EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello all, I'm an on/off again player to Eve who only sort of knows what he is doing in Nullsec space. After a cursory search of the forums and not finding what I needed, I thought I might as well post my own thread here. Not only to help myself, but also any other Eve players who find themselves asking the same questions listed here.

To paraphrase my experience so far, I like exploration in Eve and have progressed far enough to fly covert ops ships. I started with the low tier sites in High sec and naturally fanned out into the lower security systems to the higher yield sites as I gained more confidence. I've gotten smarter as some of my Herons and Buzzards have been blown up by either opposing explorers or gate camps, and have learned to avoid them for the most part. Recently though I've been having trouble with this new frontier: Nullsec.

I've gotten adept even here, and learned to use bookmarks and make jump gate "safe spots" to stop and directionally scan for interceptors and warp disrupting structures to avoid being snared when I warp to a gate. I've also made an overview setting specifically to know when to cloak when I'm at site. Using these methods I can survive for a while, but almost never to where I can bring my haul all the way back to high sec and sell the salvage I collect. So I guess my questions relate specifically to how I can be more efficient and survive better in nullsec.

I know I've rambled on, so ill just get to the questions:

-Is there a way I can automate the directional scanner to automatically update when something new enters the scanning radius? If I'm at a site for example, I really hate having to juggle the both theunlock mini-games and directional scanner.I would like the scanner to update itself when a ship enters the radius so i can quickly cloak and warp away.

-If I'm in a system that i have not been to (and have not made any safety bookmarks) and need to warp to a gate that is too far away (more than 15AU) and cannot scan even from a nearby orbital body, what would be the best course of action other than avoiding it? or is there no other option? Because chancing it has not worked out in the past.

-I'm a little bit hazy on how jump gates work, but when i warp through one I'm not completely invisible right? I'm still on everyones overview and can technically be locked on and just not fired at? I've warped through jumpgates before only to be met with interdiction spheres from Sabers/ect and promptly destroyed. So if i were to warp into a situation like that, am i just screwed or how should i react? Does having/ not having a microwarpdrive module on a covert ops vessel make that much of a difference? ( i often use one despite the signature radius penalty)

-Progression-wise, would i be able to do better in a Strategic Cruiser? And is the penalty still in place where if you lose one you also lose a specific amount of skill points?

-Any tips to give in general?

Thanks in advance to anyone who made the effort to read this and respond, its really appreciated.

No. BUT, now you can hotkey it. If you gave a mmo mouse, (with all the extra buttons) you can keymap one of those keys, and the go to escape menu and set up a shortcut for the d-scanner. I have it set as my thumb button. So it is now trivial to scan periodically as opposed to the mouse dance.

I set my second thumb button to probe scan.



Long Version.

I just moved to stain recently. Guess what I've been doing? Bookmarkes, hundreds of them. Not only in stain, but the pipe leading back to HS.

First, Bookmarks aren't made when you click add bookmark in People and Places. It is only created when you click ok, so having the bookmark open and timing clicking ok is key.

New system. You want to make ss bookmarks that are not in-line between any celestial objects. So first pick the two objects that are furthest away, or at the most obtuse angle. If people are present I try to warp to celestials that are stacked, several belts for example in a stack. That way if someone is cloaked watching you, he can't tell which one you warped to and will have to guess. Warp between them and try to put a ss in the middle ctrl-b, or if the middle would just make your ss lineup with other celestials from the perspective of any gate, make it further up or down the line. This is your starter ss that you'll delete. warp to new ss.

Our goal right now with these ss is not only to make a good selection of ss, and not only to make a good number of tactical gate scan points. We are also trying to make approach vectors that will circumvent any bubble interaction.

I do all this with my d-scan and d-scan map open. I use the dscan graphic to tell if I'm in range or not, It really helps when trying to place SS at specific locations.

Now pick a celestial. Use the dscan map to make sure the line from that celestial through your position does not go anywhere near any other celestials. If the vector between your current ss and a celestias passes near no other celestials, warp to 100, again chose belts over gates. Try to drop a ss anywhere inside of 14au. Immediately Warp back to new ss and make sure it is within 14au. Sometimes BMs drop behind where I told them too so they end up further away. Try to stay further out rather than close in, that way you might be able to use this ss as a vector for another celestial. Repeat until you have all gates, or at least the ones you expect to use covered. When done, make one last bookmark by picking a likely SS and warping towards your original ss. Drop a new ss midway and this bm is off vector for all celestials. Delete the original ss.

