CCP Zulu: What he should have said

A LOT of this incarna controversy comes out of the bad PR containment from recent devblogs. This is what CCP Zulu's devblog should have said:

To say the launch of Incarna has been controversial is an understatement. We at CCP appreciate the passion that many of you have for the game and are always listening to feedback. Let me address some of the big issues that you are having below.

1. Video Card Heat: Our engineering teams are looking at this one closely. For now I suggest setting the card to interval 1 as that may reduce the heat without affecting game-play. Expect more on this later.

2. NeX Store Prices: In many ways we are finding the uproar over the high prices amusing. The issue here is clearly poor communication from us and we take all of the blame. What happened here is that when this was first developed a lot of the functionality you see in the character creator was going to be restricted to the NEX store. Piercings, tattoos, jewels on the forehead, etc were all going to cost small amounts of Aurum. Instead, after feedback from the Incursion character creator, we decided to make most of these items 'free' leaving only the most expensive ones in the store. We did not fully realize that this would make our store look a little unbalanced in the eyes of the players. Rather than nickle-and-dimeing (plexing and Auruming maybe) the players for low cost items, we only placed the premium items in the store and leaving items that we deem to have a lower cost to be free. In the future expect to see more less expensive, and more expensive, items appear.

3. The Hanger View: As many of you noticed the static view of the door when the station environment has been turned off is far from ideal. We are aware of this and are working to improve functionality for users whose computers are unable to take full advantage of CQ. Rest assured we at CCP are committed to giving the best possible gaming experience to as many possible hardware configurations as possible.

4. Fearless: This internal newsletter contained a great discussion about micro-transactions though a point-counterpoint series of articles. CCP Soundwave was assigned the task playing the parody of an 'Evil' game designer trying to push microtransactions to a ridiculous level. He even went so far as to pull material out of a 2008 April Fool's joke devblog about gold ammo. We are stunned that anyone would take his statements in the newsletter as actual policy. Rest assured that we at CCP understand the market based principles that make EVE special. If anything we suffer from an overabundance of caution at disrupting this. I can not go into details here as to microtransaction plans, however were not going to kill our golden goose to make a quick buck. Since many of you found the newsletter to be interesting reading, we are going to release portions of several other back-issues that players may find entertaining. But please don't take what is said in there as company gospel because it is very definitely not.

Instead CCP decided to blame us players for their problems. It may be too much to ask for definitive declarations of CCP policy while they are doing damage control. But they really need to work on diffusing situations, not feeding the fires.

Current Users of EVE ... Looks to be down about 10%

On the EVE online homepage there is a little graph showing the server population. At present it looks like there are noticeably less players on EVE then the same time last week.

It is a bit hard to tell due to server crashes and upgrades yesterday and DDOS attacks last week, but clearly the light green line (today) is not only lower than the red line for yesterday, but also lower then the purple line for last week. Eyeballing it I would say it is around 10% down.

It is hard not to blame Incarna and the protests. I am clearly not alone in my massive dissatisfaction with this latest patch resulting in my quitting.

CCP is rapidly loosing all credibility. Which is a shame. There was once a time when CCP had great plans for EVE. I was watching a 2009 youtube video starring Seleen (current CSM member, former CCP employee) talking about what great new features will be implemented after Dominion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHYcrow4ZUU&feature=player_detailpage#t=930s

To summarize, he basically said once the core of Dominion was in they would move to doing things like the following:
Treaty Systems
    -taxes for allies in systems
    -blue for certain systems
    -central wallet for friendly fire incidents

Expand Military Upgrade possibilities
    -defense bunkers w guns near gates
    -starbases building something valuable.
    -fighter and bomber garrisons
    -intelligence tools (monitor traffic through stargates)

Upgrade to dock a Supercarrier
Agents into 0.0 outposts.
'Sky is the Limit'

If Incarna had some or even any of these enhancements I am sure that light green line would be on the other side of the red/purple lines. One of those pixels in that green line would even be Toterra come my TZ.

Edit: Trend (green below purple) seemed to have held until the extended downtime.

Nope EVE Still Broke :( - Trying Perpetuum

Trying to log into EVE tonight to see if the latest patch fixed things. After two patches were required (WTF!) I got the hanger again :(

In the meantime I have been trying Perpetuum since it promises to be closest to that old-fashioned EVE experience. I totally failed at first but now I am starting to get the hang of things and doing beginner missions. Looks like fun. It is seriously a blatent copy of EVE, but mecha instead of spaceships. Pretty fun.

I love the following video of some experienced EVE players trying PVP in Perpetuum for the first time. CCP should take notes... there is an obvious anti-blob mechanic:

I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what CCP does and less of what they say

Very short post...

There is a new patch today. Does this give us the old hanger as an option or not? Is CCP serious or not?

The Numbers Don't Add Up

This post started out as a rant about CCP probably being in financial straights due to over-expansion of it's workforce and a drop-off in the rate of increase of subscriptions. However someone posted the CCP financial statements for 2010 (not leaked these documents are public) which clearly shows that although profits are down a small amount on rising revenue, the financials of CCP are fairly healthy. EDIT: People with a lot more idea how to read these things then I have concluded the opposite, CCP is in financial trouble. The profits are on paper only after capitalizing all development costs. Loans are due soon and CCP needs cash.

