CODE. Bowheads are useless in Hisec

As CODE. nearly daily frags one in Uedama, whats the point of training into this ship then? Transport fitted cheap ass T1 ships a few jumps back and forth? When you got ships worth ganking in cargo you will be ganked sooner or later as you cannot always avoid 0.5 systems. Especially not Uedama if you don’t want to go 40 painful jumps with this thing. Don’t get me wrong i know EVE is dangerous and stuff but imagine someone offers you a theoretically perfect tool for something (like incursions) and then its simply not working out in practical use.

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Are you you are saying that because its become more difficult to use the Bowhead for one specific task, it is useless and should be buffed/removed?

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I use mine all the time and moving many billions of isk in ships in it, directly through the pipes too. Other than some annoying bumps a few times I’ve had no issues with it cause I’m escorting it with two or more nestors, and using near instant warping. I’ve only had one gank attempt on it, and they didn’t even get to my hull due to RRs despite a dozen+ or so taloses. (That wasn’t code, just some dipshit that apparently didn’t notice two escort ships that nullify the dps of around 10 taloses.)

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Not removed of course but maybe buffed. Thing is its not “more difficult” it’s just playing a multibillion lottery every time you make certain uses of it. As Abyss Azizora said ganks can be avoided but you either need other players or alt chars to protect it. If this is how its supposed to work fine but obviously this dramatically limits its usability.

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yeah cool that it works out for you this way, but bringing along 2 or more nestor alts is a luxury not too many players have.

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Some will say EvE is the gamble.

More eloquent folk than I will, I’m sure.

But yes, it remains that the best way to move an expensive unarmed ship is with an escort or at least in a convoy.

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It seems to me that perhaps they shoot one a day, but let the other 999 go. So you need to figure out how to not be that one in a thousand.

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Dirty-cheap Hyena would work too. Web the Bowhead and it will warp out way faster

Not trying to autopilot through Uedama seems a good idea too.

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Until you encounter an even cheaper Blackbird on your gate, that trumps your Hyena. And these Blackbirds are everywhere.

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Are you complaining about suicide ganking or the Bowhead? Because everything you say applies to every transport ship in the game. They all have a cargo limit where they become profitable to gank. They all have to transit 0.5 systems on occasion. If you make yourself a profitable target, you will eventually get ganked. I don’t see how any of this is related to a defect in the Bowhead.

Incursions pay very well, probably too well in the words of some CCP devs, for such a generally safe activity as they are in highsec. One of the downsides of Incursions, intentionally put in the game, is that you have to move around to follow them, opening room for interactions with other players and creating windows of risk for your transport ships. You are not suppose to have 100% safe transport of your goods, and part of the check on everyone going full purple is that nowhere is 100% safe. I don’t have much sympathy for people who ask that such a well rewarded PvE activity like Incursion farming be made safer or more isolated from the other players.

As for the Bowhead, it is a great little ship. It can safely (read: not be a profitable target) haul almost a billion ISK in fitted hulls around, more than enough for even an Incursion pilot who prudently strips out the expensive modules and transports them in a safer way. It also can haul plenty of pre-fit gank ships all across highsec making the logistics of ganking haulers, miners and Incursion runners that much easier.

If there is any problem here, it is just that Incursions are systematically unbalanced as compared to other income sources and ship requirements, and result in players routinely flying and moving multi-billion, even tens of billion ISK ships in a game that intentionally makes that risky. Such wealth needs to be transported carefully, and if Incursion runners can’t figure out how to move things, then perhaps they can share some of that wealth and pay some other players to defend their ships or move their stuff instead. I am sure all long-term Incursion vets know how to do this, and rarely lose anything to suicide gankers.

If they can’t figure it out, well they will become content for other players as the game was designed to work. Working as intended I would say.

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Ganking is bad…

Crazy Idea set waypoint to destination… hmmm uedama click the little green box before the yellow box, show info. set destination to one of the stations before Uedama. Then autopilot to that… manually pilot thru uedama and the system after… auto pilot again. You win! 99.9% of your gank attempts are removed. Also make sure you have under a billion for long haul or risky work and use 3 large shield extender II a DC and 2 Bulkheads with shield resist rigs you should be fine even on autopilot. If you wanna squeeze more isk then hire an escort to logi you and get implants for your clone.

P.S. You are maxed skilled and do drugs aswell right…
P.P.S. Capital tech 2 shield rigs are expensive

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God forbid an MMO have ships that work best when moved as part of a group, i doubt they will be buffed, they have a purpose and yes you need to have some sense when using them, if you don’t have an alt then use a friend as a scout a jump ahead to look for obvious ganks, use an MWD to keep align times to 10 seconds and you’re pretty golden

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Well first i wouldn’t say incursion pay too much. I made way more exploring what is also close to zero risk when doing it right.

About the bowhead and incursions:

When you take incursions serious you gotta fulfill all 3 roles. Thats 2 Faction BS + a logi. Given that the next incursion location is 20 jumps away that would be 7 x 20 jumps to get your 3 ships + the bling modules separately to the new location.

With a Bowhead + a speedy or cloaky hauler this would only be 3x20 or 2x20 when you jump clone. So far so good. Problem: Even with the blings removed one would lose ~ 2.5bil on a gank. And a gank cannot be avoided in a Bowhead in a 0.5 System without any further support. So now i can chose from

a) a really whole lot of tedius movement of slow warping boats every few days
(what you have to take into account when talking about incursion ticks!)
b) only fulfilling a single role with a single ship
c) Fly a 3b Bowhead+ships and for sure get ganked sooner or later.
d) Take a 50 jumps Bowhead ride by avoid ganking systems (if possible)

My complaint is i like none of those.

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code is for losers :tada:

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From what I’ve been told cargo scanners cannot tell how the ships are fitted or if they’re fitted at all so even if you strip them you’re still a target.

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It’s not me saying that, it was CCP Greyscale in past CSM minutes, but it is a hard question to definitively answer with the data we have. I think though we can all agree though that highsec Incursion runners routinely fly the most expensive and blingiest ships seen outside of super capitals (and maybe high-end wormholes) which is actually the root of your problem. Flying and moving super capitals requires some care and attention (that is not putting a Bowhead on autopilot and going to make a sandwich) so I don’t see why a 5-10B ISK incursion boat should move itself with total safety from one Incursion site to another by not being profitable to attack.

As for your problem, it seems like there are tradeoffs to be made if you feel you must fulfill all roles of an Incursion fleet. I’m not saying that isn’t an issue, but this game is all about forcing choices by not giving you a one-size-fits-all best solution, and seems like you have to choose one of your options listed (or perhaps e) scout Uedama and Niarja, the killboards to choose a safe time to pass though as they are nowhere near camped 24/7, f) pay Red Frog to move the hulls).

You could also just cut out the middle man and train up a second Bowhead pilot on an alt account if time is your problem.

But as for the Bowhead, it is balanced reasonably well against the other freighting options in terms of ISK cost to suicide gank. Perhaps in this age of Eve where everyone just keeps getting richer all transport ships need a buff, but I don’t think the Bowhead is especially out of line with the rest of them.

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e) find a friend

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Wait… Battleships and Logis warp slower than a Bowhead?

Can I get confirmation on isle 3 please