Hi. If you're in BRAVE you're just about to become the owner of the Fountain region of sov nullsec. Congratulations on your new acquisition.
This guide will look at geography, military situation and resources (isk-making opportunities).
Geography
First off the geography. Fountain is in the galactic west. It has stargate connections to Outer Ring (and through that region to Syndicate), to Cloud Ring (an area in the process of being abandoned by the Imperium that leads north east to the Imperium heartlands), an exit to Aridia, and an exit to Delve.
There is a single pocket of unconquerable NPC nullsec in the centre of Fountain, the Phoenix constellation. Otherwise the region is conquerable sov, currently owned by the CFC/Imperium and soon to be transferred to HERO coalition.
Historically people living in Fountain have usually based at the central office station of 6VDT. This station is 16 jumps from the nearest Empire entrance in Aridia. From high sec to 6VDT is just 2 jumps by jump freighter allowing relatively easy logistics.
Military situation.
A notable military presence is a group of 3 alliances known as the Fountain Core (a name which is also used for the constellation they live in in NPC Fountain). These can be collectively summarised as follows:
- highly proficient gate campers, spending long hours recently camping the J5A chokepoint, killing scores of CFC pilots each day.
- fly small fast ships, hard to catch.
- can form moderately strong fleets to contest money moons.
- they've always been extremely good at catching stragglers. Basically if you're a jump behind when your fleet is moving through Fountain Core space you're almost certainly dead.
- active close to Fountain core or at the J5A/B-D chokepoint. They don't really seem to roam or cloaky camp.
Sorry We're In Your Space, Eh is a splinter off the old Fountain War era Test that stayed in Fountain after the CFC conquered it in 2013. 293 members. They've been highly effective and mostly gatecamp. They've killed 1711 (123 billion isk) ships so far this month for just 193 losses (10b). Favourite ships are svipul, sabre, crow, daredevil and gila. 10 pilots with 62 or higher kills this month.
Gang Bang Team are Fountain Core veterans and are a Bulgarian alliance. 149 members. Gatecampers. They've killed 1176 (86b) and lost 93 (5.5b) this month. Favourite ships are svipul, crow, sabre, augoror navy and flycatcher. 10 pilots with 49+ kills this month.
Godfathers were a once very well regarded alliance that is practically dead. 159 members. They fly with the others. Favourite ships are ishtars, cruors, daredevils, augoror navys and maledictions. 5 pilots with more than 10 kills this month.
Aside from Fountain Core there are the following potential threats:
Cloud Ring residents. Cloud Ring is being vacated by the Imperium, unknown at the moment who will move in.
Delve residents. Sov Delve is currently being scoured by the Imperium with Darkness in retreat and Kadeshi disbanding. Unknown who will move in once the Imperium goes home. NPC Delve is home to Pizza who may roam up to Fountain in cheap ships or come bomb our strat ops. They are superb bomber gang pilots.
Outer Ring/Syndicate. These are generally small groups that mostly fight each other. We may see a few roams. Goon Sig Space Violence is based in Syndicate and E Uni maintains a presence there.
CFC/Imperium. The dominant force in null sec their main aim is likely to be simply to sit on their mountain of riches and fend everyone else off, while maintaining enough foreign expeditions to keep their most active pvpers from quitting. They've announced a June invasion of Providence unless Providence swear fealty to Emperor Maximillian. It is not known which Provi value more - their roleplaying or their space. If they run out of things to do a CFC invasion of Fountain is very likely at some point over the next 12 months.
The BRAVE effect. Traditionally people have come to Brave for content because Eve is a game where most people blueball or blob. With the introduction of Fozziesov we are likely to see dozens of somewhat halfbaked alliances of around 500-1000 pilots trying to carve out little corners of sov all over Nullsec which should draw off some of the interest in farming Brave (as people will farm these new guys instead). There's no chance that Brave won't have some people after us though.
Wormhole raiders. The effect of Phoebe, the addition of extra holes, especially frigate sized holes, the example of highly successful raiders Verge of Collapse and Hard Knocks and the introduction of Thera have made attacking null dwellers from wormholes an increasingly popular way to pvp. This may become even more popular when Fozziesov fills nullsec up with scrub pvpers who will desperately fight off attackers in kitchen sink fleets. Expect a lot of incursions via w-space.
Resources.
Ratting. Fountain has Serpentis rats, their ewar system is damps. This discourages ratting using long range snipey ships but is great for drone ships as the drones will keep killing while their parent ship is damped.
People like ratting in this space in absurdly high damage blasterVindicators but an ishtar is a cheap and effective ship for ratting and much less effort than chasing down each rat in a web/blaster boat.
