Eve Online MkIV

Eve Online is a drug, you play it to death, go cold turkey, quit. A few months later you read about a new change, a new mechanic a twist on exploration or you view the new trailer... Hmm, now that gate looks promising.

So Slayfoe's Bull signed up again, he was in Jita with a Vindicator hull and a pile of cash. I looked up the new Sisters of Eve ship the Astero, stuck Amarr frigate into my training queue and bought the required goodies to scan down some sites. Total cost of ship plus fittings ~144million. Not cheap.

Saturday evening I jumped into my new toy and had a look at the map. I had picked Solitude as my target, noticed lots of kills on the main route in so went south via Aridia. Jumped into Solitude, scanned down a few anomalies to get back in the swing of it and eventually found myself a data site. Second hack and a Sacrilege appears beside me. I hit the cloak button but he is already targeting me. I let go of my ECM drones and align for the sun, too late, his mates jump into system and begin arriving. It takes them a surprising amount of time to start shooting, but the end result is the same, my pod is winging its way to the nearest station.

Lessons learnt.

1. Be aligned;
2. Be checking for probes on d-scan;
3. Simply don't bother running a site when some one else is in system!
4. Switch automatic targeting back on! When part of a large alliance you switch this feature off for space battles so you don't end up shooting your own logistics, as it was, I suspect my ECM drones hung round waiting for me to tell them what to do.

So Slay is on the way back to Jita to re-ship. This time I am going out in a Helios, a damn site cheaper to do the same thing! 

Low sec exploration

A colleague expressed and interest in Eve.
1 buddy account later... I am bumming round Gallente low sec in a character I made, but never used, in 2008 before CCP changed the character generation system. I am flying a Federation Navy Comet, he is flying a Celestis cruiser. To anyone casually checking out my character (as I do to anyone that enters the low sec system I am scanning in!) they will see a 2008 character that has never left the Federation Navy. Of course the reality is that the character has only 900k skill points. This takes some adjusting to when you are used to your main having 60million skillpoints!

The path I took the first time I played Eve was pretty usual, high sec mission running avoiding low-sec as if it had the plague. On the other hand, my colleague has lost 3 cruisers to other players in low sec inside the first two weeks, but half a plex accounts for a lot of cruisers so he isn't yet deterred. Joining him in low sec was a revelation. Whereas I am used to living in wormholes, highsec and denseley inhabited null sec (Deklein) I have had little experience of low-sec. So it came as a great surprise to find that most systems I enter have multiple signatures in them. Discard a quarter of them to wormholes, another quarter to ladar (gas) and gravimetric (mining) sites and you are left with a nice amount of unknown, radar and magnet sites.
You have to be selective about the sites you run, the Comet is a fabulous ship but a little low in the dps when it comes to taking out 200k bounty cruiser/ battlecuiser rats. However, unguarded radar sites are just money waiting to be scanned out.
The real jackpot came when I jumped to an ice belt to see what was there. Waiting for me was a Shadow Serpentis cruiser with a tag, a Serpentis EANM, faction ammo AND a low grade snake omega implant. That NEVER seems to happen in null sec. So it came about that my lowly starting toon is funding a Vindicator for my null sec main.

Here is how I have fitted it out. EFT says it has a dps of 43(150mm rails with spike) + 27.7(hobgoblin II drones) and can do 2852m/s with very little navigation skills. Killing things is simply a case of orbitting at 25-30km and shooting them outside their range. No rat can come close to touching me and I only scan from a safe moving upwards at 400m/s. Anyone else enters local I keep an eye out for probes but in faction warfare systems (which seem to have the most signatures!) no one seems bothered about scanning people out.

[Federation Navy Comet, Comet lowsec explorer]
Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II
Shadow Serpentis Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Adaptive Nano Plating II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Cap Recharger II
Codebreaker I

150mm Railgun II, Spike S
150mm Railgun II, Spike S
Sisters Core Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
[empty rig slot]

Hobgoblin I x3

Sad to say, CCP removed the flashy blue light from the model in game...

