Crime & Punishment

Some time ago I wrote a guide on getting into people's corps and killing them. I'm told that it's proven to be extremely helpful to a bunch of people, so I thought I'd write more on some other things I know how to do.

Today I'd like to talk about target selection and intel in the context of wardecs. This is meant to help people get into the business, so if you're already knee deep in it you probably won't find much new information, if any.

I should also mention that in this case I'm talking primarily about wardecs where you intend to hunt targets and kill them with their pants down, although I suppose it's also quite applicable to wardecs where you're looking for a brawl or looking to camp and take pot shots.

The first thing you need when deccing someone is someone to dec. If you're going merc or have a personal vendetta, this can be pretty clear cut, but if you you're just looking for something to hunt for fun and profit it can be somewhat less so.

The typical way to find targets is to watch the recruitment channel for likely candidates that fill your criteria for preferred targets. While this is something that can be done with minimal effort, those corps tend to be quite small and even more prone to early disbanding than most, and other organization will undoubtedly also be deccing them, making them slim pickings split among several corps.

Another way to find possible targets is to hang out in hubs, along major pipes or in mission systems and look up anyone who flies by in a ship that you would enjoy killing. Be sure to bring a ship scanner.

Third, if you're a multidisciplinary bastard, you can use wardecs as a way to follow up on people who were fun to interact with in other contexts. If you got good tears or good loot from a suicide gank, safari or mission invasion, it's entirely possible that player's corp will also be fun to interact with, assuming it fulfills your other requirements.

Speaking of other requirements, there are a couple of criteria you should be mindful of when searching for opponents. They should be in the correct time zone for you, for instance. They may say what TZ they're in in the corp description, but if they don't you can take a look at the times of their typical kills and losses on any major public killboard. Keep in mind that there may be a fairly wide spread, especially if they're a corp that doesn't typically pvp. Their losses are also more likely to be spread out than their kills, as people can get killed while do some quick space-chores before work in the morning or late at night.

As for size, you'll want something with a healthy number of targets. Unless you have better information, assume an activity level of about ten percent. That is to say that on any given evening, about one in ten of their members is likely to be on. They'll also typically be several of the same faces every night with a larger number of occasional players appearing every once in a while. If your target is an alliance, you'll notice that the alliance information does not give out a total size. For that, you'll want to consult Dotlan or Evewho.com.

Have a quick summery of useful tools and websites mentioned in this guide:

evewho
Dotlan
eve-agents
eve-tools.com <-- In game browser only
Locates Are Us <-- In game chat channel
http://eve-locator.justaddhippopotamus.com/

Killboards are essential as well. Knowing what your opponents are flying can be the difference that turns a huge loss into a sudden victory. In general while you may think the lossmails are most important, I have found that killmails are even more-so. Seeing your opponents lost T1 frigates and cruisers for one or two races will lull you into a false sense of security. People won't fly expensive ships if they believe there is a good chance they will be lost. Plus they may have started flying a third race (I've seen it happen).

Intelligence is all about outmaneuvering and out-thinking your opponents. The more gathering you do, the more likely you are to succeed. I've been in corporations who rely on brute force rather than tactics in order to get kills, and I've watched them be outsmarted and massive amounts of tears happen on comms because of it. Put in a little effort and you can come out on top against even superior guns.

Bump for the Monk

Floppie is better at that than I am, so he's probably a better source of that guide.

Confirming these guys are good at writing stuff & generating pubbie tears.

The recruitment chat is essentially a good place to "go shopping". 9/10 of them are sensitive, PVP-Avoiding carebears.

Also eve-uni claims to execute all unsolicited wars with "full force", whatever that means. But in reality they deal with non-consensual pvp like this:

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Wartime_Standard_Operating_Procedures

(It's their carefully crafted war doctrine based on years of experience.)