Tuesday 28 July 2009

Industrial Endeavours update

Well the T1 market is going well again for me at least. The sell it low, but in quantities tactic is resulting in significant sales for me.

Current stats: 500mln cash, 300mln on market, another 100mln of goods sat in hanger waiting for market orders to complete (ie restocks), and a new 40mln unit stash of trit + a tidy amount of pye. All good, and amazing volumes for my stocks.

Basically I think in past week of market trading - I *think* I've made 2-300mln - which is a good result - all off the back of 4 key items which are the cornerstone of the "trading" operation. What does surprise me though is something that usually doesn't sell (200mm steel plates) - had a huge rush of 300 buyers in a short period last week - this despite the actual price making me a tidy profit.

The L4 R&D "project" has stalled until next week. At the moment can access L3 Q16 agents so its getting close to L4 agents now on both characters - shame only one of them has research skills trained!

I have a week-o-eve next week - where the L4 project will complete with any luck, the store will be restocked, and I will venture back into low-sec for a month with a hulk in the hold for use in mining operations down in deep Low-sec. I'll be using a deep space transport for the trip - which should minimise risk of getting caught - its still possible to be scramed by a big gang however, so I will be tacking a escort or two.

I hope your week in EVE is fruitful, and my next post will be my Blog banter submission.

Monday 20 July 2009

Indusrial Meanderings and odd trading strategy

Well, I've been told that I need to post a bit more about industrial activities and whats going on in the world of DSTIC trading wise.

Current status: 500mln cash, 100mln in buy-orders, 250mln in sell orders.
Mineral stockpile: Reasonable, but needs replenishing for Tritanium and Nocxium.. all others have enough to restock the market between 3 and 5 times. (its about a 400-500 mil stash).
Build Queue: Just finished all 9 slots which have been building restock items last 5 days.

Blueprint/research status: Nothing in research, this is in preparation for the POS build - as easily can fill 1 or 2 labs currently...

What I've recently been doing industry wise, is more aggressively staking my claim in the market -Basically as almost 100% of the BPO's owned by DSTIC are more researched to within 0.01 loss, I can produce and only make a 8-11% margin rather than the usual 40%. Some may say "why sell low when you can make more money - the answer in my region is volume and time - I can make more in bulk than I ever can in small volumes...". This is meaning I'm aggressively pursuing a region wide lowest price in some cases, meaning my items are selling in bulk to seemingly T2 producers (who don't always have researched T1 BPO's meaning I can build/sell for less than they can build). Some items get sold out way before I get a chance to restock now due to this, and the turnover is amazing. Its not unusual to sell 250-500 of some items inside 5 days.

The change soon however will be the move to T2 production in-house. Some of the POS lab slots mentioned will be going to T2 component BPO's, which need research to "perfect" levels.
....

The other big big change in 10-15 days will be the ability to pilot a Hulk. Mining - I usually wouldn't consider it, but some of the sites that have been found via exploration in low-sec made me reconsider that assumption. The plan: To be self-sufficient in higher-end minerals, and maybe even supply market for a few of these.

The other aspect which I can't really discuss, is the move to market prediction - where I think a demand will exist in the future - I am pre-buying items to meet that demand - its a risky strategy, as I'm building a stockpile of what may be "useless" or low demand items now - but they may be highly profitable in 3-4 months time. Similar to share prices I'm speculating to accumulate, but with real items...

Its hard to be specific on the blog on some trading/industrial activities, as if I do, I may give away "insider" tips, which would result in my whole strategy being ruined ....

The fall of bots?

I was sat at the bar in Carirgnottin... My current L2 agent is here - for Creodron.

Carirgnottin and some of the surrounding systems have Gallente Ice fields (high-sec all around). The thing with ice fields is you usually get ICE mining robots in bulk from our Chinese macro friends.

The more interesting thing recently has been "local". The local pilots over the past week have been commenting "Where have all the macro's gone". And indeed, with me doing some quick looks - it appears Macro miners have decided to go on vacation, or at least greatly reduce their operations.

Has this happened where you are? If they are, it has far-reaching market implications - such as ICE prices and their derivatives rocketing in price.

Update - : Still no EON magazine, I'll be chasing this up with my reference number asap tommorow (once confirmed no arrival today)- as it now has been almost a week and a half...

Thursday 16 July 2009

Question on EON magazine

Once subscribed, how long does it take for first magazine (current) to be shipped?

I ask as I subscribed again last Thursday, and have not received the first edition yet - admittedly due to Royal Mail not delivering to me until noon, I can't check todays mail until I get home, but even so I was expecting the magazine yesterday/Tuesday or even Monday if I was lucky. Having not received yet I am getting worried.

