Planetary Interaction101: by Draconis Arcania

Planetary Interaction 

Starter Guide 

OverviewWelcome to the starter guide for Planetary Interaction, henceforth referred to as PI. In this guide I will cover what the different types of planets are, what resources can be found where, how production works, and finally how to build a fully self-sustaining system of planets.

Planet Types and Their Resources

Gas
Gas planets are characterized by a deep, opaque upper atmosphere, usually composed primarily of light elements such as hydrogen or helium. Simple chemicals can add a range of hues and shades in the visual spectrum, and the interaction between upwellings and rapidly circulating pressure bands result in a huge variety of visible surface structures. A similar level of diversity can be found beneath the cloud-tops: the inner composition of a given gas planet might belong to any one of a dozen broad groups, with no two planets entirely alike in this regard.

a) Resource Types found on Gas Planets:

- Ionic Solutions

- Reactive Gas

- Noble Gas

- Base Metals

- Aqueous Liquids

Ice
The majority of icy planets went through a period of being barren terrestrials, before being surfaced with ice over the course of many millennia. The exact process for this varies from case to case, but the end result is both common and visually uniform - a bright, reflective planet scored by countless fractures and crevasses. A few icy planets are hypothesized to have been warmer, liquid-bearing planets in the past that have subsequently frozen, as a result of either stellar cooling or failed terraforming projects.

a) Resource Types found on Ice Planets:

- Micro Organisms

- Planktic Colonies

- Noble Gas

- Metals

- Aqueous Liquids

Storm
Storm worlds are usually considered terrestrial planets, although to a casual eye they may appear more similar to gas planets, given their opaque, high-pressure atmospheres. Geomorphically, however, the distinctions are clear: compared to a gas world, the atmosphere of a storm world is usually considerably shallower, and generally composed primarily of more complex chemicals, while the majority of the planet's mass is a rocky terrestrial ball. Their name is derived from the continent-scale electrical storms that invariably flash through their upper atmospheres.

a) Resource Types found on Storm Planets:

- Ionic Solutions

- Noble Gas

- Suspended Plasma

- Base Metals

- Aqueous Liquids

Barren
 Barren planets are archetypical "dead terrestrials": dry, rocky worlds with a minimal atmosphere and an unremarkable composition. They are commonly etched with flood channels, which are often broad enough to be visible from orbit; most such worlds have accumulated significant quantities of ice over their lifetimes, but cannot retain it on their surface. Generally surface liquid evaporates rapidly, contributing to the thin atmosphere, but occasionally it will seep back into the ground and refreeze, ready for another breakout in future when the local temperature rises.

a) Resource Types found on Barren Planets:

- Micro Organisms

- Carbon Compounds

- Noble Metals

- Base Metals

- Aqueous Liquids

5. Temperate - Life-bearing worlds are often referred to as "temperate", as their mild temperatures are one of their defining features. Planets with existing, stable ecosystems are prime targets for colonization efforts as they are generally easier to make fully habitable; as a result, the majority of highly populated worlds are of this type. Indeed, it is not altogether uncommon for detailed surveys to reveal signs of previous settlements from various stages of New Eden's history.

a) Resource Types found on Temperate Planets:

- Micro Organisms

- Carbon Compounds

- Autotrophs

- Complex Organisms

- Aqueous Liquids

Lava
So-called "lava planets" (properly "magmatic planets") fall into one of three groups: solar magmatics, which orbit sufficiently close to their star that the surface never cools enough to solidify; gravitational magmatics, which experience gravitational shifts sufficiently strong to regularly and significantly fracture cooling crusts; and magmatoids, which are for largely-unexplained reasons simply incapable of cooling and forming a persistent crust. All three types generally exhibit the same external phenomena - huge red-orange lava fields being a defining feature - but the latter two types are sometimes capable of briefly solidifying for a period measured in years or perhaps decades.

a) Resource Types found on Lava Planets:

