EFT

EVE Fitting Tool (AKA EFT) is a program which allows you to fit a ship out of game without having to buy anything. It will tell you about important stats like capacitor, damage, and hitpoints, as well as skills you need to be able to use the fit.
This is the fitting screen of EFT. You can see the modules in the bar on the left, as well as key stats on the right. The CPU and power grid are at the top right corner, showing me how much I have left, or in this case, how much I'm missing.
Another nice feature in EFT is that you can mouse over the indicator light next to your character's name to see a list of skills you must train to be able to use the fit. The downfall to this feature is that it doesn't include electronics and engineering to meet the CPU and power grid requirements, so those must be calculated manually. It will also tell you which skills are needed for which modules, which I personally love about it. You can download EFT here. I recommend you do it now. Also, a quick tip, to make your character, go to View -> Character Editor and click Create new character. Type in your name and create it. Once it's made, click the Import button right under the create new character button and put in your API information.
That's it for this post. Good luck out there, and fly safe.

Finding Your Prey

To be able to PvP, you must first have an opponent. Pick a low-sec system (new players might want to start out with 0.4-0.2 sec) and get to it. Next, you want to make a safe spot. To do this, pick an object (let's say the first planet (NOTE: Remember, when warping to a planet, ALWAYS warp to within 100km)) and warp to it. Now, pick another object, farther away (for example the last planet). Warp to the second object. While warping, open the People and Places window, go to Places, and click Add Bookmark. Name it Safe Spot or any other name that suits you. Now, before you create the bookmark, wait until you're about half way through the warp. That way, you'll be far from almost everything you have to worry about.
Now, to find an opponent, right click in space and find the planet with the most asteroid belts around it. Warp to the planet and click the SCANNER button on the left side of your UI. Set the scan angle to 5, which is the lowest setting. Now, click on your ship, and you should get a little box in the middle of your screen. This will be what you use to aim your scan. Put the upside-down triangle icon of the belt in this box and scan. Make sure your range is set to maximum (put in a bunch of 9s in the range box and then click in space and it will set itself). The range on your scanner is 15 AU when at maximum.
Using this process, scan belts until you find one with a ship in it. Check out the type of ship, and right click -> show info it to make sure it's not a T2 ship. If you think you can take it, warp in and go for the kill.
That's it for finding someone to kill when out pirating. Check back soon, and fly safe.

The Art of the Tackle

The tackle is probably the most important part of PvP. It's a term that refers to engaging combat with the opponent. In a Frigate, you want to get within 10km (using your afterburner, of course) and begin the lock on. While you're locking on, activate your webber, scrammer, and guns. They will begin to blink on and off and will activate when the lock is complete.
Once you've engaged the target, orbit them at optimal range for your guns and keep firing. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put your shield booster/armor repairer yet. These are meant to provide a small boost in the time you will stay alive. Once you turn them on, your capacitor will drop like a rock.
Well, this is the end of this short post being that I'm short on time. I will post about Gallente/Amarr/Caldari PvP starters soon.

Fitting Your Ship

Fitting your ship is one of the most important things you need to do in EVE. A poorly fit ship can cause devastating consequences, and cost you time and money.
First of all, you need to choose turrets wisely. Faster ships like Frigates will want to use close range weapons like autocannons because closing distance isn't a problem for them. Ships like the Rifter are very good with autocannons because of their speed and maneuverability. On the other hand, a slower ship will want to use weapons like artillary for their long range capabilities.
A very important rule is to NEVER MIX GUNS! Mixing guns will give you different optimal ranges, meaning that you can't be shooting at your best. A very good technique for weapons is called grouping.
To group weapons, you can either shift+drag weapons together while fitting, or shift+drag weapons together in your UI while undocked. Once weapons are grouped, they fire at the same time, use the same ammunition, miss together, and hit together. This can increase your damage output nicely.
Once you have your high slots sorted out, it's time to fit the mid slots. A general rule for ship tanking type (ship tanking is where the ship will absorb damage - with shields or armor) is that a ship with more mid slots is a shield tank, while a ship with more low slots is an armor tank. With a ship like the Rifter, you can go either way. In the mid slots, you want to have an Afterburner or MWD (Micro Warpdrive). An Afterburner provides a little over 1/5 of the power that an MWD provides, but MWDs reduce the amount of capacitor you have my 25% and can't be used while being warp scrambled, making them severly handicapping. After you've installed your thrust booster, you need a warp scrambler. There are 2 kinds of warp scramblers: Warp Disruptors, which work from about 20km but can be countered with Warp Core Stabilizers, and Warp Scramblers, which have a range of about 10km but can't be countered. It's a good idea to use a Disruptor on slow ships and a Scrambler on faster ones.. If your ship is a shield tank, remember to add Shield Boosters and Shield Power Relays.
Now that your mid slots are covered, it's time for the low slots. Generally, not much stuff is put down here. You can use Bulkheads, which increase armor at the cost of mass, Nanofibers, which do the opposite, Gyrostabilizers, which increase Projectile Weapon damage (these are nice on Rifters if you can fit them), and Armor Plates and Armor Repairers. Since I'm an armor tank, I went with armor plating and an armor repairer.
On a quick side note, using a shield booster or armor repairer isn't something you should do in easy battles. These are meant to give you a few extra seconds of life to finish off an opponent. They drain your capacitor extremely quickly. If you are fighting and use up all your capacitor and are then ambushed, there's not much you can do to fight back.
Since you have all your slots covered, you need to decide what kind of ammo to use. Different ships are hit harder by different ammo types, but the way I decide is by range. For my turrets, I use EMP ammo, which gives me an optimal range of 500m, which makes me hard to hit if the enemy is using medium turrets because of their slow tracking speed. For my rocket launcher, I carry EMP rockets (Gremlins) and Kinetic rockets (Thorns). EMP does more damage to shields, while Kinetic does more damage to armor and hull. It's always a good idea to carry different kinds of ammo with you. I usually carry 1000+ of projectile ammo and 500+ of rockets.
Next time, I will post about tactics of engaging your target (also known as tackling). Send an EVEmail to Einar Flors if you have any questions, and remember, fly safe.

Starting Up a PvP Character

Hey everyone, welcome to Warp Scrambled. This is the first of hopefully many posts I will be putting here. This one is going to be about starting up a PvP character. It's actually not as hard as some people would believe it, although it will take some training and a lot of lost ships to get good at it.
Before we start, you must remember the golden rule of EVE: Never fly what you can't afford to lose!
The first thing you want to do is create your character. For the most part, a Minmatar character will excel at PvP because it gives you the opportunity to start off with the Rifter, the king of PvP frigates. You can also make a Gallente, which gives you the chance to use an Incursus, which is also a nice PvP ship. When choosing the bloodline and distributing attribute points, the general rule of thumb is Perception>Intelligence>Willpower>Memory.
Now, once you get your new character with his/her ship, it's time to start training. What you want is to put 3 autocannons and a rocket launcher on your Rifter, giving you close range weaponry and some fast side-DPS. Click here to see how I would recommend you fit your Rifter, although again, it is all up to personal preference. Don't forget to add a Warp Scrambler so you can stop the target from warping away. A Stasis Webifier will help you catch up to the target by slowing them down.
That's it for this first post. I will try and get a post up tomorrow detailing how to fit your ship better, as well as what you should train for. Send an EVEmail to Einar Flors if you have any questions, and fly safe.