EVE New Citizens Q&A

im not a vet so i cant comment or answer your question...

being a fellow noob, now i know what to look out for.

He was likely hoping that you'd either shoot him or offer to pay him for the item

Couple hints:
If you mission in a busy system (mission hub), watch for combat probes. Or move somewhere quieter
Grab the mission item as soon as it drops.
Get a Noctis for salvage/loot. Finish the mission, grab the item (if there is one), bookmark a wreck, turn the mission in. Come back in the Noctis after a couple of missions and clean them all up in one go. The Noctis is way faster to salvage and loot and the range on its tractor beams means there are few mission sites it has to move in to pull everything in.

Thanks for the replies. I'll definitelly start grabbing the mission drop first from now on. Need to train up some industrial skills and give that Noctis a go.

Also... if you engaged... other can't warp in and shoot at you. Only he can.

My first kill was somebody that looted my wreck when I first started. After that kill I decided to do some more of it.

Always keep in mind that - even when you aren't doing PvP - you're still doing PvP. Loot those wrecks and salvage them like you're running out of time and every second counts. Because, as you discovered, it does. The longer you hang around doing something, the more chance of someone disrupting what you are doing - High Sec, Low Sec, anywhere.

As for ninja-salvaging, there are usually two types of players who do it.

1. Guys trolling for some action.

These guys will not only salvage your wrecks, but will loot them too. Salvaging doesn't flag them as suspects you can shoot in highsec. But looting does. These types count on you to rise to the bait, knowing that you are equipped to shoot NPCs, not other players. Usually, they know the NPCs in this region as well as you do or better. They know what type of damage Gueristas, or Serpentis dish out, and they count on you having properly equipped your NPC-killing ship to neutralize that damage. Then they pack a damage type you likely aren't resistant towards to make sure your shields/armor melt away fast.

These guys are spoiling for a fight, and if you don't give it to them, or respond to their taunts in local, they'll probably get bored and leave. Which makes - ignore them - the proper response to the type 1 ninja salvager.

2. The professional ninja salvager.

This guy is simply farming the wrecks other people make as a job to make ISK. Often he won't loot the wrecks, but will just salvage them. But sometimes he will loot, and fly a ship capable of not dying to yours. But either way, he isn't there primarily for PvP - he's just putting in a day's work at your expense. Often he'll be flying either a destroyer equipped with salvagers and tractor beams, or a Noctis (an industrial designed for fast-salvaging).

There's not much you can do about this guy. He's a more serious problem that will severely cut into your profits. And ignoring him and continuing will just encourage him to follow you around. With this one, you really just have to quit and move to another system or do something else. The upsides is the professional will be less likely to loot your key mission loot item.

In fact, if you find a professional salvager following you around, and he's behaving and not looting your wrecks (and risking your key mission item), you can even encourage him if you want. If you're the sort of PvE player who doesn't care about looting wrecks or salvaging them, and you just want the mission item, then once you have it, you can "blue" all your wrecks so he can salvage and loot them freely.

I had one player do this with me back when I was ninja-salvaging. The benefit he got out of it was that the wrecks disappeared. Wrecks can be located on D-scan and probed for with combat probes. Often times, they provide an additional way for griefers to locate your ships in system. Some griefers can even use a wreck as a bookmark point and warp in their fleet of ganking buddies right on top of you in a combat situation. This isn't as big a deal in high sec space, but in lowsec or wormholes, it can be fatal. Which is why PvE operations in lower security space often have a dedicated salvager tag along on their missions to clean the sites up quickly.

If you don't want the wrecks or the loot in them, making them blue (that is - flagged so anyone can loot them without becoming suspect) is a nice gesture that will encourage the salvager to follow along, and continue the clean-up.

So it really depends on how you view your look and wrecks. Some people hate professional ninja-salvagers and see them as cutting into their profits.

Keep in mind also that there isn't always a clear dividing line between type 1 and type 2 salvagers. Sometimes a professional salvager may get bored, or just want a bigger profit and may start looting wrecks anyway - even if PvP isn't his main goal. Sometimes a professional might actually have a combat-capable ship. Hard to say. But the guidelines should hold true most of the time.

1. Wait for duel request.
2. Align out.
3. Accept duel, and immediately warp out.
4. Get PVP ship, preferably a decent counter. Consider using the same hull and stalling in local for surprise effect.
5. Warp back. Shoot suspect.

If Suspect flees, he might counter your counter, depending on what he has available. You can always dock and let the duel timer expire.

Try Planetary Interaction (PI) in a corp that has your back in lowsec. I do it really half-arsed and forget about my cycles regularly, but it's good money for the effort involved. Not as good as nullsec or wspace but decent enough to fund some PVP action. If you train the skills for it, you will be able to run PI projects wherever you end up in Eve. I don't find hisec PI worth the trouble, maybe to test the mechanics a bit in relative safety. Anywhere else is pretty decent. Because PI materials are needed to make POS fuel, you might even find a client you can reliably sell to (corp or alliance) albeit at a discount.

I may be biased but I really think you should have gotten your corpies together and reverse ambushed him. Fight fire with fire

You had salvage drones out so no warriors. I'm guessing no webs on your Drake. He'd probably be able to speed tank HML's without webs. You also haven't told us if you checked local for his corp mates/alliance mates. You made the right choice.

In the future I'd favor Warriors over Salvage drones. They'll do a really good job killing mission rat frigates even if you don't see another player.

Also you can use eve-kill and check his PvP record or look at the age of the character trying to bait you to get an idea of how experienced he is without giving him a chance to fight.

Definite yes on this. It's actually kind of fun probing down homeless tech 2 drones and selling them at market. You'd be amazed how many you can find in a single system. Great way to find loot to ninja too if you're into that.