Wormhole Suicide Preparations 05

I’ve renamed some of my recent posts which were referring to suicide. While I think society goes overboard with their politic correctness, it struck me this morning that the titles lacked appropriate context.

 

This is, or was, the shape of the Loki I was going to lose in a wormhole. That is until I tested it.

[Loki, WH Suicide Trip – Shield – Version 7]

Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Gyrostabilizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Shadow Serpentis Warp Scrambler
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Large Shield Extender II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Loki Defensive – Adaptive Shielding
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Interdiction Nullifier
Loki Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir

There were two main problems identified in practicing with it against my alt.

 

Locking Targets

The sensor recalibration time makes it extremely difficult to sneak up on someone, de-cloak and lock them. With my skills, this delay before I can start to target them is 6 seconds. In practise my Alt always had the time to warp away.

I tried changing tactics – approaching them, de-cloaking at 5km, hitting the MWD and trying to knock them off alignment. In the end the only ships I could catch with some level of reliability were mining barges. (I assume I could catch some industrials this way – but the ships I had at hand to test against had agility buffs, and were quick enough to get away.)

I tried just warping in on my alt at zero while un-cloaked (as if I had scanned him down). While the recalibration time was no longer a factor, from when I appeared on grid to when I dropped out of warp and could lock gave my Alt ample time to warp away.

So the only things I am going to be locking in this ship are mining barges, some industrials, the really inattentive, or ships that have already locked me. Because of what I am targeting, the Sensor Booster isn’t as necessary as I first thought.

 

DPS

EFT reports the fitting above does 254dps. In reality its performance wasn’t impressive. The 425mm’s struggled to lay down the damage if I was orbiting, or the target was orbiting me. Even though most of the ships I was testing against were tanked well and piloted by a high SP Alt, I felt it took far too long to kill them. (Or in my testing, take down the shields.)

Sort of related, I noticed I used far more ammo than expected, so I am going to have to carry more than first planned.

 

Thoughts

I won’t be that successful hunting easy targets in wormholes with this ship. In reality, most PVP I would get involved in is if another player locks me. This fit won’t hold up well there. So I need better tracking, more DPS, and more tank.

The current idea is to change to 220mm auto cannons, drop the Interdiction Nullifier for a Chassis Optimization, and increase damage:

[Loki, WH Suicide Trip – Shield – Version 8]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Shadow Serpentis Warp Scrambler
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Loki Defensive – Adaptive Shielding
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Chassis Optimization
Loki Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir

DPS is up to 325, EHP is 56K. Maybe that will work better.

(I did get a dual propulsion Sig Radius tanking Loki fit, which was my other chain of thought.  I just wouldn’t have been able to fly it well enough, so will put that away for another day.)

Invention 06 and Wormhole Suicide Preparations 04

As you might be able to tell, I actually got to spend a few hours in EVE on the weekend.

My first batch of 10 T2 Tractor Beams have come out of the oven. I did not rush them to the nearest trade hub for sale, but instead am selling them locally where the margins are a fair bit higher. The next batch is in the oven, but I need to source some Morphite before I do more.

So far I’ve run 12 invention jobs with 8 successes. The next 2 jobs are running now.

I had been wondering on how you select your invention target for BPO’s which have multiple choices – but as soon as you run your first job the method is obvious.  You just pick the Output Type.

I have been musing over the fact that I won’t be able to turn over things quick enough with just the one Toon. I will probably train my PI alt up to be able to do the copy jobs. I’ve also noticed the margin on selling T2 BPC’s can be quite good, so that is another option for profit.  Funny how these things just keep growing…

I haven’t forgotten my Wormhole suicide plans. I picked up a somewhat cheap Loki on Contract. I need to swap some of the fittings around, but it should save me about 50M on the final setup. My only cheap clones (with +3’s) were already in 0.0, so I bundled the Loki into my carrier, and jumped it and my cheapest clone back to Empire. Now I need to decide on how I am going to set it up, and then collect the required parts. I’ll start the journey off in Empire or Low Sec.

