Why am I doing this?

When I tell people the way I'm playing the game, many are confused why I would do it.  Well here are a few reasons.

1. To slow the game down. 

While I haven't played a ton of Eve, I did hit a point where I was so frustrated by the limitations of the skill training queue.  It can be so frustrated to be held back from doing content because you don't have the necessary skills but not be able to do anything about it outside of waiting for you skills to train.

I might have 10 billion isk, but I still have to wait for Caldari Cruiser 5 and the other T3 related skills before I can hop into a Tengu.  Most other games require you to work towards a goal or tier of content.  You can't let your character sit for a week and have them suddenly level up and be ready to hit end game.  So with Eve, I'm stuck waiting to do the things that I want, which can be very frustrating.

So by imposing this no market attitude, I am forced to take it slow.  Minerals have to be mined and processed before I can build my first cruiser.  I can avoid some of the manufacturing by running missions and using the modules that drop (especially the meta 1-4 items).  I can plan out what I'd like to do and then work towards it.

With my goal of building and flying a T3, I will likely have the skills trained before I have accumulated the necessary materials to build it.  So I'm not as frustrated by the fact that my next skill might take a week or more to train.

2. To diversify

Since I have to acquire all of my materials, it forces me to participate in all aspects of Eve.  While many things can be built with just minerals, others require materials from exploration or wormholes.  I can make up for the lack of T2 modules by finding faction modules in combat sites.

While my skill diversification can be a negative thing, I am appreciating more of the game.


I'm sure I'll share some more thoughts on the project in the future.

IN search of Zydrine

As I said last time, zydrine is a bit hard to come by.  I decided to head into low sec to look for some ore that could be potential source.

I managed to find some belts that had some Jaspet but I couldn't find any belts free of rats.  Since I'm flying in a venture with only 2 T1 drones with minimal skills, there was no way I could fend off even a couple frigate rats.  I found one where the rats were fairly far away and hoped for the best.  I managed to get a couple cycles in before they aggro'd me.  I tried to kill them with my drones but they weren't even able to break the tank on the rat...

Soon enough, I was in hull and just missed getting out of the belt in time before my venture blew up.

So now I'm without a mining frigate and I don't have enough Zydrine to build another.  My only option is to reprocess the other Badger that I got from the career missions.

Jump forward a day and this was a great idea.

I ventured back into low sec and found an asteroid belt that did not have any rats.  I managed to fill my hold full of Jaspet which will yield enough Zydrine for my next two frigates that I need to build.

Here's looking forward to having my Kestrel for blowing through level 1s.

A serious lack of zydrine is slowing me down

So I finished the career agent missions and left town with my badger full of minerals, various t1 modules and a couple frigates.  I settled in Kusomonmon to do some missions for the Caldari Navy in hopes of earning some nice BPCs for some faction mods and because you have to start somewhere.


I've done a few level 1 security missions, but so far I've only gotten a bunch of metal scraps as loot and a couple t1 items that reprocess to trit and pyerite.  I would like to get into a kestrel to do my missions but I'm a few zydrine short.  All of the modules that I do have that use zydrine only reprocess to 1, but with the reprocessing losses, I end up with no zydrine.

So it's either hoping for some better drops, looking for level 3 or 4 mission runners who will let me loot their stuff or heading into low sec to ninja mine some zydrine ores.  I'm not in a huge rush as my Heron with 2 missile launchers is doing okay in missions, but I would like to start getting a decent source of the higher end minerals.  Maybe I'll find a decent anomaly that has some of the low sec ores in it.

My long term goal: Build and Fly a T3

In all my experiences in Eve, which really aren't that extensive, I have always wanted to fly a T3.  I think the fact that it is an jack of all trades kind of ship or that it felt like a pinnacle of success or status symbol is what really attracted myself to flying one.

Well, when I started this quest, I thought that it would be helpful to have some sort of goal to work towards.  After some thought, I realized that this would be a great goal that would encompass so many things about Eve and really show that my lifestyle of manufacturing and harvesting everything could be attainable and really put a great challenge out there.

Just looking at the skills alone to build and fly a Tengu look like ~200 days.  But there are so many places in between where I can use those skills and also that gives me plenty of time to build up all the resources I need.

I'll have more info to come about my T3 goal.  Maybe I'll create a checklist or status report together on it.

One question I have for you all though.  It sounds like the Tengu and Legion are still the better T3's for PVE content including exploration and C1-C3 WH sites.  Do any of you have recent experience or preferences?

Homestead Eve: A Beginning

This blog will chronicle my adventures doing something many people think is crazy.  In short, I plan on playing Eve without using the market or buying items from contracts.  I want to be self sufficient and to take the game at a slow pace.  If others join me in this way of life, I will be happy to extend the rules to support it, such as trading between players.

So here are my basic rules.  Things may change a bit as I go, but I'd like to stick to the core idea.
1. I will not buy anything off of the market except for blueprints and skills.
2. I will not buy anything off the contracts except for blueprints.
3. Everything else is fair game (LP rewards, mission rewards, drops from wrecks).

The idea is that I'll be harvesting all the resources needed to produce items or finding them off of wrecks or exploration.  That includes doing things like mining, gas harvesting, hacking, etc.

A lot of people have commented about how T2 will be basically impossible since I won't be able to get all the moon goo.  I have realized that as well, but found that much of the T2 stuff can be replaced with exploration (combat or hacking) faction drops.  Since this character won't be focused on trying to PLEX via ISK accumulation, I won't have issues equipping my ships with faction mods and I'll be doing most of my stuff in hi sec anyway so I'm less worried about losing them to other players.

I'll be posting more soon about my reasoning for why I am doing this and some more info as well as my updates on how things or going or what I'm doing.

If you are interested in this adventure and would like to join, please join the channel "Homestead Eve" or feel free to reach out to my character: Ronan Elissim.