Friday, March 28, 2014

Getting Back To Null

As a result of my recent podding I found myself back in High Sec looking for a ship to buy.
The choice was between a new Stratios which I liked a lot, and a Proteus, a ship I had heard a lot about, but never flown.

In the end cash was the decider. For the Hull, a Stratios was 300 Million, a Proteus 150 Million.

Proteus it was then. Then comes the complexity of fitting a Tech 3 ship. Subsystems became a dirty word last night as I spent 2 hours mapping out what each did. In a way, my hands were tied in a couple of areas. I wanted to fly a ship with a cloak and a probe launcher. Also thinking about it, Interdiction Nullification would also be very useful. So 3 of the 5 subsystems were chosen by how I wanted to fly.
The Defense subsystem was a bit of a toss up, resists or more armour. The resists option also gives a low and an utility high slot and the plate 2 low slots. Resists are very useful, but I could get the same effect by putting a decent armour module in the extra low, and did I need another utility high slot? No.
The engineering section was also easy once I had got this far, Gallente pilots after all, feel naked without drones.

So, hull and subsystems bought for just under 300 million, used the rest of my disposable cash on a Sisters launcher, covert ops cloak and tech 2 hybrids. The rest, I have to be honest, has for now been fitted with mainly meta 4 and the odd tech 2 module that I had in my high sec hanger. I really need to earn more isk to fit it better.
Still, I had a couple of tech 2 trimark armour rigs that I had made, and now has more HP than any other ship I have flown.

Filled up with ammunition, the hunt for a way back to Null was on.
Option 1. 35 jumps across high sec with an active war dec, then, to brave the chaos that is HEDGP, and then a further 45 ish jumps though very dodgy territory.
Option 2. Find a wormhole.

So wormholes it was then.

The system that I was in, had a C2 hole that was new and not mass stressed. I jumped in.

Found 1 POS with an Orca and a Helios, neither piloted, and had another Helios on D scan but no probes. Spent ten minutes making a safe and looking at all the moons.

Then real life crept in, had to go and pick up my daughter who was babysitting, left logged in and cloaked at a safe. When I arrived back home, I again, was side tracked by a tv series called Bluestone 42. Very British army humour, fictional but very close to real life. Well worth a look for anyone interested. Very, very strong language though, definitely not for children.

Back to Eve.
Now 2 Orcas and 2 Helios on Dscan.  An Orca would be a brilliant christening of the proteus. But it was not to be as they were all at the POS.
I thought that I would not scan down the sig's but pop back to high for the night. Warped back to hole to find it gone.... Don't know for sure but I suspect that the Orca's collapsed it.
I suddenly had no interest in staying, and as it was a High and C3 static, thought that I would see where the new one went.
Found both quite quickly and the rest of the sig's were gas sites. Popped through the high hole to find it was a High Sec island system, nowhere near where I wanted to be. So back in and to the C3.
This looked more promising, as it was a Null Sec static and had no POS structures and all Interbus customs offices. All good indicators that the hole is deserted. Only two wormholes, the one I came through and the static.
On the off chance that I was home (I wish) I popped through to find myself in a system called T-0JWP in Detorid. 35 jumps from home. No one on line in system, but two mobile siphon units on Dscan.

2 minutes with Dcan isolated which planets they were at and as no one in system dropped combat probes at 0.5 AU at each planet and found them quickly.

Both moon mining POS units had  heavy ECM defenses but no weapons. Both POS and Siphons belonged to Neutrals. One Siphoning Thulium and the other Promethium.

Needless to say it was 2 easy kills, and when I went to empty the moon goo,  I really missed the cargo hold of the Stratios, I had packed mine with ammo so could not steal any.

I left the wrecks, the POS owners may come along in the next 2 hours and notice.

It was late so I jumped back into the hole, warped to a safe and logged off for the night.

Hopefully tomorrow the static will open nearer home, or possibly near to more targets.


Thoughts.
The Stratios has a large 550 m3 cargo hold compared with the Proteus 280 m3. The Stratios needs no ammo, as lasers and sentries need none. Nearly all the Proteus hold is full of ammunition. I could have made a big profit (50 Million) stealing the moon goo in the Stratios

Tech 2 ammo is expensive.

4 sentries put out slightly less Damage Per Second (DPS) than 4 Blasters with Void, but not a huge amount. Admittedly I have better drone skills than Gunnery at present. Once my gunnery skills are up it will change.

I can see the attraction of a nomadic life in wormholes. A bit.

The Proteus once subsystems are added, becomes a lot less versatile than the Stratios, but does its single function better.


I would appreciate any comments about content, style, readability, eve hints, outright abuse, whatever. It would be nice to know that if not on the right track, what do I need to fix.
I can be eve mailed in game at  John Wheway  or leave comments here.

Have fun

John

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Death of a Stratios

Mine in case you were wondering...

