Retribution Preparation…Been Busy

Servers are currently down and when It comes back up soon it will be EVE Retribution expansion gone live. But preparing for expansion can be a lot of work for any Industrialist depending on how much you actually plan ahead to do or partake in speculation. So since the weekend my Trader Alt has been busy at work. He should have prepared a month ahead of time but somehow that didn’t quite work out activity wise.

One the monkey wrench that got thrown into things was the change in Skill Plan Training. Instead of training some Research Science skills on the Alt Trader instead had him training Battlecruiser from 4 to 5 to make use of the impending changes to the skill set with the coming changes to BC skills soon. So in less than 2 days my main will have trained BC 5 and in about 4 days my Trader Alt will have trained BC 5. A boring month for Skill Training, but still quite useful for multi skilled characters. But the consequence was that my Trader Alt who was intended to take over most day-to-day business operation from my main character, couldn’t quite fulfill some duties related to producing some T2 components as well producing the eventual T2 module. Main character was moving to WH Space so all assets some weeks prior was turned over to the Alt Trader including intentionally not listing any new Trade Orders on main character.

Acquiring minerals on Regional Buy Orders took some time as mineral prices daily kept going higher. I’ve learned over time that picking up mineral scattered all over a region is a waste of time and effort. Its allot easier to make a Station Order all in one place, covering an entire system or strategic station location covering a few good mining systems of at least 1 jump. That works for me. But its far better than buying huge blocks of minerals scattered across an entire region. A nightmare to eventually collect that often is. In the end I ended up paying miners wages in 3 systems and acquiring just over 2 Billion ISK worth of minerals for supply stock. It’s hard to build stuff as an Industrialist when you have no mineral stock to use to make anything. So I stocked up! And I was still short on getting enough Nocxium because I was refusing to up my Buy Order prices as Nocxium kept jumping higher in price also. My current Buy Orders were slow to fill with lots of competing Buy Orders, so earlier this morning while flying through Domain I spotted a fairly good deal of a buy on Nocxium and bought about 460K worth of Nocxium in Amarr as emergency reserve stock. At best I can use it if I run out. If not needed I can resell it for higher price.

With my Trader Alt not quite cutting the mustard on being able to make all the necessary T2 components and some T2 production I had to pull my main character out of WH Space exiting out in the Forge Region and make 18 jumps back to normal home base to kickstart some component and T2 production. Had the Alt over the weekend fire up the production lines that were idle for quite some weeks and make several dozen Amarr Cruisers on speculation that their mineral requirements were going to go up after the Retribution patch. Got that done and Ships now on market.

Speculated that all those shiny new Destroyers that were going to be made in masses will need new fittings. It can be allot to choose from as to what to make, but settled on making T2 Weapon Upgrades for Amarr, Caldari, Minmatar ships since I had T2 BPC’s already in stock. Invented some Weapon Upgrades for Gallente Ships since had none in stock. Made small T2 Turrets and Launchers for Amarr, Caldari, Minmatar ships since also had T2 BPC’s in stock reserve Invented some time ago. I had planned to make some T2 Laser Crystals and T2 Light Missiles, but knowing how long it takes to make a full batch of T2 Ammo Charges (2 Weeks) that was a no go. In the end I got mostly of everything I needed to make complete to some capacity. A few T2 Turrets didn’t get made due to length of time in Production. Didn’t want to tie up other lab space once the server goes live for Retribution or have carry over production in process on one character. But in the end that kept all 20 of my Manufacturing Lab slots running to full capacity all weekend long.

Then had to make a Jita run to pick up a batch of minerals that was sitting there that hopefully will be of some use making something. On the way there and back updated some trade orders across each region while in warp. As well bought up some secure container’s of various sizes since they will no longer be NPC sold post Retribution Patch. That cost me several hundred million ISK across several regions at key locations.

At this point all preparation for Retribution is now over and a bit of chaos to come making the new shiny Destroyers, modules and more.

Isogen… crashed?

Well it’s fun and interesting times in the Mineral Market whether your Buying, Selling, Trading, Re-Selling, Manipulating or Flipping minerals for profit. I guess it’s all apart of how us in the Market, Trade and Industrial sector can have some fun that’s different to those capsuleer’s completely obsessed with the blowing up spaceship for fun. I guess we generate in a way our own Profit and Lossmail through our Wallets by outselling the other guy or causing them pain when they have to endure a Market loss and it can get huge affecting lots of players across just one market region. But I’m no guru, far from it. I’m just playing the Market like everyone else regularly involved. So it’s a bit fun just watching whats happening with Isogen and other minerals over last few days.

