Questions about null life as a "care bear"

New Citizens Q&A
#1

So I started playing Eve a few months back and I’ve definitely been enjoying it. I mostly have just been trying different things to see where my niche might be (and honestly I’m still trying new things out, so much to learn and do) but still haven’t really found it. Currently I’m learning and trying out industry and manufacturing which seems like a good way to make Isk.

All in all I’m doing fine as a solo pilot but I’ve been considering joining a Corp, mostly for the community tbh. It seems to me that joining a Corp in null sec would be the best option but I’m a bit hesitant to try for various reasons but perhaps my view of null sec is a little skewed as my only time spent there has been as a “neutral”. I thought I’d come here and ask some questions about it to help give me a clearer picture of wether it’s the right move at this time, maybe some of you helpful folks can answer some questions for me and who knows, maybe some other new bros out there are wondering the same things.

I apologize in advance if this is a lot of questions and I do realize some of this will be different depending on the Corp / alliance.

  1. Freedom of movement is pretty important to me and null sec seems very claustrophobic. Some corps I see only have sovereignty over a few systems and I couldn’t imagine playing this game only playing in two or three systems. So when you’re in say a larger alliance what are the general rules regarding movement? Can you rat, mine, PI in any system that’s blue or are these things more strictly regulated? Can you live in any system you want in Sov or are you assigned a system to stay in?

  2. I’m not always in a situation when I’m playing where I want to be chatting up folks on the Internet. But I’m not opposed to being on comms in certain situations. Are mandatory comms mandatory at all times that you’re online or only for fleets and things like that? If you’re deep in sov and mining / ratting is local and Intel enough?

  3. Right now I’m used to, when I find or make something, just taking my goods to market and selling them usually just below the lowest guy in station or near about (if it’s a good price). But in null sec I assume the only people with docking rights are other blues so essentially you’re undercutting corp mates on the market, which given the right interpretation is a form of pvp. Is the market heavily controlled as far as what you can sell and for how much? Is undercutting seen as an act of aggression against a bro?

Likewise as an “Indy” pilot are you expected to give your minerals or things you make as tribute to Caesar or are the things you make with your time yours to sell? Are Indy pilots able / allowed to make a profit? (Within reason I’m not talking about price gouging).

  1. What is the over all attitude toward “Care Bears”? Are Indy / pve pilots second class citizens, or is there more of a team mentality?

  2. Are “renters” like serfs or something like that or are they more or less afforded the same rights and privileges as the rest of the alliance given they follow the rules of their agreement?

  3. If someone joins as an Indy pilot but decides they want to do something else, is that frowned upon? Can people change roles/ careers?

Again sorry for the wall of text. If you made it this far thanks for reading. If you have any input I do appreciate it. And again I do realize some of this stuff varies Corp to Corp.

Thanks for your time.

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#2

Hello, it’s good to hear you’re enjoying the game. I must say those are some excellent questions and even though I can’t answer them, I’m definitely looking forward to the answers.

May you have a long and rewarding career here in Eve.

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#3

I spent a couple of years as a care bear industrialist in Providence. It can be done - you can support your corporation and alliance by making stuff just as well as by shooting stuff but I doubt you’ll stay in Nullsec long unless you enjoy PVP.

Markets in most of Nullsec are fragmented and thinly traded - it’s easier to ship the stuff you need in from Jita and ship your finished goods back to Jita for sale. Delve seems to have crossed the critical threshold where it can stand on it’s own but the rest of Nullsec still needs Jita as a central clearing house.

Unless you are in Nullsec for another reason and industry is a secondary activity, you might as well live in highsec - that’s where the markets are. Bonuses are better in Null but Jump Freighter services are expensive - around 500 ISK/M3.

Movement is generally not restricted within coalition space, there will be jump bridges to speed things up and intelligence tools to give you advance notice of hostiles. Most people will be quite happy if you want to help them raise or maintain their ADMs but your own Alliance/Corp leadership will likely want you to mine and PVE at home for the same reason - keep the activity defense multipliers high.