- Non-CS Crystals

- Suspended Plasma

- Base Metals

- Felsic Magma

- Heavy Metals

Oceanic
Oceanic worlds are a class of terrestrial world covered entirely by liquids, usually in the form of mundane water. While the liquid surface is exceptionally smooth, the ocean floor on most worlds of this type exhibits significant topographic variety. It is this subsurface irregularity which causes the formation of complex weather systems, which would otherwise revert to more uniform patterns.

a) Resource Types found on Oceanic Planets:

- Micro Organisms  - Carbon Compounds  - Planktic Colonies  - Complex Organisms  - Aqueous Liquids 

8. Plasma - The aptly-named "plasma planets" have captured the imagination of countless artists and inspired innumerable works, yet the physics behind them are surprisingly mundane by cosmological standards. A rocky terrestrial with the right kind of atmosphere and magnetic field will, when bombarded with solar radiation, generate sprawling plasma storms as specific atmospheric elements are stripped of their electrons. Over time these storms will generally scorch the surface rock black, adding to the visual impact.

a) Resource Types found on Plasma Planets:

- Non-CS Crystals

- Suspended Plasma

- Noble Metals

- Base Metals

- Heavy Metals

Shattered
Shattered planets were once terrestrial planets, torn asunder by some immense cataclysm. All such worlds in the New Eden cluster are products of the disastrous stellar events that occurred during the "Seyllin Incident". However, reports continue to circulate of similar planets discovered in the unmapped systems reached exclusively through unstable wormholes. How these met their fate, if indeed they exist at all, is unknown.

a) Resource Types found on Shattered Planets:

- None


Getting Started
When getting ready to start up a PI installation, you must first decide what it is you wish to produce in the end. This will dictate what planet or planets you need to setup on to produce the final commodity.

For example, lets say you wish to mass produce Coolant, which is used extensively in the production of POS fuel. The two main planets you will need to setup on are a Ice and Storm planets, as these will offer the greatest abundance of the required raw resources Aqueous Liquids and Ionic Solutions.

The Ice planet will yield plenty of Aqueous Liquid to be turned into water, a key ingredient of Coolant. The Storm planet on the other hand will offer a large amount of the Ionic Solution needed to make Electrolytes, the other key ingredient for Coolant. From here you would simply put both of those products into an advanced factory to make Coolant.

So, that being said, what do you need to get started? The answer is Command Centers. There is one Command Center for each type of planet in the game (not including the Shattered Planet type). You need to purchase or create a command center for the planet(s) you wish to setup on, and then fly to that planet, right click it in overview (or the planet itself), hit view in planet mode, then scan for the resource(s) you need. Once you find where the resources are, switch to build mode, and place your command center in such a way to allow easy access to all the resources.

Once that is done, confirm your changes to the planet, and click your command center on the planet. Upgrade it as high as you can with the skills you have available, to maximize how much playroom you have for power and cpu needs.

Key structures to place BEFORE placing anything else:

Launch Pad – This allows you to send your resources / commodities to the orbiting customs office for pickup. You technically could just have your command center jettison them to space in a cargo container to pickup, but this also opens you up to a possibility of theft, especially in low/null security space.

Storage – Not necessarily needed, unless you plan on going a week or more between pickups. A Launch Pad can only hold up to 10,000 m3 worth of items, while a storage structure can hold up to 12,000 m3 each. Not much, but it can make a difference.

Planetary Links – for every structure you place, you need to make sure they are all connected back to the command center using links. To place these, select Planetary Links in Build Mode, click Create Link, and then click on the source structure (lets use the Launch Pad for this example), then click the Command Center.

Once the initial infrastructure is up and running, apply your changes. Now the fun begins. Remember when you were scanning for those resources? Lets say you scanned for Aqueous Liquids on the Ice Planet. When doing the scan you should have noticed shaded areas ranging from a very light blue to a bright red or white. Light blue is a very small deposit of that resource, while red or white means an extremely high deposit of the resource.

