DoToo Foo for CSM 11

I am a wormhole PI bear, a nullsec market trader and the hunted. 

I belong to and help make the small group.  I have no love for the largest player groups.

I believe in the circle of gank.  The good PVP pilot will defeat the Ganker.  The good Ganker will catch the Evasion pilot, The good Evasion pilot will evade the PVP pilot.

Once on the CSM, I will encourage CCP to consider gameplay compatible with 'us'. ('They' will already be represented)

Eve is already one to the strongest 'market' games.  Real destruction leads to real construction.  I have some little things I would like to fix (Selling below buy orders, buying above sell orders for one)

For some controversy:

• I think warp core stabs encourage hunter pilots to differentiate between being a PVPer or a ganker.
• I think NPC's should do less, and players should do more (whether it is market seeding, or even player faction militia having the rights of NPC faction police)
• I like the fragmentation of nullsec created by Fozzie Sov

I have a series of labeled posts for those interested in the CSM

My CSM thread is at https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=6270660


http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/csm11-elections/

Should you set up in a wormhole to do P4 planetary interaction?

I recently received an evemail.

Hi there.
I've been following your blog with interest for the last few weeks and was wondering if I could ask for some feedback on a PI setup?
I'm considering setting up 4 toons doing PI in a wormhole, hopefully producing p4 products. 
I know this is going to set me back anything from 500m to 1b in startup costs, but I'd like to know if you think it's a feasible option for me to look into?

If you would like to try out wormhole PI, you could join one of our wormholes. They are setup and ready to go.

If you want to create your own wormhole setup, the following points are worth considering.

Getting a suitable wormhole

It can cost 500m to buy an entrance to suitable empty wormhole.  wormholesales.com is a good place to look. http://www.torpedodelivery.com/wormhole-location looks interesting but I have never used their services.

Make sure it has sufficient planets of the correct kind to support your PI, or to make sure you have the ability to import your local shortages.  http://eveplanets.com/ can show what any given wormhole can produce,

If you want to find a suitable wormhole (it will take you quite a while), find any wormhole with a static that is suitable, and learn how to roll wormholes (http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Wormhole_Campus_Static_Rolling_Guide is a possible starting point.    Rolling wormholes is a topic all on it's own)

Grinding out your customs offices

I have both bought and destroyed existing customs offices.  Buying is faster and potentially cheaper (especially if you use the replacement tanked afk laser myrmidon). However buying means that you need to give 'them' an entrance to your wormhole, something that I am loath to do if they have managed to lose it.

Each customs office you grind out will require : 24M damage done, with a 500 hps peak shield regeneration.  A couple of replacement tanked afk laser myrmidon can do it (empty clone, come back the following day with a 50% chance of a dead poco, 50% chance of brand new shiny clones back in empire space).

My budget of a customs office replacement is 100M/customs office (gantry plus upgrade mats).  The spot price is currently closer to 120M/customs office.

Ongoing costs.  

If you are going to do PI for 4 pilots, you will need a lot of storage.  You can go cheap and use a system's other customs offices, but it will be painful to manage.

An orca isnt big enough.  A freighter does not have a cloak.  This means you need to think about a POS.

A small POS (roughly 250m setup, 125m/month for fuel) is an invitation for casual bored passers by to take potshots.

A medium POS (roughly 500m setup, 250m/month for fuel) will keep away casual passers buy, but those looking for a rumble can take out your pos.  Have a method to easily extract your value (possibly freighter, or just keeping your POS 'lean')

A large POS (roughly 1B setup, 500m/month for fuel) in a low class wormhole will keep all but the most dedicated away.

Please note: Citadels are coming, and will replace all the above.  My crystal ball is cloudy, but my gut feel says a medium citadel will have roughly the costs of a large POS (though possibly less fuel ... maybe).

Do you want to take time off the game?  Your POS will still consume fuel, or be blown up if it runs out.

Supporting P4 PI with 4 pilots.

If you build from scratch, with 4 pilots, it will be difficult to make enough raw material to support a single 'hard' P4 factory (eg integrity response drones).  (Yes, P4 factory, not planet of P4 factories).

It might be more feasible to make supply an 'easy' P4 like sterile conduits (requiring 2xP3 and 1xP1).

