Moving Onto Greater Things

One of the issues with running either a W-space corp or a division of a corp with W-space assets is “when do we move onto greater things?”

Granted, as your W-space inhabitants gain more confidence in running sites, they will naturally always want more.  You have that natural progression from C1 –> C6 that goes with time.  While my original decision to inhabit a C4-C2 may have been a contentious one, in effect it serves as a training ground for my men.  C2’s are easily soloable when not enough people are online.  Then we figured out we can effectively though slowly grind out C4 sites with an ECM battleship backed by a DPS battleship.  Well, that sort of messes up the 3-4 man RR gang it typically takes to efficiently rock a C4.  With that ECM battleship, we’re able to take out effectively 50% or more of the Sleeper DPS, making even those tough C4 sites easy peasy.

So where do we go from here?

There are a few things I have in mind that will allow us to continue to live in the current system, whilst recruiting more W-space members, beefing up security, and saving up ISK for a proper move to a C5/6 (meaning at least 2 faction towers).  One of the benefits of having Directorship in a multi-national corp is the global footing of the corp.  We always have people online.  Some TZ’s might not have as many people, but there are always people to banter about stupid shit with, distraction allowing.  Per our corp setup, trust is a major issue.  Taking lessons from the old null-sec alliances I used to serve out my early EvE career in from 2004-2009, divisions, partitions, and trust management is a huge thing.  Who do we trust with tower manager roles?  Who do we trust period with being able to access tower arrays?  Faulty logic and thinking in most carebear corps, and even large alliances have allowed discontented people to initiate large corp heists before leaving.  The divisions and partitional nature allows us to fine tune the trust management, but at the same time, it removes many potential members from more “secure” projects that involve a ton of ISK.  So the strength build-up is slow, but necessary.

Now, with ~25 members manning our Project Valhalla, there are some things I feel that needs focus on:

01.)  Increased PvP patrols; i.e. gank everything that is alive, sending them back into the clone vat, questions asked later
02.)  Accept the C2/3/4 grind to generate ISK for future W-space endeavors
03.)  Utilize the nature of W-space to raid null-sec for some more PvP fun
04.)  Increase our science abilities
05.)  Make sure more pilots are capital ship capable; this means dread, carrier, Orca, Rorqual pilots

All in all, my pilots have been more than gracious.  Granted as a leader, I provide and encourage a lot of leeway.  I believe in the school of thought that pushes for a firm hand, understanding, fun, but also sternness in reaching for our goals.

We continue to evaluate our risks.  Once you pass the 60% mark on surety, it’s probably a good bet to throw everything you have got at the situation.  This goes for PvP, PvE, market stuff, all that good shit.

W-space Loot & Safety

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and tinkering recently.  While it’s nice to have a W-space PoS exit through a good route to K-space high-sec, we in Nemesis Nation have been dealing with a rash of banditry and pirate activity via those high-sec exits.  From HAC gangs to general cloaky pirates, they are a major nuisance.  We have the luxury of living 2 connectors deep at the moment, but god forbid losing the entire shipment of Sleeper salvage hauled with an industrial. As we all know, industrials can be a godsend for hauling, but they also have paper-thin tanks.  Wait, what tank?!

For now, it seems that its sufficient to haul the high-value loot via small ships that can rapidly align.  We should work on fits that can also jet out of a warp bubble quickly.  Loot gets out via these tiny fast ships, less valuable stuff like ore can go through industrials.

Years of living in New Eden, I’ve never really considered this.  You can even say I’m a bit brash and shrug off bad luck.  After coming into some opposition recently though while doing our hauls (thank god the industrial was empty), I’m starting to change my line of thinking a bit.

Consider this: You can fit over 5 bISK in a shuttle, and that’s only filling up about 70% of its 10 m3 cargohold.  It would be a huge shame if that shuttle popped, yes?  Then you have the Jita pirates to contend with on your way to selling the loot/minerals.  Chan Omari pointed out a few posts by other W-space bloggers that has really freaked me out.  Granted, I’ve always flatlined my freighter for Jita IV-4 ASAP after coming out of the jump from Perimeter, but I’ve seen enough rashes of high-sec ganks on the Jita–Perimeter gate recently to change my tone on this just a bit.

So where does this take us?  I’d say fly under 2 bISK per freighter, mostly the heavier minerals.  Move the lighter Sleeper salvage through smaller ships.  Personally I’m fond of a nano’d and inertia stab’d destroyer.  The Thrasher works well here.  You can still carry quite a bit, but are more inconspicuous due to being technically a “PvP” ship versus a slow heavy industrial or freighter.  Hell I’ve even started putting some civilian guns on it for good measure.  Light fitting, yet from the outside it still looks like a combat ship — hah!  Then round it out with the biggest AB or MWD + tank you can fit.

Some people have said to move things via Orcas and their corporate hangars (since you can’t cargo scan that), but an Orca is still a slow fat ship.  As someone who previously engaged in piracy in the past, I know that most pirates aren’t willing to haul off massive amounts of minerals.  They are looking for light, high-worth items such as mods and certain Sleeper loot that they can stuff their smaller ships with before making a get-away.

Hmm.. decisions, decisions.

I’d say though, the last two weeks have been good to us.  Over 8 bISK in W-space proceeds, and that’s not counting the items we’re saving for T3 production when we’re able in a few short months.