Thursday 28 May 2015

Target Painting in Fleet fights

Signature this, signature that. If you follow discussions of fleet doctrines that's all you hear - sig tanking sig tanking yadda yadda.

There's a specialist type of ewar that blooms other people's signature. And virtually no one uses it.

Target painting can substantially increase the signature on another ship. Let's do the maths on what a couple of ewar-linked Hyenas can do:

6 modules with stacking penalties = 2.8578

A meta 4 or T2 paint run by a maxxed out character on a Hyena = 56.3%

There are no rigs for paint effectiveness.

A Command Ship with T2 link and mindlink implant gives 34.5% boost.

That means maximum sig bloom is about +216.4% (or a little higher with Faction paints). A standard 125 sig cruiser is bloated up to 395.5, very close to a standard unmodified battleship. On a sig tanking ship like a Tengu this makes it much more effective to apply damage from a number of weapons (ie any weapon whose damage would normally be reduced by the Tengu's sig radius, particularly but not exclusively battleships).

Why don't FCs like Paints?

Blooming sig radius does 2 things - it means ships lock up the target faster and it causes many weapons to do more damage.

It's the first one that concerns FCs. By making it so the other side's logistics can lock up the target quicker it means reps land faster, saving many primary targets.

This is received wisdom and because of this we rarely see Vigils and such ships called for in Null doctrines.

That's a simplistic one size fits all approach that is not correct in every situation and which can be improved upon with good play and good communication.

Let's look at how fleets kill ships:

- tackle may land, FC will call "kill dictors and inties." Often no enemy logi is on the field yet. This is a perfect time for paints against these tiny sig radius tackle ships.

- fleets square off and start exchanging primaries. FC has several options here to get kills:

1. Alpha. Volley damage to instantly kill an enemy. Totally paint friendly.

2. Primarying and sustaining. Fleet will start shooting a target pushing it down into low shield and then reps will start, It will then either slowly creep back up or continue creeping back down. In situations where the logi have clearly already locked the target up it may be worth applying paints to a target they're struggling to keep up as the extra damage will kill it.

3. Fast target switching. Tricksy FC hops between multiple targets to confuse enemy logi. Paints definitely not wanted.

4. Disengaging. Enemy fleet is trying to escape, logi have either already left or just aren't that worried about rep broadcasts. Paints are great.

And the availability of paints adds a new one:

5. Sustained damage - if we're not quite doing enough to break a target without paints we could paint it up and see if the extra damage is enough to break it.

This is some pretty high level ewar piloting - it's not suitable for the 3 day old newbie in the Vigil without intensive training. Your paint pilot is now making a flurry of decisions, receiving commands from FC and logi anchor, following both offensive target broadcasts and friendly shield broadcasts.  Ideally your painter will be able to read a fight like a FC so he will know whether to paint or not without waiting to be asked.

There's also the possibility of defensive painting. If paints are bad surely then painting our own guys is good? Well the painter pilot could follow shield broadcasts from friendly ships (or better still spy on their fleet) and paint up the primaries for our logi to lock them up quickly. This would be especially useful against cruiser doctrines that are not doing significantly reduced damage due to sig. And in any event you would only run one cycle of paints - enough to help logi lock him up quick but not maintained to keep enemy dps high.

Here's some graphs showing the effectiveness of sig when a standard nullsec tengu is shooting a target:

Spike M ammo

 First something huge as a baseline to see how the ship would apply its damage to a very large target where sig is pretty much a non issue.






Next against a same sig target (double shield extender tengu):





Now against a standard cruiser:

Now against a speeding interceptor:








Let's now look at the graphs for Caldari Navy Thorium:

Huge thing (baseline):


Next against a same sig target (double shield extender tengu):



Now against a standard cruiser:


Now against a speeding interceptor:





Finally we'll look at CN Antimatter.

 Huge thing (baseline):



 Next against a same sig target (double shield extender tengu):


 Now against a standard cruiser:





 Now against a speeding interceptor:




We can draw some quite interesting conclusions from these graphs:

- with Spike M target should almost always be painted even if it helps their logi, the tracking penalty on the ammo type really hurts.

- against small fast stuff always paint, it's hopeless trying to hit them otherwise.

- with Faction ammo right at the edge of optimal paints add very little to these medium rails against cruiser sized hulls (other than helping enemy logi).

- with Faction ammo at under 20km always paint.

It should be possible to beat an enemy tengu fleet that isn't painting by coming in under its guns, eg orbit their anchor at 15km and primary the furthest tengu, painting it up for better damage application.

Shout out to the wonderful Eve application pyfa for its fitting tool.

Monday 18 May 2015

Angel Sound: The Angel's epic arc.

