Cloak + Microwarpdrive "Trick"

If you haven't heard of the Cloak + Microwarpdrive trick, it's a means of greatly improving your chance of escaping a gate camp that requires the use of an Improved Cloaking Device and an appropriately sized Microwarpdrive.  You can read more about it here:

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Cloak_Trick

While most of what you need to know is covered in the article I linked, there are a few notes I would like to add regarding my own experience while testing out this technique.

First, after warping into a new system and being under gate cloak, I had some trouble with activating the ship cloak after doing the Align To.  I need to do more testing on this, but on occasion I get the error message saying I can't do what I'm trying to do while being under the gate cloak.  So beware of this.  I am currently trying to do more testing to narrow down why and when exactly this happens.

Second -- and it's odd none of the tutorials seem to even give a passing mention of this -- the Power Grid needs on an Industrial ship are a problem and might take some effort to overcome.  Take for example the medium-sized Gallente Industrial ships.  To use this technique on such ships, you need a 10MN Microwarpdrive.  A 10MN Microwardrive requires 150 MW of power grid.  Now look at the total Power Grid for Gallente T1 Industrial ships:

Ship	Power Grid (Base MW)
Nereus (general purpose)	215
Epithal (planetary commodities)	130
Miasmos (ore)	120
Kryos (mineral)	110
Iteron Mark V (large general purpose)	85

Only the Nereus has enough base Power Grid to equip a 10MN Microwarpdrive, and that's without considering fitting anything else. Luckily, there are some things that can help.

First and foremost, the Power Grid Management skill, which adds 5% Power Grid bonus per level. That's pretty significant. For example, I currently have Power Grid Management level 4, which means a 20% bonus. For a Miasmos, that takes the Power Grid up from 120 to a much better 144. Almost enough!

Second, you can equip Power Diagnostic System I or II modules. These give similar bonuses to the Power Grid Management skill. If I add a couple of Power Diagonstic System I modules to my Miasmos, that puts me far enough over 150 MW to fit the Microwarpdrive. Or you can get Micro Auxiliary Power Core modules.  These add a fixed amount of Power Grid, and can also get you to where you need to be.  Another option, if a rig would be better, is a Medium Ancillary Current Router (for medium rig slots).  The cloak requires minimal Power Grid, and the Industrials generally have plenty of CPU, so now we are in business!

There are also implants that can help, but I don't have the details on those at the moment.

I hope this helps get you flying safely!  Good luck out there!

Thoughts on the Beginner SOE Epic Arc -- The Blood-Stained Stars

While I'm waiting on skills to train, I decided to spend some time working up my faction and loyalty points for Sisters of EVE.  I like their ships and would like to be able to obtain one or more of them through the loyalty points store eventually.  With my particular part of the galaxy being light on Level 1 SOE Agents, one of my primary goals starting out was to get my standing with SOE up to 1.0 so that I can use the relatively closer Level 2 SOE Agents.  I thus decided to try out the SOE Epic Arc The Blood-Stained Stars, and have since finished it.  Without giving anything significant away, here are some thoughts on it:

Difficulty Level is Low

I completed the entire arc pretty easily using a Destroyer with mediocre skills.  Only the final mission gave me any difficulty, but a few rearrangements of my Destroyer fit and I was good.

Standing Increases Are Good And Bad

Individual missions you do for the SOE agents give you decent standing increases for someone who otherwise only has access to Level 1 agents.  The increases for completed SOE agent missions in the arc is often close to 0.5 +/- 0.2.  However, several large parts of the arc send you to agents in other corporations.  While you are working those missions, you get standing increases for those other corporations and not for SOE, which sucks.  It really brings down the average standing increase per mission, but I think it's still better than just doing regular Level 1 missions (I did a couple of Level 1 missions that only gave me 0.1 standing increase). 

For the whole epic arc, I got a cumulative standing increase of just above 1.0 with a Social skill level of 2.  These missions do count towards the bonus standing missions that occur every 16 missions or so. 

No Loyalty Points

Sadly, you do not get loyalty points for the epic arc.

Lots of Travel

This Epic Arc send you traveling about on multiple occasions.  It's not a bad idea to use a relatively quick ship and be prepared to be away from your home base for an extended time.  Take extra ammo and supplies that you don't want to have to buy on the road.

