Missions & Complexes

As everyone likes to say, it's all random. You could do some research, try traveling and hope for the best but expect the worst.

I'm talking about checking map stats for system info's, like amount of population, amount of jumps, NPC's killed, etc.

Best to look in areas that are not active travel routes, systems away from trade / mission hubs, systems with low or no population count.

Map out different areas or routes to explore. If other explorers are in the same area, go to another area. You can also try switching to a different time for doing your exploration, etc.



Now about the 2/10 and lower ship class sites, keep a Frigate located nearby in your various exploration areas to switch into whenever needed. Use the Cruiser, hopefully it's a T3, to continue your exploration and run all the other sites.

Anyway, good luck to you.


DMC

EDIT:
Don't forget to check goggle / Evelopedia for info on the various sites you scan down before warping to them.

Yeah, that's true but those sites will also be a lot tougher to run, will definitely need a good tough ship fit, not to mention take a lot more precautions, such as making safe spots, keeping an eye on local chat and spamming D-scan every minute or so.

DMC

Ok thanks guys, i just thought i was doing something wrong and didn't want to waste any more time.

May i ask why a "T3 hopefully"? I was thinking of running a 3/10 in a rupture and a 4/10 in a hurricane.

As for "radar sites pay more than mag sites" Is this just killing the rats there? Or actually hacking the containers that are there? I wasn't planning on hacking places, just pew pew.

So the game mechanics have changed some. I did post the link that showed the sites and the sig % in h,l, and null sec
It shows 1-5 in h and 1-6 in l with 6-10 in null.

The reason I posted as I did was to give the idea of difficulty progression. Sure there are 1/10 in l-sec but who goes into low sec to run 1/10?

Also there are varied ideas of the reasons to live in each sec space....
some feel that high sec is for beginners and people who are trying to decide on a path in the game....
low sec is for those who have decided and want to run pvp or like a bit more risk in their game play.
Null sec is for more experienced pilots who have a good understanding of the game and communication channels as well as warfare in eve.

That being just one perspective.

If you have never done exploration before, it's may take a week or so before you know the basics.

It may be a good idea for you to find at route of 7-10 systems, that you can cycle through, in other words the system where you start the route is also the system where you end the route, without having to pass through to many systems more then once. It's a good idea to use dotlan to find such a route.

Once you have a route you like start scanning down the systems, and write down the alphanumeric code of each signature you find. You may or may not find something good on your first cycle, if not wait 10-20 minutes and do it again. Now you can scan down the entire system using one problem, and ignore all signatures you have found on your previous cycle, and only scan down new signatures.

The advantage of this is that you can have i base close by with ships fittet for different tasks, like a combat frigate for small sites, mwd cruiser for mag/radar sites, battlecruiser for some escalations, and so on. It you stick to this method for a week or so you should probably get all the pirate sites in you region more then once, and you know which ships to use for which sites.

last 3 hours, 4 3/10, 3 4/10, coupple of watchs and vigils

When a site spawns it remains in the system until completed, or if left untouched for days it will just despawn. If you scan down a site you can return to the site until someone completes it, which generally for combat sites means until the overseer or overseer building is killed and for salvage site until someone tries to analyze/salvage/hack a container.

A site will not despawn as long as a player remains on the grid, if the site is completed and there is no player on grid, it despawns within a couple of minutes.

The popular theory about spawn mechanics is that once a site is completed, it with randomly respawn in another system, which allows that type site to spawn. Which means you might as well consider the spawn mechanics totally random, at least there is no publicly known method for manipulation signature spawn locations.

After each server downtime, all signatures get new alphanumeric codes, but they type of site does not change. Also after each downtime both signatures and anomalies are given alphanumeric codes following the same pattern, the letters are assign in alphabetic order, and the numbers are assign in what looks like random order. This is useful to know when you start scanning a new system, if you see several signatures and anomalies ending with the same two letter and some signatures that don't follow that pattern, start by scanning them down. It's most likely that all signatures and anomalies that end with same two letters was named right after downtime, other explores may have passed trough the system and already scanned them down, and left them because they were worthless. Whereas the signatures what do not have the same ending letters, are created some time after downtime and have a much higher chance of being recently spawn combat sites.

I said "T3 hopefully" due to it being able to scan and run all the mid / high level sites without needing to switch into another ship very often.

I use my Loki for scanning and completing almost all the sites "On The Fly" which allows me to be very mobile without having to haul a lot of ships / equipment around. I keep a Frigate stationed in each of the various areas / routes that I explore which I switch into for the occasional low level combat sites scanned down.

Decryptors (big ISK), Datacores, building materials and BPC's are found in the cans (Hacking) at Radar sites. Codebreaker module required.

Salvage Materials (wrecked and intact), Data Interfaces and BPO's are found in the cans (Archaeology / Salvaging) at Magnetometric sites. Analyzer and or Salvager module required.

Both sites can be completed fairly quickly. Mag sites are more plentiful but the Radar sites will net you much more ISK. I run all sites (except Grav sites) due to the random site spawn mechanics. Not to mention there's a lot of competition by other players. Because of that, you'll want to be able to scan the system, complete the sites and move on to another area asap with very little set up.

Most sites will remain for a few days if they haven't been completed. Mag and Radar sites will despawn if you try to open a can and then warp away. Due to competition, I doubt you'll be able to bookmark sites and complete them the next day., unless you're in a system that's located way far away from everything.

Anyway, good luck to you and don't give up.

DMC

Not entirely true. I agree, high-sec is way too over populated, in particular Gurista space , even more so with the recent rebalance of scanning frigates. That will cool down in a couple of weeks when the average mission runner with too much time on his hands will have given up again.

To fix this, avoid doing exploration during US and EU primetime, you will most likely find two explorers in every system in high-payout faction regions.

Before Retribution if i entered a site someone was already doing i would do everything i would to steal his loot, and i would expect him to do the same if the rolls was reversed. It's a fun mini-game where knowing the sites really well, and having a fast ship is a huge advantage.

Most players doing exploration are pve fit, but you never know if the other guy is pvp fit and will web, scram and blow you up, which is what makes it fun.

With the changes to stealing from cans, i would probably think twice before getting the suspect flag for stealing some worthless junk.