User:Iavatus/Workbench 1

Overview and D-scan - 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 (grid being the local arena of space, roughly 300km in diameter), 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 = 250 000 000 km = 250Million km. The exception is cloaked ships.

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)
Large ship 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 from incursion sites. This is from a 10 000 km warp. Notice the align times of the different hulls, and the actual warp time. Over multiple AU warps, the difference between a frigate and cruiser widens considerably, allowing interceptors to intercept.

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 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 Safespots: 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. 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.

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, so next we'll look at deep safes.

In systems without agents or stations, the other method is to warp between 2 aligned safe spots and bookmark. A little more time and effort intensive, but quite safe.

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.

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.

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

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

Off-Grid BMs

• Typically within a few 10s of thousands of KM
• Allows you to check gates even without a cloak

• • • • • • • NEED a link to a bookmarking system. Folders seem to be quite safe.

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 between bookmarks we avoid or minimise these risks (plus, being predictable is boring).

Gate camps - avoiding, finding and informing

So, we're minding our business, flying through

Dealing - 60 second cloak, burn back, align to celestials

Scouting - Dotlan for map and info. Probing and checking beacons, stations and belts. What info the FC/Live.intell wants. Again, information processing is part of the scouts job.

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.

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.

Understanding and manipulating our position safely

• Overview - how it works, who it shows, how to manipulate it (briefly)
• Dscan - how it works, who it shows, how to ensure the 14 AU around is clear
• Warp speeds in different hulls - align, ramp up, travel, ramp down. The ramifications
• Safespot bookmarking - how to make quick and effective safespots, and other utility bookmarks
• Why not to align - why not to warp between gates, and how to not do so using bookmarks

Encountering hostiles

• Gatecamps - The different roles, how they work together.
• Dealing with it - How to use intell channels to avoid them, how to use tools to find areas of activity (Dotlan and such), what to do if in the middle of one.

Prevention

• Travelling in high sec - What a ganker looks for, how not to be conspicuous, how to make yourself an unprofitable target