Alot of love or hate posts here on the forums, not much substance. I want to share my experience in Eve with you. Maybe a noob will get some pointers. It's not typical. It's not glamorious. No epic fleet battles. For me Eve is just something to do instead of watching tv or going outside.

Background

I used to play SWG. Hardcore mode: main a squadleader/rifleman. Screw Jedi. I took over a city on Intrepid, rebuilt it from a dead hole to a thriving metropolis, I pushed the crafters to keep vendors stocked, I ran weekly events, monthly city meetings, we even had a space squadron. I all but controlled several niche markets, pvp'ed, adventured with my friends, and had a good time. Then the NGE hit.

My gaming group went to EQ2, but I had enough of SOE, and I like scifi. I did the Eve trial. I liked it and begged my group to join me. My gaming group just couldn't commit to Eve. They had to have grass under their feet. The only one who stuck with me regularly plays a few nights a week on a laptop while he plays EQ2 with everyone else on his main pc.

For the most part, I play solo. I learned the hard way. This is a brief story what I did, what I'm doing now, and some advice.

First months

When my friends ran the Eve trial I started a corp for us. It made it easier to share, and we could protect each other. First 15 of us, then 3, then really just me and my semi-comatose friend on a laptop who was also playing EQ2.

At the start, I realised you need isk to buy skills and ships, but I didn't have any isk. I worked on some low level missions, did some mining, and I bought what I could afford cheap then sold it elsewhere at a markup. Lost alot of ships in missions or lowsec runs. It always set me back a week.

I didn't specialise, I wanted to do everything. I could fly all the frigates, all the destroyers, use alot of the equipment modules, and use all the small guns.

Middle months

The transition from level 1 missions to level 2, again to level 3, then level 4 was a pain. Just because I could fly a crusier or a battleship didn't mean I could survive the hordes attacking me in a mission. Losing my cool new mission ship always set me back. I never got uber loot that you hear about.

Bought a mess of bpo's. Started with ammo I always used. Research time is crazy, almost stupid. Prolly my only complaint with the game mechanics.

I did some pvp from time to time. "Only use what you can afford to lose" is the mantra the vets spew, so I stuck to it. Needless to say, I learned solo pvp in a frigate or cruiser in lowsec results in 3-4 cruisers or battleships attacking me. I became expert in the art of running away or exploding quickly. Mythical 0.0 space was right out. I slipped past the gatecamps no problem. The rats were way to tough solo, the locals far to aggressive and numberless.

I did discover the fine art of stealing. Players often leave their loot laying around in multistage complexes, then come back for it. Miners would leave nice chunks of ore for me. Corps at war would find me scavaging their dead enemies, seconds after they exploded. Nothing gets the heart pumping like trying to slip away from a whole gang you just robbed.

While I mainly fly Gallante drone boats, I kept with not specialising. By this point I could use all the battleships or smaller, all the large guns, and much of the tech 2 equipment that didn't take months to train.

Last several months

Once I hit level 4 missions, and could solo them easily, I realised mining is just plain stupid. The mission loot and bounties makes me far more isk than anything I could mine in the same time. I made a list of the missions that were far to hard for the payoff and skip them. Why spend hours being bored mining when you can make 10 - 30 mil in an hour shooting stuff?

I finally got my Trade skills worked up enough. 100+ buy or sell orders, regional access, I can even buy or sell while in space. Hop to a different region and buy cheap skillbooks or tech 2 gear to resell for a huge markup. Buy orders set cheap, then resell or in many cases just reprocess crap and sell the minerals. If no one else has a buy order for that 5 mil module, someone will sell it to you for 100 isk. Not as fun as shooting stuff, but you can do it while waiting for your cap to recover during a mission or while trolling the forums.

Besides my laptop buddy who sometimes helps on tough level 4 missions every now and then, another friend joined our corp. He used to play years ago, really just shows up now to switch skills, but a couple times both of us went to pvp in 0.0. We ran from bigger groups, solo players ran from us. Yawn.

By this point I have a small fleet of ships scattered throughout Empire space. Always good to know I can recover in a few minutes should I lose a ship.

I'm planning to train tech 2 heavy drones or Gallante heavy assault ships soon, cant decide yet and either one is about 45 days to train, just finishing some minor skills for the next couple weeks anyway.

I have around a billion in assets scattered about empire space, 200 skills, 14.5 million skillpoints, and around 300 million isk in my wallet. The corp has small pile of tech 1 bpo's researched, and producing items for use or being copied for resale. Not as good as I could have done, but I'm happy and having fun.

Mistakes I made

Biggest mistake, I made a corp. I should have joined Eve University, a player run intro corp. EU would have taught me alot of the tricks I had to learn on my own over months. From there I should have joined an large lowsec or 0.0 corp who wanted noobs. My hangup is corps want you on voice comms when you play so you can help each other. I stayed away from them so I wouldn't lose touch with my old friends, and we have our own ventrilo server already. Listening to my friends talk about their elf in EQ2 doesn't help me in Eve.

I should have specialised. With my love of drones I should have just worked on getting into a Vexor drone cruiser, then either the Istar heavy assault ship or Dominix Battleship. From there, I should have just worked on their tech 2 guns, drones, and tank equipment. The trade skills are a good plus, but I really don't need or often use all the skills I have. I wasted time. Figure out what style you want to play and stick to it.

Suggestions

Complete the tutorial, don't skip it. After a week, redo the tutorial, you missed stuff the 1st time through.

Use evemon from day one. http://evemon.battleclinic.com/ If you don't, you're crazy. Even the devs use it.

Ignore mining. Unless you really love sitting there emptying your inventory every minute or three into another container. It's boring. More money in missions, belt rats, or loot. Refining skills are ok, as you can refine your loot if it doesn't sell for much. Once you know the market and have the skills its better to buyorder ore, refine it, then sell the minerals than to mine it yourself.

Salvage wrecks. Don't stick a salvager on your mission ship, just bookmark the wercks. After you complete the mission, use a destroyer or battlecruiser with a bunch of salvagers and tractor beams to clean up. It's much faster. If your a noob sell the bits, later buy the bpo's and make rigs and sell them.

Don't be a jerk. I try not to step on anyones toes too heavy on the market. I'm not verbaly abusive on local chat. If a pirate pops me I don't insult them. I don't try to ruin anyone. Steal jetcans or wreck loot if you can, but be nice while you do it. Those who are jerks always seem to get wardec'ed and constantly podded. You might get away with being a jerk in most mmo's, not in Eve.

Read the player made guides. The main website forums have a huge list of them stickied in almost every section. Player sites like eveinfo are great, if not always up to date. Some player made sites are made to work in the in-game browser.

Read the "EVE General Discussion" and "Crime and Punishment" sections of the main game forums. Don't post, just read. Alot of good info and tricks get mentioned there.

In conclusion

I don't suggest Eve purely solo. I couldn't do everything I have done without my semi-playing buddy helping to research bpo's and during some missions. If you are antisocial, you can play and enjoy the game though, just take your time.

The dev caught cheating makes no difference to me. I'm not a part of the alliance political system, and I doubt I'll ever be. IMHO, corp thieves have done more damage ruining the game for others.

One day, a hardcore scifi game will come out and have everything Eve has for space, and a ground game like SWG used to be. When that comes, I'm there. Until then, I may dabble in other mmo's, but I'll be in Eve.