Manufacturing
In the EvE universe, most items are manufactured by player characters and traded in a relatively free way in the marketplace. Students of economics will note that these markets are neither perfect nor efficient in the technical senses; volumes of many items are low enough that the market can be manipulated (and is), and supply of materials and modules is partly provided by loot drops in missions, which can be adjusted without warning by the game developers. Similarly, the developers may adjust the requirements for a manufacturing process, or increase the availability of ore, or otherwise mess in the sandbox. So it's not a bad proxy for real life at that. (All these interventions have happened within the 90 days prior to this writing.)
Nonetheless, manufacturing and selling items can provide interest and ISK profit for the careful and canny player. The player must be aware, however, that there are plenty of items which actually destroy value -- that is, there are a great number of T1 items, modules especially, that are worth less than the cost of manufacture. There are many more items which can be sold at a profit, but only in a limited volume in certain markets. Manufacture in these cases may simply be an alternative to hauling stuff between markets.
T1 Production
Skills
The following skills are useful or required for T1 production. Most or all of these will be needed for T2/T3 production as well.
Basic:
- Industry - 4% reduction in manufacturing time per skill level.
- At least level 1 is required to use most blueprints, and level 3 is required for further manufacturing skills. The speed bonus increases the rate at which you can produce items (and therefore, produce profit) and reduces installation costs slightly.
Increase number of concurrent jobs:
- Mass Production - Allows 1 additional job per level.
- By default, all characters can run 1 manufacturing job at a time. Training this skill lets you run additional jobs simultaneously from 2 jobs at level I up to 6 jobs at level V. Any industrialist who wants to create things will need to train this to IV or V fairly early in their plans. Level 5 is required for:
- Advanced Mass Production - Allows 1 additional job per level.
- The current NPC price for this skill is 20M ISK. So if you invest, train it to level IV quickly. At level I you'll be able to use a total of 7 job slots (1 base + 5 from mass production + 1 from this skill) up to a total of 11 slots at level V. Most people stop training after level IV and instead choose to roll up a new production alt.
Reduce materials needed:
- Production Efficiency - 4% reduction per skill level to the material requirements needed for production.
- If you are just production ammo for your own use, training this skill to level III or IV is all that is needed as you won't care about an extra 8-12% waste. But for the profit-minded industrialist, training this skill to level V is a very strong recommendation.
Allow remote management of jobs:
- Supply Chain Management - Proficiency at starting manufacturing jobs remotely. Each level increases the distance at which jobs can be created. Level 1 allows for range within the same solar system, Level 2 extends that range to systems within 5 jumps, and each subsequent level then doubles it. Level 5 allows for full regional range.
- This skill is more of a convenience skill then a must-have for a budding industrialist. The current NPC cost is 6.75M ISK, but it allows you to manage your production lines for a distance. If you invest in this skill, training to level III or maybe level IV would offer the most flexibility. Note that you still have to haul the materials and blueprint to the relevant station.
Blueprints
All items produced by players in Eve, require a blueprint. These blueprints are essentially manufacturing instructions and material requirements.
There are two types of blueprints, originals and copies, this section will focus on Tech I blueprints only.
Blueprint Originals (BPO) are seeded by various npc traders throughout New Eden, the cost of which differs greatly. A simple ammo BPO can cost no more than 100,000 isk where as the BPO for a titan can cost 72,500,000,000isk
All BP's contain a list of material and skill requirements, that without the will not allow for the manufacture of the desired object. In some cases, it is necessary for standalone skills to be known before manufacturer can commence. As such, it is essential that before purchasing a BP, the skill requirement be examined along with the cost for the required skill. This can add considerably to the prerequisite cost.
Blueprints have a number of attributes that affect the efficiency of the BPO. All newly purchased BPO's have a degree of wastage associated with them. Two such attributes are:
- Material Efficiency Research (ME Research)
New BPO's will always use 10% more material than ideal, this figure is independent of character skill and is solely attributed to the BPO. The level of material waste is controlled by the ME level, researching this at a laboratory slot will reduce the wasted material during manufacture.
- Productivity Efficiency Research (PE Research)
As with the ME, the amount of time needed to produce the item, will take x% longer than ideal. As before this is independent of character skill and is solely attributed to the BPO. The level of production time waste is controlled by the PE level, researching this at a laboratory slot will reduce the wasted time during manufacture.
- NOTE Using a BP will be covered in a different section, this is for explaining what a bpo is what can be done to it, anything that affects bpc should be bundled with that, so i.e. copy time research NOTE
- NOTE add links to production resources, but discuss on forum first, to find the best practise option, as there are certainly a lot of options out there
