I Tip My Hat To You CCP

It's not everyday that CCP pulls a fast one on the majority of the eve universe, but that is exactly what happened in Retribution.  I mean, who has noticed that both Technetium and High-Sec have been nerfed, while low-sec pirating has been buffed?

Imagine the tears that openly stating a nerf to high-sec would have caused. The threads, the tears, the threats to quit eve online with all 5 accounts each high-seccer has.  Yet by nerfing it in a round-about way, and not calling it a high-sec nerf, the threads and tears are minimal, and I've yet to see any threats to quit the game.  If you already haven't figured out how high-sec is being nerfed you need to get Netflix (assuming your the one person on the planet who doesn't have it) and watch more Sherlock.  For those of you still in the dark, I'm talking of course, about the sleeper AI proliferation to all rats.  You see, incursions and sleepers already had "sleeper AI" while their backward inbred cousins, belt and mission rats, did not.  With these changes, the belt and mission rats now switch targets seemingly randomly, rather than simply focusing on the first target they aggro.  Yet, this doesn't matter much in belts as at most, there are 5-6 rats in a belt, and are almost always soloed (hence, no targets to switch).  Yet in missions (especially Level 4s), where there are a multiple of that many rats, many people would run them in groups of 2-3 toons, either 1 tank + a dps ship or two, or a couple battleships with a logi.  Yet now, all toons in the site must tank, and even the logi will now gain aggro, making missions, a staple of high-sec income, more of a challenge (I use the term challenge loosely here).

I believe the buff to low-sec pirating is fairly clear (gate guns 'forget' you if you warp off and back) and will now focus on how Technetium was nerfed.  I spoke somewhat about this in my post Winter is Coming.  You see, these tritanium built t1 cruisers are becoming somewhat of a norm for "everyday" fights, whereas the technetium built t2 stuff is left in the garage for fights that must be won.  The T1 cruiser has been tiercieded to where it is now the "everyday" car, whereas that T2 cruiser has been relegated to only be flown on nights you wish to impress the opposite gender.  Sure, the T2 cruiser still has a purpose, but the game is no longer T2 or bust.

The Winter Shopping Season

In much of America, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (which always falls on a Thursday) officially marks the beginning of the Christmas winter shopping season.  In Eve, why wait for Black Friday though, when you can start making iskies by shopping appropriately now, for the upcoming winter holiday (Dec 4th, of course)?  So what then, should be on your winter shopping list so as to make a profit.  Here is a copy of my list, and also an explanation as to why and how I think you can make a nice profit from each.

As a reference source for all my ideas, I use the most recent tiercide blog.
For Everyone:
1: Support (Logi) Frigates- I think everyone will want to test out the combat ability of the new support frigs, and see if they are over/under powered.  It would be a good idea to start producing/buying these up now while their demand is still low, and sell them on patch day.  I see no reason most players wouldn't want to pay 2-3M for a ship like this, whereas the build cost is in the low hundreds of thousands.

2: Combat & Disruption Frigates: These too will be buffed, and while I don't think their demand will meet that of the support (logi) frigs, I think most people will want to test out what they can do.  I wouldn't be surprised to see them go for 2-3X build cost on patch day.

3: Combat, Disruption, & Attack Cruisers: I would stick with the cruisers that now suck, and will receive a nice buff due to the patch, as their demand will greatly increase, all at once, causing for a spike in price.

4: Support Cruisers: These might not grab the same attention as the new logi frigs, mostly because they already exist, but I do believe they see use after the patch, extensively if they prove to be near on-par with their tech-2 varients, as I suspect.

5: Small/medium remote reps (shield and armor, as well as energy xfer): For every new support frig and cruiser, I would assume 2-4 reps will be needed per ship.  With that kind of demand, all at once, I would assume the price of these will sky rocket.

6: Drone Damage Amplifier mod: While I don't expect a skyrocket out of this item, you can expect a nice price appreciation, both initially (as many of the newly remade ships will be using drones), and over time, as the mod is getting a buff.

