War Footing

My tower came out of reinforcement around 1am AU last night. I logged in just after down time and tried to online some extra modules and empty other POS modules so the loss wouldn't be too much.

I'd spoken to a couple of people during the day from other alliances/corporations in the region and said that there might be capital ships in my system around the time that the tower came out of reinforcement. I said I wasn't asking for help, I'd resigned myself to losing the tower, but capital kills are capital kills.

I don't know if anyone did send a scout through but I provided the information in good faith because it was very probable that capital ships would turn up to finish the tower off.

The Morning After

I went to bed in the belief the tower was lost and we'd have new occupants in our system. I'd decided I would be as annoying as possible by attacking any towers periodically and, if I could, reinforce any tower when I could.

So I woke up, checked EVE mon and was a little confused to see no notifications or mail overnight about the situation. I fired up my industry tool and checked my towers.

There it was, no longer indicating it was reinforced and the stront had been replenishe (probably by my CEO).

What Next

I've started production again, losing near 2 days has sent a few of my other towers off whack and its a little annoying but I think I'll stop production for two days in those to allow this one to catch up. I have plenty of materials on hand for sale and it really doesn't impact my industry.

I'm still not sure WHY my tower was reinforced but I'll be bringing in new POS defences and ammunition next JF run. If I can anchor dozens of guns in preparation for a repeat I may be able to piss them off enough that they'll reconsider any attack. A small chance but it worked for a recent POS assault I was going to be involved in.

I'm sure there are more things I can do and I'll be speaking to other experts, people with experience in POS Sieging and Defence, and my Alliance CEO to see what we can do to protect ourselves in future (as I pay taxes to the alliance for running the towers).

War!

Well one of my towers in NPC Null has been reinforced and looks like I'll be losing not just that but the pair of towers that was part of.

They used capitals to RF the tower AND previously killed a tower elsewhere with dreads and carriers. 

It's a pain and very unlikely I can do anything about it, I can't repel fire of that magnitude!

That said, I have a couple of ideas to disrupt any fleet that comes to kill the tower after the RF period is over and I know that my Alliance will be trying to do something to harass and stop the tower being killed. 

RF Timing isn't great for me (I think its ~3am in the morning my time) but I've already come up with a few ideas on how to piss off the attackers when they return.

Jump Changes and Me

I've spent much of the past 24 hours reading posts about the changes to Jump Drives coming in Phoebe and investigating how they will effect my logistics network in order to move products and materials to and from high sec.

Let it be known I like the changes in terms of limiting Force Projection of Capital Ships but the changes in relation to Jump Freighters/Capital Industrial Ships I am not liking at all.

What I Do In NPC Null

Normalised to the minimum I have found that I do the following in NPC Null:

1. Manufacture in NPC Null of T1 modules using locally sourced and imported materials
2. Manufacture in NPC Null of T2 modules using some locally sourced but predominately imported materials 
3. Manufacture T1 and T2 rigs using locally sourced and imported salvage materials 
4. Ship out Reacted Materials for sale in order to fund Manufacturing and Research operations in NPC Null
5. Sell Manufactured T1/T2 modules/rigs on my local market

I also mission and rat in order to supplement my income in and around my market system (these aren't primary activities though and aren't listed above) nor is my my high sec trading/speculation listed as it is out of the scope of this discussion.

Exporting

I make metamaterials for sale to help fund my operations, it contributes to my income that I then use to purchase the minerals, T2 components and salvage needed to manufacture the range of T1/T2 modules and rigs I produce.

I never leave NPC Null with a partially filled Jump Freighter, it is always full whether that is with materials I need moved or courier contracts from corp/alliance that need to go to high sec.

My logistics network at the moment means I have to do two jumps to get to high sec, approximately 20 light years in total distance. I have two dedicated cyno characters in my primary jump systems but with clones in a secondary system should the primary be too dangerous to use.

Fuel wise it costs me less than 700 liquid ozone and 22,000 isotopes per trip to leave my NPC Null home. Once I reach my high sec entry system its a matter of dropping off any courier contracts or shipping materials to Jita for sale by my trading alt.

Importing

It is rare I make more than one jump a week but I do ad-hoc services, for a fee, should someone need it but I import raw materials for my metamaterial reactions as well as minerals, T2 components and salvage as needed to meet any shortfalls I have for production.

