Serious Thukking Business

My alliance mate Namamai came out with another awesome solo frigate video earlier, check it out:

EVE-Files DL

Well, here it goes. I’ve officially opened up recruitment for my long overdue Thukker roleplaying corporation. You can see the recruitment posts on Backstage and the EVE-O forums. I’d appreciate it if any of my readers know of people who might be interested in Thukker stuff throw them my way.

Full Text Below:

IC Description:

“The Amarr tried to ‘Reclaim’ us. They failed. Now it is time for us to reclaim who we once were. Freemen, roaming the wilds.”

- The Thukker Chronicles : Exodus

Loke’s Shadow [ROKKR] is a group of Thukker outriders who primarily operate in null-security regions beyond the tribe’s home in the Great Wildlands. As outriders the corporation works independently of the caravans that form the core of the Thukker Tribe; as such Loke’s Shadow relies on raiding and smuggling to fund its undertakings and maintain mobility.

Who we are / what we are about (OOC info):

Loke’s Shadow is a Thukker roleplaying corporation and a member of the Rote Kapelle alliance. The aim of the corporation is to have a tight-knit group of roleplayers who are committed to excellence in small gang and individual combat. As part of Rote Kapelle our main emphasis is on small gang (~6-20 pilots) roaming primarily in null-sec (currently basing out of Syndicate), although we also visit low-sec and wormhole space on occasion.  ROKKR is also involved in smuggling, both as defined by game mechanics (contraband) and as a function of players restricting access to areas of space (null-sec smuggling: i.e. shiny modules and ships). The corporation is eagerly anticipating the proposed change to smuggling gameplay which may give us yet another avenue for PvP engagements.

To facilitate PvP excellence our alliance forums and wiki have a plethora of information on ship fittings, tactics, and after action reports to help create even more pretty ship explosions for all to enjoy. Rote Kapelle is an NBSI alliance with an extremely limited blue list and is dedicated to small gang PvP in all conditions and at all times.

While Rote Kapelle is first and foremost a PvP organization, ROKKR is a roleplaying corp, and our members are expected to partake in those activities. We play with the expectation that corp chat is in-character, but accept that alliance chat will be OOC.

As self-respecting outriders we do not mine ever and will not burden ourselves with the maintenance of static infrastructure like POS towers or anything associated with sovereignty.

What Loke’s Shadow offers:

• Frequent small gang PvP.
• PvP training (both via alliance resources and corporate leadership).
• Alliance logistics for getting assets in and out of theatre.
• Smuggling operations.
• Roleplaying opportunities.
• Jump Clones.
• Active killboard and forums.

What we require of recruits:

• Self-sufficiency: all members must be capable of keeping themselves in combat ships without corporate ISK-making activities. We do help reimburse losses during gangs from loot dropped, but that does not always cover costs.
• A focus on PvP with a willingness to constantly strive to improve performance and the maturity to listen to advice and criticism when it is presented.
• Interest in roleplaying (no previous experience required).
• Consistent participation in combat operations.
• Prospects must be 18 years or over.
• Has a working microphone and Teamspeak 3 capability.

Skillpoint Requirements:

At this time there are no explicit skillpoint requirements to join Loke’s Shadow, however we do not take trial accounts and expect around one to two months experience in game prior to joining. If accepted it is expected that applicants be willing to devote training time to flying an interceptor competently, if they do not have the skills already.

Applying to Loke’s Shadow:

Interested applicants should contact Misan Pal’taek in-game via either EVE-mail or the ‘Loke’s Shadow Public’ channel with any questions or to arrange an interview at a mutually convenient time.

Player Contacts & Channels:

Misan Pal’taek – CEO

‘Sjalfradr Hideaway’ – In-character public meeting place and lounge

‘Loke’s Shadow Public’ – Out of Character public channel

Killboard – http://rotekapelle.com/killboard

Welp. All the ~monoclegate~ stuff really killed my momentum both for blogging and for getting my corp off the ground. Had a post-CSM meeting thing I wanted to write up, but others have already covered it quite well, and it is a bit too late now to bother with it anyway. So instead to get the blog rolling again here are not one but two PvP videos from Kovorix from Matari Exodus: Tempestuous  (EVE-files DL) and Everlasting (EVE-files DL). Sadly due to length and quality they aren’t up on youtube so I can’t link them directly here. Both videos are excellent and I’m having a hard time deciding which one I like better. Tempestuous has a bunch of good fights using the Typhoon and Tempest (Everlasting has some Tempest goodness too) which makes me lean a bit towards it, but both have some epic fights, the first Tempest clip in Tempestuous and Claymore fight in Everlasting in particular. Check them out, they make a good case for the viability of local tank fits for solo roaming even on BC and BS hulls. I may have to fiddle around with a Claymore in EFT now thanks to Everlasting. Before this I didn’t even remotely consider fitting one out as anything but a fleet booster.

Time to start up a new category of blog post here, the PvP video feature. I have a sizable stash of EVE videos, many of which are focused on PvP that I figure I may as well post some about, especially the more recent entries. The first one (youtube version linked above) is Combat Covops, which was done very recently by one of my awesome alliance mates: Namamai. The title makes it pretty clear what ships you will be seeing, and I was happy that Nam got good footage of all four of the covert ops ships (Buzzard, Cheetah, Helios, and Anathema). Definitely worth a watch for anyone. Maybe next time you run into a covops solo you might think twice about engaging.