Short version.
If you're just trying to get through a gate camp not interested in making a full set of BMs. Then look for a couple of celestials that you can warp between to make a approach vector that doesn't line up with the gate. Drop ss warp to ss. use dscan map to verify that you don't line up with any celestial. Now assuming that there is a lone gate with no nearby celestials, warp to gate at 100. Drop a BM for next time within 14au. If you run into a hic bubble, at least you have the tactical scan bm for next time. But since you are off vector, the likelyhood of this happening is extremely low. Verify new tactical is correct distance. If there is a bubble camp, leave come back later. But usually what I see are a bunch of bubbles set on vectors between gates. If they have more bubbles they will have them on vector with planets or even the green sites since people use them instead of belts for a quick ss.

Really short version.
Best SS are SS that are made warping between SS. SS made warping between celestials are trash, or best thought of as temporary.

I hadn't realized that my placement of safety bookmarks had been so predictable. Now that I think more about it though, I can definitely see how opportunistic players can easily counteract my strategy by just placing warp disruption spheres in just those general vectors of space facing both planets and gates. I'll have to think about my placement from now on, and revise those already made haha.

Its disappointing to hear I can't automate the scanner, but ill definitely take advantage of assigning it to a hotkey.

Some additional tips ...

... using gates to exfiltrate loot is always a bad idea, use wormholes

... define a default color for all player ships, so you see them clearly the moment arriving on grid or decloaking

... keep range 2500m from the cans, so you can cloak immediately

... while hacking, mark a warp out spot in your overview, so warp is just one click

... fit your ship for fast align time, MWD, some tank, this gives you better survival chance in camps/sites

... always stay and warp cloaked, when not hacking

As already mentioned above, an interceptor (insta-warp, bubble immune) is a nice and cheap exploration tool, if you have max hacking and probing skills.

Not only will gate campers know what ship you have, but also what possible actions you can take, and they'll be prepared for you and all your possible evasion options. Basically:

1. You arrive cloaked at the gate on the other side, but have to decloak to jump, and they'll likely have cloaked scouts observing the gate. The scout will report your ship and that you're incoming.

2. Even if they don't have a scout, your name is listed in the local channel list, and they can search the public killboards to see what ships you prefer to fly.

3. As Shah said, after you jump through the gate, you'll have gate-cloak invulnerability. However, that will drop as soon as you move, and there's a 1 second period where you're visible, until you activate your cov-ops cloak. Regardless of how instantaneously fast it appears to you, because of server lag you're basically visible for about 1 second.

An interceptor with MWD can ctrl-triple-click you (takes less than 1 second), and this will set them moving towards your position and also start a target lock. If they target you, you can't cloak. If you manage to cloak before they target you, they're still moving at interceptor MWD speed towards your position, and will decloak you by proximity, unless you manage to move away more than 2.5 km. This is where you can try activating your own MWD before activating your cloak, to build enough speed before the cloak slows you down, to move away from the spot where you were visible.

If you manage to do it, then the interceptor will start spiraling around to try to find you, and you'll of course try to move to the edge of the bubble so you can warp off. Don't be obvious about it.

4. Smartbombs are an issue, because your cov-ops cloak is just invisibility, and smartbombs will still kill you if you're in range of any.

5. People can add you to their contacts list and give you a negative standing. This will display pop-up warnings when you log on, when you're online, and when you log off. So even if nobody is in the solar system, the defenders know that you're on, and active. This is why cov-ops explorers like to afk for long periods of time, to desensitize the defenders to their presence.

6. People can also use locator agents on you, and thus find out which solar system you're in, within a few minutes of asking.

For getting your loot out, honestly, the best option is to try to make a deal with the locals. I imagine most places are firmly NBSI (shoot everyone), but it doesn't hurt to try, really. They may appreciate the fact that you're exploring, and aren't there to prey on their PVE crews, but of course revealing what you're doing is a danger to you. Otherwise, as indicated above, rather than trying to navigate pipelines that are camped 24/7, try to probe a way through the wormhole system back to high-sec.

Wormholes pose their own dangers, but the fact that you don't appear in the local channel is a big plus.

Anything is progress... Figuring out how to dock at a station when you first log in as a newbie is progress. Let the guy feel proud of his accomplishments.