EVE!

[Saga]

Heh. This is pretty funny. I dropped out of 0.0 pew pew for a bit. Partly to take a break, partly because my alliance essentially stranded itself by turning everyone all 3 directions to empire red and I'm not going to risk cynoing a carrier into a hostile random moon in some system that happens to not have a cynojammer.

I picked up trading. One of my alts I'd sort of had on the backburner, who I trained primarily for cyno/covert ops and once ran out of shit to train for there started maxing trade skills and reprocessing for giggles has actually turned into an incredible money maker. I never really played the market, but I specialized all of my characters in different ways so that on a whim if I felt like it I could pick up whatever I wanted to try and simply do it.

I'm actually pretty amazed. I started with about 1.2b in liquid isk and within the past three weeks I'm currently worth approximately 12.6b liquid isk with almost 15b in assets on the market. Thats approximately 26.4b more isk than I started with less than a month ago, or roughly 1.25b a day net profit. Granted, I started at a very good time and took extreme advantage of the current fluxuations in the implant and ice products market - but the reality is that for a relatively small (maybe 3-4 hour period a day 4 days a week) investment through reselling mass products, region wide buy orders + courier contracts (I think I'm the only person to use these but I make them worth the freighters wild) + reprocessing and a healthy mix of reading the EVE forums, watching the market trends, and simply guessing based on patch notes.

I'm giddy right now. I'm at the point where I'm considering taking higher risks, involving 5-10b blocks of isk at a time. I'm slightly nervous about the volatility of those numbers, though.

 

[Michael]

Vexors get a 5% per level Hybrid bonus.

They're mainly drone boats, but they do decent damage with Blasters.

Michael

 

[Coldkilla]

Thanks for the manufacturing advice. Yea I'd love to do what you guys are saying w/trade. That sounds like what I'd like to do. Yay I have a direction!

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: nsafreak

Originally posted by: Martimus
I just got into a cruiser a couple of days ago, and I have had to change my whole style of fighting. I can't hit crap the way I was playing, orbiting fast and tight and hitting with blasters. Now I need to web them, approach close, then unleash my blasters and hope my tank is better than theirs. I actually find frigates funner to fly, as you rarely get hit unless the opponent has missiles.

Maybe I need to upgrade some skills to be able to hit the broadside of a barn while moving, since I can't imagine my cruiser standing up to a battleship or battle cruiser (I ran away the one time I came up against one). Any suggestions for how to fly and fight in a cruiser?

I have a Vexor right now, with plans on a Thorax once I can fit it the way I want to fit it. I have 4 heavy electron blaster 1's on the Vexor, with a Nos in the highs (I will probably change that once I can fit a Drone Link Augmenter); 10MN Afterburner/MWD (depending on whether I am doing missions or not), Status Webifier, and med Cap Booster (w/ 800 boosters) in the Mids; Med Armor Rep 1, Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane, 400mm Rolled Tungsten, and a Damage Control in the Lows. I have pretty much fit it the same way I fit frigates, so I may have done it completely wrong.

The thing to remember about the Vexor is that it is a drone ship and your primary damage is going to be coming from drones. Most folks don't even bother fitting guns in the high slots instead fitting a couple of neuts and a NOS or two. Skill wise so that you can hit better with the thorax you will want to train some gunnery skills. Specifically you will want to train the following:

Gunnery (try to get it to lvl 4 or 5)
Sharpshooter (try to get it to lvl 4 or 5)
Rapid Firing (try to get it to lvl 4 or 5)
Surgical Strike (try to get it to lvl 4 or 5)
Trajectory analysis (try to get it to lvl 4 or 5)
Motion Prediction (try to get it to lvl 4 or 5)

The main one that will increase your falloff is trajectory analysis and motion prediction will increase your turret speed. The rest mainly increase damage but those are a few of the key gunnery skills to get. For the vexor you pretty much want to abandon damage dealing from blasters and rely on your drones. You don't get a damage bonus on guns with the vexor instead its on your drones. Not quite sure if you'll be able to get this to fit but here's what I would recommend:

High slots:

