Tagged? No!!!!

Apparently, bloggers play this game where they 'tag' a few fellow bloggers who are then obligated to tell some facts about themselves and then tag more bloggers...

I just got tagged by FlashFresh; and although I've never heard of this game I guess I'll play along. (I know you just made this up in order to pry special Sekrets out of me, Flash!)

So, some facts about your truely, one of the following statements is false:

I'm a computer programer, fluent in several languages.
I'm an Eagle Scout.
I was practically a slave to some of my former carebear corps/alliances.
I've lived in several countries, including Germany, Japan, and Italy (and USA).
I've done some small time corporate spying (in Eve, of course).
If you can guess which statement is false, you get 1,000,000,000 ISK.


The Rules:

1. Link to the original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about myself in the post - some random, some weird. I added one more, a false fact to confuse. You don't have to!
   
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

I got tagged by both Flashfresh and Wensley
So, now I'll tag the following bloggers:
Ombeve
Spectre (Maybe he'll post one more time?)
Hmm...
I don't really know that many other bloggers who haven't already tagged me..
tssk, tssk I really need to get involved in the community a bit more lol.


But now for some more pvp oriented blogging, eh?

Pvp, an Overview Part II

As many of you have known that assault frigates recently got a buff in the last patch. This prompts the next subject of The Overview: Battleships Online has turned into David vs Goliath Online. In other words, larger ships have a much harder time hitting smaller ships.

There are a few things which factor into how often a ship will hit it's target. First off, is optimal range + falloff. If your target is out of range, you won't be able to hit it; obviously. But frigates are meant to get in close and personal, so how are they to avoid getting wtfbbq'ed by a battleship (or any decently large ship)?

The answer is something called transversal velocity. Imagine a battleship, shooting at a stationary target. That target will pop very quickly. Now imagine that battleship, with a small circle around it, and the target is following that circle (orbiting the battleship). This creates transversal velocity, where your ship moves faster than your opponent's turrets can rotate.

To maximize your transversal, you want to do three key things. First, ensure that the circle is as small as possible [get in as close as possible]. If you are going 800m/s with an afterburner (a reasonable speed) 500m away from your target, you are probably just fine. Now, if you are going 800m/s but 20km away from your target... not so much.

The second thing is speed itself, if you are orbiting your target at 10m/s; your as good as dead. So, get your ship going as fast as possible, in this case speed is your tank. Speed can be increased by using the following low slot modules: Nanofibers, overdrives, and inertial stabilizers.

Some of the more savy of you may have noted that I listed inertia stabs; they do not actually increase your speed. But they do help increase your transversal velocity. How so? you may ask. Think about it like this, why can't a battleship orbit another battleship and be immune from damage, even if it is going 800m/s like a frigate? Simply because it can't turn fast enough thus increasing our imaginary circle. An inertia stab helps decrease our circle and thus further increases your transversal.

The third major factor in transversal is what is known as your signature radius. A frigate has a sig radius of about 40m while a battleship has one of over 400m. The most obvious effect of the sig radius is locking times, a frigate can lock a battleship in 2 or 3 seconds, while that battleship may spend 20seconds or so locking the frigate. The other major function of sig radii is that of being a circular target which you might find at an archery range. Obviously, the smaller of a target you are, the harder for your enemies to hit you. This also leads into one of two reasons why you should generally use an Afterburner over a Microwarpdrive when relying on speed for life like this.

When a microwarp drive is activated, the sig radius of a ship increases by a multiple of 5. Thus, a frigate would effectively have the sig radius of a battlecruiser, making it an easy target for the battleship. Also, if you get warp scrambled (as opposed to disrupted), your MWD gets shut off, leaving you up the creek with no paddle. Also, MWD's nerf your capacitor by 25% (with the exception of the Thorax cruiser), which is very precious to you newer players.
[You can train the skills of Energy Systems Operations and Energy Management (sp?), to increase your capacitor size and recharge, these are nice skills.]

