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Can someone explain why even CovOps Scouting is not (near) guaranteed failure?

Author
Ravenaire
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2011-12-16 14:43:39 UTC
I don't mind dieing (I'm so good at it), but its frustrating when, even with skill, and skill points, . . . something seems an inevitable failure.

Running through NPC Null Sec, I've died twice now when I gated through RIGHT INTO a Warp Interdiction Sphere. As I understand it, your position on the "other side" is a random point in the 12k sphere around the gate. And since WIS's can't cover an entire exit-sphere, there is a certain amount of good/bad luck involved re:where it is, and where you land.

Lets say I'm scouting ahead for a group of 10. We can't have 9 scouts and one DPS. Its more like 1-2 scouts and 8-9 DPS to survive encounters. Since each gate crossing for the CovOps Scout is a Russian-Roulette gamble that I'll land in a WIS and die, after 10-20 hops through Null Sec, I'm almost certain to die by landing in one. Now the group is deep in Null Sec, with 1 (or more likely NO) scouts. How do they continue?

Even if I jump through and survive, the remaining 8-9 of my group, may some (or all) randomly land in a WIS setup within the 12k sphere of the gate.

I don't see how death isn't near inevitable for the scout.
I don't see how even if I survive the jump, I can assure some of the party won't get trapped/killed if they have bad landing luck.
I don't see how the party continues, when the scout(s) have been killed.

If the only answer is, "You can't avoid a WIS placed at the gate, if you have the bad luck to jump into it." then, there is no point in scouting, just bring all DPS and try and mow down the competition.

Am I just missing some finer point of advanced evasive scouting?
Please enlighten me. (Because Viator's and Prowler's are getting expensive.)
Bad Messenger
Rehabilitation Clinic
#2 - 2011-12-16 14:54:21 UTC
Yes you are missing something, you have to learn to play.

Anyway there is no 100% guarantee to stay alive in EVE if you undock, same goes with covops.

There is one thing you should a tleast learn, and that is mwd+cloak trick to get out of bubble or to burn back to gate.

I am sure if you search there is good guide for that.

March rabbit
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2011-12-16 15:08:18 UTC
Ravenaire wrote:
...

Running through NPC Null Sec, I've died twice now when I gated through RIGHT INTO a Warp Interdiction Sphere.
...
Even if I jump through and survive, the remaining 8-9 of my group, may some (or all) randomly land in a WIS setup within the 12k sphere of the gate.
....
I don't see how death isn't near inevitable for the scout.
I don't see how even if I survive the jump, I can assure some of the party won't get trapped/killed if they have bad landing luck.
I don't see how the party continues, when the scout(s) have been killed.
....
If the only answer is, "You can't avoid a WIS placed at the gate, if you have the bad luck to jump into it." then, there is no point in scouting, just bring all DPS and try and mow down the competition.

How did WIS killed you twice? I have never heard that WIS can kill you. It only prevent you from warping away.

Now let's assume you speak about gate campers sitting next to this WIS. Ok.

1. Once i was traveling around the Universe in my stelthbomber. Got into 30+++ gate camp with bubbles around the gates. Left it alive despite 2 or more interceptors with drone support tried to uncloak and catch me. So not each WIS is end of the road.
2. If you roam with 9-10 people gank why you are scared by gate campers? After all you went to roam to find fights don't you?

The Mittani: "the inappropriate drunked joke"

Ravenaire
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2011-12-16 15:08:53 UTC
I am trying to learn to play, that's why I asked the question.

I'm not asking for guaranteed life . . . I'm trying to avoid guaranteed death. (Two very distinct and unrelated concepts.)

As I understood it . . . a Warp Interdiction Sphere has an infinite amount of negative warp points, so WMD won't work in there . . . (at least it doesn't for me.) But, I will revisit the 1000 MWD+Cloak articles I've already read, . . . at your suggestion.
L'ouris
Have Naught Subsidiaries
#5 - 2011-12-16 15:20:05 UTC
MWD's work just fine in bubbles;

Thats why most null fits use MWD's.

