[Eve] Production and Commerce Guide

jaggeh

cesspit.net/drupal/node/1118 wrote:

This is the result of a thread I opened on F13 a while ago to ask the details about the crafting in Eve-Online, the guide is not written by me but here I archive the article slightly reorganizing it. The original posts are still in the original thread. Thanks to Yoru to have written it.

The crafting system in Eve is rather complex and not really accessible if you don't read and learn about it somewhere. It's one of those parts of the game with a lot of depth and complexity but that you have to discover all by yourself and without any help from the game. It's completely missing from the tutorial and I don't think you can build a character that can "craft" right out of the box. So it's one of the advanced parts that you usually discover only when you have already invested a good amount of time in the game.

Basically everything you can use in the game is craftable. Ships, ammunition, modules. You can buy these right off the market already ready for the use or produce them yourself. In general the crafting is an highly specialized activity that also depends on other parts of the game, so it's actually not really possible to build all you need directly without depending on anyone else. That's one myth that doesn't work in Eve and to be a good crafter you must be already deeply involved in the game on other levels, or have a player corporation supporting you.

There's two big parts to crafting: manufacturing and research. For basic tech 1 stuff, these involve two components: minerals and blueprints.

BLUEPRINTS

Blueprints are recipes; they let you combine a given quantity of minerals and produce something. There's two types of blueprints: blueprint originals ("BPOs") and blueprint copies ("BPCs").

The difference between the two isn't about the final product (that is always the same) but about the process to create/craft it. BPOs can be "researched" to optimize the crafting process (time and resources consumed) and can be used an unlimited number of times. While the BPCs have a limited number of runs and cannot be used in research.

Blueprints have four basic stats:

* Number of runs - This dictates how many times you can use the blueprint. (only for BPCs, the BPOs are infinite)
* Base Production Time - How long manufacturing will take for one use of the blueprint.
* Mineral Efficiency ("ME") - This dictates how much material will be wasted. Higher mineral efficiency means less waste, but the effect of higher mineral efficiency increases at a logarithmic rate (that is, as the level of mineral efficiency increases, each additional level eliminates less and less waste).
* Production Efficiency ("PE") - This dictates how long manufacturing one run of the blueprint will take. Like mineral efficiency, the benefit has a logarithmic dropoff.

(Math: Both efficiencies are basically used to calculate waste by taking the base waste and multiplying by 1/(1+x), where x is the ME or PE rating. 1/(1+x) isn't the exact formula, but it's a close approximation.)

As already explained, only a BPO can be researched. So the last two stats are fixed in a BPC, while they can improve through research in a BPO. A brand new BPO is supposed to always start with both ME and PE at zero.

BPOs also have three additional stats:

* ME Research Time - How long the BPO will be sitting in a lab when researching 1 point of ME.
* PE Research Time - Same thing as above, but for PE.
* Copy time - Same as above, but how long it will take to create a BPC with 1 run from this BPO.

How to acquire BPs in the game:
- Tech 1 Blueprint Originals can be acquired either as a reward for running agent missions, purchased off the standardmarket from NPCs or (rarely) purchased off the escrow market from PCs.
- Blueprint Copies are acquired either as a reward for running agent missions or via trade with other players (either directly or via the escrow market). They can be created by players; a BPO is put into a 'copying' research slot and produces a BPC after a given amount of time. BPCs inherit the basic stats of their BPO parents if they're manufactured; otherwise, the stats are determined by the mission system.

- Tech 2 BPO Lottery (note from Dave Rickey): You have to work up your standing with the companies that have R&D agents, and with the individual agents, and have high enough Sience skills yourself. Once you have, you can tell the R&D agents to start researching. They accumulate Research Points, which are basically tickets for a lottery. When you win the lottery for a BPO, you don't have to take it, you can choose to hold your points and keep trying. Even a marginal T2 BPO is worth more than a billion, the really good ones (like those just coming out for Interdictors and Recon ships) are worth upwards of 20 billion isk. But it takes a lot of time and money to get into the running, you have to work up your Science skills, some of which are very expensive, as well as run all the missions to get your standing up with the agents and their NPC corporations.

