GankerBumping Too Renamed

Popular belief is that Gorila Vengaza has gone rogue, trading his honor for a position amongst CODE.  Why would he do that?  Just to be on the side with greater numbers?  The odds were always against him?

I would like to remind everyone of an old poem from the Lays of Ancient Rome.  Death may not mean much in a universe of clones, but this poem, Horatius, still holds a heavy weight to those standing tall against difficult odds:

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.

I have attempted to contact Gorila to verify that he didn't just have his account stolen, but so far I have not been able to get a response.  I have to assume that his turning to CODE is true.

As such, I don't suppose we will see Gorila ever update his Gankerbumping blog again.  I came to the name GankerBumping myself, a fairly obvious play on the CODE. blog Minerbumping, but Gorila had that taken, so I opted for GankerBumping Too.  Well, now that name no longer makes much sense.  So I am hereby claiming the name Ganker Bumping for myself.

I may be somewhat businesslike in my blog entries, lacking the comical flair Gorila had, but what I do have is honor and a loyalty to my brethren in the Anti-ganking community.  I will never turn against you.  I will always stand up for courtesy and respect amongst players, particularly in high-security space.  I will stand up against what some have come to know as the "Ganker", someone who attempts to attack defenseless players, who derives pleasure from "tear collecting", and who lacks a proper respect for others in the community.  I am and always will be, Ganker Bumping.

Gorila Vengaza: Ramifications

For those of you who do not already know, on the evening of 12/23/2014 (US time), the Anti-ganking and Gank-intel channels were taken over by CODE. using the account of Gorila Vengaza who had moderator access to the channels.  It was fairly obvious it was done from his account based on some of the things that were said in the channel, such as this:

[ 2014.12.24 06:03:42 ] Gorila Vengaza > Kill: Krauss Koskanaiken (Mackinaw) OOPZ
 
What's not as clear is what happened behind the screen of the Gorila Vengaza account.  But none of the possibilities are innocent, and all of them paint CODE. in an even worse light than has ever been the case before.  I will summarize the various possibilities below.  I also submitted a ticket to CCP asking them if they would restore the channels back to one of the other original moderators.  I felt that was a reasonable request without knowing more.  But the AG community may end up just having to start new channels.

So what are the possible options of what happened?

1. Gorila switched sides.
2. Gorila is a double agent.
• Gorila was a double agent from the start and never really on the AG side.
• Gorila is a double agent for the AG side.
3. Gorila's account was hacked/stolen by members of CODE.

Gorila Switched Sides

It's possible Gorila simply switched sides.  He has always held CODE. in higher regard than many others in the AG community.  He has frequently stated how he believes in game activity does not reflect on people in real life, and he is quick to pick fights with those on the AG side who he feels are too obnoxious (for example, Veers and the Ganking Is Bullying crowd).

What would surprise me about this possibility is that Gorila would allow events to unfold as they did, with the takeover of the AG channels in particular.  These are legacy channels joined by hundreds of people.  To do this would be shockingly dishonorable towards the Eve community as a whole.  I've never been one to jump on the ban badwagon, but if this is what happened, a suspension of even a ban of his account would be reasonable for what amounts to vandalism against Eve.  If control of the channels was promptly and voluntarily returned to other original channel moderators, then a warning might would be sufficient.

Gorila is a Double Agent

This possibility can go one of two ways.  The more likely being that Gorila was never really on the AG side and served as a double agent for CODE.  What seems unlikely about this is a long history of kills against CODE.  If this is what happened, much like the Gorila switching sides scenario, I believe their is reasonable cause for CCP to temporarily suspend or even permanently ban his account for the same reasons as in the Gorila switching sides scenario (again lessened to as little as a warning if control was returned promptly and voluntarily).

Other interesting possibility, although probably the least likely of them all, is that Gorila has faked switching sides, and is actually beginning a campaign to infiltrate CODE. in an attempt to do serious internal damage to them once granted authority within their ranks.  However, once again the case for vandalism may still apply.  If this were proven to be true, it might not warrant as serious a reprimand.

Either way, and beyond this situation, I don't know why anyone ever willingly becomes a double agent.  The problem with being a double agent is that no one is on your side.  You can't trust your enemy you are infiltrating, and those who you intend to serve can't trust you.  Simply put, once double agent activity becomes highly suspected, you lose all credibility.  No one can trust anything you say ever again.  Credibility is one of the few things that matter in this world, be it in game or in real life, and it's reckless to throw it away.  What would we be able to believe that has been said by Gorila?  Everything he has ever said in the past suddenly becomes suspect. 

