But I want to actually make a profit off of this...

Research is a naturally complementary activity when it comes to manufacturing in Eve. I'd actually be surprised if there are builders in New Eden who don't also pursue research, since building from an unresearched BPO or constantly needing to buy BPCs off the contract market would really cut into someone's profit margins. BPOs are pretty reasonably priced at the cruiser level and below for hulls (80M or so is the NPC price for cruisers), and module BPOs are generally cheap, too. There are some exceptions, of course. The Prototype Cloaking Device is something like 100M, and the ORE mining barge BPOs are allover a billion at NPC price, but that's because they're used for invention for the extremely popular CovOps Cloaker and the Exhumers trawling about the asteroid belts. Otherwise, buying a BPO shouldn't seem like a scary proposition for anyone wanting to build.

I'll leave alone the basic nuts and bolts of what's in a BPO since that's been covered a few dozen times by other guides and blogs scattered all over this great big series of pipes the late Sen. Ted Stevens so famously described. I would like to talk about exactly how much research to put into a BPO, though. So often I read guides and see contracts with hilariously high levels of Material Efficiency (ME) research that I have to pause and wonder, "why"? These folks will spend months or years researching a BPO, and to what end? If that's their game goal in and of itself, to have every one of their BPOs researched to ME 200, I can appreciate the dedication. If they're selling copies on the contracts market though, the difference for a copy at ME50 vs. ME200 is really, really small. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself at https://zofu.no-ip.de/bpo - and I'll use a big hull, the Dominix, as an example. At ME50, the hull cost is (as of this posting with Jita prices) 178.2M ISK. At ME200, it's 178.1M. That's a savings of basically zilch compared to the overall hull cost. At ME10, by the way, that hull costs 178.7M. Now consider the length of time needed to research this BPO. ME10 needs roughly 4-5 weeks. ME50? Try six months. And ME200? More than two years. That's a huge waste of a research slot and yes, I have seen batttleship BPCs on the contracts market with that level of research. If someone is building battleship hulls and only making 600,000 profit per hull, they're doing it wrong. Branch out. Diversify. Spend the time in that research slot on a few dozen other BPOs rather than waste time on one ridiculously high ME level.

Perhaps that level of competition exists in highsec- I wouldn't know, quite honestly. It seems like a really good way to burn out, though. I think if that's really the case, folks should concentrate their efforts more on the supply side of things and look for cheaper sources of minerals instead of fretting about their sale price. Train up that Scrapmetal Processing skill and you'll find an enormous stockpile of minerals from every useless module you come across. Or, move somewhere else, like null.

There's a lot less competition in null, even in the busy Providence region. Go further out still, and you might be the only manufacturer. There are fewer buyers, too, but that works itself out. What that means for research is that a builder doesn't need to research a BPO to insane levels. ME5 is, quite honestly, just fine for most things. ME10 is my personal goal for a BPO before I'll switch to researching it for time efficiency instead, especially with hulls. ME10 gives 0.9% waste, and as another builder once told me, "anything under 1% waste is good", and he's been doing this for much longer than me. At that level you can price items close to Jita or Amarr prices, and folks will probably buy them.

Speaking of prices, the Providence region is a bit batty on some things at the moment. Augoror hulls, for example, are selling for way, way less than mineral price- unless these folks are ripping off the local miners something fierce, and that's not really a sustainable way to build in null, where your relationships with other players are usually more personal than in highsec. The Thorax hull is also selling at a very small margin right now- its mineral costs are about identical to the Vexor, but it's selling for 1-2M less than the Vexor. Probably because people are idiots and didn't calculate their costs before setting a price, which is their decision, but man, it's a pain to deal with. So I'm trying to fix that, going off of the hypothesis that they're just pricing off of the local competition's price and making sure they're just a bit lower, in a downward-chasing cycle. So i built a few and anchored them at a price 2M higher than everything else in Provi. I don't expect them to sell any time soon, but I do hope that the other folks see that price and decide to raise theirs as a result, and make it profitable to once again build those hulls. We'll see. It's definitely easier to crash the market than it is to bring it back up again.

That's all for now, fly safe.

