Eve Online is many things to many players, but its economic sandbox seems to get a lot of play (fn1).
I thought in "PvP, asymmetry, and the information game in Eve-Online" that Eve-Online was "a game about economics and its constraint on power." My view of Eve-Online has been of late on the alliance game (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7. ) and is therefore naturally inclined to look more towards the constraint and power elements, as I find their texture and nuance interesting. Yet there is a more direct view.
When I first started out in Eve-Online (EO) I played an arbitrage trader. I contributed a brief description of my early career to Dan's "Adventures of Capitalism" series a couple of years ago, scarcely anonymous (Terra Nova tongue-in-cheek). Using the language of My friend's keeper, the trader's game in EO offers a peculiar *carebear* perspective (fn2). Not one missile fired in anger. A player's nose firmly planted in a spreadsheet. Every ship lost was simply mark-up in a product line, a ledger entry.
My trader's view of the game then was relatively detached from game events. For example, I had an elaborate (though not always correct) intuition about the alliance wars at that time (far, far away) based on supply and demand of ship modules. A view by proxy, by tea-leaves. War is a profit opportunity to EO traders. In fact, in my glib moments I thought I could anticipate conflicts through price shifts (by location) in the basket of items I monitored.
Dr. Eyjlfur Gumundsson's (EyoG) cumulation of three articles (so far) is starting to complete (and correct) the contours of the oceans of intuitions and superstitions that traders developed on the back of envelopes with quantitative baselines. Mandatory reading for those interested in the subject:
1. Quarterly Economic Newsletter, 3rd quarter 2007
2. Production of space ships. 2007.09.30
3. An overview of the mineral market in EVE Online. 2007.09.03
To my experience, the world view of an EO empire trader was a rarified one. The world looks different through spreadsheets. Alliance wars, for example, were seen as opportunities and costs. The politics mattered little so long as goods moved.
EO's alliance ecosystem is as much driven by the invisible hand as are the trader markets. Yet, as Dave Rickey pointed eloquently out in many earlier comments (see above cited series), the 0.0 markets are largely less mature than Empire ones. Yet in their Wild Western ways they work. Alliance markets also bear more direct scars: their effects and causes are filtered through political and social forces and shaped by conflict. Recall again the farmer and the cowman ("My friend's keeper") and ask, who pays for those ships and at what trade-off to the alliance/corporation? Ask of "Rapacious marketeering", what then when markets are turned to weapons?
I started (a while back) with "The face of information" a look at the information economy in the alliance system in EO. This look is continuing in "The 0.0 pilot's stare" ( 1. , 2. ). I believe that the flow of information there is impacted by the other forces in the alliance system. For example, every alliance pilot will recognize how the quality of "intel" (on the intelligence channels) can vary considerably over time. Clearly, the motivation and engagement of the participants play a substantial role.
In a similar way, what I found interesting about my transition from an abstract Empire view of markets to a grittier view of 0.0 and alliance markets is how markets came to mesh more directly with the story and the other elements of the player ecosystem.
The gorilla is there. The question is how in-your-face you want him. Which view is the more interesting one to whom?
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fn1. From “In an Ever-Changing Galaxy, the Action’s Starting to Get Intriguing” (Seth Scheiesel, November 28, NYTimes.com):
“There are basically two schools of thought for operating an online community,”…
“There is the theme-park approach and the sandbox approach,” he continued. “Most games are like Disneyland, for instance, which is a carefully constructed experience where you stand in line to be entertained… [Eve-Online focuses] on the sandbox approach where people can decide what they want to do in that particular sandbox, and we very much emphasize and support that kind of emergent behavior.”
Also, Press release, via Vili Lehdonvirta (CCP are the developers of Eve-Online):
Virtual economy research project starting at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology
December 12th, 2007, Helsinki, FinlandHelsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) has secured funding and partners for a new research project into "virtual economies": systems where millions of Internet users create and trade virtual items and currencies, often for real money. The project, titled Advanced Virtual Economy Applications (AVEA), begins in January and will continue for 2,5 years... HIIT's financiers and corporate partners in the project are Nokia Research Center, CCP, Playdo and SWelcom. The majority of funding comes from Finnish technology and innovation funding agency Tekes. Main topics addressed in the project will include measuring economic activity in large-scale virtual economies, virtual asset sales as a revenue model for online services, and virtual economies on mobile and ubiquitous platforms.
fn2.