Central Angel Sparkling Tower - Radar Plex

Radar in 0,0

Hordes and hordes of small frigates and cruisers with a ring of missile towers. Some webbing, some target painting, no obvious warp distrupting. Clear the nasties and you can use a codebreaker on various Angel computery gadgets. On cracking open the Angel Database 4 more cruisers warp in - but by then I had looted the database and was off with my loot!

Loot

Datacore - Nuclear Physics x 14
Datacore - Mechanical Engineering x 9
Decryptors - Minmater, Advanced Theories
Decryptors - Minmater, Circuitry Schematics
Skillbook - Minmater Encryption Methods
Cryptics Data Interface Blueprint
Materials and Compounds - Construction Alloy x 85
Materials and Compounds - Data Processor x 94
Materials and Compounds - Electric Conduit x 96
Materials and Compounds - Mechanical Parts x 71

Ship

Passive shield Ishtar with codebreaker II, prototype cloaking device and 3 x 220mm projectile weapons.

Angel Cartel Naval Shipyard

Where: Tenerifis

How: scanned down an unknown signature in a Helios  (Slay needed to bring Sister Probes down to 0.25au with very good probing skills and cov ops V!)

When: 15th March 2011

Description: So while searching for WH for the corp to pillage Slay came across this DED rated 10/10 complex. Enough people were on line, Errik volunteered to tank, two were volunteered to do the logisitics and everyone else outfitted in dps. Eight warped to the complex deadspace gate, Eric warped in to get the aggro, we followed and in short order we had chewed up the rats.

Loot: Most the bosses refused to drop anything, we got the static drops of overseer stuff, some T2 loot of one of the bosses but it wasn't till the last boss that it became worth doing. This one dropped a Marcharial bpc along with some x-gisti shield somthingorother. It went into the pot, Errik volunteered to jump to high-sec to sell it off and distribute the loot.

We each made some million from bouties, there was a load of salvage but until the final loot stuff is sold and distributed it remains a corp group pve exercise.

Suggestions for CCP: harden the fuck up! Unlike sleepers rats there was no aggro switching and the whole thing was a walk in the park - the rats shot the unbreakable tank - we shot the rats. The whole exercise could be done with 2? boats if you were willing to take your time about it - 1 tank with drone dps and 1 logi with drone dps - mind you it really would take a while...

Last thoughts: apparantly you need a Leadership of V to be able to enter these 10/10 DED complexes. A shout out to Luminous Ardokay for for his reading of the colour text :)

Anomaly levels

Easiest
(Faction) Burrow
(Faction) Hideaway
(Faction) Refuge
(Faction) Den
(Faction) Yard
(Faction) Rally Point
(Faction) Port
(Faction) Hub
(Faction) Haven
(Faction) Sanctum
Hardest

NullSec Anomalies

After having spent a month exploring high-sec and dipping my toe into low-sec, I am trying out nullsec exploration. It is, as one might imagine, a TOTALY different kettle of fish. I brought an Ishtar out here and dropped into an Angel Haven to have a go. Two volleys from the defenders and I fled flames following me all the way back to the repair-shop.

So last night I tried again in a Dominix with a corp member, Avail, in a dps Mymidon. The dual LARII tank was severely tested and at one point we had to warp out, recover and come back in. Angel rats put out a range of damage, stacking explosive hardeners doesn't do it.

The long and short of it is: need to improve speed/reward ratio, we simply didn't make that much money in the hour we shot the angels. To improve I plan to change my Dominix so that:

• it uses explosive drones;
• has three railguns;
• has a cap booster
• take off recharger and replace with webifier

With this ship Slay would be able to do the anomoly I did last night by myself, but it was faster and more fun with someone else.

Cosmic Anomolies

So I thought I would record my exploration activity in order to make sense of it. I already know that I would make more money running L4 missions but then I wouldn't still be playing Eve! I was exploring Placid, a generally quiet part of Gallente low-sec space. Not sure if all low sec is this quiet but I picked here for the twin reasons that it was near and that it had few pilots in it in the last 30 minutes. On such careful research are futures decided!

It quickly turns out to be as empty as Verge Vendor to to take out my frustration I turn on the Seprentis in the local anomolies of which there are LOADS. 6 x Serpentis hideaway, 1 Serpentis refuge and another hideaway later and jackpot! The 7th hideaway spawned a shadow commander, must have been a poor one though, he only had his tag and some small shadow ammo.

