Scouting, aka dancing on fire with back-up

In my last semi-tutorial kind of guide I talked about the making of bookmarks and evasive maneuvering while flying through hostile space in an attempt to fly a slight bit safer into unknown territory as well as well-known space ways. I had written this guide with solo flight in mind with an interceptor fit to kill other scouting frigates and inties, and even certain cruisers. If you want to know, that fit has also been able to put a serious dent on some battlecruisers and battleships but I admit that those had to be seriously fail-fit; a flight of Warrior II drones would spell trouble but some people's fits are mind-boggling.

But this guide will not be about avoiding trouble if you happen to find it, but quite the opposite, to find and pin-point trouble to hopefully smash it to bits. Once again, I will write this based on the way I would do it so feel free to dissect my techniques and please leave comments both if you think what I write is correct or if it's full of fail. Enjoy!

The clone

Must I really repeat myself? Yes, I must. People fly carelessly all the time. So make sure your clone is updated, and make sure you don't have any expensive implants in your head, unless you're uber rich and don't care. Don't come crying if you get podded cuz I would just laugh at you!

The ship

This is where things get interesting. Unlike solo flight where you have to be in something comfortable and survivability or death affects only yourself, fleet scouting demands that various ship types be used and that their pilots be ready to do everything the fleet commander asks. In fact, the FC and the scouts should be the only ones to say anything on comms, but more on that later. The ships used most of the time for scouting are the following, in no particular order: Covert Ops with combat probes, Stealth Bombers, Interceptors, E-war frigates, cheap/fast T1 frigates, and Force Recons, except for Falcons due to their nature (unless you are Unzer or Loofaro, who are true Falcon artists). One has to be a very experienced pilot in order to field Recons because they are hard to fly correctly and very expensive to lose. Bombers can now be used as scout since the change that allowed them to warp cloaked and hit at shorter ranges, but they are known for being paper-thin and slow, which is a bad combination. So by far the two most popular choices are the Covert Ops as forward scouts and the interceptors as secondary scouts. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but let's look at how they are used.

You do not see me

Out of the two most used ship classes for scouting, the Covert Ops is the clear winner. Being very agile and its hability to warp cloaked at 13.5 au/s, it is also the ship of choice to fit expanded probe launchers, which allow the use of deep space and combat probes, thus making it the perfect choice to find ships in cosmic anomalies, deadspace complexes, hidden belts, or hiding in safe spots. Since the changes to the scanning mechanics in Apocrypha one can now get warp-ins on ships within seconds. It is the perfect ship to use for prolonged observation of an enemy fleet; an interceptor can also do it but not for more than a few minutes, and it risks getting caught by a fast enemy cloaker. A Cov Ops on the other hand can litterally stay within spitting distance of a fleet for hours on end if flown right. And this creates the main use of the ship in combat, its hability to become the warp-in point for the fleet, the maneuver AMC had dubbed "Poetry in tackling" where the Cov Ops can position itself perfectly for the fleet to land on an enemy at zero where not only are ships in web/scram range but interdictors can bubble an entire enemy fleet in one pass, but usually this is done to kill a single target or a very small gang. All the Cov Ops pilot has to do is fly around the intended target while in cloak, and position himself lined up with the direction the fleet will arrive from, and put his ship at the 50km point on the opposite side of the target. When he is in position, all the Cov Ops pilot has to say is "Warp to XYZ at 50km", where XYZ is the pilot himself, as there is no "me" in a fleet. Hilarity should follow :))

Speed... I am speed!

