Examining tooling

 I've recently been reading back over my own blogs to get a better idea of what I was doing, as well as consuming a bit of EVE trade media to work out what other people are doing (notably Croda and Oz_eve on youtube) and what has struck me most about what I was doing was the sheer inefficiency of it all.

I have my trade spreadsheet in OpenOffice which I create and update manually by logging into each character, and typing out their buy/sell order totals and wallet balance. 

I haul my own goods.

I do not use market analysis tools much to select what items to trade.

I do not accurately track what is selling well in order to weed out what isn't.

The list goes on really. All of this contributes to my trading time taking much much longer than I would like it to, which in turn contributes to burnout.

On my commutes and downtime I've been thinking about what I would like to do or change about my current setup, and this is the list I've come up with so far:

• Use a tool to pull my assets and populate my sheet for me
• check out manufacturing
• start paying hauliers to haul my goods for me
• look at getting back into tash-murkon
• investigate other hubs e.g. frarn, stacmon
• Use a tool to tell me what I've sold and where

I've a software developer by trade, have been for a number of years now. Specifically a backend developer. So while there are some excellent tools out there to help with some of this, I think for the sheet population and accounting I can create something that will cater to my exact specs, and allow me to collate all my info with a click of a button.

Last time I was playing, I did make a start on a desktop app written in Java. Java is my speciality so doing the data manipulation in Java is easier for me, and as I don't current plan to host anything a desktop UI is fine for now. All I managed at that time was to get a basic app going that would log you in to EVE and get basic character info. Fancy.

Last night though I revisited this and added a tiny bit more, adding a button to print out a characters market transactions and another to test if I can get auth for several characters at once working, which I could. So I can print out the character info for several characters at once both on the same account and on separate accounts. This means I should be able to do all my top level sheet data collection with a click of a single button, which is very nice. 

The one remaining thing is to work out and test the auth token refresh mechanism. Auth tokens only last 20 minutes and I don't want to have to login with every character every time I want to get my info, so I'd like to see if I can utilise local storage and keep the auth tokens and just refresh them when I want to retrieve data to save all the logins. If I can I should have a neat little local tool that saves me a ton of time and removes human error from the equation.

Here is the sexy UI at the moment:

You can tell I'm a backend developer!

A cool new visual

 A bit of a small detail that's changed while I've been away, but one of the sort of details that I really appreciate about EVE is that when you're in a Keepstar now (and maybe other citadels, I haven't checked) you can see your other ships in other docking bays if you scan around, not just your active one.

You can see my Ferox as active, and in the background a Gila and Machariel. the same goes for all subcaps as far as I can tell, though Capitals seem to exist in their own instance somewhere. Minor but I think really cool.

On the finances point, I realised in my original accounting I had forgotten to update the spreadsheet with my Dodixie seller, who I'd taken 30Bn from to pay for my PLEX. But I also found some freighters in Rens that weren't anywhere on my sheet and some asset safety in Ashab from a discontinued Upwell hub. So I've got a slightly more up to date and accurate total for my assets:

You might also notice that I've only got 176Bn in cash now, as I did a buy run for my Amarr, Rens and Dodixie sellers. For now I just went down my old quickbars and bought everything, but when things sell I'm planning on adding them to a "seller" folder and phasing out the ones that don't sell over a couple of months from my quickbar to make room for more lucrative opportunities. This will take place over a month or two and not something I'm rushing but seems like a reasonable step as I feel like my quickbars are very bloated at the moment.

A Brief Accounting

So, I've managed to go through all my characters and have a quick look at where they are, collect a few errant bits, and put some expired sell orders back up. At the moment I've just blindly put things up for sale, and put up very few buy orders. I want to get things a little cleaned up and then assess what I was trading and see if it still makes sense or if there are other items I can be looking at.

There were also a couple of characters who were operating out of upwell structures (such as the Tranquility Trade Tower) that no longer exist. When this happens you get a Asset safety container appear in your assets containing the items that were in that structure, and you have to pay a small fee to retrieve them. I think I paid about 30mil for 6Bn in goods.

I also assessed my long term investments and a few were up a lot, such as Orcas going from about 1.2Bn to almost 2Bn. So I put some of these assets up for sale.

