It has been two months since my last post. In that time we have added roughly 30 new members. I asked two of our long standing members in timezones that I don't play in if they would be interested in assisting with recruitment. I think these numbers are showing that this has been paying dividends. Even though I am able to spend a good amount of time in game throughout the day, nothing compares to having active players in those timezones chatting with prospective members.
As a result of this influx, corp activity has been up. It is great to see so many players both Omega and Alpha excited about EVE. As a result of our recruitment, we are, of cousre, dealing with many players new to wormhole space which has always been a part of the corporation that I have loved. As important as it is to be good at what you do, it has always been more important to me to try to be a place where people can get into being active in wormhole space perhaps without some of the added pressure that some groups have to be good all the time.
Invariably, our new members ask "what do I do now?" I figured this was a good opportunity to answer that question in long form hopefully to benefit them and anyone else looking at wormhole space. To be fair, this comes from the perspective of how I run our corporation. As we were once dubbed we are "not good at much...but they fucking try". We accept that our culture causes us to be inefficient at PvP or perhaps more of a target than a combatant at times. It is, however, our ability to choose fun over drama and to embrace those limitations as part of our identity that, I think, makes us a corporation that creates long term relationships which, ultimately, is the strongest draw of EVE, the social game.
As a result of this influx, corp activity has been up. It is great to see so many players both Omega and Alpha excited about EVE. As a result of our recruitment, we are, of cousre, dealing with many players new to wormhole space which has always been a part of the corporation that I have loved. As important as it is to be good at what you do, it has always been more important to me to try to be a place where people can get into being active in wormhole space perhaps without some of the added pressure that some groups have to be good all the time.
Invariably, our new members ask "what do I do now?" I figured this was a good opportunity to answer that question in long form hopefully to benefit them and anyone else looking at wormhole space. To be fair, this comes from the perspective of how I run our corporation. As we were once dubbed we are "not good at much...but they fucking try". We accept that our culture causes us to be inefficient at PvP or perhaps more of a target than a combatant at times. It is, however, our ability to choose fun over drama and to embrace those limitations as part of our identity that, I think, makes us a corporation that creates long term relationships which, ultimately, is the strongest draw of EVE, the social game.
Wormholes 101 or WTF do I do now?
As our recruitment informtion says, we liken ourselves Combat Explorers. Not full time, rage rolling, max efficiency PvPers, but more casual explorers with teeth if not claws at times. To that end, we discourage large scale PvE in our chain. It fundamentally works counter to exploration and PvP. Members are not, however, discouraged from engaging in PvE in combat capable ships or using PvE to generate content. But as far as a primary ISK making activity, our members are encouraged to seek exploration content as well as the lucrative gas mining and PI activities available in wormhole space.
Exploration in wormhole space generally consists of searching low-class (class 1 through class 3) space for pirate data and relic sites with relic sites being the more consistently lucrative of the two. Pirate sites will have the name of a pirate faction in them such as Serpentis or Blood Raider. These are direct transplants of the same sites as found in null-sec to wormhole space and have no NPC "rats" to fight. This makes it an ideal location for even the most beginner explorer. Loot will range from 10-75M in a Relic site typically and Data sites are usually all or nothing affairs with more instances of nothing, much to our frustration.
I will often recommend to players to have one frigate for scanning equipped with as many scanning upgrades as you can fit on the ship given your skills and then have a second ship dedicated to hacking relics and perhaps another dedicated to data sites. I always make it a point to scan down data sites, despite their lower value, because Ghost Sites, which are very lucrative in wormhole space, are classified as data sites. Using a dedicated ship, while slightly less convenient does increase your chances of success while also speeding up your general scouting/scanning by using a ship dedicated to that activity as well.
Sleeper data and relic sites, also found in all areas of wormhole space, are essentially combat sites. The cans contain entirely different loot than pirate sites and is mostly worthless relative to the difficulty to access them by having to first clear all the NPCs. While some groups will clear the cans as a matter of course, it is not what we would recommend as it involves first engaging in a time consuming PvE activity followed by hacking for minimal value. There is some cherry picking of those sites that can be lucrative but that falls into the PvE area I described above and is for more advanced pilots.
