What to build in Rubicon? [UPDATE]

If you play an industrialist in EVE and await Rubicon eagerly, here is a short list of what new things will be available to be built in the upcoming Winter Expansion. Make sure to prepare the materials ahead of time, and schedule a rush for the blueprints on the 19th!

Why is it worth to join the rush? Because countless expansions before have shown that people are willing to pay extra just to be one of the first players to use/access new features. Rubicon brings several manufacturable items, and each of them is a chance for a potential quick buck.

UPDATE: Added estimated manufacturing costs for each item.

UPDATE: It seems the sudden demand for some PI components has made their price skyrocket. I have updated the material lists (they changed from Singularity a little bit) and the estimated costs. As you can see, Cynosural Inhibitor manufacturing price has already doubled!

Mobile Depot

mobile-depot-bpoOne of the first steps towards space colonization, and the only one that will have a reinforcement timer, Mobile Depot is the cheapest one to build. According to the Rubicon Patch Notes, the BPO will only cost 1,000,000 ISK and will be available from any of the four Empire factions.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Smartfab Units 3 100%
Nuclear Reactors 1 100%
Guidance Systems 3 100%
High-Tech Transmitters 1 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Pyerite 220 (perfect: 200)
Zydrine 220 (perfect: 200)

As you can see, the materials list contains both minerals and PI components, and it should be realtively cheap to build.

Estimated manufacturing cost: 1,053,898.46 ISK

Mobile Tractor Unit

tractor-unit-bpoThis one will have a bit more expensive blueprint than the Depot – BPO will cost 30,000,000 ISK. Just like the previous one it will be seeded by the four major Empire factions.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Organic Mortar Applicators 2 100%
Wetware Mainframe 1 100%
Ukomi Superconductors 2 100%
Small Tractor Beam I 1 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 11000 (perfect: 10000)
Pyerite 550 (perfect: 500)
Isogen 550 (perfect: 500)
Zydrine 550 (perfect: 500)

Estimated manufacturing cost: 12,500,442.59 ISK

Small Mobile Siphon Unit

siphon-bpoMobile Siphon Unit, the most controversial deployable introduced in Rubicon has a BPO that costs 100,000,000 ISK. Just like the previous two, it will be available in Empire space.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Guidance Systems 100 100%
Miniature Electronics 100 100%
Data Chips 12 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 236425 (perfect: 214932)
Pyerite 34181 (perfect: 31074)
Mexallon 20747 (perfect: 18861)
Isogen 6545 (perfect: 5950)
Nocxium 1900 (perfect: 1727)
Zydrine 624 (perfect: 567)
Megacyte 189 (perfect: 172)

While the material list simply consists of Minerals, to build a Siphon Unit your character will need to have some Tech II related skills trained, namely Electronic Engineering 4 and Graviton Physics 4.

Estimated manufacturing cost: 12,715,469.64 ISK

Mobile Cynosural Inhibitor

cyno-inhibitor-bpoThis one will be a bit tricky to get. Not only the BPO costs 150,000,000 ISK, but it will only be seeded in nullsec regions! But with the changes to interceptors (namely their bubble immunity) getting these blueprints should not pose any problems.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Broadcast Node 4 100%
Organic Mortar Applicators 8 100%
Self-Harmonizing Power Core 2 100%
Sterile Conduits 4 100%
Wetware Mainframe 2 100%
Guidance Systems 20 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 275000 (perfect: 250000)
Pyerite 11000 (perfect: 10000)
Isogen 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Zydrine 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Megacyte 550 (perfect: 500)

Estimated manufacturing cost: 61,843,391.28 ISK

Bastion Module I

bastion-module-bpoThe blueprint will cost 50,000,000 ISK and will be available on the market (CCP did not specifically say “in Empire”, but that’s my educated guess). The module cannot be invented at the moment (only Tech I version will be available).

Material Quantity
Tritanium 385000 (perfect: 350000)
Pyerite 82500 (perfect: 75000)
Mexallon 33000 (perfect: 30000)
Isogen 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Nocxium 1100 (perfect: 1000)
Zydrine 220 (perfect: 200)
Megacyte 110 (perfect: 100)

Estimated manufacturing cost: 6,089,465.80 ISK

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I

rapid-hml-bpoPatch notes don’t say anything about the availability of the BPO, but I again guess it will be empire space (so it is consistent with other missile launcher BPOs). Blueprint price in Static Data Dump is 750K ISK. This one will have Tech II version, which means it will be inventable.

Material Quantity
Tritanium 105 (perfect: 95)
Pyerite 1155 (perfect: 1050)
Nocxium 8 (perfect: 7)
Zydrine 2 (perfect: 2)
Megacyte 10 (perfect: 9)

Estimated manufacturing cost: Tech I 36,342.49 ISK; Tech II (including invention) 1,759,950.43 ISK

Customs Office Gantries

While this is not a new structure, it’s use will spike in the first couple of days after Rubicon deployment. Also if you plan to bash some ICOs yourself, make sure to have Gantries already built and prepared. I’m pretty sure the land rush will lead to some funny events where someone will erect a ninja POCO after someone else had cleared the ICO. Just a thought 😉

Project Rorqual

bait-rorqual-burningIt all started back in November 2012. Marcel [Aideron Robotics CEO] asked Aideron Technologies if we can build him a Rorqual. While AR is in FW and not into heavy duty industry, Rorqual can be made into a mobile jump clone station, not to mention it makes a great bait. I have always wanted a Rorqual as well, but since my other capitals have been collecting dust for a long time, I never came down to buying a Rorq. Building it ourselves makes it quite a bit cheaper, so I have decided to finally get one as well.

