I did my in character reflections on playing EVE Online back on my actual anniversary date at the end of August.  That was an attempt to tie in the lore with the experience of actually playing the game, something which can be at odds.

New Eden Me

But EVE Online is a game of numbers.  Well, any MMORPG is really a game of numbers.  People like to say that EVE Online is “spreadsheets in space,” but if you scratch at the surface a bit you’ll find that World of Warcraft is really just “spreadsheets with orcs” or whatever.

I mock Wall Street for this, but the driving factor for most MMORPGs is making the numbers get bigger, which is essentially making the line go up.

I was originally going to try and pull in all of my combined characters, of which I currently have eight over three accounts, but that… became work.  And the numbers felt less meaningful.  Also, I do most everything on my main, who is the one who turned 20, so this is just a snapshot of him.

ISK – Money Makes New Eden Go Around

I do not really keep close track of ISK so long as I have more than enough for my immediate needs.  But I have also been in a big sell-off of excess stuff in my hangar for the last 6-8 weeks, so I am at something of a peak.  So the game reports this as the total ISK value of my account.

Wilhelm ISK balances

That totals up to 102 billion ISK combined, but the asset value estimate of 57 billion is somewhat dubious.  The game’s asset valuation can be skewed dramatically by low volume items.  So while the PLEX conversion to 7.5 billion ISK is likely correct, I wouldn’t borrow against the combined assets estimated value.

Which leaves me with 37.4 billion ISK in my wallet, which is the most ISK I have ever had at one time.  I could probably buy and fit a supercarrier if I skimmed some loose ISK from my alts.  But then I would just have another capital ship I almost never fly.

Still, I feel like that total at least keeps me from being in the category of the “space poor.”

Not being space poor however does not qualify me as a tycoon or some sort of space business mogul.  This is far more a matter of just hanging around for 20 years and the natural accumulation of stuff that goes with it.  I can (barely) remember hitting one billion ISK for the first time back in September of 2008.

One billion ISK

Look at that old UI!  After mission running and mining and manufacturing and research, I ended up hitting that number through playing the market, finding things in demand and selling them back at Jita or Amarr… or at storyline mission hubs in the case of kernite.

Basically I do not enjoy grinding for currency in any MMORPG.  While I can go through fits of things like ratting, and I can make close to a billion ISK a month doing simple PI on my main and an alt, I fall off that wagon pretty quickly when I am not feeling engaged.

This is encouraged by the null sec line member lifestyle, where I have to buy doctrine ships but if I lose them on a sponsored op I get reimbursement for the loss.  It isn’t always 100% of the loss, but it is usually enough that any minor economic activity on my part will make up the difference.  I am a slacker because my situation allows it.

In short, the question probably shouldn’t be how do I have 37 billion ISK in my wallet after 20 years.  It should be why do I only have that much?  Seriously, it wouldn’t have taken much more effort to have double that.  But effort… I am in short supply on that front.

Skill Points

EVE Online does not have levels, it has skill points.  Skill points are… not a currency, but something you accrue that you can apply to skills which enable you to use different ships, modules, and other things.

This was a lot more simple before skill injectors, when skill points were just earned as time passed.  Since skill injectors CCP/Fenris has gotten more and more “generous” with skill points.  I used to mark time in 10 million skill point increments, which used to take 7-8 months to achieve.  Now it is closer to every 5 months, even when I spend some time training alts.

So that timeline looks like this.

  • Start Playing EVE Online – August 2006
  • Ten million – November 2007
  • Twenty million – June 2008
  • Thirty million – January 2009
  • Forty million – August 2009
  • Fifty million – March 2010
  • Sixty million – November 2010
  • Seventy million – August 2011
  • Eighty million – June 2012
  • Ninety million – December 2012
  • One Hundred million – rolled right past with the battle cruiser split
  • One Hundred and Ten million – September 2013
  • One Hundred and Twenty million – April 2014
  • One Hundred and Thirty million – October 2014
  • One Hundred and Forty million – May 2015
  • One Hundred and Fifty million – December 2015
  • One Hundred and Sixty million – July 2016
  • One Hundred and Seventy million – January 2017
  • One Hundred and Eighty million – August 2017
  • One Hundred and Ninety million – February 2018
  • Two Hundred million – August 2018
  • Two Hundred and Ten million – November 2019
  • Two Hundred and Twenty million – September 2020
  • Two Hundred and Thirty million – January 2021
  • Two Hundred and Forty million – April 2022
  • Two Hundred and Fifty million – September 2022
  • Two Hundred and Sixty million – February 2023
  • Two Hundred and Seventy million – September 2024
  • Two Hundred and Eighty million – August 2025
  • Two Hundred and Ninety million – January 2026
  • Three Hundred million – May 2026

As I write this I am just past 309.4 million skill points, so expect another post on that soon enough.  Probably before the end of the month.

