EVE New Citizens Q&A

covops are excellent scouts , either of them, bombers can be better because of insta lock , covops for probing

recons are not better, but will do becuase if it jumps into a decent bubble camp its dead.

If your a wizz kid with the probes fly a prober ( plexers , people logging when they have agro )

Bomber can also tackle (well) due to insta lock (no decloaking delay)

The best for heavy tackle I find is probing T3 with nullifier,100+k ehp and nuets .

Yeah ... not so much in EVE but IRL when I was young and in some other games I've been in Leadership positions and ... it's not always fun.

You can't let your personal feelings about things and the people you're leading (if they're jack asses) get into the mix, though you can show pride in them if they're good. You have to motivate your people to do well even when you know you're headed out to get your asses kicked. That's not easy to do.

You have to care about your peoples well being - as they will know if you don't - yet not let their well being be the dominant factor. Here - you've got to measure the losses you and your people are going to take against what is to be gained during the mission. You may know something your people don't ... which you may or may not be able to tell them ... and yet still have to lead them out to an ass kicking they're not going to enjoy.

And then ... of course ... there's always going to be someone in your group who thinks that they know better how to do things ... when they don't ... and you have to deal with them and their belly aching while you're trying to keep the unit from being destroyed.

When you're winning - it's all cake. You still need to pay as much attention to what you're doing - so that you take full advantage of your victory but ... it's not near the suck fest of having to command a defeat. If you lose - which as the guy in charge you may well know is fore ordained - it's all going to be YOUR fault and that's a factor too - but one you can't let influence your decisions as it will cloud your judgement. People who let their own reputations enter into tactical decision making are generally poor leaders but ... if they're good at looking out for themselves - they're often able to deflect blame they do deserve and claim credit they don't. That's one thing the troops usually don't see that much of - the internal politics that go on amongst the organizations leadership. If they do see it - that's not a good sign ... but it's almost always there to some degree.

*shrug*



So ... as one of the troops ... what you can do - is to do whatever job you've been assigned as well as you can and constantly learn from what's going on. You'll learn not only about the game but about your fellows and your leaders. Even if the guy's a jack ass himself - do your best to help him win even if you end up with no credit for it. Of course ... helping him win ... does not mean trying to tell him what he should be doing in the middle of a battle. It means doing YOUR job - but knowing when to give him a heads up about something he needs to know about and when to keep your mouth shut.

As you progress, you may well pick up some things, learn to recognize not only what is happening - but what's coming down the pipe - and eventually end up in a position to do something about it yourself. Then you can have you're own little gang of bright eyed FNG's and disgruntled veterans to lead and - if you know what your doing - have some measure of success ... even if it's only to not get your asses kicked as badly as they might have been had you not been there.

When you lose ... try to objectively determine why. What part of it was your fault? What part of it was matters beyond your control? In any case - don't get down about it - that doesn't help. Preserving an attitude of intelligent aggression is important. Whatever happened last time - next time - be determined that you're going to stick it to the enemy.

When you win ... do the same thing. Look at why you won - objectively. Look at what part of it was due to your brilliant leadership - and what part of it was due to superior numbers, the enemies stupidity or just dumb luck. Here - don't let it go to your head. Preserve your attitude of INTELLIGENT aggression. Whatever happened last time - next time - be determined that you're going to go out and stick it to the enemy.



.

The good thing about combat probing is that you can do it in high sec with little to no risk. Probe down mission runners (or alts or corpmates) for speed.

Also, don't forget the d-scan. Being able to use both in tandem GREATLY increases your value.

Monitor your alliance scout/intel channel and see what kind of reports people are sending and when they are sending them.

Sometimes it's "local spiking red"
Sometimes "4 reds in XXX" is sufficient.
Sometimes it's "4 reds, XXXsystem, taranis, 2apoc, helios"

Again practice either in your system during non-fleet times or CJ up to highsec and try it out. You can even create your own intel channel to time your messages.

If you get caught, make sure to gather as much intel as you can before you GTFO or pop.

And in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, no matter what happens: Don't Panic.

Yep, I do this already (when I don't have the luxury of being lazy) but excellent advice for the uninitiated.

Frigates take forever to target lock with anything bigger than a destroyer.

The last time I was in a Covert Ops (Buzzard), I landed in a drag warp disruptor bubble 100 km from the gate, and was uncloaked by a cargo canister sitting next to a Cynabal (cruiser hull).

I activated my MWD, cloaked, turned out of the bubble, and made an easy escape.

Probing Tips :

Find patterns that work for you that you can setup quickly.

The 4-5 probe pattern is only one pattern of many - some using different size probes and shapes.


Try and find 15 AU spots away from your target while having a fleet member keep DSCAN on your target.

So you launch probes out of the targets scan range, you get dscan confirmation from a friendly, and then activate the scan, and then either immediately pull them in if you get your 100% signature on the first shot, or move them back out to 15 AU ASAP to be off scan and repeat as necessary.

Before I joined the TEST empire, I used to live down in Providence, and because I'm guessing becuse your part of Yulai that's where your based. From my experiance the FC's in CVA and allies can be quite stuck up at times. "If you don't have this type of ship, your not coming" was exchanged in Ventrillo once or twice. That used to irritate me. However, a ship that doesn't fit what the FC asked, is better than no ship at all.

As for the scouting, you can scout in any ship as long as you can use your judgement. [Begin overzealous story] I once joined a fleet in hero rifter tackle, and I ended up scouting in that rifter. After sucessfully not killing the fleet by discovering a red gate camp, I did end up dieing after I attempted to point a Harbinger who had someone else with him. Died just as the fleet finished warp. FC said I did a brilliant job, and I ended up with 17M in donations from the fleet. [End of Overzealous story].

And again, having a scout in something is better than having no scout at all.

Always remember; you are never useless to a fleet. Especially in a frigate.

Covert ops ships make excellent scouts, if you already know the ropes, and 0.0, and the local area, and how to probe and d-scan quickly.

Your first line (quoted) tells me, and probably your FC, that you'd likely have been more productive in the fleet in one of the other suggested ships.

Keep at it, explore the area, provide lots of good intel in your intel channels - make a name for yourself as someone that scouts well outside of fleets and they'll let you be the scout for the fleet.

You make some really good points which should have been obvious to me.



This is in fact my current plan. I've been following reds around through our space and keeping our intel channel informed about their doings.



Nah, FC's a good guy, just looking out for his fleet. And again, though did I kind of take it personally in the first five minutes, I'm trying to guide this thread away from why he wasn't excited to take me (I totally get that now) and toward what I can do to acquire/practice the skills I need to be an effective scout.