The New EVE: Apocrypha

[eggrock]

ISK sellers/macros are both lame and understandable at the same time. I was wondering how CCP managed to maintain a working economy for such a long period of time, and monitoring and controlling macros by squashing the major offenders (to prevent someone unduly leveraging the market) makes a ton of sense, especially if there's not a large enough player base to maintain the economy in the first place. With the vast differences between a noob starting out (me) and a huge alliance governing systems/titans/wars etc, there's a big need for materials, and IMO 40,000 human players just isn't enough to sustain it. 8,500 systems and 40k players, are you kidding me?

OTOH, there are people willing to mine and macros are artifically making them less valuable than they could be. In a living universe like EVE, if there is a shortage somewhere people will happily step up to fill the gap and make immense profits doing so. God bless 'em, there are people that actually enjoy mining and refining.

Bottom line, as long as ships and ammo are cheap , I'm in. I *will* destroy macros if I think I can get away with it--once I get enough skills to fly a decent ship and live in 0.0, that is.

 

[Thuleman]

I guess you haven't been to FanFest talking to the GM's and Devs but trust me they really don't like RMT so if they had a universal "Ban all bad people" button they would have it on autorepeat. Btw, did you know that about 20% of the playerbase buy illegal ISK? That is the root of the problem. Stop people buying and the farmers will move on to another game, now that is a lot easier said than done.

The reason why it's a lot easier said than done is because even macroers and their customers generate income for CCP. In the end CCP is a business, and real world profits matter.

20% of the playerbase (buyers) banned would be 20% less monthly revenue, add that to the 20% of the playerbase (macroers) banned and all of a sudden you have a whole lot less revenue. Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that such bannings would be bad for CCPs bottom line.

There's nothing stupid about those considerations. Of course CCP likes revenue. The individual GM or Dev may not like RMTers, but from a CCP corporate point of view it doesn't matter what that individual GM or Dev thinks, all that matters is the fiscal bottom line. Why do you think CCP introduced the legal way to buy ISK in the first place when basically all other mainstream MMOs don't have that? Because they want to cash in on the trend.

But saying that CCP like the farmers for the extra income they provide is a lie.

I just don't see how you can say that. It's already clear that farmers and their customers provide substantial monthly revenue for CCP. Why wouldn't they like that? Out of some idealistic "this isn't the way the game should be played"?

EDIT: In the end this is like a PC & Mac thing, or Linux and Windows, or whatever. I believe CCP doesn't ban macroers because they don't want to lose the revenue, and you believe something else. Neither will be able to convince the other to change their mind, so we may as well call it good at that.

 

[HammerAZ]

The missions are not instanced, anyone can scan you down and harrass you (steal your salvage and loot) or in case of war/lowsec/0.0 blow you up. You have just been lucky that it hasn't happened to you yet. Or that you don't fly the level 4 missions where it is profitable to do. It's part of the fun to ruin it for someone else and it is easy isk. Now if the mission runner decide it is a great idea to fight back it will be even more profitable when we collect his loot as well. Yes this is one of the many reason why I love EVE.

This...

My GF just experienced this last night. I was helping her with some level 2 missions while I was working on trying out different Railgun configurations on my Moa. I had just left the last "room" as she was going about cleaning up wrecks/loot, to pick up some 200MM's I just bought 2 hops away.

I get the guns, get em fit/grouped/loaded, and just as I undock all I hear is "*gasp!!* What happened to my loot?! Someone took it!!" Sure enough, a little frigate is cleaning up the wrecks. "Can I shoot him?!", She asks. I tell her technically she can, but its probably not a good idea.

Before I can go into the lecture about people having the know how to probe you and find you, which indicates game experience, which means he wouldn't be here if he didn't think he could take you. In addition explain why - due to NOS, Webbers, Warp Scramblers, and Turret tracking due to distance/speed...she opens up on him. *sigh*.

Since we're in Fleet together, I was hoping he'd flag to me as well. I have 60KM Optimal range, and figured I could stay WAY out and either destroy him, run him off, or at least deter him from focusing her. Her shields rip away almost instantly, all her drones get popped, and her armor repairer can't keep up. I FINALLY get to her through all the acceleration gates, and nothing. I can't touch him. Well...I COULD, but I didnt figure I'd pop him before CONCORD owns me. My luck, he'd ended up with an Omen AND Moa to loot. He asks for 5mil - a reasonable offer. She declines...or fails to respond in time...I don't recall which...and kablam...space sparkles.

