Science & Industry

I am sure this question has been asked so much.

But I am wondering if it is a viable plan to build my own ships / equipment, but no mining, to support myself for the militia? Also Should I mine it or buy it? And why do people say mining doesn't make it free (Is it because time isn't free?)?

Or, should I just do militia missions and use the isk / lp to pay for new ships and modules?

So if I build then I should stick with building. And if I do combat stick with combat?

I buy my ships and stuff still, as it is faster, and not worth the hassle.

Honestly, it's a video game. You should do whatever you find the most fun. CCP has pretty much worked it out so you make enough ISK to keep doing whatever it is with pretty much any career. If you like mining the minerals and making your ships yourself, more power to you. You get a kind of satisfaction out of building something from scratch. If you enjoy that, who cares if you theoretically could have done it a different way and made 5% more ISK. On the flip side, if it starts to feel like a drag, there are plenty of other ways to accomplish the same thing. Doing missions instead of mining and using the ISK to pay for the minerals is another way to go, and you could still build your ships. Or you could just buy ships with the ISK.

What I recommend is to just make a point to try out five or six different professions at first. Train up enough skills to do some exploration sites in hi sec, then try them in low sec. Try your hand at making a living hauling. Try playing the market a bit. Try incursions. Try being a pirate in low sec. Etc. It's kind of a waste of training time, so don't train too much for any of those things unless you find that you like it, but IMO the more options you have for how you play the game day to day the more fun the game is. When it gets boring is when you get locked in to doing the same thing over and over every day. Mining definitely gets that way pretty quick, so don't put all your eggs in that basket.

to pick up on that:

1.
your ship needs 10.000 minerals and 1hour to build
if you mine 10.000 minerals/h and you sell one mineral for 1 isk you make 10.000isk/h
=
you can build 1 ship in 2hours and end up with a ship and 10.000isk (first hour you mine to start building the ship at the beginning of the second hour and mine through the second hour)

-- now you check other things you could have done in the same time: 2h

2.
you ship costs 10.000 isk on the market
if you mission and earn 100.000isk/h
=
you mission for 2h and buy your ship. that leaves you with a ship and 290.000 isk


obvious you have much more wealth when choosing option 2.
everything you do in eve takes time.
your time has a value.

The term is 'opportunity cost'.

In doing 'X', I did not have the opportunity to do 'Y'.

If Y is more profitable than X, there's a cost.

Of course, fun has to factor in. as does stress. Satisfaction too. (which some people get from making their own stuff)


It's never cheaper to mine something yourself, rather than buy on the market. As you could have sold your ore at the same price. You may have, at that point, a trade profit, but it's not cheaper.