EVE New Citizens Q&A

It depends on the type of exploration you want to do, if you don't want to do combat sites just yet (due to SP issues for instance) then you can hunt down radar sites and all you'll need for that is your Imicus with a few drones, an armor rep and a codebreaker. If you do want to do combat sites then it all depends, the lower sites are easily done in a destroyer, the higher ones require a very good cruiser or BC. Note that probing in high sec doesn't require massive skills or specialised ships, so you can just grab yourself a combat fitted ship and slap a probe launcher on it.

I would fit a prop mod yes, either works and it depends on the ship, fit and your skills which will work "better". You don't need a cloak in high sec, others will scan for the sites just like you, not your ship.

Grav sites are for mining, if you like that then have a go but generally I wouldn't bother too much
Ladar sites are gas mining, can be worthwhile but again I wouldn't bother much
Mag sites are mostly for salvaging and tend to require an analyser, while it can be decent it's not on par with Radar sites income wise
Radar sites are easily doable on any low sp char and pay some 5-30 mil each, you need a codebreaker for this

Because of the low SP/ship requirement for Radar sites and their massive payout compared to other options I'd just focus on those really, ignore the rest and don't bother salvaging. Once you get some skills up and fly a decent combat fit ship then have a look at DED and unrated sites, don't bother with Drones or anomalies imo.

This is all you'll need for Radar sites:

[Imicus, Explorer]
Small Armor Repairer I
Capacitor Power Relay I

1MN Afterburner I
Codebreaker I

[empty high slot]
Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I

Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
[empty rig slot]


Hobgoblin I x3

All you'll run into are some silly underpowered frigate NPCs which you could kill with some strong language, so yes a few t1 drones will do fine. I'd hunt in 0.5-0.8 space, there is no direct relation between sec status of system and chance of radars and as they all tend to pay well you don't have to cherry pick lower sec systems.

As most other stuff is mentioned already I will jsut pick the PS part.

New Citizens Q&A - The place where new players come with questions and just the occasional troll with a fail post. Those questions are answered by people who want new players to have a good time in EVE and there is very little trolling of threads.

General Discussion (GD) - Birthplace and home of all forum trolls. Experienced people usually post ideas and such here which get burned down by those trolls. A lot of threads are also just created to troll others or to be trolled.

So I personally avoid looking GD as much as possible and stick to the NCQ&A cause it's more friendly and usually has better threads to read through and you can actually help new players while answering.

This also means that if I want to come back later to take what the site has in (for instance if I need another module) I have to do this before warping to the site to check how the site is?

Or what do you mean by "activating" the site?

btw I have fitted a salvager as well on my frigate, instead of letting the other high slot free, so I can salvage rats as well as taking their cargo :)

For salvaging sites so you need both an analyzer and a salvager, right?

Oh and btw... some trade skills could be useful as well, to sell what we find, don't you think? To lower taxes for instance...

Do I need to kite the rats in high sec? I cannot just tank them? ;)

The Imicus bonuses are helpful but not necessary in highsec. Once you train up to where you can use six or seven probes, and start training Rangefinding and Pinpointing as well, you can scan with just about any ship. Even before then, your player-skills of building probe formations, moving them, and interpreting results will allow you to scan down most sites.

I use a destroyer for exploration runs because I'm competing with other players for combat sites and minutes matter.

Astrometrics, Astrometric Acquisition, Astrometric Pinpointing, Core Sisters Probe launcher and probes.

I didn't really read all the other replies, so I may be repeating what's already been said.

1: Depending on what kind of sites you're interested in, either get a Battlecruiser (for Unknown (Combat) Sites or Ladar (Gas) Sites), or a Covert Ops Frigate (for Magnetometric and Radar Sites). Note that for Ladar-sites, you need a Turret-Battlecruiser, since Gas Cloud Harvesters take up Turret-slots.

2: You don't need a Cloaking-device in high-sec, and even if you do fit one, other people will still be able to scan down your site and enter it, so a Cloak is pointless in High-Sec (for Low-sec, you want to use a Covert Ops Cloak on a Covert Ops Frigate. You can't do anything except fly and warp while using it, but it's better than trying to fit a tank on a Frigate).

3: I would recommend fitting an AB or MWD if you're doing Radar/Magnetometric sites, since in Magnetometric-sites, the loot is often spread out across large differences, and in Radar-sites, the warp-in point tends to be about 30 km from the loot (at least every time I scan down a Radar-site, that's the case).

4: What to fit in Low-slots? Tank, if you're in a big Gallente/Amarr-ship. I usually just fit Nanofiber Internal Structures on any of the Covert Ops Frigates, though, since their tank is softer than soaked paper anyways.

5: You won't need a very big Cargohold, really. In High-sec, you don't get that big loot anyway, so no point in giving up potential speed or tank for more cargohold. In my experience, a cargohold of 100m3 is usually enough for a cluster of High-sec systems.

Hope this helps.