Most enemies I spotted were at stations and gates, as I mentioned in my Try and Error series. Therefor I use now a Mobile Depot to prepare myself for each fight. The Mobile Depot is small enough to fit into most ships cargohold, and its removing the need of stations or a POS to prepare for a fight. But before I could anchor one and fill it with items I needed to knew some things...
Possibilities and Restrictions
In the Overview settings you can add the Mobile Depot (Filters - Deployable), and this can be used for the Directional Scanner. In the next chapter (Where do I deploy it?) you can deduce some possibilities to scan for a Mobile Depot.I tried to steal from a Mobile Depot but there wasn't any option to do so, even with blue standing and same corp. Then I wanted murder death kill the thing, but it went invulnerable after a few shots. I didn't got attacked by Concord but my aggression status started counting. At the least, nobody could steal from me and I would had two days to recover my items and the mobile unit.
Be aware that carrying a depot makes losses more painful, but once its deployed it wont listed in killmails. An Expanded Cargohold could help when having a cargo-space issue. Ideally would be a blockade runner (stealth transporter), but most pvp oriented players can't fly them. Stealth bomber or cover ops ships are also a save way to deploy mobile units.
In another test I tried to switch my modules while fighting and it worked. But I had to do it all manually and I had to be in a 2.500m radius of the cargo-space. Onlining my modules worked in a 3.000m radius.
Be aware that you have to drag & drop all items manually to the cargohold of the depot, otherwise they land in YOUR ship-cargohold and will be listed in killmails.
(Click on the picture to enlarge)
If you want you can change all items on your ship to escalate (except rigs). To keep it straight forward I prefer the Neocom to open the fitting window and the inventory, this is all I need.
The market shows three different depots and beside of the cargo-size and cargo-space they have all different sensor strength. So I tried to scan them down. The normal one is easy to locate with Combat Probes and the Wetu variant takes good skills to pin down. I didn't test scanning for a Yurt variant, but it seems Probe ships only are able to find them.
A Mobile Depot can not be deployed within 6km of another one, within 50km of stargates or stations, or within 40km of a starbase. This brought me to the question: Where do I anchor it and what tactic I have to use to get most out of it. Some possibilities that I am practicing with ...
Where do I deploy it ?
First step was deploying a depot at a save spot. Then I scanned for enemies with the d-scan, and prepared myself. This gave me plenty of space to do things right and I hadn't the training curve at max. I could have used Combat Probes to find ships related to its name. Yeah, this works! I was able to recover my Sister Combat Probes later on.A save spot before and one after the depot comes handy to refill or loot all items, and its wise to create all related bookmarks before deploying a mobile unit.
When I got comfortable with the use of the depot I was placing one near a station, so people had to fly to me while I was preparing myself. When there was low traffic I deployed the depot over 150km away of a station, so me or my enemies could warp to each other location. Don't dock and go refitting or switching ships! It takes to long and enemies will think they will get an aggression status and cant dock/jump, while a enemy fleet could arrive.
Last challenge was to lure enemies away of gates. There is always traffic at gates and its not save. I placed a depot near a planet or in a belt, and then I was waiting at a gate for enemies. When someone spotted me I warped off and prepared myself while most times someone followed me. The key was to scan the direction where the enemy came from. After spotting the foe I was able to prepared myself.
For system defense, and for my RvB fellows, its good to have a depot near every gate and near the hospitals. Then you can chance fitting during fleet fights.
What items I put in my Mobile Depot ?
By default I have the following items with me all the time ...- An AB or Mwd, the opposite of what I have fitted.
- An Extended Probe Launcher and Combat Probes to locate enemies.
- All damage types and Charges, that I can use with my ship.
- An Armor Repairer to repair my ship after a fight.
- A Hull Repairer to extinguish fire on my ship.
- Many Nanite Repair Paste to repair my modules
- A Cloaking device for afk reason
I also have a Remote Armor Repairer or Armor Maintenance Bots added when I am not alone.
Now go out and learn to love the Mobile Depot!
If you are still unsure how to use it then you can look at my try and error series with the Breacher.
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