Exequror Cargo Frigate

Back in early July, I posted my massive common sense fail that resulted in the loss of an Iteron V loaded with about 1B in cargo. What was especially stupid about that loss was that the bulk of my cargo hold was empty. The Iteron V cargo hold is massive, especially when the ship is fitted with expanded cargo holds and cargo optimization rigs. I had far more space that I needed for the cargo I was hauling.

Following that loss, I took a long look at my hauling activities. The first thing I looked at was whether or not I could have survived that attack if I had been fitted differently. The answer is yes. If I had just about any small improvement to my shield defences (Adaptive Invulnerability Field IIs, Shield Rigs, etc), I could have survived the first salvo. That's because an alpha Tornado's volley hits for about 12.5k dps, while an Iteron has about 15k ehp. The Tornado would not likely have fired again because it would have been destroyed by Concord. Of course, the Tornado could have had another ship with it. Given that I'd be deep in structure from that first hit, I could have been killed by a much smaller ship (cruiser maybe?).

The second thing I looked at was the required cargo capacity for my hauling activities. Do I really need 38k+ m3 of cargo space? The answer is no. The items I've been trading are small, but valuable, which means that even with 1B ISK worth of cargo, I don't need nearly the amount of cargo space I have in an Iteron V.

So I started looking at other ships. My thinking was to look at shield cruisers or battle cruisers. Shield-tanked ships rely on their mid slots for shield related modules, so that would leave my low slots free for cargo extenders. Depending on how much tank and cargo I have after fitting these modules, I could install shield or cargo rigs to make up whatever I was missing.

I fired up PyFa (a Python version of EFT, which in my opinion, is a better fitting tool that EFT), and started looking at ships. Bingo! The Gallente Exequror.

The Exequror is a heavy cargo cruiser. It's base cargo capacity is 600m3, but it's increased by 10% for each level of the pilot's Gallente Cruiser skill, for a total of 900m3 at level 5. With cargo extenders, its capacity can reach 1700m3, far more than I'll need for my regular trading. If I don't need that much capacity, I can increase it's defensive capabilities by fitting either Nanofiber Internal Structures (NIS) for shorter alignment time (which is always helpful for faster navigation), or even warp stabilizers if I ever decided to head for low/null sec.

This leaves my rigs and mid slots free for shield modules. With the usual loadout of shield extender modules and rigs, and adaptive invulnerability fields, this ship has an effective HP level of just over 30k.

Initially, I had put Dual 150mm railguns in the high slots. However, I tried to kill a few rats for a mission I was running, and I couldn't do enough damage to break their tank. This is not a combat ship. I switched to my Caracal to finish that mission, but it got me thinking if I couldn't put something more useful than guns in the high slots. Since this ship was designed to carry cargo and survive attacks, I decided to try for more defensive modules in the highs: cloaking device and a medium energy neutralizer.

Finally, I added a flight of Vespa EC-600 ECM drones. These would be helpful in breaking the lock any ship may have on me.

It's a very tight fit, but it works. I've been flying this fit for about two months now, and I haven't had any issues with cargo capacity, and I only occasionally have to fit a single cargo expander. Most of the time I fly with NIS installed for quicker movement around Empire space.

It's not the sexiest of ships, but it does its job well.

[Exequror, Agility fit]

Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Improved Cloaking Device II
Medium Energy Neutralizer I
Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I, Antimatter Charge M
Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I, Antimatter Charge M

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Vespa EC-600 x4

*Facepalm*

I decided to do a bit of PVP tonight, just to do something different. So I fleeted up with my RvB corp mates, and went out hunting. I didn't play too long, and I didn't get into too many fights, but I did manage to get a point on a target, so that's an additional kill on the kill board for me.

After I logged off, I went to take a look at the kill board. I usually do so to review kills/losses for the night,  to get get some idea as to what people are flying, so that I can tweak my own fittings.

I saw that our kill was worth 34M ISK. It was a T1 cruiser equipped with T2 modules and ammo. Not bad. Out of curiosity, I decided to see how much my own ships are worth. So I picked the last loss I suffered:

http://rvbeve.com/blue/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=207998

I noticed that my ship was worth 39M ISK. What? How can a T1 frigate with only just a few T2 modules be worth more than a cruiser? It must be all those skill books and implants I had the cargo hold.

Wait, what?

It turns out that I had somehow put the gift package that CCP gave all players in my cargo hold, and went off fighting with that in my ship. I always wondered what kind of an idiot did things like that. Well, now I know. Live and learn, I guess.

Back in Business

It's been two months since my last post. When my accounts were due for renewal in early July, I decided to let them run out, since I knew I would be going on vacation for a few weeks in early August. When I got back, I was busy with a few things, so I didn't re-subscribe right away.

Now that the summer distractions have come and gone, it's time to start making ISK again.

Here's what the balance sheet looks like as of today:


Assets
------
Cash                       1,908,408,192.86 ISK
Sell Orders                1,019,663,960.00 ISK
Escrow                       447,600,000.00 ISK
Contracts                              0.00 ISK
                           --------------------
Total Current Assets       3,375,672,152.86 ISK

As you can see, my balance is a bit lower than what I reported in my last post by about 640M ISK. Before I left on vacation, I got into several price wars for items I was selling. When all was said and done, my balance sheet was down to 3B ISK or so. That's where it stood when I returned. I used 1B ISK to re-activate two of my accounts, and I spent roughly 50M buying ships, modules and the skill books required to use those items for my trading fleet, reducing my starting ISK balance to about 2B or so. So really, I'm up just shy of 1.4B this past week.


For most people, 1.4B a week is  pretty good, because it essentially means that for every month played, enough ISK is earned to keep two accounts running for 4 months, with enough ISK left over to buy some items and continue investing in growth.

But it's not good enough for me.

When I returned from vacation, I was planning on doing some PVP. After all, I had 3B ISK in cash, more than enough to run an account for several months, and have enough ISK to buy what I would need to PVP. But instead, I went immediately back to trading and earning ISK.

I just have to face the facts: I'm addicted to making ISK.

I haven't decide what ISK-making avenues I'm going to pursue next. It's definitely going to be as an industrialist (as opposed to grinding missions or through piracy). But I'm not sure of the specifics: manufacturing? Trading? Research? Time will tell.