EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Neutral Remote Repair Alts

Experienced duelists know that dishonorable scallawags (you) may seek to have another member of your corporation ready to join the fray if the fight turns against you. Thus, any back-up you need should be in an entirely different corporation. NPC corporations are preferable. Your back-up can be a friend, or you with a second EVE client open. Either way, it should be capable of remotely repairing your shields or armor.

See the first EVE guide in this series for more information.

Calling In The PvP Cavalry

The aggression game mechanics in high-security space are basically a collection of rectified mistakes. If you steal from someone else's cargo container, they can open fire on you without penalty or interference from NPC police. But, if they start shooting at you, even a little bit, you may respond in kind.

Duelists exploit these rules to be able to have at it without CONCORD interference. To start an unimpeded fight, two duelists will arrange for one to take items out of the other's jetcan, so the other can commence hostilities. All that is fair and honorable, until one party's backup gets involved.

Once both sides have exchanged fire, the game mechanics will permit anybody from either person's corporations to jump into the fight without CONCORD interfering. I don't know if CCP included this rule as an attempt to have small fights snowball into something bigger or what, but in practice, this lets jerks spring entire fleets on unprepared, honorable 1v1 opponents. Such dishonorable rogues will have their friends either log off in that solar system ahead of time and log on at an opportune moment or wait a jump or two away until they get the call to action. As time has gone one, this dishonorable tactic has become more or more prevalent, to the point where many players will not agree to a 1v1 duel if it seems like the other party is never on killmails by his- or herself. Indeed, researching your opponent's killboard history is a good way to see, in advance, just how faithfully they might obey the terms of your duel.

Warp Core Stabilizers: When You've Really Got To Go

These handy little modules make it harder to tackle your ship by increasing your "warp core strength." You probably already know about these things. They're great. The silly thing about them, though, is their main drawback: they increase the amount of time it takes your ship to lock on to things.

In most combat, lock speed is a pretty important factor. Taking an extra ten seconds to lock each target in a fight is a sure way to lose. But, in honorable 1v1 PvP combat, there are often a few moments before the fight starts in which to lock your opponent and bypass your lock speed penalty. This allows you to still enjoy the protective benefits of warp core stabilizers - namely, that if the fight starts going against you, you can just warp away. Very likely your opponent doesn't have the warp disruption strength to prevent your escape. The ability to disengage at will is one of the most important things for maintaining a high kill to death ration. Sayonara, sucker.