I’m trying to learn more about industry and get into it. I noticed some stations in 0.4 areas that have better rates for industry activities and I’m thinking of moving all my stuff there. All the advice I hear is, “Don’t go there or you’ll be killed.” But it seems like if I’m not stupid and I go straight into docking without hanging out, I’ll be fine. Am I right that the people getting exploded are the ones who undock and float too long or warp to the station and don’t click “Dock”?
I’m super careful about how I travel and dock/undock, and NEVER auto-pilot. Surely I’ll be fine, right? What are your thoughts?
My thoughts are that everyone who thinks he can slip away all the time will be caught at some point. But why worry, you will make more profits in Lowsec, so the one or the other loss is just part of the calculation. As long as you don’t lose more than you make profit, everything should be fine.
Just be careful when using privatly owned stations, you won’t be the first who stores billions there, just to find his access removed, his clones destroyed and the station under fire next time he logs in.
You still have to get past the highsec->lowsec gate which may be camped. You also need an instadock/undock bookmark for NPC stations, otherwise you might land outside the docking ring when warping in, or have to turn and be targetable when undocking.
Personally I wouldn’t bother going to lowsec and doing stuff in an NPC station. Upwell structure rigs get a 1.9x bonus in lowsec so that might be worthwhile. I would definitely ensure the owner is trustworthy for that though, and keep your jobs short so you can deliver them if the shield gets reinforced (undelivered jobs drop as loot, and service modules are offlined when the armor is reinforced).
Good to consider about the camped gates, but so far I’ve not had any issues and I don’t know if I’m just lucky or it’s because I always pay close attention to what I’m doing when hitting a gate or heading to a station to dock. Probably a bit of both.
I think you are right that it’s really just doing the math on the value of the cheaper rates and the risks. Thx for the heads up about the privately-owned stations, btw.
As Dark Lord Trump said, best is to use only short-term jobs, like 2-3 days and keep all the valuable stuff at an NPC station. Also if you have expensive BPOs (Blueprint Originals), make copies first and only produce from the copies. If the Citadel comes under attack or your access gets removed, you only lose cheap copies and very few materials.
Also: If you plan to be there for longer, try to make good contact to the Station Owners, be nice, be respectful to the guys in local. Build Relations. That doesn’t mean they won’t catch you if they can, but maybe at some point they even like to buy what you produce or you can buy the raw materials they mine there. Good relations and cooperation multiply your profits and maybe end up in a joint future.
Some thoughts, lowsec NPC is usually the same as highsec except if the system has a FW cost index bonus which can be up to 50%, but as I recently learned depends on somebody paying for it with LP. Whether this is worth the risk, I don’t know, there are plenty of highsec systems where job cost are minimal.
But as said above, the big advantage of lowsec is the bonus on citadel rigs, which can reduce the manufacturing time significantly. The material reduction can be good too, but this has to be calculated together with the cost index and FW bonus. If time or other things like reactions are not critical, often a highsec NPC is equally good or cheaper.
Best is to take the jobs, simulate them for different systems and compare total time and cost (materials + job cost), and then decide.
One hint, try to keep the input materials small so they fit into a Sunesis or Blockade Runner for maximum travel safety. Don’t transport bulky minerals like Tritanium, transport compressed ore and refine on site if possible.
Sounds like a Ferengi Rule of Acquisition, but it’s true.
Just try. It’s definitely more thrilling than staying in highsec.
And remember: ISK can’t get evicted.
I build ships in high sec. No concerns with getting the stuff to make the things to fashion the components to build the ships. No worries I’ll hit a camp with a 5 billion ISK BPO in the hold.
It’s worth paying a little more for less headaches. And I do okay for income as there are more buyers in high sec.
I don’t know anything about industry and whether it’s worth it to do it in lowsec, but you have the right idea about lowsec survival in that if you do it right the chances of you getting killed are much lower. You’ll still die at some point, but not often.
Note that the security rating between 0.1 and 0.4 doesn’t really have anything to do with how dangerous the system is in reality. The most dangerous lowsec systems are near Jita, particularly the highsec-lowsec borders, which might be a problem if you want easy access to Jita - many people do, which makes these places highly populated. The deeper you go into lowsec, the emptier and safer it tends to be. Highsec borders are always a bit riskier, but there are plenty that don’t see enough traffic for people to bother camping them regularly.
You can also always just use an alt to scout. The riskiest thing is gates, but if you can go verify there isn’t a camp on the other side, that danger is removed.
