Warfare & Tactics

I'm talking about trying to pull a reversal on a can flipper. Here's the scenario:


He's stolen from the can, he's red. He may or may not already have you targeted.

I'm thinking about ways to make him jump the gun and fire first.

I thought about targeting him and then launching mining drones in passive mode, which won't actually do anything, but may trick him into firing first. Are there any modules that make it look like you're being fired upon but are actually benign (to CONCORD)?

It would, unless they have it turned off.
Highly unlikely, although I did have a slasher fire at me in hisec once because he thought he had killrights

If you really want to "Trick " can flippers here is how, it has a reasonable chance to work, and better yet, a chance that it wont.. and therefore you will be left alone.

Things you will need :
1 or 2 friends who are not corpmates who do like killing people.
1 exhumer class ship prefferably a hulk with 5 mining drones.

Step 1, fleet up with your friend, who likes face shooting.
Step 2, begin mining, full lazors a blazin and drones a flying!
Step 3, have your fleet mate non corpie face shooting pal drop a jetcan within reach (and use it)
Step 4, Important have your fleetmate cloak up in a suitable recon ship (rapier, arazu what have you) i find about say .. optimal range away from the can (so long as optimal includes scram range) will work nice.
someone will go red .. and there will be face shooting, but the miner will be safe as sin..

Keys to remember, when a can flipper is looking for cans, they typically check the following: what corp/alliance your in, because they want to ensure that there is not 300 corp mates in local .. they will frequenly set your corp red, and scroll local quick, to get an estimate of corpmates. If they deem you a target, they will swoop in, grab the bm and either warp away to come back, or power straight for your can. now some.. will catch the trick, they may look at the can , but a large percentage wont. they will warp in to 0 and flip you..
Now importantly, a can flipper will almost NEVER check their aggression timer for a corp (which is the only way they know they are red to you ). so you call your mining drones in and begin targeting the flipper, this will excite them , cause hulk kills are juicy. they wont even see the arazu decloak, until they are being fired on.. and then, sometimes for laughs, they open fire on the hulk... Concordoken...

Join a corporation in an alliance, shoot up your corpmates while alliance members are around, see if the blues try to shoot at you.

Its funny last couple of days I've been doing this very thing. The only problem is that the recon ships have a long uncloak - and targeting time. If they are on the ball -- off they go before you even get a lock.

Yes having the hulk drop warriors, and/or lock up the target can frequently go a long way for assisting in the distraction if you have problems, you may want to consider having a battle hauler on scene.

The hauler is fitted with dual webber, and a disruptor, and is from the corp which owns the can, haulers look inocuous enough, when the target goes red, the hauler can buy the time the cloakers need to decloak and lock. though this adds one more person to your team.

Either way, even if you manage to scare off the target, you now have a little hauling and mining team going, so your time doesnt go completely wasted.

great ideas from everyone. About two years ago, I got someone concorded too. Here is what i did. In an Osprey, I had 3 miner mods, and 1 missile and 4 light mining drones. Someone flips the can, so I orbit the can, pull drones in, target him, put out 4 hobs, jetcan more ore, target the new can, align to station, and shoot my own can. As soon as it popped, he fired on me, and I returned fire. Concord helped out a little after a few seconds and he popped quick. My lg shield extenders bought me the time I needed to last until Concord finished its business.

What effect did those actions have? i can only guess. Orbitting the can may show confusion or the preparation for battle. Pulling mining drones in may show that combat drones are coming out, which they did. Targeting shows aggression imminent. A second jetcan may show the possibility of taking the ore back quickly and aligning can show the desire to take it back and warp out immediately. As if to say, catch me before I warp out. Shooting the can may have made him think I shot at him (battle Osprey? surprise!) Seeing the can pop may have made him think that I flipped his can. However these events were interpreted, he shot me first and was concorded with my ship remaining in tact.

ow mocking about in highsec is just funny, it's not about balls or being though, it's just about having a laugh

As a member of the "Belt Police," [read: can-flipper with an odd schtick] I always use the can to pull the pilot's info. And for this very reason. It lets me confirm the can owner while getting their info up as quickly as possible. It's one of the most important things I stress to the aspiring officers I train. If you actually get a can flipper to bite on this deception they deserve to lose their ship.

As for checking the corp aggression timer: I can't speak for everyone. But my eye is always on it during a confiscation. As it is for just about every flipper I've known. Aggression timer, local, directional scan. You might catch new players ignoring these things. Anyone who does this more than three times will not be so oblivious.

For all the tricks one can come up with to deal with can flipping, the old and simple ones are still the best:

You want to avoid can-flippers: don't jet-can mine alone.

The safest way to avoid destruction when you get flipped: accept the loss and move on.

If you feel compelled to fight a can-flipper: have friends support you and/or try to fight in a ship fitted specifically against the flipper.

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/1107/The_Guide_to_Canflipping_v1.pdf

That's my can-flipping guide. I've got a section about can-baiters in it that will help a bit. The guide is geared toward can-flippers however, so I can't really say it'll totally help.