From time to time I donate funds to the corp probably allot over and above what I would normally pay in Taxes if I was actively missioning per say. In 2011 I think I probably donated around a Billion ISK to the Corp for whatever the Corp does with the funds. That’s probably allot more than most casual members pay in corp taxes i would guess. So at best I wasn’t really that keen on making money for the Corp specifically. I figure I can manage my funds well enough to make a profit and donate to the Corp at best some extra funds for general use by the Corp. Its much less complicated that way and easier to do.

So again recently in Corp channel communications somehow again the conversation came up I can’t remember how or why but it pertained to making money for the Corp. Maybe using some the Corp funds as well to play with. I was a bit weary to do so and very reluctantly at best. I’m already busy enough managing my little Trade business. But somehow and for some unknown reason I can’t think of why I reluctantly agreed to take up the duty and make some money for the Corp engaging in usual activities. Maybe I see it as a new challenge and something a little different from just increasing personal profits.

And so the CEO offered to make the necessary arrangements I’d need for corporate roles to get things started for me in my new role that I accepted reluctantly. Two new Corporate Wallet Divisions were created for Market and Trade of which I both now manage. I initially asked for no funds be added to any the Wallet Division so I could start things out seeding it with some of my own funds to start things off. However the CEO decided on making the Wallet Division for Trade and added 500 M ISK to the account to use as I see fit for the new venture. So the Corporate Wallet for Trade Div started with 500 M ISK as seed money and Market Div started with 0.0 ISK. I now actively manage both Wallet Div for Market Trade and Investment activities.

So I guess this is now my new Project for Corporate Trade & Investments helping increase corporate profits. It’s been a bit busy since things have gotten started and have quietly settled into my new role. Invested in a few various thing and placed them on the market on behalf of my Corporate Divisions using my own Trade Sell Orders. Some the investments have sold and so far Market Div which started with zero is up 90+ M ISK and mostly use that to sell things on behalf of the Corp. For Trade Division I initially used most the funds to make some purchases and resold some the items on the market. Also added some extra funds from my own for making purchases. That left just around 24 M ISK in the fund to cover Taxes and Fees on making all the market Sell Orders. So far Trade Division has made back its original funding balance of 500 M ISK to almost 590 M ISK. There are still about 20 various active Corporate Sell Orders on the market that should account for some good profits if everything sells.

While going about business as usual in space earlier, saw what looked like a good deal on the market in something I regularly buy and trade. Invested 550 M ISK from Corp Trade Division and bought a good chunk of what seem like a good deal about 5.6 M units. Then spent 1.1 Billion ISK of my own funds buying the rest of what seemed like a good deal to buy at the price it was at about 10 M units. I already knew what it sold for elsewhere on Buy Order for the price spread. If I can resell the purchase at or close to the price I have in mind if the market is good, I figure I can possibly make 90 M ISK increase profit for the Trade Div on the money Invested. For my own personal purchase of the deal if re-sold should maybe net 170 M ISK assuming things workout as planned. It the market goes higher it becomes an even better deal. I’m not desperate to sell if it prices goes south either. But will have to see how things go.

Another milestone in my EVE career achieved as a Trade Industrialist finally breaking and surpassing the 20 Billion ISK barrier. Currently now well over 21.2 Billion ISK and growing. A milestone achievement I quietly had in my mind and was finally glad to achieve as a full-time Inter-Regional Trader and part-time Research Industrialist in Highsec space.

I started the beginning of the year at 19 Billion ISK and steadily my Trade Investments and Industrial production sales grew. There is now some 10 Billion ISK sitting on the market in Sell Orders across 7 regions and over 1.6 Billion ISK in various regional Buy Orders across 3 empire regions. Its taken some work and was not all as easy to reach as many like to say its easy to make ISK. Try and do it sometimes as a steady process growing ISK it’s not always as easy as people like to say it is. Most people in New Eden often just want the quick road to riches with the sale of one or two modules to make several hundred million or a billion ISK one or two times. Its harder to do day after day steadily.