Back out and .... Refuge (0.6), S. hideaway and qith a quick visit to Serpents Coil (a local site of interest with very little at it) before finding a S. Forlorn Hideaway (0.6) x 2,  a S. Forsaken Hideaway, a S. Den, another S. Hideaway, and another before hitting 3 refuges in a row. At this point I am no longer picking up the loot or salvaging, just blowing the pirates away.
Then as bed time approaches I do a last s. Refuge and find a Shadow Serpentis Trooper hiding at the back. He had some ammo, his tag and some Shadow Serpentis Reflective Plating (about 4m on contract). At this rate I am getting a Shadow Serpentis Spawn every 7th/ 8th site.
The ammo I am dumping in the Orca, the tags aren't worth anything, the only reason I am doig it is for the drops, and these aren't certain. This certainly has been a good way of making money but I am wandering round areas I wasn't used to and getting more understanding of north west Gallente space.

So, to summarise, Cosmic Anomolies in high-sec aren't worth it, faction spawns are too rare and the loot is frigate sized, salvaging as you go takes too long and the bounties are small.

Another approach to exploring

I had some time to kill this morning so I took out my trusty Helios, scanned myself down the system to find someone had already done it leaving behind WHs and Gravimetric sites. So I went next door to find that there were 3 WHs in system but nothing al that useful for me. The third system in a row eventually yielded a Magnetometric site. Off to get my site running Vexor went I only to fnd that there was only 1 can and it had some second hand stuff in it. Boo.

Rather than log of in disgust I decided to take my frustration out on Serpentis in the local anomolies, of which there were plenty as they appear to be beneath the inhabitents of Placid. I am finishing of the first anomoly when in warps a Shadow Serpentis something-or-other Frigate. 2 passes of the Hobgoblin IIs and his wreck is mine - Shadow Serpentis Explosive Armor Hardener, some Shadow ammo and his tag.

Now perhaps it has happened to me in the past and I haven't been careful about the wrecks that I made, but I didn't know that you could get Shadow Serpentis to spawn in highsec anomolies. Now his loot doesn't amount to a hill of beans (about 4m on contract in Jita) but it is certainly easier than scannign down everything.

So of through high-sec Placid go I. Another 8 anomolies later and no further faction spawn. Now to be fair half of these were Drone Anomolies that don't spawn faction but tongith I'll have to try this out again.

While browsing I found this http://explorationalmanac.blogspot.com/ a very well written guide to becoming Indiana Jones from the word go.

The unprobe-able Proteus

Looks like a recent patch made unprobe-able ships a thing of the past....


[Proteus, Unprobable Explorer]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Medium Armor Repairer II

Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
10MN Afterburner II
Codebreaker II

Heavy Neutron Blaster I, Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster I, Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster I, Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster I, Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster I, Antimatter Charge M
Salvager II

Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capacitor Control Circuit I

Proteus Defensive - Adaptive Augmenter
Proteus Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Proteus Propulsion - Gravitational Capacitor
Proteus Offensive - Dissonic Encoding Platform
Proteus Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix

The Unprobe-able Ishtar

This ship cannot be scanned down with probes.  Apparantly when the ratio of the ships signature radius to it's sensor strength drops below 1.08ish, it becomes impossible to find with probes even with implants, max skills and the best equipment in the game. Quick research later and it becomes clear that not many fit the bill, the most quoted being the Tengu, the Caldari tech 3 cruiser. But also on the list is the Ishtar:

On non-tech 3 ships not much can be done to reduce signature radius (warfare link that reduces signature appears to be it), but the sensor strength can be increased with ECCM modules (mid slots) and backup arrays (low slot). 

