Covert Operations

Original text by Stein Voorhees, February 2007
Updated and extended by Carenthor Loon,Ecatherina W, Baka Lakadaka, Aether.
Copyright Agony Unleashed

Background

The EVE cluster is a dangerous place. It is also very big. Because of this, any well planned military operation needs to be able to answer some fundamental questions:

Who is my enemy?
Where is my enemy?
What is my enemy capable of?
How can I kill my enemy?

Agony Unleashed operate primarily in well organised Wolfpacks which can deliver tremendous firepower and travel extremely quickly. In order to best deliver this firepower, the Fleet Commander (FC) needs to have intelligence of the enemy immediately to hand. Having a specialised group of pilots able to deliver this information gives an enormous tactical advantage.

Objectives of Intelligence Gathering

Within EVE, there are a number of crucial pieces of information which a combat commander requires when setting out on an operation. These can be summarized as:

Location of the enemy.
Ship types of the enemy.
Enemy fleet activities.
Destination of the enemy.
Position of Warp Bubbles and Interdiction Spheres
The Inertia of the enemy fleet - is it a fast moving frigate gang, or a lumbering BS gang with incredible firepower

In order to effectively deliver decisive force, the FC needs to have this information prior to any engagement and work it into a cohesive plan. Indeed, without this information it may be impossible to engage at all. In order to supply the above information on mobile fleets, active scouting and reconnaissance is required. At times, a CovOps pilot may also be needed to provide a warp in point on a sniper or to track down and/or shadow an enemy fleet.

The PVP-COVOPS course will take you through how best to deliver this key information to the FC without being seen or engaged by the enemy. By its nature, CovOps Recon may not involve any direct offensive tactics. The ships are expensive and very fragile. A good CovOps pilot will most likely never engage a weapon whilst in his ship. However, there are a number of advanced CovOps tactics where a more offensive attitude may be warranted. This document covers the preliminary information you will require to attend the course.

Skills and Implants

The skills required by Covert Ops pilots are primarily those already needed to fly in Agony wolfpacks. However, there are a number of skills which need to be increased above this basic level to ensure that pilots have the speed and agility to avoid engagements. Also, in order to effectively use cloaking technology there are some significant skills that need investing in.

Covert Ops Recon Skills

Base skills

Covert Ops 4+ (preferably 5)
Cloaking 4+
Electronics 5
Electronics Upgrades 5
Evasive Maneuvering 4+
Navigation 4+
Warp Drive Operation 4+
Racial Frigate 5
Acceleration Control 4+
High Speed Maneuvering 4+
Fuel Conservation 4+
Electronic Warfare 3+
Energy Management 4+
Weapon Upgrades 3+
Engineering 4+
Spaceship Command 4+

Additional skills for scanning

Science 3
Astrometrics 4+ (preferably 5)
Astrometric Acquisition 3+
Astrometric Pinpointing 3+
Astrometric Rangefinding 3+

Implants

The following implants are useful for Covert Ops pilots:

Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-0, PPH-1, PPH-2 - these slot 8 implants grant a 2%, 6% or 10% increase in scan probe strength.
Eifyr and Co. 'Rogue' AY-0, AY-1 or AY-2 - these slot 6 implants grant 1%, 3% or 5% bonus to ship agility.
Eifyr and Co. 'Rogue' CY-0, CY-1 or CY-2 - these slot 7 implants grant 1%, 3% or 5% bonus to ship velocity.

Ships

In order to effectively perform reconnaissance in Eve, you must not only be able to observe without being seen, you must also be able to get into position without being seen. As such, for a Covert Operations frigate using a CovOps cloak is a must.

All students must attend the PVP-COVOPS course with a Covert Ops frigate equipped with a CovOps Cloak II and an Expanded Probe Launcher. Additional fittings are described below and will be discussed during the course.

One thing to bear in mind with CovOps frigates is that they will pop very easily. They generally do not travel in large Wolfpacks and can be very easily picked off if engaged by virtually any enemy. As such, their general fitting needs to be based around speed, maneuverability and stealth, NOT around a tank or gank.

Another consideration with these ships is that they have a relatively high total cost. A CovOps frigate costs approximately 10-15 million ISK whilst the CovOps Cloak adds another 8-10 million to the bill, not to mention rigs, implants, and fittings. As such, we must be careful when flying these ships, as their loss could have a large negative effect on the ISK efficiency of an entire session of an otherwise T1 wolfpack (since one of Agony Unleashed's primary objectives in the field is to cause significantly more damage than it takes). To win the ISK war, we must take care with our ship and only put it into a situation of danger when the gains outweigh the losses. This course will cover how to keep your ship in one piece.

Basic Fitting Principles

The basics of CovOps ship fitting include an Expanded Probe Launcher and a Covert ops cloak in the high slots, afterburner or MWD in the mid slots, and overdrives or nanofibers in the low slots. The cloak and probe launcher enable you to warp around cloaked and perform scans of the area. Microwarpdrive or afterburner will enable CovOps ship to quickly cover certain distance across the grid when there is no danger in decloaking (example: if you're creating bookmarks). Overdrives and nanofibers will boost its cloaked velocity allowing you quicker to move into warp-in positions for your gang; nanofibers will also increase CovOps ship's agility allowing it to enter warp and turn faster.

