These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Exploration Questions: Preparing for the Jump from High-Sec to Low and/or Null
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Utsukushi Shi
State War Academy
Caldari State
#61 - 2014-01-12 19:40:12 UTC
They do have a wave of Sleeper rats that spawn however they always spawn like 10-15 minutes after the site is first warped to. So if there are none there generally is enough time to mine out the most valuable cloud and then leave as the rats land on grid.
Bennett Askold
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#62 - 2014-01-13 11:52:34 UTC
There has been some great advice in this topic. I'm particularly intrigued by the possibility of heading 20 or so jumps into deep low and setting up an operation there - then using WH to find my way back to hi sec.

However, when I look at the maps I struggle to find a chain of more than half a dozen or so low sec planets - either they then go back into high or into null.

So at the risk of asking what may be a stupid question, can anyone make some suggestions as to the sort of areas that allow you to get into 'deep' low sec? I'm not looking to be completely spoon fed but perhaps a few systems that offer potential? I'm based in Minmatar space and the most promising so far appears to be Derelik. But even that doesn't seem to offer the chance of going deep low sec. Or perhaps I'm reading things incorrectly?

Any advice much appreciated!

Bennett
Riel Saigo
Facta.Non.Verba
#63 - 2014-01-13 15:42:00 UTC
This should help you:

http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/2012/06/low-sec-roamers-map.html

Note that there are only a few areas of New Eden that you can go that far into low sec (I was in Arridia when I did it). But you don't necessarily have to go quite that far to find a deserted or low traffic area of low sec.

One thing I would recommend is avoiding Faction Warfare areas. That tends to be more active Low Sec space in general.
Aeliana Augusta
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#64 - 2014-01-13 23:22:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Aeliana Augusta
Well, I have to say, null farming has been going pretty good as a result of this topic. Last night I got lucky with a few streaks of stacks of intact armor plates and power circuits, and raked in over 500M in a few hours.

One thing I'm still trying to gauge is whether or not I'm playing too cautiously, ruining my efficiency.

My gameplan right now (based out of a fairly low-traffic area in null), is looking at the statistics on the map for pilots in system in last 30 min, ships killed in last hour. If it looks busy I'll avoid it. I think that's pretty standard.

My efficiency questions start when I'm actually jumping through systems in null, and when I get to one that has no players in local, I scan down the data/relic, and then go for it. If a player comes in local, I start spamming d-scan set to max, and sometimes I'm just moving away from the hack resetting it so I can cloak up until the person leaves. Since I have little actual PvP experience from the perspective of the hunter, I'm not sure if I'm being too cautious in this regard.

Exactly how quickly can someone scan me down and get to me when I see them pop up in local? Part of me suspects I could probably learn to use d-scan or some other mechanics better to even do the sites while there is one or two others in local and gauge with d-scan when it's time to move away and cloak up or warp to a safe. Am I supposed to be waiting until d-scan actually shows them within distance, and then getting out? Thus far I've only seen players on d-scan while I'm hacking and their distance is "--". When someone comes in local I start hitting it every 5-10 seconds while hacking.

But of course there is the problem of other people flying cloaky ships, for which d-scan won't help. I've seen people who say they only go for it if there is nobody in local, so maybe I'll keep that policy, otherwise it's probably a matter of time before some anti-explorer stealth bomber wrecks me.
Marcus Avon
New Eden Fedo Lovers Society
#65 - 2014-01-14 01:50:13 UTC
Aeliana Augusta wrote:
Well, I have to say, null farming has been going pretty good as a result of this topic. Last night I got lucky with a few streaks of stacks of intact armor plates and power circuits, and raked in over 500M in a few hours.


