Harmless, Aiming for Elite.

Does anyone solo any more? I took a few roams around over the weekend and either encountered lots of small gangs of three, or people who just ran. I didn't get one fight, closest was a Daredevil who ran from my Rifter -.-

I wrote the next bit a couple of weeks ago and its been saved as a draft since then. Yesterdays roaming was a very similar story.

-o0o-

First session was so quiet it was almost pointless. I flew around system after system not finding any fights at all. Either people ran, or had a Griffin with them. I spent 30 minutes muttering curses to myself and logged hoping it would be busier later.

Later on I took a Thrasher out and after finding the surrounding systems very quiet again, I took a run up to the home of Stay Frosty. Due to my crap TZ there were only a few SF about and all docked up with none in space. There were three Caldari Militia there but they were all together in one plex. I headed back down the pipe. Every solo destroyer I came across ran off. Frigates, yeah they should run so cannot complain there. The rest were small groups or dudes with a Griffin. Why are Griffins so popular currently? In the end I went back to Kedama and sat in a plex waiting for someone to come at me. A Jaguar came at me and I was all excited until it appeared on grid and it was an Alliance member. Next up was a Hookbill. I loaded EMP and got ready. He entered the plex and as he got point his mate in an Imperial Navy Slicer suddenly arrived. Their combined DPS was just enough to kill me before I was able to kill the Hookbill. He was in about 20% structure as I popped. So close!

Anyway I podded back home, reshipped and headed south. In Pyne I warped to a plex just as a pirate Tristan landed. I engaged in my Kestrel... and five seconds later his two mates arrived. The Tristan was in low structure as I popped. So close again!

At that point I rage-logged as I was getting frustrated and knew I'd probably end up Leeroying more ships just trying to get one kill.

Can be so fustrating when you are soloing and you keep getting outnumbered.

-o0o-

Can anything be done about this? I doubt it. Eve needs to be an open sandbox. Whilst frustrating for the solo roamer, to put any sort of mechanics or restrictions to help them 1v1 would be out of character with the game. I may hate it when I tackle the bait, but that is a legitimate tactic and whilst I may die too often, it should be allowed.

So how can we encourage 1v1 and less pointless blobbing? Titles!

BattleClinic awards points for your kills. However the points awarded are adjusted depending on how many people are with you and the ship types. Kill a cruiser when its you and 4 mates in battlecruisers, you'll get single digits. Kill a dreadnought, solo and in an interceptor, you'll get close to 700. What if we had that scoring system in game. Remember Elite? Even if you don't remember the original (Oh I loved my rubber-keyed Spectrum 48k with tape player) you may have seen Elite: Dangerous which is currently in development. What if pilots had 'titles' or ranks based on a scoring system. These are the titles you get in Elite based on number of kills....

• Harmless
• Mostly Harmless
• Poor
• Average
• Above Average
• Competent
• Dangerous
• Deadly
• Elite

Eve could have a similar system with titles based on a BC type scoring system. The scoring could also be based on average score per month age of character. That way vets don't benefit to the detriment of newer players. Want that prestigious 'Elite' ranking? Well you are going to need to solo or small gang a lot more. Blobbing ain't going to cut it!

Of course this helps with the stagnation too. A new challenge for players (and something more useful that that Isis Mastery Level). Just look at Titanfall and all the players generation levelling.

Then again on the other-side, will visible rankings deter people. Will those with high ranks find that people will not fight them? As with everything in Eve, every idea comes with drawbacks.

Just an idea that would need a lot more work.

SCASSSS - All By Myself....

When I moved to the Middle East from 'Green and Pleasant England' I knew it would affect my Eve play style. GMT +4 means Europe is still getting home from work and eating, America is at work, the Aussies are in bed and the Russian farmers are farming.

Staying up late at the weekend I was able to get into a proper 30-man fleet and it was so much fun! Reminds me of the days when I used to partake in decent fleet fights rather than the solo and very small gang I do these days.


All By Myself....

When I was young
I never needed anyone
And ganking squids was just for fun
Those roams are gone
Roamin' alone
I think of all the corpies I've known
When I start the TS 'phone'
Nobody's home

All by myself
Don't wanna fly
All by myself
Anymore

Hard to be solo
With no FC's order to follow
And targets so distant and obscure
Cockbag Thrasher the cure

All by myself
Don't wanna fly
All by myself
Anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna fly
All by myself
Anymore


Sorry, I apologise to any proper lyricist suffering reading the above :o)

The Games - Part 3

Fiction Friday! Escape pod here. Trying to find some new blogs to read so expect some new sites popping up in the escape pod.

I was going to this as the last piece of the series, but when I finished it I wasn't happy. So I rewrote the last section and left it open for a conclusion next week.

The Games - Part 3

Samar retrieved the pistol from the corpse of the huge man. As expected, its magazine was empty. Inside the room they found the body of the Miser. He was slumped against the bulkhead. The huge man had smashed his head open against the wall. Blood and brain matter dripped down the rusted wall onto the corpse.

"So you are not the murder then?" stated Zhilan.

"Who knows. That man-mountain out there seemed to think he was, but was he right? He might have killed in the past, but someone else might have a grudge and put him in here for some other reason."

Samar checked the Miser's corpse he felt something in the pocket and raised an eyebrow in surprise. He retrieved the item and shoved it into his own pocket.

"Come on lets go!" he said.

They next two decks were empty. On the fourth they found another bonus room. Samar read the datapad.

This is a two-person bonus room. If you are alone you cannot complete this room, move along. If you have made a friend then you two may attempt this room. You and your ally will be at great risk, but the reward is perhaps the greatest... The location of the escape pod.

Samar let Zhilan read the datapad.

"OK. No more bullshit. No pause to work up a story. You either tell me which you on that list are or we go our separate ways. I need to know."

Zhilan looked at him, a tear in her eye.

"I'm the whore OK!" she whispered.

"Explain" he replied quickly.

"Simple as that. I am a pro. I accept money to sleep with people. I could argue that I'm a high-class and expensive courtesan or escort, but in the end thats just semantics. The reality is I do the same as a 20-credit-street-walker, you give me money, I'll go to bed with you. I had been booked to see a couple at a five-star hotel. I arrived at their suite, they gave me a glass of champagne and next thing, lights out! Then I woke up in the room next to you. Look at me! You think I dress like this to meet a couple of friends?"

Samar looked her up an down. He had never seen a 500 credit an hour courtesan but the way she was dressed he could believe it.

"Doesn't explain why you are here does it?"

"I don't know why, same as you don't know. I guess one of my Clients had a grudge? Perhaps a partner of a Client could have found out? Blamed me more than them? I don't know."

Samar reached into his pocket and looked at the datapad that he'd found when he first woken up. There was 20 minutes until the tower self-destructed.

"Look, we are running out of time. These bonus rooms are bad, but if we don't find that pod in the next 20 minutes we are both dead."

Zhilan nodded and approached the door.

-o0o-

Curses were muttered by a couple as the big screen showed a man's mid-rift opened up and his intestines flood out of the gaping wound. The man who had previously strangled the Abandoner stepped back as his victim slumped to the floor trying to hold his intestines inside his ripped stomach. The killer bent down and tugged on the entrails enlisting a shriek from the dying man. A childish giggle sounded as he did it again followed by a scream of agony as he kept torturing the slowly dying man.

"For fracks sake! So much for our master thief!" an elegantly dressed man exclaimed. Others chuckled around the room at his outburst.

"It was a surprise sir" Xarna said "We did expect someone with his skills to do better."

The man just grumbled under his breath.

