Flying logistics ships

For a while I've wanted to try flying a logistics ship, and over the last several days I've finally gotten the skill training and some ships fitted.

Logistics ships exist for the sole purpose of repairing others in the fleet. They're rather good at it, with the ability to fit and run nonstop multiple large remote repair modules, as well as a 71 km remote repair range. A single guardian can have a per-second armor repair speed nearly comparable to a capital remote armor repairer.

In a fleet, logistics which also have cap transfer bonuses typiaclly set up a network of capacitor transfer so nobody ever runs out (bonuses to cap transfer modules mean that the transfer target receives much more energy than it costs to activate the module). This also means that every guardian or basilisk has two others locked, and will repair them if they start taking damage. The logistics then watch for armor and shield request broadcasts in the fleet window and try to keep people alive. The oneiros and scimitar on the other hand, which I am skilled for, are independntly cap stable but the oneiros only fits three reppers compared to the guardian's four.

In a previous, dramatic example of logistics win a 140 v 100 (our favor) medium-hull fight against PL a few weeks ago, in which they had about 7 logis and we had a dozen, resulted in a situation in which we shot each other for a good ten or fifteen minutes without either side killing anything larger than a destroyer hull. Combined with moderate module lag, each fleet's logistics were so strong that even with more than 100 people shooting the primary target we weren't able to get them down. We eventually managed to alpha their logistics by locking them all (so they couldn't tell who would be called primary next) and having everybody fire at the same time so the target would die before reps could be applied.

Something interesting that I've noticed about flying logistics is that ALL subcapital fleets need them. In fact, all subcap fleets need logistics more than anything else. This means that if you train logistics, you don't need to train any combat ships. No battleships, t2 large weapons or any weapon skills at all. If you have long term training goals that don't involve guns, that could save you a lot of time.


In a logi my windows and overview are very different from what they would be with a combat ship.

Note the following components:

OVERVIEW: No ships, either friendly or hostile. Used only for aligning, warping, using jump bridges, etc.

TARGETS, BROADCASTS AND WATCH LIST: Clustered for quick target management. Target and capacitor broadcasts have been disabled. Targets are aligned vertically because it makes them easier to click and the layout is much better that way. The watch list is filled with other logi; if there's spare room I add the fleet commanders, ewar (when flying shield logi) and corpmates, in that order.

BRACKETS: That screenshot actually has all brackets on because it wasn't slow, but normally I would have only fleet member brackets so I can center myself on the fleet, or all brackets off.

DRONES: I probably won't use these. In theory I could use armor maintenance bots since the oneiros gets a bonus for them, but in a fight you lose almost as many drones as you launch -- not really useful.

SMALL RAILGUN: For killmail whoring expensive stuff. The oneiros can't fit four reppers without sacrificing some EHP, so I have a spare high slot.

PLAYER LIST AT BOTTOM RIGHT: People in the area who I want to kill.