Welcome to the twenty-fifth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s topic comes to us from @Tetraetc – “Tetra’s EVE Blog” – who asks: “Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts wherever. Would the reduction of the alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (or the modifcation of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?”

Have alliances and the sovereignty system limited the potential amount of PvP in null-sec? No I don’t think they have, they might have impacted the scale of the PvP, but surely not the amount. There’s plenty of PvP in null-sec, actually just as much as you want to do yourself, if you want more, plan more ops, simple.

And has it limited the amount of RP? I don’t think it did that either, it allowed for large alliances to form, of which some are even RP alliances, so I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of RP out there.

And a null-sec without sovereignty, I don’t really think that would really change a lot, it would cause a bit of panic in the beginning but everyone would eventually settle down and not a lot would change, why would groups suddenly splinter without the actual sovereignty mechanics, I just don’t see that happening.

And if you could place a station anywhere it would still require a good amount of control over the location because you would get crushed by anyone if you don’t.

We as the human race will always form groups, and we’ll always end up with power blocs, in New Eden, and in the real world, regardless of explicit ownership of a certain region of space by some mechanic, as we’ve seen before in New Eden, we don’t need an actual game mechanic to achieve things, we’ll just abide by unwritten rules.

~Xeross

Participants

• CrazyKinux’s Musing: EVE Blog Banter #25: And by Alliance you mean…..?
• BB25 What sov changes will come? | A Mule In EvE
• Confessions of a Closet Carebear: Alliances and Sovereignty
• Blog Banter 25: Nerfing Nulsec « OMG! You’re a Chick?!
• Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? | Nitpickin’s
• Blog Banter #25: Alliance and Sovereignty Limiting PvP in 0.0? | Sarnel Binora’s Blog
• Blog Banter #25 – Mad Haberdashers
• Alliances and sovereignty | Eve Online Focus
• …Shall we not Revenge?: BB 25: What if the Alliance vanished?
• Blog Banter: Alliances and Sov
• EVEOGANDA: BB25: Sov ‘n Go!
• » TBG:EBB#25 – Alliances and Sovereignty To Boldly Go
• Freebooted: BB25: Leviathans of the Deep
• Wrong Game Tetra ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
• EVE Blog Banter #25 – Human nature what art thou? | Way of the Gun
• Who cares about Sov? – Hands Off, My Loots! ~ well sorta like an entry! :p
• The 25th EVE Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty – The Phoenix Diaries
• Achernar: The space commute
• Wandering the Void…my EvE musings. – Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty
• (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #25: How To Break EvE. « Prano’s Journey
• Captain Serenity: Blog Banter #25 – Crappy mechanics
• Helicity Boson » Blog Banter #25 Nullsec and sov.
• BB #25 – “With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?”
• Boom! Hull-Shot?: It’s the End of the Eve as We Know It
• sered’s lives: EVE Blog Banter #25 – Size does matter
• 25th EVE BB – Medieval Solutions to Spaceship Problems | Inventions of a New Eden Industrialist
• Eve Blog Banter #25: “Have Alliances and Sov Limited PvP and RP in 0.0?” « Align Outbound
• Banter 25: Sovereignty, Alliances and Power Blocs | TheElitist
• Blog Banter 25 – But I just left all that! « A Scientist’s Life in Eve
• Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
• >>>Vigil Ant: Alliances and SOV by Munny’s eyes.
• Latro’s Bunker: Blog Banter 25 -Nullsec and Sov
• A “CareBears” Journey » Blog Banner #25: Alliances and Sovereignty, and their affect on PVP and RP
• Blog Banter #25 – Unstoppable « Roc’s Ramblings
• More to come…

After spending around 2 months in null-sec the 800m ISK I had accumulated through GTCs has run out, and now I’m looking for ways to make some decent money down here.

So I thought why not ask my readers (and fellow bloggers) for advice, and perhaps even create a guide from the info gathered.

So first I’m going to list some ideas I had and the problems I encountered with them

Cosmic Anomalies/Signatures

I’ve been doing anomalies for a while now and we recently got an upgrade to our system that allows for Drone Hordes to spawn.

