War’s over, Life goes on

So time has again run its course and the Highsec Wardec that was, got Retracted by Privateer Alliance. Obviously they decided to end the War a day or 2 early. I can’t blame them it was a boring quiet War! Just the way I like things.

And so its back to business as usual, though the normal course of everyday business really didn’t change all that much during the Wardec as compared to after the Wardec. I guess deciding not to dock at Amarr Station and make more use of contracts was a little bit of change but not all that much. For the most part and throughout my corporate life in highsec so far I’ve never talked much about life in the corporate ranks. I have a great dislike for drama and an even greater dislike for corporate politics. At most I barely ever talk about corporate life, and I’ve barely dwelled on it. Though at times I do reflect on corporate life as life evolves in space.

But it was a very quiet War! We hardly ever saw the Corp/Alliance ranks that Wardec’d us and as far as I know they barely had much to shoot at as well for easy target kills from out Corp at least. I did a few times while flying the Covert Ops thru Amarr System and saw some from the Wardec Corp in local. And again saw some on my way heading somewhere in Lonetrek region again camping some gate there as I waved passing by in the shadows. The war was a boring and a quiet one at best, barely anyone was around as well from the corporate ranks including some of upper management. I think it was the 4th back to back to back to back War in recent weeks for out Corp/Alliance. And if you half way think like I do you can’t help but find them all beyond suspicious. I don’t know if some the recent Alliance drama had anything to do with it either, it can be hard to say. Compared to the months before that point its an anomaly I would say with all the recent Wardec’s. However during all that time I’ve spent a great deal of time in New Eden just observing the random coming and going of some of the corporate ranks.

On most days around Empire space I just go about my business day to day doing whatever Market & Trade activities, R&D and various amounts of Industrial Production mixed in. Life for me is a solitary one at best doing the things I enjoy doing. If life in EVE is supposed to be a social one, I’m not one to socialize all that much. On most days I would glance at the Corporate Communications window and maybe the Alliance Communications window if there is anything interesting to view. Yet I do spend a lot of time in various Comms windows looking at what other Market Traders are also chatting about as well while going about daily business. However it was glaring obvious that over the course of the various Wardec’s of recent weeks that they was barely any of the corporate ranks around. Slowly by slowly they all seeming disappeared. It was also the holiday season as well. But I must have missed a memo or something maybe.

Much of the corporate ranks it seem wasn’t enjoying the inconvenience of the various Wardec’s and so over the course of the various Wars fewer and fewer of the ranks showed up daily if at all in space. Corporate activity was almost near flatlined. It wasn’t too obvious at first as I went about my daily activities in and around various regions of space, often just hanging in the dead of space in the shadows conducting business across the various regions. Make contracts as needed to get things done or things moved from place to place as needed.

A casual check at the Corporate Communications window and it was easily obvious over time that other than myself there was maybe only one other person around at most and no one else much of the time. I would almost say over the course of a week or two I logged more time in space than all of the corporate ranks combined probably. It didn’t bother me all that much, as I spend much of the quiet times viewing listening to other Market Traders in other Communications window or reading a blog in space.

I guess as a result of the Wardec some of the corporate ranks just choose to do other things maybe vs reporting to life in space. Maybe they felt the draw of the recent galactic force in a galaxy far away and choose to entertain the prospect of life there. Yet holidays is a busy time and some of the corporate ranks were obviously busy as well. With some recent Alliance drama as well it was understandable why some would choose not to show up regularly in space and avoid such things. Who really likes drama? Not me for sure. And so many were the ways that one would witness enduring silence in the Corporate Communications window, with no one else around. The quiet times slowly passed by during the Wardec in corp making for a nice boring War. And I was often left wondering….. where was everyone. Obviously some people hadn’t been around for weeks as well.

And so a new year has started, the holidays are over and maybe things will change and life will again return to the corporate ranks in space. The last of the recent string of Wardec is now over for now. Yet I wonder when the next one will be lurking around the corner for who knows why. Amazingly as the Wardec’s ends some life seem to be returning to the corporate ranks. A few faces are back around again and adding life to the silence that was. Some corp members who haven’t been seen in a while as well.

It’s slowly no longer seem to be the quiet empty place it was for the last several weeks. War’s over, Life goes on in highsec space.

Starting another year off in New Eden

Where I've been in New Eden as of January 1st 2012

Took a screenshot to document as of the beginning of the year where my main character have been so far in New Eden. I seem to travel allot all over Highsec Space. Well I’m primarily a Trader doing Regional Trade mostly. Though I do a bit of Industrial & Research activity as well.

