Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A Short Vacation

It is Summer and the time has come to train a few long skills and take a vacation.

Now for "work" I still take my laptop so I am able to tell a short tale.

As we try to do every few years, we headed the 600 miles to the ocean and the beach.  Now I am not as, shall we say .... thin, as i used to be.

So the second day I am down at the beach and the surf is pretty pounding as there is a storm offshore really kicking up the waves.  So as i grew tired of fighting the waves and saw my kids hard at work building stuff in the sand I decided to join them.

So I stumbled ashore and flopped down next to my kids and started to claw at the sand in an effort to help them gather some sand for their walls and structures.

Now let me tell you it was a pretty hot day.  Had to be pushing 95F and the sun was really beating down hard.  I really started to sweat and considered returning to the sea, but just then a group of people came along and started to pour water over me.  I didn't recall this level of service in reading the timeshares website, but it was appreciated.  So I continued to dig up sand for my kids.

Now along came another group and started really soaking me with some hoses.  Seemed a bit extreme.  I looked around too and didn't see any others receiving this special treatment.

I did get worried when they started to try to tie ropes to my legs and a boat showed up.  At this point I got up and started to ask a few questions.  Needless to say the people gathered where a bit shocked at my sudden mobility, and I was a bit embarrased when I saw they were all from the local marine biology college's marine rescue program.

Guess maybe it really is time to consider that diet when this vacation is over.

Mick

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Back in W-Space ... Finally

Well, it took longer then I expected.

And it was for a totally different reason then I expected.

But I am back in W-space, with most of my toons.

Yes my two main toons are still bumping around Provi, killing the crap out of Sansha and Sleepers when available.  They are still taking baby steps into PVP also.  Overall I am happy with where they were at.

My two indy/trading toons meanwhile were sitting around collecting dust and training for things that might make them slightly more useful.  I was just about ready to bite the bullet and setup a high sec POS to start invention again (though I dreaded the time sink a high sec POS was and the time sink invention was) to justify these two toons.

Then my C4 discovery. 

So now I have 4 new sub-toons (my term for the 2 extra toons on each account) that are able to fly a cloaky bestower, probe ridiculously bad, and run 5 planets with Advanced Command Centers (total training time with 2 remaps and 100% bonus was about 5-6 days).  So now I have a Large POS setup, Defenses installed (I am sick of 2m30s to anchor and 2m30s to online messages), the hole bottomed out (thanks to warp cancels) and 4 toons ready to use Advanced Command Centers tonight. 

So once again, I am living the dream of no local, living in a POS, managing WH exits, as well as worrying about the logistics of w-space refueling and market runs. 

Still on the to-do list is getting my drake capable PVE toon into the hole to clear smaller ladar and grav sites when they spawn.  As well as having at least one toon capable of putting up a fight.

So with renewed interest in W-Space and its PI impact, I look forward to a much different blog scope in the next few weeks to a month. 

It is my hope to discuss my total setup in the next few days.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Pull of PI

Well, I kinda laughed at the initial idea of Planetary Interaction.

It looked kinda, well, stupid.  Seemed like Farmville meets Eve.  A bunch of clicking, moving stuff, and limited rewards.  Yet another thing for people to do that don't want to learn PVP.  Another dream of passive income that would end up taking way to much time to justify the end result (gee, I can save $14 a month by spending 30 hours a month messing with this passive income stream).

So I did not mess with it on Sisi, I did not rush to train the skills, and I didn't even start paying attention till it was out a few weeks and I started to get word of some serious potential profits.

So I started to scan around in High Sec to see what I could find.  Short answer was nothing good.  No "hot spots" for sure.

For those of you who have followed this blog for awhile will remember, I left scanning alts in at least 3 different WH's.  So I decided to log them on and see what planet mixes they had.  The two C2 were both a no go as one was occupied and the other had a bunch of Barren, Gas, and 1 Oceanic.

However, the C4 was a very pleasant find.  First it had a C2 static so I am never far from a Empire route. Next it had 3 Temperate, 2 Lava and a Gas.  All of the three types with "unique" resources.  Even better, they all had 80%+ "hot spots" for those resources.

For those of you not yet fluid in PI, there are 15 "Planetary Resources" and 3 of them can only be found on a single planet type.  These are Reactive Gases on Gas Planets, Felsic Magma on Lava  Planets, and Autotrophs on Temperate Planets.

Now the engineer in me kicked in and I started to look at what I could make.  Then the Salesman in me started to look at what I could make.  Then the PVP'r in me started to think about what i could get blown up with all the Isk I was going to make.

Here is what I have found.  The three resources I will be swimming in (could hurt swimming in Magma) combine to make 3 P2 Level Products. These are RG+FM= Silicate Glass, RM+AUTO= Polyramids, and FM+AUTO=Microfiber Shielding.

Now, looking further, those 3 P2 products represent half of the P2 products needed for BOTH Broadcast Nodes and Self Harmonizing Power Cores.

A plan was evident.

So off went the initial toon into the C4 to play with PI.  Unfortunately, he forgot a cloak.  Guess what?  PI takes a lot of time "messing" with stuff and in non Empire areas, a cloak is invaluable.

Fortunately,  I got a few days of playing and transferring stuff around, before Alpha Dog ended my fun.

So at this point I have 4 planets setup, 2 scanning toons left in the hole, and 4 more scanning/PI toons training.

The goal now is to get a POS into the C4, along with the 4 scanning/PI toons and start to harvest and process as much of the Broadcast Node and SHPC parts I can inside the hole.

From there, I plan to setup my trader toon near Jita on enough planets to finish off the BN's and SHPC's.

As I work to setup my planets, I will try to get some pictures on my basic setups and thoughts on PI.  The overall goal of the setups is to try to balance the time between transfers of materials between planets. The goal is once a week.  That way the daily activity will be setting extractors, and once a week I will need to spend a few hours shuttling products between planets and toons.

At the end of August I promise to report if my projections of Isk are anywhere close to what I actually make.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Monday, June 28, 2010

Goodbye and Hello Mr. Legion

Well I can say the wait was worth the trouble.  T3 cruisers are sweet.

Now, I have to say when I first got in my Legion and try some lower WH anomolies, I was not impressed.  But it was my skills not the ships fault.

I have always been a Caldari PVE type player.  Through my first trip through game and even most of what I have been doing so far on my second stent.

Yes I trained Amarr, but I approached it like a Caldari would.  Massive tank, no speed and long range.  Yes not exactly the formula for success in a T3 Cruiser.

So as you might expect my first experience with a Legion, heading into a fight with 2 Sleeper BS's and a few webbing cruisers did not end well.  Suffice it to say that 2 Sleeper BS's can pretty much take a Legion from half armor to POD in one dual volley.  Fortunetly my 350M armor repper survived.

After a brief lesson on how to effectively fly a cruiser sized ship, the importance of speed and yes navigation skills (what the hell are those, says the Caldari in me), I got back on the Legion horse.  Have to say I am damned proud I did.

This ship is great.  With a tweak of a few skills and setup I now top 600m/s while holding a 25k km orbit.  I am hitting for as much damage as I usually did with a volley of 7 heavy missiles on a drake, in about a third less time.  I have a very healthy fear of webbers now, as well as tracking disruptor (both new fears for a Caldari missile chucker).

I am still learning the best approach to PVE in the Legion, but I can now solo all 0.0 anomolies, and would have no fear in taking on Class 2 WH anomolies solo either.  Class 3 might still be a stretch, but more for not knowing the triggers and beiong afraid of triggering an overwhelming force. 

I am still working on getting all the skills needed to really max out the Legion (like all subs to V, and some remaining gun and armor skills to V), but man am I impressed with the T3 Cruiser. 

Guess my days of warping in and sitting there in a raven and drake are a thing of the past.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Friday, June 11, 2010

Aren't Sleepers Fun.

I finally got all my stuff into the Provi pocket and have started to try to get "good" at finding stuff to do.


As of right now, there are not a ton of US TZ players around during my normal playing time so I am usually trying to find some solo or small fleet stuff to do.

My choices start at finding a high end WH (our area seems to get a lot of C5 entrances) to clear the ladar and grav site of rats.  This seems to be safer as there are far fewer roaming gangs in WH space then our pocket.

If a higher end WH is not around then any WH will do and I can then look to "solo" some anom's.

If all else fails its off to run anom's in our pocket or simply rat in belts. (Nice side benefit is my security status is much higher)

So few nights back I get on just as a Corp Op is wrapping up clearing some C5 sites.  I get into the hole and find like 11 ladar and grav sites.  Potential for a very good night.  No one else is interested in running them so I hop in my Raven and Harby (both with tractor and salvager) and head in.  Now most of the low end Ladar and Grav have 4-6 frigs, or 3-4 cruisers, or some combination of sleep rats to kill.  Very easy, especially with dual target painter Raven and Pulse setup Harby.  So I get to a site I am not familiar with.  It is an "Exceptional" grav site.  Quickly check ArcDragon and says its not one of the high end ones with multiple BS's.  To be on the safe side I go ahead and warp to it in a pod to see what it entails.  I see a single lone BS.  No Problem, Right?  Wrong.

I warp the Raven in at range and am insta web'd and scram'd from like 65km away (man I want some Sleeper mods). Still no sweat.  Warp the Harby in closer and start orbiting really fast and close (about 2000 km).  Now my Raven is not full tanked because of the dual Target Painters but I am able to perma run the large Caldari Navy Shield Booster.  Well the BS never changes targets.  It completely ignores the Harby at close range.  About 50% armor on the BS and the ravens shields are starting to struggle.  I throw my 5 hammerhead II's hoping they become sacrifices to the Sleeper and will get some heat off the Raven.  No Luck.

