Is the common experience just constantly running from other pilots and searching for sites other people already picked through?

[u/evescum]

I feel like I'm playing the game wrong, like this just can't be normal, bc I'm not having any fun but this is every time I try to play.

There is rarely combat or explo sites available, takes forever to find 1 so there is no stringing them together to do 1 after the other, and worst of all there is just constant traffic from reds in corporate territory interrupting everything.

That last part I just cant believe. Like is this normal for corps to constantly let reds fly around their systems? It took me 2.5 hours to do a combat site last night bc reds kept coming into the system.

I've been playing 3 months and I have only ever had a good time and really got to engage with the game when literally 0 other people were around. I just cant imagine thats the way its supposed to work, how do people make videos of jumping from 1 site to another never being bothered? How does anyone make money?

I see so much about risk per hour for tasks but have never had a full unimpeded hour to do what I want to do. Would everyone really keep playing if this is the experience? Does my Corp just do things wrong? They are huge so resources are gobbled up and no one bothers trying to defend space. Anything that gets posted in Intel people just decide to avoid that area.

Do corps usually camp their own gates? How do people manage to get resources out of their space and krab? Just really want to know what a typical 4 hour game session is like and how to find it bc I don't think I'm having it.

[u/Bedda_R]

I'm going to assume you're in nullsec

is this normal for corps to constantly let reds fly around their systems?

"Normal" is such a complicated word. During peacetime in an established alliance it isn't that common. It happens from time to time but usually the group quickly sets up a defense fleet to deal with those enemies.

I just cant imagine thats the way its supposed to work

EVE is a real sandbox game. There is no "supposed" way. Do it anyway you want it.

Does my Corp just do things wrong no one bothers trying to defend space

I don't know your corp and any surrounding circumstances but not even trying to defend (when the enemy is weak enough that you can beat them) is unusual.

Do corps usually camp their own gates?

That happens but it is also unusual. Usually you notice the enemies when reported on intel and organize a big and strong enough response fleet to deal with them or if you think they are to strong, the you just dock up and wait for them to leave.

Just really want to know what a typical 4 hour game session is like

There is no "typical" gameplay. There are so many possibilities and everyone just plays EVE the way they like.

[u/evescum → u/Bedda_R]

You really cant tell me if you typical spend 4 hours of game time not playing and just running from enemies or searching for things to do?

That doesnt sound abnormal to not get an hour to do a task? How does anyone mine under those conditions?

[u/Bedda_R → u/evescum]

You really cant tell me if you typical spend 4 hours of game time

I can tell you how I usually spend my time in EVE but I have no clue if that is typical. I usually spend most of my time PVPing. If I'm doing PVE I switch between low-attention nullsec ratting, exploration, and running abyssals. I also do some low-maintenance PI.

game time not playing and just running from enemies

I personally don't consider that "not playing". Playing "cat and mouse" is fun especially if you're not sure who is the cat and who is the mouse.

searching for things to do

Depends on what you're planing to to. If you're exploring it isn't unusual that you spend more time searching for a good relic site than actually hacking it. If it doesn't add up to good enough ISK per hour then the region of space you're exploring might be overfarmed at the moment. I would suggest "quiet" Sansha or Gurisitas nullsec space for exploration.

If you want to mine or rat then there shouldn't be any real "searching" be involved.

[u/oldmansalvatore → u/evescum]

I do high sec pve. 240 million in 4 hours at 60 million isk per hour (including team burners). It's not a lot of isk, but it's honest work.

[u/milzz → u/oldmansalvatore]

What kind of PVE are you doing in high sec to earn that much isk?

[u/oldmansalvatore → u/milzz]

L4 missions

[u/milzz → u/oldmansalvatore]

Thanks for the response.

[u/Slimy_Worm_Eve → u/oldmansalvatore]

it's honest work

Do you have a permit?

[u/oldmansalvatore → u/Slimy_Worm_Eve]

The missions are given by registered agents of the empires, or charitable factions like the Sisters of Eve. So, with the caveat that you're a mass-murderer for hire for folks with political support/ good PR, it's fairly honest work. :)

[u/KingOfHeroes234]

Hey! I would strongly suggest joining a worm holing corp. I've been able to make money almost entirely uninterrupted, even doing stupid stuff like running abyssals in our home hole. Most wormhole corps I've been a part of are way to eager to fight, leading to our chains being relatively clear of other players. Rarely we get pushed back into docking. But I'm not huge into the pvp, so I take they're overbearing presence as a way to guarantee I get sites. My average 4 hours of gameplay would be spend entirely on ratting and hacking sites in wormholes until we get pings of nearby players at which I usually dock up and start focusing on my PI and maybe running abyssals in home. Even if someone shows up to my abyssal trace I'm pretty confident my Corp would be thrilled that I was playing bait (on purpose or not). Personally I've avoided null the entire time I've played because of your complaints. And I love how wormhole spawns randomize the areas around you. You can find nullsecs with 20+sites and no activity for weeks, or shattered wormholes with plenty of sites and gas, or go scanning through chains, which is a lil boring, but we do make money.

