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Zarstrax
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Posted - 2008.08.18 19:29:00 -
[1]
So today I thought why not ill do some exploration. So I grab my alt in a heron with decent probing skills and after 3 hours I find an unknown plex. Yay. So I grab my main in an ishtar and slowly run through it. I get roughly 6mil per 15min. About the same as a Lvl 4 mission but I keep telling myself I'll probably get a Pith boost amp or some decent goody at the end seeing as I have taken my time to probe this out. After 1 and a half hours after running to a ss and cloaking a few times a neutral enters local I reach the end. Theres a station and some NPCs I kill the NPCs and start shooting the station. Pew pew. LAGGGGGG. Ermmm why am I in a pod. "The station activated its OMGZ KILL ALL EM DAMAGE DD" and killed you. End of day.
Time spent: 5 hours Isk Made: -100mil
So are these plexes even worth apart from the ones the farmers run and make 2-3bil a day which are camped 24/7 which ive tried to scan but they always beat me in. Seems like scanning out lvl 4 missions to me.
Yes it was a bit of a whine. |
Artemis Rose
Varion Galactic Accord Corporate Enterprise Syndicate
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Posted - 2008.08.18 20:09:00 -
[2]
Sometimes you strike it big, sometimes you don't basically. You can spend hours and get nothing (or lose equipment) or you can snag a site within 25 minutes and be laughing your way 300+ Mil richer.
For me, just knowing Exploration is about the journey and not the reward eases my frustration |
Zarstrax
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Posted - 2008.08.18 20:13:00 -
[3]
So where does the good loot drop from? The standard NPCs or if your lucky does a named guy spawn at the end or something? |
Kahega Amielden
Minmatar 24th Imperial Crusade
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Posted - 2008.08.18 20:14:00 -
[4]
Originally by: Zarstrax So where does the good loot drop from? The standard NPCs or if your lucky does a named guy spawn at the end or something?
Faction spawns. Dark Blood XXX, Dread Guristas XXX, True Sansha XXX, Shadow Serpentis, etc... |
Bufo8o2
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Posted - 2008.08.18 20:15:00 -
[5]
Was this complex in low sec or where else? |
Doddy
Omega Fleet Enterprises Executive Outcomes
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Posted - 2008.08.18 21:28:00 -
[6]
hmm, the one i know that has area effect dds is nsty and give little rewrd, but you couldn't have solo'd it so i doubt its that one. |
Zarstrax
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Posted - 2008.08.18 23:36:00 -
[7]
Edited by: Zarstrax on 18/08/2008 23:36:31
Originally by: Doddy hmm, the one i know that has area effect dds is nsty and give little rewrd, but you couldn't have solo'd it so i doubt its that one.
Yeh It was that one - did it an ishtar easily - guristas kin/therm hardeners and medium rep with aux nano pumps. Could perma run the rep. Had crazy resists - until it popped.
Was a 0.0 plex. |
Kuyira
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Posted - 2008.08.19 11:45:00 -
[8]
Was the plex 2 pockets, first pocket with a lot of roids, 2nd with a big battlestation?
If so, I think once that battlestation pops, you get an escalation, not loot. |
Zarstrax
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Posted - 2008.08.19 14:42:00 -
[9]
Originally by: Kuyira Was the plex 2 pockets, first pocket with a lot of roids, 2nd with a big battlestation?
If so, I think once that battlestation pops, you get an escalation, not loot.
Yeh the first pocket had quite a few roids with a gate in a em bubble and the second the big battlestation. What so another gate appears after the battlestation pops you? |
Laila Eldgorn
Caldari Certified Household Sweeping Consulting
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Posted - 2008.08.19 20:07:00 -
[10]
Edited by: Laila Eldgorn on 19/08/2008 20:14:23 At least low sec exploration seems pretty much crap, except some old DED plexes. You have to spend hours, even with decent skills, to find something and when you finally strike at something its uh... something meant for 1 week old characters.
To clear my point is that you have to spend weeks or maybe months to get even half decent skills for probing and most of the hi sec/low sec sites are obviously only worth of something to some people who can't even do probing.
