Creating your persona

In most MMOs, the character creation process is one of, if not the most important decision you will make. In the past, this would have been true for EVE as well. However, in the current iteration of EVE, the character creation process is fun, detailed, beautiful to look at, and designed to allow you to truly create yourself, or the image of yourself in game, all without the fear and stress of creating the perfect character. All characters in EVE have the ability to undergo neural remapping, which gives you the ability to redistribute your attributes any way you like. We will look at neural remaps a little later in this chapter. So, rest assured you will be able to play any character that you create in any manner that you choose.

A word of caution however: all the choices you make are final. There is no going back after; in fact changing anything about your character is sort of like deleting the character and starting over. Given that EVE has a real-time skill training system, deleting your character any time after the first few months can be very costly. So please take things such as appearance, role-play possibilities, and anything else that may affect your enjoyment of your persona into account while creating your character.

Whether you are on a trial account and creating your first character, or on an existing account creating your second or third, let's create a character now to see what the process looks like and what things to be mindful of during the process.

Choosing one of the four

The first choice you will make is from which of the four major powers in New Eden your character comes from. These powers, the Amarr Empire, Caldari State, Gallente Federation, and Minmatar Republic, represent your racial choices within EVE. Each of these major powers has a unique story and a culture of its own. While this will have no impact on how much ISK you will make, it is going to be very important if you are interested in role-playing your character in any way.

As each of these empires evolved, they developed their own ideals in the design of their ships and weapon systems. It is important to take this into account as it determines the look of the ship, the type of defense your ship will utilize, and the kind of weapons you can use, at least in the beginning. With the ability to cross train into any and all types of ships and equipment, this will however have little to no impact on how much ISK you can make.

The Amarr Empire

The largest of the empires is the Amarr Empire. The Amarr are driven by their feverous religious beliefs and their strict feudal society structure. It is the belief of all Amarr that they are the rightful rulers of New Eden and they have conquered and enslaved many races of New Eden in a crusade, the Reclaiming. Only after a failed attempt to invade the reclusive Jovians, which led to a rebellion within the empire, did the aggressive conquering of the other races come to a halt. The main ethnic groups within the Amarr are the True Amarr, the Khanid, and the Ni-Kunni.

The Amarr prefer the use of energy weapons in their ship designs. This has the benefit of not needing ammo of any kind, but at the expense of massive energy needs. This heavy reliance on energy for their weapon systems have led the Amarr to develop ship designs relying on armor as the primary form of protection.

So if you want to fly ships in which armor is your primary defense, and that shoot lasers, then the Amarr would be a good choice for you.

The Caldari State

The Caldari State was born out of conflict and war. During the Caldari-Gallente War, the Caldari were forced from their home and exiled to settle in a new system, light years away. The Caldari are controlled by eight mega corporations, whose constant corporate conflicts have lead the Caldari to hold some of the most advanced technology in all of New Eden. Being constantly surrounded by conflict has led the Caldari to develop the strongest martial tradition in New Eden. No matter what the level of internal conflict, all Caldari stand united against any and all external threats. The Achura, the Civire, and the Deteis make up the main ethnic groups of the Caldari.

The advanced technology possessed by the Caldari has yielded ship designs with shield technology unrivalled in New Eden. The high cost of the energy needed to power a complex shield system has led the Caldari to rely upon missiles as their primary form of offence.

Pick the Caldari if you want to fly ships where shields are your primary defense and like the idea of firing salvo after salvo of missiles at your targets.

The Gallente Federation

The only empire to be founded upon the ideas of democracy is the Gallente Federation. It is an amazing story that the second largest empire in New Eden reached its size purely upon democratic principles. But while the Gallente may seem a beacon of hope and freedom in New Eden, it is not without its own dark times. The most notable of these dark times was the Caldari-Gallente War, which saw the displacement of the entire Caldari people. Known as a place for migrants and exiles, the Gallente, the Intaki, and the Jin-Mei form the primary ethnic makeup of the Gallente Federation.

The Gallente prefer the use of blasters on their ships. This gives the Gallente almost unrivalled strength in close range engagements. Preferring to fight at close range has also led to a heavy reliance on armor for defense. In an attempt to offset some of its limitations on medium and long range combat, the Gallente have incorporated the use of attack drones wherever possible.

If you like to fight up close and like to rely on armor to see you through a fight, then pick the Gallente. Also pick the Gallente if you like the idea of swarms of drones picking your targets apart.

The Minmatar Republic

The Minmatar is a group of free people who were living in a loose confederation of tribes, until they were enslaved by the Amarr during the Reclaiming. Never losing the desire to be free, the Minmatar fought back against the Amarr. Seizing upon a period of chaos after the defeat of the Amarr by the Jovians, the Minmatar rebelled against their masters. Unable to quell the rebellion due to the recent defeat by the Jovians, the Amarr were removed from Minmatar space and the Minmatar Republic was formed. The Brutor, the Sebiestor, and the Vherokior remain the major tribal groups within the Minmatar Republic.

Given the terrible conditions in which they lived while enslaved to the Amarr, the Minmatar have little in the way of technology or formalized ship designs. So the Minmatar built ships that used whatever technology or designs they could obtain from the other empires. As such you will see Minmatar ships utilize both shields and armor for defense and the older projectile weapons for offence.

The Minmatar will offer the most diverse choice in the types of ship to fly, so pick the Minmatar if you want to use projectile weapons and have a variety of defense choices.

To review:

Empire	Offense	Defense
Amarr	Lasers	Armor
Caldari	Missiles and Railguns	Shields
Gallente	Blasters and Drones	Armor
Minmatar	Projectiles	Armor and Shields

In the current iteration of EVE, the empire choice has no limitation on what you can do in game or how much ISK you can make, so pick the empire that you will enjoy the most.

Planning your character

The next step in the character creation process is picking one of the three main ethnic groups within each empire. For this guide we will pick the Caldari. As you can see in the next image, after selecting the Caldari State, we are presented with the choice of the Deteis, the Civire, or the Achura. The choice here is almost entirely for cosmetic and/or role-play purposes only. Your choice here will not have any far-reaching effect, one way or another, on your character.

After this selection comes the real fun part of the entire process. The actual character design portion of the creation process, as seen in the following screenshot, is the most detailed and beautiful of all MMOs. Take as much or as little time as you want in creating the ultimate image of your game persona.

Note

Feel free to play with the character creation as much as you like. You can always go back or forward a step by clicking the Back and Next buttons in the lower-right corner. Stop when you come to the Finalize screen; you will know this because the Next button will be replaced by the Finalize button, as this will complete the creation process.

The portrait studio

Once finished, you'll be taken to the portrait studio , in which you can pose your character and give it expression. You can also pick the background and the lighting for your character's portrait, as shown in the following screenshot. Once you are happy with the look, take a few snapshots and pick your favorite as your portrait.

Choosing your ancestry and education

The last thing to do, as shown in the following screenshot, is to pick the ancestry and education of your character. As with the ethnic group choice, these choices are only important from a role-playing perspective. The education choice, however, does determine the starting NPC corporation that your new character will be in. All new characters in EVE start in a corporation run by NPCs. This allows immediate interaction of players with one another. We will look at joining a player-run corporation in Chapter 7, I Can Has Friends.

Finally, give your persona a name. Pick anything you want, as long as it is clean and not distasteful. Now that your identity is done, finalize your choices and step into the world of EVE.