With that being said, do the following steps on the Ice Planet (you can repeat these steps for the Storm Planet, but for the other needed resource. The process is the same):

1. Go to Build Mode on the planet.

2. Click Extractor Control Units

3. Click Ice Extractor Control Unit (exchange Ice for the type of planet you are building on)

4. Find the highest deposit you can near your command center, and place the structure in the middle of that deposit

5. After placing the structure, create a link from your command center (or launch pad) to the extractor.

6. Apply changes.

7. Next, click the new extractor structure, and hit the icon that looks like a downward facing arrow pointing at a flat circle.

8. Starting off, click 3 of the 10 check circles on the left side of the window to setup Extractor Head Units. Each of these take up power and cpu provided by the Command Center, so don't over do it.

9. Then, on the right side, click the image of the resource you wish to extract (in this case, Aqueous Liquids).

10. A Graph will appear in the center, adjust the Extraction area size slider on the bottom left side until the Program Output section on the right side shows a total of at least 200,000 units, with per hour being about 1500 or more. You may need to increase or decrease the number of Extractor heads to accomplish this.

11. Make sure when you are adjusting the sliders, that the circles surrounding each head on the planet itself are not overlapping, as this can affect production in a negative way if done too much.

12. When you are happy with the numbers, hit Start Program and close the window.

13. Apply the changes.

Congratulations! You have just setup the most basic part of a PI operation. Now go do the same with the Storm Planet, but for Ionic Solutions. Once this is all done, it is time to do this next step.

The Next step is to setup your Basic Industry Facility. This is found under Build → Processors → Ice Basic Industry Facility (again Ice is replaced by whatever planet type you are building this on). Place this close to your launch pad / command center, then click on it.

In the new window, click the icon that looks like a production tree (a bunch of boxes with lines between them). This opens up the schematics list for this facility. Scroll through the list until you find Water (Electrolytes for the Storm Planet), and double click. Now under the icon that looks like two arrows going through a circle, click the commodity, and at the bottom of the window, hit create route. Select the launch pad, and click Create Route. As long as you have created links between all the structures of the planet back to command center or launch pad, you should now be done with these two planets.

Now for the final part. Mass Production. Because you had to produce these two commodities (Water and Electrolytes) on two different planets, you need a way to combine them on one planet to turn into your final product, Coolant. To do this, we need to settle a third planet. I recommend a Barren planet, because it is the most numerous planet to be found so far in the game.

Setup a Barren Command Center following the steps from before, with a launch pad and links. Don't worry about building storage facilities at this time as it won't be required for the purpose of this guide. Next, go the Build → Processors → Barren Advanced Industry Facility. Place this near your launch pad, and click on it. Go to schematics, and double click Coolant. Route the product back to your launch pad, make sure everything is linked, and hit apply.

The only step you have left to make everything work, is to wait until some Electrolytes and Water have been produced on your Ice and Storm Planets, then fly over to the custom's office, transfer them from the right pane to the left pane (which does cost ISK), and then after they have been transferred, move them into your ship's inventory. Then fly to the custom's office of the Barren Planet, and do the reverse of this process. Move the items to the left pane of the office, then transfer to the right pane.

From here, go back to view planet mode for the Barren Planet, and route the water and electrolytes to the advanced processor facility. That's all you have to do, now every hour you should have produced 5 Coolant units to be picked up at your custom's office of that planet. You can expand your facilities (and therefore your total yield and profit) by building more than one extractor and basic processor on your planets, then build 2-3 more advanced processors on your barren planet, repeating all the necessary steps for each planet.

It takes 30 minutes to produce 20 water and 20 electrolytes, and you need 40 of each to produce 5 Coolant. From here, I leave it to you to find out how best to manage your planets, and wish you luck.

Important SkillsBelow are some key skills to be trained if you really want to get into PI.

1. Planetology

a) The higher this skill, the clearer your scans will be on what resources are where.

2. Command Center Upgrades

a) The higher this skill, the high level of upgrades you can apply to your command center. This allows for high CPU and Powergrid allowance, meaning more structures.

3. Interplanetary Consolidation

a) The higher this skill, the more planets you can control. You start off with the ability to setup only one planet, and with this skill trained to level 5, you can setup a total of six planets.

