Basics of production

Production of Tech 1 items – ships, modules, ammunition, rigs or even components – is the simplest of manufacturing tasks, within reach of even the newest player to EVE. Although whether they will actually be able to make a profit is another question entirely. Very few skills are needed for T1 production, and the materials are often fairly easily acquired.

All T1 manufacturing jobs require a blueprint. These come in two forms: originals (BPOs) with infinite runs and copies (BPCs) that can only be run a limited number of times. For most blueprints, a single run of a blueprint will produce a single item, but there are some exceptions – most obviously ammunition, which produces 100 units per run.

Many manufacturers use BPCs, copied from a BPO, to manufacture from, for a variety of reasons, including security and the ability to run multiple production lines. For more details, see Why should I copy my BPOs?

See Blueprints for more details on blueprints.

Selecting the item to produce

T1 BPOs are seeded by various NPC traders, with costs varying from 100,000 to 75 billion ISK. This can be a significant cost, especially to new players. Also significant is the amount of research time that may be spent on the blueprint. Selecting a good one versus a bad one is important!

A good item will have these characteristics:

• Inexpensive Materials – The material cost should be such that you can reasonably expect to manufacture a decent number of items, and you won’t be bankrupt if you lose them while trying to sell them. There isn’t a rule on how much cost is too much, but if you need a number then keep the cost of an item below 1% of your net worth. This will not be a problem for players with a large wallet, but can be an issue for new players starting out in manufacturing. Loading the potential BPO into the Industry window will provide an estimate of the material cost.

• Good Profit Margins – The difference between the selling price and the cost to manufacture should be worthwhile. Be sure to compare the absolute profit (ISK) and percent profit (% of selling price) and make sure both are worth your time. What makes it worth your time? It is up to the individual, but strive for at least 10% per item. Profits of 80% have been witnessed by players as young as 2 months to EVE, but they are rare and tend to disappear.

• Good Transaction Volume – If you find an item that is extremely profitable but is only sold once per week, then it has poor transaction volume. There is no guarantee that you can capture all (or even most) of the sales of a particular item! To check the volume of an item, use the Market window. If you choose an item, click on the Price History tab. If it shows a graph, you can see daily sales volume by clicking the Show Table button in the bottom of the window. This will show you how many of an item were sold each day in the region over the past year.

There are many items that do meet all three requirements. Finding them is a matter of a lot of research time looking for items that meet your criteria. Typically it is easiest to search through the market tab looking for items with sufficient volume, then go to the BPO research calculator to compare the prices to selling volumes. Once you choose a blueprint, the BPO Research Calculator will also tell you what faction sells the BPOs you have chosen.

Job installation fee

Raw materials are not the only cost of production. The act of installing the manufacturing job costs too. The job installation fee is a factor which cannot be ignored in choosing where to base your manufacturing operation is the installation cost of industry jobs. This cost is dynamic, so if a large number of other manufacturers join you in the system, it may save you money to move elsewhere (weighed against the cost in time and effort of moving all your materials to a new system).

Job cost = Estimated items value × System cost index × Structure bonuses

The estimated items value approximately the cost estimation of the materials. The exact values can be calculated by multiplying the number of items with the adjusted prices of the items (found in ESI /markets/prices/ endpoint)

Estimated item value=∑all materialsMaterial quantity×Material adjusted price

The system cost index is calculated from the amount of production job hours done in system and the amount of production job hours done in universe.

System cost index=Work hours done in system in past 28 daysWork hours done in universe in past 28 days−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−√

You will also need to pay tax to the structure owner. The tax is based on the job cost so low system cost index will mean low taxes too.

Tax cost = Job cost × Tax%

Running Jobs

Once you have a blueprint and materials ready, and decided which system to manufacture in, it’s time to produce your goods. Most of the time you’ll be using an NPC station to manufacture goods.

Engineering complexes and citadels with the appropriate service module online can also be used to manufacture goods. Engineering complexes provide a modest material savings (1%) and significant time savings (15% – 30% depending on size) over NPC stations; these savings can be further increased for certain categories of goods by installing the appropriate rigs to the structure.

Gather the materials and BPO (or BPC) in your station hangar, and open the industry window. You will need to find your blueprint using the drop-down selection boxes. Click the blueprint to install it to the main industry window. Or you can start the job from the blueprint in your hangar.

Simply choose the number of runs, check the input/output locations (most of the time this will simply be Item Hangar, but if you have your own personal corporation or use containers for sorting you may need to change them – note: if the industry window says you are missing inputs that you know you have, check to make sure all input/output choices are from/to the Item Hanger) and press Start.

While the job is running, you can check on its progress using the same Industry window, in the Jobs tab. Select the Jobs tab, and a list of your currently running jobs will be displayed. You can cancel the job if you want your blueprint back for some reason, but none of the materials used or installation costs will be refunded.

Finally, once the job is completed, job listed in the Jobs tab will contain a large Deliver button instead of a time remaining display; press this and the results & blueprint will be returned to the station.

Beware of rounding “errors”!

A particular problem that can quickly cost you a million ISK or two when manufacturing T2 items is the rounding that is applied as an effect of material efficiency. The rounding is done per job instead of per run. a single industry job with 3 runs can use less material than 3 single jobs from the same blueprint!

Additionally the manufacturing job will require at least one item of each type per run. This is most notable when the job requires one item per run. With 100 runs and 10% material reduction you would assume that you would need 90 items but you still need 100 items.