I try to plan at least 4 weeks ahead in what I need with at least 2 weeks reserve in case of unforeseen difficulties. As a result I typically make one run a week from Jita to NPC Null and if space is available carry courier contracts for corp/alliance in addition to what I need bought in.

I'd estimate at least 75%, probably closer to 90% if I'm honest, of what I need has to be imported from High Sec. 

Sourcing Locally

Local politics and supply issues mean that even if I tried I could not source all my requirements locally. 

I'm surrounded by entities that are hostile to me and my alliance, not to mention that roving gangs are regular visitors to Curse that make it extremely unwise to pilot anything larger than a hauler more than one or two jumps.

Those that I have spoken to aren't interested in selling me what they make at a reduced price, Jita price is the base but more often than not its Jita plus 10% or 20%, but they'd rather move it to Jita to sell than helping a "red" locally.

There are a lot of reactions happening in the Constellation I'm in, I've performed a full moon survey of the nearest 12 systems and have a good idea what is being made. However most of the high end moons are being extracted rather than reacted with other materials. It seems its easier to extract Hafnium or Mercury and move it for sale in Jita than it is to setup production POS'es and manage them.

PI materials are non-existent in the local market and everyone produces for themselves or, again, for export to Jita. Again I've spoken to some PI producers who aren't in my alliance and they aren't interested in making materials for sale to me both because I'm "red" but also because it will not be as profitable (so they have said).

Minerals I am able to get from reprocessing wrecks, although this no longer yields as much as it used to, as well as the odd hauler spawn but these do not provide all or even the quantities I need of minerals to produce items. I could mine, and I do sometimes, but I am missing out on Mexallon, Isogen and Morphite bearing asteroids so I continually need to import these minerals above all others. Tritanium I've got nearly a billion units of and most of the rest I have between several tens of million (pyerite) or thousands of units (nocxium/megacyte).

I salvage wrecks in belts or mission sites I've been given access to and over the course of 30 days this provides a lot of salvage materials but none is for sale, at least at reasonable prices, locally and anyone else who stockpiles is either doing so for shipping to Jita for resale or produce rigs themselves and do not want to supply a competitor.

Major Consideration - Jump Range Change

Changing the maximum jump distance to 5ly for all jump capable ships will very possibly kill my efforts and I'll leave NPC Null for something either significantly closer to high sec or I may just move onto something new. I just don't know,  I'm not feeling quite so fatalistic about this situation as Lorna is but I am facing a serious threat to my activities that I cannot see a reasonable or simple solution to.

As I said in my opening, my Export route is currently two jumps and requires two cyno characters and no more than 10 minutes of action at the keyboard to do. 

Using DOTLAN to simulate the 5ly limit for my JF pilots (JDC 0, JFC V and JF V) I find now that 2 jumps becomes 7 jumps with four of those jumps requiring stops in non-NPC Null systems held by entities that are hostile to me. I can't see any way of getting blue status with them nor can I really "ninja cyno" as a Jump Freighter cannot fit a cloaking device and thus would be easy pickings for any probe carrying combat ship.

Looking for alternative routes I can change two of the stops to other systems but again they are either held by the same hostile entities or another one entirely. Some choice I have there.

Minor Considerations

Then of course there will be the two other "minor" changes I'd need to keep abreast of:

• Additional jumps means additional cyno characters, ships, modules and fuel needed

7 jumps means I'd need new cyno characters in new systems, that I don't have station access in order to jump. Wait I don't have station access so I'd need another character in a cloaked ship holding spare modules, cyno ships and fuel.

• Using jump clones for cyno characters could increase the jump time from minutes to at least a day or two depending on setup

Instead of adding new characters maybe I can use jump clones instead...  And if I did use Jump Clones I'd have to train them up to be able to have multiple clones (at least 5) and be maximum skilled in Cynosural Theory so as to not require cargo modules and use the minimum amount of fuel per lighting.

And then of course you've got to take into account the jump clone timers, what takes 10 minutes now and I don't need to do any jump cloning may take one or two days to complete the full journey due to the cool down period between jumps. I could add more cyno characters but I'd need to start another new account dedicated to cyno characters and I have more than enough accounts at the moment.

Of course jump cloning would only work if I had access to friendly stations on the route that I can install a clone and store ships, modules and fuel in. Ah, wait I don't.