Check below for downloadable versions.

HQ Download 1 (eve-files):

HQ Download 2

Original FHC Post

Saw a new posting meme started by where the frack is my ship? and the killmail whore in me couldn’t resist having a look at my own stats. The eve-kill stats seem to be missing ~200 kills of mine when compared to Battleclinic, but the latter doesn’t have long term ship type tracking so I will stick with the eve-kill stats.

Hurricane – 95

Once I got T2 medium ACs trained this became my go to ship for DPS unless it was a battleship op. Started out using it while I was in FW and have continued to always keep at least one (or two for armor and shield versions) on hand. Such a versatile ship, it does armor gank beautifully, does a good job as a relatively nano shield BC, and is one of the best options for suicide ganking haulers. Sad to say my current ‘cane has been gathering dust due to being able to fly more useful niche or support ships.

Malediction -  94

This little guy has been my preferred scout and tackler for at least the past year. Amazingly only lost a couple of them ever, and those were all suicidal tackle/bait attempts (e.g. hanging around a dramiel/vaga fleet). The DCU+SAR fit has survived multiple attempts by Taranii at chewing my face off before the fleet arrives. I still have one with large rigs on it…only real disadvantage to how I fit mine is the lack of buffer.

Stiletto – 87

I got my first Stiletto after I suicidally threw my claw into a 5 man interceptor gang during my time in E-Uni. One of the older pilots (Acacia Incana) was kind enough to give me one for free and I think I still have that very same ship. Through my entire time in FW it was my primary choice for tackle and usually scouting. How I didn’t lose it is beyond me now. I feel like I should refit my old ones up and fly them around some.

Sabre -  85

Weird, I only started flying this when I joined Rote Kapelle, but it has pretty quickly jumped to my most used ship on our killboard (up to 98 kills, not 85). Having a bubbler with our gangs is almost always essential and I somehow always end up volunteering to handle it if I’m not scouting. After losing my first couple of these I think I’ve finally learned how to not get killed in them all the time. Decent solo ships too, though I haven’t personally used them much for that.

Abaddon -  75

While I was in SF the Abaddon became the ideal ship for use with titan bridging onto enemies (mostly station-huggers) and also preferred in general due to its high resists and massive buffer. Outside of that I haven’t used the ship much, we don’t have the numbers to pull off the Hellcat fleet style and the Abaddon has such shitty cap (and less DPS) that the Armageddon is more appealing.

Curse – 75

I love this ship. On most nano style roams I will find myself flying this due to the sheer utility it brings to the table between the neuts and tracking disruption. Definitely one of the more difficult ships to fly well, given how much there is to micromanage. It also gets a special place in my heart because it was what I flew when we got the Titan kill.

Rupture – 64

Aside from the Rifter this is probably the first real ship I flew consistently. Lost a bunch of them as a newb while running missions and so many more during FW. It is the only T1 cruiser I’ve flown with any sort of regularity, which should say something for it’s effectiveness. We don’t use T1 cruisers much anymore however, so I don’t even have one fitted up in the hangar right now…may have to remedy that.

Rapier -  58

Before I learned to love the Curse I flew the Rapier all the time. For over a year it was my main “scout around low-sec” ship of choice. Amazingly enough I have only ever owned one Rapier, and it is still alive. Most of my kills with it were during our little Providence raiding “vacation” after I put some Fed Navy webs on it. Love the 70+km web range.

Vagabond -  54

With the whole Thukker angle now this is the signature ship, despite that I don’t fly it as much as I would like. Usually now it is what I will pick on short notice if we need DPS fast, but during fleet form-up I tend to offer up either the Curse or the Sabre…so it isn’t surprising that it gets less use.

Drake -  53

I kinda hate that this ship even shows up here. I bought one ages ago just to have it and it was gathering dust, so I decided to take it to the Kirith Kodachi carrier event in low-sec. Little did I know that I would get this many kills just from that operation. Haven’t used it since.

Jaguar -  42

For a while I used the Jaguar as my low-sec scout of choice, with a couple of nanos it was very difficult to tackle and was still one tough little guy to take down. I’ve found it has less utility now in mixed null-sec fleets, so I rarely take it out anymore. I think it may be time to refit it for some solo work.

Taranis -  38

This guy and the Vagabond were the main ships I picked when roaming around Providence during our vacation. It is usually the ship I’ll pick if we need a little extra DPS and I’m playing catch up to a fleet in progress. I wish I could say I’ve done much dog fighting with it, but I haven’t.
Deimos -  34

This ship is slowly growing on me. It’s nickname of “Diemost” is for the most part well earned, but despite that we have been using them successfully against our enemies. Originally I had an alt flying this ship, but she kept dying (surprise surprise) in pretty much every fleet probably thanks to the name starting with a C…so I trained up T2 blasters since I already Gallente Cruiser V courtesy training for the Cynabal. Speaking of which, the Cynabal is not listed here, but it is on my most used ships in Rote. Eve-kill doesn’t pick up every kill we get it seems.

Harbinger -  33

Good BC, rarely flew it because the Hurricane was just better in many ways. Hell, it wouldn’t be on this list if it weren’t for the slaughterfest earlier today. That said, as an armor BC I’m beginning to like it more than the Hurricane, mostly because of crystals being so easy to swap.

