Newbro Story: Strili

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

The Life of an Elitist

I, like any caring elitist jerk, thought eve online was a game that could be conquered. Mastered. I took the plunge with nothing and no one to guide me along my journey except my dreams of blowing up everyone and everything in my privatized Death Star for hire.

It was the year of 2007. Because of all my obvious abilities and success in other MMO's, what was Eve going to be but another game under my belt? Being a lover of the stars and an Astronomy guru, I thought "Ha, this is gonna be perfect". I got into my little ship and flew around killing tutorial frigates. I was raping and pillaging the country side like a spaceship riding, Ghenghis Khan. In fact, I even made my character have an asian "flair" to appeal to my utter conquest of the stars.

I made my frigate my horse of triumph. Rail guns, the biggest the galaxy had to offer, were fit onto my Fatboy--The Tristan. The game would throw up to three enemies at me, but they exploded gloriously as my guns burned through their souls. Damn, I was good.

Killing NPC's wasn't enough to sate my appetite. I wanted real blood. I was thirsty. I smiled like the Grinch and floated into low sec where I heard noobs often fell prey. I gated into Reblier, the system that held my dreams.

The Death Star Exploded.
I died.
Instantly.

I was pretty sure I died twice before my mind and fingers were numb. What...the...f*** just happend? I was in some little seed looking thing in a hanger bay. I frantically tried to look for what had happened.

Reality happened. Luke Skywalker shoved his force of 1400mm Howitzers into my still standing Death Star. Princess Lasers broke my pod and my heart. Bitch.

Eve Online--Making noobs know their place, and that place sure the hell isn't in Reblier.

Now I'm a Newbro back in nullsec broing it up. Exploding in Healing ships is almost as cool as what happened that day...I sure wish my Death Star could have had friends...

Beginning Eve Part 2: Your First Day

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

There was a time when the tutorials of EVE were muddled or nonexistent, and new players were much better off simply experimenting or reading online guides. Thankfully, CCP has spent a great deal of time and energy in creating much more comprehensive tutorials, so that the new player can not only discover each profession, but also what that might be like several months down the road, when considerable skillpoints have been invested.

Therefore, the first thing any new player should do is each and every tutorial. When you start the game, the tutorials will automatically be started for you.

Complete all that interest you, but particularly General, Industrial, Military, Military Advanced, and Mini Professions. These will give you a sampling for EVE's various careers. Of course, keep in mind that most of the interesting content in the game is player-driven. This means that just as in the real world, most "professions" in EVE player corporations will require a large and overlapping skillset.

Once you are finished with the tutorials, you are ready to apply to a corporation, or at least to find one that you aspire to eventually join. Because of the player conflict in EVE, spies are very common and dangerous. Therefore, most corporations in null-security space will not accept you until you are at least 6 months old. Do not let this discourage you, however, as there are a variety of ways that you can bypass this requirement. More on that later.

First off, think about what sort of corporation you would like to join. You can search corporations by referring to the Tools category in this post. There are a few common types of corporations that will often accept you right off the bat:

• Highsec Mission Running corporations
• Summary: Usually just groups of pilots that get together to run NPC agent missions together for profit.
• Advantages: Gives the new pilot a social group to be a part of, and a steady income stream. These corporations can help you get standings to run higher-level missions that might take weeks to get on your own.
• Disadvantages: Usually some sort of corp tax, limited PVP & exploration access
• Highsec Mining Corporation
• Summary: A group of pilots that mine ice or ore together in highsec.
• Advantages: Gives the new pilot a social group, steady income. These corporations will usually help you get started by giving you mining ships and boosts to increase your yield.
• Disadvantages: Usually some form of tax, little to no PVP or exploration, low skill ceiling, income is small compared to other sources.
• Factional Warfare Corporation
• Summary: A PVP, PVE, or mixed group that does Faction Warfare missions & anomalies for their major Empire Faction
• Advantages: Mix of PVP and PVE, great money, social group. Good way to progress into nullsec corporations
• Disadvantages: Much more dangerous than highsec, can be daunting for the new player, may be harder to get accepted into. Will destroy your standings with the opposing faction and prevent you from easily travelling their highsec
• Highsec/Lowsec PVP Corporation
• Summary: A group of pilots who either wardec or pirate to PVP
• Advantages: Plenty of targets, usually fairly easy to get accepted to(depending on corporation)
• Disadvantages: Income is often hard to come by, new players may die a lot while learning to PVP
• Examples: Red vs Blue
• Academy/Training Corporation
• Summary: A specialized corporation that provides training for newer players
• Advantages: Social, helpful corpmates, a mix of PVP/PVE, various income sources
• Disadvantages: Sometimes quite restrictive, not usually a good long-term fit for a new player, income can be spotty and wardecs are frequent
• Examples: Eve University, Open University of Celestial Hardship, Concordiat