One thing that has really bugged me about the many misteps of CCP lately is that the numbers just don't add up. Lets look at $99 licensing fee controversy. Thinking it over I can only really think of about 10 to 20 possible customers for this. Things like EVE-FILES, EFT, Capsuleer (I know it doesn't exist anymore) evemon, dotlan, ombey's maps, eve-search, Battleclinic, a couple of killboard apps, and maybe a few others. As I said, about 20 customers. Even assuming there 100 possible customers you are still looking at less than $10,000 per year. This equates to about 1-2 months of salary for a lawyer or a developer, probably much less then the cost of implementation. CCP has revenue for EVE Online of $57,433,934, this represents less than 0.02% of that. Does not seem worth it.

Also lets look at the idea of vanity items within EVE. There is a really great slideshow from EA called Playing To Win. It describes the challenges of getting players in a free to play game to pay for items in the store. At first they only had vanity items, and they had a lot of them. Hundreds of different shirts, pants, shoes, accessories giving millions of possible looks were available. In the end the revenue generated from the just over 1.25% of users who used the store was about $0.25 per user of the game per month. IOW the entire vanity item store in EVE would be expected to generate, if it had hundreds of different items, (360,000 users * 0.25) $75,000 per month or $900,000 per year. This works out to about 1.5% of boost to overall revenue. Assuming that there were 9 or less developers/lawyers/artists/game-designers/GMs working on this feature it might just barely be worth it. But this is assuming that 1. there is a huge variety of items, and 2. users can see the things that are bought. In fact, CCP had to know that many of not most users will be turning of CQ from the get-go due to systems requirements and the desire to multi-box. So the number was most likely going to be much much lower. This also explains the 'Door' screen when you turn off CQ and the refusal to promise to keep the no CQ option in the future. They need your eyeballs to see your character or there is no hope.

As for selling 'Pay to win' items, those that give a player an advantage the numbers clearly make no sense at all. As shown in the above mentioned slideshow, going to a 'Pay to win' model resulted in generating approximately 2x the revenue per player, or about $900,000 additional revenue. However, unlike battlefield in the example, if there was even a 1.5% drop in subscriptions as a result (and there certainly would be considering the outrage that was promised in the past and we have seen this past week), this benefit to CCP would be fully negated.

How on Earth is CCP going to recoup the tens of millions of dollars that they have spent on Carbon, walking in stations, World of Darkness?

Nothing is adding up. What one earth is going on with CCP.

Send words of Support CCP Pann whose daughter had to undergo emergency surgery on the following thread

CCP Pann, originator of what is probably the largest threadnaught of RAGE in EVE history, is reported to be tending to her daughter who had emergency surgery. I would like any and all of my readers to give her their best wishes in the following thread:

CCP Pann - I hope your daughter is okay


I also invite other bloggers and tweeters to forward this thread onwards.

Fearless... Devblogs and LIES damed LIES and hiding from the past

Everyone who cares has probably already read the 'Fearless' newsletter and CCP Zulu's response to the massive outrage. But there is something that seems to be missing in all this.

I am going to include a couple of quotes here..

First from the Newsletter:

One other service we’re looking at is selling faction standings. We want to offer convenience for a price.
-Scott Holden

Second from CCP Zulu's Recent Devblog:

While it‘s perfectly fine to disagree and attack CCP over policies or actions we take, we think it‘s not cool how individuals that work here have been called out and dragged through the mud due to something they wrote in the internal company newsletter. Seriously, these people were doing their jobs and do not deserve the hate and shitstorm being pointed at them.
-CCP Zulu

And lastly lets look at a previous Devblog dating to last year from CCP Zulu:

The scope will be (and there‘s no design has been done around this, we‘re just talking strategy now) that anything that doesn‘t affect gameplay directly can be, potentially, sold for PLEX or other means.
-CCP Zulu

What is important is the dates. The newsletter is from this past May. The earlier devblog is from last November.

There is a lie buried somewhere here.

It does not make sense for CCP to be debating extensively about gameplay affecting microtransactions in EVE after they have firmly committed to not have gameplay affecting microtransaction within EVE. Either the first CCP Zulu devblog is a lie or the second one is.

EVE can be fixed. CCP knows the way... they just seem to refuse to go there.

A Terrible Day

I had a really shitty day yesterday. The company I work for is having lay-offs despite making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit last quarter. Two people in my group were laid off in the afternoon. I spent the day talking to them as though there was nothing wrong. Yet in the afternoon their world crashed all to make a 0.001% improvement on some billionaires short term investment portfolio.

Pretty shitty day for me.... really shitty day for them. When I got home I had a nice stiff drink. After getting the kids to bed I logged into EVE and was faced with this...

IMHO this door image is a massive fuck you to the EVE community. In every game I have played there has always been a bunch of graphics settings. People with state-of-the art computer systems could have a higher resolution, better textures, etc. However most games tried their best to accommodate players with lower quality computers. Sure the graphics weren't there but they did whatever they could to let you play the game and enjoy the experience. Not EVE. Rather then give us the hanger that we used to see, or a view of our spaceship, they went with what they must have known was a totally immersion breaking image. Quite frankly they are saying to the entire player base who turned off CQ that they don't want us to enjoy the game. THIS 'DOOR' SCREEN HAD TO BE DELIBERATE.

That is why I quit last night. CCP does not want me to play EVE. It is as simple as that.

Of course that was not the only problem with Incarna. They also had all this greedy crap about charging ridiculous prices for monocles, plus the newsletter where they basically said that they need to milk EVE players for all they are worth to develop the WOD game. Even if that means doing the very things that EVE players have been begging and ragequitting over. CCP does not want players who care about the sandbox to play EVE as well. Here I was experiencing greed based lay-offs during the day, litterally watching people's livelyhood get destroyed for the greed of others, and when I logged into EVE I just got more of that.

