Booster Alts on Killmails

I was reading the Shave & A Haircut post on Rixx Javix's blog and it bought back all those memories of boosting from within the safety of a POS.

As Rixx says:

Put them on kill-mails, bring them on-grid, or give me the tools I need to catch them with reasonable proficiency.

I agree with this, wholeheartedly and without reservation.

Booster

The Booster Alt really is a force multiplier that can allow the solo player or a small fleet to punch above their weight/class.

Boosts provide benefits in four main categories, Armour, Shield (Siege), Skirmish and Information. It is the first three that are mainly used although the latter one does have benefits in certain situations. Most boosting ships can fit only 3 links by default but with Command Processors and a suitable fit you can get, and run, more links but at the expense of defensive/offensive abilities.

Having the ability to point a target at nearly 35km instead of the base 24km means kiting further away resulting in lowering any damage you might receive not to mention you can catch that target on the other side of a gate without having to waste precious seconds moving into range.

The Life of a Booster Alt

The first time I was introduced to boosts was when I started mining and suddenly found I could reach 13km and not the 10km my Miner module was supposed to do. I found out quickly what mining boosts were and then learned about the other types of boosts and what I would need to train to be able to provide them.

Just after I moved to Providence I skill remapped one character and started them on the path to complete all boosting skills to V and then to be able to provide boosts in T3’s and Command Ships. The boosting skills took about 6 months to complete and I spent another 3 and a half months getting the Spaceship Command skills to the maximum I needed.

At the time I trained T3 ships received a better bonus to boosts (5% vs 3%) than Command Ships so it was very normal to see boosts provided by a T3 not a Command ship.

After I was trained my alt would spend countless hours as Fleet Commander and sitting in a POS orbiting the tower with all links running. Having advertised the fleet people would join/leave as they needed and benefit from the boosts whilst they were in the same system.

Boosts just worked, fleet members would benefit from a warp disruptor range increase from 24km to 30km, warp scramblers from 9,500m to 12km/13km and webifiers from 10km to 13km and that’s just for T2 modules BEFORE overheating.  Other boosts increase speed from propulsion modules, decrease signature radius and increased shield/armour resistances (the less used ones improve ECM and ECM modules)

With faction modules and specialized ships (i.e. Recons) pilots could see ridiculous increases in abilities. I can remember a faction fit Arazu being able to warp scramble at over 50km and point out to nearly 90km. Webifiers were much same and I can remember at least one Rapier fit I saw that had a web range of in excess of 100km!

What you should understand, even after the rebalancing of them in 2012/2013, is that boosts are good and could mean the difference between your ship or the target exploding.

Refinement of Killmails

Killmails are fun and it’s always nice to be on them or get the "final blow" and have it in your character sheet. However being a booster pilot you get used to not appearing (same as for logistics pilots).

Example Killmail

This never sat well with me as some killmails I've seen have shown a pilots tearing through other ships and getting five or six kills in a short space of time without losing their ship. Not to mention 1v1 engagements where the ships where very evenly matched and one pilot was able to win thanks to the use of boosts that the other did not.

As a result I really believe that Killmails should have a spot on them to include any boosting ship/pilot. We’ve seen a lot of killboard padding since Crius and Hyperion were released (nothing new there) and points awarded should also be effected by the use of a booster that appears on any killmails.

It would certainly be interesting to finally see how many pilots are reliant on boosters in their fights, running a booster isn’t easy (multiboxing never is) but they provide so much for so little.

I’m pretty sure no-one from CCP reads my blog (:sadface:) but there are people who do and if you see a thread on the EVE Online forums or elsewhere for these functionality please support it, we really do need boosters (and logistics) appearing on killmails.

One Hundred and Fifteen

The post title is the number of jumps I did yesterday through High Sec in my jump freighter.

There and Back Again and Again

I started the day in Jita picking up new items for the local store and collecting Alliance/Corporation courier contracts back to our null sec base. A handful of jumps were through 0.5 space so I made sure to take control at these times but otherwise I ran on autopilot for most of the journey and either did some RL chores  or helped my wife plant strawberries in a new area of the garden.

Of course as I moved through space people asked me if I'd left Jita and because I'm a nice guy I said I had but could go back. Going back at the time was 30-odd jumps but still, I had the space and I was asked nicely.

So I dropped my cargo off at a temporary station, so as to provide a less tempting target for any would-be ganker, and headed back to Jita, then Amarr and finally back to pick up that that I originally started with. Then it was 7 jumps further to the first system that was within jump range of home.

A little over seven hours and one hundred and fifteen jumps after I originally left Jita I was home. I delivered my contracts and logged off.