Now, I mentioned that sometimes you could bypass the above corporations and join a nullsec corporation directly, if you wished to. There are a variety of ways to do this.

• Something Awful
• If you are a SA.com member, you may be able to apply to GoonWaffe and join directly. There are some requirements about length of time and posting, but it shouldn't be too hard. GoonWaffe has a long history of being newbie friendly.
• Reddit
• If you are an active Reddit member who has been posting for a while, you may be able to apply to Fweddit.
• Vouches
• If you know a member in a certain corporation, you can usually get them to vouch you in. Just like in the real world, recommendations and personal connections are the best way to get into a corporation in EVE. 
• Charisma
• If you are charismatic and persistent, you can probably get into a nullsec corporation. You may have to try several or even dozens of different corporations before you find one willing to take you, but it will happen if you are determined enough.
• Academy Corporations
• There are some academy corporations that will train you in highsec, and then you can graduate to their nullsec corp.

It may seem strange to suggest that you apply to a corporation so early, but it honestly is the first thing you should do upon completing the tutorials. Corporations are what keep people addicted to EVE, and it's because human beings are social creatures that enjoy working and playing together. So, find a corp, any corp. Even a terrible corporation is better than none, and you can always move on to a new one.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Securitas Protector ingame, or post a comment here on the blog.

Newbro Story: Levi Scutter

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

Well I'll just add a story from my new bro days.

The Beginning:
So I joined EvE in early 2013 (1.4.2013) and soon began to get into the game after a few days of playing and getting my wallet built up I joined a high-sec corp named "Prahd Aeronautical Corporation" and there I started to build even more into my wallet. During those high-sec days I acquired different knowledge of PvE and then began running level 4s with a friend of mine who I then later made a corp with. We ran level 4s with his Noctis trailing behind and be blasted away at the NPCs and it was good for a while until struggles in our corp arose because our corp CEO started to get annoying and deciding what's best for him not the corp. So, me and Absolon decided to make our own corp which became known as "Gulag Industries" and there we ran level 4s and made ISK but then I started to get into the industry side so I started training barges and mining skills and after doing this for a whole month of mining and then making 5 retrievers at a time.

The Twist:
One day I got home from school and was ready to start making more retrievers when Absolon started to talk about something on TeamSpeak of some alliance called "Spaceship Samurai" and I thought that sounded quite interesting so after some talking and thinking we decided to shut down "Gulag Industries" and then hop on down to null.

In Null:
When we were all set up in the corp and after fucking up my API so many times and then emailing Zanthr back and forth about fixing it and getting into the corp as quickly as possible. Anyway, after about an hour and then finally fixing it I got to selling all the stuff I had in high-sec and so I kissed my beloved Raven Navy Issue good bye and all sorts of other cruisers and battleships. When I got into teamspeak that night people were out on a roam and I got to listening and then started to take notes as the roam progressed (Yes I'm that much of a note freak)
but alas I got called to go to bed and told the guys good night.

The Next Months:
After a month of so into the corp I started to get good at following orders and fending off Moon Tribe from the home space and after a few Talwar losses we eventually got them to stop failing hard. Then a few days passed then I get mails about "The Fountain War" and at this point I didn't feel ready for the war but joined in anyway. The Fountain War was one of my most exciting eras in EvE because everywhere there was a fight and that lead to some big ones at that.

