Boomhaur
40
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Posted - 2012.05.07 01:24:00 -
[1] - Quote
Mara Rinn wrote:As some context, I have all three characters on all my accounts trained to farm data cores. The effort involved in collecting the data cores alone ensures that this is not a "passive" income stream. Without the work of wandering around collecting the cores, I wouldn't have them, and thus wouldn't have any income derived from cores.
For each character, I have 5 or 6 agents to talk to. The typical autopilot route to talk to these agents is about 40 jumps long, taking me from one end of New Eden to the other. Thus I'm manually piloting for about 50 minutes. On top of this is the actual interaction with the agent which is relatively minor (start conversation -> buy data cores -> click OK, you're done). But then there's the actual shipping of data cores to a market hub. Nobody pays decent prices in Kador, Tash Murkon or similar arse-end-of-the-universe regions.
So the trip is either done in an Orca or a blockade runner, at-keyboard all the way. There's no sense hauling a few tens of millions of ISK around the cluster in a Mammoth. At the end of this, I'll have about 60-80M ISK worth of data cores. This income compares favourably with L4 missions or hisec grav site mining in terms of ISK/hr. Sure, I can increase the ISK/hr ratio by only collecting the data cores once every three months or so: at the cost of the data cores I'm collecting being out of fashion. Part of the process of making ISK from data cores is listing them on the market and ensuring I get the highest price I can. If I don't, that potential 80M ISK worth of data cores a month becomes more like 50M ISK as my market gets destroyed by FOTM-farmers. Maximising income from data cores is a long-term project, involving another 10-20 minutes a day of reviewing market orders (for which you must be in the appropriate region).
Anyone who thinks data cores are actually passive income has rocks in their head. It's no more passive than running L4s in a Tengu (which is mind numbingly boring compared to mining).
Your doing it wrong if you want it passive, you don't need to haul it yourself. I have research agents myself, what I do is I have either one of my stupidly high EHP ships or assault ship set up to resist most bored suicide gankers (while still being decently fast) who would try it just for the thrill, or jump clone and cheap frig or anything so I can "safely" afk. (use your own descretion on what to do)
Than I just set the course to autopilot to each agent, I collect the datacores and setup a contract to bring them to the nearest trade hub. When they get delivered to the trade hubs I setup another contract to bring them to the main trade hub I want (mainly jita since I'm lazy), found this to be one of the most effective ways as there are generally people who are hauling between trade hubs who want to earn a little extra cash who don't mind bring your goods along if it means a quick buck. (or you can contract straight to your destination 40+ jumps away but I find that takes awhile to be picked up)
So quick recap, make afk travel "safer" for yourself or minimize loss. Secondly don't haul it yourself setup contract for short range trip to trade hub, than long range between trade hubs. I find this works best from my experience, especially with high value or high volume goods.
As for looking at each market, I have alts for that setup in the main markets so it's a quick log on for them and I can see what it is. If not, said alt will be in a shuttle or other frig on quick afk trip to there, not exactly a big deal. When I did my last run for datacores I probably put in over 200 jumps and did almost no work. It require more work for me to run a mission in my NIghthawk than this. |