EVE New Citizens Q&A

I'm thinking about trying to make some money hauling items from high sec trade hubs to low sec hotspots. I know that jump freighters do the heavy lifting in this area, but i'm thinking that there is a little bit to be made without all the extra expense and complication. Assuming I get into a covert ops transport, where are the biggest risks?

It seems like as long as I have a bookmark for an instant undock warp point, the risk is pretty low as long as I stay out of nullsec and the bubbles that accompany gate camps there. Will gate campers in hi/low sec have enough time to lock me before I can cloak after breaking the gate cloak?

Are there danger points other than docking/undocking and reestablishing my cloak after I travel through a gate? Those seem to be the only points where I would be vulnerable. Am I missing something?

I'm open to any suggestions on things to look out for or ways that I can mitigate risk while delivering to lowsec (I know about using the star map to look for lots of ship kills before I jump into a system). I won't fly a ship I can't replace, but I would like to minimize the number of times I get kaboomed and I'm afraid that I'm missing some big picture dangers.

Thanks!

You can be caught by instalock gatecamps, as well as by gatecamps that use tricks to break your cloak.

Docking is particularly dangerous unless you have pre-prepared instadock bookmarks.

Confirming covops hauling in lowsec is extremely safe.

For stations, insta-undocks are a must, along with insta-docks (just warping @zero can actually land you 2km+ from docking range, fast-locking high-alpha ships can blap you while you're slowboating).

On gates, being locked before you cloak is almost impossible. BUT you are vulnerable to being decloaked, either by random objects (wrecks, corpses , ...) or fast ships burning for your position (you appear on overview and in space for a second). You can counter this with good piloting, fast align time, a warp stab or two. Or holding your gate cloak hoping that someone else will jump in and get caught first! Or convoing the intie pilot to distract him .

If you want to be paranoid, use a disposable scout to jump ahead of you. In a big system with long warps, you can even set up a safespot close to the out-gate to minimize the time between you're scout giving you the thumbs up and you actually landing on gate and jumping. Pre-align to the out-gate while in the safespot.

Nothing in EVE is 100% safe (at the very least, connection and/or server problems can ruin your day) but, crossing my fingers, I have never been blapped in lowsec with a covops cloak and only once in a mwd+normal cloak Iteron V, and that was only because I got cocky and jumped into a gate camp on purpose, appearing 1.5km from a nasty pirate .

Thanks for all the tips.

Sounds like I need to skill and fit for quick align times and I will be in pretty good shape.

If you see me on local.... my ship is empty. This is not the transport you are looking for.

Wormholes are fantastic for getting stuff from deep null to a highsec trade hub, not sure I'd use them to avoid lowsec jumps, however. Too much chance of finding your route bubblecamped.

Yes it works but a BR is so much better:

. Aligns in 5-6 secs instead of 10 (MWD cycle)

. Has some tank, meaning alpha (and smartbombs) will not always kill you (if for example you fit warp stabs to escape from a point or two)

. Is much faster (close to 2.000 m/s on oh'd mwd), has at least a chance to burn back to gate if not immediately scrammed & webbed, also a chance to quickly get out of decloaking range of any object you may be unlucky enough to land on

. Cloaks in warp, meaning smartbombers will not pick you up as incoming on dscan

. Warps at 6 AU/s instead of 3!!! This makes hauling infinitely less boring! <-- my personal favorite feature of BRs

. Costs 100M more, but that's nothing if you're regularly hauling 1B ISK of stuff


I agree on the cargo limitation obviously. But the double warp speed means you can do 2 runs in the same time you would do 1 in a 3au/s indy.


TL;DR use a mwd+cloak T1 indy to learn some tricks while you're training for a BR, then sell it and invest in a BR, best money you'll ever spend

This is a bookmark you set up in a "straight line" outside the station, allowing you to spam "warp" as soon as you undock and immediately warp to this bookmark while still under the temporary immunity from having just undocked.

Example:
* Undock from your station with a fast ship.
* Don't change your direction, just keep burning in the same direction as the undock set you on.
* Once you are 150km+ away from the station, create a bookmark and name it something like [StationName_SafeUndock_1].
* Next time you undock, warp to this location.

This should help you avoid the majority of nasty, evil stuff waiting for you outside the station before they can lock you.
Note: Should.

And a safe docking BM is one that is made as close to the station as poss.

Undock. Burn back to the station until you are actually touching it and make a BM.

The reason is that station docking perimeters vary, and sometimes you can warp to 0 or click dock and warp in to a station from a gate, and still land 50km out having to coast in.

Warp to the instadock BM instead and spam 'dock' and you should be safe.

Learning to be a 'smart prey' gets you one step closer to embracing both sides of PVP!

Looking forward to blowing you up in a combat ship someday .

Pffft, get real! There are more troll-laden forums than that:

* General Discussion (GD)
* Crime & Punishment (C&P)
* Corporation, Alliance & Organization Discussions (CAOD)

CAOD got so bad that I don't think anybody uses it anymore. Some corps / alliances have a "no posting" rule even. Kugu is used for "ship-toasting" instead.

EVE New Citizens Q&A is an oasis forum where trolling is forbidden. Skill Discussions forum is also pretty decent. I personally hangout a lot in these, as well as Science & Industry.