In EVE Traders come in many different kind and in how they operate to provide commerce and liquidity across New Eden. The vast majority of Traders station trade in Jita or any of the 4 other major market hubs. Everyone’s different. Some Traders have been said to Trade in Jita for years and have never undocked in years and amassed large fortunes. Some Traders station and regional trade in the smaller regions away from the major trade market hubs. Some Traders make a living scamming in major market hubs. Other Traders operate in the various areas of empire space and make a living trading and selling things across and between the various regions moving goods back and forth to service the economy of New Eden and keep capsuleers supplied to do their dirty deeds. And I guess that’s me a Inter-Regional Trader somewhat.

So I’ve enjoyed the steady growth of things. Vast majority of sales were all made up of lots of small sales vast majority being below 10 M ISK of most items. Very few items actually sold for over 10 M+ yet never over 40 M ISK at most. So wasn’t like I sold several items for several hundred million ISK in a few sales and made a lot of fast ISK. Just steady growth of Trade Investments, Re-Investments and growth. Can almost seem boring at times how that all works. Some days its just finding a good deal.

Even though the month isn’t quite over as yet business is up just over 10%.

On the long road to this milestone achievement I didn’t steal, scam or rob anyone anywhere in New Eden. It’s a rough place living and trying to make a living in New Eden, as well as having a good reputation. Not that the vast majority in New Eden really cares about their reputation anyway. Many in New Eden just as quickly try to shoot you to earn a reputation for the kill.

Wondering what next on the road ahead, living and trying to get ahead in New Eden.

With the job change transition mid last year had decided to go back to school a bit and something somewhat made much easier to do since also now work for the University on campus as well. So last week started my course semester back at the University and already got plenty of work to do. So things are just more busy than normal trying to do stuff.

Maybe I can get a post out late tonight, and probably won’t have any much time for playing much EVE today either.

I have my own opinions and so ideas why playing EVE over the course of that time, but rather than try to write about it I rather have the readers try to answer or comment about it for a change in their own opinion and perspectives.

The way I look at it is like this. If I was to wake up out of a coma today and read say 100 of the most popular and easily found/linked EVE Blogs I would get the overall opinion that the very vast majority of players and life in EVE are either about life in Low/Nullsec as Pirates and represents Low and Nullsec Alliances, as Pirates that live in WH’s doing the dirty deeds. That would be my overall impression of the vast majority of Blogs about EVE Online.

Yet the very heart of the Economic Engine of EVE is somewhat supported by a very different kind of capsuleer.

The amount of EVE blogs that don’t fall into that category is very few. So where are all the other blogs and why so very few as well?

So on Friday afternoon some time word on Twitter #tweetfleet was that the EVE Blog Pack was getting updated fresh for 2012. The EVE Blog Pack a collection of some the best of EVE Community player blogs. The blog list being maintained by Rixx Javix who writes the EVEOGANDA blog was going to be updating the list with a few new blog pack members.

I guess like anyone else who maintains a regular blog as well blogs for fun about EVE Online and life in space I myself was curious just who would apparently make the cut. You’d be somewhat curious too.

And so when Rixx Javix finally posted on his blog about updating the EVE Blog Pack and the new blogs that made the list, I honestly was surprised and somewhat with some mixed feeling as well about “AD” making the list……. for the 2nd time. I’m quite honored that Rixx listed me among all the other great blogs to be once again apart of the blog list.

The first time I made the EVE Blog Pack list was back when Crazykinux originally maintained the EVE Blog Pack List. That was not too long before Crazykinux stopped blogging and maintaining the blog list and it was taken up to be maintained by Rixx. At some point I was later removed from the list unsure of exactly when. But I think it was during late last summer when somewhat took a leave break from EVE I can only guess during a blog pack update. So for that I’m again honored to remake the EVE Blog Pack member list…..again. I guess you can make it back if you just keep at it and blog for fun regularly irregardless of anything or list.

This is also not the first MMO Community I’ve been honored to be apart of. I guess where I felt a bit of mix emotions in honestly is that EVE Online is like no other MMO game I can think of and is quite diverse in the makeup of respected players and how they choose to life and exist in the universe that is New Eden. Capsuleers come in all kind, have various different careers and come in all shades and some really love the shady life. We all exist, we all help in our own way to make EVE Online what it is as well define it because we all love the game. We all grease the very engine of EVE to help keep it going in some way.

