EVE New Citizens Q&A

I would familiarize myself with scanning before making a decision on what region to use for exploration. Google some guides, loads out there that are helpful. Once scanning holds no more secrets you are ready to go :).

Have fun o/

null sec is certainly where the money is for exploration, and is probably very workable not only for a new character, but also a new player, if you have some savvy that is.

However, to explore needs a slightly different mindset then the rest of the Eve PvP community, because frankly we can't fight, we have to rely on being slippery and not getting caught in the first place. Hell, even the NPC rats in exploration sites will laugh and shout "Noob" at you

So I would suggest.
1. Stay in high sec until you have all of your basic scanning skills down to pat. You need to be able to hit a system quickly determine if any sites are worth the while, scan them down and get in fast, do the business with the mini game and get out of 'Dodge' before anybody knows that you are there.

2. Head into low sec. Yes, you actually have a lot of players who are actually hunting down explorers like us. But the lessons learnt will serve you well. Go in with ships you can afford to lose, when you do get caught and get swatted, do so with grace and see if you can get some tips and advice off the guy who has taken you down. Most player pirates are actually OK guys if you accept your loss with good grace.

3. Head into null sec. As I said, at the moment null is the place to be. Generally we explorers are flying under the big player alliance RADAR. Not that they don't know we are there, we are just an annoying set of pests to them, who at the moment are just too much hassle to deal with. Though expect to get stomped-on with extreme prejudice if they catch you.
Also in null, you need to know how to opperate a long way from home, with little or no support, where even fellow explorers will 'have a go' if it means the difference between them or you getting that sweet data site. There is definatly no 'honour amongst thieves when it comes to the Exploration community

If you can get to the stage where you can fly a Strategic Cruiser then you are pretty much unstoppable. However, I suspect that may not remain the case. OK, this is perhaps me being Mr Cynical, but seeing as the CSM is usually dominated by the big null sec alliance members I suspect that it is going to be not too long before they start trying to use ‘political’ means to get us nerfed out of their patch. But we will see.

Keep your eyes on null sec, Oh and don’t forget WH systems too. A different game altogether, but great fun and can be very lucrative too

I can't get in game today, due to that RL thing. But is there a dedicated explorer channel? If not it might be worth setting one up.

While we all tend to be do our own thing sort of guys, I don't see whay we don't have a channel to help eachother, or just chat with like minded folks, while we are keeping out of eachothers hunting patch of course

The only reason I can think of to use a Strategic Cruiser rather than a Covops frigate is that you'll have teeth to fight back against someone if they choose to harass you. In a Covops frig, you're paper, and if you get caught (which you shouldn't if you're a good Covops player utilizing your D-scan) you'll die.

I use dotlan map. You can select your region and there are few comboboxes above the map, that allow you to retrieve crusial information you need. Like show amount of jumps in last 24 hours - that way you can find calm, unpopulated place. Or amount of pods, destroyed in last 24 hours - you can see, which low sec systems are more dangerous, and whaich are less used / dangerous.

With the last game patch exploration became so popular, that it is not benefitial any more. Prices for loot droped from several milions to merely few hundret of thousands isk. If you decide, that exploration is not worth your time any more - you can use dotlan maps to find out stations and corporations agents (if you decide to go missioning). Really usefull tool, I would say.