New Member Guide

Welcome to Test Alliance Please Ignore! You've just joined a massive gaming community. Whether you're new to EVE or just new to TEST, there is a lot of information to take in. Please be patient, take things slow, and don't hesitate to ask for help. Especially when doing something for the first time.

Test Alliance Please Ignore is a nullsec pvp-focused alliance. There are plenty of things to do in our space that aren't PVP, but there is an expectation that you will make some effort to defend your home and help TEST achieve its goals by going on some (not all) fleets. Whether you choose to participate in large fleets or not, you are going to die – a lot – and that's okay.

This checklist will guide you through moving to the current alliance staging system (where most of us are located), joining chat channels, unfucking your overview, traveling to our space, setting up alliance services, training into ships we need, getting free stuff, going on fleets, and making some ISK. Holy shit, that's a lot.

TEST Alliance is a member of Winter Coalition. Please follow the steps outlined in this resource to gain access to coalition services.

TEST has a well-developed IT infrastructure to enable coordination, communication and community-building independent of the game client. This is necessary because Eve can sometimes experience unplanned downtime and instability.

As a new player you need to make sure that you're set up and ready to use these services, as TEST does the majority of its communication through these services.

• Read the TEST Alliance Bylaws

We use chat channels to separate different types of discussion. Pretty standard Internet stuff, really. These in-game channels should be enough to get you started while you're waiting for alliance services to activate. Full channel listing can be found at Chat Channels

• DeeDeeReddit - a troll-free help channel found in game and on Mumble. If you have questions, please ask.

• #shobon-helpdesk - the equivalent of DeeDeeReddit, but on Discord.

• Test_Free - the in game channel for our Test Free charity service. Test Free offers a selection of skill books, fully fit spaceships, and occasionally other items in our staging system.

• WC.West - Winter Coalition intel channel for Deklein & Pure Blind, where neutral/enemy activity in our space is reported

The default overview is good enough for high security space where a pilot's security status matters, but the rules of engagement in nullsec are usually based on standings. You need to configure your overview to prioritize displaying standings over security status so you don't accidentally shoot allies. The easiest way to do this is to load an overview pack.

• Join the in-game channel Z-S Overview, or SaraShawa-Overview; and follow the instructions in the channel MOTD.(DO NOT ENTER TEST ALLIANCE SPACE UNTIL YOU DO THIS)

• For a more detailed explanation of what this does, and why, read The Overview. Understanding how the overview works so you can create your own customized presets is one of the most powerful things you can learn in the game.

• Here are some additional things you may want to do to make your life easier: More Settings

There are multiple ways to get to TEST space.

• Consolidate your assets into a few locations. Later you can sell them in trade hubs like Jita and Amarr, have them shipped to TEST space, or just leave them as a safety net. (If you have already joined TEST, you can use public courier contracts to move your items around high-security space with less risk.)

• The easiest is to remotely set your home office to a location within TEST space. Be aware, remotely setting your home office is on a one-year timer when it's not to your school headquarters. Open your clone bay, change station, then set the station to one in TEST space. You can have your assets jump freighted to our space, or firesale it in high-sec before you move.

• You can travel down by gating. Your corporation has a home office set in game. That's probably very wrong. Don't go there. Instead, travel to where Test Alliance is currently located. The Where We Live wiki page is usually up to date unless we're involved in a fast-paced sovereignty war.

• Set your route to our current staging location by right-clicking on the location linked in the Alliance or DeeDeeReddit channel Message Of The Day(MOTD).

• Use tools like the in-game map, evemaps, and EVE Gatecamp Check to select systems for your Avoid list.

• Get in a cheap Frigate you don't love or a shuttle and fly gate-to-gate (never, ever, let Autopilot fly your ship).

• Stop at regular intervals in high security and low-security space to dock up, right-click on the station name in the upper left, and select Set Home Station to “save” your progress should you die.

• When you reach your destination, install your medical clone in our home station or citadel one last time.

• Another option is if you are familiar with wormholes and scanning, then travelling via Thera can save a lot of jumps. Refer to Thera Wormhole Map for current wormholes.

• Install a high-sec jump clone in a trade hub like Jita or Amarr. If your clone has expensive implants that you would rather not lose, jump out of that clone.

• At any moment Test Alliance Please Ignore is probably the target of at least one high-sec war declaration. You're now at war. You can now be shot by war targets in high security space without CONCORD intervention. Be careful.

Assuming you have already setup an AUTH Account you'll want to apply to a TEST Corporation with your characters. Refer to the How to apply to a member Corporation of the TEST alliance guide for a quick step by step.

After you are accepted, you should check out your corporations page in the wiki. It may have useful information on opportunities your corp provides, or just general info about how your corp is organized which is relevant for any new member. Find your corp in the list here

• TEST Freighters Please Ignore will move items between high security space and TEST space along predefined shipping routes for a reasonable price. (contracts to or from unapproved locations may not be fulfilled)

• See TEST Freighters Please Ignore for our current freight routes and detailed instructions.

