Patterns

Applied Knowledge

Most of what I do is rather ... supercilious if you were to look at it from the outside.  Do I know a lot about the actual politics of the game, the who's who of EVE, nor a fraction of them even know me?  Probably not.  Do I have spies everywhere, dozens of alts planted in this or that power structure, intimate knowledge of the comings and goings of everything around me?  Not likely.  Do I need any of this to know what is going to happen because people are just too easy?  I sure don't.  How many of these people have an actual linear understanding of human history to know their place in it, to actually understand how it works, even with toy guns?  If you ask me, very few.  Toy guns or no toy guns, people and their foibles are the same everywhere you go.

What then behooves me to bother making predictions or assume I know anything at all about what will or will not happen in the grand scheme of things out in null sec?  Well let us assume for a moment, that there is something interesting about human nature, aye that it is predictable.  Applied knowledge, is the knowledge of the why, not of the how, nor where, or even when.  What one learns on a small scale elsewhere, applied to a large scale at the present.

Let's face it, a vast majority of people are rather unimaginative, static, and terse when it comes to dynamic thought and experience.  Most people are incapable of expressing themselves outwardly in a way that does not predate their current circumstances, i.e. communication and expression are often the most difficult tasks especially when asked to distinguish new and dynamically outward thought and conjecture.  Mental projection, empathy, and the ability to resolve oneself from one's own humanity in order to interpolate information without personal investment are not traits commonly shared by most people I have come across in life.  Think about it, how many of us are writers, artists, well versed communicators?  How many would even try if you honestly asked them to give it their best effort?  Most of what you find is loose ideas, rough thoughts, drafts of things that people really may understand underneath the surface, but are incapable of expressing in thoughts on a page or words aloud.  That does not mean they are unable to comprehend complex systems, it just means they are unable to reproduce said systems themselves.

Now what is it about null sec that this has anything to do with?  Well for instance, how is it that I can predict the rise to power of a single pilot in an entire alliance, twelve months prior?  How is it that I can almost pinpoint the exact way that rise to power will occur?  In fact, I predicted how it should have occurred, but the final detail was that it would occur privately, a private exchange of power, not public.  Instead what we have now is a huge public fiasco that has dragged on for months and months, all because the person in question, has not the capacity to understand nor the actual malice in them to do more wrong in order to do a greater right.  But you know, that is the best part of it all, I knew this when I made the predictions, banking on that person fouling it up, so they could then be pinioned to their own failures.  Something that will bear fruit in the months to come, as an entire coalition gnaws on them to death all the while smiling with a toothy grin, championing them publicly, hoisting them on their own petard.

Now, we find ourselves at a crossroads, unable to wield any true clout ourselves, but warbling back and forth between impossible choices that leave little room for anything but XOR solutions.  This is the crux, the final hubris of human nature, that people do not really understand what happens when you accumulate vast enough amounts of influence over others, that you become your own worst enemy.

What is this game about, as with any game, it is about having fun.  Though each person has fun in their own way, that fun forms a collective impetus or will, that revolves around there being actual conflict, struggle, and the means with which to combat forces beyond your own control.  What happens when the latter is taken out of the equation?  Well the fun goes with it.  I am told, nearly ten thousand people are bored to tears, they fight an endless war of attrition with meatshield against meatshield, they have no illusions that this pattern must continue lest they are trampled afoot by a coalition of fairly limitless resources, and they are upset.  What has the game become that the only thing left for them is to fight a forever war just to keep space that now holds no actual merit by virtue of the very fact that they are now tethered to it for the conceivable future?  Is the only fun truly left to them to threaten a minor power bloc of a couple hundred people with their own of more than ten thousand?  What would they find when they spent a week migrating down this way, a couple puffs of smoke in the air from our fleets as they ducked and ran from overwhelming odds?  What point then is there, if this is the only fun left to them?  Well, there is none.  This is the crossroads of your gaming life, where you realize that winning is not nearly as fun as you imagined it would be, and in reality it was inconceivably more fun to get there in the first place, when there were legitimate and yet moderate threats to one's meteoric rise to the top.  The view from the top, in a game, is a pretty stark and abysmal place, left with the notion that the only entertainment value remaining is mutually assured destruction against the only ones to share the top rung with you, or an endless stream of meaningless campaigns one after the other against forces that not only cannot even begin to put up a significant resistance to your encroachment on their lands, but cannot even put up enough to entertain your own troops for more than a fleeting moment of hope that there is something left to them, something significant, other than annihilation against the only other opposing force remaining.  Winning does not quite look the same from the top as it did from the bottom.

