Difference between revisions of "Research"

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[[Image:MobileLab.png|right|500px]]
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''The Information provided in this guide was pulled from [http://www.eveonline.com/iNgameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=434899 Halada's Complete Miner's Guide]. See also [[Using the Uni POS for research]].''
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'''A lot of this information refers to the upcoming industrial patch/expansion, Crius, expected to be released on 22nd July. It may not be relevant for industry on live servers currently.'''
  
'''Research''' is the process of improving an [[Blueprint|Original Blueprint (BPO)]]. Two types of research are performed: '''Material Efficiency Research''' and '''Time Efficiency Research'''. Material Efficiency Research decrease the amount of materials required for the production of the blueprint while Time Efficiency Research decrease the production time of the item produced. Research may also involve blueprint copying, which produces Blueprint Copies (BPC). As the blueprint is researched and copied, the materials and productivity level of the original blueprint will be copied onto the blueprint copy.
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'''Research''' is the process of improving an [[Blueprint|Original Blueprint (BPO)]]. Two types of research are performed: ''Material Efficiency'' research and ''Time Efficiency'' research, also known as ME and TE. Material Efficiency research decrease the amount of materials required for the production of the blueprint, whilst Time Efficiency research decrease the production time of the item produced.  
  
==Research==
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Research may also involve blueprint copying, which produces Blueprint Copies (BPC). As the blueprint is researched and copied, the ME and TE levels of the original blueprint will be transferred onto the blueprint copy.
===Skills Required===
 
* Laboratory Operation I <br>
 
* Research I (5% bonus to blueprint manufacturing time research per skill level) <br>
 
* Science 1 (5% Bonus to blueprint copying speed per level) <br>
 
* Metallurgy 1 (5% Bonus to material efficiency research speed per skill level)  
 
  
===Helpful Skills===
 
* Advanced Laboratory Operation (+1 lab slot per level) <br>
 
* Cybernetics 5 (allows to plug in special implants that speeds up the research process)
 
  
===Implants===
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== Research Skills ==
* The Beancounter Hardwiring series
 
  
==Introduction==
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None of these skills are actually ''required'' for any research. However, they will all make your BPO operations far easier and quicker, and are very worthwhile training if you intend to do a lot of research.
Research is the process of increasing the ME and PE level of a BPO to reduce their production waste or decrease their production time.  
 
  
Wastage is always added to the base mineral amount of what you are producing, and no matter how good your skills are or what equipment you use, you will never reduce the amount below the basic requirements. To figure out what the basic or “perfect” amount is, either look up the BPO on the Eve Database or using an application such as [http://sites.google.com/site/evemeep/ EVE-MEEP].
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* [[Skills:Science#Science|Science]] - reduces time required to copy a BPO, by 5% per level
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''Science'' is the basic skill in the Science section of the character skills. You don't need this skill to perform blueprint copying. This skill will reduce the time required for blueprint copying, by 25% at maximum level. This skill is also the prerequisite for almost all the other skills in the science section.
  
There has been a lot of confusion and many posts on the forums about what incompetence waste really is. In fact, CCP has changed the way ME and PE affects a BPO a few times already, making it really hard to understand the actual system. Production Efficiency skill says you get a 4% reduction per skill level to the material requirements needed for production, however the player guide says 5%.
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* [[Skills:Science#Research|Research]] - reduces time required for Time Efficiency research, by 5% per level
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You don't need this skill to perform time efficiency research. This skill will reduce the time required for TE research, by 25% at maximum level. Requires Science III.
  
According to the skill’s description, which suggests 4%, you should end up with a 5% waste with your skill at level 5 (25% base incompetence waste – (4% x 5) = 5%). However testing in games have proven you get a 0% incompetence waste at level 5, therefore the skill’s description is wrong. Regardless of what it is, '''you should have Production Efficiency trained to level 5 before you even start producing'''.
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* [[Skills:Science#Metallurgy|Metallurgy]] - reduces time required for Material Efficiency research, by 5% per level
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You don't need this skill to perform material efficiency research. This skill will reduce the time required for ME research, by 25% at maximum level. Requires Science IV.
  
