Skill Training for new Pilots and my Procurer

This is one of the hardest things for a new pilot to figure out.  Lots of options, and normally when you first fire up Eve it can be over whelming looking at everything.  So the TL:DR (too long didnt read) pick a ship you'd like fly and skill toward it.

High end corps/alliance/coalitions tell you what you will skill toward.  That's even if you make their SP (skill point) requirement!  

I take on brand a lot new pilots still in trial or just getting their first 30 days in.  I've been lucky some have stayed, and grown with us!  So the leadership will get asked what they should skill toward, to get better.   I ask what do they think they'd like to do.   Because at the end of the day if they aren't happy then they don't log in or work toward your goals at all. 

If I do make a suggestion I start with mining, or PvE especially with very new players.  Why? Because ask anyone PvP doesn't pay out for new pilots, and getting ISK early on is the name of the game.  My first suggestion is to create a goal, pick a ship you like that fits that role and start skilling to sit in it.  

We'll go with mining in this instance, and my suggestion as a goal for new members to skill towards.

The mighty Procurer!

Mining Barge bonuses (per skill level):

5% bonus to ship shield hitpoints

2% reduction in Strip Miner and Ice Harvester duration

Role Bonus:

150% bonus to Strip Miner yield

60% reduction in Ice Harvester duration and activation cost

50% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints

This is by far the ship for newer members.

Source of information from Eve Uni:

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Procurer

I am in the minority in fitting these or any mining ship, because I choose tank over all things.
So do not loose your mind when you see the fits I suggest!  That being said the below fit is optimized against ganking ships like the often used Catalyst, so Kinetic and Thermal damage is what we are tanking against in HiSec.  

Sub any T2 mod you cannot fit with a T1.

Hisec Procurer Ore/Ice Miner

High Slot - Ice or Ore Strip miner T1 or T2

Mid Slot -Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot -Kinetic Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot - Thermal Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot - Medium Shield Extender II

Low Slot - Damage Control Unit II
Low Slot - Ice Harvester Upgrade II or Ore Harvester Upgrade II

Drones: 5xHobgoblins

             5xSalvager drone*

*I like to collect salvage so I can build rigs with them.

Null Sec miner

High Slot - Ice or Ore Strip miner T1 or T2

Mid Slot -Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot -EM Invulnerability Field II
Mid Slot - User's choice
Mid Slot - Medium Shield Extender II

Low Slot - Damage Control Unit II
Low Slot - Ice Harvester Upgrade II or Ore Harvester Upgrade II

Drones:  5xWarriors *1

              5xEC-300 *2

*1 Warriors because are the fastest drone out there, and the best with keeping up with frigates, and Interceptors
*2 EC-300 If you are looking for a way out this is possibility if you are not looking for a fight and just getting out.

I am sure you can make all kinds of arguments as to why not to use these ships for mining, and you are right in a lot of instances.  The reality is if you want to minimize your chances of death from be it Neuts, or Suicide gankers.

How I do skilling has evolved, and will most likely cause the Eve L33t people to have a seizure.  I skill toward what I need or want at a given time, but it Alliance/Corp need or a ship I'd like to try out crazy I know!  Though I do it a bit differently I work week to week (does not work so well once you get to the longer skills) I work toward say flying a Gila.  I'll start working the requirements for that for a week, and once I finish that week I work toward Core skills following .

Core skills:  These vary just about everyone you talk to, but Eve University has a great list here:  http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Core_Skills

Basic top 5 skills:

Mechanics
Shield Management
Capacitor Management
CPU Management
Power Grid Management

Again the basic skills here, and only the beginning!

Anything after that, and skilling core skills on the Eve Uni list is a great start to helping you on your way with your path.

Basically go with whatever you want, but have a goal and work towards that.  Skill "core" skills as you can as they'll help you across the board.

Orion

How I came to Eve, and was told to be a CEO part 2

*Note please remember I am a former Infantry grunt be happy you get words in somewhat the right order alright?

Now to continue....

Recruiting:  From a very funny web comic you should check out if you're a nerd like me Ctrl+Alt+Del:
                                http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20120625

It's not as bad as all that, but it's not far off either....

Remember that recruiting channel I said you should have started? Well to do that you need to do a few things first.  Open the chat channels button on the left,and click Channels.  Once done I'd type something along the lines (Corp Name) Recruiting Channel.  I'd suggest only use this channel for recruiting do not make it a hangout so you can see if a new person joins immediately.  Click Create *We will come back to this later

Now take all the things I suggested earlier and be ready to put them in a recruiting advert.