I have had a Stratios since Christmas 2013, so nearly 3 complete months. During this time John has really not flown any other ship. It has been used for:
Relic Sites
Data Sites
Ghost Sites
Worm Hole Exploration
Ratting out belts in Null Sec
High Sec combat anomalies
Siphon Placing
Siphon Emptying
With Cargo extenders transport of stuff High to Null.
Add hoc PvP

In short its a versatile little ship, and lets face it looks very, very good.

I frequently messed around with the fit, often when out exploring committing the sin of dual tanking. Armour rigs with lows given over to drone damage amps, plate and armour and having a couple of spare mid slots fitted shields... Very useful in ghost sites, but little else. A bad habit from my past.
A Mobile Depot is also the most useful item in the hold of any versatile ship in Null. I would often find a system long way from a station that would have a Data, Relic, Ghost and Wormhole in them, and would refit before running them all.

Anyway

Trolling around local space looking for a wormhole to High Sec, as several people in the alliance and corp wanted to go and buy some ships.
A C3 hole came up, so popped in to see what was what. POS on Dscan but no ships or wrecks and lots of anomalies. Went to have a look at the POS and bookmark it, but nothing on visual. Warped to an outer planet and dropped probes. Took a while as 14 unknown sigs and 7 turned out to be Worm Holes. Very good indeed. I had two corp members hanging around on the hole as well, waiting for a route, so no pressure. Two of the holes were C2's so likely to have at least 1 High exit between them.

Just as I was about to warp to one to pop through a Procurer appeared on Dscan... Hmmm. Warped to the only ore anomaly at range, and there it was, some distance from asteroids, but only 20k from me and moving towards them. Announced this on comm's and both the hole hangers popped through, and were warping to site.
I was kitted for exploration, no point or scram was fitted, but thought that I had sentries, a Crow and an Assault frigate on the way. What could go wrong...

Dropped cloak hit approach and Microwarp drive and dropped 4 Garde sentries. Targeted and commenced firing with lasers and drones. Got a good bump on the Procurer, and he finally reacted by launching drones.
Hit orbit and very quickly he was into armour.
Then a bubble went up... and an Onyx showed up on overview.... Oops, alligned to a celestial, hit micro warp again and switched the sentries to the Onyx. Started to take damage as well, drones I assumed. Then I heard the I'm dead call over comm's from the Crow pilot. Oops again...
On closer look I could now see in addition to the Onyx, a Proteus and two Legions, all targeting little old me.

Looking at the damage my sentries were doing, the onyx was out of range so I swapped them back to the procurer, hoping to get some consolation... It was not to be however, as I went pop while there was still some structure left.

Pod was still in the bubble, so they waited a minute until they all had me locked and sent me home via clone...

Good trap, little warning Dscan every 15-20 seconds showed nothing.
Well done to the corp Infinity Engine. Many thanks for handing me my head. I deserved it for my actions.

Hindsight
1. I spent a long time in the hole with probes out as there were many sigs to account for. They may not have been able to see me, but they could the probes.
2. A procurer in a hole that was 30k off zero point. So was not mining when we saw. Should have watched, I suspect this was good bait.
3. Went in to bump to try and ruin alignment as no scram or point. Then failed to regain range once other friendlies on grid.
4. Using sentries should have retained range, going in close put me squarely in the bubble, would have been harder for them if I was 30-50 km out.
5. I was looking for holes, not a fight, not fit for the fight, silly to take.
6. Switching fire to the Onyx. If I had kept on the Procurer, would have probably killed him at least.

In short I made lots of mistakes, any of them survivable in isolation, but the amount that I managed to make, was fatal.

Now, back in High trying to decide on next ship.
Should I buy and fly another Stratios, or for half the price a Proteus?
My subsystem skills, mainly at 4 need another 20 days to max out, so the way forward is not clear.
Need some 20 days training to get tech 2 lasers though for the Stratios.
The Proteus has the edge however as 150 Million for the hull vs 300 million allows a lot of fitting options even if you factor in the subsystem cost.

Stratios does look better, and 4 sentry drones are a big pull.

Next time will tell.

John

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

True Sansha Towers.......

And why you need to put fuel in....


Logged in a bit later than normal to John to sort out skills, when a corp mate in comm's asks if anyone would like to help him bash an offline Amarr control tower.

Ok I thought, nothing else to do, it was in a C2 wormhole in one of our systems. The Stratios with sentries, being the only combat ship I had that could put out serious damage with low mass. A C2 hole usually has a low mass limit, so the smaller the ship the better.

J134401 to be exact. With a Null Sec and a C6 static. Interesting layout.
Anyway, I was second in after the discoverer, and did the usual bookmark, Dscan and make a safe. Meanwhile Kristoff was shooting an Amarr Tower and asking people to warp to him.

While making a safe, was looking at Dscan and saw 4 other towers including a Medium True Sansha, so thought that need to look at them all to check status. Few moons, so found them all really fast. The small Galante towers were dead shells with no modules.
The True Sansha tower however was massive over kill. A Ship Maintenance Array(SMA), Corporate Hanger Array (CHA), several hardeners and about 45 True Sansha Small Beam and Pulse units and a dozen Shadow Serpentis small rail batteries. Then it clicked. No shield.....

