What do we mean by covert operations (cov ops for short)? In summary it is the ability to move around New Eden without detection, or without being detected easily. This however means different things to different people and hopefully I will try and pull together a good overview here of the various aspects of covert operations and dispel any myths and clear up those things that people ask (well I did at least).
Ok throughout this article when I talk about covert operations I am talking about ships and activities that rely on the use of the "covert ops cloaking device" module. There are other modules available, but being elitist about this, who wants a cloaking device that means you cannot move, or at a vastly reduced speed and cannot warp whilst cloaked?
Firstly the ship types that can fit this module are:
- Blockade Runner
- Covert Ops
- Force Recon
- Stealth Bomber
So what can these ships be used for? Well there is a level of overlap between them, but the common tasks that these ships are used for is:
- Alpha Strike
- Exploration
- Fleet Logistics
- High Value Cargo Transport
- Scouting
- Sniper
Alpha Strike
This is what the stealth bombers where made for. I have not included them as snipers as they do not have the tank capacity to remain in place once they have decloaked. The aim here is to get within a sensible distance of a target; say 40km whilst cloaked. Then to revel oneself, fire a high damage payload and either cloak again or warp away. This can be useful in a fleet senario as the lead to a bigger assault where by the Stealth Bomber gets a good amount of the targets shields down prior to the remaining fleet warping in and finishing him off. The use of torpedos here is vital and for nu,, sec bombs are also recommended.
Exploration
This career path is primarily involved in finding anomalies and signatures like worm holes or RADAR sites. This is usually undertaken with a covert ops frigate and requires you to have salvaging, code breaker and analyzer modules on board. Also the ability to scan using the astrometric skill sets.
Fleet Logistics
By this I am referring to the use of the cynosural field generators that allow for other ships out of the system to jump into the system you are in without the use of existing jump gates. You are more likely to use a covert version working with some of the other ships we talked about above. This is usually undertaken from a covert ops frigate, stealth bomber of force recon ship. Secondary skill depend on the type of ship you are flying but will be primarily propulsion skills, why? Well when deploying a cyno you cannot cloak and so need to be able to protect yourself somehow. Fr the frigates especially there is little power left to use any shield or armor boosters and so speed is your better chance. For the force recon ships you are more likely to have a more reasonable combat set up fitted. I will also add the Black Ops ship in here as it is used to create a ump bridge for other cov ops ships to be deployed into a system.
High Value Cargo Transport
Blockade runners are a type of transport ship and are used for moving high value cargos around. These ships are usually based on industrial class I ships and though not able to hold huge amounts of cargo can still move enough around to help fuel a pos or move minerals around in low sec between stations. Speed and cargo expansion modules skills are the order of the day for these ships. With changes made in Apocrypha 1.5 Back Ops ships were also given the potential for POS refueling operations. All the other ships can be used for this but have very limited cargo hold spaces so can only take very small items, e.g. special cargo delivery for a npc mission.
Scouting
This skill set is focussed around obtaining intel in hostile areas and relies on you being able to slip into occupied territory and collate information on opposing fleet sizes and composition, location of gate camps. It can also include scanning down hostile ships that are hiding at a safe spot. the smaller frigate class ships or Force Recons are used for this activity and primarily require good propulsion skills.
Sniper
This skill is very much aimed at the Black Ops ships, though can include the Force Recon (see above for Stealth Bomber). The aim here is to be able to provide a high level of damage from a reasonable range; sitting outside of the targets own range. This is especially true when setting up an ambush on a gate. This is very much a combat based skill and needs large gun related skills.
Common Mistakes, Questions and Key Points
- Your presence can always be seen in local, whether or not you are cloaked.
- You cannot be scanned down with probes if you are cloaked.
- You cannot use any other module whilst cloak is activated.
- If you have already launched probes you can be cloaked and scan at the same time.
- Your cloak will deactivate if you are within 2000 metres of almost any another item. There are some items that will not decloak you if they are nearby, one of these is corpses. In general though you should act as if anything too close with deactivate your cloak. Probes returning to your hold will not cause you to decloak.
- Once you are targeted you will not be able to cloak.
- After jumping through a gate you will be naturally cloaked for 30 seconds (please note that you cannot jump whilst cloaked). In order to activate your cloak you will have to start moving. Be ready to activate your cloak as soon as you align or warp to something. This is the main time at which your presence can be located.
- When in a fleet always warp to no less than 5km as the person you are warping to may be cloaked and you do not want to annoy him by deactivating his cloak.
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