I didn’t play EVE much last night, sleep felt so much better a thing to do after a long day at RL work. But logging in my Market Trader Alt early this morning say the Market was way down quite a bit on Isogen. I have no idea how high it had actually gotten during the day before it dived down to around 160 last I saw on Sell Orders. Someone in the Traders Channel (SCC-Lounge) had said it had gotten up to as high as 256 before it kinda crashed. Either way its been a good source of excitement for Market Traders of different stripes all playing some small and large part in manipulating or pushing the prices either way. I guess if prices get high enough, people in other areas of EVE still sitting on huge reserves look at that as a good reason to courier their minerals to Jita and try to cash it in possibly for potential profits.

Someone (A Goon) in the Trade Channel  admitted they had over 230 Million units of Isogen they bought when Isogen was incredibly cheap. They admitted to sitting on it for Retribution expansion and was hoping the market with supply shortages went up even more to profit from it at an even higher price. That would be a huge amount of profit on just that one mineral! I had no where close to that kind of supply stock as a smaller time trader. But I did cash in on flipping Isogen as the price kept going up everywhere it seems most notably in Jita the biggest and most fast moving of markets in EVE.

I had remember back in the spring with Jita Burn when minerals were at an all time high back then, much due to the change to the Drone Lands nerf to Drone Compound reprocessing and mass market manipulation of mineral prices at that time. I remembered at the time after Jita Burn started taking a Huge Loss on high-end minerals as prices dropped as well Morphite when it ran up to around 19K at its height. Loss some 3 Billion ISK in potential profits as the market sank in minerals prices during Jita Burning. But that was not too much a big deal as it was far from wiping me out asset wise. But it was still a huge loss and the most of any market trade ever at that time. And so in remembering that past experience in EVE in the Markets as I bought up lots of Isogen in other regions, had it all shipped to Jita and just dumped it all on the market when Sell Orders looked good for modest profits and put it up on the market on Buy Orders higher than Sell Orders but lower than the then higher end price average. All of which had sold.

But whether Isogen goes lower or higher it will be fun to just watch and or participate in some way to help pushing it one way or another through regional efforts or Flipping it all in Jita as prices goes up higher. In the end it’s all about Profit, that’s why some of us trade and even that has its set of tears that can ripple across a Market Region. However in the end, I don’t plan to be left holding the bag if and or when prices crash to take huge losses. But I guess that’s part of the potential fun of playing in the markets in EVE, it can be fun without the explosions but that helps much. As it’s and endless circle of Supply, Creation and Destruction that drives everything in the market and most Market Players know that quite well.

As for Isogen Speculation, I’m not quite sure it has crashed yet or will rebound thats to be seen. I just know despite selling it for profit when things look good, I still don’t have enough reserve on hand of the mineral Isogen as well Nocxium and that’s with just over 2 Billion ISK of mineral on hand to build with for Retribution and more. Still 3 days to go before the Retribution patch. If you’re a Miner, it can’t be too bad and idea to mine some Isogen as well Noxcium for variety.

In Consideration of Past Expansions

Based on activity for me that crosses Market Trade and Industrial/T2 sectors of the Economy.

Crucible Expansion – Was quite Exciting times Industrially and Trade wise.

Inferno Expansion – Not all that exciting to say the least.

*Retribution Expansion – Incoming Expansion (Tuesday December 4th) seems to look quite exciting from a Trade and Industrial standpoint for activity of all kinds.

So what have you been up to in the Markets or Industrially in preparation for Retribution Expansion?

Isogen

Had my Trader Alt help wipe out a few regions buying up huge loads of Isogen and dumping it in Jita for profit. Wasn’t long ago prices are just around 100. Now prices are north of 233.00 per unit in Jita as Retribution speculation goes into more overdrive on mineral market and demand outstrip supply as some miners are still stuck on mining Ice. I made some decent profit, though nothing spectacular. But it helped push prices up in a few regions even more.

I know Khanid Region earlier this morning was completely stripped completely and my region had not but just 2 orders left on market and even that’s unusual to be that low on market supply.

Hope you didn’t miss out on getting your stock for Retribution on minerals ahead of time as well as get some stock to make some profit on all the market run up in prices. Can’t hurt to find all that spare Isogen you got hidden around your hangar and do something with it like possibly cash it in somewhere. Nothing like cashing in on the market ahead of a huge expansion patch.

Making some T2 Mining Crystals

 

I didn’t really plan to make any Mining Crystals II. Except that when I though of all the Mining Barges and modules getting sold on the market and all the mining going on everywhere it seems well maybe allot more Mining Crystals II are being sold as well. I’m not really sure how profitably they would be to make at all either. I just know coping any the T1 Mining Crystals BPO’s takes forever and a lifetime to copy and just never seem worth it or bothered ever making any to invent to say the least. It turned out that I had headed to Jita to pick up something, rarely that usually is these days heading to Scum City. So while there in Jita picking up something, though about maybe picking up some Mining Crystals II from the market for the Retriever Mining Barge since well I can only now just use T2 Crystals in the Strip Miner.

