~or “Lessons Learned for Noobs continued”
"The time has come,” said
The Bittervet,
To talk of many things:
Of Fits--and Ships--and Implant
sets--
Of Brokers Fees--and Bling--
And why your ship is burning down--
And whether noobs have
wings."
I have been having a right ‘ol fun time of it these past few days…
I got my Venture where I want her for my skills. 2x Hobgoblin Is for defense, in
the highs x2 Miner Is and a Salvager I and in the Mids, a Sm. Subordinate
Screen Stabilizer I, Sm. CL-5 Emergency Shield Overload I Booster and a Limited
1MN Afterburner I, in the Low a Damage Control I and she is rigged with a Sm.
Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer, a Sm. Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I and a Sm.
Core Defense Field Extender.
She tanks the Rats w/o having to use the shield booster, that’s
mainly there to buff up the shield after a rat fight and JIC, for any potential
Player Interactions. The Hobgobs make short work of the rats in the backwater
.5 that is Ossogur, and the salvager lets me profit from their loss… =]
As for mining, in an Anon comment made in “Blingin’
th Burst” I said I was mining Golden Omber as it was the most profitable
ore here. Anon said according to the chart I was
using, I should be mining Kernite or Plag. And he was basically right, Kernite
is more valuable per unit than all the Ombers… but you have to be in Amarr
space and I dun’t like Amarr space… so meh.
As for what to mine, I did a RW test… and the
results are below. All forms of Plagioclase are the most lucrative giving you
over 1m ISK per trip, or 2m ISK an hour. Add to that the highly variable Rat
Loot & Salvage, from over 1m ISK to… well, ‘0’, and this is at least a
start on buying the basic books etc. one needs in those early weeks. And please
gentle reader, keep in mind my char is not even 2 weeks old and has NO HELP
ingame, ok?
OK, so while I was I getting my Venture squared away I had refit
the Burst for pure ratting and for those occasions when I just felt like
shootzing shit what moves a bit instead of rocks. I recently got skilled into
some rigs I wanted and while in Rens I noticed that I could fly a Firetail… Now
the Firetail frigate has a special place in my soul… for many the Rifter is/was
considered the quintessential fighter frigate, but for me it has always been
the Firetail.
“What a piece of work is a
Firetail! How noble in design, how infinite in fitting ! In style and flight
how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel of Death!”
Now Tur (the other Tur, my older brother), has one he’s had for like
YEARS… and he’s never really used it… kinda like owning a collector car you
never drive ya know? So I bought one and got her fitted up nicely for Rats and
I have used her more in the last 2 days than ol’ Tur has used his in over 3
years!
Now while I have been going through this Dropout Noob Test I have
tried to catch myself doing things based on my 4 years of experience in EVE,
things a noob would not have a clue about… and I turns out fitting was one of
those things. I am not anything like Ripard Teg or even my good friend Sov when
it comes to fitting and the understanding of how all the various modules not
only work but work together… the gestalt of a fit, how the sum of the parts
makes a ship intrinsically better or worse for a given situation. Why and how
some hulls, with their base Grid, CPU and role bonuses are great with ‘this’
fit and suck with ‘this’ other one.
But I have learned how to recognize a good fit when I see it and
where to find good fits to work from. And ALL of my time working on my skills
and skill queue, has been spent on getting the correct modules skilled up, not
the ‘next’ hull… And this is different from when I was a noob. Back then my
ONLY focus was on getting out of Frigates and into a Destroyer… all that other
‘stuff’ would come later. And it showed in the fits I tried to fly and fight
with. And All my noob friends were the same way… the goal was not to fly WELL,
it was to get a BIGGER ship… and in EVE, that aint how things work.
But this time, without thinking about it consciously, I knew I had
to get the right skills for the MODS down first… get into better mods, guns,
webs, shield mods… and RIGS! When I was new I didn’t even start to consider the
importance of rigs until I had it rather pointedly pointed out to me. Oh, and
Implants! I actually intentionally ignored implants when I was a noob… kept
hearing how incredibly expensive they were and how bad it sucked to get podded
with a head full if ‘spensive gear… “Eff that!” I thought, what a stupid idea…
spending your hard earned ISK in the multi-millions for a few silly things that
only make your killers howl with laughter when you DIAF… “Not throwing my ISK
away on that stuff!” said I. Huh.
Until I learned how much they affect your SKILLING time… then I
started learning about them and that not all implants are billions, or even in
the millions… and that a basic set can cut hours off a long queue. This time I
got a basic cheap full set as soon as I could… and it cut hours off my skill
time… Noobs who are here on their own have no way to know about this… and I do
not remember the tutorials I went through saying anything about implants… or the real
importance of fitting and skilling into good fits, not just the next hull in
the tree.
How I remember when I was a newbie about how ALL I wanted was get
into that next hull… Then I’d be badass! Then I’d be pwning the rats and able
to PvP!! So like everyone else I concentrated on the ship ladder… Frig to Dessie to Cruiser to Battle Cruiser
to BattleSHIP! And then on to the T2’s and the Faction hulls!! I also remember
when I finally, proudly got into each new hull that I always had a helluva time
fitting them. All T1, meta 4 or even meta 1 mods… even 200mm AC’s onna ‘Cane
FFS. Why? Because like everyone else I thought the SHIP was the “thing”… and
it’s not. The FIT is the “thing”, the ‘ship’ is just what you carry the Fit on…
The Fit is what DOES everything, the ship is just a rack to hang it on.
And that was what led to this post. Ships need Fits, Fits needs Skills
for Fitting, Skills need Implants to reduce Skilling time. Teaching our noobs the
true importance of Ship Fitting, is as far as I can see, completely lacking in
the tutorials. And I see it everyday in Rookie Help chan. Guys asking all about
how to get into the next ship class faster. And I realized that this is the
wrong way to go about it. That the importance of learning fitting is the key to
everything ship related in EVE.
I’m thinking about going back and running the rest of the
tutorials now… with an eye to seeing if I can come up with any ideas on how to
teach our noobs what they really need to know… how to FIT the ships you fly,
not work your ass off to get into ships you can’t Fly properly.
Fly Wreckless and see you in the Sky =/|)=
