Eve-Online Insta (Bookmark) Guide By General Lilost Revision 1.2, 2006-09-08 <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< Contents >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> [00] Revisions [01] Main Idea [02] Basic How-To [03] The Directional Limitation [04] Graphical Example [05] Setup for Insta Making [06] Gate Instas [07] Station Instas [08] Can (Cannister) Mining Instas [09] Insta Naming [10] Advanced Techniques [11] Thanks! [12] Contact, Copyright, Limitations <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [00] Revisions >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> v1.2 2006-09-80 Doh. Another critical update to Gate Jumping. *Changed the gate jumps distance to 13k or whatever is appropriate for the gate type you are working with *Tried to use more lists instead of blocks of text. v1.1 2006-06-05 Critical Update to Gate Jumping and Station Jumping *Changed the gate jump distance from 15k to 10k to account for 5k radius of gates *Put warning not to make instas to jump to the inside of the station body *More specific reccomendation on insta folders *Recommended maneuverable, and not just fast ships for setting instas *Changed mining setup method to use a can for range-finding *Various grammar/text updates v1.0 2006-04-11 Guide Created <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [01] Main Idea >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Normally when you warp to some place, the closest you can get is 15k. For example with a gate you have to warp within 15k and then fly until you are in range of the gate to jump. An insta (short for instant) is a specialized bookmark that you can use to fly directly to a location such as a gate and skip the extra flying. Similarly, with an insta you can warp directly to a station and dock immediately without needing to approach the station. You can also mine with very little sub-warp flying necessary by warping directly between your mining can and a station with a pair of instas. Overall, using instas you can significantly reduce the total travel/game time necessary to accomplish many different travel related activities. In addition, if you are flying in dangerous space, instas make you a harder target since you do not have 15k of sub-warp flying to do after every warp. The slower your ship is, the more you will benefit from instas. In this guide, I will explain the three major insta situations that are mentioned in the paragraph above: gate jumping, station docking, and mining/hauling. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [02] Basic How-To >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> The basic idea is to make a bookmark in space 10~15k *past* the location that you actually want to warp to. Then when you warp to the bookmark, you land right on top of the location you want to be. For example, fly 10~15k (depending on the type of gate) past a gate and set a bookmark. Next time you warp to the bookmark, you will land right on top of the gate and be able to jump immediately. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [03] The Directional Limitation >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> The direction of your warp will make a big difference. For example if you make an insta that jumps from one point to a gate, and then use the same insta from a point on the opposite side of the gate... you will end up about 15k before the insta... and about 30k away from the gate! This means that when you make an insta, it will only work from one specific point to another specific point. More correctly, it will only work from one specific direction to a specific point. That is, as long as your starting points are more or less lined up, you can warp from any of those points to an insta along that line. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [04] Graphical Example >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Here is a simple drawing to explain the basic idea and the main limitation of instas. A mono-space font is necessary to see it correctly. You will also need to stretch your window until the line of stars at the top and bottom of the example fit on one line. *************************************************************************** Point B Point A Gate --10~15k-- Insta Point E Point C Point D Point F *************************************************************************** * The Insta is designed to warp from Point A to the gate. * Warping from either of the points B or C to the Insta will also land you very close to the gate and probably put you in jump range. * Warping from Point E will land you about 30k away from the gate and double your sub-warp flying time!! Don't do that :) * Warping from places like Point F will land you off to the side and more than 15k away from the gate. Also not recommended. * Warping from places like Point D will get you closer to the gate than 15k, and may or may not be close enough to be within jump range immediately. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [05] Setup for Insta Making >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> There are two basic things you will want for insta making: a fast and agile ship and a well setup bookmarks section in the People & Places interface. Fast and Maneuverable ship: Whatever works. A cheap shuttle will work fine. The faster your ship, the faster you can get your instas setup. Be careful that your ship can speed up, slow down, and turn quickly though. Otherwise you might spend a lot of time backtracking if you miss the target position. Bookmarks Section: * Open the People & Places interface in Eve. * Go to the places tab. * Click on the Create Folder button at the bottom to create a new folder and call it "Instas" (or whatever you like). * Now when you are out in space, you can go to the same place and click on the Add Bookmark button to create a bookmark wherever you currently are in space. * Keep the Places tab open while you are making instas so that you can be ready to click the Add Bookmark button whenever you need to. * Sort your list of places by jump distance. This will always put the instas in your current system at the top of the list. My preference on folders is to create a a separate folder for stations, gates, and asteroid belts. This allows me to access the right insta quickly while in space. Some people prefer to organize the folders by regions. If you plan to have hundreds or thousands of instas, it would probably be a good idea to separate them by both destination type and region. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [06] Gate Instas >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Knowing the information above, you have enough to make whatever instas you need. However, I'll explain how to do a few techniques for anyone who wants more detail. The easiest technique for gates is the following: * Pick a starting point (station, another gate, or whatever). * Warp toward the gate for which you want to make an insta. * When you come out of warp, fly just past the gate and then correct your course back so that your source location, the gate, and your ship are lined up. * Continue flying until your overview shows that you are about 12k from the gate. * When you are a little more than 12k away from the gate, click the Add Bookmark button in the People & Places / Places interface as mentioned in the [05] Setup section above. * Now you have an insta from any location in the direction that you came from to the gate! Note: The tactical overlay can be very useful for watching your distance from the gate when creating instas. However, it is mostly useful only if the gate is in the circular plane of the tactical overview. The reason for making the insta 12k from the gate instead of 15k is the radius of the jump gate. The jump gate has about a 3k (depending on the type of gate) bubble around it that is counted as zero-distance. So to arrive at the center of the bubble, you need to jump to a point 12k past the bubble (3k radius + 12k space). If anyone knows the specific radius of different types of gates, please let me know in game or by e-mail so I can update the guide. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [07] Station Instas >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Station instas are much easier than gate instas because your target location is so huge! Center of Station Instas (sometimes instant / almost instant instas): (Thanks and credit to Fraszoid, CEO of Miner Guide to the Galaxy, who wrote the Eve Mining Guide, also at GameFAQs) If you fly over or under the middle of the station (stay as close as possible to the surface of the station), you can set an insta there. This will allow you to warp directly to the station from any direction. The only issue is that in many cases you will come out of warp very close, but not quite within docking range. The error is worst when flying from a gate below/above the station to an insta that is at the bottom/top, respectively, of the station. However, being able to use one insta from any location can still be a big time saver. Station Instas (instant instas): If you need to warp within docking range every time, then you will need to set up a directional insta in almost exactly the same way as the gate insta. Just fly to the opposite side of the station from the direction that you want to come from. Set your insta there, and it should allow you to jump within docking range from the proper direction. As before with the gate instas, it is important make sure the source location, the station, and your ship are more or less lined up. Also similar to the gates, the stations have a zero-distance bubble around them. It depends on the type of station but I believe all are more than 10k. Because of the large zero-distance bubble around stations, you have more flexibility for setting an insta in one side of the station that can handle about 180 degrees of incoming directions. In most cases, you can setup one or two instas that will cover docking with the station from any direction. Danger!:::::Be careful to setup your instas so you do *not* land inside the body of the station. There is a chance that after you land inside, you will be thrown away from the station at a very high speed. In a highly manueverable ship, it is not a problem since it will slow down and stop quickly. However in a ship like an industrial or barge, you will fly faster than you thought possible and then spend the next 10 minutes approaching the base from a long distance. If that happens to you, just warp back to your source and warp back. It will be faster. It is better to avoid the situation in the first place by making your insta to arrive very close to, rather than inside the station. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [08] Can (Cannister) Mining Instas >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Various forms of can mining can be profitable in Eve. If you setup instas for your can mining, it can become even more profitable! You will save a significant amount of time from needing to fly around at sub-warp speeds to get in position / pick up ore from your can. The instas in this section will be useful both for your mining ship and for your industrial transport. There is a small amount of time involved in setting it up and it is quite inflexible, so it's probably only worth it for a mining operation or a belt that you will be mining often. The mining technique is just a combination of the gate insta and the station insta (or two gate instas if you are transporting out of the system). The only trick is how to create an insta exactly to your can (since the can has a much smaller margin for error than the gate). Outline of setting up mining instas: * Get to the asteroid belt that you want to mine. * Find the specific location that you want to mine from. Unless you have a special reason, I recommend you pick a spot with the most valuable asteroids in range, but not right next to any asteroids (can cause problems with warping). Remember that after setting up this insta, you will lose some or most of the benefit of insta mining if you move away from the original spot. * Here is the (small) trick. Drop a can, but do not use it for anything. You can create and then drag a random bookmark to your can for this purpose (do not put anything valuable in the can). * Now line up the can and the source location (station or gate or whatever) that you will be coming from. * Fly 14~15k in a line away from the can and your source location and set an insta. * You are almost ready. Warp to your source location and then warp back to your new insta. * Assuming you landed around where you want to be, stop your ship, start mining, and drop your mining can in this spot. * Now any time you jump from your source location, you won't just be close to the can, you will generally land right on top of it (close enough to open the container is all that counts). * Make your station or gate insta as described in the appropriate section, but with the asteroid belt as the source location. Now you are ready to do mining with virtually zero sub-warp speed flying involved. I never calculated the impact on time, but assuming you use this spot many times, your profitability has just increased, and your frustration with slow hauling has hopefully decreased. Note: Using a tractor beam works well for large group mining, but if you want to run back and forth for a specific location, instas are better. <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [09] Insta Naming >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> I've never picked up an insta-packs on escrow, so I'm not sure how "the pros" name their instas. However, here is a decent technique you can take from me. There are a few considerations for naming instas: * Directionality This is critical. It is important to know not only where your insta goes, but also where it comes from. If you only write the destination, it will be easier than documenting both the source and destination, but you will quickly end up with a lot of instas that you can't trust and that will waste your time instead of saving it. * Ease of access Unless you want to keep the People & Places window open all the time, you should use the method of right-click in empty space and select your location from the warp-to menu. In speed critical situations (like someone chasing you), you will want to leave people and places open since you can visually scan the list and click on the location faster than you can use the right-click menu. * Limited name length You can write a very long name, but you won't be able to see the whole thing on the right-click warp-to menu. Some Examples (that I will explain below) ************************* (First, some examples that I will explain below) G_Ma<>>>> <<<<< [10] Advanced Techniques >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> I'm not that advanced yet, so I don't know! However, if you have some interesting techniques, let me know and I will add them with credit for the technique. I assume there must be some good combat applications of instas (ambushes and so forth, but...?). <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [11] Thanks! >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Big thanks go out to CCP for the great player driven game. Even though I wrote this guide, I still wish you would find some way to let active players get around the need for instas. Thanks to in-game Alexandria Dionne (now CEO and co-founder of M.M.P.) for inviting me to mining when I was a total newbie, and helping me with equipment and information to do it right. Particularly thanks for giving me the basics of instas and saving me time from the beginning. Thanks to Fraszoid, CEO and Founder of Miner Guide to the Galaxy, for the GameFAQs Mining Guide and the great Corp! ( http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/eve_online_exodus_mining.txt ) <<<<< >>>>> <<<<< [12] Contact, Copyright, Limitations >>>>> <<<<< >>>>> Copyright 2006 J Nieri Eve In-Game: General Lilost goldsurfer2k@yahoo.com Only for use at: GameFAQS.com MinersGTTG.org I am sure there are many ways the guide could be improved. Please send feedback or additions!