EVE General Discussion

Hey all.
So I run a 4 monitor system that can easily support 4 eve clients at once with no performance issues.
I have been trying to utilize this to make some isk, but so far - so terrible......
I would really like to stay in high-sec, cuz I'm new enough that low-sec scares me still...so consider me a carebear for now...

I've tried mining....2 covetors (1 T1, 1 T2) mining while an orca hauls the ore...was making about 15m/ hour. That's not really bad for a little newbie like me...but I've heard that a lot of folks can easily make over 50m/ hour.

So I thought I'd run lvl 4 missions for isk. I love drones and they're the easiest way to actually fight when you've got lots of toons, since they're -sort of- smart, so I wanted to run 2 Dominix or 2 Rattlesnakes and just mop up the rats in lvl 4s. I'm in the process of lvling to do this, and it's looking like it'll be a little bit. I have a friend that does lvl 4s and makes about 100m/hour after salvaging and stuff. He does at least 2 missions an hour.

So here I am asking you wonderful people...is there a better way to use my setup for isk making?
Keep in mind that combat is VERY tricky once you start using 3-4 toons, so if your "money making scheme" requires combat, please limit it to 2 toons or have the extra 1-2 toons in a very very small roll (like only salvage or whatever).

I'm totally up for rerolling new toons and lvling from scratch to make this happen, and I can absolutely afford to play up to 4 accounts, though it would be great if I didn't have to lvl skills for the next 2 months to pull off the plans...

I hear that a lot. In this case, I believe it's a matter of player skill, not character skill. I've used drones almost exclusively since I started playing and micro-manage them well, even on 2 toons. One of the reasons I wanted to use Rattlesnakes in the first place is because 10x Sentry drones will plow through everything while your snakes run in closer to keep agro. The snaketank (:P) is very robust (according to what I've researched) and will allow it to preoccupy the rats while the sentries eat them.
Brawling with heavies is always an option, as well....good times.

The point is, Drones are just fine, and even when I do lose them, it's easy to just drop some more.

As for the Tengu, I don't know how they work, but I see lots of people wanting them...They seem like it would be harder to run than droneboats due to the fact that I'd have to actively pilot them much more.

besides mining ice there's no real way of increasing your isk making in a linear way, more accounts will require a lot more work to run, and gains will have diminishing returns, while the cost of running them will remain fixed. so unless you consider running multiple accounts as part of the fun, in the same way some miners consider mining fun thus their minerals are "free", go for it.

if you are already established economically and have the capital you could start an invention chain - t2 production, so long as t2 production is available on hsec you can make a lot of easy money. but i wouldn't count on that lasting.

also, better get ready for a massive clickfest.

if you plan parallel production ahead of time you could use a broadcasting software to run and set up the jobs at the same time, but that will only get rid of the station clickfest, but there's still the pos work of moving mats and stuff...

i tried the t2 production for a while, but... too much clicking.


another thing you can do to keep the cost of multiple accounts down is PI. setting up a p1 chain in many planets with many accounts, and dedicating one account to p2 with factory worlds works very well, and shaves around 30% of the cost of every account, while requiring some work once a week.

but still, unless you have some use to multiple accounts, or you find it fun to play that way, you are just increasing your in game work.

You should keep one account and sell 3 plex per month. You'll make more isk and it's easier.

just join us in null, do some ratting and plexing there, find faction npc's or officer spawns. you can make 100m per hour easy with the safty of blues. the loot can vary from 20m-billions. everyday all day. only 1 acct needed

Put a trade alt in each of the 4 major hubs (jita, amarr, dodixie and rens) and just update market orders a few times a day.
Requires a fair bit of capital to get things up and running properly but you'll make more isk than doing anything else in high sec. (add additional trade alts for npc 0.0 regions or smaller hubs as you can afford to expand).

IMO multi-boxing doesn't work efficiently until you come close to maximizing profits with your first character. Generally, it's easier to get 10b per month profits with one account than it is to get 5b per month with two accounts early on.

That aside, once you're ready for another account and your main focus is ISK, as it was for me, then margin trading and manufacturing is the way to go. Figure out what you like to do in the game and figure out where it can take you based on experiences of others.

Margin trading can used parked characters in major trade hubs (although it is hard to outstrip profit potential from Jita with even one character, I typically have 40-50b in Jita markets when actively trading).

manufacturing can use multiple accounts for research, building and hauling efficiently.

I think 3 characters is about the limit for "easy" ratting. Anything above that, make a jump to 6 and do mining - it scales better, but I'm not sure you will match the 3 account team until you break 8 miners..and it will be more work.

Here is what I do with 3:

1 x Carrier, sitting just outside shields on a armed POS. Assigning fighters to the other two.
2 x tengu, heavy missiles. Sometimes I swap to 2 x naga (better dps, a little more work - the tengus have a 61+ km range)

Run anoms.

This is null sec. Join a good alliance - there are several choices. Find one that doesn't do mandatory "call to arms", is active in PVP, and has a good ship replacement program. Then, even when you are pvp'ing it up your ships don't cost much out of your wallet when they go pop.

Numbers:

With the tengus I make 25M isk ticks on each of the two characters. Comes out to about 150M isk/hr. It is easy enough to do while watching tv, just keep your eye on local & intel channels. Fly a few hours a week and you make enough to plex an account, buy all the pvp ships you want, and store some up for a rainy day.

Nagas I make 30-35 isk ticks on each of the two characters. Comes out to about 180-210M isk/hr. More micro managing as things die much faster. You have to actually fly within blaster range.

Nagas are cheap and do good dps even with T1/meta blasters.

You could drop the carrier and go with a 3rd ship inside the anom - more work, cheaper, less skill intensive.

Null isn't a scary place. I played highsec for a few years thinking I needed "skills" before moving to null. I was wrong. If you can fly a frigate & fit a point or a cyno - there is a place for you.

recipe for easy =
1x pure gank bs
2x logi
1x salvager

explode through missions / wh's in minutes

For mission running with more than 3 characters I would suggest going for the FoF Tengu swarm instead. Or some combination of that, say, for example, Marachiel + some Tengus.

Some other combinations can be pretty nice also. For example, Marachiel + Scimicar with faction tracking link, couple of Tengus. Drop the local tank go all gank and your remote shield boost with that logi. dont forget to get some light tank/buffer on logi as well as eventually the rats will try to kill it as well.

Drones sort of work also but take more management as they have some issues with rats that are not shooting the particular ship they belong to so you either have to put them on assist or guard duty after each warp or somehow agress the crap you want them to shoot at. FoF you just need to get agression once, however, FoF are very dumb missiles and like to grind away at these ruined stargates which have done some horrid agressive act against you by being there.