So...I just orbited around. I couldn't even steal the loot back, as I have the wrong guns on for frigates, no Warp Stabilizers or any other small ship PVP fittings, so all I'd do is flag myself, and be in the same situation.

Chalk it up to learning experience. If you're PVE'ing and someone comes up instigating PVP...they're probably expecting to win..and there is a reason for that. In addition - no where in EVE are you "Safe".

 

[SAW]

Everything everyone has said since my last post is what makes this game GREAT!!!!

I dont agree or like the fact there are ISK buyers/sellers, but, thats life and to an extent they make the game that much more enjoyable because it adds an element of "how do I overcome that". Its a challenge and makes you think harder to get ahead. Its not just a mindless market where everything costs the same no matter where you go.

Ok, so Ore is cheap to buy. Is this due to macroers? IMO, I do not think so, but im sure to a fraction of an ISK, it is but its not overwhelming to a point of ruining the games mechanics or market system. You still have to find your niche regardless.

Thieves.....I think that we all are a thief if and when the occasion presents itself. One of my first days in the game, I was just out warping around to see what there was to see. Id warp to an asteroid belt only to find there were no asteroids. But there almost always were containers floating around. So I clicked on one just to see whats inside it. Found some drones and something else (I forget what). So, of course im thinking to myself....Hmmmm, should I, or shouldnt I? That person didnt put a lock on it, their mistake, tisk tisk. But it could be a trap. Should I or shouldnt I? Well, I was in a cheapo Navitas, no big deal if I loose it, I have like 3 others....Pffft. Screw it, lets see what happens. Removed their cargo and warped out. Not a thing happened.

Risk....Gotta love it. Now, im sure when that person came back to get their stuff, they may have been a bit urked at me...Pffffftttt. Maybe I taught them a lesson, dont leave your shit floating around space without securing it. Maybe they got pissed and went on some forum somewhere complaining about thieves, who knows. Point being, It was perfectly legal and just for me to do what I did and THAT element of the game is fukin FANTASTIC.

Sorry your GF lost her ship and loot....but I bet, though frustrating at that time, it was still DAMN FUN!!!! Im also willing to bet, it has made the both of you that much more INto the game and next time will have better prepared yourself. You gotta love it, ehh

 

[Tytalus]

Ok, so Ore is cheap to buy. Is this due to macroers? IMO, I do not think so, but im sure to a fraction of an ISK, it is but its not overwhelming to a point of ruining the games mechanics or market system. You still have to find your niche regardless.

Well, part of the mineral "cheapness" in the Amarr system was due to the Veldnaught (might've been spelled wrong). You may want to try looking it up--it's a Dreadnaught that got in to high sec before high sec was locked down. It's pretty much the most massive Veldspar miner available in the game. Groups have even tried to take it down, but a Dreadnaught has a TON of health, and there just isn't enough time to take it down before Concord comes in and rapes you for trying to destroy it.

My buddy who used to play the game made the bold claim that, at one point, the guy who ran the Veldnaught went on vacation for a week, and the price of Trit on the Amarr market doubled before he came back and started mining again. People were that dependent on him and he artifically dropped the price that much...

Here's a link to the EVElopedia entry: http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/The_Veldnaught

 

[SAW]

Now see, thats what makes this game so appealing to me. People are only dependent on things they do not "feel" like aquiring themselves. Which in this game, EVERYTHING is possible to do for yourself without having to rely on others to do it for you. I LOVE that aspect. Just look at what I wrote a few posts above about my game night last night and what I found with just a little bit of tinkering around. And tonight, I will have probably quadruple that amount with what I plan on doing.

Damn man, all this talk is making me want to log in RIGHT NOW....but oyyy...real life responsibilities come first unfortunately.

 

[eggrock]

lol @ the lofty scam.. People are damn devious and instead of breaking the game you just have to deal with it.

Somebody commented on one of these threads about watching an EVE video and seeing nothing but a bunch of incomprehensible windows... Someone else replied with "that's an intelligence filter". I lol'd but it's true. There are simply so many layers to this game and from the sounds of it CCP keeps things lively and changing (to the detriment of many of the static, online guides.)

 

[SAW]

lol @ the lofty scam.. People are damn devious and instead of breaking the game you just have to deal with it.

Somebody commented on one of these threads about watching an EVE video and seeing nothing but a bunch of incomprehensible windows... Someone else replied with "that's an intelligence filter". I lol'd but it's true. There are simply so many layers to this game and from the sounds of it CCP keeps things lively and changing (to the detriment of many of the static, online guides.)

