Keep in mind, I'm not badmouthing the game, just sharing my own personal feelings and frustrations.
Now I don't want anyone to say exactly how you do something, or what there is to expect, but here are the perceptions I've formed since being back based on my VERY limited experience with the current game.
Kay, so you come into the game, naked and alone as you always have, and from there you can do a plethora of things, most of the coded things like Need anything fetch quests and crate running are simply there for a form to make SOME money, but not as a definitive thing that people are trying to thrive off of. I say thrive because you can easily survive, albeit a boring existence to run your 3-5 packages a day and go about your business.
So surviving on crate money is possible but probably not preferred I would assume, again, based on my limited experience back at the game.
Now items, I am aware there is many ways to acquire an item more so than buy # from thing.
There are fixers, there are markets, there are corps etc etc.
But when I looked about, when I look at simple things, like for example, basic du-wear protective clothing or basic nexus clothing. It's cost is astronomical.
Now I've heard it said by both Staff and oldbie player alike that your real paydays, your real money is made through roleplay, things you do with other characters and/or npcs of the world as they are to be treated exactly like they are real players.
But short of running up to every NPC and saying, "Hey man, I have an idea how to make us some money... (for example)" I haven't seen it.
So I guess the question is, is everything beyond basic gear, like a progia and a cloning setup supposed to take weeks or months to acquire? I mean even if you work at a corp, and are a corpie and have a member pad, you still make 10-20k a week in salary, which means it would take you something like two weeks to a month depending on expenses to buy a full set of Nexus purely on your salary. And that's if you're not paying out 80-90% of it to keep your corp apartment afloat without a member/perma pad.
I looked at one item I wanted today for my character and it literally would take me a real life month to save up at my current rate of income, if I average it, for one item.
So I guess the question and the frustration is, If the players with all the flash, the rich folks aren't using you for their plots and machinations, are you supposed to seek out staff assistance via NPC movers and shakers to get any serious bankroll going?
Also what's too crazy, am I supposed to @add-note or @request-puppet the ability to rob a store, or something more violent and dangerous to get the proper risk for the reward?
In closing, I get that roleplay is supposed to be the BEST way to make funds, but what roleplay? How do you get your in? I find myself literally doing the same schedule everyday, running from bar to bar at the behest of Where the party is, and finding nothing after the hours of RP in the bar that advances my character. It's a little frustrating to say the least.
Any constructive feedback would be appreciated.