M.U.L.E. Welcome to Planet Irata

Written by David Savedge

Back in the 1980’s I spent countless hours sitting in front of my Commodore 64 playing the latest and greatest games available. Even though technology spins past me faster than I could have ever imagined back then, I find myself wishing for the good ol’ days. One of my favorite games from that time was M.U.L.E. Mule was a groundbreaking game that paved the way to where we are now in games like Eve Online. Mule had all the hallmarks of a true classic... balance, depth, and playability. I miss that game and those days when a rainy day was a true gift. Well...the wait is over!!!! M.U.L.E. has been re-mastered! The project is being spearheaded by the daughter of Dani Bunten one of the original developers. Please visit their website and give this great classic a try!

www.planetmule.com

Here is the cover art from the original game.

Play Eve Online for Free...Kinda

Caution!! Due to the upcoming Dominion expansion the formula presented here may not be viable. Ice products could be severly effected by the changes brought about by Dominion.  Care should always be taken when trading.

Playing Eve for free has never been so easy. By easy I mean putting a little time into earning enough ISK to buy a PLEX on the market. I will assume you already know what a PLEX is, if not go here. The hard way to play Eve for free is grinding missions, ratting, mining, and spending countless hours in other ways to earn your ISK. This is a noble approach but wouldn’t you rather spend your game time differently? All you have to do is spend a little real money and buy a couple of GTC’s. For those of you who claim you can’t afford it well I’m sorry, maybe you could skip a month of game subscription and then buy the GTC, then you are set for life. Give up a little time or money now and save bundles in the long run. Ok enough preamble...this is how we do it!

Buy a 60 day GTC from Deep Space Supply or Shattered Crystal

To convert the GTC into ISK in game do as follows:
Log into the game and select the pilot you wish to use.
Once you are logged on and in a station press esc. and click the convert ETC (Eve Time Code) button located on the lower left edge of the window.
Follow the prompts and enter your code.
Close the window and then open your pilot’s hangar cargo bay to reveal two 30 day PLEX.
Now you can sell them to another player on the market.

To convert the GTC into ISK in the Eve Forum go here.

Now that you have a pile of ISK, transfer it to an alternate character located in Jita 4/4.
Save half in reserve, about 250mil at current prices.
Open the market window and bring up ice products.
Do your research and pick, for example, Oxygen Isotopes. Place a buy order for as much as you can afford from your remaining ISK then once the order is filled sell your oxygen for a nice profit. For more on ice trading visit here. Once you have clawed your way to your first Billion ISK you will be able to make enough to buy plenty of PLEX’s and play for free!

Please play responsibly and always do your homework.

Here is a comment from one of our readers. We had to edit some profanity before publishing.

Minerpewpew said...
Wow great idea, get people to invest in ice products when ice is about to go through the sh***r after dominion. Should think a bit farther ahead.

Thank you for your comment. We may all need to rethink our approach to the Eve economy and the advice on this blog is simply opinion and based in real time. What may work today might be gone tomorrow. All trade should be researched completely before any purchase is made. That being said we agree in part with our well spoken comrade, Minerpewpew. Ice products will certainly be in flux but as to the long term outcome only time will tell.

Eve Online Forums Dominion Expansion

Here is a forum link with some decisive information on what to expect from the upcoming Dominion Expansion.

Dominion Eve Online Ice Trade

There is a rumor that high sec. Ice fields will be removed from the game with the new Dominion expansion. If that were the case it would effect the market drastically. It would also effect CCP’s game subscriptions. Believe me CCP will not sacrifice their subscription base for the sake of game content, the root of their existence is to make money. If Ice fields were removed from Empire space CCP would be discouraging thousands of players who have no desire to play in 0.0 space and may quit as a result.

Here is a link to the forum thread where the rumors about Ice Fields is being discussed.

It has come to our attention that this rumor is based on an outdated forum comment but it may still create some interesting situations in the market.

Dominion Eve Online New Expansion

Worry and even near hysteria are gripping the Eve Online community as the latest expansion draws near. The popular opinions on the Dominion expansion are rife with speculative outcomes in regards to the market. That is our main area of interest and we are putting all of our efforts into looking for the positive effects of change. No matter what the changes Dominion brings we will be scouring the forums and the game market to hopefully bring you some ways to profit.

Jita Trade

This just in from Topava reporting live in Jita...

Topava reports, “Oxygen isotopes have made a dramatic swing since earlier today. The margins are favorable for some brisk trading. As of 18:40 GMT hydrogen isotopes could be bought in Amarr and sold here in Jita for a nice profit. Check it out!”

**Urgent** As of 20:15 GMT Oxygen isotope prices in the Jita market are currently very volatile. Trade with care!

Eve Online PLEX Guide

The PLEX or Pilot License Extension allows you to extend the subscription time on a game account or it can be sold to earn ISK. The PLEX is a safe and easy way to provide your pilot with the isk needed to purchase ships, skill books, and other supplies to make for a better playing experience. The PLEX cannot be purchased out of game but there are several authorized GTC or Game Time Code retailers to choose from. We have purchased GTC’s from Battle Clinic’s Deep Space Supply. After purchasing the GTC follow these simple steps and you will have a wallet full of ISK.

Log into the game and select the pilot you wish to use.
Once you are logged in and in a station press esc. and click the convert ETC (Eve Time Code) button located on the lower left edge of the window.
Follow the prompts and enter your code.
Close the window and then open your pilot’s hangar cargo bay to reveal two 30 day PLEX.
Now you can sell them to another player on the market.

This method is used primarily to gain ISK. There is not much point in doing this just to pay for game time because GTC’s are usually a little more expensive than the subscription fees charged by CCP. If you are earning 300 million ISK per month, buying a PLEX can save you some money and give you the satisfaction of playing this great game for free!

