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Smuggling in eve?
Lonewolf
Member UncommonPosts: 252
in EVE Online
Is there smuggling in Eve? And if so is it financially viable?
What do you do exactly?
Comments
Yes you can smuggle ...
Player vs Environment ...
you can try to smuggle drugs, combat boosters, arms, slaves or other items past the border patrols, customs officials and CONCORD police ships. Its not easy. Ultrafast ships and/or cloakers are the way to go. You risk to lose standing and if your standing falls too low you will be shot on sight. There is an intricate system of what item is illegal where, what fines have to be paid if you get caught or what standing hit you get when you are caught and killed while smuggling and resisting arrest.
Profit is moderate
Player vs Player
This is where EVE shines. You can "smuggle" just about any item .. usually high end tech , but also booster, minerals, ships ... through "gate camps" into low security and 0.0 lawless space. You can do this with jump capable ships OR ultrafast/ultraagile blockade runners. Many of those ships usually are also equipped with cloaking devices.
Profit : High .... there is WAY more demand for rare items in 0.0 space than there is supply
Have fun
So cloaked ship and feed smuggling to 0.0 space I like that idea WOO
That has the potential to be CRAZY if your a neutral faction you would spend all your time dodging people as you raced your goods into the 0.0 stations for sale
Yep, smuggling into 0.0 works really well as long as you're *good* at it. Practice with low cost goods at first so you get the hang of sneaking through bubble camps in a cloaked ship.
Also key: Need a NPC (not player owned) station to base out of for this kind of thing. Preferably in a relatively populated area of 0.0.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Sounds like a plan
I smuggle Booster's(drugs) throughout the universe. There are 2 well known player alliances that make these and are often recruiting folks for this line of work. Also fun is ninja gas harvesting in warzones. Then smuggling the gas out for booster production. Good luck mate.
I've occasionally gone through a good bit of Gallente space with slaves I got from a mission can in my cargo, without being bothered by the police.
I guess it's just the luck of the draw. But, truth is I haven't found a 'black market' for any of the illegal goods in Empire, so NPC 'smuggling' is kinda crippled.
As for blockade running and 0.0 supplying, well, it can be both fun and profitable, but most 'professional' outfits jump their stuff up in carriers/dreads, and in the future in the new jump-carriers. It may be worth the risk to fly normally through the gate camps, but the risks are huge.
But hey, if it's fun and you're making more ISK then losing, go for it.
Query, where do you generally smuggle to? I'm assuming NPCs are out. So is it directly to players ala consignment jobs or do you just run it to NPC stations behind blockades and sell them there? Not sure how its helpful for blockades since isn't the general idea to keep people out, thus the people buying the stuff wouldn't be on the other side of the blockade anyway. Unless the point is to supply the people blockading. But why do that if they're planning on shooting you in the face anyway?
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
Well, if it's 0.0 'blockade running', the idea is to get a shipment of whatever goods (modules, ships, minerals, BPC's, POS equipment) through a low-sec/0.0 'pipe' into the targeted market zone for sale there. Note that this requires you to have either standings with the people owning the stations in the final sellzone, or that the area has NPC stations that you can dock in and put your goods up for sale.
0.0 areas tend to have higher prices then central Empire (Jita), since anything available there has to be either produced locally or brought a really long way, so it's possible to live on the margins. If you undercut them too much, the local merchants might get upset, though, so be warned.
And a blockade can also mean a corp or alliance blocking access through a certain area to a certain region, to put a hamper on their enemies supply lines. It's only marginally efficient, since most 0.0 alliances produce almost everything they need or have residents that do so and supply the market, but it's one way to wage a war.
here is a question.
When getting past the PC blockades in 0.0 space would a fast electronic warfare ship do well.
basically stasis webify and run like hell?
Not a chance. Generally a proper blockade involves a warp bubble and several ships. You would never be able to lock them down and make an escape. Maybe if you fit a stealth generator on it, but basically the idea would be to gtfo before they notice you.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
Either cloak or be fast (ceptor).