Gorila's Account Was Hacked

This possibility is arguably the most damning to CODE.  At first, I thought this is what had happened, but based on other people I have talked to so far, it's starting to look as though this is not what actually happened.  Still, I can't be sure yet.  If this is to have happened, it would likely mean a violation of the Eula and worse. 

How would they attack his account?  It would most likely be from collecting information from him and having either guessed his password based on knowledge of him or possibly even Gorila giving his account password to someone he thought he could trust.  When you think about what events transpired over the past year, you think about points where Gorila may have been more vulnerable to someone violating his trust.  You think of the loss of his spouse, and how he said some of the CODE. people were very compassionate towards him in those difficult times.  You start to think CODE. may have used that event to leverage information out of him.  The picture gets real ugly real quick.  If this were the case, it could mean real life crimes being committed.  It could mean political fallout, not just in game, but in real life.  It could mean national news stories.  It could mean the suspension or ban of possibly every CODE. affiliated account there is.

Fallout

Whatever the case, it reflects poorly on CODE.  And I mean, even more poorly than is usually the case.  And in all but the last case, it reflects poorly on Gorila Vengaza as well.  There will likely be fallout from this, and not in CODE's favor.  For the first time since I started playing Eve almost 10 months ago, I feel CODE. has finally crossed a line they should not have crossed. 

As Gorila himself has said repeatedly in the past "I have always believed that how you play a game has NOTHING to do with who you are in RL".  I accepted this as possible in the past, but suddenly it is brought into question.  It doesn't matter which of the possibilities are actually the truth.  These events have transcended CODE. role playing as bad guys into actually being bad guys.

I hope these events finally push others of honor and respect to finally stop standing on the side lines and stand up against CODE. and those who would support them.  Everything from attacking them in game to getting their accounts banned suddenly seems reasonable.  Whatever happens, the days ahead will heavily impact Eve history and where it goes from here.

Anti-ganking Channel Update

It appears as though, through whatever means, the Anti-ganking channel has now been reclaimed by rightful moderators.   As for the disposition of Gorila Vengaza, the general consensus so far appears to be option 1 above, that he simply threw his honor in the trash and switched sides.

Eve Anti-ganking Channel Hacked

I'll comment more on this later, but for now just a quick word of warning. The Anti-ganking and Gank-intel channels in Eve were taken over by CODE. this evening. It appears as this was done using the account of Gorila Vengaza. There is some debate over whether Gorila went evil or if his account was hacked, but either way, I recommend immediately revoking any authority you may have granted to Gorila Vengaza until the situation is sorted out. When the channel gets fixed or replaced, I will make a post about it here on my blog for anyone that needs to know.

 - Scott Bacon

Ship Scanning Tool

One of the things I do not like doing in Eve is examining the fit of another ship using ship scanners.  I hate trying to keep track of how many of each slot type the ship being scanned has and what fittings I know about after repeated scans.  At first I tried tracking the fittings using a piece of paper and writing down what I had scanned so far.  Not content with that approach, I have now developed a simple Ship Scanning Tool that can handle much of the drudgery.  To keep it simple and portable, I wrote it using just HTML and Javascript.  The first iteration of it is below.  It should be pretty easy to copy it out if you want, run it offline, and modify it to your hearts content.  Feel free to try it out and provide feedback.

Ships and equipment can be preloaded into the Javascript, but for now I haven't included many ships or equipment.  However, if you don't want to run your own copy and load more data into the source, you don't have to.  For the ships, you can select Custom and use the drop downs to select how many high, medium, low, and rig slots it should have.  For equipment, any equipment not preloaded that gets scanned will be placed into an Unknown Slot group, and there are buttons for the user to set what slot each item in that group should belong to.  This will be remembered until the page is reloaded.

To use this tool, select the ship type you will be scanning, scan the ship in Eve, copy the scanned components from the Eve scan window and paste it into the text area, then press the Parse button.  Keep doing that until you have enough of the ship fitting as you think you need.  If you want to load the fitting into something like EFT to look at the EHP or whatever, press the Show Fitting XML button, and it will place the fitting XML into the text area.  Copy the contents to a text file with an xml extension, place it in the default Eve fittings folder on your hard drive, and you can load the fitting into EFT from there.