If your jumping through a gate, and land in a bubble, your scout will need the cloak+MWD trick to either burn out of the bubble or back to gate.

You can still die if the gate is camped with a proficient crew, but thats eve.

To avoid landing in bubbles on gates while warping in the system, bounce to other places in space before warping to the gate.

Bubbles only work within a certain set of vectors, so if, for example, you warp to a point 300km above a gate that has a bubble at zero. You will land at your point 300km above as intended.

If you just try warping in at 100km, the bubble will pull you in.
Derath Ellecon
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2011-12-16 15:42:31 UTC
Ravenaire wrote:
I am trying to learn to play, that's why I asked the question.

I'm not asking for guaranteed life . . . I'm trying to avoid guaranteed death. (Two very distinct and unrelated concepts.)

As I understood it . . . a Warp Interdiction Sphere has an infinite amount of negative warp points, so WMD won't work in there . . . (at least it doesn't for me.) But, I will revisit the 1000 MWD+Cloak articles I've already read, . . . at your suggestion.



All of the area of effect "bubbles" are warp disruptors as I understand, not scrams. IE they don't shut down MWD.
Mia Restolo
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#7 - 2011-12-16 15:43:31 UTC
WIS prevents warping, it doesn't do anything to a MWD. Either run to the edge of the bubble or back to the gate. Choose direction, double click >> MWD >> cloak, only leaves you visible for a second or two. Just make sure you wait out the timer before you start if burning back to the gate (is it still 30s?). Practice someplace safe.

Being in a fast cloaky scout ship you can get through most camps untouched.

Torin Corax
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2011-12-16 15:50:37 UTC
Ravenaire wrote:

Please enlighten me. (Because Viator's and Prowler's are getting expensive.)


You are scouting for a PvP gang using Viators and prowlers?..........Why?

If you need a transport to haul ammo, then seriously consider bringing up the rear with it.
Cov-ops frig/ recon cruiser/ inty...these make better scouts and should have far fewer issues evading a bubble camp.


You Trollin?
Cameron Freerunner
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#9 - 2011-12-16 15:52:32 UTC
It sounds like you're not quite doing something right when it comes time to uncloak and move away from teh gate.

When you jump through and the grid loads, wait. Check the grid. You've got plenty of time; 60 seconds of cloak as long as you don't move. What's waiting there? Obviously you don't want to move towards ships. And you want to keep an eye out for insta locking ships like interceptors and ships that are 2500m or closer to you will keep you from cloaking.

Once you've mentally mapped the path you're going to take to get out of the bubble, get ready. As soon as you double click in space to begin moving, keep an eye on your speed indicator, as soon as the numbers start going up, cloak. Don't click too fast or you'll get the "you can't activate module because you're [gate] cloaked." Count to 1 and then click your MWD. If you click the MWD first, your sig radius will blow up and you'll be insta locked and pointed. If you wait too long, the MWD won't activate and the camp will be sprinting towards you to try and decloak you.

Don't try to warp away from a nosec gate when you jump through. Instead, align to your warp target and do the cloak/MWD thing. If a bubbler is cloaked on the gate and you begin the warp sequence, he uncloaks, pops the bubble, your warp sequence cancels, your speed drops to zero, and the other cloaked members of the gate camp will be rushing towards you to decloak you, and they'll succeed while you're trying to get your speed back up.

Check out Agony Unleashed classes and their wiki. They've opened the wiki up to the general public and there is TONS of good info for the uninitiated.
Ravenaire
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2011-12-16 15:59:59 UTC
No, I'm not Trolling, I was transporting in a Viator and a Prowler alone, but CovOps II = CovOps II whether I'm in my Cheetah or in a Prowler,, and I had the same question about how a Scout would be useful for a gang, if death was an eventual certainty, so I framed the original question in the form of a roving group.

