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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Markets, Killing, and Door Prizes

I was talking with someone the other day about whatever, and he told me that one of his corpmates created an alt in Jita. This guy then studied the market, figured out all sorts of things, like how much people are willing to pay for pretty much any item they may need/want to buy, and then went about fulfilling it. Within a week the guy had made 300 mil ISK. His second week he doubled his profits to 600 mil ISK.


And this was a trail account character. -_- that guy could play for free on his market account and his main account for FOREVER on 600 mil a week, and then buy all the fancy ships and towers he wanted after that! He could also hire a permanent goon army, something I think would be really fun for that kind of ISK making.


"Hey, paid goons, go shoot that guy." "Yassuh!"


So, Anjali is now tentatively training in that direction. I find myself curious if the same concept would work in other trade hubs aside from Jita. Probably, I would assume, since, trade hubs are where people tend to congregate to buy and sell things. Anjali is experimenting with some market thievery, and by that I mean buying some items at trade hubs, and selling them for slightly lower to slightly higher prices than nearby. I'm playing off the lazy factor of people, as well as the time factor. Let's face it, when you have to go buy groceries, unless you're going to save a good chunk of change, you're almost certain to go to the nearby more expensive grocery store just for the "I don't have to go as far" factor. Hell, I do it myself all the time just to avoid making two jumps to buy something, nevermind 4 or 5.


So, she's testing it out on some items that probably get bought during wars for the victims: Warp disruptor I's and 200mm Autocannon I's. There seems to be an upcoming price spike in those autocannons too, so that could work out well in Anjali's favor.

If I ever figure how to manipulate this market effectively, I'll write about it, as I'm sure quite few people read this blog, and hence we'll make lotsa money. I'm pretty sure though, that, since I'm not anywhere near to physicist smart, it might be a while. I have a decent amount of math behind me though, maybe I can figure out what's going on.


As her primary job, Anjali has been doing very well. She's a dedicated stalker now, chasing targets around, gathering intel, and generally setting people on edge when she's being obvious about what she's doing. Being circumspect is going to be harder without a Covert Ops ship. The only way I can think to do it without that is to work as part of a gang, ie several trackers keeping ahead of the prey but never sticking around for too long to be pinned down as a  tracker.


Anjali is recruiting, by the way. She needs dedicated trackers for tracking targets, doing research for other corporations looking to go to war, and providing warp in support with real-time feeds of target whereabouts. Interested in making money without grinding missions or hoping to understand the market? Send in your application to Anjali Subranni. (corp currently dissolved)


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On my main character, Truen1ght, I scored another kill.


Lately the victim corp has been banding together, flying in packs, watching each other's backs...all good fleet tactics. But they've gotten a bit cocky just because we wouldn't walk into their trap the other day. They had some neutral buddies there to remote repair them while we shot at them, and we knew it (even saw it with spy characters). 3 or 4 versus 4 with invulnerability doesn't work out well for us, so, no, we didn't engage.


So, because of that, at least 2 of them, Vistus and Dodd, have both gotten very cocky. Vistus has been trash talking us, and Dodd I'm pretty sure bought an older character to use against us.


Unfortunately for my comrades, they're a bit sketchy on taking on gangs of 2 or 3.


I on the other hand, flew in guns blazing. It's probably a mental defect. I guess throwing defeat into the jaws of victory a few times in wormhole space has given me an appreciation of taking on odds that don't appear to favor me.


So I jumped into Bereye from Mies. Vistus and Dodd were sitting on the gate. Let's pretend this is you. Do you:
1) attack the rifter
2) attack the caracal
3) burn for the gate and jump
4) run (ie warp out out)
5) sit there while your pal gets riddled with bullets


The answers for me were 1 and 2, in that order. The answer for Vistus was 5. I'll never understand why he sat there while Dodd got the living crap kicked out of him, even while I was trying to pod Dodd. He didn't engage at all until I attacked him.


The first engagement with Vistus didn't go. I was at range, and hitting with Barrage against his shields, which, as we all know, doesn't work out so well. Sure he got me into half armor, but it's not like I was worried. I warped out, repaired, came back, and repeated. He launched drones, I shot them down, warped out and repaired again, and came back. Clearly I did the same thing again. The last thing I wanted was to get into webbing range of him and become a sitting duck, so I kept at range, not knowing if he had a web or not. I warped out again, came back, and found Dodd now waiting for me in a Rupture.


I'm not a fool. Two cruisers versus Wolf = not this Wolf. I jumped out and went about my daily business while waving my kill in front of Riddick's face. Riddick had been on for a while, but had not felt like jumping into a group to fight them. He's had bad luck getting kills this week. Me stealing them isn't helping his case.


Looking back on that combat though, I should have bit the bullet and orbited at 11k and attacked with EMP rounds. It's technically in range for me, and he wasn't going any faster than I was. I could probably have ripped through his shields with ease (2x faster) if I had done that, and probably would have landed the podding on him as well, which, if I must say so, would be nice payback for the trash he's been spewing at us. Arrogance must be fought at every turn where it isn't deserved.


After this Rifter kill, I noticed something strange about an hour later when I engaged Dodd and someone else. Dodd was in another Rifter (that would have been funny to blow up another Rifter of his just then), and someone else was in a Thorax.


Naturally, I attacked.


Dodd got away somehow almost into structure...I thought maybe I had just let him slip out of warp disruptor range. So I engaged the Thorax, and when he went into armor, he warped out too!! This was despite my warp disruptor on him!


At this juncture, please place your face in your hand and groan.


They were using warp core stabilizers. In case anyone has forgotten, they seriously screw up your ability to fight period. They cut your targeting range in half and your targeting speed in half. Probably something else too, they're that bad. So, clearly these guys are feeling the edge a bit in that they're stabilizing Rifters and Thoraxes.


Seriously, I may be in a Wolf, but I'm not suicidal. Attack me instead of sitting there like a doofus and maybe I won't get away, or at least won't get that kill next time.


Because I got the most kills for every war our corp had this week (3), I got 15 mil ISK in door prizes, 5 for each war. In the war against the Crimson Hellhounds, I scored the only two kills by destroying then podding The Garantine. In our war against Starhug, I scored the only two kills by destroying SkyDragon's Punisher and pod. In our war with the Black Merc's, I've scored the majority of kills, which would be 7. All in all, I've had a fairly decent week of PvP.

And with that, our war with the Black Mercs draws to a close. After a few hours after that (27?) we shall redouble our efforts!

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