Surviving 0.0
University Policies
Most of 0.0 space is forbidden to Uni members, with the exception of the Great Wildlands, Curse, Syndicate and Outer Ring regions. The reason for this is that sovereignty-holding alliances get very unhappy about strangers entering their territory. Unhappy alliances can cause a great deal of trouble for the University. Uni members make them especially nervous, because the Uni is a popular corp for placing alt spies. Be aware that some of what's discussed here involves space you shouldn't be in.
Sovereignty
There are two kinds of 0.0, NPC space and player controlled space. Some NPC-controlled space has system names similar to those in the Empire, while the majority of 0.0 has number/letter designations. The sovereignty information under the system name will tell you whether you're in NPC space or not.
Sovereignty can be established by alliances by setting up POSses and removed by destroying them. The Dominion expansion will change sov mechanism, which is supposed to make the system more fluid. Stay tuned for that.
Alliances will typically have one of the following policies regarding outsiders:
- NBSI
- Not blue, shoot it! This is the usual alliance policy. If your corporation or alliance is not set to positive standing (blue) to alliance controlling the space, you will be shot at.
- NRDS
- Not red, don't shoot! There are some regions of 0.0 where alliances shoot only those people that have negative standing. Curatores Veritas (CVA) alliance in Providence is probably the most famous example of such alliance.
There are stations in 0.0, though they are few and far between. There are also player-owned stations in 0.0 (outposts), but it is likely that you will not be allowed to dock in these. Don't buy something in the market without making sure you can go get it.
Ratting
Why is it lucrative?
Rats are worth more in lower-sec systems, and they grow bigger in lower-sec systems. In 0.0, you get very big rats worth top dollar -- battleships with million-ISK bounties and a chance of faction/officer loot drops. Note that even 0.0 has different security levels. Lower true security level means better rats. You can check the true security level of a system from Dotlan or some other Eve mapping service.
Rat/Belt Chaining
If you manage your rats, you can farm more money -- leave a few, and they'll respawn with larger ones. Done properly, you can get reasonably-frequent elite-level battleships, which can occasionally drop officer loot. If you work multiple asteroid belts into the equation, it can be very lucrative. Conversely, if you mess up the chain, it can go back to frigates for a good while.
If you mess up someone's rat chaining in 0.0, you will not make friends.
Combat in 0.0
Combat in 0.0 differs from low-sec or high-sec combat. There are no restrictions on ships or equipment. Concord also doesn't interfere with fights in any way, and there are no gate guns.
Capital Ships
You can be attacked by carriers, motherships, dreadnoughts, and Titans -- ships that are much more common in 0.0 space. They have long lock times, but you're probably not prepared to take them on. You can encounter capital ships in low-sec as well, but 0.0 is where they live. Cap ships don't use gates -- they jump to another ship which is generating a cynosural field.
Make sure your overview shows cynosural fields. If you see a cyno flare in-system, it's time to leave.
Bombs
Bombs can be deployed in 0.0 space. They're expensive and hard to use correctly, but they do area of effect damage, and lots of it. Be sure your overview is configured to show bombs (there's a delay before they explode), and get away immediately when you see one. A frigate can get out of the explosion radius if the pilot is quick off the mark, but one bomb can kill a frigate that doesn't get out of range. Three or four can do serious damage even to a battleship.
Bubbles
One of the biggest differences from Empire combat is the use of warp disruption fields or warp bubbles. Warp disruption fields are bubbles in space which prevent warp drives from operating. The only ships immune to this effect are Tech3 ships with the Warp Disruption Nullifier propulsion subsystem.
Warp disruption bubbles are placed at some point in space. If your warp vector crosses the warp bubble too close to either end of your warp, you can be pulled out of warp. So warping to zero isn't as safe as in high-or low-sec -- you can get dragged out of warp at the edge of the bubble, up to 100K from the gate. They do not deactivate your MWD.
Kinds of bubbles
- Warp interdiction bubbles:
- can only be deployed by interdictors.
- Can be shot, though the probes that create them are hard to lock.
- Last a limited time.
- Can't be turned off once launched.
- Heavy interdictor bubbles:
- can only be deployed by heavy interdictors.
- are centered on the heavy interdictor.
- are only destroyed when the heavy interdictor is destroyed.
- can be taken down quickly by the HIC pilot.
- Mobile warp disruptors:
- must be anchored or unanchored, which takes about 5 minutes each way.
- can be shot and destroyed.
- do not time out.
- are available in a variety of bubble sizes, in T1 and T2 versions.
Gate camps usually have bubbles of some kind. Therefore, warping to zero on the gate and being in a fast ship aren't sufficient protections -- you'll likely get grabbed by a bubble and drop warp before you are in jump range.
Avoiding Bubbles
Other people may warn you of gate camps, either in local, or by anchoring a can. By checking the maps for ship kills, you can often get a warning of trouble in an upcoming system.
If you have a covops scout, she can check things out ahead of you. Often, bubbles are placed away from the gate on common warp vectors (so people can't just burn towards the gate and jump out). That means you may be able to warp to a planet or other celestial and then to the gate, dodging around the bubble. Your scout may also be able to get to a point that will provide a clear warp-in to the gate. In that case, you can warp to your scout, then to the gate.
