Warfare & Tactics

Three days ago I was roaming alone in a Pilgrim when this got my attention:

[ 2012.01.23 19:10:52 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Gratesier
[ 2012.01.23 19:20:17 ] AntoniusMaximus > lol probes
[ 2012.01.23 19:20:50 ] Sockey thesecond > think they mad :P
[ 2012.01.23 19:21:05 ] AntoniusMaximus > Dude someone tries at least twice a day
[ 2012.01.23 19:21:31 ] AntoniusMaximus > They mad, bro
[ 2012.01.23 19:22:20 ] AntoniusMaximus > unless that's you, lol
[ 2012.01.23 19:22:37 ] Sockey thesecond > not me lol
[ 2012.01.23 19:22:51 ] AntoniusMaximus > okay I guess I killed someone else's alt
[ 2012.01.23 19:22:58 ] AntoniusMaximus > I can't keep tabs

I was actually going to launch combats after him myself, but I was still getting bearings on his safespots when some other guy tried to probe him down. Ofc the Tornado started jumping safespots right away and the prober couldn't get a location on him, after a while he gave up and left system. At this point I thought "Ok, imma find this guy without probes... imagine just how surprised he would be when I bump him from cloak in his safespot" and since I "probed" ppl down before using only d.scan I started bouncing around the system and making plenty of bookmarks. It took me some 200 bookmarks to get within 40 mil km from 2 of his safespots and I only needed 5 more minutes to get on the same grid with him, (at this point I could've easily probed him down and most likely he wouldn't even see it coming since 1 scan was enough to get a warp in on him) but then some noob prober launched combats on the same d.scan range with him and forced him to make new safespots. I was so pissed! Eventually, he logged off and so did I.
The next day there he was again in snipe range moving around the gate. A few bookmarks later there I was cloaked within scram range of him, some 200 km off gate, could've killed him right there but I thought "hm... I got an idea" and as I was about to leave the system and change ship some other guys came into local and he warped to another ss. This time he was 7000+ km from the gate towards a planet. Some more bookmarks and I got on the same grid with him and since we were coming from opposite directions, after a few minutes I got within scram range once again. Made a bookmark and quickly went to change ship for Velator. I made some calculations based on his speed and the time it took me to leave system, change ship and come back, but my math was bad cos when I warped back at 50km from that bookmark I landed 77 km away from him. For some reason instead of sniping my Velator (which would've insta popped even if he missed me completely), he got scared and warped away, not too far tho, just off grid (some 600 km). So, I made some more calculations and a few more bookmarks and I waited for him to come back from the gate. When he popped on my d.scan I warped to location and I landed 21 km from him. YAY! Lock, point, gradually reduce orbit and voila!

Battleclinic: Print screen
Eve-kill: Print screen

Here is the local chat:
http://pastebin.com/c1biyV0X

Line 43 when I pointed him
[ 2012.01.24 18:30:42 ] XxxxxxxxXxxxxxx > /emote shakes head

Line 44 he was calling for help
[ 2012.01.24 18:31:45 ] XxxxxxxxXxxxxxx > warp to me

Line 47 he was in 10 percent structure
[ 2012.01.24 18:34:20 ] XxxxxxxxXxxxxxx > well this is awkward

cool story. gratz.

any free info about your method of d-scan probing?

******* awesome.

+1. You have officially won eve.

Basically what Lady Vici said. It took me some 200+ bookmarks cos I got close to 2 of his safespots that were somewhere in the middle of the system beyond d.scan range from any celestial + the snipe location he used on the gate. Otherwise is less complicated and less time consuming.
After you get the target in d.scan range narrow the angle down to 15 degrees and in the best case scenario you'll see a celestial in that direction. Now all you have to do if warp to that celestial and make as many bookmarks as you can, but before you do this try to get a range (in km) on your d.scan as accurate as possible. If the target is just off grid (500-1000 km) it's faster if you just warp back at 100 from your current position, make a bm, warp back at that bm at 100 (check range again - actually you kinnda have to check range after every warp you make) and do it again until you get on the same grid, or until you land on top of your target. If the target is far away from your location or the celestial you found in the same direction, you still need to get a range from it. Reduce the range on your d.scan at half a a few times and find an approximate range in AU's to your target. Warp to celestial and try to make bm's at that range, then warp to the closest bm and make other bm's on the way. Check the range to your target again, find the closest bm to it and so on.
Now, the worst case scenario. If you don't find any celestial that can act as a warp to point you need to create a "celestial". A sweet bookmark between 2 celestials that will be your warp to point. For this I use F11 (side map) to identify the 2 celestials I need to use to create my sweet bookmark and ofc the solar system map. Sometimes you have to use quite a few celestials to get your sweet bookmark.

If the target is just sitting in a safespot between 2 celestials, it takes 5 to 10 minutes to get on the same grid with it depending on how agile and fast is your ship and ofc your fingers .

If you wanna probe down someone using combats, ffs don't just launch probes right away. Most of the times you'll just scare the target. Use d.scan instead, find your target on a 15 degrees angle, get an approximate range from it and direction, below, above, a lil bit towards x planet, or other bearings that can help you "locate' the target on solar system map so that you only need to launch probes at 2au or less. this means you'll get 100 percent signature on your target from 1st scan if you do it right.
Oh yes, one other thing. After you have a range and a direction to your target, don't just launch combats on the same d.scan range with it. Warp out of d.scan range from your target and launch your combats there. Set them up and move them to where you "located" the target. After 1 or 2 scans you should have a warp in point on your target, quickly retrieve probes and warp to it. The idea is to make use of d.scan to reduce the time your probes are in space, making it much less probable for your target to spot the probes on d.scan.

Hope it helps.

He didn't stay in the same safespot. He moved around between safespots and snipe location on gate. The safespot I got him was none of those I got close to the day before. I would say it took me 10-15 bookmarks to get his last location (the place I killed him). That was a new location he used only a few times that day and I had the range on d.scan set up to see him when he warps there. As soon as he showed up on d.scan I warped there too. I would say my warp took around 10 seconds, so I basically landed only a few seconds after he did.
All those other bookmarks I made when I was trying to get his other safespots. But meh, all in all there must've been some 200+ bookmarks. But it was fun and I had nothing better to do.

Proof Velator is OP and needs a nerf.

Good job, Angeliq!

Patience has its rewards.

You have way too much time, but at least you invest it wisely.

OP wins

It depends whether the site/plex/mission is off the ecliptic or not.

If its well off the ecliptic then you won't have any celestials to warp to so you'll need probes.

Edit - oh and well done OP, very funny indeed