2024

Feeling Rushed? Do some Exploration

stargrace June 6, 2024 0Comment

EVE is not the sort of game that lends itself very well to randomly AFKing all over the place. I mean, in some aspects it does, but not really. Not if you actually want to make good ISK, at least. Yes, technically you could sit around in high sec all day and shoot rocks, and be mostly safe (never 100% safe, there have been HS gankers in my systems lately going after the ice folks) but there’s not a lot of ISK happening with regular asteroid belts, either.

When I know I’m going to be to/from the computer, I normally settle in for some exploration. Having covert ops is a must, I do this sort of exploration either on my tengu, or my helios. The helios is a far lower value ship and does data/relic sites fast and simple – other times I want a little combat mixed in, so I’ll use the tengu.

I warp 100km away from the site, then burn away and create a bookmark 150+km away so that the containers are still on grid, but I can warp to them individually. I check d-scan every few seconds as I do all of this, and I’ll just casually warp from perch -> container -> hack -> loot -> perch. Then repeat. If something comes up IRL, I can warp to the perch and cloak. If I complete the site, I rename the perch into a safe, and I use that if I need to get away from people / rats (especially in the helios). You can’t be uncloaked by mobile disruption units in a wormhole, you CAN be decloaked by other players if they happen to run into you, and that’s why I don’t hang around the wormholes themselves. The chances of someone running into me in a safe are pretty slim. I have sat AFK for hours before when RL wouldn’t let me play but I didn’t want to fly all the way home / log out. Of course if something were to happen and I *was* decloaked and killed, that would all be on me. It’s never 100% safe. Stuff happens. Be prepared to lose ships.

Still, I find doing exploration (specifically in wormholes) incredibly relaxing. Some times it takes me a bit to find a good (ie: unoccupied) site, but at least I don’t have to worry about randomly stepping away.

What’s your favourite thing to do to relax in EVE Online? Let me know in comments, and as always, fly your way! o7

EVE Gaming

Suitcase Challenge Day 31: One Month In

stargrace June 5, 2024 0Comment

I’ve now been based out of an Orca in a random wormhole for just over a month. When I started this challenge it was pretty much on a whim, after having debated with myself about whether or not I wanted to set up a POS. After looking into it (and how much attention a POS could potentially draw to yourself) I decided that living out of an Orca would be a much better idea for my situation. My wormhole has a static high sec connection, and each day brings about a new adventure.

I’ve started using combat probes any time I’m out, and I tend to keep my tengu uncloaked if I’m doing gas huffing or mining on my alt account. I’ve seen people peek into the hole, see my combat probes, the tengu, and the prospect, and they immediately leave. That’s exactly what I was hoping for. Sometimes something bigger will come into the hole – some encounters with Wingspan, and the Wormhole Police, and those guys know what they’re doing far more than I do, so I will warp off to a safe and cloak myself in those instances. I rotate through my safe bookmarks, any time there’s a relic/data site I turn the perch into a safe. Throughout the day I’ll scan down any new signatures that show up, and I clear out the ones that have expired. I have a shared bookmark between my accounts so they can all access whatever is up.

I’ve stopped doing PI in the wormhole I live out of, and instead I’ve moved it to the Wormlife Freeport that I’ve been using. It feels ‘safer’, and so I have two PI alts parked there. Once a week they check to make sure the wormhole is quiet / as safe as it ever is, then they fly around to each of the POCO, collect their goods, and pop out through the high sec static to drop off their loot. If the connection is close to home, I’ll just have them bring it the rest of the way, otherwise I leave it in an NPC station and pick it up later with my marketing character (who is also training into blockade runners).

I’ve started running the combat sites out of C1-C3 wormholes. I feel a bit foolish, but I had no idea that ‘blue loot’ is actually stuff you can sell to NPC for a static amount. I’m pretty sure I’ve been selling mine to players for below average prices. Even better, there’s an NPC station in my high sec home system who accepts them. It’s basically a bounty system but with an item that could potentially be pillaged (or lost) rather than straight ISK. I am not sure if these anomalies escalate, if they do I have yet to see one. I like that it’s guaranteed ISK (unless you get killed, of course) and I realized that the Tengu is actually the perfect ship for what I’m doing. Almost. I am concerned about adding too much bling, so I’m still swapping out for both relic / data analyzers, and I also added a salvager to swap into at the end of the combat sites – it’s not a lot of ISK, but it can add up, and it’s also stuff used for crafting.

Speaking of crafting, that might be something I focus on more in the upcoming weeks. My hangar is just full of BPO / BPC that I’d like to make better use of. A lot of industry is for very low profit, but I’m pretty sure I can find ways to reduce my overhead costs.

As always, fly your way! o7

EVE Gaming

Marketing Differences

stargrace June 3, 2024 0Comment

I’ve spent some time in the past talking about how market & industry in EVE is very similar to how it works in WoW, but now I want to mention some ways that they’re different.

The biggest one, is that in EVE when you put an item for sale, the tax you pay does NOT change based on the length of time the auction is up. When you’re putting an auction up you should always put it up for the maximum amount of time you can list it for. Instead of cancelling that auction, it will (usually) be cheaper to modify the price – how often you want to modify it, is completely up to you. I modify my sales stuff once a day, just after DT, and then I forget about it. I do not participate in marketing PVP or the rush to the bottom – and let me tell you, that works exactly the same in EVE as it does in WoW, except in EVE there’s fewer people (and no individual servers with their own markets).

