Day Five : The Renumeration Fixation

So - day 5 and I don't have much time at home. I'm grabbing something to eat and going round a friends house for a couple of hours.

I jump into EVE and rename the large long Iteron class cargo hauler. Its now called "Hot Dog". I jump out from Couster (the backwater safe system you start doing missions in - there is only one jump gate out) to Algogille a safe 0.9 system that isn't that crowded and sits on the border with the Caldari zones. I'm a "Gallente", there are two other nation state equivalents.- 

All my raw materials for manufacturing are already at Algogille. I send the Hot Dog out mining while I cook and eat tea. I grab and sell the ore. Before I go I take a look at ship I haven't really found a use for yet. A Frigate of the Tristan class, small but with more medium and high power slots than the other frigates I have. It turns out 2 of the high power slots can't take guns - they are launcher hardpoints. For a laugh I learn missle skills and kit it out with a missle launcher. The launchers look cool on the ship, it now looks more like a gunship. Missle performance is comedy at best but is different to firing guns at stuff. The Tristan class looks suited to a plan I haven't got to yet - exploring and scanning stuff and then scavenging what I can. Archaeology skill book being 900k has delayed this.

Heres the Tristan class frigate (aka "The Fat Man"):

http://eve.wikia.com/wiki/Tristan

Imagine it with two massive banks of missles on the two lower struts

Eventually I name it the "Boss Hogg"

Before I head out - I take a gamble. I send the Hot Dog out mining, orbiting an asteroid then minimize EVE and turn the monitor off. Its insured so the maximum I can lose is about 80k including the insurance cost.

Two or so hours later : the ship is still there and there is 500K worth of ore in it. It'd be worth more refined if I had decent refining skills. Which I don't.

I sell the ore and check my wallet. I have around 52 MILLION credits. I also have an in game email from my cousin who I told not to send me money. He said the game was hard enough without having no cash. I'd been thinking that was part of the thrill. Unlike say WoW where no cash at the start is irritating, no cash at the start of EVE is scary. Scary is good.

I go to bed a bit deflated by this windfall.

By morning my plans and schemes have been rebooted thanks to insomnia making me stare at the ceiling for 3 hours during the night. Who cares about the 50 mill? I was basically going to grind that as I learnt new skills (you queue them and learn them over time, even when logged out). The WoW mentality of grinding is still with me. I can still do that and refine the minerals for the crafting I've got planned! In the end I decide to keep the 50 million but never spend it unless I'm gunned down to zero cash at some point and can't face restarting all over. From now on I'll leave it out of my calculations.

I razz the 800K I made yesterday on skill books and queue them up. I've so many plans I'm turning into an all rounder. I might as well get as many skills to level 1 as I can. I'm tempted by 900k Archaeology simply because I want it. It brings me close to the 50 million that I now think of as something between venture capital funds and an emergency fund. Basic skillbooks, the items that allow you to start learning a particular skill, are cheaper back in the Couster system at the naval training academy. Presumably this is because everyone starts there and the market is big. Once I get all the basics I need to move my ships one by one (packed into a cargo hauler) to the next system down, Algogille. It has more links via jump gates. Theres a 0.6 security system only 3 jumps from it, thanks to it sitting next to the border maybe. Mining and exploration there will be the next experiment.

Plans for the weekend:

Earn 900k mining while watching Game of Thrones. Buy Archaeology and other exploration skills and head out in the Boss Hogg. Possibly in lower security space.

Try "jet canning". Thats basically mining with a fast miner that has no cargo space and storing ore in a floating cannister. You then run to the station and come back with a hauler and pick it up. Someone might have nicked it though.....

Build the frigates from the blueprint I have and send one of them to Jita, to have a look at this famous trade hub that go so blitzed I ended up playing this damn game.

Possibly start a blog - say "Diaries of a Space Noob" ....