Scram Web - An EVE Online Blog

Taranis 3.1 / 3.2

2012-01-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

When doing solo PVP in EVE you have to be willing to die.... a lot.

So fitting up a new Taranis I hit Amamake again looking for a fight. As before I was in a armour repping, afterburner fit, neutron blaster fit, ecm drone Taranis. Within a mine or two I was engaged with an incursis near the sun. Unfortunately he was kiting me. Try as I might I couldn't get withing 10km to put an overheated scram on his MWD. All the while his rail-guns were pounding me. After about a minute my ECM drones must have worked since he lost point, and I decided to give up and warp off.

Not much to say here except I need to get better and forcing the fight to be within scram range. Loosing a t2 frigate to a t1 frigate would have been embarrassing. I am not sure if my choice to fit ECM drones saved me, or cost me a kill. With ECM drones I was able to break his point and escape, however combat drones would have given me some DPS against him at range. I suspect however that if combat drones were hurting him he would have been able to simply warp off at will.

Since I was kited once, why not try again.

An hour later, same place I engaged a Scythe Fleet Issue. I believe this ship is the single least flown ship in the game according to CCP. And like the incursis I was engaged at range :(. Since he was around 40km from me I aligned and prepared to warp. However I lingered to see exactly what he would do. I figured that as long as he was over 30 km from me I was safe. He pointed me at around 34km. Ooops. I don't know if it was some serious faction point or an off-grid boosting loki, but I knew I was screwed.

I tried the same tactic as with the incursis. Off went my drones to attempt to jam him. No luck. Soon he was joined by a hurricane and a Talos. The chase did last for a bit as they couldn't quite hit me for full damage. However every once in a while the Talos ripped me a new one and, never succeeding in jamming the Skyth, I died.

2012.01.23 05:01:00

Victim: Toterra
Corp: Walking Dead Pilots
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2725

Involved parties:

Name: Liang Nuren (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.00
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: None
Ship: Talos
Weapon: Ion Blaster Cannon II
Damage Done: 2005

Name: Az Tek
Security: -10.00
Corp: Heretic University
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: None
Ship: Scythe Fleet Issue
Weapon: 720mm 'Scout' Artillery I
Damage Done: 720

Name: tiberiusric
Security: -10.00
Corp: Comply Or Die
Alliance: Shit.Happens
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 160
Damage Control II
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Ancillary Current Router I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 260 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

1MN Afterburner II
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 80
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Small Armor Repairer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Null S, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Light Neutron Blaster II

Both of these fights resulted in the same lesson. I need to engage at 0. If I can't do that I had better gtfo.

The Problem With the CSM TL;DR Version

2012-01-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

After reading the absurd, opportunistic, new player unfriendly stuff in the latest CSM minutes I started writing a massive wall of text picking apart the CSM and trying to explain it. In the end I just gave up the wall of text and am just going to publish the summary.

TL;DR:

Treating the CSM as a focus group for EVE players is as valid as treating the US Senate as a focus group for Americans.

Taranis 2.2

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

So after surviving my initial encounter and getting my first Taranis kill with a Taranis, I think I have mastered this ship. Perhaps not. I recently started a new corp (I will undoubtedly blog about that later) and I took one of my new corpmates on a little roam though low-sec. I was in my shiny Taranis, my mate was in a Retribution. The Retribution is a really awesome assault ship with one teeny tiny problem... only one midslot. IOW it can fit a propulsion mod but no tackle :(.

The Hunt
We first made our way on to Tama. This is a hotbed of faction war between Caldari and Gallente. I managed to d-scan down a republic fleet firetail, but it was sitting in a minor compound. Oddly minor compounds only allow frigates and destroyers... T2 frigates can not enter :(.

On we went looking for targets. Eventually we ended up Dal, one jump out of Amamake. I managed to tackle a Vexor and we started giving it hell. My shields and armour were obliterated, however once I set into an orbit I was tanking it okay. It's shields dropped quickly and we were slowly chipping away at the armour. I checked the drones and he had loaded up mostly Ogre IIs which couldn't hit me despite being webbed. It was very very slowly loosing armour.

Then disaster struck. I had though I had turned off overheating my afterburner... but it stayed on for the third cycle. Once completed it had burnt out and my velocity went from 500 m/s to 150 m/s... and then an Ogre got a 'wrecking shot!'. Structure didn't last long after that. My fellow corp-mate in a retribution did not quite get his ship out.

2012.01.15 06:41:00

Victim: Toterra
Corp: Walking Dead Pilots
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Dal
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2444

Involved parties:

Name: Igo Heeled44 (laid the final blow)
Security: 3.2
Corp: Ascetic Virtues
Alliance: None
Faction: Amarr Empire
Ship: Vexor
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2444

Destroyed items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 114
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Ancillary Current Router I, Qty: 2
Hobgoblin II (Cargo)

Dropped items:

1MN Afterburner II
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 57
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Null S, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 4953 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 715 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin II (Cargo)

Afterthoughts
I hate loosing a ship due to stupidity. I don't know whether I could have tanked the vexor if my ab wasn't overloaded.... but burning out was just fail. I will be so happy once CCP fixes the overload interface so that it is less prone to mistakes. As far as the Taranis is concerned the ship performed beautifully. The combination of small sig radius, high speed, and high dps is a winner.

The Current Sad State of EVE-Online Noob PvP Training - Part 3 - OUCH

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Open Unversity of Celestial Hardship (OUCH)
OUCH was started by Black Claw who handles the www.evebloggers.com portal. Although he has left the corp and is in fact, planning to leave EVE, his idea of creating an alliance dedicated to achieving excellence in small gang PvP still thrives. OUCH is the training arm of the Art Of War alliance that he helped build. Operating primarily out of the Curse NPC 0.0 region they have made a small name for themselves in one of the most competitive section of the EVE universe.

Getting into OUCH is as simple. They are willing to accept pretty much anyone. As their recruitment post says:

No pre-requisites are required to join OUCH. No minimum number of skill points, API checks, interviews, etc. We truly are an "open" training corporation. Our students have ranged from one day old trial accounts to players who were with Eve since Beta. We accept anyone with a pulse.

OUCH tries hard, they really seem to. When they started over a year ago my Agony corp-mates kind-of laughed at them figuring they would never last. Instead, they are still around and seem to graduate about 5 players a month. Characters first join up with the corp and then take classes. To get to 'Graduate' status several modules have to be completed covering a range of PvP topics. These modules are delivered in a group class format schedules around once or twice a week. Four group classes (about 9 hours of training total) are required to cover the whole curriculum. Reviewing the module names they cover the host of major topics to truly get started in EVE PvP. From fitting to tackling to using the d-scanner, core concepts are covered.

Module List:
UNIT ONE
1. Overview settings
2. EVE client ESC settings
3. EVE client interface

UNIT TWO
4. Bookmarking
5. D-Scan

UNIT THREE
6. Tackling
7. Weaponry

UNIT FOUR
8. Fleet Ops
9. Hunter/Prey

My new character managed to join OUCH without many questions. I created an account on their forum, read what I could and then waited for a class. Fellow corp-mates were friendly and helpful, answering any questions I had. Since I was doing missions during this period they were able to give me some advice about what ship to use and what skills to train for.

The forums provided me with a fit of ship to use in the lessons (AB Merlin since I was Caldari) and some information, however there did not seem to be any way of preparing for the classes ahead of time other then get a ship ready in system. The content of the courses is covered during the lessons rather then in reading material.

As a new pilot I had to fly with several restrictions, basically barring me from any PvP until I had completed the courses. During this time I was not allowed to:
1. Participate in any form of PvP,
2. Join any OUCH PvP Fleet,
3. Go to 0.0/low-sec,
4. Listen in on an active PvP fleet.

Pretty much I was left alone on the lounge channel of their teamspeak server while I ran a few missions and basically was left to my own devices, longing to join a fleet channel where people looked like they were having fun. I chatted with other students and they were similarly frustrated.

During the first 10 days no class corresponded to anything near my playtime and I was kicked for inactivity. Apparently there was a requirement of creating a student folder in the student folder forum. IOW, despite spending over an hour looking for information on their website I failed to RTFM, or in this case, read the f---ing acceptance mail. Since I left they have strengthened their documentation for new members to help them know what to do. In general lessons seemed to be more convenient for EU timezones, while some 'extra' lessons are scheduled outside of that time. I think that due to the x-mass holidays I hit at a bad time where people were taking a break and less lessons then normal were available. This is quite understandable as the amount of work and time that goes into providing these lessons.

I am not really sure if OUCH is the best place for a new character on a 14-day trial. While some of their graduates started as new, I feel that it would be very hard for a new player to have a meaningful PvP experience within the 14 day trial by going through OUCH.

OTOH if a player feels that EVE is really for them and wants to get into PvP, I think joining OUCH is an excellent idea. As long as they understand that it will take a bit of patience (and what in EVE doesn't take patience), and they can control their schedule enough to fit in the classes, they will have a real step up over other players. However it would usually take more than 14 days and, since the restrictions on students are so severe, it would be a pretty uneventful time until they achieve graduation, unless the lessons align perfectly with their play time.

I do think OUCH works best for a mission runner who wants to get into PvP. They can run missions/incursions/other empire stuff while waiting to take the classes.

Response From OUCH
I contacted OUCH with a draft of this post and received the following response:
Dear Toterra,

I have followed your blog a bit and I like most of what I read. I've no problems with your review of us, it's an honest opinion of your experience with the Open University of Celestial Hardship [0UCH].

In my opinion, 14 days is not enough time to really do anything with OUCH, and you probably caught us at the worst time, in December when the holidays were looming. Hopefully for someone joins us and doesn't get disallusioned with the admin of joining will want to stay in OUCH long enough to figure out if they really like Eve. I agree that OUCH is more suited to the carebear come PvP, but we have had many successful brand new players join and successfully finish our course. It requires four groups of modules to complete the course, 9 hours of training.

After the holiday, I made a post called "How to get Kicked out of OUCH" (a little tongue in cheek there) and linked it in our MoTD because we were concerened with all of the students joining and missing the big picture, or failing to actually participate. I think that if that had been in the MoTD when you joined, you might have read it and figured out you needed a Student Folder. It also explains some of the reason why we insist on new pilots showing a little patience with us as we do the same. I will mail it to you for your reference, but in a nutshell, we are not interested in being a huge corp with a bunch of people who want to hang out. We want people who want to be trained, or in the case of a permanent member, want to train others.

Because OUCH is an Open Corp, we make people wait to join us in PvP channel... there has to be some security for counter intelligence purposes... So basically if you havent gotten thru enough lessons to do PvP, you can't join us in the PvP channel. I admit that annoys me that people would rather sit in the AFK channel than hang in the lounge, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I am sorry that OUCH didn't meet your expectations. To be honest, I don't think there is any program out there that is going to fit your parameters. We try very hard to help out who we can, but we're grown up enough to know we can't please everyone. We are going to keep focused on what we do well and refine it as we can.

Respectfully,

Bren Genzan (CEO)

Taranis 2.1

2012-01-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

So I fit up another Taranis like the first. This time I wasn't going to be a tard fly it properly. The only change I made to the fitting was instead of hobgoblin IIs I went with 2 light ECM drones. Since I am pushing well over 200 dps with my blasters, the 30 dps or so from the drones is not going to make near as much of a difference as jamming the enemy ship would. At least that is the plan.

Again I left Jita and ended up in that hole of a system called Amamake. Amamake is basically a frigate PvP paradise. Show up in a frigate and if you can't get a fight... you are doing it wrong.

The Hunt
After chasing a few things another Taranis with the name of 'Taranis vs' showed up on scan. I found it sitting on a station. After staring at it for a minute or two (I couldn't shoot it since he his sec status was only -1.1, I headed to a faction war plex and waited for him to follow. About a minute after landing, I was about to give up when he suddenly appeared on grid. As soon as I managed to lock him I opened fire and launched my drones. I lost about 3 seconds to the pop up notification warning me that this was a dangerous action, but I still managed to get my first shot off 4 seconds before him. Overloading my NOS and my repper, I quickly burnt through his shields and armour. He did the same to me. I overloaded my guns and finally he went down as I was in 22% structure. My drones never landed a jam.

