Science & Industry

I'm coming back from a year hiatus and I seem to have forgotten everything...

What is a good ML on a blueprint when you material research it?

I just do the max I can do in the factory which seems to be 20 on the last BPO I did. What would most people recommend?

Also as a bonus question, is there a web site that shows bpos with the actual ore costs without having to calculate what ore makes what mineral?

/me points at his site with a blueprint calculator.

It's entirely down to which blueprints you're working on. There's a fair number where anything more than 4 is pointless; and others where more is better.

Rule of thumb I use is 15 ME, 10 PE.

Sometimes I go higher depending but that works well for most stuff.

Evemon has a feature these days that shows you the perfect ME level of all the prints in the game.
You can find it under the skillplans -> blueprints. The ME number is on the far right bar at the top of the bar.

Also some prints don't even require ME research... like all station components.

My own rule has been ME11 and PE11 not including capitals or stuff that has P.I. products in them.

I use this, on larger BPOs you judge the amount of time versus the materials saved as high ME levels often take quite a while to research and don't offer that big a saving.

generally ME 3-5 is well worth it for any BPO not matter what it is. most BPO's are worth taking up to ME 10. beyond that is totally dependent on what BPO it is as others have said.

Reducing a BPO from 10% waste to 1% or less is pretty much always worth it. but beyond that it depends on the volume of materials and what those materials are. perfect ME is the point where no matter how much additional ME research you do there is no further benefit.
For example on BPO's with low material requirements a 0.5% waste may yield the same material requirements as 0.0% waste as that 0.5% is not enough to gain even a single unit of reduction as the numbers are always rounded up. Say a BP with ME 10 has 0.5% waste giving it a material requirement 99.6 rounded up to 100 units of a particular material. Taking that BPO to ME 1000 will not reduce that value by even a single unit. since 0.1% waste would equal 1 unit gain per 1000 units required, in the example of 100 units even a 0.5% reduction in waste(ME 1000 with 0.002% waste) would only reduce the 99.6 units to 99.1 which would still be rounded up to 100 units.

Even with a BPO with material requirements of 10,000 units or greater where 0.1% waste would give a reduction of 10 units per 10,000 you need to consider if the research time for that extra 10 units is worth it. a reduction of 10 units of tritanium about a 60 isk value does not give much return while 10 units of megacyte saved is worth over 20,000isk. BPO's requiring components such as control towers and capital ships saving a single material unit can be worth millions.

It all depends on the BPO and what you plan to do with it.

The only time over researching a BPO may be worth while is if you expect to make isk of selling BPC's. Although an over researched BPC is not worth any more than a BPC with perfect ME. If you are looking to buy BPC's and there are several ranging from ME 10 to ME 200, even if the perfect ME level is 150 if they are all about the same price which one would you buy? Most players would buy the ME 200 over an ME 150 if they were the same price even if the perfect ME level was 150. You will make it up quickly in the volume you sell as your BPC's will sell faster provided they are kept at competitive prices.