In Closing...

All in all, I enjoyed the arc.  It got me above 1.0 standing which was my goal in doing it (outside of just having fun, but that's always a given).  If you are looking for loyalty points or just like staying close to home, this arc might not be for you.  If you are looking for standing increase, it's probably only worth it if you currently only have access to Level 1 agents.  But if neither of those situations apply, then you might give it a go.

Have fun!

What I've Learned From Gank Attempts In Null Space

So far in my experimental mining operations in null space, I have had 4 definite attempts by others to kill me.  One was successful.

Here is what I have learned from it so far (beyond what I already knew):

Align To Your Next Safe Spot

I don't know why this didn't occur to me previously.  But if you are jumping around between safe spots, at each safe spot, immediately align and get to max speed in the direction of the next safe spot.  That way, if they manage to find you and warp to your location before you were ready to make the next jump, there will still be a good chance of warping away.  If you have to speed up and align first, they will likely have you. 

Double Check Your Overview Settings When Using Dscan

This was a contributing factor in my one death so far.  I had the overview on the wrong tab and didn't see the combat scanners.  I also wasn't aligned to my next safe spot.  End result?  Dead Scott Bacon.

Cloaking Is Good

Aggressors are surprisingly persistent.  I was more in favor of the Procurer and Skiff before, but I'm really warming up to the idea of using cloaking, even though cloaking mining ships can't kill the rats.  It is so much easier when someone is after you to just find a safe spot and cloak than it is to play cat and mouse in a Procurer.  I've since switched my training priorities and now have training for Expedition Frigates ahead of training for Exhumers.

Drones Have Potential

I was impressed at how well my measily Hobgoblins 1 did against the guy that ganked my Procurer.  They got his Interdictor's shields almost down before he killed them.  If I had higher drone-related skills and stronger drones, who knows, maybe it would have been enough to run him off.

Visiting Stations in Low Sec Space

As a growing industrialist, you may find yourself wanting to visit more stations in low security space.  This is fairly dangerous without Concord around.  Will station defenses defend you?  Honestly, I don't know.  But if you want to cover your bases and be able to get in and out of stations in low sec as safely as possible, there are a couple of things you can do.  As long as I am providing some pointers for navigating null space (see prior blog post), I might as well cover this too.

You may have heard the term insta-dock in game.  That will get you into a station more safely.  There is also an inverse to get you out of a station more safely, but I'm not sure what people call it in game.  For now I will just call it insta-undock (though undocking isn't really the insta part -- warping is -- but for now I'll just keep the naming consistent and go with insta-undock).  If you are not already familiar with these, then read on.

Insta-dock

The trouble with docking at a station is that where you drop out of warp has some variability to it.  You may have noticed that some of the time, when you warp to dock at station, after docking is requested your ship has to fly forward a few hundred meters before it docks.  When you came out of warp, you were not quite within the docking perimeter required.  Those few seconds of advancing towards the station opens up additional risk of being attacked.

To avoid this is fairly simple.  On your first visit to a station, add a bookmark 0 meters from the station (or at least within the docking perimeter).  In the future, when visiting the station, warp to your bookmark instead of the station.  This always puts you within the docking perimeter.  It does add an extra step of docking after warping there.  But it's worth it to ensure you get in more safely.

I haven't investigated this yet, but if it's possible to manually set up waypoints including docking waypoints, then you may be able to set up a waypoint path that will get you there without manually having to trigger docking.  But I don't know for sure if this is possible.

Just be careful not to warp to your bookmark while in a high security docking mindset.  If you forget you need to be carefully watching to dock after reaching the bookmark, you may end up putting yourself at greater risk than if you had just used a regular warp-to-dock like you would in high security space.

Insta-undock

Much like insta-dock, you also want a way to get out of the station that reduces risk while aligning to warp.  The solution here again involves using a bookmark.  You always leave the station flying near max speed in roughly the same direction.  If your warp destination happens to be in front of you, your time to align will be very short, minimizing your risk.

Using a fast preferably cheap ship with a microwarp drive, undock from the station, activate your microwarp drive, and fly straight out at least 150 km, preferably more.  Set a bookmark.  In the future, whenever leaving the station, immediately set warp to your new bookmark.  It will always be almost directly in front of you, and you will be able to align and warp to it very quickly.  Once there, you can then safely warp to your next waypoint.