So I quit.

It was an impulse decision.

I had been considering scaling back my play for a while but seeing that door and seeing that level of greed and lying, plus some single-malt scotch, meant I typed up a frantic post on my blog and posted it.

I also was not alone. Several other blogs had also posted the 'I quit' message. This plus a total shit-storm in the forums makes me think that CCP could not help but hear the message.

I woke up this morning with a mild hangover and started wondering 'What had I done.' That is until tonight when I tried to log into EVE again to finish an article about the new player experience I started a week ago. I saw the 'Door'. Then I remembered why I quit.

What does CCP need to do now?
Roll back.
Roll back the hanger screen so we can see our ship again without blasting our graphics cards.
Roll back CQ and put it back on the test server and keep it there until it is much closer to being ready.
Roll back the Microtransaction store. Vow to NEVER EVER bring it back. CCP can not ever be trusted to do microtransactions in EVE for anything ever again.
Keep the new login screen for Incarna... that and maybe the turrets was the only good thing about this long delayed expansion.
And the hardest thing of all... rebuild their reputation in the EVE community. Incarna was bad. The newsletter revealing their lies, damned lies, and outright greed was inexcusable. They need to fix this. I don't know what they need to do but they need to do it now.

I am quite sure they will do none of those things so for me... EVE is going to stay dead. It was such a part of my life that I will probably try it again and again over the next month. I am sure I will continue to blog about my frustrations and stuff until all my readers have left me sick of my negativity. But as long as the door stays... I will never be logged in for more than a few seconds.

And then there is this...

One year of Scram Web -- AND AN EMO RAGE QUIT of EVE

So after one year of scram web talking about all things EVE, I am now quitting EVE. This last expansions is an abomination.

Yup I am EMO-RAGE-QUITTING EVE.

I can barely play the new patch. The only way I can is to turn off the station environment and see the big FUCK YOU ASSHOLE BUY A $500 NVIDIA SYSTEM screen.

I loved EVE. It was a huge part of my life. Almost every day I played. I ignored my wife, my kids and my work at times to play. NO MORE. EVE IS DEAD TO ME.

I could go on about the reasons but there really is no point, everyone already knows. CCP is a shit company. They really are. Just read the 'Greed Is Good' internal memo to get an idea of what they think of you. They think they have about 300k people hooked on a drug that is EVE and are pushing for all that they can. As of today I am no longer one of them.

So Scram Web is no longer an 'EVE Online Blog'. I may use it to talk about other things in the future. But EVE is done.

I would like to thank all the friends I have made with other players over the years. I will always have my heart in Agony Unleashed and wish them all the best in the future. BDEAL, I hardly knew you but it was fun while it lasted.

Cheers!

I will probably be giving some of my stuff away over the next few weeks until my account expires in July but I will be keeping the character just in case CCP ever gets a clue.

EDIT: Lets go over the issues:
1. Special graphics for NVIDIA only. Sorry 50% of customers using ATI.
2. Ridiculous prices for monocle and other in game bling. Pure profiteering!
3. 'If we stop mining bots the economy will crash... therefore we won't stop mining bots' ... paraphrased from their chief economist
4. Captains quarters (CQ) requiring a huge jump in system requirements.
5. If you turn off captainst quarters you get a nice image of a door... that is all. You can't even see what ship you have let alone have something that looks like the old hanger.
6. Lets charge everyone in the community (which would have included things like project hallibut) $99 for making the EVE community the best in the gaming world. Seriously, charge Chribba money for the services he provides the EVE community.
7. CQ only being released in Minmattar
8. CQ being single avatar only...
9. CQ providing pretty much zero usefull functionality
10. Failure to broadcast or even announce on the radio the first two weekends of the Alliance Tournament
11. Forum Security Failures
12. New Maller skin in 2011. New Scorpion skin in 2009. Not exactly improving the graphics of ships that people actually fly. Maybe do the Drake, Hurricane, Rifter or Hulk next so that people will actually see the new ship models.
13. Avatars have not nearly the customizations in looks from pre-Incursions
14. Incursions his-sec mechanics causing fleets to be obliterated by CONCORD due to friendly fire.
15. Super-capitals ONLINE. Supercarriers have killed 0.0 even more then the old Titans did.
16. No X-Box or PC version of DUST514.
17. No new PvP ships since Apocrypha.
18. No promised non-cruiser T3
19. Missing industrial T3 subsystem (or something like that)
20. Years and Years of acknowledging the need to fix Hybrids... nothing done.
More later when I feel like typing some more.

Eve Online - Incarna Expansion - First Impressions

You're kidding right?
This is it?

$45 for a monocle !!!

And now I can't even multi-box? (EDIT: You can turn off WIS on the Graphic Content Settings Screen :) (EDIT2: Of course once you turn off the WIS part you just get a static image of DOOR. Before at least you would see your ship. Basically CCP is saying 'FUCK YOU!' if you don't want WIS)

People are right.. this blog is turning negative to CCP.... time to change things. Read the following to feel better...

Hello boys and girls, this is your old pal, Stinky Totarra
This is a song about a Incarna, NO this is a song about being happy
That's right!
Its the happy happy, joy joy song!

Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy joy

I dont' think your happy enough, that's right!
I'll teach you to be happy!
I'll teach your grandmother to suck eggs!
Now boys and girls, lets try it again...

Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy joy!

