User:Iavatus/Workbench 1
Understanding Travel
How to get to Aldrat, aka Space is like, big
So, we're beginning with the bare bones basics - how to get to our cradle, our home, our mothership, our refuge in times of a single docked war target in local who is probably asleep and afk (SDWTILWIPAAA). Alt E, open people and place. Search Type by Solar System, tap in Aldrat. Right click aldrat, set destination. Time to start chugging, space pilot capsuleer dude person. But wait, there's more then one station in Aldrat? Oh no Bernard! Crisis! Click info on Aldrat, tab to orbital bodies, scroll down to Planet IX, click info on Aldrat IX - Pator Tech school, set destination. As you can see, the autoroute has changed from a + to a square. This means that it's no longer a system destination, but a station in a system destination. The other way is to fly to Aldrat, right click in space and dock at the desired station. Huzzah, you've taken your first step into a larger world. Have you typing GF after ganking some plexhauler in no time.
Overview, D-scan and Local - Our eyes
Our overview is our eyes in EvE, aka Everyone versus Everyone. As you should have done by now, you have set up a few overview tabs. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Overview if not. For this class and practical, we'll be using PvP Travel and Pod saver.
The overview quickly tells us what ships are on grid with us, their distance, who they're yellowboxing/redboxing, their speed and velocity in regards to us, names, corps and alliance. An interceptor at 120km burning away isn't a threat for some seconds, one at 40km burning towards is.
D-scan can give you information on anything within 14.4 AU. 1 AU = 150 000 000 km = 150Million km. The exception is cloaked ships.
Grid is the local arena of space, roughly 300km in diameter. It is possible to burn away and be offgrid, at roughly 350-450 km and not show up on the overview of people at the gate. It's an involved subject. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Grid_Manipulation goes into it in more detail, but ongrid = overview. offgird = d-scan and probes is enough detail for this class.
Local is a system specific chat channel - shows us who is in system with us, and what their standings is to us and the Uni. Just because someone's is blue, doesn't mean they're necessarily friendly. It's always a good idea to keep an eye on it, for local spikes or what hostiles may be in system.
Warp speeds
copied from http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Anatomy_of_Incursions#Warp_speeds
Not only do ships align faster or slower depending on their hulls and the skills of the pilot, they also accelerate into and warp faster or slower based on their hulls. This is important to be aware of as faster ships warp much faster than the slower.
| Ship class | Warp speed (including align time) |
|---|---|
| icon_large_ship.png Battleships | 25s (32-41s) |
 Battlecruisers
|
20s (28-30s) |
| Command Ships
|
19s (28-30s) |
| Cruisers
|
17s (23-24s) |
| Logistics
|
16s (22-23s) |
 Frigates
|
7s (11-13s) |
Legend: █ Warp speed █ Fast align (max skill, agile hulls) █ Slow align (low skills, less agile hulls)
Many bothans leeroys died to bring us this information. This is from a 10 000 km warp, using an acceleration gate as found in incursions, missions and faction warfare beacons. Notice the align times of the different hulls, and the actual warp time. As the next graph shows, this lets frigs move much faster then a battleship, and interceptors to intercept.
Warping longer distances
copied from http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/User:Cassiel_seraphim/Sandbox#Warping_longer_distances
Rubicon changes things up a bit when it came to warp speeds, these are some example-times of the new warps for various distances:
| Warp distance | Ship class | Warp time |
|---|---|---|
| Short warps (20 AU) |
icon_large_ship.png Battleships | 54 sec
|
| Battlecruisers
|
44 sec
| |
| Command Ships
|
40 sec
| |
| Cruisers
|
37 sec
| |
| Logistics
|
33 sec
| |
| Frigates
|
22 sec
| |
| Medium warps (50 AU) |
icon_large_ship.png Battleships | 69 sec (1 minute and 9 seconds)
|
| Battlecruisers
|
56 sec
| |
| Command Ships
|
51 sec
| |
| Cruisers
|
47 sec
| |
| Logistics
|
43 sec
| |
| Frigates
|
28 sec
| |
| Long warps (100 AU) |
icon_large_ship.png Battleships | 94 sec (1 minute and 34 seconds)
|
| Battlecruisers
|
76 sec (1 minute and 16 seconds)
| |
| Command Ships
|
69 sec (1 minute and 9 seconds)
| |
| Cruisers
|
63 sec (1 minute and 3 seconds)
| |
| Logistics
|
58 sec
| |
| Frigates
|
38 sec
| |
| Extreme warps (200 AU) |
icon_large_ship.png Battleships | 144 sec (2 minutes and 24 seconds)
|
| Battlecruisers
|
116 sec (1 minute and 56 seconds)
| |
| Command Ships
|
105 sec (1 minute and 45 seconds)
| |
| Cruisers
|
97 sec (1 minute and 37 seconds)
| |
| Logistics
|
88 sec (1 minute and 28 seconds)
| |
| Frigates
|
58 sec
|
Aligning is when your ships points at a celestial/bookmark/fleetmate and accelerates. This is quickest when you're flying in roughly the same direction, slower from stationary, slower still when pointing 180 degrees from align, and slowest still when 90 degrees. Try in an industrial as it yaws to the line.