3 medium energy neutralizers (best named you can afford)
1 medium energy nosferatu (best named you can afford)

Med slots:

1 warp disruptor (tech II if possible)
10mn Microwarpdrive (tech II or best named)
1 X5 Energy Enervator (not best named web but decent budget solution)
1 medium electrochemical capacitor booster

Lows

1 medium armor repairer (best named you can afford)
1 energized adaptive nano membrane
1 damage control
1 800mm reinforced rolled tungsten plate

Drones:

5 hammerheads
5 warriors

There are other variations to the above fit, some folks fit no tank and all speed, and other folks go with other fits. I find this to be a good fit for newer players. I don't recommend flying a vexor though unless you have some drone skills because otherwise you won't be using it to its full potential.

Thanks. I will try refitting it with energy neutralizers and Nosferatus. I can't fit the Mids like that, since it only has 3 mids though (making it difficult to tank and tackle, as I can only put a cap booster or a warp scrambler, not both.) Should I just cut out the Webifier, and keep the warp scrambler, or the other way around? I would like to keep a Cap Booster so I can keep my armor tank running more than 30s.

I am building up my drone capability, but the Vexor is really just an intermediate cruiser until I get into a Thorax. I bought it because it is cheap and I can easily afford to lose it, while the Thorax requires much more money to properly outfit it as a blaster boat. Both require drones, so my learning of drones isn't going to hinder me with the Thorax.

I will take your advise on training the gunnery skills. Right now I have most of them trained to level 3 (since that can be done in hours, instead of days) I am having a hard time hitting anything smaller than a cruiser with it now, and I rely almost entirely on my drones to kill Frigates it seems. That may be normal though, as I rarely got hit by cruisers when I was flying a fast frigate (although when I did, it HURT)

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Saga
Heh. This is pretty funny. I dropped out of 0.0 pew pew for a bit. Partly to take a break, partly because my alliance essentially stranded itself by turning everyone all 3 directions to empire red and I'm not going to risk cynoing a carrier into a hostile random moon in some system that happens to not have a cynojammer.

I picked up trading. One of my alts I'd sort of had on the backburner, who I trained primarily for cyno/covert ops and once ran out of shit to train for there started maxing trade skills and reprocessing for giggles has actually turned into an incredible money maker. I never really played the market, but I specialized all of my characters in different ways so that on a whim if I felt like it I could pick up whatever I wanted to try and simply do it.

I'm actually pretty amazed. I started with about 1.2b in liquid isk and within the past three weeks I'm currently worth approximately 12.6b liquid isk with almost 15b in assets on the market. Thats approximately 26.4b more isk than I started with less than a month ago, or roughly 1.25b a day net profit. Granted, I started at a very good time and took extreme advantage of the current fluxuations in the implant and ice products market - but the reality is that for a relatively small (maybe 3-4 hour period a day 4 days a week) investment through reselling mass products, region wide buy orders + courier contracts (I think I'm the only person to use these but I make them worth the freighters wild) + reprocessing and a healthy mix of reading the EVE forums, watching the market trends, and simply guessing based on patch notes.

I'm giddy right now. I'm at the point where I'm considering taking higher risks, involving 5-10b blocks of isk at a time. I'm slightly nervous about the volatility of those numbers, though.

Wow, looks like you have your money maker set for as long as you need money.

I really enjoy playing the market, but I really can't spend the time to skill up the necessary skills to get it really going as I need to train for skills to properly fit the ships that I want to fly.

I do want to get back into it more than the low volume stuff I do now though.

 

[Saga]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Wow, looks like you have your money maker set for as long as you need money.

I really enjoy playing the market, but I really can't spend the time to skill up the necessary skills to get it really going as I need to train for skills to properly fit the ships that I want to fly.

I do want to get back into it more than the low volume stuff I do now though.

Thats why I have a trade account.

I have four accounts, all of which specialize in different things - 1 is hardcore PvP 60mil SP with all races BS5 and can fly every ship in the game and is currently finishing all the level 5's for capital support skills (carrier5/dread5 not started yet..). One is pure support - carrier, logistics, ewar. One is industry - Rorqual/Mining/Reprocessing. The last is trade, cyno, covert/recon/black ops, freighter/jump freighter.