• Use the gate network to move cyno characters ahead of the jump freighter and light as needed

I'd could use my cyno characters to travel through gates each time I needed a cyno but this would opening up the opportunity that I could die on the way (very likely) or be followed and have someone spring a trap and catch my jump freighter (very possibly).

What About Wormholes

I did have someone say that wormholes may be the saviour for people like myself. Find a nice Null->Low Sec (which I could jump out of) or Null->High Sec connector and I'd be all good. In theory it could work but in practice it wouldn't (I don't think).

I've seen four WH's in my home system in the past 2 weeks. 3 were to WH space and one was a null->null connector that was even deeper located than I was. I really don't see WH's being able to help.

Conclusion

The jump range change will more than half my JF range (11.25ly to 5ly) and limit the systems I can use whilst increasing the stops I must make on the way in hostile systems.

As a result my conclusion is simple, based on what has been announced, I will no longer be able to, as of Phoebe, be able to run a logistics network from my NPC Null home to high sec. 

We still have almost 2 months until Phoebe is released. Things can change, although as this post says:

Since this is a dev blog, this means it that CCP is a lot more solid on its decisions here than it would be in a trial balloon dev post on the forums

meaning that these changes are probably decided and unlikely to significantly, if at all, change between now and release.

Bugger.

We'll have to wait to see what happens and whether the feedback CCP are getting is going to see changes or not.

Ratting with Angels

After I moved to Curse I followed the lead of my CEO and started ratting in a shield Tornado fitted with 800mm Repeating Cannon II's using Fusion L. It worked well and handled everything that the rats in Curse could throw at it.

I can remember only two occasions I had to warp out due to getting precariously low into shield, both times were because I was webbed and my speed was insufficent to deflect any of the incoming dps. T5, as it was named, was a solid ratting ship for my local rats and I'd still be using it today if I hadn't seen an alliance mate using a Gila and witnessed the utter devastation the two medium drones that ship can field did.

Sleek and sexy, the reborn Gila.

Ship Fit

The Gila is a great Caldari/Gallente crossed cruiser with a specific role bonus to medium combat drones (500% bonus to damage and hitpoints) so whilst you'll have some form of missile weapon these will be your secondary attack method with medium drones being primary.

[Angel Gila]

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Assault Missile

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Assault Missile

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Assault Missile

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Assault Missile

Salvager II [OFFLINE]

10mn Afterburner II

Large Shield Extender II

Large Shield Extender II

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link

Pithum C-Type EM Ward Amplifier

Drone Damage Amplifier II

Drone Damage Amplifier II

Drone Damage Amplifier II

Drone Damage Amplifier II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender II

Medium Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer II

Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer II

6 x Valkyrie II

2 x Hammerhead II

2 x Infiltrator II

When I bought this it would have cost me a little over 500m ISK for the ship and all the modules/rigs in Jita but as I horde most of the modules I had already and I only had to buy the rigs and Deadspace/Faction modules and a new supply of missiles.

Defensive

Damage is reasonable and the tank is designed to be around the same level with resists (rounded up) of 74/69/77/72 and total EHP of 54,300. This is good and subsequent flight tests have shown this to be more than enough to deal with the Angel rats of Curse and the one rat who nearly killed my ship is not something you see everyday and would face with assistance anyway.

Offensive

The HAM's provide only 215 dps out to a range of 20.2km with Caldari Navy Scourge, this goes up to 253 dps at 16.8km if I use T2 Scourge Rage but the majority of my damage comes from the two medium drones I can deploy.

I use Valkyries as these are perfect to hit the resistance hole (explosive) that Angel rats have and the two (thanks to the Gila Role Bonus) put out a magnificent 549 dps. Other drones do more or less the same damage but not being explosive these aren't as good against the rats.

Upgrades?

Improvements could always be made, I could use more Faction or Deadspace modules but I don't see the point. I have a half billion ISK ship that does a single job and does it very well, incoming dps is killed off quickly and the HAM's mean any frigates that do get close can be removed without shifting the fire of the drones from the larger targets.

Any improvements from 'bling' would be negligible and just add to the risk should the ship be lost.

Usage

Using this ship is simple, warp to belt/anom and deploy drones. Lock up largest targets and then let the drones loose on them. Any frigates or cruisers that come within missile range but haven't been engaged by the drones are attacked with HAMs.

Rise, repeat until all targets are dead, move to next belt.