Missiles and Markets

Whoo-hoo, Kym started trained Advanced Mass Production yesterday. Finally, I have more than 5 production lines available (although I'm -1 production line right now regardless since I did a corp mate a favor and built something for him in highsec and now Kym can't leave null because of wardeccs). So it'll be interesting to see what those extra lines get used for. I'm thinking of a dedicated T2 ammo line, since that stuff takes forever to build- with a standard -4/-4 BPC for HAM ammo, it'll take like 4 or 5 days to build 50,000 missiles.

Speaking of that, I'm considering inventing future HAM BPCs with a decryptor- yep, you read that right. Decryptor with ammo. The logic is simple- the profit margin for the ammunition is large, and supposedly these things sell fast. If this current batch sells as fast as everyone says is does (and I'm naturally skeptical, so we'll see), then building time actually becomes a bigger factor than the profit margin. The decryptor is the Augmentation line, and for those of you unfamiliar with decryptors, they come in many flavors and modify the invented BPC, assuming the invention job is successful. 

The decryptors are usually expensive, but not in this case. Augmentation decryptors are dirt cheap, usually around 100K. Assuming I start inventing with a max-run BPC (always use a max-run for ammo folks, you'll get 10 T2 runs out of it), I'll get an invented BPC with 19 runs instead of 10, they'll build a bit faster, and have 20% more required materials. It also drops the chance of invention success by 40% (so if it was a 50% chance beforehand, now it's 30% --> not 10%). We'll see how it goes and whether it's worthwhile. If I can free up some time on a production line, then that's more room to build other stuff. This all assumes these missiles sell faster than I build them, though. Otherwise, forget it.

That's the strange (odd?) thing about the North Provi market. It's not highsec, and there is a definite ebb-and-flow to items. Folks who aren't patient would probably go nuts seeing 2 Brutixes sit for weeks on end without selling, and then suddenly watch as the entire region of Providence is emptied of Brutixes in one single afternoon. Fortunately, Kym builds all sorts of things in all shapes and sizes, and puts only a small number of any one thing up for sale at any given time. The ammo might be an exception to that rule, if it sells. 

One more thing about the North Provi market- after initially deciding to pull out of an item that someone was importing and selling for less than me, but in smaller quantities, I've decided to do a full 180 and go hard against the guy, selling at a loss to maintain control of that item. I figure the profits from everything else can subsidize the losses until he gives up and moves on. This is Kym's version of PvP, and it has the potential to be great fun. We'll see how it goes.

You, too, can build. It's all a question of why.

I hear a lot of folks in my pocket talk about how they really need to get their indy skills up so they can start building. And while I will nod my head to the realities of skill requirements for purely industrial toons like Kym, the truth of the matter is that folks who just want to build a little bit on the side don't really need much skilling at all. The real question casual builders should ask themselves is, "why do I want to build?"

There are generally two ways to answer that question, and I think addressing both answers here could be a good road to journey down. If the answer to that question is, "well, to make ISK", I think there are probably other ways to make more ISK faster. Let's be clear: if you build something and someone buys it, you will get paid. The only variables here are how long it'll take to sell, and how much your wallet will increase.

Notice I didn't say "profit". There are people in Eve obsessed with ISK/hour and profit margins. Good for them. I am not really one of them and have no intentions of becoming one. Do I track my costs via spreadsheet? Yes. I do that for two reasons: I don't have time to mine much any more, and I want to know how the market looks for an item. It wasn't always that way, though.

When I first started to build stuff in Eve (I believe my first BPO was for a Tristan, and it took a while for me to get around to researching it), I didn't buy the minerals. Kym was a small-time, low-SP toon and so I did what every Eve-expert says not to do: I mined and refined, and then I built and sold. You know what? Kym's wallet went up. ISK increased. Would it have increased more doing other things? Sure. If I really just wanted to maximize my ISK though, I'd go WH ratting and pray to not get blown up. The fundamental issue here is not making ISK at a particular rate. The issue is even more important: What do I want to get out of Eve? 