Kill Mails

EVE Online is a PvP game, so while how many Guristas NPCs you kill might be a mildly interesting tally, the real dick measuring comes with how many other players you’ve helped blow up.  Their ships, their capsules, their structures, their customs offices… whatever you can get in range and lock up to shoot.

On that front I am a mediocre player.  As I write this I am ranked in 8,368th place for all time kills, and that is more due to longevity than any killer instinct.  The lesson in all of this is that if you hang around long enough you’ll settle in with your peers.

I also want to clarify the terminology.  I will use “kills” as a shorthand here, but what I really mean is “included on a kill mail.”  For me, at least 90% of the time, that means I was in a fleet, somebody broadcasted a target, and I and other fleet members locked them up and shot them until they exploded. (And the other 10% is mostly me being in a fleet and locking up and shooting something that was not yet broadcasted as a target, because I am not even that good at following instructions.)  So a big number does not indicate any PvP prowess beyond the ability to follow instructions.

Finally, these numbers all are based on my profile on zKillboard.  That brings with it some limitations.  First, due to API changes there are no kills recorded before 2008.  That doesn’t matter so much for me, but still.  Also, it is not a perfect record.  A certain percentage of kills never get recorded for multiple reasons.  There are at least three Keepstar kills I should have been on that did not generate a kill mail.  So there are no perfect counts available to me.

All that said, here are my basic stats.

Ships ISK Value Destroyed 6,613 14.67 Trillion ISK Lost 415 32.54 Billion ISK Total 7,028 14.7 Trillion ISK

That puts the average kill I am on at somewhere around 2.2 billion ISK in value and my average loss at 78.4 million ISK in value.

That feels like a lot per kill, but then again I was on more than a few expensive structure kills and at least 15 titan kills.

Breaking all my kills out by year… and zKill actually breaks them out by month if you’re into it… my totals look like this.

Wilhelm Arcturus – Kills/Losses by year

The peaks correspond to significant wars, which were:

Winter War – Where I showed up in null sec.  That involved chasing all Raiden and White Noise allies out of the north, including evicting Northern Alliance from Tribute.  The CFC was victorious on all fronts, TEST ends up moving into Fountain.

Fountain War – The invasion of the Fountain region to remove TEST.  The Imperium was victorious, with TEST driven from its home.

Casino War – Everybody (financed by RMT casino ISK) versus the Imperium, driving us from the north to reform in Delve.  Casinos were only banned after we lost.  Soon thereafter TEST was driven from its new home in Tribute.

World War Bee – (Beeitnam for hardcore Goons, World War Bee 2 for apostates) Everybody versus the Imperium again, led by TEST.  Dumb CCP economic changes during the war killed all momentum, leading to a months long siege of 1DQ1-A where PAPI wouldn’t step up and actually attack.  Somehow the whole thing ended once more with the Imperium victorious and TEST being driven from its home.

Clearing of the Drone Regions – Pandemic Horde was discovered to be a house of cards as its leadership abandoned allies and line members alike.  Region was cleared by the Imperium and declared a “no bloc” zone.  Also, in a side conflict, TEST was once again driven from its home.

So the pattern is that I play a lot during wars and that TEST has gotten a lot of practice with evacuation.

Following that up, my top ten months for kills and losses.

Rank Month Year Kills ISK Rank Month Year Losses ISK 1 August 2020 324 30.42b 1 July 2020 18 476.36m 2 July 2021 239 64.58b 2 October 2020 17 1.56b 3 December 2020 232 152.66b 3 April 2026 16 2.14b 4 May 2021 188 54.90b 4 May 2021 14 715.44m 5 May 2016 179 84.52b 5 June 2016 14 562.49m 6 October 2014 173 20.79b 6 August 2020 13 982.91m 7 January 2023 163 232.73b 7 June 2013 11 605.60m 8 July 2013 140 85.80b 8 July 2012 11 925.01m 9 August 2021 128 957.37b 9 May 2015 11 1.03b 10 May 2020 126 49.26b 10 January 2021 9 211.43m

When measured by ISK, November 2025 tops the chart, putting me at 1.3 trillion ISK in kill mails, which were largely structures destroyed during the clearing of the Drone Regions.  That was followed by April 2012, at 1.07 trillion ISK, though I am not even sure what we killed.  There were some NCDot supers and the first Burn Jita.  There was something big in there.

The data at zKillboard includes some more analysis these days.  It plots where my kills took place by type of space.  These are combined kill and loss stats.

Killmail Location Kills/Losses Percentage Nullsec 6,237 88.75% Lowsec 682 9.70% Highsec 33 0.47% W-Space 22 0.31% Other 54 0.77% Total 7,028 100.00%

I spend most of my time shooting things in null sec.  I am not sure where “other” is, but it could quite possibly be Pochven.

Then there is what I shoot by general classification.

Victim categories Kills/Losses Percentage Ships and Pods 5,301 75.43% Starbase (POS) 678 9.65% Deployable 416 5.92% Fighter 402 5.72% Structure 176 2.50% Sovereignty Structures 48 0.68% Orbitals 7 0.10% Total 7,028 100.00%

Somewhat amusing that POS modules make up almost 10% given how long it has been since the humble POS was central to null sec.