There is great diversity in EVE/New Eden and in the capsuleeers who make up the Community of EVE Online as well the EVE Blogging Community. Everyone who chooses to blog about EVE and maintain a regular blog and voice is apart of that Community irregardless if they make any particular blog list. Blog for your own reasons, fun or entertainment, not wether to be included on some social listing. And I guess in a way also it helps when the EVE Blog Pack can represent some of that diversity as well in the various blogs and perspectives of those that choose to write then.

I write for fun or at least I try to and its a bit labor of love to keep doing so. Its time consuming to write a blog and do it regularly. For me its an extension of the games I play and blog community I’m always proud to be apart of. The number one person I write for is myself. Yet I’m most appreciative of all those that choose often to stop by, read and comment giving the blog a life of its own. In a way I also somewhat enjoy my quiet corner of the blog community and value most the frequent regular visitors that choose to visit here and have a drink and a chat before leaving. Yet I welcome the new visitors as well and all the lurkers that are always there reading in the shadows.

Of the fellow new Blog Pack members excluding myself I see a very friendly face and favorite I regularly visit and read: A Scientist’s Life in EVE. Its nice to have a close friend among all the others.

To the other new Blog Pack Members: 

Dsan’s EVE-Online Blog

Sand, Cider and Spaceships

Gun Turret Diplomacy

Through Newb Eyes

They will all be new blogs discovered to read of perspective and opinions of spaceships and life in space no doubt.

So I made some minor change to the look of the blog theme and added the EVE Blog Pack member link. Tried playing with adding a RSS feed and where to put it. A bit kinda tricky and will have to play around with layout over time to maybe do so as I can without changing the clean look of the blog layout that I rather like to maintain.

Thanks to Rixx Javix for selecting “AD” to make the Blog List again. I guess just keep blogging regularly with a different perspective on Life In New Eden. It’s not easy by any means to write a blog with regularity.

To the other new Blog Pack Members, Welcome Aboard as well!

And so its back to business as usual, though the normal course of everyday business really didn’t change all that much during the Wardec as compared to after the Wardec. I guess deciding not to dock at Amarr Station and make more use of contracts was a little bit of change but not all that much. For the most part and throughout my corporate life in highsec so far I’ve never talked much about life in the corporate ranks. I have a great dislike for drama and an even greater dislike for corporate politics. At most I barely ever talk about corporate life, and I’ve barely dwelled on it. Though at times I do reflect on corporate life as life evolves in space.

But it was a very quiet War! We hardly ever saw the Corp/Alliance ranks that Wardec’d us and as far as I know they barely had much to shoot at as well for easy target kills from out Corp at least. I did a few times while flying the Covert Ops thru Amarr System and saw some from the Wardec Corp in local. And again saw some on my way heading somewhere in Lonetrek region again camping some gate there as I waved passing by in the shadows. The war was a boring and a quiet one at best, barely anyone was around as well from the corporate ranks including some of upper management. I think it was the 4th back to back to back to back War in recent weeks for out Corp/Alliance. And if you half way think like I do you can’t help but find them all beyond suspicious. I don’t know if some the recent Alliance drama had anything to do with it either, it can be hard to say. Compared to the months before that point its an anomaly I would say with all the recent Wardec’s. However during all that time I’ve spent a great deal of time in New Eden just observing the random coming and going of some of the corporate ranks.

On most days around Empire space I just go about my business day to day doing whatever Market & Trade activities, R&D and various amounts of Industrial Production mixed in. Life for me is a solitary one at best doing the things I enjoy doing. If life in EVE is supposed to be a social one, I’m not one to socialize all that much. On most days I would glance at the Corporate Communications window and maybe the Alliance Communications window if there is anything interesting to view. Yet I do spend a lot of time in various Comms windows looking at what other Market Traders are also chatting about as well while going about daily business. However it was glaring obvious that over the course of the various Wardec’s of recent weeks that they was barely any of the corporate ranks around. Slowly by slowly they all seeming disappeared. It was also the holiday season as well. But I must have missed a memo or something maybe.

