Damn it's been a while!
There's something every year or two that pulls me back to EVE for a week. Typically I'll log in, buy the weekend Omega pack, check out what the latest update is, potter around doing some Abyss content or a little exploration for 3-4 days, then I'll lapse into Alpha again and repeat each year.
This year has been a little different and more sustained, mainly due to the fact I've had a second child!
Insert celebration gif etc
Since I've had nearly 2 months off due to both my employer's relatively good paternity policy and some tactical use of owed holiday, I've found myself with a lot of "free" time. Anyone who's had kids knows they don't really do much for the first few months, just sleep, eat, and cry. So I often found myself sat at 3am many nights feeding a baby and needing something to keep myself awake (falling asleep holding a baby is very dangerous, other great parenting advice available on request).
Obviously, my thoughts turned to a video game of some kind, and as you can tell from the fact I've made this post, that ended up being EVE.
So all that said, what have I actually been doing?
The Vision
Before I won EVE last time, I had the idea of living a nomadic lifestyle through LowSec/NPC NullSec by using a suitcase carrier and a plethora of PvE/PvP ships in the SMB. I never actually actioned this besides doing a little research on how to actually fit a carrier for this sort of task. I only ever used ratting-fit carriers in Null and I suspected that wouldn't be suitable (shockingly I was right). However, before I actually tried putting any of this into action, my attention lapsed as did my Omega status.
When I came back this time around, I was determined to test out my nomadic dream, but there was a small issue:
I sold my ratting carrier when I left NullSec in 2021 and the only capitals I have languishing in stations for the next Null dream are a Rorqual, a Naglfar and a Minokawa, none of which are suitable for this task.
"Well Seraph" you say "that's no problem, just buy one, they're actually cheaper now after the rebalance"
Well it is a problem because:
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| Zendrak is mostly poor |
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| Seraph is poor |
"Okay but what about those capitals you said you had? Or your old ships? Sell them surely"
No no no, forget all that, what we need is a new goal! A project to keep me interested at 3am! What we need is:
The 5bil Nomad carrier fund
Okay, a lot of words so far to say basically nothing (very on brand for me).
So obviously to make this money I started with what I knew, Level 4 mission blitzing and Abyss sites out of Umokka, a 0.6 Caldari system near Jita.
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| For those wanting to run CN level 4s, this is a great location! |
However I basically stopped after the first hour, I was burnt out from doing this so much last time and was immediately bored. My next thought, well maybe if I'm going to be doing NullSec life, I should get back into the NullSec mindset and shake off the rust. So NullSec exploration farming was the next choice, and this actually kinda slapped:
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| 420mil in a few hours farming, not bad |
Unfortunately I was doing this in Scalding Pass (Goonswarm space) and I was frequently chased and hunted by local residents, or I'd have to pause for random roaming solo PvPers/gangs that had combat probes. I decided to fuck off to Curse instead, mostly because it was dead during my timezone, but also because it was still in range of the Sov upgrades that give "Detected" exploration sites that can escalate. While I was in Curse, I had a little fun bullying other explorers too:
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| Didn't even tackle him, just rammed him with MWD to mess his align |
However, my fun was cut short by the discovery that my favourite constellation (and access to the outer edge of Scalding Pass, where Goons often didn't run any sites) was usually camped by the same corp each day, as recorded on my Discord messages to my old corpmates:
It turned out I was fully incorrect, Goons did not come slap them because they didn't really give a shit about the access to their space. Understandable since they were already in it, unlike me who was trying to sneak back and forth between Curse and Scalding Pass to steal their sites.
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| Me micro-blogging on Discord to friends who are working and not reading my messages |
After a few days in Null where I raised around 3bil and managed to evac my loot through a convenient set of wormholes (C3->C2->HS in Lonetrek), I decided to test out another part of my plan - Nomadic living. For this phase I decided to use an Orca and head to Derelik. My plan was to have ships for numerous situations and ISK making opportunities that may arise, namely:
- Gas mining
- DED escalations from farming combat anomalies
- Besieged Covert Research Sites (BCRS) in adjacent LowSec
- Combat signatures
1 x Stormbringer - Escalation farming Sansha Refuges and Dens, completing 3/10s and 4/10s
1 x Muninn - Specifically for completing the Sansha 5/10 (final room is brutal)
2 x Ventures - Gas mining fit (there's a surprising amount of gas spawns in Derelik)
1 x Buzzard - For scouting the Stormbringer into LowSec and scanning for gas sites
2 x Manticores - For duo boxing BCRSs in less than 5mins
So a pretty potent farming fleet, but you'll notice, basically no ability to defend myself in terms of PVP. This was mostly by design, my planned nomadic lifestyle isn't really supposed to pick fights and stand ground, it's more a sneak in the back door and take all the food while everyone is looking out the window.
Anyway, I've been pretty successful so far farming out Sansha 3/10s, 4/10s via scanning and 5/10s, here's the current loot including some BCRSs I've done, some gas and a few random faction spawns while doing anomalies:
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| Netflix and farm refuges |
Also a confession to make: while I did hit 5bil, I spent 1.4bil on a Vargur.
Oops.
This was because I did a quick side quest farming Angel Refuges next door in Heimatar for the Angel Red Light District 5/10s. Ironically I gave up on this after about a day. I had basically no good drops, didn't enjoy the autotargeting Orthrus I was using, and the 5/10s took ages to run unless they were in HighSec (and I could use the Vargur that I'd purchased for this exact reason).
Also, I got killed taking a LowSec shortcut and couldn't be bothered to replace it:
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| Also got my pod smartbombed, managed to rip out most of my implants first |
I'm not coping, stop looking at me like that.
At this stage I was looking for a decently priced carrier that I could bring close to HighSec for fitting and loading up with a ship roster until I got distracted on another sidequest:
Skyhook raiding.
But that story will have to wait until next time...
See you in space o7
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