Armageddon -  25

My main RR BS right now. Beautiful ship, if totally suicidal to fly in a big fight. Easily gets over 1000 DPS even when firing Scorch. It also has less problems with running out of cap, unlike the Abaddon.

Typhoon -  22

My first BS ever. I still am missing a couple skills to be able to fly it close to perfectly…hasn’t seen much use since I transitioned into using Amarr BS primarily, except as a mission hunter (via kill rights) which netted me a couple Golem kills solo.

Hound -  21

Uhh, bombing things on rare occasions and the very rare (and rather boring) Black Ops bridges got this up here. Not a huge fan of the ship anymore, but you can do some pretty funny things with them while solo.
Broadsword – 17

The Sabre’s big brother, not called for often, but I do sometimes end up flying it when we are rolling in a heavier (and slower) shield fleet.

Tempest -  15

This guy can be fit to be about as agile as a hurricane while having ~60km range with barrage AND packing two heavy neuts to peel off tacklers. I get to fly it occasionally when going out in shield BC fleets just due to the DPS it brings to the field.

Ishkur – 11

I have two or three of these fit, but don’t fly them nearly as often as I would like. Mostly for the same reasons I mentioned with the Jaguar. Another candidate for ships to lose while soloing when I have some time later.

All the stats are from here. For comparison my stats in Rote Kapelle are here. Kind of interesting to see how ship usage has shifted over time.

Ship		Kills
	Hurricane Battlecruiser	95
	Malediction Interceptor	94
	Stiletto Interceptor	87
	Sabre Interdictor	85
	Abaddon Battleship	75
	Curse Recon ship	75
	Rupture Cruiser	64
	Rapier Recon ship	58
	Vagabond Heavy assault	54
	Drake Battlecruiser	53
	Jaguar Assault frigate	42
	Taranis Interceptor	38
	Deimos Heavy assault	34
	Harbinger Battlecruiser	33
	Armageddon Battleship	25
	Typhoon Battleship	22
	Hound Covert ops	21
	Broadsword Heavy Interdictor	17
	Tempest Battleship	15
	Ishkur Assault frigate

I’ve spent a decent amount of time flying around now with the hotkey setup I made in this post. The setup itself works, but I have found myself rarely using the navigation hotkeys. Admittedly this is partly due to habit. However, there are a couple of major things that bother me about using the navigation hotkeys instead of the selected items window (or right click). For one they don’t feel as responsive as they should be. Usually I found myself spamming the same key 4-5 times to make sure it actually registered the command. In a similar vein the WDA text area below the HUD is overwritten when holding down any of these keys, which can make it difficult to tell when you’ve actually entered warp/jumped. The real kicker for me is that the hotkeys don’t consistently work while holding down a push-to-talk key for comms (this applies to weapon hotkeys too). So, in the end I’ve unbound all but jump/dock and retasked those keys for use with modules. The new setup looks like this:

Ignoring slots 7/8 is intentional

Naturally overheat is still shift+hotkey. I’ve left E and D out for now as those are typically my movement keys and I haven’t thought up a good replacement use for them. Maybe approach and align? S and F still remain as next/last target. I could technically have dedicated 1-5 to the bottom rack, but opted not to. The only mods I want on the bottom rack are one click use or rarely used ones (DCU, probes, etc). Exception is the cloak which I’ve set to 6 to keep it hotkeyed, but put it far enough away that it would be difficult to double tap the key. Keys 1-3 are now for drone control, instead of the more finger-jutsu intensive Ctrl-1-3.

Now for the UI:

Click me for full-size

I’ve kept most things where they were. The major changes are the relocated drone windows and watch list. I never actually use all the keys in any given rack, so I opted to squish the drone window in between the modules and selected items. Awesome place for it now, as it’s much easier to keep an eye on drone health and launch different flights since it is right next to the selected items window. I moved the watchlist down next to the fleet/scanner window. Now it should be easier as a Logi pilot to keep an eye on broadcasts and the watchlist at the same time. I had to swap the target orientation to horizontal again to fit the watchlist in, but it appears to be better as the middle of the screen now feels less cluttered.

Not directly related, but I moved a bunch of chat channels to a dedicated tab that stays minimized during fleet. Now the desire to click on blinky buttons can actually be productive (e.g. checking intel channels, not OOC) for once…

Got around to updating the guide earlier than expected. Rather than simply adding it as another new post I’ve edited the original one here. Thankfully minimal grammar and spelling edits. Updated the PDF on eve-files as well (link is on the original post).

Brief rundown of what was added:

• Added further detail to scout ship selection. The last three paragraphs are completely new.
• Added a blurb about static scouts in the types section.
• Expanded the overview & scanning section to include some basic details of using probe equipped ships.
• The overview section now includes a basic recommendation for what to include on a scouting overview.

Almost wanted to add more detail to using D-scan and the system scanner, but it would make this guide far too long and those have been covered well by others. Plus I’d rather not need to add in pictures to this already long guide. May decide to try to flesh out the details of picking good scout ships further if I have another look at it. May be unlikely as it is difficult to delve further without going into the details of fleet types, compositions, and objectives of the fleet…pretty much another post right there on an area I’m much more unfamiliar with.

