Wormholes

Well - as you probably can't guess from reading the blogosphere - the changes to exploration content have been announced and its absolutely brilliant in my opinion. I'm not going to link to content as this is all accessible on the EVE homepage

Basically - CCP are adding >2000 new solar systems to EVE. Except you can't access them via jumpgates, only via wormholes. Wormholes will be accessed via Exploration and allow a set amount of mass through them (ie bigger ships = more mass = less time before collapse). Oh and wormhole space will be 0.0 - ie no restrictions on bubbles and the like. And no sovereignty - so no alliances holding the space... Downsides are other players are definitely a risk in exploration - but with the sheer amount of new systems to play in, I can't imagine it'll be a huge risk, just watch the scanners...

Downsides are a new exploration system to learn... If you have not got skills in exploration already, I suggest it may be beneficial to get some...

Downsides are: logistics. I can't see how I could partake in a meaningful exploration session without needing a monster exploration boat, and possibly a 3rd character. To explain, the problem will be storage of loot and ammo. In a meaningful exploration session right now I can get through 10k of ammo easily. Assuming I was going to be in wormhole space for a while, I would need a lot of ammo, some spare drones.. and the ability to haul loot back to high-sec as efficiently as possibly without hitting the mass limits. If the trips through the wormhole are limited, hauling could be a huge problem.

A possible tactic may be:
Fly in a small POS + corp hanger + ship maintenance array in a hauler. Dock the hauler. Fuel POS for 2 weeks.
Fly back in a pod to pick up Cov Ops ship.
Other character brings in a salvager - then flys back in pod for combat ship.
Now got a base that can be used without hitting the mass of the wormhole too much. Now other characters could find wormhole, and thats the risk - this is why I think exploration will *have* to be done in low-activity systems for this tactic to work (so you're looking at a low-sec entry point thats well off beaten path). Luckily through some work recently I've identified a few proper low sec systems that fit that requirement. The other nice thing here is you'd get POS shielding...

Another tactic I can immediately think of (though I've never done it) is leaving ships in space. Ie, leave a hauler, in space, at a safespot. No-one in it. Eject jetcan of loot near it, swap to it, pick up. Rinse/repeat.

A ORCA in this sense may also make sense on a 3rd character, storing all the loot, a cov ops (for scanning), a destroyer (for looting), an AF (for fighting) + possibly a cruiser or 2 for hacking. Downsides are the time taken to train for said ORCA - and the higher mass content than doing the above (if I'm right) - meaning that the POS may be the better option.

I can't wait until it's all released to see which option of the above is the "right" way to fly. And I also love the fact I might get proper PvP with no standings loss in a "safe" jump from highsec... rather than the risky 0.0!

What are your thoughts on this?

Big profit

Okay, Exploration IS brilliant. On just one combat site yesterday, I picked up a Snake implant which I could sell right now (instantly) for 100 million isk, but is worth > 200mln if I move and sell more centrally. Same guy also dropped a Serpentis small blaster POS Tower gun BPC (3 run). Yet to investigate what thats worth, but can't imagine it'll be cheap. Also picked up some named shadow serpentis modules - armor hardners which I'll also need to investigate sales price for (or keep).

Also found a radar site that had been bugging me for days (incredibly weak signal). When I finally scanned it down I was rewarded with 30mln's worth of decryptors...

I'm also amazed at just how quiet space is where I'm basing myself (I'm not saying where due to fact I like it quiet!). Last night in 3 systems I was the only active pilot - it was almost 0.0 in quietness. I note this is in high sec, when > 38000 pilots online. New record in one system, scanned, and found > 20 cosmic anomaly's in one system on a single scan!..

Basically overall, doing L3 missions, for 2-3 hours, I was lucky to earn 10 mln in an hour... doing this, I seem to easily average > 25.... though it can be more sporadic.

The big downside is the fact I have to really wait until I've got a cov-ops to do the run back to Ours (via low-sec) to actually liquidize all these assets and get my personal wallet healthy again - as exploration does not = big bounties. As it'll be a few weeks for this, scarily I may be flying with at least a billion isk's worth of modules in the ship... That does scare me immensely. Any idea on ship-fit-outs for a Cov-ops to avoid being caught in a gatecamp anyone?

Escalations!

Last night, I intended to stay in my little low-ish-sec area, where low-sec is as safe as it can be (ie - its not heavily populated). Scanning for Radar/Magnemetric sites.... Hit a combat site...

Then I had a huge escalation chain yesterday that had both DeafPlasma and DeafTurret characters flying over half of Gallente space. End result, some t2 salvage, some named ammo/modules. Oh and another of those all-to-nice Snake implants. Quite profitable all in (although still to sell the Snake's - aim is to sell all of them in a full-set contract). The escalation was quite interesting, in I was chasing a "named" character all over space, and kept losing him and getting further "escalations". Certainly a change from missions, and I think a tad more profitable than level 3's with the loot found.

Skills wise, over past week I'm still concentrating on scan-time reductions, and quality of scan. Expect another 2 weeks of this for DP before I'm fully happy and ready to start moving towards cov-op's frigate. DT's drone skills are what I'm concentrating on right now - and Drone Interfacing 5 is my main aim (another 20% damage is worth the 24 days I think). Past the Drone skills, next aim will be general skilling up of some Shield skills. As I'm happy flying an Assault Frigate for now, doing general "core" skills seems a sensible option, and also will help me should I hit PvP in low-sec.

Low sec shenannigins

Last night was interesting. To save face, I'd hopped into Jump clones without any implants - so if popped could not worry about the pod.

