Playing EVE online without playing EVE online

Lately I’ve been spending more time building tools and workflows outside the game, but everything is still directly tied to improving in-game decisions.

I started by creating a spreadsheet powered by Power Query that pulls raw material prices and automatically applies refining calculations. The goal is simple: quickly identify when buying raw materials and selling refined minerals becomes profitable, as this has been one of my main ISK streams. This already paid off — I found a solid opportunity, bought more than 30,000 ice blocks away from Jita, refined them, and captured the margin.

Next, I built a full Tech II manufacturing dataset. Using ravworks.com as the base (currently the most accurate source I’ve found), I edited the site’s JSON file and injected 270 T2 module IDs. This allowed me to generate a list of T2 modules with calculated manufacturing costs and profits. The output is a copyable table that can be pasted directly into Excel, where I add a column for Jita total profits of each item by multiplying item profit by daily volume. This highlights the best-performing items immediately and avoid being fooled by the item profit only. Having everything in one place makes it much easier to scan for production opportunities instead of checking items manually.

I also started experimenting with regional trading. For now, I’m using eve-trading.net to identify spreads, but instead of following the typical approach of selling to buy orders, I’m selling directly to sell orders when the spread makes sense. I’m focusing on raw material trading and avoiding heavy competition with established traders. It’s a quick way to test opportunities and understand the flow between regions. Still early, but it’s helping me understand what regional trading looks like in practice rather than theory.

Overall, this phase is less about flying ships and more about building infrastructure: data pipelines, pricing models, and decision tools. The idea is to reduce guesswork and move toward repeatable, data-driven profits.

March 2026 update

I know I know! I have promised to not post monthly updates, but I find myself doing it, as a comment from Croda made me rethink a little bit about the decision, and also having lot of time at home due to working from home policy because of actual geopolitical situation.

The large-scale manufacturing campaign of the capitals ships was successful in its building phase, manufacturing parts and hulls was smooth and almost without errors, thanks to various industry tools like ravworks.com and eve guru.

 

I can’t say it was successful during the sales phase, as expected these hulls need patience and financial comfort to be sold at the right price, capitals business needs to be supplemented with another isk generation activity, for me it is T2 mass manufacturing.

Regarding the sales, they are above average at 31 billion isk, and they include: 4 Combat capital ships, 3 Freighters, 2321 T2 modules (new record!), 5 large skill injectors, and some PI materials, these sales increased my net worth by 9.4 billion isk (10%), which I can qualify as a good result.

 

Due to isk shortage after the launch of the capital ships phase, I was forced to sell PI and a freighter to buy orders to be able to start T2 manufacturing, at some point I got less than 200 million isk as cash.

From these numbers I can confirm that there is a slow down in capital ships movement, I expected to sell more than this, I still have 17 capital ships and 1 freighter between contracts and stocks, with this much ships still unsold, I will surely stop combat capitals manufacturing, and shift to T2 modules for the whole upcoming month.

I want to point again the high cost of the manufacturing operations this time also, which is raised to the staggering amount of 7.7 billion isk, including copying invention and reactions, it is mainly the cost of completing jobs much faster, but!…as I did a simulation before about the manufacturing location, if I relocate to an 0.14% industry index low sec NPC station, I can lower these 7.7 billion to 4.7 billion, but!...your slots will be busy for a longer time for the same capital productivity result, which will considerably lower the available time for T2 manufacturing later, hence lowering the profits, but!...(that’s a lot of buts!) I can go the middle ground and manufacture the capital components in a low index location and the hull in the fastest one.

So, it is a game of balance between time, location, profit, and effort, only a well designed excel sheet with different scenarios can give an answer.

In the other side the T2 business was doing great, I just stick to my golden list of modules, I noticed that I was unable to supply continuously the markets, I have a problem in my supply chain for T2 modules, I can’t always fill my 30 slots of industry with jobs, sometimes there is a component which is missing, it is really underwhelming, I will find a solution to track materials and manage restocking efficiently, SquadB the youtuber has a free excel sheet for manufacturing and stocks tracking, I will pay visit to it.

The invention slots were very busy during this month, I was mass-inventing BPC for T2 modules continuously, I have invested some skill points to increase success probabilities across my characters, I added some large and capital modules BPO to my library and start initial BPC copying for invention, during the next month I will invent and bundle these T2 capital modules with the available capital ships for better results.