For those like me who want a more hands-on approach to scouting, with hair-raising flying stunts around enemies and gates and the hability to lock up a single ship for a fleet to dine on, the interceptor is where it's at. For those with very deep pockets, the changes to Faction ships in Dominion have turned the Dramiel into the best interceptor in all but name. While it still has the base 6 au/s warp speed of frigates, a few Hyperspatial rigs will take this close to 10, and its normal space speed is simply unmatched. But let's face it, a 150mil ISK tackler is kind of ridiculous! If you can throw that money around go for it, but normal interceptors are cheaper and easier to replace. All the interceptors do the job, but my suggestion is to have the ship fit the fleet it is in. For example, in a small gang or below-cruiser-size gang, it's better to use the more combat oriented ships like the Taranis because every little bit of damage counts, but in general the faster tackle oriented interceptors like the Stiletto are a better choice; my own fit allows for a 19.4 au/s warp speed, and the shield buffer and tracking disruptor makes it able to tackle something potentially dangerous and survive long enough for the gang to arrive. Here's the fit:

          [Stiletto, Fleet tackler]
          Nanofiber Internal Structure II
          Overdrive Injector System II
          Micro Auxiliary Power Core I


          1MN MicroWarpdrive II
          Warp Disruptor II
          Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I
          Medium Shield Extender II


          150mm Light AutoCannon II, Barrage S
          150mm Light AutoCannon II, Barrage S
          Salvager II


          Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
          Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I

X goes here, Y goes there

The scouts have a few advantages that go with the job: in a perfect world with ultra-tight comm discipline they are the only ones apart from the FC who should have a voice on comms, and because of the nature of the job they have more freedom of movement than the average fleet grunt. Before a fleet is to set off, scouts must be dispatched along the path of a destination in the case of a roam (maybe 2 jumps before the fleet departs, and then 1 jump ahead as the fleet advances), or in the surrounding systems in the case of a static operation like a gate camp, POS take-down, etc. The job is simple yet crucial: to warn the FC of ship traffic, and more specifically the ship types and numbers. One of the worst things a scout can tell an FC is "there are lots of reds here!". Sure seeing Local full of reds can be stressful at first, but "lots!" doesn't give any information about numbers or if any ships are about, and if so, what they are. I have heard before a scout freak out like this and the way he was talking we thought he had jumped into a 100-man camp... turned out it was 10 reds and they weren't even in space!

Something that can help a scout a bit is doing bookmark runs the way I described them a while ago (linky), especially in unfamilliar space. Of course one has to know beforehand that he will be scout for a fleet but at the very least it should be done in the stellar vincinity of the corp/alliance HQ. A fleet op will not be the best opportunity to make a full survey of the constellations the fleet will travel through but the scout has to be ready to make safe spots on the fly because it's a sure bet that the fleet will attract attention at some point, especially in hostile space.

Giving intel and GTFO tactics

So let's say you're the forward scout of a medium-sized roaming gang. In theory, the FC should have at least a couple guys checking possible trouble coming from the back and the sides of the fleet, but when the fleet is on the move your job is to stay one jump ahead, sometimes refered to as "getting +1", calling whatever you see. Of course there is a method to this, and here's how I do it. After getting +1 and the system has loaded, you have to make sure the fleet can safely go through the gate you just went through (warp bubbles, ships on gates, rats, etc.) and check the status of Local. When it's clear the fleet can proceed but if there are people, you have to give a quick list on comms like "SCOUT SCOUT! 10 in Local, 4 reds, 2 neutrals", followed by which corp/alliance the people belong to. Remember, noob alts in Reaper/Ibis/Velator/Impairor are usually scouts so don't take 'em lightly. Something you can do really quickly is hold CTRL and select say the reds from Local and drag them into fleet chat. Since Dominion it's much easier to link stuff in chat because there's no more option menu, it goes straight to "Show info". As you warp to the next system towards destination, refered to as "outbound", you scan repeatedly with the directionnal scanner to see what is out in space, not only towards the outbound gate but also out and about. When you do see ships you have to figure out if they are POSed up, in a belt, in an anomaly, etc. This is when having a probing Cov Ops can come in handy because he can scan down a ship in deadspace in a very short time. Believe me, finding a lone Marauder BS when you're in a Jihad roaming gang is quite funny!

