Started a trial

If I decide to keep playing, I'll trash it and start over.

Unfortunately, I didn't know enough about the game to ask questions

Now I have a few:

1. The tutorial says stats @6, looks like mine started at 21. Is 21 the new six?
2. It seems like the game sucks ass if you don't do military shit. At what point of the game does the rpg world kick in? Is that any fun or should I really just focus on making the bad-assest character ever?
3. Planes, Weapons, Defenses: What work best? Seems like you should be really focused on your build career and not waste time with other things. Lasers or Hybrids? Rockets? Missiles? Seems like Rockets work great for PVE but would be bad for PVP?
Also need to know if shields are worth it or if it's better to armor tank. Obviously you can't armor + shield + energy + etc. What works? Should I bother with damage reducers? They seem so specific.
4. Aside from the tutorial planet with 5 people on it. Should I just go to random planets and do missions? Or should I really focus one way or another. For the purpose of this discussion, I signed up as Caldari AZN.
5. Races.. I get that the AZN's are better and caldari are also generally better.. but there seem to be some real benefits to some races over others (ie caldari are missile loving) Does this shit even matter?
6. Stats again -- seems like you need pairs of stats to improve learning? Is perception really the best still? Seems like people would just max that stat instead.

Thanks,
-Psyc

1. The tutorial says stats @6, looks like mine started at 21. Is 21 the new six?
It changed and they probably didn't update the text.

2. It seems like the game sucks ass if you don't do military shit. At what point of the game does the rpg world kick in? Is that any fun or should I really just focus on making the bad-assest character ever?
Pretty much everything is "rpg world" technically, but if you want to go that route specifically then it's missions and faction warfare for the most part. Missions are more for grinding out money though. Faction warfare is basically pvp lite designed to coax people out of high sec. Whether you do missions, faction warfare, or full blown pvp, you want to be the bad ass on the block. Unless you're mining. In which case shoot yourself. In the balls.

3. Planes, Weapons, Defenses: What work best?
A lot of that depends on what your intending to do at the moment. A tackler has different requirements from a tanker. It's more a questions of range and damage type than the specific weapon. Short vs long and kinetic/explosive/electromagnetic/thermal.

Seems like you should be really focused on your build career and not waste time with other things.
Initially yes but once you've got a good base you can start to diversify, yet still stay focused on some long term goal.

Lasers or Hybrids? Rockets? Missiles? Seems like Rockets work great for PVE but would be bad for PVP?
This depends a lot on what you're flying, what you intend to do, and your own personal preferences. A lot of the weapon stuff is more broken up into long range vs short range anyways (which again depends on what you're doing at that moment).

Also need to know if shields are worth it or if it's better to armor tank. Obviously you can't armor + shield + energy + etc. What works? Should I bother with damage reducers? They seem so specific.
Again the theme is it depends. Some ships are excellent shield tankers, while others are excellent armour tankers. And some just universally suck at tanking. It's best to find a ship that appeals to you and focus on that initially. You mention Caldari further down so if you stick with those ships then you'll want to focus more on shield tanking since a lot of Caldari ships have shield tanking bonuses. Always pay attention to a ship's bonuses.

4. Aside from the tutorial planet with 5 people on it. Should I just go to random planets and do missions? Or should I really focus one way or another. For the purpose of this discussion, I signed up as Caldari AZN.
Initially stay in high sec space (0.5 and above) to reduce the chances of being ganked until you have a feel for the gameplay and how to just fly. You can move on to another station anytime and do a few missions to help get you started. They're an ok source of initial income and will help you practice combat a bit (though it won't help too much with pvp skills, just gives you the basic feel of things).

5. Races.. I get that the AZN's are better and caldari are also generally better.. but there seem to be some real benefits to some races over others (ie caldari are missile loving) Does this shit even matter?
It doesn't really matter because you can train to use any race's ships. Choosing a race just gives you the initial skillset (so for Caldari lots of hybrid, missile and shield skills). If you decide you like Amarr ships better you can just start training them instead and a lot of the basic skills will just carry over, although in this specific example you'd need to train up lasers and armour skills instead.

6. Stats again -- seems like you need pairs of stats to improve learning? Is perception really the best still? Seems like people would just max that stat instead.
The primary stat the skill lists gives the most benefit to learning that skill. So for most combat skills that stat is perception, thus a high perception will allow you to train those skills faster. Charisma is still the low end one as it's mostly for the social and trading skills.

Note: I haven't played for a while so this info might not be completely accurate anymore. If anyone else replies that's still playing, give what they say more credit than what I've said.