Ganker defense

New Citizens Q&A
1

First, let me say that I understand the gank and that EVE is a risky place. I have learned the hard way [losing 2 Megathrons] and understand that ganking is an accepted form of play. I just want to learn how to avoid this plague lol. Atm, I’m just staying in highsec but I also understand that I’m missing about 90% of the EVE experience .

I’ve read a bunch of forum posts [most out of date, even if still applicable] and done a lot of research on the subject and am sort of confused, as it seems the gankers have very little downside to their activities and the gankee has little defense, except to try to run, or fight, both of which seem largely useless for a noob. Mods seem not to work very well and have a negative effect on fitting.

The best defense seems to be D-scan and Local Chat - well, I’ve tried those. They work, I guess, to a certain extent but I was still ganked in a Venture, while mining in 0.4 space. Yeah, I know, lowsec is a dangerous place. But I was out there trying lowsec, mining, minding my own business and just using my drones to kill rats that came into the asteroid belt. Then a player appeared out of nowhere - he came in amongst the rats and one-shot me, I had zero chance to get away - why somebody would kill a Venture is beyond me - I got a Kill Right but what good does that do?

So, two questions:

  1. Why would somebody want to kill a Venture? For the fun of screwing a new player up?

  2. I’ve tried D-scan and Local and they both take up so much room on my screen, I can’t see much to actually play. With both of them up along with my Overview, Drone window, etc., I’m only able to see about 1/3 of my screen - while the overview, etc, can be small, the D-scan and Local chat windows won’t go any smaller - how do you guys play with such a minimal part of the screen open to see what you’re doing?

Thanks for any help on this subject - I don’t see much value in mods at this point, especially as the gankers are experienced and have all the strongest weapons on their side, as opposed to a new player’s ability to mount effective defenses; in fact, after researching, I really don’t see much defense for this activity. Which is why I’m asking you how you stay alive when ganking occurs.

Cheers,
Koyaan

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Concord doesn’t protect you in 0.4 and below so it’s not a suicide gank.

They got a kill on their board and whatever loot you had (however worthless it might be). There is no reason to not kill you. Instead of asking “why would they kill me” remember this is a PvP game so ask “why would they not kill me”. Unless you give someone reasons to not kill you they will kill you.

To stay alive pay attention. Local is op so you can see them come in system before they even can do anything.

Detach the d-scan part from the map it’s in and close the map as it’s smaller if your just doing a large sphere. Change d-scan profile to only have things you want to see on it. I generally use ships+probes+bubbles in most cases and other profiles for specialized uses.

Local I put tall/thin on the side and have the chat part off the screen. I don’t care what the chat is local is only an Intel tool even if CCP denies it. Consider anyone not blue to your corp/alliance as hostile. You see a neutral in system they will kill you. I also use caution around blues that act suspicious. If your in an NPC/noob corp consider even your corp mates as hostile.

Also stay away from the beacon at wherever your mining. They will warp to it and have to burn to you to get in tackle range. The further you are away the more time you have to get away and less likely they will land in tackle range initially.

Once your tackled your dead so to survive it’s better to use Intel, piloting, speed to avoid the situation altogether.

6 Likes
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You weren’t “ganked” and you weren’t paying attention. A venture has a base align time of 6 seconds, less with skills. You have plenty of time to be checking dscan and warping out. Not only do enemy ships appear on D-Scan, it takes time for them to warp to you, come out of warp, and start approaching you to get in range of a long point (which doesn’t stop you from warping because a Venture comes with inherent Warp Core Strength) and even more time to get in range of a scrambler.

If you couldn’t leave in that time, you were AFK and the loss is on you.

3 Likes
4

When you join a match of Call of Duty, and your opponent says “Hey, im new to this game”, are you going to care? If its an entire team youre up against, are you going to check who you are firing against, before you pull the trigger?

Of course not.

It doesnt matter who your opponent is, youre going to give it your all to defeat them, because thats part of the game.

Just because you use ventures, doesnt mean youre new. Veterans use ventures all the time, because they are cheap, and easy to replace. Infact, Ventures are the number one ships used for Botting. Again, cheap, and easy. So this has nothing to do with new players.

All I need is local and overview.

Local to see how many people are in the same system as me.

Overview for seeing if anyone comes on grid with me.

D-scan is sorta kinda useless in lowsec, especially if you already have people in local with you. Its better to get to know the local people, check their Killboard status, and just dock up or keep aligned when someone new enters the system.

Ganking can be done with the weakest weapon in the weakest ship.

Take this as an example:

Velator and Atron.

Weapons dont matter. Experience doesnt matter either in the long run. Common sense goes farther.

Use your overview. When you see someone warp in, or unlcoak, just warp. Anywhere. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you dont. Thats just life. Thats just EVE.

3 Likes
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I agree with using local and d-scan. Stick with Ventures. They
are hard to catch. Cheap to build. So what if you get killed. They
are so cheap you can go right back out there in minutes and
they still won’t catch you as long you keep popping scan and
watching local.

1 Like
7

Thanks for the help - I have to start paying closer attention, is what I’m getting.

I appreciate the tips, all.

I’ve done mining missions while having drones killing the rats - are these drones enough to take care of a player in something like a frigate or destroyer as they can in missions? Or cruiser and higher?

Or is the only recourse to warp out?

8

If you want in on action, check out Spectre Fleet. Spectre Fleet conducts public roams which are rather fun.

2 Likes
9

It depends. Ships are tools. You pick the right tool for the job. Your drones might be enough to kill a soft frig or a stealth bomber but if they know what they are doing and fit their ship right then probably not. Oth you could surprise them by bait fitting your ship. Doesn’t mean you will kill everything - but small stuff perhaps.

1 Like
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That appears to be a Coercer bot. It doesn’t shoot back. Likely it was caught by the Corvette because the bot program maybe overlooks it. Or just because the Corvette pilot is laughing at the bot.

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Do you know you can sell kill rights? If you put the killright up for sale, people will pay you to use it to kill them. I bet you could get way more than your venture.

Try selling one for 10 mil. See what happens.

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We sometimes do some Corvette roams in Nullsec, just for fun. Don’t underestimate a bunch of T2 fitted Velators.

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