Why would people not use a Drake for level 3's? Surely they dont run level 2's in a Drake, too easy.

As Hasikan already said the isk in missions is in the LP not the mission rewards. You have to figure LP in.

Before burner missions were introduced players typically were able to make more isk per hour doing level 3 than level 4's until they had really high Skills.

Null sec missions will pay out way more than high sec.

Running null sec anoms can get you 20+ million bounty ticks ( concord pays out bounties every 20 minutes each bounty payout is a "tick").

This is a game. You will hear people talk about fun per hour. In my opinion if you are chasing after what pays the most isk then you are playing eve wrong. You should be doing what is fun for you to do. You can make isk doing anything in this game.

However it's your game, don't let me tell you how to play it.

Why would people not use a Drake for level 3's? Surely they dont run level 2's in a Drake, too easy.

Ah yes. I forgot about LP. I should probably figure out the best way to turn that into ISK.

Use this Calculator

If the best your corp can do on that is less than 1000 ISK/LP change corps :D

ALSO a 0.5 mission agents offers substantially more LP than a 0.9 mission agent. The lower the sec status of the agent system the better.

Trying to understand that calculator. I plugged in Caldari Navy, then location was The Forge and I hit "Select Corporation Buy Prices"

So from that do I look for the item that has the best ISK/LP and go for that?

Well for starters and learning the LP system I turned 38,000 Caldari Navy LP into 23 million ISK selling the faction ammo. Not sure if this is a good return or not, but that's what I got out of it.

Also I'm reading an article (not sure how old it is) but it says instead of Caldari Navy I might be better with running missions for the Lai Dai faction. Any truth to this? Should I look outside of Caldari all together?

That is a 0.6 ratio 600 ISK per LP. That is about right for Caldari Navy.

Basically you can either:

1) select a Corp that has consistently reasonable ISK/LP. Generally SOE that comes in between 1400 and 2000 ISK per LP (more than double your CN returns)

2) or chase higher ratios and swap corps when necessary. You can often get 4000 or more ISK per lP for very short periods until the market gets saturated by picking the right corp. This is hard work and you need to be on top of the market.

I would suggest SOE as:

1) the demand for SOE stuff are so high the returns rarely fluctuate
2) the SOE items do not need you to muck about buying or collecting tags
3) the SOE derived standing hit to Caldari is very small and can be pretty much ignored

So in short, running missions for SOE will be better than Caldari Navy in almost every way, correct?

Why would people not use a Drake for level 3's? Surely they dont run level 2's in a Drake, too easy.

A few things to remember when you are comparing your earnings to what other people "claim" to be making.

1. People exaggerate.
2. Even when they don't exaggerate, they tend to quote the maximum ISK / hour and forget to factor in all the various downtime.
3. Even when they are giving totally accurate figures, they have probably optimized for that type of operation and are grinding it as fast as they can for as long as they can. This may or may not be your idea of fun.

As an example, I just did 4 hours of PVE with 4 toons in null-sec and made a total of 320 million ISK. That works out at 20 million ISK / character / hour, which many people would say was a bit rubbish. But I took some time off to do some PVP, enjoyed my dinner without getting indigestion and generally had a fun time.

The best thing to do is not compete against some "claimed" earning figure, but decide just how much is a decent amount to suit your playstyle, and optimise for that.

SoE mission hubs, especially the high-level ones, tend to have gankers in them. They can make your life interesting.

even the agents in the 0.7 systems?

Why would people not use a Drake for level 3's? Surely they dont run level 2's in a Drake, too easy.

even the agents in the 0.7 systems?

TBH though I honestly think that missions should only be used to get familiar with the game.

When I ran missions for SoE back in the day I used to do them in Osmon. Not because of the added safety that the 0.5 would give over a 0.7 ( so small that it is not even really a factor ) but because the 0.5 agents were closer to low sec and thus I would get locked out of doing missions on a 4 hour timer too often.

I think security mission agents can give you a mission to any system in the constellation. So checking the systems in a constellation can give you some indication of the chances of getting a low sec mission. You get offered one and you turn it down and start a 4 hour timer. Get offered the second one and you are done missioning for the evening. It can get annoying. So my laziness kept me in Osmon.

TBH though I honestly think that missions should only be used to get familiar with the game. Once you learn the basics of ship combat for fun and for money I think players should move on. Either try FW or try out null sec and either do some belt ratting or run some anoms. Null sec missioning can even be pretty cool. Just keep in mind that Eve is a group PvP game.

If you are running solo content in Eve night after night then you are playing this game wrong.

Use mission running as a spring board to get you into other stuff and you'll be fine. Treat mission running like dailies in WoW and you'll get board with this game fast.

Sorry but I gotta disagree with this statement.

First - Eve Online is a sandbox game which means there's no right or wrong way to play.

Second - There's no rule stating you can't solo run the game content.

Third - Despite what others may say, if you enjoy doing a specific type of content available in the game, then do it.


DMC

to be fair tho i ran the level 4 against the amarr in low sec so the rewards might be slighlty better there.

Why would people not use a Drake for level 3's? Surely they dont run level 2's in a Drake, too easy.

