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Eurogamer is now offering a new article in its series devoted to CCP Games' space based MMO, EVE Online. This article focuses on the intricacies of trade and industry, explaining why players might want to get involved in the detailed economic model offered by the game.

It's not all about grinding space rocks, though. It's entirely possible that you could make money inventing the higher end "Tech 2" items. The invention process requires a huge amount of cash, however, thanks to the complexity of the infrastructure you'll need. Once you've got the invention equipment and the various components, you'll still need to master production skills to make the most of the blueprints you come up with. Get all this right and you'll be able to compete on the exclusive Tech 2 market, where desirables such as Tech 2 weapons, and high-end heavy assault cruisers are found.

There's even the potential for "passive" income in EVE, where your investment in time to skills can pay off. The most basic of these is in the datacores which fund invention. These are made by NPC characters with whom you can set up a research contract. Your skills combined with their rating dictates how many cores they will produce. With enough agents (and enough alts farming those agents) you can make a small income without having to do anything other than pick up the cores and sell them every few months. With datacores being constantly used by the inventors, it's a pretty stable investment.

Better yet, although slightly more risky, is moon mining. Generally the best moons are found in 0.0 space, so you're likely to need some kind of foothold outside of Empire to be able to do this safely. However, the best moons make millions of isk per hour, and the "high ends" have a yield that results in immense territory wars. You don't have to go for these ones, of course, and there are plenty of lesser moons that, when combined with other products, produce components for the invention market. Once it's set up, all you'll have to do is to refuel the moon mining structure, and to empty the silo once a week. Free money.

Eurogamer: EVE Online Trade & Industry

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