However the hordes are impossible to solo at my skill level with an hurricane (even lost one), and doing them in a group isn’t really that profitable. I’ve also been doing drone squads but the alloys/salvage per anomaly is at max 2m which isn’t a lot considering they take about 45-60 minutes to complete for me. And finally there’s also the Drone Hierarchies but they can’t be solo’ed either.

(Ice) Mining

Though this is quite profitable in null-sec it can’t be done alone (unless in a hulk with a good tank) and there’s also the problem of the reds.

Archaeology/Hacking

Quite profitable too but I can’t find a decent Hurricane setup with salvager, codebreaker and analyzer (if you have one please share it with me).

…

Well that was it, after reading through it myself it seems my primary problem is the lack of skills, and I might have forgotten some other methods of making money down here.

Well If you have any suggestions pleaee leave a comment, thanks.

As I myself have recently moved into null-sec I encountered a lot of new things and made some (big) mistakes, so I thought why not create a guide about this to prevent people from making the same mistakes, and giving them some useful info at the same time.

What is Null-Sec ?

Null-sec (Also referred to as 0.0) is lawless space where there is no CONCORD presence, so any and all activities can happen here without CONCORD intervening. This means you won’t be protected by NPC “Police” when doing anything inside these regions.

The space in null-sec can be owned by alliances after which the system is theirs and they can deploy Stations, POSes and other structures inside these systems. Usually you are safe within the space your alliance owns but enemies can always enter so be on your guard and keep an eye on local.

Dangers in Null-Sec & Low-Sec

Of course null-sec isn’t without any dangers as stated above here are some things that you need to watch out for in null-sec.

Avoiding dangers

To avoid being caught inside warp bubbles or getting gate camped also keep an eye on your alliances intel channel (If they have one) usually they will notify this channel of any and every enemy they spot in their space.

Warp Bubbles (Null-Sec Only)

These are bubbles (Well they look like bubbles) usually with some electric current running along their edges, these prevent you from warping,  they’ll also stop your warp if you happen to fly through ‘em in the last half a second of your warp.

To get out of these you have two choices, if you’re near a jump gate you can approach the jump gate , however if there’s anyone in your overview try moving towards a celestial that’s nearest to the bubble wall, and warping as soon as you get out of it (Double clicking somewhere will make your ship move in that direction).

You can also attempt to avoid these by warping to a celestial object near the gate (Though chances are there are bubbles there too), after that you can use your directional scanner to check the gate.

Gate Camps (Null-Sec & Low-Sec)

The name says it, these are people camping at a gate, usually with 5 or more people, they will warp scramble, web and kill you whenever they get the chance, most of the time they’ll utilize warp bubbles.

To avoid these you can make use of  of your directional scanner to scan gates (as told above), or you can warp to the gate at 100km/150km to check if it’s clear.

For more info check the EVE Online wiki page about null-sec

Getting into Null-Sec

Ok so you’ve joined an alliance that has space in null-sec and you want to get into their space, or you just want to head into null-sec without your alliance having space there, but how do you get there in one piece ?

The first thing you need to know when getting into null-sec is where you will be heading of course, you can ask your alliance for directions they usually have a route that has proven safest, or if you aren’t in a null-sec alliance you just have to plot your own course.

While you’re travelling into null-sec you should try setting up tactical bookmarks at 150+ km from the stargates this will not only give you a good lookout point but at this range you can still warp to the stargate instead of slowboating to it.

Of course you have to remember about the dangers I’ve warned you for previously, especially in the systems that connect low security space with 0.0 space you’ll find a lot of these.

Don’t forget to change your Autopilot from “Prefer safer” to “Prefer shorter”.

Watch your mouth

This is a very important one, if you fail to remember this you will be tagged as a spy and kicked out in no time. Always think carefully when you talk about possibly sensitive information, if you’re not sure if you’re allowed to speak about something check with someone that’s high up inside your corp or alliance (Depending on whether it’s alliance wide or corp wide info).

