Blog Banter 49 - Am I Space Rich?

Double post today as it is Blog Banter Day! Friday Fiction was posted a couple of hours ago.

-o0o-

Welcome to my entry for the EVE Blog Banters 49th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are, visit the Blog Banter page.

So Kirith has posed this question for the 49th Blog Banter:-

"What is "rich" in EVE? Is it simply having more ISK than most everyone else, is it measured in raw numbers of some other ethereal quality? Can you actually be poor? Have you ever lost nearly everything and had to claw your way back? If you are rich, how do you know and how did you get rich?"

-o0o-

I'm a PvP'r, I'm never going to be rich. Or am I? Isn't it a bit of a subjective term?

What is rich to a high-sec miner who plays a couple of hours a week only is a pittance to an industrial who has been playing 10 years, has a dozen alts and who spends hours each day making money.

Currently in liquid assets I have about 5bn ISK spread over my accounts. I am pretty sure some people I know would call that space-rich. Pretty sure others would laugh at the puny amount and ask if I needed a few ISK to feed and clothe the space-kids as I must be on the poverty line! My cash reserves go something like this over a six month period:-

Rich, 

Slightly less rich, 

A lot of money, 

Some money, 

Poor, 

OMG I'm going to be flying an Ibis soon, 

Rich, 

Slightly less rich...........

Basically I buy PLEX and sell that on the open market in Jita. 12 Plex nets me around 6bn ISK. Obviously things have not always been like that. Its only the last couple of years where I have been able to do this. If was a very different story when I first started. The Blog Banter question asked "Have you ever lost nearly everything and had to claw your way back?". Well nearly. I guess I had been playing for six months and was helping out with DPS in the level 4 mission "Worlds Collide". My brand new Raven got tackled by the rats and I got agro. My low-SP character had forgot the number one rule of Eve, don't fly what you can't afford to lose. I lost it. Thankfully some kind corpies sorted the noob out with a replacement, but if I had still been in an NPC corp, that would have been a massive blow. It wasn't anything special, certainly wasn't like this pimped out Raven. Seriously? How many level 4 missions would you have to run just to break even?

Even before that loss, I recall having to wait to upgrade to a better ship as I couldn't afford it. I was desperately saving up for the skill books that I couldn't afford! Yes, it is no fun to be space-poor in Eve Online. And you are space poor when a Caracal is an expensive ship. However, the opportunities are all around. With time and patience you can get space rich.

Anyway, these days I sell PLEX. Where does all that go? Well on things to pew-pew of course. I have assets spread out all over New Eden. Looking in my home base, my hanger has everything divided into cans:-

Ship Hanger - 10,861,000,000
My expensive ships in there include my Moros, Archon, Chimera and Vindicator.

Ammo Can - 399,000,000
This is all things in the charge group that don't fly. So projectile, hybrid and cap booster charges.

Missiles - 169,000,000
'Boomy' things that fly. This can houses missiles, bombs and probes.

Modules - 2,209,000,000
If it goes in a high, middle or low slot, it is stored here.

Drones and Scripts - 503,000,000
Don't know why I chose these two groups to share, I suppose there aren't hundreds of different types so they can go together. This can does contain fighters.

Rigs - 357,000,000
As it says on the tin!

Fuel - 19,400,000

Liquid Ozone, Stront and carrier fuel.

Faction - 1,345,000,000
Basically faction modules or implants that I want to keep separate so I don't drunkenly fit them onto a Kestrel!

Loot and Salvage -73,000,000
Crap from NPC drops and occasional bits of salvage corpies have given me if I was the one who lost a ship in an engagement.

Boosters - 70,000,000

Damn, I'm out of blue pills too!!!!

So all in, I have around 16bn assets and 5bn in cash making me worth about 20bn. Not bad for a PvP'r who doesn't ransom, but I'm sure nowhere near some of our big industrialists in game! And yes.... I suppose I 'cheat'!

Assassin - The First Mission

Fiction Friday! You're escape pod is here if you are not into Eve Fiction and want to know if the Eagle is any good now following the HAC and medium rails balance.

Wait, there is another escape pod too! I had been reading Cussler, hence the last few Friday Fictions were 'action-adventure'. Now I'm reading a Laymon. If you know these authors then you know what is coming. Horrific violence, peril and a hot heroine with bow-chicka-wow-wow themed fiction. If you prefer your Eve fiction without these try here at Emergent Patroller.

Now onto the first of a three parter. You really need to have read the Jacked three-parter to fully understand this one. You know how that one finished, with the captains daughter ending up at that 'special school'.......


Assassin - The First Mission

The station's transit system slowed at the stop for the plaza. The woman hung back letting a family off the car first. She slipped through the doors as they started to close, her stiletto heels making a distinct sound on the polished metal floor. The air this high up in the station was crisp and clean. The plaza was lined on one side with expensive shops, bars and restaurants. The other was an clear dome giving amazing views of outer space and the planet below. She checked the time as she wandered over to the central fountain. Ten minutes early. Two men walked past in business suits, both looked her up and down and shared some private joke. Probably Caldari bankers she thought, she'd seen enough of them to know the type.

The fountain in the centre of the plaza shot jets of cool clear water into the air. The woman shook her head slightly at the excess. On a space-station where 98% of people had to make do with sonic-showers, here was pure water being used as a display for the rich and the powerful.

A slight drone caught her attention. She looked over he shoulder and saw a small cleaning truck making its way around the plaza sweeping up. She paid it no further heed. Five minutes to go. The click of heels from behind made her turn around.

A woman was approaching her. She, like herself, was Matari. Slightly dark skin with black hair that cascaded down her shoulders. The jacket was expensive and the skirt was short. The woman looked on with slight envy. The approaching woman was younger, better looking and better dressed than her. She hoped it was not a rival agency.

"Hello" said the younger woman.

"Hi. Can I help you?"

"Yes I have a message for you from Suki." replied the girl as she reached into her handbag, the woman didn't really hear the hum of the approaching cleaning truck. "But not here." and she motioned to a side street and they walked together.

"So what is the message and why couldn't our boss have called direct?" the woman asked in irritation as they reached the corner.

"Actually the message is from me. If you could just pass out that would be great." the girl replied as she drew a cigarette and placed it in her mouth.

"What are you....." the woman never finished her question as the other girl blew hard and a small dart flew out from the tip of the fake cigarette and hit her on the neck. The woman's hand flew up and clutched the tiny dart. Her face was visage of shock and horror. Just before she fell the cleaning truck moved along side and she was discretely pulled into the open side door of the small vehicle. The door slammed shut and it went about completing the sweep of the plaza. The take down was perfect, nobody could have seen what had happened.

The younger woman walked across the plaza into the lobby of the hotel, past the reception and straight into the lift.

-o0o-

In the operations centre of the Loki strategic cruiser, which was cloaked 300 kilometres off the station, three men sat around a bank of monitors. A forth approached causing the three to stand and snap to attention.

"At ease. How is she doing?"

"Good sir." replied one of the men. "The booked escort is down and our men are administering a drug to her so she forgets all about tonight. She'll wake up in her quarters with a killer hangover, a bad head ache and twice the arranged fee in cash in her handbag. She'll think she got wasted with the Client and forgot. Its doubtful she'll tell anyone, a high-class agency like that would drop her for getting drunk on the job."

"Excellent" replied the officer "We want to ensure no Matari are harmed by our actions here tonight. What about our girl?"

"Just exiting the lift sir. She'd about to meet his security."

-o0o-

The younger woman stepped out of the lift. The penthouse suite had its own reception room and two men sat in large chairs either side of the door into the suite proper. They rose as the woman approached.

"Please stop there miss." one commanded and approached her with a detection wand. He slowly traced it around her whilst his colleague searched her bag. Once he had swept her with the wand he motioned for her to spread her arms.

"Seriously? After that you want to frisk me too?" she complained.

"Sorry miss. Orders."

With that he started at her shoulders and worked down, spending far too long on her breasts. When he got to her waist he stopped and dropped to one knee and started at her ankles. He spent his time running his hands up her legs and under the hem of her skirt. When he reached her stocking tops his fingers searched around, teasing the exposed flesh above the lace.