Comments and criticism appreciated as always.

Update: Added a small segment about EAFs as I totally neglected to include them. Thanks go to Logan for spotting that omission.

Quick post as I doubt hotkeys are of enough interest to warrant writing more than a paragraph or two about the changes.

Overall I have to say that the changes are good. I’ve finally been able to rebind F1-F8 to more reachable keys. At a bit of a loss for why almost everything but opening cargo containers and wrecks can have a hotkey now however. I almost could have stashed the selected item somewhere and not used it at all if those were bindable…That said, being able to unlock targets without fiddling with the right-click menu is simply awesome (default bind now should be CTRL+SHIFT I believe). A bit difficult to get used to needing to hold down the hotkey and clicking in space to use the approach, warp, and similar navigational commands. Also there is a small but disconcerting delay for notice messages with them, largely because the usual jump or warp text above the HUD is hidden while the hotkey is held down. It results in me comically spamming the button far more than necessary. Very annoying that they decided to rebind certain things like ‘show special brackets’ and pulling up the fitting window for no apparent reason. Though ended up redoing most of them anyway. Brief list of potentially relevant useful bindings below:

High-slots: 1-8 (Overheat per slot rebound to shift+#)

Overheat Racks: F1-F3 (High/Mid/Low)

Align: V – Approach: A – Warp: W – Orbit – R – Keep at Range: Z – Dock/Jump/Activate: G

Speed Keys Accel: – E Decel: D – Full Speed: Shift-E - Stop remains Ctrl+Space

Previous/Next Target are S and F respectively (very useful)

Open Cargohold: C

Strangely enough this scheme is actually a hold over from the same hotkey scheme I used in WoW/WAR for a long time, the fact that things like approach and open cargo hold share logical letters with their keys was almost entirely coincidence. Actual choices were based on how quickly each key could be pressed based on previous experience with the setup.

Anyway, not the most interesting blog post. I’ve been quite busy dealing with school work and getting some professional certifications done over the past month so haven’t had much time to think about blogging, let alone actually sit down and write a whole post. Next up I will be doing some revisions and tweaks to the scouting guide. I received several good suggestions and recommendations on what to add. Scouting fit doctrine has also shifted a bit at least with respect to null-sec roaming since I originally wrote the guide. May see it up this weekend if I have sufficient time to spare.

I’ve seen a lot of guides and discussion about how to setup your overview for combat. What I haven’t seen much of is discussion about the UI as a whole, and especially not how to make a good, efficient, layout. While the EVE UI cannot be customized as much as the UI in other MMOs (WoW and WAR in particular), CCP does provide us with a number of options to tweak the look and functionality of the interface. Having a well configured interface can contribute to better performance in combat. This post will look at my own UI configuration and the reasoning behind the setup of the windows. It is unlikely that many will find my exact setup useful, either due to screen resolution or their own preferences and habits. I hope that outlining the thought process and reasoning behind my layout will help you improve upon your own setup.

I suppose actually showing the setup may be helpful (click the image for full-size):

To begin, the primary goal of setting up the UI in this way was to minimize the amount of mouse movement necessary between the more important UI elements. Some secondary objectives were to also minimize eye movement necessary during combat and to provide as much information as possible without excessive clutter. Keeping all of the UI elements essential to combat close together was the most important part of the setup. In my view the main elements that should take priority over all others are: Selected Items, Overview, Targets, the HUD circle, and Drones. These five elements  will be in use no matter what kind combat (or mining, I suppose) you are participating in. Yes, drones are a slight exception, but having the window close to the rest will prove beneficial should you need to use them (more likely than not).

I find the position of Selected Items (SI for short) relative to the Overview and Targets to be critical. My placement of SI above the overview and near the targets means I don’t have to move my mouse far to select a new target (from either the overview or locked targets) and then use the approach, orbit, or lock buttons. Especially useful when dealing with invulnerability timers, as it’s easier to spam the SI lock button than to continuously Ctrl+click to lock. Targets placed vertically next to the overview makes it easy to cross-reference who you have locked vs. the targets on field. It also speeds up unlocking old targets and selecting new ones (great for drones).

A quick note on the overview. It is helpful to have it as tall as you can make it (within reason) and wide enough to include the columns you need to see. In my case I couldn’t expand the overview enough to include a corp ticker column, but the information isn’t as important so tweaking the UI further would have been a waste. For reference I have IC, Name, Distance, Velocity, Type, Angular velocity, and Alliance Ticker included on the overview. Angular fits easier than transversal when you are short on space. They provide the same type of information so choosing one or the other is a matter of preference.

Keeping the HUD circle and modules display right next to the locked targets is hugely beneficial. For the clickers out there it speeds up target switching. If you primarily use hotkeys it keeps your eyes close to your own ships health while you gleefully watch your enemies defenses fail them, wouldn’t want to find yourself in hull all of a sudden and not notice because you were too focused on the enemy now would you? The proximity of the drones window to the HUD was partly chosen because I had no other place to put it. Though it turned out to be a good spot. You can watch the status of your drones without distancing yourself too much from your ship and module status. It may be a bit further from locked targets than some may like, but in my case I run drones almost entirely through hotkeys (aside from deploy) so it’s less of an issue personally.

