Blog Banter: Arena

So someone has kicked off the post Crazy Kinux era blog banter with the idea of having an arena to create the opportunity for quick combat.:

EVE Quick Matches

Kirith Kodachi recently discussed the idea of what a World of Tanks style quick-match element would bring to EVE Online. Would the opportunity for a quick combat interest you? How could it be implemented? Could it be done without having a negative impact on existing gameplay elements? Or does such a concept have no place in EVE?

Personally I think that it is a fantastic idea. We seriously need in this game a way for solo pilots to get into arranged fights. Here are my two great ideas that really should be added to the game:

1. High-population Low-sec system with Belts: Wouldn't it be great if you could take a frigate to a low-sec system and, simply by using the directional scanner check out all of the belts looking for a similar frigate. If you see one odds are great that they would be looking for the same thing so warp to the belt at zero and presto... a 1 on 1. Naturally there is no real guarantee that the enemy will neither run nor call for backup, but, this being EVE and this being lowsec 90% of the time you will get a 1v1. I suggest we call this special system Amamake.

2. Organized 1v1 tournament: If only CCP could think of a way that a blog or a magazine could sponsor and organize a 1v1 frigate tournament. That would be great! Players could sign up and organize fights. Maybe they could even have the organizers setup an in-game channel to help with the coordination. If only this were possible. Pity.

In all seriousness I think that an arena feature could work.... I just don't think 1) CCP could pull it off in a non-fail fashion and 2) it would not get boring real fast. The whole point of player created content is that, since it can evolve naturally, it is better then what can be imagines by a game designer. Yes, I played WOT, and eventually got bored and gave it up. No arranged 1v1 can compare to setting out in a T1 frig and hunting down a T2 frigate. Two hours of roaming ... two minutes of excitement = what EVE is all about.

Other opinions:
Kuro Mayuri: Exploring all New Eden has to offer
Kirith Kodachi: World of Tanks - lessons to be learned
Seismic Stan: Suddenly Combat: World of Spaceships
Arydanika: Blog Banter: Competition Arenas
Harrigan Vonstudly: Blog Banter: Quick matches. Eveharmony?
Drackarn: Eve Blog Banter - Quick Matches
Rhavas: NECL Season One
Noise: Arena PvP
Ender Black: Blog Banter: Quick Matches
Mike Azariah: Blog Banter: Pinks
Mabricks Mumblings: Chivalry, not cage fights.

Sightseeing - The Golgothan Fields

The Minmatar Rebellion saw many battles, both on the ground and in space. The largest of the space battles took place in the Ennur system just a few weeks after the start of the rebellion. The main Amarr battle fleet had returned from Jovian space and intended to break the power of the rebels once and for all by sweeping through their core systems. The Minmatar met the Amarr with every ship they could muster. The battle was fierce and lasted for hours. In the end, the Minmatar withdrew and the Amarrians claimed victory; however, the Minmatar had succeeded in disabling or destroying the best capital ships in the Amarr fleet, thus reducing their offensive strength dramatically. Today the old battlefield, commonly known as the Golgothan Fields, is littered with old shipwrecks and infested with pirates who have taken refuge in the giant hulks. They defend their outposts fiercely, but daring scavengers can still sneak in and rummage around.

Bored running missions I thought I would do a bit of sightseeing... I decided to check out the Golgothan Fields... an historic site in the EVE back-story where the Minmattar Rebbelion lost a battle to the Amarrians, but set themselves up to eventually win their independence. Located in the Ennur System within Molden Heath Low-sec it was a quick march to this interesting ancient battlefield.

Upon arriving at the pocket I was immediately set upon by an Angel Cartel force that seems to inhabit this location. I decided to simply ignore them and have a look around. What I saw was what must have been the result of some a serious battle. Numerous debris fields of Minmatar and Ammarian ships. Importantly (for the back story) there is a cluster of Ammarian dreadnaught wrecks whose loss devastated the Ammarian response to the Minmattar rebellion.

Anyways this site is definitely worth the pilgrimage for any Matari pilot. Be advised though, the local capsuleer population is not above wrecking your vacation plans.

Local Angel Cartel Ships Saying 'Hello' (about 2 million total bounty)

Ammarian Dreadnaught Wrecks

Not Just Ammar Wrecks! Minmattar Technically Lost this Fight

Unknown Ship Floating Withing The Carnage

Of course after this I proceeded to fly into 0.0 where I lost a fight to a sabre/drake where I would have been able to kill the sabre if I had only been smart enough to turn on my warp scrambler/webifier. Oh well this carebear stuff is sure making me rusty :(

Ships I Fly - Mission Ishkur

Ah, my carebear plans seems to have hit two snags. Firstly, the corp I joined missions in space without a Republic Security Services agent, rather it is full of republic fleet agents. Secondly my corp has been war-dec'd. This has meant two things. Firstly I am having to grind up some standings with the republic fleet before I can get to Level 4 missions. Secondly I have to be careful with my mission ship. My main solution has been to grind level 2 and now level 3 missions with an Ishkur.