HAHA!!!!

I love that hidden meaning there "Thats an intelligence filter". HAHA...Makes perfect sense.

 

[oldpablo]

Heh. Yeah the one thing that still pisses me off though is scamming names isn't permitted. It's completely stupid to allow scamming and yet if you make an alt with almost the same name as someone else it's petitionable despite the fact that it's actually impossible to have the exact same name. Regular scamming rules should apply, you snooze you lose, don't pay attention then you're screwed.

 

[matrix563]

neat i may try

 

[Thuleman]

The mineral prices are not as straight forward as one may expect. For example, Tritanium got recently nerfed as the price was artificially held at 3.46 ISK (iirc) because you could buy a shuttle at any station and just recprocess it into X units of Tritanium. Since the price of a shuttle was constant, and the supply was practically infinite, Tritanium rarely went over those 3.46 ISK per unit in Empire. However, even at that time some buyers who were unaware of the shuttle reprocessing would pay more than 3.46 ISK in low-sec.

Today the most massive macro miner output are likely ice products, simply because one doesn't need to move the mining ship when mining ice, making for an easier macro. Although I have seen macro miners who actually return to station with their ice miner to drop the ice and then return to the ice belt. That's the safest way for them, probably most simple macro as well, but also slower to do align, warp, dock, session change, etc.

Then there is some ore (pre-minerals) which is worth more as ore rather than turning it into minerals. Kernite is used for Level 4 storyline missions. A player needs 8,000 units to complete their mission. So while the refined unit of Kernite may yield like 200 ISK, the unrefined ore can get you up to 1,500 ISK depending on the location.

I haven't seen macro miners mining veldspar, then again, I haven't been to a hisec asteroid belt in probably years. I could imagine that with Orca support a team of highly specialized miners could probably clear a hisec belt in fairly short order, so perhaps it's actual players who clear those low-end-ore belts.

 

[SAW]

Welp, just learned a fairly expensive lesson for a newb. Dont anchor a container inside a wormhole. Went back to it tonight and wouldnt ya know it.....wormhole was gone....bye bye container. That was a 250k lesson. I should have known better. Said right there in plain english "unstable wormhole". Gahhh....

All the same though....Im kinda glad it happened. If you cant learn from your own mistakes, whats the point?

 

[Justinimcool2001]

I did exactly that. Followed my corp into a WH to do some scanning for sleepers and got tired so I logged out in the WH to take a nap. Ended up having to sit in there for a week until I could get out. The whole corp had quite the laugh at my expense and actually made a mail about my misfortunes for others to follow and pay attention when doing WH exploring.

 

[larryBird44]

Currently I have 1.8M SP, mostly in missles and my attributes are hovering in the mid to upper teens. I'm in a NPC corp and doing missions for now (security lv2's) flying a caracal. Bank roll is about 17M ISK but I have no clue what to heck to spend this money on. The idea of PVP sounds very entertaining, though the lowest sec I've gone into is .1...last time I was ratting in a .2 a pirate(non-NPC) showed up and nailed me.
Anyways I guess my point is that at what SP should i start to explore/get into the lower sec regions?

 

[Tytalus]

Currently I have 1.8M SP, mostly in missles and my attributes are hovering in the mid to upper teens. I'm in a NPC corp and doing missions for now (security lv2's) flying a caracal. Bank roll is about 17M ISK but I have no clue what to heck to spend this money on. The idea of PVP sounds very entertaining, though the lowest sec I've gone into is .1...last time I was ratting in a .2 a pirate(non-NPC) showed up and nailed me.
Anyways I guess my point is that at what SP should i start to explore/get into the lower sec regions?

If you aren't equipped for it don't go below 0.5... 0.5 is fine, just don't go to 0.4 or you become at-risk for getting owned.

One thing worth watching is the Local chat tab... if you see people entering, make sure you are aligned with a star or some arbitrary location so you can quickly make your escape if they show up on your overview. Some people will try to get the jump on you so get used to always aligning to some celestial object (or, if you know how, make a waypoint somewhere between two objects, such as two jump gates, or two planets.) When you align you make it so you can click on the location and press "Jump", and it should take no time to start warping. Once you are out of the way you can use a cloaking device or try getting to a jump gate before they find you, either way you'll end up a lot safer than if you didn't align.