Oh dear, I thought, what a shame....

Started into combat range and straight on comm's. Its not everyday that you find two undefended towers in system. Kristoff had either missed or ignored the True Sansha once he found the Amarr tower.

Kristoff and Zeus soon arrived and we popped the SMA and CHA in very short order. A fully fitted Oracle dropped, along with lots of junk from the CHA. Several high end corp skillbooks came out, unfortunately the kill mail does not list what was not dropped from the CHA, so we have no idea what was missed. After the skill books only one tech 2 module actually dropped.

One of our colleagues came into the hole in a capsule to retrieve the Oracle, while several of the alliance came in to help shoot the tower. The thought of all those faction modules for the taking was a big pull.

After about 30 mins there was a massive hostile spike of ships in the K space system that we had left, and we were asked to return for home defense. We all duly jumped back to discover our friends in N3 had cyno'd in half a dozen dreadnoughts and carriers, and were busy attacking a moon mining tower....

A Cynosural Field Generator (Cyno) is a module placed on a small fast, and cheap ship. when activated it uses fuel in the form of  Liquid Ozone. This when activated acts as a beacon to capital pilots in your fleet to allow capital ships to jump to the location. The activating ship cannot move, fire or activate modules for 10 minutes. In combat, often a death sentence.

A couple of bombers made solo runs and died messily and then N3, job done jumped out.

Because of my time zone it was gone midnight and I decided to log off, assuming the tower was going to be left. But no 12 enterprising souls spent the next 3 hours bashing the tower and killed it. They then brought in haulers and shipped out all the lovely faction modules. At Jita prices looked that each walked off with about 200 million and the knowledge that someone was going to be unhappy.

I was interested that despite shooting the tower for a while, I did not appear on the kill mail. Possibly due to the time elapsed between my last shot and the towers demise. Over 3 hours. Oh well

So Note to New Eden Security Services. DO NOT forget your fuel in a tower worth billions!


John

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Null Security Mining

Like all mining, quiet dull.

However there are as always several ways of doing it.

Take the other day. Logged on as Oliver as still need minerals for my Dominix build.

So Oliver had just warped to a random belt, commenced killing the rats and was on first cycle of Massive Scordite when local increased by three. All Neutral.
I immediately recalled drones and started aligning to station. Put a note out in Corp, Alliance, Fleet and Intel channels and commenced warp. Landed in station and saw I was only one of two docked up. 9 Friendly in system and 3 neutral....Hmmm.
Then a miner in the Small Asteroid anomaly announced he was tackled by a Tornado, Hookbill and a Rupture... 30 seconds later a Procurer was dead. They killed the pod as well. There was about 30 seconds between them being in system and getting the tackle. The hostiles then left as several Rattlesnakes and assorted other combat ships entered system. They were quite happy.

The dead chap was either AFK or not watching local or other channels. Fatal in Null.

Went out again to the same belt and carried on. Roughly 15 minutes a load, I never mine for more than an hour as to be honest I am bored by then. 48,000 m3 of ore.

Location, Location, Location...
 I have at this time roughly half of everything I need. That still leaves about 6 million Tritanium and lots of other stuff.
All materials are available in Null, so conversely Tritanium values are really quite high.
While i need the basic minerals I will always mine in an Asteroid Belt, rather than an Ore Cosmic Anomaly.
There are two sound reasons for this:-
1. Belts have all versions of asteroids, so I can get Dense Veldspar etc, Anomalies only have the basic types e.g. Veldspar. Same effort on my part, 10% more mineral.
2. Anomalies are Red Magnets. By this I mean that any hostile (or neutrals) in system will be able to warp straight to them from the overview, and catch you mining. An interceptor can get in system and if they pick the correct one, warp to you in under 5 seconds...

Now all Null systems will have asteroid belts, most commonly with ore types common in High Sec, and the lower the security status the better the grade of ore available. In some systems, if you can survive the rats, you rarely need the anomalies.

The Ships
Going to Null there is often a limited amount of goods that can be safely taken.  Even the mainly PVP (Player Vs Player) combat pilots often have a mining ship. For most, this list will include either a Venture or a Procurer. From experience I can tell you that mining in a venture is slow, dangerous and time consuming. Belt rats of any type will kill you. However for a newish character, or to get the ore to build a procurer, its sometimes seen.
Either take or buy a procurer.
NOT a Retriever or Covetor, these will die.
A Procurer can soak up damage from the belt rats and keep on mining. Remember to fit it for the pirates that you will be facing. I am in a Sansha region, so the tank is all against EM damage, with Thermal a secondary.
The Ore hold is only 12k but the rate of mining is similar to a Retriever.
Drone bay is 25m2 so a flight of light drones, Hobgoblins are a good all rounder. Skill up to fly a tech II type and uses these.


