Now what?

[Jobu]

So my guy is about 3 days old... 150k skill points.

I'm at a point now where I'm building up my combat and utility skills, and learning skills. A lot of stuff is level 1 now, but it's spread wide across the board so I can use a lot of different things now and really rig up my ship with some good stuff (or at least, what I consider to be fun stuff).

So it seems all I can do is wait for my training to improve. But the waiting part is killing me. I have some agents in my system that keep giving me chumpy missions that are way too easy, and they keep repeating the same ones to me a lot. I've built my reputation up with one of them to 2.6, with 266 loyalty points. Do I just keep grinding through the agents? Are there lower security systems with better agents I should start moving too instead?

[Llyse]

You're currently doing missions for level 1 agents right?

They're pretty easy but grinding through them will be hella boring

what you can do is train Social to level 3, then connections to level 1 or 2 to get access to some level 2 agents.

Those will be a lot harder than level 1 missions in a frigate but it'll be pretty exciting.

While you're training Social and Connections if they take too long to wait you can try ratting in a low sec system with a frigate, insure it use standard mods if pirates come or the rats take you you'll get insurance money and I'll float you the insurance fee as well to cover module costs.

Hopefully if you're in f13 channel with the others like Roac you can join in some piracy fun  :-D

[Jobu]

You're currently doing missions for level 1 agents right?

Yeah, they are. The two I use are quality -6 and -12, whatever that means.

what you can do is train Social to level 3, then connections to level 1 or 2 to get access to some level 2 agents.
Those will be a lot harder than level 1 missions in a frigate but it'll be pretty exciting.

Jeez. There's a skill for everything, isn't there? You'd think this would be better documented or something. Or something like Civilization's tech tree for skills would be cool too, so you can see what you're missing out on, and plan for it. By a lot harder, do you mean I will die a lot, or I'll have to actually think about the fight? So far, it's mostly been silly drones that die in like 3 shots. It's pretty weak.

It sounds like there's no in-between for mission difficulty? I either get super-easy level 1 missions, or super-tough level 2 missions?

While you're training Social and Connections if they take too long to wait you can try ratting in a low sec system with a frigate, insure it use standard mods if pirates come or the rats take you you'll get insurance money and I'll float you the insurance fee as well to cover module costs.

Hopefully if you're in f13 channel with the others like Roac you can join in some piracy fun  :-D

Money's not a problem. Grinding these missions, I have built up to a million ISK. Plenty to insure my ship and buy all the goodies I am capable of using. I got a nice head start thanks to some generous donations. I'll try moving out to the lower sec systems (maybe .7?) and go hunting in the asteroid belts.

[Endie]

what you can do is train Social to level 3, then connections to level 1 or 2 to get access to some level 2 agents.
Those will be a lot harder than level 1 missions in a frigate but it'll be pretty exciting.

 By a lot harder, do you mean I will die a lot, or I'll have to actually think about the fight? So far, it's mostly been silly drones that die in like 3 shots. It's pretty weak.

With 150k skills and a frigate - even something like a Merlin - he means you will die trying to do the initial multi-part level 2 mission and will never complete it.  Wait until you are at least able to completely clear all the levels in Worlds Collide (a level one mission that you will get), as opposed to merely sprint through them.

The missions are a grind.  I take it you're doing security or internal security agent missions, though?  Don't end up doing delivery missions for marketing weasels.

The higher the quality of the agent, the better the rewards (although a -19 Level 2 agent is better than a +20 level 1).  The missions may be marginally harder but I couldn't tell.

[Roac]

Yeah, they are. The two I use are quality -6 and -12, whatever that means.

Level is an indicator of difficulty.  You shouldn't spend more than a week or so on level 1s - they're there just to get you started.  As a newb, level 2 missions are where it's at.  Quality measures how "good" an agent is, which translates to how much payout you get.  You are paid with cash (or sometimes item rewards), loyalty points (lp), and standing (corp and agent).  All of them go up with quality, but difficulty does not.  Meaning, a +20 quality gives the same difficulty as a -20 quality, but MUCH better payout.