Go to your corp tab on the NEOCOM on the left.  Click on the Recruitment tab, then Corporation Ads.

On the bottom left first thing you want to do if you want to be able to screen applicants is check the "Membership application enabled" box.

Now click on the Create Advert button it'll bring up another window.  Put a snazzy Ad title like Free Beer!  No not really unless you can then good on ya!  Put something on there you'd be looking for when joining or interest you.  Reason being you'd people that would join liking the same thing you do right?

Looking For 
On the Details tab on the right you'll see "Looking for and a drop down.  Click that arrow and you'll see at the time of this posting 3 areas.  PvE, PvP, Trade & Industry, and Other.  Choose the things you do or will do in the very near future.  Reason being is false advertising sucks, well unless that's what you are going for...

Area of Operations
Check the appropiate boxes and go to the next area " Area of Operations " or AO to us military folks.

Pretty straight forward on this selection check the area's you operate in.  I take it as where we run operations out of not to, meaning I do not claim low sec as an operating area if I only do a roam once in awhile.  If we had a station there we worked of or POS (player owned station) sure.

Languages
Select what applies to you, and your group.

Primary Time Zone
Use the sliding bar to mark out in Eve time when you, and your group are primarily on doing group stuff.

Secondary Time Zone
This is where I'd put your guys who are on later at night or earlier due to work or school.

Duration
Go ahead and go the full length of 28 days, and pay up the 7.5mil for the Ad.

Now the block I avoided the Message to Recruits
This is where I'd put your Purpose, Direction, and Motivation bit in.

State short term goals, long term goals, and Tax rate.

What you can provide to new or old players SRP (Ship Replacement Program)  Ore Buy back program, and so on.

If you are going to require API put the link to set one up in there, and if you do not know what an API is yourself.  Check out the link below, and also look up EveMon.  A great tool to check API's its not a catch all as there are ways to look innocent, but its something at least. I am sure there are other 3rd party programs, and please check them out I've only used this one so it's my base.  *If I can remember I'll post on checking people's API's via Evemon.

https://community.eveonline.com/support/api-key/

Put what you like on the message, but leaving it blank seems a waste.

Now to the next tab Recruiters!

Pick people you can trust, who know how the corp operations run, and who do not mind talking to people who may literally be 1 day old in game.

Pick them out hitting the Add button below your corp member list.  Next is Recruitment Channel (see told you we'd get back to it) use the drop down and pick the channel you created earlier.

Review for error's typos and such, and when ready click submit!

This what a potential recruit will see when looking for a corp through the search function.

What I have noticed when you hit membership milestones is when you start seeing more people put in applications or join your recruiting channel.  These normally are 10 50 and 100 respectively.

There are a ton of things in between, and around this I know I have missed, but if all else fails check out Eve University's Wiki There is no site for educating yourself on Eve Online out there.

If you'd like me to go back and cover something else when starting a corp. please let me know in the comments.  (sets rocks in front of crowd)....

Orion

How I came to Eve, and was told to be a CEO part 1

My uncle said I needed to try a space ship game he'd been playing....

  I was playing whatever iteration of FPS shooter at the time, and League of Legends (LoL), but being super competitive it went from fun gaming into anger/rage inducing moods. I needed a change of pace, RL was really getting to me (still is) at the time. My uncle had been bugging me for days to try Eve Online, and after the first 2 hours I do not think I'll stop playing till the servers shut down.  If you have not tried it give it a try:  https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=f9371051-e6cb-4b5d-97db-b5ba10f92922&action=buddy

So I hopped on the phone with my uncle, and his friend (Current mining director) talking about what we wanted to do in the game.  I would not join them till I finished all the tutorials, as I was just in awe at how open things seemed.   I highly suggest you do the same! Check them out and learn all the little bits of information, get some free stuff to!  

Having no idea we started skilling toward mining as a way to relax, and earn some isk. Paid for my subscription, and then was told I was going to start a corp 3 weeks into Eve......damn it....

Starting up:

I was told to start a corp as a 3 week old toon which took me a week to do since I had to do a few skills, and read up on it.  

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Corporation_Mechanics_101

Without the above Eve Uni Wiki it would have never happen!  Also checkout all their things out as their information is far better than a few Billion isk in your wallet. So I learned enough to get us started, but sadly sometimes even they leave things out that I had to learn the hard way.  I'll save some of those for another post for another date as I am still learning a lot of do not's. 

Things you'll want to think about are;  Purpose, Direction, and Motivation...  These things you'll want to think about even before you really even put a name to your corp.

Purpose:  What is your corp?  Pirate? Miners/Industry (really one is tied to the other), PvP, etc?

