You must not understand very well how slinging a freighter into warp actually works.

So, you start warp with the freighter, it, of course, must align. However, you go into warp at 75 percent of your total capable velocity. Webifiers modify this to be significantly lower than normal. This means the freighter will go into warp at a fraction of the overall speed it would typically require. After the warp has been initated, you apply the two webbers and if you did it correctly, it shouldn't take very long to sling the freighter into warp.

Will it be properly aligned? Newp. But will it be at the gate being ganked? Newp.

Let's be fair here... The webbers thing is clearly NOT a well documented game mechanic. There's some dispute here in this very thread over whether or not it will help the aligning (and therefore the bumping) issue. It requires a second account (or a friend). And, topping it all off, it still doesn't fully protect you (apparently).

Not to sound like a broken record, but how is the problem NOT unrestricted bumping?

Here's a suggestion. Hi-sec interdiction bubbles. They create aggro and are nearly instantly popped by concord after someone is caught.

So to gank a freighter, you'd have to have a scout on the gate, see him warp, then instruct your dictor to trigger. Then you have ~20 seconds (in 0.5) before concord responds and pops the dictor (thereby popping the bubble) and ~20 seconds after that before the freighter can warp.

So if you can DPS down a freighter in ~40 seconds, you can get your gank (which is doable, IIRC).

I agree... if you're carrying 10 bil in implants and you don't have an escort, you probably should be shot down. But I also believe that there needs to be SOME way to prevent ganks (even full grief ganks). Maybe that's having a t3 boosting alt following me to screw the math up. Maybe that's a logi constantly repping me. The problem with the bumping is that there's no way to stop the bumping (and, as I've said, it's almost by definition a griefing mechanic).

The quality of high sec pilots is rather telling given that 18 pages in and they still do not understand this very simple concept.

Someone posted math that then multiple people indicated was wrong. I was just curious what the right math is. I lack a sufficient knowledge base to do it myself and its an awful lot of stuff that's poorly documented.

1) Stop loading freights with insane value cargoes.
2) Stop jumping into systems with recent spates of ship kills.
3) CCP fix bumping.

Of all the issues here the only one that really qualifies for a complaint is the use of ships to bump the target out of alignment, essentially becoming a warp disruptor without actually having to lock a target. No risk to the pilot, yet you can basically stop a freighter in its tracks all day.

Maybe CCP need to look at allowing the mass of a vessel to dictate how much it can be nudged off course by smaller ships (if at all).

Apart from that, be more aware of your surroundings, don't load your life into a freighter.

Hell use an ORCA :P I hear they make good transport ships these days.

The downside is completely limited. It is in fact a fixed cost and must be accepted or the process can't happen. One might argue that it turns the "don't fly what you can't afford to lose" rule on it's head as the loss is intended as a cost of business.

You can't lose more than you intend or "accept", unless you're a complete flipping idiot and fail to understand the concept of "suicide". It's all potential upside.

Risk mitigation at it's finest.

I was confused by this as well and didn't understand it. The OP was a bit of flamebait / trolling so I was kind of leaving it behind. But why would you conduct a gank session that way? The only logical "phased" combat approach would be to have alpha fleet one fire it's two volleys that are calculated to kill an unboosted, un repped freighter. If that doesn't work, beta fleet fires it's two volleys to finish off the target. So MAYBE you're talking about a 40 second engagement with some bumping needed?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the mechanics of a concord response (having never been stupid enough to carry enough in my ship to create the opportunity). I was under the impression that about 20 seconds (in 0.5) after the initial volley, concord comes and insta-gibs you. It doesn't matter if you had one ship or 200 ships, they're all going to die ~20 seconds after they first aggress. Most battlecruisers will get off two volleys in that time right? Destroyers (which don't get used anymore for this purpose as I understand) get off three. While it may be playing semantics, I'd consider two shots in 10-12 seconds to be "essentially" an alpha strike. There's almost nothing that a freighter can do in that 10-12 seconds and very little shield regen is going to happen.

I guess my point is that they wouldn't be shooting at the freighter over a matter of minutes with a bumper CONSTANTLY bumping the freighter. They might need ONE bump and then 15-20 seconds of shooting.

If I'm misunderstanding something, let me know. As I said, this is a knowledge gap I'm trying to correct.

Thanks... That's a much more nuanced result then my previous mental image of "magic NPC ships go up and you find yourself in a shiny new pod" ;)

NOW I understand the roll of bumping to keep the freighter locked down for closer to a minute. Interesting.

Okay... Some terms are getting thrown around and clearly there's some definitional disconnects

Cost = Expense and is NOT the same thing as Risk

Risk = uncertainty

blahblahblah, stuff in which we agree to disagree and both cite a wikipedia article that supports and hurts our respective positions

The Talos has two more low slots and a hull bonus for hybrid damage to boot.