As of the beginning my main character was at 28.1 Million Skill Points and started the year training Large Energy Turret 5 with another 20 days to go to complete training for using T2 Turrets and Laser Crystals. For my alt Trader I have him training Metallurgy 5 and somewhere around 25 Million Skill Points.

Wallet balance as of January 1st, 2012.

Started the year with a nice balance of 19 Billion ISK and will see what I can do with it in the year or maybe go broke maybe. Back in 2011 I had started the year at right around 3 Billion ISK. There is a total of about 7.58 Billion of Sell Orders across 7 Regions on the market and 900 M in Buy Orders across 2 Regions. For the most part Trade sales remain steady in growth and in investment.

Shiny ships don’t really motivate me all that much and my favorite ship that I fly daily remain my tiny Covert Ops Buzzard of which I have several and use almost exclusively daily. As well my Crane to move a few bigger things around that I can’t cram in the tiny frigate.

The Wardec continues and haven’t seen the enemy since the start of the Wardec, will see what happens over the next few days.

Winter Prep Continues

Life in high security space continues, on most days it may not be as interesting as life as a pirate in the fast lane or life in null sec. But we all as capsuleers play a part each in our own way in the giant connected web of all that goes on in New Eden no matter where you may be. At the moment life in Corp/Alliance for Ametius means we are dealing with a current War Dec and one of several for the last few weeks. Its had some amount of impact on current activities and some planned activities but overall I’m still able to fly about to various regions and check on business.

Ametius usually fly his Covert Ops Buzzard one of several and one rigged as a high-speed shuttling on most of his travels so means can fly fly in the shadows of space even in high sec space during War times. Recently he’s completed training for Transport Ships 4, so can now fly covert transports. A luxury my other half and Trader Alothos has had for some time. So now also have the option to move stuff around with more speed and in the shadows even during a War Dec if need be. Just today delivered almost half a million ammo to another region in my Crane to one of my trading stations.

T2 Transport Ship Production: Crane

In recent Inventions efforts I was able to invent several T2 Crane BPC’s (5). So having recently completed some training for Transport Ships I decided to do a little shopping for basic materials and piece by piece build all the necessary components since i can build all the T2 ship components. Over the course of 2 days in production I was able to complete and produce my very first deep space transport ship a Crane. It was also the most expensive T2 ship so far I’ve ever produced at Ardent Research labs. It’s also much cheaper ship produced myself than market price. I like it, it’s a sexy looking fast cruising Covert Ops Transport Ship. But it felt good to yet build another T2 ship I can fly all the way from Inventing, checking every bolt and components for QA my self.

Winter will soon be here and the Invention facility at Ardent Research has been busy inventing many modules in anticipation and speculation for winter. Many of the new soon to be T2 modules I’ve had as assets has either been copied for BPC’s or still in copy mode at the copying facility to be ready for invention.

On the PI factory processing planet the facility has been busy for the last two to three weeks now making lots of P4 for Winter stocking needs and in anticipation before the tax increase at the planetary custom offices. Plan was to produce all the Advance PI material and ship them off planet before Winter. Still I have quite a considerable stock of PI P1 material on hand at hanger for market needs since I’ve never usually sell much my PI stock.

On another note I had decided to stock up and hedge my bet on PI material shortages when changes were first announced. Thus in my own region on Buy Orders In a three system radius I invested somewhere around 1.6 Billion ISK buying up PI material on market orders. That included several hundred thousands of units of various amount of PI material. Plan is to sell it later for higher profits as market prices increase for PI material. But after buying up all that amount of material I had to go and collect it. Not very fun or productive use of time. As just in a three system radius and at numerous amounts of system stations it took me several hours zipping back and forth in a Bestower across various solar systems to collect, aggregate at various stations then eventually all the collected stock. Even had to send a contract to my other half Alothos to pull out the Freighter and pick up a load as it was too much to keep moving in a Bestower. Collecting PI material scattered in just a 3 system radius is as bad as buying minerals across a few system or region and having to collect it.

In preparation for Winter decided to Invest 2 Billion ISK in Minerals. That probably the most I’ve ever invested in minerals all at one time. I’m not much of a miner, I barely pass as a would be part time miner to say the least. But I need mineral stock to do my business and build things and increase profits. I’m anticipating the need to build things like some new BC’s and for T2 Production needs and I figure I better be prepared ahead of time to do so and not be caught short on needed material stock. It’s hard to build many things as an Industrialist without a ready stock of material or mineral. So an investment in minerals should come in handy for production needs for Winter. Given the current War Dec having station Buy Orders up as a Trader seem to be working out quite well to acquire all the minerals needed to stock up.

