User:Sin tsukaya/Self Defense 101
This is a draft, in which I outline my draft syllabus for a class aimed at PvE-focussed players, teaching them the basic PvP mechanics and tactics they need to survive hisec.
Self-defense 101
Whether or not you want it, PvP is a feature of Eve - and sooner or later, it will come looking for you. This class aims to teach those with no current interest in PvP how to avoid, survive, or at least minimise the impact of PvP - and is intended for those who wish to PvE in hisec.
Insert standard class boilerplate. Dock up, mumble settings, questions in chat, introductions, et al.
Motivation and philosophy:
This class is about PvP. It duplicates material covered in a lot of PvP classes, because it talks about a subset of the techniques and mechanics PvPers employ. This class is aimed at PvEers, and specifically those who choose to operate in hisec, and aims to teach you to defend yourself against potentially hostile PvPers. You are welcome to believe that you should not need to defend yourself - but the way this game currently is, you will suffer if you choose to ignore the threat posed - and it seems that CCP are not minded to change this, or to reimburse you for any resulting losses.
I will talk solely about defense. The reason is twofold: Firstly, if you are attacking, be it revenge, retaliation, opportunity, or whatever, you are willingly engaging in PvP. This is an activity I can attest to be enjoyable, but it is outside the scope of this class. Secondly, many effective ways of attacking another player in hisec involve getting them to attack you. If you never take an aggressive action, you are immune to whole swathes of potential attacks.
Your single best defense is avoidance. If you are not where the enemy is looking, or you do not look like an attractive target to them, an attack will never take place.
Your second best defense is escape and evasion. If an attack takes place, you are best served getting away, or at least into some temporarily stable state, and perhaps then seeking assistance or advice. This is generally incompatible with attempting to recoup your losses, but it is a safe generalization that anything you think you might have lost is gone, and you should avoid throwing good isk after bad.
Your third best defense consists of minimizing the impact of losses. Losses are [i]inevitable[/i], so you should always make sure you can survive them.
A word on effort, laziness and opportunity cost: Many of the things I will suggest to keep you safe will cost time, isk, or both. Your time has a value, and not taking the precautions I suggest will cause an increased risk of loss. But consider, if you can earn 100m isk in an hour of missioning, then if you spend an hour taking precautions, those precautions had better be worth at least 100m isk 'worth' of risk - otherwise you have just done yourself a disservice. If by carefully scouting the Aldrat to Hek pipe, you reduce the chance of losing a cruiser as you move down it from 12% to 2%, and the cruiser was worth 20m isk, you have just saved yourself an average of 2m isk. If that took you 20 extra minutes, you should probably have just spent the time missioning instead. If, meanwhile, a precaution is very quick to take, and you don't, then it is fair to attribute any resulting losses to laziness.
Note, incidentally, that CCP place almost no restrictions beyond the game mechanics on how people might attack you - hacking your account, and certain forms of communication are about all they prohibit. There is basically no point in either launching or threatening petitions, and you should be aware of the risk of account suspension if you allow emotion to get the better of you after suffering losses.
Why might people attack you?
There are three broad reasons for people to attack you: Isk, politics and tears.
It is perfectly possible to make a profit attacking people in hisec. Jita scams are an obvious example of this, as are suicide ganks of freighters. You can avoid these by not being profitable to attack.
Rarest of the three, there are groups who make unprofitable attacks in order to change the political or economic landscape, or to make a point. Hulkageddon, Burn Jita and Minerbumping are good examples of these. One rational choice is to avoid the targeted behavior while such movements are in place, which will avoid such attacks. If you decide to continue, then accept that you have willingly taken on risk, and take steps to minimize resulting losses. Treat such movements as a feature of the environment; it is almost certainly a poor use of your time to attempt to change them.
Those who seek tears enjoy inflicting harm other people. Some are additionally looking for an acknowledgement that they have caused upset. For the most part, they are looking for the easiest targets, and you may avoid them by being less tempting, or less vulnerable than other people around you, or by avoiding their richest hunting grounds. I advise you to never communicate with them, especially if provoked.
Flags, your Overview, and you:
Since Retribution, there are 6 flags that you might see. I will discuss only how they work in hisec:
The two you will get, and can mostly ignore, are the PvP engagement timer, and the NPC engagement timer. They serve only to prevent logging out from being a viable way to avoid an attack.
The Suspect flag means that anyone else can attack you, and that gate guns on grid with you will attack. In a populated hisec system, this generally means a lot of people are about to shoot at you. The Criminal flag means that CONCORD will shortly come and destroy you. This is certainly a death sentence. You will ensure you never get either of these flags. Many ways of attacking you will cause the attacker to gain one or the other. They know this, and have a plan for dealing with it (possibly 'buy another ship').
The Limited Engagement flag means that you have taken aggressive action against someone, and they are now allowed to attack you without consequences. You should never do anything to acquire this flag. It lasts 5 minutes.
The Aggression flag is gained whenever you take hostile action against someone, and will prevent you from docking, or jumping, while it lasts, which is 60 seconds. You, again, should never do anything to acquire this flag, but should understand that it means that someone who has just shot at you is unable to follow you through a gate.
There are situations in which it is useful to take aggressive action to defend yourself. I strongly suggest that you do not do so until and unless you have decided to learn more about PvP, and can properly identify them for yourself.
Even if you never intend to join a university fleet, I recommend you take the time to set up your Overview at least partially to university standards (LINK) - in particular, the Backgrounds, the Colortags, and a Pod Saver tab. The first two will let you have meaningful conversations with other university members about the situation you find yourself in, the last will be invaluable for preserving ship and/or pod when attacked.
In hisec, anyone appearing with an orange or red background may attack you freely. I personally suggest turning off the flashing of yellow backgrounds, since while you may freely attack them, they pose no threat to you unless you do, and it is helpful to be able to clearly identify threats.
In Retribution, there is a 'safety' system. Left on the default green, it prevents you from taking any action that would gain you a criminal or suspect flag. As a default, assume that any action that requires you to change this setting is going to cost you your ship (also some sec status). One legitimate exception that you may see: If you fly logistics, then repairing a friendly ship that has engaged in pvp may require you to set your safety to orange. If you are part of a fleet, and your FC understands the significance and risks, then you might do so at their instruction.
Note that anyone in your corporation or fleet can attack you freely. As an E-UNI member, you can rely on university rules and procedures to deal with the former. To prevent the latter, never join a fleet with anyone you do not have good reason to trust.