At first I started with a Jaguar but found that it was a bit of a PIA for missioning. It worked but it lacked the dps needed and, due to the fitting of multiple shield extenders and rigs, it took a lot of damage when I was doing some Level 3 missions. At this point I noticed that I now have the skills to fly an Ishkur.

The Ishkur is pretty sweet for my missioning style. It can get up close and lay into a target with close range/high damage blasters. From the blasters alone it can manage a respectable 150 dps. But what makes the Ishkur so ideal is the drone bay. Fitted with 5 Hobgoblin IIs these contribute an additional 99 dps (a bit less for me since my skills are far from max) which means the Ishkur can easily drop even BS sized rats. However what makes the drones so good is that they are autonomous. Once they start engaging the enemy they will switch targets all by themselves. This means I can point my ship at cruisers and larger ships, leaving the frigates to automatically be taken care of by my drones. Typically by the time I have taken care of the larger ships with my blasters, the frigates/destroyers have been destroyed.

The main risk to this ship is webifiers. If it gets webbed, and larger ships can get their DPS onto it, it will die quickly. Obviously it makes sense to prioritize any e-war frigs with webifiers and/or scramblers.

Others have managed to complete Level 4 missions with this ship. It apparently is quite doable (if a bit slow) with the addition of a bit of bling in the form of a dead-space afterburner to better speed tank. I have not done this yet but I will be trying it soon.

[Ishkur, mission ishkur]
Small Armor Repairer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Damage Control II

1MN Afterburner II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

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

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I


Hobgoblin II x5
Hobgoblin II x5

Mission Hurricane

So on July 17th my last remaining account expired. I stopped playing EVE for a couple of weeks. Early August however I logged back in. CCP has a feature that allows you to get 4 hours of free game time on an expired account. Just enough to buy a plex in Jita. Toterra was back in game.

Why am I back?

Not sure... Mostly just missing my EVE fix. I am still infuriated at 'The Door' and reluctant to spend any real money on this game. But I have enough ISK to last a few months just buying plex so why not.

Now I had a big question... what to do. Finding myself in a NPC corp I thought that I might as well do something that I have never done in EVE, something that it seems everyone else has done, do Level 4 missions. I had sufficiently high standing with the Minmattar Republic Security Services corp to do Level 4 missions so I quickly found a couple of neighboring systems with level 4 mission agents and started plugging away.

Of course I am no expert at PVE ship fittings. The most common recomendation that would fit with my skillset was to go with a drake or a Mealstrom. Instead I decided to go against the grain and went with a mission hurricane.

[Hurricane, Tank Like a Drake]
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Power Diagnostic System II

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II

425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Torrent Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I


Hobgoblin II x5
Hobgoblin II x1


Note: The invulnerability field should be swapped out for a mission specific hardener where applicable. Choose ammo types accordingly as well.

This ship is a pretty potent force. With a peak passive recharge rate of 495 DPS and a total firepower of 475 DPS it can both tank all but the toughest rooms and rip through any BS rat in seconds. Compared to a similar Drake the tank is somewhat weaker, but the damage is higher which makes for chewing through structures and large BS rats quicker. The main difference between this and a Drake is that a Drake will typically engage at long range. While this is purely a close range brawler. Basically approach target after target blasting away while letting the light drones kill pesky frigates, starting with those fitting warp scrambling e-war first.

How does it do for a new character?

One thing I always do when looking at fitting is figure out a low-cost/low-skill version. In my EFT I have a file setup with level 3 skills across the board. The idea is not to show the most a fit can do, rather to get an idea of how this would work on newer character. Here is a fit for a character with level 3 skills:
[Hurricane, low skill passive cane]
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Power Diagnostic System I

Large Shield Extender I
Large Shield Extender I
10MN Afterburner I
Invulnerability Field I

425mm AutoCannon I, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon I, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon I, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon I, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon I, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon I, EMP M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I


Hobgoblin I x3
Hobgoblin I x1
Hobgoblin I x1

The DPS and the tank are about half that of the tech II / level 5 skill fit. But it still has a 240 dps tanks and a damage output of 216 DPS. More than enough to handle most level 3 missions.

All in all the mission Hurricane may not be as common as some of the other options... but it does work awfully well. It sure is more fun then lobbing missiles at a distance, waiting for the damage to build up from a Drake.