Out of Pod Experience

I'm struggling to stay interested in Eve anymore. So I turn to you guys for advice. But first, my background:

I started Eve about 2 months after Apocrypha went live. I had tried to play it twice before and gotten bored very quickly, many years prior. When I read about Apocrypha and W-space I knew immediately I found something I wanted to do. From the moment I joined I made w-space colonization my goal. I started out doing a bit of highsec exploration, and transitioned into Ninjaing to fund my training and practice scanning until it was second nature. I avoided missions, instead opting to take a battlecruiser into lowsec and do exploration there so I would learn to accept risk and learn to evade.

I avoided fights during this time, but it didn't matter because the threat of fights alone kept things interesting. I knew I was too noobish and underequipped to actually fight, but I learned to stay slippery and evasive. PvE was boring, but the threat of PvP kept things interesting even if I was intentionally avoiding fights. 6 months in, I had saved up just barely enough isk to launch a medium tower in a class 2 system I found. It was a solo venture. I was clearing sites in a passive tanked hurricane, and upgraded to a typhoon shortly after. The next 6 months saw upgrades to a large control tower, my branching out into using a Loki to dive into neighboring class 3 systems, and a Cyclone becoming my mainstay for C2 and C1 sites(due to Typhoon being slow to clear frigs).

I started learning to PvP. It started off small: day dives into highsec to ninja gank, and Occasional ganks on my neighboring w-space systems. If I couldn't fight, I used my ninja ships to steal. On more than one occasion I had hostiles come into my system and start clearing my sites, and I was not adequately equipped to fight them off. When this happened I waited until the site was cleared, and then immediately went in with an Salvager Interceptor, the Claw being my ship of choice. Sleepers can instakill those ships, but players in battlecruisers equipped for(mostly) PvE would have no such luck. In this way I defended my system. If they slowed the rate at which they cleared sites to salvage, they lost a great deal of isk/hour due to inefficient clearing. If I couldn't kill invaders, I would attack their wallets and prevent them from turning a profit on their sites.

Over time, W-space became boring. I lost ships here and there, and even got podded once or twice, but as I became more confident in my PvP abilities, I found less targets, and the PvE elements became more boring. I retired to k-space. I decided to try out Lowsec. It didn't take long to learn the rules of lowsec. I went back and forth between Factional Warfare for fights, and lowsec exploration(Mostly Radar and Mag sites) to fund it. I didn't really feel like doing FW plexing, as I was out for combat. I ninja'd here and there as well, and did can flipping if I got bored with that. Hell, I even started bumping miners in an oversized MWD stabber. But I've reached the point where nothing holds any appeal to me anymore.

There's no challenge in Eve. Factional Warfare has turned into a blobfest, with members on all sides talking about the cowardice of their enemies as they hide behind their fleets while farm alts win the war. (If they went out solo and killed the farm alts things might go differently) When I feel like PvEing I go around in lowsec in a battlecruiser or a cruiser just clearing radar and mag sites for isk, pulling around 50-100 mil isk/hr depending on my luck. I find almost no fights here. I may not be equipped for combat, but the very element of enemies, of BEING HUNTED, is what makes this PvE fun. But it feels like Lowsec is deserted. I don't get why. The isk there is great, but I guess highsec bears can't take risks, so the pirates leave too.

I've tried going back to ninjaing on occasion, but nobody shoots anymore and most people just log off rather than trying to contest their missions. I miss the days when they'd call in a friend in a noctis and we could at least fight over wrecks, albeit in a passive kind of way. Hell, I lost a Typhoon once cause a mission runner popped my frig, and then come back and was waiting in a proteus. I landed right into his ambush.

But nobody takes any risks anymore. We're all ******* rolling in piles of money and nobody does anything with it.

So I ask you guys. For a solo player who enjoys small scale PVP(1v1 up to like 1v3 or 1v4 I'll take), doing PvE in high risk environments(Anything except highsec), and generally trying to survive in a hostile area, what's left? Lowsec is dead and I can pull far more isk than I'd ever need there. W-space has gotten boring in the lower classes, and solo can't really do well in the upper classes. So what's left? I'm looking for a challenge and I can't find one.

I'm considering Nullsec, but my dives there in the past have suggested that any PvE exploration content is unclearable solo, and if I go out looking for fights I either encounter massive fleets or everyone runs away due to intel channels. Is there anything left?

Stop playing solo and start playing MMO. That stands for Multiple Me Online - GET SOME ALTS BRO! DOZENS OF THEM

I'd show you the door, but it doesn't work.

Good luck in what you choose to do after Eve though.

Let me aid you in your dilema, wire all your isk to me, and throw up as many contracts as you can to me with all your assets. With everything gone, you'll have no pull to keep you coming back.

Think about it, you know it's the logical thing to do.

I promise if I ever do quit EVE I will not present a wall-o'-text. Scout's Honor.

ALTS!

1 v 1 PVP is so 2003. Pretty quickly the norm became 10 v 1 I'm surprised you missed it.

That...actually sounds insanely fun. I gotta think about that for a bit, but that would actually give me the enjoyment I'm looking for. My god, that could actually be really fun. Hm...

Maybe Wayne didn't know about this Freeed.

Careful OP. In short, a -10 villian wants to meet up with you.

Make a video of when you gank him Solistice. Then you can add it to this thread.