f13.net

We think we've found a good spot for everyone to concentrate on for low-sec operations:

(http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/6427/neesher7js.png) (http://imageshack.us)

The You Are Here circle shows you the Neesher system, which would be the base of operations. The colors show security status, so you can see that to get into Neesher it's all high-sec systems (green and blue and yellow), while towards Schmaeel we get into .4 to .2 systems. There are two ice belts in Schmaeel (3 jumps away) with another ice belt in another system (I forget which one) which is only 2 jumps away.

Schmaeel also has an NPC station, which we could use as a staging area for any mining in that system - but I was thinking our actual base should be in .5 or higher (Neesher is .5).

None of these systems have a lot of people in there. You'll notice there's only 19 people in Neesher, and this was taken with 19k+ users online. The other systems have even less. (Last night, Schmaeel had 1 other person in the system with 14k+ players online).

I didn't notice much ore other than veldspar, pyrox, and scordite. But my shuttle doesn't have a scanner so I could only click on a few rocks before having to jump away from the rats. We'll need to scout out the astroid fields to see whats available - I only looked in 3 systems with just a couple of astroid fields each. The ice fields are great, but require mining barges.

There's also a buncha agents within a couple of jumps, at least for me. So, assuming you have access to these agents, there are plenty of things to do solo (missions and npc rats at the belts). The rats I bumped into were 25k - 40k bounties, but there are probably higher ones around.

Yoru says there's a trade hub 7 jumps away from Neesher, so we'd still be able to create insta's there and have plenty of access to a busy market area.

Thoughts?

I will buzz over there tonight and check it out. From the map, it looks promising.

I was under the impression you can just check all of the asteroids in the Overview setting.  That's what I do and I just pick the cherries from the list.  I don't think I have any fancy scanning skills, and I certainly don't have any scanning equipment that wasn't factory-installed on my frigates.  I exclude veldspar from the list and am about to uncheck scordite, moving into a .7 system with omber currently.

Well frick, now you tell me!

Wtf is the point of the astroid scanners if you can do that? :P

Apparently there's Kernite in Neesher.

I wondered this myself.  I assumed some asteroids had chewy caramel centers, scannable only with special equipment and obtainable only with the deep-core mining skills and equipment, but I have not looked at too much.  I'll let you know when I get one.

I have two Overview preset saved: one for combat and one for mining.

There's kernite (and quite a lot of it) in Neesher and in the 4 highsec systems within 2 jumps of it. You'll find jaspet in the 0.4 and below, while Schmaeel and other 0.2-and-below systems will have hemorphite. This sort of distribution is pretty common across Amarr space.

The point of an asteroid scanner is to see how much is left in a rock. When you're using a long-cycle-time miner like a Strip Miner, you don't want to waste a full cycle on a rock that has less than half a cycle's worth of ore in it. The amount of ore extracted by a mining laser is a percentage of the mining amount based linearly on the cycle time that it's run. (i.e. Run a 1-minute miner for 30 seconds, you'll get 50% of the output you'd get from a full cycle.)

If I'm mining with other folks using smaller lasers, I try to switch my big stripminers over to bigger rocks once they fall below a full cycle's worth of stuff.

The 'nearby' market hub is the cluster of core Amarr worlds: Amarr, Kor-Azor Prime, etc. I suggest investing in an industrial and purchasing/selling stuff en masse instead of just running frigateloads around.

Oddly enough, there are a few okay Caldari agents nearby in Tash-Murkon.

Just FYI: Invest in some instas for the area, as well.  I have a set of Domain instas, so if they're still going for 20M a pop, I can hook you up as long as someone is willing to run down to Khanid to pick them up.

--Dave

The instas are hard enough to make that people will pay?  Pardon me while I grin and rub my sweaty palms together.

Full region sets are just a pain in the ass to make; although doing so in a shuttle or small Frig with AB/MWD is much less so. The expensive sets are probably the ones for extremely dangerous regions.

