Between RL obligations, a well-deserved Eid vacation to the Sultanate of Oman (a genuinely beautiful country, by the way — highly recommended), and an overall lack of motivation for the first week, I was absent for roughly half the month. The operation ran slow, inefficient, and full of mistakes. The numbers reflect that, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
The Numbers
- T2 modules sold: 1,405
- Capital ships sold: 8
For context, April closed at 2,979 T2 modules. May is less than half of that. There's no deeper mystery here — I simply wasn't playing. The industry slots were idle, and I was stuck manufacturing only 2 types of modules for a significant portion of the month. No rotation, no restocking logic, just inertia.
On the capitals side, 8 ships sold is actually close to normal. I launched 7 new ships into production this month, which matches the typical monthly rhythm I've settled into. Capitals are slow movers and the market doesn't absorb volume consistently, so this number is acceptable given the circumstances.
Invention was not a priority this month, and honestly it doesn't need to be for a while. I currently have over 6,000 T2 BPCs waiting in the queue. That's not a bottleneck. that's runway. The focus needs to shift entirely toward manufacturing execution and supply chain feeding, not generating more blueprints that will sit in a container.
Reactions: Discovering Alchemy
This is the one genuinely exciting development from May.
I stumbled onto Alchemy reactions, the mechanic where you react for unrefined versions of intermediate materials, then reprocess the output to get the "pure" version, supplemented by additional R16 or R32 materials like Mercury or Hafnium. The yield is good, the supply flexibility it opens up is significant.
Right now I am spamming Unrefined Platinum Technite and Unrefined Neo Mercurite to feed my Nanotransistor production. Nanotransistors have been my main bottleneck for T2 manufacturing for months, they are the component that keeps my industry slots empty when everything else is stocked. Alchemy is looking like the solution I didn't know I was waiting for.
I won't go into full detail here, this topic deserves its own dedicated post. But if you're running T2 manufacturing and hitting supply walls on advanced components, I strongly encourage you to look closely at alchemy reactions. The mechanic is underrated I think.
The Supply Chain Problem and Its solution: EVEFORGE.ORG
I've been saying for months that my supply chain is inefficient and messy. That's still true. But something changed this month — I found what looks like the actual solution, and it is called EVEFORGE.ORG.
I see it as the most complete tool I ever used for industry and markets, the creator calls it an "EVE ERP," and that label alone should tell you something about the ambition behind it. Many functions and tools are included in this website that help any industrialist / trader to have a complete view of the situation, with many other tools for market analysis, I don't want to spoil it here. I'll write a proper dedicated post when I've used it long enough to give it the analysis it deserves.
Capitals: Time to Think Bigger
One thought that's been forming this month is that staying anchored to Huola as the only capital sales point is an artificial ceiling.
I'm currently capped at roughly 7 capital ships per month not because of manufacturing capacity, but because that's what the local market absorbs. The real capacity of my operation is far higher — all three characters can build capitals, a full batch takes about 2 weeks in the rigged Sotiyo, and theoretically I could push toward 60 capitals per month if the sales infrastructure supported it.
The obvious expansion candidates are Tama and Ignoitton, along with some other systems with near perfect industrial hub. The challenge is operational. Sending a character to a new system means they become isolated. He should able to handle the manufacturing jobs alone there in a reasonable time, And jumping through 40+ stargates is not a hobby for me, clone jumps help but they're not always a clean solution.
This needs careful planning before any move is made. But the thinking is there, and the capacity argument is hard to ignore.
Looking Ahead
May is done and I'm not proud of it, but it was expected. The second half of the month I was genuinely away from the game, and there's nothing wrong with that. The vacation was worth it.
What matters now is June execution. The alchemy reactions need to be fully integrated into the supply pipeline. The EVEFORGE.ORG onboarding needs to happen properly. And the T2 module rotation needs to go back to a full lineup instead of the 2-module trap I fell into.
The structure is there. The capacity is there. What May lacked was simply presence.