So my tiny, tiny Corp has trade and Industry Alts and members, with the aim of ultimately funding small gang pew pew. Over the last couple of months I have noticed that almost all tech 2 mods have dropped in value to the point where only large null corps could hope to make a reasonable return.
The Pvp on pure trading remains a rat race but, increasingly, one which simply isn’t worth the trouble. I mean, why bother with all that stuff if you can’t make enough both to fund the trade alt’s sub and also support ships for pirate action etc?
Trade and industry is interesting in tis own right but, if it doesn’t fund your Corps’ goals in terms of what you hope to do with the ISK, then it becomes a bit pointless…and, if that happens too much, then the market will start to die…whcih would be a shame, as well as hugely damaging to the game ethos as a whole.
I mean I’m still going to play and all, 'cos I love the game, but it would feel soooo much more part of the meta if trade and industry could fund our tiny - but deadly (lol) operations.
Thoughts? (said, waiting for the insults, Scoots etc)
Oddly enough this is why I eventually quit the game… years ago. I found the ratio between time spent PVP-ing and time spent chasing the mighty ISK to be moving in the wrong direction. Then they took the few crappy moons we owned and told us to mine. We couldn’t be retained as we only ever did PVE to fund our PVP. Logically our “kind” of corp died out a long time ago.
yeh…I mean…mining? Who wants to do that, after a few weeks at the start of the game?..the only reason I can see for pursuing trade and industry as a small corp is to fund pew-pew, knowing that any losses you might take can be just as affordable (in a small way) as those of the Swarm and Imps etc.
TBH if smaller traders and Industrialists are disadvantaged to the point of redundancy, then lo-sec piracy will surely be the first to suffer…and the game will become hi-sec newbs - who will eventually die of boredom - and 0-0 blue-donut “politicians” who will eventually just die of old age.
Then either you shouldn’t have that alt or you’re not investing enough. if you don’t have the capital, then maybe investing in an alt is not the right option for you.
you should think about what you are capable and willing to do in terms of self sufficiency. if eve starts to feel like a job where you feel pressured to log in just to krab up isk to maintain your sub, you’re doing it wrong.
you realize that you can have a trade alt on the same account as your combat character, right? cut down on the subscriptions required by moving down to just a single account instead of two active omegas. your trade alt can operate in the background with minimal skills and having set its buy / sell orders for the max duration.
this is wrong but okay. don’t over exaggerate your impact on the game like this.
PvP is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.
Decide on a goal, and then work toward that goal. PvP should be one of the tools you utilize to reach that goal. Anyone who “grinds teh iskies” to “go on peeveepee roamz” is - and I’m not necessarily saying this as an insult, but rather out of pity - a brainlet. It means that person hasn’t figured out the game yet.
Once you evolve past that level, the real game starts.
Well, the lack of value of industry is one of the major things motivating CCP’s recent game development. The ecosystem team is trying to fix the economy, which has become rather bloated from over production in recent years.
It seems though, at least for now their efforts aren’t yet bearing fruit. Margins are still being squeezed and destruction is not really up. Stockpiles seem plentiful and/or players are using alternate means to spew resources into the economy at a similar rate such that industry is not more valuable yet.
This is Eve though, so you have to adapt at some point. That might mean building something else or doing some other aspect of industry, or changing tack completely and do sometime that still is more profitable like farming certain resources. Or just keep holding on and waiting for the next change CCP makes to see if it opens a door for you to capitalize on. The do seem to really want to make industrial efforts more valuable than they have been in recent years.
Imo as someone trying to eek out on the market side I think the changes ccp has made have made things reverse even more, margins being squeezed to destruction only helps the big null corps ccp was trying to hurt, same with quantum cores. Why would panfam or goons care on the extra bit of money they need to invest on a citadel when they already can build and burn 50 in one conflict and not even lose a bit of revenue.