After all that, this is my current position to the best I can see:

That 17Bn in items to sell is some capitals and other items in a PH Keepstar. I need to re-apply and see if I can sell my goods there, thought I suspect I may have to firesale and start again in null trading depending on the political landscape. There were 6 PH members in the station with me so it's definitely not Hordes capital anymore.

All told then that's a net worth of 778Bn ISK. Considering I just bought and used 65Bn ISK in PLEX, I'd say that's a great position. For reference, my last update before my break I had 782Bn, and if I had used real money rather than spending that ISK on PLEX I'd have 843Bn. Frankly that is a lot better than I was expecting, and I'm looking forward to what can be achieved with fresh eyes for this.

It'll take a few days before I get all my skill queues worked out and decide what to start buying again, but this is a great starting position, and 313Bn ISK in cash is a lot to work with.

 

Cost to PLEX

 So, This has been my thoughts on how to go about adding Omega time to my accounts.

The old way

Up until my break from the game in 2021 I funded my game time as follows:

- 3x accounts paid for with real money, month on month at £15.99 each

- 1 account paid for by 500 PLEX, month on month

so a total of £47.97 and 500 PLEX. This seems like quite a lot written down, and not something I really want to do going forwards. so I considered the following options

Month by Month PLEX

With 4 accounts, the maths on this is fairly simple. PLEX currently stands at 5.34M ISK each, and normally to PLEX month on month costs 500 PLEX per account. So that would be 2000 x 5,342,000 = 10.7Bn ISK.

There is however currently a 15% discount on Omega with PLEX that brings the cost to 425 PLEX/account or 9.08Bn ISK. This offer will eventually run out though and revert to the original 500/acc/mo.

Annual PLEX

This isn't an option I've ever really considered before, even at the height of my EVE addiction, but buying 12 months of Omega at once almost halves the costs of PLEXing an account, assuming you're going to play for all those 12 months. With the current 15% discount this would cost 3060 PLEX per account for 12 months, or 255 PLEX per account per month. that would mean a total cost of 65.38Bn ISK for all 4 accounts for a year. 

That sounds like a lot, but when you break it down it actually means 1.36Bn ISK per account per month, or 5.45Bn ISK total for all 4 accounts. This is significantly less and thus will impact my profits less, whilst also totally alleviating the real life money cost.

The Choice

With everything written down like that, it really is a bit of a no brainer for me. The monthly total PLEX cost is not vast amounts more than I would have normally paid to PLEX a single account under the old system. I could factor this huge purchase into my assets and slowly write it down over the course of a year to give a proper accounting, but since this is a (relatively) clean start and I never did truly proper accounting like that anyway I think it's easier for me to just take the hit and note down my true assets as they stand. 

As such I bit the bullet, moved the cash around the corp wallet and bought and redeemed it all.

I'm back! 

How does this game work again?

 So,  it's been a little while!

I got hooked into TBC and then Wrath Classic for World of Warcraft in a big way, along with having 2 children so I let my EVE subscriptions lapse for the first time since 2009 and haven't logged in in 3 years. But with Wrath coming to an end and frankly feeling a bit of burnout, I've recently found myself thinking about EVE more and more. 

So last night I booted up the launcher and waited for it to update. I honestly had to scan for a number of seconds to work out how to even launch the game! (I know, but the launcher is quite different now). All I've managed to do is log in and have a quick poke around, to try and get a feel for what characters are where and what the hell I was doing in early 2021. My nullsec characters have both been kicked from Pandemic Horde (understandably) and I will likely re-apply and move myself back out there to keep that part of the game going. 

First and foremost though is activating Omega on my accounts. Historically I paid for 3 of my 4 accounts with real money, and a 4th was PLEXed with in game currency. I'm having to carefully consider how I do this going forewards, as money is a bit tighter than it used to be (childcare ain't cheap and the UK economy is not in a good way right now) but PLEX prices have risen in my absence to almost 5.3mil, which pushes the price for one account to almost 2.7Bil. Across 4 accounts that would be almost 10.8Bil just to PLEX, when my overall profits were usually in the region of 30Bil. Ouch. There is a sale on at the moment which means you only need 425 PLEX for a month but it's still a significant outlay, when at the moment I have no idea what the state of my in game finances are and frankly how hard I'm going to get back into things.

In terms of my net worth, I have no idea frankly. In my last saved spreadsheet from March 2021 it said I had 787Bn ISK. After updating my long term investment prices (but nothing else) that improves to say 836Bn, but I strongly doubt that's the truth as most of my characters item hangers look something like this:

So I have a lot to update before I can get even a reasonable approximation for my net worth. 