Iff-in you ain`t the grandaddy of all liars!
The little critters of nature...they don't know that they're ugly.
That's very funny! A fly marrying a bumble bee!
I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me!
WHY didn't you believe me?

Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy, joy joy
Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy, joy joy joyyyy!

Tournament Setups: Viable Anti-ECM setup

This tournament has seen the very effective use of ECM to disable the opposing team and result in a stron victory. It does beg the question, 'What setup could be created that would be effective against both an ECM team, yet still be effective against on ECM teams?'.

There are several things a team can do to counter ECM

1. Use ships from one race only. An ECM team can only have so many racial jammers. By going with only one race you make it much harder for them to choose.
2. Lots of free midslots for ECCM. Armour tank teams genrally have free mid-slots which are ideal for boosting sensor strength though ECCM modules.
3. Sensor Dampers FTW. Sensor dampers force ECM ships closer where they are vulnerable. Also effective against non-ECM teams especially kiting teams.
4. High damage. When given a chance, the team has to kill before loosing another lock.
5. Drones. Drones can still be usefull when a ship is jammed. Hard to manage but still effective.

To this end I have come up with a setup that has all of these elements. Basically it is a variation of the Armour BC team using only Gallente ships. Gallente is an unpopular race to there is an additional advantage of perhaps the enemy fielding few if any racial jammers. Each ship in the setup below has a high sensor strength with only the interceptors having less than 60. In addition there are a total of 6 sensor dampers, 3 of them bonused. The setup had a huge amount of DPS comming in at around 4000 before overheating. Although not very fast, the setup can damp out the enemy sensors forcing them closer. The taranis act as tackle grabbing ships and waiting for the armour to come and pound.

Here is the setup:
30 points 3x Brutix
39 points 3x Myrmadon
12 points 1x Onieros
 6 points  2x Tyranis
13 points 1x lach
100 points, 10 ships

Here are the ship fittings:

[Oneiros, Jam me :)]
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

10MN Afterburner II
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range

Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Medium 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Medium 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Hammerhead II x5


[Myrmidon, ECM Mymidon]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I
Warp Scrambler II
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Information Warfare Link - Sensor Integrity

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Ogre II x2
Hammerhead II x2
Hobgoblin II x1

Fit a different link on each one. I suggest one for armour resists, one for sensor integrity and one for speed.
[Brutix, New Setup 1]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Stasis Webifier II

Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Hammerhead II x5


Brutal close range power.

[Taranis, fasf]
Damage Control II
Magnetometric Backup Array II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Phased Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Warp Scrambler II
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, EMP S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, EMP S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, EMP S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


Warrior II x2

Fast tackle.

[Lachesis, New Setup 1]
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Magnetometric ECCM Scanning Array I
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Warp Scrambler II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Hammerhead II x3
Hobgoblin II x2

Effectively un-jammable (especially with sensor integrity link). This will force enemy jammers or kiters in nice and close. Extended range scram to act as tackle.

Aliance Tournament IX - Group Stages Day 2

Unfortunatly I missed watching the tourney on the live stream so I had to wait for the matches being posted to youtube.

In general I am pretty disappointed with the Day 2 action. ECM heavy teams did very well as most teams did not fit ECCM on their ships. In the setups I posted most of the setups used ECCM and there was a reason. A ECM setup going against a team without ECCM will win handily.

So for this comming weekend, please, everyone add ECCM to their setups. Even the setups I had posted that did not use ECCM (like the tier-1 revenge) probably should drop an e-war on each ship and put on an ECCM. Even just putting 3 projected ECCM modules on a cormorant or two could make a big difference.

There are the matches that I though were pretty good:

Circle Of Two vs Outbreak
Great match with Outbreak bringing the Team Minmattar Setup I had posted about earlier. Basically a copy of the PL setup from last year. It handedly trashed Circle of Two.


We Form VOLTRON vs Power of Two
I really like Voltron's setup here. Makes no apologies for being high damage. Spectacular how fast Power of Two ships went down after being tackled by the long range scrams of the Proteus. Still the remarkable tank of the Tengus held up amazingly well.

Aggravated Assault.. vs The R0NIN
Interesting fight in which Aggravated Assault brought the ridiculous heavy e-war setup used by PL. The R0NIN showed why the setup is indeed crap. A few recons/T3 which I assumed had ECCM = no more ECM and a victory for R0NIN. Watch this fight to see how to take down ECM setups.


Black Legion. vs Nulli Secunda
Potentially interesting site between two potentially great setups. At first I was excitted to see two armour tanking curses being fielded. Regretably looking at lossmails there was no real synergy on the Nulli Secunda side. It really does not make sense to waste 2 mid-slots on a Curse with small Capacitor boosters. Put a cap tx mod on the guardian instead if you must or better yet replace the Legion with something a bit more appropriate. Black Legion went with Sliepnir/cyclone team minmattar variation. A very nice setup which brought them victory. However they really should be putting ECCM on those easy to jam Minmattar ships.

Pandemic Legion vs Unaffiliated
Hard not to feel bad for Unaffiliated going up against PL. Not only has PL won the last three tourneys, has excellent pilots, but they are also fielding over 1 billion skillpoints. Personally I thought Unaffiliated put in a good effort with their setup, but it was not enough. With ships from all 4 races they were vulnerable to ECM despite loss-mails showing some use of ECCM on their T1 ships. Once their curse went down it was over.

Against ALL Authorities vs Raiden
Again team-minmatar (cyclone variation) vs a kiting setup with Tengus and bombers. Despite a very nice bombing run from Raiden, it was all over pretty quick once those same bombers went down.

