Setting up - The Miner

After the removal of the Learning Skills my carefully crafted plan took a beating. But I suppose the main idea is still the same. Let's see how we can further develop the Corporation.

Of course the Miner pilot is the last link in the Reversed Industrial chain.

Use an appropriate name and portrait because you might want to resell this pilot later on. (or not) but a good miner can fetch a nice return in the Character Bazaar.

This is a High maintenance character who needs a lot of training and equipment.

Use the "Hulk from Scratch" training plan. This was developed at Eve University prior to the Incursion patch so it still mentions the Training skills.

Use some implants if you can afford them at the start (Optional) 40 millions for +3 implants. Then train Cybernetics level 1 to install them. They will reduce the training time.


Hulk from Scratch requires 77 days 20 hours and 34 minutes and costs 39,785,000 ISK in Skill Books.
Not mentioning the cost of the Hulk itself but then you will have manufacturers and traders able to handle that by the time you can fly one.

You want to start mining as soon as possible with the available ships during training. This will take 42 days or 51 days without the implants and only costs 6 millions to fly a Covetor.

Of course your Manufacturer will be making those ships from the Corporation goods and the miner will start contributing to the stockpile of Ore.

The Hulk can deliver 181,920 units of Omber per Hour. At an average of 59 ISK per unit this Beast is capable of earning well over 10 millions an hour. Far more with the Above setup using value added. Ore > Minerals > Manufacture > Retail with at least a 20% profit at each stage you could expect 18 millions an hour.

At the current PLEX cost of 700 Millions ISK and since we need 2 PLEXs per month at least (for 2 accounts), ie. 1,400 millions it will take just about 78 hours per month to generate.

Happy Mining!

EVE Online: Incursion - Cinema Cut

Setting up - The Manufacturer

This can be an Alt character on your first account or a trusted friend.
If you have a friend interested then send a "Buddy Invite email". You will get a free 30 days on your account when they pay for their first subscription.
You reward them by sending ISK for their training books.

This pilot has a shorter training plan and less maintenance than the previous one. It will be of the same race as the Trader to avoid long a tedious relocation trips.

Get a Training Plan to Production Manager Basic Certificate for 8 hours and 520,000 ISK of Skill Books. Transfer this amount from your Trader.
You can do the Industry Tutorials while waiting for this training.

If using an Alt in your first account then interrupt training of your Main when you have at least the Business Mogul Certificate.
Only one character can train at anyone time.

Then Plan to at least Production Manager Standard Certificate for 17 days and 10.5 millions ISK.

If you made the right choice of system and station then this pilot will not need a ship at all. It will just get the needed minerals from the trader, manufacture the goods and deliver them to the Trader to be sold.

Using Blueprints and minerals given from the Retailer start manufacturing bulk runs of items.
Note the time required for production and log on to get deliveries and give the finished products to the retailer.
This can be done in only a few minutes every day.

At this stage you will start having some problems with transfering goods between pilots. The answer is to have a Corporation hangar to store those goods. See the CEO page for more info.
Having a Corporation makes it easier to transfer equipment but costs ISK a month to rent the office. Variable costs depending on the system.


But first save enough ISK to fund the next Alt pilot.

If you arrived first at this page please go to the start for the full story.

Setting up - The CEO

Don't forget to download the best Guide ever made for EVE Online.

The next Alt Pilot you will need should be the Manufacturer but because of the extra hassle of transfering goods between pilots it is better to have a Corporation and used it's hangar to do that.
As soon as your Trader (see previous Blog) has enough training then start a new character preferably of the same race to avoid long relocation trips and to be able to fly the same ships.

This is a fast training Low maintenance pilot. One of the previous ones could become a CEO but it is better to have a separate Alt to take advantage of the faster training under 1.6 million Skill Points.

NOTE: With CCP removing the Learning Skills this Plan might be slightly different.

It takes only 7 hours and costs 180,000 ISK in skill books. Pause the training of the previous pilot to train the CEO. Transfer enough ISK to also create the Corporation and open an office in your selected station.
Invite the other pilots and make them all Directors so they have full access to the Corporation wallets. Make the Tax rate very high. This will also discourage other players to even request to join.

The Corporation will collect all the ISK but will also pay all the bills.
At this stage you can restart the training of one of the other pilots. The CEO should still login every couple of days to keep the Corporation up to date.

