Last Updated on 2024-09-25 by Kshal Aideron

My name is Kshal Aideron and I began my journey in Eve Online back in late January 2020. While I might not have the same tenure as some of the FCs (fleet commanders), CEOs or content creators, I’m no longer the “newbie” I once was. However, since I work heavily with new players, I still get to witness a player’s first time in a number of areas in the game.

Kshal’s Personal Accomplishments:

• Streaming on Twitch: 1 day into playing
• Solo PVP: 1 week into playing
• First NPSI PVP Fleet: 1 month into playing
• Scouting in NPSI Fleets: 2 months into playing
• Join a Player Corp: 6 months into playing
• FC’d for Corp: 7 months into playing
• FC’d for NPSI Community: 8 months into playing
• Started Youtube Channel: 1 year into playing
• Started Eve Rookies Incursions: 1.3 years into playing
• Ran for CSM17: 2 years into playing (eliminated in position #20)
• Presented at Fanfest 2023: 3.5 years into playing
• Ran for and Was Picked by CCP for CSM18: 3.5 years into playing (“eliminated” in position #19)
• Presented at Eve Amsterdam 2024: 4.5 years into playing

Kshal’s Community Building Accomplishments:

• 1st Round of Newbro Friendly Incursions: 11 months into playing
• Started Eve Rookies Incursions: 1.3 years into playing
• Eve Rookies Becomes Official Community: 2.9 years into playing (1.7 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Discord Hits 1k Members: 3 years into playing (1.10 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Branches into Industry and Mining: 3 years into playing (1.10 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Ran the First Mission Fleet: 3 years into playing (1.10 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Ran the First Ratting Fleet: 3.3 years into playing (2.1 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Discord Hits 2k Members: 3.10 years into playing (2.8 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Ran the First HQ Incursion Fleet: 4.4 years into playing (3.2 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Ran the First Class: 4.7 years into playing (3.5 years of Eve Rookies)
• Eve Rookies Discord Hits 3k Members: 4.8 years into playing (3.6 years of Eve Rookies)

Eve Rookies currently has 73+ FCs, JFCs, and Ambassadors in its Leadership team. In 2024 alone we have ran 419 fleets which averages out to 46 fleets a month. We’ve seen 1134 unique individuals show up for those 419 fleets. That’s an average of 126 people showing up to fleets they’ve never flown in each month.

Third Time’s a Charm

January 2020 wasn’t my first time installing Eve Online. In fact, it wasn’t even the second. It was the third and final time.

My first experience with the game dates back to 2015, when some friends invited my husband and me to join them. While a GM reached out to help my husband get started, I found myself stuck. Two hours in, and I still hadn’t figured out how to undock. Frustrated beyond belief, I rage uninstalled the game, convinced Eve wasn’t for me.

A while later, my husband told me that Eve had introduced alpha accounts, making it free to play up to a point. They’d even added a basic tutorial, so I decided to try again. This time, I managed to undock, but the tutorial left me more confused than ever. I had no idea where to go or what to do. I drifted aimlessly in space until something came along and blew me up. Defeated, I uninstalled the game for the second time.

In 2019, a programmer started working for my main client, and we quickly bonded over video games. He mentioned playing “the hardest MMO out there,” and I immediately knew it was Eve. Despite my two rage uninstalls, Eve kept creeping back into my life. Between my husband’s stories, the programmer’s enthusiasm, and even YouTube content recommendations, I couldn’t escape it. I eventually gave in and reinstalled Eve in January 2020, hoping this time would be different.

Spoiler alert – it was.

High Sec PVE Experience

Over the past 4.5 years, my knowledge and experience with High Sec PVE mechanics have grown significantly.

In the early days, I started with ratting during career missions and quickly moved on to combat missions. Not long after, my husband and our programmer friend left Nullsec to join me in High Sec, and we all learned a few lessons…like the importance of setting your safety to green, after both of them managed to get CONCORDed. Those early days were filled with trial and error, but they laid the foundation for my deeper understanding of High Sec mechanics.

