I feel that perhaps you don't understand the economy of Eve well enough to state an opinion on whether the economy of DUST can or should be integrated with the economy of Eve.

So I will ignore it.

That argument makes a lot more sense, and in the context of burn rates, look at the top end of what a dust fight could possibly cost a corp. If every person had the best gear, and they lost all of their clones, take that clone count, multiply by the cost, and that is what that corp is able to risk in a match in terms of suits, add in tanks and such. Now, compare that with a typical medium range fight in Eve where the players have T2 ships and logistics, but all sub capital. It is not difficult for a 10-15 man gang to be well over 1 billion isk being risked.

How expensive do suits and vehicles need to be to be pushing a billion in a match?

When DUST becomes part of the warfare landscape of Eve son warfare, how much will an alliance like NC care if the entirety of the DUST campaign costs them 3-4 billion? Will they give a shite if the DUST bunnies win or lose? Thats a problem.

Or we have weapons/vehicles/modules for Dust as producible items in Eve, which they can then put on the market. Supply and demand will dictate costs. So long as it's taken into consideration that you can make a LOT of rifles out of a cubic meter of tritanium.......

I tend to lean toward the free market side as well, however, it may have unintended consequences if a newby miner can mine enough to produce 1,000 rifles...

But maybe it would work out.

As for the prototype gear, I am clearly off in my cost idea. I still think however that vehicles and structures should be a significant investment and a significant risk relative to what they are now.

@Drummy, That is a good point, the burn rate per match may be off, but the FPS gameplay of DUST is much more consistently high in relation to Eve.

There are however some items which will see a more Eve like burn rate, like war barges, structures that are district upgrades, etc. I expect a well piloted tank will see a life span similar to a HIC in a capital fight.... i.e. it depends on how well the enemy is paying attention...

- match payouts increase according to player SP (since balanced match-making is in the works anyway)

- bp's of Dust gear create stacks of items as opposed to single run (say 20 at a time)

- free-market takes care of the rest

I say 'takes care of the rest', because what's the point of a 30 million dollar grenade if no one can buy it. As long as match payouts scale according to sp then the winners are making isk relative to the tech level of the gear they are using. That way, match payouts will determine how much can be reasonably charged by industrialists. Over charge and no one can afford to buy it, industrialist makes no money. Industrialist relists items at a more reasonable price. While a single AR may only cost a few thousand isk if your buying (or selling) stacks of a hundred due to burn-rate then it seems sensible to assume that the industrialist is still putting away a few hundred thousand for their effort (which is relative to teir I frigate cost) and doing so far more regularly than they would if they were mass producing cheap entry level frigates. Again, think about the burn-rate.

AR = 5000 isk x 100 = 500,000 isk

All bp's in the beginning will be npc sourced anyhow, allowing for an average mean price to be established. Sure, the issue of Eve magnates funding Dust campaigns is an issue but isn't that the whole point to the game? If planetary control actually had some influence on Sov (if not at launch then at least soon after) then the ground wars would quickly become isk sinks for those attempting to turn the tides of conflicts on the strength of their financial holdings alone. Even if 10 million isk is no biggie to the Eve Corp it will become one if your dropping it every 25 minutes in an attempt to control Sov. A week later and you will have burned through billions.