Control over Control Towers

After few days of kicking around trying to implement the whole "control tower is an item too" concept, I finally made it yesterday. Some more hacking today, browsing through starbase specs and statistical consumption data and in the end... The picture!

Well.. not exactly. There's no girl in my program yet. But I'm working on it!

Lost and Found

I spent a lot of time writing my awesome application and in the end I managed to actually query my own asset list. Then I spent some time decoding the data and ... What do I see? Some strange system named Amygnon and a load of minerals there! Here, on the right, marked with a sweet girl.

It can't be true I thought. So I get to the NeoCom, open the actual Asset Browser, check for the system Amygnon which I have never heard of.. and here they are. My precious minerals are waiting for me like 20 jumps away.

Autopilot on. Gotta check if I find something else as interesting.

Amarrian Politics and Something Important

I've found a draft of a post about the not-so-recent-already event in Amarr. Something about Khanid kingdom joining back. Doubt I'll publish it anytime soon if at all.

There's a bit more interesting topic there which affects me and WWES quite a lot – Mexallon prices suddenly went up from about 27-28 to 30-32 or even 34. In just few days. Given that mexallon is widely used in Orca production that will have a great impact on WWES.

And I'm outta mex as well. And I need quite a lot of it to manufacture my t2 stuff.

I could do some research on mex prices, look for a way to get it cheaper, maybe even mine some.... Not gonna happen. And that's another yet more important thing.

I've spent quite a time studying economic, sciences, industrial skills, electronics, engineering.. lots of stuff. I have never (almost never) tried to actually learn combat skills. On one hand that's because I'm avoiding combat. On the other hand that's the reason of me avoiding combat.

No more. Since the invention of neural remapping procedure I was thinking on switching my training focus together with rewiring my brain. And the desired way of rewiring is to get more perceptive and strong-willed.

I'm going to the neural lab today. I'm scheduled for 1 PM. Less then an hour left. Next time I'll post that will be new me. Unless my brain will get on fire of course.

As a part of being used to be strong willed I'll do some push-ups now. 10 would be enough for starters.

Update: Ok, let it be just 5.

Arkonor

That was the first time I saw Arkonor with my own eyes.

Following a group of blood raiders I came to a strange cloud in space. At first I didn't see anything but then noticed a glittering light near large asteroid. The glittering was caused by a smaller asteroid and at first I didn't believe the scanner result – it was Arkonor.

Actually it was a Blood Raiders' trap – once I came in a mining vessel they emerged and attempted to destroy my ship. Thanks to Newtonius who managed to kill them.

The boulder was just too small to yield any significant amount of ore. But that's Arkonor after all.

Faction Wars - Again

24.5.111 State Protectorate Nears Total Control of Contested Systems

Both Protectorate and Federal Defence Union sources have confirmed that at the time of writing only four systems remain under Federation control in the Placid region, with many anticipating the Protectorate to attain total control inside the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

Indeed, most systems are controlled by Caldari State. While the occupation doesn't seem to be too harsh to locals (unlike Caldari Prime that is), they are still experiencing problems. Like this:
29.5.111 Pend Insurance Issues Earnings Warning

The Pend Insurance corporation issued a press statement today warning investors of the firm's upcoming earnings report. The company, which has a successful track record as an insurer and investment brokerage, has recently suffered significant losses and writeoffs due to the continued successes of the Caldari Protectorate in the Essence, Placid, and Verge Vendor regions.
The statement came on the heels of a press release issued by the Bank of Luminaire, a partner of Pend Insurance and one of its major underwriters, stating that the Bank could no longer invest equity in Pend's shares. This lack of an available line of credit with which to operate and make loss payments has put Pend Insurance in a difficult financial position, and some analysts predict bankruptcy on the horizon.

Thus economy IS in a bad shape for the federation now. Why? Caldari militia pilots already answered this:

"It appears to me at least the majority of the FDU care for... well, simple killing. Trying to take or defend tactical sites is completely out of question to the majority," said Bloodbird. "The concern for our sovereignty doesn't seem to rank very high..."

Well... Economy is disrupted. What about those living in occupied systems? As long as they aren't offended by Caldari, living there couldn't be that bad if you have supplies. But you don't...
29.5.111 Miscommunication Leads To Attack On Civilian Convoy

A civilian shipping convoy was attacked and destroyed in the Uphallant system yesterday when a patrol fleet belonging to Internal Security, Nugoeihuvi's security arm, engaged the unarmed vessels after what Nugoeihuvi is calling a "miscommunication."

What if such "miscommunication" happens every time? Gallente corporations will be forced to leave occupied territories which are much more interesting for Caldari corps then the Black Rise which isn't yet completely explored.

What do I do? I'm not a warrior unfortunately. But I do hope the federation still got some military to fix the problem.

Teh Screeniez!

Nuff said.

How Much for My Minerals?

Few days ago I accidentally stumbled across some papers mentioning mineral prices taken in account several years ago by Roden Shipyards:

Tritanium	2.0		Pyerite	8.0
Mexallon	32.0		Isogen	128.0
Nocxium	512.0		Zydrine	2048.0
Megacyte	8192.0		Morphite	32768.0

Of course, these prices are totally different from what we have on markets now. Here's the approximate list of what you can get (or pay) in Amarr:

Tritanium	4.0 to 4.3		Pyerite	4.0 to 4.5
Mexallon	33 to 35		Isogen	57 to 63
Nocxium	79 to 90 (!)		Zydrine	1750 to 1900
Megacyte	4000 to 4500		Morphite	8000 to 9000

Quite a drastic change. Why could they happen?

Tritanium is most needed. That's obvious. A bit less obvious is the fact that its supply is limited by number of high-sec systems close to trading hubs. Every single asteroid in these systems is probably mined out. Noone wants to mine Veldspar in low-sec systems. On the other hand, there are large alliances paing lots for the tritanium. They can provide enough high-end minerals for their needs but the basic tritanium is still needed. That's why high prices.

Pyerite .. is a subproduct of mining tritanium. Miners who clean out high-sec fields will mine scordite for tritanium too. But since they're getting pyerite from this, they're selling it. Selling it low.

Mexallon seems to be the only balanced mineral. Interesting.

Isogen is subproduct of mining omber. It gives quite a good profit to a miner so lots of novice miners will hunt for omber.

Nocxium is like pyerite a subproduct of mining high-sec ores too. Pyroxeres and plagioclase are mined out in a same way as scordite. Of course, mining low-sec ores in order to get some zydrine yields noxcium as well.

Zydrine costs about as much as it should. A bit cheaper then expected and the reason are null-sec alliances. These are getting lots of isk from high-end minerals to be able to buy lots of tritanium for their capital ships.

If you need zydrine you need about as much megacyte. And for null-sec miners it seems even more profitable. That's why market is filled with cheap megacyte.

Morphite.... As far as I know, main source of it are drones. Not much people are actually mining mercoxite – arkonor would be easier to find and more profitable. Morphite consumption is quite low compared to other minerals – it isn't used in capital ship production. That's why low price.

Looking at mineral cost of some huge ship using old and new prices result may seem strange at first – price is about the same. While at the first glance one can see a strong price growth of tritanium, the base material, low prices for high-end minerals don't actually affect the final cost too much. But low prices for "mid-end" minerals do.

Calculating these costs by hand won't help. Some material cost analyzing tool would be handy here.

Yeah, my uber manufacturing software.