But eventually something will happen, much the same way as it did when I was explaining bookmarking. You'll jump straight into the waiting arms of a camping fleet with bubble up, tackle, ECM, the whole nine yards. But this time you may not want to evade them; you may want your fleet to destroy them utterly. First thing to do as with anything in EVE PvP, Don't Panic™. If you're in something fast you should survive this ordeal. Here's how I do it, in this very order, and about as fast as you're reading it:

• Jump and !! HOLD CLOAK !!
• Notice the enemy about me
• Hit the scanner exactly once
• Give number of Local, and click-drag a couple random reds into fleet chat
• Decloak, reapproach gate at max speed (careful not to bounce off), JUMP!
• Get safe quick because 1 or 2 tacklers will try to follow

Suddenly your scanner window becomes the most precious thing on your UI, especially to your FC, and the intel it gives has to be transmitted. The way a lot of people do it isn't the best way. Yelling "THEY'RE HERE!" is totally useless.Yelling out the entire fleet list on comms at the top of your lungs does give an idea of what's out there, but if there's more than 10 ships it's also useless because the FC is thinking about 20 things at once (learned this lesson the hard way, but it was worth learning; once again thanx BOZO). The best thing to say would be something like "SCOUT SCOUT! Enemy on the VOL gate in ARG... List coming up". Take your time... ok, do it quickly but without rushing it, sort your scanner by ship type and write down the list of ships in fleet chat in the following fashion:

Apocalypse x2, Ares, Blackbird x2, Claw, Crow x2, Hurricane x4, Jaguar, Kitsune, Rapier, Sabre

As you can see, this is 16 ships neatly written in a single line. You can even use abbreviations for known ships such as Apoc, BB, Cane, Ruppy, etc. The more complete the ship list the better for the FC. Of course you may be missing some cloakers like stealth bombers and recons, but nothing is perfect so just do your best. Once the FC has this list it is much easier for him to decide what he wants to do about it, either set up on the contested gate in Mexican Stand-off fashion and get ready to call primaries, or back-track and find better fish to fry if your fleet is outnumbered 6-to-1.

Once the fighting starts the scout has to revert to his ship's original role, tackle for interceptors, damage for bombers, etc. I suggest Cov Ops just stay cloaked on the edge of the grid, or scout neighboring systems for possible entrapment.

And that's pretty much it. Basically when you scout you have to become your FC's eyes, and the information you need to give him is as clear as possible. With good comm discipline the FC should be able to hear you right away, but if comms are rather loose you have to be certain the FC will hear you so making sure your voice is loud and clear on comms is mandatory, and beginning your intel broadcasts with "SCOUT SCOUT!" should shut people up in a hurry. If not, the FC can then apply disciplinary measures as he sees fit; I have seen people get kicked out of fleets before, and I have also heard of fratricidal gankings.

I hope this little guide was helpful in any way, and if you feel something is missing or if there's something you would do differently please let me know by leaving a comment.

Don't run from enemies; run AT enemies!

o7

Bookmarking and evasive actions, aka dancing on fire

One of the most precious commodities in EVE Online, especially when either living in or having to travel through Low-sec, Null-sec, and even W-space, is intelligence, more commonly refered to as intel. Whatever the type of flying one does in the game, knowing where friends and foes are, where they're going and what they're doing can be vital in either getting to a destination safely, or to find them and utterly destroy them. But how do you go about flying in regions you don't know anything about, or where you know there are enemies but have no idea who is where and doing what? Enter one of the most interesting activities in EVE: scouting.

As promised a couple posts ago, I will do my best to explain how I go about travelling in relative safety in Null-sec space, especially in enemy infested regions where everybody and their cats and dogs would like nothing better than to pin your name on their killboard. Their job is to make sure you get as little intel on them as possible, while your job is too collect as much intel as possible and do your best to live to tell about it.


