EVE New Citizens Q&A

Exploration can only be transferred to PvP in the form of probing down enemy ships that are hiding in random spots in space. For that, you will want an Expanded Probe Launcher and Combat Scanner Probes. For maximum scan strength, you will want to use a Heron (the Caldari scanning frigate), or, preferably, a Buzzard (the T2 version). For practice, you could scan down people in hisec, or even do a spot of ninja-salvaging to annoy mission runners (look it up, it's fun).

So far as dipping your toes into "actually shooting people" PvP, you could combine that with scanning by trying to focus on being a scout/tackler. Cheap, disposable frigates are great for getting practice with that.

I highly recommend you find a newbie-friendly PvP corp you can fly with. Extra tackle (with probes!) is always great.

Welcome to Eve!

Hm, I didn't address that part of the OP. Caldari is pretty great, but every race is great in its own way. Caldari ships are tougher cookies in shields, use missiles and some hybrid weapons, and generally prefer longer-range fighting (though there are exceptions).

Don't be afraid to try other races -- there are no penalties for cross-race training, and I find the versatility in ship choice very useful myself.

Probing is useful in PvP in chasing people who are hiding in 'safe spots' in the middle of space. Other than that, you will still want to have PvP skills in the way of navigation, tanking, tackling, and possibly electronic warfare. So, once you're all up and good on your probing skills, you should follow a combat-oriented training path.

This probably means veering away from mining exploration sites, and more toward hacking/salvaging sites and combat sites (radar, magnetometric, and DED/unrated complexes).

I can't elaborate on everything you should do to hop into PvP, but some general steps:

1. Find a newbie-friendly corp who want to take you under their wing. Start flying with them to learn PvP concepts through practice.
2. Peruse the New Citizens Q&A Resources, which has very useful info about a variety of things.
3. Do your own research across the web. Lots of players contribute to wikis, blogs, guides, and other things to help out people just like you.

Good luck!

P.S. There's no need to sign your posts with your name; it already appears on the left. If you'd like a more sophisticated signature, mouse over your name at the top of the page, and select Profile Settings, then Forum Settings in that page.

In my opinion, you won't be recruited into a PVP corp solely based on your profession (scout, logistics pilot, whatever). PVP here is like PVP everywhere else, you gotta show that you're good, and you gotta show that you won't be an ******* to deal with. You show up with a fancy probing ship and then you're clueless and let the target get away, they'll laugh at you and then kick you out.

So find yourself a group, and start small and learn (by losing, mostly). Learn tackling, learn what happens when they see you enter Local, learn the feel of the ships and what their capabilities are (ranges, speeds, toughness, how far they can tackle you, how you can attack them to win, etc). Learn how to escape and run away. There are a lot of things to learn before you can think about scouting vs. dps vs. logistics.

In general, having quite a few skillpoints, a bit of gear from PVE, and a bit in your wallet, will discourage people from trying PVP. They don't want to ruin that sec status, or lose their implants, or lose more than half of what's in their wallet if their ship gets destroyed.

So my advice would be to start a new character, and join a PVP oriented corp, or a PVP training corp of some sort. And just do it, right away, with frigates. No implants. Fund your PVP character from your PVE main, if you want. And then, if you find a good PVP group that you want to permanently play with, you can always add the PVE main to the corp.

Long live the Patriots!
Long live the State!

Actually, probing and exploration will lead you directly into Ninja Salvaging which leads to profitable Mission Runner ganking. While it's not exactly l33t, F1 mashing PVP, it's still making the other guy (or guys) ship explode rather than your own. Many scumbags such as I play for years prowling the High Sec mission hubs harvesting the fine deadspace and faction mods to be found therein. Sure, it's not honor PVP, but I bet Blackbeard would approve. It's also hysterical and very easy for new players to get into.

Convo me if you need help or details on how it's done.

You scan down sites and run them basically

So you scan down for instance a hacking site (RADAR I believe) and then clear it and hack the container hoping it gives you something rare and expensive.

Same with LADAR and combat sites

Magnetometric = gas mining, which in high-sec isn't all that profitable cause it's used in booster production which is very small and limited market.

Gravimetric = normal ore mining, if you hate mining, you might want to try and sell it to the local miners. Just post in local you found a gravi site and list which ores are in it. If good enough miners might want to buy the bookmark from you. (though, like EVE in general, the game of Trust comes in place here).

Ninja salvaging will get you... well, "chump change" comes to mind but for brand new players, it can work (though the new AI changes may make it rather less profitable than it once was).

Exploration makes decent funds, some folks can tell you how much it's worth and rattle off some rather astounding sounding values (in the billions at times). Such big values are less common but do happen and those parts of the game are rather different and challenging to deal with.

How? Well you have combat sites and "salvage" sites you can find via probing. Once you find them, you can go in and get some very nice items.

As for "best" - none of the probe frigates are really better than the others. They all work well and tend to require changing ships to collect the stuff from where you find it but not always.

As for going bigger than frigates IMO "best" for pure exploration use would be T3's

Forced recon ships are pretty interesting with the Amarr Pilgrim, for T2 class ships, being something to look at. It can fit out all the various exploration modules, packs a good flight of drones for damage so it can be fit as an all-in-one style exploration ship, on a covert ops cloaked hull without the billion isk sticker-shock attached to it like T3's. T3's do it easier/better but also cost a hell of a lot more.

PvP wise, there's nothing like seeing a recon magically appear and pop a cyno to convince a gate camp that it's a good time to check out the local station's docking facilities, usually followed by those who got away, changing their shorts. The phrase used in-game is "hot dropped" and tends to also cover the reason for them changing shorts in the station. (such stunts are not too popular with "locals" in lowsec)

Such hot drop roles are more a "tackling" position where you get in close, pick the biggest, most expensive target among them then drop cloak, pop cyno and tackle the target. While your friends are arriving, you'll usually see the rest of your target's friends warping off.

As such, your exploration and cloaking skills can come in handy for both PvE and PvP uses. Each race has some rather nice abilities for their forced recon ships -- The Caldari Falcon being beloved for it's ECM, The Rapier for it's webs and the Arazu for it's very long range point ability - not to leave out the Pilgrim though it's probably the least popular of the Recon ships for PvP use. It's not as robust as the Curse but is a respectable ship in its own right.

Gas sites are LADAR. Magnetometric are the wrecks and ruins sites that require salvager/analyser and are mostly a waste of time in highsec.

Ignore Mocam, he's giving you the E-Uni line. Ninja Salvaging is great ISK for a new player and once you're 3 months old, you're extremely dangerous to every mission runner who decides to shoot you.

Now, do keep in mind that the ONLY way to keep it profitable is to steal everything so if you're not comfortable being a thief (remember, this is a game and it's fun to be the bad guy sometimes), you shouldn't walk the Dark Path. Eventually, the mission bears start shooting, and you start ransoming and ganking. People in high sec will OFTEN agree to pay the worth of their ship (with no mods) rather than seeing you blow it up. That starts to add up pretty quickly. Whether or not you honor the ransom is up to you.

Drop me a convo in game or send a message if you want the details.

Exploration is fun though and works really, really well with a 2nd account. Other than that, you probably want to work toward an all-in-one Tengu for high sec (yes, even after the nerf I think) or an all-in-one Ishtar for Low/Null. Worm Holes you almost need a 2nd account for a salvager/prober to go along with your standard HML drake. You'll lose those 2 ships/pods eventually, but profits in C1s (preferred due to more frigate wrecks) & C2s are pretty much insane for a new player and will pay for those 2 ships many times over.