Much of the corporate ranks it seem wasn’t enjoying the inconvenience of the various Wardec’s and so over the course of the various Wars fewer and fewer of the ranks showed up daily if at all in space. Corporate activity was almost near flatlined. It wasn’t too obvious at first as I went about my daily activities in and around various regions of space, often just hanging in the dead of space in the shadows conducting business across the various regions. Make contracts as needed to get things done or things moved from place to place as needed.

A casual check at the Corporate Communications window and it was easily obvious over time that other than myself there was maybe only one other person around at most and no one else much of the time. I would almost say over the course of a week or two I logged more time in space than all of the corporate ranks combined probably. It didn’t bother me all that much, as I spend much of the quiet times viewing listening to other Market Traders in other Communications window or reading a blog in space.

I guess as a result of the Wardec some of the corporate ranks just choose to do other things maybe vs reporting to life in space. Maybe they felt the draw of the recent galactic force in a galaxy far away and choose to entertain the prospect of life there. Yet holidays is a busy time and some of the corporate ranks were obviously busy as well. With some recent Alliance drama as well it was understandable why some would choose not to show up regularly in space and avoid such things. Who really likes drama? Not me for sure. And so many were the ways that one would witness enduring silence in the Corporate Communications window, with no one else around. The quiet times slowly passed by during the Wardec in corp making for a nice boring War. And I was often left wondering….. where was everyone. Obviously some people hadn’t been around for weeks as well.

And so a new year has started, the holidays are over and maybe things will change and life will again return to the corporate ranks in space. The last of the recent string of Wardec is now over for now. Yet I wonder when the next one will be lurking around the corner for who knows why. Amazingly as the Wardec’s ends some life seem to be returning to the corporate ranks. A few faces are back around again and adding life to the silence that was. Some corp members who haven’t been seen in a while as well.

It’s slowly no longer seem to be the quiet empty place it was for the last several weeks. War’s over, Life goes on in highsec space.

Where I've been in New Eden as of January 1st 2012

Took a screenshot to document as of the beginning of the year where my main character have been so far in New Eden. I seem to travel allot all over Highsec Space. Well I’m primarily a Trader doing Regional Trade mostly. Though I do a bit of Industrial & Research activity as well.

As of the beginning my main character was at 28.1 Million Skill Points and started the year training Large Energy Turret 5 with another 20 days to go to complete training for using T2 Turrets and Laser Crystals. For my alt Trader I have him training Metallurgy 5 and somewhere around 25 Million Skill Points.

Wallet balance as of January 1st, 2012.

Started the year with a nice balance of 19 Billion ISK and will see what I can do with it in the year or maybe go broke maybe. Back in 2011 I had started the year at right around 3 Billion ISK. There is a total of about 7.58 Billion of Sell Orders across 7 Regions on the market and 900 M in Buy Orders across 2 Regions. For the most part Trade sales remain steady in growth and in investment.

Shiny ships don’t really motivate me all that much and my favorite ship that I fly daily remain my tiny Covert Ops Buzzard of which I have several and use almost exclusively daily. As well my Crane to move a few bigger things around that I can’t cram in the tiny frigate.

The Wardec continues and haven’t seen the enemy since the start of the Wardec, will see what happens over the next few days.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

*You should have an annual report too if you blog on WordPress platform. Really Cool!

The year that was 2010 here on the blog certainly didn’t end with me making any great post at all of reflection about that year, blog statistics as well as predictions for the year that was 2011. At that moment I was on break from EVE Online from feeling a little burned out doing everyday activities. And the biggest thing was at the time was that I was recently unemployed being laid off from the job of the last 6 years. It was definitely a tough time and transition.

2011 didn’t start with any great prediction of what was to be or expect in the year ahead. It started already as a year with lots of uncertainty for the most part being unemployed and at that point all things was up in the year for the future. But life still went on and in the break from EVE at the very beginning of the year I chilled out and played some WoW Cataclysm for several weeks while trying to get over the realities of life at hand at the time.

