Day 11 - next goal achived + some ISK made

I decided to stop search only for radars from now and experimenting a bit with possible fit for all-in one hi sec exploration ship.

Here is my Vexor:



As you may see it has probes launcher, codebraker, mwd, med armor repairer and set of med/light drones.


After finding and clearing 2 radaras; I eventually found GSO in dead end system with nobody in local. Normally, such a fit is not something I am happy to run GSO fit, but I decided to proced, since I certain I can complete it even it takes ages. I kept my fingers crossed that nobody comes in Tengu and overrun me.

It took 1,5 hours and caused me 2 rewarps, since I wasn't able to run MWD and rep for long enough to run away to save distance.

Managing aggro is a pain with such setup, even I have 1 rail guns strictly to shoot targets and invoke aggro. It is easy to get aggro by getting close to rats, but is difficult to get out of theirs range afterwards intact.

In any event I completed this Guristas Scout Outpost and got my hands on loot: Pithum C-Type Magnetic Scattering Amplifier. It canbe sold for about 40 million ISK, but what is more important, I got it dome with cheap ship with T1 fit and very low support skills.

As you may see, it is very much doable. With a bit of further training and swapping modules at station ,Vexor can be one of possible (not the best one tho) candidate for exploration vessel, especially on trial account.

There are 3 screenshots bellow show my Vexor working on 1st and second pockets of GSO and picking up loot.

Once again, I was lucky nobody was in system to compete. Very unusual, so I need to increase my DPS or get another, more effective ship.








And here comes loot for the day:






It is about 52 Million ISK.

Tip of the day: multi chars on one account

Every EvE account has 3 slots to accommodate 3 chars or alts as it commonly called.

Once you train your first char to the point when you can scan signatures fast and hack radars without any problems killing rats with drones, it may be good idea to train second char with the same skills and get the same ship.

If you get used to this technique already, you may log off after scanning the route couple of time and instead watching movie, log in with another char and scan another back water area.

Switching between profiles while signatures respawn here and there can make your revenue accros a board significantly improved.

Creating multi chars single account has it's cons too. You can't train 2 chars in the same time. So you have to give up on development of main char for a few days.

But if you do so, it can pay off very nicely.

Day 10. Testing double boxing with Jack Pot at the end.

Today was interesting day. I had some stuff from radars as usual (not sold it yet):



Gallente Cruiser trainingup to lvl 2 completed , so I was about just assemble and fit Vexor to show you all-in-one hi sec exploration ship which uses drones as primary weapon and tanking with distance.

But it is not what my activity today ended up with.

Crossing bottle neck low sec system I decided to drop probes and scan in case I find something interesting. And I did: Guristas Scout Outpost. System had +11 in local, 2 or 3 were camping gate.

I made bookmark and went to pick up assembled and fully fitted as speed tank Federation Navy Comet.

I have trained another pilot on separate account to be used as damage dealer for demonstration purposes of double boxing approach for running DED plexes in hi sec and in low sec as well. The char was docked nearby in station and has fitted Daredevil. It was waiting just convenient moment to get out to space and use it.

Actually, I already tested both chars once on GSO already, got some nice loot (not counted toward CN Crusaider wallet tho), but it was just test and I didn't want to bring it before I reach the first goal of making 300 Mils to be able to buy PLEX.

So, I brought both chars to system, cloaked Daredevil near one of the planet and Entered first pocket with Comet.
Whole thing took about 20 minutes. I was straggling with fraps for a bit in the middle of clearing first pocket: EvE client just frozen. I aborted fraps, made some screen shots in the first pocket, restarted fraps again, and recorded few more clips clips and cleared first pocket.

The second pocket wasn't a big deal as well to get full aggro with comet, start orbiting around can and brought Daredevil. Destroying structure which drops a loot - so-called Telescope took probably around 3 minutes ( I will make more accurate report form another GSO).

Telescope popped up and I opened container. And this moment is most exiting part of exploration. What is inside? Hit or miss? Jack pot ot junk?

I had Jack pot this time:



Market value:

Pithum C-Type Medium Shield Booster - 370 Million ISK.

Pithum C-Type Magnetic Scattering Amplifier - 40 Millions ISK.

A bit of luck, proper skills, bookmark and it is yours.
Chances that it will be yours in low sec 10 times, if not 100, higher compare to hi sec, over populated with Tengu pilots, who don't even cant use t2 missile launchers yet.


I made kind of video with clips I managed to "frap". It took for me like 4 hours to put everything together and to upload to YouTube. Quality is not any good, I still sucks with video making, but I am getting better.


I hope you still can figure out what is going on.