I find myself, unable to form my own thoughts into a proper conceptualization of what I mean by any of this, which may or may not amount to a lot of rambling, and not much else, but I can tell you one thing, I wholly believe that the null game will become a North Versus South campaign before this is all said and done.  And I have no illusions that if CCP does not truly hit null sec issues with a huge hammer in the Winter Expansion, that the purpose of being out there will dry up like a grape in the sun, as there will no longer remain any real fun to be had, fighting over space for the sake of space, on behalf of either one side or the other, what then is the point of it all?  Pit supercap wall against wall every night for all eternity in an endless grind of needlessness?  It would be like a disturbing recreation of No Man's Land, with literally nothing to gain of it.

Hmm, I hope I made at least a little sense, I can tell you one thing though, the writing is on the wall for our friend's in the north, a meatshield will falter and be disbanded, and the refugees of an entire coalition will find themselves on a great migration to the south, then the real interesting part begins, waiting to see if it is too late for CCP to fix what Dominion started.

It comes down to impulse control, give a typical person any kind of influence over other people, and you create a monster overnight, finding new ways to abuse that power and use it near constantly to their own benefit, as not all benefits are material in nature, far from it.  All the while that near constant abuse, and the playing of the only hand one has been dealt, is a weakness, and the beginning of the end, a vicious cycle of one failed leader after another, again and again.   Give someone like me power, and I will not, will not use it unless forced to. But the last thing you would ever want is for a person like me to feel forced to act, because it is final, without mercy, and permanent.  This is oddly much like the DRF, having been forced to action, they are without mercy, without regret, without malice or pause, conquering one region after the next, simply because they were forced to take arms for the first time in a very long time, and to band together for one purpose.  This is how it works, those without malice, without mercy, acting only when given no other choice, swift and final are their actions, mercy needless when one only acts on just cause in defense of home and citizen.

For all intents and purposes, I really have little sway over things at all, truly, but what sway I do have is enough for me, enough to tip the iceberg I think.

Trail Of Tears

Trail Of Tears

Travel From A Scout's Perspective

Believe it or not I rarely use the common trick of a microwarpdrive and cloak so often implemented to instantly warp off a gate safely as possible while traveling in low or null security.  For all the hundreds of times years ago that I flew a Bestower up and down the Yong--}Mamet pipe, I never lost a ship.  I will use a cloaky ship more often than not sure, but if I am using a conventional ship, I can name on my hands and feet the times I actually got caught with my pants down and could have used the warp trick, and even those times, I got away without it.

Why?

Patience, no seriously.  I am obsessively patient.

That's not say I do not take risks, it is to say that wait until those risks hit a low point before moving down a pipe or attempting to travel in all manner of ship.

So how does a typical night go for me if I say, want to move a battlecruiser from high security to null security?  I will walk you through step by step what I do, and maybe you will pick up a few tricks, or be reminded of a few things you often forget to do yourself, or are shown how risky I actually am, even though I bet against odds, not numbers, i.e. if there are reds along the way, I will rarely travel through them, but if they are in the system over, I will chance slipping by them when I get intel with good indication that they will not be back soon enough to find me.  The key to travel is to not be seen, period.  If no one knows you are there, you do not have buddies you are traveling with that draw attention, and you wait until the area is quiet, it is likely no one even knows you passed through.  That is the key, it is as simple as that.

Still docked...

 
A few things, first open up DOTLAN, look at the route, ask yourself:

• Are there often small entrapment gangs along this route?
• Is this the only route into the constellation I am attempting to get to?
• Are there side pockets of space where reds frequently loiter for a time?
• Is channel intel frequently proper for the first jump into low or null security?
• Is my ship larger than a cruiser?
• Is it fit for PvP?
• If I undock it now, there is no question I am willing to lose it?
• Are there stations in most systems along the way that I have docking rights in?

