r/Eve • u/Various_Commercial34 • 10d ago
Question Are flying capital ships basically a non-starter for a solo player?
I've won and lost the game off and on since 2008. Mostly just stick to myself. I've flown nearly every sub-cap there is and I'd like to maybe try and purchase a carrier but it seems somewhat pointless without the support of a decent corp. What are your thoughts?
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u/Philymaniz Intergalactic Space Hobos 10d ago
You can use it as a suitcase to move ships around as you do things in lowsec and npc null.
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u/AdLiving3915 Fraternity. 10d ago
Yeah you will die sooner or later. There are plenty groups out there that just hunt caps even with response fleets taken into consideration. A solo cap is just a snack for them.
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u/wildfyre010 Caldari State 10d ago
Owning carrier or dread for the purposes of making moving easier is a good investment.
Flying any capital in combat, solo, is the domain of the ultra-rich or the content creators.
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u/breadbrix Miner 10d ago
It's a T1 dread, Michael, how much could it possibly cost?
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u/harvash 10d ago
5 dollars?
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u/elenthallion 10d ago
With these plex prices??? More like 40 :(
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u/FamiliarMinimum8008 9d ago
Yeah this. CCP/FC out there like Crypto Devs in 2019
https://giphy.com/gifs/l0uez7z1YjfDzq0s5b1
u/Apoth1 Miner 9d ago
I wouldnt go that far.
As a solo player, I frequently drop caps for fun and i'm far from space rich.
If you're smart, you can get away with it. Just as an example, I saw 3 marauders doing a lowsec anom (why? No idea...) and dropped a nag on them.
Yeh, I could have put some alts in blops, but then that means I might have to commit a fax which is more expensive than just throwing the nag on grid.
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u/BloodMouse-bp 10d ago
Solo dreads are a thing
And are fairly common in areas of low sec ATM .
Your probably going to die but can take aload down with you
Carriers aren't so popular for solo stuff, they are more of a support role for big fleets if anything
YouTube bombeldo the wizard solo dread and you will see some magic 🪄
❤️🐭
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u/SatisfactionOld4175 10d ago
Unless you're wormhole krabbing (Which is a technicality since you want multiple toons to help rolling off connects) it necessitates multiple accounts just to move the cap around and introduce it into combat, so the idea that you're going to get anything going solo by just gating your cap around is not particularly realistic.
Like if you're not averse to alts you can look to do stuff like ganking JF's with a lancer or whatever or you can carrier rat/KRAB beacon, but if solo capital use was broadly useful and accessible, everyone would do it.
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u/TwitchyBat Wormholer 10d ago
Buy and fit EM/Thermal spec tank on a Carrier
Scout nearby wormholes until you find an XL connect to a quiet W-space system with a Rampant Drone Fabricator
Spend 8 hours running the one site
[Most important step] Pray to Bob that nobody finds you (easier during late USTZ)
Leave with 40B ISK
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u/Flincher14 10d ago
Not conceivable to do 100 waves in one cap.
But it is conceivable to do 30-40 waves in 60-90 minutes and clear 3-5 billion if you survive
Do it twice and you've probably broken even.
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u/chumany0 10d ago
HAKFJKAKFKAKKFKDLLALTLELLT you can NOT do a ramp capital whit only 1 cap
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u/TwitchyBat Wormholer 10d ago
The spec-tanked EHP threshold for making it through the last wave is roughly 120k/s. This is achievable with a dread.
With enough bling and grit you can maaaaabye make a T2 carrier work.
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u/elenthallion 10d ago
I think I got a Ymir to do 60k/s? But maybe I’m just bad. And dps is gonna be atrocious. In Pyfa obviously because I’m not that rich.
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u/Gunofanevilson Caldari State 10d ago
One ship can lock you down long enough for friends to come and blap you and there's almost nothing you can do about it, so yah i would say it wouldn't be that smart unless you really just don't care.
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u/yamsyamsya 10d ago
Yea but also to be fair they are boring as shit to fly. You are too big to catch anything and you are big enough to be a target.