As an alternative, especially for P3 and P4, consider 'Make 2, Import 1'.  It takes Gel-Matrix Biopaste (very profitable), Hazmat Detection Systems (marginally profitable) and Planetary Vehicles (incredibly loss making).  Consider making the profitable parts, and importing the rest.

The same applies to most levels.

Possibly you could look at the component costs on manufacture tab of my PI spreadsheet.

Why P4?

No PI is used directly by capsuleers shooting each other, red crosses or giant rocks.  It is used by other industrialists.  These industrialists will often want to move rather than make stuff where it is. P3 has better ISK/m3 than P4.

TL;DR  

The setup costs of a wormhole PI exceeds the costs of just the customs office.

1K+ DPS recommended for AFK POCO bashing.  3K+ DPS recommended for at keyboard bashing. without more than 500DPS, you cant beat the passive tank.

POS fuel costs (at least 250m month, 500m/month recommended - will change come citadels but I dont know what way yet).

100-120m per customs office.

I hope this helps

PS. 

[Myrmidon, replacement tanked afk laser]

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Heat Sink I

Heat Sink I

Cap Recharger I

Medium Shield Extender I

Medium Shield Extender I

Medium Shield Extender I

Medium Shield Extender I

Heavy Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency M

Heavy Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency M

Heavy Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency M

Heavy Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency M

Heavy Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency M

Medium Energy Burst Aerator I

[Empty Rig slot]

Medium Energy Collision Accelerator I

Ogre I x4

Cost 60m, most of that in the hull.  Unless you are doing your last afk bash, it is worth insuring.  An all 5's pilot will pull (according to Pyfa) 671 DPS.  Approach your poco and stay entirely stationary and you may do a litte more with your guns.  A pair of these are sufficient with 1/2 way decent skills.

The shield tank is there only because you may actually be at keyboard if (when?) a gank happens.   So far, I have about a 60% chance of completing an afk poco bash and waking up the following morning with the ship intact.  (These days, I have other, more intensive methods - but the afk bash is how I first started).  Tech 1 laser ammo does not need to be reloaded nor do drones.

Any laser or drone boat can fulfil this role, chose one according to your skills.  (If you are using cruisers or below, you may wish to 'phone a friend/bring an alt')

AL3XAND3R. Alliance is recruiting

AL3XAND3R. alliance is a sov holding alliance in the Oasa region of null sec. We are part of the Pebble Pact Coalition.

We hold sov in 2 systems :  QYT-X8 and V0-H4L.  ( We also have a wormhole presence. )

We have people from all time zones - so there is always someone around.

We are committed to upgrading the systems to the max.

We have a market based buying program, and believe in keeping the market well stocked.

Different corporations in Alexand3r. have different focuses, so we can find a home for you.

We are looking for:

• Players with mature attitudes.
• Players who can work independently AND as part of a team as needed.
• Players who can join in chat discussions / general conversations / jokes etc.
• Players who want to have fun while working towards a goal.
• Players who understand the best defense is the willingness to use an offensive ship.

The majority of our people are English speakers - but we also have German / Norwegian / Estonian / Dutch / Bulgarians so we are a pretty mixed bunch.

We use Discord as our main comms system.

We require a full API Key with any application.
Corps applying will need to supply a full API Key for each member

If you need further info or want a chat please contact Head Teach or DoToo Foo.


Ps.  For readers of this blog, Al3xand3r. is the nullsec group that I stock my market with.

Bombs and cloaks

I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that bombs will decloak you with damage.

Earlier today, I was rolling a critical wh in a Higs anchor fit Nereus, on an alt pilot (because I mistakenly thought a Hic pilot was unavailable - oh well).

As such things go, I managed to get shut on the wrong side of the wh.  So ... I cloaked up and did other things.

Later I was startled by the sounds of combat.  (Combat sounds always startle me, even when I initiate it)

My shields have since regenerated and I went on to run sites with mains and not alts.  My cloak is still engaged.  I must say I was somewhat surprised.


TLDR; don't rely on bombs to decloak someone.

What I do in nullsec (trading)

Currently, in game, I am either looking after a (for profit) nullsec market in Oasa, or I am playing with C5 escalation sites.

This post is about my nullsec life, other posts comming soon (tm).

