My first home in EVE was 33 jumps away from Jita. This was back in the day when you warped to 15km instead of 0. I only visited Jita when I absolutely had to, and instead mined and built my T1 needs for myself, or waited for those magic words from a friend in chat when they piped up with “Hey, I am in Jita, can I pick anything up for you while I am here?”
It is easy (and dangerous) to put an overly positive spin on the old days. There is much about current day EVE that is far superior. But I did enjoy the feeling of being in a far-flung border region, and the need for patience and the reward for careful planning and preparations.
I have moved my home base in EVE many times, and inevitably it shifted closer and closer to Jita. Almost everything is available there. Now I jump in one of my Shuttle Interceptors and am (or was) in Jita in mere minutes. If I make a mistake or forget something, I just quickly run back. Even if I could save a few ISK by shopping around, the convenience usually outweighs the savings.
Overall, access to Jita makes the game of EVE easier.
For that convenience, the fall of Niarja is a pain in the arse. It has also left me wondering if I located myself on the right side of it or not.
The problem with being close to Jita is that vibe of the Capsuleer Community changes for the worse. There are more people in local, but they talk much less. There are more people hunting for opportunities to grief other players, or to scam, or just to be obnoxious. I am also not a fan of farming the Guristas. Domain as a region is (or was) close to Jita, but generally feels a nicer place to be day to day.
There is another reason, a gamble, that I leaned towards Domain and the Amarr trade hub.
The Triglavians have won the battle for more Stars than their statistics in the Agency suggest. However, they have then abandoned them unless they have Blue Stars, or certain type/s of Yellow Star. When this became apparent, I sat down and manually mapped out every Star type in Domain and the main areas I play or move through.
Niarja has a Blue Star, and right from the start I presumed it would fall.
But the very first system I checked in my research was Jita, and it has a Blue Star.
Just how brave, or chaotic, could CCP get? It would not matter if every Carebear and Trader and Mission Runner in Jita rose to defend it. Null Sec would decide its fate if the Triglavian’s came calling.
Evehermit 