I loaded up the free trial to EVE and went thru the starting tutorial quests which had me kill a pirate, then recover a document and then deliver the document - Easy!

The next mission had me head out to deep space and do something about a habitat - I can't get to the habitat because there are 2 ships inbetween it and I.  The 2 ships have me badly outclassed...like 10 to 1 - Not easy at all...insanely difficult!

I feel as if I've just learned how to eat with chopsticks and now someone wants me to kill a damn tiger with them.

Is this a bug?  Am I not supposed to do these quests?  What am I doing wrong? Is this a typical scenario with EVE?

I think by now you should have received a new ship, check that whilst in a hangar.

I forget exactly the name of the mission chain 'Cash for Capsuleers' or similar - It's a 10 mission chain and by the end of it you're basically ready to go with equipment, ships and ISK.

Sorry I don't remember the details exactly, it's been a while.

I found it impossibly difficult as well when I started.

My suggestion is this: go mine for a bit, or do a little bit of trading (buy stuff somewhere, fill cargo hold, move somewhere else).  Mining is the easiest option. 

Once you earn about 200-300k, use all of that money to buy a combat frigate.  Slap on either some armor plates or shield extenders, and buy some guns (try longer ranged weaponry like artillery or railguns).  Remember to insure the ship. 

You should be able to complete all your lvl 1 missions in that ship if you are careful and run when you have to.  Hint: docking at a station then undocking again replenishes your shields and capacitor to full.

if you need a hand, my ingame name is Tyr Dominator

message me and i'll come give you a hand

If you follow the mission chain given to you at the start, mostly courier iirc, the last one rewards you with a frigate.  the noob ship is not good for more than the first pirate encounter in the tutorial and the subsaquent courier missions.  Either that or do the above and purchase a frig.

You get 2 very easy missions, then you do a 10 part. The 2 very easy can be done in the noob ship with the noob gun and miner. Then you need to get a Frigate and some real guns. Continue to use Civ shield boosters and armor repair modules untill you can use named ones. This will get you through the 10/ 10 cash for capsuleers. There are plenty of frigates that go for 50K up to 150K and if you insure them, you will be fine. The biggest problem in the newest points of the game is the transition out of that noob ship and most important, that noob gun. It has a .5 damage multiplier and that translates to next to no damage. Dump that civillian gun asap.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I bought a Navitas frigate and put 2 railguns on it.  The 2 ships that were blocking me are now gone but the several others that were in the area started to head towards me so I had to warp away before I could take the habitat down.

I just bought an Incursus and am going to train up some of the gunnery skills so I have access to the bigger weapons.  While I wait for training i'm mining veldspar with the Navitas.

It'll take some time, but I'll get that pirate habitat yet.

<p>Incursus is probably the most rookie-friendly Gallente frigate.  With loads of SPs in the correct areas (which are not the same) it is eventually eclipsed by both the Tristan and the Imicus, but for people just starting out it's hard to beat.</p>
<p>Get Eve Fitting Tool and Evemon (Google 'em), they'll help you out a ton.  Just remember that anyone can be an EFT warrior - the DPS and tankage numbers.. they aren't estimates, but they do represent ideal conditions which never happen in any realistic circumstance.  You'll get a feel for it quick enough.</p>

Another good starting Friget is the Merlin a caldari frigate, it is cheap has a nice slot layout and the power to use them for a number of purposes.

    But if you want to keep with Gallentean I also have to say the Incursus is a great ship.

  I would try to train up to Cruiser as fast as possible an dthe Exequror is the best cruiser for this, it is cheap ( around 2mill, and with the payout of most  level 1 missions that will not take long)  and the skills are easy to get and train,

                     Gallente cruiser 1

                     Space Command 3 ( I think that you start with that skill)

                     Gallente Frigate 4 ( you start with that one)

                      Space Command 1

  So really for buying one skill book you have one of the best all round ships in the game ( personal opion lol) of cource this is a Jack-of-all-trade type ship, but for the price it does everything very well.

Well, I finally got the habitat

Turns out the other ships that started to close in on me were Initiates and didn't fare well against my railguns and howitzer.  I knocked them out before I tried for the habitat again - success.

My next mission has me kill pirates.  Most of them are soft targets except for two of them which were hitting me too hard and once again I had to warp away.  I figure I'll boost up my shields, look into a different ammunition type, and possibly look into drones...

Originally posted by F'lar

Another good starting Friget is the Merlin a caldari frigate, it is cheap has a nice slot layout and the power to use them for a number of purposes.

 

    But if you want to keep with Gallentean I also have to say the Incursus is a great ship.

 Yes, the incursus is the best gallente frigate out there.

  I would try to train up to Cruiser as fast as possible an dthe Exequror is the best cruiser for this,

WHOA, Stop right there, the exequror IS NOT, the best cruiser for that or for anything matter of fact, its the thorax/vexor

OP, I just wanted to say I salute your attitude about all of this.  Many people run into challenges in the tutorial and come to these forums to whine about how hard EVE is or that its too complicated to figure out.

Your willingness to stick to it and go back and try new things to overcome obstacles impresses me and I think you might just be perfect for the EVE universe.

Good luck and safe flying..... 

Originally posted by Kyleran

OP, I just wanted to say I salute your attitude about all of this.  Many people run into challenges in the tutorial and come to these forums to whine about how hard EVE is or that its too complicated to figure out.

Your willingness to stick to it and go back and try new things to overcome obstacles impresses me and I think you might just be perfect for the EVE universe.

Good luck and safe flying.....