It was exhausting auto-piloting through New Eden.

Maximum Warp Speed, Mr Navigator

The cargo size I was carrying influenced my decision to refit with nanofiber structure's in the low slots, this provides a noticeable increase in agility that helps you get into warp faster. A higher top speed would be a nice addition so I checked the prices for the recently added warp speed modules, which increase ship acceleration and warp speed:

• Limited Hyperspatial Accelerator
• Experimental Hyperspatial Accelerator
• Prototype Hyperspatial Accelerator

The Prototype Hyperspatial Accelerator is the top variant that modifies by 0.3 where as the other two do so by 0.25 and 0.2. Prices are considerably different with the Prototype being ten times the price of the Limited and five times the price of a Experimental (133m vs. 13m/25m).

I was going to buy three Prototype but have decided to hold off and see if any of my friends come across the BPC's for these modules on their travels. I'm in no rush for them, I've managed to work without them thus far but I would like to get them by the end of this year as a nice upgrade for my high sec travel.

Know Your Scams: Hanger Clearance

Setup

A message is posted in local stating the character is headed to null/clearing their hanger/disposing of loot from a corp theft. There will be a contract linked:

A contract will be setup that will contain various modules/implants that may be Faction/Deadspace or Officer class and there will be a cost to the contract, under You Will Pay, but the listed items will fool the mark into believing this is a cheap contract that will be very profitable to resell the contents.

What Happens Now

The mark will accept the contract but find out when they try to sell the individual items that they are either not as valuable as they expected and there is a very low sale volume.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

You can immediately check this contract by performing a price check of any items contained with the it using item prices from Jita (either via in-game market, EVEpraisal or EVE Central).

Planning Ahead

Over the past week I've spent time considering the future of my characters and what direction I want them to follow with regards to their training.

I have four accounts with my four main characters and a mix of cyno and PI alts, of varying skill levels, occupying the character slots on these accounts. it's the main characters I'll be talking about, providing a little background but also setting out what I want them to do in the future.

Shared Background

All of my characters started off with a mining focus, training to fly mining barges and then Exhumers with two being cross trained to fly the Orca and, later, the Rorqual. This is how I got my start in EVE Online, either running or participating in Mining Fleets in high sec and null sec. It wasn't moo goo money but it was a regular source of income and I really enjoy mining.

Since finishing their initial mining training they have all gone off in different directions in EVE but now I'm taking a longer term look at their uses and will plan training queues for them to maximize my return from them.

Planning

EVE Mon has been extremely useful, no vital, in helping me see my available options even if the results have been slightly depressing when I saw how long each skill plan will take to complete. But the advantage of planning my skill training for the next three, six or twelve months means I have objectives and am not wasting my game time on things that I will not benefit from in the long term.

I've now got four plans that I will be following as closely as possible until they are complete. I cannot predict everything and requirements may change so there will be some variation but I have a plan to follow that will open up more ships, modules and professions for my characters.

Main Character (Capital / Logistics Pilot)

93 million skillpoints

This was the first character I created in EVE but I don't use him everyday as I once did. He now spends most of his time in High Sec space supporting the activities (via logistics/manufacturing/invention) of my other characters.

Primarily an Amarrian ship flyer this character recently and he can fly every sub-capital ship bar T2 frigates and he has recently injected the Amarr Titan skill book (I had spare ISK and it completed a long term objective). He can use all guns but T2 rail guns and he has poor missile skills but he is not a combat pilot he has always worked logistics for me. As a result he can fly all racial Freighters/Jump Freighters and has most science and production skills at Level IV.

One aspect of his skills that I am disappointed with are his Drone skills, considering he flys drone ships and carriers his Drone skills are woefully inadequate. This is what I want to change and as a result I've used EVE Mon to work out a skill plan that will get all Drone skills to Level V.

Not ISK will be needed as all the skills are injected but the total time to get the entire branch to V will be 203 days at 2700 sp/h (Memory/Perception).

Once Drones are complete I will move back to Perception/Willpower attribute mapping and continue to work through the remaining Gunnery and Spaceship Command skills that I have either at Level IV or haven't started to train. This training will add another 360 days training, once a remap to Perception/Willpower is performed.

All in all, this character has his skill plan set for the eighteen months.

Miner / Booster / Logistics (Capital / Sub Capital)

90 million skillpoints

This was the first alt I created and was done so to meet the requirement of a pilot who could fly an Orca and boost whilst my main mined. When I was deciding to move to Providence I realized that I need to train all the remaining Leadership skills and thus, my Booster alt was fully born.