Press the Clear button before scanning a new ship to clear out the scanned items.

Select Ship Being Scanned

Custom Highs 012345678 Mids 012345678 Lows 012345678 Rigs 0123

Input/Output - Paste Ship Scan Here

Ship Fitting

CODE. Fails Again

Last night CODE. was attempting to gank in Uedama.  They failed to gank a freighter and were reduced to only attacking Orcas.  By the time I got there, they had already given up for the night.  The only killmails of interest were the ones someone posted showing CODE. pilots killing each other.

I used a clone jump to get there.  With CODE. having already dissolved by the time I got in the system, I instead spent my time setting up more jump clones and getting more AG ships in place.  Though I am starting to wonder whether or not I will really need them.

CODE. is closer to irrelevance than they would like to have you think.  Just the threat of a fair fight causes them to chicken out, tuck their tails between their legs, and go into full coward mode.  We only need look at their lack of appearance in the last Alliance Tournament for proof of that.

Anti-Gank: Uedama, 12/18/2014

CODE. was active again in Uedama, and there were a lot of cases this time where the battle took place somewhere other than next to a gate.  I believe there were a lot of cases where freighter pilots logged off and had their ship warp off to a random location in the system.  For cases like this, you need someone in the Anti-Gank (AG) fleet equipped with combat scanners and some scanning skill.

You will have an idea that the freighter warped off when the pilot logged if you see a freighter warp away from a bumper with a heading that appears somewhat random.  You may also notice Wolf, if he is there, just sit there and do nothing.  You may also notice some combat scanners show up on DScan.  You might also see a CODE. member say something in local that will tip you off, like claiming the AG forces are about to fail.  When it is suspected this has happened, someone in the fleet needs to immediately begin scanning for a freighter in the system.  Once found, they need to fly there and then have the rest of the AG fleet fly to them once there.

AG forces were light this day and no one in my group was equipped with combat scanners.  I did have a combat scanner equipped ship in the system, and I switched to it a couple of times when this situation appeared to arise, but unfortunately I was too slow to find the freighters in time.  I will be working on improving my response time on this in the future.

Regardless of it being a difficult night for my particular AG group, and flying remote repair for awhile as well, I still have a few of KMs to share:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/43188403/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/43188399/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/43187878/

'Tis The Season

Holiday activities are not allowing me much time to put into Eve lately.  Just a few missions here and there.  On a positive note, CODE activity seems to have died down as well.

I'm not sure what to think of the newest release yet.  I know I don't like the removal of color from the icons.  I definitely do like the change in ship/pixel rendering.  I don't think it was necessary to remove clones; they really just needed an optional warning prompt whenever leaving a station without a sufficiently upgraded clone.  But I can understand where they are going with it.  The rest of the changes I don't yet have any thoughts on.

At any rate, I am still around and looking forward to playing more again when the holiday rush dies down.  To those of you who I have worked with in the past and mentioned this to -- remember you can page me out of game if you want me to log in for any reason.  You may find it especially handy during the holidays when I might go a week or more without checking in.

Until next time, fly safe!

Managing Kill Rights

Those of us in the AG Community who partake in special operations will sometimes get kill rights against us.  For example, gankers typically use a large fast ship like a Machariel to bump their victims to keep them from escaping before a gank.  One special op some of us undertake is to gank these ganker operated Machariels.  It is a big financial loss for the ganker and potentially lets a victim escape.  However, it also results in the special ops team getting a kill right against them.  This blog post focuses on thinking about how to manage these kill rights. 

Kill Right Removal By Ally

The easiest way to get rid of a ganker kill right against you is to have a friend remove it. Of course, you can only do this for kill rights made available to the public, but that is often what happens with kill rights.  Get a cheap ship, go somewhere private with your friend, and have your friend obtain the kill right and destroy your cheap ship.  Kill right removed.

There may be a price for the kill right.  So you might want to give your friend the ISK for buying the kill right up front.  If the price is cheap, it's no big deal.  But if the price is high, you may want to deal with the kill right in some other way because otherwise it costs you money, and worse, that money goes to the ganker.

Kill Right Removal By Neutral

If you have a public kill right that is of price high enough you don't want to pay it, you can optionally try to get a neutral party to destroy a cheap ship to remove it.  Money still goes to the ganker, which is bad, but at least that money isn't coming from you or an ally.  Get a somewhat cheap ship -- you'll probably have to pick something more significant than a rookie ship, maybe like a cruiser -- and go hang out at the trade hubs.  Chances are, someone will buy the kill right and kill you.  You'll probably lose your pod too if you aren't super fast, so make sure you are in a clone with few or no implants.