My carrier jump was slightly more eventful than planned. Even though I have used that Cyno spot successfully over a dozen times, I landed 5km off the station. I had to quickly calculate which would be faster – warp away and back again, or slow boat it. Slow boat won – but it seemed to take forever to dock.

I suspect my T3 suicide might annoy people. There have apparently been a couple (mild) comments on the Alliance killboard recently about a number of expensive Corp losses. While in reality the Alliance is pretty chilled about such things, there are still a few people who keep an eye on the losses.

The War Dec was finished with barely a loss and no fights to speak off. The aggressors were a recognisable and skilled group, so I had expected more.

Regardless, both these projects are keeping me busy in game.

Invention 05

I’ve had 5 successes from 6 attempts so far.  A good start.

The ingredients required for the T2 Small Tractor Beam are relatively straight forward:

. 1 T2 BPC
. 8 types of minerals
. 2 T1 Goods
. 1 PI Product
. 1 Product built from 3 Moon Materials

The BPC costs I have already discussed, and on average over the long run they should be around 90K for each module.

The Minerals I have in stock, but I’ve put up 250M worth of buy orders to keep in front of that demand. My alt is also contributing a little from her 10 minute mining sessions here and there.

I have kicked off the manufacturing jobs for the T1 goods (R.A.M – Energy Tech and the T1 Small Tractor Beams). I had some R.A. M already in stock, and picked up 10 tractor beams off the market from Amarr to do my first run with. (The cost was within 5% of what I was making them for anyway.)

I am not currently making the PI product (Transmitters), although might consider doing so. It accounts for only 2.4% of the build price, so no need to go overboard on that. I picked up a supply to cover over 100 modules in Amarr at sell prices.

The Moon Material based product (Laser Focusing Crystals) I have less options with. On current prices I can save around 10% by buying the raw materials, and building the ingredient myself. Given this makes up 9.5% of the build price, it might be worth looking at. I grabbed the BPO in case I went down that path.

So the first batch of 10 is now in the oven. A very conservative build price of this batch (ignoring the cost in the skills I purchased) is 1.55M each. Current sale prices in Amarr are around 2.19M. Assuming I can sell for that price, I would be looking at a profit of around 640,000 ISK per Module.

I am surprised at the margins to be honest. My actual profits will be higher than this, as I am sourcing many of the items with buy orders, saving 10% or so.

Why are my costs inflated? Because I make an allowance for Opportunity costs when I calculate the price of manufacture. If I mine the minerals, it doesn’t mean I have got them for free. By using them as an ingredient, I have forgone the ISK I could have made selling them on the market. There isn’t much use crowing about how much profit you make on an item, when it works out you would have made much more by selling the ingredients separately. In this case, there is quite a good margin in the end good.

So is this the ISK nirvana I noticed someone remark on my Corp’s forum the other day? (Who seemed to be a relatively new character, and assuming they would be rolling in ISK once they got into T2 manufacturing.) Yes and no.

I will have to make and sell around 350 T2 Small Tractor Beams before I cover my startup costs, and actually make a profit. (Although those costs will be apportioned over more items as I continue my training.) I’m already in a position to make 50 of them, so it probably won’t take all that long.

But that profit isn’t quick and easy to come by. I have to keep creating BPC’s, sourcing the invention ingredients, and turning those jobs over. I will have a lot of buy orders up for the manufacturing ingredients – which will require monitoring and tweaking, plus of course hauling to collect them all. Three of the ingredients are built off BPO – so I have to either build or source them off the market. While moving everything I am at risk of being suicide ganked. Finally I have to combine them all into the final module, and play the 0.01 ISK war to sell them while hoping the prices don’t collapse.

Given the relaxed way I approach the game, I expect I will make a profit in T2 manufacturing, but it won’t leave me rolling in ISK. It should however keep me amused, and adds another dynamic / element to my EVE experience.

Invention 04

Due to my fuel block research and copy jobs, I only had 2 slots available when my skill training for my first T2 Small Tractor Beam invention attempt completed late last night. I kicked off 2 jobs and went to bed. This morning I delivered my first success.

The next two jobs are in the lab, and I am starting to look at sourcing and costing the ingredients.

