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Missions & Complexes

 
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Exploration - any point in doing it in high sec?

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Chimpy B
The Philosophy Of Two
#41 - 2012-08-20 11:55:49 UTC
To make isk from exploration in hi-sec, you need to find combat sites, like the 3/10 or 4/10 or equivalent unrated ones. Often you'll get a 50m+ item from the faction ship at the end.

However, these sites are pretty uncommon and, in caldari hi-sec, there are loads of people doing it.
Vrykolakasis
Sparrowhawks Corp
#42 - 2012-08-20 14:12:32 UTC
I've made good isk in hisec exploration before, but I don't honestly see the point, since lowsec exploration is so much more profitable. Almost no one does it so you have your pick of sites, and even if someone does enter local you just have to check dscan for probes (assuming you're at a probable site, if you're at a ship-scannable site, just set your dscan to 360 and short range, warp off if someone gets too close). Additionally, the vast majority of lowsec roamers (some exceptions) give up on trying to find you if they don't see you at a gate or an obvious location on dscan.

However, I see the argument for hisec exploration: that it should be on-par with hisec mission isk. The problem with that is the difference between a steady isk income and bursts of isk income: you can calculate how long it will take you to make a billion isk running missions and grind up to that, and you might not find anything in that period of time exploring, but then you might find a billion and a half worth of deadspace drops in a day. In my experience, the deadspace drops are less valuable and more common, though.

Additionally (and this is a general statement, I don't know where the original poster explores), if you don't like the competition in caldari space and don't want to go elsewhere, start out-competing other players.
Aster Nightwolf
State War Academy
Caldari State
#43 - 2012-08-21 08:31:01 UTC
This is a topic I'm interested in. I love to scan for WH's back to hisec (I live in 0.0 dronelands). That said, I did have a question about finding sites in nullsec. I live in a dead end system and there only mainly seems to be some combat sites there. Where can I find sites like radar etc? Do they appear anywhere or must the sol system be upgraded to allow for it? Also are the dronelands really worth it regarding exploration? I hear that it is not.
Transient Drifter
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#44 - 2012-08-22 15:36:40 UTC
the last 2 4/10 sites i ran got me ~600mil... its kind of a crap shoot...

running mag/radar sites will typically pull me 40-50mil in an evening, it really depends on how many of those sites i find. The salvage sites i dont have much luck with but occasionally you'll pull some tech2 salvage that will pull 15mil for 1 piece.

not all of the sites are going to have OMGBBQSAUCELOOT!!111! so you gotta stick with it, for the good stuff.

i hit a frigate sized combat site that can escalate 5 times, or it may not go anywhere...

part of what is exciting about exploration is that there really isn't a set amount of ISK/hr you're going to make... you could pull 5 crap sites in a row but that 1 good site is going to make up for all of it.
Vincent Athena
Photosynth
#45 - 2012-08-22 16:28:32 UTC
Last time I went exploring in high sec:

I found a 4/10 complex. When I got there I found 2 drakes shooting stuff, and then a Tengu warped in as well. The Tengu was faster than my Proteus and was able to get to a low end container first. But that delayed him to the point that we both entered the second pocket close to each other. He went directly for the main bad guy..and got hung up on a structure. I carefully navigated around the structure. Still he made it to the big bad guy at about the same time as me, and annoyingly got the kill. I let him have the loot he earned, but started salvaging the wreck. He left. I got 15 T2 salvage items worth 80 mil total.

The two drakes then showed up, shot some lesser rats and left.

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Chimpy B
The Philosophy Of Two
#46 - 2012-08-22 17:16:34 UTC
Isn't it really bad form to utilise a complex someone else is already at? People I've seen come to mine just warp away again, and I do the same.
Scoto Timta
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#47 - 2012-08-22 21:50:52 UTC
Chimpy B wrote:
Isn't it really bad form to utilise a complex someone else is already at? People I've seen come to mine just warp away again, and I do the same.

You DO realize that this is EvE, right? PirateTwisted
Daniel Plain
Doomheim
#48 - 2012-08-22 23:39:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Daniel Plain
Scoto Timta wrote:
Chimpy B wrote:
Isn't it really bad form to utilise a complex someone else is already at? People I've seen come to mine just warp away again, and I do the same.

You DO realize that this is EvE, right? PirateTwisted

i stole a faction MWD and medium rep from the same overseer once. good times.

edit: do overseers drop better salvage? i never noticed before but the again, i didn'T really pay attention.

