EVE New Citizens Q&A

The first thing I would ask is: Why do you want to mine in lowsec?

If the answer is isk, don't bother. Hisec is much more profitable.

If you really want to mine in lowsec. I'd do it in the Venture. Sure, its not as efficient, but you won't be replacing it as much as if you used a barge. It is what the Venture is designed for with the warp stab. bonus.

To get your stuff out there; either move it yourself and ask someone to scout for you. Or use Black Frog to move it out there. (Black frog is the nul/lowsec version of Red Frog).

The secret to lowsec mining is to not get caught. The Venture is much better at that than any other mining ship.

You could sell some of your hisec ores and buy some lowsec ones.

If your set on trying lowsec mining I'd fit a venture with Miners in the hislots maybe a cloak if it fits. Mid slots you want AB/MWD plus tank for the rats. Low slot a warp stab so you can't be caught be a single (non-faction) scrambler.

Your defence against other players is running away, so using D-scan to keep a good awareness is vital and try to stay alligned to something as much as possible.

OK, I don't disagree with Archibald. Venture is the safest miner out there - simply because it's so quick to align out, and has that built-in warp-stab.

But you've already stated that you find it too inefficient and want higher bulk in mining.

You've already noted that you don't see many kills out in deep lowsec (be sure to check "kills in last hour" IN ADDITION TO "kills in last 24 hours"), but you see a ton in the choke points and systems bordering hi-sec.

What this means is that you can probably pull off mining in volume out in lowsec with only occasionally being killed by bored roaming pirates. In the really deep lowsec systems, it's almost downright peaceful at times. You would lose the occasional ship - but if you can afford it, you may pull in the revenue for it not to matter much.

Keep in mind that most of the asteroid belts I've seen in lowsec are infested with NPC rats. So you'll need a ratting cruiser to clear the asteroid belts first. You'll also want a salvaging destroyer to clear out the wrecks of those ships. Because wrecks can provide warp-in points for hostile players. They have a cloaked guy sneak in onto you and bookmark one of the wrecks floating nearby you - then all his buddies now have a nice location to warp in right on top of you.

This is adding up to a lot of ships you'll need to get out to lowsec and risk losing to gatecamps. You can pile all your stuff in a big freighter, but that makes a pretty expensive target - and it'll suck if you lose it. Or you can try flying it in in smaller freighters in batches. Or you can hire a shipping corporation to transport it for you. I forget whether it was Black Frog or Red Frog who did shipping orders into lowsec...

So... you get a supply of expendable mining ships, ratting cruisers, and a couple salvage destroyers (not the Noctis - it's way too slow to align out and escape) and probably a couple T1 scanning frigates for scanning down stuff - all located in deep lowsec somewhere. You're main problem is going to be the logistics of getting the ore out to sell in highsec markets.

Lowsec markets suck. Pricing is waaay off, and there isn't much supply. You have to usually get your loot/ore/goods to highsec to make a profit. But that means running the gauntlet of gate camps every time you want to sell. So that means you need a reliable regular method of transport to highsec.

You could try the shipping corp I mentioned. Or you could try to wormhole shortcut your way out of lowsec. Use a scanning frig to probe down a wormhole, bookmark the entrance, enter, bookmark the way back out, then get to a safer spot in the wormhole system (random planet somewhere should work), launch probes, cloak up, and then try to find other wormhole exits out of the system.

If you're lucky, you might find a wormhole exit into highsec system - then you'll be able to send your freighter through the wormhole system straight into highsec space (be sure to keep an eye on the info about the wormhole to make sure it isn't mass critical and ready to collapse). If you're not so lucky, the other wormhole exit will lead to another wormhole you'll have to enter and probe out as well, maybe even a chain of wormholes before you find a highsec exit. It may not even be worth it if you've been picking up signs of trouble in any of the systems in the chain (wormhole gangs can be every bit as hostile aggressive and competent as lowsec pirates). If you're unlucky, you'll catch the notice of some of the aggressive wormhole corps that inhabit wormhole space and lose a ship.

