or~ “We Dunt Need no Stinking Charter!”
Stabs, over at Stabbed Up has been doing a series of posts on a topic near and dear to my heart, (and one post on a toon near and dear to my POD…) Planetary Orbital Stations, or POSes, but moar specifically, POSes in W-Space. He gave some very good info, so I am chiming in with some additional POS stuffs for them what may be interested…
First Rule of W-space POSes … Don’t Anchor What You Cannot Afford to Lose.
Second Rule of W-space POSes … Go Large or Go Back to Empire.
Third Rule of W-space POSes … Any POS can be eventually taken down by a dedicated aggressor force... (but you 'can' make them PAY!)
Forth Rule of W-space POSes … ALL mods that require CPU, shut down once POS is in reinforced.
Fifth Rule of W-space POSes… Anchor (and fully load out) as many Defensive mods as you can… you can online an already anchored mod much MUCH faster than you can anchor and then risk loading one.
Sixth Rule of W-space POSes… Every trusted corpmate who will ever use the POS needs the “Starbase Defense Management" Skill, this gives manual control over 1 offensive gun or EW array per skill level, take this to L5 ASAP, and the “Starbase Defense Operator” role. 5 or more guys running 5 mods ‘each’ can be a terribad day for an attacking fleet.
Best Spike: (Control Tower)
Quoted for Truth: “Projectiles are amazing on a Minmatar tower, and is likely where the term deathstar originated for POSes. For AutoCannons on a RoF bonused tower, that's over 65 hours of shooting! Artillery lasts only about 13 hours though. Minmatar towers have the best balance of CPU and grid for defense, and the second most shield.”
Passive Defenses:
Bubbles, bubbles bubbles… anchor lots of med bubbles between the POS and EVERY warpable, anchor them in depth, anchor them to catch your enemies at your guns optimals. Anchor several T2 Med bubbles at the north and south Poles of the POS. Make several BM’s (Relay Points) that give you clear (bubble free) lines of approach for YOU to warp in and out of your POS. It’s like catching pesky flies with flypaper then blinding them w/ EWar and swatting them w/ Lrg Ammo…
Inactive Defenses:
Shield Hardeners… POSes have innate resistances to certain damage types based on race (one at 50%, one at 25%, and two at 0%). Anchor a total of x2 for the 50% hole, x3 for the 25% hole and x4 each for the 0% holes, then Perma-Online two for the 0%s and one for the 25% bringing your total standard resists to 50/43/43/43. This will essentially halve all damage the enemy could throw at your shields.
For example, for a Minmatar tower, you would need to run one Therm and two each for Exp and Kin. You then have the ability to increase specific hardening based on incoming DPS or online all boosting your resists to 71/68/68/68. Hardeners have stacking penalties so running more than listed above is simply not worth the grid costs.
For example, for a Minmatar tower, you would need to run one Therm and two each for Exp and Kin. You then have the ability to increase specific hardening based on incoming DPS or online all boosting your resists to 71/68/68/68. Hardeners have stacking penalties so running more than listed above is simply not worth the grid costs.
Active Defenses:
You can anchor ALL mods from anywhere inside the POS force field. Put any mod, gun or EWar in your hold, select Anchor for Corp, then drag the mod to your selected location and anchor there. This is easily begun by dropping a can close to where you want the initial mod anchored. Drag the mod as close as possible to the can from your ship’s viewpoint then “view” the can to change viewpoints, and complete placement.
You can do this for ALL Defense mods. It takes some practice but I have anchored our whole POS suite of Defenses this way. You should be able to finalize placement of the next mod from the viewpoint of the last anchored. The only time you absolutely have to fly outside of the force field is to load ammo or if you have unanchored a mod (which can also be done from the Spike), to scoop it into your cargo bay.
You can do this for ALL Defense mods. It takes some practice but I have anchored our whole POS suite of Defenses this way. You should be able to finalize placement of the next mod from the viewpoint of the last anchored. The only time you absolutely have to fly outside of the force field is to load ammo or if you have unanchored a mod (which can also be done from the Spike), to scoop it into your cargo bay.
Placement:
As shown here in Anchoring Guns you have a ‘belt’ 10km wide to anchor your mods. You can use this to provide a First Line (15km from the Force Field) and a Second Line (5km from the FF) of defenses. This is called, "Defense in Depth"… (lesson for the student, look it up).
Variations:
Consider the option of Small guns (running Med ammo) anchored as far out as possible forcing an enemy to deal with them, IE incapacitate, or ‘incap’ them, first while your Med guns (running Lrg ammo and hugging the shield) & Ewar mods, are constantly pounding away at em…
Consider grouping guns w/ EWar into defensive groups. I say this because of the “Fifth Rule” above. If you have as many anchored and loaded as we do, you simply can’t space them far enough apart to not have several in the optimal of a ship that is close enough and the clutter gets simply too hard to deal with.
Grouping also makes it far easier to decide which mods to online next as mods get incapped. Plus the more mods you have anchored, the more you have for people to fight back with. You should have at the very least 50% more than the total you can online with ALL but a Ship Main Bay and your hardeners onlined inside the POS, 100% or 200% over would be better…
BTW, the “Fifth Rule” is an old old gunfighter rule… “You can pull a loaded gun faster than you can reload the empty one in your hand.”
