Sand, Cider and Spaceships

It's a Trap - Fan Fiction

2012-03-03T03:02:00.000-08:00

As she entered the bar several patrons looked her way, the clicking of her heels on the metallic floor announcing her arrival. A number of men smiled at her, hoping to try and attract her their way, but she tried not to make eye contact. She was looking for new faces, men she hadn't seen before. She started to approach the bar, carefully studying each person sat there.

She had done this a dozen times. She had yet to find what she was looking for, but she would kept trying. This was the most exclusive bar she had access to on the station, but it was rare to find what she was after this low down on the station in terms of decks. But she knew there was always a chance.

Suddenly she caught a glimpse of what she was looking for, a slight glimmer of metal on the back of one mans neck. Half hidden by his hair and jacket collar, to see it you had to be carefully looking for it, and she was.

She slipped onto a stool next to him. He glanced around to see what the movement was and went back to his drink.

Now, any other woman dressed as she was would have been quite upset that the man didn't even take a second look at her. She had spent hours getting ready. The shoes were finest Gallente, the short red dress was made from Amarian silk, although no Amarian dressmaker would ever make one that short. The makeup and hair had been styled just so. Along with her finest jewelry she looked amazing. She knew could have had any man in that bar within minutes if she wanted to, but the guy she had sat next to was blanking her. However she didn't get upset. She knew what he was, and expected nothing less. None of these men were every easy to engage, they were aloof, uncaring, complex, superior. But she had done her research, she knew what to expect.

She nodded to the barman and then nodded to the guy next to her. The barman nodded back, acknowledging the pre-arranged signal. He prepared two drinks and brought them over, sliding one in front of the man. The guy looked down at the drink and back up at the barman, the barman simply nodded to the woman.

The man shifted around in his seat.

"Thank you....."

"Carmen" she replied "Please to meet you". She held out her hand.

The man smiled and gently shook her hand.

"So do you go around buying strange men drinks all the time?"

"No" she replied "You just caught my eye. You haven't told me your name yet"

The man paused. That was a good sign.

"Michal" he said.

Now Carmen was almost certain. The glimmer of metal on the back of his neck, the way he'd not been interested when she sat down initially, the pause as he tried to think of a false name.

"Well Michal, I've not seen you here before. First time?" Carmen started to flirt outrageously.

"Yes actually, its the first time I've been in this bar"

"So just visiting?"

"You could say I'm just flying through"

Carmen crossed her legs so her dress rode up and pushed out her chest. This was going to be easy.

-o0o-

Two hours later they were back in her quarters. The last hour and a half had been spent in the bed. Carmen lay on her back smiling and exhausted. A thin film of perspiration covered her body. She'd got one, she'd finally snagged herself a capsuleer. Final confirmation was when she had slowly stripped him and seen the sockets in his neck and down his spinal column. She could now milk him for everything she ever wanted. Even if he didn't want a proper relationship, she'd surely be able to get some ISK out of him whilst he was on station. A pittance to a capsuleer was riches to a normal person.

He returned to the bed and handed her a drink as he slipped in beside her. She downed the drink in one and climbed on top of him.

"Now Mitchal, time for round two" she purred, "This time I'm going to....." she blinked twice, looking confused.

"I... I... " she stammered and with that she slumped forward unconscious.

-o0o-

Several hours later Carmen woke with a start. She was still in bed and had a splitting headache. She looked around but there was no sign of Michal. Her place had been turned upside down. Draws and cupboards had their contents hanging out or were scattered around the floor. She went over to the dresser and saw her jewelry box was missing. Her hand reached up to her ears and then her neck. Even the jewelry she had been wearing had gone. She retrieved her data-pad from the floor. The financial transaction window was open. A transfer of 24,000 credits, most of her cash had been authorised in her name, complete with her thumb print authorisation.

She sat on the bed trying to piece together what had happened. Why would a capsuleer rob her? The 24,000 local credits where worth nothing in ISK. The jewelry that he had taken was worth a lot less than what a capsuleer could make in ten minutes collecting pirate bounties even in hi-sec. It didn't make any sense at all. The things he took were worthless to a capsuleer. Carmen sat down on the bed, and placed her head it her hands.

"Think this through you silly girl! There must be a logical explanation!"

She felt something cold pressing against her leg. She looked down and saw a small metal disk on the bed. She picked it up, but found a sticky substance was holding it to the sheet. She pulled it free. What was it? Her heart missed a beat. One side looked like a capsuleer implant socket! But there was some sort of organic glue on the smooth, featureless back.

-o0o-

"Line 4 is nearly finished. The robotic parts are next, are we ready to fire up line 5?"

Marcus was sat back in his chair daydreaming. Gren threw a pen at him which glanced his shoulder.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Is line 5 ready for start up?"

"Yeah, yeah. Ready to rock and roll!"

The two men were sat in the small control booth which extended out from high upon the vast wall overlooking the vast factory floor.

"So I assume you had a fun weekend then up on the station. Your mind is most certainly not here" Gren laughed.

Marcus smile. "Oh yes! It was most fun"

"Don't tell me you suckered another one?" Gren groaned.

"Hell yes. Blonde, fit as anything and was amazing in bed. These women pull out all the stops when they think your a pod pilot. Inhibitions go straight out the airlock and they turn the filth up to eleven. You know you should try it one day"

Gren shook his head.

"Ever thought that I prefer my women to come to bed with me because they like me for who I am, not because they incorrectly believe I'm an egger and they are going to get rich?"

Marcus laughed and pulled out his datapad, he wirelessly transmitted a picture from his pad to the huge main screen in the control booth. It showed a naked Carmen sprawled out on her bed.

"You jammy bastard! She is fit as!"

Marcus just lent back in his chair and smiled as he walked a small, round, metallic disk over his knuckles that looked just like a capsuleers implant socket on one side and was smooth on the other. He paused for a second to admiring the new expensive watch he'd just bought and then went back to idly fiddling with the fake socket.

I'm Watching You

2012-02-29T04:48:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed a new face in your area?

Has a new pilot been buzzing around your system in a frigate apparently not doing anything for days? Just logging in, flying a few circuits of the surrounding systems and then logging off?

Oh, they are doing things. They are looking, they are watching.

They are looking at your area of low-sec, they are watching you. The space you consider your home, the pilots that are your corpies and friends.

Whilst he watches, he makes notes, he asks himself questions.

Does there appear to be a dominant corp or alliance in this area? What is their KB like? Are they PvP active or reactive? What is their efficiency? What ships do they kill, more importantly what ships do they fly. How do they fit their ships? Are they T1 fliers or faction ship/officer equipped loot-piñatas? What is their fleet composition? Are they a rag-tag bunch of ships thrown together or is there some thought going into ship choice for the fleet? Do they use logistics or ECM. Do they prefer armour or shield? Are capitals evident? Do they have a batphone? Do they have friends in the area?

What's the security status of their members? Do they rat 23.5/7 and are goody-two-shoes +5's who would never go GCC or are they wannabe's hovering in the 0 to -4.99 range. Are they red flashy pies?

What do their Eve-O forum posts say. Are they PvP, Carebear or a mix. What's their stats? Are they are a large alliance with plenty of corps?

What are the people in space doing? Are they camping gates, running exploration sites, roaming, ratting, doing PI, faction warring or mining. What ship types are in space? How many potential targets are there around in the different TZ's.

Who owns the PoCo's and the PoS's. Is it the dominant alliance? I wonder what would happen if we kicked the hornets nest? Are those PoS's heavily defended? Could a strike force reinforce one? Will that bring a response?

Is there a good base near? A station with medical and repair facilities? Can our logistical chain support us there? Where is the nearest trade hub? Can we access other regions without going through hi-sec for our -5 members? Is there a null-sec entry near by for something different? Can our capitals jump there easily?

Mmmmmm..... this area looks interesting.

Oh yes..... I am busy! Very busy.....

-o0o-

P.S. Loved this video - Hans Jagerblitzen for CSM 7!

10 Commandments for Eve Online - Inferno

2012-02-27T08:19:00.002-08:00

So Eve Online : Inferno will be the summer expansion. Base on the theme of "War" apparently. There are rumours. Super CONCORD. 9 circles of security. A way of opting out of war decs. Some sound good, some sound terrible and I hope they are only rumours cooked up by carebear who's stared at an asteroid too long (Sol Burke quote FTW!) If I could give CCP 10 commandments for the next expansion, these would be they...

1. Thou Shall Fixeth Faction War
Where do I start? Plenty of ideas on the forums for the past gazillion years! Main ones being.

Nerf missions and reward PvP
Make system capture mean something rewarding. Give people a reason to plex.
Encourage fighting by increasing LP for PvP kills.
Discourage mission farming (Sniper NPCs so assplode stealth bombers and stasis web towers to stop speed tanking)
Implement "Incursions" to FW. The enemy navy encroaching into the hi-sec border areas of each Empire.
Etc etc etc (see Hans Jagerblitzen for details!)

2. Thou Shall Not Avoid War
No player corp should be able to avoid a war dec. If you want to be totally war dec free join an NPC corp and pay the tax rate for your "protection". If hi-sec griefers are a problem, fix the bounty system so the carebears can hire bounty hunters (cheaper than a merc corp).

3. Thou Shall Not Play Docking Games
The redocking timer should be tied to the invulnerability period. They should be exactly the same for stations. If you are careful you can undock and redock safely.... most the time.

4. Forgive Those who Trespass Against You
Reduce the GCC down to 5 minutes in low-sec.

5. Thou Shall Not Partake of Fighter-Bombers in Low-Sec
Generally people agree super-capitals are deeply unbalanced in low-sec. There has been many calls to ban them to null-sec only. But that makes moving them very difficult. So as with titans, just stop their primary weapon from being deployed in low-sec. As titans cannot use their doomsday weapon in low-sec currently, make it so super-carriers cannot deploy fighter-bombers in low-sec. Fixed!

6. Gank Those That Would Gank Against Us.
Transferable kill rights. Someone suicide ganked you in high-sec? Are you a total bear and being able to shoot him back is pointless. Transfer your kill rights to a registered bounty hunter corp who will exact your revenge.

7. See No Evil (for CONCORD)
GCC only occurs when in sight of gate/station guns in low-sec. Those travelling through the system or to a station have some protection from the GCC mechanic. Those sat in top bait sorry top belt, shaking their ass are fair targets.

8. Thou Should Seek Absolution Through Low-Sec
Empire rats should be the only ones that give you security status increase. If CONCORD are not bothered who you assplode in 0.0 why should they care what rats you assplode! Suddenly all ratters have to come to low-sec to increase their sec-status. Targets!

9. Give and Thou Shall Receive
Bounty system is not fit for purpose. It should be based on ISK lost of the ship and fittings. Catching a pod in low/high sec is nigh on impossible and any sufficiently high bounty makes claiming it with an alt very worthwhile.

10. The Quest for the Holy Crucible
The Crucible expansion was good. New ships, balancing, new art and fixes after fixes. Keep this up. But also remember not to go too silly just on concentrating on fixes, it's not going to attract a lot of completely new blood. More content is also needed to keep people interested and to attract new subscribers. We need both!

Aurum is NOT a Dirty Word

2012-02-24T01:21:00.001-08:00

"Security isn't a dirty word Blackadder. "Crevice" is a dirty word, but security isn't"

-General Melchett

When I got in from work earlier this week, I thought I'd jump in a ship and go for a solo roam. After an hour of chasing chicken-shit Caldari Militia who were flying a variety of stabbed and cloaky ships through low-sec I decided to dock up.

Bored, I messed about for a while and made a couple of posters supporting Hans Jagerblitzen for the 7th Council of Stella Management. I posted these to Twitter.

Although I personally liked the Skyrim one, the Typhoon in space got most comments by far. Not for the message it gave, not for the "artwork", not for the cool Eve background.... they were about the pin-up I stuck on the side of the Typhoon sat on a Barrage shell. Whilst I cannot disagree, a brunette in stockings should ALWAYS get lots of comments, some of the messages regarding "When can I buy this with Aurum" got me thinking. Never one to shy away from controversy I'd like to say....

Aurum is NOT a bad thing.

Before everyone sharpens their pitchforks, lights their torches and oils their nut-crackers and comes for me in a Frankenstein's monster style mob, let me explain.

Aurum is Just ISK with a Different Name.
Take ISK, buy a PLEX from the in-game market and convert to Aurum. No money is required. AUR is only used on vanity items too, so there is no need to use it if you don't want to. The only real problem would be PLEX inflation. Personally thats not a problem for me. I tend to fund my PvP addiction by buying PLEX and selling on the market. Therefore with PLEX inflation I get more ISK for my Euro and more ships to Leeroy into the Caldari Militia. But I do know a lot of people use ISK to fund their game-time. High PLEX prices mean they have to grind more rather than having fun.

Aurum was not the "Problem Issue" with the NEX Store and Incarna
Why did players rioted and shoot the Jita monument? Were the under-lying reasons the introduction of a new in-game currency? No. In fact, wasn't Aurum revealed well before Incarna in Dev Blogs and the entire player-base didn't cry foul at that point? I think the main reasons for the "rioting" were:-

Incarna was a disappointing and very limited expansion
It caused many graphics cards to take an arrow to the knee
There was no "micro" in micro-transaction and selling virtual monocles for $60 and T-shirts costing more than real-life ones was just silly.
CCP took their eye (and their devs) off flying-in-space to deliver the above
The stance CCP took when the players complained about the above issues, the leaked email and the leaked newsletter was just pouring petrol on the already roaring fire.

If Incarna had been a success (all CQ's, establishments, player interaction, good selection in the NEX store, sensible prices and it didn't turn your graphics card into molten slag) then Aurium would have just been accepted. However, as it is tied to the Incarna expansion it is seen (forevermore?) as tainted.

Aurum is an ISK Sink
In-game we need ISK sinks as well as ISK faucets. If we had a decent reason to spend at the NeX store then ISK would be removed from the game and therefore creating an ISK sink. That's a good thing!

Seriously what's the problem with Aurum?
You can buy it with either in-game money or rl money. It can only be spent of vanity items in game. How is it different to MS Points on XBox Live? It's just another form of cash. If you don't want to use it, then don't. There is no need for you to.

The only real problem with Aurum currently is there is nothing worthwhile to spend it on currently. I'd love CCP to deliver some worthwhile items to the NeX store (WITHOUT adversely effecting FiS iterations and improvements of course):-

Custom ship skins
Custom ship decals (corp and alliance logo's or just "nose art")
Custom paint-jobs and decals for POS and outposts.
Clothing which is not "run of the mill". So clothing for suitable for...
- Pirates
- Militia Uniforms
- Alliance Uniforms
- Tight pants and F-M-B's for Sindell (she asked!)
- A general "sexing up" of the available clothing.

And Yes! This time they are @SindelPellion's legs!!!

Obviously the clothing line is pointless until we get establishments (which I suspect were mostly complete, but CCP are terrified of mentioning anything to do with WiS now).

Eve needs walking in stations. There is an untapped player-base out there who would be attracted to the game if it was properly deployed. Therefore there would be more people in-game, paying CCP more money, buing more in-game items and generally being available for me to shoot in the face! Win-win as far as I'm concerned!

Anyone out there running for CSM 7 want to respond to this? From what I've seen most CSM candidates are shying away from this "political hot potato". Eve Mail me in-game with a response and I'll post any and all CSM candidate responses together next week.... if any of them actually dare to touch this topic :)

Bashed - Fan Fiction

2012-02-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

At the weekend we bashed a POS and it's defending fleet (OK, so this was 3rd time and they'd spanked us twice before). Anyway this time it went better. We were not really interested in the POS, we just wanted the fight - http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=12486389

I assume, like capsuleer ships, POS's have a limited crew in there to keep things ticking over. I wonder what it was like for them....

-o0o-

"What's the Stront levels now?"

"17.5 units remaining"

Chief Engineer Karlee quickly did the calculations in her head. Just over two and a half minutes before the fuel ran out and the shield reinforcement would be down. That would leaving just what was left of the standard shielding, which was already well hammered, and the control towers armour between them and whatever was coming.

"May be they won't come. They've been beaten back last two times they tried" one of the technicians suggested.

"Oh they'll come. And each time they try they end up knowing our tactics better than before."

A large crack sounded from above above followed by a shower of sparks.

"Re-route that conduit" shouted over the noise pointing at the now swinging cable.

As with any Minmatar construct, the large control tower had frequent maintenance problems. However currently they were having more than usual. 14 hours earlier an enemy fleet had turned up and attacked the control tower. It had taken a real pounding and the engineers were having to work hard to keep the systems running. That attack had stopped as the shields started to fail and the strontium clathrates reactor kicked in. This provided a massive boost to the shields and made them pretty much invulnerable. However, the reactor burnt fuel at a massive rate and once started it couldn't be stopped or refueled. You could only let it run it's course. The real problem was re-harmonising the reactor with the towers shields after refueling it. The shields needed to be above 50% to get the strontium clathrates reinforcement reactor back online. Their shields were not even 20%.

"Spike in local."

"Friendly?"

"No."

Karlee rushed over to a console.

"They are here. 30 mixed battleships. Mostly Abaddons, few Dominix and the odd Megathron. No logistics though. They are in warp."

The engineering crew went over to the viewports in the wall. Through the shimmer of the shield they could see the fleet of huge battleships dropping out of warp.

"Yes! No logistics. Our defense fleet is going to rip them apart Chief Engineer, right?"

Karlee looked at the fleet. It didn't make sense to bring that sort of fleet without logisitcs.

"Well it...." Karlee suddenly stopped "Cyno!"

A bright red energy field was being projected from one of the ships. A cynosural field that allowed capital ships to lock onto the co-ordinates and use their jump drives to travel instantaneously to the location through artificial wormholes. Suddenly two Archon class carriers appeared in flashes of light. The engineering bay went quiet. The silence was interrupted by an alarm sounding.

"They are shooting one of the defense guns."

The engineering crew watched the battleship fleet engage the static defenses around the tower one at a time. The light show was rather spectacular. Laser fire lit up the space around the huge shimmering shield bubble. Some of the Minmatar battleships were launching torpedoes. The huge missiles slowly lumbering towards their target alongside the bright laser beams.

After 10 minutes the number of active guns achoured around the shields was dwindling. Karlee was checking the shield levels. Without a carrier or logistics of their own to repair the shield, it would take far too long for the shields to passively recharge back to 50%. The Stront reactor was not an option. The attacking fleet would need to be beaten back.

Suddenly the tower rocked. Sparks flew in engineering and one of the technicians who was working high on the conduit fell from the walkway. Karlee watched him fall as if it was slow motion, turning her head at the last moment. She still heard the sickening crunch as he hit the floor.

"Cheif, the good guys are here!"

Karlee looked out the viewport. The defense fleet had arrived. Whilst mostly consisting of smaller battlecruisers with some battleships, they had logistics which would repair the shields of any friendly ship under attack. The aggressors stopped firing on the the towers shields and turned their guns on the defense fleet. A massive fire fight started between the two fleets.

"Wow look at their Dominix's pop. This is going to be over quick" one technician shouted happily. He was right, whilst the defense fleet had smaller ships, the combined firepower was taking down the Dominix class battleships in the attacking fleet quickly.

"2nd Cyno!"

Karlee had expected this wasn't everything that the attackers were going to field and she hated being right. Two more Archon class carriers appeared on field, followed by another two dozen battleships.

"What in Divinities Edge are they!"

Karlee cupped her hands to the viewport to block out the glare.

"They are faction issue ships. Macharial and Navy Issue Apocalypse, they are battleships, but battleships with huge fire power."

As always, Karlee started to run the numbers. It didn't look good. The attacking fleet had too much firepower, and four carriers could issue significant repairs from range. Their defense fleet could not hope to target and destroy a heavily armoured battleship before the carriers had the remote repair modules activated.

The first engagement was short.

"The defence fleet is pulling back! They are abandoning us!"

Karlee knew she had to act fast, this could cause panic and crew could start abandoning the tower. Although the tower was mostly mechanised, the small crew was still essential to the running of the systems. Life on a control tower was cramped, there was less space than on a normal starship and the entertainment facilities were limited. But the pay was good and most only signed on for a 6-month rotation.

"They are not abandoning us! They will be going to reship. They need more firepower! There is no rush, our shields are still OK and we've got a full compliment of armour. There is plenty of time. We've got home-field advantage remember."

That appeared to calm the panicky engineering crew.

The crew watched the defense fleet return with Tornado class battlecruisers and some battleships. The fight went the same way. The enemy carriers kept their fleet alive whilst the awesome firepower of the 50 or so hostile battleships tore through the defense fleet one at a time.

For a second time the defense fleet fell back.

"Now they are retreating! NOW we're in trouble" Senior Tech Smyth sounded aggressive. Karlee knew this would be trouble.

"No. They will be re-shipping again and trying a different tactic. If I was the FC 'd be back at close range. Obvious their ranged fire-power is too great"

"Oh the grease monkey in charge of half a control tower is now an egger fleet commander!" Technician 2nd Class Smyth was a hulk of a man. Having worked in heavy engineering all of his life. He was also a known trouble maker.

"Exactly why are we still here waiting to die in the cold vacuum of space. Miss FC Sir? Why haven't we abandoned this doomed tower like the defense fleet has.... twice? You might want to die. We don't!"

Karlee didn't need this. Smyth was slowly approaching her, his chest puffed out. He was looking for an excuse. He carried a large wrench swinging loosely in his right hand. If he overpowered her the crew would run to the escape pods, the tower would certainly be lost. Karlee simply drew her sidearm at lighting fast speed and shot Smyth in the chest. He fell to his knees with a look of shock on his face before falling face first onto the floor.

"Anyone else?" nobody dared breathe "Good! Now come on people, we've been here before, lets hold it together! Nobody is going anywhere until the last possible second. We will keep this tower running!"

Karlee went back to the viewport just in time to see the defense fleet arrive for the third time. She was right, this time they had come in at close range, probably after refitting their weapons to something appropriate for such an engagement. After two minutes it was clear that the tactic wasn't working either. Even at that close range, the attacking fleet was still able to deal massive damage and the defense fleet couldn't break the carrier reps. For the third time the defense fleet pulled back.

The engineering bay went silent. All eyes were on Kaylee. She now didn't have anything for them. It was unlikely the defense fleet would try a fourth time. There was no point. The attacking fleet had superior numbers, superior firepower and superior logistics. The defense fleet had lost too many ships, the financial loss of the tower would pale into insignificance against the loss of ships they had already suffered.

The tower shook as the attacking fleet opened up against their shields. Another power conduit broke free. It swung down hitting Technician Marary in the back. Bright blue sparks flew as their body convulsed. The sparks ignited a gas, probably oxygen leaking from a nearby pipe.

The other crew froze in horror as a fireball engulfed the poor technician. Karlee rushed over to another console and rerouted the power and isolated the nearby oxygen pipes. The sparks stopped and the charred, blacked body of Marary finally fell to the floor smoking. Of the 12 crew in engineering, Karlee had lost two and killed one herself.

"Back to your stations! NOW!"

The Engineering crew paused.

"NOW!" she reached for her gun again.

Reluctantly they returned to their stations. Karlee knew what they were thinking. If the capsuleers had effectively abandoned this small outpost, they shouldn't they. The control tower had sufficient escape pods for all of them. But Karlee couldn't order the evacuation whilst the control tower still had some shields and a full compliment of armour, it wasn't in her nature just to quit.

She was trying to divert axillary power to the shields when she noticed movement in the corner of her eye. High above on one of the gangways a young technician was edging to an escape pod. She drew her sidearm for the second time.

"DON'T DO IT" she yelled. The other crew all stopped and looked.

The technician paused, he looked terrified, he suddenly bolted for the hatch. Karlee fired once and the shot caught him in the upper leg. He fell from the gangway.

Karlee never saw the large wrench swung against the back of her head.

40 minutes later she started to come around. She was laying on the floor of engineering face down. Her head was throbbing. She struggled to her feet. Engineering had been abandoned. Smoke and fires were everywhere. She looked at the console. Shields and armour had gone, and structural integrity was down to 34%. The tower groaned under the sustained firepower of the attacking fleet. She looked at the scanner logs, they showed nothing of any defense fleet returning whilst she had been unconscious.

See scanned the tower for life signs. There were none and this is not surprising. Whole sections of the tower had been depressurised and fires were raging in those that still had atmosphere. She checked the inventory, most of the escape pods had gone. She started to get worried. Karlee started to plot possible routes from engineering to the escape pods still remaining. Each way was blocked by fire, hazards or the cold vacuum of space. She saw there was only one she could physically get to, the escape pod in the engineering cargo room. However the radiation levels in the room were far too high. The uranium fuel stored there had been split open by an explosion. It would take her 20 seconds to cross the bay to the hatch. The radiation levels would give a fatal dose in 5.

There was another series of explosions as the enemy fleet continued to pound the tower. The structural integrity alarm went off. The tower was dying. Karlee considered her options. She could get to that escape pod, but she'd be glowing by the time she was recovered, a slow painful death by radiation poisoning didn't sound fun. She could just sit down. It would all be over in a minute. However death in the cold vacuum of space was supposed to be horrific. Lungs bursting, your outer flesh flash freezing whilst your blood boils.

"Option 3 I suppose" she said out loud with resignation.

She went to draw her side-arm but it was missing. The crew must have taken it in case she came around before they had got away.

Karlee looked up as she heard metal groaning and hissing. Far above her she could see the metal wall starting to deform and blister. Suddenly a huge shard of light broke through and disappeared. A hiss of escaping atmosphere was cut short as a containment forcefield automatically sealed the breach.

Karlee slumped down by the console facing the wall. Suddenly there were dozens of areas where the wall was blistering from laser fire striking the other side. She pulled out a cigarette, lit it and look a long drag.

Several sections of the hull gave way at the same time. Engineering was lit up in an array of bright light as laser beams criss-crossed each other. If Karlee could have seen it in all it's splendour she might have thought it was a beautiful ending.

-o0o-

Blog Banter 33: The Capsuleer Experience

2012-02-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

Like mana from Valhalla (yes I know I'm mixing my religious metaphors), the latest Dev Blog by CCP Legion asks questions which make for perfect Blog Bantering. To quote him "...we want to make the first days, weeks and months in EVE enjoyable and not just something ‘you have to plough through in order to get to the good stuff’" and the newly formed Player Experience team will focus on "...where and why people lose interest in EVE...".

"We invite you to pour your heart (or guts) out and tell us what you think is good or bad with the current new player experience and what you think could be done about the problems."

Wow. It's been nearly 4-years since I did the tutorials! Lets have a loot at them now.... WTF!?!?! Where did all these come from?

Had a quick look at number 13 for the Caldari. Doesn't mention ANYTHING about cloaking devices and warp core stabilisers on Drake class battlecrusiers so pretty misses the point on how the Caldari fit their ships!

Anyway I had a quick look through and the NPE of 2012 is much different when I went through it last and climbed the infamous learning cliff.

So how do we make the NPE even better.

PvP

Eve is a unique game. Whilst you can catch up to my skills in a frigate class ship, it's going to take you probably best part of a year. Getting all your fitting skills (Electronics and Engineering) and the relevant ship and weapons skills to level five will take a while. You cannot grind XP you cannot power level. You just have to wait. Therefore the NPE is something ‘you have to plough through in order to get to the good stuff’. I very much doubt there is a way to get new players into the "good stuff" right away.

But it acceptable to tell new players this?

"Hi guys, welcome to the game. Oh by the way the PvP in this game is truly epic, but you'll be crap at it for the next year or so but please stick with it."

So what can we do? Probably nothing. It's the way the game works, you need patience. No quick wins here. You go into low-sec as a newb, you will die horribly. I found this and tried PvP many times and went back to carebearing before I had the skills to enjoy PvP.

Griefing

We cannot hide it, we all know it, Eve is full of nasty bar-stewards. Can flippers, scammers, fraudsters and general nasty people. There are "norms" in there and nice helpful people, but generally we have a lot of griefers.

I once used the analogy of a a first date to explain griefers....

Woman - So what do you do for fun?

Man - You know those sand sculptures people do on the beach...

Woman - Oh wow! You make them?

Man - No. I wait until someone has just finished one then I run in and kick it down.

Woman - WHAT? Why would you do that?

Man - Their tears are fantastic. They get really upset and they almost cry. It's epic.

Woman - Erm.... I just remembered I left the iron on. Be right back! /flee

In real life people would be appalled by this behaviour. In Eve, it's common place. But we don't mention it to new players. We don't want to put them off. How do we warn people about these issues and how not to get caught by the can flippers?

Lol Fits

The new tutorials appear to show you how to physically fit your ship, but not how to really fit your ship. Back in my first days I'd take a ship and fit some big guns for big enemies, small guns from small enemies and make your classic newb lol fit.

We need to show new players how to properly fit a ship rather than the normal way of people sticking random things on a hull because it "sounded a good idea".

I did a quick search for fitting a ship on YouTube and looked at the first one from the results. Player made guides like this are what new players need...

EDIT - Literally within the hour after posting this blog..... 9 day toon in Caldari Militia with THIS fit - http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=12483182

The Solutions

There are a few things we could do to improve the NPE.