As time passed, my focus on High Sec expanded well beyond those initial challenges. I’ve immersed myself in nearly every aspect of High Sec PVE content (no, I haven’t gotten into HS wardec mechanics), from mission running to incursions. In fact, High Sec has become the central hub for Eve Rookies, where 75% of our fleets are run.

From Solo to Squad: My PVP Journey in Eve Online

In nearly every MMO I’ve played, PVP has been my go-to. With Eve being renowned for its PVP, it only took me a week to hop into my first PVP ship: a humble T1 frigate, the Incursus. My husband bought me 20 of them and sent me off to Tama.

While I didn’t win any of my early solo fights, I noticed each bout got better. However, concepts like tackle and transversal were foreign to me, until I discovered the NPSI community.

Not Purple, Shoot It: Discovering NPSI

The NPSI community (Not Purple, Shoot It) is made up of groups that organize public fleets where anyone can join, similar to pickup raids in other MMOs.

My first taste of NPSI came about a month into playing Eve when I watched an interview between content creator Jin’taan and GreyGal, CEO of Redemption Road. Once a month, GreyGal would gather as many new players as she could and take them on a roam into Nullsec. She provided free destroyers, gave a quick PVP 101, and led us to our inevitable destruction.

I went on my first roam with GreyGal about a month and a half into the game. Although I didn’t understand half of what she was talking about, my first PVP encounter with a smart-bombing Praxis was unforgettable. We engaged, we blew up, and we laughed before shipping up and heading out again.

I soon started joining weekly fleets with another FC from Redemption Road. Even though I struggled to understand his accent and still had little clue what I was doing, I started learning how to tackle in my trusty Incursus. Week by week, I got better, finally landing on kills instead of just dying. By then, I was hooked on NPSI PVP.

Scouting: Trial by Fire

At two months old in Eve, I somehow found myself scouting for Redemption Road. It all started when I skilled into interceptors to run a story arc that took me into NPC nullsec. Interceptors are fast, and since Redemption Road roams staged out of Berta, I used mine to quickly get to fleets when I forgot to set a jump clone.

One day, an FC noticed me in my interceptor and moved me to the skirmish squad. Panic set in. I remember asking in a high-pitched voice why I’d been placed there. He reassured me: all I had to do was jump into systems and report what I saw. No actual hunting was required.

As I flew with some of the best scouts in the NPSI community, I started learning how to find targets and get them tackled for the fleet.

FUN Inc: The Group I Didn’t Know I Needed

A few months after I started flying with Redemption Road, someone suggested I try flying with another NPSI group: FUN Inc. Many of their pilots supported Redemption Road fleets, so joining a FUN fleet felt like a natural step.

After several fleets, I mustered up the courage to try scouting for FUN Inc as well. Every Sunday, I flew with Redemption, and during the week, I flew with FUN.

So here’s a fun fact. When I started with Eve I was determined to stay a solo pilot. I watched my husband’s life in the blue doughnut and decided that I didn’t want anyone telling me when and how to play this game. But, as we all know Eve is better with friends. At about six months into the game I joined my first and only corporation (outside of a real life friend’s corp I used for 0% taxes).

To date, Kshal is still part of FUN and it’s where I run my bi-weekly newbro roam.

The Dive into FCing

Eight months into the game, I started FCing for both FUN Inc and Redemption Road. I’m still not entirely sure how I ended up in the FC seat…whether it was destiny or my husband throwing me under the bus due to my raid leader experience from Everquest, the MMO we played when we first met. Either way, I quickly realized I loved it.

My First Public Fleet as FC

Before becoming an official FC, I had taken a few smaller Enyo roams with corp members. Our public fleets can grow large, but we’re a fairly small corp, so it was just seven or eight Enyos hunting in null.

For my first publicly posted fleet, I decided to stick with Enyos. I expected maybe 10 people to show up. After all, who would want to follow an FC with only eight months of experience? Well, about 40 pilots joined. As people started piling into Mumble and X-ing up, the panic began to build. The pressure was real. However, I held onto the best piece of advice I’d been given as a new FC:

“No matter what you do, make a decision. Even if it’s the wrong decision. If you don’t, others will, and it will confuse everyone.”

