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[Tekla]

Greetings!
Trying to understand my character's background, I've stumbled upon the very basic thing - starships. Being just a rookie, capsuleer soon gets a bunch of ships full of guns and gear, and, as far as I understand, losing a ship isn't a big deal. Thus ships should be very cheap, so  literally anyone in Eve universe might be able to get a garage full of frigates - work a bit harder and you'll get a battlecruiser. That sounds a bit weird and unreal.
How do you, fellow capsuleers, explain such an amount ships each one of us owns?

[Ché Biko]

We make ISK really fast?

[V. Gesakaarin]

Life is a cheap commodity in New Eden and starships are basically a more technically advanced version of IKEA flat pack furniture that only require an equally advanced allen key.

[Shiori]

Ships are only really 'cheap' when measured on the scale at which capsuleers do things. But once you're there, well. The average capsuleer is very good at losing ships, but (generally) even better at making the blood money required to replace them.

[Dessau]

Ships are only really 'cheap' when measured on the scale at which capsuleers do things.

This is pretty much how I look at it.

If you think about the average capsuleer graduate, after this big investment to find an individual whose nervous system can interface with the capsule and all, they knock around in the starter corp while they are getting accustomed to their new career. Say there are 500 active capsuleers in these corps at any given time, generating 5-10 million ISK in bounties and mission compensation per hour, using all varieties of agents. If the starter corp skims 10% from that income in tax, then they are pulling in, as an arbitrary amount, 0.25-0.5 billion ISK per hour, day-in-day-out, forever*. It's the kind of money that baseliners don't see in a lifetime. All that cash could go to station overhead, personnel, investments, whatever, so long as the capsuleer is invested in the cluster. They do things which move money rapidly and often in large amounts.

As they progress and form their own corporations, they develop their own agendas and acquire assets necessary to the advancement of those agendas, often leveraging them against competitors who respond in kind. They are still invested in the cluster, still moving money from one party to another, but now they reap all the benefit and foot all the responsibility. Maintaining a healthy surplus of assets is a hedge against shortfalls that come with the high stakes of capsuleering in the unfriendly skies.

That's my slap-dash, convoluted way of looking at it.

[Arista Shahni]

How is it possible NASCAR has so many cars, times star systems and ISK.

[Esna Pitoojee]

Something to keep in mind is that, according to the lore, 100 ISK is the equivalent to the amount of money the average non-capsuleer would earn in their lifetime. Even the most basic missions we run usually pay upwards of 1,000 ISK, so we're really earning piles and piles of money right out from the start of the game. It's only "a little money" in terms of other capsuleers.

[Drakolus]

If you think about it, the upper crust of today's society make oodles of money as it is.  If you can say write a doctoral paper on astrophysics, then figure out how to solve a major problem in a starving third world nation, pose for (magazine) and THEN rule the stock market with your new, custom designed algorithm, of course you're going to make a pile of money.  Essentially Capsuleers can do all of this and more.  Because of the unique combination of genetics, super-tuned implants and learning software and that fact that we are immortal and pretty much fearless, we can do what no others can do.  As such we command hideous amounts of money for our time.  The part that EVE does a crap job of showcasing is that the 20-50k active "capsuleers" at any one time is a percentage of a percentage point of the total number of humans in New Eden.  Rare doesn't even begin to cover it.  So yet again, super rare, super talented, immortal and fearless.  PAY ME

[Elmund Egivand]

Greetings!
Trying to understand my character's background, I've stumbled upon the very basic thing - starships. Being just a rookie, capsuleer soon gets a bunch of ships full of guns and gear, and, as far as I understand, losing a ship isn't a big deal. Thus ships should be very cheap, so  literally anyone in Eve universe might be able to get a garage full of frigates - work a bit harder and you'll get a battlecruiser. That sounds a bit weird and unreal.
How do you, fellow capsuleers, explain such an amount ships each one of us owns?

We make tons of money baseliners wouldn't see in several lifetimes an hour. We have an industry that is more than capable of churning out thousands of spaceships every few days, with supporting logistics and material acquisition to ensure this continues. There's billions of baseliners tripping over one another for the chance of crewing your spaceship so that they might hopefully make some trickle-down income to send to their families.

Having a hangar filled with enough spaceships to make up entire battalions shouldn't come out as a surprise.

[Katrina Oniseki]

Because of the unique combination of genetics, super-tuned implants and learning software and that fact that we are immortal and pretty much fearless, we can do what no others can do.

Don't forget the EXTREMELY difficult and often lethal training process.

[Morwen Lagann]

Something to keep in mind is that, according to the lore, 100 ISK is the equivalent to the amount of money the average non-capsuleer would earn in their lifetime. Even the most basic missions we run usually pay upwards of 1,000 ISK, so we're really earning piles and piles of money right out from the start of the game. It's only "a little money" in terms of other capsuleers.

You missed a few zeroes. It's 10,000 ISK that was stated as the equivalent of an average family household's lifetime income.

[Esna Pitoojee]

Something to keep in mind is that, according to the lore, 100 ISK is the equivalent to the amount of money the average non-capsuleer would earn in their lifetime. Even the most basic missions we run usually pay upwards of 1,000 ISK, so we're really earning piles and piles of money right out from the start of the game. It's only "a little money" in terms of other capsuleers.

You missed a few zeroes. It's 10,000 ISK that was stated as the equivalent of an average family household's lifetime income.

HURF BLURF. That was a mistype, I swear. >.<

[Makoto Priano]

So, think about it this way: people migrating to a planet in the boondocks? Sell all their crap, scrounge, beg, and buy a shuttle to haul themselves and a few cubic meters of gear-- previously.

Nowadays, though, the family can buy cast-off rookie ships with a lot more room, and take a slower flight off into the dark with a lot more gear. It's more dangerous, of course, because the rookie ship is less nimble-- but it offers a lot safer start once you land, care of the extra gear you can haul.

CONCORD's subsidy of basic capsuleer equipment is probably accelerating the flight to the dark unknown places.

[Tekla]

Uh-huh. Thanks. I can see it better now. The only question that's still present - it's an offtopic though - if capsuleers are such a valuable assets, why the hell send 'em to mine ore, that looks more like an AI/drone kind of job.

[Elmund Egivand]

Uh-huh. Thanks. I can see it better now. The only question that's still present - it's an offtopic though - if capsuleers are such a valuable assets, why the hell send 'em to mine ore, that looks more like an AI/drone kind of job.

It's less about the actual mining and more about the logistics of it. AIs and drone miners do not have the capacity. Concord is reluctant to allow fully automated barges due to the fears of the repeat of the rogue drone debacle. Baseliners can't steer the ship well enough. So it falls to capsuleers to get it done.