As for your skills, if you don't have all of your Rank 1 (x1) Learning skills at Level 4 (except for MAYBE the Charisma one) you haven't done nearly enough Learning yet. The generally accepted "I've done a decent amount of Learning" barometer is if you have Level 4 in all of the Rank 1's (x1's) and at least Level 3 in all of the Rank 3's (x3). If you can say you have all of these at this level I'd say you are doing pretty good with regard to your Learning skills... you could improve upon this (since lots of useful skills require Perception, for instance) by spending some additional training time on things that will bump up your Perception. After that it's a toss-up as to whether or not you go for some extra Intelligence, Memory or Willpower. There's a decent breakdown by group near the bottom of this page which you may want to follow. For the most part I'd recommend an even spread.

I ended up with 5's in all of my Rank 1's and 4's in all of my Rank 3's, with the exception that I got the Intelligence and Memory 5's done for Rank 3. I was a rare exception, though.... most people don't have the patience to spend an extra 4 weeks on two Rank 3, Level 5 skills. Then again I'm also the guy who got Logistics 5 completed because I enjoy being a healer, LOL. Once you have Logistics 5 Guardians ROCK... and as long as you have Logistics 4 done you can always work with a second Guardian to chain energy back and forth so you always have a steady supply being transferred to you. It's a great feature, but it takes a LOT of work to get the right skills to make it all come together!

 

[larryBird44]

I'm already at lv4 for my rank 1 learning skills but didn't buy the rank 3's yet. i purchases all but eid. memoery lastnight...somehow i bought logic 2x like a fuggin idiot. had to put it back up on the market at a 500k loss to compete..hope it sells. thanks for helping me find something to spend 17M on...it's all gone!

 

[eggrock]

I was going to mission all day and make the $$$ for the advanced skills, but I found out the hard way that PvP-type resists when you're a newbie translates into 'equally shitty'. I flew into a furball of long range missile and laser boats and popped. 40 jumps later I had a new ship outfitted, warped back to the mission and--pop. Son of a bitch.

Instead of making money I'm down from $6M to $3M and worried about going broke. Plus I hear from the corp leader that I should be doing Amarr missions instead of Caldari so I can raise my standings, and that's another 15 jumps away. It was nearly noon before I started making money.

On the plus side I got up to $18M and hit Learning V so it wasn't all bad. Just--embarassing. I'd been doing L2 missions against carriers without any problems and a L1 pops me twice in a row.

 

[Tytalus]

I'm already at lv4 for my rank 1 learning skills but didn't buy the rank 3's yet. i purchases all but eid. memoery lastnight...somehow i bought logic 2x like a fuggin idiot. had to put it back up on the market at a 500k loss to compete..hope it sells. thanks for helping me find something to spend 17M on...it's all gone!

You bought Empathy (I think it's the Charisma one) rather than Eidetic Memory? Eidetic Memory helps improve the speed your Learning skills train, LOL... that's the one you want!

But yeah, Rank 3 Learning books are a definite necessity--make sure you get Focus up to 3 immediately, and Clarity (I think that's the Perception one) up to 3 immediately as well. From there Eidetic Memory would be another one to get to 3... shouldn't take you TOO long to make all that happen, and your training times will drop quite a bit as a result!

 

[Tytalus]

I was going to mission all day and make the $$$ for the advanced skills, but I found out the hard way that PvP-type resists when you're a newbie translates into 'equally shitty'. I flew into a furball of long range missile and laser boats and popped. 40 jumps later I had a new ship outfitted, warped back to the mission and--pop. Son of a bitch.

Instead of making money I'm down from $6M to $3M and worried about going broke. Plus I hear from the corp leader that I should be doing Amarr missions instead of Caldari so I can raise my standings, and that's another 15 jumps away. It was nearly noon before I started making money.

On the plus side I got up to $18M and hit Learning V so it wasn't all bad. Just--embarassing. I'd been doing L2 missions against carriers without any problems and a L1 pops me twice in a row.

Carriers? Are you sure you don't mean Cruisers? LOL. But the advanced Level 1 Frigates are pretty rough--if they can web or warp scramble you make sure to note that so you take those type of ships out first. For some people keeping "smaller" weapons on-board (weapons that can hit a fast-orbiting Frigate) is a necessity. When I used my Caracal I always used Assault Launchers rather than Heavies, since the Heavy Missiles wouldn't hit the fast T1 ships (or would take FOREVER to blow them up.) If you have Target Navigation Prediction up to 3 or 4, and Guided Missile Precision to about the same level, you might be ok with using a Heavy on Frigates.... but ugh, still a pain!

