Crossing the one billion ISK mark in EVE Online, flying a freighter became one of my more immediate goals in the game.
Clearly, with my distributed network of buy and sell points, having 750,000 cubic meters of hauling would be an advantage over the 29,000 cubic meters of hauling I can currently muster. I have a number of commodities that I could use to exploit regional differences with that much hauling space. Heck, I wouldn’t even have to build Badgers exactly where I wanted to sell them. I could deliver.
But to economically exploit that much hauling, I would need enough ISK left over to increase my buying and selling.
So how much is a freighter going to cost me?
The freighter itself will be around 850,000,000 ISK.
Of course, that is never the whole equation.
For example, if I am going to pour that much ISK into something, I had best insure it. I don’t know how much the platinum insurance plan is on a freighter, but lets call it 100,000,000 ISK. Somebody will correct me if I am wrong.
And, I will need to be able to fly the freighter, which means buying skills! I will need Advanced Spaceship Command for 45,000,000 ISK and Caldari Freighter for 67,500,00 ISK.
All of which brings us to around 1,062,500,000 ISK.
And, truthfully, to support any expansion in my sales operations, I will need to increase the number of sales slots I have. I currently have 129 and that will increase to 145 once the 20 day crawl to Wholesale V finishes, but that will not be enough. I can fill up 145 slots with my current operations.
No, I will have to invest in one more skill, Tycoon, which sells for 90,000,000 ISK.
Which brings the total up to 1,152,500,000 ISK.
That number, give or take a couple million ISK, is about what I have in the bank right now.
So, really, I need to get out there and earn some more ISK if I want to buy a freighter and some skills so I can get out there and earn even more ISK!
And here I thought having a billion ISK made me rich! To buy and exploit a freighter I need closer to two billion ISK.
Back to the Mammoth I guess. Back to exploiting regional differences on a small scale and feeding that hunger for kernite.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
I’m really curious — it seems like the driving force behind your playtime in EVE is the accumulation of ISK, but what is the purpose of accumulating all that ISK? Having more ISK makes you better able to accumulate more ISK faster, but to what purpose?
I really don’t understand the draw of EVE. It looks pretty and sounds exciting, yet when you get down to trying it or reading enough about it, it comes off as more of an interactive accounting spreadsheet than a game.
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It is kindof, unless you just want to fly around and blow stuff up (very popular) in which case you really don’t need to keep track of that much. Being a trader is quite different from killing.
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I’ll give the C. Montgomery Burns answer, “Why, to make more ISK!”
Yes, in going down the trader/industrialist/research path I am playing the economic game where spreadsheets are more useful than missiles and where accumulation of assets is the only measurement of success. So more ISK means I am closer to winning, right?
But all that additional ISK does let me explore the game more freely in some ways, though it does make me more conservative in others.
A lot of EVE is very “SimCity” in its appeal. For example, we’ve talked a bit about the path to having a player owned station for our wee corp. I’m not sure we really have a use for it, but it would be fun to say we’d done it.
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This interactive accounting spreadsheet will shoot at you.
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“I’d give it all up, for a little bit more.” – Burns ;)
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Wilhelm, don’t bother insuring your freighter. As long as you’re not planning on venturing into low sec or 0.0 and you don’t haul more than the current market value of your freighter, in cargo, you’re only wasting money.
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I’m just dumbfounded that someone actually played Eve long enough to get that much money… I really want to love that game, it has so much that I like, but it’s SOOO boring! hehe
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i’m with nerrollus. even the flying and cratering stuff got a little dull…
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As a fellow trader, I’d go with the Montgomery Burns option. My market cap is around 2.7 billion, which is about halfway through to getting a jump freighter. Other capital ships are not cheap either, and there’s even some individuals who have the resources to invest in a personal network of POSes, outposts or even Titans.
Finally, money = power. With a fat enough wallet, you can even start wars for fun and profit.
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With so many “nays” to Eve I have to jump in and give a more positive perspective. I too am on my way to a freighter, the difference being that I already have the isk and my investment isk. All I am waiting for is some training.
There is, to me, fun in earning enough isk so you don’t have to worry about anything financial in the game. My trading activities more than support my pvp and corp/alliance activities, which to me is the heart of the game. I find Eve to be anything but boring. I love the sandbox approach and I keep finding new ways through it to enjoy the game. I am working on my fourth year with the game now which I think is an endorsement of the game in and of itself.
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Insurance Cost 232,858,191.00
Insurance Payout 776,193,970.00
That’s the insurance cost and payout on a freighter, but unless you’re going into lowsec it’s a waste of money. Unless you’re going to haul around a couple of dozen faction poses, in which case you will get suicide ganked.
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Maybe we need a newbies guide to having fun in Eve? ;)
As I said, I really want to like that game. It has a lot of really cool features that I like, but I just have a really hard time having fun in that game. Maybe it’s because I’m one of those people that doesn’t like loosing things in PvP though. I supposed if I had enough money, I’d have fun being a pirate or something. I just don’t want to get killed in PvP (I suck at pvp a lot) and loose months of work. hehe
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The golden rules in eve.
Don’t fly what you can’t afford to loose
insure every ship going into combat
watch out for a scam at every stargate(read corner)
try to find good corpmates and you’ll have fun.
