Science & Industry

Hello there,

Until now I've been focusing mainly in manufacturing and have only now started doing invention. I managed to find some Copy Slots as well as invention slots in each iteration I usually need to move away which is sort of an hassle.

I have nowhere near standings nor ISK to set up my own POS, neither has my corp. So basically I was wondering if there's anyone out there in New Eden with some spare Invention or Copy Slots free in their POS I could use, for the sake of remaining stationary (at least in one of the two). I've been manufacturing fuel blocks so I can contribute with some fuel donations if necessary.

On a sidenote: Is it even possible for me to have access to such without leaving my corp?

There is no real way to get access to another corps POS as the current game mechanics do not allow for that. Even corps in the same alliance have restrictions.

Your only option to use another Corps copy slots is to trust them with your BPO to make copies for you.

Really your best option at this point is to buy copies you need, keep moving around, or buckle down and grind out enough isk to buy a POS of your own.

Trusting is far from being an issue here, BPOs I'm using are fairly inexpensive. I actually bought some BPCs, in fact all of the ones in the market.
I certainly will keep doing what I do (like I have a choice) until some other solution is found.

The real problem isn't invention slots, its copy slots. If you can't get access to player owned POS labs somehow, you are probably best off looking for a location in highsec with lots of in system public lab and manufacturing slots. Make this your base for invention and manufacturing. Then you only have to travel to do the copies.

Your best best for short queue or no wait public copy slots is lowsec. If you avoid doing anything but copying low cost BPOs in lowsec the risk is pretty minimal. You can carry a huge number of blueprints in a shuttle, and shuttles align so quick that no one will ever lock you unless you are silly enough to sit still or autopilot. There is a small risk of getting caught in a smartbomb camp, but it is unusual to see those except at lowsec/nullsec boundary systems, which you have no reason to ever pass through just to copy blueprints. Furthermore, your blueprints are nearly worthless to anybody but another T2 industrialist, who have better things to do with their time than hang around lowsec trying to gank shuttles, so nobody has any incentive to make an effort to hunt you down.

Don't make a habit of travelling through lowsec with finished products and/or raw materials unless you are very experienced at lowsec travel. Carrying just about anything but blueprints will require bigger ships that align much more slowly than a shuttle and are thus usually easier for gankers to catch. And finished products, even raw materials, tend to be much more marketable than cheap blueprints, giving gankers incentive to find creative ways to trap you.

Train up scientific networking and you can even complete and restart copy jobs without having to travel closer to your lowsec lab than the region boundary, which may well mean not leaving your base system. But you do have to carry the BPOs there initially, and eventually have to pick up the BPCs and physically haul them back.

If you want BPCs, just check the contracts available in your local trade hub. People with more patience or PoS access run packs of copies from BPOs, and sell them on contract.

And as I mentioned I've bought all the available BPC packs available already, there were only a few. Either because the item is not worth producing the t2 variant or because there's too many people doing it. As for leaving my corp for one with a POS, seems like a low move both to my corp and to the one I'd be joining (what would they be getting by letting me just use their POS)?

Why not buy a pre-made corp that can already anchor a POS in high-sec and throw a few toons inside there for research? There are plenty of services like those in the sell order forums.

Or, alternatively, there are people like me that collect BPOs, know what's big in T2 production, and run masses of max-run copies off as a low-effort way to make ISK by selling them on contract.

It will as long as you don't mind taking it down if you get wardecced.

I don't think a large is really necessary, I have been using a medium caldari tower in highsec for over six months and it is adequate for my needs. I have 3 advanced labs, 2 regular labs, 2 equipment assembly arrays, 1 drone assembly array, and 1 ammunition assembly array. These total 3300 of my tower's 3750 CPU.

This leaves me enough CPU to run up to 9 jammer batteries without offlining any industry, which pretty much makes the thing immune to attacks from small gangs, as any group of half a dozen or less subcapitals is going to be nearly permajammed. Remember capitals can't attack in highsec. If I ever get wardecced I can offline a lab or two and beef that up in the 24 hour grace period. In practice, I have not been wardecced in the 6 months or so I have been operating.

I have 2 primary industry characters trained to do T2 invention and manufacturing, and 1 secondary character who does copying and T1 industry, all have skills to run 10 science jobs and 9 or 10 industry jobs. Occasionally I use a public station manufacturing line, but all my science jobs and a large majority of my industry jobs are run in the POS facilities.

I don't have any ship assembly arrays, for 2 reasons: 1) unlike the arrays I do have, ship assembly arrays get no manufacturing time reduction compared to public assembly lines, and-- 2) ship production is a pretty crappy way to make isk in this game to begin with, being low profit, high risk, and requiring high initial investment.