A Smart Azz Among Men:
When Smart Azz joined the corp after Securitas pestering him for so long he started to lead "Friggin' In The Riggin'" fleets and so we went out to GE- and started to pester the locals and that ended up in some halarious kills and losses like the local smart bombing battleship failures and not noticing 3-6 bombers uncloak and hurl torpedos at him, good times. After a few of these fleets and few pages of notes I lead a frig roam that didn't go quite to "Plan" and ended up with us all dying but it was good fun in the end.

Recent Activties:
So as you all know yesterday I did a home defense fleet that ended up being badass and it was the biggest ships I took out to defend out space and all I can say is that Nagas arse badass machines if you know how to fly them and me living in high-sec for about 3 months and flying a Rokh I knew a little bit about flying these things. Sure we took a few losses but yeah it was all fun and for a good cause of defending a jump bridge in DY- that was being hit hard but anyway that concludes my story and thanks for reading!

Levi.

Newbro Story: Jayson Hilitari

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

Storytime, with Jayson.

1 year ago.....

I just got a brand spanking new laptop, straight out of the box, still stuck with plastic sheets not a scratch on it. I was watching a show called Sword Art Online, a anime about the near-future and focuses on various virtual reality MMORPG's. The creator of the game locked everyone inside the game, with no log-out screen to be found. If you died in the game, your Occulos-Rift like headset would send signals to your brain, causing your death in real life. The only way to escape the game was to fight through 100 floors in the game's tower and defeat the final boss.

This show caused me to go into a frenzy, looking for a MMORPG that would even get close to the concept that was shown in SAO. I ended up installing and uninstalling about 15 MMO's before my friend told me about EVE Online. He told me of the fluid market where everything is made, bought, and sold by real players. With that being my only info, I grabbed a 14 day trial, and started playing immediately. After about a 8 hour gaming session that lasted from 10PM to 6AM, I knew i was hooked. I didn't even get through all of the tutorial missions, but my mind was stuck on this game called EVE. 'How can it have so much depth that even after 8 hours of playing, i still had no idea what i was doing!?"

This is where EVE gets awesome. It forces you to think for yourself, to set your own goals, and lets pursue those goals in hundreds of different ways. So, I started making plans for myself. I decided that i would become a space trader, become wealthy off of the little i had to start, and i would pay for my account for years to come.

After i finished the tutorials, I looked for a corp who i could learn from and help me become the space tycoon i strived to be. Now if this is where you think CDIAT enters the picture, then you are wrong. After reading on the forums and looking at the recruitment advertisements, i had my mind set on EVE University, a huge corporation that offers free skillbooks, classes, and fleets to help new players become acquainted with EVE. After filling out pages of paperwork and finishing a extensive interview, i was in EVE University, i thought that i would now be learning everything about the game and how to be successful in New Eden. Sadly, i was very, very wrong.

My days in EVE University were all the same. I would buy skill books and receive reimbursement, and get killed by war targets on my way to any lesson i would try to go to. I lost all my belongings trying to move to their area of high sec, which i thought was a HUGE blow to my wallet at the time, a mere 15 million ISK. I became sick of dying, so i hid in my pocket of high sec. I was determined to make my money and get into my coveted Retriever, a mining barge used to clear asteroid belts of their useful ore. I started using my trusty Iteron, fitted with a mining laser, mining upgrade modules, and a afterburner. I would haul my cargo back to the station and find that i made 4 mil per run; I was ecstatic. I began rock grinding with the Iteron, slowly becoming more confident, moving from .9 space to .8, and finally reaching the super scary .5 space.

For a few days Airaken became my home. Eventually i was private convo'ed while in a belt and i was invited to a industry corp. I initially declined, but after being offered a Retriever fully fitted as a sign-on bonus, i couldn't resist. I joined a mining fleet with my new Retriever after 20 minutes in corp, and i was ecstatic. There were purple ships all around me, all with the same goal. But this asteroid high would not satisfy me for too long...

After some careful deliberation, a made a 2nd character, Jayson Hilitari, and he was going to be a pirate, a PVP specialist tracking people down for their bounties and their ships cargo. I switched all my training time to him, and continued to mine to pay for my new Rifters and Slashers. I was still active in the Rookie Help channel at this point, asking questions not about mining, but now about PVP, learning what a point was and how to keep up transversal. It was in this channel that a new player started talking bad to a older player, and bounties started flying on him. I convo'ed the new player with the intent of finding his location and killing him. I started booking it to his location in my DPS fit Rifter, only 9 jumps away, but i knew i wasn't the only one.