In Oasa, my plan is to be the seller that fills the gaps.  There are some other pilots that are efficient manufacturers of a few things.  However, Oasa is so far from markets, with unreliable jump freighter routes, that there are huge gaps in the market.  I have just trained up my 4th tycoon pilot.  1 pilot does a mix of buying ore and pi items, as is about to start doing invention (probably for ammunition and modules).  The other pilots do

I currently manufacture Tech 1 ammo, modules and hulls.  While many players with access to real markets prefer Tech 2, faction or meta modules, there are sufficient times that any module is better than no module.

Skillbooks are good selling items.  Build a market library and they will come.  There are some skillbooks that all players are automatically gifted with, and they don't sell too well.  Skip these:

• Mechanics,
• CPU management,
• Power Grid Management
• Gunnery
• Navigation
• Mining
• Astrometrics
• Science
• Spaceship Command
• Astronautic Engineering (no use skill)

While a racial frigate and weapon turret skill are handed out to all newbie pilots, there are still other races that will buy these skillbooks.  

In my corner of null, Tech 1 hulls are mostly covered by other players. Gnosis however are still imported and are popular.  Faction and Tech 2/3 hulls are still in limited supply.  While the Ishtar and Gila are popular ratting ships, others are also aware of this, so I generally sell other stuff.

I currently also import rigs, meta 4, tech 2 modules (though I do hope to start manufacture of these).  I also import 'difficult' things like cloaks. Whenever I feel that my cargo is over value, and I need something cheap and bulky to fill out a load, I will haul command centers for PI.

I resupply via wormholes, with the scanning, hauling and purchasing that requires, primarily using a largely unscratched Occator.  I am occasionally 'invited' to get a brand new Occator and pod, but ... I try really hard to avoid that.

Without understanding why, wardecs are a fact of life.  My solution is to fly an out of alliance highsec pilot to nearby the wormhole, and then swap ships with my nullsec pilot.  (The reason I don't understand is that surely it would be cheaper to put alts into ships and just blow them up to pad killboards ... we don't lose much).

My resupply method is inefficient and time consuming.  I am not afraid to charge for it, with some margins being significant.

I will form in defense fleets and strategic ops.  These do include the occasional gate camp removal gang or hauler escort, or even an entosis event.  I can't make as many of these events as I would like to, but contribute to ship replacement programs to cover others.

Our alliance does a lot of ratting and mining, and does roam.  I rarely do these things.

Nullsec corps are generally recruiting.  My nullsec pilots belong to Sons of Alexander, and if you would like to join either as a corporation or individual, feel free to shoot DoToo Foo an evemail.

Corporations wanting to join Al3xand3r. (our alliance) can contact Head Teach.

What I do in wormhole space (PI and escalations)

My most recent activity in wormhole space is that we have started C5 escalations.  I think we look more like a bunch of 6 year olds at our first martial arts bout, and a lot less like a bunch of hardened warriors.  So much dancing around and being stressed about losing stuff.  

We are using the c5-6 like a baws guide with a couple of variations.  Firstly our loki nos's the carrier for extra cap, which relieves the capacitor pressure from the initial archon.  Secondly we are slow, sooo slow.  If you find us when running a site and are looking to gank us, no need to rush. We will still be there when you get back.  Still escalation sites are profitable.  I just hope that we pay for our ships before the gankers arive.

I run a C1 -> Highsec PI wormhole, with an open invite policy (please see the recruitment link at the top of the page).  I buy PI and haul to market.  I still do some PI but not as much myself as I used to with the nullsec market and C5 escalations taking more of my time.

I also run a C2 -> Lowsec/C2 PI wormhole that is pretty quiet at the moment.  I recently stuffed up in here ... there were explosions and not of the good kind.  I am both incredibly relieved and wildly disappointed that only the ship maintenance arrays showed and dropped loot.  The storage and industry arrays array didn't show any loot.  That was not from a lack of loot in there.

Unlike in other parts of space, in wormholes I have hunted and ganked pilots and POS alike.  Not many, and not often.  In wormhole space however, you live and die by the F1 button.  If you want a defensive fleet, you will have to bring one.  You remain safe in wh space by being belligerent.