Several mods exist which modify this (your inertia modifier). Nanofiber Structures, Inertial Stabilizers give bonuses (as in lower your align times), as does Low Friction Nozzle Joints. Armor Plates negatively affect it, increasing your align times. Being webbed can actually get you into warp faster, as your target speed is 75% of current max. More on this later.
Being aligned without warping allows you to warp away with minimum delay, useful in fleet fights or missions. Leaving the field can prevent a stupid lossmail.
Preventing ticks via Bookmarks: Staying off the map, grid and primary
As the server updates information in ticks, as opposed to real time, this means that ships warp a certain distance per tick, depending on their warp speed. The implications are that when making bookmarks in warp between 2 celestials, we may have them placed in the same spot as another pilot. This is unacceptable from a best practice viewpoint (a common phrase is that sharing bookmarks is like sharing underwear: only with someone you trust and don't mind being intimate with. Intimate can mean Antimatter M up the exhaust pipe, in this case). So, how can this be avoided?
Simple! By setting up unaligned safe spots!
To set up an aligned safe spot (the bad), simply warp between 2 celestials. Drop bookmarks at locations you desire (open star map to see where your ship is, drop multiple bookmarks. This will also demonstrate the tick nature).
An unaligned requires a little more work. First, you need an unaligned spot in space. Now, you could turn and burn with a mwd fit capstable frig. At say, 4k / second * 60 second * 60 minutes = 14400 km / 150 000 000 (1 AU) = 0.000096th of an AU/hour = 0.002304 AU/24 hours = 1 AU/434 days. Not really viable. So, our alternative is using a scanned anomaly (the okay). Warp to it (being careful not to be shot by the rats or pilots who may be there), then to either a celestial, or another anomaly, and drop more bookmarks. This is acceptable, but still has a degree of underwear sharing, as other pilots may have done the same. Leaving the bookmark for several weeks or months, will filter out a lot of sharing, but three's an even better method that works in most Empire space.
Security Mission spots! Generated randomly, out of line with the planets. Check the agent finder, dock where there's a security agent that you can access (level 1s and 2s are the best, as they'll mostly be in the same system). You don't even need to accept, just keep the conversation open, warp to the bookmark and boom! There's step 1. Grab another, step 2. Warp, bookmark, and you're moxious. Of course, check the starmap. Still d-scannable if within 14 AU. Caveat: If you do accept the mission, not all have a gate. Can drop you and your fat hauler right in the middle of a rat swarm.
In systems without agents or stations, another method is to warp between 2 aligned safe spots and bookmark. A little more time and effort intensive, but quite safe.
Of special note is incursion bookmarks. They'll often be far into space, 14 AU from celestials. Easy to bookmark by rightclicking on the overview. But again - underwear sharing. Everyone can see them. Good to start an unaligned bookmark from, not so great to use as an actual safe spot.
Offgrid bookmarks are possibly the quickest to set up. Simply warp to the celestial (again, gate for example) and as you get close to it (under an AU, maybe under 10 000 km) bookmark. Voila, next time you can warp to it and check the gate without being on grid via d-scan.
Deep safes are more then 14 AU away from any celestial, which makes it more difficult to find on D-scan. Still findable with probes, especially Deep Space probe (hence the name). Require a little more effort to get, but well worth it for the tactical advantages, especially in wormholes.
The next two are more utility bookmarks.
Undocks require a bit more time and preparation, but vital to avoid station camps, especially when carrying something expensive out of a trade hub (although why you're doing that, is entirely upon you). Simply undock in a fast frigate, turn on the mwd and put your feet on the desk. When you've gotten a few hundred, thousand k's away, bookmark, warp to the station, dock, undock and warp to the bookmark. Congrats! Your plex hauler is safe from that station camp!
