Monday 3 December 2012

Keeping safe(r) doing lowsec PI


If you want 100% safe; stay docked in an NPC station in highsec.  The tips below are discovered by a trying to stop a very one sided kill log from getting longer. 

Like wormhole systems, low sec has people 'at home' doing PI, ratting, mining etc.  Also like WH systems, there are hunters wanting to become acquainted with the inside of your ship; though not everyone here will automatically try to find the insides of your pod (only about 3/4's of them)

Low sec systems however have regular hunters, and neighbours you can get to know and like.

Most of the tips from my WH PI safety page still apply.  I am not duplicating them here.  These are some of the differences I can think of for low sec.


If you have a Blockade runner (cloaky hauler), this means you are mostly safe; but check local.  Extra points for being paranoid and warping cloaked to 10k off the customs office and slowboating the rest of the way.

Use a scout. On a single account; with a fast frig, fly in, warp somewhere, warp back to gate; checking local.  Bonus points if you have access to a second account and can leave your scout in there while you bring in your hauler.

If you have not done so already; make a fast aligning bookmark.  Some recommend a huge number of bookmarks for lots of things.  I am sure they are useful; but I have a minimal set.  I use the following bookmarks for safety.
  • Aligned bookmarks inside jump gates.  Ideally a covert ops ship; or a cheap quick ship.  If choosing the cheap/quick option:
    • Afterburner; Microwarp drive or cloak useful
    • At a quiet time (preferably no one in local)
    • Jump through the warp gate; check no-one is in range to shoot you.
    • Consider a cloak;  While cloaked you are immune to to being seen via dscan or on the overview.  It will however take longer (much longer if you use a prototype cloak); and you are not immune to someone sitting cloaked on the line you are taking.
    • Activate MWD/afterburner or cloak.  
    • Fly straight.  Minimum of 150km.  The longer the better (some pirates sit 150km from gate). Keep checking that no-one is in range to shoot you.  
    • Bookmark it. (People & Places; Places; add location)
    • Whenever you jump into system using that jump gate; use your bookmark. 
    • Bonus points if you later use your first bookmark to then make a second (or third) aligned bookmark further away from the gate.
  • Unaligned safe spots.  From your instawarp bookmark:
    • Warp to (100K from) an outer planet;  Part way there drop a bookmark (you can do so mid warp).  Warp back to this point.
    • Warp to another outer planet (again to 100k);  Part way there drop another bookmark. Warp back to this point. If you sit here with a cloak on; you are near impossible to find.
    • Bonus points if you rotate between several safe spots.

Learn how to instawarp. There are two parts two this; cloak  + microwarp drive; (or covert ops cloak) and pre-aligned bookmarks as above.

Chat to the locals.  This is a risk; but most (not all) pilots prefer to shoot anonymous ships rather than people they know.  Keep it polite; and be an 'attentive listener' rather than an 'active talker'.

Look at pilot's security rating.  It is not foolproof; but I have never been shot at by someone with a 3+ security standing.  Players with a standing of -2 or better are unlikely to pod you in low.  Anyone sitting on a gate is either a pirate; allied to a pirate or stupid.

Keep your friends close; but your enemies closer;  Add anyone who kills you to your watch list. 


4 comments:

  1. I've done quite a lot of ninja PI and after trying a few different approaches I came up with the following:

    - cargo space is all. Each trip is a risk and more space means less trips. Iteron V or Mammoth are great choices.

    - the blockade runners simply require too many trips to be fun. (At least on the wholesale scale I was operating).

    - everything except collecting goo from the poco and jumping through stargates should be done cloaked at a safe.

    - every stargate is a risk. This led me to eventually move my operation to a nullsec system next to Empire so I'd only have one dangerous gate to get through. If I were operating in low sec I'd be next to high sec.

    - use perches off the gate so you can land and look before you leap. Cloak immediately if someone's there.

    - the smaller the volume the smaller the danger. Export P2s or P3s from each planet.

    - the gate will always clear eventually if you're patient.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Grr. Some of the comments from stabs are now in the correctly linked 'WH safety page' (WTB Editor).

    I agree 100% that gates are dangerous; pocos less so; and from my experience NPC stations are almost safe.

    I *don't* like the costs of doing single planet P2 (or heaven forbid P3) PI; the planets are less effective with multiple extractor heads; either that or you need to swap what resource your extractors are picking up now; and continuously swap between them.

    I do spend a lot of time hauling P1 between customs offices and station (or now POS) in a larger Iteron; and only take high value mats out with the Viator.

    Some systems are just busy. My own lowsec system that I used was camped 23/7 for about 4 months. Sometimes by friendlies; other times by less than friendly. I moved.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OK, here's how to do single planet P2. Command Centre, Spaceport, Extractor. Put about 8 basics and 2 advanced. One extractor hoovering one type of resource to the port. One the port is about 75-80% full switch to the other resource needed to make the P2.

    With Command Centre Upgrades V I was getting about 7 heads for my extractor depending how far it needed to stretch to get a good spot.

    I now extract P1s using a similar set up and it's about 8-10 heads. So about 30% better. But this is in sov null where I can see enemies in Local and where most residents are blue. In wormhole space I'd definitely recommend P2, being a little worse isk/hour in exchange for much smaller cargo which equates to less risk.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the single conversion from p0-p1, p1-p2, and p2-p3. The key being to have more factory production ability necessary than what you can extract. That way if you have to skip a pickup day and just reset the extractors because of reds or a time constraint you can easily "catch up" the production. In any PI setup buffering is your friend and will give you the ability to balance your convenience and output. The predictability of a fixed schedule is to be avoided.

    ReplyDelete

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