Aideron Technologies had no Capital blueprints back then: neither for the parts, nor for any capital ships. We had to change that quickly. We have agreed to buy one or two personal capital part BPOs each, and then let the corp use them. Of course corp would research those personal BPOs for free.

Another thing was finding a rather quiet low sec system with factory, where we could build the ship. After some research we found a perfect candidate. Few days of 23,5/7 scouting has confirmed the system is not very active and meets our expectations. Capital Part copies have been made, and in March 2013 we have built our very first Rorqual.

I have started building parts for my Rorqual in May, but because of other tasks (and my absence from EVE) I was unable to finish the ship back then.

2013.05.23.08.53.18

In the background you can notice how LMeve makes it easier to track progress of production tasks 😉 It took a few more days of June to make all required capital parts.

And then came this day

2013.06.19.14.20.19

In about 12 days I will become a proud owner of a Mobile Cloning Station (got modules already prepeared, shy of small gallente ninja-tower and the fuel for it).

PS. Sorry for my absence

The last couple of weeks was a rough ride in RL, to the extent where I was not even able to log on to EVE for several days. I’m still a bit more busy than usual, but you can expect new posts to arrive at my regular rate of 1-2 a week.

Which ships are worth manufacturing?

big_drake_blueprint_iconFreedom and open-endedness are EVE’s greatest virtues. You can choose to blow up ships, or to build new ones. Or do both. It’s all up to you. If you’ve chosen to build ships, this post is for you.

Making ships is just part of the big picture of Industry as a whole, but it seems to be one of the most important branches of it. After all, EVE is a game about spaceships. While many people claim EVE is no longer an Excel-in-space (me included), I have used my trusty spreadsheet to calculate the build price of several ships and tried to answer the question which ships are actually worth manufacturing?

Tech I ships

First off, let’s start with easiest ships – Tech I. The initial investment is low, because a BPO only costs about 10 times as much as the ship itself. For a few million ISK you can start your own production line. I have assumed ME 10 BPO for the calculations below.

Catalyst, Venture, Drake

Table for Tech I ships

As you can see, Tech I ships are not the golden-egg laying goose: some of them offer substantial profit, and it’s always better to use freshly mined minerals to build ships, rather than just sell these minerals on open market. Also before you start mass-making Ventures, please mind these ships are given away to noobs for free by career agents. Catalyst and it’s new counterpart Algos however (not in the table) seem to be in constant demand.

Tech II ships

Let’s have a look at Tech II. Invention and multiple components make it much more expensive to start, but is it really worth it?

Kronos

Invention materials:

  • 32x Datacore – Gallentean Starship Engineering
  • 32x Datacore – Mechanical Engineering
  • 1x Megathron BPC (1 run – without decryptors

Kronos invention

* I have forgotten to put in the R.A.M.s into the table, but it doesn’t change the final price much.

At the time of writing this post, Kronos sells for 873,499,000, which means 138,440,180 ISK of profit (or 15,8%)

As you can see, the potential for profit is higher, but it requires much more initial investment and is more time consuming, because of multiple production stages. It is great for corporations however, because many players can be involved in different steps of the production chain: one group of players copy the Megathron BPO (ME 0 BPO is good), abother group makes Tech I Megathrons (high ME BPO required), Tech II components and R.A.M.s. Finally the last group makes the finished product.

Capital Ships

Capital Ships are the biggest behemoths roaming the stars of New Eden. The amount of minerals required to build them is equally huge. While logistics remains the key burden when manufacturing Capital Ships, is the potential profit worth the hassle?

Capital ship manufacturing is simplier than Tech II, with only two stages (minerals -> capital components; cap components -> ship). I am assuming ME 100 on components and ME 6 on the ship BPO.

Capital_ship_manufacturing

Pirate ships

These are technically tech I ships, but some of them drop as BPC from low and null-sec anomalies. Their value does not simply equal their mineral value like it does for regular Tech I counterparts, but partly from their limited nature. The difference between BPC and material price and final ship value is the potential profit to be made, so it’s worth having a look.

Pirate battleships manufacturing

As it turns out, Pirate battleships are far from worth the effort of manufacturing them for sale, but it is still better to buy a BPC rather than a ship already built.

By the way, have you noticed, that all pirate battleships with the exception of Bhaalgorn take the same amount of minerals to produce?

Conclusion

Making ships is a good business. Each ship class offers different profit margin, but also requires different amount of work and initial investment. It’s up to you to choose how much work you’re willing to invest in your shipwright business. Amount of ISK you get out of it is not only related to the biggest profit margin, but it also depends on the scale of the enterprise. Running a production line which makes a hundred of ships with 15% margin a week will yield more ISK than a Tech II line which only gives 5 advanced frigates with 50% margin in the same timeframe. Therefore, you should treat the analysis above as a starting point for your own business plan.