Posted - 2006.02.14 22:10:00 - [2]

 

(cont...)



WHERE DO I HUNT?

By now you are thinking; "Great I'm ready, where do i go to kill!"

Unfortunately it isnt that easy. To find targets, you need to go in 0.4 and below systems. These are often sparsely populated, but now and again you can find something to kill.

Try to look in the less busy low security systems, as this is where miners are more likely to be hiding. Fly around these until you see a possible target in local.

Then you use your scanner to see what ships are in space. (see "using the scanner" near the end of the tutorial)
If the scanner shows a prime target, such as a hauler or a mining cruiser; off you go. To find him you can either

• Browse the belts

• Use the scanner and narrow him down

using the scanner like this is difficult at first, but often quicker than going through the belts, and well worth getting used to.

USING THE SCANNER

First of all, position your camera so that it is facing in the same direction of your ship. From what i have seen, the "nose" of your ship when at rest points to the 5degree scan (although this is very difficult to find people with as it is so precise)

Firstly, set your overview settings to show asteroid belts, then do a 360 degree scan at full range (about 14 au)

Proceed to narrow it down until you have only the ship and the belt on the scan: the ship is most likely at the belt. Warp in. Dont worry about messing up a few times, this requires a LOT of practice.

Once you have your prey in your sights: its time for

THE ATTACK

Orbit your prey at your optimal range and engage your warp scrambler and weapons. If all goes well and you get him to structure, convo him (if you wish to ransom and not just destroy the ship) and ask for a toll. Choose this yourself, judging the value of his ship and modules and thinking how much he would lose if he went boom.

The actual technique you should sue depends on your ship, your fitting, and your oponent. For mos purposes i would suggest having a close range fitting (ie: AUTOCANNONS/ROCKETS/BLASTERS/PULSES for minmatar/caldari/gallente and amarr respectively. If you are using a MWD, then i suggest you engage it to close the distance between you and your foe. Once you are within range and hopefully under his guns) turn it off and orbit: this will save your capacitor for other essentials like guns and repairers.

I advise you not to pod kill your target, as the security status hit for this is very heavy, meaning you wont be able to go into high security space.


Once your prey has paid you (hopefully) let him go by deactivating your guns/scramblers. If he did not pay, send him on his merry way in his pod.

Do NOT go near the sentries for 15-20 minutes after you have commited a hostile act, as it will leave you in your pod. (sentres are cruel masters)

The new introduction of the crminal flagging counter is a very good indication of when you are flagged or not but I wouldnt trust it fully.

Posted - 2006.02.14 22:11:00 - [4]

 

(cont...)


COMPLEX HUNTING


Since RMR, complexes have been very good places to find targets in low security. A heavy assalt cruiser, recorn cruiser, or well setup battlecruiser is your friend here. An afterburner is nearly essential, as a microwarp drive will not work in dead space complexes. This is fairly simple: if you scan a ship in local and there is a complex simply check it out. If you "patrol" certain systems make a point of checking the complex every now and again. If it is easy you could do it for the security status and cash, if you are bored.

Finally:

SCAN PROBING

By this point you will probably have had many people run to safespots on you, or even leave ships and spplies at them. Proping is a great way to kill them or blow up their supplies in true pirate fashion. A covert ops ship with all the relevat skills is a great way to steal ships, or find your enemy. Simply scan the target down with the scanner, and drop a 3 AU probe in a "triangle" around his position (use moons and safespots etc) Then hit scan. I advise turning on your cloak while it is scanning, and warping once the signal has been found while cloaked. There you go, have your gangmates war in and give your best "YARR!" in local.


That about sums it up (phew)

Have fun, and have respect for your victims and peers alike. Always remember that your reputation is priceless, and that pirates can still have honour.

Good luck!

Posted - 2006.02.14 22:59:00 - [6]

 

sound advise and nothing extreamly technical. hopefully this will help the next generation of pirates get off on a good start.

Posted - 2006.02.15 00:03:00 - [8]

 

Lacks important information about scanner usage. Lacks important information about the finer points of everything else mentioned. Far too few explainations and far too few true reasonings about the explainations. Far to many "just do it's". It lacks both important aspects they need to keep in mind and general pitfalls of piracy.

