Citadels - First View

Both Trinket's Friend and Bex have posted in their, respective, blogs about the coming of Citadels and how large they will be based on the following image:

I've been involved in the manufacture of two stations so far in EVE Online:

• one, was periphery, when I was in Providence and I provided some materials for that but did not participate in he actual setup or assembly.
• the second was as a favour to a friend in a (renting) null sec alliance who needed a lot of PI and minerals but did not want it to be known they were buying them (I also helped move about 11m m3 from high sec to null sec via my JF's)

I'm not sure which station I helped with for the second one, alas my friend left the game just after the jump changes, and I never found out what the station was.

Show Me The Money

Both TF and Bex talk about the cost, after all if you want one you've got to have the bank roll for it because if it's anything like a station or other structure it will need minerals, PI products and perhaps a few other things to make.

The image above shows the purported size of a medium citadel compared to an Avatar titan. very impressive in terms of size but we still don't know how CCP are going to deal with the logistical needs or costs to assemble one.

TF has, logically, inferred that a POCO could be considered a "medium sized" structure and setting up one of these costs around 100m ISK. A POCO needs four PI types and a gantry to assemble and these come out at around that cost.

Now it's ridiculous to imagine that this would be the cost of a citadel, it's too little for this structure, a more reasonable cost base would be in the low billions. Personally I think between 1.5 and 3 billion is what it may cost. I see either a large amount of minerals or perhaps a new "framework" object (like the POCO gantry) that you create, move into place then fill with extra materials (in the same way you construct stations) then after a period of time your station is complete.

Between 1.5 and 3 billion ISK for a medium structure seems reasonable to me.

Time-wise, it will take at least a couple of weeks to make one. Unless you're a major null sec alliance who hordes and has large stockpiles of materials, in which case you'll be able to assemble as soon as you can move it.

Speculation

Details on citadels are still vapour, we don't know anything about:

• handling loot/destroyed structures
• how defence weapons will be controlled/configured to work
• system indexes and influence of any structure on them
• vulnerability windows/protection
• whether structures will function/be deployable in wormhole space and, if so, how that will exert influence on WH system
• ship docking/mooring
• taxes/fees/(any) fuel use requirements

and a host of other questions I and others will have. We are starting to see information forthcoming but so far its just from the art department. Hopefully a devblog or further "leaks" will come soon and allow players to start understanding this major new game mechanic.

Idling

My usual partner in "industrial crime" in EVE is off on holiday somewhere warm for a three weeks so I'm taking a little break myself. I'm still logging in and managing what I have to in my towers and interacting with a few people but until he returns I've decided to see if there is something else to play or do.

 

Profit and Loss

 

Things have gone well recently, profits are up somewhat although metamaterial prices are down enough that I'm considering hording until the market is bounced up again (as it appears to be every 5 to 7 months). Carbide armour plates are selling well as are the left over materials I have for producing them.

 

I've also been producing capital components from my mineral stores for no other reason than I have minerals and I need to use what I have rather than keep buying them. I have a nice low sec system a couple of jumps away where I can make carriers and dreadnoughts should I wish but for now I'm making Orca's and Bowheads for sale.

 

Five Orcas and three bowheads to be precise went into the oven on Sunday afternoon. All are due in just over 10 days and then I'll move them to wherever I can get the best price for them. I'm considering Hek/Rens based on data my trading alt gathered over the past few days but Amarr is selling very well and quite a bit above Jita price for the Bowhead.

 

But 10 days is a long time in EVE so we'll have to wait til they're nearly done.

 

I haven't had any losses, I've spent ISK on new blueprints and researched them as well as buying materials but outgoings are just the regular tower inputs, fuel and taxes.

 

Hello Sailor

 

I've been looking around for something else to play and I got into World of Warships, I've only played the US ship line so far but I'm far enough up it that I'm enjoying myself a lot. Even blog-friend Bex is playing and we occasionally Division up and have a romp or fail spectacularly.

 

He's recently become a convert of the US Destroyer line after playing the IJN ones. I've only played the US ones and the game play I use is one of stealth and cover whereas the torpedo range of the IJN destroyers means you can easily kill stuff unseen. Not so US destroyers where you are lucky to have a torpedo range that doesn't get you spotted.

 

I'm currently doing reasonably well with the rest of the ships. I've got a Tier VI carrier (Independence), VII destroyer (Mahan), VI battleship (New Mexico, although I unlocked the VII Colorado last night) and the Tier VIII cruiser (New Orleans).

 

Team play is the only frustrating thing I find with the game. It's extremely rare to find anyone who plays as a team, as a carrier or battleship pilot it really pisses me off to see AA Cruisers rushing off to cap flags or lead attacks as enemy bombers bypass them and come straight for the undefended ships.

 

Communication in chat is pointless as most players in my area, Asia, either have little knowledge of other languages (I speak English or bad English, but most chat is full of South East Asian languages like Chinese, Korean or Thai) or just don't use chat.

