EVE New Citizens Q&A

A returning player to EVE... I probably had played 5 months under subscription in the past... after time with other games, I have decided to return to EVE full-time. I had a question or two.


Once I get skilled up enough to get it all going, is there a simple UI way of keeping track of where everything is, or do i just have to write it down...? Seems to me, setting up all these command centers and factory line all around would be confusing

As above, plus you can take a shortcut there:
* If you use the Captain's Quarters, click on the big planet screen to the right of the main screen in front of the sofa.
* Check for a keyboard shortcut: ESC -> Shortcuts ->Window -> Planetary Colonies

For what it is worth, I recently wrote a PI spew:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=5190572#post5190572

How badly do these Import/Export taxes cut into your profit margins?

In high-sec there is an NPC tax of 10% on top of the player corp tax so it can get pretty ridiculous. This tax can be cut down by Customs Code Expertise. I recommend you move to low-sec and find a good 5% or 10% tax system. I once lived in a WH with a friendly corp and paid 4% tax, this amounted to at most 2-3mil a day vs 45-50 mil revenue each day. I did a lot of importing/exporting each day so perhaps the % would be lower if you don't.

Though, now I live in a WH where my corp owns the POCOs and it's smooth sailing here.

Be sure to compare what you find in low-sec to what you can find in your local high-sec. I've found some surprisingly low tax rates on high-sec POCO's that were less crowded than the easy to access low-sec systems. Resources weren't that different.

Here are a couple of my favorite planning tools: Planet/PI relationships ;&; Planet Finder

The science and industry sub-forum is a good place for more detailed PI questions.

You'll get more bang for your buck if you buy the materials you need when you're making more advanced materials. The issue becomes throughput. Back of the napkin math indicates it takes roughly 12 other planets to supply enough materials to run just 1 P3 planet at full capacity 24/7 (assuming you use only materials you gather yourself). Unless you have access to a dozen or more alts and all the planets they can muster, it's just not practical.

I will say this though - diversify. The market for these materials fluctuates - sometimes on a daily basis - you don't want all your ISK tied up in a material that just crashed.

That's a matter of your personal preference, your ability/desire to babysit your orders, and your acceptable profit margins. When I was heavy into PI (42 planets across 7 characters), I would often sell to buy orders if they met my minimum profit margin, even if I could have made slightly more money buy putting them at the sell order prices. The reason was simple - I hate babysitting my market orders, but if you want the stuff to move you have to.

It's a decision you'll have to make based on what the local market looks like, how much time you're willing to put into watching the market, etc. I will tell you that market orders in, say, Jita require far more babysitting than orders out in the hinterlands, but you'll get better prices (usually) in the busier markets because of the increased competition. It's all about the tradeoffs you make between your priorities.

It can be a lot of fun, and it can be addictive. At the height of my PI career I was making close to 3 billion ISK a month.