4. Advanced Planetology

a) You first need to get Planetology to level IV before you can train this, but it allows even clearer scans for each level you train in this.

5. Remote Sensing

a) For each level in this skill, you can scan planets without needing to be in the same system. Level one allows scans with 1 lightyear, level two allows 3 ly, then 5 ly, 7 ly, and 9 ly, respectively.

Links to Important Resources

Some links to important resources to help you in your ventures of PI:
wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Planet
wiki.eveuniversity.org/Planetary_Commodities
eveplanets.com/

Training a Mining Alt: The Fastest Way into a Mining Barge by Asten

Training a Mining Alt.
If you have a free slot on your account consider training up an alt to at least fly a barge. You won't have to sit in a station and ship spin if you are outnumbered or out skilled during a wardec. War is a fact of life in Eve, get used to it and do something about it. Will you be taking training time away from your main? Yes, but in the length of a couple wardecs you could have been into a barge or Exhumer. It's totally up to you but I've always hated logging in and not being able to play an account that I paid my hard earned money for.

So, ship spinning or making ISK-it's your choice!

According to EveMon without the implants you can be into a mining barge in 8 days, 18hours, 28 minutes at a cost of 1,085,000 ISK. This could also benefit those of you who have been considering a second account.

wiki.eveuniversity.org/Creating_an_Alt_Miner

Take into consideration whether you want to start a new account or train an on-account-alt, depending if you may want to create an industrial alt in the future. You cannot train skills simultaneously on 2 toons on the same account without paying for Dual Character Training using a PLEX. If you choose to create an on-account alt and decide you want to go into industry, you have to retrain a new account or pay a character transfer fee.

Training a new toon to fly a hulk from scratch using this guide will take about 48 days or 42 days if you use implants. It can be done slightly faster if you're willing to spend 2 neural remaps.

The requirements are:
Brand new toon with no training
69 M isk
(approximately 40M isk for 4 +3 implants and approximately 29M isk for skillbooks)

This is reduced to about 1M isk if you only want to fly a mining barge.

Prepare your new toon for training by having these items available:
Implants: (+3s)
Ocular Filter-Basic
Cybernetic Subprocessor-Basic
Memory Augmentation-Basic
Neural Boost-Basic

Skillbooks:
Cybernetics
Industry
Astrogeology
Mining Frigate
Mining Barge
Exhumers

Remapping:
If you wish to save a couple days, remap your starting attributes to:
INT 23
PER 25
Everything else a minimum of 17
This eliminates 2-3 days off the training time and ensures the 48 day maximum training period. This is also a reasonable setup for learning many combat skills. It will leave you with another remapping to use.  If you're certain you will keep this alt for mining only, there's a different option that will shave off some further time (see below).

The Training Plan

• Cybernetics I: after training this plug in the +3 INT?MEM implants
• Industry I-V: This will take about 5 days.
• Science IV
• Mining III-IV
• Astrogeology I-IV: This is about 2.5 days of training

Note: No later than at this point, plug in your +3 PER/WIL implants

• Mining Frigate I-III
• Mining Barge I: This is about 8 hours of training

 Note: At this point you can fly any mining barge fitted with Strip Miners I and a survey scanner

• Mining Barge II-V
• Astrogeology V
• Spaceship Command IV
• Exhumers I-III: And you're ready to get into your Exhumer with strip Miner I

Fleet Combat 101: The Watch List by Hohenheim

Fleet Combat 101: The Watch List

When flying in fleet during combat operations, the very first thing you should do is add your fellow pilots to your watch list. Doing this will enable you to monitor your fleet members and offer aid if necessary (either with combat support or logistics support).

Adding Pilots

To add a pilot yo your WL, first open the fleet window and make sure it is set to hierarchy (as shown above).

Find the pilot you want to add and Right Click their name - a drop down window will appear offering you the ability to add that pilot to your WL.

Note: You can also add an entire squad or wing to your WL - up to a maximum of 15 pilots.

Understanding the Watch List

The watch list is configured in exactly the same way as drones are once deployed. The first bar indicates Sheilds, the second bar indicates Armor, and the last Hull.