For the quick Buck:
7: New Destroyers/mining frigate- If you have access to a manufacturing pos near a market hub, and you're quick, you can take a risk, buy a bpo of these as soon as the patch hits, and build one or two of these babies.  This won't make you a ton of isk, but you might be able to sell for enough over build cost, to recoup the cost of the BPO, and therefore, have a free BPO henceforth.  I remember when the drake first came out, the first 6-7 hours, it was selling for double build cost (as people do not want to wait), before coming down in price.

8: Micro Jump Drive- Once agian, this involves time, and a risk, but it may prove fruitful (if you have a manufacturing pos near a trade hub) to buy the bpo here, and produce a few right off the bat, selling them for massive profit, as I believe this mod will be quite revolutionary.  After the initial intrigue falls away, I would manufacture in npc stations, as the cost is much cheaper.  This bpo should be able to give you consistent returns over time.

9: Salvage Drone- Once again this involves timing.  I would buy the bpo and manufacture these at a pos right after patch.  Rather than looking for a trade hub, I would try and setup shop near a mission hub, as this is the missioners dream drone.

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming, and with it many changes.  The most important change as many players are concerned is the tiercide of the remaining Tech-1 frigates, as well as all Tech-1 cruisers.  For starters, I have to give it to CCP Fozzie (and Friends).  He has shook up eve, in general, for the better, ever since he started using the moniker Fozzie. Technetium, was appropriately nerfed.  Partial Frigate tiercide left me feeling with a "well these ships are almost flyable" feeling, without them feeling overpowered. T1 Cruisers, which were initially not expected to be tiercided until next year, have ALL been added to the 2012 Winter expansion.  Judging by the frigates from tiercide part 1, one thing that appears to be clear from the expected changes to cruisers is more slots, more functionality, more of a role purpose, all of which will make T1 cruisers more apt to be flown, and getting a ship class, which is mostly ignored, to be flown, is a good thing.  So, why then, am I starting to feel pessimistic?  The answer is because virtually all actions have side effects, and Fozzie's many, swift, and well intentioned actions have side effects as well.  Side effects, that will open up a Pandora's box full of unintended consequences.

So what damage could a buffing tiercide of t1 cruisers really do?  It can hurt both large scale nullsec corps/alliances and smaller FW corps/alliances.  But how you may ask?  The answer, dear Watson, is elementary.  You see, the general idea behind tiercide, is that certain ships are better than other ships, and that this must be fixed so that differing ships have different roles, but a more expensive ship is not "better" than a less expensive ship.  To a certain extent, I believe this necessary: HICs have their roles, as do tacklers, logistics, DPS ships and EWAR.  Yet, tiercide attempts to make the cheapest cruisers, viable against more expensive ones.  The problem with making cheap ships viable, is that nobody will pay a 40-200M premium for a faction/tech 2 cruiser, when a tech 1, is virtually as good, if not better in some instances.  When was the last time you saw an Osprey Navy issue or an Eagle in pvp?  The reason you rarely see them is because the cost to value ratio is heavily skewed towards the negative side.  What the winter tiercide will do, is make the Zealot, Cerberus, Vagabond, NOmen, and SFI (etc.), into the red-headed stepchild, that nobody wants to fly because they are only marginally better (if at all) than their tech 1 cousins.  With demand WAY DOWN for these ships, who will be hurt?  Anyone who makes iskies by bringing these ships to market.  Tech 2 Moon Goo based alliances will watch their wallets slim down faster than a Victoria's Secret Model.  Faction warfare players with investments in faction blueprints will be hurt by this as well.  Those, that have LP to spend and have the whits to avoid Faction Ships, should be mostly unperturbed, however, as they can spend their LP on investments that wont sink

Don't Fret, all is not lost, however.  You merely need to stay tuned, as our next blog post will feature ways to make iskies from this upcoming shakeup.  Buy, when there is blood in the streets :)

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Mark Twain once said that there are 3 types of lies in this world: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.  I'm here to tell you that our beloved Killboards are a form of a lie.  You see, most people assume that KB efficiency of a character/corp/alliance tells you how many people they kill for every death (or, how much isk they blow up per every isk lost).  This in fact, is only part of what that efficiency number shows.  I believe the best way to present what these numbers really show is to give a few simple examples.