The "Moon is a harsh mistress" provides overview of differences between Empire and 0.0 space in the world of Eve-Online
I've been playing Eve for nearly one year. I'm in a corporation of about 30 highly active players. We have a couple space stations in low security space for the purpose of manufacturing and research, but most of our members stay in Empire space for mining and mission running. As Bob Dylan said, "The times they are a changing". There's been a general feeling amongst nearly all of the corp members that it's time for something new. The next logical step is, of course, finding a home in 0.0 space.
That's not an easy thing to do though. As described in previous articles in this series, alliance politics are complicated and it's hard to trust a stranger because you never know whose alt you may be talking to.
Changing a whole corporation from Empire to 0.0 mode of operation is difficult for another, more subtle reason, which I think is where this original post was headed. There is an intangible yet very real momentum that must be changed. People are slow to accept the kinds of changes needed to convert from Empire to 0.0 Alliance playing styles. Of course, there are physical things that players need to do, such as buy ships and train skills, but what I'm really talking about is the change in play style that is required when changing from Empire to 0.0.
In empire space our corp is spread out all over the 4 factions, with everyone working towards their own private goals. There are occasional group activities like running missions or mining in small fleets, and there are organized corporate events once every week or two. For the most part though, it's not unusual for the majority of the corp to have only a vague idea of what other members are up to, or where they are.
We are still trying to get organized for our big push into 0.0 space, but there's already a very obvious vacuum in regard to certain things we're going to need. This includes communication, planning, group participation, commitment, goal setting, time scheduling, organizing people into roles that will need to be filled, and much more.
Changing the momentum of our little corp from Empire to 0.0 will be a real challenge, especially for our leaders. The big challenge is to get critical mass. The procrastinators will be pressured into making the changes needed by peer pressure, and the players without the resources to do it on their own will have a support system in place to help them along. Getting that critical mass is very hard without imposing "martial law" on the corp members, and we're certainly not going to do that.
So the question becomes "how do you sell the idea to enough corp members so that the rest will follow?" If you don't make that sell fast enough, the whole idea is likely to founder and sink, or even cause the corporation to split up.
Posted by: SVgr | Dec 13, 2007 at 10:31
SVgr said, "So the question becomes "how do you sell the idea to enough corp members so that the rest will follow?" If you don't make that sell fast enough, the whole idea is likely to founder and sink, or even cause the corporation to split up."
Sounds exactly like the problem many small guilds face in EQ2 when they decide to go from casual grouping to hard core raiding.
Posted by: thoreau | Dec 13, 2007 at 17:03
Svgr-
To my experience (mileage may vary), responsible 0.0 corps prefer new candidates in this order:
1.) Experienced 0.0 pilots
2.) Empire experienced pilots
3.) Noobs
The skill/knowledge as well as mindset/attitude differences between 0.0 and Empire is daunting. The 0.0 corps I've been around are shy of (3.) and will with reservations take on (2.) - usually after a "stern discussion." The stern discussion involves the boilerplate of "you *really* know what you are getting into and are you willing to step up to live with it?"
I think it would be hard to figure it out on your (collective) own without salting with experience. Perhaps in your case negotiating a good perch within a solid alliance structure is the best route. Finding the right alliance and negotiating the right niche will be a large task in itself. Do the due diligence and a lot of it.
Posted by: nate_combs | Dec 14, 2007 at 07:03
Ah, yes. A salting of experience indeed. The champion for our little venture is an original player who recently joined our corp. He has maybe too much experience, but seems eager to help us do this. I wonder if he has his own motives or not, but nothing ventured, nothing gained? :)
By nature of being who he is, he has contacts that none of our little band can dream of. As alliance politics are always shrowded in secrecy, I have limited details, but I assume that he has pulled a few strings and talked to old friends to get us a pass.
