It is a script that can transform links to ships so they display inline information about the ship. It has a PHP backend (to retrieve ship information) and a clientside script (to display the info as tooltips) built on prototype. Some examples:
Note: Click on the link to open the tooltip, the arrow next to it opens the original link.
Upgrading from a previous version
Download the archive, and extract it over the existing files (replacing them). If you are upgrading from version 1.0, check that your local configuration file has all the configuration settings available in this version (cross-check your ShipsQuickinfo_Config.php with the ShipsQuickinfo_Config-dist.php file).
If you have made adjustments to the ShipsQuickinfo.js file (like modifying paths), you should back it up beforehand and mirror your changes back in afterwards.
A few months ago, Aeon trained the Amarr Strategic Cruiser and Amarr Subsystem skills all to level 3. I did not plan to get a strategic cruiser then, I wanted him to have them "just in case". He was in the Amarr region back then, so all the subsystem skills were selling at the nice NPC prices. I did not bother to check prices of the ships or subsystems themselves on the market as the wallet was looking bleak as usual, and T3 cruisers are renowned for being rich kid's toys. After a long trip back deep into the Derelik region, he resumed scanning complexes and wormholes, trying to find some rare gems - and components for Loreena's manufacturing efforts of COSMOS BPCs.
After losing a Zealot to a particularly deadly sleeper site, I tried to come up with a better ship for the task. I let no stone unturned, from destroyers to battleships. All but the strategic cruisers. The conclusion was that the Zealot is definitely in a class of its own: none of the Amarr battlecruisers can match its tank (neither can the Brutix), the Omen Navy Issue cruiser packs a good punch but is too frail, and battleships are too clumsy. Command ships I deemed too expensive to lose in a wormhole, although the Absolution is nearly perfect for the task. So a new Zealot it was, with the same fit as before. It has proven itself over and over, so I went back to exploring.
What ensued was a chain of frustrating experiences. From acceleration gates that did not allow HACs to class 3 wormholes in which most sites are too dangerous for a mere Zealot, it seemed that I was doomed to switching ships for nearly every site I encountered. My local station was beginning to fill with different sized ships again, and the logistics of the whole operation was beginning to get on my nerves. Of course Loreena could have tagged along in the Orca, but she did not seem very enthusiastic - she was busy in the Kador and Amarr regions collecting COSMOS components. Aeon could have used his charm, but I preferred to keep that Joker card for another time. There had to be a solution.
For the time being, I stuck to what I could do with the Zealot while I built up some ISK to buy an Absolution fitted for wormholes. The solution came in the form of a graphical layout and website I built for N.A.G.A. Corporation (www.nagacorporation.net), and which replenished Aeon's wallet in one strike. I made another EFT session, and as I had dabbled with strategic cruiser fittings before I thought what the heck and made a new one.
The result left me speechless and grinning like a madman. The Legion fitting I had had just whipped together had slightly less DPS than the Zealot, but about 3x the tank. Enough to take just about anything the usual complexes and sleeper sites could throw at the ship. It was even cap stable without a single Capacitor Control Circuit rig, which was the topping of an already juicy pie. As you can imagine, my mind was made up in a few nanoseconds and Aeon was already on his way to Amarr to buy the ship.
My only worry was that I did not know how much these things cost and that I may not be able to get one despite the ISK I had earned. Contracts showed some hulls at about 240 mil which did not seem too bad, but that was without the subsystems. When Aeon arrived in the Amarr Oris station, the hulls were actually selling at a round 200 mil, so I bought one right away. The subsystems cost an average of about 60 mil per unit. I bought everything I needed for the fit on the spot, and after the subsystems, rigs and co had been properly installed and configured I took the time to contemplate the beast.
Damn, that ship is sexy. As many Amarr ships, the base hull has a resemblance to a bug with those mandibles. This particular subsystem configuration makes for a rather compact and bulky shape - fitting for that beast of a tank I think. I christened it "Alea's Nemesis", in reference to the main character of my EVE-related short story. Aeon was just as eager as I was to give her a spin, so he undocked, and made the trek back to Derelik.
He took a short detour through gallente space to meet up with another Sytek member who is a Tengu pilot, and was busy dispatching EOM ships. I found out that the tank was more than enough for this mission, but the DPS was severely lacking. Then again, it was a complex-oriented fit with only three turrets so that was to be expected. All in all it was a good test, and the two ships side by side did look extremely good.
Back in Derelik, I took out the Anathema and went lowsec scouting to explore for wormholes and complexes. It was a quiet night, but I found no wormholes. I did find a 3/10 sansha complex however, and that turned out to be exactly what I needed as final test. The last room was one big fleet with about 40 ships all classes combined (frigates to battlecruisers). When they all got into range the tank started to break slowly, but Aeon was killing them fast enough to handle it all effortlessly. Without moving an inch, which is quite decadent compared to the Zealot with which I have learned how to navigate with afterburner to mitigate the incoming DPS.
The one big realization that came to me that night was that these ships are more or less made for complexing, as they fit into almost any acceleration gate where command ships or even HACs are not allowed. I used to use a regular cruiser (Omen Navy Issue or Pilgrim) for those, but this is infinitely more useful. No need for an army of different sized ships anymore, yay!!
Strategic Cruisers come with one big drawback: if you do get caught and your ship is destroyed, you lose one level in one of the ship's race subsystem skills. So if you trained them all to V, you will have to re-train the one chosen randomly to V. It is not that bad, as they are all 1x skills that do not take too long to train up.
Here is the full fitting for the ship as I use it right now. As you probably guessed, it is made for wormholes and complexes. It uses just a few faction mods and works with all T2 as well:
[Wormholes & Complexes]
Imperial Navy Medium Armor Repairer
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Heat Sink II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
10MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Heavy Pulse Laser II,Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II,Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II,Conflagration M
Salvager II
Core Probe Launcher I,Core Scanner Probe I
Medium Energy Burst Aerator I
Medium Energy Locus Coordinator I
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I
Legion Defensive - Nanobot Injector
Legion Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Legion Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Legion Offensive - Liquid Crystal Magnifiers
Legion Propulsion - Chassis Optimization
With this setup, using a better armor repairer will have drastic effects with the nanobot injector subsystem + nanobot accelerator rig combo. With my crappy skills (Strategic Cruiser at 3 and all subsystems at 3), this setup gives me an EFT omni defence rating of 450, 213 DPS and 85.7% EM / 81.4 % TH / 89.3 KIN / 89.1% EX resists. At level V, the defence rating climbs up to 520 with 255 DPS. As an example, fitting an A-Type armor hardener puts the tank at 675 defence rating.
