Missions & Complexes

Input:
I've been around Eve a while. My recommendation for who to run for runs about like this....
Find an area you might one day want to put your own station up in .. then find a good level agent you like nearby...
Now run the life out of that particular faction. I've set up several all over caldari space at one point or other and I run pretty much just in caldari space now. Well, and amrr but thats for different reasons. As far as the lp store goes here is my two cents... some factions have more people running them so you see more of their faction gear on the market.. not a big deal really. I know guys who make billions a month from lp store deals where they pick up items out of lesser used factions and then haul them up to jita with a stealth bomber and sell off the rare stuff for billions
Now as to the ship issues... whatever you are flying is best suited to particular eney profile and that being said a bit of cross training in your ship aptitude and abilities. t3 ships are nice for customizing your mission applications. If you want to run some stuff on the cheap each faction has ships that can set up for decent application against particular missions.
Do not forget the cosmos sites either. You can sit in some of these and just farm iskies in bouties with little real effort.
Of course people periodically forget and abandon.. then come back and overwhelm the cosmos sites but there are so many and some still dorp some neat items includeing some useful power modules from the caldari and amarr locations, some decent low power usage (fitting) lasers in the amar locations etc.
Then also you can become something of authority on your particualr area of operation as well... sometimes people need help, noowbs or vets who need a particular item for a collection or fitting or mission, and if you find an area where such items appear.. you should stock up on even the lowliest of them, as even the counterfeit curriencies in the caldari cosmos are worth something to someon who doesn't want to spend hours waiting for them to spawn.
So where to run , who to work with?
Your choice... pirate factions like the gurista have nice lp stores as discussed above. so if low sec is your liking you can make a real killing in loots and store items... 'cours you'll need to sign up with people who are down there or you'll spend all your time in pvp and not much doing the missions.
Good luck and good hunting

if only the mach, vargur and cnr weren't so ugly.... :(

You just love spikes, don't you?

spikes are optional (but awesome). symmetry is mandatory though.