Should be loads of fun, even if we get ourselves into trouble. :)
Posted by: SVgr | Dec 14, 2007 at 12:38
SVgr, I would humbly suggest taking a look at CVA's NRDS space. Although currently embroiled in a conflict, this is a great way to see if you like the differences. It's a subtle 'stick your toe in the pool' approach to 0.0. Another option I would suggest is a road trip into Stain, Curse, Syndicate for a month and see if everyone likes, wants the 0.0 game style. I assure you it will be at the very least an adventure :)
Oh and there are very few 'passes'. Just like there are no free lunches in real world scenarios there are most definately none in EVE :)
Posted by: jokerb | Dec 14, 2007 at 13:42
I don't think thats fair at all to say newbies are not always welcome. I know the goons welcome newbies in with open arms. Preferentially in fact (far less likely to be spies). Although specifically they want newbies from the Something awful (for goonfleet) or Penny Arcade (for Merci) forums. I'm told "BRUCE" (brutally clever empire) are making there baby steps from NPC 0.0 in syndicate into true 0.0 (fountain) and they too I'm told are newbie friendly as well. BRUCE run an NRDS policy I believe, but I'd advise to check with a bruce Diplomat before heading down to lower syndicate to be sure. Finally IAC are known to be newbie friendly , but are in the middle of a *very* hot war with BOB , and although normally NRDS, revert to NBSI in war time to synchronise standings with allies (currently AAA, RA, Goons, TCF etc).
If your from a non english speaking background, there are some great corps out there too. TCF for french, Red Alliance/AAA for Russians, half of the north for Germans, and so on.
I'm not sure what the options are for those who want to hang out on the BOB side of the great war. I'm sure someone from that side has some pointers.
No idea what the Drone regions are like. My guess is relatively newbie friendly, however money making may be harder due to CCPs stupid mineral compression nerf. The 'rats' there dont have bounties, so your stuck with salvaging and module drops. Except the modules recently got really big to stop them used as mineral compression proxies, and viceversa Mining has become a lot harder if you dont have access to big capital craft like Rorquals or Carriers.
Posted by: dmx | Dec 15, 2007 at 02:02
dmx makes a great point.
The strategy of channeling noobs through "feeders" into the 0.0 corps/alliances is a widely used strategy. So for example a number of the big alliances run empire corps where they then "promote" those of talent and inclination to 0.0 corps. It is also useful in catching enemy alts. It also appears that Goons and others dmx use external forums to similar effect: get new recruits who are "on board w/ alliance viewpoints", "less likely to be enemy plants", and are familiar with what they are getting into.
An interesting counter-thought example might be this one. Would it be good for the game world of Eve if every new character that were created had an equal chance of starting in a 0.0 npc station or an empire one? Thus brand new spanking players could find themselves in a 0.0 war zone? It might be great for 0.0 corps (noobs who survive and continue with the game, would be tailor-made recruiting material), but would it be good for the game world at large? Likely would scare off a lot of the industrial/trader/miner/missioning sorts (likely the majority of players). Yet as counter-point to this, how many empire players are really 0.0 players who just haven't got around to it there and are at risk of leaving the game because they end up doing stuff which doesn't hold their long term interest?
The ecology of playerdom in EO is an interesting topic onto itself.
Posted by: nate_combs | Dec 15, 2007 at 12:59
All great advice above, and it seems that our mentor agrees. We're now officially in a 'starter' alliance, with a nice list of non-aggression pacts with other 'starter' alliances. We have access to our choice of moons in one of the less-contested regions mentioned above (in 0.0 space, but not too deep in 0.0 space). All very exciting for a smallish corp like ours with so little experience at any of this.
I spent the weekend talking and chatting alot but ended up with very little time to actually play. There are just so many things to do that I hardly have time to do them all. This is great. Eve is fun, new, and exciting again. Show me another game that gets a second wind like that after a whole year of playing.
