Science & Industry

I have a miner buddy that I want to follow around on security duty. This is especially important when she starts hauling minerals around. The problem is that I don't have a ton of experience and no experience in PVP. I've search through the guides but there is just too much information. So here are my questions:

1. What is a good beginner ship and equipment to protect against player pirates? (~30/40m budget atm) I guess the main goal is to get them out... not necessarily kill the pirate. Not yet anyways.
2. Are there certain skills that I can't live without?
3. I'm aware I can warp to 0m and jump... are there other tactics that will help our survival?
4. What should my miner/hauler buddy have (skills,modules)
5. Is there any other questions you think I might be missing?

At the moment I'm running in a Osprey with Light Missils and shield modules and an after burner. My buddy just has cargo expansions.

I'll look up both "Alpha" and the ships you mentioned. I'm assuming you mean I will be cloaked. If that's the case what is my tactic? Cloak until the hauler gets attacked but then surprise gank them?

There is generally very little you will do as a solo pilot to "defend" a hauler.

As others have said that in HS you cannot do much. Gankers will be able to one shot the hauler before you can do anything.

In lowsec the best method is simply to be a cloaky scout. You jump ahead to check for threats on the other side, letting your pilot know when it is safe to jump.

if most industrials are actually attacked, they will die before you can react.

The only other thing would be to use an ECM ship, like a rook or falcon. With these you could try and jam out enemies on a gate letting the industrial through. But you'd have to be able to tank the gate guns.

For a Hauler gank, which is done on gates where the damage from Gate guns limits the effectiveness of any suicide gank type other than an Alpha gank (doing a whole lotta damage with one shot and only expecting to get one shot off), there's not much you can do other than web your friend to limit their exposure to scanners and gankers. I suppose a logistics ship might help if your timing ends up perfect and their timing's not quite right, but it's a long shot.

For protecting a mining ship in a belt, a Tornado running 650mm ACs will do enough damage to destroy enough catalysts fast enough that a reasonable gank squad won't end up killing the mining ship. A blackbird running Gallente Jammers (maybe 1 or 2 Minnie) and a stack of medium ECM drones on the mining ship will also do wonders, jamming out the gank ships. Basically, you lock the gank ships up as they land and start firing/jamming as soon as they go GCC.


Oh, and tell your buddy to fit a freaking tank. That at least forces the ganker to use more than a solo Tornado.

If you are talking about hisec, you don't protect the miners by shooting down the ganker. You protect them by just being there and letting any would be gankers know that they won't be able to get any loot out of it. If they loot the wrecks they get pvp flagged for your fleet.

Other option might be a dual web rapier to get the ship into warp faster. Gives the people looking at your cargo less time to decide if its worth the gank or not. Also gets you to the end faster

Yeah, isin't ship wreck blue like abandonded loot?

Highsec - tell your hauler pilot to fit a damn tank. Buffer tank, not active tank. Train support skills to make buffer tank better. And don't haul more than the cost of a ship capable of blowing the hauler up.

Lowsec - don't ask me, I'm a filthy rotten carebear.

Way too many vague questions, while I understand it makes perfect sense to anyone unfamiliar with EVE, they're perplexing to long-time EVE players.
Understand a few things :

• It's is a long term game with no end goals (except on what you decide) and you *will* encounter long periods of boredom. As such, players tend to manage their playtime as efficiently as possible or make it as easy as possible. Running escorts or bodyguard for routine hauling jobs gets old very fast, as it's neither effective nor great way to spend your time online. Fix the root problem, not the symptom : non-AFK, reasonably tanked hauler and do not haul more than 50-100mil worth of goods in a T1 hauler, have insta-warp exit bookmark from trade stations.
• Learn how successful highsec ganks are accomplished - tactics (bumping, scout scanner etc.), gank fleet composition (typical gank ships), numbers (which vary depending on system sec), favourite gank systems (Niarja pipe, Uedama pipe, all trade hubs), quiet times (typically late US TZ, early EU TZ) .... and many others. With this picture, you will know what to expect and how to deal with it when the time comes.
• If you lack the skills or infrastructure, then don't try to do everything yourself (for the short-term). Instead, do something which you're good at, example getting isk from mission running and using it to pay for public services being offered by other players. Always evaluate the time you spend to generate isk vs the time you waste that generates nothing. For hauling, the most well-known atm are Red Frog Freight (which also spawned Black and Blue Frog services for lowsec/null and high-value respectively) and probably Push Industries as well (though I haven't personally used their services).

I can't think of any situation you could be a body guard in eve in general,
scout? yes
Logi to help them survive longer? sure
but there will probably be very few times you are orbiting your bro and a guy warps in to try and kill him and you actually fight and kill the person first.

As others have said about alfa strike. Any T1 hauler can be popped in a single shot by a tornado with a full rack of 1400mm arttys. The key is, at least in high sec, to keep your cargo value low enough that is not worth the loss of the tornado. Once they fire it is only a matter of seconds before CONCORD shows up and pops them. There is nothing you can do to protect a T1 hauler. It is all on the hauler pilot to avoid being an easy profitable target.

In low and null there is no CONCORD so there is nothing to stop a Ganknado or pretty much any ship or gate camp from pretty much insta popping any T1 indy. there is nothing you can do fitting wise to give a T1 hauler more ehp than a poorly fit cruiser. I have yet to see a T1 hauler fit that hits 10,000 ehp without totally gimping cargo space. Only hope there is to scout ahead for him and tell him when it is clear to jump. But even then there can be a pirate cloaked off the gate waiting for an easy target. T2 haulers are much better. A blockade runner is almost ungankable once you know how to fly it properly. but they are only good for at most 10,000m3 of cargo. A deep Space transport can be good as they can get near battleship level ehp and have natural +2 warp strength. These can be fit very tanky with a couple of extra warp stabs and still have a decent cargo. However if you hit a organised gate camp kiss your 100m transport good bye. I have gotten through gate camps with a DST when they were not expecting me to have +4 warp strength but it is a big risk. A camp of only 2-3 ships is generally not a problem though.

As far as protecting miners. Since the buff mining ships are much tougher. T1 barges are still very easy to gank but are not a big loss for the miner and worthless as far as loot/salvage goes for the ganker. these are mostly ganking for fun. Exhumers however now take some planing to successfully gank. personally I have several Kill mails from my macks not only surviving gank attempts but getting credit for the kill. you can fit a mack for max yield and still get over 20,000 ehp with good skills and the right implants(I fit 3 active hardeners and one passive resistance amp in the mids). Cargo expanders do nothing for mining ships now. The ore hold is unaffected. They are a total waste. for a max yield fit I run a ice harvester rig and a overclocking rig. this lets me fit two mining upgrades and have enough cpu left for a good tank.

For a pure tank fit I would recommend an EM rig and a shield extender rig. then put a damage controller and reinforced bulk heads in the lows, and as much shield hardeners in the mids as you can fit. you will find if it takes more than one ganknado or 5-6 destroyers to gank you, most gankers won't bother. It just costs them to much. Keep in mind though no ship is ungankable. freighters with over 200,000 ehp get ganked if their cargo is worth the risk. Some gankers fit passive targeting modules so they can target and scan you without you even knowing.