The fallacies of skill training plans in EVE Online
by James Egan 
Sep 23rd 2008 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Tips and tricks, Opinion
New players to EVE Online invariably receive the same advice from those more experienced: train your learning skills as soon as possible. Each skill level gained in the learning category adds a point to an attribute linked to that skill. Attributes determine your skill training times, so by boosting your attributes as high as you can, as fast as you can, you dramatically reduce your skill training times further down the road. This becomes especially noticeable when training higher ranked skills. But Dee Carson, from the Miner With Fangs blog, says that diving right into training your learning skills instead of getting a feel for the game can be a mistake. He should know. Carson is a director of EVE University, a corp that has trained thousands of new players since its inception and helped them to become competent pilots.
Carson points out that training up learning skills right off the bat serves to crush a new player's interest in the game. In those first weeks and months, when players could be out trying new things in EVE, they're limited by the fact that they're simply not progressing in any noticeable way. Yes, training up your learning skills is important if you're in for the long-term, but for those just trying out the game, locking yourself into skills that don't unlock new ships and modules kills the fun.
Not all players are able to plan out their long-term goals when they're starting out. Nor should they. Carson writes, "They seek a roadmap of specific steps to allow them to reach an undetermined future goal in the minimum amount of time. EVE doesn't work that way." It's a game, not a job. Your interests will change over time and so will your style of play. If you're not having fun, you should step away from what you're locking yourself into and go with what seems like more fun.
Some players take the opposite approach, however, and train whatever their heart desires, ending up with a plethora of partially trained skills that are all over the place. The ideal then should be a middle-of-the-road approach, according to Carson. He has a number of suggestions about diversifying your skill training and incorporating enough flexibility to keep the game interesting while ensuring you're moving ahead. It's well worth a look if you're a newer player or are considering playing EVE for the first time.
[Via CrazyKinux]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
W. Graves said on 7:25PM 9-23-2008
The best way (i found) is to train the skills you need to fly what you want to and use the rest of the time to train learning skills, I still got mine done in the first 2 months ish.
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James Egan said on 7:31PM 9-23-2008
I bit the bullet and just did the basic and advanced learning skills in the beginning. I went off track a bit to train up what I needed to here and there, just for fun or to see what some ships/modules were like. In my case, it didn't kill my interest in the game. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else though.
Weiser_Cain said on 1:12AM 9-24-2008
All this is missing the bigger problem of not being able to level quickly at the start to get the feel of the game and it's system. I tried to get into this game twice and it was just so dull and I felt disconnected from my advancement.
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K Whitt said on 5:05AM 9-24-2008
I'll have to agree. I've put myself through the waiting and got to a point where I have some nice skills, all I do though is run a mission here or there or farm low level Deadspace marker pirate zones and salvage the hundreds of little corpses for cash and parts.
The massive disconnect in noticeable improvements from training and the huge time/cash risk you take every time you fly into low/null-sec is also a big turn-off for most newer and sometimes even experienced players.
Then again, I suppose they are looking for hardcore folks, who play with either fleet or unique (and to be nerfed) tactics. They have stated they want people playing rather than just logging in to change their skill training, but for the first month or so, that is seemingly all there is to do.... that or mine low lvl ores in over-farmed high-sec zones.
mbp said on 2:14PM 9-24-2008
I started off training random skills but luckily within a couple of week I discovered EVE Mon and that sorted me out.
I pick a goal I can achieve in a medium time scale (few weeks to a few months) and let EVE Mon recommend a training plan to get me there. This approach led me through cruiser training, then battle cruiser training and then battleship training.
Merely by following EVE MON's recommendations. I have got all my learning skills up to 4 except for the social stuff.
Level 4 seems to be a sweet spot for learning skills. Playing around with EVE MON I found that increasing them to level 5 takes more time that it saves unless my training plan is very long (greater than 1 year).
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Winterblink said on 8:30AM 9-24-2008
Lower levels of learning skills take minutes and hours to complete, not days, and shave time off of other skills you intend to train. It's not like players are gimping themselves later by doing so, as it's pointed out for the long term it's advantageous to train them up as needed.
For TRIAL users, I can't see a point to them doing the Learning skills. IMHO, they should be training up whatever skills they want to be able to give them an indication of what the game is like, and if that means skipping Learning in favor of Gunnery or ship skills then so be it.
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James Egan said on 11:45AM 9-24-2008
No doubt a few initial levels of learning skills is really fast and there's no reason *not* to train them. But if going for 4 basic/3 advanced to boost each attribute (except Charisma) it's still going to take a while. I went 5/4 - again, lower Charisma-focused skills - but I'm in for the long haul so I know it wasn't time wasted. It did take me quite a while though.
Dee Carson said on 11:24AM 9-24-2008
Thanks for the spotlight and to CrazyKinux for his work as well!
Over the past four years, Eve University has helped thousands of pilots get quickly assimilated into the Eve-verse. Because we help pilots explore all the different careers in Eve, we see players change their minds frequently in the first few weeks about what really interests them. Being mindful that most folks don't want to pay real money and not get to have fun, we try to take a balanced approach to the advice we give. Some choose to take the long view from the very start. Others search around for a bit until they find a calling and then seek an optimal path.
The key is, there is no single 'right' answer. Each person chooses what makes them most excited about their personal game time.
For many of us, that is the real hook of Eve.
Regards,
Dee Carson
Director of Operations
Eve University
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Drew said on 2:44PM 9-24-2008
I tend to agree that training learning skills does kill the fun in the beginning. I suggest training up your ship and drone skills so you at least experience combat early. It is also a good idea to use a Macro Miner or Skill Trainer if you are low on time (www.simpleminer.com)
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3up said on 4:02AM 10-18-2008
People fuss too much about attributes. As long as a given stat isn't at something low like 3, you probably aren't going to notice more than a few minutes difference from training Learning stuff.
For example, who cares if it takes 15 minutes or 20?
Learning Skills and Implants are really only for affecting long term goals, and you can use EVEmon to figure out that stuff. Heck, attributes don't even affect most things THAT much... who cares if it takes 300 days or 347 days? It's still a year; you're only reducing the time because you may as well.
Like the article said, it's more important to get those easy level 1, 2, and 3 skills right away, and start breaking some eggs.
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