John


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Wormholes - a day trip

With all the chaos around old Darkness Of Despair systems, a shortcut to High Sec was in order.
John jumped in his Stratios and set off. One system over there were two cosmic signatures to scan down.
Even though there was no one else in the system, a safe would be needed.

Safe Spots
To me this is a bookmark in the system that is reasonably safe from any hostiles warping straight to you. You can still be combat probed but if you have an eye on local and Dscan you get ample warning.

I opted for a simple safe spot, as I had a cloak.
A quick look at the map gave me the furthest celestial from the gate I was at. Warp to it and drop a book mark roughly half way. Its not a big system so everywhere is in Dscan range. Warp back to the book mark. On landing drop probes, pick a random direction, engage drive and switch on cloak. Now being next to impossible to find, switch over to the scanning map and hunt down the signatures. A more complicated safe spot would be to the pick another target and warp, dropping a bookmark on the way. This gives you a spot that is not on a direct route between any point.
Sisters Probes, Launcher and the Stratios all give a massive bonus to my meager skills, some at 3 and some at 4.
Turned out to be a wormhole and a combat site. I ignored the combat site, and did not even fully scan it down. Recall the probes and decloak and load the launcher. (Always best to do before entering the hole as 10 seconds is a long time to sit around in wormhole space.)
Still no one in system so warped to the wormhole at 10k to look. Appeared to be visually a C4, and had a full life span and mass limit.

Checklist for wormholes
Probe Launcher
Probes
Cloak
Insurance

These are the minimum you should have. If the wormhole shuts for any reason and you are inside with no probes, the only way out is to self destruct. Not a good idea. Cloak as everyone in a wormhole is going to try and shoot you, so hide. and insurance because sometimes you are too slow or cannot hide.

Bookmarked the Null side of the hole and jumped through.
First task was to Dscan at max range and 360 degrees. A Tengu and a Carrier on scan with several towers and wrecks. So there have been people active in last two hours, and capitals in system.
Second task is to bookmark this side of the hole so you can get out.
You still at this point have the jump cloak. Look at the map, pick a celestial that will give you max Dscan coverage and warp at range. As soon as the warp starts hit the cloak.

Always assume that the inhabitants of the hole are paranoid, and have someone cloaked up watching all the entrances. Most times they do not, but several times I have been invited to conversation while in warp. Personally if this happens I turn straight around and run for the exit.

Normally however you land and Dscan again. Personally I want to find every tower and any ships before I drop probes. Probes can be seen, and if they have not noticed you up to now they will as soon as probes are dropped.

A quick look at Statticmapper told me that this was a C4 with a C5 static connection. I found all the towers, and none had any force field up. Narrowing down Dscan in both range and arc lead me to each tower. I warped to each at 50 just to check they were truly dead and not on or off lining. They were all dead. So the Tengu and Carrier were ratting.... Where are they now?
Dscanning the anomalies, gave me one with wrecks, so I warped to it at range. Still cloaked. Hordes of sleepers still up and hostile. so someone knew I was here and stopped ratting to assess (or hunt me). Either way this is sensible and meant there was at least one competent pilot in system. Also it was not their home system, and a C5 static.
Discretion being the best route sometimes, warped back to the in hole and jumped through.. Out of interest I microwarped at random and cloaked to watch. Less than a minute later a Tengu pops through the hole. thirty seconds later a carrier jumped in and then straight back putting the hole out of service.

A lucky escape. They clearly wanted peace to rat, but if I had not run, then I would be still in and have to scan out a route. Not good.

Two systems over found another wormhole, this one a C2 (you can tell by colour, google it). C2's have two statics, so a high chance of a High or Low sec exit. Following the same procedure, jumped in. Big system was the first thing I noticed. Nothing in Dscan range. Only three planets, each more than 30 AU from each. Long old warp to each, but no towers and no ships. Made a safe spot out of Dscan range, dropped probes and started scanning. Mostly Gas sites but found the statics, a C1 and a Low sec. Bookmarked and popped through. Molden Heath. Not brilliant, but not bad. 4 jumps to a system selling the skill books I wanted, off I went.
Let the rest of the corp know that there was a reasonable exit. Low sec has its own dangers, but gate to gate in a small ship, you are reasonably safe.
Arrived, spent a small fortune on skill books and headed back.
On the second gate saw a warrior II abandoned 18k from the gate. Immediate thought was bait. Tempted but no, as I approached the gate a purifier decloaks 8k away. Jumped anyway, and held the cloak. As soon as I saw the gate flash I warped to the next gate, and was followed. A single bomber did not worry me, the drones and lasers could take him, but his friends... within a minute there were 4 extra in local with the same corp ticker.
Call me risk adverse but a stratios is not a ship to lose vs a small gang, so again I ran to the next gate and then to the WH. They followed to the last system, but could not follow to the hole. Effectively a deep safe. They would have to probe to find me. Once I saw combat probes I slipped back into wormhole space and then home.


