PL : WTB New Titan

Or.... Faction War Noobs Kill PL Titan

Anybody who follows the forums or any social media with a heavy Eve presence will be probably aware that Pandemic Legion have no issue camping the stargates in Amamake....... with a Titan. Earlier this week there were reports that they were now using smart-bombing Titans on the gate. Seriously? Low-sec doomsday?

None of the other big alliances/blocs seem to care about this, quite frankly, unacceptable behaviour. However, given that PL's spy network is second to none, they are probably scared to drop them. But what can we, the "Faction War Noobs" do about it?

Well...... we can Leeroy Jenkins into the mouth of the Kracken!

The plan was hatched. Shadows of the Federation would join forces with our old friends and older enemies (it's a complicated relationship), Wolfsbrigade.

During the week, a support fleet was moved into position without anyone but a small group knowing. Those dreadnought capable pilots got them ready. People were told to be online Friday night for an op with saying what we were doing. It was all super sheeeeecret. Remember, this is not the usual way in Militia.We don't do alarm-clock ops or CTA's. We log on, violence internet spaceships and log off whilst having a lol.

As the hour approached we sent half our fleet off in their pods to cries of "WTF", "Why?", "What's going on". When they reached their destination they were given ships.

We deadnaught pilots went off in groups, jumping to separate mid-points so at no point would a single person see our full force. Our 85 man fleet was hidden in 4 separate locations.

And then we waited. Of course PL might not camp the gate with a Titan tonight. We might have epically blue balls. But the trap was set and the "Faction War Noobs" waited.

Thankfully we didn't have that long to wait.

The sub-cap fleet undocked and got onto a friendly titan. At the same time 4 separate cloaked cyno ships approached the PL titan and it's support carriers.

Then they popped their cyno's and we jumped into the fire. 40 ish HICs and Battleships landing a few seconds before 40 Dreadnoughts.

We Dreads immediately sieged and started taking out the Archons as the HICs tied down the Erebus.

We knew we didn't have long. We had just dropped Pandemic Legion in their own HOME SYSTEM!

The Archons went down fast. 40 Dreads in siege do put out a lot of DPS. I was unable to lock the primary in most cases. But then the call went out "All DPS on the Erebus".

It went down fast! I couldn't believe how fast it died with 40 dreadnaughts laying the smack down. It popped and one of our guys was able to scoop the 9bn ISK of loot it dropped too!

Special props to S810 for his contribution (look carefully):-

Damage done:		0 (0.00%)
		S810 Jr
		Shadows Of The Federation
		Drunk 'n' Disorderly
		Proteus (Strategic Cruiser)
		Civilian Light Electron Blaster
Damage done:		0 (0.00%)

OK S8 was only whoring, he wasn't there for DPS, he had a special role and a special fit

Then PL arrived.... in force. They hit us with - another FIVE Titans (1 Avatar and 4 Erebus), around 40 Super Carriers (including 27 Nyx and 12 Aeons) and about 30 carriers.

Of course we died in a fire (my poor Moros). But it doesn't matter - had titan kill.

KB Links -

The killboards are all pretty messed up. We had smartbombing ships and so did PL so everyone everywhere on the battle reports. We believe we won on ISK. However in the end,  doesn't matter - had titan kill.

Titan down on Eve-Kill - http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=12761765

Our KB's Battle rep - http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=12761785

PL Battle Report - https://www.pandemic-legion.com/killboard/view_battle.php?start_time=2012-03-16%2022:37:00&end_time=2012-03-17%2000:20:00&system=Amamake

Quotes -

Amarrchick009 > o7 more brave than 90% of eve

Lupinum > youd did what goons would only cry about

NykoMe > gg lads long time coming

boris thebutcher > very nicely done amarr, respect

@rulesaremyenemy - You guys dropped a PL titan in their home system without a super cap fleet. You can walk around acting smug for at *least* a month

@KuanYida - Nicely done. Woulda loved to have whored onto that one...