For our examples we will use two corps, Secret Agent Corp vs Shape Corp.  Each corp has 3 members.  For the Agents, the members are Agent 003, Agent 005 and Agent 007.  For the Shapes, the members are Square, Circle, and Triangle.  We will assume that each pilot flies a ship of equal value (to make the numbers nice an even) and only flies that ship.  Also, each example is independent of all the rest (Ie: Example 2 does not take into effect what happened in example 1).

Example 1:

Agent 005 has 3 1v1 vs Square.
Agent 5 wins 2 of the fights.
Square wins the third.

Killboard Result:
Secret Agents Efficiency: 66.667%
Agent 005 Efficiency: 66.6667%
Shapes Efficiency: 33.333%
Square Efficiency: 33.333%

Conclusion: 1v1s give you true efficiency numbers.

Example 2:

All 3 Agents have a fight vs all 3 Shapes.
All 3 Agents survive while all 3 shapes die, then the Shapes reship, and come back and kill all 3 Agents without losing a ship.  Total ships lost, 3 each side.

Killboard Result:
Secret Agents Efficiency: 50%
Agent 003s Efficiency: 75%
Agent 005s Efficiency: 75%
Agent 007s Efficiency: 75%
Shapes Efficiency: 50%
Squares Efficiency: 75%
Triangles Efficiency: 75%
Circles Efficiency: 75%

Conclusion: When you have multiple people from a corp fighting together (ie: fleeting up), the efficiency is (artificially) improved for each individual member (assuming they all get on the kill) by the number of members in the battle (Assuming the overall corp efficiency is 50%, each individual member's efficiency would tend toward 75% for 3 members, 90% for 9 members, 98% for 49 members, and so on, even though the corp efficiency has not changed and is still 50%).

Example 3:

Agent 007 hooks up with 2 new players from a Russian corp (Aptly named Backwards N): Ivana and Natalya (both dudes in real life) and they decide to camp a gate together.  The Shapes show up promptly, and all 3 are blown up.  The Shapes reship, and this time they kill all 3 ships.

Killboard Result:
Secret Agents Efficiency: 75%
Agent 007s Efficiency: 75%
Backwards N Efficiency: 66.667%
Ivana's Efficiency: 75%
Natalya's Efficiency: 75%
Shapes Efficiency: 50%
Square/Triangle/Circle's Efficiency: 75%

Conclusion: As you can see, when you fleet up with members of a different corp, not only does each individual's efficiency show as artificially high, but the corp efficiencies show high as well.  The more non-corp people included in your fleet, the higher your corp efficiency will be raised (artificially).

In Summary, what have we learned?
We have learned that pilots who tend to 1v1 a lot will have lower efficiencies as compared to people who fleet up a lot.  Said another way, if you want to artificially increase your toon's killboard efficiency numbers, join fleets.  Extrapolated another way, the larger your fleets are on average, the larger the artificial boost to your KB efficiency (One would expect members large 0.0 alliances to have artificially higher KB efficiencies than smaller corps who get the same 'true' efficiency).

What else have we learned?
We have learned that corps who tend to fleet with members outside their own corp will have higher corp KB efficiencies than those who do not.  Said another way, if you want to artificially increase your corp's KB efficiency, join fleets hosted by other corps/alliances.

Ninja Plexing- When SH!T H!TS the Fan

In my last post, I promised I would cover:

A: How to maximize griefage while Leeching (aka Ninja Plexing)
B: What to do if they do drop an alt on you.
C: Why I Leech rather than plex.

Before I go any further, Let me present my typical fit for Leeching (Ninja Plexing) FW Minmatar Plexes.  I use a Slasher, with the following fit:

Lows: Warp core stab I X2
Medium: 1mn Microwarpdrive i
EM Resistance Amp i
Thermal Resistance Amp i
4th slot is your choice. (ECM burst, warp disruptor, web, warp scrambler, another resistance amp, whatever will fit).

