Science & Industry

My friends haven't been ganked that often (They can probably count the losses on one hand from about five years of gameplay.) but I think all the attacks have happened when they haven't been paying full attention to the screen. In terms of haulers you should never use autopilot and never be 'AFK' while flying. Even the most vociferous members of anti-ganking fleets will tell you this so it is just how the game is played and not CODE propaganda.

I think I would tend to agree that there has been a noticeable increase in high sec ganking. It probably started just before the advent of the 'hyper-dunking' tactic/exploit . There are many choke-point systems in high sec between the trade hubs which I won't name here. The majority of the ganking occurs in those systems but by using certain chat channels and using scouts and/or 'webbing alts' you can lessen the risk.

You mean like Uedama? Is that the system you can't name?

Oh, I agree. I think the danger has taken some of the boredom out of hauling life. Hopefully, more people will want to hire haulers to move their stuff, too. See you out there, Sabriz. o7

Personally my mining ships on my ALTs have never been ganked. Then again they are all permit holders. And I try to lose my mining ship in rens all the time but it never seems to work out. Maybe your doing it wrong because my mining ships end up killing the aggressor's...

Yes that is the most notable one but there a quite a few others. For those who don't wish to enter low sec systems to shorten journey times avoiding systems like Uedama can turn a nineteen jump one way trip into a thirty-eight jump one way trip. Of course the gankers don't operate 24/7 and there are other things you can do to lessen the risk. But yes I won't name the systems so as not to encourage the less imaginative to join in.

As I said elsewhere in this thread, and should have stated in my OP, I am not really talking about the retriever losses on this character. I was mostly talking about hauler ganks. I apologize for not being good at posting clearly yet. I have been a lurker for decades and I'm still learning how to post clearly and with preemptive answers to assumptions and questions.

I do not publish the name of my hauler because I fear someone tracking it. Next time I will make that more clear.

Since posting, I have actually learned a lot about staying safe while hauling thanks to some of you and just doing better homework. As far as mining goes, the retriever is just off the table for me now. I was lucky for years with that.

And as far as taking a break goes, everyone should take breaks now and then. Especially if you feel frustrated, which I did when I first posted and that's understandable. If EVE were not frustrating sometimes, it would not be the brutal game we love.

oh it's 'this thread again' -- noob miners crying about code and other ganks

How to avoid being ganked 101:

1. Keep local open + make all characters, alliances, and corporations (that you know of) red to all mining characters... therefore do not AFK mine and keep watching your local so you can gtfo when a red(s) comes into system.

2. This is a nice trick that everyone should learn to do -- go dock up where you, live, work, eat, ****, whatever (even the market hubs) and then instantly undock. Open people and places on the neocom and go to places tab (i think.. im on holiday at the moment and i'm not near a PC capable of playing eve, so excuse me) and 'save location' -- call it whatever you like.. personally i call it 'Base' or whatever.. --- why do this? This puts you right on top of the station you want to dock at, so you dont have the fly that extra 2,000m or so which happens on occasion when you right click and hit dock on a station in the drop down...

3. You can use ALL the mining ships, but you need to know their weaknesses and strengths. For those who are lazy and cant be bothered to figure it out:

Hulk//Covetor -- FLEET MINING ONLY (note: these ships are paper thin and are easy as hell to gank, even if tanked well. watch local when flying one)

Mackinaw//Retriever -- GREAT FOR SOLO MINING (note: these ships have a little more tank than hulks or covs, although they are still rather easy to gank if the gankers know what they are doing.

Procurer//Skiff -- FABULOUS SHIP (note: this ship mines around the same amount as a mackinaw or retriever, but has the added risk of mining 'dead ore' (if you have a spin of 3,800m3's with your single mining laser on your skiff and you have a veldspar rock with only 1m3 of ore left.. you can pop that in 0.2 seconds, but if you leave it longer to run the full cycle.. you are mining 'dead ore') -- therefore, learn to 'active mine' and make assessments about when you need to turn off your mining laser, and reactivate it again. The skiff is brilliant, but if you wish to get the most out of it, one needs to active mine.
Also note that these things tank like battleships.. i've flown them before with 110,000 EHP and can take on level 4 security missions, its a blast.

4. There are some VERY interesting methods to avoid being ganked, or to make things more difficult for the gankers, which i will outline now.

4.a:
Mobile Microjump unit -- this is a recent deployable which has the ability to jump your ship 100km away, in the direction your ship is facing (if memory serves me well.. it takes 12 seconds to activate, so you need to be on the ball to use it).
It WILL NOT WORK if your ship is being WARP DISRUPTED, but it will indeed work if you are being WARP SCRAMBLED (know the difference between your mods)... After you have been, effectively teleported 100km away, you can then warp to safety

4.b:
Mobile Depot -- keep mods in your ship so you can change mods on the fly, if you see your gankers warp in, quickly change your lowslots out for armor tanking mods (for a little extra buff) and a damage control II

4.c:
This is a very effective method, which I designed myself and called it 'belt prospecting'.
It is making bookmarks around the belt, which are, A: still in range of all the rocks in the belt, and B: not right smack in the middle of the rocks, nor at the typical warp-in point of the belt itself.. so maybe 25km above the belt and above the rocks works nicely.
These bookmarks once created will work consistently and will always drop you off at your location, even after downtime. Although do note, if you are ganked at one of these bookmarks, it would be wise to remove that bookmark and class it as 'void' and make another bookmark, similar to the last, but in a different location around the belt, whilst still being in range of the rocks

4.d:
Keep a combat ship in your ship maintenence array on an orca (and of course maxtank your orca for anti-gank and NOT max cargo space. You can then switch ships accordingly if you need to defend yourself

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these ideas are just a little 'food for thought' and can indeed save your life if applied properly. There are certainly many many great ideas which can help with mining and avoid being ganked as well... ALTHOUGH, the best defence you have is setting standings of gankers to red, keeping local open and visible at all times (even in highsec....) and not AFK mining

TL;DR -- treat highsec like lowsec, or nullsec and HTFU

Yes, there have been more ganks in high sec... but no, it has nothing to do with clones. The key is that there has been a shift by high sec gankers to different targets. Mining populations have been reduced thanks to CCPs action against botting and changes to ice belts and refining. Because the the target base is smaller there is more of a chance you'll be hit. Just remember the risk is there in high sec .. even if the reward has been somewhat gutted.

It's the other way around. Points have no effect on microjumps (mobile or otherwise) while a scram shuts them down.

Other than that a good post.

Is ganking on the rise? Not sure, but I certainly lost several ships while still in hi-sec.

Easy way to solve the problem: move to null. It's really quiet and certainly more profitable.