But it takes a lot of time and money to get into the running, you have to work up your Science skills, some of which are very expensive, as well as run all the missions to get your standing up with the agents and their NPC corporations.

MINERALS

Raw materials that come from reprocessing items at the stations or mined ore. 'Nuff said.

RESEARCH

Research is a time and money sink that slowly improves MP or PE values of the blueprint being researched. Only a BPO can be researched since a BPC has fixed values for MP and PE.

Research is meant to help you improve your BPO before using it in production, since a 'raw' BPO off the market is generally quite slow and wasteful. Research is performed at stations (NPC-owned stations, PC outpost stations; I believe the POS research arrays are currently bugged). Any given research-capable station will have a fixed number of slots, usually 20. You can search for research-capable stations by clicking on the 'science & industry' button on your UI, going to the last tab ('Installations'), and setting the filters to search for whatever you're looking for.

When you have a BPO you want to research, you first look for a station with open slots for the research type you want to perform. For manufacturing, PE research and Blueprint Copying, you should be fine - in empire, I rarely see a shortage of these. Mineral Efficiency research slots are almost always clogged up in the main regions, so you may have to travel around to find an open slot.

Once you've found a station with an open slot, you physically take your blueprint to that station and drop it in your hangar (or your corp's hangar). Next, you install your blueprint, either by rightclicking on the blueprint and choosing the type of research you want, or by navigating through the science & industry UI. You'll be asked where you want the blueprint to be taken from and placed into, as well as asked for a number of runs through the research facility. Punch in your info and hit OK, you'll be presented with a price quote. Generally, only ME research is particularly expensive. Hit OK and your BPO will get sucked into the system. Your science & industry UI's 'jobs' tab will now show your job as 'In Progress' for a while.

As an aside, when doing research, it's usually worth it to specify multiple batches at a time. This allows you to keep your slot for multiple runs and avoid having to run around looking for a slot each time you want to research the BPO. For low-end stuff, like ammo and frigates, a ME of 10 is probably enough. Generally, as the item's expense increases, the more valuable higher ME will be.

Wait a while. Your research will probably take hours, days or even weeks. Go do other stuff. Once your job is done, it'll be shown as 'completed'. You then have to go back to the station where the completed job is and hit 'deliver' in the science & industry UI. The blueprint, now improved as you've specified, will pop out into your (or your corp's) hangar, ready to be researched again or used in production.

In order to do research, you will need the skill Laboratory Operation, at least at level 1. This will require the skill Science at level 3. There are skills that can be used to speed up the research process (Metallurgy for ME; for larger blueprints, having a good Metallurgy is recommended), but they're optional, especially for low-end BPOs.

Research generally has no material requirements and tends to not cost too much; the exception is ME research. (Research is priced by the hour. Most research costs a few hundred isk per hour, whereas ME research can cost upwards of 2,000 isk per hour.)

MANUFACTURING

Okay, so you've got your nice, researched-up BPO, or your shiny freshly-acquired BPC and now you want to make stuff.

Manufacturing is just like research in that you take your blueprint to a station with the proper facilities; in fact, it uses the same UI, as you've probably noticed by now. Instead of Laboratory Operation, you need the Industry skill to run manufacturing jobs.

The main difference is that, for manufacturing, you also need minerals. Rightclicking on your blueprint and opening the 'show info' window will reveal that there's a second tab on the blueprint's info, containing the materials required to run the blueprint once.

Two numbers will be displayed, an 'ideal' number and 'your cost'. Your cost is primarily determined by your skills, in particular the 'production efficiency' skill (this is different from the stats of a BP), which requires an Industry skill of level 3. It's a very good idea to get your own PE up at 3 or 4 before you start manufacturing anything more expensive than ammo, as you'll save a lot of expensive materials. If you want to focus on industry, PE 5 is almost mandatory in the long run; start worrying about PE 5 around the time you want to manufacture stuff larger than cruisers.

Anyway, once you've found a free manufacturing slot (shouldn't be hard), take 'your cost' in minerals and the blueprint to that station, and dump them either in your hangar or your corp's hangar. Set up a manufacturing job in the same way you set up a research job. Select the installation, set your input/output hangars and choose a number of runs.