I subscribed in past, and never had any delivery problems, but have missed last 3 editions. As mentioned before I can't make it to Fanfest this year due to the expense of fixing my PC to actually play EVE, so decided to resubscribe with the launch of EON 16... (well just after, I was a bit tardy!). I just find the delay odd, and not what I experienced in past.

I will update this post in comments as to what if anything happens.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

A more responsive Jita? Devblog comment

I though I'd paste a link to a Dev blog indicating whats been going on in Jita recently. Just in case any readers havn't seen/read it ! Basically over the last few expansions the Dev's have been working flat out to allow Jita and other busy systems to scale better.

Result: You can clearly see from the graphs linked above they have been successful - and I must congratulate them on finding such an improvement from changing the Inventory system.

Basically this is showing the Dev's are just as interested in making the game scale - in that they are fixing long term problems as well as making the "new shiny" features...

Not many MMO's release the tech detail CCP does on its Dev blog - I really wish more would..

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Power loss, and mission hub movement

I finally managed to login to EVE on Monday for 3 and a half hours, after only 10 mins logged in on Sunday. Why? Well, my house had no Power on Sunday 9am-8:30pm, with 30 mins of power 2-2:30. I did manage in that 30 mins to get my skill queue altered - but my hopes (with a day off) of a full EVE day were just that - cruelly dashed by the local utility company. This is the 3rd power cut recorded by my UPS since November of significance, and admittedly does follow a period of stability from March. It was however the longest power cut of recent times.. The good news though was the fact that during the period of power I managed to copy a load of movies to the laptop and PSP, enough to keep me going during Sunday afternoon. I also surprisingly got out on the mountain bike for a 5 mile blast (mostly uphill).

Yesterday therefore was the first proper EVEning in a while...

As promised, I moved from a Fed Navy Level 3 mission hub to a Creodron level 2 agent. I flew over all my important ships and equipment and setup for an evening missioning, when I completed around 10 missions. Standings gains were okay, but I've still not opened any level 3's up yet unfortunately - this current home IS only temporary until level 3 missions of any quality are available to me.

Once level 4 R&D missioning is done, I will be moving back to my low-sec neighborhood... and starting the invention process with a (high-sec) POS providing the BPC's for use... I've decided to setup a POS in high-sec purely as I haven't found any moons with value enough to offset the risk of moon mining in low-sec.

Sometimes grinding for standing is boring, but personally as I haven't missioned in ages, coming across "Damsels in Distress" and that permanent pest Krull is a nice change from watching my back in low-sec from gangs of real pirates. Downside is it is considerably less lucrative than low-sec exploration....

Thursday 9 July 2009

A week of missioning.. and comment on Rigging

What I love about EVE is the fact there is so much to do - you literally shouldn't get bored, as you can move from one item to another.

My problem recently has been standings as although I have skills trained, I can't use Level 4 R&D agents due to my low standings. I tried a trip to cosmos constellation - but again my basic standings are just too low to be able to use the L3/L4 starter agents which would greatly improve my Gallente standing in days.

So... I've relocated temporarily to an old-mission-hub favourite of mine with the Fed Navy - for a bit of a change and some "blowing some shit up" action. I've fitted a full Tech-2 Myrmidon, with T2 drones, and have been greatly enjoying L3 missions again while my BS skills train for L4's. This is only a temporary move however - I may have to relocate again however to an agent for one of the "Research" companies to greatly increase standings gain there quickly to at least get some R&D going. This is likely to happen next week, with all the logistics fun that involves.... - got a Myrmidon, Ishkur, Salvager to all move. The good news is that if I take a small detour to pick up my "big hauler", I can fit the Ishkur, Salvager inside + a load of mission loot and stock to keep me going. The downside is the fact I have to fit/unfit and package the ships - but I hope this will give a chance to try the new fitting "templates", to speed this process up.

Now of course the big news is the Apocrypha summer expansion is to include changes to Rigs, introducing small and medium rigs. As an industrialist I see this as bad and good. Yes they'll require less items to make than "big rigs", but they'll also increase the utilisation of rigs, and thus potentially the price of them and of salvage.

Overall I think it'll be good news if you have vast quantities of salvage, as you may be able to make the new rigs for extreme profit, as I do expect salvage prices to peak after release. A wise man (even a missioner) would keep all salvage till after patch to see if this holds true.... the downside being if too many people do this it will result in prices dropping and an increase prior to patch due to the smaller amounts on market. How will I deal with this ? By following the market - I'll be keeping an eye on salvage prices on buy and sell orders, and volumes in 2 of the major trade hubs near where I fly and thus can remotely change price on - (Not Jita incidentally, as i don't want to leave an ALT there just to change prices). When prices are optimal to buy (ie if they drop), I'll buy. If prices optimal to sell, I'll consider either rig production or selling.