A few things about ships themselves:

• Warpstabs, useless...fit buffer and pray the batphone works, or burn back to the gate; solo reds are rare, if they are present, it is usually bombers or battlecruisers, and those are either ineffectual against cruisers or larger, or get mopped up by friendlies frequently.
• Shuttles; nearly invulnerable in low security and a safe bet in friendly null security as hostile bubbles or bubble pilots are loudly announced on intel channels.
• Pods; never fly around in a pod, shuttles are available almost everywhere, even in null security.
• Haulers; T1 haulers are some shit...a poorly fit Brutix can literally one shot a Bestower, so ask a corpsmate about cloaky transports or capital services and only use a T1 hauler if there is no one else to do your hauling.
• Speaking of cloaky transports...I highly suggest training a cloaky transport.  Being able to move your own stuff on your own terms any time day or night sets you a world apart from your rookie counterparts who lose T1 haulers weekly.
• Buffer or align time, ?  A healthy mix is best, if you are in something smaller than a cruiser, align time is pretty good already, and sticking inertia stabs on something bigger is silly, however... if it is a cloaky, align time and base velocity are always more important than anything else.  If it is a BC or larger, do not bother with mitigation like inertia stabs, warp stabs, etc.  rig for PvE, fit for PvP, carry your PvE fittings in your hold, and make down the pipe.

A few things about accounts and eyes:

• Do you dual box with more than one monitor? Then you need a character that can fly Covert Ops or Stealth Bombers.  Why?  Because you are most likely to get caught by a camp, than by roamers, roamers light up intel channels, campers simply get reported now and then, since everyone who has been online for awhile already knows they are there, and if no one has taken them out, intel reports can be somewhat infrequent.  Sit your Covert Ops character at 250km from the gate, behind or above it, and relax, kick your feet back, and smoke a cigar, knowing that there are literally no hostiles on the gate you are about to jump through.  And for the enthusiastic, you can even scout yourself!
• I don't dual box, do I suck?  No, create a dummy character on your account, hop in a shuttle and dock in the first low or null sec system if able to, if not, simply log out in a safe spot.  When you wanna see the status of the system and cannot get proper intel, log the alt, look for yourself, log off, log your main, fly through.

A few things about intel channels:

• Intel channels can be good some nights, bad others, slow, fast, frustrating, lifesaving... intel is provided by people and people are not perfect.  Log your character on and keep a good 5-10 minutes of intel reports to browse over before moving any major assets or ships that are vulnerable to gangs.  Give yourself plenty of time to finally see that report of OMG a thousand reds camping the first gate in the pipe!  Trust me, it happens.
• Don't fuss with [Solar System] status?  If you have to ask, the intel is probably not going to come, or the fact that it is not being reported means the forces in system have been active long enough that intel has slowed down to more of a casual status update of caution that the system is unsafe, as noted above.  If you wait those 5-10 minutes, and see no casual updates, chances are good, there's not actually anything there to be reported.

A few things about the starmap:

• Pop open your starmap and put it on... well the star map view. Set a destination, and start poking around in the menu system, there are filters for ship losses in the past hour, gate jumps, people docked, people in space, cynosural fields, the whole shebang.  The starmap is a good indicator if things are going on in unknown space.

Guess it's go time...

First off, if you are going to travel, you need three things while in open space:

• Local window open, viewable and expanded to include at least 10x pilots at once.
• Intel channel open and viewable
• Directional scanner open, set to 10,000,000km, 360 degrees, using combat overview settings.

When you land on the first low or null gate, pop a directional, is there anything offgrid waiting?  Maybe you should be cautious if there is.

When you jump into the first low or null gate, DO NOT break your gate cloak, DO pop a directional, is there anything waiting there for you as well?  If there is, consider your chances and either attempt to continue or burn back to the gate after waiting out your session timer until it is almost up.

As you travel, do pilots enter local while you are in warp, moments before you jump, or shortly after you jump?  Watch for gate flashes, that means the pilot either left or entered from the gate you are at.

Are there any intel updates along the pipe while you travel, hostiles that have suddenly appeared for whatever reason?  Remember when you checked DOTLAN in station, now you easily recall that the system they are reported in is not along the pipe, so you can make a more informed decision on whether to proceed.