Observation bookmarks allow even a non cloaked ship to be fairly safe travelling dangerous territory. Again, prep work is required. Fast frig, burn in a direction from the place (gate, for example) you want to observe, drop bookmark at between 200 - 300 km. This allows you to warp to the gate and jump, or warp to it at a distance to observe it directly or warp away if someone's closing the distance. Options are always good. Several observation bookmarks make it difficult for an enemy to predict which one you're going to, but still. Do you want to share the underwear AND be a preventable lossmail? Delete the bookmark and make another.
To summarise
copied from http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scouting_101#Bookmarks
Aligned Safe Spots
- Drop a BM midway between two celestials
- Very quick and simple to make
- Don’t stay too long, easy to find
- Due to ticks can be found without combat probes
Unaligned Safe Spots
- Create a bookmark between two Midsafes/Anomalies/Mission safes
- Much safer
- Ideally over 14AU so that outside D-scan range
- Take longer to form
Off-Grid BMs
- Typically within a few 10s of thousands of KM
- Allows you to check gates even without a cloak
Deep space safe
- More then 14 AU from all celestials
Instant Undocks
- Bookmark in-line with station undock vector
- Allows (near) instant warp when undocking
- About 2000km is a good distance
Observation BMs
- Bookmarks for watching gates, stations, asteroid belts, POSes...
- A good distance is 300km
- Allows to be on grid with gate
- Can warp to within 100km to allow 'look at' to check fittings etc, and still warp back
- Can never have too many
- Ideally surround a gate in all directions
- Should have at least one on every gate on common routes
- Keep out of alignment with celestials compared to the gate
- Best place for observation is outside transit routes
- Or just get within 100km of gate at 'look at' the gate
Why not to stay aligned
Anytime you're predictable, you're stuffing your head in a noose, hand in a dark crevice ****** need a third. And one day, it'll get lopped off, by anything from a gank fleet, to a smartbombing battleship or *scare chord* a warp bubble. Warping between gates is the epitome of predictable. If they could justify it fictionwise, there'd be space highways with billboards in the rancer system.
By warping to bookmarks we avoid or minimise these risks (plus, being predictable is boring). Also, when we align to a celestial, a canny scout can see what you're aligning to, and meet you there.
Get your head out of that hole - Wormholing 001
We'll quickly skim over wormholes, primarily because they are quite a different form of travel.
First up, there are no gates, or local. Mull on that. Which means no way of telling who is there, or of exiting. Ever. You're in there forever.
Unless you have a Probe Launcher, and scan down an signature which turns out to be a wormhole. Click on it, get info. Read the text, compare to http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Wormhole#Wormhole_Text , paying attention to Life and mass. If both seem fine, right click on it, activate wormhole. Congrats, you're in W-space.
First thing, open people and places. Drop a bookmark called EXIT. Now, people live in wormholes, and most will have a truly impressive amount of bookmarks, safe spots, not least a POS. Dont warp to any moons without checking first on D-scan, you will find a POS and be going home in a pod. At best.
There are obviously things to do in a wormhole, but beyond this class's scope. Suffice to say, that the rules are very different (warp bubbles, for one) and there is a very real danger of being podded.
Further reading
http://www.evealtruist.com/2011/04/bookmarks-and-you.html
http://www.agony-unleashed.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bookmarks
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Bookmarks
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Navigation_101
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Directional_Scanner_Guide
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Grid_Manipulation
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Overview
Dealing - Keeping Travel as boring as possible
Gate camps, or How I learned to stop worrying and love being bombed
So, we're minding our business, flying through space on the way to Jita. Damn, that's a long route. Prefer shorter, hey that's much shorter! And only a handful of low sec. She'll be right. Jumping into Rancer.
Congratulations, you're just about to find your first gatecamp. Bunch of myopic trolls, dwelling on chokepoint gates waiting for prey more feeble than them. And we don't feed trolls, do we?
So, how to avoid. First up, don't go into lowsec. That cuts right down on the possibility of a gatecamp. But, maybe we're at war, or really need to get through this system. Good news! We can find information in the Evemap, in Dotlan, in our intell channels and from experience. More on Evemap later, but it's easy to show kills in the last hour, and chokepoint systems that should give hints that blappage is happening and avoid, unless we're in a blappage fit hull, with blappage fleetmates nearby.
What if we want to find them, either to avoid or bring the fleet in? Well, as unimaginative and feeble as their constituent members are, gatecamps will often frequent the same places. Checking killboards will find likely locations from kills and the pilots area of operations.