When you reach Production Efficiency level 5, you are no longer incompetent at producing, so you are not personally inducing waste onto your production job. However, as already stated, a brand new BPO has waste embedded in its design and you will need to research it to increase the ME level to reduce that waste. Note that the Production Efficiency skill (PE) has nothing to do with the Productivity Level (PE) attribute you see under a BPO’s information window. The PE attribute affects the SPEED of the production whereas the PE skill affects the wastage. Easily confused, easily explained.  
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* [[Skills:Science#Laboratory_Operation|Laboratory Operation]] - allows you to perform one additional research or copying job per level
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Every character starts off with the ability to run a single research or copying job without needing to train this skill. Laboratory Operation gives you an extra research/copying slot for each level trained: if you train it to V, you can run 6 research or copying jobs at once. Requires Science III.
  
You can reduce this waste by researching the Material Level (ME) of the BPO. You can see the design waste on the BPO under Wastage Factor. This is always 10% (0.1) except for some rare items that have a 5% (0.05) Wastage Factor. Drones used to have a 5% wastage factor, but apparently they don't anymore. By researching the BPO we can reduce the design waste using the following formula: 1 + Base Wastage / (1 + ME level).
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* [[Skills:Science#Advanced_Laboratory_Operation|Advanced Laboratory Operation]] - allows you to perform a further additional research or copying job per level
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Once you have trained Laboratory Operation to V, you can then train this skill to increase still further the number of concurrent research or copying jobs you can perform, to a maximum of 11 jobs.
  
Using the above formula on a BPO with 10% base wastage, we can calculate our production waste (assuming PE skill at level 5) to be:
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* [[Skills:Science#Scientific_Networking|Scientific Networking]] - allows you to start research jobs at range, without needing to be in the location of the BPO/facility.
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Requires Laboratory Operation V. Level I in this skill gives you the ability to start research jobs anywhere in the same system, e.g. you can be docked a station and start a job in your [[POS]] at the next moon. Training it higher extends the range at which you can start jobs, to full region range at V.
  
ME0 - 10% <Br>
 
ME1 - 5% <Br>
 
ME2 - 3.3% <Br>
 
ME3 - 2.5% <Br>
 
ME10 - 0.9% <Br>
 
ME50 - 0.2% <Br>
 
  
As you can see, training your ME level from 0 to 10 reduces the waste from 10% to 0.91%, thus reducing the waste by over 9% in simply 10 levels, whereas training a further 40 levels (11-50) only takes off 0.7% (from 0.9% to 0.2%). The following graph illustrates the effect of training ME levels to waste percentage.
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===Other Helpful Skills===
  
[[Image:MEGraph.png|500px|center]]
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* [[Skills:Neural_Enhancement#Cybernetics|Cybernetics]] - allows the use of implants.
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Certain skill hardwirings - the Zainou 'Beancounter' range of implants - that boost research & copying speeds are available, for which Cybernetics is required. A dedicated researching character would benefit greatly from one or more of these implants.
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* [[Skills:Production#Industry|Industry]] and [[Skills:Production#Mass_Production|Mass Production]] - faster manufacturing and multiple manufacturing lines.
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If your researching character also builds items from the BPOs (or BPCs) then do not neglect the [[manufacturing]] skills.
  
It should be clear that the more you research the less you gain from that research. How does this affect you?
 
  
A general rule of thumb used by the producers is that 30 days of research is usually sufficient.
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==Material Efficiency Research==
  
The Productivity Level of a blueprint, as mentioned above, affects the manufacturing time for each batch made with the blueprint.  Specifically, it reduces the manufacturing time by (Productivity Level) / ( 5 + (5 * Productivity Level) ) which results in the following progression:
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Material Efficiency (henceforth known as ME) research reduces the amount of materials required to manufacture the item from the BPO. It can clearly be seen that the fewer materials you require to build an item, the more profitable selling your item is likely to be. New BPOs bought from the market will have an ME of 0%, but you can often find BPO sellers in contracts or on the [https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=278 Sell Orders forum], that will sell you pre-researched BPOs (or BPCs) for your manufacturing business.
  
