So here I am as an experienced MMO player ready to embark on eve online, want to be fairly nice guy out their and fly an equivalent battleship in the end.
So eve is broken into security areas I take it? do player alliances actually own space? what about the AI factions etc?
I just dont understand the mechanics of the eve world. who owns what? what rights do people have etc.
This is very simplified!
There are 4 main areas in Eve controlled by 1 of the 4 main factions :
Caldari
Gallente
Amarr
Minmatar
Each of these factions controls a large number of high security systems, the ratings of which are 0.5 > 1.0 (so 0.5|0.6|0.7|0.8|0.9|1.0).
These systems are policed by a faction called Concord, based in Yulai? They make sure that the law is adhered to, most of the time.
In these high security systems, you cannot legally be shot at or destroyed consequence free. If you choose to attack someone who you don't have the rights to attack, Concord will come and punish you. Basically. There are extra details regarding this.
Now surrounding these pockets of high sec space, in between the faction controlled space is a large amount of low security systems. rating 0.1 > 0.4.
These areas of space are, lets say, claimed by the 4 large factions, and fought over directly in some cases (see factional warfare). Some areas are claimed by smaller pirate factions.
In these low security systems there is no Concord presence in terms of ships to insta kill you, but there are sentry guns on the gates which will shoot at players unlawfully attacking other players.
However find yourself away from these guns, say at a planet or an asteroid belt etc. then players can quite happily shoot and kill you. The only consequence is their security standing decreases. I guess this is more akin to a threat level. The more unlawful people you kill the lower your standing to Concord I presume it is and past a certain point, -5.0 I believe you are attacked on site in the high security areas.
Low sec areas tend to see a lot of pirate corporations, they hunt people and kill them in low sec.
Null sec or 0.0 is as it says vast areas of systems with 0.0 rating. Meaning that none of the big 4 factions claim the area, although some 0.0 is owned by pirate factions.
There is no consequence at all for killing people in 0.0, no hit to standings, Concord never enter 0.0 it is lawless.
Which was the best part of Eve, 0.0 is entirely driven by human players. You can build outposts, star bases, empires, military installations more or less anything. However it sounds very open and cool, inevitably most of the areas are controlled by vast power blocs and it is very closed. If you turned up with a small bunch and planted yourself in a system somewhere. More than likely this would ruffle someone's feathers and a dozen capital ships would promptly be despatched to despatch you

But that I guess can sometimes be the fun, surviving.