The watch list allows you to warp to s specific pilot, see who has displayed a target or who is in need of aid (refer to fleet broadcasts).

Anchoring a POS by Asten

Notes on POS

At the present time a POS can only be deployed at an empty (no other pos there) moon. There has been talk of alloying them to be setup anywhere in space at some point.

A small tower is all that's needed to have enough power to put up a compression and reprocessing arrays. A mining op in a stationless system will probably only need a compression array.

A compression array will hold 20 million m3 of ore or about 20 fully cargo optimized freighter.

Another pos can then be set up in the manufacturing system with a reprocessing array to break the ore into minerals. I believe a max skilled refiner (with the +4 refining implant) gets a refine of 69.9 % in a maxed station and 71.9 % in a pos. (in highsec anyway, not sure of the mechanics for null anymore)

Setting up the POS

You warp to the moon at 0, providing it's unoccupied you can right click on the tower in your cargohold (freighter, orca, DST (deep space transport) or large enough T1 industrial) choose launch for corp.

Click on the packaged tower in space and choose ANCHOR. The pos will start to be anchored about 50-75 km away. 

You should have time to slowboat to it before it's anchored. Right click on the tower right away and bookmark it's position so you can find it again. Once it's anchored, you can access the fuel bay and put in fuel and starbase charters and online the tower.

Now that the shields (bubble) are up you can launch the compression array the same as you did the tower. When you click on the array to anchor it, it will appear as a green box with directional arrows on it. Drag the arrows to position the array where you want it. It will not let you anchor it too close to the tower. Once in position you can right click on the box to anchor and then online the array.

When the op is over you can unload the arrays and offline and unanchor the arrays and tower till next time. I wouldn't leave unanchoring arrays or a tower unattended as once unanchored anyone can scoop them up.

Exploration 101: Part 2 by Hohenheim Thellere

So, you've found your data / relic site and have navigated safely to the derelict structure... now what?

Now you hack it...

Every data and relic site is protected by a computer system that guards the cargo container where loot is stored. You can't just open them and take what you want - you have to hack the computer core of he system protecting the container first. Problem is the computer core is hidden... you have to find it first. And, of course, the system has its own defenses to prevent you from accomplishing that.

More on that in a moment...

The very first thing you need in order to hack, is the appropriate "software" - in EVE these modules are called Data Analyzer and Relic Analyzer.

As you might have guessed, the Data Analyzer is used for Data Sites, while the Relic Analyzer is used for Relic Sites. Both of these modules occupy a mid slot.


Of course, in exploration, time is ISK and you don't want to waste your time hacking a container that is empty. So, one other module you should add is a Cargo Scanner. Once you lock on to a data/relic site, you can scan it and find out if there's anything actually worth taking. It's a huge time saver and while not required, it is highly recommended that you have one.

Note: Cargo Scanner I/II's can also be used to find out how many blocks of ice/ore is in a particular rock - very useful for mining as well.

 CCP's mechanic for hacking is a cute little mini game that involves you uncovering hidden nodes in an attempt to find the computer core, and hack it. You can learn all about what is involved in hacking by reading EVE University's Hacking 101 article.

Things to remember when hacking

The hacking mini-game takes up a lot of real estate on your screen. Plus, you can't cloak while you hack so you'll be visible to anyone who decides to come gank you. As you hack, always keep an eye on your UI and monitor what ships are near you. It's also advisable to run your D-Scan often.

Note: D-Scan is short for Directional Scan and will show all objects that are around you such as combat scanner probes, ships, structures, etc. Very important to keep track of this while you're hacking.

If you fail a hack, you may lose what you were trying to loot and, in Ghost Sites, you may explode and die... who said exploration was not without risk?

Risk vs. Reward - Exploration Profitability

So, is exploration worth all of this hassle? The answer is: maybe. It all depends on what you enjoy as a player. Mining can be boring and mission grinding can get old fast. Exploration offers a means for you to understand how null sec works, and how wormhole exploration works. These are valuable skills for any pilot, be they combat or indy oriented. If you enjoy mining, you can always mine rarer ores found only in wormholes. If you're into missions, scanning down Sleeper combat sites can be extremely lucrative... if you survive.

