One thing that many veteren players know that many newer players dont even think about is the terrain of a star system in EVE for combat purposes. This is where I lose some of you already, "Terrain? Dude this is space what terrain are you talking about." Well, you are right in one sense. On grid, not much changes the battle in open space. Asteroid fields can change things when a ship bumps into them or gets stuck around them, a Stargate size or station can effect how battles are determined, but other then that there isn't really much on a grid to be classified as terrain.
That isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about how a star system is layed out. For example, I know that in Aunenen, once I jump in my directional scanner (d-scan) can pick up every celestial group in the solar system except the farthest planet that has one station that people don't use much EXCEPT to stay off d-scan from everyone else. Back when probing was done with a max of 4 probes contributing to the hit I would blanked a system with 16 of them from my two Recons and cover as much as I could with 4 groups of 4 probes. This would allow me to continuously scan the system and know what ships were where. It was a tremendous intelligence tool and since probes couldn't be filtered seperatly on the overview many people never noticed the probes on d-scan.
This made me learn the "terrain" of systems I hunted often very well. This helps you in finding people or to avoid being found. You know where to warp to and you know where to point your d-scan.
This is why people have certain stomping grounds they know and have a harder time in places they have never been before.
So please, learn your terrain and you will be a much more effective PvPer. :-)