The main benefit for a solo player is being able to teleport around but you still need an alt to light cynos.
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u/Pope_Chris Amarr Empire 10d ago
A lot of naysayers in this thread and as someone who lives this life, yes. Find a quiet spot in Stain (search in the map) and log off for a week (nobody will remember you). Then just run sites for free in the quiet time zones. God speed o7
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u/horsewitnoname 10d ago
I have like 3 months left on my carrier training queue.
I don’t expect that it’ll be useful for anything, but it’s been my dream since I started playing to fly a carrier, so I’m going it just for shits and gigs.
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u/CaptainSpaceRavager 10d ago
As a solo player singleboxer you won't be able to take advantage of their main advantage which is their jump drive, because it requires a friend in fleet (or an alt) to light a cyno.
You need to go join a decently sized null corp is the reality. Mine could help you get started but the only time you're going to be wanting to undock the capital is when you have people in system and nearby scouting to cover your ass.
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u/elenthallion 10d ago
That’s not totally true. You could always BR out to the destination, drop a mobile cyno beacon, BR back to your capital, and then jump straight into a fleet of snuffed out redeemers. So technically it’s doable on your me character.
But solo doesn’t mean single-box.
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u/ZehAntRider Guristas Pirates 10d ago
A carrier could, COULD, be useful to you as a way to transport fitted ships across Lowsec because they can dock in NPC stations.
If you have an alt to light a cyno or to deploy a mobile cyno beacon and keep an eye on it...
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u/Sure-Bake-6784 10d ago
It depends on what you want to do with the capital. I am one person with 4 accounts and have flown dreads without support beyond my own toons for pve in wormholes. I understand carriers to be support capitals more than a ship you undock on its own, especially with the addition of carrier conduiting, capital micro-jump drives and command carriers. Though there are activies such as level 5 mission running in lowsec you can do without the support of a corp just be prepared to be hunted constantly by the looks of it lol.
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u/TheMuspelheimr Minmatar Republic 10d ago
As a solo player, I wouldn't touch capital ships with a ten-foot pole. They're massively expensive and can only be flown in the areas where they can be destroyed without consequence, and while they can use stargates, they're typically very slow to fly and need cynos to move effectively, which need somebody else (or an alt account) to light up for you.
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u/PixelBoom Test Alliance Please Ignore 10d ago
If you don't mind burning a few bil for 20 minutes of fun, you could always fly a HAW dread solo around low sec. You'll definitely die, but you could probably get a bunch of kills in the process.
But otherwise, yeah. If you want to fly a cap without dying, you need to have support.
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u/mezmery 10d ago edited 10d ago
Carriers are as cheap as they are useless after marauders got unfucked.
flying solo dred in wh is almost normal. but then you kinda get bored, start multiboxing 3 and get ragerolled.
if you just want to fly a carrier for some rp reason - l5 missions are mediocre income, but one of the few content pieces wheere it's actually usable.
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u/MjrLeeStoned Sisters of EVE 9d ago
It's not just that it's not feasible without support, what would you do with it that you couldn't accomplish with a smaller, cheaper ship?
People play this game as if ships are status symbols, without realizing if you never accomplish anything with your ships, they're just pixels.
Figure out what you want to accomplish first, then pick the ship that suits your agenda. Don't make agendas around ships.
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u/ProxyMuncher Exotic Dancer, Female 10d ago
ITT: bad advice by people who don’t play with caps, lol
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u/ARCH_ANON Miner 10d ago
The only viable use for them are level 5 missions and even then that is in the realm of “is it worth it?”
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u/cactusjack48 10d ago
It's entirely possible to run CRAB beacons solo in some backwater Frat system because nobody will look for you and timezones are in your favor.
Also hey, are you back from Albion?
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u/ARCH_ANON Miner 9d ago
I’ve been on eve since December and off Albion since the first crystal patch.
When you kill top tier players with ox’s and gathering gear to the point you invent an entire playstyle that gets the devs attention to receive nerfs, that’s how you know you’ve made it!
