EPTAs some of you know one of my alts is a Red Frog Freight member that I use to AFK (Auto Pilot) to make a little money on the side. I use this alt to plex my accounts and fund my other pursuits. I'm also writing this @ some of the other Red Frog pilots so they can have a clue about what is going on. So, to my two audiences-- Let's begin.
Bumping (http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Bumping) is most common at the U and N gates, as it is a high traffic route that only has .5 sec status (Slowest CONCORD intervention). I had a project I needed to do this morning and was about to go get some supplies for the project and didn't pay attention to what was going on around me. I quickly grabbed the longest trip I could from Jita and hit AP and left the house. Most RF pilots know how important it is to check your cargo as many of our customers are too stupid (no offense, but let's be honest- and call a duck a duck) to have the appropriate collateral attached to their contracts. Under shooting collateral is a very common occurrence. This common occurrence is made exponentially worse when dealing with Blueprints which the in-game mechanics of evaluation are rarely correct. To be fair, I knew better than not to check my cargo and should take my part in the blame as to why this even happened. I was in a rush and wanted to get done with what I had to do so it is what it is and I made my way out of Jita. While my freighter was off making money for me I was shopping. Luckily for me I found what I was looking for right away and was able to return home sooner than expected. Upon my return I went to go load the previous nights SC2 Proleague VODS (Go Esports!) when I saw something was off. I look over at my 2nd CPU and notice I wasn't aligned to the stargate- I switched my focus just in time to see a Mach bum rushing my freighter. I knew at once what was going on. I was being bumped. I knew how important the next few seconds would be. Either I was going to get kicked 150km+ off the gate guns and blown to bits or I was going to stay calm, focus'd, and make my escape.
I was very lucky that there were only a few ships that were taking part in the bumping process. There was 2 on-grid that had hostile intent, one nub ship and one mach. My original plan was to burn hard toward the gate and hit the 2500m threshold before getting fully derailed from my course. I had at this time only been hit 2 times and still had a strong likelihood of hitting the gate. I have alot of things working in my favor at this point. This character is a professional freighter meaning I have all my efforts put into making it the safest/most efficient freighter possible- in contrast to the many EvE players who have a freighter that they just trained for the bare minimums. Briefly the advantages are- Implant #7 Eifyr and Co. 'Rouge' Evasive Maneuvering EM-705 (the 2nd best money can buy[only outdone by the EM-706]) Navigation V, Evasive Man V., Min. Freighter IV (working towards V) and of course the Fenrir--The best freighter for Red Frog purposes. When it comes to freighters speed is everything. Your tank means nothing- even if they don't kill you in N or U they will hop in thrashers and finish you off in the next system before you can jump to a dock. Speed is all that matters. My speed is what got me really close to the gate, I was 3400m before the derail occurred and started pushing me away from the gate. I really thought I was going to get to 2500m before the next bump and was so confident I even celebrated in RF contracts saying I was going to get away. Mistake #2 on my part. The initial bumps do not derail you as your momentum still carries you toward the gate. Bumps 3 and above are the ones that can seal your fate.
At this time, Plan A has failed. I will not make it to the gate. When plan A fails most freighters panic and make self defeating decisions. Time and time again, you see pilots just spam 'jump' on the gate-- this will always fail-- do not attempt to do that. Instead hopefully your UI object display is on (Shift+Alt+X) and you can look into space and find objects on screen that otherwise wouldn't be shown.
You should always use the bumps to your advantage. The bumper in my situation was Norri Matora a scrub who had no clue what s/he was doing. This next part is very important. Situation awareness is what separates the 99% from the 1%. When bumped after the initial derail occurs you will be headed near full speed away from the gate. Attempting to return to the gate will only slow down your ship and slightly turn it. Basically you aren't moving in a new direction- but are on the same path. Bumping you when you are spamming 'jump' 'jump' is childsplay- and no doubt what the scrub Norri Matora was used to. I had a different strategy. My plan was to quickly assess the nearest object that was 150km+ (min. warp range) that would give me the fastest align. The scrub Norri Matora had no clue what was about to happen next.
