These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Science & Industry

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Finding vacant moons
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Arrakis Fremen
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2013-04-26 20:10:06 UTC
I know I've seen some forum topics about how best to do this. But I can't seem to find anything regarding the best way to find vacant moons to set up a POS. Any other tips for picking out a good system would be appreciated.
Thur Barbek
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#2 - 2013-04-26 21:09:40 UTC
Assuming you mean highsec...

You fly to all the moons in target system until you find one without a pos. If you are proficient with Dscaning, then that might be a bit faster. For highsec, you can only anchor in 0.5-0.7. Systems close to a tradehub will almost always not have empty moons.

For low/null, same concept, except most towers will shoot at you during scouting.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#3 - 2013-04-26 22:12:00 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
I started by looking for stations I wanted to be in, then checked those systems.

Example of stuff to consider:
* Medical
* Repair
* 50% Reprocessing
* Mission Agents
* Manufacturing slots (and costs).
* Security level
* Distance from trade hub (4+ jumps more reasonable)
* Ice / asteroid belts.
* Average population.
* etc.

Station Search:
http://eve-online.itemdrop.net/eve_db/universe/station_search/

Maps:
http://evemaps.dotlan.net/
http://www.ombeve.co.uk/

Using dscan:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2916433#post2916433
Arrakis Fremen
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#4 - 2013-04-26 22:55:13 UTC
Thx Tau, just what is looking for!Smile
J'Ribs
Zepthanui
#5 - 2013-04-27 22:16:02 UTC  |  Edited by: J'Ribs
Set up Dscan and only have MOON and FORCEFIELD selected.

Fly to a planet.

Have a small D-scan range. (.5 AU or so)

Make sure you "see" all the moons in Dscan

Adjust the Size of the "window" to have all the MOONS and NO forcefields Visibile.

Scroll down. If you see a "MOON" anywhere, there is 1 less forcefield than moon, which means either EMPTY moon or POS outta fuel.

If you want an Empty Moon, as in NO POS at all, then do what I did up there, but replace FORCEFIELD with CONTROL TOWER
Bugsy VanHalen
Society of lost Souls
#6 - 2013-04-29 17:54:33 UTC
Arrakis Fremen wrote:
I know I've seen some forum topics about how best to do this. But I can't seem to find anything regarding the best way to find vacant moons to set up a POS. Any other tips for picking out a good system would be appreciated.

I hate to break it to you but in high sec, dispite what many with incomplete knowledge will say. empty moons in high sec are hard to find. at least in the systems you want to put a POS up in.

Allow me to explain.

There are several key factors to placing a POS in high sec.

Most high sec POSes are for research. to be safe from war decs you need to keep your BPO's out of the POS lab arrays. To do this you need a corp hanger(corp office) in a station in the same system your POS is in. This is where the bottle neck is. Systems without a station will have many empty moons. that is because you do not want a POS there. A research POS in a system without a station is a loot pinata as any BPO's it is researching will be in the POS. Unless you are insanely lucky, this will get you a war dec, eventually.

Then there are systems that have a single station and many many moons. You will find open moons here, but the office rental costs in most cases are insane. I have seen systems where office rentals are several hundred million isk per month. When office rental is more than POS fuel you better be making a lot of isk off that POS.

Then there are systems with several stations and an average number of moons. In these systems you can get a decent price for office rental, I found a system where I have an office for only 300-400,000 isk/month. very cheap. i used to be in Uminas near Osmon in the forge where I had an office at the base price of 10,000isk/month. the problem with these systems is there is not empty moons. you either need to buy one, or make a war dec and bash a POS to get a moon.

Most systems in high sec fall into one of these three categories. You can buck it up and pay the high price for an office, or you can invest the time to clear a POS and take its moon. there are many POSes in these systems that belong to long dead corps, basically just floating abandoned towers. it reminds me of SWG were all the land around star-ports were full of player houses, but only 1-2 out of every hundred were actually in use.

It is certainly possible to find a suitable system with an open moon. but you will generally have to be 8 jumps or more from the nearest trade hub, and away from the common shipping routes. it will take you a lot of time and an equal portion of luck to find an empty moon in a system along with a station that has reasonable office rental fee's. i cleared a small dead POS to get my moon, and do not ever regret it. it was well worth the effort.

there are many players that will say they can find a empty moon very quickly, but I bet you 1 billion isk it is in a system with either no station or station office rental fee's are huge. if not then it is 10 jumps or more from Jita.
Bugsy VanHalen
Society of lost Souls
#7 - 2013-04-29 18:10:14 UTC
J'Ribs wrote:
Set up Dscan and only have MOON and FORCEFIELD selected.

Fly to a planet.

Have a small D-scan range. (.5 AU or so)

Make sure you "see" all the moons in Dscan

Adjust the Size of the "window" to have all the MOONS and NO forcefields Visibile.

Scroll down. If you see a "MOON" anywhere, there is 1 less forcefield than moon, which means either EMPTY moon or POS outta fuel.

If you want an Empty Moon, as in NO POS at all, then do what I did up there, but replace FORCEFIELD with CONTROL TOWER

Considering most of the POSes in high sec are dead towers with no fuel this will not work. But the same technique can be used with moons and control towers only on the overview. then you see the POS regardless if it is only line or not. I spent 3 days doing this in my area, there was not a single empty moon in a system with cheap station office rental.