"So there are five left including that one you haven't shown yet? Can I buy back in?"

"Odds are obviously not as good now on the last remaining contestants, and the one you mentioned is for a very special bet which is just about to begin. Would you like to see the odds we are offering on this special mini-game?"

-o0o-

Samar slid the bolt on the door back and slowly entered the room with the gun drawn.

The usual pedestal at the end had a heavy metal cage over it. On one side of the room was a large black cylinder just over a metre wide and 3 metres tall. On the opposite side to the cylinder was an illuminated disk on the floor. Samar carefully moved over to the frame covering the pedestal. He tried to move it but it was too heavy. The bars were too closely spaced to get a hand in to reach the box.

"Do you think this has something to do with it?" Zhilan asked standing on the illuminated disk.

Samar cried out to stop her but it was too late, Zhilan stood on the disk and a perspex tube shot up from the floor trapping her inside it. Samar rushed over and hammered on the glass. A terrified Zhilan looked back at him, her palms pressing against the clear plastic. Movement caught his eye in the reflection cast on the cylinder, the black cylinder behind him started to clear. Another terrified woman looked back at him, also trapped inside the tube. Finally the grate around the pedestal raised. Samar waited a few seconds but nothing appeared to be happening. He walked to the pedestal and opened the box. Inside was a datapad and some sort of remote control with two buttons. He took the datapad and looked at the screen. It was receiving files and updating something. The screen flashed signifying it had received whatever it had been downloading. Two large circles appeared numbered one and two, he assumed they were buttons. He pressed the first. Zhilan's face filled the screen, it was a brief biography. She had told the truth, she was a high-class escort who charged 500 credits an hour for her company. A paragraph at the bottom explained that a jealous partner who blamed her for the breakdown of her marriage was responsible for her being here. "My husband turned from a loving man into some sort of perverted fiend. He left me saying I was too boring in bed. I know why he thought that, it was because of that whore corrupting him. She deserves to suffer for turning my husband against me!".

He went back and selected number 2. The photograph of the woman in the other tube flashed up. She was a business woman, and owned a successful marketing company. The paragraph at the end stated she'd taken control of the company by sleeping with the previous owner and then double-crossing him. She had ruined the man and his family and in the end he'd killed himself. His wife and three young children were now homeless. Text from an email had been included. Samar quickly read it. It appeared to be a from a relative of the family begging the woman to help the dead man's wife and children, after all, she stole the company from them which led to the man's suicide. She had just insulted him. The final line made him pause.

"This woman knows the location of the escape pod. The tubes are sound-proof. The only way to to find out is to release her."

Samar went back again and hit the continue button at the bottom which had appeared after he'd read the second bio.

"The remote control is now active. Press button 1 to open tube 1 and release acid into tube 2. Press button 2 to open tube 2 and release acid into tube 1."

Samar re-read the instructions in disbelief before he screamed in rage. He read the instructions a third time. The bastards had given him a choice. Save the woman he was with and lose the location of the escape shuttle or kill the woman he'd aligned with and free a nasty piece of work to save his own skin. Samar closed his eyes tight and gripped the remote. He felt the button depress and click as he squeezed it.

-o0o-

In the cocktail lounge the tension was high. As Samar was reading so were the guests, the large screen had explained everything and the choice he had to make. They had opportunity to bet on which he would chose. Most of the guests had placed bets between 100,000 and a cool million. It was a simple 2 to 1 gamble. The big screen divided into two. It focused on the women's feet.

"Hey which is which? We cannot tell!" one man called out.

"That is part of the fun!" Xarna replied. "You'll not know for a minute. Builds the tension."

At almost the same time one tube started to lift very slightly, just a few millimetres a second. In the other a clear liquid slowly rose, again agonisingly slowly. Feint smoke rose from the heels of the expensive stiletto's. It appeared that the victim had not yet noticed. The heel started to dissolve and suddenly the feet moved.

"She knows now!" whispered another woman in the crowd excitedly.

The rising tube was only moving millimetres whilst in the other the woman had started to 'dance' in the tube, trying in vain to keep her feet out of the rising liquid. Rather than saving her all this did was splash the acid onto her legs. Holes began to appear in the black silk covering her legs first revealing a flash of white flesh before it turned an angry red as the acid ate into the skin. Howls of terror and pain drifted through the speakers as the room went quiet. There was still no way to tell which screen was which contestant, nobody had taken notice to what either woman has wearing in that detail.

The acid was now up to the woman's calves and had turned a light red, both the flood of acid and the raising of the other tube slowly accelerated. Within moments the acid was up to the victims knees. Her tights or stockings she word had dissolved into ragged shorts. The screaming continued.

"The tube is too narrow for the contestant to bend down or collapse. They must wait." Xarna commentated.

The acid was now at waist height as the camera slowly panned up. The screaming was growing hoarse. On the first screen the tube had reached the waist of the other woman and she was able to duck down. Zhilan's face filled the screen as Samar help her up as she clambered out of the trap. There was a selection of cheers and curses in the cocktail lounge as the assembled guests realised whether they had made the right bet or not.

-o0o-

"You OK?" Samar asked. There was no reply as Zhilan stared across the room.

"Are you OK?" he asked again more strongly grabbing her by the shoulders.

Zhilan broke her stare from the woman thrashing in the tube, the acid now up to her neck. When her thrashing made her body press against the front of the tube her horrifically burnt body was clear, her clothing already disintegrated.

"What happened?" she asked "What did you do?"

"I made a decision. I think the right one. Or would you like to be doing that?"

The woman now was struggling to keep her face above the rising acid. Zhilan shook her head and ran from the room. Samar glanced back before he left the room at the cylinder of now red liquid. It was eerily still.

As soon as he was out of the room he grabbed Zhilan 's hand and ran down the corridor.

"Where are we going?" Zhilan shouted.

"We got less than 10 minutes until this structure blows. We need to assume the pod is somewhere in the centre and that those starting from the bottom are heading there too. We've seen enough people to know there should be no more in the top half. Otherwise they'd be at too great an advantage so now we run!"

-o0o-

"Ladies and gentlemen." Xarna announced "We are coming to final part of tonight's entertainment. All new bets must be made in the next 30 seconds. We will then close the betting."

There was a flurry of activity as people pulled out datapads to make last minute bets. Only four portraits were left in colour, the other eight faded to a deep red.

The Whore, The Dealer, The Psychopath and the Traitor.

-o0o-

Samar practically dragged Zhilan down the stairs. As he reached the next landing he stopped.

"What? Why are we stopping?" she asked.

"Theres no barricade blocking us."

"So, that's good isn't it?"

"Sort of. It means they wanted people to be able to come up, this is the middle deck of the tower."

He turned to the door on the landing and threw it open. It was a hanger, and a small two-person escape pod sat on a rail system. The rails ran to what appeared to be a large external hatch. A skinny man stood by the pod.

"Its locked down." He announced to the new arrivals. "Won't open until 30 seconds before detonation it says. I guess our lords and masters wanted a grand finale! Nobody leaves early!" he shouted with a theatrical wave of his arms.

Samar noted he was covered in blood.

"So how do we do this?" he asked cautiously.

The skinny man laughed.

"I thought I'd kill you, take that hot woman and leave. Then I can spend time slowly slicing her skin off!"

"I assume then, you must be the psychopath?" Samar sneered.

The skinny man took a long exaggerated bow.

"And I'm the traitor" said another voice "So that makes you...?"

Samar glanced up at a catwalk. A man was sat there with his legs over the side leading against the lower rail. He had a distinct look of military about him, Samar knew he was dangerous. He pulled his gun and swung it from the psycho back to the traitor. The man on the catwalk casually rose to his feet and jumped down.

