Hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Mine was good, and I can also say that the Eve Santa just kept on giving this weekend. While my better half was playing the new sims 3 add-on, I spent some time moving a jc to 0.0, and doing a lot of hisec exploration.
It all started when I rescued those exotic dancers from that gurista hidden hideout...
The next thing I know, I'd found a Gurista Scout Outpost, being run by a moa and a drake.
I helped them kill the rats in the first room, and when they were gone, I warped to the next (Mr. Drake was 50km from the next gate, wtf?)
I focused on the satellite dish and for my effort scored a pithum c-type medium shield booster.
I continued scanning that day, and 6 jumps away I got another of the same boosters!
If this doesn't sound lucky, the next day I had only a few faction mods found. The day after that, which was two days ago, I found nearly 40 different exploration sites, 7 of which were gurista scout outposts. Three of which dropped pithum c-type medium shield boosters.
So in 3 days, that's 5 boosters worth nearly 400 mil each, 250mil in assorted radar decryptors and datacores (even counting the lower prices in caldari space as of late), plus a few other assorted faction mods that dropped from a few gurista watches.
I found it odd that I ran a total of 18 Gurista Watch sites, only 1 escalated, and only 2 had a faction ship spawn.
Merry Christmas CCP, I hope the drop-lords get a nice bonus this year :)
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
First taste of Dominion exploration
War is hell. Well, they're fun actually, especially if you can piss off your war targets.
Sometimes they like to gank you, so to that effect I went as far from my hq as possible in case I managed to lure some WT's away from the rest of my corpies. So I went off exploring in Black Rise, trying to pick systems off the beaten path that had few or no people active or docked.
I did find a lot of signatures, but something is definitely different. In two nights of exploring, I found only 2 radar sites. A gurista minor shipyard (with NO loot at all, wtf!), and another site that had maybe 2 user manuals. That's a pretty poor turnout for 30+ systems scanned.
Combat-site wise, I found 2 gurista scout outposts, 1 gurista watch, and 1 gurista vigil. I got a faction resist from one of the outposts, someone had already farmed the other, and I got a t2 low-grade beta from the vigil.
Pretty dissappointing, but I'm a long way off from the usual exploration circuits I use, so it could just be bad luck.
Oh, there was one other annoying thing. I found at least 15 Gallente Prison sites, which I believe are the final stage of one of the epic arcs. I was a bit excited when I found the first one, figuring it was time for a bit o' ninja-ing. Alas, I did not have the right tag to proceed into the second room. A quick check on contracts showed one person selling it for 180 million. No thanks.
Dominion sure looks pretty....and the space between the 'scan now' and 'recall probes' is a godsend. Props to CCP on those improvements. The whole interface and its performance feels a lot smoother now.
Now I just have to finish designing and modelling a T3 battleship (see pic) and see who I can flog it to at CCP...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Dominion and Exploration
With less than 2 weeks left before Dominion I've been wondering quite a bit how this will impact explorers.
The impact on high sec exploration should be negligable, but I am suspecting several shifts in the market. For instance, I'm holding onto any faction frigate blueprints I find, usually Worms. Right now a Worm can sell for over 50 million, but after dominion? Who knows. Higher demand means higher price, right? Many of the other faction mods I find might fluctuate in price once things stabilize in nullsec as well.
I've heard a few of the changes in dominion are meant to be appealing to explorers as well. As part of the sovereignty changes theres new structures that improve the odds of combat sites spawning in your 0.0 systems. Personally I'm doubting this will have any noticeable impact. Even if you are part of an alliance holding a lot of space, that's a lot of capital to invest in all those structures. That's a pretty small niche for that much upkeep.
In this case I'm hoping that Dominion causes alliance sovereignty to shrink, thereby opening a lot of 0.0 space up for more, um, neutral access. If the major alliances, especially those I could be hostile to, are concentrated in a smaller number of systems I might just be tempted to start exploring in nullsec.
The impact on high sec exploration should be negligable, but I am suspecting several shifts in the market. For instance, I'm holding onto any faction frigate blueprints I find, usually Worms. Right now a Worm can sell for over 50 million, but after dominion? Who knows. Higher demand means higher price, right? Many of the other faction mods I find might fluctuate in price once things stabilize in nullsec as well.
I've heard a few of the changes in dominion are meant to be appealing to explorers as well. As part of the sovereignty changes theres new structures that improve the odds of combat sites spawning in your 0.0 systems. Personally I'm doubting this will have any noticeable impact. Even if you are part of an alliance holding a lot of space, that's a lot of capital to invest in all those structures. That's a pretty small niche for that much upkeep.
In this case I'm hoping that Dominion causes alliance sovereignty to shrink, thereby opening a lot of 0.0 space up for more, um, neutral access. If the major alliances, especially those I could be hostile to, are concentrated in a smaller number of systems I might just be tempted to start exploring in nullsec.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Almost Epic Failure
Well I can't say I had my ass handed to me, but a couple nights ago I was the target of some good gloating by another explorer.
It happened as I was on my way back to homebase, with a cargo hold nearly full of loot and salvage (mostly faction) gathered during a few days of exploring. I didn't even have much room left for the full range of missiles I usually cart around. That was my first mistake.
I scanned down a gurista scout outpost, and warped to it. As I got into the first room, I saw an ishkur pop the last rat. He was pretty close to me, and I should have paid attention to how fast he was going when we both raced to the gate to the final room.
In the second room, he sped off towards the satellite dish, and I started firing at the dish immediately. By the time I got there, he was already there as well, so when my missiles finally popped the station, a split-second frenzy insued to see who could loot the can first.
I lost, but not before seeing the prize, a pithum c-type shield booster. Mr. Ishkur instantly went flashy red, and I responded in kind with my warp disruptor. Mistake number 3: no web. Perhaps this also goes with mistake number 4, no precision or faction EM missiles. With the kinetic resists the only precision missiles I had just weren't cutting it. Still, I fired anyways. This far away from the warp-in spot I was not worried about any of his friends coming in.