As my last post stated, there are three basic things to look for.

1- an empty moon
2- in a system with stations
3- where station office rental is not ridiculously over priced.

if you are looking for specific station services your list of possibilities will be much much shorter.

for example,

My POS is in a system with several stations, 6 jumps from Jita, I pay only about 400,000 isk office rental, my station has a level 4 security agent, and a 50% refinery. I need to manufacture at a different stati0on, or at my POS as the station in the system with manufacturing slots has a 35 million isk per month office rental.

To get even this I had to clear a moon as every moon in this and every other 0.5-0.7 system within 4 jumps in any direction was taken. I got what I need, perhaps some one else has different needs or preferences. I would have liked to get in a station with manufacturing slots, but could not find one at an office rental fee I was ok with. I simply dump all my ore/minerals into the corp hanger, and move them to the manufacturing station with a freighter. The added logistics is well worth saving 35 million isk per month, at least for me.
Arrakis Fremen
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#8 - 2013-04-29 20:08:56 UTC
Thx for all the info guys! Well I guess my next question is how hard is it to take down a empty POS? I have 2nd account with a pilot that can deliver a lot more DPS than myself. So if we worked together would it be doable?
xPredat0rz
Project.Nova
The Initiative.
#9 - 2013-04-29 20:39:23 UTC
you can also try to petition to have a dead tower removed. If the corp owners are gone CCP will "Delete" the tower, Freeing up a moon
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#10 - 2013-04-29 20:46:04 UTC
Arrakis Fremen wrote:
Thx for all the info guys! Well I guess my next question is how hard is it to take down a empty POS? I have 2nd account with a pilot that can deliver a lot more DPS than myself. So if we worked together would it be doable?

Two cap stable laser battleships (with drones) or Oracles could easily remove an offline small or medium tower between downtimes. I probably wouldn't recommend trying an offline large tower though.

You can shoot a tower over downtime, but the shield will regenerate some during that time.

Last time I checked my system, there were a half dozen offline towers without any modules.
Del DelVechio
Red Federation
RvB - RED Federation
#11 - 2013-04-29 20:46:09 UTC
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#12 - 2013-04-29 20:47:50 UTC
Del DelVechio wrote:
Or you can do this:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2876503#post2876503

Del

That looks awesome Big smile
Ishaki
Caldari Prime Investments
#13 - 2013-04-29 20:49:57 UTC
finding a free moon in forge is rough, but the rest of caldari space isn't a whole lot better. non caldari space is much easier to find a moon even near a hub.
Bloody Wench
#14 - 2013-04-29 20:54:25 UTC  |  Edited by: Bloody Wench
I have a lge min tower 6 jumps from Jita you're welcome to have for the cost of the tower.

You can keep the (things that let you anchor a tower in hisec from caldari navy) that are in it.

Office space I can free you up a slot and unrent the office there.

My invention days are over, so it's just offline doing nothing.

Send ingame mail to this character if you're interested.

[u]**Shepard Wong Ogeko wrote: **[/u]  CCP should not only make local delayed in highsec, but they should also require one be undocked to use it. Then, even the local spammers have some skin in the game. Support a High Resolution Texture Pack
Arrakis Fremen
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#15 - 2013-04-30 18:54:20 UTC
Quote:
I have a lge min tower 6 jumps from Jita you're welcome to have for the cost of the tower.


That's a very generous offer and I will be looking in either Gal or Min space because that is the 2 factions I have high enough status with. However, I still need to create a corp before moving forward. And that will be another learning process getting it set up correctly and getting an office. Unfortunately, the more and more I read about all this the more confused I get.Cry If it is still available once I am ready I will contact you. Thanks again!
Bugsy VanHalen
Society of lost Souls
#16 - 2013-04-30 20:14:45 UTC
Arrakis Fremen wrote:
Thx for all the info guys! Well I guess my next question is how hard is it to take down a empty POS? I have 2nd account with a pilot that can deliver a lot more DPS than myself. So if we worked together would it be doable?

4000 DPS will take down a small tower in about 1 hour.

That is 4 ships if you can average 1000 DPS per ship.

With two ships at say 1500 total DPS you should be able to do the job in a little over 3 hours. Keep in mind you need about 250 DPS just to cancel out the shield regen. Yes, offline towers still have full shields, and they still regen. They just do not have the force-field bubble.

Another option is to find a tower currently offline and offer the owner at least 50M to take it down. you will spend minimum 50M on the war dec to bash it, so might as well give them the isk and safe your self some time. If they do not reply, then you can be pretty sure nobody will show up to defend it if you do decide to bash it.
Sir SmashAlot
The League of Extraordinary Opportunists
Intergalactic Conservation Movement
#17 - 2013-05-01 21:22:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Sir SmashAlot
With the ice changes coming down the road, the price of fuel will be based off availability and not players willingness to mine the stuff. Therefore if you cannot self produce the fuel, make sure to account for signicantly higher fuel costs longer term. Though it will have the added benefit of freeing up some moons as people shut down marginal towers.
Manny Moons
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#18 - 2013-05-02 18:25:52 UTC
One thing I didn't see mentioned:

It's nice if your POS is located in the general direction of the undock vector of your office station. You're going to be making a lot of trips between the two.