Kill Right Avoidance By Alt

Use an alt to perform your Anti-Gank ganking activities.  Then your main never has a kill right for this.  I like this approach, but it does take time to train up an alt, and it means some of your elite AG activity won't be associated with your main.  Still, it's a good approach.  Now you can do your non-AG activities on your main without worrying about kill rights.

Kill Right Avoidance By Time

Kill rights, as far as I understand them, are gone in 30 days.  Wait 30 days offline, or only fly cheap ships for 30 days, and you minimize your risk.  Not a great approach, but I thought I would list it, as it is an option.

Kill Right Avoidance By Tactics

Last but not least, you can just try not to get into a situation where someone will buy and activate your kill right.  With a kill right on you, act like you are in low or null security space.  Use insta-docks and insta-undocks, avoid busy areas, try not to be seen by others.  Use special ops cloak or the cloak+MWD trick when traveling through gates with a lot of activity. 

Other Ideas?

Feel free to share your thoughts or ideas on this.  But most importantly, think about how to manage kill rights against you.

Fly safe!

Burner Mission Review (Mostly Negative)

Before I begin this review, let me me reiterate that I am not a long term veteran of Eve (though I'm not brand new either).  I have been playing Eve for about 5 months now, and have about 10 million skill points.  Could another hundred million skill points or so have made a difference?  I have to think maybe so, because I don't otherwise see why anyone would find a burner mission entertaining.  It was literally the least fun I've had in Eve since I began playing.  I would have ended the evening feeling more satisfied if I had just spent it mining Veldspar.

A word of warning before you read on.  This post is a total rant.  So take it with a grain of salt.  This post is about a bad experience with a burner mission, but there may be other burner missions out there that I might actually like.  That said, let me continue with my rant.

The burner mission I tried was named Anomic Team, and it was located in Sibe.  It consisted of 3 enemy frigates, 2 of which were supposedly logi for the 3rd, not that they were needed.  I spent most of my evening setting up for this mission, and made 2 attempts at it.  I never got a single shot off at any enemy.  Both times, they were able to destroy or nearly destroy my frigate before I could lock a target and begin firing.  It was that fast.  Probably no more than 10 seconds per attempt, if that.

Let me go over what some of the problems were.

I can only guess that the only valid approach to this mission is long range kiting.  I just don't see how any frigate can engage the opponents of the mission unless the opponents simply can't fire upon you.

I first attempted to use a tracking disruptor, but the opponents also had missiles (something the mission description didn't mention), so I'm not sure if it would have helped much.  On the first attempt I had 2 warp core stabs equipped (the burners use scrams) just so I could test the waters and run for a refit if I didn't like how things were going.  Of course, stabs mean I had very short targeting range.  The opponents were initially about 40km away.  I activated my ASB as soon as I started taking fire, but the time I was in targeting range I was already almost dead.  I warped away with maybe 10% structure left.

The second attempt I knew I probably needed to keep some distance.  I swapped out the stabs for something more combat oriented.  I warped in, but to my displeasure, I found the opponents were sitting right on top of the warp in location.  I immediately tried to gain some distance but was webbed and scrammed within a couple of seconds, and my ship was destroyed a few seconds after that.

Now, I'm not opposed to having to retry a difficult mission a few times to get it right.  But this mission appeared to be intentionally set up to where trying again wasn't reasonably feasible.  It was located a long 7 jumps from the mission hub and set in a system where no merchant activity takes place.  Even trying to buy something simple like a microwarp drive required traveling 4 jumps.  The one station in the system didn't even have repair ability.  I literally spent the whole night on just 2 attempts of the mission.  Hours of set up and refit for a combined action time of about 20 seconds. 

I've heard the new burner missions are receiving good reviews, but I just don't understand why.  Here are the ways I could see the missions having value:

1. Was it fun?  No, it wasn't.  If I wanted to get my ass kicked, there are other much quicker ways of doing it.
2. Did I profit from it?  No.
3. Did I learn from it?  Not really.  The battle was so quick, how much could I learn?  I think I learned that the right approach for the mission is to stay the hell away from the opponent and fire from a distance.  If that is wrong, then I didn't learn anything.  If that is right, then it's no different than the best strategy for every other mission in the game; stay the hell away and fire from a distance.
4. Can it hone my combat ability?  This is where the mission really fails.  If this mission had been set in a place where it would be easy to refit and retry multiple times, it could have been useful.  But it appeared to be set up the exact opposite such that setting up for another go would require a huge time penalty.