30% armor on the Sleeper and the Raven is now starting to take some armor damage between shield rep cycles.  The Sleeper has given no thought to switching targets.  I align the Raven for the chance to get away and hope for just a second he decided to take a few shots at the drones.

Finally get the Sleeper into Hull and the Raven is taking more and more armor damage.  Cap is also starting to feel the effects of the NOS and I am thinking I really might want to jettison the 20 melted nano's in my cargo for fear of losing that 100M in addition to my ship.

It becomes very apparent that this is going to be a very close race to see who dies first.  I keep wishing for a target change as I have to start feathering the shield booster to try to keep cap above 15% and not completely drain it.

Closer and closer to cutting through the remainder of the Ravens armor and now testing the single digits of Cap, the Sleeper BS gets closer and closer it its end.  Finally I get the death sentence of the Raven in the sweet female voice informing me "the capacitor is empty".  A last volley of Cruise Missiles leaves the launchers, and the Harby sends a pulse of energy streaking across space, and mercifully the Sleeper BS explodes (how is that possible in a vacuum).  I finally catch my breathe.  Final analysis shows 87% structure left on the Raven and no capacitor.   To make matters worse, I could not even salvage the wreck as both toons have Salvaging to IV and I did not have a dedicated salvager in pocket yet with salvage rigs on it.

All the risk, for a few blue tags.

Well thankfully our station has free repairs.

Mick

Sunday, June 6, 2010

All Together Again

After dissolving our WH ops, my three toons have all been scattered to the wind.  Hundo first learning PVP and then trying a stent in a C6 Wh corp.  Ian ran Cosmos missions and ran with some L4 PVE types, and Capt. just sat around doing some invention and a little mining.

Well I am finally happy to have them all back in one corp and headed out to null sec.  In addition I am happy to hook up with Star Defender and other I have met during my time blogging.

While i am still getting the parts and pieces together to get all my stuff out to our pocket (null sec logistics do really suck), I am looking forward to being able to bring several toons to the game in the same area.

As part of this endeavor, we will be running WH's in a more nomadic fashion and I look forward to starting to look to solo C3's, as well as continue to fleet C5's.

Hope to be able to start posting a little more regularly, but might not be 100% WH content.

Mick

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A View on PVP

So here is my two cents on PVP based on High Sec War Decs, Low Sec Roams, Some Null and Some WH experience.  I do not profess or hold myself out to be a good PVP'r.  I can not rattle off ship names and classes, ecm races and types, and many other things.  But I do think I have a feel for what PVP entails. 

In addition I think I have the three main keys to starting into PVP.

1) A willingness to learn from others
2) A willingness to try
3) A willingness to die

With these three things as a basis I think anyone can learn and enjoy PVP.

To be clear, this is also almost entirely from a perspective of small to mid sized fleets (3-15 ships).

To start it might be easier to define what PVP is not.  PVP is not an extension of PVE. It is not a progression from L1 to L4 to C5 anomalies. And most of all it is not Fair. The fact that they brought 8 guys when you brought 3 is not unfair, its smart.

I have seen many people who think they will rock at PVP because their Raven setup "kicks ass" on Level 4's.  They are naive and ripe for failure.  A fleet of 3-4 small ships properly fit and flown by good PVP'rs can easily take out that shiny Raven, leaving you wondering how you just lost your 300M isk setup that crushes L4's.  I have seen Tengu's go down to fleets of ships worth less then 100M total.

PVP is a completely separate aspect of the game and as such requires different skills, both in game and real life, to be successful.

In my opinion there seems to be several "Steps" in learning and being comfortable at PVP, each with a different skill set and scope of knowledge.

Step 1 - T1 Frig - ISK involved $500k-$1M
Pick your race's best frig. Only requirement is at least 3 mids. Requires AB, Warp Scram, Web. Fit highs for best DPS, lows for cap stability and added DPS. NO EWAR. Learn to do 4 things in order. Orbit close and fast (ie get differential speed maxed), warp scram, web, fire. Congrats you are PVP'n now. Principle here is simplicity. You have a role in a fleet (tackler) and you are adding to the fleet's effectiveness. You will get over the jitters of PVP and risk very little. Just remember to always update your Clone after you die.

Step 2 - Cruiser Specialist - Isk Involved $10-20M
Now learn your race's cruisers. There are some awesome EWAR and Support cruisers as well as some decent DPS boats. Key here is to start to find some niche to fill. Blackbird/EWAR, Aurogor/Support etc. You now have to start to expand your skills and worry about others around you. You will have to start to understand primaries and secondaries, optimal ranges. You will have to learn to walk and chew gum. You will die, especially in a Blackbird. Just remember to always update your Clone after you die.

Step 3 - Battlecruiser - Isk Involved $40-50M
Now its time for some bigger toys. Legit DPS. FC'n and making tactical decisions (as a step the FC might be in a Frig for a Frig Swarm, but should probably be at this level of comfort to be able to make decisions about others.) Overall the skills here are understanding opponents, making decisions about primaries, understanding what the opposite side is using and how to counter. Also should really be able to deliver some serious DPS. At this point you might also start to be able to dabble in solo PVP.

Step 4 - BS, Tech 2, Tech 3 etc. Isk Involved - $50M to whatever you can afford to lose.
Here is where the specialization really starts. Falcons, Rooks, Curse, SB's, Zealots, Guardians. Here a role is well defined and you better know what you are doing. You have a task in the fleet, a job to do and people are depending on you with their ships to do it. DPS, EWAR, Support, HIC, Bubbler. The roles must be balanced by a competent FC as it is very easy to have 1B isk plus in play. Here is where enemy knowledge and fleet setup have as much if not more to do with the success of an encounter then individual skills.

I feel I am at the very early stages of Step 3. But no matter where you feel you are, with an open attitude, willingness to try, and willingness to die you can progress.

It is also more fun then watching the paint dry inside the station while a single Red Zealot come looking for you and your corp mates.

Mick Flaherty

Friday, May 7, 2010

Something Old, Something New

Something Borrowed, Something Blue.

No I was not a Bride in a wedding, but it was an interesting week that included alot of old and new experiences.

First, Something Old.

This week showed again why "hunting" in W-Space is so awesome.  In our genreal activities of finding something to do (read collapsing WH's and scanning) we came accross a few active people in a mining op.  There were two miners and a couple of POS's in system and several cans out.  A welcoming party was quickly assembled and a quick scan of the POS's showed an Orca. With the number of cans jetted it appeared they were going to haul with the Orca.  Needless to say a great op that had people salavating.  In any other space other then W-Space this type of op would have been pointless as it would have been impossible to maintain any eliment of surprise.  But in W-Space we were able to get several cloaky things into the system, have eyes on all targets, and POS's and execute a textbook ambush of the Orca and two miners.  No "Local Spike", no free intel, great use of skills and ships the way they were designed.

Few days later, we managed to find  a Drake sitting on a hole outside a system we had been playing some games of "chase" with some fellow probers.  First thought of course was "bait drake".  A small fleet assembled and we were again able to deploy cloaky ships to assess the situation and even get to the point of flying through the hole he was sitting on to asses the other side.  If this was bait, then there seemed to be no hook.  End result is we were able to get the Drake to jump both ways through the wormhole and get his 4 minute session timer activated.  No help arrived and Drake went down quietly.  In the end, the Drake pilot again had no idea the number of cloaky things hunting him, where in low or null he would have recieved the "free" information on our numbers in system at all times and been able to probably better assess the situation at hand. 

So glad there is no local in W-Space.  It truely enables small fleet ops to be highly effective versus needing the "blobs" of low and null sec.

Now for Somethng New.

Finally got my Legion.  Ship looks so sweet.  Can not wait to kill some sleepers in it. 

Also, finally got to participate in my first attack on a POS.  Very interesting experience that gave me a whole new respect for POS setups and defenses.  All I can say is that Module balance and placement really do matter.

So far I am impressed with the huge difference between C2 and C6 life.  I look forward to getting a couple of other key skills trained in next month that will continue to enable me to do more and more in this environment.

Mick

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The More Things Change .....

The more they stay the same.

In this post I just wanted to take a second to note some very distinct similarities I have experienced so far moving to a C6 from our old C2.

By far the biggest is the shear amount of scanning needed to accomplish anything.  In our C2 almost all of that scanning fell on two or maybe 3 people.  Guess what, in a C6 with several hundred people in the system, the scanning still falls on 3-5 people per TZ.  Keeping in mind that we really only ran a single TZ operation in our C2, and our C6 is more active.  The key here is probing really is one thing that has a "real" skill to it.  By that I mean you can train all the skills in game very high, but still suck at probing.  Maybe its just more apparent as I guess you can train all the ECM skills and still suck at that too, its just not as obvious.

The second very obvious similarity is the "feast or famine" of W-Space life.  It is the same here in the C6 as it was in the C2.  Connections are fluid, situations are fluid and therefore life is very uncertain.  We can have a series of connections result with good sites, be left alone and be busy every night (and make an insane amount of isk/hr), or we can have a series of active systems, run down systems, or simply keep getting interrupted in our ops and end up spending a lot of time watching the paint dry on the side of the POS.

The last thing, and the best in my opinion, is the "fog of war".  I LOVE the fact there is no local channel that gives an overwhelming, and unreal, amount of information away for free.  I love flying around systems truly unknown.  The ability to control the knowledge of your presence is amazing. 

