Finished moving... now pondering POS setup

I have finally moved my last alt from Amarr space to Gallente space.  I am operating mainly in low security space while a conflict is raging in our 0.0 space.  My ability to pew pew is limited because of 1) It’s mainly just my main in 0.0 during US tz, and I’m still new at pvp… and a Manticore stealth bomber does not lend itself to solo activity to BC / Cruiser gangs.  2) I only have one (1) drake up there atm.  I could jump more… but if I’m the only one up there with neuts and reds… not wise to JF.  So I’ll wait.

So, due to lack of pew pew, I’m looking at setting up some POS now that I’ve ripped down 6.  Setting up 7 for now sounds about right.  I am getting paid a % of the profits to assist with setting up for the most isk.  I have reached a puzzling quandary while working on getting the logistics going.

I have an alt corp.  It has 4 members, and they are all my alts.  My main + my main manufacturer comprise 6 of the 7 characters I have made.  (7^th is a market price checking alt with 0 skills; which is also useful for Evemon alt planning).  My alts are neutral standing to all factions, having run NO missions.  The corporate standings allow me to anchor in high security space for Amarr and Caldari.  My substitute for POS management while I am away on business does not have an alt to place in my alt corp.  I do not have access to a corp hanger.  Ugh. 

My solution: Keep everything in my alt corp, and anchor an additional silo chained linked with each reaction.  Only turn the silos on when I’m heading out of town, turning off the Moon mining.  The simple reactions aren’t an issue, as it takes them 10d to fillup.  Only the larger m3 complex reactions matter… which is pretty much everything except the Carbide reactions.

PI POS fueling.

I want to fuel all of the POS through myself… or as many as possible.  I have 26 planets to work with.  All the calculations are assuming I can pull 40k P0 units / 5 hrs and I will click 3x / day.  (Or, 120k P0 units / day / extractor)

P1 – strait forward

Oxygen: 1 Oxygen planet can fuel 16 POS

P2 – 2 methods.. produce P1 and transport or make P2 on 1 planet

Method 1 – produce P1 and transport.  This requires 5 planets, 2 of each P1 and 1 manufacturing.  I will produce about 4,000 P0 units / day of excess goods.

The manufacturing planet, if constructed correctly will push out 1,920 units of P2 / day.

Coolant: 10 POS

EU: 20 POS

Meach: 10 POS (5 units for fuel, 3 for robotics)

Method 2 – produce P2 on 1 planet.

20 units / hr / planet in 0.0 or low sec is possible, 15 units / hr / planet is pretty much given.

Coolant: 2.5 POS / planet – 12.5 POS for 5 planets to compare above.

EU: 5 POS / planet

Mech: 2.5 POS / planet

The 2^nd method will be cheaper and produce more, but may not ‘work’ if you can’t get 20.  You also will not know what yield there is before diving in with the cost structure, so it could be the lower amount or 1.875 POS Coolanet/Mech / planet and 2.75 POS EU / planet.

Robotics: We pretty much need to have a manufacturing planet.  Previously I combined this with Oxygen  Curring Oxygen down to 12 POS, but giving Robotics 12POS.  We also need a Consumer Electronics planet, which method 2 will supply 6.67 POS / planet.

Oxygen/Robotics: 2 – 24 POS

Coolant: 8 – 20 POS

EU: 4 – 20 POS

Mech Parts: 8 – 20 POS

Cons. Electronics: 3 – 20POS

Total – 25 planets.  This gives only 1 planet lee-way and requires me to move my newbie indy hauler around in low sec.  Not ideal.  I also haven’t secured a good Plasma planet.  I am not certain that my low skilled alt hauler will go for any length of time without a ship loss.

Setting up industry again

With the move to 0.0, I am moving my items half way across the universe... I will hopefully be setting up a POS within the next couple days to begin my T2 production again, and I have scanned well over 300 moons.  After a minor conflict resolves in a few weeks, I should be ready to go.  I hope to have all of my alts in the staging area by the upcoming weekend getting PI underway.

After cleaning up house and assessing all my funds.. I had enough for an Anshar.  Yes... a Jump Freighter.  It's hard to believe that I was able to acquire one after only 15 months of playing, but it will prove invaluable for transporting materials to null sec.  The Anshar + 3 POS + research POS + 1bn isk + about 1bn in misc goods + working ships.  Eve business has been good.  PI itself was enough to fund the Anshar.

There are a couple of logistical issues that I need to figure out.  First, I need to move an alt to 0.0 through an extremely hostile / actively bubbled gate camp.  I'm certain that at least one gate will be bubbled, and I don't want to lose a Crane during the transport.  I can't see another way, however.  Attempting right after a DT may be the best option.