PL0 - 0%<BR>
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The current ME level of a blueprint can be seen by looking at the info on a blueprint, or by opening the Industry window and browsing your blueprints. Each time you perform ME research on a BPO, it will reduces the materials required by -1%. You can do ME research 10 times in total, for a total reduction of -10% on the materials required.
PL1 - 10%<BR>
 
PL2 - 13%<BR>
 
PL3 - 15%<BR>
 
PL4 - 16%<BR>
 
PL5 - 17%<BR>
 
PL10 - 18.2%<BR>
 
PL50 - 19.6%<BR>
 
...and so on. From PL0 to PL1 your reduction in manufacturing time is 10% but from PL10 to PL50 only 1.4%.
 
The following graph illustrates the effect of training PL levels to your manufacturing reduction time in percentage.
 
  
[[Image:Wiki-eve-PL-reduction-Graph-Scifi°.jpg|500px|center]]
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Materials will always round up to the next whole number, so you will never need 23.75 units of [[tritanium]] to build a module, for example, or you will never need 0.75 [[Atron]]s to build an [[Ares]].
*Note above graph : The ultimate maximum manufacturing reduction time when PL goes to infinity = 20%
 
  
For example, suppose that manufacturing a batch of something normally takes 60 minutes to manufacture at Productivity Level 0. At Productivity Level 5, this is reduced by 5/30, or 10 minutes, thus the manufacturing time for one batch is 50 minutes.
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It is important to note that material rounding happens ''after'' you have multiplied by the number of runs. Here's an example, the Nanofiber Internal Structure I.
  
Increasing the Productivity Level of a blueprint is usually not as important as increasing the Material Level of a blueprint.  It might be important in cases where the blueprint is being used to manufacture almost continuously or in cases where the manufacturing time for a single batch is extremely long. No matter how high you get PL your manufacturing  reduction time can not become more than 20%.
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[[image]]
  
==How far do you go with research?==
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You can see that at 0% ME, the tech 1 nanofiber requires 10 Isogen and 1 Noxcium to build. If you researched it to 9% ME, it would require 9.1 Isogen and 0.91 Noxcium. Because minerals round up, if you only did a single run to build a single nanofiber, the amount of materials required would not actually change. However, if you did 100 runs to build 100 nanofibers, because material rounding occurs ''after'' you multiply by the number of runs, you would need 910 Isogen and 91 Noxcium to build 100 nanofibers.
[[Image:MobileLabInfo.png|thumb|right|Mobile Lab Information]]
 
When you’ll research either the ME or PE level of a BPO, you’ll want to do it at a POS. The main reason being the 0.75 time multiplier. Saving 25% off your research time (30% if you were smart enough to train cybernetics 5 and have those nifty Beancounter X60 implants in your head) means a lot. '''How far you are going to take it depends entirely of what you will do with your BPO:'''
 
  
===Manufacturing business===
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[[image]]
If you’re going into production, then you won’t be taking your research to crazy ME levels. But let me explain myself further.
 
  
I will use the beloved Raven, mother of all ratting ships, as my example.
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In this way, even researching to -1% or -2% ME can be worthwhile if you intend to build a large number of items.
  
The build cost of a Raven these days, at:
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{{note box|''EXCEPTION: ships, and certain other input materials, are fixed. Example: you will always need 10 [[Rifter]]s to build 10 [[Jaguar]]s, never 9, even if your Jaguar blueprint is fully researched.''}}
  
ME0, is ~85.2mil ISK <Br>
 
ME10, is ~78.1mil ISK <Br>
 
ME20, is ~77.7mil ISK
 
  
Remember that graph? The more you research, the less you get out of it. This is where my “30 days worth of ME research is enough” comes from.
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==Time Efficiency Research==
  
For a battleship BPO, with max skills (in this case, Metallurgy 5), it would take close to 27 days to research a Raven BPO from ME0 to ME10, at a POS, of course. So for about 1 month of training for the first 10 levels, you shave more than 7mil ISK off your production costs.
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Time Efficiency (henceforth known as TE) research reduces the amount of time required to manufacture the item from the BPO. It can be seen that the faster you can build an item, and thus re-use your production slots for more items, the more profitable your business is likely to be. New BPOs bought from the market will have a TE of 0%, but you can often find BPO sellers in contracts or on the [https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=278 Sell Orders forum], that will sell you pre-researched BPOs (or BPCs) for your manufacturing business.
  