This can also be handy for those stations where the docking exit isn't entirely clear of the station.  On some warp paths, you may find yourself embarrassingly bouncing off the side of the station trying to enter warp.  If you use an insta-undock, you will always be clear of the station.

Newbie Industrialist Guide to Surviving Null Space

Overview 

If you are adventurous and want to try your hand at null space, I will share what I have learned so far from my null space travels to avoid being ganked there.  If you think I am wrong about anything, or have other suggestions, please feel free to contribute in the comments.  I am still learning myself.

There are several reasons for an industrialist to visit null space.  You may have your own, but here are some of my reasons:

1. To learn more about null space and how to operate there.
2. To mine the rarer ore types.  You could just buy on the market what you need, but if you are like me, you like to mine it yourself...just because...even if it doesn't make sense from a monetary standpoint.
3. To have more interesting NPC rat encounters.  You also get much better bounties and security status increases than you do from high sec space.

Is it still ganking if you are attacked in null space?  You should expect null space to be heavily PvP.  But ganking is a special category of PvP defined by the aggressor being a massive a-hole.  Null space may be heavy PvP, but I think it still qualifies as ganking if you are flying a mostly defenseless mining or industry ship and are attacked without warning or provocation.  There is the question in null space of whether or not someone was just brushing you off of their sovereign space, but I think in such cases a warning asking you to leave is justified first.  Otherwise, it's still a gank. 

Things are different in null space.  Here are the things I think are most notable:

1. Null space can and will have warp disruption bubbles, most often encountered by mobile warp disrupters left behind in space near gates.  But they can also be generated in other ways, like by certain properly equipped player ships.
2. The NPC rats are packing some serious firepower and will use nastier tactics on you than you might be used to, like webbing and other ECM attacks.  Don't dismiss them like you would rats in high sec space.
3. Sovereignty.  Different alliances can lay claim to the systems, and most all systems are claimed.  You will notice Territorial Claim Units in the systems.  This doesn't really change much for the lone industrialist, but you should be aware that you are cutting across someone else's lawn and picking their flowers, even if nobody is home and the flowers regrow every day.
4. There is no Concord space police.  I shouldn't have to say this, but it is a newbie guide, so I'll include it.

The goal of tanking your ship in high sec space is to survive being attacked long enough for Concord to arrive and stick their boot up your aggressors behind.  Is there any point to tanking in null space?  Yes!  No one will come to your aid, but you still need tank for NPC rat battles and it may give you enough time to escape through a gate if you get caught by a ganker near a gate.  So tank up.

What ships to fly?  For scouting, I recommend using a cheap frigate equipped only with a microwarpdrive and maybe some agility equipment.  A cloaking device is optional; personally, I don't use them for scouting.  A tank or weapons won't be of much use either, in my opinion.  A special ops cloak might be worth it, but many won't yet have the skills for that.  For mining, either a Prospect, a tanked Procurer or a tanked Skiff.  I'm not sure there are any other good options.  The NPC rats are all over the place and you need a tanked Procurer or better with the firepower of at least 5 tech 1 scout drones to survive the rat battles.  What about the new Prospect?  A cool ship, but if you are a newbie, you won't have the skills for it.  And even if you did, it doesn't have the hit points or firepower to stand up against the roaming rats, so your opportunities will be limited to whatever few sites don't already have rats roaming them.  Still, it's a lot less of a hassle to just cloak instead of playing cat and mouse with a Procurer or a Skiff.  Your choice.

Getting Started

First, do some research.  Figure out what part of null space you want to be in.  Research the systems.  Use the various online resources to get a feel for what the sovereignty of the systems are and how active they are.  I won't go into a ton of detail here, because I need to keep this post from getting ridiculously long.  Ideally you want to find systems that have very little activity.  When you are in the null sec system, you want to typically be the *only* one in the system, if possible.  It's also nice to have a circular loop of systems in the area (3 or 4 systems with gates that link them in a loop); I'll touch more on that later.

