals. Now it’s time to do something with them. Open the “Science & Industry” window by clicking on its icon. Select the ‘Installations’ tab and set the drop downs to the following settings: Activity to Manufacturing, Location to Any, Range to Current Station, and Type to Public. And click on the Factory that comes up in the top window. If no installations appear adjust the range out more one at a time, but you should have one at the tutorial agent station. To find and open slot (or the earliest one to open up) click on the heading in the second wind ‘Next Free Time’ until and up arrow appears. You should see a list of ‘Now’ in green appear (or yellow text with the time the next slot will be open). Select one of these slots and hit the ‘Install Job’ button. Now to select the Blueprint, simply hit the ‘Select Blueprint’ button and find it in the list that appears. Click ok. The following are easy to understand ‘Input/Output’ is the locations of the raw materials need to build the item and the location for the delivered item. And the number of runs you what, in this case 2. Click ‘ok’. A new window will come up telling you what materials and skills are needed (red ‘X’ will show you are lacking this item), how much it will cast to use the slot and how long it will take. Select eh ‘Accept Quote’ button and the job will start. Open the ‘Jobs’ tab of the ‘Science & Industry’ window and hit ‘Get Jobs’. Once your job is ready the ‘Cancel Job’ Button will change to ‘Deliver’. Hit that and you items will be delivered to your hanger (or where you specified in the output).
• A few things to know about Blueprints. Some items are built in multiples, missiles for example can be built by the hundreds and hybrid ammo can be by the 1000′s. You will see this number after the ‘Item Built’ in the first tab of the blueprint info. So before you ask it to run you missiles 1000 times just take a look at the number per run (unless you want 100,000 missiles right now)
• Blueprint copies (BPC) have a limited set of runs; once those runs are used the BPC goes away. If there are more runs available or it is a Blueprint Original (BPO), the BP will be delivered back to your hanger (or Corporate Hanger) when the job is finished.

Cash Flow for Capsuleers (2 of 10)

Mission Log: Reginald Mental (that’s me), Capt. This was a simple search and rescue mission in the same system. With the New guns, 75mm Gatling Rail I (2x) and the Antimatter charges, I had to change my default orbit setting to 2000m and again using the Civilian Shield Booster on and off (to keep my capacitor from dropping to low) to replenish my shields it was done very quickly. Just needed to clean out the wrecks for loot and find the missing miner, who had been ejected and was floating in space in a cargo container. Then I simply warped back to station and checked in with the agent and collect my reward and bonus. Of course got to remember to reload those 75mm Gatling Rail I’s with more ammo. Maybe I should put some in my cargo hold just in case.

- End Log -

• Right click in open space and go to the bottom of the menu, ‘Agent Missions’ and warp to the ‘Encounter’
• As I discussed before, right click the orbit icon in the window above the overview and select the ‘set default orbit distance’ and type in the value you want or need. I try and use the weapon accuracy range.
• Getting a new ship can be a good thing, but be sure you are skilled to pilot it. Right click on the ship icon (or any item) and select the ‘Show Info’. This will bring up a info window. Look through the tabs. Attributes, Fittings and Prerequisites will be you most frequent ones. These will tell you the information about the item or ship (fittings, drone bay, cargo size, etc…) and what skills are needed.
• There is some background music playing while in space and if you don’t mind it that’s fine. If you would like to turn it off, click the jukebox icon on the left hand side and you will gain access to the controls. If you want to adjust all other sound effects, use the escape key and go to the audio tab. If you use ‘Teamspeak’ you would also un-check the ‘Audio Enabled’ box to turn off all sound. While in Teamspeak this tends to get broadcast over the network to all and can confuse other players. Teamspeak is a group audio program used by many plays to chat vocally while in game.

Making Mountains of Molehills (2 of 10)

Mission Log: Reginald Mental (that’s me), Capt. This was a simple mining and process mission. The agent wants to know if I can do the simple things. Once I had all the ore I needed in station, it was just a matter of running it through the processor plant. I know that if I had the skills I could do this without much if any waste, but this is such a small amount I don’t think it matters. Once there I checked in with the agent and got my reward and bonus.

