EVE New Citizens Q&A

The best thing that you can do with that amount is never let anyone know how much you have.

I'd be happy to help. What system do you usually hang out in? I'll come meet you there...

Do you actually *enjoy* mining?

I expect the answer is no. If I'm correct, spend 200m of that trying a few different activities in game. Use cheap ships (T1 cruiser or cheaper)

Shoot a player in highsec.
Shoot a player outside highsec.
Probe down a wormhole chain to nullsec, and explore there.
Run a couple of missions.
Probe down a player running missions, and try to ruin their day.
Mine gas in a wormhole.
Run lowsec exploration sites.

This should take some time and give you a sense of things you enjoy doing. Mining may have made you your first billion ISK, but it will not make you enjoy EVE.

I can tell you what I do with my ISK ... spending every coin on ships to get blown up in PvP. The more ships I can replace the more fun (never regret to lose something), so for PvP to buy a dozen budget ships is IMO a better investment than 2-3 bling ships. The fear of loss is the path to the (real) dark side of EvE.

Another good investment are +4/+5 learning implants, BUT (see the point about loss above) only if you have 1-2 jump clones at your disposal for riskier endeavors. There are a couple of services around to get you into those clones without grinding http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Jump_Clones

Spend a small part of it about 100m on 20 t1 frigates and go into low or null sec and start shooting at someone, or use them to join a Spectre fleet op and shoot at people with others. Spectre is suggested because it requires no commitment and they take anyone regardless of skills or experience. You will die many times, but in the process you will learn a whole lot about the game, and probably meet other players (corps) who might open up more of the game to you. I predict it won't be long and your retriever will be sitting in dock collecting rust .

Thanks for all the input. I actually enjoy mining. Does that make me weird?

No. I like mining too. There's different sets of challenges to maximizing the results same as PVP. Its virtual cork sniffing.

The truth is that you would want to invest it. Investments are what grow your money. Maybe an orca with some people paying you to give them mining bonus links.

This pretty much!

Also if you have that amount and really don't know what to do with it, then chances are you are still pretty new to the game and you should either
A: Have fun experimenting with anything you are curious about and losing some ISK on the way or
B: Keep doing what you do and save it for whey you actually know what else you want or like to do.

Either way have fun!

Yes.

Also, be aware - mining is (market) PVP in this game.

A little.

But do what you like. Unfortunately for solo mining there is not much more you can do with that ISK. You can spend some of that on an exhumer - the Skiff is the safest choice although a Mackinaw is good if you pay attention and stay in higher security (>0.8) space - but that is where the game ends for the solo miner. Mining has just been buffed in nullsec so you could consider joining a corp and moving there or you could fit up a Venture or Prospect and head into more dangerous space to mine ore or gas.

You could also buy a small POS and compression array to turn your ore into the compressed version which is worth more and easier to transport to a trade hub. Just online it only when you need it.

What you shouldn't do is spend that ISK on faction (ORE) modules or expensive implants to eek out another percent or two of yield. You will lose that bling eventually, likely long before it will ever pay off. Just stick to T2 modules and reasonable implants and keep a small cushion of ISK to replace them if you get ganked.

Other than that really there isn't much more you can spend your ISK on to support your chosen career. I echo what was said above: Eve has much to offer so don't be afraid to spend some of that ISK on trying something new. ISK is just a means to an end so avoid the carebear trap of only playing to watch your ISK counter go up as that path will lead to boredom and you unsubscribing sooner rather than later.