Electronic Attack Ships Should Attack

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)

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

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!

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!

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)

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

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?