Missions & Complexes

I've been pottering around in both Curse and Venal the last couple of days, and have noticed an increase in station-camping efforts directed at pirate epic arc mission runners. This has been more intense in Curse than Venal but is an issue in both. I spoke with some campers last session and confirmed that it is arc-runners that they're targeting.

The camp I saw last session had a large bubble on the undock path from the agent station, as well as small / medium bubbles in the warp-line from each gate to that station. The campers had someone docked in the station as well as a number of people outside waiting for a victim to volunteer. The same bunch also had a pipeline gate (to where I was heading for my next mission) heavily bubbled and camped.

Station camps can be a bit of a nuisance to a nullsec mission runner, and more so when you cannot run the missions in a T3 ... which is able to get thru most bubble camps without too much hassle. There are a number of options available to you, to reduce the risk associated with station camps. I realise that this will not be available to everyone, but here's what I do:

1. Always have a covops alt undocked and in-space in the agent system. This way I never undock blindly and always know what is waiting for me outside the station.
2. Set my home-base in another, quieter, station. This means extra jumps and an increase in the fiddle-factor but it does make it much easier for me to operate safely.
3. Dock at and undock from main agent station in nullifier-T3, and always use an off-grid exit instawarp bookmark. I don't absolutely need the off-grid BM when I am using the T3 but would still prefer to reduce the risk of them seeing how far I warp and ambushing me there in the future.

So when I am wanting to start the next mission I first get my covops guy to check the outside of both my home station and the agent's station. If they're both clear I usually undock from my home base in my mission-runner ship (rifter atm), dock at the agent station, get the mission, and then undock from agent station (using instawarp BM) to head off and run the mission.
If either station is bubble camped then I undock from my home station in my nullifier nano cloki loki and use that to go get the mission. After getting the mission I head back to my home base and swap to my mission ship and head off to run the mission.

On other occasions, and often when they have a very nasty gate camp setup, I just wait them out ... relying on that PvPer short-attention-span ... and usually sort out some of my industry activities elsewhere.

Of course, if you don't have alts and a suitably equipped T3, my approach may not be available to you.

If you are entirely solo, and in your mission ship, then you may want to think about:

1. Undocking and being ready to stop (ctrl-space) and redock if you are inside a bubble as soon as you undock and there are potentially hostile folk out there waiting.
2. If you are not actually in the bubble (and some do not cover the first part of the undock line) AND your instawarp bookmark IS offgrid then, if your ship has reached full speed, you should be able to quickly warp right through the bubble to the relative safety of that bookmark. An additional risk here is that the campers will have dropped cans to effect a gridfu and your usually-offgrid bookmark is actually ongrid. I guess that would probably constitute a ****-happens scenario.
3. Alternatively if you're not in the bubble but not confident that your exit BM is offgrid, then you may wish to warp initially to an above / below station 'approach' bookmark. That warp will take longer, as your ship has to align to a different direction, but is usually ok unless they have a very fast-locking ship waiting in the undock zone.
4. If you are in a bubble and there is no-one nearby (checking DS for nearby ships also advisable) then you may choose to power thru the bubble and take your chances on getting to the other side without someone warping-in or uncloaking to hassle you. You may or may not choose to carry a cloak for this effort ... it will slow you down bigtime but you may feel happier when invisible.

Yes, asking the same of myself. When i first ran the Angel arc there were station camps, but there seem to be more of them atm and there is no doubt at all as you who they're targeting.

I mailed to our list that i am making some extra long-distance exit instawarp BMs for v 4 agent station. So anyone in Curse can have one once I am done. Venal again in a few days once I am finished my next two runs at angel sound.

Always been curious - do all your mission packs have the same bookmarks? I.E. if someone was inclined to catch people using your guides, could they purchase a pack and then be able to bubble/camp the bookmarks they know people are using, or do you randomize which bookmarks are given out in each guide to some degree?

That's essentially how I describe it in the manual. PvPers will get a far better return on their time and effort in camping the mainstream locations than trying to ambush an ever changing collection of bookmarks in the hope that a mission runner might use that bookmark at that particular time.

When i use them i vary my warp-to distance and always have my fingers crossed that i don't bump into and decloak a customer :-)

p.s. I am probably most at risk myself. When they see me in system there is little doubt that I am arc running AND using my bookmarks

p.p.s. The kits include several hundred bookmarks and for the busier systems there are several variants of each location.

One of the camping groups had apocalypse in the field. I assumed it was either neuter or smart bomber, but only saw it at gate camp.

Still, in my little rifter most everything is well able to kill me ... if they catch me.

I don't know. Haven't tried a stealth bomber for either of them. The guristas pirate arc has two possible end missions.

half way thru angel arc atm, and then on to guristas again after that ... so should be able to review the gate requirements for it in a few days. I have made a note to check re angel's arc ... probably later today.

Thanks for the heads up

I ran the angel arc in may this year & there were no station campers then. I did get chased around by someone becuase I escaped their gate camp [waves at Chewbaccious] but when we talked it turns out that he & his corp didn't target arc mission runners. Like most things station camping to get arc runners probably goes in & out of fashion. Give it a month or so & there probably won't be any.