Case in point, I was returning up a pipe from a high sec route we had scanned out and came upon a few friends that had slipped into one of the systems in some Battlecruisers.  Now we had seen another prober on scan when we were scanning that system also.  We knew there were two Null Sec holes in the system and were pretty sure that's where they had come from.  Now if this was Null Sec, the BC's would have known in seconds they had company and been able to asses the risk by looking at my bio, my killboard stats, etc etc.  All because I appeared in local. 

Now in W-space, I knew they were there, but if I was lucky and he didn't hit the d-scan in the few seconds I was uncloaked, he had no idea I was there.  Advantage to the cloaky thing.  Now in quick order our corp had the ability to gain an advantage by using our tools to hopefully complete a successful operation. 

Long story short and details omitted, we missed cause we guessed the wrong null sec hole (hey was a 50/50 guess), we had a third party from who knows where throw probes and flushed the prey early, and overall the BC's were seconds from getting blown to bits.  We did manage to chase them back into Null and there we lost all real use of cloaky measures and element, because the damned Local let the prey know the entire time who was in system.

So overall, while things are much different, they are still very similar, from C1 to C6, W-Space offers some very unique environments, and for that I am thankful.

Mick

Thursday, April 22, 2010

First Ops

Well after a few nights of scanning systems and feeling like a total noob again, I added even more angst to discuss with my therapist next session (yeah doc, its a space based MMPOG, and I feel, yeah space based, and I feel, yeah kinda like WOW but way better, and anyway, what, oh eve-online.com, and I joined this new corp, sure I could send you an invite, what our hour is up? okay guess I'll see ya next week).

So lets start by saying that scanning skills are not the only thing I am "lacking".  I already knew the ship of choice is T3 (and who doesn't prefer T3 in W-Space, duh), but I didn't expect the total BS disdain that greeted my undocking of the Abby.  I guess the one (and most say only) use of an Abby is mass limiting an WH for closer by bigger ships.

Well begrudgingly they allowed me to come on the Ladar Clearing OP, but only because the WH's had not been effected yet by mass and no larger Ops were planned.  So with excitement coursing through my veins (and maybe some fermented sugars) I fleeted up and headed to the rendezvous at the Wormhole.  And in my excitement I yes......., wait for it ......., jumped on contact.  Total, 100%, no excuses, pleb and noob move.  To top matters off I then had to wait for a good 5 minutes on the wrong side of the hole and listen to endless banter on Vent about the pleb in the BS who couldn't follow basic WH procedure of largest ship through last.

Ha Ha Ha, no harm no foul.  But wait it gets better.  Now I don't know about the majority of Eve peeps, but I am an account junkie.  I have 4 (though soon to be 3 as I combine accounts since my producer/trader toon is almost done he can "share" time with my Orca/Leadership pilot).  Anyway, I tend to forget who can do what skill wise.  Now I KNOW I have toons that can use T2 drones, and I THOUGHT my C6 WH Toon could.  Well I was wrong.  So imagine my shame finally showing up to the first site to be cleared (a good half hour after the T3 cruisers did, or at least it felt like half an hour)and attempting to throw my drones, only to get the message I don't have the skills to use Hobby II's.  Fortunately, there were plenty of drones out and maybe no one noticed.

Well from there things settled down.  The sites cleared quick (yes 3 T3's and Abby and Guardian make quick work of 2 Sleeper BS's), my gas mining skills are fine, and I am told I made a fair amount of Isk for 3 hours work. 

So it is obvious I have gone from decent fish leading a small group in a small C2 pond, to a very small fish, with an oversized ship, in a very big pond (and unfortunately one who had a few first op jitters).  Here's to hoping the next few go better.

Mick

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I thought I knew how to live in W-Space

Turns out I only knew how to get by.

So my first three "serious" nights in my new home have been eye-opening.

Lets just say I thought a lot more of my w-space skills before the weekend started, then after it ended. I do have to preface this by saying that my main toon is still a young pup at just over 11M SP.  In addition I have never been around large fleet deployments.  My 0.0 experience in a previous life consisted of chaining some belts and very limited mining, a few roams, and in the end a lot getting blown up and one 32 system jump back to high sec in a Rook.

So this weekend started with a call to arms to do some "evictions" in neighboring Class 6's.  I only wish my RL, and Eve Skills, allowed me to fly the ships i saw gathering and participate and witness the stories I heard being told on vent.

So while the "big boys" were away playing with their "big boy toys", I was actually happy to get in some scanning time.  I must say my skills were rusty as it took awhile to get back up to speed on how the whole scanning thing worked.  In addition, the people who make a habit in living in Class 5 and 6 W-Space tend to be, how do you say, "a little more experienced" in making life hard on scanners.  It didn't help that I was at the same time trying to learn how to best scan and use the corp tools for recording my findings (necessary to get compensated for my scanning efforts).

So after a few run ins with locals, an hilarious encounter with a Buzzard jumping into our guarded system (and back again really quickly), and several routes to high sec discovered and quickly utilized in both directions I felt good about myself.  The feeling was short lived as I went to log out of the probing op and discovered that on average, the other 3 pilots had discovered about 4 times as many sigs in the same amount of time.

I quickly got one in Vent and started to pick his brain, only to discover these guys are using patterns on probes i would never have thought of, are getting signatures scanned down to 25% (and thus type) several at a time, and overall making my opinion of my overall probing skills fell severely inadequate (and there is no little blue enhancement pill for that).

So as i sit looking at my ships and skill set, I am for the first time in Eve feeling crazily meek, and hoping that even 1/10th of the knowledge and experience rubs off on me as I learn what W-Space living and thriving is all about.

Mick

p.s. For all of you in the blogs I have read fearing CCRES as you go about your daily W-Space life, just remember, we only seem to cover about 1% of W-Space a day.  But remember, you aren't paranoid if people really are out to get you.

Monday, April 19, 2010

A "hole" new level to Eve

I have played Eve combined between my two stents for almost 2 years now.

I have been in decent corps, run what I hope are decent corps, and been a part of awful corps (and hopefully not run any bad ones).

But I have to say, in my limited experience, I have never seen nor been a part of a corp like the one I am now.  The level of organization, both in and out of game, is insane.  And frankly it would have to be to run a corp with over 200 members out of W-Space.

From the mundane of logistics in just housing and moving stuff, to the complex of figuring out how to split the pie, this corp is like nothing I have seen.

I have been part of 0.0 in an alliance that resembled a major interstate, after a truckload of oil had been spilled, followed by a light rain, and topped off by several cars with no brakes, driven by blind teenagers, talking on cell phones, and texting.

I can't wait to participate farther in the corp and see what Class 6 life entails.  But after finally getting to the Home system, getting my "hole" legs back, and contributing slightly, I am excited about the future with CCRES.

Mick

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Preparing to depart

Well I am now a member of Capital Contruction Research and am ready to depart for a Class 6 wormhole, well mentally ready.

Just a few small tasks to actually get ready.  Needed to prep justa few things, like ships, rigs, mods, etc.

For the first time I dont have an Orca running stuff for me and will have multiple jumps to get into the C6.  So the thought of trying to jump in rigged ships did not appeal to me.  Overall, I need to get 4 ships in.  A quick analysis showed a rigged Mammoth will haul all the hulls, rigs, and mods I need.

So I have spent the last two nights gathering stuff into Sobaseki, selling my rigged ships in Jita, and getting new hulls, rigs for the trip in. 

The corp will be providing Gas Mining ships and I will be buying a PVE ship from a corp mate.  So I need a PVP ship (Harby), scanning ship (amarr covert ops), Stealth Bomber (Purifier), and rock miner (Covetor).  Overall it just fits inside the 27k m3 the Mammoth provides.  Nice thing is that will also give me a small hauler to use also.

So all I need to do now is get the Mammoth packed, and wait for a high sec opening (and hope its clear of hostiles).

Well hopefully I will have some stories soon again of my Life In The Hole. 

Mick

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Headed Back to W-Space

Well I am headed back to W-Space, well part of me is.

I have decided I have had enough of High Sec PvP and decided it is time to head back into W-Space.  I always thought that when I did this I would lead a group into a Class 4 wormhole.

Well I decided to take a slightly different path.

I have joined a corp that runs a C6 with a static C6 and am taking just one toon in for now.

I hope to have some fun tails soon, but at this point all I have to report in my application has been accepted, pending my 24 hour wait to leave my current corp.  From there I will have to wait for a High Sec route and then jump in my ships.

I am looking forward to getting back to W-Space life, and truth be told, I actually have missed scanning stuff down.

More to follow I hope.

Mick

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Final Tally and Update

For those of you keeping track at home, here is my final tally of almost 2 month or so in W-Space life.  For the record we have completely liquadated the corp assets and rebought all shares.

Losses: Hulk & Rigged Mammoth in our First Hole
            Rigged Mammoth in our Main Hole
            Rigged Inty V in our Reaction Hole
            Several Scanning Alts scanning ships

Gains: Personal - Approx $1.5B isk
          Corporate - Investors put in $2B, Final Corp Distribution $2.8B

All told I think all members of our Corp pulled in about $3-5B in isk during our stay.

Now I can list my goals for he next few months as follows:
1) Get my trader (and his new wad of cash) CN standings to lower Broker Fees
2) Have some fun at PvP
3) Get a good high sec indy corp up and running

On item 1, my main PvE toon is finally running Level 3's for CN and now fleets my trader.  Trader finally can at least salvage so he provides some benefit.

On item 2, my side project is proving to be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to more action soon.

On Item 3, no real push yet.

Thanks again for all the kind words people have shared and, pending the excitment on the planentary stuff panning out, do plan a return to W-Space sometime in the future.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Thanks Damark

It was all over but the final hour of pulling down the Large Tower where we had been trying (mostly with limited success) our hand at Simple Reactions in a Classs 2 system with a high sec static.