Our next big hurdle is one created by CCP with the Trinity patch. It's no longer possible to use our Carriers to move Industrial ships full of parts for our POS. What a drag. So we have two choices before we can set up our very own death star: 1) run convoys through a long 0.0 choke point (or pipeline as they call them) in naked haulers full of valuable gear. 2) wait 4 weeks for the completion of our jump freighter.
I think it's going to take nearly 4 weeks to get everyone motivated and prepared properly. I'm personally 100% committed to this and it's going to take ME at least two weeks to train up some skills I really want to have before I move a jump clone out to 0.0 space.
And here I see an interresting point about Eve when compared to other video games. How many video games can you name where short term goals are planned on a scale of months, and long term goals are planned on scales of seasons or even years? The scale and tempo of Eve may seem glacial for someone accustomed to first person shooters. However, from the other side of the table, a first person shooter seems like a flash in the pan for someone who plays Eve. In the time it takes to complete one small-ish goal in Eve you can actually see new console games hit the store shelves, burn out, and fade away to be found on the discount racks.
Posted by: SVgr | Dec 17, 2007 at 09:34
Honestly, if readers are experienced and in newbie unfriendly corps , I'd strongly advised agitating against it. For the goons, the newbie experience has been a constant source of energy for us.
Newbie mentoring can be really fun sometimes. I'm a lousy FC, but I used to do a lot of 'newbie runs', where we'd just get 20 brand new players in newb ships and rampage around 0.0 until we all die, then I'd fork out some money for new ships for them and we'd do it again. For someone like me used to a paranoiac gameplay style its incredibly liberating to not actually care about ship losses (rifters rock) and for the newbies, they really tend to enjoy real combat missions with an experienced captain.
But more to the point, as the lessons of Goonfleet show, players raised in the hell of 0.0 pvp will be players who KNOW how to fly safe, and pvp well. Its good for the playerbase, and its good for the corp.
I'm going to make a confession here. Other than the stupidly broken Titans, I think the interdictor (both varietys) are a terrible 'innovation' to the game, because they do seem to deprive new players of the one role they had always traditionally done well in fleet work; Tackling.
One of the most awesome things I ever remember in this game was hearing a 2 day old newbie call out on teamspeak "2 points on the moros!". *2 days* into the game, and after misunderstanding gate instructions, he jumped early into a gate, saw a dreadnaught (At least a year of training to get into a basic dread) and tackled it. We all jumped in and nailed it. It was an awe inspiring demonstration of how giving a few concessions to newbies can make a world of difference to new player immersion. Unfortunately dictors , an advanced ship that takes about 5-6 months of training to fly really well work area effect, and therefore a single dictor can lock down an entire battlefield rendering the new players, well, kind of pointless.
Now, as to feeder corps. Goonfleet doesn't do it that way because we already ARE a newbie corp, but other corps have done it , and its worked well for them. NBSI alliance (Old 'pirate' alliance, eventually merged into the northern powerblock) used to run the "NBSI academy", and gained many valuable new members that way. Sniggerdly (An infamous pirate corp who've joined with Black Omega Syndicate and formed Pandemic Legion) used to have a corp called 'Sniggwaffe' who I believe where a newbie oriented feeder corp. Before we went to war with BOB, a few times I suggested to them they start up a "BOB academy" to train new players for life in BOB, but perhaps that didnt fit into the BOB worldview, maybe we'll never know (Theres troubling signs at the moment for BOB, as they just got into a big spat with many of there old allies in the Greater BOB Community).
Regardless, I really believe Newbies are the future of the game, and I hope that older players at least put some thought into how to accommodate them. Its worth it. Seriously.
Posted by: dmx | Dec 17, 2007 at 23:34
dmx - Newbies are the future of the game
/strong applause.
Without dragging my 0.0 corporation into this discussion, we run a subsidized (Newbies gear are paid for by the taxpayers ;-) noob outreach program like dmx described (though I confess I wish I actually had more time to contribute to it as dmx has done in his). By measure of membership and enthusiasm it is a huge success.
