EVE New Citizens Q&A

OGB: The boosting ship is in the system. It is undocked, and either at a POS (player owned starbase) or at a "safe spot" (a bookmark in the middle of space with no warpable objects).

AFK Cloaking: It bothers nullbears who are trying to do PVE because there is an ostensibly bad guy hanging out in their system and they can't do anything about it (except cry profusely).

The "grid" is the volume of space around a station, asteroid belt, or other point of interest, usually 150 km radius, that represents the vicinity of that point of interest. If your ship is at a safespot and there is nothing else there, a grid is created for your ship. The server doesn't otherwise "load" the empty space between planets etc, and just creates a few grids around the points of interest and around the ships moving about; the rest of the emptiness in a solar system is otherwise not even loaded into memory and doesn't exist until something travels there.

Anything on the same grid as you is visible in your Overview, anything NOT on the same grid as you is not. It is possible to fly away from a station and all of a sudden exit its grid and enter a neighbor grid; everyone around the station, and the station itself will disappear from the overview.

Off-grid means in the same solar system but not in the vicinity of where you are. Some of the leadership bonuses just require the ship providing the bonuses to be in your fleet, and in the same solar system, but it doesn't have to be where you are exactly.

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AFK cloaking happens because the list of pilots in the Local chat channel is an invaluable intel tool. You can see who is in your solar system, and show-info and see their affiliations and character sheet, and you can do this even if they are in a cloaked ship that you did not see entering the system.

Remote solar systems out there at the back end of 0.0 space barely have 3-5 pilots in them, if that, and the local Alliance will quickly respond with warships if any intruder jumps in, in order to protect their POSes and PVE people who are mining or killing the rats. If you are cloaked, they can't find you that easily, and you pose a threat that they can see in Local. They can't take the chance that you'll uncloak and attack the unprepared PVE ships, so you're basically denying them PVE income by just being there doing nothing.

More reading on grids: http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Grid_Manipulation

I'm not sure if grid-fu is still in vogue, though.

Wow. Good read. Doing this would seem to constitute a real increase in system intel, but it seems like the grid wall damage relationship might be the most interesting. I mean if I were defending a system presumably I could make a single whatever shaped grid that covered all gates. Perhaps redundant with local chat intel now, but should that be removed this might become a more common practice? Maybe I am not understanding though.

When the grid is expanded is that a shared grid? That is, I am sitting in an expanded grid I have made and I see someone in it who has not made such a grid. To them I am invisible if i am off grid with respect to the default grid they have loaded, yeh? It seems though that I am also outside of their damage wall, though they are not outside of mine? Practical target/dmg range probably make that meaningless, but it somehow seems interesting.

I am sure to be testing patience here and apologize... The standard grid (actually a sphere?) is isomorphic with the tactical overlay, meaning you can visually map any unmodified grid visually onto the system for reference?

Thank you again for the patient responses and the translation of the AFK acronym. :)

Hi. Sorry to be so dense and so interested at the same time. My initial question has been far more than answered. I am now just thinking out loud, often an activity tedious to others.

If I understood the article, with enough patience and skill I can basically preload a grid of any shape and size within a system. (Not sure about the utility of a smaller grid, but couldn't a create a 'tiny grid' right on top of a gate such that anyone warping in was effectively blind? I don't need to see the whole system if I am already there and monitoring gates?

Or if I am defending a system could I not then create an asymmetric grid that touched all gates, whether or not they were within the range of a single grid? In the presumed absence of a local channel showing who comes into a system this would allow me to monitor the system. Additionally, since the grid is preloaded and someone flies/warps into that preloaded grid, might I be able to create a dark spot in which to hide, say, a fleet, gang, who would functionally be right next door, but mechanically off grid? Perhaps I am really not getting this, but doesn't this mean I can create the 'shape' of the local system to my advantage? If I am understanding, if it is not 'on grid' it is not yet loaded and in effect does not yet exist?

AoE crosses the damage wall. Logistics? Can I hide caps, super caps? Can I launch drones across the predefined grid walls... Or leave my drones in a tiny gate grid while I set right next door?

Though I may experiment with this just to learn how to do it, any functional use for me is likely years away... I take all responses as real generosity... I can imagine a well developed skill in this might be a situation specific asset to any corporation I might eventually want to join. You know...buffing my résumé and all.

Edit: sorry... Given the impossible nature of sub warp flight, mightn't a constrained, imposed, grid constitute a tactical advantage? Could you funnel opponents?

Very clear. Tyvm!

So overall time consuming and often useless. Imma learn how to do it!!! Ty for the reply.

I confess I thought about this. Professionally I spend a great deal of time considering the 'mental models' by which we map reality in order to function. Something as simple as thinking of a sphere as a grid has behavioral implications, particularly for a rookie like me. :). Ty for the confusion.

Also just a note there are only two ways to truly hide a fleet.
1. Pilots in the fleet are cloaked.
2. Pilots in a fleet are in a safe that cannot be directionally scanned down.

Either way in any K-space these are both moot.

Always glad to help. That say when someone passes knowledge onto the worst thing you can do is not share it to the next generation.