The whole game needs better explanation. ISK: The Ultimate Guide to Eve Online should be required reading for all new players. It's a great resource but under used.
Explain to new players that they need to wait for PvP and rushing in will result in death, despondency and a loss of ISK. Promote the role of "tackler", perhaps the fastest PvP role to train for.
Show how to fit a ship. Proper weapons layout, proper tank. Doesn't need to be detailed. Chose the right sized module for the ship, armour tank an armour ship, shield tank a shield ship and never, ever hull tank (even if you are a real man).
Explain the popular griefing tactics (can flipping) and scams in game and how the mechanics work.
Do more to get newbs to join a corporation, get on voice comms and learn from the vets. I would guess those players getting into a player corp early last longer than those who stay in a NPC corp simply because in a player corp you can learn from people.

The Conclusion

We have a big problem here. Eve Online is not about instant gratification. With Eve Online you need to invest time and patience to get anywhere. Of all the MMOG I've played Eve appears to have the oldest player base I've seen. Most in my corp are 30-something with wives and kids. Why? Because there isn't the instant gratification that comes with many games and therefore younger players tend not to stick with it.

We need new blood in the game. We need to make the NPE better. But we must not change the fundamentals of Eve to get there.

Turn it up to 11! Overheating in Eve Online.

2012-02-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

Living in the desert and being a PvP player in Eve Online means I know a little bit about overheating.

First one is easy. Turn on the air-conditioner when it gets too hot and don't go outside for long in the summer.

The second is a little more complicated but can give you a real boost in PvP. In a previous blog here I listed several ways to give a major boost to your PVP abilities using neural implants, faction modules, combat boosters (drugs) and alts with warfare links. Overheating might be a minor and very short term boost, but it's a very important one.

Certain modules in Eve Online can be "overheated". Basically in a spaceship engineering sense you pump extra power into them to overload them. This does not affect your ships power-grid or your capacitor. Basically you "work" them a bit harder. Get them running at over 100% if you will. This causes three things, firstly the bad things - they heat up and as they overheat they take damage. The damage is to the module itself and does not effect your ships shield/armour/structure HP's. However, they do their job much better than when running normally.

To see what happens when you over heat a module simply have a look at it's info. Guns and missile launchers tend to fire faster, propulsion jamming mods reach longer, reppers rep faster, propulsion mods give you more speed and hardeners... well they harden a bit more.

In order to overheat a module you need the Thermodynamics skill. Each level you train reduces the overheat damage the modules take by 5%. Also T3's are good for overheating in as they have a bonus to overheat damage.

To overheat a module you can click the tiny little green bar at the top of the module icon, or now you can shift-click the button.

You can also overheat an entire rack (entire line of low, mid or high slots) with these buttons

As you overheat a module, the heat spreads to nearby modules. If they are overheating too, then the rate of damage they take is increased. Overloading one module will mean damage is taken much slower than doing an entire rack.

You can keep an eye on the temperature here....

And module damage is shown graphically on the module icon and also by hovering over the icon

It is possible, and is actually easy, to "burn out" a module by overheating it too much. In that case it'll go offline until you fix it at a station. Providing it's not totally buggered you can use nanite paste in space for a temporary fix between battles. To use nanite paste simply open your cargo bay and use the right click menu.

You can also "pre-overheat" modules by turning the overheat on but not activating the module. This way the module takes no damage as it's not running, but as soon as you do activate it it'll run with the overheated stats. Very useful for points when gate camping.

Overheating can win you a fight, it can also help you escape from a fight that is going south! It can help you catch a target you'd have missed otherwise but it can also bugger up your ship and doom you!

A nice example of overheating working well occurred to me earlier this week.

I was solo roaming in my autocannon Hurricane. I noticed a squid (Caldari Militia player) in local as I jumped into a system. He looked to be in a Ferox from the D-scanner. I bounced about a bit looking for him and we both landed on a gate at 0 together. What luck! He locked me up, I locked him back. Mexican stand off. I didn't know what his intention was.

Did he want me to agress so he could jump through the gate and run away with me unable to follow him due to aggression? (A typical Caldari response to a 1v1)

Was he thinking that's what I wanted to do and was waiting to see if I ran.

I didn't know, was he wanting a fight or me to make a move so he could flee?

Another squid entered system, I was outnumbered. The other squid landed on gate in a Manticore and jumped. Then he jumped back. I was still tempted, a stealth bomber wasn't a major issue. Then yet another squid entered system. A war-target Tengu landed on us, that was me out of there. I warped to a pounce off another gate and the Tengu jumped out, I wasn't about to get sandwiched on a gate. I went to the other gate at 0 and the Ferox had obviously followed me and was already there. Again we locked each other up.

Now, do I open up and hope that the Manticore and Tengu were simply mission-whores passing through and wouldn't be back. Or should I just say engaging in this situation is a bad idea with a Tengu and a Manticore possibly joining in?

Oh bugger it! FIRE!!!

I open up on the Ferox and he returns fire. We're both close range fit, my autocannons and heavy assault missiles verses his apparent full rack of blasters. As the fight starts it's obvious that my shields are dropping faster than his. Time to heat things up a bit.

I overheat my AC's and HAM launchers plus my invulnerability field. Suddenly I'm firing faster and therefore doing more damage (+15% extra DPS) and my shields have higher resists (+20% bonus). Almost immediately I notice a difference. My shields are dropping slower than before and his are dropping much faster. I keep an eye on the heat and module damage, toggling the overheat when needed. I start to get the upper hand and soon his shield is lower than mine. He pops as I'm in around 2% shield. A very close 1v1 between two fairly equal battlecruisers - and I won due to overheating. Without overheating he'd have won, no doubt.

Mutual gf's in local and I return the two jumps to station to repair the heat damage to my modules.

Overheating works and goes to prove that not all MMOG PvP encounters are shin kicking contests that are won by the guy who started with the biggest boots!

Bounty Hunting - Will It Ever Be Worthwhile in Eve?

2012-02-15T03:44:00.001-08:00

There was a bit of a discussion on the #tweetfleet this week about bounty hunting in Eve Online along with a blog post from @Rotosequence here.

I think we all agree the bounty system in Eve Online is not fit for purpose currently. If someone places a big enough bounty on your head, what happens?

Do lots of elite PvP bounty hunter types come hunting for your head?

Or do you just jump in a blank clone with no implants, ensure your medical clone is up to date and then have an alt or a corp mate pod you and collect the bounty for yourself.

I think it was somewhere in the region of 3bn ISK that someone once put on the head of someone I know. Did some l33t bounty hunter collect that? No, because as soon as it was noticed he did as described above and arranged to be podded by a corp mate. Even if he had a lot of skill points, the medical clone wouldn't have cost more than 30m ISK probably. Yet 3bn ISK was received in bounty payments. A profit of 2,970,000,000 for the guy the bounty was supposed to "punish". If only Han Solo could have done this!

So how do we make bounty hunting worthwhile. How do we make it into an activity in Eve Online that players can choose as a profitable "career".

This is not easy. How do you make it so that a decent bounty is not "claimable" by the person you want to punish?

Percentage Payouts on Clone Value
One suggestion is to make the bounty a pool of money and each time you pod the person you get a sum from the pool equal to the value of the destroyed clone and implants. This immediately stops people from podding themselves for the reward as it would lose them money if the payout was just under the value of the destroyed pod. However, a "good" payout on just the clone of 30,000,000 ISK (if your target was 100-120m ish SP) is not going to entice anyone to put a lot of effort into hunting your target down. The only way to make cost of clone based bounties viable would be to also base the payout on destroyed implant value. Still, that's never going to be a great amount unless they have a high-grade set in. Then there is the issue of you never know what clone the target might be in at the time. You might waste a lot of time and get minimal reward as they were in their 0.0 clone at the time. In the end it would come down to luck. I personally have four clones, if you pod me the chances are it'll be a 120m implant clone (+4's and a PG4).... that's if you can catch my pod in low-sec. In bounty terms I'm never going to be really worth coming after.

Just looking at our own Kill Board, the values in ISK of our last ten capsule kills are 0, 0, 0, 109m, 0, 0, 72m, 0, 19m and 36m. So the average value of a pod in Black Rise (low-sec) on that somewhat overly simple calculation is 23,600,000 ISK. With a clone grade of Tau (120 million SP kept) which costs 30m ISK you'll on average get around 55m for killing bitter vets with a bounty on their head in Black Rise. With all the hassle of hunting your target, laying in wait, etc etc is the career choice of Bounty Hunter worthwhile? No.

Percentage of Payouts on Ship Insurance
One idea I had was to make bounties a percentage of the insurance payout of the hull you destroyed. Therefore if you pop your target and he's in an Abaddon you'll get 130,000,000 ISK from the bounty pot (at current ish rates). However thinking about that, along with his own insurance he could get corp mates to pop unfitted ships to make money (His insurance payout plus bounty = mucho ISK compared to loss). So that idea doesn't work at all as it would be just the same as now with people getting alts and corp mates to pop them to claim the "reward". So my idea is utterly crap.

In fact, almost any payout that is of a sufficient value for people to care about is open to abuse. Once you have rewards that are worth claiming and thus making Bounty Hunting a viable Eve "career", the value will be more than that of the ship or the blank clone of the target and therefore makes it worthwhile for the target to get a corp mate to pop him.

I don't have an answer to this. In fact I'm not sure there is an answer. Can the bounty system be changed so that it is worthwhile yet doesn't hand free ISK to the person you wanted to "punish"?

Do we accept that "Bounty Hunter" will never be a worthwhile career in Eve Online and the best we can hope for from the bounty system is to give someone a minor reward for killing someone (who they would have killed anyway) that you don't like.

Anyone else got any ideas? How do we "sex up" bounty hunting. Oh.... wait......

P.S. Who put a 10m ISK bounty on Drackarn's head? Seriously, who is going to come after me for that!

P.P.S. For those who are wondering if the previous blogs planned Valentine's dinner went OK. Yes, yes it did! Was quite proud of myself, especially the lobster!

Valentines Eve...... Online

2012-02-12T04:59:00.000-08:00

Well, February 14th is nearly on us! Time to reward the Eve Widow for letting me lock myself in a dark room and play Eve Online far too often for the previous 364 days!

So in the first ever, only-partly-Eve-related SC&S blog (don't worry I'm not planning any more of these), here's the dinner I will cook for the "Trouble and Strife" in order to get another 364 days of Eve Online without too many complaints.

I'm a civil engineer, not a cook and certainly not a chef. Most of the below is inspired from Jamie Oliver and his latest book or Masterchef on the TV! However, cooking a great meal isn't rocket science nor is it Amarr Titan level 5. It's fairly easy to cook a meal that your wife will go "Wow!" and let you play important internet spaceships in peace over the next year!

Also I don't really tend to measure or weigh things a lot.... I just bung it in until it looks/tastes right. As I keep telling the wife... experiment!

Starter - Smoked Salmon Blini's
I plan to go quick and easy on the starter. Don't want to do too much work! This is quick and easy to make, takes no time at all and tastes great.

- Smoked Salmon
- Packet of cocktail blini's (thin toast will do) or make your own here.
- Sour cream and chive dip.

All the above should be available from your local supermarket. If you are in the UK, Sainsbury's used to do it all. Simply heat the bleni's in the oven whilst cutting the smoked salmon into strips. Take a bleni, put a dollop of sour cream and chive sauce on it, a few strips of salmon on top of that and sorted! A squeeze of fresh lemon gives it a bit of extra zing! Very quick and easy to make, but looks like you spent a lot more time than you did!

Main - Posh Surf and Turf.

The Turf
- Half a beef fillet (400-500g ish)
- Oil and butter

Pre-heat your oven to max. In a large frying pan, heat some oil and butter and sear the outside of your fillet. Then lob it in a roasting tray stick it into the oven for 20 minutes. Once it's done take it out, cover with tin foil and leave to rest for 20 minutes. Easy!

The Surf
- Whole lobster
- Fresh dill
- Red chili
- Tablespoon of peppercorns
- 2 lemons

Butter for the lobster
- Melted butter
- Juice of 1 lemon

I get ready dead lobsters here, less messy. Take all the ingredients and put them in a big pan of hard boiling salt water. Halve the lemons first, squeeze the juice into the pot and place the lemon halves in too. Lower your lobster in whole (careful, boiling water is boiling) and cover the pot. After 5 minutes turn off the heat and leave for 15 minutes.

Take Mr Lobster out (be careful, obviously he's ****ing hot) and get a BIG knife. Place the knife in the centre of the head and stab the bugger down. Bring the knife down and cut it in half. Finish off the other way so you slice him in two length-ways (be careful that is all you slice in two!). There may be a vein running along the middle, just remove this with your fingers. Then remove the stomach sac from behind the eyes. Jamie Oliver's video here shows you how to cut 'em up and what to remove. To be honest, you're best off watching that!

Brush the exposed flesh (giggity) with the melted butter mixed with lemon juice and the jobs a good un.

The Sauce for the Beef and Chips
- Egg yoke
- Butter
- Tarragon
- Shallot or small onion
- 3 peppercorns
- White wine vinegar
- Water

Melt the butter a sauce pan whilst you fry off the finely chopped shallot/onion. When the onion is cooked, place it in a blender with the egg yoke, the tarragon and peppercorns. Blend! Take the hot butter and little by little add it whilst blending. Don't do it too fast or too much at once as it'll separate. See the BBC link to do it properly :)

Chunky Chips
- Potatoes
- Deep fat frier

Peel the spuds, and cut into chunky chips. Place in a large saucepan of boiling salted water and boil for a few minutes until the outsides start to go soft. Take out and leave to cool. Set the frier to low (170oC) and cook for a few minutes and take them out of the oil. When you are nearly ready to serve, whack the frier up to max (190oC) and crisp them up.

Veg - Who cares
With the amazing food above, who cares what veg you do. I'll be chopping some carrots up, boiling them, drain, lob in a knob of butter, shake it around, sprinkle some parsley on top and hey presto! Token veg!

Desert - Summer Fruit Jellies
- A bag of frozen summer fruits
- Leaf Gelatin
- Caster sugar
- Elderflower Cordial
- Prosecco (or other sparkling wine)

Just see Jamie Oliver do it from the link :)

Serve with a nice wine of your preference. With red meat and lobster you could go red or white. To be honest, ignore the wine snobs and go with what you want. For extra brownie points I'm going for her favorite, a nice bottle of Chianti. And as it's Valentines day I won't even do my bad Hannibal Lecture impression.

You cook the above and send her red roses to work ("oh it was so embarrassing.... but all the girls at the office were so jealous!") plus go to sleep with a tired out tongue..... then you should have hassle free Eve Online for the next year.
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..... well at least a week or until I get back from Fanfest!

Give us a Boost! Getting an Edge in PvP

2012-02-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

Tama has always been quite a PVP hotspot. As a low sec entry system from Caldari space it is popular with pirates and faction war players alike.

However recently it would appear it has also become popular with a third type..... booster alts.

There are many ways to give you the edge in combat in Eve Online. As well as upgrading to faction, deadspace and officer (rarely used) modules for your ship, there are a few other things that can make a huge difference.

Implant Sets
What have you got in your head (warning - never ask me that question, you DON'T want to know!). Actually I mean in implant slots one to five? I'm guessing a set of +4's if you tend to carebear, may be some +3's if you're low-sec based and may be nothing if you're down in null-sec running bubble camps? How about slot six? A PG-4 perhaps as that is a popular choice? A little boost to your ships power plant always help.

Well if you feel like slurging the ISK, those 6 slots could make a massive difference to certain ships. Faction modified implants are availible that not only give you the learning skills boost, but can also significantly increase ship attributes. The implant for slot 6 muliplies the effectiveness of those in slots one to five. There are many sets but I'll just list the most popular three here.

Crystal - Increases the amount of shield boosters.

Slave - Increases your armour hitpoints.

Snake - Increases your ships speed.

Each set comes in high-grade and low-grade. The high-grade sets can easily set you back 2.5bn for the set of six. But it can be worth it. A full high-grade crystal set plus the Omega (the one that goes in slot 6) will give you +3 to all attributes, but can, more importantly, give you about a 55% boost to the amount of shield your booster reps each cycle.

Boosters
Of course there are the short term effect consumable drugs that boost your abilities in a specific area. This post here describes them in more detail.

Keeping on the shield boosting, an Improved Blue Pill can increase your shield boost by 25%. Now what if you are popping blue pills AND have a high-grade crystal set in?

Boosting Alt
Now we're onto the issue at hand. A well trained alt in a commandship or T3 with correct subsystem can turn the tide of a battle. Warfare links can increase shield resistances, speed up shield booster speed or increase your point range. They also don't have to be on grid with you. They can be merrily sat at a deep safe with the links running.

As well as these ship fitted warfare links, complete with ship bonus, the alt may have the appropriate mindlink stuck in slot 10 giving a further boost to all links of a certain type.

And all you need for this is a trained alt sat in the squad commander with your PvP main in a squad postion. Providing your alt is set as the booster, you're sorted!

The Numbers
Now just imagine someone using all three types. I'm going to use an active shield tank to see what difference is made with a high-grade Crystal set giving you a huge boost to your repping amount, a blue pill increasing that even more and a boosting alt reducing the cycle time of your repper whilst buffing your shield resistances. That can really boost your performance. If that person is in the right ship, may be even with a faction shield booster, it'll tank like a boss!

So you might think you have a fair fight. A 1v1 with similar ships. The guy absolutely wtfpwns you whilst you slightly scratch his shields. Was he so much a better player than you, or was it a combination of the above three?

Take my main in a Sleipnir. Lets do some EFT Warrioring (numbers might be a bit out but they give you an idea) to see actually what difference these make.....

With a standard T2 active tank set up it reps 825 every 5 seconds (165 dps)
With a Dread Guristas booster instead of a T2 it reps 825 every 4 seconds (206 dps)
Now if I was to splurge on a High-grade Crystal set it would rep 1267 (316 dps)
If I was to pop an improved blue pill too it then reps 1584 (396 dps)
Finally give me a boosting alt at a safe spot running the shield harmonizing link and my booster cycle reduces from 4 seconds to 3.4 seconds (465 dps)

With a T2 set up, I'm repping 165 dps.
With the fully boosted setup, I'm repping 465 dps.

Also that booster alt could have other links running so if you think the reps are good, remember that my sheild resistances could also gone up an extra 5% each, so you are doing less damage whilst I'm repping the 465 dps. Oh and of course being with the alt has also increased my base shield HP's by around 10%.

Fair fights in Eve Online? Bah, who needs 'em! :p

P.S. Hans Jagerblitzen is past 100 likes for his CSM 7 campaign (actually he's well past 300 likes!)

For CSM7, This Blog is Supporting....

2012-02-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

Low sec is fight club. Leave all the empire-building, resource management, brutally blobtastic warfare, and bullshit political drama to those that seek it in 0.0

- Hans Jagerblitzen

As announced on Sovereignty Wars here yesterday, or was it day before yesterday in my timezone, Hans Jagerblitzen (Here are his blog and Twitter links) is running for CSM7 on a High-Sec/Low-Sec/Faction War/Piracy manifesto. I recommend that you head over to Sovereignty Wars and read the open letters from both Hans and Shalee.

After those open letters you can read his post and get his platform document here at his Jita Park Speakers Corner post. Below I've done a quick summary of the platform document which explains why I'm backing Hans.

Overall, Hans said he is to concentrate on high sec and low sec and he has little to add to 0.0 as he is not a resident or expert in those areas. The CSM will be mostly 0.0 power-bloc delegates so they are well represented anyway.

High Sec

CONCORD
Hans proposes that high-sec has a proportional CONCORD responce according to security status. In a 0.5, with the right ship, someone may be able to tank the security responce (whether that be CONCORD or faction police) for a while before being kersplatted. In a 1.0 you'll DIAF if you stare at someone too hard.

As well as security status he suggests some improvements to mining to stop it being mind-numbingly boring and to reduce botting. However, I'm not interested in that!

Bounty Hunting
To counter high-sec ganking, he has some nice suggested changes to the bounty system. What if the bounty is paid as a percentage of cost of multiple ship losses from the target not just a pod which he'll probably do himself with his alt when it gets financially worth it.

War Decs
One of Hans areas I personally don't agree with is increasing wardec costs against hi-sec corps. Not sure this will work. Shadows of the Federation do not war dec 100% carebear corps for shits and giggles, but we DO war dec hi-sec corps (and low-sec and null sec corps and alliances) that bully our friends. How is this going to work? Won't this system to prevent "bullying" also protect the "bullies" and penalize the people who like to "bully" "bullies"?

PvE Fitting verses PvP
Back to something I agree to. PvE combat discourage players from learning PvP fits. If the better AI seen in sleepers and incursions was added to mission and belt rats (obviously would need balancing too) then it might encourage new PvP style fittings rather than just a massive buffer tank and sitting still.

Low-Sec

Low-sec should have rewards to entice hi-sec players in, but not so rewarding that it entices null-sec players. It's a battle zone, and should be developed as such.

GCC
The Global Criminal Countdown should be reduced to 10 minutes. Oh yes! I'd personally go for 5 but Hans said 10.
Rats in low-sec should be the only ones that give you a security status increase. If CONCORD don't change your security status in null sec when killing a neutral, why should they do it when you kill a rat? This will attract more solo and small gang to low-sec. The reward for the risk! What a fantastic idea to get some fighting in low-sec.

Scalable Sec Status
Not sure about some of the idea's here about you cannot drop below -2.0 from going GCC in low-sec. My personal preference was someone's idea based on Jack Dants original that CONCORD are only looking where there are gate/station guns in low-sec. If you are travelling through, or visiting a station, then the gate guns and the GCC mechanic will offer some protection to you. If you are sat in the top belt then there is no GCC and no sec status penalty as you are obviously looking for PvP.

Station Games
Session Change and Re-dock timer should be the same. If you can dock after 20 seconds but are invulnerable for 30 seconds, where is the risk in undocking?
Also in Faction War, if your militia captures the system, the gate guns should fire on the enemy militia as if they were GCC. Plus station services should be compromised if you don't own the system.

Faction War
LP's for plexing. Plexing encourages fighting, LP's would encourage plexing. I think we need to clarify this as offensive plexing only. Defensive plexing would be another LP farm.
Fix the risk-reward balance of faction war missions. Prevent farming of them in cloaky ships. FW missions were supposed to encourage PvP, not for alts to use cloaky ships and hiding whenever a member of the opposing militia shows up!
When doing ANY faction war improvements ask "Will this cause more PvP". That's all we care about.

Pirate Factions
Add the pirate factions to faction war. Could be interesting for the pirate corps to align themselves with one of the factions and fight on their behalf?

So there you have it. I've paraphrased and broken down his 22-page manifesto down to this relatively short post. If he sounds like he's your man, read the full thing here.

Do I agree with everything in there? No I don't. However, as far as I've seen he's the only person concentrating on what matters to me. He freely admits he doesn't know what needs fixing, or how to fix it, in null sec as he doesn't live there. That's what I've been saying on this blog for months. The CSM needs a diverse range of players who spend their Eve time in different areas of the Eve universe doing different things, not just the 0.0 power blocs.

Oh and finally he has some great gaming taste - "X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Wing Commander, Privateer, Freespace, and Homeworld were the staple games of my youth."

This is a massive task. The 0.0 power-blocs are going to be tough to beat. Lets face it, the Mitani will be chairman without even any campaigning needed. So.....

Come on you hi-sec industrialists, miners, missioners and traders,
Come on you brave low-sec industrialists and POS owners,
Come on you low-sec militia pilots,
Come on you pirates of low sec who yarrrrrrr daily,
Come on all of you who play, live, fight and die in a fire in Empire space.

Vote Hans Jagerblitzen and lets have a voice on the CSM.

P.S. On a personal note, thanks to all the people who suggested I should run for CSM (I think there were three or so). But lets be serious, who wants Glen Quagmire on the committee. The NEX store would be full of stockings, high-heels, lingerie and stripper poles by the summer...... Giggity!

Minmatar Aren't the Only Slaves (Fan Fiction)

2012-02-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

My carrier alt is almost read to jump into an Archon. But how does my main character know my alt.....? I think there is a story there!

This is a proper short story so might be tl;dr if you were just looking for a short blog post to read. This post here by Marc Scaurus asks some of the CSM7 candidates about their views on low sec. However I would encourage you to try my attempt at fiction. As usual, there are plenty of legs in there! :p

Minmatar Aren't the Only Slaves

The small industrial vessel carefully maneuvered around the hulk of the station. It slowed in position just behind a massive pylon. The ship hung there for a few seconds before suddenly a red energy field appeared above the ship, pulsating and glowing against the stark grey of the Caldari station. A bright flash and a Archon class carrier appeared through an artificially generated wormhole. The huge golden ship hung there. Unable to dock as the hull was dangerously energised after travelling through the wormhole. After half a minute the energy build up had dissipated carrier was towed inside the station.

-o0o-

"Have you seen this?" Madbuster slid over a datapad to Drackarn.
"A jump freighter.... in high sec!" Drackarn smiled and shook his head "I do wonder how that guy does it. Sometimes I think Loren Gallen must have contacts in the Caldari Navy who allow him to get away with kills like this"

The table laughed. Half a dozen members of Shadows of the Federation were in the capsuleer bar having a drink.

The bar door slid open and they looked over to see who the new customer was. Nisuwa VII was not a busy station and the capsuleer bar was even quieter. New faces were rare. In the doorway stood a female Amarrian. She was beautiful. Long flowing back hair and highly expensive, but revealing clothes. This was not your typical Amarrian. She started walking over to them.

"This could be trouble, Amarrian."
"Don't be daft, not every Amarrian is in the Militia and at war with us."
"And very few of the Amarr militia dress like that!"
"Cracking legs. Oh shit she's wearing stockings someone hold Drack down quick!"
"Oh very funny! I bet ten million ISK that she takes me to bed at the end of the night."
"You're on! She'll be put off in the first 10 seconds when you start dribbling over her legs!"
"Shhhh. She's coming over!"

She reached the table and grabbed Drackarns jacket at the lapels and pulled him to his feet. The other Shadows starting to rise from their seats when she kissed him deeply before lowering him back into his seat. Devotion placed his head in his hands knowing he'd just lost ten million ISK.

"Erm... me next?" Lexx slowly raised a hand.

The Amarrian woman looked quizzically at her.

"Don't mind her Cat" said Drackarn "She just desperate and ginger". The table erupted in laughter again "So it all worked out for you them?"

"Yes" smile Cat "Thanks to you. You know I'll never be able to repay you"

"Don't worry about it" Drackarn waved a hand to dismiss it "The help you said you'd provide here is more than enough"

"So obviously you two know each other" Galus asked.

The woman called Cat took a seat at the table.

"Yes, funny story really. All started a few years ago, before I became a capsuleer and really kicked off 6 months after I qualified" started Drackarn.

-o0o-

Drackarn took aim carefully. His finger was resting on the trigger. From this range he could even make out the hair growing from his targets ear. He held his breath and gently squeezed the trigger.

"Ohhhhhhhh you fuuuuuu....."

His co-worker took the plastic sucker-dart in the side of his head and was desperately looking for something to throw at Drackarn when the control room door opened. There stood a PA for one of the executives, a weaselly little man. He looked at the two technicians and cleared his throat.

"Drackarn, you presence is required at the Directors residence this evening"

"Erm... what? Why?"

"The Director is hosting the Amarrian trade ambassador to the State at a reception tonight. He wants to show his full range of...... staff."

Drackarn noted the pause.

"Call in a requisitions before you leave the factory tonight. They have appropriate attire for you"

-o0o-

Drackarn walked up the driveway towards the huge mansion. He pulled on the collar of his dinner jacket which was tight against his throat. He was unaccustomed to wearing such formal attire, which had been ready for him to collect at the rec office. He showed his invite to the door staff and entered the ballroom. It was packed with mostly managers from the factory. He saw very few low-level workers and none that he knew well enough to talk to. A beeping noise made him spin around. A small service drone had been draped with fine cloths and had been fitted with a drinks tray. Drackarn scooped a glass of champagne as it hovered passed. No doubt the drones were being used to demonstrate the products of the factory to the trade ambassador. Drack wondered where the drone control pads were. He could have some real fun with these stuck up snobs if he could get his hands on one. He looked around and noticed that some of the waiters had the pads strapped to their belts.

".... yes, we have a couple of drones serving in every room for the party. You'll never go thirsty here."

Drackarn knew the voice. It was the factory director. Every morning over the factory comms he'd give a "motivational" speech to the workers. They generally just gave unflattering hand gestures back to the holorecording.

"And here we have one of our reactor control technicians, Drickin"

Drackarn turned and came face to face with the Director and his fake beaming smile. Drackarn wondered how he knew his name... well, at least how he got fairly close to his name. He noticed a small light flash in the directors eye, an occular implant. Someone was feeding him intel so it appeared like he knew everyone.

"Drickin, this is His Excellency the Amarrian trade ambassador"

Drackarn held out his hand and the snobbish Amarrian just looked at it in distain.

"We find Minmatars much more suited to these tasks" the Ambassador wasn't talking to Drack "They work longer hours too" he finished as he moved on.

There was quite a procession of staff following him as Drackarn backed out of the way to let them pass. A mane of long flowing jet-black hair caught Drackarns eye. An Amarrian staffer, she was beautiful, wearing a long flowing strappy dress. She turned her head to Drackarn as she passed and smiled at him.

-o0o-

It was getting late. Drackarn wanted to get out, but the factory workers all had set times they were allowed to leave. The people in power were able to slip out early, but they made sure the workers were kept back to ensure the party looked busy until the Amarrian ambassador left. Drackarn still had an hour to "work".