I still think it is useful to distinguish between a Newbie to the game versus a Newbie to 0.0. The former is a subset of the latter (all Newbies to the game are Newbies to 0.0 but not vice versa). Allowing 0.0 Newbies to risklessly try out 0.0 with mentorship is great. My concern would be with 0.0 corps signing up *game* Newbies and poorly subsidizing their experience (isks or training) - these are the players who might be vulnerable if the experience sours.
To my ear, there are 0.0 corporations that are reputed to rely on a darwinian model of recruitment (build a brand, attract many, take everyone, whose who survive are worth keeping). This may be a newb-egalaterian system, but on the other hand I personally think it does a disservice to the *game* Newbies who decide this is not their thing. They leave without assets and without a base to fall back on.
To try to spin this in terms meta to Eve-Online, I think this is a problem that confronts any sophisticated online community: when is the individual best served by moving directly into the niche and how does it handle those who leave the niche? I also think it is a great problem for an online community to have, it means that its a place built around choices and specialization of interests.
Posted by: nate_combs | Dec 18, 2007 at 02:10
Yeah, the game newb vs the 0.0 newb problem is one I'm having to deal with in our corp right now. The fact is that it's not a great idea for everyone to move to 0.0 space. However I don't think you can divide the yea and nay along the lines of skill points. It's more of a need for open-mindedness as I see it.
I have three people in my corp that are a problem for me right now in regard to moving them to 0.0 space. Each of them is a problem for very different reasons.
I'll start with the one I think of as the smallest problem. He's just not high in skill points and needs alot of one on one mentoring in the next couple weeks. Not sure if I'm the best person to mentor him, but I'm sure that some of the people he's listening to are the wrong people to mentor him. He's getting poor advice and I just don't have enough time to convince him otherwise. Beside not having the time, if he only partially listens to me, he could get even more confused by having different people telling him different things. My solution to his problem is probably to let him experiment and find out by trial and error because he's not risking alot right now. He's likely to have fun failing, and give us all someone to tease a little.
Posted by: SVgr | Dec 18, 2007 at 10:41
My second worry is a 6-9 month player who just never seems to have any ISK. She's terrible at mission running, worse at mining, and doesn't have time to play the market. She's going to be a third wheel in 0.0, so I'd really like her to leave her mission-running battleship in empire space with a jump clone so she can go back to make isk till she's ready. She doesn't even have a jump clone yet though. Meh. I told her what to do, but we'll see if she actually does it. If she loses that mission battleship, that's prety much everything she owns.
My biggest worry is a guy that's nearly a year old (like me), but doesn't realize that he's still a newb to 0.0 space. He has too much ISK from mission running and likes to fly faction ships with faction gear and faction ammo, with full sets of implants and rigs installed. When he loses his first Caldari Navy Raven, it's going to set him back 2 billion isk. That will be funny, and isn't a problem. The problem is that he's telling other people what to bring with us to 0.0 space (such as the first two people I mentioned).
Player number one and two will have fun and be useful if I can get them to fly affordable frigates and cruisers with fitting to perform special roles like tackle, jamming, scouting, salvaging, etc. I'm giving them simple achievable goals that will give them a sense of accomplishment and should give them a chance to make more isk than they lose. I just can't get the third guy to understand that concept.
So there's my little shoebox demonstration of why a complete 'game newb' is easier to work with than an experienced empire player with no 0.0 experience. There's lots of help available in and out of the game for people who have an open mind and are willing to just listen and try to forget everything they think they know, but a complete newb is more likely to be able to do that.
Posted by: SVgr | Dec 18, 2007 at 10:42
Yeah. I've seen that before as well. Personally I think the optimum 0.0 day-zero experience is NPC 0.0.
