Sold!

     Well, I wasn't even able to try out my Impel before the CEO decide he wanted to buy it off of me.  I'll have another 125 million in my wallet, but I have to figure out whether I buy the materials to build another or just pocket the difference I'll make and buy another in Jita.  In Jita they are selling for about 116 million.  I'm already up 9 million.  Unfortunately, I have tied up 40 million in the 4 BPs I bought at auction for Impel builds.  10 down and 30 to go....
     Let's see what the second build will cost me.  I start out with only having a few extra Tech II components made for this, plus the extra minerals, the morphite, the RAM Starship Modules, and the Construction blocks. I'll go with the assumption that I don't have any components made; that way I can continue to stockpile for other frigs or the two Tech II cruisers I want to use eventually.
     The Impel needs the following Tech II components:
   55 Fusion Thrusters
   99 Radar Sensor Clusters
1320 Nanoelectrical Microprocessors
3850 Tungsten Carbide Armor Plates
   33 Antimatter Reactor Units
 220 Tesseract Capacitor Units
 275 Linear Shield Emitters

     I can build the capacitors, the armor plates, and the microprocessors with my BPOs that I have for those units.  I unfortunately cannot make the moon materials for these items so I'll need to build the components from bought materials or I have to buy them already made.  From past experience, I know that the microprocessors are usually pretty expensive either way.   I'll use that as an example analysis for our discussion for the non-indy people reading this.
     A quick look at the blueprint for the Nanoelectrical Microprocessor reveal that I need three advanced moon materials to make these.  Now, for every race, they have the same basic items that are needed for their tech II components.  You have one or two neutral materials and then the race specific material added to them.  For Amarr components, they all have Tungsten Carbide in them.  If these were Minmatar's version, the Nanomechanical Microprocessor, they would have Fernite Cabide included instead.  The other two materials are Nanotransistors and Phenolic Composites.
The unresearched recipe to make one of these microprocessors is 13 Tungsten Carbide, 1 Phenolic composite and 6 Nanotransistors.  The Tungsten Carbide I have but for argument's sake, I can get the materials for about 111 a piece, for a total of  1,443 per microprocessor produced.  The phenolic is easy to figure out selling for 750 a piece.  The nanotransistors will put me back 7,300 each unit for a total of 43,800. That brings the total cost for each microprocessor to 45,993.  They are currently selling for around 39,000 a unit in Jita, so it's definitely better to buy them if you cannot make any of the moon materials.  Researching the ME on the blueprint well help drive down costs too, but in the end you have to be smart about what it costs versus making to materials.

     If I am to total the cost of the above components instead of making them, I would be paying about 98 million if I source them from accessible highsec markets.  If you add in the 10 million for the BP, I have a decent profit from my CEO of 17 million.  He can afford it.......

Ka-ching!

   As a miner, your main goal is to gather resources for either your own production or somebody else's. The market can be a fickle friend sometimes. Over the past 6 months, I have spent numerous hours gathering minerals to use towards projects.  I have built several battleships, capital ship components, lots of ammo, and other components for my consumption.   Today was a dream come true for a miner with nothing to build.  A corpmate bought a capital ship component from me on the market the other day.  I saw him online and asked what he was building.  He said it was the last component he needed to build a Rorqual.  He then started on about needing lots of minerals to do his builds and that he spends most of his time travelling around Providence to gather them.  I had mentioned the piles that I was currently sitting and he showed a lot of interest.  I took an inventory of what I had: 16,000 Megacyte, 19,000 Zydrine, 5,000,000 Tritanium, 1.1 million in isogen, etc.  He offered me 225 million for everything.  I did a quick calcualtion based on how much they would sell for in Providence and he was paying about a 15% premium over what they would've been on the open market. BOOM! Just like that I'm sold out of my minerals. and I had cleared the market in the 5 minutes it took to gather the stragglers and make the contract.
     That is a good day for someone like me.  I also have more than enough to finish the two other builds I was working on.  My Impel needs another 400 or so Tech II components to be made.  I also need a dozen or so high end PI items to be made/bought so I can finish building another large Amarr tower for a corpmate.  That will also fetch about 300 million for myself.  Since I'm flush with newfound riches, I can get a few skillbooks I have put off for greener pastures and I can resume rock crushing for the next big score. Arkonor and Mercoxit are still available for my strip turrets so I can get back on the horse and inventory more minerals in style....