Video


At this point, making and uploading videos, cutting screen shots, writing texts for this very blog, dragged me from playing EvE actually. Hmmm....

Fast ships as part of psychological warfare.

Once you are in plex behind the gate in low sec just a bit of caution and experience how to use directional scanner, you are almost invulnerable. Of course, low sec is full of trigger happy guys, and you may be scanned down and ganged. Sometimes it is pathetic. I had few situations when I run 4/10 with Ishtar and 3 minutes since I started battle ship and Falcon/Rapier popped up if front of the plex gate. BS even can't enter the gate tho.

But lets see at the situation when you run plex with Comet as tank and Daredevil as DD (damage dealer). from possible pirates in local. If they experienced enough, they can take chances, but also they understand 2 facts: 2 fast ships very difficult to catch up and both pilots are in NPC corp with just a couple of weeks trainings. They fly expensive ships, and may be (probably) alts of very experienced pvp/caribears running mission/plex. It can be set up and they can be fitted as heavy tacklers, fitted with tracking disruptors/sensor dampeners, who knows.

Obviously, they know what they are doing. It would be waist of time to go after them, probably.

Of course, some people may try, if they are bored of gate camping. But chances are slim.

But just imagine if you run the same plex in drake/caracal or even in Pilgrim?
They will be up to it 100%, to kill this "damn noob.

Been there on both sides, have t-shirt.

Doble Boxing: Part II - Damage Dealer.

It is right time to talk again about double boxing for exploration.

The Damage Dealer ship should be entirely focused on damage, since full aggro be aggregate by speed tanker discussed here already.

EvE has many ships with different purposes, including focus on damage.

But if we are talking about maximum damage for minimum skill points there is no choice but Daredevil. Even with mediocre skills it can deliver insane 200 DPS . Honestly, I do not know any other ship in EvE you can get such DPS with only less than 24 hours of training skills.

Daredevil has nice bonuses:

Special Ability: 200% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret falloff per level Minmatar Frigate Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers per level

Fitting with blasters and webifier it can deliver incredible damage but only at very short range.
Moving from target to target to be in optimal range requires some micromanagement but it is easy to get used to it. It is not Dominix sitting afk with drones launched. And you can't fly Dominix within 24 hours anyway.

It is fast and lethal close range combat ship. The only problem with it: it is very, very expensive. It's price tag is about 95 mils ISK in Jita. Therefore, with steady revenue from radars you can afford it and it opens whole new area for exploration DED complex: Guristas Scout Outpost.

Here are fitting from EFT and skills training queue from EVE monitor:






You can go with this fit in hi sec straight away and clean for example Local Guristas Shattered Life-Support Unit Radar, while tanking it with Comet or Rifter. It will take a bit of practice to get used to piloting such fast ship, but I am sure you will get used to it very quickly.

I was training damage dealer on another profile. Well, it is not the way most people just started the game fill follow, but since my aim is to show how things can be done, I created and have trained char focused entirely on damage and low sec operation perspective.

Hi sec operations fit:



This fit is not cap stable when both MWN and webifier on.
But you don't need MWD all the time, so you should be just fine with cap.


Low sec for beginners with a bit of redundancy vs gate campers and ceptors :




once u get to the destination system, go to spot or planet, turn off warp core stabilisers, cloak and wait while your cap regenerated, uncloak, put Vortex Stabiliren on, cloak, regenerate cap, uncloak, put on second Vortex. Put Core stabilizers the same way back once the site is done.



If you have fat wallet ( I have), don't afraid to loose expensive ship or know how to scout in low sec this fit above is for you, It is tight, but do not require any modules switch on/off, cap stable fast and agile.

It is a BLAST! (especially for 6 days old char)



It is weak, due the fact we depend on second ship for tanking, so I do not recommend you engage any pvp combat with it. Run away or cloak at the first sign of danger.

Tip of the day: Pencil is your main tool

And if it has notepad nearby it isthe best tool .

Make a route (preferably circle) of 10-15 systems. And scan all signatures in each system at least up to 25% to see what this signature is.

Each signature has own unique ID. Write it down along with "Group" of signature. If it is not radar, skip it, unless you want to scan "Unknown" further to 75% and find out is it combat plex or WH.

It will takes may be an hour, or two or may be three, but when you get to the starting post, you will have complete list of all signatures in systems along your route.

To figure out if there is new sig ( spawned in system ) drop 1 or 2 probes with 32 AU covering whole system and scan. If there is new signatures in system, "ignore all other" and scan only new ones.

The second round of scanning your rout will be ten times faster and effective.

Once you get use to this, you can increase number of systems in your route. If there no, or only few new sigs respawned, take a break, grab some coffee, watch TV for a while or serf Internet, reread this blog or fly to Jita and give away your hard made ISKs to scammers :-)

And scan all over again.