However, another month worth of research would only shave another 400,000.00 ISK, not even a million! Considering it takes 4 hours to produce a Raven at PE0, you’d need to sell several hundred Raven to make your second month of research worth it!
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The current TE level of a blueprint can be seen by looking at the info on a blueprint, or by opening the Industry window and browsing your blueprints. Each time you perform TE research on a BPO, it will reduces the time required by 2%. You can do TE research 10 times in total, for a total reduction of -20% on manufacturing time required.
  
My personal rule of thumb for ME and PE levels for BPO I use for producing is:
 
  
ME100:PE30 for Ammo <Br>
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[[File:Research-info2.png|left]]{{example|This BPO for a '''Nuclear S''' shell - small projectile ammunition - has been researched twice for Material Efficiency, for a -2% material requirement; and five times for Time Efficiency, for a -10% time requirement.}}
ME10:PE5 for Ships <br>
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{{clear}}
ME50:PE10 for Modules
 
  
This of course has been the source of many debates, which, to be honest with you, is not worth arguing about. I usually never go above 30 days except for special circumstances, which are explained later in the guide.
 
  
===BPC business===
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==How long does research take?==
A BPC business is something a lot of people do, mostly because it is a fantastic way of passively generating income. The premise is actually very simple: you purchase a BPO, research it to crazy levels, then produce copies (BPC) 24/7.
 
  
Why is it more important to research your BPO to crazy levels? Because other crazy people did it before you, and since the BPC market is competitive, if someone has a choice between a ME10 BPC or ME50 for the same price, they will pick ME50. And why wouldn’t they? They probably don’t even fully understand the insignificant savings between the two of them, but it’s the same price, and ME50 is bigger than ME10.
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ME and TE research both take the same time to perform. The base time for the first level of research can be seen in the information of a BPO.
  
This is especially important for:
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[[File:Research-info.png]]
*Capital Components BPC
 
*Ships BPC (all types)
 
  
If you intend to go for a BPC business, you’ll need to put in 3, 4 and even 5 extra months of research to guaranty a good flow of sales. A good rule of thumb, at least for me, is:
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This is the time required to go from either ME or TE 0%, to -1% ME or -2% TE, which is one level of research. In this case, of the [[Archon]] capital ship, the first research level takes 5 hours 50 minutes (which would be reduced by your skills and/or POS facility bonus). Each further level of ME or TE takes exponentially longer to perform than the previous level.
  
ME150:PE30 for Capital Components <br>
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{{note box|ME and TE levels and research duration are counted separately. }}
ME50:PE10 for Battleships <br>
 
ME3:PE0 for Capital Ships <br>
 
ME500:PE100 for Ammo <br>
 
ME150:PE75 for Modules <br>
 
  
I have had a lot of success with these levels in the past. Of course it is TOTALLY unnecessary but people will buy your BPC. The higher you go from there, the better your sales will be.
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graph of exponential nature here...
  
Note, however, that you lose a lot of profit if you copy over manufacturing. The difference is significant. A BPC business is a great way to make ISK passively without too much effort: with just one POS, a few labs and perhaps 2 or 3 alts, you can make ISK AFK. All you need to do is log in 30 minutes each week to oversee the copying jobs.
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{{note box|A Research Laboratory can be anchored in a POS, and gives a 30% reduction to both TE and ME research times. The Hyasyoda Research Laboratory, a faction variant, gives 35% time reductions. Researching in a POS represents a very significant time saver.}}
  
===Ready-to-go BPO packages business===
 
This is a favorite of mine. The profit margin is bigger than that of a BPC business, and if you find the right market, you can make a pretty penny. People will pay well to save even just a month of research, much more so for a few months. It became a trend to sell BPO packages that are already pre-researched with at least a month’s worth lab time, such as
 
  
* Drones BPO package
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==Copying==
* Ammo BPO package
 
* Rigs BPO package
 
* Tech 2 components package
 
 
 
A good business, if you got the capital but not the time, is to research capital components BPO, or even Capital Ships BPO. On that market, you can make about 100mil ISK per 30 days of lab time.
 
