Its probably just perception but in my time reading on the forums it seems like

1) caldari is more prevalent than other factions. Its always jita this, jita that. Why the focus on caldari faction?

2) tengu, raven, drake. These ships come up with much higher frequency in topics than other ships

3) missiles are more prevalent than other weapon systems. Are the other weapons inferior?

1) Jita is the market hub. It has nothing to do with race.

2) These are simply some of the most iconic/popular hulls in the game. Again, it says nothing about the race of the pilot.

3) In PvE probably. Definitely not for PvP. Again, nothing to do with race as many pilots cross-train for different platforms.

1) But jita is not the only market hub. All the factions have one right?

2) their the most popular for a reason

All this caldari dominance in ship, weapon sysyem. Economy. Whats behind all of it?

3) so missiles arent the prevalent weapon system for pvp? Was just reading topic guy was all excited about making missiles on account of good/test war. He didnt mention other munitions. Not that i think others aren't being used. But if this guy was predominantly excited about prividing missiles doesnt jive with the notion that missiles aren't most popular weapon in pvp as well as pve

1) But jita is not the only market hub. All the factions have one right?

2) their the most popular for a reason

All this caldari dominance in ship, weapon sysyem. Economy. Whats behind all of it?

3) so missiles arent the prevalent weapon system for pvp? Was just reading topic guy was all excited about making missiles on account of good/test war. He didnt mention other munitions. Not that i think others arent being used. But if this guy was predominantly excited about prividing missiles doesnt jive with the notion that missiles arent most popular weapon in pvp as well as pve

You can't go by what's posted in the forms to tell what is popular. Here's what I suggest you do to see what is really popular.

1. Fit at least 50 ships. You need a higher number to get a true representation. Make sure they're fairly expensive so they aren't ignored.

2. Fly them through various lowsec and nullsec systems.

3. Get blown up

4. Look at the loss mail to see what killed you.

5. Post back on here with results of your scientific study.

I have a feeling you'll see more guns than missiles but I could be wrong.

you thought of that all by yourself did you? I prefer you fly an expensive ship. Ill shoot you with different weapons and Ill tell you which way I enjoyed killing you the most. Then Ill come back here and post the scientific study

That might be be fun but it wouldn't answer your question. It was meant to be a little funny but you would learn what was popular if you did that. I use both missiles and guns for PVE. For PVP I used to fly a Drake with missiles but that was a while ago

Its always jita this, jita that.

Why the focus on caldari faction?

There's a certain line of thinking that says that most EVE players are white middle-aged Caucasian males and it just so happens that the Deteis/Civere avatars match up quite closely with your average white middle-aged Caucasian male in appearance.

Players just did what the huge crowds do: path of least resistance and inertia as selection criteria.

Caldari characters in the old system used to:

- be the quickest to train for PvE => L4 money making.

- be the quickest and min maxed for research.

- be good for production (I don't recall if they were the best).

- Male caldaris looked ugly though.

- The combat missions yield the highest income. The starting place was nearby.

- Nice plus, close by manufacturing facilities, large station without "pull out" effect and close planet aligned to be a natural instant undock.


Result: ziribillions of female Caldari pilots, therefore the "reference hub" would be some central place in Caldari empire, preferably belonging to a combat missions corporation.

Jita is at a natural center of missioning hubs, ice fields. Got conveniently close to low sec (see Hek). It had its agents and belts afaik.

2) tengu, raven, drake. These ships come up with much higher frequency in topics than other ships

3) missiles are more prevalent than other weapon systems. Are the other weapons inferior?

The Drake is an easy ship to fly and with the large shield and capacitor, requires less skill (mostly the skill between the keyboard and chair) to fly.

The popularity of Ravens and Tengus are due more to the popularity of missiles.

Missiles always hit their target. There is no tracking issues to worry about (only speed of the target in relation to the speed of the explosion reducing the damage), no consideration of "am I in optimal range or falloff?" This makes using missiles easier for players to consider. People can't focus on too many things at once - and each person has their own limit of the number of different things they can focus on at once. Cognitive overload (too many things going on at once) is a factor in car and aircraft accidents. That's why texting and driving is illegal in many jurisdictions.

Missiles aren't good pvp weapons. Turrets are far more popular in pvp. Missiles are popular in pve because you can choose dmg type and match them to the weak point of the rats you are fighting.

Which turrets are the best in pvp is a topic of much debate.

huh, it seemed to me that missiles were more involved. They have range considerations, the speed of the target matters vs explosion velocity, the size of the target vs explosion radius.

With other weapon types its range, how fast their orbiting vs your tracking. So one less consideration.

Its probably just perception but in my time reading on the forums it seems like

1) caldari is more prevalent than other factions. Its always jita this, jita that. Why the focus on caldari faction?

2) tengu, raven, drake. These ships come up with much higher frequency in topics than other ships

3) missiles are more prevalent than other weapon systems. Are the other weapons inferior?

1) Jita is the market hub. It has nothing to do with race.

2) These are simply some of the most iconic/popular hulls in the game. Again, it says nothing about the race of the pilot.

3) In PvE probably. Definitely not for PvP. Again, nothing to do with race as many pilots cross-train for different platforms.

you thought of that all by yourself did you? I prefer you fly an expensive ship. Ill shoot you with different weapons and Ill tell you which way I enjoyed killing you the most. Then Ill come back here and post the scientific study

flying expensive ships to find out what people are using is very funny. But it does give me an idea to look at the killboards and see whats dying. And whatevers dying is also what people are flying to kill with.