In short order, he was 60km away, and smacking in local. All I would tell him was, "Well played".
We both warped away, and I made my way back to homebase. I made some corrections to my fit and ammo loadout. Seems like I'll be swapping out the codebreaker for the web and switch back and forth as needed.
The irony of all this is, the next day I undock from homebase, drop probes, and scan a gurista scout outpost right outside the station. And just my luck, I got a pithum c-type medium shield booster.
It happened as I was on my way back to homebase, with a cargo hold nearly full of loot and salvage (mostly faction) gathered during a few days of exploring. I didn't even have much room left for the full range of missiles I usually cart around. That was my first mistake.
I scanned down a gurista scout outpost, and warped to it. As I got into the first room, I saw an ishkur pop the last rat. He was pretty close to me, and I should have paid attention to how fast he was going when we both raced to the gate to the final room.
In the second room, he sped off towards the satellite dish, and I started firing at the dish immediately. By the time I got there, he was already there as well, so when my missiles finally popped the station, a split-second frenzy insued to see who could loot the can first.
I lost, but not before seeing the prize, a pithum c-type shield booster. Mr. Ishkur instantly went flashy red, and I responded in kind with my warp disruptor. Mistake number 3: no web. Perhaps this also goes with mistake number 4, no precision or faction EM missiles. With the kinetic resists the only precision missiles I had just weren't cutting it. Still, I fired anyways. This far away from the warp-in spot I was not worried about any of his friends coming in.
In short order, he was 60km away, and smacking in local. All I would tell him was, "Well played".
We both warped away, and I made my way back to homebase. I made some corrections to my fit and ammo loadout. Seems like I'll be swapping out the codebreaker for the web and switch back and forth as needed.
The irony of all this is, the next day I undock from homebase, drop probes, and scan a gurista scout outpost right outside the station. And just my luck, I got a pithum c-type medium shield booster.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A decent haul
Last night was probably the best haul I've had in that short a time. It started when I found a Gurista's hideout combat site, which I reluctantly decided to do after finding nothing else in system. It escalated to several jumps away, so I decided to scan down all the systems inbetween escalations. In total I ended up with two more gurista hideouts, 1 which also escalated, a gurista scout outpost, an several radar sites. Also I had gone to the anomaly 'gurista forlorn hideaway' to kill some rats while scanning a system down, and got a drop from a dread gurista ship there too (nice t2 implant).
In less than two hours, I had netted a Worm BPC, 1 faction shield resist, 1 dread gurista em shield hardener, 1 low-grade crystal delta implant, and quite a number of decryptors and datacores.
In total about 250 million isk not counting the faction mods and bpc which I kept (for dominion!)
Oddly, most of this exploration occurred in high traffic systems with 50+ in local. Guess the odds were in my favour ;)
In less than two hours, I had netted a Worm BPC, 1 faction shield resist, 1 dread gurista em shield hardener, 1 low-grade crystal delta implant, and quite a number of decryptors and datacores.
In total about 250 million isk not counting the faction mods and bpc which I kept (for dominion!)
Oddly, most of this exploration occurred in high traffic systems with 50+ in local. Guess the odds were in my favour ;)
Friday, November 13, 2009
Luck of the Draw
Explorers in eve will know that the most tedious part of the job is finding the site.
Something everyone in hisec likely knows has been getting progressively harder these last several months. More explorers = less sites to find, more competition, more loot stealing, more risk of pvp (yes even in hisec).
Several times in the last month I've warped into an exploration combat site to find it is already being done, and by much more heavily equipped players. I'm seeing a lot of t3 cruisers. Every advantage you can get seems to count.
I warped into a Gurista Watch and saw an odd-looking tengu blasting at the rats in the first room. Lucky for me, I had a gurista tag in my hold so I used it to warp to the next room and grab the faction loot (Yoink!). I was already out and gone for nearly 20 minutes before a chat window popped up asking how I had done this. To be a good sport, I told him how I'd done it, and what I had gotten (Dread gurista EM shield hardener)
Last night I found something that really peaks an explorers interest....I warped into a system, alone in local, and 9 signatures in close proximity. A veritable gold mine!!!
9 Frakkin Magnetic sites, which everyone knows in hisec they are worthless. That's the luck of the draw.
Something everyone in hisec likely knows has been getting progressively harder these last several months. More explorers = less sites to find, more competition, more loot stealing, more risk of pvp (yes even in hisec).
Several times in the last month I've warped into an exploration combat site to find it is already being done, and by much more heavily equipped players. I'm seeing a lot of t3 cruisers. Every advantage you can get seems to count.
I warped into a Gurista Watch and saw an odd-looking tengu blasting at the rats in the first room. Lucky for me, I had a gurista tag in my hold so I used it to warp to the next room and grab the faction loot (Yoink!). I was already out and gone for nearly 20 minutes before a chat window popped up asking how I had done this. To be a good sport, I told him how I'd done it, and what I had gotten (Dread gurista EM shield hardener)
Last night I found something that really peaks an explorers interest....I warped into a system, alone in local, and 9 signatures in close proximity. A veritable gold mine!!!
9 Frakkin Magnetic sites, which everyone knows in hisec they are worthless. That's the luck of the draw.
Friday, October 30, 2009
When Lowsec exploration goes wrong
I suppose I was getting a bit lazy with venturing into lowsec for exploration. Blind jumping through gatecamps and all.
I also wasn't fitting my ship properly for the job either. The final escalation in "Kidnapped" requires destroying a ridiculously tough station, which can take a frakking long time if you're in a drake using t2 scourge furies. Seriously, you could sit there for an hour, especially if you have to cloak and wait for the combat probes to disappear.
So I decide to take a failfit drake through. No biggie. If it gets popped, ehn, it's insured.
