Ships & Modules

Align time rounds up so there is no benefit to going lower. Network latency can also have an effect. I fly
[Claw, Claw]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Warp Core Stabilizer II
Warp Core Stabilizer II

EM Ward Amplifier II
Medium Shield Extender II

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II

EFT tells me my align is 1.8 sec and warp is 2 sec. The tank may help with a smartbomb and shouldn't hurt if you're gone in 2 seconds.

Isn't that technically two ticks still? One to initiate warp and one to change modes?

so is the hecate faster than you can make an interceptor?

I dont have an EFT program in front of me as I'm at work.

and if so can you make any T3 destroyer that fast to warp? I'll be in HS mostly so I wouldn't need to worry about bubbles, when in null though Id still have to go down to a interceptor cause of bubbles.

But it's not immune to bubbles. Nor is the Hecate. In null-sec you will die to most half decent gate camps. The only thing that will trouble an insta-warp ceptor are smartbombs. so tank it.

The Hecate fit is pretty slick.

A 2s- warping ship can still be caught if they have high enough scan res, low enough latency and fast enough reactions so that the lock completes before the end of the first tick. 2-s is just harder to catch.

As for getting your align lower, remember that the tick processing happens at the end of a tick and this takes time. You want to be aligned before that processing starts so a little bit of slack to allow for tick shenanigans can be a good idea. Generally. I aim for 1.8s align.



Latency only affect when you start to align, not how long it takes. Once you give a warm command, everything happens server side. In a ga&e amp vs. taxi ceptor situation, only the gate campers latency plays a role as you do not drop cloak until the start of the tick-period following when the cluster receives your warp command.

Having a lower align time is also beneficial if you are trying to align to another direction while already moving.




Not quite true. A 2s-warping ceptor can still be caught if the aggressor has a low enough latency to the cluster, fast enough reactions and a high enough sensor strength.

Given that you can quite easily get a Stiletto to lock an untanked taxi interceptor (a shield extender makes it easier to lock...) in half a second, you can have a fair bit of leeway to account for latency and reactions and still have a complete lock before the end of the first tick. Remember, module activation is asynchronous to the to tick so scram/point take effect as soon as the cluster receives the scram command.

Don't believe me? grab a Stiletto, some SEBOs and some RE-SEBOs and try locking a taxi ceptor on a gate.




A 2-s aligning yacht is easier to catch than a taxi-cepto as it has a larger sig. The covops can help though.


The only thing that is truly in-catchable on a highsec/Lowsec gate is a ship that warps in 1s - the Hecate can achieve this in propulsion mode.

I thought all this has been hashed out, sort of like the whole un-probable ship thing....

Here is the deal, if you can get your ship to show align time under 2 seconds(the lower the better) in EFT or Pyfa, you are pretty much uncatchable...The only time I have ever heard of anyone getting caught was due to pilot error(slow to click warp maybe) or lag reported. Prior to this new hecate , noone was able to get to 1 sec align... By the way, it takes 1 server tick to get the lock, and a 2nd server tick to get the point....You guys seem to only focus on the getting lock aspect, well you got to be pointed as well, its not instant at the server/packet level. You will be in warp before then...it takes 2 server ticks to get point...... The guy who previously said it doesn't benefit you to try to get your align time below 1.98 or whatever because it rounds up, well you are mistaken...even though eft/pfya rounds up your warp time back to 2 secs, it is crucial to get that as low as you can to help compensate the lag/tick issues. There is a very detailed article floating around on this, wish I had a link... Anyway, I am sure there will be guys out there who say I'm wrong on this, but if you are truly showing under 2 sec align, and you do everything right, with no lag and still get caught, please report back to here, I'd love to hear about it... Fly safe and stay away from the UK based gate campers lol...




"I was able to lock him every-time but got the message "target is invulnerable" all the time at the end of the tick. From his perspective I yellow boxed him every-time but never got disruption on him."  SOURCE travelceptor field tester

I fly a claw with 4x i stabs and 2x t2 hyperspatial rigs. 1.79s aligh, 12.26 au/s warp.

Yes, it has been but a lot of people keep rehashing the same incorrect information and I am afraid that you have just done the same.



If you read my post, I actually addressed getting the point, but let me spell it out:

Not everything in the game is asynchronous to the tick. Physics simulation is (so ship movement) and so are client notifications (knowing that you have something locked, knowing how much damage you did/received and knowing which modules have successfully activated). Module activations are NOT synchronous with the tick so the effect applies as soon as the cluster receives the command to activate the module, you just don't know about it until the tick following it.

So, what this means for a 2s align against someone with a 0.5s lock time against them, good latency and fast reactions:

• tick 0: ship decloaks and starts aligning. Aggressor starts to lock. Lock completes before the end of the tick.
• tick 1: ship is not aligned yet so continues aligning. Both clients are notified that the aggressor has locked the ship trying to run. During the tick, the aggressor activates his point and the effect applies immediately.
• tick 2: ship is now aligned but it is pointed. The ship trying to run away is informed it is pointed.

How do we know this? In-game experimentation and a fan fest presentation from CCP Veritas a while ago. There is a good info graphic floating around about this.



Your latency/lag does not affect the chances of you getting caught. You do not decloak and start aligning till the tick after you have issued the warp command, and once you give the warp command everything happens server side. Latency is important to affects trying to catch you though. And as I said in my post, some leeway is good to acount for tick processing time.




There is a very good article floating about and if you read it, it says exactly what I have been: high enough scan res and low enough latency, you can catch a 2s warping ceptor. There is also a good info graphic floating about.

Sub 2s is still catchable - numerous people have done it. As I said in my post, try it: a stilleto receiving 5 ReSEBOs active on it and one local SEBO has a scan res of over 5600, enough to get a lock time of 0.4s against a frigate. I keep thinking that I need to make a video to dispel the sub-2s is invincible rabble because they keep spouting the same incorrect hash every time.



That means his lock was not completing by the end of the first tick, and was instead completing in the second tick.

Sorry if I am grumpy, I have just had a 2-year old jumping on me...

I personally use istabs/wcs in the lows, shield extender in the mid and friction nozzle rigs if I'm not below or at 2s align.

While the istab and shield extenders make you easier to lock, it really doesn't matter that much when you align below or at 2s. Not only do they need to react fast enough, they also need decent latency and for the server to tick in their favor.

Further add on they need enough points to counter your WCS. Which is why I like 4 low slot interceptors. I haven't looked at the fit in awhile but I think it was 2 t2 istabs, 2 wcs, 3 friction nozzle, and a miss mash of medium and small t2 shield extenders. Gave me around 5k ehp, instant align and 2 points of warp strength.

I've been pointed more then I'd like to admit but yet by somebody with enough points to stop me from waving and giving them a gf in local.

Here's a pretty good article regarding server ticks. https://www.themittani.com/features/understanding-eve-online-server-tick

It however does not cover PBKAC. So feel free to add some MS as per http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/statistics and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVWC6I-FLEA.

The former is just the average human response time to stimuli. In this case your prey appearing on your overview. The older you are the slower you are, sorry it's just a fact of life.

The later is the average age of EVE players.......in case your worried about all the hotshot 20 year olds. Fun fact, it's all down hjill after 24. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/brains-reaction-time-peaks-age-24-study-finds/