Thanks you all, ultimately you've answered the point everyone on 100 other websites left out . . . that WIS's don't stop MWD's. Its a critical point, that everyone else left out.
Cameron Freerunner
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#11 - 2011-12-16 16:06:00 UTC
Ravenaire wrote:
No, I'm not Trolling, I was transporting in a Viator and a Prowler alone, but CovOps II = CovOps II whether I'm in my Cheetah or in a Prowler

That's not entirely true. Align times, agility, and top speed are different for covops vs cloaky haulers. Plus campers are much more likely to make a concerted effort to kill a cloaky hauler than they would a covops. It's also worth noting that they're bigger, which means they are slightly more susceptible to being decloaked. With cargo expanders the problem is seriously compounded.
FloppieTheBanjoClown
Arcana Imperii Ltd.
#12 - 2011-12-16 16:24:35 UTC
L'ouris wrote:
Bubbles only work within a certain set of vectors, so if, for example, you warp to a point 300km above a gate that has a bubble at zero. You will land at your point 300km above as intended.

If you just try warping in at 100km, the bubble will pull you in.


It's sad that the only "defense" against drag bubbles is having bookmarks around every gate you might potentially be warping to.

Founding member of the Belligerent Undesirables movement.

L'ouris
Have Naught Subsidiaries
#13 - 2011-12-16 16:28:17 UTC
FloppieTheBanjoClown wrote:
L'ouris wrote:
Bubbles only work within a certain set of vectors, so if, for example, you warp to a point 300km above a gate that has a bubble at zero. You will land at your point 300km above as intended.

If you just try warping in at 100km, the bubble will pull you in.


It's sad that the only "defense" against drag bubbles is having bookmarks around every gate you might potentially be warping to.



Or coming in from a celestial that the drag bubble is not set up to pull in from.

hint: anomolies are handy and tend to be off-plane and random.
Lady Spank
Get Out Nasty Face
#14 - 2011-12-16 16:28:29 UTC
Dont forget to turn the cloak on.

(ಠ_ృ) ~ It Takes a Million Years to Become Diamonds So Lets Just Burn Like Coal Until the Sky's Black ~ (ಠ_ృ)

Ravenaire
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#15 - 2011-12-16 16:50:34 UTC
I've been doing well once alive within the system. On the path's I'm using, I have multiple safe points and points around the gates, close enough to warp to to see if they're camped (or where the bubbles are to navigate around) but far enough to actually then warp to the gate itself when i see the clear path.

Sure, I suppose you can put a bubble anywhere, but the region between a 200km pt from the gate, and say 400k, is so vast, if you pick a point not inline with another regular object, getting to/from the gates, and gating out isn't an issue.

It was only the unavoidable WIS at gate in that's given me trouble.

Fair point on the Prowler != Cheetah. Yes, other websites made that point when discussing using Iterons as haulers and the speed negatives of improved vs prototype cloaking. That the align times are typically so bad, (and being huge) the lock times so quick, they're essentially DOA. Although perhaps not as bad, the same would apply to Prowler/Viator/....

I just couldn't imagine the "infinite number of warp points' of a WIS, wouldn't affect a MWD. Plus, there are also somewhat misleading sites, mentioning the T3 (usually a Tengu) with an Interdiction Nullifier and CovOps fittings. But, now, I suppose they're talking about directly warping to the distant object, and not MWD driving out of the bubble to warp.

Ok, time to drag out the Cheetah(s), practice the MWD+Cloak and then try and escape some bubbles.
Lady Spank
Get Out Nasty Face
#16 - 2011-12-16 17:05:45 UTC
Stop calling them WIS please. WiS is that stupid 'walking in station' feature, they are commonly just called bubbles.

Now you know you can mwd out you should find yourself surviving FAR easier, heh. I guess its an understandable misinterpretation, although it is also amusing (sorry).

Just one other point... while it's highly unlikely you will get pointed in the tiny window between gate cloak and activating your own cloak, it's still best practice to hit your cloak first and THEN your MWD. While it's not difficult, test it out in safe space until you have the hang of it.

(ಠ_ృ) ~ It Takes a Million Years to Become Diamonds So Lets Just Burn Like Coal Until the Sky's Black ~ (ಠ_ృ)

Myrdraeus Keaunt
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#17 - 2011-12-16 17:52:06 UTC
Ravenaire wrote:
I don't mind dieing (I'm so good at it), but its frustrating when, even with skill, and skill points, . . . something seems an inevitable failure.