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Dwayne Dibly
UnderDog Industries Free Trade Zone.
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Posted - 2008.08.19 23:02:00 -
[11]
exploration worth it?
I Make around 2-5 bil a week...
Id say yes :) |
Erodmos
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Posted - 2008.08.20 13:31:00 -
[12]
Originally by: Dwayne Dibly exploration worth it?
I Make around 2-5 bil a week...
Id say yes :)
Holy, how are you doing to get that lot? thats something like 500mil per day. Think you have to permarun/scan the plexes to make the much or?
Or are you able to finish a lot of the escalation plexes with the uber deadspace type of loot at the end?
Erodmos |
Aryy
Minmatar Sebiestor tribe
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Posted - 2008.08.20 14:56:00 -
[13]
I guess is all about luck huh? I got like 80mil worth of loot from a 5/10 low sec plex. And after that i started an exploration chain 5 diffrent sites in all around 3 constelations, it was an angel escaladation in which i was following a domination gang that kept jumping from a comunication post to another. Killed about 3 domination ships before reaching the final site (no decent loot obv). In the final site there was a base "El-something-" that kept spawning ships every 15% armour or so. When it blew up some named guy come (i was like "oh yea phat loot here i come"), killed him and recived a pop up message with "DEAD END blablabla" loot was a domi tag and nothing else of worth :( |
Dwayne Dibly
UnderDog Industries Free Trade Zone.
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Posted - 2008.08.20 16:42:00 -
[14]
Using 4 accounts :-
3 x Black Ops 1 x Cov ops With cyno Gen fitted.
Can move around in stealth and yes i run them non stop but you have to remember that the isk is not per day and i dont run any other type except "unknowns"
They are where the isk is at in Exploration. The rest is merely a waste of time. IMO <<
Then again running level 5's using that amount of accounts is almost as profitable :)
Trust me!!! I know |
AdmiralDovolski
Gallente N.A.S.A. Skunk-Works
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Posted - 2008.08.21 00:18:00 -
[15]
yup, exploration is totally worth it. if you can do it solo, thats great, but its more efficient to have a tank and a logistics boat.
and yes, it is possible to make that kind of money, but it all depends on your luck.
btw, if you do start actually thinking of doing this for your isk, you WILL need the skills at 4-5 and a cov ops (lvl 4-5 as well) with a sisters scan probe launcher. im getting under 3 minutes scan time, and am accurate enough that i rarely need probes bigger than .5 AU |
Ironnight
Caldari x13 X13 Alliance
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Posted - 2008.08.21 00:37:00 -
[16]
Some times you get lucky other times you sit there and wonder why the hell you just waste 2-3 hours on finding and doing that plex.
The best plexes seems to be the old ones that are now hidden. |
Tamoko
Damage Unlimited Inc INTERDICTION
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Posted - 2008.08.21 01:16:00 -
[17]
As far as complexes go, there's two main kinds of "unknown" sites.
The first are "DED Rated" plexes. These will greet you at the front door with a pop-up dialog and a X/10 DED rating. If you ever ran the static plexes of olde, these will be familiar to you - they're identical to the vintage statics, except that they spawn randomly at exploration becons. In case you aren't familiar with how these work, they get more difficult with each additional point of DED rating. 6/10 is about the highest most people will want to solo, without a very specialized HAC or Command Ship. These sites typically drop numerous OPE ("Overseer's Personal Effects"), which are crates that can be turned in at CONCORD stations for a fixed amount of ISK. These crates are tiered ("15th Tier OPE") and higher rated plexes drop higher tiered OPEs. Also, these plexes contain overseers, themselves, which have a chance to drop faction loot. I repeat, a chance. They might give you jack shit.
The second sites are simple "encounters". These are one, sometimes two, roomed pockets which a bunch of random ships. They have a (small) chance to spawn a commander (Dread/Shadow, et al) and a small chance to escalate.