Highs: Prototype Cloak i

I use the MWD to be able to get to the button quickly.  This is useful when I notice that there is minimal time remaining (say 20-30 seconds) upon my initial warp in.  I used to use an AB so that I could run the sites as well, however, after missing out on one too many majors by a few kilometers, I switched to the MWD.

The resistance amps aren't necessary, but if they do warp out, and I grab agro, they let me survive long enough to warp out (or on rare occasions finish the plex myself).

The warp core stabs are if they bring (or decloak) a neutral alt who points you, so that you can get away.

I will explain the cloak in a bit.  In the mean time, I will go over my strategy.  If you want to maximize profit, you will keep a stopwatch (or stopwatch app on your phone) handy.  I will warp in to major and medium plexes, note how much time is left (a piece of paper and pencil dont hurt), and unless it is 2 minutes or less, i will leave.  No sense spooking the poor bastard too soon.  I typically check a couple neighboring systems for their mediums and majors.  You can check minors too, but they really don't pay too much.  After I notice, that there is roughly 2-2.5 minutes left until a plex is about to be completed, I will warp to the plex, enter it, double check the time (on occasion, people were chased out, or otherwise left the button, thus making my timing be off) and proceed to orbit the button. 

To maximize profit, you typically want to switch between complexes and systems, and not leech off any one person too much (for profit, you want to anger people as little as possible, because having to deal with them will lower your LP/hour).  After working an area of systems, switch to a new area.  At one lucky point, I was able to leech 3 majors, and 1 medium, in about 20 minutes.  Thus having made roughly 46K LP in 20 minutes (or at tier 5, which I cashed the LP out at, roughly 140M isk in 20 minutes).

Now, if they try to drop an alt on you, or you notice there is roughly say, 4 minutes left, and you don't want to warp off, and warp back, that is where the cloak comes in.

And the cloak, can be used two different ways.  If you don't want to spook them, and do want them to do the "heavy lifting" for you, at least until it is too late, yet you don't want to warp off, (I usually do this with say, 2-4 minutes left on a timer) you can enter the plex, burn off the entrance, and cloak up.  Then simply wait for the timer to get low, before decloaking and burning into range of the button.  If you get into the plex, and notice they have a neutral alt waiting for you, you can quickly turn the mwd on, to get away from the warp in (which usually decloaks you, and prevents you from cloaking), and cloak up.  This way you are safe, and in the plex. You merely decloak and approach the button with like 15-20 seconds left (MWD on).

Between the warp core stabs, and the cloak, I have yet to be blown up, since I have switched to this fit.  Sure, no fit is full-proof, but this greatly enhances your survivability.

Now, for those of you whose main goal is to cause grief, and a lowered morale of your opponents plexers, here are some things you can do to maximize pain to the enemy.

1: Leech in groups of 3 ships.  With 3 ships, you can scour for major and mediums in multiple systems at a time, form up, and take 3/4 of their LP.  Careful though, Hell hath no fury, like a carebear who just had his earned LP for running a major go from 25K to 6.25K.  In groups, you can even have more of a pvp fit, and take down neutral alts who try to chase 1 toon off (you can even bait neutral toons this way).  Because you are splitting the LP 4 ways rather than 2, the LP/hour isn't as good, but is much more demoralizing, and harder to counter.

2: Follow a guy around.  Use your cloak to stalk someone and keep stealing their LP.  It makes most people want to log, after they unsuccessfully travel a few systems, only to be constantly harassed.

3: And of course, when causing pain to the enemy, local is your friend.  Taunt them, kindly of course.

My Kind Taunting Face

All in all, although plexing is easy, and pays better, I tend to leech more often due to it being fun.  Face it, plexing is boring as hell.  Leeching (Ninja Plexing), not only has an element of demoralizing the enemy, and helping your side win the war, but also, since you are going whits to whits with a real person, there is a bit of a challenge there.  They can perform an action that you didn't see coming, or vice versa.  It can be a bit of a game of cat and mouse, but much like in pvp, you often learn something.

Enjoy your leeching.