Somehow I decided for some odd reasons to look up Mining Crystals II BPC’s on the contracts market as I know they get produced often by T2 BPO producers and often sold on contracts. Recognizing T2 BPO Mining Crystals BPC on contract is obvious they all have 100 runs. They were several multi-packs on contracts for various sets of BPC’s all at 100 runs and most by a sellers name I had recognize before. Some long time ago it seems I had bought from this seller a T2 BPO copy of T2 Mining Drones BPC at 100 runs which was the first T2 I had ever made some long time ago. Apparently this person must either possess and sell quite a few T2 BPO copies as BPC’s on contracts. After doing some rough mental analysis I decided that it could only be easier than having to copy all those same T1 BPO’s which takes forever to copy for some odd reasons and also invent that many.

So looking over the Mining Crystal II BPC packs I picked up a multi-pack on contracts, one which looked like a High sec BPC pack and two other BPC of Mining Crystals II of minerals I know you can find in High sec Gravimetric sites. That was an investment of about 88 Million ISK to try things out. A bit unusual for me as an Inventor buying someone else T2 BPC as well and the most ever spent on any T2 BPC as it was. While looking over the BPC and in Jita I figured I was going to need some T2 Moon Material to make the various Mining Crystals II. Only 1 material was needed, so I did a quick rough guess about how much was needed and bought that much material. Packaged everything for transport and headed out of Scum City.

Looks like a decent amount of production runs.

Back at the hangar I searched through my stash of BPO assets and found my original researched collection of which I have the entire set of all the Mining Crystals BPO’s. I guess I now need to make at least 100 each of all the ones I had just bought the T2 BPC for to use as components to eventually produce the T2 module.

Time to make some T1 Mining Crystals.

That was relatively simple I just needed lots of Nocxium. Had quite a bit of that mineral sitting in my hangar. Eventually had to source the market and buy up the rest that I needed. A minor bit of transport logistics.

After a few hours of making all the T1 Mining Crystals It was time to produce the T2 version.

Not all that much material compared to most other T2 to make.

 

Since I regularly make T2 modules of various sorts, already had lots of R.A.M components to use. So it was just easy to throw the T2 BPC print into an available factory slot and set each of all the 100 run Mining Crystal II BPC’s into production. Time to manufacture about 15hrs or so.

 

After calculating all my cost with each individual BPC, Materials, T1 Mining Crystal Component I figured up my base cost. Checked the regional market and based on my production cost I figured I cold make a little decent profit having invested in the T2 BPC Multi-pack. In every Invention or Production of things I normally learn something new and that knowledge to me is always invaluable. Knowledge gained in such process to me has some ISK value and become part of collective knowledge. Though I figured I could make an eventual profit on selling the Mining Crystals II, not all the Mining Crystals I calculated are all that profitable or to the same degree. Then again, they weren’t all that hard to make either. But some Crystals were clearly more profitable than others.

Yet overall the profits I could make having producing the batches of Mining Crystals II almost pale in comparison to what I can make on almost every other T2 Module I usually make due to market competition and location. But Profit is still profit, which is better than none at all and more stuff to sell and keep business at my system station. In the end I got a few extra Mining Crystals II for my Retriever Mining Barge and rest put on the market to get sold. Another whole category of T2 modules I can now say I’ve produced.

 

 

Hot Modules

Since the patch it’s been a little bit more busy in EVE than of recent. Building lots of Mining Barge’s mostly Procurer’s & Retriever’s, at pre-patch mineral value and selling them like hot cakes. All my T2 Skiffs have sold and completely out of Invented BPC’s to make any more currently. Unless I get some BPC soon to make more but that’s a length process of making all the components as well and time-consuming. All my Mining Barges that were in the factory getting built are now on the market and in before the really huge flood finally arrives on market. I hear one player have over 10K Procurers in the factory being built at pre-patch mineral requirement. That’s a lot of those ships to flood the market soon and that’s just one capsuleer.

There is always the thing that preparation for change ahead of a major patch change can literally make you lots and lots of ISK. If you prepare properly, you can take advantage of things in a very profitable $$$ way.  I’ve found that to be true in my experience on every single expansion so far I’ve experienced in EVE.

Anyway all the new modules I’ve made have been selling fairly well and fairly fast at very profitable prices! Needless to say all my factory slots are slam full to capacity almost all the time making something to throw up on the market and take advantage of things until things calm down a bit. Even had to Invent more of some modules to keep up with the demand in multiple places of Trade as some regions look quite bare.

But if your of the Industrial stripe and making any the various and numerous modules that just about can be fitted on any the new mining barges in any of the slots you can make a decent return right now. Be it the new Ice Harvester Accelerator modules, Mining and Ice module upgrades, Strip Miners or Shield Rigs, you can just about turn a very decent profit as capsuleers go nuts and pimp out their new shiny ships for stripping the belts dry.

Right now Mining Barges and all the various modules for fitting those ships are Hot! So are the Profits as well.