I didn't even have mods in all the mids. And to top it off, no scram (biggest mistake).
So I jump into lowsec, and before I could cloak, I was targeted and scrammed. At first I can only see one flashie, but as I align to the nearest asteroid field and hit my afterburner and hardeners, I'm joined by at least 3 other flashies. So now I'm in a failfit drake, and I have stabbers, a drake, and a myrmidon all scramming and firing at me. Oddly though, my shields are not going down fast, so it was time to fight back. I targeted the smaller ships first hoping to get clear of the webbing. The stabbers got to structure fast, and warped out. Gateguns may have popped one of them, but I didn't get on that killmail. Then I started hitting the myrm, and before long, it too was at structure and warped out. Now all that's left is the drake, and I'm not really doing much to it's shields.
My ECM drones get a lucky cycle on the drake, so I recall them and successfully warp to the asteroid field, and immediately cloak. I watched as all 4 ships, now fully repaired, arrived and scoured the area for me, to no avail.
I spent the next hour doing the escalation, and sitting at the escalation site cloaked while they were probing for me. I figure I owe my ships survival to two factors, I didn't panic and managed the threats correctly, and I wasn't paying attention before I left hisec with a pithi-c type kinetic resist amp on. I was packing wicked kinetic resists. Oh, and the shiny ecm drones deserve credit too.
There was both an unhappy and a happy ending to this story, which all explorers in Eve must deal with. I only managed to save 15 civilians which promptly got spaced (I got no other good loot dammit), but last night myself and two corpies went back to that system and slaughtered that pirate corp. We faced off against 5 or 6 of them, and they all lost their ships.
I also wasn't fitting my ship properly for the job either. The final escalation in "Kidnapped" requires destroying a ridiculously tough station, which can take a frakking long time if you're in a drake using t2 scourge furies. Seriously, you could sit there for an hour, especially if you have to cloak and wait for the combat probes to disappear.
So I decide to take a failfit drake through. No biggie. If it gets popped, ehn, it's insured.
I didn't even have mods in all the mids. And to top it off, no scram (biggest mistake).
So I jump into lowsec, and before I could cloak, I was targeted and scrammed. At first I can only see one flashie, but as I align to the nearest asteroid field and hit my afterburner and hardeners, I'm joined by at least 3 other flashies. So now I'm in a failfit drake, and I have stabbers, a drake, and a myrmidon all scramming and firing at me. Oddly though, my shields are not going down fast, so it was time to fight back. I targeted the smaller ships first hoping to get clear of the webbing. The stabbers got to structure fast, and warped out. Gateguns may have popped one of them, but I didn't get on that killmail. Then I started hitting the myrm, and before long, it too was at structure and warped out. Now all that's left is the drake, and I'm not really doing much to it's shields.
My ECM drones get a lucky cycle on the drake, so I recall them and successfully warp to the asteroid field, and immediately cloak. I watched as all 4 ships, now fully repaired, arrived and scoured the area for me, to no avail.
I spent the next hour doing the escalation, and sitting at the escalation site cloaked while they were probing for me. I figure I owe my ships survival to two factors, I didn't panic and managed the threats correctly, and I wasn't paying attention before I left hisec with a pithi-c type kinetic resist amp on. I was packing wicked kinetic resists. Oh, and the shiny ecm drones deserve credit too.
There was both an unhappy and a happy ending to this story, which all explorers in Eve must deal with. I only managed to save 15 civilians which promptly got spaced (I got no other good loot dammit), but last night myself and two corpies went back to that system and slaughtered that pirate corp. We faced off against 5 or 6 of them, and they all lost their ships.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Been a bit quiet lately
A fried video card will do that to you.
Our corp finished up our last war, not much to talk about there.
More importantly, I've actually started to get into some lowsec exploration, so I'm hoping I'll have some good encounters to read about really soon.
Well, there was one near-encounter that got my heart beating faster...it happened in a lowsec system, there was only one other person in lowsec with me, and I had picked up a tengu on directional. I fit a pvp-oriented battlecruiser, and scanned down a Gurista Provisional Outpost site. I got to the first room, all the rats had been killed, by the tengu pilot! The hunt was on, I burned as fast as I could to the gate.
Alas, when I got to the next room, I was too late. He had just started to salvage the faction wreck, and as soon as he saw me he ran. I graciously finished salvaging the wreck and got some nice t2 salvage.
This marks the second time I've had an encounter with a tengu, but the lastest was actually the most tense: I had found a gurista scout outpost in hisec, and it was already being done by a tengu and a manticore. I warped to the second room, the tengu was salvaging the rats as they popped them. I unloaded my missiles as fast as I could at the satellite dish, and behold, I killed it before they did.
The manti fled the scene immediately (to get a bigger ship maybe?) but both my tengu and his were burning full speed to the can, and we both got there at the same time.
Practically nose to nose, I opened the can and retrieved the effects and two faction resists. The other tengu had decided not to risk it.
And rightly so. I'd already targeted him, so he would not be escaping. I had some really good dps on my side, and I knew for certain he had both a tractor and a salvager installed, so he couldn't hope to break my tank without help.
We both warped off, and I, uh, said 'thanks' in local for the help in finishing the site :)
Our corp finished up our last war, not much to talk about there.
More importantly, I've actually started to get into some lowsec exploration, so I'm hoping I'll have some good encounters to read about really soon.
Well, there was one near-encounter that got my heart beating faster...it happened in a lowsec system, there was only one other person in lowsec with me, and I had picked up a tengu on directional. I fit a pvp-oriented battlecruiser, and scanned down a Gurista Provisional Outpost site. I got to the first room, all the rats had been killed, by the tengu pilot! The hunt was on, I burned as fast as I could to the gate.
Alas, when I got to the next room, I was too late. He had just started to salvage the faction wreck, and as soon as he saw me he ran. I graciously finished salvaging the wreck and got some nice t2 salvage.
