LIfe in NullSec

While scouting around after failing another Level 4 mission, the Blood Raider's Vengeance, I looked at DotLan and noticed the entrance into NullSec's Providence region right off the Kari system, which happened to be 0.6.  Now I remember seeing this before and even remember that there was some alliance there CVA that was kicked out the same time I was during my last attempt to live in Null. 

So grabbing my alt's covops Buzzard, I headed into the unknown looking for planets that I could run in and PI on, then run back out into hi-sec.  Warping into the sun and cloaking up, I thought I'd hit the bonanza, there were three Lava and one Storm planet and five others to work with all with Player Owned Custom Offices (POCO) set at 5% tax...half of what I pay in hi-sec.  I loaded up the command centers on the Iterion III of the alt and headed out.  Jumping in and then warping around I attempted to drop a command center when I was hit with a dreaded warning.

*You must be part of the alliance to build command centers*

Crap.  Then I looked at who owned the station and warping to a couple of other systems noticed the same owners, which DotLan confirmed.  So throwing caution to the wind, I joined their public chat and introduced myself.  My stunning personality must have stupefied them as after a couple of days they left me join....of course, they had just been wardec'd so moving my stuff through Domain and into Providence was going to prove difficult.  So right as the war started I jump cloned into The Citadel and picked up my trusty PvP fit (poorly) Vexor and took it all the way to Tash and the Bavisi system.  There I transferred my stuff to my second account, the one with the maxed out Itty V.  I plotted the course, missing the Amarr trade hub, and at around midnight my time proceeded to move out. 

First, war targets have a red box with a star and people with terrible (-10) standing have a red box with a minus sign.  I say that as I about had a heart attack with four jumps in there were four "reds".  Fortunately, they were not war targets so they couldn't shoot me.  Leading with the Vexor, I scouted for the Itty and made it into my new home without incident.  It was now like 1am my time, but knew I needed to strike while the iron was hot and turned right around and headed back the 10+ jumps to Bavisi to grab the mining barges and remaining modules.  It was 2:20am or so before I got all my stuff back into my new home and finished for the night.  I never did see a war target on then.

Got on the next day and drove around seeing where the corporation bookmarks would take me.  First off, I'd like to thank CCP and my alliance for the wonderful jump network..does that make moving around MUCH easier.  I found our industrial system and moved the miners there, got into fleet to camp the gate and worked on getting Teamspeak to work.  Finally, around 12:30am or so, I decided to go get the Domi.  I had to fly it down as I had rigs on it and I'm too cheap to throw them away.  I took the trip back with one account in a covops and the other in a shuttle.  I picked up the Domi and reversed the process, once again, I didn't see a war target the entire time. 

So now, I'm in null with both accounts and both accounts have haulers in neutral corporation to help my get stuff from highsec to null.  Additionally, I learned that CVA is back and running Providence again and they have the unusual NRDS (Not Red Don't Shoot) policy instead of NBSI (Not Blue Shoot It) policy adopted by every other Null Sec alliance.

Can't wait to see what the future brings here.

Back in the saddle again!

Well, two years later and the pull of EVE has brought me back...much to the chagrin of my wife.  I've spent the last two years playing other single player, (Egosoft's X-games and free games, World of Tanks), but I've been keeping an eye on the EVE sandbox.  Finally, I couldn't resist anymore and resubbed both accounts.

Frankly, I was a little relived to see that I had left myself in a fairly decent, for me, position.  Ready to run level 4 mission in a Domi, the capability to run both Tech 2 Sentries and Heavy, Med, and Light Drones.  Most support skills at four or five and a whopping 70 million isk to my name.

So far, I've been focusing on Planetary Interactions to gather enough isk to give myself a cushion to develop further plans.  Right now, I've got three characters working on extraction and gathering all the P1 material to one and making Sterile Conduits.  I'm doing this P4 for a couple of reasons, and the biggest is it only needs two P3 items and at Command Center 4 I can put enough processors to run if 24 hours a day and still have room for the two launchpads I need to store the material.  That makes 24 sterile conduits and they are buying at 831,000 isk per item.  Now the hard core industrialist I've seen shows that if I buy P1 at sell prices (3840 per P1 item times eight P1 items needed) and when add the additional costs to import the P1 and export the P4, I'm still making an approx 3-4 million isk a day.  Which isn't the most spectacular return on investment, but it does many people in EVE (including the "hard core traders") often overlook one critical fact...cash flow and cash velocity. 