Doc ock ock ock ock ocking request accept ept ept ept epted

The latest Crucible 1.1 update appeared to conflict with my system. It caused sound, graphic and performance stuttering, which can make the game unplayable. Only so many times you can listen to “Warp Dri dri dri dri dri dri dri ve active”, and the annoying background of crackling and popping noises coming through the speakers.

It was worse if I ran two clients, or in fact did any multitasking that involved graphics or sound. It seemed to break something – the system can be fine for 6 hours, I start up EVE for the first time, get the issue after 10 minutes, log off, and the media stuttering remains. I ended up have to reboot after almost every time I played.

Funny enough this is not the first time EVE updates have caused this exact same consequence. I’m hoping 1.1.1 might have fixed something (since I haven’t had an issue with on client logged in for the last 30 minutes).  I will blow the dust out of the system tomorrow, just in case it is overheating something, update the drivers, and hope the last patch, or a soon to be released patch fixes it.  In the meanwhile, game time might be limted.

Wormhole Suicide Trip Preparations 03

[Loki, WH Suicide Trip – Sig Radius – version 2]
Damage Control II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Medium Armor Repairer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Shadow Serpentis 100MN Afterburner
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Cap Recharger II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Pump I
Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I

Loki Defensive – Amplification Node
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst
Loki Engineering – Power Core Multiplier

This quick update works a bit better – moving it up to 32K EHP.

The only thing – and the reason for this quick follow up post, is that the 100MN AB align times in EFT are 30+ seconds… ouch.  I hadn’t noticed that before.  So you won’t have that option to select warp, pulse the AB, and hit cloak. In fact, does it even have the agility to orbit in close with the AB on?

Wormhole Suicide Trip Preparations 02

I’m leaning towards burning a Loki for this little experiment. Given my lack of solo PVP skills, it should die in a horribly embarrassing and inept way, probably on my first jump. I figure it is ok if that is what I am aiming for.

The first thing I wanted to confirm was what skill points you lost

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=629

This old Dev Blog indicates it is a rank off one of the racial subsystem skills. I only have those at rank 4, so can handle that.

Next I played around with a basic setup with Covert, Exploration and Interdiction Nullifier subsystems. This one seemed to work out ok:

[Loki, WH Suicide Trip – Shield]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Invulnerability Field II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Loki Defensive – Adaptive Shielding
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Interdiction Nullifier
Loki Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir

Does 303dps, 35K EHP, resists are ok and moves at 1340m/s.

I then played around with other fittings, dropping the Interdiction Nullifier for a low sig, 100MN AB variant.

[Loki, WH Suicide Trip – Sig Radius]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Gyrostabilizer II

100MN Afterburner II
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Cap Recharger II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Pump I
Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I

Loki Defensive – Amplification Node
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst
Loki Engineering – Power Core Multiplier

Does 203dps, but only has 23K EHP, with pretty average Kinetic and Explosive resists. It does however move at around the same speed at 1360m/s. The armor rep is more about repairing after combat, given I won’t have support with me. This fitting needs more work and more EHP. I like the concept that it has a sig radius as low as an interceptor with a MWD operating, but I am not sure how that works out in reality.

Both fittings has a probe strength of 94.8.

Once I settle on a fit, I’ll go look at what reasonably priced faction modules I can use to boost things up a bit, and to give the solo rifter pilot who kills me some worthwhile loot.

In other news, the Crucible 1.1 patch notes are now available here:

http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?newpatchlogID=3382

Stumbling at the first step of a Wormhole suicide trip, plus Crucible 1.1

Given my main character hasn’t been doing much for a while, I figured I would re-fit one of my recon’s for exploration, find a wormhole, and dive in on a suicide mission to see how many of them I could travel through.

I spent a good hour or more looking at the options before settling on a shield tanked Rapier. The Probe Launcher wasn’t too hard to fit, it aligns reasonably, and I figured it had the DPS to take down easy targets.

[Rapier, Suicide WH Explorer]
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Co-Processor II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Sisters Combat Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Warrior II x8

I was able to set this up with my spares in 0.0 – except for the Probe strength rigs. I haven’t done much scanning for a while – so I figured this would also give me a refresher. I checked my clone, undocked, drop probes, warp to a safe and start scanning. And scanned. And scanned some more. I just couldn’t get the only signature in system. Part of the problem was obviously my rusty skills – but looking in EFT, the strength of the probes in the Rapier was 61.6, while in the bonused Helios I use in 0.0, they are 104.3.