Also, when buying them from someone you don't know, there is always the risk that a few of them don't take you to a SG, but rather to a spot in empty space with a pirate waiting for you...

Strange, its in Amarr Empire space but there aren't any Amarr agents around for me.  Bah, I say!

They're also a pain to copy in bulk, I had to write a custom macro program to do it reliably and even so half my copies come out corrupted (I was considering going into that trade, but decided it took too much time overhead).  The more copies you make, the more errors creep in (duplicate and missing BM's in both the source and copy, the "reliable" part of my program is that it won't corrupt the source).  The escrow market is full of both legitimate copies and scams (since you can't tell what a BM points to until after you pick it up, it's ripe for UO-style "FULL SPELLBOOK" scams).  There are reliable vendors, largely you want someone who sells a large variety of sets in a large number of markets.  Avoid Jita, half the BM sellers there seem to be scammers.

Oh, and when dealing with the escrow market in general, ALWAYS INSPECT MERCHANDISE!  Lots of escrows that the descriptions say are for multi-million ISK items at a really cheap price, that are actually 1 unit of Tritium.

--Dave

What's an insta? I gather a bookmark of some kind?

Yea. You know how warp brings your 15KM from your target...

what if you made your target 15KM beyond your real target. All of a sudden you are right where you need to be. So you can Warp and instantly jump, in total safety.

Ahh, ok. I've made a few of those but didn't know the term.

Seems, interesting. If I log in and people are not already gearing up for something, I'll try to swing over and explore a bit. I'm especially interested in the possibility of Agents. I've been wanting to run some missions, but not enough so to run back to Caldari space.

Neesher is working out well for me with one exception- the regional market is non-existent. Gonna have to make regular trips to get rid of all my loot. What is the nearest system with a decent market?

Try the core Amarr worlds, such as Amarr. I usually can find stuff there.. but of all the empires, Amarr space is the most dead.

You may be better off getting your junk refined and selling off (or remanufacturing) the component materials.

I have relocated to your barren, desolate side of the world with the Amarr scum.  I'm 3 jumps "safer" than you all in the .7 zone since that's where the only L2 mission holder that's NOT in .2 space I can talk to on that side of the world is. (He's -17 quality but at least he's not L1)   I'll be running my Wolf out of there until I can access the L4 guy in Neesher or some other mission-giver in the area.

The rest of my ships I left back in Minmatar space with the bulk of my equipment (and all my dancing girls... ah pity.).  I figure that way if you all get bored and run off I have far less to move.  :-D

So if you need a high-dps escort just toss me an eve-mail or say something in the F13 channel and we can coordinate loadouts.

Schmaeel has a decent market.  It is 3 jumps from Neesher, but they are all low sec (Schmaeel itself is .2). Still, not a bad spot to grab skills and the like in a shuttle. Haven't seen any bad guys in the area yet, but the possibility exists nonetheless.

   Other then being a total pain to replace gear. I like the area. The Blood Angels or whatever they are are good enemies to fight. Set your range to 40Kish and you can kite them forever damage free. Was exciting to take out a big one last night. I was sure I was going to get ganked with my cargohold full of loot (got a 6M energy leech to boot).
   Would like to organize a trip with a couple people to the level 4 complex a system or two over. Overseer robes for the win and all that.
   I suggested last night that we start a collection for buying some BPO's. As I mentioned in the first sentence. Re-equiping out there is a total pain. I brought down a heavy missile launcher (couldn't find any of the better named ones) BPO. We're going to run thought the ammo limited run ones fairly quickly.
   Looks like we have 19M in the bank, I'm guessing we're going to be in the cruiser stage for a few months so perhaps we should look at modules and weapons.
   My suggestions:
   Heavy Scourge Missile BPO
   Medium Shield Extender BPO (these might be on the market at our base)
   Medium Shield Booster BPO
   Power Diagnostics BPO

   Of course - the above is a totally self-centered list, feel free to add ideas.
   
