Science & Industry

As a budding inventor myself - last year really, here's what I found, keeping in mind that I'm not doing anything fancy - just t1 stuff like modules and ammo into t2 equivalents - didn't graduate to the bigger stuff yet.

- because the science skills takes forever and then some, pick what you want to invent grouped by related science skills. This will minimize the number of science skills you need trained to be effective. Once you do that, research the BPCs related to the two skills while you train other skills. I had a natural temptation to research a bunch of different items at once, and found that it was far from optimal because I didn't have the science skills high up there so the T2 stats weren't very good. This also reduces the number of different datacores you need as you get started.

- I was amazed at how much prep work it took to setup the POS lab for invention and getting the needed parts there. I'm now getting into how to improve the datacore flow as that can be quite expensive and thus I need a very efficient supply chain if I don't want to lose my shirt when something fails, knowing it will fail often.

- while base items are not needed for most simple T2 items, I found a use for the named loot you get as drops in missions. The named items boost stats of the final product.

- I haven't bothered with decryptors yet - not needed for the starting inventor. That only becomes useful for larger items, so not for ammo or regular ship modules.

- it's a pain to have to move stuff to/from labs because you need your invention alt to be the POS janitor at all times. Unlike research for PE or ME, invention requires you to have the stuff at the lab proper.

- I know this is the basic stuff, but don't use researched BPCs for invention as the base ME and PE values don't matter in invention. This said, the trick for me was to figure out how to sort the researched BPC (for manufacturing, made from researched BPOs) from the BPCs made from the PE / ME 0 stuff. The UI is particularly unhelpful to sort those out although the blueprint tab on the science/industry is helpful - but you can't drag/drop from there. I finally decided to use all researched BPCs for invention because I was spending entirely too much time checking ME/PE stats on the 50 BPCs i'm moving at one time. So, in the end, use whatever BPO you have, make BPCs out of it and use the lowest PE ME level you can for invention, keep the others for manufacturing.

- Invention is actually fairly quick on the simple T1 stuff (most of mine now run in about 1 hour or less), so you will spend a lot of time keeping the POS supplied and the invention slots used. For this reason, invention is not really fire and forget because you need to actively follow the jobs if you intend to maximize the lab's use. Because you have to be next to the lab, that also means you can't stray far from the POS as you wait for the jobs to finish. I like to use all my 10 invention slots at one time if I can so at least I'm not stuck forever in the solar system where my POS is. That will require more than one lab (and associated data interfaces) but it is efficient.

Here's a useful guide that got me started too:

Guide at Massively


Hope this helps,

Z.

the way your saying that, it almost sounds like it would make sense to train these skills to 5....It does not.

OOPS !

This is just flat out wrong.

The 2 required Sciences affect nothing related to Material Efficiency and Wastage at all. They only affect the Chance of Invention Success.

Period and Final.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invention

edit:

Decryptors are the only thing that affect Efficiency / Wasteage.

The 2 Science Skills will also increase Research points with the relevant R & D Agents for DataCore generation, but that is of course another matter entirely.

Work out your invention success rates
http://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/invention/
Work out whether it's worth inventing or not (fill in an appropriate success rate.)
http://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/blueprints/


Unless you're using a decryptor, all T2 BPC will end up with -4 ME and -4 PE.

Not as bad as it might sound, as many t2 blueprints have the majority of their materials as extra materials, unaffected by ME waste.

Decryptors are very special case usage. Often adding 10 million+ to the cost of an invention run.
Using a meta item to increase your chance of success can be worth it, but remember it will change your costs.

My 2 cents. Pick 2 science skills that marry up - I started with Mechanical and Electronic Engineering and trained to 4. Then trained Gallente Encryption to 4. While those skills were training I copied many many Drone Blueprints - its best to have your own BPOs and copy them. Always check contracts for cheap max run copies as you often see them. I know its contradiction but there are bargains to be had.
Remember ME and PE on your BPO matter not for invention - but while your copies are being scribed you use the other BPO of same item to make the T1 variant if its worth the saving and use of slot to do so. Check 2 of the many Indy tools like Fuzzwork and eveEye to check. Yep sorry I didn't mention to get at least 2 of each BPO because as you can see your BPO is needed for copying and usually manufacture. My advice is to buy your first ones already researched - I buy all mine already cooked as my income allows for it.
Don't use decryptors for anything but Ships.
Get your Datacore Agents up to level 4 - grind man grind! Though they have been nerfed recently.

Heh - I dont drink Alcohol. I did that Post on a Blackberry so its not the best layout because I was sitting in a Car doing 70mph down a motorway.
I could edit it and sort it out but I aint going to because I like the fact that - i) You seem Butthurt and ii) Your the self appointed Police of S and I and I dont like the Cops....

Please note i said sitting - not driving.

If one is inventing ammo, do the faction versions of said ammo count as "meta"? And can you use just a single unit to properly apply the boost to invention chances?

Also: Is there a good resource that lists the various BPCs that can be created and, more importantly, the bills of materials that a ME -4/PE -4 will require?

I want to make sure I can easily access materials needed to produce the things I invent...before I invest too heavily into inventing itself. My searches on google have turned up hundreds of things related to that...but no flat out bill of materials lists. The items I have in mind don't seem to ever be available on the BPC market, so I can't check it in game.

[shameless plug]
http://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/blueprints/
[/shamless plug]


Everything starts on that at ME0. but you can pull it down to -4 (or -6 for appropriate decryptors) easily.