This marks the second time I've had an encounter with a tengu, but the lastest was actually the most tense: I had found a gurista scout outpost in hisec, and it was already being done by a tengu and a manticore. I warped to the second room, the tengu was salvaging the rats as they popped them. I unloaded my missiles as fast as I could at the satellite dish, and behold, I killed it before they did.
The manti fled the scene immediately (to get a bigger ship maybe?) but both my tengu and his were burning full speed to the can, and we both got there at the same time.
Practically nose to nose, I opened the can and retrieved the effects and two faction resists. The other tengu had decided not to risk it.
And rightly so. I'd already targeted him, so he would not be escaping. I had some really good dps on my side, and I knew for certain he had both a tractor and a salvager installed, so he couldn't hope to break my tank without help.
We both warped off, and I, uh, said 'thanks' in local for the help in finishing the site :)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Victory Day!
War with Do It Right For Once came to an end last night. Our best guess, and a good one at that, is that we were causing for more damage than we were receiving.
They lost over 3/4 billion in isk, mostly a handful of battleships.
We lost a frigate, a battlecruiser, and I think we nearly lost a scorpion as well.
For one day, another corp declared war on us as well, and teamed up with Do It Right, by camping outside our station and setting up a login trap. We never fell for it, and that war expired as well.
Either way, we had a lot of fun popping their battleships. We'll be seeing you in lowsec guys! Haha.
Now with war out of the way, I'm back to exploring again. I've already recouped my minor losses from the war (plus I have a stockpile of faction resists and implants to sell yet), so my wallet is sitting pretty. Sure, I lost one bc to the war, but I have 3 new replacements ready to go at a moments notice.
I even tried my hand at some exploring in lowsec yesterday, which was very interesting. I ran a Gurista Scout Outpost, which is the same as in hisec really, and I also found a Gurista Outpost.
This was a bit different affair, and I ended up overheating the hardeners on my poor drake to get through this one.
It's two rooms, mostly battlecruisers, cruisers, and frigates. Some of the frigs warp scramble.
Once the first room is cleared, you can proceed to the second.
I still had several rats to kill when the Dread Gurista cruiser spawned, perhaps this was triggered by approaching the gurista control center that was behind the asteroid. I also got an escalation as well. Unfortunately I didn't get the final escalation, but I wasn't ready to go into 0.0 so I happily walked away with the low-grade crystal implant.
They lost over 3/4 billion in isk, mostly a handful of battleships.
We lost a frigate, a battlecruiser, and I think we nearly lost a scorpion as well.
For one day, another corp declared war on us as well, and teamed up with Do It Right, by camping outside our station and setting up a login trap. We never fell for it, and that war expired as well.
Either way, we had a lot of fun popping their battleships. We'll be seeing you in lowsec guys! Haha.
Now with war out of the way, I'm back to exploring again. I've already recouped my minor losses from the war (plus I have a stockpile of faction resists and implants to sell yet), so my wallet is sitting pretty. Sure, I lost one bc to the war, but I have 3 new replacements ready to go at a moments notice.
I even tried my hand at some exploring in lowsec yesterday, which was very interesting. I ran a Gurista Scout Outpost, which is the same as in hisec really, and I also found a Gurista Outpost.
This was a bit different affair, and I ended up overheating the hardeners on my poor drake to get through this one.
It's two rooms, mostly battlecruisers, cruisers, and frigates. Some of the frigs warp scramble.
Once the first room is cleared, you can proceed to the second.
I still had several rats to kill when the Dread Gurista cruiser spawned, perhaps this was triggered by approaching the gurista control center that was behind the asteroid. I also got an escalation as well. Unfortunately I didn't get the final escalation, but I wasn't ready to go into 0.0 so I happily walked away with the low-grade crystal implant.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
War Report Part 3
Not everyone posts there killmails, but some things are nice to see.
For instance, on Battleclinic, the corp Do It Right For Once, has taken 1.7 billion isk in damage in its lifetime. Half of this was done by our corp Frontier United. And out of that, nearly 3/4 of the loss falls under their CEO, PrimaryIS. What started out as boring station games is becoming...fun! We're starting to worry that he might back out soon, or worse, move away from his (and our) Hq. We might just have to do a bit of wardeccing ourselves.
Which brings up a rather sage piece of advice, don't S*** where you eat. Or, more recently, THIS IS GAME!!!!!!
Also they're dropping a lot of nice loot. The other day we couldn't be bothered to even collect the remaining 800 cap boosters left behind, and the can sat for quite some time in front of the station.
For instance, on Battleclinic, the corp Do It Right For Once, has taken 1.7 billion isk in damage in its lifetime. Half of this was done by our corp Frontier United. And out of that, nearly 3/4 of the loss falls under their CEO, PrimaryIS. What started out as boring station games is becoming...fun! We're starting to worry that he might back out soon, or worse, move away from his (and our) Hq. We might just have to do a bit of wardeccing ourselves.
Which brings up a rather sage piece of advice, don't S*** where you eat. Or, more recently, THIS IS GAME!!!!!!
Also they're dropping a lot of nice loot. The other day we couldn't be bothered to even collect the remaining 800 cap boosters left behind, and the can sat for quite some time in front of the station.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Guristas Vigil
Site normally found anywhere in hisec, with new scan dynamics its challenging to scan down, even with a ship with scanning bonuses.
First room: Gate in first room may require Guristas Silver or Guristas Gold tag. First room may contain some rats, but no triggers I've found so far. I usually just ignore them.
Second room: kill the stasis towers first to regain mobility. You will need to kill all the rats. As you do this, I recommend afterburning to the dust cloud just behind and to the left of the 'space stonehenge' structure. This is near where all respawns will be. I'd also recommend taking a couple potshots at both gurista transmitters, they may or may not be triggers, but I've found that after I've killed all the rats, the respawn usually occurrs after I've hit them.