Now, we've found one. Accidentally or otherwise. First up, don't panic. If you've gone through the gate, you've got a minute before you uncloak if you don't move. Open up intell channels, fleet chat or mumble. Clearly state that there's a gatecamp in (system). Look at the composition, say the numbers, type, and rough layout. Example "Break break. Gatecamp in Rancer system, Otosela gate. 12 ships, 4 flashy, 20 in local. 4 frigate, several cruisers, 2 proteus and a drake. Set up within 10km of gate". Stop transmitting, start screaming. Now, it's time for you to deal with it. Unless your fleet is on the otherside of the gate, this is up to your lonesome.
Dealing from the bottom of the deck
Look at the ships, paying attention to the frigates. That's what's going to hold you while the rest of the fleet etch their name lovingly on your hull. If they're 30 kilometres away, you've got a good chance of warping to a safespot (you've made them, right?). With the warp changes, a fast frigate has a good chance of meeting you at a celestial, and the situation is just as bad there. Second, what are the other ships. A mix of t1 cruisers and t1 battleships bodes well for burning back to the gate, depending on your tank. If you don't recognise the name (or see a Loki, Rapier or Huginn), burning back to the gate may not be an option - they're all bonused for web ranges. If you do get popped, congrats! Now it gets serious. Thanks to the 30 second timer, you're unlikely to be able to jump before they pop you. Warp to a bookmark, or a celestial. Just warp, and dock if there's a few stations. Get that rookie ship (or check the market for a shuttle at non-exorbitant price). Just because they caught you once, won't stop them catching you again. Comment on your loss, pass the info on, and log off. Boredom tank is very effective, and gives you a chance to evaluate and plan. Only crash the gate if youre confident and have nothing to lose
Preventing Problems before they arise
The Eve map
To adjust our route, click the A on the left. You can prefer safest (the best when you're new), shortest and less secure. Also you can avoid systems, and remvoe them from the avoidance list. In war times, it's not the worst idea to add trade hub systems to the avoidance, as the war targets WILL be looking for you there especially.
The Evemap (F10) shows the current system layout, including gates, planets, moons, bookmarks, and scan results. Scanning is outside of this class, but http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scanning_%26_Probing is a good starter.
We use the map to get an idea of the local area. What we can see on d-scan, if there's a gate nearby, etc. As a scout, you'll learn how to best utilise it to get your information.
Click on Star Map. This shows the Eve Galaxy. Here, we can find out what systems are in this region, how busy (podkills, ship kills, jumps in and out) the systems are with a heatmap and our route. Dotlan gets it's information from here, and it's a little easy to alt-tab use, so we'll discuss it mroe.
http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Metropolis
You've probably heard Aldrat described as a pocket system. Why is that? Find another one and the entry system.
If http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/Hadozeko was on our route, what could we expect? NPCs don't pod, so that's a good indicator that there is activity here.
Scouting
As Dotlan can show us the route, and side systems, it's a very useful tool. Showing activity and combat in the last few hours, only makes it moreso.
As a combat scout, ideally you want to check the beacons and belts for activity. Either by combat probing, or warping to or near the beacon and using D-scan. Docking at stations to find out if they're docked is another use.
Travelling the scariest place of all - High Sec!
Most of the previous points have been about lowsec, or travelling in wartime. Travelling 30 jumps in high sec in peace is largely a matter of warping between gates, ignoring trade hub chatter and not falling asleep. If you've prepped. To prevent it being a very exciting time, you should present a very uninteresting target. Not being in an exclusive ship is a good start. Same for not carrying plex. Have 3 Large Shield Extenders drastically increase your buffer tank which makes you an unprofitable gank target (3M Isk/1k Effective Hit Points is a good rule of thumb). Not autopiloting. Not carrying expensive loot, or double wrapping it, which can be a mixed blessing. They don't know what you're carrying, but they might assume it's worth the risk.
Fitting principles - buffer tanking, inertia modding
There's very little reason when flying around to not have a buffer tank, especially a shield tank. Shield tank uses mids, inertia mods use lows. Synergy! Armour tank can go cry in the corner, and pretend they're relevant, as an armour plate both takes up space better used on a nanofiber, increasing your align time in potentia, and by increasing it itself! Double whammy. But, if EHP is the priority, can be worth the extra time. Not like it's slow to lock a hauler, or hard to set up an instant lock tornado. For reference, a Tornado with 3x Sensor Booster II scripted for Scan res locks a frig in 2.3 second, a cruiser in 1.4 and a battleship in 0.9. Can your Badger align in under 2 seconds? Might as well slap extra buffer on it then.