After a brief uninteresting stint playing WoW Cataclysm, It was back to more interesting life as usual in EVE Online with all its complications. In the interest of playing other MMO’s besides EVE Online I played Rift Beta and eventually subscribed and played for at least 2 months. It was certainly fun for a while escaping realities of life playing Rift for a while as well. But in the end it was a more interesting life having a love for Space that I returned to EVE Online and all its complexity of gameplay. It was more an interesting life and place to be living in Space and New Eden than anywhere else I could think of at the time. For me it was the most interesting MMO to play and keep playing at the time interest wise as well.

In the battle for my mind, interest and escape from the realities of life playing a MMO for fun and entertainment in 2011, EVE Online certainly won that battle.

I certainly don’t strictly consider myself a EVE Online blogger. I’m certainly not a highly opinionated blogger about all things MMO and gaming, a bitter blogger or one that rants often either to generate a lot of comments in the interest of pumping up blog traffic. But blogging for me reflects the reality of the games I play whatever that game happen to be I’m most interested in. I consider myself a focused MMO player who happen to play EVE Online and find Interest to keep playing EVE Online more than any other game that interest me. And so as I keep playing EVE Online it’s what the realities of my blogging about the MMO games I play will reflect blogging as well. For the rest of the entire year with many MMO games going Free to Play, lack of any other real MMO games that peak my general interest to really play I just kept playing EVE Online all the way till the end of the year. And I certainly didn’t feel the force either.

It also wasn’t till mid summer 2011 that I left life as one of the many unemployed and returned to life of the working and disgruntled. Life it happens. It wasn’t the ideal job but it was at least good to be back to work as well paying the bills. Playing MMO’s and EVE Online certainly got me thru the tough year and though times when I spend much the year unemployed thru no fault of my own.

Whats to expect in 2012? Lots of other MMO bloggers have done their MMO predictions for the coming year. I’m no prediction guru or about MMO games. So for me, I make no such prediction at all and no one out there really cares that much about what I care to predict about MMO’s in 2012. I take the position that I’m not full of opinions about talking about games and expectations, I just play them if I’m interested in the game and go from there. I can only say it will be an Interesting year for sure. And I can also certainly say I’ll probably blog less in 2012 than I did in any other year that I’ve been blogging.

And so we get to Blog Stats for 2011

This remain also my 2nd blog and Incarnation of Ardent Defender having completely transferred all of the old Blogspot files completely to WordPress and just sticking to one blog. I also much say I continue to enjoy blogging on a WordPress platform without much fuss as well.

For the most part I hardly usually ever look at Blog Statistics. The number one person I usually blog for is myself to document my adventures, time and perspective playing MMO’s and whatever my thoughts are. On some days I can look back in time to reflect where I was at different moments in time in MMO’s escaping the realities of life. It also certainly helps to make it more enjoyable that others choose in their time to stop by and make the blog more lively with their comments and various helpful insights. It can be interesting existing as one voice in a community of blogs about other games or EVE Online. To all those who do visit and continue to do so, they have certainly made things quite lively and more a joy to continue to blog. As well this blog remain 100% commercial free of Ads, I just like it that way with a clean blog.

For 2011 there were 68 Blog Posts published. Compared to the previous year in 2010 when 95 Blog Posts were published. Blogging frequency certainly reflect my mood up or down. It was a tough year for me in 2011 with the economic realities of life to deal with.

Total Lifetime Blog Posts Published on Ardent Defender since year 2007 at the close of year 2011: 817

Total Comments on the Blog: 1887

In the life time of this blog Ardent Defender (2nd) now fully on WordPress, there were 51768 visitors. If this was fully combined with my old AD blog on Blogspot (524470) that would be a grand total of 576238 visitors.

For 2011 there were 35170 visitors to this WordPress blog.

June 2011 had the most visitors (4649) to the blog during the year. It also had the most visitors daily to the blog during the month. If I remember it was during the time of the EVE Online Riots & Protests.

The busiest day on the blog to date continue and remain November 2nd 2010 with 952 visitors that day. I was totally surprised my self looking at the stats trying to figure out what happened on that day as I never even noticed it before. It was from the post: Tonight I got Laid off…….due to Corporate Restructuring. As that was the last post prior to that date and none after for 2 weeks.