I’d say give it a try, you’ll learn a lot about the game and about yourself - both worthwhile accomplishments! Keep an ALT or 2 and a jump clone in highsec and make sure you can fly an Interceptor and Blockade Runner before you go.

Good luck.

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#4

1.) This can vary a lot on the corp or alliance you are in. If you are renting, you may be restricted to just the system(s) you are renting, while if you are a mainline member you may have more freedom of movement. There may or may not be rules in place as to which anoms you rat in (don’t warp to anoms that someone else is in, for example) PI you will always want to do in a system where your corp owns the customs offices, else you’re going to lose a lot on taxes.

2.) In general, voice comms are required for PvP fleets. You will always need to pay attention to local chat and intel channels (not doing so may result in you getting blown up by visitors.)

3.) You can sell locally, your alliance may have a loot buy-back program which you can sell to, or they may have a hauling program which will move your goods to Jita. Other options are you move your own loot to high sec (either directly, which can be quite dangerous, or through a fortuitous wormhole connection.)

4.) Many null sec corps are carebear corps.

5.) Renters pay a larger pvp alliance to protect their sovereignty. They are usually separate corps, and mostly carebears with little or no pvp capability or experience.

6.) In most corps you can change careers, although if your career changes to something where you are never in their sov (high sec missioning, for example) they may consider you an inactive member and kick you.

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#5

At this point I don’t really have a primary or secondary activity tbh. Wouldn’t mind trying pvp at some point. And, yeah I don’t mind going out into spooky space “combat mining” to help the war effort. Hadn’t considered jump bridges I’ll do some research there. Thanks for the reply.

Edit: oh yeah! Good call on the interceptor / blockade runner thing. I’ll look into that as well.

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#6

This actually clears up a lot. I had a feeling that I had the wrong impression about what goes on out there which is why I asked. Thank you.

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#7

I don’t have nullsec first hand experience, but being a producer throws you in a very competitive business, which has little incentive for sharing. It’s best to concentrate the most profitable steps on you, and let the low end grindy stuff (e.g. mining) to the “peasants”.

Where communities shine in EvE is PvP, PvP is best done in a group and can be a lot of fun.

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#8

I definitely see what you mean,it seems there’s no shortage of miners out in null if you look at Corp recruitment. Might be plenty of people who’d appreciate someone to buy their ore. Of course I could be wrong. Only one way to know for sure I suppose. :slight_smile:
Thanks for your perspective.

#9

No they’re not, mostly you’ll find they all mine a little, manufacture, explore, rat etc.

The biggest problem you’ll find is identifying a suitable corp where you could be happy.

As a rental corp you’ll be 99% responsible for your own systems defence, the owning alliance won’t send a fleet just for a solo or small 3 or 4 man gang roaming through. You might be able to mine and rat in adjacent systems if they’re unrented with the permission of the alliance, but any that are rented is a different matter again, the owning CEO will decide to allow you or not, but you will be allowed to pass through.

If the systems structures are in danger then the controlling alliance will fleet up to defend them, or should.

You should also have full access to any jumpbridge network as well as docking rights with that alliance.
So all in all you’ll have nearly all the same rights as any member, you’re also expected to share intel on all non blues as well.

Most corps would love their members to branch out and try their hand at different things, particularly pvp, but it doesn’t have to mean constant pvp, most would just appreciate a member turning up to help out on a gate camp to catch a roaming gang now and then in whatever they can fly.

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#10

Thanks for the input that does answer a lot of my questions. Doesn’t sound all that unreasonable tbh. I think at this point my main concern is the seamingly nonexistent market in null. Makes me wonder if there’s any point going out as an industrial pilot unless I’m able to contract full ships with fits. Otherwise it would seem most people would rather just freighter in what they need. Maybe when I’m ready to try out pvp I’ll give it a go. Still doing some research on it and considering all options tho so I appreciate your info.

Edit: I suppose I also could make whatever I want and freighter it out to a trade hub and have an alt sell it :thinking:

#11

Don’t let that put you off, every single area I’ve been in had a system that operated as a mini trade hub that’s close to a jump bridge where you can buy and sell stuff.