I should buy an Ishtar.
Chimpy B
The Philosophy Of Two
#49 - 2012-08-23 07:04:29 UTC
Scoto Timta wrote:
Chimpy B wrote:
Isn't it really bad form to utilise a complex someone else is already at? People I've seen come to mine just warp away again, and I do the same.

You DO realize that this is EvE, right? PirateTwisted

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St Mio
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#50 - 2012-08-23 09:52:15 UTC
Hey! Just because in game we're all genocidal egomaniac tyrants with tendencies to a lil' bit of the ultraviolencing, doesn't mean we can't be polite when we shoot people in the face.
Diesel47
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#51 - 2012-08-23 12:40:14 UTC  |  Edited by: Diesel47
Lady Darkmoon wrote:
Well, if we're going to be assumptive, then do tell me what other progression people take towards L4's ?

Also, my ingame skills are all level 4, including hacking, salvaging and archeology. Only skill I have at 3 is Acquisition, which anyone who read up about the skills knows is quite useless to train higher due to the max 10 seconds on the scanning timer anyways. I have sisters core launcher, sister probes, rigs fitted. Granted, I don't have implants just yet. Though I would buy those if I saw there was much to gain from exploration, which I haven't seen yet to justify implants.

As for player skills I have no problems scanning down the sites. Some take longer than others to pinpoint, but that's to be expected. I've been doing scanning to probe down ships in PvP long before I started trying out the exploration part of the game in terms of finding sites and loot. So I think my player skills in terms of pinpointing sites is quite sufficient considering I can pinpoint ships quite fast on my PvP character.

As for whining on the forums, I'm alt tabbing to the forums on my 2nd monitor while warping between the systems, or while waiting for probes to reposition and complete scan. So your blatant assumption that I'm sitting on forums just whining and not playing the game are completely wrong. In fact, I am just now running two accounts at same time.

Anyways, glad to hear that people are getting lucky and finding sites worth hundreds of millions in highsec. I certainly haven't found those yet despite being persistant and keep trying. Sounds to me some are having streaks of luck better than others.


Don't take these guys too seriously. They just like to assume things about people and disagree with everything because they don't know what they are talking about.

I do agree that exploration needs a bit of work, compared to the other "professions" only a handful of people are into it because it is a hassle, and the effort to fun ratio is terrible.

I think it should have more risk invloved, more mystery, and more reward. And I also think that exploration needs to have some kinda of story element so you actually learn and explore things. Not something boring like "guristas mining outpost" *Yawn*

Exploration can be alot better than it currently is, and I think CCP should take a serious look at it because a space game with lame exploration is a lame game.

edit:
And I agree that exploration shouldn't be about "isk per hour", but it shouln't be only about getting lucky and finding faction loot either. If I explore... I actually want to explore things, not just find a few rats or some generic loot lying around.
Calisto Thellere
#52 - 2012-08-23 17:35:57 UTC
personally i explore high sec as a change from null pvp on my other chars.

Its relaxing, its exiting, its the feeling of 'is this next one going to be the jackpot?' that does it for me.

That said, iv done it a lot and started to grow a little bored as highsec exploration offers zero challenge anymore, so i got talking to another guy from mio's explo channel in game about null exploration.

Long story short, i bought another tengu, fitted a new JC and headed to outer ring. It was fun for sure, but the only draw back was not being able to run some of the plex's solo (as it should be) so i found myself ratting or running anoms some of the time while i waited for my explo buddy to come online.

Im back in high sec atm, not because its easier and less stress (it is) but it means i can run sites at my convenience and not rely on back up to run some of the trickier sites ( prison camp being one )

I intend to run an experiment with my exploration buddy next week regarding drop rates in high/low/null and the whole risk Vs reward system which i'll log when we start, it should be interesting to see if any patterns emerge or not.
Chimpy B
The Philosophy Of Two
#53 - 2012-08-23 17:46:56 UTC
Magnetometric and Radar sites could definitely be made more interesting and profitable.
Daniel Plain
Doomheim
#54 - 2012-08-23 20:12:43 UTC
Chimpy B wrote:
Magnetometric and Radar sites could definitely be made more interesting and profitable.

radar is quite ok imo. you usually get at least one item worth ~10mil.

also: do overseers drop better salvage? i never noticed before but the again, i didn'T really pay attention.

I should buy an Ishtar.
Mnemosyne Gloob
#55 - 2012-08-24 05:13:27 UTC  |  Edited by: Mnemosyne Gloob
Daniel Plain wrote:
also: do overseers drop better salvage? i never noticed before but the again, i didn'T really pay attention.


