Essential Resources

…And I’m not talking ores.

When attempting to grab a new MMO space by the horns, one of the most vital, helpful, and educational steps to take are to know what resources are available to the community. Every game has a selection of “you must know about this” web-sites and apps (or mods), but a problem for new players is that most veterans take this information for granted, and its often widely assumed that all players have found it already. It’s not any fault of theirs, of course, but more that it takes time for a new player to wrap their head around the wealth of information inherent in an MMO’s community…so it may be months before they stumble upon one of these resources if they aren’t plainly told of it sooner.

In my short month playing EVE so far, I’ve found of few of these resources myself. I’m going to share my findings below. To any veterans: to help me and other new players, list any other website resources that are vital bookmarks/downloads for the new capsuleer in the comments, no matter how obvious it may be.

I’ll add any new submission to the link list for reference. If you know any new capsuleers, feel free to refer them here. For noobs by noobs, right? Thanks, and I hope this helps somebody out there.

Official EVE Sites or Related

• EVE Official Forums: CCP provided and moderated. The amount of good information to be found here should not be underestimated. Lots of activity, including the usual trolling and complaining, but hey, it wouldn’t be an official MMO forum otherwise.
• EON Magazine: The official physical magazine published by CCP quarterly. From what I hear, it’s beautifully made (extra glossy!) but lately some issues have run a little thin on content. It’s also a bit steep in price, but the trade of is no non-game-related advertising.
• EVE Forum Search: Since apparently the official forums have no functioning search feature, this website has been hugely indispensable in my short time playing the game. Its value speaks for itself.
• EVElopedia: The official EVE Wiki. It can be spotty in regards to consistency of information, but it covers a lot of bases and is an excellent place for new pilots to get answers.

Online Magazines/News

• Ten Ton Hammer: Aggregating news with some exclusive editorials and interviews that are worth a read. Also has a videos section.
• Battle-Clinic: OK for news, but best for their kill boards and ship fitting (loadouts) sections.
• EVE Mag: A smaller profile, more indie-style magazine that takes good writing submissions from regular players like you and I (but good quality control from what I’ve read). Some inconsistency with the frequency of publishing but plenty of older articles for new players to dig through.
• The New Edener: Another news site worth throwing in the mix.
• EVE Tribune: Weekly mag with player-written articles.

Tools & Applications

• Battle-Clinic Loadouts: View, create, and rate ship fittings. A great resource for those at a loss on how to make their boat the best at what they do.
• EVE Metrics: A web tool for EVE’conomists and market gurus. James Harrison is working valiantly on a 2.0 version that should see significant improvement. Definitely worth looking forward to.
• EVEmon: Probably the single most utilized desktop client in the EVE community other than the game itself. Track your skill training and plan to meet your goals as a pilot. This is a must-have if you’re on a PC.
• Charactr: An online alternative to EVEmon that can send helpful updates on skill training via SMS and email.
• Capsuleer: An iPhone/iPod Touch app that has shaken up the status quo on 3rd party tool development for the game, and given Mac users something to shake in the faces of their PC-playing peers. Still in its early stages of release, but already making waves. I anticipate this will be on the same “must-have” playing field of EVEmon in short time.
• Ship Identification Flash Cards and Quiz: Perfect tools for the budding scout or rookie pilot.

Maps, Charts, & Visuals

• EVE Maps: Beautifully made online map application.
• Player Influence Map: Sometimes referred to as “the map”, for its extremely useful rundown of who owns what in the ‘verse.
• EVE Ship Database: Want to know what a Titan looks like since you know you’ll never fly one? This is the place. A screenshot of every ship in the game.

Radio Stations & Streaming

• New Eden Radio: An up and coming radio station that is introducing more DJ’s by the day. If you don’t know the importance of listening to good music while playing EVE, then you really haven’t been playing long. Don’t get me wrong, the soundtrack is wonderful, but everyone needs to spice it up once in a while. (Check out Chainer on Thursday nights.. holler to my boi!)
• Eve Radio: A station that has been running for 3 years and counting, also rocking space-worthy jams.

Podcasts

• The Drone Bay (iTunes): CrazyKinux, Alsedrech, and Crovan have done something pretty special here, in my humble opinion. They have great dynamic, and going through the back-catalogue of episodes is extremely valuable (not to mention addictive) for new players. Lately they’ve been inconsistent with release times, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’ll be a thing of the past soon. A must-listen.
• Podded (iTunes): War Childe and Dillon Arklight go over the news in their fancy British accents. My personal favorite way to keep up with the player happenings in New Eden.
• Warp Drive Active (iTunes): Winterblink and Urban have more or less stopped podcasting since February aside from a short interview episode in May (I hope that changes!), but as with the others, back catalogs of podcasts are packed with invaluable history and information for new players. Lots of great listening here.

EVE Blog Community

• The EVE Player Blog Roll: And a post about EVE resources cannot be complete without CrazyKinux’s mastermind community experiment gone-wild: an attempted list of every EVE player blog on the internet. This is the new heart of the EVE community, and it’s only growing.
• The EVE Blog Pack: CrazyKinux’s other (smaller) list of the blogs he follows closely and post most frequently, that are conveniently packaged in both Google Reader feed format and OPML provided by Ga’len.

Other / Miscellaneous

• ISKsense: Like Google Adsense, but with kredits. Pay ISK to advertise on a network of websites, promote your corp or alliance, or monetize your own site.