Aid your allies

Help your allies whenever you can, if there’s a Call-To-Arms switch to a ship that fits as best to the preferred shiptypes as you can,  if there’s the need for a cyno see if you can be of help, helping your allies is a must if you want to stay in the alliance.

Note: I highly suggest you train Cynosural Field Theory to level 2 so you can light a Cyno when it’s needed.

Jump Bridges

As the amount of space your alliance owns (And the amount of space owned by friendly entities) can be quite vast there’s an in-game mechanic to get around in that space quickly, this mechanic is known as the Jump Bridge (Or JB for short).

Jump Bridges are structures that can be anchored next to a POS and 2 jump bridges can be linked together so you can jump between them.

Your alliance will probably have a map of their JB network that you can use, just ask for it in the alliance or corp chat.

Using Jump Bridges

To use a Jump Bridge you will first need to approach it until you’re 2000m or less away, you also need to enter a password for it, this can be done by right-clicking the capacitor in your HUD (The thing with the health bars) and then clicking “Enter Starbase Forcefield Password”, enter the password and hit ok. After this you can right click the Jump Bridge and click on the “Jump to…” option. You should see a jump animation and find yourself in the other system shortly after.

Making Money

If you plan on making money in null-sec (Why else would you come here anyway)  ratting is a great way of starting to make some of it. There’s a trick that makes the chance of quality rats higher (Meaning more/better loot) which can be found in an easy to learn format here.

However next to ratting there’s also Cosmic Anomalies and Cosmic Signatures this will raise the systems military index, the anomalies can be found by probes and the on-board scanner but the signatures (Which are the more profitable ones) can only be found using probes.

Next to these there’s also mining, however I highly suggest you mine with some protection and preferably in a group with someone that has high cargo capacity (As null-sec ore is quite spacious), manufacturing and exploration but I won’t go any further into those.

…

Well that wraps it up for my null-sec guide, have suggestions, additions, corrections or questions? don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

~Xeross

Changes

25/Feb/2010 – Added info on warp bubbles and gate camps.
26/Feb/2010 – Fixed some errors.
26/Feb/2010 – Revised some information.
27/Feb/2010 – Added some additional information about military anomalies.
27/Feb/2010 – Added some information about alliance intel channels.
07/Mar/2010 – Changed bubbles to null-sec only
21/Mar/2011 – Some rewording, added section about jump bridges
07/Aug/2011 – Fixed link to chain ratting guide

Rewinding to a few weeks ago…

A notification appears on my display, “New EVE Mail”. Computer, read new mail.

To: Ghosts of EMC
Subject: Null-Sec

We have decided to make the move to null-sec, everyone should join Fusion Death Inc. as soon as possible. and wait further instructions.

Regards, The Board.

A few days later after being accepted by Fusion Death Inc.

Today is the day, we’ve moved all our stuff over the past few days so that it can be moved into our territory and are now ready to set off, after plotting a course and gathering up we set off to null-sec.

Under way for a while now it’s been pretty quiet in low-sec, we did encounter some people here but nothing posing a threat, till now things went smoothly but something tells me it won’t stay that way for long. One of my comrades just notified us that the system up ahead is also known as the “scary zone”.

Arrived in the “scary zone” no signs of hostiles, okay guys align to the next gate and warp to it. 0.3 AU removed from gate, almost there, ugh, what’s this. We are stuck in what seems a blueish bubble with some electric current running through it, “What’s this ?” I ask one of my comrades. “That’s a warp bubble” he replies “It will prevent you from warping”

“Oh, so… what do I do now ?”

“Well you approach the gate and jump through, unless there’s hostiles than you’ll want to find the fastest way out of it.”

“Ok, no hostiles, I’ll approach the gate.”.

Suddenly one of my comrades yells through the comms “I’m being chased by a 30 man fleet, I’m trying to shake ‘em off. Continue along the set course”. Nearing the gate, activating gate, jumping.

Approx. 20 minutes later…

Welcome home, a familiar voice says through the comms. We’ve made it into our home system, after a tour around the Control Tower we were directed to the station a few jumps over to repair our ships and to get some rest after the long  journey down.

And so a new chapter begins…