Have to say that financially speaking you're doing a *lot* better than me. The best I have ever made in low / null exploration would be around 50 mill for a few hour session. More often its around 20 mill and sometimes nothing at all except long runs of WH's, combat, gas sites and relic sites containing nothing but well protected junk. ISk values like 500M seem totally unattainable to me..... so I'm not sure if I'm doing something drastically wrong or are just unlucky but from where I sit your efficiency looks pretty good. :)

I often get scanned down by other players and I no longer run from them. What I do is spam d-scan and wait for probes to appear. Doesn't matter whether they are cloaky or not, they will still have to scan either you or your site down. When I see lots of probes on short range 360 d-scan (about 500,000). I quit what I'm doing, move away, cloak up and wait, continuing to spam d-scan to see what those probes are doing.

If a ship warps in I check out the ship and the player and decide how dangerous they are. If they are just another explorer I will uncloak right behind them and lock them up, it usually scares the hell out of them and they leave straight away. If it looks like a real hunter has arrived, I just stay cloaked until they leave. If they seem the persistent type I just move on to the next system.

I would never actually fight someone in an explorer no matter how good my PVP skills, they are far too fragile for combat and will go down very quickly to anything that can remotely fight back.
Aeliana Augusta
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#66 - 2014-01-14 01:54:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Aeliana Augusta
Marcus Avon wrote:
Aeliana Augusta wrote:
Well, I have to say, null farming has been going pretty good as a result of this topic. Last night I got lucky with a few streaks of stacks of intact armor plates and power circuits, and raked in over 500M in a few hours.


Have to say that financially speaking you're doing a *lot* better than me. The best I have ever made in low / null exploration would be around 50 mill for a few hour session. More often its around 20 mill and sometimes nothing at all except long runs of WH's, combat, gas sites and relic sites containing nothing but well protected junk. ISk values like 500M seem totally unattainable to me..... so I'm not sure if I'm doing something drastically wrong or are just unlucky but from where I sit your efficiency looks pretty good. :)

I often get scanned down by other players and I no longer run from them. What I do is spam d-scan and wait for probes to appear. Doesn't matter whether they are cloaky or not, they will still have to scan either you or your site down. When I see lots of probes on short range 360 d-scan (about 500,000). I quit what I'm doing, move away, cloak up and wait, continuing to spam d-scan to see what those probes are doing.

If a ship warps in I check out the ship and the player and decide how dangerous they are. If they are just another explorer I will uncloak right behind them and lock them up, it usually scares the hell out of them and they leave straight away. If it looks like a real hunter has arrived, I just stay cloaked until they leave. If they seem the persistent type I just move on to the next system.

I would never actually fight someone in an explorer no matter how good my PVP skills, they are far too fragile for combat and will go down very quickly to anything that can remotely fight back.


It's really luck of the draw. I think there might be a grain of truth though that the further you go toward truesec ( -1.0) the better the loot. Just did a relic site in -0.2 a few minutes ago and one can spit out 14 intact armor plates and 4 power circuits. One can, that isn't even counting the rest of the site. That's over 50M.

I haven't had any massive scores with data sites on the other hand.

Thanks for the D-Scan tips. That sounds a lot better than what I've been doing.
Utsukushi Shi
State War Academy
Caldari State
#67 - 2014-01-14 02:00:48 UTC
One thing to remember about dscan is the maximum range is something like 13-14 AU. So if your site is farther than that from the nearest gate a person would need to warp to a nearby celestial or safe or just probe you down. Doesn't mean your safe necessarily but if your off scan from the gate it gives you a better chance of not attracting attention from someone passing through. Also watch for people from the same corp or alliance coming through in a row as they might of reported you in intel channels.
Bennett Askold
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#68 - 2014-01-14 09:24:46 UTC
Also, bear in mind that a hunter may have already scanned down the sites and so may not need to put out probes in order to warp into the site you're in.
Serrberus
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#69 - 2014-01-14 11:53:04 UTC
After following this thread and training the necessary skills, I decided to try my hand at exploration. Seems to me null-sec is the way to go, no one bothered me until I got into heavy traffic -A- space. Even then it was quite simple to evade and log until a convenient time to probe a wormhole and GTFO.

