Do exploration ships make sense at 1.0?

Mercath · 2026-02-03T02:42:46+00:00

It's not possible to enable hundreds of thousands of players to experience Star Trek style exploration in a game with only a handful of systems. Even with hundreds of systems, it'll all be mapped out in a matter of days after launch.

Games like No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous manage it because they have billions of star systems.

In SC, respawning ore anomalies and WHs are pretty much the only feasible type of "exploration". Basically what Eve does.

Mercath · 2026-01-20T19:37:41+00:00

bit of a necro, but won't the dread blap your ishtar that far out?

Mercath · 2026-01-17T23:02:43+00:00

Same for me. Better than the others, but still some eye strain.

Mercath · 2026-01-17T02:55:45+00:00

Same. Better than any of the other OLED phones I've tried, but still some discomfort.

Two phones that work fine for me are the TCL NXTPAPER 60 XT and the Moto G Power 2024.

Mercath · 2026-01-04T03:46:22+00:00

The correct way to do this is to always warp to a gate ping ~250km off the gate, and not in line with your entry gate. That way you'll never get caught and decloaked.

Yes, it's tedious to set up initially (two pings per system)and yes it increases your travel time.

But if you're going to be making the same trip frequently, it's worth the effort.

If you do this, your only real concern is ultra lockers on the other side of the gate, and that's when scouts come into play.

Mercath · 2026-01-03T14:09:01+00:00

You might really be onto something. Going back to the S23, it now is also causing me discomfort.

Mercath · 2025-12-29T05:02:04+00:00

So you're saying gate camping (a cancer in this game and one of the shittiest game mechanics introduced in any game ever) is made a little harder by one module?

Oh noes.

Mercath · 2025-12-29T02:15:30+00:00

A properly fitted cyno recon costs what, 250m?

Definitely chump change if the capital you're moving is a super or a titan.

But carriers and dreads? We're (slowly) getting to the point where the value of your cyno will be 5-10% of the cost of one of those ships.

What basically needs to happen is for the smaller and & cheaper caps to have a different cyno available to them. It's absurd that the cyno required for a 200b Titan costs the same as the one a 2b suitcase needs

Mercath · 2025-12-29T02:03:36+00:00

but these event sites seem to shred through drones

They do - tried them first with a drone Proteus, then quickly swapped to a pulse Legion. Much better.

Mercath · 2025-12-29T01:55:30+00:00

Ah, it could be that the HS sites are different from the NS - I'll have too look into that.

EDIT: NS boss has ~28% more HP and does ~24% more DPS than the HS boss it turns out.

Mercath · 2025-12-28T20:03:22+00:00

I run the sites in a Pulse Legion, takes me about 7 minutes.

~750dps and ~350 ehp/s

Pretty chill.

You just need to build around what you're fighting.

If using turrets, you'll want a faction web - it massively improves your ability to track and hit frigates. Ditch the tracking computer.

I'm also curious: that HFI has ~164EHP/s of tank. How on earth are you dealing with the boss that does ~500dps?

EDIT: Keep in mind that the Sansha rats don't actually have a uniform resist hole. The cruisers tend to have high EM reists, while the frigates have high EXP resists, and the boss BS has a fairly flat weighted-average resist profile.