He backed into a dark corner of the ballroom and retrieved the drone control pad from his jacket pocket. He'd swiped it from one of the waiters that he'd purposely bumped into earlier. He was bored so started flicking through the various drones camera views. Mostly they were empty rooms, or views some boring exec's sat down smoking cigars and probably discussing some boring business topic. He flicked through some more views, his finger deftly swiping over the screen, he suddenly stopped. He went back to the previous drone's view. He could see the Ambasador. He was alone in a small room with the dark haired girl, he was shouting at her. She was clearly afraid but the drone didn't provide sound. He slapped her hard across the face. Drackarns anger started to rise. She just stood there and took it. The next slap knocked her from her feet. Drack started to desperately try and find a location on the drone. There was no clues to it's location. The girl was on the floor now, sat upright on the side of her leg crying. The Ambassador stood over her and used one hand to grab her by the hair. With the other he was trying to hitch up his robes. He was clearly exceedingly drunk and having great difficulty.

Suddenly an idea came to Drackarn. He disabled the level control of the drone and increased it's elevation to 1.8 meters. The drone silently rose in the air as the drunken Ambassador struggled with his robes. He aimed the drone at the Ambassadors head and powered the anti-gravity motor to max. The drone shot silently forward and collided with the back of the ambassadors head. Drackarn head a muffled bump as the drone impacted against the wall. He couldn't believe it, it was in the room next door to where he was stood. He opened the door and slid through.

Inside we saw the girl still sat on the floor crying and holding her cheek. The drone was in the corner, it's exposed electronics sparking. The Ambassador was face down on the floor, out cold.

"Are you OK?" Drackarn asked the girl.

She looked at him with big wet eyes. "Yes. But that drone went mad! Be careful!"

"No, I was mad, the drone just did what I told it." He waved the control pad at her and then and placed it in the unconscious Amarrian's hand.

"When he wakes up he'll hopefully think he was messing about with the drone and did this to himself. I cannot think he'll remember much being that drunk and getting such a bump on the head. When he's found, that's what the staff will assume too. Etiquette means nobody will talk about this, now come on."

Drackarn pulled the girl to her feet and led her to an adjoining room. He went to the droid there and retrieved two shots of Minmatar fire whisky.

"Drink this first, it'll help, and then you can tell me what in Divinities Edge was happening in there."

The girl drank. She looked sad.

"Although I am Amarrian, I have no more rights than one of the Ambassadors Minmatar slaves. My father was a large and powerful landowner in the Empire. He raised me, my mother had died several years before. He was caught with a slave in his bed by one of the church's clergy, a grave sin in its own right. He made the mistake of saying he loved her. If he had said he was just screwing her, he'd have got off. But he didn't deny it as they were in a relationship. He was sentenced to death, our house was disgraced and broken up. The Ambassador who was the nearest holder took most of our lands and property, and he also took me. Stripped of my house, I am now nothing more than a slave to him and the Empire. No rights, no voice, nothing. He could kill me on a whim if he wanted, and no one would care". She started sobbing.

"I can get you out of here. Get you somewhere safe...." Drackarn started.

"No. The Ambassador is a vindictive man. He will track me down. I thank you for what you have done here tonight and I hope I get to see you again when we return for our annual visit next year. My name is Catrina, and I am forever in your debt. With that the girl rose from her chair and gently kissed Drackarn on the lips before returning to the room with the Ambassador.

-o0o-

One year later....

"Sir, we are approaching the destination system. What are you orders?"

The Amarrian Ambassador stretched out on his lounger in his quarters. The two naked Minmatar females were expertly working his body with their tongues. He reached over to the comm panel and clicked the talk button whilst he used the other hand to guide the head of one of the girls.

"Circle this system for another 20 minutes... no, make it half an hour. Then jump in and dock up. Get the shuttle prepped to take me down to the surface when that is done"

"Yes sir!"

The Amarrian closed his eyes and sighed in pleasure. Whilst he enjoyed his Minmatar slaves, he really did want to take advantage of Catrina. A proper young Amarrian woman, not some sub-human Minmatar slave. However he could never chance anyone of his staff catching him. Slaves were one thing, his staff turned a blind eye, and unless their were any clergy around, he was safe. But a traitors daughter was another. This would be trip he'd finally have her. He was planning it a year ago on the last visit here but had too much to drink and had had an accident with a drone.

"This time..." he thought "... I'm going to slap her silly and make sure she knows her life, her soul and her body are mine to do with what I please."

-o0o-

The modified industrial neared the gate. Whilst it's inside had been stripped out and replaced with luxurious accommodation, the outside just looked like a normal Bestower. No one would bother such an old ship in hi-security space. The impressive ship-to-surface shuttle in the modified hanger was the only thing people receiving the Ambassador ever saw. It was a small sized shuttle craft based on the design of the Golden Magnet, just significantly smaller than the real capsuleer frigate. So whilst he traveled around in what looked like an old industrial, he always arrived planet-side in style.

On the bridge the command crew where preparing to activate the stargate.

"Sound the jump alarm" announced the captain.

The alarm signaled throughout the ship warning the crew to brace for the unpleasant experience of gate travel. A few seconds later the industrial disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing in it's destination solar system. The stargates cloaking field hid the vessel for a few seconds.

"Sir, we've got a green light on all systems" one of the Ensigns announced.

"Align to station and get the ship-to-surface shuttle prepped."

"Sir! We're being targeted by that Thrasher!"

"Don't worry ensign. No destroyer will engage in a criminal act on a gate in high security space. He's probably just a capsuleer, cargo scanning us to see if we've got any expensive cargo. He's probably got a gang on the out gate...."

The ship rocked and the power went out as a massive explosion jolted the ship. The captain picked himself off the floor as the emergency power kicked in.

"Status!"

"The Thrasher fired on us. CONCORD are on the scene, the Thrasher is destroyed. We've taken serious damage. Some sort of high-energy fusion ammunition and a precision hit to engineering. Reactor controls are failing. Sir.... the ship is too badly damaged to survive. It's lost."

"Acknowledged. Send an SOS to the Sisters. Get the ambassador and his staff to the shuttle and launch it. Sound the abandon ship alarm as soon as the Ambassador's shuttle is clear." The Captain knew delaying the evac would cost lives of his crew but he had to make sure the ambassador got clear."

-o0o-

The ornate shuttle slipped out from the fatally wounded industrial. The Ambassador was still screaming, he'd been screaming non-stop since the ship had been hit. How dare anyone attack him, especially as a guest of the Caldari State? He'd take this up with Tibus Heth himself and make someone pay for this outrage.

"When can we expect rescue?" one of the aides asked the pilots.

"A few hours. The Sisters of Eve will be here with rescue vessels, but they have prep them before launch and travel here. This ship-to-surface shuttle does not have a warp drive so nothing we can do but wait for them."

The ship jolted.

"What NOW!" the Ambassador barged his way to the cockpit of the shuttle and lent over the shoulders of the two pilots.

"Sir, that Raven class battleship is pulling us in with a tractor beam!"

"Why are CONCORD not stopping him?"

"He's a capsuleer sir. He's not committing a criminal act. They won't do anything"

"Put me on comms with those CONCORD ships now!"

"Yes sir..... Sir....... comms are down...... communications are jammed"

-o0o-

The Ambassador, his staff and the pilots peered out the tiny side viewports. The cargo bay of the Raven was mostly empty. By one small door stood an armed man, a large drone hovered beside him.

"What is that!"

"Sir, it's an active Ogre II. A heavy assault drone. It would rip us apart in one volley. Nobody would survive."

"What does he want?"

"We don't..... hang on sir. We're getting a message sir. Text only. It reads - Send out ALL Minmatar you have on board. We have biological scanners so we know who is in there. We also want ONE Amarrian to come out to negotiate the hand over"

The shuttle went silent.

-o0o-

The Ambassador had his nose pressed up against the viewport. He could see the line of his Minmatar slaves with Catrina at the far end of the line, stood in front of the capsuleer. That was a stroke of genius on his part. If the capsuleer took her hostage, so what! He'd say he needed to return to Amarr to negotiate the terms and arrange payments. He'd be safe and the capsuleer could do whatever he wanted to that traitors daughter.

The slaves were being injected one by one with something. A nurse was passing up the line giving them a shot in the upper arm. Probably that damn Vitoc antidote. He could see the capsuleer shouting at Catrina in a rage. The Ambassador chuckled. This plan might work out perfectly. The capsuleer threw his arms in the air in what looked like frustration and turned with his back to Catrina. Suddenly he span round, his blaster was in his hand. He shot her at point blank range, she fell to the floor and lay still. Everyone in the shuttle jumped back. There were gasps of horror and cries of "No!" from his staff. Several of his female aides started crying. The Ambassador was suddenly worried, his plan wasn't playing out. The capsuleer nudged her body with the tip of his foot, as if to check she was dead. She didn't move.

The capsuleer held a hand in the air and twirled it around. The sign for "lets wrap this up". The shuttle lurched and knocked the Ambassador to his feet.

"Whats happening!"

"We're being tractor beamed somewhere" one of the pilots shouted "We're heading for the jettison tube! Seal the outer doors NOW! They are going to flush us into space!"

The pilots scrambled to the shuttle controls and sealed the shuttle as it was jettisoned out into space. The shuttle span out of control as they brought the systems back on line. It stabilised just in time to see the Raven warp off.

The Ambassador slumped into a seat. He was relieved he was OK and no real harm done. A few slaves lost and a traitors daughter killed. A small price to pay for his own well being.

-o0o-

She was cold and lying on a metal floor. Her whole body ached and a sharp pain in her upper arm was making it throb. She felt a hand gently stroke her hair. She opened her eye's and saw Drackarn kneeling over her.

"Take it easy. We've just given you a shot to deal with the pain. You've been shot by a blaster set on stun. "

"Yes. As I recall it was you who shot me!"

Drackarn laughed. "Yes sorry about that. Was needed to keep up the pretence"

"What pretence?" Catrina sat up.

"What do you think the people in that shuttle think just happened here?"

Cat thought for a few seconds.

"Well with the Minmatar slaves and you shouting and being aggressive to me....." she suddenly smiled "They'll think your a Minmatar sympathizer"

Drack nodded "May be I am. Go on"

"They'll think you attacked them to free the slaves. They'll think you believed I was the Amarrian in charge of them and you shot me. They'll think I'm dead!"

Drackarn smiled. "But you're not dead.... you are free."

"But what if one of them recognised you."

Drackarn shook his head. "He never really looked at me a year ago. I was nothing back then, not worthy of his attention. Plus he met me in my former life, I'm now a Capsuleer. Even if I looked familiar he'd never make a connection between a factory worker and a capsuleer. Now come on, lets get you some quarters."

With that Drackarn helped her to her feet and supported her around the shoulders as they walked back to the door.

-o0o-

Sirah laughed. "Fantastic! Did they fall for it?"

"Totally. It was all over the news networks. Minmatar sympathisers attack Amarrian delegate in Caldari space. One of the Amarrian delegation dead, no actually.... 'executed' I think was the word they used. Numerous slaves freed. Raven hunted but not found. Even Heth mentioned it on a State broadcast about working with our allies and not against them. Cat stayed with me for a few weeks. Whist they assumed she was dead, there was no point taking risks. When the heat had died down I made some arrangements and packed her off to Capsuleer training with a new identify. The only thing she has kept of her old life is the first three letters of her name. And now, here we are! All capsuleers together."

Cat smiled and stood up and took Drackarn's hand, pulling him out of his seat.

"If you ladies and gentlemen will excuse us, Drack and I have some catching up to do."

Drack looked back to the table as he was led out of the bar.

"Tak, will you tell Tekitha I might be late for her fleet" he smirked as he left.

The barman came over with another round of drinks.

"Who was that with Drack?" he asked.

"An old 'friend' apparently" said Devotion

"Exactly how friendly and how long is she staying?"

The Shadow's all looked at the barman suspiciously.

"What's it to you?" asked Un'cas

"Are you kidding? The amount Drack spends in here on drink and girls. If he's got a serious squeeze I'm in trouble of the financial kind!"

The table erupted in laughter again, but the barman was far from happy. He placed the drinks down heavily on the table and went back to the bar with a face like thunder.

"Actually, he's got a point. Drackarn... in a serious relationship?"

"Steady on. We don't know they are an item. She might just be a friend and he'd asked her to do that entry for our benifit."

"True! Drack as a one woman man? I think there is more chance of Tibus Heth marrying President Roden."

The table errupted in laughter again which was cut short as a series of beeps sounded around the table. Each member of the corporation got a message on their datapad. Simultaneously they retrieved their pads from pockets and opened the message which appeared to be a single image.

The word "Bastard!" resounded around the table in unison.

-o0o-

CCP Diagoras is Depressing Me!

2012-02-02T04:20:00.000-08:00

Who is CCP Diagoras? He is the resident CCP "stato" on Twitter.

If you like Eve Online related statistics and interesting facts then follow him at @CCP_Diagoras. If you haven't got a Twitter account you should make one! Come and join the #tweetfleet. There is an Eve Wiki page detailing all about the Tweetfleet here.

On the Tweetfleet we have approximately 94.84% less trolling and flaming than other Eve Online related social media sites and forums. We are generally a much nicer bunch of people, have some great Eve related banter and conversations and best of all, there are some proper killer legs on there too ;)

Contrary to popular belief, @SindelPellion did not model for this "artwork".

Anyway, if killer legs aren't your thing, but Eve factoids/statistics float your boat, then CCP Diagoras is your man. He gives us amazing insights into the world of Eve Online such as the following taken from three random screenshots of his tweets....

Anyway, why is he depressing me? Two reasons.

Firstly I asked him for stats of ship kills by hull types. He duly supplied them and I went to work calculating a rough figure of how many crew die in a year on-board our ships. There is a reason for wanting to know this morbid figure. I'm writing a news article for Tech4News and needed it. However, the figure I got of 1.4 BILLION makes the story unbelievable. Damn. He ruined my story and made me feel guilty about the number of people dying on my ships.

Secondly, he depressed me by giving these two factiods today:-

What!?!?

Seriously????

Out of the 23,000+ characters in faction war, only 1,401 were actively PvP'ing in January 2012? No wonder I'm struggling to find fights.

That seriously points to a major problem with faction war that needs resolving.

CCP are working on "war" now for the spring expansion. I just hope I get some good news at Fanfest next month.

If you are already a #tweetfleet'er or this blog entry turns you into one and you are also going to Fanfest:-

Get your order for a Tweetfleet T-Shirt for the Tweetfleet meet (the Wednesday night in Iceland before Fanfest kicks off) at @mandrill, his blog is here.

Smeg! It's only seven weeks to the start of Fanfest!

P.S. ofc the blog title is tongue in cheek!

s170

Shopping, Soloing, Blobbing and Being Blobbed

2012-01-31T06:15:00.000-08:00

We in SoTF have have an awesome corp shop. Living in low-sec and with me having a long-standing "misunderstanding" with CONCORD, a corp shop is a godsend.

Our shop is like any other web-based retail. You create an account and you can browse every item in game by category or quick search. Type in "Republic Fleet EMP" into the box and it'll come up with all the different sizes. Click which you want and type in the quantity. Once a week it's all delivered to the corp low-sec home-station and individual contracts set up to each purchaser. Jita price + 15% tax for the guys trouble, fuel and risk. Hell that's cheaper than most Valued Added Taxes in real life!

By far the best bit of the shop is the ship import tool. Create your ship in EFT and you can import it into the shop and save the fitting. So now if I need an autocannon Hurricane or a fully fitted Falcon, I simply click the saved ship on my favorites and select how many hulls and sets of fittings I want.

Anyway yesterday I had a big order arrive. Part of that order was an active tank Hawk.... now with added mid-slots... so I fitted it up and went for a roam. After nothing in Black Rise I headed up to Tama. There in the top belt was another Hawk piloted by Quake590, a pirate. I didn't want to fight at zero, in top belt Tama you will get someone land on your 1v1. So I bounced a few pounces around the edge of the asteroid field as the other Hawk did as well. Finally we both landed 90km away from each other and decided that was close enough. He burnt for me as I burnt for him. We clashed at point blank range. His buffer tank vs my active tank. He was too good for me and even with a blue pill (supplied by Uppers n Downers [UPPE]) he was able to take me down. We had a quick chat in local after (nice guy, which can be most unusual in Tama) and I podded home with an idea for a small change to my fit. Mmmm an Autocannon on a Hawk....

Later that night we went back to Tama as a small fleet. About 8 of us headed out. I brought the most hated ship in-game (a Falcon) and someone else brought a Loki for some extreme webbing.

We set up our bait (a tanked BC) in top belt and waited. Suddenly Tama got very Russian. A large blob of Assault Frigates arrived to spoil our fun. Our bait got safe and docked up whilst the Russians bounced around before buggering off.

Our bait undocked and a pirate Proteus starting locking him up outside station. He warp to top belt at 0. As we assumed, the Proteus followed and engaged. I hit warp to range on our bait and immediately decloaked so that when I landed my targeting systems would be online. Poor Proteus didn't know what hit him. As he was hammering our bait he get's perma-jammed and then half a dozen more ships land and he's webbed/scrammed. Takes us a while to break him, and I feel a bit sorry for him. Yes, he's going to die even if I wasn't there, but it's frustrating not to be even able to fire back.

He pops and gives a gf (with a "bit blobby" caveat) in local and you really cannot blame the poor guy. http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_detail/596405/

A few minutes later a couple of completely different Russians arrive. They park at zero on the top belt in Drake and an Onyx. Now this immediately gets us very suspicious. The key words there are "couple" and "Russians" in the same sentence.

Now I know I really shouldn't stereotype a nation, but it's hard not in real life, it's even harder in Eve Online. I am sure there are Russians out there who solo and small gang all the time. But in our area, the experience we have is where there is a Russian, there is a huge blob! We check the neighboring systems. No more Russians. We cannot believe there would be just two Russian, heavily tanked-low DPS ships sat in top belt Tama without a blob somewhere. But they are not anywhere obvious. Which can only mean one thing. It's close to hotdrop o'clock!

We chat about it on comms. It's a trap, we know that. But by knowing that could we get lucky? We decide to go for it and may be we can pop the HIC and get out before the blob catches us?

Our bait warps top belt and the two pirates engage. I do my decloak-and-warp and jam them both up. Rest of our gang arrives and primaries the HIC whilst we all try and guess when they will light a cyno. They didn't light 'a' cyno, they lit two, one each.

Luckily this was both expected and prepared for and we GTFO double time as about 20 ships with logi got dropped on our heads. They snagged our BC bait, but the rest of us got out safely.

Well that's another alliance with a Titan then. Those things are getting more common then Drakes!

Kill The Flashy Chat Button NOW!

2012-01-29T09:11:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of issues with the new Neocom. Have you?

Did you go on the test server, identify these annoyances and feed them back to CCP before the patch? Well then, tbh you cannot moan that much then, just like me.

But you can do something about the number one annoyance... the blinking chat icon of DOOM! Whilst many other icons can be removed, the blinking chat icon of DOOM is a hardy little fellow and won't die as easily as the others. But there is a way. Here is a quick guide on how to remove the BCIoD from your Neocom.

Firstly add a few more buttons to your Neocom. I added contracts and corporation as I use these regularly.

Then drag the blinking chat icon of DOOM to the bottom.

Next enlargen the side bar by dragging the edge out towards your ship. This makes the icons bigger and soon enough the flashing chat icon of DOOM drops off the bottom. If it doesn't drop off the bottom, add a few more buttons.

It, and any others that dropped off the bottom) are replaced by a small menu icon. Click that icon and it's still there, hanging on by it's finger tips.

Now right click it and select remove.

It's dead. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. If you need to find it, it's located in the menu at the top of the Neocom.

Now where is the fracking Militia button gone? I want to depress myself with stats on how badly our enemies are failing and not fighting whilst in space.

Incarna - Establishments Part 2

2012-01-27T23:29:00.000-08:00

This last week had been a nightmare in real life. Work, stress and other problems have seriously impacted my Eve time. I'm hoping to get back to normal next week. Below is a blog post I wrote a while ago and has been sitting as a draft waiting for a time when real life impacts heavily on Eve. Just like this week....

I've mentioned before that whilst I'm a PvP oriented militia pilot and occasional pirate, I would like to see Incarna deployed properly.

Yes, yes! I know that Incarna and walking in stations (WiS) are a dirty words currently. In fact I'm going to see if the phrase "walking in stations" shouted in a Skyrim style works as a Thu'um against CCP staff at fanfest!

But lets forget the original Incarna expansion and the problems that were caused. If we could work towards the future vision of Eve it would be cool....

I've referred to the Incarna I'd like to see before, the piece below is a bit of fiction from my characters perspective if Incarna was deployed properly....

-o-

"Docking Request Accepted"

Drackarn's camera drones went blank as his Hurricane class battlecruiser was towed into the station. During docking the camera drones used by capsuleers to "see" retracted into the ship to avoid damage by the stations towing tractor beams. Suddenly there was light again as the camera drones redeployed inside the docking bay. He could see his 'cane hovering in the station hanger. With a simple thought, the camera drones span around his ship at speed, blurring the ship in a manic spin. "Ship spinning" was something many capsuleers did whilst docked in station although the reason for this odd behaviour had never been truly explained. It wasn't truly ship spinning, it was willing the camera drones to orbit the ship at high-speed. This gave the capsuleer, floating in his hydrostatic pod and thus detached from his own physical senses, the image that the ship was indeed spinning at high speed. Some argued it was the sensory overload that was somehow enjoyable, some said it was the rush of perceived speed whilst still in the hydrostatic pod that was pleasurable. Others just thought it was because capsuleers were THAT bored when in a ship and sat docked in station having anything to shoot.

He accessed the station services and paid for some minor repairs to the ship that were caused by him overloading his modules earlier that afternoon. He also refitted the ship ready for the fleet-op scheduled for later. His current fit was for solo roaming, he need a slightly different fit that would be more useful in a fleet situation. He could have done this from his captains quarters but he found it easier and quicker whilst still in his pod and ship. When he had finished, he checked the time. Well over an hour until the fleet was due to assemble, there was time for some R&R so he activated the controls for his pod to transfer over to his captains quarters. His pod detached from the belly of the battlecruiser and gently slid over to a docking station. He braced himself for the flood of sensations as he was slowly disconnected from the pod and his own physical senses came back to life. He blinked his eyes and wiped the pod goo from his face. He hated this bit, it was so undignified! After showering and changing he headed out.

The lifts this high in the station only had 12 levels on them, even though the station had hundreds of decks. The top 6 were inaccessible to Drackarn without a special keycard. They belonged to the mega-corp that owned the station. Those levels were opulent luxury where the mega-corp top exec's worked, lived and enjoyed themselves. The next two were the offices for the capsuleer agents. Drackarn didn't know why they bothered with such large offices as all his dealings with these agents were always over a secure comm line, never face-to-face. The three floors below those were the capsuleers. Living quarters, corporation offices, access to the storage and ship hangers and also the bar, which is where he was heading. The final floor that was accessible from this lift, deck 12, was the security station. It was effectively a barrier between the elite of society and everybody else. To be able to pass from the lower levels of the station you needed to pass through this deck. The lifts were physically separated to ensure nobody could hack them. The main station elevator shafts that covered hundreds of decks terminated at deck 12. Those wanting to reach decks 1 to 11 needed to exit the lift and physically walk cross the security deck. You also needed high-level authorisation which was always triple-checked at a series of gates manned by armed security guards with DNA scanners. An advanced screening system checked all those passing through for guns, knives, explosives, bio-agents and anything that could be used as a weapon. Whilst capsuleers and mega-corp execs and their staff could pass relatively freely, it was almost impossible for anyone else.

The capsuleer bar was fairly full of his fellow corp mates as was always the case before an op. A few other rival corp members huddled together in small groups. If they had met outside the station it would have been a matter of seconds before missiles would be streaking across space and laser fire lit up their hulls. However in the stations capsuleer decks there was strict weapons monitoring. Plus they all knew the risks. Out in-space and hooked up to their hydrostatic pods, death was a minor inconvenience for a capsuleer. Here, with not being plugged into equipment that could take a snapshot of your brain and beam it across space into another clone, death was a bit more permanent.

He noticed Wivers and Xenos Giger from the corporation Uppers n Downers sat in the corner. They had a customer already with them so he grabbed a drink and lent against the bar. After 5 minutes the other guy left and Drackarn took his place opposite Wivers and Xenos.

"Ah Drackarn. Good to see you. The usual?" Wivers asked.
"Aye" replied Drackarn. "12"
"12? Been having fun have we?" Xenos commented.
"Hawk class Assault Frigates mate, been flying them a bit more often lately. Oh and the Cyclone class battlecruiser. And those little blue items of yours do aid the tank rather. I still blame Smo for getting me on these!".
Although Drackarn was talking to them, his attention appeared to be on the scantily-clad Minmatar and Gallente dancers working the poles to the left and right of where they were sitting. Whilst to the casual observer he was simply admiring the female form, what he actually was doing was checking if anyone was taking an unhealthy interest in their transaction.
"Maybe we should be giving Smo some commission then" Wivers quipped "Standard or Imp?"
"Imp" replied Drack still seemingly enthralled by the dancers. He had noted a few suspect characters, but nobody appeared to be watching him.
Wivers passed a small datapad over and Drackarn entered the details for the transfer of the ISK. Xenos slid over a small discreet packet.
"Enjoy, and remember to recommend us to anyone you kill won't you" Xenos smirked.

As Drackarn got up there was a cheer from the other end of the bar. He glanced over and saw S810 jr at one of the card tables, a throng of people behind him, clearly supporting the winner as always happens when gambling in these bars. Drackarn felt a bit sorry for his opponent who was hunched over and looking rather down and alone. S810 jr was a shark when it came to card games and that poor sap sat opposite would probably be belt ratting in the morning to try and get some ISK back in order to feed himself!

Back at the bar Drackarn noticed Eelis and Lexx sat on a small table near the big holoprojector. They both appeared to be watching something. Drackarn didn't need to look at the screen to know, at this time of day and to have them two so enthralled it had to be the news reports on the "capsuleer cold war" in the Black Rise region. Drackarn chuckled. "Cold war", it was such a stupid term. Whilst it wasn't officially a proper official war with the Gallente and Caldari Navies clashing in epic battles, it was still a war. The Governments of both sides simply rewarded capsuleers for attacking the other side and then just put their hands up to say "Wasn't us, we don't control these capsuleers". The news finished and the credits rolled for a movie. Drack had heard about this new comedy produced by one of the main Gallente holoreel producers, "Where the Frack is my Ship?". Apparently it was about two young booster-heads who had no memory of the night before and were trying to find their misplaced ship with hilarious results. Drack smiled and patted the pocket which held the 12 blue pills he'd just bought.

He finished his drink and left the bar, heading down to the Corporation office on the level below. The name Shadows of the Federation and the corp logo was etched into the frosted glass of the door. Drackarn entered and passed through the reception area into the corp members only section. He found Gallactica accessing one of the stations data consoles.

"What in Black Rise is THAT supposed to be?"
"Oh hi Drack. Just looking at some new furniture for my quarters on the NeX. You like it?"
"I dunno, what's it supposed to be? It looks like a sofa that's been repeatably bumped by a triple-plated Hyperion!"
"It's a Gallente Love-Seat. You see the girl sits there and....."
Drackarn silenced him with a wave of the hand. "Seriously man, I don't need any image of you and some ugly tart, bumping uglies on the universes most ugly sofa! That image is just..... ugly!"
Gallactica just laughed and went back to surfing for furniture.

Drackarn went to the back of the office where windows looked down into the stations central core. The massive open shaft ran the entire length of the station and was over 200m wide. He could look up and see the plexi-steel dome and out into space 12 decks above. A Manticore class stealth-bomber slipped past and into warp as he watched the sun fade from view behind the planet. He could see the edges of the parks on the highest deck levels. Green, wooded areas with plants which of course was a rather expensive luxury on a space station. Artificial weather controls made them rock steadily back and forth in the man-made breeze.

Further down the core things became less luxurious. If he looked down far enough he could just make out the lower levels. Unlike the triple-filtered purified air he was breathing, down at the bottom they'd be lucky to have 21% oxygen. Like any station in the galaxy, the higher up you were in life, the higher up in terms of deck levels which you lived on and did your business. The capsuleers generally were at the upper levels of society. Therefore all capsuleer decks on stations tended to be within the highest 12 levels. The top decks and penthouses where always used by the mega-corp elite, but capsuleers were just below them. In terms of power, and personal wealth there was very little in it. However, all the way down there, all those "norms" slaving away in the bowels of the station.... they would never get to see this high up. Would never breathe such clean air. Would never experience the excesses and luxury that vast quantities of ISK provided.

Drackarn had been down there before. Sometimes it was necessary in order to get a particular item... or to meet a certain contact, one who would never be able to enter the more secure and controlled environment of the capsuleer decks. Some of the more lucrative missions were not handed out by the regular corporation agents, there were some missions that had to be kept "off the books" and couldn't be given through official channels. It was on one of those visits that Drackarn had killed up close and personal for the first time. As a capsuleer he had killed hundreds of thousands of people in his career, may be even millions. A normal battleship, even one with a capsuleer commanding, still needed a substantial crew of thousands. However destroying a battleship in the vast emptiness of space is one thing. It's different when they are 3 feet away and you can see the life drain from their eyes and be able to smell the burnt flesh following a shot from a hand-blaster. He instinctively rubbed his left shoulder. It was strange. Although he'd taken a hit himself in that firefight, the physical body that had suffered the injury had long since been lost. He'd been podded a few times since that day yet whenever he thought about it, his shoulder would ache. The thing was that this current cloned body had never been physically shot. He smiled as he remembered his short stay in the medical bay whilst he was patched up after that fight. "Those nurses love us capsuleers! I will have to swing by Nisuwa soon and see if she's still there.... and her friend" he though.