First T2 produced

Well things so far have been progressing ok. Trading activity is up, profits have been increasing slowly, and I managed to make my first T2 item. It turned out my T2 item produced wasn’t what I anticipated my first T2 item was going to be. But I can’t complain since I acted on a thought, and in the end made a good profit producing and eventually selling almost all of the batch of Mining Drones II.

A few days ago back when I had started to roll the Invention wheel I needed to make some EWar Drones from a BPC pack I had picked up in Jita a few days before. I was short some amount of minerals to make the drones I needed to make. So warped out to the local belt and went mining for the few extra minerals I needed. For a small amount of minerals that won’t take me too long to mine, I usually don’t mine mining it my self in my Retriever. Often the trip out to the mining belt to mine a few minerals is really a distraction for me to freely think about things and ideas or just browse the regional market while shooting lasers at rocks. Sometime read a few blogs.

I can’t remember what I was thinking about but was randomly browsing the market looking at stuff and somehow something I saw gave me a though. Out of curiosity I started looking at contracts market for a researched blueprint, and in the process found a contract to bid on to probably acquire. I figure the blueprint was selling at a deal and much below NPC price so was going to head to Forge Region after to bid on the contract. As well I kept looking curiously at contracts and saw some T2 copies of the same blueprint. I wasn’t really looking to buy a T2 blueprint however I came across a 100 run T2 print of the blueprint I was going to bid on contract for. If I was going to use the purchase print for invention it was also going to take me some days to make copies of to use, i’ll maybe pick up the T2 copy. The T2 blueprint cost about 10 million ISK. So I ran some numbers on my yellow sticky note pad and looked back at the regional market. I figure I could make a profit!

After a brief mining session and some thought, headed off to the Forge Region and Jita. Bid on the contract for the researched blueprint I wanted and also purchased on contracts a T2 100 run copy of the same blueprint. I figure whats the worst that can happen, I buy a blueprint for 10 million ISK, make the item and they don’t sell. Sometime you make ISK sometime you loose ISK. I’ll take the gamble.

Eventually got back to my region with the T2 blueprint. The other contract I eventually did won a few hours later. I looked at the T2 blueprint and proceeded to start making all the parts from scratch required to eventually make the drones. Had to manufacture several items from minerals and components including producing a batch of 100 T1 drones, some R.A.M components, something else I can’t remember and several hundred Robotics. Sent an order for the Robotics down to my PI factory planet to retool and start manufacturing several hundred Robotics. Whole process of making all the parts and components took several hours in the factory to about a day or so. Eventually had all the parts and then sent them all along with the T2 blueprint into the station factory to manufacture a batch of 100 Mining Drones II. I can’t remember how long that took but it was almost a day to manufacture all the drones.

The drones eventually came out the factory and was finally happy to have produced my very first T2 item a batch of Mining Drones II. That excitement was short-lived as I needed to make my money back. In the time it had took me to purchase the T2 blueprint, manufacture all the parts and components to make the drone a few people had dumped several drones on the market in the region. So was a little worried as was uncertain how well they would sell. I had already calculated my cost and what I was looking to sell them for to make back a profit. Instead of putting 100 new T2 drones on the market I just placed about a quarter of them on the market in my system and hauled a few to another station I also trade at in same region. Sold half of the drones a few hours later selling out all the drones I placed in my system. I was a bit surprised they had sold so fast. So placed the rest of the drones on the market.

Just a bit over 2 days later, sold 95 of the 100 Mining Drones II produced. Not only did I make all my ISK back for all the materials including the cost of the T2 print, but also made a modest 37 million ISK profit also. Not bad for producing my first T2 item from scratch. I as well had fun with the whole process of making the drones for my first T2 product.

Drifting through Life in Hi-Sec Space

Its been a while, but I’m very much out there in space. Though can seem like lots to talk about, it can sometime be hard to find a reason to even talk about it or stop long enough to reflect and also talk about some aspect of life in high sec space or the feeling of it. Sometime time seem to pass slowly in space maybe because it’s so vast a universe and places in between so distant. Yet in 30 days it will be almost 1 year as a capsuleer for Ametius in space and just slowly cruising by 16.2 million skill points. Hard to believe that much training and time have flown by. However for much of the last two to three months seem like just been drifting through life in high sec space.