Get Paid While You Grief

Perhaps it's the carebear in me, but I've never liked griefing people.  I don't know what it is, but I don't find solace in the tears of others.  Or at least, that's what I thought until I started Leeching (aka Ninja Plexing), at which point I realized, I have no qualms about causing tears, it's the fact that I wasn't being paid that has kept me from griefing in the past.  Ninja Plexing (AKA Leeching), however, rewards you for griefing by taking 1/2 of your target's LP earned.  It's like a "Heavy LP Nosferatu II".

But, I know what you're thinking. Half of you are thinking "if you want to make the most isk, and plexing pays better, why not just plex?"  The other half is thinking "If you want to cause harm to the Matari plexer, why not just go in there with your Amarr main, and shoot him?"  I will answer both questions, starting with the latter.

If I want to prevent my opponents (the Matari) from plexing with an Amarr toon, I have to
A: Jump into local
B: Find the plex they are in
C: Warp to that plex
D: Enter the plex
E: Fly near the button to point/web them.
F: Watch them die

From the point that I jump into local (A), until I fly close enough to them to point/web them (E), my opponent can:
A: Notice me in local
B: Watch D-scan until I get to the outside of their plex
C: Align to a Safe Spot
D: Warp once I enter the plex

Due to the time it takes me to get from the stargate to the button, the plexer is in little to no risk of losing their ship, and with the current plexing system, if I want to prevent them from completing the current plex, I have to stay on the button long enough to cancel out their time on button + the initial time (ie: defensive plex), or I can leave, and they can pick up right where they began.  If I stay and d-plex, during the same time they can run an identical plex at a new location and have time left over (due to me not just having to run down the initial time, but the additional time they ran it up as well), in which case I have not accomplished anything.  If I leave, they can re-enter their plex and continue right where they left off, in which case I have accomplished nothing.

If I want to inhibit my opponents (The Matari) from plexing with a Matari toon, I have to
A: Jump into local
B: Find the plex they are in
C: Warp to that plex
D: Enter the plex
E: Fly near the button


You will notice, that not much has changed.  However, since I am a "blue" to them, they often do not run away.  Oh, sure, they might cry in local for me to leave, but honestly, they are left with only a few choices:

A: Accept their Fate- take half the LP, and let me take the other half.  This not only lowers their LP/hour by half, but also demoralizes them.
B: Shoot at me with their Matari toon to chase me off/kill me- Albeit, this of course, requires guns (which many do not have), skills to use weapons (which many do not have), a pvp fit (which many do not have), and even then, since 95% (my estimate) do not shoot the rats, all I would have to do, is point and web them, and the rats dps would add up pretty quickly.  And even, assuming all of this in their favor, they still take a standings hit toward the Minmatar Republic, which they need to keep positive standings with, to continue to plex.
C: Defend their plex with an alt that is not in the Minmatar Republic.  This is by far the most effective way to keep their plex to themselves, however, by already forcing them to have an alt, that will need to go pirate (or need to be in the Amarr/Caldari Militias) and need to have skills, I am forcing many of them to do something that they cannot.  On the off chance that they can, there are naturally, ways to counter them, which I will go into detail, in my next blog.

Stay Tuned.  My next blog will cover
A: How to maximize griefage while Leeching (aka Ninja Plexing)
B: What to do if they do drop an alt on you.
C: Why I Leech rather than plex.

In the meantime, you might find Hans' recent Blog a good read of things that might come in winter.

Evolve to Survive, Evolve to Thrive

Since the changes that came with Inferno, to many it became clear that strategies of the past (gaining LP on the amarr side only), would not be sufficient in keeping pilots' wallets sufficiently padded.  This was true of the Amarr for a few reasons:

1: The Amarr held less systems when Inferno hit.  This gave an incentive for anyone who wanted to gain LP that was more likely to be cashed out at high tiers sooner to join the Matari, further boosting both their numbers, and man hours of plexing.

2: There is a perception that the Amarr are outnumberred.  Since inferno (when I joined FW), this has been true.  In my previous post I pointed out, that on the battlefield, prior to the Great Exodus, numbers were oftentimes even, however, the realm of pve is not the battlefield.  A PVE competition tends to trend to whoever has greater sheer numbers, which over the past 3 months, has been the Minmatar.

