Missions & Complexes

Im a fulltime explorer, flying in Ammatar space Highsec, lowsec and often entering nullsec for some exploration fun. I wanted to ask you all, fellow explorers, what your own opinion and experiences are. I personally have the feeling that exploration was a mostly complex and exciting stuff to do when i speak of the times like some years ago. In the last months it was a folkssport, done by everyone and it appears to have undergone some changes and nerfs making it almost uninteresting at this time.

Ill give you some overview what is often to find and how my experiences are, inlcuding what my corp means about, which is based mostly on exploration.

Im starting with the "most wanted" and then decreasing by value and popularity

Sansha Vigil - https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Sansha_Vigil
Surely the best of all sigs we have in our region in highsec.
Time needed: 3 - 5 mins when run with a cruiser solo
Pocket 1: ignore all, orbit warpgate 500 meter, target Tower, destroy, warp. (30secs-1 min)
Poeckt 2: ignore all, target and kill stasis tower while MWD away from warp in, he spawns faction and 3 spider drones. spit out drones, send them against spider drones, take them out. shoot Faction, bookmark wreck, collect drones, warp out (2 min if slow)

Well, i think it is very easy. It is ok, just not the challenge ud expect from a high value signature. A lil bit more challenge would be fine, and i also would prefer that loot shouldnt not include faction items, but only complex items (c-type). In general the number of dropping single resist membranes and resist plates is far too high, as those are barely of any use and the balance of availability to market demand is too far from each other.

Sansha Watch - https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Sansha_Watch
Nice sig, but in fact, i consider this a broken signature.
Time needed: max 3 mins, cruiser solo
Pocket 1: Warp in, fly to warpgate, ignore all but Slave commander, kill him, gate unlocks (20-30 secs)
Pocket 2: Warp in, head to true sansha 90km) using AB or MWD, ignore all, kill faction, loot, done (30 secs- 1min)

Too easy, doesnt require anything. The ships inside are a waste of time as bounty is like max 20K which means my ammo costs would be higher than i could get rewards as most of them drop only metallscraps and give like no salvage on a salvager II with skill V. Same here - too many membranes and resist plates, barely anything of use: if lucky then a lowvalue implant or a nano or adaptive membrane.

Sansha Command Relay Outpost - https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Sansha%27s_Command_Relay_Outpost
Well, rare, doesnt require much to do, but fly in and let your drones kill everything.
Time need: max 5 mins.
Pocket 1: fly in, kill all (frigs only). (1-2 min)
Poeckt 2: fly in, kill commander, bm, warp out. (30 secs)

Why at all place a a commander in pocket 1? In former times you could be lucky to get loot from him too, this is gone since months. Atm he only drops command relay key - useless, no value, no sense = garbage. Pocket 2 also ionly requires like 5 volleys, and thats it. Loot and salvaging have like no value, i consider this a timesink and im not speding my time looting and salvagin when the time is in no relation to profit.

Sanshas Nation Occupied Mining Colony - https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Sansha%27s_Nation_Occupied_Mining_Colony
Too rare, second pocket is also a blitzer.
Time needed 5 mins
Pocket 1: Fly in, kill all while orbiting warp gate in 500 meter. (4 mins 30)
Pocket 2: fly in, kill faction, BM, warp out. (30 secs)

Again, looting and salvaging is waste of time, dont even think about to kill all and then get out like 2 armor plates and minor loot with a value of below 10K per piece, the ammo costs more than the profit and junk fills your bay, not to mention that ud need like 10 mins to loot and salvage - in that time you could have scanned 2 more systems and if lucky already done another sig. Too many plates and single resists, few of sense. Weird: sometimes he drops up to 4 pieces of loot, sometimes nothing. I think it would be better to have a stable number of things inside and reduce the number of totally unused plates and membranes and put in stuff that is demanded on market.

Sansha Hideouts are common like sand on beach, while Sansha Accimatization Facility is so rare, i think ive seen 2 or 3 in the last 6 months.

The frequency of expeditions is so low, that receiving one is at least some difference to the usualy scanning and roaming and pinning wormholes. But having 19 jumps for some tag and ammo is also a big issue, espcially since there is only one piece of ammo thats of use, the rest is not as good as common faction ammo or t2 and the tags? wll how many you want? 100? 500?

Drone Sigs are very rare in our region beside Haunted yard which is almost 1 in every 3rd system.

I think the spawn routines and algorythms should be overviewed. The time you have to put in and to find something of value makes exploration right now so demotivating and boring and always the same, that the fun is gone - at least for me and many of my corp.

Lowsec and nullsec is still some challenge, and we are there frequently, but for common players with a limited amount of time the investment to fly to where sigs are is too high to do that permanently and living there is not my goal.

I'm still a total nubbin to PVE work, why are you BM'n the wreck and warping out instead of burning in to scoop it?

Also, I thought I read somewhere that expeditions wouldn't necessarily send you to lower sec since the change, but I've had two so far send me into null. It isn't a big sample size, but I have yet to complete an expedition that escalated all the way that didn't go to null.

If you want a hard site try the Blood Raider Temple Complex (the 2nd and 3rd escalations but even the first site isn't a joke)

I don't want to sound like a douche and no offense intended but... this isn't true and you would know it if you would try to run sites in low or null. I'm a solo player and i run sites but i ignore high sec because (probably you already know this) everyone is doing the same. And no, i don't invest hundreds of hours to go to null and to find a site. Fun fact is that i play Counter Strike much more than EVE. That is true pew pew.

The competition in high sec for epic blood plates (or whatever) is so high it's ridiculous. Yeah yeah, i know what drops in Guristas space but you have 4/10s in low too.

You don't like the competition (me neither) but you don't have to live in null if you are searching for decent faction loot. I live in low and i use wormholes if i want to go to null. I used to live in npc null but why make the things harder for me when in low (non-fw low) is easier to live alone. Things are very quiet here and i like the solitude because EVE is a relaxing game for me after all. I'm a hermit PVEer, i rarely pvp because my killboard is already green enough and i don't give a crap anymore. Orbit-keep at range + F1 is hardcore for me so i'm retired.

And i don't know what i'm saying all this crap but the tl:dr is that high sec sucks monkey balls if you want to run sites in peace.

From a few days ago the hard work are to find any of those named. Im in diff accounts and see that low and null are hard about as before to find, but the low sec ones have nearly disapeared. In high sec I have seen big changes in Minmatar and Ammatar space the last week. Nerfed?

If you're looking for more of a challenge come and do some sleeper sites in wormholes.

I don't recall seeing a notice that this forum was for bittervets only.

Now I am off to do some Burrows in a 1.0 using my rookie ship.