Datacores & Invention

[Mangala]

The Datacore Formula

RP per day = ((1+(EQ/100))*((Agent Skill+Your Skill)*(Agent Skill+Your Skill))) * FM

RP per datacore = 50 * FM

Agent Effective Quality (EQ)
This is the base quality of the agent, plus 5 for every level of the Negotiation skill you have, plus 1 if you have the Connections skill at 3 or plus 2 if you have the Connections skill at 5.

Agent Skill / Your Skill
This is the level of skill in the relevant research field. You can find the Agent's skill in their Show Info.

Field Multiplier (FM)
This is a fudge left over from the BPO lottery. Some research fields give you more RP / day but the RP cost of the datacores is higher so they cancel eachother out.

NPC Corps With R&D Agents

Minmatar:
Core Complexion
Boundless Creation
Thukker Mix

Amarr:
Carthum Conglomerate
Viziam
Khanid Innovation

Caldari:
Kaalakiota Corporation
Lai Dai
Ishukone Corporation

Galente:
Creodron
Roden Shipyards
Duvolle Laboratories

Datacore types

Pre-requesite skills listed in brackets, both need to be level 5.

Datacore - Amarrian Starship Engineering (Science & Mechanic)
Datacore - Caldari Starship Engineering (Science & Mechanic)
Datacore - Electromagnetic Physics (Sience & Electronics)
Datacore - Electronic Engineering (Science & Electronics)
Datacore - Gallentean Starship Engineering (Science & Mechanic)
Datacore - Graviton Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - High Energy Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - Hydromagnetic Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - Laser Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - Mechanical Engineering (Science & Mechanic)
Datacore - Minmatar Starship Engineering (Science & Mechanic)
Datacore - Molecular Engineering (Science & Mechanic)
Datacore - Nanite Engineering (Science & Electronics)
Datacore - Nuclear Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - Plasma Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - Quantum Physics (Science & Engineering)
Datacore - Rocket Science (Science & Mechanic)

Activating R&D Agents

All you have to do is talk to them and say you want them to carry out some research for you. If you have the required skills and standings they will ask you which research field you wish to carry out your research in.

You will then recieve a fixed amount of RP (see the formula at the start of this thread) every day until you tell the agent to stop researching.

You can then claim datacores in exchange for a fixed number of RP (see the formula at the start of this thread) and do with them what you will.

R&D Missions

Once you have activated an R&D agent they will issue you a mission once per day. You do not have to carry out the mission, it will not have any negative effect if you do not. If you choose to carry out the mission then you recieve RP as a reward, equivalent to the number of RP you recieve each day. If you do not carry out the mission the agent will stop sending you mission requests until the next time you speak to them.

Skill Requirements For R&D Agents

You will need:

Science 5
Research Field Skill 1+

The research field skill will have two pre-requesities. One will be Science 5, the other will be Mechanic 5, Engineering 5 or Electronics 5 depending on the field skill.

In order to run more than one R&D agent you will need:

Research 5
Laboratory Operation 5
Research Project Management 1+

Each level in Research Project Management will allow you to run one additional R&D agent up to the maximum of 6.

In order to maximise your RP yield you will want:

Negotiation 1+
Connections 1+

Both skills increase the Effective Quality of the R&D agent and will increase you RP yield as a result. Connections may also allow you to access higher level R&D agents due to increased standings.

Bugs with R&D Agents

The main bug is that if you increase the effective quality of an R&D agent by increasing your level in Negotiation or Connections this will not have any effect until you talk the R&D agent, at which point the RP yield will be re-calculated and you will start getting the extra RP. Training levels in the Research Field Skill is not effected by this bug and has an immediate effect on RP yield.

Standings

NPC Corp standings do not effect the amount of RP you get from an R&D agent but do effect which agents you can use.

Connections, because it increases the Agents standings towards you, will increase RP yield but only by a small amount and only at level 3 (1.00 standing, +1 EQ) and level 5 (2.00 standing, +2 EQ). It may also give you access to higher level agents by increasing NPC Corp standings.

