Marco Polo

With the arrival of the Odyssey update, I’ve mostly put aside PvP (well, except for my rifter dying to a dramiel…) and have been concentrating (like seemingly everyone else) on the exploration side of Eve.  This isn’t something new for me – I probably explore more than I PvP in general.  I have an alt that wanders around high sec looking for radar, oops, I mean “data” sites and also DED combat sites in a trusty sentry drone equipped Ishtar (a great ship for this sort of thing).

With Odyssey came some major changes to exploration. 

Among the changes, probes all launch simultaneously, they are automatically placed in a scanning formation, you can adjust their location and scan range with just the mouse, and they instantaneously return after scanning.  Prior to using the new system, I had my doubts about whether I’d like it.  I had a method of scanning that was working for me and I felt that it gave me a time advantage over other explorers.  But now after using the new system, I’m sold.  Totally sold.  It’s much faster than the previous system (probably for everyone, meaning I’ve lost my time advantage).  But on the other hand my usual exploration modus operandi is to pop into the computer room at home, run through a loop of a dozen favorite systems and see if there’s anything interesting, then go back to RL.  With the new system these detours from reality are a lot quicker.

Another of Odyssey’s biggest changes came to the radar, oops, I mean “data” sites.  They experienced a huge makeover and now include a mini-game to get to the drops.  I like the mini-game generally.  It’s fun to click on spots and search for the core.  Then the cans spew out and it’s time to try to grab the good ones.  I’m not very good at this part and the results have been mediocre at best.  I’m not totally sold on this new system and I’ve now started to ignore the radar, oops, I mean “data” sites when I come across them – the payoff isn’t worth the time investment for me.

The DED combat sites (my other main target) haven’t changed – no mini-games or other new features except for the fact that Tengus (who were extremely popular with explorers and were the bane of my Ishtar’s existence on many, many, many occasions in the past) now cannot access the 3/10 and 4/10 DED sites.  \o/

So, in summary, I don't like the new data sites but I do I like the new quicker scanning system and the absence of Tengus.  And it resulted in a very profitable weekend as I hunted for the DED combat sites, so I have no complaints.