Forsaken Hubs are generally considered the best ratting sites because of very low rat damage and very few frigates and waves that don't spawn until you've killed everything.
Here's a suitable ishtar fit:
[Ishtar, Fountain ratter]
Damage Control II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II
Limited Kinetic Deflection Field I
Limited Thermic Dissipation Field I
Medium Shield Booster II
10MN Afterburner II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Spike M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Spike M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Spike M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Spike M
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Ogre II x5
Ogre II x5
Warrior II x5
Warrior II x5
Warrior II x5
Warrior II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Cargo: CN Tungsten Ammo (for anti-interceptor defence). Javelin
This is quite tight and requires a 1% cpu implant. It's cap stable, does 883 dps and tanks the rat damage pretty well. The Warrior drones are for fighting off interceptors and tackle.
If you're feeling lively you can chase the rats and blast them with javelin ammo, but usually it's best just to watch a movie with half an eye on local. Align then recall if neuts come in to local. hit warp as soon as anyone appears on grid. If you do get tackled, align, keep your guns and 5 warriors out (launching more warriors as they kill your drones) and mash the warp button, they'll often cap out or burn out of drone range and let you escape.
For missile users here's another option:
[Cerberus, fountain ratter]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
10MN Afterburner II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Medium Shield Booster II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Hobgoblin II x3
Cargo: Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile.
Anti-inty tactics: shoot them with javelin, put your drones on them align out and mash warp.
Cap stable, 756 dps at all Vs.
Low skill point players can use Vexor Navy Issue.
Full rat stats can be viewed here. Special note for belt ratters: all belt rats spawn as if the system had perfect true sec (-1.0) even if the security is higher. That helps with more hauler and officer spawns (although the latter are still incredibly rare).
Mining. Fully upgradeable nullsec anomalies just in time for the new ore changes. Some miners are going to get very rich. Mining is usually best done in the same system as a refinery station (red one) and then moved one jump to an industry station (yellow one). Or you can mine, compress then transport it but why bother when we have so many good refineries? A nearby blue station for blueprint research may also be useful for people not using a POS to research.
Ice Mining. Also best done in a system with a red station. Unfortunately 3 of the 4 systems that are suitable are pipes traveled by pvpers so the best ice mining place is 38IA.
Gas mining: Valuable gas clouds have been found in the Pegasus constellation. To mine gas you need to scan down the sigs, kill any rats then huff away in a Venture or Prospect or other gas mining ship. The gas is Celadon Cytoserin used to make Exile booster and currently quite valuable (before Brave kills it).
Moon mining: The incomplete listing on Dotlan has 59 R64 moons which is a hell of a lot for a region. Also lots of lesser minerals. Fountain Core is particularly rich and we may see conflict over these moons with the locals.
Exploration: High end combat sites can drop Vindicator bpcs. The usual null sec distribution of data and relic sites and wormholes to other places. If Fountain's too farmed there are several adjoining null sec regions to explore.
Angel and Serpentis missions: (NOTE: VERY HIGH RISK). The locals in Fountain Core will be very agitated if Brave members start running missions out of Fountain Core as it's been their private monopoly and a very lucrative one. Lots of special pirate goodies in these stores, they're two of the best pirate LP stores in the game and it's great to have both in the same spot. The ships offered are Dramiel/Cynabal/Machariel and Daredevil/Vigliant/Vindicator which quite simply are 6 of the most fun ships in the game. Expect wrecks as Brave mission runners clash with the locals.
Manufacturing. Best done in the yellow stations - Brave always has a strong consumption of ships etc.
Imports. May become less of a thing as null sec manufacturing develops and our industry corps get really productive but it's an easy trip from high sec so we should see plenty of importers making lots of isk on a busy market.
Planetary interaction: Should be fine, there's tons of every type of planet, including plasma.
Thanks for the insight! Finally we're back to null :)
ReplyDeleteShould be fun :)
DeleteAs SOTC was postponed, this was announced exactly where? ^^
DeleteIt was leaked on a LAWN ping.
DeleteNice region review.
ReplyDeleteFor the Ishtar fit mid slots I would recommend EM+adaptive hardener, LSE, MSB and afterburner. this gives a nice omnitank and some buffer giving you more survivability. Still has enough tank to afk run those forsaken hubs.
(Also tend to dualbox 2 of these and instead of guns fit a medium remote shield repper, cloak and salvager so I can run escalations.)
Yeah you could do, depends whether you're more worried about inties or rats. Because we're a new player organisation I'd like to make sure they can comfortably survive the rats.
DeleteVery nice review. All wrapped-up in a nice package. You even put a bow on it! Thanks for the research and advice, it will be very helpful.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteVery good overview of NPC Fountain settlers. I will add tomorrow more info that will help BRAVE survive NPC space.
