While traveling, I've been keeping up to date with EVE. I had a lot of free time when taking trains, so I couldn't help myself not to check news and blogs. It just again reminded me that EVE is a quite big hobby of mine or that I have a problem. Probably both.
I would like to highlight one post by Talvorian Dex at Target Caller, where he raised the question - "what is your goal with pvp?" It got me thinking. Not just about pvp, but in general, what are my goals in EVE. I have similar thoughts appear in my head time to time, so I decided to put them on paper this time.
My goal in EVE
To be honest, I don't have one. If I had to name one thing as a goal it would be to a healthy balance between RL and EVE. In my early days I tried to run a corp, be a pvper, a fc, do drug manufacturing, be hardcore explorer by seeding DED site farming ships in every constellation, be hardcore trader by rolling multiple accounts and grinding standings. One thing I learned, is that if you try to be the best at something or at least very good, you need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to it. After multiple burnouts I seriously rethought my way of playing EVE. It often became a second job and it was too much for me. I was on the path to quitting and perhaps playing Elder Scrolls Online with my old corpmates.
Scaling down was best decision I've made. No longer I care about showing hours to the game to become very rich in trading, or be a super active member in a corp and be a jack of all trades - logi, links, tackle, dps. Instead, I started focusing on gameplay I like and cutting out activities that kills enjoyment of the game.
For example, I pay yearly subs of my 4 accounts. 3 traders accounts are supporting themselves via plex and is enough for me to adjust orders once every 1-2 months to earn it. If I plexed all my accounts, I would feel the pressure of doing active trading more often to support it. I minimize my pve activity by not flying anything shiny. Faction scram and webifier are most expensive modules I fit. Despite having over 300 billion of wealth, I have never owned a Vindicator or a Marauder.
I highly encourage everyone to sit back, relax and give a thought about your EVE. Think about your goals. What really drives you and makes you enjoy the game? Talvorian Dex wants to nurture his pvp skills and excel at balanced fights. I enjoy hunting and killing those who don't expect to be killed. What about you?
Hey there, first of all, I read your blog daily, it's always a very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteI've been having a problem with EVE nowadays - I can't seem to make money. Like, I can do level 4 missions, and I know the basics around station trading but the payouts are always small.
I'd like to set up a C3 home with a few friends and rat there (and hopefully get killed by you sometime) but the initial investment is too big (POS, hauling, combat ships, fuel) and i don't know how to reach that point.
I'm seriously lost and I don't know what to do. It's getting frustrating... What do you think?
Cheers
I recommend joining c5 wormhole corp that could help you with ISK. When I was in my previous corp, we occasionally did capital escalations so it was nice isk burst for a short time and after you just carry on with your business. Can also run static sites for extra isk if needed. So my advice is - join established corp instead creating your own.
DeleteIf you persist of having your own little space, just take small pos and setup few guns. Keep only few pve ships and thats it. If someone attacks you, losses will be minimal. Also I suggest always to role active connections to critical or you will get ganked alot.
C3's are something you can do solo, for the most part, if you've got enough skill points under your belt. I live in a C3 with 2 accounts, all 6 toons running PI on 5 planets each, ratting and huffing gas as the mood takes me and it makes me enough ISK to PLEX both accounts and have multiple training running on two others.
DeleteIf you're a little light on the skill points, it'd pay to have a friend or two with you. Either way, making ISK won't be a problem.
Stop doing missions. They do not earn you money. I updated my trade orders in the 5 major hubs for about a year and a half and made about 100 bil and got burned out and left. So this post is a very good reminder to take a step back from Eve and think about what you should do. But if money is your goal there is a better way than missions. Even casual PI or manufacturing would make more ISK monthly I would think.
DeleteWhat is driving my EVE? Right now, the shakes I get from solo PvP (and I mean truly solo - one ship), and since I don't think I'll ever get good at it, it should give me plenty of play content.
ReplyDeleteOne of the defining moments was when I acknowledged that I simply couldn't stand grinding ISK anymore, and would never be able to pick up market trading to a successful level. I reduced accounts, and am now using the freed up subscription money to sell PLEX (or in capitalist terms: pay other people to grind ISK for me :) ) This probably goes against established MMO conventions, but saved EVE for me.