Now for the less prominently featured windows. First, the scanner: it is positioned as close to the overview as possible without blocking important parts of the screen or compromising it’s information value. The fleet window is stacked with the scanner. In most situations you will either need to see the fleet window (for broadcasts) or the scanner (scouting and smaller gang work) so you don’t lose much functionality by grouping them together. The watch list is placed as close to the targets and modules as it could be without looking ugly and out of place. Because the names on the watch list will start to blink red when taking fire, it is easier to monitor it passively (changes in color and movement attract the eye) even though it isn’t as close to the other windows. The local window is kept thin and has some room to be expanded vertically for those really busy systems. Nothing much to say about the main chat window, it’s in a unobtrusive spot that can be kept open so you can keep an eye on fleet chat and intel channels.

Just a few more closing comments on the overall setup. You may have noticed that none of the windows actually touch the edge of the screen. Keeping about 10-15px of space between the window and the border leaves room for you to see the brackets at the edge of the screen when panning the camera around. I have to thank Bacchanalian for pointing this out, an immensely helpful tip. When moving the targets around, it’s really useful to be able to lock more than six targets. The 7^th target is displayed on a second column or row, sometimes these can show up under existing windows if you aren’t careful. Test this out before using a setup in combat, at least for the sake of future expansion (e.g. you start flying logistics). Just locking a bunch of things on a station or logging on to Sisi before committing to the changes would be a good idea.

As with any change of this sort there may be a short adjustment period as you familiarize yourself with the new setup and adapt your habits and muscle memory. Once you get past that the new (improved) UI setup should feel completely natural and hopefully more efficient.

Post up your own setups or thoughts on mine in the comments section.

Update:  I’ve had several people ask me about how I got my UI setup this way. There are only two less obvious settings which you need to know to move it into these positions. Moving the HUD circle and moving or modifying the alignment of the target list. The HUD circle is pretty quick, just click the arrow below the circle and there will be an option to ‘Align Top’ (example here). For moving the targets around you may need to minimize the surrounding windows first to see the anchor. Just right click it and the option should be there. Everything else is a matter of moving windows around. It’s helpful to turn the snap distance of the windows to a minimum (under Esc > General Settings > Windows) of 3px to keep windows from gluing together unless you want them to.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time scouting throughout my EVE career. During my time flying with Star Fraction I wrote up a guide on fleet scouting which received many positive comments. Recently I  gained some more experience with roaming null-sec gangs and null-sec scouting in general while flying with Rote Kapelle. Decided to have a look over it again and update it. The version I’m about to link is the result of those efforts. I wouldn’t say it’s an exhaustive guide, but it should address all the major elements of being a good scout.

The PDF version is over at EVE-files, download it here. Alternatively I posted a copy of it on the new OOC forum, EVE-Inspiracy.com which I encourage anyone interested in role playing or EVE related fiction to check out. Take the time to register and join the discussions, it’s a new community venture which should become a great resource for the RP community as a whole.

Check out the guide after the break. Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Why Scout?

Effective scouts are a critical component for any successful fleet. As a scout you serve as the eyes and ears of the Fleet Commander. With good scouting the FC is able to choose his engagements wisely and avoid unfavorable fights. Scouting can be done by anyone, and good scouts will be welcome in any fleet. Also, you will be one of the few people with the privilege to use voice comms throughout an op, something for more narcissistic people to keep in mind.

I encourage everyone to at least give scouting a try and see if you like it.

What Do I Need?

The two things any good scout needs are a ship and a working microphone. Clarity of scouting reports is essential, so be sure your mic is setup properly before the op.

Scouting Ships

There are many different ships that can be used to scout with. They are listed here in rough order of preference with the first entry being best and bottom worst. Naturally this is not set in stone and the optimal scout will vary somewhat with the fleet composition and goals of the fleet commander for the operation (e.g. Rote Kapelle almost always uses tackle interceptors as primary scouts). Note: This order pertains primarily to forward scouts. There is more leeway with the other positions, and floating/static scouts are usually more useful if they can cloak. I’ve left off T3 for now, though technically they can make absurdly good scouting platforms, especially in null sec. T3′s place on the list depends heavily on how they are fit. Cloaking and bubble immune setups are comparable to Recons as scouts, and they can be configured to probe as well. Bubble-immune T3 have horrible agility however, which weakens their viability as forward scouts. Probe fit T3 may have limited utility for combat however, as they lose some fitting viability for PvP. Useful if you have them around, but they should not be considered for primary scout positions in the majority of fleet compositions.

• Tackle Specialized Interceptors (Stiletto, Malediction, Ares, Raptor)
• Dramiel (more of a tie with tackle ‘ceptors)
• Combat Interceptors (Claw, Crusader, Taranis, Crow)
• Other Faction Frigates (depends heavily on fittings)
• Covert Ops Frigates (Buzzard, Helios, Cheetah, Anathema)
• Force Recon Ships (Rapier, Arazu, Pilgrim, Falcon)
• Electronic Attack Frigates (primarily Keres and Hyena)
• Frigates, speed fit with MWD (Just about any will work)
• Assault Frigates (Jaguar, Hawk, Harpy)
• Interdictors (Sabre, Eris, Flycatcher, Heretic)
• Cynabal & Vagabond (in that order)
• Stealth Bombers (Manticore, Hound, Purifier, Nemesis)

Tackle interceptors are first on the list as they offer an ideal combination of mobility, survivability (if fit properly), and to top it off they have bonuses to warp disruptor and scrambler ranges. Covert Ops frigates and other covert ops cloaking ships are the optimal (non-forward) scouting ships because they can observe enemy groups without alerting them to their presence. This means you can happily sit on grid and directly observe movements, including alignment, gate positioning, and even the gun fittings in some cases. Covert Ops and Recon ships are capable of fitting probe launchers, which is a bonus for anyone willing to train up Astrometrics to can bust safe spots and catch missioners, which is an awesome ability to have in any gang.

