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Bombing run, does the bomber need to be moving?
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Tharnokk
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2013-02-26 01:20:59 UTC
All of the bombing tutorials out there have you moving towards a target and then uncloaking and releasing the bomb at the correct distance. Assuming the target is not moving, why not get into the proper range, stop, decloak, then bomb?

Beyond that issue of what is best practice, I am also confused about the results of my own test with this. I launched a bomb while standing still and the bomb travelled some distance, exploded, and I was damaged in the blast. How is this possible if the bombs are supposed to fly 30km? I am wondering if this is the issue with launching them from stand still.
Tsobai Hashimoto
State War Academy
Caldari State
#2 - 2013-02-26 02:50:13 UTC
i think one reason your moving is to get in warp faster
Seraph IX Basarab
Outer Path
Seraphim Division
#3 - 2013-02-26 04:36:30 UTC
You are moving because you should also be aligned to your warp out point. At the very least it gives you transversal from some of your enemies.
Morgan Torry
Arma Purgatorium
#4 - 2013-02-26 07:36:30 UTC
To answer all your points:

1. Tutorials are just that. Perfect scenarios for perfect situations for perfect targets. Not likely to replicate the results in the real-world.

2. Why keep moving? Because if you get caught you're dead. Stealth bombers are the most fragile ships out there despite being T2 and holding BS-sized weaponry. You get caught and you're dead. Usually you set up your bombing pattern to where your target is directly between you and your warp out (a celestial such as a planet typically). Once you get to that sweet spot 30km, you decloak, hit the button, then right-click Warp to your warp out. Before they can usually even see you on their overview you'll be in warp.

3. The bomb does fly 30km. It does damage up to 15km away in a perfect sphere shape around the destination point. If you, in theory, launch a bomb and are sitting 100% still (0 m/s) you will receive no damage. Period. I've done it plenty of times when practicing on cans and what not. If you received damage it's because you were either moving towards the bomb's destination (if you maintain roughly 80 m/s or more you'll be within blast radius...depending on your missile skills ofc) , got shot at (by rats or players), or a combination of the two.

Arma Purgatorium - What is Podded May Never Die
Zaq Phelps
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#5 - 2013-02-26 11:15:24 UTC
Eve is also not a 2d universe. If you aren't moving your ship settles out on the horizontal plane of the solar system. If your target happens to be on this plane... great, but if it's not it will be ncessary to maintain movement towards them while launching the bomb.

Also... all the other reasons listed above.
Andreus Ixiris
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2013-02-26 13:27:02 UTC
Your ship at least needs to be facing in the direction you want the bomb to go, as it will be projected in a straight line from the exact front of your ship. Generally, for maximum safety, you want your enemy to be directly between you and the point you're warping to - get up to speed, get into bombing range, uncloak, deploy bomb, cloak if possible, warp.

Andreus Ixiris > A Civire without a chin is barely a Civire at all.

Pieter Tuulinen > He'd be Civirely disadvantaged, Andreus.

Andreus Ixiris > ...

Andreus Ixiris > This is why we're at war.
Tharnokk
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#7 - 2013-02-26 16:53:30 UTC
Cool thanks. You aren't always in danger and needing to warp off when bombing. Example: you see probes sitting at a wormhole and you want to pop a bomb off to see if you can get the covops that might be cloaked there.
Sjugar
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#8 - 2013-02-26 18:50:00 UTC
Tharnokk wrote:
Cool thanks. You aren't always in danger and needing to warp off when bombing. Example: you see probes sitting at a wormhole and you want to pop a bomb off to see if you can get the covops that might be cloaked there.

Maybe the bomb will take the wormhole and surpise the fleet on the other side....
Ginger Barbarella
#9 - 2013-02-26 19:35:25 UTC
Tharnokk wrote:
All of the bombing tutorials out there have you moving towards a target and then uncloaking and releasing the bomb at the correct distance. Assuming the target is not moving, why not get into the proper range, stop, decloak, then bomb?

Beyond that issue of what is best practice, I am also confused about the results of my own test with this. I launched a bomb while standing still and the bomb travelled some distance, exploded, and I was damaged in the blast. How is this possible if the bombs are supposed to fly 30km? I am wondering if this is the issue with launching them from stand still.


The idea is to try to get into firing position ALIGNED to a warp out in case things go badly.

"Blow it all on Quafe and strippers." --- Sorlac
Enso D'saria
The Sound Of Freedom
#10 - 2013-02-28 20:33:21 UTC
Zaq Phelps wrote:
Eve is also not a 2d universe. If you aren't moving your ship settles out on the horizontal plane of the solar system. If your target happens to be on this plane... great, but if it's not it will be ncessary to maintain movement towards them while launching the bomb.