   

I think some ammo BPOs would be useful as well- I think we have some in the corp hangar, but a more extensive list would be good. Also, some Gallente ship BPOs, bitches! =)

Any thoughts on raising the corp tax to like 10%? That would bring money in a bit quicker, especiallu since there are some decent bounties to be had near our base.

I am interested in the Complex- would I be of any use in a frigate, or do I need to buy a destroyer first?

I can't fly or fight for shit, but I'll try anything once.  Insurance paid up through March. =)

Target Painter BPO - STAT!

Frigs are good for picking up loot. Grab an AB or something.

I have a Tristan with ~130m³, max speed something like 400m/s, and an Atron with 90m³ and max speed 998m/s.  These are AB speeds.  Just tell me what I need to be doing.

Stay away from the things with big guns.

I've been ratting sw of Neesher in the .4 and .3 systems, and raking in loot. Gonan try the .2 and .1 soon.

Sorry I haven't been around much for ops....been falling asleep at weird times, and waking up at 3+ am.

LOL, that gave me a real chuckle.  I stay away from shit with medium guns.

It's easy to solo the .2 system with a missile cruiser. Hell - you could do it with a frigate with all missiles.

Frigate missile systems have shit range...I start taking damage if I drift into the lower 20's km range.

The rats in this area are gunships?

Oh for joy, I might just relocate permanently.  All the shit in Matari was fucking missle-based.  You'd enter a deadspace area and get 6-8 kinetics up your ass within seconds, then you'd have to pray your tank held while you charged the fuckers.  I wondered why the L2s I was running last night were so much simpler than I remembered.

The blood's are laser based with some projectile it looks like. Don't think I saw a missile all night. But damn when they hit me.... Ouch. You've been hit for 482....

I think I mentioned I have base 3 perception (probably 5 now) and only skills for basic small hybrid and light bloodclaws.  I just have a really strong feeling that having next to zero combat skill could be a detriment.  It is important to keep these things in perspective.  However I have Electronics 4 and ECM 2 or 3, Warp drive 2 or 3, AB 3 or 2, maybe that is useful.  You will have to tell me if I can fill in some specialist role, by which I mean "not shooting".  And "not being shot" if possible.


This number would obliterate any of my ships.

I'd try to avoid going into an area when a BC/BS can one-shot you. I'd work up engineering and Electronics along with your learning skills.

The caracal offers a quick jump to cruisers as heavy missiles is fairly quick to train to.  But that is just one way your can go.

For PvP you could look at putting in a webbifier and being a tackle.

Yeah, just took a look in QuickFit and their lasers do primarily EM damage, which Minmatar ships are excellent against.  (Wolf has 75% base shield resist and 92% base armor vs EM ) Kinetic pwns me, since that's my weakest shield and second-weakest amor resist.

Cruiser shields (at least in the cruisers you guys are flying) have a 0% Em resist and a 60% resist on the armor. That's probably why they're eating you up when they hit.

I think you could be a webber tackler, Radar jam things, target paint stuff....there are definately specialist things for you to do, especially if you try and run one of the "tech/specialist/science" frigates.

You can also ferry the loot to the big ships. Picking up loot in a 225 m/s cruiser is slow work.

Yeah, "electronics warfare specalist" would be a quick niche to set yourself up in with the skills you've already got.  You're already at electronics IV so it's not too long to V.  A few levels of Electronic Warfare (asusming you're not at IV there too) and you can train everything needed to target, jam, scramble and hurt others for a gang.  'Course that makes you a huge target too.

I have researched-up Scourge Heavy Missile and Kestrel BPOs in my hangar; I'll drop them into the corp area tonight. I also have a Starship RAM BPO off in a ME research facility that should be done by this evening; I'll dump that in there too.

(Starship RAMs are used in the production of Tech2 ships; I figure we can sell them or trade them to tech2 producers for Nice Things(tm). They're about 20k worth of minerals, all available in highsec, to produce.)