- End Log -

• On this mission if you already have enough of the mineral Tritanium in your hanger, all you have to do is accept the mission and then complete the mission.
• Each ore has a ‘Processing’ skill. These skills reduce the amount of waste you would lose in processing the ore. To see the amount you current are losing. Mine some ore and take it to a NPC Station. Open the reprocessing plant window by right clicking on the ore and select refine. You may need to stretch the window from side to side to get all the columns. One column will be titles waste.

Balancing the Books (2 of 10)

Mission Log: Lady D’Mentia (that’s me), Capt. This is a simple recovery mission in another system. I set that auto pilot up for the round trip as soon as saw the orders. Made sure I Installed the Salvager, which I was given for this mission. Undocked and hit the auto pilot. After going through the Jumpgate I warped to the location I was given. I removed the rat that was there and looted his wreck. Then turned my attention to the wreck I came for. Once in range (5000m) I targeted it and activated the salvager. A few passes later I finally got the jet can open and could recover the item. That completed the mission, I hit the autopilot again. After going through the jumpgate, I simply warped back to station and checked in with the agent and collect my reward and bonus and he took the item.

- End Log -

• Salvaging is different than looting and can bring in a bit of extra cash. Salvaging is getting spare or damaged parts from the ship not modules or cargo. These parts are used for making other parts for your ship called rigs. Some ships are easier to salvage than others so if you want to do this you will need to train “Survey” to level 3, and then “Salvaging” to level 1 for most of the smaller ships, the higher the level the better chance you have to get something and the bigger ships you can salvage.
• The Civilian Salvager will only work for this mission. Do not count on it working on anything other than a tutorial ship.
• “Your attempt at salvaging failed this time” or something like that. Failure does not mean you cannot do it, just that it will take more time. Just let the module run until you succeed and then open the can (in this case) or if you salvage anything of value it will appear in your cargo hold (if there is room). If you cannot do it the message will be more like you do not have the skills, or that it is too difficult for you.
• Jury rigging or rigs give bonuses to your ship in certain area, but can have some drawbacks. Rigs become a permanent part of your ship and cannot be removed without the rig being destroyed. Rigs also require skill training.
• If you had the tutorial open, or go to the tutorial on salvaging, you will receive “Social” and “Diplomacy” skill books.
• There are sections of space where you cannot warp directly to. These are called Deaspace. To get to these Deadspace areas you will use an acceleration gate. Most of your missions and adventures will be through these. They can limit the size of ships that can pass through. They can also be locked until you finish something or have a key. To use an Acceleration gate is just like using a jumpgate. Get within 2500 m of the gate, select it, and then hit the jump icon above the overview. You will be thrown to the next location, sometimes called rooms or pockets. There can be several rooms or pockets to mission. Acceleration gates also make good meeting places when in a fleet (later on that).

Cash Flow for Capsuleers (1 of 10)

                Objective:           Clear some pirates (affectionately called rats) for a hidden belt for some miners.

                Reward:               a weapon, this time a 75mm Gatling Rail I

                Bonus:                  ammo, 2000 units of Antimatter Charge S

Mission Log: Reggi Mental (that’s me), Capt. This is a simple clear the rats’ mission in a secluded belt in the same system. At first there was only one rat. As soon as I came out of warp he started taunting me in the local chat window. So I ‘muted’ him, permanently. But as I finished him off three more warped in. It took a little time to finish them off with just a Civilian Blaster, but by orbiting them at 1000 m and using the Civilian Shield Booster on and off (to keep my capacitor from dropping to low) to replenish my shields it was done I waited a bit to see if there was more, but no more came. Just needed to clean out the wrecks for loot and wish for a salvager. Then I simply warped back to station (after topping of my cargo with a bit Veldspar from a nearby asteroid) and checked in with the agent and collect my reward and bonus. Those guns (got a second 75mm Gatling Rail I from one of the wrecks) fit this rookie ship nicely, had to drop the civilian mining laser, but heck I can always mine after its safe. Of course now that I have some REAL guns, got to remember to keep the right kind of ammo loaded in them.