Some people really like the burner missions. So who knows, you might too. So I don't really want to make any recommendations for anyone. But if you ask my opinion about trying a burner mission, my opinion is that it might be a lot more fun and profitable to just spend your night mining.

Anti-Gank: Madirmilire/Niarja, 11/1/2014

A particular group within RvB decided they wanted to host an event for freighter ganking in and around Madirmilire.  A post about it can be found on their forum:

http://rvbeve.com/forums/index.php/topic/8593-ganked-140-freighters-must-die/

The Anti-Gank (AG) High-Sec Militia responded.  I am happy to report that multiple freighters were saved.  I was personally there to repair and see a Rhea, one of the more expensive freighters, survive a gank and get away clean.  I also heard good reports from others throughout the day.

I was only there for a few freighters due to some RL interruptions and due to being off on a special operation.  A few of us in the High-Sec Militia teamed up to remove Apex Aubaris' bumper Machariel from operation.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/42149167/

I have a side job within the AG community I refer to as AG Special Ops.  My participation in the Machariel kill was in service to the mission of AG Special Ops -- to undertake higher risk anti-gank operations to test new tactics, increase the effectiveness overall of AG activities, and further boost the morale of the AG community.  While the others involved were not members of this particular group, they certainly had a similar spirit.

Well done AG community, and thanks to all of you who made an effort to help and made this day a success for AG.

This wasn't the typical CODE. orchestrated gank night.  It was triggered by one or more members of RvB.  I hope our activities helped to send a message to the RvB organization that freighter ganking is not an honorable activity, will not be tolerated by the Eve community at large, and is not something the RvB organization wants to be associated with or condone. 

Finding Redemption

A pilot sits alone.  He ponders the chain of events leading to his current situation.  His ship is surrounded by his fleet, but an uneasy feeling is growing inside him.  His fleet, under the boot of his organization, is preparing to destroy another defenseless freighter in violation of Empire law.  And for what purpose?  The lies are so many he is drowning in them. 

All of the Empire stand against him.  His only friends, the ones who are with him in his fleet, scurry about like dingos over a lost baby deer that calls out helplessly for it's mother.  Friends who relish in lies, deception, greed, and an empty feeling of power over the defenseless.  Of what quality are such friends?  Is he ready to give away his integrity and honor -- perhaps his very soul -- for the brief membership in a pack of wild dogs that will only lead to inevitable betrayal and abandonment?  It is their nature.

He just wanted a friend.  He just wanted to be a part of something.  Now a cold dark leash tightens around his neck.  The devil is at his door with welcoming arms. 

What if there was a way out?  Could he reclaim his soul?  Could he reclaim his honor?  Could he find redemption?  A voice whispers out from the cosmic dark:  "I believe in you.  You still have a choice."  So long, grasped by darkness, suddenly the pilot dares to hope. 

The fleet moves in for the kill.  One ship turns back.  One pilot, who spares his own soul.  He knows the road to redemption will be long and challenging, but real friendship awaits him at the end.  Real friends look forward to welcoming him one day, in time, when that trust has been earned.  One brave soul who turned his back on the devil and found hope waiting on the other side.  A tear runs down his cheek.  The fleet is gone in a flash of hatred.  His ship sits alone.  But he no longer need be.  The pilot is surrounded by hope for a brighter future.  He sets his course for redemption.  A long road.  But worth the trip.

The hands of darkness will never cease trying to pull him back.  But the pilot need only remember The Great Dictator's Speech, and the hands of darkness will never again be able to grasp him.  It's powerful words echo in his head.  "Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!"

Anti-Gank: Uedama 10/26/2014

Gankers were at it again, and Loyalanon would say in local something along the lines of "Anti-gankers fail again" after each ganked freighter.  However, the real failure was Loyalanon thinking he knows what our objectives are.

