Crime & Punishment

I've been playing off and on for a few years mostly on the industrial side of eve as a small time multiboxer (manually on 3 screens). I have been away for a year or two and am picking things up again. I could use some opinions on an idea I came across to make me harder to gank while high sec mining (I by no means claim this is a new one, just new to me).

First, a few disclaimers since this is the C&P boards after all and I'm a self proclaimed carebear, at least for the time being.

• I fully embrace the best way to not be ganked is to be the predator, not the prey. I'm not trying to circumvent the game at all, just seeing where this strategy might fall in the 'arms race' so to speak.
• I also know there's no such thing as a gank proof setup. I'm not aiming for one. I just want to know if people would be more inclined to skip me with the following setup (just for the lols not withstanding), or at the least if I'd have a reasonable chance to survive.
• I need outside opinions because honestly, when things look sketchy in local, i just go do something else for a while. There has been only one time where my barges have been shot at in several years of on and off playing. Back in the days of can flipping, someone tried to steal my ore. So i went and got a pvp ship and drove him off. score ... uh... 1/2 for me?

The basic premise is as follows. In a 3 ship setup with 1 Orca and 2 Hulks, everyone would have a higgs rig and we'd share 5 webs among us with 2 on (both equipped and applied to) each hulk, and one on the orca. That is, the hulks trade webs and additionally all 3 are in a round robin of more webs.

This setup allows all 3 ships to have a max speed of 8m/s. At that rate it would take about an hour or so to traverse a high sec asteroid belt once. Then i just align towards whatever the heck I want and by the time I'm out of range of rocks, I'd also be out of rocks. So i could be 100% aligned and ready to warp fleet the moment someone started locking me or a few of you nasties showed up on grid. ;)

Here's the rough version of the loadouts. The tanks, for what they are, are pretty flexible. With some liberal application of t1 meta mods the fitting isn't very tight at all, and remains about as uninteresting as possible for loot drops.

[Hulk, Pitch Drop Experiment]
Damage Control II
Mining Laser Upgrade II

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II

Medium Higgs Anchor I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I


With the orca booster, this tanks about 24.5k worth of Void S.

---

[Orca, Pitch Drop Experiment]
Reinforced Bulkheads II
Damage Control II

Survey Scanner II
Stasis Webifier II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization II
Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement II
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing II

Large Higgs Anchor I
Large Transverse Bulkhead I
Large Transverse Bulkhead I

This tanks about 330k or so.

---

Is this idea silly? Would it be easy enough to just bump me anyway and screw up all the bother of this alignment crap? How much time do i have to notice a gang landing on grid to press my button and warp off? I'm watching netflix afterall.

I appreciate any feedback you guys have. Maybe we can put it to the test head to head. Though, I'd rather you not take that as a personal challenge. :)

-Bia

Not at all. Great even, that you put so much thought into it. In your case it won't work though and here is why:

Touche. That was meant to be a bit tongue in cheek though. I'm not literally paying no attention. That was just my way of saying i'm not going to be sitting there with my finger literally twitching above the warp fleet button. I don't know if that's what it would take to make this strategy worthwhile. if i were to estimate, I'd say my reaction time would be on the order of 2 or 3 seconds from my client displaying anything for me to see, til when I'd press the red GTFO button. But given the squishy nature of what I'd be trying to do, and the fatass barges that I'm in, I'm not sure that'd be enough time to get away before being pointed. My instinct was leaning towards no which is why i came to ask.

Your fits won't save you, changing to skiff won't save you, and certainly AG channels won't save you.

What will save you is faith, Code compliance, and a 10M ISK annual mining permit.

Praise James 315!

I have had ganks attempted on me. Honestly, what really matters is attentiveness.
That whole 'mash d-scan like it dispenses orgasms' thing may have seemed like it was humor, and in part it was... but also is deadly serious. Mining properly is mentally exhausting, and eventually the rocks start talking back to you.

The best defense is awareness. When you can see them coming at you on scan, you can react before they even get there. Even before they added the higgs rigs, you could readily have your snackinaw on the way out before the catalysts hit the grid.
Assuming that you mine while aligned, which your setup seems to indicate... if you're paying that close of attention then you should have no problem getting the hell out before the gank squad finished decelerating from warp.

Not to duke in CODE.'s picnic basket, but you don't need a permit for anything if you're a hard enough target that they can't land a proper gank or bump on you. Sorry guys, but your shtick only works on those who aren't trying...

Shush. For once this isn't about you guys directly. Stop trying to make it so. Plenty of other threads all about you.
Is okay. You guys are still relevant.
Really and always.

dont pay a code permit, dont fund those idiots

I had thought you couldn't swap ships while aggressed? If my hulks aren't aggressed then the fleet warp command should still have sent them off. Wouldn't the window for swapping be between being locked and being hit, that is, basically nil?

I've never had much opportunity for this sort of engagement in pve so the finer points of these kind of mechanics I'm not 100% on.

You only loose the ability to swap ships if you actively start engaging them, not if you remain passive. Your drones won't automatically engage a criminal, even if set to "aggressive". Btw: I'd also advise against using mining drones if you rely on this tactic. They could return in just the wrong moment and put ore into your hangar, thus preventing you from swapping ships.

Hmm. That's a solid way to go then. I'll look into it if i try this. Thanks for the tip.