EVE General Discussion

It depends on where you go, some areas are more populated and utilized than others and you will encounter a number of different players doing a number of different things.

Those 3-4 pilot systems you encountered were probably people ratting, they are in PVE fit ships that are unsuitable for PVP so they sit in a pos while you are in system and then resume ratting when you leave.

The region I live in has solo players like yourself roaming through it all day and night and they are largely ignored. There may be 3-4 players who will actively seek intruders and try to kill them. Roaming gangs may or may not be ignored depending on how long they stick around/ if anyone feels like forming a fleet to hunt them.

The interceptor buff kinda hurt this style of play because interceptor gangs are largely uncatchable so most folks wont even bother.

go to VFK and shoot a goon cyno... everything will unfold from there

First, welcome to null sec! Your experience is demonstrative of the fact that null sec isn't as scary as the high sec carebears will have you believe.

Some part of null sec are in fact dead. Some parts of sov. nullsec are full of ratters/mission runners that have no interest in PvP and will dock up as soon as you enter local. I might recommend npc null sec if you are looking for fights (Syndicate, for example). You will generally find more willing PvPers in npc null sec, though you can usually coax a fight out of sov null sec folks as well if you stick around :)

Hi Kirk! I podded you last night, beware that hisec is still dangerous if you are enrolled in faction warfare!

Hisec is actually the least lucrative place in EVE, because it's the safest.

In Nullsec, you make money from much higher mission rewards (in ISK and LP), as well as the fact that rat bounties and loot are much much better. So PVE content pays much betters

Same with Wormholes, where the salvage from rats is super lucrative, particularly in the more dangerous wormholes.


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Nullsec regions can and are fought over and reconquered by different factions.

Hah! Imagine that! Before I even read your post I was thinking that I recognized your name. Shame I didn't longer than a couple seconds ;) .

Thanks for the tips Deg. I actually got really lucky the other night and scored a nice profit and figured I could go waste a cheap ship or two with my buddies to explore a bit out there.

Alliances will try and take as much space as possible. This is to get the big font point on the Verite Eve Influence Map which is, of course, the primary goal of the game.

The majority of the online player will stay docked in their capital station. Docked, for hours, and hoouuurs. What are they doing? Who can tell.

At some point someone wants to play EVE Online. Then one of two of these 100 systems will be upgraded to 5 for military, possibly even one upgraded to 5 for industry as long as the industrials know they are worthless specimens stealing paplinks. Occasionally you can go into these system to kill the new guy who insisted on ratting in his raven because he really loves flying the raven.

95% of the remaining systems will then be rented out to bots and humans who can't program well enough to make a bot yet. Sometimes a system is on "the list", which means it will be rented soon.

If you are lucky there may be a cloaky nullified tengu using the stargates for travel to find a DED plex.

Occasionally someone will say "we should go after these neutrals in XYZ". 1 hour 45 minutes later someone else will concur but hold on coz they need to finish this last room. When you welp to the local hot droppers you will then be banned from doing this by leadership.

As far as anyone can tell this is the ideal way to play EVE Online, as though everyone agrees it must change, they also agree that no change will ever be good enough. It is something that will forever remain beyond the wit of man.

Yeah, to be honest I have heard all kinds of things regarding money making in null sec. Some I've talked to have said the impede opposite of what others have told me. I'm sure a lot of it is based off of experience and preference no?

From the perspective of a newbie pilot you get all kinds of advice from and with different angles if you ask. That's exactly why I came to the forums.
:)

Confirming that Harry's ever present hellcamp of VFK is proof of non-stop fun in null.

The worst systmes by far are the low sec systems heading into null, or the first system into null. Those "gateway" systems are usually crowed, and dangerous. The rest is usually fairly sparse. On occasion when you see a jammed system it is usually a staging system for something bigger about to happen. My "home" system will often see 25 players, usually hovers areound 10, but it is a main alliance base system, but the systems immediately around usually have between 2 and 5 players. I have more issues getting through low sec then null sec.

Money in null can be done via the vastly better mining (mining is dull though so most don't)
exploration: The combat sites need expensive ships and can drop large amounts of isk.
data/relic sites. these can be done in a t1 scanning frig and level 4 scaning/ hacking skills. They used to be worth more but lots of people do it and so the loot is less valuable now.
Belt ratting. This is easy and can be done in cheap ships.
Anoms. These vary in difficulty and i don't run them so idk.

Null sec residents can be put into 3 camps.

The sov war people. These are the big coalitions and can field huge fleets at any time of day. They use these to capture sov from other groups and to take valuable moons. The people in them mainly spin ships, carebear or don't play eve. Someone makes a timer. They all get pinged on jabber for a form up in 2 days time and mass log in and shoot structures or other very large fleets.

Renters. These people rent space from the first group.
They mine, rat and run sites.
They will form fairly big fleets to take and defend moons and sometimes will form up to chase a roaming gang away.

NPC null. These guys generally do the exploration stuff but rarely mine or run anoms. They do it in npc owned null or in other peoples space. They tend to be more PVP focused and harrass sov holders, kill their ratters and poke moons. They will take an hold moons if they can. They often roam in small groups looking for other fleets to kill. Often they have a political agenda and will target certain groups for harrassment to deny them use of their own space.

Obviously with so many people it is more complex than this and huge variation in motives and aims.
If you want to find people you have to get off the main roads. pipes that connect constellations attract traffic and most PVE is best done away from traffic. They all live in pockets of null with only one or 2 entry systems so it is easy to spot hostiles arriving.

Because it is so easy to protect your PVE activities 2 tools are used to catch people.
afk cloaking allows a small group of pilots (or 1 guy and lots of alts) to move a ship into each system in an area and then go afk. The people then have a choice. stay docked or resume ratting/mining. When the guys comes back he can warp in on a ratter /miner and kill them.
tool 2 is ambush from cloak as above or use a shiny bait ship that looks like an easy kill and then light a cyno. this allows players in a fleet many many jumps away to jump (if they have jump drives so caps and black ops battleships) or to be bridged by black ops battleships /titans) straight to the cyno pilot and suddenly a whole fleet kills your stuff.

anyway that is some basics. travel is fairly easy in null even in hostile space. there are a ton of tricks to making travel safer but even without them most areas are fine. I moved to NPC null at about a month of age and i have to say i love it.