Installing NavBot
Download and extract the setup files, the run setup.exe. NavBot should automatically detect the EVE directories that link you to your Pod and will run in the system tray (bottom-right).
Your First Time with NavBot
Once NavBot is running in the taskbar, go into EVE and open the in-game browser. Either press Ctrl-V or type "http://localhost:9999" into the address bar, and press enter. This will connect you to NavBot.
To get the most out of NavBot, you need to make it a "trusted site". NavBot itself gives you links to do this, but sometimes the EVE browser seems to forget. You might have to open the list of trusted sites manually from the menu bar and check that http://localhost:9999 is listed as trusted.
Since this is your first time, let's take it slow. Ask NavBot to show you a list of market reports you already have (3rd option). If you have any reports, tell NavBot to remove them all - this places them in an Archive folder in case you want them again in the future.
Now, open the market in EVE and find "Reports" in the list of trade items. Select it, then click on the "Export Data" button.
Now go back to NavBot and ask to see how you can make money / start trading (1st option).
NavBot will ask you how much ISK you have available and how much cargo space you have available. Fill in these values and press "Enter".
Now for the best bit - the top trade routes! NavBot finds three kinds of routes:
- The best (most profit per warp) single trade trip you can make, starting from your current system. This is what you'll usually use; it tells you how to maximise the amount of isk you're earning per hour.
- The best (most profit per warp) single trade trip between any two systems that NavBot can find. This gives you an idea of how much profit is available in the regions you've exported, and can help you decide whether to stay where you are or go to a different system to start trading there.
- The largest profit in total to be found between any two systems. This is perfect if you just want to stick the autopilot on, sit back and relax.
Picking a route is easy - you can right-click on any of the links and choose to autopilot to them or even dock directly at the correct station, all from NavBot's report screen. The type and number of items to buy are shown too!
Finally, after each trip remember to re-export the market data for any item you've just sold, and to update your ISK in NavBot - the routes you get are only as fresh as the data you give it!
I hope this helps - please drop any feedback or questions as comments and I'll update this main post. Above all, happy trading!
11 comments:
Hi there. Great program. I downloaded it and started using it and am loving it so far. Do you have any advice however on and fairly easy way to find routes that you can haul full both way as opposed to one way trips?
Thanks!
Thanks Jacob, I'm glad you like it! Two-way hauling is something on my list of things to do - the code is already there, but when I played around with it I found it was usually more profitable to do a great one-way trip then go back empty (or go on somewhere else) than to do a round trip with less profitable items.
I'd certainly like to see a "I'm going from here to here - can I take something with me and make a profit?" option in there...
NavBot is great! I have some ideas for making it even better. By running an A-star search algorithm, you could find the best path for making money. For example, it could point out that you can travel from system A, buy X, travel to system B, sell X and buy Y, travel to system C, etc.
Even a simple feature that finds pairs of nearby stations with mutual needs would be very useful. For example station A sells X cheap and buys Y expensively, and nearby stations B sells Y cheaply and buys X expensively.
Hi Daniel, you're quite right - there's still a lot of fun to be had in improving NavBot :-) I like the idea of the best path...
Hi Opencloud! Thanks for creating NavBot. Its really great and has shown me a lot of how the market works. :)
I have some small ideas though. It generally only shows me 2 profitable items.. And not always from the station you're at at the moment.
Can't you add a "Starting Point" location so it gives you all profitable items starting from the area you're in?
Also, would it be possible to for example, output a list of the different profitable items which have X isk profit or have a Y profit margin?
Hi Opencloud! Thanks for creating NavBot. Its really great and has shown me a lot of how the market works. :)
I have some small ideas though. It generally only shows me 2 profitable items.. And not always from the station you're at at the moment.
Can't you add a "Starting Point" location so it gives you all profitable items starting from the area you're in?
Also, would it be possible to for example, output a list of the different profitable items which have X isk profit or have a Y profit margin?
Thanks again!
Hi Jeroen, you're very welcome! You're right that NavBot only shows 2 profitable routes per category - one in secure space, one in insecure. Adding a "Show me more like this" link for each category is on my to-do list :-)
As for starting from your current position: The first pair of routes that NavBot shows you ("Looking for quick cash? Here's the trades that'll make us the best short-term profit") does what you want, only slightly better. It calulates the very best profit per jump you can make from your current station. Sometimes, the best way to make profit is actually to fly somewhere else without taking anything with you and then buy things there - even considering the time you spend travelling with an empty cargo hold! If NavBot shows you a route in the first pair that doesn't start from your current location, it's because you'll make more profit by flying to the new station first and then doing the route listed. It's very clever - I hope it does what you need :-)
Re: list of items sorted by profit as a % or isk - a nice idea. One of the earliest (unpublished) versions of NavBot did exactly that. I'll add it to the to-do list!
The "short-term profit" doesn't really work in the way you would want though.
For example, If you're usually shipping stuff from A to B and from B to A. At the moment your pilot is at A.
NavBot found a GREAT profit run, but that is from B to A.
However, before I do that 'great profit' run, I need to get to place B. Preferably with my cargo full to sell.
Right now I sort of manage that by lowering the amount of Isk that NavBot thinks I have, so it gives me more options. But preferrably, I could just chose an option called "Only show trading routes starting in my Region.", and then showing me a list of possible profitable items.
I hope I explained that in the right way. :)
Thanks again for your great work!
Hi there, I'm mightily impressed with this handy little tool!
Two suggestions:
1) I second the motion to include the "I'm going from X to Y - are there any profitable trades that I can do while traveling?"
2) There seems to be a little bug with the High-Sec routes. Today NavBot suggested a route that took me through two .4 sec systems. Not sure if that was intentional or not.
Otherwise, I love it, and I'm most certainly going to use it from now onwards. Thanks a heap.
Thanks, Kazana - I'm glad you're enjoying NavBot! You're right about the high-sec, low-sec bug - at the moment NavBot doesn't check intermediate systems at all! There's a bug in the official bug database against it.
I'd like to see the "I'm going from here to there" too :-)
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