Two Rifters Killed in Two Gate Camps

Starwalker had been roaming around Amamake and surrounding systems looking for targets of opportunity. The roams had extended beyond the immediate systems like Dal and Auga to treks to Gusandall and Old Man Star. For whatever reasons, those roams had simply been fruitless.

Starwalker was returning to base after a long haul and ran into a gate camp at Eszur. There was no chance to escape and the Rifter (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10302116) and pod (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=13952290) disappeared in two successive fireballs. Worse than that, the same thing happened to the same guys with another Rifter (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10308914) and pod (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=13957833) the following night.

Starwalker was not happy as the pods had also lost a set of implants for training. In both cases, the pods had not responded to commands to warp out and seemed to simply wait for the subsequent podding. Starwalker considered how best to address that in future and whether his base of operations was the best location. Losing three ships and pods to gate camps within a week was absolutely no fun and a fast track to soon having no ships or ISK.

There was no problem with the original criteria for a base it was that the relative importance was not clear and that it was missing additional criteria:

·         Few or no gate camps in region, although no gate camps might be too optimistic

·         Away from a main hisec to lowsec pipe, like Hek to Amamake, which includes Eszur

·         Away from arterial routes between lowsec locations, which are also likely to be gate camped

Being close to hisec or a trade hub is relatively meaningless when using a hauler alt to buy and move equipment or paying for the service. Similarly, that need for ships and/or equipment is irregular but roaming is regular and consequently has much more importance when selecting a base.

Starwalker sipped his Quafe and his eyes wandered around the star map shining brightly from the Neocom console in the dimly lit quarters. Maybe move from Metropolis to Heimatar or maybe simply establish another stash of ships in Heimatar?