Direction:  This one is tough and was for me at first, but it was to grow into a support corp for a larger alliance that is going to do something note worthy.  So find a direction, and go for it, but do not be afraid to bend and reshape as things go on.  Not being able to adapt will leave your corp empty, and you looking for something else to do.

Motivation:  Take your motivation and project it to others.  Seems simple, but some don't respond the same way to whatever motivational tactic you are using.  Ore buy back program, Ship Replacement Program, and Fleet nights (or roams or whatever you call your gathering of members) are all good ways to motivate.  Contests if you are able to manage rewards and tracking for are also great to do.

Tips:

 Somethings I would suggest is save up your first 100 million isk so you can have options as you may want to rent your first office at a station, that may cost more than you would normally think.

Start off in a .7-.8 system.  This gets you away from the starting systems, and access to a better assortment of Ore's, and asteroid fields if you are looking to start off mining.  This will also in most cases from the area's I've visited have a better assortment of agents.  

Get off the pipe!  Meaning look for a low key system with little activity this helps as being seen a lot is not always a good thing for a very new corp starting out without veteran members to help guide your hand.  This will give you more time to get your feet wet so to speak, and really learning eve.  

Recruiting:

At first we just peer pressured all our friends, family, and co-workers to come play.  99% saw it as to hard, slow, boring, expensive, or to time consuming.  Which it can be all those things, and a lot worse, but it's so much more.  It has awe inspiring moments where you see your first Titan on field (still have not) or going to see the Titanomachy in B-R5RB.

                                                           Check that block!

Though we hit the jackpot for a new corporation, and that was having a member join with a Rl friend of a friend who had been playing for 6 years!  That in of itself is like someone giving you 100 million isk when you first start playing Eve (Love ya T).  Without him I would not have a 130 member corp with some of the best people I've come to know in a game.  

Grab up new players warp to belts in the starter systems, and adjacent ones.  Talk to them get them involved, or just give them advice from what you have learned so far.  I probably met more than half of my members in a belt and spent time mining with them chatting away.

Talk to them get to know them, and help them.  This can be in whatever form your corp is like PvP for example.  You blow up that 3 day old toon in the venture TALK TO HIM ya ASS!  Why?  Because that's all he knows is he got blow up not his new ship is toast, and now he is most likely lost.  If nothing else tell him what he did wrong or right so he is not clueless to what happen just that alone could go a long way.

                                                       Mining Frigate - ORE

What you do after that is your call it is Eve so there is a harshness that some just have to learn to figure it out fully sadly enough.

End Part 1

Orion

 

Bad day in the neighborhood

So here I am starting a Blog.....about Eve, about my trials, and tribulations that is being a CEO of a Corporation in Eve Online.   That being said this post will be terrible just warning you!

What the hell am I thinking!  I blame you Rixx!!!!

I wont start from the beginning yet because well tonight was a shit day RL and game wise.   Got a call of a spike in our home system so I undock my Gila and make speed there with 2 corpies.  We are new to the Null PvP game so for us its undock and defend our area for us.  Does not matter what, but if a Purple is tackled I, and those of us who can undock and roll.

                                                          (Gila-Faction- Cruiser)
                                                          Freaking love this ship

Sadly an Alliance member lost his ratting ship, and due to inexperience , and lack of leadership one of my corp mates drifted off stations and got his Hurricane popped.

                                             (Minmatar - Hurricane - Battle Cruiser)

So what I am to do?  He knows he made a mistake, but at the heart of lays a serious issue we are out of our depth without solid leadership on the PvP field.  I am still learning the game, and sadly due to my RL profession of being in the military that makes it tough to give a lot of time to this game that is rich and fulfilling in its own way.  It's bred into me to try an lead, but that's not my place in the Alliance yet...., but I do my best when on field with my guys to take charge and see what we can do for better or worse.

What happen after that you may ask?  Nothing my corp member logged upset at the loss, and the PvP director stood everyone down, and I did warped back bitter and angry. "Hurr tell him to HTFU!" I bet is what you hard line L33T PvP folks are thinking, but most of you all who will troll me most likely don't remember (or care to) the times where you had little to no isk.  Grinding to get the minerals or isk to buy your new ships, mods, and rigs.  So its a bitter taste for me and my guys to lose without gaining any kind of retribution, Kill Mail, or anything past one less ship.

So I will put a fresh Hurricane in his hanger that I had brought out, and go from there

So it was a bad day in the neighborhood, but just like Eve it's about learning from these mistakes then working through them.  I just hope I am up to the task of keeping my guys undocking even though it seems we lose more than we gain.

Orion.