So, how might a battleship (goliath) slaughter the davids that assault him? There are a few methods, ranging from smartbombing the bastards to oblivion, which is hilarious if it works. You can also let loose some drones on them, but they can be destroyed. You can try webbing them, which may or may not help you enough (they only decrease speed by ~50%, not 90%). You can fit tracking computers to increase your turrets' tracking, or target painters to increase your target's sig radius. Another option is to have a heavy energy neutralizer offlined, and when you need it online it, neut the imputous frigate and then laugh maniacally as it is 1 volleyed by your ship.

Or you can bring more goliaths. It is rather hard to maintain transversal velocities against multiple enemies.

But they could also bring more davids.

At any rate, a frigate is not guaranteed a BS kill if it gets a tackle; even though some may inscessantly wine about the cruelty of CCP. But assault frigs just rock now. [But don't fly them unless you know what you are doing, they are expensive as all get out-- 20m per ishkur which is non-insurable!]

In other world changing news, I am now officially a part of The Bastards!
[Trumpets blare, kings of Olde bow and pay their respects... I unbann Garmo--]

PvP, an Overview

Reflecting back on my earlier days, it occurred to me that I have myself provided a few lolfits to others.

A shield tanked thorax complete with rails
A dual repped brutix with 100MM plate!!, 1x mag stab, and no point
A rail thorax with 0 tank
A myrm fitted with rails and a t1 half hearted passive tank [which I probably fit by accident]

I seemed to like rails a lot back then... So, I've decided to try and help others avoid the same pitfalls that I didn't avoid.

First things first, if you're reading this guide and actually learning stuff from it-- you shouldn't be flying anything bigger than a frigate into battle. In your case, bigger is worse.

And thus the first rule of Eve, only fit and fly what you can afford to lose.


Now, on to modules and fitting, the better you fit your ship, the more likely you'll be victorious. However, beware of falling for the uber expensive pwnmobile mirage, no such thing exists and it will die at the first gate camp. Along with all your isk.

The slots on a ship are divided into highs, mediums [mids], and lows.

Generally speaking, all weapons go into high slots [hybrids, projectiles, missiles, lasers].

The mid slots are much more multitaskable, they generally carry the pvp trinity [propulsion mod (afterburner or microwarp drive), warp jammer, and web]. However, the mid slots also host a large variaty of other gear, including ECM, ECCM [the counter to ECM], and shield tanking.

The lows generally fit armor tanking modules or weapon upgrade modules [make your weapons deal more damage].

In your case, you'll be flying a frigate. So, your mids will certainly be filled up with as much of the pvp trinity as you can fit. I recommend a 1mn AfterBurner, a warp jammer, and if possible a stasis webifier. The AB will allow you to move quickly, around the 800m/s range for frigates. The warp jammer will obviously keep your opponent from warping away. The stasis web is optional, but it will slow your oponent down by about half.

Now, the rest of your ship highs and lows must be fitted. Normally, this comes down to the question of wether the ship will tank [survive sustained damage from enemies] or gank [kill enemies with high amounts of damage per second].

In the case of a frigate, which is the ship you will be flying, there is little point in tanking considering the fact that frigates are so fragile to begin with. So therefore, your frigate will be fitted for gank power.

This leads into the question of what type of weapon system your ship will be using. I highly recommend blasters [gallente] or autocannons [minmatar]. If you pick blasters, you should start out with the Incursus, a cheap and proven pvp frigate.

A quick side note on blasters, electron blasters do the least damage but are the easiest to fit, while the neutrons do the most damage and are the hardest to fit. The ion blasters are the middleground between electrons and neutrons.

Depending on which weapon system you choose, for a gank fit you should ideally fit your lows with three of the appropriate weapon upgrade system. For blasters, magnetic field stabilizers; projectiles, gyrostabilizers; lasers, heatsinks; missiles, ballistic control systems.

A recommended incursus fit:
[Highs]
3x Light Electron Blaster I loaded w/ Antimatter charge S

[Mids]
1MN Afterburner
Warp Scrambler [7.5km optimal, 2 points of scrambling]

[Lows]
2x Magnetic Field Stabilizer

1x Hobgoblin Drone I

With my skills, this is a cap stable ship, travels 714m/s and does 109 dps. EFT estimates the price at 649,000 ISK.

Thus the first part of my pvp guide is concluded, if you detect any mistakes please let me know. I will be posting follow up parts soon.