Recently I’ve been spending a fair bit of my time in game ‘semi-tutoring’. What I mean by that is [r1fta] has quite a few younger pilots and EVE is a complex game with many obscure mechanics, hence questions get asked in corp chat and I try to answer when I can.

So I’m going to do a series of blogs on some situations I’ve recently been in, in EVE and questions that got asked about situations others where in. This is part one and it deals with camps in low-security space. This guide is aimed at people flying solo in combat ships -specifically T1 & T2 frigates- which is what most people in the Black Rebel Rifter Club do, it’s not aimed at hauler pilots though some of it may still be applicable.

My undock is camped what do I do?

Some clowns in sensor boosted Drakes have taken to camping the undock of one of [r1fta]’s main stations recently, this lead to deaths amongst our newer players (encouraging the Drakes to keep doing it no doubt) so how does one survive? Well there’s two good ways to do this;

Using the undock invulnerability is the first, when you undock until you do something you are invulnerable for 30 seconds. In much the same way this invulnerability brakes as soon as you do something, with one critical exception you can use ctrl+space to stop your ship. So you can undock, hit ctrl+space wait 30 seconds for your session timer to run out and simply re-dock. This obviously works best on stations with a big docking ring where you are still at 0 km from the station after undocking and worst on stations that ‘spit you out’ like most Amarr stations. It advisable to make sure you can see your session timer for this, read how to do that here [linky].

The second and arguably superior method (you’re not trapped in station) is using an undock bookmark. This is a bookmark you have created earlier that is in a straight line ahead from a stations undock point, you can make one like this;

“When you undock you leave the station aligned to a constant direction with your maximum velocity. In basics, if you place a bookmark at least 150 km away aligned to this direction you could warp out almost instantly to this bookmark without being target-locked. To create this bookmark use a fast frigate or an interceptor with a MWD (micro-warp drive) fitted and as soon as you undock hit your MWD without changing your alignment. Put some distance between you and the station – at least 150 km – and take the bookmark of the new location. Next time you undock warp directly to this bookmark. You will be instantly warped to this location without being target-locked. “ -Taken from E-Uni’s wiki



A good ship to do this in for a young low skilled Rifter pilot is the Vigil, fitted with an mwd and some nanos/overdrives as those will easily top 3,5 km/sec. I recommend however that you make these bookmarks much further out beyond 1000km, so you will not be ‘on grid’ with the campers after warping there. On stations you use often make more than one and test them before you really need them! Some stations don’t always spit you out along the same trajectory, and while that doesn’t really hurt a frigate (you’ll still align and warp to fast to be caught) bigger ships may be in trouble if the instant undock bookmark align is less than perfect, hence the need for testing. Personally I find turning on the overlay helps when trying to make really good undock bookmarks.

Scumbags are camping the gate I just jumped through!

Yeah not everybody can be an awesome Rifter pilot and thus some people get their kills by sitting on a gate with a blob of their equally piloting skill challenged friends in sensor boosted ships all day so they can pad their kill boards with impressive; ‘look fifteen of us exploded this Rifter’ kill mails. To each his own I guess. How do we stop ourselves from ending up on those kill mails or worse losing our +3 implants to this?

First of all; DON’T PANIC! Correct decisions are rarely made under duress.

You have 60 seconds of cloaked invulnerability so analyse what you see. First question are you flashy?

No? Ok that means any interceptors or frigates probably won’t attempt to tackle you as the gate guns would annihilate them. Is there anything else fast locking on the gate? Check for senor booster and remote sensor booster animations. None? You are probably ok to warp of then if you are flying something small like a frigate.

Yes Keada, of course I am flashy, you made me gank all those miners in hi-sec! Oh right, yeah I might have done that I suppose… Now get me of this gate with my ship in one piece!

Ok, well things get a little more complex now and no promises of survival but I can tell you how to increase your chances. Basically there’s three things you can do;

One. You are flying in something obscenely agile, when you were designing the ship you’re flying now in EFT it told you, with your skills you have an align time less then or equal to 3 seconds . Pick a destination in system and just warp to it (no it does matter if it’s in front of you or not), the odds of any camp catching a ship that aligns and warps that fast are extremely slim. Besides anything fitted for that much agility likely doesn’t have the tank for option two.

Two. Shit Kaeda, there’s no way I can warp off without being tackled. Don’t worry! The path to safety is only 12km away, it’s the gate you just came in through. Again analyse the situation, how far away are the hostile ships? How likely are any of the ones closest to have a web fitted and if you are mwd fitted how likely are they to have a scram fitted? What is the likely lock time of those ships? Keep in mind that if you activate a mwd you signature radius will increase dramatically and thus their lock time will decrease dramatically. Now that you have analysed the situation the question is this; can I bridge the 9,5 km to get within the 2,5 km jump range of that gate before they explode you? Think you can make it? Ok wait till the session timer is around 25 seconds (so you can actually jump!) overheat your tank and and prop mod and burn for the gate, and jump back through. Anybody that aggressed you on the other side can’t follow you through for a minute, you are most likely in the clear now if you don’t stick around for them to follow.

Three. Neither is going to happen K. I’m going to lose this ship 🙁 . Ok, shit happens, but no reason not to make them pay. Again analyse what’s around you. You see that flashy sensor boosted artillery fitted Thrasher 9 km off you? Yes? That has no tank, is sitting still and mostly likely isn’t expecting you to fight, his mistake, overheat the shit out of everything and go explode the mother-fucker. They like kill mails? Well so do you.

The key to any camp at the end of the day is to, not panic and then make a quick tactical analyses of your options. Sometimes you’ll just be shit out of luck -it happens- but for all those other times a rebel doesn’t go down that easy.