Missions & Complexes

Has exploration always been this profitable? Cuz that's pretty much where I went to right away after the expansion hit, and I'm making around 200+ mil isk an hour doing it by myself in a buzzard. I'm liking the money but the hacking minigame is pretty much 100% luck and I'm not having fun doing it or dealing with the loot spewing.

Its 100% luck because there is no way pinpoint or even gain a hint to where the core is or where the viruses are, you just have to click around blindly and hope that you stumble across something good.

Take this image, for example: http://i.imgur.com/YjNFg0Q.jpg

This is a site I was doing out in null sec. You can't honestly tell me that me getting to the core in that can had anything to do with me being skilled at the minigame. And likewise when you get a can that throws 2-3 of the restore or weakening virsus one after the other is not caused by me making a mistake while trying to hack it.

The point I'm trying to make is that the minigame feels like you barely have any effect on the outcome on whether or not your hack is successful. Pretty much the only influence you have on it is how you use the utilities, but really you figure out the optimal way to use them almost immediately.

It is 100% luck when you have less than 70 or 80 virus cohesion, with the data and relic skills both at 3 and my Tengu electronic sub system at 4 I complete the mini-game at least 80% of the time on the first try as long as I don't get 4+ restoration notes, but that is pretty extremely rare.

Love new changes but I have question which I keep asking myself but curious to hear what others think. I have max skilled fully fitted Explo Proteus. But since there are no rats at Data or Relic sites I was thinking some cheaper option. Maybe I should switch to Exploration Cheetah. Also if I lose ship in 0.0 or low sec, it wouldnt cost me much at all (unless I carry newly found expensive goodies).

So what do you think, Proteus or Cheetah? Thanks.

After now having some time to have a go at these sites in local null systems, the first thing I noticed was that they were not simple. While the high sec sites seemed to be so easy to complete it was almost braindead to do it, the relic sites I was fining in null was averaging me one successful hack for every 5 I attempted (skills at 3, Helios with rigs).

On the flip side, me and a friend did a C3 data site, with rats, the rats not being a walk in the park for us either, and the hacks felt like they were high sec ones with virtually no effort required with a loot distribution that, well, the salvage was better from the rats.


On the whole, with the difficult ones where it feels like you have some chance, I do not mind the game. The dead easy ones are simply boring and more irritating than fun. I am having fun generally on the whole however.

My main issue I have with this at the present stage is that to ensure all cans are grabbed, two of us are ready for the explosion each time. In the relic and data sites in null however, there is nothing for my friend to do but sit there and twiddle his thumbs until I either succeed or blow up. Personally I think that a mechanic that seems to be designed around having more than one player to grab the loot effectively is more than a little counter productive when the second person, when he is not randomly clicking the loot on success, has nothing but the stars and maybe market browsing or alt tabbing to attend to in the meantime.

In null at least he can have some job watching local, not that I am not already doing so, and staying safe,. In high this issue would be exacerbated - though at least mollified somewhat by the fact that it probably is much quicker getting each can done when they are so boring and brain dead as they seem to be in high sec anyway.

NO, totally untrue. Null-sec is very dangerous. Nasty gate camps all over with bubbles (oh my) and roaming fleets of hooligans just looking for explorers.

I advise anyone to stay away trust me ;)

Stay in low sec and high sec where you have a chance of survival.