Good thing I had insurance.
Well after yesterday's good fortune I thought I'd try my hand at low sec exploration as I started playing just as it was getting to peak time and I didn't feel inclined to risk being caught in null just as everyone logs on. My buy orders from the previous day had almost all filled apart from a couple that had just been outbid. So before leaving I listed up a bunch of sell orders in Amarr and went on my merry way.
The first low sec system I jumped into was populated so I hopped over to the next to find it empty of people but full of anomalies, just how I like it. I warped to 100km of a random planet and started scanning. Suddenly my shields are gone followed shortly by my ship. Err... Oops. Turns out there was a player owned station 250km away from me and apparently the guns CAN shoot that far. Luckily there was nothing of value other than a 700,000 ISK ship (including fittings.) It was mostly my pride that was hurt. Another lesson learned - stay away from player owned structures in low and null unless you're supposed to be there.
A few jumps later and I'm back in Amarr. This was a good opportunity to try out the new idea I'd been playing around with. Magnates are great, I like the look of them and they do the job they're supposed to very well. However, after my time in null yesterday I couldn't help but feel a cargo scanner would be a massive help.
Sometimes you'll scan down a site only to find 2 or 3 of the containers have been emptied out already leaving only the ones with worthless items or those that are empty and uncracked. It's hugely frustrating to enter these kind of sites but it's a lot better when you're the one doing the cherry picking. A cargo scanner will tell you with 100% accuracy what is inside the relic or data cache. Some people will say otherwise but I've cracked open containers the scanner has said is empty and it's been empty. In fact, every time I scan a container, the contents are always the same as the scan result. Every. Time.
Now unfortunately the Magnate only has 3 mid slots and those mid slots are always going to be used on a Relic Analyzer, Data Analyzer and Micro Warp Drive (or an afterburner, but lets face it - MWD's are more fun.) Typical to Amarr ships the Magnate is also loaded up on low slots which are also useful but probably not quite as necessary as mids on an explorer.
Lucky for me I'd already learned Gallente Frigates and trained up to level 3 in preparation for this change so for the time being I'll be flying an Imicus. More specifically this is the fitting I'll be using. Less Nanofiber in the lows but you in theory spend less time in the cosmic site because you're cherry picking the good cans, and less time in the site means less chance of being scanned down by people intent on ganking poor beginner explorers which means a lower chance of that extra agility actually coming into play.
I ended up doing a few high sec rounds for the rest of the day. This isn't as lucrative as low or null but it's much safer because who's going to risk the wrath of CONCORD over a ship worth less than a million which may or may not have a decent amount of cargo. You can get about 10-12 million ISK per hour and while it's not guaranteed, it's a VERY achievable goal. Low and null are more like 20-40 million and 40-80 million per hour respectively but you do have to be very watchful of what's happening around you. Along with the high sec exploration I had my sell orders supplementing my income and by the time I logged off I was happy with where I was at.
*One tip with the ship fitting - if you're only doing high sec exploration you can take the warp stabilizer either offline or just replace them with more Nanofiber, it'll only slow down your scan time in high sec and won't benefit you*
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