TL;DR
Team-minmatar (with ECCM) > ECM > kiting > crap

Also, if you are putting together a dogs breakfast of a team... consider just pulling successful teams from years past instead.

Drinking CCP's Carebear Tears

So I got a bunch of negative feedback yesterday from people who thought my post criticizing CCP for security issues culminating with the devastating DDOS from lulzSec. As I said in a later edit it does seem that the attack was purely DDOS and not a genuine hack, however it is still a BIG problem for CCP. I am going to try and describe why in terms EVE players may understand.

CCP is a hi-sec missioning alliance that has ground it's way up from doing L1s in Rifters to dominating L4s throughout hi-sec space. LulzSec is a griefer corp with a -10.0 sec status. Anytime LulzSec pops out of 0.0 or low-sec and into hi-sec, CONCORD (the police, FBI, etc) go after them. Unfortunatly LulzSec uses fast agile ships and CONCORD can't quite seem to get a lock on them before they go elsewhere. Yesterday they were trying to boost up the epeen by going after some juicy hi-sec targets. One of these targets was the CCP Alliance. CCP's officer fit Nightmare was attacked and barely made it to warp deep in structure before being taken down. CCP then proceeded to hide in station for several hours refusing to play. Many in the CCP alliance (including the players) ranted in local across New Eden about how LulzSec 'should go get a life', 'get a girlfriend' and move out of your 'parents basement'. There was even a ten page long thread in COAD about it.

Now what do you think is going to happen?
1. LulzSec realizes that the harm it is doing is real. This is internet spaceships after-all. Important stuff! LulzSec slowly morphs into an Anti-pirate consulting group to teach others how to avoid being taken down.

or

2. LulzSec get really drunk. Those carebear tears... so tasty. My god they stuck it out in station for hours after they had moved on. Lets try it again.


Any questions?

Edit: And down it goes again

CCP Being Hacked

This is my first EVE is dying thread, but this time it may be correct. As I am writing this EVE is offline thanks to an attack by lulzsec. This is very serious for CCP and actually might be a killing blow.

As I see it CCP has had a lot of problems lately. Despite having a huge monthly injection of cash from its 300k+ subscribers, it, as an organization has become completely dysfunctional. Lets go over the major problems that I am aware of:

1. Unable to get Dust514 onto the XBox platform.

2. Playstation (which will be used by Dust) network being hacked resulting in Credit Card information leaks.

3. Buggy releases of new unpopular features
    -Quafe-zero / PLEX scam
    -Crashing Tyranis Patches
    -Null-sec nerfage

4. Failure to deal with Macros resulting in it's signature gaming experience (0.0) being controlled by RMT traders

5. Failure to deliver new functionality

6. A huge security failure in thier new forum leading to it being taken down after a few hours.

7. Huge negative feedback over handling of the 9th Alliance Tournament Qualification Round

And now.... CCP being driven off the internet by a DDOS attack and probably hacked at the same time. At present CCP is claiming that it was just a DDOS but past experience with these hackers indicates that they do more than just DDOS. The Conservative Part of Canada was hacked, the party claimed nothing was leaked, and then Lulz proved otherwise. The fact that CCP has pretty much taken themselves off the internet leads me to think the problem here is a lot more than TQ going down.

Notice a trend here? I have highlighted in RED those issues that relate to security.


TL;DR.... cancel your credit cards you use to play EVE with. Don't trust them with real money ever again.


Edit:
Interesting feedback for this post...

Anonymous said...
The reason for Dust being PS3 exclusive is because CCP would not like for players to pay for XBox Live as an additional cost and because it would be a market different from EVE players. Sony has since patched up their network from the terribly insecure state is was in before.

CCP had demoed Dust before on the X-Box. However they clearly could not satisfy whatever requirements Microsoft had to be on X-Box so they are now PS3 exclusive. This effectively cuts their audience (and revenue) in half.

The crashing Tyrannis patches are not so much a security issue as it is a QA mishap.

 Think that one through. QA mishaps are indicative of security issues. That is plain and obvious.

Macros have been a long withstanding issue with the game and it's not like they affect other MMOs as well.

Macros exist in all MMOs true, but their existence in EVE is affecting their core end-gameplay. Not cool.

The fact that CCP took down their forum so fast is a good thing. The fact that it happened is not. Regardless, it's fixed now.

 They took it down, brought it back up, took it down again. It was not fixed.

Pretty harsh words for someone that has no idea about the severity of the attack.

Nobody knows the severity of the attack. Not me and I can assure you, not CCP.

Edit2:
Looking at some of the tweets by lulzsec it does appear that EVE was just a random target. EVE was one of many random sites today. Perhaps my I overreacted to be afraid of identity theft in the same way CCP may have overreacted in taking themselves off the internet. Still I am not going to give CCP a break on their many problems, especially those relayed to internet security. If it wasn't for things like the forum fiasco I would not have had these concerns.
Now I want to see what happens to the Atlas Alliance that is taking credit for the attack.

Tournament Setups - Heavy ECM Team

There seems to be a lot of popular ECM teams being fielded. I had earlier developed one for this series but decided against it since it is just soooo boring. However ECM is so popular I am going to post it anyways. here it is:

The next setup I am going to go into is the 'Heavy ECM Team' setup that was inspired by Hydra Reloaded in AT-8. I feel that this setup really made the maximum use of ECM in the tourney and is, obviously since it got Hydra into the finals, a really good one.