He heard movement behind him which disturbed his train of thought. Gallactica had stood up and was heading to the door with his jacket swung over his shoulder.

"Coming to blow some shit up?" he asked. "It's time to fleet-up".

Drackarn looked down the station core one last time and turned to follow Gallactica.

-o-

*I told you Eelis, I won't stop until you put down that dirty Warhammer (or now lightsaber is it now?) and come back to New Eden.

You Win Some....

2012-01-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

.... you lose some, and sometimes you have a "Paul Christoforo" of a day (see bottom if you don't know who he is).

Sunday was a bad day both in and out of Eve Online for me. First of all it's the first working day of the week (Middle East) and I had to drive to the capital. So it was up at 5:30am, leave the house for 6am, two hours driving with mad drivers, 10 hours in the office and then another 2 hours of Death Race 2012 to get back home for around 8pm. Think of that drive as taking a Hulk to Tama or Amamake and then warping to each belt in turn.

A corp mail on Saturday had advertised a fleet starting at 7pm my time on Sunday. I thought I'd miss it, which was a shame as Super kills were mentioned (that's super capital kills, not just really super kills!). May be there was a chance I could jump into a stealth bomber and catch up?

In the end I logged on and the fleet was still forming! Result! Problem was wifey was cooking dinner. A "Puss in Boots" look to the wife got me my chilli con carne served at the computer desk. Double result!

May be something could be salvaged from today with a good fight! I jumped in my Abaddon with the 1400's (I don't do lasers, I like my guns manly) and thought I'd fallen lucky!

Anyway, we knew that some Russians had reinforced a large POS not far from us and used a rather nice fleet to do so in the first place. Therefore we thought that they'll be back to finish it off with a similar fleet.... and we'd pay them a visit.

99% of the time we do these things perfectly. Sometimes, they go "Paul". This one went "Paul". I'm not going into all the details, I don't want to reveal all our tactics now do I? However, it went something like...

The warp in got mixed up. I landed at the correct spot and quickly picked a Phoenix to point (someone had already called a Moros). Then I found myself being primaried by the enemy BS fleet. I broadcast for reps. Then I realized the logi's weren't there. In fact of the 30 or so of the fleet, I was one of a handful sat on top of the enemy dreadnaughts and their rather large support fleet of BS and BC's. The warps had gone very wrong. My part in the battle was as follows.

Yay I'm here.
Right! "Point on the Phoenix!"
Guys I'm being yellow boxed by their support fleet
/broadcast for reps
Er guys where is everyone? GUYS? GUYS????? OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU..................
/die

Anyway by the time the logi's, other BS and our cyno ships landed, my Abbaddon with the BIG GUNS was space trash and I was sat in my pod at a random planet. I went to burn back the six jumps to reship and listened to what was happening.

Our fleet finally got sorted and our newly jumped in triage carriers were struggling to keep up when more cyno's were lit. A second hostile fleet of Tengu's and Basilisks were dropped on us along with a Aeon supercarrier. Suddenly a trap had been sprung on our trap. The system had become decidedly Russian!

Now we were in trouble. Fighter-bombers were deployed and the enemy had superior numbers (100ish verses our less than 30) and better composition (BS like us but also T3's and plenty of logi and ECM).

I was nearly back in a new ship when the order to bail was given. I stopped on the last gate and pulled a U-turn. The cries of my fleet mates asking "Can anyone jam X, he has me pointed" ringing in my ears.

Oh well, at least it is a 135m ISK insurance payout for a platinum insured Abaddon currently!

Plus it could be worse. I could have done like Seismic Stan did the same night and thought I was sending a lovely text to my wife whilst I'm working away... only to use Twitter and give the whole of #tweetfleet a "wtf?" moment. By the way @freebooted, you know the Twitter app for Android saves Tweets, even the deleted ones? Look I'm reading it right now. Don't believe me?

Seismic Stan @Freebooted Nite baby, are you...... as if I would Stan ;)

Sometimes Eve Online lifts your spirits to the heavens. Other times its a case of...

Paul Christoforo - In case you were living under a virtual rock at the end of last year... Paul was CEO, owner and sole employee of Ocean Marketing. A company hired to market and deal with the orders of an after-market console controller add-on. The Avenger Controller was initially invented to help disabled people use the controllers of PS3's and XBox's. Anyway a guy who had ordered one emailed to find out what had happened to his order. The email chain got more and more laughable as the customer service got more and more "Faulty Towers". Mr Christiano played the "Big I am" and listed all the trade-shows and expo's he attended (after threatening to sell this guys order on eBay!). He mentioned PAX in his list as well as knowing the Mayor of Boston (WTF?). As the customer was a fan of Penny Arcade, he forwarded the email chain to them. Gabe replied back saying Ocean Marketing would not be getting a stand at any PAX after this dreadful customer service. Paul then, like the internet super genius he is, decide to attack Penny Arcade in his emails. Not only did he insult one of the most popular sites of its kind, he also threatened to run a smear campaign against them. Penny Arcade posted the email chain on their site for all to see. Then Paul found out what happens when you upset a few hundred thousand geeks...

http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114975-Ocean-Marketings-Founder-Claims-Hes-Sorry
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114993-UPDATE-Ocean-Marketings-Former-Client-Disowns-Shady-PR-Firm
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114994-UPDATE-Ocean-Marketing-Attempts-To-Extort-Former-Client

Iceland Bound and Back to NBMIITF

2012-01-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

Well that's all my flights booked to Iceland for Fanfest.

Just done the tickets for Fanfest itself. Had a bit of trouble on deciding on the other trips. The Pub Crawl with a Dev was a must, but still couldn't decide on the others. Don't worry, those going won't have to suffer my hairy man-boobs at the Sunday Blue Lagoon do, I'm heading back on Sunday. So instead went for the VIP dinner with the CEO and Devs. Appears to be for a good cause.

The wife still cannot understand why I'd spend so much money to spend a long weekend with, and I quote, "a horde of geeks" when the same cash would have bought us both a weeks all-inclusive holiday in the Maldives.

When not in New Eden I prefer scuba diving and underwater photography in the Maldives or Red Sea

Anyway, I've pacified her with some new shoes and the fact that she's joining me on the majority of the flights so she can spend a week with her parents back in the UK. She'll be travelling back to the southwest of England whilst I'm stuck in Heathrow airport for six hours awaiting the Iceland Air flight. Anyone else on the 12:10pm flight on 21st March from Heathrow? I'll buy you a pint or 12 to pass the time! I'll even try and find a guards bearskin hat so I look sort of like my Twitter pic so people can easily find me:-

This will be my first Fanfest so don't really know what to expect. Should be interesting!

I got another bit of good news last week. I sent a Tweet out asking whether the bug with faction war, faction standings and remote assistance to GCC/pirate militia mates has been fixed. Apparently it's in testing and might make Crucible 1.1 next week. WOOT! Seriously, what other game can you Tweet and you get and answer back from the Devs within hours.

For those of you who don't know about it, there is a bug in faction war relating to naughty criminals. If you use any form of remote assistance when in faction war on someone who is GCC or -5.0 security status or worse, you take a faction standings hit. Basically your Empire punishes you for assisting a militia mate who's fighting for that empire???

In blob warfare this wouldn't be an issue as logistics are rarely used. But faction war is not blob warfare, and logistics can easily turn a battle in small to medium gang warfare which is faction war.

This bug was the reason we as a corp had to rat up from -10 when we rejoined faction war last year after trying the low-sec pirate thing. I'm currently -2.99 and getting utterly fed up as there are limited squids (Caldari militia) or pirates to shoot in our area currently.

So the decision has been made. We are placing our trust in CCP that the bug will be fixed and deployed next week. Therefore we have a new corp policy.....

Last time the decision was made I was not keen on going pirate. This post here explains my reasoning's (TL;DR - I like playing the good guys in computer games). However now having previously been a -10 filthy pirate and loved it, I have no issues this time around. The fact you have so many more targets, the fact more skill and judgement is needed due to the game mechanics (gate guns, GCC) and the fact that so many people Leeroy into un-winnable fights with you simply because you are a pirate - "I'm going to solo that pirate in a destroyer in my frigate because I have the side of good with me! Therefore I cannot lose!" /pop

So it's time to hoist the Jolly Roger and return to NBMIITF* with extreme prejudice.

Why am I so happy with this? Well if you skip back through this blog you'll notice that battle reports have been getting fewer. The Caldari Militia are no longer the force they were. So going pirate, along with the forthcoming alliances in faction war, hopefully epic space battles will re-commence!

*Not Blue, Murder It In The Face

Blog Banter 32 : Eve Online is Harsh - Live With It

2012-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

Blog Banter 32: Non-Consensual Combat Restrictions

"A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons' Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an "opt out of PvP" option.

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?"

In the last few months, with the Goons ganking hi-sec miners to control the price of Oxygen Isotopes, there has been some players calling for an "opt out of PvP" option in Eve Online.

Also this week there has been a long full-bodied whine thread on the forums where a hi-sec carebear sold his fitted and rigged Domi for 95,000 ISK instead of the 95,000,000 he wanted. It was the old "buyer opens trade window with 95,000,000, seller see's it and whilst he's still finding the ship to drag and drop the buyer changes it to 95,000 and the seller doesn't notice" trick. Calls were being made for scammers like this to be banned.

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure you "get" Eve Online. Maybe World of Warcraft might be better for you? Better still, how about Hello Kitty Online?

Before I get comments like "I've been playing Eve since 1943 and I "get" Eve but I don't want PvP/to get scammed..... rar rar rar rar" let me explain.

Eve is a harsh, dark game-world. It was designed that way. It's been developed that way. We love it that way. The only place you are truly safe in Eve is inside a station.... for now. It's the Wild West of space, you are not suppose to be safe anywhere. Read the back story, read the chronicles, read the scientific articles, read the novels. They all point to Eve being a cross between the outer worlds of Star Wars (retched hives of scum and villainy) and Firefly/Serenity. The gleaming, polished, happy, helpful and smiley United Federation of Planets it is not!

Technically there is already an "opt-out of PvP" box, it's called the log in screen!

Of course in hi-sec you are afford some "protection" by CONCORD. However, you need to remember CONCORD is the space police, and like our own police on Earth at this time, they cannot prevent every crime from taking place. They are there to punish offenders, not always to prevent the crime from taking place (other than through the threat of punishment).

Mugger - Give me your wallet or I'll stab you!
Businessman - You cannot mug me, I'm in the city near the Police station. This area is high security.
Mugger - Eh? What are you talking about?
Businessman - I'm a manager not a criminal. Therefore as a "real-life carebear" and not a PvP'r (person vs person) I've "opted out" of being a victim of crime.
Mugger - /stab
Businessman - I'm petitioning you for that!
Mugger - /stab /stab
Businessman - Oooo you are so going to get banned /dies

Now don't get me wrong, Eve Online needs carebears. Without them the game would collapse. We need miners and missioners repossessing loot to provide minerals. We need people building ships, modules and ammo. We need people undertaking research and creating T2 items. But that doesn't mean you can destory the "realism" of the game. Yes, realism is subjective in a space simulation set 20,000 years in the future where we travel around in spaceships faster than the speed of light using our brain implants. But how would you work "invulnerable carebears" into the story-line? Also if carebears never died there would be a no call for mining barges, exhumer's and battleships and ammo used in level 4 missions. Carebears also supply carebears you know!

Scamming:-

Scamming is easy to avoid. JUST USE YOUR BRAIN AND THINK!

98.25% of sales posted in local chat are scams.
98.5% of people convo'ing you to offer you a great deal are scams.
98.75% of received Eve Mails telling of mega offers are scams.
99% of "get rich schemes" like TitanRuzFTW are scams.

The reality is that the market hubs are so active if you wanted to sell an item at a really, really, really great price then you could just stick it on the market and it would be gone in minutes. Some guy selling minerals for an uber amazing price? Check the instant buy orders on the market, why doesn't he just sell to them and make more cash. It's all about common sense! Unfortunately greed often overrides common sense.

Never, ever, ever, use the direct trade window. Always use contracts. And read things carefully. If you rush things to take advantage of this amazing deal you will miss the fact that it isn't an amazing deal and you're being scammed! If an offer sounds too good to be true.... THEN IT IS A SCAM!

I got burnt once as a noob and bought a shuttle for 8,888,888 ISK. But I didn't call for the guy to be banned, I called him something else in my head and moved on. It was my own fault as I didn't look properly.

Suicide Ganking:-

Now, onto suicide ganking. There are things you can do to reduce your chance of being suicide ganked. First off, don't try to mine ice in Gallente space when the Goons have publicly announced that they are suicide ganking every ice miner they see in Gallente space!

Secondly, run-of-the-mill suicide ganking is usually about economics, if you're not worth the gank, then you'll probably not get ganked.

Lets take the example of an 73bn ISK Officer-fit Nightmare for level 4 missioning. First off..... WHY????? Yes I'm sure your 73bn pointy ship rips through hi-sec level 4's like a hot knife through butter. But, how many level 4's do you need to do to repay the original 73bn outlay to buy the ship? The guy in a T2 fit Navy Issue BS or Marauder has spent 72bn less than you and does the same missions fairly fast. Just calculate how long it would take you to catch up and overtake his earnings when you start 72bn down.

But most importantly, his 1bn ship and fit is probably not a lot of interest to suicide gankers, especailly if he's mostly T2 fit with only a few faction mods. However that Nightmare you are in is what suicide gankers dream of. A few, lets say 5, T1 PvP heavy alpha fit BS will take it down (after all it's fit for PvE isn't it). Of course they'll lose their own cheap BS to CONCORD, but the alt in the industrial will be fine as he scoops up all your expensive mods as you look on from your pod and cry. Even if only 21bn ISK of mods drop from that dead Nightmare, it's still 21bn ISK for an outlay of probably under 1bn! 20 billion ISK profit makes it VERY worthwhile in this case. Apparently the new T3's are great for suicide ganking and with Tornado's giving a 13,000+ alpha they make ideal suicide ganking ships!

You thinking the above is bollocks? Read it and ~~weep~~ laugh your ass off - http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=8975336

For the next example of avoiding suicide ganking we have the NPC Militia high-sec missioner. However with this example there is no suicide involved. Unlike faction war missioners that are in the militia and brave low-sec, these stay in high-sec in expensive fit battleships and cry "I'm quitting and going back to WoW" (yes one actually said that!) when you blow them up. Now these guys I have ZERO sympathy for. They have joined the NPC militia corp as it has 0% tax. Now for someone who is grinding high-sec level 4's that sounds ideal. Zero tax and still in an NPC corp so you cannot be war dec'd by high-sec griefers. Profit, profit, profit!

There is a reason the tax is set at 0%, it's because you have a permanent war dec ongoing with the militia of two opposing Empires. So when the likes of Loren Gallen*, aka Chuck Norris aka "The Militia Tax Man", collects your faction and officer loot from your wreck don't start crying. Yes the Navy Police are there but they can be effectively tanked with the right setup. They are not going to protect you if the other person knows what they are doing. To avoid being ganked like this you should..... actually I'm not going to tell you. If you are doing this then you deserve to be blown up. If you join the militia then fight, don't carebear!

Summary:-

Eve Online could be called a futuristic space simulation. There is nowhere totally safe in Eve Online just as there is no where totally safe on Earth. So when carebearing in hi-sec please remember, it is "high security space", it is NOT "safe space".

There is enough protection in high-sec already IF you engage brain first!

*Regular readers may wonder why I mention my corp mate Loren Gallen so often in blogs. Easy to answer, a great deal of people search the internet for him. Probably something like "who the hell is loren gallen and how did he kill me in hi-sec" before they Google "world of warcraft account reactivation". Anyway, he brings me traffic!

Other Banters on this round:-

Blog Banter 32 by Corelin @ Haberdashers Run Amok
EVE Online is Harsh - Live With It by Drackarn @ Sand, Cider and Spaceships
Blog Banter 32 by Cle Demaari @ A Citizen in EVE
Safe? by blastradius1 @ Blastrad Tales
Consensual PvP? by Ned "CCP Manifest" Coker @ A Gaming Manifest
Blog Banter 32 by evehermit @ Evehermit's Blog
EVE is all about risk by TG3 @ Through Newb Eyes
Blog Banter 32 by Harrigan Vonstudly @ Gun Turret Diplomacy
Blog Banter 32 by Lukas Rox @ Torchwood Archives
Blog Banter something or other and an update by TetraEtc @ Tetra's EVE Blog
Life's not consensual by Logan Fyreite @ Eve Opportunist
Without PvP, EVE will be nothing by Keyanu @ Muppetninjas
Blog Banter 32 by A Scientist's Life in EVE
Say Yes To Reasonable Protection by Kirith Kodachi @ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
Your Ship is Out of Control by Rixx Javix @ EVEOGANDA
Blog Banter 32 by Kaeda Maxwell
What Makes EvE Real? by Kuan Yida @ Random Posts From Auga
See No Evil by Azual Skoll @ The Altruist
The Sandbox Argument by Seismic Stan @ Freebooted
Blog Banter 32 by Marc Scaurus @ Malefactor
Non-Consensual Combat Restrictions - Pass by Mabrick @ Mabrick's Mumblings
A Load of Crap by GamerChick42
For the Children by Sered @ Sered's Lives
Against Your Will by Truen1ght @ ...Shall we not Revenge
BB: Option 3 by Mike Azariah @ A Missioneer in EVE
Who Are You.. Really? by Orakkus @ 2nd Anomaly From the Left
Get Your Tears Out of My Beer by Kat Robspierre @ Chasing ISK
I heart carebears by Shalee Lianne @ Living a Lie

Hazard Pay (Fan Fiction)

2012-01-14T03:16:00.000-08:00

I killed 70 crew members the other day, simply because I was bored! This short piece looks at what happened inside the ship as I got my arse handed to me.

I was having trouble getting a fight, the Caldari militia are terrible at the moment, especially in my timezone. I thought I'd try and bait them by opening a faction war plex in Enaluri (the primary low-sec system for the Caldari) and then sitting on the warp in point from the acceleration gate. May be I'd get a fight, it's worked before. I sat there a long time.......

-o0o-

The bridge on the Thrasher class Destroyer was silent. A red strobe light flashed in one corner indicating battle stations.

The XO got up from his chair and walked over to the scanner console. As a capsuleer ship, there was no captain on the bridge. The capsuleer, floating in his hydrostatic capsule in the belly of the ship provided that role. His neural implants and central nervous system were wet-wired into the ships systems, allowing him to do much more than a human sat in a chair on a bridge could ever do.

"What have we got on scan?" asked the XO.

"A Cruor class frigate keeps making a fly past, and I've seen a Caldari Navy Hookbill briefly. Neither has landed on the acceleration gate" there was a slight strain in the Ensigns voice. He was green like many members of the crew.

"Good work Ensign. Keep it up, just remember, what you know from those scanners, our capsuleer knows ten times more. Have confidence in him, he'll do the right thing"

"Yes sir! Of course sir!"

The XO looked discretely towards the escape pod hatches to ensure the route was clear and the indicators showed that the systems were OK. He'd been here before.

-o0o-

Down in engineering the scene was similar. Warning lights flashed but the Chief Engineer was sat leaning back in a chair with his feet on a console. He was picking dirt from under his fingernails with a screwdriver.

"He's back again, the Cruor! By the gods, how long are we going to sit here!"

The Chief Engineer rolled his eyes. This new crew was so green it was like working with grass.

"We'll be sat here until one of those squids decides to grow some balls and uses the acceleration gate. Until then we sit here and wait"

"But there are two of them now. If they both come in together, can we take them?" the Technician sounded worried as he looked over the scanner results. A Cruor and a Caldari Navy Hookbill were on long range scans.

"May be. We're at the warp in, warp scrambler, stasis webifier and close range autocannon fitted. If they come in with a few seconds between them we'll have them." the Chief sounded nonchalant.

The Destroyer had been sat in the same location for a while. It was a small Gallente Federation outpost in the Enaluri system. Whilst the Gallente had conquered the system, the Caldari militia were looking at winning it back. The deadspace around them prevented ships reaching the area by warp drives. An acceleration gate provided access to this area of space and thus created a bottleneck.

"And if they land together? Why don't we get out! We're massively outnumbered, if half of the Caldari militia in this system come here, they'll wipe us out in seconds"

The chief engineer stood up and walked over to the technician. He leaned over and refreshed the scanner.

"Well looks like it'll be over in a few seconds"

"NO! There are three of them and they are on close range. We've got to get out, why isn't the warp drive spinning up??? A pirate frigate, a Navy frigate and an assault ship! They'll rip us apart!"

The Chief just shook his head.

"Because our capsuleer is bored, that's why!"

"BORED?" The technician screamed.

"Yes bored. He's been sat here far too long and wants a fight, even if the odds are terrible"

"But... but..... but we'll all die!"

The Chief sighed. He went through this far too often.

"No, the Capsuleer will certainly survive. As will any of us who make it to the escape pods"

The technician stared at the chief wide eye'd with an open mouth. He couldn't speak.

"Tell me son, why did you sign up with a capsuleer crew and not a regular ship crew."

"Well the pay! The money on a capsuleer ship is ten times more than on a normal ship."

"Did you ever stop to wonder why? Did you question the huge disparity between the pay on a regular ships crew and a capsuleer's ships crew? You never wondered why everyone doesn't jump onto the nearest capsuleer ship and rake in the money? Well, you're about to find out!"

Several alarms rang out. The thermal cut-offs had been disabled on the electronic warfare systems. The capsuleer was going to over-heat the warp scrambler and the stasis webifier.

The three Caldari militia ships slipped out of warp near to the stationary Destroyer, the Navy Hookbill first, then the Jaguar class Assault Frigate. The Cruor arriving last.

The space between the ships lit up with fire instantly. The Thrasher was taking a pounding under the three verses one odds. It's shields went down in a matter of seconds. Explosions then struck the armour plating, resonating through the ship.

The abandon ship siren sounded and the chief started running to the escape pod hatches.

"This is why we're paid so well" he shouted over the sound of the alarms as he slid into the escape pod. "Think of it as hazard pay!"

-o0o-

CSM 7 - Electoral Reform?

2012-01-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

So.... the elections for the Council of Stellar Management will be kicking off soon. Will it be pretty much the same? Probably.

I'd just like to point out I think the CSM 6 has done a great job. But the path that they have walked has been exceptional. The Crucible Expansion, of which I have no doubt that the current CSM had a heavy hand in, fixed a lot problems with the game for many, many people. But, the question is, would we have had Crucible if we didn't have the problems with Incarna, Monoclegate and the Summer of Unrest? Without those, the winter expansion would have been very different and would have probably been Incarna II.

Anyway back to the matter at hand. A while ago, in a blog banter, I proposed a different way to elect the CSM. I want to expand on that now. Part 1 of this blog looked into why 0.0 is not the end game of 0.0 and we need a more balanced CSM taking different player-bases and not just 0.0. This next part looks how we could get better representation on the CSM.

Again, I'm not CSM 6 bashing. My point is that the best person to represent an area of the game is someone who partakes in that area of the game.

Elected people in positions of power generally have an area of interest, so why not do that with the CSM. Make at least half the positions in the CSM "officer" positions like those on a normal committee or Government. Let them campaign on that area of interest. Lets get the CSM representing the wider player base and not just 0.0 where the big alliances can vote for their own.

So here are my suggested "officer" positions on the CSM with the area they concentrate on.... as well as how to identify them at the meetings....

Chairman
Of course this will be Mittens. All he needs to do is ask his alliance "vote for me" and X thousand goons vote for him. I'd also like to point out that, whilst I may be in the minority in this view (when reading forums and social media), I don't personally have a problem with The Mittani. He appears to have done a very good job as chairman this year and keeps things interesting in-game. Anyway the role of the chairman is fairly obvious and they do chairman type things for the CSM.

At a CSM meeting they must........ have a chair like Dr Evil at the head of the table.

Minister for 0.0 Sovereignty
This position concerns the sov mechanics of 0.0. Capturing, holding and improving space is what this CSM'r cares about. So he's looking to fix any problems with that area, maybe it's making system capture more "fun" and all the other things that go with holding space in 0.0. Destructible stations? Personally I don't know as I'm not a 0.0 dweller, and that's my whole point.

At a CSM meeting they must........ be the first into the meeting room by 10 minutes and rope-off an area of the room for themselves and defend it at all costs.

Minister for 0.0 War
Closely linked to to the Minister for Sov, this position represents the interests of those in 0.0 who want PvP, war and general mass destruction. Super capitals are included in here as well as anything else that hands out pain on a mass-scale. Probably lag as well as that goes hand-in-hand with large-scale 0.0 battles.

At a CSM meeting they must........ turn up alone, but 2 minutes into the session 20 of their friends suddenly appear from nowhere whilst shouting "It's hot-drop o'clock!".

Minister for 0.0 Carebears
Obviously needs a better name but the one above sums it up nicely. A representative who knows all about carebearing in 0.0 and works for the benefit of that group in Eve. I guess that it will include mining, ratting, running sanctums etc.

At a CSM meeting they must........ bring home-baked cupcakes for everyone.

Minister for Yarrrrrrr!
A representative who understands the needs of those lovely low-sec pirates and campaigns on issues such as security status, aggression mechanics and the god awful 15 minute GCC. Oh and someone fix that standings hit when repping a pirate in militia! Has lots of arguments with the Minister for Carebears over high-sec ganking and CONCORD mechanics.

At a CSM meeting they must........ talk like a pirate all the time (either Captain Jack Sparrow or Steve the Pirate are acceptable). Also they are only allowed to drink rum during the meetings!

Minister for War
Covers all forms of war in low and high sec. This covers war dec's between corps and alliances and faction war. Issues such as voting mechanics to dropping the alliance to avoid a dec. Works closely with the Minister for 0.0 War.

At a CSM meeting they must........ attend CSM meetings dressed as the Vietnam Vet from Tropic Thunder and quote bad war anecdotes throughout.

Minister for Mining, Industry and Economy
Fairly obvious. Covers the aquistion of minerals and turning them into shiny ships and modules and then selling them. Could include POS mechanics as well as salvaging/looting? Frequently comes to blows with the Minister for Yarrrrrrrrrrrr!

At a CSM meeting they must........ practice what they preach. They have no chair to sit on at the CSM meetings, they have to build their own in advance from items found around the CCP offices.

Minister for Wormholes
A decent player-base lives in these strange locations. So lets give them a voice. I have only popped into a wormhole a few times so have no idea how "special" these special cases are. I've heard there are issues with things like stations or something. I guess this proves my point, these areas need someone who knows what the problems are, to campaign to fix them and to point out where a fix might break something else.

At a CSM meeting they must........ not physically attend the CSM meetings but have their voice projected from a hidden speaker as if errily crossing the void. Wooooooooo........

Minister for Carebears
Represents the interests of carebears of hi-sec and low-sec (Doesn't cover miners/industrialists as they are already covered). So mission runners, researchers, exploration, hacking, archaeology, deadspace complexes and the like.

At a CSM meeting they must........ come to the CSM meetings in a bear suit.

So there are 8 positions there that cover the vast majority of the Eve player-base. The Chairman will be Mittens, I mean the guy with the most votes, so will also be the representative for an area of the game (9 categories above including chair but one person will hold an officer position and the chair for getting most overall votes).

The final four positions are the four highest runners-up. Technically depending on the voting, this could be from a single category. For example if huge numbers of people vote for the 0.0 carebear representative then the four runner's up in that category may take the four "ordinary members" of the CSM if they get more votes than runners up in other categories. This seems fair as the area that gets the most votes, gets the most representation. However, every area is at least represented at some level.

That's just one way it could be done. I'm sure that not everyone in Eve is covered in there. The game is so big I'm sure I've missed some "professions" out. Also should the CSM only cover in-game? What about the community at large? Blogs, Facebook, the Tweetfleet on Twitter, websites, forums, Eve Gate. Do we need CSM representation there? Where do you stop?

It's a start and I'd be interested to know what other people think.

Yes, it's open to abuse. Yes, someone with good backing could put themselves forward for a category they know nothing about and don't care about. But there is no such thing as a perfect election mechanic.

Urghhhhh. I feel like a Liberal Democrat!

0.0 Is NOT the End Game of Eve Online (CSM 7 Pt 1)

2012-01-09T05:39:00.000-08:00

Today's blog post was going to be about this years Council of Stellar Management elections. However, I need to set the scene first to why I am encouraging "electoral reform". So before I detail how I'd like to see the CSM elected I'm going to get a bit of discussion going with the following controversial statement and supporting arguments....

0.0 Is NOT the End Game of Eve Online, especially for PvP.

It is often said it is, but from my opinion, it is not. Here's some of the reasons why I have come to that conclusion....

0.0 is Generally Carebear Central
I've lived in several areas of null-sec. When moving out there we had fellow low-sec PvP'rs telling us not to. That null-sec PvP was crap. Whilst we listened to the concerns those of us who hadn't done it before wanted to see for ourselves. They were right. NPC 0.0 at least has some small gang and solo PvP. Large Sov Holding null-sec was terrible. You have to roam vast areas of blue territory with only the odd red daring to enter your space.