Mapping wormholes, if done right can be very safe, but takes time for no isk return. I do not do wormhole sites, mainly because I suspect that the sleepers would eat me alive. I keep on meaning to do a C1 site, but never get around to it. So my whole evening play time used up to get some skill books. I had fun, but then I suspect that I am easy to please.

As ever comments appreciated. I try to write things assuming a very new person is reading this. I probably do not do things the same way as most of you, but I do hope that my ramblings help somebody out or at least prompt some thought on how do do it. ....


John

Friday, March 14, 2014

Chaos Reigns

Due to Real Life, could only nip on for a short time.

Mine and extend PI was the thought.

Logged on, team speak was quiet. Not for long. It seemed that Darkness of Despair had suddenly disbanded and Sovereignty had dropped in 60 plus systems all across the south of New Eden.

Now I knew why it was quiet, different channels.

It seemed that there was a major rush to obtain Territorial Claim Units (TCU's) and to a lesser extent Sovereignty Blockade Units. A special Jump Freighter trip was arranged in Alliance and people were being called up as they came on line. Having to wake up for work in less than 6 hours, I had to duck out and get my much needed beauty sleep.

Logged on for an update in the morning while doing pre work routine, here in Esoteria 15 systems suddenly became available including 4 station systems. If seemed that N3 and PL had flipped 3 of the stations and was busy shooting everything. The fourth was claimed by Darkess of Despair's sister corp, Hand of Despair

This then placed most of Esoteria in easy capital drop range. Not good. A number of fire sale contracts seemed to be cropping up.

Watching progress in Dotlan while at work was an interesting experience.  Part of me thought, well its the hand of Bob, set up PI and be forced to move...!

Coven (and many others) had done a stirling job however of denying sovereignty in most of the systems, and were busy re flipping the station in 0-O6XF while I was on the way home.
Having the benefit of an empty house for 2 hours I jumped on as Oliver (as he had a Vexor) and headed off to join a station bash in C9N-CC.
Saw half a dozen reds on the way, no bubbles on D-Scan but bouncing off random Celestials on the way in.

I have been in fleets that always warp to the sun then to gate, or always go to planet 1 etc, I vary it. When traveling in hostile space, I sort overview by distance, exclude fleet and Blue then bounce off a middle celestial at random. sometime a planet, sometimes a TCU sometimes a customs office. NEVER a moon or a belt. You may get shot. This way you approach the target gate from a random direction. They cannot bubble everything. I have heard of bubble fleets sitting at the Sun waiting for the repeat offenders. Be random.

Landing on grid found about 30 others ranging from bombers to capitals pounding on station. It was into shields about 40%, so drones away and added my meager contributions.  I suspected my 200mm Prototype Guass rail guns, (yep No tech 2 weapons- either character) would not help much, especially as I only had 2 full loads of antimatter. Tried to target an anoying capsule that would poke out of station. realise there were bubbles up and duck back in. No luck at all.

Ordered to warp off as structure hit 3% so Coven could take the station, I realised I had to get home.

The way back was uneventful until the last gate, which happened to be heavily bubbled. Landed 50 k out and saw a Stabber 12k away. Bright Red - oops We were both in the bubble so I thought why not. Kicked in the after burner, launch a flight of hobgoblins and turned on the guns.(completely forgot to activate the warp disrupted, but deep in a bubble, I forgot) He did not seem to notice until half his shields had gone. About 5 seconds. Funnily he did not target me, but kicked in, from the speed, a micro warp drive, headed for the gate and jumped.
I had not even checked the name. Shows you how bad I am at this. Shouted into alliance that a hostile was at home and bounced off the gate.

Read Alliance chat..... Heaps of abuse from a Stabber pilot... oops. It seems that his security status was -9.5...He was in Alliance.....
Turns out that my overview settings were somewhat lacking and I had the negative security icon above blue, (he was not in fleet, fleet was at the top)...

I then experienced some re education, with the aid of a few colourful turns of phrase and some pointed remarks about my competency.

All fair. In my defense, I did not know that these settings mattered and indeed could be changed.

Many many apologies to the Stabber pilot. I hope that you had brown trousers on.... ;-).





Planets and You

Having only an hour to sit in my nerd world and play Eve, I thought that I may as well set up some Planetary Infrastructure (PI).
I would like to say at this point that I have had 4 different people tell me how to set up PI, and while their methods may work for them, I am trying something different. An experiment that I will update the progress of periodically.

John has the skills for 4 planets at upgrade 4 and with Planetology at 4 and Advanced Planetology at 3.
Oliver has the skills for 5 Planets at upgrade 4 but Planetology at 2.

 I had been looking around at the planets in close proximity to my base system, giving me 4 systems within 1 jump (including jump bridge). Easy I thought.
Now PI is something that I had done in passing in High Sec, but never had the use beyond selling the output. I had some weird setups, including a Plasma planet that managed to create robotics on its own. In Null I set up PI for POS fuel 3 days before we left. The limited output is still up for sale in our old station.

