Monday, April 08, 2013

Spatial Awareness

To the outside untrained eye solar systems in Eve can be divided into four areas: High Sec, Low Sec, Null Sec, and Wormhole Space. But to do so is to miss a lot of the variance in Eve's spatial landscape and I think its time we codified the actual areas of space and their expected properties. This post is an attempt to do just that.

High Security Space:
Population Density: High
Risk: Low
Reward: Moderate
Description: Filled with pilots looking to avoid risk while conducting industrial and trade related activities. Also small population of suicide gankers and serial war deccers.

Low Security Space:
Population Density: Low
Risk: Moderate to High
Reward: Moderate
Description: There are decent rewards to be found in this space through missions and mining, but the main residents are "pirate" and anarchist corporations who shoot everyone else but will band together to take down particularly juicy or tough opponents.

Warzone Low Security Space:
Population Density: Low to Moderate
Risk: High to Very High
Reward: Moderate
Description: With the four militias battling it out for control of this space, you have more pilots in each system on average and this attracts not only the opposing militias but pirates, traders stocking the militia staging systems, and null sec roaming gangs.

NPC Null Security Space:
Population Density: Moderate
Risk: High
Reward: Moderate
Description: NPC stations in null sec allow entities to live in the area without fear of being locked out of their own assets. This makes them difficult to evict without large numbers and/or conviction. The inclusion of weapons such as bombs, warp bubbles, and doomsdays includes the risk factor for the unwary.

Shallow Sov Null Security Space:
Population Density: Moderate
Risk: Moderate
Reward: Moderate to High
Description: The term 'shallow' refers to proximity to low sec or high sec, which means its more likely to see hostile roaming gangs or fleets. The rewards from ratting and mining are better than low sec but still require constant vigilance to extract, but intel channels help a lot in this regard.

Deep Sov Null Security Space:
Population Density: Low
Risk: Low to Moderate
Reward: High
Description: With active intel channels, jump bridges, and long distances for hostiles to travel to get there, deep null sec that is far removed from low sec or high sec is quite safe with some of the best rewards in the game. Its only dangerous during full on war when logistical lines can be threaten or the stations themselves in danger of being flipped.

Shallow Wormhole Space:
Population Density: Low
Risk: High
Reward: High
Description: Wormholes classified from C1 to C3 can be considered 'shallow' wormhole space due to their likelihood of having a static wormhole to known space. With no local, pilots have to depend on an obsessive need to to directional scans to avoid hostiles and even then that may not be enough. All that being said, the ores, planets, and sleeper loot can make one rich very quickly.

Deep Wormhole Space:
Population Density: Low
Risk: Very High
Reward: Very High
Description: Wormholes classified from C4 to C6 typically require long wormhole chains to get back to known space increasing the chance of detection by hostiles when doing logistical operations. In addition, the sleepers themselves are some of the toughest rats in these systems and require excellent coordination to take on. On top of that, some of the most proficient and deadly wormhole corps are your neighbours on a daily basis. But you can get rich, oh so rich here.

Comments welcome!

10 comments:

  1. Not bad, I might make a couple of tweaks though.
    1) There is a difference between corp reward and personal reward. I think corp rewards are highest in deep sov null, but personal rewards are higher in shallow wormhole. Deep wormhole, while rewarding, absolutely requires groups to do it, which may actually reduce personal "burst" income but improve steadiness of that income due to breadth of distribution. Also don't forget that wormholes only make income if you get the goods to market - shooting Sleepers itself makes no ISK.
    2) I would also move C4s from "Deep" to "Shallow". While they have a C5-like reward structure they have a C3-like (or potentially even safer) risk structure due to their isolated nature.

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  2. On the C4-C6 classification :

    C4 is more like a shallow wormhole space (reward is in line with C1->C3 progression, due to the absence of capital escalation), and the chain to HS can be limited to 2 jumps (if you don't take a C4 static C4).

    C6 wormhole space is the riskiest space in eve (maybe warrant a category on its own). This is due to 2 factors: PVE, like you said, which contains the toughest rats (nos, web, scramble at impossible range) and PVP, due to an high density of high activity groups. Don't forget that it exist only 113 C6, which can be rolled in order to find a specific target. AHARM vs R&K was an example of this specifity.

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  3. I would add that I feel much safer mining in Warzone Low Security than in Low Security. Usually in the war zone I live in people ignore you because they are so busy around the PLEXs looking for fights. In low security space outside the war zones people are looking everywhere for targets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:49 pm

      How you feel and the reality of the matter are two different things. 99% of the time, a mining ship in low-sec is either bait or a new and/or oblivious player. I find quite a lot of fights in or around FW plexes. But if I see a retriever on scan, I won't hesitate to shoot it as a nice, little appetizer. You'd be hard pressed to find a low-sec resident who wouldn't.

      Much of non-warzone low-sec is empty. With nobody in local, you're much safer than with 10 people who you're counting on to be too busy looking for 'good fights' to notice you.

      Delete
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  5. Anonymous3:50 pm

    It's probably more accurate to say that the exploration sites (radar, mag, combat) are much more of a draw to non-warzone low-sec than missions or mining.

    ReplyDelete
  6. C1 WH are a bit of a tricky one. They are shallow, as they have hisec statics, but they also represent the easiest place for wandering gangs to drop into. Coupled with the fact that the income to be generated inside is only enough to support a very small corp or a single player w/ alts, and that the rewards (as far as WH go) are about the same as L4 missions, the reward for risk is tilted to the risky side.

    Also, C1s are also the 'highway' systems - used by larger WH corps to get from higher class WHs to hisec. As these players are more numerous and better equipped, C1 players stay inside when the convoys move through their WHs

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  7. Evemail comment I recieved from Tas Nok:
    "I have lived in LS/HS/WH and raided more than a few Null systems, but never put down roots there(assets I need to go back to). I agree with the comments above but would argue that there are 3 HS areas not one, (showing a little bias here? by assuming all folks in HS are avoiding risk) area one would be most systems with stations and ice belts or an abundance of ore belts and moons for research (these are your no-risk takers)
    Area two would be any HS 'island' where traveling to and from the area involves transit across LS, and those jumps are almost always camped. Occasional combat is inevitable, but not frequent, and these areas are great for staging roams into LS/Null
    Area 3 are those isolated constellations with no stations, far from a trade hub and generally few mission runners or miners, I suspect the only reason players go here is to avoid heavy traffic because the rewards here are dismal, scanning for anoms might yield a low level complex now and then, but hardly worth the effort.
    Having handled logistics for corps in LS and WH, I spent a considerable amount of time moving material in HS so it could be moved later, I spent hours afk in LS and WH while an alt was hauling all across eve, the alt lives in HS, my main rarely does."

    ReplyDelete