For guns it'd be somewhat similar... just get a point or two in the skills needed to improve the speed of your turrets and the ability to fire them more accurately and you'll notice big bumps in the amount of damage you do against smaller targets.

 

[eggrock]

lol yes, cruisers. I'm flying frigates exclusively so it's more a case of learning when to gtfo in time. I like the speed of the small ships. I'm not looking forward to flying the bigger, slower stuff until I get some of the tactical skills up to a higher level.

 

[Tytalus]

lol yes, cruisers. I'm flying frigates exclusively so it's more a case of learning when to gtfo in time. I like the speed of the small ships. I'm not looking forward to flying the bigger, slower stuff until I get some of the tactical skills up to a higher level.

Well, if you're only piloting a Frigate, you should consider piloting a Destroyer instead. The only exception to this would be if you use missiles, since there are no Destroyer-type ships with missile hard points. Having 8 high slots full of guns + tractor beam (Science 3) + Salvager (Salvaging 1+) = lots of win!

The best part is you can probably already train Destroyers, and all you need is Destroyers at Level 1 to operate one! If you get it up to 2-4 that's better, of course, because then you get the nice ship-based perks. Take a look at them and see if they fit your immediate needs, and are within your budget (which I don't remember them being above 1M ISK, so that should be easily covered.)

 

[Tytalus]

You mean like the Flycatcher?

Sure it's all fancy and tech 2 but it is certainly a destroyer hull with 6 launcher hardpoints.

That's more correctly classified as an Interdictor.

I'm pretty sure you know what I meant, and confusing newbies isn't the way to help them out.

 

[larryBird44]

You bought Empathy (I think it's the Charisma one) rather than Eidetic Memory? Eidetic Memory helps improve the speed your Learning skills train, LOL... that's the one you want!

But yeah, Rank 3 Learning books are a definite necessity--make sure you get Focus up to 3 immediately, and Clarity (I think that's the Perception one) up to 3 immediately as well. From there Eidetic Memory would be another one to get to 3... shouldn't take you TOO long to make all that happen, and your training times will drop quite a bit as a result!

n00bcake reporting for duty, sir.

My plan was to buy all of them at once, except that I could have sworn I typed in Eidetic Memory in the market but somehow I ended buying Logic twice as I said. Right now all learning rank 3 skills except for Eidetic are training up to level 3 in my queue. Live and learn...

I played around with probing some lastnight, and came across some wrecks. Are these any different than any other wreck and worth pursuing with a salvager?

 

[SAW]

Cant answer the question on the probing wrecks aside from saying, anything is better than nothing, which is what I got last night.

Ive been fiddling around with probing since day 2 of my EVE gaming. Though it takes me usually about 30 min or so to actually pinpoint a warpable location, I have been able to do so, even on my first try.

Last night though...I dont know what was going on but I could NOT get a signature more than 84.6%. I got the signature to a yellow dot which told me where it was "almost" precisely, but I still had to have that 100% ping before I could actually warp to its location. I just could not manage it last night. Im clueless as to why. I moved in all 4 probes, changed them around, moved them here and there and it would drop from 84.6% down to 60 something. Move them again, Id get 50 something, move again and again and again and AGAIN, for the life of me, I could not get it closer than 84.6%. I struggled with this for over 2 hours on this one location before finally calling it quits for the night.

I was doing everything I had done in other successful probing adventures but last night just wasnt my night for probing at all.

Ive already read this page here http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Apocrypha_Probing many times. After last nights failure, I read it again then reread it and reread it some more, trying to get something to "pop" out as to what I did wrong.

I think the only thing that I might have done wrong is NOT having ALL the probes on a different plane (though, after moving them so many times last night, one has to wonder how I could not have had them on different planes).. This is the only thing I can see that "might" have been my problem. It does say in that write up that the probes MUST be on different planes for them to get an accurate signature lock. Soooo, tonight, Im going to do NOTHING but probing until I have this damn thing mastered, heh.

It sure as hell would help a great deal if we could change the colors of those scanning spheres though, I need to petition that tonight after work.

 

[larryBird44]

did you reduce the scanning radius? the only way I could get a lock is to have all 4 at the minimum. 0.25AU if I recall correctly. I think all mine were on a level plane, but they had major overlap.

 

[SAW]

reduced scanning radius....yeap yeap....

Overlap....yeap yeap.....

 

[ultimatequix]

reduced scanning radius....yeap yeap....

Overlap....yeap yeap.....