When i landed on the planet where he was, i found his Iteron being attacked by a Catalyst, a destroyer with much more firepower than my frigate. I locked on the Iteron and saw him in low structure as the Catalyst blew to pieces. I blew his ship away in one cycle, and scrambled to get his capsule locked, CONCORD was incoming, and i knew my time was limited. I turned on my guns and hoped for the best. I could barely concentrate, my heart was pounding out of my chest, and i knew there was a lot at stake for me. Suddenly, there were two explosions on screen, and i had no idea was happened. I zoomed in, and only saw one pod. My wallet began to blink. I put my cursor over the wallet icon and find that i am now 256 million ISK richer. I literally jumped out of my chair and started screaming, the adrenaline i felt after that kill was amazing, my hands were shaking and I was exhausted. I knew then that PVP was what i wanted to do.

Smug i was, bragging about the kill, posting it everywhere i went and posting it in my Bio (it's still there). I wanted to learn how to PVP, so again i applied to EVE University. I was swiftly rejected, because my security status was in the negative after the pod kill, and the only way i could get in would be to raise that security status. I ventured off into 0.5 space for a day, killing every rat in saw in every belt i went to with my Rifter, slowly getting my good name back. I grew sick of that really fast though, and started looking for a different corp that could suit my needs for PVP.

I browsed the corporation ads and found a 250 man corp named Concordiat, a 'Newbro' friendly corp that resided in null sec and promised to teach any new players how to live, fight, and prosper in null sec. I applied and waited for what i expected all corporations did in EVE; A interview, some paperwork, and another interview before being offered a spot in the corp. Surprisingly, i was accepted within the hour (someone messed up ) and started saying hi in corp chat. I was linked the newbro guide, the teamspeak info, and was given some info on how to move down there. I read the entire newbro guide before doing anything else, and started making preparations to move to scary null sec.

After moving to null sec, i followed to newbro guides instructions and asked for my 5 million ISK i was entitled to for moving down to null sec. I ended the hour with more that 50 million, and a huge smile on my face. The people were great, and the conversation was fun and light. I sat in Teamspeak for the next week to scared to speak into my new headset, just listening to Sabin, Sec, and others talk while they ratted in their Oracles, a ship i thought was so far away for me. I salvaged and made good money off of their efforts, and was happy to see that my original goal of becoming space rich appeared to be coming true. My first fleet was a simple one, a Rupture roam to Providence, and i tagged along in my tackle slasher, not really sure what i was doing. I remember my first fleet warp and how amazing it felt warping with my corpmates, all with one goal, to 'Die in a ball of fire!". We did die in a ball of fire, and it was one of the greatest experiences i've ever had in a game.

The great thing about Concordiat is that it doesn't matter where you came from, it doesn't matter how long you have been playing the game, either. All that matters is having a great attitude, and a willingness to learn and to teach. Concordiat has gone through a lot since ive been in the corp, just ask anyone who has been around for a year and you might be given a history book worth of stories. Concordiat is one of the best corporations for new players and probably has the best group of guys to talk to and learn from. Am i a little biased? Maybe.

Newbro Story: Xeron Vann

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

I originally started on a different account as a high sec miner. I wanted to get a feel for the game and not dive straight into pvp without having isk to support my rampant losses and overall bad-ness. Xeron Vann was initially created to haul ore as well as defend my mining barge from gankers and NPC's, but eventually I got the itch to shoot things. With absolutely zero pvp experience and terrible, terrible mismatched skills I joined up with another newbro eager to gank miners in lowsec. We started talking about forming a corp together and planned to set out together the next day. That would not happen.

I got impatient, headed out that night, and once again having --zero knowledge of pvp-- decided to fit a monstrosity that I'm ashamed to have ever conceived: an Armageddon battleship with small lasers. This is the result. http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16462899

I realized I knew nothing about pvp and was about to swear off it forever and return to mining when I received a recruitment mail. A few days later I was podding down to Z-H2MA to truly start playing the game (despite the prior 7 months of mining).