"Any more and I'll be charging you." she snapped. The man just smiled as his hands continued upwards.

"Or I'll just tell your boss how I was assaulted here." she continued sounding disinterested. The hands vanished and the man rose passing her handbag to her. She nodded and he opened the door for her.

Inside the room was opulent. Art adorned the walls and expensive rugs covered the floor. The bed was a old wooden four poster and littered with decorative pillows.

In the centre of the room a small dining table had been set up. An Amarrian in a suit sat eating his dinner.

"Please, join me!" he said as the woman entered. She walked over and sat down opposite him.

"I am Alikar. What is your name?"

"I am Ingrid" she replied with her sweetest smile.

"Of course you are." the Amarrian smirked.

They ate and engaged in small talk. The Amarrian said he was a trade ambassador over for talks with the Caldari. The woman called Ingrid knew this was a lie but she kept up the pretence and nodded and smile as he boringly droned on. Thankfully the food was exquisite and the wine expensive. The pill she had taken an hour earlier was working, absorbing the alcohol and keeping her head clear.

As they finished there meal he looked at her with hungry eyes.

"Well my dear, at some point tonight I need to get some sleep ready for the trade talks in the morning." he leered "I think we should get things started and..." he stopped dead and smiled as he felt a stocking-clad foot brush his thighs.

"Excellent. We have a connection, you read my mind." he smiled as the foot worked higher.

"I was hoping for a little roleplay." he continued as the foot massaged his hardness.

"What did you have in mind?" the woman purred.

The Amarrian rose and walked over to her. He extended his hand which she took and he pulled her to her feet.

"Well I was thinking how about the Amarrian and the fracking slut slave." and with that he backhanded her hard across the face, knocking her to the ground.

Before she could respond he matched over to where she had fallen and grabbed her by the hair. He yanked her up to her feet and spat in her shocked face before punching her in the stomach. She fell to the ground gasping for breath. He stood over her grinning.

"You stupid bitch. Do you think you Matari are anything but animals, animals to serve the glorious Amarrian Empire. After I am finished with you tonight, you'll be begging me to ship you to a slave plantation as you'll not be working in this industry again!" He then swiftly kicked her in the stomach before bending down and punching her in the face again.

-o0o-

Back on the ship the four men watching the monitors winced.

"He actually gets off on this?" one asked.

"Yes. Happens every time he come to the Caldari State apparently. Orders a high-class escort, specifies must be pure Matari, and then kicks the shit out of her. Its his thing. Most agencies won't touch him now, but he pays well, there is always some scum-bag pimp who will take the money and give him a girl."

"And Inga volunteered for this knowing what was going to happen?"

"Absolutely. We showed her pictures of his previous victims we had sourced from hacking the police and med-units here. She knew what to expect and wanted this bad. In fact she was the one who insisted on this plan. It was her idea to let him work her over for a bit so there would be a motive and evidence on camera."

The men looked at the monitor showing the feed from the hidden camera in the room. There was a gasp from the watching men as she tried to get up but the Amarrian kicked her in the face sending her sprawling on her back.

"Frack this, we need to get her out of there! This is not right!" the officer commanded.

"Wait sir, look at her left hand. We arranged signals for this. See she is making a loose OK sign still. She wants to continue."

The commander pursed his lips and continued watching the scene unfold. The Amarrian had now dragged her by the hair to the bed and was ripping her clothes off between slapping and punching her.

"Frack is she alright? She looks out of it!"

One man pointed to the other monitor. "Look at her vitals, steady as a rock. She's fine. She knows how to roll with this."

-o0o-

Inga lay on the bed looking battered and bruised. She was stripped and bleeding. The Amarrian towered over her with a thick leather belt doubled over in his hand. He whipped it menacingly into the palm of his hand making a loud slapping noise.

"Now animal, to properly warm you up before I have you."

The Amarrian raised his arm and brought the belt rushing down on the prone and defenceless woman. She moved at lightning speed, grabbing the belt and using it to pull the ambassador onto the bed. In a blink of an eye she was on top of him whilst he was face down with the belt tight around his neck. He struggled but it was useless. He tried to shout for help but only a croak left his lips as the belt pulled tight.

"So here is how it ends Colonel." she hissed in his ear. His eyes went wide in terror, not only from the choking predicament he found himself now in, but that she knew who he was.

Keeping one hand on the belt she used the other to remove an ear ring. She squeezed it and a small needle popped out. She stuck it into the side of the Amarrians neck away from the cameras.

"Did you feel that? My orders were simple, take the beating so we have video of it and then simply kill you. But I thought that was too kind to you. How many Matari have you beaten like this? How many women's lives have your ruined? No, simply strangling you to death was too good. That prick you felt. Well that was Matari Fire-Ice."

The Amarrian bucked and struggled even more in terror. However, Inga had him secure and the belt whilst not killing him, was making it impossible for him to get free or call for help. He felt a tinge of burning as the drug started its assault on his central nervous system. His pupils went up into his skull and his eyes turned white as the most incredible pain he had ever experienced racked his body. He felt like he was being suspended over a roaring fire. His mouth twisted in a silent scream as the belt pulled against his neck.

-o0o-

State Naval Intelligence Officer Sanaka was sat at his desk when one of his officers entered.

"Sir. We have a problem with Alikar sir."

Sanaka rubbed his temples. That pervert Amarrian always caused trouble. He was a high ranking Colonel with the 24th Imperial Crusade and came for joint briefings once a month under the pretence of a Amarrian trade ambassador. The fact he liked beating Matari hookers half to death on each visit made for a major headache.

"Pay the victim off and inform the police to bury the file. Same as always." he sighed without really looking up.

"Sir, its bad."

"He didn't kill one did he?" Sanaka sounded worried.

"No sir, its worse, the hooker killed him".

-o0o-

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRACKING MIND?" the officer yelled. Inga was sat in the debriefing room with a slight smile on her face.

Her face was bruised and the tight vest top she wore revealed her shoulders and arms which were covered in welts, bite marks, bruises and cuts. Even with her recent beating and the verbal dressing down she was getting from her commanding officer, she still smiled.

"It was supposed to be a simple in and out. It went textbook to start with. And you had to put the entire operation at risk by using military-grade Fire-Ice. Tell me agent, which empires use that specific nerve toxin?"

Inga didn't answer, she just sat there.

"US! ONLY US!"

Again, more silence. The officer sat down. His rage subsiding. He continued the dressing-down, but he was getting tired.

Behind the large one-way mirror two senior officers stood in a small room looking on at the debriefing.

"It was a close one. She is a loose cannon." stated one.

"But you saw her scores from the facility. She's off the charts. So she might have a burning hatred for the Amarr. I say let her use it. I sort of agree with her, that bastard deserved a nasty death. First mission sucess I say."

The other officer nodded slightly in agreement "I guess you are right".

Back in the debriefing room Igna's superior officer sighed out loud.

"Its pure luck they didn't run a tox-screen. The video they found was enough for them to take strangulation as cause of death. Have you anything to say for yourself?"

Finally Inga spoke.

"Yes. Who is the next target?"

To be continued.....

Propoganda

Condors were EVERYWHERE on Monday night! They are zipping around the war zone plexing for merger LP's and were horrible flashy orange false promises of PvP. Some were stabbed, some had cloaks, some were nano'd, some don't stick around long enough for you to find out. They all have one thing in common, they ran.

Other highlights, other than the Condors included:-

Double stabbed and cloaky Algos
Double stabbed Rifter
Cloaky Atron

In the end I got so frustrated the other night I finished my solo roam, docked up and opened Photoshop.

May be its my TZ, but currently farmers and a lack of people wanting to fight are seriously hurting my Eve mojo! What is it with Eve Time +4 that makes it so popular with farmers who never want to PvP?

In the end I logged onto DUST514. Surely I'd get some combat action there! Had three attempts to get into a match, all got stuck on the loading screen that show you what all the symbols mean on the map. The little circle in the bottom right of the screen kept spinning, but the hamster was dead. After five minutes I got the hint it wasn't working so restarted the game. Same result three times in a row.

