♦ Forward Operating Base / Fob Tips

If your hauler is on grid and in fleet when the FOB is destroyed, do they get paid too? Can you warp on grid, cloak up and get paid?

If yes, that would be worth doing with an alt just to get the extra payout…

I think CCP , make easier for people to hire FOB runner, like a FOB hire channel found on the agency like mining is, or contract or just be able to place a bounty on the FOB, i like the channel one better as it open to scams and ganking.

I do PVE to maximize “my” income - Don’t care about how much more unnecessary isk can be put into the game by using more people as those more people mean I earn less.

CCP trying to create group content by offering diminishing rewards for more fleet members doesn’t make a lot of sense - Min Maxing is how the majority of people do PVE. Take burners, they were designed to be group PVE but due to player innovation they can be soloed by some - They don’t get rewarded less because they can do them alone. How many players would do Burners if they worked on diminishing rewards?
How many incursion groups will let 10 or 20 extra players into a fleet which will reduce payout for everyone?

You find the optimal number to maximise “your” income and that’s what you run with.

If they are like any other PVE, you don’t get paid if you’re cloaked - You are not considered “on grid”.
The same as if you die before it does and dock up, you won’t get paid for your contribution.

Just to keep it totally unbalanced, if you land on grid where a FOB is about to die you will get a payout, whether you took a shot at it or not. I’ve done this 3 times, just to see if it was a glitch - Seems it isn’t.

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Other then spiting the loot, you get about the same the more people you bring, the more people you bring the faster you get to do it complete the side, so more isk, infact its has the similar payout form the Vanguards but reward with loot instead of LP.

as a corp, it has made contact as we are planing to take on down in our system, it adds content. I like it but i want an easier way to pay to run it or get people together to run it. I love this type of content, its just like a group of players looking for a fight.

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I tried a FOB on sisi yesterday. 2 ships worked fine. But I got 23M on each char and only 50M in loot drops (standup web and damp) for over an hour of work. I don’t see where you get these numbers from or why running them with 2 alts would ever be a problem.

If these numbers are not better for a bigger fleet, the only sensible income you can generate with them is from players who don’t want to invest in a couple of BS and instead pay for a nuisance removal contract. But else … they are a time waste in terms of income. However, I admit that they are kinda fun and intense to fly. A mistake and you are very close to losing an expensive ship.

Now you mention you are right, Those isk numbers are wrong. You got unlucky on loot, I looked at about 20 recent killmails and the average loot was around 110 Mil.
Which means it should be about 60 mil/FoB.
Or if you can turn 2 per hour that’s 120/hour. Which…

Yeah that looks about the right numbers for reality rather than inflated numbers for the sake of pretending things.

That could well be the case IF they were anything like vanguards but as they aren’t - Take into account travel time, splitting varying loot drops - You make more by running them with the optimal number.

If 3 people can complete one in 20 minutes and 20 can complete one in 15 + splitting loot between 3 or 20 - Who do you think is going to make the most isk P/H.

Sorry but they are nothing like vanguards LP payout, it is a fixed amount, loot drops vary and seem to have been reduced. It’s a bit like CCP don’t want players to do these things.

The LP, is fixed but when selling the item form LP is also subject to market variables, alot of incursions runners dont cash out the LP.

looking at zkillboard most of the loot is about 100 mil, it seems the payout is pretty good, and worth running.

If you have it, add a third alt and you should see the payout go up. Unless the payouts have been modified “again”.

There is an optimal number to run FOB’s with, using more or less than that number reduces payout. (Pretty sure I mentioned that previously).

Devs are putting a lot of effort into ensuring they can not be used as an optimal income stream - They are ONLY in the game in a poor attempt to get highsec players working in groups/fleets.
Devs have very little understanding of those who play the game, so will continue in these fruitless efforts.

Unfortunately it will start costing them customers as those who tire of getting killed by Uber NPC’s in highsec just move on to another game. The average PVE’r doesn’t want challenging, he only wants to do what he does as quickly and efficiently as possible. He is happy to deal with normal belt rats, they add a bit of variety but these new NPC’s that can 2 shot his retriever are just too much, especially as they will shoot you on the undock, before you even get to start mining your 20 mil ph in highsec ores.

Maybe once these things have an affect on CCP’s bottom line they will get fixed/removed, until then we have to accept Devs think they know what players want and won’t be told otherwise.

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I like them, its add content, i have been wanting something like this for years.

@Sgt_Ocker we’ll have to disagree on the definition of highly skilled, it’s less than 2mil SP to get an Alpha toon into that Domi, but well focused I can agree on - a toon will have to focus their training to specifically fly that boat.

Re:

I’m not sure where you’re coming up with your base numbers, I’ve been running FOBs with a three person group and what we are consistently getting is a DED payout of just over 26mil a piece for the FOB kill, plus whatever (possibly none) Standup module loot the FOB drops.

As for the the Standup module loot drops; Zkill is showing values for the modules that are dropping varying in value from 10mil to 60mil but I think it’s a little too early to see how quickly these will sell at those prices. What I expect that we will see is actual in-game market values for these modules to be 10%-15% lower than that before they start selling through well.

So in the end what we’ve been guaranteed is 26mil a piece for the FOB kill which has been taking us just under 30 minutes.

Of course just like the chances of getting a Faction module drop from a DED site the FOBs have the chance of dropping an Armored Standup Module Cache and so far we’ve had one ‘lucky’ drop which turned into a Faction Standup Module BPC. Now while this has the potential to be a jackpot for us we will have to see in reality what it will actually sell for and how long it will take to sell?

Yup with a 4 man group we see 27.5mil per FOB. Standup loot is rng so … yeah.

Did a second Guristas on SiSi. Two Rattlesnakes again, this time passive regen tank with active/passive hardeners (at 300km neuts weren’t an issue) and cruise launchers with FOB itself in mind. This time fight was trickier due to defense fleet composition. I’ve rolled 1 Blackbird (ECM), 1 Gila (ECM), 2 Ospreys, 2 kestrels (web, point) and few Caracals. Tank wasn’t an issue but breaking two Ospreys with ECM pressure was a real PITA. Eventually I managed to kill Blackbird and Gila due to their long orbit and then Ospreys had fallen also. Caracals went down last. Next time I’ll try with torps/heavies and refit. Overall I enjoyed that part as it required some tactics and thinking. It also felt quite balanced.

When I went’t after the FOB itself Badger came along with it’s fleet. Luckily it was just frigates so no problems here but taking care of it before attacking the FOB might be a wise move.

Taking down a FOB itself was a boring part again. I’d rather like it reworked a little - maybe halve the EHP but lock it in invulnerable state till you kill a boss of some sort, or maybe even add some sleeper cache mechanics with hacking involved.

As for the rewards. Done 2 FOB’s on TQ and 2 on SiSi. Each one paid 23,3kk per character, two of them dropped T1 loot, two were empty. On TQ it was 1 empty and one with loot that sold for 180kk. Taking into account one mod from Sisi it would round up to 50kk per FOB per character.

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Off topic I know but is it not easier to type (and read) 180m instead of 180kk.

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This is good advice anyone thinking of trying a FOB should follow. Kill off the mining team first.

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Especially for you my friend 180m(eters) it is :wink:

M for 10^6, m for 10^-3

k for 10^3

ah. -3 I see what you did there.