GFs in local and a quick chat afterwards. He was a bit perplexed as this was his anti Taranis fit. However he did admit to a serious error. As he landed on me he hesitated before locking me as I had a positive sec status and wasn't sure if I was going to light him up. Never land on a target in low-sec or 0.0 and then start pondering if you want the fight or not. He was committed when he warped after me. Pausing may have cost him the fight.

All in all I was please with my tactics here. There were couple of things I could have done better though.

1. Overload guns from the start
2. I mashed locking him up as he was warping in over and over. Sometimes it seems that when you fail to lock so many times there is a delay as you flood the network with messages. I think I could have locked him a second or two earlier if I was less aggressive.
3. Turn off the damned criminal act notification.

2012.01.13 22:34:00

Victim: panteknicon
Corp: Tribal Liberation Force
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2675

Involved parties:

Name: Toterra (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.00
Corp: Walking Dead Pilots
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Taranis
Weapon: Light Neutron Blaster II
Damage Done: 2675

Destroyed items:

Light Electron Blaster II
Small Trimark Armor Pump I, Qty: 2
Small 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 506 (Cargo)
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 270
Warp Scrambler II
100mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Stasis Webifier II
Small 'Knave' Energy Drain

Dropped items:

1MN Afterburner II
Light Electron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 135
Damage Control II

Taranis 1

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite blog series is the Punisher Plan from Flight of Dragons. In it gets into PvP by flying and loosing 20 Punishers (t1 Frigate). I consider it to be a perfect example of how new players should approach PvP in EVE.

At the same time I have always respected the Taranis. There was a pilot in Agony who flew them frequently and had a ridiculous amount of solo success with it, including a spectacular 1v1 with a Vagabond in which he was victorious. I have flown the ship a few times with much less success. To that end I have decided to follow the Taranis plan and fly with and loose 20 Taranises.

The Fit
[Taranis, Taranis 1]

Light Neutron Blaster II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

1MN Afterburner II
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I

Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Ancillary Current Router I

Hobgoblin II x2
note: I was only able to fit this thanks to a 3% powergrid implant

This fit was a modified version of the fit used by that storied Agony pilot. Hull tanking for the win, with an active armour tank for good measure. Changes with the Crucible patch have allowed me to fit more DPS then he used to be able to.

The Hunt

Leaving Jita I roamed through low-sec looking for targets of opportunity. I almost landed on a fight between a Jag and another ship, but I was not fast enough on the d-scan. Going further I set the destination to Hevrice, home of the Tuskers, hoping to find a comparable ship to engage. After not really seeing many possible targets I arrived. At first I chased a Rifter around, but again I was slow on the D-Scan so he was never in danger (note to self, practice d-scan). However a Tusker Federation Navy Comet wanted to play so we were soon in battle.

At this point I turned into a noob to end all noobs. I made so many mistakes in the fight I embarrass myself.
1. I had an opportunity to engage near a station's gate guns. This would have allowed me to make the first shot since my opponent would have had to wait for me to aggress. Instead I found some celestial for the fight.
2. Federation Navy Comet != Caldari Navy Hookbill. For some reason I always get the two confused.
3. A Taranis is not a shield tanked ship. For some reason when my shields were obliterated by the first shot... I started to panic.
4. Turn on the AB. I thought I activated it... but when I checked it near the end it didn't seem to be on though.
5. Should have brought Null. My plan was to engage in deep falloff for antimatter. Good plan if I was using Null. Bad plan otherwise.
6. Check pilot on battleclinic. The enemy had just lost the same ship type recently. I should have checked her fit first to see that she had ambit extension rigs... engaging at range = bad.
7. Don't experiment with keyboard shortcuts when doing frig 1v1. For some reason I remembered that there was a keyboard shortcut for orbit. I held the 'T' key down and selected the ship. Duh! It is the 'W' key for orbit.
8. 23 seconds before my drones got into the action. I must have never assigned them.
At least I remembered to get my pod out.

All in all it was a completely fail fight. The Comet is a tough ship that probably would have won regardless, however I at least hoped to crack the ships shields.

Anyways, with a gf in local I logged in station for the night. My taranis will be back :D Probably with a bit of a different fit though.

2012.01.12 05:31:00

Victim: Toterra
Corp: Walking Dead Pilots
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 1824

Involved parties:

Name: Maia Demoncast (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.60
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Federation Navy Comet
Weapon: Light Neutron Blaster II
Damage Done: 1824

Destroyed items:

1MN Afterburner II
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 72
Small Armor Repairer II
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Ancillary Current Router I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 760 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 144
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Damage Control II
Light Neutron Blaster II

The Current Sad State of EVE-Online Noob PvP Training - Part 2

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Fortunately for EVE there is a large player community that tries to help out. There are three so called 'Universities' that attempt to teach PvP to new players in a structured manner. These organizations are filled with volunteers who put enormous effort into helping teach new players how to PvP in EVE.

Some large Alliances (Goonswarm and Test come to mind) will accept new players if they meet certain out of game requirements and try to mold them into cannon fodder for their FCs. IMHO being cannon fodder (another alpha Maelstrom) is hardly PvP.

As for the other smaller corps that are spamming the recruitment channel or otherwise talking to new players promising PvP training, it is very much hit or miss. Some will provide a helping hand, others fail to do so. Some are even just out to scam. I would be surprised if evem 10% of noob recruits end up finding real help. The rest just get frustrated and quit the game.

That really leaves the three PvP universities as the only reliable hope for organized PvP training. To look at these options I created a new trial account with the 60-day key given out by CCP and tried to see how well these would work. I 'pretended' to be a noob knowing absolutely nothing (note: I used to be in Agony so didn't try there, went off memory). I will talk about this on my next post. The main question I wanted to know was... Was it possible for a new player to have a positive PvP training experience within the 14-day trial?

Stop the Assault Ship Changes.... Rethink Frigate Fleets Instead

2012-01-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

I personally love Assault Ships. The Jaguar is by far my favorite ship to fly. I also love the Wolf, the Enyo, the Ishkur, the Hawk and the Vengeance. Assault ships are just fantastic ships for having fun in. Unlike interceptors they can withstand a beating, yet they are still fast enough to dodge a gate camp. DPS is just enough higher then their T1 counterparts to actually be effective against things like cruisers, yet they have their own special niche.

You would think I would be happy with the proposed changes to the ship class.... well I am not. Lets look at the change to the Jaguar since it is a perfect example of fixing something that doesn't need fixing.

* Added bonus: 7.5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret Tracking per level
* +1 low slot
* Added role bonus: 50% reduction in MicroWarpdrive signature radius penalty

The low slot is kindof a silly catch all change. It can make the ship faster, more agile, give it more power-grid or more CPU. Think of it as a +10% bonus to whatever you want. Lots of people hate the MWD bonus (although I am probably the only one who likes the 50% reduction in MWD penalty as it makes the ships now able to dodge gate-camps in 0.0 much better). The tracking rate bonus however is what I truly hate. The main weakness of the Jaguar and the Wolf is the lack of a tracking bonus. This means that an enemy pilot, in an interceptor or T1 frigate, can, with a lot of effort and hope, get under 200mm autocannons. IOW the lack of a tracking bonus gives other frigates a chance. By adding the tracking bonus this is now gone. You see these sort of changes throughout the whole lineup. Ishkur has lots of DPS in drones that need to be popped if you engage..... they now are much tougher to pop. The Hawk / Vengeance can tank like a SOB, but lousy damage... now they have great damage as well. I much prefer solo-pvp ships to have both strengths and weaknesses that need to be understood, rather then just making them all round better. Think stealth bombers... hopelessly overpowered in some ways, but so gimped in other ways that they add to the game instead of ruining it.

What I wish the game designers at CCP would do is consider the whole class of T2 frigates and come up with a consistent strategy for a frigate fleet. Imagine if each race had an assault ship with a command ship like bonus. The bonus would only work on grid and only against destroyers or smaller. Give the other side a logistic bonus, the bonuses to remote rep each other, and other frigates. Fix EAF so that they are more survivable and uselfull. Give frigates, and destroyers, a warfare objective that they can do better then larger fleets. Add a non-cloaky bomber type ship that can, in a small group, make short work of customs offices or something. But they need to be protected by flying with the harder hitting, bonus giving, repping assault ships. This would make roving gangs of small ships not only viable, but crucial to the game out in 0.0 and low-sec.

Doing this would make the game both more fun, and more accessible to new players. Having these low barrier to entry fleets would be a huge boon to the game.

The Current Sad State of EVE-Online Noob PvP Training - Part 1

2012-01-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons that I started this blog was to provide a resource and some inspiration for new players to learn to PvP. At the time there seemed to be a dearth of PvP blogs. Wensley's Rifter Drifter being the best of the few regularly updated PvP blogs with useful information for new players. Since I started the situation has improved significantly. Azual's Blog, The FNG, Flight of Dragons, etc. are all great resources. However it is not really enough. EVE is a PvP game. Players start playing EVE primarily because they want to get involved in the great PvP game. Yes some players come to EVE to play WOW in space, but they are usually transitory and only stay if they are somehow connected to the great PvP game.

To that end it would be ideal if new players to EVE could get up to speed on how PvP works quickly and easily. It would be ideal if most new players withing the trial period get a chance to experience the heart-stopping thrill of the first PvP engagement and kill. Instead this is nearly impossible and it is getting worse (it is getting harder and harder for a T1 frigate to survive and kill anything). The military and advanced military tutorials are pretty much useless. They introduce how to click the weapons/ewar and fire at a target, and that is about it. New players have to navigate a bunch of complex, contradictory and needlessly confusing rules about who can attack whom and where. For example just think of the overview. Even the EVE developers don't seem to understand the rules as they often release features that are broken due to aggression rules. See Incursion.

The problem is that new players have 14 days to decide that EVE is the game for them. If they never experience a PvP engagement during that time where they understand what is happening, how exactly are they supposed to figure it out.

Navy Faction Ship Prices - Side Effect of Incursions

2012-01-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

One of the rewards of doing incusion sites, aside from the ISK, is the LP rewards. As I understand it (never actually done an incursion) you get LP that can be cashed in at any of the empire faction LP stores. This has had many side affects. For me the most notable was the complete mess it made of Faction Ammo pricing that I had been using with my trader alt as my main source of money. With much greater supply, prices for faction ammo stabilized :(. My profits were no more.

Another effect has been the price of navy faction ships. Let's look at the frigate prices

Ship Name	Jan 4, 2011	Jan 4, 2012
Caldari Navy Hookbill	24,012,553.27	15,700,697.99
Federation Navy Comet	27,193,650.91	15,516,003.00
Republic Fleet Firetail	21,610,796.00	14,399,998.99
Imperial Navy Slicer	22,083,122.56	12,510,001.07

Amazingly these prices put these ships that used to cost more than Assault ships a couple of years ago, down to interceptor prices. The Imperial Navy Slicer is probably the most remarkable of these ships. A super fast ammar frigate that can kite pretty much anything, and thanks to scorch, do significant damage outside of scram range.

The trend is less consistent but still present for cruisers as well. A Stabber Fleet Issue which cost 85 million last January, costs 67 million today. That is about half the price of a Vagabond. Quite amazing.

POD-ageddon X-Mass - AND THE WINNER IS

2012-01-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Congrats to ThePod Express for his victory. He posted over 3.6 Billion ISK worth of implants. Here is a post from him commenting on his activities :). Great going. As a reward he has requested a Vigilant cruiser. Although he might have some difficulty getting it out of Jita considering his -10.0 sec status.

Anyways, I plan on running this contest again next (this) year. So pods out there beware... 355 days to the next POD-ageddon.

POD-ageddon X-Mass - Update 2 - It has started

2011-12-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

I am taking a quick break from the X-Mass festivities to announce that POD-aggedon has started. Please post all killmails (in their entirety not a link) in the comments section of this post. Winner will receive a pirate or navy faction cruiser of choice.

