While in other, more normal MMOs, 'Experience' is king, and gaining levels is both the means to power, and the purpose of becoming powerful, in EVE Online, it's all a little different. There, much like out in Real Life, the point of it all is to become as financially wealthy as possible. Skill levels are important certainly, and in some cases, required in order to unlock the more advanced ships and equipment, but on the whole, it's the ISK balance that's the real regulator of progress.

There are several ways to go about earning enough in-game pocket-money to be able go out and play at PvP, Piracy and the like, and something that I'm finding, is that my willingness to take risks, and even attempt some of the gameplay elements that are clearly expected of me by CCP - dipping my toes in low-sec space, throwing away ships in friendly tournaments, looking for Invention bits and pieces in dangerous waters, and simply buying unnecessary and expensive toy-ships for the fun of it; hell, simply being a good little consumer - is all directly related to my ability to earn ISK income in a reasonably painless and rapid manner.

I tend to assess gaming risk in terms of a time cost, rather than the arbitrary purchasing value attached to such-and-such game's virtual gold. The recent In-Corp PvP battle night we held for example - three frigates, plus gear, total cost, just over a million ISK, or more relevantly, one average Agent 3 Combat mission, around twenty minutes 'work', which then allowed me to spend three or four hours charging about 'playing'. Other ways to 'work' include mining asteroids and trading commodities. Both have their unique appeals, but tend to be somewhat too hands-off for my liking, so it's the Agent Combat Missions all the way for me, and to be honest, it's been that way for the entire on-off span of my EVE Career, since just after it's launch.

This all means that I'm up there among the not-so-exclusive club of Agent 4 Mission Runners nowadays, and I've yet to find a better source of reliable and safe income. These missions are reasonably challenging, require a bit of thought and cunning, and a decent understanding of ship fitting, and what tool to use for a particular task, something that in EVE, is more complex than it would first appear; a bigger gun is not always better. The better level 4 combat missions average around 20-30 million ISK income, by the time you've counted bounties for the ship kills, and the scrap value of the loot haul, and usually take an hour or two to complete, solo. Most importantly, they're an unashamedly PvE exercise - mob-whacking for fun and profit.

I remember when the 4's were added. It was widely regarded, by players and devs alike that they were unsoloable, intended as group content for whole Corps to work on. That didn't last long mind you, and nowadays, a single Battleship is usually enough for the majority of them, and often doesn't even need to warp and make multiple sorties on it, but, fitted well, can just park-up and lay the cosmic smackdown without moving from the spot.

The two most popular ships for this kind of routine EVE 'day-job' are the Caldari Raven, and the Gallente Dominix. Other battleships can do the job too - for a while I was working them in a Minmatar Typhoon, but for sheer 'EZ-Mode' efficiency, one of these two Batleships is the best bet.

The Raven is a sophisticated Missile Boat of huge proportions, capable of filling the void with wave after wave of precisely selected and finely honed missile and torpedo death. Running costs are a little high - you get through a LOT of missiles on the average Agent 4 mission, but the bounties and payout more than cover the costs. Ravens rely on energy shields for protection.

The Dominix is a dedicated Drone control ship, and while not technically a Carrier proper, is the next nearest ship available. It can hold a huge bay of various types of Drones, miniature remote-controlled star-fighter type spacecraft, and can control up to five of them in space at once. Dominix tend to rely on their physical armour for protection, and in general cost a significant amount less to buy and equip than the Raven.

Despite being Caldari, I've always loved Drones, so left the fine military traditions of my own race - missile and shield specialisation, and instead learnt the ways of our long-time nemesis, the Gallente instead - drone and armour skills, and naturally, my ship of choice for grinding out quick mission cash, is my Dominix-Class Battleship 'I'm With Stupid' (An unashamedly Banksian Culture ship name, I'm afraid). The decision to train [Race] Battleship V is not a light one, and generally takes around 75 days from scratch, so picking one to be Awesome at, over the other three, is a bit of a commitment. Still, last time I quit, I thought 'what the hell' and set Gallente Battleships V going, and now, I'm really quite powerful in the Dominix as a result.

Ship bonus for the Dominix is mainly Drone power and effectiveness, with Large Hybrid Guns less so, and my other Drone skills are similarly high too, to the point that I don't really need normal guns on the ship to get the job done - the Drones become my primary weapon system in their own right! Here's the mission fitting:

High: Supposedly for weapons, I tend to use mine as utility, since the drones are my weapons.
2x Heavy Nosferatu I - Useful vs. NPC Battleships, letting me steal energy from the enemy.
1x 425mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon - Not really needed, I just looted one, had the Power Grid spare and like the bang noise it makes. Helps with DPS vs Battleship mobs though. A much smaller 'aggroing' gun will work here just as well, the key being to have all the enemy shooting at the Dominix, not the drones. I'm the tank, they're the DPS. I'm also my own Healer though, which is nice!
1x Drone Link Augmentor I - Gives me a Drone Control Radius of 65km - more than enough for most missions.
1x Small Tractor Beam I - For looting the wrecks. I'm lazy - most people suggest another gun here instead, and to come back with a proper 'loointg ship' afterwards.
1x Salvager I - see above!

