stargrace

My first C3 Ghost Site

stargrace June 12, 2024 0Comment

Despite the (what I consider) large number of relic & data sites I’ve completed in jspace – today was the very first time I came across a superior ghost site. I was absolutely NOT equipped to fully complete one and handle the onslaught of rats & explosions. I do have a stratios that I can fly – but – since I can’t fit it the way I’d like quite yet, I haven’t taken it out much. The helios has been more than enough for what I’m trying to handle.

Anyway, that doesn’t mean you *can’t* do ghost sites, it just means you have to be fast, and you have to potentially leave a lot of loot behind. I decided to do the ‘egg thief’ tactic, I warped in, hacked a single can, looted (more about that in a second) and warped out. I could have probably hacked a second can (the helios is speedy) but I was already sweating and even though losing it wouldn’t have put a dent in the wallet, I have some emotional connections to the ship and wasn’t willing to take the risk.

The one can I opened was filled with Isotropic Deposition Guide which I had never seen before, a few other bits and bobs, and a Wetu mobile depot blueprint copy. I didn’t want to risk things by scanning down the cans first, so I just grabbed what I could, and fled. Once I was at my safe, the site imploded and vanished from the overview. It was pretty exciting, I honestly didn’t even know that these sites could spawn in jspace, I have only ever seen one before, and it was in high sec.

The ‘problem’ with the loot, is that it was HUGE and filled up my entire hull. I couldn’t even take all of the isotropic deposition guides, I had to leave 4m worth behind. I suppose that is one downside to the helios being so small and nimble.

Still, it was a good amount of ISK when I was finished, and a nice relaxing morning in jspace. I headed back to kspace after, dropping off the loot to my marketing character, and the bpc to my industry character. Yesterday was the release of Equinox, and it’ll be interesting to see how things shake up. The cost of PLEX has gone through the roof (at the time of this post I believe it’s around 5.5, it was 4.5 for the longest time) and hopefully people enjoy the new content. I’ll comment on it further in a few days.

Fly your way! o7

How I’m making my ISK

stargrace June 11, 2024 0Comment

Right now one of my smaller ‘goals’ is to be able to pay for 1 of my accounts with plex / ISK. That goal is going pretty well, some days are better than others but I really enjoy tracking and making charts on all of that. The other account I just pay for with a subscription using RL money. How exactly am I making that ISK?

A lot comes from selling on the market. I have 1 dedicated market character, I started learning station trading (where you put in buy orders, then resell those when people sell to you), and I trade all of my loot to that character to sell since they’re trained in reducing broker fees and what not. Gas has been a nice seller for me, there’s usually always a site or two around in a WH and when it’s empty I’ll get out the tengu & prospect team to do some huffing.

I also do a lot of exploration, and sell the components to that (where I can at least, I tend to hang onto a lot of them for my industry stuff, too). I do C1-C3 anomalies which reward blue loot that you can sell to an NPC for ISK (combat ones, at least). I’ve done a few of the regular signatures too, but I tend to prefer the ones you have to scan down so that people are not just warping directly to me.

I also do a good amount of industry. Right now I’ve been working on my BPO collection, and upgrading them with ISK/time to reduce the amount of time it takes / material it takes to make each item.

I’m also still making drones, though right now the mining drone II is not profitable. I go through a lot of shuttles (they’re bubble immune, but not smart bomb immune) so I’ve been making a few of those and putting the spares up for sale, too.

Then there’s PI, which is pretty steady money. I’m currently doing PI on 3 characters, 2 are in a WH. I could eventually expand to doing PI on all 6 of my characters, but I’m not sure if I want to be THAT dedicated to it. The totals above are for the ‘perfect’ situation, which is roughly 2.4b ISK a month. That’s almost a token just from that one endevour. PI is one of the easiest / least time consuming methods of making ISK, but it does require some dedication. I take maybe 5 minutes every day (total) to reset my extractors, I collect the goods once a week and drop them off in HS, then I pick them up in my hauler and take them to market. I’m only making guidance systems and P1 items for now. I was doing robotics for my drones but it became cheaper to just buy them already made, instead. One of those characters is also still doing PI in high sec, so I spend a lot more on taxes over there. The other two are in the Wormlife Freeport and have been there just shy of a month, so far. When I returned to the game in mid-March I had 4 billion ISK liquid to my name – and now I have 17.5b ISK – even after making some pretty hefty purchases. The goal is to save up enough so that I can buy game time in large chunks, which gives bigger deals. I’m going to be sad to see that pile of ISK go down in such a large amount, but I’m excited that I can confidently pay for one of my accounts in this way.

As always, fly your way! o7

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