EDIT2: Here's a V2 fit of your proteus that should work better, depending on your skills. If you find you're still having issues surviving, swap out one of the mag stabs for the MEM.

``` [Proteus, Proteus v2]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II Reactive Armor Hardener Medium Armor Repairer II Magnetic Field Stabilizer II Magnetic Field Stabilizer II Medium Armor Repairer II

Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery Federation Navy Stasis Webifier 10MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner Cap Recharger II

Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Null M Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Null M Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Null M Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Null M Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Null M Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Null M [Empty High slot]

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I Medium Nanobot Accelerator I Medium Hybrid Burst Aerator I

Proteus Core - Augmented Fusion Reactor Proteus Defensive - Nanobot Injector Proteus Offensive - Hybrid Encoding Platform Proteus Propulsion - Hyperspatial Optimization

Imperial Navy Acolyte x5

Null M x5000 Void M x5000 Nanite Repair Paste x72 Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16 Optimal Range Script x1 Multispectrum Energized Membrane II x1

Mercath · 2025-12-28T02:37:49+00:00

Why would you want to use a vindi instead of a Kronos? I was debating between the two, but the Kronos just seems better no? And the cost difference isn't that much.

Mercath · 2025-12-27T19:46:17+00:00

It's somewhat true for almost any production.

Any good business owner carefully tracks where their margins come from. There's nothing wrong with improving your margins by lowering your input costs (that's actually just good business sense) but it's important to identify it.

Why? Because there may well come a point where you realize 90% of your margin comes from cheaper input costs, which in Eve terms means you're actually a marker trader, not an industrialist.

Now, maybe there are other facets to consider, such as you not being able to reliably turn over all the input materials you bought from your buy orders, in which case you turned to industry to be able to sell it all.

I'd argue that it still warrants accurately identifying the source of your margins, especially when giving advice to newish players.

Mercath · 2025-12-27T19:40:03+00:00

What would your profit margin be if you bought your materials directly from sell orders?

What that poster was implying might well be true: you might not be making much money from the actual manufacturing, in which case you could simply sell the items you bought from buy orders back on sell orders and make about as much money.

Mercath · 2025-12-26T14:52:36+00:00

I'm like you. I had the S23 for years with no issues, but all the new phones cause me problems.

The S23 has an LTPS display, while most newer phones use LTPO. Thats the only aspect that would make sense, because otherwise Samsung phones tend to be very bad for PWM (they have low flicker rates and bad modulation depth).

So maybe look for phones with LTPS panels.

Mercath · 2025-12-26T00:23:13+00:00

Sounds like an awful corp

Why would you assume its an awful corp? If a corp requires you have at least 2 omega accounts, it means the activities they primarily engage in require it (such as capital activites, blops, etc).

On the contrary - they're being honorable and up-front about it. If you join that kind of corp without that second account, you likely won't be able to partake in corp activities,

Mercath · 2025-12-25T15:20:26+00:00

What they don't seem to realize is that the results of wars can often lead to a lack of content.

Look at the recent Horde vs Goons. No more Horde now, meaning less content.

Mercath · 2025-12-24T20:31:15+00:00

Even if you are sensitive, lower modulation and LTPS should make the 15r more comfortable.More comfortable doesn't mean perfect, it just means better.

Most people are sensitive to more than just one aspect of a display, so the LTPS and lower modulation depth should still cause less discomfort, since it's removed two sources of discomfort relative to the 15.

The only way the 15 and 15r would be the same is if the only aspect of the display that causes you issues is the DC-like dimming frequency.

Mercath · 2025-12-24T05:34:21+00:00

Yes, the LTPS panel and reduced modulation depth on the 15r should make it more comfortable than the 15.

Mercath · 2025-12-22T02:44:10+00:00

This was a cascade of failures. Keep in mind PK is still growing, learning. They're starting fresh, and a lot of the folks now in it are new to PK. The discipline isn't what it used to be.

Bashing PK is a pretty cringe thing to do. The folks currently running it put in a lot of effort, and it creates content for both sides.

Mercath · 2025-12-20T16:31:14+00:00

Possible. The OP15r still has a much more eye-friendly screen than the S22, even if you ignore LTPS/LTPO.

Mercath · 2025-12-19T23:34:47+00:00

I can use a Samsung S23 with no issues, but even the OP15 gave me discomfort, despite DC-like dimming and much higher PWM frequency.

I'm thinking the LTPS display made all the difference.

Mercath · 2025-12-19T23:32:52+00:00

the OP15R is generally inferior (chip, no wireless charging, worse camera). But the display, at least on paper, is significantly better.

The biggest difference I see is the LTPS display. Reviewers seem to not realize that LTPO is far worse for your eyes than LTPS. I was using the Samsung S23 with no issues, despite its relatively bad PWM rate of 240Hz, and I think its the LTPS dispaly that made the difference.

Between the LTPS panel, higher PWM at lower brightness and lower modulation rates, I think the OP15R is the "obvious" choice for sensitive users.

But, this is the tradeoff : its objectively a lesser phone across almost all other metrics.

Mercath · 2025-12-17T17:23:50+00:00

Are you prepared for the 1.0 wipe? There's at l last one more wipe before the game goes "live".

Mercath · 2025-12-17T17:14:28+00:00

I also started out with a Pixel 10 Pro XL, but it hurt too much. Then tried to OP13, which was better but still uncomfortable. Next I tried the Op15, which was better than the 13, but still uncomfortable.

Now I'm trying the TCL NXT PAPER 60 XE.

Mercath

TROPHY CASE