You'll be given a quote for the material and ISK cost for the job you've submitted; annoyingly, they only give you an itemized list broken out by materials-used-for-production and materials-used-for-waste, with no aggregate total. Hit OK and the minerals and blueprint will disappear from your hangar. Note that the material costs listed on a blueprint are usually a little bit of an overestimate, so don't panic when you have stuff left in your hangar.

Manufacturing takes much less time than research, usually on the order of minutes or hours. Once it's done, hit the deliver button on the science & industry UI. Your finished items will be deposited in the appropriate hangar. If you were using a BPO or didn't use all of a BPC's runs, it will reappear in the hangar it was taken from.

Congratulations, you're now a basic crafter in Eve. There's a lot more skills you can add on beyond the four I've mentioned; most of them let you run multiple jobs, let you run jobs remotely, or speed jobs up. They're beyond the scope of a noobler's guide to crafting, though. Browse the market and read the skill descriptions, they're mostly self-explanatory.

Probably the best short-guide to production i have seen.

tba

the final aspect of crafting is selling your stuff.

I recommend that you start crafting stuff you will use (ammo/lens/drones) that way you can get the hang of it.

Next read the market, check previous prices on products, mineral prices and see if you can make a profit on things and what type of profit you will make and how long it will take you to break even.

Remember that your skill levels will determine how far away your product can be seen.

jaggeh

BASIC TRADE


Tradeing in EVE is probably one of the most lucrative, and dangerous, occupations one could take up. You can make millions and millions of ISK's, and loose them just as quickly. While there are things to you can do to mitigate your risks, there are some fundemental building blocks you must understand before persueing this carrer or you are destined to fail. Below are the most basic of tenents you must understand to be sucessful tradeing in EVE.


The Economics

While most have a grasp of making ISK's few really understand the concept at its core. The idea is to buy something at a low price and sell it at a higher price. This part is simple. Anyone can load up and Indy and fly a few jumps, sell it and call themselves a trader. While most traders of these types see this is the all inclusive path to sucess, there are "points" that seperate a basic trader from a "successful trader". They are..


Time is money -

Tradeing takes time. Real time. How you spend your minutes in EVE tradeing directly relates to how much you will have at the end of your session playing. A trade run that takes 20 jumps and makes and 1 hour to complete and makes you 6 million ISK, is not as good one 3 jump route that only makes you 2 million ISK each but takes 45 mins. Obvious? You'd be suprised. Many people want that long haul, the instant infusion of large sums of cash to make thier wallets fat, and completely ignore the "short haul", smaller payout runs. You can make more then these short-sighted people if you do the math.
The point? DO THE MATH.

Size Matters -
Im talking about volumn. The physical size of the commidity/item, you are tradeing. On the surface some items look extremely lucrative to trade, but a closer examination reveals this is not always the case. Items in EVE have varying volumn and knowing how "big" something is can go along way to deciding if its profitable to carry. The bottom line, is you are selling your ships cargo bay, for as much as you can. Take for example construction blocks. This "type" of commodity is newbe bait if there ever was one. At first glance you might see a buy order for 700 ISK somewhere nearby and quickly dash off to buy those blocks in your station for 600 ISK. Good deal? Nope.. Because each block has a vol of 4, which translates to 1/4 of the amount you can carry(capacity) per run. Remember you are selling your cargo cap, so those oh-so-lucrative looking CB's now have a "cargo point per ISK ratio of 25", not 100. Conversely, take for example the antibotics.These only have .5 vol, and usually only make 18-36 ISK per unit. BUT, you can carry two, per "cargo point" which equates to 36-72 ISK per cargo point. Much better then those old Construction blocks, would'nt you agree?
The Point? "KNOW" YOUR CARGO.