"Please. If you've got this far the chances are you've already fired the single bullet they give you. If not you can only take one of us two down. Who do you want to be left with, the man who sold secrets to the enemy that got an entire squad killed or a psychopath who will slice you up... and then eat you. To be honest, its a tough choice." the Traitor said casually.

"I'm betting the gun is as dry as that bitches snatch." the psychopath sneered advancing. He pulled a jagged piece of sharp metal from his belt. "First I'm going to stick this in your throat and watch you drown in your own blood. Then I'll strip that bitch and slice off her..."

The shot from the gun echo'd around the hanger. The psycho stopped in his tracks. A red stain spreading from the middle of his chest. Samar addressed The Traitor.

"You were right, I did use the bullet I got with the gun, but for some reason The Miser had one in his pocket. I think the Murderer had a gun too and the Miser removed the bullet."

The Traitor nodded in approval.

"So, what now?" Samar asked dropping the gun to the floor. An evacuation alarm sounded. The Traitor looked up at the amber flashing strobes.

"The one minute alarm. You and the woman should strap in." he said as he walked towards the hatch.

"You are giving up?" Samar asked in shock.

"I planted a data transmitter for the Caldari Navy. Sold out my Gallente brothers. I lost friends and comrades. It took their one of their families four months to track me down in exile. I assume it was a family, not really the Black Eagles style this is it? They'll do it again, and to be fair, I deserve it. Time to end it. Good luck, whoever you are."

Samar grabbed Zhilan's hand and ran to the escape pod. The twin perspex cockpits opened and they jumped in. The cockpits closed and the pod started to accelerate forward. They could see the Traitor stood by the hatch. Red warning lines started to flash as the doors slid open, revealing a forcefield over the entrance. As the doors fully opened the forcefield dropped and the contents of the hanger including the escape pod and the Traitor were jettisoned into space.

-o0o-

"But I paid for him to die!" screamed the woman.

"No. You paid for him to be a contestant in the Games. If you had wanted him dead you should have hired an assassin." Xarna explained.

"But he killed my brother. He sold him the drugs that killed him, he deserves to die!"

"I'm sorry but when you approached us we explained that two contestants would survive and it was a possibility that it would be the one you were paying to place here."

"I don't see why you let any of them go, they all deserved to die."

Xarna just stood as the woman stormed out the room. After the door swung shut she went back to the cocktail party.

The big screen was the only one still active. Everyone was gathered around waiting for the fireworks.

-o0o-

The escape pod swung around violently. Zhilan looked across at Samar who appeared to have taken manual control of the escape pod. She could see he'd also ripped open a panel on the console. Wires sparked from where they had been pulled out of the exposed circuit boards.

"What are you doing! You've turned back towards the tower! That things going to explode!"

"Yes it is." he replied "Great way to destroy any evidence. On that note, what do you think we are?"

Zhilan went quiet. She was so overjoyed about escaping that she hadn't thought they themselves were witnesses.

"So you don't think they'll let us live?" she whispered.

"Nope, I checked. The distress beacon on this escape pod has been modified. The Sisters of Eve aren't going to get shit from this thing. However we are lit like a neutron star up on another frequency. Easy to lock on and shoot down! I've almost disabled the beacon, just need to pull one more wire when the time is right."

"So you are going to fly us into an exploding tower?" she asked incredulously.

"Trust me." he replied, concentration was etched on his face "I'm an engineer."

-o0o-

The tower exploded in a spectacular fireball witnessed by the guests crowding around the large screen. 

A polite round of applause went up before they started to say their goodbyes and depart. Xarna moved to the back of the room and tapped an earpiece.

"Captain, you can shut down the camera drones when you are ready. We are done back here. Decloak, launch the combat drones, take out the escape pod and warp us to station."

"Madame, there is no need to launch drones. The escape pod was destroyed in the explosion."

Xarna paused a second.

"Sorry?"

"Yes. Our sensors show that after it launched it turned back, it looked like it was trying to redock. The self-destructing tower took the pod with it."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. The transponder stopped broadcasting as the tower went up and we are reading zero energy signatures in the debris field."

"Strange. Anyway, lets get both sets of Clients back to station."

The Strategic Cruiser aligned and slipped into warp, leaving a burning debris field behind.


To be concluded......

Punish Me!

I'm getting a bit low on frigates after having the worse run in Eve I've ever had. Seriously, I've been dying like its being going out of fashion! Worst one was when I went solo against a guy but it was a tarp and his mates were waiting at a pounce... but the bait killed me before his mates could get on the KM! I've got people yellow boxing me and my ship instantaneously explodes! That's how terribad I'm flying currently! June was sort of....

Anyway for some reason I had a single Punisher hull in my hanger. So I thought I'd see what I could do with it with the range of modules I have in my hanger.

High slots are fairly easy, some T2 pulse lasers and a Nos. Then we get to the mids. ONLY TWO? This is an issue for a close range ship. I can fit a scram and a prop mod, but no web. If I fit a MWD I can get in range of my foes, but if I get scrammed then I cannot dictate range if they are either AB or have a web themselves. If I fit a AB I am in danger of being kited and unable to catch my enemy, but if I do catch them then I have a better change of dictating range. Mmmmmmmmm. I'll go scram and AB and try not to find any Condors or Slicers!

Low slots are easier. Plate and a small repper. I needed an power core as well for the 400mm plate. I was going for a EANM in the last but then I spotted I had one of those reactive hardeners. So I thought I'd try that for something different.

Rigs were a couple of trimarks to increase the buffer and a nano pump to cycle the repper faster.

Finally loaded up some Scorch and some Imperial Navy Multi-frequency and I was undocking into the big black to find someone to shoot!

Over 100dps at 3.3km optimal. 7.5k EHP although not sure how the reactive hardener effects this. 50 seconds of cap with everything running but the Nos helps there.

After only a couple of jumps I scanned a Merlin in a plex and warped to it. By the time I got in there he'd gone. There was a wreck in there and a capsule on scan, I think I just missed a fight. So I decided to see if the Merlin would come back. I kept spamming a short-range scan and after a couple of minutes he arrived back on gate!

I set up a 3km orbit around the warp in, activated my AB, set my default orbit distance at 3,300m and waited. After what appeared to be an age, but was probably less than a minute, he entered the plex and I spammed locked, orbit, scram, guns and Nos!

He engaged back and webbed me, however he was MWD fit so my AB meant I was still able to keep range even whilst webbed. His guns were hitting me, but mine were hitting harder given I was able to maintain optimal. My puny shields were soon gone but the armour was holding up nicely. It was maintaining around 90% with the small repper running. Cap was OK and he was going down fast to my Scorch. In the end an easy kill due to his lack of an AB. I gave a "gf" in local (unreturned) and looted the wreck which contained his loot plus the loot of the guy he'd just killed. Nice bonus there!

So the first outing with the Punisher was a success. Wonder what I'll encounter next?

Trying Out This Industry Thingy

So with the industry revamp three weeks away I thought I'd give it a go.

Lets get one thing clear. I'm a PvP'r not an industrialist. I used to do industry.... a long time ago..... for a couple of weeks.... on an alt. I then found it was a PITA and I prefer shooting things in the face so promptly stopped. One of my alts does have some industry skills so lets give it a go with this new UI. First off I bought a freighter and filled it with compressed minerals and flew it to a station next-door with factory slots (OK so the slots are gone, I know that now!).

Reprocessing may have been nerfed, but the interface is so much easier now and much better. You don't even need to take things out of the cargo bay. Select and reprocess. Schimples!