The clone

Before you even think about plying the more dangerous space lanes, make sure of two things: 1- make sure your clone is updated because there is always a chance that you'll get caught at some point, and 2- make sure you are not in a clone full of expensive implants, for the exact same reason. It's enough that you're about to fly into a potential giant fireball, but it would be stupid to bring a ton of TNT with you.


The ship

This is where opinions may start to differ, but I'll go with what I'm comfortable with. The three rules I follow when I choose a ship to fly into danger: fast, maneuverable, and cheap. Of course cheapness is a variable factor but the main rule is that you can not only afford to lose the ship but you can also turn around and buy 4 more without even blinking. Some people may also want to fly something cloaky like a Covert Ops or a Stealth Bomber, but for myself I usually choose a ship that a lot of people love to hate, the Claw interceptor:

          [Claw, GV27]
        Overdrive Injector System II
        Overdrive Injector System II
        Inertia Stabilizers II
        Damage Control II

        1MN MicroWarpdrive II
        Warp Scrambler II

        200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
        200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
        200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
        'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

        Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
        Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

It's one of the fastest ships in the game and it has enough punch, even though the goal here is not to get kills, but to whizz all over the place. Other good choices if you want to fly cheaper are the Vigil, Slasher, Atron, Executioner and Condor. Yes, I am biased towards Minmatar ships because, well, in rust I trust :) But before you undock, make sure you have access to the maps of the regions you'll be travelling through. This is most important if you have never travelled in the said regions, but even when you have a good idea of the jump lines I strongly recommend that you use the maps at all times. Being old school, I have printed copies of Ombey's 2D maps, but if you use a second screen you can open either Ombey's, use Dotlan maps, use Battleclinic's EVEmap, whatever rocks your boat. I don't recommend using the in-game map or alt-tabbing betwen the game and the maps I mentionned because when you'll be out in enemy territory you'll need all your attention on piloting.


From the frying pan into the fire

After you have decided on a region to explore - I'll go by Null-sec examples - the first thing I do is set the entry point system as destination. Usually those entrances go from Low-sec into Null-sec, but there are some cases like PF-346 in Syndicate or HED-GP in Catch where the entrance is from a totally safe Hi-sec system into deadly Null-sec. Try to avoid those if at all possible as they are camped the majority of the time; there are usually other ways into those regions. Unless there are massive gangs about, flying through Low-sec should not be much of a problem because you cannot get bubbled, and ships usually camping Low-sec gates will take forever to lock a frigate. Of course there is such a thing as remote sensor boosting but it is rarity more than the norm.

But before you make that final jump into Null-sec, take the time to get acquainted with your surroundings, and by that I mean looking at the maps to know how the surrounding systems are laid out. I even recommend that the bookmarking party start here. First, make some safespots that are not in line with gates or celestials, but without getting overboard. Just tell yourself that no safespot is absolutely safe but in a fast ship you can always make them on the fly. The way I do it is I warp towards a random planet (usually the farthest one) at 70 or 100km and make a bookmark in mid-warp, then warp to it after getting to the planet. I then edit the bookmark into something readable like "Khabi midwarp safe 1". I know, this is usually far from safe. So I then warp towards another planet, do another bookmark in mid-warp which becomes "safe 2", then warp between the two bookmarks to create "safe 3". There is no such thing as too many bookmarks in a system so make as many as you want.

Now that you can sit in the system in relative safety, it's time to check what the entrance gate looks like from your side, but the principle will be the same around every gate you will encounter during the trip through the unknown. What I do is warp to the gate at 100km, and as soon as I come out of warp I point my ship in a random direction but towards empty space, not a planet, gate or station. I then turn on the MWD and let my ship's speed do its magic. At around the 200km point away from the gate I make a bookmark which I would name "Khabi ongrid tactical 7Q gate". I then make a slight course correction with my ship and keep on burning away. When I'm sure that the gate is now off-grid I stop my ship, make the bookmark, and call it "Khabi offgrid tactical 7Q gate". When flying in Null-sec it's good practice to warp to gate tacticals like this instead of straight gate-to-gate so as to evade being caught my Mobile Warp Disruptor bubbles.

