I and probably many others returned to Eve during the lockdowns of 2020. I never would have imagined that, as a proud introvert, I would one day find myself in a situation craving human interaction. My salvation came in the form of Eve, where shooting spaceships piloted by other nerds thankfully scratched that itch, allowing me to skulk back into blissful isolation.
But things had changed. Ten years had passed since I had last logged in. Why did I have two marauders in a backwater station throwing up fitting errors? Why did I have a cargo container stacked full of corpses? Some mysteries are thankfully lost to time.
Much like riding a bike, you never forget how to navigate Eve and its multitude of menus. The changes took some getting used to, sure. But easing myself back into it by trying activities that still felt familiar proved useful as stepping stones to newer content.
Soon I was exploring the Triglavian invasion and abyssal deadspace, experimenting with station trading, venturing into J-space and nullsec in search of data and relic sites. I built up a sense of which activities I enjoyed, which provided good ISK for the effort involved and which to avoid.
The meta had also changed, not that I was particularly clued into that when I'd last played. I could fit out a ship, but had no idea if the resulting stats were any good (was 74dps a lot?). I found myself referencing Eve Workbench (https://www.eveworkbench.com) for community fits. After a while, I felt comfortable enough to tweak the fits to better suit my needs. Now, I can confidently fit my ship from scratch.
All that to say, returning to Eve can be daunting. Start small, start familiar. Slowly branch out your activities, but be sure to branch out. Eve has so much to offer, and doing the same things you did last time you played is a recipe to take another hiatus.
