Doing agent “suggested” mining belt in hi-sec. Warp in, by the time overview shows a fleet of blood raider rats that neut, warp scram + 3 other effects…I was unable to even turn around and leave before loosing my two ship fleet.
I’d have no issue with this if I made a mistake. But I did not, hi-sec encounters unless specifically combat orientated should allow you to flee. This is broken.
I was starting to think agent suggested belts would be worth while but I’ll skip them from here on out and go back to standard veld mining unless there are rare ores to be had and I bring a combat ship in fleet.
It isn’t broken. FOB and incursion rats are intentionally dangerous and they intentionally roam the systems (constellations for incursions) where they spawn. The agency should also have shown that there was an FOB in system - warning you to expect roaming gangs of powerful rats. If you can’t deal with them - you can mine in the system next door.
There are player fleets that seek out and destroy the FOBs for PVE content but, in the meantime, they add a bit of risk to highsec.
The Blood Raiders just got payback for all the damage you have done to them in the past - they only attack players with negative status to them, and you must have done some terrible things to them for them to get that mad.
Someone told me the fobs and the rw were gonna be removed so I was thinking you said “rip” for the fobs.
Just realized you were saying “rip” for the OP.
Fully AGREE. Each FOB rat is stronger than anything a player could field. My shield boosted/tanked, drone damage-amplified Porpoise was tackled by a Condor that had faaar more HP than any PLAYER Condor I’ve ever seen, and the Kestrels were dumping 600 damage volleys on overheated invulns. When I realized I was toast I tried ECM drones just to see, and they seemed to have no effect.
If these enemy NPCs are going to be as strong as they are, then we need a system-generated warning like we get when we are entering Triglavian space or Low Security areas.
The warning should say “Warning: There is a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in this system with powerful pirate enemies and any vessels caught by the FOB patrols will be potential targets!”
EDIT: To be clear, the strength of rats is OK with me as long as they put an adequate WARNING in the game. Having to check the Agency to see if you’ll lose your ship in an asteroid belt is not something the average player is ever going to think to do if they’ve never been instructed otherwise. If there is no warning, the rats should be easier to deal with – at LEAST the tackle frigates.
They most likely had some logistics (remote repair) ships in the fleet, that is why they were so hard to take down.
I very nearly lost an Orca to being dumb in this way (I didn’t check that there was a FOB in system) I aligned out, finger on the warp button and set my ECM drones on the tackle frigs, lucky escape.
My experience of FOB defence fleets is that, like a well organised player fleet, they come with a reasonable amount of logistics support. This isn’t the dumb rat AI they are using, it’s nastier than that, and they are flying ships comparable to player PvP fitted ships, not the weak rat ships you are used to.
When you understand that the FOB defence fleets are much closer to how players fit and organise then you’ll treat them with the respect they deserve.
They bring DPS, Logistics, Tackle, E-war and Neuting (especially Blood Raiders) support in proportion to the threat they are facing. It’s not meant to be easy.
Take plenty of DPS, break their Logistics then pick off the fleet. Same as if you were fighting players.
Don’t complain it’s too hard just because you can’t beat 'em. They are meant to be hard - some people like a challenge.
I agree the Diamond rats in High Sec need dialed back. Right now one Region has 6 Fobs. When the FoBs came out there was supposed to be one per Region and only in .5 and .6 systems. Now these Mfers spawn every where in high sec and spawn rats out to 3 jumps from the FoBs. These rats are just way too much for High Sec play and players.
Very well then, they are meant to be incredibly difficult. What’s striking to me is that they are, however, more difficult than the triglavian ships that we are WARNED about by the SYSTEM when we are about to encounter them.
These NPCs pose the greatest threat to miners and newbies, and other people who are unaware of them- and I’m absolutely certain someone has said “that’s BS, I’m quitting this game” after losing an Orca or some other expensive ship to these entities that they did not know existed. Getting blown up by players is one thing, at least the other players are having fun. Nobody is having fun when the system sends impossibly difficult enemies to you in high sec without adequate warning.
But go ahead and tell me why you think this is good for the game.
If you don’t attack them first then they leave you alone.
The only exception is if you have very negative standings to the FOB faction concerned. Negative enough that you’ve been playing some time so should expect it.
A new player? Well, unless they shoot first then they’ll be left alone. Kick the wasps nest and they’ll fight back.
Your complaint is “I want lots of easy reward and absolute safety - please remove anything threatening”. Ain’t going to happen. Not in Eve. It’s not Fluffy Puppy Petting Online. It’s meant to be a cold harsh environment.