So from now on, when you would enter the Khabi system before jumping into 7Q-8Z2, you would first warp to one of your safe spots, then maybe to a second one if hostiles are on your tail, and then to the off-grid tactical off the 7Q gate to find out if there's a welcoming commitee, or scouts that would warn people on the other side of an incoming hostile. All is clear, you warp to the gate, jump, and congratulations you are now in space you've never been to before and bad things could happen any second. When the other side does not have a welcoming commitee, get busy making bookmarks like you just did, except maybe a bit faster because situations can change quick in Null-sec. Also, get tacticals off of every gate as quick as possible. This is most important in hub systems like VOL-MI in Curse. If you're lucky you'll be able to go a certain number of systems without hindrance, but at some point the great demon Murphy will rear its ugly head: you jump in, the system loads, and there's 20+ reds on your overview and an interdictor bubble as gone up. Now the real fun starts!


It's getting hot down here

The worst thing to do now is panic. Of course things have to be done quick because everybody will pull out their drones to try and decloak you, but let's freeze time a bit and look at what can be done. For evasion purposes, one of my overview tabs has planets on it, so if my overview is not yet displaying this I make sure it does. I then zoom out the view of my ship so I can see the entire bubble and the placement of the enemy fleet. I need to look for the closest edge of the bubble; hopefully it leads away from the enemy, if not I start invoking various gods. Deep breath... double click to start moving and thus decloak, turn on the MWD, select a planet on the overview, and spam the warp button for all it's worth. If someone has a single point on you, don't panic, your speed should get you out of range fairly quickly. If you are scrambled and your MWD has shut off, the base speed should be enough to carry you out at somepoint but usually this is a bad sign. If you get webbed you may be about to meet your maker but the main thing is this: never give up! Of course having a hostile gang in local like this will disrupt your current bookmark session slightly but if you want to get out alive you have to keep doing it. Maybe not all gates and 4 safes if you're in a hub system, but at least 1 or 2 gates to throw off the chase and resume in quieter space. A big gang will usually not go crazy about killing a single interceptor or frigate, but who knows, they may be bored and/or vindicative.

But let's say you've escaped unscathed from your encounter, at some point you have to go back to base. If there's a way to go around an enemy fleet then by all means use it, but keep moving and bookmarking. I wouldn't suggest going straight back the way you came because this time the bubble will be on the gate the second the enemy sees you in Local, let alone on scan. I can tell you this from experience, if you go for it, you will die. At this point the only option to bring the ship through is to risk taking a longer route or logging off. But once your bookmark trail is laid out it will be much easier to fly in relative safety. But remember: RELATIVE safety! In EVE danger can lurk anywhere.

In the next installment I will look deeper into the actual scouting job of flying in front of a fleet in both the offensive and defensive way.

Fly hard but smart

o7

And here comes 30!

Yes, some time in the middle of this week Cozmik will hit another benchmark in the number of skill points: 30 million. In the past I've written about the fact that it seems like yesterday I was drinking in all sorts of guides about EVE Online, mainly about the PvP aspects of the game, all while losing Rifter after Rifter after Rifter. But this time I hit the benchmark with a slightly different feeling. As I have done with my one and only corpmate, these days I feel more like being in a teacher/trainer mode. While CHAOT has plenty of advanced characters capable of flying capitals and the most advanced T2 ships, there are also many noobs spread out amoung the various corps in the alliance. Another phenomenon I've noticed here and there, sometimes I come across a character that is older than mine, but find out that the amount of skill points and game experience is below mine, sometimes by a large margin, mainly due to the player taking breaks off the game, from a few months here and there to entire years. Apart from the fact that I should have a lot more ISK to my name than I currently do, I'm happy with the sort of experience the game has given me, and even more happy than in the 2 and a quarter years of Cozmik's existence, skill training has never stopped except maybe a few times in cases of bad timing in the days before the skill queue, and exactly twice after. All in all I think there's only a training hole of 2-3 days, no more. Sure I've had learning implants only recently but at least I was able to train mostly non-stop.