Your Corporation is now collecting purchased Minerals and Blueprints aiming at selling the items every new player will eventually purchase in the starting system. You know from playing the Trader what those items are. You are also buying the items commonly dropped in the early missions. You are using Corporation wallet to buy and sell all and you transfer all items to the Corporation hangar so other pilots have access.

There is a Tool that will be useful to run your Corporation. It is called EVE Multiuse  Economic Efficiency Planer or EVE-MEEP in short.
WARNING: this tool is not for the casual player. It is fairly complex and not easy to setup and use but with some perseverance it will greatly increase your ability to earn ISK.

If you just arrived to this Blog page, start reading from here.

In the Mean Time - The Guide

While reading the latest E-ON magazine (#21) I came across an article about this Guide:

No matter if you are a beginner who is just getting familiar with the game or a trader who is trying his wings, maybe a fierce pirate, a determined miner, a pilot who has the experience of the years in mission running, there is no pilot who tried and did everything or knows everything in this universe. This writing is also beneficial to them, known as Industrial-Sized Knowledgebase. (ISK)

This book covers most of the possibilities of Eve-Online. If you wish to know something, just look it up in this book. You do not have to know everything from memory what is included here, just open the I.S.K. and you will find your answer.

You will have no answers for many questions in the beginning of the game; lots of things and expression will be unfamiliar to you. Not even what you need to do or ask will be clear at first.

Do not worry, the important things are: read first and then ask there are always answer and help for everything.

Fly Safe! 

ISK (Industrial-Sized Knowlegebase)

This is a wonderful opportunity for new players as well as old hands to learn something. This 415 pages Full Colour Manual contains everything you need to know about EVE Online and more. Originally written in Rumanian then translated into English it represents years of dedicated work. And the best part of it is that it's FREE.
You can download the ZIP file or the PDF and if you want to donate some PayPal money to the well deserving Authors you can also go straight to their website.

Setting up - The Trader - part 3

I had a couple of fairly good trading sessions since my last Blog.

Found those two systems in a dead end pocket. There was a bit of scary jump on the way there from my main base. Had to cross a Lowsec system but all was quite. I had the Local Chat window open and there wasn't a single ship in there. But then with my local Time Zone, it's not surprising.

Once past that danger zone, the rest was dead easy. I had opportunities in 2 different commodities with 2 stations selling them and 2 other station buying. I wish I could fly a bigger transport ship.
The whole process gets a bit repetitive but I ended up with a nice 10 millions ISK profit in just a couple of hours.
First I would Dock at one of the station selling cheap. Purchase the lot using the Corp wallet. Get it delivered to my Hangar.
I even found that I could purchase the same amount again and again.. So I quickly acquired a nice stockpile.
Next Job is to transport all to the Buying station. There was one in the same system. But I didn't resell straight away. Any sale would alter the prices so I just transported enough from my stockpile to fulfil the purchase order then sell.
Double check the prices to see if it's still profitable and transport another lot.
Spin.. Rinse.. Repeat until the price drops lower than my bottom line for profit. Look for sale taxes..

And then there was that second commodity that had exactly the same characteristics. Two selling stations and two buying stations.
Of course after a while the prices collapsed and there was no more profits to get. But just have to wait a day or two and do another trip there. I definitely will have to find a few more of those systems and exploit them.

For the next part of the Setting up see the CEO.
If you just arrived to this Blog page, start reading from here.

Setting up - The Trader - part 2

Whoa!... 12 millions ISK, 26 millions, 11 millions... ??? "And where are you going to find that much cash?" I hear you asking.
Well.. This is going to be an expert Trader character so you better start learning about Trading.
Let's start with this Basic Trading Guide from Tentonhammer.

There are several types of Trading in EVE Online.

1- There is the in-station Trading - often referred to as the 0.1 ISK game - because you constantly adjust the prices by 0.1 ISK to beat your competitor prices.
This game consists in Purchasing at a low price and in large quantity of an item and then resell them at a profit. Sale orders are placed using the advance button in the Market window. You usually set a buying price higher than the other traders, set the duration for 3 months, pay the deposit and wait... Check the prices often and adjust (by 0.1 ISK) if needed to beat the competition.
The advantage of this method is that it doesn't even require a ship to fly so there is no risk of being ambushed by Pirates.
The disadvantage is that it requires a large amount of cash to get started and a good understanding of the market but it works almost the same as Share Trading in real life.

