EVE General Discussion

The ongoing cautionary tales of a slow learning newbie... continue! Please, NO ISK DONATIONS! These stories are just newbie war stories and not a woe is me tale, they are for lessons learned, fun and entertainment!

So, my corp buddy and I decide that HiSec just doesn't have challenging enough combat sites for a couple of cruisers. We're both fitted out for PvE Long Range engagement; I'm in a cruiser and my corp buddy is in a battle-cruiser.

So we find a couple of systems that have very low population, we made up 50% of the population in just the two of us. First system the NPC base, warped to member after making a couple of safe spots and don't know why, my fleet mate was 100km out but it dropped me right into the middle of 2 battlecruiser and 1 battleship NPC ships. That doesn't go over well with my ship that is mostly a glass rifle... only 1 medium shield extender and 1 set of 800mm armor plates for defense. I got out of there immediately but they had me at only 1/3rd structure left. So off I went to get my 800K ISK repair bill.

Next we head to another system, again same low population and start picking on a 'yard' site. We are handling it just fine, a player warps in with a Rattlesnake and decides to leave. Only one other person in the system. That player warps in as well, but different result.

I heard the warp in and warned my fleet mate and fired off a D-Scan but oddly it was totally blank on my screen. I'm in the middle of a fight with the NPC units and start to consider backing out and warping away. At that moment I realized I didn't make my safes like I had before... mistake #1.

Mistake #2 was taking a moment to troubleshoot my D-Scan, it was completely blank. My overview showed me the player had a lock on me but all I could see was that he was the closest target. (I saw no combat probes on either my overview or Dscan to have warned me, could the rattlesnake have been the probe?)

Mistake #3, I told my fleet mate that I was going to head back to him for some support. So I started my turn and began to hit my MWD (The player was in a larger ship and would've had no chance of catching my fast cruiser (1700 m/s) had he been further away), but clearly I was already too close as I was put under web and warp restriction, so I didn't go anywhere. I knew my ship couldn't handle a close in fight, my drones were 30km away engaged with the NPC's, and with a PVE fit, I was toast. I flipped to my GTFO tab and started spamming the warp function while telling my fleet-mate to get out of there. This guy had a decent alpha and good follow up, so the glass rifle was doomed.

The ship died fast, but I was already on the get my pod out and it warped instantly, so, I survived. I didn't care about the ship much, it wasn't even fully fitted. It was the replacement for my Vexor I had lost last week, but it seemed like a working fit for NPC work.

Grabbed a rookie ship at the local port, got out of there and I think the person that padded their killboard with me was like Valerie Skank or something, but they didn't get my pod. Not like my ship would've been a challenge to a PvP equipped ship anyway. I don't know what range they can web me at.

So, learned a few lessons and after some thoughtful review:

1. Never fly what you aren't willing to lose...
2. Always set your safes in a new system, the extra moments could save your ship.
3. When someone warps in on your site, LEAVE if you are PvE fit. Consider it with a PvP fit if you are completely engaged with the NPC's. You can always come back later and finish the job or intercept the player while not under NPC aggro.
4. Insurance is a good thing, it's not a matter of if you are going to lose your ship, it's when.
5. Tactics matter. I think the only reason the player engaged us is that my cruiser had to be at 30km from the NPC's to fight while my fleet-mate could engage out at 80km. That was 50 km between us and with another 30km between my drones and I, it was an ideal ambush scenario.
6. Worry about issues with the displays later, other displays worked fine and I didn't twitch to using them right.

PvE ships are probably at a disadvantage anyway, you make some assumptions about NPC's that you wouldn't make about players when fitting them so getting out of there is your best defense. Lucky it was a fairly cheap lesson.

Also discovered that LoSec kinda sucks for PvE. It's not really worth it resource wise to go there if you are always at extreme risk for ship loss. So I see the attraction of NullSec now. The risk is slightly lower and system population is the better indicator of leaving.

I still don't know what was up with my Dscan, it worked fine when I took off in the new Rookie ship. Is there some kind of refresh 'hole' that you can hit with it? (I have it tied to my space bar)

First mistake: you tried an ungated site. NEVER do this unless you are alone in the system.

Acceleration gates give you choices:

Use a long range and a short range Dscan. This allows you to help identify ships passing by and anyone interested in you!

Sometimes an acceleration gate has NPCs. For example the Guristas Watch has many NPCs that can be spawned at the entry gate. You only need to kill one to get access to the next room. A PvP fit ship will have a hard time getting past the NPCs.

When a player lands at the acceleration gate you can take stock of the situation: How far am I from the warp in location; where are the NPCs in relation to me and the warp in spot; are there stasis or neuting towers between my and the intruder; how far am I from finishing the room/site; should I align to a celestrial for a quick escape?

Cloaky ships must decloak to use an acceleration gate and have reasonable chance of being decloaked again upon landing.


In short acceleration gates give you choices.

Thanks that helps me understand the 'buffer' they offer better.



Thanks for the tips. Not all really applied in this case but I can understand the intel gathering side of I, and the scramble side.

Not sure I would've had room for the EW drone, limited carry space, but probably not a bad idea to sacrifice some DPS for escape options. Setting up opposite system bookmarks can be fairly time consuming, which would be safe but make the value of the run less... valuable.

Thanks Droidster!

Your post location is fine. An ISD will move it if necessary. As for "age" of characters? Not really a thing anymore. I have years of experience and can roll a character tomorrow and give it 50mil SP focused in PVP. At best age is a guideline. At worst it will get you killed.

Let general discussion know when you kill the loki.

Yeah, the fit wasn't made for anything but Tech1 cheap stuff and picking off NPC's (PvE). I knew that it would never survive PvP. I didn't want to dump a lot of ISK into a ship I was going to go out and just bounce around in. That's kind of why I wasn't so broken up over the loss. It did the job well enough vs. NPC's.

I'm trying to save up to do either a brawler or sniper fit on a Talos. Those 8 high slot, LARGE, turrets are very attractive. So getting the skills up high enough to make it work is another issue. I've looked at the fits using Meta 4 stuff (which don't require much skill training) and it looks okay but like you said, the stuff up at the next level is really where the fit seems to shine. I'm still figuring out how stuff 'goes' together.

It seems like the 'fitting' game is almost like a mini-game inside of the main game. I understand why PvP'ers are very much mini-maxxers and so intense over the Skill Points issues, etc.

On the plus side, I was doing decent DPS with the fit and taking down NPC's pretty fast, usually faster than the BC could engage, but he was sniping at 80km. I didn't even get a shot off on the attacker I was so distracted by stuff I shouldn't have been. I'll act differently next time.

Thank you for the advice, it really helps.