But the experiences I've had. Be they good or bad, they all help understanding this beast of a game. You can tell people to fly only what they can afford to lose till you're blue in the face, but people will never understand until they lose something expensive. And I don't care how much a noob says to me "it won't happen"; fuck you noob, it will. You can tell people the theory behind tackling a ship, but the only way to learn tackling is by doing it, and doing it, and doing it. There will be easy ones where you come in at a perfect angle to get under the guns and never get shot, to complete fail ones where you're swatted of the sky before you get in scram range. But there will be more experience coming out of the failures than from the easy successes. But those can be fun too! Not a lot of people can say they've killed a carrier with nothing more than T1 jihad cruisers. God that was funny! Or a hauler so full of POS modules and fuel that none of our ships could loot the wreck. Those taught the lesson that going afk or flying unscouted in 0.0 is asking for it. Which brings me to my next subject, scouting.

How many times have I heard that when flying something big and/or expensive, "get a scout" ? I myself have lost ships to not being scouted properly, sometimes by my own fault, sometimes the scout's. But scouting itself, expecially in enemy territory... apart from actually fighting I don't think there's a more exciting activity to do in the game. Before I even think about doing any kind of activity in hostile regions, I get into something fast and cheap (I consider interceptors cheap now, but a speed fit Rifter would do) and proceed to fly straight into potential danger as if I'm about to own the place, but knowing I don't own it yet; paperwork at the notary still needs to be done! I then proceed to make a few safespots in the middle of nowhere, which are never fully safe but can be made on the fly, and tactical spots off grid of stations and stargates. Go to the next system in the constellation, rinse, repeat. Inevitably something will happen: hostiles will want to frag you. And as with other activities in EVE, there is only one way to learn evasive maneuvers, and it usually involves jumping into a potential bubble camp. I can tell you from experience, slipping away from an enemy gang is almost as satisfying as getting a good kill. Case in point: I was tooling around the entrance constellation to Providence near my alliance's current HQ, bookmarking the hell out of the place and dodging a bunch of Amarr god worshippers. Quite fun that! While a lot of more sensible pilots would have backed off and gone back home, I had decided to sacrifice my ship and possibly my pod in getting as many bookmarks as possible, even under the eyes of the enemy at times. It took them just short of an hour and a bit of luck to finally squeeze me on a gate, but I don't know how CVA does things because they failed to get my pod not just after killing my ship, but in TWO systems and THREE bubbles! The Eris pilot must've been distracted or something because he should have had plenty of time to pod me, And the other ships? I don't know, maybe they were scared of warping to a bubble or something. But even with luck and enemy failure, I can thank my scouting experience for getting at least my pod out of that particular fire. I think I'll write my next post on the scouting and evasive maneuvering subjects as I will be doing this quite a bit in the near future. I've done it in Curse. I've done it to a certain extent in Catch, Scalding Pass, Wicked Creek, Providence, Great Wildlands, Syndicate, and even low-sec and W-space. Believe me, it's worth taking the time to do!

So where to now after the command ship and 30 million SP? Well, I have the other command ships to train, and before that logistics ships, even though I don't think that fits my style of flying very well. I've recently been asked the question about capital ships, and I still stand by my view of them: they are big fat slow targets waiting to be DD'ed by the next Titan. I know some people love the big fleet fights, but I would find multi-hour poundfests where I have to shut off my brain and do the FC's bidding extremely boring and annoying. I much prefer small gang skirmish warfare because I'm just too much of a twitch player. So I'm pretty sure I'll be training capital ships only after I've trained every races' ship classes up to level V, and then some. Caps bore me that much. But participating at blowing 'em up? Ah, now that's a different story! Next life report at 40 million :)

Fly for your adrenalin levels and dopamin rewards

o7