So why not always use +20 agents?  Well, for one they're hard to find as there aren't many of them, and two you have to have enough factional OR corporate OR agent standing to use them.  For level 1s that's easy; if you did your newb tutorial training missions you started with +1 factional standing, which will give you access to all level 1 agents for your faction.  Because you want to increase standing quicker (as well as get more $$$), go with a higher quality lv1.  Only spend as much time as it takes to get a decent level 2 agent (say, -10 quality or so) and to purchase a cruiser.  To do it right you'll need about 5 million isk (the ship alone will cost you around 4).  You can bum in the F13 channel and I and a few others will chip in to help get you going.  Make sure you have enough combat skills to fly a cruiser too - the difference between that and a frigate is astounding, as is the payout from lv2 agents.

For help on agents, go to Eve Geek or Eve Info.  Both are decent player resources, and you can use them or their links to search for agents.  The databases aren't 100% accurate, but good enough to be usable.  You can also search for agents in game although it's a bit less sophisticated; open your profile, go down to Standings, and click the "i" button next to the faction you're doing missions for (faction = Caldari, Minmatar, etc).  Flip through the tabs and look for the list of corporations in that faction - these are all NPC corps.  You can then click on THOSE to see all the agents for that corp, divided by group.  For now, pick one corp and stick with it, so long as it's not the newbie corp.  Factional Navy is a decent choice because they are everywhere, if you're unsure what to do.  There is little practical difference between them, except for amount and location of agents. 

Jeez. There's a skill for everything, isn't there? You'd think this would be better documented or something. Or something like Civilization's tech tree for skills would be cool too, so you can see what you're missing out on, and plan for it.

The best tool I've seen for messing with skills is EveMon.  You can see all the skills, all the basic ships and items, skill requirements for them, and generate plans for training.  It will also make suggestions on learning skills.  Basically, if you click that you want to train say, 20 skills, it may figure that you'll actually save time by the end of it by training one of your learning skills (which give a bonus to your attributes or to learning speed) and suggest you add it.  The graphical representation of skill heirarchy and such is terribly useful too.  It will want your Eve login information, from which it will hit the Eve Online website to download your character XML bio to help you plan.  If you're shy about that, you can download the XML yourself (and periodically update it) and point EveMon to the file instead.

By a lot harder, do you mean I will die a lot, or I'll have to actually think about the fight? So far, it's mostly been silly drones that die in like 3 shots. It's pretty weak.

Level 1 missions are a joke.  Level 2 are not, at least when starting out.  You shouldn't die as long as you keep your head on, and remember that you can (and SHOULD) warp out if things get hairy.  Just return after you've patched up to pick up where you left off.  It's more fun in that there is somewhat a real risk of getting shot up at least until your skills develop, which is more interesting.  I died once or twice, but only because I got hung up on geometry (asteroids) while trying to warp out.  By the way, you can hit Ctl+space to cancel warp.  Terribly useful when your retarded ship AI wants to try and plot a warp right through an asteroid. 

It sounds like there's no in-between for mission difficulty? I either get super-easy level 1 missions, or super-tough level 2 missions?

They're not super tough.  I only did enough lv1s to afford the cost of a cruiser, then moved into them.  You can jump to asteroid belts and try to kill pirates (rats) instead of missions, and it's about the only "inbetween" you get, but I think hunting for and killing belt rats is painfully dull.  I doubt you'll have a problem with lv2s though.  If you're concerned about it though, you can head up my way and I can partner with you on a couple to help get your feet wet so long as you're working for Caldari State.  Or I can take you on a lv2, but you won't get the standings increase which is what you really want at this point.

[Jobu]

So why not always use +20 agents?  Well, for one they're hard to find as there aren't many of them, and two you have to have enough factional OR corporate OR agent standing to use them.  For level 1s that's easy; if you did your newb tutorial training missions you started with +1 factional standing, which will give you access to all level 1 agents for your faction. 

I never got that series of missions. Where you have like an 8 stop delivery mission, with an implant at the end as a reward? People in the chat channel were asking about whether I did it, but apparently that agent is bugged or broken? I tried going back to my starting base after last night's patch, but it was still the same. Guess I'm screwed, huh?

[Roac]

I never got that series of missions. Where you have like an 8 stop delivery mission, with an implant at the end as a reward? People in the chat channel were asking about whether I did it, but apparently that agent is bugged or broken? I tried going back to my starting base after last night's patch, but it was still the same. Guess I'm screwed, huh?

Yeah, they have you do a bunch of chump missions, then the last one is Worlds Collide which is hard, after which you get an implant that's useless except you can sell it for a mint, and gives you decent standings boost.

But it sounds like you're on the missions bandwagon anyway, it'll just be a bit to catch up.  You can train Connections skill to give you a head start, which gives you +% to everyone positive toward you.