Recently I got some advise on fitting some Ravens for L4 missions, so my main and an alt got into a pair of Ravens and was able to do 4 level 4 missions at a time as I have 2 x L4 agents in the same station. This is my findings.
Yes I know missions LP and rewards vary, I know also that the missions could be blitzed. The way I do the missions is hit all 4 missions with 2 Ravens, Save each site. Hand the missions in then go back in a Noctis to clear up. I travel no further than 2 jumps for my level 4 missions. I also know that it is not neccesarily about ISK per hour (accept it is if you want to use the money to PVP.
4 missions took 1 hour 2 minutes (from accepting the missions to handing them in.
Salvage/looting those missions took approx 30 minutes
Approx 1m reward and time bonus per site
26.7m (evepraisal to sell orders) or 22.1m (evepraisal to buy orders) so lets say 24.4m average for the loot/salvage
total of 12,840 LP earnt lets assume 1250 isk per LP so 16.05m ISK in LP
4m+24.4m+16.05m = 44,450.000 total per 90 minutes with 2 characters (29.63m per hour). whilst i dont think the time to completion would double with 1 character it would certianly take longer.
My expectation was more, in my mind I thought that Level 4 missions were pretty well paid, but this snapshot shows me that I can earn more mining than doing level 4 missions and probably would have spent less skilll points in getting to that point too.
Coupled with the resource scarcity that CCP are implementing at the moment I am thinking why bother do these missions, I may as well jack it all in and go do incursions no, or move out to a quiet corner in dull null and do Havens (or have they been nerfed to hell too?). whats 44m get you? 1.5/2 fitted T1 cruisers?
Obviously I am thinking more along the lines of a means to an end, earn some money, buys some PVP ships and go use them and not everybody wants to do that, some are content with just doing the missions which is fair enough, I dont enjoy incursions so I am thinking what options are there?
EDIT:
Good point well made by @Dirael_Papier. I forgot to include bounties. In total bounties added up to 26.1m so over the 90minutes i got a approx total of 47.01m per hour. Better for sure.
If you are doing 4 missions and only getting 45 million, then you are choosing the wrong missions. I usually move between 10 different agents and I decline more than I accept, by a long shot. Normally, I only accept these missions:
Enemies Abound - a series of 5 missions that can be completed in about 2 hours and is worth around 230 million isk, including salvage, loot, lp, and rewards.
Angel Extravaganza and Guristas Extravaganza - each can be done in about 45 minutes and each are worth 50 to 60 million isk, including salvage, loot, lp, and rewards.
World’s Collide - can be done in about an hour and is worth about 60 million, all told.
Dread Pirate Scarlet - same as World’s Collide
I do only these missions and I turn down everything else. Oh, and I also do Anomic Team, which can net 20 million or more depending on the loot drop. These take 10 to 15 minutes.
My advice: expand your agent pool. Be picky and train to fly a golem asap. You can do the entire mission including the loot and salvage with a golem.
OK, I just take the missions on offer except do not do faction missions or the burner ones. or ones that take me to Null or Low. I think I may have been offered Angel extravaganca once, never been offered any of the others depsite pulling about 60+ missions from these 2 agents.
Are certain agents more likely to offer those missions than other agents?
Yes. The missions are offered by different agents. If you limit yourself to the two agents you are severely limiting your choices. The Angel Extravaganza agent is one I would keep going to. Expand your agent pool. I don’t go further than 4 jumps. Use The Agency function in your neocom and you’ll find plenty of lv 4 agents to go to. I have 10 in my rotation and I always get offered one of the five I’ve listed.
How much did you get in bounty payouts from the missions? I didn’t see that in your calculations, and that’s a fairly significant chunk of payout for most missions if you’re not blitzing.
I was going to ask about bounties, too. I mean, Dread Pirate Scarlet’s main value is her 5m bounty, plus a lot of pirate battleships are in the 800k-1.5kk bounty. My bounty ticks are easily better than any salvage/loot, to the point where my spouse and I tend to not bother with loot beyond dropping an MTU in each pocket (picked up before moving into the next pocket) and not salvaging at all.
Agent mission reward is not a bounty. If you are avoiding empire missions, you should be getting CONCORD bounties on drones, pirates, and mercenaries - that is part of your mission value but not part of the agent rewards.
oh i see, and of course, not, i forgot to put those in my initial calculation, ill revisit that
EDIT: my main has got 13.05m in bounties assume my alt got approx the same so 26.1m in bounties, that makes it a little better in fact, ill adjust the OP
This is a great point. On missions that have bounties, the loot and salvage is typically way less, because the bounties are the main source of isk. For missions like Enemies Abound, there are no bounties so the loot and salvage are the key to making the 230 million isk. Good point.
2 characters, both in Ravens. didnt do the bonus room as dont have a key yet
40 minutes to do the mission
6713 LP earned @ 1250 isk per LP = 8.40m
2.66m reward and time bonus
19.5m bounties
estimated salvage (took 10 mins to do) = 9.51m (eveprasial, Jita seller)
total (lets say an hour with the mission/savage and misc time)
8.4m + 2.66m + 19.5m + 9.51 = 40.07
not 50/60m, perhaps the bonus room makes up the difference?
My Gallante standings are at -8.91, so yeah they are definitely hit hard doing the Enemies Abound mission. I’ve ran it dozens and dozens of times though. If you care about standings, might want to milk this one slowly and do some Gallante missions to even it out.
I am not too concerned with it, because I fly in Caldari space 99% of the time. However, I actually lost a ship a couple months ago in Gallante space! So, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on if you travel Gallante space frequently.