My EVE History

How it started:
Before subing to Eve I tried it on a trial account two times. My current main Butcher Hentes (extremely creative name) was created in February 2013. As of writing he is a bit more than a year old an has about 15M SP. A point to note here that the account is was not subbed for a bit more than 3 months during 2013 (I "lost my way" and went back to playing/trying WoW MoP and SC2 HoTS)

Goals/Projets 2013:

T-30:
Before even starting play. I read an extreme amount about Eve! At work we have to deal with a slow IT infrastrucutre, so when there is a report running or an excel with 10k rows calculating for 10mins, you can easily squeeze in a couple of articles or whatever :) 
(Guide actually written by Hungarian dudes, was one of the first and best ones I read)

Actually playing:
So after reading and playing the trial twice, I went and created a trial again! My number one goal was to plex my account! But had no idea how :)
I remember, that I read that it takes about 5-6 months of training before you can actually make enough money that you can PLEX your account. That was cool with me, so I focused on what all noob eve solo players do: mining. My goal was to get a Retreiver and mine scordite using t2 lasers and crytals. (please note here that I did my research and knew that scordite was the most profitable ore to mine)
Meanwhile I was doing a few L2s with my trusty Vexor and trained a bit into drones.
My idea here was, that after work I would log onto EVE, and go mine the whole evening semi AFK while doing my usually things and hanging out with my GF.
But soon I had to realize that you need to switch targets a lot, and getting to the damn roids takes ages! L2s earn waaaay too little money...

Maybe Industry?
I was alone and wanted more money, naturally I have been reading EVE ISK making guides like a mad man and manufacturing seemed like a cool idea.
I decided that mining was only to be done, when I head too much time and L2s were not even worth it. I dug around on the net and found that its really hard to find an item that is actually worth making... and that you also need a BPO researched. So I trained up Gall Indy to Lvl4 along with PE lvl 5 and some science skills to use set up some ME jobs. Note here that I didn't set up on spreadsheets at this point and didn't even use 3rd party tools. I did some basic calcs and gave up the whole idea up becoming a manufacturer! There was too little money to be made, taking too much time, and too much effort...

OMG PI!
From the title you could guess that I got into PI. If I remember correctly, it was actually because of Gevlon's posts about his PI and some other PI blog entries which I can't recall right now. So, as usual, I read a crazy amount and played around a bit. So quickly I got my main into skilling up for PI. Initially I started a few random planets and just did basic P0->P1 stuff. However as I read more and more I knew that a factory planet was the way to go!
I consider myself "quite good" with excel and I always enjoyed programming/excel oriented challenges so I decided to make a sheet which optimizes a factory planet for me. To make things easier I knew I wanted to do P1->P4 production.I didn't do any fancy API downloads or use EVEtoolkit data dumps, just manually input each P4 product's underlying P1 component requirement. The biggest issue was updating the P1 prices manually. Luckily the most profitable P4 didn't change at all :) (I was making Wetware Mainframes and Self-Harmonizing powercores).
To be honest, I don't really remember nor does it seem really interesting (still happy to elaborate on anything, just ask away!) but in short about my setup:
- Each P4 requires three P3s
- Each P3 requires two P2s
- Each P2 require two P1s
As a results, I had 1 adv-factory building P4, 3 adv factories building P3s, and 3*2=6 basic factories building P2s. Biggest bottleneck in the setup was sending the correct P1 from storage facilities to other storage facilities or launchpads. I don't wish to dwell into this, but I might be able to dig up my old s/s if there is interest.
Finally about the numbers! By the end (when I had optimized everything) I had 3 planets running. Two on my main and one on an alt. Two planets in Meves and one in Athinard (both one jump from Dodixie).
I tried to track my profits as best as possible and I would say that it was around 100-125MM per planet per month. Skill wise it didn't require much of training as command center upgrades Lvl4 is more than enough. On my alt I only had Lvl3, it was a bit more fiddly to set up the production, but was viable.
Even though, after filling the storages full the planet ran for ~48 hours, ut required way too much fiddling! I got burnt out quickly from all the hauling, the waiting and messing up the correct routes :)
I made nice ISK (for a solo noobie like me) but was tired of all the pressure of refilling the planets with goo :)

Trading for my riches! (written:5/13/2014):
I have been trading alongside the whole PI project. Was making about the same amount as with PI (around 300-400MM per month). Nothing fancy just basic station trading in Dodixie. Grew slowly up to trading basic implants (10MM price). At the end of the project I also had a trader in Amarr and one in Jita. Was trying to make some profit at those stations too, but Jita was horrible for me in terms of station trading. Amarr was better in terms of profit but couldn't actually dedicate time to the Amarr trader to make serious ISK :(
If you were wondering, I did only have one account and the Jita trader was also the secondary PI character :)
Didn't use any spreadsheets nor any third party tools. Looked at the price chart (didn't even know there was a table view to see historic prices and volumes) and if it looked good to me, I would set up a buy order.
I didn't train trading really that much. On Butcher Hentes I had (and still have) 53 orders. That was all I needed, didn't even use all of them most of the time. I didn't train Margin trading (the skill that allows you to reduce the collateral you need to post for a buy order). Don't really "believe" in that skill :)
I would rather want to have a clear picture all the time of the ISK I have, rather than always checking my escrow...
Updated orders in the morning and once in the afternoon. I work so can't really compete with no lifers or Bots.  I'll update orders and maybe cut of 10% from the market orders and its done. I made pretty good money with relatively low effort. Much less effort than PI and way less than with missions or mining! :)
Was making good money, could have afforded cooler ships, but didn't have the skills :( It got boring quick :(