3: Boots on the Ground: Most Minmitar base out of the warzone, whereas most Amarr do not (the large exception being BlackWatch Guard, who base out of Sahtogas, which has been successfully defended thus far, for reasons about to be given).  There are pros and cons for each strategy, however, two of the pros for basing out of the warzone are a higher desire to defend the "home" system, as well as more troops in the warzone (home system), at any one time.

After the Great Exodus, the Amarr LP seem to really have little going for them.  The Minmitar hold more systems, have more numbers, and live in the warzone, all 3 of which lead to better value for Minmitar LP and lower value for Amarr LP.  The question then is, how do you adapt?  The initial answer is simple: plex for the Minmitar.  Yet, won't this lead to an even greater Minmitar advantage in the PVE war?  Not necessarily.

12 days prior to the Matari hitting tier 5, I had 2 alts join FW on the Matari side.  With the alts, I performed 3 actions, none of which hurt the Amarr in the PVE war.

1. Plexing systems that were already vulnerable and would be lost anyways.
2. Running FW Missions
3. Leeching LP (AKA Ninja Plexing).

Now, I happened to have two alts with some skills (one had 2M SP, the other about 10M) that were not in the war, yet had standings to apply for the Matari Militia, although performing actions # 1 and 3, only require an alt roughly 3 days old, and since they are new, they would meet minimum requirements for the Minnie Militia (ie: a standing of 0).

Over the following 12 days I proceeded to earn roughly 800K LP, which cashed me roughly 3B ISK (I don't think I played any more than normal, and I didn't spend all my playing time on earning LP, so this really shows how broken the system is).  Of the 800K, here is the rough break down:

Roughly 200K earned from running plexes
Roughly 200K earned from missioning
Roughly 400K earned from Leeching

Of the three, missioning is relatively the hardest (albeit not hard, just requires either coordination, standings (to do level 4s), oftentimes a stealth bomber, etc.), and requires the most skillpoints, although I believe it pays the most LP/hour.  Leeching, despite paying less LP/hour over the long run than either missioning or running plexes, has indeed been the most fun, and is why I earned the most LP doing it.

But, other than the fun involved, why should I leech (ninja plex)?  I believe the answer to that question, is so involved, that it deserves its own post, at a future date of course.  Stay tuned!

Rust Riders Hit Tier 5

Since I started FW a few days post Inferno, the Amarr have always been outnumbered.  I am speaking of course of total numbers in the militia.  Initially, it was quite noticeable in pvp as well, however, over time (peaking perhaps just before the Amarr tier 4 cashout) the numbers became much more even, at least in regards to pvp.  Sure, LNA (ie: fleets composed strongly by LNA at least) had our fleets outnumbered by a few ships on some nights, and at other times, we outnumbered them, but in general, it had a very "even" feel.  There were many good fights in the area of Kamela, Kourmonen, Huola.

A photo of Kourmonen, after the "Great Exodus"

With the departure from the war zone of Fweddit, Wolfsbrigade, Moar Tears, as well as Nulli (amongst others), coinciding with the Amarr Tier 4 cashout, the time was right for the Matari to strike.  In the weeks that have followed, Amarr militia chat (at least in my time zone) has yet to break triple digits; 70-90 is the norm (While Minnie militia is typically between 200-250 during this same period).  This is including, of course, the additional numbers provided by Agony Empire on behalf of the Amarrians.  This is why, it was  prime time for the Matari to strike.  And strike they did.  Over the following few weeks (was it only 2, or was it 3?), the Minmatar pushed the Amarr back to only 1 system (albeit, since the weekend the Amarr have recaptured 2 additional systems, ("Fortress" Kamela, as well as Lamaa)).  