Most of the time I move off the warp in point under normal speed but should I get a convoy or larger than normal battleship group (4+) I will orbit an asteroid or ship at range with my afterburner active. This helps lower the incoming dps so I can avoid having to warp out.

Conclusion

The Gila is a beast of a ratting ship, a little expensive but worth the extra ISK for the hull. The drones really eat Angel ships and each belt can be cleared in a a minute or two. A couple of anoms I've tried were much simpler than using my old Tornado and I'll seriously consider doing anything up to 7/10 in the Gila without support (obviously managing the spawns).

T5 has been retired but will not be ignored. I've already moved 1400mm Howitzers to replace the 800mm's so I can use it as a long range PvP ship.

Madness caused by Ratting

Paging Doctor Loopy

I've been ratting for nearly a week solid when I play EVE Online, running through the local belts in my new Gila. It's a beast compared to the Tornado I used to use and I really like it.

One thing I'm not liking is New Eden hates me, I'm sure of it. A few times now I've had to finish ratting because it's late and I leave and the next day find out that just after I left someone else who took over ratting after I left got a Domination or Officer spawn.

Once, maybe even twice I can deal with but this has happened FAR too much over the past week to be coincidence, it's clear. New Eden hates me.

My madness was compounded tonight when I broke down and, in an empty local wrote the following:

Me > DEAR NEW EDEN

Me > PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Me > GIVE ME A DOMINATION OR OFFICER SPAWN BEFORE I LOG OFF TONIGHT

It took a few minutes and I then realised what I had done. 

Post Script

In typical fashion my request was not honoured with a Domination or Officer spawn. But I did hang about in the last belt a little too long and in came a six ship (3 BS + 3 Industrial) Convoy who dropped 19m Tritanium and 340k Mexallon.

That's better than nothing but I'm still the only person in my corporation who hasn't had a Domination or Officer spawn in our time in the system.

One day, one day I tell you...

Well, Wouldn't You Know

It's five minutes to midnight, I've been clearing the belts since downtime and I've had enough. One more Convoy spawn was had yielding 12.5m Tritanium and 2.15m Pyerite.

I pick this up and dock to trade it to a corp mate:

[13:55:46] Me > right i'm off to bed, nn o/
[13:55:50] Alliance Mate > no
[13:55:52] Alliance Mate > dont go
[13:56:04] Me > ?
[13:56:05] Alliance Mate > 7-3
[13:56:07] Alliance Mate > quick
[13:58:00] Me > i. don't. fucking. believe. it.
[13:58:52] Alliance Mate > :)

This is what I saw when I warped to the 7-3 belt:

I didn't manage to even fire a shot at him, my alliance mate was able to kill him just after I arrived but I did clear off the 'escort'.

I still maintain that New Eden hates me as the Loot Fairy was not overly kind, at least compared to other Officer spawns:

Still, 7 hours of ratting finally paid off. I had my first Officer spawn, although technically I didn't get it and I certainly didn't land a single hit on him.

Wait.

Dammit, that basically means I didn't get it. *shakes fist*

Gahhhhhhhhhhh!

Wallet Restoration

Cashing Out

It was time to cash out, I had less than 42m ISK in the wallet division that my trader has access to and I had a whole raft of things I needed to buy or sell (sales/broker fees still have to paid when selling). I still have around 19billion in sell orders pending but they're not items that will sell quickly.

My missioning in both High Sec and Null Sec has been profitable with ISK and rewarded LP, so much so that I went to market with ten Slave Omegas and nine Snake Omegas. All were put on the market immediately and when I woke up this morning every single one had been sold at an average profit of 700m each (this takes into account the ISK to purchase and the cost of the implant needed to cash out).

Instead of looking at a 42m ISK wallet division I now have over 7 billion available and this doesn't include another months output from my reaction towers that will be going on the market this weekend and I expect will run me over the 12 billion mark.. 

Don't tell my CEO though as he'll want some ISK for the Alliance coffers...

All Quiet On The South-South-East Front

It's quiet.

Possibly too quiet.

But then again I'm happy that it's like this, it's allowed me to concentrate on grinding standings with one of the NPC corporations in a fairly fast time frame. Zero to 8.34 personal standings with the corporation in a little over a week has meant that I now have access to all the Level 4 agents in the area. 

