Riel Saigo
The Nommo
Insurance Fraud.
24
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Posted - 2013.09.04 16:16:00 -
[1] - Quote
Lowsec hacking is really about researching the correct location, and then using really paranoid flight practices.
I suspect part of your problem is that you are staging out of high security space (because that's the only place you can sell exploration loot for decent prices) and jumping into neighboring nearby lowsec systems to do your hacking.
This is a mistake.
Pirate corps know that people need to get to highsec. So they camp the hell out of the choke points and gates leading to and from high sec. If you're using the border systems of lowsec, that puts you right in the middle of their prime hunting grounds. Near high sec is the most dangerous part of lowsec outside of Faction Warfare zones. You should avoid these spots.
Instead, what you want to do is pick somewhere DEEP in the middle of nowhere in lowsec space. Maybe 30 jumps in from highsec or so. My first lowsec staging area was in Anohel out in the Arridia region. Right on the border of the null sec regions of Delve and Fountain.
Believe me - when I got there, there was NO ONE around. Just a few lowsec miners minding their own business, and a few roaming pirate gangs that could be avoided if you were alert. And every neighboring system was full of unfarmed signatures. I parked a Heron out there in Anohel station and started farming the signatures (wouldn't have been much trouble to sneak a couple more spare ships in either). Never even got attacked the whole time I was out there.
The most dangerous part was traveling through the choke points at systems like Udianoor or Hier where pirates like to camp and gank travelers. But here's the thing - you can skip those choke points. I did it by simply scanning out wormholes and using them to get to random parts of high security space. Turned out to be a much safer way to travel out than the lowsec choke points - especially once TEST alliance got whooped in Fountain and decided to park their entire alliance right on the choke point leading out of my region.
Here's the routine for safe travel in lowsec:
1. While docked up, pull up the star map and filter it for "ships destroyed in last hour." Look at all the systems in your neighborhood and try and determine where most of the kills are happening. Also look at pods killed in the last hour. Then run the same filters covering the last 24 hours. You'll start to get a sense of where the action is - avoid those spots. If you must enter those systems, use extra caution.
2. Check local in your home system. Out in deep lowsec, you'll usually only see anywhere between 1 and 6 people listed in local chat. Those are ALL the players who are logged into the game in your current system. They could be sitting AFK in a station, they could be mining, they could be camping a gate. But they are all listed there. That's huge for you.
Right click each individual in local and "show info" for them. Check their security status - is it negative or not? In theory, anyone in lowsec could attack you. But the people most likely to are the ones with negative security status. Also pay attention to what corp they are in.
Are there three guys in local with negative security status and all from the same corp? Watch out! Probably a roving pirate gang - adjust your threat status to high for this system and expect trouble at the jump gates.
Or maybe you just jumped in and there are only two people in local besides yourself, and both have positive security status. Probably just a couple miners, you can relax a bit.
Do this with every system you jump into in lowsec, know who you are sharing system with.
3. Make sure you have a basic cloaking device mounted. If you get trapped in a system with hostiles on both gates, you really want to have the option of just warping to a random planet and cloaking up until they leave. Cloaks are also awesome for scanning. Just get to a safe spot, launch your probes, and then cloak up to do your scanning in safety. Cloaks are mandatory for lowsec explorers.
Now you can undock.
4. I usually make a round trip tour of all the systems I'd like to hack in before I actually start parking somewhere and scanning. That way I can check for local pirate gangs that might be roaming around. Here's how I approach each system I jump into:
-First I hit D-scan at every spot I land after warping. I have it set to 360 degrees and max range, and optimized for locating enemy ships.
-Upon jumping into a new system, I'm cloaked automatically temporarily. So I hit D-scan to see what pops up. I look at my overview to see if any ships are nearby camping the gate. If there are, I use the Cloak-MWD trick (look it up on YouTube) and warp to the sun or some random planet. The sun is a convenient escape point - but don't stay there. Experienced pirates also know it's convenient. So warp off to a better spot immediately after landing.
-If things are clear, I then look at local chat and pull up the info on everyone sharing the system with me. This tells me how careful I need to be in the system. If things look safe, I'll hit D-scan again (it pays to D-scan a lot) and then warp directly to the next gate. If things look seriously dangerous, I'll warp to a random planet a 70 km and cloak up and hit D-scan and wait. Often the trouble makers will just leave, and I'll move on. If things look only potentially dangerous, I'll still warp to a random planet, and then after D-scanning, I'll warp to the gate - but NOT TO ZERO. I'll warp instead to 100 km out. I learned this lesson the hard way when I warped to zero on a gate and got immediately smartbombed by a pirate who was waiting there. From 100 km out - I'll have a look at the gate, and see if anyone is camping it. If no one is, I warp off to the nearest planet and then warp back to zero on gate and jump.
-Repeat process in the next system. Of course, if I jump into an empty system with only me in local, I just travel straight to the next gate with no worries. |