...not bad for a cruiser!
I will have to testdrive the ship in wormholes next, but so far they have proven to be surprisingly elusive over here. Will post an update when I have found one and ground some sleepers to dust.
On a sidenote, if you have COSMOS BPCs you cannot build from, evemail me which ones you have and I'll make you an offer for them. Alternatively I also offer a manufacturing service for them, Loreena has all the specialty skills at V (Sleeper Tech, Talocan Tech, Takmahl Tech and Yan Jung Tech). Just contact me ingame for details.
AeonOfTime's status
Skillpoints: 53.200.000
Level V Skills: 66
Level IV Skills: 69
ISK: 15.000.000
Known skills: 184
Training: Amarr Offensive Systems IV
There is all the reason in EVE Online's world to have the blues as a new player. You are looking at years of training for that shiny ship you want, and it seems that you will never be able to reach the heights of players that started years before you. While this is mostly true, it will not spoil the game for you - unless you cannot put it out of your head. If you can not, EVE is not for you - or you need to invest a lot of real money to buy an established ingame character. I do not recommend it, for the same reasons than giving a new driver a Ferrari is also a very bad idea.
Nowadays we are used to getting what we want almost immediately. EVE is a lot about patience, so it does not come naturally to sit around waiting for skill X to complete. The thing is, do not wait for it to complete. I can not stress it enough: play the game. In EVE you do not have to kill NPCs by the thousands to advance, it is done for you in the background. Even if you play just two hours per week, your character will learn new tricks on his/her own.
The way I see it, CCP are doing a pretty good job on the new player experience. The tutorials are really good, and the new starter missions are so interesting that even the older players run them. The key is to focus on what you can do with your current skills. If you try to take down older players in PvP it is true that you can succeed, but you will very likely fail. Choose your targets intelligently, be informed about what the different ships can do and which weaknesses you can exploit. Brute force will only work later on in the game, as a new player you have to put your brain into top gear. That is a good thing too, as it will give you the keys to understand how the game works.
Depending on what type of player you are, from the PvP addict to the avid explorer, no matter what your skill level, you will always find enough game content to have fun. Of course you will moan about those 30+ day skills, everybody does once in a while. Personally I have always had enough to do while skills were training - sometimes you just have to switch to something different for a while. Naturally you want what the skill you just started can give you as fast as possible, but you already have all you need to pass the time.
To conclude, in my opinion it all rests on how much you are willing to invest to keep playing the game. Some players I encountered did not find what they were seeking for, spending a lot of time searching for the kick they needed and never really finding it. Remember that it is supposed to be a game, if what you can do as a new player is not enough, faction battleships or capital ships will in all likelihood not fill the craving you have. I may be a special case - I have not been bored of the game yet after three years... There always seems to be something to do, and there is a lot of gratification in the gradual evolution of your character(s).
Tips:
For fun's sake, try to broaden your skills so you can do more stuff even if not well: that way you can try out different things and train up those areas you really like.
To get the most out of the skills system, do not use the certificates - they will make you train more than you really need. Use tools like EVEMon to get a bigger picture.
Always start with the minimum requirements for that new class of modules or ships you want to try out. You can always train it up further later.
Level 5 skills are for noobs. No, really. Train those skills to 5 that will really give you a benefit. Especially early on, only train skills to 5 if they are a requirement for something else. Optimization is for later, and should be targeted at key skills for your playstyle.
Relax. Don't get too involved. If you get too tied up in the game it will end up not being fun anymore.
Note: I am not trying to defend CCP's skilling system, just to give some leads on how to cope with it. My personal opinion is that while being a great concept, it reeks of artificial lifespan in its current implementation. But that is another story.
I plan on making a wordpress plugin with the current version so it is easily installable (based on feedback, wordpress seems to be the most used). If you would like to use this on your blog, tell me what software you use and I'll see what I can do.
What is it?
It is a script that can transform links to ships so they display inline information about the ship. It has a PHP backend (to retrieve ship information) and a clientside script (to display the info as tooltips) built on prototype. Some examples:
Note: my installed version works so that a click on the green + sign opens the tooltip, the link stays the original link. The downloadable version does the opposite (the link opens the tooltip, the + sign the original link).
After posting about my new blog gimmick, TheElitist was interested in using it as well. It was not really meant to be shared, so I took the time to make the script somewhat more usable by the community. The result is an open source, BSD-licensed package that you can download from the project page:
Instead of opening the EVElopedia page on the Magnate, you can click the green plus sign and have the relevant ship details display directly inline.
It is still a bit rough around the edges and for developers or amateur developers only, but that can change. Just post your thoughts / bug reports / feature requests and I'll see what I can do.
I always found linking to ships in my posts disrupting (usually to the EVELopedia), as it takes you out of the context of the post. Of course you can just open it in a new tab, but it is not practical at all. That is why I developed a small add-on to my blog: it allows me to add an info tooltip to any ship links, which then displays the most relevant information directly inline.
You can still click the link itself to go to the EVELopedia page, but clicking the + icon next to the link will open the popup.
[EDIT 09/12/09] Extended the explorer's checklist [EDIT 18/11/09] Added links to the relevant subsections, added some additional info, updated the probe layout diagram, added the explorer's checklist [EDIT 03/11/09] Updated rigs information and notes on getting 100% hits with three probes, added list of signature types, added some more links.
A while ago, I chanced upon a really good scanning guide on exdenexplorer.info, but
a short while afterwards the website was taken offline. I contacted the owner, tramov,
and asked him if he would give me the sources to the guide so that I could continue hosting
it on my website for the community.
He was kind enough to agree and I saved the whole guide and finally managed to put it back up.
As I will be maintaining the guide now, feel free to add your comments here and I will update it.
A Beginner's Guide To Probing/Scanning in EVE Online
"These probes were a nightmare – they kept flying in the wrong directions, too high or too
low. Sitting in her Magnate this pilot was not having a good day. Still, she nearly had that
worm hole narrowed down. One more attempt. Suddenly all shields were gone in a flash of red, a
pirate! She should have been paying attention, not just reading the map while sitting in low-sec.
Turning for warp took too long and seconds later everything ended. Gulp! Time to find out if
being cloned is as good as advertised. Her last thought before fading away being that mother
would certainly make comments next All-Saints, with her showing up in a clone instead of her
first flesh."