Right, now I'll buy a BPO, lets take a Kestrel as I do fly those. Got that. Now to build some Kessies! Click on the industry button. Wow, that's different! So now I click and drag my BPO into the slot. Wait.... in all that ore I hauled, it didn't have any isogen? FFS! At least its clear what I'm missing!

Bugger, none for sale in station, and its not a SiSi seeded station. I'll have to got back.... Wait! Hey, there is that Obelisk!

Ooooo there are all those capital ship construction parts!

OK got some Isogen out of all that. Now start again, select the BPO.... hey WTF! I have the minerals! Where have all my minerals gone? I just reprocessed a fracking freighter too!!! WHY WON'T YOU WORK?

I then removed old Kestrel BPO from the queue that's actually located in a station in Villore, waaaaay back in high-sec and drop in the right one for this station. Doh!

And hey-presto! 5 baby Kessies in the oven!

The new UI is a massive improvement on the old system. Not sure if I'll ever use it, but it might be worth doing some T1 production on the things I use a lot of! Then again I think I said that 5-years ago and found it was cheaper and easier just to buy in Jita!

SCASSSS - Red Moon Rising

Ahhhh, they don't make them like this any more....

The Games - Part 2

Fiction Friday! Escape pod here! Sorry in a bit of a rush this week!

The Games - Part 2

Samar and Zhilan walked briskly down the corridor trying to put some distance between themselves and the two corpses.

"So, what did you do to end up in here?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I was kidnapped for no reason!" she complained.

"I'm not buying that." he replied "I thought that at first but everyone here that we've met appears to have wronged someone in the past. I don't think we were grabbed at random, we were each targetted and our pasts are catching up with us. So I ask again what did you do?"

"Nothing!" Zhilan protested "What did you do?"

Samar looked down a side corridor, saw nothing of interest and continued on.

"I was in the Serpentis Syndicate. I ran drugs, enforced the Syndicates will. Basically I was a shit. In the end I was caught, sent for trial and spent 8 years in a penal colony. After I served my time I signed up to an ex-convict education project, got a qualification in starship mechanics and have led an honest life for years. However I guess someone I wronged before I straightened out wants payback. So why are you here? What did...."

Samar trailed off as he spotted a door with a datapad attached and a dead-bolt. Another bonus room. He went up to the door and read the message. It stated this was a level 5 bonus room. The previous one that had nearly cut him in half had only been level 1. The danger in that room would be much higher, but so would the reward. He placed his hand on the deadbolt. Zhilan placed her hand on top of his.

"Be careful" she whispered.

Samar nodded and entered the room. Again it was pitch black with the only light illuminating a pedistal at the back of the room. He took a step forward and there was a crash behind him, the room lights came on a second later. A metal grill had slammed down blocking his escape, a small keypad was located in the centre. He assumed he needed a code to raise the gate. A gutteral growl behind him made him spin back around. The thing in the corner made him step back in horror. It had once been human, that much was clear, but now it was more machine than human. Impants and cyborgnetic implants covered what was left of its biological body. A collar around its neck was fastened to the wall. It strained to move towards Samar, mindlessly choking itself. Samar noticed a small box hanging from the collar.

"The reward is in on the pedistal. The code to exit is around the neck of the friend of Mr Sansha. The low-grade slave will be released in five, four, three..." a robotic voice boomed over hidden speakers.

Samar grabbed his knife. The thing that faced him was something created by the evil genius of Sansha Kuvakei. Samar knew little about Sansha's Nation other than news stories and Gallente B horror movies.

"...two, one. Good luck!"

There was a clink and suddenly the creature rushed forward snarling. Samar side-stepped its charge and ran, looking for something better to use as a weapon than the puny flick knife he held. It would seem they had made sure it would be a fair fight and removed everything from the room that could be used as a weapon. The creature was slowly approaching now having learnt that charging wouldn't catch the fast moving Samar. Its one organic eye tracked his movements whilst the green glow of the mechanical one pulsed. Having backed him into a corner the creature lunged. Samar ducked and slammed his forearm into its belly. A sharp pain shot up his arm as it hit steel. The creature grabbed him by his belt and lifted him up, then threw him across the room. He slammed into the floor and skidded into the opposite corner, winded. The monster roared. Samar picked himself up as it advanced on him again. As it attacked he grabbed its head and plunged his finger into the creatures remaining original eye. The shriek it made hurt Samar's ears. It backhanded him and sent him flying. Samar picked himself up and backed off as the creature thrashed about, blood dripping from its ruined eye. Whatever purpose the artificial eye served it wasn't for vision. The creature was blinded and thrashing about wildly. Carefully Samar approach and in one quick motion he ripped the box from its collar and backed off. Sensing his presence the creature howled again and swung its metallic arm in a wide arc. Samar ducked and backed off towards the pedestal. He picked up the reward box and moved back to the gate and tapped in the pass-code. Out of breath, he ran from the room and slammed the door.

Zhilan looked at him concerned.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah. The sick bastards put some form of Sansha creature in there."

"How the hell did they get one for them?" Zhilan asked.

Samar opened the box. "I don't know, but I'm not sure I want to see any bonus rooms higher than 5 again. That thing almost killed me!"

He took out a piece of paper, at the top there was the title "Intel". He scanned the list and handed it to Zhilan.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Us." he replied as he sorted the contents of the box. Zhilan looked at the list.

• Murderer
• Thief
• Whore
• Cheat
• Rapist
• Dealer
• Vandal
• Double-Crosser
• Psychopath
• Miser
• Traitor
• Abandoner

"Oh." is all she could say.

"I know what you are thinking. I could be the 'Dealer' or the 'Vandal'. To be honest I could even be the murderer, however to be factually correct it was judged as manslaughter."

Samar didn't look up as he pulled food and drink from the box. Zhilan gasped as he pulled out a pistol.

"They gave us a gun?" she exclaimed.

Samar ejected the magazine and checked the chamber.

"Yes, but only one bullet. Useful, but only once." he replied slamming the magazine back home and stuffing the gun in the back of his jeans.

-o0o-

Back in the cocktail room everyone was watching the action on the big screen intently. A woman was laying on her front as a man sat on her back garrotting her. Her hands grasped at the string digging deep into her flesh as she choked, her gasping face filling the screen. A few seconds later she was dead. A glass smashed at the back of the room.

"Dammit!" screamed a woman. Xarna excused herself and approached the woman.

"That is unfortunate. Would you like to buy in again?"

"I cannot believe it! You would think a woman who would leave her own daughter in a burning building to save her own skin would be better at self-preservation than that!" the woman gestured to the main screen which showed the lifeless body.

"She was 60 to 1 for a reason I'm afraid. Our analysists predicted she wouldn't last long."

"What's the odds on that, thing, that killed her?"

"They are poor. 3 to 5 as he is expected to do very well."

The woman looked back to the screen.

"Put me down for three hundred thousand credits on that animal."

-o0o-

"Why do you think you might be the murderer?" Zhilan asked as Samar led her down a flight of stairs.

"Why do you think I should tell you when you won't tell me which you are on that list." he replied casually.

"I'm none of those!" she protested "I've never hurt anyone, well not enough for them to put me through this!"

Samar stopped, the stairwell was blocked by a barricade. Furniture and crates had been dumped and then welded into position. The door to the next deck was clear. Samar did think it was too easy when they found the stairwell. The organisers of this little caper obviously wanted to force them to go deck by deck. He assumed he'd find a stairwell at the other end of this deck which would allow them to descend to the next deck. He pushed the door open a crack and peered out. It appeared clear. He opened the door and lef Zhilan out into the corridor.

