It took a really long time to get all the skills trained for this day — it always seemed to be just one more skill I needed, and I think Mining V was the last I needed to fit the Modulated Strip Miner II asteroid crushers I’d bought a couple weeks ago in anticipation.
My target for my mining operation was 5m ISK/hour; if I could log in, spend a good hour mining, and come out 5m ISK richer, then I feel this side trip into mining on my way to my battle cruiser would be ultimately worth it.
Tracker Wolf’s lessons in PvP came in handy as I headed out to mine. I found a system that contained a station where I could sell Veldspar for a decent amount, and jetted around the system a little looking for good places to place a safe spot. While warping between two nondescript, station-less planets, I dropped a bookmark in the middle of nowhere, tens of AUs from any warpable destination.
I warped back to it and just hung in space there. Nothing on the scanners. There was nothing of interest anywhere. This was a safe spot, and even if I had been in low security space, the effort required to find me would give me more than enough time to get to safety, even in the super-slow aligning mining barge.
This would be where I would drop my jetcan with my mining yields. If I wasn’t right there with it, the can would be absolutely invisible to can flippers. I’d learned the folly of keeping a jetcan next to me while I mine. It’s just an invitation to flippers.
I flew to the belts I’d checked earlier, released my mining drone, selected two Veldspar-rich asteroids and set to work. I was soon joined by a few others, two people in Incursus (Gallente mining frigates) and one in an Iteron Mark III (hauler), so it was clear they weren’t there for trouble, but I called my mining drone back and sent out a combat drone just in case. Not that I thought I’d be attacked in 1.0 space, but just because I realize now that I don’t know all the different ways people can use to destroy my ship, and having a drone out would maybe just be a sign to a potential griefer that I was not the easiest target in the sky.
Though with that Iteron out there, I really didn’t need to worry. “Iteron” means “low hanging fruit” in the lowsec pirate lingo.
It took about ten minutes to fill my hold, about two minutes to warp to my jetcan dead drop, drop off a load and warp back (always to a different spot in the belt via bookmarks set while mining), and after about 40 minutes, ferried everything to the station I would be selling it and sold it. It was about 370K ISK per load in the end, and it’s clear that even though the price was decent for Veldspar, it was a far cry from my 5M/hour target. And I might not be able to find a good decent price over 12 ISK/unit every time I want to mine; prices around 11 are far more common, so all told, I’ll be making about half of what I wanted.
Moving on from here is possible; learning skills to reduce the taxes on selling my ore will help; being able to sell things region wide instead of just in the station I’m in would let me sell into stations in lowsec space which have better prices; learning skills to mine faster or with more efficiency could decrease the time I need to fill my hold. There’s lots of things I can do, but I don’t think I will ever hit my target; I might be able to squeeze 3M ISK/hour out of mining in my current region, eventually.
This is still faster money than Level I mission running, though.
You are peacefully mining in one of the safest places in the game, your stash is well hidden in the immensity of space and the only people around are obviously non combatants yet still you are paranoid enough to worry that they might be up to something.
Well done Tipa you have summed up the ever present feeling of danger that to my mind is such a special part of EVE.
This is EVE, just because you can’t see danger doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
Well, I have a better idea how pirates work now, having been one. They sit in dead space and use system scanners to pinpoint the position, capabilities and likely value of every target in the system. Then they choose the likeliest one and pounce. The particular system I was in was unlikely to be a place for pirates, but can flippers can operate in 1.0 as easy as anywhere else, and I’m still way new to this so who knows what other nefarious schemes to separate me from my life have I just not encountered yet?
It will come in handy when I’m mining in 0.5-0.7 space, where the more valuable ores lie, so it’s good to get in the habit of being safe. That’s the number one lesson I learned in PvP — be aware of everyone in your vicinity.
I like that EVE is dangerous, but you can learn to be safe if you do basic things like not hanging out near warp destinations or appearing to be unaware of your neighbors.
Congratulations!!! I couldn’t play this week. I’ve had company coming and going which has squeezed my writing time. I can’t wait to join you as your wing-girl in lower sec areas.
First, congratulations!