If this method doesn't work, it is a time to think about another area of your ops.

Signatures respawning mechanics.

You may notice that sometimes you find more radars in the same area when a lot of people online, on weekends for example. It may look strange at first glance, since more explorers flying around.

Explanation to this is quiet simple.

If radar (or any other cosmic signature) was cleared in system A it respawns in System B (or even again in A). So, more radars cleaned around, more spawns in new systems, and possibly in area, where are you flying.

The main question people still debating where and when is the system B.
I have read and heard many speculations, rumors, theories , explanations and wild guesses how it works.

Just few examples of what you can find on forums:

Signature cleared in system A will respawn:

- in the same Constellation;
- in the range of X jumps from current system;
- the nearest system with the same Security Level;
- randomly in region;

and dozen other scenarios

I never saw a single comment on subject from CCP. And this is understandable. Want to farm plexes and radars? Find it yourself, if you are clever enough.

We run some tests in regions with limited number of systems in hi sec, as well as in low sec.
Well, respawning mechanics is not simple.
I have my own view on sites respawnings, but it is more guess rather than proved facts.

In any event, space is not static, and new cosmic signature can pop up in the system you just scanned 5 minutes ago.

On the last note: Down Time clears some signatures (72 hours old or so) and brings new ones.
In other words, plex in back water system will not be there forever.

Lets put aside complexity and presume common theory that radar (plex) cleared in system "A" respawns in system "B" imminently is good enough to be used as guidenence for our exploration venture.








I

Days 8 & 9 - ready to purchase PLEX

It was weekend, Germany won 4:0 vs Argentina, we had good doze of beer, so I was logging on and off. My buds were online, so we flew around together, went to low sec, run couple of 6/10, etc... You know how it is going.

So, I combine loot for 2 days. It is quiet a number of "blue tablets".





It worth around 110,6 mils ISK in Jita.

Wallet balance: 339,3 mil.

The current PLEX price in Jita is 302 Mil.

Day 7. Business as usuall

Here is the lot for the day.

Estimated price in Jita is about 40 mil ISKs.

I have put this stuff on sell orders,. Sell/Price difference is not in my favor right now.

I was flying left and right, testing some fits and thinking about further development of this char.

Actual time on searching radars was about 2.5 hours.

Current state of wallet is around 230 mil ISK (including sell orders).

Not much to report otherwise.

Stay tuned ...

Tip Of The day: Hiding Interface

I use only 4 windows opened on my screen (1600x900, window mode) : local, scanner, selected object and overview. Center of the screen has enough space to move probes around and see scan results. Therefore, in big systems, it may be more convenient to hide everything and make only system map visible. To drop probes with shortcut also helps even with scanner window opened.
In most cases I don't use this full screen map, but sometimes, it is incredibly useful.

First of all, I recommend to reassign shortcut for slot with probe launcher to ALT-E (or ALT-W) instead of ALT-F1.



Assignment of "Toggle Interface Visibility" to ALT-Q is something way too better than default Ctrl-F9.




Once probes placed, I switch to standard mode, and click butong "Analyze" on scanner.

Unfortunately, here is no shortcut for Scanner "Analyze" button, so switching to standard mode necessary to invoke scan process:



Pressing Alt-Q brigs Interface elements back:



I am not any good with video capturing and posting it on you tube, but I made epic attempt anyway:

How it works

Day 6: Not many radars crossed, but +40 mil to books still

Flying back and forth for couple hours, only 4 radars popped up on scanner.
But after selling lot in Jita I got nice 40 mils added to wallet with current state 190 mils.

Since prime objective is to make 300 mils for PLEX on trial 14 days time, I am on good track to achieve this task. A bit more push on weekend and I hope it will be done.

Fifter Forever!

I share opinion if you didn't fly Rifter you didn't play Eve yet.

In our case, go to low sec in expensive Comet ship can still be risky.
But I show you how Rifter is good even for primitive speed tanking and fit about 1 mil ISks.

If you want to go to low sec, but still not want to be broken and keep all hard way earned ISK for PLEX (especially you have found only wormholes mostly not radars) Rifter is great ship ship to experiment with.






It is not cap stable, due to 2 warp stabilizers in low slots, but it is ok if you manage to be carrefull a bit and restart MWD once cap regenerated.


here is Rifter tanking 1st pocket of GSO:

Getting full agro:



Orbiting under full agro at 130 km around can.




Tanking 2nd pocked:




Rifter also can tank Life-Support radar with few battleships on greed:

Federaion Navy Comet as speed tanker

Dramiel is the king of speed tankers, but since I want to have some ISK on my wallet still, I will go for Comet and it should make job of tanking done anyway.