For reactions, I just stopped it completely, I already have a good stock of needed composites, also ARDCO are starting a good reactions business and as usual I am one of their customers, I am thinking about relaying on them for composite reactions and leave my slots for T2 related reactions.

I started acquiring raw materials by using freelance jobs, I am paying a good price and the orders are filled reasonably quick except for kernite ore (low sec ore), by moving these ores to lowsec T2 tatara, having good refining skills and the best reprocessing implant, I can secure minerals at a good price.

Mid March 2026 update

 This is a quick mid-month update on the state of my first capital super-batch.

The first major milestone of the month has been completed: the manufacturing of all the required capital components is now finished, the lesson here was the manufacturing of these new parts called Neurolink Protection Cells, which was an annoying and long process, they took most of the time and management effort.

The assembly of the 21 capital ships started two days ago, which is always a satisfying moment in the production cycle,after a long phase of preparation and component manufacturing, seeing the final hulls finally entering the build queue feels like the factory lines are doing what they are supposed to do.

 

However, reaching this stage also comes with a consequence: my liquid ISK reserves are now extremely low, most of the available capital has been tied up in ongoing production jobs, this is a familiar situation for large industrial cycles, but it still requires careful management.

To create some breathing room, I sold a Bowhead and a batch of PI materials directly to buy orders, it was not the most profitable way to move those assets, but the goal now is liquidity, having some immediate cash available allows me to focus on T2 module manufacturing, as I have two weeks before the end of the month.

Now I feel financially outside my comfort zone. When a lot of value is locked in ongoing manufacturing jobs and unfinished ships, the wallet balance can look thinner than usual. It is a temporary phase, but it does force me to be more careful about how I allocate the remaining ISK.

On the character side, I also made an important change this month. I rearranged the skillpoints across my characters, and they are now all able to manufacture capital ships. I have theoretically the capacity to build 30 capital ships simultaneously, but I still need to increase my cash reserves before reaching that stage. According to my calculations, I need to raise my liquidity by around 15 billion ISK at minimum to reach full production capacity.

Because of the limited liquid ISK available, I decided to pause reactions temporarily. They are a low priority since I already have a good stock of composite reactions, and I prefer to allocate the cash I have toward T2 production. Once liquidity improves again, reactions may return to the production chain.

Building capital ships is the easiest part of the process for me. The planning, component manufacturing, and final assembly are all very structured and predictable tasks. The real challenge begins afterward: selling these ships.

Trading has never been my strongest skill in eve. Managing sell orders, timing the market, and competing with other traders is something I still find not very interesting, moving large hulls efficiently requires patience and good market instincts, and this is clearly an area where I still have room to improve.

For now, the priority is simple: maintain enough liquidity to support invention and T2 manufacturing and prepare for the moment when the new capital ships leave the assembly lines and enter the contracts market.

 

A Nice corp advertisement from Ardel Corvallon (ARDCO)

Few months ago, I discovered a YouTube channel named Zero to fuel tycoon created by EVE online player Ardel Corvallon, who runs the corporation ARDCO.

Ardel’s channel is about his journey of becoming a fuel tycoon in EVE Online. In his videos, he shares his experience building a fuel block production and delivery operation across New Eden, showing the management side of the business.

I quickly became one of his clients, as I need regular shipments of fuel blocks for my reactions activity, then when I started my venture for combat capital ships, I asked him if he would be willing to make a small advertisement for my industrial corporation, especially for the newly launched activity. He kindly agreed, and the result was something I really enjoyed watching. I have even showed the video to my wife and kids, It turned out great and presents the corporation in a very nice and creative way.

You can watch the video HERE

It’s always interesting to see something related to your corporation through someone else’s perspective, and Ardel did a great job putting it together. You can clearly see the effort he put into the video.

So this post is simply a friendly thank you. I really appreciate Ardel taking the time to create and publish the advertisement, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

If you enjoy the industrial and economic side of EVE Online, I definitely recommend taking a look at Ardel Corvallon’s YouTube channel and following his journey as a fuel tycoon in New Eden.

 

Back to work: rebuilding my production pipeline

 After recharging energy from a short hiatus, here I am back to work for a new restart of the industrial activity, trying to apply what I have learnt from the previous round, and implementing new ideas about how to be more efficient in my management.

