Individual Pilot Income Generation in 0.0 (CSM)
Contents
Stats
- Raised by: Zastrow
- Submission Date: August 9
- Issue ID: tbd
Summary
In the words of Gramtar in the Eve-o thread:
The problem:
According to my research, the isk/hour earned running level 4 highsec combat missions on a single account is roughly 20M/hour, and can be accomplished with a 3-4 month old character. The 20M figure may or may not include salvaging dense missions, and the isk generated from items obtainable from various corporate LP stores. There is nominally no risk associated with this activity, at least if you are a member of an npc corp, and no downtime. Some empire residents claim the actual figure can be much higher - 30M/hour.
Life in 0.0 is not insanely profitable in and of itself. During my three years in EVE, I made most of my isk through importation of T2 modules to 0.0 and small scale, select production (mostly rigs). I have earned a substantial amount of isk ratting, though, and am quite familiar with that activity. I haven't mined since GoonSwarm resided in Syndicate, and buy orders for Zydrine were 4800 isk.
The problem with 0.0 is most of the systems in it are "worthless". The gates and belts won't spawn rats with bounties above 950K (if that high), they won't get Officer spawns, and the asteroid belts won't produce the ABC ores. NPC 0.0 has missions available, but unless you are performing missions for a pirate faction, there are few good reasons to do level 4 missions. The "low security rating" differential payed in terms of mission rewards does not come close, in my opinion, to offset the risk, either in 0.0 or lowsec.
In short, if you were advising a player as to the most profitable career they could undertake in the short term, you'd suggest level 4 combat missions in highsec.
CCP made EVE a better game. They made warp to 0, and got rid of bookmark sets. They eliminated the T2 BPO lottery. They even eliminated the lottery of what rewards storyline missions offered, and made every mission you ran for npc corps count for something by creating the LP store. They added rigs to give players more means to fit ships. They added half a dozen new regions, the Drone regions. They eliminated the value of holding a handful of specific systems by largely eliminating static complexes (there are still a few left, believe it or not). They significantly improved POS warfare. For those who view it as a mind numbing slog today, we once had towers with 5 day stront timers that would instapop an interceptor at 350 km.
The net effects of all of these things, today, is highsec is a more profitable place to live than ever before. The drone regions and their resulting mineral yields crashed both high and mid end mineral prices. Eliminating npc shuttles, changing rat/mission loot yields, and expanding the size of T1 unnamed module drops from 5 m3 to as high as 50 m3 sent Tritanium prices through the roof. Mining veld in highsec in a hulk is reportedly worth 5-7M isk/hour and thats direct to cargo mining/docking not into a jetcan.
More relevant to this discussion, the value of time spent ratting and mining in 0.0 has sunk enormously since I began playing in 2006. Pirate faction module drops are now subject to price pressures from equivalent (often better) highsec navy faction LP rewards. The contract prices on a Shadow Serpentis Mag Field Stabilizer seem higher than those for one from the Gallente Navy LP store, but the module stats are identical. Only deadspace loot has retained its value.
The last time I mined in EVE was in Syndicate. You could comfortably make about 20M / hour in an Osprey ninja mining crokite, assuming a hostile didn't come along and pop you or your jetcan. I payed for my first ratting battleship that way, running the Zydrine up the pipe to empire in a frigate and selling it to 4800 isk buy orders. Zydrine buy orders are now in the 1400-1500 range. Thanks CCP and drone regions. Megacyte has crashed too, but by my guess only about 50% compared to the 70% suffered by Zydrine.
I've never spent much time in lowsec, aside from transiting. I never understood the appeal of losing sec status in PvP when you could do the same in 0.0 without recourse. That said, my view of lowsec is that it's the worst of all worlds. Mid range ore mining crashed along with high ends. The only thing lowsec has that highsec doesn't are level 5 missions, and perhaps better access to wormholes. From what I know, level 5 missions aren't particular popular, but please weigh in if you have knowledge in that regard. CCP did improve lowsec with Apocrypha by adding some BS rats (you could get faction cruisers there even back in the day). I feel lowsec still has a long way to go to entice more than "pirates" and capital ship producers from setting up shop there.
Some words about exploration:
This has been a great boon to those who choose to invest the time, skillpoints, and effort. The days of fighting over static plexes are largely gone, even though Goons nominally live in Delve today partly because of a disagreement over one of the few existing static plexes.
That said, should a player have to run around different constellations scanning for various sites in order to make a good living in 0.0? Ratting has already been made more difficult by eliminating the ability to see npc's on the directional scanner. You can even argue that high belt count systems are much inferior to, say, 8 belt systems because you can't easily check the belts for faction or officer spawns as a result.
Exploration, while very profitable, is best exploited by those who can play for several hours without interruption, have taken the time to learn about how to do it efficiently, and ideally work with other players or have multiple accounts in order to tank the most difficult encounters. Although there are many stories about running escalations across several systems that yielded nothing in the end, I feel Exploration as a whole is a largely well balanced activity today. It's just not the preferred activity for all.
IN A NUTSHELL
L4 missions in Highsec are too lucrative for negligible risk. Due to this, most players are unwilling to venture into lowsec or nullsec because it's just not worth the hassle. Lowsec and 0.0 need to be worth the hassle.
Solution
The main problem with 0.0 for individuals is scalability. 1 highsec mission system can support infinite highsec dwellers, but a good 0.0 system (and there aren't many good ones) only has enough belts for a few ratters/miners. Pilots in 0.0 alliances only other options are exploration or wormholes which can take hours, there are no options for casual players except belt ratting. There are many possible solutions to this:
- 0.0 missions available from conquerable or player-built outposts
- Improve the cosmic anomalies which can be scanned out via the onboard scanner so that ratters can easily find encounters to run in any given system
- A method of improving a systems truesec through sovreignty and player-built structures
The goal of any of these solutions is to allow 0.0 living players to LIVE in 0.0 instead of the only good option being a return to highsec to run missions.
Pros
- Making 0.0 life feasible means more pilots attempting to live 0.0 to make their fortunes
- Industrialists have more opportunities to make money
- Pirates have more targets to shoot
- Fresh faces in 0.0 will mix up the scene and prevent stagnation of 0.0 politics
Cons
- Mission runners will complain if their risk-free isk faucet gets nerfed
- Risk of existing 0.0 entities dominating any new 0.0 income generation mechanics
Relevant Forum Threads
Votes
- Dierdra Vaal - no
- Vuk Lau - yes
- mazzilliu - yes
- Zastrow J - yes
- Erik Finnegan - yes
- Avalloc - yes
- Larkonis Trassler - yes
- Meissa Anunthiel - yes
- Shatana Fulfairas - yes