Scouting Guide (Unofficial)

[Xoceac 103]

Scouting

Scouting, another essential part of incursions. You usually hear Fleet Commanders talk about them or asking for one. The use of alts for scouting can raise the ISK per hour tremendously, information is a powerful tool. This is a short guide though, as there is not much to say about scouting. Doing it good is important though, so here are some tips on how to scout.

Bring a fast ship

Something that can warp fast is the best. Something like a frigate works best, get those insta warps to the dockup!

• Astero is great, cloaky and fast.
• Interceptors
• Don't use a corvette! (It's still better than nothing, but slow nonetheless)

How to scout

The task is simple, tell the fleet commander who is in which site, how far along they are by scanning the site and idealy, you want to tell him/her when the new site spawns too.  The tags you should be using are as follows:

• Tag X = The site occupied by WTM
• Tag G = The site is occupied by NGA (New Galaxy Age i.e. the Russians, a shield community)
• Tag D = The site is occupied by TDF (The Ditanian Fleet, i.e. the armor community)
• Tag C = Clear
• Tag A = Abandoned, a fleet that warped out of the site to go to another site, therefor abandoning it. (Only tag A if unknown fleet abandoned it)

Now to know who is in the site, you should Dscan it and see who is in there and at what point of the site they are at. (Typically Oneiros+Guardian is TDF, Scimitar+Basilisk is NGA). First you Dscan it, then you tag it. Some examples are for a TPPH, Auga and Outuni died in the first room, second room adds up and so does the third room. For a NRF, if or how many Outunis have died. This means they are on the 4th wave and are about to warp out. An extra could be if drones are out or not. Same goes for the TCRC. If all Deltoles and Outuni have died and drones are in, they are about to complete it. Only do this if you are an experienced Scout, but you can also do a quick warp in (make sure they are on the tower) and see the state the tower is in. Without a shield, they are in armor. Quickly warp out again.

Last but not least, site timing. A new site can spawn 7 minutes after a beacon despawns. Mark the time in fleet chat when any of the communities have finished a site, you can do the same if our fleet has finished a site. This is very important. Whenever we do a TPPH, the fleet commander can perfectly time a bounce. 

 

That's basically it really. Do your best and keep an eye on your own ship, dual boxing can be difficult some times.

Have fun!

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Malcolm Galora
Experienced Scouter... I can't even

[darkstriker01 31]

Pro tip 

0.1au, 360 degree Dscanning sites for wrecks helps too this gives you a feel for how far through the site they are

[Xoceac 103]

14 minutes ago, darkstriker01 said:

Pro tip 

0.1au, 360 degree Dscanning sites for wrecks helps too this gives you a feel for how far through the site they are

 

35 minutes ago, Xoceac said:

Now if it's important at the time, you can tell the fleet commander where NGA and TDF are at. Some examples are for a NRF, if or how many Outunis have died. This means they are on the 4th wave and are about to warp out. An extra could be if drones are out or not. Same goes for the TCRC. If all Deltoles and Outuni have died and drones are in, they are about to complete it.

That's basically this right? Ill edit it to make it bit more clear that it means dscanning.

[Malcolm Galora 374]

Only use A for Abandoned if you don't know who bounced out of that site. Leave it tagged of the community who bounced out of it if you know, this lets FC know who may be coming back to it. Also one less thing for you to worry about.

The best ship to scout with is an astero, fast align time, and can cloak, other cloaky ships are good as well, cov ops / stealth bomber, or if not that an interceptor or other fast frigate is good. You want to be quick to bounce between beacons and cloaked to give less intel to the other fleets. Please don't use corvettes to scout, they are incredibly slow. 

You can watch for timing on TCRCs by warping into the site and looking at the tower. If it has a shield around it visually that means they just started on the bash, if there is no shield shown it means they are in armor, if the lights on it start flickering that means they are into hull. Make sure they are past the entrance stage of the sites by looking for outuni deltole wrecks. If you are quick you can warp in, look at the tower, then warp back out.

[niki lasvegas 537]

To be fair a corvette scout is better than no scout.
And if you are new to scouting then i would advise against warping into sites. D-scan is safer.

Edited May 12, 2020 by niki lasvegas

[Imelda Virpio 179]

 

36 minutes ago, Xoceac said:

A new site can spawn every 7 minutes.

I suggest a wording change here: "A new site spawns 7 minutes after its predecessor is finished."  "Every seven minutes" would mean that once a new site spawns, no other site will spawn for seven minutes, which, I saw three NRFs come up within the same minute yesterday.

Also, do we know how this timer interacts with site ending, versus site despawning? If somebody kills a TCRC, does the new site happen seven minutes after payout, or seven minutes after everyone gets off grid and the Sansha go backstage? And what happens if I bring in a cloaky to just sit there and STOP the Sansha from despawning? Inquiring minds want to know.

[niki lasvegas 537]

The 7 minutes counter starts when the wallet flashes / the beacon despawns.

[Imelda Virpio 179]

I figured... somebody WOULD have tried holding the HQ system hostage by now... but it's nice to have that confirmed.

[Mu Linfei 52]

Reference for wrecks progress markers:
TPPH:
2 Auga 1 outuni no deltole : 1st room
3 Auga 1 deltole 1 outuni : 2nd room
2 Mara 1 deltole : 3rd room 1st wave
2 mara 2-3 deltole 1 outuni : 3rd room 2nd wave
3 outuni : 3rd room 3rd wave (aka about to hit tower bash)

NRF:
1-2 deltole / 1-2 mara / 1-2 vylade : 1st wave
1st wave + antem/yulais : 2nd wave
2-4 mara / 2-4 vylade : 3rd wave
Intaki/outuni : 4th wave
keep in mind NRF spawns are random so it's kinda hard to gauge progress with these alone, keep an eye on number of wrecks as well

TCRC:
Hard to gauge, would just keep a timer on when a fleet takes gate and number of niarja wrecks + if drones are out / being pulled in
 

*Might not be really accurate so feel free to criticize 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Mu Linfei

[FlameTounge 66]

3 hours ago, Imelda Virpio said:

And what happens if I bring in a cloaky to just sit there and STOP the Sansha from despawning?

Actually, cloaked ships don't count at all. For example, after the mom pops, you can't save a site with a cloaked ship. The gate will despawn as if there was no one there. Same goes for completed TCRC gates.

[Xoceac 103]

All changes have been made accordingly. Hopefully it's better now.

Also, @Mu Linfei, I'd like to keep this guide short, I could add all that though, but I think my examples are fine. I did add some for the TPPH though.