When does a ship become a "Loot Pinata" target in High Sec?

Been playing on and off (mostly solo indy/mining) and I’ve often heard this phrase mentioned about ships but would like to get some guidelines/clarity on when a ship becomes one…what line has to be crossed so as it’s then considered one? When a ship is considered as one then where are they most at risk in high sec?
I assume it refers to ships in high sec usually as low/null appear to be war zones. Can any ship be one or is it just something like a command battle cruiser, navy battleship or black ops maybe. Does it have to be worth a certain amount of ISK?
For example, would a Damnation/Widow or maybe a Rattlesnake be thought of as one (or do you need to scan it first)? And how likely would it be to be ganked in one in your average 0.5-0.6 system and are there people actively looking for them?

Thanks

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It’s the cargo that matters, as the ship itself does not become loot. Except for rare limited edition / tournament ships, people won’t go after a specific ship.

Mostly it is only freighters that get ganked at gates. In the old days they said if the cargo was over 600-800 mil, they would gank, but it could be different now.

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You will know for certain after, but there are ways to prevent this, and to use this to try to detect the potential enemy or to trap them into battle.

If the ship has the potential of carrying good loot, or is fitted with it, it is a “loot piniata.”

It is really subjective to be honest though. Your ship filled with 100 mil ISK of loot might not be much to you, but to some newer or poorer player that might be a fortune.

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However, also just like this:

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It’s not only cargo. Blingy (expensive) modules on a ship of course have a chance to drop when a ship is destroyed. At what point a ship becomes a loot pinata because of what it is equipped with or what cargo it is carrying is subjective and circumstancial.
People tend to spend more on blingy modules on fancier ships, and other people prefer to have a fancier ship on a killmail than a T1 if they can.

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You’re a loot pinnata when the people suicide ganking you aim to make a decent profit off your death.For example the 3 km rivr luzade linked 1 and 2 can be considered kills for profit 3rd not really.

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50% drop rate of the value of modules or loot minus Cost of gank will give you the profit margin for the gank. The higher the profit the more likely you are to be considered a loot pinata and therefore a gank target.

There is no real set value as peoples impressions of “loot pinata” will always be different but yeah if you can apply enough dps any target will die and seeing as most ships have less ehp than freighters, even T2 BS, anything that can kill a freighter can kill pretty much anything else flying in high sec.

This guy, this guy is a loot pinata.:heart_eyes::smiling_imp::money_mouth_face:

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If it has no mining permit.

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You mean data mining permit? Do you just go after bit coin miners these days? Has CODE changed its MO? Will it issue a bitcoin mining IPO as well soon?:smiling_imp::money_mouth_face:

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Do you mine your data/bitcoin in CODE. sov space (Highsec) ?

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Well if Im mining Imperium coins then I do it in null, if its TESTacular coins then its also in null, Empirium coins I generally do in high sec, Rancoin and Tamacoin I generally do in the top belt like Amamakoin in low sec.:thinking:

Do I need permits to mine these coins?

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Take your effective hit points. Divide that number by 10000. That is approximately how many tornados it would take to kill you.

Multiply that number by 70mil. That is the cost to kill you.

If the cost of your modules and cargo is double that number or higher (ship hull does not count) chances are you are profitable to gank. Be cautious at that point.

Also, remember to look at your resistance holes. if you take something like a shield golem that is fit to resist kinetic and thermal, you have next to 0 EM resistence. This makes you easier to gank. So try to omni tank if possible, yes you may lose a little DPS or have to be a bit slower running missions but it beats losing your ship to a suicide gank.

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Good rule of thumb for wartime we go by is the fit shouldn’t cost more than twice that of the hull.
You can go over but would be expected to have an explanation.

Obviously other financial considerations aside i.e. your net worth, fluid isk and srp .

Plenty of blingy modules are actually quite sensible when considered in context, faction plates when you’re already using a slave set, likewise with reppers and askiplans.

If you’ve a history of hunting and murdering your fellow man, those fed Navy webs will pay for themselves is fairly short order.

Faction guns are stupid expenses though

Now for bearing I’d have to consider the ehp/isk ratio , assuming you’re not actually aware of the locals or it’s just too high traffic an area to be practical it’s definitely something you’d want to be aware of.

That said , when I get my bear on I do it in stuff that’d make your teeth itchy (the added risk is the only thing keeping me awake) but I tend to have extra sets of eyes in the +1’s so …

Point being, the pinata-ness of a thing is related proportionately to how on the ball the person flying it is, there’s some eyewateringly expensive stuff flying about highsec, actually catching it though is a different matter (believe me I try)

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The existence of kill boards makes it a pinata to some gankers…full or empty.

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If your ship’s modules are worth three times as much as the ship’s hull, or if you have a full row of Green, Blue and/or Purple in a module wrack, then your ship is probably a Loot Pinata.

If your ship’s cargo hold is worth five to twenty times as much as the ship’s hull, then your ship is probably a Loot Pinata.

If you can use the “my Raven was fit with following” meme unironically to describe your ship’s fit, then your ship is probably a Loot Pinata.

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Specifically a loot pinata is all about ISK. As has been pointed out;

  • When a ship is carrying valuable enough cargo or fitted with expensive modules (or doing both).
  • And tying to above, when the probable profit is signifigantly higher than the cost to gank you.

More dedicated gankers will have alts or corpmembers with passive targeting and various scanners like cargo and ship scanners to find out what cargo and modules a ship has and if it is worth ganking. It’s hard to put a specific numerical value but as has been thrown around, typically hundreds of millions of ISK at least to justify the cost of the gank. Mind, some people gank just because they think it is fun and don’t do it for profit.

In general and not referring to loot, people will sometimes just shoot for killboard padding; I once lost a Keres - it was not fitted with anything special, just T2 and some Meta 4. and the shooter thanked me saying he didn’t have a Keres killmail before so that is why he shot me. Basically, flying any rarer ship is liable to get you shot, though it typically means really rare and expensive ships like tournament prizes or one off gifts like the Leopard or the Victorieux Yacht.

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Good rule of thumb for wartime we go by is the fit shouldn’t cost more than twice that of the hull.
You can go over but would be expected to have an explanation.

Thanks Sir…nice tip

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Ahh…Ok, that seems to be some parameters too.

o7

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Thanks for the replies…some great ones. Lady Ayeipsia and Teinyhr…cool replies too plus many others.

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