This is my attempt at free tault access.
I enjoy writing about what I'm currently doing, and I know I don't have the best spelling, punctuation, or grammar.. But I write anyways =)
I play late hours and so I typically end up having to wait out the daily downtimes, so this is what I wrote the last two days.
I will most likly be adding new sections to this guide later, so I will either edit it or repost it using the same subject title.
Enjoy!
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1. Powergrid & CPU
Every module you fit onto your ship has a fitting requirement which can be seen when you right-click and select show info and Fitting tab on the module. You can see the different module requirements by browsing through the market as well and pressing the I (show info) icon on modules you do not own yet.
The Powergrid and CPU are you has availible is determined from the base amount your ship has avaible (in your fitting screen) modified primarily by your Engineering (5% extra powergrid per lvl) and Electronics Skill (5% extra CPU per lvl) levels.
Every module you fit uses up some Powergrid and CPU when it is loaded onto your ship and active (note you can now load modules onto your ship but keep them offline so they do not use up pwergrid or CPU - they will be greyed out on your ship control panel in space or have a red icon in your fitting screen) however to activate them again you right-click and select put online or to turn them off put offline. You must have the availible amount of CPU and Powergrid to activate them however. if you do not, you wil get an error message informing you how much grid or CPU you are short by.
When equipping your ship, you must balance out what modules you can fit with the amount of Powergrid and CPU availible. Many hours are spent at the ship fitting screen experimenting by many players doing this. I suggest you do the same and start playing with different modules to see how the loadout can change according to the fitting requirements.
There is only one type of module that can upgrade your CPU, a CPU co-processor, for the powergrid there are 3:
- Reactor Control Units
- Auxillary Powercores (require Energy Management skill lvl 4 to use and useful on frigates or indies)
- Power Diagnostics
2. Capacitor and Cap Recharge
Every ship has a capacitor and cap recharge time. This is the energy in the middle of the ship control panel in space. Your capacitor is used to determine how far you can warp and how much energy is availible for any module that must be activated which has an Activation Cost.
Every time you activate a module, or everytime it begins another cycle (if on autorepeat) it will consume energy until you run out and there is no energy left in your capacitor. You can see the Activation Cost again in the items show info. You must bear the activation cost in mind always when choosing and activating amodule to ensure you never run out else you may be doomed as you have nothing left to protect your ship in terms of shield boosters or afterburners or enough energy to go to warp and flee.
You can determine the natural cap recharge of your ship from the fitting screen and the
Total Cap avaible / cap recharge time = cap regained per sec
Note: capacitors in eve behave the same as in real life. The cap recharge rate varies from this 'average' when the capacitor is charged at different levels. When it is almost full, the recharge rate will be very low for eg.
A ship can recharge *lots* more than that, when the cap is at about 30-40%. It's like a real capacitor (IRL), 0-5% recharges really slow and so does 90-100%. Around 35% it recharges way more than cap/recharge time.
If you have 3 modules fitted then you need to see their cycle time and activation cost to work out when activated, how much energy they collectively consume per second. When weighed against your cap recharge, you can see how long your capacitor will last before it runs out which in the heat of combat when most modules are active, you will consume cap quickly.
There are a number of modules which increase your total capacitor size and also your cap recharge time.
Skills that affect cap the most:
- Energy Management Skill (increases cap capacity by 5% per lvl)
- Energy Systems Operation (decreases cap recharge time by 5% per lvl)
- Controlled Bursts (decreases activation cost of a weapon turret by 5% per lvl)
- Afterburner (increases ab cycle time +10% per lvl)
- Acceleration Control (increases velocity by 5% per lvl)
- High Speed manovering (-5% cap needs of mwd)
- Warp Drive Ops (decreases cap use when warping -10% per lvl)
Modules that affect cap size and recharge:
- Med slot batteries - add a % to cap size
- Med slot boosters - inject a chunk of power into your capacitor
- Med slot rechargers - increase cap recharge rate
- Low slot cap relays - increase cap recharge rate
- Power diagnostics - increase cap size/recharge rate
- various others modules - called fluxes and the like mess with cap size and cap recharge rate
- named modules - reduce cap power needs when activated over the standard ones
The above form the basic foundation of ship module selection as well as what you intend to do and what tactic you intend to use all have to be weighed when considering the fitting requirements and energy requirements of each module and your success or simple survival aginst your availible skills to use such ships or modules.