So this time, I though I would get in early, plan and use both accounts.

My plans received an early setback when I found no Plasma worlds in our Sov, and only 1 Ice world and that was 6 jumps... 6 jumps in null in an industrial (no blockade runner skills yet) I did not fancy at all. So I spent the first 15 minutes in a spread sheet sticking in all the planets and their materials.
I had a plan.
I thought that I would be ambitious and produce everything that I would need to produce control towers and other large structures...A Goal

To this end I would need a dedicated factory planet and a source of every single material. Luckily only 3 planets (Gas, Lava and Temperate) have a unique resource, so with planning I can do without Plasma and Ice.
I have ended up with Oliver having 5 planets, all in one system, Barren, Gas, Temperate and two Lava planets.
John has put down on Oceanic and Storm as resource planets and Temperate for the production centre. Each resource planet produces 2 materials.

The set up is the same for all resource planets.
Command Centre Upgraded to 4
Launch Pad
Two extractor Control Units, each with 4 Heads
Storage x1
Basic Industry Facility x6

To set it up, locate the two resources that interest you in a position that they are close together, and slap a command centre in the middle. Upgrade Command to the desired level. 4 in my case.
You have to have a command centre in a ship, in space in the system that you are wanting to work in. Personally I used an Iteron V parked up near a POS with a cloak active, all command centres were in the hold... YOU ARE A TARGET otherwise as with the planet screens open you are not checking local and D scan.....
Place your storage nearby and then place the extractors either side, making sure that the range covers the high quality resource.
Link the extractors to the storage and start the extractors on the minimum time settings, adjusting the heads.
DO NOT forget to route the materials to the storage. This is a separate action that is frankly a pain
You now have 15 mins to wait, so put down 6 basic processors between the storage and launch pad, as close as you can get. Link each processor to both the storage and the launch pad. Initialise each processor, 3 for mat 1 and the other 3 for mat 2.
By the time you have finished this click fest you probably have 10 mins to wait, so roll to the next planet and do the same.
When you have reached this point in the second planet the extractor has cycled on the first.
First things first:- re set the extractors, I select a day at this point for calibration and have to re jig the expanded heads, then visit the storage and send material to each of the basic processors.
These should take from the raw material in the storage and route the finished product to the launch pad.

Doing this for all seven resource planets, including re logging as John took me nearly 2 hours... Late to bed then.

The Production Planet.  Only Temperate and Barren planets can build the High Tech Production Plants, so this cuts the options down.

I picked a Temperate planet in the system with the most resource planets. Less Transport jumps.

A command centre was put down at random, as no intention of mining.

A launch facility and 2 storage (1 and 2) put down then 6 Advanced Industry Facilities (Stage 1) clustered together.

Both storage 1 and 2 linked to launch facilities and to each of the Stage 1 plants.

Placed a further storage(3) a short distance away at a 90 degree angle and linked to all the Stage 1 plants.

Created 3 Advanced plants (Stage 2) clustered near the new storage. Linked all to Storage 3.

Created a further Storage(4) between Storage 3 and the Launch facility and linked to the Stage 2 plants.

Then placed 2 high tech plants near storage 4. Linked to Storage 4 and a final storage 5 linked to High Tech plants and the Launch facility.

The Theory...

Basic Materials dropped at Launch Pad and transferred to Storage 1 and 2.
Stage 1 process from here to Storage 3.
Stage 2 plants then process to Storage 4.
High Tech Plants take from storage 4 and finished product is deposited in Storage 5. Need this as lose output if destination is full. These can then be transferred to Launch facility on command and up to the customs office.

Now this goes against everyone that has advised me. Opinion has been that no one person can make all 8 final tier PI products. I believe that two can and plan to try.......

Points to Note
Planetology Skill... It was noticed that John and Oliver, looking at the same planets saw different levels and areas of materials on the same planets. The higher this skill goes  (and Advanced Planetology) the more you can see. You can only mine what you can see....
Make your transport ship safe. Many get popped between dropping command centre and getting safe as distracted by the planet screens.
The lower the security status the more the resources. So Worm Hole space is best followed by Null, Low then High.
Watch Custom Office fees. not unusual to see in excess of 20% in High. Lower the better. all else being equal pick the planet with the lowest fees.
Its not cheap to set up.
81k in high for command Centre. Concord Fees cost me a bit over 5.8 million for EACH resource planet...
Make sure you can afford all that you need to do before you start.

Comments as always welcome.

John

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Exploring New Sov

Having a warm glowing feeling inside from the mining and ship creation yesterday, I logged in as John to have a look around.

Back in my Stratios for the first time in days, made my feet itch to get out there.