I think the fit self explaining. everything for speed, kinetic amplifier since we deal with guristas, and they deal mostly kinetic damage.

Shield extender increase signature radius, but the number of hit points it brings made me consider to use it anyway.

I use T1 MWD, instead of affordable Gistii. If I handle in this fit Gistii MWD would be bonus in the future, especially for low sec, when speed will be scarified in favor for warp redundancy.






Cloak is pure low sec attribute, but it shows we can fit it no problem.
It is cap stable. This is particulary important, once you get to orbit you can pay a little attention for managing this ship flying semi-afk.

Traveling in low sec, and this is one of our objective, mostly have to deal with gate camps.
For such fast frigate is risk free almost. The major threads are battle cruisers like Huricane with 1000 or above scan resolution and huge alfa strike. They even do not have to scramble you. Another thing you can bump eventually is smart bombing camps.

I lost 1 Dramiel ones to gang of 6 ships camping entrance from hi-sec on my way to tank 6/10 plex. And mostly because my attention was dragged from monitor by real life disturbance. It happens, and the best way to deal with this just move on.

Here is a bit modified fit for low-sec voyage. I do not use stabilizers at all on my well trained chars with good speed and agility. But for new char, and especially for new player going to low sec it can be very valuable redundancy asset to break through gate camps in low sec entrances and tunnel/bottle neck systems. It will not save you vs expeienced gang or heavy interdictor, but add big deal of redundancy vs "gate camp pirates". When I started my low sec exploration, "wtf" in drake with 4 stabs it was quiet often to read "wtf, stabs noob" in local chat.

To test it I went to low sec, have found GSO, and tested this setup in peace. I do not consider it as first low sec operation, since I used 5nipe's account to clean site again.

I had NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER to tank 4/10 GSO with this fit so far:



Here is overview of GSO first pocket ( I have found it in border low sec system).



I forgot to make screenshot from the second pocket, by bad, sorry.

Double box concept for exploration

Double boxing is common variation of multi boxing concept, widely used in MMO like WoW.
Principle is straight. You use more than one account to achieve some goals. It can be mining, manufacturing, PvP or whatever in EvE. Many people use double boxing for running missions, scouting, solo PvP, u name it. Practically it is running 2 or more EvE clients simultaneously on the same computer in different windows, sometimes on 2 or even more monitors if your PC hardware and performance allow this.

Does it violate EvE EULA. Sims like no, unless you don't use macros or bots. As far as your character requires your intervention in control it is Ok. I am not 100% sure what is CCP policy on semi afk tankers, but it looks like ok. If you get banned for afk tanking, please do not blame me for such advice on tactic.

Therefore CCP has some limitation on multiboxing. You can't run 2 instances of EvE on one computer unless both have subscription. In another world you use trial account it is only one you can run on your PC. Of course you can run second trial account on notebook or second PC. Does it violate EULA? Honestly, I hope no.

By using 2 ships on different account in 2 different windows of 2 computers allow you to split agregating damage ( tanking) and elliminating rats as 2 different task. This way one ship can be fitted for tank entirely, and the second one for damage dealing.

Personally, I prefer and use 2 paid accounts on one PC in 2 windows. I used to use 2 computers when I just started play EvE tho. Playing on one PC with one keyboard and mouse is just way too convenient compare to 2 PCs. Even with one monitor.

Many hard core players may say it is lame in noobish and it is partially true. But this tacktic is undeniably effective and do not require month of training and tons of skill points invested. Most of the people who say double boxing is dumb, use second accounts for scouting themselves, so it is very biased opinion in most cases. Well, I can run 6/10 in my Pilgrim. Is it effective compare double boxing. Of course not. And it required like 6 month of training to be able to fit and fly recon ship at assessable level.

From another hand, all those Tengu pilots, including myself some times, use overpowered ships for hi sec plexing. It is even more lame than use creative approaches with only 1 week old chars.

If we are talking about radars in hi sec, you can use just one char and you wil be fine. But if you are going to run combat plexes like GSO, or go to low sec there no much options for beginner pilot.

While I still have commitment to make 300 mils in radars in 14 trial days, and I will do so, I would like to run some plexes as well, as far as I find them on the go and go to low sec ( what CCP wants :-) ) to find and run 4/10 GSO. I know, it is gambling, but I like it, especially not much I can write about radars atm.


I have 150 mils in my wallet, so it gives me a bit of room for maneuvering in terms of ship and fitting.

So, lets look at speed tank for Guristas Scout Outpost DED rated 4/10 plex, especially I have found few so far already.