EVE New Citizens Q&A

I'm trying to finish my first mission after tutorials, "Freedom and Commerce". Knocked out all of the support, all that's left is an Amarran slave ship. My approach was to establish a far 30K orbit, then spiral in closer by steps. Got the 30K orbit done, and the ship could not track me at all. Then I set orbit to 25K, expecting to gradually spiral in. Can't quite tell what happened, but it looks like my ship turned straight into the target to dive down to the closer orbit, thereby reducing my transversal v to 0. I was, of course, toast.

So the question is: is there a way to spiral in gradually, or is this simply a useless tactic?

If the latter, what's a good way to establish a 2K orbit from 40K out, without getting destroyed before you even get close?

BTW, now I know I should have done the Sisters of Eve arc before this, but I've already accepted, don't want to lose the standing - and it seems so close!

It's not useless. Change course manually by double-clicking in space. This will align you to the direction you pointed (NOTE: it's a 3D environment!).

He was firing away, but missing. So I assume I was in range.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'll try a more "hands-on" approach this time.

A follow-up: (should have asked this the first time): I was using a Tristan - do you think I could get by with an Atron?

Realise that locking range is something entirely different from turret/missile range. He didn't start firing because you were in his turret range, he started firing because you were in his locking range. NPCs are simple like that.

Learning a lot here - thanks everyone for all the tips.

Changing course simply by setting a new orbit, or turning on or off your prop mod will make you change direction... sometimes just a little bit, sometimes you'll do a 180 and start going the other way.

only way to guarantee the direction you fly is to pilot manually, which can be a pain, but much more effective if done correctly.

As others said, the orbit button is a bit stupid. It will make your ship go in a straight line towards the target until in range, and only then it will start orbiting. If you want to spiral towards your target you have to manually pilot your ship by double clicking in space.

Here is how you actually do it. Rotate your view until your target is in the center, then doubleclick in the half way between the right screen edge end your target in the middle of the screen (so you should be double clicking 1/4 screen width away from the right edge of your screen). As your ship moves, recenter your target and keep double clicking in the same place. This will make you manually spiral towards your target.

Helpful video of the maneuver can be found here: http://www.evealtruist.com/2011/12/video-tracking-and-spiralling.html

It does not matter much. Just direct your ship by aligning closer and closer to the enemy ship. How close? It depends on your actual zoom, but halving the distance between enemy and screen edge is a good advise (check your range and angular velocity!). It's better to be consistent and align to the same screen edge, which should be the one you are flying towards. However, drastic course change can also help sometimes (i.e. when enemy is moving fast and have to lose it's speed to quickly change bearing).
When navigating in a space filled with debris, asteroids and other objects, try to avoid flying very close to them or your ship will execute a series of insane maneuvers and drop the speed to 1cm/year. Very dangerous. You have to keep an eye on enemy ship (where it is at the moment and what's his bearing), your angular and range (to deal as many damage as you can and maybe outspeed the tracking of the enemy player), what is in front of you (to avoid flying into an obstacle), what your drones are doing (to recall them before they gather aggro from all possible ships on a grid), your drones status (shield, armor, hull and good mood), and the usual stuff (ammo, cap, gauges, fleet broadcasts and watchlist, ...). That's a lot of things to manage, but you can handle this.

I tried it - it worked! Took me 2 days to buy and fit a Catalyst. Got all the support baddies in the first run (took me like 6 runs last time). Took me 3 tries to get the spiralling approach thing right (partly because the Catalyst is so slow, and I got anxious about my shield hits). But the third time, got into 7500m, all 8 railguns blazing away. Quite a relief - I was very worried about losing that ship...

Anyway, thanks everyone again for all the help.

orbit is broken. if you change the radius or your speed it re-calculates a random trajectory.

stick with one setting or fly manually