The last spawn usually generates a dread gurista cruiser, with a chance at dropping some decent faction loot or a t2 implant, and possibly escalate.
A final note, there is another gate in this room, but for me, it's always gone no where.
Escalation: Something about kidnappers?
There will be around 3 simple escalation sites that you can pretty much ignore all the rats and take out the faction spawn to continue. The final escalation will be in lowsec.
Final Escalation: in lowsec, you will go to a station surrounded by rats. Kill the rats, and attack the station. It will spawn more rats as you attack it, usually in two waves. The final wave with the overseer spawn will not appear until the station is in its last 5% structure. Sometimes, not at all.
The station has a massive amount of EHP. You will be there for quite a while hitting it, even longer if you are being hunted by pirates, or warping to safespots. Best bet is to take something like a drake with a big load of t2 missiles (the faster you bring the station down the faster you get out), and a cloak. Keep your eyes on local, and watch directional for probes. Once those rats are killed at least you can cloak if there's trouble in system.
Loot varies, tbh it's been a mixed bag for me. Once I got a pithi a-type small shield booster, but I've also gotten Worm blueprints, and last time, as though some kind of an insult, 15 civilians. I can't remember why I didn't jettision them (oh the irony!). I've heard rumours that people have gotten blueprints for faction cruisers as well but that's unconfirmed.
First room: Gate in first room may require Guristas Silver or Guristas Gold tag. First room may contain some rats, but no triggers I've found so far. I usually just ignore them.
Second room: kill the stasis towers first to regain mobility. You will need to kill all the rats. As you do this, I recommend afterburning to the dust cloud just behind and to the left of the 'space stonehenge' structure. This is near where all respawns will be. I'd also recommend taking a couple potshots at both gurista transmitters, they may or may not be triggers, but I've found that after I've killed all the rats, the respawn usually occurrs after I've hit them.
The last spawn usually generates a dread gurista cruiser, with a chance at dropping some decent faction loot or a t2 implant, and possibly escalate.
A final note, there is another gate in this room, but for me, it's always gone no where.
Escalation: Something about kidnappers?
There will be around 3 simple escalation sites that you can pretty much ignore all the rats and take out the faction spawn to continue. The final escalation will be in lowsec.
Final Escalation: in lowsec, you will go to a station surrounded by rats. Kill the rats, and attack the station. It will spawn more rats as you attack it, usually in two waves. The final wave with the overseer spawn will not appear until the station is in its last 5% structure. Sometimes, not at all.
The station has a massive amount of EHP. You will be there for quite a while hitting it, even longer if you are being hunted by pirates, or warping to safespots. Best bet is to take something like a drake with a big load of t2 missiles (the faster you bring the station down the faster you get out), and a cloak. Keep your eyes on local, and watch directional for probes. Once those rats are killed at least you can cloak if there's trouble in system.
Loot varies, tbh it's been a mixed bag for me. Once I got a pithi a-type small shield booster, but I've also gotten Worm blueprints, and last time, as though some kind of an insult, 15 civilians. I can't remember why I didn't jettision them (oh the irony!). I've heard rumours that people have gotten blueprints for faction cruisers as well but that's unconfirmed.
The War Report Part 2
Last night saw a much better fighting session with our war targets. What started off as a repeat of the previous days station games became a skirmish at the gate to funtown.
2 Armageddon's vs a drake, a scorp, and a frig, apparently not all at once. The three of us just couldn't co-ordinate our actions fast enough, and by the looks of things we got chewed up one at a time (I think the scorp made it back to base in structure). I tried to stall one of them on the other side of the gate in funtown, but he went back through to the isi side to rep his ceo, and I had to burn a lot of cap to close the 60km distance back to the gate. By the time I made it back through, it was too late, and my corpmates were finished, and I was out of cap. It was a good fight, and I look forward to having more like that, while hopefully being on the winning side.
Looks like I missed the final battle of the evening, where the enemy CEO lost his tempest, probably the same that had my tengu, the Frklator, fully neuted before I managed to escape.
2 Armageddon's vs a drake, a scorp, and a frig, apparently not all at once. The three of us just couldn't co-ordinate our actions fast enough, and by the looks of things we got chewed up one at a time (I think the scorp made it back to base in structure). I tried to stall one of them on the other side of the gate in funtown, but he went back through to the isi side to rep his ceo, and I had to burn a lot of cap to close the 60km distance back to the gate. By the time I made it back through, it was too late, and my corpmates were finished, and I was out of cap. It was a good fight, and I look forward to having more like that, while hopefully being on the winning side.
Looks like I missed the final battle of the evening, where the enemy CEO lost his tempest, probably the same that had my tengu, the Frklator, fully neuted before I managed to escape.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Haven't been on much lately as I've been moving, but when I finally got logged back in, I hadn't missed all that much.
The new changes to the scanning interface are a big improvement. The War is still on, although the other side's ceo forgot to pay the bill and had to re-declare war again. My corpmates have been camping the station that ceo is docked in. I haven't been too concerned, but for the most part my tengu is usually ready for pvp encounters anyways.
As CCP has been changing some of the dynamics of exploration, I have been changing my tactics as well. Many have noticed it is now harder to find the combat exploration sites, and it seems only a small percentage are now either escalating or dropping any faction loot of value.
Thus lately I have also been changing the way I approach combat sites. For both Guristas Watch, and Gurista's Vigil, I now make sure to have both Guristas Silver and Gold tags in my cargo, so that I can completely bypass the first room.
Not only does this save time, as there is now a good chance you won't get anything or even an escalation, but you've left a distraction behind if someone else finds the site. You could be nearly finished the second room before they figure out the gate is unlocked, or get through the rats in the first room.
The new changes to the scanning interface are a big improvement. The War is still on, although the other side's ceo forgot to pay the bill and had to re-declare war again. My corpmates have been camping the station that ceo is docked in. I haven't been too concerned, but for the most part my tengu is usually ready for pvp encounters anyways.