Forum/Blog Links -

Failheap - http://failheap-challenge.com/showthread.php?229-Low-Sec-Empire&p=399840&viewfull=1#post399840

EveNews24 - http://www.evenews24.com/2012/03/17/jail-bait-pandemic-legion-erebus-down-exclusive-scoop/

Gamerchick42 - http://www.gamerchick.net/2012/03/pandemic-legion-loses-titan-to-militia.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gamerchick%2FXZwr+%28%40GamerChick42%29

Wolfsbrigade (From one of the architects of the operation) - http://wolfsbrigade.org/?p=713#comments

The 101st Post (Don't Mention the Launcher)

So this WAS TO BE my 100th post on Sand, Cider and Spaceships. However, due to Starship Trooper sized bugs in the 14th March Eve Online update which gave me 4 hours of trying to get the game to work, I didn't post this. After a great idea in the bath, I raced dripping to the computer, got Eve to work and then posted the "Bodgit and Scarper" solution for others who are stuck.

So the original 100th post was going to be a bonus dual topic post! Firstly something appropriate for my 100th post and then a battle report that shows Karma is a real thing!

Part 1 - 100 Reasons Eve is Bloody Amazing!

So I thought why not list 100 reasons why Eve Online is the greatest computer game there is, for my 100th post?

Then I really thought about it and found a good reason why not, 100 is a bloody large number (not as large as 6000 which is the number of Eve players who cannot get into the game due to the launcher bugs). So instead I went for 10!

10 Reasons Eve is Bloody Amazing!

1. It's Elite, 30 years or so on.
Elite was one of my favourite games on my old rubber-keyed Spectrum 48k. Trading, mining, fighting it was all there in wire-framed glory. Eve Online is Elite's son, all grown up. Cobra MkIII FTW! There was no "Docking request accepted" from the back of the station in those days! You had to fly to the door!

2. It's Sci-Fi.
If I have to compare Eve to a sci-fi program I always go for Firefly/Serenity. But there are similarities from every sci-fi program you can think of. Star Wars, Star Trek, Lexx, Firefly, etc, etc. If you like sci-fi, you'll love Eve Online.

3. PvP Actually Means Something
In most MMOG's when you die it's a minor inconvenience. You might need to do a "corpse run", you might have a small repair bill, you might have to have 15 minutes downtime from resurrection sickness. But that's it. When you die in Eve your ship is gone, it's fittings are probably gone (unless your buddies looted it) and you've lost something. Your going to need to make cash to replace it. This will take time and effort. This makes PvP meaningful. How many games can make your hands shake in PvP?

4. You Choose Your Career Path and There are no Limits to Character Development
In Eve you can learn any skill, and there are a lot! In other games you have classes or careers which define what you can and cannot do. Choose a priest and you'll never, ever, be able to pick up a two-handed sword, ever. In Eve, every door is open to you. I can fly logistic ships (healer), ECM Recons (Crowd control), heavily tanked ships (erm... tank), heavy DPS ships (DPS.... obviously), Interceptors (scout), Command ships (Buffs). Some I can fly well, others not so well. However, there is nothing in game that I could not use if I wanted to train for it.

5. There is Minimal Grinding
Progression in most MMOG's is done through the acquisition of experience points (XP). Find monster, hit it over head till it's dead, find another monster, hit it over head.... and repeat. In Eve skills train over time like in real life. There is grinding in Eve for example standings or sec status. But generally it's limited.

6. The Backstory is Amazing
Like all sci-fi things, a good back story is essential. And Eve has perhaps one of the best. Years of novels, chronicles, scientific articles, fan fiction, fan videos. There is a huge wealth of information out there which gives Eve an in-depth and immersive story.

7. Eve is Social
You CAN play Eve solo. If you do you are missing out on a MASSIVE part of the game. From 900 man fleets to just you and a couple of mates having a laugh and a roam in small, fast ships. As they say, you can do it on your own, you can do it with someone else... but it's always better in a group!

8. Eve is beautiful
If a picture can paint a thousand words, can a screenshot do ten thousand?

9. It's a Sandbox
The game gives you back, what you put in. Don't do much? You won't get much back. Work at it and there is no limit. Look at Mitten's (The Mittani). He's just a player... with 6000 other players under his command and a small galactic empire of his own! Scams, betrayal, war, peace, politics, spying. It's all in Eve, and it's all created by the players!

10. The Game Developers Listen to the Players
CCP are not perfect. They occasionally get things wrong (wow was this an understatement when I wrote it at the start of the week). So do we all! But they listen, they take comments on board, they change! What other game this size can you chat to Dev's (or spam the CEO with whines) on social media so easily and make your voice heard?

Bonus 11th Reason.
Now I've done my 10 I'm seriously thinking I might have been able to do 100 as there are still a lot of great reasons I've not listed!