Hidden pirate outposts, wormholes, complexes and of course battleship captains in their Navy
Issue Ravens are just some of the things that you can find in any ordinary EVE system. If you
know where to look.
Intrigued by stories of people venturing into wormholes and discovering untold riches my hauling
alt decided that watching tons of Veldspar was not exactly what she had signed up for. So on her
day off she browsed the markets for a cheap Astrometric ship and found it in a second hand Amarrian Magnate.
Training up for a covert ops frigate would take forever and she wanted to have fun right now.
With the introduction of EVE Online Apocrypha the whole
scan probing system was overhauled. This means that any pre-Apocrypha articles you find on the
Internet will just confuse you hopelessly. The probe launchers, probes and systems used then
don't apply/exist anymore.
Skills to train up
To scan for a spaceship you need: several overlapping probes in space and being able to pin down
your target as fast as possible. If it takes you 10 minutes to locate that Raven it has moved on already.
Astrometrics
This is the most important skill. Level 1 allows you to launch 3 probes, each level adds
1 more. Typically you would need at least 4-5 probes to find things in space efficiently.
So Level II is really the lowest entry point into scan/probing.
Astrometric RangeFinding
Each level adds 10% to your scan probe strength. Ideally at Level V of course, if you have
nearly two months of training time. This is an (8) skill. I trained it to Level III for now.
Astrometric Pinpointing
Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% to level. It allows you to more accurately pin down
your targets.
Racial Astrometric Frigates
The following ships give a bonus of 5% to scan strength per racial frigate level. The more scan
strength you can gather the easier your job of locating things in space becomes.
While the above frigates work well to discover scanning, you might want to step up your game
in the future. That's where the specialized covert ops frigates come in: they give a whopping
10% bonus to scan strength per level with the added benefit of being able to fit both a probe
launcher and cloaking device for stealth scanning.
Since the introduction of different sized rigs, fitting rigs on a frigate has become affordable, so you
might want to add one or two
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
rigs to your frigate. Each will add 10% to your scan probe
strength. Currently these rigs go for about 150.000 ISK each.
Probe Launchers
To launch scanning probes you need a probe launcher. There are two probe launchers in EVE Online.
Core Probe Launcher
The core probe launcher is an easy fit on any ship. It takes up one high slot, and
just 15tf of CPU and 1MW of power. But it is limited to launching system scanning probes.
So you can find everything besides spaceships.
Expanded Probe Launcher
This launcher can launch both Scanner Probes and Combat Probes. Similar
to the Core Probe launcher it takes up one high slot, but its CPU requirements are much higher.
At 220tf it will take up most CPU available on a Tech I frigate, making fitting it much harder.
Two variations exist: Sisters Core Probe Launcher and the Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher.
Both will give a 5% bonus to scan strength.
The probes
Probes are re-usable. Once you have launched them they will survive for about an hour on their own
in space. But if you recall them before that time expires you can more or less reuse them endlessly.
Core Scanner Probe I
This probe can scan down everything besides ships, drones and structures. It is useful for
finding exploration sites, worm holes etc.
Combat Scanner Probe I
Described as an all-in-one for hunt & kill this probe will scan down all that the Core
Scanner Probe does, but it will also include ships, drones and structures. So if you want
to scan down that Raven, this is the probe to go for.
Again two variations are available: the Sisters Core Scanner Probe I and Sisters Combat
Scanner Probe I. They are exactly the same as the above, except that they also give a small
bonus to scan strength.
Still here? Lets get started with probing
Time to find a nice and quiet spot in a friendly system. Expect some frustration until you get
the hang of things. I found a nice YouTube video (see below) that show how things are done in
practice, but first a little bit of theory that explains the how and why.
Scanning works through a system of triangulation. A single probe will be able to tell you
something is there, but it can only give an estimate how far it is, not where. You need 4
overlapping probes to obtain a 100% lock on a target. Generally you will have to narrow down the
probes to 2 AU, 1 AU or even 0.5 AU before being able to lock on. This depends on your skills,
your equipment and the size of the ship / object you are trying to find. A battleship is huge,
so it is easier to find.
Note: you can get a 100% hit on a target with just three probes, but to get a hit you can
warp to, 4 probes are required.
Launch the probes using the probe launcher, then select the “System Scanner” from the in-space
selection panel or press [CTRL-F11]. Click on the “Show Map” button.
Below are three common search patterns in which you can layout your probes. The more probes
overlap the stronger your scan will be. The five probe star (Fig. 3) is a relatively rare case, the
most commonly used is probably the four probe star (Fig. 1).
Note: There is no difference between the four probe star or square: they will find
signatures the same way, with the same effectiveness. It is just a matter of how you wrap your
mind around the subject.
Typically you will first set the probes at 16 or even 32 AU to cover as much of the current
solar system as possible. Hit the “Analyze” button and wait for the results to come in. As you
click the items found you have to decide to either move the probes around and cover another part
of the system or to narrow down onto one of the signals discovered.
Life saving tip: hold down the SHIFT key to move all probes in space at the same time.
If you have decided on a signal move the probe formation so that its center covers your intended
target. In the center all your probes overlap and this where they will give you the most accurate results.
To rotate the map left clickand hold then move the mouse
To move the map right click and hold then move the mouse
To zoom in out use the middle mouse roller
Zooming in...
There are five signal strength stages to narrowing down a target. As you click on the list of
signals discovered the overview will show:
A red globe: one probe has picked up on the signal, the size of the globe shows roughly how far from the probe the signal is.
A red circle: two probes have picked up the signal. The circle indicates the overlapping part of both probes.
A red dot: three probes have picked up on the signal, and you know the exact location but the signal is still too weak to lock the warp drive on to.
A yellow dot, you are getting closer. This dot will also not move around too much anymore, unlike red dots.
A green dot, 100% signal strength, the warp drive will lock on and you can jump to the target.
Keep moving the probes so that the signal is covered by the center of the layout.
Hold the SHIFT key and hold the mouse over the outer edge of one of the probes until it lights up.
Then click and move the mouse to shrink (or expand) the scan radius.
After you have shrunk the radius you need to move all probes closer together so that they overlap
again in the search pattern. Then hold SHIFT and move them so that the center covers the signal.
Use the arrows on side of the probes for moving them. By using the arrows the probe will only move
in a single X or Y direction, and stay in the same Z. If instead you click on the square center of
the probe indicator it will move the probe in all 3 axes, likely ending it up somewhere completely
unwanted.