I am assuming you mean faction rats (the ones that are clearly marked as such) or the 'bosses' in ded sites - yes, they can yield tech 2 salvage, but then again it's random.

[edit]There is a bit of misunderstanding about those 'overseer rats' sometimes. For instance in various unrated complexes there can be named rats that people might think they are special, but are in fact just normal rats with just a name (hence named). The best way to see if you want to lock the wreck up and salvage is to have the Type column on your overview and look for 'xxx commander wreck' (i think that's what it says for those faction ships). Or bookmark each room and get your noctis Oops [/edit]
Sanitation Engineer
Doomheim
#56 - 2012-08-27 02:53:36 UTC
I've made tens of billions of ISK doing only high sec exploration. You just have to understand the game mechanics. Nothing more.
Tarn Kugisa
Kugisa Dynamics
#57 - 2012-08-27 03:03:17 UTC
I personally love exploration. The same way you do with the feeling of getting a full lock on a sig.
dat feel bro, dat feel

Anyway, get into NPC Nullsec if you like going solo, join up with a Sov alliance, or what I recommend is getting into a WH Corp. Wormholes will give you a shitton of ISK for actually not too much risk. All you have to do is scan down sites, and get a fleet up and complete the sites.

My favorite thing to do is find Mag sites. Those are probably the best because you don't need much firepower to get through them, just get a buddy to shoot rats for you.

Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to troll everyone you meet - KuroVolt
Pinstar Colton
Sweet Asteroid Acres
#58 - 2012-08-27 13:21:05 UTC
My first drop in a stray high sec site was from a 1 stage escalation. I got a low-grade slave implant that went for ~132 mil.

That said, a busy area of high sec will probably make isk generation from exploring hit-and-miss given both the random nature of the exploration AND the increased competition.

In the cat-and-mouse game that is low sec, there is no shame in learning to be a better mouse.

Idris Helion
Doomheim
#59 - 2012-08-27 13:59:30 UTC
I just did a big exploration run over the weekend (I just posted a report). Basically, I found that nothing has changed much since the last time I did one: it's fun, but the rewards suck.

Hisec Radar sites are still by far the best sites to run, but also the rarest and hardest to scan down.

Mag sites are okay -- worth running if you find one, but not something I'd spend a lot of time trying to find. (Mag sites often have better ores than hisec grav sites do, too -- I found some Hemorphite and Jaspet in a .8 mag site).

I haven't found a Ladar site in hisec in all the time I've been exploring. I'm not even sure Ladar sites exist in hisec.

Grav sites ought to just be removed from hisec altogether. They're worthless.

DED and unrated complexes are a mixed bag. I've gotten some good faction loot, but mostly the drops are very meh -- not even much high-meta stuff drops. And drone sites are a waste of time since they don't drop alloys any more.
Sanitation Engineer
Doomheim
#60 - 2012-08-28 20:33:30 UTC
Idris Helion wrote:
I just did a big exploration run over the weekend (I just posted a report). Basically, I found that nothing has changed much since the last time I did one: it's fun, but the rewards suck.

Hisec Radar sites are still by far the best sites to run, but also the rarest and hardest to scan down.

Mag sites are okay -- worth running if you find one, but not something I'd spend a lot of time trying to find. (Mag sites often have better ores than hisec grav sites do, too -- I found some Hemorphite and Jaspet in a .8 mag site).

I haven't found a Ladar site in hisec in all the time I've been exploring. I'm not even sure Ladar sites exist in hisec.

Grav sites ought to just be removed from hisec altogether. They're worthless.

DED and unrated complexes are a mixed bag. I've gotten some good faction loot, but mostly the drops are very meh -- not even much high-meta stuff drops. And drone sites are a waste of time since they don't drop alloys any more.


This has to be the dumbest thing I've read on the forums next to anything on General Discussion.

Gravimetric sites can contain lowsec ore that isn't otherwise available in highsec. And some miners happen to like those.

Ladar Sites do exist in highsec regions. You're just probing in the wrong region.

Radars/Mag sites are so/so.

DED Complex's are just fine. The deadspace/faction drops are random.

Unrated Complex's are there for newbies to get their feet wet before trying the harder complex's.

According to your 'report' where you probed a WHOPPING 10 systems, your sample size is complete crap.

On the average day I probe at least 70 systems and in some cases 4 entire regions. I've been averaging 1+ Billion ISK in deadspace modules per day, and that is completely ignoring unrated sites, radars, mags.

I only have one actual response then to your "report".

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.