The market hubs sort of evolved organically; once upon a time, CCP intended for the main market hub to be in Yulai, in CONCORD space, but Jita ended up drawing more traffic due to a bunch of factors - a while back, there was an advantage to training Achura Caldari (since corrected), and Jita turned out to have an advantageous location on the map - close to Amarr, not far from Gallente territory, easily accessible from lowsec, with good resource-rich systems and agents in the neighborhood. And once a critical mass was reached, Jita became the commercial center of EVE. The other empires have evolved their own hubs - Dodixie for the Gallente, Amarr (I keep thinking of it as Amarr Prime) for the Amarr, and the Minmatar ended up with both Rens and Hek. But Jita became a trade hub much like New York did, once upon a time.

Just because you know the fit doesn't mean you know how it performs. Take for instance this ship:

[Merlin, Blasters]
Magetic Field Stabilizer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Damage Control II

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Medium Shield Extender II
1MN Afterburner II

Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S

Small Ancilllary Current Router I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I


How do you fly this ship in a frigate roam?

Its probably just perception but in my time reading on the forums it seems like

1) caldari is more prevalent than other factions. Its always jita this, jita that. Why the focus on caldari faction?

2) tengu, raven, drake. These ships come up with much higher frequency in topics than other ships

3) missiles are more prevalent than other weapon systems. Are the other weapons inferior?

Missiel>>>>>>>>>>>>>>turrets.

Its probably just perception but in my time reading on the forums it seems like

1) caldari is more prevalent than other factions. Its always jita this, jita that. Why the focus on caldari faction?

2) tengu, raven, drake. These ships come up with much higher frequency in topics than other ships

3) missiles are more prevalent than other weapon systems. Are the other weapons inferior?

While I agree missiles are top notch in some scenarios...I'm curious, how do you come to that broad statement? Please elaborate.

1) But jita is not the only market hub. All the factions have one right?

2) their the most popular for a reason

All this caldari dominance in ship, weapon sysyem. Economy. Whats behind all of it?

3) so missiles arent the prevalent weapon system for pvp? Was just reading topic guy was all excited about making missiles on account of good/test war. He didnt mention other munitions. Not that i think others arent being used. But if this guy was predominantly excited about prividing missiles doesnt jive with the notion that missiles arent most popular weapon in pvp as well as pve

Heavy Missiles got a huge nerf stick over them, far too high as nerf while still being in the same dps range and application than other weapon systems at one exception: dmg is not instant and thus deserve a buff to that one or ships using them a rof bonus.

Light Missiles: unless you're using a Navy Caracal with Rapid lights or Navy Drake those suck, jesus they suck ass so hard I can't even explain it.

Rockets: they got a little bit better, actually they do decent dmg but they still lack of something I can't put my finger on maybe because I don't use them much over other weapon systems, that's it.

That the top two ships on eve-kill are HM ships argues otherwise.

Breaking news, CFC tengus and caracals run HAMs.

Breaking news, CFC tengus and caracals run HAMs.

Yes, this is why Talwars are not in the top-20. Noone wants to use light missiles. Or tech I light missiles for that matter. And of course no one is using rockets. Again the 10% per level range bonuses are way too weak.

huh, it seemed to me that missiles were more involved. They have range considerations, the speed of the target matters vs explosion velocity, the size of the target vs explosion radius.

With other weapon types its range, how fast their orbiting vs your tracking. So one less consideration.

If you have ever played around with the Talwars, you'll notice they have nearly the range of max skilled Tengu and are fast as **** they are actually awesome little hulls, missiles or no.

...but in most games...

There is still this feeling due to all the threads the past years found on different forums that some things are way to popular compared to others which makes me believe they are not well balanced.

- Armor is no longer inferior to shields like it used to be due to changes around Retribution. Shield fleets are no longer the rule in PvP, and armor fits have gained much in popularity. I'm not saying armor is better or shields aren't good- I'm just saying the dramatic imbalance has lessened.

- The old racial bonuses are totally gone. As a few people pointed out, Jita became the main market hub in part due to many people rolling Caldari pilots. This no longer holds true. Which is why I said originally that just because it remains the major hub doesn't mean Caldari is still the most popular race.

One would have to hear from CCP what the latest breakdown on race rolled is for new characters. Judging by the top four ships on eve-kill I would bet it is still Caldari. No longer is there a horde of 3 charisma Achura poncing around. But the ease of training into the top 4 ships if you start as Caldari can't be overlooked. This situation does not bode well for the continued health of the game.

For us in small gang gal/cal FW armor is not inferior. However, even here the kiting with range tactics win more often than the close up smash mouth tactics. Regardless, this is only one small slice of eve combat.

The unfortunate truth is that range and mobility, which shield and Cal/Min ships afford, combined with missiles being capless and having selectable damage are still, even after the Drake/HM nerfs, ruling eve combat in the larger view.
http://eve-kill.net/?a=top20 The top 4 ships at this date are Caldari. The top two are missile boats. They all have range bonuses on missiles or guns, and they all shield tank. Further down the top 20, the fact that you can even have Talwars sitting in that list at number 8 tells you a lot about the strengths of missiles and shield (which affords mobility).


One would have to hear from CCP what the latest breakdown on race rolled is for new characters. Judging by the top four ships on eve-kill I would bet it is still Caldari. No longer is there a horde of 3 charisma Achura poncing around. But the ease of training into the top 4 ships if you start as Caldari can't be overlooked. This situation does not bode well for the continued health of the game.

The real elephant in the room when discussing missiles-v-turrets is tracking disruptors.

Nearly everyone seems to be fitting TDs these days, and why not as they are in my opinion somewhat OP. Fitting missiles or rockets is the only way to counter TDs.