The only thing a Drake has going for it is the fact that you can get some insane tank out of it, but you pay for that tank in every other category.

To be fair its an OK choice for middle SP missile users on the way to a Raven/Phoon/Rattler/Golem etc.

This is a very interesting discussion. There are so many ways to make ISK in this game. I particularly liked the comment towards the top about FUN! That is the most critical aspect. If you aren't having fun, then you are soooooo doing it wrong.

I read the threads about how to maximize the ISK per hour running missions and I remain skeptical. I really don't see how blitzing all of the missions as quick as I can could maximize the ISK per hour. I really need to try to track my own ISK per hour performance running 4s.

I do a full clear every time, then loot and salvage everything. Even on the longest of missions (e.g. Angel Extravaganza) I can run the mission (5 pockets), the bonus room, loot and salvage everything in 1.5 to 2 hours. I ran it a couple of days ago and, I think, I started about 830p and logged off shortly after 1030p. Like I said, I should track my performance for a few weeks and post it online. If I recall correctly, just the bounties for the NPCs in that mission total to 40 or 45M (about 30M without the bonus room).

I also think Dread Pirate Scarlet is very profitable if I do a full clear. I ran it about a week ago and the second pocket was Blood Raiders with 2 or 3 BS worth almost 2M. Although, I see how blitzing that one could be very efficient since the target is worth 5M and if I rush through the rooms I can get it done in easily 10 mins; multiple that out for an hourly rate and it looks really good!

This is a very interesting discussion. There are so many ways to make ISK in this game. I particularly liked the comment towards the top about FUN! That is the most critical aspect. If you aren't having fun, then you are soooooo doing it wrong.

I read the threads about how to maximize the ISK per hour running missions and I remain skeptical. I really don't see how blitzing all of the missions as quick as I can could maximize the ISK per hour. I really need to try to track my own ISK per hour performance running 4s.

I do a full clear every time, then loot and salvage everything. Even on the longest of missions (e.g. Angel Extravaganza) I can run the mission (5 pockets), the bonus room, loot and salvage everything in 1.5 to 2 hours. I ran it a couple of days ago and, I think, I started about 830p and logged off shortly after 1030p. Like I said, I should track my performance for a few weeks and post it online. If I recall correctly, just the bounties for the NPCs in that mission total to 40 or 45M (about 30M without the bonus room).

I also think Dread Pirate Scarlet is very profitable if I do a full clear. I ran it about a week ago and the second pocket was Blood Raiders with 2 or 3 BS worth almost 2M. Although, I see how blitzing that one could be very efficient since the target is worth 5M and if I rush through the rooms I can get it done in easily 10 mins; multiple that out for an hourly rate and it looks really good!

The numerous threads around about whether running IIIs in a Mach is better ISK per hour than IVs and what is the optimal fit to do a burner mission in 1 minute 45 seconds instead of 1 minute 55 seconds (and spending 300 mill on officer mods to save that 10 seconds) are about solving logical puzzles and the challenge. The actual ISK you make is a useful side effect not the point of the exercise.

I am blessed with an unstable internet connection, one that drops out 4 or 5 times a week and is out for 20-30 minutes every time it goes out. For me the fitting puzzle is how to maintain enough tank and capacitor to survive a dropout at the worst possible moment in any mission yet still maintain as much DPS as possible. I am going to pick on Chainsaw Plankton here just as an example. If he was in it for the fitting challenge only then trying to find an optimum fit for someone with needs like mine holds just as challenge as finding the max ISL per hour fit and yet he dismisses my fitting puzzle as worthless and irrelevant.

If they only want a fitting puzzle and do not care about the ISK per hour then why not compare completion times for level 3 missions using any number of the smaller ships in the game. Minimizing your completion times on a level 3 mission using say a Fed Navy Comet is just as challenging a fittings puzzle as maximizing ISK per hour running the same missions in a Machariel, yet they never look at those fitting puzzles. And when they do look at these smaller ships again it is all about max ISK per hour running burner missions.

All that to say that you are partially incorrect in your assessment of why they do these things.
They do see them as a puzzle to be solved, but they are not in it for the puzzle they are in it for the ISK and it is only the ISK that really matters.

I actually disagree with you on this and the ISK per hour posts.
If the fitting puzzle and the posts were about completion times why are they always posted as comparisons of ISK per hour when a far better comparison would be actual completion times for each specific mission?

Also that tends to lead to individual ships/fits for each mission and that either requires more isk investment, or time spent swapping fits, where you could just instead stick with one ship/fit and do it good enough. I have an arty and ac mach and for the most part they share most modules, is it really worth having an extra ship hull and rigs to save a few seconds swapping fits? Hell according to jEveAssets I have 7.2bil in machs+fits, to most people I can only assume that is considered excessive. I have multiple versions of the "unified daredevil" again I cba to swap mods. I should probably specialize those fits but hey they work.

The other advantage of multiple hulls with different fits is, providing they are named in some really obvious fashion, it makes it a lot harder to forget and enter a mission with the wrong hardeners, ECM and ammunition loaded.