The good news is I already have researched large Rig BPO's for most of the popular modules..... which if I'm right may actually shoot through the roof in prices...

Interesting times for industrilists for sure.

I'll be online a lot in next 2 weeks, think every single day Mon-Thurs (starting next Mon).... this week I've been distracted by something called Torchwood - which apparently is aiming to deal with an emerging alien threat... It has greatly reduced my available time to actually fly my spaceships...

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Blog Banter #9 - Removal of Anchoring Delay of POS modules

Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

"Last month Ga'len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith "WebMandrill" Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completely from EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?"

My Big Idea

Well, I've found this hard to come up with ideas and I did come up with 2 in draft for this banter - but eventually it dawned on me the one thing that bugs me is Anchoring delays. Now as a lot of people have probably read in my blog - I don't have a POS up yet, but I have researched the mechanics, and hope I've covered what bugs me. I may end up looking like an Idiot, but will put it out there "I have not done this yet"

Anchoring fullstop bugs me - as you eject something in space, and it stays there - if its no subject to gravity etc. If it does need to thrust to stay in position, it isn't exactly a complex science - every action has an equal and opposite reaction - so if you are moving in direction X, fire thruster in opposite direction with same thrust. You then stay still. Are we seriously saying a starbase/gun array takes 5 minutes to do that? In the future?

Why remove the delay? Well, the delay mechanic is already there, in the Onlining (and offlineing) delay - why should there be a countdown delay to a POS actually being put in space with what I've mentioned? Anchoring to me seems a delay that doesn't need to be there. To counter this, and stop "ninja" pos's of course CCP will need to increase the onlining delay of towers themselves, probably via an equivalent amount.... But, tactically being able to drop a module into place immediately - and maybe reducing onlinging delay on weapons modules, the whole concept of POS warface could be made a little more tactical perhaps?

Some may say this is an over simplication - but maybe a delay on ejecting modules from ship would equally be more realistic than a "I'm floating in space and er, need to calibrate to not move".

Personally - Anchoring just is a idea that takes away from the Universe of EVE, as it doesn't feel a realistic concept.

The Other Thing

Rather than lose the other idea, I thought I'd put it out there in shorthand form. Standings requirements for Jump Clones - especially for Newbies - Why are they still there? My proposal is to remove these requirements for the first 1 or 2 clones, to allow the New pilots the use of instant clone jump travel over the Universe - which in the end reduces grind and travel time - but also may allow Newbies with impants to risk more by going into Low sec with implantless clones. And yes, I know you can get implants via a service corp or a big corp who already has standings, or a capital clone bay, but why should a new player be forced down this route immediately?

I'm sure the Pirates will love this idea, but its not entirely for them - I feel this is a good idea overall- as many characters I personally have ran into steer clear of low-sec, which is plain wrong. With the right caution its mostly harmless - and offers potentially more excitement to the game - nothing gets heart pumping for me more than outrunning or hiding from a silly pirate that is out to get me...

List of Participants:
  1. Diary of a Space Jockey, Blog Banter: BE GONE!
  2. EVE Newb, (EVE) Remove You
  3. Miner With Fangs, Blog Banter - It's the Scotch
  4. The Eden Explorer, Blog Banter: The Map! The Map!
  5. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, "Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!"
  6. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Kill the Rats
  7. Mercspector @ EVE, Scotty
  8. EVE's Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #9
  9. Miner with Fangs, Blog Banter - It's the Scotch
  10. A Merry Life and a Short One, Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won't You Die?
  11. Into the unknown with gun and camera, Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey
  12. The Flightless Geek, EVE Blog Banter #9: Remove a Game Mechanic
  13. Sweet Little Bad Girl, Blog Banter 9: Who is Nibbling at My House?
  14. One Man and His Spaceship, Blog Banter 9: What could you do without?
  15. Life in Low Sec, EVE Blog Banter #9: Stop Tarnishing My Halo
  16. Cle Demaari: Citizen, Blog Banter #9: Training for all my men!
  17. A Mule in EVE, He who giveth, also taketh away?
  18. Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter 9
  19. Morphisat’s Blog, Blog Banter #9 – Randomness Be Gone !
  20. Facepalm's Blog, EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without
  21. Memoires of New Eden, You're Fired
  22. Kyle Langdon's Journeys in EVE, EVE Blog Banter #9 Titans? What's a Titan?
  23. Achernar, The gates! The gates are down!
  24. Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #9: Down with Downtime!
  25. I am Keith Neilson, EVE Blog Banter #9-F**K Da Police
  26. Ripe Lacunae, The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
  27. Clown Punchers, EvE Blogs: What game mechanic would you get rid of?
  28. More articles as they are posted!