The Top 10 Referrers Sites or Blogs to this site were:

#1. Search Engines – Almost all were Google Search.

#2. Crazykinux.com – I can attribute all those from being in the EVE Online Blog Pack when Crazykinux maintained the Blog Pact list.

#3. EVE Bloggers.com – From being listed as one of the many EVE Online blogs listed there on the list.

#4. Eveogander.blogspot.com – I guess from links to one of many blogs on the EVE Online Blog Pack list on Rixx Javix site. Actually I used to be on the list, apparently it seems not anymore.

#5. WordPress.com - Somewhat obvious here.

#6. Tigerears.org - Link from Penny’s blog over at Tigerears about life as a Pirate it WH space. It remain one of the best written and very best EVE Online blogs I’ve ever read ever and continue to read. Gets the award hands down from me as the “Most Consistence” daily Blogger Award in EVE Online about detailed daily life in Wormholes in quality writing and writes about it better than anyone else there is.

#7. Google Reader – Apparently some others must read the blog here on Google Reader.

#8. MMO Gamer Chick – Link from MMOGamerChick blog who loves to play various MMO Games and a blog I frequently read as well about other MMO games and comment often over there. We use to be in the same STO and Rift guild when I played both those MMO’s. Nice blog to read as well.

#9. Poeticstanziel.blogspot.com – Link from Poetic Stanziel blog Poetic Discourse. About life in EVE Online often in seemingly humorous ways, causing drama or getting into trouble. Often quite fun to read as well. Whats even more surprising why this makes the Top 10 Refer list linking to this blog is that was only not too long ago listed there on the blog.

#10. Ardent Defender – Yeah links from my old Blogspot blog and 1st blog that was mostly about WoW and other MMO’s still sends a few links this way though it’s mostly abandoned even though I still keep it around.

#11. Stabbed Up – Link from over at Stabbed Up on his blog about a lot of things in MMO’s and EVE Online.

Now what I can gather about most the Top Referrer link to this site in 2011 and looking at the numbers is that mostly were all via Google and Google Searches by a wide margin.

Top 10 Most Active visitor Blog Page of 2011.

#1. EVE Incarna Mass Protest. On Blog #3 overall.

#2. Overhauling Planetary design with the new PI Incursion patch. On Blog #5 overall.

#3. EVE Q4 2010 Quarterly Economic Report out. On Blog #8 overall.

#4. Planetary Interaction post Incursion: Changing Planets. On Blog # 12 overall.

#5. Long Road to becoming a T2 Inventor. On Blog #16 overall.

#6. Account Expired. On Blog #18 overall.

#7. Best Billion ISK I ever made. On Blog #21 overall.

#8. Sexy! On Blog #22 overall.

#9. EVE Online: My First year Space Odyssey. On Blog #25 overall.

#10. Incarna Mac Client login Issues. On Blog #26 overall.

What that says about the most active visitor posts in 2011 compared to others in 2011 I really have no real clue!

Top 10 Search Engine Searches to this Blog

#1. eve jita protest

#2. eve buy sell pi

#3. planetary interaction setup

#4. planetary interaction

#5. eve factory planet

#6. wow cataclysm

#7. eve economy report 2011

#8. amarr oracle

#9. pi factory planet eveonline

#10. eveonline planetary interaction layout

Looking at all the search engine search words you get the idea that a lot of visitors was searching about Planetary Interaction in one way or another who also ended up visiting this blog.

Number one way I read all the blogs I read is actually visiting every single blog to read new and updated posts, since I don’t read any blogs on Google Reader or via Feedburner. More than 95% of every blog I’ve read I often read via my IPhone or wherever I happen I be waiting around reading them all on my IPhone. Needless to say I burn up a lot of battery time on my IPhone.

And to round things out there were 3657 spam comments to this blog that was caught by the WordPress filter and eventually deleted that barely anyone visiting ever saw. Almost twice the amount of comments on the entire blog in spam.

So whats for 2012 in MMO’s and EVE Online? I guess I’ll just go with where the Interstellar Winds take me, no promises and no great expectations in the year ahead for 2012. Just play whatever game that interest me, have fun and blog about it if possible.

