These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

What is Cap Chaining?
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Talok Ren
State War Academy
Caldari State
#1 - 2013-05-23 11:09:56 UTC
Can anyone tell me what exactly is going on here? Someone in the Help channel said it's called a Cap Chain and something about repping? The server just shut down so I couldn't find out more.

http://youtu.be/TZkQhei8JQw?t=28s
Daniel Plain
Doomheim
#2 - 2013-05-23 11:18:10 UTC
there are modules that will transfer capacitor energy from your ship to another ship. because of space logic, they can achieve an efficiency of >100% i.e. your buddy gets more capacitor than you lose. if he then uses the same module to give you some of his cap, you are now both generating cap out of nothing. that is called a cap chain.

I should buy an Ishtar.
Chal0ner
Hideaway Hunters
The Hideaway.
#3 - 2013-05-23 11:23:55 UTC
Talok Ren wrote:
Can anyone tell me what exactly is going on here? Someone in the Help channel said it's called a Cap Chain and something about repping? The server just shut down so I couldn't find out more.

http://youtu.be/TZkQhei8JQw?t=28s


Those are logistics ships that are transfering capacitor between each other. Some logistics ships, Basilisk and Guardian e.g. need to do this to avoid running out of capacitor when repairing structures and ships.

What you do is fit 2x cap transfer modules and fill the rest of high slots with rep-modules.
Then find yourself your "cap buddy" - the one above and below yourself in a fleet window for example, have them perma-locked and transfering capacitor to your buddies.
Then, wait for repair requests come flowing in - or go about repping the tower or station or whatever it is.

This is how it works in all fleets i've been in anyway.
Talok Ren
State War Academy
Caldari State
#4 - 2013-05-23 11:31:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Talok Ren
Ah ok. When I first undocked and saw it, I thought for I was about to lose my Battlecruiser.

Thanks for the info =)
Steve Ronuken
Fuzzwork Enterprises
Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
#5 - 2013-05-23 11:32:42 UTC
Cap chaining is commonly used with Basilisks and Guardians, the Fleet Logi ships.

By themselves, it's /very/ hard to make them Cap Stable.

However, one of the skill bonuses on the Basilisk is a 15% reduction in the cap usage of energy transfer arrays.

So, if you take:
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Large_Energy_Transfer_Array_II

which costs (base) 366 GJ to activate and gives the target 351 GJ, this becomes, with a level 4 Logi pilot:
366*.4 = 146GJ to activate, giving the target 351GJ


The skill also reduces the cap usage (by 5%), so I'm sure you can see how a pair of ships, each targeting the other, with the /bare/ minimum of skill (5% reduction. So an activation cost of 348GJ) gives the other ship a surplus of 3GJ. Which only goes up, as the skills increase.

There's risk involved (the ships need to work as a pair and stay in range, or they'll cap out very quickly), but the bonuses are significant.

The chain part comes from where you have ship A giving Ship B cap. Ship B then does it to ship C... etc etc, Ship Z then targets Ship A and the chain is complete. (foolish way to arrange it. going past three ships doesn't make a lot of sense)

You could, on ships like the Basi, which normally run with 2 transfers have a single coming in from 2 different ships. makes the chain a /little/ less fragile, if your people are on the ball (stopping half their reps, till the chain is reestablished)

Woo! CSM XI!

Fuzzwork Enterprises

Twitter: @fuzzysteve on Twitter
Merouk Baas
#6 - 2013-05-23 11:32:55 UTC
Yeah, it's a tactic used because logistics ships have bonus to capacitor transfer, so with the bonus you lose 50 cap per cycle but the other guy gains 100 capacitor. So then if you have 2 logistics ships boosting each other, each loses 50 but gains 100, in effect each ship gains 50 capacitor each cycle for free.

This way what they can do is use up just 1 module slot to become cap stable, rather than a whole bunch of cap rechargers, boosters, or power relays like the rest of the ships are forced to use.

Most of what logistics ships do (this included) requires target lock, so the counter to logistics is a good ECM ship. Blackbird or Scorpion can screw up the whole logistics-based enemy fleet, interrupting their damage repair schedule.
Talok Ren
State War Academy
Caldari State
#7 - 2013-05-23 11:36:45 UTC
Since I initially thought it was aggressive behavior, if I had continued to bump them, could I have disrupted the chain and potentially gotten them killed? or does the chain have a large enough range to prevent that?
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#8 - 2013-05-23 11:57:54 UTC
Talok Ren wrote:
Since I initially thought it was aggressive behavior, if I had continued to bump them, could I have disrupted the chain and potentially gotten them killed? or does the chain have a large enough range to prevent that?


At work so can't look up specific skills and bonuses that may extend the range...the large Cap transfer II that they likly use has a range just short of 10km.

If a Bsi chain or Guardian chain is interupted the logistics will become useless pretty quickly, because they are quickly capped out and also because besides cap chaining they usually also fly in spider tanking configuration (same idea, but then with remote repair modules - Pilot A repairs other logi pilots which in term repair him until there are broadcasts to repair other people)

Personal channel: Crazy Dutch Guy

Help channel: Help chat - Reloaded

Public roams channels: RvB Ganked / Redemption Road / Spectre Fleet / Bombers bar / The Content Club
Xercodo
Cruor Angelicus
#9 - 2013-05-23 12:13:25 UTC
With those specific ships there is a large range bonus that should allow them up to 70km - 80km range with what is normally a low range module.

The Drake is a Lie