Interceptors and Frigates are next up, all of them can be extremely agile and nigh uncatchable. In a pinch Interceptors/Frigates/AFs can serve as fast tackle or back tackle when needed, making them an ideal addition to smaller gangs. The tackle role interceptors are best here because they have the fastest warp speeds in-game, plus a bonused warp disruptor range, but in a pinch the combat fit interceptors can also work if they have a warp disruptor fitted. Until it gets nerfed the Dramiel is an amazing scouting and all around combat ship. The other faction frigates vary much more heavily. Though if they are MWD fit they should all be reasonable scouts. The combat interceptors are still much faster than frigates, but fitting them with a long-range point tends to detract from their usual fitting doctrine (excluding the Crusader and Crow), plus it’s hard to not feel a bit kill horny when flying one. Scouting frigates should emphasize speed over tank in their fits, though some tank is essential to survive bad bubble camps and maintaining tackle long enough for backup to arrive.

The Electronic Attack ships, specifically the Keres and the Hyena can do a good job as scouts provided they have sufficient tank and a long point at minimum. On the whole though EAFs are quite frail and aren’t nearly as useful as a proper interceptor scout. Additionally in most cases an EAF’s EWAR role is much better served by the equivalent Recon Ship 9 times out of 10. Assault Frigates are an odd category, because they serve a dual role of scout and forward fast tackle and “bait.” Most Assault Frigates are not good scouts, because they compromise their strengths in order to move quickly. The Jaguar is the best for this role, though the other natively shield tanked AFs, the Harpy and Hawk may also be able to pull it off.

The Cynabal aligns about as fast as a frigate, hits about 3km/s, and destroys tackle. It makes for a great scouting ship in a pinch. Same thing can be said for the Vagabond, minus the frigate level agility. Stealth Bombers are sub-optimal as scouts, the only reason they are viable is the ability to run a Covert Ops cloak. Too fragile to maintain tackle and cannot be fit with a probe launcher without compromising the combat fit. This is why they are at the bottom of the list.

As a note, in many gang types there won’t be a strong emphasis on having a probing or cloaking forward scout, especially in smaller gangs. In those cases a scout equipped for combat becomes more useful to the gang than a prober (though they are still awesome to have on hand). For that role the Force Recons (and T3) drop below the frigate hulls for scout duty, as their lower scan resolution and recloaking delay make them weak general purpose tacklers. Bombers are pretty much useless as a forward tackle scout.

Additionally a serious consideration for any scout that may hold tackle for the gang is to have sufficient survivability (and cap stability) to keep a target pointed until the gang arrives. It also goes without saying that any viable scout MUST be fit with a long range point at minimum. Ships only fit with a warp scrambler are not suitable scouts, unless of course you are a fan of constantly blue-balling your fleets with missed tackles…

Types of Scouts

There are four basic types of scouting positions, forward, back, floating, and static scouts. The forward scout (sometimes referred to as the primary scout) is the most common type, and one that every gang should have before undocking. Forward scouts stay one jump ahead of the main fleet and follow the route to whatever destination the FC has set. As a general rule, unless hostiles are present in the system the forward scout should remain just one jump ahead of the fleet, waiting on the exit gate until the fleet enters that system before continuing to the next one. It is the forward scout’s job to act as initial tackle in the majority of situations.

Back scouts remain one jump behind the fleet, keeping an eye out for hostile gangs that are approaching from behind. Having a back scout is extremely useful, especially as this scout can serve as back tackle for the gang without compromising their primary role. The third type, the floating scout, is a more autonomous role. Your job as a floating scout is to search away from the fleet’s current route to find any targets of opportunity. FC’s can sometimes forget about where the floating scout is, so occasionally check in and report your current location and status, even if nothing of interest has shown up. Static scouts serve a similar role to the floating scout, the only practical difference is they remain in a fixed system and report changes there.

How to Scout

Scouting is all about being able to present up to the minute intelligence in as succinct and clear a way as possible. To that end every scout should strive to perfect their reporting skills, to quote a teacher of mine “What makes perfect? Perfect practice.” Work on doing as much as you can right every time you step up to scout, and you’ll find yourself doing it automatically in no time, and many of the skills will transfer to other combat roles including fleet command.

A few general points before getting into the details: a) keeping your ship alive is a priority, don’t put yourself in harms way unless directly ordered to by your FC b) when reporting always remain calm, a panicked or excited report is much harder to understand, and subtly influences the moods of the fleet and fleet commander (this applies to FCs as well) and c) relax and have fun, if you aren’t enjoying scouting than you should be doing something else.