As CCP has been changing some of the dynamics of exploration, I have been changing my tactics as well. Many have noticed it is now harder to find the combat exploration sites, and it seems only a small percentage are now either escalating or dropping any faction loot of value.
Thus lately I have also been changing the way I approach combat sites. For both Guristas Watch, and Gurista's Vigil, I now make sure to have both Guristas Silver and Gold tags in my cargo, so that I can completely bypass the first room.
Not only does this save time, as there is now a good chance you won't get anything or even an escalation, but you've left a distraction behind if someone else finds the site. You could be nearly finished the second room before they figure out the gate is unlocked, or get through the rats in the first room.
Monday, August 17, 2009
The War Report Part 1
Well, with the preparation all done, we were all pretty excited to see what our war with 'Do it Right For Once' or whatever, would bring.
On the first day of the war the aggressing CEO camped in front of one of our home stations in a Harby, so two or three of my corpmates and I undocked to exchange a few missiles. Only a few shots got off before he warped off.
He docked and came back in a tempest, and it wasn't long before I found myself fully neuted, and his drones approaching. Still, I had power for dc2, and I was hardly taking any shield damage (even with the hardeners off the tengu has nice resists!). I guess I had some time between his neut cycles because I didn't have any problem firing up my mwd and getting out of his guns and drone range. I can imagine this pissed him off to no end. Sweet tengu kill right in his grasp....and then gone.
We played the station games a few more times, he would undock, we'd hit him, he'd dock, and once my corpmates nearly got him as he was down to about 20 percent structure. Still, no kills on either side, and I don't think we saw any of his corpmates until today.
I do remember though that he brought several outlaws in, possibly to remote rep him, or tempt us into firing on them, but we didn't fall for it.
So I went back to exploring for the next couple of days, and finally today we see an enemy corpmate logged in, 21 jumps away. What the hell, a few of us decided to go and say hello.
We got 2 jumps away when he then logged off. Surprise surprise. Still, we had some fun, and saw a few big battles occur in some lowsec systems. We even engaged a couple pirates at a gate before we were overwhelmed by a rather large pirate fleet.
There were probably eight or nine reds, in everything from battlecruisers to carriers, and me and a corpmate ended up losing a couple drakes. Not before we popped one of their harbingers though.
So, whereas 'Do it Right for Once' or whatever did not manifest itself for battle, the folks at Black Souls and V O O D O O definitely did stick around for a good fight :)
Some pvp experience can be invaluable to a serious explorer. Even moreso if you ever plan on doing exploration in lowsec, which I will get around to eventually (not just escalations). If I learned one valuable lesson today, it was, don't hug the gate if you are engaging a target. Try to get as far as possible without losing scram on your target. That way, when all his buddies get to the gate, you have some distance to buy you time.
And less likely a need to clean your shorts.
On the first day of the war the aggressing CEO camped in front of one of our home stations in a Harby, so two or three of my corpmates and I undocked to exchange a few missiles. Only a few shots got off before he warped off.
He docked and came back in a tempest, and it wasn't long before I found myself fully neuted, and his drones approaching. Still, I had power for dc2, and I was hardly taking any shield damage (even with the hardeners off the tengu has nice resists!). I guess I had some time between his neut cycles because I didn't have any problem firing up my mwd and getting out of his guns and drone range. I can imagine this pissed him off to no end. Sweet tengu kill right in his grasp....and then gone.
We played the station games a few more times, he would undock, we'd hit him, he'd dock, and once my corpmates nearly got him as he was down to about 20 percent structure. Still, no kills on either side, and I don't think we saw any of his corpmates until today.
I do remember though that he brought several outlaws in, possibly to remote rep him, or tempt us into firing on them, but we didn't fall for it.
So I went back to exploring for the next couple of days, and finally today we see an enemy corpmate logged in, 21 jumps away. What the hell, a few of us decided to go and say hello.
We got 2 jumps away when he then logged off. Surprise surprise. Still, we had some fun, and saw a few big battles occur in some lowsec systems. We even engaged a couple pirates at a gate before we were overwhelmed by a rather large pirate fleet.
There were probably eight or nine reds, in everything from battlecruisers to carriers, and me and a corpmate ended up losing a couple drakes. Not before we popped one of their harbingers though.
So, whereas 'Do it Right for Once' or whatever did not manifest itself for battle, the folks at Black Souls and V O O D O O definitely did stick around for a good fight :)
Some pvp experience can be invaluable to a serious explorer. Even moreso if you ever plan on doing exploration in lowsec, which I will get around to eventually (not just escalations). If I learned one valuable lesson today, it was, don't hug the gate if you are engaging a target. Try to get as far as possible without losing scram on your target. That way, when all his buddies get to the gate, you have some distance to buy you time.
And less likely a need to clean your shorts.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Exploring, in a State of War...
Had one last night of exploring before hunkering down into logistics mode for an upcoming wardec.
I shifted a stockpile of faction mods to the sinkhole of Eve known as Jita, and was a bit surprised to see the pithum c-type medium shield booster sold in under 2 hours. I'd put it up at about 10 million less than the lowest selling price.
So for now, the Tengu gets docked. It would not be reasonable to risk such an expensive pve ship on a wardec. I revert to my backup exploration ship, a reasonably well rounded drake, the Red Febtober.
As an explorer, I actually still use this ship fairly frequently. I will switch to it nearly every time I get an escalation, and I use it exclusively in lowsec for the final escalations of both Guristas Watch and Gurista's Vigil. It has a strong tank, and can fit a cloak.
I am expecting that this will still be a different bag of beans than just exploring in lowsec, because now there is a group of people who are actively out to find and hunt you down.
All the usual tricks still apply though, so there are a few safeguards an explorer can exploit.