Scouts
Amarr Scout
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Photonic CPU Enhancer I
Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hornet EC-300 x3
- CPU Management 5
- Tough to fit, CPU wise. Add more CPU enhancers if necessary. T2 the nanofibers if money and skills allow.
- Should be able to permarun the MWD. Adjust the nanofibers and relays if so.
- Can fit combat and core scanner probes.
- The hornets *might* save you if you're tackled at a gate, if you deploy them in time and get a jam off.
Caldari Scout
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hornet EC-300 x2
- CPU Management 5
- T2 the nanofibers if money and skills allow
- Can fit combat and core scanner probes.
- The hornets *might* save you if you're tackled at a gate, if you deploy them in time and get a jam off.
Gallente Scout
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hornet EC-300 x3
- CPU Management 5
- T2 the nanofibers if money and skills allow.
- Should be able to permarun the MWD. Swap the relay for a nofiber if so.
- Can fit combat and core scanner probes.
- The hornets *might* save you if you're tackled at a gate, if you deploy them in time and get a jam off.
Minmatar Scout
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Local Hull Conversion Nanofiber Structure I
Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hornet EC-300 x2
- CPU Management 5
- T2 the nanofibers if money and skills allow.
- Should be able to permarun the MWD. Swap the relay for a nofiber if so.
- Can fit combat and core scanner probes.
- The hornets *might* save you if you're tackled at a gate, if you deploy them in time and get a jam off.
Some slight differences between the ships. The Amarr magnate has more lows, but tighter cpu, necessitating using one of those lows for a fitting mod. The Minmatar probe and gallente imicus has one less low, but *just* enough cpu to squeak through, plus enough mids for cap mods. The Caldari Heron has one less low, more mids for the cap, and yet not enough CPU to fit a shield tank - a definite master of none. So, balancing align times it's the probe, imicus, then magnate and last the heron.
Travel Fit
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Damage Control II
DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND
For fitting big ships for travel, you need two mods. A Large Shield Extender II, and Adaptive Invulnerability Field II. An EM Ward Field II if you want to be fancy. The armour mods add 20K in a 110K fit, the DC does that much by itself. All hail the DC! For tank, go t2 or go home. The fittings cost 14M, give 110K EHP use 110 m3 in a 450 m3 cargohold. By the 1k EHP = 3M formula, we could carry 330M of junk before being a profitable gank target. Plus, people look at a drake and think "Urgh. Tanked"
From the forge to your door - Couriers
Now, I've talked a lot about travelling. Here's the way to prevent travelling at all. Courier contracts, and hauling services. Red Frog is an established and famous one, but the Uni has experienced pilots who may be willing to help you move stuff safely.
http://red-frog.org/jumps.php is a very effective and safe option. At 500K/ jump it may be expensive, but 860K m3 is a *lot* of ships, mods and hookers dancers.
Simple courier contracts is another good option. 100K/jump near trade hubs, 2-300k/jump out in the boonies gets it moved. Set the collateral above the cost of the items (20% minimum, 150% might take longer to get picked up), and cross your fingers for a ganking. Profit!
Further Reading
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scouting_101
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scouting
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Hauling_101
Practical
Things I'll need
Assistant
Battleship
Covert Ops
Make some new observation bookmarks for gatecamp practical. Burn afterwards
Things to do/show
How to align to a celestial
How to pre-align down a gate (get a mission, clean it out)
Using D-scan to check the surroundings (warp fleet to a planet, warp to the POCO, ask them to find)
Warp speeds (While in a slow warper - Get fleet to align to a gate, get assistant to warp to the gate and warp fleet there. Get assistant to announce when at the gate). Get the assistant to web me, and bounce between some observation points, showing how webbing increase the speed
Warp fleet to a deep safe, check d-scan.
Dock, switch to covert ops.
Warp to fleet, have them announce when they see my ship (announce the name of the ship) on d-scan. Have some on long range scan, some on short range. Cloak, and show how d-scan isn't a perfect defence. Launch probes.
Jump into system, get fleet to jump and pause. Tell them to warp away. Lock as many as possible, announce who's been caught
Take fleet to staging, getting 5 people at a time to +1. If there's neutrals on the gate, get them to announce ship types, what's on D-scan, how many in local, etc.
Take from through a pipeline. Meet at staging, set destination otherside. Either +1, or get the assistant to.
To Do
http://evetravel.wordpress.com/
Wartime/lowsec travel - scouting for yourself with ooc alt, using an alt webber
Pilgramages to interesting sites?