Remember the Rules!
1. Kill must be in Hi-sec.
2. Runs from downtime December 24, 2011 to downtime January 1st 2012 (kills must be in by downtime).
3. Prices of implants to be calculated based upon Jita Market Prices/purchase contract prices. Thus a snake set is worth a LOT more than 100 +1 perception implants.
4. Implants must be in a head (only pod-kills count).
5. Podder (final blow) gets the credit, not the podded ;)

Good Luck!

Edit: Some confusion apparently, if you want to participate please post all of the pod killmails as comments to this message.

One Week to Pod-aggedon

2011-12-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

One week till pod-aggedon starts. :)

Focus on the Primary!

2011-12-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

Flying in various RvB gangs, as well as a recent Public Agony destroyer gang, I have noticed that a LOT of people just don't seem to understand that focusing fire on the primary is not just a piece of gentle advice from the FC, but rather the difference between victory and defeat. When the FC is calling a primary, unless there is a very good reason, that is what you should be shooting at.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that the enemy is splitting their fire. When flying a ship in a 15v15 engagement in RvB I appreciate it when I start taking damage from a single ship, allowing me lots of time to warp out and then return to the battle. I appreciate it that my own fleet is not loosing a ship every few seconds to focused fire. Rather we are all being evenly pelted to one degree or another. Oddly enough when I am called primary I appreciate it that I am getting all of the enemy e-war placed on me. It is good that, three or four tracking disruptors, a few stasis webs and enough points are placed on me that even if I fit nothing but WCS in the lows I would still not be able to leave. I know that my going down at that point is diverting valuable ewar away from my own side allowing them to inflict maximum damage and maneuver as needed.

Unfortunately I know that the same lack of focused fire is happening from my side as well.

In short, when in fleet place your DPS on the primary. Spread your e-war appropriately across the enemy fleet. One side does that and the other does not, they will win.

Example of this would be on the Agony run destroyer fleet I was on. Although there was a large discussion in the forum from some non-agony wondering about the importance of shooting the primary, during the fleet we were able to give the FC the concentrated fire of all of our DPS. And thanks to the enemy fleet on two occasions spreading fire around to me enough that my paper thin thrasher had lots of time to get out of dodge when needed.

POD-ageddon X-Mass - Update 1 - How to submit

2011-12-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

I am writing a little program to parse out killmails from the comments section of my blog. The way things are going to work is as follows. I will create a post for each day and players are to submit killmails as comments in a raw form (not as a link). My little app will parse through the killmails extracting things like the date, pilot, and what implants were destroyed. This will be loaded up into to a database to then calculate the totals. I will expect each killmail to also appear on battleclinic and I will audit the killmails, especially the winners, to confirm that they are legit. All killmails must be API verified by battleclinic so make sure you give them you API key.

Remember, PODageddon begins on christmas EVE, so get set to trash your sec status then. Merry podding everyone.

POD-ageddon X-Mass December 24 - December 31

2011-12-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

One of the nice new things in the Incarna patch is the addition of pods to kill-mails. Finally, killing a billion ISK pod reveals a billion ISK kill-mail :). Fools who afk fly through empire space, or otherwise think that their pods are safe should now know..... they will be killed, if only to pad some anti-social individual's kill-board. This is awesome. To celebrate this I am going to suggest we have a Christmas POD-agedon event (stealing the title mercilessly from Hulkageddon). From Chrismas EVE through to New Years EVE, pods in empire space should be warned.... death is coming.

I am still working on how to implement this. But the following basic rules should apply:

1. Kill must be in Hi-sec.
2. Runs from downtime December 24, 2011 to downtime January 1st 2012.
3. Prices of implants to be calculated based upon Jita Market Prices/purchase contract prices. Thus a snake set is worth a LOT more than 100 +1 perception implants.
4. Implants must be in a head (only pod-kills count).
5. Podder gets the credit, not the podded ;)

Prizes: TBD

I am far from wealthy so all I will throw into the prize pool is a pirate faction cruiser of choice for the contestant with highest total ISK of implants destroyed. Ideally I will get some additional prizes before the contest starts.

How to submit: TBD

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

2011-12-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

Last June I noticed that about a week after the Incarna patch, online users of EVE looked to be down about 10%. Lets see how things look now, nearly week after the Crucible patch:

It now looks to be up around 10% (green line compared to purple), hitting close to or exceeding 50k online users, numbers I have not seen in months. This seemed to have been true over this past weekend as well. In short, things are looking pretty good for this patch. Obviously there are a lot of possible factors, but considering the good reaction to this latest patch, in contrast to Incarna, I think that Crucible is to be credited.

CCP has done something that is almost unheard of in the tech industry, it put away it's own arrogance and listened to its users. That this happened in Iceland, a country credited with being populated by stubborn Vikings, is all the more exceptional.

But wait, there is more to be done. Firstly us EVE players really need to reward CCP for this shift. Give your friends invites. CCP has given out new 60 day invite key (which sadly does not reward the deliverer). Send this to a friend whom you think might want to play EVE. Imagine the effect within CCP, and the wider gaming community, if EVE suddenly gets a spike in revenue for:
1. All but abandoning micro-transactions
2. Listening to the users
3. Driving Improvements to old features instead of just adding more fluff.
4. Communicating openly with the player base.

Gamers all over the industry should know that this is the opportunity to show the publishers that we want quality over trinkets, game-play over pay-to-win and give developers frustrated by greedy executives a nice data point that says.... PLAYERS PLAYERS PLAYERS PLAYERS!!!

What... is your favourite colour? --- Blue. No, yel... auuuuuuuugh

2011-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posting... the truth is that there has been so much happening I keep on starting topics and then deciding to switch topics over and and over again. I am going to try and finish some of the articles and will likely have quite a few posts this December. Here is the first.

So a couple of months ago I discussed how I had moved to Venal to run the very profitable Guristas missions. This worked pretty well and I am now more flush with ISK then ever before. I suspect I will be making periodic trips back. Having said that there was one big problem with Venal... it seems to be home to fail-corps. Due to it's issues getting access to empire, and the lack of good nearby PvP hunting grounds... PvP in Venal seems to consist mostly of bling'ed out T3 ships playing station games. Quite sad.

After making my ISK I started just roaming around Venal and eventually got frustrated. The nearby sov space was controlled by such entities as NC. and the Goons so it proved very hard for me to find appropriate targets for a solo frigate, as well hard to survive gate-camps in larger ships.

Since I was wasting hours and hours of hunting with little to show for it except losses to blobs, I decided to try a much more target rich environment, one where in a couple of systems were dozens of ships with ROE that discouraged blobbing and encouraged 1v1s. I joined Red Federation of Red vs Blue.

In two weeks of Red vs Blue I have racked up more kills then the preceding 6 months. It is senseless violence, but sometimes that is the best kind. We do play internet space-ships after all so it is hard to find meaning in anything we do.

Like all combat in EVE, RvB suffers from long waits to find targets, blobbing, station games and the like. However there is a mutual understanding between the sides that good-fights are the priority, not winning. 1v1s are often offered, and accepted. Players are willing to ship-down for fights. This, combined with a small operating arena chock full of people looking for a fight, leads to more good fights then I have seen elsewhere. In short, I can log in, spend an hour, have a good fight, and log-off.

I find that there is a huge variety of skill-levels within the teams. Sometimes you go into a fight against a faction frigate and are stunned to see a bunch of newbie flying and fitting mistakes. Other times it is obvious that a pro is at the controls, often with max skills/implants. A 'no-podding' rule allows players to invest in high-performance implants with little fear of loosing them.

In general members leave behind the 0.0 win at all costs mindset, but not always. I was on a fleet recently with a brand-new FC, with only a few months experience in game. As always happens he made a few mistakes and the fleet got routed. Not a big deal. One player complained but I, and others, reminded him that this was rather silly, and encouraged the rookie FC to try again. This is the sort of thing I love about EVE.

Income generation in RvB is not too hard. Obviously fighting grinds down ISK, but there is nothing to stop players from mission-ing, incursion-ing, wormhole-ing or doing other ISK generating activities outside of the few systems open for combat. Since the general fleet doctrine is to not fly expensive stuff unless you can afford it, this is not really a problem I see for most players.

Being hi-sec near Jita makes logistics easy. It is no problem buying a ship in Jita and two or three jumps later, being in the combat zone. Note: While no RvB fighing is allowed in Jita, the same cannot be said of the routes from Jita to the various HQ.

Anyways, RvB is good fun. If all you want to do is have great fights with much less blobbing, and less hours spent looking, these are great corps to look into.

Remembrance

2011-11-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
-Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

You are not Cool: Drug Users Playing EVE

2011-11-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Cozmik R5's 'Ode to a friend' post got me thinking a lot about some of the things I have heard while playing EVE. Basically if I had to divide EVE into two groups it could be the 20-somethings (including some teenagers) that seem to be always talking about what awesome drugs they are taking, and the 30+ who think the 20 somethings are idiots.

The reason for the difference is simple. 20-somethings think that it is cool to be stoned, and that they are immortal. The 30+ know that being stoned is a waste, and have attended too many funerals of friends who died of drugs in their 20s to have any misconceptions about the dangers.

Personally I lost three people I knew to drugs. One in particular was a very close friend and former room-mate. His funeral was beyond horrible. The parents (immigrants who came to Canada to give their child a better life) had to be hospitalized and couldn't even attend due to grief. His life had been full of possibilities. He had recently finished a degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and was making lots of money in the early dot-com era. He had a passion for cars and recently bought some 80s V8 muscle car which he was souping up. Who knows what he could have accomplished if he had not overdosed?

Now the only reminder of him left in the world is his cat that is currently owned by his ex-girlfriend (who had to dump him early on in his drug use, you can imagine the amount of guilt she felt although it was not her fault, she tried but could get him to quit). The cat is very old now, probably will not make it through the winter. After that there will be nothing left of him. He would have been 38 this year.

Yesterday my baby daughter was sick with a cold. I took a vacation day and stayed home from work to take care of her. We spent the day playing and having fun (in between naps). It was a perfect day. Maybe it is just chemicals, the Dopamine, Oxytocin and other natural hormones that makes parents love their children, all I know is that the 'hit' from real life so outweighs the artificial hit from drugs, I think that anyone who bothers with them is a fool.

Is CCP Rowing in the Same Direction

2011-10-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

"You know, Gina, Apple is like a ship, that ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction."
-Gil Amelio (CEO of Apple 1996-1997)

Last June, as Incarna hit Hilmar game a presentation at the Game Horizon conference. I suggest all of you interested in what is going on watch this video:

Hilmar Veigar Petursson - CCP Games from Codeworks Ltd on Vimeo.

For those who don't have the 60 minutes to watch it Hilmar gives a great history of EVE Online and where it is going. A lot of it focuses on thier 'Carbon' engine and using it in EVE and World of Darkness. There is a mention that some things don't make sense in EVE but are implemented since they can be capitalized across the portfolio of games (i.e. World of Darkness). It is a very optimistic view of CCP where EVE is but one of three AAA products of CCP. CCP is a brand, it is an experience, it is the difference between getting coffee from McDonalds, and getting coffee from Starbucks. You come for the spaceships, you stay for the Monocles!

Compare this to the most recent interview with Hilmar in Eurogamer:http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-10-21-eurogamer-interviews-ccps-hilmar-petursson-interview

Probably the most important part is the end...

Hilmar Pétursson: We are back in the spaceship business.

As a player who pays real $$ for my subscription I feel that each month I am investing in EVE. Nearly three years of $15 per months x two accounts is quite an investment. After Incarna I felt like I was holding 2002 Nortel stock. After this past week I feel that I may be holding 1997 Apple stock.

Question remains however, is CCP all rowing in the same direction? When Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 the first thing he did was kill off dozens, hundreds of faltering products. To be an Apple developer at Steve Jobs' first developer conference was a painful event. But by cutting the crap and focusing on delivering what it's customers wanted Apple turned around and is now the most valuable company in the world. Not everything is perfect. DUST 514 should be on the PC, not the console. However that is more due to contractual obligations I suspect then anything else. Otherwise, based upon the recent devblogs, it seems that CCP is finally heading in the right direction.