2- The other method of trading is more opportunistic and consist in finding the cheapest price for an given item, travelling to that system to purchase it and then transport the cargo to another system to resell for a much higher price.
The advantage of this method is that it is less boring than staying in a station all the time. But of course it is less safe and you can run into a bunch of pirates just waiting for this kind of transporters. 
The main disadvantage is that you are limited by the amount of cargo your ship can carry as well as your investment capital.
This method can be used for trading within a system, between two system in the same region or even between regions.

3- There is also a way to buy and sell using Contracts but great care is required due to the amount of scams possible with these contracts. Read this Tale of a scam gone wrong to understand how difficult it is to get good contracts.

The Tools of Trade:
Apart from the EVEMon utility that you should have already acquired when starting your first account there are several useful applications to use for Trading.




Eve-Central Market Aggregator and Trade Finder.
I suggest that you download their Contribtastic Upload Utility. This small program sits in the background and scan your market cache to upload the most up-to-date prices to the database. Fresh price lists is a must have for Trading.
The Eve-Central Trade finder can be opened in you IGB (in game browser) and you can then select a system or region to trade to and from. It then scans the website database for the most profitable trades given your parameters. Only as reliable as the freshness of the data so you still need to check the prices manually. But it should give you a good idea to start from.

The Navbot utility is another Trading Tool that you can use.
This one is based on your personal prices checks. And you need to save/export each market display for the items you want to trade. Of course you have to know which item will be good to trade in the first place.
You should keep a list of those items that you needed to purchase yourself while doing the tutorials as well as those items you collected. Most new players will buy and sell those exactly same items. A good place to start.
Other items to look at for trading are the ammunitions used by your Race. Everybody needs ammo. You can also look at the Trading Goods and Industrial Goods in the Market Browser. (HINT: check Holoreels, Electronic Equipment and Tobacco)

EVE Trader is a handy little utility that shows all your trading activity with nice report screens.

Now see the Setting up Trader part 3.
If you just arrived to this Blog, start reading from there.

Setting up - The Trader

The Trader

The first Pilot in the first account that is needed is a Trader.
Regardless of your daily activities, you always need to buy and sell stuff.
Do the Tutorials as well as the Career Agent missions. Each has 10 missions and the 10th for each agent has a special reward.

They supply the needed ISK and Skill Books to get started but another advantage is they let you collect the items that every new player will also get. Do Not sell any of them. Keep them for further reference.

You probably want to do the Military Missions first and get some better ship and guns. Always useful when in space.

After 72 hours you get your account API (although I read somewhere that you could get the API just after creating your account) use the API to get EVEMon and design your training plan.

First aim at the Entrepreneur Basic Certificate. It takes about 12 days and costs 12.66 millions ISK.
During this time, you can select a system where your Corp will be Headquartered. It will be a 0.7 or 0.6 sector with a Station offering a good selection of services and agents.
Start running missions for the local agents to raise your connections and start getting valuable Loyalty Points. You also start trading both in the station buy and sell using market orders but also running trade routes abroad importing and exporting goods. If you find that your first choice of station is not ideal, it is easy to relocate somewhere else at this stage.
You will probably also find out that you need some other skills to get a large transport ship.
Once you obtain your certificate you can either aim at the Entrepreneur Standard Certificate for an extra 12 days and 23 millions ISK or pause this pilot training to start your second Alt.
Buying and selling goods is fine but you can get a better profit with some value added to these goods.
Save enough ISK to fully fund your next pilot. (about 11 millions ISK)

More about the Trader in Part 2
If you just arrived to this Blog, start reading from there.

Setting up - Profession Choices in EVE Online.

Profession Choices in EVE Online.

Why do we need to know?
Mostly because there are so many different skills in EVE that a players would need more than 28 years of real life time to know them all.

The Jack-of-all-Trades is not a valid profession in EVE because he/she will never be good enough at anything.
The player must make choices and specialize to be successful but also to be able to find employment with a big Corporation.