In 0.0, the large majority of Unknowns you scan down will be encounters. Luckily, they can be cleared in short order and give steady cash. If you hit enough of them, sooner or later, you'll get lucky. Maybe a blood armor repper will drop... or a domination stasis web, or a dread guristas invul field... you get the idea.
The point being, these aren't sure-fire ways to make X ISK per hour. Certainly, 5 hours isn't enough time to properly judge them. It's like telling me you make 0.007M ISK per second in Level 4s. |
Erodmos
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Posted - 2008.08.21 09:26:00 -
[18]
There are some more rare ways to get good rewarding plexes plexes.
One is, that normal unknown anomaly plexes have a very slim chance to get a single step escalation to a DED rated X/10 plex. Usually the anomaly have only the chance for some normal faction spawn.
On the "real" unknown sites (not anomaly) you usually get the "encounter" type ones. They have a chance to get a faction spawn at the end + you have the chance to get a escalation out of them. I think the chance for a escalation is based on the difficulty of the beginning plex too. SO a lower plex has a smaller chance compared to a high endish one. The escalations will usually lead you over 4 or 5 steps to a plex with a deadspace officer at the end. But on each step you can just get a "Dead end" Message too. Some special types of that plexes have a 100% chance for a escalation with just one step, the one i know is the Serpentis Logistic Outpost one.
The other type of "real" unknowns are directly the x/10 rated DED plexes, but they are very rare.
And jeah the plexes are worth to be run, but the 2-5bil per week are imho only possible if you run several accounts + you need a larger area which is not scanned from others for plexes + that space needs to be more or less a secure 0.0 pocket for you. If an enemy covert ops arrives and is looking for you, you are most times doomed to stop/cloak/log etc.
But its the must entertaining part of PvE activity. You have a chance of great rewards and it can be mixed with tricky hidden operations in enemy space, spcially for the escalations!
Erodmos |
slothe
Caldari Murky Inc.
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Posted - 2008.08.21 17:19:00 -
[19]
i have been doing explo for a month or so now.
as far as combat sites are concerned i have done
10/10 the maze x2 8/10 pith penal colony x 3 other high level non-ded combat sites x 4
i have so far not received any high level faction items at all. had 2x dread gurista drops of average value
the 10/10 overseer loot, worth 133 mill, was split between 5 characters both times at 26 mill p/player
those experiences make exploration hardly worth the effort tbh
im still hoping that one will pay off.
imo - explo not worth the isk.
however i do find them fun so thats why i do them, just would be nice if one pays off. |
Nefrin Maldoes
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Posted - 2008.08.22 07:17:00 -
[20]
Others have said it, and it's true. Sometimes you come up empty, sometimes you hit the jackpot (I site Firefly as an example of the life of an explorer).
That being said, I agree that it can be totally worth it. Salvage/Archeology sites have been a boon for me, I have picked up millions in rare T2 salvage, and several dozen T2 and Faction BPC's (Rigs, Ammo, PoS guns, etc). These are the sites I prefer.
I have also run several Unknowns, both solo and in a fleet. In the time I have been doing exploration (pretty much since it was put into the game), I have had one shining moment of a good encounter. It was an Angel complex that spawned an escalation, and another, and another, and so on. Six all total, which at the end we (yes, I was in a very good fleet) came across a named Angel (Jorun "Red Legs" something). 17mill BS rat, and she dropped us a Mach BPC, max ME. That sold for about 800mill in those days. All and all, for two days worth of running complexes, the group of us walked away with about 500mill a piece, and that was just the bounties and the BPC.
Have I had a run as good as that since then? No, but I'll be damned if it isn't like gambling, hoping that the next scan will lead me to wealth beyond imagine.
That which does not kill us makes us stranger
Originally by: Darcel Black 1) Frigates 2) ??? 3) Profit!
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desintox
Square Dimensions
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Posted - 2008.08.22 11:55:00 -
[21]
I'm sure there is a lot of money to be made if you scan for these sites daily and with a bit of luck you get faction loot.