This time around I think I'll try and diversify what I'm doing and just enjoy the game a bit more. I burned myself out on doing nothing but trading last time so this time I want to also do a bit of nullsec, some manufacturing, some exploring, as well as seeing what's new in the last few years. 

Immediate plans ten are to get my accounts PLEXed, straighten out my assets, and explore what's changed in my absence. I'll do another post once I've got it all straightened out.

End of Year 2020

And so we leave 2020 behind us, all things considered I can say good riddance!

I've been looking back at 2019s update, and realised how my engagement has really dropped off this year. Of all the years where I can dedicate a lot of time to trading in EVE it was this one, but I've just felt very little motivation to log in for a while now. A lot of that is that I've got back into WoW (particularly playing TBC private servers as that was when I first played and it holds a lot for nostalgia for me). Some of it is just that I've been doing the same thing for so long in EVE that it gets dull, and I think I need to vary things up a bit. I have major life changes coming up though and so my time for video games full stop will be greatly reduced, but maybe EVE would be better than WoW for that as I don't have to be fully engaged to trade and can step away from the keyboard more easily! Time will tell.

The observant among you will notice there's no start of December update. This annoys me, as it would mean 2 full years of blogging every months I march (well, amble) towards the Trillion. But the simple fact is I didn't log in around then. 

Anyway, my end of year position:

I have a total of 782.2Bn ISK. This is an increase on the start of November of 15.6Bn ISK. That's probably the worst couple of months of the year, which makes sense as I've simply not logged in. Also indicative that I have 339.7Bn ISK just sat in wallets! That's frankly criminal. 

Lets have a look at this time last year:

This time last year I had 566.5Bn, so this year I have earned 216.6Bn. that's compared to 296.1Bn for 2019. That's a decrease of 27% in terms of profit. I predicted that by this time I'd have 900Bn, so I've fallen well short. Disappointing, but you could argue for the amount I actually played the game it's still pretty good. I think I'll become a trillionaire in 2021 still, but it'll be a lot more work to get there than I thought. Here's hoping I find some motivation next year!

CCP has created another set of "your year in EVE" videos, which you can customise this year. Here is mine for Lornor:

https://www.eveonline.com/my-year-in-eve?videoId=3536/0000/cb1dx2k17t31l1xaizfy3283j1b3ge0qu2iuz1j

It's a bit disappointing as it only looks at 1 character, and I use 11 for trading but gives a reasonable snapshot. Interesting to note that over 1 trillion has passed through just Lornor's wallet, and he's not my Jita buyer!

Though having said that, the market buys and sells is a much lower ~480 Bn. The difference is probably accounting for this character being a buyer for my Amarr seller, and there being plenty of moving ISK around to and from the corp wallet.

I would compare with my EVE-Mogul stats, but the overall stats graphs appear to be a bit screwed up on there, and have been for a little while.

I'm not going to make any grand promises about 2021, other than that I will get to the Trillion. I'll update as things improve.

I have 4 accounts, with 11 characters dedicated to trading:

Sobaseki Seller

I've expanded the items sold on this character, though there's still a lot to do. I need to buy this character a Crane so he can do his own hauling (1 jump). Currently has 11Bn in sell orders.

Jita Buyer

This is a character that sits in Jita and contracts items to my other characters. This character has little training, and mostly buys from sell orders and contracts the items to my other characters. I tend to have this character logged in to act as a real time price comparison whilst checking my other characters orders. This character also manages my long term investments, though that doesn't take much work. I am putting excess ISK into this venture, and watch delonewolf's EVE Talk to get ideas for things to invest in. Currently holding about 165Bn in orders and investments. A lot of this money will go to Sobaseki and beyond.

Amarr Seller

My main money maker, with ~81 Billion in active sell orders at the time of writing. Takes implants and faction/deadspace modules delivered by my Rens character and sells them in Amarr.

Dodixie Seller

Very similar to the Amarr seller, he sits in Dodixie, takes receipt of items, then set up sell orders. Currently has 52 Billion in sell orders. No news with this character.

Rens seller/Hauler

Like the other characters, this character takes items bought in Jita and sells them in Rens. Currently has 82 Billion ISK in active sells. He also hauls my goods from Jita to the other trade hubs in a Crane.

