So I normally go out of Amarr exploring through Catch. You can make good money but lately there have been too meany people hunting for Explorers and I lost a bunch of ships in the region.
So I decided to take a WH out into a random part of Null to see if I get better luck.
I landed in the Outer Passage and was happy to see no one was around. Thing is I couldn’t find one site in the whole region. So I moved up into Cobalt Edge and the same thing, no data/relic sites. Then I moved all the way down into The Kalevala Expanse and still no sites. That’s about 60+ jumps in total.
iirc this is drone space … no relics there, but a few (now) worthless special data sites which need combat capabilities (you have to kill some rats to loot the can) and can escalate. The augmented drone BPCs come from here. You should look elsewhere.
Yeah, the drone regions are pretty sparse. The special sites are cool the first time you find them, but have loot worth about the same as Angels/Blood Raiders data sites anywhere else (usually between 3-12M-ish).
Only thing I would clarify is that these types of data sites had no rats when I did them. There may be other sites with NPCs.
You guys said that it was just the drone faction. I’m next door in Vale of the Silent now. It says the faction is the Guristas but I’m still seeing some drone sites and have only found a data site.
Drone data sites spawn only in drone regions: Cobalt Edge, Perrigen Falls, Malpais, Oasa, Kalevala Expanse, Outer Passage, Etherium Reach, and The Spire. Drone data sites have two main differences from pirate data sites:
Failing the hack twice in drone data site will not destroy the container. Instead there is a chance that failure spawns hostile frigates. These rogue drones can be easily handled by the drones of T1 explorer and do not pose serious threat. These frigates need to be destroyed before you can hack again.
Drone data sites can escalate into another drone data site.
Drone data sites contain three hackable containers: Two “High Security Containment Facility” and one “Research and Development Laboratories”. Most of the time the lone research container is empty but leaving it unhacked misses possibility for data site escalation.
Drone data sites contain drone components and blueprint copies for ‘Integrated’ and ‘Augmented’ drones. Each drone region drop blueprint copies for different racial drones: Kalevala Expanse and The Spire for Minmatar, Malpais and Oasa for Caldari, Etherium Reach and Perrigen Falls for Gallente and finally Outer Passage and Cobalt Edge for Amarr."
Probably says it better than I could off the top of my head, haha.
… and in times before Excavators, escalations were the jackpot which could net you 1-4B worth in blueprints. Nowadays the prints are worthless, because the dominating production factor are the materials.
Bummer—one of the few things about Exploration I think should be improved is the lack of the “jackpot” feeling. Sure, you can get lucky on Intact Armor Plates in Sansha sites, but you know where to find them, so it’s not terribly exciting.
I guess you can still get that feeling in a general sense depending on the system you’re in (like when you find a system with multiple lucrative relic sites), but there’s still very little “surprise” factor at work. I think it would be cool to build that back in, even if it means decreasing career rewards elsewhere.
Either make loot more variable or otherwise less predictable, or put some SUPER rare and lucrative sites back in to really motivate explorers to scan down every site. I’m fine with the current system (although I also think it’d be nice if data sites were a little more worth doing), but most of my excitement comes from evading hunters. I just think it’d be cool for some of that excitement to come from the exploring itself. Sorry for the slightly off-topic rant!
The Great Wildlands is where I usually go, alternatively if your ok with the long journey and danger Stain is generally the most profitable region in the game.
Vale of Silent is Gurista space. You will find relic and data sites there.
You saw some drones sites, because you can find them everywhere
just look at dotlan as suggested: http://evemaps.dotlan.net/region
I once found a data site in a wormhole that dropped an implant blueprint worth 2.5b or so. That was a big pay day for me. I thought data sites were trash.
Check on Dotlan.