For null sec mining I'm moving in 3 covetors until the conflict is over.  I have moved 12 fully fitted manticores into my hangar and a few drakes as well.

Right now, the main industrial activity is setting up a research POS and getting PI fuel up and going for minimal need for open markets.

Now in 0.0

I haven't posted for awhile, mainly due to new position at work, and moving out to 0.0 space.  I am not in sovereignty space, but my alliance is NBSI.  My alts will be arriving in 10d, when reactions and research finishes up.  I have been in on a HAC kill and had 2 frigs die.  I still feel like a PvP noob (which I am), but I have scanned over 200 planets so far for setting up POS, and will be doing a lot of T2 construction and POS management.

I have assessed my funds and I can either stretch for an Anshar or fly a Rorqual in 21d.  I am thinking with my current funds that the Rorqual makes more sense, but an Anshar would be Very nice for Empire logistics.  I have a very long trip to by brother in law's wedding (30hrs driving one way), so I'll be pondering during that.  To create a proper indy buffer for the Anshar I would need to sell my Providence and several other item I probably won't need.

I should be able to get a copy of an Orca BPC to create an Orca out in Null sec for mining.  I don't like the idea of putting a Rorqual in an ore belt for potential hostile roams.  Another player in corp is also logistics / mining and has a Rorqual, so we may be able to figure out a good configuration of Rorqual in POS bubble, with the Orca hauling to him.

I am still figuring out logistics and realistically, I will need 2 Rorqual trips / week to do what I want.  Compared to 1 Anshar trip.  The Anshar would be nice, but I may be a bit short on my indy funds to swing it.  I would have less than 2bn isk after an Anshar purchase, and that makes me nervous.

T2 Manufacturing

I have been quite busy with a new promotion, travel, and well... making a new profitability spreadsheet for my T2 calculations in Eve.  I know I haven't posted recently, but here's to making up for it.

I have been deeply looking into both the T2 invention calculator and the Eve Blueprint Information site http://bp.kiwi.frubar.net/ and I have had difficulties with a couple of assumptions.  The T2 invention calculator assumes that you buy everything off of the market, and it calculates for maximum income, not maximum return.  (I know the first can be corrected with settings).  The Blueprint information drawback is that you have to set all component BPOs at the same ME level, and can't mix and match.  This is troublesome for ship invention, as ships won't tend to have 100ME.  That, and I want to ensure I REALLY understand the profitability mechanics... I've been making my own spreadsheet.

I am almost done, and there hasn't been any grand epiphanies, but I do have a clearer understanding of what could potentially make more isk.  So, I am spending tonight traveling around in my Viator and picking up a few BPOs.

This has also helped in prioritizing my science skill learning as I can now get a maximum increase for my lvl4 learnings.  (lvl5 just doesn't do enough for the time spent.  2 lvl 5 skills give an additional 0.025% chance AT BEST more than lvl4s... assuming you're using a meta 4 item for invention.  with no item, it's 0.005% more)

For those not familiar with the Eve invention formula, it's argued to be: (1 + 0.01 * racial encryption)*(1 + (Skill1 + Skill2)*0.1/(5-meta item lvl)) * base %

Base % is 40 for modules, 30 for frigates, 20 for other ships.  In general, modules & ammo are going to be the most profitable, but very time intensive for the 1hr research times.  Ships are slower, but not as profitable. I do a mix of everything.

Not all inventions are profitable, however.  And, as in T1 construction, people don't always value their raw materials.  The big culprit here is datacores.  In order to obtain datacores, you need to research with an appropriate agent. However, some people see these as free, and don't value the opportunity cost of just selling them.

This means that some inventions actually make more isk if you sell the datacores and raw materials rather than inventing the BPCs.

Ex: Miner II invention
Datacore cost : 905k per attempt
% success with lvl4s: (1.04)*(1.16)*0.40 = 48.25%
# of attempts for 1 success: 2.07
average cost per attempt: 2.07*905k = 1.875m isk

Cost to make 10 Miner II @-4 ME = 2.85m
Sale of 10 Miner II = 2.24m

Profit: 2.24m - 2.85m - 1.875m = -2.5m  (ouch)

This is where people tend to complain that T2 BPOs from the old days have an innate advantage and invention can't win.  Which is true, but if you have enough isk, one could be yours as well, and people have paid dearly for their BPOs.  Reality is, demand isn't high enough to overcome the BPOs... so just look elsewhere.

Remote Eve

I have been traveling for work in London this week, and been working on Evemon skill plans and Excel T2 construction worksheets.  Working on Excel without a mouse and a subpar keyboard is frustrating at best.  It's been hard to keep at it. 