Nearly every corp has a jump freighter pilot doing weekly runs to high sec as well.

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#12

Interesting. Thanks again. :thinking:

#13

My experience of nul-sec is a little limited, but here it is.

Always, and I really do mean always, have the relevant intel channel open in a separate tab that is permanently visible, do the same with local as you NEED to know when anything that is even vaguely unfriendly is around.
If you are mining or ratting and you’re not paying attention, a small roam is going to end your business opportunities quickly.

If you join a corp that is a full member of an alliance
They will have a ship doctrine that they will expect you to skill into on a sooner rather than later basis
Fleet pvp is very different … and can sometimes take a while to get organised

Ratting (belts or anomalies) is good income
PI can produce helpful stuff too … like paste
Salvage options will be fairly good too with the high end spawns you get

tl/dr
Do it
fun can be had
profits can be made
explosions aren’t always a bad thing, even you’re own

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#14

Thanks for the encouragement! And I appreciate the note about doctrine ships and fits. That’s something I’ll make sure to research before I join any Corp. thanks.

#15

The other day I lost a ship while roaming in Null (Catch or Provi), but at least my pod survived. So I docked at the closest NPC Station to get a Velator/Ibis/whatever - and found out there are some stations around where I was able to buy and fit a nice T1 Dessi just to carry on roaming. They had no Jita prices, but it was a fair trade, so I’m sure there’s a market out there.

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#16

That is encouraging. I’d like to think the absence of a market breeds opportunity. Not without its risk naturally. :wink: Thanks for your input. I may give it a go.

#17

The easy answer is join Karmafleet. Or find a renter corp.

My advice is spend the tiny amount of time to train to fly Interdictors. They are the single most useful ship in null sec and virtually every fleet that undocks will need more dictors. Join a few fleets a month in those and no one will care if you spend the rest of your time mining or whatever. No one will ever care if you fly anything else, there is no requirement for people to fly the ‘ship of the line’ in a given doctrine. Simply fly dictors in a couple fleets a month and there is literally nothing more asked of you.

In addition, you will receive all manner of support. Moving materials, local buy backs, perfect reprocessing, boosted mining fleets…it’s Eve on easy mode.

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#18

I certainly don’t mind jumping into a more dangerous ship and being helpful in general so that doesn’t sound too bad. I am currently trading to fly cov ops and also sentries ( just went omega from alpha) to hopefully be more useful if and when I move out there. It certainly sounds like a lot of benefits to living out in the boonies :wink: And I certainly don’t mind the extra risk. Then it’s just the issue of where to go. Seems like there are plenty of null sec corps who are new player friendly so that’s encouraging. Thanks.

#19

Ok maybe the covops stuff can wait. Going to take a while to train into an interdiction cruiser lol. Thanks for the heads up.

#20

I think that @Alaric_Faelen was actually recommending the Interdictor (which is a destroyer class vessel and relatively quick to train). He is quite right that this is a valued contribution, however I would add (as a 'dictor pilot myself) that it is a fairly skilled job and a mistake can end up with you bubbling your own fleet, which is generally considered bad. It is also heavy on loss as you will be primary target in most battles. Joining an alliance such as Karmafleet’s will get you the ship replaced, but other alliances do not all offer 100% reimbursement.

What I would recommend to most industrialists wanting to contribute is to consider training logistics (not the supply method - which will be a very useful talent to develop, but the ‘healing’ profession). Logistics pilots are needed and very valued on all fleets. You will get a lot of love as a ‘logibro’ and be much less likely to die in a fire every fleet than as a 'dictor pilot. Unless you want to be a logi anchor (the logistics wing leader) the personal skill needed is much less than required to be a good tackle or 'dictor pilot.

Logistics ships are often given out for free, and almost always covered by 100% reimbursement.

Your contribution to the fleet and the wellbeing of your alliance is disproportionately high however, and I know people who specifically seek to buy their materials and ships from industrialists who are also well known for logi support. I know I do!

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