Once you pick your area, find a nearby base in high sec to operate out of.  I recommend not starting until you have multiple scout and mining/industry ships already at the station.  If you are far from trade hubs, which might be a good idea to avoid higher activity areas, you probably want to be stocked up and prepared for at least a couple of ship losses without needing resupply.  Don't go overboard either though, as you may end up deciding to move later if activity gets too high or you get annoyed by locals who seem obsessed with hunting you.

Before you fly any industry ship into null space, you need to scout first and set up bookmarks with your cheap scouting ships.  Come up with a way to name your bookmarks that will allow you to identify them easily, as you will end up with quite a few that you need to be able to pick through quickly in a pinch.  The bookmarks I recommend are:

1. Two or more near-gate bookmarks for every gate.  These will help you get through the gates safely.
2. Three or more safe spot bookmarks.  These will help you avoid others in the system.

The near-gate bookmarks allow you to scout the gates and help in avoiding warp disruption bubbles.  Warp bubbles will often be placed near a gate and in line between the gate and either another gate or some other landmark in the system. If you warp through a bubble, it will catch you.  Once in a bubble, you cannot warp out until you clear the edge of the bubble.  Furthermore, if your warp destination is near a bubble and you warp line intersects the bubble past the warp destination point, you will still be dragged to the edge of the bubble.  You want your entire line of warp even past your destination to be clear of bubbles.

Systems tend to be set up in a plane, and some players may not think well in 3D, so I think the best places to put your near-gate bookmarks are at locations somewhat perpendicular to the general plane of the system.  They need to be at least 150 km away from the gate to be able to warp between the bookmark and the gate.  You probably want them further away than that to give you good distance between your bookmark and any hostile ships that may camp near the gate.  Once you enter the system in your scout ship for the first time, assuming there are no hostiles near the gate, pick a good direction from the gate for your bookmark away from everything else, double click to head that direction, hit your microwarp drive, and wait until you reach a distance from the gate you feel comfortable with (noting that it must be more than 150 km away).  Then create your bookmark.  Repeat until you have a number of bookmarks you feel comfortable with.  I think 2 is enough, but you could do more.

After doing this for your first gate, I then recommend setting up your safe spot bookmarks.  Create several of these, preferably as far away from everything else as possible.  To do this, pick something far away to warp to (be careful what you pick though while setting up the safe spots, as you want to avoid dropping out of warp somewhere dangerous while setting up the bookmarks).  Warp to it.  In the middle of your warp, click the add bookmark button.  I'm not certain at what point it actually takes the bookmark location -- the time you press the add bookmark button, or the time you click save.  I just do it quickly, name it something random like "ffff", then go back and edit the bookmark once I get back to somewhere safe.  Just turn right around and warp back to your bookmark you just placed (it is supposed to be a safe spot after all), then edit it.  For added safety, you can go a step further.  Instead of keeping that bookmark, fly back to it, then fly from there to somewhere else and set a second bookmark in the middle of that warp, and make that second spot your safe spot.  Then delete the first.  This is better, because it means your safe spot is no longer directly between two common warp points.  Don't get lazy and only create one safe spot in the system.  Create at least two -- more than two preferably. 

With your safe spots set up, now go add near-gate bookmarks for the other gates in the system.

Now repeat for any neighboring systems that you want to include in your area.  If there is a system loop (series of 3 or more systems that connect in sequence with the last connecting back to the first), make sure to include all the systems in the loop.

Once all your bookmarks are set up, you are ready to operate in the system.

Begin Industrial Operations

It's probably a good idea to always check the system first with your scout ship before flying any mining or industry ships there.  There is the risk that the mere act of scouting will alert clever hostiles that you will be operating in the system soon, but I still think it's better to check first.  See who is in system, and if you think it's sufficiently safe to operate in at the time.  Note where any mobile warp disruption bubbles are near the gates and determine if they intersect any of your paths between gate and your near-gate bookmarks.  If everything looks okay, go get your mining or industry ship.

Once in the system, if any bubbles are blocking your way, just warp to your near-gate bookmark first.  Then warp to your destination from there.  If you have to think about where you are going (didn't decide in advance?), just warp to one of your safe spots next. 