So do I abandon the idea; source some Gravity Capacitor Upgrades to bring the probe strength up to 74.5; Switch to a covert ops but give up the hunting aspect of the trip; or go that extra step and setup an exploration based Loki to suicide in?

The CSM minutes from their last meeting have been released:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3377

I have a half written post on these to finish off – but I find I keep getting discouraged reading through it. There is some good stuff there – but I just can’t shake the feeling that if the CSM had their way, I would not enjoy playing EVE as much.

There was a Dev blog discussing an upcoming focus on the EVE Client and how it behaves. I support that approach. (Plus I would love to be able to run three clients on my PC again.)

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3380

Crucible 1.1 is set to be released tomorrow. An overview of the features can be found here:

http://www.eveonline.com/en/crucible/features/

Some additional information on these features can be found in this Dev blog:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3381

There are some of these I am quite looking forward too – particularly condensing chat member lists.

Last of all there were some interesting stats on the game:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3288

There is quite the flood of interesting bits and pieces on his twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/CCP_Diagoras

Well worth keeping an eye on.

When Carebears don’t die

The Alliance is under its first War Dec in a while.  It was foreseen, and related to an obvious bait POS in the Corporation’s Wormhole.  The trap was sprung deliberately for the amusement and experience, but nothing much has come from it yet.

It has had one useful side effect.  One of the recent starters – who joined full of bluster and hyperactivity, lamely smacked some of the War Targets and then boasted about it on the forums.  When it was pointed out to him that the Corp has a no smack policy, he called us hypocrites for pointing out his mistake, and rage quit. 

Our Corporation Empire dwellers have quietly gone to ground, and the Alliance Killboard shows little evidence of silly losses – so it is nice to see that even a relaxed Carebear Alliance can be relatively professional about how they play the game.

I’ve been down in 0.0 for some weeks, but not actually achieving anything.  With school holidays on, and a two year old possessed with a level of vengeful malice, I can’t string 30 minutes together without being interrupted by tantrums or tears.  And that is just my wife trying to cope, let alone what the kids are getting up to.

There was some recent Intel that there would be a concerted effort to remove us from our NPC 0.0 home.  The inference is that we don’t deserve to be there.  Interestingly you would think if you were PVP focused, that you would like a large bunch of Red Carebears living in your midst.  I suspect the Alliance don’t offer up quite enough easy kills, and hassle and kill too many of them.  It is funny how when it comes down to it, some PVP focused groups really only want easy fights.  Given it is NPC 0.0; it just comes down to perseverance more than anything. 

I sometimes question why I bother – but I keep a forlorn hope that the stars might align in real life, and I get to do more than just observe the drama while cloaked on the sidelines.

Blog Banter 32: “Non-Consensual Combat Restrictions”

This month’s Blog Banter comes from Drackarn of Sand, Cider and Spaceships. He has foolishly chosen to poke the hornet’s nest that is the non-consensual PvP debate. Whilst you read his question, I’ll be finding a safe place to hide.

“A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons’ Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an “opt out of PvP” option.

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?”

 

I recently answered this question in my “Is Hi-Sec Broken?” posts **, so will cheat and copy some of that here:

I regularly hear people in my corporation lamenting the fact you can be suicide ganked, or Can flipped, or have war declared on you.  You can imagine what the attitude towards Hulkageddon is!  For some they just don’t understand why people would want to, for others they want to be safe to do whatever they fancy. 

I love the fact Hi Sec is not 100% safe.  The three main reasons:

. It fits the EVE backstory.  Life for the vast majority of the populace in EVE is harsh and very unfair.  Read the EVE Chronicles, have a look at how many crew your ships require, and contemplate the number of them which have died over your career.  Did you give them a second thought?  An arbitrary safe zone where there is no risk at all just does not fit.