Voice Comms

Voice comms are your primary means of talking to the fleet commander. While this is the best way to get information to the fleet, there are limitations to them. Remember this: there is a limit to how much information a single report should contain, after the 6-7th piece of info it will all start going in one ear and out the other for the FC (or at least for me). As a general rule, do not report exact fleet compositions over voice, there is simply no way for the FC to process that information efficiently. If there are more than 6 ships on field, do NOT report ship types on voice. Ballpark numbers are OK to use though, e.g. “Auga, Amamake Gate, Hostile Gang with 5 BCs 2 Interceptors and a guardian at 0″ is fine. Now, onto the most important part, syntax and report order for voice comms.

Generally when reporting intel, avoid interrupting the FC unless it is URGENT. If there is something that must be heard, precede the report with “Check check” and it will be recognized as critical information.

When entering a new system, keep this order of significance in mind: Local -> Grid -> Max Range Scan -> (Conditional) Shorter-range scan. You should always try and report intel in that order. In most cases it should take you about 30 seconds (max) to report the condition of the system, unless there is a significant hostile presence. When reporting the local count (total first), the priority should be reporting numbers of war targets, reds, then neutrals In the interest of efficiency, estimation is often better if you’re dealing with a large local count (do NOT do this with war targets).

Now for the fun part, reporting syntax:

On-grid reports:

Your pilot name > System Name > Celestial you are near (station, gate, planet, etc) > [Intel Report] — Be sure to note if there are different hostile gangs present, their location relative to the gate, and if they are currently engaged.

Scan Reports:

Your pilot name > System Name > “From <celestial> [Intel Report] is on scan in direction of X” or similar. Note: When doing a 360 scan, it doesn’t have to always be reported, only if you suspect a pounce or hostile gang, otherwise it is just noise.

Local Reports:

Your pilot name > System Name > Local has W total, X WTs, Y reds, Z neutrals.

A note about reporting on outlaw players, when reporting reds and neutrals, be sure to use the term “outlaw” not “negative ten” when referring to pilots under -5 sec status. So an engageable target would be reported as a “red (or -10) outlaw Hurricane is jumping to you” or “Misan Auga Amamake Gate neutral outlaw gate camp with 10 BS and HICtor support at 0.”

When there isn’t anything on grid, as you jump in, the standard report is “Inbound Clear” and for the exit gate “Outbound clear”. For local reports, “system is empty” and “local has X pilots, all neutral” are also useful.

Text Comms

Text based reporting is primarily done for two things, first is hostile fleet compositions, and second is miscellaneous details that don’t need to be reported on voice. There is no super-efficient way to do text based fleet composition reporting, especially with overview and scan sorting having significant limitations on the order of ship types. For reporting fleet compositions, the recognized standard is to report the number of each ship type on field (2x, 5x, etc) then the name of the ship. If you are able to observe the hostile fleet on grid without putting yourself at risk, sort the overview by type and report it from there. Otherwise the best way is to use the directional scanner. If on grid, you can sort the scan results by distance to reduce reporting non-hostiles, and if off grid you should get a <30 degree scan on the fleet (5 degree is optimal) and use that to report it. Scan results persist through systems provided you don’t hit scan again, so if you land on a hostile gang, hit scan then jump through and report it after you are safe.

Typing these lists out can be a pain, but don’t rush it otherwise you’ll probably have to delete something and take even longer to report it. If you don’t have time to give a detailed report, try to eyeball the composition on the overview or scan and give a breakdown of the number of BS/BC/support the fleet has along with the total size (estimated).

Scanners & Overview

Directional Scanner:

Knowing how to use the directional scanner effectively is essential to scouting. But learning how to use it well is beyond the scope of this guide and requires in-game practice to become proficient in. Some suggestions related to using it are located in the Tips & Tricks section. Useful guide here: http://amerrylifeandashortone.blogspot.com/2009/10/using-your-directional-scanner_20.html

System Scanner:

Explaining the process of using probes to find targets is beyond the scope of this guide, but I will address some basic points regarding what to do with a probe capable scout in addition to the details of scanning out sanctums in player-held null-sec space. There are excellent tutorials on scanning elsewhere, including this one produced by CCP.

The process of finding sanctums is ridiculously simple. Under the scanning window in system scan use the onboard scanner as you enter system and within 10 seconds you will have a list of sanctums/havens in system. If you get results you can look at their location through the solar system map (F10) and use the directional scanner to determine if there are any player ships active in each one. Speed of execution is crucial here and thankfully now that you no longer need probes to do this you do not even need to uncloak before warping to a result. Bear in mind (pun intended) the longer you remain in system the more likely your target(s) will become aware of your presence and opt to stop their rat killing and get safe.

Probers can be used to bust safe spots, get warp-ins on sniper fleets, and find mission runners/plexers (miners too, if rare). There are basically two ways to take advantage of system scan results, fleet warps and warp-ins provided by the scout. The former requires the prober in question to have a leadership position in fleet and initiate a squad/wing/fleet warp to the scan results. Be mindful of where the scout is in the leadership hierarchy, as they can only warp their subordinates (squad members, squads in a wing, wings in a fleet) who are currently on grid with them. For providing warp-ins you almost never ever want to have your prober warp to the results at zero (unless it is mission/plex). Generally don’t warp any closer than 30km from the results. With larger fleets the further away the better, as you may get uncloaked by other ships on grid if you warp too close. To provide a good warp-in the prober should be located in-line with a celestial and have the hostile fleet between themselves and the celestial in question. The FC should then be able to warp from that celestial to the scout at a range (up to 100km) that will land the fleet in its optimal combat range. The process can be more nuanced but won’t be expanded further. This guide is already long enough as it is.