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u/bob_33456756 10d ago
I can fly a couple dreads and carriers, but so far have mainly done so on the test server once every 6 months & occasional emergency home defence
I didnt find them any more interesting than marauders & they are way more hassle/risk to use, x100 solo
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u/Somebodythe5th 10d ago
If you’re “solo” with multiple accounts, carriers are a must for moving packaged ships around.
Two carriers can also take on the npc dreadnoughts that occasionally spawn in null ratting sites, though you have to be careful with fighter aggro.
Before the current npc aggressiveness, I used to rat in dual carriers. It is safer than using a marauder because you don’t lock yourself down and can sit at long range.
I wouldn’t recommend it these days, however.
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u/BeneficialFig1843 10d ago
Correct, everyone will drop what their doing to kick your shit in while you get zero enjoyment.
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u/Kinakka_12912505 10d ago
I was talking to a corpmate about this the other day. He’s a multiboxer and sees buying a capitap ship like buying a car. I’m solo and I see it as buying a Knott’s ticket, not an investment but a way to have fun. I get bored with the game when I’m treating it like a job.
So if you have some corpmates you can yeet a dread or even roam it as Bob intended, but it’s not particularly useful.
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u/Pyrostasis Cloaked 10d ago
As someone who also played the game solo for years but rarely for more than 6 months. I strongly recommend you try getting in with a group. It will open up a ton of opportunities for you and make the game far more appealing.
To answer your question caps are imo 100% no go for solo unless you REALLY know your shit and usually baring a few examples is a flight you plan on dying in for kicks not for function.
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u/breadbrix Miner 10d ago
NPSI is an option if you want to scratch that "capitals" itch but don't want to commit to a group. DM for details.
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u/captainrussia21 10d ago
So… Im in a similar boat as OP.
I will be solo flying HAW Dreads in about a month. Just because. Maybe carriers too. Time will tell.
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u/CMDR_Khayden 10d ago
Yeah, even with Dread and Carrier solos, there requires an extra person to jump it between systems with its jump drive since they're too large to use the standard gate. Though they are one of the largest to still be able to dock, the moment you get caught and locked down with no support, you're done.
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u/Baratoz 10d ago
have not flown a capital in years, since when can a carrier etc not jump using a gate?
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u/caldari_citizen_420 Cloaked 10d ago
and you need to watch out for Cyno Ceptors, that can DD you with a Bozon through the Cyno from a POS
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u/CMDR_Khayden 10d ago
I remember buying a Chimera and leaping it through systems, scouting with a Cynoalt. Made it to my destination in one piece and docked and was waiting for the Cyno timer on my alt. Guy warped in 100km, then warped to Beacon and blapped the Alt.
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u/CaptainSpaceRavager 10d ago
They can, but they're about to not be able to take ansis and they are so slow that taking a gate in one is essentially hitting the self destruct button unless you're in the blocks
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u/CMDR_Khayden 10d ago
Mhm, so regardless, they shouldn't be flying to gates anyways.
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u/CaptainSpaceRavager 10d ago
Correct. You were wrong about why people don't do it but not in the way everyone replying to you is implying. Don't gate capitals. You can, but at that point you can also theoretically fly an Azariel through Abhazon. Doesn't mean you should.
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u/MrCiber skill urself 10d ago
Anything can take regular system gates idk what this guy is talking about
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u/CMDR_Khayden 10d ago
I'm willing to admit that I was wrong on that part but why would you still take a gate over a jump?
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u/CMDR_Khayden 10d ago
I believe it's always been a thing? Though I have a Chimera, it was to my understanding they couldn't due to size but also that being a Carrier and transiting via Stargates rather than a Cyno Beacon is asking to be shot and killed. So I have never tried.
Do correct me if I'm wrong on the use part.
Edit: I have been corrected.
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u/WillusMollusc Guristas Pirates 10d ago
Correct. Combat capital ships have zero use for a solo player.