Ice Nebula

It's analogue of Devy Nebula. Two clouds, two serious guns and a bunch of NPCs. After killing everything that moves, and the start of harvesting may be respawn drones:

Pale Nebula

This nebula was a surprise to me - in a list compiled based on the Internet, this has not been included. However, now I fill this gap.

It was found in the constellation Assilot, produced in her accordingly Viridian Cytoserocin.

There are two clouds - one smaller, 500 units of gas, the second 2,500. The distance between the clouds 150km, as result shot of one cloud does not reach to another.  The Viridian cloud  beat only thermals, in contrast to, for example, Amber, which deals double damage (Thermal and EM). So it's easy to tank.

There aren’t any NPC in this nebula! Neither warp or after. Rare fact, good for rookie. Local residents (mostly Americans) do not hunt me too, we simply do not intersect at the time. Midnighy in Moscow is sunshine in L.A. :)

The new technology of gas harvesting

Less than three days left  before I could get into a Rorqual, it's time to seriously think about  how can I organize the process of harvesting. The main problem is the lack of a normal hangar for ships. Mining ships can be put there, others - no.

The old technology

• Cyno-vigil flies in the vanguard and sets the beacons.
• Then followed by Carrier, which brings full hangar of ships - mining, industrial, combat, repair, scout.
• Finally, my fighting hard workers fly on Slashers. They can harvest gas on Venture, and if necessary, take the strategic cruiser / bomber / BS and wallop red crosses, and even white squares.
• When they arrive - they change slasher on the suitable at this moment ship, shoot / mine. Carrier transports result to the POS which is not too far away, in low or NPC-nulls.
• Cut down in reverse order - will ship all in car and, fly out on minmatar frigates.

The only drawback of such a scheme - a small cargo hold of Carrier. Even if i use containers, it transports a total of about 1,300 units of gas. Fuel is a real problem: it's not expensive, it is simply absent in the claim nulls, when Carrier need three jumps to reach the Empire.

Rorqual

Rorqual solves the problem of frequent jumps - 250,000 m3 ore cargo hold  + 30.000 usual cargo + 40.000 fleet hangar - total is 320,000 m3 = 32.000 units of gas.

But there is a new problem - where change ship?. I can't use Rorqual and Carrier at the same time - the character is only one. So in any case I must first arrive by carrier, unload the ships, and come back, to take Rorqual and then fly already for harvesting.

Of course, I can set a small POS and keep and fit ships there, but it's not suitable. The gas is extracted in claim nulls, and to attract too much attention is undesirable. Install POS - this is like a slap in the face of the local alliance. Simply put - do not need to become impudent.

So I can unload ships exclusively to the hands of the characters who will fly on them. After some meditation, I've list of my alts and twinks:

• damager on BS (Raven)
• explorer 
• support (logistics) 
• 2 miners (Venture) – twinks of explorer and support
• 1-2 others – for cyno
• trader/POS manager

Previously, damager could fly on bomber and venture, explorer could fly on mael (most recently - vargur), bomber, and also venture. And support too… But not now. Now, they are attached to their ships

POS

Since is no more reasons to carry it from one place to another, a large Caldari tower was installed, in a place that has already established itself as a quiet, one jump from high-sec.

Where to get the BPC for standard boosters?

They are distributed by agents in space. Only once per character.

They give BPC to everyone, even if you on trial accounts (small problev – you can’t harvest gas on trial), regardless of the standings. For some reason I thought there are only two agents in the constellation, but in reality it turned out that they are at each entry point of the constellation - where it connects with others. In some systems there are even two agents in the same system. Although there are one exception, in GRHS-B I have not found an agent. CCP forgot to put it?