To get decent PvP you needed 30 jumps to get to someone elses space at which point they were close to home so countered your fleet with superior numbers and reshipped to better hulls leaving you wanting to get podded as you couldn't face the long journey home.

People fall into the Sanctum trap. You log on, no reports of any hostile for 10's of light years. "Well, might as well run some sanctums or chain some belts....." three hours later you've got millions more ISK but no PvP.

I never did, but I would assume you can mine peacefully there. Take a hulk out and sit at a belt watching the intel channel and local. Chances are you'll know of any non-blue 10 jumps out.

Low Sec - There is a lot less carebearing in low-sec than in null-sec. It's easy to get a fight there! Also try mining with a hulk in low-sec. Please..... :)

The Battles Need No Player Skill (Other than the FC)
Yes, epic 0.0 battles are epic. I've been there surrounded by titans and super carriers along with hundreds of battleships. But these battles generally need the PvP skill of a hamster with learning difficulties. You sit on the arse of a titan for three hours, jump in, wait 20 minutes to load grid and then its a massive shin kicking contest. There is no skill involved in these fights. You are called primary and 400 high-alpha BS start locking you up. There is nothing you can do about it, you are dead. Logistics, eWar, tactics, skill points and everything else that requires skill and judgement in sub 100-man fleet fights is out of the window. It's just two big fleets, stood toe to toe, kicking each other in the shins until someone falls over. As has been said in this video review of Eve Online the one with the biggest boots wins.

That's me there! I'm the Abbadon just to the left of.... erm.....

Low Sec - A brilliant tactic, the right eWar ship, the right logistics or just good pilot skills can turn a battle. It's less about the size of the boots and more about skill and tactics.

Sov Capture is Boring
Shooting stationary objects is not fun. And most of the time it's epic blobs of Titans and supers leading to a shin kicking contest and the gaming skills of that special hamster again.

Low Sec (Faction War) - The end is the same, shooting a stationary object (control bunker). However to get to that stage you need to capture plex's and you get 1v1 and small gang PvP there.

The Majority of 0.0 Alliances Are PvP Fail
We too used to think that 0.0 was the Eve "End Game". That those who inhabit those dark reaches of space are uber Eve players and would destroy our puny corporation with a sideways glance and a sneer. No. Our first big taste was when an alliance I had real-life mates in needed some help. They freely admitted they were mainly carebears so couldn't cope with the aggression of TWO neighboring 0.0 alliances. We moved a few ships down there to help.... and both target alliances failscaded within a couple of weeks. The first battle was a nice 20 v 20 (so you can occasionally get good fights in 0.0) resulted in a 20-1 win for us. After that we hunted them down and spent most of our time deleting surrender mails from Eve Mail. We never did get a second fleet fight though and had to make do with one's and two's. Our further experience in both NPC and Sov Holding Null were similar. Decent PvP'rs are hard to find in 0.0!

Low Sec - Most corps that live full-time in low-sec are PvP corps. A standard run-of-the-mill null-sec alliance has trouble dealing with an experienced low-sec PvP corp.

Conclusion
Null sec requires a lot more time, energy and effort than low sec. No doubt about that. You have got to have some serious play time to make your alliance or corp do well in 0.0. But those who say null sec is the end game of Eve Online are wrong. The majority of players, corps and alliances in 0.0 are no better or worse than low-sec or high-sec.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go at 0.0 and some of the best Eve players inhabit that space... but also some of the worse.

There is no "end game" in Eve Online because it is a sandbox and not a single game. Is the end game for an industrialist to be building titans? Is the end game for a pirate to be number one on Battleclinic? Is the end game for a miner to be known as "Mini-Cribba"?

Eve is huge, varied and always changing. There is no end game and there is no "average Eve Online player". We all do, and want, different things out of the game. So can a CSM, elected with a perceived heavy 0.0 bias, represent the majority of Eve Online players when it's questionable if there is a majority in the first place?

Well perhaps we could change things..... Soon(tm)......

EDIT - As I post this I see this entry at the top of the blog pack - http://ardentdefense.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/why-so-few-non-pirate-lownullsec-wh-eve-blogs/

Interesting.......

The Ups and Downs of Eve Online

2012-01-07T00:51:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the blog spam, usually I leave two or three days between posts but Friday has been a very special day.....

First off, Friday is the first day of the weekend for me. Living in an Middle Eastern country and Friday being the holy day, it is the equivalent of Sunday in the west. So whilst I'm able to play during the day, it's usually quiet with most Eve players in the West at work or in bed depending on their timezone. However there is usually some squids (Caldari Militia) to shoot at. It would seem that this Friday was an exception. I left Nisuwa to have a bit of a solo roam and headed to Enaluri, the Caldari Militia staging system in low sec. I jump in..... and I'm the only one there.

WTF? Oh well I'll head up to their other staging area, Rakapas. Surely there are some Caldari Militia there...

Seriously??? I'll head up to Tama. No squids there either! OK I'll head down to Heyd via the Fliet pipe. OMG there's one! A squid....

.... in a Manticore stealth bomber.....

.... running a mission.......

.... who runs as soon as I enter system.

So back to Nisuwa via Heyd and that's it! ONE squid in that entire roam!

So I do some ratting to improve my sec status and get even more bored. Not a good day so far in Eve so I dock up and go off to do something else in a huff. So far my Eve day has NOT been a happy one.

Meanwhile on Twitter, Rixx Javix, Lord Commander of the Eve Online Blog Pack posted this.....

Could I actually make the list? Nah! Although I personally think this blog is good enough, we all think what we do is the mutts nuts don't we? Like the parents who are convinced that their son is the best footballer in the world and will play for the national team. So whilst I'm happy with my blog, I doubt it'll make the legendary Eve Blog Pack.

Anyway, wifey wants to go out for cocktails so we head out to Trader Vic's bar in town. I keep checking Twitter on the mobile and as promised Rixx Javix posts this sometime later after I''ve scoffed down a meat platter and half a dozen Absolute Vodkas.

So who has made it I wonder? I head over to the Eveogander post to take a peak.......

OMG! OMG! OMG! From having a crap day in Eve I'm now smiling the smile I usually reserve for... well, a scenario I cannot write about here! For those in the know, lets just call it "doing a Greg6" or as recently revealed "Doing a Loren Gallen".

Wow! Seriously, I'm really honored! I was grinning like a loon for the rest of the night. I tried to explain to the wife why I was so happy and all she could respond with is "So that means you are a REALLY BIG geek?".

At this point I need to give a big thank you to Kazz aka Eelis Kiy of Where the Frack is My Ship fame who sent me down this road about 7 months ago and gave me a huge amount of advice on the world of blogging. WTFiMS was also a Blog Pack member before Eelis went off to play with that dirty Warhammer, so I suppose it's gone full circle..... or should I say "Now the circle is complete" :)

Whilst I'm in a 'happy thanking' mood, I've got to say thanks to Rixx Javix for not only putting me on the Pack but for taking over the reins when Crazy Kinux stood down as Lord Commander of the Blog Pack. Next my fellow corpies in Shadows of the Federation who make an awesome sounding board on the forums. And finally, also a big thanks to you guys and gals for coming here and reading my musings, rantings, battle reports and my slightly dodgy fiction!

So here is the full Eve Online Blog Pack as of today:-

A Ghost Blog
A Missioner in Eve
Aggressive Tendencies
Ardent Defender
A Scientist's Life in Eve
The Altruist
The Beginnings of Piracy
Beyond Space
Chocolate Heaven
Diary of a Garbageman
Diary of a Pod Pilot
Dsan's EVE-Online Blog
Eve Travel
Eve's Parity Bit
Eveoganda
Eve Opportunist
Fiddler's Edge
Finders and Keepers
Flashfresh The Pirate
Flee on Sight
Freebooted
GamerChick42
Gun Turret Diplomacy
Helicity Boson
The Hydrostatic Capsule
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
Jester's Trek
K162space
KANE Rizzel
My Loot, Your Tears
Nashh Kadavrs Eve Blog
Rifter Drifter
Roc's Ramblings
Sand, Cider & Spaceships
Scram Web
Sleepless In Space
Through Newb Eyes
Tiger Ears
To Boldly Go

Electronic Attack Ships Should Attack

2012-01-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

I want to talk about Electronic Attack Ships, but first, a quick rant on a faction war topic ....

Do you know what really grinds my gears!?!? The Caldari Militia of 2012 so far. In one night we camp a squid in station, so what does he do? He drops militia. Yes, he actually changes corps so we have to go GCC on his ass. Second uber-fail of the night, we chase a small Caldari fleet (with a small fleet of our own) and they don't think they can run fast enough, so what do they do? They pull a mass logoffski in space. The.... entire... fleet! FFS, if you are in the militia grow some balls and PvP, stop hiding behind game mechanics you cowardly ball-less wimps. Yes, I am mad bro!

Anyway, back to the subject matter at hand, Electronic Attack Ships.

My T3 Destroyers post entitled Destroyers Should Destroy got a few comments about how those ideas should be applied to Electronic Attack Ships as they are in serious need of loving. Not sure I agree with that totally. Yes, EAS need some CCP loving but the key word in their name is "attack". Destroyer roles are to protect, not attack. The modules I described in the previous blog post were defensive mostly. EAS should not be using defensive modules, they should be more offensive than me after half a bottle of vodka.

So what's wrong with Electronic Attack Ships and what can we do to make them useful?

It's quiet possible that you're trying to think of the existing Electronic Attack Ship right now.... and you can only think of one....

The Kitsune (Caldari)
The baby ECM ship. A T2 frigate with bonus to jam strength, jammer cap use, jammer range and capacitor capacity (so it has a big cap and a cap bonus for ECM). However it's uber squishy!

It will - Give you the raspberry..... jam!
It is - A baby Falcon

The other electronic attack ships are:-

The Sentinel (Amarr)
I shall call it...... Mini-Curse. Bonuses to energy vampire and neutralizer amount and range, bonus to tracking disruptors and a capacitor recharge buff.

It will - Suck your cap dry
It is - A baby Curse.

The Keres (Gallente)
Bonus to sensor dampener range and cap plus bonus to warp disruptor range and cap.

It will - Point you from 32km and damp down your sensors so you cannot lock it.
It is - A baby Arazu

The Hyena (Minmatar)
Bonus to MWD cap and bonus to target painters. Also bonus to web and reduction in sig radius.

It will - Web you from 20km and blow your sig radius up.
It is - A baby Huggin

When you actually look at the useful bonuses, they are not that bad. However, apart from the Kitsune, they are hardly ever used. When was the last time you saw a Hyena? Why?

One of the reasons is "squishyness". They die fairly quickly as they are frigate hulls. Cruiser and below sized weapons rape them, and drones do the same job for larger ships. They lack the "toughness" of the more popular T2 frigates, the Assault Ships.

So what can we do with them? Firstly they need to be a bit tougher. They need a EHP buff to make them survive slightly longer, more like Assault Ships but without the DPS. This could be done in a number of ways with the resists increased, signature radius reduced or armour/shield hitpoints increased.

So we now have a tougher ship, but are they useful enough to use more, or will people still favour the Recon Cruisers that do the same jobs, just way better.

So how about some specific "bad ass" modules for EAS so they are something people want to fly. Currently it's a case of "Why fly a Sentinel when you can fly a Curse?". Each EAS is basically a squishy version of the better recon class ship. Forget them being better than another ship at disrupting tracking etc, lets give them some nasty mods only they can use. All of the following should have a decent range, allowing the EAS to sit back from the main fight and lay down some nasty eWar onto the enemy.

Shield Harmonic Scanner - Resistance is Futile-er
How about a module with an effect like a target painter that reduces shield resistances. Could be very useful against hard targets like logistics. The EAS scans the frequency of the shields and transmits this to other ships in the area. Could be a general debuff to all resistances or could be a specific damage type.

Suggested race - Gallente. Well, they want to poke holes in Caldari shields don't they!

"OK the Drake's explosive resist is down, switch to explosive ammo"

Combat Armour Scanner - Get in the Hole!
Same as the above shield resistance dampener, this is used on armour boats and reduces resistance by scanning for weakpoints in the armour plates and transmitting them to other ships in the area.

Suggested race - Caldari. They want something to use against the old enemy don't they.

"OK the Myrm's thermal resists are down, switch to thermal ammo"

Interdiction Dampener - Point! Oh Never Mind?
Like a sensor dampener or a turret optimal range distruptor, this module works on a enemies point. 24km point? Not any more, your long point now has a range of 12km. Short point? Too right! It's now down to 4km. These are particularly useful if the fight is not going well and you need to GTFO or as anti-kiting!

Suggested race - Minmatar. With their speedy ships, they have ultimate GTFO-ability

"Confirm he had a long point?"
"Yeah he pointed me at 20km"
"OK his point is now down to 12km, keep out of that range and you can warp off if you need to."

Warp Beacon Projector - Where the **** did YOU come from?
OK this might be a bit much. How about a laser that tags an enemy ship and allows ships in your fleet to warp to that point? Your little EAS is 70km off the enemy fleet who are taking potshots at you. You target a ship in the center of the blob and activate this mod. Suddenly your fleet mates all warp in at point blank range from the pounce they were waiting at.

Suggested race - Amarr. Because nobody likes slow-boating in armour tanked ships towards a blob!

"Beacon up"
"Warping squad on top of them"

There are four idea's for the four races. But one thing I was thinking about was that there is eWar to counter turrets, but nothing to debuff missile ships. Perhaps the shield and armour resistance "debuffer" could be one unit? Nerfs the resists of both shield and armour? Then the Gallente could have an anti-missile boat module.

May be this could be another idea...

Gravitational Missile Dampener - Not so Much as a Whoosh as a Plop
This module is like a optimal range dampener for use against missile boats and could either debuff flight time or missile speed for the targeted boat. Whichever it does, it leads to the same thing, the missiles from the enemy doesn't reach as far as they did.

Suggested Race - Gallente.

"The Drakes missiles are damped, should have less than 40km range now"

Just a few ideas there for ship type specific modules that could make EAS' popular. However, I think the EHP buff is the main thing that is needed for these ships to be a real option in a small fleet.

New Blood, Old Corpses (Fan Fiction)

2012-01-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

Double dealing, double crossing and murder. Whilst previous posts have looked at how Capsuleers aren't really nice people. I'm sure we're not the worst within the galaxy of New Eden are we?

-o0o-

"Should we be this close?" Yatt whispered.

Boaun shuck his head. He had started to regret taking the young inexperienced crew member on board. However he had requested the lowest share of all the applicants and was young and eager to learn.

"One.... we are cloaked. They cannot see us." Boaun whispered "And two.... WHY ARE YOU WHISPERING? SOUND DOESN'T TRAVEL IN SPACE!"

Yatt opened his mouth but nothing came out. Boaun turned back to the view screen. He was seated above the rest in the captains chair in the dimly lit bridge.

"They are nearly finished looting up, soon be our turn" one of the other crew said from his console.

The battle in front of them had been raging for 10 minutes before one side got the upper hand. The losing side had either all retreated or died and the victors were currently picking through the wreckage looting and salvaging.

Soon enough the remaining ships aligned out and slipped into warp.

"OK that's it. Decloak and scan."

The Kestrel class frigate dropped it's cloaking field and it's engines roared into life. Whilst using the basic cloaking device the ship could travel at no more than a crawl and the engines ran on minimal power.

"I've got 4 bodies on scan, 60 seconds to targeting range."

Boaun cursed. The cloaking device allowed them to approach unseen, but it's power grid and emissions interfered badly with the targeting sensors. The directional scanner was uneffected and they could detect the frozen corpses, but they needed to get closer to target them and bring them in with the tractor beam. This was the dangerous part. A capsuleer arriving on scene could rip them to peices. The defeated fleet may be coming back with greater numbers. A hundred possibilities existed on how this could go wrong.

Boaun picked up a black combat knife and flung it across the bridge, blade over handle. It stuck with a twang in a peice of wood hung on the far wall. A picture of an Intaki female was attached to the wood.

"Who's that?" asked Yatt

"S810 jr. The enemy!"

"The enemy?"

"Capsuleer. Always scooping up the corpses after a battle. Cost me more money than I care to think about"

The targetting indicators sounded, they were pulling in the corpses.

"1, 2, 3..... aaaaand 4, Captain. We've got the lot"

"OK get us out of here before some pod jockey turns up and ruins our day!"

The Kestral span on it's axis and accelerated into warp

-o0o-

"Doctor Actan. Can you come with me please"

"Yes of course Doctor Flint" the young doctor was eager, Dr Flint liked him. But he was worried how he would react to todays tasks. There was only one way to find out.

The two Doctors entered the changing rooms and Dr Flint opened a locker and produced two sets of dirty overalls. He handed a pair to Dr Actan who looked in distain at the filthy garment.

"And what do you expect me to do with THAT!" he asked holding the overalls with the tips of two fingers.

Dr Flint sighed, this was going to be as tough as he expected it would be.

"Wear it. We need to do some off-site work and this will stop people getting suspicious!"

"What? Your joking!"

Dr Flint gave Dr Actan a look that told him he wasn't. Once they had changed from their doctors whites into the overall's they left via a maintenance door.

"Where are we going and why are we dressed in these horrible overalls?" Dr Actan whined.

"I'm afriad working here in the cloning facility isn't always what you'd expect. The competition is murder Dr Actan, and if we don't have the materials to offer a top-of-the-line service then the Capsuleer's will go elsewhere. That is where we are going, to get some more materials!" Dr Flint finished as they reached a ladder and started climbing down to a maintenance corridor.

"But Dr Flint, don't we have a good supply of materials always incoming, from the damaged capsuleer ships?"

"I'm afriad not." Dr Flint needed to trust him, he needed the help "Those bodies we get from returning damaged capsuleer ships are rarely of use. As the ship made it back to station they obviously didn't totally depressurise, they are just badly damaged. Therefore the dead crew on those ships are usually killed by fire and explosions. Some by gasses, but 95% of the corpses are useless. We buy them and incinerate them to cover the useful corpses we buy.... shall we say through over channels."

"So we buy corpses on the black market and buy the capsuleer crew corpses as cover so when you are audited the number of legally purcased corpses match the number of corpses we have in stock."

"Exactly" said Dr Flint "Now be quiet, we're just two engineering techs on our way to a job OK!"

-o0o-

Boaun was ready to punch Yatt in the nose. The snot-nosed crew member was scared out of his wits and figgiting badly. They were both stood at the bottom of the Kestral's lowered loading ramp, four cargo containers were stacked next to them. Yatt had been sat on one until Boaun had told him that there was a corpse inside it. The poor kid had lept 6 foot in the air. It had taken Boaun five minutes to stop laughing. Now the joke was over and he was getting irritated.

"If you don't stand still I'll cut your legs off" Boaun growled.

The crewman froze where he stood. Boaun always took new recuits to the handover meeting on their first run. He needed to see how they handled themselves in these situations. He was pretty sure he'd have to shoot this one later and flush him out of an airlock in space. He was pondering the 'where's' and the 'how's' when he noticed two engineers crossing the hanger towards them.

He looked carefully at them as they neared. For a moment he was worried that they were actual hanger crew. Then as they got closer he saw their hands. Always the give-away. There was no way these "engineers" had ever done a days manual labour in their life. The older man approached, the younger guy dropped back.

"Is this ship UV-3453-APN"? The older man asked. Boaun just laughed.

"You guys and your coded pass-phrases. The fact you and Mr Clean back there didn't get spotted by some real techs is amazing enough"

The old man eye'd him suspiciously.

"Is this ship UV-3453-APN"? The older man asked again.

"OK, OK. If you want to do it properly." Boaun cleared his throat noisily, spread his legs, bent his knees slightly and tilted his head back before raising his arm in front of him. It was like he was trying to mimic some awful hammy actor.

"NOOOOOOOO!" he boomed "THIS.... IS..... A............P.... YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" he held the 'Y' going until he was out of breath. He then burst into a fit of laughter.

"Yes, very droll" Dr Flint said solemly "I assume by the number of cases you have four for us?"

Boaun was still bent over laughing and simply waved his hand towards the crates. Dr Flint approached them with Dr Actan closely behind.

"What is going on here?" Dr Actan whispered.

"The lab is making a purchase." Dr Flint replied.

"But these people....."

"Are the scum of the galaxy and have the education of a turnip. But what they do have is fresh, flash-frozen corpses with capsuleer implants." Dr Flint whispered.

He pulled a scanner out of his pocket and waved it over the four containers.

"Excellent. All four are ideal body mass and a good ratio of male to female."

Dr Acton moved back slightly as Dr Flint turned to Boaun.

"Everything is in order. Now, as for price."

Boaun smiled and opened his mouth as if to speak. But nothing came out. His face had changed to a look of shock. He fell forward, a knife protruding from between his shoulder blades.

Yatt was stood there behind him as he fell, he approached the two doctors who had looks of horror on their faces.

"Good afternoon gentlemen. I'm Yatt, now promoted to Captain Yatt, and I'll be taking over this operation from the late Mr Boaun. I'm not here to rock the ship and I'm happy to continue providing you the goods at the previously agreed rate."

Dr Flint smiled.

"Well that is excellent news. I'm sure we can continue our mutiually benifical working realtionship that will....."

Suddenly Dr Flint stopped talking. His face had a look of shock. He fell forward, he too had a knife buried between his shoulder blades.

"He did say the competition is murder!" said Dr Actan looking down at the body, he looked up a Yatt "Well this is awkward".

Yatt cocked his head to one side and looked at the two men dead on the floor. A gaffaw burst from him.

"My name is Dr Natac. I work for a rival cloning lab to the late Dr Flint here. I was here to see the captian about taking over as the prefered Client from this ship. I assume that is now you. We apparently both had the same idea"

Yatt smiled.

"For some strange reason I think we could get on famously"

He stepped over the two dead bodies and put his arm around Dr Natac's shoulders as they walked towards the four crates.

"I wonder how often this happens? Anyway, now, about the price....."

-o0o-

A Year in the Life of a Faction War Corp

2011-12-31T02:54:00.000-08:00

The end of 2011 is nigh. Wow! What a year! Moving from faction war to 0.0 epic titan-killing-fests to low-sec pirating and back to faction war, we've done a lot! It certainly hasn't been boring. This blog post takes a look at what my my corp and I has been through this last year and some of my favorite battles.

The year started off with us in Nisuwa fighting the good fight for the Gallente Federation militia.

Although we had a few visits down to 0.0 in Syndicate, we were lacking targets. The Caldari have not been the same since 2009 when they were winning. With the formation on the MDP and the Gallente fight-back that happened, they have never really recovered.

In February time we got an offer to join CTRL-Q and the Northern Collation so we prepared to move up to the R-P area in Vale of the Silent.

Before we left, Lockouts birthday roam was organised. We went out in HACs and Recons looking for a good fight. We found a pirate battleship camp and thought, why not? As soon as the fight commenced they lit a cyno and dropped some carriers on us (four or five I think). We expected Lock to call bail given we were now fighting BS and multiple carriers with HACs but all we got was....

"Mmmmmmmmmm okay. Primary is........"

What a battle! And we screwed them over quite royally. It took a long time given we were lacking in DPS. In fact it was long enough for people to fly back to base and bring back something more appropriate like neuting ships. But we took them down eventually with only one carrier escaping.

Shortly after that we moved to the NC heartland and over the next few months we did the 0.0 sov holding thing. We thought that there would be lots of PvP.... but there wasn't. We ran Sanctums, we made ISK, we chased reds Benny Hill style and we took part in some massive battles.... which were generally very boring. However, for the first time we were taking part in areas that CCP were mentioning. O2O being their favorite data gathering system during the war on lag. We really were there!

Things like this in O2O were an experience - http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=9182680 - Seriously 800 BILLION of losses in one big fight!

But still, two hours staring at the arse of a Titan, someone shouting JUMP!, fire at the primary and hope to get a round off before he dies until you yourself get primaried by 200 Abbadons and die in an uber alpha strike. We did build our own outpost, that was pretty cool!

But by April time, after three months of this 0.0 thing, we were getting bored. Our top FC's were giving some good ideas but were shot down as "You are FW noobs and new to the alliance so don't know anything" but it would seem it was the other way around. We were also losing members as the PvP just wasn't what we wanted. So we sold the station and headed back up to Nisuwa to work out what to do next. Turns out we were bloody lucky. A few weeks later the Russians came stomping through that region and took everything.

May time saw us start to form an alliance with Wolfsbrigade. As we were still sorting the details we had some joint roams. These were interesting as we were both in our respective militias. During one such roam, we encountered a Quam fleet, who are well known as epic hot-droppers. Their fleet was nearly all faction battleships with minimal logistics. Obvious bait was obvious. So we got a bait carrier ready, good old Lock again, and we engaged. We initiated the "hotdrop" hoping they would drop their supers. This actually caused them to drop two normal carriers of their own. This isn't what we wanted. However they couldn't break our carriers reps and we were getting the upper hand in the battle. With their fleet dwindling and both their carriers pointed they were in trouble. We were about to drop a bait dreadnought thinking that would make them drop their supers. But before we could, to save their two carriers, they did the second hot-drop we had been waiting for. As they dropped three Nyx onto the "faction war noobs" we warped in a half a dozen HIC's that had been sat away at a deep-safe. As soon as they had point I dropped fleet along with another guy, joined another fleet and lit my Cyno. Yes we had multiple cyno's ready for them. Now THAT was "hotdrop o'clock" as a Raiden. supercap fleet appeared on field.

There had been a fair bit of smack talk in local up to that point. Suddenly it went silent. Oh how we laughed. I will admit our traps don't go to plan. Sometimes our epic plans result in us all flying back to Nisuwa in pods thinking "Well that didn't go to plan!". But this time, we sat back, lit cigars and pretended to be Hannable Smith.

http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=9669334

Anyway, we formed the alliance and move around a bit looking for a decent PvP area. Finally we settled in Kamela after trying Prov and Derelik. We fought around Amamake for a while and the PvP was OK, but GCC mechanics were a pain. As many of us rushed to -10 we lost a few more members who didn't want to be pirate.

Then Incarna was deployed and the brown smelly stuff hit the fan throughout New Eden. We had some people just give up citing CCP neglect of their area of the game and the direction the company was taking. Others just stopped as they couldn't stand the heat their graphics card churned out under Incarna. What ever the varied reasons, we lost some good people. Whilst the summer of unrest kicked off we continued NBSI until most of us were -10 flashy pirates.

At this point I think I must comment on the alliance name..... ShadowWolves.net [.NET]!!!! You know the fallout from Incarna? Well within SoTF it was similar. The CEO's loved the name, Wolfsbrigade apparently was OK with it, SoTF took the piss out of it constantly. I even named our pub quiz team in honor of the alliance name one night.... then had to explain the reason to a Frenchmen, an Iraqi, a Lebanese (is that what you call a guy from Lebanon?), a Scot and a lady from the Ukraine! The wife guessed what it was about anyway. Was fairly funny to hear the quiz master read the team name when we won a round!

June 2011 also saw me start this blog. It's had nearly 9,000 pageviews in the first 6 months which I find rather insane! So thank you all! Surprisingly, the most popular blog entry was one of my pieces of fan fiction about us returning to FW in the Autumn. It was linked on the Eve-O forum in the thread about SoTF returning so that's why I guess it got so many hits. Also the person Googling "Minmatar tits" please get some help!

By July cracks were forming in our Alliance. Wolfsbrigade's more business-like attitude was conflicting with Shadow's "Why make plans, lets get drunk and shoot stuff!" attitude.

By August we were doing our own thing, pirating around Amamake and enjoying frig-fry Fridays. Then the Goons kicked PL out of their home and they ended up in Amamake with their tail between their legs. They were also very bored as PL were dishonouring 1v1's with Titans! Things were a bit more difficult in that area.

September saw us return back to faction war and move back to Nisuwa. Thankfully, a lot of the good members we'd lost in our 9 months of "lets give this a go" came back to the fold. However we are still missing some, I'm looking at you Eelis Kiy (formally of Where the Frack is My Ship? fame and now can be found at The One That Writes)! Actually, where has Karen gone?

October and November were back to normal for us. We were battling squids, pirates and Loren was taxing the squid hi-sec mission runners in the Caldari Militia.

Early December saw a spike in activity as Crucible was released, but still no Eelis.

So my own personal stats for 2011 are:-

I've killed 684 ships for a total of 157 billion ISK.
I've lost 73 ships for a total of 6.47 billion ISK.

So in one year we've done faction war, sov holding null sec, back to faction war, bit of NPC 0.0, a NBSI alliance in low sec, a pirate corp in low sec and back to faction war. Faction war is best for us and here is fingers crossed that the 2012 Spring Expansion gives it the loving it deserves.

Happy New Year to you, thanks for reading my blog and I hope you have a great 2012 (whether your fighting with me or against me)!

Destroyers Should Destroy!

2011-12-29T02:28:00.000-08:00

The new tier 3 BC's look good and are fun to fly, but they are standard ships. They shoot things in the face and that's really all they do. This got me thinking about "utility ships" and the role of destroyers in Eve.

Destroyers in our time (ie Planet Earth 2011, not New Eden in 22,011 ish) have historically been used to protect "the big guns". Anti-torpedo boat, anti-submarine, anti-missile and anti-aircraft roles are all common for destroyers who's job it is to ensure no harm comes to the carriers and battleships.

Currently in Eve destroyers are anti-frigate ships. Not really the same as what can a frigate do vs a carrier in Eve (yes stealth bombers are frigates, I was talking generally). Are destroyers as useful as they should be? They should be destroying things that are a threat to the big ships.