 

I wish there was more benefits or rewards for team play to encourage supporting your fellow players but alas there isn't at this time.

 

What's that bright thing in the sky?

 

Turns out it's the sun and I've also been doing stuff outside. Tidying up the house, garden and generally trying to spend more time with my son (who turned 3 last week). It's been fun and watching him learn to ride a bike, chase chickens and have fun in the garden is great.

Moving In

The WH Alliance has a new home, the tower and POCOs from the Russians have been removed (or are in the process of being finished off as I type this).

 

Our Dear Leader has been having much fun setting up the POSes we'll be using, fiddling with roles and creating new art in space using star base modules. He's very good at pictures, he's no Picasso but that's fine with me as Picasso's pictures give me headaches to look at.

 

I haven't been able to help much this weekend, aside from RL things I've had to take care of I've had three characters moving assets around high sec as it was the end of my financial year and I needed to move what I could sell to Jita and Amarr.

 

I, Slightly, Dislike Freighters

 

I hate their lack of manoeuvrability and speed but I love their ability to move large amounts of material. I've moved nearly twelve million cubic metres of stuff since Friday night, fortunately most of it was no more than six jumps in length but there were a lot of trips not to mention the 100 jump one I had to do on one character.

 

It has been worth it, I've listed nearly fifteen billion ISK worth of items for sale with another six or so being ready for listing in a week. Of course this tied in nicely with my need to buy more raw materials and pay my alliance taxes for the towers I run.

So what was a great profit will only yield a billion or two after I've paid my dues.

 

It comes in slowly but leaves too quickly... the race for ISK.

 

Adding Value

 

A few weeks ago my null-sec CEO made me aware of the possibility of improving income on the carbides/sylramic fibres I was producing by combining them into Armour plates. I had previously not thought of doing this because it would add extra costs to production and, at the time, the difference between raw/processed was less than 7% increase in profit

 

He made a good case to have another look at the setup and see if it was more profitable. So I did and it appears that it is indeed more profitable, averaging 20% over the four armour plate types. I produce the sylramics myself and purchase (from an alliance friend) Fernite Carbides and thanks to my CEO moving into reactions I also now have a good source of Titanium Carbides.

 

So I've now started using sylramics and the two carbide types to produce Armour plates and it's been very good. It is a pain to have to wait nearly a week extra to get my armour plates but with two sets of BPO's I've got a nice production line going. Researching the BPO's (I've had for years it seems) has increased efficiency in materials and time to produce a product that sells well in Jita and Amarr.

 

What raw materials I don't use I either stockpile, for later use, or sell directly on the market so I'm not really losing any ISK, especially with volatility the market currently sees.

 

Profits are up, generally, which is excellent and if I had shareholders they'd be very happy I'd imagine and thanks to my CEO I'm already looking for the next processed material to get my teeth into to increase my profits but to make use of the BPO's I've got.

Making Rigs

My primary production is still on hold, I have another 6ish weeks of stock to last me, but I needed to get a new Noctis and decided to manufacture the rigs for this as I had 90% of the components and I'd only need a small outlay of ISK to buy what I didn't have.

Sometimes its not worth doing this, unless you have the blueprint (original or copy) and materials yourself its often cheaper to buy from the market. In this case I nearly did, but at 30m each the rigs I decided to have a look for a blueprint and see if I had the salvage materials.

The rigs are for a specific use and aren't for resale so I'm not overly concerned with price, so long as they're cheaper than Jita I'll be happy.

Blueprint

I found the following blueprint in Jita:

3 runs for 27m ISK means 9m per run that I need to add to each rig price to correctly identify the overall cost. I don't need to purchase any skill books as my character has the necessary skills injected and trained.

Assembling the Components

As I have to travel to Jita to get the blueprint I also bought the other items I needed:

• Nanite Compound - 1,504,106.73 ISK
• R.A.M. - Armor/Hull Tech - 1,440 ISK

I also found, thanks to jEVEAssets, that I had the Interface Circuits and Intact Armor Plates already in my planned high sec production system. This surprised me as I didn't think I had so much salvage but it certainly saves me money as I don't have to buy these (and Intact Armor Plates are nearly 4m ISK each in Jita).

I collected the pieces from Jita and then put them in my Item Hanger ready for use.

Assembly

• I right clicked on the blueprint and selected Use Blueprint

• Change the Job Runs to 3
• I check the Cost and Duration (making sure I have enough ISK in my wallet)
• All yellow Start button means we're good to go, so I click Start

The total job cost comes up as 1,346,843 ISK and will take just under 15 hours to complete, which when you look at my cost per run:

• Blueprint: 9m ISK
• Materials: 501368.91 ISK
• Job Cost: 448947.66 ISK

Indicates my production will come in nealy 66% cheaper than the 30m per Rig price that is found in Jita for the rig. 