From a pure efficiency perspective, I should be buying 19,200 units of each P1 asset and running them through five factory planets.  That would net me $20 million isk per day, for virtually the same amount of time.  A great plan if you have the necessary cash flow to pull it off, you would need an approximate 80 million isk per day to do that, and you would have a sufficient supply of P1 on the market to buy...and producing 120 P4 per day would quickly saturate the market.  Assuming the market continues to bear this influx of P4 materials (or assuming I shift P4 production between the various products) the "manufacturing planets" are a good use of time...I made 20 million isk per game day (total increase in cash reserves for my time played).

That said, if I take all my P1 extraction and if you pay the tax for 24 items (135,00 per conduit + 50 per P1 to export and 25 per P1 to import = total P1 tax of 5.5 million isk).  That leaves a total cash flow of 14.5 million isk per day, with only a 5.5 million initial isk outlay, much more manageable for an industrialist with a limited cash reserve.  Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of other ways to go about this, I could just sell my P1 for someone else, I could try and bull my way into the Enriched Uranium or Rocket fuel or POS fuel component market and I will definitely take a look at doing that, however, if your a starting character (who didn't buy PLEX) with a limited budget, do not get fooled by all the major producer's blogs.  Product efficiency is a goal to have, but at the early stages of the game, cash reserves and cash flow, particularly cash OUTFLOW, is just as critical.  I'm not being the most efficient right now, but I am building a cash reserve that will allow me to do so in the future.  If you take a look at real life businesses, most fail because they have a poor cash flow position and soon can't cover the cash outlay needed to buy their basic materials, they then open a credit line which exasperates the problem...you can't do that in EVE, but you can put yourself in a position where your assets are not liquid and your production grinds to a halt because you don't have the cash to place an order or buy anything.

Being broke sucks!

Well, its true in EVE and the Real World...it takes money to make money. At least the amount of money needed to afford all the shiney new and wonderful objects in EVE!!

This has really been the biggest struggle I have with continuing to play EVE. I read blogs and see corp killmails highlighting the struggle and fun others have in killing other people in this game. I like that, I enjoyed that in Warhammer Online with its easy ability to find a group in open RvR or join scenarios. Now as always pick up groups often got slaughtered, but many time you could still get in on the kills. No matter what it was easy and the entry barrier was so low.

That isn't possible in EVE. Yes, you can PvP in a frigate and tackle...but if your time is limited (as the name of this blog suggests) and your corp isn't on or available, your ability to fight other characters on a limited budget is almost nil...at least for me. I have a total of 100 Million between the characters on my two accounts. I finally have one person at lvl 4 mission, as in a couple of days will start them on Gallente Battleships for a Domi...now I have to sink almost 60% of my total worth into a ship to get more money. A direct vilolation of the "don't fly what you can't afford to lose" motto. I'm trying PI to gain money, and it can and does work...if I get on every day for at least 30 minutes to buy and move stuff around, something I just can do.

Bottom line, I'm not in nullsec, I'm broke, I'm certainly not buying a game card and changing it to isk, and I'm not having much fun...so why the hell am I sticking around?

Obsession with Lowsec

Welcome to the twenty-first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost who a few month ago asked "Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?" Is it? I'd like us to explore this even further. Is Low Sec being treated differently by CCP Games than Null Sec (Zero-Zero) or Empire space is? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither Alliance nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What's needed? Or is everything fine as it is?
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We'll start this discussion off with the needed assumptions. First, I don't live in lowsec. I never have and right now I don't see any reason that will change. Second, I've done some 0.0 and right now I'm a missioning "carebear" in highsec attempting to make some money while my corp shakes itself out of summer slumber.

