So when you’re looking, add up the cost of mats, production costs (NPC slot costs, BPC costs, etc), and compare to price point (ensure to subtract taxes).

Two of my toons are industry specific, and one other is split Industry and Combat. So I have up to 30 slots available, depending on what I want to produce. My goal is to be able to have 30 slots available for everything, but that’s a long term goal. Last year when I played last and was doing more manufacture than I’m doing now I was running 20 slots continuously and I was providing most of my own raw materials too. So I was investing a LOT of time in it and it burned me out. I could have been profitable without providing all my own materials, but it nags at me if I’m intentionally doing something un-optimal.

When I set up my POS this time I decided I wasn’t going to do that. I don’t think I’ve mined more than a few hours in total in the last 2-3 months. So I’m buying everything I need from market and shipping to my POS. I figure out what I want to produce, and my spreadsheet spits out a shopping list for me. Then I use the spreadsheet to tell me where best to buy. If I’m purchasing big loads I tend to limit myself to the main market hubs. So I usually do that a couple times a week and it can take 1-2 hours to purchase, pickup and ship. Shipping to market (which/when) comes from my spreadsheet and my knowledge of the markets from playing as long as I have. I pull the market info from API. Its pretty easy to do and is easy to learn how to do it. Just google and you’ll find more than you want to know!

What to focus on while you skill up can be an interesting question. I assume you’re asking about which Science skills to focus on? Beyond the standard Industry skills I already had a good amount of the Science skills on my oldest Industry toon. So for the remaining (and for my other Industry specific toon) I sat down with my spreadsheet (previous versions of it) and looked at what I would have wanted to produce at that point. Then looked at the skills for those items (manufacture, invention) and dropped them in my skill plans. So while my toons gradually train into the things I want to be able to produce I’ve been picking up BPOs and researching, or buying them off Contracts. I’ve literally kept almost every research slot running 24×7 for the past two months. There’s tons more I have left to purchase and research… many of which will take months to research…. but I’ll get there.

In the mean time my spreadsheet knows which BPOs I have available to me, and the others I want to produce are wishful thinking at the moment. Lost opportunity if you will.

The time investment you mention is the very reason I keep Industry going. Well, I’m predisposed to crafting in the first place, but I especially love it in EVE. When I played SWG back in the day I had a flourishing Mall going and had three toons doing crafting then too… Droid Engineer, Doctor, and Starships!

I will say this… I got started making Ammo in EVE. You can make lots of ISK doing it, but if you’re going to purchase your raw mats you have to be careful controlling your production costs. It can be very easy to lose ISK if you’re not watching what you’re doing.

Speaking of that, you wouldn’t happen to be willing to share this wealth of information would you? :p Really, though, I’m curious what skills you focus on to do this and how many characters you’re using to get these results.

Currently, I can make about 400M over a weekend of good mission running between bounties and loot to sell. Not bad, but I’d like to invest in something to keep the cash flowing if I don’t want to spend half my weekend doing mission runs.

As for the LSE, it definitely helps against gankers by increasing your overall shield EHP. The thing is, since you’re going to be running your repper a lot, the passive shield recharge you get from adding it probably isn’t going to actually come into play. You’ll just end up boosting instead of passive recharging. So really, you’re just giving yourself more overall shield to rep up. I guess it does buy you more time before you might have to warp out if your tank is failing, but that’s not the way you want to build a PvE ship.

I know you’ve made the comment before about prop mods, but I just have to go with what I said on Twitter. I just don’t like being without one. Some of those missions you’re a good distance from gates, not to mention a good distance from some of the outlying groups. I’d rather travel at 330ish m/s than 100ish m/s!

The Rig slots are something I went back and forth on, and in my mind what tipped the balance was a desire to increase applicable DPS on smaller targets. Traded some range for that and felt okay with that considering I almost always opt for a prop mod. Still have to travel out to many groups but honestly if I know I’m taking a mission where I really need reach I usually switch to Cruise Missiles anyway. And then its just not a problem 824 DPS (969 OH) is plenty for virtually all LVL 4 missions. My Torp fits have less shield strength but with their DPS on short to mid range targets it just doesn’t matter.

[Raven Navy Issue, LVL 4 PVE Cruise Var 1]
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II

Dread Guristas X-Large Shield Booster
Dread Guristas Shield Boost Amplifier
Caldari Navy Kinetic Deflection Field
Caldari Navy Explosive Deflection Field
‘Inception’ Target Painter I
Republic Fleet 100MN Afterburner

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Small Tractor Beam I

Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I

Hobgoblin II x5

It’s been a while since I’ve used anything aside from my Tengu for running L4s, but I never needed an AB on my Golem and I don’t really see why people insist on it.

And I know you’re using a CNR, but for a Torp fit, you really need to use the rig slots for T2 Hydraulic Bay Thrusters and Rocket Fuel Cache. With one of each, on a Golem your Javelins can punch out to ~65km with max skills (~68km with implants), which is typically more than enough even for the really stubborn BS’s like Centus Tyrants (who typically hover around 49km). This also gives you better range on your Faction/Rage Torps letting you do better DPS out further. This plus multiple TPs allows you do to good DPS at acceptable ranges, making a crazy good mission running monster.