So I log in and am immediately invited to a Private Conversation by Damark.  In W-Space this is usually followed quickly by bad news. 

Sure enough the converasation quickly confirms the following:
  1. He is sitting somewhere within sight of the POS and sees me.  I hate cloaky things.
  2. He has intentions on "my" w-space
  3. He has experience in W-Space
I quickly tell him I am leaving (even offer to sell him the tower) and want nothing other then to beat an exit to the soon collapsing wormole to high sec.  He "assures" me that he will assist in safe passage out.  A quick look at the corp info does show he is the CEO, so at least I can assume he does speak for the corp.  Well he tells me I am gfood to start unanchoring and that he needs to run for a bit to eat.

So at this point I have few choices.  Trust him and start unanchoring, or wait it out and assume he really does have the fire power to take down a Large POS with only two ECM left.  I guess I could just wait and see if he is just bluffing, but I don't think he was bluffing.

Again, my assumption (much like K162space's) is that anything brought to W-Space is already lost.  However, I usually don't look for ways to lose 350M.  So I assumed he really was eating (and not gather troops to kill me) and he really was friendly. 

Well about 15 minutes into the hour, the B274 collapsed.  So much for plan A.  I worried because this static has had a nasty habit of popping out onto high sec islands, surrounded by low sec, with no routes back to Jita.  So started to scan down the new hole (been warp canceling to all the sigs so the hole is pretty bottomed out).  Found the new exit, and flew through.  Sweet, first good news of the night was the new exit was 4 jumps from my high sec base.

So as my scanning alt sat on the high sec side watching for visitors, I lined up the orca for the snatch and grab.  I hoped Damark was a fan of very long dinners and he would maybe fall asleep after a big meal. 

No such luck.  With about 15 minutes left in the count down back came Damark on the chat.  He kept it friendly and I even offered him the Deep Safe Spot i had created.  He started to share his plans and a few stories.  Seemed like a cool enough guy.  I went ahead and mentioned my blog and lo and behold he is a reader.   Confirms my belief that w-space regulars are a weird bunch that actaully enjoy reading about other peoples gaming expierence.

So as we discuss plans for the Class 2 Damark mentions that they are looking to use the Static Z Wormhole to Class 1 systems as a PvP training ground.  Now that got my attention.  So with 10 minutes left we had agreeded to a Non Aggress Pact, as well as potential to join them on PvP nights when the High Sec exit was in a good spot. 

So in the end, the chance encounter ended way better then I could have hoped and even lead to what I hope becomes a potentially sweet launchpad for my PvP corp to learn some W-Space PvP tactics.

Oh and of course with 3 minutes left a scanning ship appeared on the high sec side of the wormhole and headed in.  Figures, nothing goes as easily as planned.   Funny thing was the scanner saw the POS on scan, without a force field mind you, and quickly decided the system was dangerous.  Second lucky break of the night, as an experienced pirate would have quickly known what a POS and no associated force field (or any modules for that matter) probably meant.

So fly safe, and a shout out to a new W-Space friend in Damark.

Mick

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

So Long and Thanks for all The Fish

Well with our W-space lives finally 100% concluded (at least for now), I wanted to bid this blog and my followers a fond farewell.

I don't want to blend my current exploites into this blog, as they have nothing to do with w-space.

For those of you wishing to continue to follow my eve experience, I have started a new blog dedictaed to my new corps exploites.  Please feel free to visit me at Hey Koolaid.

Again, thanks to all those who have followed, and I look forward to the possibility of someday joining the ranks of the w-space faithful again.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Monday, March 8, 2010

And I thought sitting in an empty wormhole was boring

So back in high sec and here is my to-do list.
  1. Get Standings with main Fighting Character
  2. Get Standings for main refiner (by fleeting with main fighter)
  3. Form a High Sec Indy corp with possible POS for research (deligated)
  4. Recruit for Indy corp
  5. Recruit for PvP corp
  6. Figure out a Passive income stream
  7. Find a Class 4 WH with Static Class 4
  8. Figure out just how much Isk I am going to need for upcoming expansion
So here I sat all weekend, trying desperately to increase my standings with the corp we settled on for our Indy side.  So either I can fleet along with the other 3-4 guys doing level 4's (and getting about one mission done per hour and splitting it 4 ways) or I can "power" through Level 2's on my own.  I choose the Level 2's since I can get 5-6 done in a hour just by powering through them in my Harbinger with 5 Hammerheads.

So I can honestly say I have now accomplished one other thing in Eve I never thought I would.  Falling asleep at the keyboard while playing. 

I have had several times where someone on a mining op fell asleep/passed out and thankfully the Corp had a POS in system to warp them to safely.  But I never understood how that happens.  Defiently never thought I would accomplish that task, especially in a mission.  But do it I did.  Friday night, watched a movie with the SO and decided to settle in to a few hours of killing frigs.  About the 4th mission, warp in to a central pocket and unfortunetly this mission has timmed waves so there were several "gaps" in the mission.  I think I fell asleep in the second wait time.  All I know is I woke up about 25 minutes later, head slumped back in the chair and my dogs staring at me with their legs crossed.  I expected to look at the screen and see a pod, but all I saw were enemy wrecks and 3 drones happily circling me (and yes I started with 5).

So I pulled the drones, set course for the Dock, let the dogs out and went to bed.  Yes I even forgot to turn the mission in.  Realised the next day when I went to get another mission that I still had one to turn in.

So in the end I have determined that there are things worse then sitting around in a W-Space system, with no anoms, your 2 statics, and crappy neighbors.  Its power running low level missions.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Friday, March 5, 2010

Life is not fair, why should EVE be different

It amazes me why people always expect stuff to be "fair" and even further what their views of "fair" are.

Now I know I have views of things that are "wrong" with the game, like the freaking exit from Jita 4-4 (I mean who doesn't love to play bumper ships in Inty V's with people trying to scan your cargo, and why is scanning someones cargo not an aggressive act).  But overall I don't complain about the mechanics of the game very often.  I don't LIKE suicide gankers at gates, I don't LIKE the imbalance of indy ships being able to be ganked by destroyers that can be fully insured to amount to zero loss for the gankers.  But I don't think these things are "unfair".

So again the other night we are flying in a small frig fleet looking for trouble.  We are all in seperate areas of the same system trying to get a fight (okay trying to piss people off enough to shoot us), when a pilot in a Harpy decides for whatever reason to mess with us.  Usually a T2 frig is not a fight we would look to take on, but we were bored and there were three of us.  Well he decides to flip one of our cans in front of a station and draws aggro for our whole corp.  We promtly decide that yes this is a fight we are willing to take on. 

We wait a few minutes for him to resume ratting from belt to belt and launch our attack.  We quickly get a point on him and soon enough have him in armor.  The first request in local is 5M to stop.  Nah.  Second is 10M. Nah. We finish the job.  Then the onslaught in local begins about how 3 v 1 is not "Fair" and we "cheated" and this game is not "fair".  Really?  How so?  Oh he EXPECTED a 1v1 battle with a Punisher.  A quick scan of local would have showed him he should have EXPECTED a 3 v 1.  He did not ask in local for a 1 v1.  He did not seek to clarify the rules of engagement.  Not that we would have taken a 1 v 1 fight (please a t2 frig v t1, that is not even).

In the end, his lack of looking at the situation, not scanning local for the number of people he was about to aggro and not negoiating the rules of engagement before hand all fell back on him, but we were the ones that were "not fair" and he was simply a victim.  Please. 

Mick

Thursday, March 4, 2010

How old is old enough to know ...

With almost 2 years of game play there are things I know, and things I don’t about Eve. I would like to think that I know a lot about the game. In three short days experiencing frig based PvP, I have learned that there are people out there who don’t know much about the game and beg the question, “How old is old enough to know …”.

My first question for the day, “How old is old enough to know not to Jet Can Mine?”

I know I learned the hard way a whooping two weeks into my first stent in the game that Jet Can mining in a busy system is not a good idea. Even worse is fighting a guy who obviously wants you to fight him. This lesson cost me an Osprey and, at the time, a lot of work to fill that can. I joined a noob mining corp and saw several of them learn this lesson quickly. Quickly we learned the proper way to mine with several ships and haulers. Throw the ore quickly and scoop it completely. Sure we still used Jet Cans with bookmarks in them, but we didn’t leave full cans around. And we were all under 2 months old and learned this lesson.

So fast forward to my first night of frig based PvP. As I learned the ropes in my Punisher with another Punisher and Rifter along teaching me, I was amazed to stumble upon a mining op in high sec with 3 ships all with Jet Cans out. A quick check of the toons showed all were over 6 months old, and part of an 80 person indy corp. No haulers in site. I gladly accepted my target and promptly flipped his half filled can. I assume this was not the first time this had happened and expected no response other then a few shouts in local. But nothing, no response at all. Within a minute though the hauler came swooping in and to my amazement, scoped a can right in front of us. I mean really, three red frigs on your overview, a message you are about to steal, and I would hope a warning from your corp mates and he still steals the ore? Oh well, 1 dead Badger.

Well then the fun starts. The Osprey decides he is going to help and quickly draws aggression. Bye Bye Osprey.

The belt quickly empties as the other two miners must have decided they had seen enough. A few shouts in local regarding our manhood, challenging our bravery and providing a few choice suggestions about what we can do with ourselves in our spare time ensue.

This brings me to question number two, “How old is old enough to know how to properly fit a ship for a fight?”.