Of course in the first few days you will want to try a variety of tasks and that's fine.
Actually the Tutorials and Advanced Tutorial are good for that. It is highly recommended to try and finish each of the Advanced Tutorials because they not only teach how things are done but they also provide with a nice set of equipment and cash.

Each Advanced Tutorial can be started at any time and in any order even all of them at the same time if you wish.
Some missions require a certain skill to be trained to use the equipment so another mission could be attempted in the mean time.

After the Advanced Tutorial there is also another Epic series known as the Sisters Epic Arc of some 50+ missions. If some mission is too hard for you, just bring a friend along by forming a fleet and sharing the spoils.

But first lets think about your main choices:

There are 2 main types of professions or Path.

First is the non-violent path known in EVE as Carebears.

It comprises any or all of those:

99% of the items in Eve are manufactured by players out of components also manufactured by players out of Minerals refined by players out of Ore mined by players.

Mining:
Warp to an asteroid belt and use a Miner laser to extract some ore. Simple and free after purchasing the equipment. Relatively safe when done in Hisec space (0.9 or 1.0 sec).
This activity is a favourite of the down and trodden and is used after a disaster to recover some cash. Can be done in the rookie ship with a small civilian miner and right up to the large strip mining operations with huge ships and mining drones, strip miners, protection war ship, transporters etc..
There is also a different form of mining used in Planetary activities producing a whole new set of minerals and components. Introduced in a recent expansion these components where previously seeded by NPCs only.

Refining:
Given the suitable skills at a high enough level, the recently mined ore (or purchased) can be refined into a variety of minerals.
Then again this profession can be used occasionally (the minerals take far less cargo space than the ore itself) or pushed to high level elite refineries.
Also done in Planetary activities.

Manufacture:
Using a Blueprint in a station with the correct facilities and given the required minerals, a Capsuler (pilot) can manufacture most items instead of purchasing them on the local market.
Specialised skills are also necessary.

Research:
The time and material costs of manufacture can be reduced by doind a suitable research. As always the necessary skills must first be acquired and trained to a suitable level.

Transport:
Once the goods are manufactured and/or purchased, they can be transported to another system where there is a greater demand. There are some Huge Industrial and Jump freighters carrying goods all over the galaxy to satisfy the demands of those who like to destroy things. 

Trade:
Buy Low and Sell High is the motto of all traders anywhere in any world. A simple concept to undersatand but hard to master.
Some trade without even flying a ship anywhere by placing market orders and waiting for them to be fulfilled.
Other prefer to buy in a system and resell somewhere else for profit.
The choice is yours.

The other path is for the more aggressive players.

Missions:
In the same fashion as the tutorials, missions can be obtained in various systems from a number of NPCs.
It is beneficent to work for a few select NPCs preferably in a single Corporation to raise your status with that Corp. Raising your status will give access to a higher level of NPC (from 1 to 3) and a higher difficulty of missions.
The NPC's quality is a reflection of the rewards you can expect from his/her missions.
The NPC's profession dictates the type of mission you may get.

Salvage:
During Missions the salvage skill and equipment lets you recover valuable items from the "rats" wrecks.
Sometimes more value than the mission reward itself.
A salvage ship will have one or more Salvager beam and one or more tractor beam. The tractor helps to gather the wrecks from great distances without travelling yourself.

Military:
Militia and some missions are known as PVE (player versus Environment).
You can join a Militia group in a specific area and work your way up a military style ladder.
There are rewards, ranks and medals to be obtained as well as the usual salvaging along the way.

Pirates and War:
PVE is the easy form of combat.
The really hard combat is against other human players. Known as PVP (Player versus Player) this form of combat is for either individual marauders pirating the trade routes or small groups camping near a Gate usually in Lowsec systems (0.5 or less)
A form of combat is also known as "can flippers", these individuals wait in ambush near a rookie area with a small cargo pod jettisoned near the station. There idea is that an unsuspecting beginner will try to take the cargo pod (Jet Can) and by doing so "flip" it and become the aggressor (red Id in the display).
The pirate is then able to attack the new player with impunity.
Not much reward but it usually satisfies this type of low life.

The real combat is done by Huge fleet when at war with another alliance.
There has been some wars involving 100's of players with losses of battleships worth in the Billions or even more.