Hopefully the system is empty (look at local chat), but you may find over time that there are some folks you feel safe being in the same system with.  If anyone bad or unknown comes into the system, immediately review their bio to get a feel for what threat they might pose.  You may wish to immediately pack up and fly to one of your safe spots to review the bio, or possibly to wait for them to leave the system (they may just be passing through). 

At your safe spot, if you have cloak, use it; your safe.  But you probably don't, so the rest of this paragraph addresses those without cloaking.  Be ready to jump away quickly to your next safe spot by aligning to it and staying at max speed.  Get your dscan up scanning 360 degrees at maximum range.  Make sure it's configured to pick up both ships and combat probes.  Scan repeatedly.  In particular, you are looking for the combat probes.  If you see combat probes, then they are trying to pinpoint your location in space, and your safe spot won't be safe for much longer.  You have three options at this point.

Evade.  

Did you set up multiple safe spots like I suggested?  Here is a case where you will be glad you did.  Jump randomly from safe spot to safe spot.  It will be nearly impossible for them to pinpoint any of your safe spot locations.  Eventually, one of you will have to give up and do something else.  If they leave, great.  But be weary, they may come back with later with friends or try waiting for you on the opposite side of a gate.  If they don't leave, or you just want to bail, proceed to option 2 or 3.

Escape.  

Try to get through a gate and back to safe space.  Jump to your near-gate bookmark at the gate you want to exit through.  Assuming there is nothing obviously in the way (like new warp bubbles), jump through gate.  On the other side, warp away to safety as soon as possible.  If they are waiting for you at the gate or you suspect some kind of trap, use a different gate and go to a different system.  This may be a bit risky, not knowing what's on the other side, but you already have someone actively hunting you so you are already in imminent danger.  Did you set up bookmarks in this neighboring system?  I hope so.  Same jumping rules apply.  You may find that the hostile gives chase and shows up in the system after you.  Did you pick an area with a loop of systems?  If reversing course seems too dangerous, follow the loop.  Once you get back ground to where you started, you should be able to escape back to safe space.

Log.

If you don't have any timers running on you, it is only supposed to take 1 minute for your ship to warp away to safety after you log off.  If you were about done or have something else to do anyway, warp to a new safe point and log off.  Highly unlikely they will be able to pinpoint you, warp to your location, and attack you in less than a minute.

When Things Go Wrong

This probably goes without saying, but if at any point you feel a safe spot has been compromised, create a new one and delete the old one.

When you know someone is after you, whenever you have a moment of safety, add them as a bad standing contact so you can more easily monitor for them later.  If it's a character you run into often in the area, you might consider adding them to your watch list to monitor when they are online.

If you jump through a gate and find hostiles waiting on the other side, then your situation is not good, and is pretty much the same as for any gate camp (minus the option of waiting for Concord to arrive).  Try to warp away, or probably a better idea, reverse course, hit your microwarpdrive immediately, turn on any active defenses you may have, and try to haul ass back to the gate to jump before they finish you off.  Note that if you take any aggressive acts, it results in a timer being set on you that will prevent you from jumping through the gate.  So don't take hostile action even in defense if you are trying to get through a gate.  Beware of your drones being out and being set to aggressive; this is common for easy NPC rat defense, but could wind up in activating an unwelcome timer on you if attacked by a player.  If this happens and you can get away, just do safe spot jumping until the timer ends.

If your ship is destroyed, make sure to remember to try to warp your pod away immediately after the ship goes.  Might save you some implants and the cost of a new clone.

If you get podded, make sure you upgrade a new clone as needed.

After an attack or if things are just too hot in the area, find something to do elsewhere and try again another day.

If you find you are constantly having problems, often with the same people, it might be time to pack up and find a new home.  Just be careful moving your stuff, and try to stick to high security space in a well tanked ship while moving.  If the value of your stuff is particularly high, consider making several trips, possibly moving the more valuable stuff in something heavily tanked and/or fast; special ops cloak if you can.

Good luck, and have fun!

Why Autopilot Drops Warp 15km From Stargate

If you hang around rookie chat for long, you'll undoubtedly hear the following common question come up from a new pilot:  How do you make Autopilot drop warp closer to the stargate?  The answer of course is:  You can't.  The obvious follow up question is:  Why not?  A fair answer is:  That is the price to be paid, and rightfully so, for the convenience of Autopilot.  Some pilots might find this answer unsatisfying, but most veteran pilots agree with it.  However, for those who want more to the answer, let me provide a bit of lore, straight from my own imagination, as to why this Autopilot handicap exists.  You'll have to forgive me if my lore conflicts with any existing lore, as I am not an expert on Eve lore.