That almost all combat exploration sites use gates is the biggest one. Every time I pass through a gate, I drop a missile in a can as soon as my ship stops. This way, if someone tries to come in cloaked, I have a chance to see them and engage, or GTFO.
I suppose this tactic could be used for missioners as well.
Keep a small supply of Gurista gold and silver tags. For Gurista Vigil, this will allow you to skip the entire first room, which will buy you some necessary time if some other explorer finds the site.
Its too bad that this doesn't work with Guristas Watch, but there is another tactic I've used there.
In the first room of Guristas Watch you are vulnerable as you warp in right ontop of the next gate (so does everyone else who follows you), and you really want to remain at the gate until you can get into the next room. One time, at Gurista's Watch Camp, there was this other drake who figured he'd do the site for me. I said no, and proceeded to shoot at all the officer ships in rapid succession. This caused the entire room's NPC's to spawn all at once. My Tengu's shields could tank it. The drake could not, and it warped out. I suppose in a desperate situation, if a war target jumped in here, you could use the same tactic and hope that the extra npc fire helps.
Next post, Gurista's Watch and Gurista's Vigil in depth (including escalations)
I shifted a stockpile of faction mods to the sinkhole of Eve known as Jita, and was a bit surprised to see the pithum c-type medium shield booster sold in under 2 hours. I'd put it up at about 10 million less than the lowest selling price.
So for now, the Tengu gets docked. It would not be reasonable to risk such an expensive pve ship on a wardec. I revert to my backup exploration ship, a reasonably well rounded drake, the Red Febtober.
As an explorer, I actually still use this ship fairly frequently. I will switch to it nearly every time I get an escalation, and I use it exclusively in lowsec for the final escalations of both Guristas Watch and Gurista's Vigil. It has a strong tank, and can fit a cloak.
I am expecting that this will still be a different bag of beans than just exploring in lowsec, because now there is a group of people who are actively out to find and hunt you down.
All the usual tricks still apply though, so there are a few safeguards an explorer can exploit.
That almost all combat exploration sites use gates is the biggest one. Every time I pass through a gate, I drop a missile in a can as soon as my ship stops. This way, if someone tries to come in cloaked, I have a chance to see them and engage, or GTFO.
I suppose this tactic could be used for missioners as well.
Keep a small supply of Gurista gold and silver tags. For Gurista Vigil, this will allow you to skip the entire first room, which will buy you some necessary time if some other explorer finds the site.
Its too bad that this doesn't work with Guristas Watch, but there is another tactic I've used there.
In the first room of Guristas Watch you are vulnerable as you warp in right ontop of the next gate (so does everyone else who follows you), and you really want to remain at the gate until you can get into the next room. One time, at Gurista's Watch Camp, there was this other drake who figured he'd do the site for me. I said no, and proceeded to shoot at all the officer ships in rapid succession. This caused the entire room's NPC's to spawn all at once. My Tengu's shields could tank it. The drake could not, and it warped out. I suppose in a desperate situation, if a war target jumped in here, you could use the same tactic and hope that the extra npc fire helps.
Next post, Gurista's Watch and Gurista's Vigil in depth (including escalations)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Gurista Scout Outpost, or Tale of the Blind Battlecruiser
As I've mentioned before, I can be a bit of a bastard when it comes to exploring. I feel I can now relate, on some levels, to the popular Ninja Salvagers.
A few nights ago I happened on a Gurista Scout Outpost (4/10) in highsec.
Gurista Scout Outpost:
Room 1: burn to other gate, kill all rats to proceed. Kill officer rat first and obtain tier 7 overseer effects.
Room 2: The main target is always the satellite dish, but take out the officer ship first so that his wreck belongs to you. Sometimes he has faction gear. Destroy the satellite as soon as you've reduced incoming dps to manageable level. Make sure you are right beside it when it blows, so that you can loot it fast. You will usually get faction shield resists, 8th tier overseer effects, and occasionally, a pithum c-type medium shield booster (cha-ching!)
So, back to the story, I entered the first room, and hm, there were no rats. And no wrecks, which is odd, unless someone is slowboating and salvaging as they go. I warp to the second room.
The explosion of the satellite can be seen in the distance. I am probably too late. Rats are buzzing around it like flies. I notice local blinking like crazy. I check, and its' full of smack "How dare you I'm already working this site!" yada yada yada. "Whore!" That got my attention. "Who you callin' whore?" I respond back. I realized later he was not smack-talking at me, but at someone else.
I can see Mr. Offended's battlecruiser and drones way off in the distance. Then I see something else at the can where the station was, just before it goes to warp. No way, it can't be...some ballsy player waltzed right up to the loot in a RETRIEVER and took his loot! "I just came for the plag" he says, while I am killing myself laughing.
A few nights ago I happened on a Gurista Scout Outpost (4/10) in highsec.
Gurista Scout Outpost:
Room 1: burn to other gate, kill all rats to proceed. Kill officer rat first and obtain tier 7 overseer effects.
Room 2: The main target is always the satellite dish, but take out the officer ship first so that his wreck belongs to you. Sometimes he has faction gear. Destroy the satellite as soon as you've reduced incoming dps to manageable level. Make sure you are right beside it when it blows, so that you can loot it fast. You will usually get faction shield resists, 8th tier overseer effects, and occasionally, a pithum c-type medium shield booster (cha-ching!)
So, back to the story, I entered the first room, and hm, there were no rats. And no wrecks, which is odd, unless someone is slowboating and salvaging as they go. I warp to the second room.
The explosion of the satellite can be seen in the distance. I am probably too late. Rats are buzzing around it like flies. I notice local blinking like crazy. I check, and its' full of smack "How dare you I'm already working this site!" yada yada yada. "Whore!" That got my attention. "Who you callin' whore?" I respond back. I realized later he was not smack-talking at me, but at someone else.