It is critical to invest some skill points into trade if you want your capsuleer to be involved in working the market. As an alpha that can be difficult to do, lots of stuff is locked behind omega (that means you need a subscription). You pay taxes for purchases, you pay taxes for buy orders, you pay taxes for sell orders. If you do industry, there are taxes for the building you use as well as taxes for POCO, and if you’re in high sec there’s TWO taxes, one from the NPC faction & from the people who ‘own’ the POCO. Before I moved to the wormhole I currently do PI out of, I was losing 20% in taxes on every single transaction. 20% to remove the PI from the planet I was doing it on, 20% to transfer it down to the planet I had set up as a factory, 20% to have those finished products shipped off of the planet again. Your profit can easily get eaten up by these taxes if you’re not carefully tracking everything that you need to be which leads me to the tools I’ve been using:

There’s a lot of tools out there. I love using the spreadsheet from Oz, and I use it along with JEveAssets which uses java and was a bit confusing to get started with, but I think I have it mostly figured out now. I watch YouTube videos, joined discords, and over all just enjoy soaking in knowledge from other long-term players. I won’t ever be a grand scale tycoon player – but the little markets that I’m dipping into are quite fun, and I enjoy seeing the ISK go up.

As always, fly your way! o7

EVE Gaming

A Solved Game – But We All Still Play

stargrace June 2, 2024 0Comment

One of the things I keep hearing about since returning to EVE is about how PVE is a ‘solved game’ – it has been around for 20+ years now, and all of the secrets (barring new expansions/ships/events) have been figured out. Players know what ships to use for what encounter in the most optimal way, so spending time trying to argue about these things is a bit pointless. PVP isn’t quite the same, you can’t ‘solve’ it because you’re never certain about what the other players have fit on their ships, and ideally, you want to counter it. In most cases there IS a counter, and some people are known for flying specific things or for using specific tactics, but it’s a game that is never exactly ‘solved’ in the same way that PVE is solved.

That doesn’t stop people from attempting to create a billion different fits to try to ‘one up’ someone else’ fit. I am very bad at coming up with fits, and have only just started to work with Pyfa and figure out what adjustments I can make here and there based on my skills / needs. In EVE, you usually want a fit that can do what you’re trying to do, for the least amount of ISK. There are of course exceptions to this rule, people love to bling their fits – but everything in EVE seems to be measured in ISK value. Gigantic wars are fought and objectives are great but how much ISK was lost is a method of recording the wins.

I know people are excited about the new ships coming on June 11th, and I think this will be the first time I’ve actually understood what’s going on in-game during a release (as much as I understand anything in EVE, lol). I’d love to see the cost of ships come down a smidge, and I do expect there will be some changes / shake up with the new passive moon mining modules, but we’ll just have to see how it goes. I’ve never actually done any moon mining in EVE, I’m not even sure how it works.

Speaking of mining – I FINALLY completed the 3rd AIR Career branch (industry) yesterday, which rewarded me with a bunch of skill points and other various things (ISK, ships, etc). That just leaves the PVP path, Soldier of Fortune. I expect I may never quite complete that one, but I was thinking I could use some alts. The AIR career is great and I highly suggest people work on it if they’re not sure what to do in game, but I’ve never really taken my own advice, lol.

Anyway, that’s what’s up in EVE lately. Fly your way! o7

EVE Gaming

Local? Not Me

stargrace June 1, 2024 0Comment

I’m not a huge lover of PVP which makes my decision to play EVE a bit of a confusing matter, I know. Don’t take that to mean that I’m a pushover, though. While I may not actively go out and hunt people, I will employ tactics to protect myself, or to protect a site I want. Here’s what I mean:

Yesterday I was in a WH with my Tengu. I have it fit for combat, but brought along a mobile depot and some relic/data scanner II in case I wanted to swap out. Jumped into a WH (it was right off of HS), there was someone in their capsule in there. Thought that was interesting. Then they jumped into their metamorphosis. I mostly ignored them, scanned down the sites, found three non combat exploration sites (of course I did, since I was fit for combat it just makes sense that I’d find no combat). I took out my combat scanner probes so I could figure out where they were. I also uncloaked, since I was parked in a safe with nothing on d-scan, and they didn’t have probes out, I wasn’t feeling too rushed or in any sort of emergency.

They called me out in local – which I’ve never seen anyone do in a wormhole before. Doesn’t mean it never happens, just that it’s rare. In a WH your local is blank – until you talk. When you talk your picture will stay there in local until you leave / log out & back, etc. It gives hunters some extra knowledge about you. I went to zkill and checked this person out to judge how dangerous they were. No significant solo kills to note, a few group kills, lots of NPC deaths. I decided they were probably harmless. I thought it was cute that they said “I see you” – when I was in a safe, nothing on d-scan. They were just trying to get me to reply, which I didn’t do. Instead I left my combat probes out, and went and set up my mobile depot, swapped out to a relic scanner, and did the sites I had scanned down. I checked d-scan the entire time, used the perch method for extra safety, and cloaked a few times here and there.

Eventually, they left (or logged safely, or whatever) and local was empty once again. The loot wasn’t particularly tasty from the sites I had found (I think it came to around 70 million ISK) but I was glad I stuck to it and didn’t let myself be driven off by someone talking in local. If I had of said something, they could have checked out who I was, and seen that I was 100% carebear with zero kills to my name.

You don’t have to engage in toxic behaviour to play EVE – despite the PVP. Consider your ships are ammo, don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose, and learn the tips & tricks to staying alive. The game has been so much more fun for me this round because I’ve been taking the time to learn all of that stuff. Who knows, maybe I’ll change from my carebear ways in the future, too.

Fly your way! o7

Feeling Rushed? Do some Exploration

Suitcase Challenge Day 31: One Month In

Marketing Differences

A Solved Game – But We All Still Play

Local? Not Me

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The Search For Hrada-Oki Bivouac

Personal EVE Economic Update (October)

Expensive Month (preparing for fun)

Locked Out (again)