Tracking Onions

Right then, I have looked at just replacing two gyros with two tracking enhancers, whilst running Hail ammo for the Loki vs Wolf scenario.  the tracking graphs are below:

Loki 4x Gyros Hail Ammo

Loki 2x Gyros 2x Tracking Enhancers Hail Ammo

and the answer is ... use Titanium Sabot ammo for small fast things.  The drop in DPS due to T2 to T1 change is not gonna be an issue for flying tin cans.  So time to test this theory tonight and have some of these graphs handy.

More Onions

Right, I have run the same four scenarios that I ran in The Onion That Is Eve except for this time I have put the Loki up against  Rupture and a Maelstrom.  This is what I got:

Loki vs Rupture

425mm w Hail Ammo

425mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

220mm w Hail Ammo

220mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

Loki vs Maelstrom

425mm w Hail Ammo

425mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

220mm w Hail Ammo

220mm w Titanium Sabot Ammo

The conclusion; well as long as I can set my range the Hail are worth it for the additional DPS, if range, speed (transversal) or signature is an issue then I only need to swap ammo and get my range sorted out.  The next check I need to do is on the benefit of a tracking enhancer against a gyro.  Its also worth noting, in this instance, that if I can fit 425mm autos rather than the smaller 220mm autos then do it, the only difference is range.

The Onion That Is EVE

Damn, just when you think you are getting somewhere it turns out that there is more to learn.  Onions vs Ogres strikes again! Just when I think I might a little closer to the core I find I am just at another layer; I'm disappointed child playing "pass the parcel" who finds another layer of paper under the one I have just ripped off.  Admittedly there is a little sweet in there to keep me going till it is my turn again.

Your starting to wonder what on earth am I talking about right.  Well I have finally got round to looking a little more into the Loki fitting I have and why it cannot shoot frigs for toffee.  So this morning I opened up my favourite program EVEHQ and started to do a little theory crafting.  What the issue is I am not sure but it is time to learn a little more about range vs tracking as I know the level of DPS is fine.

In order to start the test I made three copies of my current fitting, the original remained unchanged with 425mm autos, loaded with Hail.  The first copy had the ammo changed to Titanium Sabot, the second and third copies I changed the guns to 220mm autos and then Hail and Titanium Sabot respectively.  I then set up a scenario in the HQF Damage Analysis section as seen below.

This puts the Loki against a Wolf, the Wolf is doing a steady 400m/s and the Loki I have set to 200m/s.  The Wolf is moving perpendicular (at right angles) to the Loki, this builds in a level of transversal velocity, making the scenario a little more realistic.  I then swapped out the four Loki's and looked at the Range vs Hit Chance graph.  The results can be seen below:

425mm w Hail M Ammo

425mm w Titanium Sabot M Ammo

220mm w Hail M Ammo

220mm w Titanium Sabot M Ammo

For this comparison, the reality is plainly obvious; the guns are not the issue.  Note that there is other areas I intend to look at, but the case in question shows that against a Frigate sized vessel Hail is just not the ammo to use.

I intend to use this ship to run PLEX solo.  I therefore need a ship that can do all size vessels without changing fittings, so I need to run this analysis against cruiser and battleship sized vessels as well as with other weapon upgrade modules like tracking enhancers.  So watch this space for more checks.

Boosters

I got an alliance email over the weekend with a brief summary of booster benefits which I have never looked at before.  So being the inquisitive type, I decided it was time to educate myself a little more on what they do and how to make them.

In summary boosters are an easy way of boosting a number of your combat related skills without the need for an implant.  Be warned though they do have drawbacks that might leave you in a worse position.  In order for you to use boosters there are a number of skills that are either essential or beneficial for you to train up.

• Biology; allows you to use boosters, the higher the skill the higher the grade of booster you can use.  In addition to this, for each level you will increase the duration of the booster for 20%.
• Nanite Control; reduces the effect of side effects by 5% per level.
• Neurotoxin Recovery; reduces the chance of a side effect by 5%
• Drug Manufacture; required to manufacture drugs, the higher the level the higher grade drug that can be manufactured.

A good forum guide for boosters can be found here.

The spreadsheet below provides you with the base data for boosters along with a sheet where you can enter your relevant skills and it will show you what the duration and side effects are for your pilot.

Booster Spreadsheet

As a final entry here I have added a small flow chart that shows you the overall outline for manufacturing your drugs (can also be found in this Dev Blog).

Workarounds

Well,

I have already discussed a little bit about game mechanics so far with release of the Goonswarm (RIP) guide for ultra deep safes.  I have also played around the the Grid Fu guide, also release by Goonswarm, but I have more recently found some other more annoying / intelligent actions that use the game mechanics in a way that is not entirely as planned.  I have listed a few below and would be interested to know what other ones people use or loath in the game:

CONCORD Pre-Load
Ok, this is the art or act of pre-loading CONCORD into an area; and driod field for example, so hat they can provide you with a greater level of protection.  Achieved by ganking yourself with a noob ship in an asteroid field so that CONCORD relieve your noob of his ship then hang around for a couple of hours.  Provides you with CONCORD on your door step whilst you mine.

