haniblecter
Veteran XX
Ya know those NPC 'convoy's that you occasionaly see floating around Empire space. Turns out, you can attack these without Concord giving a shit, granting you tons of consumer goods. This post is stolen from the main EVE boards, here's the link
I've been searching the eve forums for some information on attacking convoys; most of it is either out of date; educated guessing/hersey or just plain obsolete/wrong.
I thought I would give a post with how I've found to successfully attack convoys, and dispel a couple rumors that are going around the forums.
Lets begin with the very basics.
Convoys are NPC 'haulers' usually in groups occasionally as low as 2l rarley as large as 6.. (usually 3-5)
They have various names depending on which faction the convoy is being sent from.
Few points to note here so we're clear on this:
#1 You do take Standing hits for the corps convoys belong to; not sec hits or racial standing.
#2 you do-not get Concord-ed even in high sec space; with one major exception. If the convoy is a concord convoy (explained later on)
#3 Attacking convoys -is- profitable if done right; isk for your time it is -not- the best bang for your buck; however the materials dropped are often expencive in large quantites. Reports; Synthetic oil, Hydrogen; Oxygen, Robotics, and several other 'pos'/Tech2/R&D resources aswell. Quafe Cola for the thirsty
Convoying essentially is High-sec imperial space NPC pirating.
Ideally you'll have most luck hunting in .5 .6 and occasionally .7 space.
The basic premise is knowing which NPC corp convoy's your dealing with, this is not as easy as it first sounds; however it can be done to avoid needless confusion/complication.
You want to attack only incoming convoys to stations from
-other- npc corps.
I will elaborate on this a little further; as this may result in a death or 3 if your not careful, you want to attack inbound convoys coming from 'other' corporations (Inbound convoys from NPC corp's other than the station it is arriving at)
To clarify this a little; some systems for example have 2 or more stations owned by the same NPC corp, not necessarily named identically.. (right click goto show info on a station to view which corp owns which) this is another good reason to hunt in .7 - .5 secs as they usually have fewer stations; and generally speaking less are 'dupe' owned stations by the same NPC corp.
Which brings me to the point of how convoy's assemble.
Please read this carefullyI can't stress enough.
Convoys begin by one npc 'hauler' spawning at a station. It flys out from the station into the middle of no-where.
60-120 seconds later; another will spawn. The first hauler that left; will do a 180 degree turn and turn right around coming back to the station; meet up with the hauler that spawned and then continue going into 'no-where' again. This process repeats over and over until the 'max' number that the convoy is supposed to be is filled. -Do not mistake these for inbound convoys- So if they're flying towards the dock; it does not mean they are inbound convoys. Watch for a npc 'hauler' spawned near the station they're usually headed back towards the station to pick up their next member.
Having said that; after the convoy forms up and the max number has been reached it will travel out into space, in the 'general' direction of another station within the same system. They will travel approx 150-170km's from the dock at this point.. then 'vanish' No warp out graphic.. nothing. About 10-20 seconds later they will appear at the dock they are going to. Note: they travel approx 150-175km's before 'disappearing/warping?' from the dock, not the sentry guns. If you fire on the convoys before they warp out.. turrets will have their way with you.
* Convoys do-not leave a system they are self-contained within each system.
* From my experiences all docks form up their convoys at the exact same time btw, oddly some take up to 20 minutes longer to actually get to their destionation than others??
For some unknown reason; some npc corps send convoys to themselves. (2 or more stations owned by same corp) attacking these inbound convoys will get you turreted and probably killed.
Following these convoys from when they 'warp' out they will vaguley line up with another station (no where near exact)
Select the 'lead' hauler, click on look at; shift your view around behind them and see what the closest station they are travelling towards on their course, if they're travelling into the 'void' the convoy most likley hasn't filled yet and will be doing another 180 turn to pick up another hauler to add to the convoy.
Under no circumstances do you want to attack any convoys; either inbound or outbound belonging to CONCORD. Goes without saying what happens. Same applies with Customs Officials.
I generally avoid systems with any concord stations in them for this very reason.
After following the convoy which has left a station headed towards another; find which station it is warping to; and if it belongs to another corp (a convoy leaving from Federation Navy; is a Fed. navy convoy) warp to that station; depending on system loads it takes approx 10-20 secs for them to appear; at this point if #1 the convoy doesn't belong to the station they are arriving at and #2 it doesn't belong to concord, you can open up on them reguardless of where the turrets are as they will not open fire.
I would suggest especially if your just starting yer pseudo npc pirating carrer to use either a well equipt frigate or a low end cruiser; personally I use a Stabber as they're fast; cheap and expendable if by some chance you attack the wrong convoy at the wrong time.
A well armed frigate; or small cruiser without a tank will easily beable to kill the haulers. I would suggest an Afterburner or Microwarp if you have it as it usually requires you to move long distances with some speed.
A tip I've used to further simplify this process is to get yourself into a gang; I would suggest bringing a hauler as the sheer volume of goods is a little much for any non industrial ship to carry. (note: Contraban drops -often-)
while in the gang work out a system based on the corp stations present in the system your doing your hunting in; 1 = fed navy 2 = Joint Harvesting 3 = Jovian ect ect.
put a 'tag' on any forming convoys you see with the correct number tag; if you see what appears to be an inbound convoy you will beable to easily identify which corp that convoy belongs to.
(note: To see tags; make sure you have the 'tag' column enabled in overview settings)
Some convoys are more apparent than others; Joint harvesting; Chemal Tech for example use Iterons as haulers (and occasionally badgers??) Where as Minmatar corps use Hoarders and Mammoths; you get the idea.
Find inbound convoys with tags you've already placed on them double check they're from a different corp than the corp owning the station they're flying to; if they're different open up on them kill them collect loot;
You will 'always' get a warning msg with a YES/NO dialogue; if you will aggro'd by turrets or not, as soon as you aggro one of the haulers in the convoy they will all lock you and start firing (while continuing towards the station) They're very lightly armed.
Abstractly this sounds like an easily done deal; however multiple convoys will be travelling to different places at the same time; general rule; if you don't have it tagged/don't know which corp it belongs to, your taking yer life into yer own hands.
In practice...
To keep it simple you have 4 stations;
A, B, C and D
Station A and B belong to 'Joint Harvesting'
Station C belongs to Fed. Navy
Station D belongs to Concord
If station C sends a convoy to station D; you can attack it while it is arriving at the concord station.
If station D sends it's convoy to station A; You can't attack it period. It's Concord owned. (If you've never been Concorded try it.. once
If station A sends a convoy to station B; you cannot attack it; they are owned by the same corp; turrets will fire on you even if the convoy is arriving.
Best way to think of this is as if all NPC stations are essentially 'PoS'es (Player Owned Stations)
If your corp has a station with turrets; and you've made a quick trade deal with another corp; you send a hauler over to the other corp; if a Pirate attacks you while near your PoS; your turrets will open up and promptly fire on them.
If you arrive at your destination PoS (the other corps) and the pirate attacks you there; their Turrets will -not- defend you as your not a member of their corp.
Lastly; don't use any ship your not willing to use; even myself occasionally mess up and attack the right ships at the wrong time; or wrong ships at the right time??
Use cheap mods;
Cheap ships;
Always insure.
This is a long read; but I thought it might be worth the while as I found little to no posts on successfully attacking convoys in imperial space.
If I have missed anything please feel free to add on in a reply, again please keep this to first hand experience not 'my friend told me..'
Thanks for your time; and happy hunting
-Blitz Hacker-
Edit: Checking again you do take standing hits to the specific corps the haulers belonged to; not the racial standing however..