Part 2 - It's all on the Wheel.

The other night, one of our guys spots that there is an unusual number of people in a dead-end system near us, so goes for a look. A bit of scanning reveals some dreadnoughts at a POS. The dreads and POS are sat there and are all same corp. Another dread arrives, and the others open up on him.

We assume the corp member they are battering is either a new member who they have led into a trap (recruit a dreadnought pilot, light cyno for him, kick him from corp, gank him) or did something VERY wrong (slept with CEO's wife etc?).

Anyway we see our opportunity and get things ready.

They pop their corp mates dreadnought (probably no longer their "mate" to be honest) and we use that wreck as a warp-in for our own cyno ship. We drop them, kill them and debate the true meaning of Karma.

Unfortunately I was in bed at the time so missed the fun. But was a laugh reading about it next morning!

Failure to Launch

This is my 100th post on Sand, Cider and Spaceships. The draft I had prepared was "100 Reasons Why Eve is the Greatest Game There Is". Instead it's now a bloody rage post plus how to fix that bloody awful launcher!

Eve Online Crucible 1.5 launched yesterday. I set skills running that would last me until I got back from Fanfest just in case as the new game launcher was.... erm.... launching?

Anyway I got home from work, fired Eve up and it worked! Launcher was installed, the game ran. Fantastic!

Fast forward 24 hours to the 14th March. Sounds like there has been some major problems for others with the patch. So CCP updated it. I downloaded the updated launcher and it ran and started downloading an 18mb patch. Oh well, with a week in Iceland I'll not be using my full bandwidth anyway this month. 6.89mb...... and..... and..... Mmmmmm stuck!

Restart.

6.89mb again!

Turn PC off and on.

Sticks on 6.89mb! ARSE!

Ask the very knowledgable #tweetfleet

Lodewijk Gonggrijp ‏ @LouisDeGuerre

•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite 
• · Open

@Drackarn http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=4928&tid=1 #tweetfleet #launcherissues

Thanks Louis. Step 1, turn off PC and restart, step 2 launch the repair tool direct from the install directory by double clicking the exe file.

Ah it's patching!

6.83mb! /stops

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Check forums. Lots of people having problems.

File petition.

3/14/2012

Launcher.... won't.

Installation & Patching

Open

Forum rage complaining at 2+ days wait for an answer.

Wife is watching Sleepless in Seattle!

Serious danger she might see me not playing Eve and ask why. Cannot think of a good excuse. Real reason may lead to "spend some quality time" suggestion.

Panic!

Go for a bath to avoid being spotted not playing Eve.

Have a great idea!

Make a post on the corp forums.

Wait.....

A god-damn fracking hero called Lock Out exports his working patch from the launcher. This is supposed to be for people with multiple PC's so they only need to download the patch once. He uploads it to a file-sharing site and gives me the link.

I download it and import it via the launcher tools menu.

I'm in game but still very, very angry!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Minmatar Militia - Friend or Foe?

"There's only three alternatives. It thinks we're either a threat, food or a mate..... It's either going to kill us, eat us or hump us! Either we persuade it that we're not that kind of ocenaic salvage vessel or we scarper pronto!" 

- Dave Lister, Technician 3rd Class, Jupiter Mining Corporation Vessel - Red Dwarf.

Our corporation (Shadows of the Federation) rules of engagement are clear - Not Blue? Shoot it! (NBSI).

Nice and simple, if you don't have good or better standings to my corp then I can attack you, and CONCORD security standings be dammed. Yaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!

We're currently having an early "spring clean" of the corp and looking at this issue. And things are getting complicated with our friends and allies, the Minmatar Militia!

We are Gallente Militia and therefore have always been fighting alongside the Minnies, not against them. We can legally shoot their enemy, the Amarr, and they can shoot ours, the Caldari (if they can find any, we're struggling). We're allies in the back-story and in the past, have been in-game. However, now there is a problem with them.... or should I say that they have a problem with us!

Whilst we are a militia corp, we are also generally a pirate corp (I'm -4.99 after the weekend. Just 0.01 more naughty points...). Some of the Minmatar militia have set us to "Terrible" standings because of this. So now we have some of the Minmatar who we are "kill on sight" to, and others that are friendly. In the past it was simple, if the pilot had Minmatar militia next to his name in the overview we were reasonably confident he'd be friendly towards us. Now we don't know if that Minmatar pilot is friend or foe. Are they going to help us or attack us?

