EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi.

I've managed to gather that a lot of people like the Gila or Ishtar for combat signatures, but both of those are a bit expensive for me at present. What would be another, preferably cheaper, candidate ship for someone just beginning in this area of the game? Vexor/VNI to be upgraded later to one of the above?

The VNI is a great ship. Very versatile.

But...the T3D line is all but designed exactly for this. The hull has a fitting bonus for probe launchers, tanks a ton, moves fast, or dishes out good DPS, all on demand.

I prefer the Confessor. Crystals take up very little room, instantly change ammo types, and even faction still lasts so long that it's a non-factor in your income stream.

Can the T3D line go into lower DED sites like 1/10 and 2/10?

As a follow-up, what sort of success rate would be reasonable to expect? So far, I've probably found and run in the region of 20 - 30 combat signatures or their follow-ons, the majority being a mix of unrateds, 2/10 and escalations, with perhaps 2-3 3/10 signatures - and 1 more that I left because someone clearly more knowledgeable than I decided to come into a site I was doing. I've found exactly 2 things that weren't OPE or random ammo/stuff (drone fluid and so on), and the 2 things I found added up to less than 1 million.

The VNI will eventually pay for itself at this rate, sure, but it seems as if it would, in fact, be considerably more profitable to just run level 4 SoE missions. Can that really be true?

- Don't use a Gila, due to drone travel it's too slow to destroy the "boss target" in the last pocket and will almost always lose out to someone else who's also in that pocket. On top of that the drone travel also makes clearing the earlier pockets a lot slower.

- don't aim for a T3D, if you can fly one right now and it's your only option then sure but they're not great for this at all. Reason is that while they are really strong for a destroyer hull they lack the dps projection of a good cruiser.

- don't bother with silliness like the Astero or other funky frigates

- The VNI is... ok IF you can use sentries. Without them it's a waste of money.

- don't use ships that require kiting, kiting is a fancy word for running away and that wastes time and results in (being forced) far away from the acceleration gate as you clear the pocket, giving others (who don't need to kite) the advantage


The trick is to have a ship that can tank the npc, this requires some ~300 dps tank, while it can do 400+dps at 50+km range. Sentry Ishtar, Sentry Stratios and HAM Cerberus (only in Gal/Cal) are good HS Combat explorers. A Muninn is actually quite decent and can operate in all factions of space, the Deimos does ok in Gal/Cal and the Beam Phantasm works fine in Amarr space.


If you're fairly new to EVE then I'd start in a normal destroyer, for the sites you can do (3/10, Hideout and Lookout) they're quite good, they're cheap and don't require massive skill training to work well. A Vexor, Caracal and Arbitrator also work well if you have more skill points and a bit more cash.





The trick is to do it RIGHT™ and most people do it wrong. Here's a few hints:


- don't waste time on anomalies, their average payout is a lot lower compared to combat signatures

- only loot the targets that (may) contain DS loot, do not waste time looting or salvaging normal wrecks

- don't bother with drone sites, their average payout is bad

- learn how to do a site faster and better each time you do it. Some pockets don't need to be cleared at all, some only require a trigger (or sequence of triggers) to advance to the next pocket

- stay in 0.5 to 0.8 space, being in 1.0 or 0.9 seriously lowers your income

- don't use kiting fits, as explained above. Being new probably means you can't avoid it much but if possible go for tanky fits with good ranged dps

- realise that signature spawn is NOT random, some systems and areas have a higher than average chance to have combat sigs, and some areas just suck out. Bookmark every valid site you find, the longer you do this the more you'll realise that some systems end up with more bookmarks than others. Then once you gathered enough data points start acting on that information and focus on those good areas. This is also why at first you'll probably suck out as you'll just randomly visit systems, AND it's also a good reason to start off in a cheap and fast destroyer (if you're new) because the first few weeks you're going to run around aimlessly


IF you do it right™, this requires a few brain cells and effort, and you learned what the good areas are and fly a proper ship then you can make some 200-500 mil a day on average with combat exploration in high sec. But as said, most people will do it wrong and will tell you how bad high sec is for this and give you terrible advice.

Newbie Question: Complexes are the combat sides I have to scan down, right? Are all combat signatures complexes. I got it that there are DED rated complexes and non rated complexes, but is there some other form of combat signature?

Thanks for all the follow-up help, everyone!

I won't bore anyone with my EVE story, but I've played since 2010 on and off, so I am not a total newbie. To this area of the game, though, I am. The VNI works decently well, and it probably is just a case of experience more than anything. And even if the ISK isn't amazing, this is certainly more entertaining to do while waiting for manufacturing jobs to finish than level 4 missions. I've been using eve-uni's wiki for site info, but at the same time, I'm no master fitter.

The VNI I fitted can't really tank (unless range counts as tank) just trying to focus on triggers in slightly higher sites, and while I have T2 sentries, I'm definitely feeling the inefficiencies in having to switch to Lights when stuff gets too close, or just having to sit at 40km to blap stuff to then pack up and MWD to the gate. It's not terrible, but I definitely do like the idea of a another ship.

Since I live in Amarr space, a Cerb (not that I have the skills for it) isn't really ideal, and a Muninn (or Phantasm) seems like it'd suffer from the TDs that Blood Raiders have. I mostly kill those. That was what made me go for a Corax for sites a cruiser can't get into, since missiles aren't affected by TDs. Is there a decent alternative, or can the Muninn deal with the TDing?

Like I wrote, ISK effective or not, this is pretty fun. I'd like to identify a goal I could train towards to eventually replace the VNI.

They both work fine in BR space, Beams have really good tracking and the Phantasm gets a tracking bonus. Muninn can also work well and is easier to use as you don't have to switch ammo/crystals. The Upside to the Muninn is that is also works elsewhere but the Phantasm is a beast.

[Phantasm, Explorer Shield]
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II

10MN Afterburner II
Gistum B-Type Medium Shield Booster
Thermal Dissipation Field II
EM Ward Field II
EM Ward Field II
Thukker Large Cap Battery

Heavy Beam Laser II, Standard M
Heavy Beam Laser II, Standard M
Heavy Beam Laser II, Standard M
Core Probe Launcher II, Core Scanner Probe I

Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Energy Locus Coordinator II
Medium Energy Locus Coordinator II

Hobgoblin II x3



[Muninn, Explorer Armor]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Tracking Enhancer II
Corpum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer

Corelum C-Type 50MN Microwarpdrive
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script

720mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP M
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump II

Hobgoblin II x5
Phased Plasma M x8870
EMP M x4553
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x24
Optimal Range Script x2