Hi! - I play GMT +530 which mean that my normal playtimes are around 1200 to 1700 EVE time. Groups are way difficult to find at this time so have mainly been doing stuff solo - missions, mining and figuring out basic T1 industry.
What loops – am thinking maybe exploration? — are the most fun per hour (subjective, agreed), challenge per hour and ISK per hour for a solo newbie (omega for now) at this time?
Exploration works in the off hours simply because you’ll have less competition. There are two forms of exploration:
hacking is the most known, only really worthwhile in null or WH space, really benefits from using a cloak so it “requires” omega.
combat exploration, pays much more than hacking to the point where it pays well in high sec, doesn’t require a cloak (so alpha is fine) and can be done in a destroyer or basic cruiser. With some skills and isk some ships work great for this even as alpha: Navy Vexor, Orthrus, Phantasm, Gila.
What is considered fun differs per person, only you can decide that. There are tons of different playstyles and each of them is both hated as loved by different people. Gotta try it before you can have an opinion on it.
Ganking is always fun and can be done solo for great profit and enjoyability.
How do you gank for profit when solo?
Using alts does not count as solo.
In fact, for a new player, it’s one of the worst things he can do. He’d be better spending the time mining instead of sitting around somewhere, continuously scanning for a target that might pay off until he found enough until it actually pays off as a whole. Plus he’d still first need to learn all of this. PlusPlus, now he’d have to pay for two characters.
Ganking is great for new players.
Ganking for profit really isn’t, unless they’re with a veteran.
Which negates the solo part again if you are with a vet
You can do it with one.
First, gank.
Then wait 15 minutes.
Then undock with hauler ship and scoop the loot.
Chances are, the target is going to be AFK so hes gonna be away for more than 15 minutes. And not a lot of hisec dwellers will be willing to risk looting a wreck and going suspect, or even care if a wreck is there to begin with, let alone looking inside.
Its certainly not one of the worst things you can do, when you consider enjoyability and engagement.
It is, when you consider what matters: Playing.
You don’t really put yourself into the shoes of the new player.
You are actually really insulting.
First he needs to know how it works.
Then he needs to be able to fund the ship for it.
But the worst part is that you believe the loot will still be there.
That’s so disconnected from in-game reality, I don’t know why you could think that.
99% of the time he will be waiting.
It will be less rewarding than mining, and that means something.
There never is a guarantee that a lucrative target’s coming by within hours of scanning.
No idea where you hang out in highsec, but that’s not true.
What are you talking about. Just booting up EVE online means youre playing EVE online.
Okay.
Sure. Like anything in any video game, you need to learn how to do something in order to do something.
And water is wet.
Literally, thats what youre saying.
Yes. If you go to a small, backwater system and gank a hauler that is auto-piloting from warp to the gate, then yes, chances are, 15 minutes later, the loot will still be there.
This is hisec, a lot of people wont loot and risk going suspect, and the quiet systems dont have a lot of activity.
What part of that is disconnected from in-game reality? Please, explain.
As opposed to 99% of the time you are “Waiting”(read: AFK and playing another game) for your ship to mine asteroids?
Lets not ignore the fact that im not advocating he just sit on a gate and stay there for hours on end waiting for a ship. You can go around hunting other ships, too. Can you say the same for mining? Of course not. There is no Hunting, asteroids are everywhere, and once you drop your ship down, you just afk mine. No new player is going to stick around very long, staring at their screen while the ship is mining.
Were talking about new players. What isnt lucrative for us, is damn well lucrative for a new player.
Really. So in your section of hisec space, people constanly become suspect, all the time?
I’m not following your logic in the context of the OP’s request for suggestions. It sounds like you are saying ganking is viable as a solo activity under some pretty restrictive conditions. Going to a small, backwater system sounds like it won’t have a lot of content to begin with if there is a long wait for anything to even show up to gank in an eligible system, if the system has to be so dead that they won’t promptly have the loot stolen while waiting out a 15 minute suspect timer.
The same could be said of Exploration.
You need to go to small, quiet, backwater systems to do Exploration safely, you will need to go around searching and scanning constantly to find sites, there are long wait times for you to find a good site, and even then the rewards are most likely going to be crap. Youre going to have to learn and know how to hack cargo.
And yet, we still suggest it to new players.
For me, what matters when i play a video game, is how much fun and enjoyment im getting out of it. Some people like to explore, even if it means jumping from system to system, scanning down a dozen sites over and over again only to find a single site that gives good rewards. Some people like to gank and scam and be a villain.
I never said Ganking was for everyone, just like i would never say that exploration is for everyone. But there is nothing wrong in suggesting it as a path to someone to try it out and see if they like it, because they ultimately wont know if they like it, until they try.
Given the OP is specifying low-activity times, Exploration is a more logical recommendation due to reduced competition - it’s still not a guarantee, explo never is, but low activity hours in quiet areas are better for explo period since they aren’t likely to be picked over, and are less likely to have hunters around. That doesn’t seem to apply to ganking - fewer targets due to low activity means less opportunity period, with no/minimal benefits derived from the ‘off hours’ active window (better chance of grabbing the loot in a non-criminal state, assuming that is a concern for the OP or any other player reviewing this).
I’m not saying ganking isn’t an option, it just doesn’t sound like a great fit as you have described it, when compared to the original post.
And yet the opposite can be true. Haulers who try to be smart, are more active during lower activity times, because there is less risk. There will be a lot of targets, they will have more cargo, and more likely to be afk.
Hauling is like mining, except easier. You can just click your target destination, set autopilot, then leave your computer.
Again, if you care about fun per hour the most, and if you dont know if youll like ganking, then its worth a try.
Theres nothing wrong with trying a new gameplay style.
Perhaps we can compromise and suggest that the OP try hunting explorers.
That is the only good idea so far,
but I doubt the OP is reading this thread anymore anyway.
I am actually - just sitting back and listening to the debate.
Are there, say, active RUTZ English-language corps?
Potentially the Australians?
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