Many of you will know by now that I regularly post articles relating to super capital kills from all across New Eden and have been doing so for a long while. With the amount of super capital kills increasing over the last few months we went from singular posts to weekly summaries as their relevance ultimately has decreased (unless it has been due to a large scale engagement etc.)
To determine how the majority of these kills occurred, along with looking at the mind of the killers and what it takes to become one I contacted a few of the major players in this arena.
RoCkEt X, a pilot from Pandemic Legion [-10,0] and leader of the infamous #REKKINGCREW. 3Better, a pilot from LowSechnaya Sholupen [-LSH-] and a key part of #REKKINGRUSKI. Stephan Schneider, a pilot from Confederation of xXPIZZAXx [PIZZA] who is well known for his efforts in the capture of unaware super capitals in the depths of nullsec. Each of them were contacted with the same questions as detailed below.
Can you tell me a little about your EVE history and how you ended up with the group you are currently.
RoCkEt X: I started playing in the January of 2005, and joined a corp that the friend that introduced me to the game had been in for some time. The corp was strictly ‘Anti-Pie’ (anti-pirate)… because that was a thing back in 2005. Over time I gained an interest in PvP, and started to rise through the ranks. In the next 3 years I became CEO and eventually formed an alliance with some neighbouring corporations in Khanid.
Some time passed, and eventually I ended up leading the alliance, and the local coalition (of about 300 active pilots). The CEO’s within the alliance wanted to grow the alliance by recruiting. The problem was the people they were recruiting were so new, that they were more of a hindrance in fleets than anything else. I later left on bad terms, ultimately because of that.
Eventually, the alliance fell apart and my old friend and current CEO of that alliance approached me asking to fly with me again. I agreed, on the condition he disband the old corp, and make a new one – leaving the ‘dumbs’ behind.The new corp ‘Volatile Instability’ [-VOL-] became the sister corp to my own, after some time working together in Khanid, on May 15th 2010 – we formed PURPLE HELMETED WARRIORS [PHEW].
On October 12th 2010, I got my first titan (and the first titan my group had). For the next three years, PHEW grew to 200 pilots, capable of forming an 80 man RR BS gang, or dropping 40 pantheon carriers. From then, we started dunking supercarriers fairly regularly.We were hunters, but were also hunted by many other parties; the major name being Pandemic Legion, but also Atlas Alliance, IT alliance, Mercenary Coalition, Cry Havoc. and many others. We learned most of our skills by both killing supers, and the constant intellectual battle to keep our own supers alive.
Eventually I grew tired of leading alliances and went semi-inactive. Eventually, I merged PHEW into Sniggerdly (Pandemic Legion). On joining, we found other people in the alliance like ourselves – some who had hunted us for years. With their support, and the support of Sniggerdly’s leadership, we flourished. Eventually using the #REKKINGCREW tag to acknowledge the group’s achievements, rather than just those within the alliance.
3Better: I was drawn into the game at the end of 2010 by a friend who played in those days from time to time and after 2 weeks of doing low level caldari mission I joined a corp of minor pet alliance, Stella polaris, of old good NC. I was taught how make ISK in null and all that carebear stuff. With the eviction of Northern Coalition I followed the corp and found myself in Curse learning PvP in middle-size alliance roams which was a very good time. By march 2012 my corp was already in a different alliance doing the same. I had got a bit bored with the quality of these which significantly decreased due to FC changes, so I decided to join CFC. Sooner rather than later I got to understanding that is the time to do PvP relying mostly on myself.
After a while I joined a russian Black Ops squad. Later on in 2014 this BLOPs squad, which was led by AleksLuc (who is currently my ceo), and me in particular decided to form up a new corp with the guys who would follow. The decision to join LSH was made cause we saw many dead caps (and two supers) on their kb killed by a small amount of LSH caps and we had some experience working together with them. So we were running Black Ops fleets with addition to dropping our supers on ratters in drones. These fleet were well met in the alliance, many people started joining the fleets. Meanwhile, I found out how to get capital kills in lowsec from Rad1st and the rest of the guys. I liked this more than hanging out with carebears in null because it was new for me and much more difficult to perform and I focused on Aridia. After scaring out local dwellers with my cynoproteus, I started roaming the nearest regions such as Khanid and Genesis getting capital kills from time to time this for instance. Soon we got this and I focused on trying getting the super killmails.