Gas mining is another low investment but high dividend activity if you don't mind staring at your screen for 15 minutes at a time (or longer depending). It is great to perform on an alt or second account if available while doing other things on a main. The 15 minutes comes into play because all gas (and ore) sites in wormhole space will spawn sleepers roughly 15-20 minutes after they are warped to by anyone after spawning. This gives a small amount of time to freely extract the resources before having to deal with NPC ships. For the most lucrative gas in Class 5 or Class 6 space, this may be all the time you have because those NPCs require a small fleet to clear usually. For lower class sites, you may return in a capable cruiser or similar ship to kill the NPCs and then continue your gas harvesting. Either way, given the low cost of a venture (roughly 5M or so) and the potential value of your 15 minutes of harvesting, the activity pays for itself very quickly and the gas is plentiful in most wormholes.
The third activity we recommend is Planetary Interaction. We have an internal resource that covers the basics of how PI works as well as there being many great resources online covering the same. PI is especially valuable currently with Citadels and other structures using PI in large quantities in their construction. If you can handle the click-fest nature of the PI interface, it can be excellent passive income that scales well across multiple characters and accounts. Unfortunately, it is not an option for our Alpha brothers and sisters.
Wormhole space does require that you have a certain love for scanning, for searching your environment for the next connection, the next site, the next target. Your content will not be spoon-fed to you but something you seek out. Keep this in mind as a new player to wormhole space as it is very different than other areas of EVE. Corporation sizes are smaller and thus you are the content generator, not someone else. The environment changes from day to day and hour to hour so what you do will have to adjust accordingly. If that appeals to you, then you should do fine in wormhole space.
Exploration in wormhole space generally consists of searching low-class (class 1 through class 3) space for pirate data and relic sites with relic sites being the more consistently lucrative of the two. Pirate sites will have the name of a pirate faction in them such as Serpentis or Blood Raider. These are direct transplants of the same sites as found in null-sec to wormhole space and have no NPC "rats" to fight. This makes it an ideal location for even the most beginner explorer. Loot will range from 10-75M in a Relic site typically and Data sites are usually all or nothing affairs with more instances of nothing, much to our frustration.
I will often recommend to players to have one frigate for scanning equipped with as many scanning upgrades as you can fit on the ship given your skills and then have a second ship dedicated to hacking relics and perhaps another dedicated to data sites. I always make it a point to scan down data sites, despite their lower value, because Ghost Sites, which are very lucrative in wormhole space, are classified as data sites. Using a dedicated ship, while slightly less convenient does increase your chances of success while also speeding up your general scouting/scanning by using a ship dedicated to that activity as well.
Sleeper data and relic sites, also found in all areas of wormhole space, are essentially combat sites. The cans contain entirely different loot than pirate sites and is mostly worthless relative to the difficulty to access them by having to first clear all the NPCs. While some groups will clear the cans as a matter of course, it is not what we would recommend as it involves first engaging in a time consuming PvE activity followed by hacking for minimal value. There is some cherry picking of those sites that can be lucrative but that falls into the PvE area I described above and is for more advanced pilots.
Gas mining is another low investment but high dividend activity if you don't mind staring at your screen for 15 minutes at a time (or longer depending). It is great to perform on an alt or second account if available while doing other things on a main. The 15 minutes comes into play because all gas (and ore) sites in wormhole space will spawn sleepers roughly 15-20 minutes after they are warped to by anyone after spawning. This gives a small amount of time to freely extract the resources before having to deal with NPC ships. For the most lucrative gas in Class 5 or Class 6 space, this may be all the time you have because those NPCs require a small fleet to clear usually. For lower class sites, you may return in a capable cruiser or similar ship to kill the NPCs and then continue your gas harvesting. Either way, given the low cost of a venture (roughly 5M or so) and the potential value of your 15 minutes of harvesting, the activity pays for itself very quickly and the gas is plentiful in most wormholes.
The third activity we recommend is Planetary Interaction. We have an internal resource that covers the basics of how PI works as well as there being many great resources online covering the same. PI is especially valuable currently with Citadels and other structures using PI in large quantities in their construction. If you can handle the click-fest nature of the PI interface, it can be excellent passive income that scales well across multiple characters and accounts. Unfortunately, it is not an option for our Alpha brothers and sisters.
Wormhole space does require that you have a certain love for scanning, for searching your environment for the next connection, the next site, the next target. Your content will not be spoon-fed to you but something you seek out. Keep this in mind as a new player to wormhole space as it is very different than other areas of EVE. Corporation sizes are smaller and thus you are the content generator, not someone else. The environment changes from day to day and hour to hour so what you do will have to adjust accordingly. If that appeals to you, then you should do fine in wormhole space.
RSS Feed