"A shop in the district we controlled stopped paying their monthly protection fee. I went round to purswade them to start paying again. The owners son took a swing at me, I swung back and put him down. At that point the cops arrived, I guess the owner had seen us approaching and assumed things would get messy so and called the cops. Anyway I get booked in for assault. I think I'm in there for the night, no biggy. However, the shop owners son never wakes up in the morning. The punch I gave him ruptured something, I cannot remember what it was, the pathologist explained in great detail at my trial. Anyway, he died from this freak internal injury. Prosecutor went for murder but the jury convicted me of manslaughter. I spent the next few years in the pen telling myself every minute I'd not return to that life. So I might be the murderer, but I was with the Serps so the 'Dealer' is another possibility. I smashed up a few establishments that were behind on their payments too so 'Vandal' fits as well."

"But that's not you any more. You went to jail for your crimes, you paid for what you did."

"I don't think everyone is in agreement with that." he sighed and continued down the corridor.

-o0o-

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Xarna asked the young woman. She looked up from her chair, the left side of her face was horribly scarred.

"No. Is it normal to feel like this?" she whispered.

"It will pass." Xarna said in a comforting voice.

The young woman looked up at the screen that still contained the view of her dead mother. The huge man was removing the string from her lifeless neck.

"Thank you."

As she left Xarna looked at the other Clients. People who had paid for those who had wronged them in the past to be brought to justice. Of course they had no idea that in the next room, the rich and the powerful were betting on who would survive. One Games, two very profitable Client groups.

-o0o-

"I... I... I have money! Lots of money!" the shaky voice man's voice pleaded from the room ahead. Samar and Zhilan edged forward, backs pressed against the wall.

"What fracking use is money? I don't see no Caldari Provisions Megamart around here!" the other voice was deeper.

"Get me out of here and you'll be rich! Remember its a two-man escape pod!"

"Is that why you picked up MY gun? Tell me which you are on the list and I might think about it. And you need to tell me the story, I ain't trusting some of them. You got two seconds to talk otherwise I'm going to think you are making it up! You messed with my gun, if you're the traitor I ain't trusting you!"

"The miser! I think I'm the miser!" the voice shrieked.

"Go on" the other boomed.

"I told you I was rich. Years ago my son came to me. My grand-kid had a terminal disease. There was an experimental treatment but it was 800,000 credits. It was experimental so might not have worked. You cannot spend that money on something with no guarantee!"

"So you let the kid die? Your own flesh and blood!" the deep voice growled.

"It was experiential!" the other protested.

"So you think your son put you in here?"

"I... I've not spoken to him since the funeral. I heard he'd successfully sued the station that was to blame for the condition of his son. Faulty rad-shielding. He has money now!"

"So if I kill you I can expect a good payment when I find your son? You never asked me which I was on that list, I'm the murderer!"

"What? No! Wait!"

There was a crack and then silence.

Samar froze. If they had the list then they had done one of the bonus rooms. That meant he could have a weapon like his. Also it appeared he might not be the 'murderer'. He wondered which title applied to him.

A huge man walked out of the room, his hands dripping with blood. He turned and stopped when he saw Samar pointing a gun at him. He smiled.

"What you going to do with that little man?" the giant snarled.

"Shoot you in the face with it if you don't back off."

The huge man took a step forward and quickly drew his own gun.

"Given the other titles on that list I'm guessing you ain't got the balls. What are you? The traitor? The cheat? Looking at you, you could be the whore." he laughed taking another step forward. With surprising speed the huge man dropped to his knee brought the gun to bare and pulled the trigger. The gun simply clicked. The giant looked at the gun in his hand in confusion.

"To be honest, I thought I was the murderer. But if that's you I guess it must be another of the crimes I committed as an enforcer for the Serpentis" Samar growled.

The huge man's face dropped at the mention of the notorious crime syndicate. He had moved to a vulnerable position, he had two choices. Run or attack but given he was kneeling on one knee, both were unlikely to succeed.

-o0o-

"Well Ambassador, he certainly is doing better than expected." Xarna purred.

The Ambassador nodded, not taking his eyes of the large screen. The huge man lay on the floor, a hole in his face. Samar was searching the body.

"His companion. What where her odds?" he asked.

"Her? She was 50 to one to start with. A long-shot. But if he keeps her under his wing someone will be winning big tonight." Xarna replied.

"Ah yes I remember her file now. I disregard her. Didn't see her lasting."

"No, given the reason someone has put her in there our analysts gave her a short life expectancy. But your player is keeping her alive."

"Well we are in the final half. Six left in the game. The Thief, the Whore, the Dealer, the Double-Crosser, the Psychopath and the Traitor. Its going to get interesting!"

To be continued.....

Faction War Plex Post Kronos

At the weekend mynnna made this post. TL:DR why not introduce a hacking-mini game into faction war:-

Part of the changes in Kronos were aimed at Faction Warfare. The NPCs found in the complex got a serious buff to their capabilities and actually respawn as they were (I believe) originally intended to. The point of the change was to put a damper on the heavily stabbed semi-AFK plex farming. Unfortunately – at least, going by what I’m hearing from regular participants – the new NPCs put a crimp on active players as well. Someone comes in and jumps you and having this annoying NPC glued to your ass is not helpful, right?

So we’ve swung back the other way, I guess. What about a third option?

What if, instead of a timer and NPC spawns, orbiting a FW plex button meant that you’d have to beat the hacking minigame a few times?

-o0o-

Personally I have no interest in hacking mini-games or other PvE content. I'm inside that plex to fight another player, if any grow a pair whilst I'm in there waiting. There are other ways to get around these issues without making me play hacking games when all I want is PvP. We need the NPC spawns to remove farmers as much as possible and make people fit their ships for combat. Yes things need to change but there are ways without turning Faction War from PvP to Archelology.

Firstly lets talk about that annoying NPC. By the look of it, they spawn every 3-4 minutes in a small plex. If you are running a decent fit ship you should be able to dispatch them with relative ease. The chance of a player, who is looking for a fight, entering your plex at the same time of you engaging a rat that just spawned are fairly small. The issue is if the rat spawns during such a fight, you'll have extra DPS to contend with.

This should be easy to solve. The "capture timer" ticks down as you are in there alone right?

And when there is an enemy pilot or rat there with you, it pauses.

So just link the "NPC rat respawn timer" to the "capture timer". If you are pew-pewing with an enemy militia member the rat will not spawn as the timer is paused. Once one of you is dead, the capture timer will start ticking and so will the rat respawn timer. Solved!

The next issue is the curse of the warp core stabs! CCP decided to hurt the stabbed and cloaky farmers by stopping cloaking within the capture radius and also to make the rats respawn and make them tougher. Unfortunatly the farmers are like the Borg. Not in a "Hur-Hur-Alriiiiiiiiight" Seven of Nine in that skin tight onesie type Borg but the standard drone that wants to assimilate you and nobody really likes. They have come up with two counters. The first one is even worse than what we had before. Damn Borg!

Basically the farmers have swapped to defensive plexing (and so do not need to shoot anything) and totally forgone weapons!

https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=24066274

https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=24059109

Now I don't know why they are doing this. Defensive plexing at tier 1 must pay even less than mining... in a 1.0 system.... in a noob ship. However, they are still doing it. The mind boggles!
The other way is that they have moved to using stabbed cruisers fitted for drone DPS. That way they don't need a lock!