• STRONGLY ENCOURAGED not to gate expensive stuff down from highsec, especially in this constellation unless you know what you are doing.

The TEST Skill Checker, found at skills.pleaseignore.com, tracks your training progress towards alliance skill plans. These skill plans range from guiding new players through their initial core skills to training into capital ships.

You're not expected to devote every moment of your skill queue to TEST. Just try to be able to fly something for every active doctrine, no matter how small. And don't forget to occasionally train things that just sound fun to you. Even if it doesn't get you closer to a doctrine ship.

• If you're an Alpha Clone, train the Alpha skill plan for your race.

• If you're an Omega Clone, train the 30D Plan. It sets the bare minimum expectation for support skills so our fleet commanders have a baseline for how fast the fleet can move, how far they can lock targets, etc.

• While training those starting skill plans, and maybe deciding to upgrade to an Omega clone, look at the Test Alliance Strategic Fleet Doctrines and choose where to train next. After finishing the 30D Plan, either train into a doctrine ship that looks appealing or train the 120D Plan to get into stealth bombers, interceptors, and a Vexor for ratting.

• Whether you import them yourselves using the alliance freight service, buy ships and modules from the local market, buy pre-fit ships from contracts, or are still requesting ships from Test Free, you should have your ships available before a fleet is formed. It's less stressful, and even just a few minutes of effort can usually make your purchase much cheaper.

• Fleet battles in EVE used to be people just undocking whatever ships were in their hangar and slugging it out in chaos. Things are much more civilized now, and we prefer to fly fleets using a selection of ships and fits that operate at a similar range and compliment each other.

• Strategic Fleet Doctrines ships are often sold pre-fit via Contracts.

• Import a doctrine fit from the Wiki to your saved fittings in game and purchase them with multibuy

OR

• Open the Contracts window from the Business section of your NeoCom. On the Available Contracts tab, enter the name of a ship hull in the Item Type field and select My Alliance from the Availability dropdown.

• Some contracts may be listed under Public Availability due to mistakes or out-of-alliance alts, but these results may also include bad contracts listed by neutral parties.

• After purchasing a ship from contracts, double-check its cargo hold to ensure the rigs are fit and that you have a sufficient variety and quantity of ammunition.

• Test Free is a charity program funded by member donations that provides free skill books and basic spaceships to members of Test Alliance Please Ignore. Most fleets can include some Test Free ships. If no hulls Test Free provides are listed on a doctrine's wiki page, in the fleet ping, nor in the fleet MOTD, ask your Fleet Commander what Test Free ships they will accept. When we run multiple fleets, or specific doctrines, Test Free ships may be excluded from some fleets.

• Join the in game channel Test_Free and follow the directions in the channel MOTD. Get free stuff

You joined TEST to play EVE Online with other members of TEST, right? Fleets come in many shapes and sizes, and cover a wide range of activities. While most fleets are for fun, Strategic Operations (StratOps) are often important fleets for securing or defending alliance assets. Your participation is expected if you are available, but Test Alliance Please Ignore has no mandatory participation requirements. Corporations within TEST may have their own policies. If in doubt, please contact your corporate leadership.

• Fleet pings - both planned and otherwise - will come from the Test Alliance discord server, and will usually include the fleet commander, the expected fleet doctrine, departure point (usually the alliance staging system), and expected departure time. Unless otherwise specified, most doctrines accept the usual array of tackle and EWAR support ships, so you will almost always have something to contribute even if you're not trained into the primary doctrine ships.

• The Fleet Finder tab of the Fleet window lists fleets that have been made available to you based on standings. Some of these are fleets you might want to join, but they may include fleets lead by unfriendly groups. It is a good idea to select My Alliance Fleets from the Scope dropdown most of the time. Be careful and pay attention; don't blindly join fleets. Click here to read more about the Standing Fleet that helps you to stay alive!

• Take some time to watch the Fleet 101 video.

You're probably going to want ISK to buy more spaceships. Don't let me stop you from dropping your hard-earned money on PLEX to fuel your addiction to explosions if that's what you're inclined to do. For everyone else, you might just have to actually play this game, and there's many opportunities to earn ISK. First may check the A Newbro Guide to Making ISK in Nullsec.

• Exploration involves flying around in sneaky, often defenseless, ships to scan down cosmic signatures and complete the hacking mini game for Data and Relic sites. You will also find Combat and Gas sites to run or whose locations you might be able to sell. Exploration risks very little ISK for inconsistent but potentially high rewards.

• Ratting is usually performed semi-AFK with drone ships. It isn't very exciting, but it offers consistent ISK often close to home.

• Mining is not quite as taboo as it once was. While it doesn't offer great ISK per hour compared to other professions without large skill and ISK investments, it benefits from safety in numbers. Locally sourced minerals also help keep our freighter pilots off suicide watch.

• Market importing requires having some ISK to invest, but the enterprising capsuleer can risk investing in useful items to grow their wealth.

Just please be sure to respect our diplomatic agreements while you are out raking in the space bucks.

• Read the Standing Orders