Know your region -
Knowledge is power. Knowing what trades, what doesn't, and the supply and demand of your chosen area will either make you or break you. Take the time to research your local solar system, (and surrounding areas) and see what is sold, consistently, in your operating area. Learn the prices, both buying and selling. Take notes of both the prices AND the volumn supplied and bought. There is a big "gotcha" here. Alot of times you may find a tradegood that buys low and sells high, resonabley close, seemingly a great run. But, if the supplier(or demander) only needs 176 of that item, while the supplier has 157k for sale,(or vice-versa) does not make this a worthwhile trip. Theres IS an exception to this, and will be covered in the advanced tradeing section, but for now, leave this type of trade alone.
The point? DO YOUR HOMEWORK

jaggeh

Skills -
The Skill sets required for tradeing are both many and diverse. While not as involved as a combat or mineing profession, the time investment is substancial none the less. You begin with very limited access to the higher tiered skills (as opposed to the other professions), but they can be quickly gained with just a bit of effort. With a bit of research, you can create a character that has a "leg up" on these basic skills, which gives you room to grow quickly. They are:

Frigate- Needed as a pre-req for flying most all starships, but specifically, industrials.
Navagation- A must have, for the large base of higer tier skills, promoting speed, handling, and economy of flight.
Mechanic- Another must have, allowing modification of ship modules, and adding increased cargo capability.
Trade- The obvious. Again to allow you to access greater skill sets, and place many orders for buying and selling.
Industrial- Based on the ship of choice, most often on the race you started with.

Note: These are just the most basic of skills to have, with most needed to allow further progression. They are not the end, but the means..

Now, some will argue that the learning skills (learning, and the 5 basic "brain power" skills should be in here as well. And I do agree, however, to begin tradeing, and thats what we are covering here, they are not "nessessary". They should be gained though, as quickly as time(and money) allows. Saving you tons of time later when you train the higher tier'd skills you will be wanting.

Equipment -
In the beginning, you will undoubtly be limited both in skill and cash, to the most basic of equipment. A fast frig, some cargo expanders and maybe an afterburner or microwarp drive. But fear not, this will change quickly. As cash flows in, you can upgrade to more skills, and better ships (more cargo) and higher worth tradegoods.
Alot can be said here on the "best" gear to have, but its an area I choose to leave to you to sort out. The most important items id say were, speed and cargo cap. Pick an industrial you wish to fly and train the skill, and buy one. A beastower makes a good choice, as to the lower Mark series Iterions. I started his way, using a beastower for short hauls, making enough until i could buy the Gallente indy skill, and started traing it. The mark V is the ultimate cargo hauler. It can't be beat for maximun cargo, BUT, its a long skill time to train, somewhere around 29 days, learning skills depending. Ask around. Most indy pilots love talking about there ships, as do most other pilots.
Some times an Indy or Frig does not fit the bill either. Alot of sucessful traders fly various types of crusiers, destroyers or even interceptors. Each has thier usefulness, but most beginning traders have little spare time to train these skills or the cash to buy them, much less the ships themselves. Point is, be aware that later in your career you may (or should) be looking at other ship options for some runs. More on this later.

Cash -
Ahh now heres the rub. It takes money to make money, but how can you make money with no money? Well you can't. You must either do some mining, agent missions or if you are particuarliy brave, pirating. Id recommend Agent running. In a fast ship, you can make several million in just a few days, even at the most basic of agents. If mineing is more your style, then strap on some miners and have at it, but the point is you are going to need at least a few million before you are "viable" as a trader. It can be done with less, but it takes more time. If you have made friends, you might be able to persuade them to part with a bit, to back your venture, however if you choose this route, make sure you pay them back, ontime and without problems. Not doing so may incur the wrath of some up and coming fighter pilots, people you don't need to meet later in your career, flying that fully loaded indy into low security systems, with your life savings aboard.

The Market -
The Eve market is where you buy and sell most goods. Some items cannot be listed on the market and are sold on escrow. Im not going to cover Escrow, other then to say its out there, and different. The market screen alows you to sort by the number of jumps from you an item is, the volumn, cost, location and also if its a region, solar system or station buy/sell order. Pay attention to that. Make sure when you buy (or sell something) you have not bought "region/system wide" if you didn't want to. I once bought 40 million in data sheets over the entire Lonetrek region. There are 2/3 options available to you for your search "scope", ie how far away you want to look from where you are. There is also an oftne over looked but very useful history tab, that will tell you the price and vol of an item over varying amounts of time. Use it. It can tell you if the price you are paying (or selling for) is on target, and just as importantly, how much of the item (volumn, in sales) the item is moving. This is very useful in determineing if you are in a busy area, with lots of compeditors, or have the area to your self.