Evemon has shown that my autions haven't been going so great.  It's wonderful checking evemon to see that the biggest item your selling has dropped 25% in price.  I really hope it recovers, because -25% would be an ugly 9 figure loss.  Hopefully, the prices will rebound; which they should.  The prices are at a four week low, so I'm not too concerned, but it is still discouraging.

Hopefully, I can update my POS this weekend, and my partner was able to restock reactions.

PI income

One of my board game friends has reactivated his accounts (2) and I have talked him into joining my laid-back corporation.  I was finally able to point out how lucrative PI actually is with less than 5 hours of training.

Standard Command Center : 12k CPU, 12k Power = 1 Launchpad + 15 Advanced Industrial Facilities + links.

Looking at something simple… like say Coolant (easy to comprehend need with POS fuel) using all Jita 3day rolling average sale prices.

Water = 337 isk / unit

Electrolytes = 413 isk / unit

40 of each = 30,000 isk

5 Coolant @ 7,651 = 38,256 isk.

Now there is import and export costs.  30 isk to import, 45 isk to export, plus sales broker fees.  So, to make things, ‘easy’ profit per 1 hour cycle is 38,256 – 30,000 – 256 = 8,000 per hour, per factory.  This is about a 26% return on investment.

15 factories = 120,000 profit per hour or 2.88 million isk per day.

For three planets (lvl 2 interplanetary consolidation) that is 8.64m per day or just over 207 million isk per month.

What is the time commitment?  Well, first you WILL need a hauler that can haul 10k m3.  Any race industrial cruiser should be able to do this relatively painlessly.  (Expanded Cargohold II and cargo rigs make 10k transport rather trivial.)

A launchpad can hold 10k m3 of goods.  This is 26,315 TOTAL water + electrolytes.  So if we put 13,000 of each commodity into the launchpad, and spider out everything from there, it will take (13,000 / 40) / 15 = 21hrs 40min to deplete the launchpad.  So back and forth 3 times (3 planets) a little for frequently than 1x per day is the time needed to make 207m / month, plus swapping materials out and buying / selling raw materials.  If you’re slow, this would be at worst 30m / day or 15 hrs / month.  This income is basically 13.8m / hour of work.

Is it worth it?  That depends on how you view almost 14m / hour in Eve.

Oh, and this is just for Coolant manufacturing, other items can give a larger return.  I’m over 100m/hour on my PI production.  So, eve-players please abandon the boring PI game play.

It only helps my profits.

Mission alt update

Drones.  Very useful… takes forever to train.  I’ve been working on drones for my missioner for almost 2 weeks now.  Drones 1-5, Scouting Drones 1-5 and then the drone support skills to lvl 3 or 4.  (pondering whether I even want logistic and/or heavy drones.)

I am now flying a Harbinger.  With T2 drones now a reality, it has become quite nice.  I am still lacking in firepower, but I am planning on training Medium Energy Turret 5 while working in London next week.

My Harbinger can handle lvl3 missions consistently, and I haven’t needed to refer to the web for reference.  My current set up is to send the harbinger with armor mods activated into the fray, and eventually send a salvaging Rokh in afterwards.  (I know there’s better ships, but the Rokh looks kewl, and I didn’t need extra training for my Caldari pilot.)

My Rokh has armor repair drones, which I have needed on a couple missions, like Recon where I didn’t notice that I just had to warp in.. not kill everything, or on a couple other missions where killing was, um… optional.  (I’m here to pew pew with this guy, after all.)

Now I’m beginning to approach a decision… should I A) go for a T3 cruiser, or B) go for a BS.  I am tempted to cruiser since I could afford it, but the BS may be more practical .  Regardless, I have swapped missioning people so I need to work back up to lvl3 missions before deciding.  I found a nice combat mission agent to help me along for the pew pew.  I should hopefully be done with drones before too long (need EWAR drones still), and then it’s back to pew pew skills.  Cruiser V may be worth it for T2 ships and a T3, I need the lvl5 core skills anyway.  Although the BS may just make more sense from a cost perspective.  Hopefully, I can have time tonight to read up on Legion T3 PvE feasibility.

Next day- having looked.. Legions stink for PvE.  So, while there may be a lot of utility for a Legion, my goal for this character is to have him only mission.  Looks like BS route for me!  My current plan (with tons of travel coming up) is to train Medium Lasers 5, grab the specialty skills and more gunnery, then dive right into BS training.  During this time, I should hopefully have lvl4 skills open in Amarr space for the new corp I’m working on.  (Searched for a corporation’s final lvl4 agent that is near my industry base, so my salvager doesn’t have far to travel.)