Genuine question before I get into it — has anyone actually tried running a serious logistics or industrial operation as alpha, built around alpha limitations rather than despite them? Not joined one. Built one.
Because I’ve been looking and I can’t find it.
Everything aimed at alphas is recruitment. Come join our corp, we’ll carry you until you subscribe. The assumption underneath all of it is that alphas are temporary — probationary omegas waiting to become real players. Nobody seems to trust an alpha to actually run something.
I’m building a small civilian hauling and trade operation out of Irnin. One alpha, three branches, verified doctrine fits, proper internal structure. Courier contracts, secondary market distribution, basic industry, exploration. Everything scoped to what an alpha can actually do in highsec T1 hulls — which is more than people treat it as.
A fitted Badger delivering a courier contract performs identically to an omega in the same hull. A manufacturing job doesn’t check your subscription. The capability gap in highsec civilian work is much smaller than the community assumes. The trust gap is enormous.
So I’m running it as a proof of concept. Just me for now, open to join.
What I actually want to know from people who’ve run logistics ops or hired external contractors:
What does pricing need to look like for outsourced hauling work to be worth an alpha’s session? Not corp membership — pure external contracted runs via Freelance Jobs or courier contracts.
And is the reason nobody does this seriously the economics, the tooling, or just that recruitment is the only model anyone defaults to?
Paul Schmidtt — VX1L — Vectris One Logistics — Irnin, Domain
"We supply the work."
Not me - but if you manage to pull it off - kudos! o7
I will occasionally use local cargo haulers to move stuff around in high-sec; there never seems to be a shortage of players willing to take on the smaller contracts.
The idea being they’re not aimed at alphas - just whoever wants to get it. Usually at a high range of collateral - billions of ISK.
What I’m striving to either find or build is low collateral jobs with appropriate pay.
Hauling and Industry are accessible for alphas but they’re steered away from it unless they want to pay real money and only comparing it to potential omega optimized results, ultimately making the player give up on the game. The grind for PLEXing is not attractive to many as commitment to something you don’t know is not something they can afford.
I personally think we need something like a stepping stone. A place where alphas build for alphas , with alphas. If you want to stay there, stay. If you want to upgrade, do it.
Hopefully my personal vendetta against this doesn’t affect the writing too much
That’s because Alpha is a limited-access, unlimited-time free trial of EVE Online, a subscription-based game, not a F2P game. You can play as an Alpha for as long as you like, but don’t expect to be able to do everything an Omega can.
Yet still less than what is optimal, safe, and efficient.
Except that an Omega courier would not use a Badger to run cargo, even in highsec, if they had access to a T2 hull more suited to the job.
If you come up with a new method of doing something that no one else is doing, it’s for one of two reasons. Either you are a visionary, and you’ve discovered some brilliant new way of accomplishing the thing, OR (far more likely) your idea has been tried before, did not work, and you simply do not know what you do not know.
I think the issue (and this circumstantial and not evidence base) is like due to lack of low volume trades and contracts.
I believe its entirely possible to make money on buying lower and hauling to a higher margin market with an alpha hauler and alpha marketer. But I have yet to put into practice.
I also think people rarely buy above Jita prices, so you’re earning off of people who buy based on the buy market
I think that new players just don’t know how/where to find this content. So they are usually resupplying Jita with stuff they can buy cheaper in other regions or they do NPC goods.
The UI for contracts is horrible and new user infriendly.
As I mentioned in the post - it’s “poorly” compared to omega. It becomes “not optimal” or “not pick-able” as @Hatch_Nasty said (I’m paraphrasing) only because people prefer it as min/maxing the game.
There are smaller contracts sometimes even 1m3 just at a colossal collateral.
Alphas are far more versatile than people give credit.
I’m not trying to say it’s better. I’m trying to play on the retention aspect, creating a place where you can try this type of content and then ultimately go into Omega if you want to.
But as it stands, people being driven away or hashed out of this activity and then some for the same reasons you enumerated . It just doesn’t create a space to TRY. Sample the activity. The whole sandbox freedom is being boxed in by the Omega community.
Since I came back got 3 million and through arbitrage I’ve gone to 130mil in 3 days of 2-3 hours per.
It’s not fast by any means but the activity works.
If we just go out of our way a bit and teach the ropes, they can fully understand the systems and the learning curve doesn’t go wall vertical as you buy omega and you’re bombarded with even more things to learn just cause the playerbase recommends Omega before learning for that extra cushion of comfort in choices.
Dont worry about the few naysayers that are always thinking about profit margins the very second they indulge in something. Ive said it a million times now…not all people are worried about the isk nonsense. Some folks just make goals for themselves to make the games enjoyment even better.
I commend you for setting up goals and thinking outside the box.
Either because it’s high-value cargo, or because it’s a trap (you front the collateral, then get ganked and lose the shipment, or discover you can’t dock at the destination and deliver - either way, losing the money you put down). Noob haulers, btw, are the ones least likely to sniff out such a trap.
If it really is high-value cargo, then you should be moving it in as safe a manner as possible (which almost always means cloaking). You can move a fully researched BPO in a shuttle. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
If I’m hiring someone to move my precious cargo (which I do, from time to time), I certainly don’t want some inexperienced pilot moving it in a T1 hauler with no cloak and a paper tank. That’s why I pay reputable couriers like PushX to do it correctly, be that in a freighter, JF, DST, or BR (all ships no Alpha can fly). Because if my shipment gets blown up, it’s small consolation that I receive the collateral, when what I needed was my stuff moved from point A to point B (almost certainly for some purpose).
Omega subscriptions (paid by cash or PLEX) is what funds the sandbox. Again, Alpha is a limited-access, unlimited-time free trial. It’s intended as a way for you to try the game and see if you want to pay for it. It’s not designed to be a way to play EVE for free, forever, even if some treat it as such.
If Alpha’s weren’t “boxed in” by Omega, there would be no incentive to pay for Omega. And at the end of the day, someone has to foot the bill for devs and servers, or the game gets shut down. If you don’t want to do that, fine. But don’t expect that you’ll get to enjoy every aspect of the game for free (in this case, lucrative hauling contracts).