At this point, I can continue my trade empire at very minimal effort and use GTC's purchased at 600m a pop for 60 days per account and I can essentially continue playing for years without ever giving CCP a credit card number.

When I first started, I realized it would simply be impossible (logistically) to make one or even two characters and specialize them in all the aspects of the game I'd want to try, so I split the roles up in 4 different ways, laid out a skill plan, and went with it. That way at any given time I can pick up a role and fly with it because in one year I accomplish more than other players in 4 years.

And the best part is I don't pay for a single account. It's all funded through in-game enterprise. Amazing, really. I remember the days I was paying SoE $150/m for 10 EQ accounts. It's like having an addicting/expensive hobby like drinking but you're sleeping with the bar owner so you always drink for free. =)

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Saga

Originally posted by: Martimus

Wow, looks like you have your money maker set for as long as you need money.

I really enjoy playing the market, but I really can't spend the time to skill up the necessary skills to get it really going as I need to train for skills to properly fit the ships that I want to fly.

I do want to get back into it more than the low volume stuff I do now though.

Thats why I have a trade account.

I have four accounts, all of which specialize in different things - 1 is hardcore PvP 60mil SP with all races BS5 and can fly every ship in the game and is currently finishing all the level 5's for capital support skills (carrier5/dread5 not started yet..). One is pure support - carrier, logistics, ewar. One is industry - Rorqual/Mining/Reprocessing. The last is trade, cyno, covert/recon/black ops, freighter/jump freighter.

At this point, I can continue my trade empire at very minimal effort and use GTC's purchased at 600m a pop for 60 days per account and I can essentially continue playing for years without ever giving CCP a credit card number.

When I first started, I realized it would simply be impossible (logistically) to make one or even two characters and specialize them in all the aspects of the game I'd want to try, so I split the roles up in 4 different ways, laid out a skill plan, and went with it. That way at any given time I can pick up a role and fly with it because in one year I accomplish more than other players in 4 years.

And the best part is I don't pay for a single account. It's all funded through in-game enterprise. Amazing, really. I remember the days I was paying SoE $150/m for 10 EQ accounts. It's like having an addicting/expensive hobby like drinking but you're sleeping with the bar owner so you always drink for free. =)

Wow. You have it set up pretty well. I only make around $5M a day between trade and missions (although I only play an hour or so a day), so your $1.25B a day is amazing to me. I doubt it will stay this easy to make money, but even if you can keep up half that pace you will be set for cash.

I have been lucky enough to get all my drinks for free from the bar when I used to go. The bartender has since moved to another state, so now I need to buy my own if I go out.

I may decide to open a second account in the future to scratch my manufacturing and trade itch, but for now, I think I should get better at the combat portion of the game. Those are the two parts of the game that interest me right now. I am wondering if I should join the Militia to try out PVP, or go into a new Corp? I don't want to get into piracy, but that seems to be the majority of PVP corporations.

 

[Saga]

Actually, the majority of lowsec PvP corporations are pirates. Most 0.0 or "true" PvP corps are more worried about expansion, money, and defending their territory between attacks on enemy territory. It's very territorial.

Sorry to you guys in your highsec pirate corps, but you're still just wannabe null-seccers who prey on the ignorant and the weak, where I prefer fighting a small gang of competent players with my small gang and knowing that in a 10vs10 it's going to boil down to a bit of composition rock paper scissors, a bit of skill, and a bit of luck. I love you though, since your constant T2 frig/cruiser losses keep padding my wallet when I drop ships, modules, and ammo off in your stations and you're too lazy to jump 3 jumps to a trade hub to buy it cheaper.. so thanks!

 

[Michael]

High sec PvP typically are merc companies that take contracts out and war dec other high sec corporations. Almost always this is experienced players preying on carebears.