What the hell does optimizing anything have to do with PI in a game of Internet Spaceships? Quite allot if you have a lot of PI Planets setup with Command Center, Basic Industry Facilities, Extractor Units, Storage Units, Launchpads, Links and rolling over in all that ISK. If you have never put much thought into where you do PI, what products your extracting, on what planet and the size of the planet you’re doing PI on all that can affect planetary design setup on the ground. With some optimization you can most likely squeeze some more efficiency out of those planetary setup’s for increased extraction or raw material production over time which does increase your ISK from planet. Often number one internet search to this blog is about PI as well.

Its been a long time since I did a PI post and haven’t had much time at all since the Crucible patch to play around much with my Highsec PI planets as it relates to structures on the ground. Mostly have just gone day to day as needed resetting Extractor Units when needed, move an extractor arm around here and there, launch materials off planets, pickup material from Customs Office and take back to hanger. Every now and then take some PI material to a Factory Facility setup planet to make some P2-P4 Items for use in making other PI Starbase Structures. And for most people who do PI that’s about most that they will do or care to do instead of doing more clicky clicky.

However whatever planetary setup on the ground you have doing PI you can probably improve its performance over time with tweaks. Various things like the radius size of a planet, planetary yield, structure layout and length of Planetary Links can affect the final outcome of how you end up designing your planetary structure setup which can affect its output performance. One of the way you can now improve performance as a result of the Crucible patch is with Planetary Links.

What? Yeah Links! That thing that connects all your planetary structures so you can move stuff from Extractor Units to Launchpads/Storage Units to Basic Industry Facility and all such……. Links.

EVE Online Crucible Patch Notes: Nov 29th 2011

Planetary Interaction

• We have boosted the bandwidth of links to be five times bigger to deal with the hassle of constantly upgrading them.

No more or not much need to have to “Upgrade Links”! That change is all about Link Improvement right there incase you skipped reading right over that single line improvement of increased bandwidth on Links. Pre-Crucible a lot of people (just about everyone) doing PI had to use “Upgraded Links” as some Links easily overloaded from low bandwidth. So it simply it now mean your Planetary Links can now carry much more material traffic at a basic link level without the need to have to use “Upgraded Links”. And if you haven’t changed anything on your PI planetary design setup including Links since Crucible patch then YOU ARE still using the old Links including “Upgraded Links” in your design that you originally setup your planets with Pre-Crucible.

The thing about Links that makes it all interesting as it relates to the Command Structure on the planet is that it consumes Power in megawatts MW and CPU to connect Links to each structure. And the longer the Link is the more MW and CPU it consumes which does have a huge impact on just how many Basic Industry Facility and Extractor Units with the extractor arms you can actually deploy in and around the area on the planet. MW consumption via Links have more a direct impact than CPU usage does by far fed from the Command Center. Pre-Crucible many many people with legacy PI planetary design setup including myself had to use a lot of ”Upgraded Links”. I’m sure if your doing PI on a high yield planet like in Lowsec, Nullsec, WH you had to. Often due to long Link networks and to make various needed connections to prevent Link overloading and carry the needed material traffic via the Links usually from Extractor Units to Launchpad/Storage Unit. The penalty for this was increased MW usage for having Upgraded Link connections. Penalty which became higher if you did PI on a large radius planet like Gas/Storm/Plasma planets and a few others.

The more MW (power) that was spent on “Upgraded Links” the less of other facility units your likely to have on your Planet. Especially if you had PI setup on a very large radius planet like a Gas/Storm planet and some others. With the change to planetary Links for Crucible you most likely don’t need all those “Upgraded Links” connection you once put in place due to now increased bandwidth on Links. So what this now mean you can save quite a bit of MW on NOT having “Upgraded Links” at all. As well, destroying all the old Link connection connecting all the planetary structures and recreating NEW Links can yield some amount of MW savings via the Command Center and ensure you have all the most new efficient planetary Links in place. That can or may add up to just enough MW savings that you might just be able to add an extra Basic Industry Facility unit or a few more arms on the Extractor Unit to increase your production or extraction yield.