When I arrived, I found teamspeak abuzz as everyone was preparing for a roam. Sec was yelling for more to join the fleet, and I was eager to shoot stuff, so I hopped in. I was adamant not to make the same mistake I had just days before made, and went in the complete opposite direction of my abomination battleship. We flew out to Utopia (a fitting name for my first real null-sec pvp experience) and brawled with Brave Newbies, a corp we were actually trying to bring into the alliance at the time. It was glorious, and despite it ending with this lossmail (http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16723460) I knew I was hooked.

Now I'm dropping my dread with the Kinky Flotilla as Spaceship Samurai takes moons.

About 3 weeks ago I received a conversation invite from the guy I originally wanted to form a corp with. We chatted for awhile, he asked what I've been doing, and I realized how lucky I am to have been invited into such an awesome corp and alliance. While I was hunting and murdering supposed awoxers (who were actually supposed to have us set to blue, thanks to Cpt's fuck up <3) he was still in highsec mining and fighting the occasional can-flipper.

Since I left the dreary, boring life of high-sec, I've learned and earned so much. I've had the time of my Eve life flying with the HONOR bros, and I look forward to continuing on that path.

P.S. I still remember Tilio shouting for a break in comms to ask "Do we have a fucking Imparior in fleet?" and then everyone proceeding to laugh their asses off. Good times.

Battle Report: Hurricanes vs Oracles

One of our newbies wrote this battlereport of a fight where we fought Harpies and Oracles with our own Hurricanes.

A video of the fight

Written by Elli Ann, Video by Spyderbytee

So, last night was a blast. An actual hair raisng and wonderfully intuative fight with some great tactics from our FC (more about Jigro later). Lets get right down to the bones of it.

Arty Canes, Logistics, Dictors and Tackle (with a shiney or two)

As FORMUP started, just a little before 00:30 I was amazed at the level of commitment from our members. As i joined the fleet I noticed we had 4, and within a minute it was 24, and shortly after we had numbers joining in their droves, okay so It wasn't a 100 man fleet but the nature of the eagerness and effort shown, it may well have been. I don't know the right numbers, but it was high 40's if it wasn't over 50. I actually felt really good about the Op, and when we were told it wasn't another POS BASH we all cheered in unison! Although I am pretty sure if we were POS BASHING we would have had the same level of performance!

When we set off, (i had turned down the drunk xanista) comms where very good, and we all seemed to be listening to Jigro. Calling gates, warping us to Jump Bridges, and generally making sure everyone got to where they were supposed to be. As Logi anchor, I had us in a squad of our own which is what I think works best, it allowed us to have our Watch Lists right, with FC, Secondary FC, Tertiary FC and the Shineys + Logi on there. We were a tight unit, and I think the clear and concise comms, due to Jigro being clear on everything he wanted us to do, helped us keep just as calm as our FC.

So, when DID the shit hit the fan?!

We ran into an AF fleet of goons, and with an Instant Jigro had our fast tackle burn pings. We warped around as the enemy popped in, teasing them enough for a lot of smacktalk in local. We jumped a few gates, aligned and burned for gates or the sun as Jigro called, all as the fast tackle where popping around getting pings and keeping the whole of the fleet safe. We were frustrating the goons, and I actually think they got it wrong. They thought we were running from them, but our FC was just getting the fleet to engage on his terms. When we did engage, oh boy did we do it with style.

I cannot quite remember how it happened, but we engaged with aplomb on a gate. I got our logi together as best I could, and with the Watch List set up I was keeping an eye on that, and watching for broadcasts. As the Primary and Secondary targets where called, our arty canes started alphaing them one by one. We had a few minor scrapes and some people needed locked and healed up but as the calls kept coming, the DPS Arty Canes and the shineys we had (having a Huginn in fleet really helped, especially as I assigned my drones to him) did their job and popped the incoming DPS before it got too much for the Logi to handle. The fight was over fairly quickly as I remember with very few losses, and lots of GF's in local. We were happy to have had the fight and even happier to have won the ISK war so comprehensively.