The scattered thoughts of my scattered brain

     If you haven't guessed yet, I'm strictly an indy guy in the game of Eve.  I have no epic shootouts to brag about, no podding of hostiles in our sovereign space, and no questions or reccomendations on the latest Rifter fits floating around cyberspace.  I merely have three things to consider right now: 1) How to best utilize my time playing the game; 2) What is the next skill to help me research, refine or build: and 3) what to build, mine, or research next? Here is where my lack of specialization in my skill building has killed my character. I start down a path of skillbuilding so I can start an activity, but I do not develop enough of said skill to get that damn certificate that seems to make the goal not only attainable, but also more effective.
     I have gotten limited access to alliance labs now, and I can do the three basic tasks(ME, PE, and Copying) right now.  The one drawback is now I have to transport my invention paraphenalia back to highsec where I can continue that work.  I have decided to start buying up Bpos of all of the little things that can be invented to a Tech II level and research the hell out of them until I figure out the invention part in the Providence area.  Since I'm remoting the other three activities from the corp office and not at the lab, I could be doing something else wrong that I just haven't figured out yet.  Until then,  I'll be content with my current activities.
     With all of my previous invention tasks, I currently have enough Tech II Bps to keep me busy for a while.  I can clear out the 50 or so that I'm sitting on and I'll still have plenty of time to stock up on the datacores and copies for the next push to invent.  And right now, I'll finance the tech II components by mining Mercoxit in our grav sites and selling Enriched Clear Icicle and Glare Crust to my corpmates.  BTW, Morphite has been selling for higher and higher amounts lately.  It seems that it has stayed above 5400 per unit, almost twice what Megacyte sells for.  It also appears that the demand for it has only increased over the previous few months.  The only thing that is keeping the median price from spiking would be the "savvy" buy orders set up for anybody who doesn't truly understand what they are selling and just hits the sell button too quickly. I have been selling this mineral way too cheaply in Providence for around 3600 a unit.  In Amarr, the 2500 units I sold went for at least 5420 a unit. A healthy sale price of almost 5850 could be fetched if I wasn't so damn impatient with wanting the isk right away.  It looks like my new drug of choice will be Mercoxit.  Not a lot of people where I am at have worked up to it yet and I can easily mine 1500-2500 Mercoxit a week without very much effort or competition.  With every 250 units of ore making me 501 units of Morphite, 27 million isk on the low side is what I can pocket for about 3.5 hours of non combat, non creation activities.  Not bad if you are looking for a different mining angle that not a lot of others work up to.

Rookie ships

   During my time in Providence,  I've noticed that we get wardecced a lot by turds in highsec corporations who prey on the highsec members of our alliance.  They are not used to being shot at since they reside in highsec and do not follow ANY protocols for wartime operations.  In Sovereign space, they usuallly do not come into our area and make trouble. They would be bubbled, outgunned and usually podded before they can escape.  I happen to follow what a lot of people do; I use an alt in highsec to ship, buy, and generally use to do things in highsec.  My character that is not alliance affiliated happens to be Caldari.  I podded over to the next station and low and behold, a redsigned Ibis was waiting for me from the insurance company(wish that was true in real life).  I happen to think that the Ibis is very cool looking now. It has a symmetry that was not found in the earlier design I can appreciate more. Still can't load it out with anything cool, but that's why it's a rookie ship.
     From what I saw, the Amarr ship still looks like a piece of crap. As far as the other two ships go, I have not looked at them yet. I won't even be able to look or make a comparison with the Minmatar ship because; one, I don't have a Minmatar character; and two, my main character still believes in slavery and wouldn't think of lowering himself by flying a Minmatar rustbucket anyways :)
     I am hoping that with an increased emphasis on ships and equipment, the creators have the wisdom to freshen up the rest of the frigate ranks and even consider my wild idea of a tech III frigate for each playable race.  I think the modular idea in the strategic cruisers is a great idea and you could even tie the role of the frigate and it's bonuses to the modules added in its build.  Hell, when are we going to see the Jovians start an occasional incursion to freshen up their genetic lines?  Why can't they capture and brainwash a few unwilling residents?  But I digress.  I must of been daydreaming again.....

