CCP releases first video tutorial for exploration in EVE Online
by James Egan 
Dec 18th 2009 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Guides, Professions, Making money, Tips and tricks
Exploration is one of the more rewarding mini-professions a player can have in EVE Online. With the right skills you can scan down all types of hidden content, such as harvestable gas clouds, hidden asteroid belts, and combat encounters that take advantage of an explorer's skills like Archaeology and Hacking. The new exploration system that became part of EVE with the Apocrypha expansion last winter also made it possible for players to discover wormholes leading to uncharted space. However, exploration is also something a number of new players feel daunted by. (Truth be told though, the drag and drop system of manually guiding probes on a map and adjusting scan ranges is *far* easier than what many of the older players will remember from exploration pre-Apocrypha.)
EVE Online currently has four different exploration tutorials in-game to help players get a handle on the profession, but sometimes it's easier to just sit back and watch how it's done. CCP has now released a video tutorial for exploration that teaches players how to scan down the hidden content. The EVE Online: Scanning Guide Tutorial is a tag team effort from EVE TV's CCP Charlie who goes through the steps while Stevie SG narrates. They show the viewer how it's possible to find a wormhole in just a few minutes. The video tutorial coincides with the free Zephyr exploration ship that players are receiving as a holiday gift from CCP Games. Stay with us after the jump for a video embed of the official Scanning Guide Tutorial for EVE Online.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
godlyhalo said on 11:59PM 12-18-2009
Funny thing about Exploration, Not many people do it as a serious profession. People just don't want to spend the time looking at a map and moving probes for hours. Some people think that probing in high sec isn't very useful, but in fact its the exact opposite. Probing in high sec can easily be one of the easiest ways to make money. I've ranged on average something like 20 mill an hour, sometimes more just from high sec.
Hacking sites (Radar) are always worth doing, I have always gotten at least 5 mill off a single site, and upwards of 20 mill. But the big money is in deadspace complexes. Out of the ones I have done, I average about 50 mill a site. Most of the sites I have found in High Sec can be done in a cruiser that is purely fitted for exploration. Only once did I need to grab a battlecruiser to complete an expedition, which netted about 50 mill for the entire thing.
Archeology and Salvaging sites are almost not even worth doing in High Sec. They barely give any money, you just have to get lucky and hope you get something worth more than 100k.
On the contrary, Hacking in wormhole space tends to be a bit pathetic, the sleepers that guard the place are usually worth more than the hacking site itself. Archeology is where the money is in Wormholes, besides asteroid belts. You can usually net a ton of money, sometimes pull 50+ mill out of a single site.
Exploration is the thing I love to do the most in EVE, It doesn't require a whole lot of skills, but if done properly, and with a bit of luck you can make hundreds of millions of isk in a week without a whole lot of effort.
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Lepton said on 12:23AM 12-19-2009
Two things:
1. This video is not new or at least it does not feel new. I know nearly nothing about EVE and I have seen a scanning demo just like this before.
2. How boring is that!!! Moving five points with decreasing sphere radii over and over again??!!! How exciting!! How novel!!! How dull!!!
This kind of gameplay mechanic is exactly what is wrong with EVE.
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Khai Mann said on 5:58AM 12-19-2009
Your comment is exactly what you'd expect from someone who has never played EVE. Scanning is only 5% of what EVE is all about, so you can play for years without even giving it a try.
Scanning can be fun, I do it and find it fun. Doing hacking, salvaging and Archaeology sites is a complete wast of time in my opinion. I've never managed to make more than a few mil from them.
And just in case your wondering, I only scan low sec space from 0.3 to 0.1 and still never made any good isk from them.
Most money is in WH and some good plexes.
Psychotic Storm said on 2:55AM 12-19-2009
I think exploration is intresting, if you like that sort of thing of course, but... it isn't worth it.
since exploration and everything else should be compared to lvl 4 hi sec missions they do not stand as an alternative income source, it is easier, simpler and more efficient to do lvl 4 missions than train the skills and learn how to explore.
wish the rewards were better because I like exploring.
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xion said on 4:31AM 12-19-2009
Lepton, congrat, u just earned the Retard of the Day title, its just one of the thousand ways of EVE, and btw of u really like playing RPGs then u just have to imagine yourself as a commander of the ship which is looking for treasures in the cold space ;)
EVE is an awesome game, its really now wrong just because its complex and well found out...
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xion said on 4:33AM 12-19-2009
sorry, now=not
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Dirame said on 6:25AM 12-19-2009
I make 200mil on my worst week, 500-600mil on my best week. *lights a cuban* I explore in hisec, losec, nullsec, wormhole space, deepspace, planetspace, any space. The people who explore can make alot of money but you really have to not restrict yourself or else you'll be left in the dust. Yes scanning is boring, no doubt about it, until you find a mag site that gives you 20 power circuits... and a radar that gives you a 10run BPC.
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Din A3 said on 10:15AM 12-19-2009
The most exciting thing in that vid is the girl's voice.
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Lepton said on 12:45PM 12-19-2009
I actually have played EVE and I know exactly how boring it is. Hours spent waiting for training to complete. Staring at icons in space dock or swirly red and blue icons in space. That anyone could possibly imagine that this scanning/exploration mechanic is fun or engaging is beyond me. These must be the same folks who think it is interesting to play with Excel spreadsheets, charts, and graphs.
I'd also like to point out that Massively itself did some sort of scanning/exploration feature back in March explaining the new Apocrypha stuff that included much of the content of this video.
Like I said, nothing new here.
And that said, BORING!
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Dblade said on 1:59PM 12-19-2009
It's a nice idea, but it's too abstract to reach many players. The reason why james had to link a dev-made tutorial is that the actual scanning is very counter-intuitive and fairly difficult. You need to manipulate multiple probes in 3-d space on a 2-d local map to triangulate anomalies and then narrow your search down till you get 100% strength and a warpable bookmark.
It has a lot of value in play-you use probes to track down rat bunkers, wormholes, other ships for pvp or stealing their salvageable wrecks, and hidden sites. However I can't see why CCP feels the need to push it, as outside of the specific uses above, the general use is only to make ISK, and there are less abstract and less time consuming ways to do so.
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