We reformed and got the fleet together and as we reapproached the gate on which we were fighting, Jigro out of nowhere called "BURN TO THE GATE NOW, MWD ON" with no panic at all, but with all the authority in the world. I rapped my MWD on, with the Logi anchoring and headed for gate as a ton of neuts showed up and either started decloaking or landed on the gate (which im sure happened but it was all so quick). All the other guys had done the exact same and I was thinking, "We are going to have to jump out here" and I actually thought that what was going to happen. However, Jigro felt we could win this fight too.

The new enemy fleet had emerged onto the field , Vagabonds, Oracles, Naga's the lot. They also had a smidge of Logistics... We engaged, with cries of "DRONES BACK OUT GUYS". Jigro's calling was relentless, and I mean that in a good way. He called targets constantly and repeatedly. All the DPS'ers knew what they had to do and as we burned them down, with some eventual losses, I realised that as a fleet, we had just kicked the arses of two enemy fleets without so much of a thought. We just kept on going, Logi kept on repping and the tackle and DPS just kept on getting the neuts locked down and popped without any hassle.

Now, I started this Battle Report not to brag of our wonderful fight and us winning the ISK war, but it was to share a few views with the Alliance as a whole. And here are my thoughts..

Jigro was awesome. As an FC he has all the right skills, his tactics are extremely sound and he kept calm under pressure and he didnt falter in his stewardship of our wonderful fleet. This allowed our full fleet to engage without fear, and this meant the decisions they made in the heat of the moment were rightfully correct and ended up in us winning with so much swagger, that every one of us, even those who died could only have felt euphoric in the last few moments as our enemies fell.

Second of all, the mood on teamspeak and in fleet chat reminded me of Cheers, The Wonder Years and maybe even Stand by Me. I have never felt anything like it, not in a game. And I guess thats what I am getting at. This is a game, but when you play the game with the right people, then it becomes more. In the end it was about more than handing out a severe "doing" to Goons and -A-, It was about us. Spaceship Samurai.

Second Video of the Same Fight + Naga Fight:

Beginning EVE Part 1: Resources to Have

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

If you're new to EVE, you probably find the sheer amount of information overwhelming. Thankfully, the EVE community has built up an impressive array of tools and resources over the last 10 years, so you don't have to do much math anymore.

Today I'll post three lists for the brand new player: a set of tools/websites, some basic "fixing" of ingame settings that will make it much easier to play, and a description of some of the ingame tools such as contracts.

Do not be intimidated by the raw amount of information below; this is designed as a reference guide, not as a primer. Just refer to each part when you need it - you may not need some of the resources below for days, weeks, or even months after beginning. This is by no means a complete list, and only contains what I believe is most relevant to new players.

Downloadable Tools/Online Resources

1. The EVE API[link]
   
   Creating an API key here will allow the various tools and websites later on to pull your information. Additionally, most corporations you apply to will require an API key in order to make sure you aren't a spy for an enemy faction. This might seem strange, but spies and corp thieves are very common. Note that no matter what, the API cannot be used to steal or manipulate anything ingame at all. It can only retrieve information.
2. EVE Fitting Tool[link] (Fitting manager)
   
   EFT is a tool that every pilot should have installed; not only will it allow you to see if everything will fit, but it will tell you how much damage you do, how much you can tank, how fast you can go, and nearly any other property of any ship you design. It can use the EVE API to show exactly how a ship will perform with your skills, as well. New players especially should attempt using the fitting tool before outfitting any ship, since they will typically have low fitting skills and may be surprised when a ship doesn't work as it should ingame.
   
   A Screenshot of EFT
   
   
3. EveMon Training Manager[link] (Skill Manager)
   
   EveMon is nearly a requirement for newer players, thanks to EVE's extremely complex skill system. Many corporations will give out downloadable "plans" that you can import into EveMon. These will tell you what skills will be required to train certain ships. You can also set your own goals for certain ships or modules, and the program will automatically spit out a list of skills needed. It also uses the API and will monitor your training, saying how much time each skill will take, your current progress, and it will even tell you if you can optimize your attributes for the plan via implants or neural remapping. 
   
