Fitting Cockups For New Bro's

A couple of days ago a conversation was struck up on Twitter. It all started when Sindel commented that she'd been chatting to a new player as part of her charitable work in The Angel Project and it was cute or something that this guy was saving hard for a Rupture. That then started a flood of comments from the older players about their first cruisers and battlecrusiers. That moved onto how long they lasted (most were dead in days, I still have my first BC and that is 5 years old!) and finally onto the terribad fits we used.

I had some corking ones! As a newb who was playing Eve solo I had no help so experimented... and failed badly. I also asked around the #tweetfleet asking for their classic cock-ups. So here is what I learnt.

Cloaking Devices

The Idea - Come on! Cloaks are cool! Have you seen Star Trek! They are awesome and will allow you to take your enemy by surprise or evade capture!

The Reality - Cloaks have some pretty nasty side effects unless you are using the Covert Ops Cloak and a hull specially designed for using them. The idea of sneaking up on someone and then decloaking and blasting them to bits sounds good in practice, but the sensor recalibration time after you decloak means the target has lots of time to run away or blow you into little bits.

Mixed Sized Guns

The Idea - Large guns work well against large ships, small ones well against small ships. Sooo I want some big ones, some medium ones and some small ones so I can take on anyone!

The Reality - You will be massively gimping your attack power by doing this. You won't be effective against all ship types, you'll actually be ineffective against all ship types! You need to rely on drones, energy neutralisers and EWar to deal with small ships if you are in a bigger one. If you mix the gun sizes, you'll die to everyone! Fit the right sized guns for your ship!

Lasers Must be the Best

The Idea - Its the future! We have missiles, railguns and projectile weapons already. Lasers must be the best weapon as they are most futuristic! Fit them to everything!

The Reality - Each weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses and are generally balanced (ish). Lasers are no better or worse than the other types. However, most ship hulls convey a bonus to their racial weapons type. You could be losing big time fitting a weapon on a hull that wasn't designed for it.

Dual Tank

The Idea - Shield tank plus armour tank! I'll be very hard to kill!

The Reality - No you won't. For a start one of those tanks will be poor as most ships are designed to concentrate on one type, either shield or armour. Also you are unlikely to have the CPU, power grid or capacitor to fit it well. Finally you'll be missing out on damage mods and ewar. Dual tanks don't work and are reserved for very rare and very specific circumstances.

Missing Slots

The Idea - I've just got this new hull. I cannot fill all the slots but the ship is so much more powerful I'll be OK.

The Reality - No you won't. If your fitting skills are so low that you cannot effectively fit the ship, do not fly it. Get the skills up first to ensure your ship is properly kitted out. Otherwise it won't end well!

Warp Core Stabalisers on a Combat Ship

The Idea - If someone points me I can still get out if I need to.

The Reality - WCS gimp your sensors, badly. Best case you'll get a 40% reduction to targeting range and a 40% reduction to your scanner resolution. You're enemy will have a great advantage with your low targeting range and sloooow lock speed. Plus if they have a scrambler rather than a disruptor you'll still not be able to warp out. Fit two? Then yes, you can escape when scrammed by a single ship. But then you are taking two hits and will be blind as a bat (relatively speaking)!

Stack Up The Modules

The Idea - Right on my Thorax I'll put five magnetic field stabilisers and kill all the things with my uber damage bonused guns!

The Reality - Most modules that grant a bonus to your ship have what is called a stacking penalty. Each one after the first is less effective. This article explains it in full details. Generally it is considered that the 3rd module is OK, but the 4th is so heavily penalised that there is little point in actually fitting it. Same with most tank modules too. You might want to close that EM hole in your shield tank, but only use 3 modules max that effect the EM resist.

That Module Sounds Cool! I'll Fit It!
The Idea - Reinforced bulkheads! They sound like they make your ship well hard! I'll fit a few!
The Reality - It is said real men hull (structure) tank. If that was true then real men die fast and easy in New Eden. Never structure tank* EVER!

Thanks to the following from the #tweetfleet who had something to share on this:-

‏@wartzilla
@MorwenLagann
‏@silent810
@webspaceships
‏@ericscho
@phyridean
@Thansoli
@SpaceKazz


*ofc Damage Control Units technically give you a good hull boost and are a useful mod overall