Last night I did some badly needed some badly needed mining in the asteroid belts to make up for the time I lost Monday to some distractions. The reason for the need for minerals are all of the blueprints I keep picking up running radar sites.
Radar sites are one of the types of sites that requires probes to find, which is one reason that I spent the time to do the Wildfire level 4 epic arc and chose to receive the RSS Core Scanner Probes as a reward. I heard they are pretty lucrative as a pilot can go in, smash a few rats around, unlock containers using a codebreaker and come away with some nice loot. What I didn't realize was just how important radar sites are to low sec industry.
One thing I noticed is that running radar sites provides a lot of materials needed for invention. I've only run four or five sites over the last week but I've picked up 16 data cores, 7 decryptors and a Minmatar Encryption Methods skill book. Picking up the data cores is nice because that means I don't have to pay an agent for them. The decryptors are worth 6-7 million ISK apiece in Hek and include 6 Operational Handbooks, a decryptor that gives +2 to maximum run modifier, +1 to mineral efficiency and +4 to production efficiency. The Operational Handbook is the decryptor I always used when I did my invention work.
One thing I didn't expect is the number of blueprint copies I'm finding. So far I found four. The first three were related to invention, as I've come to expect. I found a one-run Cryptic Data Interface bpc, a 2-run Cryptic Ship Data Interface bpc and a 2-run Cryptic Tuner Data Interface bpc. Those aren't too bad and gives me something to make. But the real prize that sent me to the belts was in a site I ran Tuesday night: a 5-run X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster bpc.
Manufacturing an X-Large ASB requires 1313 Isogen, 476 Nocxium and 113 Zydrine. Now, I could fly to high sec to purchase the minerals needed to take advantage of my unexpected bounty. Or I could just warp off to a belt and mine Vitric Hedbergite for 30 minutes in a Procurer and have enough minerals to make all five. Which is why I was in a belt last night mining.
I'm excited about finding the ancillary shild booster blueprint. When I was watching the alliance tournament this year and saw the effect of the ASB I thought "that is cool but I'll never be able to acquire one." Now, after doing 30 minutes of mining all I have to do is do a couple more mouse clicks and I have something new to experiment with. I won't put them on a PvP ship since I don't really know what I'm doing but I'd like to see how the module performs when put on a mission-running Maelstrom or Typhoon.
So far I'm having a good time in low sec. I can see why people don't want to leave high sec as some people think blowing up your ship is a friendly gesture. But as I begin actually living in low sec I see more and more possibilities that I'd like to explore.
