Sable Moran
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Posted - 2005.03.22 12:55:00 -
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Edited by: Sable Moran on 22/03/2005 12:59:15
Just to add my 2 ISK's to the fray...
I leave it to others to discuss about the overall profitability of lvl 4 missions. Instead let's look a bit more closely to the zyd and mega drops from the lvl 4 drone missions. From my point of view, of course.
My main activity in EVE is providing munitions to all and sundry. I acquire minerals, fire up the factory slots and sell the ammo, missiles, drones and frigates (and occationally other stuff too) that are produced. Sometimes I have enough time to do other stuff, like agent missions for example.
I've been doing lvl 4 missions during the last about 3 weeks. That's about 40 missions, of those 7 or 8 have been drone missions.
I'm always looking for ways to increase my profit margin and when I noticed that the compounds the drones drop contain zydrine and megacyte I thought Hey!  . After the first weekend I did lvl 4 missions I sat down and did the maths then I thought Hmmmm...  
The calculations indicated clearly that lvl 4 missions would give me enough of only one type of mineral, nocxium (munition production requires surprisingly little of that).
For the zydrine and megacyte the amounts received were not quite enough, I would still need to buy some off the market every now and then.
For every other mineral (isogen and down) the amounts I got wouldn't be anywhere near for what I need.
And that's just for the munitions production. For anything bigger I need to buy the minerals from the market. E.g. I built a batch of Cyclones last monday night. What was the first thing I had to do? I had to fly down to Yulai and buy about 45 million worth of zyd and mega.
After that batch my zyd&mega reserves are rather low. Now I have two options to replenish the stock. 1) Run some lvl 4 missions in the hope of getting drone missions. 2) Go back to Yulai and buy the minerals. Which do you think I'll be doing?
Think again.
I will go to Yulai and buy the stuff. Why? Reliability. When I buy the stuff I know that there will be enough of it in my hangar when the factories require it. I can't run lvl 4 missions in the hope that I might possibly get a drone mission in time so that the stock doesn't run out. Not having the factories running 24/7 cost me ISK and that is not acceptable.
So those 0.0 miners need not be worried, I will stay their loyal customer for the foreseeable future. And for sure as hell so will those that require even more zyd and mega for their production namely the ship buildres. There simply is not nearly enough minerals to be had from lvl 4 missions.
Edit: fixed some typos.
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Sable's Ammo Shop at Alentene 5, Moon 4, Duvolle Laboratories Factory. Ammo at affordable prices. |