Bright Idea or Why It's Good to be a Gangster

I've been heartened by the responses I've received from this little blog. They echo some of the responses I've gotten to my rather clumsy efforts at cold-calling potential customers. There's nothing quite like a drug-dealer doing sales calls.

Often these sales calls (eve-mail) go unanswered. A few are unkindly returned with some blather about me being worse than an isk-seller or laughing at me for presuming that someone would want to fly "under the influence." But some are like the one I got recently. "Wow, I have my own dealer now! This game keeps getting better and better."

It felt great to be make a contribution to someone else's game experience. Its also the reason I wanted to be a drug-dealer ... cos its an frickin brilliant idea. And Eve is such a great game because it allows for such ideas to grow, to impact other players. The sandbox at its best.

I regularly browse the recruitment boards ... my cold-call list is revealed! I know there are as many play-styles as there are players in Eve. But I go into narcoleptic fits when I see posts for corps that do mining, mission running, industry. There's no idea there .. indeed, there's no there there. I mean, drug-producing does involve mining, production, market trading. But its got STYLE.

So I have to give it up to my corp/alliance once again for taking an idea and running with it in such style. So if you're looking for a niche out there, be creative .. be bold ..

psst .. be bolder with boosters ...

Can I Look in Your Bag?

Ok, rounding out the most basic info on boosters, I wanted to talk about moving contraband through high-sec, or smuggling. When I'm selling boosters in high-sec, the most common question is "Just how do I move em?" This question is understandable. There's not a lot of information on smuggling out there and there's also another nasty number list to scare the wary.

First off, lets talk about those nasty numbers. Standard and higher grade combat boosters are contraband in all regions of Empire. Getting caught with them will earn you standing loss, confiscation, and a hefty, but ill-defined, fine. The consequences are the same for standard, improved, and strong grade .. no extra penalty for the "good stuff."

The standing loss is .10, hardly a deterrent. However the fine is 200% of estimated market value. Honestly, I have no idea how this estimated. I have never been caught so I can only estimate myself. Standard Exile sells on the market for between 6 and 8 million isk per unit. So if you're caught with 5 of em, that seems to be at least a 60 million ISK fine.

And lets be clear on the law ... possession in station is not illegal, being under the influence of a booster is not illegal, ONLY transporting contraband is illegal. If you want to be perfectly safe, ask for delivery to your hub. Pop em in station and undock. Es and Whizz is happy to accomodate you for a delivery fee.

I'm a little hesitant to go babbling about smuggling. There's a mystique about it, a real sense of mystery. So out of respect to the film-noir aura of smuggling, I won't spill the secrets ... sorry ;-)

What side-effects?

Alright, since I'm fighting EFT to show boosters correctly, I thought I'd do some posts on the issues that give boosters a bad name: side-effects and handling illegal goods. But I should mention that these next 2 discussions DO NOT involve synth boosters. Synth is perfectly legal and perfectly safe, no side-effects, no customs agents to dodge.

But first those pesky side-effects. I must admit the ingame info window for boosters are down-right scary. Each booster has a frightening list of negative modifiers. To the untrained eye, that list makes boosters look downright foolish to take. So let's train those eyes.

I'll use standard exile as an example, a great boost of 20% in armor repair. But that list of side-effects: 20% missile explosion penalty, -20% tracking penalty, -20% armor hitpoint penalty, and -20% capacitor capacity. Ouch .. looks horrible, right?

Not really, boosters carry a CHANCE of side-effects. Standard boosters have a 20% chance. If the fates are against you and you fail that 20% chance, you will get ONE negative modifier, randomly selected. But it goes on, if you get one side-effect, you then have a 2% chance of a second side-effect, again randomly chosen from the remaining negative modifiers (you can't get same side-effect twice). If you are the unluckiest person on earth and you get a 2nd side-effect, you get a .2% chance of a third. You can see the trend downward in side-effect probability.

Note, that if you pass that first test, you are home free .. no side-effects at all! If one (or more) occur, they last the duration of the booster, base 30 minutes.

Improved Boosters carry a base 30% chance, scaling downward exponentially. And strong works the same way, with a base 40% chance.

Not nearly as frightening as that list might lead you to believe.

One final note, you can deal with side-effects with some skill trainig. As I've mentioned before, Neurotoxin Recovery gives you a 5% reduction in the chance of a side-effect occuring per level. So taking the above example again, with Nanite Control V, you havea 15% of the first side-effect, 1.5% for a second, and so on ..

The other key skill is Nanite Control, giving you a 5% reduction in the side-effect modifier per level. So with Nanite Control V, IF you triggered a side effect, it would be less punishing, a -15% modifier instead of-20%.

So don't fear that list .. oh, and do more boosters!

Don't Know Much Biology

Boosters get a bad rap and its hard figuring out why. Even CCP mentioned how boosters seem to be an untapped resource. Who can say why? CCP imagines the influence of some anti-drug education at work in the galaxy ... could they be right?!

Nah, boosters just have the mystique of the black market around them, making them is no easy task so the supply comparatively small when compared to modules and implants which offer similar boosts. Finally, like many, many things in Eve, boosters have the reputation of something that only those leet 0.0 pilots use.

All we need is some basic info to clear the air (someone been smoking?). Combat Boosters are pretty simple. They're a drug that works like a temporary implant. Just like implants, hardwiring, and modules, they give you a boost to one of many different attributes. And just like implants, hardwiring, and modules, boosters come in different strengths offering greater boosts.
But in Eve, there's always a price. The other shoe I hear dropping is side-effects. I have found that people are terrified of the potential side-effects. But don't let fear get the best of you.

Like named tech 1, named, and tech 2 modules, boosters come in different strenghts. Every type of booster comes in Synth, Standard, Improved, and Strong varieties. Synth is your basic version. It offers the smallest boosts but there is ZERO chance of side-effects and synth boosters are legal in empire. Standard strength and above offer increasing boosts but also come with some risks. First, besides synth, these boosters are illegal contraband in Empire space. But this is a pretty meaningless obstacle, one easily overcome. Second, standard and above carry a risk of a side-effect which gives you a penalty in some stat or attribute. The greater the strength of the boost, the greater the chance of a bigger side-effect. The devil's in the details ... in future posts, I'll examine those pesky numbers.

One last thing, boosters are easy to use, requiring just a few basic skills. Unlike tech 2 modules, you don't need a lot of skillpoints to get a good drug habit going. The basic skill required to use boosters is Biology, a level 1 skill. The only pre-requisite is Science I. Each level of Biology gives you a 20% boost to booster duration. The more you know, the longer the high. All told, you could be using the highest grade booster with a 5-6 hours investment in Biology training.

There are 2 other booster specific skills. These skills work to make your booster high a pleasant experience. Nanite Control is a level 2 skill requiring Science IV. Every level of Nanite Control reduces the severity of any side-effect, IF one even occurs in the first place. The other skills is Neurotoxin Recovery, a level 5 skill requiring Nanite Control I as a prerequisite. This skill reduces the chance of side-effects occurring.

A bit of training and you're ready to get into the hard stuff without big risk of side-effects .. who could ask for anything more?!

Stay Tuned .. coming up: "Need to Get it Up? Booster Effects and You" and "And They Call Me a Criminal! Booster, Implant, and Module Prices Compared"

And as always ... need a boost? drop me a line ...