Been doing exploration now for a while and I gotta say, There’s little skill involved. Is’t mostly “Dumb Luck”.
I can find up to level VI sites now, but a level VI site doesn’t guarantee big loot at all. Same with the hacking game. Sometimes you solve it within seconds, sometimes you run into more traps than nodes. Sure you can see where a loaded nodes might be, but no indication at all where the traps are, (of course). So you just need to get lucky. And again, a difficult hack doesn’t guarantee a big loot. The entire Exploration game is nothing but dumb luck. Not a lot of skill involved.
As far as the loot goes…Don’t think for a second you will get what the loot lists as value. Lot a of stuff isn’t wanted so it won’t sell and if it is wanted, it usually goes for a mere 50% of the estimated value, Might improve a bit with trade skills, but probably not much.
If you play it safe and keep to Hi-sec, you might get a decent pay out of it, but not more than that. And then it’s probably easier to stick to mining. Equally exciting.
Kinda disappointed in this part of the game. Think I’m gonna focus on some planet action next, See what that’s about.
Sounds like a very common newbro impression of what Exploration is.
Are you running primarily Relic sites or Data sites? Because Relic sites are reliably better ISK than Data sites. They can be very lucrative in certain regions like Esoteria, Paragon Soul, Period Basis, and Delve, where you have a chance to find Intact Armor Plates worth ~7m a pop.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re disappointed by this part of the game, but that just means more loot left for the rest of us.
This part is very wrong though. First off, Trade skills have near negligible impact on the prices you get since the market is determined by the players. Second, you’re likely just impatient and selling them to underpriced Buy Orders instead of listing them up as Sell Orders. The old adage of “Buy low, Sell high” is well and healthy on the market, so there are plenty of people looking to buy your goods for low prices if you’re impatient and just sell to those orders.
As this is the PA/CCP age of EVE we might see your wish granted in the form of a potion booster that increases your luck for only 255 PLEX adding +5% increased chance for a better loot drop for an entire week (you can buy and activate several of them parallel for stacked bonuses).
OP, what you call “dumb luck” is RNG and is fairly common in games I hear.
High-sec exploration is indeed not the greatest. More risk=more chance of reward. Learn to D-scan (directional scan) and go more dangerous but more rewarding places.
The market stuff scoots talked about…read that a few more times, eh?
Many players enjoy - or at least find useful - PI (planetary interaction…pretty grand name for just managing factories and resource extractors, etc, but the isk can build up to be ok). Hisec space is pretty saturated with PI (safer, again). 0.0 space is mostly owned / controlled by groups who might not look kindly on someone set up PI in their space. Wormholes and lowsec might be better. The Epithal is a hauler with a specialized cargohold for PI products. Good luck!
OP
I am quite sure you never tried exciting parts of exploration, including sleeper caches, ghost sites where time to hack is counted, wormholes… Then some “skill” is required.
feel free to leave exploration
other explos will have less competition from you. Great.
just fyi i earn about 100-150M/h doing explo. But you are right. Leave explo for mining or anythg else
Well, first of all I’m not really talking about the amount of money to be made when I say Exploration is just dumb luck… I’m sure there are ways to improve the earnings. You’re probably right there…
I’m talking about the exploration process itself. There seems to be little skill involved just luck. I can find up to level IV sites and the process is ALWAYS exactly the same. No challenge or skill, just math. Level V i just can’t have with my skill level and equipment. No use trying. Beating the hacking game is just luck.
I can jump the wormholes but as soon as the little red ships appear I need to leave. No way in hell I’m gonna beat them. You can’t outsmart them, or something. No, all you can do is run. I found ONE site in the last few weeks behind a wormhole not guarded. Again Dumb luck… That is my point.
Everybody is just talking about the money they can make… I’m talking about the gameplay when I express my slight disappointment. Funny also how some people seem to take that personally.
I just hoped Exploration was a little more strategy based, than just the math it is now, skills + equipment = succes or not. And the hacking is 90% luck, (RNG indeed).
I’ve been really enjoying Exploration. I feel like the income is pretty consistent, with some exceptions here and there. Mostly low sec and WHs right now. Finding good sites and scanning them down when you know someone is hunting you is pretty fun. I don’t make a ton of ISK by any means but it’s still a good time. Not everything is for everyone I suppose.
I’m not sure what you expect to be different each time unless you’re asking for the developers to come up with a completely different minigame for each and every site you scan down.
Yeah…there are many more factors in the mix when you do exploration outside of hisec…but ok, I’m just talking about profit…ok…you’re right, np.
If you’re referring to me for some reason I assure you nothing you have or could say is going to actually bother me. Far from my first internet / forum rodeo, hoss and you don’t even really know what you’re complaining about. Don’t take it personally noob.
Think I’m gonna focus on some planet action next, See what that’s about. 
PLEX adding +5% increased chance for a better loot drop for an entire week (you can buy and activate several of them parallel for stacked bonuses). 