Hitting high-sec
27th June 2011 – 5.18 pmEmpire space, day one. High-sec is all mine! I have no idea what to do. I have an ancient Drake battlecruiser in this hangar, fitted with basic components and even some passive hardeners, but I am far from familiar agents. This Drake and location were from an earlier temporary reprieve from w-space when I ran missions with Fin, but my access to agents here is lousy and I need some kind of autonomy if I am to maintain interest. I think I ought to head back towards an old mission triangle in The Citadel, although I note that I don't have combat ship down there. I'll first swing by Jita to buy a new ship and fittings, flying bare pod to save time if not ISK.
In Jita, I consider buying a Buzzard covert operations boat for scanning, but I leave it for today. Anomalies can be easily found using the on-board scanner and, besides, I imagine missions will be far more profitable than anomalies in high-sec space. Unless I want to find wormholes there is little point in having a scanning boat, and as I don't have a stealth bomber for hunting or strategic cruiser for shooting Sleepers there is not much point heading in to w-space either. For now, I am one pilot and her Drake, and missions are my bread and butter.
I reacquaint myself with an old agent of good standing, offering level three missions. I could probably look for higher level missions but these will be familiar and straightforward enough to start with. As luck would have it, the first mission I am offered is breaking a blockade, which I seem to recall being rather testing. I can see if I can still fly a Drake effectively, even if I have forgotten about drones again. A quick diversion gets some drones in to my hold and I am soon popping high-sec rats left and right, my tank holding up under the strain easily enough, even if jamming remains as frustrating when used by NPCs as capsuleers.
Quite a lot of shooting later and I am left with a whole host of wrecks. I may as well try to realise some more profit out here, although that means having a salvaging boat. I could equip a destroyer and salvage old-school, but time is ISK and a Noctis salvager seems the better choice. Of course, I don't have one at all in empire space, their introduction occurring long after I make a home in w-space, so I need to buy one. Salvaging these wrecks is remarkably easy when compared to Sleepers, only needing to dedicate a single cycle of one module to each wreck, and I find it faster to loot the resultant cans than the wrecks themselves.
Four more missions are accepted and completed, each one cleaned up by my Noctis, bringing my first day to a close. Totting up my mission rewards, time bonuses, and bounties, less the cost of the ships and fittings, I have lost over a hundred million ISK. Maybe the loot and salvage will cover most of that, I don't know, but this doesn't seem like an auspicious return to running missions. Maybe tomorrow will be more profitable.
5 Responses to “Hitting high-sec”
L3 missions are really only good for grinding standings. If you actually want to make any ISK you need to do L4s, although Drake DPS is a little light for L4s.
Yeah, I'm finding that out. I didn't get in to L4s before moving to w-space, so never sourced an appropriate agent. Fin's helping me out, though.
Should be easier with the late Incursion Agent changes, required standings are all effectively -20 quality now.
In my experience, the time spent doing solo L4s in bships could net up to app. 25mio ISK/h. Which is hardly comparable to wh/sleeper combat, even with the respective risks and certain long-term losses involved.
And for those "up to" 25mio/h, you have to spend also time to put some of the items on the market... so the average goes even lower.
Then again, it generates a steady positive cash-flow to finance your adventures while seeking for your way back. :)
Yes, the agent changes certainly came at a convenient time.
It's definitely not Sleeper iskies but, as you say, it's still income that will keep my wallet ticking over for the time being.