I think this (being able to kill them again and again in same system) should be seen as a bug. They should, imo, be like anomalies - you defend against them in one system and they spawn in another.
1 Like
You say that, but they are actually not easy to pin down at least in my system, there are three distinct zones that they move around in terms of D-scan coverage, the foruth I have never seen them there which is a gate with nothing around it, and they can be in the belts, on POCO’s, at moons, planets and the sun. I have also had to probe them down in open space. I have also noticed them warping out of D-scan range a number of times and I wonder if their AI picks up on my ship on D-scan.
I have had to use D-scan skills that I used in the past for PvP, and finally even though the drops are good but not great, it is not exactly high return. I am doing it because I find it fun, a bit of a guessing game. I get a return that enables me to make the T2 ships after a certain amount of time and I can do it when I want to chill, as such it is perfect PvE content for me.
Why do you killjoys always want to destroy anything I find fun, people like you whined over gun mining which effectively destroyed belt ratting, I used to do that in Stain and found it fun and the same sort of slow grind that had a result at the end of it. Seriously…
4 Likes
You can also combat probe them. No need to use d-scan only.
Just in case you missed it 
2 Likes
Did the ones you killed drop anything shiny?
Just the trash modules, the databases and of course the salvage, I have blown up a lot and if they do drop anything shiny the chance must be very very low.
2 Likes
Yeah, this, having seen it a bit more.
The newbs don’t stand a chance. Even in fleet with boosts ventures are just being alpha’d. That won’t help with recruitment.
I’m 3 yrs into game, so seeing the spice personally, but…
Might I suggest that newbs can board their free Venture in certain locations?
They can fit two mining lasers to a rookie ship if need be, but that’s not quite the same.
I’m using a battleship to engage these belt-rats, & it is certainly spicy, but ventures just disappear. Really quickly too. ((( poof! ))) and they’re gone.
1 Like
What is the alpha on these. It shouldn’t be that much that you can’t fit tank on a venture to take it.
base alpha on a recon damavik is 174 hp. all other have at least twice less (90hp from missile fro the base recon).
untanked venture has 1k ehp so a group of 3 rats deals ± 340 hp alpha and thus can’t alpha the venture.
However in 4s of fire the venture is gone. That’s less than its align.
though a venture with two shield extender can have 5k ehp (with my skills though)
<500k
[Venture, 5k ehp]
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Medium Shield Extender I
Medium Shield Extender I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Miner I
Miner I
2 Likes
Hey Drac can you try something for me?
PVP style scanning is all about making use of the D-Scanner to find out where to drop combat probes on a wide AU setting and get a warpable hit on one scan. This is how real hunters pull it off. A lot of times they can get their prey if they are not mashing D-Scan every 2 seconds but being really high up on implants, rigs, ■■■■ bonus, and drugs lets you put the Combat Probes on a high AU range.
What I’m wondering is, if you can get a hit on them in the manner and they don’t act like they saw the probes, then possibly they don’t do D-scan every two seconds. Or they may have other limitations.
I dont’ know if it’s still possible to have combat probes on a wide enough AU radius to be outside of a target’s D-Scan range. The instruction I got from lowsec hunters in the past seemed to imply it, but that was many years, and possibly nerfs, ago. Their advice kept me alive in nullsec and wormholes.
2 Likes
My understanding is, and what I have done though I am not very good at it is have the combat probes setup manually in a group to get a hit once they have been located with the D-scan and have that sat out far away. Then they pulled them in on the location do the scan warp to it as they pull in the probes, that was the standard approach.
I analysed my own use of D-scan from when I was operating in Stain belt ratting in a contested system and I averaged out around once every three seconds when I had an enemy in local, that was when I had one account only. I don’t expect that you can do this continuously, I could not.
However I was aware that with full implants, rigs, bonused ships etc. you could set the probes outside of D-scan range, but my understanding was and I could be wrong on this that this only really worked on larger ships with high sigs, like BS and above, I am not sure about BC’s, possible I think. I know that doing level 5’s in lowsec in a carrier being especially risky with no acceleration gates and I knew a guy in TIKLE that got caught by Snuff a few times in lowsec and he never saw the probes.
I never did setup a clone to test this on the test server, I guess you want to know what ship you could go up to so as not to be caught by this. Running around in a HAC or a Tactical Destroyer might be a good approach. I hope that helps, but I don’t know for sure and currently don’t use the test server.
You could ask @Anderson_Geten to check this as she seems a very precise player and likes to go into detail on stuff like this. She might even know already.
4 Likes
I’ve seen this behavior too, but believe it’s based on a timer. I’ve watched them scanning a fort for a while, then just randomly warp off, no probes, no dscan, no one in system but me. I have seen they land on grid with me and warp off, however I have not seen a case where I land on grid with them and they not attack me. Finally, I might just be imagining it, but it seems like they are taking a bit longer to lock me up. Maybe I’m just more ready for them, but quite a few times lately, I’ve had them targeted first.
2 Likes
They are definitely taking longer to lock up, that is a smart move by CCP in terms of new players, because it was too much for real new players to deal with.
In terms of warping out, they arrived in an area with lots of things to warp to and then warped away not long afterwards to another area in system. And it has happened multiple times to me, now it could be me getting it wrong or over thinking it.
2 Likes
Wait they do?
1 Like
Yes they do.
2 Likes
he plays the game, you don’t. you go figure.
Alpha’ing may not be the right word ( my comment ), but your description is certainly true in the belts. ((( Poof! ))) and that newb is gone, really quickly. Some VERY heavy waves of Trigs too.
Not sure how to fix it, except to dial it back a bit. Newbs are newbs, content or not. Maybe have it so that you get the odd one or two in the 0.8’s etc, and heavier waves in the 0.5’s?
I have faced a wave of 4, insta-respawned into a wave of 3, insta-respawned into a wave of 2, so the facility is probably there if the Devs can get on it.
Lore-wise it would make sense. How easily the Trigs could operate is always about how much resistance ( Concord & Faction Navies in this case ) there is.
Please try to describe your fats and feelings separately. Otherwise you make a fool of yourself, and it’s very bad because both actually matter. (yes, your opinion matters even when you say it’s bad for your playstyle)
And the faster they learn to be aware of their surroundings, the better.
CCP is getting rid of asteroid belts. They added NPCs to specifically remove the roids in them. They added NPCs now to prevent AFK mining in them. You can still do, but you must be ready to escape at once, or lose your ship. AND you must tank them. Tell your newbs to fit double MSE instead of useless asteroid scanner.
1 Like
Really? Did you see an Official statement saying that?
I definitely agree with that, CCP want’s players to be active, not afk.
3 Likes
That did make me wonder the same thing. I thought it was more to add in a sort of resource depletion. But it was highly unfair to US players. There has to be a better way.
I agree too.
2 Likes