Mid: Mostly energy regeneration to support the tank, in Low.
1x 100MN Afterburner I - mostly for the aftermath, to help with looting, or crossing Deadpsace pockets to the next gate, Battleships don't gain a lot of 'Agility AC by going faster, as they're just so damned big to begin with. Not to be used at the same time as the tank, below.
4x Cap Recharger I - Capacitor (EVE's ship 'mana') is Life, so you can't regenerate this fast enough.

Low: The 'tank' of the setup, based mostly on repair and resistance.
2x Large Inefficient Armor Repair Unit - Self-healing modules for Armour. One runs constantly, giving me a regen effect - the other is used to boost healing against sudden heavy damage spikes.
4x Armor [Damage Type] Hardener I - These are swapped in an out on a per mission basis, once the type of enemy is known. Each group of npc priates do a specific spread of damage types, and these devices increase armour resistance toward those types. Resistance Gear! (e.g. on missions vs. the Serpentis Corporation, it'll be 2x Thermal and 2x Kinetic)
1x Capacitor Power Relay I - more Cap Regen gear.

Dronebay: - The real meat of my setup, these can be launched in sets of five, and are all useful for different types of target.
7x Berserker I  - Heavy Drones for Anti-Battleship work
5x Hobgoblin II - Light Drones that are fast enough and agile enough to murder Frigate and Interceptor enemies
5x Hammerhead I - Medium Drones for the numerous squadrons of Cruisers and Battlecruisers thrown at me
5x Garde I - Static Turrets that can rip through Cruisers and Battleships, if the right range firing solution presents itself.

It's comfortable, and doesn't have much trouble coping with the huge incoming DPS the average Agent 4 mission puts out, and my Drones, while slower than a massive broadside of 425mm Railguns, do get the job done in an effective manner, and without ammo costs, and most importantly, can be changed mid-mission, to suit the various targets I encounter - something that would require a warp-out, docking, refit, and return with conventional High Slot weapon systems. I do lose the occasional Heavy Drone now and then to bad luck, but on the whole, I'm good enough at herding them now, that the mostly all come back.

Once you have a decent setup that can cope with the majority of Agent 4 missions, it then becomes a mater of fine-tuning and tweaking. The above setup is notably lacking in Tech II modules, for example. I have the skills to use them all, just not the spare cash, but over time, as I earn more, I'll be able to replace all the parts of the setup with the much more potent, but expensive, 'II' versions of it all. There aren't any more difficult types of mission I'll then be able to do, but improved modules will increase my 'margin of sloppiness' on the existing ones, making them quicker and easier, in turn increasing my earning rate. Reinvestment back into the business, you might say.

I'm also missing any of the new 'Rigs' - socketed items for ships. There are dozens of these, which is a bit of a red herring and a shame, as the only one that anyone ever uses or cares about, is the Cap Recharge Rate Increase one. I can see why - improve one specific area of the ship's function, or just give yourself loads of extra free 'mana' to power modules to do any number of useful things? Versatility wins. Three 'CCC' rigs would be the equivalent of two or three of my 'Cap Recharger I' mid-slots freed up, which I could then use for all manner of utility modules - most notably, the Drone Augmentation ones, in my case, making my drones even more powerful. I'm still saving up Melted Capacitor Consoles at the moment, a rare and shockingly expensive loot part used in the CCC rigs, but I'll get there.

It's not flashy or a showboat, and indeed, I'd love it if CCP swapped the ugly Dominix model for the much more sleek Megathron one, but, it gets the job done, and keeps me in a manner to which I've become accustomed. As long as it's safely tucked away at my Agent 4 base, ready to go when I need cash, the rest of the game becomes a far more enjoyable experience, and I can start affording toys like my Ishkur, which is the most fun you can have in a Frigate chassis, my exploration cloaking scanning Helios, or my current obsession, the Hurricane, a ship I mostly bought on the basis of how pointy it is, and one I've yet to find a real use for. And of course, I can now maintain a personal 'war chest' of more disposable PvP ships, for both friendly events, and less friendly wars. Having the spare cash to actually insure my Dominix would be nice too - just in case I do balls up a mission, or get killed by lag, etc.

Money does make the world go round, and in EVE, opens a lot of new avenues, but it all comes back to my dowdy PvE Fit Dominix and my affluent, yet constantly troubled, level 4 Combat Agent. There's talk of nerfs to Agent 4 mission payouts - there always is - but without this key source of income, for me, the game would be a much more gruelling place, I think, and a much less interesting one. As with all these games, if anyone hopes to sell anything, other people need to be given money to buy it all with. Customers are made, not born...