Van Hemlock

So having a spare Battlecruiser that I didn't quite know what to do with, I thought I'd have a poke about in one of the much talked about 0.0 Outer Regions, and try a bit of 'Ratting' first-hand. The Battlecruiser is the ideal ship for this, as they are powerful enough to be able to cope with the NPC Battleships found in the asteroid belts out there, and yet affordable enough not to be too crippling if other players find and gank you.

Platinum Insurance for my chosen ship costs about 10 million ISK, for 12 weeks of cover (all times in EVE are real-time), and in the (almost certain) event of destruction, pays out about 36 million. A steep premium, certainly, but considering where I was going and what I was going to do when I got there, the odds of making a claim are almost guaranteed. Insurance is only bad value if you never need to claim on it. Also, the ship itself actually cost me 34 million, which helps a bit.

With the bit of Tech1 (disposable) equipment shopping I did in preparation for the trip, and the worst-case scenario of having to buy a new clone when I got back, the total outlay for the expedition came to about 15 million ISK. In other words, the mission was to get out there, and destroy at least 15 million's worth of Battleship bounties, and get back to Empire space again afterward, if at all possible. It's all about expendibility - don't fly what you can't afford to lose, etc, and the knowledge that my main missioning Dominix, detailed previous, was safely tucked away in my Agent 4 Combat mission base, capable of earning at least 10 million safe ISK an hour, or more, is extremely liberating. I know if this went badly, I could relatively easily replace my losses, in almost complete safety.

But you hear stories, about the Arkanor Asteroids, and Faction Loot Battleship Farming, and how life in 0.0 is generally fabulous, groovy, and better than you. Is that really the case?

The trip to the edge of Empire was uneventful, although 20 jumps still takes a while, even with Warp To 0km. Then the first obstacle; actually getting to 0.0. The most dangerous part of this kind of trip is always the dash through the small number of fixed and finite bottleneck ''low-sec' corridors, connecting the tranquil safe space of Empire, to the lawless inky black of 0.0. These systems, ranging from 0.1-0.4 sec status, are not actively policed, but still technically belong to the NPC Empires, and their laws apply. So while you can get away with murder in these fringe areas, you still get a criminal record for it, making this the home of criminals, criminal hunters, and newfolks who took a wrong turn. That single system where the 0.1-0.4band touched the 0.5+ space, the jumping off point, is particularly hazardous, although again, Warp To 0km has made life much easier, reducing the amount of time spent vulnerable to attack wh9ile travelling.

Even pirates need to sleep and eat and so on though, and I managed to get quite lucky, passing through the pinch-point without even seeing another person in Local chat. Mind you, I did go an extra eight jumps out of my way to use that particular pinch-point, shown on the galaxy map's statistics views as not being very widely travelled, and not having seen many ship or pod kills in the last 24 hours. These statical tools provided on the map help tremendously on planning and staying alive. Only a few more jumps and I'd made it - true 0.0 space.

Out here, there are no laws, other than those that can be made and enforced by the players themselves. Many players try this, and there are very few star systems left that one power group or another doesn't claim to own. This claim can be backed up by the construction of outposts, control towers and the like, but the whole thing is a bit of a mess, and the view afforded by the use of the 'Sovereignty' filter of the in-game map, and this alliance map, vary wildly, and from week to week.

Still, saying all that, I saw almost no other players on the route I'd taken, as I push ten jumps or so further into 0.0. The occasional other lone player in the Local Chat window player list (another essential tool), silently doing their own thing, most likely 'ratting' also. Ratting in this context means specifically, working NPC Pirates in Asteroid Belts, rather than anything to do with Player Pirates, and indeed, out here, it's arguable whether piracy can exist at all, given that there are no laws to break.

While not immediately apparent, not all 0.0 is the same, and what is shown on the map as '0.0', is actually further divided into security statuses of 0.0, down to -1.0. This is largely a hidden game-value; -0.89 is no more lawless than -0.03, but it does determine the kinds of NPC enemies, and asteroid types one can expect. Using the rather helpful maps found here, I eventually found a -0.30 system with two belts, some way of the main route through that region, effectively making it a dead-end. Handy for discouraging casual passers-by from investigating.

Next was to set up a few rudimentary mid-warp safe-spots. This is done by hopping from one planet to another, and pressing the Add Bookmark button in the People and Places window, halfway through the warp. These are good enough for casual hiding, but can be scanned down with the right equipment, in under 60 seconds in some cases, so it's a good idea to make a couple, and if being actively pursued, continually warp between them. Still safer than just sitting at an Asteroid Belt waiting for them though.

Trouble is, the Asteroid Belts are where the action is. I swooshed into the first, to be greeted by two (NPC) Battleships and two Cruisers, worth about 1.7 million ISK in total, and got started! The actual business of NPC Ratting in 0.0 isn't actually that difficult. The ships themselves are nowhere near as powerful as the types found in the more demanding Agent 4 Combat missions, and do not come in anywhere near the same numbers. There is usually only one 'spawn' at a time, per belt, meaning that complex agro management and fear of 'setting the next lot off by accident' is non-existent. I was running a passively tanked set up, which would have gone up like a roman candle in an Extravaganza, or Worlds Collide, but which never seriously came under threat form the kinds of ships I was facing, and although the enemy was often in Battleships, I'd still put the fighting more in the Agent 3 Combat mission level, rather than the Agent 4s.