Running through NPC Null Sec, I've died twice now when I gated through RIGHT INTO a Warp Interdiction Sphere. As I understand it, your position on the "other side" is a random point in the 12k sphere around the gate. And since WIS's can't cover an entire exit-sphere, there is a certain amount of good/bad luck involved re:where it is, and where you land.


OK.

Quote:

Lets say I'm scouting ahead for a group of 10. We can't have 9 scouts and one DPS. Its more like 1-2 scouts and 8-9 DPS to survive encounters. Since each gate crossing for the CovOps Scout is a Russian-Roulette gamble that I'll land in a WIS and die, after 10-20 hops through Null Sec, I'm almost certain to die by landing in one. Now the group is deep in Null Sec, with 1 (or more likely NO) scouts. How do they continue?


Grab the next smallest ship, safe up and log while you grab a new one...there are options...

Quote:

Even if I jump through and survive, the remaining 8-9 of my group, may some (or all) randomly land in a WIS setup within the 12k sphere of the gate.


So let me get this straight, because I'm not sure I do. You hop in ahead of your main group. You yell, "OH **** OH ****!" on coms, and then everyone jumps in after you?

I think you might have a fail FC, not a problem with any game mechanic.

Quote:

I don't see how death isn't near inevitable for the scout.


It is indeed dangerous, and it takes practice. You might not survive the first couple times. But has anyone taught you the MWD->cloak trick?

You're in a bubble, you got 20 guys waiting to pop you and probably circling trying to decloak you.

1. Be fast, once they start getting into the circle pattern they're closer to you and your survival chances go down.
2. Pick a point that appears to be devoid of enemy ships.
2a. Preferably something that places you outside the bubble quickly and gives you a near immediate line to a celestial that won't put you back in it when you warp. Doesn't always work out that way but usually does.
3. If there's an inty nearby you might wait for him to get out further...but you can't wait forever.
4. double click so you move in that direction. Count, 1,2. Click your MWD and then your cloak.

This turns on your MWD for one cycle and cloaks you as quickly as possible. The inty's will immediately bee line to your position so watch them. Nobody else is a danger unless you ignored point 2.

Quote:

I don't see how even if I survive the jump, I can assure some of the party won't get trapped/killed if they have bad landing luck.
I don't see how the party continues, when the scout(s) have been killed.


This is where I begin to think your FC is fail. The whole point of having a scout is to NOT jump into a camp. If your group is just insta-jumping after you regardless of intel...your group is being stupid and yeah, there's no point in the scout. The scout is the only one likely to survive.


If the only answer is, "You can't avoid a WIS placed at the gate, if you have the bad luck to jump into it." then, there is no point in scouting, just bring all DPS and try and mow down the competition.

Am I just missing some finer point of advanced evasive scouting?
Please enlighten me. (Because Viator's and Prowler's are getting expensive.)


Troll post? You're not really scouting in a Prowler....right?
L'ouris
Have Naught Subsidiaries
#18 - 2011-12-16 17:58:52 UTC
As an aside;

I've seen many folk scout with a blockade runner. Most bubble camps aren't all that good at de-cloaking.

In addition it can make a handy loot wagon and SBU hauler. Is it as easy as a cov ops frigate? I doubt it.

But it is done and doable.
Princess Nexxala
Zero Syndicate
#19 - 2011-12-16 17:59:59 UTC
This
Lady Spank wrote:
it's still best practice to hit your cloak first and THEN your MWD. .

nom nom

Gritz1
Ice Fire Warriors
#20 - 2011-12-16 18:31:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Gritz1
Bubbles are not the end of the world. I have been trapped in many a bubble while ratting in null. in my SB. Just keep your cool and like someone else said, mentally map your escape path. Its important you do not lose your cool and immediately turn back to the gate. Just see the open path, head towards it, and get out. End of story. I've yet to be caught by a bubble in my sb and killed on a gate camp.
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