The First few Trades -
So, you have a few skills, have missioned or mined your way to your first couple of million, and you have a fast frigite or industrial ship. You have decided to set up "somewhere" and found, useing your noodle and a bit of common sense, a few low cost trade runs. Now you're thinking Ill just buy X ammount of items and load them up and head over, yes? Well, yes and no. There are some things you must ask yourself first. They are..
Is your cargo full? If not, you should look again and see if theres a close (in destination) system that requires something you can bring as well. This must be balanced with the time it takes you both to deliver (and pickup) this "filler" load.
Is there a return trip load? In the late 20th century, Fossil fueled delivery vehicles, called 18 wheelers, would often carry cargo to one destination only to find nothing to carry on the return trip, costing them both money, and time. These were called "Deadheads". Avoid this at all cost. Sometimes you can't, but you should try.
Are you using the right equipment? If you have found a run that has somewhat high priced items, takeing just a few hundred cargo it may be better to run that fast frig twice, rather then the big slow indy once. Remeber the return trip though. Time is money.
Are you running into low security systems? In the beginning Id avoid this. While some juciey runs are in < 0.5, you are not the only person thats going to be there, plenty of pirates know how to use the trade system to find riches too. Be aware of this, and if you must run there, set up insta-jumps first. And use the map.; check the ships/pods destroyed in the last hour setting. If theres been any activity, don't go, its that simple. You have been warned.

Of note, the market supply and demand now changes with every buy and sell order processed. When you sell something to an npc the demand price "usually" goes down, as the orders are filled. And the buy price goes up as more is purchased. The temptation is to deliver and sell, deliver and sell, completeing the demand at a station, but doing this will leave some profit behind, as the price changes with every transaction, "most of the time". So get it all there first, and sell it together, buy the same way, all at once.

jaggeh

So now you have gotten the hang of it. And are actually making a bit of money. Not alot, but its coming in. So what to do now to increase your profits? Well there are some.

Skills -
By now you should have an idea of which skills are becoming important. The Navigation sets, with the afterburner, MWD and handling are critical. So is hull modifications, namely hull upgrades (better cargo expanders). The Starship skills you have chosen should meet the goals you have set for the types of delivery ships you wish to use, and you should be on your way to a "bigger" Industrial. So what of the rest? Well, now we are going to concentrate on the ability to use trade skills to or upmost advantage. You have probably noticed by now that you are getting socked with a hefty sales tax and broker fees. These can put a dampener on your bottom line, every day, every trade. You should have trade V by now, if not get on it. At least to lvl 3. Now go get marketing, broker relations, and Accounting. Broker relations and accounting will decrease the fees you pay when you place a buy order for items not yet listed to sell, and the tax (10% per lvl ) for each and every sale you make (Acct) Why marketing you might ask? Ok ill tell you, but under the market section.

Equipment -
Upgrades, Upgrades, Upgrades! Price better cargo expanders and buy them if you can afford them. Buy them one at a time, if you must, but get more cargo capeability. Remeber you are selling your cargo space, and if by expanding your cargo, you can shorten the number of trips you make per run, then do it. Also, buy some GSC's (giant secure containers), as many as you can fit in your hold. They can be a "poor mans expander" if you get them cheaply enough. All cargo containers have the special ability that allows you to put more volumn in them then they take to carry themselves. It isn't a whole lot but every little bit helps. Another bonus is, should you meet an unfortuneate demise, a secure can (password protected) can be anchored wherever you died, prohibiting the offending party from scooping the cans and opening them, getting your cargo. Corp management and anchoring skill is required for this though. It doesn't always work (high security regions, cans too close to each other) but it can save you some if you are lucky.


The Market -
Ok the "new" Shiva market. And new stragities. Pre-shiva, you were limited (forced) to buy your goods, deliver them, and sell them while you were there, or put in a sell order and hope someone else docked and wanted that very item. Not any more. Now theres a whole new world of buying and selling, and some VERY creative ways to do it. The marketing skill allows you the ability to buy (and sell) remotely! ie: you don't have to be in the station, or even the same system. Now with a high enough skill you can manage your profits without ever having to leave the station.