Booster	Agents	What you need for exchange
Standard Blue Pill Booster	Ocho Shusiian / Y5J-EU Ozomi Obanen  / B-E3KQ Vena Saapialen  / UL-4ZW Fetosa Kanim / BR-6XP	20 m3 Amber Cytoserocin
Standard Drop Booster	Binnie Nigolier / PPG-XC Mabvrion Atlete / 6RCQ-V Grisier Challier / XG-D1L	20 m3 Viridian Cytoserocin
Standard Exile Booster	Juvoire Sche / IR-WT1 Oguet Aene / YZS5-4 Goligere Debanelis / 9-VO0Q Gomosabin Zerdanne / 9-VO0Q Ravacesel Roque / XF-TQL	20 m3 Celadon Cytoserocin
Standard Crash Booster	Heiraitah Siakkano / ZXA-V6 Tehjus Otsini / I1-BE8 Kara Morato / 1QH-0K	20 m3 Golden Cytoserocin
Standard Frentix Booster	Galhar Lahara / GE-8JV Rahli Saronu  Division / AX-DOT Enna Ahruneh / MY-W1V Desra Nekri / 3GD6-8	20 m3 Lime Cytoserocin
Standard Sooth Sayer Booster	Riluko Hik  / J-RXYN Uiswin Aurtur / 07-SLO Zwod Aden / GPD5-0	20 m3 Azure Cytoserocin
Standard Mindflood Booster	Marera Arghun / 1-2J4P Yoti Haraisha / 9GNS-2 Rasa Jaswelu / C3N-3S Nemphad Azbias / LWX-93	20 m3 Malachite Cytoserocin
Standard X-Instict Booster	Horir Firvoon / 3L-Y9M Baftot Asluzof / DUU1-K Vianes Ounid / O9V-R7 Golarad Hjom / TSG-NO Bollen Odridur / BJD4-E	20 m3 Vermillion Cytoserocin

As a result, I got 31 one-time agents. I was tired while visiting all of them on the test server, though flew mostly on autopilot. Also you can get them in combat ladar signatures.

Do not be amiss to remind you that visit all these agents is not an easy job as it may seem at first. You are not welcome in these areas.

You can be easily killed, on the way there, or when you are flying back. It takes a lot of time - you need to refit new ship and fly again ... And apparently already with another fleet, because this you can not overtake when you alone. Particularly hurt when, you were killed on the way back with the collected BPC.

Patience, accuracy and caution are the three virtues of the ninja gas harvesting.

A little more about boosters

The most popular is the Blue Pill - booster that allows you to more effectively use shield booster. A major component for it is a gas Amber Cytoserocin.

This gas is produced in a group of systems, 8-TFDX, B-E3KQ, BR-6XP, G5ED-Y, O-LR1H, UL-4ZW, Y5J-EU. In the same place in space, dangle agents who in exchange for gas to give boosters BPC (Standard). These are sold only through the contracts and cost up to 10KK. Gas needed for the exchange, worth about 2KK. BPC for more powerful boosters (Improved) mined in battle and cost from 15KK, and Strong from 140KK. But they still need to get, and this is not simple.

Idea: a couple of rookie on Ventures will dig the gas and exchange it to BPC

Bad news: agent give BPC only once to one character :(. The second point – in nulls gas sites are usually protected by NPC, sometimes very seriously. So before you harvest gas you need to clear site from the enemies.

Another problem - you can't harvest gas on trial account (I hope it's not a problem for you). And sell the resulting BPC too. But trial chars can exchange the gas to BPC.

But if you want to try ...

So, if you want to gain experience of low and nulls fly and make a bit isks, a sin not to take advantage.

First of all, there are ladar sites w/o rats even in nulls. As example: Pale Nebula (Assilot, gas Viridian Cytoserocin). There are such signatures for other types of gas.

You need scout with minimal skills:

• Mechanics 3
• Jury Rigging 3
• Afterburner 3
• Warp Drive Operation 1
• Astronautics Rigging 1
• High Speed Maneuvering 1

Actually the first three needs only to learn last 2. We need them for fiting microwarp drive and rigs for ship velocity. Fourth will give us the ability to set warpstabs.

And miner:

• Gas harvesting skills
• skills from shield branches – you need fit shields extensder, booster, hardener
• Mechanics 3
• Jury Rigging 3
• Shield Rigging 1
• Hull Upgrades 1

Fly to the nearest constellation booster and back of Jita - about an hour. To the other can be a bit longer, well, two hours. The route goes through nulls, the locals do not like guests, but they are few.

Full ore cargohold has 500 units of gas it cost about 5KK isk. Also you can exchange first portion of gas to BPC, it cost up to 10KK. Actually agents gives you the BPC with 10 runs, it cost less 2-2.5KK, but it’s easy to mix up ;). This is kind of scam but it is allowed. Usually there are 4 agents. You, and your alt-scout – you will have 8 BPC, up to 80KK, so 85KK per one little trip. Is it not good enough for rookie?