. It is part of what gives value and consequence to your actions in EVE.  When you undock a ship, you put it at risk.  If you lose it, you suffer a financial set back.  This is what puts value around your efforts to generate ISK.  The old saying “easy come, easy go” sort of explains my mindset here.  If your life in Hi Sec is 100% safe and easy, the value of your achievements (and the game itself) is diminished.

. It generates game content.  I adjust the way I play EVE to reflect its danger.  I always align to a station when mining; keep an eye on local; balance the value of what I haul etc.  Read a sample of the EVE blogs to see how many stories are generated by the danger that resides in Hi Sec.  Take that away from the game, and it will be far poorer for it.

As it is, if you take the time to educate yourself and are careful in how you play the game, you can avoid most non-consequential PVP. 

While I don’t think Hi Sec should be made safer, I also don’t think it needs to be made more dangerous.  There has to be room for people to try and limit the risks, and accept that margin of danger they cannot eliminate.  To help in that acceptance, I would like to see some of the more annoying aspects of Empire PVP be tweaked and finessed.  Idea’s as I have mentioned before, such as:

. I’d like it to be possible to sell, auction or transfer kill rights to someone else.  This is particularly useful for those with no practical way of exercising the right themselves, but still wanting the option of revenge.

. I would like it to be possible to have a limited War Dec on individual pilots in Non-Player Corporations.

. Docking games make Empire PVP too safe.  I would like to see something similar to the changes to the log off mechanism copied over to docking.  If someone is actively being aggressed – they shouldn’t be allowed to dock.

. Make aggression rules far more obvious and clear.

. Look at the faction police response times for pilots with very low sec status who board ships in space while in Empire. 

. Make Shield Dec’s illegal

. Allow the option for aggressors to put a ransom amount on a War Dec, which if paid to them invalidates the war.  (Have this be immediately effective if shooting has not begun, or within an hour or so if it has.) 

. Allow mercenaries or allies to join under the umbrella of an existing war – on the side of the defenders.  This will go active either when the original war does, or after a shorter period of time, such as 6 hours, if it is already active.  This shouldn’t count in the calculations of how expensive the War Dec is.   Make it easier for those being targeted to gather help, or conversely give the aggressors more targets.

This is a random mixed bag of ideas impacting both sides of the fence – but the basic concept is to try and move away from using game mechanics to manipulate Hi Sec PVP, and put the emphasis back on game play.

 

A list of participants (that will be updated by the owner as time permits) can be found here:

http://freebooted.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-banter-32-non-consensual-combat.html

 

** The full posts can be found here: Is Hi-Sec Broken – Part 1 and Part 2  

Invention Investigations 03

The skills are slowly ticking over and the BPC coming in – so it is time to get a little more serious.

For T2 Invention attempts you need:

. The required skills

. A blueprint copy of the T1 item

. One specific data interface

. Two specific types of datacores

. Access to an invention slot

 

Optionally, you can also adjust your chances and the end BPC attributes with:

. A named T1 item that you are researching for

. A suitable decryptor

I also probably helps to assume things are not black and white – as Serpentine Logic’s comment to my last post suggested.

 

Skills

I will start with the T2 Small Tractor Beams.  I have the required skills now, but I was planning to get rank 4 for each of them.  I did not however use concrete facts behind that decision – it just seemed like a good idea.  After a Google search I found this useful Invention Chance calculator:

http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/invention_chance.php

Inventing T2 modules has a 40% base chance of success.  You need at least rank 1 in the appropriate encryption and datacore skills, so in reality you will have a 42% chance of success.  A quick check at rank 4 shows the chance increases to 48.3%.  That seems a worthwhile starting point.

If I was to spend 60 odd days to train up rank 5 in the three related skills, the chance of success would increase to 50.4%.  That’s nice, but not really worth chasing after given this is just a casual effort.  So I have about a fortnight of training before I will make my first invention attempt.

 

BPC

I have some 700 odd BPO in my library, so can source the majority of the BPC I might need myself.  Very few however are duplicates, so if I wanted to get into this in any sort of volume I would need to buy extra BPO to generate copies from.

I have generated 20 max run Small Tractor Beam BPC already, and just kicked off a second job to create 20 more of them.  That will be ready in a bit over a fortnight.  I can see some forward planning and patience will be required when using public slots of this.