I turned off PS3 and had a stiff vodka to quell the rage and went to bed.

Tuesday night was slightly better in some respects. Firstly I found some neutrals who would fight, that is after chasing a variety of cloaked and stabbed plexing ships.

I have a alt who I use to deplex the home systems. He's low SP but for defensive plexing our two station systems, he does the job. Some squid in a Kestrel through he'd have a go. My alts tough tank held out long enough for Drack to arrive from one system over and kill him. A combat fit squid! Who'd have 'thunk' it!

Next was a neutral Corax who was looking for a rumble. He came into my plex and I didn't wait to ask "Would thou' care to partake in honourable combat?", I just opened up on him. Lets face it, if you enter a faction war plex, you have to expect this kind of thing.

I then had a while more chasing stabbed ships and when the last one warped to a safe and cloaked I returned to Nisuwa and logged off.

I did get into a DUST match last night after Monday nights "PS3 says noooooooooo.". And it was a very good game! I really enjoyed that match and I think that is the first time in 9 months of playing DUST 514 that I left a game with a smile on my face. It is getting there and Uprising 1.4 was a big step in the right direction.

As I type this I'm installing Defiance. Currently don't see the the point in logging into Eve at this time of day to play 'whack a mole' with stabbed and cloaked farmers. Will try in a few hours and hope there are some squids on who are looking for PvP.....

1v1's in Eve Online and.... IN DUST514???

I enjoy a good 1v1 in Eve. A T1 frigate brawl is more fun than a big fleet fight where all you do is spam F1 after locking whoever the FC told you to.

Last week I had a great 1v1 in my Kestrel verses a Federation Navy Comet which was a fantastic fight.

Funkybacon posted his favourite Kestrel fit on his blog over the weekend. I have several Kestrels fit like that. The MSE fit is a great little fit and fun to fly. But you need to remember that rockets are a medium range weapon. Therefore their damage is not as high as a blaster boat. Which is why I like the armour Kestrel. Stick a 400mm rolled tungsten plate and use that spare mid for a second web. Then the Kestrel becomes awesome. With other missile and projectile ships you can probably assume they'll load EMP when they see a Kestrel. EMP tickles armour tanks. Hybrid charges however do thermal and kinetic damage, not easy to tank against as it is the two 'middle' resists usually. So the way to tank blaster boats is, don't get hit!

With twin web and an AB this should not be an issue for the start of the fight. Get in a 8k orbit, AB on and the chances are he's not going to hit you with his high DPS ammo. Therefore his only choice is to change by stopping the guns, letting them cycle down, right clicking and select long range ammo, wait for the guns to reload, activate. Now all that has probably lost them 7-8 seconds of DPS time and now they have loaded low DPS ammo. All that time you've been laying down the hurt.

Now comes the other bonus with the armour Kestrel. Nobody expects it, and when you start hitting low shield they think you are going to die. After all, it usually only takes a couple of hits to kill a Kestrel when its shields are down. Then they find they have a 400mm plate buffer tank to chew through. Game over!

Yes, 1v1's in Eve are fun, but as I found out yesterday, they are not in DUST514.

Anyone who reads this blog knows whilst I am an epic Eve-O fan boy, I don't like DUST514. However, this month I am forcing myself to try and get into it. Yesterday I logged on for two matches. First was bugged, couldn't get off the deployment screen. My cursor looked like I had about 4 people in it, but not even auto-deploy would get my boots on the ground. I mashed ALL THE THINGS whilst the woman's voice bitched that I am contractually obliged to fight and I was seeing kill notifications scroll. I want to fight, stick me down on the effin' ground you bitch!!! In the end I had to exit and restart the game.

Second attempt I did get into the 'waiting room'. But it was me against three people. Thankfully two of them saw this and thought 'sod that' and dropped, leaving me alone against the other guy. I thought I'd try it, surely more players would drop in as the game progressed.

We got into the map and it was one with a single objective, I don't know the maps, it was the one on the side of a cliff. It has a straight road running down the edge with the objective in the middle and large high-sided sloping building sides to the other.

I captured the clone unit close to the objective thinking it'll save me a run when I die. As I headed down towards the centre he was already hacking the objective. I arrived to find him zipping around in a light vehicle. He tried to run me down but the new mechanics mean its much more sensible in dealing damage now. He tried to use the turret but I just hopped behind cover. He then zoomed off and as I heard the engine fade into the distance I hacked the objective. Finally he came back and got out and I filled him full o' lead. 1-0.

Soon enough he was trotting back up the road in a fresh clone. I opened up at farily long range. 2-0.

At this point I was getting low on ammo (I had pumped a fair wack in the jeep he was riding) so headed to a nearby resupply depot and hacked that to replenish my ammo. I went back to the objective to be faced with a wall of machine-gun fire. I dashed for cover and had a peak out. He'd swapped to a heavy suit and was slowly stomping up the road with a BFG. I did a strafing run and found he was having trouble hitting me. 3-0.

I refilled my ammo and went back. And waited. Bang suddenly my shields vanish and I'm in three quarters armour. SNIPER!

I ran for cover and await for my shields to recharge. I stuck my head out scanning the high-level structures. I spotted him high up on top of the wall. We exchange fire. My assault rifle really shouldn't be a match for his sniper rifle at that range. But apparently it was. 4-0.

I wait, and again my shields suddenly vanish. He's obviously sticking with the sniper set-up. His MCC is low armour, mines 50% shields. I cannot see him, I assume he'd now be at very long range. I run across the road and inside the structure and head up the long staircase I'd seen near the resupply facility. I make my way over to the far side of the building where I assume he set up. Surely he is expecting me to come this way? I find him at the very far side looking down his scope towards where I was over two minutes ago by the objective. Pity there is no option to sneak up behind him and shout "BOO!" to see if he stumbles off the side. I go for the more traditional approach of death by assault rifle. 5-0.

I stood at that edge of the structure looking down towards his MCC seeing if he was coming back. He'd not captured any clone reanimation stations so had to come from the MCC area. But alas, he didn't show and I slowly watched the MCC drop to zero armour. Winner!

Now as I write this it sounds to me much more interesting than it was. It was a long game, with only short periods of activity. I hope my games tonight are more interesting!

Fiction - EVR The Game - Capital Mission

Fan Fiction Friday! Escape pod here to a rather nifty spreadsheet detailing the various MWD's in game.

Before we get onto today's short, I'm looking for some help. I need someone with excellent English skills who enjoys Eve Fiction and needs ISK. I have a 23,000 word novella finished. The wife is doing the first proof read, I need a fresh pair of eyes as another proof reader. If you fit the bill, and would like to help, drop me a line in game. You'll get an acknowledgement in the electronic book (it'll be a pdf with cover etc) plus a chunk of ISK for your trouble. Now onto this week's short.......

The more I hear about Eve Valkyrie the more I think its going to be a stand-alone multiplayer shooter game with no single player campaign. I suppose that should have been obvious, but it is a major disappointment to me. A Wing Commander-esq game set in the Eve Online universe using the Oculus Rift........ sorry, just hold on a second...... *hits it with desert spoon. DOWN BOY! DOWN! Sorry about that, inappropriate nerdboner needed beating down. Anyway, I can still image what that game would have been like. I would guess this mission would have been several from the first mission. Your character's skills have been noticed and you are being trusted with better craft and more important missions.....


EVR The Game - Capital Mission

Blair was sat in the bar, the lights were down and the red warning lights gave the area an errie glow. The synthahol burned his throat has he drank. He was inside the 24 hour limit so couldn't have a proper drink. Aki entered the bar and came over. Blair pushed a seat out with his foot and his friend sat down.

"So what's the news from the flightdeck?"

Aki grabbed the bottle of non-alcoholic whisky and poured himself a glass.

"Same old same old. We are pretty sure the frogy Thanatos class carrier Triumph is out there somewhere. Like us its probably in low-emissions mode to avoid scans. Scout wings sent out to find it have only encountered their scout wings trying to find us! The question is who is going to find their prey first?"

"And the capsuleers?" Blair asked.

"Same again. They are fighting over the navy complexes and at the large 'roid belts, few skirmishes around the stargates. We're keeping away from them and sticking to the small rouge belts the capsuleers never bother with. To be honest...."

