Now that Eve Online is free to play. I thought it would be prudent to put together a basic starting skill plan for 30 days. As opposed to my older guide that was written for 14 day trial accounts. The same general idea of having a skill plan that provides you with the widest scope possible in training. This way you don't get pigeon holed into any specific role you don't understand. Let's get straight to the skill list and I will explain specifics after.Skills
Navigation 4 - 5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
CPU Management 4 - 5% bonus to ship CPU output per skill level. Used for fitting ships.
Power Grid Management 4 - 5% bonus to ship's powergrid output per skill level. Used for fitting ships.
Capacitor Management 4 - 5% bonus to capacitor capacity per skill level. Used to activate your ships modules.
Mechanics 4 - 5% bonus to structure hit points per skill level.
Hull Upgrades 4 - 5% bonus to armor hit points per skill level.
Shield Management 4 - 5% bonus to shield capacity per skill level.
Science 4 - Allows use of tractor beams among other things.
Repair Systems 4 - And no higher as it burns cap faster at 5
Spaceship Command 4 - 2% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
Target Management 3 - Increases maximum number of targets by 1 per level.
Warp Drive Operation 3 - 10% reduction to capacitor needed to warp per level.
Evasive Maneuvering 3 - 5% bonus to ship agility per level.
Afterburner 3 - 5% reduction to Afterburner duration and 10% reduction in Afterburner capacitor use per skill level.
Racial Frigate 4
See UniWiki Core Skills for an expanded list.
Keep in mind this is a general list that keeps you training skills all under level five. If you have an idea of the play style your looking to get involved in such as pvp by all means I would specialize as quickly as possible into a niche role you character will be strong at. This list is a suggestion, though these skills effect every ship you fly and you will eventually train them all to level 5.
Alternative Skills
Cybernetics 3 - Allows use of advanced implants.
Infomorph Psychology - 1 additional jump clone per level. Allows use of jump clones.
Drones 4 or 5 - 1 additional drone may be controlled per level. Allows use of drones.
Salvaging 3 - Increase in chance of successful salvage per level. Allows use of salvage module.
Gunnery 4 - 2% bonus to turret rate of fire per level. Allows use of turrets.
Missile Launcher Operation - I would stick to guns until you have a better idea of how the missile mechanics work in game.
Trade 3 - 4 extra market orders become possible at the same time per skill level.
Racial Ship Skills 4
Eve Mon
Eve Mon is the single best tool to use for creating skill plans. It lets you test out skill plans and gives you an idea of how much time it will take. It allows you to maximize attributes and remaps.Character Attributes and Remaps
This could be a guide all it own but I wanted to mention a few things. Your character has 5 attributes, you start out with them almost all even. Each skill has two attributes a primary one and a secondary one. The more points you have in a attribute the faster a skill trains that has that attribute. You can Remap attributes and redistribute 10 of them. When you start you can do this twice after you have used up all your remaps you only get a remap once a year (in real time 365 days). Note remaps do not stack. Each year(character creation date to character creation date) you get one chance to remap. So only remap if you know what your doing and have consulted Eve Mon.A quick example support skills and production skills are generally Int/Mem while gun, missile and ship skills are Per/Wil so you need to strike a balance in your remaps as you get started with the game.
A note about the skill que.
Alpha: You can que up to 24 hours worth of skills and your skills train at a slower pace than a subscription Omega player.Omega: You can que up as many hours or days of skill training as you want. The only limit is certain skills have prerequisites you have to train before you can que up that skill. This was not always the case the skill que used to be limited to 24 hours of skill training and long ago there was no skill que I believe.
What are implants?
Implants are worth mentioning because certain implants give you an increase to your attributes so your skills will train faster. Right now you can pick a set of +1 attribute implants for 300 or 400,000 isk.Can you lose skills points if your pod is destroyed?
You do not lose skills points if your pod is destroyed. You do lose your implants if your pod is destroyed. The game has been changed you use to lose skills points if you didn't purchase an updated medical clone with in-game isk this isn't the case anymore.
A note on skill training to make isk
Steer clear of mining if your only thinking about it to make money to fund your other activities. Why might you ask? Mining is time consuming and time is your currency as a gamer. Your putting off other more enjoyable activities to shot lasers at rocks. Now this only holds if your mining just to get some quick cash to do something else. If that is your mind set I would suggest ratting or missioning which allow you to focus your skill training in skills that will help you cross over to pvp much better than mining level 5. Also PI (planetary interaction) is good way to earn passive isk while doing more enjoyable activities. For example you want to get into industry and manufacturing I would point you to PI as opposed to mining.Plan, Plan, Plan
You need to start thinking about what it is you want to do in-game because you will run out of ideas of what to train real fast. I make skill plans in three month blocks, or yearly quarters to keep me focused. So think ahead what you want to do or what your going to be doing over the next three months and use Eve Mon to start coming up with a skill plan.What level to train skill "xyz" to?
Skill things up to level 4 until you get a good idea of what a skill does before pushing the long skill ques to level 5. A good rule of thumb unless you know what it does don't train it. Read about it first then train.How do you ever catch up to people who have been playing for so long?
Just because you can fly something doesn't mean you know what your doing. Low skilled characters can have just as much impact as older ones. Also I mentioned earlier specialize on a specific career path and within a month or two you can be flying a skilled stealth bomber and enjoying your game time just as much as the next person.Other Resources:
Eve Mon Download
UniWiki How to Use Eve Mon
UniWiki Basic Skills
UniWiki Core Skills - excellent resource for creating your first skill plan.
UniWiki Support Skills
Neural Remapping
Eve Prospers Industrial Alt Guide
UniWiki Mining Alt Guide
UniWiki Hauler Alt Guide
UniWiki Scanner Alt Guide