Stephan Schneider: Hi my name is Stephan Schneider. I’m a big guy from the Confederation of xXPIZZAXx.
What initially got you into capital killing? Is there a specific fight/kill that started it all off?
RoCkEt X: Just three hours after the formation of PHEW, we killed our first supercarrier. We were also the first independent lowsec group to do so solo, using mostly carriers and my own Wyvern. We had to warp HIC’s from the gate because we didn’t have a titan. The worst part is – the target self-destructed, which at the time didn’t make a killmail. But, we got a taste for it.
After that we promised ourselves we’d get a killmail for the next one – and we did, our next Supercarrier kill was November 6th, 2010.
I guess we just never stopped.
3Better: Around 3 years ago I simply came to understanding that regular roams\CTA fleets were getting boring for me because my presence in these kind of fleets didn’t really affect anything and I should do something that depends on me. So I joined a russian black ops squad. Few months later ratting carriers became my regular dish. Joining LSH allowed us to expand the hunting areas, but the dead carriers didnt give me much joy anymore, so we tried to get a ratting super in the Drones. We didn’t succeed with this though. Meanwhile, with the recent warpspeed changes (recent at that time of course) I figured out that it should be possible to scan down supers during log in procedure (or even regular warp). I tested it on my own super and it was confirmed. It had no use at that moment and that tactic was put aside but not forgotten.
So with great desire of killing super and the plan of catching it I was obsessed to find a valid target, turning theory into practice.
Stephan Schneider: This pretty much. I heard about 3 supers on the move through skype and started moving a few alts with dictors and cynos to where they could move. Even though the autism was brutal and almost burned me out it felt really good when we actually caught and killed them.
Is this something you learned yourself or was it a group venture? Was there someone who particularly showed you the ropes?
RoCkEt X: I’ve been flying super capitals since 2007, so I had to learn how to keep them alive myself. I taught my crew the ropes in due time, and eventually we progressed as a group – taking mechanics and theory crafting them – sometimes to game breaking levels.
3Better: The drone regions venture was performed by neeel and me. We were helping each other to learn new things. Rad1st and me did most of the work by getting the first Nyx kill since I joined LSH, but it didn’t require any scanning procedures. For the next two super kills I had to do almost all of the work alone because Rad1st didn’t have much time to play.
Stephan Schneider: Just like everything else with Eve it gets easier the more accounts you have, the more systems you can cover with dictors and probes the better. So while learning really isn’t a thing it’s more that you probably need someone to teach you how rewarding autism can be – this is what I learned from jed stevens.
Can you provide a brief run-down of how your particular group operates?
RoCkEt X: #REKKINGCREW is comprised of several different corps and alliances, all of which look for targets individually and then bring them to the group’s table, working together to get the kill. The largest active components of that group are currently Pandemic Legion, Wrecked. and PURPLE HELMETED WARRIORS – PHEW still houses some semi-inactive people, and people who aren’t ready to join PL yet.
3Better:It’s crucial to have eyes in all the bottleneck systems in order to respond at the time if there is a cyno lit to see what came through it. Along with having good intel about neutrals hanging around, ensuring that all TZs can be covered by the guys who can distinguish what is worth attention and what is not.
Stephan Schneider: Noob logs in, jumps, gets caught and dies.
Noob logs out, gets caught and dies.
Noob warps to safespot, gets decloaked, caught and dies.
Noob warps to stop bubble on pos, gets caught and dies.
Noob takes gate, gets bubbled, caught and dies.
Is there any particular pilots who you work closely with?
RoCkEt X: #REKKINGCREW’s directors. These are individuals who I found are very well skilled in finding and hunting supers alongside me, and are easily capable of hunting without my presence. One of whom is Quickload – who is currently the group’s second in command. Simon Perry is also another notable name, he has done an awful lot of leg-work over the years in the background – his name doesn’t crop up in these things nearly as often as he deserves.
3Better: I’ve already mentioned them in the articles: Rad1st, halkbot, Sacred Badger and many other guys can be very helpful from time to time.
Stephan Schneider: Prize bot, hamo acami, jed stevens and ltd spacepig (buying intel etc).
