Life in a Wormhole: One of the Little Days, One of the Big Days #eveonline

It's been a quiet couple of days in the home system. People have been in and out, but I keep hearing rumors of some other MMO that's got folks all giddy and since I can't get into the early access yet have better things to do, it's just been me and a few other pilots puttering around and clearing a few Sleeper anomalies as they crop up locally.

This holiday season has got a very Star Wars-y feel to it.


But after a few days of that, I get a bit stir-crazy and go poking into our neighboring systems within unknown space. Hello, what's this? Another abandoned system like the one Bre sold last week? One that clearly hasn't been touched by anyone for weeks and weeks? Why yes, yes it is. The system is positively overflowing with Sleepers to shoot and there isn't an active tower in sight (which is odd, since it's actually a pretty good system for colonization).

I could make some pretty good money just poking at this by myself, but I can't stand to see money left lying on the ground (as it were), so I place a scanning alt character in the system in hopes of a future sale, then fire up a flare to let all of our pilots know about the riches that await. That evening sees everyone logged in and ready for some money making. We set up proper operations, with Shan conducting salvage and acting as lookout while the rest of us convert Sleepers into shrapnel and money. The end result of about two hours of flying is a bit over 650 million isk in profit, split between the pilots involved.

Since I hate splitting up the actual loot itself with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, I volunteer to haul all the bits and bobs out to a market to sell, then distribute the cash proceeds appropriately -- anything else is like trying to have five people pay 13.95 for two large pizzas when all anyone has is twenty dollar bills.

Math: Threat or Menace?


While out in the known world, conveniently close to our old home base, I decide to move our corporate headquarters out of the system of Jel (our former stomping grounds) to a system with far lower rent. Jel is great, but paying 65 million isk a month for an in-station office is an awful lot of wasted cash for something you no longer use. Our new home (which I find after a bit of research and flying around) is closer to more markets, cheaper by a factor of over thirty, and isn't as generally out of the way.

Once the office is properly set up, I open transport contracts with the player-run Red Frog Freight (which specializes in high-sec hauling services) to move all the stuff we want to keep, then sell off anything we're truly not using, which unfortunately includes my Ishtar heavy assault ship.

Don't get me wrong: the Ishtar is a great ship, and we've had some good times together, but for sleeper combat I've found it's generally outperformed by the (much, much uglier) Gila cruiser, and I just can't see the point in owning the thing if I'm never, ever, ever going to use it. It makes me a bit sad, since the ship is built on the Vexor-class hull, one my favorite ship designs in the game, but it's still the best thing to do until I can figure out a better way to fit the thing.

Also, if I sell it, I can use the proceeds to buy a Vagabond heavy assault ship with virtually no buyer's remorse whatsoever, which is basically a win-win for me. The Ishtar relies very heavily on drones for its damage and is rather anemic in the guns department (I know some pilots use it for PvP, but I can't see myself doing that, and as a mission ship, it's beat out by the Gila), whereas the Vagabond is a bit of a terror when fit with some cruiser-sized auto-cannons, and is generally a more entertaining ship to fly, since it's so bloody fast. Zooooom. Say it with me. Zoooooooom.

Random gunfire and overheated propulsion modules. Two great tastes that taste great together.


I've been looking forward to owning one for awhile, as the almost steampunk-like design of the thing appeals to me, and cuts the sting of selling the Ishtar substantially.

I can't quite fit it the way I feel I must before I can risk it in PvP, however, so I leave it in the market up for now as an incentive to stick to my training plan for another week, and get ready to head back home.