I ask this cause after my two trainers flew off to look for more adventures, I hung around waiting for the aggression to wear off and see if our fun there was really done. Sure enough back comes the Osprey pilot in his Drake. Now my first instinct in a Punisher when seeing a Drake was “Oh Crap”, but my trainers talked me down.

“Get Transverse on him”, like I knew what the hell that meant, oh yeah that means orbit him fast. Okay, orbit at 2k. check. Afterburner on. check.

“Point him”, okay that one I knew.

“Watch for drones”, really drones? Not the 7 Caldari Navy Heavies flying at me every 6 seconds? Oh yeah, I’m a frig, those things can’t hurt me. But Hammerhead II’s will rip me a new one (funny being on the other side of that fight).

So I point the Drake, orbit and start using my pulse lasers to do absolutely nothing to him.

Soon enough my trainers are back by my side and together we eventually crack his tank and I succeed at getting my first rage-log.

In looking over his setup, it was great, for killing cruisers and other battle cruisers. But he knew he was coming out to fight frigs, and he left his most important weapon, drones, at home. Again we faced an 8 month old toon, capable of fitting out a t2 setup Drake, but not knowing enough to fit it properly for the fight at hand. A toon in an 80 person, established, indy corp. The best was he really thought, as demonstrated by his chat in local, he was in for a simple kill of three frigs, and yet he had no hope of ever doing any damage to us. Sure against one of us it is a stalemate, as we could not hope to crack his tank. But in the fight he knew he would get when he undocked, he was already dead.

Should I feel sorry for him? Only in the sense that he has played the game for that long, in an established corp, and not learned some basic principals of the game.

I learned a valuable lesson too. Carebear tears really are sweet.

Mick

Why W-Space

I thought the answer to manasi's comment deserved a seperate post.

So why W-Space.

For me initially it was the increased Isk that coul dbe made mining the ABC roids.  Up to that point all my efforts had been to maximize my ability to generate Isk in an Orca based fleet in high sec.  I accomplished this and was even able to fly my own Orca (though not with all the booster skills).

At first I was attracted to the new scanning skills.  It was one area where true "skill" outside the game could be used.  A young toon with minimal in game skills but a good understanding of the 3-D nature of scanning could hold there own.

First trips into W-Space were for the "thrill" of mining in a 0.0 envirnment and being able to "control" my environment with wormhole management.

Then added to that the Sleepers that actually fought with better AI, switched targets, targeted drones, etc.

In the end what attracted me most was the "unknown" of W-Space.  The not knowing what the day and new hole would bring.  Might be fighting anoms, might be a neighbor linked to a Class 5 and high end Ladar.  Might be an unwanted active neighbor and potential hostile visitors.  Overall, that is why I was drawn to W-Space.  What kept me in W-Space was the increased ability to generate Isk with young toons.  Ultimetly that is what has also lead to our departure as the overall ability to generate income has severly diminished in Class 2 systems.

What will eventually lead me back to W-Space is the unknown of what the day will bring.  Also I can say it is also the small, closer knit nature of W-Space.  A small corp of 5 dedicated players can make a very good living in W-Space, but larger groups are not at that much of an advantage in W-space as mass limits, time limits and other factors inhibit the effectiveness of large corps to muster large roaming forces in lower Class 2 systems.

So I guess its the fact that any day could bring Mining, Gas Harvesting, PVE or PVP (wanted and unwanted) that continues to draw me to W-Space.  The logistics and hassle and potential for boredom are what keeps me away.  For now the Class 2 with a Class 2 static does not tip the scale in W-Space's favor, I will someday find out if a Class 4 with a Class 4 static will.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

And now for something completey different

Well the pull out of W-space is complete (except for the corpie that has not logged on for a week, wow is he in for a surprise, and yes i left a scanner in system to lead him out), the Red Frog contracts have our stuff back to our high sec base and well it was time to figure out something new.

So I know that the one glaring hole in my resume for w-spave is PVP stuff, so I moved to a small Frig based PVP corp for a stent in high sec/low sec pvp.

I have to say this is a completely different world.  Flying around in a punisher looking for a fight is way different then shooting roids and scanning sigs.

So far I have my first two kills and have to say I am aching for more.

The goals of this stent are simple.  To work my way up to stealth bombers and other ships used for PVP in w-space, all in preperation for a return to w-space in a Class 4 with a Static Class 4.

Fly safe, or cheap
Mick

Monday, March 1, 2010

What's Next ......

Well the plug has been pulled.

The Lights are Off.

The Fat Lady has Sung.

Its all over but the shouting (or in our case the two Red Frog Courier Contracts).

Enough cliches.

Our decision made, we have pulled our Large POS out of w-space and are calling an end to our "permenant" occupation of w-space.

The reasons?  There are many but it all boiled down to isk.  There simply was not enough advantage over simply mining scordite and running L4 missions to justify staying in w-space.

So we will add w-space stuff to our list of things to do, but not 100% for awhile.

The long term goal still remains a Class 4 with a Static Class 4, but we will need several more experienced w-space people to tackle that.  And I am not sure that won't also end the same way with a limited ROI.

I agree it might be a lifestyle choice to stay in W-space, and maybe for some corps it is.  But unfortunety at this time it is about the isk for this young corp.

So long w-space, for now.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Down Side of W-Space Living ... Boredom

Well I got someone yesterday asked why I have not posted in a week. Simple answer, nothing has happened worth reporting.

We are back in our home system and the second day back we had a K162 open and someone cleaned us out.  All Sigs and all Anomolies.  We have had 2 (or 3 with an inbound K162) sigs for almost 4 days now.  This is unusual for a Class 2, as we are used to seeing a spawn rate of 1-2 Sigs per day.

To add insult to injury, our neighbors through the static D382 have been either as bad as our own, or actively being run.  We have not found in the last 10 neighbors anything worthwhile.  Last night was the biggest tease.  Found the D382, warped through, found a POS but nobody home.  Scanned down the 15 sigs and found 5 grav sites.  Took about 30-45 minuites and when I warped back to the wormhole to take a short break and watch some TV with the SO, the hole had switched over to "End of Life".  So that really limited what I could hope to do as I did not feel like tempting fate for more then an hour.  So yet another limited night.

To top this current situation off, Min prices continue to fall and the isk available versus just high sec mining continuies to fall. 

This really brings me to a decsion point on what I want to do.

1) Hang tight.  Burn $8M isk a day in fuel and hope the simple reaction I am running offsets the fuel costs.

2) Import another Simple Reaction and rely on that to offset costs of fuel and wait for grav sites to appear again.

3) Pull out and reconsider W-Space all together

4) Pull out and go nomad and just rely on medium POS setup and chase class 1-3 systems for Grav sites alone

5) Pull out and move to a Class 4.  Would not be able to run the combat stuff solo, but the main point of W-Space for us has always been Mining.  I am fairly certain within a week or so I could find a Class 4 with static class 4.

6) Pull out and move to null sec.  With the overwhelming need for indy types in Null sec this might be a tempting offer.

Anyway, random ramblings, but bottom line is I hate to sit here thinking of the fuel burning through the POS and nothing to do in our w-space home.  It does suck.

Mick

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Out, In and Wormhole Managament

Good news is we have finally completed the move out of the vacation mining system and have started to get back into our main hole.

Bad news is the main hole has had a rash of small holes (R934?) coming in from k-space. It has been like 1 a day for last 3 days. I don't think I have seen 3 in entire 2 months I have been in a class 2 and now 3 straight days. Just checked evemaps from work and yet another jump today. This is getting unreal. To top it off one of the jumpers obviously visited my Grav sites as all 5 despawned last night (I returned the favor to 2 in my neighboring D382).

The problem of incoming jumps is that they tend to either touch stuff or open doors and leave them open, which compounds the issue of wormhole control. There is no middle ground, you are either closed in right (or should be) or you are wide open. And once you are open for business I haave seen now you can be open for days as people leave doors open. I don't know how someone can live effectively in W-space without the ability to mass close Wormholes. The traffic must be insane.

Mick

Friday, February 12, 2010

A Ganking, A Move Interupted and The Issue with High Sec Statics

Well, what an interesting day.

Logged off after a little multitask Mining while doing some work in the morning with just a little bit of mining left to do to complete our "Vacation" stay.  Not a bit too soon.  I am so sick of mining it is not funny.  I do not see how people choose to do this as a career.  A night of it is okay.  Eight straight nights of it gets sick.

Anyway, on the the rants.

I log on in the evening with an extended play time window and look forward to running ore out through 3-4 static B274 holes and get the process of leaving well under way.   Why is it everytime I am sure what I am going to do when I log on to EVE, I am never right.

As I am logging on, I check Evemaps to see whats going on with the hole.  Crap, spike in jumps, npc kills, and damn, a ship kill and pod kill.  That can't be good.  Sure enough 15 seconds later I am bombarded with messages in chat, we had a miner ganked and podded in a covetor (thankfully it wasn't a hulk).  The fact he got podded too suggests either panic or a little AFK-ness.  Both of which are normal for W-space mining in long stretches by people not used to the nature of w-space.

I am impressed though that the Corp was actually scanning down sigs to find the K162 and not waiting around.  So we find the K162 and its from a Class 6.  Great. So i pop in my scanning boat and wish I had the old "Hat on a Stick" to test the waters first.  But a quick scan shows no POS and no ships.  Get the Orca out and 15 minutes later the hole is closed.

By this time the corp has found the B static and we are starting to move stuff out.  Well about halfway through the first Static B mass wise, we get a Manticore popping into the system (thankfully the lookout was on his toes here).  Guy had been involved in the ganking and decided to make a Jita run I guess.  Well sorry dude, no way home this way now.  He stated in convo that we're "safe" from him and he was going to head back to Jita.   Good thing I was not born last night.  Hour later he was still popping randomly into the high sec system.  Guess the chance at an Orca kill warranted sticking around.