It all started long ago, before Autopilot even existed.  The Gallente ship manufacturers were looking for a way to give their ships an edge in pilot favor over the rival factions.  Many Gallente mining ship captains  were making long treks into Caldari and Amarr space to mine Pyroxeres which was in high demand at the time.  Gallente ship manufacturers saw this as their opportunity to garner favor from tired captains making long journeys by introducing Autopilot.  Autopilot was rushed into service and quickly became a favorite feature among freighter and mining ship captains.  For a time, this gave the Gallente ship manufactures the edge they wanted, but the rival factions were quick to introduce their own versions of Autopilot to even the playing field.  Soon it seemed almost everyone was taking advantage the new Autopilot capability, either on new ships or retrofitted onto older ships.  It was the golden age of Autopilot.  Until the heiress Itania Ferlord of Itamo VI decided to take a voyage to see the Impro ruins on Inaya IX.

The heiress and her companions boarded the family luxury Cruiser which had recently been retrofit with Autopilot.  They left port from Itamo VI and set Autopilot for Inaya IX before heading to the Cruiser lounge to relax.  Everything went fine until they reached the stargate in New Caldari, which was just called Caldari at the time, to jump to Josameto.  This gate link was a key route and bottleneck between vast regions on either side.  Traffic was always heavy at this stargate, but was unusually heavy that day due to a massive trade event in Jita drawing in travelers from far corners of the galaxy. 

As the heiress' Cruiser was coming out of warp at the stargate to Josameto, something went wrong.  The retrofitted Autopilot on the Cruiser was unable to determine a safe drop out of warp.  Some blame the hasty adoption of insufficiently tested Autopilot systems, other blame it on sloppy work of the retrofitters, while still others blame the excessively high traffic all trying to jump into basically the same place at the same time.  Some say it was a combination of all of these factors.  Whatever the cause, the end result was horrific.  The heiress' Cruiser dropped out of warp slightly off the mark and right into the side of the stargate's main power core while the stargate was active with a Trade Delegation Freighter passing from Josameto to Caldari.  The stargate exploded in a massive burst resulting in an uncontrolled subspace surge.  Millions of miles around the area were exposed to the effects of subspace after the subspace corridor containment was lost.  An estimated 37 ships were destroyed in the initial stargate explosion, but that was just the beginning.  The effects of subspace had such great effect on nearby Caldari VI that it fell into a decaying orbit.  Just three days later, Caldari VI was consumed by the Caldari sun.  In addition to the horrors of the immediate losses, economic depression persisted for decades due to the destruction of such a significant stargate corridor. 

Afterwards, Autopilot systems were for a time banned.  Later it was agreed that Autopilot systems would only be allowed if they dropped out of warp at least 15km from stargates.  In more modern times, some say Autopilot is so mature that it would now be safer than manned warps to stargates, but the 15km limit endures nonetheless.  Caldari had been so dramatically affected that it was renamed to New Caldari.  Caldari VI, home to roughly two million settlers, was no more.  Stories survive to this day of horror stories told by survivors who escaped Caldari VI, but official records say that Caldari VI had no survivors.  It took two years for a new stargate to be opened restoring travel between systems, but economics of the region were forever changed.  No one knows what happened to the Trade Delegation Freighter that was in the subspace corridor at the time of the incident, but legend says it dropped out of subspace inside of Caldari V.  Some surveyors and explorers still hunt to this day for this lost ship beneath the crust of New Caldari V.

A Lesson For CODE -- How to be an honorable band of pirates.

The problem with CODE is their lack of proper honor among thieves.  There is a proper way to be a mobster or a pirate, and anything less is being a petty band of thugs.  As I promised, it's time for me to provide the first lesson on purpose, dignity, structure, order, guidance, and leadership.

To be honorable pirates, you must offer something tangible for those you wish to profit from.  Taking CODE's mining permits as a good example, there must be reasonably guaranteed incentive for miners to buy the permits.  Here is how this can be done. 