What? Dude the character has Guristas standing at -0.01… and that’s probably from fighting back so you obviously are ignorant of the system mechanics. The fleet that killed me didn’t have logistic support either, unless the Guristas kestrels had an extra hi slot with a remote shield rep on it? The condor just had insane buffer, plain and simple. But that’s not the point.
I don’t want fluffy puppy online, I mostly PvP. But sometimes I need to do some real life work and I’ll stick an otherwise PvP bait Purpoise out in a belt with mining drones on a separate screen, hence my situation. I’ve lost ships to Concord, the Navy, gankers, being AFK with only passive tank with one tiny serpentis frigate chewing away at me, etc. etc. for years and years and I’ve NEVER felt ripped off by CCP until this happened.
I understand that there is a place for puny, wittle carebears, but even those poor devils need to be able to make informed decisions. With respect, your response is belittling, and you are being a jerk with little knowledge to support your argument. I could’ve bet every single ISK I have on you responding the way you did, because there is always someone to come to the defense of poor game mechanics.
In business, there is an idea that only 10% of the people who are dissatisfied with something complain about that particular something- the other 90% don’t complain, they simply cease doing business. I can bet the GMs have been having to answer to many, many complaints due to the FOB system since its inception.
As some one who fights FOB rats attacking structures in high sec, I can say with certainty that there is no way a player can fit their KESTREL to withstand my 800 dps Deimos. I sit at optimal range keeping my transversal low and it still takes at least TWICE as long to kill one Guristas Kestrel compared to blapping some poor fool’s Kestrel in Lowsec. Anyone who says that ““the FOB rat’s are comparable to actual players”” has never actually fought them. Or They don’t have enough PVP experience to be able to tell the difference.
Thanks for making this thread, now I know why this crap keeps happening, I cannot mine now, as I just get killed within 3 seconds, quite literally. It’s sad as I enjoy minign and joined a minign Corp, and a friend has lost his Orca because of me…and I want to leave the Corp as now I feel guilty af, and it comes down to this FOB crap…Would be fine if as said above there was a warning, but no, us newbies have to learn the hard way of losing every mining ship several times a day to the point where we’re not even making any ISK anymore… Pain in Le Butt ~
Note that these FOB rats will also POD you without hesitation !
One of our Alphas warped to a belt in her Venture and there was a FOB rat response fleet there when she landed. She was literally insta-popped and while she was trying to figure out why (as she hadn’t aggressed anything) suddenly she got the “meat popscicle in space” screen and was in her med clone 20 jumps away !
We had some guys try to go for the FOB. 3 tanked Scorpion Navy Issues and a Nighthawk. Each time a ship warped to the bookmark (300 km from the FOB), more rats spawned and warped to the same spot. Ended up with an Ashimmu, 4 Augorors, 4 Omens and 4 Cruors. Plus the Apocs and Abaddons that stayed by the station.
It took everything they (our fleet) had just to kill the 4 scrambling frigates and the Ashimmu. One of the SNIs was in structure before he could warp out.
Each of the SNI’s can solo regular L4s but combined they could barely kill a single FOB cruiser ?!?!?
They ended up warping off to refit their ships with the intention of trying again a few hours later. When they returned, the FOB had already despawned.
Remains to be seen if they wil even bother trying again. From what we’ve read - the reward is NOT worth the risk or time involved.
Got to love how for years CCP has had us killing rats pretty much non-stop, then brings out “content” that makes you a target if you have bad standings towards those same rats.
It’s not like most people even have the opportunity to try and do missions for any of the “rat” corporations so pretty much everyone will have bad standings with them.
Might be different if we had Pirate Agents in more places so that people could try to raise their standings with those corps.
We had a couple n00bs try it after they did the tutorials. Found out where the Guristas agents were and tried to get there in speedy ships. Didn’t make it past the first Null system. Gave up after a couple tries.
Maybe those FOBs should house Pirate Agents as well ! If you have the standings (same as you currently need for any other agent), you could dock up (temporarily) in the FOB and get missions from the agent(s). At least until the FOB despawns (or is popped). (If you try to stay docked up after (x) amount of time - you are automatically booted out of the FOB.)
That way, even if you have crap standings you could still pull L1 missions (which would probably be focused mainly on attacking the local Faction navies, or mining the local ore belts (isk sink !) or hauling their stuff from one FOB to another, etc, etc). Work you way up from there just like with any other corporation.
Might make having those FOBs around a little more enjoyable.