If you're thinking of starting this game and getting into smuggling within the first six months then I'd advise you to think again. First off there is no smuggling concerning Concord or the space police, if you get caught you get a tiny fine but what's the point since contraband ain't really worth enough for you to make any kind of living out of it.
Smuggling past bubble gate camps in 0.0? That's funny, first you're gonna need to spen atleast a year training the skills to do it let alone pay for the equipment. First off any Alliance that needs to "smuggle" stuff into their 0.0 space will use a ship that can use a cyno field. So they can jump straight into empire or close by, stock up on whatever they want then cyno straight back home into 0.0 again. I've heard they'll be giving other ships like freighters the ability to use cynorsual fields so Alliances can quickly move their gear to and from empire.
So what does this mean? Well if you're a smuggler in EVE past, present or future you're in it for the role play aspect more than anything else. Because firstly there's no real ISK to be made, secondly if an alliance in 0.0 really want much of anything they have alts with cyno capable ships to get it, thirdly if it's dangerous for any alliance then a new player like you is gonna get blobbed at a gate long before you get anywhere close to your potential customer. Fourthly any type of smuggling mission will be set up on escrow (better known in the past as Escam) and 99% of them are scams to rip you off, fifthly you'll need to grind ISK and train for over six months to have any hope of doing these missions which are all scams anyway.
There is a reason why people macro mine and grind missions, it's to support characters where they can have fun RPing as say a pirate or a smuggler. Being a smuggler in EVE can be alot of fun, but it isn't a way to make ISK or support your character you'll need to do that another way. I played for 2.5 years and never met a player that made a real living in EVE from smuggling.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
I disagree.
That is essentially correct. The illegal trade goods don't have any special market or demand, and thus aren't worth the time for a serious player. Most NPC market goods trade routes are already in the hands of dedicated freighter pilot traders, who 'buy low sell high' after every DT and dominate the market.
Also, essentially correct. However, making a living off 0.0 trading (to NPC stations) and low-sec trading is possible, and is done by some. The idea is not to act with an alliance as your 'customer' but to supply undeveloped markets with goods that are generally unavailable. No alliance is going to jump a freighterload of t1 frigates and modules to 0.0, mainly because it's not worth the fuel costs, and few will make those ships out in 0.0 either. Niche products like that can make your trade route worthwhile (especially modules that the local rats don't drop).
Here's where you start going into hyperbole and over-exaggeration.
First of all, we're not talking about supplying an alliance's critical needs, we're talking about supplying a market inside a 0.0 region. There's a big difference there.
Secondly, it's more dangerous to an alliance then to a single, well-informed and relatively neutral player, because an alliance will have lots and lots of enemies willing to attack it in particular, and because they will move big ships with hugely expensive cargoes.
True, a merchant into dangerous zones is going to lose ships and cargoes every now and then. It's going to happen, even if you use a scout alt or a friend and have escorts. You're going to have to factor that into your profitability calculations.
And as for escrow... 99% being scams is going way overboard. Yes, there are scams. Just like in direct trade windows, and in contracts (which, by the way, is the replacement system for escrow). Spotting scams is relatively easy, and if you get burned you shouldn't blame anyone but yourself and your gullibility. ALWAYS CHECK THE ITEMS is the key phrase.
Making transport missions from the open contracts system may work better when you know the residents of the area, and they know to make the contracts directly to you instead of putting out 'open' contracts.
As an ending to the real 'meat' of my post, I'd like to add this following commentary: To succeed in low-to-null-sec trader you're going to have to have good social skills. And I don't mean the ones in your 'character sheet', but the ones you use in real life as well. You'll need to win people's trust, be properly polite and respective, and to make deals with real people.
Umm, so now you're accusing all miners of being macroers, and think there's only two ways to make ISK? -BEEP- Wrong.
Judging from your 'I got bored of EVE because all I do is get scammed and 0.0 and lowsec are bristling hives of piewats'-soapbox opera, I'm not surprised you've never found anyone who's actually done something different from missions and boring low-profit high-sec mining.
Furthermore, the way you post on these forums clearly shows that you aim to discourage anyone from ever playing EVE, or, at the least, playing it differently from your experiences. You're not really helping anyone, y'know?