The End of an Era (with some exploration statistics thrown in)

This week marks the end of an era (or better—area) for one aspect of my EVE life. About a year ago, I discovered Jonny Pew's fantastic exploration videos on youtube. Low sec exploration looked incredibly fun, profitable, and safe—if you were smart about it. So I made a new character, with a 6+ month skill plan mimicking his exploration ship choices, and after considerable research moved into a quiet area of space—Maalna, to be specific. 

This was, by my lights, a perfect area: I would stay solely in that triangle of rather empty systems—Maalna, Maseera, and Shakasi—and use only wormholes to transport goods in and out. At the time, it was a rather odd choice on first inspection, as one system up in Van lived a fairly active pirate group who were quite good at smartbombing the Genesis-Aridia-Solitude pipe going through Van, among other PVP activities. However, I noticed that they went northeast—to Gonditsa—or further into Aridia for PVP, and weren't too keen on the empty systems to the south. The pirate presence also kept many explorers from lingering in this area.

So, that's where my exploration character has lived and explored. For over a year now. And it has been a blast, profitable in isk but perhaps more so in knowledge of the game. I really felt a sense of immersion in the game when living in some distant corner of low sec. However, this character has increasingly taken on new roles: as a market trader currently managing 150-200 orders, as a combat scanner, and, now, as a link alt. I've had less time, as a result, to jump-clone over to Maalna, and much less of a need for the isk since my trade business has taken off. 

a typical blitz in the blood raider 5/10

Furthermore, as a sort of anecdote of how EVE has progressed over the past year, this area of low sec—traditionally one of the most empty areas, a virtual wasteland when it comes to PVP—has become much more populated (so far as I've experienced). Explorers, PVPers, haulers, etc., frequently pass through the area (even into the triangle of systems) and a few groups have taken up residence, often leaving the area devoid of exploration sites. Low sec is a much more vibrant, living place than it was a year ago—so much more so it is rather unbelievable, given that there was no one major change (though gate gun aggro mechanics were a big one!) that improved low sec space.

This does not mean the end of exploration in EVE for me—by no means. I will likely run less exploration sites, but I have a long-term plan in progress, one I will soon post about, which combines PVP and exploration (in the broader sense than just exploration sites). I also have some new player friends I help with exploration, traveling with them to low sec and running sites together.

Here, then, is my final set of statistics I've compiled since I moved to low sec on my alt (the previous set of statistics can be found here: http://evelostfound.blogspot.com/2013/11/exploration-and-isk-7-months-of.html)

Post-Rubicon Exploration:

Bood Hideout: 1
Blood Lookout: 2
Blood Watch: 1
Blood Vigil: 1 - 9m
Blood Outpost: 1 - 110m
Blood Annex: 1 - 22m
BR1/10 Old Meanie: 4 - 22m, 36m
BR2/10 Human Farm: 3 - 1m, 150m, 90m
BR3/10 Intelligence Coll: 5 - 9m, 3m, 4m, 1m
BR4/10 Mul-Zatah Monastery: 4 - 180m, 1m, 20m, 4m
BR5/10 Psycho Depot: 4 - 180m, 85m, 40m, 40m
Relic 12 (this doesn't include the many I simply passed over due to lack of worthwhile loot) – 102m
Gas: 7 – 460m

Ghost Sites: 5 - 250m

In total, only around 1.75 billion, which is down quite a bit from my exploration during the other two expansion periods in EVE. But that makes for around 8.75b over the course of 13 months--with a few breaks from EVE thrown in--and countless cups of early morning coffee, dozens of audiobooks, and probably a few hundred careless-afk-in-space trips to make burritos etc.

The best part? Even after over a year of low sec living—on a PVE alt as well as a PVP character—the place still scares the crap out of me.