Life in Solitude: Week One

My HiSec WormHole

I recently joined my friend's corporation, "Solar Winds Trade Conglomerate" (SW-TC). We live in Solitude and are slowly building positive relations with our neighbors. There are a lot of opportunities for PvP and making money out here. We are currently recruiting, with a focus on bold newbies. If you're interested, hit me up in game (Xuixien) or join our in-channel: SWTC Lobby.

Mining Blue Ice in 0.4.

"We've lived in wormholes together, right?"

"Yeah."

"So just... do that. Living in Solitude is basically like living in a wormhole."

"...oh shit this will work."

It's Actually Pretty Great. And Busy.

I've wanted to live in Solitude since my earliest days in the game. There was just something appealing about the idea of "homesteading" - about being on the "frontier" of civilized space, yet not beholden to any SOV holding entity or WH group. But logistics held me back; it's actually very difficult to be self-sufficient in EVE Online, and unless you have a group of players willing to harvest and produce everything, you're tethered to the trade hubs. Trade hubs which are 30 jumps away through LowSec and NullSec.

But time's are changing. It's an era of opportunities in EVE, and now that I'm more experienced in the game, I'm in a position to take advantage of these opportunities. Lucrative ores have moved to LowSec? That's no problem - I used to mine in a WormHole, mining in LowSec ain't shit. Those very same WormHoles mean I don't have to rely on NullSec for my Zydrine and Megacyte, and that Jita and Amarr are never more than a few jumps away.

I honestly don't know why miners are so upset over the distribution changes. Fly cheap, pay attention, gather a bit of intel: profit. I've only lost one ship so far, a Venture, and that was ninja mining on an Athanor that was manned - a stupid risk, but that's what Ventures are for. That Venture had already paid for itself 10x over before it got blown up. (Speaking of which: CCPlease, it's ridiculous that a Citadel can even hit a frigate, let alone volley it, with anti-capital missiles. Please iterate this balance, thanks!)

Arkonor and Bistot in a C1 WormHole.

The Day to Day

Life in Solitude isn't like life in Jerma was. My day to day activities are much more varied. I log in without a set plan for the day. I might do some HiSec mining, I might run some anoms to get an escalation, I might scout some LowSec Athanors to plan ninja mining operations. Today I'm setting up PI and building Epithals. In a short while I'll be starting a library of frigate, destroyer, and cruiser BPOs. Hopefully I'll be putting those to use, stocking our corporation which, hopefully, will begin to grow.

Unlike most of HiSec, the belts in Solitude aren't overharvested. Every day I warp to my usual belts and they are full of fat rocks. And the LowSec anoms are just amazing. A "Small Crokite Deposit" usually contains one 80k Crokite rock and one 70k Crystalline Crokite rock. At current market prices that's almost 2bil after compression. Large deposits contain many billions of ISK in ore. People are coming from all over New Eden to seize upon these opportunities, setting up refinery stations throughout LowSec Solitude. I've even spotted Rorquals at some of the anoms - understandably, they were all a little shy and warped to station shortly after I landed my Buzzard on grid. But hopefully we'll be friends soon! I'd love to mine alongside a Rorqual!

Solitude also presents many opportunities for explorers. Because of it's low activity, Solitude is a hub for relic, data, and combat sites. Our CEO regularly runs the HiSec anoms with a Gila while he's in class. He loots the Officer spawn should it appear, and then runs any escalations he might receive at a later time. It's very good ISK with a low barrier to entry.

There's a lot of opportunities in Solitude. With the changes coming to industry the traditional "small gang" ships (frigates, destroyers, cruisers) will be much easier to produce using HiSec/LowSec ores only. Battleships will be much trickier, but this is a lucrative opportunity: PI products and ice are about to become a lot more profitable. Ice and PI will be needed for producing fuel blocks, a necessary component in reactions, and PI will be needed yet again for certain components required for the production of battleships, capitals, and supercapitals. Savvy capsuleers would be smart to scope out LowSec systems with cheap POCOs and an appropriate array of planets for the production of robotics, mechanical parts and various P1s.

Preparing for PI/Fuel profitability.

SW-TC's Future

I want to see my friend's corporation grow, and he agrees: it's time to grow. Things are starting to happen; we are building relationships with our neighbors, and a nascent coalition is beginning to form, just now implanting itself into the uterine lining of Solitude.

I want to see new players enlisting, coming out to Solitude. I'm in the process of stocking a library of frigate, destroyer, and cruiser BPOs. With the coming industry changes, building these ships will be ridiculously cheap and easy. I would like to be able to provide newbies with free ships to go out and PvP in. I want to see people joining us in our mining operations, ninja'ing moons, and growing our industrial sector.

Currently SW-TC is looking for warm bodies to fill roles. We need experienced people, yes - experienced industrialists, experienced FCs, experienced combat pilots. But we also need newbies - newbies who are willing to step up and try stuff out. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you're an old crusty vet or have only been playing for a year - we need people who "make things happen".

Contact me in-game: Xuixien or join our public lobby: SWTC Lobby.