Once the above modules have been fitted, a CovOps ship will have several open high and mid slots. Open mid-slots should be fitted next. They are used for defensive EWAR modules with the aim of helping the frigate escape if cornered. Popular choices are Remote Sensor Dampeners that can cut locking range of an interceptor, freeing the CovOps frigate from its tackle, as well as ECM modules and ECM burst. Keep in mind that the strength of ECM modules is quite low on non-bonused ships so chances of a jam are relatively low. ECM burst modules have an area of effect of only 6,000m3. They will also require approximately 250 units of capacitor to activate for one cycle, while unbonused capacitor sized of CovOps frigates range from 187 units for Cheetah up to 250 units for Anathema. This means that to activate an ECM burst CovOps frigate must have nearly full capacitor and it can only be activated for one cycle. ECM burst modules are very cap intensive, so the ship setup that includes this module should also include a cap battery or recharger which can also help in making long warps.

Covert Ops Frigates: Suggested Fittings

Buzzard

The Buzzard is the second slowest CovOps frigate. However, this is offset by its high grid and CPU making it the easiest ship to fit. It is also has 5 mid-slots which enable it to pack a very hard EWAR punch and be the most versatile of all the CovOps frigates.

Example of a Buzzard setup:
High: Covert Ops Cloak II, Expanded Probe Launcher
Mid: 1 MN Afterburner II, Cetus ECM Shockwave, 2 x Remote Sensor Dampener II, Cap Recharger II
Low: 2 x Overdrive Injector II

With a maximum cloaked speed of 306 m/s, this setup is reasonably mobile, while the mid slots give you a fighting chance of escaping if you get caught.

Cheetah

The Cheetah is the fastest CovOps frigate. It is extremely useful for situations when you need to move across the grid without warping, for example, when getting into position on a sniper. It is however rather tough to fit.

Example of a Cheetah setup:
High: Covert Ops Cloak II, Expanded Probe Launcher
Mid: 1 MN Afterburner II, Cetus ECM Shockwave, 2 x Cap Recharger II
Low: 2 x Overdrive Injector II

This setup has a base speed of over 381 m/s. It only has an ECM Burst to defend itself, so will rely mostly on speed to evade enemy ships.

Helios

The Helios treads a path between the Buzzard and Cheetah. It is easier to fit that a Cheetah and is somewhat faster than a Buzzard.

Example of a Helios setup:
High: Covert Ops Cloak II, Expanded Probe Launcher
Mid: 1 MN Afterburner II, Cetus ECM Shockwave, 2 x Remote Sensor Dampener II, Cap Recharger II
Low: 3 x Overdrive Injector II

This gives the same defensive EWAR as the Buzzard, but has a higher speed under cloak.

Anathema

The Anathema is historically regarded to be the worst CovOps frigate due to it having the lowest base speed. However, it has the highest base capacitor of any of the CovOps frigs, and with its third low slot can now actually be fit to be faster than a Buzzard.

Example of an Anathema setup:
High: Covert Ops Cloak II, Expanded Probe Launcher
Mid: 1 MN Afterburner II, Cetus ECM Shockwave, 2 x Remote Sensor Dampener II
Low: 3 x Overdrive Injector II

Anathema also has the furthest warp duration and best capacitor regen of any of the suggested setups.

Rigs

The rigs most commonly fitted to CovOps frigates are two Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I, which increase scan probe strength by 10% each (T2 rigs give 15% bonus). These rigs cost approximately 3-5 million each, but they are well worth the investment.

Other rigs that may be somewhat beneficial to a CovOps frigate are the Auxiliary Thruster I, which increases the base speed by 7.25% each, and the Low Friction Nozzle Joint I, which boosts ship's agility by 11.7%.

Cloaking and Covert Operations

The Covert Ops Cloak II enables a ship to disappear from both the visual display and overview and also, for the time being, keep it hidden from scan probes. Unfortunately you are still listed in local at present, but if in a safe spot with the cloak operational, you are almost completely safe.

A Covert Ops cloak II fitted on a CovOps frigate has no base speed penalty when cloaked and a 5-10 second target delay with no resolution penalty.

When using the cloak you cannot use any other modules (including afterburners or MWDs), so you are very much in watching mode. If you come within 2000 metres of certain objects then the cloak will deactivate and you will not be able to activate it until you are at least 2000m away from everything. This means that if you jump into a busy gate camp with plenty of debris around and get caught by a warp bubble, you will most likely not be able to activate your cloak and you will probably die.

The most important quality of the Covert Ops cloak is that it lets you warp with the cloak active. This means you can arrive on grid with nobody knowing about it, which can obviously be very useful.

Overview Settings

When doing CovOps work, it is helpful to use three different saved overview settings. Using tabs, it is easy to switch between the three settings.