One of my objectives for the evening was to come up with a good ship capable of taking out ganker ships before CONCORD arrives that would also stand up to ganker secondary fire.  After flying straight into the ganker pack on one occasion and coming out with plenty of armor left on an armor tanked ship, with some small fitting tweaks it is an achieved objective.  Furthermore, it was able to take out ganker ships before CONCORD arrives as intended.  Success again.  Here are just a few kills from the night:

• https://zkillboard.com/kill/42016675/
• https://zkillboard.com/kill/42017263/
• https://zkillboard.com/kill/42017871/
• https://zkillboard.com/kill/42018545/

Another objective was to meet some new AG pilots and strengthen our ability to operate and coordinate AG activities in the future.  I am happy to say this is yet another achieved objective.  I networked with a number of pilots who were very capable and who I have not met before.  I look forward to teaming up with them again in the future.

Despite all of this, the AG militia does need to start focusing on saving freighters again soon.  And when this day comes, the criminals of Eve will cower at the unstoppable force of justice they themselves had a hand in creating.

CONCORD is on our side.  The Empire is on our side.  Justice is on our side.  The criminal's days are numbered.  They are the darkness.  We are the light.  Shine bright, my brothers and sisters.

- Judge Bacon

Anti-Gank: Uedama, 10/8/2014 01:00

CODE. has apparently had daddy along to help them the last few nights to bolster their wilting alliance and save them from potential irrelevance.  Now reinforced, freighter ganks are once again happening in Uedama, and it requires an equal step up from the anti-gank community if we are to put a stop to it.

Our forces were insufficient.  We need more remote repair if we want to save freighters from these combined criminal forces.  Many millions in blasters, ammo, and other equipment was confiscated from criminal shipwrecks.  Some criminals were destroyed before CONCORD arrived (in particular, I like this kill, where Gorila Vengaza and I took out a ganker together).  But, while I don't know what transpired earlier in the evening, for the time while I was online we were unable to save any freighters.  I would like to make a call out to my AG brothers and sisters to step it up a notch and get more repair forces on the field of battle.

Missile Damage Calculation Tool

Below is a tool I made for looking at how different ammo, skills, and equipment affect missile damage. As with my prior posts, I am personally most interested in looking at the situation with cruise missiles for use against battleships. Therefore, for now, the drop down select lists only include cruise missiles and a small number of sample NPC battleships. However, you can set the drop downs to Custom and enter values for other missiles and ships.
Take note of the field labeled "Avg Max Velocity". Originally, I just labeled this as Max Velocity. However, the maximum velocity of most NPC battleships, from the data I found online, is actually much higher than the values I am using; somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 - 1400 m/s. The reason I didn't use those values is that the NPC battleships almost never actually go that fast. They usually hobble along at much lower speeds. We are most interested in what will happen most of the time, not in the fringe cases where they actually burst up to top speed. The numbers I therefore used are their orbital velocities, as those values are accurate for orbiting and I think not too far off from what is typically seen when they approach.
I also have a few assumptions at play here. First, I am assuming that multiple affects (for example, if using 2 Rigor Catalysts) will stack in a manner similar to how multiple resist mods stack. Furthermore, I am assming that Target Navigation Prediction reduces the target velocity in the equation, which is also why you will see the graph X axis go up to a lower number than the value in the Avg Max Velocity field with the axis labeled as Effective Target Speed -- because it has the Target Navigation Prediction skill applied to it.

---

Show/Hide Equations

xr	Missile Explosion Radius
xv	Missile Explosion Velocity
d	Damage Reduction Factor
sr	Ship Signature Radius
sv	Ship Max Velocity
kr	Skill: Guided Missile Precision explosion radius percent
kv	Skill: Target Navigation Prediction target velocity percent
p	Target Painter signature radius percent (0 if not equipped)
r1	Rig 1: Rigor Catalyst signature radius percent (0 if not equipped)
r2	Rig 2: Rigor Catalyst signature radius percent (0 if not equipped)
r3	Rig 3: Rigor Catalyst signature radius percent (0 if not equipped)
f1	Rig 1: Flare Catalyst explosion velocity percent (0 if not equipped)
f2	Rig 2: Flare Catalyst explosion velocity percent (0 if not equipped)
f3	Rig 3: Flare Catalyst explosion velocity percent (0 if not equipped)
xrf	Missile Explosion Radius: Final
xvf	Missile Explosion Velocity: Final
srf	Ship Signature Radius: Final
svf	Ship Max Velocity: Final
B	Zero Velocity Damage Percentage Applied
C	Max Velocity Damage Percentage Applied

x_rf = x_r * (1 - k_r) * (1 - r₁) * (1 - r₂) * (1 - r₃)
x_vf = x_v * (1 + f₁) * (1 + f₂) * (1 + f₃)
s_rf = s_r * (1 + p)
s_vf = s_v * (1 - k_v)
B = s_rf / x_rf
C = [B * (x_vf / s_vf)] ^ [ln(d) / ln(5.5)]