Now I have several fittings for the Stratios, all in cargo with a mobile depot for refiting on the move. Base start fit tends to be:-

Heavy Modulate Pulse Energy Beam x2
Covert Ops Cloak II
Sisters Core Probe Launcher
Drone Link Augmenter

Experimental 10MN Microwarp Drive
Cargo Scanner II
Data Analyser II
Limited Adaptive Invuln
Medium Supplemental Barrier

Drone Damage Amp II  x2
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten

Rigs
Medium Anti Explosive pump
Medium Trimark Armour II

Drones
Curator I x5
Guarde I x5
Warden I
Salvage Drone I x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Mining Drone I x5

Cargo
Mobile Depot
Adaptive Nano Plate II
Medium Accomodation Vestment
Relic analyser I
Expanded Cargo Hold II
J5 Phased Prototype Warp scrambler

Comments and suggestions welcome. I have used Tech II where I can. Skills are lacking in some areas....

Anyway, on undock, what do I see but a ghost site in system. I quickly dock back in and add in the nano plate in exchange for the Drone damage, and warp to the site.

Landing in the middle of 4 cans, I lock all 4 and cargo scan before moving. Picking the can with the ascendancy omega BPC, approach, micro warp and defences on. The hacking was a joke, core found in 4 moves, contents scooped and onto next at speed. I had just hacked the third can when the rats warped in, and managed to scoop the contents before the cans blew.

I watched my shields evaporate and armour start to go. Having tried to target the rats before, I knew it was pointless and sat there till they warped.

2 Ascendancy Omega BPC's a Wetu BPC and 30 research tools for 5 minutes work. Not bad.

Typically the Ghost sites in Null put me into half armour, I usually deploy the depot and repair, but with the station there I ducked in to refit.

I then jumped to all systems in Sov to admire the view, checked for siphons (you never know) and that was it for my time in Eve.

No idea what the BPC's are worth, but squirreled away for consideration and possible build when I find the required parts.


Comments are welcome. I am doing this mainly to see if I can write coherently, and get some pointers on what I am doing wrong/right in Eve.

There is about a week to ten day delay on posting, which I plan to reduce to 2-3 shortly. 2-3 days I feel is enough so that people are not queuing up to kill me.

John


Helping the Corp

Mining... It is dull, but the bread and butter of manufacturing

My second day in the new home saw me logging on as Oliver to get the boring mining stuff done.

No boosts seemed to be available in my time zone, so with only one mining upgrade, 2700 m3 of ore per 180 seconds, mining is dull. Each full load in the procurer also seemed to attract a new wave of belt rats. The easiest method seemed to be warp back to station and put ore and salvage in Miasmos and repair and out again.
Every hour, roughly, mining meant a trip to the refining system, full of ore and spare modules, coming back full of minerals. Every other trip had to be in the Iteron, taking less ore but pulling back nearly all the processed material.

Seriously considering a refining POS. Here I am a novice, only ever having seen a POS from afar. Discussions with some of our directors went along the line of, if you want one then fund it and they will put one up. Its a thought but I am not sure that filling up a POS refining array is more time efficient than jumping over and doing it in a station there.

Just to explain why not mine in the refining system. The Rats. Its very nearly a -1.0 system so a typical belt spawn would be multiple advanced battleships. Mining barges with drones just are not going to survive. Multiboxing with a combat ship would be an option for some, One account though makes this not for me.

On the last two deployments the corp has put up a POS for moon materials and a basic lab, and soon that will happen here.

AFK mining being suicidal in Null areas and not multiboxing, its dull.

At the end of the day I had enough materials to build a corp mate a Procurer and strip miner to develop our material base. Also started building ammo for use and sale.  I always forget to charge for these things as well. Ho hum.

Oliver

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Moving In

The wait had ended!
Finally our alliance application had been accepted and we were in and allowed to move.
Options.
1. Our CEO offered to take a Jump Freighter down with 50k m3 space allocated each. probably not going for 3-4 days and leaving from south of Amar, so 25 ish jumps to get to the jump off point.
2. Run down ourselves in something fast/cloaky and hope HED and other bottle neck systems were not bubbled and camped. Take what you can and buy the rest down there.
3. Find a Worm Hole and DIY.

Being online a few hours before most of my corp has advantages...
John logged in to the news that there was a Worm Hole 5 jumps away that had an exit 2 jumps from new alliance sov. Game on.
Refitted the Stratios with a couple of Cargo extenders and filled up with all my BPC's, low value BPO's (I know, but I judge that if it costs less than 2 million then its ok), and modules that I thought would come in useful for a Dominix and some cruisers. Flight was uneventful, worm hole was a C5, with no visible POCO's (Player Owned Custom Offices), and one POS(Player Owned Structure), no force field on D scan. Whole system fitted in D Scan range, so fairly safe. Popped out the other end and saw no one all the 2 jumps to station.
Re logged as Oliver and fitted an Iteron V, loaded in a Procurer, a Vexor and some PI command centres, with the modules for each. Sorted.
Worried more about being ganked in High Sec on the way to the hole than anything else... An easy run.

Stayed on as Oliver as needed to find the best mining site, and help scout the best place for any corp office, as a few of us well and truly got in early.

