***SOMETHING FUNKY HAPPENED TO CAUSE POST BEFORE I EVEN STARTED WRITING***

So, here is what I meant to have in here.

Something I see coming from a lot of the vets and this might be something that other nUb players feel.  Is the overwhelming urge and prompt to have you start specializing in whatever field you wish to do in EVE.  Whether it be industry or mining or combat PvE or combat PvP. 

Thing is, I dunno what I want to do yet. 

How is this going to affect my character? 

Can I dabble in most of the different areas and choose to specialize somewhere in the future? 

I may not like mining so, would it make me just want to quit if I spent all of my training time on various mining skillz only to find out mining makes my eyes bleed and I need to quit the game or face the daunting task f starting all over???

I was thnking that by dabbling a bit in everything that at least I can get a taste by mining and manufacturing my own ammunition for starters.  This gives me a reason to do the mining and industry as well as a use for the items I make besidess trying to figur out how that beast of a market system works.

I do understand that by specializing I can get to the higher end content faster but, I just keep thinking what if I do and find I HATE IT!??!??!?!!

Originally posted by NovaKayne

I

You just blew my mind!

Virtually everyone spends some time training skills that they end up not using much.

Lots of people mine early on then get into combat and never get into a barge again.

Unlike other games where you start down a track and you are STUCK on that track, you can do a 180 anytime in Eve.  The attribute remap makes that even easier.  Someone who mines for 3 months then starts training hardcore for combat will likely already have a number of useful skills to transfer, and you never lose old skills.  You have that "first career" in reserve if you want to do something like mine ice semi-afk while you study for exams.

I never felt like any of my SP were truly WASTED (except for a few prerequisite skills that were initially V and later dropped to IV.. "Survey V" FTW).  A good skillplan is great for moving ahead, but don't be afraid to just go try stuff out when you start.

I always told noobs in my corp that sub 900k skillpoints was the best time to go explore lowsec and 0.0... your clones are free, and you can drop you clone in any station safely regardless of whether or not it has cloning facilities.  I'd say find a fit on a basic ship you like, train the skills for the mods you need, then go looking for some trouble to get into.

Syndicate is always a good learning experience ; )

Originally posted by colddog

Originally posted by NovaKayne

I

 

You just blew my mind!

HEHEHE
 

TBH your post represents one of the basic misconceptions about this game IMHO. The game really shines in group play and very few people spend their time trying to decide what path to follow. Most people follow a certain path to help out a larger group. The question of specializations is further complicated by the fact that each specialization can be very different depending on the race you are using. End the end, people follow a path because they are flying with people who see the specialization a certain way and use it to a specific end. Specialization can (and should) be very unique to the people you fly with and relate to specific knowledge as much as anything.

TBH I really wouldn't worry so much about what to specialize, but instead try to find a diverse active group of pilots you can have success with.

Also some skills and specializations will always be good to have no matter what. Basic piloting skills and scanning/ probing come to mind. Plus, it only takes a very short time to train any skill to level 4 so there is no great loss there. Just save the 5 th level for things you are really sure about. : ]
 

on any sub capital ship you dont use more that 6/7 millions skill points when u are on a ship then all the "other" millions of SP are useless u change the ship some "other" skill get useless

Originally posted by NovaKayne

***SOMETHING FUNKY HAPPENED TO CAUSE POST BEFORE I EVEN STARTED WRITING***

 

So, here is what I meant to have in here.

 

Something I see coming from a lot of the vets and this might be something that other nUb players feel.  Is the overwhelming urge and prompt to have you start specializing in whatever field you wish to do in EVE.  Whether it be industry or mining or combat PvE or combat PvP. 

 

Thing is, I dunno what I want to do yet. 

 

How is this going to affect my character? 

 

Can I dabble in most of the different areas and choose to specialize somewhere in the future? 

 

I may not like mining so, would it make me just want to quit if I spent all of my training time on various mining skillz only to find out mining makes my eyes bleed and I need to quit the game or face the daunting task f starting all over???

 

I was thnking that by dabbling a bit in everything that at least I can get a taste by mining and manufacturing my own ammunition for starters.  This gives me a reason to do the mining and industry as well as a use for the items I make besidess trying to figur out how that beast of a market system works.

 

I do understand that by specializing I can get to the higher end content faster but, I just keep thinking what if I do and find I HATE IT!??!??!?!!

What is this "higher end content" you refer too...? As far as I know, EvE doen't have any.

Look into exploration and try sleeper hunting. Profitable AND fun.

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Originally posted by cosy
on any sub capital ship you dont use more that 6/7 millions skill points when u are on a ship then all the "other" millions of SP are useless u change the ship some "other" skill get useless

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EDIT:
Sorry, I misreaded your post.

SP intensity scales up with ship tech level and size.
When you consider combat ships, there are 3 major SP differences:

1) Spaceship command
2) Gunnery
2) Drones

Here are some numbers for gunnery skills:
Core skills that you will use with guns of all sizes: 6.656.000

Additionaly to core skills, you will need following SP to use the turrets at their max efficiency:
1.792.000 SP for small turrets
3.855.530 SP (527.530 in small turrets) for medium turrets
7.124.080 SP (1.220.550 + 527.530 in medium and small turrets) for large turrets

As you can see here, specialization speeds up the process quite a bit. Similar situation is for other fields I mentioned above - ie. vast majority of frigates won't benefit from drones skills at all while they are essential for almost every cruiser and mandatory for battleships.

The skills that are 'useless' are those SP that you devoted to certain specialization.

Try as many different aspects of the game as you want.  You cannot gimp your character, the worst thing that can happen is that you train a few skills that you never use again.

It shouldn't take too much time training into a particular area to get a decent feel for it.  If you don't like it, move onto something else.  The great part is that if you ever choose to go back and give it another try the skills will always be there.

So dabble away...

Another reason there might be an urge to specialize as soon as you start playing is that you have a bonus to you training time until you get 1.6mil skill points.  You can always change course and train whatever skills you want but if you start to specialize in the beginning the training bonus can give you a nice start into your chosen profession at that time.  If you train a big variety of skills, you get a taste of everything but your not as far along as someone who specialized in something.  In the long run it doesn't really matter though because you can always change paths and train something else in EVE