Mining PvE 

I've found the mining missions not as boring or repetitive as Security ones and much faster to finish. Mining missions seem to comprise one of three types, mining ore, gas or ice. I was told only to do the gas mining missions for best reward vs. risk but I've found that the ice ones (mine 20 blocks of ice) are quick to do with a Skiff or Procurer and are worth doing with Gas. I do decline all the ore missions as they take far too long and usually require two or three trips back to station to drop off what I've mined.

I invested some of my liquid ISK in buying six Ventures and fittings so I could get three characters running missions in the future, the LP rewards (between 7,500 and 12,500 LP per mission with Mining Connections IV) are excellent and I have some good items (Vindicator/Daredevil/Snake Implants) to choose from when I do cash out. 

One really good thing about the mining missions are that they take place in the system with the agent or at most 1 jump away so I don't have to worry much about being caught on a gate. 

Last night I was fortunate enough to get three gas mining missions in a row and not just the "rat free" 7,500 LP reward ones. I got the 12,500 LP mining missions with "drone rats" (which are very easy to tank in a shield boosting Venture) and an hour later I'm 36,000 LP better off and a few million ISK richer.

Towers

My towers are good, we haven't had any siphons since Brave Newbies Inc. moved out and whilst we get a lot of traffic this doesn't interfere with my towers or reactions I have running. 

I did make a mistake last weekend, I bought in new raw materials from Jita about three weeks earlier than I should have so. This caused my liquid ISK reserves to be depleted (read: I spent all my wallet ISK) and now I don't have to buy anything for six/seven weeks apart from fuel.

ISK Today, Gone Tomorrow

The lack of ISK isn't a problem, aside from Ventures I'm not in need of buying anything at the moment outside of tower materials or trading opportunities. I have nearly 20 billion in buy and sell orders active so I'm not really in any trouble it's just depressing to see my wallet balance so low.

The reason I'm so low is I finally bought, and injected into his skills, the Amarr Titan book for one of my characters, not that he has the titan nor do I have the need or ISK for one yet. 

Comfort Zone

I've been playing EVE for nearly four years, that's four years of living in wormholes, null sec and high sec. I've yet to live in low sec but there is plenty of time to do that and the one thing that these things all have in common is I've been very comfortable in what I've done.

I've felt safe, secure and have always had the backup of people I trust. Very recently though I've started branching out into null sec without the safety net I've been used to and as a result I'm out of my comfort zone and I feel I've grown as a player.

Hermit Behaviour

For three months I've not left the system where I'm based except to jump to high sec or in the case of one character, move to a station in the next system over where I can jump clone to/from. I've led a sheltered life, very sheltered if I'm to be honest.

I've mined, reacted and manufactured without a care to the goings on around me and whilst I've done well I could do better and over the past week I finally decided to do something else.

Missioning, again

"You can earn 12,000 LP for one gas mining mission, no more than 15 minutes with good skills"

That was the quote I've heard four or five times from various corporation/alliance people and I've listened but did nothing about it. It doesn't help that most of my characters have high negative standings with the two corporations I'd need to get the missions from.

But salvation come in the unlikely form of my boosting alt, he had absolutely zero standings with any faction and only a couple of corporations liked him, a bit. An alliance mate offered to give me a hand with basic standings so I could run them myself and he did seven missions over the two corporations and I magically had 1.0 standings with both in less than an hour.

Fortunately you can get standings just by being in a fleet when a mission is completed and I took the chance to drop off some materials in Jita for sale (before Burn Jita started) and buy myself some modules for use on a Venture that I'd use for the missions.

Skills Need Work

I also purchased the Mining Connections skill book and made sure this was injected and trained to IV. I also remembered that the Criminal Connections skill would be helpful for standings increases with the NPC entities I would get the missions from and may help me get to the magic 5.0 standings sooner.

I now have Criminal Connections IV and Mining Connections IV trained and am working on Level V for both after I finish Mining Frigate V.

Results, are promising needs more work

It's been four days since I started mining missions and I've got just over 20,000 LPand 3.80 standings (4.43 modified). Nearly enough for Level 4 missions and they're the ones that will bring in the big LP amounts.

I'm getting between 300 and 1000 LP per mission at the moment and this has been great. I'm used to getting no more than 300 LP for a distribution or mining mission in high sec but here in null the rewards are much greater. The dangers are too but these can be mitigated by good decisions and using d-scan regularly.