I suspect based upon the massively article things are pretty chaotic at ccp. Insiders report that "All prior release planning is basically in the trash," and "also realise that people have heard too much bullshit". Development seems to be focused on easy wins for FIS that will make players happy. About time!

Not surprisingly there is a lot of resistance from management at CCP. Attitudes like "and say we have just hit a bump because some bad players refuse to see the awesomeness of our vision. We're told that it is not our fault." are toxic and completely contrary to the attitude needed for CCP to return. It seems that the CEO is on message however. With luck the rest of management will either come onside, or be replaced. Vikings were great rowers... they rowed across the Atlantic to settle in Labrador. I am sure they will come around.

Now back to shooting stuff...

Okay... I am Excited About the New Ship Class

2011-10-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Battlecruiser Definition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Battlecruisers (also rendered as battle cruiser in some sources) were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship. They were similar in size and cost to a battleship, but while they typically used the same large-calibre main armament as a battleship, battlecruisers sacrificed armour protection in exchange for speed.

I have always disliked the naming of the battlecruiser class in EVE. A battlecruiser traditionally differs from a cruiser, not in the number of guns, but rather in their calibre. Basically a battleship with less armour and more speed. The most famous Battlecruiser being the HMS Hood that was destroyed spectacularly by the Bismark. In EVE battlecruisers are more like heavy cruisers. Less maneuverable but sporting more guns and heavier armour.

At present the closest thing we have to a real battle-cruiser is a nano+shield fit Minmattar BS like a nano-phoon or a nano-tempest. Great ships to fly but not really able to deliver on their promise. Fortunately CCP has remedied this with a new tier-3 battlecruiser designed not to fit medium guns, but rather large ones. Stats aren't in yet but these ships should have EHP significantly less than a normal BS, be faster, and deliver similar damage. Should be awesome. :)

The only problem I see with this is that I feel that large guns are a bit underpowered. With only about 30% more dps per gun then a medium gun, they will be hard pressed to make this new BC tier out damage the tier-2 BCs. Which, considering that they will have significant penalties in tracking relative to the medium gun equiped ships, they will have to do. Would it be game breaking to also give large guns a 20% DPS boost while doing this?

Between this and the other announcements CCP really seems to be back in to the game of EVE.

Awesome People CCP Laid Off - Idiots They Kept

2011-10-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

To see if a given CCP employee is laid off go to their Bio page on the CCP website.

Here is the page of an idiot they should have fired: CCP Zulu

Here is the page of a guy they really should have tried to keep: CCP Valar

By the looks of it if you Icelandic, and responsible for non-stop mistakes and missteps then you stay. If you can speak English, and communicate with the player base in ways that help players perceptions of CCP and EVE Online, you get the axe.

The hardest hit team seems to be the community teams. CCP Fallout, CCP Pann, CCP Zymurgist, CCP Hammer and others. I can sort of understand this if the bosses at CCP blame the community team for not handling the player base well enough that we were willing to swallow the Santorum that was Incarna. Unfortunately it was not their fault rather the producers of the stuff that were the problem. Blaming the community team is rather pathetic.

So of the technical teams who was cut? This is even more troubling. CCP Valar has been running one of the most difficult and complicated SQL Server installs on the planet. He will be impossible to replace ever. CCP Redundancy has literally been with the game since near the beginning and appears to have been the key guy working on EVE quality control. But of course bugs are not a problem within EVE. CCP Sreegs is also on the list. Best presenter during the fanfest, actually trying to do something to fix the serious security issues with EVE. I guess with him gone botters can rejoice. I am sure the Goons are going to have an issue with this.

The very most shocking thing however is the people who are staying. CCP Zulu is the real standout of being a disaster of a game designer. Whether it be his ideas for capital ships or
his near company ending handling of the bad PR around Incarna. This guy should have been the first to go.

As for the CEO... that is a tough question. I assume that CCP has a board of directors. For those who don't know, and this includes most board members of corporations, the board of directors has one, and only one job. To fire the CEO if need be. Personally I think he had better come up with a better plan then his second face-saving apology to the customers during his tenure.

TL;DR; - Good guys fired, idiots kept.

Incarna (Walking in Stations) is Officially Dead + Life Stages of a Tech Company

2011-10-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, not officially, but now that CCP has all but abandoned World of Darkness, the main motivation for developing the NEX store, the graphics engine behind Incarna, and the jobs of 20% of the CCP workforce (about 100 people) is gone. What the player base wanted the player base got. Incarna is dead. Make no mistake, we will not see establishments nor any other walking in stations beyond the 3 additional captains quarters for the foreseeable future.

If you have been involved in IT as long as I have (pre dot-com boom to present) none of this is surprising. There is a very common life-span for most tech companies.

1. Founding - An innovative idea leads to the development of an innovative product.
2. Exponential Growth - As the product becomes popular growth and revenue doubles yearly or better
3. Executives Take Credit - The founder and other execs take credit for their awesome achievement ignoring that it was purely dumb luck and some timing that separates them from failed competition
4. Over-expansion - Knowing that they are fundamentally better then other companies the exponentially grow their workforce.
5. Disappointing Revenue - Ultimately revenue stops growing exponentially, while the workforce continues to grow at a ever increasing rate.
6. Arrogance - The executives, not understanding what has changed to stop exponential growth, continue to promise more and more while the company delivers less and less. Hope springs eternal at this point.
7. Failure - Company looses money, executives laid off with small golden parachute, workers screwed.
8. Dissolution or Continue as smaller company - says it all.

All tech companies seem to follow this. Some very large ones (I.B.M., Microsoft) sort of hit a a steady state that is still large for phase 8. Some even go through the cycle multiple times (Apple - currently starting phase 5 having gone from phase 8 to phase 2 around 1997). CCP seems to have finally hit phase 7.

All that is left is to ponder, will CCP be gone in a year? or will they continue to operate as a smaller entity? There is an outside chance of starting over at phase 2 once everything has crashed.

What would be ideal, is not a rebirth of CCP, but rather for them to understand that they need to operate as a smaller company, live within their means... and try and achieve excellence in the one thing that they have going for them.... EVE Online. The very worst thing that could possible happen is for Dust 514 to be a overnight hit moving CCP back to phase 2, generate $50 million in revenue overshadowing EVE Online only to collapse a year later leaving a broken company.

On a side note I will say to any of my readers who are laid off by CCP, life goes on. Don't take being laid-off as a personal failure, rather just consider it an opportunity for a new beginning. I myself have been laid-off several times. Once two weeks before my first child was born. As difficult as it was each time I have always found a better job in the end. May you all find happiness in your future endeavors.

SPIN BABY SPIN !

2011-10-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

I am so happy... I may never leave station again

Three Great Blogs + an Honourable Mention

2011-10-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

One thing about blogging about EVE is that I spend a lot of time reading other EVE blogs looking for new ideas. A good blog not only entertains, but provides thoughtful insight into some aspect of the game. Some blogs are more of a public diary, and I am okay with that, I just prefer blogs that have useful information in them. Sometimes I personally have succeeded in writing good stuff, other times I fall back down into either the public diary model, or worse, political junkie model.

Soon after I started blogging three new blogs cropped up that I feel are the best of the best. Not only do they provide excellent information, but they are well written and interesting to read. I highly recommend these to anyone who is following scram web.

1. The Altruist: As expected a blog from the headmaster of Agony's PVP University, contains valuable and accurate information for readers. The 'Know Your Enemy' series in particular is very well researched and is the best guide to PvP ships in existence. Any PvPer is well advised to give these articles a detailed read.

2. The FNG: This blog covers the EVE experience for a new player very well. The author started blogging soon after his character was created and set on a path of learning PvP and becoming a pirate. Concentrating primarily on the Punisher frigate at first, he shares his experience heading down this path. Oh, and his posts quote from Douglas Adams which is pure win.

3. Flight Of Dragons: How many times are new players told to just buy 20 T1 frigates and loose them to learn the ropes of PvP. Until now I am not sure anyone ever actually took this advice literally. Taurean Eltanin did and blogged about it. He provides a detailed AAR of each fight with those 20 frigates, and ships afterwords. At first he is clearly a noob. But after a few fights his technique improves and by the end of it he is an accomplished pirate with the Tuskers. After the 20 Punishers he goes on to more powerful ships, continuing to do an excellent AAR for each fight evaluating himself. A great inspiration, and a great resource for any capsuleer.

Honourable Mention
I thought I would add one more blog that is only on it's second post but shows promise. The Intercepted is another blog from an new-to-Agony member. His article on being an FC was great and shows real promise for the future. I hope he keeps it up.

Anyways, thanks to the above bloggers for the great reads. I hope you all continue your efforts. With each new blog post the EVE community becomes stronger and stronger. It is the strength of the community that makes an MMO, and the EVE community is probably the strongest of them all. (So strong that CCP's CEO is humbled by it)

The

Death of Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

It is with great sadness that I learn that Steve Jobs has passed. If you don't think that this is important just imagine the state of the computer industry if he never was....

Years later for a personal computer
Years later for a GUI
Lousy portable music players
Lousy smart phone interfaces
General lack of design philosophy in computers

EVE Missions - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love a good agent (especially the ones that say Y'aar)

2011-09-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

As has been stated on this blog I have turned into a mission runner. Some might find it hard to believe that I would sink so low (myself included) but it has proved to exceed my very low expectations. Some aspects of mission running are awesome. If you like blowing up spaceships, missions certainly provide a volume approach to the act. At times, (say the Angels Extravaganza Bonus Room in a BS that can't really tank it) it can be very intense. At other times you wonder why you are paying $15 a month for this crap. Lets first cover the high points of missions:

The Good - Pirate Epic Arc Fun :)
If you haven't already tried the pirate epic arcs, then you really should. For once CCP actually implemented the feature intelligently. I am not going to bore you with the details of the missions, for that check out here and here for excellent guides.

First and foremost, these missions are actually fun. The mission text is better then the usual level 4 mission. The multiple choices make them feel a little less scripted. I really have to give CCP credit for making it so that you can do these Angel/Guristas missions using your empire faction standings. the rewards for the missions, especially the Angel Sound one, are very good. Between the two major item rewards, bounties and nice mission rewards, each arc should net in the neighborhood of 300 million isk for a few hours work. Personally I felt the missions themselves could be a bit harder, both my Jaguar and my Dramiel were able to make short work of the targets.

However what makes the missions challenging, and fun, is that they involve running around some very busy regions of 0.0 NPC space. I had to dodge three gate-camps, one of which was well run, in order to compete both arcs. The Angel mission, being in Curse, runs through some near perma-camped systems. The Guristas missions in Venal were not so heavily camped, but times change and space that is one-day empty can have a 200 man gate-camp the next day.

In addition to the gate-camps the locals are definitely interested in scanning you down and hunting you to extinction. While doting the Guristas arc, Sister's Combat Probes were seen a couple of times. Fortunately I was able to complete the mission before being dropped upon.

The biggest downside to the pirate arc missions is that you can only run them once every 3 months. This, plus there are only two arcs, one for the Angels and one for the Guristas. If they had another arc for each of the pirate factions that would have provided a lot more play-time. Unfortunatly CCP tends to forget about features as soon as they go live, so these two are probably all the arcs that we will see :(

While I did the Angel Sound Arc in a dual-prop Jaguar, I found that the following Dramiel to be pretty much a perfect ship for doing these. It is a little expensive (especially with the faction bling) but at less than 1/3 the rewards for the mission, a good investment:

[Dramiel, Mission Dram]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

200mm AutoCannon II, EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Gremlin Rocket

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

Hobgoblin II x3
Hobgoblin II x1

The Bad - Empire Level 4 Mission Running
It seems that throughout my entire EVE career Level 4 mission running has been the most loved by empire/hated by everyone else activity. In short, Level 4 missions are what EVE would be if it was a single player game. You are given a seemingly impossible task (take out 10 enemy BS + 40 support ships solo) and, through skill or just general personal brilliance, you succeed. Of course it does not really take much skill beyond finding Eve Survival. Thanks to lousy circa 2004 NPC AI, and a near total lack of variation in missions, it is surprisingly easy to take out an entire enemy fleet solo. Rather the challenge seems to be maximizing the ISK/hour ratio.