Gas harvesting for boosters

Gas harvesters can only be installed in the turret slot, and therefore specialized mining barges are not suitable for them. Until recently, gas production is carried out by a variety of BC, like Hurricane. To fit the maximum, 5 harvesters, required different tricks to increase the CPU.

It was somewhat illogical - well, why combat ships does gas harvesting, and why specialized mining barge unable to do this? But, in general, are all used. In this regard, EVE developers are trying to make the game more logical, but they not too strive. This is not chess, where the horse goes only by one manner, there you can throw it to the head of your opponent.

However, with the advent of the mining frigate Venture everything finally fell into place. Its rate of harvesting is comparable to previous method. When you have all the necessary skills his two harvester extract per unit of time as much gas as 5 of the traditional BC. No additional crutches is necessary. A volume of 5.000 m3 cargohold is brilliant. Previously, it was necessary to have the industrial ship to drag the extracted gas. It is no longer necessary.

Fit

In low sec there are no rats in gas sites. But there are PvP players. So I recommend fit:

• one extra warp stab in low slot
• in middle and shield extenders and shield hardener
• cloacking device and 2 gas harvesters in high slots
• rigs for agility

Shield booster isn’t useful, if fight happens, it will be too quick.

Fit for nulls is different, it is determined that you need to protect yourselves from the NPC and cloud blows. Otherwise, you simply will not live till meeting with the PvP players. So, this fit is more for PvE.

• Damage Control
• Shield Extender + Shield Booster + EM Shield Hardener
• cloacking device and 2 gas harvesters in high slots
• 3 Anti-Thermal shirld rigs

Harvesting

Gas harvesting is nervous job. It is mined mainly in low and null secs, there are constellations where the most frequent gas clouds. About null sec gases and their constellations I will tell separately, low sec constellations:

• The Forge: Mivora
• Lonetrek: Umamon
• Placid: Amevync
• Solitude: Elerelle
• Aridia: Fabai
• Derelik: Joas
• Heimatar: Hed
• Molden Heath: Tartatven

It also comes in other constellations, in nulss and in the empire, but in much smaller amounts. You can fly through systems for a long time and won't find anything. So if you do this on a serious basis, it will have to go to mentioned above.

Good news – only few of the players do gas harvesting. So you have a weak competition. And it's not asteroid belts, where PvP players can just to click and go to visit you. They will have to run the probes, scan you ... Accordingly, at this stage regular scan checking will give you a chance.

The bad news – it is low sec, there are lots of PvP players. Gate camps, tacklers on station undock. By the way, despite the decent amount of cargohold, it is still not enough. Appetite comes with eating :) You need to fly somewhere and unload mined. It is best, of course, if you have own POS - no one has caught you on the undocking. But it is expensive, troublesome and even the question of how local residents would reacted on it : maybe someone for no good reason, according to this system of their own, and you - an unwelcome guest. In addition you will have to go to neighboring systems, gas clouds are not that big and fast running out.

The best alternative - transport on twink char. Dug up, thrown into the container out, twink had logged in, collected, and disappeared again we go mein. Similarly, we proceed with the scout - in fact most of the time he has nothing to do.

Example

I came across a Pipe Nebula, there are three clouds with Vermillion Mykoserocin, 1.000 units each.

Production cycle of T2-harvesters is 30 seconds, they extract 20 m3. With the 100% bonus it is 40 m3. Two harvester - 80 m3, 160 m3 of gas per minute. 3,000 units, the volume of 10 m3 each, a total of 30,000 / 160 = 187.5 minutes, a little more than three hours by one miner. In reality, all four - it takes time to travel. The cost of ~ 7,000 per unit, for a total of 4 hours 21KK = 5KK on the miner per hour. So of course it is better to use three or four windows.

Thrice was hiding from the probes, but it was a false alarm - probably looking for WH. I almost got caught by Machariel on undocking. Locale and scan are full of enemies, but no one has arrived to me.

Then I was scaned. For the fourth time, I was too lazy and did not hide. Immediately Nemesis has arrived and tried to kill me. Although it's weird - stealth bomber could fly cloacked and I would not see him before he flew up and burst out with all guns. So i was lucky twice. Apparently he was lazy  too.