 
 
Example: A Thanatos BPO at ME1 will easily sell at 100mil ISK above the NPC price, and requires just about one month of research.
 
 
 
You can easily have 10 labs on a large POS, which is a good 30 slots of Material Level research. 30 slots x 100mil of income is 3bil ISK in income per month. One large tower costs about 175mil ISK per month in fuel in Empire space, so 2.8bil ISK in profit each month, passively generated.
 
 
 
Of course this entails a huge ISK investment into those BPO, but if you have it, it’s an easy way to make ISK without the effort, is almost risk-free and in less than a year you’ll be even and start making money!
 
 
 
==The how-to part of this section==
 
[[Image:MEResearchScreen1.png|thumb|right|Material Research Screen]]
 
[[Image:MEResearchScreen2.png|thumb|right|Pick Installation Screen]]
 
 
 
The process itself is very easy. And if you do it well, it is totally safe and impervious to corp theft.
 
 
 
Skill that will help…
 
* Scientific Networking I
 
 
 
 
 
The Scientific Networking skill is required if you want to research your BPO at a POS without having to physically put the BPO in the lab itself. All you really need is level 1. What this allows you to do is to lock the BPO in a corporate hangar (coming up next) so no one can take it out of there. Therefore, your BPO remains safely locked in a secure place, impossible to steal, while you take full advantage of the POS speed bonus.
 
  
To use a POS lab, the BPO absolutely must be in the corp hangar. You cannot use a POS lab from your personal hangar, since POS equipment is considered a corporation asset.
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Copying a blueprint original produces a number of a blueprint copies with a specific number of runs. For example, in the image below we have chosen a [[Blackbird]] BPO, requested 5 runs, and each resulting copy would have 10 runs. The final output would produce 5 BPCs with 10 runs each, from which you could build 50 total Blackbirds.
  
Once the BPO is in place, right-click as you would to produce, but choose either Material Research, or Time Efficiency (PE) Research. You’ll get a familiar looking window.
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[[File:Copying.png]]
  
It is pretty straightforward from here on out, except perhaps finding the POS lab installation if you have never done this before.  
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Once you have used up all the runs on a BPC, it is destroyed (you simply won't get it back after the last manufacturing run). You cannot research BPCs, so make sure your BPO is researched to the ME and TE levels you require before you copy it.
  
To do so, click on Pick Installation, to open yet another familiar window.
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Different BPCs have a different maximum number of runs you can set. Ship BPCs for example can only be given 10 runs, whereas most modules and ammunition can have up to 600 runs. You can see the maximum runs per copy in the information of a BPO
  
The trick here, is to select Corporation under type. This will show all installations available to your corporation only. Hopefully you labeled your labs in such a way you can recognize them. Look for Mobile Laboratory (or the Advanced kind) under the Installation Type and you’ll have found your labs!
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[[File:Copy-info.png]]
  
Pick one, choose a free slot, then click on Use assembly line! Voila! You’re done!
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=== How long does copying take? ===
  
==Locking down the BPO==
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As well as the maximum runs per copy, you can also see the base copy time - a.k.a. time per run - in the information of a BPO.
[[Image:Votes.png|thumb|right|Corporation Vote Screen]]
 
Locking down the BPO can only be done by someone who either has:
 
  
* CEO roles
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Copying of a BPO always takes 80% of the build time, on a per run basis.  Note that this is before applying bonuses for skills and POS facilities  - because manufacturing and copying have different skills & facilities (and [[teams]]) affecting their duration, your personal copy time may not be exactly 80% of your personal build time. Copy time is also NOT affected by the level of TE on the BPO. For example, small ammunition and drones, and basic modules, typically take 5 minutes to build, and thus will take 4 minutes to copy.
* Director roles
 
* Shares in the corporation
 
  
The process involved three steps:
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This base copy time is then multiplied by the number of runs and the runs per copy value.  Or, in other words, the total duration of your copy job is the base copy time, times the number of items you could build with the output copies. For example, whether you want five 10-run copies or ten 5-run copies, the total copy time would be 50 times the base copy time.
*1) A Lockdown vote is proposed
 
*2) 24h is allowed for shareholders to vote
 
*3) If the vote passed, the BPO is automatically locked down
 
  
===Step 1===
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{{note box|A Design Laboratory can be anchored in a POS, and gives a 40% reduction to copy times. Copying in a POS represents a very significant time saver.}}
Right-click on a BPO, and select Propose Lockdown Vote. This option will only appear if you satisfy one of the three criteria mentioned earlier (CEO, Director or shareholders).
 
