Greedy Goblin

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Outrunning the bear

Most bears (Grizzly, Polar, European Brown) run faster than a man. So if you are in the range of a hungry bear, you are out of luck. This is the fatalist approach of the miners who are aware of the existence of Damage Control II module but refuse to use it. "If someone wants to gank me, he will succeed."

Both statements are equally true. However we know the saying "you don't need to outrun the bear, only the slowest man around". The bear doesn't want to eat you, it just wants to eat. It won't make the extra effort to catch you if there is an easier prey or closer threat.

There are lot of situations where the above is naturally applied. Does seatbelt protects from all accidents? No, but it saves from many, so it's better to use it. Does washing your hands before eating stops every bacteria from entering your body? No, but it stops a lot. Someone claiming "I don't wash my hands because bacteria can get in anyway" would be laughed.

However social people see a huge difference where there is none: between the human opponent and the bear or bacteria. They implicitly assume that the human opponent is after them. As an active ganker and member of the New Order, I can guarantee that we can't care less about your name - unless you walked an extra mile to make us care, like Moonsong Miner. We are ganking barges, not people. If it is not on the list on the permit holder (set to blue) the scout approaches. If it doesn't warp off (hard when the player is AFK), it will be ganked.

How does tank comes to the picture? Simple: if you have a tanked Retriever, solo gankers can't gank you. Can they form a fleet and gank you? Can they upgrade to a Vexor? Yes they can. Will they when the next belt has an untanked Hulk, two Retrievers and an 3 bot Covetors filling and Orca? Kidding?

Gank fleets can indeed destroy targets at will. But will a 5-man fleet bother with a T1 barge when it can hit T2 exhumers? The chance of your Retriever be hit by a fleet is the same as PL hotdroping supers on your frigate roam. Finally, Procurer/skiff is out of range even for fleets. While I can imagine some extremely obnoxious New Order hater be ganked in a Skiff, I've yet to see a single Skiff kill.

I see that I avoid most traps simply by not being social. For me a ganking catalyst is no different from an equal DPS belt rat. If I can tank it, I do, if I can't, I don't go there.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are still missing the risk vs reward of fitting for yield instead of tank (not to mention adding the "social" aspect to that - wtf?). If max yield gives better isk than tanked, even when ganked on occasion, miners will fit for yield. It's so simple. Miners can calculate what is better for them. Of course there are morons among them, but a typical miner knows his work and maximizes his profit.

Bobbins said...

@Anonymous 09.47
What he fails to understand that even in a tanked ship you may be ganked. So saying tanked ships = no gank is untrue and vastly changes the justification for tanking/not tanking.

Anonymous said...

PL do, in fact, hotdrop supers onto frigate roams.

Just saying.

Anonymous said...

So, being able to run faster than your fellow human so that he gets eaten by the bear and you don't is the same as wearing a seatbelt?

Did you really just say that? because if you did you are drawing a false comparison here.

You also continually ignore the fact that if I get ganked once per week I'm financially better off fitting for maximum yield. The maths has been presented to you many times. Have you ever thought that THIS is the reason why people don't tank their barges, and not the fact that they are muling dribbling socials?

Camo said...

Bobbins: "What he fails to understand that even in a tanked ship you may be ganked. So saying tanked ships = no gank is untrue and vastly changes the justification for tanking/not tanking."

The key point here is that fitting a tank reduces the chance of being ganked as long as there are easier untanked ships around.

As the anonymous said, miners can calculate the gank risk and weight it against their yield, but most of them seem to forget that the risk rises when the New Order is around. But maybe the ganks of the New Order are insignificant enough and a pure yield fit comes still out ahead. That would be terrible news for the New Order, if their impact on an individual scale can be shrugged off.

Anonymous said...

The first two comments shows perfectly why the New Order never ever face any resistance. Miners just can't get their heads out of warmth and safety of their ases. May the holy antimatter end the poor bastards misery.

Anonymous said...

"May the holy antimatter end the poor bastards misery. "

It will. Then they will come back in new ships fitted for yield and still make a profit.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 13:05
Tell me please how THE FUCK fitting tank modules in MIDDLE SLOTS hinders your ability to fit mining upgrades in LOW SLOTS? And how exactly, losing 250 million ship and 2 billion set of implants considering "making profit"? Are you from anti-universe, or just retarded?

Bobbins said...

@Anonymous 12.46
'The first two comments shows perfectly why the New Order never ever face any resistance'.

or the fact that the game mechanics give no effective counter to highsec ganking.
I suppose 'resistance' is the fact that they aren't really that relevant, for all the New Order bluster their effect is negible.

Anonymous said...

"Tell me please how THE FUCK fitting tank modules in MIDDLE SLOTS hinders your ability to fit mining upgrades in LOW SLOTS?"

Rock scanner. Unless someone wants to actually armor tank a barge, then the answer is obvious. And there's DC.

MoxNix said...

"Most bears (Grizzly, Polar, European Brown) run faster than a man. So if you are in the range of a hungry bear, you are out of luck."

That's why you load your shotgun with a slug at the back of the magazine.

Unknown said...

@Anon
'if I get ganked once per week I'm financially better off fitting for maximum yield

Can you show some numbers?

How much does replacing an untanked ship cost? How much getting ganked once a week slows you in terms of gathered resources?

How much does tanking a ship cost? How much slower does a tanked ship gather resources?

Kristophr said...

MoxNix: In Alaska, the magazine is filled with 12 gauge slug.

Agent Trask said...

anon 16:12 :

A permit Tank only costs 10m ISK per year per ship. Dirt cheap. You only have to stop being a pridefull rebel mining Goofus.

Buy Permits, and you can multi-box an op with Hulks, and orca, and a freighter with no risk of a new order gank.

This is cost effectiveness.

Permit Tank is the best tank.

Anonymous said...

@Agent Trask

I have bought it and I think it's a good idea to buy one and mine happily. It's another argument why fitting for tank is useless.

Agent Trask said...

Anon: Not all gankers are New Order gankers.

A tank, a pair of warp stabs, and watching local may save you from a Hulkageddon gank.