EVE New Citizens Q&A

The gameplay you describe is more suited to lowsec space.

As you have discovered nulsec players will just dock up when you are spotted in their intel channels or local and will only undock if they have the numbers so you aren't a threat. Even then they might stay docked.

Lowsec is the place you are most likely to find small ship pvp, have you thought of joining faction warfare? That combined with roams through nulsec to 'play' with the locals sounds like it might be right up your street.

Nullsec allows sovereignty, so that means people can put up starbases and citadels and there are no NPC rules or stations to interfere with their control of the space. So that means that nullsec alliances will take control of that space, and set up a defensive perimeter of citadels, POS starbases, and active gatecamps (to block intruders), so that they can exploit the resources of the space in peace.

What you're not seeing as an outsider is the chat channels and voice comms that announce your presence as soon as anyone sees you, the cloaked observers that will scan your ship near the gate and report your fittings, and the calls for a defense fleet to form and get to where you are to kill you.

You're also not seeing the alliance's contacts list. Most of them have blue allies, red enemies, and everyone else shows up as neutral. Their Local channel and their overview are very nicely sorted by who's friend and who's enemy. For NBSI rules (not blue, shoot it) you're a neutral = enemy. For NRDS (not red, don't shoot), you're a neutral until you shoot one of them, then they'll add you as a red contact and you'll be considered a pirate.

So basically, the game's People and Places app, and the contacts / standings features it has, allows an alliance to easily distinguish between reds and blues, and otherwise safeguard their space against small PVP fleets of roaming intruders.

The huge wars, when they happen, allow the enemy alliance to bring enough ships (and capital ships) in order to attack the sovereignty structures and the citadels themselves, and take control of the space. It's a whole different ballgame, and it's expensive (the losing alliance is losing capital ships and citadels, billions of ISK), so such wars only happen maybe during the summer vacation (when people can play for the longer play sessions required by the war) and during the winter holidays.

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Lowsec, on the other hand, has NPC stations and doesn't allow sovereignty. While it's possible to set up the red/blue standings system like null alliances have, it's almost impossible to prevent intruders and pirates from setting up a base of operations with enough replacement ships to last forever, right in your home base. It's also impossible for the local alliance to lose billions of ISK in capital ships and/or citadels, they simply aren't forced to undock and fight, because the NPC station can't be destroyed.

So lowsec is the realm of reavers like you (we just call them pirates here). Unfortunately, after 14 years of this game being live, the prey (industrialists, traders, etc.) have learned to stay in high-sec, and the null alliance logistics people have learned to heavily escort their jump freighters as they pass through.

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So you're going to have to "reave" against other veteran PVP'ers in low sec, and against organized alliance defense fleets in null.

Which means you may want to consider wormhole space. It's similar to null sec, but the shifting nature of the wormhole connections makes it difficult to establish the logistics needed for a large number of pilots and replacement ships, so what you see is corps, instead of alliances, setting up homes there. And it also makes it easy to "roam", enter the system undetected, and pounce on unsuspecting victims. There is no Local chat channel, so if you're cloaked they will have absolutely no indication that you're there.

It's the perfect hunting ground, really. You just have to be good at scanning with probes, and at cornering people (psych warfare).

I very much agree with the previous posters that: low sec, Provi, and wormhole space are good places to create content as a reaver. The only other space that I wanted to mention here is NPC null sec. This is null sec space which is owned by pirate factions and can not be owned by players. It is NPC owned thus where the name NPC null comes from.

In NPC null sec you have NPC stations much like in high sec and you even have mission agents, again much like in high sec. However unlike high sec there is no concord and all other null sec rules apply.

There are sometimes groups that try to claim ownership of NPC null but since sov mechanics don't apply it's not as extreme as sov null. There are still bubble but there are also small fights to be had and stations that you can't be locked out of. If you spend time there you will get to know the locals and make friends and enemies. At first as an unknown you will be treated much differently than you will after some time has passed and how it changes is largely up to you.

Aside from pirate faction mission and lack of sov another point worth mentioning is that NPC null and -1.0 true sec systems ( of which there are only about 7 or so in game ) are the only places where officers can spawn. Officer spawns are very very rare but can drop loot worth multiple Billions of isk.