Science & Industry

I am New to Invention and would really like some background information on how it works.


Question 1.
I have been looking at BPC in the contracts trade window, but there are two values i do not understand "Material Level" and "Productivity Level", what do these values mean?

Question 2.
What units are these values measured in and how do they work mathematically? it seems the higher the numbers the better.

I want to create my own spreadsheets but i am unsure of what to do with this Material or Productivity number, is it some kind of multiplier or divisor.

for example a item called A with ME 0 cost 100 minerals to make
with ME 10 cost 80 minerals to make

You gain 20 resources from each item .

Now you need to see how much an original BPO for item A cost for example 500 ISK
a researched BPO with ME cost 1500 ISK

Now the difference is 1000 ISK .

If you gain 20 resources for each item lets say 1 resource cost 1 ISK , you have 20 ISK profit from each item .
Now you need to make 50 items so you can actually gain some profit from a researched BPO right?
After 50 items all those 20 isk goes in youre wallet .

Making 50 items will take 1 week .

So if you plan on making that item for more then 1 week , the researched BPO is of course worth it !
If you plan to make that item for 5 days it isnt *.



*Unless you plan to sell the BPO after for 1500 then you still get that 20 isk profit from each item those 5 days .

(this seems more related to sciende and industry , so feel free to correct me if im wrong )

Hey :( i kept looking for it in market . Damn you moving it so fast

Sorry. Next time I will tell the system to "move it slowly".

:D

Huttan Funaila thank you so much, that was a very clear description, with some background information to really get an understanding of what is going on and why.

You also backed it up with links and Raw math, i dont think i could have asked for a better reply. 10/10.

Yes on this BPO calc.

Stare at it for awhile and it will make sense.

If the best PE is something like 120, you do not have to do it all at once. You can take it to +60. And the next time, do NOT specify 120. Use just +60 on it again, and then it gets to 120. A lot of folks get tricked by this.

This applies to ME as well.


EDIT: by getting tricked, I mean they wind up with a useless 180 at that point, when 120 is the best possible.

Well there are min maxers out there obsessed with getting all there BPO's to perfect ME. That is any more ME be it 1 point or 1000 points you will not gain any more reduction.

For the most part this is very inefficient. A good rule of thumb is ME 10 is worth while for any BPO. Most BPO's that first 10 ME will drop your waste down to say 1%. To then get it down to 0.1% you need to take ME level to 100. So you spend 10 times as long for 1 tenth the benefit.

Some BPO's such as freighters you need over 1 month research per ME level, so you rarely see them with more than ME 2 or 3. But since these are made for small quantities of components made from the raw minerals there is less return from ME research.

I generally only look to get a BPO to ME 10 before using it, of course there are some exceptions. Some BPO's research so fast that ME 100 only takes a few days whether you need it or not. However since I have my own POS where I do my research, I hate to have empty research slots. If there is a PE or ME slot I do not need I will throw a BPO into it I am not currently using. Whether it needs more research or not it certainly does not hurt. It costs nothing as the slot would otherwise not be in use, and the POS is already fueled for other purposes.

I do believe that the rounding of materials is not done until after the total of all runs is calculated. I have not tested this specifically but I did notice a difference with Fuel block BPO's. I read somewhere that perfet ME for fuel blocks was ME 60. However I had a full set researched to ME 100. However with my method of avoiding empty ME slots I ended up taking one fuel block BPO to ME 200. When manufacturing over 1000 runs at a time I noticed a reduction in mats on the ME 200 BPO from the ME 100 BPO's. It was not much, but there was a difference. After that I took all my fuel block BPO's to ME 200. As an added bonus I used to sell fuel block BPC's, and having the highest ME/PE mine sold very fast.

However you look at it, even if more ME research does give added reduction for higher runs, the gains are minimal. It is almost always worth getting you BPO waste down from 10% to 1% or less. Beyond that the gains from a 0.1% reduction are so small they are rarely a good return. A 0.1% reduction in waste will reduce materials by 1 unit for every 1000 units needed. If the BPO has not mat requirements over 1000 then a 0.1% waste reduction will have zero effect. If the only mat with over 1000 units is trit, well even if it is 100,000 trit you only save 100 trit or 500-600 isk. Not much return is it. ME 10 reduces waste from 10% to 1% and can make the difference between whether a BPO is profitable or not. But if you need to get a BPO to ME 100 for it to be profitable, then the profits are so small it is not worth making.