A Return to EVE Online
stargrace 
For a month or two now I have been missing my days in EVE Online. You may remember back when I used to play I was heavily involved in PI (which was relatively new at the time), invention, and my mining operation. I had just learned the skills required to fly a Tengu, which is a Caldari strategic cruiser. Beautiful ship, I had had my eye on it for months. In order to fly one you need a lot of skills and of course just flying one isn’t going to be enough, you’re going to want to find a fit for it, too. For me that took a bit of time, I had absolutely no skills placed in missiles, and the Tengu has 4 launcher slots (called hardpoints on the UI) and one turret hardpoint. It would be pretty important to be able to fit it with something useful. In my case I decided to go with a PvE fit, for flying missions. While the ‘main’ part of EVE Online that people tend to hear about is PVP, I don’t usually spend a lot of time in that sector. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy the game, it’s pretty open to what you decide you want to do.
Anyway. Before I left I had queued the skills I would need, and was just waiting on them to complete. Probably the reason I took my ‘break’ (I dislike waiting on skills). I’m pretty sure before the Tengu I was flying a Dominix, which is a great starter ship but I was using drones as my major offensive. Swapping from drones to missiles was an interesting change, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it.
Things have changed since last I played. Most notably, the UI. Invention (manufacturing, etc) is much easier to understand, and far more welcoming for newer players. The learning curve is still there, but not nearly as bad (IMO) as it used to be. When I returned to the game I tried to re-familiarize myself with everything without knowing what I was working on last time I was in game. It was a bit disorientating. With that being said, it was also much like riding a bike. Once you remember the basics you just get right back on. I decided to ease into things by doing a very easy L2 mission for Astral Mining Inc, security. I can’t do higher missions because I don’t have the faction required yet. The Tengu blew them away (they were simple kill missions, nothing fancy) and I felt a wee bit over powered. I then noticed that my faction for CreoDron was quite high, and noted that my Research & Development agents were all with CreoDron. You need faction to work with those ranks of agents as well, so I had probably been working on that at some point in time. You use R&D agents to earn RP, a currency that I spend to get datacores, which is used in crafting. There are lots of different types of datacores, used for everything in game from ships to ammo. I have enough faction with CreoDron to fly L3 missions (that’s level 3) which reward a great deal more than L2. Previously I would fly mining expeditions or delivery ones. Now that I’m flying a Tengu I decided I would try my hand at some security.
It took some time, but my first mission was an easy success. I had three points of enemies to destroy, and none of them got close enough to me to matter. I was able to heal myself just fine, salvaged and pillaged all the wrecks afterward for goodies that I can use in crafting, and had a lot of fun doing it. I know this is child’s play for many EVE Online players, but as a player just returning, and one who has never been in the thick of much combat before, I was pleased.
I believe probing has changed too, and there are now icons in the sky that I’m not familiar with, so I still have quite a bit of learning / refreshing to do. I miss my wurmhole expeditions, and I’m already contemplating re-activating my second account. For the time being I think I’m good with just the one, but it would certainly make mining operations smoother to have my miner / hauler duo going. I would typically run a hulk or ice miner on my 2nd account and run my Orca on the main account. In any case, it’s nice to be back, and I’ll be posting about my adventures (minus specific details of course, that’s just the way EVE is) here as always.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!