EVE Dust 514 Beginner's Guide #2

EVE Dust 514 Beginner's Guide #2 by Veteran_counter logic

 

Ok guys so after surfing the forums since I started playing the beta I have noticed a lot of players that are new the EVE Universe are struggling to get their heads about all of this stuff(tm) that comes so naturally to us EVE players. So I am making this thread to help them out. I will be adding more as the days go by.

I would also like to ask devs to maybe if this thread proves useful to maybe sticky it so all new players can see it.

As well I would like any of you EVE players that notice something that I have missed or want to add something please post and I will edit in the things that look good to add. Also players that are new and have more questions I will look at those as well and try and help you out!

Disclaimer: initially typed late at night, please forgive grammar/spelling!

First some EVE lore:

Timeline of eve online lore thank you Miles Alari for suggesting this

The game is set thousands of years in the future in a distant galaxy. This galaxy is populated by a group of humans that were descendants of Earth colonizers that left earth and departed through A wormhole to this new universe they called New Eden. Things were all good for awhile until the Wormhole closed cutting off the inhabitants from the milky way. None of the worlds where developed enough to sutain the technology brought with the colonist. Many died centuries passed humanity survived. Technology did not. After thousands of years 4 main factions emerged and took to the skies once more and New Eden became sprawling with civilization.The main factions being Caldari, Amarr, Gallente, and Minmatar. There is a whole life time worth of history and lore surrounding each race so I will just TL;DR it.

Amarr are all very devoted to religion and believe they are the beacon of light in the universe and everyone should be like them. They are the most powerful faction in New Eden. They are usually associated with gold painted ships based around armor and lasers usually in a phallus shape.

The Caldari are a hyper sort of capitalistic society, very utilitarian, their government is mostly an oligarchy with a Caldari State banner but mostly ran by a few major corporations. They are usually associated with ships that use missiles lotsa shields and a very annoying battlecruiser class ship.

The Gallente are a very freedom oriented society, hedonistic, democratic, will spill their own blood to attain the freedom of others. They are associated with blasters, railguns, and armored ships. The Gallente are also known to use Drones as main armaments to their ships.

The Minmatar use to be enslaved to the Amarr Empire until the Gallente helped them fight a war to free themselves. The Minmatar are a tribal society and very well barbaric. They are larger than most other races and tend to not play well with others. They are the freedom fighters, the brutes, the bar fighters. They are associated with a mix of projectile and missile weapons (mostly projectile) a mix of armor and shield tanking ships (mostly shield). A lot of their ships are very good at fast hit and run tactics using kiting, overwhelming damage and speed to defeat opponents. By far my favorite race of ships to use in EVE

The galaxy in eve is divided into 3 main areas, High sec in this area players are “mostly” safe. I say mostly because EVE is a game based on brutality, trust, breaking of trust, and spaceships. It is a very dark world filled with many dangers the main of which is other players. While in high sec you feel the presence of a police force that will enforce the basic laws. As well as the looming sentry guns. But this will not save you from other players killing you in quick brutal ways. High sec will be where the “pub” games in Dust will occur. Low sec is another area in EVE it is a “less” safe area. You still have sentry guns but the police are not present to save you. This is where pirates live and thrive. They like to kill noobs. 0.0/null sec is the final frontier of eve so to speak. Kind of like the “endgame” it is where the alliances and corporations of eve go to do battle over resources and space. Many MLP spacedongs have met their end here. This is completely lawless and controlled almost entirely by players. There are a few regions where NPC Pirate factions hold territory but these are mostly considered pvp zones where anyone can go to pewpew. Low sec and 0.0 is where the clan/corporation battles will happen in dust.


FITTING/DROP SUITS

The fitting window is a lot of the time the scariest thing a non EVE player will see. I will try and dispel some of the magic and spreadsheet behind this thing.

Ok some fitting FAQ:

EVE Dust 514 Beginner's Guide #2 by 

 

1. Each drop suit will have different over-arching non specific play style associated with it.
2. Each player will tailor their skills to their own play style which they will then use to select and fit a drop suit or many suits.
3. You are BY NO MEANS restricted to one play style or one suit or one fit for a type of suit.
4. Each suit has different slot layouts, these slots are where you fit modules/equipment.
5. EACH ITEM/MODULE/SUIT/VEHICLE/EVERYTHING needs skills to be fitted/used with the exception of militia items.


