After talking with more than a dozen pilots that have been in W-space for 3 months or more, it is interesting to see a trend developing, whereby more than half of them are either out of W-space already or plan to exit W-space within the next 2 weeks.
Most cite the fact that their previously juicy recurring static exits are simply populated and farmed out, which means they find themselves going for days (or in some cases weeks) without much to do, having farmed out their local system.
The others simply fall into my own line of experience, where the constant commitment to maintaining the W-space POS, even with a good small team, becomes a little too demanding of their time and they find themselves in need of scaling back.
Regardless, it can certainly be said that W-Space remains lucrative, if not demanding. And, choice of system is by far the most important element of longer-term colonization.
Also noteworthy is that the bulk of this feedback is coming from C1 - C3 dwellers. The handful of C4 - C6 dwellers I know are quite happy and content with their operations, which I attribute to (a) larger corp presence with less demands on time, e.g. sharing the load and (b) less populated adjoining statics, which means a good consistent supply of sites.
Anyone else have some thoughts?
(edit: Additions below based on comments):
It appears that a key driver for many that are primarily mining as their key source of income have the added downside of the mineral price issues, with typically high-end ores yielding less than low-end ores. Mining always was a tough way to earn a buck...
A great post by Kename Fin at Our EVE, and I have added this blog to the list - glad you posted Kename, nice blog! (And I saw your Dark Star reference - one of my long-time cult favorites. Can you say "Bomb, this is Lt. Doolittle. You are *not* to detonate in the bomb bay. I repeat, you are NOT to detonate in the bomb bay!")
And here Minuit adds some reflection on Time Demands in WH Space. Good post!
Fly Safe!
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We are a corp of 3 going on 5 months in wormhole space. We have populated 3 holes thus far and will agree with most of what you have said.
ReplyDeleteThe current home of Expedition Arcadia is a class 2 with statics to hi sec and class 1. This fits the bill nicely right now. We have a large tower and the access to fuel in hi sec makes it very easy to maintain. The same static provides us with a stream of visitors that offers alot of fun stalking and demolishing! It is much less lonely than our old class 2 with statics in lo sec and another class 2. We also found most of the guys coming in from lo sec were much more experienced pvp's and we had much greater ship loss.
Our ultimate goal in entering WH space was to each get a tech 3 ship that we have built. We are approaching that goal slowly but steadily and I believe we will have this accomplishd in the next few months.
As for us, we are thourghly enjoying our EVE life and have no intention of leaving for k space anytime soon!!
This is increasingly true, I will agree. One of the other things we have noticed is that even within a corporation, we've found that some people who loved the wormhole when they first moved in, decided that it wasn't really a long term option for them.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing this for almost a year, we've learned that it is, as much as anything, a lifestyle issue. I had a much more massive comment, but I've moved it to a post to save you a wall of text.
It was the same with us, not because sites ran out - we figured out within days how to have an endless supply - but more because of time issues when doing it with few people.
ReplyDeleteI and a few others however are now training alt accounts purely for WH's because we did have much fun in there, but when using alts we think we can evade the issues we had with having our mains in there, leading to less time issues.
SD,
ReplyDeleteCount us among the "recently pulled out". Even in the course of the last month I seen our Static Class 2 system go from 50/50 occupied/farmed to almost 90% occupied and farmed (with the most noted exception the system you vacated).
Class 2 is so bad now that we have abandoned our plans for the Class 4 with Static 2 and are going to look at a more nomadic w-space life in the near future, with plans to attack a Class 4 with a Static 4 in the future.
The key for us was the fact that we are/were burning 8M isk a day to keep the large POS going. Just not worth the cost.
Also key is the plummet in min prices. The w-space existance in a class 2 just does not have the ROI it did even a month ago.
So back to high sec and Scordite and Plag till we figure out what to do next.
Mick
From my short experience it seems that you must be willing to put in a lot of work, including always exploring neighboring wormholes for sites. We may have had too large a team because we always seemed to run out of sites way too fast (even neighbors). The amount of energy you must put in can make Eve more like work, however it can be extremely lucrative.
ReplyDeleteI moved out due to the Sov changes. Now that 0.0 can get hidden belts just as good as our W-Space belts it's no longer a special bonus for W-Holes. plus they get a local and probably a 2-3 system warning of hostiles, rather than looking for probes every 5 seconds.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I've noticed a lot of is massive Moongoo complexes. 5-6 simple reactions and the same number of complex, At 3 or 4 Large POS's most of them with very little defenses since they are all in Class 1 WH's where only BC's can enter without being built inside.
ReplyDeleteWe've found, over in Our Slice of Heaven, that WH space can get a little hectic and demanding at times.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we've got no intention of resettling any time soon. When you need a break from WH space, you've got options...
Ya know what... This is gonna get a bit long for a comment... go check it out here:
http://minuitsoleil.blogspot.com/2010/03/time-demands-in-wh-space.html
Well... it's been 3 months i've found a Class 1 and now i'm living there. With my precious Tower enough defenced to let me sleep with no worries (when me or my mates aren't online).
ReplyDeleteA class 1 is perfectly soloable and can be easily cleaned by a 1 person. The only things that usually last longer are the gravitometric sites (i also hate mining...).
Actually i have no plan to leave this little piece of heaven i've found, it's beautiful, it's profitable and everyday is new with new signatures, new exits and so on...
Much of what was said is true. My corp has lived in a Class 2 wormhole with 3 large POS's for over a year and we enjoy a static Class 3 attached as well as a static High Sec. Fuel runs can be a roblem, but simply having a 2nd corporate hanger array at each POS used exclusivly for fuel, allows us to keep almost a years worth of fuel on hand.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, the sleeper sites offer a most lucrative income of a couple billion ISK every couple of days.
Wormhole life isn't for the casual player. It takes determination and perseverance to survive and flourish within the Unknown. I have been in a wormhole now for about eight months. With no empire presence for more than a couple of hours. (Except the ocassion that an old friend war dec'd my alliance. ) We started in a Class 2. Got too big for that. Moved up to a 3. Made what we could it there. And now we reside in a Class 5, with a static Class 3. We feel this is perfect for us. Because it keeps alot of traffic out of our hole. (We mostly get large fleets that bore, or die easily) And the logistics is actually easier than when we were in our Class 3. I dont see any of my guys leaving anytime soon. Except maybe a couple of INDY guys who think they can make this kind of ISK in High Sec. Best of luck to them. In closing. Its a PITA sometimes. But nothing that makes this much ISK should be easy. =) Holden Christ
ReplyDelete