Before I continue let me be very clear, bumping is not a quick thing- it takes time to bump a freighter- I want to stress that to all you would be panicers out there. You have time in between bumps to do alot of things. One- Alert RF contracts that you are being bumped; State location (system and nearest gate) as well as who is bumping you. Also odds are your bumper will convo you. Don't waste time convo'ing that person, but if s/he wants to have a conversation by all means oblige. The latter occurred, and I was not at all surprised about what happened in the convo. The situation was repointed out to me (as If I didn't already know):
[ 2013.01.21 18:31:24 ] Norri Matora > hello
[ 2013.01.21 18:31:42 ] Norri Matora > as you can see, i have you bumped
[ 2013.01.21 18:31:47 ] Korhal SayGen > i c
[ 2013.01.21 18:31:56 ] Norri Matora > would you like to negotiate for your release?
[ 2013.01.21 18:32:12 ] Korhal SayGen > sorry not allowed- i'm red frog
[ 2013.01.21 18:32:42 ] Norri Matora > well, i'd seriously consider it
[ 2013.01.21 18:32:51 ] Norri Matora > considering you're carrying 3.4B and ship
[ 2013.01.21 18:33:12 ] Norri Matora > you are now aggressed
[ 2013.01.21 18:33:15 ] Norri Matora > so don't even bother logging off
[ 2013.01.21 18:33:23 ] Korhal SayGen > do what u gotta do bro
[ 2013.01.21 18:33:55 ] Korhal SayGen > I am Red Frog, and we do not negotiate with terrorists.
[ 2013.01.21 18:34:21 ] Korhal SayGen > Bump much?
While I'm letting him talk and waste time I am carefully putting plan B into action. (note: Do not talk when you are making adjustments to your course, My APM allows me to do multiple things, but talking is the last priority--escape is #1).
The resolution. While I located an object (the Haa gate) The bumping continued. The scrub bumper didn't think to check the direction s/he was bumping me. S/he was so focused on getting me away from the Silv. gate that no attention was paid where my forward moment was about to point me. As I've already stated the most important thing is speed, and here's why. Once I found the Haa in my line of sight-about 30-35 degrees from the direction of my forward momentum. I didn't immediately spam warp/jump. Instead I made sure I used manual piloting (Very important skill to understand the mechanics of) to keep my maximum velocity (or as much of it as I could) while slowly arching to the Haa gate. The scrub Norri had no idea how to manual pilot the mach and not once, not twice--but 3 times missed a bump. The Fenrir is the fastest freighter with the best agility-and my skill points and implants made it all the better. Norri being the scrub that s/he is only knew how to push 'Approach' so when the bump was about to occur my speed allowed my freighter to clear the point of impact and Norri undershot me again and again. Norri-the-scrub should of known that a bump is best done with manual piloting and you aim at the front of the ship you want to bump so when impact is about to happen you hit center mass. Norri-the-scrub used the 'approach' command which auto aims for the center mass, so the actual impact hits behind center mass. The angle actually made it easier to align to Haa gate as the tail impact turned my vessel ever so slightly, without lowering my velocity by much, to my intended target. A couple missed bumps and one bump that did more good than harm was all I needed. My target was insight and I was 65% max velocity and I spammed 'jump' and right before another bump came into play I was watching stars fly past. All I gotta say is:
[ 2013.01.21 18:34:21 ] Korhal SayGen > Bump much?
Lessons learned: One- Always check your cargo hold and try to familiarize yourself with the value of cargo items. This is especially true for Blueprints of BS which can easily amount to several billion.
Two: Don't be over confident. I thought my Plan A was going to be successful- so much in so I claimed I was about to escape in RF contracts- when in reality I should of been working on a plan B much sooner.
Three: Norri might be a scrub- but had the same situation occurred with another Mach present or other support ships, I would be dead right now. I was lucky my piloting skills and game knowledge were superior to my adversary.
Additional things to consider. At no time did I ever see a group of suicide ships ready to open fire on my freighter- it is entirely possible the entire bumping process was a bluff attempt to secure funds from me. When someone asks you to negotiate terms and there is no visible threat- do not assume they can back up what they say. Again-- Situational Awareness separates the 99% from the 1%.
Also consider this: When you are 1st being bumped-press Esc choose safe logout and go to your contract alt- and ask for help getting eyes on your freighter. If your ship is non-aggro'd your freighter will magically disappear.
Most days as a freighter are boring- every now and then they are epic.