ReplyDeleteGreat.
DeleteSorry for the delay, but here is the post that should help BRAVE members to survive in Fountain, cut their losses and inflict pain.
ReplyDeleteI lived more than 5 years in Fountain region and especially in the NPC space.
First that BRAVE pilots need to know is that NPC null space has systems that have stations where everyone can dock like WY-, YZ-, 75FA, and Serpentis Prime systems. This can seem unnecessary to mention, but a lot of people that lived in 0.0 that has no NPC systems are not aware of this.
This also means that whatever you do, you cannot force anyone out of this systems. But you can seriously make their game suffer and therefore they may choose to leave.
First thing that BRAVE leadership should tell to their members is:
- NPC space is free for all. A lot of people has their stuff in the stations already and can reship to whatever is the best to counter you. GF and GBT people are in Fountain NPC space for more than 8 years and they have a lot of stuff there already. They are not someone who just came to 0.0 for a roam. They live there and they know the space. If you kill them they will come back in less than 5 min again.
- Do not fly through NPC systems without knowing exactly what you are trying to do and without preparation. For example, if you need to move your stuff, use jump bridges in your home systems. If you want to pick something in NPC station, make insta dock/undock bookmarks and fly ceptors. If possible have some people/alts to watch gates before you go to the NPC space.
- Do NOT go with your PVE ships through NPC space. You will die. Use jump bridges. Do not give them easy and stupid kills.
- Do not try to do missions or plexes in NPC space (at least not before you establish your forces and know exactly what you are doing) because you WILL die horribly and shamefully.
- If you are plexing in your systems, be aware if neutral/red jumps in your system. Best thing is to move to the pos as station can be bubbled.
- Be aware that neutral/red that jumps in the system where you are doing anomaly can warp to you instantly without scanning with probes
- Be aware that from NPC space Black Ops can be deployed in almost every part in Fountain. You will be dropped if you are not careful.
to be continued in the next post
Now, how to inflict pain to GBT or GF:
DeleteTheir main source of their income is primary doing missions for Angel and Serp agent in WY-. Serp agent particularly is good because serp LP is one of the most valued LP in the whole EVE. Also they are doing combat plexes In Fountain regions if it is quiet.
Agents are giving missions mostly in their home system WY- and in neighboring system 75FA.
To interrupt their isk flow, you should do the following:
- Always have few people cloaked in WY and 75-FA system. Already that will make some people stop doing missions. But it will not stop oldtimers though.
- The problem is that if someone is in mission he has to be scanned down first. Than if you warp to someone running mission you will probably land on gate, as 99% of missions have gate. It is not possible to open cyno in mission or near gate so hot-drop is not possible.
- So one way to catch mission runner is to have someone scan him in the mission, warp to him and go through gate and tackle and survive till fleet comes from 1 or 2 jumps away. This will be very hard though, as careful missioner can first get intel from intel channel, can see your probes, can see someone coming on short scan and escape. Nevertheless, you can force him out of the mission, bookmark it and then try to catch him later because he will return as declining already accepted mission will impare sharp standing loss with the mission agent and no missioner want it.
- The best way to catch mission runners is when they are jumping from WY to 75FA system on gate. As approx. 50% of missions given are in 75FA system a lot of people have to go through gate. If you put cyno ships cloaked on the gate you will get easy kills. So there should be at least one cyno ship on both sides of gate. If normal cyno than dictor is perfect for the job. If covert cyno, recon is great.
If you have more than 5 people to always be in WY and 75FA systems you will seriously hurt isk income of Fountain Core people.
Also there are few valued moons in NPC space. You should take them, as Fountain core people cannot defend or destroy the poses as they have very few people that can fly dreads/carriers. Be aware though that they will use this poses to force you to engage in PVP. They can also make agreement with your enemies and stage the fight. So be aware when they are initiating pos fights.
Also, BRAVE should get POSes in every NPC system. This will further annoy Fountain Core people and disrupt their ability to earn isk.
But be aware that most of the Fountain Core people have 100 of billions in isk/ships already and that they can wage war for a long time without earning isk. But eventually they will suffer.
All that I said above is the same for the other mission system Serpentis Prime.
Also important to realize is that it is easy to get all necessary intel on Fountain Core people. Basically all you need to have is few cloaked people that sit on stations in WY and Serpentis prime and you will always know what they have and whit what force they are coming. On the other hands, they will certainly not have eyes on all the systems where you can stage your forces.
If BRAVE people apply what I wrote above, and be persistent in camping WY system, they will hurt a lot GBT and GF people.
But be aware, you can never evict anyone from NPC null space. But you can make their gameplay suffer to the point they will not play anymore or move away. Just be persistent.