EVE New Citizens Q&A

Eve is a complex game and there is no one answer for anything. We don't have "best in slot gear" nor perfect fits nor best anything. Everything in this game is situational.

To make it easier to make decisions I try to take complex things like mining industry and break it down into pieces and consider each piece on it's own.


Before alpha clones existed race had nothing to do with anything but how you looked and role playing. Now, and only for alpha clones, it only effects the ships that you can fly and skills that you can use. In other words there is nothing stopping you from moving to Caldari space or Amarr or Minmatar and setting up shop there and mining.

As far as selling your stuff locally versus moving you will have to run the numbers on what ore is going for locally versus taking it to a trade hub. This means figuring out how much time and risk is involved in shipping it yourself or paying someone else to do it.

As far as compressing goes again you will have to see how available compression is to you and how much time and effort versus is required versus the lower hauling costs and increased raw ore value.

With regards to the word "always" everything will have to be continually looked at. Ore prices and asteroid availability change from day to day. You might find a great place to mine and then the next day some other corp could come and mine the entire system out of asteroids. You might find a system with good ore prices far away from a trade hub but then those buy orders could get filled and not put back up.


For me the sec level has little to do with what type of ore I am mining and more to do with the size of the asteroids that I am mining. I'm thinking more along the lines of fleet mining operations with dedicated haulers and multiple barges. In that situation lazor up time is the primary concern. You can easily loose 20% or more in potential max yield having to move from one small asteroid to the next versus just sitting on one large rock for hours.

If you are asking about solo mining in a venture then I would guess that moving and selling the ore become bigger concerns. If you want to mine in low sec I would think things like "what is the ore worth locally" would be more important than the kind of ore.

Probably the ideal place for a new player to mine would be in a null sec alliance that has a good set up in space that they can keep relatively free from reds and offer a decent price for ore.

To me I don't see low sec as ever being an option and wormholes are probably only good for mining gas unless you are part of a corporation that lives in a wormhole.

As far as mining in high sec systems closer to trade hubs will have much less ore. Last time that I lived in high sec there was almost no ore available within about 4 or 5 jumps of jita. The further away from trade hubs you go the more ore you will find but the more costs associated with getting it to market.

Back before Citadels existed high sec systems without stations had much more ore than ones with a station because you'd have to set up and fuel a PoS to make mining worthwhile there. I have not been to high sec, with the exception of quick trips to the local trade hub, since Citadels were introduced to the game so I'm not really sure how they have changed the landscape.



Living in low, null and wormhole space are all separate considerations. For low sec I would not be mining in a system with someone else in local and as soon as anyone showed up I'd warp to a safe spot and watch for combat probes. However ventures are not that expensive and maybe you want to be more daring. You could fit a venture for combat and try fighting.

To me the only reason to go to low sec is if you are looking for fights. It's just my opinion but I would not go to low sec for any other reason.

TL;dr
Break every decision up into it's own thing. Don't try to clump everything into on big decision. The first thing that you need to do is decided what your primary goals are and then break every little decision into how it fits with those goals.

Prices will vary but, assuming you will be selling compressed ore directly to buy orders, you will make more ISK selling in Jita. For example, Eve Central (https://eve-central.com) currently shows buy order pricing for compressed plagioclase in Jita 7,749.65 ISK and 6,005.04 in Dodixie. Hauling to Jita will take longer and be a bit riskier but you're getting well paid for that risk. You can haul compressed ore in your Venture - it has the speed and agility to make the trip quickly. Just don't haul too much or you become an attractive gank target.

Compression adds value and costs nothing. There are hundreds of public Citadels scattered around New Eden that offer reprocessing/compression service. Use the structure browser to find one nearby. Compression is 100:1 which also makes the ore a lot easier to haul.

Right now the most valuable ore in Gallente highsec is Plagioclase because of its Mexallon content. I recommend mining in a 0.6 security system like Amygnon (5 jumps from the Center of Advanced Studies career agents in Clellinon).

Set standing for the CODE. alliance as terrible so they show as red on your overview and local chat, fly at least 20Km from the warp-in beacon and set a bookmark so you have warning if a ganker arrives at your belt. The Venture is fast enough that you should be able to warp to safety in the time it takes a gank ship to approach you from the warp-in beacon. Fit your Venture with some inexpensive shield tanking rigs and carry a couple of hobgobblins to take care of belt rats.

For your low slot fit a mining upgrade when mining and a damage control when hauling.

The closer you are to a major trade hub like Dodixie, the busier the system is likely to be - both in terms of miners and gankers. My preference is a quiet, out of the way system.

When you dock, there is often a period of vulnerability where you exit warp outside the docking ring and need a few seconds to reach the station. If you see attack battlecruisers like Tornado on the dock, they are likely looking for a high value target they can kill with an Alpha shot during that period of vulnerability. They may or may not show as criminals. You can eliminate this period of vulnerability with an Instadock bookmark. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Bookmarks#Instadock. Likewise, there is a period of vulnerability on undock while you align before warping - instant-warp bookmarks help there http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Bookmarks#Instant_warp-out

An attack battlecruiser with fittings is worth about 80 million ISK, they only get 1 shot before CONCORD shows up and the probability of a loot drop is 50% so you are reasonably safe if you are hauling less than 100 million.

Inter regional trade is a viable career. Be careful to account for trading "frictions" - brokerage and taxes, that can significantly reduce your profit margins. There are skills, accounting and broker relations, to reduce these fees.

You expand my horizons, thanks

That's how I mine ice. Mine and unload at a local citadel then I compress it for the flight home so no extra trips, no extra ships.
Mine in a .6 or lower system for better ores and larger fields.
Just scope around and you will find a decent quieter system to call home as close. I live live close enough to a trade hub to make almost convent, but not so close that I have to deal with the crazies and traffic .