Syndicate was perfect for us. Double and Triple 1.2m+ Serpentis rat spawns (Possibly the easiest rat faction to hunt) which is perfect for the newbie battleship pilot or a pair of T1 cruisers, the UTKS 10/10 complex (Along with the awesome set piece battles with the J9Q pirate guys for control with it on the clock every day after downtime) , Level 1 - 4 missions, and vast belts of sweet sweet Crokite for mining. I actually think Lower Syndicate may well be the best area of space in the game, if you've got the gumption to hold it. Unfortunately it got way too crowded when goonfleet started to hit the 1500+ player mark, and thus started the great adventure (Our attempts to invade norad & D2 space followed invasion of the south with the Russians and the French)
The usual recommended trajectory in the corp was to loan 10mil for a mining cruiser and a hangar of PVP frigates, and then to go out on a mining op, make 10mil back, and then spend a week or two mining towards the first battlecruiser or battleship. I had 250mil in my first month, and its mindboggling to me that so many empire dwellers might never know anything close to that wealth.
But flying smart is something it takes a lot of learning to do well, and actually thats why I do think 0.0 is the best way to start.. You *have* to start in a frigate as a rank newbie, and if your constantly being put into overwhelming odds, you'll learn fast.
But for a low skillpoint corp, you either need sheer numbers, or your boned. Theres some pretty bad-ass dudes flying about deep space in some really scary T2 ships.
Posted by: dmx | Dec 22, 2007 at 08:11
Well, time for an update. We finally got our control tower up and running. That was a chore since the path from empire space to where we wanted to live is currently blocked.
As DMX said: "But for a low skill point corp, you either need sheer numbers, or your boned. Theres some pretty bad-ass dudes flying about deep space in some really scary T2 ships."
Yup, our path is blocked by a vastly larger alliance (They've cost me three ships already, and I TRY to avoid them). Our carrier pilots moved all of our stuff to 0.0, except those few POS parts that won't fit in a carrier. I had never seen a carrier jump before, and as one of my British friends said: "It's really sexy when they jump". The holiday season magically provided a time when the above mentioned alliance weren't camping every gate along our path, so we managed to sneak through with haulers containing those huge POS parts (more ISK than I care to think about in those ships).
Establishing a new base of operations for our corp in 0.0 space is certainly an adventure. There's so much work to do that it's kept about half the corp busy in one way or another for the past two or three weeks, and we're only about half way done.
For me the difference between 0.0 and Empire space has been a great improvement in my overall play experience in Eve. I've found that I have about the same income earning potential in 0.0 as I did in Empire space when running level 4 missions. However, it's better because the 0.0 game is much more dependant on social interaction and that's what MMO's are all about. The game in 0.0 requires much more planning and thought for everything you do, and you have to keep up with the text and voice communications channels. This makes the game experience much more immersive, but is probably an entrance barrier for people who aren't inclined towards hardcore game play. Eve is known to be a game for more hardcore gamers though.
Now that I've had a chance to see it for myself, I have to agree with people who say that 0.0 space is where the true heart of Eve game play lies.
Posted by: SVgr | Jan 02, 2008 at 10:33
Well, time for an update. We finally got our control tower up and running. That was a chore since the path from empire space to where we wanted to live is currently blocked.
As DMX said: "But for a low skill point corp, you either need sheer numbers, or your boned. Theres some pretty bad-ass dudes flying about deep space in some really scary T2 ships."
Yup, our path is blocked by a vastly larger alliance (They've cost me three ships already, and I TRY to avoid them). Our carrier pilots moved all of our stuff to 0.0, except those few POS parts that won't fit in a carrier. I had never seen a carrier jump before, and as one of my British friends said: "It's really sexy when they jump". The holiday season magically provided a time when the above mentioned alliance weren't camping every gate along our path, so we managed to sneak through with haulers containing those huge POS parts (more ISK than I care to think about in those ships).
Establishing a new base of operations for our corp in 0.0 space is certainly an adventure. There's so much work to do that it's kept about half the corp busy in one way or another for the past two or three weeks, and we're only about half way done.
For me the difference between 0.0 and Empire space has been a great improvement in my overall play experience in Eve. I've found that I have about the same income earning potential in 0.0 as I did in Empire space when running level 4 missions. However, it's better because the 0.0 game is much more dependant on social interaction and that's what MMO's are all about. The game in 0.0 requires much more planning and thought for everything you do, and you have to keep up with the text and voice communications channels. This makes the game experience much more immersive, but is probably an entrance barrier for people who aren't inclined towards hardcore game play. Eve is known to be a game for more hardcore gamers though.