Standard

When you are in position to observe, you need to ensure you see all. It is important that a Covert Ops pilot is fully aware of every single item around him, to avoid going withing 2000m of another object and getting de-cloaked.

To do this, in the Overview Settings - Filters - Types tab, make sure everything is selected. Also, on the Overview Settings - Filters - States tab, make sure everything is selected. This can then be saved as 'CovOps - Standard'

Moving

When moving by either warping, jumping or normal propulsion the pilot should be very aware of what is coming up in front of him. When moving normally around a gate or target the pilot should use the CovOps - Standard setting. However, the major disadvantage of the CovOps - Standard is that it can cause significant lag during session changes.

When jumping through gates, where the other side is unknown, the pilot should use a different overview setting which covers the most important objects, but reduces lag;

In the Overview Settings - Filters - Types tab select the following;

Station
- All
Celestial
- Agent in space
- Audit Log Secure Container
- Beacon
- Biomass
- Cargo Container
- Freight Container
- Global Warp Disruptor
- Large Collidable Object
- Mobile Sentry Gun
- Secure Cargo Container
- Star Gate
- Warp Gate
- Wreck
Drone
- All
NPC
- All
Entity
- Billboard
- Large Collidable Ship
- Large Collidable Structure
- Protective Sentry Gun
- Sentry Gun
Asteroid
- None
Ship
- All
Deployable
- All
Structure
- None

Scanning

It is useful to have another overview setting used for Scanning. This setting changes a lot depending on what you are looking for. However, when trying to scan the immediate area, saving time and eliminating clutter is essential. As such, use the following when scanning using overview settings;

Station
- All
Celestial
- Asteroid Belt
- Moon
- Planet
- Warp gate
- Star Gate
Drone
- Combat Drone
NPC
- None
Entity
- None
Asteroid
- None
Ship
- All
Deployable
- All
Structure
- Control Tower
- Force Field (to show if a tower is active or not)

These settings allow for a quick scan, which reveals key points in the solar system plus any ships in the scan radius. All other clutter is kept out. Be sure to check that "Use Overview Settings" is enabled, then once a scan can be narrowed down you can disable it so that everything in the narrow search can be seen.

Bear in mind that it is not possible to include some types of object on your overview, the most important of which is the warp disrupt probe launched by an interdictor. It is therefore very important, particularly when scanning a gate or a station, to make sure that "Use Overview Settings" is NOT enabled before reporting the scan as clear or warping onto grid.

All of these settings should also include showing the ship type and Corporation ticker as these give vital information on the enemy. Remember to add the settings to different tabs so you just need to switch between tabs to get a different overview setting while on the go.

A useful tip is that you can reduce lag a lot by minimizing overview (by pressing TAB) when jumping into a system. This can be a lifesaver when entering a very busy system (you can use your map to determine if the system ahead is likely to be very busy). Once the system has loaded, you can maximize overview and get the intel you need.

Recon Bookmarks

CovOps pilots make extensive use of tactical bookmarks. However, given their purpose of safely observing whilst not being discovered they require a further type of bookmark. We will be covering these BMs in detail during the course.

The safest bookmark positions around an object in space are those which are not aligned to another celestial body. These positions have the main benefit of being unlikely to be used for a hostile to warp in to. They require a hostile to have created a bookmark at the same place previously or to move into that position under normal power. In the first instance, a CovOps pilot is incredibly unlucky and in the second he can see the enemy pilot coming and move out of the way whilst cloaked. Unaligned on-grid tacticals can also help against certain types of bubble equipped gate camps.

Gates will generally have at least one pair of Recon bookmarks (one at 90km, the other at 300km from the gate) that are aligned with each other, but not with anything else. Since all kinds of warp disruption bubbles have a maximum range of ~150km, by warping to a bookmark 300km from the gate you have a very low chance of being caught in a bubble (you would have to be very unlucky for someone to have put a bubble over 150km from a gate in the same unaligned direction as your bookmark!). The majority of the time this bookmark will put you on grid with the gate, allowing you to safely observe the activity around the gate, check for bubbles, etc. If you need to get closer (for example, to use the "Look At" camera option on the gate), you can either warp directly down to the 90km bookmark, or if there is a bubble on the gate, warp off to a tactical and back to the 90km BM.

Recon Bookmark Naming Convention

The naming convention we use for these pairs of CovOps bookmarks is:

|R> AA NN @DDkm <R|
- AA = the name of the gate
- NN = The id of the bookmark at this gate (allows up to 100 BMs per gate)
- DD = the distance to the gate

The even numbered bookmarks (and bookmark 00) will be the 90km of each pair, whilst the odd numbered ones will be the 300km.

Example:

|R> Harroule 00 @90km <R|

This BM is 90km from the Harroule gate. It will have a paired BM:

|R> Harroule 01 @300km <R|

This BM is in the same unaligned direction from the gate as the previous 90km bookmark, but is further away at 300km.

Further References

PVP COVOPS Probing