  
===Step 2===
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=== Why should I copy my BPOs? ===
Directors and shareholders will receive an eve-mail notifying them a vote has been initiated. The CEO and directors will need to navigate to the corporation window via the corp button. Then find the Politics tab, Votes, and Open Votes.
 
  
As you can see here, my corporation currently doesn’t have any open votes.
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# Security
 
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#* Well-researched BPOs take a lot of time to produce, especially for the bigger ships such as capitals. Putting your BPO in a [[POS]] - for a facility reduction in materials and time - makes it vulnerable to attackFor this reason you can first copy the BPO, and then take only the BPC out to the POS for manufacturing, leaving your BPOs safely in station.
Shareholders will not have access to this window. Instead they must open their wallet, find the Shares tab, right-click the name of the corporation in which the voting is ongoing, and click on the Votes option.
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#* In-corp security can also be increased using BPCs. If you don't trust your corp mates with your BPOs, you can instead keep a personal copy line running and release frequent BPCs for corp usage.
 
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# [[Invention]]
A similar window will open, where they will be able to vote either Yes or No.
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#* Creating a Tech 2 BPC can only be done using a Tech 1 BPC - not a BPO. This process is called invention, and requires a T1 BPC of the item you wish to invent (for example, if you want to invent a 425mm Autocannon II, you need a BPC for a 425 Autocannon I).
 
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# Multiple manufacturing jobs
The CEO should be able to follow the progress of the voting in the politics window, seen on the left.
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#* You can only run a single manufacturing job at a time from a BPO. Using the BPO to create multiple BPCs, and then manufacturing from those BPCs instead, can increase your productivity.
 
 
===Step 3===
 
 
 
After the 24h voting period has ended, if the vote passed, then the BPO will be automatically locked down without any action needed by the CEOWhen this is done, the BPO is fully locked down, and can only be unlocked via another vote.
 
 
 
The reverse however, is not true. If you initiate an Unlock vote, the vote will need to be favor of yes and the CEO will need to sanction the vote for the BPO to become unlocked. I am unaware whether this is a feature or a bug, but regardless of what it is, your BPO are secured and you don’t have to worry about a director going rogue and unlocking your BPO while you flew away to Barbados with your girlfriend for a week of hot lovemakin’ on the beach.
 
 
 
==Copying==
 
[[Image:AdvancedMobileLabInfo.png|thumb|right|Advanced Mobile Lab Information]]
 
Copying is the process of making a BPC out of a BPO. As it was said a little earlier, this is better done in a POS lab, due to its faster speed. If you were ever going to use Advanced POS labs, this would be the time, as it has 2 more slots and is even 10% faster than a regular mobile laboratory.
 
  
Coupled with the appropriate Beancounter implant, you shave a total of 40% off the copying time. If you’re running a BPC business, this is quite a significant timesaver.
 
  
The process is pretty straightforward. Note that there is a limit on how many runs you can give a BPC, which can be found under Production Limit on the BPO itself. Note that this Limit has nothing to do with how many runs you can make if you are building using the actual BPO.
 
  
Some copy job might require materials (such is the case for tech 2 BPO, for example). If
 
this is the case, while the BPO can stay in the corp hangar, you will need to put the material in the POS lab itself.
 
  
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{{note box|The previous version of this page, covering pre-Crius research, can be found [[Pre-Crius_Research|here]].}}
 
[[Category:Industry]]
 
[[Category:Industry]]

Revision as of 17:38, 16 July 2014

Template:Work in Progress

A lot of this information refers to the upcoming industrial patch/expansion, Crius, expected to be released on 22nd July. It may not be relevant for industry on live servers currently.