Under the new Crucible expansion they've had a bit of a buff. But still they are very much anti-frigate ships. I've got a few ideas for some very specific types of T3 Destroyers I'd like to see. Whilst technically what I talk about below are module effects, they should be like covert ops cloaks, bomb launchers or HIC bubbles. You can buy the module, but it'll only work on a specific ship due to the CPU need and the ships role bonus that negates it.

I give you T3 Strategic Destroyers:-

Point Defense Destroyer.

Defender missiles aren't really used much are they? They can only be activated when there is a missile heading directly at your ship itself plus they gimp your own DPS. How about a new destroyer designed to act as point defence for larger ships. A full rack of rocket launchers fitted with defender missiles that go for ANY hostile missile. This includes compact citadel torpedo's launched from fighter-bombers. A few of these around a cap ship could really reduced the incoming DPS of a super attacking it.

If defender missiles are a bit CPU intensive (I'm talking server here not ship CPU) how about lasers? That could look rather cool. A couple of these Destroyers orbiting a battleship or a carrier and red lasers streaking across space taking out incoming missiles.

Tachyon Detection Destroyer

Another T2 Destroyer that can fit a very specific hi-slot module. Tachyon detection grid generator. Looks like a large bubble but doesn't work like one. Instead it decloaks cloaked ships!

Now this would make a massive difference to cloaked ships. From stealth-bombers to transport ships. Gate camps would become a lot more deadly. I'm suggesting this because of the amount of cloaked Drakes, Hurricanes and even Kitsuine's we're seeing.

May be too deadly? How about we nerf it (before it's even been created) so that it does not work on the Covert Ops cloak. So your proper cloaky ships like stealth bombers, recons and transport ships are not effected, but the tard who puts a cloak on a Drake gets what he deserves?

The Anti-Falcon (ECM) Destroyer

A T2 Destroyer with a high sensor strength and a CPU and strength bonus for fitting projected ECCM. Something along the lines of -66% CPU use for projected ECCM and plus 10% per level to strength? A logistics ships just for your fleet mates sensors! One of these can pretty much counter a Falcon. Your average Falcon can jam out three ships. If this destroyer can fit 3 or 4 projected ECCM as well as prop mod and some tank it'll be very useful.

Anti-Drone Destroyer

This one fits a module that reduces a ships drone bandwidth by projecting targeted interference at the same frequency used to communicate with drones. If you have max drones out and you get hit by this weapon a couple of drones will stop responding (as if you warped away). This module should have a long cycle time to prevent it crippling an entire fleets drones on it's own. Also the reduction in bandwidth should only knock of one or two drones from a normal flight of five. When the module stops working the drones wake up and return to their ship (or carry on attacking).

D-Scan Jammer Destroyer

Another T2 destroyer with a special module. This one again looks like a bubble, but all ships inside are hidden from d-scan. Probes still show the ships up, but a simple d-scan won't. 5 enemy targets in system but none on scan. Are they at a deep safe.... are they docked up.... or are they waiting on a gate and hidden by a scan jamming bubble? Now if the bubble also stopped them from appearing in "local" that could be a lot of fun! The bubble also interrupts the ships Neocom link so the pilot vanishes from local!!! This would clearly be a Marmite ship. Some would love the idea of it, others would absolutely hate it! Maybe the "not showing up in local" is a step too far, and just the jamming of D-Scan would be sufficient.

Mobile Cyno Jamming Destoryer

Same bubble principle again. A 20km bubble that stops a cyno from lighting inside it. Worried that your hot-drop might get hot-dropped? Is obvious bait obvious? One of these will help stop said hot-drop landing on your head or even at all. Even better still, warp one onto the top of the obvious bait and fire up the jamming field. Then kill him!

So there you go. A few ideas for very specific fleet ships that rival logistics and ECM boats as a force multiplier and give a return surprise to cloaky-fags and hot-dropoholics.

No Darling, I Cannot Pause It!

2011-12-26T23:51:00.000-08:00

After another explanation to the the wife, I'd thought I'd create this handy post for all you guys out there. There's a bit of text and some pictures to keep your woman happy. However, there is a TL;DR version at the bottom.

Why You Cannot Pause Eve Online

To:- My darling wife/girlfriend/fiance/mistress/bit on the side/neighbor I'm porking behind partners back (delete as appropriate)

Many, many computer games can be paused, but Eve Online, aka "that bloody game", is not one of them. This short blog post is especially for you ladies who aren't gamers to explain why we cannot "just pause" Eve Online.

Eve Online (that bloody game) is more about interaction with people, either being nice to them or blowing their hard earned ships into space dust and laughing in their face. You cannot pause people, so you cannot pause Eve. I might be leading a fleet on a roam and have 20 or 30 people hanging on my every word. I might be flying a very expensive ship in combat and if I lose that then I might have to spend hours grinding missions to make the money to buy a new one.

The only way to "pause" the game is to log off, which may give us a chance of losing our ship, or docking up in station. Both of these may or may not be possible. Also we may be already in station awaiting a trap to be sprung, therefore other people are relying on us and if we leave the game they will be disappointed.

So please remember, if we are playing Eve, we cannot just pause it. Leaving the computer could result in us losing our ship requiring hours of work to get another, or even worse it could result in our friends losing their expensive ship.

Of course there are ALWAYS ways to encourage your man to accept he's going lose an expensive ship or piss off his mates, and still be happy to do so. As Captain Jack Sparrow says... it's all about leverage! Now I don't know know exactly how you can persuade your particular man, but mine uses a method similar to the comic below.....

(Actually it's rather scary how close that Roosterteeth comic got to what my wife wears when she wants me off the PC)

TL;DR Version -

To:- The Woman.

NO I CANNOT PAUSE IT!

Drackarn 2 - Sleeping with the Enemy (Fan Fiction)

2011-12-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

This is part two to this piece here which told how Drackarn became a capsuleer fighting for the Gallente Militia against the Caldari State even though he was a low-paid Caldari factory worker. If you haven't read part 1 then I'd read that before reading this.

The original piece finished off with a joke about how the Caldari Mega-corp executive who made him into a capsuleer cannot be that mad about him fighting against the State, as he will getting business from ship replacements after Drackarn's kills. That got me thinking. Actually what did the Executive really think about the capsuleer he "created" turning against the State. Actually what does Tibus Heth think about it? He seems to be a guy who might get a bit upset about it. But, watchya gonna do?

This story is a bit more..... erm..... "racy" than my past stuff. A lot of my work has included "giggity elements" before but I've left the real detail up to your own imagination and for you to read between the lines. This ones similar but may be has a bit more "detail". It's probably a 15 certificate I suppose ;) Just wonder what the reaction will be from "Geeky perv!" through to "Yeah and?" up to "Hur Hur, Alriiiiight" in a Glen Quagmire styleeeee.

I hope you enjoy.

-o0o-

Lexx was still in the bar when Drackarn got back. His head still damp from showering after leaving his pod. Lexx slid over a datapad, on it were the CONCORD reports of recent capsuleer kills by Shadows of the Federation.

"So gob-shite was in a Manticore then?" she stated. Drackarn smiled.

"Yeah, the dumbass paniked when he saw me, tried to warp off. One volley and he was dead."

"So what was that you mentioned about your past life springing up a year or two ago?" Lexx asked.

Drackarn smiled a wide smile. "Ah yes, someone tried to kill me, permanently, but also gave me one of the best nights of my life. It kicked off just after the formation of the Gallente Militia MDP when we were still living in the system of Nennamalia......."

-o0o-

The Vice-CEO had his head in his hands with his elbows resting on his expensive wooden desk. On a space-station where nearly everything was constructed in metals and plastics, wood and leather were seen as an expensive extravagance.
Everything about this office screamed the same. Paintings and works of art, real live plants, wooden furniture. All natural materials, all highly expensive. The fish-tank in the center of the office with it's rare and beautiful fish cost more than a fitted combat frigate. Huge borderless windows that looked out into space and the planet below.

His PA walked into the office, he heard her heels clicking on the marble floor as she approached. She wasn't looking at him, she was busy with her oversized data-pad. As she neared his desk she looked up and saw the state he was in.

"Sir? What's wrong?"

He said nothing, he simply pressed a button on his datapad. With a buzz the holoprojector activated. There stood a life-sized holgram of Tibus Heth. He didn't look happy.

"I won't bore you with the 'friendly' introduction..." the vice-CEO said, his PA noted the way he said 'friendly', "....so I've paused it just before the bit I need you to hear" and with that he hit another button. The
holographic Heth roared into life.

"It's a disaster! We had complete control. Old Man Star was locked down tight. Those Gallente bastards were trapped in Villore. Now they are living in OUR systems. It's unacceptable and if you are receiving this message then YOU ARE TO BLAME! There is nothing we can do with the Gallente-born capsuleers, but we can do something with the other races fighting against us. Here is a list of non-Gallente capsuleers who are leading the fightback with this Gallente militia MDP. I've background checked them all. Check the
list, identify why you've got this message, you'll have a connection to one of them, and resolve the problem that YOU created. I will come down with a fury on anyone who doesn't clean up their own mess! I will personally coming to see each of you in....."

And with that the vice-CEO hit a button and the hologram froze.

"I'm in trouble!" the Vice-CEO looked worried.
"When did you receive this?" his PA asked whilst skimming through the list
Heth had attached to his message. She didn't need to get far down the list
until a name sprang out at her.
"Oh" she said.
"I think that's a fracking understatement" The CEO had his head in his
hands again. "The message came two weeks ago."
"Two weeks? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried to deal with it myself, quietly."
"How?" The PA sounded worried.
"I flagged him as a high value target, I thought if I did that our own
militia or some pirate would take care of the problem."
The PA looked at him in disbelief. "You put a price on his head? He's a capsuleer. Even if someone sucseeded, he'd be back out in space in a new clone within an hour"
"OK, I know that NOW! I wasn't thinking straight. I don't deal with these capsuleer types. I didn't think!" the vice-CEO's voice was starting to break. "I didn't think!"
"Sir, these capsuleers. They need.... special handling." she paused to think "I have an idea how I could handle it. But I'll want 500 shares for what I'll need to do"
"500!" the vice-CEO was not happy, but he realised he'd have none in a few days anyway. Heth would at the minimum strip him of all his assets and put him to work in a mine somewhere. "OK, you'll get them". She turned to leave.
"Where are you going? I've only got 6 days left before Heth wants results"
The PA turned her head. "As you'll recall sir, I've met this capsuleer before, just before you made him into one. I'm sure I can 'steer' him around" and with that she left.

-o0o-

The Tengu strategic cruiser slipped out of warp at the station. The proximity of the huge mass of the station caused the cloaking field that hid the Tengu to deactivate.

Before the invention of strategic cruisers Mega-corp exec's and their top staff usually travelled in covert-ops ships. However, whilst nimble and hidden, there was always a small chance of getting caught. And frigates like those were very fragile. The Tengu was not only a ship capable of warping whilst cloaked, but had much better defenses and allowed the warp core to be stabilised much more heavily against propulsion jamming. It was a safer ship no doubt. She felt a jolt as it came to a rest in the executive hanger. She picked up her bag and checked its contents as she waited for the all clear to disembark. The outfit she had in the bag cost her nearly a months salary, and she was very well paid. It would all be worth it she thought, if she got those shares. The disembark light lit and with that she made her way to the quarters that she had reserved. She had 4 hours to get ready, and she was planning to use ever minute.

-o0o-

Getting access to the capsuleer deck on Nennemalia station wasn't difficult given her position. Very few people could get access to those decks. The capsuleers themselves, high-level mega-corp employees and also the staff that worked on the deck, serving and entertaining those two elite groups of society. The workers themselves were thoroughly background checked, searched and scanned every time they entered. However, even the Capsuleers and Execs had to walk through the scanners to to be sure. Weapons and anything that could be used as a weapon was strictly forbidden.

She saw him in the bar but didn't approach him. She took a stool at the bar and waited. Several capsuleers approached her, each looking for a good time. She politely refused. She was expecting it, any attractive woman in a capsuleer bar, who wasn't a capsuleer herself, was usually working or looking to snag themselves a rich pod pilot. Finally Drackarn came to the bar to get a round of drinks. She had purposely sat so that when he did come to the bar he would stand next to her.

"Oh my god! Drackarn? Is that you?" she feigned surprise!

"Oh hi.... wow! Sorry I never got your name when we met, I think I was a little shell-shocked."

The PA gave a girly giggle "You certainly were! It's Katherine. Wow it's so good to see you again. So you obviously passed!"

"Yes, first time too. What are you doing out here? A Caldari mega-corp PA on a low-sec station in the war zone?"

"Business" Katherine replied grimly "All boring stuff. The boss gave me the night off. They are all up there on deck 2's executive bar talking business. When they do that I leave them to it. The next best place to be on any station, and some might say THE best in the first place, is the Capsuleer bar. Won't you join me for a drink?"

They spent a long time chatting and catching up. It had been over a year since Drackarn had qualified as a capsuleer and he'd only met Katherine the once. This had been just as he started his capsuleer training which had been paid for by her boss as a reward for Drack rescuing his daughter from a traffic crash.

Whilst there was no day and night on a space station, people who lived on the station stuck to a routine generally. By midnight station time the bar was almost empty.

During the last few hours Katherine had been performing every seduction trick she knew off. During a visit to the toilets she'd undone a few buttons of her blouse, she'd made sure her skirt was riding high as she sat on the stool. She'd touched him on the arm often, she'd played with her hair, she'd bit her lip. Surely she had done enough? It was time to see.

"So, fancy continuing this party back in my quarters?" she purred.

"Sorry" he said. At that point Katherine started to panic, for her plan to work she needed to get him into bed. Was this ex-factory-button-smasher who used to be at the bottom of the corporate food-chain going to reject her? Not only would that put her job in jeopardy when Heth removed her boss, she wouldn't get those 500 shares. She needed those shares desperately.

"I cannot leave this deck. We're in a war-zone remember." Katherine was relieved. Of course.

"But you could come back to mine" he said. Katherine smiled, she'd got him.

Back in Drackarns capsuleer quarters he made some drinks whilst she put on some music. After he passed her a drink she told him to stand by the sofa. She downed her drink in one whilst starting to sway to the music. Slowly and seductively she started to discard her clothes. Soon she was stood before him only in her high heels, stockings and g-string. She pushed her chest out.

"So" she purred "You going to help me with the rest?"

Drackarn smiled. "Well for a start, the heels and the stockings can stay on. But yes, I'll deal with the rest"

"I've really got him" she thought "After tonight the rest will be easy. One secured job and 500 company shares coming up!" and with that she forcefully pushed him onto the sofa and climbed on top him, kissing him deeply.

-o0o-

Next morning she woke in his bed. She was sore, tired and hungover. Drackarn was nowhere to be seen. Her datapad was on the table blinking. He'd left her a message.

Sorry for abandoning you, I was called to a fleet engagement. Hope you are still there when I get back.

Last night was..... amazing!

I hope we can repeat it!

Drack

Katherine smiled. "Yes and no" she thought with a smile.

She had a extra long hot shower, capsuleer quarters were one of the few that had access to hot-water showers as opposed to the sonic showers generally used. She thought back to the previous night as the warm water cascaded over her. Oh god! The things she had done! For her plan to work she need Drackarn to want a repeat performance at any cost and no matter what the risk. She had to be the best he'd ever had, a fantasy, something amazing. Her research had been illegal Gallente skin-holo's. She had spent the previous afternoon and evening watching that Gallente filth so she could act it out. She shuck her head thinking about some of the thing she'd done last night vowing never to repeat them.

After the shower she dressed and left a reply.

Last night was unbelievable, and I want seconds you naughty boy!

However I have to return to corporate HQ now. Perhaps you can get away for a night? I understand the difficulties but I've heard you militia capsuleers have no problems visiting stations in Caldari hi-sec, out-running the Navy in a fast ship. Meet me at my corporate HQ in two days and I'll show you last night was just a gentle warm-up!

Katherine

xxx

She re-read the message to check it and sent it. She then left his quarters and headed to her waiting transport.

-o0o-

"You're back!" the vice-CEO said as Katherine entered his office. He looked like he hadn't moved. "The problem isn't dealt with?"

"Not yet sir, two days and it'll be done"

"That's cutting it pretty close! Couldn't you have done something in Nennamalia?"

Katherines eye's narrowed. "You had me followed?" she said accusingly

"Sorry, but I needed to know what was going on. My sources say you spent the night with him, but he's still out there, fighting!"

"Oh and what do your sources suggest I should have done. Slipped some poison into his drink in the public bar. Killed him whilst he's not connected to his pod and therefore prevented him from cloning but making myself the obvious suspect?"

"Sounds a good plan to me... especially for a reward of 500 shares" said the vice-CEO

"Yes and no! Yes, that's how you kill a capsuleer so he doesn't come back. But, no, smuggling any form of poison or toxin onto a capsuleer deck is next to impossible. The security, the scanners, the searches. Anyone trying to WILL be caught! That is unless..... someone very high-up in the owning corporation makes it so. Oh, and on a related note, he'll be in THIS station in 36 hours."

The realisation dawned on the vice-CEO. "How can you be sure he'll come?"

"Trust me. After the other night, he'll be here" smiled Katherine.

The vice-CEO looked apologetic. "So Nennemalia was just a taste to get him hooked. Lure him back here where we can deal with him in our own station without the fall-out? Some might say you've gone above and beyond the call of duty with that."

"Oh" she said "I cannot say it was totally unenjoyable. Plus 500 shares will ease what I suffered with the other bits. Take these. DO NOT, open them. I need them hidden somewhere where I can easily retrieve them on the capsuleer deck after all the scanners. I mean the hidden ones too not just in the entrances to the deck." Katherine handed him two vials.

-o0o-

The next morning she was in the lift to the executive offices planning the night ahead. She expected him to arrive early evening and meet him in the bar. The patsy was all set up. Some idiot Caldari Militia member. She'd payed a girl well to hook up with him, discreetly slip the other vial into his pocket and then make the accusation that she saw him slip something into Drack's drink when the shit hit the fan. She had thought of using the girl to lure Drackarn originally. But she knew she needed a very good reason to lure him back to this station. Her position was the obvious excuse, so she had to do it herself. As long as Drackarn or any other witness didn't see her pour her vial into his drink it would work. Gallente militia capsuleer poisoned on station by Caldari militia member, murderer caught red-handed. Witness saw him do it and there was evidence found on his person. The networks would have a field-day with that story and the damning evidence.

The lift stopped and a young male PA entered. He did a double take at her and smiled. The doors closed and the lift continued. He didn't take his eyes off her until they both left the lift at the main executive floor.

"That was a tad creepy" she thought.

As she walked through the main secretariat she started to feel self conscious. She was sure everyone was looking at her. The men appeared to have looks of lust on their face, the women, looks of disgust.

As she navigated the warren of corridors people paused their conversation until she passed.

She started to get worried. She thought what might be causing this. She could only think of one thing. Tibus Heth had arrived early. With that monster they had created still patrolling the space lanes, he's probably already sacked the Vice-CEO and I'm next. 12 hours, that's all she had needed. Damn it!

She entered the vice-CEO's office. A lot of people were crowded around his desk, she couldn't see anything. She must have been right. Heth must be here early, probably even sat at her ex-bosses desk. Someone noticed her entry and the noisy room went quiet. She moved to the desk and the people parted. Then she saw her boss slumped face down on his desk. An empty vial lay next to his head. One of the two she'd asked him to smuggle onto the capsuleer deck.

"Oh god NO! Why? Why did he do this?" she started to cry. To be honest, it was a put on, she didn't care about the vice-CEO, but she needed to save her own skin.

"Because Heth would have done it anyway tomorrow." The CEO suddenly appeared behind her. She spun around in surprise. He nodded at the crowd that had formed and they filed out of the room, leaving Katherine, her dead boss and the CEO in the room.

"Sir, it makes no sense. We were going to take care of the issue tonight. He didn't have to kill himself."

The CEO looked at her quizzically.

"You haven't seen it" he said with a semi-amused look "Do you have any true friends on this station Miss? Someone who might warn you of something bad"

Katherine's face dropped "No sir, not really. What have I not seen?"

The CEO gestured over to one of the big sofa's and she sat down facing a large vid-screen that had been brought into the office.

"I'm going to show you a short movie now. You are to watch every last second of it. Do you understand me?" the CEO's voice suddenly was full of venom and the last bit was more of a threat than a question.

"Yes........ yes, sir!" Katherine was very worried now. The CEO said "Play" and the vid-screen sprung to life.

Eelis Kiy Productions.... appeared on the screen.
In Association with SOTF Films..... the ticker of Drackarn's corp Katherine thought.
Proudly Presents..... she thought how professional the intro was. What the hell was this about?
The Gallente Militia - Screwing the Caldari War Machine one Slag at a Time!
Katherines blood ran cold.

Suddenly the screen was replaced by a view of her sat at the bar in Nennamalia. It was clearly already later in the evening. Her cleavage was showing and her skirt was hitched high. She looked.... desperate. Security camera footage? It looked to be from a ceiling mounted camera.

Katherine lowered her face into her hands.

"NO!" snapped the CEO "Watch it. Watch EVERY fracking second!"

Katherine looked back at the screen. The view now appeared to be that of Drackarn's own. Did he have a secret camera on his collar? No, the view on screen was what he would be seeing with his own eyes. Can capsuleers use some form of implant that records their own vision? Then she heard herself speak.

"So, fancy continuing this party back in my quarters?"

Oh god she sounded slutty and desperate. Obviously they could record their own hearing too. She would be very careful if she ever met a capsuleer again knowing everything may be recorded!

She gasp in horror. The scene had changed to Dracks quarters. Surely they weren't going to show what happened there! She watched as the movie unfolded. Drack making the drinks followed by her slow striptease and then to her climbing on top of him on the sofa. Then the next ten minutes compressed a whole three hours of carnal lust in. The footage, a mix of hidden cameras and from Drackarn's own point of view, was of excellent quality. It was more graphic than any of the vid-reels she'd watch for her research. Most of the audio was her, she was begging him loudly to do stuff to her that would make a cheap Gallente Pleasure Girl blush.

Finally the movie had nearly finished, she saw the progress bar at the bottom only had a few seconds left, she was glad of that. The last scene showed her on the bed on her hands and knees with Drack behind her, pulling her hair back painfully. She asked him, no, she begged him, to do something to her that was actually illegal in the Amarrian Empire. When he did, she started begging and screaming for more. Drackarn turned his head and looked directly into the hidden camera and gave an exaggerated wink as Katherine let out another scream of pleasure.

The screen went black. Big white lettering appeared on the black background.

What more?

Obviously a joke to her begging cries in the last scene.

Then please see any of the Executive PA's from.....

The mega-corp's logo flashed up filling the screen. The corporation anthem was playing in the background but they had also added a selection of Katherines sound-bites in the background. Her begging voice, pleads, screams, groans and moans all edited in time with the company anthem. The logo hung there clear, bright and loud for nearly half a minute. Katherine knew she was finished.

As you saw. They are REALLY friendly!

Katherine was in tears now, "Where did you get this from?" she sobbed

"It's all over the network. Every major vid site is carrying it, except in Amarrian space of course, but the illegal underground sites are sharing it there I hear. It's number one on the Federations YouHolo site apparently. I'd say the capsuleer saw your entire plan the moment he spotted you and arranged the set up" the CEO said without emotion.

The CEO moved around to stand facing her between the vid-screen and her. She looked up at him with tearful eyes. He reached into his jacket and set something down in front of her. She looked down on the table. It was the other vial.

She sobbed heavily again.

"I hear it's totally painless. Unlike a malfunction with the atmosphere controls leading to a decompression. I've heard that is one of the most painful ways to die. Soft flesh freezing, your blood flash-boiling.... your eyes and lungs exploding. Very nasty."

He turned and left the office.

Katherine stared at the vial in front of her, she had never felt so alone. She had no choice, the corporation had to make her disappear. The vid was bad enough, but the fact the Gallente obviously knew of the assassination attempt, now that could seriously damage the corporation if they ever spilled the beans. So they had given her an "easy" way out. Double suicide would make it easier to stage-manage the press.

She considered her other options. She could call one of the news networks from the desk and tell them the corp was trying to make her commit suicide. But then she'd have to admit why. Life in jail for planning pre-meditated murder was not appealing. Especially as their corp owned the prison facilities.

The escape pod! After the Malkenen incident most high-level Caldari Executives had escape pods installed in their offices just in case any other retired Gallente Admirals in Nyx class supercarriers had the same idea as Noir. The installation was relatively easy as the top executives had offices facing the outside of the station so they could have windows looking out into space. She looked through the window next to the discreet escape pod access hatch. She saw two corporate interceptors floating there in space. They had thought of that, perhaps even hoping she would use it, then they could suggest the vice-CEO was murdered. Katherine imagined the news feed - "PA who Murdered Mega-Corp Executive Killed Whilst Trying to Flee the Scene".

She sat back down and cried. She had no options, she was dead which ever way she chose. After a few minutes she reached out and picked up the vial and with shaking hands she removed the cap. She didn't know anything about the poison other than it was fast and there was no antidote, and painless according to the CEO.

"Bastard capsuleers" was her last thought as she swallowed the contents of the vial.

If the pain hadn't be so great so that she couldn't coherently think anymore, as the nanites slowly dissolved her insides, her final thought may well have have been something different, such as........... "My CEO lied!"

-o0o-

Lexx looked wide-eyed.

"Wow! I mean I saw the video, but I never knew...... wow!"

"Yup" said Drack "was an an interesting distraction. I mean I knew one day they'd try something. I'd been expecting it from the day I became part of the Gallente Militia. But I didn't expect how they'd try it"

"Well surely it's not over. I mean you are still a capsuleer created by them, you know of the assassination plot AND you made that video! Won't they come after you again"

Drackarn laughed.

"Yes, I thought the same too. So I decided I needed a safeguard. What I did was....."

Both Lexx's and Drack's datapads sounded.

"Caldari militia fleet heading out from Enaluri?"

They both rose from their seats.

"I'll see you in space in 10 Drack said as they both hurried to the lift.

-o0o-

2012

2011-12-21T05:34:00.000-08:00

No, not the end of the world.... what Eve might have in store for us next year!

2011 is drawing to a close. The 2011 Winter expansion was a success although when you look at it, there wasn't a lot of content in there. I'm hoping 2012 will give us two content heavy expansions as well as all the fixes and improvements we need. It has been said the day of the "Jesus Feature" has ended. But Eve needs expansions with big content. Expansions that fix stuff are popular with current players, but it does little to attract new players and does not make the headlines.

I know people want more Crucible style fixes, so do I, but we need to be careful. We need to retain players AND attract new ones. You are not going to attract new players with fixes (although you might temped ex-players back). You need new content as well.

There needs to be a balance. Fixes to appease the most bitter of bitter-vets and new content to keep others happy and to attract new people to the game.

Below I describe how I'd love to see the theme of the 2012 expansions. Fixes, little things and the like should still feature heavily - but we need some heavy content to make people notice the game.

Spring 2012

Eve Online - Ger Off My Lawn!

The Spring expansion is about the space we live in. Hi-sec doesn't really need much loving and thus does not really feature in this expansion other than in the risk vs reward balancing. There are two main elements to this expansion. Low-sec and null-sec. Firstly I'll quickly look into null-sec.... erm I don't have a clue. I've lived in NPC 0.0 and sov holding 0.0 but I'm no expert in what needs fixing. In fact I only know it needs fixing as Hilmar's open letter/apology says it needs fixing. And as he said faction war also needs fixing in the same letter (it does!) then I believe him that 0.0 needs fixing! Anyway in the Spring expansion they fix what needed fixing in 0.0 and make the improvements people want but I have no idea what they are. Clear? Super!

OK now onto the other part which is low-sec. Obviously from FW fan boi here I'm going to talk about faction war. So here is how I hope it's going to be....

Low-sec is going to be made more about the Empire wars storyline. However, the changes will effect everyone who lives or does their "thing" in low-sec from industrialists to pirates. As the faction war militias battle for control of low-sec the effects will be felt far and wide. The sovereignty of the system will have consequences for everyone. Basically low-sec becomes, as it should be, "0.0 lite". It is still the Empire's who hold sovereignty in these systems, but it's the players who conquer the system for their Empire. Holding a system results in good stuff for the Empire (militia) who owns it. But it could also effect other players. Just like the outposts from each race focus on a different industry, could the stations be effected by sovereignty? If the Caldari occupy the system the station there gets extra research slots, if the Gallente occupy it then refining and reprocessing fee's are cut. Suddenly non-faction war players who live in low-sec are interested in faction war.

"Mmmmm if I covertly help the Gallente (or Caladari or Minmater or Amarr) I'll make a lot more cash on......"