Hit analyze, and repeat the above steps until you have a lock. If you started at 16 AU, then go down
to 8 AU, 4 AU, 2 AU, 1 AU and 0.5 AU. Depending on your equipment and skills you can start locking
down targets from about 2 AU.
It is a 3D world...
Easy to forget, but every now and then rotate the map to see if your probes have not by accident moved
too far above or below the solar system. Most solar system objects are on the same Z axis and typically
you just need to worry about the X & Y axes.
Saving time
You will encounter systems with a lot of signatures to scan down, in that case you might want to use more
than the four/five probes you use to scan down the individual signatures. Why? beause once you have scanned
down that single signature, you need to move your probes out again to run a system-wide scan to get back the
full list of signatures in the system and move on to the next signature.
The easiest way is to launch a few additional probes (depending on the amount of probes you need to cover the
whole system) and to activate/deactivate these when needed to rescan the system. That way you don't have to
shuffle your probes around that much.
Note: you might think it would be enough after pinpointing that signature to set your four probes to 32 AU
and scan that way. That would not work very well though; chances are you had to move them to about 1 to 0.5 AU apart
to get a 100% hit on a signature, and packed so tightly together there would not be enough triangulation at 32 AU
range for them to get good hits. You would get a lot of red globes and circles.
What you can find
Besides ships, drones and structures that you can scan down with combat scanner probes, there are
several types of cosmic signatures that you can discover in a system. Usually you need to get above 25%
for the type to be shown, about 60% for the rarer signatures.
Note: Cosmic signatures appear within 10 AU of planets.
Gravimetric: Hidden asteroid belts
Ladar: Gas Cloud sites for gas mining
Magnetometric: Archaeology/Salvage profession sites, need an Analyzer and/or Salvager module
Radar: Hacking profession sites, need a Codebreaker module
Unknown: Everything else, i. e.: Wormholes, Exploration complexes and DED complexes
For the professional prober
Probing is a real profession in EVE, and many operations need pilots that are good at scanning. If you want
to commit to this or just want to have a perfect scanning clone, you might want to have a look at the
specialized implants:
If you start by moving your probes onto the same plane than the signature you are scanning down, you can move them closer without botching up their positions through a wrong perspective.
Don't multitask your fittings too much. Use a dedicated scanning ship, and a combat ship to run the complexes you find.
Don't try to explore profession complexes (hacking, archaeology) in your probing ship, rat spawns have many hidden triggers! This is especially true in wormholes.
Don't forget to fit a core probe launcher to your wormhole exploration ship.
Complexes are initialized when you warp to them. If you want them to persist over downtime, scan them down and bookmark them but don't warp to them!
Wormholes do have size limitations. Battleships don't fit all, make sure you don't go 10 jumps for nothing.
Take more than 4 probes. They are reusable, but they do have an expiration time that's easy to overlook.
Again, take a healthy amount of probes. There are many ways to lose them, like a server dsync or system crash.
Lack of skills can in part be compensated by using a scanning frigate, sister probes and launcher as well as implants.
Make sure you have Deadspace Overseer Structures enabled in your overview when running complexes
Useless cosmic signatures for combat-oriented pilots: Ladar and Gravimetric sites.
Enough theory
The following video I found on YouTube gives a great introduction to the scanning system, and hopefully
combined with the above introduction will get you on your merry scanning way !
The following is a shortened overview of the armor hardeners in the game, meant to be used as a quick reference to go shopping or to find the module you need to complete your fitting. The modules are grouped by their bonuses - CPU and grid requirements may vary, but the bonuses will be the same.
Note: Because there are the same module variants for each of the damage types, I only listed each once for the sake of simplicity. Uniquely named modules are marked with a small damage type icon next to them, like for EXplosive.
These hardener modules have to be activated and use up some capacitor to give the listed bonuses. Types are straightforward: EM, Explosive, Kinetic, Thermic.
Name
Bonus
Armor Type Hardener I
Domination Type Hardener
Microcell Nanite Type Hardener
N-Type Type Hardener
Radioisotope Type Hardener I
Republic Fleet Armor Type Hardener
Voltaic Nanite Type Hardener I
-50 %
Amarr Navy Armor Type Hardener
Armor Type Hardener II
Dark Blood Armor Type Hardener
Gallente Navy Armor Type Hardener
Khanid Navy Armor Type Hardener
Shadow Serpentis Armor Type Hardener I
True Sansha Armor Type Hardener
-55 %
Corpus C-Type Armor Type Hardener
Core C-Type Armor Type Hardener
Centus C-Type Armor Type Hardener
Tairei's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Brynn's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Brokara's Modified Armor Type Hardener I
-57.25 %
Corpus B-Type Armor Type Hardener
Core B-Type Armor Type Hardener
Centus B-Type Armor Type Hardener
Tuvan's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Selynne's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Raysere's Modified Armor Type Hardener
-59.50 %
Corpus A-Type Armor Type Hardener
Core A-Type Armor Type Hardener
Centus A-Type Armor Type Hardener
Vizan's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Setele's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Ahremen's Modified Armor Type Hardener
-61.75 %
Corpus X-Type Armor Type Hardener
Core X-Type Armor Type Hardener
Centus X-Type Armor Type Hardener
Draclira's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Cormack's Modified Armor Type Hardener
Chelm's Modified Armor Type Hardener
-64 %
Passive Hardeners: Energized Nano Plating
Energized hardeners do not have to be activated to give the listed bonus, they only use some grid and CPU. Of course the bonus is not as good as that of the active hardeners, but you can increase their effectiveness with the armor compensation skills.
Note: The nano plating improves the resistances against all four damage types in one neat package, which is why it has a separate table all by itself.
Name
Bonus
Energized Basic Adaptive Nano Plating
-14 %
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
N-Type Adaptive Nano Membrane I
Microcell Nanite Adaptive Membrane I
Radioisotope Adaptive Nano Membrane I
Voltaic Nanite Adaptive Membrane I
-15 %
Shadow Serpentis Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Gallente Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
'Pilfer' Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
-20 %
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Khanid Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Dark Blood Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Ammatar Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Amarr Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
The naming on these can be pretty confusing. The four damage types are called: Magnetic (Kinetic), Reactive (Explosive), Reflective (EM) and Termic (Thermal).
The "Regenerative" ones are actually armor plates, as they add armor HP but have not resist bonuses.
