EVE New Citizens Q&A

Am I foolish for wanting to do a 1 Man Corp POS?

All the labs are taken...and I feel like this is the only way to mess with Indy...

From what I can see, yes people can do it.

But often it can only really be done by massive industrialists who are making billions every month or so. Otherwise the cost of even a small POS can't be handled by one person.

No billions here...so I am forced to join a Corp that has POS slots open for someone who just wants to try indy? :(

Billions is a bit exaggerated, but you do need to take into account that running a POS cost a fair bit of ISK each month.

0.7 or lower. And here, read this.

Search the forums for posts by me using related keywords. I've posted a huge amount on the topic.

A forum search is best, as it gives you posts in order, but Google works too.

Google: site:forums.eveonline.com cabalander pos
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=906892#post906892
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1458440#post1458440
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3456087#post3456087
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=641434#post641434

Google: site:oldforums.eveonline.com cabalander pos
http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=1286364&page=1#6

You don't need a POS at all to do industry. If you're going heavily into T2 invention, then a POS is strongly indicated (for the copying at least), but even then I know of people that do T2 invention and manufacturing and don't have a POS.

If you want to dabble, see if you like industry, buy researched blueprint copies (BPCs) off contract. They're cheap and, better for a new player, they don't tie up large amounts of ISK.
Once you're happy you want to keep going, you can buy the BPOs already researched also off contract. Yes, they're more expensive than buying unresearched ones off the market, but consider that you're paying for the time spent researching those BPOs. If you don't have a POS tower of your own, that can be well worth the price.

As for a POS, a small tower will set you back around 100 million, labs about 80 million each and fuel for that small tower around 100 million ISK a month (10 blocks an hour, around 15k per block).

My experience is limited, but you should have a plan for what you are going to do when your corp is wardeced. Normally a one man corp would just close and reform to avoid the dec. But if you have a pos you can't do that. To defend it you'd need some friends to ally. Either the kind of friends you can call for a favor or the kind of friends you call with isk.

For the most part you can pretty much forget about a POS for a good long time, if you're a new person.

If you've not been involved in industry yet - get an ammo blue print (for something you use yourself) and start playing with that. Make some stuff and try to sell it.

Understand that being in Industrialist is NOT just making things. You don't get any money for making things. You get money for Selling them.

You don't have to have your BP's researched at all to make things, you just need to do that to make your operations more efficient - that is - make more money. For the purposes of seeing if you like doing it - you can start making and selling things now. There's a cost to pretty much anything you do. Right now - you're going to be paying the cost of not having been doing this for several years. If you like it and get better at it you'll make more money.

Again - it's the selling stuff part that makes you money. That means that you don't have to actually make anything yourself - you can just buy things one place and sell them somewhere else (where you can get a better price). Fooling around with that will teach you about the market.

The right way to do this - is to come to understand the market - see that there is a way for you to make money on something and THEN go out and start making them. Do NOT just go buy a blue print for something you think is cool and then try to sell what you made. There may well be a glut of those particular things on the market and you'll have to sell them at a loss just to get rid of them.

Spreadsheets are your friend if you can build them. I think there used to be some floating about ... but that's third party software so ... get it from a trusted source ...

As to research slots - there usually are some open ... somewhere .... it's just a question of how long you're going to have to wait or how far down into Lo Sec you have to go to find one that's open. Look around in some of the quieter systems and you may find some. Here - while it may be more effective on a larger scale to get someone else's researched BP - putting some through the process is good experience, just so you know how to do it.

Of course, the other aspect of this is where you are getting your resources. The big industrialists just buy it all - but it might be more effective for you to mine some of it yourself. Depends on whether you've got more time or more money. New people often have a lot more time than money.

Where it really helps to have a POS - is when you start trying to make T2 stuff. Those T2 blue prints are all copies that are consumed in the process and so you have to keep making them. With T1 things - your BPO's pretty much last forever - so that once they are researched - you don't have to do it again.

Being an industrialist is a complex thing to do. There's a lot to know and it takes time to learn it all. Just fool around with something small to start out with and see if you like it.

.
.
.

I have not done the math in a while, but if you want to mine your own ice in high-sec I think it is something around 12 man-hours a month for a small POS, 24 for a medium, and 48 for a large... if you can find a belt.