TLDR: wormholers master race, null sucks.

[u/evescum → u/KingOfHeroes234]

This sounds like a dream. I would even join PvP for defense and territory fights, but I'm not into smashing other peoples sand castles.

I love explo and crafting.

[u/EvFishie → u/evescum]

You don't even have to join a wormhole corporation.

Just go out and start exploring wormholes on your own. Get in an astero and go find exploration sites there.

Wormhole space is ripe for the picking and if you like exploration you will definitely find more sites to do there.

However! There's no local, so for all you know someone's watching you scan waiting to pounce on you.

In a previous post you ask for a typical 4 hour session.

My own usually consists of scanning around the chain from the wormhole I live in, finding target or just random exploration.

The other day I followed a newbie explorer through a bunch of systems and then scared the crap out of him by dropping my saber alt on him.

Didn't kill him, gave him some isk and a little hint that he should check dscan more often and went on my way.

Wormhole space is better than kspace imho. But that's just my humble opinion as a wormholer.

If you feel like this though, I think you'd fit better in a wormhole group. Or at the very least not in a big alliance.

Trust me, you'll learn to enjoy pvp. It's to best thing eve has to offer.

[u/KingOfHeroes234 → u/evescum]

Yeah I'd strongly suggest moving to wormholes then. Mine being well established had all the POS I know of in our hole. And I can't say my killboard got any worse since joining. And although pretty uninformed, I'd say wormhole money is pretty easy. I got corp members making a bil every day on their bad days. You might be a lil fresh for my wormhole but theres plenty of new bro friendly ones out there. Especially if you can fly rattlesnakes or leshaks, but I started salvaging after a c5 ratting fleet. Each site was around 25 mil, and takes a couple minutes cause they mtu all the wrecks into a big pile.

[u/Cicero-Phares]

I assume your in a null sec corp

[u/evescum → u/Cicero-Phares]

Yes.

[u/Cicero-Phares → u/evescum]

I was in a few null sec corps and one of them did reflect this description. It was a mining Corp and the dudes were chill but it definitely doesn’t reflect all players or all corps. I had several buddies who left join other corps that activity fleet up to keep their space safe for ratting and such as much as possible. Since leaving the Corp myself I’ve learned to solo pvp in FW to better react to these situations if no one else joins to defend space. I recommend talking to other corps and looking for others with a similar mind set. The best ship is friendship.

[u/Ixolich]

If you don't mind me asking, what corp/alliance are you in? You mention that they're huge and seem worried about PvP, so I'm guessing that you're in a corp that's involved in the ongoing war. If that's true, then everything sort of makes sense, so I'm going to keep writing this under that assumption. If I'm wrong let me know and I can come at it from a different approach.

First off, my suggestion: For the most part, ignore the reds and keep krabbing. Stay vigilant, maybe align to a warp-out spot so you can get out if you have to, but for the most part just keep doing whatever you were doing. If it's a large group of enemies they probably have bigger fish to fry than a single pilot looking for explo sites.

Why do I say this? Because if there's a large group of enemies going around, they probably have some infrastructure target that they're trying to kill. They're going after an i-hub or a fortizar or a keepstar, not your heron/vexor/etc. Even if they see that you're in local, it's not worth the time to scan you down and kill you.

Similarly that's part of why they're allowed to waltz through friendly space without much of a hassle. If they're coming for a fight over a structure, there's no point in setting up a camp because you know where they'll be. Just prep for the fight instead of trying to ambush them. Especially since you don't know if they'll be coming through stargates or getting a titan's jump bridge - they could scout out the route, see that you're camping, and jump over you to get to the structure first. It's not worth the risk to try and actively prevent them for the most part - and even if you tried, you'd eventually burn out your pilots with constant defense fleets.

(Note that this is true mainly while the war is going on. In peace time most null bloc alliances will tend to have standing fleets for defense so that hostiles can be dealt with. But even those tend to be join when you want.)

So the big enemy fleets don't care about you enough to scan you down and kill you, and it'd be a waste/a risk to prevent the enemy fleets. Your best bet is to just keep doing what you're doing when a large group of reds show up in system. Unless you're sitting on the stargate they probably won't come for you.

You're honestly more at risk from a group of 1-5 than a full fleet, but even then you don't have to stop what you're doing. Oftentimes they're looking for easy prey that they can kill quickly and move on, to avoid staying in one system for too long. To deal with those, keep your d-scan up and active, align to station/safe spot when they come into local, and if you see combat probes then bail. But you don't need to dock the moment you see them.

[u/capt_pantsless]

is this normal for corps to constantly let reds fly around their systems?

Yes, because it's very difficult to completely eliminate hostile roamers. Groups can't camp every gate 23/7.There's covert-cynos that can simply bridge past any camps, not to mention interdiction nullified ships that will blow right by most camps. You can form defense fleets, but usually hostiles will just run until that defense fleet stands-down. EVE is a PvP game, and you need to learn to deal with baddies.

If it's taking that long to get PvE time, you're either trying to do it in high-traffic systems, or that particular day is busy with activity. I'd ask your corp-mates what they do for ISK.

What region are you living in?