Aki was cut short as a briefing alarm sounded. It was the signal for all combat pilots to haul-ass down to the briefing room.

"Did they find us, or did we find them?" Blair asked rhetorically as they quickly strode to the exit.

-o0o-

"We've found them!" Wing Commander Chen announced. "The Triumph is located off a small asteroid belt some 12 AU from our current position."

There were murmurs from the assembled pilots.

"This is a great oppertunity for us. A frog carrier has been located and we get first strike against it. We'll be launching a two pronged attack. A first wave of attack fighters will go in and draw the fire plus engage any defense force. Then the attack bombers will do in and do their thing."

A hand raised and the Wing Commander nodded to the pilot.

"Sir, won't their defensive force be greater than our attack force?"

"No pilot. We have an electronic warfare ship stationed 5AU from their carrier. Its was projecting the ident of this ship, nothing major, just enough to let them get a glimpse. Their scanners picked up the feignt signal and they sent scouts to confirm. We jammed their communications and destroyed them 5 minutes ago. At this very moment the frog pilots are likely getting a briefing very similar to you. They will be certain that they found us and we destroyed their scouts. Both carriers are planning strikes right now. The only difference is when they come out of warp they are only going to find mines we're placing right now. By the time theu realise it was a decoy we'll be launching compact citadel torpedo's up the Triumphs tail pipe and you'll be heading back for a beer. Now any other questions? Good. Dismissed."

Blair picked up his datapad as his assignment flashed up. He did a double take.

Siren appeared from out of nowhere and grabbed him by the arm.

"Come on kid. We've got the big fireworks to play with!"

-o0o-

Blair was pushed into his seat as his Longbow class fighter-bomber launched from the carrier. He aligned to the destination and waited. The light fighters were already slipping into warp to distract the carriers sentry weapons and to engage what remained of their fighter compliment.

The Longbow, which was a lighter version than the capsuleer used Mantis, was not designed for taking on other fighters. Although it was equipped with a turreted railgun, its main offensive capability was the two racks of 'Bright Star' compact citadel torpedoes. The railgun was simply to try and hold off attackers as the bomber aligned and locked its massive payload onto the target and launched. A standard light fighter would always beat a Longbow in a protracted fight.

"How you holding up Blair?" Sirens voice sounded in his helmet.

"Well to say this is the first time I've been sat on top of enough high explosive to reduce my body to their component atoms, pretty good!"

"Good. Get ready as we're wing-warping in 3, 2, 1....."

Blair heard the engines spin up and the warp tunnel formed in front of his ship as the ship increased in speed. Seconds later he was travelling faster than light.

-o0o-

The warp tunnel collapsed and Blair was greeted by a scene of carnage. The resistance was much greater than expected. All around him fighters weaved around burning wreckage as barrages of anti-fighter fire leapt from the Thanatos carrier. Blair engaged evasive manoeuvres and started locking on to the hulking carrier. 'Bright Star' compact citadel torpedoes were one of the most devastating anti-capital missiles developed. They had a two stage warhead. The first was a superheated plasma. On contact with the enemy ship the first warhead would explode forward in a cone. The superheated plasma would melt through the armour and structure as the depleted uranium inner warhead punched through the molten metal. The combination of the plasma and the hardened missile would allow the projectile to punch deep inside the target before the compact thermo-nuclear warhead detonated. For maximum effect the missiles targeting systems would lock onto internal critical systems such as the warp drive and the primary and secondary reactors. The downside to this was a massive increase in target lock acquisition. It took almost twenty seconds for the missiles to achieve a firing solution. In a situation like this, an eternity. They also were ineffective against capsuleer piloted vessels who were able to use their damage control systems to block the missile's path with an internal forcefield.

Hybrid weapon fire streaked past Blairs hull as he watched the 12 targeting reticles, one for each missile he carried, sweep over the Thanatos' hull on his HUD. The six missiles in the top rack and six in the bottom were now exposed. They would communicate to each other, each selecting a different target within the huge carrier for maximum effect.

An alarm sounded indicating an enemy target lock had been made on him. Blair scanned his overview to see what was targeting him. A Bullfrog fighter was closing in on him fast. He swung the railgun turret around and fired a antimatter slug at the approaching enemy. It swerved to avoid the incoming projectile and broke its lock in doing so. Blair had gained a few more seconds.

"I've nearly got lock." Siren shouted through the comms "But I'm under heavy fire."

Blair scanned the battlefield and saw two fighters engaging Siren's Longbow. Ignoring the Bullfrog for now he re-angled his railgun. The charge hit the enemy fighter in the rear, slamming it off course. A second shot glanced off its shields. Like an angry wasp the fighter left Siren and came for Blair. He swerved to avoid a volley of blaster fire and saw his targeting knocked back a few seconds due to the deviation of the ship. He muttered a curse and brought the ship back to bare on the carrier.

"Thanks kid." replied Siren "But those ass-hats completely broke my lock, I'm swinging around for another run but its going to take time."

Blair was still focusing on the fighters and the carrier. His torpedo's were finalising their locks. The carrier now filled most of his view and red targeting icons were flashing fast as his weapons systems plotted the flight path.

"All ships! All ships! Bail if you can. The rest of the frogs are 20 seconds out. The mines did not work. We're about to be swamped! BAIL. BAIL. BAIL."

Blair ignored the order and continued his attack run as alarms indicated he was taking fire to his rear shields. A quick glance confirmed two enemy fighters on his six and his shields were dropping fast. As his low shield warning alarm sounded the long tone of missile lock rang in his ears. He hit the fire control and activated his afterburner. The twelve missiles left his ship and started their run at the carrier. Now with his 'fish' free, the afterburner on his bomber gave some distance from the two fighters behind him. However, he was heading straight towards the enemy carrier. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The carrier had reassigned its batteries to try and shoot down the incoming torpedoes. That meant Blair was flying into a wall of enemy fire. He pushed the stick down hard and went into a deep dive. The pilot directly behind him could not see what had been happening as the bomber was blocking his view of the carrier. Suddenly the Gallente fighter saw the bomber in front of him dive sharply to be replaced by a wall of hybird charges. The fire from the carrier's defences slammed into him. The Bullfrog pilot who was just behind him saw his fellow pilot ripped apart and was just able to dive under the incoming wave of fire.

Blair reassessed the situation. If he manoeuvred too much his speed would drop and that Bullfrog fighter would finish him off. If he stayed on course, he'd pass directly under the carrier with only a few metres to spare. He glanced at his weapons panel. Three of the twelve torpedoes had been shot down, but the remaining nine had hit. Their superheated plasma warheads had been deployed. He knew that was the last he'd hear of them. They were now within the carriers superstructure burying hard towards their intended target. Communications had been lost due to the thick armour plating of the carrier. He now had to trust in the missiles internal guidance to reach the intended target inside the capital ship. His own ship slipped under the Thanatos' hull as a massive explosion ripped out a section of the carrier's armour to his port side. This was followed by another just ahead of him. He spun his ship starboard. Threat indicators lit as the pursuing Bullfrog closed. Blair just managed to see the fighter coming in for the kill as another massive section of the underneath of the carrier blew out, vaporising the approaching fighter.

A few seconds later his bomber flew clear of the crippled carrier. He quickly aligned the ship and entered warp before any of the remaining enemy fighters came looking for revenge.

-o0o-

On the bridge of the Shamaso a cheer went up as the view-screen showed the enemy carrier aflame. A cloaked Buzzard class covert ops ship was transmitting video of the battle from a safe distance away.

Wing Commander Chen smiled. He had taken a risk assign that rookie to one of the bombers. Blair had showed potential in the first four missions, but some pilots hesitated when pulling that trigger meant thousands of people dying, not just a single adversary who was also trying to kill you.

The war was going badly, the Gallente now had control over the majority of the war zone. The next missions would be massive risks, but with pilots like Blair, they might just pull it off.

Shooting Newbies

A concerted push by the Gallente last week rose our warzone control tier to level three (apparently we hit tier 4 for a while) and pushed the squids down to tier one. It wasn't all our effort though. The squids had been riding high for some time and I would expect that after a few months of farming at high tier levels that their LP price has crashed due to oversupply.