Beware of 0.1 rats; the 'Elder Blood' types have scramblers/webbers. I learned not to screw around with them the hard way last night by losing a caracal. Not a big shock to my wallet, but still an unpleasant lesson. I wouldn't suggest ratting solo in 0.1 unless you can confidently fight off both battlecruisers and scramming destroyers at the same time.

That said, I  :heart: nosferatu modules.

Also, I have a fairly sizeable stockpile of spare parts; I try to keep at least 3 of any given type of module around since I pick up all kinds of random crap from ratting in case I lose a ship. It works decently well. Still, it'd be worth having commonly-used module BPOs around to deal with shortages, since those BPOs usually only cost a few hundred thou.

I'm wondering with your WP so low what your Charisma is at?  You could also consider taking a bunch of leadership skills that I'm sure none of us have touched which allow you to give pretty cool buffs to anyone you are in a gang with.  Later down the road this could open up the possibility of flying these crazy support ships that I can't comment on since my fleet battle exp is nil.

Behold!  Corn!

Int = 16
Per = 5
Cha = 6
Wil = 9
Mem = 19

Int will be 17 before Sunday, I think.

Elec Warfare = 2
Electronics = 4
Need more cowbell.


Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

I noticed a republic fleet (minmatar) station in neesher. could someone enlighten me on what agents are there, before I travel 32 jumps  ?

There is a level 1 agent in that base and a level 2 one or two systems away.

Great. :heart:

You do not happen to know the type of agent ? Security, Internal Securitiy etc ?

Security or some kind of kill mission guy.

The level 1 guy at Neesher is Surveillance. 
Click on maps, run the filter thing, click 'find my agents'.  It'll show you location, quality, and type of all(?) agents available to you.

This looks like as good a place to ask as any...  what's with all the different agent types?  I did that map 'show my agents' thing, and there's tons out there... but what kind of missions do they offer?  I mean... a finance agent?  He gonna give me a mission to balance a spreadsheet?

Alkiera

Different types of agents change the proportions of combat and hauling missions you'll get. If a department doesn't sound combat-y, you'll probably get mostly hauling missions. Administrative agents give about a 50-50 balance.

The mining/astrogeology agents may give missions to go mine up some minerals; I haven't tried them. The manufacturing agents definitely don't give missions to build stuff, they're primarily hauling agents. At least, at levels 1 and 2.

I spent some time working for a guy in the Mining division of Astral Mining Co. and the guy just had me do fedex missions.  This was great at first since I have a hotrod Atron, but he started sending me into lowsec and 0.0, and he was level 1.

Agent types and their missions: http://evegeek.com/, hit agent mission types.

That table is depressing.

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=110049

So, no one knows, but it'll prolly be a combination of fedex and kill people.  For financial reasons.  Well, that would be sure to produce amusing dialog, anyway.  Maybe I'll check it out.

Alkiera

Ok I'm finally @ Neesher, so starting tonight whenever I'm home I'll be pop'ing online to check if there is anything happening.

My Prophecy is currently fitted with 5 heavy beams and a rocket launcher for defender missiles (skilling up missiles is next on my list after working my drone skills up a little bit).  What I'm going to do with the mid slots is up in the air, but my cpu is very very limited at the moment.  I also have a low slot that can fit a third hardener if I so desire (running EM/Therm due to the rats being in Amarr ships) or something else.  So there is still some module juggling I need to do atm.

Really until I get my drone/missile skills up a little as its dangerous currently because the Prophecy makes my Omen seem like an 'ceptor and once anything gets within 8k it is completely under my beams.  I'll run some tests in the nearby systems and post back after I know for sure what types of belt spawns I can clear solo no problem.  Also I need to play with the aforementioned unassigned slots.

You have an 8k minimum laser range? Ouch.

What's the max range? I generally just let things drift into my max missile range and then turn tail, all the while I am lobbing missiles back at them.

Oh my max range is 20k+ depending on what crystal I'm using and if the target is painted.  I'm thinking I'll be taking sharp shooter all the way to 4 shortly though.

20k+ max, AND 8k minimum? Ouch, sounds like a raw deal.

Are you at least fast enough to keep most ships at bay?