He can fly ever single racial ship below Battleship class and he is also a max skilled Rorqual and Jump Freighter pilot. This is nice as he continues to live in Null Sec where these skills are very useful for managing my towers and helping to move input/outputs about.

One peculiar thing about this character is that he maintains to this day the same gunnery and missile skills he was born with, they have never been improved and there has never been any need for him to have done so.

I have considered the role and at some point I will be adding Science and Production skills to his abilities but for the time being I will continue working on Support Skills to Level V and when this is done he will change to finally getting all racial Battleships and T2 Spaceship Command specializations to Level V.

According to EVE Mon will I have another 127 days on the Support Skills with Science (excluding T3 construction skills) at 491 days and Production at 259 days. He's going to be chock-a-bloc full of skills and will make a superb Industry addition to my roster.

Fun Fact: It was my wife who designed the portrait for the character and I haven't changed it since she did as she periodically checks his image and when I did once change his appearance I copped all kinds of hell over it.

Combat Character (Sub Capital pilot)

80 million skillpoints

I created a second alt a couple of months after the first because, well, I could mine more with two miners and a booster. It was only when I was living in a wormhole in 2011, and after he was able to fly Exhumers, that I changed his direction to being a sub-capital combat pilot.

After I moved to Providence this character become my defacto main and I recived a lot of encouragement/learning from the FC's that were active at the time. His skills adapted to the needs of the fleets I was in, moving from T1 vessels into T2 based Recons, HAC's and HIC's. He is well trained to use all T2 guns and HAM/HM/Torpedo's with just Level V specialization needing completing for all these.

It was this character that prompted a lot of my planning when I discovered he was only just over a total of 7 days training (and an injection of ISK) from being able to fly all racial dreadnoughts and able to use all capital sized guns.

He's now training for dreadnoughts/capital guns and will move on to finishing all sub-capital ships and gunnery skills to V. Something that EVE Mon tells me will take just 797 days with 204 days of to get each racial dreadnought to V.

I'll need more jump clones for him at some point but I am lucky to have at least four spare clones.

Miner (Scanning / Sub-Capital pilot / Manufacturing Alt)

58 million skillpoints

The youngest and most cross trained of my characters, he was born with a singular purpose: to be a perfect mining character which he achieved in about six months of training.

Has since become my scanning character after spending about 3 months training every scanning skill to V, which he completed two days before the release of Odyssey and the revamp of the scanning system.

He moved on to training to fly all racial sub capital ships under Battleship size and also able to fly the Amarrian Jump Freighter. As a result he acts as a back up jump freighter pilot for me in null sec. For the past year he's been working on Support Skills.

In planning for the future I've decided that I need another character to be able to manufacture modules and ships and so this character will be starting on Science and Production skills and will do until they are all Level IV and he can make all ships but T3's and Capital's.

EVE Mon tells me that this will take 77 days for all to Level IV and then another 125 days for the Production skills I'll need to actually do the building of modules/ships that I need to. Once this is done I'll have a remap available and I think getting Drone skill maximized (much like my main is now) will be a good choice for another 230 odd days training.

No Plan Ever Survives Execution

I have plans for each of my characters and I will be following them as closely as possible but there will be times I will have to make a detour and train skills I wasn't planning on. This has happened before and will happen again but my aim is to remain on the path I have chosen as much as I can.

The skill plans I have created will improve existing skills but more important open up new ships, modules and adventures to be had.

I'm looking forward to the training even if it will consume most of the next two years.

DED sites in High Sec

There are Deadspace areas of space, connected by acceleration gates, that are inhabited by pirates and these are referred to as DED Sites. They contain challenges of varying difficulty (1 to 10) and located in all but wormhole space these sites are a challenge for pilots but can have very profitable rewards.

Last week I received a mail from my friend Bex who had recently started roaming around New Eden looking for High Sec DED sites to run. Previously he had run a few sites but never made a dedicated effort to find them but once he did he wasn't disappointed in the rewards he was given, so much so that he said the following:

I am surprised how easy it is to make a living in HiSec.
        - Apex Bex

Aiming Low

As far as what sites to run, in high sec you'll find DED sites from 1/10 to 4/10 and it is the 3/10 and 4/10 DED's that should be your primary targets as they drop the best rewards. That's not to say that unrated or even Drone sites aren't worth doing, they are, and if they escalate you'll be showered with Faction Drops and Tech II hardwirings that can be sold for a very large profit.

EVEopedia's comprehensive list of DED Complexes

Bex has followed one simple rule: if its a combat site that has to be scanned out, he scans it then runs it.