My initial reading suggests that T2 Module BPC will have 1 to 10 runs – depending on how many runs were on the T1 Module BPC used.  I hope because I am using max run BPC that I will get 10 run copies upon a success.  I guess it could also mean I have a chance of 1 to 10 run – where as if I used 50% max run BPC I might only have a chance of 1 to 5 runs.  I guess I will find out soon.

 

Data Interface

I scourged the hodgepodge of stuff I have collected over the years, and found I already had 9 of the 12 invention data interfaces.  Of course these were mostly just the cheap ones.  For my experiment I was missing the Occult Ship Data Interface for the Amarr Assault Frigate.  You only need one of these – they are spat out immediately upon the start of the invention attempt, and can be re-used.  I didn’t bother doing much research, and just picking it up for 27M in Amarr.  I already had an Occult Data Interface for the T2 Tractor Beam and the Esoteric Ship Data Interface for the Caldari Interceptor.

 

Datacores

I need 1 High Energy Physics and 1 Laser Physics datacore for each invention attempt for the tractor beams.  I had a few in stock, but basically just picked up enough in Amarr to try 50 invention attempts for each of the 3 items I am looking at.  This cost 73M in Amarr on sell orders.  I could have saved 10% if I waited around with Buy orders, but I wasn’t interested in spending the time.  I split my purchases and cleared them out of the main Amarr station in two lots, to lessen the chance of being ganked.

 

Invention slot

There are plenty free at the moment, but I have noticed all being used up at other times.  I’ll just have to put up with whatever situation I find when I am ready.

 

The Optional

There are no named T1 versions of the three things I am looking to invent, so I don’t need to worry about those.

The Decryptors will be harder to work out if they are worth it or not.  I suspect not for modules.

In Amarr, Small Tractor Beams are selling for 1M, T2 Small tractor beams for 2.3M.  Given you will need a T1 version of the module to build the T2 that means very roughly you need to be able to invent and create the T2 module for under 1.3M.  I haven’t looked at the manufacturing costs – but that is the starting figure I will be keeping in the back of my mind.

Assuming I read correctly, a max run BPC should mean each success will create a 10 run T2 BPC with ME -4 and PE of -4.  Each attempt will cost around 450K in datacores.  Assuming near on 50% success over time, the basic cost of each success will be 900K, or 90K ISK per module.  If I get serious I can lower my datacore prices to buy prices, which would give roughly a 10% saving.  Maybe more if I shopped around.

I have five decryptor choices for the Tractor Beam invention.

The Cicular Logic reduces the success chance by 0.6 and ME by -2, for an additional 9 runs.  Or – given their current price, my rough calculations would be that it would increase the average invention cost per module from 90K to 820K, and drop ME to -6.  That doesn’t make sense.

The Sacred Manifesto increases the maximum run by 2 and the ME by 1.  Based on current costs, my rough calculation is that it would increase the average cost per module from 90K to 825K, and increase the ME to -3.  Given I need to invent and manufacture within 1.3M, you would discount this one as well.

The Formation Layout, Classic Doctrine and War Strategon all increase the average invention cost per module to well past 1.3M, so it doesn’t matter what ME improvements they provide, I can’t make a profit using them with Tractor Beams.

 

Summary

I hope to get around a 50% success rate for my Invention attempts on T2 Small Tractor Beams, at an average cost of 90K per unit on a 10 run BPC.  I won’t be using decryptors.   I have all datacores required for 50 attempts, and just need to wait a couple weeks for skills to run down and the extra BPC to be generated.

Given the initial review on decryptors, they don’t seem worth using for module invention.

 

Total spend on this experiment so far – skill books and invention supplies, is around 152M ISK.

Next steps –keep a focus on the skills required for the T2 Frigate invention, while starting to look at the manufacturing process and costs.  I assume I will have more skills to train, and probably more BPO to buy.

 

The missed T2 Invention Post

In the last days of 2011 I decided I would bite the bullet and try my hand at T2 Invention and building.  These first steps are not aimed at profitability – but just to understand and try out the game mechanic.