---

Missile	Exp. Radius	Exp. Velocity	DRF
Custom

Target Ship	Sig. Radius	Avg Max Velocity
Custom

Target Painter: None Target Painter I (25%) Target Painter II / Generation Extron (30%)

Rig 1: None Rigor Catalyst I Rigor Catalyst II Flare Catalyst I Flare Catalyst II Rig 2: None Rigor Catalyst I Rigor Catalyst II Flare Catalyst I Flare Catalyst II Rig 3: None Rigor Catalyst I Rigor Catalyst II Flare Catalyst I Flare Catalyst II

Guided Missile Precision Level: 0 1 2 3 4 5

Target Navigation Prediction Level: 0 1 2 3 4 5

---

Zero Velocity Damage Applied
Max Velocity Damage Applied

T2 Cruise Missiles -- Well, Okay, Maybe More Rigors

Today I want to do a review of the 3rd and most complex component of the equation that determines how much missile damage is applied, and what it means for T2 cruise missiles.

The damage modification is uses the lesser of the value 1, the target signature radius divided by the missile explosion radius, or another more complex equation that takes target velocity into account.  The goal is to get each part of the equation up to a value of 1 or more to apply full damage.  In my prior T2 cruise missile post, I looked specifically at the 2nd part of the question, to determine how we make sure full damage can be applied.  But this is only guaranteed for targets standing still.  For the full damage to actually be applied, we need to make sure the 3rd part of the equation approaches 1 as well, and it turns out this is pretty significant when it comes to T2 cruise missiles.

I am going to keep this simple, and ignore the parts that we don't really care much about.  The 3rd part of the equation has an exponent that involves the natural log and some mysterious damage factor, but we can actually ignore this for what we are doing.  When we approach 1, the exponent will have no effect.  And even when under 1, the effect is less with cruise missiles than it is with other types of missiles.  So lets just keep it simple and ignore it.  (If you want to see the gory equation specifics, check it out on Eve University)

What we are left with is S / E * X / V, which we want to raise to the value of 1.  S is sig radius of target, E is explosion radius of missile, X is explosion velocity of missile, and V is velocity of target.  Now S / E was the equation from the prior blog post.  We have already looked at what we need to do to make sure this is 1.  Looking at the stats for Fury Cruise Missiles, we find that the explosion velocity X is 58.  This means as soon as the target exceeds a speed of 58 m/s, the damage applied starts to drop!  And it can drop a lot, when explosion velocity is only 58.

How do we fix this?  Our options are:

1. Slow the target down.  Webs.  But you have to be pretty close for webs, so this is out.
2. Increase the explosion velocity.  This can be done, but how much effect will it have?  There is the Target Navigation Prediction skill, and probably some modules that can help.  But will it be enough?
3. Compensate for X / V being less than 1 by making S / E more than 1.  Ah ha!  Other writings don't always make this clear, but this is why you might go overboard with increasing signature radius of the target and decreasing explosion radius of the missiles -- not because of the 2nd part of the equation, but rather because of the 3rd -- to compensate for explosion velocity being less than the target's speed.

I'll look at doing some specific calculations in a later post, but the moral of the story for today is that target speed can be a problem for T2 Fury cruise missiles. We need more missile explosion velocity, less missile explosion radius, and/or more target signature radius.  Maybe I should sacrifice a mid slot item for a target painter.  And maybe a 2nd Rigor Catalyst is a good idea after all.

High Sec Militia

Anti-gank forces continues to advance, evolve, and organize.  While I have been an advocate of friendly folks joining up in anti-gank militias, I haven't actually tried to organize one myself.  However, there are people out there now doing exactly that.  If you are interested in joining an anti-gank militia, or just are interested in reading more about anti-gank efforts, I recommend checking out the following blog: 

High Sec Militia Blog

I've been impressed with their efforts.  I had no hand in the creation or administration of their blog or their militia.  I am, however, a recruit in their militia and look forward to meeting any new brave souls who join up to protect the good folks in high security space. 

Ode of the Caldari Cruiser

Ode of the Caldari Cruiser

Not much going on lately, so time for another dumb poem (my apologies to the Caldari Cruiser pilots out there!)