Insurance Farming
Quick way of turning all those low value T1 modules and ore that you get into isk.  Reprocess everything, build a BS, insure it and then self-destruct it.  Will see what happens with this with the changes that are appearing on Singularity right now.

Will add to this list as I find more; I have not gone through the whole list of war / combat issues such as station hugging, lofoffski, etc.

First Glimpse of Tyrannis

Well if you log into Singularity (Sisi) then you can see the first tasters of what the next release of EVE has in store for you; planetary interaction (dev blog).

Before I go any further I will digress slightly here and talk a little about CCP's last significant release; Dominion.  One of the intents of Dominion was to get more people out in to null sec by making things a little more interesting, which it possibly has done for the large alliances that already had a hold out there.  The reality was though that it was never (ever) going to get new takers due to cost, and capability requires (e.g. freighters in low sec for deploying infrastructure hubs, etc) and the last CSM minutes have confirmed this.  In fact as part of a fairly new alliance that would love to get sovereignty independently (without renting), dominion made it somewhat harder.  The best evidence available to back this up is the recent demise of Goonswarm; if Dominion has made null sec more open then we would of seen a great swathe of new alliances popping up all over the place and we haven't.

So anyway back to Tyrannis and planetary interaction.  The next step sees us now able to install a command module on a planet, build up a network of excavation / harvesting types modules along with processing plants to make nanite paste at present (though I have yet to find anything else but Nitrogen and Aluminium).  For more info on this there is a great EVE university vid up on you tube you can watch (click here to watch).  The set up in general is very simple and requires no additional skills, the planetary command centre is tiny (don't know about cost yet as everything on sisi costs 100isk) but is still no going to meet needs of the budding alliance looking for their own little 0.0 space.  The forum linked to this update (click here) is already alight with calls for skill requirements etc that are all about people protecting their own space rather than opening the game up and I am concerned that yet again there is little opportunity for us players that have been flying internet spaceships for around a year to really develop ourselves.  I would love some of you to correct me in this if I am wrong.

For me though new develops are always good this is definitely a drive towards the implementation of DUST514, and for those alliances that hold good space already this is another income source to bolster yet further their individual spaces.  At first I was rather excited by what I saw but the more I reflect on it I cannot at present see what most of us are going to get out of it.  Maybe that is just Mr Grumpy talking but we will see.

Ultra Deep Safes

Well another report has been made available by Goonswarm (RIP) that outlines what you need to do to creating ultra deep safes .  You can get a copy of it from here ... Poseidon Manual.


I have played around with this and looked into how effective it is at making deep safes and now have a couple in different systems that are around 660 AU to the nearest celestial body in the system.  I put together the following notes on creating these safe spots:

• When you log back in after the Control Q you can make a bookmark as soon as possible. Waiting till your speed has reduced to less than 10km/s (you are still in warp) will only give you a distance of 100k km. Which is not huge when you are looking at getting at least 7AU with each step.
• A cov ops (I used my cheetah with an aux power core, 400mm steel and 50mm steel plates) will get you 45-55AU roughly with each step.
• To get the most out of each step you should try and ensure your run up prior to quitting is as long as possible that way there is adequate distance to each top warp speed and be able to quite at a good time (just before you decelerate).
• Some battle reports talk of deep safes of up to 600AU and I now have a couple at this range though it will take you a couple of hours to make one.

A basic step by step process is as follows:

• Find two safe locations that are on either side of the system that give you the longest possible warp distance possible. Would suggest you use safes that are not directly on planets or moon warps. Your going to need the map open and on system display to help you here and as long as you are at a safe you should be able to keep this open.
• Declutter the window and make sure you can see you movement across the map.
• Warp to the location on the other side of the system.
• Hover your mouse over your speed and when you have reached your maximum speed (in smaller systems you may not reach max warp speed), prior to decelerating press control Q. Note that if you do this too late you will create a BM that is very close to the one you warped to so do not leave it too late. Also if you do too early you will end up near the point you were warping to anyway.
• The client will have quite so you will need to start it up again an log in as soon as possible. If you take too long you will back at your original location before you get a chance to make the bookmark. So restart EVE, login and BM asap.
• Once you have logged in create a bookmark as soon as possible. If you are looking at the map you will see that you have now bookmarked a location that is way beyond the point you were warping to.
• You will now have to wait as your ships finishes this warp away. Your ship will then warp back to the point at which you quite and will then warp to the point you originally warped to.
• Go back to your original warp from location and warp to your new deep safe and repeat the process as many times as you can cope with before dying of boredom. Remember that combat probes have a radius 128AU and deep space probes have a range of 256AU. It may take you a few steps to start to get a good distance each step (especially if you are in a small system. However once the steps are good you should be able to go from your end point to the new point and create the next step each time.

Projectile Ammo Savvy

Well I thought it was about time that I got a little more savvy with my ammo selection.   I have therefore put together the table below as a forum of quick reference.  Have added what I think is the best selections for the various factions and pirates.  Let me know what your experience is and I will update.