Kamela, after many days of plexing

In the process, the Minmatar have reached tier 5, and held it for a substantial amount of hours (perhaps a total of about 8-10 hours sunday), and have had a cashout of their own.  Susan Black writes on her blog "Without the help of Iron Oxide., Late Night, or other larger Minmatar alliances, general militia pushed the warzone to over 85% control".  Irregardless of whether, the large Minmatar alliances did not participate because they wanted to maximize profit (let the general militia pay for the gravy train, and then capitalize on it), or because they wanted the victory to "belong" to the general militia, they were all able to profit because of it.  (For those of you who don't know, it costs 8M-12M LP to be spent on upgrading systems, depending on how many systems you control, to attain tier 5.  More, if you want to pay for a buffer.  This could easily cost those donating the LP a combined 30-50 Billion ISK in opportunity cost).

So how are the Amarr adapting to all this Minmatar success?  You'll have to stay tuned for the next post to find out.

Goldilocks and the Three Carebears

In my last blog, I spoke about FW plexing, and how profitable it is, and how I believed that this is all intentional, yet will be "fixed" in the future.  For starters, you have to keep in mind that CCP is a business, and they need to keep players interested in the game.  The game is quite intricate, and has many "moving parts", yet just about everything that keeps players playing falls into at least one of three categories: making isk, pvp, and social player interaction (ie: RP, forum warfare, blogging, etc.).  The social interaction is mostly done outside the game (oh sure, there are chat channels in the game, and the forums are moderated by CCP employees, but for the most part, these are aspects that are outside the scope of the game), so CCP can't do much more than set the initial conditions for interaction, and hope they happen.  PvP while important, isn't the main driver of this article, and I will discuss the brilliance that CCP has set up in the skill and pvp system at a later date.  What we are left with, and what FW plexing is all about, is making ISK, after all, ISK makes the universe go around (I'm pretty sure I read that in a physics book somewhere).

When CCP adds a new way for players to make ISK, they have many options:
How well will it pay?
How difficult should it be to complete once started?
How much ISK risk is involved?
How long should it take?  (How much of a time investment is it?)
Is there an initial investment necessary?
Is it be noob friendly, or skill intensive?
Do you need to hold sov to have access?

Let's answer these questions, and give a bit of a potential 'why' in regards to FW plexing.

How well will it pay: A theoretical maximum of roughly 630M ISK per hour*.  A rather conservative number, however, is 126M ISK per hour**.

How difficult should it be to complete once started: From an NPC standpoint, should be fairly easy (after all, a 2 day old alt can run majors).  Since it is in Low sec, however, and since you are at war (faction war), you may have to not complete your plex due to these other factors (albeit driven out, and kept out, is not all that common, but it does happen), so overall I would give it a "moderately easy".

How much ISK risk is involved: At any one time, perhaps 5M if you farm with an alt.  (Albeit there is a fair amount of risk that you wont reach a high tier, and therefore, cash out in a major way).

How much of a time investment is it: From as little as 10, to as much as 20 minutes (assuming you are not forced to leave the plex).

Is there an initial investment necessary: Minimal ISK and Skillpoint Investment.  No prior grinding needed.

Is it be noob friendly, or skill intensive: Noob Friendly

Do you need to hold sov to have access: No

All of these factors point to a low barrier to entry, good pay, easy to do, low time investment, etc.  So why is this?  Well, essentially, it's because CCP has created a new way for players to make money, and what better way to get players to do it, than by making it easy to join, easy to do, pay well, and not take much time.  Having a fair number of these qualities, incentivizes players to try it. (Look at the prior two new ways to make isk: incursions and wormhole space, they have many of these qualities as well).  After all, the worst thing that can happen is that CCP will invent a new way to make ISK, and nobody will do it, because either it's too hard, takes too long, is too risky, pays too poorly, etc., as compared to what players were already doing before.  In much the same way, that a new shop, might have a grand opening sale and sell items at a loss, or give away free items to get customers interested and knowledgeable about their store, CCP is incentivizing players to try new FW plexing, even if the reward to risk ratio is (favorably) out of whack temporarily.