The major lines of my strategy will be the same, it is mainly a fine tuning of my methodology, this is a list of some of the idea I will try to implement during the next adventure:

1.      Abandonning regular monthly reports, as I felt they make me stop and restart my activity to separate results between months, this stop-start was not healthy for the business, it will be more of one continuous activity, I will continue to report results, but only is something meaningful happens like major sales or staring a new batch.

2.      80% of my focus and activity will be around manufacturing capital ships (dreads, FAX, carriers), I will fill any slots inactivity with freighters and T2 modules during capital sales time.

3.      Due to my limitations (One account, 1 hour daily) I will go for super-batch idea, where I launch a massive industrial campaign to manufacture +20 capital ships, this campaign can last for more than a month, and in theory will generate above 10 billion of profits, the reality could have another opinion but let’s try.

4.      To maximize profit per hull, I will sell some of them as “semi-fitted” I will bundle some of the hulls with the most common expensive modules, like siege modules for dreads, not sure if it will add a real value, but I expect around 100 millions isk of extra profit per hull, again the reality could hurt.

5.      Dealing with excessive manufacturing fees by moving some activities to less expensive systems, like advanced components or capital parts.

 

The above points are still theoretic; I will rectify or update depending on the feasibility.

 

What I have done so far:

2 days ago I bought materials of a value of 30 billion isk from jita and loaded them into 3 hauling contracts to the manufacturing station, this first super batch is about manufacturing 21 capital ships, already paid 1.5 billion for hauling, moonpire the hauling service cancelled the route to the station I use, they had a very good price thought, now I am paying the full price with another hauler.

The manufacturing fees could reach 9.5 billion for this batch, which is astronomical for such an investment, the solution is to train my second alt to be able to build these capital ships, actually he can build freighters only, like this I can move to another low index LS NPC station and launch the manufacturing of 20 capitals ships simultaneously, it will take around 12 days per hull, now the hull took 5 to 6 days with the rigged sotiyo, I will work on this move while managing this batch.

I the same line, anchoring a rigged raitaru or an azbel could be part of the solution for the manufacturing fees, I am exploring seriously this option, I need to simulate all the scenarios and choose which is the most efficient.

While waiting for the hauler to accept and deliver my contracts, I am filling time by producing some T2 modules which the BPC and material are available, also I am reorganizing my assets and moving some materials near production stations.

I will go back to acquiring materials through buy orders, I am now trying corp freelance jobs to buy raw materials directly from the miners.

This more clear reorientation towards the capital ships manufacturing was pushed by my previous small experience of manufacturing and selling 5 capitals ships, and by analysing some of the most successful capitals sellers on the contracts markets, which makes me believe that despite the below average profit per hull ( this is my opinion I could be wrong) there is still room for expansion in this activity, here is a small analysis of 2 of the biggest capital sellers:

·    Guthrie Warehouse: The biggest capitals seller I can spot in the contracts, this corp sells 4 to 10 capital ships DAILY, they are everywhere and selling all types of capitals and super capitals, truly an awesome business.

·    AB-fanclub: another corp specialized in T2 fitted capitals, selling between 2 to 4 capitals daily, all their ships are fully fitted and ready.

Another point in the Favor of capital ships manufacturing is the destruction rate of these ships, which is quite high compared to freighters and similar cost categories, I am giving these stats as example:

·    Revelation: 166 ships lost in jan 2026, 194 lost in feb 2026.

·    Apostle: 63 ships lost in jan 2026, 87 lost in feb 2026.

·    Phoenix navy issue: 104 ships lost in jan 2026, 87 lost in feb 2026.

Now let’s be real and speak about cons of the capitals manufacturing, we can start by the significant ISK capital needed to start the activity, the need to have some connection with nullsec big blocks to have some demand, and the huge investment in the skill points to be able to manufacture all the chain.

I can add the necessity to procure the materials with lower prices than the market to start having some decent profit, also having multibillions stocks of raw material in an upwell structure and the danger of the station being blown up or gone abandoned, adding to this the astronomical manufacturing fees due to the high EIV (estimated item value) of the capitals that pushes the industry index fast to an unsustainable values, that makes you think about moving your base of ops after one or two batches.