Ugh, wall of text.
I used to be a highsec industrialist. I’m not an expert on NS industry, but I’ll wager a guess that:
1a. Nullsec has harder logistics. Shouldn’t be a huge deal if you join a large corp with JF services. You’ll have lots of corpmates looking to sell their goodies (i.e. exploration loot, P.I., ore, moon goo, salvage), and you’ll be able to easily import whatever you’re missing. If you join a smaller group, however, you might have difficulty sourcing certain stuff locally, and have to wait longer in between JF runs.
1b. Nullsec has better structure bonuses
1c. Nullsec prices tend to be higher
1d. Less competition in NS
1e. Sell volume differences. Obviously, if you’re selling out of a major staging system, you should see a decent sell volume, but you might sell stuff rather slowly if selling to a smaller group of players.
2. No. You can set up buy orders on the market, import stuff, and/or run buy back programs.
3a. Rental groups pay military powers (usually on a monthly basis) for the right to PvE in certain systems/regions. Some rental agreements will specifically state what systems/ice belts/moons you can use. You can’t PvE elsewhere, and other renters can’t PvE in your stuff. Other rental agreements allow everyone access to a particular region, with everything being first come first serve. Landlords will often try to save the capital ships of renters, but they also have their own priorities, so they may not always be able to help. Renters sometimes PvP with the landlord for fun. This seems kind of rare, but some rental corps have transitioned into full alliance members by first doing PvP with them.
3b. Renting is best if you want to PvE exclusively. Renters tend to get put in quieter, out of the way systems, and have no expectations other than making rent. If you want to PvE and PvP, you should join a sov holding alliance. You’ll still get access to nullsec space for PvE, and you’ll also get plenty of PvP opportunities. Corps may or may not have participation requirements, but they usually set a pretty low bar, and you won’t have to pay rent.
Recommendations:
- Move out to NS. You sound interested, so go for it. NS life isn’t a whole lot more dangerous that HS, but the money tends to be better out there. One thing you should be aware of, however, is that an industrialist will often have a considerably larger amount of assets (i.e. blueprints, production material stockpiles, unsold inventory). Thus, you need to make sure you keep your stuff in a fueled structure, so that you have asset safety. And if you decide to go on break, you either need to keep checking in, manually trigger asset safety, or move your stuff out (use JF services). Don’t lose your stuff because you went on break without planning ahead.
- Join a sov holding group (i.e. Brave Newbies or Pandemic Horde). Renters can be some friendly and laid back dudes, but you’ll only be getting a portion of what Eve has to offer. Of course, some will get into some PvP, but your PvP opportunities will likely be few and far between. Oh, and individual renters interested in PvP sometimes leave to join the landlord. So overall corp interest in PvP can be quite low.
- Finally, if you do want to rent, you should look at joining a renter corp. Making rent is a whole lot easier when you have 10-50 guys chipping in. Moreover, they should already have structures and JF pilots, which will make your life a hell of a lot easier.