I can see Mr. Offended's battlecruiser and drones way off in the distance. Then I see something else at the can where the station was, just before it goes to warp. No way, it can't be...some ballsy player waltzed right up to the loot in a RETRIEVER and took his loot! "I just came for the plag" he says, while I am killing myself laughing.
Preparations
I started exploration about two months back when I got tired of level 4 missions. Some of them take a long time, and if I do not have time to complete them I did not like the standing hits. I found exploration to be much more RL-friendly, so I decided that this would be my new eve profession.
I'm certain there's thousands of better explorers out there than me. Some people have scanning alts, covops ships, all kinds of wonderful stuff. Me? I have no alts. I can't afford another account, so my main character is it. At the time, I was only around 7 or so million sp, so I was pretty much limited to t1 ships as well. So I started with a drake equipped with a core probe launcher.
I fit my exploration drake as well I could, considering that an afterburner is a must, and I also wanted a warp disruptor.
Just what kind of explorer needs a point on their exploration ship? The bastard kind. Now I haven't had anyone fast enough to get to the faction loot before me yet, but when it does happen, they're going nowhere except in a pod. The disruptor will also be handy for the times when I loot from someone elses faction wreck, which lately has been happening more frequently. Oddly, no one wants to engage a tengu solo.
In my next few posts, I'll detail some of the more common high-sec combat exploration missions, as well as some of the bizaar things that have happened within them.
I'm certain there's thousands of better explorers out there than me. Some people have scanning alts, covops ships, all kinds of wonderful stuff. Me? I have no alts. I can't afford another account, so my main character is it. At the time, I was only around 7 or so million sp, so I was pretty much limited to t1 ships as well. So I started with a drake equipped with a core probe launcher.
I fit my exploration drake as well I could, considering that an afterburner is a must, and I also wanted a warp disruptor.
Just what kind of explorer needs a point on their exploration ship? The bastard kind. Now I haven't had anyone fast enough to get to the faction loot before me yet, but when it does happen, they're going nowhere except in a pod. The disruptor will also be handy for the times when I loot from someone elses faction wreck, which lately has been happening more frequently. Oddly, no one wants to engage a tengu solo.
In my next few posts, I'll detail some of the more common high-sec combat exploration missions, as well as some of the bizaar things that have happened within them.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Moar Afterburner!
My exploration ship dropped out of warp, and landed at the first gate. There, floating just a few clicks away, is a buzzard. Interesting, I thought.
Someone else had found this 'Guristas Watch' already. This could be fun. I entered the first gate.
The first room was littered with wrecks, and it was clear whoever was here had moved on. I warped through the second gate.
Warped right ontop of a hurricane, taking its sweet time with the rats! I took a fast scan of the area and noted that the main structure hadn't been attacked yet, so I had a chance!
The Frklator fired its heavy missiles at the structure as it burned towards the building at top speed. Instantly, the overseer and his goons spawned, and I switched targets to the overseer.
I got jammed, and waited with my heart pumping like crazy for 20 seconds to pass. I checked to see what my compadre in the hurricane was doing, and I can tell you he wasn't moving or shooting the overseer, because moments later it popped to my missiles, as did the dread gurista ship that arrived moments afterwards. As I had burned my way to the manufacturing plant I was already in looting range. Score!
To be honest, there wasn't anything of significant value in this haul, but my friend the hurricane didn't know that. Moments later, and additional Cerberus class cruiser warped in, and I found myself targeted.
Of course I had the upper hand, I had range, a decent tank, and a few other surprises up my sleeve as well. More importantly, I hadn't technically stolen anything, so the best they could hope for is a suicide ganking if they wanted to bring the wrath of CONCORD on them. They chose wisely, and backed off.
I have one lesson for you guys: Moar afterburner. Time and time again I find myself warping into these combat sites, and find myself able to race to the target faster, and grab the loot faster. I'm not even using a tractor beam FFS!
So this is the first short story I will blog about here, and it is my hope to share some stories of my experiences in the field of Exploration. Besides the statistical information, I'll also share strategy, and tactics that have helped me earn billions in loot.
And as my adventures as an explorer are not just limited to solo work, you can expect that I will often digress on tales with my corpmates, the Frontier United Corp Klan.
Someone else had found this 'Guristas Watch' already. This could be fun. I entered the first gate.
The first room was littered with wrecks, and it was clear whoever was here had moved on. I warped through the second gate.
Warped right ontop of a hurricane, taking its sweet time with the rats! I took a fast scan of the area and noted that the main structure hadn't been attacked yet, so I had a chance!
The Frklator fired its heavy missiles at the structure as it burned towards the building at top speed. Instantly, the overseer and his goons spawned, and I switched targets to the overseer.
I got jammed, and waited with my heart pumping like crazy for 20 seconds to pass. I checked to see what my compadre in the hurricane was doing, and I can tell you he wasn't moving or shooting the overseer, because moments later it popped to my missiles, as did the dread gurista ship that arrived moments afterwards. As I had burned my way to the manufacturing plant I was already in looting range. Score!
To be honest, there wasn't anything of significant value in this haul, but my friend the hurricane didn't know that. Moments later, and additional Cerberus class cruiser warped in, and I found myself targeted.
Of course I had the upper hand, I had range, a decent tank, and a few other surprises up my sleeve as well. More importantly, I hadn't technically stolen anything, so the best they could hope for is a suicide ganking if they wanted to bring the wrath of CONCORD on them. They chose wisely, and backed off.
I have one lesson for you guys: Moar afterburner. Time and time again I find myself warping into these combat sites, and find myself able to race to the target faster, and grab the loot faster. I'm not even using a tractor beam FFS!
So this is the first short story I will blog about here, and it is my hope to share some stories of my experiences in the field of Exploration. Besides the statistical information, I'll also share strategy, and tactics that have helped me earn billions in loot.
And as my adventures as an explorer are not just limited to solo work, you can expect that I will often digress on tales with my corpmates, the Frontier United Corp Klan.
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