Different people have different opinions on acceptable or unacceptable activities in EVE. Me, I'll sometimes step back from the faction-warfare front lines to shore up my wallet. Occasionally, that'll mean running missions.
It's only since this spring that I've been in a position to solo missions for Level 4 agents. Cross-training to Minmatar to fly the Tornado (intended for use against a bumping extortionist who's apparently moved on to another system) put me in a decent position to fly the Maelstrom, and I got lucky and found a bargain on one before the removal of drone alloys and Hulkageddon drove battleship prices sky-high. That became my missioning ship, kept in a hi-sec backwater with access to a couple of good Level 4 agents.
One of which offered me Angels Extravaganza the other day - an unexpected prize. Good rewards, hefty bounties, and now that I've got an alt trained up with the Noctis, nice loot and salvage as well.
It was almost too easy, sometimes - my tank was never in jeopardy, autocannons were ripping through the Angels (with drones shredding frigates and such), there was almost a rhythm to it. Finish off the last hostile, warp in the Noctis while bringing the Maelstrom back to the acceleration gate, start salvage, and send out the Mael to the next room. There was a bit of a scare when I brought in the Noctis too soon in the fourth room, but the Mael drew full aggro on the last wave, so the only thing that happened was that the Noctis pilot got half the bounties for the last wave.
Five rooms, easily done. But then comes the bonus room.
For that, I docked up and re-fit the Maelstrom, adding a thermal hardener (for the missiles the bonus room sends) and a cap booster, pulling the boost amplifier and the afterburner. Maybe my mistake was in not swapping out the guns, not going in with artillery to take out the long-range weapons ... but in any case, I got maybe five kills in the bonus room before I was out of cap booster charges, almost out of cap, and my shields were at the warning threshold.
Time to walk away.
Luckily, four of those five kills had been the web/scram frigates that can give people fits, so I got clear without any hits to armor. Ultimately, all it cost me was ammunition and about thirteen cap booster charges.
That's the issue, sometimes - people get their teeth into an objective and refuse to let go, pursuing the sunk-costs fallacy. Sometimes you just need to let go.
After selling off pricier salvage, raw profit was about 35 million ISK. Plus however much that plus-3 implant in the silo ends up selling for in Jita.
Not a bad night's work.
It's only since this spring that I've been in a position to solo missions for Level 4 agents. Cross-training to Minmatar to fly the Tornado (intended for use against a bumping extortionist who's apparently moved on to another system) put me in a decent position to fly the Maelstrom, and I got lucky and found a bargain on one before the removal of drone alloys and Hulkageddon drove battleship prices sky-high. That became my missioning ship, kept in a hi-sec backwater with access to a couple of good Level 4 agents.
One of which offered me Angels Extravaganza the other day - an unexpected prize. Good rewards, hefty bounties, and now that I've got an alt trained up with the Noctis, nice loot and salvage as well.
It was almost too easy, sometimes - my tank was never in jeopardy, autocannons were ripping through the Angels (with drones shredding frigates and such), there was almost a rhythm to it. Finish off the last hostile, warp in the Noctis while bringing the Maelstrom back to the acceleration gate, start salvage, and send out the Mael to the next room. There was a bit of a scare when I brought in the Noctis too soon in the fourth room, but the Mael drew full aggro on the last wave, so the only thing that happened was that the Noctis pilot got half the bounties for the last wave.
Five rooms, easily done. But then comes the bonus room.
For that, I docked up and re-fit the Maelstrom, adding a thermal hardener (for the missiles the bonus room sends) and a cap booster, pulling the boost amplifier and the afterburner. Maybe my mistake was in not swapping out the guns, not going in with artillery to take out the long-range weapons ... but in any case, I got maybe five kills in the bonus room before I was out of cap booster charges, almost out of cap, and my shields were at the warning threshold.
Time to walk away.
Luckily, four of those five kills had been the web/scram frigates that can give people fits, so I got clear without any hits to armor. Ultimately, all it cost me was ammunition and about thirteen cap booster charges.
That's the issue, sometimes - people get their teeth into an objective and refuse to let go, pursuing the sunk-costs fallacy. Sometimes you just need to let go.
After selling off pricier salvage, raw profit was about 35 million ISK. Plus however much that plus-3 implant in the silo ends up selling for in Jita.
Not a bad night's work.
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