You'll come to a point sometimes where even though you're doing everything right (have 4 probes overlapping the point, all down to 1/4au,) your skills will be the determining factor on whether you get a full strength scan. If you've only got a few points in Astrometrics and nothing else, you'll start running into these. There are three other skills that you'll need, they all start with Astrometrics (Rangefinding, Pinpointing, and something else.) Each one affects a different aspect of scanning. One is reduced time scanning, another is added scan strength, and the last is reduced scan deviation.

I found that by the time I trained Astrometrics IV and the others to III, that I could pinpoint a location from start to finish in about 5 mins. Also, you might want to use a probing frigate to find the locations, then switch to something bigger once you've pinpointed the location and bookmarked it. Each race has a T1 frigate that has bonuses to scanning (Minmatar is called Probe, not sure of the others) and they're relatively cheap to buy, just throw an expanded probe launcher and an AB and you're good to go.

Hope this helps.

 

[eggrock]

Well, if you're only piloting a Frigate, you should consider piloting a Destroyer instead. The only exception to this would be if you use missiles, since there are no Destroyer-type ships with missile hard points. Having 8 high slots full of guns + tractor beam (Science 3) + Salvager (Salvaging 1+) = lots of win!

The best part is you can probably already train Destroyers, and all you need is Destroyers at Level 1 to operate one! If you get it up to 2-4 that's better, of course, because then you get the nice ship-based perks. Take a look at them and see if they fit your immediate needs, and are within your budget (which I don't remember them being above 1M ISK, so that should be easily covered.)

Thanks for the tip. I do use missiles (Kestrels have a decent cargo hold, too) but I need to learn some other types. It's about time to step up and fly something different.

For 'all gank, no tank' (lol) I was looking at a Crow. Fully pimped with speed rigs and a MWD it's over 4k/s and if I can ever get snake implants it's 6k/s. And it's a missile boat. Sweeet.

Great tips on probing, btw.

 

[Mad Cat]

LOL. I remember when a crow could do 13km/s w/ snakes. And a vaga was doing well over 5. Hell, I've seen a raven doing 3km/s before.

 

[Devnull]

Anything more than 4 probes is entirely redundant. It will also slow you down since its more probes to position/reposition.

 

[SAW]

You'll come to a point sometimes where even though you're doing everything right (have 4 probes overlapping the point, all down to 1/4au,) your skills will be the determining factor on whether you get a full strength scan. If you've only got a few points in Astrometrics and nothing else, you'll start running into these. There are three other skills that you'll need, they all start with Astrometrics (Rangefinding, Pinpointing, and something else.) Each one affects a different aspect of scanning. One is reduced time scanning, another is added scan strength, and the last is reduced scan deviation.

I found that by the time I trained Astrometrics IV and the others to III, that I could pinpoint a location from start to finish in about 5 mins. Also, you might want to use a probing frigate to find the locations, then switch to something bigger once you've pinpointed the location and bookmarked it. Each race has a T1 frigate that has bonuses to scanning (Minmatar is called Probe, not sure of the others) and they're relatively cheap to buy, just throw an expanded probe launcher and an AB and you're good to go.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tips...

I should have noted that thanks to a very generous [H]'er, I started my EVE career with 25mil ISK. With that donation, I made good use of by buying up every damn book I could get my hands on and leveling them up to AT LEAST level 3, if not 4. Including Astrometrics. My "Learning" skill is at level 5 while the rest, which were available to me (that had a green check mark next to them) are at level 3 as well. Ahh, what the heck, I'll do a quick log in right now and jot down my skills cause there are too many to remember....brb (heh)

Back (wasnt that fast, hehe)

Well, I was going to list them all. I got on page 2 of hand writting them down so I could type them in here.....just too many...So I'll just list the Science catagory since thats what we were talkin about....

Science:
-Astrogeology - Level 2
-Astrometric Rangefinding - Level 2
-Astrometrics - Level 3
-Biology - Level 2
-Cybornetics - Level 3
-Laboratory Operation - Level 3
-Metallurgy - Level 2
-Research - Level 3
-Science - Level 4 (This skill is current being trained to level 5 right now with 2 days 20h 41m left to go)

Let me know what ya think so far and if you guys need further info on my skills, just name the skill, I'll post what its current level is at.

EDIT: Ok...so at least level 2 THRU level 4, heh.

 

[SAW]

You do know that you will move all probes at once if you hold down shift while moving them?

4 probes are not enough to find all juicy sites in WH space.

Nope, did not know that, thanks for the info, that should make moving them a bit more easily.