Skill Training for new Capsulers:

It is not possible to get an EVE api key for the first 72 hours after creating an account. But it is important to get this API as soon as possible.
The API lets you (or a 3rd party app) access your public details offline.

The first needed application to download is EVEMon.
EVEMon as the name suggests monitors your account and characters. The first use is to find the skills you need to train in priority.
You can find a large ship you would like to use in the future and fit it with some fancy gadgets. Each require specialised skills.
EVEMon can draw a training plan for you and indicate all the prerequisites for this piece of equipment.
There is no need to train useless skills (to you) just concentrate on what you need.

But lets see what we can do during the first 72 hours before getting this API.

Neural Remap:
A Capsuler is born with a given set of Stats. These stats can be modified using a Remap.
You start with 2 available remaps and you are given another only once a year. No more.

But you may notice that there are 2 stats mainly used in training. Intelligence and Memory.
So the first thing to do as soon as you dock on your first time in EVE is to make use of that.

Open your Character sheet (top left) and see the button for Stats or Attributes.
Select Remap and accept the consequences. You won't regret it.

First reduce the secondary stats (Perception, Charisma and Willpower) down to 5 each.
Increase Intelligence by +1
And increase Memory to the maximum with the remaing points.

Double check and accept. That should read 9 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 15 (or close to it depending on your race)

Good now you can learn better.
Now it is important to acquire and train the Learning skills as soon as possible.

At the same time as you are doing the tutorials, try to purchase first the following skills from the learning section of the Market.
Skill Books are available in all rookie stations.

Analytical Mind I (1 point bonus to your Intelligence attribute per skill level.)
Instant Recall I (1 point bonus to your Memory attribute per skill level.)
Learning I (2% bonus per level to all attributes resulting in a overall faster skill training time.)
Analytical Mind II
Analytical Mind III
Analytical Mind IV (prerequisite for Logic I)
Logic I (Adds 1 additional point to your Intelligence attribute per skill level.)
Instant Recall II
Instant Recall III
Instant Recall IV (prerequisite for Eidetic Memory)
Eidetic Memory I (Adds 1 additional point to your Memory attribute per skill level.)
Learning II
Logic II
... etc..
By this time you should be more than 72 hours old... and get your own EVEMon running.
All of these Learning skills are valid for any profession since they speed up the training of all other skills. You could save 100's of days to your desired Plan.
Actually EVEMon will suggest these if you don't already have them.
Next I will look at Setting up a Trader
If you just arrived to this Blog, start reading from there.

First Steps - part 3 - The One-Man-Corp

Everyone in EVE Online will tell you... This is a PvP game (Player vs Player) with some PvE (Player vs Environment) thrown in.
Sure. But... Every piece of junk flying in space is built by players. So those PvP pilot who love to destroy each other on a daily basis need someone somewhere to build their replacement ships and modules.

This is how I came to think of the One-Man-Corp Concept.

First I need a Trader to sell goods and purchase raw material. Then I train a Manufacturer to produce those raw materials. Of course it only make sense to also Refine the Mineral from raw Ore myself. And finally I need a Miner to dig the Ore at no cost instead of buying it from others. And all of them work within the same Corporation.
Why reverse the process? Why not start Mining first? Most players do but to train an efficient Miner requires a lot of cash to purchase the Skill Books. Without tyhe cash you are left to train secondary skills first and waste the precious bonus.
There is a Training Plan available to get into a Hulk (Best Mining Ship) in just 42 Days. But unfortunately this also has a price tag of around 40 millions ISK and more to get a full set of Implants (that speed up training even more) This is fine for people who have played for a long time but not for a new starter.

The better alternative is to start Trading and Mission Running first. And this I will examine in my next Blog.
If you just arrived to this Blog, start reading from there.

First Steps - part 2 - the Races

There are 4 main Races in EVE Online. Each Race also has 3 Bloodlines and 3 starting professions for a total of 36 different selections. But Races are mostly cosmetic and do not give any special benefits. Any Capsuler of any race can cross train to fly ships of another race.
The only difference is the graphics of the starting rookie ship and the location.

The Ammar:

The Caldary:

The Galente:

The Minmatar:

 

The Jovian is a non-playable Race:

Also see the Offical Guide to Character Creation

Now that you are ready to play, make sure to do the Tutorials. Even if you are an experienced player it is highly beneficial to do the Tutorials because they give you some starting money and necessary Rookie Skill Books.
Did I mention that you need to do the Tutorials?