Now that I've had a chance to see it for myself, I have to agree with people who say that 0.0 space is where the true heart of Eve game play lies.
Posted by: SVgr | Jan 02, 2008 at 10:36
If you guys are just a small corp basing out of a POS in 0.0 space, may I suggest putting together a billion dollars in ransom funds incase something like The Establishment or one of the big pirate corps decide to have fun. And make sure your on friendly terms with the local hegemon alliance.
Posted by: dmx | Jan 02, 2008 at 11:52
Oh great, I see that my browser made a double post for me earlier. Sorry about that.
I didn't say we're "living" out of a POS, we're actually living out of an NPC station with our POS nearby for industrial purposes. We won't keep enough valuable stuff in the POS at any one time for it to be worth the time and energy of pirates and ransom. However, if we get attacked or ransomed then that's just another part of 0.0 gameplay I guess.
Posted by: SVgr | Jan 02, 2008 at 14:39
fair enough. Fly safe then captain :)
You will find however that 0.0 can be vastly profitable if you get into the moon mining business, and 0.0 mission running. I mean moon mining can generate silly money, but you really need to put a lot of research into the T2 mineral markets and getting the chemistry right. But if you find a niche, cha-ching.
The *really* good money is in cap-ship production, but you probably need to rent an outpost. The good news is outpost renting is usually pretty cheap. A few bil a month. Get carrier or heck, mothership production up and your cooking with gas. You might even make a deal to produce cheap motherships for the local hegemons, and then you've got both a crazy huge income stream , AND a loyal customer. Feudalism in 0.0 can be quite profitable for both lord and peon.
Posted by: dmx | Jan 13, 2008 at 04:34
Wow, I think the events of my weekend fall under the proper category for this series of articles.
My alliance has recently gone to war. That's common enough, but the details are really facinating. My alliance was attacked by alliance B, C and D. We had help from some alliances E and F. Looked like a good old fashioned slug fest was set for the weekend. The thing nobody expected was a third party (neutral standing to us) who came in and absolutely handed us our @$$es. Our initial intel says that it was just a random attack but it seemed be far too many ships for a roaming gang. Will be fun trying to sort out the politics of exactly what happened. No doubt, there were alts and espionage, betrayal, and revenge involved.
I'm still trying to find out what the heck happened, but just goes to show you how fast things can change in Eve.
Posted by: SVgr | Jan 14, 2008 at 07:59
Did you get caught up in all the madness going on in the drone regions? Because its all pretty crazed over there right now.
Posted by: dmx | Jan 14, 2008 at 08:16
We're in Syndicate, and it's getting really exciting lately. Dreads and Carriers everywhere, POS's going into reinforced mode, etc. As it turns out, the neutrals that joined our little party over the weekend seem to have been a roaming gang who saw the large fleet assembled in our system and just showed up to get some pew pew. What a blast that weekend was. (pun intended) Anyone who hasn't been involved in a 200+ person fleet action in 0.0 space hasn't really experience Eve or perhaps even experienced what MMO's in general are supposed to be about. The organization and coordination of such large forces is really a grand achievment, and my hat is off to the few people capable of getting that job done right.
Posted by: SVgr | Jan 14, 2008 at 09:50
A POS in 0.0 is a full time job and alot of work. The biggest problem you are probably facing atm is getting your guys fully into the adaptation mode for 0.0 Syndicate space. Give me a shout in game some time and I'll be happy to chat and answer questions.
Posted by: Recon One | Mar 27, 2008 at 06:29
All great advice above, and it seems that our mentor agrees. We're now officially in a 'starter' alliance, with a nice list of non-aggression pacts with other 'starter' alliances. I've been playing Eve for nearly one year. I'm in a corporation of about 30 highly active players. We have a couple space stations in low security space for the purpose of manufacturing and research, but most of our members stay in Empire space for mining and mission running. The organization and coordination of such large forces is really a grand achievement, and my hat is off to the few people capable of getting that job done right. I like this.
Posted by: alex | Aug 02, 2008 at 00:51