Spending ISK to make ISK
20th January 2009 – 11.09 amChanging my direction from being a capsuleer only running PvE missions to industrialist requires some retraining. It couldn't come at a better time, having just been awarded the Elite Caldari Special Forces certificate, effectively completing my first career. I feel somewhat accomplished, particularly as I never made it past Deadly status in the original Elite. I am still missing some core competencies up to the standard certificate level but I will evaluate their utility amongst learning skills specific to industry.
I buy the more obvious skill books I will be needing from the market, as well as a +3 charisma implant after realising that charisma will be affecting some of my training times for trade-based skills. This completes my set of +3 implants in slots one to five that coupled with an armful of skill books sees my ISK balance over halve in value, inducing a touch of mild panic. It may be that ninety percent of new businesses fail in their first year, but I would quite like at least to get mine started.
To recoup some of my investment and enhance my calm I have a word with my level three agent, who is happy to throw some work my way. I pick up and complete a couple of missions, which gets me in to space and firing missiles in a way that is strangely relaxing. Neither mission is particularly notable, apart from the second one requiring me to drop a cargo container and make three trips just to carry all the loot and salvage back to base in my Cormorant. The missions net me around two million ISK from mission rewards and bonuses, as well as over three and a half million ISK from bounties. It has hardly filled my wallet up again but it is pushing my balance in the right direction at last and I feel happier about my recent purchases.
6 Responses to “Spending ISK to make ISK”
Most imporant thing before any production really is to get Production Effiency to level 4 or 5 - prior to this its hard to make money due to the fact your items will cost 20-25% more to build than other producers.
Oh, and if you are planning to produce, while you wait for ^ - you may wish to put some blueprints in for Material Effiency research. As a general rule I find low-send stuff (small shield boosters etc) doesn't need researching to make profitable, but a Cruise launcher, Medium shield, medium ammo, etc can be make a lot more efficent researched.
As a general rule I'll research module to level 50 in PE, and ships to a minimum of 10.
Good luck starting..! You may really wish to join a industry corporation - most will already have most BPO's researched, meaning you'll just be able to start producing immediately.
Thanks, I have a lot of skill training to get involved with, as well as personal education about manufacturing. This will take some time and it is a good idea of yours to get some ME research done in the mean time.
Thanks for the advice!
It just occurred to me; if you continue to run missions as a side while being mr industrial, consider manufacturing rigs. Certain ones are decently profitable and sell in good volume, and you can use the salvaging from missions to supplement your industry.
Yes, I'll still enjoy blowing things up occasionally so building rigs is definitely a possibility at some point, even though I need huge amounts of salvage to make anything, as Deafplasma notes.
I am currently wondering if I need to run missions for industrial corporations in order to get BPOs, as I'm not sure how to get them otherwise. More investigation is required.
I found running L3 missions some rigs would take 2-3 weeks worth of salvaging to come up with 1 rig.
Kirith is right though - I have done the math locally - and if I was buying salvage on buy-orders (rather than paying sell-order price), making profit by making rigs is a possibility though would require micro-management (due to competition on prices on buying parts) - this is why despite me having blueprints researched for this end, I've decided to give making rigs a miss for moment.
Yeah, seriously, making rigs is a mugs game. Hardly any profit in it for a s***-load of work. I micromanaged a rigs business for 3 months and made only 120 million - I kick myself thinking about what I could have done instead.
battlecruiser manufacture is way better for me now and selling the salvage makes isk without the work.