Keep in mind that some wormhole gangs can be deadly patient. They'll sit cloaked and quietly watch the worthless scanning frigate enter and poke around. Then they'll wait for him to come back in his shiny PvE ship, or mining ship, or freighter and kill him then. If you see signs of wormhole residents, you might want to reconsider that path and simply move on to scan the wormholes in another lowsec system.

So wormholes have their drawbacks, but that's no reason to rule them out entirely - especially if the K-space route out of lowsec simply looks too dangerous.

Personally, I'd consider picking three different isolated and unpopulated regions of lowsec and getting a set of ships stationed in each. That way you can move on to another region if things get too hot in one region, and you never have all your assets and wealth tied up in one spot.

That's my game ... I've decided to make as an objective the building of a T2 ship (no, not a drone), and to do it largely from scratch. The challenge in figuring everything out is tremendous. Added bonus is to do it without the PvP'rs getting me (game the gamers! It pisses them off.).

As a new player I went to low-sec for some of the ores I needed. I used a mining Vexor and a secure container for emptying later by an industrial. They didn't have Retrievers back then. I had a Thorax alt docked locally for protection. It was slow going but was never killed (I even made a kill -- my only one). Trick is to watch who is in the system. Never mine when <= 0.2 sec status people are in system. Higher sec status people tend to not want to lower their status (I guessed). But the stress was too much for me so I changed to WH mining after several months.

Everything is in WH space and there is no local! Much easier. Use a Procurer and Hobgoblin IIs. Train your drones up. It might take a 2 or 3 tries but the sleepers can be dealt with (target the littler ones 1st). Avoid the red WHs. Have a Mackinaw for high-sec mining.

Still don't have that T2 built but I'm getting closer.

Hi there,

Low sec pirate here,

You've got two basic approaches

1) Be sneaky, find an empty system (of which there are hundreds in lowsec), and you can conduct your business generally left alone. If you don't want to bother with moving your ore in and out yourself, then just stay in one area until you've accumulated enough ore and have it black-frogged back to highsec. Or make friends with someone with a jump freighter. There are tons of stations in lowsec and you should have little problem having a base of operations out there.

2) Try making friends with the locals. Sometimes for younger players its a lot easier to join an existing group that controls an area than fighting an uphill fight by yourself. You might even make some friends and long-term allies. Many pvpers aren't interested in industry, but they do make allowances for miners/indy people to contribute, or will leave you alone for a piece of your pie.

Yea - cause spaming your ds button and not knowing who is around you is so much less stressful. LOL

Its a bad idea to use sec status as a guide. Best policy is to beware of everyone you dont know.

if you decide to go with a venture,

1) make sure you warp to 0 at gate
2) make sure you create safe spots
3) make sure it's extra quick
4) always make sure you align to something
5) hit that directional scanner until your finger is sore, if you see a ship, move.

those 5 things make it tougher for us pirates to nab you easily, but being in lowsec, very few ventures have gotten away, at least in my hunting experience, especially when you lock in 2-3 seconds or so, but it Also comes down to how seasoned the player is.

either way, its a big risk to mine alone. Pirates shoot at anything that crawls, even each other.

It's Black Frog. Public contracts are also an option.

Unless you're purely interested the novelty or challenge of building your item from scratch....

Don't mine it yourself. Buy it off the market. The market is competitive, where high SP characters, multiboxers, afkers, impatient sellers and bots can and will sell their goods for cheap. Faced with this, if you decided you need to mine it all yourself, you're falling victim to the OPPORTUNITY COST problem.

The time you spent doing all that, and the risk you undertake, and the eventual losses incurred, could have been avoided or invested elsewhere, such as by mining your goods safely* and selling the components for profit. All things considered, measured, and then compared, you will likely have earned much more ISK, and/or lost less, by avoiding the risk and time sinks involved. For the vast majority of the Eve populace, it makes more economic sense to buy your items on the most favorable markets.

In time, with the right infrastructure, experience, SP, buddies, and accounts, you could be one of those individuals who is a successful miner/manufacturer. But when you're new, you are not one of them, and it might be better to look closely at the numbers, and find the 'stage' to cash out, where you gain the most profit by minimizing risk and time, and catering to your comparative advantage.