Here it can be seen winning against Rote Kappele




The main idea behind this setup is to completely shut down the opponent team. By fielding three ECM combat recon ships fitted with no less than 12 bonused ECM modules, the opposing team is left staring that their screens hoping to get a lock. However the thing that makes this setup superb is the addition of 9 Sensor Dampers fited to the Myrmidons. Sensor dampers can be set to either reduce the target's locking range, or the locking speed. As a result even if a jam cycle is missed, precious seconds are wasted waiting for a new lock.

Despite the success of this setup I am going to diverge from it. Rather than go with the Myrmidons, I am going to suggest 3 Celestis T1 E-war ships which now cost 8 points instead of 9.I am also going to go with a Proteus to provide both a healthy amount of DPS plus an information warfare ganglink to boost the ewar even further. This plus a few fitting changes results in a full 15 fully bonused ECM modules (3 per race + 3 multi racial) and 12 fully bonused sensor dampers.

39 points - 3 Rook - (Combat Recon Ship)
24 points - 3 Celestis - (Cruiser T1-ewar)
12 points - 1 Oneiros - (logistics cruiser)
16 points - 1 Proteus - (Strategic Cruiser - setup for command link)
8 points - 2 Ishkur - (Assault Ships)
--------------------------------------------
99 points - 10 ships

[Rook, ECM roook]
Armor Explosive Hardener II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

BZ-5 Neutralizing Spatial Destabilizer ECM
Enfeebling Phase Inversion ECM I
'Hypnos' Ion Field ECM I
'Umbra' I White Noise ECM
'Hypnos' Multispectral ECM I
Conjunctive Gravimetric ECCM Scanning Array I
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive

Drone Link Augmentor I
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile

Medium Particle Dispersion Augmentor I
Medium Particle Dispersion Augmentor I


Hobgoblin II x5

The heart of this setup is some insane jamming. With the bonuses from the Proteus each racial jammer has a strength of over 15 on race and 5 off race. Even the multi-racials have a jam strength of around 11. Although the tank is very week, with so many enemy ships put off-line, logistics should be able to keep up with what little incomming DPS there will be. Missile DPS has great range and you can expect enemy logistics to be off-line, so the enemy can be picked apart.

[Proteus, ECM Boosting Proteus]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Information Warfare Link - Electronic Superiority
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Drone Link Augmentor I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Proteus Defensive - Warfare Processor
Proteus Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Proteus Engineering - Supplemental Coolant Injector
Proteus Offensive - Drone Synthesis Projector
Proteus Propulsion - Localized Injectors


Ogre II x2
Hammerhead II x2
Hobgoblin II x1

With nearly 600 DPS, and tackle this ship lays on the hurt to anything it catches. But what it mostly does is provide a huge boost to the ECM and Sensor Damper effectiveness.

[Celestis, ECM Support Celestis]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening

Standard Missile Launcher II, Sabretooth Light Missile
Standard Missile Launcher II, Sabretooth Light Missile
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP S

Medium Inverted Signal Field Projector I
Medium Inverted Signal Field Projector I


Hammerhead II x3
Hobgoblin II x2

No DPS but crazy sensor dampning. Each of the 12 sensor dampers can cut either lock range or scan resolution to a third. Combined with the heavy ECM, this means that whenever a jam is missed, the enemy will have to still wait and wait and wait to lock a target. More than enough time for another jam cycle.

[Ishkur, ECM Tackle Ishkur]
Internal Force Field Array I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I

Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I


Hobgoblin II x5

Provides cheap tackle and damage. What more do you want.

How to fly

Shut down the enemy team. Between sensor dampners and ECM they will be completely ineffective. Then kill them. Short of fielding 2x or 3x ECCM the enemy is going to have a bad time.

Aliance Tournament IX - Group Stages Day 1

Lots of great matches today. It was nice to see a couple of teams fielding variations of my posted setups and only a few totally fail setups. Here are my highlights:

The Ladeshi vs. The G0dfathars
Great slugfest. I would have loved to see the Macharials duke it out in a 1v1. But time was called.

Get Off My Lawn vs Wildly Inappropriate.
Get Off My Lawn fielded a Team Minmattar setup but for some reason ditched the Claymore for a Curse and a Keres. Whoops. This setup lost the 'High Speed' portion and lost control of the fight to the two Loki from Wildly Inappropriate.

Raiden. vs DarkSide.
Love the variation of my Curse Goodness setup fielded by Darkside. Armour tanked Curses are win. Still don't understand why so many teams are fielding shield tanked Curses.

Ushra'Khan vs Pandemic Legion
Pandemic Legion fielded a terrible heavy ECM setup. I assume the idea was to scare any future opponents into fitting extra wasted ECCM modules. Ushra'Khan's setup was fail so easy win for PL and mission accomplished. The reason I say the PL setup was shit is because it should have had at least some sensor damper recons or E-war frigates. Sensor dampers mess with lock speed and act as a multiplier for ECM. One or two Keres should have been fielded instead of the Kitsune. (edit: Terrible is actually more than a little harsh. It was a hood setup being PL after all, I just think it was a little too extreme)

Circle-of-Two vs RAZOR Alliance
Armour tanked Macharials on the CO2 side??? I missed watching this but can't wait for the youtube since it sounds like quite the fight. RAZOR fielded what seems to be similar to my Tier-1 Revenge setup except looking at the fits they were quite different. Lots more passive tank, lots less DPS, less speed and lots of ECCM, AC fit Feroxes, WTF this whole fight was full of wierd setups. Still, it is a pity RAZOR lost by mere seconds.