The LP store has Snake implants so my plan is to get a low-grade set of Snakes for the market and then if they sell move up to the high-grade set. It's a plan and the Storyline missions at least give me the implants I need for LP exchanges.

Random, but funny

Where I'm located in Curse we have several friendly corporations and alliances nearby, today I met someone from one of them and got chatting. 

It was a good chat and I was able to share some EVE/industry knowledge with someone new but what made it funnier was I linked a prior post I'd written as an example and in return was told that he was a regular reader who had my blog on his Feedly feed and he provided a screenshot to prove this.

I had to laugh at this coincidence and so, Nikor, thanks for reading and not shooting me when I appeared in system.

Challenge Update

It's been just over a week since I started my "null sec manufacturing challenge" as prompted by Lorna over at A Scientist's Life in EVE.

My aim was to produce T1/T2 modules and a few ships for sale in my local null sec market. Over the course of a week I moved all the raw materials into my base along with BPO's/BPC's and whilst it took two JF loads more than I thought I did finally get everything moved.

The station I'm in had plenty of slots free for manufacturing so I started producing combat modules that I was running low on. These comprised T2 variants of warp points/scramblers and webifiers as well as T2 auto-cannons and artillery.

What Did I Make

I produced 30 of each module and listed them for sale at a base price point a little above Jita but with enough of a markup that it was profitable and covered all my costs and then some. Local competition was present, especially 1 jump away, but in the case of the guns my nearest competitor was 6 jumps away. 

Results

I've obviously stocked correctly because I've sold nearly all the items I manufactured over the weekend bringing in 145 million ISK, I've already started on a second run and thanks to prompting from some alliance people I've even added some shield defensive modules to the list of production so I can list these.

145 million may not sound much, it's not really as I can make that in about 4 hours ratting in null sec, but it's a good income for no more than ten minutes of actual work and supplements my other income streams quite nicely.

I still have over 1900 BPC's to work through and all the raw materials I need to complete these so I will be continuing to watch the local market and adjust my production accordingly.

Challenging Null Sec Industry

Lorna, at A Scientist's Life In EVE, challenged the CCP Devs to actually do industry in null sec without their 'super powers'. It's a good challenge and one that they should follow through with because I find it hard to believe anyone at CCP actually is an industrialist who has first hand experience with the Industrialist features of mining, manufacturing, invention and research.

As far as I'm aware Lorna hasn't received any word from CCP that they've accepted or even read her challenge but she herself has moved back into Null Sec with a large collection of blueprints (originals and copies) and is setting up shop (so to speak) and aims to produce goods and services with little to no need of working in High Sec.

It's an admirable step to take, it could all end in failure but equally in success. Lorna is nicely plotting her course and success/failures in the blog. Her latest post on the subject nicely explains the problems faced by having many industrialists wanting to use the same, limited, slots provided by Player Owned stations. 

Challenge Accepted

Although not a CCP Dev I have decided to accept part of the challenge thrown down and see if I can move at least part of my industrial base to NPC Null where there should be better supplies of goods and more slots for me to use.

Of all my industrial activities I've decided to move all of my T1/T2 module and T2 ship production to null sec with the aim of producing all the modules I sell and only having to import materials that I cannot either source locally or within my alliance; or cannot be found where I am.

Packing and Moving

I've packed up all my BPO's and my current collection of T2 BPC's and moved them to my new base of operations. I have counted 122 T1 BPO's and almost 2000 T2 BPC's of modules and ships that I will be working through for this attempt. I may buy more BPC's later but initially I will be limiting myself to what I have bought in.

Minerals and other components used in manufacturing I have been shipping in for a few days via JF runs. It's actually been very convenient having a full load leaving null sec (usually moon goo/finished materials) and then returning with components for manufacture.

I have been fortunate that I've had several hauler spawns whilst in NPC space and I've managed to collect a sizable collection of minerals that are supplemented by mining.

Planning, Planning and Planning

Where I'm located there are the following slots available to the public:

• 10 Copy
• 20 Invention
• 50 Manufacturing
• 20 Material Research
• 20 Time Efficiency

The ME slots are fully in use at the moment and judging by the time left on these they will be in constant use, it's a good thing my T1 BPO's are ME/PE researched as 'perfect' so I will not need to use these slots. Manufacturing seem to be used but there are always a few slots open for use and I can always queue jobs. The Invention and Copying slots could be useful, I don't have an immediate use for them but they seem to always have space and aren't in demand.