Well, finally he logs and I feel at least gutsy enough to warp the Orca (yes it obviously got caught on High Sec side), to the wormhole.  Sure enough the reason I hate High Sec Statics was sitting there staring back at me.  A Raven, Domi, Drake and Alton.  Quick fly around by my toon still in the hole shows two Imicus (are they Imici in groups) scanning down the system.  Great. They could sit there forever on the high sec side without a fear in the world while they decide if the want to run the anoms or work the system at all.  In the mean time I cannot do crap as a sure as hell am not jumping the Orca back through with them sitting there. 

So i log for the night hoping that 1) that was not the first wave of a POS busting party and 2) that they leave the hole open so I can sneak the Orca back in before it times out.

This all reinforced 4 lessons of W-Space living for me..

1) Mining in W-space is very dangerous.  You will eventually die when a higher class wormhole opens and the people that really know how to pew pew get to you.  Or that they will simply open your static to k-space and the people there who like to pew pew will find you.  LEsson is eventually someone with skills and bad intentions is going to find you, and you don't have local as your friend.

2) Trust no one.  Despite "assurances", this manticore pilot was more then willing to sit and wait for me despite the assurance I was free to go back about my business.  Either a lot of people are very trustworthy or gullible.  I tend to be neither when dealing with my $600M isk ship.  I know you are not supposed to fly what you can't afford to lose, but you aren't supposed to be jack ass stupid with your stuff either.

3) People have way too much time on their hands.  To sit at a wormhole for 2 hours for the chance to pop an Orca?  How is that fun?  I guess being "stuck" till his corp found him a new route home, he had nothing better to do?  But then to sit in a Raven, Drake and Domi outside a hole for 35-45 minutes, that takes either a lot of game time available, or a sheer desire to do nothing.  Maybe they were watching the Season Premier of Survivor at the same time.

4) High Sec Statics suck balls.  One, they are going to be found.  There is like no chance a K162 in high sec is not going to be found in the 24 hour life of the hole.  You can only hope its found by a little old lady who just likes to scan all day and is only going to fly around in a Zeypher and attempt to communicate with the Sleepers.  Higher class wormholes are going to open them when they find them, cause they need to get stuff to market and hate low sec like the rest of us too.  And people can congregate at the high sec side and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.  I am more determined then ever to minimize my time and assets I ever dedicate to a W-Space system with a High Sec Static.

So worst case at this point is that our Manticore "friend" has friends who love to bust POS's and we are in for a major loss.

A little better is the chance I will have to cool the hole for a day or two to make sure the baddies are gone and then fly the Orca over half of empire to the new hole.

Best case is they are gone and they left the hole open and I can slip the Orca in before it closes.

Hmm, I guess the worst is really that I think they have gone, warp the Orca in, Get ganked, and then the destroy the POS.  Maybe they can even get my Mother to come and say "she told me so" to add further insult to ever feeling safe with a High Sec Static.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Thursday, February 11, 2010

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Well after a little time today pecking away at the annoying Average grav site, we have it down to 10 small Crok roids that should be done tonight.

So by all intentions our time in the hole is done.  So I send out this notice that if anyone is interested in a W-space Class 2 system with a lot of Anomolies, Ladar, Mag and Radar sites, please contact me in game in the "Life In The Hole" channel and we could work out something out.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The State of Eve - Mining

As I sat last night and looked at the "Ore Value Chart" it became clear that something is wrong with the state of mining in Eve.  Falling Zydrine and Megacyte prices, rising Pyerite and Trit prices, and the world of mining is becoming unbalanced.

Now before I begin, let me state that I LOVE the market driven aspect of EVE.  I mean I LOVE it.  It is one of the greatest features that the game does not artificially set prices, but relies on supply and demand.  I think the Jita market is awesome. 

In a "perfect" world, the amount you can make should be somewhat proportional to the risk you are willing to take.  Unfortunetly, this is no longer the case with mining.  There exists a situation where, if trends continue, the best way to make Isk as a miner will be to get into an Orca boosted fleet and pound the mins found in .9 and 1.0 systems.  With a good booster, you can warp into a belt, hit the whole belt with out moving and off load the mins into the Corp Hanger of the Orca.  Yawn, what fun.  And gee won't that make the game fun for noobs when locust fleets strip every belt and a poor guy starting ina Bantam wont even be able to find a belt (or be stuck mining Pyrox).

Low sec mining has completly become a losing endevour.  Increased risk and all Low Sec ores are worth less then Scordite.

Null Sec/W-Space still allows for a greater profit, albiet at a greatly increased cost and risk.  Factor in the 75% refining, or a sick amount of time to get the ore refined in High Sec and the profit differential starts to decrease.

I have not run the numbers, but right now I estimate that we are running at under $190isk.m3 on the high end ores being refined in W-Space.  Right now Massive Scordite is getting about $110isk/m3.

Revisiting my Orca Boosted Hulk v Covetor W-Space, and the number get even tighter.  Orca Boosted Hulk pulls about 1400 per laser every 150 seconds for 1680m3/min.  Covetor is pulling around 1150m3/min.  So the Covetor in W-Space is pulling just $20k more per minute then a almost perfectly safe Scordite miner in a fairly good Orca Boosted fleet.  Starts getting hard to justify the extra risk and the $240M per month fuel bill for a measly Million Isk per hour more.

Solutions?

1) Go old school with a true "Mining Director" in a BC.  Less skills required to get a person into this role then an Orca.  Really in W-space the only link that matters is cycle time.  We are a few weeks away from this solution.  Now you sacrifice alot less to get the boost.  Now we have to take a Hulk/Covetor pilot out of commission to get the Orca running, and in W-Space we are not hauling with the Orca very much anyway (and we sure are not leaving it parked in the belt).

2) Add risk and use Hulks.  With Hulk prices pushing $200M this is not a great solution.  The ROI is about 30 hours and while we have been lucky in the loss column, we do not want to continue to push our luck here.  Not a great solution.

3) Get a crap load more miners into corp.  This would justify getting the Orca out more, but with solution 1 available why?  Downside here is what do all these miners do when there are no Grav sites?  I'll tell you what they do, they whine, get bored, and leave.

So yes, mining in Eve is becoming a very unbalanced system  Good thing I am not in W-Space just for mining.  I want to run the anoms, I don't mind mining gas, cracking radar and mags sites is pretty low payoff in Class 2, but I don't mind it, and I look forward to starting to add some PVP to our agenda.  Bottom line is that I am in W-space for the variety, not the mining.  Our corporates goal is to grow and become big enough and good enough to live in Class 4 W-Space.

I guess the point here is a simple warning to people looking to W-Space for quick mining profits.  Be very careful, it may be a mirage.  And if Zydrine and Megacyte prices don't stabilize, or Pyrite and Trit start to fall, soon W-Space mining might really lose its luster.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Monday, February 8, 2010

Our "Vacation" Coming to an End?

Well we knew it couldn't last forever, but it is still sad to see the Grav sites ticking off the list. 

We started with 8 and assumed we would be in our vacation system for about a week to 10 days.

We have had 3 new belts spawn, but most of what is left are the "ordinary" sites, which are a lazy mans (and haulers) dream as all 5 of the high end roids can be hit from a single spot.  The problem is they are all on the smaller side (5k Ark, 10k Bist, 15k Crok, 10k Dark O, and 10k Gneiss).

So with 3 of those left and an Average (really spread out belt with 2k Crok roids), it looks like we might be out of the vacation spot by the end of the week.

Good news is our main home has spawned at least 3 grav sites while we have been away.

All told we have over 4M m3 in ore right now in the XL assembly array (enough for over 6 static runs through the B274 hole).  We also have welcomed a few new recruits and are actually mustering some decent sized mining parties.

So if anyone is interested in a hole with a crap load of anomolies and some mag and radar sites let me know.  We would be happy to leave the keys under the mat for you (as we do not plan on running the combat sites).

Fly Safe,
Mick

Friday, February 5, 2010

Who Left the Door Open?

Unfortunetly, I did.

With our main crew in our new mining home and the main home sitting dormant (having run all the reaction material on hand), I decided to make a run to our main wormhole with as much reaction material as I could easily carry.

I online one of the three scanning alts holding down the fort in our main system, find the A239 Static pop out 26 jumps from Jita (I am learning that Low Sec holes seldom come out near Jita). So I loaded up the truck and moved about 86 hours worth of simple reaction materials the 26 jumps and off loaded the materials in the reaction hanger.

Get the hauler back to Sobaseki, while I switch over to the mains to mine some more ABC's.

Well I logged on last night to this.

Jumps









NPC Kills









Yes kids, that the problem leaving the door open.

The number of NPC Kills clearly shows a mass running of anoms or mag/radar sites.

The concern is the jumps and possibility our Grav sites got hit.

So much for resting our main hole.

Good news is that the our mining hole spawned a new Grav site and we are barely half way through the initial 8.  So our initial 7 to 10 day time frame may have been a bit aggressive.  Add in the desire to at least hit some of the Ladar sites "for the corp" and we may be gone a bit longer the expected.

As I sign off now, the Large POS is churning away on it 86 hours of simple reaction, we are opening our 5th grav site in our vacation hole, and I have yet another lesson in wormhole management (not that I didn't know leaving K162's active will lead to this).

Fly Safe,
Mick

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

How to Close a Wormhole, especially 2Bkg ones

Given that I now have closed probably over 100 wormholes, and almost all have been of the 2Bkg variety (specificially B274, A239 and especially D382), I would like to try to provide a somewhat step by step guide.