Anyways great fights all.... looking forward to tomorrow :)

Tournament Setups : Curse Goodness (my favourite setup!)

Last year while theorycrafting for the tournament I came up with what I thought was a really good setup. It could realistically take on pretty much anything that it was likely to face. For last tourney Sleipnirs and Tengus where the FOTM. Logistics was also king. ECM e-war was also very popular. The following setup was designed to competely demolish any concievable threat. Although low on DPS, it could tank like a son-of-a-bitch and kill anything that comes near one of its ships.What makes this setup so great is that it can easily afford the loss of one or even two ships, and still be viable. It also has specific counters built into it against likely enemy setups.

Now that my alliance is out :( I have decided to post it in the hopes that someone will try and use it. I would love to see this setup used. I will pay 200 million ISK to the first team to field this setup in hopes that this will encourage someone to give it a try.

This is the setup:
3x Curse
2x Geddon
1x Guardian
1x Rapier


DPS is kindof low topping out at 2450 but through the use of fast Valkary IIs and scorch it is actually quite effective at a wide range. Using Hammerhead II and MF ammo significantly increases the DPS in case of a slug match.

The idea is to use the curses to make any turrent ships on the field more or less useless, especially at range. They will be forced to move in close where they will get webbed and painted by the Rapier, and neuted by the Curses. Even in close range the numberous tracking disruptors means that the enemy will have a hard time hitting anything. Meanwhile the 2 tracking enhanced Pulse Geddons will be laying on the hurt at a variety of ranges. A maxed out Guardian is fed cap from teh geddons and provided with 10 large amour logistics drones so it can tank very well.


Against a minmattar setup (see team minmattar) this setup will absolutly make the enemy ships useless. Two, if not three, bonused tracking disruptors will both kill the range and the tracking of the Sleipnirs guns.

Against a ECM fleet this setup will do well because the Ammar is so
underused in the tourney there will probably not be any racial ECM to
deal with. This combined with heavy use of ECCM modules and inherently high sensor strenghts of the Recons The Huginn is vulnerable but it does have a pretty high base
resist and a ECM fleet is not what it is there for.

Against a missile spam fleet there are issues for the Curses, That is
why they have an extra kinetic hardner to give the more tank against
Caldari. That combined with the smaller sig radius and a AB fit should
keep them survivable.




[Armageddon, (Modified) Pulse Lasers Rule Energy TX]
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

100MN Afterburner II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 800
Conjunctive Radar ECCM Scanning Array I

Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch L
Large 'Regard' I Power Projector

Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I


Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot II x5

DPS:739


The geddon represents both powerful DPS as well as a source of power for guardian/curses. Using scortch the lasers have a 53 km optimal and do 500 DPS per ship. Using MF for close range ups the DPS to 739, and still has a optimal of 18 km. It also can place 5 heavy armour drones on the logistics ships each, giving the logistics ship a massive repair amount per 5 seconds. In case the logistics goes down these drones can be used for logistics purposes as well providing some backup. The Large power projector and the cap booster means that this ship can keep logistics humming.


[Curse, pimped w plate MWD]
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Tracking Speed Disruption
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400

Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Nosferatu II
Drone Link Augmentor I

Medium Egress Port Maximizer I
Medium Ionic Field Projector I


Warrior II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Valkyrie II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5


The curses are the key to this setup. With three bonused TD each for a total of 9 bonused TD, any turret setup is going to be having a lot of difficulty. However a curse is not a one trick pony. The neuts can easily place enormous cap pressure on the opposing team. Fit with a MWD this ship can easily catch the ubiquitous AB scimitar and neutralize it. The sensor dampner provides a needed balance to the e-war. Three of these in total can put an enemy tengu out of the fight, or force a logistics ship to stay close. At the same time the high native sensor strength combined with a very long 200km targeting range makes this ship hard to affect by e-war be it ECM or sensor dampers.

The last trick the curse has is it's large drone bay. 15 bonused medium drones total is nothing to laugh at.


[Rapier, Webbing Armour tank w SB]
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

10MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Conjunctive Ladar ECCM Scanning Array I

Medium Graviton Smartbomb II
Medium Graviton Smartbomb II
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I

Medium Anti-Kinetic Pump I
Medium Anti-Thermic Pump I


Valkyrie II x3
Warrior II x2

The Rapier closes the circle on the 40 km kill zone of this setup. By stopping the enemy cold, and blooming its sig radius, this ship allows the full brunt of hell to be unleashed on the enemy. Pity the poor sleipnirs trying to get within 2x falloff. The rapier also provides smartbombs to clear enemy drones


[Guardian, 6 large repper.. need energy tx]
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Adaptive Nano Plating II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II

10MN Afterburner II
Conjunctive Radar ECCM Scanning Array I

Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Anti-Thermic Pump I


Warrior II x5

Edit : Needs 3% pg implant

The guardian provides a massive active tank for the team. With a full 6x large armour reppers this setup should be able to keep anyone up who is under assault. This ship provides 2-3x the repping ability of most medium repper setups. At the same time the 10x heavy logistics drones from will keep the guardian up. It is also dependent on either geddon being in range to provide cap.

Here is the general plan for using this setup...
Basically we try to control the centre of the field. Rapier, BS,
Guardians and one curse warp to 30, other curse warp to 0 and 50km. At
the start of the match their are three main priorities.
1. Protect Guardian. 10 x Heavy armour
drones are placed on it and the curse and rapier ensure that anything
near it is TD, painted, webbed, neuted and pounded upon with BS lasers.
Drones get smart bombed. The Energy tx geddon provides cap for the
guardian to rep.