Difficulty with the Ishtar is it's offensive drones can be probed making it silly to make the main ship unprobe-able. Anyhow, here is the fit atm:

 [Ishtar, Unprobable]
Medium Armor Repairer II
Magnetometric Backup Array II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II

Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
10MN Afterburner II
Codebreaker II

Salvager II
Small Tractor Beam I
200mm Prototype I Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype I Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype I Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M

Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capacitor Control Circuit I


Hammerhead II x5
Vespa EC-600 x5
Warrior II x5
Ogre II x3
Hammerhead II x5

Exploration

I have played Eve for a while now, occassionally letting it slide when life gets busy but always coming back to it. Most of this time I have spent in Gallente highsec missioning slowly building up a few ships and skilsl to fly them. I then shifted to wh space and spent a few months there before getting bored of waiting for guild members to log on. This time in WH space did cause me to buy a second account that spawned a fully capable miner and now orca pilot. I then wandered of to Red v Blue to pvp some before joining SiRadio for some 0,0 shenanigans. unfortunately they were turfed out of Providence shorlty after I arrived. After a while in the Great Wildlands I returned to high sec to try out exploration.

I immediatly got lucky as the first site turned into an escalation, it wandered through Gallente space and eventually out into low sec. I managed bought myself a lowly cruiser so not as to risk my shiny Ishtar and pulled it off for some nice shiny loot that sold for enough to cover an unfortunate foray into WH space where I lost my Ishatar. Haven't managed to get to lucky since.

In an effort to up my success rate I decided to have a look at Placid, Gallente low sec with a high sec island in it. Like many explorers before me I came across a few problems. To scan I use my rigged Helios with Sister Launcher and probes, this with the recent skillpoint re-imbursement due to the learning skills being removed has me scanning things down quite easily. Once promising sites have been bookmarked I then return to a local station to pick up a combat/ exploration ship...

For high-sec my combat ship was passive shield Ishtar which was over tanked for anything it came up against. But an Ishtar is quite expensive to be flying through low sec so I began to look round for something else and came across the ship that cannot be scanned out with probes, the unprobe-able ship. Whatever is chosen it must be able to fight battleships spawns not unlike L4 missions, this rules out T1 cruisers. On the list is:

Myrmidon BC: dual rep set up with codebreaker, analyzer, salvager, drones and blasters - to hell with the signature radius, cheap
Ishtar HAC: high armour resists, single MAR, exchangeable mid slot, 3 rails - medium expense, not probe-able, drones a risk
Proteus T3C: high armour resists, single MAR, exchangeable mid slot, 5 heavy neutrons, not probe-able, no drones, v.expensive

Exploration: Serpentis Phi Outpost

Well the exploration game continues with mixed results. Needless to say the first rush of success has not been followed up, it turns out that escalations are not common. however I have got much better at the scanning.
Yesterday I logged on to discover that Carriag had come first in Aelius' lottery that he held to celebrate playing the game so long. 600million ISK! I have never even had half of that in one place before :) So with my new found wealth I went back to doing exactly what I did before - exploration.
Serpentis Phi Outpost had a nice juicy battleship that dropped Overseerer Effects - a type of tag that local NCP bought for 1.2m which on-top of the 2.5m bounty for the ship made it a very juicy BS indeed! He also dropped a Corelum medium remote armour repairer, seems that remote repairers are a trend.
Today I found a Magnometric Site - needed to get down to 0.25AU with my Sister Probes to find it - nothing remarkable except for the whole idea that developers will hide aspects of their game and make it hard to discover back story. 5 containers to salvage, 4 contained tech 1 salvage, no hostiles.

Exploration: Booster R&D

High sec
Escalation
Serpentis

Wave 1
1 x Shadow dude - dropped Shadow ammo and 
4 x Harvesters (Frigates)
7 x cruiser class
2 x Core Lord Admirable (BS)

Wave 2
Various frigates and cruisers
2 x Core Grand Admiral

1 x Amber cytosin cloud that can't be harvested because it is inside an asteroid with a radius of 3000m and the range of gas harvesters are 1500m!
4 x Gas storage units that cant be blown up

Escalated to  Booster R&D
Again your radio comes alive with the voice of this femme serpentia "This is an important security announcement, all ships in G5, G6, G8 and G9: evacuate immediately to a new location and wait for security forces to escort you back to base." It seems like your little enterprise has made the local division of the Serpentis organization a bit confused, perhaps they are not used to be the hunted. This message was a bit troubling though... you can expect two whole gas mining teams and a security team of an undisclosed size. You need to be more careful here...