First and foremost, we all know the dangers.  If you don't feel free to read this this adventure or this one in closing wormholes gone wrong.

So the basics.

For a 2Bkg wormhole, the true mass allocation will be roughly 1.8Bkg to 2.2Bkg.  I have pretty well seen both of these extremes.  The first "mass tick" from "Has not had" to "Has Had" on the show info appears to be right at 50%.  The last "tick" from "Had Had" to "Critical", I am still not sure of.  Until a recent experience with a 3Bkg hole, I thought for sure it was 5%.  But when my Orca (250Mkg) failed to close a critical 3Bkg hole that had just been made critical by a retreiver (20Mkg), I have had to rethink this number.  So for best guess this number is between 5% and 10%.  I would hate to think that CCP has also added variability to thios number as well.  For what I do, I have always assumed it is 5% to be safe.

In general.

In general, to close a hole you want to get a big ass ship on the "away" side with the total mass used as close to but not over (The Prices is Right) the Minimum Mass Allocation.  This ship should be at least 10% of the Maximum Mass Allocation of the hole.  Then simply drive small ships, with twice their mass under 5% of the Minimum Mass Allocation, through and back ONE AT A TIME until the hole is critical.  Then return teh big ass ship to the "Home" side and hole shold close.

What you need for a 2Bkg Wormhole Closing:
  1. 1 big ass ship.  Need mass of at least 220Mkg.  Orca works great, but so will Battleships with armor plates, 100mn AB, or 100mn MWD.  
  2. Medium Sized ships of any size
  3. Multiple small ships.  Key here is two passes must not close hole if it is not yet critical.  So I have always been very safe and assumed 5% of the 1.8Bkg "smallest hole possible" and gotten 90Mkg.  So a 45Mkg ship would be perfect.  The Hulk and Covetor at 40Mkg do very nicely.
Specifics for a 2Bkg wormhole.

If you know you just opened it and you have all the mass allowed then start with big ship passes and try to get the mass to right at .8Bkg.  The key here is you want to see the mass tick over when a smaller ship passes.  This will allow you to confirm the hole has not been used.

I do this with 2 Orca passes (away and back home) and two Abby passes (away and back home).  Mass used 706Mkg.

I now pass the Abby back through to Away side.  Mass used 809Mkg.  And then back through.  Mass 912Mkg.  If the mass ticks here I know I have either a small massed hole or someone has used it.

So based on that I pass the Orca through and back.  Total mass 1309Mkg.

At this point, I swap the Abby for a Hulk/Covetor.

Wait 4 minutes, and jump the Orca back through to the away side.  Mass 1559Mkg.

If the Critical message is 10% then the hole will show critical at 1.62 to 1.98Bkg.

At this point I call every Hulk and Covetor available (and retriever and hauler for that matter) to the wormhole and ONE AT A TIME have them move "Away and Back" until the mass ticks over to Critical.  Could take as little as one pass, or as many as 5 or more.  Once everyone is on the "home" side the Orca returns and closes the hole.

Thats the "quicker" way.  If you have more big ships the feel free to eliminate the 4 minute wait times that are in my system.  Mine is based on using the three accounts I have.

Also I can not imagine trying to close a wormhole solo.  To variable and would be very difficult.

Once we, have two orcas and two pilots and multiple BS's also, I might tweak the process.  But for now I am pretty certain on the method and the only time it takes long is the very big holes where multiple small ship passes are needed and I am the only one on.  Usually we can marshal 4-5 small ships and that defiently makes it go faster.

Note: For high sec Orca runs, I use solely the Orca and as long as the mass ticks at 4th and 7th pass, I am confident the hole will close.  If mass does not go critical on 7th pass, then a few Hulk passes will usually do the trick.

Hope this helps.

Fly Safe,
Mick

tl:dr
1) get big ship on away side with mass just under 90% total allowed mass
2) repeatedly fly small ships (2 x Mass < 5% Wormhole mass) one at a time away and back till mass goes critical
3) fly back big ship

Settling in to a New Routine

For the first time we are strictly concerned with our own w-space system.  This has drasticially changed our daily routine.

Now instead of being ready for whatever presents itself, we are 100% in mining mode.  We have the luxury of knowing what we are going to be doing every day.

As Pinky always asked Brain "Whats we gonna do today?", the answer now is empahitcally "Same thing we do every night, mine the crap outta ABC roids".

So a few new additions.  We have our first XL Ship Assembly Array.  The 18M m3 of storage is insane. Good thing too, because the first 36 hours in our new home we pulled in almost 2M m3 of ABC.  Not bad for a small 3 person corp.

So overall this seems just what the doctor ordered for us. 
  • A wealth of ABC,
  • a static high sec to refine it at 100%,
  • a static high sec to allow us to get some new recruits quickly seeing the best of low class w-space living,  
  • and did I mention a crap load of ABC roids.

So the new routine at night is to open/close the static high sec B274 and get 4 orca loads of ore out to be refined.  Last night repeated this twice.  Took a little over 1 hour (the first system did not have a station).  The logic here is the orca is a perfect 250Mkg so as long as the wormhole ticks over to "has had" on the mass on the 4th pass, and to "critical" on 7th pass its a real easy task to close the hole.  If not, then we run a few hulks/covetors out after the 7th pass to critical the hole before flying the Orca back through.

After that the task all mining.  At this point we have cleared 1 of the 8 sites of the ABC, D & G ores.  We are working through two sites now.  The Isolated site, with its annoying electric cloud, is being mined by the two hulks we have in system (forgot one in the move), while the annoying spread out Average site we are hitting with Covetors and Retreivers.  It is our goal to clear a site a day atleast.  On the last night we plan of mass running the 16 Ladar sites for the corp.  After reading Star Defender's post on reactions, I am not sure if we will just sell the gas or react it.  Might just sell to avoind the task of trying to get it back into our main system.

So here is to wishing for a continued quiet week of mining and running ore to refineries.

Fly Safe,
Mick

p.s. Was very nice to log into our main system and get the "not yet loaded" message.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

A Sudden Change of Scenery

Never know whats in store when you log onto Eve.

After a very stressful day where our wormhole was doing its best impression of Grand Central Station, with 3 outbound and 2 inbound wormholes active, I was excited to log on for a quiet night of some home space mining.  So much for the best intentions.

Warped to our open grav site and we had already hit the good stuff and okay stuff, so i decided to open the static D.  Well damn if it wasn't what we had been waiting for.  An empty system with 37 sigs.  So i jumped in and started scanning for a grav site.  Found one quick, got one hulk mining and proceded to scan down the rest of the system.  Figured I would bomb out and learn it was a class 5 and null static or something else that would prevent a move to a "vacation property".  Well got the 4 outbound holes scanned down and they were B274, Z647, N062, and D382.  Best guess was this was a BZ static combo.  Not good for permenant home, but damn fine for a vacation site.

All told there were 15 ladar, 8 grav, 3 mag, and 6 radar, and 5 unknown (including the K162 i created).

So figure I need to make sure of at least the B274 static so I close the hole and yes its a static.  Go for vacation home.

So figures its a night I am on solo, so I start the setup of the Medium POS, while at the same time closing the D382 and N062 holes.  Got the D382 closed, but left the N062 just critical (first attempt at a 3Bkg hole, well except for that one drunk night in college, and really she wasn't that big).

So finally at about 2 hours past my intended play time I had the Medium online with 1 Corp hanger up, the hole as secure as possible, and a few ships in system, along with about 4 rambling corp emails notifying people what to do.

We are excited at the chance to mine to our hearts content and even more so at the opportunity to refine in k-space at 100%.  Here's to hoping for a safe week of cruching ABC ores.

Fly Safe,
Mick

P.S. on the recruitment front we have added 2 peeps and are still looking for a few more.  In game channel "Life in the Hole"

Friday, January 29, 2010

Support the Armadillo Module

Come to Assembly Hall and supoort the creation of the "Armadillo" super damage control module for industrial ships.

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1260042

Thanks,

Mick

Weighing In On Indy Ships

There have been several recent posts about the state of the Industrial ships and their complete lack of defenses.

I think it was best summed up here:

http://letrangeeve.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-reflections.html

Now there are a few things I hate more then flying paper mache in a rain storm, but one of them is macro miners.  Another is the person who never takes risks. 

The first type is the laughable excuse people use to justify a career in suicide bombing, but really it is the second that should be the reason.  Should there be a place in tha game for people who just want to log on their three (or more) accounts, get their Orca into a belt with boosters on, have their Hulks be able to hit the whole belt and basically Alt-Tab mine all day while at work, watching TV, eating dinner, etc.  Cause while this is not "botting" it is about as close as you can get when really you need to be at the keyboard every 9 minutes for 30 seconds.

In regards to transporting, should it be essentially zero risk to transport stuff around in High Sec?  Would creating an environment where all risk was eliminated not just add to the number that set autopilot, walk away and return 40 minutes later hovering off a safe gate where they want to be?

So how do you balance out the desire to make the game "better" for us "active" carebears (are we still carebears if we mainly live in w-space?), versus the "passive" carebears?  Make the ships way more "ganker" proof and we drasticially add to the ranks of AFK miners.  Make "Trade Lanes" where gates have ECM and guns that alpha strike a battleship, and add to the ranks of the autopilot hordes.

Unfortunetly in EVE, as with real life, every action is a double edged sword with the ability to cut in a direction we don't intend.  While being an active carebear, I do appreciate the frustration of many at the shear paper mache build of the Industrial Ships.  I agree there is no counter at this point to the tactics being used to make life miserable for Indy ships.  And yes there is always going to be a segment of the gamers who, dare I say, enjoy the abiltity to cause misery in game (do they all kick puppies outside game too, or are they just our accountants and we dont know that side of them).

