Caltrops - Eve Online - Re: raw numbers vs ratios

Forum Overview :: Eve Online

by Ibis Cowboy 05/11/2006, 7:28pm PDT

A thousand apologies for not replying sooner. While indulging my inexplicable fascination with tracking down ships left parked at safespots* I stumbled upon the System That Time Forgot and found two abandoned Ravens with a smattering of tech II gear and a few of the larger industrials. This is odd because these days every man and his dog has their own heavily fortified POS at which they usually park all their ships. Ah well, all mine now :) In nearby systems I also found a small ship assembly array and bits of a small POS just left floating in space (i.e. not anchored or online) so I've been busy dodging the gate camps and ferrying all this hardware back to empire.

You've probably worked everything out for yourself during the interim but here's my 2 ISK anyway...

Blobbio wrote:

As soon as my (admittingly boring) industrial cargo hauling nets me enough credits...

I'm sure there's faster (or at least more interesting) ways than hauling to make cash these days. I hear tell that agent running is a good bet for newer players and probably safer than ratting in low/zero sec systems. People have reported that they can make millions just sitting in a station watching the ebb and flow of the markets for a few hours. Not my can of Quafe however.

Blobbio wrote:

I was planning on going for an interceptor rather than the (more common?) cruiser route. Was planning to outfit it with close range weapons (rockets, blasters, or those close range projectile gun thingies), use its speed (possible micro warp drive) to get in close, then orbit around blasting away while their turrets couldn't track me fast enough. I was thinking either a Caldari Raptor with hybrid turrets and rockets or MinMarr with lasers and projectiles (the close range ones, autocannons?).

It's been said that EVE is one of those games you win by inches rather than miles. Skills, ships, better equipment and implants all provide small increments in ability. Add enough of them up and you start to get that decisive edge over your opponents. Mixing different race's weapons and ships can be fun for exotic setups but will lose you some significant bonuses.

If using missiles against a slower or webbed opponent many vets avoid the use of the automatic 'orbit' function in favour of manually swooping backwards and forwards, in effect performing 'bombing runs' on the target.You will be continually moving in and out of his guns' effective range while your missiles will always hit. The Caldari interceptors (Crow especially) are very popular because launchers use no cap leaving you able to run scramblers, webbers and shield boosters indefinitely. Projectiles use no cap either of course but the manual orbit trick no longer helps as much.

If short range knife fights appeal then go for the Gallente interceptors with their bonuses and equip with tech 2 blasters and ammo. Even Crow pilots are wary of this combo.

Blobbio wrote:

Aside from the microwarp drive, I was planning on filling my medium slots with ECM and hope it's enough to jam anyone with enough firepower to blow me away, then just count on my prey being dumb enough to not warp to any unobvious escape route so I won't have to bother with warp scramblers.

Beware the inertia, signature radius and cap penalties of the MWD. Use a quick burst to close with the target but switch it off when orbiting. An interceptor's best defence is tiny signature radius + transversal speed = hugely reduced damage from bigger guns and launchers. Interceptors are only frigates after all so anything that makes you easier to hit must be handled with care.

Since the revamp of the ECM system some months back the ECM modules gained hefty cap requirements. I haven't flown an inty for ages so I could have this wrong but I don't think ECM is really suitable for smaller ships any more (apart from some specialised ECM frigates). If you get NOSed as well you'll flatten your cap in seconds.

Warp scramblers are a must really. You'll be very lucky to meet someone who doesn't immediately warp out or more lamely log off (so initiating the emergency 1mil km warp) as soon as their shield/armor start to fail. If they warp to a mid space safespot and log off then barring some quick work with scan probes (after being engaged in PvP their ship should hang around for 15 minutes after logging off) you've lost them.

A webber is also standard equipment for a interceptor. It will stop that hauler from reaching the gate before you can chew through its shields and armor and will reduce the transversal of faster ships making them easier to hit. Beware being webbed in return - a slow interceptor is usually a dead interceptor.

Blobbio wrote:

I was briefly considering an assault frigate, which is apparently a slower, tougher interceptor, but figured if I was going to bother with strength over speed then I'd just get a cruiser. The stealth bombers are also looking mighty attractive.

The thing about assault frigates is their insane damage restistances. Coupled with a frigate's small sig radius and possibly a shield/armor hardener or two they can emerge unscathed from bombardments that would destroy any tech 1 cruiser.

Everyone used to whine that stealth bombers were paper thin and ineffective. I believe CCP have since added bonuses to cloaking and have possibly made further improvements (can't check atm - server is down for the hardware upgrade).

One ship type that unerves me is the interdictor. All those warp core stablilsers on your slow and vulnerable hauler are no use whatsoever inside a warp disruption sphere :(

Blobbio wrote:

-Learning the hard way that corporations like to blockade the entrances to 0.0 space and will immediately pod anyone belonging to an NPC corporation.

Yup. They think you're an alt spy. Or they just like collecting killmails. A small fast ship with warp core stabilisers should be able to get away from any gate camp with ease. If you land in a mobile warp disruption bubble things may become more intersting however.

Blobbio wrote:

-Learning the hard way that sentry guns do not guarentee safety, and that a hostile battleship can kill you and get away before the guns do any real damage.

Nowhere outside of a station is 100% safe. You even get suicide attacks in 0.5+ (with nearby alts to pick up your can). Some guy on the forums was complaining about being suicide ganked by a Raven while moving several billion ISK worth of gear around "safe" space in a hauler. The attacker must have scanned his cargo and decided it was well worth the sacrifice of his tier 2 battleship + equipment.

The Armored Assassins corp specialised in this tactic with several heavily tanked scopions humping the gate in a 0.4 system and a sniping apoc sat at 200km+ (outside sentry gun range). With enough scorps (probably shield boosting each other) and due to the sentry guns randomly switching targets every so often they could sit there indefinitely under continuous fire.

This is a vulnerable position for them however. Sentries hit hard for all damage types so if you can trap them at the gate and add some firepower of your own they're toast. Snipers are also vulnerable to the immensely amusing covert ops and point blank warp in tactic.

Blobbio wrote:

-Foolishly running a high collateral courier mission, then laughing as the scamer tried to ambush me.....in high security space. The police ships destroyed him just as I jumped out.

Nice one :D

Blobbio wrote:

-Finding gates with half a dozen corpses floating around it, then rummaging through the leftover cargo. I plan to make a part time job out of cargo stealing once I get my fast getaway interceptor.

The things people leave lying around (see my excuse above). For this sort of thing and general exploring and safespot busting I favour the vigil. It's not quite as fast off the mark as an interceptor but it is considerably cheaper.

Unless you're a terminal loner then getting into a good corp will enhance the game immesurably especially in the early stages when money is tight. You can quickly learn the ropes and even get unfettered access to the riches of 0.0 space. Flying that interceptor will be far more fun as you scout ahead for your corp's dreadnaught attack on the enemy POS or fly with a pack of fellow interceptor/assault frigate pilots and rain havoc on carebear mining operations. Even joining something like Goonfleet (noobswarm 4tw) should be a laugh at the very least.

Never hesitate to abandon that deadzone of a corp composed of one guy and his fifteen alts who log in once every other week to change skills. And never keep all your stuff in the corp hangar or where others can get at it - corp thieves and crooked CEOs abound.

*(I can spend hours doing this with no appreciable financial gain. There is a distinct possibly that I'm just a weirdo voyeur of other people's ship setups).