Research is the process of improving an Original Blueprint (BPO). Two types of research are performed: Material Efficiency research and Time Efficiency research, also known as ME and TE. Material Efficiency research decrease the amount of materials required for the production of the blueprint, whilst Time Efficiency research decrease the production time of the item produced.

Research may also involve blueprint copying, which produces Blueprint Copies (BPC). As the blueprint is researched and copied, the ME and TE levels of the original blueprint will be transferred onto the blueprint copy.


Research Skills

None of these skills are actually required for any research. However, they will all make your BPO operations far easier and quicker, and are very worthwhile training if you intend to do a lot of research.

  • Science - reduces time required to copy a BPO, by 5% per level

Science is the basic skill in the Science section of the character skills. You don't need this skill to perform blueprint copying. This skill will reduce the time required for blueprint copying, by 25% at maximum level. This skill is also the prerequisite for almost all the other skills in the science section.

  • Research - reduces time required for Time Efficiency research, by 5% per level

You don't need this skill to perform time efficiency research. This skill will reduce the time required for TE research, by 25% at maximum level. Requires Science III.

  • Metallurgy - reduces time required for Material Efficiency research, by 5% per level

You don't need this skill to perform material efficiency research. This skill will reduce the time required for ME research, by 25% at maximum level. Requires Science IV.

Every character starts off with the ability to run a single research or copying job without needing to train this skill. Laboratory Operation gives you an extra research/copying slot for each level trained: if you train it to V, you can run 6 research or copying jobs at once. Requires Science III.

Once you have trained Laboratory Operation to V, you can then train this skill to increase still further the number of concurrent research or copying jobs you can perform, to a maximum of 11 jobs.

  • Scientific Networking - allows you to start research jobs at range, without needing to be in the location of the BPO/facility.

Requires Laboratory Operation V. Level I in this skill gives you the ability to start research jobs anywhere in the same system, e.g. you can be docked a station and start a job in your POS at the next moon. Training it higher extends the range at which you can start jobs, to full region range at V.


Other Helpful Skills

Certain skill hardwirings - the Zainou 'Beancounter' range of implants - that boost research & copying speeds are available, for which Cybernetics is required. A dedicated researching character would benefit greatly from one or more of these implants.

If your researching character also builds items from the BPOs (or BPCs) then do not neglect the manufacturing skills.


Material Efficiency Research

Material Efficiency (henceforth known as ME) research reduces the amount of materials required to manufacture the item from the BPO. It can clearly be seen that the fewer materials you require to build an item, the more profitable selling your item is likely to be. New BPOs bought from the market will have an ME of 0%, but you can often find BPO sellers in contracts or on the Sell Orders forum, that will sell you pre-researched BPOs (or BPCs) for your manufacturing business.

The current ME level of a blueprint can be seen by looking at the info on a blueprint, or by opening the Industry window and browsing your blueprints. Each time you perform ME research on a BPO, it will reduces the materials required by -1%. You can do ME research 10 times in total, for a total reduction of -10% on the materials required.

Materials will always round up to the next whole number, so you will never need 23.75 units of tritanium to build a module, for example, or you will never need 0.75 Atrons to build an Ares.

It is important to note that material rounding happens after you have multiplied by the number of runs. Here's an example, the Nanofiber Internal Structure I.

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You can see that at 0% ME, the tech 1 nanofiber requires 10 Isogen and 1 Noxcium to build. If you researched it to 9% ME, it would require 9.1 Isogen and 0.91 Noxcium. Because minerals round up, if you only did a single run to build a single nanofiber, the amount of materials required would not actually change. However, if you did 100 runs to build 100 nanofibers, because material rounding occurs after you multiply by the number of runs, you would need 910 Isogen and 91 Noxcium to build 100 nanofibers.

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In this way, even researching to -1% or -2% ME can be worthwhile if you intend to build a large number of items.

EXCEPTION: ships, and certain other input materials, are fixed. Example: you will always need 10 Rifters to build 10 Jaguars, never 9, even if your Jaguar blueprint is fully researched.