Now for my suggestions.  Again, all of these suggestions are based on the desire to "reward" people for ... well, actually "playing" the game.

1) Within range of a station or gate in High Sec, like 25km, there should be a module that allows a one time, 10 second, infinite strength ecm burst.  The equal of a ECM Bomb.  Should be instant activation and would allow indy ships targeted while aligning away from a gate (prime gank time) to have a window to get away.  Make the cost relativelky high so it would make it worthwhile when transporting high value stuff, but not while running the cigarettes you got while popping NPC haulers off stations.  Justify this as a device that "calls" the gate to send a massive ECM burst to that location.

2) Add NPC haulers to the game.  The ability to bring your goods to any station in High Sec, contract an NPC hauler to take it to Jita (or where ever), and pay based on skills, standings, and cargo worth.  Would make running those damned courier missions for an NPC corp have a little more value.  Would also take away from some of the "down time" of hauling crap around.  This option should cost a boat load.  And I am not talking 1%, much closer to 10% base with top notch skills and standings getting it down to like 5%.  And it should take a day, but be absolutely fool proof.

3) For the miners, there needs to be a "Super Damage Control" module, call it the "Armadillo" module, that makes you damn near invulerable for 30 seconds, but leaves you without the ability to move.  Has to be a low slot so you have to sacrifice mining yield to use it.  Wrecks you capacitor and leaves you with only enough available to cap to make a short warp jump (1AU) for a couple of minutes (5 minutes?).  Basicially all you are trying to do is give the Calvary time to show up, be it Concord, or Friendlies.  This would make it much more feasible also to have escorts, since they would then have time to fight back against the aggressors.(hell give it to haulers to and make it a low slot to sacrifice cargo room for safety.)  Also like everything else CCP does to limit it to certain ships, give only certain higher industrials (read Mammoths, Inty V's,  all tech 2 transports, the orca, mining barges, exhaumers) the 99.9% reduction in CPU to use them.

None of these ideas are going to help the AFK miner, or the auto pilot hauler, and that is good.  But they all will help the active player and balance the game play to where at least a player as the option of trying to defend himself, or make escorts a legitimate opiton.  In the end all these options would allow a player options to sacrifice profit, by paying a NPC company, sacrifice cargo or yield, or hiring escorts, in the name of safety.

In the end, balancing game play must be a very difficult thing to do as any added defenses only adds to the saftey of the passive players, to the detriment of all us active industrials.

As an aside, is this ability to suicide, going to carry over into the "walking in station" portion of the game?  Am I going to have to worry about getting mugged on the way to the market with my 50 melted nano ribbons?  Am I going have to worry about my 100M isk I have on the poker table if a suicide bomber comes into the station?

Fly Safe and tell CCP about my Armadillo module.
Mick

Thursday, January 28, 2010

A Great Guide and a Funny List

After spending a few hours mining gas, I had about an hour to kill before the refinery was done and I could put another load of our new ABC's into the thing (I hate 3 hour cycles).  So it was off to my other addiction. poker.  While palying, I also decided to do some searching around for more w-space stuff.  I came accross

http://k162space.wordpress.com/

and his list of how not to die

http://k162space.wordpress.com/2010/01/

This is just too damned funny, while actually very, very helpful.  I think #17 is by far my favorite.

Also while there, check out his guide.

http://k162space.wordpress.com/wormhole-guide/

I did not read it in depth, but certainly look forward to going back and doing so.  I am eager to see if the humor and knowledge is consistant throughout his posts.

Fly Safe (or cloaked)
Mick

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Our Typical Night

So it all started when the wife said she had something to watch on TV and "I could play my stupid game" :)

So that meant a larger block (5 hours) of play time.

That meant finding a grav belt somewhere. Anywhere not in our system (as we finally got a grav site, but are saving it for fall back nights.)

So warped to our D-static (same place it had been for 3 days), and popped through.  Quick D-Scan and "damn" occupied and 4 miners and an indy on scan.  Being the peaceful type (for now), I shouted a quick hello into local.  Hmm no running for cover.  Maybe a combat probe, lets see if they are awake at the controls.  Yep that worked.  I now have their attention.  Told them if the left me alone I was going to close the hole from my side.  They agreed, but obviously didnt trust me as i didnt see anything but a merlin on d-scan for the next 15 minutes it took me to close the hole (a big one at about 2.1).

On to next D-Static.  Pop in and it looked great.  No POS, No Ships, No activity on evemaps.  After about 15-20 minutes fo scanning, no grav site, and it was a High Sec Class 2 with B274 and Z647 statics.  But the good news was a third Unknown and it was a small signiture, usually reserved for higher class holes.  After a few minutes messing with it my corpmate pinned it down and happily reported a N062 - Class 5 WH.  Good news as a K162 most likely meant an occupied system.

In we went.  Good news again in an empty and inactive system.  Quick scan got us a Ordinary grav site.  So away we went having spent about 1 hour scanning. Since my Corpmate was hauling, I broke out the prober on Ian's toon and kept scanning.

So we attacked the ABC of the first belt with our three hulks, and started into a night of mining.   (We are now just using drones to clear the spawn).  So with the miners humming, I turned attention to scanning down the rest of the system.  (Corpmate was on D-scan duty).  Quickly found another grav site and 2 ladar with C-32 and c-28 them.  Quick scan of eve-central revealed the c-32 would yield a good rpofit for Ian (as he only flys Retreiver for mining ore).

So back again and fit the Abby for gas mining (yeah over kill), and set off for the clouds.  Well needless to say one ship attacking a 5,000 unit C-32 cloud is a joke (25,000k m3 at 40m3 every 30 seconds, yeah do the math), but at least he was making isk.

Well an uneventful 3 hours passed and we managed to clear 15k of Crokite, 5k of Ark, and almost 10k of Bistot, plus 1000 units of C-32.  Not a bad night. 

And to top it off, we did not have to open our own Grav site (we would like to wait till a second one spawns before opening the first).

Also, Shout out to the two folks who joined me in "Life in the hole" in game and provided some great conversation about life, Eve and W-space.

Fly Safe (or cloaked)
Mick

Monday, January 25, 2010

Cracking the $240M nut, Is WH life worth it?

Heating a POS in the cold of space is a very expensive endeavour.  To the tune of $240M  per month.  So the question becomes how much do you have to do to justify not sitting in a nice .5 systems, mining scordite in an Orca fleet, and having to only fear gankers?

Well let us count the ways.

1) Mine.  Looking at the facts. Scordite returns are at  record levels, and zydrine and megacyte prices are as low as I have seen.  You lose 25% refining in the WH, and right now we don't have the fleet sizes to justify breaking out the orca, at the expense of losing a Hulk.  Even so, I figure I get about 150% the isk per hour in my two Hulk fleet, then I got High Sec using 2 Hulks and a Retriever in a almost maxed out Orca Boosted Fleet.  In fact, it looks like I get about $250k isk per minute more.  So first way to crack into that $240M nut is to mine 1000 minutes, or about 17 hours.  Again, this assumes I am taking on the entire $240M burden.

2) Run anomolies/Radar/Mag sites.  So variable here, since the majority of the isk running anomolies is from the Melted Nano's.  Again using a base number of $24M/hour as my High Sec Scrodite mining, and figuring I can clear and salvage about 1.5 anomolies per hour solo, it really is a wash here.   Some hours I have cleared 11-13 meleted nanos, while others I have only gotten 3.  I know there are tags and other salvage, radar site stuff and mag site stuff, but in the end it is really all about the Melted Nano's in a Class 2.

3) Ladar.  Just starting to get into this area.  Spent the night last night clearing some ladar sites and gathering gas.  Looks like I spent about 3 hours clearing 4 sites and from what I can see I will make about $40M once I can "react" it.  Not really a great return, but better then doing nothing.

4) Other reactions.  The real wildcard here.  Since reactors are limited to .4 security or less, and the Amarr tower has plenty of power and cpu, why not look to run simple reactions when the refinery or polymer reaction is not needed.  Looking at the numbers, it looks like there are reactions that can net $250k to $500k per hour, every hour.

And of course the best way to crack the nut, is to split it (among corpmates). 

So bottom line, after about a month in w-space, when comparing it to high sec.

1) Be prepared to spend more time doing non isk generating stuff.  Sure in high sec you still have to make market runs, but they are not usually 20 jumps.  Overall, I think I spend about twice the time doing non-isk producing stuff in w-space (a lot more recently with a POS setup/teardown/setup).

2) Be prepared to do whatever is available.  Our order right now is as follows:
        Mine a grav site in our system of ABC ores
        Mine a neighbor system of ABC ores
        Mine our system for Dark Ochre or Gneiss
        Combat sites (either in our or neighbor system)
        Ladar (either in ours or neighbors)
        Market runs

3) Think of ways to make money off POS when not needing the w-space equipment.


Overall, I do not envision struggling to justify the $240M it will take to keep a W-space Large POS running.  Alone, I am fairly certain I would at least get the 17-20 hour of mining in that is needed to justify the w-space existance.  As I also look to grow the corp (visit "Life In The Hole" channel ingame for our public recuitment channel), this nut will get even easier to handle.  So after about a month in w-space I am confident that there is plenty of Isk to be made, plenty of ways to lose a crap load of Isk, and a lot of fun to be had.

So as we work to establish our Class 2 presence, I continue to look towards getting the corp into a Class 4 hole within the next 45 days.

Fly Safe,
Mick