Also, as was mentioned as a possibility in a recent VandV podcast, the Incursion mechanic is used for faction war. I can see some fantastic ways this could work. Suddenly hi-sec systems bordering the low-sec areas are hit by Faction War Incursions. The aggressing Empire neutralise the defenders NPC Navy leaving the fight to the capsuleers to lead. The agressing militia can make good LP's attacking the sites that now spawn in the enemy's hi-sec incursion systems. But they are vulnerable to the counter attack of the opposing militia.
I asked on the SOTF forum what they wanted to see in 2012 and it was Faction War fixes and also more Faction War fixes. Oh and Eelis wants a "crotch bulge slider". These ideas/fixes have mostly have been shouted from the rooftops for a long time but generally include:-

Standings hit for remote repping GCC/-0.5 militia members.
Plexing and system capture meaning nothing. Need to make it mean something.
Faction War PvP as an ISK sink (Bounties/LP's for offensive plexing?).
Issues with LP's for missions against LP's for player kills leading FW to be full of farmers in stealth bombers. Needs rebalance and to reward PvP in FW not carebearing.
Faction NPC balance (jamming) in Plex's.
Move the story line along.
High-Sec FW "Incursions"
FW Pacts. "Alliances" using slightly different mechanics (i.e. cannot hold sov in 0.0).
Highlight allied militia members (i.e. Gallente-Minmatar and Caldari-Amarr) with colour tags

In the end, all the three categories of space line up as they should. In hi-sec you get X ISK per hour doing "stuff". In low-sec you get X+ ISK for doing the same stuff. In null-sec you get X++ ISK for doing it. The higher the risk the greater the reward.

This could be done in a variety of ways. Prices and taxes for services at stations could relate to the security status. Reprocessing, repairs and the like are linked to the security status. 1.0 systems are hugely expensive (Central London) whilst those in the middle of nowhere in a 0.5 (Norwich) are much cheaper. However, in order to tempt people into lo-sec 0.4 (Grimsby) it is even cheaper still and the risk vs reward becomes tempting. And all the way out in the back of beyond in 0.0 where few people want to go (Boston) the most money can be made.

Yes you can stay relatively safe in hi-sec, but you'll make more money for the same time and effort in low-sec, just with a tad more risk.

Winter 2012

Eve Online - Incarna mk II, We Did It Proper Like This Time!

The original Incarna that kicked off the summer of discontent wasn't really an expansion. It wasn't walking in stations, it was a slow amble in a single room. We know the problems Incarna caused but lets move on. Eve needs Incarna to attract more people to the game.

So, it's December 2012, doesn't look like the planet earth is going to end and proper Incarna is here. The station is open for business. You can wander down the promenade on the Capsuleer decks. Why not visit Drack's bar on level 6 where you can get a beer and watch the Gallente dancers working the poles for tips. Or may be you need to meet the shady capsuleer's from Uppers and Downers in the dark corner. They have some top-of-the-line contraband boosters to sell. Else just hang out and interact with your mates until the scheduled corp fleet in 30 minutes. Could "relaxing" in the bar act like a booster? Think Skyrim and sleeping in a bed to get the rested bonus.

You could visit the lower decks, there are shady people down there who have very rewarding missions to give out.... just don't forget your gun when going down there.

May be you're a bit ISK poor, a trip to the gambling den may sort you out. But if you see S810 jr at the table I'd move along if I were you!

Space Barbie is still here but now has a larger selection of items and more reasonably valued. For a start, new fashion designers have been brought in to "sex up" the clothing line like a British dossier on WMDs.

Remember the older artwork for Eve, few people wore brown and grey head to toe! Obviously we don't want people walking around in lingerie (OK may be I do) but lets give people some choice. Someone who roleplays as an officer in the Amarr militia is going to dress very differently to someone who rp's as a 0.0 pirate. And of course Gallente outfits are the best.....

Anyway, the NEX store is fixed and properly stocked with a wide range of gear at a range of prices. Think MICRO in MICRO-transaction please CCP. Now people can choose to spend their hard earned cash or hard earned ISK on VANITY items, if they so please. The additional financial stream for CCP is active, giving the company more money and allowing them to move forward towards the future vision of Eve. It also acts as an ISK sink keeping in-game inflation under control for those who want to spunk out on a monocle. That also lets us more easily identify "those type" of people in game!

Customisation generally has also landed with a hefty bump. Want a dancing pole in your CQ (dancer not included, unfortunately)? Want a different paint job on your Scorpion? Corp logo's on your ship and on your clothing? What's that tattoo'd on Tekitha's forehead? Surely that's inappropriate and against the EULA!

So there you go. That's what I want to see in 2012. What about you?

EVE Blog Banter 31: EVE Online Community Review

2011-12-17T00:53:00.000-08:00

"As any games journalist would probably tell you, a true and complete review of a Massively Multiplayer Online game is impossible. MMOs are vast, forever evolving entities with too much content for a single reviewer to produce a fair and accurate review. However, a collection of dedicated bloggers and EVE players (past and present) with a wide range of experience in various aspects of the game might be able to pull it off.

This special 'End of Year' Blog Banter edition aims to be a crowd-sourced game review. Using your gaming knowledge and experience, join the community in writing a fair and qualified review of EVE Online: Crucible. This can be presented in any manner of your choosing, but will ideally include some kind of scoring system.

With each Blog Banter participant reviewing the areas of EVE Online in which they specialise, the result should be a Metacritic-esque and accurate review by the people who know best."

Well, this is going to be a tough one for me. OK my area of Eve is Faction War. But even that area is massive! How do I write a review about Eve-O concentrating on faction war? Who am I writing it for? Someone who has never done faction war or someone who has never played Eve. I know! A Eve vs WoW score battle. Balls! I've been beaten to it - Why EvE Wins by Shalee Lianne @ Living a Lie.

Wow Stan, thanks for setting this one, it's going to be the toughest banter yet I think!

Oh well try this then....

-o0o-

Eve Online : Crucible - Faction War.

Eve is massive. I don't mean that in terms of a massively multiplayer online game. This thing needs it's own classification. It is truly a MMMOG (a massive massively multiplayer online game). With most MMOG there are a handful of classes with a smattering of side proffesions such as mining or crafting. In Eve you can do what you want. It's a true sandbox. This review of Eve has a slant to the Empire Wars in Eve Online which houses a fair sized chunk of the community.

Ease of Getting Into - 3/10

Eve Online is not easy to get into and faction war is even harder.

Character creation is rather nice and the avatar creation can give you an amazing looking character. As there are none of those pesky classes to worry about, the only thing you really need to think about is creating an awesome looking character!

Then you can run the tutorial missions to learn how to fly your ship.... and there you are. In a universe full of adventure and no-where to go!

This is where you really need to go to the web and do some reading-up on Eve Online. There are many great guides out there and help with the truly mindboggling choices of "careers", skills, ships and equipment out there. I used inverted comments for careers as there are no set classes as I've already said. Want to make a character specialized in asteroid mining? Well you need to train those skills.

Eve is not easy to get into, but if you climb the learning cliff, you'll be glad you did.

To get into Faction War you need standings (reputation) with your chosen Empire. This entails running missions for the correct agents found in space stations. An alternative is to join a play run corporation who already is in faction war. This in itself can be difficult. Meta-gaming is huge in Eve-O and spies and double agents are all the rage. Expect it to be difficult to get into a faction war corporation as a new player.

Overall Eve Online is not an easy game to get into, it does not offer fast "leveling" or instant gratification.

Faction War is even more difficult to get into if you want to get the best out of it.

Graphics - 8/10

Eve Online has traditionally focused on gameplay as opposed to graphics. Which isn't a bad thing always. I'm always more willing for forgive poor graphics when gameplay rules. But I cannot as easily forgive crap gamplay with pretty graphics. Thankfully Eve's gameplay has been always been king. However, over the last few years Eve had had a pretty serious makeover.

With graphical updates almost twice a year to some element in the game, Eve nicely keeps up with technology without requiring everyone to update their PC every 6-months. This all keeps Eve looking shiny and how many 8 year-old games can say that.

Game Play - 7/10

This element could easily run away with itself. The impossibly huge amount of things you can do in Eve could never be covered totally. The experience of a miner is different to that of someone running a 3000 person alliance. Even in Faction War, the game play options are immense. So I'll just broadly cover two of the main areas.

Player vs Enemy (PvE)
The PvE experience is pretty repetitive. You can accept missions from agents, but the selection of mission types is rather limited. Mostly they are "fly to this point kill/destroy/face-rape this ship/structure/object and come back here when done. They soon get boring and the objective becomes the rewards you get, not the mission itself.
There is also the joy of "plexing". This is where you capture star systems for your Empire. One of the major game play issues with Faction War is that capturing a system is pointless other than for bragging rights over the other side. It basically entails scanning down a site in a solar system and then orbiting a satilite for 10 to 20 minutes as NPC mobs either shoot at you (if you're capturing the system) or just stare at you (defending the system).

However, if the enemy militia find you it can suddenly lead to.....

Player vs Player (PvP)
PvP in Eve is brutal. Unlike many MMOG's there are no specific battlegrounds and no safe areas. When you 'die' your ship is utterly destroyed and all your equipment is likely taken by the person that killed you. So unlike other games, you don't always equip your best, rare and valuable equipment. You need to think.

Now many players of MMOG might shriek at the thought of this. But what it results in is that PvP means something. Losing a ship and all the equipment onboard means you'll want to replace it (although most players have a hanger full of ships to choose from. To replace it you'll need money (ISK). To get money you'll either need to do some carebear stuff or blow an enemy up and steal his stuff to use or sell. So the outcome of this? PvP is uber-exciting. In your current MMOG do your hands shake when you in a 1v1? If not, you're doing it wrong.

PvP in Faction War ranges from solo roaming, looking for 1v1's, to large fleet engagements with hundreds of players. These epic fights are rarer these days than in the hay-day of Faction Warfare in 2009, but they are still around.

There are problems with PvP. There are bugs with the criminal system and remote repairs. Plexing doesn't generate as much combat is it should as plexing is relatively meaningless. But on the whole. PvP in Eve Online is perhaps some of the best PvP online.

So overall a lack-luster PvE experience and game-mechanic issues is more than made up for PvP with consequences!

Community - 10/10

One of the greatest things about Eve-O is the community. There is nothing like it out there. Eve-O is a social game. You can play solo but you'll miss out on 90% of the game and 95% in enjoyment. CCP are accesseble, I've had their Facebook page take one of my comments and turn it into a post. On Twitter I've been followed by Dev's and regularly tweet back and forth with them. The forums have devs posting obviously, but most importantly replying.

In the spring on 2011 CCP launched the eagerly awaited Incarna expansion. In hindsight that was a mistake. We all make mistakes, every company makes mistakes, CCP made a mistake. There were player protests across the gaming world, inside Eve itself and also on the internet. The players cared enough about the game not to go "oh sod it, I'll play something else" they spent time and energy campaigning to correct the mistakes. All all credit to CCP who put their hands up and when "Oooops! Yeah messed that up a little bit" and put everything right with Crucible. I'm sure the Sony Online Entertainment executive in charge of the Starwars: Galaxies NCE saw this and went "Ah! THAT'S what I should have done"

And if this wasn't enough, the players each year elect 12 members of the Council of Stella Management. A group of non-CCP players who are flown out to CCP's HQ a few times a year to act as a soundingboard/advisors all covered by a strict non-disclosure agreement.

Eve Online has perhaps the best community both in and out of game of any MMOG out there. No argument!

Longevity - 10/10

Eve has been going eight years. It was 2003 when the game launched. That was the year the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry, the first case of SARS, the Iraq war kicked off, the Governator took office in Calafornia and Concord retired.

There are usually two expansions (free!) per year. These usually contain fixes and improvements plus new content. Faction War itself came from one of these expansions.

As highlight above in "Community", when CCP gets something wrong the players do all they can to encourage CCP to put it right. With such a supportive fan-base, a company that actually listens to the players and fans and a constantly evolving and improving game..... I cannot see Eve Online going anywhere for a long time.

Conclusion ~~38/50~~

The scoring doesn't work!!!

When you break it down, you can see cracks in the game. Small issues, bugs, gameplay issues, they are there like in any other game. However, there is no "other game" that compares to Eve. Look at the game as a whole and its amazing. It's a massive, player driven, open-universe sandbox.

So whilst if you look into just a small area of Eve Online, it looks to be nothing special. However, step back and look at the game as a whole..... it's awesome!

38/50? Bah, scoring fail!

-o0o-

Sorry Stan, my blog attempt doesn't work. I struggled with this one and I think it shows. After writing this, I now can see that you cannot break Eve Online down into 'areas'. What makes this game special is the whole game together and the community. And just to repeat, even with the problems, Eve Online is awesome!

Although not everyone thinks so.....

-o0o-

Other blogs on this -

The Rollercoaster Thrill Ride that is Eve Online, with Cookies, Review by Rixx Javix @ EVEOGANDA
Why EvE Wins by Shalee Lianne @ Living a Lie
The Entire Wormhole That Eve Is by Harrigan Vonstudly @ Gun Turret Diplomacy
EVE Online Community Review by Drackarn @ Sand, Cider and Spaceships
EVE is what the player makes of it by tgl3 @ Through Newb Eyes
Challenge Accepted by Jace Errata @ Year of the Snake
Reviewing EVE Online by Urziel @ Urziel's EVE Chronicle
The Difference is... by Mike Azariah @ Missioneer in EVE
Attempting the impossible by Sessym @ Rants from New Eden
Community Review by Eelis @ The One That Writes (Drack - MY GOD! SHE'S ALIVE!)

Drackarn's Story (Fan Fiction)

2011-12-15T04:31:00.000-08:00

.........or "A Funny Thing Happened to me on the Way to the Factory."

In Eve Online I play a Caldari character.... fighting against the Caldari State for the Gallente Federation.

A long time ago we did something on our forum to encourage people to make a post about how your character got to where they are now. For me that took a bit of thinking. I'm Caldari but I'm fighting Caldari. Mmmmmmmm....

-o0o-

Lexx and Drackarn were having a drink at the bar in Nisuwa VII State Protectorate station. It had been a quiet day. Since the major shipbuilders had released their hybrid weapons platform update, the Caldari had been pushed back. For the first time in several years the Gallenete Federation held more of the contested low-security space than the Caldari State. Now the front lines had moved and the Caldari were subdued.

Whilst they were ideally chatting a member of the Caldari Militia walked past.

"Turncloak" he whispered under his breath as he passed, quietly, but just enough to hear.

"What was that about?" Lexx asked.

"Me" Drackarn said with a sigh "Caldari by birth, fighting for the Gallente Federation in the Empire wars. I've been called worse. Want to get a table?"

They both sat down in a booth.

"Thinking about it, you've never told me how you become a Capsuleer and ended up fighting the Caldari State. I'd heard you were just a factory worker for one of the State Mega-Corps before. How did you get from being a worker to a capsuleer?" Lexx asked.

"Well..." Drack started "... it all happened several years ago......"

-o0o-

"Heat in reactor 3 is up a bit" Dantan sounded concerned.
"Not a problem, I've been bring the power level up to compensate for number 5 being offline." Drackarn said whilst checking the read-outs.
"It's within 10% of the automatic shut off. If we're not careful it'll go into emergency mode and we'll both be in the shit."
"It won't, it'll peak in 5% more and then dip"
"If your wrong we're both fired... and in this economy.... hell 7% until shut down. I'm going to take it down a notch!"
"NO! Don't! Trust me, it'll peak. If you turn it down we'll loose the cascade sequence and the power output won't be enough. Trust me" Drackarn sounded confident.
Dantan watch the read outs, he was sweating. 6% to emergency shut down, 5%..... 6%, 7% 9%
"It's cooling!" Dantan sat back in his chair looking incredibly relieved.
Drackarn swung his feet on the console. Tilted his head to Dantan and smugly smiled.

Suddenly the door to the small control room opened. A small weaselly man stood there. Drackarn quickly moved his feet down quickly. The man was known as a subordinate to one of the mega-corp directors, although nobody knew which one. He eyed the two technicians carefully before clearing his throat.

"Production was scheduled to be down 3.48% today due to a reactor being offline. The shift is nearly over and my data shows production was actually 0.2% up on typical. The factory floor states this is because there was no power drop. What's being going on?"
"Well.... erm......it's.... " Dantan always stammered around the executives and their staff.
"We squeezed some extra juice from reactors 2 and 4 to compensate. Not something we want to do all the time, but I thought the extra effort would be worth it" stated Drackarn.
The slimy PA eye'd him suspiciously. "OK. Well keep up the good work!" and left.
Drackarn rolled his eyes.
"Think there will be bonus'?" Dantan asked hopefully.
Drackarn flicked a few pages through his monitor. Well looks like they are making generic armour plates and Blackbird hull structures today. That 3.5% extra output should have netted tens of millions extra ISK. So........ NO! Of course we won't. We never do. Mr Slimeball's boss will probably get a huge bonus, a ton of drugs and 18 Gallente pleasure girls to satisfy him in every way possible, twice, hell may be even a third time. What will we get? An expectation that we can do that every time."

Dantan looked thoroughly dejected as the shift change siren sounded.

Drackarn stood and grabbed his coat from the closet in the control room. "Face it mate, it's how the State works. Your either an executive or not. And for all of Tibus Heths bellowing, it's changed frack all in the grand scheme of things". And with that he walked out of the door.

Drackarn jumped on his hover-bike. The weather was wet and freezing, but he couldn't afford a proper car. He even had to spend most of his free time fixing this heap. It took four goes to start the thing on average. It was five that night. After it had finally started he set off and 50 minutes later he was parking it outside his front door. The worker apartment was small and sparcely furnished. Very Caldari. He turned on the small holovid as he entered and nothing happened. He brought his fist down heavily on top of it and it crackled into life. Tibus Heth's face appeared on the screen at some sort rally. Drackarn turned it back off immediately. He went over to his small single bed and laid down, he was mentally exhausted from manually controlling those reactors all day. Although it was still evening he was back at the factory in 6 hours and needed some sleep. He reached under the bad and pulled out a plain glass bottle. He popped the cork and took a swig. The raw alcohol burnt his throat. He placed the bottle back.

"So this is life is it?" he though as he drifted off.

-o0o-

Next morning the bike took 6 attempts to start which included several kicks, a punch and, Drackarn thought, the invention of a band new swear word. Finally it had started and he was on his way to the factory now. Although he really wished he wasn't. It was still dark and very early, his times for the next week where the graveyard shift. It was damp, windy and the sleet was making his face sting.

Ahead he saw the rear lights of a vehicle through the gloom. He slowed down slightly. Soon a long hover-limo emerged from the gloom. No doubt some sleaze-ball Executive. Drack thought about overtaking, but in these conditions he decided against it. He had passed the occasional small transport coming the other way. Visibility was poor. If he caused a crash, being fired would be the least of his worries. He'd heard stories about staff beening blacklisted throughout the State because they pissed off the wrong Executive.

Sudden one of the transports coming the other way swerved and hit the limo in the side. There was a loud bang and a grinding of metal as both vehicles rose in the air. Drackarn banked his bike heavily to avoid the spinning wreckage. He hit a sign at the side of the road and was throw off. He picked himself up and surveyed the scene. The two vehicles lay on their side, twisted together. Small fires had broken out. It was eerily silent. No other vehicles we about.

Thump!

Drackarn looked around to see where the sound had come from.

Thump! Thump!

He saw a small hand at the rear door of the limo. He raced over and tried the door. It was either locked or jammed. The fires were getting bigger.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The hand was beating on the window with more urgency. Drackarn picked up a long metal bar that had spilled from the transports load. It bounced off the hardened window and numbed his hands as he swung the bar against it. He tried again with the same effect. He raced around the vehicle and found the drivers door partially open. He wrenched it open, the driver was obviously dead. The passenger compartment was sealed and all power was down, no way to open the doors. No way in. Then he noticed the blaster in a holster at the drivers hip. He grabbed it and went back to the rear of the vehicle. He leveled the gun at a different window, away from where the hand was beating, and pulled the trigger. Nothing.

"Frack, safety!"

Drack had never touched a gun before, he'd only seen them used in holo-vid movies. He fumbled with the safety catch and pulled the trigger again. This time a red bolt sprung from the gun and hit the window. Nothing but a scorch mark. Drackarn fired again, and again, and again. The fires were getting close now.

After half a minute of firing, the gun clicked harmlessly, it's power-cell depleted. The plexi-glass in the window glowed from the heat of the shots, but was still in one piece. He picked up the metal bar again and swung it at the glowing window. This time there was a tiny audible crack. He swung it again and the window burst showering him in fragments of hot glass. Drackarn dropped to his knees and looked inside. There was a small girl, clutching a doll and coughing in the smoke-filled cabin. Drack reached in a grabbed her as the fire started to consume the vehicle. He pulled her free and turned to move away with her clutching his chest. He hadn't gone more than five metres when the wrecked limo exploded.

Drackarn was flung into the air by the force of the blast landing with the girl some distance away. Some how he'd shielded the girl. His vision was going black, his body screamed in pain. The girl was shaking him.

"Citizen?, Citizen!! Are you alright?"

Drackarn, tried to laugh. "Could be worse...." he croaked "....I could be at work". He then passed out.

-o0o-

Minutes, hours, days, weeks. Drackarn had no idea how much time had passed. He thought he was in some of medical bay but he was never conscious long enough to know. He'd heard fragments of conversations during the brief moments he was awake.

".... I have no idea, its most irregular. Usually the corporation lets them go when they are in his condition. Saving them is usually more expensive in medical fee's than recruiting and training a replacement, well, for non-Executive staff anyway. Apparently an Exec is coming to see me tomorrow about him. May be we'll know more then. For now, just make sure he doesn't die."

"Yes sir, he'll more than likely survive. You payed for the best and he is getting the best. For example we've also been able to repair the scar tissue and the......"

"........another week, perhaps ten days. We want him completely sedated for that long. Give the body time to heal. Then once that is done we will......"

".... Really? On HIM! Well I suppose it's possible. But reviewing his background wouldn't that be a waste of money? I mean we can give him the surgery, but can he afford the training? Even if he can afford that, has he got the mental capacity to use it?"
"The funding will be taken care of, but you say it can be done". A new voice!
"Yes, but I want to make it VERY clear. We can do the operation but whether he can ever use them is something out of my control. The procedure is perhaps the most expensive one available and there can be no guarantee's that the person can be successfully taught to use them. Many rich persons have paid for it, only to flunk the training every time they have tried."
"We understand that. Here is corporation authorisation to carry out the procedure and to bill us direct. I assume you have no problem with that."
"Of course not, we aren't going to do credit checks or need a pre-payment from......"

-o0o-

Drackarn woke groggily. He had been moved but the room was dark and he couldn't see anything. He could smell the room was different. The last one was bright and white and smelt of disinfectants all the time. This room was pitch black and smelt... well he'd never smelt anything like it. It was fantastic. The bed felt different too. Comfy and big. He swung his legs off the bed and slowly rose. He felt weak and unsteady. All he could make out was a faint glowing panel on the wall. He made his way slowly to that. A digital readout showed 21:32 - ST. He had no idea what ST meant. The controls below didn't seem to active the rooms lighting. He started off slowly in another direction, hoping to find the lighting controls. He whacked his shins on something!

"FOR FRACKS SAKE WHERE'S THE FRACKING LIGHTS"

Suddenly the lights activated. Drackarn blinked as his eyes adjusted. Voice activated lights? He looked around. He was in what looked like a posh hotel room from a movie. Comfy bed, expensive sofa, the biggest holoscreen he'd ever seen, artwork on the walls. A table in the center of the room had a tray of food on it. There was a desk was in one corner covered in books and a computer terminal. In fact there were books stacked all over it. He went over and looked at the covers of some. "Introduction to Warp Theory", "Light Missile Trajectory and Warhead Physics", "Living with Immortality - A Philosophical Guide", "Mindlock - How to Avoid Hell".

"Those are a bit heavy for a hotel read" he thought

A large double door was locked tight. He then tried the single door on the other side of the room. It opened to a bathroom the size of his old apartment! He looked at the shower cubical. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Where are the sonic emitters he thought. That funny looking one at the top isn't going to clean a lot. He pressed a button and water gushed from the shower head!

"Holy frack!" Drack exclaimed. He'd only ever seen sonic showers. Water showers were for the rich only.

Ding Ding Ding!

Drackarn returned to the main room to investigate the sound. The three dings sounded again but he couldn't see where it was coming from. They sounded a third time. The large double doors opened slightly.

"Mr Drackarn sir, may I come in?"

"Erm sure"

A woman man entered the room. Drack had worked for the company long enough to spot an Executive PA a mile off. Usually they were best avoided. This one was stunning, she was wearing a short-skirted power-suit. Her expensive high heels clicked on the floor as she entered. The attractiveness of the PA usually was in direct corrolation to the level of the Executive. These guys needed the best PA's around. Finding one which was not only excellent at their job, but was also beautiful was rare. And those few commanded rates only the high-level executives and CEO's would pay. This one clearly worked for someone very high up!

"Thank you sir. I hope you are feeling better. Please sit."
"Yeah, thanks. And the names Drack. Nobody calls me sir!" he laughed.
"Well, might I suggest that you'd better get used to that, sir. Hope you don't mind the intrusion, the motion sensors informed me you were awake. Do you remember what happened to you?"
Drackarn eyed her suspiciously, but let the "sir" comment pass.
"I was on my way to work. There was a traffic accident. The driver of the limo... he was killed. I managed to break a window and pull a little girl out. No idea what happened to the transport driver. Then the limo exploded. Thought I'd wake up dead. I don't suppose I am dead am I? Although this hotel room is so nice I still think I might be in heaven." Drack smiled "Am I close?"
The PA smiled at him.
"Hotel room? Oh yes. Right. Your memory serves you well. I'm afraid the transport driver died in the crash. We think he fell asleep at the controls. Do you know the little girl you rescued?" Drackarn shuck his head.
"That's good. And you never will either. Suffice to say her father is very powerful and very, very rich. He is also very thankful to you for rescuing her."
"So this is my reward is it? A stay in this posh hotel?" Drackarn asked. "Could be worse I suppose! Any chance of getting my bike fixed as well?" He stretched and leaned back into the plush soft sofa bending his head back over the soft luxurious cushions. Suddenly he jerked forward in shock. His hand flew to the back of his neck.
"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!"
The PA rose out of her chair, both hands outstretched to try and pacify Drack.
"Please sir, calm down. It's alright"
"ALRIGHT? THERE'S A FRACKING PEICE OF METAL IN MY NECK! WHATS A PIECE OF METAL DOING IN MY NECK???"
"Sir, it's not a piece of metal. It's an interface socket."
"AN INTERFACE SOCKET? DO I LOOK LIKE A FRACKING DIAGNOSTIC TERMINAL TO YOU?"
"Sir, please calm down. It's an interface socket..... for a hydrostatic capsule"
Suddenly Drackarn went silent.
"What? Like a capsuleer? Don't be ridiculous! I've never been off-planet never mind flown a starship"
The PA smiled again.
"Computer. Viewport. Open" she spoke out loud.

Drackarn spun around as he heard a mechanical motor engage. At the end of the room a shutter lifted. The view was of the planet below. The realisation hit him. He was in space. He was on a space station in orbit! He walked to the viewport and stared out.

"Oh" is all he could say.

"My employer is grateful. He has paid for your surgery and for all the costs for your capsuleer training and living expenses during that. This is where you are now. These will be your quarters during the training program. An instructor will be along in the morning and your schedule is on the computer terminal over there. My employer cannot help you pass, but he has opened the door for you. He says the debt is paid in full. Good luck sir. I am sure you will do well."

With that she left the room, her heels making the click-click on the floor as she left. Drackarn didn't even acknowledge her. He was just staring out of the window.

-o0o-

"Wow" said Lexx "A real rags to riches story. That was a massive lifestyle change in a short period of time. Do you ever miss your old life?"

Drackarn smiled and picked up his glass of expensive Gallente vodka. He slightly raised it to two beautiful women who were sat at a table across the bar. They returned the gesture and smiled back at him. Drack could see by the look on their faces he could have either of them tonight... or perhaps both.

"No" he finally answered with a laugh.

"OK, but how did you end up here fighting for the Gallente against the State when it was the State that trained you?" Lexx asked.

"Well, after I qualified I ran missions for the State like a good little boy. I was not held in particularly good standings with the Federation at that time. One evening I was drinking in a bar and I bumped into an old friend. He too had taken the capsuleer path and offered me a position in the Capsuleer Corporation he was part of. So I moved over to Gallente space with my Caracal class cruiser and my few possessions. That's where I leant the truth about the Federation. The crap we get fed in the State about the Caldari way being a better system. The Gallente have freedom, choice and the ability to rise to the highest levels never matter what your background. Oh, the Federation is not perfect, not by any means, but it's people have a better life than the 95% of the Caldari society who slave away for the other 5%. I owe the State nothing. Even these implants are simply a payment for services rendered. The life of one small child for one set of implants and a training course! I remember his PA's words "He says the debt is paid in full". No, I am no more part of the Caldari State as I am part of Sansha's Nation. Anyway, as Revelation Space got pulled into the Empire Wars, so did I. I tried to avoid it at first. Mining and running missions for the Sisters of Eve rather than fleeting out of Villore to break the OMS blockades at that time, but in the end I became a Militia combat pilot. And then with merger of the combat wing of -RS- into SOTF, well, you know the rest as well as anyone. And here I am, I might be fighting the Caldari State, but I see it as helping the Caldari people. They are not really living under that system. Federation rule and Federation values can set them all free."

Lexx laughed "I'm not sure your 'sponsor' would agree" she commented.

"Him?" pondered Drack "I've got over 2000 confirmed kills of which most are State Militia. With the replacement ship orders his comapny has had because of me, I would actually think he fracking loves me!". They both laughed.

"To be honest I did have some sort of contact with my old life. It was about two years ago, but that's a story for another time Lexx"

Drackarn got up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Asked Lexx.

