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Can you be a loner in EVE?
Let me preface this by saying that I have played EvE before. But like most I have taken tutorials and sipped the beginning of the game. I have researched this game more than any other I have ever played/planned on playing..and that's saying something..I used to have thick binders with sheet protectors full of Everquest 1 maps and quest layouts. But that doesn't compare to all the wiki's/guides/forums I have read about the intricacies that make up EVE.
So here is my question; It seems that most people constantly suggest to get in a corp, then you'll see where the fun is! I'm at the other end of the spectrum. I have a Han Solo complex. In other words, I'd rather be a loner hauling goods and making some fast isk, then off to my next trip. Can I do trade, wheel and deal, haul cargo without the need to be apart of a corp? Further, can I do this without getting blown up every 10 seconds? Seems that from what I have read, the only way to do these types of things is to travel in packs. I'm a lone wolf. So can you launch a career solo in EVE or is it Corp or Bust?
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You can do these things solo....be warned it can be risky..... and utterly fail if you try to go to low sec space
You could do this stuff solo in high sec to minimize the risk. That said, you are looking to take part in activities that would involve other people; hauling their goods, playing the market, etc. So, I'm not sure a corp, which also involves other people, would be such a bad fit after all. Another benefit of a corp is that you can focus your training on trade skills (for example) and leverage someone who already has the skills to fly a large cargo ship. So, having some reliance on others allows you to prioritize what skills you would like to train, and plan when to use your neural remaps, rather then looking at a long skill plan that is all over the place.
So short answer; yeah, you certainly can, but are you sure that is what you want?
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
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I play as a soloer in high sec, low sec, and null sec.
You can play as a soloer in high sec, but it's pretty boring. Playing as a soloer in low/null is really fun and hard. The difference though, is I have spent alot of time learning the ropes in both a Pirate corp AND an Anti-Pirate corp, both ran their own space in null sec. So, I know what's going on when I get out to null and there are alot of little tricks you learn on the way that will keep you alive. I highly suggest getting into a corp, at least for a little bit, to learn the game. There is so much to EVE that you'll never be able to master enough of it to consistently stay alive when you're running around null and low all day long.
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Sure. You just gotta be good like Han Solo. Remember, he was experienced and knew what he was doing. And he was still in it deep with Jabba the Hutt.
Han Solo had to learn from someone.......... not that good on my Star Wars lore so I don't know who his mentor was or even if they mentioned him having one somewhere. But, he had to learn from someone.
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well even after 6 years i know i dont have the skills to go solo, well i say skills its not about SP's - the point about learning from pirate and anti-pirate corps is a valid one, its easy to get bogged down with data on the different skills but actually using them, is another thing entirely, player knowledge is a deadly tool in Eve... lack of it will get you on a KM quicker than a pod caught in a drag bubble
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You can solo in null sec. You just have to pay attention and get out of the way of roaming attackers and defenders. You don't even need that many skillpoints. Pick some quiet system with a space station you can hide in as your base of operations.
I know of some guys that hid in BoB-space (back in the days) doing high-end plexes much to the annoyance of the defending corps/alliances. :-)
Well, the things you describe, you can do solo, like hauling, trading, ... on top of that you can do solo missions, complexes and some more. You can even haul thru lowsec solo.
You certainly can avoid getting blown up 99% of the time if you play in highsec if you take the needed precautions, and when you do get blown up, if you spread the risk, then it will not be a major loss.
A few important things to consider :
- Do not autopilot in highsec with valuable cargo. You will be easely scanned, and when pirates think it is worth it they will suicide gank you.
- You can use istabs and nanos to allow you to align and jump faster, meaning less risk.
- You can fit a cloak even in highsec, together with istabs, nanos and mwd, allowing you to be nearly ungankable, you will be gone so fast that pirates will not bother trying to target you. They won't even know what you are carrying.
- Use highest possible insurance on your ships.
- You can start with industrials but after a while you should train for T2 haulers and tank skills, so you can tank in case things go bad afterall, if you can hold it till concord arrives you are saved.