SLOTS:

( - - ) = High-Powered Module's - Usually shield tank mods/ damage mods
( ' ) = Grenades not to be confused with low powered slots - put nads h'rr
( S ) = side arm slot – (currently) put pistols/ SMGs here
( ' ) = Low-Powered Module's - Usually Armor mods/drugs
( L ) = Light weapons - (currently) Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Snipers, Swarm Launchers
( H ) = Heavy weapons – (currently) HMG, Forge Gun as well as any light weapons
( box thing) = equipment - here you put things like Drop Uplinks (mobile spawn points), Remote Explosives, Nanite In

PowerGrid/CPU: Each module in the game requires powergrid and CPU. You only have so much in each suit and it can be modified by certain skills, to increase the suits total amount/reduce module need. You cannot go over this amount when fitting your suit so weigh the pros/cons of each mod to fit your play style. Drop suits: These are you and they are your weapons they are your armor and they are you. When you die your mind will be downloaded and will be deployed in another drop suit. Now for a quick overview of the currently available suits: I will overview each type of suit because I assume each race will get its variant. Then I will specify each currently available suit to maybe help you make a choice =) Assault Suits: If you prefer run and gun, want to be able to take a few hits and fit a decent tank/damage modifier. But still have some versatility and ability to lay down support such as mobile spawn points or nano hives. This might be your choice. It is a moderate base speed suit that packs a punch. Do not take this however as you are invincible. A heavy can still chew you up in just a few hits. But don't sweat it because your heavy hitting assault rifles can light him up like a Christmas tree. Caldari Assualt: You have more high powered module slots ( - - ) than most other suits, this allows you to fit more shield tanking modules or more damage mods if you desire. You will however not have many low slots ( ' )for armor tanking or other low slot oriented modules. You have a L slot which is a light weapon slot which you can fit light weapons (shotguns,assault-rifles, snipers,swarmlaunchers,etc) You cannot fit things that require a H slot or a heavy weapon slot (HMG,Forge gun,etc). You get 1 infantry equipment slot until the higher level variants of this suit. Scout Suits: If you want to be that sneaky fast tweaky bastard that no one can hit, or afford to be hit by. This suit might be for you. You are paper thin but fast as lightning. You specialize in flanking the enemy or just downright making them spin right round baby. You are the king of hit and run. Future releases promise the ability to cloak for this suit, Mostly associated with shotguns, and snipers due to the maneuverability and common conception of the name of the suit. If you take hits you will die. If you keep moving and play smart you will come out on top of any battle. Gallente Scout: You have an even number of High-Powered and Low-Powered module slots, for great diversity in fittings and to compensate for your very minimal tank. However beware when fitting armor mods in those lows. These modules induce a speed and mobility penalty!! You also get to utilize 1 equipment slot for some very nice possibilities of flanking the enemy and causing havoc in the rear maybe with a mobile spawn point to drop your team from behind or maybe high explosives to take out a tank. You have around the same PG and CPU of a Caldari Assault suit and can outrun any one on the battlefield. Get out there and race to victory.

