Science & Industry

Hi All,

I've activated my account and am back, having last played around 2010!

I'd like to get back into low sec mining, and wondered whether anything much has changed or whether I can just get back into the swing of things as I left off? I seem to have found my retriever, and am in the process of looking at whether I have drones etc!

If anyone could let me know here whether I need to know what I've missed, or fancies chatting me in game that'd be great. I'm currently in the Elerelle area.

[Edit] First thing I've noticed is that I don't have any learning skills any more and I seem to have been refunded a large number of skill points, so I guess that has been removed!

I think you want to read the developer blogs to get an idea of some of the changes that have happened.
http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/

Probably the most urgent to read is the upcoming skill changes that will go into effect June 4:
http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/the-great-skill-change-of-blessed-2013/
The TL;DR take-away of that is you should have Destroyer at 5, Battlecruiser at 5, All racial frigates at 4, all racial cruisers at 3. Some people don't like destroyers and say to stay away. You said you have a lot of skill points, and if it were me, they'd go towards getting the above skills to the above levels, and then save the skill points for later.
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2145728#post2145728

Something called "crimewatch" came out. If I were you, I would read about it before undocking or getting into PvP.
http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-the-new-and-improved-crimewatch/
http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/more-retribution-for-team-super-friends/

There is a feature called "dueling" where you no longer have to go 10 paces, can flip and start shooting. If someone tries to convince you that their duel thing is bugged, it is a trap. There are a bunch of new cons and scams. You may want to read up on those too.


Ships:
There has been a lot of rebalancing of ships. Slots added/removed, changes to cpu/power and so on. It is called "tiercide" as the goal is to remove tiers inside each class of ships.

If you don't mine, ignore the following.

Mining frigates and cruisers (with the exception of Vexor Navy Issue) have had their mining bonuses removed. They are now entry level logistics ships (they were before, but got some buffing). The entry level mining ship is called Venture. Ore and gas goes into the "ore hold".

Mining barges got a huge boost last summer. Exhumers pretty much follow the barges in roles. The 1 and 2 turret barges get boosts in the amount of ore per cycle, so all ships pull in about the same volume per cycle. Ore now goes into the ore hold. So the cargo hold is pretty much for hauling crystals and looting rats.
Procurers have a battleship sized tank and are intended for solo mining in dangerous places (low & null).
Retrievers are intended for solo mining.
Covetors are intended for fleet mining ops.
http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/ship-balancing-mining-barges/

This is all very helpful, thanks for the responses!