- End Log -

Ok, yea that’s a bit story like. Let’s go over the high points.

• Finding the site: Because this is a secluded belt in the same system there was no need to use the auto pilot to go to another system. Just undock from the station, right click in open space (not on a ship or station) go to the bottom of the menu and select the Agent Missions: Cash Flow for Capsuleers (1 of 10) > Encounter (Deadspace)> Warp to Location. In systems where there may be multiple stations you can use the same method to go back to the Agent, just select Objective & Agent Base > Warp To.
• If the mission was in another system, while you have the mission description up, right click the destination system and select ‘set destination’. Then right click the home system and select ‘add waypoint’. This will program your auto pilot to the mission system and a return route to the agent system. Then when undocked use the auto pilot to navigate to where the system you need to be. Once there, use the find site information as described above to warp to encounter. In other sections, I go into more detail about the Auto pilot and traveling EVE.
• Local Chat window will give you information and show you some of the story that is going on. It’s a good idea to look at once in a while, just to see what’s going one. Sometimes it will tell you you’re done with the mission too.
• If you have not already adjusted your default orbiting distance, here is how to. Right click on the orbit icon in the window above the Overview or by selection and object, right click then Orbit > Set Default. It is a good idea to check the info on your weapon(s) to see optimal range and use that and your default distance.
• Some modules will drain you capacitor quickly, so it is a good idea to watch them, you can cycle them on and off just when you need them, but be careful some of them need a cool down period and so may have to wait a few seconds before they can come back on.
• When dealing with multiple targets, your ship has a limit. So do you. The skill to improve your targeting is (imagine this) ‘Targeting’ in the ‘Electronics’ group.
• You can set the Auto Target Back number on/up by setting the General Settings tab. Press the escape button on your keyboard. That will bring up a settings window. Go to the General Settings tab and at the bottom of the center column you can set the number of Auto Target Back. This means when you are targeted, it will target back (if they are in range of your ship and skills) up to what you set or the limit of your ship and your skills.
• If you need to change out a target or unlock a target, either select the target and click the lock/unlock icon above the Overview, or right click the target or its icon (the small image at the top of the screen) and select ‘unlock target’.
• Some mission require you to return with something (document, person, etc…), so be sure to check mission information (see above) and check all the wreck and dropped cargo containers before heading back to the agent. If you complete the mission with your agent you will not be able to return. Also all asteroids and structures will vanish once the mission is closed.
• To see if you finished the mission, or just to review the details, open your ‘Journal’ and double click on the mission. A window will open. As you scroll down, if you have meet all the mission needs you will see ‘Objection Complete’
• To quickly identify if a wreck has loot, look at its symbol (a down pointing triangle with a line above it). If the triangle is filled, there is loot, if it is empty, so is the wreck.
• Here is a tip to help out in salvaging wrecks. Bookmark a wreck in each room/pocket of a mission. Then after completing the mission with the agent you can return to the bookmark and finish salvaging. Remember that un-named cargo containers (jet cans) only last for about an hour (named about two hours) and wrecks will start to go in an hour as well.
• The Civilian weapons do not need ammo/crystals, but anything above that does. Crystals are more durable and do not have to be replaced, at least not all. Some of the higher end version do suffer damage over time, so be careful. You can load spare ammo/crystals into your cargo hold and reload or change out while in space. Just right click on the weapon icon and select reload, reload all, place in cargo hold. The Reload all will reload all weapons with the same ammo they have/had in them at the time.

Ok that’s a lot of stuff for just the first mission, but this sets the ground work for you to build on in later missions and basic game play. Also not all of that was necessary but I think it was helpful.

Cash Flow for Capsuleers

So you’re looking into the Military for a career, not a bad choice. This is your tutorial mission. It is composed of 10 parts and will follow the story of a renegade. This mission, with a little experience can all be done with your rookie ship (well I did the first 8 alone in a rookie ship, got help the last 2 just to get it done quicker) and can be done in one day. You will have 7 days to do this mission. Seven day after talking to the agent the first time it will go away and you cannot talk to them again.

