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i especially suggest to stay way away from any mining and industry as a starter, these things are really only viable on dedicated alt chars.
As a primary activity, I completely agree. My main-in-cryo was a Rock Puncher, and that got old faster than I thought it would.
As an easy-money activity, I think mining still has a place for alphas... it's predictable income and low risk exposure. A cheaply fitted Venture is maybe 600k, and a nice one is just over 2m; a cheapo Venture can pay for its own future replacement in a single haul, a nicely fit Venture in a few hauls. Gankers like CODE _could_ pop you fairly easily, but as long as people AFK mine in barges, those barge killmails have more social value to them for not that much more effort.
These days, I've been mining as an ease-my-old-bones activity. While the potential clickfest in EVE isn't as bad as RTS games, my middle aged wrists still complain sooner than they used to. >_>
Im aiming to be Ninja salvager.
Would be fun with group of peeps but who knows who i run into on my adventures
For that you'll need scanning skills, combat probes to scan down the Mobile Tractor Units, and some frosty nerves. The folks that tend to use MTUs also tend to have friends; just because you can salvage without flagging an aggression timer, don't think it'll be without consequence.
That said, you can often tag along with people, above board, to salvage and loot. I did that a few times with a new friend, averaged about 8m/hr (salvage/loot/bounties/mission) with a salvaging destroyer and his MTU.