Science & Industry

It is unfortunate that the topic devolved as this is a important thing for EVE to both understand, debate, and deal with as a long term issue for EVE. This is the most important ratio in the economy.

EFFORT:ISK
Risk is simply more EFFORT

The original poster might have approached the post in the wrong way, but the message is what matters. He is indeed correct that mining has recently experienced a buff like no other to passive wealth generation. I would not make the argument at all about ISK:HR, as the recent patches have hilariously skewed EFFORT:ISK ratio to mining now. Mining may not be the most ISK:HR profession, but it sure is great EFFORT:ISK.

I often wonder if CCP ever plays to do anything about boxer users, or if the subs are so delicious they will not. The rise of mass multiboxing has interesting implications for EVE long term.

For the people asking how can the OP transform the claimed 10 minutes of active time spent mining per hour into 60 minutes per hour to get that x6 ISK multiplier, there's a simple way to do it (not that the OP actually does it, but it can be done) : run 6+ accounts at the same time.
Due to economies of scale (you can tack in an Orca with leadership skills and a dedicated hauler, running 8+ accounts simultaneously) he could actually pull much more than just x6 ISK, possibly even x10 ISK, without bothering to change location a lot. If he actually bothers to change location (like, say, moving into a deep blue secure area and running with the big boys), he could scale that up even higher (now we're talking Rorqual booster and an area with plenty of more valuable ore), so he could even arguably pull in something like over 200m per hour of activity easily, possibly even closer or even over 300m per hour with a more streamlined operation of even more mining accounts and better synchronized hauling.

On the other hand, you can also run semi-AFK mission droneboats and pull even better figures on even more accounts, since there's only a few missions that require serious care of the drones (and you can afford to just avoid them).
You can also do it more "meh"-ishly with FoF-loaded missileboats, since there's no risk to the drones, but those might be a tad slower even if you know where to position yourself and how to set orbits for maximum AFK efficiency, and also need a button press every now and then after the launchers get auto-reloaded.
Heck, if you're a serious multiboxing mission-runner with some decent ships (not loot pinatas, just decent fits and good skills, plus good knowledge of best mission practices), you can probably pull over 100mil per hour the "honest" at-keyboard way easily with just two good skilled shooters and a less high SP looter, maybe higher with three shooters that work as part-time looters if you can handle it.

On the gripping hand, you can pull off even higher numbers overall if you have a wide-spread industrial empire (you don't even need to source your own minerals nor sell the product yourself, just have the proper "contracts" that include delivery and pick-up clauses, or pay somebody else a small fee to handle it for you), BUT that requires some phenomenal amount of initial investment, and also some good connections (for the contracts, so you don't have to bother with the logistics so much).

And then, there's of course trading. Either the typical style, or the speculative style, whatever your poison might be.
Some styles benefit from extra characters, others do not. Some synergize with an industrialist career path, some do not.

There's plenty of ways to make some serious ISK while not actually AT the controls, IF you know what you're doing AND if you can be bothered to keep it up.

Um. Everything needs minerals. And mining is one of the only forms of wealth generation in the game that doesnt just create ISK from the concord overlords, who seem to be built with the magical ability to print isk out of nowhere.

Mining for that reason should be something that creates money that you get from other players. After all, you are only able to sell the minerals for the price the market dictates.


THEREFORE: Industry (science, mining, all that trash) has always been theeve profession that best scales with inflation, since all profits to be made from mining come from the free market system within eve, and are always subjective to outside forces, price manipulation attempts, scarcity, etc.

There is actually market warfare risk to miners. Today they could make 100m an hour, next year 50 mil an hour... for the same work done in the same way.

Someone who runs incursions is making 9-10 mil per site, no matter how inflated the economy is. And as the economy inflates, he's actually doing worse every time, compared to how well he did before the inflation.

IMHO, anything more than '2 Hulks and an Orca' operated by an individual is overdoing it.

P.S.
And if you want to be more accurate, at current mineral prices, with maxed-out everything and considering what's borderline doable by a single person with some effort (Orca, 1-2 haulers, 7-8 miners), you could be looking at anywhere between 180 to 290 mil ISK per hour for the entire op while stripmining belts in less trafficked highsec areas (depends on what's in the belts, call that easily over 200 mil/h on average).
A couple of days of "work" would pay for all the extra PLEX needed for the extra accounts, then the rest is actual profit. Plus you can always sell the chars later if you decide to drop the op and recover most of the PLEX cost (or even make a profit on that too).

Come on now, you can do better than that.

Incursion runners might give you a run for your money...as long as they can get into a well organized group.