Comments on: EVE Online: Spreadsheet Power

By: Tipa

Tipa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:07:39 +0000

Well, the business side of EVE means spreadsheets and poring over market data. It even has a bit of PvP, in a way. I was making a tidy sum making and selling ammo each day. A week later, I’m crushed by someone flooding the market at a price I can’t match.

So that’s gone :P

By: Graktar

Graktar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:05:38 +0000

Lol, you had me intrigued with your post, and then blew away any interest with your comment, Tipa. I’ll stick to running missions for now. And fiddling with EFT. Endlessly.

I have to laugh at people who think playing EVE means endless mining. That may have been true when the game first launched, but with the mission system in place now you really don’t have to mine unless you want to. It’s safe money, and if you’re skilled and equipped properly can be fairly fast money, but I prefer blowing things up and have done very little mining at all.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:07:43 +0000

It’s been a tense weekend, watching my money get stuck on market speculation. I even screwed up the buy price of one item with another, meaning I made no profit on the entire thing (probably lost money because of fees). With so much money tied up in the market, it’s no longer clear if I’m actually turning a profit. I’m selling things fast, but also buying things…. very hard to keep track.

All this means that I spend a half hour of each EVE session updating my spreadsheet, for a profit I think I may be making. I am going to have to work on the financials some more….

By: Cj Didge

Cj Didge — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:09:43 +0000

The next step would be to do a region wide buy order, make yourself even more money by buying from the even more lazy :), be warned though doing it in a region like domain will end up you doing a lot of traveling.

By: Magson

Magson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:02:38 +0000

I do that sometimes as well. I’ve found several common items I can reprocess for way more than the item itself is worth. I don’t do it all that often, but lately I’ve been thinking I need to do more to gain “passive cash” and buy orders for reprocessing is one way to do it, so…. thx for the reminder. *runs off to Rens*

By: mbp

mbp — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:22:05 +0000

Great Stuff Tipa.

When I was playing EVE I bumped into a few successful traders who effectively play the game for free because they generate enough spare cash from their EVE businesses to pay for monthly time codes.

By: Marcus Hamilton

Marcus Hamilton — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:03:31 +0000

Dang it, that’s MY unlimited no effort isk factory!

Seriously though, If your willing to learn the market and tie up some cash in buy orders you can make some very good money. It’s a service your providing for the mission runners who just want to empty their cargo holds when they get back so they can start the next mission.

Also if that wallet flash starts to bug you, you can tun it off in the settings.

Fly safe.

By: Dusty

Dusty — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:38:19 +0000

Back when I played Eve (and it was, admittedly, quite some time ago), it was that very spreadsheet-esque aspect of it that I loved the most. For me it was running trade routes – pouring over starmaps and the demand/supply charts, figuring out which systems had the best demand for the goods I could carry, and the amount of money and risk I would expend getting to those systems.

The reprocessing gig is a great one, and its no different whatsoever than the people that buy greens and blues on the AH in Wow just to DE them, and then sell the DE components for substantial profit. And you can bet the makers of Auctioneer spent *substanital* amounts of time in spreadsheets, and the interfaces auctioneer gives you are spreadsheets in and of themselves.

The only thing about a game like that, where knowledge is power, is it’s just like any complex game where the dynamics are constantly changing — in that you absolutely have to stay on top of the game, updating your knowledge base on a daily basis, or you will quickly find yourself losing. Just as you would with any collectible card game. It’s not a bad thing, per se, just a fact of that type of gameplay. Fall behind, and you fall out.

Buy orders in Eve are an incredibly good thing, and I have thus far completely failed to see a down side to them. So I continue to be astonished that more MMO’s don’t implement them in their auction house. City of Heroes did, and they’re just as powerful and satisfying in that game as they are in Eve. Go figure.

Great post. Love hearing about your exploits in Eve without having to actually participate in them. :)

Dusty, aka Dlangar