After you finish the basic Tutorials, you can start with the Basic Professions missions. Those are just a series of Advanced Tutorials and also give money (ISK) and Skill Books, Equipment, etc.. Do them all and in any order you want. You can even start several at the same time.


In my next Blog I will look at the Concept of the One-Man_Corp
If you just arrived to this Blog, start reading from there.

First Steps - part 1 - Let's get started the right way.

So you think you have what it takes to become a successful EVE Online Capsuler?
Pilots are known as Capsulers in EVE Online because they spend their life in a Capsule.
 

Tyrannis is the 2010 expension of EVE Online

Now there is a fast way to start and that is to get a Buddy Invitation. You get an email from a friend and following the link to the download and new account creation you get a 21 days free trial. And since you are reading this blog, I can offer the first 3 people who ask, one of these buddy offers.
What's the Catch?
Very simple. I do get a free month subscription if you upgrade to a full paid account.
What's in it for you?
Must be some incentive if I am to see anyone ever applying. Right? Of course there is.
First I can offer you all the advice you will ever need especially for the first few days. What skill to learn, what to buy and where, the scams to avoid, etc. But then you can get all of that just from reading guides and blogs so I can offer more.
As soon as you upgrade your trial account to fully paid (and I receive my own bonus for it) I can donate to you the much needed game money (known as ISK - InterStellar Kredits, EVE's premier currency) to help you purchase your equipment much faster.
Just post a comment indicating that you are interested.

Alternatively you can start your own account just to get the feel of the game. But why is it so important to get started the right way? It's all to do with Skill Training. EVE Online doesn't have Levels like other games. Instead you purchase Skill Books (and some are very expensive) and use the books to train the skill.
Training is going on 24/7 even if you are offline as long as you have them lined up in a training queue.
There is no shortage of skills to learn. Someone calculated that it would take at least 27 years in real time to learn them all. And CCP also adds more new skills regularly. This means that you need to specialise to be successful. A Jack-of-all-trade will never be successful.

CCP is the Developer of EVE Online

The other important point for a new player is the skill learning bonus you get for your first 1,600,000 skill points. Effectively training at double speed from the start.
If you waste this bonus in learning the wrong skills you will regret it later when you may have to spend days learning something you should have started earlier.

Another problem for new players is the 72 hours delay before you can get your API.
The API key is a private code that identifies your account. Combined with your user ID, this key allows third party programs and web sites to access information about your characters and corporations. Using this data, such utilities can improve your EVE experience by providing useful functionality such as wallet exports, skill training notifications, and other tools.
Those 72 hours can be wasted in training the wrong skills. Training Plans can be devised using EVEMon a third party utility using your API.

In my next blog I will discuss the various Races of EVE Online.
If you just arrived to this Blog, start reading from there.

Why EVE Online?

Hi.. My name is Ondaderthad and I am a game addict.

I have been playing online and offline games for the last 30 years and my addiction is not slowing down at all. But for now lets just look at the reason why I chose to play EVE Online.

I first heard about this MMO some years ago but I didn't get involved at the time because I never really liked the idea of fighting my way against hordes of aggressive badmouthed teenagers in a massive realtime online game. And beside, I was very much involved in another game since the early 2000's. But I finally burnt out and needed a change. Tried a few of the latest games and spent a small fortune in the process with no real satisfaction. See.. My gaming needs require some sort of depth and complexity to keep me amused.

Selecting a Space game was a natural choice. Elite on the C64 was the first video game I ever played and I was getting a bit tired of the Fantasy genre after a 10 year tour of duty with Neverwinter Nights. A quick bit of research told me that EVE Online wouldn't cost me all that much with a subscription rate of around $15 a month. So I could afford to give it a try. After a few hours downloading the client I was ready to start the 21 days free trial which I soon after changed to a fully paid subscription.

The first task is to climb the infamous learning curve. Although I found this to be slightly exaggerated this graphic probably represents the first couple of weeks of play.
If you are a brand new player I would highly recommend to do ALL the tutorials first and then maybe scratch this player (also known as a Capsuler) once you have the basic idea of the game.

So in my next blog I will try to detail how to start a successful EVE Online account.