I am looking forward to citadels.  Assembly of Tech 3 cruisers, sharing space structures with out of corp pilots (friends and alts alike).  I have not read but I assume also contracts?  I have read that the entirety of the citadel will drop loot.  This should encourage more casual ganking of PI holes as there will be (lots more) profitable loot to be gathered.   I will have to decide whether to set up medium (3 hour vulnerability per week windows and 'cheap' ) or large (vulnerable twice as long with markets, and so much more expensive) citadels, but no need to decide just yet.

I made my first fortune, as an unskilled newbie, doing wormhole PI.  I still spend too much on various projects but ... oh well.  I am always recruiting for PI pilots in my wormholes. Whether you are a newbie pilot looking for more than highsec, or a PVP pilot looking to pay for ships, I am recruiting for more PI pilots.  If you are interested, please see the recruitment link at the top of the page.

I believe

There are some thing I believe in Eve

Players experiencing players 

Eve is a truly multiplayer game.  We interact with other players.  I sell ammunition.  I expect it to be returned 'slightly used'.   There are the hunters, and the hunted.  Occasionally there will even be some form of 'set fight', but we try to avoid that most of the time.  Sometimes we even hunt ore, or red crosses.

Circle of gank

I believe that there are 3 fitting philosophies of note.

Evasion fit or avoiding the fight. Stabs, Nano, Oversized prop mods, brick tanked, or even just oodles of capacitor.  This pilot just wants to GTFO  (get the far out .. or something like that).

Gank fit.  Faction scrams,  triple scram fit, high alpha, or a hundred catalysts.  This pilot wants to catch the evasion fit ship.  (I even stayed in faction warfare until I caught a stab fit farmer).

PVP fit.  This pilot wants to bring the best to a fight.  To win any engagement.

To me, Eve is a place where the good PVP pilot defeats the Gank fit; the good Gank pilot catches the Evasion fit, and the good Evasion pilot evades the PVP pilot.

Yes I believe in warp core stabilizers.  They encourage the ganker to choose between being hunter and prey.

Me?  I am usually prey.  I also know the very real limitations of warp core stabs.

Wormhole space is the best space for a small independent group

If you want a handful of pilots to have their own space, wormhole space every time.  Sure you can be a target (but that is true in all parts of eve).

Highsec was not for me.  As a newbie, I did not have the contacts or strength to hold a place in lowsec.  However wormhole space has been a good experience for me.

This includes making a small fortune with PI, building my sandcastle, and having others try to take it away (they nearly succeeded too).

Someone dedicated can take space.  But taking multiple spaces takes too much effort for the larger empire builders, so there is room for that small corp.

Ok I am biased, shoot me ... (and you probably will)

I like the effects of Fozzie Sov

I can't speak for all regions of nullsec, but in the deep northwest, what used to be monolithic ownership is now a nice ragtag collection of small alliances each 'owning' their own space.  Yes... the big boys could take it away ... and then we take it back.

I have read that groups are currently fighting over recently vacated north eastern space.

However no mechanic change will solve "bring them down".  Don't lend your strength to those that you wish to be free from.

Highsec needs iterating

Highsec is our new player experience, and we have a lot of players in highsec.  By all means, I want to encourage them to branch out into other spaces, but a few more rides in the park will never go astray.

Disclaimer: My use for highsec is Amarr, Jita and the occasional NPC trade hub.  Well sometimes I visit Dodixie, Hek and Rens ... but its still is buying or selling.

Player representation is good for the game

Eve has a great resource in it's player representation.  Usually, this takes the form of guides, blogs/websites, and third party tools.

Some of these players are opinionated, and wish to guide the future of Eve.  Sometimes CCP will listen, and even seek feedback.  Other times CCP will feel they are better off without some of this feedback.

I wish those play-styles compatible with mine to continue to influence both CCP and other Eve players.

The best defense against Echo Chambers is a diversity of opinion.  This means I want both us and them represented.  For many readers of this blog, I will often be 'us', but sometimes I will be 'them'.

Blogging/Reddit/Forums are other good ways to get player representation

CSM is one method of communication between player groups and CCP.  But we know that different player groups have other means of communication.

Grr

I fully understand that there are some players who's Eve life consists of ruining my Eve life.  In Eve, if they did not exist, it would be necessary to make them.   They just can't reasonably expect me to make it easier for them.