If you had to name one crucial factor in killing super capital pilots what would it be?
RoCkEt X: Patience… it has to be! Sometimes targets take weeks to log in, and sometimes even years.
3Better: Patience.
Stephan Schneider: PL vouches.
Can you name some of the main tools used when hunting pilots?
RoCkEt X: Mostly kill boards and our own version of evewho.com, but how you use them is important. If you know what you’re looking for – the information you get from it can be made incredibly dangerous to the person you’re hunting.
We’ve designed some of our own tools too… mainly geared to track super capitals on a huge scale (alliances etc).
3Better: zkillboard\dotlan\eve-o forum (sell orders :P)\evewho.
Stephan Schneider: We have got some really good internal tools, thanks to lucia denniard and a few people who were willing to share loads of super/titan apis.
Do you remember any particular kill over all the others?
RoCkEt X: Kill? Not really – but my favourite engagements have been our work in Daras a couple of years back – we sat up through the night until 5am and used Black Legion to bait CFC… Then, after PL lost a revenant, Black Legion became our new primary focus – we bumped an avatar out of one of their POS’s in their home system… in their prime time… and killed it just to make the point. Then later of course the massacre of a Leviathan and 8 supercarriers at Faspera.
3Better: This. It served at least 2 purposes: it showed everyone that it is possible to catch\kill any super\titan with less than 10 ppl. It assured me that I’m not wasting time by looking for a super to kill and the whole “decloaking by scanning” tactic works in practice.
Stephan Schneider: This, basically me keeping jakamo tackled during a vlade randal supercapital fleet for 10 minutes before backup arrived was the most intense and rewarding thing for me.
What do you think to the upcoming Sov changes? Do you think this has had an effect on the super capital killing business?
RoCkEt X: When the dominion sov system came about, supers and titans were re-balanced to become ‘capital killers’. The problem is their DPS made them ideal for the role of grinding sovereignty. It wasn’t the role CCP intended for them – but the players of EVE knew that super capitals would be good at it – and so built them in the thousands. Essentially, most of the supers in existence were built for a purpose CCP never intended them to be used for – and it’s the owners of those ships that are concerned about their super’s having a role.
For hunters like myself; there’s a lot of variables that effect the prevalence of targets…. Conflicts for example which would normally result in supers being used, moved, purchased or sold – all of which are opportunities for us to target them.
So will the sov changes effect super cap hunting? Provided CCP’s new intended role for them is sufficient to warrant their use, no. Though having spoken to CCP Fozzie, alongside one of my directors at EVE’s 2015 fanfest in March – I have full confidence in the dev team’s search for a new role for EVE’s super capital ships.
3Better: I don’t think it will significantly change something. Might force some minor supercap producers to stop their business though.
Stephan Schneider: It’s hard to say. Considering how risk averse most alliances are in this game in regards to using their supers, DARKNESS for example, for anything else than grinding Sov (which is understandable because supers really aren’t that useful at all), the overall usage of supers for nonsuperblob-alliances is going to go down a lot – at least as soon as people are done moving their supers out to lowsec to sell them. Big blobs that are willing and ready to escalate to supers are probably not affected by this.
Do you think it is something that anyone can achieve?
RoCkEt X: You need to have an encyclopaedic level of game mechanics, and also a knowledge of how other players understand and use those mechanics. So it requires years of experience, and the right environment to do it. The problem is that now 99% of supercarrier pilots won’t fly their ships out of larger scale fights – which doesn’t give them the opportunities that I had to be both a hunter, and be hunted.
But yes, anyone could do it – given the right scenario – the problem is finding that place in EVE to learn.
3Better: Everyone who can spend significant amount of time in-game, everyone who has determination, patience and more than one char\friends.
Stephan Schneider: It all depends on the region and alliance that you’re in – not the person that’s hunting them.
Delve for example is the best region to be in for the south in this matter since most people spend more than 1 midpoint of travelling here.
Plus the amount of choke points that you need to go through to get to certain regions is so small that predicting movements is easy as heck.
Is this your main occupation that you do in-game or is it a side occupation? Is it something that is important to you to do?
RoCkEt X: Killing super-capitals has been my main focus for a long time. Spending the rest of the time killing normal capitals (carriers/dreads etc), or dropping Black Ops ships around the local area. Indeed ‘Roaming is for cyno alts’ has become somewhat a #REKKINGCREW catch phrase.