The missions are not without their challenges. I remember fondly managing the cap and shields of my Maelstrom keeping both in the Max recharge range to successfully tank Angel Extravaganza. Since the missions are invariably one vs a whole army, this can lead to certain challenges. However what frustrates me is the repetition. Over the last month these are the Level 4 missions that I have done:

The Assault - 3 times
The Modus Headhunters - 4 times
Recon (1,2,3) - 5 times
Angel Extravaganza - 4 times
Damsel in Distress - 7 times
Stop the Thief - 4 times
Pirate Invasion - 2 times
Smuggler Interception - 5 times
Massive Attack - 2 times
The Score - 1 times
Cargo Delivery - 4 times
Rigth Hand of Zazzmatazz - 2 times
Intercept the Saboteurs - 3 times
Duo of Death - 2 times

Notice something.... that is all of the level 4 missions that they have. For reasons having to do with protecting faction standing, and refusing to waste time salvaging drones, the above list of 15 or so missions is all that there is. Understand this... most of the 300,000 or so players of EVE spend most of their time doing the same bloody 15 missions. I understand there are a few more missions from other agents, and I may have missed a couple, but this is pretty messed up. How much work is it for CCP to develop a mission? Considering the 5+ years they have been working on these, and the tens of millions of $$ that have been paid by active accounts running primarily doing missions, there should be a heck of a lot more then this.

So what to do?
The solution for Toterra, amazingly enough, is to just have it all. Toterra is now running missions in 0.0. Thanks to the pirate arcs providing a 37% boost to faction standings, I could access level 2 Guristas agents, which allowed me to quickly grind up in a day or two so that I could run Level 4 missions. Not bad :). Additionally, the missions are much more profitable thanks to their LP. I am no expert on the mechanics of LP reward sizes but where I was usually getting 5000 minmattar LP per level 4 mission, I am now getting 10,000 Guristas LP per level 4 mission. Multiply this by the far more lucrative LP store (Crystal Implants anyone) and the money is actually quite nice. I can avoid doing missions for empire factions easily enough and still make over 50 million ISK/hour.

But what makes it really good is that the missions are actually interesting. Not in the sense that the missions themselves are interesting, but because this is 0.0 other players are a distinct worry. Instead of lumbering along in a Maelstrom, I am racing around in an Ishkur, Daredevil or a Dramiel. Yes, these ships can do many level 4 missions. Just watch out for webs and sister probes.

The return of Ship Spinning...

2011-09-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

fixing some things and moving forward

FINALLY! Hopefully they won't kill the GPU with this one.

And it also looks like they are fixing turret icons and changing the cyno effect. Things are looking up :)

Is pirates the best race in Eve?

2011-09-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

While checking out the new forums I noticed the following question in the EVE Trial Citizens Q&A forum. Is pirates the best race in Eve? Judging by the numerous responses to this possible troll question... this is a confusing topic.

So what is a pirate in EVE?

Their are two answers, one that a new player would give, and one that an experienced player would give.

New Players: For a new player a Pirate is a rat from a 'Pirate' NPC faction. Some of these like the Guristas have a back-story consistent with piracy. Others, like the Sansha, not so much but are still referred to as pirates by the game. In general players start by clearing the spacelanes of these threats to all that is good in the universe. Some players desire to join up with one of these factions, only to be thwarted by the discovery that the agents are out in 0.0 (oh noes doesn't that equate to instant death) and the lack of any real ability to join forces with these red crosses.

Non-new players: For a non-new player these red crosses that we shoot at are not pirates. They are simply resources to be extracted, effectively asteroids that shoot back a little while being farmed. The truly ridiculous amount of carnage that even a single capsuleer can cause to even a massive Lv4 mission sized pirate fleet defies a RolePlaying explanation. Rather, for a player who has had a few months of game time, or even just a couple non-consensual PvP experiences, a pirate is another player that attempts to engage in non-consensual PvP. To be considered 'piracy' this PvP must take place in either low-sec or possibly as a suicide gank in empire space, and not part of a war-dec or a militia. Oddly enough PvP in 0.0 is usually not considered piracy. A player doing piracy will invariably suffer sec status hits and will usually be unable to even enter hi-sec without being shot at immediately. Often the trademark of a real pirate is the ransom demand. In an attempt to recover some of the cost of their destructive PvP activities a true pirate is more concerned about income from PvP then their killboard efficiency. Like the real pirates of old... EVE pirates do not fly the expensive and flashy ships, rather they fly efficient ships for their purposes.

As I once advised some new players who were ratting in a belt when I pounded in and blew them away, when there is another player on the field... the NPC ships, no matter how many or how large, are not the real threat anymore. Just because the pirate is in a Rifter and you are blowing up NPC Cynabals and Macharials means nothing. That pirate in the Rifter is the danger.

So is pirates the best race? Sort of a meaningless question. Is piracy the best thing to be doing then the answer is, like most things, it depends. Toterra tried the pirate life briefly and found it frustrating taking a major sec-status hit. However pirates do seem to have among the higest ration of doing that most desirable EVE PvP activity, small gang warfare so I understand the attraction. Maybe in some future expansion CCP will get it right and make piracy an easier activity to get into. We can only hope.

TL;DR - Pirates are players, not NPC ships.

The Mitani and the CSM Realize They Have Been Played

2011-09-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

First off, an apology for this negative anti-CCP article. Since monoclegate I have tried to avoid using this blog to bitch about negative things... but I just can't stop (sort of like I can't stop playing EVE).

I wrote a while back during the follow up to monoclegate that I felt that the Mitanni had done a marvelous job as CCPs public relations manager. The outcome of the summit, especially the video interview, brilliantly defused what for CCP was a potentially company ending catastrophe.

Now The Mitanni, and the rest of the CSM, realize that they were played. The issue... the minutes from that very summit. It appears that CCP and the CSM are at odds as to the contents of the minutes. Whatever 'accord' between the CSM and CCP appears to have broken down.

This is very discouraging. I had quit EVE over the issue of the door and the crap that was Incarna (yes I know I am back.... but that is another story). Every EVE player is hoping for one thing.. for CCP to realize just how good the game they have accidentally produced is, and how great they could make it if they just gave it a chance. Instead all we hear from CCP is how great some new game-breaking features like the NEX store are, how cool their console game is going to be because it interacts with the EVE players, and then a bunch of broken promises about EVE development.

I don't blame the CSM for trying to work with CCP. Many of them campaigned on taking a cooperative approach with CCP to prevent the breakdown that occurred with CSM 5. But now they realize that CSM 6 has been played. CCP used them for PR and now feels that they can be ignored since they have binding NDAs that prevent them from saying anything that CCP does not want them to say.

Edit: And the Mitanni has now declared war... The mittani declares war. On one hand you have CCP armed with the threat of banning a character and an NDA .... on the other hand you have a retired lawyer with a massive ego and who has a powerful influence over 7000 (goonswarm) accounts and entrenched himself into the gaming media (columnist at ten ton hammer).

In the spirit of the protest here are links to gaming magazine websites that are covering this (basically they all are)..

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ccp-accused-running-eve-online-ground
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-05-eve-csm-chairman-breaks-the-peace – This site scooped the story, and caused all this.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/05/eve-online-stellar-council-head-hits-out-at-ccp PCgamer
http://gamers.5starhot.info/news-eve-csm-chair-mittani-breaks-the-peace GamerZone.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/06/eves-csm-fight-back-and-some-thoughtsRock Paper Shotgun- This one is particularly good. Get it everywhere.
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/eve-online/1192611p1.html
http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/news/eve-online-csm-chairman-takes-aim-at-ccp

Edit2: And another bang on commentary from former CCP Game Designer and current CSM representative Seleen

Wardecs and Eve Who

2011-09-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

The carebear corp I am in was wardec'ed. One of the first things a corp should do when wardec'ed is to get a member list. Adding the members to your contact list means you can see who is online and who is not. Also allows the use of locator agents to find out where they are at any moment. In the past I would use battleclinic and look at kills/losses. This usually got most of the members but not quite all.

However last night I found this... http://evewho.com/

Fracken brilliant.

Blog Banter: Arena

2011-08-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

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.

NO

2011-07-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

So that was the result from the Reykjavik. No to non-vanity microtransactions :). Also, no to removing the 'Door' and returning to the old station screen :(.

I am not sure why it took two days of negotiations, and another day of futzing around, to say all of this. I assume most of that time was Mittens giving free, and obviously much needed, advice about how to handle PR in the future.

Will EVE players come back?
Some will, others won't. My guess is about a 10% loss of subscribers by the end of the summer. Far less then if they had continued on their previous communication strategy.

What did EVE Players Get from all this
CCP should be now scared out of their minds of the players. If it weren't for the CSM doing all of their PR for them, they would be finished at this point. Considering their precarious financial state, A major drop in revenue would kill them dead.

Aside from that EVE players did not get very much not much. No replacement anytime soon for the hanger. No commitment to work on the long neglected backlog. No commitment to pull resources from vaporware to work on EVE. No changes to NeX store prices. All we really got was a reaffirmation of what they had said before the 'Fearless' scandal and the CEO letter.

Who benefited the most from this
The Mittani, and to a much lesser extent, the CSM. He saved their buts... big time. However I am not sure that the CSM, even led by the politically savvy Mittani, can bail them out through many more incompetent actions.

What about Toterra??
As long as we don't have the old station environment, or at least a new one that works on my computer, I can't actually play. I would love to, and I have tried (heck I am on tonight), but it just doesn't work very well. Expect a thorough review of Perpetuum soon, the good (obvious EVE copy) and the not so good (no spaceships).

CCP Zulu: What he should have said

2011-06-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

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%

2011-06-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-28T07:12:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

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!)

2011-06-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2011-06-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Unannounced Jump Bridge Nerf!

2011-05-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

We all have heard about the planned nerf to jump bridged. But come-on CCP. Why have you also moved POS thousands of KM from the moon warp-in point!

New patch is totally bugged. I want a refund. CCP please remove developers from messing with code they don't understand and give them camera ships to broadcast the tournament.

No Coverage for Alliance Tournament Pre-lims -- WTF CCP

2011-05-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

I had not posted about this since I assumed that CCP would see the light as they did with the banning rule. Turns out I was wrong. As most of you know this year's Alliance tournament is having neither video nor audio for the preliminary rounds. While I sort of understand the logic behind the reasoning it is

STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID
STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID
STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID
STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID

I invite all of my readers to complain on the following thread :
AT9 Qualifier coverage - a letter of disappointment
To quote:This is a community event to which the community was not invited.

Somebody should be fired!

Edit:
To see what is being missed here is WI killing the goons (PL Alt corp)

I-RED vs Nulli

BACON vs NC

Obsidian Front vs Capital Punishment

Taking the nap-train back to 0.0

2011-05-24T05:32:00.000-07:00

After giving up on pirating I recently joined a corp in the Important Internet Spaceship League Alliance, BDEAL for short. It is quite a change from my days in Agony. Holding space and having blues can actually make for fun times. Since BDEAL is part of the ClusterFuck coalition which is Allied with the Norther Coalition, 0.0 has suddenly changed from a dangerous place to one where I could Jump-bridge across all of in a mater of minutes. Each system being filled up with a swarm of blue.

One aspect of being part of this huge nap-train is that I have been on many fleets led by many different kinds of FCs. Most notably I was in a fleet led by, and mostly populated by the Goons.

In Agony comms discipline is king. As anyone who has attended one of their classes will know they have a very structured way of calling intel, ordering warps, calling e-war and generally running a fleet. Even is so-called de-centralized gangs, conversation is kept under control and discipline is respected. In short and Agony fleet is the exact opposite of a goon fleet.

The goons have a well deserved reputation for blabbing on and on about body parts and other NSFW topics. Members routinely ridicule other members and discipline is non-existent. Even the FC will go on and on about special snowflakes and what not. If I had to guess maybe 5% of comms is dedicated to EVE, the rest is just the something awful forums put to voice.

