User:Lillik Eoner/Old user page

Lillik's Guide to (relatively) Safe Highsec Ice Mining

Overview

Note: Nothing contained herein construes any sort of exhaustive knowledge on the subject matter presented. Proceed at your own risk.

What I'm attempting here is to provide a working knowledge document on relatively complex game content. I'll try my best to avoid reinventing the wheel and point the reader to established wiki pages for more in-depth coverage of specific content topics (like the basics of Ice Mining).

Introduction

Highsec mining is a good way of supplying New Eden with the necessary materials for production of everything needed in game. One of the more lucrative mining activities is Ice Harvesting, or Ice Mining. Ice Mining is similar to mining ore, except for the substitution of highslot mining lasers, and if used, lowslot mining upgrades. Because the number and location of individual ice anomalies is far fewer than asteroid ores in belts, the ice's value is significantly increased. As such, ice anomalies are popular mining sites with both miners, and gankers .

Basics

I'll refer the reader back to the relevant wiki pages for Mining, Ice Mining, Bookmarking and general E-Uni wiki pages EVE_University_Rules, Wartime_Standard_Operating_Procedures.

Ganking

Because of the popularity of systems that contain ice anomalies, they have become targets of regular and perpetual ganking activities. In the ice containing systems surrounding major trade hubs (Jita, Hek, Amarr, Rens, and Dodixie), ganking is an almost 23 hour activity. But fear not, I'll explain how to (relatively) safely mine in ice containing systems, while ganking activities are occurring! I'll explain how to divert attention away from you, which ships to fly, and other safety tactics.

Safety

Before you do any ice mining, or any mining, please make sure your Overview settings are set to E-Uni standards. Also, ensure your Local chat window is sufficiently large enough for you to see both the inhabitants and the chat box (more on this later). Lastly, if it isn't done, set your D-scan so it's open and accessible. You'll need this for multiple purposes.

If you haven't done this already, please study Bookmarking. You'll need to set up at least one Safe-spot to store your cans, and more if your paranoid level tends to be high. The easiest way to create your safe is to drop a bookmark as you approach the ore site, off-grid but close enough to minimize travel time. You'll also be bookmarking ice rocks to be able to jump around the system, limiting slowboating times.

Tactics

ALWAYS BE MOVING

One of the things gankers look for is inactivity in the belt. If a mining barge is sitting for too long, and is on their “kill” list, they'll gank it.

ALWAYS TRY TO BE ALIGNED

Remember the Safe bookmark I recommended you make? Here is its second purpose. If you're aligned and moving at warpable speed (75%/max), and if/when you're yellowboxed, you will practically instawarp out of the ore site.

WATCH LOCAL LIKE A HAWK

Some gankers like to play system games. After a gank, when their GCC timers end, they'll jump to an adjoining system to let the ice site “cool”, then when the miners think it's business as usual, the gankers will jump back in and quickly pick a target.

D-SCAN IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

Watching D-scan will become second nature after a few ice site trips. You'll learn quickly who does, and who doesn't belong there. Catalysts, Dragoons, Thrashers, and other combat type ships stand out fairly easily from the gaggle of Mackinaws, Retrievers, Skiffs, Procurers¹, and one or two Orcas².

OVERVIEW OVERVIEW OVERVIEW

This really doesn't need to be said, but...if any ship is as close as 1-2k away from you, QUESTION ITS INTENT! With practice and repeated trips to your favorite system, you'll recognize the gankers, especially if you...

GIVE KNOWN GANKERS “TERRIBLE” STATUS

As soon as you see an individual's status change to flashy, switch their status to “terrible”. It's as simple as right-clicking on the individual in Local, selecting Add Contact, and left clicking on the red box. Then select ok. This will put a red minus next to their name, keeping them distinguished from the rest of Local.

CHAT IN LOCAL

This is particularly important, as it shows that you're actually playing the game, and not showing "Bot-aspirant"³, or worse, AFK behavior.

HIGHSEC MECHANICS

You'll need to have a basic understanding of Highsec mechanics to effectively deal with gankers.

NOTES:

¹. Procurers are also known to be used as warpin points, so use caution.

². Orcas are also known to be used as ganking platforms.

³. "Bot-aspirant" behavior is a term coined by the player James315 of The New Order of High Sec.