Stabs said: “Once you have your POS modules set up you may wish to place some decloaking cans. There are cans you can anchor in space.(where ships normally land on warpin)” I would never do this, wink wink.
And Stabs, I am very very sorry to tell you this but, “There are a handful of guns and of course warp jammers so if people come and get permajammed they'll all die. At some point I'll log in and find lots of nice wrecks just outside the shield.” This will never happen.
NOTE: I have recently recieved reliable data that I am wrong on this account. As I understand it now, from a several sources I fully trust, in auto-defense mode ALL mods that are online (and loaded if required) WILL target and engage any ship or ships that break any of the set POS Rules of Engagement. They WILL break lock and target switch often, BUT if you have enough web/scram/disrupt & GUNS online the POS can kill up to BSes. The following has been edited to reflect this.
It is still true that CCP did not design POSes with the idea that they would effectively defend themselves. If you dunt log on however, it can be killed by a determined and well supported force.. then, it will be raped, burned, pictures taken, and mebbe video, posted and loled about extensively... (I have watched some of the vids...)
In self defense mode, Turrets and EWAR cycle targets every 30 seconds, except ECM on Caldari towers cycles targets every 7.5 second jam cycle, they do focus fire, just not always and intentionally.
Our POS recently killed a Cheetah… but he had warped to our moon scouting around and accidentally bumbled into ‘something’, got uncloaked and well, it was a Cheetah… not a Geddon… his wreck was found in the flux zone… (which we all thought was kinda weird).
Our POS recently killed a Cheetah… but he had warped to our moon scouting around and accidentally bumbled into ‘something’, got uncloaked and well, it was a Cheetah… not a Geddon… his wreck was found in the flux zone… (which we all thought was kinda weird).
But a decently tanked ship (edit) can get targeted by enough guns at once to get killed, but if you have a man or five in the POS, THEN it can be a real killer.
Lastly, re your ‘pro tip’ to offline other modules to put more defenses online.
(1) spending an afternoon anchoring extra mods for ‘...when the bastards come back to finish you off.’ assumes they are not cloaked up 200km off the POS waiting for you to do just that, and yes, I (or I in another skin) would be.
(2) While you can anchor as many mods you want, you can’t load ammo into any guns while reinforced… so as you are hammering in frustration on the Open Ammo Bay Doors button, sittin in your Indy full of mods and ammo... you dunt notice that Tengu fleet uncloaking… =P
And finally, and yet so very not the least, the following links are an absolute Must Reads for anyone considering POSes in W-space:
The EVEr popular:
From the mind of Fitz VonHeise:
For them who are into charts and number crunching, please see…
And…
“Lastly in the words of a very wise player: don't anchor what you can't afford to lose.”
I so flattered… LOL
Fly Safe and see you in the Sky =/|)=
Solid guide, thanks! A lot of WH outfits go for Dickstar configuration online with as much ECM / Webbing etc as possible, not much in terms of offense. Not sure if that is a good idea but it seems to be a deterrent..,,
ReplyDeleteDiskstars are useful in Empire where you can warpin reinforcements, supplies, friends, allies, etc. ... in W-space you are ALONE and in a well planned and executed bash, the aggressors will camp, bubble and actively cycle your holes... When they see your probes out, they setup cloaky hole camps, etc. etc. etc. ...
ReplyDeleteIn W-space your POS is the only 'station' you can access...
you better have several months (or moar) of fuel & enough ammo and ships to soak up some losses...
Cause if they can lock you out of Empire, for evey POS ther is one critical fuel component you cannot find or make in the hole... you WILL eventually run out of fuel... end game.
Other than that, with a CAP or two for support and to rep the POS shields, and with enough people, fuel, ammo and ships... you can make it so boring and unpleasant and costly... you can break the attackers attention span... just mebbe.
Very nice post.
ReplyDeleteRegarding unmanned POSes I think you may be underestimating them. I remember attacking a wormhole POS with about 6 of us. We were in spider tanking BSes with a couple of Drakes. We decided to first take out the scrams. We lost a BC, argued for a bit about whether we could do it, lost a BS, agreed to warp off and lost another BS which was scrammed and couldn't warp out, all without any of our opponents being there.
As for anchoring offline mods you should have your opponents on watch list. Anchor and load them when they log out.
Thanx Stabs, =]
ReplyDeleteInteresting... there is so much as re holes that goes unpublished due to ItelSec concerns and the overall 'silent service' mentality living in holes garners. One of the reasons I started bloggin on my experiences was that searching for reliable info on W-Space was a little frustrating.
Evidently all I have read on auto-defense mechanics is not completely accurate... I must admit to some surprise as re your losses to an auto-defending POS as the only losses I personally know of are haulers and frigates lost to deth stars but those were so low tanked that it was not a surprise.
This is the first time I have had any confirmation of a POS killing a BS in auto mode... very Interesting. I now wonder if the sheer number of anchored def mods is a greater deterrent, for those who are in the know, than I had initially believed.
And yes I agree about 'watchlisting', but as you know, (1) you cannot always know for sure that your list of the current active members is fully accurate and covers friends and OOC alts etc., etc... But, over time you probably can get a lock on 99% of em.
I know we always try to keep at least one guy, a scout, who never engages and tries to stay off scan and unknown just so he can call in people for just such opportunities... we expect to be watchlisted and we keep that in mind too... =]