FML I landed on a gate with a hostile gang, guess I should just look away from my monitor as they turn me into a pin cushion.  Stop, do not give up, but do not overreact and do NOT return fire of any kind and for the love of all that is holy do not jump through that gate right away unless you literally have a death wish, you are one ship, if there are more than two or three of them, your chances are vastly smaller if you fight or panic and jump right away, and if you already know what your chances are enough to know whether to return fire, you are a veteran and this guide is more of a refresher for what you already know.  Wait for them to fire on you for Christ's sake, (you get the idea yet that panicking and immediately jumping through is a death warrant yet?), you are in control here, they must decide who fights, and who follows, a divided force is less effectual.  What are your actual chances of getting away after they attack you?  How many ships aggressed, what ones did not?  If you jump through and for the ones that were able to follow, will they easily be able to target lock you before you warp off?  If only one tackle is able to jump through, how fast are they?  Maybe they will not even be in disruptor range by pure chance alone, i.e. it is very possible you land +30km away from one another when you both jump through.  Rookie gangs will often open fire all at once when you are nearly dead, because they want to whore killmails for bragging rights, so never give up, ever.  If they all open fire, jump through the gate, and laugh all the way home.

FML I jumped through a gate and a hostile gang that was not in intel is here, guess I am going to lose my ship.  First off, do they have bubbles setup, or are there bubble ships present?  Second off, what size is your ship, and what is the smaller tackle they have?  Do you see any sensor booster animations or remote animations from one ship to another?  If they are not setup for tackle of any kind, or have very few tackle, and you are in a smaller ship, your chances improve a lot.  If you are in a larger ship, your best chance is to take note of the tackle they do have, and attempt to pop them before the others reach you.  Slim, but possible.

FML I jumped through a gate into a system with no station and a hostile gang is somewhere in system or I am about to try warping away from them and escaping.  STOP.  Do not warp to the next gate at 0m, do NOT.  You should have come down this pipe previously (will be explained in some tips and tricks at the bottom of this guide) and setup safe spots or tacticals such as a bookmark offgrid and above or behind the gate so you can use your dscan to check for hostile camps, or avoid bubbles.  If you did not, simply warp to a random celestial at 20-70km and take your chances, once you land safely you should have already made a bookmark while in warp, that you can then warp to.  Once you begin warping to that bookmark, make another, warp to that bookmark, warp to a random celestial again, warp to another bookmark you made while en route, etc. etc. you capice?  Bore them to death, unless you're in something larger than a battleship, they will be unable to probe you before you warp off to a new bookmark in the middle of nowhere.  And most red gangs do not bother probing for travelers, they probe for mission runners.

Good lord does this guide ever end?

Technically I am only getting started... but I will be adding to this guide periodically until it covers the full gambit of travel through low and null security space.  For now this is a good start, it gets you into the pipe and gives you a few tools to keep yourself secure and solid.

A few pro tips:

Grab a T1 frigate, pop a microwarpdrive and some overdrives on it, and head down the pipe in an empty clone.  Make a bunch of bookmarks in every system you plan on passing through or sticking around in:

• Tacticals above the gate or behind it opposite all other celestial bodies in system, at distances of 250km (on grid usually), 500km (offgrid usually), and 750km (guaranteed offgrid).
• At least two safe points in the middle of nowhere, not in line with any stargates or stations, i.e. first warp to a random celestial as far away from your present position as possible, then warp again to another random celestial in a different direction as far away as you can, make a bookmark on the second warp, i.e. you do not want to actually sit between the warp line of a stargate and any other body in space.  You CAN be uncloaked by passing ships in warp, and if you go AFK thinking all is hunky dory, you may come back to a station screen and a new clone.  This goes for sitting ANYWHERE near a gate under a few thousand kilometers as well, as people warping TO the gate, or traveling anywhere around it during combat, may very well uncloak you.  If you think I am pulling your leg, it has happened to me more than once, even in safe spots a few times as well, hence the warning about safes aligned with stargates and celestials.
• Bookmark the station you use frequently if it is low security.
• Create a slingshot out of stations you use frequently, --to be explained at a later date.

Trust yourself, if you are flying it in space, you are pledging yourself to EVE's cardinal rule, you have agreed to the possibility of non-consensual PvP at any moment no matter how rare or unlikely in your present location in space.  So do not be overly cautious; if it seems quiet down the pipe, it probably is, if it isn't, well you cannot predict the future so do not wait around hoping it changes on your account.  You may lose a ship, or you may not, time to find out.

It's a game, you can always make more money, and I can tell you as a scout, I fly the most paper thin ships, with the least fittings, first into the fray, alone and to fend for myself.  From a fatalistic point of view, if I can fly around crashing hostile gate camps for years and lose only a  handful of ships, you should be able to take a battleship down the pipe on a quiet night with no incident.