I made 100m isk in a little over 2 hours, it would have been much more if I hadnt been learning the whole time. Very lucrative career if done correctly. Also I completely ignored data sites, they are so many relics and the loot from relics takes a fraction of the cargo space.
Shiloh Templeton
Cheyenne HET Co
#70 - 2014-01-14 14:35:48 UTC
Aeliana Augusta wrote:
Well, I have to say, null farming has been going pretty good as a result of this topic. Last night I got lucky with a few streaks of stacks of intact armor plates and power circuits, and raked in over 500M in a few hours.




How hard do you find the mini-game in Null?

In low-sec when I find something juicy with the cargo scanner - invariably the mini-game is loaded with traps and it frequently explodes. I hate seeing good stuff go to waste so I've put off exploring until I can get T2 hacking equipment.
Utsukushi Shi
State War Academy
Caldari State
#71 - 2014-01-15 01:17:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Utsukushi Shi
What Bennett said above is very true, the more active an area is the more on edge you should be. Remember that if you are in a system without a station and there is someone else in local they are either in a POS or out in space somewhere. Back in Solitude I would often have an entire spread of systems scanned out and thus know pretty much what any given explorer was doing. I once sat cloaked up in a tengu and watched a guy finish an entire combat gas sites cans and then killed him as he finished hacking the last one to get the loot.

As for Shiloh. I understand wanting to get the good loot but think of it this way. If you don't get it someone else will. Better you fail the hack and move on to the next try than worry too much about losing it. You never know when you will get lucky and the core will be randomly one of the first nodes you click :D.
Marcus Avon
New Eden Fedo Lovers Society
#72 - 2014-01-15 01:30:14 UTC
Shiloh Templeton wrote:
How hard do you find the mini-game in Null?

In low-sec when I find something juicy with the cargo scanner - invariably the mini-game is loaded with traps and it frequently explodes. I hate seeing good stuff go to waste so I've put off exploring until I can get T2 hacking equipment.



I was at a -1.0 site yesterday and was blowing up at least 3/4 of the cans. The difficulty of those null sec sites is so high that I don't know how someone - even with full skills and modules - could be expected to consistently crack them. I think its just a pure luck based thing.

Basically if I end up getting one of those 80 strength multipliers or 60 strength virus level reducers its pretty much game over for that hack because even if I take them out, my integrity will be so badly reduced that I will be unable to take the core node. And in null sec sites they are everywhere.
Aeliana Augusta
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#73 - 2014-01-15 01:39:50 UTC  |  Edited by: Aeliana Augusta
Shiloh Templeton wrote:
Aeliana Augusta wrote:
Well, I have to say, null farming has been going pretty good as a result of this topic. Last night I got lucky with a few streaks of stacks of intact armor plates and power circuits, and raked in over 500M in a few hours.




How hard do you find the mini-game in Null?

In low-sec when I find something juicy with the cargo scanner - invariably the mini-game is loaded with traps and it frequently explodes. I hate seeing good stuff go to waste so I've put off exploring until I can get T2 hacking equipment.



It's absolutely difficult to near-impossible with low level skills and without T2 data/relic, you're quite right. You have to get very lucky. I'm sticking more into low-sec and if I get close to null and there's no traffic, I'll run through and see if I can find a relic or data.

On another note, I was looking at this link of data/relic exploration loot valuations: http://cache.preserve.io/4oxyc8h9/index.html

I haven't seen the "Very High Value" Faction Starbase Structures in any data or relic containers I've cargo scanned after a week of scanning the cans in null. I'm guessing even regular veteran explorers have rarely seen these? What exactly are they worth?

And on a final note, it's pretty amusing in that I'm realizing a lot of null players are just bypassing the data sites and only going for relic. I'm surprised CCP hasn't tried to balance the value of the two out. From an ISK/hr perspective, it makes sense to only go for relic.