Name
Bonus
Energized Basic Type Plating
-30 %
Energized Type Membrane I
Microcell Nanite Type Membrane I
N-Type Type Membrane I
Radioisotope Type Membrane I
Voltaic Nanite Type Membrane I
-32.50 %
Shadow Serpentis Energized Type Membrane I
Gallente Navy Energized Type Membrane I
Energized Type Membrane II
-37.50 %
True Sansha Energized Type Membrane
Khanid Navy Energized Type Membrane
Dark Blood Energized Type Membrane
Ammatar Navy Energized Type Membrane
Amarr Navy Energized Type Membrane
-40 %
Corpum C-Type Energized Type Membrane
Corelum C-Type Energized Type Membrane
Centum C-Type Energized Type Membrane
Tairei's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Brynn's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Brokara's Modified Energized Type Membrane
-41.50 %
Corpum B-Type Energized Type Membrane
Corelum B-Type Energized Type Membrane
Centum B-Type Energized Type Membrane
Tuvan's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Selynne's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Raysere's Modified Energized Type Membrane
-43 %
Corpum A-Type Energized Type Membrane
Corelum A-Type Energized Type Membrane
Centum A-Type Energized Type Membrane
Vizan's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Setele's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Ahremen's Modified Energized Type Membrane
-44.50 %
Draclira's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Cormack's Modified Energized Type Membrane
Chelm's Modified Energized Type Membrane
-46 %
Passive Hardeners: Regular Nano Plating
These modules do not have to be activated, and they do not require any CPU unlike their energized cousins.
They are the least effective armor hardening modules, but they can find their place on a very tight fit.
They are also affected by the armor compensation skills, so it might be worth investing the time it takes to train them if you are going to use these modules.
Note: like previously, the nano plating has its own table as it affects all damage types in one package. The damage-specific variants are further below.
These modules do not have to be activated, and they do not require any CPU unlike their energized cousins.
They are the least effective armor hardening modules, but they can find their place on a very tight fit.
They are also affected by the armor compensation skills, so it might be worth investing the time it takes to train them if you are going to use these modules.
Note: The naming convention for the damage types is the same than the energized variants, namely Magnetic (Kinetic), Reactive (Explosive), Reflective (EM) and Termic (Thermal).
Name
Bonus
Type Plating I
-20 %
Dual-Sheathed Type Plating I
-21.60 %
Triple-Sheathed Type Plating I
-23.20 %
'Contour' Reflective Plating I
'Rampart' Magnetic Field Plating I
Dipolar Weave Magnetic Plating
Electrostatic Heat Diffusion Plating
Interphase Heat Diffusion Plating
-24.80 %
Type Plating II
Shadow Serpentis Type Plating
Republic Fleet Type Plating
Gallente Navy Type Plating
Domination Type Plating
'Spiegel' Reflective Plating I
'Aegis' Combustive Field Plating I
'Element' Magnetic Plating I
-26.40 %
True Sansha Type Plating
Khanid Navy Type Plating
Dark Blood Type Plating
Ammatar Navy Type Plating
Amarr Navy Type Plating
-30 %
Corpii C-Type Type Plating
Coreli C-Type Type Plating
Centii C-Type Type Plating
Tairei's Modified Type Plating
Mizuro's Modified Type Plating
Brynn's Modified Type Plating
Brokara's Modified Type Plating
-31.75 %
Corpii B-Type Type Plating
Centii B-Type Type Plating
Tuvan's Modified Type Plating
Selynne's Modified Type Plating
Raysere's Modified Type Plating
-33.50 %
Corpii A-Type Type Plating
Coreli B-Type Type Plating
Coreli A-Type Type Plating
Centii A-Type Type Plating
Vizan's Modified Type Plating
Setele's Modified Type Plating
Gotan's Modified Type Plating
-35.25 %
Draclira's Modified Type Plating
Cormack's Modified Type Plating
Chelm's Modified Type Plating
-37 %
Tip: check out the offers for equivalent modules before buying! For example, Chelm's Modified Armor EM Hardener is exactly the same as a Corpus X-Type Armor EM Hardener, and the price between the two can vary a lot. Take the time to check all the modules before deciding.
This is a follow-up to my post on Armor Hardener modules, and goes hand in hand with it if you want to choose an armor hardener to go with these.
Each category is sorted from simplest to most complex and effective module. Prices are a rough estimate: They can change a lot depending on availability, but they can give you a general idea. I grouped them together by repair amount so you can easily identify alternatives if another is too expensive. CPU requirements and the like can vary of course, but otherwise they will do the same thing for you.
Note: some modules were not for sale anywhere at the time I looked, those are noted with a price of n/a ISK. You will have to check for yourself if you want one of those.