Most off tyhe fun inEve comes from speaking to the other players
Next comes what are you like destructive or constructive. destructive take the pve or pvp route
constructive take the explorer /trader/industrialist route.
if you are just curious just do it all but in the end ithe the friends you make that keep pulling you back in.
And trust me only eve gcan give you a rush of adrenaline when you are able to dock wityh your new bought ship with 3% structure left and your enemy dead in speace :).
It’s the only game i ever played that made pvp so possible to all .Even if you don’t have a big wallet just fly in groups have fun and you’ll get combat experience.And in the end its that that gives the edges. for what is it worth to fly a fully t2 loaded battleship that when the moment of combat begins you forget to target and even shoot the one attacking you. nothing ,so take your frigate go close orbit damp and shoot. then you’ll learn how to think, move , plan and react in combat.then you will trully feel alive , your hart beating in your chest and sweat dripping from your face.
and don’t have the time to do anything for prolonged time you can do missions mine and build stuff to replace your laost stuff in combat.
I currently hold the title of industrialist with teeth and i’m proud off it :)
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I agree I have spent many a night falling asleep at the “keybored” as I like to say it, looking at buy orders and sell orders. Flying ten jumps away to the next region looking for that “perfect” deal. Sometimes I do get lucky…40 amarr navy microwave M crystals for 40k isk, which I sold for over 850k each on average..and sometimes, well, I fall alsleep vowing never again to let myself stay up looking at all those numbers.
But what keeps me coming back to EVE is knowing that if I really don’t feel like looking through one big spread sheet then I could always go ratting or turn into one mean SOB and kill everything in site.
EVE gives you so many things to do rather then just go kill and respawn. I think after 15 plus years of online gaming, EVE has got to be the best game online that I have ever come across.
And yes, I do like having over 100 million in the bank at any one moment. I have built two battlehips, a Blood Raider Cruor, from a BPC commander drop, over 200 million in salvage, and millions more in minerals that I have mined over my short 8 month EVE career. Not including all of the ratting items I have got from drops, which of course I will reprocess and build something being I am a industrialist/miner/PVEr/trader.But thats MY choice in EVE. Not the Devs or programmers or the guy in the ship next to you. Many games do not offer so many choices. Only paths which to go down and never return or change.
So i sit in my 1.0 sec space station making millions by what ever path I choose and thats why I am here playing EVE. But what ever that is, that turns you on in this game, you can be sure to find that in EVE. Just may take alot of work and time. But isn’t that why we all go back to EVE? For the challenge and discovery of the unknown? That’s why I’m here.
And blowing some s**t up once in a while helps to. >:)
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Many are turned off by EVE, because it makes you THINK. It can be deceptively SIMPLE, if viewed as JUST a boring Mining and Missions game.
EVE is a sandbox, and the roles you can play are endless. I have been in EVE for about a year now, and I am also a game programmer and web marketing business man, in real life. I am HIGHLY analytical, about everything. I have a good memory, that is photographic. (Not to brag, just let me tell you why I would bloat myself).
I am STILL finding things in EVE (roles you can play), even after reading blogs, articles, eveonline KB articles and as many player guides (PDFs) as I can get my hands on. I have written about 6 PDF files about EVE.
EVE continues to amaze me. And it just keeps getting more and more complex. Like the factional Warfare expansion and up coming Walking in Stations expansion. CCP (the company behind EVE) has no thoughts of stagnation. They continue to plan years and years ahead for new types of game play. The graphics are also second to none.
EVE/CCP has partnered with Intel and Nvidia and is in joint venture business in providing integrated SLI mode GPU (not CPU) excelleration technology, so that even laptops can run multiple EVE clients in Enhances Graphics mode (vs the Classic graphics mode).
So, all in all, if you compare EVE to any other MMORPG out there, EVE wins in so many areas.
EVE does make you work, think and make sure that ‘If you cant afford to loss it, then dont fly it.’ holds true.
Also, I have NEVER gotten an adrenaline boost, like I get from EVE when I get warp scrambled and have to fight for my life or die.
EVE can give you instant gratification, in running SOLO missions, or long drawn out EPIC stories to write home about, after playing in a Major Alliance for while.
EVE is what you make of it.
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@Matt – So, are you saying “buy the freighter” or not?
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Hey, didnt know I posted here in january… well here I am again.. AND I too am in the ‘Get the Freighter or not?’ mode.
I bought the skills books and plan to train them (takes a day) but I have decided to HOLD OFF on the freighter.
Here is why…
1) If you can ply a freighter, you can fly a Transport ship. This ship can fly CLOAKED, which means you can experiement with TRADING by going to jita/rens and buying cheap tech 2, rigs, implants…etc… and SELL them in 0.4-0.1 space..
If you think about it..the investment into a few million in modules or less and making a HUGE profit to those in low sec that HAVE ISK and just need a module FAST, will often pay 1000% more than what the stock piles in Jita/Rens go for….
However, a Freighter can NOT make it into low sec, but a Transport Ship like the VIATOR can haul a decent load and get you in and out no problems in low sec..
So, after you get some investment ISK this way, learning the trading style and get decent trade skills… you can get the freighter and start that way…
Thats my 2 cents… good luck.
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