Generally low-sec is relatively clear of this political BS. I assume the guys who are setting us red are roleplayers. So no point trying to reason with them, hell why would we want to? We're a PvP corp here for the PvP and if they want to offer themselves as extra targets for us to shot, Fan-fracking-tastic! MOAR TARGETS!

However, we're not sure how many Minmatar Militia corps have done the same. So what do we do?

Keep All Minmatar "Blue" by Default as Previously
Not really an option as some of the corps have said they will attack us. Our corp members may think they are on grid with a friendly and end up being killed by that friendly.

Set Unfriendly Minmatar Corps Red Whilst Defaulting General Minie Militia to "Blue"?
This is going to be a problem as we don't know everyone in Minmatar militia who has set us red. Therefore our pilots would be at a disadvantage against someone who has set us red but our pilot thinks that they are blue. Also a mixed Minmatar gang is going to be confusing with blue-on-blue incidents a plenty.

Do not see Minmatar Militia as "Blue" and make them all viable targets?
Not ideal as we're supposed to be fighting on the same side! We're not big role-players... actually we're not role-players by any means. However, it still feels wrong to be gunning for the Minnies!

Set Friendly Minmatar Militia Corps to +5 and keep to true NBSI, Ignoring Militia
Looks like this is our only real option. This is not ideal. But, we don't see any other alternatives. Any Minmatar militia corp or alliance who wants mutual blues will get it, no questions asked. But you have to ask for it. Otherwise we have to assume you're one of the "KILL THE PIWATS!" lot and will fire on us given half a chance. Therefore we'll be taking the Malcolm Reynolds approach.

I'm personally not happy with this situation but what choice do we have?

Unfortunately some Minmatar militia corps started this by setting us red. In the words of one of our FC's..... watchya gonna do?

Any Minmatar Militia corporations or alliances who want to be friends, please contact Gallactica in-game to sort blue status.

Blog Banter 34: The Rise of the Spaceship Politicians

The polls have just opened for the election of candidates to occupy the 14 seats on the 7th Council of Stellar Management. To kick-start a topical CSM-themed banter, CCP Xhagen - fierce champion of freedom of speech and in his words, "the guy that gets yelled at when the CSM dudes do booboos" - has offered this question:

"How would you like to see the CSM grow, both in terms of player interaction and CCP interaction?"

Banter on.

I did this post last month about the CSM elections. Technically I could have just used that one, but I thought I'd slim it down for this banter....

Basically I proposed that at least half the CSM should be officer positions responsible for a specific area of the game. That way the CSM would be more representative of the player base rather than being mostly null-sec power blocs.

Governments work like this. You have the Minister/Secretary for Education. Why shouldn't the CSM work like that? Have someone on the CSM who knows what they are talking about for each area of the game.

I've been putting in a fair bit of work this election to promote Hans Jagerblitzen. In the last CSM I didn't even vote! This time I using this blog, Twitter, Facebook, forums and in-game channels to promote the only real choice for the discerning low-sec pirate and/or militia member. I've voted for Hans with all three accounts.

Why? Simply because for the first time there is someone who really knows what is wrong with my area of the game (low sec and faction war) and has been working hard for the last year to try and raise the problems to CCP even though he was not on the CSM.

Without a "Low-sec PvP" representative position identified on the CSM, I don't have much of a voice on the CSM. Wouldn't it be good if we all had a voice and not just null-sec? As per last year we'll have the major null-sec power blocs voting in force. The Mittani won the chairman position whilst you were still finishing your breakfast on the 7th March (probably!). But by splitting positions into areas representing a different player-base, would we get a broader selection of player types?

So for player interaction:-

I want to see roles defined within the CSM so that the vast majority of players in Eve Online has a defined CSM representative that they can go to and they actually know what the player is talking about.

For CCP Interaction it's the same.

If you have plans for faction war there is an obvious choice who you need to speak to on CSM6.... nobody. Because nobody on CSM6 knows much about faction war so when plans for faction war are talked about CCP get "You always break null-sec sov when you try to fix it, so try it on FW first!". If the CSM was broken up into roles, the whole of the CSM could be asked questions, but the representative for that particular area or speciality should be listened to carefully. There may be little things that the devs could go direct to the right representative for feedback. A quick email, Skype or even sit down for 10 minutes during one of their visits to Iceland.