Just flying with no reason! (written:5/13/2014):
One of my colleagues at work was tired of GW2 and wanted something new. Think it was around the time that Asakai hit the news. So he went ahead and tried EVE! After installing the game he texted me "How do I make the ship go somewhere? I can only warp and dock!" (He was a gamer all his life and knows perfect English! This is why people quit EVE! Things like this!
Anyway, he played around a bit, but we didn't really fleet up or anything. He was big on exploration in lowsec. No combat sites, only relic and data. Once I went along with him, to help "protect" him as he was constantly being shot down by locals. Nothing happened though. No one came and exploration was quite boring for my taste plus the loot spew mechanic is awful and I had no idea which cans to go for.
I suggested to him, that we should leave living in high sec and go to LS and do some PVP. I knew nothing about PvP and he didn't either so we scratched that plan :)
Then, I wanted to try joining the Hungarian 0.0 alliance: HUN Reloaded. But my colleague had enough of EVE and didn't extend his subscription after the 20+30 days (trial + 30 days).
I was alone again!

Moving down (written:5/17/2014):
So my colleague left my firm and then left EVE shortly after... But I had big plans! I was going to apply to HUN Reloaded (RAX ticker) and move down to nullsec. I filled out and application form and sent it to their recruiter. A few days later I had a "job" interview via TS3. The recruiter was really helpful and explained that I will be joining their training corp and after 3 months I can apply into one of their main corps. I have to attend classes to be eligible for "passing" the training corp.
I accepted the conditions, but I really doubted that I would have time to attend all those mandatory trainings (don't want to spoil the story, but I only attended like 2 classes during my time with RAX).
I was to move down to their pocket in Immensea and the recruited explained that they have JF service from a specific system (I'm not gonna name it!). All you have to do is set up a private contract to a given char and they will move your ships (repacked) and other stuff down to GXK free of charge.
So, I sold all my stuff, repacked a few of my ships and moved down! The recruiter said that I could either death clone down to their system or can try getting down there on my own.
I was young and brave! Fitted up an Atron and set the shortest route from Dodixie to GXK. This was the outcome: Atron and Pod (Dat Atron :O !) Was a "typical" bubble gate camp by -A-. Blapped me easily, but I woke up in a new clone down in GXK!
The rules of living with RAX:
- When online you always have to be logged into TS3 (I usually just logged in, joined TS and set myself AFK)
- When undocking you have to join the RAX Home Def fleet! (I always joined, was no big deal)
- Don't mine are rat when there's a neut in the system (we were pissing of some alliance and they occasionally placed cloaked neuts in our ratting system. Sucks!)
- Report anything you see to the intel channel (that channel was pretty cool! Renters always wrote intel and you could track ships move in and out of our space.)
I got to attend an alliance meeting once and learned a bunch of interesting stuff about RAX. This is the summary:
HUN Reloaded is an Hungarian sov holding alliance living in Immensea. They are blue with N3 and have access to N3 coms and whatnot. They actually receive renter income because RAX is part of the N3 coalition and gets a slice of the renter money. RAX is pretty active and is present in almost all the big coalition fights! (next time you see a battle report where its n3/pl vs CFC, check if RAX is there! They are great guys and were always loyal to N3)
I got some info about jump bridges and POSes.I didn't really know (have still never used one) what a jumpbridge is, and have never seen a POS before (at the time of writing I own one in HS) :P
Was thrilled to be part of this and was looking forward to doing stuff in Nullsec! Hungarian people, cool stories, huge losses, huge kills and the thrill of ("They could be camping our station any time, any day!")

Null and Red Crosses (written: 6/19/2014)

I'm down in 0.0 and trying to figure out what to do. I brought some BPOs but there is no market to buy minerals and no market to sell the products. I have very minimal PvP experience and don't really have the time (nor the skillpoints) to join an alliance roam. I don't really want to mine although it's an option. No trading can be done either. So the only thing I can do is go ratting in anoms like pretty much everyone else!

I've got a sentry domi that can clear sites but it takes way too long and doesn't make good ISK. I need better skills, more characters or more expensive ships. 

As an alternative I decide to ask around if I can salvage after other players but many newbies do this so there is competition during prime time. If you get a steady stream of sites to salvage in a Noctis you can make pretty decent ISK. Around 60-70MM per hour if I remember correctly. 

There where a classes I should have attended, but only listened to about two full lectures. At first I tried to make some social contact but I didn't really feel like chatting to people, so I just usually put myself AFK on Teamspeak. 

The only action I saw was when N3 where undocking +40 carriers and cynoing away from our home station (which they were staging from). I have never before seen a carrier so it was pretty cool to see a huge amount of them undock! Our station was also streamed on Mad-Ani at some point. I got to see myself on TV :)

Other than the above, it was boring in 0.0! It's not the corp's or CCP's fault, it's my own. I'm just not that social when it comes to the internet :) In my WoW raiding guild, we weren't forced to speak on coms so I never did even though I had a headset.

I wanted to make money and was thinking of doing regional trading! I wanted to have money and plex my account, given that this was my original goal when starting to play. Set up a few contracts to get my stuff hauled back to HS and when the contract was complete I quit corp without saying goodbye or anything. (Not cool from my side!)

I was great experience being down in nullsec, but I just didn't have the skills and game knowledge to enjoy myself there! If you are social than you can have much more fun in nullsec than in highsec, but without human interaction nullsec just didn't offer to much to me. I have now got 20.5MM SP and a lot more money and PvP experience (okay, maybe " a lot more PvP experience" is an exaggeration).

No comments:

Post a Comment