Interestingly enough this goon-fleet started to track and be tracked by an Agony gang. Agony is now allied with NC-dot and is causing a mess in the Venal region. In short Agony was the enemy. I had earlier pop'ed one of their Cyno-alts earlier in an unrelated encounter, and was mildly amused as my friends were being tracked by the Goon scouts.

The main concern for the goons was a fear that the Agony fleet was going to light a cyno and titan bridge a NC-dot fleet on top of us. Although this is something Agony does rarely, it has happened and their new friends may helping them. After bumping along for a few systems it seemed (through the above mentioned chatter about womans body parts) that we were jumping into them.

So how did the drunken, undisciplined, lewd and rude Goon fleet perform against a disciplined Agony fleet??? Agony was obliterated. A few ships got away, but three BC and a recon were destroyed.

The fight was over as soon as it started. The goons (and BDEAL) outnumbered agony at least 3-1. Agony should have never pressed the engagement on those terms.

The interesting thing for me was the way the goons operated. Although their lack of discipline was apparent, what was also apparent was why they are such an effective fighting force in New Eden.

1. Follow orders: When the FC wanted someone to do something... they did it. Ask someone to check the next system.. and they did. If not they get ridiculed so they do it right the next time
2. Structured Fleet Management: Although they seem to have their own odd terminology for it (magic snowflake or something) they set up the watch list and the fleet correctly to maximize bonuses and keep vulnerable ships repped.
3. Excellent Scouting: Through alts and blues they knew exactly where the agony fleet was at all times and knew it's composition
4. Big Picture: The goon FC was probably right. Agony should have had a cyno and a drop ready from their allies. Goons do that all the time and expect it. The goons know when and how to use their allies.
5. Aggressive: The goons will enter a fight irregardless of the consequences. The FC figured we were going to be wiped out when we engaged. Turns out he was wrong. EVE PvP does not really reward cowardice.

So in short, everything you have ever heard about the goons is true.... they are lewd, crude, undisciplined, goofing off most of the time and if you underestimate them.... you are dead.

New Service - Rapture Insurance

2011-05-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

As we all know the Rapture will occur sometime this coming weekend. This exciting event will mean the good Christian's of the earth will be zapped up to spend eternity in gods grace. Those who don't believe will be left behind.

So for those who are going up to heaven they should be worried about their EVE account. The many ships, data-cores, isk ... what to do with it. You don't want to come back down to Earth along with Jesus only to find your ships stuck in a station that you no longer have access to.

Fortunately for you there is a great service. Me :)

I unfortunately am not a christian and do not believe that Jesus will save me. This, plus a bunch of bad things I have done over the years, guarantees me a place among the 'left behind'. :(

This leaves me in the ideal place to save your stuff.

So simply contract all your valuable EVE stuff to me (for 0 isk)and I will be sure to take good care of it. You can go in peace knowing that your favorite faction fit Tengu will not be stuck in an enemy station.

As a member of the clusterfuck, Toterra has access to most of NC/Goon/CF/Test space (almost all of 0.0), so this is particularly useful for good Christians in those alliances. Simply leave your stuff where it is and contract it to me. I will promise to get the stuff to empire space by the time you return.

It is VERY important that you not waste until the last moment. Scholars are in disagreement as to the exact time of the Rapture. Will it occur everywhere at once, or will it follow the the sun. DON'T take the risk! You don't want to be about to confirm the contract and then be zapped up to space just before submitting.

How can you be sure that I will follow through?

Simple. If all of my christian fundamentalists friends are zapped up to heaven this weekend I will have to come the conclusion that they are in fact right. I will see the light so to speak. It may be too late but I will do what I can to save my soul. One thing will certainly be to make sure that I fulfill my obligations to those Christians that trusted me.

So you have nothing to loose, contract me your T3/faction stuff today for 0 isk, and know that when you return to earth they will be happily sitting in Jita good as new.

<not for CCP to read>
As a bonus service just email me your account info (username and password) and I will make sure your skill queue is kept up to date.
</not for CCP to read>

Tournament Setups :Tier - 1 REVENGE

2011-04-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

The following shield BC team represents a solid, not particularly expensive setup that most alliances should have no difficulty making full use of. Lacking the bling T2 and faction ships (only the logistics cruiser is not T1), this setup takes advantage of the now 10 point cost of the Tier-1 BC. The end result is a very, very high damage, reasonably fast and reasonably inexpensive team. What it lacks in resiliency it makes up with plenty of e-war and massive total DPS!

30 points - 3 Cyclone
30 points - 3 Ferox
20 points - 2 Brutix
8 Points - 1 Bellicose (what the heck is that doing here)
12 Points - 1 Scimitar
----------------------
100 points 10 ships

[Cyclone, shield BC]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Overdrive Injector System II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x3
Hobgoblin II x2

This puppy can lay out a total of 608 dps with drones and without overheating. It can go over 1750 m/s with the squad bonuses, 2500m/s overheated. And it still has room for an e-war module and a stasis webifier.

[Ferox, Shield BC]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I

Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5

Not quite as hard hitting as the other two battlecruisers the Ferox makes up for it with a gang link and fits two e-war modules. Even then it can do 450 DPS. Each Ferox should have a different gang link. One Rapid Deployment and one shield Harmonizing link. The third link can be something to improve e-war, improve sensor strength, or another shield link.

[Brutix, Shield BC]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Reactor Control Unit II

Large Shield Extender II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Invulnerability Field II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I

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
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
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x5

A Brutix is well named as it pretty much face-rapes the target. When shield tanked this ship can output an astonighing 860 DPS. Once two of these bad boys get their hands on the target, it is game over.

[Bellicose, Shield Belicose]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Medium Diminishing Power System Drain I
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x3
Hobgoblin II x2

Guaranteed to make the team an instant favourite with the commentators the Belicose actually has a purpose in all this. Unlike the faster stabber or the tougher Rupture, the Belicose can fit 4 medium modules giving it a proper shield tank and a stasis webifier. The Belicose basically acts as a heavy tackler able to go 3800 m/s overheated it quickly gets to a target and slows it down. Unlike a frigate however it has sufficient buffer tank to give time for logistics to rep.

How to fly

The basic idea for this setup is to go from enemy ship to enemy ship and engage at point blank range. The Bellicose is the main first tackle, slowing even fast targets down enough for the Cyclones to catch up. Once a target is pinned the belicose moves on to the next target while the big guns hit it. Total DPS is nearly 6000, more then enough to overwhelm the toughest tanks. Meanwhile a total of 9 sensor dampers with targeting range scripts and 3 tracking disruptors helps to mitigate enemy DPS, or force them to engage at close range as well.

Qualifying Round

This setup adjusts easily for the qualifying round. Just go with the Minmattar ships and you are golden.

30 points - 3 Cyclone
8 Points - 1 Bellicose (what the heck is that doing here)
12 Points - 1 Scimitar

----------------------
50 points 5 ships

Tournament Setups : Machariel Bling Team

2011-04-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

And now for something completely different.... All of my previous setups have concentrated on medium sized weapons to deliver the damage. Medium weapons have great tracking compared to their BS counterparts. However BS can still be more than viable. The following rather bling setup uses 3 Macharials for the primary DPS. Logistics is handled by a nearly maxed out Basilisk and a Vulture. 3 Destroyers and an interdictor fill out the remaining 9 points.

63 points - 3 Macharials
16 points - 1 Vulture
12 points - 1 Basilisk
6 points - 3 Cormorant
3 points - 1 Sabre
----------------------
100 points 9 ships

[Machariel, Nano-Mach]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II

Quad LiF Fueled I Booster Rockets
Large Shield Extender II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range
Invulnerability Field II

800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
Heavy Energy Neutralizer II

Large Core Defence Field Extender I
Large Core Defence Field Extender I
Large Core Defence Field Extender I

Ogre II x3
Hammerhead II x2

What more needs to be said.... take 2 hurricanes and strap them together. Over 1200 DPS, Fast, able to shoot across the arena, the Macharial is worth everyone of the 21 points and billion isk cost. I suggest at least one if not two Macharials fit Shield logistics drones and stay in range of the logi ship.

[Vulture, Logi Boost Vulture]
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II

Command Processor I
10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Extender II
Phased Muon ECCM Caster I
Conjunctive Gravimetric ECCM Scanning Array I
Phased Muon ECCM Caster I

Siege Warfare Link - Active Shielding
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Efficiency
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing
Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment
Large 'Regard' I Power Projector
Large 'Regard' I Power Projector
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x5

No dps, but this ship makes the logistics over 50% as powerful and gives everyone a speed boost to boot. Plus it provides needed power to the logistics.

[Basilisk, Large Rep - 5 Remote Rep]
Damage Control II
Reactor Control Unit II

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Booster II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range

Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large 'Regard' I Power Projector

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x5

Five large shield transporters means that the whole fleet can tank unholy damage even at 70 km of range. The power transfer is to be placed on the Vulture who returns the favour keeping the shield reps humming.

[Cormorant, Cannon Fodder]
Damage Control II

Medium Shield Extender II
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I

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

Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

A thrasher would also be a nice choice, but a Cormerant gives an extra midslot for ewar. This things will die if the enemy focuses on them, but a good logistics pilot might be able to keep them alive. If they get close to the targets then the damage they can do is quite respectable for their 2 point cost.

[Sabre, Team Minmatar Sabre]
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Tracking Speed Disruption
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

Cannon fodder like the Cormerant, but a little bit more punch. Expect to be primaried early on.

How to fly

The goal of this setup is to deliver unholy DPS on the target (4000 DPS) from the 3 battleships. Logistics is also pretty much maxed out to give these expensive but somewhat fragile boats plenty of survivability. The BS should spread out a bit so that the enemy can not get high transfersal against all three. The small ships fly around either adding to DPS or simply providing an ewar platform.

The real key to this setup is the Basilisk - Vulture synergy. With the two ships exchanging cap, there is no issue powering the 5 large reppers on the Basilisk. Being shield reppers they provide the bonus at the start of the cycle. With the bonuses from the Vulture each ship has a 25% bonus to shield resists giving them both 25 higher shield buffer plus each shield HP from the reppers is 25% more effective. In addition the reppers provide 25% more shield HP per second, yet use no additional cap per second.

The biggest threats a fleet like this has is tracking disruptors. Mitigate this the normal way by minimizing transversal and killing those e-war ships early on.

Preliminary round setups

Drop the Macharials for two similar Vargur maurader, on setup to provide cap to the basilisk. Throw in a cormerant for projected ECCM and you are golden. Should be a good setup.

36 points - 2 Vargur
12 points - 1 Basilisk
2 points - 1 Cormorant
----------------------
50 points 5 ships

Tournament Setups : Armour BC Team

2011-04-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

After covering a few shield tanking teams I thought it would be good to cover an armour tanking one. The following setup is a pretty generic setup using Armour tanked Tier-2 battlecruisers for the main DPS with midslots dedicated to e-war. A Damnation Command ship passes bonuses to all ships plus cap to the Guardian ship. A Vengeance and a Malediction round out the setup with some much needed tackle.

16 points - 1 Damnation
12 points - 1 guardian
39 points - 3 Harbingers
26 points - 2 Hurricanes
4 points - 1 Vengeance
3 points - 1 Malediction
----------------------
100 points 9 ships

[Damnation, Armour]
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
RADAR Backup Array II
RADAR Backup Array II
RADAR Backup Array II

10MN Afterburner II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I

Standard Missile Launcher II, Sabretooth Light Missile
Armored Warfare Link - Damage Control
Large Energy Transfer Array II
Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defense
Large Energy Transfer Array II
Armored Warfare Link - Rapid Repair
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile

Medium Tracking Diagnostic Subroutines I
Medium Inverted Signal Field Projector I

Light Armor Maintenance Bot II x5

Simple strategy for this ship.... stick to the logistics like glue passing it capacitor. Use the ewar on the appropriate enemy ships in conjuction with the other Battlecruisers.