The bottom line is that exploration is a pretty skill intensive career to get into, but you can always branch out from it and get into Black Ops, or Advanced Recon for your corp./Alliance. All corps who actively participate in PvP want advanced scouts they can warp to if and when they want to lay down some damage...

I hope you enjoyed this articls.

Beginners Guide to Salvaging and the Rig Industry by Edoras

I've been inspired to write this little guide on salvaging and the rig industry. This activity has very low skill requirements so as a new player you can start doing this almost immediately. It's also quite topical as our first wardec was declared by a Rig trader who didn't appreciate a bit of honest competition - but it's a testament to how important this market is for some people that they will go to those lengths to try and keep others out!

Why Rigs?

The Rig industry is different to mainstream industry in that they are built using salvaged materials instead of minerals. You obtain salvaged materials from NPC wrecks and also Relic anamoly sites, so rather than spending hours mining ore to obtain minerals, you can participate in this industry by doing fun stuff like running combat and mission sites. If you are already running these sites then with very little extra effort you can have a good source of passive income, i.e. earn ISK even when you are not actively playing the game.

An additional advantage is that salvaged material has very little volume (0.1 m3). You can carry 1000 pieces of salvage in a shuttle if you want - no need for slow industrials to transport your materials around!

How to Salvage Efficiently

To collect your salvage as efficiently as possible you will need a specialist salvaging ship and ideally 3 MTU's (Mobile Tractor Units) although you can get by with 2 as they are quite expensive for new players. The system I use is to load up my mission/combat ship with as many MTU's as I can e.g. in a cruiser sized ship you should be able to carry 3 MTU's plus any ammo you need. Don't worry about leaving any room for loot in your combat ship.

Once you have destroyed all the NPC ships in a mission pocket or combat site, drop an MTU and BOOKMARK IT! Always get in the habit of bookmarking your MTU's as soon as you drop them, because if you forget you will lose it*. Then move immediately onto your next mission or combat site while your MTU is quietly collecting all the wrecks and loot into a nice little pile for you to collect later. When you have completed the next site drop another MTU and so on. This is why you have as many MTU's as you can carry so you don't waste time waiting for them to pull in all the wrecks.

Wrecks will last for 4 hours in space, so you can continue running your sites in this way for quite a while. When you have run out of MTU's just go back and pick up your first one and continue, leaving all the wrecks to collect later. When you have finished your session swap into your salvage ship and go back to all your bookmarks to collect the loot and salvage the wrecks. It's not really rocket science, but will make your salvaging experience more enjoyable and a lot quicker.

A word of warning, don't leave an MTU unattended anywhere it can be easily found, such as an asteroid belt - less honourable players like to destroy them, but they will be fairly safe in mission pockets and combat sites as once the site is despawned the only way other players can locate your MTU is through scanning, and as you cycle through them you will be constantly picking them up and moving them elswhere anyway.

* Technically it is possible to scan down a lost MTU, but it is very difficult as they have small signatures.

Your Salvaging Ship

The ship you should use is a Catalyst (Gallente Destroyer):

The two tractor beams are optional if price or fitting is an issue, they are really only used for pulling in stragglers if your MTU hasn't quite finished pulling in all the wrecks. Don't bother adding more than six salvagers as the Catalyst has a maximum of 6 targets available. You should train your Targeting skill so you can target 6 wrecks at a time so your salvagers can each target a different wreck and be working constantly. The more levels of Salvaging you train the faster your ship will salvage. At level V this ship salvages so fast that I struggle to actually keep up with the salvagers and assign them new targets.

You may ask why not use a Noctis (Eve's specialist salvaging ship). Well this guide is intended for new players and the Noctis has a high cost. Also a Noctis is a big advertisement for gankers who will come and destroy you and steal the nice loot you have just collected. Take a look at the Noctis killboard... you don't want to be like these unfortunate people!