That having been said, I could NEVER be happy with doing boring mining for an hour and only have 5 million ISK to show for it. Sure you can watch TV or something else while mining, but 5M isk for an hours worth of work?
My time is much more valuable than that.
To give an example. Right now 60 day game time cards are selling in Eve’s timecode bazaar for 750 million ISK.
A 60 day card costs $34.99
That means it costs about $0.23 (yes, 23 cents) to buy 5 million isk.
So that means if you spent an hour to accumulate that in game, your being paid 23 cents an hour.
Don’t you think your worth more than 23 cents an hour?
Congrats on your new mining gear!
I don’t have any paranoid mining stories to tell about eve. I’ve just joined(1 weeks worth of skills) and decided to go the combat route. Had a fully decked Merlin and lost it last night to rats on the epic story chain. That was sucky, 30 minutes flight time back to base to refit my new ship, a caracal. So I’ll probably head out there tonight with my new super heavy missiles and blast rats from 30 km, much better than shield tanking and relying on turrets to do the good work.
As always, I enjoy reading the storiesabout your exploits in eve!
@Robert – In speaking to Letrange, he was telling me that he knows plenty of PVP players that do just that – they purchase the TC and sell them for ISK. For them, it’s all about the PVP and they don’t want to spend time mining or doing PVE for income.
It’s an interesting option and I think it works in EVE without the community screaming bloody murder because ships are expensive AND you can’t fly more than your skills worth. So you can have all the ISK in the universe but if you don’t have the skills to fly it you can’t. If you don’t have the experience to protect it even after you have the skills to fly it, it will go boom right along with your purchased ISK. EVE has a good balance in that regard.
I’m fairly noobish at EVE myself, so this may sound silly, but…wouldn’t it be better to refine the Veld to Trit and then sell it?
With a Retriever and a jetcan closeby, I can pull down 1million ISK+ per hour in hi-sec. The million comes from mining and the plus comes from loot and salvage. I think you may need a mining gang or a bigger mining barge to hit your 5million/hour mark.
The last time I actually had time to play EVE, I was doing random ratting for salvage in the belts. I noticed that MANY miners destroy the rats but don’t salvage so I kindly cleaned up behind them. 🙂
@HZero — no, refining at my current level would net me far less ISK than selling the raw Veldspar. I’ll fix that at some point, but with the inefficiency and fees, it’s just not worth it. However, I could probably TRANSPORT it more easily. My biggest problem with Veldspar is getting it where it needs to go; I can mine a jetcan full, but to carry that to another system is nearly impossible. I might chance a single trip to a lowsec system to sell, but I won’t make six trips there.
Because it had been a long night, I sold 3/4 of a jetcan of Veldspar at the local station for 2.5M ISK — a phenomenally bad deal. And I did feel bad about it, but not bad enough to make a 7 jump hop (and 7 jumps back) to a decent price six times.
Mining so far is a bust.
A properly fitted Iteron V can fit the contents of an entire jet can in its cargo hold, and large-scale transportation is useful for every pilot from missioners to miners to PvP’ers. Gallente Industrial was the first skill I trained to 5 myself. Also, when you start mining in less than 0.8 sec space you can anchor giant secure containers with a password in the asteroid belts to wholly prevent can flipping without having to warp every other minute to a safe spot. Secure containers also expand how much you can carry in your cargo hold since they take up less space than they can carry. If they could be nested you could technically have infinite cargo space on any ship in the game. 😉
I just started EVE myself after a few years of Wo. Wish I would have known about EVE sooner!
By the way, you do know that the Strip Miners II have a lower base yield than the T1 versions until you can use the crystals in them. If you do not have the crystals skills use the tier 1 version till you skill up.
Get 2 accounts train one for hulk and another for hauler. Easily make 7- 10mil an hour mining 0.5 sec . use stripminers 2 and mine kernite and omber first then strip enitre belt.
Just starting in EVE and been reading all your old blog post Labeled EVE and so far have found them entertaining, captivating and inspiring. As well just reading through the post I’m acquiring knowledge of some things I’m aware of playing the game and makes more sense.
The beauty of learning from someone else’s experience is that its priceless if you gain a bit of wisdom from it.