Overall I've got what appears to be a good station and resources, it helps that I know a lot of the people already using them so I can barter and get access when I do need them.

What to Make

I'll start by making T2 modules that I know will sell on the local market, things such as proplsuion jamming modules (warp distruptors, stastis webifiers), shield and armour modules (adaptive invul. fields, armour hardners) and guns. 

Guns especially sell very well very but I'm going to start with production runs in the 20 - 30 range and then only manufacture more when I get down to single digit units remaining (5 as a starting point). I don't want to hold too much stock and producing on a, semi, just-in-time system should allow me flexibility and not be an ISK sink.

Ships I will produce, I've bought around 100 T2 BPC's of different ship types but I have also bought all my T1 BPO's for each sub-capital ship and I will be producing runs of these at some point in the future. I see a lot of T1 frigates moving around the area so having these on hand should be good. Producing them is quick and easy even if the profit margins aren't massive.

I don't want to be running JF's in/out of system every day so my production schedule is going to be fixed, I will produce items as I need but I want to aim for a JF run only once or twice a week bringing in materials that I will need. This will help with costs as the less I jump the less fuel I use but also it should make it so I'm looking to the local markets and people for my materials instead of running off to high sec trading hubs.

What I Won't Be Making

I'm not going to be making capital ships here, I pulled out of that work a month ago due to the increased competition I saw where I was based and I'm still not convinced I should return as both k162space and EVE-Fail have noticed shrinking profits. If I did I would need to find new buyers and local ones at that but I would also be stepping on the feet of an friend who makes capital ships where I'm now based.

I certainly don't want to do that so I'll be avoiding the capital market and just focusing on my T1/T2 production for sale on the local market with perhaps a small number of capital modules being offered.

Current Status

I've only been at this for a few days, all my BPO's/BPC's are moved along with 70% of the materials to make all the T2 BPC's I have. I'll move the rest over the next week and then start on production using the slots I have.

I'd rather have everything in place than keep running to/from high sec for stuff I've forgotten and then I can sort it out. Freight and Station containers allow me to sort stuff in a basic way but I'd really love to use something like the Corporation Hangers but at a personal level. Being able to separate my assets without the need for containers would be so much more convenient, but hopefully that'll be in a future release.

Looking for a HERO

Actually I'm not, personally I'd like them to be further away but so far I'm only having to deal with a single cloaky AFK camper and a couple of TEST pilots who are trying to siphon my reactions.

 

Could be a lot worse but I'm not focusing on the negative I'm quite the opposite and happy at the moment as I got word of the HERO deployment system about 24 hours before it was public knowledge and managed to get three full JF's of modules and other stuff into station (which is not a friendly one for jump capable ships)

 

Frenzy

 

I've now sold out of modules in less than four days and am around 2 billion ISK better off. I put most items for sale in the 10% to 30% over Jita profit category but a lot of T1 modules I put at local prices which put most under Jita but having over three hundred Experimental Micro Warp Drive I's meant I was making money even with a very low resale cost.

 

Sounds odd but my tracking spreadsheet shows me making an overall profit of 9% on this one item and an average profit (over all items I sold) of 17%.

 

Not Again

 

Unfortunately I won't be restocking as competition is no doubt going to be fierce and I've already been reading that profits have dropped and profiteers are taking over. Well that's not the only reason, the other reason is I don't want to lose a JF in such a heavily populated system where everyone wants to shoot the next ship that appears.

On the way to Profit

Moved

 

Well I've moved into my new null sec home, previously I'd just visited but now I live here. Bookmarks have been created around gates and the docking range of the systems only station has been well and truly plotted (it's not a bad station, better than those I use in low sec).

 

I have a few deep space safes that I was able to get off friends who have been in system longer and a couple are off d-scan to all celestials.

 

Local Politics

 

It's been interesting watching Alliance and local intel channels and getting a feel for the politics around the constellation. Former neutral/reds are now light blue but don't have access to our intel channels but we have access to another shared channel with them and we fleet with them a lot for defence or localised roams.

 

I've gotten to recognise quite a few by name and no longer flee when I see them enter system, of course I don't fully trust them yet but that will change as I join their fleets.