Over time, however, if a way of making isk (in this case FW plexing, previously Incursions) has a risk-reward ration that is too out of whack, it will need to be dealt with, lest it marginalizes and cripples other ways of making ISK (See drone region nerf and mining).  This is why incursions were nerfed, and this is why FW plexing WILL be nerfed.  We may not know the means, as of yet.  CCP may make the plexes harder to complete, take longer, change the LP store prices, require more skills, make it harder to afk, or a dozen of other changes, but FW plexing WILL be nerfed at some point (My assumption, sooner rather than later)

In much the same way that Goldilocks found some porridge that was too hot, and some porridge that was too cold, before finding some porridge that was just right, CCP has FW currently as "too far" on the happy end of the reward to risk ratio scale.  They will therefore eventually nerf it lest everyone else gives up their other ways of making ISK for plexing.  When they nerf it, they might make it "too hard" (or in other ways reduce the reward to risk ratio too far the other way) or they might find the perfect, "just right" level.  Their eventual goal (after the "grand opening sale") with FW plexing, much like with incursions, or any other form of making ISK, is to eventually find that "just right" level of reward to risk ratio.

That being said, make your ISK now, before the CCP Nerf bat of doom, turns FW plexing into a bloody mess.

*Ok, this may not be the highest theoretical maximum, as prices do change, but the numbers I used were 3 major plexes an hour (I've found 3 in a system before, although it is rare), disregarding warp time between them, and time to reach the button is disregarded as well.  Obviously a tier 5 cashout is assumed, and I used 7,000 ISK per LP as my maximum ratio (It is the best I've found thus far, not necessarily the theoretical best).

**I used one minor, one medium, and one major plex completed per hour, with the LP exchanged for SFI BPCs, using the conservative value of 27M ISK per SFI BPC from my last post.

Those Three Little Letters- I S K

I've made more isk in the past 3 months in FW (97% of the LP came from fw plexing rather than fw missions, although as I am starting to find out, those might be as rewarding if not more rewarding) than I have in any prior YEAR of my eve career.  Heck, if I keep this up, I might make more ISK this year, than I have up until now in my 6+ year eve career.  With the current payout system, if your faction can attain tier 4 or 5 (Matari had reached tier 5, and look likely to do it again soon, and the Amarr had pushed to tier 4 for a cashout) you are set to cash out a fair amount of easily earned LP for some major prizes.

As an example, at tier 5, you can cashout 11,250 LP + a tag worth roughly 1M isk for an SFI (Stabber Fleet Issue) 1 run blueprint copy.  Taking into account the cost to build it (I am estimating here, I have not run the exact numbers) of say roughly 10-12 million, that still leaves you with an SFI, at a cost of lets say 13M ISK + 11.25K LP.  You can earn 25K LP doing one major plex (20 minutes) in a 2 day old alt, in a ship worth practically nothing (in case it gets popped).  The barrier to entry is low, and the benefit is high.  So in our example above, that major plex, which took me 20 minutes to run, has given me 2 SFI's worth of LP + a little extra.  Assuming SFI's fall in price a bit from where they are now, to say, 40M (a conservative estimate), I have still earned 54M ISK in 20 minutes.  Assuming I do nothing else except for one major plex every day, I come out to 19.7B ISK profit at the end of one year.  Yeah, the isk is that good from ONE major plex a day...

Yes, there are a lot of variables (for example, this assumes you cash out ALL your LP at tier 5), but I believe I have selected an item that is popular, but not necessarily the highest ISK/LP (in this case an SFI bpc).

I am sure this (the system) will be changed (patched) at some point in the future.  The risk-reward ratio is way off, and I can't think of many better ways to make isk in the game at the moment (c6 wormholes perhaps, playing the market, owning a tech moon, anything else?)  (Note the first and 2nd can be quite risky and require either large startup capital, skills, time, or some combination thereof.  Owning tech moons simply requires you to be a large nullsec alliance, no biggee there...)

Curious Note: ISK in eve stands for Inter-Stellar Kredits, but in the real world, is also the 3 digit code for Icelandic Krona (where CCP is based) for FOREX exchange.

There is a reason, however, for the system being how it currently is (ie: way too easy and too profitable) which I will explain in my next blog.  Stay tuned for that.  Until then, go plex, and make that wallet fatter!