I’ve been wondering a bit why I’ve been feeling that way from time to time and not quite sure why. But I guess it began some maybe four or five months back maybe when I was more active and busy at life mostly as a Trader and part-time Industrialist and Researcher. Trading is my main activity and spent a lot of time growing a business trade network across various regions of space in Eden and was having a great time working at it. Some people station trade all day long in some the main market hubs. I actually enjoyed visiting various regions of space, finding a need in a region or my region, moving trade items across regions in the process and filling that need. Helping grease the economic engine of EVE in my little way. And for that profits at almost the end of the year edged right at 4.77 Billion almost all from Trading activities and some small amount from manufacturing activities. Profits was really good for all the billions of miles traveled all over regions of space making that profit. But it was work.

Managing over 300+ trade orders daily I was a bit burned out  and needed a change of pace. I remember talking about that sometime back how I had managed to max out my trader at the Tycoon skill level. All active trade slots he had and on my main character was filled. And everyday I would manage and reinvest profits into more materials and move it across I believe at the time was 8 regions daily as needed. As fun as it was, and as much as I learned doing that I was tired and a bit burned out. I needed to also reduce my trade load to something more manageable, whatever that was I was unsure. I decided I was going to let all the trade sell orders figure themselves out naturally over time on the market. So for much of the month of december I just left all my trades on the market and took a break from daily life in Eden. I went and did other things non capsuleer and space related to free my mind of it mostly and just have a break only maintaining my training matrix. I just went and played in other reality universe for a mini break.

After about a month and returning to life as a capsuleer in space I slowly restarted to again actively manage my trades and slowly make progress managing regional activity. My total trade sell orders were down by about half slowly selling off over that period of time which was great. Yet for the month to follow I didn’t add anything new to my trade business and neither did I replenish anything in any region/station that sold out. Nothing was added to trade. Only thing I did was make sure my sell orders were competitive and up to update all my market sell orders.

The rest of life in space outside of trade activities just progressed as normal spending time in region doing some manufacturing activities, some light mining for manufacturing, R & D activities with blueprints ME/PE research, contract research and a mission or two from my agent if I could get that far to think about it. Time passed by, trade orders continued to sell off which continued to reduced my trade orders and profits increased but rose much slowly than before. However I just kept doing other things as usual mostly which was also fun in different ways.

Life was just much slower checking on things once a day and visiting regions ever few days or so yet never adding anything new. Profits rose but just more slowly and I guess was just ok with that. Yet just kept working other things such as Planetary Interaction trying to tune my high sec planetary setups and making P1-P4 items though mostly P4 for manufacturing other items. R & D efforts continued researching blueprints in high sec with a lot of efforts to try to schedule and anticipate use of facility. Some invention efforts as well followed. Continued doing some light mining and manufacturing efforts as well to make use of all the various researched blueprints as assets in my hanger. And every now and then run a lvl 4 mission when i felt like it. And as such life just continued to progress at what seemed a slower pace.

In all that period of time corporate wardec’s came and past and training continued non stop. Was finally able to finish Amarr Frigate 5, having also completed Caldari Frigate 5 sometime back. This mean I can now fly both Amarr and Cladari covert ops and Stealth Bombers which occupy my hanger. I spent some time filling in holes in training in various combat skills and learning some missile skills as well as finally learning Torpedo skills for my Stealth Bombers. Eventually was also able to train Assault Ships 3 and then Battleship up to lvl 4 as well recently. At some point still need to shift back to completing some R & D science skills for research as am still lacking some skills to be able to do Inventions in some areas. Still have to fill in gaps in some my trade skills that I had yet to get back around to for Ametius that i’m only just getting back around to. So much it seem to need to learn and not seem like enough time to learn it all to be effective to various degree. For my trader Alothos he was able to complete Transport ship 4, ORE Industrial 1-4, Astrometrics 4, various amounts of missile and torpedo skills. Also fly a fully functional covert ops Caldari Frigate and now filling in some core ship skills.

And so time has just seem to drift on by and much of it has seem like a blur reflecting on things. In many ways the change of pace has been less exciting but i needed a change of pace for a while and sometime a exit from New Eden to see and do other things in moderation to prevent my own internal burnout in space. Trading profits has slowed and that has been a concern along with daily fierce market competition. I’ve spent some amount of time in the slow lane away from the daily zipping across space and regional markets to doing more manufacturing, R & D and other things also profitable. It feels allot less profitable doing bare manufacturing than the high stakes life trading that comes with risking millions, hundreds of millions and billions of ISK to make more ISK.

So when I reflect back on the time gone by in space, I needed a change of pace for a time.  Yet because of it I also felt like i’ve just been drifting through space somehow on the cosmic wind doing other things. And for many days/weeks it just hasn’t felt that exciting to sit at the space deck and write about it. Many days it just felt better to lay out on the space couch and take a long nap with career on autopilot.