(Note:  This post is intended for those new to Eve, to clarify some of the deeper issues that are before the CSM and CCP.  Reprinted and Edited as approved by Orakkus)

There you are, sitting in an Ibis.  You’ve just joined the game after hearing about all the drama, the epic fleet battles, and amazing ship heists.  You’ve decided that this space sim is where it’s at.  But where, really, is “here”?  And why so much drama between those that live in High-sec, Low-sec, Null-sec, and Wormhole space?

First off, it is important how three particular things interact with each other.  Eve Online is a game where the vast, vast majority of items found on the market are player made or player introduced.  From shuttles to ammo to ships, etc.  Only skillbooks, as a group, are introduced outside of players.  This means:

Isk (also includes Loyalty Points), PVP, and Industry are interconnected with each other.

  1. If you have no isk, you cannot PVP because you cannot purchase or build anything.  Named and faction items will also not be introduced into the game
  2. If you have no industry, then no modules or ships are built, therefore no way to effectively grind for isk and no way to PVP.
  3. If you have no PVP, then industry stagnates as need for modules and ships dries up when players get more effective and efficient.

Second, it is important to understand accurately what some of the driving motivators to Eve Online are.

Major Economic Motivators:

  • Technetium Moons – Technetium moons, often called “Tech” moons, provide material used in Tech 2 module construction.  Each moon provides billions of isk monthly to those who hold them.  As such, control of these moons is a major source of conflict in Eve.
  • PVE Combat – Mission running and belt ratting (hunting NPCs that show up in asteroid belts) are one of the most common sources of income for Eve players.  As players gain access to harder missions and belts with higher classes of NPCs, pilots need better modules and better ships.  It also requires them to replace those tools should they make a mistake.
  • PVP Combat – Whether it is pirate ganking or major fleet actions, PVP combat is a staple of Eve Online.  As such, a wide variety ships, modules, and ammo are needed to begin such combat operations as well as a continuing supply of those items to keep up with people’s PVP needs and increased skill.
  • Distance (at an individual level) – Eve space is huge, encompassing almost 8000 systems between known space and wormhole space.  As such, it is difficult to move individual fleets around as well as to go to a central location for all of your purchasing.  Therefore, in order save time, players will often buy multiple ships, modules, and other equipment at multiple locations.
  • Arkonor, Bistot, Crokite – Better known as ABC ores, these ores contain the highest proportions of the most valuable minerals in Eve.  These ores are found only in 0.0 and Wormhole space, though the availability of these depends on the quality of system.
  • Tritanium – The most prolific mineral in the game, but also the most used in production and industry.
  • Supercapital Production – At this time, Supercapital ships like the Titan and Supercarrier pretty much represent an “I win” button to any who can field them in fleets.  Since fleets of these are now the standard for 0.0 alliances to have, production of them is at an all-time peak.. and the materials needed to make them are vast.

Minor Economic Motivators:

  • Human Nature for “Home” – Wormhole and Null-sec space are the only locations where an organization can make a “home” as it were.  Null-sec has an official sovereignty mechanic, while Wormhole space control is determined by the defensive ability of those living in the wormhole.
  • Skill Training – With improved skills, better ships and modules can be purchased and used.
  • T3 Production – As Wormhole space is the only location where T3 components can be retrieved, such space has value.  However, the large number of wormholes and the overall difficulty in capturing and maintaining that space, allows for some security.

Now there are quite a few other things that influence the going ons of Eve, such as blueprint usage and availability, political changes, game changes.. but overall, I think the above lists are fairly accurate at this time (though if commenters wish to add some, I certainly will consider their request).

So, how do all the spaces relate to each other?

Well, as mentioned above, there are quite a few economic motivators that influences the political sphere of the game, which in turn, influences the combat aspect of the game.

High-Sec or “Safe” space

High-sec, or High Security Space, is the most policed of Eve Space.  Since this area of space is low-risk and centralized, industry and extensive mission running (along with COSMOS sites, anomalies, etc.) tend to make this space very lucrative financially.  The safety aspect of this also makes the area a boon to industry as there are few problems getting your goods to market.  Naturally, trade hubs developed and as modules and ships require a variety of resources, it is much easier to contruct those items in High-sec and ship them out to Low-sec, Null-sec, and Wormhole space.

Three of the major concerns which the Eve Community seems to be at odds with in regards to High-Sec is that:

  1. The individual financial rewards of running Level four missions outwiegh the financial rewards that can be had in Low-sec and Null-sec space.  The recent Anomaly nerf, made all but the best null-sec space worth less than running Level 4 missions or Incursions in High-sec space.  Proponents of Low-Sec think that moving the profitable Level 4 missions out into low-sec will force more people into low-sec and become a necessary in-game isk sink. 
  2. Ore mining in High-sec space is too profitable both because of hidden belts, but also because the need for Tritanium is so high that a miner has little need/desire to move out into 0.0 for more profitability.
  3. Ice Mining in High-sec space is just as profitable (if not more so), than ice mining in 0.0 or low-sec.

Low-Sec or “Pirate” space

Low-sec, or Low Security Space, is generally considered the most dangerous of Eve Online space.  Whether this is true or not, the perception has forced much of low-sec to remain underutilized.  Some industry does take place here as it is easier for corporations and individuals to maintain POS structures and NPCs have higher bounties.  Capital and Supercapital ships can also be built there.  However, a recent change to missioning agents has made that space less frequented by mission runners.  Mining in low-sec is usually ignored because the ore it offers are worse than null-sec ores and its profitability is less than what can be attained mining high-sec ores.