An extra Basic Industry Facility on a planet where you have high extraction yield can possibly result in more P1 being made for increased output yield. One or 2 extra arms on the Extraction Unit can possibly mean a modest to substantial increase in extraction yield to eventually feed the Basic Industry Facility all depending on how your PI planet is design setup. For WH, Nullsec, Lowsec planets that can be huge in yield increase. Increase planet yield in the end making more P1 than you were making before on the same planet can eventually mean making more ISK in the end. As well whether your PI planets are in Nullsec, Lowsec, WH can make a substantial difference in yield on small changes to improve efficiency vs Highsec planets yield improvements.

Optimization of Planetary Links on Water Planet 

Highsec PI Planet design setup for extraction and "Water" production.

This is one of my PI Planets in Highsec that was setup since PI became a feature in EVE. It was design setup in layout as efficient as I could get it for Aqueous Liquid extraction for making Water on a fairly large radius planet. Extraction yields a lot of Aqueous Liquid fed to Launchpad 1 > Basic Industry Facility (Water produced) > Launchpad 2. It works very good for a Highsec PI planet the way it’s setup. It would have been great to be able to have 1 more Basic Industry Facility to process Water from Launchpad 1 which always stay somewhere around 50-80% full throughout an entire extraction cycle. Biggest problem to doing so without killing the smaller Extraction Unit #2 was not having anywhere close to enough MW (Power) from the Command Center. Not enough MW to support getting an extra 800+ MW to add an extra Basic Industry Facility + just enough MW to make a new Link which would also consume around 30-40 MW for the Link connection.

Deleted and remade all the Links resulted in lots of available Power (MW).

So I played around first deleting the longest link on the design setup which was also an “Upgraded Link”. I then remade the Link. MW consumption on the Command Center dropped substantially for the link change. I think there was now just barely enough MW available from the Command Center to add a new Basic Industry Facility but not enough MW to complete making a new Link to the Launchpad 1. Everything bit of MW Counts! Needed to have about 30 MW to make a new Link connection which wasn’t quite available.

Checking how much Power (MW) needed for new Link connection.

I proceeded to delete one by one and remake all the Link connection connecting all the other Basic Facilities to Launchpad 1 all the way to Launchpad 2 without affecting current running operation of the PI setup. Remaking all the Links I was surprised that I ended up with 54 MW extra. That may not seem like allot. But that was more than I needed to make the Link connection for the new Basic Industry Facility to the design setup.

Enough Power saved on New Links to add a new Basic Industry Facility unit.

With newly remade Optimized Link connections in place on facility design setup and an extra New Basic Industry Facility added for Water production this basically increased my production output on my Water Planet. Increased Production output much attributed to the Link changes that was made in the Crucible patch which increased Link bandwidth which allowed for Optimization changes recreating Links resulting in enough possible Power (MW) from Command Center to add new facility structures.

"I got the Power!".......... Enough power to add 1 new Facility with now 99.86% MW usage.

So If I can increase efficiency on just 1 of my Highsec PI planet, its possible to make enough changes and improvement on a few of my other planets. All PI planets may not benefit the same all depending on planetary design setup but it shows Improvements are possible. I was able to do various amounts of improvements on several of my other planets all by changing the Links. Some I was able to add up to 2 new extractor arms on a planet setup which increased extraction yield. WH, Nullsec, Lowsec planets are far more productive PI planets in yield. If I can make improvements on a few Highsec planet what can you maybe do on your WH, Nullsec, Lowsec planets that are far more productive to eventually increase your ISK.

Optimized another Planet: Temperate Planet (Large radius Planet)

Command Center Power (MW) usage 18914/19000 MW with old Links

On large radius planets  Pre-Crucible you usually suffer a bit of penalty if you had Long Links and Upgraded Links in MW usage for Links. Deleted and remade all the Links.

Made new Links and decreased Power (MW) to 18259/19000 MW.

Optimized Links which increased available Power (MW) from the Command Center. Not enough MW to add a new Basic Industry Facility needing 800 MW, but enough to add a new Extractor Unit arm needing 550 MW for increased extraction yield. Makes a lot of difference to the setup having 4 running Basic Industry Facility on a Highsec planet.

Optimizing your Planetary Links for increased Command Center performance can yield some very good results.