Small Armor Repairers
Name
Rep Amount
Price
Small Armor Repairer I
60 HP
12.000 ISK
Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator
63 HP
20.000 ISK
Small Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
66 HP
40.000 ISK
Small Automated I Carapace Restoration
69 HP
140.000 ISK
Domination Small Armor Repairer
Republic Fleet Small Armor Repairer
Small 'Accomodation' Vestment Reconstructor
72 HP
1 to n/a Mil ISK
'Gorget' Small Armor Repairer I
Gallente Navy Small Armor Repairer
Shadow Serpentis Small Armor Repairer
Small Armor Repairer II
80 HP
1 to 10 Mil ISK
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
88 HP
10 Mil ISK
'Harmony' Small Armor Repairer I
Amarr Navy Small Armor Repairer
Ammatar Navy Small Armor Repairer
Dark Blood Small Armor Repairer
Khanid Navy Small Armor Repairer
True Sansha Small Armor Repairer
90 HP
12 Mil ISK
Coreli B-Type Small Armor Repairer
96 HP
n/a ISK
Centii C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Corpii C-Type Small Armor Repairer
99 HP
15 Mil ISK
Coreli A-Type Small Armor Repairer
104 HP
40 Mil ISK
Centii B-Type Small Armor Repairer
Corpii B-Type Small Armor Repairer
n/a ISK
Centii A-Type Small Armor Repairer
Corpii A-Type Small Armor Repairer
117 HP
65 Mil ISK
Medium Armor Repairers
Name
Rep Amount
Price
Medium Armor Repairer I
240 HP
40.000 ISK
Medium 'Accomodation' Vestment Reconstructer
Republic Fleet Medium Armor Repairer
Domination Medium Armor Repairer
288 HP
4 to 30 Mil ISK
Medium Armor Repairer II
Gallente Navy Medium Armor Repairer
Shadow Serpentis Medium Armor Repairer
'Greaves' Medium Armor Repairer I
320 HP
1 to 50 Mil ISK
Corelum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer
352 HP
100 Mil ISK
Amarr Navy Medium Armor Repairer
Ammatar Navy Medium Armor Repairer
Dark Blood Medium Armor Repairer
Khanid Navy Medium Armor Repairer
True Sansha Medium Armor Repairer
'Meditation' Medium Armor Repairer
360 HP
160 Mil ISK
Corelum B-Type Medium Armor Repairer
384 HP
n/a ISK
Centum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer
Corpum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer
396 HP
210 Mil ISK
Corelum A-Type Medium Armor Repairer
416 HP
n/a ISK
Corelum B-Type Medium Armor Repairer
Corpum B-Type Medium Armor Repairer
432 HP
n/a ISK
Centum A-Type Medium Armor Repairer
Corpum A-Type Medium Armor Repairer
468 HP
360 Mil ISK
Large Armor Repairers
Name
Rep Amount
Price
Large Armor Repairer I
600 HP
90.000 ISK
Large 'Accomodation' Vestment Reconstructer
720 HP
200.000 ISK
Large Armor Repairer II
800 HP
1 Mil ISK
Amarr Navy Large Armor Repairer
Ammatar Navy Large Armor Repairer
Dark Blood Large Armor Repairer
Khanid Navy Large Armor Repairer
True Sansha Large Armor Repairer
900 HP
130 Mil ISK
Gotan's Modified Large Armor Repairer
936 HP
240 Mil ISK
Core B-Type Large Armor Repairer
Tuvan's Modified Large Armor Repairer
1.040 HP
300 Mil ISK
Centus C-Type Large Armor Repairer
Corpus C-Type Large Armor Repairer
Brokara's Modified Large Armor Repairer
Tairei's Modified Large Armor Repairer
990 HP
380 Mil ISK
Core A-Type Large Armor Repairer
Setele's Modified Large Armor Repairer
1.040 HP
760 Mil ISK
Centus B-Type Large Armor Repairer
Corpus B-Type Large Armor Repairer
Raysere's Modified Large Armor Repairer
Selynne's Modified Large Armor Repairer
1.080 HP
800 Mil ISK
Core X-Type Large Armor Repairer
Cormack's Modified Large Armor Repairer
1.120 HP
1.1 Bil ISK
Centus A-Type Large Armor Repairer
Corpus A-Type Large Armor Repairer
Vizan's Modified Large Armor Repairer
Ahremen's Modified Large Armor Repairer
1.170 HP
1.3 Bil ISK
Centus X-Type Large Armor Repairer
Corpus X-Type Large Armor Repairer
Chelm's Modified Large Armor Repairer
Draclira's Modified Large Armor Repairer
1.260 HP
1.5 Bil ISK
Tip: When you are looking to buy an armor repairer, think about checking the prices of the equivalent modules (if any), as prices can vary a lot even between modules of the same specs. That's one of the perks / drawbacks of the contracts system.
So tonight instead of playing I decided I would finally get rid of all the little annoyances in the blog.
Fixed the Javascript errors caused by the fancy ships navigator
Cleaned up the layout somewhat, and made the fonts a tad bigger.
The EVE webring links are gone now, as it is not actively maintained anymore. Most of the sites in there do not work anymore, so it is a bit pointless.
Revamped the sidebar, shuffled stuff around
Removed all EVE adverts
Added fancy icons for the links collection
Cleaned up the links collection
Made the latest screenshots block more appealing
I will have to think about refreshing the design itself sometime, it is a bit dated now... I guess it is a good thing that website designs do not decay over time. Although that could actually be quite fun to watch :)
Personally I don't care much about mining micromanagement. Even if an asteroid only has 700 units left, I just let my mining turrets complete their cycle. My Hulk does not even have a survey scanner on it. Blasphemy, right? Well I do know better, even if I do not do it that way. If you want to micromanage your mining operation, you need a survey scanner so you can see how much ore is left in the asteroids around you. If necessary, that allows you to adjust the cycles of your mining turrets to avoid losing precious cycle times on those that only have a few units left.
To be able to do that precisely, you have to know how much a single cycle will yield of the ore you are mining. Let's say you are mining Veldspar: with my current setup, I get about 17.000 units per cycle. So if you divide the dial of your mining laser into sections, you can determine how much that turret has mined so far. That way you will know when to manually stop the turret so it only mines the 7500 units that asteroid has left in it. Of course that's the hardcore micromanagement for those who want to pick a belt completely clean. The lazy micromanagers (not sure that makes sense) use the survey scanner to pick the big asteroids and move on to the next when they do not have a full cycle of ore left.
We are the hardcore micromanagers though! However, because calculating on the fly gets tedious real quick and as paper is not an option (think green :)), here is a little tool I built that will do it for you.
Just enter the total yield per cycle of your turret in the field under the dials and it will display the according values. You can also change the name of the ore in the dials, I included some of the most common ones.
Here is a direct link to the flash file, that way you can use it fullsize. Here in the blog I had to downsize it a little. Suggestions and requests welcome!
P.S. Yes, that is a logistics ship tailing the Hulk in the screenshot. Better safe than sorry in some parts of the EVE universe...
In 2 days, AeonOfTime will celebrate his third year in EVE. To be honest, I just realized that and it came as quite a shock. I was not shocked so much by the timespan itself, but by the fact that I found a game that is still fun after playing it regularly for three straight years. The only other game that still tops that is the Civlization series. I also discovered that I am having a lot more fun since both Aeon and Loreena have broken the 40 million skillpoints barrier (she even managed to overtake his 1 month training advance!). I can do more things than ever, and mostly also much better than before.
Aeon is 13 days away from being able to fit every tech II module in the game today (apart from guns and capital modules), which I believe is a major milestone. What really blew me away though is that he is a mere 35 days away from flying every race ship from frigates to battleships. For some obscure reason I had always thought training up the skill tree for a second race would take too much time, and I was giggling manically at the thought of finally being able to hop into ships like the Hyperion or even a Nightmare.