   A screenshot of EveMon
4. EveMaps (website)[link]
   
   For the new player, this website is more of a curiosity than a required tool. It is, however, invaluable for researching a corporation before you join. You can see their growth history, tax rate, current size, CEO, alliance, and past alliances, as well as if they own any nullsec(lawless) space. You can also see maps of all of the regions, and the latest sovereignty changes.
5. Influence Map[link]
   
   Much like EveMaps, not a requirement for the new player, but a very interesting look at the map of EVE from an ownership perspective.
6. Eve Central[link]
   
   For the budding marketeer or trader, EVE-Central is invaluable. It allows you to check up-to-date prices throughout the cluster via a simple online search tool.
7. Eve-Kill[link]
   
   Eve-Kill is EVE's premiere "killboard," where you can find nearly every player loss in the past several years. It's a great place to scope out how a corporation is doing before you decide to join them; just use the search tool and type in the name of a corporation, and voila, you can see all their kills, losses, and efficiency.
8. Battleclinic Loadouts[link]
   
   A great place to find fittingsloadouts for any ship in the game. Be warned that anyone can post a fitting, so make sure to look at the reviews and ratings before you outfit your ship. 
   
   Example of a battleclinic loadout
9. Teamspeak 3 OR Mumble [links]
   
   While not technically EVE related programs, nearly every corporation will require that you have one of these two programs in order to chat with your corpmates and listen to fleet commands.

Fixing your ingame settings

1. Download an overview[link]
   
   When you first begin the game, you overview (the interface that shows you the world around you) isn't really set correctly. Friendlies will show up, allowing for confusion, and some of the important items for later PVP won't show up. It might not be incredibly important for the first few days, but you'll want to update your overview eventually.
   
   Once downloaded, save it into My Documents/EVE/overview. If this folder does not exist, create it. Then, log into the game, undock, and click on your overview settings, import overview, and choose the file. 
   
   
   
   
   
2. Fix your autopilot
   Fixing your autopilot will change your settings to choose the shortest route between two systems, instead of the safest. Only do this when you are no longer concerned about entering unsafe systems (low or nullsec).
   
   First press F10, then click on the "Autopilot" tab in the new popup window, then the "Settings" subtab. Click "prefer shortest" or whichever settings you would like.
3. Fix Local
   
   The local channel is vital for gathering intelligence, and so you want to see as many names as possible. By default your local channel will show portraits, which decreases the number of people you can see in your local channel. To fix this, refer to the below image and click "show compact member list."
   

Description of Ingame Tools

1. Corporation Tool (Menu -> Social)
1. Home tab
   
   This is where you see corporation bulletins. Typically, your corporation will put useful information here.
2. Recruitment tab
   
   Here, you will find the corporation search tool. This is an incredibly useful tool for new players that allows you to search corporations based on what you are interested in.
3. Wars tab
   
   The wars tab allows you to check on the current status of your wars, as well as to search if any other corporation, perhaps one you are applying to, has a war active. Wars simply mean that members of that corporation can be shot by their "war targets," even in safe space.
2. Contract tool (Menu -> Business)
   
   A "contract" in EVE is a mechanism that allows you to securely exchange items, cash, or enlist the services of a courier. It is essentially an agreement enforced by the game - people can assign you a contract with certain items and demand a certain amount of cash. You can also enlist the services of couriers, in which they haul items for you in exchange for a certain reward.
   
   People can and will scam you with the contracts system, however, these scams rely on you not noticing some critical aspect of a contract. Common examples include too many zeroes(something costs 1 billion instead of 1 million), item swapping (you buy Carbon instead of a Charon), etc.
1. Start tab
   
   This page simply shows how many contracts you can create and how many are assigned to your corporation/alliance.
2. My Contracts tab
   
   This page shows any contracts attributed to you.
3. Available Contracts tab
   
   This tool allows you to search contracts based on region, alliance/corporate availability, and by type of contract.
3. Agent finder tool (Menu -> business)
   
   Perhaps one of the most important tools for newbies, this tool allows you to search for agents (that give you quests or missions) within a certain amount of jumps, by faction, mission type, difficulty, and so on.

Hopefully this is a helpful compilation for those just beginning EVE! Feel free to give me any feedback you want to in the comments section!