"Squid boy over there, the one who made the dig, is paying his bill. I've got some 720mm projectile shells with his name on them!" and with that Drack walked towards the lift to take him down to the ship hanger.

"Time to give my 'sponsor' some more business" he thought.

End of Part 1

(There wasn't going to be a part two but I just had a thought about the 'sponsor' and Tibus Heth.... mmmmmmm.....)

CCP Giveth, and CCP Taketh Away

2011-12-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

CCP Giveth!

"Ah, the agony of choice"

Captain Edmund Blackadder

Apparently CCP will give us a choice to redeem ONE of the following Xmas prezzies from 22nd December. Just watch out for the redeem item button on the 'Character Selection' screen. It should be lit now actually. The CA-2 implant can be redeemed from today until December 21st!

The Christmas pressie choice are as follows....

Destroyers. Receive ALL of the following:
- Destroyers skill book
- 3 destroyer hulls - race of your choice
- 10,000 of each navy ammunition - race of your choice (e.g. you can get 10k of each type of federation navy small ammo, or 10k of each type of caldari navy small ammo, etc)

Previous gift ships. Choose ONE of:
- Primae OR
- Zephyr OR
- Echelon (with purloined Sansha codebreaker)

Implants/boosters. Choose ONE of:
Genolation CA-1 implant
+3 implant set
5x Quafe Zero
+1 Neural Remap
Standard boosters: Blue pill, drop, exile, crash

Fuel. Choose ONE of:
1000x of each racial fuel blocks
One of each racial fuel block BPO

Navy ammo. Choose ONE of:
5x of each large navy crystals
10x of each medium navy crystals
2500x of each large navy ammo, race of your choice
5000x of each medium navy ammo, race of your choice

2000 Aurum

For my Archon alt account it's easy. The Neural remap will mean I can remap to ships and then remap to drones. She's almost finished the Int/Mem skills after over 6 months and can only fly a frigate. So that remap will be useful!

My other carebear support account is a bit inactive currently. I guess maybe the faction ammo and pass it over to Drackarn?

For Drackarn it's not so easy.....

I love destroyers so the Dessy pack with the 10,000 rounds of each type of small RF projectile ammo (of course it has to be Minmatar! Trust in the rust!) is tempting.

Not interested in the previous "gift ships", they are carebear ones.

Got the CA-1 implant, BUT, will they increase in value as people get podded and lose theirs? Will that little implant become much more valuable in future?

Neural remap? Got two saved up already plus struggling with skill planning. 60m SP's and I don't know where to go now! Remap isn't going to help me.

Boosters? Always handy.

Fuel? Don't own a POS, but would they sell OK?

Navy Ammo? Defo an option, I always need ammo!

Aurum? Depends. Is Space-Barbie crap selling well on the market? If I used that, added it to the rest of the AUR we've been given and bought some stuff with it to chuck on the market. Would I make a decent profit? Are there sufficient people buying that stuff?

On a side note, I do think that boosters generally are undervalued in game. I wonder if the option of some free ones might make people think "Go on, I'll try them". However as Standard boosters, they are illegal in hi-sec. I wonder how many people will redeem them whilst sat in a high-sec station?

And CCP Taketh Away - Part 1!

"We've got less choice than a Welsh Fish and Chip shop!"

Dave Lister

68mb for tomorrows patch! Damn and Ouch CCP!

OK I might be in a minority, but I have less choice in my internet provider/service plan than at an Amarrian multi-faith church. i.e. Your choice is THIS ONE!

My 10gb allowance (the most expensive and top-of-the-line data plan) has already taken a beating this month, we're not yet halfway through and I've got a full nine days off work at Christmas of which three are "wife free - play games all day" days. Google image search is what really eats my bandwidth. But it's needed for writing the entries to this blog. Therefore it's Eve Online related. Therefore its CCP's fault ;)

Anyway if you want to know what you're getting for your 68mb of download, here's the Crucible patch notes.

And CCP Taketh Away - Part 2!

CCP... why Iceland?

Do you know the arse it's proving to be to get to fanfest. And the cost. Flights for £900 with two stop overs. WHAT? Feck that!

There is one which has one stop over?

Ideal!

£3000!!!!!.

Actually two stop overs isn't THAT bad!

Crucible Theme Music - A Blast From the Past?

2011-12-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or is the music on the Crucible log-in screen....

.... a nod to one of the greatest space games on the PC ever?

In days before digital soundcards. When Wolfenstien 3D ruled the FPS genre (well of course, it was the only one). Before the internet properly took off. When you bought a game on floppy disks and didn't have to put up with the shite that is Steam. When RAM was £25 a megabyte and a 30mb harddrive was more than enough.

I don't know, but when I log onto Eve now and hear the Crucible music, I think about those days-gone-by!

The Hangover

2011-12-10T01:09:00.001-08:00

"My head feels likes there's a Frenchman living in it"

Lord Edmund Blackadder

"Were you up all night playing that bloody game?"

The Wife

First off, the eagle-eyed amoung you might have noticed a new page in the menu bar above. I've added "Fan Fiction" to detail the short stories I write, given the positive feedback. So now onto the battle report from last night....

Ouch!

Well I've woken up at 1pm with a sore head. My guts ache and I feel sick. There MUST have been a good fleet out last night. Let me log into Eve......

Yup, I'm in a T3........ logged out in space...... with armour damage...... many, many jumps from home.

MUST have been a Tek fleet. Let me ask in Corp......

[08:54:27] Drackarn > Ooooooooooch! What THE [flip] happened last night/this morning? I've woken up at 1pm with a huge hangover and to find myself logged out randomly in space, in a T3 in armour damage?
[08:54:34] Drackarn > Oh................ a Tek fllet?
[09:10:38] Tek's Twin > lol
[09:11:06] Tek's Twin > u were properly [flipping] smashed mate
[09:11:07] Tek's Twin > was funny as [flip]
[09:11:21] Tek's Twin > had an awesome fight tho
[09:11:26] Tek's Twin > check ur killboard

Ah. Opening Notepad I see I was taking notes, although not very well. Here is an example line from my notes from last night...

"wtf! epuc battke between fleets. They got l,oits of caps, e got lots og BD, it's 5am ffs."

Apparently Senshimaru is a hero and I have no idea who Sanshimaru is! (although as a scuba diver it sounds like a shipwreck in Truk Lagoon) And our killboard looks awesome. Anyway here we go................

OK. It's Friday night. Time for a drunken fleet. What shall we fly? Well T3's of course!

I'm in a Loki with Notepad open to record what's going on as I'm rather "tired and emotional". May be I should close the Twitter window..... after the last time :)

With the boosts, I have a 97% EM resist. That's just silly!

We hear of a pirate fleet in OMS so head down there, but their scout in a Rapier spots us and they run!

Some more flying about and a lone pirate cane jumps into us, POP!

http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_detail/571171/

Domi WT reported other side of the gate as we murder the 'Cane. POP!

http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_detail/571177/

Bit more flying around and we find a Fleet Typhoon on auto-pilot..... laugh away...

http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_detail/571207/

So we head into 0.0 and find a nice fleet to engage. They have BS and ECM. Not sure if the carriers were already there or if we got hotdropped. Neither I nor the FC remember. Apparently there was a cyno so likely we were hotdropped. Nobody remembers!

The funny part was we smashed their support fleet and tacked the carriers, but we couldn't kill them, they were tanking like a boss.

So what do you do when you need to kill capitals? Na na na na na na na na na.....

However, there was a problem. The same alliance we asked to help kill the carriers had already been asked by the other side to rescue them. We both had friends in the same alliance!!! So they said "meh, u guys duke it out" and stayed out of the fight.

So we did..... sooooooooooooooooooo slowly. I had to disengage and pop next-door to buy overpriced ammo. 6,000,000 on 5,000 rounds of ammo! And I pretty much used it all!

At this point I have to give a shout out to Senshimaru and Hilfe, the enemy Archon pilots. Not only did they tank....

But they could have self-destructed and denied us the killmail for all the "hard work". But they didn't. They stood their ground and fought. A couple of proper Eve Online hero's! I really mean that.

It was an epic fight! KB is a bit messed up as SEDITION alliance were dropping the odd bomb on us and tagging everyone. Thankfully we repaid their "help" by blowing up some of their bombers. So desperate for KB stats are we boys? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Anyway here is the battle report for you to look at whilst I try to give the wife a reasonable explination why the kitchen floor is covered in cheese (apparently I went AFK during the fight to make some cheesy-chips).

http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_related/571255/

Kills:	42
Losses:	4
Damage done (ISK):	8.29B - 8287.94M
Damage received (ISK):	0.13B - 126.23M
Efficiency:	98.5%

Thanks to all involved. It was mucho fun.......... I think!

Are You in a Minority in Eve Online?

2011-12-08T00:44:00.001-08:00

Apparently I am!

I posted a small glass of full-bodied whine on the Eve-O forums that faction war had been lumped into the "little things" session for the December 2011 CCP/CSM summit. CSM Two Step said CCP weren't committing resources to FW currently therefore "Little Things" was the best bet to get some things sorted for us.

Several people have said, both inside and outside of faction war, that this was because Faction War was a "minority".

Oh.....

Hang on a sec!

For this blog I'm going to argue with myself for a bit.

How do you define faction war as a minority? Compared to what?

Well of course 0.0 and hi-sec Drackarn!

Let me stop you there. You are comparing a region of space to an activity in Eve, you cannot do that. It's like comparing Ninjas to Pirates! You need to compare like with like..... and Pirates beat Ninja's btw!

OK then Mr Picky, how about 0.0 carebears. There's a lot of them!

Yes I agree. During my time in 0.0 I found the majority of 0.0 players were carebears. Interesting argument, but when you look at those carebears there is no such thing as a "common carebear". They come in all shapes and sizes, and more importantly, do very varied things. Devoting resources to improve mining is not going to make any difference to those who chain belts all day. Changing the rat spawning mechanic in asteroid belts is not going to make any difference to those who run a POS and build spaceships all the time. Changing POS's is not going to make any difference to those who run level 5 missions in a carrier all day. I could go on with exploration, archaeology, hacking, trading (logistics and market seeding) and all the other carebear proffesions of which there are a lot!

OK then, 0.0 PvP'rs

Small gang or 1000+ blob? HAC gangs, BS gangs or supercap blobs? Would you like your PvP battle with or without a hotdrop? Sov wars, war decs or just simply there for roaming gang PvP? Pirate (shoot anything that moves whilst yelling G'AAAARRRR) or NRDS alliance fleets? Again, there is no "common pvp'r" and changes to one game mechanic may only effect a small number of the total of that group.

Is there actually a majority player base in Eve Online? Just split it down when you are thinking of game mechanics and security status of the space. Each area, high, low, null sec and wormholes have a lot of players in them. Low-sec and WH's admittedly probably have the lowest population. Then each of those areas can be split into three - carebears, PvP and alts. I wonder how many high-sec toons are simply alts, many of which have been in spaces once in a noob ship to move to Jita and then never undocked again? Then each category can be split again and again.

But before you go any further, what about the activity? Us low-sec PvP'rs kill more than those 0.0 lot.

Balls!

Well here is a list of the top 10 corps in terms of kills in 2011 for high sec, low sec and null sec from CCP Diagoras.

As the top corps in wormhole space were posted, here's the same for high/low/null sec. Narrowed it down to just 2011 so far though:

Top 10: 2011 so far, kills in high sec, excluding capsules, shuttles and rookie ships.
Blue Republic 28,406
Red Federation 23,603
Interstellar Brotherhood of Gravediggers 7,775
Suddenly Ninjas 3,638
Nova Ardour 2,699
Privateers 2,521
Concentrated Evil 2,118
Gank Bangers 1,994
The PriestHood 1,921
Guy Fawkes Trust Fund 1,789

Top 10: 2011 so far, kills in low sec, excluding capsules, shuttles and rookie ships.
Heretic Army 9,010
the united 8,946
The Tuskers 7,990
Immortalis Inc. 5,650
Quantum Cats Syndicate 5,268
TunDraGon 4,330
Shadows Of The Federation 4,307
Wolfsbrigade 4,136
The Imperial Fedaykin 3,992
Snuff Box 3,881

Top 10: 2011 so far, most kills in null sec, excluding frigates, capsules, shuttles and rookie ships.
Fremen Sietch 7,538
GoonWaffe 6,894
SniggWaffe 5,951
Sniggerdly 5,338
Dreddit 5,206
D00M. 5,109
Xenobytes 4,708
Agony Unleashed 4,691
Free Space Tech 4,682
Interstellar eXodus 4,588

Ooooo look, my corp Shadows of the Federation and our fellow corps in the Faction War "minority", Qcats, and the Amarr militia corp Wolfsbrigade are in the top 10 and looks like low sec'rs have more PvP fun than the null sec'rs!

Check out the numbers of the top 5 null sec killer corps by total number of members (as of today).

Fremen Sietch has 63.3 kills per member on average this year.
Goonwaffe has 2.3
SniggWaffw has 29.3
Sniggerdly has 16.2
Dreddit has 2.1

We in SoTF have 42.2! So apart from Fremen Sietch, we get more kills per member than four out of the top five 0.0 corps in kill numbers. And we're seventh in the low-sec top ten o.0

So whats your point faction war fan boi?

My point is that when looking at improving something in-game, unless it is VERY general like graphics or the new BC's, it will likely focus on one minority or another. Like POS fuel blocks. They are simply of interest only to those who fuel POS towers (not people who own them or use them, only those who fuel them) and the people who make the fuel. They are a minority in Eve online. Time dilation, unless you are fighting in 0.0 alliance battles with hundreds of pilots, again it's of no interest to you. T2 siege module, I bet characters with Tactical Weapons Reconfiguration 5 are very much a minority! There is no "majority" in the Eve Online player base. We all live in our own small minority.

OK finish up with your last argument-winning point FW fan boi!

If we are such a small minority, why did Hilmar flag us up in his open letter a couple of months ago?

"For me, the most frustrating aspect of this is that after all this time, as far as EVE has come and in spite of everything that’s happened, I fervently believe with all my heart that we’ve not even scratched the surface of EVE’s potential. My personal failing is not reconciling that passion with pragmatism. We’ve been trying to expand the EVE universe in several directions at once, and I need to do a better job of pursuing that vision without diluting or marginalizing the things that are great—or could be great—about the game right now. Nullsec space needs to be fixed. Factional warfare needs to be fixed. The game needs new ships. We need to do a better job of nurturing our new players and making EVE the intriguing, boundless universe it has the potential to be."
Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO
CCP Hellmar

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

/end_whine

The Repairs (Fan Fiction)

2011-12-06T23:18:00.001-08:00

Afraid it's some more geeky fan fiction. I nearly lost a BC the other night. However, the tale is nothing really interesting. We won and I got out with my ship in low structure. It was one of those pleasing warps where you are almost in warp but you can actually see the enemy missile salvo heading towards you. If you get into warp you are safe, if they hit you, you are dead. This time I did get into warp, the missiles streaked past harmlessly and the fleet finished off the enemy before I could bounce back.

So rather than write about the fight, I thought I'd write about the aftermath. We've already seen Scotty busy with other tasks now he's not moaning about us capsuleers trying to swap ships too quickly. How about fixing what's left of my BC?

-o0o-

Scotty looked at the battlecruiser. How the Capsuleer had made it back to station was a wonder to behold. The ship looked like it could fall apart at any second, or worse still explode in the hanger. He knew that was unlikely, if he'd managed to fly it back to the station in that condition then it wasn't going to explode, but it was going to take a lot of fixing.

Scotty's job was to assess the damage so the correct number of repair crews could be assigned. This was usually a simple task. He had a datapad that would connect to the service port on the exterior of the ship and the ships computer and the datapad would link. They would then make a list of the damage, what replacement parts were needed and any other important information that would help the repair crews. Hurricane class battlecruisers had this port by the rear engineering hatch.

As Scotty walked around the ship he could hear various sounds. Escaping gases, the crackle of fusing and melting electronics and small pops as various circuits and routers exploded. Of course you always had these sounds on a Minmatar vessel, just not normally so many.

He reached the rear of the ship and looked up, the dataport wasn't there. But neither was the engineering hatch. A 6m long scar of blackened and twisted metal sliced through the hull where the hatch used to be. Some Amarrian laser weapon glanced the ship Scotty summised. Probably from a battleship or one of those new battlecruisers packing battleship class weapons. He picked up a rusted stray bolt that was laying on the floor by his feet and tossed in at the rip in the hull. A blue flash appeared as the bolt hit an invisible forcefield. Ripples expanded out, bending the light and then vanished away again.

"Well at least the damage controls are online" he thought.

With the service port gone the only way to complete his task was to go to the bridge. Not a task he relished. Looking at that ship he knew not all of the crew would have made it back alive. Dead ship systems were one thing, dead crew members were another.

He walked up to the command hatch which had direct access to the bridge. Before he got there he could see that too had been hit. Not as bad as the engineering hatch, but a laser strike had fused the top right hand corner of the hatch. Scotty took his datapad and accessed his collection of the Sisters of Eve applications. The Sisters were experts in search and rescue and their databases contained detailed schematics of every ship flown in the galaxy. A rescue program would suggest entry points if you told it which ones were inaccessible. He keyed in the details of the ship and which entry points he'd already tried and the suggested route flashed up. Scotty groaned out loud. The access to the bridge would take him the full length of the ship from aft to fore. Of course it would, Minmatar ships usually had limited access ways and corridors. If it had been Caldari he'd have had 5 or 6 ways to access to the bridge.

Scotty made his way back to the rear of the ship and opened the engine access point. It was nothing more than a crawl space. He pulled himslef up and crawled along into the engineering bay. He kicked the grill covering the end of the crawl way and slid his body down to the deck. The damage was bad, heavy smoke lingered around the warp core which was now shut down. Powerlines had been severed and dangled from the ceiling gently swaying and sparking noisily when they touched something. Consoles flickered in the dim emergency lighting. Then he saw the first one. A young male Minmatar, from his overalls Scotty guessed he was engineering crew. One side of his face was blacked with plasma burns. Scotty forced himself on, out of engineering and into the central corridor that ran the full length of the ship.

There were countless doors between engineering and the bridge, but Scotty did not look in any of them. One or two of them had bloody hand prints on the small window, probably from dying people trying to escape from some fire, explosion or imminent hull breach. He passed racks of escape pods. The ship survivied so the abandon ship alarm had never sounded. Therefore the escape pods were never activated by the capsuleer who kept control of that system to ensure no crew abandonded ship too early.

Toward the end of the corridor he faced a sealed bulkhead. The pressure warning light was on which didn't make any sense. They were in the hanger, any hull breach here didn't matter. Scotty assumed like most of the ship, the sensors were damaged. He flicked the safety stitches for the override. The door opened and there was a tremendous hiss. Scotty was lifted into the air and flew in past the door and landed 20 meters down the corridor. He shook his head to clear it.

"What in Divinity's Edge happened there?"

It was like he'd opened the door into a vacuum but he still could breathe. But if they were in the hanger how could there be a vacuum here. A breach in the hull would let the air out in space, but it would also let it back in when it docked in the hanger. Then he saw it, a hole in the hull. The blast had breached this section of the corridor but the damage control forcefield had not engaged fast enough. The emergency blast doors had sealed the corridor section off. But the area had been depressurised by the time the forcefield had finally come up. When the ship returned to the station the forcefield and blastdoors had stopped the atmosphere from entering. Scotty looked at the hole. It was relatively small and circular, he assumed a hit from a frigate. 220mm calibre titanium sabot? Then he noticed the blood and remenants of flesh around the blast hole. Some poor crew member had been in here and had been sucked through that tiny hole into space. What a horrid way to go. Was the crewman young or old? Was it a man or a woman? Is their partner in this station crying over their death? Are they on another station awaiting news of their loved one? Scotty moved on quickly.

Finally he reached the bridge. Again the pressure warning light was on. Scotty wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, it was probable that the same thing had happened here. He accessed the door control pannel and slowly vented atmosphere into the bridge. The pressure warning light went out and Scotty opened the door. Dead bodies littered the floor. Scotty surveyed the room but did not see any major damage or any obvious hull breach. The view port was cracked but it was still in one piece. He picked up his scanner and surveyed the window. The presision scanner identified a micro-crack all the way through the plexi-steel. This is were the atmosphere escaped, but as it was not a proper breach the damage control system could not detected it and did not put up a forcefield.

Scotty looked around again and noticed two bodies in the corner, different to the others that were simply sprawled out on the deck. One male was slumped, sat in the corner, he was embracing a woman tightly. Scotty couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene. Were they married? Were they lovers? Or just two people comforting each other as the atmosphere slowly drained out and they waited for death. Scotty did some calculaions in his head. It must have taken several minutes for the air to reduce to such a level that they lost consiousness. Why didn't they escape? Of course, the corridor had depressurised from the frigate hit. They had no where to go. They simply sat down and waited to die whilst the air screamed out of the micro-fracture. What were there last words? Did they speak at all or did they just sit in somber silence? Did any of the others panic? Where they screaming?

It didn't matter, they were dead now.

Scotty interfaced his datapad with the main console and saw the overall status of the ship. Strucutal intergrity down to 12%! Surely one more hit would have destroyed the ship. The repair inventory was downloaded, it was priced and a neat little estimate was ready to be sent to the ships owner.

Scotty was about to message the Capsuleer with the quote for the repairs. Something stopped him, the death, the destruction, he had to see him. The one that caused this. Was he in his quarters morning his dead, was he talking to an agent looking for his next mission or was he with his Militia members planning their next battle?

Finally he pressed the video-call button on his datapad instead of the message option. He was breathing heavily, he knew he shouldn't be doing this. No hanger crew ever spoke to Capsuleers other than docking control, and then it was brief and official. He'd never heard of anyone from the hanger crews calling a Capsuleer on their datapad.

After a few seconds the speaker sprang to life. It was noisy, but the screen remained black. Suddenly there was light as the datapad was removed from a pocket. Music was playing loudly and Scotty spotted a lot of people drinking as the datapad was spun around. Scotty assumed it was the capsuleer bar at the top of the station. He couldn't be sure, he'd never been there. Only capsuleers and their guests were allowed on that deck. He'd heard rumours, but he had never seen what goes on in there.

"Blast it"

The screen jumped and the view span. Scotty couldn't make out what he was seeing.

"Bollocks!"

The view stabalised and appeared to be that of a ceiling. Suddenly there was movement, one-by-one, a pair of slender legs came into view. 6" high stilletto heels were visible at each side of the screen, Scotty followed the view of the shapely female legs up, past the stocking tops until the view went too dark to see under her short flaired skirt.

"Oh dear, Mr Clumbsy. You dropped your datapad, I guess you'll have to reach down there and pick it up" purred a seductive female voice with a slight giggle at the end. Scotty watched as a hand reached out and the fingers curled around the white skin above the top of her stockings. The hand then slowly slid down over her thigh, knee, calf and ankle before leaving her leg and grabbing the datapad. The view shook again as the datapad was picked up and a mans face appeared.

"Yes"

"Sorry to disturb you Capsuleer Drackarn. But I have the report on your Hurricane. Mr Alpha."

"Right... don't you guys normally send a message. What is it?"

Scotty saw a woman slide into the picture, Caldari looking, short dark hair, she nuzzled the capsuleers neck. He didn't react and just stared at Scotty. Scotty didn't know if it was the same woman he'd seen stood over the dropped datapad or a different one.

"Yes sir, we normally do. It's just....... in this case....... erm...... I thought I'd call."

"Why this case? What's different?"

The Caldari woman ran her tongue up the side of the capsuleers neck before taking his earlobe in her teeth and pulling on it gently. That time Scotty noticed a slight reaction in the capsuleer. That woman was good at what she does he thought.

"Well sir...."

Scotty was now wishing he hadn't called.

"What is it?" the capsuleer sounded impatient.

"The required repairs are pretty extensive and won't be cheap."

"How much?"

"Erm, 9 million ISK sir"

"HOW MUCH?" The capsuleer shouted at the datapad.

"Sir..... the amount of damage...... the...." Scotty stammered. Why did he call him?

The capsuleer laughed.

"I'm joking with you grease monkey. That's nothing, how much do you think this one is costing me for the night...." he gestured with his thumb to the woman still nuzzling his neck "...and her friend."

"What sir? Her friend sir? Who...?" Scotty was all confused, he'd wanted to speak to the capsuleer about the dead crew but now...

Suddenly another woman entered the picture. Again stunningly beautiful, red hair and clearly of Minmatar origin. She started nuzzling the neck of the first woman.

The capsuleer smiled at the two women and retrieved a bottle of Gallente vodka from the table and took a swig straight from the bottle.

The reason Scotty called him was that he was going to make a point about the dead crew, try and reach the capsuleer, make him see what he had done. But he saw there was no point. Only a few hours after his command crew had slowly suffocated on the bridge of his ship, he was out celebrating the victory by partying, drinking and whoring. The stereotype of the aloof, immortal capsuleer was spot on. They didn't care about the mere mortals of this galaxy.

"And the dead crew Sir?" Scotty finally said with resignation in his voice.

"Do what you normally do. Contact the families, see if they want the bodies sending back or sold to the cloning company and the money from the sale returning to them. Really grease monkey, is it your first day on the job?"

Scotty watched as the Minmatar woman reached over and gently pull the Caldari womans face away from the Capsuleers neck. She twisted it towards her and kissed her deeply. Scotty could see her tongue slip into the other woman's mouth.

"No sir, I'm sorry sir. Its just with so many dead...."

"Then there will be a lot of well compensated families. Look you can see I'm busy, my companions are also getting bored with this conversation and having the entertain themselves" the capsuleer smirked.

"So if there is nothing else...." the Capsuleers tone indicated the conversation was over.

"No sir, I'm really sorry to have bothered you sir. I apologise. Have a good night."

The capsuleer tilted his head to one side and his look seemed to scream "Are you blind or stupid! Of course I'm going to have a good night!"

The datapad went blank.

Scotty lent against a bulkhead and gripped his head in his hands. He really shouldn't have done that he thought. He imagined being called into the office next morning. His boss screaming at him whilst that capsuleer sat in the corner, feet up on the desk, idily flciking though a datapad without paying any attention to them. He imagined words and phases such as "gross misconduct", "fired" and "never work in this industry again".

Then he thought, no, that won't happen. That man didn't care about most of his crew dying horrible deaths a few hours previously. Why would he care about a short call from a lowly "grease-monkey". He had no doubt the Capsuleer will have forgotten the whole conversation within 10 minutes.

Scotty sent the damage reports off to maintenance. The ship would be back in services in a matter of days with a new crew. All eager for the riches that capsuleer crewing could bring...... if they survived long enough to claim it.

Blackbird Tennis

2011-12-02T22:45:00.001-08:00

Ever played Blackbird tennis? Before the RSPB gets on my case, not real Blackbirds, the ECM cruisers.

I logged onto Eve this morning which is primetime for the US. Someone mentions the squids (derogatory name for the Caldari Militia. Caldari - Calamari - Squid) are forming a fleet to count one of ours that is already out. I jump into a ship and burn but I'm several jumps out. The problem is the Squids do the classic and bring a bigger fleet with lots of ECM and some of the new teir 3 BC's and BS. Not only that, they set up on gate and expect us to jump into THEM! They have 10 more than us, heavier than us and have a lot more Ewar. No way lads, no way!

However, we do know that the Control Bunker in Nagamanen is vulnerable. So we head over there assuming they follow. Then they'll have to jump their superior fleet (steady! I meant in ship numbers, sizes and ECM) into us if they want to save the system.

Obviously they do but slowly.

By the time we get to Naga we find some Gallente Militia already there shooting the Control Bunker. We join in shooting the Control Bunker in Naga and our scouts report the Caldari Militia fleet slowly moving slowly towards us. Finally they get on the Naga gate in Deven, we're still shooting the bunker.... but are aligned to the Deven gate which happens to be a regional.

The squids jump, we warp slightly a range, along with our new friends who were already at the bunker. They decloak spread out all over the place, we land in a tight ball and start killing them. They start realizing that spread out, they are in trouble so warp out, abandoning those we have pointed, and come back in. During that time we've killed those they left and moved slightly so they don't land on top of us, and the fight begins in earnest.

Then the Blackbird Tennis starts.

Both sides have a Falcon each but the Caldari also have two Blackbirds compared to our one. People shoot the ECM boats, the ECM boats warp out and back. People shoot the ECM boats, the ECM boats warp out and back. The difference is, mostly the Gallente keep on the primary. The Caldari are splitting fire on our bouncing ECM boat.

They are obviously splitting fire on us normal ships as well as swapping to the Falcon everytime. I'm in a Drake and I have two random guys shooting me. Thankfully no point so I warp off as I hit mid-armour but the fight is over as I'm bouncing. The Caldari retreat. I assume we killed their primary and secondary target callers given the random spread of their DPS and no focus fire.

To be fair I think they lost a few ships when they moved from Enaluri (their home system) to Naga. The BS were not there for a start. And also we had 5 or 6 bombers join us who were already bunker bustin'. We lost two or three ships, killed about 7 or 8 of them and gave the others a nice repair bill. 2 or 3 tier 3 BC's were lost by the squids compared to a Drake, a Rapier and a bomber our side.

We loot, repair and go back to busting the bunker.

*Not a screenshot from today's fight, this was yesterday in Kedama.

Good fight and that's another system captured by the Gallente. The difference Crucible has made is amazing!

P.S. No killboard summary as the KB's aren't accepting the new tier 3 BC's.