Also... all the other reasons listed above.


This has lead to some...interesting stray shots due to new pilots not allowing enough time for their ship to orient on target upon approach after starting from rest.
Unsuccessful At Everything
The Troll Bridge
#11 - 2013-02-28 21:09:53 UTC
If your bombing safe is directly in line with the target (ideal situation), then aligning at full speed before decloaking and bombing is what you want to do to minimize the time you are lockable.

If your bombing safe is not in line with the target, you are better off staying still, bombing then warping. Having any kind of speed can hurt the alignment time in this situation. This is where having a nano or IS in the lows or agility rigs is handy.

Since the cessation of their usefulness is imminent, may I appropriate your belongings?
Derek Wiildstar
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#12 - 2013-02-28 22:21:25 UTC
Your ship orientation randomly adjusts about 15 degrees when you reach a full stop. If you come to a full stop after having aligned to the target your bomb will be way off course(15 degrees is a lot of space when it comes to bomb launches).

If you're not doing a warp through your best bet is to align, to set your speed as low as possible, launch the bomb, cloak and then warp off. I've done this with a jag about 30k from me.
Substantia Nigra
Polaris Rising
Goonswarm Federation
#13 - 2013-03-01 00:34:03 UTC
There are a number of situations / reasons you might want to be moving when you launch a bomb. In my recent experience they include:

  1. Moving allows you to aim your bomb. The bomb travels in the direction that your ship is facing, and the most stable and reliable way to have a ship facing in a chosen direction is to have the ship moving … even very slowly … in that direction. When a ship stops moving it sits still for a while, facing in the direction of previous movement, and then after a time settles into some other direction.
  2. Moving allows you to GTFO faster. In many bombing scenarios you do not want your fragile bombers to hang around after releasing their bombs. The classic approach here is to have your target approximately 30km from you, directly between you and either a bookmark or a celestial. So you start your bomb run, say at 35km, by aligning to the bookmark or celestial, then when you reach 28-32km (or whatever tolerances you’re working with) you decloak and launch your bomb, then you immediately warp to that bookmark / celestial (at range, whatever).
    3. This approach applies to many bomber scenarios, fleet or solo, but a classic is when you’re bombing the jumpbridge traffic on a hostile POS. You cannot afford to stay ongrid for very long after you uncloak (10-15s before hurt is arriving) so you use ongrid/offgrid bookmarks aligned thru the target jumpbridge … and you’re moving towards your warpout before you decloak.
  3. Moving allows you to close range after the bomb is released. If you are planning or expecting to continue the engagement after the bomb hits then you may also be wanting to move into point range while the bomb travels towards your target. When I was wanting to do this I’d usually fit a (lazy) 30km point, but often I’d find myself needing to follow-up with torps and only equipped with a T2 point. So, by moving towards the target, I can fairly efficiently switch from 30km and no target-lock to having them locked and pointed.
  4. Moving helps avoid decloaking your buddies. When you’re bombing in squad waves you may not be wanting everyone to be uncloaked for the first wave. So by having wave 1 align first and move long enough to be >2km from the rest of your gang, before decloaking and striking, you keep the rest of thegang under cover until their turn comes.
  5. Moving helps provide traversal. To aim your bomb you need to be pointing towards your target. So you will have zero traversal to that target. But you may want to have traversal to other nearby hostiles … but only if you’re moving. Also if you are moving (without prop mod running) it will take you less time to attain decent traversal after launching a bomb than if you were stationary. This was often an issue when tackling hurricanes, either baiting them with a single bomber to get aggro or a small gang not wanting to lose anyone. They could often one-shot us if they got a good hit, so we’d be wanting to get transverse motion and a prop-mod surge as soon as we could. Once you got the traversal, and occasionally lost half your EHPs in the process, you were often ok to deliver the followup torpedo hurt fairly safely.


While bomber movement is usually a damn good thing, there are situations where slow-ahead is the order of the day … as opposed to the usual full speed ahead movement. The main two situations where I see this are:

  • Offgrid bomber strikes where you’re attacking an overwhelming force and would be vapourised if you crossed the gridwall;
  • Fleet attacks at hostile jumpbridges where your attack is delayed for some reason and you cannot afford to keep aligning ahead at speed … both the risk of getting uncloaked by a POS module and the risk of moving beyond the bombstrike sweetspot … and don’t think you have the time to warp away and reposition.

In these cases you’re compromising your warp-away capability to accommodate other operational benefits.

I guess I am almost a 'vet' by now. Hopefully not too bitter and managing to help more than I hinder. I build and sell many things, including large collections of bookmarks.