Loot wasn't spectacular, and I was further hampered by the necessity of being self-sufficient and mobile. My entire cargobay was stuffed with ammunition, (which it would be dangerous to find a station to resupply) so had to destroy a lot of the loot I was seeing, partly because it wouldn't fit, and partly because I didn't want to leave a trail of wrecks with my name on floating about the place. Found the odd useful module, but these were all of the Tech 1 Named variety, (a sort of Tech 1.5 really), rather than the mythical Uber Faction Loot I was half expecting. The respawn rate on the rats wasn't up to the job either - and left me waiting around quite a bit. At the rate I was seeing, a single lone pilot probably needs four, to six belts to rotate between, to ensure a continual flow of carnage.

With the 'True Security Status' in mind, I hoped about abit, and eventually settled on a -0.40 with eight belts. Perfect! My best spawn was a pair of 1.1 million Isk battleships with a pair cruisers as support. Challenging, but comfortable, although I expect to find the real meat, one needs to push much further out into the void, -0.70 or lower. I was happy though, and expected to cover my cost target within a few hours at that rate. It didn't last though.

The time between the New Face showing up in local and the Interceptor arriving and targetlocking me quite took me by surprise really, and it didn't help that I'd only that moment finished off the last NPC Battleship. A warning was issued, which surprised me somewhat. Go away, in effect. You aren't allowed in this region. Annoying, but frankly, I was expecting him to just open fire. Still, although I was in a large ungainly Battlecruiser, it did have a Medium Nosferatu (energy stealing device), Web (snare), four light Tech 2 drones and Medium Guns, yes, but the ones with a very short range, very high rate of fire, and very good tracking speed. His extreme speed and agility would help him, yes, but I was far from defenceless against fast little ships. Based on the Employment History in his info, he probably had about half the skill points I do, although that wouldn't matter much if they were all in Interceptors, and related skills. As with most skillpoint-based games, you're only as powerful as the points you're actively using at that moment.

I really couldn't say which way a fight would have gone, but since I had no Warp Scrambler, it probably would have ended in me driving him off, intact. Trouble is, it's not just him. Pilot Info showed him as a member of a quite large corp, which was a member of a very large alliance, which was a member of one of the big three 'superpowers' in a war that's currently consuming the entirety of the 0.0 space that I'd so casually gone on safari in. Sure, perhaps I could have taken him, but he and his, did kind of own the region I was in, and I'm sure a proper 'police detail' could have replaced the lone patrolman quite quickly.

I demured and headed for the nearest jump-gate. Maybe he wasn't sure, and just bluffed it. The next system over, while I was still trying to plot a route out of the region, he sees me again, and lets me know the whole region is off limits, and threatens to get my corp set to 'red', and that we have to be 'blue' to be here, which all gave me pause. It hadn't occurred to me that it wasn't just about me. Red and Blue are the terms for intercorporate standings, setable by the Directors of the player corps, toward each other. Somewhat academic in Empire, out in 0.0, it provides a handy way for leaders to conveniently flag entire organisations as Friend or Foe, for all the troops to plainly see. I doubt this particular superpower would bother chasing us back into Empire and wasting a whole war-dec on little old us, but I have no idea what the future Diplomatic Plans of my own corp are. Maybe in the future we'd want to join this lot, in which case having the only previous dealings with us listed as a petty and ugly 'scrumping' charge probably won't help.

That's the thing...it's not about 'There's plenty of rats for everyone'. The ratting bounties, just as with the asteroids, (the best I saw was Gniess, by the way), is a resource, to be controlled and governed, and granted and denied. Perhaps the 'government' that the helpful patrolman represented could be dealt with, and passes and permissions could be obtained, or bought, but it's a matter of laws, and diplomacy and empires rather than the mere anarchic pandemonium I'd envisaged. To be fair, he could have just opened fire, but instead tried to do it properly. Most out there have a regrettable 'NBSI' (Not Blue Shoot It) policy, and the ongoing wars must make everyone a little paranoid. Might does make right though, especially in 0.0 - much as it annoyed me being told what to do by, essentially, another player with an equal amount of 'rights' to it all as me, it's hard to argue the claim. I guess a comparison would be if I, as a Mexican or something, rowed ashore in Germany or Britain, during 1941, armed with a hunting rifle, and started going after their deer, and then was surprised to find either nation's military less than understanding or sympathetic about 'deer being free to all!'

Anyway, it was late, and he left, presumably to go harry the other lone hunters in the area, before I could get any elaboration, so I made a safe-ish spot and logged out for the night. I'm still there now, but will probably try to escape back to Empire next time. See, it was all very interesting and exciting and all, but at the end of the day, it's about the money. The whole trip lasted about three hours, and only earned me ten million or so. I get twice that from an Agent 4 Mission in Empire space, and don't have to worry about treading on anyone's toes, turf wars, lone assassins, or being able to safely buy more ammo, or sell loot.

Maybe I wasn't doing it right, but I remain unconvinced about the grand 0.0 life. I suspect it's more a Corporate Life than an Individual one at the end of the day...