Once the idea had struck, I knew what I wanted. Now after three days of training, Aeon finally has the Gallente Battleship skill trained and I went in search for a Hyperion. Ever since that time I had seen one when undocking in Rens I had wanted to have one. My Harbinger had been dwarfed next to it, and as very few pilots fly them I had been stunned at the sight. To my surprise, the cheapest offer was a local one in the Kador region with 124 million ISK. I was thrilled at the prospect of flying a new ship, so I had Aeon drop what he was doing, namely helping Loreena in a level 4. Needless to say, he will have to make amends for that... He went the 10 jumps in his pod to pick it up, and there it was, in all its glory (hit the screenshot above for a close-up of the beast). He named it "Angus' Fist", which seems pretty fitting. It is a reference to Angus Thermopyle, from Stephen Donaldson's Gap Series novels. Highly recommendable for EVE players!
Aeon has trained some crappy hybrid skills, which should be enough to get an idea of what the ship is capable. I have yet to use the ship in a mission or else, but some of the fittings on battleclinic do have potential. I will have to use the meta 4 guns for starters, but I do not really mind. I have made a small selection of those I found most interesting:
Yes, I have a PvP loadout in here! I am not planning on using the ship for PvP, but I found it to be an interesting fit nonetheless. It has the big advantage of being very cheap for a ship that size. I will post a fitting later matching my skills when I have been able to testdrive it in a few missions. For now it just feels so good flying around in the ship, it is one of the more original ones out there. It is a matter of taste of course, some do not like the midsection, some do not like the paintjob...
"Anthea", the research POS
Yes, I have dusted off my POS (Player Owned Station) plans of yore. The response from the corp has been very positive on the project, so that is going to be one big step in Aeon's EVE life. I have held off from one so far because of the running costs, which can be trouble with my ISK flow (it is still far from optimal). However, downgrading my plans helped a lot. A small POS with just one lab and some basic defenses would only cost about 40 mil per month, which should not be too much trouble to organize.
I think it is a nice way to learn the inner workings of a POS, even if almost everyone told me to go for a medium or big tower directly. I am not trying to start a giant research operation, and a small tower costs a lot less to maintain. Even if the initial investment is not that much different at least it gives me a good way to test without going broke within two months. If the venture should turn out to be profitable, a small POS is easy to dismantle and be replaced by something bigger.
Loreena will probably resign as CEO of Sytek and create her own corporation to run the POS. Aeon will take her place as head of the corp, a skillplan for the required corporation management skills is ready. While training skills like Ethnic Relations feels a bit awkward (Aeon's good looks should be enough!), the requirements are not too steep for a small corporation like ours. The good thing is even Alliance members will be able to use the ME/PE lab slots, which is a good thing.
For now, Aeon needs to rebuild his wallet though...
Maybe some have already wondered about Aeon's wallet. In his status below I always include his current wallet balance, and it rarely ever went above 60 mil. "Such an old player, hahaha, he's pulling our collective legs." Not so! I do round up the sums, but Aeon's personal wallet is really that "small". It is Loreena and the corporation that handle all the big ISK.
...I wish it was that big. The all-time high was just a bit above 1 billion before I bought the Paladin, since then it stabilized around 100-300 mil-ish. Nearly everyone ingame will tell you they have billions, but I suspect the truth is that most of them are just paupers like my humble self, or make a way bigger dent in their RL time and/or wallet :)
Earning ISK: a matter of time and concentration?
There are no secrets: unless you are rich enough in real life to fund your ingame lifestyle, you have to invest time to make ISK. Whether you are just trading or running missions, these things all take time. Now a lot of players seem to have heaps of time and do not understand how I can be poor in the game. Well, I am often online but as I mentioned before it is mostly to follow up on what's going on in the corp or the game in general: it is the famous "semi-afk". Sadly enough, that does not pay very well :)
Running level 4 missions is profitable, but even if not all level 4 missions are as time-consuming as Angel Extravaganza, they all require concentration. And that is a realization that came lately: with two small kids, it is virtually impossible to concentrate any lengths of time. That reduces my "active" playtime to not much at all, especially since my gaming philosophy is that EVE is just that, and as such should not overshadow anything real life-related.
In practice, I can run about two big level 4 missions per week nowadays. More than that is pretty rare, because even on weekends I rarely get the occasion to play with the concentration I need. The good thing about traditional games is that you can hit ESC anytime and come back to the game later if something comes up. EVE is a lot more restrictive in that regard, so if I start a level 4 I want to be sure I will be able to run it without interruption. I do not want to have to tell my son or my wife that I cannot help them because I am in the middle of a mission.
All my ship losses come from not having been concentrated enough, and losing a ship like a fully fitted Abaddon or even Oneiros is quite hard to replace with this kind of ISK flow. Even if it is "only" T2 fitted, it can make quite a dent in the wallet. I am very pragmatic in life, so naturally I restricted myself to running dangerous missions only when I can do so in good conditions :)
Note that I am not complaining - I am merely sharing some insights into how I play EVE and how that affects me ingame. I still enjoy the game the same way, and at least my wallet ingame reflects my real life wallet :D
On a sidenote: Of course there is always the option of finding out how the richest player in EVE did it, and become an EVE billionaire yourself! Invest in this real life money sink (aka "Scam") and within two days, you can buy two dozens of motherships and at least three titans. Hahahaha, that totally made my day there :D
On a sidenote's sidenote: go read drmgrl808's blog, she has a nice natural way of writing down her experiences.
AeonOfTime's status
Skillpoints: 47.000.000
Level V Skills: 61
Level IV Skills: 56
ISK: 25.000.000
Known skills: 167
Training: Gallente Battleship IV
"There is an empire within EVE Online, larger than anyone dares to admit. Its people live their lives in protected space, accumulating wealth beyond the dreams of mere mortals. They wage invisible regionwide market wars without ever undocking. From their unbeatable officer-fitted vessels, they organize raids against unsuspecting NPC ships, collecting bounties by the score.
With hundreds of thousands of loyalty points in dozens of corporations, they constantly improve their gear. They have hundreds of ships of all sizes in their hangars, all fully fitted. They could not care less about insurance, they almost never lose a ship. Besides, their wallets can take it without so much as sending ripples through them.
Hour upon hour their shiny mining vessels reap the bountiful riches of asteroid belts in all impunity, knowing they are well defended. Industrialists and researchers alike spend and earn the wealth of nations every day.
Who are they? They are the Carebears."
Hahahaha. I wish.
My question to the ongoing blog PvP regarding carebearism: how does being called a carebear affect you ingame?