Today's Observation

     I realized something the other day when I logged on at night(my night, not according to the Eve clock) that something people never discuss, but is front and center in everyone's face.  The universe that is created in the game Eve online is a very diverse environment.  You could get immersed into a different way of playing the game each week for months and not get bored of the game.  I have seen some players come and others go. It seems to me that the long term players find enough satisfaction to keep going through the boring periods.The players that stick around have one of two things going for them. They either find a niche they cannot get bored from, or the player simply has enough diversity in his game that one does not get lulled into a repetitive, boring environment.  
     I myself fall into the latter.  I have about a year and 5 months worth of game time invested in Eve Online now. Most of my skills have some development and I'm starting to open up the more advanced skilbooks that lead to larger ships, more specialization, and greater enrichment. My skill diversity allows me to change focus if I get bored with what I am doing in the game. I am to a point that I can sustain a certain amount of isk coming in and I can accumulate enough resources to be self sufficient.  If I cannot make it,  I  will make something else that is substantial that I can sell for those items. I used to think that the be all end all was that I could always make whatever I needed; whether it's a ship, module, or other item. When now, I realize that in order to be successful, a niche has to be found.  I'm ok with that. I used to think that I had to be the best at what I do. Well, if that was the case, I would have had to be one of the first players of Eve and be sitting on 5-10 times the amount of skillpoints that I currently have.  The niche is there for everyone.  You must find one if you are to thrive in Eve.  My current niche is very comfortable for the time being. If I need more from the enviroment, I will go seek it like I did a year and 5 months ago....

Voting

     Hopefully, you all are going to vote during the CSM election. I personally don't
 know any of the candidates myself. That is also my responsibility as a voter. I need to do the research to be an informed voter.

     On another note, the established mining in our alliance continues to give us more of the good ores that all miners have dreams about.  Anybody want some Megacyte?

Welcome to Providence

     One thing for sure, my new home on this expansive game, has been by far the most interesting of them all. During the three months I have operated in the Providence region, most of the previous experiences that I have accumulated have helped me in some way or another. Tech II rules in this region, as it probably does in most other lowsec/nullsec areas.  The other day, I called on my honed probe skills to help find anoms in my home system. Those skills allowed me to survive in a lonely wormhole system for 5 months this past year.  BTW, if you want cool neighbors, I can give you a good address to look up....
     As far as backgrounds go, I've had my fair share of non-combat losses, poddings, stupid moves and good luck.  I have benefited from good advice from both indy characters and pirates alike. I was naive like everyone is when they first join up. You find a couple of neat things to do, like mine Veldspar and you think you're now a player; maybe even take a couple of low level Sansha rats out for about 6,000 isk and you think you can fight now.  Then you decide to travel to one of the Eve bazaars, like Amarr, Jita, Rens and see all of the cons, fighting, and trinkets to buy in the Eve universe. And then you realize you may be playing a game online with thousands of people all over the world but you could easily be at a real life marketplace somewhere in the world.
     Eve has a tendency to mimic life in so many ways.  People try to better their lots through many different avenues. One of the intriguing things that drew me in to Eve during my trial period was this diversity that I didn't know the details about yet, but knew that it existed for me to explore.  In a corp that I had founded, I butted heads with a guy that was cold and calculated when it came to trying to make isk in the game.  I was always telling him that there was a lot of value to learning in the game and that was just as important to me as the isk it made me.  Mining and the industrial side of the game appealed to me instantly.  Going out and putting in the work to make something that someone else wanted to buy made me feel like I was accomplishing something without harming others.  Unfortunately, the predators in the game of Eve have differing values.....

     Now in the Providence region, I have waded into full blown sovereignty, its politics and ideals, as well as the competition to make something of yourself.  With a harder area to operate in, the higher rewards come with higher risks, but if you can't handle it, don't undock............