Is there anything possible here other than “bring a bigger blob?”
Maybe good ways to instakill the scout before it can pop the cyno?
Warp out before tackle?
Dock up as soon as somebody shows up in local? That is what everybody else does.
As someone that has killed and lost many BLOPs.
Projection spam. They may drop 10 BLOPs, but if you drop a bunch of kitey things with a hughinn/Lachesis, you can keep them there all day
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There we go, an aswer that isn’t “run and hide.” EVE has always had way too much “run and hide.”
I wish mobile observatories were cheaper. They’re over 50m even if you build them, so it’d be easy enough to cut the requirements a little to make them more common.
It’s been 19 years, and one cloaky frig can still stop a system dead for hours.
How so? Why can’t you just bait them into attacking you? You know what they are doing, so you can easily prepare a counter drop. All it takes is some preparation and bait rotation. If they don’t drop on you because they know you drop them back, you can just rat for a few hours. If they drop on you, you drop back and kill them or dissuade them from attacking you again.
1 cloaky frigate can only “stop a system dead” if you let it happen.
Camp the gate that the scout/cyno will most likely come through once it was reported in intel with a dictor or two and ceptors that can quickly decloak a bomber trapped in a bubble.
That’s 2 Ishtar ticks. How is that “too expensive” for a thing that will guarantee you safe ratting for hours? Their price is just right for what they offer compared to what they enable.
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You can go to Highsec.
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I really like this. Having solo frigates shut down systems of farmers is a great mechanic because it encourages fights, tactical defences, and good support structures. If a corp can’t to that, it’ll be poor.
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depends on the fit of the tackler. one time i had enough neuts fitted to suck the tackler dry. he still setup the cyno, but with no tackle, i moonwalked away.
Yeah, you have to remember, BLOPs droppers do what they do for two reasons.
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It is FUN to use expensive ships to kill people in EvE.
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If done properly it is VERY low risk.
You don’t want to hide so affecting the metric of 1 isn’t on the table as for 2? You need to learn either how to bait, or how to respond quickly. You figure out a way to catch one or two of their BLOPs (and remember they have MJD) they will very quickly want to hunt somewhere else, unless it me, then I’ll just try and kill you harder 
Saw a video of a battleship solo taking on a Loki and three Sins. He killed one Sin and if he hadn’t messed up he could have likely killed a second. Killed: 2b ISK. Lost: About 400 mil.
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Is it possible to stay aligned while mining? You’ll just leave range of the rock right? Unless maybe an Orca with maxed out skills is giving a boost and you don’t compress, then maybe you’ll fill the orehold before you leave the rock.
Yeah it is.
No, not really. If you are doing it right, mining laser range is not an issue at all.
However, I am not sure that “warping out” is meant with “countering BlackOps drops”. You can basically “counter” anything by warping out before it can tackle you.
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Have an alt with a scorpion racked to hell with jams (armor jams to stop the obvious RR strat cruisers, and recon 90% of blops fleet have with them so radar jams in other words). have said scorpion fitted with a target spectrum breaker sit 10-15km from ship you are defending. When the blops happens (if you cannot avoid them by warping out etc…) wait until they start landing and then primary the blops itself (or most pimpy looking one if more than one) with everything you got, but start bumping it with the scorp. Once they target the scorp (they will , its a jammer), hit the spectrum breaker but not before aligning the shinies out. Once the breaker goes off and they lose their locks warp out the rorq or whatever it is you want, if you are lucky you can get all your ships out if timed right.
I know this works because I have successfully on several occasions survived Blops attempts when Spectrum Breakers first came out with a paladin (so yes, I had to wait on the bastion timer on top of the other reqs, before GTFO using spectrum breaker).
Another method (which I have not tested and would only work on subcapitols) would be having a command dessie there to MJD the fleet out of dodge by 100 then fleet just aligns and warp out
Third method which is merely a theory.
Lockbreaker bombs, keep a couple alts in cloaky bombers with lockbreaker bombs, use them in tandem with the first method, to ensure enemy point is lost. Blops very rarely have bubbles involved so its merely a matter of ending the points.
not sure if any of that helps but its something to think about.
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Black Ops drops are supposed to be inherently annoying to counter. However if you leave grid and go into the next system to mine, they’re probably sunk. If your corpmates have any PVP ships, you can just bottle up the gate with a few tanky BCs. If they chase you, the initial tackle can hold them in place while the miners dock up and get their combat ships. Their weakness is “gates.” If you force them to use them, they’re just battleships with less HP but more resists and capacitor. if you’re mining alone… sorry I guess the only solution is to be ready to leave gird and then hide until they give up.
They won’t, they will just cloak up and then jump back to their staging system. And then give it another try at some later point. They are not “after you” specifically, they are after targets of opportunity. If you have proven to be aware, prepared and maybe even have some support available, they will usually just go drop someone else instead.
Thats all just theory. The people using BlackOps are very experienced and won’t run into a camped gate. Unless they know for sure they can entirely bust whatever you have there to “bottle it up”, in which case they simply use your trap to farm kills.
And don’t be naive, if they drop you with an expensive fleet of several BlackOps BS (each 2b+), they will in most cases have an option for capital or supercapital escalation. So if even if you manage to get some combat ships ready to enage them, they will light a cyno, bring in one or more FAX first and if that is not enough to wipe the floor with your little trap fleet, they can bring more.
In this case “being read to leave grid” is the best option anyway, against any threat, not specifically “countering BlackOps”. Because unless you have a BattleMiner, most Frigs can kill you with ease.
Well… then that’s it really. You just go away and then they don’t follow you through a gate.
If they were prepared to do that, wouldn’t they use a regular cyno to come in and let everyone get in on the killmail instead of BLOP droping?
So yeah you don’t really counter a BLOPs drop if they know what they’re doing. They can pick their initial fight and won’t pick what they can’t take on. You can be ready to leave grid, and maybe hope they take a gate to follow you. As I said they’re just glorified battleships if they take the gate. And if they don’t take the gate, you just wait until they go away.
I feel like people here talking ■■■■ have never flew a Blops BS xD
Nope I haven’t! Can’t even fly one. I just remember one of my corpmates mentioned a raid in his old corp where they jumped gates and the other ships followed. At the gate they counterattacked and blew up the recons and stealth bombers, but only got 3 of the BLOPs and the rest just got away. An hour was spent trying to fish out the ships in the system with combat probes. Some left local. They then spread through 3 systems of the constellation. They spent another 2 hours trying to fish out the raiders through the constellation. Mining and missions were brough to a halt as pilots changed to combat ships and were ready to pounce to avenge the fallen Covetors. Eventually they just kind of gave up, but what I took away from his experience was that BLOPs are just battleships if you can get their pilots to go through a gate.
This is a thing? How did I not know this was a thing?!