1st incident occurred when flying my JC's down from Ours to the FOB we have setup (which is in one of those pockets of highsec with no route in except via low-sec). On the entrance gate.... I see a fleet of 20 guys all with -2 standings. A fleet who follow me through - then again chase me in Interceptors to next gate. Luckily however I am flying a frigate and a shuttle, so they never manage to lock me until I'm safely back in high-sec.. but did chase....

2nd occurred when Jax got an escalation off an anomoly. In a low-sec system. We setup a fleet and went en-route, sending a scout ahead. Scout spotted a pirate in a assault frigate sitting at gate (in destinantion system) who immediately opened fire upon the scout when he decloaked. Luckily I made it back to gate intact with 50% armor remaining (this thanks to fitting a MWD, and suffering one hit from the hostile).. But lesson learn't - When entering system with hostile at gate in a scout ship, warp out, then warp back to gate..

Apart from above - last night was pretty uneventful - 2 radar sites were tanalisingly out of reach - I just couldn't scan them out - despite having good coverage from probes... I'll need to see about differently deployment options & will hope better skills sort this (about 2 weeks off). Got one combat site which yielded some drone bits...

Feed settings changed

I hopefully have changed site to full syndicated status on the feed.

This so readers can use a reader to read the site in full. Downsides to this is I don't get the stats of people visiting/reading my page quite as well... so I'll keep an eye...

Let me know if you have any problems with the new format.

Personal wallet issues

All this exploration and recent ship and skill buying (of t2 ship/fittings) has had its costs...

My personal wallets (for the 2 characters) are well both below 50mln.. A concern - I usually have 200m of non-corp funds available for "fun"..... and ship replacements. I worked out with my current low loss-rate (and amonut of ships kept for various purposes) its cheaper to self-insure all ships. Also a concern when I have ~ 100mln of skillbooks I need to buy in next few weeks ideally... (well when in high-sec). That said, collected items that looking at market could well be worth 100mln, so the exploration does represent quicker isk-gain than level 3 missions. Downsides are I'm not taking the local regional price so need to fly said items up to Ours/Jita to sell..

I've noticed a distinct market opportunity I in the region I'm flying in, certain items sell well, and well over 100% of what they cost to make - in one day 2000 of said item sold!. Now flying a hauler full of completed items may seem risky, but I'm willing to do so for that kind of profit (considering having a hauler for the junk t1 loot will be required in a few weeks). As said items are things I'd be using here anyhow it makes sense to me (as I can worst case buy off myself if my personal stock runs low). So I sense > 2500 item build orders will be done over weekend for said items.

Plan for next week is to jump clone into "implantless/cheap implant" clones for a coupel of days, re-equip with a cloak on the scanner (keeping combat ship well hidden, only coming in if needed to clear a site)- and look to actually do exploration in very low-sec (0.1-0.3)/null sec to see if it improves the isk per hour rate. As I'm only flying frigates/AF's the total loss wouldn't be that big if blown up.

T2 frigate love has also continued yesterday, with the AF not even hitting armor on an "unknown" combat site... basic stategy with an AF seems to be orbit (to reduce traversal) with Afterburner on, taking out all frigates and small ships with drones/guns asap (as these are what can seriously damage the AF). Once small ships dealt with switch to large ships. With drones costing 400k each I did have to manage their aggro well so they didn't get popped by the enemy - but It was easy enough to recall a drone for 10-20s if it got below 50% armor. Nice thing is I got a snake implant from the site, which did make it well worth my time doing.

I'm not sure whether to share my ship fit-outs for operational security purposes - I know several of the piratey types who read my blog are based in the area of space I'm now in (Gallente/Mimmmitar low-sec primajavascript:void(0)
Publish Postrily)... so giving my low-sec exploration and combat fit-outs may place me at risk if they chose to chase me (not that I'm a big fish with only 100m isk total available to me right now (industry funds are usually tied up in stock/minerals). I know that you piratey types can use locator agents to find me in any case, but ship-fitouts may be harder to get...

Tech 2 Frigates - IshKur

Well, last night was dedicated to the purchase and launch of the new Assault frigate named the "DSTI Carbonator".. (so called as it turns enemys to carbon dust). Most concerning thing was flying it back through low-sec for the 1st time, worried a little someone would jump me before I could fully combat test the ship.

Luckily I safely survived (didn't even see a soul in low-sec)... and took it for combat testing at a combat site I'd found earlier. It is OMG awesome and a complete relavtion in PvE (despite it being a mostly PvP fitout as being suitable for if one of you piratey types jumps me in low-sec). Oh I didn't mention that its 90% T2 fit in all the "important places"... and has T2 drones. I can't afford to lose many of these at 400k each so heres hoping for some more big finds.

Right now my skills are letting me down a little, but EFT reports with current skills its giving me 171 damage per second with standard antimatter ammo.. not bad for a frigate, at all :) I do need to buy some faction ammo however to increase dps further to store in case of pvp encounter....

In exploration testing on some combat sites found, effectively its way way over twice as effective as the "old" incursis T1 frigate (which the ishkur is based on). Doing a frigate sized combat site that me/jax has issues with together with 2x incursis - the ishkur just blasted through it solo. One big difference is being able to field 5x drones at once, vs the drone bay capacity of the incursis of a single drone.

I also found another radar site last night. Another 20 million in "findings" for 15 mins work.

Can't wait to get back tonight - to test it further, and also hoping to see Jax at some point (though he's not going to be around a few weeks due to RL issues) so the AF vs Myrmi and AF vs Vexor can be tested.

I have decided I'm going to have to fly a hauler down at some point full of probes... getting through them like they are out of fashion and the few trips I'll be flying (instead of just clone jumping) up to proper highsec means there won't be much chance to bring enough down.