Pilot Error and Evolution of Ship Selection and Fitting

Starwalker’s ship fitting philosophy had evolved over time:

1. Initial focus was on kill or be killed – a simple damage race, who will be the first to get the kill. Emphasis on using simple cookie cutter builds but not really appreciating the reasons behind the fit 
2. Next evolution was that survival is needed to apply damage, so tank is fitted first and damage second. In short, no damage if dead, so fit tank before guns 
3. Current focus was on relative superiority – define a ship fit to counter most likely ships encountered and their methods of attack. Maximize intelligence to gain relative superiority in selection of tactics, ammunition and range  

Starwalker was still trying to fit for relative superiority but had recently added a tweak – also select ships and fit to compensate for pilot weaknesses. Selecting ships and fittings based on exploiting strengths would be better but Starwalker was not good enough yet to have pilot strengths.

Pilot weaknesses were easy to identify:

• Being distracted by trivia such as looking at the chat channel whilst losing this Hawk in an asteroid belt
• Not selecting the right ammunition to maximize damage as demonstrated when losing this Rifter
• Not using the right range and ammunition that works at that range, which was one of many factors that led to this Hookbill exploding
• Poor manual piloting skills (could not effectively do a slingshot) against a kiting ship like this Slicer
• Not knowing, understanding or remembering New Eden mechanics such as warp-in in a deadspace complex
• Lack of knowledge or common sense when fighting or in this case not engaging when needed and appropriate
• Being impatient (and not cautious) led to this Rifter loss

These traits were starting to lead towards preferring Caldari ships, like the Hawk using the kinetic damage type, and rockets (or missiles) to avoid considering optimal, falloff and tracking. To prefer selecting and fitting a ship for brawling in scramble range because the greater tank, compared to a kiting ship, gave more time to react to the situation.

This preference had its own problems such as restricting the choice of ships but Starwalker was happy at this time to focus on the Rifter and Hawk and perhaps later add the Drake. He also knew that his losses were more a result of his pilot errors than any limitations of the ship he flew or the trained skills he had.

Core Ship Skills

In Close but no Kill Starwalker noted that his Drake was barely fit for purpose. This battlecruiser had seen action for mission running and got the job done but against live targets it was only adequate at best. Its tank and gank was simply too low. Similarly, Starwalker noted that the Rifters are much better currently because more of the relevant pilot skills are trained to a higher level and more ships are properly fit for purpose. Last but not least, the frigates are far more expendable than battlecruisers because of the ISK replacement cost.

Starwalker moved to the Neocom console in his Captain’s Quarters and checked his ISK balance, less than 10 million. It would be some time before there was enough ISK to have a fleet of expendable battlecruisers. As Starwalker sat there contemplating the future and sipping some Quafe he decided that waiting a while was not necessarily a bad thing as there were many skills to be acquired too.

Thinking about that further Starwalker listed some of the core ship skills that needed to be maximised to Level 5 and applied to any ship and added them to his training plan:

·         Electronics – 5% bonus to CPU for each level

·         Engineering – 5% bonus to Power Grid for each level

·         Energy Management – 5% bonus to Capacitor Capacity for each level

·         Shield Management – 5% bonus to Shield Capacity for each level

·         Hull Upgrades – 5% bonus to Armour Hitpoints for each level

·         Mechanic – 5% bonus to Structure Hitpoints for each level

·         Navigation – 5% bonus to Speed for each level

·         Evasive Manoeuvring – 5% bonus to Agility for each level

Learning other electronic, engineering, navigation or mechanic skills would be dependent on ship or type of fit and typically add improvements (Repair Systems...) or make something easier to fit (Weapon Upgrades...). Starwalker did a quick calculation and realised that to complete the skill training of even this short list would take around two months. What would be the best way to do this learning and include the other keys skills for gank and tank?

That was a question for another day, it was getting late and looking at this would take some time to come up with an answer.