The only exception being those ones that only allows Frigates. He can't arsed reshipping to do those as he's often a very long way from home as his current ship, a Gila, is a mobile so he doesn't have to get stay in one location and can roam the byways and back roads of New Eden.

The best places to scan are off the beaten track. High sec systems that are hidden behind Low sec pockets are ideal as they get very little traffic. Bex often makes use of wormholes to move around and as a result sometimes their exits have led to a backwater system 40 jumps from anywhere but they have 4 DED sites in them, just waiting for someone to harvest them.

Selecting the Ship

Doing DED sites in High sec you really want a one ship solution, it can scan and find sites but also run them without the need for swapping ships or using a second character. As a result you see a lot of Stratios, Vexor/Navy Vexor, and Gila's being used for this.

Bex has taken the Gila fit I use for ratting in Curse and has tweaked it to have more gank than tank as primarily the DED sites (1/10 to 4/10) in High Sec contain frigates and more tracking and movement speed for the medium drones is a good idea. There is one thing he does consider essential and that is the Drone Navigation Computer, Medium drones are very slow and the 30% speed buff is very, very useful to getting to and from targets.

Looks, Mobility and Damage - the complete package

Of course it doesn't have bonuses, like some of the others, to scanning but with decent scanning skills (Level 4 at least) there's nothing you can't get 100% on.


[High Sec DED]
Core Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile

Large Shield Extender
10MN Afterburner II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Deflection Field II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Sentient Omnidirection Tracking Link

Drone Amage Amplifer II
Drone Amage Amplifer II
Drone Amage Amplifer II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II

Medium Core Defense Field Purger II
Medium Core Defense Field Purger II
Medium Core Defense Field Purger II

2 x Valkyrie II
2 x Hammerhead II
4 x Salvage Drone I
1 x Vespa II
2 x Infiltrator II


He also carries a mobile depot and spare modules to be able to change and adapt his tank to the damage that he is expecting for each site. There is even fitting room for a 100MN Afterburner instead of the 10MN but this does lead to some issues around cap stability and really is overkill for the DED sites that will be found in High Sec.

Contesting Sites

You won't be the only person running DED sites and from time to time you will encounter people who will try to steal your site or will attempt to get you to attack them so as to start PvP. You won't be able to avoid it so its best to be prepared.

Try not to take your time, quickly and efficiently kill all targets and when you do see the Overseer or final loot dropping rat move as close as you can, as quickly as you can whilst killing them. Now, if you get the kill shot on any rat, it's your wreck, no one else can take it without going suspect, that way you can loot the wreck as soon as its dead and prevent anyone from stealing it.

Just in case though Bex suggests if you can spare the mid slot, fit a long point. It's the last thing any would be thief would expect. But use discretion and consider what you could potentially lose for the sake of a crappy faction hardener.

Bex, being the pirate inclined pilot he is, has actually stolen at least one site as they were being run, he warped in and obliterated everything in sight including the final Dread Gurista rat. As he killed it the wreck was white to him but yellow to the other guy in the site and he didn't take to kindly to this and he opened fire:

Kill: VVS Solt (Navy Vexor)

As a result Bex got a shiny afterburner as well as the Mid Range Crystal Gamma that dropped from Dread Gurista rat. Lesson here should be to complete sites faster and to secure the loot BEFORE anyone else.

Rewards - 24 hours of Sites

In one twenty four hour period last week Bex was able to run sites that yielded not only bounties, salvage and Overseer Personal Effects but the following Deadspace items:

• Sentient Omnidirectional Tracking Link
• Pithi A-Type Small Shield Booster
• Pithum C-Type Adaptive Invulnerability Field 
• Corpii A-Type Small Armor Repairer
• Dark Blood Small Focused Pulse Laser
• Dread Guristas Drone Damage Amplifier
• Pithum C-Type Explosive Deflection Amplifier
• Pithum C-Type EM Ward Amplifier
• Pithum C-Type Medium Remote Shield Booster
• Corpii A-Type Small Remote Capacitor Transmitter

The rewards are random, of course, but you often get nice surprises. Like the unrated Drone site that dropped a Sentient Omnidirectional Tracking Link and the Guristas 4/10 that dropped a C-Type Invulnerability  Field worth over 400 million ISK.

Conclusion

I'll certainly be having a look at DED Sites in High Se, I've avoided them in the past because I haven't thought I could do them. But from what I've written I'm certain two of my characters would have no issues scanning down and doing these sites.

I'm going to give it a try and should I get anything good you can be sure I'll write about it here.

Thank to Bex for the information and the round up of his experiences.