Set aside a medium to large number of systems for which you will issue mining permits.  Anything outside of this list of systems, the permits do not apply.  A miner can then choose any number of those systems to be included in her permit.  Each system has it's own price, and the expiration of the permit can be flexible as well.  This provides maximum flexibility for the miner to choose where and for how long they wish to be able to mine and provides flexibility to the pirates in deciding which systems are included and charging different rates for different systems.

Just as miners must follow the rules, so must the pirates.  Miners should be explicitly guaranteed that no pirate from within the pirate organization will gank a miner that is operating in a system for which they have a valid permit.  Furthermore, as part of this guarantee, as incidents will happen, whenever a miner is ganked by a member of the pirate organization in a system for which they had a valid permit, that miner will be compensated by the pirate organization for ... lets say ... 125% the value of the mining ship, it's fittings, and cargo.  This assurance gives the contract validity.

Pirates are allowed to bump permit holding miners not responding to chat that they think are AFK.  That and other violations can result in warnings and/or revocation of the mining permit, but permit holders will be notified of permit revocation before any violent actions are taken against the miner.  Furthermore, to avoid abuse or concern of abuse of issuing mining permits and then immediately revoking them, the pirate organization will agree to refund ISK spent on any revoked mining permit.  If you want to get fancy, you can prorate the amount rather than refunding in full.

Pirates must therefore have a spreadsheet or other database of valid permit holders.  I recommend having name lists grouped by system for quick and easy lookup.  If a pirate wants to attack a miner, they check to make sure they are not a valid permit holder.  If they are a valid permit holder, any violation of terms must be dealt with under the rules of the permits. Wrongly attacking a permit holder will likely result in the permit holder reporting the offending pirate to the pirate organization; the pirate organization will then compensate the miner and may optionally take corrective action against the offending pirate. 

Pirates should clearly state that money collected from the permits are used to enforce the good ethics dictated by the permits and cover insurance costs of wrongly attacked miners.  Of course, some of the money will just be going to line the pockets of pirates, but this little nuance need not be mentioned.

This is alot of rules for pirates to deal with, but it makes the racketeering far more palatable to the miners.  You might find the miners become far more cooperative.  Rates and what percentage of miners will pay them, of course, will be subject to what the market can bare. 

Once you start following this practice or one derived from it -- congratulations, you are now honorable pirates.

Why I Mock CODE's Code

So this blog has already seen some page hits.  Time to provide a little more information to clarify my standing.  Alot of those hits come from the gankerbumping blog http://gankerbumping.blogspot.com/.  If you didn't come from there, go check it out*. 

* Cautionary Note:  The owner of gankerbumping blog switched to the side of the gankers towards the end of 2014.  This should be kept in mind when reviewing the content of that blog.

Ultimately, Eve is just a game.  So lets keep our gaming hats on. 

Not long ago, I learned about CODE when someone suggested getting a miners permit.  A what?  A little research lead me to the minerbumping website and the "Code":  http://www.minerbumping.com/p/the-code.html.  Before I got to that web page, I thought maybe it was a legitimate business arrangement.  After, I realized it was not.

Your BS alarms should immediately start going off in your head upon reading over their website.  Two points in particular I will make:

1)  They request a 10 million payment but offer nothing in return, other than maybe not ganking you, nor do they provide any explanation of what that money will be used for (although we can probably guess it's to pay for more ships to gank you with). 

2)  Upon being suicide ganked, the Code says a miner should congratulate the ganker on his success.

That right there should be enough to convince you never to give them any ISK that they don't have to kill you for.

The sad thing is, I agree with a lot of the mining etiquette issues that is part of their Code.  Miners should not be AFK, ganking is part of the game, people should remain mostly courteous and refrain from profanity -- things like this I can agree with.  But expecting a miner to congratulate a ganker?  That's as bad as whining about getting ganked.

I can imagine a business where mining permits would actually make sense.  But this isn't it.  And with nothing offered for your 10 million mining permit nor any indication of how it will serve any good purpose, the 10 million is really just an advanced form of begging.   And with that, CODE, I mock thee.