Then, of course, there is when I am on and shooting things.

Activity Timezone Kills Percentage USA East 3,403 48.42% Europe 2,274 32.36% USA West 1,057 15.04% Russia 191 2.72% AU / China 103 1.47% Total 7,028 100.00%

I actually live in USA West, but spend most of my time flying with people on the US east coast and the Euros.  I have also occasionally alarm clocked for Chinese timezone ops.

Carrying on with the geography of New Eden, these are the top 20 systems for me when it comes to kill mails.

Rank System Region Kills 1 Saranen Lonetrek 249 2 O-PNSN Fountain 230 3 3-DMQT Delve 219 4 T5ZI-S Delve 187 5 ROIR-Y Pure Blind 132 6 M2-XFE Delve 131 7 JE-D5U Pure Blind 113 8 PF-QHK Venal 111 9 NOL-M9 Delve 104 10 Hakonen Lonetrek 103 11 1DQ1-A Delve 102 12 GE-8JV Catch 98 13 E-VKJV Querious 98 14 5-CQDA Delve 94 15 TN25-J Delve 89 16 DO6H-Q Fade 77 17 N6G-H3 Venal 74 18 UW9B-F Curse 73 19 Q-VTWJ Cobalt Edge 63 20 N3-JBX Scalding Pass 62

Saranen was the focal point of much of the Casino War, and a good time.  We only had to undock from the Quafe Company Warehouse station to find content waiting for us.

A lot of those locations are from World War Bee.  O-PNSN in Fountain was a location where I flew a burst jamming interceptor during a Keepstar defense.   The burst jammer is an AOE module that breaks target locks for all ships within its radius (unless you save versus jams I think) and which gets you on their kill mail if they die.  I probably did all 230 in a single fight.  That was some serious killboard padding.

Otherwise, I seem to have spread out my kills.  They aren’t all in a few places.

As for the ships flown for my kills, here are the top 20.

Rank Ship Kills 1 Drake 521 2 Harpy 414 3 Eagle 403 4 Malediction 350 5 Guardian 319 6 Purifier 267 7 Hurricane 253 8 Ferox 228 9 Megathron 228 10 Ares 215 11 Ishtar 191 12 Rokh 176 13 Sacrilege 172 14 Oneiros 159 15 Cerberus 157 16 Muninn 146 17 Caracal 136 18 Basilisk 133 19 Apocalypse 128 20 Scalpel 106

When people get on Reddit and demand logi be on kill mails (which is never going to happen, never never never, so get it out of your heads) I am always tempted to comment that I seem to get on kill mails when I fly logi.  Look at that, 5 logi hulls in my top 20.  I am a bad logi pilot, carrying combat drones.  The Imperium eventually relented and officially condoned logi carrying combat drones… because we were doing it anyway.

Otherwise, those are all ships that were fleet doctrines at one time or another.  Ishtars were probably just a Reavers thing, and Drakes haven’t been a mainline doctrine for a dozen years.  But each had their moment.

The site also keeps track of what hull class you help kill and lose.

Rank Ship Class Killed Rank Ship Class Lost 1 Combat Battlecruiser 640 1 Capsule 164 2 Heavy Assault Cruiser 615 2 Combat Battlecruiser 36 3 Cruiser 562 3 Logistics 32 4 Battleship 517 4 Interceptor 29 5 Logistics 402 5 Battleship 23 6 Mobile Warp Disruptor 329 6 Stealth Bomber 21 7 Light Fighter 261 7 Cruiser 16 8 Strategic Cruiser 190 8 Destroyer 16 9 Frigate 183 9 Heavy Assault Cruiser 14 10 Capsule 173 10 Frigate 12 11 Assault Frigate 157 11 Tactical Destroyer 7 12 Mobile Laser Sentry 150 12 Assault Frigate 6 13 Interdictor 147 13 Corvette 6 14 Command Ship 144 14 Covert Ops 5 15 Interceptor 130 15 Hauler 4 16 Shield Hardening Array 130 16 Interdictor 4 17 Destroyer 122 17 Logistics Frigate 4 18 Dreadnought 109 18 Mobile Warp Disruptor 3 19 Tactical Destroyer 109 19 Command Ship 2 20 Citadel 89 20 Force Recon Ship 2

You can pick out a few POS modules in my top 20, but the top five represent the core of null sec fleet doctrines for the last fifteen years.  Battlecruisers, HACs, cruisers, battleships, and logi.  When fleets clash those hull types generally represent most of the ships present, so it is no surprise that they top the list.

So What?

That was a whole bunch of numbers that do not add up to much really.

The whole post was more of a time stamp, a note as to where I stood at the 20 year mark, a measure of progress… or lack thereof… over the two decades.

True to form, I have all of these numbers in a spreadsheet should I require them again for later reference.