May 2024

Thoughts on Security Space

stargrace May 18, 2024 No Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been playing EVE off and on since 2009 (mostly off) and during that time I basically exclusively played in high sec content. To be honest, that’s probably one of the main reasons that I never stuck with the game longer than a month or two at a time. Since returning, high sec has become a thing of the past, and I spend a majority of my time elsewhere. Here’s some bullet point thoughts I have on security systems:

High sec: It’s not really safe. I’ve had most of my deaths occur here. The bottlenecks that head to trade hubs are almost constantly camped by gankers, and there’s nothing more frustrating. I dislike these types of players who prey on people who have no interest in combat when there’s an entire game filled with pvp hungry people out there. I know, no place is safe, EVE is a pvp game, etc. That doesn’t change my mind. High sec is also low ISK vs. other security space, and while there are certainly quiet areas there’s also a lot of competition.

Null sec: This place is still scary to me. People ‘own’ land there (sovereignty I think it’s called), and they don’t like me much. I’ve used some filament to port around, and while I can at least see who is in local that doesn’t really give me any relief, they’re normally huge systems called a bloc, all owned by one alliance with lots of little corporations under their umbrella. I normally spend most of my time in these systems scanning down a WH so I can find a HS connection to get home.

Wormholes: This is where I’m most comfortable. I’ve spent most of my time this play through in a wormhole, and I’ve never lost a ship in one – I know it WILL eventually happen, but whether it’s because I’m *extra* cautious while traveling in them or because I just have a knack for picking quiet places, this is where I feel most at ‘home’. Hence the 90 days suitcase challenge. I love wormholes. I also am aware of a gigantic C5-C6 eviction war going on at the moment, but it doesn’t affect me except to stay out of the way.

Low sec: I’ve spent the least amount of time here. It feels like there are always others around, and since there’s no concord response I may as well just be in a wormhole, which I already prefer. Is there some secret to getting anything done in these systems? I’m not really sure. I’d like to take a cheap exploration ship out and about for a while to learn more about what makes it a popular place to hang out.

What are your favourite systems to hang out in? Where do you spend your in-game time? Let me know in comments, and as always, fly your way! o7

Waiting on Some Skills

stargrace May 14, 2024 No Comments

This week has been an (unintentional) expensive one. I lost two ships (one to pvp, one to an NPC) that I had to replace, and I didn’t have a whole lot of ‘free’ time to try to make that back. I also bought a bunch of skill injectors thinking I would take the skills from my 3rd account (which I plan on letting lapse to alpha, as I’m not really keen on keeping 3 accounts active) and distribute them elsewhere, or sell them – and then realized that there’s a 5.5m buffer for siphoning those skill points – AFTER I purchased 7 extractors. I did manage to fill 3 of them up, but the others will have to wait. That account does have a bit more time remaining on it, and I’ll just slowly siphon as I gain 500m points so it’s not a complete waste, but it is a lot longer of a wait than I expected and has become a long term investment.

That will leave me with two active accounts. One has my ‘main’ and two PI characters, and the other has my signal cartel character, an industry character (what industry, I know people are less than enthused at the current state of things as they’re selling for barely-profits these days) and I still have one empty character slot. Undecided as to what I’ll do with that yet. My PI characters are nicely established for what they do, I bought two MCT (multi character training?) certificates a month ago and that was just enough to get them situated with 5 planets at max CPU. The 6th one can wait.

I think with PI alone I’ll be able to pay for one of my accounts, or at least mildly supplemented. The goal is to pay for one of my accounts with traditional subscription (when it goes on sale) and pay for the second one with ISK. I don’t want ALL of my time in game to be devoted to making ISK because that gets old fast and feels like a job and encourages burn out – but I do really enjoy the market/industry aspect of the game so I don’t mind spending my time on it.

I’ve got some thoughts on the expansion coming in June, but this post is long enough so I’ll save that for tomorrow. As always, fly your way! o7