CCP Fozzie would not be drawn into a discussion on warp core stabs at Fanfest when their use in FW LP farming was raised. He said that he had plans for them when they start the module rebalancing soon(tm). I propose a quick and easy solution to 'balance' WCS:-

Change it so that Warp Core Stabs nerf DPS like.....

The mechanics are already there for bonus to damage, just add a negative modifier for stabs. 50% reduction in DPS? Add one and your damage is severely nerfed. Add two and you are buggered.

Yes, there will be a few fits that will be adversely effected by this. Smart bombing battleships are the obvious ones. Also some fits that rely on drones. However, how many of these fits do people use on a very regular basis? I do not see a need for warp core stabs to be fitted to combat ships. This change does not effect your stabbed hauler. This change does not effect your stabbed travel fit battleship.

There are other ways this could be tackled. Another one would be to increase signature radius massively. I'm talking MWD style. However this would effect the haulers and travel fits. Increasing CPU to restrct other fittings is another. This again hurts haulers who might have to sacrifice tank to fit stabs. I think the DPS nerf is the best route all round.

The final way is reward those who are actually taking part in faction war and excluding farmers. Why not tie the LP rewards into system capture? Now this would require more work from CCP to impliment the mechanics but I think it would be worth it.

Defensive plexing stays the same. You defend a plex, you get LP.

With offensive plexing you are 'promised LP'. Basically as you capture enemy plex the LP you would be awarded is placed in a pool with a 30-day timer. If that system is captured then those LP will be transferred to you. If the system isn't captured then the LP are lost. Therefore those who are fighting to gain control of space will be rewarded and the farming is only rewarded if the bunker is flipped within 30-days.

Now in the past when I've suggested things like this a common response is "Moaning about stabbed farmers? Fit your ship to combat them!". Really? You put 3-point faction scrams on a T1 frigate do you? Have you tried flying a ship with triple long point against someone who is combat fit? Currently its a case of engage enemy, watch enemy run away, fly back to home station, swap to stabbed asshat catching ship, fly back to where stabbed asshat is, chase him, catch him, kill him, fly back to home system to swap out of stabbed asshat catching ship, get into combat ship, undock and go looking for another fight.

No, Faction War is about PvP. The clue is in the second word! WAR!!!!!

BB57 - Fitin Skilz, I Haz Dem

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 57th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are visit the Blog Banter page.

* * * * *

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” ― Albert Einstein

Drackarn pointed this killmail to me recently and proposed the following for a blog banter:

Obviously that is a not just a bad fit, its horrific. But the guy might not know any better. We get these all the time circulating social media and corp/alliance chat. How do we educate players on fitting? This guy has been playing four months and can fly a BC, but has no idea how to fit one. What could be done to help bro's like this?

Furthermore, what (if any) responsibility do veterans players have in finding these players and instructing them on the finer arts of ship fitting? If it exists, does it extend beyond them into teaching PvP skills, ISK making skills, market skills, social skills, life skills...

And another question you can think about is this: do purposely wrong fits, aka comedy fits or experimental fits or off-meta fits, offend you or your corp? Would you, like Rixx Javix when he was in Tuskers, face expulsion for fitting your ships differently than the accepted standard?

"Its the difference between streaking and getting caught with your pants down." - Kirith Kodach

-o0o-

Ah my own topic!

I made my post on the original Navy Drake of Doom last week. Then a few days later TMDC posts this.

Two different fits, two very different fails. However, in the end it falls back to one thing. These guys had no idea how to fit a ship. At all. Not. Even. Close. OK we all fit comedy/YOLO fits from time to time. I myself lost a Maelstrom at the weekend I'd fitted like a massive Cockbag Thrasher to piss about with on the undock (I know, I'm bored and frustrated with Eve currently, more on that soon). However, these fits are just plain wrong.

Now the question I posed in my original post was how do we educate players on how to fit ships? The comments I got on that post were mostly "EFT!", the popular 3rd party fitting tool. My question is, how does your average player even know about EFT? Do WoW players have fitting tools? Do other games have fitting tools? Why would a new bro or someone who has played for 6 months who doesn't have anything to do with the community in-game or out, even known about fitting tools?

OK, lets say for the sake of arguement some how they find EFT. Then how do they know what's a good fit? Their Caracal has 75 DPS and 8k EHP (I don't know if this is possible! I'm just making a point OK). Is that a good fit? Of course not, but how do they know?

Lets have a look at The Mitanni dot Coms bingo sheet for their ALOD feature:-

Lots of lessons here players need to learn. However, the game does not teach any of these. How are they supposed to know that only real men hull-tank (yes, there is the in-game certificate, and yes, in a very few very limited cases hull-tanking can be a good idea). So how do we stop these fits?

I don't think CCP can point players in the direction of one single 3rd party application. It would be showing too much favouritism. If they listed every fitting website and app that would get silly as the list would have to be maintained to ensure any new ones are included and out of date ones removed.

Is there a fitting tutorial? Last time I did the tutorials was nearly 6 years ago and they have been seriously revamped since then. However, do new players go through the entire tutorial?

The only thing I can think of is a warning box like the one you get for rigs. If you try and fit unbonused guns, undersized launchers, a small shield booster on a battlecruiser or a civilian anything you get a pop up warning. Of course they will have a "Don't show this message again" option for those who know, but at least you can inform the player its probably a bad idea. Its the only way I can think that does it quick and easy. Something like this:-

 

OK the two 'examples' above are me just joking. But they could have a serious message!

Now onto the next bit Kirith asked. What is my responsibility to these guys?

Nothing.

I'm British. We're far too polite to mention anything like this.

On some occasions I've had the other player convo me and asked how I killed him so quickly/easily. In those cases I've spent a fair amount of time advising what I think they did wrong and how they might fit their ship differently. I've even pulled links from killboards into the private convo to help them understand .

However, there is no way I'm going to convo one of these guys and say "Mate..... your fit......"

Come on CCP it's your job ;)

SCASSSS - Extreme Dreadnought Bumping

An oldie, but a goodie....

The Games - Part 1

Fiction Friday! If Eve-O fiction is not your thing try, erm........this 'short video'.

This piece originally started out as an attempt to write a 500-word piece for Seismic Stans fiction competition. That didn't work out so well. However I thought the idea might have legs...


The Games

Samar woke with a splitting headache. He lay still not risking to move. He'd been out the night before, a bar and then he ended up in a Gallente club. He been drinking and... A woman! He'd met this smoking hot Matari woman who almost pounced on him. She had come onto him strong and... He couldn't remember. He opened his eyes, he was laying on the floor in an unfamiliar room. He sat up and saw nobody was there. The room looked like something from an old starship or station. However it hadn't been used in decades by the look of it. He rose unsteadily to his feet, using a rusted conduit as support.

"Don't say I blew it with that hot chick because I drank too much" he muttered to himself.

As he approached the door he noticed a small datapad on the floor. He picked it up and noted there were two countdown timers running. The first had only three minutes left, the second one was static at two hours. A flashing icon indicated there was message waiting. Samar pressed the icon and read.

Dear Contestant, welcome to The Games. The rules are very simple. You are confined to your room until the first timer completes. That gives you and everyone else time to wake up. At that point your door will unlock and you are free to wander around the orbital tower. The second countdown will start at this point. When that reaches zero the tower self-destructs. There is a single two-man escape pod hidden somewhere in the tower. The winner or winners, there can be two, will be who doesn't die. Good luck!

Samar look at the message in horror. What sick game was this? A whispered voice made him jump.

"Hello?"

He turned to the direction the voice came from and saw a ventilation grill.

"Is someone there?" the female voice whispered.