2. Go after enemy logistics. We watch to
see if the enemy logistics is moving faster then our curses (ie mwd or
ab fit). If our curse is faster the the closest curse heads after it. If
our curse can go faster then we ignore their logistics as far as damage
is concerned. When it is neuted it will no longer be a threat. If their
logistics is faster then we make it the primary for all large dps (15
med drones + BS lasers). and the sensor damps go on their logistics forcing into range.
Consider killing armour repping drones first.
3. Kill their DPS! TDs get placed on all
turrent ships in priority order. SD gets placed on one missile spamming
ship forcing it to sit out the fight or come in death range. In most
cases we should get 2 if not three TD on each enemy ship. Destroyers and
other small ships will be dealt with by the rapier and Guardian drones.
7 warrior 2 + 3 valkaries go after sabres and thrashers and slower
frigates. Medium drones and lasers go after cruiser + sized primaries.
FCs call on wether to add in 5 or more drones from curse to the anti
small ship contingent (like if they have 5 bombers). Use Valkary II
against fast cruisers (vagas, cynabals) and Hammerhead II against slower
ships (Sleipnirs, Tengus etc).

Depending on what you are up against here is the specific plan

Against Minmattar Rush team:
Easy. Basically the TD make the Macharials and Sleipnirs short range ships with worse than BS level tracking. Anything that comes near us gets neuted, webbed and killed. In the end the Minmattar Rush team either be picked appart one at a time or die en-mass in a blaze of pointless glory.

Macharial w 3 TD (2 range 1 track)- 1.7km + 20km falloff ... tracking 0.02 (with barrage)
Macharial w 3 TD (2 range 1 track)- 0.8km + 14km falloff ... tracking 0.03 (with RFEMP
Sleipnir w 3 TD (2 range 1 track) - 0.7km + 6.9km falloff ... tracking 0.04 (with barrage)
Sleipnir w 3 TD (2 range 1 track) - 0.3km + 4.6km falloff ... tracking 0.06 (with RFEMP

Compare this to the two geddons which have :
Geddon - 18km + 12 km falloff tracking 0.07 (with multi)
Geddon - 53km + 12 km falloff tracking 0.05 (with scorch)

Remember that the Minmatter rush team will webbed and/or neuted during any actual rush so the ability to close to very short range will be limited.

As for the small ships we all know that small ships (dramiel and sabre) fear curses bigtime. They might be impossible to catch but if they come within 40 km our this fleet they will die.

Against HSLR Kiters like Tengus

With the empasis on missile damage this is probably one of the most effective teams to use against this setup. That is why this setup has extra kinetic resists so that Caldari missile bonuses are largely wasted. Yes they may use off-race missiles but not at the start. As a result the missiles do not have enough damage to take down any of this anit-minnie setup with the possible exception of the Huginn. Having said that macharial is made useless due to the tracking disruption. The Tengus/scimatar can be caught by the curses (albiet slowly) and killed by drones (15 bonused hammerhead II = 1000dps) plus whatever the slower geddons can put on them with scortch (65km range).

A keres or other sensor dampers are a threat with their sensor damping however with a 203km lock range on the curses this is largely mitigated. If within 45 km range 2 bonus sensor dampers drop lock range on the curse down to 53 km. Less effective into falloff to avoid death by 15 bonused warrior II.

Against An Unbreakable Tank team

The curses really shine here. With more range on the cap drain then the Bhaalgorn and more range on webs with the Huginn, death comes quickly. Again the Bhaalgorn wont be able to hit the side of the barn thanks to massive track disruption. The neuts will kill all of its active shield tank. The Basilisk will also have no cap to do any repping. Meanwhile the ships will die to the combined 3000+ dps from our fleet.

Against ZOOM ZOOM (Vagas, Cynabals)

Tracks really kill this team as well. The Cynabals and Vegas just can't land any shots at anything like a safe range/speed. If they try to get close enough they will be 1. neueted, 2. webbed 3. TD so still not hitting anything and 4. die. Theoretically they can fly around forever and avoid damage (one mistake = death) but the scimatar and jag will go down hard.

Against T3 Heavy Ewar

Sorry .... off-racial jammers don't work too well against recons :(. The tengus are slow and easy to hunt down and kill. The ECM might land a hit or two against the BS but overall, not very effective since it will be off-racial. 3 curses win vs one curse in the neuting war so the curse will die alone as well. The sensor dampers on the curse will make sure that scimatar has to keep close if it wants to be effective and can be easily caught. The loki and the ferox will be TD to death so none of their guns will work. Yes the T3 ships have huge tanks but sustained fire will kill them, especially when invul fields fail due to no cap.

Against BS Heavy

4 cap hungry turrent BS = flying bricks when 3 curses are on the field. It will take a while that is for sure but there is little doubt here. Even if they time their cap cycles right they will each have at least 2 TD on them so our BS can keep at range and kill them at our pleasure. Ishkur will be dealt with densor dampers + drones. Onieros will be caught, neuted to prevented from interfering and then killed.

DONT FIELD 50 POINTS IF YOU HAVE 0 POINTS LOOSER!!!

My god the second round is starting off full of idiot teams. If you loose the first match with 0 points DO NOT FIELD 50 POINTS in the second round!!!! Otherwise you have 0% chance of progressing. Go with 3 cyclones and a scimatar or something!!! Better yet go with 3 Cyclones. Give yourself a chance!