Low sec PvP corps tend to be pirates (I'm in a low sec PvP corp - we're NBSI which means "pirates" to many). Many fights are high sec people wandering in and getting ganked as they're clueless. There are plenty of interesting fights where 2 low sec PvP corps bump into each other. The main differences compared to 0.0 PvP corps are gang sizes tend to be smaller (0.0 has far more blobs) and you need to fight under gate guns a lot and all the toys (bubbles in particular) do not work. So there is a lot less use of smaller ships as they can't stand up to sentry guns.

Much of 0.0 PvP is territorial warfare. POS sieges. That sort of thing. If you're roaming in a smaller gang, it doesn't take long for a big blob to chase you. All the toys work, especially bubbles which makes a huge difference in forcing a fight and increases the possibility that your pod dies. Some PvP are smaller gangs that sneak or run through the front lines where the majority of the blobs are and then raid and strike the softer targets inside held space.

I find low sec and 0.0 PvP fairly fun (only 0.0 offers huge fleet slugfests).

Michael

 

[Martimus]

Grr. I hit the 1.6M SP mark, and now all my training times doubled. It looks like the game is about to bog down quite a bit, as the skills I need to properly fit the cruisers the way I want to fit them will take me until mid June to train now.

I was planning on training up my cruiser skills then going back and training for an interceptor (the Taranis), since I like that style of fighting, but maybe I will up my training for the Taranis and skip on the cruiser training for now.

I am putting an offer on a house today, and it is scary. I just want to get this over with, and I have been using Eve as an escape from the pressure for now. It is starting to get boring though, and that is probably just because I haven't gone out and joined a corporation because I am too lazy to do it.

 

[ibex333]

Originally posted by: Martimus
Grr. I hit the 1.6M SP mark, and now all my training times doubled. It looks like the game is about to bog down quite a bit, as the skills I need to properly fit the cruisers the way I want to fit them will take me until mid June to train now.

I was planning on training up my cruiser skills then going back and training for an interceptor (the Taranis), since I like that style of fighting, but maybe I will up my training for the Taranis and skip on the cruiser training for now.

I am putting an offer on a house today, and it is scary. I just want to get this over with, and I have been using Eve as an escape from the pressure for now. It is starting to get boring though, and that is probably just because I haven't gone out and joined a corporation because I am too lazy to do it.

You have to understand, that in EVE you are capable of "something" with ANY amount of skill points. Even if you just started out. Ask yourself "What is your GOAL?" What do you want to do in EVE? If it's PvP, you are already capable of PvPing, but you cant do it solo, and technically you shouldn't even be PvPing solo...

Any small time pirate or an anti-pirate corp will most likely take you without any problems. Just make sure that they in fact do a lot of PvP and not just talk about doing it. (I hate those, and you will go through a lot of them before you get into a descent corp)

You wont be breaking any records, and you wont be taking down ships solo, but you will do fine as a newb tackler in a frig, or you can just add to the overall damage of your fleet by just "being there".

It's all about what you want to do... Me for example, I don't care about PvP at all. It's too tedious, too complicated and way, way too risky with questionable returns unless you happen to be in a very good, organized corp. I'm not going to make 30 million trading just to lose them in 20 sec when someone pops me. Fuck that. If I had a job and could afford to buy billions of isk, I might have had a different outlook about this. For now, I am perfectly fine sitting here doing my homework and modifying my orders every now and then, or switching miners from one rock to another. This is boring for many, but plenty of fun for me when I see my wallet growing.

And yes, eve can get to you sometimes... You gotta take breaks. I do this every now and then.. It can be anywhere, fro ma few days to a few years. After all, where do I have to rush? Life doesn't consist of just EVE.

 

[daishi5]

I just gained the status to do level 3 missions, but at -17 quality. And I can only afford cruisers right now, I am qualified for battlecruisers, but the price difference is huge. I could keep doing level 2's, but I am not sure which way is better at this point. I could afford to lose a cruiser or two if the payouts on 3's are worth it, but I could only get a BC if I put all my assets toward it. (violating that don't fly what you cannot lose rule.) I am not sure what I should do while waiting for T-ret's war to finish so I join what sounds like a good corp and do something a little more interesting.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: daishi5
I just gained the status to do level 3 missions, but at -17 quality. And I can only afford cruisers right now, I am qualified for battlecruisers, but the price difference is huge. I could keep doing level 2's, but I am not sure which way is better at this point. I could afford to lose a cruiser or two if the payouts on 3's are worth it, but I could only get a BC if I put all my assets toward it. (violating that don't fly what you cannot lose rule.) I am not sure what I should do while waiting for T-ret's war to finish so I join what sounds like a good corp and do something a little more interesting.

