- In EVE, ships and all other objects in space have radii which entail spheres around them.
- For a given piloted ship, the distances of other objects are measured from the nearest edges of the other objects' spheres to the nearest edge of the piloted ship's sphere.
- Objects anywhere inside a ship's own sphere are reported to be at zero distance.
- We can think of this sphere, as Shamus Donohue did in this talk, as a ship's "zero-sphere".
- Radii (especially on most subcaps) are so small that this mechanic is often not hugely consequential to gameplay, but when short distances are critical it can be very consequential.
- I list the radii of all ships here and those of all ships & objects can be seen at e.g. EVE Ref.
- A piloted ship is prevented from warping by a bubble if that bubble is within disruption range of any edge of the ship's zero-sphere.
- A piloted ship spawns around a gate such that the closest edge of its zero-sphere is somewhere within 11,500 to 13,499 m of the inbound gate's zero-sphere.
- The center of a piloted ship can be seen in space by left-clicking its 3D model to put a selection circle on it.
- Anchorable bubbles, when launched, appear in a random location 1,180 m from a ship's zero-sphere.
- Therefore: you can gain or lose a bit of bubble range relative to what you're bubbling depending on where the bubble pops out (i.e. was it towards or away from what you're bubbling).
- As an example: if anchoring bubbles in a Mammoth—the largest subcap hauler—there is a 3,594 m-wide sphere around the center of the ship on which bubbles will appear in space.
- All types & sizes of anchorable bubble have radius 70 m; ergo, from an anchorer's perspective, the edge of an anchored bubble's disruption zone will be at its disruption range plus 1,250 m (1,180 + 70).
- One T2/Faction Large anchorable bubble can envelop all gates up to and including the Caldari Region.
- The check for this is whether bubble radius > gate radius + max spawn radius + 5 km (5 km is the minimum anchoring distance).
- EVE rounds m to the nearest km, and interdiction probes are launched from the center of a DIC's model and have radius 1 m.
- The smallest DIC (Flycatcher) has radius 112 m, and the largest (Heretic) has 144. Eris and Sabre have 138.
- Therefore, if your overview says a ship is "20 km" away, it's actually anywhere from 19,500 to 20,499 m away from the nearest edge—not the center—of your DIC.
- Ergo, it's 19,612 to 20,643 m away from where your probe will be when you launch it, depending on your hull. If you're stationary, odds are it gets away, but you can catch it. Take the chance!
- HIC bubbles project from the edges of their zero-spheres to the disruption range(s) of their cycling WDFG(s).
- How close one can get a ship's center to the bracket of a gate (which represents the gate's center) depends on the collision models of the ship and gate, which aren't visible to players but can be inferred.
- To that end, note the links in the Closest Spots column of the gates table on the tackle page. These spots are, tmk, the closest reliable positions on gates.
- Collision models are not the same as zero-spheres, though collision models are never larger than zero-spheres.
- All DICs can completely surround all gates up to and including the Gallente Region.
- HICs can cover different gates depending on the type of WDFG fitted; a faction WDFG just barely covers the Minmatar Region and the Officer WDFG can cover up the Amarr Border.
- If you're in a bubbler on a gate whose spawn diameter is larger than your bubble, being at its center isn't very useful. Being off the collision geometry with a preheated MWD is better.
- For frequent camping of a specific gate which a bubbler can surround, save a dedicated bookmark as close to its icon as possible. The bookmark can then be approached.
- With any bubble—DIC, HIC, or anchored—one should pay attention to positioning, but especially on the larger and knobblier gates.
- Note that various viable gate & bubble type combos produce exceedingly little bubble depth. Multiple ships/bubbles is almost always an improvement.
- Smuggler gates are deceptively small. Most empire-style region/border gates are quite large, but the comparatively-rare Smuggler can be easily cocooned by a single DIC.
- HIC points/scrams prevent all capital ships from jumping stargates, but not Ansiblexes (excepting regular i.e non-jump freighters and Orcas, which could be classed pseudo-capitals).
- HIC scrams and HIC points shut down MJDs and booshes.
- To see a ship's distance to the center of a gate (instead of to its zero-sphere), save the gate as a bookmark then hover the cursor over said bookmark.