- Fitting Nano's and Istabs will prevent you from using cargo expanders, a nice side effect, because more cargo space = more loss if you have bad luck. ( AFK because of RL stuff, and pirate suicide ganks you or something ).
- You can look at the starmap to see where and how many ships / pods got shot, avoid these areas if possible.
- If you go AFK, dock to station or cloak, dock to station is safest, inside an npc station is the only place you are 100% safe ( from gankers
not from scammers or bad trades 
)
- Use password protected cargo containers.
- If all else has failed ( very small chance ) and you have spread your risks ie, don't haul everything at once if you can not afford to lose it, but make 2 trips instead of 1 for example, then you have lost less.
- If you want to haul thru lowsec, that is doable if you run a second account with a scout, run a cloak on both ships, fit istabs, nano's, mwd and/or ab on both ships, and you may lose your scout once in a while, but your hauler should be save 99% of the time if you do not mess up.
- There are 2 ways you can use your cloak to avoid being ganked ( with a hauler it is harder tho ) :
1. When you jumped thru a gate and you are still cloaked, double click empty space and immediatly turn on your cloak, you will be visible for less than a second. Then align to your destination, decloak and warp, you already start accelerating while still cloaked, but with a hauler you will still be able to be targetted by ships designed for fast targetting. This method works perfectly for highsec tho, where there can be no stationarry gatecamps and works fine in combination with a scout alt for when you go to lowsec.
2. When you jumped thru a gate and are still cloaked and there is a gatecamp, check for something to align to that is not in line with the gate ( have to jump away from the gate ), then align to it ( which decloaks you ), push F1 ( which you had set to your MWD earlier ) starting your MWD ( I think it works with AB as well ), let it run a second accelerating you ( you need 70% of max speed for going into warp I believe ), push F2 ( which you had set to your cloak ) cloaking you again, which means pirates will have to retarget you again, push F2 again, and nearly instant warp. Now it takes some practice and it is certainly safer to use a scout and method 1. Still you can use Method 2 for your scout so you don't have to lose him either. You can practice this in highsec.
It mostly requires knowledge of the game to avoid pirates, it is quite doable, and most of the ships I lost was due to greed, laziness or just plain fuckup.
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If you want to solo outside of hi-sec, you can, but it is difficult and dangerous and you'd better know what you are doing.
The reason new players are advised to join a corp is because the flip side of what we keep telling people (SP dont matter as much as knowing how to play the game) is that you need to know how to play the game.
And boy, there is a LOT to know. You will need to learn things like making safety bookmarks, scouting, using the map, when to wait out the hostiles, when to run like hell, making deep safespots, scanning, probing and a hundred other things.
In a corp, you will get constant advice as needed. Solo, you will get nothing. So if you're very persistent, a good learner, and you really do like operating on your own, then sure, go for it.
For Han Solo style trading, the ship you want is a Prowler, the Minmatar Blockade Runner. You'll also want a Cheetah (minmatar covops) for exploration, scouting and bookmarking.
For making ISK by PvEing, supplying ammo and hauling your loot out again are prime considerations. For this reason, people usually prefer the drone ships: look at the Ishtar and the Gila. Ishtar is unbeatable in Guristas/Serpentis space because of it's insane Kinetic/Thermal shield resists. These ships can also have some PvP capability even when set up for ratting and plexing. Anchor Secure Containers at deep safespots to stash your loots, then collect them with your Prowler when they're getting full.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
One thing that I haven't noticed anybody say is the option of bribes.
What Han Solo type worth his salt wouldn't think of greasing a couple of palms? It can be done, but can be risky as well. It requires no ingame SP's, but will require a bit of in game research to see what the controlling Alliance/Corp is in the area and to open up negotiations with their diplomats.
At this point, the deal is between you and them, however you want to pay for it (flat fees, discounts, be required to fly a few shipments here and there, etc).
I will say this is probably the most risky way to go, but it can also be the most rewarding. Risky because you have to trust the people you are talking with to be honest and uphold their end of the bargain, which CAN be an issue sometimes.
I live in lowsec, fly solo most of the time. Basically it's everything people tell the new players times a hundred.