Let's look at lowsec from the view of those who do NOT live there. As we say in the military..."Perception IS reality." The perception of lowsec, fostered in may ways by the people that live and blog there, is a lawless section of space where gankers live for scanning you down to blast you, laugh at your fit, and enlarge their e-peen.

I'm not saying that is the majority of what happens in lowsec, but it certainly is the picture painted by the vocal minority...who happen to be pirates with blogs. I'm quite positive that there are many people who perform mission, own POS', research and other industrial focused tasks in lowsec, however, we don't hear from them at all. The only voice heard from lowsec is the pirate, the ganker, the player who wants more targets for them. Now, I understand that Myxnee is looking for all types of player in her lowsec initiative, but if you look at the board she assembled there are a total of three player out of twelve who are not self-proclaimed pirates. Therefore, any "storyline" or proposal will have a pirate based flavor to it.

Perception, it rules the internet and the mob on any forum...which is always a vocal minority for any MMO. To those outside lowsec every complaint and every suggestion is geared toward allowing a player LESS penalties for killing people than they have now. Let's face it, the ONLY penalties of killing any on lowsec are 1) a -10 flashy and you can go into highsec anymore, 2) guns on the gate shoot at you and 3) you have a 15 minute Global Criminal Cooldown. Really, what other penalties exist? None, and most of these penalties are easily avoided...either through another account to move stuff or a guns that are too weak to kill anything larger than a cruiser.

Does CCP ignore lowsec. No, they do ignore a pirate focused lowsec. Lowsec boasts high mineral yields, better ore, faster routes through space and higher agents. The problem is that they are in many cases worse than highsec options. Asteroids are a perfect example. Under today's market it is twice as profitable to mine Scordite or plag as it is to mine Hedbergite, a lowsec asteroid. Why would anyone mine in lowsec when its MORE profitable to mine in the safety of highsec. Everything a pirate really wants, more targets and more loot, will come if lowsec offers more profit than highsec...at least for certain items.

I have several ideas, like moving higher level agents into lowsec, lowering the mineral output of highsec asteroids and increasing the lowsec.

There are two major obstacles that lowsec is facing. The first is security status. Right now an anti-pirate corp suffers the same penalty as a pirate corp and all members will eventually end up at -10. If a player with a positive security status kills someone with a negative security status, they shouldn't loose security, they should GAIN some. Imagine a +10 security status, and the possible CONCORD faction ships that could be used as incentive to reach that level, and the rewards from the Angel Cartel that could be added with a high Angel faction score and a -10 security status....that alone would provide more small gang warfare as people would like ships of both types.

The second obstacle is wormholes. Right now, WHs offer everything lowsec offers...only BETTER. No local as an intel channel, no CONCORD, better industrial area. Why in CCPs name would ANYONE setup in lowsec when EVERYTHING is better in a wormhole? Wormholes really are the lowsec killer (and some 0.0 killer for small corps), because the reward from wormholes makes the risk acceptable...and lowsec just can't complete with that.

CCP hasn't ignored lowsec, they just made wormholes too good.

Additional banter participants:


CrazyKinux's Musing: The Lure of the Wild
Banter 15: Arr, Yer be talkin’ bout me lowsec TheElitist
Banter 21: Low-sec- Chocolate Heaven
Subs' suds: Forever a noob in Eve: Low-Sec - the forgotten part of EVE Online
Blog Banter XXI - Lo-sec = Low Priority? I am Keith Neilson
In the Ghetto A Mule in EvE
where the frack is my ship?: Blog Banter 21: What's good for the goose...
Blog Banter #21: Change? Sarnel Binora's Blog
More coming shortly...

Sitting in Idle

Its been awhile, RL and the lack of any movement left me with little to say. The Black Prophesy is sitting in idle right now with leadership having to take some time off. I've elected to stay, even though its mainly a solo thing right now for a few reasons.