[Harbinger, Armour]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Reactor Control Unit II
Heat Sink II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Conjunctive Radar ECCM Scanning Array I
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I

Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Heavy Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

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

Hammerhead II x5

Scorch is GOD :). Power to the enemy as fast as you can (which for an armour ship isn't very fast), get into optimal and pound away. Each of the BC in the fleet has e-war so work with them to maximize disruption of the enemy weapon systems. Call for reps as needed.

[Hurricane, Armour]
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Tracking Enhancer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Information Warfare Link - Sensor Integrity
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M

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

Hobgoblin II x4
Hammerhead II x1

Fly this the same as the Harbinger. Probably best to get a little close in range however. One cane should have the rapid deployment link, the other should have the sensor integrity link.

[Malediction, Armour]
Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

[empty high slot]
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Light tackle, grab targets and wait for the Vengence to take over then go on to the next. Trying to stay alive is the name of the game.

[Vengeance, armour]
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

Relatively heavy tackle. Take over tackle from the Malediction. A 12k+ EHP tank makes this a tough cookie, especially against Warrior II drones. Call for reps as soon as you take damage ... you are going to need it.

[Guardian]
... will cover logistics in a future article.

How To Fly

This is a pretty straightforward team. Combining fairly good DPS with a tough tank and lots of non-bonused e-war modules. Fly your 5 BC together in a blob. If going against another short range setup just have a nice furr-ball. If going against a longer range setup use the tacklers to stop targets giving time for the BC to catch up. In general place the tracking disruption on turret ships (duh!) and sensor dampers on the enemy logistics and long range setups to keep the enemy in close. The biggest e-war threats to this setup is probably tracking disruptors since most the the DPS comes from turrets. If you see an arbi, sentinel or a curse on the field... they should be primaried. Otherwise go after enemy logistics first and then through their DPS.

One nice thing about this setup is you are probably already flying this in normal BC gangs. As a result your FC should have a pretty good idea of the setup's strengths and weaknesses and how to use them. This team will do well against most other close range setups. It will struggle with long range setups (like Missile S.P.A.M.) but through the use of sensor dampers with range scripts + effective use of tackle it should do okay if well piloted.

Preliminary round setup
12 points - 1 Oneiros
13 points - 1 Hurricane
20 points - 2 Brutix
4 points - 1 Vengeance
----------------------
49 points 9 ships

With less points it makes sense to go with the high damage/lower point value Brutix. Cane should still have the Rapid Deployment link. Get in the enemy's face and kick it hard.

Tournament Setups : Missile S.P.A.M.

2011-04-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

This is a simple, very frequently used and surprisingly effective setup. It is built around Drakes and Tengus sporting a brutal shield tank and long-ranged missiles. Missiles are great in the tournament because tracking disruptor are ineffective against them, they can be swapped for FOF missiles if jammed, and they have great range with 100% hit rate. In past tournaments drakes and Tengus have been the most flown ships for this reason. Both these platforms provide huge tanks, are hard to jam, and easy to fly for many carebear centric corps.

Here is the setup being used in the opening match of AT-8

Here is the setup loosing to a high damage setup:

For my recommendation I go with a bit more purity of just drakes and tengus..As shown by the above match, the lighter ships just don't really add a lot to the whole operation. However the logistics is still a critical ship.

48 points - 3 Tengu (strategic cruiser)
39 points - 3 Drake (tier-2 battlecruiser)
12 points - 1 Basilisk (Logistics Cruiser)
--------------------------------------------
99 points - 7 ships

[Tengu, Spam]
Damage Control II
Reactor Control Unit II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Tengu Defensive - Supplemental Screening
Tengu Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Tengu Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Propulsion - Intercalated Nanofibers

The Tengu is reasonably speedy and does about 500 DPS with 125 km range. With the gang links from the Drake it has 175k EHP! This is not going to go down quickly.

[Drake, Spam - gang link]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Internal Force Field Array I

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Prototype ECCM I Gravimetric Sensor Cluster

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5

The Drake is rightfully known as a brick. It does about 467 DPS albeit at a shorter range then the tengu (around 84 km) and uses drones for some of that damage. By placing a different Siege Warefare link on each Drake the whole gang will benefit from effective shield repping and higher resists

[Basilisk, Basilisk Bait]
or
[Basilisk, Single Rep]

I will discuss the options for logistics in a later post. However for this setup it makes a lot of sense to swap between a 'real' logistics setup and a 'bait' logistics setup.

How To Fly
The basic idea for this setup is to scatter. Ideally keep everyone within the 70km range of the logistics, however the tanks are so tough this is less of an issue then normal. Most short range high damage setups will then have further to fly between targets if they actually start to take out your ships. Try to encourage them to primary the Tengus before the Drakes, keeping the gang bonuses alive.

Focus your damage on the enemy logistics. The total damage from this setup is pretty good but sometimes an enemy logistics ship can tank your damage. If so it is most certainly because they have logistics drones helping them out. If it looks like this is the case then quickly switch to the logistics drones. Pilots who are shooting from a long range should not wait until the drone is dead before switching targets. Once most/all of the drones are down then switch back to the ship and take it out. Once the enemy logistics is down then go after other ships one at a time. Trying to go after tacklers is a good idea since anything to increase the amount of time it takes for the enemy to switch targets is a good thing.

Logistics options for this setup include either a standard Basilisk or one with a powerful active tank to act as a bait ship. Since the DPS ships have very good buffer tanks, logistics is not as important as in some other setups which depend on logistics to keep ships alive.

As mentioned this setup is pretty resistant to E-War. By going with only one race (Caldari) enemy ECM will be spread more thinly. Even so, most of these ships have a naturally high sensor strength so jamming will not come easily. Be sure to pack a couple of rounds of FOF missiles in case of an ECM heavy team. Sensor dampeners are somewhat effective and forcing the ships closer in, but again, these ships have naturally long target ranges so their effectiveness is relatively low. Tracking disruptors are naturally useless.

This setup is light on e-war. If this is a concern for the FC swapping the damage drones to ecm drones may be a good idea. A target painter fits into each Drake (barely with a 3% implant) boosting the primary's signature radius which is critical when trying to take down Scimatars or other small sig radius ships.

Probably the best thing about this setup is the relative ease of use. Unlike the Team Minmattar setup which requires some fancy mistake free flying to keep at optimal, these ship are pretty easy. Fire at the primary and try to keep within the arena bounds. This is an ideal setup for a Carebear alliance for that reason.

Preliminary Round Setup

Scaling this setup down for the 50 point/5 pilot preliminary rounds is a bit of a challenge. Considering the higher logistics ratio for this round, I just don't see these setups being able to actually kill anything. Three Drakes and a logi work out to 51 points so that won't work.

12 points - 1 Basilisk(logistics cruiser)
26 points - 2 Drakes (Tier-2 Battlecruiser)
10 points - 1 Ferox (Tier-1 Battlecruiser)
2 points - 1 cormerant (destroyer)
--------------------------------------------
50 points - 5 ships

To be honest this just isn't going to work all that well. Maybe some of the readers have some suggestions for the comments.

Tournament Setups : Team Minmattar - High Speed Command Ships / Interdictors

2011-04-15T03:19:00.000-07:00

One thing I have noticed from previous tournaments is the number of sheer crap setups being fielded. In an effort to improve the tournament I am going to post about several common and not-so-common setups that are viable for the tournament.

The 'Team Minmattar' setup is a common setup from strong PVP alliances. Most notably, it was used by PL during the AT-7 semi final and during most of AT-8 including the AT-8 final.

The main idea behind this setup is to have both high speed and heavy firepower. The basic setup is as follows:

12 points - 1 Scimitar (logistics cruiser)
16 points - 1 Claymore (fleet command ship)
48 points - 3 Sleipnir (field command ship)
9 points - 3 Sabre (interdictor)
13 points - 1 Hyginn - (combat recon ship)
2 points - 1 thrasher - (destroyer)
--------------------------------------------
100 points - 10 ships

There are lots of possible minor variations here. One or more command ships can be swapped for Lokis. Switching command ships to hurricanes frees up a few points as well for other things. However I feel that the above is the core concept and would work very well. Lets look at some possible fits ...

[Scimatar, Standard Scimatar]
(I will post about logistics ships later)

[Claymore, Tean Minmattar Claymore]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
Co-Processor II
Power Diagnostic System II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Command Processor I

Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Skirmish Warfare Link - Evasive Maneuvers
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x3
Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x2

The above claymore provides a little dps, but mostly it provides gang links to increase the speed, lower signature radius, improve shield resists and increase webifier range. Pilot should have a skirmish warfare mindlink inserted to maximize bonuses to nearly 40% :).

[Sleipnir, Team Minmattar Sleipnir]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Conjunctive Ladar ECCM Scanning Array I

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Medium Proton Smartbomb II

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x3
Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x2

The Sliepnirs are the heavy hitters of this setup. With over 700 dps (overheated) they pack a hell of a punch. On two of the Sliepnirs the Energy neut should be replaced with gang links. One for shield efficiency and the other for sensor integrity. The third one should have a Medium Smartbomb to deal with drones if needed.

[Sabre, Team Minmatar Sabre]
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Tracking Speed Disruption
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

The Sabre is an easy way to get a lot of DPS out of only a few points. With around 1000 DPS between the three of them, these provide a lot of punch and significant tackle / ewar but use up just over half the points of a command ship in total.

[Huginn, Team Minmattar Huginn]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x3
Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x2

Extended range webs + TP and some damage. This ship basically makes sure that the main DPS boats are getting the most out of thier DPS.

[Thrasher, Team Minmattar Thrasher]
Overdrive Injector System II
Gyrostabilizer II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I

Two points left... might as well throw on a bunch more hard hitting DPS. Basically a T1 version of the Sabre, lots of damage for only a few points. No tank but it counts on the opponent wasting time shooting at it when there are other more important ships available. Also great at killing drones and/or enemy tacklers.

How to fly
The basic idea of this setup is to very quickly get into range of the enemy and lay down a boatload of concentrated DPS. Depending on what the enemy has use either high damage RF ammo at close range. Alternatively use barrage to increase range and keep out of the enemy killzone. Using high damage ammo the fleet can deliver close to 4000 mostly selectable damage type DPS, more than enough to overcome enemy logistics. With the claymore bonuses overheated each of these ships should be able to easily go 2800 m/s or higher. This seriously reduces incoming damage from any missiles and it means that the blob can quickly switch from target to target even if they scatter around the arena.

At the beginning of the fight logistics drones are assigned to the Scimitar. With 15 medium and 10 light logistics drones, this should give it pretty good survivability. Care must be taken however to keep in the drone range of the combat ships. The logistics ship itself should probably pulse it's MWD if it has one to get out to about 30 km range and then use the AB to minimize signature radius making it a very hard target to hit with missiles and guns. The bonus from the claymore really helps here. From there the Scimatar should be able to provide excellent sheild reps to the high T2-minmattar resist shields on the DPS ships, and the Huginn. Being shield logistics the repair happens at the beginning of the cycle rather the end so switching reps is easier then for an armour logistics ship. If taking fire it is important for the pilots to overheat their invul fields to maximize logistics reps. I also suggest the logistics ship put it's light shield drones onto the Huginn as that is the most vulnerable key ship.

The Huginn acts a heavy tackler. It either sits with the DPS boats pinning the target down and boosting its signature radius. Alternatively it chases after the secondary target, pinning it down so that the DPS can get to it faster. With the bonus and gang links the web should reach out about 50+ km. Any enemy Dramiel or other tackler will find itself wishing it were somewhere else.

I have placed a sensor dampers with range scripts onto the Claymore and at lease one additional one should be fitted to a sabre. These should be used to either reduce the range of the enemy logistics, forcing their fleet close together, or put against an enemy long-range ship like a heavy missile Tengu, forcing it to close with our fleet. One or two tracking disruptors on the other sabres should provide a little ability to mess with enemy turret ships.

Target selection depends on the FC's feeling of the major threats. I would personally go after TD bonused boats first (curse, arbitrator, sentinel, etc), followed by ECM (rook, blackbird) then logistics saving the DPS boats for last.

The ECCM modules are to mitigate the serious weakness that Minmattar setups traditionally have to ECM boats. One module may not be enough. In the AT-8 final PL apparently added a second ECCM module suspecting correctly that they would face the very ECM heavy Hydra Reloaded team. This worked very well.