Hek Seller

Like the other high sec seller characters, he sits in a trade hub in Hek and sells items brought to him by the Rens seller. Currently on 17Bn in sell orders. Needs to pay for his own PLEX every month, which isn't too difficult.

Amarr station trader

Sits in a player owned Fortizar in Ashab, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a range of 1 Jump to cover Amarr. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 1 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 22.4 Billion.

Jita station trader

My more serious station trader. I have a character in Perimeter in a player owned Keepstar, with 1% broker fee that sits in one station, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a reach of 1 jump.

Most of my items are bought and sold in the Jita 4-4 station. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 10 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 78.5 Billion. I spent the time to get faction and corp standing up with this character, and this is my attempt to take station trading seriously. He also farms SP and sells injectors on the market.

Horde Station Trader

Station trading in the Horde Keepstar in R10-GN. I set him up with 1Bn and he's currently at 13.8Bn.

Tash-Murkon Region trader

As stated, I've moved this character to just being a seller. Currently 106Bn in sell orders.

Manufacturing Character

Nothing has happened on this character recently.  

November Update

 A shorter month this one, after my last update was on the 10th. Not as profitable on a day by day basis either, but I did log on a few times. I find it easier if I don't try and do too much in a single session. My current position:

I currently have 766.6Bn ISK. That's an increase of 14.6Bn. As it's a 23 day update it works out to 634Mil per day. Not huge, but not terrible either. 

I've managed to expand the items that  my sobaseki seller deals with, though only up to about 30Bn so far. I've done a little more investing this month as well, and been able to flip some items for profit fairly easily thanks to the ore redistribution and war going on.

I've also managed to utilise the money for my Jita station trader a bit better, leading to much less money lying around. I still have a lot in wallets (172Bn at time of writing) but I'm starting to work to bring this down now, and I should be able to do more this month.

I have 4 accounts, with 11 characters dedicated to trading:

Sobaseki Seller

I've expanded the items sold on this character, though there's still a lot to do. I've nearly finished training trade and transport skills, so he should be in a Crane sometime this month which will let me do much more regular runs for him (a mere 1 jump). Currently has 21Bn in sell orders.

Jita Buyer

This is a character that sits in Jita and contracts items to my other characters. This character has little training, and mostly buys from sell orders and contracts the items to my other characters. I tend to have this character logged in to act as a real time price comparison whilst checking my other characters orders. This character also manages my long term investments, though that doesn't take much work. I am putting excess ISK into this venture, and watch delonewolf's EVE Talk to get ideas for things to invest in. Currently holding about 170Bn in orders and investments. A lot of this money will go to Sobaseki and beyond.

Amarr Seller

My main money maker, with ~135 Billion in active sell orders at the time of writing. Takes implants and faction/deadspace modules delivered by my Rens character and sells them in Amarr.

Dodixie Seller

Very similar to the Amarr seller, he sits in Dodixie, takes receipt of items, then set up sell orders. Currently has 87 Billion in sell orders. No news with this character.

Rens seller/Hauler

Like the other characters, this character takes items bought in Jita and sells them in Rens. Currently has 119 Billion ISK in active sells. He also hauls my goods from Jita to the other trade hubs in a Crane.

Hek Seller

Like the other high sec seller characters, he sits in a trade hub in Hek and sells items brought to him by the Rens seller. Currently on 37Bn in sell orders. Needs to pay for his own PLEX every month, which isn't too difficult.

Amarr station trader

Sits in a player owned Fortizar in Ashab, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a range of 1 Jump to cover Amarr. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 1 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 20.2 Billion.

Jita station trader

My more serious station trader. I have a character in Perimeter in a player owned Keepstar, with 1% broker fee that sits in one station, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a reach of 1 jump.

Most of my items are bought and sold in the Jita 4-4 station. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 10 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 72.8 Billion. A much bigger jump this month as I've really started to utilise the money this character has. I spent the time to get faction and corp standing up with this character, and this is my attempt to take station trading seriously. He also farms SP and sells injectors on the market.

Horde Station Trader

Station trading in the Horde Keepstar in R10-GN. I set him up with 1Bn and he's currently at 13Bn.

Tash-Murkon Region trader

As stated, I've moved this character to just being a seller. Currently 123Bn in sell orders.

Manufacturing Character

Nothing has happened on this character recently.