Wednesday 4 January 2012

Second Rifter Down

Well another day has begun and another day of can flipping has commenced.

I've been sticking around Hek lately searching for targets to flip. I came across an Osprey on my scanner and noticed there was a can in-field with him. Jumping at the chance for another fight I quickly warped to the asteroid field and was overjoyed that the can belonged to my hopeful target.

I burned towards him and quickly flipped his can. I waited a few seconds and was surprised to see him target me. This however was all set up beforehand. I set my autocannons on the Osprey and opened fire. I really wasn't doing any damage and I noticed my capacitor was completely drained. It seems as if the Osprey was just waiting for a can flipper, he jammed me and drained my cap to empty. Promptly two more ships (of which I couldn't see what type they were) warped in on my location and opened fire. I was done in all but a few seconds. My ship stood no chance and I quickly popped under fire of three ships.

Post Battle Thoughts


This one wasn't much of a learning experience in a combat sense. I'm still fumbling around trying to locate different commands and I can't make snap decisions yet. Once again I was put into a situation where I was pretty much helpless, I didn't have much of an idea of how to get out of it. My first thought was to break orbit and try to burn away from my attackers but with my capacitor completely empty I was pretty much a sitting duck.

I guess what this encounter taught me was to pick my targets well. Maybe I should have scanned my surroundings better perhaps I would have found his corpmates lurking at a nearby planet or asteroid field. I really did feel helpless here, and I don't like it at all. As well as feeling helpless I need to plan for situations like this, there was most likely a logical and simple way to flee but only being around Eve for around a month really gives me limited knowledge of the game as a whole.

I'll hit the books again and figure out what went wrong and how to avoid it.

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes a trap is just a trap. With Tech I frigates you dont really get much in the way of buffer to weedle your way out of the traps.

    Ways to avoid:
    Do a search for the pilot (the one in the osprey in this case) and check battleclinic. If you search now you will see he took out a rifter (you) with a few friends. So chances are, the osprey is a trap

    Set your d-scan to short range and as you engage check the d-scan. Chances are with no cap it was too late anyway, but seeing them coming in before they land gives you a few extra seconds you make your escape

    You can also start the engagement further out at say 7km. Medium Energy Neuts only have ~10km range. So burn out 3km and you would have got cap back to make good your escape

    If you look in your charactor sheet under Combat Log it will list your kills and losses. Double clicking your latest Rifter loss will show who was attacking you and what they were in. You can then subsequently do a battleclinic search on the other pilots. Was it a one off / first time or do they do it regular, etc etc

    You can also add the pilots corp to your watchlist as a negative and then in local it will show a "-" next to all of the same corp


    It may be worth posting your Rifter fit in each engagement as i havent spotted what you are using and it can help people point you in the right direction.

    IE, As you got drained of cap a small Nosferatu in your 4th high slot would have likely given you enough cap to keep at least some modules running.


    Keep going though. The best way to learn is just to dive in and see. Next time you engage an Osprey though you will be a bit more careful

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  2. You can also use the 'look at' button to see if he has mining lasers equipped. A mining osprey will have a bunch of them, a trap osprey won't have any and a smart trap-osprey will have one so he pretend to be mining.

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