Fighting with no backup and usually outnumbered means you need every ship you fly to perform at 100%, which means very tightly specialized skill training. Despite coming up on 40 million skill points I can still only fly a handful of ships (all Gallente subcapital T1, plus interceptors), but those ships perform very, very well. I also have a working knowledge of all of the ships so I have some idea of what I'm about to get myself into.
Being alone means you die a lot. Flying solo in Eve is kind of like poker - the idea isn't to win every hand, just win more than you lose. So cost effectiveness becomes a critical part, possibly the most critical part, of any fit, as it will explode, and it will probably explode sooner rather than later. If I can crash a cheap Thorax into an Arazu, kill it, then get fried by his gangmates if my ECM drones and overheated MWD aren't enough for me to get away, I still won.
Being solo means you'll get fewer fights, but those fights you do get will be worth a *lot* of points on the major killboards (most notably Battleclinic), because the points aren't distributed throughout your gang. Your losses will tend to be worth a lot too, but as long as you win a decent amount more than you lose it'll work out in the long run.
Dying a lot means you need money. PvE in lowsec sucks. But I've found class 2 and 3 wormholes to be pretty good ISK, and reasonably safe since WH PvE takes you out of local and few people will take the time to look for targets in wormhole systems.
And lastly, I've found having a dedicated scouting alt to be worth his weight in gold. Blaster ships really shine when you can guarantee every fight will start at 0, I get a lot of my kills in safespots and in wormhole systems, and having a set of eyes in a more-or-less invulnerable non-combat ship lets me roam around and find targets (and avoid the odd camp that's not blue or green to me) with complete impunity.
The First Rule of EVE is, you do NOT trust anyone in EVE.
The Second Rule of EVE is, you do NOT trust anyone in EVE.
The Third Rule of EVE is, you do NOT trust anyone in EVE.
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Of course you can solo in EVE. I spent the last 5 years (July of 04) doing it. No game (even FFXI! lol) is impossible without a group. Is it harder? Sure.
Also, all you have to do is buy your money, that's it. I know people that bought hundreds of millions, with their real life money. It's allowed by the game and if that ain't easy enough for you, I don't know what is.
Beau
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Oh, here's the link if you wanna' know. (Not saying I sue it, but he did ask.)
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=channel&channelID=544711
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Beau
Listen to the Spouse Aggro podcast at spouseaggro.com. Twitter: spouseaggro
Even better, you can enter the game time code into an ingame window and receive 2 PLEX (Pilot License Extensions)
These can be sold directly via the market in game.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
solo'ing in eve is a bad idea. and most of the examples I saw as I skimmed through the thread are just rediulous..
So you kill a ship and then get killed by his gang mate.. even if his ship was worth more than yours you dont win.. you both lose..
you may even lose more than he did as his mate is now salvaging both wrecks..
Even if you manage to get out alive after killing 1 ship you still lost. not a lot but ammo does have a value. winning in pvp in EVE means being able to afford your loss better than your opponents loss mostly. Of course you can have a good old fashioned "win" if you manage to reap the rewards of your victory, but thats kinda tough when solo vs non-solo.
Saying you can fund your pvp with either highsec farming or metagaming is true but if you really look at it its not a good of an investment to blow it on soloing.
I have soloed in PvP several times and even though I won most fights and even got away with loot from those fights I could have spent my time on more profitable activities. spending a day looking for solo fights and getting away with about 100 mil in loot and salvage isnt that good compared to missioning, mining or any group activity. The few minutes of excitement can be great though. Even if they are a waste of time and money ;P Flying as a small gang.. even with just a wingman will increase the number of fights you can have and your chances of winning and profiting by a great deal. So make a friend or two you can bring along.
The players that enjoy solo pvp don't do it for isk per hour.
Obviously i you wanted to maximize your isk you wouldn't solo pvp.
For me it's always been about the killboard and getting out of situations that should have gotten me killed and podded.
Never about isk or loot.
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You can do the lonewolf thing and have a corps of 1 but it gets boring and you may not stay with the game very long but, being a loner you can be very successful and not get tied down with corps and allinace restrictions. You make your own rules.