In order to gain access to high level agents you will need to grind standings with the NPC Corp your R&D agent belongs to. You can grind standings for the NPC faction and these will help, but they will only get you so far as there is a NPC Corp standing requirement for each R&D Agent and faction standings will not do the job on their own.

You can get access to some low quality level 2 R&D agents if you have connections 4+ and a positive unmodified standing towards the R&D corp. With these you can gain over 50 RP/day per agent without any standings grind.


(All credit to Snaffle on SHC)

[Mangala]

Invention:

What Skills Do I need?

For each item you want to invent you will require:

The two Research Field Skills and the appropriate Encryption Methods Skill as listed in the show info of the blueprint of the T1 item you are planning to invent from.

Your levels in these skills will directly effect the success chance of any invention attempt. The actual formula for this is not known.

i.e. to invent Cruise Missile Launcher II's you will require:

Caldari Encryption Methods 1+
Mechanical Enginnering 1+
Rocket Science 1+

Important pre-requesite skills are:

Science 5 (pre-req for all the above skills)
Mechanic, Engineering & Electronics 5 (each Research field skill has one of these as a pre-req)
Hacking 2 (pre-req for encryption methods)
Electronics Upgrades 5 (pre-req for hacking)

You will also find it handy to have:

Laboratory Operation (you're going to want to run lots of copy and invention jobs at once)
Advanced Laboratory Operation (ditto)

On top of all that you will probably want the skills to manufacture the invented item.

What Items Do I Need?

The minimum requirements for invention are:

Two types of Datacores
An Interface
A BPC of the T1 item you want to invent from

The Datacore and Inteface types required can be found from the Show Info on the T1 BPC.

If you want to do this seriously you are going to want:

Piles of Datacores.
Piles of named versions of the T1 item you want to invent from, the better the version the higher your success chance will be.
At least one BPO for the T1 item you want to invent from, so that you can make your own BPCs and you can manufacture the T1 item that is required as a material for production.
A POS with Mobile Labs, so you have your own copy slots to make the BPCs in. Advanced Mobile Labs have more and faster copy slots.
BPOs for the T2 components you will be needing for the invented T2 item, to keep your production costs down.

If you are planning to invent ships you are also going to need:

Decryptors, because the runs, success rate and ME/PE levels from the default invention jobs are too poor for you to make a profit without them.

Decryptors are due to change soon, so they may actually become usefull for Item invention as well as ship invention.

What Do The Different Decryptors Do?

Due to change in the next major patch.

Caldari

Code: [Select]

Chance   ME    PE    Runs   Decryptor
x1.3     -3    +2    +4     Installation Guide
x1.1 -2    +5    +1     Prototype Diagram
x1.0     -1    +3     0     Tuning Instructions
x0.8      0    +4    +2     User Manual
x0.4     -4    +1    +9     Alignment Chart

Amarr

Code: [Select]

Chance   ME    PE    Runs   Decryptor
x1.3     -3    +2    +4     War Stategon
x1.1 -2    +5    +1     Classic Doctrine
x1.0     -1    +3     0     Formation Layout
x0.8      0    +4    +2     Sacred Manifesto
x0.4     -4    +1    +9     Circular Logic

Gallente

Code: [Select]

Chance   ME    PE    Runs   Decryptor
x1.3     -3    +2    +4     Stolen Forumlas
x1.1 -2    +5    +1     Test Reports
x1.0     -1    +3     0     Collision Measurements
x0.8      0    +4    +2     Engagement Plan
x0.4     -4    +1    +9     Symbiotic Figures

Minmatar

Code: [Select]

Chance   ME    PE    Runs   Decryptor
x1.3     -3    +2    +4     Assembly Instructions
x1.1 -2    +5    +1     Advanced Theories
x1.0     -1    +3     0     Calibration Data
x0.8      0    +4    +2     Operation Handbook
x0.4     -4    +1    +9     Circuitry Schematics

What Effect Does The BPC Have?[/b]

The ME and PE of the BPC you use has absolutely no effect on the result you get from invention.

