I have returned to the game after giving up several times over the years, but this time I’m hooked. I prefer the solo gameplay of wormhole exploration because it doesn’t seem to ask a lot of me, and gives me enough risk/reward to feel satisfying at the end of the day. Currently I fly the cheapest probe fit possible, when I first started, I didn’t even bother with a cloaking device because I found it superfluous. Now, I’ve gotten a couple 100 Million ISK hauls from wormhole dives, and I’m starting to look at my options for ship upgrades. The obvious answer is the astero, but when I look at the benefits versus the price tag… I simply can’t justify it. 74 Million for a hull that surely has some improvements, but if I can pull 200M from a wormhole dive in a probe - should I even bother with the Astero? That’s a lot of hull to pay off if I get camped, which happens often. What are your thoughts and opinions? Should I wait until I have more skills under my belt? Or just skip straight to a stratios later on?
When it is financially viable and the benefit is worth it. Going cheap and not caring if you lose them is a legit method (so in that case maybe never is the good answer for you). As often with EVE: “It all depends”.
Remember the golden rule: never fly what you can't afford to lose or replace.
Then why do it in a more expensive ship that you’re more likely to lose? If you get your jollies in a probe then keep doing it until you’re so sick of it that you actually consider mining in a Venture. Then maybe go for an Astero. Just make sure you consider that ship gone as soon as you undock… and don’t pretend, mean it.
The time to upgrade to an Astero is when you can afford to lose one and can replace it without even caring.
On my first character, I blew my bankroll on fitting out my first new BC, loaded it with great guns thinking “Man this baby is gonna rock!”, and then lost it my first time out to a combo of e-wars I wasn’t expecting and wasn’t prepared for.
Since then my criteria for going to a hull with a much higher cost/benefit ratio has been:
Has it been quite a while since I was killed at this activity by some ‘surprise’ mechanic I wasn’t prepared for?
Does the full cost of the ship represent less than 5% of my current ISK? Actually, preferably less than 3%.
Is it likely to pay for itself before I lose it?
If the answer to all three is Yes, then it’s time to try a new ship and fit. If any of them say No, then upon Reviewing the Situation, I think I better think it out again.
If you want to use an “expensive” ship just for the fun of using it, I’d alway suggest to have a lot more ISK on your wallet then it would cost to replace it. So if you lose it you aren’t ruined and just shrug it off or go to Jita and “right click + buy all” without breaking asweat.
Theres nothing you’re going to do a blinged out covert ops ship or astero that you’re not going to be able to do in a T1 frigate with a Relic Analyzer 2 on it. Healthy usage of D-scan + patience will give you more survive than a covert ops cloaking device. If you’re actually looking for where to put skill points to get more out of the Exploration play style my advice to you would be either skill into Industry so you can start turning the things you find into rigs. Or hop into one of the bigger explo ships to either prey upon other explorers or start ratting in wormholes.
