EVE New Citizens Q&A

Short answer: it has to do with experience and what each individual pilot finds each ship most useful at.

Very short answer: it is slightly subjective

Long answer: It has to do with a combination of weighing the stats (innate tank vs innate speed vs innate damage potential) and the pros and cons of each weapon systems.
Moreover, some players find certain stats more appealing and ignore other stats because they don't factor into their specific tactics or playstyle.

For instance... you'll find a more than a few players here who believe that speed is the most important stat in the game... and believe that a ship that can't maintain speed while dealing a "decent" amount of damage is virtually "useless."
Then again... you have the polar opposite where you have players who believe that unless you have "committed" to a fight (see: "brawling") you are not really PvPing.

In the case of the Caracal: because of the Rapid Light Missile Launcher the Caracal can be a VERY potent anti-frigate ship... much more so than most other cruiser-class ships... because of the innate stats of light missiles (which are a frigate class weapon system)

EDIT: answers above are better than what I had, and from PVP experts.

Missiles take time to get to the target, so in equal-sized cruiser combat, a point-blank blaster Thorax or some other gun ship that can do instant damage up close or at range will probably be preferred to a Caracal with heavy missiles.

On the other hand, for the anti-frigate role (so you can take out tacklers and scouts), most gun cruisers have bonuses to medium guns; if you fit frigate-sized guns you lose the DPS bonus. Thus it's better to bring Caracal with RLML or Vexor / Arbitrator with speedy small drones (and energy neutralizers), or actually use gun-based ships designed for anti-frigate, such as destroyers.

Ah I see! I thought it was something vital that I was missing from stats alone. At least it's the next most crucial thing; experience! Time to shoot things and get blown up! For Science!

Many thanks for the replies folks, you are most helpful.

Tim

If you have some time check out this video which addresses your question about the Caracal and is just in general a nice overview of nano-style small gang piloting.

And as it's been said, Caracal can have roles other than anti-frigate.

Often, though, fleet commanders make snap decisions based on what the scouts see, and the FC of a frigate roam may see a bunch of cruisers incl. several Caracals and may decide to avoid that enemy, just based on the expectation that they'll be fitted with the popular RLML's.

The outcome of PVP battles in EVE is sometimes predetermined, much like in chess with one side having rook and queen and the other side having just 6 pawns. So part of the PVP experience that you need to learn is recognizing ships and the popular fittings, and what poses a threat to your group vs. what's an easy kill. This EVE University ship list is a good reference and a good place to start to understand the ships (click on each, for recommended fittings and uses). But, it's not even close to what you can get from actual combat participation.

Not really under engagement conditions. There's no "under the guns" and there's no miss-message within the actual range.

Things can be further away from you than the de facto range of the missiles, but that's not really the same thing, and frigates especially pretty much have to be in that envelope to do anything to you. If they're flying around 40 clicks away or whatever, you can just shrug and leave, because they aren't tackling you.

I'd just like to add that caracals are also amazing cruiser killers and in a brawl can keep a good range while applying excellent DPS and tanking a large amount. It all depends on fit and situation.

My advice: Don't go alone. Join your group of choice first. They will often have the hands-on experience to help you out. Some of them even simply give you the initial ship.

This is correct. You see the same thing incidentally with drones - light drones pretty much never* miss but they can't catch interceptors with MWDs at all. Kinda hilarious to watch actually - an Ares flying in circles while drones keep trying and failing to reach it.






* never say never, but their tracking is excellent and their signature resolution is too, they can miss the very smallest ships sometimes like a Prospect with Halo implants and -sigrad links

A large amount of "that is a **** fit" is mostly idiots regurgitation current meta or doctrine fits they have been given. ie they don't do any fitting themselves. To know if a fit is good or bad you have to know what context it is going to be used. And even then, i don't listen to those guys. I listen to things like " Yea would probably never use that ship without a MWD really.. you need to have some range control" or "you really need more buffer so you can catch reps" ... ie constructive pointers about the fit and the context where that matters.

Ships can and are used in many different configurations and often times the theory crafted comes up with something completely new, yet would have worked in the game years ago. Solo players often try random stuff. Often very hard to make work fits even, but when they do. Its a boss fit. (love my dual rep rifter. Tanks like a boss, if you time it all perfectly and keep an eye on the alpha, it has zero buffer)

But sometimes fits really are just rubbish. Dual tanking. Dual ranged weapons. Not using the ships bonus is often a sign that perhaps a different hull would work better. I have seen fits where even mid slots were empty in a BS and it was running mediums guns.. Or even fits where you have a good idea of how its going to work.. and 5 secs into an engagement you realize.. yea this fit is just **** :D.