1. I still don't play that much, so trying to get into an active corp will be a pain in the butt.
2. I like the corp and the players in it, enought that I'm willing to wait a few months before looking to leave.
3. I'm just starting to develop my skills and ship stable. I'm almost able to use a L4 Q16 agent, I'm ratting in 0.0 space for some isk, and our alliance is still fairly active with roams up at Moa available if I'm interested.
4. One of the guys and I are starting an alt corp for research and PI stuff.

So, all-in-all, things are much like they were when I reactivated with me doing stuff by myself. However, I do know that I have backup (at the price of the occasional wardec) if needed.

To generate some isk, I've launched a new PI manufacturing system for one of my mains, Attia, as two other alts. One alt is in 0.0 space extracting materials and now that Attia is in a cov ops getting in and out is much easier. The others are buying P1 materials and then manufactring P2 through P4 items. Frankly, some people are selling materials at all levels that are SO FRIGGIN below their cost...they are running themselves out of money. Its strange, but allows me to buy there cheap stuff and then make a profit on higher ranked items...all without me having to click thorugh 50+ extractors. Even if I can clear 10mill a day doing this, that will be enough for my playing time.

Things are looking up...or at least interesting

Where oh where shall my little corp go...

Looks like the small piece of 0.0 that the corp leadership was looking at had a visit by the Goonswarm for the past few days. The fact that the area may have frequent 30 man fleets that come through will put a damper on moving into that area.

Of course we did identify a great constellation in Curse...low jumps per day, single system entrance, off the pipeline....and owned by Noir apparently. They won't mind if we come and take over…right?

My PI plan is continuing to progress on the sub-alts, the first character is ready to lay down 4 command centers and the fifth will be ready in a couple of days. It took a little longer to finish as I forgot I had to train new characters up the Gallente frigate and industrial skills as well. Fortunately, that is only an extra days' training and I have the BPO for Iteron III's, and they are cheap to make. I dislike delaying the training on my main characters, but this will start paying for itself in the long run.

This brings me to the root cause of my problems, the lack of isk and consistent generation of funds. Now hopefully the PI plan will alleviate some of that, but the plan will require a significant investment...one which I've already paid for and lost while in 0.0. To put all four alts with five planets each, is at a minimum 18.5M isk for Command centers per character, plus training fees around 3M isk per character, and finally the PI setup itself which generally runs around 2M isk per planet. So for each character it is a total investment of approx 24M isk per character. Given that is about half of what I have in both accounts...you can see the level of risk that I'm assuming.

I did decide on a training plan..at least a short term one for Jonzac my main. I'm continuing to work the support skills for him...weapons upgrade V, advance weapons upgrade IV, long range targeting IV. I'll then start on projective weapons up to medium projective V. Once I have enough money to buy/make a Dominix Battle ship I'll start training the skills to fly that with Med T2 guns (either hybrid or projectile) to rat with in and perform L4 mission in.

What now?

I'm at an impass. I have hit the 9M skill point on my two characters and I'm unsure of what to train for next.

My combat character has training interceptors and can fly Gallente interceptors with T2 blasters or rails. I've also been able to fly Gallente Assault ships, fitted with T2 hybrids as well. I have Calari and Minmater frigates at level 4 and those cruisers at level 4 as well. I'm currently able to clear Level 3 Q19 missions with no trouble in my Myrmidon and it will be a little bit before I have the standing to fly Level 4 mission.

So what to train for next. My issue isn't WHAT I want to fly, its my inability to AFFORD anything to fly that is the problem right now. I had to buy a new Mrym and fit it out and that broke the back. I've never been flush...ever and its really starting to hamper my game playing. I've attempted the trading game and either I just don't get it, or I can't spend the time to "get" it.

I've decided to pause training on my two main characters and train the four additional characters slots you get. I'm training all of them to handle PI and it takes 9 days for each character to meet my PI training requirements. When I'm done, each character will be able to use the advanced command center on 5 planets. This will allow me to pull every P0 and P1 material off the planet for sale...or I could eventually move into P4 production or final Sov/POS construction if I want.

Hopefully, I can pull between 50-100million isk a month in with this effort. If I can reach that goal, it will meet my modest isk requirements for the next year at least.