You have to decide whether you want your ship to be offensive, defensive or fast or have large cargo capacity, in deciding what modules to select in the whole decision making process aginst the objects of your ultimate goals. Your can go to an extreme such as 'tanking' as it is called in being defensive or totally offensive - getting in close with weaker shield and speed to use short range very fast damaging turrets or a balance between the two.
3. Weapon Selection
There are general rules of thumb which apply to many situations when it come to selecting which weapon type and turret to use.
A. The ship bonus - you get a bonus to your ship modules eg. 5% per ship skill lvl to small weapon sturret damage/optimal range or Rate of Fire for eg. This is an extra bonus and it is important to consider this when choosing your turret type.
B. The type of turret slot - either turret or launcher (fires missles)
The range of the weapon:
Every turret has an Optimal Range (m) and Accuracy falloff (m). When considering your modules, consider the range at which they will be effective. This is shown again on the turret info
The Optimal Range + Accuracy Falloff = max range of your weapon at which you are likely to cause any damage
Between your optimal range and accuracy falloff you have a chance of scoring a successfully higher damaging hit. Right up to your optimal range where you have a very high chance of scoring maximum damage.
Note: wrecking hits have ~3% chance of occuring at whatever range and multiply your damage caused by 3 afak...
Tracking speed of a turret:
is important when fighting fast moving targets. This is measured in radians/sec in a sphere around your turret.
The larger the turret and the longer range the turret then the slower its tracking speed is likely to be. If a fast moving ship is under your optimal range, then tracking speed becomes the prime consideration when trying to hit them alongside the signature radius - size of their ship to a smaller degree.
You have to select at what range your weapons will all be effective at, you may want a selection or you my wnat to go for long range or short range.
Increasing the weapon range/tracking speed:
There are numerous tracking modules out there which increase the range and tracking speed of a weapon and also its damage modifier. They again are important when considering the offensive vs defensive loadout you choose.
3. Ammo and Reloading
Every turret or launcher has a 'magazine' size (volume) and indicates how many rounds it can load into the turret at once or missles (lasers require no ammo - only a crystal). Each turret will only load ammunition of the right size (S,M or L) which is indicated on the turret info
In the case of all turrets you must consider the damage type the crystal or ammo selection gives and the range modifier. Choosing this you must consider how shield and armour penetration work;
Shield and armour have a damage resistance which indicates how much of which type of damage they can absorb.
Types of Damage: Explosive, Kinetic, Thermal, Electromagnetic (EMP)
Shields are strong at absorbing Kinetic and Explosive damage while relatively weak at absorbing Thermal and EMP damage.
Armour is strong at absorbing EMP and Thermal damage while weaker at absorbing kinetic and explosive damage (this can be seen on your ship show info screen and also on various sites and with utilities like EveDudePlus).
Your ammo selection must take the above into consideration and also the range modifier which indicates the penalty/modifer when using that ammo against your turret max range and optimal.
4. Missles
Each missle has a flight time and a speed which determines its range. Missles only cause one type of damage.
When fighting missle firing npc's they will only ever fire one type of missle and since missles cause the most damage it is important when facing that npc to equip modules such as hardners to counter that damage type. Missles only ever hit for full damage (depending in how much of that damage type is absorbed) or miss you if you try to outrun it.
How do defenders and Fof missles work?
This question is asked quite a lot.
Defenders: will destroy another missle and will only launch when a missle is fired at you. They will also only track the nearest missle locked onto you so firing successive defenders will only track the same missle.
FoF's: will fire at anyone who is causing aggression to you, in this I mean jamming or scrambling you or firing at you. They will not fire if someone has simply locked you. They are good to use only when you are jammed normally.
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Welp, that's it for my guide, I hope you found it useful.
I may be adding new sections to it soon, so stay tuned!
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