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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Alpha Fits for Exploration?

Author
Thomas Riipley
Bakunawa Corp
#1 - 2017-06-02 09:12:37 UTC
Hi, I was wondering if there area any fits for alpha that can take a hit and also attack,
I was thinking of using a Vexor for exploration, but I don't know.
What do you guys suggest?
Thanks in advance.
Wombat65Au Egdald
R I S E
#2 - 2017-06-02 11:13:03 UTC
First, you need to use scanner probes to locate most sites that are considered to be exploration sites. A ship that has bonuses for scanner probes will help you pinpoint the sites faster, but not really help much after you have pinpointed an exploration site.

Getting loot from an exploration site will involve "hacking" objects inside the site. The "hacking" is a mini-game inside Eve. Ships that give bonuses to "virus strength" definitely help hacking, but hacking can be done with a ship that does not have a virus bonus. Expect hacking to fail more often without the virus bonus.

As a Gallente Alpha, the only ship you have access to that has both scanning and virus bonuses is the Imicus frigate. The Sisters of Eve faction ships are not an option because you need to train skills for both Gallente and Amarr ships, and as a Gallente Alpha, you can't train for Amarr ships.

If you are prepared to accept spending more time scanning the location of sites and a higher rate of hacking failure, any ship you feel comfortable with can be used for exploring.

There is another option. There is another faction available that doesn't get talked about much, but has ships that any Alpha can fly. The faction is called the Society of Conscious Thought and it has two ships, a destroyer called the Sunesis and a battlecruiser called the Gnosis. Both ships have scanning bonuses but no virus bonuses for hacking. The ships do not have any race specific skill requirements to fly them, you only need to train the basic Spaceship Command 1 skill for both ships (they improve as you train other skills but Spaceship Command 1 is the only skill you MUST train to fly them), they can be either armor or shield tanked, they can use any weapon system (lasers, hybrids, projectiles, missiles and drones).

To the best of my knowledge these ships are not built by players, they are given to players by CCP as gifts for things like game anniversaries, so there is only a limited number of them. Because of this, they are more expensive than a regular destroyer or battlecruiser. A quick look at a 3rd party Eve market site shows approx. 200 Sunesis destroyers currently for sale with an average price of approx. 35 million isk per ship. The same site shows well over 2000 Gnosis battlecruisers also for sale at an average price of approx. 70 million isk per ship. That's actually a lot more Gnosis ships for sale than I was expecting to see.

Specs for Sunesis: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Sunesis
Specs for Gnosis: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Gnosis
Kathern Aurilen
#3 - 2017-06-02 11:38:20 UTC
You might try a thorax it has 5 high slots for guns and a probe launcher, 4 mid slots for hacker and relic analyzer, and 4 low for armor and repair mods since it has a rep bonus, and a OK drone bay. You can add grav rug to help with scanning if needed for extra scan strength.

I have 2 scan ships a imicus and a ventture I rigged out and fitted so I scan when I'm mining to pass the time.

No cuts, no butts, no coconuts!

Forum alt, unskilled in the ways of pewpew!

Do Little
Bluenose Trading
#4 - 2017-06-02 12:14:18 UTC
Explorers survive by stealth. The SOE ships - Astero and Stratios are combat capable but very expensive and not included in the Alpha skillset.

The SoCT ships are also combat capable and useful for running combat sites but you'll have difficulty hacking data and relic sites without the hull bonus for virus strength.

Imicus is an excellent exploration ship and it's very inexpensive. If you are exploring in more dangerous regions (where the valuable loot can be found) without a cloak you are going to lose some ships.

In sovereign nullsec you have access to some of the most valuable exploration sites in the game and you have intel channels to inform you when hostiles are nearby. If you find something you can't handle like a DED 10/10 other players in your corporation will happily pay you for the bookmark. Your corp will likely buy most of the loot you collect and may offer a reward for finding and bookmarking wormholes. There are several nullsec corps that specialize in new players - including Alphas: Brave Newbies, Pandemic Horde and Karmafleet are examples.
Kathern Aurilen
#5 - 2017-06-02 13:54:09 UTC
Do Little wrote:
Explorers survive by stealth. The SOE ships - Astero and Stratios are combat capable but very expensive and not included in the Alpha skillset.

The SoCT ships are also combat capable and useful for running combat sites but you'll have difficulty hacking data and relic sites without the hull bonus for virus strength.

Imicus is an excellent exploration ship and it's very inexpensive. If you are exploring in more dangerous regions (where the valuable loot can be found) without a cloak you are going to lose some ships.

In sovereign nullsec you have access to some of the most valuable exploration sites in the game and you have intel channels to inform you when hostiles are nearby. If you find something you can't handle like a DED 10/10 other players in your corporation will happily pay you for the bookmark. Your corp will likely buy most of the loot you collect and may offer a reward for finding and bookmarking wormholes. There are several nullsec corps that specialize in new players - including Alphas: Brave Newbies, Pandemic Horde and Karmafleet are examples.

True, I forgot about the Gnosis and such ships.

You can also also add MODs for virus strength if needed.

No cuts, no butts, no coconuts!

Forum alt, unskilled in the ways of pewpew!

Abstract Unknown
Doomheim
#6 - 2017-06-06 14:46:20 UTC
Fellow explorer here; the bonus virus strength that exploration frigate provide is essential for alphas. +5 doesn't sound like much but its the difference between taking 40 and 80 damage from an anti-virus subsystem you're trying to overcome.

I used this alpha fit Probe for a long time and had a lot of fun with it. I even managed to contest a Relic site from an explorer baiting Stratios pilot at one point, believe it or not.

My fit goes something like this:

Core Probe Launcher with Sisters probes
2 x 250mm Artillery with Depleted Uranium rounds

Quad LiF Restrained MWD
Y-S8 Compact AB
Relic Analyzer
Scan rangefinding Array

Micro Auxiliary Power Core
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabliser
Warp Core Stabliser

2 x Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade

3 x Warrior drones

The point is not necessarily to destroy fellow explorers but to have the firepower to claim a site. Most explorers I've encountered don't even fit turrets, so just 1 on your ship is enough to scare off most of them.

Some might say 1 warp stab is useless; but I think of it this way - Fit any more than 1 and ll you'll ever learn is how to run. Risk is incentive to learn.