Capital Construction - Is it for you?

Nyx Supercarrier (Gallente Faction)

I posed the question because I asked it of myself.  Capital construction is by no means something you do without thinking many moves ahead.  Do you want to build freighters and Orca's?  Well, that might be the easier of the spectrum, but if you have dreams of Carriers, Dreadnoughts and Supers (Titan and Moms)  you are going to need to be highly dedicated.  If you want to build supers, you need to be in a sovereign alliance.  You can't just build them anywhere.  

You will need to train your capital construction skill.  I would go right for 5, but 4 will work.  Training to level 5 will take you about four months to train, but it is worth it if you are or will become serious about manufacturing capital hulls.  If you are building in a place other than a market hub, you are going to need to haul the minerals.  You might need a freighter to do that or else you are going to become a space trucker for a good while.    

Let's look first at freighters, jump freighters and Orca's.  The good news is that you can build all of these in high sec in a POS or even an NPC station.  They don't require anything special (other than component BPs).  They just use a ton of minerals, take skill to move around and can take a while to sell.  You should have at least 60-75% more ISK on hand than it costs to build one so that you aren't crippled financially while you play the .01 ISK game.  Make sure you can move them to a market hub.  People in EVE would rather take the easy route and do a one-stop-shop at Dodixie or Jita than to go out of the way, grab the freighter and then use it.  It takes so long to move around, it's just smarter to put the product where it is needed and most likely to be purchased.  If you have a choice on what to build, check the markets and see how many of the ships you wish to build are listed on the market.  Due to the time it takes to build one, you might want to look more deeply into the moving volume.  Figure you will have it on the market in about 20 days from when you start.  Try to build one that has only a few for sale in your respective market hub.  You can expect to spend around 1.2bil in materials for a freighter.  On an Orca, you are probably looking in the 600mil range and for a jump freighter, upwards of 6bil in cost.  Again, make sure if you take on this project, you complete it as fast as possible.  The sooner you get it to the market, the sooner you can use the ISK for more projects. I have built freighters and they are a good bet if you own the component BPO's and have a researched hull bpo or bpc.  I buy the hull bpc's at around 5+ ME.

If you want to manufacture carriers, dreadnoughts or Rorquals, be prepared.  You can only build these in low/null/wh space.  You will need to move those minerals around, so safety is a major concern here.  You might be able to find some out of the way NPC station to build them at, but you will need to sell them when the are complete.  If you can't move them, you will need to hire a third-party broker.  They take a cut for their service.  Be warned, many opportunities for scamming are present here.  If you can, train an alt to fly carriers.  I would also plan to include some isotopes to leave in and sell with the carrier.  It's sucks for someone to buy a carrier only to have to scrape together some isotopes to jump it to where they need it.  Alternatively, you can stockpile some at the marketplace in that station and charge a fair premium for jump fuel. Pro Tip.  Another Pro Tip: You can build and put on the market, fighters, tank mods and weapon systems so that the buyer doesn't leave the station with zero protection.

I won't even get into Supers other than to state this.  If you don't plan to join a null sec alliance who owns sov space and has the capabilities to support the build, has the facilities to build the hull and the demand to use them, there is no point.  The take sooo long to build and they usually require a team to build them efficiently.  You will be using their minerals, their facilities and their blueprints.  They will be the ones using them, so the chance for markup on the sale is probably at cost.  I would steer clear of this.  Just my two ISK.  

My thoughts

Capital Construction can be lucrative if you are wholly dedicated to it.  I have found that freighters are probably the best route however.  Anyway, hope that helps you in your decision to become a capital manufacturer and as always, fly safe-ish.