Science & Industry

So to make income I rat. I've gotten pretty decent at it; using 3 accounts I pull in about 250-280m per hour. I'm looking to improve.

I run 2 dps ships + a noctis. Currently I sell all the looted goods that are valuable in Jita, and send the rest to a corp mate who melts them down and pays me for the minerals. I am interested in, instead of just selling the minerals, using them. More specifically, using them to produce Battleships.

Battleships are large; therefore they are expensive to ship from Jita to our nullsec area through jump freighter services. I want to produce them in our nullsec trade hub and sell them there. That means using my noctis to loot, finding a character to refine the loot, buying materials to augment what I need, and then cooking the battleship until it's done.

Additionally, I don't want to use BPCs. I'd like to get a BPO. So here's where I have questions:

1) I assume BPOs are expensive, in the billions. How much does one cost, on average and how available are they? Abaddon, Maelstrom, Rokh are the three I'm looking into, but will probably pick one to go with.

2) I'm fairly unfamiliar with the industry side of eve. But, can I use my BPO to build my battleships, while simultaneously copying it to sell BPCs in Jita?

3) A bit of a side question, with a properly skilled character, is it decent money to buy BPOs and copy them, and then sell the BPCs for profit? It is passive income that could be done on an alt while I do other stuff, which is why I'm interested in it.

4) I want to produce battleships in my home region to beat the prices of people importing them and paying the fee to do so. I'm also looking to improve on the value of the minerals...if simply selling the minerals nets more cash than the battleship I'll just sell them. I realize that these prices are entirely relative and are something I will have to figure out for myself, but in your expert opinion, will the margins be good enough?

5) What skills will I need to:
-Research Blueprints
-Copy Blueprints
-Build ships/modules

6) Is this a dumb idea? What would you change, if you would do it at all?

Any info/tips/adjustments/criticism/advice etc. etc. is extremely helpful!

Most of the blueprints will be readily available from NPC merchants in high sec.

One good list that shows skills and materials needed:
http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/inventory.php?group_id=107
If your BPO is in the manufacturing job, it cannot also be in the research lab. An Abaddon, for example, takes 5 hours to build (assuming PE 0). If you see yourself making zillions of them, then you should make copies and feed the BPC to the manufacturing job. That same Abaddon will take 19 hours to make a single copy (with base skills). When you estimate your needs, if you have a large corp to keep happy, you may find that you will have to purchase multiple BPO and have a few alts doing the copying and researching.

For example, Abaddon blue print:
http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/item.php?type_id=24693

When you look at this, the right hand side shows you what skills are needed to make the ship: Industry 1. Underneath that, it shows the mountain of materials you need to make the ship.

The left hand side shows various times to make the ship, or research or copy the BPO based on your skills. It looks complicated, but it is just showing more than you probably want to know.

For comparison, I picked a Kronos, which is a T2 ship based on the Megathron.
http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/item.php?type_id=28662
You will notice it takes drastically higher skill levels to manufacture. To make one requires a Megathron and a lot of other stuff.
Invention is rather complicated and is expected to change this fall.
Based on the number of people who do it, it can be a reasonable income, however you may find that you need to spend a lot of time getting the Material Efficiency up to reasonable levels to make an income. Some of the BPC that I have been purchasing have spent 12-20 months in the lab getting Material Efficiency buffed. Some that I bought, I found that I could do the same in a week.

To build T1 items only requires Industry 1 skill. To build T2 ships requires much more skills (almost always Industry 5).
With the base skills that a starting character has, you can only do 1 research and 1 manufacturing job at a time.

To do more research, you'll want Lab Operations, Advanced Lab Operations (each level of LO and ALO adds one research/copy/invention job slot, but note that it will be faster to get an alt from 0 to LO-5 and ALO-4 than to go from ALO4- to ALO-5 on your main character) and Scientific Networking (lets you do research jobs remotely). Metallurgy and Research skills will reduce research times. There are some implants ("beancounter" series) that also reduce research times.

To do more manufacturing, you'll want to get Industry 5, Mass Production, Advanced Mass Production (each level of MP and AMP add one manufacturing job slot), Production Efficiency (cuts down on minerals consumed in manufacturing) and Supply Chain Management (lets you run jobs remotely).

Blueprint calculators are handy ;)

This is the static link for an Abaddon. you can play with the prices and the research level, to see if you can make an acceptable margin on the manufacture.

http://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/blueprints/24692/0/5/0/5

1) I assume BPOs are expensive, in the billions. How much does one cost, on average and how available are they? Abaddon, Maelstrom, Rokh are the three I'm looking into, but will probably pick one to go with.

Do not buy a BPO. You will not be producing nearly enough to justify the cost or the months it will take to research it adequately (or the weeks to skill up your research skills). If you are going to be using reprocessed loot, then you will be producing a small number of battleships in a smaller market, but getting a good profit margin per ship. BPCs are not a super valuable asset, a few million isk will get you enough runs to last you weeks, and they will be production ready from the ground up. Furthermore, you won't be pigeon-holed into a single hull.

2) I'm fairly unfamiliar with the industry side of eve. But, can I use my BPO to build my battleships, while simultaneously copying it to sell BPCs in Jita?

No. In fact, while the BPO is being researched, you won't be able to do anything else with it.

3) A bit of a side question, with a properly skilled character, is it decent money to buy BPOs and copy them, and then sell the BPCs for profit? It is passive income that could be done on an alt while I do other stuff, which is why I'm interested in it.

No, you have to list everything via the contract system. The profit margin is quite small, and the investment of time, skillpoints, and isk are not trivial.

4) I want to produce battleships in my home region to beat the prices of people importing them and paying the fee to do so. I'm also looking to improve on the value of the minerals...if simply selling the minerals nets more cash than the battleship I'll just sell them. I realize that these prices are entirely relative and are something I will have to figure out for myself, but in your expert opinion, will the margins be good enough?

Yes. People need ships in 0.0, and if you've got the minerals right there you can fill a need and make a hefty profit as well. The problem is you have a smaller customer base than in empire. Therefore it is advantageous to buy BPCs and diversify the ships you're selling, as you can then make a relatively high profit margin on a smaller number of ships, without saturating the demand for a single type of hull.

5) What skills will I need to:
-Research Blueprints
-Copy Blueprints
-Build ships/modules

For research and copy? Lots of skills. And lots of time. Once you have the BPC/BPO though, you only need a few levels in industry and production efficiency at level 5. Also a few trading skills at lvl 2-3 is helpful.

6) Is this a dumb idea? What would you change, if you would do it at all?

For the love of god, don't buy a battleship BPO. If you want to build battleships and leverage your existing source of minerals and local 0.0 market, then just buy the damn bpcs. With 0.0 markets as they are, BPCs will not cut into your profit margin much. However, if you're interested in exploring science/research and BPOs, simply don't build battleships. Cruiser BPOs are quite affordable, faster to research, and quicker to build.