Missioning, looting, salvaging, alts -- Odd sorta-newb questions

[Morat20]

I have a few questions that I'm having a hard time tracking down actual answers to. So here goes:

1) How prevelent is ninja salvaging? I've done it (sneak up behind someone and salvage his wrecks), but very rarely. Sometimes I get the impression it's common, other times that it's rare. IainC I'm looking at you -- I know you've missioned a lot out of the same system I'm in.

2) Looting -- you can't loot other people's wrecks, correct? But you can pop them or salvage them, then loot the jetcans? I'm asking because I'm pretty sure you can't loot the wreck proper, but I've come back to missions with decidely odd loot patterns. It looked for all the world like someone had been through and taken all the best stuff, but my understanding is that the only one who could have done that without popping the wreck first would have been a BAT member.

3) Salvaging rigs: Worth it? I've got a dedicated Catalyst, good skills, and salvage up to 4. Is it worth it to build a rig or two for my salvager? A salvage specific rig? Any other recommended ones?

4) Popping the mission -- normally I complete the mission, turn it in, grab my Catlyst, and go loot/salvage. However, L4's are taking longer than I'm used to. Would it be better to drop some of my highs and rig a tractor/salvager and salvage as I go? Or refit the Catalyst with an AB instead of a MWD and play swap-ships and loot each room as I complete it?

5) Alts -- as in "same account alt". I'm thinking of making one, either for dedicated PvP or for suicide ganking (either as an "unaffiliated hauler" for another like-minded soul, or as the ganker for an "unaffiliated hauler".). You can only train ONE skill at a time total -- I can't train up an alt's skill and a skill on my main at the same time, right? Any suggestions for useful "same account" alts?

[ajax34i]

1.  I'd guess it's getting more and more prevalent in empire, with people profiting from missionrunners.  In 0.0 it's easy to shoot anyone who pisses you off.

2.  Yes you can, wrecks are like cans, you can loot other people's wrecks and you'll get flagged just like with can flipping.  Or you can salvage them and then you don't get flagged; you get the salvage materials, and the wreck becomes a regular can with the guy's loot inside.

3.  I didn't get any rigs.  Not worth it for me.

4.  I don't know.  I know that as soon as you complete the mission, it becomes very easy to find the cans.

5.  Right, only one skill per account, if you try to train something on the alt it will say "Can't, because you're training something on another character.  Go stop that first."   I guess the most useful would be something that you can get into with minimal training:  if you start with the industry template, for example, you could have a refiner with minimal training.  Or get an alt with as high as possible science/research skills (I think there's an Amarr template that gives Engineering 5, and you only need 5 days of training to get Science 5 for the prerequisite for one of them R&D skills like quantum physics, so your alt can start cranking RP's out in a week).

[Morat20]

2.  Yes you can, wrecks are like cans, you can loot other people's wrecks and you'll get flagged just like with can flipping.  Or you can salvage them and then you don't get flagged; you get the salvage materials, and the wreck becomes a regular can with the guy's loot inside.

I wonder what message I was getting trying to loot from other people's wrecks? I went digging into the overview, trying to look for a flag that says "has kill rights on", but couldn't find it.

I guess it's too much to hope for that I could just scan down the local channel, note who is blinking red, and go waste him for stealing my stuff. :) And so far I haven't caught anyone doing it.

I may have to relocate -- however, this guy is a high quality L4 combat agent in high-sec. I think anyone comparable is going to be just as busy. On the other hand, if there's 40 people running missions around then it's less likely someone will hit my missions.

How do you find cans? I've tried probing out wrecks and jetcans, but haven't had any luck.

[ajax34i]

Oh, they probe your ship down as you're moving about trying to loot and salvage, then they warp to you and impudently salvage your stuff, and you can't attack them due to Concord.

And, actually, the dedicated thieves who frequent that particular system probably have bookmarks to the few mission spawning spots, and don't even bother scanning.

[IainC]

1: I've never had any of my missions ninja looted. Like you say I've missioned the living fuck out of my current home system and the surrounding ones and I've never had stuff nicked from me. I guess it's probably more common in the really busy mission areas in The Forge and The Citadel.

2: You can steal from other people's wrecks. They get killrights on you for 15 minutes as a result. You can't tractor a wreck that doesn't belong to you however.

3: I haven't rigged my salvage Catalyst. I can't see the value in it to be honest. A small increase in salvaging speed for 30 mill a pop isn't a good return on investment. An extra level in either Survey or Salvaging skill will give better returns.

4: For the bigger missions I loot each room as I complete it, otherwise you run the risk of the early wrecks despawning by the time you've killed the rats in the last room. If it's that big a mission you're going to need multiple trips anyway. I wouldn't fit an MWD to a salvage boat purely because salvagers guzzle your cap and you will run out very fast with an MWD fitted.

5: The best thing you can do with a same account alt I guess is train up to use your industrial of choice and keep it in an NPC corp so that if you're at war you can still haul reasonably safely in Empire. Contract all your shit to your alt and have him do your hauling and market stuff for your main. Will need a few days of training tops and you'll never need to go back and improve his skills beyond that unless you want him to fly something like a blockade runner or a freighter.

[ClydeJr]

And, actually, the dedicated thieves who frequent that particular system probably have bookmarks to the few mission spawning spots, and don't even bother scanning.

Wait, so the missions aren't just randomly placed somewhere in the system when they're created? There's mission "spawn points" where missions start?

[lac]

indeed

[Nerf]

There are quite a few of them, though.  I made a dozen or so bookmarks in Murini while I was missioning with Diz, and only once ever happened into someone elses mission in my hourly warping of every one of them.

[TheWalrus]

Ok. Heres my brainbuster. I've heard mention I can turn in Amarr Navy Midshipman tags for faction. They don't go towards any LP rewards and none of my local fleet agents give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut about them. So where do I hand these lil buggers in? I've googled till my google no longer googles and I'm thinking somebody here either knows or is better at searching than I. HEKP!

[lac]

I don't know if it increases you faction but you can sell them to the republic fleet.

[Nerf]

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=713432