I’m a low-level miner and industrialist. All of my characters are. My main character sells ore to his corp and produces frigates and ammo for sale on the market.
Someone told me in another thread that he buys frigates and just reprocesses them for the minerals. Of course. the customer is free to do whatever he wants with things he buys. But it made me wonder if I’m just wasting my time and subscription fee.
Part of the appeal of Eve is the idea of participating in an economy and political structure that is sort of kind of realistic. Being part of and making a contribution to a greater whole, finding your niche and having fun within it. I have no interest at all in PVP or living in null. I just like to mine, produce things and sell things. These activities are fun for me. Without the fun, there’s no point in playing.
What things do PVP corps [or any corps, for that matter] buy for their own use? It feels like a waste of time to produce things nobody wants to use, even if I get paid for them. Does anybody actually buy and use frigates? How about ammo? Or do most corps make everything for internal use?
I also make and sell Wreathe small freighters. Does anybody ever use them?
I want to produce things that take a reasonable about of time to make. Battleships are out. Too many components, and it takes too long. Same with Covetors and other mining barges. I play a couple hours during the week, and more hours on weekends. I don’t want to spend a month mining just to make one ship.
How about destroyers? Cruisers? Bombs? Cruise missiles?
I used to enjoy the thought that somebody, even a pirate corp, was using my frigates for a war or exploration or something. Knowing that my production is pointless, I’m wondering if this game I have enjoyed off and on since 2005 is a waste of time.
No, I don’t and never have had 1.3 bil ISK. My main character has a total worth of 400 mil. So what? This is a game and I’m here to have fun within this beautiful sci-fi universe. If you are going to answer my questions with sarcasm and have nothing useful to say, please, don’t say anything.
Then have fun. I don’t understand where exactly your problem lies. If something is not sold by you then make it cheaper, or sell somewhere else. In the game and on the third-party sites are all the tools available to determine supply and demand.
what things corps buy for their own use?
IT DEPENDS
depends where the corp is living (null, wormholes, factional warfare, etc), do they focus on a specific activity etc
You first talked about pvp corps, it will depend on the ships they actually fly and the corp/alliance fits (doctrines). They can buy ship hulls, weapons, ammunitions, mobile bubbles, fighters for carriers, they can even need I hubs, fuel, boosters, midlinks, etc
Why don’t you look at zkillboard to see which ships are destroyed more frequently than others? Why don’t you directly contact some specific corps to make a deal with them? Harden the f… up, man. Eve is a social game, not a pure industry simulation game.
If you’ve been playing off and on since 2005, maybe it’s time to move up to t2 production. I can guarantee you no one is going to reprocess t2 ship.
Also, when you manufacture something, you have to make sure that the profit from building it exceeds the cost of the minerals on the market, otherwise it would make more sense to just sell the minerals directly rather than make something. If you want to make things, you have to be smart about what you build and it will likely change each week.
Definitely
Destroyers are great because they get used for suicide ganking so they die a lot. Make sure the market isn’t completely saturated and that the profit from selling the ship exceeds the profit from selling the mats. Cruisers are like frigates, usually only worth it when a rare opportunity arises or you’re distributing them directly to null sec. Ammo is always good but it won’t make you a ton of isk on its own; it’s part of a larger portfolio of a diverse plethora of products.
On a side note, do you research? Research can be a really great way to supplement your income. It’s passive and has a low skill req and it’s really easy to make isk from selling blueprints. It could also feed into your production.
Instead of thinking this way, consider diversifying your products. You could have some things that take a long time and some things that are short. The point is to build whatever is going to make you isk and keep your production slots full. If you have things that take a long time to build but are coming out of the oven regularly it won’t feel like you’re waiting because you have so much other stuff being built.
It’s not pointless. You have to be humble though. Acknowledge how hard the game is and the fact that you’re still learning even after all this time. We’re all still learning. There is no end to it. You’ve obviously made isk before and you will make isk again. You’re still on the road to becoming a production god and that’s okay. Just keep rethinking, re-framing, re-strategizing. Use tools, spreadsheets, etc. Look at the market graphs. Change what you’re building each week because once a particular market is saturated you have to move on to something else. Also most manufacturers buy additional materials even if they mine. It would be difficult to keep your production slots full based on materials you mine alone. I’d be putting up buy orders for materials.
Don’t get discouraged. Don’t take it to heart that someone reprocessed some of your products. Use that as intel and readjust your strategy… or sell your materials directly to the market. The game is not meant to be easy.
Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful reply. That’s a rare thing on this forum.
Yes, I do make a profit on everything I sell. Someone mentioned that Eve is a social game and not an industry simulator. Well, that’s the point I was trying to make. I want to feel part of New Eden, with a role to play within its economic and political structure. If you are making things that nobody uses, then it just feels like…an industry simulator. You might as well be selling to a game AI.
I’m aware of the changing face of the market from week to week and even day to day. I research the market, but let’s be honest, this is a game. I have a RL job. I don’t need my game time to feel like a RL job. I’m much older than most people who play Eve, with RL worries that most people here don’t have. I just don’t have the time or mental energy to spend going to 3rd party websites to find information on this or that aspect of playing Eve.
I just would like the “player driven” Eve economy to be kind of sort of realistic. Buying manufactured goods in bulk just to reprocess them doesn’t make sense to me. That is why I am seeking advice on things a low-level industrialist can produce that will actually be useful to someone.
Uhh you’d be surprised. Eve players are OLD. Most of us have full time jobs, many of us have families, and real life worries bills, etc. Did you think you were playing alongside kids? The average eve player is like, in their thirties (a guess). I’ve played with many players in their sixties. Many of us have played the game for 10-15 years and we’ve aged in that time. So disabuse yourself of the idea that you’re older. You may be slightly older than the average (I don’t know how old you are) but you’re in good company and there are plenty of folks who are the same age or even older
Eve is a thinkers game and production is one of the most thinky parts. Most folks that are attracted to it enjoy studying third party websites and researching constantly. I’m not sure what to say to someone who doesn’t like that stuff yet wants to do production… I guess I’d say there’s a niche for you somewhere but it depends on what you enjoy and what you’re willing to do.
Here are a few ideas:
-You could stop making t1 vessels and focus in on drones and ammo
-You could keep making t1 vessels but adjust which ones and focus on distributing them to where they’re needed
-You could stop producing and sell your materials directly to the market (that’s no fun)
-You could get into t2 production (hard)
-If you’re willing to go a jump or two into lowsec you could build capital components or make drugs
-If you’re willing to work partly in NPC null you could run the mining missions and trade the LP in for faction blueprints
-You could refocus on research (easier to turn a profit)
-You could focus in on Triglavian production (high demand)
-You could join an industry corp and contribute to a production chain and let someone else do the thinking
-You could join a nullsec corp and build whatever they need
-You could quit mining and run abyss or missions and build trivlavian or faction modules/ships with the byproducts
I hadn’t imagined that was a worthwhile thing to do! Still learning things every day.