It turned out to be excellent advice. We went out, killed several billion ISK worth of ships, and I haven’t looked back since.

Birth of the FUNny Newbro Fleets

I was streaming my public fleets, which were primarily aimed at new players, and I never delayed my streams. This meant I could answer questions from viewers in real-time, but it also meant new players started joining my fleets.

One night, a corp mate who also flew with Redemption Road and I noticed the increasing number of rookies in our fleets. We were already spending a lot of time answering questions, and since the Redemption Road newbro roam only happened once a month, we thought, “Why not do our own on Wednesdays?” There was clearly a need for more regular newbro-focused fleets.

After hashing out the details and doctrine, we launched our first fleet, dubbed the FUNny Newbro Roam. At first, we used a thrasher fleet, but after a few months, we switched to a kitchen sink of destroyers and below—a format we’ve stuck with ever since.

Every other Wednesday at 18:30 (summer) and 19:00 (winter), we depart from Jita. If there are players who have never PVP’d in a fleet before, we kick off with a Fleet 101 to explain fleet operations and common FC commands. Then we head into nullsec to hunt down targets.

Today, every fleet I FC comes with handouts and SRP. There’s no better time to try PVP! Especially when you’re not risking your own assets! If you want to come join me, check out the NPSI Calendar to see when my next fleet will undock!

The Birth of Eve Rookies: A Public Fleet Community

Before diving into the creation of Eve Rookies Incursions, I have a confession: this isn’t the first public raiding community I’ve built. However, it is the first community that has ever reached 3,000 members on Discord and hosts as many activities as it does.

Building a Public Raiding Community in Everquest

Back when I played EverQuest, a game as old as Eve, I started the first public raid group on my server. When a new expansion introduced raid zones, players had to be flagged to progress to the next zone. The big raiding guilds would help flag potential recruits, but casual players were often left out.

I disliked that elitism, so I decided to do something about it. I researched the mechanics of the flagging events and posted an event, not expecting much. To my surprise, enough people showed up to complete the event, and as time passed, I was leading 75-person raids every week…without voice comms. I also trained new raid leaders to help run these events themselves.

Attempting a Public Incursion Community at 8 Months In

In the fall of 2020, Princess Abbie (also known as DiscoDelboy on Twitch) found me. He thought my newbro-focused platform would be ideal for his new project, Nova Prospects Incursions (NPI).

Incursions are endgame PVE content in Eve, with two primary types: Vanguards, which are 13-man “dungeons,” and Headquarters (HQ), which require 40-man fleets. NPI aimed to focus on Vanguards since they’re less intense and have a lower barrier to entry for new players.

Unfortunately, NPI didn’t get off the ground as we hoped. The HQ groups were competing to kill MOM (the final boss) first, and since Abbie and I were both FCs for our respective NPSI groups, we struggled to maintain a consistent schedule. Ultimately, we had to put the newbro-friendly incursions on ice.

Rebranding as Eve Rookies Incursions

By February 2021, the established incursion communities had come to an agreement to take turns popping MOM, opening up the perfect opportunity to revive the project. We rebranded NPI under Eve Rookies Incursions.

With the financial help and donations from several players (not to mention large skill injectors to get Kshal into a booster ship), we were able to launch. The concept behind Eve Rookies Incursions is simple: pilots don’t have to invest in their own battleships. If they’re just interested in trying incursion PVE, they can borrow a Praxis for a refundable deposit of 250 million ISK.

The Praxis is particularly new-player friendly, requiring no battleship skills to fly. Most players with a few months of experience already have the core skills needed and only need to invest in large blasters. If someone wants to create an alpha character specifically for the blaster Praxis, they can use the 1 million skill points and be ready in about three weeks.

While their skills are cooking, they can scout sites for us! Scouts typically earn over 100 million ISK for a two-hour session, plus tips from the fleet.

A High Sec Incursion Community

While I’ve lost count how many incursion fleets I’ve FC’d or have flown in, I do keep track of the overall fleets for Eve Rookies. To date ER has run over 750 vanguard incursions welcoming more than 1,100 unique pilots into our fleets.