Heavy Suits: You are the terror of the battlefield. The sight of you induces panic among the enemy ranks. You are a slow but heavily armored beast. You provide cover for your friendly suits and take the hits so they don't have to. Do not mistake this tank like behavior to mean a lack of firepower. You can carry Heavy Weapons which will tear apart the ranks of your enemy. Whether you carry a heavy machine gun to mow down enemy suits or a forge gun to defeat vehicles and enemy installations you are a very tough target. Do not mistake this for a win button. You can be destroyed in seconds by a well placed grenade a sneaky scout with explosives, team tactics, or even a very skilled player who will circle around you faster than you can turn. Do not despair at these flaws because you are a welcomed sight for friendlies and a sight of despair for any enemy. Amarr Heavy: This suit has a slot layout that caters to a heavy hitting armor tanked behemoth. You do however lack the slot for equipment but this is not a huge deal because you sport the H slot. In this slot you can fit weapons that will wreck havoc on the battlefield. You have a good amount of High-Powered module slots to fill with damage mods or even shield mods if you think that is right. You have more Low-Powered slots than most suits so you can armor tank your suit. The Amarr suit stays true to the lore when it comes to tanking. This suit Has ARMOR OF ARMOR, use it but do not use it lightly. You can take a lot of hits from most foes. But a few sniper rounds or grenades or even a high tier assault rifle in the hands of a marksman and you will be taken out very easily. So beware of your speed and positioning and you will kill at a whim and lead your team to victory. Logistics Suits: Akin to the medics and engineers of other games but rolled into one suit. You are the hero of the battlefield. You keep your team moving. You heal teammates, revive the dead, repair the vehicles, supply the ammo, plant the demo, make mobile spawn points. You are a Swiss army knife of a drop suite. You are not as paper thin as many will think. They will quickly pay for this with the right amount of gunfire. Not very utilized in the current stage of the beta with the lack of squad tactics but it is easy to see how essential this suit will be on the battlefields of null and low sec. It will take a special tactically team oriented player to suit up as logistics. Commanders will love you, enemies will loath you. Is the logistics suit right for you? Minmatar Logistics: This suit by far I think has the nicest yet puzzling slot layout. You have more High-Powered and Low-Powered slots than most other suits, you have MANY more equipment slots and your CPU rivals that of the heavy suit. I can see that some very interesting fits will come out of this suit. It is however focused on helping your team achieve victory. Most of this variant of suits has 3 equipment slots providing a lot of options to achieve your goal. Being Minmatar could maybe explain the even number of High-Powered and Low-Powered slots seeing as Minmatar can generally either armor or shield tank. You only have a Light Weapon and grenade slot as far as armament goes so keep a careful eye on your clip level. I have yet to play this suit so I do not have many play style tips or awesome hook lines, neither have I seen many people using it. It is so far a very under utilized suit due to not many mechanics in place to promote its use on a team level. Though I bet in a very team oriented environment this suit will be worth its weight in gold. Future patches will include a remote armor repairer to help repair your teammates armor actively during a fight. See where this is going? I look forward to many hours in this suit. It will cater to a very specific and small group of players just as the logistics ship in eve online does. Will you be a part of this close knit community of versatile players? FITS: Ok all well and good but how does this help me know what to fit, what setup I should use? Well there are currently x number of fits you can come up with because of the number of mods available. What is the fun of the beta though if you can't just figure it out yourself. When the game goes live there will be THOUSANDS of different load outs you will be able to create and customize. The best way to come up with a fit if you are completely lost is to decide. OK what is it I want to specialize in with this fit. Do I want to be a awesome flanker? Do I want to be a heavy hitter with a lot of tank? Do I want to be mobile and versatile? Do I want to perform a niche role? From here you will pick a suit. After you choose a suit that will best allow you to complete this goal you will fit it with the modules you will need. A weapon that will best suit you for this role you want. You will then decide....do I want to armor tank? Shield tank? Or both? Then you will decide how much of it you want to do. Bare in mind each will have its own draw backs. You will then decide on which of the many different modules, which will help me complete my goal? And that is the most I can help you with specific fits. Play with it mess around this is what the beta is for! make sure if you make fits to keep them stocked (see market info)

