EVE New Citizens Q&A

Try looking at this thread, Xi'xar (sp?) seems to have some links to starter guides.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=907692#post907692

The ship you'll want to use largely depends on the faction NPCs you'll find, which is based on the area you do exploration in. An amarr laser boat would would be horrible to use in Minmatar space for instance. Would you stick to Gallente or Caldari space then the Tengu is the most logical as it has the right tank resists and good damage types while being fast, easy to use and good dps.

I'm not really a fan of using droneboats for high sec exploration, they apply their dps too slow and with exploration you want to kill and move fast, otherwise someone else might warp in and take the gate/kill. It works ofcourse, an ishtar is nice but I'd rather have a turret/missile based ship.

For now, use a vexor or myrm if you're drone based or make the switch to caldari and get a drake while working towards a Tengu. You don't need probe bonused ships to do high sec exploration.

I'm not sure about that Myrmidon for exploration thing. If we are talking about hisec, clearing 2/10 sites in a Myrm is booooring - orbit the slingshot, launch drones, kill sentry guns and rocket towers with artillery, tell your friend in Noctis to warp in, next room. It's much better with 3/10, but still nothing too exciting - stop your ship at 50-60km, shoot incoming targets, launch drones if you are in a hurry. And 4/10 sites are Myrmidon graveyards.
With Vexie, you can have some fun on 2/10, but 3/10 are iffy. Do 4/10 in it only if you are suicidal.

I would rephrase that to "use a Vexor and Myrm".... oh, and Caty for 1/10 and 2/10... and Domi for 4/10... and Orca to haul those ships... arrghhh...

For scanning, your Imicus is an excellent ship to use. Similar to it are the Magnate, Heron, and Probe. Which of those four is best depends on your racial frigate skills. If you put 1 or 2 Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrades into your rig hardpoints, your ship's scanning ability grows even stronger.

The skills you'll want to train are:

Astrometrics (to launch more probes, and for use as a prerequisite for other astrometrics skills)

Astrometric Acquisition (to reduce the scan time)

Astrometric Rangefinding (important, to increase scan strength)

Astrometric Pinpointing (important, to decrease scan deviation)

Astrometric Rangefinding and Pinpointing are extremely useful for using scan probes, as they have a multiplicative effect with each other. If you have both of these skills trained at least to 3, you'll note that you can often skip scan ranges and find something in half as many scans, ie. at 16 au straight to 4 au and then 1 au.

You won't find any ships with much better probe strength bonuses, but you can get other things that are helpful. You'll want a cloaking device if you do any scanning outside of highsec, and you can eventually fly a covert ops (such as a Helios), which has the same scan probe bonus that your Imicus has, but also can fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device which allows you to warp while cloaked. A covert ops cloak will keep you much safer in lowsec because you can cloak after jumping through a stargate, even as you align for warp. That makes it virtually impossible for ambushing pilots to target you. Also, if you land inside a warp disruption bubble, the covert ops cloak will allow you to move much faster while cloaked, making it a lot harder for players to ram you and pop you out of cloak.

A strategic cruiser can be fit to have scan probe bonuses, just as they can perform almost any other common ship functions. Strategic cruisers are extremely flexible and are among the most powerful ships in EVE, though they are very expensive.

If you do high sec exploration you don't NEED probing bonused ships at all, the sites you'll want to be doing you can find just fine on mediocre probing skills in an unbonused ship without grav rigs. This fit will work just fine, if you want to feel somewhat "safer" replace third BCS with a second SPR for increased tank.

[Drake, Explorer]
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Codebreaker I

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Trauma Heavy Missile
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I

Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I


Hobgoblin II x5

I just want to give a big thanks to all here for the advice :)
I'm still puttering about in my Imicus (I love this ship!) but I've now purshased the covert-ops and assult-frigate skill books, a Helios and covert-ops cloak and am training to get into them now :)

...and I'm sitting on 90 mil isk :) For the record I had about 3 million when I started this thread!

I love exploration!

Big shout out to "Gweric" :)
Teaching the rookie competition how to properly scan out stuff.
Made me stop wasting my time fiddling with the scanning UI :)

Thanks heaps!!!