EVE General Discussion

Well, we're all newbies in one thing or another when it comes to this game. The real difference is in genuinely being interested in learning something, or just dismissing it and refusing to even try. That's the difference between a newbie and a noob, in getting trolled or helped.

P.S. You mentioned money. It's obvious you're thinking ahead whereas many do not. I wouldn't begin to PvP anywhere broke, I don't care what is promised. And, it's harder to make money if you don't have a dedicated money alt and/or can run anomalies etc.

The money part is a grind early game...and I know broke people in RvB and Null. Usually they overspend and don't replenish their losses. Just fly what you can afford to lose and I'd probably save at least $200-$500 mil to make life easier. Though you can get by with less flying T1 frigs and cruisers while you're training -- it still adds up if you lose a lot of ships and aren't reimbursed. That said, many people will help people who are helping themselves -- but it's not something you want to rely on. Hope you give it a try, it sounds like you'll be ahead of the normal PvP curve as it is.

This doesn't seem to be a realistic or complete portrayal. If such a ship existed, it would get used for PVE to smash through missions and make billions... but that's not happening. So you can say "2000 dps super tank" but it must have other flaws that prevent it from dominating the entire game space.

I get the difference between alpha and dps, buffer and tank. A PVE fit has the general advantage of planning for the encounter; you can max out resists for example. Why aren't resists a valid tactic in PVP? Resists can let a single solo PVE battleship take on a couple dozen NPC battleships - and frigs and cruisers at once. PC ships deal damage by type just like NPCs... seems like it should work.

Seems like PVP play is about alpha and surprise and force differential. Do people ever "come from behind" in PVP? It seems like you'd need special tools, like speed tanking or target disruption.

The pirate battleships like the beforementioned vindicator, as well as the machariels, nightmares and rattlesnakes do get used just for that...

In PvE you have the advantage of just reading the mission title or description to see what faction you're fighting against "oh these guys, let's fit for EM/Thermal", in PvP you can't do this except if you have similar intel on your target, who will still most likely have plugged their resistance hole instead of leaving a huge one there like you have in PvE. Surprising someone "from behind" sort of happens in pvp all the time, mostly this just results in ganks however and not those so called good fights. Cloaky gank proteus undocking next to you in 2000 meters range, turning on their microwarp drives to bump you off align while waiting for their targeting delay to end... Succeed in that and your prey is scrammed and webbed, followed by melted with blasters. I do this on daily basis and absolutely love that hunt.

Similarily entire fleets can be hidden by various means such as using bait ships that have the sole purpose of luring the target into agressing them, grabbing point and lighting up the cyno for the rest of the fleet to come in. There's plenty of more ways ranging from login traps, fleets hiding in wormhole space etc etc. It all comes down to preventing your opponent from getting the intel and having the intel from them at your disposal. There's spies in the opposing fleet or corporation....all kinds of tricks you can do.

The way you plan ahead in PVP is using fleets and set them up for a certain purpose. You plan ahead who and what fleet you want to fight, if you're out to roam and defend your system or fight pirates or wartargets.

Flying around in the lower sec systems and null will also teach you who lives where and what fleets you can expect in what systems. It's not all blind flying.

As for lowsec and solo frigates you may simply assume that they're in the militia fighting factional warfare. They scan for what they call plex sites. Those sites go from small to large and allow ships only the size for that specific site. Small sites will only allow frigate size ships for example. You can solo those sites just because bigger ships can't get in. Though yeah they can wait for you to come out. Usually your lil frigate warps too fast for them to lock you.

People in lowsec that are "plexing" only go through those sites and orbit a button in semi safety. They usually avoid anything else in the system because it'll be an instant death for them. That way you can roam through low solo for hours.

As for costs...

A well fitted t1 frigate costs about 10 mil
A well fitted cruiser, 30-50 mil

Running level 4s in a decent bs, with decent skills nets about 100 isk per hour. So basically, an hour of missioning equals about 10 frigate losses or 2-3 cruiser losses.

A pod loss... Should only happen in nul or on rare occasions. (the moment you hit low armor, click on a station, sun, planet, or other celestial and start spamming warp. You generally survive).

In your case, a cheap pod of 2 +3 implants runs about 30-50 mil, or about half an hour of missioning or less if you warm.devent lp.

As for why PvP, the fun and rush. Nothing in eve compares to trying to sneak up on a gate camp in a stealth bomber, ready to unleash everything the moment the campers are focused on a different target. It is a joy.

It's why I run 2 accounts .... one for PVE and one for PVP ...

If you're pve'ing or ratting then the way to win pvp is to avoid it.

Put combat probes on your overview, spam dscan a few times every minute.
If in a public belt/signature then spam dscan for any ships on overview.
If lots of neut ships are in system bring the distance down to 450,000,000 - 150,000,000 to dscan 3-1 AU around you and see if people are coming for you.
Make perches and bookmarks around gates to see if smartbombing ships are there, or bubbles are there, or if someone is hanging around the gate (prob scouting for a camp the other side).
Make random safe spots and bounce between them until people hunting you get bored.
Learn microwarp drive trick and fit warp stabs/inertial stabs/mwd/ecm burst to get to where you are going then put pve fit on in a station when you get there, or offline mods and online cloak to travle, then offline cloak and online mods to pve.
Make several instant undocks from stations at random distances so people don't learn where you undock to.
Join a nullbear alliance and use their 23/7 rolling intel map with audio alerts for every system in the region.
Keep aligned out to a celestial.
Check the ingame map before you jump, look for a close ship kill/pod kill ratio in the last hour.
Learn people/corps who make gatecamping their "thing" and add them to contacvt list, check if they are online before travelling their home system(s).
Have another account to scout ahead.
Check people's profiles in local, if they are -7.8 and bountied then you might got a problem, if they are in their starter school for 3 years they may be scouting for someone and you might have a problem soon.
Look at local channel names and check their killboards for types of ships they killed and lost, if they look like pve hunters, you got a problem.
Go to the quiet and dead end systems to pve.
Don't let autopilot take you through obviously camped systems, HED-GP, Rancer, Doril, Reblier, etc. go the long way round instead.
Keep some ECM drones in cargo, align out and wait for them to jam, then warp off.
Put nanite paste in cargo to repair if no stations for ages around.
If you jump into a camp then 1) warp off if you are in agile ship or have cloak or 2) of bubbled or in nonagile ship burn back to gate, put prop mod on, overheat prop mod, spam jump.


If you are in a pve ship and you sit there like a lemon then yea, a pvp ship will kill you quickly.

Resists can be used in pvp. An ishkur has base armor kin/therm resists of 83.75/67.5. So you can use this to tank against other hybrid ammo ships.

You afford losses by flying ships you can afford to lose by the handful.