EVE Mining: Using Secure Containers vs Jetcans

Due to a rather limited cargohold capacity of mining ships (although better than cargohold of combat ships), you end up having to do multiple trips between the asteroid belts and the station. And unless you have someone with an industrial ship to haul your ore, you have to resort to storing your mined ore on location before you can hop over to your own industrial ship. As such, you have an option of storing your ore in either jettison canisters (jetcans) or secure containers. Here is the summary of pros and cons of each method.

Avoiding Pirates in High-Sec Space

Don't be baited by pirates. There's a few tricks they use to get you to attack them so that they can retaliate without getting killed by the CONCORD.

If you're a miner, the first thing they do is steal the ore from your jetcans. The moment they do that, they are flagged red for you. If you take that ore back ore if you fire on them, then they are free to attack you, and CONCORD won't interfere.

Also be wary of the pirate's corpmates, who may be nearby in the asteroid belt. If you take your ore back and try to run, then you will be flagged red for the entire corp and they will be free to attack you.

If instead of the jetcans, you are using the secure containers, then they may try to provoke you by shooting their own jet canisters. When they fire on a canister, they will be flagged red for nearby miners. Don't try to engage them, because they still can't attack you without CONCORD retaliation. And don't be afraid for your secure container, unlike in the case of the jetcans, the CONCORD will retaliate if they fire on it.

The pirates resort to conniving tricks in high-sec space to try to fight you. Rest assured, the CONCORD will step in and protect you if a pirate attacks you. Don't try to retaliate in cases other than a direct attack on you unless you're absolutely sure of being able to win, because otherwise you're on your own.

Character Creation

When it comes to character creation in EVE Online, there are ample opportunities to customize the look of your avatar. There are four races to choose from, each subdivided into three bloodlines, that are further subdivided into three different lineages and there is a unique background story for each of the choices at every turn of the character creation process. The look of each character can be morphed to your liking, although it is somewhat constrained to the overall look of the bloodline. Nevertheless, there are a lot of customization options to make your character look just the way you want to.

Keep in mind that once the character is created, you will not be able to change the character's name. It is possible to change the look of you character, but CCP charges a fee for that service and you will be limited to the same race and bloodline. If you are not satisfied with something, you will have to create a new character.

However, one thing to note is that you won't be seeing your character in game unless it is through the character information sheet. As much as a visual look and the background story of the character are important, the overall race/bloodline/lineage combination affects the character's attributes which have a direct impact on how fast you can train certain skills.

In EVE Online, you are never limited in what you can do in game with a particular character, but you may experience much longer skill training times. For example, it will take you longer to learn business skills with a character that is more suited for combat.

When you're first starting out, you may not know which aspect of EVE you like better or what you will ultimately end up doing in New Eden. For your first time, I would recommend selecting a very balanced character that would let you be the jack of all trades so that you could sample every gameplay aspect there is before focusing on something particular. Akita T wrote an excellent guide on new character creation. The article ranks different races and bloodlines according to versatility.

You should also read up on the background stories and look at the ships that each race manufactures to find out what you like more. Although any character can fly any ship in the game, you have to devote additional time to train ship command skills in order to fly the ships that are not of your race.

If you are more or less certain what you would like to do in game, then you can use third party tools such as EVEMon. There you can select which skills you want to train and the software will tell you the most suitable character you can pick.

Abundant Asteroid Belts

Shortly after getting more serious about mining, I have ran into a problem of asteroids being depleted very fast. I have chosen a system close to Jita for mining to save on the travel time, but as you can imagine, I was not the only one who likes being in close proximity to the trade hub. Although there are 7 asteroid belts in the system, there's no shortage of miners grabbing whatever ore they can get their hands on (not to mention a fair share of can-flippers roaming around, making jet-can mining impossible). So "the asteroid has been depleted" has become quite a familiar tune. Aside from the initial pride in the whole "I have just mined out the entire asteroid belt by myself!" feeling, the lack of ore has become quite an annoyance. But there are several ways to get a whole load of asteroids all to yourself.