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Ok, you’ve seen folks crowing about getting that latest T2 BPO and want to get your own ISK printing press, what do I do? How do these R&D agents work? Help!
Here is my:
“Research Agents Guide”
Ok, first thing you need is about 3 months of time to train the right skills. Yes, that’s correct, about 3 months from a standing start. No one said this was going to be easy, if it was easy everyone would do it...right?
Skillz you gotta have:
Science 5
Laboratory Operations 5
Research 5
Research Project Management (RPM) – 4 or 5 depending on your dedication
This is a “chirping” 40m skill; so don’t !@#$%^&* your pants when you go to buy it!
Special Science skill(s) depending on what type of research you want – 4 or 5
Some examples of these skills are: Race specific Starship Engineering, Nuclear Physics, Graviton Physics, Electronic Engineering, Electromagnetic Physics, Etc.
The good thing about training all these skillz is that you become an uber BPO research lab guy. You’ll be able to research up to 6 BPOs at one time! I’ve needed to use this uber skill absolutely zero times, but the lab rats will appreciate it!
Most of these skills are self-explanatory. Science 5 is required to train all of the special science skills, Lab Ops and Research are prerequisites for the Research Project Management skills. Good thing about most of these skills is that they are lvl 1 skills, so training up Science, Lab Ops, and Research goes quickly. RPM is an lvl 8 !@#$%^&* as well as costing 40m to buy. All the special science skills are lvl 5, so they are slow to train as well. Depending on what field(s) you want to study, you’ll need anywhere from a max of six or as few as one of these science skills.
You’re Agent gotta like yo !@#$%^&*:
Agent don’t like you, you get diddly squat. How to get your agent to like you? Run missions. Lots of missions, missions until you can’t stand them and then do a few more.
Ok, maybe not that bad, but you need to get your standing with one of the research corporations high enough to get decent level agents. At minimum you want to get high quality lvl 3 agents and preferably lvl 4 agents.
Before you start agent whoring, have a plan. Most research corporations have very few kill agents, so if you want to do kill missions, you’ll have to map out what agents you’ll be working for and know at what standing lvl you need to be to jump to each higher agent. Don’t spend time with an lvl 2 agent when you can be racking up standing faster with an lvl 3. If you don’t know how to find agent info, you’re a nOOb and should go back to playing in your ibis.
Don’t forget to train up your connection skill a few lvls, it’ll speed up getting the standing you need to get to the higher level agents!
A listing of research corps by race is in the table below.
Amarr
Carthum Conglomerate
Viziam
Khanid Innovations
Caldari
Ishukone Corporation
Kaalakiota Corporation
Lai Dai Corporation
Gallante
Creodron
Duvolle Laboratories
Roden Shipyards
Minmatar
Boundless Creation
Core Complexion
Thukker Mix
Picking your field to study
Ok, got the skillz, got the standing, now what the hell do u do…
Lets start some agents going! As soon as you have Science lvl 5 done you can start training a specific field to research and get one agent. As you train Research Project Management, you’ll be able to add an additional agent for each level, but no need to wait. Lets start cranking out some RP points!
First thing you’ll want to do is get the highest level agent available. If you are still working on standing with the research corp, but can access the lvl 3 R&D agents, then you can get that first agent. Getting research agents that are lvl 1 or 2 isn’t worth the time or effort since the RP amounts from these suck. And you didn’t train all the skillz and run these missions to suck...did you?
When you get ready to pick your field, its helpful to understand that the RPs are generated on a daily basis, so each day your total RPs will increase by a set amount. Maximizing this amount is the key to accumulating lots and lots of RPs, which gives you a better chance of the big score! Certain fields have a multiplier that will increase the RPs for that field. The Starship Engineering fields are a good example of this multiplier. This research field has a multiplier of 3x for all RPs generated. So all things being equal, you will get 3x more RPs from Starship Engineering research then from one of the other fields. Problem is, everyone gets this multiplier…so you’ve got no real advantage over others, but it looks nice to be racking up 300+ pts from one agent!
Certain fields also tend to attract more research then others. Everyone with 40 alts and his dog has starship engineering going, so the competition in this field is intense. Therefore the chances of getting a T2 ship BPO is similar to getting ice water in hell. Other fields get relatively little study, but have obviously a broader range of BPOs. Some of the BPOs from these other fields are major suckage, but you can also get that cargo expander II BPO and die rich…so don’t despair!
When you get ready to select a field, the best way is to look at the description in the info box for the research agent that you are interested in working with. This will have all the information regarding the different fields that agent can research as well as a handy list of the possible BPOs in each field. Note that there is a large amount of cross over, and that you can get the same BPO from different fields. You may also see certain fields which say “Nothing predictable”. This basically means that CCP isn’t giving out any BPOs in this field at this time. That doesn’t mean that there will not be BPOs released in this field in the future though, so not a bad idea to go ahead and research these fields. Other peeps will skip it when they see that message, allowing less competition, so don’t let that message put you off.
Not all agents have the same research fields, so if you want Electronic Engineering, then you’ll have to find one that does that field. You also should note that to use a Lvl 4 Agent to do research in a specific field (i.e. Electronic Engineering), will require you to have the science skill (i.e. Electronic Engineering) in that field trained to lvl 4. Similarly, with a lvl 3 agent you’ll need it trained to lvl 3. You’ll want to train the science skill up anyway to maximize your daily RP amount, so go for the lvl 4 agents even if it takes a few extra days to train the appropriate skillz. The RP difference is significant!
Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. So have a plan, look at the top agents that the research corp you are working for has, list out the fields each has available and then decide which ones you want to research. If you want a lvl 4 electronic engineering agent, don’t start a project in starship engineering with the only lvl 4 agent that offers electronic engineering because you where a !@#$%^&* and didn’t check!
Maximizing those RPs
Ok, I keep blabbing about getting lvl 3/4 agents, that lvl 1/2 agents suck, that you gotta train up the science skillz. Why? Simple. More RPs. That’s the name of this game, to get as many tickets in this lottery as possible!
Basically, the RPs that you will accumulate are based on only three factors. These being the effective quality of the agent, your science skill level, and the agent lvl.
The formula for calculating the RPs looks like this for the math geeks:
RP/day = Field multiplier*((1+(EQ of agent/100))*((My skill+Agent Lvl)^2))
Now you see why I be harping on yo !@#$%^&* about getting higher lvl agents? About training that science skillz higher? Yeah, that’s right…listen to me and get that uber l33t T2 isk printing BPO!
Almost forgot, you can get more RPs one other way. If you are so inclined, you can run missions for your R&D agent. These missions can be run once per day and double the RPs for that day. You get no isk, and usually end up spending isk for idiotic crap that the mission requires. Basically you are the agent’s errand boy. Missions such as hauling garbage, fetching spiced wine, etc. are the norm for these missions. So if your only purpose in playing Eve is to be a R&D agent’s beotch, then have fun!
Congratulations
We got the skillz, we got the standings, we maximized our RPs now what? You sit and wait… Go join a pirate corp and kick some !@#$%^&*. Be a mother loving carebear. Agent whore if that’s your deal. But every day those RPs will continue to accrue, no further effort on your part.
Eventually, if you are very lucky, one day you’ll wake up and see an eve-mail in your box from one of your R&D agents. It’ll look like this:
2005.12.24 11:35
Our research has been fruitful. If you're interested, I believe we could have a patentable uber l33t, T2 isk printing BPO. Contact me as soon as possible if you're interested.
Ok, once you’ve seen the mail, gotten back into your chair and stopped scaring the family pet, what do I do? Well, you got 7 days to get this puppy, or your agent gives it to someone else. So haul !@#$%^&* and go get the preciousssssss. If you happened to be on a vacation and don’t claim it within 7 days, sucks to be you, better luck next time! Ain’t no petition going to help you on this one either!
To claim the BPO you’ll have to go to the station where the agent resides, start a conversation and tell the beotch to give you your damn BPO. Be careful, the “I’m not interested” option is in close proximity to the give me my BPO option…now that would truly suck!
You’ll probably have to train a few skills to actually be able to manufacture/research the BPO, but riches await you!
FAQ
Why the hell do I need all these stinking science skillz, can’t I do the minimum and get by? Yes, you can do the minimum and get 1 research agent. If you Train Science 5 and then the Special Science skill of your choice, you will be able to get one agent. Suffice it to say, more agents = more chance of getting a BPO. If you go half-!@#$%^&*, don’t be surprised if you’re setting there a year from now wondering why you ain’t got !@#$%^&* for offers.
Which research corporation do I want? Hell, I don’t care and it doesn’t really matter! Basically it makes no difference for the majority of the BPOs since they all are given out across race boundaries. The only differences you’ll find is in the super-uber T2 ship BPOS. You want an Amarr T2 ship, then yo’!@#$%^&* had better be working for an Amarr Research Corporation, same with the other race specific ships.
But I want a Crow BPO; do I have to run Kaalakiota Corporation missions for that since the info says it was developed by Kaalakiota? O well, people in hell want ice water also…but to answer your question, no. Agents for any Caldari Research Corp will give out all Caldari Race T2 uber-isk printing ship BPOs.
Man, u suck, I want that Crow BPO bad, how can I get that uber l33t BPO?!?!
Truth hurts homeboy…sry. But hey, if you want to put all your eggs in one basket, go for it! You can start multiple research projects in the same field with different agents. You can only have one research project with each agent, but as many agents researching the same field as your skills will let you. So potentially, you could have 6 research agents, all doing Caldari Starship Engineering with maxed out Research Project Management. This also has the side benefit of only needing to train one specific science skill, Caldari Starship Engineering, saving a bit of time.
I can’t run Lvl 4 missions, I’m a wimpy carebear and no one will help me! Sucks to be you I guess. But don’t worry; we gotta plan that works for wimpy carebears. You don’t need to do lvl 4 missions to get the standing you need. Most times you’ll need a standing around 6.75 with the research corp to get the highest lvl 4 research agents. That’s doable by simply running missions for a decent quality lvl 3 agent. It’ll take a bit longer, but since you’ll probably be training skillz anyway, it’s no big deal. If you can’t run lvl 3 missions, you’re a nOOb and should go play in your Ibis.
I’m a deluxe carebear and I want one of those super uber Hulk BPOS, where do I get those? For those of you that like setting in a barge all day, you should seek phychiatric help. But, if you want one of these BPOs, you’ll have to go work for a Gallante research corporation, since Ore Syndicate is in bed with them. You’ll need a Gallante Starship Engineering agent and a lot of luck!
The T2 lottery is the only way to get a T2 BPO without spending a few billion isk. Time is money, so get going!
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