Advanced Trade goods
Strategy One -
Lets say you find a good deal on those antibotics we talked about earlier. But, they are wanting over 100k of them, and you find yourself looking at 17 differnt stations selling just 8k vol each. Do you spend a day flying around and gathering them all to one station? You could, but chances are someone will beat you to it, or at least part of them, dropping the buy price by the time you get them all there. What to do? Stockpile. Don't sell them for less just gather them. The market rises and falls with every order filled, remeber, so they will go back up and you can still make the money you intended. With the marketing skill you can login in a day or so, check the market, and if your number is met, just open assests and click sell. Assuming you are in range (level dependent) you never have to undock.
Stratgey 2 -
Building on the above you can take it a step further. Pay people to haul those scattered assets for you! Set up courrier missions (you must be in target station unfortuatley) and pay those young indy haulers just a bit of your profits to move your stuff for you. Now you are saving tons of time to do other things, make the "commisions" back that you pay for this service, or whatever. Point is you have others doing you hauling for you, and you just sell it when it arrives. You must be in a good position cash wise, and be prepared to wait for your orders to arrive, but for those with alot of cash and better things to do with thier time, this is a viable option.

Other goods
Minerals, the life blood of all production corps. Volumns could be written on tradeing minerals. Some regions don't have access to noxcium, others have probelms finding Isogen. Learn what is in demand and the current prices. And stay current. Mineral prices rise and fall like a nun in a cucumber patch, so just because you sold iso one day at 100 doesn't mean you can do it a week from now, or tomorrow. Mineral tradeing takes alot of effort and time (research) but the rewards are huge.

Module tradeing. This I liken to speciality tradeing, a nich market, takeing even more research and time to effectively manage. Some modules can cost millions and millions for just one item. For those brave enough, with enough cash, this is probably the highest tier of tradeing in EVE. Its not for the faint of heart. As of this writing I have yet to dabble in this and I have a sizable bankroll. While the rewards are great, the risk is even greater.

Black market tradeing
Contraband. Ileagal stuff. I don't do this. I value my corperate standings too much to risk getting caught (and my wallet size) and its still so new I can't speak with authority on any of the methods and risks associated with it. There are others out there that do, and some have written up tidbits to this end, but you won't find this info from me. Seek out others if you wish to travel this route.

Summary Tips

A few lessions to learn, and reinforce. They are:

Don't fly empty, ever, if you can help it.
Do you research, your homework, and especially the math, do not forget these three points if you want to make it worth while
Train skills towards the future. Lean towards bettering your ship, setup, and profits.
Check your route for security concerns, never fly into ships/pods destroyed unless you KNOW you will be safe doing it, ever.
Never "Gang" with anyone that you do not trust. Many an Indy have been ganked by pirates spamming gang invites and killing you, gang memebrs don't take sec hits.
Use cargo cans to increase your hold space
Upgrade your gear.

One more thing-

Don't ask other traders for thier routes. Its just not done.. Miners keep priceless asteroid spawns to themsleves, Hunters hold close thier favorite killing areas, why should you assume it would be any differnt with tradeing. You are thier competition, they are yours, remember it.

Hobbes

How to smuggle.

1. Know your stats.
Custom scans are based on a percentage chance against the following stats.

- Security Status.
- Social skills (especially with concord)
- Faction/Corp standing with system/station.
- Charisma
- Sec status of system (see further down)

If all of these are at high levels (except system sec) then your chances of being scanned are rare. Note that there is always still a chance.

2. Know your route.
Before heading to the station where you plan to sell the black market goods check the map to see the route. The sec status of a system over .4 increases your chances of a customs scan every jump of the way. Try route around these where required.

Also before doing the route check each system to see what level of customs are at each gate helps.

3. Don't get caught.
If you can smuggle well you can make absolutly insane cash.

However if you get caught you can be royally screwed. You loose the cargo (at worst your ship as well) and you get a huge fine.

Customs can also scan through password protected container pods or protect contract cargo crates.

So other points around this is..
1. Pick a small fast cheap ship that is hard to lock onto (with the right skills a shuttle suffices).
2. Don't carry large amounts of illegal cargo.

Another trick (which tbh I don't believe) is to dump the cargo as soon as you jump. This way customs sees an empty ship, then tractor the cargo with you out of range of customs.