Science & Industry

Why is blueprint research so inaccessible?

I have looked at all stations in 3 regions of minmitar space and ALL stations are filled for at the very minimum 6 days and some go out as long as 90 days. That is a broken system in my mind. They either need to increase the amount of research stations or lower the time on research.

POS is the best answer. Otherwise, you have to find the stations with the shortest times. Last time I checked, you can get much shorter times the farther away you get from the trade hubs, but you must be willing to travel into lowsec. Personally, when I do this (haven't in a while though) I try to find the station with the shortest time in a region where I have a jumpclone. I throw the bpo's into a covops and bring them there. I jump out to the clone when I need to start new jobs. When they are all done, I head back and pick them up.

Or find someone with a POS to do it for you. I have some research slots open if you are interested.

If you're too scared to run around in low sec (I am) but don't mind traveling through it once in a while you could find yourself a high sec island and live out there. I jump clone in and out of Solitude a lot and I've found places with as little as 2-3 day wait times in high sec for blueprint ME research. Usually it's 5-8 days, though.

It did take me a bit of time running all my BPOs down there, and it was worrying at times. But the BPOs are small so you can easily transport everything in a warping while cloaked ship. If you don't have access to a cloaky ship an interceptor works well. Or if you're like me and have crappy ship flying skills you can even go in with a nano'd Rifter with a MWD and Cloak

And once you learn where the usual gate camps are you can "scout yourself in" with little to no risk even with only one account.

There are other high sec islands than Solitude. The same thing may apply there, so some scouting and research may be in order.


Or you can just put up a POS in some backwater system. :) Up to you, really.

1) people need to understand that they don't need ME 200 on a ammo print
2) research need to increase in price when slots are filled - they would if all ME . PE , and copy slots are filled but generally they are not so the price increases do not kick in .
3) because you have to wait - people often put the research in for as much as possible - exaggerating the problem
4) research corps / alliances work well

There are research alliances you can join, plus tons of pre-researched BPO available on contracts. There is also a blueprint trade chat channelyou can join (click on the bubble on your chat window) where you can buy / sell / trade / etc. BPO and BPC.

If CCP allowed POS labs to be open to the public (and charge a fee), there would be tons of available slots. I myself have more than I can use.

IMO the NPC stations need to have slots that are available based on your rep with them. Why the hell would they just let anyone who walks in use their lab space anyway? The problem is that people make alts specifically for the purpose of researching blueprints and nothing else.

I'm not saying they should be denied. I'm saying people with reputation should be given priority. Your comparison to a grocery store isn't really a good one. Pilots are like contractors for an NPC corp. If i have 8.0 rep with Brutor tribe, why is someone with no rep at all able to clog up their labs with research? Wouldn't they be more willing to help me do my research? If this was a player run corp would corp members get first priority or anyone who just happened to fly by?

Really at the end of the day the use of standing is just a means to an end. The problem here is alts made specifically for research and no other purpose. People who do that are the ones making wait times what they are. Making standing an important part of what it takes to get a fast slot fixes a lot of that.

why is this a problem? skills can allow only so many research jobs at one time and if i want more then one characters amount of research, manufacturing or invention at one time why should i not have this? the game allows for individuals and groups to set up POS's and run their own labs or as others have pointed out, go to less traveled places.

Upping the available research slots every time they got full wouldn't help you either as many alts producing now would simply switch to station labs and pos labs would get off-lined.

While your 8.0 standing with Brutor tribe might make them more willing to help you, the research slot is still full for a month with peoples bpos that they don't like. shall they bump them in favor for you? what happens when everybody's alts are at 10.0?
the grocery store example is a good one. You shop at the same store every week, you spend ~150 for your family. the store loves you. reward points, coupons the whole nine yards. do they have a special lane for you? or do you still have to wait like everyone else?

the actual problem that you are running into is not so much alts, or low lab space, but the numbers for research that are being asked for. most ammunition to 100 actually wont take that long, Antimatter L takes about 8 days (give or take a few hours and skills) to get to 100. its the people that want to put it in for 360 ME (which is something like what, 30 days?) and is completely unnecessary. ("optimal" ME for that i am to understand is 7, - 11 hours and 40 minutes)

get a pos, they don't cost much and aren't that hard to set up