Technological Secrets
5th August 2008 – 7.16 amMy agent in EVE Online gives me an important level two mission. Codenamed Technological Secrets I am to find and capture a rebel captain, which means fighting off a few waves of his mercenaries first. I am going to encounter Minmatar ships again, so I keep the Ladar ECM system installed to disrupt their sensors, but don't worry too much about my missile payloads.
The captain I have to capture is only one system away, in the Motsu system, so after a single jump I head in to deadspace to hunt him down. It's not long before I have quite a few rats heading my way looking to stop me from finding their base, and it's only when they all start firing missiles at me that I start worrying. Up until now I have faced mostly ships equiped with turret weapons, which let me keep my distance and stay out of range of their weapons whilst firing back with my missiles. Now I find that I cannot avoid their weapon fire, and the missiles can hit quite hard. I jam what I can and take out the rats as quickly as I can. At least I am now able to lock on to an extra target, thanks to some more skill training.
There are missiles being fired all over the place, most headed towards me, but the only killing blows are being shot by my launchers. My shield doesn't look to healthy, though. All the blasts from the explosive Piranha warheads are taking their toll on my shield and I find it a tricky balance to keep it healthy, alternately sapping my capacitor to replenish the shield with the booster and letting the shield run down as my capacitor recharges. But, as before, I am able to last the entire engagement without suffering any damage to my armour, keeping a healthy ship.
After my previous engagement with Minmatar ships and their Piranha missiles I should have installed an active explosion-damping module. Having one fitted could have mitigated quite a lot of the damage taken and prevented the need to drain my capacitor quite so heavily in boosting my shield. With my agent telling me that there is still more to this mission I decide to remove the broad spectrum ECM from a mid-level slot and install an explosive-damping module instead, but I keep the Ladar-tuned ECM system fitted. I also notice during the dogfights that the Bloodclaw kinetic missiles definitely seem to be damaging the enemy frigates more than the thermal-damage Flameburst missiles, so switch over exclusively to the Bloodclaw missiles. Before I head out again I will probably also switch my lone heavy launcher for a fouth assault launcher, so that the missile boat frigates can be despatched as quickly as possible.
The first part of the mission was a success, but it was frustrating. There was a great deal of lag in Motsu, to the point of taking several seconds for systems to be switched on after requesting their activation. This is frustrating enough with the shield booster and ECM, but when launchers don't activate for half their recharging time whilst the rats are continuously firing on me it can get annoying. It certainly made victory in the combat more uncertain, but I'd prefer the challenge to come from something other than technical problems.
Whilst I was in deadspace I decided to check for asteroid types, after having read elsewhere about better quality of ores being found in mission pockets, and find an omber asteroid mingled amongst the veldspar and scordite. Apparently, the earlier in the alphabet the first letter of the ore type sits, the better the quality of ore it is. I'm still not much of a miner, and know nothing about manufacturing still, but I thought I'd try to take advantage of this find, however insignificant. I head back to Jita, switch to my Bantam frigate, Dewdrop, and head back out to deadspace. I mine the Omber asteroid, jettisoning my first yeild in to a can then topping the can up with each subsequent yeild until I have enough to fill my Badger. I return to Jita, switch from Dewdrop to Harvest Moon, take my Badger out to deadspace, fill up my hold from the can, then back to Jita to refine and sell the ore. Finally, I jump back in to Tiger Lily, my Caracal cruiser, and head back to Saila to hand in the mission, spending some of the time thinking about possibly expanding in to the manufacturing business.
Speaking to my agent in Saila sends me off to have a DNA sample analysed, which is a simple courier mission that takes me through some stunning systems, before asking me to return for some unsettling news. Intelligence has spotted a few waves of rebel Minmatar ships heading towards a starbase and they need to be stopped. It looks like I'll soon find out how effective my explosion-damping system is.
2 Responses to “Technological Secrets”
Hang on to that Omber. You will need some for a level 3 storyline mission.
ECM isn't very effective against NPC's. You are better off with the Explosive hardener. I haven't seen you mention Drones. Don't forget to bring some along for additional firepower. Also, fill your low slots with Ballistic Control Systems if you haven't already.
I've used drones once or twice, but they are mostly a mystery to me. I'm planning to look in to their capabilities when I have more time.
Thanks for the tips on systems to fit, I'll see what's available.
As for the Omber, let's hope I find some more before I get that storyline mission.