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

Fleet Mining 101 by Keto

2015.07.06 19:40

This guide is definately not meant as the final word on fleet ops. It's what works for me. If any part of this makes your mining easier then great because that's why I wrote it.

Joining a Fleet:
If there's an op scheduled hopefully the op manager has a fleet up well in advance of the op and has scouted the belts and systems for the best mining, ratting, whatever. Click the E on top of the NEOCOM (far upper left of screen) then SOCIAL then FLEET. The Fleet window will pop up on your screen. Upper left of the fleet window click on find fleets. All fleets available to you to join will be listed. Click on the fleet you want and join fleet. If you have alts that are non-corp and you want them in fleet wait until you have them all in the op system and then ask in voice comms or corp chat for an invite. This enables the op leader to pick them out of local for an invite. If you know who the orca is right click their name in the fleet window and choose to warp to them. Right click on the orca and open the fleet hangar, now you will be able to drag directly from your ore bay to the orca fleet hangar. Right click on the orca again and set your ship to keep the orca at 1000 m.

I dislike having more than 5 maxed miners per orca.(except in ice) We have 4 kinds of ore in most of our belts (Veld, scord, plag and omber) each pilot should pick 1 type of ore to mine with the extra miner helping with the most numerous type of roid or a lesser skilled miner. 2 miners mining the same roid is very inefficient as only 1 will get ore when the roid pops. We as a corp already have the luxury of having multiple well skilled orca pilots and a couple max skilled. A max skilled oraca pilot with the implant will give a 69,9% increase to yield over mining solo, so let's not hear any whining if the corp charges 10% of the total take. Depending on how many pilots we have in the op mining multiple belts at the same time should be considered. A freighter can haul for multiple orca's.

Voice Comms:
I know voice comms aren't handy for some but I encourage everone to at least be able to listen in on Raidcall. It never fails that op members use 3 different chat channels to communicate during an op. I guess I'm going to take a hard line on this. I will be on voice comms and will pretty much not be watching typed chat during an op. Voice is mandatory for most of Eve during combat, this is my combat.

Mining Buddy:
We are considering using MB to track ore ops and possibly ice.

All payouts are in ISK and calculated by Mining Buddy based on Dodixie Max Buy price and updated by MB daily. 

• IF you like to afk mine and can't be arsed to keep your lasers up and running then these are not ops for you. Mining Bosses will kick any member who frequently drops their lasers for more than necessary times. MB is a timed program, so if your lasers aren't up you are being paid for doing nothing at the expense of your corpmates.

HenCo uses Mining Buddy to track our mining ops. In order for it to work all miners (members and alts) must have created an account with mining buddy (MB) at http://miningbuddy.us/ManuFortius/index.php (using ingame browser) Please do this well in advance (days) of the Op you wish to attend.

When an Event is scheduled in MB an email is sent to each email that was supplied when you registered your MB account. You may reply to this mail but it will not replace logging in and joining on the day of the Op. At the time of the op you need to log in to MB and click the name of the system the op is being held in under 'Current Operations' in the left hand column. (EXAMPLE) It should read 'Tolle' as that's where the op will be held. You should get a page that says 'Detailed mining run information'. Almost to the bottom of the page is the line: Actions. [Join this op] [Close op] [Reload page] Please select 'Join this op'. You'll get another page called 'Join an operation'. This page asks you to choose the type of ship you will be using from a drop down menu.

Pick using these guidelines:
Venture = Frigate 30%
Prospect = Cruiser 48%
Exhumer = Exhumer (all Exhumer payouts are based on Skiff production) 100%
Mining Barge = Mining Barge (all barge payouts are based on Procurer production) 63%
Orca or DST = Industrial Ship 75%
Freighter = Freighter 80%
Fleet Booster using an Orca or Rorqual will pick Capital Industrial Ship (If op requires multiple squads or wings) 100%
(orca and freighter shares to be discussed) HenCo strongly encourages the use of Procurers and Skiffs for mining. This area is frequented by CODE (gankers) If you decide to fly a retriever/hulk-great, at least I know they will kill you first and leave me alone. Click on the 'Join mining operation' button when you are in the belt ready to mine as it tracks your time from this point on. We will not be using the Haul Ore feature as I'm not going to have the freighter pilots entering their loads into MB when they need to be in the belts. The Haul ore tab can be used at the end of the op to enter all mined ore. When you are leaving the op you must choose the [Leave Op] tab under actions to stop your time. When coming into or leaving an op you should always post it in fleet chat so the mining boss can track it anyway.

Op members who do not 'JOIN OP' or 'LEAVE OP' in MB will have their time deleted as this just screws up the whole program. If you need to leave the op for an extended period (couple minutes or more) plz log out of MB and you can log back in and rejoin the op at any time.
Corp Tax of 10% does apply to these ops.Once the op has been closed participants should be sure to log into MB and go to 'Wallet'/Manage Wallet and request payment for the op. They will also be able to see who participated and for how long, the amount of ore mined and isk payouts to all participants.

Author: Keto / Asten