Some lvl3's would be pretty tough in a cruiser (particularly without high skills), and much easier in a BC.

 

[Michael]

A decent write-up of what Eve is like:

Eve explained

Michael

 

[cherrytwist]

who wants to toss a brotha an invite via PM?

edit: Thanks Martimus

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: daishi5
I just gained the status to do level 3 missions, but at -17 quality. And I can only afford cruisers right now, I am qualified for battlecruisers, but the price difference is huge. I could keep doing level 2's, but I am not sure which way is better at this point. I could afford to lose a cruiser or two if the payouts on 3's are worth it, but I could only get a BC if I put all my assets toward it. (violating that don't fly what you cannot lose rule.) I am not sure what I should do while waiting for T-ret's war to finish so I join what sounds like a good corp and do something a little more interesting.

I can run the mission with you if you want. I hang out in Oursulaert mostly, my name is Martimus28.

 

[Michael]

Martimus joined up with me. Under an hour later, he is a killer.

<grin>

http://chainofchaos.podzone.ne...ll_detail&kll_id=10542

Michael

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Michael
Martimus joined up with me. Under an hour later, he is a killer.

<grin>

http://chainofchaos.podzone.ne...ll_detail&kll_id=10542

Michael

That was fun. Even if I had no idea what I was doing :laugh:

 

[JRich]

Pick on someone your own size

 

[nsafreak]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: Michael
Martimus joined up with me. Under an hour later, he is a killer.

<grin>

http://chainofchaos.podzone.ne...ll_detail&kll_id=10542

Michael

That was fun. Even if I had no idea what I was doing :laugh:

Heh the good old passive tank drake from hell. Complete T2 fit I see as well. Those are a bit of a pain in the arse to grind down. This would be the most recent killmail I've participated in http://www.battleclinic.com/ev...ge=1&filter=kills#mail .

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: JRich
Pick on someone your own size

There aren't many ships as small as the one I was flying. I have to pick on bigger, more expensive ships.

 

[Michael]

To be fair in that we cheated a little and only had him slap the point on at the very end (gate guns are very bad for frigates), but if anyone is wondering if a newer character can't just jump in and try PvP, ask Martimus. Also ask him how much more quickly he'll learn about the game as part of a corporation (a rasonably large and active one).

My corp will accept applications form newer players and we're willing to teach.

Michael

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Michael
To be fair in that we cheated a little and only had him slap the point on at the very end (gate guns are very bad for frigates), but if anyone is wondering if a newer character can't just jump in and try PvP, ask Martimus. Also ask him how much more quickly he'll learn about the game as part of a corporation (a rasonably large and active one).

My corp will accept applications form newer players and we're willing to teach.

Michael

You guys have any room for predominantly miner/indy pilots?

 

[Michael]

We do, as long as you are willing to PvP when we do a corporate or alliance call to arms. Just be advised that we occassionally get war decced (which makes mining harder) and we live in low sec (mining is better but can be more dangerous and we're next to good high sec mining areas). If not in my corp, a couple of the other corps also have a core of miners.

Michael (Myrdin Potter in game)

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Michael
We do, as long as you are willing to PvP when we do a corporate or alliance call to arms. Just be advised that we occassionally get war decced (which makes mining harder) and we live in low sec (mining is better but can be more dangerous and we're next to good high sec mining areas). If not in my corp, a couple of the other corps also have a core of miners.

Michael (Myrdin Potter in game)

Well I suck at PvP. I have a ~10m SP char that's pretty proficient in battlecruisers (Caldari) - trained BS5 as well, but don't have the supporting skills to fit. My miner which I've been playing more will be in a Hulk within a month, so if that's useful to you guys I'm game.