Awesome, now I just need to wait for them to finish building:

But Your Materials Aren't Free

True, there is my time and effort to find them but I cannot calculate this as I don't know how long I've had these. I have a feeling some of the salvage I've used I've had since 2011/2012 when I was actively salvaging every wreck after battles when I was in Providence.

If I was to assume I was buying the salvage off of the market it would only add around 14m to each rig being built, so the price will go up and still be just cheaper than Jita. 

Conclusion

The whole effort to build was simple and took less than six mouse clicks and 20 seconds, it was actually more effort travelling to Jita and buying what I didn't have off the market.

The new UI for industry takes some getting used to compared to the old method but it is far superior and very cleanly sets out the process and associated costs.

The rigs will be completed and installed on my new Noctis and then, hopefully, I can start farming new materials from sites I complete.

Combat Boosters

What are Combat Boosters

Simply put Combat Boosters are like temporary implants, when consumed the Combat Booster will temporarily (~30 minutes base) enhance a single certain combat aspect of the pilots capabilities such as increasing armour repair amount, decreasing ship signature radius or increasing the tracking of the ships weapons. 

Like Implants where you have ten slots, boosters are injected into a Booster Slot within your character. Each character has three slots and Combat Boosters can only be consumed into a free slot,. 

Combat Booster and what Booster Slot it utilises

As a result of these slots you cannot use an Exile and Mindflood at the same time, but you can use a Drop and Mindflood at the same time. The division appears as:

• Slot 1 are Tank related boosters
• Slot 2 are Turret related boosters
• Slot 3 are Missile related boosters

Combat Booster Variants

There are eight different types of Combat Booster and they come in four different strengths (for a total of 32 available). 

Available Boosters with Bonus Type

Unfortunately along with each bonus provided there is a chance that a number of penalties (also called a side effect) could occur whilst using the Combat Booster. The likely-hood of a side effect occurring is linked to the type of Combat Booster being consumed and each side effect has it's own probability of happening.

Only the Synth Combat Booster is free of any side effects and the probability of one occurring increases depending on the Strength of the Combat Booster being consumed:

Available Boosters and their Side Effect's

Example: Using a Improved Exile booster would yield a +25% increase in armour repair amount per cycle but I would have a 30% chance of one of the side effects occurring with a 25% strength.

How Do I Use Them

Firstly you must have the Biology skill injected and trained to, at least, Level 1. 

Each level that Biology is trained will grant a 20% increase in duration that any Combat Booster will be active. Two additional skills, Neurotoxin Control and Neurotoxin Recovery can be used to help reduce the chance of side effects and the severity of any that you do have.

Make sure you are carrying the Combat Booster(s) in your cargohold,  right click on the Combat Booster and select the Consume menu item to activate. If you look under the Augmentations section in your Character sheet you will see your active Combat Booster(s) and how much longer they have active.

Why Should I Use Them

Combat Boosters are powerful and can make a huge difference in any type of  fight. Carrier pilots regularly carry the Exile and/or Mindflood variants whilst Dreadnaught pilots may carry Drop and/or Frentix when "in siege" or in "gank" configurations.

That's not to say that smaller ships don't benefit, long range sniper fits can benefit from the same Drop and Frentix whereas heavily buffered and active repair ships (i.e. Triple Rep Myrm's or ASB Claymore's) can get that extra buffer from using Exile or Blue Pill.

Boosters, especially the Improved and Strong variants can be expensive for a one-use bonus but the cost is trivial compared to a fully fitted T2 ship, Battleship or Capital Ship. And if the extra you get from a booster means you survive that bit longer and are able to kill those three or four more ships then it's worth it.

Close fights are always fun but losing a ship is never fun, Combat Boosters may provide way of making sure those close fights go your way and you fly away with the glory.

Where Can I Get Them

You will find a number of Boosters, especially the Synth variant, in the various trade hubs around New Eden however due to the legality of them in these locations it's very probable that should you buy them and undock that you will receive a fine and standing loss for having them in your cargohold.

More annoying is that you cannot create Want To Sell/Item Exchange contracts that contain Combat Boosters, in order to transfer them between pilots you have to use the Trade window and that's if they're in the same station. That said it is possible to make a type of contract where Combat Boosters can be put but it requires a Want To Buy contract that can then be filled and the transfer of Combat boosters will take place.

Due to these "restrictions" I highly recommend that you find one of the few "Combat Booster Sellers" that are in New Eden. You will have to buy in bulk but these people make the boosters and also do the delivery to null and low sec, best of all as there is no market or "middle people" the prices are very competitive and special offers are usually very enticing.

I've both made and bought boosters from many sellers, some no longer around but the one that I've used in the past and hold in high regard is Saucemeister of Es and Whizz.

How Can I Make Them

I will be covering in a future post how to source raw materials and manufacture your own Combat Boosters.

Credits

I am indebted to Kirith Darkblade and Myyona for their help in researching this article. The guides written by both provided excellent confirmation and verification of the mechanics that are still within EVE Online.