I havent played in years and am thinking about giving it another go. I am only interested in the industry side of things, tho. It would be great, if you could help me witht he following questions:
is it possible to earn good money as a new manufacturer in high sec, or is competition way too high?
is it necessary to join a null sec / low sec corp to have a decent income as an industrialist?
I just want to reseach, produce and trade with zero interest in pvp or missions. Is this a viable play style or does it just dont work?
As a high-sec industrialist, specialising in T2 invention, manufacture and sale then, yes, it is perfectly reasonable. A reasonably casual 1bn per month is possible. The interest is in understanding the supply/production chain and optimising that puzzle box as you see fit.
Yes, moving to null (and away from the markets!) could be more profitable, but I can’t be bothered with the hassles of the membership of some of those alliances.
Ultimately, the “is it viable” question is really “does it do give you what you want?” - it’s viable for me as in “it is financially self sustainable: ISK in is more than ISK I need” (I pay for Omega status, I’m not going to grind for ISK - Eve is fun, not a job).
What it does give me is the freedom to go “I’d like to try (X) content, Abyssal sites, fighting off Triglavian invasions, Mission ships and so forth” - while gently tending to my manufacturing works when I feel like. Just manufacturing and making ISK pales after a while, Eve has variety as well - it’s not all just sociopathic “go kill other players” as some may tell you.
Thank you. Is it possible to be profitable after a few days/weeks, or do I have to put in huge amounts of money and time first before it starts to turn a profit? I would like to start small and then ramp up as time goes on, no hurry, but I dont want to burn money for 3 months just to get started.
You can start small and expand but you will struggle for cash flow at times, it helps if you have a bank/warchest. But it is certainly possible and is how I did it & still do.
Yes. With Caveats.
You will start small, both because of skill limits (you need a month or so to get into advanced/scale industry), and capital - if you buy the materials you need to make an item to sell, then that takes investment - capital that can easily be tied up for some time while the items sell.
Start small, going for common often used stuff with good turnover (mission runner’s ammunition for example) and work up from there. Get used to the idea of turnover, capital, supply chain. Go read Adam Smith…
If your skills limit production to T1, profitability will be a challenge. Some rigs and scripts are quite profitable but anything where you are competing with meta items will be problematic - many T1 products are only used as materials for producing T2.
Nullsec will be situational. If you are part of a major bloc with thousands of members you should have access to a decent market. Otherwise, you’ll likely find that local markets are fragmented and thinly traded - you may end up sourcing materials in Jita and sending finished goods there for sale!
I prefer to do business in highsec. I’m close to busy markets where both buy and sell transactions move quickly and profitably. Industry scales well across multiple characters and multiple markets - it’s relatively easy to pay your subscription with in-game income once you have level 4 science skills for invention and understand the cycles for the products you’re making and the markets where you’re doing business.
It’s also easy to go broke if you are impatient and chase the market down below your cost. If prices only went down, they would have hit 0 a long time ago. I’ve made some spectacular windfalls by positioning my orders to catch the bounce when under priced stock cleared. It doesn’t happen often but it’s really satisfying when you get the timing right!
You need around month of skill training to be able to start T2 production with some liquid isk on top of that to start some profitable industry.
most of T1 stuff is lossing isk. Because ore I mine has no value, meta modules are better etc. Some T1 rigs can be profitable but isk/h is low and traded volume even in Jita is low. You won’t make much isk from it. Same thing with ammo and scripts. While production will end on plus, actual income is slim.
While you wait for skills I suggest trying some trading and market research for your future production.
Ps. Take look at triglavian stuff. Some T1 hulls and modules can be quite profitable if BPC’s prices are good. They drop from abyss so market is bit different than normal T1 stuff.