As to whether it’s important, it depends on what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s not so important right now, as we’re kind of in tournament mode at the moment, and all of EVE is waiting for the new sov changes. But rest assured, if Pandemic Legion has taken a contract against your alliance/coalition… and you have super capitals… you will have our attention.
3Better: That for sure is the most interesting and difficult thing from those I do in-game.
Stephan Schneider: It depends on the activity, currently its more a side occupation and once something gets my autism going its hard to stop me, so yeah its fairly important.
Do you think you will ever stop killing supercapitals in this way?
RoCkEt X: I don’t see us stopping any time soon, though we are looking at larger scale engagements, killing lone supers has become pretty boring for most of the crew.
3Better: I will not, unless CCP changes something in the mechanics which would somehow affect on some of the aspects which allow us to do that.
Stephan Schneider: My autism is pretty persistent and I have plenty of people helping me in this great alliance, so nah.
Finally, is there any tips you’d give to a would-be supercapital pilot in avoiding falling into your trap?
RoCkEt X: Most people think they know how to use supers safely. My team’s success has been because, we too know how to move supers safely, and then we found ways to counter those tactics. We’ve not found anything we couldn’t get around… except for the garage door cyno… haha.
The one thing that makes it more difficult, is when a target knows they’re being hunted, they are A LOT more difficult to kill. So, always assume you’re being hunted, and constantly ask yourself… that if you were hunting you… how would you do it?
3Better: Don’t think you’re smarter than the ones who’re losing supers in the articles you’re laughing at.
Stephan Schneider: Don’t give your apis away. Don’t get a super.
All 3 of the above have experience in killing a vast array of ships, from rookie ships all the way up to titans, across the vast ranges of different security space and therefore are quite knowledgeable in how the game mechanics work. As you can see from the majority of responses above they tend to think the same things are crucial when it comes to being safe when flying supercapitals and also how to catch them. Clearly, and obviously, one of the key aspects in catching someone is having the patience to hunt them down and wait for them to fall into your trap. Venus flytrap style.
None of the above is particularly unexpected in the responses as it is clear that these groups, who have been doing it for a while, will continue to do so using the tools they have developed over time. Even though they all started in different positions in the game it’s clear that something drew them towards this particular direction. One aspect of the game which nearly every player experiences as one point, you can’t trust anyone. Even if it’s a real life friend you’ve known for X amount of years it doesn’t mean they won’t use any advantage they can to get ahead. However clearly, as mentioned above, all of these groups rely on trust built up between a select few pilots to allow their smooth operation and reducing the likelihood of being caught out.
The nature of an Eve player is to see how far you can go with an idea. With Eve’s sandbox style gameplay it has generated a plethora of tools built out of game, allowing even the newest pilot to get an initial glimpse of what’s to come. This also evidently helps the hunter in finding out what you fly, by using killboards, who you fly with, by using evewho/dotlan, and where you are, by using locator agents. Amongst a large amount of others mentioned above. There has been some backlash in the past with some of these created by CCP, such as the locator agent and how they can be used no matter how long you’ve been offline, but ultimately the drive for information is greater as they have an entire application programming interface (API) system which allows access to even the smallest standings change to the value in your wallet.
A big thing on a large portion of New Eden capsuleers minds is what the new Sov changes, due out on the 14th July in the Aegis patch, will bring. Up to now supercapitals have played a large role in owning and taking sovereignty throughout Nullsec as the massive grinds of hit points simply wasn’t worth doing otherwise, but that’s going to change. This will create a role change for the ship which has yet to be officially announced by CCP, which is likely to come out following the aftermath of the initial changes. Obviously the creation of them could be put in jeopardy as you need to hold Sov for a long period of time as it takes approximately 6 weeks of game time for a titan to be built which could be greatly disrupted due to the new Entosis link system.
No matter what the changes bring, you will still be just a likely to lose your super before and after the patch. Though clearly if you follow the advice of those mentioned above by thinking like a hunter and being safe or travelling with a group your less likely to get caught. But no one is 100% safe.
[If you have any comments or intel you would like to provide please contact me at [email protected] or via an in-game mail]