Because of the nature of Eve mechanics, coupled with some incomplete ventures like Faction Warfare, and the simple reality that anything you can do in low-sec can be done either better or more efficiently or safer in null-sec and high-sec, Low-sec hasn’t been a real driver in any major economic way.  Some industries like Capital ship production and some PVP related features like Faction warfare and piracy do add to the overall economic and industrial flow.  Those who operate in low-sec do try to make it a driver in a social way, but this has not really taken off simply because the view of risk is too high for most people and the rules for operating in an effective manner are difficult to comprehend quickly.

Some of the current (and longstanding) issues with low-sec are:

  1. Unfinished expansions – Faction Warfare in particular is an unfinished mechanic that was hoped to bring new life into low-sec.  As this has not really happened to any serious extent, there is significant rage against CCP for not really having a plan that involves improving, or even giving purpose to, low-sec space.
  2. Safety – This subject is all over the board, with industrialist pilots saying that the safe is too dangerous for it to be profitable and with pirate and PVP pilots saying that its just a perception, not a reality.
  3. Relevance – High-sec, Null-sec, and Wormhole space all have aspects that are unique to them.  Low-sec doesn’t and while there are plenty of suggestions, CCP seems either unable or uninterested to make changes at this time.

Null-sec or 0.0 Sovreignty Space

Null-sec, or 0.0 space, is considered the “engine” of Eve Online.  Without the PVP battles that happen, industry in general would grind to a halt.  Much of Eve Online’s combat happens in 0.0 space due to raids and sovreignty conflicts.  Null-sec, while not having gate guns or Concord, is considered safer than low-sec in that you have considerably more flexibility in using defensive and offensive fleets.  Rules of engagement are totally based on alliance policy, and not just shoved in somewhere in between Concord rules.

However, it is not as safe as high-sec, and player made outposts have a limited number of manufacturing slots.  This forces corporations and individuals to put up POSes for manufacturing as well as organize operations to get materials, either by mining or by transporting them up from nearby High-sec trade hubs.  Additional expense is added for the various costs of holding sov space, which either comes from moon reactions or from player taxes.

Some of the current issues with null-sec primarily involve:

  1. Sovreignty – Current mechanics that were released with Dominion were supposed to be better than the previous way of gaining Sov.  However, this new system proved to do the exact opposite of what was intended (which was to make it worth while for smaller alliance to try and get sov).  CCP again contends that reasons for conflict need to drive the constant struggle between the haves and the have nots.  The Eve Community has thrown up hundreds of ideas and some of CCP devs appear to have some good options for fixing the current state, however the Eve Community as a whole is on the fence at to CCP’s willingness to stick to making changes.
  2. Logistics/Industry – Currently, it is easier to bring some materials in for construction than it is to mine them locally.  In fact, it is usually cheaper to bring in modules and ships than it is to build them locally as well.  This reliance on High-sec, which was a fairly reasonable outcome given the difficulty of bringing in miners and builders from “safe” high-sec into “dangerous” null-sec or even low-sec.  This is especially true given the resources needed for the most powerful ships in the game, the Supercapitals.  But this problem goes farther in that CCP view of how null-sec should act, is in direct conflict with the human nature of people who do industry because they prefer stable, safe locations to build from.
  3. Botting – This takes on the form of automated programs to do mundane, but critically important tasks, usually meant to either mine large amounts of ore, or large amount of isk by attacking belt NPCs.  There is conclusive proof that such programs exist and are actively being used by current 0.0 alliances.  Much of these funds have been used for purchasing and building supercapital ships or for Real Money Trading (RMT).  Right now, it is clear that many of the nullsec Russian based alliance are running bots, likely at the alliance level.  However, past indicators showed that European and American based null-sec blocs also operated bots to help pad either the supercapital ship program or their own leadership wallets.

Wormhole Space

The final space, Wormhole space, is something of an enigma.  CCP surprised the CSM by indicating that included Wormhole space as part of Null-sec space and because of that, it did have some features of null-sec space like ABC Ores.  The problem is that CCP’s viewpoint isn’t entirely accurate and the CSM viewpoint wasn’t entirely wrong.

It is true that Wormhole space is indeed null-sec space, but only in regards to there being no Concord or Nation security status to worry about.  Outside of that, the two are night and day.  Wormhole space does not allow for stations to be installed and also does not have an active “local” channel.  The space itself can modify ship attributes, both positively and negatively.  There are planets, but belts need to be discovered to be mined and the NPC’s found there have an advanced AI that mimics real PVP combat.  Accessing Wormhole space is more difficult and both entry and exit points change on a regular basis.

Wormhole Space also has a unique industrial relationship to the rest of Eve.  It is the only location where T3 components can be found and harvested.  Corporations that operate in wormholes tend to operate rather self-sufficiently so as to minimize the need to use up the unstable exit and entry points.

Oddly enough, there is currently only one point of contention with Wormhole space, and that has to deal with “ABC” ores.  During the latest CSM meeting with CCP, the CSM found out that some “ABC” ores could be found at lower-tier wormholes.  This was news to all but two CSM members, both of which are active in wormholes.  The resulting conflict from the remaining CSM seems to be very disproportionate to the problem because the amount of ABC ores in those low-tier wormholes are minute, so small that some even contend that they aren’t worth the effort to mine them.

Conclusion

So, that is how all the space in Eve relates to each other.  And here you thought you were just going to shoot little NPC rats…