It had an interesting effect on the squids. Someone turned them off!

Suddenly the number of targets dropped dramatically. I started roaming further out from my normal hunting grounds, but even 'squid strongholds' where they usually outnumbered us were totally blue. No targets and lots of friendly Gallente militia. After a few days I realised I had a problem, nobody to shoot. A combination of the Gallente push and the likely drop in Caldari LP value meant it went all quiet. There were a few persistent farmers roaming around and the occasional squid that was looking for a fight, but generally, it was far too quiet.

It was then I decided to move over to Barleguet for a short road trip. The home of the Brave Newbies. A few of my fellow corpies had been over there a while after hearing tales from friends that there was always fighting to be had if you were OK about being outnumbered. They were right, there were always a minium of 50 BNI palyers in that system and usually an average of a couple of hundred.

It is interesting fighting that outnumbered. I roamed, I blapped, I camped gates. I lost a ship or two. But was it 'fun'?

I think it was Friday or Saturday morning I woke early. I would guess Friday morning as I met the guys down the pub early afternoon on the Thursday so was probably asleep early the night before! The American contingent were still on and we were playing with BNI. The BNI pilots were hugging their home station so we were undocking from another station in Cockbag Thrashers, warping to 10 off the undock, blapping a couple of targets and then warping off. They had mostly cruisers but it was working as we were "insta-ing" the small ships and the fast tackle and then warping away before the cruisers started to blap us. It was a Eve Online 'drive by'.

Every so often they'd reposition to try and catch us and we'd bounce to a planet and come in from a different direction. When they docked up, we camped the gates and killed a variety of frigates and some cruisers in our destroyers. We didn't lose much, we killed a lot. And I feel a bit bad. They were combat ships we were fighting, mostly, but we were rarely pointed and able to warp out when the numbers against us were too high.

In the end I stayed a few days and then headed back to Black Rise. It was good for the killboard but not what I would call fun. My first day back in Nisuwa I had a 1v1 between my Kestrel and a Federation Navy Comet. That was fun. We had a 3 v 4 with my Kestrel and two faction frigs verses four squids who had three faction frigates and one T1 frigate. That was bloody good fun. Barleguet may have been a.......

...... but I didn't feel good about it.

But there was one good thing in Barleguet. We have on our forums a thread entitled 'Rage'. This is where we post the insults, tears and general rage directed at us for all to have a good laugh at. Line after line of copied and pasted local and Eve-Mail text is held there for the enjoyment for all the QCats membership. Caldari farmers of a certain massive country usually provide the best content for that thread. Our attempts to PvP those particular farmers lead to the shedding of many local tears, insults and the use of Google Translate!

However, there was none of that from the BNI. Some Reddit threads were linked in there highlighting that certain QCats need to die, but in a game sense. There was no "chatgris is a ******** ****!". It was more "That damn chatgris keeps camping this gate, how do we kill him?". The marital status of our parents was never raised. There was banter in local from BNI, but it was light-hearted and in many cases, humorous. I didn't see any real tears or nasty insults. Bouncing asteroid belts I warped into a trio of BNI mining in Ventures that quickly disbursed. All I got was a "Drackarn! We're trying to violence rocks here!" or similar. A nice change to the abuse I usually recieve when I chase a faction war LP farmer!

Anyway I came, I saw, I PvP'd and I left after three days. I have no plans to return there. It was interesting to fight the Brave Newbies and as I have donated a fair chunk of ISK to The Angel Project I don't feel too bad. I gave money to Sindel, she gave ships to BNI, I blew some of those ships up. So my really weak justification of a long weekend killing a few BNI is that I've probably given more than I've taken in 2013.

It's very weak, but its all I have in excuse of shooting a good bunch of guys.

Sorry :(

DUST Off to DUST On and 1.1

In January I bought a PS3 just for DUST. I played some closed beta, I played some open beta, I played some of the full game. I wanted to like it, I'm a Eve-O fan boi. But, no, I just couldn't get into it.

I enjoy FPS on my XBox. I have a stack of them from Halo to Call of Duty. But I just couldn't get into DUST514 no matter how I tried. I pushed ahead regardless, I played even though I didn't want to. This is Eve! I will get into it. I didn't. So for about the last two months the PS3 has been sat gathering dust and hasn't even been switched on. At some point over the summer the wife even tidied most of the cables and bits away.

As regular readers know I'm on restricted bandwidth out here in the desert. As I start drafting this it was the 31st and there were 8 hours left of August. I'd use just over 15gb of my 20gb allowance so I thought I'd update DUST and see if any of the patches has made it any better in my eyes.

First of all was a big update for the PS3 operating system. Damn! Then 2.6gb to update DUST. I got a text message that I've used 80% of my bandwidth. However, it all gets updated and done with a couple of gig to spare.

I log in and I find I have 3.5 million skill points unallocated. That should give you an idea of how long I've been away from DUST. I decide not to mess with anything and see how the game has improved. I jump right into a quick battle.

First up spawn screen feels better and soon I'm on the ground running for an objective. I'm having to try and remember the controls and throw a grenade into open space by accident. Whoops. I hack an objective and turn a corner to be met by a shotgun wielding opposition member who one-shots me. New clone, new attempt. Fire is peppering me all around but I'm glad to see the maps no longer look like midnight at a Tiesto rave with laser beams everywhere. Something 'boomy' obliterates that clone in a case of "where the **** did that come from?" Forge gun? Turret? Tank? Bloody big grenade?

So far I've died twice and not really shot at anything. Someone behind me catches my 3rd clone and kills me before I can really turn around to return fire. So far the game feels better but is still too easy to die. The movement defiantly feels more fluid and manoeuvring is smoother, although not smooth enough for clone number four who dies to a headshot from a sniper.

I spot an enemy a fair distance away. The aiming still doesn't feel 'right' especially when aiming down the sights. I'm a CoD XBox'er and the aiming in DUST still is an issue to me. It certainly feels a lot better than it did, but it is still a problem for me. I take him down though! Woot a kill! I see a team mate go down to my right and am able to take down the guy who killed him. I'm getting more into the game, but still keep thinking back to "CoD is better".

A gang of enemies at an objective get a pair of grenades and a spray of AR fire from me which helps rack up some kills. I die a bunch more, I kill a few more. 

The game ends with my team victorious and I have a K/D ration of 0.9 with 9 kills and 4 assists. Now that is not bad for someone who has not played the game in a couple of months I feel.

I try another game today and got roflstompted constantly. Vehicles still squish you, an organised couple of players will murder a team of randoms, you spawn and die three seconds later not even knowing what was attacking you.

There were some good points. I only saw one heavy compared to before summer where every man and his dog was in a walking tank with a BFG. The noob-cannons aren't as deadly as they were so it is extra satisfying when you empty a clip into his face as his grenade launcher is "thrunking" away. But it wasn't a great game for me.

I'm back in the merc quarters and look at the skill tree. Its like I was five years ago in Eve. I haven't much of a clue what would be best to invest in. The fitting screen is too complex and I really cannot be bothered to alter any of my dropsuits. I leave the 3.5m skill points untouched and do not replace my now exhausted primary dropsuits. Its too much work for a console game.

I think that sums up DUST for me personally. Too much work. I really want DUST to be a great game, and I know there are plenty out there who think it is. But not me, not yet and not by a long chalk. Its getting there, but still a way off. A new point release is out this week, I'm in two minds what to do here. The improvements made whilst I've been AFJ (away from joypad) for two months have really improved the game, but for me there needs to be a lot more work. I love CoD as a game I can plonk myself down in front of the big TV, have a few good games shooting people in the face and then go do something else. If I want a complex game that needs other people to work with and a lot to think about.... well I'll go play Eve obviously!

I'll ask what the patch size is after deployment of 1.4. But for now now, I see Eve as being my game of choice with the occasional blast of violence sticking to CoD on the XBox. DUST still hasn't won me over.

Talking of Eve, Odyssey 1.1 deploys tomorrow. Things that have caught my eye.