Samar approached the grill he could see a dimly lit room the other side. A woman was crouched down. She was Caldari and wearing a short dress and heels. She looked like she had just been plucked from some high-class cocktail party.

"Who are you?" Samar whispered.

"I am Zhilan. Is this for real? I mean what the datapad says." the woman asked.

"I don't know, but for now we need to act like it is. How did you get here?"

"I was..... well, I was meeting a couple of people. I got handed a drink. Next thing I remember is... well I awoke here!" she replied.

"Was one of the people you met a Matari woman?"

"Yes. Dark complexion, long black hair. In her 30's I'd guess but very attractive."

Samar assumed it was the same woman who had captured him. She had been busy.

He jumped as a loud click indicated the door had unlocked. He stashed the datapad in his pocket and crashed out of the door into the dimly lit corridor. He looked both ways and froze when he saw another man looking back at him. The two men stared at each other for a few seconds before the stranger started sprinting at Samar howling in rage. The words on the datapad repeated in Samar’s head. One pod, only two winners. As the sprinting man neared, Samar grabbed a section of rusty pipe that was leaning against the wall and set it against the charging man. The charging man couldn't stop in time and crashed into Samar, the pipe skewering him through the chest. His momentum carried him until he was nose to nose with Samar, a look of horror was etched on the man's face. Samar dropped the pipe and the attacker collapsed to the ground gasping. A noise behind him made Samar spin around, the woman in the room next door has entered the corridor and looked in horror at the man on the floor.

"He decided to try and make less competition for that escape pod. I, on the other hand, think we need to work together. Up for an alliance?"

Zhilan just nodded still staring at the corpse.

-o0o-

Excited chatter spread through the assembled party as they watched on the big screen the Amarrian man being skewered by the pipe. On the wall one of the twelve portraits faded to a deep red.

The room was dimly lit. It was difficult to make out who the guests were, which was the point. Some sat in darkened booths, others stood in the shadows. A few were obviously not as bothered about their privacy and mingled in the centre of the room as waiters with trays of champagne flutes walked past.

A Matari woman in an elegant cocktail dress crossed the room to a smiling Caldari man.

“Congratulations Ambassador, you made a good choice. It appears your contestant will do well. You know, I recruited that one myself.”

“Thank you Madame Xarna. It looks like I could be celebrating tonight! I thought the odds on him of 5:1 looked good.”

The two turned back to the wall of screens as a smartly dressed waiter passed with a tray full of drinks. The larger main screen still tracked Samar as he walked down the corridor hand-in-hand with Zhilan, the surrounding screens showing his remaining competitors.

-o0o-

"Is that the first time you have killed someone?" Zhilan asked quietly as they walked briskly down the corridor.

Samar just kept going, his eyes scanning for threats.

"No, it wasn't." he replied at last, not looking at her.

"Were you in the armed forces then?" she asked, he voice becoming unsteady.

Samar paused, wondering how to answer. He decided there was no point lying.

"In another life I wasn't a very nice person. I was an angry young man. I did a lot of things I am not proud of. I did my time, paid for my crimes and started a new life. I am a starship mechanic now. I left a life of crime behind over a decade ago."

He felt the grip on his hand loosen as if she was about to let go. She then tightened it again.

They rounded a corner and Samar found what he was looking for. A sign on a door stated it was a server room. He opened the door, pulled Zhilan inside and closed the door. He released her hand and went over to the console. He started tapping away on the keyboard.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find out where we are and if I can get a signal to call for help. According to this we are on an old Matari orbital control tower. Looks like its been abandoned for a good few years. Comms are down, cannot access any of the dishes. I assume who ever put us here disabled them or cut the hard-lines. Same with internal sensors. Damn. No clue to where that damn pod is."

Samar tried a few more times before he gave up. He took Zhilan hand and opened the door a crack. When he was sure the corridor was still clear he led her out and continued.

"Looking at the deck numbers I think we're on the upper part of the tower. I'm guessing they put some of us up here and some in the bottom deck. The pod is probably in the middle. I'm only guessing though." he whispered as they walked.

After a few more metres Zhilan pointed to a door. "Look!"

A blinking datapad was attached to the door. A new shining silver deadbolt had been affixed to the door recently. Samar read the message on the datapad.

"Dear Contestant. This is a bonus room! The escape pod is not in here. What there is in here is something dangerous and also something very helpful. It is entirely your choice whether to enter this room. We promise the item in here is helpful but nothing here is for free. Good luck."

Samar stood and thought. He'd got lucky with that first guy, he doubted the others would be so stupid. If he could get an advantage it would certainly help. His hand hovered over the bolt securing the door and paused.

"Stand back." he told Zhilan.

Slowly he slid the bolt back and swung the door inwards. The room was dark. At the back of the room was a pedestal illuminated with a bright spotlight. On the top was a box. Samar glanced around but the room was too dark. He saw an old wrench laying near the door and picked it up. Slowly he entered the room. All he could hear was the rhythmic dripping of a leaking pipe and the thud of his own heartbeat in his ears. Slowly he moved through the room, holding the wrench ready. He progressed slowly towards the pedestal. By pure luck he was looking down as his leg crossed an almost invisible laser beam. He saw the bright green dot on his leg a second before there was a click. He stepped back just in time as a red laser swept in front of him. A crash of metal-on-metal resounded through the room. Samar looked in horror at the wrench that he had been holding in front of him. It had been sliced by the laser, a glowing end of molten metal on the handle was all he held now. A few inches more and he'd have lost his arm, or a foot. A few more inches and his body would have been sliced in two. He carefully stepped over the laser and retrieved the box. As he lifted the box the rooms lights came on. Even through the laser appeared to have been deactivated he took no chances when crossing that point and carefully stepped over the location. He rejoined Zhilan and opened the box. A piece of paper lay on top of a number of items.

"This is a level 1 reward. Higher levels give higher rewards but also the rooms contain deadlier threats. Good luck, you are on your way to resolving your past wrongs!".

Samar tossed the paper and removed the items. There was a bottle of water, some energy bars and a small flick knife. He opened the knife up and looked at the three inch blade.

"Well I suppose its better than nothing." he muttered and retracted the blade before sticking it in his pocket. He took a sip from the water bottle and passed it along with an energy bar to Zhilan.

"Lets keep moving."

-o0o-

"I'd like to buy in again. Half a million on the woman who is with the man who killed my first choice" the man said. Xarna simply nodded and tapped a few commands into her datapad. She handed the pad to the man and he pressed his thumb onto the sensor to confirm the translation.

"It is always a disappointment when your player goes out of the game so early your Eminence. I hope she does better."

The Cardinal nodded at Xarna and went quiet. She took this as a sign to move away. She glanced up at the monitors. With a few commands on her datapad she swapped the main screen so it focused on two of the other contestants. This was about to get interesting for her guests.

-o0o-

Samar and Zhilan heard the scream ahead. Whilst they picked up the pace they didn't run just in case they barrelled head-first into trouble. Samar glanced around the corner of the corridor holding Zhilan back. He saw two people struggling on the floor ahead. One man and one woman. He retrieved the knife and turned the corner. It was clear the man was trying to assault the woman.

"Hey, asshole!" Samar called. The man who was struggling to remove his pants looked around. He scampered to his feet.

"This is nothing to do with you. Move on friend." he snarled.

Samar could see the woman crawling away. Most of her clothing was ripped and she had a split lip which dripped a thin trail of blood down her chin. Samar turned his attention to the man. A crude 'R' had been carved into his right cheek in the distant past.

"Sorry, but I rarely take instructions from dick-less men whose only way to be with a woman is to force them."