The number of runs on the BPC does have an effect however. In the case of module invention you will get 10 runs from a max runs BPC and proportionately less from lower run BPCs. For ship invention you will get one run from a max runs BPC and no runs from a lower run BPC. This appears to be rounded up, so you should still get one run output from a 1 run input BPC. However the decryptor effect is added on to this before the rounding so when using decryptors you will get one extra run from a max runs BPC.

So when inventing ships with a 1 run BPC and the User Manual decryptor (+2 runs) you will get a 2 run invented BPC. When inventing ships with a max runs BPC and the User Manual decryptor you will get a 3 run invented BPC.

If I Do My Invention In A POS Where Does Everything Have To Go?[/u]

As far as I have managed to figure out... in the POS lab. I put the BPC, the named item, the datacores, the decryptor and the interface in the POS lab and run the invention job like that.

It may be possible to do it without all the stuff being in the POS but I haven't figured out how yet!

Of course invention slots are easy to come buy in NPC stations so you don't actually have to do it in the POS. It just saves you a small amount of isk and makes use of those otherwise useless invention slots in the POS labs.

How Profitable Is It?[/u]

Not at all, you'll lose your shirt on this one to be sure...

...but honestly it depends on what you try to invent. The setup costs are considerable, particularly if you are going to use a POS or are planning to invent ships.

Module invention profits vary widely depending on the item. It's not worth using decryptors at present because they cost a lot and don't do much for module invention.

Ship invention isn't really worth doing for T2 Frigates at present, the profit just isn't there. Cruisers and above you can make a profit from but the setup costs are large and the risk is considerable. You really have to use decryptors for ship invention, which further eats into the profits particularly since the good ones fetch a hefty price.

[Caradir]

and thats why i sold an installation guide found in a hacking site for 13.5M ISK

[Macrune]

How Profitable Is It?[/u]

Not at all, you'll lose your shirt on this one to be sure...

A truer word was never spoken. I actually started down this line with Hellfire and she can actually do a fair amount along the copying/invention/production line. But with the current 24 hr cool down on clone jumping it has proved impracticable to have her as my main miner 32 jumps from the research location. Hence im now training up another toon to do it. There goes another 200 mill on skills etc. 

[Warcold]

Before I read this

There goes another 200 mill on skills etc.  

I was going to say that I had been thinking yesterday night that it might be an idea to have MAADI set up a hisec POS with labs. This way a great deal of the 'more developed' characters that inhabit MAADI can wield their research skills too.

A problem (beside the extra costs) is that this raises the question what KASEI would still be good for... focus on capital research?

A recent additional problem will be that Mac will be PO because he just invested 200M in a character that wouldnt per se be needed with this extra POS (although it wont be wasted either, not at all).

[Dlarah]

How is MAADI's faction standing to the empire factions?
The Corp needs to have standing with the npc faction that controls the system (5.0 for .5, 6.0 for .6 & 7.0 for .7, not allowed in .8+). 
The corp standing is based as an average of the members of the corp and i think most of us are below 5.

[peo]

We are far far far below the needed.

[Macrune]

I don't honestly think MAADI needs a research POS. To be honest with you 2 or 3 people with research alts can keep the copying and invention we need ticking over. Im doing it for my own personal satisfaction. SO the 200 mill is irrelevant. MAADI are better served with more moon mining / re-action pos in order to generate a regular income. That in turn will help to continue to finance the Kasei POS..
I think the term is 'If its not broken don't fix it'

[Warcold]

*hides in a corner*

[Macrune]

*hides in a corner*

[Mangala]

KASEI will be starting Amarrian and Minmatar invention on the weekend.

HAC's and Inties first for both races.