In a way, the start of Eve doesn't prepare you for the ISK
needs. You start with 5k ISK. You get a rookie ship that can take care of
business. As you do the tutorials you
are tossed ships and ISK and skill books left and right. Even as you learn about the market and look
for ships the rookie ships cost 250-500k.
That is obtainable money at the level that you start at. Then, the training missions stop and suddenly
you are thrust into the real world and start the long painful climb for the
first cruiser. That first cruiser used
to sit around 7 million ISK and now it is up around 10-14 million.
The first ten million liquid ISK is often a goal people set
for themselves. Then they reach it and
they feel good. Very good. Rich.
Ten million is a big number. It
tastes like success and accomplishment.
Things will go easier. They have
to. Then a bit of market browser happens
and the reality of how expensive things are in Eve starts to set in.
The quest for ISK is eternal. Some people can retire off of what they have
made but the vast majority will always need some type of influx to fuel their
playing. There is always a need always
something more to do. ISK is easier to
burn then it is to make. When I finished
Medium T2 Hybrids l ran off and went, "Yay time to fit Thorax!" and I
busily threw a match in my wallet and threw ISK around like I was angry at it. I'd need armor thorax and
shield thorax and spare throax and next thing I know a few hundred million has
been spent.
Quite often missions happen.
Mining happens. Income starts to
flow in. It isn't enough. It is never enough. The quest for other sources of income
start. For me, I turned to
Industry. I am a terrible industrialist. However, I am an enthusiastic if terrible industrialist. This evens everything out. Why I am a terrible industrialist? It is because I wing it. Winging industry is not the way to make the
best profits. Sometimes I’m a little
embarrassed in market and industry chats.
People have graphs and charts and spreadsheets. I have a somewhat used napkin with scratch
marks on it.
I was in a conversation with our (now)
newest member about his application. He
asked if I had time. I was like, “yeah
I’m just running some numbers.” I was
doing a rare mineral buy vs what I need for my production line. It’s easier then setting up and moving just
to mine that particular mineral. I was
sitting, adding numbers and making notes and having a lot of fun doing it. What kind of ridiculous game is this? “Yes,
you see I was working through my Isogen calculations for my blueprints. So much fun, you will love this game!” Yet, I mean it. It may not seem fun but add it into the entirety
of what I was doing and I was having a blast doing (bad)math.
One of the reasons I like Industry is that for me it is a
trickle income that I can do on my short days.
On the days I work I have a flourish hour window of time before I go to
bed for my next workday. This window has
to fill of my Eve needs. I also squeeze
silly IRL things in there like feeding and taking care of my pets and making
dinner and bathing. One of the problems
with exploration is that it is a massive, massive time sink. For all of the times that you drop probes and
receive 5/10 complex there is a sum multiple of much moreness where you will
drop probes and receive wormhole signature x3 and nothing else.
It stops me from hitting walls in the game as well. If I hit a ship wall, or an ability wall, or
there is a dry spell for PvP or life is busy I have something that I can work
on in small pieces of time. I can switch
out a job and know that something is being done. I can log in and delivery jobs
and know that things happened. I can sell those things later, when I have more
time. I can try another product work on
something different and keep it interesting.
What I build and what everyone else builds is going to be
different. I build a few things. One of those is the blueprints that I receive
from my radar sites. These blueprints
create pieces needed for invention.
Because I have so many I just build them in my spare time. They have a production time of around fifteen
hours. I toss them into the station
and let them cook. Every few days I remember to change them out
and put other things in.
By the time I am ready to run to the market I’ve acquired a
nice little pile of things to sell from materials I gathered as part of my
normal exploration attempts. I also make
the blueprint copies for other things out of the salvage that I reprocess from
exploration sites. I make sure to sort
the salvage and sell the high end modules as well. It is not glamorous but it is steady and it
is easy way to stay productive with small chunks of time. It also stops the sites from feeling as if
they gave you nothing. As someone who
has made their iskies in more small pieces then large I like this type of
process.
I’ve also taken the time to research some blueprints. I am now churning out a few high demand
frigates. I pull the core minerals t
make half a dozen of them every ore hold that I dump at the station. I could sell the minerals for more,
perhaps. But I find the building of the
ships and selling of the ships more engaging.
I mine, I build, I fill the Orca with little ships and I take to the
market.
Then there are my boosters.
They are again a sub-sub income.
As a specialty item they sell in spurts.
However, it is a lot of fun and another productive way to spend my
time. I have the POS to manage and the
reactions to manage and the boosters to produce. It is a multistep process from acquisition
of the minerals to tucking the booster into my hangers. When I am tired it sometimes takes a few
attempts to do the proper changeovers due to fatigue. I can't remember what I was building. I muddle through it eventually.
Nothing is optimal. I
cheerfully put things into the cooker that come out during the middle of my
work day. I look at it as a simple
pleasure. I don't stress about it. If I stressed I could see myself burning out
on it. If it was my main game that would
be one thing but it's not. It is something that I dabble in. I don't want to overload and burn out. It is easy to do and easy to pressure oneself into.
While dabbling may annoy the more serious players because I
dilute some areas of their market, dabbling is important. I'm the Mom and Pop shop... wait no I'm the Lemonadestand on the corner in the summer. The
dabbling does create appreciation for what industry is and what I can do for
myself as a player. While the market
traders may wish for the non industry focused to stumble blindly and buy, buy,
buy, a bit of time invested creates somewhat deeper understanding for the
delicate sub textures of Eve's options.
People are encouraged to specialize. Don't waste your skill points. Think before you train. I'm all for that but a point is reached where
some type of personal exploration has to happen. It is too easy to get caught in a small box. That box leaves to boredom and boredom leads
to bleeding off of players. There are
ways to dabble in a light weight way to see if it is or is not for you or just
see another option.
Then you may find out that the strangest moments math can be
fun.
Good to hear of dabbling. I too see myself as a dabbler and yet I have my fair share of spreadsheets. I'm currently trying to design a simple one for my T2 experiments. I've learnt more about spreadsheets since playing EVE and yet still enjoyed it. I enjoy the logistics of minor industrial capacity. Something about all this makes me feel slightly ill.
ReplyDeleteDrawing a line under the industry kick at the end of the month. Back to combat, fitting and combat support skills hopefully. Hopefully....