New Skill Tree.
The new skill tree has broken some of the categories down which makes much more sense. Armour and shields have their own category having been separated from the larger Mechanics and Engineering categories. It is now a lot easier to find the skills you want.

New Skills
The problem with using jump clones regularly is the 24 hour timer. Say you want to do some solo work and have a clone for that, but you have a fleet tomorrow and need your armour clone for that. You cannot use both. With the new time reducing skill you can hop into your solo clone and play safe in the knowledge when you log on at the start of your peak time the next day, you can clone jump! Oh and you can now have up to 10 jump clones with the new skills. Great for us that have the armour clone, the shield clone, the null-sec clone, the learning clone......

Industrial Ship Balancing
For me this is nothing and something. Firstly I don't generally use industrials so the balancing is not of interest. However as an ebil piwat I shoot them. This is where the renaming is going to be an issue. Point on Kryos.... oh wait, that's a Kronos! Oh fuuuuuu..........

Commandships and Links
From 1.1 warfare links (other than mining links) won't work inside POS shields. So the AFK booster has a decision to make. Orbit the pos just outside the shields or safe up. Either way there are now risks involved. Should make for some interesting ganks. Personally I think many who use POS'd up boosters will just dickstar the POS and do the orbit thing.

Fac War Fiction - Fall of the Outpost

Fiction Friday! On Wednesday I listed a few things that I think could help faction war by limiting LP farmers in their cloaked and warp core stabbed ships in Faction War. Here's the 'lore' behind some of the effects that I suggested such as the satellite must be targeted for the countdown to run and why you cannot cloak. The engagement that occurs actually happened to me recently. I was in the Thrasher of course. Trust in the rust!

There is an escape pod here to Vae Victis regarding the current state of drones if fiction makes you yawn!


Fall of the Outpost

Yanati sat at his console and ran the scan again. Whist the star system was generally busy there was nothing on short range scan from their Cormorant class destroyer. The ship was there to protect the small automated base from the marauding capsuleers who constantly threatened to capture the system. The tides of war had changed recently for the Caldari State, they were winning only a few months ago, but a massive push from the Gallente Militia had seen many systems fall. They still had control in this system, but the Gallente were getting a foothold.

"Still no sign of Heth."

Yanati look across at his colleague who was leant back in his chair with his feet upon the console reading a datapad.

"News says nobody knows even what region he's in. You'd have thought someone would have turned him in by now! The bounty that Mordu's Legion put on his head is still there. Lot of cash for simply turning in someone who is already wanted by the State."

"Hang on, a year ago you were Heths biggest fan boy! Anyway, he still has a lot of dodgy friends. He's probably hold up in a cave somewhere. You heard the rumours about his past. Probably in the same cave he used to live in when he was part of that terro...."

Whilst he was talking he was still running the scans. Yanati slammed a big red button next to his console.

"Destroyer on short range scan. Within 21 million K. Thrasher class, Matari origin. He's probably at the acceleration gate." he spoke calmly into his microphone.

Battlestations sounded on the Caldari destroyer.

-o0o-

The Thrasher class destroyer aligned alongside the massive acceleration gate that dwarfed the 271m long destroyer. Inside was a flurry of activity. Commands were being given by the capsuleer, both direct to the ships systems from his wet-wired pod and also to the various crew via a complex messaging system. No other capsuleer craft were on scan so he had ordered Titanium Sabot ammunition to be loaded. Whilst not as devastating as the more regularly used Republic Fleet EMP or phased plasma rounds, titanium sabot had a big kinetic kick and a long range. Caldari Navy ships had weak defences against such.

The capsuleer activated the acceleration gate and the ship was propelled at high-speed towards the outpost. The journey took only a few seconds.

On-board the Caldari Navy Cormorant orders were barked and the crew rushed around, although they realised they had no chance once the enemy Thrasher dropped out of warp. The capsuleer, wet-wired into his ships systems, was able to lock the Cormorant and fire two volleys from his powerful artillery cannons before the Navy ship, captained by a regular officer, could even achieve a target lock back. The battle was very one-sided and over quickly. The only good news for the Cormorants crew was the captain had given the order to abandon ship early seeing that the fight was pointless.

On board the Thrasher Ensign Petre worked the cryptology station on the bridge. The XO had stood behind her as they watched the capsuleer target the automated outpost.

"We have target lock sir. Initiating hack..... We're in. It'll take about 10 minutes to break through the firewall, another three minutes to isolate the command routines and then two minutes to upload the virus and capture the outpost."

"Excellent. Get to work Ensign."

-o0o-

On board the small two-man escape pod Yanati and his colleague sat strapped into their seats. Samo still had his datapad.

"Wow! I've still got a secure connection to the outpost on this. It is tracking the hostile. A Thrasher class destroyer piloted by a capsuleer. That's why we went down so fast. A fracking egger. Its Gallente Militia and they have established a lock on the outpost."

"Why lock the outpost? They cannot destroy it with that!" Yanati asked.

"They are hacking the systems. They need a target lock so they can interface with the computer. They are trying to turning the outpost against the State. Its all automated in there. These outposts serve as command and control relays for our system-wide forces. If they get through the firewall they can disable the command routines which will hurt our forces in the area. Finally they'll upload a virus which will take control of the outpost. Bang! The Gallente have a new outpost in the system and we lose our grip slightly."

Yanati unbuckled his belt and pushed off the chair towards a view-port. The tiny escape pod did not have artificial gravity so he was weightless. He peered out of the small window.

"Is they nothing we can do?"

"No." replied Samo glumly "The outpost will fight back in an electronic sense but these egger ships are too well equipped. They'll eventually swamp the firewall and take over. The only hope is that we get reinforcements. If they can break the Thrashers target lock or push the ship out of range during an engagement the systems will auto-repair over time. However, if they do not get uninterrupted, this outpost will be frog-side within 15 minutes."

Yanati continued to stare out of the window in silence.

-o0o-

"Sir. The capsuleer has ordered a change of ammunition." the weapons specialist on the bridge announced.

Everything went quiet. That could only mean one thing. He'd identified a threat on a short range scan.

"Ensign Jacque, what you got?" barked the XO.

The Ensign on the scanner console had already started review of the sensor logs. Unlike the capsuleer who was at one with the scanner systems, the Ensign needed to interpret the logs. There were always occasions when the capsuleer knew something was out there, but to the crew, the logs showed nothing.

"Sir. Confirmed. Two contacts. One Condor class frigate supported by a Talwar class destroyer. Sir, it looks like it might be a dual kite set-up!"

A dual kite set-up usually consisted of two ships that are fast an manoeuvrable with ranged weapons. The attack pattern usually involved a frigate with a warp disruptor and electronic warfare modules. Common ones included tracking disruptors or targeting range dampeners. The frigate would engage first and set up at range. Its warp disruptor would prevent the victim from being able to warp off and its electronic warfare systems would prevent the target from shooting back effectively by disrupting its turrets or scanners. Then the ship with the better damage would arrive and they both keep range from the victim who cannot fight back and was slowly destroy from range.

"Sir, thermal cut offs have been disabled on the 250mm artilleries!" came the report from the engineering station.

The XO knew what the capsuleer had in mind. The Destroyer stopped dead and the sound of the turrets turning resonated through the ship. It was time to fight. The 250mm 'scout' class artillary cannons had been loaded with EMP rounds supplied by the Republic Fleet. Against ships that relied on shields for defense they were deadly.

The Condor was indeed the first to arrive, propelled into the deadspace pocket by the same acceleration gate they had used a few minutes before. A sound like a clap of thunder vibrated through the ship as the seven cannons opened fire. The shields on the almost stationary Condor vanished. With the thermal cut-offs disabled the guns cycled quicker and another seven projectiles were loaded into the guns 20% faster than normal. This created a heat-build up inside the weapons system that would damage, and eventually disable the guns if left to continue. The Condor was just picking up speed trying to get way as the second volley ripped through its armour and it exploded in a fireball. 30 crew dying in an instant with no time to reach the escape pod. As the Condor exploded the Talwar landed. Usually the fast and manoeuvrable Condor class frigate would have got range and be using electronic warfare against the target which would allow the Talwar to get into position when he activated the gate a set time behind the Condor. Instead what greeted him was a fully functioning Thrasher with its guns trained directly at it. Three volleys later the Talwar erupted in flames and broke apart. Whilst the Talwar was able to return fire, its long ranged missiles scarified damaging power from the warhead for more fuel for increased range. At 10kms the Thrashers guns were significantly more powerful than the Talwars missiles. The fight was one-sided again.