This is a short guide of what you will encounter during this run and a few rookie mistakes to avoid. I will also take this time to cover a few little tricks and tips to help you along the way. But as with all things EVE, don’t count on this remaining constant, EVE is ever growing and changing.

This mission, if run alone (minus repair cost, training, ammo, and losses), will net you: a few ships, a few skill books, a +1 implant, some weapons and modules, about 1 million ISK and a ton of loot. I will tell you the adventure I did and show you what I got (minus the loot) just so you have an idea. The weapons, modules and ships will be different for each race. I want to also state that your status with the agent will also affect the amount of reward and bonuses you get so the prices listed here are only for reference and may not reflect the amount you get.

This a mission i did as a Caldari, but gist is the same for the other Races, enjoy.

Making Mountains of Molehills (1 of 10)

                Objective:           Mine and return 1665 units of Veldspar.

                Reward:               ‘Miner I’ module

                Bonus:                  88,000 ISK

                Collateral:            1 ISK

Mission Log: Reggi Mental (that’s me), Capt. This was a simple mining mission in a secluded belt. The hardest part of this was the time between turning on the mining laser and when it turned off. I passed the time reading. I encountered no rats, and being secluded no other pilots, so I was able to jet can. Once I had all the ore in the jet can it was just making trips back and forth to station. Once there I checked in with the agent and got my reward and bonus.

- End Log -

• By right clicking in space, going to the bottom of the menu under Agent Missions, will you have one or more of the following. Encounter, Drop off, Agent station. Hovering over the one you want brings another menu, simply warp to, or dock.
• Mining in normal system space is straight forward. You right click in space, asteroid belts, warp to, or select a downward triangle from the overview of a belt and click the warp to button above. This will send you to a belt. If you are in really high security space (1.0 or 0.9) then you may end up over 100km away. Simply find a rock in the belt, right click it and ‘Bookmark” it. Warp out of the belt, then right click in space and select the bookmarked belt and warp to it, you will go right to the rock. One thing to consider while mining in normal space is that if you jettison you ore and mine into the can (known as jet mining) you can become the victim of a can flip or thieves. In deadspace mining (like for an agent mission) you don’t have this problem much, but it can happen (it requires probes and lot of scanning).
• Can flipping is when someone warps in, goes to your can and takes your cargo and puts it in one of his. His plan is that you shoot at him, so he can shoot you, or that you try and take it back so he (or his fleet, corporation, or alliance) can shoot you. Best advice when mining alone, don’t jet mine.
• Each mining laser has its own set of attributes. These could be a limit on range or yield amount per cycle, or even cycle time. Most of the standard mining lasers have a 10km range and 60 second cycle time. Strip miners (that can only be mounted on mining barges or exhumers) have a 15km range but a 180 second cycle time, but a great amount of yield. Skills, rigs and modules can improve one or more of these attributes.
• It has been said that mining laser tend to attract rats. In 1.0 or 0.9 space you do not have this problem in normal space, only in deadspace.
• You can increase your cargo hold capacity by using Expanded cargo hold modules, but these will affect you speed. Look at the attributes of these units to see the bonuses and drawbacks.
• If you allow your mining lasers to over fill your cargo hold capacity the excess ore will be lost in space. This is called ‘Dirty Mining’ in EVE. If you see that you are close to full you can interrupt the mining laser and equal amount of ore for the time/yield will be placed into your cargo hold.
• When starting out you will only have frigates to fly. Some frigates have mining bonuses (as do other ships). You can find which ones have bonuses by reading the description of each ship. You may want to consider as time goes on making a dedicated mining ship. This is a ship that you use only for mining. Then also have a dedicated fighter, this one has your weapons and spare ammo (don’t forget your ammo if you need it).

Until Next time Fly Safe

• If you have the time and there is a few mineable asteroids during a mission you may want to mine what you can. Sometimes you may need some ore or minerals and when you go to the local/normal space belts they may be mined out. It’s good to have a small stock pile.