I threw some probes out in WH space the one time I found a WH....I got so many hits I couldnt decide which one to go after first so I just went after the one that had the strongest hit. Since im still new at probing, it could easily take me over a week to scout out all the sites I found so I have no doubt 4 probes arent enough in WH space.

 

[MetalX]

For a industrialist Caldari hoping to get into mining which corporation do you Eve veterans recommend I concentrate my mission efforts on? Which do you feel will benefit me in the long run?

 

[Devnull]

You do know that you will move all probes at once if you hold down shift while moving them?

4 probes are not enough to find all juicy sites in WH space.

wow, you really don't understand how the probing system works

 

[SAW]

wow, you really don't understand how the probing system works

Ok, you two guys seem to be at a disagreement about this issue and now youve both got me confused on the issue.

Is more than 4 probes redundant?

Is more than 4 probes redundant in WH space?

I think we can all agree that it takes a minimum of 4 probes to aquire a green dot that we can warp to and bookmark, aside from anamolies (sp) which can be had with a single probe, right?

Then, on one side of this coin toss we are having here, Ive read nothing about using more than 4. Then on the other side of that coin, I can see where using maybe 6 might be a good idea. But thats all theory, no practice and Im still a newb at it and I have a hard enough time with 4 as it is.

But the shift-move thing does sound viable and usefull....to me anyways.

 

[ultimatequix]

Ok, you two guys seem to be at a disagreement about this issue and now youve both got me confused on the issue.

Is more than 4 probes redundant?

Is more than 4 probes redundant in WH space?

I think we can all agree that it takes a minimum of 4 probes to aquire a green dot that we can warp to and bookmark, aside from anamolies (sp) which can be had with a single probe, right?

Then, on one side of this coin toss we are having here, Ive read nothing about using more than 4. Then on the other side of that coin, I can see where using maybe 6 might be a good idea. But thats all theory, no practice and Im still a newb at it and I have a hard enough time with 4 as it is.

But the shift-move thing does sound viable and usefull....to me anyways.

I've always been under the impression that you only need 4 to get a full strength signal. However, I've heard that when scanning inside wormholes its useful to use 6 probes in a nested configuration (using three 4au probes overlapped in a triangle, with three more 1au probes all lying within the overlap from the large probes.) I can find a picture on this later to better explain. This nested configuration, as far as I've read, is more used to get better results on your initial scans. Once you find something you're interested in pursuing you then go back to the standard 4 configuration to get the 100% lock.

Here is the picture I was talking about: http://eve-files.com/dl/189918

Again, I really haven't done extensive WH exploration yet, so I don't know how well it works when put in use.

 

[SAW]

Welp, I do believe I got the hang of it.

Last nights probing adventure netted me several asteroid belts along with several Serpentis Wrecks to salvage.

The first time probing last night took me about 30 minutes. By the time I did my 5th scan, I was able to skip several ranges and pinpoint a warpable signature in under 10 minutes . Id say thats a vast improvement from the 2 hours it was taking a few nights ago, ehh?

Im really enjoying the probing aspect a lot. You just dont know what you will find until you look.

 

[crackbone]

Welp, I do believe I got the hang of it.

Last nights probing adventure netted me several asteroid belts along with several Serpentis Wrecks to salvage.

The first time probing last night took me about 30 minutes. By the time I did my 5th scan, I was able to skip several ranges and pinpoint a warpable signature in under 10 minutes . Id say thats a vast improvement from the 2 hours it was taking a few nights ago, ehh?

Im really enjoying the probing aspect a lot. You just dont know what you will find until you look.

I'm also probing alot. I enjoy this aspect of the game very much and all I can say is, after lots of practice and experimentation, I can scan down most sites now in under 5 mins. It takes practice to understand exactly what the game is looking for when probing. Once you get it down though, I think 6 probes is the best. It's manageable and it allows you to really get more information on the sites, earlier. IE, if you are looking for gravimetric, you don't want to spend 10-15 minutes scanning down a salvaging site.

 

[SAW]

I noticed those filters the other day. You gotta love this game. All the info can be very broad or very detailed to the smallest degree.