In May 2024, as an armor community within the greater incursion community started to die out, I accepted the torch on behalf of Eve Rookies. The incursion community desperately needed a stable, friendly, newbro friendly community to help run armor fleets so we’ve not only been running Armor Vanguard fleets but Headquarter fleets as well. We’ve even had the opportunity to be the group that popped MOM (Mother Ship) at least once so far.

2023-2024 High Sec Incursion Drama

And of course, it wouldn’t be Eve Online if there wasn’t drama within the game.

At the end of 2023 and going into 2024 there were a few high sec gankers that decided that they wanted to change career paths and make a lateral move into becoming care bears. While they had zero interest in farming the incursion focuses, they did have invested interest in trying to be the individuals that ended the focus by killing MOM.

When this drama started, if there wasn’t a focus we (the Eve Rookies FCs) just pinged other fleets. There were home fronts, missions, and a decent bit of wormhole ratting fleets going out during this time. My tactic was to just focus inwardly on my community and keep on rolling.

In these types of situations, one can generally just ignore the school yard bullies and once they don’t get the attention they desire, they will move on to their next victim. It seemed that these guys were pretty invested in making the incursion community’s life miserable and were tickled that they managed to even kill off a community in the process.

It was about this time that I saw an opening in my capacity as CSM to mention the “incursion community drama” in passing to CCP. I figured if they were interested, they would ask me more. If they weren’t then we’d just have to continue dealing with the constant MOM popping.

As it would happen, CCP did become interested and decided to change the incursion mechanics to allow the community to have 3 days before MOM became targetable. I can tell you that from the moment I was told what the solution would be until it was announced seemed like an eternity.

While I’m sure the handful of individuals that were multi-boxing an event meant for 40-80 pilots aren’t happy about the change, it seems the incursion community is good with it. This means we’ll always have 3 days of fleets before someone ends the focus. There will never be MOM popping wars again nor can island locals pop MOM to get rid of the focus.

CSM: Representing New Players in New Eden

Running for the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) has been a significant part of my Eve journey. With each campaign, I’ve gained deeper insights into the challenges faced by new players, and my passion for representing their needs has only grown stronger. As someone who has worked closely with rookies and returning players through Eve Rookies, I’ve seen firsthand how overwhelming the game can be for those just starting out or coming back after a long hiatus.

My runs for CSM17 and CSM18 were eye-opening experiences. Both were driven by the desire to advocate for the underrepresented…new players who often don’t know what the CSM is, let alone how it can impact their experience in Eve. With CSM19 on the horizon, I’m planning to take everything I’ve learned from my previous campaigns and apply it to ensure that new and returning players have a voice in shaping the future of Eve.

Running for CSM17

Running for CSM17 was quite the experience. At the time, I knew what the CSM was, and as someone who works extensively with new players, I felt a strong desire to represent them. However, that came with its own unique challenges. I was trying to represent a portion of the Eve player base who:

1. Likely had no idea what the CSM was.
2. Were primarily Alpha players.

Convincing the more experienced, veteran players that I was worthy of their vote was going to be my biggest hurdle. Yet, I must have done something right in my campaign because, by the end of the day, I made it to #20 before being eliminated!

But even though I didn’t win a seat, it wasn’t a loss. My campaign helped raise awareness for my community, and more players found their way to Eve Rookies, joining our fleets and becoming part of our journey. The elimination didn’t stop me from continuing my mission: helping new players overcome the steep learning curve and obstacles that Eve is known for.

Running for CSM18

Now that I gained some experience on what it was like to run for CSM, when it came time for the CSM18 elections I was prepared.

By this time, Eve Rookies was being noticed by the bigger communities within Eve Online. Since I’m a huge believer in walking the walk instead of just talking about it, I had plenty of proof that I was an expert in the 3 things that my campaign was founded on:

• New player experiences
• Community
• Accessibility in Eve

I did my best to make interviews and campaign within the communities I’m part of. Probably one of my weaknesses in this particular arena is my belief that I shouldn’t campaign within communities I’m not part of (or haven’t been invited to campaign in).