The stranger started to advance, fists clenched. Samar widened his stance slightly and discretely moved the knife. The man started to jog which then turned into a sprint. Within a few seconds was on Samar. He swung a mighty punch at Samar's head which he easily dodged. The man continued his charge for a few more steps and stopped in the junction of the corridors.

He slowly turned to face Zhilan who looked at the half dressed man in horror. He looked confused, took a step forward towards her, trying to speak and fell face first to the deck plate. The small knife was buried in the back of his neck. Samar came back and rolled the man over after retrieving the knife to check his pockets. Zhilan stood over them.

"What happened to his face?" she asked as Samar searched the corpse.

"He's been in prison. Other inmates did that to him. The only thing a lag hates more than a nonce is a rapist."

After ensuring the man carried nothing of interest they went back to find the woman. She was hugging her knees behind a crate in the corridor.

"STAY AWAY!" she screamed as they approached.

"We aren't going to hurt you." Samar said in a soothing tone.

"Yes you will! You are with her! There are already two of you! No room for a third! You two want the escape pod together! No room for another." she ranted standing. "Yes I've done wrong to you Michael" she screamed in the air "But I don't deserve this! I know its because of you. It can only be you!"

With that she ran at Zhilan and tried to strike her. Samar grabbed her wrist as she swung it.

"Calm down!" he yelled and pushed her back.

She charged again and he pushed harder. She stumbled and fell backwards against the crate. There was a sickening crack has her head twisted. She fell lifelessly to the floor.

Samar grabbed Zhilan hand. "Come on, lets go." he said with a sadness.

-o0o-

The chatter in the room grew again as two more portraits faded to blood red. Xarna smiled and left the room via side door. The short corridor was lined with plush carpets and art on the walls. What you couldn't see was the state of the art sound dampening technology. The occupants of the next room could riot and once a few steps down the corridor you wouldn't hear them. This was imperative as the operation needed to keep the occupants of the next room in the dark about what was happening a few dozen metres away. The next room was quieter than the last but laid out similar. Several people were seated watching the screens. Xarna walked over to one of them.

"Would you like to depart now Mr Gegan or can I offer you some refreshments."

"I think I'll leave and I've told you before, call my Michael." replied the man.

"Are you satisfied with the service? I know it was an unexpected outcome."

The man called Michael hesitated as if in thought.

"To be honest I would have preferred it if that other man had taken my money-grabbing, cheating ex-wife by force and then killed her slowly. However in the end that bitch got what she deserved and I guess thats what I paid for. So thank you."

"As you will recall we cannot guarantee anything. All we can give you is that in The Games there is little chance of survival and a lot of terror."

The man nodded and left the room via another door.

Next Xarna walked over to an older woman. She was sobbing in a chair.

"Mrs Lieel. Can I get you anything?" she asked placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"No thank you." sniffled the old lady. "Are you sure that bastard is dead?"

Xarna retrieved a datapad from her pocket and passed it to the old lady.

"See. We have hi-tech bio-scanners so we can monitor all of our contestants. The knife he received in the neck penetrated his spine. He suffered a full-body paralysis. His mind was still functioning, but he couldn't breathe. He slowly suffocated, unable to move."

"Good!" said the old woman. "After what that animal did to my daughter that is the least he deservers. 6 years in jail for what he did? That wasn't justice, this is justice. Best 50,000 I've ever spent."

Xarna stood as the old woman rose.

"Thank you my dear. Thank you for serving proper justice." With that the old lady left via the same door as Michael.

Xarna surveyed the room. There were now three empty seats and nine people left. Nine people who wanted justice, or revenge. It was time to get the Game Maker to speed things up. The old Matari control tower had a lot more dangers carefully installed in it than just the other contestants.

To be continued....

Defeating Nim - Preparing PvE'rs for PVP.

Who is Nim? He's a rather nasty Castathan intent of making a big boom in what is left of San Francisco. Lost you so far? Not even sure what a Castathan is? I'm not talking about Eve Online, I'm talking about Defiance.

Defiance is both a TV show (second season starts this month) and a MMO-FPS-RPG. I'm not going to make any real comparison between the game and Eve Online, because you cannot. They are very, very different. However there is a similarity I thought about with the final boss Nim from the original game (there has been expansions since then).

I played Defiance straight through following the storyline mission. It is technically a theme park game with some open world/sandbox concepts. There are lots of side-missions (staple MMO type quests), sieges (Domination style missions along with 30 other players as NPCs attack), arkfalls (bit of spaceship falls from sky, players arrive to loot it as NPC's try to kill you), time trials, etc for you to do as well as the main solo campaign. I ignored all of these and just did the storyline finishing one mission and then jumping straight to the next. I reached the last boss and got utterly slaughtered. I tried again, and died. And again, and again, and again. Not. Even. Close. I got kerbstomped every time. Its a traditional three-stage type boss fight and and I wasn't even close in completing the first stage. So I abandoned the mission in the end and went exploring the game world for another month or so.

Nothing I'd done in the game had prepared me for Nim. It was Defiance's own little learning cliff that slapped me in the face right at the end.

Eventually I went back to try and see if I complete the storyline arc. At that time I have a lot more experience points, higher skills and a couple of nice "rare-drop" guns. I royally screwed Nim on my first attempt. Didn't break a sweat never mind die once. It was easy!

Basically if you ran through the original game just doing the storyline missions you'll hit the wall. You needed to have the skills and the gear to take the end-boss and you'd not get them in time if you only run through the standard storyline missions. In this respect it is a lot like Eve when moving into PvP. All that playing you have done in the past against rats has not prepared you for the next stage of game-play.

This is an issue as I myself, like many players, started as a PvE carebear and moved over to PvP.

It is a common complaint with regard to PvE content in Eve Online. It does noting to prepare you for PvP. All the missions are detailed on the internet. The damage to tank and shoot is laid out for you on various sites. Many years ago when I was a carebear I'd grind level 4 missions in a Navy Raven. Each time I took a mission I'd go to one of the missioning websites and read what I needed. Rats shooting thermal and kinetic damage? Right I'll swap my three invulnerability fields for two thermal and one kinetic. The rats have lowest resist for kinetic damage? Right, I'll load up with Scourge cruise missiles. I don't really need to move? OK then I'll drop the prop mod for a shield boost amplifier or another resist mod. Lots of frigates? Oh in that case I'll use a target painter. Every level 4 I did, I took the perfect counter fit. I never had a problem with any level 4 mission and my one and only Navy Raven is still sat in a hanger in high sec somewhere. Probably the Fricoure Federation Navy base with this level 4 security agent. That ship has destroyed tens of thousands of rats and has never had its armour scratched!

It is rare in PvP that you can do that. Bringing the exact counter for your enemy, especailly when you are solo roaming. You never know what is out there.....

Now, what if NPC rats were as unpredictable as players?

Should there be variations in the statistics of the rat ships? Rather then knowing that you need to tank X and shoot Y, what if they varied? Rats would change ammo type based on your ship. Flying an Amarr ship? They'll go for Nova or Scourge. Flying Caldari? They go Mjolnir or Inferno. May be they could even change damage types mid-fight to exploit any hole in your tank.

What if they didn't have a massive hole in their resists? What if their tanks were like a normal player or plugs any holes the best they can?

What if the ultimate target on assassination type missions would try to escape when they reached low armour and you'd fail the mission if they got away?

You'd force players to start fitting their ships live PvP'rs. All-round omni-tanks, points, multiple types of ammo.

May be, just may be you'd prepare them better for a life of PvP and increase player retention. I assume PvP players stick around longer than mission grinders. There is only so many times you can save that bloody damsel before getting bored!