I decided to do the Angels epic arc so that I will be able to run missions in Fountain. In Fountain our local rats are Serpentis. Shooting Serpentis makes them dislike you. However it's possible to run Angels missions while still being free to shoot enough Serpentis to make them utterly despise you which is quite a good way of doing it.

This unlocks the following range of PvE options:

- Serpentis Forsaken Hubs, Havens and Sanctums (the best anomalies, found in sov space mostly as they can be forced to spawn with ihub upgrades).

- Cosmic signature combat sites. These usually contain Serpentis rats in our area.

- Angels missions. These pay Loyalty Points which can be cashed out for nice equipment including special faction ammo, Halo implants (a full set is a 19.6% reduction in sig radius), and pirate faction ships the Dramiel, the Cynabal and the Machariel.

There are worse things to spend LPs on.


- Circadian Seekers/Drifter Battleships

- wormhole pve

Clearly there's enough that the missions aren't really needed but it's nice to have it there as an extra option.

I advertised it on /r/bravenewbies and got 6 people in fleet but none of them had the standings to run the mission series. Advice on raising standings with factions is here - for us the simplest way is to run missions locally in Fountain where we live. Every 16 ordinary missions gives you a special storyline mission (probably from WY-) and it's those special missions that raise your faction standing. Faction 3.0 is needed (unless you're super brave and do your missions with the Dominion Angels in Fountain Core's staging system. I'll talk more about running missions out of hostile stations safely in another post.

The upshot of my formup was that I was the only person doing the mission so I burned off to Molden Heath in a travel fit interceptor to talk to the agent.

Here's a couple of good walkthroughs.

It was Sunday night Eu time, one of Eve's busiest times. While eastern Fountain and Cloud Ring were pretty quiet and high sec poses little threat to a travelceptor Curse was heavily camped. Molden Heath and Great Wildlands were quiet too but once I got to Curse there were people on every other gate. I managed to get through in a sub 2 second align ceptor but a standard pvp ceptor would have been killed. At one point I even got pointed on an undock under in 2 seconds but luckily I was able to dock back up in half structure. I was relieved to find no one on the undock when I came back after half an hour and burned myself an instaundock.

Most of the missions were go there, click this, again perfect for the travelceptor. Here's how I did the chain.

Starting agent: Aton Hordner works for Republic Security Services in Egbinger

Mission 2, go there get the update warp off

Mission 3: I picked Serpentis Fill-In. Take the box to the cargo container, drop it in.

Mission 4:  Fairly easy with long range artys.

Mission 5: Very easy with long range artys.

Mission 6: This was really nasty. I added a small amour repper to my travelceptor and it wasnt enough. First I picked off the henchmen with long range ammo and arty. I couldn't break the main guy even with close range ammo so I went shopping and got some autocannons. Still couldn't win because he was pushing me down faster than I was killing him so I swapped to cap rigs so I could run a cap stable repper. Still couldn't win because he controlled range so I swapped in a web. Finally killed him.

Shopping in Curse is an epic mission in its own right.

After doing this one I read that I could have killed a large collidable Remote Reps Station that was helping him to make the fight much easier. Doh!

Got a Faction Target Painter which I left in the station.

Mission 7: Talk to someone

Mission 8: The guide says "Choose Situation Normal and rejoice in your easy mission" Who am I to argue with that?

Mission 9: Fairly easy with long range Artys. I had to run the repper but didn't have to warp out.

Mission 10. I used my autocannon, cap stable rep fit with web. The rat webbed me and held me 7.5km off. I considered going to get some mid range ammo that would have been more effective but I was winning using Hail in deep falloff so I just waited it out. Naturally I forgot to loot him and had to warp back to collect the tag.

Got a Cynabal bpc.

Now that's a nice mission reward.


I also got a massive standings boost which was my main reason for doing it. I went from -9.something to +0.08 with really good Social skills. Missions also paid quite a lot of cash: 6-7 million isk per mission for 8 missions. Overall it probably took me about 4 hours but that includes shopping etc.

Advice for others/myself next time I go:

- shop in advance. Shopping in Curse is horrible

- take a friend. It's hard to break the tanks alone. I'm just about ok but most of my skills are Vs.

- don't do it on Sunday night when the gates and undocks are heavily camped.



Close range autocannon fit with cap stable repper:

[Claw, close range]

Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Cap Recharger II

200mm AutoCannon II, Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II, Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II, Hail S
[Empty High slot]

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I

Long range fit

[Claw, long range]

Damage Control II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Gyrostabilizer II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Cap Recharger II

280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor S
[Empty High slot]

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I

Add an istab for the Gyro to get under 2 second align.