I arbitrarily decided try to build T2 Small Tractor Beams, Caldari Interceptors and Amarr Assault Frigates – simply as I knew my main could make use of them, regardless how much they cost me to make.

While my main has many of the required skills already – I decided to concentrate my efforts around Alt 2 – my Empire Industry Toon.

Continuing my laissez-faire approach, I didn’t start by doing any reading.  I just looked at the BPO for Small Tractor Beams, Condors and Punishers, clicked on the Invention Tab, and set up an EVEMon skill plan based on what I was missing.

 

The primary hits were Science V, Engineering V and Mechanics V.  I then had Amarr and Caldari Encryption Methods, Amarrian and Caldari Startship Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, High Energy Physics and Laser Physics to get.  The skill plan was some 45 days, just arbitrarily selecting rank IV in all of those as I had memories that it impacts your invention chances.   (It does.)  I had a couple of these skill books lying around, but had to buy most of them off the market.  This cost 52M ISK.

I knew you needed BPC to invent off, so I moved the 3 BPO to a public science station and kicked off copy jobs.  Again I had vague memories that max run copies might impact the number of runs an invented T2 BPC would have – so that is what I did.  (It does and it doesn’t.  It impacts invention of modules and ammo, but not the Frigate copies I was making.)

So far in the process I have trained Science V and Engineering V, and Mechanics V finishes within the day.  The Encryption method skills are at rank II, as are High Energy Physics and Laser Physics.  I have 20 max run Small Tractor Beam BPC, and in a fortnight will have the Condor and Punisher copies (13 of each).

Meanwhile I also picked up a 5 run, 20ME, 0PE BPC for a Buzzard for a couple Mil.  Interestingly, and if I read things right, that would have had to of come from a Buzzard BPO.  To build those I will need Electronic Engineering – so that has been added to my skill queue, and I will have to spend another 10M for the book.

Finally – a little late in the process, I read this:

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invention

 

So things have started off ok – with the only wasted effort so far being on copying max run Frigate BPCs.  I will get the various skills to rank IV before I try my first invention.

Next I need to look at the ingredients used in invention, see what I have collected by chance over time, and start filling in the gaps.  I might as well organise whatever I am missing from the 12 data interfaces.  I can see either spread sheets in my near future, or using some of the invention tools to work out where decryptor’s are best used, and where they are not.  The items I am starting with don’t have meta variations, so that doesn’t come into the equation.

Inventing these is actually going to be the easy part (relatively speaking).  The manufacturing is going to require even more planning on how best to either build or source the ingredients.  I can see this is going to keep me busy for quite a while.

Updates expected in Tranquility by the end of January

After a quiet period over Christmas, CCP have released new dev blogs discussing some of the updates expected to be live in Tranquility towards the end of the month:

These include updates to the Neocom:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3362

 

And more of Team BFF’s excellent little tweaks and polish:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3365

 

I must admit the Neocom changes don’t look that interesting, although being able to customise what is shown will probably be worthwhile.  Team BFF though is giving us some great little game tweaks.  I will certainly make use of the filter box on the training queue.  Watch lists increased to 15, and now supporting drag and drop is nice.  The compact chat member list options are excellent – especially when displaying local in 0.0.

I have had a quiet few days as far as EVE is concerned, only logged in to change skills and have missed a cycle or two of PI and trading.  The consequence of having to go back to work, and suffering from more wife and child agro than normal.

The clean out sale has completed.  I sold the Mining Foreman Mindlink for 545M.  I checked the Jita price afterwards and found they were going for around 490M, so that was a reasonable price.  After the EOS sold the total proceeds were just over 1.6B ISK.  Funny how much expensive junk you accumulate over time.

My Main is a couple days off Fighters IV.  His Capital related skill queue is down to a manageable 138 days now.  Alt 1 has less than a day to get Heavy Assault Missiles V.  He has about 36 days to cover off the remainder of the skills required to fully T2 fit the medium gun/turret options used by Minmatar.  Alt 2 has picked up Engineering V, and is working on Mechanics V now – prerequisite skills for what she needs for invention.

I will have to try and spend a bit of time in EVE later today.

Where are the Carebear blogs?