Overview:

For the overview be sure to have relevant information columns included, as much as you can squeeze in. At the minimum you want IC (Icon), Distance, Name, Type. Other useful columns are Velocity, Corp/Alliance, and Transversal/Angular velocity. Sorting by IC is especially nice as you can quickly filter out the WTs from a large gang and get a count of them.

All scouts should have a specific overview setup designed for scouting. The purpose of the scouting overview is to provide as much information as possible to find targets quickly without needing to constantly be spinning around to find the correct celestials or adding objects to the overview. Open up the overview settings and add the following (ordered from top to bottom in the settings): asteroid belt, beacon, force field, stargate, warp gate, wreck, bomb, bomb ecm, mobile warp disruptor, all drones, capture point, all ships, station, and control tower. This list isn’t exhaustive and you may find it useful to add additional ones like sovereignty structures, mission/belt/faction NPCs, customs offices, planets, moons, etc.

The goal is to be able to hit scan and determine both who is in system and what they might be doing. Wrecks are included to figure out if someone has been killing NPCs (and what kind). Drones can indicate if they are still active. The combination of force field and control tower allows you to determine if ships are sitting at a POS. If there is no force field present in the direction of the tower it means the tower is offline. This overview setup will be rather cluttered, so when entering a combat situation swap to a more appropriate PvP setup. Note: Swapping to a more restricted (e.g. ship only) overview setup while trying to narrow down a specific ship on directional scanner helps quite a bit by eliminating irrelevant scan results.

Tips & Tricks (in no particular order)

• It’s really damn useful to have your brackets on. You can easily add and remove moons from your brackets with ALT+X (new default is Alt-Shift-X). Great for POS scanning.
• Setup good push-to-talk hotkey, it should be easily reachable and interfere minimally with your ability to type or pilot your ship. Personally I have a side mouse where my thumb rests set to do this, middle mouse is also a good one.
• As I mentioned before, scan results are preserved across systems so long as you don’t dock. So don’t be afraid to take a scan of a system then jump out if you are threatened.
• If you are sitting at a gate waiting for your gang to catch up, always orbit the gate at 1000, this makes you hard to bump and keeps you safe from snipers and large ships looking to take pot shots.
• ALWAYS always always say your pilot name (or just ‘scout’) before a report so the FC knows who is talking. This applies to everything, not just scouting.
• If possible have BMs for each gate setup at 165km or higher. This allows you to warp to a safe point on grid either from a jump in or to observe hostile gangs. Amazingly useful when you have a covert ops ship.
• You can make quick off-grid safes for checking gates with d-scan on future trips by creating a bookmark before you exit warp on the outgate (anywhere around ~1,000,000km to 1AU is ideal).
• Pay attention to the distances between gates and other celestials, your max scan range is about 14.5 AU, so always keep that in mind. When setting up a warp-in or calling for backup, it is helpful to report the AU distance from where you are to the inbound gate of the fleet so the FC has a rough sense of how long it will take to reach you.
• When under 100km from anyone you can use the “Look at” option to see what guns they are fitting and what direction they are moving their ship.
• Pay attention to where hostile ships warp to, if they warp straight towards a celestial you can reasonably expect them to not be heading to a safe spot. If the player warps in an odd direction, not straight in line with the celestial, they went to a safe.
• If you are acting as a fast tackler for a gang that is in hot pursuit of a fleet, the fastest way to get into warp is NOT by using the overview. After a jump right click in space and find the stargates sub-category, once the loading bar for the session has finished mouse over the right gate and click the WTZ drop down option.
• Double click for show info is awesome, use it. Especially on unknown neutrals and reds.
• When using the directional scanner, click on your ship to generate the square bracket, use that to line up a celestial and if you are using a 5 degree scan you’re guaranteed to get it right.
• When in null-sec (or you suspect a disco BS camp) if there is a large hostile presence in system, don’t warp directly to the outbound gate. Find a celestial near the outbound and warp to it first, scan towards the gate and then warp if it’s all clear. Your default overview should have ‘Mobile Warp Disruptor’ checked. Check for bubbles towards the gate and be mindful to report any Interdictors (Sabre, Flycatcher, Heretic, Eris) or Heavy Interdictors (Broadsword, Onyx, Devoter, Phobos). Be prepared to burn 15-20km to the gate if you warp to it. A recent patch also allows you do add warp disruption probes to the overview so you can see when interdictors have the gate bubbled too.
• If there are drag bubbles (bubbles off the celestial 50-100km) on the outbound gate, report it to the FC and suggest a nearby celestial (planets or stations) to use as a bounce point. Alternatively when in a fast ship burn to a point 150km or more off the gate and offer your ship as the warp-in.
• Setup an overview (plus tab) with major celestials (planets, belts, stations, gates) so you can easily see distances.
• In a similar vein to scanning as you jump out of system, if you either are on grid with a gang or land as they warp off quickly take scan so you can report the fleet composition to the FC once you have a safe moment.

I’ll occasionally be taking a look back at the guide and updating it as I learn more. May include more specifics later as well, but we’ll see.