Science & Industry

Generally speaking, planets are going to provide more P0 raw materials the lower the security level gets. Naturally, retreiving your stuff can be a little more challenging than it is in Hi-Sec.

Additionally, Null and (I'm pretty sure) Low Sec planets can have their Customs Offices blown up and replaced by Player Owned Customs Offices (POCOs). The corp that owns the POCO can set their own tax rate, which can be lower than the 10% rate that is charged in Hi-Sec but which can be astronomically higher, particularly if the Corp owning the POCO is using the planet for producing fuel blocks. With that said, some POCOs are setup strictly for profit and can offer reasonable rates if the corp owning the POCO wants tennants and the planet is well stocked.

another important thing to be aware of is that, while high vs low vs null does have an effect on how much a planet can give you, the specific sec status seems to as well. From personal experience, it breaks down thus: you may not be able to tell the difference between a .4 and a .3, but you will absolutely be able to tell the difference between a .4 and a .1. High sec worlds typically don't offer enough resources to keep even 1 advanced processor producing p2 24 hrs a day without a truly incredible degree of micromanaging, and most won't be able to cut it no matter how much you fiddle with extractors, which sharply limits your potential profit.

I'm sure I'm not the first to tell you this, but you should think about high-sec production using pure factory worlds (no resource extraction). It's easier to deal with than the shenanigans you'll endure trying to get in and out of hostile space with valuable cargo, and trying to find worlds that are a) the type(s) you need, b) not taxed into oblivion by their POCO, and c) not lousy with pirates at all hours of the day and night.

Customs fees bit me in the ass when I was learning PI, too. For reference, the following link will help you figure out in advance what your fees are going to add up to:

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Planetary_interaction

the 'taxes' section includes the base prices that are used to calculate the actual amount of tax for each tier of PI good, so the % tax for a p4 will be the % of 1,350,000, for example. Keep in mind, CONCORD-owned high-sec offices only have a 10% tax rate that never changes, so that can be a good baseline to use to figure out if a PI venture will be profitable or not. Just for the love of all things holy, run all your numbers before you commit to a PI rebuild. I once ate a loss of about 70,000,000 because I didn't do all my homework before setting up a PI network.

To finish answering your original question, reports vary a bit, but I mostly hear that w-space has even better PI yields than null, though not by a huge margin - either will be better than low, and drastically better than high. Logistics becomes a very serious problem, however. Without a wormhole POS, w-space PI is almost certainly beyond your reach for now (indeed, the only reason most people bother with w-space PI is to feed starbases). Null is doable, but getting your goods to a place where they will actually sell will be a big hassle. There are player-owned hauling corps who offer jump-freighter services for getting your goods to market (I used Black Frog when I was in low-sec, but I think the cheapest atm is PUSH industries - in any case, both are reliable and professional), but the cheapest I'm aware of this service running is 45,000,000 a trip right now, so be prepared to get VERY good at running gate camps, over and over and over again...or to write off the cost of jump-freighter hauling as a business expense.

That is highly incorrect information. If you set up the PI in a .5 system then most profitable planets will be able to set up a single p2 factory with ease, as long as you have cc upgrades 3. Some times even only need to log in once every 2-3 days to restart the extractors.

The lower the security, the more resources, generally speaking. There are variations and you could certainly encounter resource-rich high sec planets and resource-poor lowsec planets.

Low/Null/WH planets have the added benefit of POCOs. This leads to the potential to low/no tax PI if you belong to or are friendly with a corp that owns the POCO. High sec PI is locked in at 10% tax.

The other downside to high sec PI is that the planets are open to everyone, meaning that you'll frequently have competition for resource hot spots, especially in heavily populated systems.

Granted, Low/null/WH PI does have an element of danger, but I feel it is worth the risk.