You need to explain things in detail rather than hope for a blind following. We need a smarter and more adaptable pirating community, not a group of ship lemmings (like your punisher comment?!). You need to explain the finer points of each article or you risk sending them on their way half-learned and thus open to the dangers naturally placed upon pirates. You didn't even teach them methods to keep safespots or any other aspect of low-security survivability.

I disaprove of this thread being a sticky, as it simply lacks far too much information about a very complex subject.

Posted - 2006.02.15 00:08:00 - [10]

 

Quote:

---

People fly ships, not calculators\mathematicians.

---

And smart pirates stay alive, dumb pirates don't.

Spoonfeeding the basics isn't enough because those beginning players will assume that there is nothing else to learn, and therefore assume that this post is supreme in information. Giving incomplete information (you need three battleships to gate camp? Never heard of a battlecruiser gatecamp?) about singualr subjects breeds easy pirates that fly the same tactics over and over again.

You want a stronger, smarter community. Not a mindless, half-informed, one.

Posted - 2006.02.15 00:51:00 - [12]

 

Interestingly enough, most of that guide is also very useful in general empire warfare.

Good job!

Posted - 2006.02.15 01:31:00 - [14]

 

Edited by: Michael Goddard on 15/02/2006 01:35:08

Quote:

---

wereas practice>guides

---

If guides are formed (and explained in math, theory, and first hand example stories) based on legitimate past experience versus just teaching them game mechanics, then the guides are a good way to give someone knowledge. It's up to them to turn that knowledge into wisdom (putting knowledge into the field), but giving them a tiny amount of information seems pointless.

Quote:

---

if this were to be as in depth as u suggest, it would turn many a good pirates away, becuase of its length.

---

Well, as a point, what good are half-ass pirates that can't even spend time reading the details of how they can survive? Sure, they can skip it all they want. But in the end that's a misinformed pirate rookie that is going to continually die due to lack of deeper knowledge of how this world works.

*snip*In short: I see information like this that goes mainstream spawning a lot of Ginger Magician-similar pirates. A lot of smack, a small amount of knowledge, and too much ISK from their mining alt.

Please keep things polite - Jacques

Posted - 2006.02.15 01:38:00 - [16]

 

Question:

Does using a booster scorp or other support ship result in security penalty when your target/gang mate opens fire on other ships?

Posted - 2006.02.15 01:41:00 - [18]

 

Originally by: Lienzo

---

Question:

Does using a booster scorp or other support ship result in security penalty when your target/gang mate opens fire on other ships?

---

you get the penalty if he is criminally flagged while you are boosting.
so if he wasnt flagged before you will be the next cycle of your mods boosting him.

Posted - 2006.02.15 01:46:00 - [20]

 

Edited by: Malken on 15/02/2006 01:47:12

Originally by: Michael Goddard

---

Edited by: Michael Goddard on 15/02/2006 01:35:08

Quote:

---

wereas practice>guides

---

If guides are formed (and explained in math, theory, and first hand example stories) based on legitimate past experience versus just teaching them game mechanics, then the guides are a good way to give someone knowledge. It's up to them to turn that knowledge into wisdom (putting knowledge into the field), but giving them a tiny amount of information seems pointless.

Quote:

---

if this were to be as in depth as u suggest, it would turn many a good pirates away, becuase of its length.

---

Well, as a point, what good are half-ass pirates that can't even spend time reading the details of how they can survive? Sure, they can skip it all they want. But in the end that's a misinformed pirate rookie that is going to continually die due to lack of deeper knowledge of how this world works.

*snip* In short: I see information like this that goes mainstream spawning a lot of Ginger Magician-similar pirates. A lot of smack, a small amount of knowledge, and too much ISK from their mining alt.

---

nice of you to show us who your alt is Makla.
maybe you shouldnt use the same wordings and overall quoting style if you would have wished for it to remain anonymous.

and i still think you are wrong, not only by using a alt to try and fatten the thread but also by saying that short attention span pirates belong in burn eden.
do you even have a clue on how much work burn eden actually put in to be doing what they do?
they actually have to plan quite hefty, they put spies inside their target corps weeks maybe months ahead of their attacks.

talk about knowing nothing about piracy and planning.

personally i get a huge smile undocking and blowing someone up and then go for a coffe.

