For non-bubbled gates and stations: We all know a <2 second align time (‘insta-align’) ship cant be tackled if flown correctly.
But what about ships that fall into the 2 to 3 second align time?
Is it a black and white case that all <2.0 second align time ships cant be caught, and all ships that align in 2.0 seconds and above are easy to catch by even the most causal tackler?
Or is it a grey zone - where even with a well-prepared tackle ship, cat-like reflexes, real-time intel and really, really strong coffee you might say miss 50% of ships in the 2 to 3 second align time range?
Why I ask is that I frequent low sec a lot, and I could rig many ships to align below 3 seconds but not below 2. I’m wondering if it makes any difference to do so? (Of course cloaking and scouting is my first layer of defense).
So - is tackling black and white, or a grey zone: I would love to hear from gate campers on their thoughts?
Any decent lowsec gatecamp will catch anything above 1.99 seconds. That doesn’t require anything more than few sensor boosters.
And your premise is wrong. Ships that take 1-2 seconds can be caught. That requires special setup so it is not that common, but it sometimes happen. I lost my Sunesis few times like that.
Below 2 second align can be caught, but very unlikely. It happened to me once.
Between 2-3 seconds is much more likely as it doesn’t require a specialised setup, only an aware tackler. Above 3 seconds you’re likely to get caught if there’s a camp.
That’s wrong.
It’s actually quite easy to setup for this. It’s doable without specific setup, depending on the target signature and your ping to CCP server in london.
The server changes the movement every tick, so you send the “align” command , at next tick (called T0) the server starts the align, and then at each tick the server checks if you can take warp. If you are 2.5s align :
At T1, you can’t
At T2, you still can’t
At T3, you can.
So assuming you align from gate cloak, the server will take exactly 2 or 3 ticks if you are <2 or <3 align. If you are 2.01 and someone tackles you at T2.8, at T3 the server will cancel warp since you are tackled, even if the tackle landed AFTER you would have warped if the server had a different tick period.
While this is technically true, the odds that any given gate camp in lowsec will be “decent” in the sense of regular perfect execution are always going to be slim.
I hate the way comments with this tone discourage people from taking risks. Any time any inexperienced player asks a “will this work” question on any PvP related subject, someone is always there to talk them out of it.
It’s usually a fairly safe gamble to assume that other EVE players are not super competent, not super well organized, not omnipotent, and at least as likely to fail at whatever they attempt as you are. That certainly goes for gatecampers too. The majority of them are quite bad at gatecamping.
3 second align time is quite good, likely to beat 90% of gatecamps. And the 10%? You can’t expect to win them all. Give them a gf and get on with your day.
The issue is that when people say “it can’t be caught”, they mean it literally.
Because when you need to move a new shiny BP, you need to know if it is safe or not.
So any gamble is not safe in that case.
If you don’t mind losing your ship, this is not even a question you are asking.
There is no literal “it can’t be caught” though. Even your perfect align fit can be caught if you choke and do something dumb.
Even if you don’t, I know a guy who used to specialize in catching sub 2 second travel-ceptors using some kind of voodoo that involved living close to London and timing ticks.
No ship is uncatchable because ultimately, they are flown by nerds, not gods. Good news is, you have nothing to lose. Even that shiny blueprint is just pixels.
I am not talking anyone out of anything. I am stating facts.
I have yet to see a lowsec gatecamp which would not catch ship above 2 seconds align speed. Solo hunters use a Gnosis which can easily do this, and big groups have always either that or even better options like Arazu or Phobos/Broadsword.
So above 2 seconds, you will get locked and warp disrupted.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t get away from that. Options do exists.
You can hold gate cloak as long as possible, chances are someone elses decloaks and they attack that (I managed to avoid getting my Sunesis caught in Rancer where Train Wreck had a setup to catch below 2sec). You can burn mwd and fly toward a point in space far away from all hostile players (I managed to avoid getting killed this way in Ahbazon). Or if your ship is tanky, and it is not 10+ ppls gatecamp you can overheat your afterburner or mwd and try to jump back to the gate you came from (I escaped this way numerous times with my Badger). Or you can just cloak, align to point out of hostiles and wait it out until they give up or you get enough range to warp away safely.
Options exists, you just need to be smart and prepared to use them and be fitted appropriately.
You will need to be sub-1 second align as others have suggested.
This may not save you in some places and some times. Avoid popular gatecamp spots if your active in EUTZ, as europeans do have the advantage for locking you versues american or aus players.
This will actually save him since once the initial “jump” order sent everything is made by the server.
When asking to warp from gate cloak, only camper is affected by ping. Even with 0s reaction time, 0s ping, infinite sensor strength, camper can NOT target a <1s, because the moment he receives the lock (so at tick 1), the target is already in warp.
Sub 1 second still isn’t completely safe though - any travel method in EVE isn’t going to be 100% reliable if it relies on your PC and internet as neither of those are 100% reliable.
Just be prepared to lose your ship at any time while you play and spread your risks. I.e. don’t move your complete blueprint stash at once if you cannot afford to lose it all.
I’ll also send an alt straight into a warp bubble while hauling with my main, then as soon as I see the campers going for Dave’s pod, i slip through the gate from a 1000km bookmark etc
Some BP are worth in the 100 of B each. Before research. Can be Ts of research for some. You can complain about that to CCP who multiplied the research cost by 20 in the recent patches.
Your advice is completely irrelevant.
Your opinion on how people should consider the game is not on topic.
It’s proselytism at best, toxic haughty attitude formed from actual ignorance in general.
Just because people have things they can’t afford to lose, is not a valid reason to judge them or their act.
sub 1s is completely safe to tackle. That was the initial claim and answer :
Sure if the world explodes the moment you click warp then it won’t work.
But then you’ll have more important issues.
Ive caught pods on Jita 4-4 undocking and going to warp, I have been caught in null with sub 2sec align. Pings are part of it, server/account lag is there too. Ever notice how if you play a long time with lots of logs and stuff you lag more? Yeah its a real thing.
Nothing is safe imo, not 100% so. I truly believe the game tries to kill you on purpose sometimes. Such is Eve life.
Nah, align+warp is completely server side if done in one click. Your ping does not change the time you take. However, a better ping helps the pointer for sure.
But yeah, I also have been caught in null with <2s ship. And sometimes on the way back from the destination.
Also been decloaked at gates by cans.
Or in HS by NPC drones (police drone ?).