Monday, April 29, 2013

Agile Production

Always remember the core goal: Make the most ISK for the least effort

The original plan(tm) looked like this:
Fill out accounts (4x) with 3 characters in this orientation:

  1. Ship builder/inventor (11/11 slots, ship invention skills at 5)
  2. Module builder/inventor (10/10 slots, all-4 research skills)
  3. Ammo builder/research bitch (10/10 slots, all-component MFG + limited science skills to 4)
This has not worked out to plan for the following reasons:
  1. Ship build budget/character is too large for the margin
    • Too easy to cross 4B/wk/char in investment
    • Component build step more intensive than anticipated
  2. Module Builder
    • Everything a-ok :)
  3. Ammo builder
    • Ammo margins have fallen from 250M/wk/char to <100M/wk/char
So there is a confluence of effort, buy-in, and margin that are all forcing me to reconsider the methods I'm using.

What Do?

I am left with a more dynamic problem than originally expected.  Instead of trying to match my accounts into a paradigm, I really need to follow the market demand instead.  Also, I need to do more to match my stated goal instead of just repeating the same "good bets" hoping they stay good.

New goals:
  • Grow buy-in pot to 15B
  • Shift existing "module" characters to "ships"
  • Shift #1 into sekret project (different accounting)
  • Focus #2 into heavy ship production (60 cruiser hulls/wk)
  • Upgrade "ammo" characters to "module" and round out their skills to allow invention
  • Find useful monthly kits for "main" character
    • Get personal JF finally?
This should achieve my goals by moving my "daily" work onto the third-tier characters, and "weekly" work onto my second-tier characters.  Unfortunately, to run this new layout, I have to bump my buy-in budget from 10B to 15B.  Also, my cycle time might increase a couple days, but this is small consequence with my current activity being so lack luster through April.

Timelines

Oh lord May is a helluva month here IRL.  Getting married, hunting for new work, prepping for "sekret project"... It's going to be fast and wild.  Trying to spread my cycles a little wider over May as a means to hit full-steam right after Odyssey lands.  But I am weary about the work required to match my pace so far as EVE heads toward the rather infamous summer doldrums.  May/June have historically been terrible months for me on the industry front, and summer break tends to be mediocre.  Hopefully between the moon shakeup, and prayers for a new great-war, industrial volume will stay strong through the summer.

Otherwise, all my IRL plans come true the same time, and I too go dark for the summer.  No way to tell this far out.  There is still a scenario on the table where I get more Prosper code done... but's it's kind of the depressing professional "Plan-R".

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