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Yeah Im a bit of a loot whore and thats gotten me into some bad spots now and then... When I just gotta salvage that last wreck or scoop that last drone. Chances are someone else will show up and then you have another fight on your hands.. Doesnt have to be all bad though.. Sometimes that just means more kills without the hassle of tracking them down. If nothing else its more excitement and thats mostly what we came for.
I do prefer my PvP to be self sustainable though, even better when its profittable. And thats why I often fly with a wingman and have a salvager fitted.
So I guess I almost completly agree with you, except I like loot and profit more than I like killboards.
Most people talk here about the PvP solo angle. Truth is that there is much more to EvE thatn that, and yes you can do all the trade , hauling and industry stuff solo as well.
That said, it is EvE on hard mode to do so.
This is a very good point. EvE is about what you want it to be about. For me, EvE is about my Battleclinic rank, so I play in a manner that optimizes it - lots of solo pvp, lots of high-risk engagements (that usually result in a net point gain even if I lose my ship), sticking to small cheap stuff when possible (since Battleclinic algorithm is based on the difference in ship class, so a 1v1 frig fight is worth as much as a 1v1 battleship fight), C3 wormholes when they're available since they refill my wallet fast so I'm not out of action long.
But that's not the only way to play. Lots of people are traders. Lots of people are explorers, missioners, plexers, etc. Some people like the big nullsec fleet fights, others like to grief (for lack of a better term). Even my fellow killboard whores, the griefwatch-type boards use a different algorithm that encourages a totally different style of pvp since it does award points based on ship class (and not the relative difference) and doesn't penalize fleeting up nearly as much. You're really limited only by your imagination and the game mechanics.
Lots of uninformed people posting here. Simply ignore them.
1. You can be a loner but you cant be without a corp. The choice is wether your in a npc corp, your own corp, or someone else corp. Obviously if you make your own corp you can be alone in it.
2. You can experience almost the entirety of eve, you may not do everything the same way as someone with a corpfull of buddys would but its still there. The things you wont experience are those that are utterly uninteresting for a loner anyway, i.e. titans, outposts building, fleet battles.
3. Its actually easier than being in a corp if your knowledgeable, cause you dont have to worry about someone else screwing up. If you fly the right ships you wont need a scout, if you research alot yourself you wont need a mentor, if you dont want to play rambo-the-one-man-army-goes-spaceships you wont need firesupport/protection from other players cause your not going to get into a fight with them anyway(unconsentual pvp is hard in eve if the 'victim' puts some effort and brains into it).
You didnt say you want to pvp, you want trade, hauling maybe production or research(plan ahead, cant train trade skills forever). Read up on covert ops cloaked ships, there are a hauler type and several frig and cruiser types fitting them. There are also ships that can do sites in lowsec/0.0 that are unscanable, do with them the sites/missions that also cant be scanned and again your safe.
In other words, you would need to be incompetent to the n-th degree to get caught in a proper cloaker in lowsec, and why wouldnt you fly a proper cloaker when doing nonpvp stuff in lowsec? And even 0.0 is easy enough to fly around in, stick to space with npc stations and you can even do your trading there.
P.S.: And with faction warfare you could even experience PVP in your one man corp, maybe you wouldnt go into the fights alone, but you would still be your own boss. Bit like han working for the rebels.
Sure you can solo in EVE...all it requires is a scout alt, hauler alt, CS alt and e-war alt.
wow these replies got me jacked up now. I can't wait to dive into this. As I said before, I've been through the tutorials, and 3 profession arcs and have joined Eve-University to learn the 'player knowledge' side of things. But the thrill of mining or hauling alone..looking out for pirates, etc. That excites me. Trying to get away from people wanting to blow me into a blilion pieces..thats a rush (provided I get away). I guess thats why I like being the loner and why I think I'd prefer haul-trading as opposed to station-trading.
Plus, it takes the excitement away for me if I got escorts. I love the Han Solo character and always have..dealing in quick money, staying on the move. EVE seems like it provides that.
Cloaking is something I never considered and will definitely research that.
p.s. Someone mention Han's background..I believe it has been written in one of the novels that he used to be a pilot for the Empire before going Smuggler, so yeah I guess he was apart of a Corp at one time lol.