Monday 11 May 2015

Antibomber doctrine

In Brave we don't have a great cheap antibomber doctrine and it would be useful to have one.

To kill bombers you have to do one of two things - hold them on grid or alpha them. The bombers will operate by decloaking, launching the bomb, and then hitting warp. It takes a second or so for the bomb to clear the tube so they never instantly warp and can be caught.

So two things are needed:

- high scan res
- either high alpha damage, instantly applied or a point.

Missiles don't cut it because they don't apply their damage instantly. Rails and Beam lasers are high dps but not great alpha. Short range weapon systems on small ships don't really have the range. So that leaves Artillery as the best weapon system.

The Thrasher is a great ship for this role. All 3 of its ship bonuses (damage, optimal range and tracking) are useful.



Here's the high skill version:

[Thrasher, Antibomber T2]

Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II

F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, Scan Resolution Script
F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, Scan Resolution Script
F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, Scan Resolution Script

280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
[Empty High slot]

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

With all 5s scan res is 2424mm (locks a frigate in 0.9 secs), volley damage is 1121, range is 21.6km + 10.9km. Alternatively you can do 700 volley damage at 34.5km +10.9km. It takes 5 bonused Scorch bombs to kill which gives you a chance to warp off if you're aligned and you go the moment you start taking bomb damage.

I also have a fit made using a character with newbro skills except CPU Management 4, Power Grid Management 4 and Weapon Upgrades 4:

[Thrasher, Newbro antibomber]

Emergency Damage Control I
Pneumatic Stabilization Actuator I

Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script

250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
[Empty High slot]

Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Ionic Field Projector I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

With most skills set to zero this has 1826mm scan res (locks a frigate in 1.2 secs), volleys for 325 damage with 22.2km + 8.75km range on the light guns, 27.6km + 8.75km range on the bigger ones. Not fantastic but may help finish a bomber if we have a mixed bunch of veterans and newbros wanting to do this. It takes 4 bombs to kill which gives you a chance to warp off if you're in the middle of the bombs exploding.

Another great option is a Keres, whose job is to hold points so the thrashers and indeed the regular fleet can shoot bombers that are pinned on grid:



[Keres, antibomber]

Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Warp Disruptor II
Warp Disruptor II
Warp Disruptor II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script

[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]

Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

This has 3 points with 50.4km overheated range before links. With 4 remote sensor links it has 3177mm scan res (locks a frigate in 0.7 seconds). It will take cat like reflexes to lock and separately point 3 of them before they can warp off but that's pretty useful. Without the remote sensor links it has 1674mm scan res (locks a frigate in 1.3 secs).

It takes 9 bonused Scorch bombs to kill which is handy as bombs usually come in waves of 8.

And here's the booster, I've made it Tech 2 but Tech 1 meta modules are only a tiny bit worse:



[Maulus, antibomber]

400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script

Salvager II
Salvager II

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

This thing just orbits the Keres and runs its Remote Boosts on it. It takes 9 bonused bombs to kill this which is a nice number because bombs usually come 8 at a time at most.

Antibomber ships orbit the main fleet anchor at about 15-20km. When bombers decloak at 40km and glide forward about 5km before warping off some of the antibombers may be on that side and able to get shots off, some will be too far away. The Keres should nearly always be able to reach the bombers. Once you see where the bombers are coming in from you can position the antibombers on that side.

Antibombers sit there with their bomber overview on, guns or points hot, poised to control click on targets on the overview. Any bomber killed before its bomb explodes nullifies that explosion. It's important that antibombers don't get warped off if the FC decides to warp to save his fleet - flag exempt or use a separate wing.

A typical bomber is an untanked Hound so it has 2.36k ehp and is slightly weaker to kinetic and explosive. So 2 T2 Thrashers and a newbro Thrasher will alpha one. So for decent coverage you probably want about 20 ships in your antibomber wing.

If people can't fly Thrashers Cormorants are not a bad option as long as there's at least one Keres. While the Corms won't alpha bombers they will finish off pointed bombers fast.

How to report Intel

  • Drag and drop the system name from the top left.
  • Drag and drop the player name from Local
  • Put +X if there are more neuts/hostiles in Local.
  • Put nv if you don't know ship types or brief ship types
  • Example: D4KU Caprisun+6 Hacs/cruisers

D scan instructions.
  • switch to an overview that has ships and not much else on.
  • check the Use Overview Preset box.
  • Reduce D scan range and angle to just catch the enemy fleet.
  • Scan
  • control-A and Control-C the scan text.
  • open http://www.eigie.com/
  • control-v to paste
  • control a, control c the url to copy it so you can link it in chats.
You can also copy and paste Local into the tool to provide an analysis by corp/alliance.