EVE New Citizens Q&A

My observations and experiences may differ from yours. Where my perception is askew I am certain others will point out my flaws. Here goes...

Concord is not an organization with a system spanning insta-locking pew laser and an interstellar event predicting perfect electric eye. They are only an after the fact responder, like real police. It takes time for them to react.
For instance in the sand box, those grains of sand we call gankers, particularly with -5 or lower security status, sometimes manage to trick in and hide in a highsec system and can even manage to gank you. They sneak by Concord and it happens because of the coffee and donut swilling Concord Agents slow response. Concords finest

Should this be fixed? Some see this as breaking the rules about evading concord, some players think that it should be "Fixed"?
I am here to assist in the present, not politicize for the future or access opinion regarding these rules issues.
There is a reality which is now and I digress to that.

Many players wrongly seem to believe that they have in Concord a free personal Temporally foreseeing "Terminator" body guard. But in reality its only a weak paper deterrent, like an old man with pepper spray not an impenetrable cyborg death squad. Most importantly its ONLY pepper spray after the crime is done, you are not protected, just avenged and poorly I might add.

So here's the best advice I can give you about Concord's response and your expectations.

1. Don't count on them to help you, they don't help you. They are only a revenge group that's all its worth.
2. The real deterrent of Concord is the ISK loss the attacker might incur. Since most gank boats are cheap to begin with it only deters those who don't know better. Eventually everyone knows better. And one can build a lot of gank destroyers for what you make in a single Level 4 Mission. Most wear negative security status as a badge of honor.
3. There is no such thing in EVE as safe. There is safer, but there is never safe.
4. Concord is always slower than they need to be to save you from the first volley.
5. Never fly what you cannot afford to lose
6. Concord adds a level of difficulty to Ganking, making the challenge greater and success sweeter. Gankers know this and they don't really care except that it sweetens your tears.

The Mechanics:
https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/CONCORD_%28Mechanics%29

What you can do to help yourself from being ganked/pirated in Highsec.
1. Accept that you are not safe anywhere.
2.Never AFK Mine or AFK Mission run.
3.Pay ATTENTION TO LOCAL. A spike of players jumping into a system particularly in Highsec is likely a gank-sqaud looking for targets. Yes, In Highsec.
4.High Value mission areas draw gankers for the same reason as it draws mission runners. Isk and Kills.
5a. Anticipate that other people are working against you. Plan accordingly, Align and be ready to warp.
OR if you prefer...
5b. STAY Mobile! never sit. Orbit what your mining.
6.Tank Up, Use Skiffs or Battleship Mine, its still viable.
7.Move your operation around, use many different systems, give yourself options.
8.For Mission Runners less bling mods will lower the chance of 40 man destroyer fleets jumping into your mission.
9.Mission runners. Passive drones will not attack can flippers and not draw agro like aggressive drones will.
10.High volume systems with a lot of players should never Auto piloted through unless your empty.
11.D-scan for Combat probes. If you see them. LEAVE. Take a break.
12. None of the above is foolproof, Insure your ships.

Last best advice I can think of, if you can't beat them, join them. Make an alt and join a gank crew, learn the mechanics, of which I am merely a novice. Those who know better may say so.

Remember Concord is useless against any pilot with the will to give them the finger, and a little creativity, and the craftiness to do it within the EULA... which in my observation is pretty much everyone of us.

I personally find concord so unlike real police in the sense that you can't fight back or escpae them.

Agreed. CONCORD is OP and should be nerfed. I thought we were the demi-gods of Eve, not CONCORD.

Also, unlike the real police, CONCORD doesn't come forty minutes too late, do nothing effective, and make you fill out a bunch of paperwork with people that are going to charge you more money to insure your stuff now.

Wait, is that what CCP is doing when they claim that fewer exhumers are dying now? Because I'm working my butt off to prove that statistic wrong.

CONCORD are a nuisance when disposing of unwanted miners. They make it so you need to have an alt ready to scoop the loot, and that alt has to be willing to incur a Crimewatch yellow card.

There are differences between security status and faction standing, might be nit-picking, but better get things clear.

Gankers don't sneak past CONCORD, but past the faction Navy.

The CONCORD branch reacting to agressions in high-sec, is actually called DED (kinda like the fate of your ship should you engage in such aggressions) and they're usually not in a system unless there's been a previous sanctionned action. There is also various tricks to drag DED away from a target in order to slow down their reaction time.

The faction navy however, is patrolling gates and they do react to arrival of players with a negative security status, but unlike DED, they're not as powerful (still punchy though) and their reaction process is staged, what gives people the time to slip away as they don't insta-lock-jam-point-pwn, they often start by webbing instead of pointing.

DED reacts to sanctionned actions, faction Navy reacts to mere presence of a player with a security status below -2 (in 1.0) and downwards or a standing towards their faction below -5. There's a few systems where DED is also the local faction NAVY though, in CONCORD sanctum near Arnon (ie.). Other than that, you can travel in high-sec with a positive security status but still chased by faction navy if your standing towards their faction is negative.

https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Standings_mechanics#Quick_Standings_Reference_Table

https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Security_status#Security_Status_and_Traveling_Restrictions

Concord is like that police sniper who has you in his sights, but doesn't pull the trigger until AFTER you shoot the hostage. You can stand there all day with your gun out, but until you actually DO something aggressive, that sniper just watches you, confident of ending you at any time...