What Should I Trade in Jita?

We get asked about Jita trade all the time and here is one of the plain simple truths...You can make isk by trading just about anything as long as the buy price is cheaper than the sell price and you have patience. Please also keep in mind that you need to account for taxes and broker fees when calculating your profits. I know that is over simplifying and probably a little aggravating so Topava is going to give you some specific Intel to help you on your way.

Topava restates, “ I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Ice products are where the fast isk is to be made. It takes a while to build up a bank roll for trading ice products but once you get the ball rolling you will be unstoppable. The old adage, it takes money to make money is very true in the world of daytrading. There are two important criteria for daytrading, price difference and volume. If you buy 100,000 units of oxygen isotopes for 380.00 isk and then sell them for 410.00 the profit per unit is 30.00 isk. For ice products that is about what you will be looking for, about 25.00 to 30.00 isk difference. You also want enough of the product selling so you won’t have to sit on buy orders for a long time, that way you can repeat the process more often. Most ice product in Jita move in the range of 40 million per day so you can imagine how quickly your little 100,000 will go. Now imagine buying 2,000,000 units of oxygen isotopes at that same margin. BOOM! 60,000,000 ISK!!”

Trading Drones in New Eden

Enough with the day trading for now. We get quite a few questions on lower cost long term trades. Many aspiring traders can't affort the millions of ISK it takes to be an effective daytrader so we have looked for a few items that move quickly and don't cost much.

Topava says, "Try buying light scout drones in the Lonetrek regional market and selling them in Jita The Forge.  Also try buying Standard Bloodclaw Light Missiles in the Lonetrek regional market and selling them in Jita The Forge."

Eve Online Trade Hubs

Topava asked me to post a list of the most popular and profitable trade hubs found in New Eden. We are sprinkling alts in all the good trade hubs so we can gain more trading data. As soon as we have our jump freighter this will be a great advantage.

Here is the short list:

Caldari - Jita
Gallente - Dodixie / Oursulaert
Minmatar - Rens
Amarr - Amarr

Daytrading Again

We are back in Jita daytrading ice products again. Topava took a little break from the trading floor to run up Odin Industrial's security status. She managed to work her way up to some crappy L4 agents just before burning out. Personally I am glad to have her back trading and earning more ISK. Topava states that she is going to start a new project on the side and will spell it out on Odin Industrial's website. We are also planning on gearing up recruitment for the long winter months to come. If you are interested in joining Odin Industrial please contact me, Davikson (Director of Operations/Webmaster) or Topava (CEO/Trade Analyst) in game.

Topava suggests, "Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes are on a down swing in the Jita market. Now is the time to buy."

As always be careful not to tie up all your ISK, daytrading can be volatile.

Eve Trade goes well for Odin Industrial

We hope all our fellow traders had a great weekend. We took full advantage of the dip in ice product prices and made a tidy sum today. We ended up having to wait through the weekend but came out on top to start our week.

Topava Suggests: Try buying Nitrogen Isotopes right away and hauling them to Jita. There is profit to be made right now!

ISK Market News

This is just in from Odin Industrial trading analyst, Topava.

Topava observes, "Certain ice products have hit a weekly low and now may be the time to buy. A slight increase has been noted in the past few hours and we may see a steady increase over the next few days. Remember that working the market like this can tie up your ISK for a while so be prepared to ride it out. I've been sitting on 2.5 billion ISK worth of Nitrogen Isotopes for a while now but when it hatches it's going to be payday for Odin Industrial!"

How to Make Eve Online ISK

The Eve Online economic bubble has popped. After every expansion, prices spike and profit is to be made but when the dust settles, creative trading wins the day. Our corporation has been daytrading ice products for some time now and profit is a constant. We would like to share our strategy with other traders. Its a very simple plan of buying ice products holding them for a few days then selling them at a profit.

Warning!!! As of Thursday, June 25, 2009 some prices have spiked. Use extreme caution when trading ice products. You have been warned!

Topava's strategy: Buy ice products on Thursday and Friday mornings then wait until Saturday night after 18:00 GMT and hopefully sell for a good profit. You may need to wait as late as Monday so be watchful. This plan has short term risk so be careful not to tie up ISK you need in the near future.

Apocrypha Content Guide

The new expansion has landed and as usual it is cryptic as hell! I have to relearn the game every time CCP comes out with a new expansion but I love the new content. Check out these links provided by CCP for more information. Goodluck!

http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Wormholes • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Apocrypha_Probing • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Tutorial • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Skill_training_queue • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Neural_Remapping • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Epic_Mission_Arcs • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Tech_3_ships • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/How_does_skill_training_work • http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Fitting_Ships

Far and Away

AFK mining operations are a great way to spend idle time without having to resort to EULA violating macros. We are currently using AFK ice mining to fill in the gaps during our work day. As a matter of fact as I write this I have two Hulks working an ice belt. I know what you experienced miners are thinking, why not the Mackinaw? If I were running a mining op with haulers the Machinaw would be the ship of choice but since I'm AFK I want the extra cargo space of the Hulk to make each trip more profitable. Ice takes a long time to mine which makes it ideal for AFK ops. I can get a full 20 mins. of work done while the Hulks are filling up but bear in mind as the market stands now you will make much more with tritanium. If you would like to know more please contact us anytime, we are always ready to help.

Tritanium Redux

Tritanium remains king of the pack and with the upcoming expansion you can expect prices to spike afterwards. I don't know about you, fellow pilots, but I am spending my time gobbling up all the dense veldspar I can find. Goodluck!

We are back...

Well that was not fun. The real world is a harsh place and after a few months away from Eve we are happy to be back in action. Give us a day or two to remember how to play and the trade intel will be posted again.