The Newer Code

There's no denying it, mankind can only reach its full potential through the creation of a civilization. As patriot of Highsec, I am a soldier of the civilizing forces. Highsec gankers may say they come for the challenge or to bump rude AFK miners, but I give them what they really need: Purpose, dignity, structure, order, guidance, leadership. They ask what I am "saving" them from. I save the gankers from themselves.

Without rules, there is no such thing as freedom. By enforcing a system of just laws, I give the gankers liberation from their own worst instincts. And through this process, the gankers can be molded into better people, the kind worthy of joining the new community of EVE. I'm no idealist to believe, firmly, in the integrity of the Code and the Newer Order of Highsec. It's no ideal to me: It is a living, working reality.

What follows is an outline of the Newer Halaima Code of Conduct, the codified set of rules that all gankers in Newer Order territories must obey. Substantial portions of this outline are plagiarised and modified from minerbumping.com. minerbumping.com started back in June 2012, but all of the principles set forth here are timeless. If not, I'll do a quick edit.

THE NEWER HALAIMA CODE OF CONDUCT

Although profit is a motive of any business, I strongly believe that corporations should also seek to make a positive contribution to the community. I would like to think that I "do well by doing good." I realize that there is already a EULA in place that governs player conduct, but in my encounters with highsec gankers, I often find myself wishing that the gankers were of a higher caliber. In my view, many of these gankers could become higher quality EVE players (and generally, better people) if they were simply held to a higher standard. The Newer Halaima Code of Conduct provides that standard.

Consider that I cannot address all gankers simultaneously. Since many gankers will not have purchased their indulgences, I will usually have more than one ganker whom I could choose to reform. So how should I prioritize? Again, the Code provides the answer. Those who consistently violate the Code will be at increased risk of intervention.  Moreover, to ensure the Newer Order community lives up to my expectations, those who already have purchased indulgences may forfeit their place of honour if they violate the Code.

The Newer Halaima Code of Conduct is the product of a truly democratic process. It is open to revision by the entire community. As  citizen of Highsec, I represent all of the individual members of the community and acted as proxy when drafting the newer Code. The Code is also a social compact. This means that everyone who enters Newer Order territory is deemed to have agreed to its terms.

Since the Code is a living, breathing document, it's not possible to fully enumerate all of the rules. But here are some examples of the rules, to help everyone get a sense of its spirit:

- Ganking indulgences may be purchased for 10 million isk per character, and are good for one year, subject to forfeiture.

- Gankers should strive not only to avoid ganking defenseless new citizens, but to avoid even the appearance of newbie ganking.

- pod-targeting behavior is not permitted.

- No AFK loitering allowed. All gankers are expected to remain at their keyboards at all times, and are required to prove their presence by responding in local when requested.

- Newer Order territory is a safe space for miners. Gankers are required to put aside their prejudices and treat miners with respect.

- Upon being suicide ganked, a ganker should apologize to the miner for his cowardice in attacking a civilian ship. A "I'm sorry I'm such a coward" or "I know I am a horrible person" in local is customary.

- No excessive ganking. Gankers should not fall into a routine of ganking all day. I want well-rounded people in my system, not miner-ganking machines.

- Keep local clean. Gankers should be courteous in local and should refrain from the use of profanity.

- Respect for highsec citizens. As a citizen of Highsec, I acted as proxy when drafting this newer Code. Gankers should respect the will exercised by the people.

- The Newer Order of Highsec continues to not recognize the self-elected Savior of Highsec nor the Mittani as the legitimate Chairman of the CSM. This determination remains the rule in all Newer Order territories.

- Prejudice toward minorities is not permitted. For the sake of clarity, this cannot apply to all groups claiming minority status, but only discrete and insular minorities, which are defined as miners, industrialists, and others who oppose highsec ganking of civilian ships.

- If a ganker does not wish to purchase a ganking indulgence, he may still be granted a one-day reprieve, if he is able to admit his unjust bias against miners and appologize to everyone in the local and rookie help channels.

- Red Pen. On my desk there is a sheet of paper. In my desk there is a drawer. Inside this drawer is a Red Pen. If a ganker commits an egregious offense or series of offenses, his name will be written on the paper with the Red Pen. If your name is written in Red Pen, the cost of an indulgence will be tripled and you will be at increased risk of intervention.