The Osprey climbed out of a garbage pail, the Caracal is a shoe lace.
The Blackbird is a Duplo fail, and the old Moa is a giraffe with a suitcase.

The old Moa

T2 Cruise Missiles -- Do I Need Multiple T2 Rigors?

I've been wanting to increase my DPS on L4 security missions.  I currently use an Armageddon outfitted with cruise missiles and sentry drones.  On a typical L4 mission, I have my sentry drones take out the smaller stuff while I keep the cruise missiles targeted almost exclusively on battleships.  Usually, my cruise missiles are still pecking away at the battleships after my sentries have cleared the field of everything else.  And on occasion, I have to either skip a battleship or switch my sentries to the same battleship my cruise missiles are firing upon before the smaller stuff is cleared, as I occasionally run into NPC battleships that can restore armor or shields as fast as I can apply damage with the cruise missiles.

I need to keep the cruise missiles focused on larger targets to ensure they can apply their max damage due to how missile damage is applied.  To apply max damage with a missile, the explosion radius for that missile needs to be less than or equal to the signature radius of the target.  I could work on increasing drone damage further, but then what do I do with my cruise missiles that can barely break some NPC battleship tanks?  I could focus cruise missiles on mid size ships leaving only battleships at the end, and then focus fire of the drones and missiles together on all the battleships. But what I really want is more cruise missile DPS to take down those battleships better.

There are skills I can train higher to improve missile damage further.  That's part of the plan, but I also want to consider T2 launchers and missiles.  T2 cruise missiles come in two flavors -- precision and fury.  Precision are for small targets and fury are for large targets.  Given my situation, I'm not terribly interested in the precision missiles, but I'm very interested in the fury missiles to take down those battleships.  So I will stay focused on that for now.

The main issue with a T2 fury cruise missile is that it has a huge explosion radius of 567 m.  Since I want to increase my missile DPS as much as possible, I need to make sure that max damage will be applied against NPC battleships.  To do this, I need to make sure the explosion radius is less than or equal to the NPC signature radius.  Now, I've read some threads that talk about going to what I would consider extreme measures to do this, but I don't think that's the right approach.  If you overdo it, you may be using modules far more expensive than they need to be or unnecessarily using fitting slots that could have been used for something else.  We need to look at precisely what is needed for the situation without going much further.

I researched a number of NPC battleships, and the low end of NPC battleship signature radius appears to be about 340 m.  So my target is to either raise that signature radius and/or lower the explosion radius until they are close to equal.  Do I really need 2 T2 Rigor rigs and 1 T1 Rigor rig to do this, as was suggested in one thread I read?  I don't think so.  Lets look at the ways we can change either the signature radius or the explosion radius:

1. Target Painters -- these increase the signature radius of the target by up to 30%.
2. Guided Missile Precision skill -- this decreases the explosion radius by 5% per level.
3. Rigor rigs -- these decrease the explosion radius by 15% for T1 rigs to 20% for T2 rigs.

Now, I'm not entirely certain how the percentages are applied (e.g. do they all add directly, or are they applied more like multiple resist mods), so I am making a few assumptions in my calculations.   In my case, I really don't have anything I am willing to switch out for a target painter, so I am going to ignore those for now, even though they are quite nice.  And then I'm going to see what we can do without going crazy.

With target painters out of my plan, that means I need to reduce the explosion radius by about 40%.  That's (567 - 340) / 567.  To keep things reasonable, I'm not going to suggest pushing Guided Missile Precision to 5, but we do have a ways to go, so lets say push it to 4.  That's a 20% reduction.  A single T1 Rigor rig is an easy fit.  That's another 15%.  If they add directly, we are already at 35%, or roughly 32% if they stack more like resists.  That's already enough for a large number of NPC battleships.  If we want to push it down all the way to the target 40% reduction, which may not even be worthwhile, we can either switch out the T1 rig for a T2 rig, train the skill up to 5, or maybe use 2 T1 rigs and not worry about training the skill up past 3.

The whole point of this exercise is this -- if you want to really optimize your fit, consider your needs carefully, and if needed, do the math to figure it out.  Do I need 2 T2 Rigors, maybe also a T1 Rigor, and maxed GMP skill?  No!  As I determined above, that is major overkill considering I only want to use T2 cruise missiles against the battleships.  I can get by just fine with a single Rigor rig and GMP skill at 4.