Concerning hardeners, I usually do the same. However, two Caldari Navy Invulns gives better resists than two T2 damage specific hardeners (assuming they’re not the same type e.g. both EM). Of course, they’re also loads more expensive and one of the reasons I never actually got them. Also, as you say, I’d never use faction or T1 meta Torp Launchers. You just absolutely have to be able to load Javelins.

I’m also curious about sustained/reinforced tank on those fits vs different mission NPC types. The Torp CNR seems woefully undertanked considering it’ll need to be withim 45 km to hit anything at all.

I don’t like running ships without prop mods, and especially something with a relatively short range like a Torp Golem. Even with Javelins there are missions with kiting BS’s that stay just out of range at ~51km or so. I’d get pretty frustrated with that pretty quickly! You know, I’m getting a bit pepped for the eventual Marauder balance. They have to do something nice for the Golem I’d think. I’d like there to be a clear reason to skill up into Marauders from Navy and Faction BS’s. Not sure that’s really the case now…

But the main thing that stood was the DPS, which was immense. 3-4 shotting BS’s, 1 shotting BC’s/Cruisers (non-elites). It was really fantastic.

Since I’m starting to make quite a good bit of money back, I’m trying to decide whether I want to go for a Golem again or move to a Vargur, which I’ve also managed to train for in the meantime. The only problem is I tend to hang out in Amarr space, which means TDs from the Sansha which ruins any gunship.

But speaking of Burn Jita, I went there earlier with an alt expecting craziness and explosions and found nothing but the normal crazy overpopulated trade hub. Wonder if everyone went to bed already.

I totally get why people rat in Carriers too. Not saying I would do it out of hand, but I don’t prescribe to the prohibition either. If the mood strikes me, I’d absolutely do it and obviously a lot of EVE players agree with me despite the threat of ganks. I look at it this way… I’d be under equal threat in Null regardless of what I was flying at the time. Scouts/spys are looking for pilots in Caps, faction BS, or other pimped out ships. There’s a wide swath of ships that will bring groups of some size around, but the golden rule always applies. Don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose. An average carrier will cost around 2 Bil, which is just slightly more a well fit Tengu or CNR. The only difference between the three is that a cap would be prioritized over either of the previous two obviously, and the align time you mentioned. So what’s the difference really? Would I be any safer in a Pimped out Vindicator if I didn’t have to worry about PL hot dropping me? Someone else would be more than happy to replace PL I’m quite certain.

True that caps align very slowly. 24 seconds according to Pyfa on a Chimera with max skills. 11 seconds for the CNR. And 6-7 seconds for the typical Tengu fits I fly. Which means to me, stay aligned as much as possible and watch local. I’d be watching local no matter what ship I was flying, and watching intel as well. If all else fails, and I lost my carrier I’d be peeved for a while and then I’d be just fine.

So about those skills. I realize not everyone is going to agree with me on them all. Perhaps in the strictest sense they all are not absolutely necessary, true, but it would bother the hell out of me that I didn’t get those extra resist skills. The thought was something would happen and I’d wish like hell I had em. But I would certainly understand if others made a different decision regarding ** Shield Compensation V’s for instance.

Thanks for the reminder on Twitter about BS V not being necessary after Jun 4th! That alone saves a month.

As for ratting with a carrier, I can see why people would do it. It’s total easy mode for lazy and safe farming. But while a faction BS or T3 might cost the same as (or more than) a carrier, carriers are much less mobile than subcaps. Most T3 cruisers are looking at around 5-6 second align time, the CNR that you mentioned has ~12 second align time (my skills) and that’s probably on the heavy side. A carrier has more than double the CNR’s align time. An experienced player would probably be able to get you anyway, but having a smaller window for them to gank is never a bad thing.

As for the skill training, I still don’t see why you’d ever want to bother with resist Shield Compensation to 5. Even ignoring how much you’d use passive resist amps, the bonus from taking it from 4 to 5 is 1% resist (above 70%) and 1.5% resist (above 50%). Is that really worth 6-7 days of training time? I just don’t buy it.
As for Advanced Drone Interfacing, I don’t think I’ll bother with that. I know you’d want it for PvE, but I’d never use mine that way, so I won’t be training it.
And speaking of align times, I’d almost definitely want to get Capital Ships to 4.
The Nanite Operation/Interfacing skills certainly do make me raise an eyebrow. I suppose that you will be using a lot of overheating, but getting Operation to 5 just to save 5% consumption seems again like a big sink for a small reward.
I’d much rather spend some of this time from the stuff above getting Heavy Drones to 5 and maybe getting Remote Armor Reps up to Capital levels. Might be weird as you’re going for a Chimera, but couldn’t hurt to be able to rep a friendly armor carrier or something out of active combat.

Anyway, take it all with a grain of salt, I have precious little actual combat experience myself. Something I hope I can rectify somewhat soon. Once I get over the terrifying thought of not having +5 implants /cry

@theiggep he jumped it to a cyno generator blindly, guess he just bought it

— Sala Cameron (@sala_cameron) April 10, 2013