Posted - 2006.02.15 03:01:00 - [22]

 

A point of note regarding the scanner, is that if you want to scan a set of belts it is useful to first warp to a nearby celestial object. If for example there are 6 belts at planet 7, you can warp to that planet and scan from there, making it easier to narrow down targets.

Or, you scan them towards that planet, you warp to the planet then scan further to find the target etc. Sometimes using the scanner can be a proccess of elimination. And don't forget small ships are fast and agile, so if you find that someone on the scanner is belt hopping, move to a belt one or two down the list and hopefully they will land on you.

Posted - 2006.02.15 03:50:00 - [24]

 

Originally by: Malken

---

Originally by: Lienzo

---

Question:

Does using a booster scorp or other support ship result in security penalty when your target/gang mate opens fire on other ships?

---

you get the penalty if he is criminally flagged while you are boosting.
so if he wasnt flagged before you will be the next cycle of your mods boosting him.

---

What if I wait till he's flagged, shoot him cause he's got low sec, then boost him?

Posted - 2006.02.15 07:31:00 - [26]

 

Edited by: Alliaanna Dalaii on 15/02/2006 07:32:04
Good guide Parmizan.... Though I just have one point to make, that I dunno if you noticed when you typed it.

You say that you have to be 150km from the gate AND sentries. Its actually just the gate.. you can be sat right next to the sentries if you so wished.

However that wouldn't be overly wise as the enemy doesn't even need a covert ops to snag you they can just warp to the sentry

Good guide

Alliaanna

[EDIT] Just saw josh has allready said this yarrr

Posted - 2006.02.15 12:50:00 - [28]

 

Great guide there again Parm! (And it is a guide, not a HOWTO)

And great guide to the scanner too, James.....where did you learn?

Posted - 2006.02.15 14:44:00 - [30]

 

Originally by: James Snowscoran

---

The part about the scanner needs some work. I'm not sure I would've understood it myself.

Here's a suggestion to a better guide:

1. Open the overview settings, and configure the filters tab. Make sure 'asteroid belt' is ticked. You will also want to make sure pirate npcs are showing up. Otherwise, you want to have the overview as clean as possible, showing only essential stuff. This is important in order to use the scanner effectively.

2. Now open your scanner. Make sure the 'use overview settings' box is ticked. Make sure the range is set to maximum (this is about 14 AU). Warp to a planet with lots of belts, and hit scan. Note that 360 degree scans can take a long time.

3. Search through the list for any player ships. Ignore the rookie ships and shuttles, and note that some of the others may also be at safespots (frigates and industrials in particular). If you're picking up anything interesting, proceed to scan the belts for them. Click on your ship; a white box should appear over it. Now align the camera so that the box overlaps one of the nearby asteroid belt icons. Make a five degree scan. If you've done it correctly, you should now see the stuff in the belt. If it's empty, you should at least get the belt's name in your scanner; if you're not getting that, your scan wasn't accurate or your overview settings aren't configured the way they should. Proceed to scan the belts around you until you find what you were looking for. Then warp in, and proceed with the attack.

4. If the ship is gone when you arrive, don't be disheartened. Either it is located at a safespot between the planet and the belt, it cloaked, or it warped off. Try heading back to the planet to locate it again.

Tips:

-If you're hunting cruisers or smaller ships, they can often warp out before you even get to the belt. Sometimes when you locate a cruiser in an empty belt, it could be wiser to hold off your attack until it's located in a belt you think they will stay at, a belt filled with npcs for instance.

-Track a ship's movement. Some players warp between the belts from top to bottom. If you find that a player is doing this, you can warp to the next belt in his path and ambush him (this gives you more time to get close enough to scramble before he can run).

---

This is by far a better guide to scanning, and the system I use too. It should be noted that the direction your ship is facing doesn't matter in the least when scanning (I only mention this because lots of people seem to think it does), only the direction of the camera.

Also, if you have lots of objects behind a belt and want make sure you're only picking things up from the belt, keep in mind that 150,000,000km = 1 AU. So if a belt is 1.2 AU away, multiply 150,000,000 by 1.2 then input that number as your scan range.

You can scan very very quickly this way, and in my opinion using the scanner properly is the most important thing for a pirate to learn (since killing a target isn't all that difficult, as hopefully they won't be setup for PvP - finding the target, now that is hard...).