My personal answer: The term carebear started out in EVE as being only mildly pejorative ("the real EVE is nullsec!"), but it has evolved into an insult. It is blatantly obvious that many players use the term nowadays as an easy means to infuriate players that see themselves as the "good" carebear type. The solution is just as obvious, and works with every insult known to man: ignore it.
Okay, I spent way too much time on this post already - I have a COSMOS mission waiting for me ;)
Have fun guys n girls. In the end it is all about the fun. If your fun is blog PvP, by all means - continue. I am enjoying the ride during downtime :)
[EDIT] an old friend ingame gave me an interesting link to an Ultima Online cartoon featuring "Care Bear Land". Carebears exist since the creation of MMOs, so chances are they will exist in eons to come. So will pirates and griefers in all likelihood, so I think it's best to get used to the idea and just let things roll :)
This short guide will show you how to use EFT's (Eve Fitting Tool) custom resist profiles. By default EFT calculates its defence rating based on a uniform damage distribution over all damage types (EM, Thermal, Kinetic and Explosive), but you can add profiles to see how well your ship fares against just EM damage for example.
We're going to add the Guristas as a custom profile, they do Kinetic and Thermal damage. To get started, right-click the defence rating area in EFT:
Select "Edit custom profiles", that will display a popup window. Add a new profile as shown, and enter a name for it ("Guristas" for example):
Now we can fill in the values for the damage. As far as I know the Kinetic and Thermal damage the guristas deal is spread fairly evenly, so we can split it up 50/50. It will vary from one NPC ship to another, but those values are okay for what we want to do. Here's how my profile looks:
You can close the popup, the profile has already been added and saved. Now when you want to see the defence rating against the Guristas, just right-click the defence rating area again, and select your profile from the list:
That's it. Once you have added all common NPC profiles you can switch between them very easily.
On a sidenote, this is the first in a series of resources I am adding that will serve as reference for the tanking guide I am working on. I realized that there is way more to say than I thought at first so I decided to split up the parts that would clutter up the guide itself. Stay tuned :)
[EDIT]: Have a look at drmgrl808's comment below for a full list of damage profiles and how to put them into EFT in one go.
So you're in low/nullsec and just a little paranoid? Good, paranoia is healthy in EVE in general. I recently had to run a few missions in lowsec, and it can be perfectly safe there in deadspace until someone scans you down and warps into your mission space. Mission runners usually know that feeling from highsec Ninja Salvagers that suddenly turn up out of thin air. In lowsec the motivation is a bit different though, so you want to know what's going on - especially since scanning has grown a lot more popular lately.
The basics
First off, before jumping into the target lowsec system, check for a gate camp by opening your map (F10) then, in the world map control panel, go to "Star Map > Color Stars by > Statistics > Ships destroyed in the last hour". Systems with ship kills will light up, and hovering over them with your cursor tells you how many ships were destroyed. One or two kills do not necessarily have to mean anything bad, so check for pod kills as well. Those invariably mean something is afoot. It may just be consensual PvP, but you are paranoid, remember?
No ship kills nor pod killings means it is pretty safe. You just need to be able to warp into the system and off into your deadspace area. If you do not want to leave anything to chance or want to confirm the target gate is clear, the next step is to scout out the system. Just use a shuttle, it is fast enough to avoid most trouble and does not make too big a dent in your wallet if you do get caught.
Spotting scanners
To detect someone scanning you, you need to know what tools they are using. With the new scanning system, you have to fit an Expanded Probe Launcher I, and use some Combat Scanner Probe I or Sisters Combat Scanner Probe I probes. Scanning down a ship is pretty much the same procedure as with scanning down a complex: you launch some probes, scan at the maximum range, and when you get a hit you incrementally reduce the scanning range of your probes until you get a 100% hit. To get a 100% hit on a ship, you usually need to go down to at least 2 AU scanning range depending on ship size. Ships like Exhumers or Freighters are very easy to scan down.
And that is the key: you know that to find your exact location, the pilot has to place some probes within at least 2 AU of your ship. From then on, it gets pretty easy: open the system scanner, set it to 360 degrees and 4 AU (598392000 km), untick the "Use Overview Settings" box and scan. If you see one or more combat scanner probes listed, it is time to think about leaving for a while or at least warp to the other side of the system to get the pilot off your trail. It takes a while to adjust the position of the probes from 4 AU until you get a 100% hit, so that should leave you enough time.
To sum up, the idea is to have the system scanner open, and periodically check for probes. Most of the time I have the system scanner set to the maximum scan range, and check if there are any probes in the system at all (no need to worry if no one is using combat probes). If there are, I reduce the range to 4 AU and wait to see if the probes appear at that range. It can but must not mean that someone is trying to find you, so just keep and eye on the scanner until they get closer and no doubt is possible anymore.
The good news is that there is NO OTHER way to find a ship in deadspace. Someone who scans you down can be in a cloaked ship, but a cloaked ship cannot find you without probing you down - just to eliminate some sticky rumours. Keep an eye open for probes and you're almost as safe in lowsec than in highsec. Almost :)
[EDIT 20.08.09]: Make sure you also read Bel Amar's comment below, he wrote about a technique some scanners use to try and hide their probing from their targets. It is good to know this technique exists, the big unknown is how many pilots have mastered it.
Understanding the mechanics
Scanning is a whole profession, so I can only encourage you to try it out for yourselves. It is not as profitable as mission running, but can be a lot of fun. There are a lot of tutorials and guides out there to learn how to use probes, and to do it yourself will give you an even better understanding of them. Even if the basics I told you here are quite enough to get by.
There is one additional tidbit that can be useful: To get a 100% hit on any object, you need at least 4 probes. So if you have your system scanner set to 4 AU and only have a single probe listed, you do not need to worry yet. The other pilot may be trying to scan something else down and one of his probes is in your area.
Fast range calculations
Google is your friend: you can convert almost any unit with the search engine. For example, to convert AU to kilometres to paste into the system scanner, search for "2 au in km". Just change the "2" to whatever you need.
Yay, even with a separate header this time \o/ I found a pretty cool video when I was searching for info on smartbombs - someone tried to replicate the effect of a Doomsday with smartbombs, the result was quite disco :)
Time to find a nice and quiet spot in a friendly system. Expect some frustration until you get
the hang of things. I found a nice YouTube video (see below) that show how things are done in
practice, but first a little bit of theory that explains the how and why.
for EXplosive.
On a sidenote: Of course there is always the option of finding out how the richest player in EVE did it, and become an 
Sytek Corporation
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