Site News

I was thinking the other day I should post a Site Update to let people know of posts to come and other minutiae that don't really warrant their own post. Finally got around to it this morning, in between my morning work duties.

Welcome New Readers

Welcome Redditors and zKillboard/EVE-Kill people. My post earlier this week on the Titan kill in Mai has generated a lot of traffic thanks to people posting the link to the article on Reddit and the kill on zKillboard/EVE-Kill.

The traffic has been welcome and satisfying to see but I do hope those that have visited stay and check out some of my other posts. Leave a comment (or two) if you have feedback.

The Smiling Assassin

There is one more post to come in the TSA Series, I'm just waiting on some final information from TSA before I post the final part. Unfortunately TSA hasn't been in-game very much recently and until he returns there isn't much I can do. 

And I won't post half complete what I have.

Future Posts

I'm working on posts covering a variety of topics, including:

• Amarr based COSMOS missions 
• Making Storyline BPCs using Takmahl components
• New scams found added to the Know Your Scams series
• Guide to Booster manufacturing
• Update to running Level 4 missions in Null Sec

Of course there will also be posts on other topics that pop up on the forums, other blogs I read or things that pop into my head.

Comments Appreciated

If you have a comment, constructive if possible, or wish to provide feedback, please do so. Its nice to hear from readers about how I can improve the blog

O Titan, My Titan

I've previously covered the killing of a Titan in Mai, located in low sec Domain, and how there is a group of pilots here who ply their trade in this system with the sole purpose of killing any and all capital ships that attempt to use it.

George Takei approves again (possibly)

Acting Suspicious

With eyes watching the system and anyone who entered, it was the arrival of a character called Zynen approximately 90 minutes beforehand that piqued their interest. The pilot, instead of flying directly to station, docking up and remaining there started warping around the system, obviously checking for pilots in each station and then warped back to the only gate in system and left.

This behaviour raised a red flag in the minds of the pilots watching, something was going to happen.

Target Finder

Zynen returned to Mai shortly after leaving but a 5 degree d-scan of the Zaimeth gate did not show the pilot there, a 15 degree did but not the smaller angle, an angle that would show they were on the gate. A couple of further d-scans at different locations (to triangulate) showed Zynen at a point between station 4 and the Zaimeth gate.

Research was performed on the pilot to see previous losses and who they might be associated with but this wasn't overly useful as kills were found back two years but not much recently. As a result they believed they may be seeing a super capital cyno rather than the titan which arrived.

Smash and Grab

At 0721 EVE time a cyno went up in Mai, a cloaky bump ship immediately warped in at range and as soon as the Avatar class titan of Suki Antollare appeared on grid the microwarp drive was lit and the Avatar was bumped, so as to prevent any immediate warp away that the titan pilot was expected to be doing.

Avatar Class Titan

The bump ship was not alone, whilst he was in warp the firepower that appears on the killmail was bought online and immediately entered warp to the cyno. Bumps continued on the titan as the dps and tackle arrived on grid and then the titan was caught.

Open Fire, All Weapons

The dreadnoughts sieged as soon as they exited warp and, with eyes still on the Zynen who had moved into neighbouring Zaimeth, a cyno inhibitor was deployed in order to try to make it harder for rescue to come. It must have worked as after the titans mobile depot was destroyed Zynen exited Zaimeth and was not seen again and no rescue force was seen to assemble or come towards Mai.

Update: Jean Learner started this thread on Reddit regarding this kill and mentioned that when the titan was at 51% armour they had a rescue ready but the deployment of the cyno inhibitor and the lack of cyno fitted to the titan meant nothing happened.

Big Badda Boom

11 minutes, or just under two dreadnaught seige cycles, was all it took from first shot to the gigantic explosion that swallowed the Avatar of Suki Antollare. The grid was now clear and salvagers could be bought in.

Good fights were posted in local but the titan pilot remained silent and very quickly logged out after losing the titan.

Back Slapping

Loot was taken, the wreck salvaged (eventually, a titan has a lot of salvage) and what was taken was split between the pilots involved.

The banter on teamspeak was laid back but I did detect some smugness and rightly so. Mai has seen another titan die to the same killers as last time.

Thanks to Bil Tuesday, FreeSoul5150 and Emmgel for their assistance in writing this report. I haven't attempted to contact Suki Antollare because I'm almost certain they will not speak to me.

Bonus Comment: The killmail shows that the Nyx used fighters and not fighter bombers, those of us that know Bix Bro are not at all surprised at this and so was Bix Bro who didn't know they had fighters on grid and honestly probably also had no idea what ship they were flying. It's a New Zealand thing.