Your Catalyst will fly under the radar of gankers, they will not know that your ship is a salvager and has no guns. Just PLEASE do not name it something stupid like "Ed's Salvager". It will show up on DScan and everyone will know what the ship is for, and also who is flying it... never use your name or give any clue as to your ship fit when choosing your ship name - this is a basic rule of Eve security.

Building and Selling your Rigs

You don't need a lot of material to build a rig, in fact just one combat site should give you enough savlage to build 1-2 small rigs. Once you've built enough rigs you will then have to decide where to sell them and how much to sell them for. Because the rig market is based purely on player built stock as opposed to a loot-driven market (i.e. rigs are never dropped as loot and can only enter the game when players build them), then the prices remain higher than the value of the materials used to build them.

As to where to sell them, well a market hub is fairly obvious, but I prefer to sell them outside of the hubs. Although the market hub has a high volume of trades, the downside is having to always babysit your orders to keep them at the top and you generally have to accept a lower price for your rigs because of the competition from other sellers. This doesn't suit my strategy as a passive income earner, so I choose alternative locations to sell them where I don't need to worry so much about competition from other sellers. Here are a few ideas for alternative markets... without giving away my exact systems, you have to do some work for yourself!

• Starter "school" systems. New players are fitting ships in these systems, and they often make fitting mistakes meaning more rigs are sold (since they can't be re-used once fitted). Small power grid and CPU rigs are good sellers here.
• Mining systems with ice fields. Look at popular fits for mining barges and sell those particular rigs e.g. Medium harvesting upgrade rigs are big sellers here.
• Popular missioning systems with Level IV security agents. Large rigs are good sellers here, in particular resistance rigs (shield and armour) as some players will adjust there ship resistances depending on which mission they are running.
• The Small Gravity Capacitor rig. This is my best seller anywhere, I cannot manufacture these quickly enough, unfortunately they are fairly low value but the high volume makes these worthwhile.

Hopefully this has been of interest and has inspired some of you to give this industry a go... fly safe!

Exploration 101 - Part 1 by Hohenheim

So you want to explore... you want to search out the illusive wormholes that lead to parts unknown?

Well, to do that you need to know a few things. This post is part one of a series designed to give you a more comprehensive understanding of what is involved in exploration, what skills you need to get started and the best ships.

In this post, I will go through an overview of what exploration is, what are some of the most common skills you will need, and what types of sites you can scan down once you are ready to go.

Exploration Overview
Anyone can begin an exploration career in EVE. All you need is an exploration specific frigate, some very basic modules and, depending on what you want to do, some skills. Once you get your ship fitted and have a basic level of proficiency in the skills that govern exploration (particularly scanning) you'll be set to go.

Scanning, obviously, is the most important skill to the exploration career. If you can't scan down sites, you can't hack them and you can't make your ISK.

Skills
There are several skills that aid in exploration but a few are critical to you:

• Astrometrics
• Science
• Survey

You will need to train these three skills to 3 in order to unlock the more useful Astrometric skills below. Science should, by default, be trained to 3 so you don't even have to worry about that.

• Astrometric Acquisitining
• Astrometric Pinpointing
• Astrometric Rangefinding

The above three skills are the bread and butter of effective scanning. Can you scan down cosmic anomalies and cosmic signatures without them? Yes. But it will take you nearly twice as long to do so. Getting these skills up to 4 as soon as you can will help you immensely.

So, these skills will help you scan down anomalies and signatures more quickly... but what do you sca down?

Combat Sites
You can find combat sites of course, these are fairly self explanatory. There will be enemies there that you an destroy for loot. The level of difficulty will depend on the security level of the system you are in.

Data Sites
You can scan down Cosmic Signatures, which can lead either to a Data Site or a Relic Site. Data Sites are usually derelict vessels or stations that can be hacked in order to loot some sort of item. Items can include modules, circuits, and even blueprints.

Relic Sites
As with Data Sites, you can also scan down Relic Sites. You must also hack Relic Sites in order to access the loot. Relic Sites are, typically, more lucrative than Data Sites.

That brings us to Hacking... which I will discuss in Part 2