Odd set up as there seemed to be a ratting system (deep negative security) and a mining system connected by jump bridge, but no refining ability in the mining station.... Lucky I had brought the Iteron, as the refining station in the ratting system has no factory slots, so need to mine, haul and then refine and haul back again. A pain but doable.

No time like the present I thought, unpacked the Procurer and fitted

Strip Miner I  (brought a II but forgot crystals)
Limited Thermic Dissipation Field
Limited 'Anointed' EM Ward Field
Residual Survey scanner
10mn Afterburner
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Mining Laser Upgrade I

Medium Anti_EM Pump I
Medium Anti-EM Pump I

Hobgoblin II x5

Mobile Tractor Unit in Cargo

Then went into an glorious Null sec environment, ignored the Ore anomalies and headed to the nearest belt to mine Veldspar !

Had not even pulled my first load off a Dense Veldspar roid when the rats appeared.
A Sansha Lord, Behemoth and two Butchers. Drones away.

I have to say that killed them all but had lost 65% of armour at the same time. Deployed the tractor to grab the loot and re scooped the tractor.
Could do with a mobile salvager as well (Hint Hint CCP) as would be nice to clean up those wrecks.
A bit worried about the next rats, warped out only half full to repair, and refitted, removing a Mining Upgrade and installing a Drone Damage Amp II.

Rats then became an irritant, but can now kill before losing more than 10% armour.

Ended the day, popping over the Jump Bridge full of ore and non meta 4 mods to refine and recycle...

Found that the minerals produced were bigger than the ore going...  Interesting.

No Kryos on market and one Miasmos one jump away for 5 million. Daylight robbery. But I bought it anyway...

John/Oliver





Introduction

Greetings
This blog is an experiment on my part to write about my adventures on EVE online.

I expect that people will laugh at my ship fits and antics, but I am fairly new, try the unusual and willing to listen to the critics.

I have one account, using two character slots and started June 2013.

Characters
1. John - Initial character started as a Gallente pilot. No previous experience of EVE and knew no one in game. Bit of a Jack of all trades, as I was clueless. Currently 13.5 million skill points spread  across all skill areas. This character can do everything in moderation, but not specialised into any area. This is changing as I grow more knowledgeable.

2. Oliver - Started November 2013 as a gallente pilot also. Currently just under 7 million skill points mainly specialised into combat and mining. (I changed direction towards a mining alt 2 months ago). When I get the PLEX its spent on the dual character training.

Blog posts can be from either view point as I am trying to play only one a day and on alternate days. My game time is also limited due to real life work and family commitments (My children have a better social life than me!)

Background
After finishing the starting missions John became a hi sec miner, running the odd level 1 mission. I approached a couple of Corps for membership, as it seemed the social aspect is a large part of the game.
A couple turned me down flat, one on language, (I do not speak Russian), one as I was so new and one on time zone. In hindsight all fair reasons. (Spying and alts were a foreign concept then...).
I was then accepted by my current corp, a small 20-40 man outfit located in Sinq Liason. I seemed to fit even though I was (and still am) the only non US player.
High Sec mining and working my way up to level 3 missions (for half a dozen different agents) and into a Myrmidon were my mainstay..
Then came the option of Null sec in Providence as a renter... We were there a month, before it fell apart, where I could only mine and fly the odd patrol.
I got in on my first kill mail, before dying several times.

Back to high and then on to a sov alliance in Paragon Soul... This time took a Helios and a Procurer and a load of BPC's. I mined and explored, running Data and Relic sites on a daily basis. I would spend one day mining to every 6 exploring. I also felt the lure of the Worm Hole...
John was also lucky enough to fight on the edges of B-R, in a frigate, and come away in one piece...

This alliance also fell apart, I had made a fortune in rigs and invention of tech II bpc's, (buying a stack of PLEX for dual character training), never run a combat site and acquired a Stratios  as my favourite ship.

Back in High Sec again, and every day took my Stratios into a different Worm Hole, looking for Null and Low sec exits. I would try and drop on miners(no luck) and steal from other siphons, (a few) and run more data and relic sites, I also found that I could easily tank low and null ghost sites.

I hated High Sec, constantly hitting D scan and wanting to shoot everyone hanging around a gate or station that was not blue....

Currently

Deployed very recently to Esoteria to a new Null Alliance and settling in. Both characters are here with multiple jump clones.
I have in High Sec all the parts for a cloaky nullified Proteus, just not the skills, which I am training now.
Aims for this deployment are:-
1. To build a battleship and actually rat in null sec, mainly to see if I like it.
2. Build and fit several different types of cruisers, and try and get them killed learning more about PVP
3. Either earn the money or build the parts for the above, so self sufficient.
4. Use Worm Holes as the High Sec highway, and see if my Proteus is any luckier finding targets in them.

Oliver is very much a mining alt, with PI skills and middling (non tech II) combat skills. He is here to mine to accomplish some of the above and emergency home defense.

John