I’m still newish and haven’t found a permanent niche yet so maybe this is why I’m asking.
I just discovered building rigs. Bought a blue print for 125,000 isk and built a bunch of rigs, having more than enough of the parts I got from ratting, even after selling a lot before I knew what they were. I saw that buying just one of the same rig was much much higher in price.
So here’s my question: Why would anyone buy a rig when its so much cheaper to build your own?
The answer may lead to another topic I’ve been wondering. Do most other players pick a career and stick with it or still fiddle with a bit of everything even after playing for a while? Do other players find a niche “become” that career?
Like I said I’m still pretty new but I’ll occasionally go mining for some ore for the materials to use blue prints for weapons or ammo, then I may explore just to see what i might find and make some isk (and the adrenaline rush of sneaking around low sec). Other times I’ll go ratting for isk and loot and salvaging.
Lastly, while I’m here… how can I find a station that will let me improve a blue print? Do i just jump around looking for one or is there a way to tell? The stations I’ve checked all say that its not available to do there.
Time and preferences.
You have to buy/obtain BPCs, you have to salvage, you have to skill some manufacturing skills, you need a nice place to build.
Buying them in Jita is much easier.
System Activity Index, which impacts research/production costs, varies by location. You can use the Fuzzworks BP cost index calculator to estimate costs based on the systems you are considering.
Looking at pricing in The Forge is very educational - you can very much see the impact of bonuses from upwell structures on distribution of manufacturing/research/etc.
I “think” most players fiddle around at 1st if you start solo with no friends in game. I say this to get more responses in this thd.
I joined EVE for the pvp with a dedicated group of friends who had been playing BF 42 together for yrs so we had a real advantage when we started. I picked up 2 more toons to support that. Once they were skilled for their tasks, (scouting) they needed other skills to train. The 2nd one ended up training up leadership, support and manufacturing skills. Just enough to make my own ammo, fuel, etc. The 3rd one I trained up for support, hauling and mining.
PVP is still my main career, PI would be 2nd to pay for all my crap, but I sub all my acct’s so I don’t have to worry about “winning eve” and just have fun. My toons are 12, 11 and 10 yrs old now. At that point, you can drift into any career you find appealing!
You don’t have to go as nuts with acct’s as some of us to have fun. Trying something new is never a bad idea. At the worst, you can always extract the skills if you find you don’t care for it. It’s hard to have a long term goal so early in such a complicated game. Frankly, just fart around in the game to see what you like. Try to find a like minded corp if you haven’t already. And mostly, try to stay light hearted about your losses. You can buy skill, but you cant but experience. Only time can give you that…
Edit; Try not to lose to much while farting around! Fly safe!
The price of a blue print + the cost of all the materials (even if you get them from ratting, they are NOT free) + time invested in production + ISK cost for the construction?
i suppose you make the same mistake as people who use their minerals to build things thinking “my minerals are free”…
so, if during the time it took you to get the components (salvging, exploring etc) to build one item, you could have earned isks doing somethg else (ratting, etc), it would have been more efficient to just earn isks and buy the item rather than building it.
Don’t get me wrong: if you LIKE building things, do it, eve is not a job and you can stay away from the isks/h target and focus on the fun/h ratio. But for certain items you won’t earn isks…
Convenience is a factor, if you use a lot of the same rig over and again (or any other item) you can build them yourself and keep a stock. If you have a steady supply of salvage then again building your own can save you isk over the minimum buy price of materials. Added to that you can build & sell rigs for nice margins if you know the market. But sometimes you just need a fitted/rigged ship so then you buy them.
Does this matter? Do what you enjoy, try all the things ™ , over the years I’ve done many activities and each time I log-on I do what I feel like. But I spose “most” players fit themselves into a recognised playstyle. Of course as Eve is a sandbox if and when you get bored of what you are doing you are free to re-invent yourself. Or start another character to do something else, you can do a lot with an alpha account if you already know what path it will take.
Open industry, look at the facilities tab, filter on the service you want. Mouse over the icons to see tax and system cost index etc. Generally NPC stations are more expensive but your stuff is safe, player owned is cheaper mostly but you can have your tasks interupted if it runs out of fuel or the structure is turned into pretty pixels.
But IIRC, as alpha you cannot research rig blueprints, although you can manufacture them.
