User:Sin tsukaya/Punting

Outline approach for getting a punt onto a wary target in a roughly known location, with a minimised window in which to have your probes spotted. Tailor it to your situation.

Typical use-case: Flashy sniper battlecruiser is camping a gate, has multiple tacticals on- and off- grid, a presumed optimal of about 120km, and is presumed to be watching D-Scan and Local dilligently, and to potentially have eyes in this system and/or neighbours.

You are: In a covops-cloaked vessel with an expanded probe launcher, or in a t1 scanning frigate with a cloak of some kind fitted. Probing skills (so long as you have a minimal baseline), and vessel bonuses may be unnecessary - if the target is in something large, and the location is well-known (known to be on-grid with a particular gate, say).

You are punting: Few enough vessels that you do not spike local, and spook your target. A tackle-fit stealth bomber is the single best option in terms of establishing a tackle (yes, this can be you!), but they are fragile. Interceptors are a traditional choice, but may have to avoid appearing on D-Scan if full surprise is necessary. A blob, or part thereof, is the most resiliant and decisive thing to punt onto a target, but the spike in local is to be considered.

Your support fleet: Is waiting nearby. A good compromise would be an off-grid tactical near to an in-gate, but the resiliance of your puntees, and the paranoia of your target should be considered. You and they should have a firm grasp on their expected travel time.

You would also like: On-grid eyes, watching the target, if they are known or believed to be actively moving around. (This can be you, if the staging point is on-grid with them).

Some terminology:

• Punter. You.
• Puntees. Everyone who will be punted onto the target initially.
• Target location. A point on the system map known to be within tens of thousands of km of the target, at which to target probes.
• Staging point. The location at which the puntees will be waiting. This must be in-system, but if the puntees can't cloak, you might need it to be either out of D-Scan range, or do something to consider the puntees until the punt (at the risk of additional coordination, you could have them warp to you, undock, or even jump into the system, just as you start your final scan).
• Rally point. The location at which your support blob is waiting.
• Probe drop point. Somewhere off D-Scan from as much of the system as possible, but certainly from the target. A deep safe is ideal, but an off-grid tactical near a different gate or outer planet may be the best you can do.

Sequence of events:

• Pre-flight checklist:
  • Support at rally point.
  • Puntees either at staging point, or primed to get there at short notice.
  • Everyone expecting a punt (or a double-punt, if you have included ewar/logi/snipers in the puntees).
  • Combat comms.
  • Eyes on the target as up-to-date as possible.
  • D-Scan and Scanner filters set appropriately.
  • Punter in appropriate command position in squad.
  • Puntees identified to support, and x-ed up, watchlisted, or both.
• Warp to probe drop point.
• D-Scan. Everything you can see can see your probes. Are you okay with that?
• Drop probes. 5 is a nice number (the actual scanning is going to be trivial, remember - and this lets you do it twice without spending 10 extra seconds decloaked, reloading).
• Enter warp to the staging point.
• Immediately get into the probe map window, and shift-drag your probes straight upwards, until they are more than 16AU above the galactic plane. Press Analyze. (The point in this is to get the probes off any possible D-Scan as soon as possible. Even a deep safe will be dscannable by someone warping past it).
• Recloak as soon as you are moving (or, in the case of a t1 frigate, landed). You'll probably be in the middle of dragging probes around at this point. That's fine.
• You now want to establish a tight 4+ probe formation around the known location of the target. Probe range set to 0.5AU, and do not press Analyze yet.
• Let people know you are ready to punt.
  • Puntees move to staging point.
  • Support move to OGC in-gate.
  • Check in with any eyes you have on the target.
  • Make sure you know what model of ship you are punting onto.
• Once you are within 15 seconds of wanting to punt, hit Analyze.
• Have the puntees break gate-cloak, if applicable, and align.
• As soon as probe results are in, identify the target ship, and wing warp to 0.
• Ctrl-space. You don't want to be going there.
• Second punt, at range, if relevant.
• Ctrl-space.
• Shift-drag probes straight up at least 16 AU, and press Analyze. (This gets your probes off the field fast, and keeps them in formation for another go).
• Either when the puntees get on-grid with the target, or when point is called, support should jump-jump-jump and warp to puntees.
• Scout on, soldier.

Useful gear/skills:

• Astrometric Acquisition speeds up scan time, reducing period on D-Scan.
• Sisters probes warp faster, also reducing period on D-Scan.
• Fast mouse-work trumps both of these.

Closing point:

• Whenever you deploy a probe, it has the radius of the last probe recalled. Therefore, whenever you recall probes in non-stressful situations, first set them to 16AU radius, giving you a handy visual guide to what is out of D-Scan range when you later deploy them.