Just a quick update on the PI challenge. I’ve made lots of tweaks to max out extraction. Last update, I was at about -9.3m isk on the whole affair. Today’s total running numbers:
I broke into the black! And so far, over 8 days, I’ve averaged a little over 2 million per day in profit. In revenue, I’ve averaged about 8 million. 8m x 30 days is 240m isk. For the 500m isk goal, this thing is probably going to be a complete failure. Assuming no more costs, I’ll be surprised if I get much past the 200m mark.
Some mid-challenge analysis. In 2.5 hours, while working on other stuff, I went mining today. The sales from that were 29.3m isk. On another front, I ran a max run of Phased Plasma L ammo. That sold for 18m isk. So in less than the time it took me to do a week’s PI, I netted 47m isk into my pocket, for less actual effort than the PI. I have no idea what that ammo cost me to make, because the materials were lying around, but there you have it.
This brings up a bigger question: What is the most enjoyable way to secure income in only high sec space? So far PI is ranking very low. It’s active playing when I’m doing it, unlike mining. It lacks the explosions of mission running. It’s more intensive than manufacturing. There is training time to consider, but based on where I stand in the game so far the PI challenge has been more frustration than fun, and the perceived effort of this PI setup is tedious at best.
Tomorrow: My first foray into Faction Warfare! Teaser: I’m terribad!
My results are very similar to yours, assuming you are doing a 1 day extraction cycle. Over the past ~6 weeks I averaged 1 million ISK/day on a 2 day cycle, so I think that’s the difference. Or maybe I’m just inefficient in my PI setup. ;)
PI is a bust for me because I can’t swing doing it daily.
I’m not sure what an enjoyable way to make income in high sec is. If I knew I’d be doing it!
Since posting this, I realized that PI is, in a sense, something you do on the side. However, it’s a rather “perceived” time intensive activity, which I think detracts from the experience.
As to your point about what is fun to do in HS, if you don’t like industry, missions, or PI, you have yourself a problem in that you don’t really like the entry level income generators in the game. I have a variable level of enjoyment derived from all those activities. I can pull a few missions, mine in the background for a few hours, or scour the industry info for about half an hour on any given day before I get bored with them. Luckily, this keeps me rather solvent in isk when I play regularly. For example, this last week I netted about 1b isk across two accounts doing a lot of different things. None of them was a huge pile of isk, but in total, they made me enough to fund my upcoming FW attempt.
I think you need to tailor your income strategy to match both your mindset and your fun requirements. If no balance exists, Eve presents a poor entertainment choice!