-o0o-

Yanati and Samo watched the Talwar disintegrate from the small viewport. Samo looked back at his datapad.

"The outpost is still tracking the Thrasher. Those two militia pilots hardly scratched it."

Yanati pushed off the wall and floated back towards his seat.

"Firewall is down. The frogs are attacking the command and control subroutines now. Its all but over."

"Well, wake me when Navy search and rescue get here!" replied Yanati as he strapped himself back into his chair and closed his eyes.

The End

Farmers Gonna Farm - NO!

Haters gonna hate and farmers gonna farm.

Come on CCP, lets have some action on these plex farmers that are hurting faction war. This week I managed to decloak several farmers inside a plex only to have they warp off (so the favoured cloak plus triple stabbed). I've lost count of those who are stabbed and just warp away. This is as close as a passive source of income as you can get in Eve currently. Come on! Lets swing the nerf hammer!

1. Plex timers roll back at 2x speed when nobody is there.
Flee out of the plex when you see someone on D-Scan? Well your hard work is being undone! I'm tempted to say 4x or even 8x. If you won't fight for your plex, you should not get any LP!

2. Cloaks do not work in plex'.
The 'button' targets them as they enter. Same effect as if a militia member enters enemy hi-sec. If, as a militia member, you try to cloak in enemy hi-sec you get the message - "You cannot use your cloaking device as the enemy Navy are tracking you". Have this inside faction war plex but rather than the navy, it is the satellite that is tracking you!

3. Increase PG requirement for warp core stabs limiting offensive and defensive power.
Even triple stabbed with cloak, most ships can kill the rat and get the LP. Increasing PG is going to hurt the DPS buy limiting turrets and launchers or tank.

4. You need to have the button locked for it to countdown
A favourite trick of the farmer is to position their ship just inside 30km from the button on the far side from the warp in. They then are 40km or so away from the enemy ships that warp in. Plenty of time for a leisurely align and warp out. If they have to target the button to get it to countdown, the stabs and cloaks gimping their lock range will mean they need to get closer to the button and therefore closer the warp in. No sitting 29.9km far side of the capture point! The RP reason for this is that your crew are hacking the systems on the satellite and need the lock to gain the connection.

5. The plex icon in space changes when someone is running the timer.
Enter a system, one war target in there and that small outpost has an icon above it meaning he's in there. KILL HIM! In fact why not have the plex timer showing on the outside? If it is running you not only know someone is in there (and which side they are on depending if its going up or down) but also how much time you have left to do something about it!

OK all, lets have a sing-song!


Stabbed through the hull,
And you're too lame,
You give Faction War a bad name.

A shootable target is what you sell,
You promise me pewpew, then put me through Hell,
Chains of rage got a hold on me,
When fitted with stabs, you can break free.

Oh, I've a loaded gun, yeah.
Oh, there's nowhere to run.
No one can save you.
The cockbaggin' will be done.

Stabbed through the hull,
And you're too lame,
You give Faction War a bad name (bad name)

I play my part and you play your game
You give faction war a bad name (bad name)
You give faction war, a bad name

Painted and pointed I have you now
But you're triple stabbed and I say "wow!"
A militia pilots dream, you act so shy
Your very first warp-in was your first goodbye

Oh, I've a loaded gun
Oh, there's nowhere to run
No one can save you
The cockbaggin' will be done. 

Stabbed through the hull,
And you're too lame
You give Faction War a bad name (bad name)

I play my part and you play your game
You give Faction War a bad name (bad name)
You give faction war, oh!

[Guitar Solo]

Stabbed through the hull,
And you're too lame
You give Faction War a bad name
I play my part and you play your game
You give Faction War a bad name (bad name)

Faction War Guide 2013

Its been over a year since my last Eve Online faction war guide so it might be time for an update. Some of the mechanics have changed and the old guide is now outdated in many respects so in need of a refresh. I am also getting a lot of search hits for "Faction War Guide 2013" so here you go! I've tried to keep the simple bits short and sweet!

Why?
PvP! The ability to shoot people in the face without getting GCC (yeah, yeah. It is a felon flag now, but it will always be GCC for me!), gate gun fire or those nasty security status hits in low-sec!

Sign Up!
As an individual, if you have 0.0 or better faction standing, you can join as an individual with the corresponding NPC corp:-

Amarr - 24th Imperial Crusade.
Gallente - Federal Defense Union.
Caldari - State Protectorate.
Minmatar - Tribal Liberation Force.

If you have bad standings then you can join an existing militia player corp. You can enlist your own corp into faction war providing the corp standing is 0.0 or above to the faction.You can enlist your alliance into faction war providing EVERY corp has 0.0 or better standing to the faction. If your standings drop below the requirements, you will be kicked from the militia.

When you join one militia, you become at war with another two. Caldari and Amarr are allies as are Minmatar and Gallente. Join the Minmatar, and the Caldari militia can shoot you as well as the Amarr!

Note, that doing things in Faction War will effect your standings to the Empires. As you capture plex you will get standings boosts to your faction, with a corresponding hit to your standings with the two enemy factions. The Gallente Federation love me, but I can never return to the Caldari State who hate me. Caldari space and notably Jita is closed to Drackarn!

Fight for Control!
Control of a system in the low-sec warzone is gained by running complexes know as plex. If your faction controls the system then you get bonus' and the ability to dock in stations there. If the system is controlled by the enemy, you cannot dock in any of the stations!

Entering a system and opening your probe scanner (you do not need probes!) and you will have a list of faction war complexes that the on board scanner has scanned when you entered the system. If any of them are already showing on your overview it means someone has already been there..... or still is in there.....

If the plex has not yet been visited, as soon as you select warp to it, it will appear on the overview to everyone in system. This is known as "popping a plex" as in it pops up on overview! You can initiate a warp and then cancel. That will still open the plex for all, but you won't warp there.

A quick note on warping to a plex, NEVER warp to 0KM at a gated plex. The acceleration gates are huge and you can get your ship caught up on them. If you select "warp to 10km" you will actually land at '0km' from the gate but won't get tangled up on the gate. This is the same mechanic as a docking ring on a station.

Each size of complex restricts what ships are allowed through the acceleration gate. It also indicates the time it takes to capture the plex.

• Novice 'faction name' Outpost - T1 and faction frigates. 10 minutes.
• Small 'faction name' Outpost - T2 frigates, destroyers and smaller. 15 minutes.
• Medium 'faction name' Outpost - Cruiser and down including T2 cruisers. 20 minutes.

These are the standard three plex that will respawn again 30 minutes after someone completes them. They will change the contested level of the system by 0.6% each. The size does matter here. Therefore novice plex are actually the most efficient as they only take 10 minutes. There are also random plex that can spawn in any faction war system:-

• Large 'faction name' Outpost - ALL THE THINGS (no gate)
• 'Size' 'Faction' Stronghold
• 'Size' 'Faction' Facility

Strongholds and Facilities are random plex that will have the same size modifier as the outposts. So you get Small Strongholds and Medium Facilities etc. There are a certain number of these each in each constellation. Sometimes multiple of these plex can stack up in a little used system as people run them in more popular systems. This is known as 'puddling'. Sometimes you can find a back-end system with over a dozen plex waiting to be captured.

Once inside the plex you will find a satellite some 10km from the warp in. You need to be within 30km of that beacon in order for the counter to start ticking down.

If you are in an enemy controlled system, the NPC Navy will spawn and attack you. If there is an enemy rat inside the plex, the counter will not start to countdown until you have killed the rat. This was implemented to stop the gunless farmers of the summer of 2012. The rat ships are sized depending on the plex and start from frigates in the novices to battlecruisers in the large.

