Starting out with level 4 missions was a bit of a trial. A new ship, a Raven, to get used to with its active shield tanking requirement as opposed to the passive shield tank of the Drake. When faced with such troubles in the past, I tended to buy my way out of them.
When faced with a couple of tough level 1 missions, I upgraded to a destroyer.
When the Moa wasn’t working out for me and I lost two Caracals on level 2 missions, I went to the Drake, a battlecruiser.
When level 3 missions got tough… well, actually, the Drake was so good that it powered through all of the level 3 missions, so I never considered a replacement.
But the pattern of upgrading to solve problems was set.
So, when level 4 missions were a challenge, I started looking at the market.
CCP had introduced a new ship class not to far back, the marauder. This class was described as the mission runner’s dream. More capacitor, more CPU, more offense, more defense, and they even doubled the range of tractor beams when fitted to them.
Hot stuff indeed. And so new that they do not even have an entry for it in their EVE database.
So I looked into pricing for the Caldari flavor of Marauder, the Golem… and my jaw dropped.
Golem prices were in the 750-800 million ISK range, which is way out of my price range.
Fine, I thought, maybe I can build a Golem. So I started looking for blueprints in the contracts interface. And, sure enough, there were some, and the first item on the bill of materials gave me some hope.
The first thing you need is a Raven.
Well, I have one of those! That covers about 80 million in ISK cost right up front!
Of course, the single run blueprint itself was 60 million ISK, but at least I was 20 million ahead.
Golem BPC Materials
1 Raven – 84,752,935.98 ISK (calculated here)
45 Contruction blocks – 247,500.00 ISK
1052 Gravemetric Sensor Clusters – 24,196,000.00 ISK
3002 Graviton Reactor Unit – 300,200.00 ISK
1577 Magpulse Thrusters – 63,080,000.00 ISK
975 units Morphite – 9,750,000.00 ISK
1 R.A.M. Starship Tech – 40,000.00 ISK
3215 Scalar Capacitor Units – 45,010,000.00 ISK
3795 Sustained Shield Emitters – 151,800,000.00 ISK
7185 Titanium Diborite Armor Plates – 68,257,500.00 ISK
1415 Quantum Microprocessors – 31,130,000.00 ISK
Materials 478,564,135.98 ISK
BPC 60,000,000.00 ISK
MFG 1,910.48 ISK
Total to build 538,566,046.46 ISK
A lot of ISK, but less than the cost to buy the ship outright. I have actually had that much ISK at one time.
Plus, with the Raven already paid for, that brought the cost down to 453,813,110.86 ISK.
Let’s get started!
But wait.
You cannot just build a Marauder with your everyday manufacturing skills. Sure, you can build a battleship, but a Marauder is something more… as in you need to spend some more ISK and some more time.
You need to have the skill Battleship Construction up to level IV. And to get that you have to have Cruiser Construction up to level IV, which in turn requires Frigate Construction at level IV.
And, for the the Golem, you need Caldari Starship Engineering at level IV.
And, while you are at it, Mechanical Engineering must be at level IV as well.
Prices
Caldari Starship Engineering – 10,000,000 ISK
Battleship Construction – 22,500,000 ISK
Cruiser Construction – 900,000 ISK
Frigate Construction – 72,000 ISK
Mechanical Engineering – 10,000,000 ISK
MFG Skills Total – 43,472,000 ISK
Bringing the grand total up to: 582,038,046.46
Plus I need to spend 23 days, 4 hours, 39 minutes, and 8 seconds training the skills. And the time is only that small because I already own, and have some training in, Mechanical Engineering.
Still, we’re on track. Just get the materials lined up while I train, build the thing, and off we go!
Oh, wait, I need some skills to fly the thing.
I need Caladri Battleship to level V, Energy Grid Upgrades to level V, Weapon Upgrades to level V, Advanced Weapon Upgrades to level V, and finally, the skill Marauders to at least level I.
But I own most of those skills already! I just need Advanced Weapon Upgrades, a mere 450,000 ISK, and Marauders for… eep… 57,600,000 ISK.
Man, they seem to have decided to make up for how easy it was to get into a Heavy Interdictor… a ship to kill other people… by making Marauders… a mission running ship… a serious effort.
So, adding on the skills to fly the Golem, the total goes to: 640,088,046.46.
I have had that much ISK at one time, but not for long.
Still, I could get there again, plus the Raven is already paid for, as I keep pointing out.
And to train those flying skills: 90 days, 6 hours, 39 minutes, 42 seconds.
So if I start today and do not get side tracked, I can be flying my Golem on November 12th, 2008!
You level 4 mission NPCs! You’d best make plans! Because I’ll be coming for you in my shiny new Marauder any month now!
That is certainly more likely that my Titan dreams!
The Ancient Gaming Noob 