Any NPC frigate is dead within seconds (should only take one volley) if it is outside of 8k, also the tank is so rediculous it would take who knows how many frigs to actually break it.  I'll run the math when I get home for how much dps needs to be done to break it.

Like I said I basically have 3 meds and 1 low to play with, I just haven't figured out what the most pressing needs are atm.  Some serious testing in the belts is scheduled for tonight so I can get a grasp on what I want to fit there.  But versus Bloods (only two damage types) my resists are 110% and ~90% when I turn on the hardeners, I haven't been pressed hard enough by any npc spawns to tell you how long I can run everything with my cap (the cap regen is pretty crazy if I equip two of the +20% regen -10% shield regen mods).  I carry Gamma and Xray crystals at all times which give me 28 and 26k optimal respectively.  I can always equip a MWD to get my speed up to a respectable 625 but like I said the setup isn't really designed to kite as much as kill as many little things as possible then tank whatever is left over while I smash the cruiser-sized targets.

Holy crap, what kind of damage are you doing to those poor frigates?

Admittedly, I can one-shot 3k rats with the missiles on my frigate, but they're really puny.  Anything higher takes all the damage from 2 missiles, or more.

(did some research)

Ah.  7x Heavy beam Laser I with those crystals would put out a lot of damage, yes.  something like 20-22 each, before damage mods from the ship and skills.  So pushing 150 damage from one volley... yeah, that'll put a hurting on most little frigate rats.

Are you sure about the 8k thing?  The info on the weapon says it has 'accuracy falloff' at 8km, but what that exactly means, I'm not sure.

Alkiera

http://www.eve-online.com/guide/en/g26.asp

Check that for more than you ever wanted to know about exactly how the combat algorithms work, including what "optimum" and "accuracy falloff" mean in practice (optimal is 100% hits ignoring other factors, optimal + falloff is 50%).  There is no minimum range per se, but for moving targets you may not be able to keep your guns on them if they are too close or too fast.

--Dav e

Thanks, Dave.  What you said was all I needed to know.  (I'm a mechanics junkie, I grasp such things quickly)  I may check out that link eventually, tho.

Alkiera

Thanks, Dave, I need to browse eve-online in IE more often.  That link makes me love this game even more, and even makes me want to spend some more time with combat.  It's what I thought should be happening but I didn't understand the game terminology.

On topic, I am almost ready to start hauling my accumulated belongings to Neesher.  If anyone wants to help, that would be awesome, but not required.  I have a ship with +1000m³ cargo now, and a cruiser-grade AB I foound somewhere, so I'll get it all moved eventually.

I donated a Badger to the corp at some point, it has 3000+ cargo room if I remember correctly.

I have no idea where it is at the moment.  :oops:

It's in Neesher. Apparently our corp mates aren't very excited about driving a industrial ship around.  :roll:

I fucking hate the idea of flying that damn thing...

But sometimes, it's the best way to go. If you got tons of shit to move, just use autopilot with the thing and watch a DVD or something.

Playing EVE windowed is your friend.

Yeah, once every week or two I plan to pack up all the stuff I think I can sell for big money into my Iteron and make a trip to Jita. Put it all on the market, pick up any hard to find items I might need, then set a safe course back to Neesher and take a nap.

I know where it is: "outside my skillset".  I'll just make several trips.  Unless you have an Iteron handy; even then I will need to buy the skill and train it to lv 1, but that shouldn't be hard.

I think I'm going to have to go pick up my Tormentor for just that purpose, also going to need to buy another Bestower my old one (which was fitted with 4 AB's from the good old days) got blown to shit when I forgot I had set autopilot to fastest route who cares about sec rating.

The Golden Nugget how I miss it...  :cry:

I figure my ship the great "Cargo Container" has saved me at least once or given me an extra second or two at camped gates.

I have an Iteron in Neesher you can borrow if you need it. Just holler at me in game.

Will do, once I make the first haul.  I won't smoke in it.

Road Trip11!1!!111!!!!