If you are in a system controlled by your faction, the rats shouldn't shoot you (if they do, check your faction standings). Once the counter hits 0, your done! You should see how contested the system is on the bar in the top left of your screen. When it's 100% contested the iHub becomes vulnerable and you can shoot it. Get the iHub into structure and you take control of the system at next DT.

You get loyalty points for offensive plexing (however this is modified by warzone control level). The LP rewards for capturing plex are:-

• Novice - 10,000 LP
• Small - 17,500 LP
• Medium - 25,000 LP
• Large - 30,000 LP

If your militia already own the system, you can defensive plex. This lowers the contested level of the system and requires the enemy to capture additional plex to capture it. When defensive plexing the counter will run with the NPC rat in there as it is (or should be) friendly. You do get a lot less LP for it and the number goes down the less contested it is. If the system is 6% contested you will not get much LP. If it is 99% contested you'll get just under 75% of the normal value:-

• LP Gain = Base value of plex * (Contested percentage of the system/100) * 0.75

So completing a small plex in a friendly system that is 10% contested, you will get 750 LP (at warzone control level 2, more on this in a moment).

You also get LP for killing enemy players!

• LP= ([Market value of target ship] - [Max. Insurance market value] + [Fitted mods, rigs and subsystem market value] + [Transported items market value]) / 10000

A few examples (note these are based on average prices in 2012. Use as a rough idea how it works only):-

Abaddon with T2 mods: LP = ( 196m ISK – 161m ISK + 46m ISK + 0 ) / 10000 = 8,100 LP
Machariel with T2 mods: LP = (1.170m ISK – 95m ISK + 40m ISK + 0 ) / 10000 = 111,500 LP
Punisher with T1 fitting: LP = (450k ISK – 312k ISK + 100k ISK + 0) / 10000 = around 24 LP
Punisher with T2 fitting: LP = (450k ISK – 312k ISK + 7.8m ISK +) / 10000 = around 794 LP

Of course, with no insurance, a pod with good implants nets you a lot of LP!

You can donate your LP's into a systems iHub increasing the benefits to your faction in the system and giving your militia more influence in the warzone. Click the militia button and have a look around. It's fairly obvious how tier levels work. You score for every system you control plus extra for the upgrade level. The system upgrade level gives you bonus to clone costs, market order costs and factory/laboratory slots in stations in that system. The amount of LP's needed are:-

• Level1: 40,000 LPs
• Level2: 60,000 LPs
• Level3: 90,000 LPs
• Level4: 140,000 LPs
• Level5: 200,000 LPs
• Buffer: 300,000 LPs

The buffer is required as when you are capturing plex in enemy systems, when you receive LP's, 10% of that number of LP is removed from their iHub. So if you plex enough, the upgrade level of the system will fall affecting their 'warzone control level'. So if you get 25,000 LP for capturing a medium compound, 2,500 LP in the enemy iHub will be lost.

As previously mentioned captured systems and each level of upgrade count to your factions overall warzone control level.

At tier one all LP rewards are reduced to 50%. At tier 2 they are normal and from tier 3 you start getting a bonus. So for a small plex the LP gains by warzone control tier level are:-

• Tier 1 - 8,750 LP
• Tier 2 - 17,500 LP (base reward)
• Tier 3 - 30,625 LP
• Tier 4 - 43,750 LP
• Tier 5 - 56,875 LP 

The equivalent ISK value of a LP varies by time, how the side is doing, etc. but as a rule of thumb many work on 800-1000 ISK per LP in faction war.

It should be noted that the faction war LP stores are also discounted. So you need less LP with Federal Defence Union to buy that Navy Brutix than you would need with Federation Navy.

Just Fight!
Plexs are good locations to get fights. Kill the rats, sit on the warp in, wait for enemy to show up. One issue we do have is with farmers coming in with warp core stabs and cloaks. If you do this, you should be ashamed of yourself!

Faction war is about PvP so get yourself a PvP fitted ship, leave the stabs and cloaks at home and lets rumble!

Fighting in T1 frigates, destroyers and cruisers is fun! None of this lock, press F1, see how it goes. These days there are multiple fits that all work well for the same hull. Is that Merlin shield, LM kite fit? Or is he armour tank with rockets? That Incursus, is he blaster or 150mm rails? That Tristan, is he neut or blaster or rails? These all generally need more skill to fight in than big fleets in big ships.

Take the neuting Tristan. You need to manage range, drones, cap injector, armour repper, capacitor levels and overheating. Faction war solo and small gang warfare can be easy or very complex!

Station Lock-Out
Its been mentioned above but I thought I'd highlight this again. If the enemy control the system, you cannot dock in the stations. This applies even if the station belongs to your militia. This is the case in Nisuwa. The station is State Protectorate, but as the Gallente have captured the system State Protectorate members are denied docking permission. A lot of pilots are caught out by this and warp to station. This even applies to capital pilots (check the ownership of the system before jumping your dreadnought to a station you cannot enter!)

Plex Grid Mechanics
Outside, you can warp to the acceleration gate at range, but you cannot warp on grid. This means you cannot warp to fleet members, cans, wrecks anything. I use this when fighting outnumbered. Lure the target well off gate and when his mates warp to him they'll find themselves landing at zero on the gate whilst we are 150km off. If you need to get to someone off gate see if there is a celestial like a station or planet in a good alignment. You can warp to that, warp back to the plex at 100km and then burn the rest of the way. Inside the plex its prop mod or GTFO. No warping inside the plex at all.

Hi-Sec
Hi-sec is not safe in faction war. You can enter the enemy's hi-sec, but an NPC Navy spawn will attack you. They do not point but they do web and in higher security systems neut heavily. The strength of the spawn relates to the security status of the system. In a 0.5 it is fairly week, in a 1.0 strong. The Navy can be tanked and kited so it is possible to enter the enemy's hi-sec and kill militia there when they think they are safely running missions/mining/hauling. CONCORD will not attack you if you fire on enemy militia in hi-sec. Being in militia is the same as being in a permanent war-dec.

You cannot cloak in enemy hi-sec when in militia (the Navy are tracking you)!

Do Not Attack Fellow Militia Members
Some times there is an asshat in local who is in the same militia as you that you really want to kill. Obvious spy, leeching LP or just smacking like a 6 year-old in a playground. DON'T. Massive standing penalties are given to people who attack fellow militia members. If you pod a fellow militia mate then your standings are going to be in the toilet. There are also the noobs flying around with bad overview settings and may attack those 'friendlies' who are security status challenged (aka pirate). Usually it is best not to have fellow militia on the overview..... but the turning off fellow militia members from the overview also turns off allied militia members which can be a problem.

Allies, or the Enemy of My Enemy is My Enemy or Maybe Friend, I Don't Fracking Know?
In faction war we are supposed to have an ally. It is supposed to be Gallente/Minmatar vs Caldari/Amarr. However there is no penalty for attacking members of the other militia. The Minmatar are supposed to be on our side but are full of anti-pirates. As a -10 player many Matari RP'rs don't like me and will attack. So now I have to consider all Matari potentially hostile (well we have some sensible Matari Militia corps set blue). It gets tricky in the warzone! General rule of thumb, just because the other pilot is in a supposedly allied militia doesn't mean he won't attack you.

Intel
When you join faction war you will have the "Militia" chat window pop open. This will be full of spies so do not for one second think it is a secure channel. The enemy has ears and eyes and probably other body parts in there too. All the militia have invite only intel channels. You'll need to prove you are not a filthy spai before getting invited to those. Best way to prove you are not a spia? Kill the enemy.... a lot.

Fleet Up!
As a new player it can be hard to get into some of the roaming fleets. FW is full of spai's remember! Keep an eye on militia chat, there will occasionally be fleet adverts posted. The thing with faction war is it is great for solo and small gang. Get a few of your mates together and fleet up and go for a roam. Faction war is about PvP. So go find someone to violence! Many FC's will look at killboards. If you have been actively killing the enemy you are more likely to be accepted into fleets.

So there you go, my rough faction war guide 2013. If it's pricked your interest have a search around and I'm sure you'll be able to find more in-depth guides. Or just join up and get violencing important internet spaceships! That's the easiest way to learn!