After getting expelled, Tesla and I started trying out different careers in Eve. I quickly found an interest in exploration, as I could turn a decent profit (for me) in a short amount of time. Tesla participated occassionally, and we both trained into covert ops - Buzzards for the win!
At the same time, we both set up colonies to exploit for production in lowsec systems. Passive isk is awesome, and once you get past the initial confusion over how to set a colony to produce a decent product, you can gain a nice supplement to your income. Tesla was more adventurous in his system selection and was able to produce product at a higher yield. I chosed based on traffic and a low kill record in system.
Had Tesla chosen an easier to access system for Planetary Interaction, he might have done much better with his lowsec systems. As it stood, he lost two badgers while making PI runs. Fortunately for him, he hadn't filled up his cargo hold yet. Overall, I'm sure he made a bit more isk than I did, however I never lost a ship doing my runs.
After a couple of weeks in an NPC corp, Tesla put forward that it would be fun to move to an nullsec corp. I had misgivings, but I didn't really care to be left behind in highsec while Tesla went out to get blown up in null. I logged off not long after his proposition expecting that we would take a few days to research corps in null before taking the plunge.
The next day, I logged in and Tesla informed me he had been accepted into a corp in the Tenerifis region of nullsec. I was caught by surprise. He gave me the info on the corp and while scrolling through the recruitment ad, I noticed that they had a 10 million sp requirement. Upon pointing this out, Tesla responded that he applied while the corp was moving from the north end of nullsec. He relayed that the recruiter he was speaking with was happy with the fact that he could produce PI, as there was a large interest in industry and production from the CEO.
So, despite my misgivings, I sent an application into the corp, stating I wanted to move to null and set up some PI, and generally have random fun. I was accepted into corp within an hour, despite only having about a quarter of the required skillpoints.
There are going to be a few posts on life in nullsec, so I'm going to segway into the issue that this lack of skillpoints caused Tesla and myself. At this point, our toons were about 2 months old, maybe a bit older. We were jumping into the deep-end of New Eden, and had no real idea of what to expect, how to make isk, or how much we would be blown up.
Had the recruiter for this corp done a little research, as he had access to our full API, he would have noticed that we were only competently skilled for flying tackle frigates, Planetary Interaction, and the necessary skills for exploration. We joined the corp as it was moving to a renter alliance, after their old alliance, IRC, was in the process of collapsing. Our systems were right on the edge of the systems held by S2N, and were heavily roamed by TROLL. We were moving into a system that we would not be able to support ourselves in.
Himdsight being 20/20, both Tesla, myself, and the recruiter should have taken a step back, looked at our skill points, and concluded that perhaps we should try to join when we were closer to the minimum requirement. As a new player, things you take for granted in highsec - easy access to markets, rats that are designed to be easy for you to kill, et cetera - are gone. Instead you have battleship rats, stations with unseeded markets' and roaming gangs of hostile forces looking to make your current hull explode, which is expensive and difficult to replace.
I would advise any new player who is looking to move into nullsec to research their prospective corp and the region they are in. While researching, spend some time in the recruitment channel and have some real discussions with those present. Ask how they make their isk, what hull and support skills you should have in order to be able to make a decent living, as well as what the expectations are during fleet engagements (trust me, there will be a lot of those, and if you can fly the required hull, they will be the most fun you have in nullsec).
If you don't do your research and proceed like we did, you will find yourself struggling to survive. We met and flew with some excellent people in Tenerifis, and a lot of them were nice enough to help us out - both strategically and financially. In time I started to feel unable to properly contribute and that I was a drain on the corp. Not really a position I ever want to be in.
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