MARKET: OMG SCARY is what some will say. It is a very confusing thing if you are not from a game like EVE. Basically the market in dust will be the same as the market in EVE. Players will harvest resources in EVE and build things like tanks weapons modules etc. They will then put these items on the market for us grunts to buy and kill each other with. Here you will buy these items with ISK, which you gain from completing contracts or very generous eve/dust players, or with Aurum which is a currency you can buy WITH REAL MONEY to get side-grade weapons/items (not better than normal weapons but usually easier to access with lower skills). IT IS NOT PAY TO WIN BY ANY MEANS. When you first open the market you will see it is made up of many different tabs, some of which will seem familiar, weapons, drop suits, vehicles etc. Each tab when opened will open another subgroup of tabs. From here you will narrow down your search until you find the desired list of items. Once you find it you will see a list of many different items at different tiers. Militia (lowest tier) Standard (getting alittle better tier) Advanced (pretty good tier) Prototype (The best Tier right now). As you go up in tiers of items they will get progressively better and usually more expensive. Suits will have more slots/hp/speed etc, Weapons will do more damage or become more accurate. And Modules will become overall more useful. To discover how much better or what the skill requirements of each item is press the triangle button when highlighting the item. When you want to buy an item press x to confirm and it will ask you how many you want to buy. Now at first you might think. ???! Well don't be alarmed but Dust is a game of consequence. When you die (with the exception of militia items) YOU LOSE WHATEVER WAS FIT ON THAT SUIT/VEHICLE. It is gone forever. So everything needs to be stocked that you use. As you use your drop suits they will be destroyed when you are killed. SO MAKE SURE TO RESTOCK THEM VIA THE MARKET, THE FITTING WINDOW VIA RESTOCK (INCREASE ABOVE THE AMOUNT YOU ALREADY HAVE TO RESTOCK TO THAT AMOUNT), OR EVEN IN GAME VIA THE FITTING WINDOW. You can also buy/search through skills on the market, here you can see all of the skills currently in the game, more to be added soon. You can buy skill books here or via the available skills window on your skills tab in your character sheet. SKILLS: Dust is very different when it comes to skills. In Dust you gain skills by allocating sp (skill points). You gain a static amount every day/hour/minute/second this is a relatively low amount. You gain even more by playing the game and doing things in a match. After each match you will see you have gained X Sp and X Isk. This SP then gets added to your unallocated SP and your total SP. In your character sheet window under the skill tab you have two different tabs you can go between. The Current Skills tab which is a list of all skills that have been injected into your brain so to speak. These skills you can spend SP on to level up. Each skills can go from level 1-5 each progressively costing more SP. These skills are what make your character “better”. They improve the stats on your weapons. Reduce recoil/sway. Add HP to your suits, increase damage output of weapons. And UNLOCK NEW EQUIPMENT OR ITEMS. By training certain base skills such as engineering, drop suit command or vehicle command, you unlock the ability to train more skills. To see these skills you can currently buy and train you tab over to the Available skills tab. This tab will show your current skills and the skills you can buy and train. TO SEE A FULL LIST OF SKILLS AND TO SEE WHAT THEY REQUIRE TO BE TRAINED BEFORE GETTING ACCESS TO THEM CHECK THE MARKET TAB FOR SKILLS. Like I said before Every skills has a purpose. Whether it unlocks an item or improves your stats or improves the usefulness or ease of use of other items to give you AN EDGE NOT A GARUNTEED VICTORY. For example I want to use snipers a lot. I join a game drop into the match in that cool recon suit with the sniper. AND WOW DOES IT SUCK. I can't hit anything, the sway is so outrageous. This is something a lot of newer players complain about on the forums. They do this because they do not know that there is a skill that actually reduces the sway of the sniper rifle. By training the Sniper Operation to V and then training the Sniper Proficiency skill you can reduce the sway of the sniper rifle. These kind of things are done intentionally by CCP so Dust dose not turn into just another FPS where anyone can pick up a sniper and drop shot a bunch of noobs. The same goes for any other weapon. The weapons/modules/suits/vehicles will become more effective statistically the more you train skills. REMEMBER THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU TRAIN THE SKILLS DOES NOT MEAN YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY DO BETTER. How well you do depends on your fps skill in complement with the skills you have trained. Also remember that just because some dude has more SP than you doesn't mean he is a better player than you.

VEHICLES AND DROPS: You may be wondering, wow that tank just decimated my face and killed everyone in the room I am in. How do I get one? Well first you will want to train vehicle operation up and train for one of the vehicles. Then you will want to buy the vehicle via the market and fit it up just like you would a drop suit via the fitting tab on the main menu. Remember that just like drop suits you can run out of vehicles or modules for your vehicles if you don't keep them stocked. There are 3 main forms of vehicles: Air Ships: assault and logistics varients, operate similarly to helicopters HAV: Heavy Assault Vehicles, These are tanks. LAV: Light Assault vehicles, these are your jeeps. Now to get your vehicle in game, all you need to do is press the right button on the d-pad. This will bring up a options menu listing vehicles. Choose your vehicle and confirm. A transport will then drop off your vehicle at your current location. BEWARE as soon as it lands it is fair game to hop into. So make sure you are there to get in it so an ally doesn't steal it. Also be aware of where you are dropping it relative to the enemy. I say this not only because the enemy can hack it and steal it/blow it up, but because the drop ship bringing you your vehicle CAN BE SHOT DOWN. If this happens you just lost your vehicle. So beware if you like vehicle play and want to use your own vehicles on the battlefield. Use them carefully and stick with your team to be most effective on the battlefield! In future patches there will be installation drops, these will however only be available to commanders aboard the MCC!