Time Efficiency Research

Time Efficiency (henceforth known as TE) research reduces the amount of time required to manufacture the item from the BPO. It can be seen that the faster you can build an item, and thus re-use your production slots for more items, the more profitable your business is likely to be. New BPOs bought from the market will have a TE of 0%, but you can often find BPO sellers in contracts or on the Sell Orders forum, that will sell you pre-researched BPOs (or BPCs) for your manufacturing business.

The current TE level of a blueprint can be seen by looking at the info on a blueprint, or by opening the Industry window and browsing your blueprints. Each time you perform TE research on a BPO, it will reduces the time required by 2%. You can do TE research 10 times in total, for a total reduction of -20% on manufacturing time required.


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This BPO for a Nuclear S shell - small projectile ammunition - has been researched twice for Material Efficiency, for a -2% material requirement; and five times for Time Efficiency, for a -10% time requirement.


How long does research take?

ME and TE research both take the same time to perform. The base time for the first level of research can be seen in the information of a BPO.

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This is the time required to go from either ME or TE 0%, to -1% ME or -2% TE, which is one level of research. In this case, of the Archon capital ship, the first research level takes 5 hours 50 minutes (which would be reduced by your skills and/or POS facility bonus). Each further level of ME or TE takes exponentially longer to perform than the previous level.

ME and TE levels and research duration are counted separately.

graph of exponential nature here...

A Research Laboratory can be anchored in a POS, and gives a 30% reduction to both TE and ME research times. The Hyasyoda Research Laboratory, a faction variant, gives 35% time reductions. Researching in a POS represents a very significant time saver.


Copying

Copying a blueprint original produces a number of a blueprint copies with a specific number of runs. For example, in the image below we have chosen a Blackbird BPO, requested 5 runs, and each resulting copy would have 10 runs. The final output would produce 5 BPCs with 10 runs each, from which you could build 50 total Blackbirds.

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Once you have used up all the runs on a BPC, it is destroyed (you simply won't get it back after the last manufacturing run). You cannot research BPCs, so make sure your BPO is researched to the ME and TE levels you require before you copy it.

Different BPCs have a different maximum number of runs you can set. Ship BPCs for example can only be given 10 runs, whereas most modules and ammunition can have up to 600 runs. You can see the maximum runs per copy in the information of a BPO

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How long does copying take?

As well as the maximum runs per copy, you can also see the base copy time - a.k.a. time per run - in the information of a BPO.

Copying of a BPO always takes 80% of the build time, on a per run basis. Note that this is before applying bonuses for skills and POS facilities - because manufacturing and copying have different skills & facilities (and teams) affecting their duration, your personal copy time may not be exactly 80% of your personal build time. Copy time is also NOT affected by the level of TE on the BPO. For example, small ammunition and drones, and basic modules, typically take 5 minutes to build, and thus will take 4 minutes to copy.

This base copy time is then multiplied by the number of runs and the runs per copy value. Or, in other words, the total duration of your copy job is the base copy time, times the number of items you could build with the output copies. For example, whether you want five 10-run copies or ten 5-run copies, the total copy time would be 50 times the base copy time.

A Design Laboratory can be anchored in a POS, and gives a 40% reduction to copy times. Copying in a POS represents a very significant time saver.

Why should I copy my BPOs?

  1. Security
    • Well-researched BPOs take a lot of time to produce, especially for the bigger ships such as capitals. Putting your BPO in a POS - for a facility reduction in materials and time - makes it vulnerable to attack. For this reason you can first copy the BPO, and then take only the BPC out to the POS for manufacturing, leaving your BPOs safely in station.
    • In-corp security can also be increased using BPCs. If you don't trust your corp mates with your BPOs, you can instead keep a personal copy line running and release frequent BPCs for corp usage.
  2. Invention
    • Creating a Tech 2 BPC can only be done using a Tech 1 BPC - not a BPO. This process is called invention, and requires a T1 BPC of the item you wish to invent (for example, if you want to invent a 425mm Autocannon II, you need a BPC for a 425 Autocannon I).
  3. Multiple manufacturing jobs
    • You can only run a single manufacturing job at a time from a BPO. Using the BPO to create multiple BPCs, and then manufacturing from those BPCs instead, can increase your productivity.



The previous version of this page, covering pre-Crius research, can be found here.