In summary:-

For player interaction - Defined CSM representatives by area of space and/or game-play type would cover the entire player-base better and give a voice for all.

For CCP interaction - Defined CSM representatives by area of space and/or game-play type would cover the entire player-base better and give better sounding-board.

P.S. Yes, I don't know how this would work in practice and how the system could be abused, this is just a starting point!

Put Your Hans Up for CSM7

Tomorrow, voting opens in the Seventh Council of Stellar Management. The CSM is the player-elected group that take all our concerns, ideas and unbridled seething emo-rage and fires it at CCP. CCP in turn show them some of the ideas and things that they are working on and the CSM gives them their views, as a representative of the player base.

Whilst the CSM have no real power, they are OUR voice to CCP. Therefore it is important that there are representatives on the Council who understand your area of the game to make sure CCP iterate on it, improve it and don't do anything stupid to it. Some of the minutes of CSM6 meetings do make us faction war players question if any of them on the Council have a clue what we're about.

This is a problem with the current CSM, it is extremely null-sec heavy. The voting system is simply the people with the most votes get on the CSM. The big power blocs all vote for their candidate and the the Empire space players spread their votes over a wide range of "wannabe" candidates. Therefore the CSM quickly fills with big 0.0 alliance/bloc representatives and little representation for high and low-sec. Therefore we Empire-dwellers have no real voice.

The Mittani WILL be chairman again. Several thousand motivated Goons will vote as told, and he'll be head of the table again. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I think he did a great job last year and I'm sure much of his "work" was directly behind the change of direction of CCP. I use the word "work" in inverted comments as I'm actually referring to the bad publicity he spread like wildfire in the same way as a pyromaniac after drinking a bottle of Tequila and is carrying a bucket of petrol and a box of extra large matches.

That doesn't matter though does it, I mean all 'real' Eve players live in null-sec don't they?

NO!

Empire space (that's high and low sec) has as many active players and it's not all alts, bots and traders. I have found null-sec fairly boring and far too carebearish. We went for a long roam through null on Friday night. Generally each system was dead, the few systems we did find pockets of activity went very quiet as we jumped in. This also reflects my brief stints living out there in both NPC and Sov Holding null-sec. I've got nothing against null and all those who live out there, it's just not my cup of tea. A short roam around low-sec on Sunday afternoon got us many times the number of fights and kills than we got on a three hour roam through null sec.

This just goes to show that Empire is much more than carebears and noobs. It is one of the most active areas of the game attracting the most bitter of bitter vets, the most G'AAARRRRR'y of pirates and the most noobish of noobs. But are CCP really aware of this when the player representation body is just 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 and null-sec?

If like me, you live and do your thing in Empire space, then there is really only one candidate to vote for, Hans Jagerblitzen.

Hans, based on number of likes which was the first stage voting process to whittle down the number of candidates for the main vote, is up there with the null-sec power bloc candidates currently. He has a real chance of getting a seat compared to the other Empire candidates that have the bare minimum "likes".

So why should you vote for Hans? Well he does his thing in Empire! Reading through his platform document, Tweets, forum posts and the like we know that...

Hans lives in low-sec
He is active in Faction War
He mines (Assuming in connection with the next line)
He uses a PoS (Assuming in connection with the next line)
He manufactures (Boosters)
He pirates/PvP's

Now looking at the above, he does a lot in Empire space. He knows what is broken, he knows what needs iterating on.

Now just look at the forums over the last year. This guy has been working his ass off to try and get fixes. This is confirmed by none other than the Chair of CSM6 - The Mittani aka Mittens aka Lord of the Goons...

"I sort of assumed that Hans would be a FW candidate this year and I support him, no need to get all ~rah rah mittens~ about it. 


During CSM6 Hans reached out to us and gave us a whole list of FW fixes, which we promptly dumped in CCP's lap, and they're now cognizant of them - pretty much entirely due to Hans taking the initiative.


FW dudes should have a rep, just like Wormhole dudes. If I was a FW player, I'd rally behind Hans. Good luck!"

So when you cast your vote over the next two weeks please don't throw it away on a wannabe who is going to get a couple of hundred votes max. Hans is the only real option for Empire space players who has a REAL chance of getting a seat on the CSM (ie someone who will be getting over 1500 votes).

Vote Hans Jagerblitzen for CSM 7 and Ensure High and Low Sec Have a Voice On CSM7!

It's a Trap - Fan Fiction

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

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

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

"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 :)