The economies of war

My recent financial woes have sharply focused my mind on the role that ISK plays in pvp. Way back when, I used to publish regular accounts, tracking the money I gained and lost from pvp, looking to turn a profit.

And profit I did. I was not wealthy, but I did not need any outside income source; my pvp was a self-sustaining, and that was a point of pride for me.

But it's also very limiting.

Let's say I'm flying a T1 frigate that costs 10 million ISK. Most of that is actually the cost of the modules, as the hull value is essentially nil, especially after insurance.

Now let's assume that I fight other T1 frigates, and every time I win, 50% of my opponent's modules drop (on average). If I win 2 out of every 3 fights, I break even.

Suppose instead that I'm flying a T2 cruiser that costs 100 million ISK. The cost of the modules does not actually change too much (a Damage Control/Heat Sink/Warp Scrambler/etc is the same cost regardless of the ship size - only the prop mod, weapons, and buffer tank need upgrading), so most of that cost is actually the hull, which is not covered in any meaningful way by insurance because it's T2.

So assuming that I'm fighting other T2 crusers, which again drop 50% of their modules (on average), I need to win something like 9 out of every 10 fights to break even.

That's a pretty tall order.

What this rough calculation tells me is that if I want to fly more expensive ships, or, put another way, do more than simply repeat what I did last time I was playing, then I need to actually generate an income that can supplement my pvp.

It's something that I'm working on. The gift of a ship from a corp mate has allowed me to do some ratting, and combined with a small sum of ISK from a friend, it has given me a little seed money. I'm going to try and turn that into an actual income, so expect to see some pve related posts in the future.

It seems I'm off to get a 'proper' job.