An Eve Online pilot learns his skills in real time. Even though he can pay to train multiple skills at the same time, he must learn each skill individually. Focussing on the learning skills first reduces the time it takes for a player to learn important kills later.
How the System Works
Skills do not work the same way in Eve Online as they do in games like World of Warcraft or Runescape. Players learn the necessary skills from a trainer at a starbase. They do not spend the time grinding the skill and finding the components. Instead, each skill has a learning time associated with it. You will learn a skill in the amount of time the listing says it will take.
The real time learning frees players up for playing the more enjoyable portions of the game, or at least through getting through the portion of the game referred to as “fighting rats” more quickly. (This refers to fighting the pirate ships in the beginning areas of the game.) It takes real world time to learn skills in Eve Online.
Planning Ahead of Time
Because skills work differently in Eve Online than they do in other MMOs, it helps if a player makes plans about what he wants his character to do. The player race a pilot belongs to can help with the skill planning process. Gallente p layers will want drone skills, Minmatar p layers will want artillery skills, Amarr p layers will want laser skills, and Caldari p layers will want missile skills. Players should also decide what types of ships they want pilot as they will need the appropriate skills for each ship class.
A pilot can also buy cyberware to increase his base stats. Increasing a base stat decreases a character’s learning time for skills based on that statistic. Skills and cyberware are bought at faction starbases.
Starting your pilot’s education
Before increasing all other skills, a pilot should work on the skills that decrease the amount of time it takes him to learn.
• Instant Recall (Memory) Level 1
• Analytical Mind (Intelligence) Level 1
• Learning Level 1
• Instant Recall (Memory) Level 2
• Analytical Mind (Intelligence) Level 2
• Learning Level 2
• Instant Recall (Memory) Level 3
• Analytical Mind (Intelligence) Level 3
• Learning Level 3
• Instant Recall (Memory) Level 3
• Analytical Mind (Intelligence) Level 3
• Learning Level 3
• Instant Recall (Memory) Level 4
• Analytical Mind (Intelligence) Level 4
• Learning Level 4
A Few Tips and Tricks
Eve Online’s skill system does not allow players to come up with many tricks to make the learning process easier. The cyberware can be bought while learning other skills and does not affect skills that a character is learning already. The character will get the benefits from the cyberware when he learns the next skill on his list. (The author is not clear on this detail and welcomes reader clarification.)
There is no limit on the number of skills an Eve Online player may have, but if you do not intend to use a skill, it merely takes up a slot in learned skills. A player should put off learning skills he does not absolutely need until he finishes learning the skills on his chart. Because of the absence of a skill limit, purchasing a skill a player will never use only wastes that player’s isk.
General Eve Online Strategies
It can take a pilot a long time to learn the skills he needs. Deciding what skills your player will need can save an Eve pilot from wasting his time by learning how to do things he does not need. While Eve Online’s s kill system saves a lot of the skill grinding that players find annoying in other mmorpgs, it introduces some drawbacks that are unique to this space combat mmo. The system causes fewer annoyances than spending in-game time grinding. An Eve player cannot improve a skill simply by using it. In other mmorpgs, a player who spends time grinding a skill reaps the rewards for doing so.
A pilot can focus on the other more fun aspects of piloting starships in this spacefaring setting later. This includes setting up a galactic empire, engaging in player versus player raids, player versus environment raids, and trading throughout the universe. Exploration also accounts for a lot of the fun in the game. A pilot can still do these things while training his skills. He will just not be as good as a pilot who has invested the time in training.