Ardent Defender raised an interesting question on his blog – why do PVP type blogs dominate the EVE online sphere.

http://ardentdefense.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/why-so-few-non-pirate-lownullsec-wh-eve-blogs/

There were plenty of interesting comments, including a number from well-known bloggers. They boiled down to:

. Carebearing as a topic was somewhat limited, so don’t tend to last as long

. Carebears were less likely to have interesting drama to discuss

. Carebears did not like giving intel to their competitors or griefers

While there are always exceptions to the rule, I think that covers the basics.

Some of the comments also alluded towards the fact that Carebears, by the nature of how they play and what they do, are boring.  That elicited a chuckle.

I hadn’t noticed the disparate spread of EVE blogs before, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is there. Most of the blogs I follow tend to be Carebear in nature.  I find I relate to the subject matter and the views of the writers, and can often find useful tips and ideas on what I might try.  Most of these seem to have been around for a while.

It did get me thinking – why are these blogs apparently bucking the trend?  They follow some of the traits outlined in the comments, being vague about the exact specifics of what they do, or where they are operating from, and discussing avoiding PVP over seeking it out.

The answer seems obvious.  First, they have an agreeable writing style.  Second – they don’t just talk about the mechanics of what they are doing in game.  They discuss the politics, interactions with other players, upcoming features, their plans and experiments, CCP’s latest dramas, old and new rules, and so on and so forth.  Basically the same sort of things that the good PVP blogs tend to do.

 

(This is obviously a Carebear’s blog. I feel I cheat however – I write it for myself, and base its success on how well it keeps me focused on and enjoying the game. The fact people write interesting comments on it every so often is just an unintended benefit.)

(This is an updated version of this post.  I wasn’t entirely happy with the first attempt.)

Carebearing

As my back continues to slowly improve, I have been finding myself in EVE more and more of late.  The last few days in particular I have been very active.

I glanced down while updating my trade orders recently and noticed I had passed the 1B ISK on my buy orders.  I wondered if I had enough ISK in the Corp wallet to cover the full amount, and found that I did.  It is funny how the process just slowly builds momentum, even when you are not putting in much effort.

I do cringe when I read about the much larger profits other bloggers make with their industrial efforts.  Mine are woefully inadequate in comparison – but then again, so are my efforts.  I am happy enough with how things are plodding along.

The enforced fine tuning of my PI efforts are reaping rewards.  The change to 2 day cycles, updated layouts, and (due to taxes) much more careful selection and balancing of extraction means I am making as much in two days as I was in a week before Crucible.  While I am not working at it religiously every 2 days, and I expect prices to drop, even based on conservative estimates my profits have doubled.  I can even see plenty of opportunities to improve things even further.

Trading turnover continues its slow but steady increase.  My move into larger hulled ships has worked out better than expected.  While volumes are low, the margins are very good.  Flipping several hulls a week at profits between 10 and 40M each starts to add up.

If I maintain this overall effort, it is going to be interesting to see where the Corporation Bank Balance is by the end of 2012.

My T2 experimental production plans are moving along.  The required skills have a bit less than 40 days to go now, while the initial burst of blueprint copying and preparations should all be done in 25 odd days.  There are ingredients I am not familiar with, so I have to go investigate them, and see if I need further BPO’s.

My Xmas gift fuel block BPO’s still have about 26 days to go for their ME research (still queued), then will be swapped to PE.   I have 6+ months’ worth of fuel (small POS) to convert to blocks when those are all done.

Finally I ran across the map to pick up a few surplus ships I had been ignoring for a while now – mostly PVE related, a couple command ships, a couple Eris I used to use for salvaging, even a couple Noctis.  I gave these to Alt 2 to sell.  During my hanger clean up I found a Mining Foreman Mindlink, which I think I got in a mission years ago, which was worth around 10M at the time.  A quick glance at the market shows they are selling for over 500M now, so I decided to cash that one in.  These sales have earnt over 500M so far, with some 700M still to go.  It seemed like a good time to go through the process, since prices on many items have really gone up over the last couple months.  For example I sold a Megathron for 101M, which I purchased a couple months ago for 83M.