Eve, at the end of the day, is a video game. It's not real life (but how cool would it be if it were???). If it were, I'd care more about how much money I was making. But since there aren't those nagging worries of real-life constraints, I don't have to concern myself with them. Instead I can choose whatever path I want in the game that is most satisfying, and as long as the wallet is generally going up, I see no need to worry about how fast. As I mentioned in an earlier post (the only earlier post, actually), seeing someone else fly around in a ship that I built is pretty cool. Same goes with modules, rigs, and ammo. If you know who bought your stuff because you check your transaction history regularly, then seeing other players flying around in the game takes on a whole new level of curiosity: Did they put that trimark on that ship? Is that guy who's ratting still using the ammo he bought from me, or did he use it all up? Should I make more?

Manufacturing opens up all of those questions to players, and more. On more than one occasion, a new-ish red player was able to dock in a station (NRDS and Provi aren't perfect, but that's not the focus right now). Guess what? He bought one of my ships and some of my rigs. I watched the transactions pile up and I called out that vital information to the PvPers. When he undocked, I made sure I was safe and cloaked, and watched the ship that I built go boom. Similarly, sometimes an unknown neut enters the system and everybody gets jittery. Then he buys a Venture. Or a Retriever (why a retriever in null-sec, I'll never know, but if someone wants to buy it, I'll build it). And I generally stop worrying at that point and let folks know what he bought.

Anyways, back to the original question that has been meandering through all of this: What do you want to get out of Eve? If it's ISK, go forth and rat those wormholes. If you want to experience a whole different side of Eve that is deeper and richer than a PvE experience, and you like the sound of seeing the digital fruits of your labor flying around in beautifully rendered outer space, then some casual building might be a good thing to try. Don't worry about skills, or profits, or any of that- you can always mine, salvage, or rat at the same time something's building or waiting to sell. Just be patient and eventually you'll be rewarded with seeing that ship you built flying around Eve with you.

Obligatory First Post

The hardest part is always the beginning. There, now that's done. I can feel the writer's block ebb away slowly, and hopefully the rest will go smoothly. If you've found the site and are still reading, I think that's a good thing. Continuing to follow the blog will earn you stories and perspectives of manufacturing and building all things Eve-related, and probably the occasional post about whatever else comes to mind. I hope you visit often.

A bit about my Eve character is in order, I suppose. Kym Sorenson started her life at the tail-end of July, 2013. I guess that makes her a little more than seven months old, and aside from roughly the first month of time spent in Gallente highsec, she's dwelled in North Provi, where she's developed into a semi-competent industrialist and remains absolutely horrible at basically everything else. That's ok though, since I've always enjoyed building things more than blowing them up. Since things need to blow up in Eve to keep the wheel of the universe turning, I took that as the inspiration for the blog's title, The Burning Prairie.

For the uninitiated masses, here's the brief rundown on prairies. Tallgrass prairie is something I'm passionate about in real life, and these ecosystems are dominated by perennial grasses and wildflowers that emerge from the ground and grow to great heights in a single growing season before dying back to their root base during the harsh Midwestern winter. In order for these matrices of plants to succeed in cycle after yearly cycle, last year's growth has to be burned away in spectacular fashion, much like most of the things in Eve. Hence, The Burning Prairie. 

Anyways, back to Eve. Not much else to talk about in this first post, except to say that Kym's corp is not an industrial corp by any means, but then again it's not focused on anything, really. And that's what makes the corp special. Since I've joined we've only had two people leave the corp; one person stopped playing Eve altogether shortly thereafter, and another joined a WH corp. Otherwise, it's grown slowly but surely and shows what happens when a corp has good leadership. It's very tight-knit, and everyone does something different. There are miners, ratters, PvPers of various stripes, a market guy, some haulers, explorers, and more. And then there's Kym, the builder. 

What I like most about the manufacturing in Eve is the readily visible results. The things that exist in the game are nearly entirely player-created, and nullsec is the extreme example of that. If there is something on the market, it was either built or hauled in by somebody. Someone spent the time to do that. Ships are no different, but are probably the most visible example. When I see a Talos sitting at the jumpbridge waiting to warp to the PvP fight, or hear that the defense fleet won at the gate because of the logi pilots, I'm able to think to myself, "hey, I built those ships." And that is a very rewarding feeling for me. 

That's all for now, I'll probably post something tomorrow a bit more focused. Good night.