I’ve done a fair bit of industry in my time in EVE Online. Ran a HiSec/LowSec industrial corp, managed industrial activities for a FW corp, did my own production for profit (tech 1 ships and rigs). But one thing I never did was invention because a) it seems terribly over-complicated and b) back in the day you could only do it at a POS, and everyone I knew who did it had a large tower and something like 10+ “invention alts”, and they needed that many to be profitable due to chance of failure and overhead of running a POS.
But now we have Citadels. I am taking full advantage of Citadels in researching various BPOs for future use. But I was thinking of dabbling in invention. I have 4 characters which will be available to train anything I need after their current queues are completed in a couple of months. Is invention on a single character profitable in this age of Citadels? And what’s the best way to go about it? Buy the materials off the market? Farm the materials? Build the materials?
If you can’t make isk by buying the materials, there’s probably something wrong with what you’re doing.
The one place I’d put a exception on that is for T2 components. The market for them tends to be inflated, because people make their own.
Invention with a single character is profitable. It may not be profitable enough to pay for a citadel. They’re a fixed cost, which doesn’t scale up, so you can spread it between multiple characters.
I’m doing industry in high/lowsec for more than a year as my main income source, and it’s very profitable (even more since engineering complexes). T2 end products make about 50% of my portfolio today, it was almost 100% when I started in April 2016 when all the new T2 capital modules hit the market. No alts, just Tipa with 10 slots each.
Invention is easy nowadays using the right tools like http://eve-industry.org/ to calculate the best setup. If the calculation does not show you a profit using Jita prices for the direct inputs, don’t bother but check which component may “eat” the profit and produce that instead. Usually you find 1-2 T2 components and sometimes the T1 input worth producing as a lead in to aggregate more profit into the end product. The decision also depends on the market situation for the components and the end product (you may not be able to buy the T1 in quantities you need).
Some people do their own PI for the T2 products they build but I consider this as a separate “profit center”, where I can chose what to harvest based on other criteria (e.g. effort, available planets). Hence I buy the mats in Jita. Same for decryptors and datacores, they are cheap. You should train all relevant invention chance related skills to level III, more is nice but not necessary.
But the main thing is the market research, finding the right products profitable tomorrow … … industry is like trading, but instead of buying low, waiting, and selling high, you produce cheap and sell right when the price spikes.
If you have the advanced science skills (electronic engineering and the like) trained to 4 the base chance should be around 50% for modules and ammo, you also get 10 runs on each successful bpc. Ships will require a decryptor if you want more than one run per copy. I’m partial to the Parity decrytor myself but all of them will alter the result in some way. So long as you intend to build what you are inventing and are willing to build the subcomponents it’s good money. As for the datacores, If you still have LP from your FW time you can buy some of them from there (certain empires have certain datacores iirc. Other than that buy them along with any decryptors you intend to use. Farming those in data sites or research agents would take forever.
I also earn most of my income with T2 product. My preference is vertical integration - I am self sufficient for PI, build my own advanced components, invent, manufacture, haul and sell. I buy the minerals for my T1 inputs. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy T1 on the market but I prefer to run lean - building what I need, when I need it with little stockpiled inventory.
For invention, take the cost of the datacores plus decryptor (if using) and divide by the probability of success and the runs per copy. This will give you the invention cost per run. Generally in the 50K-100K range for modules. If you can buy prints cheaper on contract - go for it!
T1 invention rig for a Raitaru engineering complex in highsec will give you a 20% TE bonus which improves the efficiency of your available slots.
Level 4 science and encryption skills represent the “sweet spot” for invention. You get about a 45% chance of success for modules (no decryptor) this increases to just under 50% with all skills at level 5
… industry is like trading, but instead of buying low, waiting, and selling high, you produce cheap and sell right when the price spikes.