I've done 10/10 Guristas Maze as my exploration site, lost a Nighthawk in the final stage (insta-pop for 45000 HP, damn EM torp ) But after getting a new ship and together with a friend we completed it and it dropped Pith X-Type hardeners. All together it was maybe 1,2 Bil in loot, split in two, so about 600M each (minus my Nighthawk loss).
But I must say we've spent a lot of time scanning this plex and going through the annoying maze gates and had to refit ships for the big EM Torp hit. It is worth it... if you have time and luck. Although I only did this one, there might be other sites that are more profitable, less dangerous, and maybe even possible to do solo.
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Atlas Elestra
Titan Mining LLC
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Posted - 2008.08.22 12:05:00 -
[22]
I seem to hear a lot about how Exploration relates to these Combat opportunites...
what I'm curious about is the Salvageable sites..I think these are the ones where you need Archeology...
Anyone doing that? Is that worth it?
ôSalvage is as much an art as building the ship itself. We take rubble and make rigs, now that takes Talent.ö |
slothe
Caldari Murky Inc.
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Posted - 2008.08.23 07:40:00 -
[23]
Originally by: Atlas Elestra
I seem to hear a lot about how Exploration relates to these Combat opportunites...
what I'm curious about is the Salvageable sites..I think these are the ones where you need Archeology...
Anyone doing that? Is that worth it?
in my experience, and others, the answer is generally no they arent. but like the other sites, get lucky and youve made a fortune.
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Artimus Mousimus
Gallente
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Posted - 2008.08.23 10:40:00 -
[24]
don't bother with plex's IMO only go for GRAV MAG RADAR sites, there the quickest to clean up apart from the Grav which will normally land u a Gneiss site which will take a few of you to clean out with hulks etc.
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Dwayne Dibly
UnderDog Industries Free Trade Zone.
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Posted - 2008.08.23 16:46:00 -
[25]
Originally by: Artimus Mousimus don't bother with plex's IMO only go for GRAV MAG RADAR sites, there the quickest to clean up apart from the Grav which will normally land u a Gneiss site which will take a few of you to clean out with hulks etc.
If your into easy Isk and no real great reward but a steady flow like Level 4's then yes stick to them and leave all the unknowns for ME !!! **********
Level 5 Mission Database Returns!!
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DNightmare
Caldari The Gosimer and Scarab
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Posted - 2008.08.27 08:29:00 -
[26]
Hrm, one thing I can't say enough about exploration: Patience is the key to success! If you stick with it, you'll have fun and get your isk in. Not as much as lvl4 grinding, but at least it's not as boring either. Just don't give up hope after the first 4-5 days, quite often there's nothing but sometimes there's the big jackpot.
just my 2 isk, DN
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Kurst I
The Arrow Project Morsus Mihi
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Posted - 2008.08.27 11:14:00 -
[27]
Edited by: Kurst I on 27/08/2008 11:16:02 I guess the site the OP is talking about is the Gurista Military Complex, quite easily doable with a perma dual rep ishtar. All u need is kin/therm hardener + DC II, as the DC gives u enough resi to survive the station smartie with full armor and no shields. Have ur shield reload to approx 1200 hp and u wont even get structure damage.
If u destroy the 3 Gurista Control Centers/Towers (can't remember) before hitting the station, the EM smartie will activate only once IIRC.
...piece of cake
regarding rewards: used to da a lot of exploration, and I'd say that specifi site has a 75% chance of a Dread and 50% for an escalation.
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briannewell30
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Posted - 2008.09.19 09:26:00 -
[28]
i have recantly gotten in to probeing/scanning and have found it quite rewardinghaveing the minimal skills for it recomended by most guides i have made 1.2b aprox in the first 2 weeks ...this loot comprised of a lot of gistum shield mods 2 medum boosters within a day of eachothersome misc faction lewts etc etc the big bucks have come from ded complexes found as Unknown's for me dropping shield mods from structures in the last room usally
best sugestion i have is buy a load of probes and just do it :) i find the search as rewarding as the 320m isk shield boosters i have gotten btw all my probeing has occured in .04 or higher space so 0.0 isnt a requirement at all here!
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