 

Towers

 

Towers are going nicely, although the "over 1000 ISK" drop in the price of Metamaterials over the past week has not been good. It's cut into my margins rather sharply but to counter this I've added two new towers producing Sylramic Fibres, I could have gone back to Fullerides but I've found the market to be more populated and harder to sell into than Sylramic Fibres.

 

Market

 

I've started to populate the local market with a lot of modules and ships, there is competition within station but also from one jump away on a lot of items but aggressive pricing (under cutting by 5%/10%) should see me win business. I've put 1.5billion ISK's worth of modules on the market to see how they go, most are in quantities around 8 to 10 but a few items I know are in demand I've put on in quantities between 20 and 50.

 

Buy orders aren't good, I've not had a single one filled as of yet and this seems to be the way as most modules have zero buy orders.

 

Implants

 

I've finally finished my PvE grind in Minmatar space and I cashed in getting six Omega's and two full sets implants of the Low-Grade Nomad implants. These provide a boost to agility so Freighter and Supercarrier pilots do like them. Provisionally profit looks good, the Omega's alone should be nearly 5 billion ISK in profit, add in the full sets and I'm conservatively estimate I'll walk away with 7 billion ISK profit.

 

This is a nice boost to the wallet and will mean my towers can be fuelled and have all materials needed for the next two months from these monies alone.

 

Nearby in Curse is a Level 4 Mining agent that I'll be investigating once my standings for them are fixed.  Apparently a single low standing Gas Mining mission will result in over 7000 LP which can be used to purchase some very nice blueprints in the LP Store. 7000 LP is more than I got in high sec on a fully skilled character and instead of spending 45 minutes per mission its only a fraction of that.

 

When Ego's Explode

Into the fire...

I mentioned previously about some friends disagreeing but it was nothing that time and common sense wouldn't solve.

Unfortunately I was wrong and over the last few days I've seen relations collapse totally and friends declaring they are no longer friends. It's all disappointing from my point of view, I can't say who is right and who is wrong because it's not that simple. I'm stuck in the worst place, in the middle having to watch my words and actions in case someone takes something the wrong way.

... into a Profitable circumstance

Still out of this mess has come a profitable situation. I was asked by one party to help them move assets back to high sec space from Curse via my JF services. Not a problem, I'm always happy to help.

The contacts came over and I accepted them, I'm inquisitive and I looked at what was in the contracts as there was one of about 3000m3, another of 82,000m3 and the final one was a whopping 300,000m3. Turns out it was a large mix of modules, loot and repackaged ships and so I immediately realised that what was here was exactly what I usually imported for my market activities.

So I made an offer to my friend, "sell me all your contract stuff, name a price". Which he replied with "you work out and tell me" [sic]. So I broke the contracts and started working prices out. Now I'm a sucker (and I know it) when my friends are involved and made an offer very close to Jita price.

In fact I think I was only 4% off the total price he could have gotten in Jita and I transferred the ISK to him and started sorting and listing items in Curse for sale. Now being away from a trading hub I do have to be a little careful with my prices, a lot of other people sell stuff within three or four jumps of me, but I was able to make at least 10% on items I listed with ships and other speciality modules going for between 50% and 70% over Jita.

I am so glad I trained a Trading alt and had him JC to Curse. 315 slots and I used 296 listing all the stuff I just got, combined with my booster shop in another region he has utilised all his slots for nearly 4 billion in sell orders.

Greed. Is. Good.

I do feel a little guilt in profiting from my friends situation but he has, a few times, told me that greed is good. I just hope he continues playing EVE, I'll miss him if he does leave, when the time comes I will be there first to ask "Can I Haz Your Stuffs?"

Jump Clone Mistakes

I was stupid on Saturday, I jump cloned my only tower capable pilot to a clone in Curse without checking that he didn't need to empty silos. I jumped and last night realised that I still had 8 hours to go on the JC timer and tower silos that would be full in less than an hour.

 

Dammit.

 

He did need to JC to help setup a new cyno toon in Curse but I should have emptied the towers first. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I lost about 7 hours of production of sylramic fibres. A corp mate wasn't able to help so whilst I slept my income was static.

 

Fortunately the Fullerides continued being produced and I was able to login this morning with the overflow silo full and the primary silo 96% full.

 

It's not a major loss but it's one that was totally avoidable and all because I didn't follow my usual routine of emptying towers before jump cloning.