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like CSM18 would be the cycle that I was elected to. Despite my continued campaigning through the year, my presence in many communities and even getting on some null ballots, I came in at #18. But, it was still 2 positions closer to 10 than in CSM17!

Now, I should mention that the results were announced at FanFest 2023. I should also mention that for CSM18 CCP updated how the CSM would work. Players got to vote 10 players into the council and CCP would get to pick 2 players from positions 11 to 20.

I was one of CCP’s picks for CSM18. I was in.

Being Part of CSM18: What Has it Been Like?

I’m sure like with every council before CSM18, there have been ups and downs. Successes and failures (even if they’re just perceived failures).

But, just as a quick section about what it’s been like, I’ve really enjoyed my time in the CSM and I feel that I’ve been effective with keeping new players and community in focus as well as helping get some QOL (quality of life) items and updates into the game.

And, of course, just because my platform is new players, community and accessibility it doesn’t mean I’m not knowledgeable about other topics. I am a FC, I’m part of the NPSI community and fly in a lot of fleets in the different areas of space. Eve Rookies has an industry and wormhole wing plus our partners, LinkNet, went out and got SOV in null so I’ve been on that journey vicariously.

I don’t think there’s many parts to the game I haven’t had contact with at this point. I’ve even been part of a little faction warfare by now.

If you ask what my greatest successes are (that I can talk about):

• Helping the incursion community actually have content to play with
• Getting referral spam out of the career system channels
• Some home front updates

Running for CSM19

And now here we are. My time in CSM18 is coming to a close and it’s time to start campaigning for CSM19.

What’s changed between campaigns? I figured out I’m incredibly passionate about community. It’s really the foundation of Eve and community is what keeps bringing us back. I want to continue to make sure that communities are kept in focus, including those without an in game presence like the NPSI community or Eve Rookies.

I also would like to help lend my knowledge on how to keep communities non-toxic. I realize conflict and drama are content drivers within Eve, however lets all agree there are things that aren’t OK. There’s never a place within a community for racism, discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or anything else along these lines.

Eve should be accessible to everyone despite who they are, their background, or their physical ability.

And, of course someone has to look out for the new players. All three of these things are something that I live and breath. They’re not things I just happen to think about when CSM elections come along.

Looking Towards the Future

So, regardless if I win a seat in CSM19 or not, I still have to look towards my own future in Eve Online as well as Eve Rookie’s.

I’m currently doing what makes me happiest. Interacting with new players and growing and developing not only my own communities, but others. Eve Rookies has started taking on partners, smaller groups who may not be the best at reaching the player base. Through the ER platform they’re able to reach 3,000+ players for their fleets and interact in the greater Eve community.

I’ve also been working with Eve Workbench on something up and coming called a Journal. And I’m working on developing Leadership tutorials that can be used anywhere (including outside of Eve).

Kshal Aideron in Real Life

Hi, my name is Petra. I’m from the great Northwest USA but today I live in the Netherlands. In fact, I’m a duel national!

What I Do for Work

I’ve built a career out of digital marketing and becoming a SEO expert. I also have vast knowledge building platforms that allow third parties to sell things such as digital content or even physical items. I worked freelance since 2014 and help clients with building, managing and marketing their platforms.

What I Do when Not Playing Eve Online

When I’m not working or traveling (those duel passports come in handy!) I love both table top, board and computer gaming.

I try to make time for fitness activities be it cycling, kayaking or just lifting in the gym. I have a deep love for hiking, but I live in the Netherlands. It’s as flat as the last state I lived in, Florida. Walking over a bridge is probably the most altitude I get unless I drive over 2 hours!

Music wise I tend to listen to EBM, Industrial, Goth and some metal. You can usually find me at a show at least once a month since live music is life itself. There’s nothing like being among fellow fans dancing your heart out!

Oh, I also love theme parks. I actually have a little side project that I started called Theme Park Freaks which gives details of the parks and attractions I visit as well as reviews. Marketing and SEO professionals are kind of like programmers. We find doing this type of thing fun!