At this point in my probing career (ha ), im looking to explore anything and everything there is to explore. Its all too cool to pass up. I found this Serpentis Shuttle Wreck the other day which was HUGE. When I clicked on it, an info window popped up (not the "get info" window) saying what it was and that having a Codebreaker 1 could yield some valuable information. I didnt have one other than a civilian codebreaker which I got from an agent. So, I checked the market place and saw there were very few of them in the region I was in. The prices varied by 20k here and there and the money making side of me saw opportunity....so I took it. A mere 4 jumps, I was able to obtain a Codebreaker @ less than half the average rate which was sitting around 40k. I bought 6 of them for 18,500 each, then warped back. Kept 1 of them for myself and put the other 5 on the market where I was probing at which had none for 45k. Took 2 days before they sold, but they all sold for a nice profit

Then I go to use the Codebreaker 1 and realize, heh, Im unable to cause I dont have a high enough skill yet . Needs level 5 in Science and Electronics (I believe). Both of those skills were sitting at level 4. My Science skill was already being leveled up but needed another 2 days. 7 more days for the Electronics to hit level 5. Will be interesting once I can use it though, I cant wait.

I have also started Salvaging the past few times Ive played. I like this aspect of the game a lot too. I made a new tab in the overview and used its filters to display only the asteroids, containers, cargo containers, wrecks and enemies. I kept finding all these wrecks that had been abandoned but not looted or Salvaged. Clicked the info to see who owned them. Turned out to be a guy who's been playing for well over a year. My guess is, what could be looted and salvaged was too insignificant for him to bother. On one hand, im thinking, Ok, if I loot and salvage this, its stealing his loot, but then on the other hand im thinking, well, if he wanted the stuff, he would have looted it after he killed them in the first place, but seeing as how I was all alone in these areas, they were up for grabs. So I grabbed them, ALL of them. Then, I warped to another asteroid belt and sure enough, there were more wrecks, then another asteroid belt with even more wrecks. As I was looting and salvaging, a ship warped in with a green tag. I clicked info on the pilot and guess who it was, heh. I was thinking "Uh oh", he has come to kick the shit outta me. I checked out the ship he was in and payed attention to what he was doing. He was in some sort of mining ship (I forget the name) and he was just going from container to container then warping back out. He didnt say a word to me at all. Soo, just liked I figured, he could care less about the wrecks or he would have looted them himself. So, I just continued to loot and salvage, then on to the next set of asteroids. I kept seeing him from time to time in the 9 or so asteroid belts that were in this system, it was pretty cool. During all this, at times, some Serpentis scouts and guards would show up. Luckily, I was armed and armored. I had a 175mm railgun, a beam laser of some sort (I can never remember their names) and a missile launcher with some flamebursts. 2 sets of 100mm armor along with shield thingy (heh). My ship is the Tristan. At the end of the night, I ended up with over 200 items along with 100k isk in bounty from killing those Serpentis goons. Lots of the things I looted/salvaged go for over 100k in the market place. Some were only worth a few 1000, then A LOT were valued at a range from 60k up to 90k. I figure, if I sold everything I looted (which would be 100% profit no matter what I sold them for) I could easily make several million isk.

Yeap.....Im liking this game a whole lot. I honestly dont see how some people are having problems making isk. Im making lots of isk and not even really trying. It just kinda happens.

 

[Firebot]

Probing / scanning is a lot of fun .

I reactivated my account this week after a huge 4 year hiatus (I actually was playing the game in beta too) to give it a shot again. Last time I had played I had just joined an alliance (currently part of Goonswarm), got ganked in a mid security sector by 2 ships right outside a station unable to get back in and lost my recently bought Brutix and podded, with my clone set at the other end of the universe. I was so pissed I quit right there and hadn't come back.

This time, I decided to do things differently. Took the time to relearn what everything did and get the basics back. Since I need an ISK 'buffer' to pay for potential losses, I went with a Thorax first and fully loaded it with whatever tech II I had the skills for and named tech 1s. I read up on the new scanning system (also learned about salvaging which is fairly new), and decided to try it out and got Astronomics 1 (you can get signatures with 1 alone and use 4 probes). I found a WH after about 30 min of figuring out the system and decided to view it. I knew they are very dangerous. Just figuring out how to find it should have been enough, but then decided what the hell let's go in. Found a site inside just by using the onboard scanner that I also learned how to use, and warped in.

Sleepers! I heard about those! 70km away let's see how much they deal damage for (remember I'm in a Thorax here). One shot boom 956 damage and shields down from 70km away . Gulp! There's 15 of them, and I'm in a crappy blaster boat who needs 5KM range to deal damage. I activated my medium armor repairer, and warped out right away. Guess I was in one of the higher class WH lol.

I'll be back (once I'm in a corp again of course) . Right now raising skills and building up my isk to get back in a battlecruiser until I have the full skills to get in a BS. I'll see if I last this time.