Preliminary Round Setup

Scaling this setup down for the 50 point/5 pilot preliminary rounds should be easy.

12 points - 1 Scimitar (logistics cruiser)
32 points - 2 Sleipnir (field command ship)
6 points - 2 Sabre (interdictor)
--------------------------------------------
50 points - 5 ships

In this case we manage to keep over half of the DPS, we just loose the long range webs of the Huginn. In exchange it makes sense to make sure that at least one of the Sleipnirs has a webifier, if not both. Also we end up with only two non-bonused command links, one on each field command ship. This should still work quite well.

Alliance Tournament - Banning

2011-04-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

I had this great post about the new banning rule, however the rule has now been removed. I can understand why. Although the rule could have made for some interesting matches, in general it moved teams towards less innovative setups and also would have sucked for the poor player who was banned. C'est la vie.

Cheapfleet Challenge Winners!

2011-04-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Category Winners:

Best E-War
Winner is ... FNG's Crucifier
I like that this is a really cheap ship that just wreaks havok on an enemy. Two or even three Harbingers/Hurricanes just get totally messed up with this setup.

[Crucifier, Cheapfleet]
Systematic Damage Control
F-90 Positional Signal Amplifier
200mm Reinforced Crystalline Carbonide Plates I

DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I

Gatling Anode Particle Stream I, Multifrequency S
Gatling Anode Particle Stream I, Multifrequency S

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Warrior I x1

Best Tackler
Winner is ... Uma Uma's PoorMan's Zoomboat (Vigil)
You gotta love the speed. And the Dual prop fit is a nice touch. It should be able to keep under the guns of most larger ships.

[Vigil, PoorMan'sZoomboat]
Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure
Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S
150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S
[Heat Sink]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Warrior I x1

Best Gank
Winner is ... Borgel Slydaeus' Incursus
Really the only entry that could be considered for this category. However, getting a cheapfleet frigate over 100 dps + tackle and speed to get in range is pure win.

[Incursus, Cheap Fleet 1]
Small Automated I Carapace Restoration
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Antimatter Charge S

Hobgoblin I x1

Best ship to bring to a fleet
Winner is ... FNG's Crucifier
As a sometime gang leader, this is the sort of ship you love when new players come along. Cheap ship with low skills trashing the effectiveness of up to three enemy ships. Gotta love it!

(see best e-war for the fit)

Best ship for solo work
Winner is ... Zamemee's Old School Punisher
Hard category to judge since so many entries. However with a big buffer tank combined with a good active tank and decent DPS, this is the ship I would place my bets on.

[Punisher, Old school]

Anode Light Ion Particle Cannon I, Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Ion Particle Cannon I, Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Ion Particle Cannon I, Antimatter Charge S
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
200mm Reinforced Crystalline Carbonide Plates I
Small Automated I Carapace Restoration
Radioisotope Adaptive Nano Membrane I

[Empty Rig slot]
[Empty Rig slot]
[Empty Rig slot]

Grand Prize

As for the grand prize ....
It comes down to two ships, the Old School Punisher and the FNG's Crucifier. One ship excels at solo work, the other is exactly the sort of ship that should be brought by new characters to a fleet. Perhaps I should retrack my statements in the past that new players should choose Minmattar.

The Winner is ... FNG's Crucifier
I just like this ship. Super easy to fit. This is the sort of ship that would make a great introduction to faction warfare, or joining up with a pirate gang. Vagabonds and Hurricane's beware, their fleet has a Crucifier.

Congrats to the winners, prizes should have been awarded by now. Thanks to all who participated.

Alliance Tournament IX - Ship Point Changes

2011-04-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

I was just about to consider quitting EVE when along comes the ever exciting Alliance Tournament. WHoooo Hoooo. Personally I consider the Alliance tournament to be a whole lot of fun. Regrettably I have never been able to participate it beyond helping with some training and a lot of Forum Whoring.

This year there are a lot of rule changes, some more controversial than others. In today's post I will look at the changes to points.

Ship Type	Points
	AT 7	AT 8	AT 9
Battleship, Faction	21	21	21
Marauder	19	19	18
Battleship	18	18	18
Black Ops Battleship	18	18	18
Command Ship	16	16	16
Strategic Cruiser	16	16	16
Cruiser, Faction	13	14	14
Heavy Assault Cruiser	15	14	13
Battlecruiser (Tier 2)	13	13	13
Recon Ship	13	13	13
Heavy Interdictor	13	13	13
Logistics Cruiser	12	12	12
Battlecruiser (Tier 1)	11	11	10
Cruiser	11	9	8
Bomber	6	6	6
Electronic Attack Frigate	5	5	5
Frigate, Faction	4	4	4
Assault Frigate	4	4	4
Interdictor	3	3	3
Interceptor	3	3	3
Frigate	3	3	3
Hauler	3	3	3
Destroyer	2	2	2

I have highlighted the changes for AT-9 in RED. As you can see Tier 1 Battlecruisers, Cruisers and HACS have all had their point values lowered. Marauders also have been lowered. Tier-1 BCs are particularly interesting since they are now worth 10 points, the average number of points per ship allowed on a team. Especially with the new (and controversial) banning rule (edit: Banning rule has been removed), a team of Tier-1 BCs would have no one ship worth more than another, and thus no obvious ship to ban. I expect to see lots of Cyclones, Brutix, Ferox and Prophesies being fielded. Also interesting are HACS which are now worth a full two points less then in AT-7. In AT-7 they were almost totally absent due to being worth more than a faction cruiser. In AT-8 they were worth the same but now they are worth less. I expect to see a lot of Ishtars and Vagabonds being fielded. Maybe even an Armour-HAC gang of Zealots. The Cerberus also now makes a viable lighter alternative to the ever present Tengu from AT-8.

Marauders are pretty rare in tournament mainly due to their massive shortcoming of low sensor strength. I am not sure if the one point drop in value is enough to remedy this. Also, with the banning rule in effect, it would be pretty risky to put 18 points into a ship that the other team can simply remove.

CSM 6 - Time Dilation

2011-04-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

First a note to my three readers.... I am not dead... just very very busy with IRL stuff (moving, work, etc). I will get to the cheapfleet challenge prizes soon^TM I promise.

Now that the CSM 6 is underway under the leadership of Chairmen Mau/The Mittani/Mittens they have decided to start doing things. It seems that unlike previous CSMs that tried to operate in the way that CCP intended, the new CSM is planning to completely ignore the normal rules and procedures and try and operate more efficiently. The leadership seems to think the best way to get going is to place and ‘issue spotlight' on Time Dilation being worked on by team gridlock.

What is Time Dilation

I first say Time Dilation mentioned in a dev blog (unable to find link however so it may have been my imagination) and it appears to have been mentioned during fan fest. What it involves is slowing down the order of events in the game during situations of high lag. To the players things would appear to be moving slower, however it would remain consistent. Right now the frustrating thing about high lag fights is that players really don't know what is going on in the system. They might be warping around and jumping out, when on the server it is just waiting for an opportunity to generate their killmail. In other cases the lag is so bad that the client can't ever get a handle on what is happening and players are loosing capitals while seeing nothing more than a black screen. Naturally this has led to a lot of frustration.

Time dilation would slow every event down. As a person looking at the battle things would seem to be moving ridiculously slowly. However. if you recorded your screen and then played it back with a fast forward, it would look normal. Ships would take the usual amount of time to lock. Reppers would take the usual amount of time to repair, ships would move at the normal velocity and guns/missiles would fire at the normal rate.

Under this situation if the lag was such that the server could only process 10% of the requests per second, things would run at 10% of the speed. A ship that took 10 seconds to lock would seem to take 100 seconds. A gun that fired every five seconds would seem to fire every 50 seconds.

What I wonder though is why the CSM is even talking about this, let alone shining a spotlight on it. Clearly some the members of the CSM think that this technique will SOLVE the lag problems. Obviously CCP developers are looking into this very closely already. What concerns me, as a developer, is that the CSM is trying to tell the developers what to do. If the VP on my company came to me and said 'Look Tot, I think we should develop this new report in C++ because it is really fast' I would think he was an idiot. The developers at CCP really don't need, want or benefit from having the CSM dictate how they go about optimizing the code-base.

There are a lot of things that could go wrong with Time Dilation. Here are two of them:
1. From reading dev-blogs a lot of the issues that cause lag are related to locking. When things go under a lot of stress the objects in memory for the servers are getting locked up by other tasks. Time dilation will do nothing to help this and will probably make locking worse since time itself will be locked. Processes will not be allowed to do work because they are waiting for the next second to tick over. Aside from the obvious potential for the whole node freezing up, this could seriously negatively affect performance.

2. In general the load on a server from an online game is equal to the square of the users. With time dilation this will not go away. If a node can handle a fight of say 100 players in real-time without lag, then having 2000 players in one system will mean that time will run 20*20=400 times slower or about 9 seconds per hour. By the time players have shot their artilery twice, we will hit downtime. Hardly a satisfying experience. With 4000 players it becomes 40*40 = 1600 time slower or about 2 seconds per hour! What do you think is going to happen if PL catches 10 Goonswarm Titans in bubbles? If you don't think Goonswarm (or any other alliance in a similar situation) won't bring as many players into the system as it takes to effectively stop time, you are playing a different game than me.

Instead of just implementing Time Dilation, the developers at CCP are instead working on improving their algorithms to get as much speed as possible out of the system as is. It is a painstaking process that does take time, and they may resort to Time Dilation as a last resort, but it is not a solution to all of the lag problems by itself. Rather it is a tool that can handle extreme cases, only if the rest of the system has been brought up to snuff. That is the right way to do it.

So CCP developers, don't listen to the CSM regarding time dilation. Continue to do your jobs as you have been doing and good luck :)

And CSM .... concentrate on your job, dealing with features and the design of EVE. It is okay to stress the issue of lag and the problems it causes, but don't tell developers how to do their jobs. At best you will be ignored.

One day left in the Cheapfleet challenge.

2011-03-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

This is the last day for my cheapfleet challenge. If you want to qualify for prizes please post today. Comments on posted fits also welcome.

Good Luck to all who enter :)

Concerning the CSM Election

2011-03-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

With the CSM election well underway it has now come time for me to select my two votes. Going into the election the following candidates showed the most promise IMHO.

Seleen : Past and present CEO of the MC and former game designer for CCP
Roc Weiler : Long time blogger and developer of Capsuleer.
Trebor Daehdoow : Long time CSM member, Developer of video games in the 80s, Developer of the Prioritized Crowdsourcing system.
The Mitanni : Spymaster, CEO of the Goons, Ten-Ton-Hammer blogger, part-time CCP spokesperson.

All four of these candidates I believe would make excellent CSM representatives, but who to vote for.

Considering Seleen, as a past developer for CCP he has already had a real chance to make changes to the game. I know that he is frustrated that CCP in the end implemented 25% of his vision, and I share many of his criticims of the current system. I feel that when it comes to improvements to the EVE Sov system, there is no better cadidate. The thing is I don't really care about Sov. As a result I feel that my vote should go elsewhere.

The Mitanni is another very active member in the EVE community. He has made many contributions to the game and certainly has played a major part in it's history. Having said that I feel that he seems to suffer from two distinct personalities. One one hand he gives presentation for CCP at conferences, works with the current CSM, presents to EVE Uni, and other constructive activities. On the other hand he sometimes embodies the worst aspects of the Goons. His mudslinging this election is just one example of that. I feel having him on the CSM will cause much more drama than the value of any contributions he would make. This is unfortunate.

As a result for this election I am endorsing Roc Weiler and Trebor Daehdow.

Roc's postings on his blog on the various planks of his platform are well thought out. Just the sort of thinking that is needed for a CSM candidate. I don't always agree with his stance, but I feel that he will work with the other CSM candidates to develop the issues.

Trebor also has a great reputation as a hardworking member of the CSM. Considering the hundreds of hours that he, and many of the other current members, have put into making CSM 5 such a success, I feel that his absence would hurt the council. I also loved Wizardry many years ago.

But most important of all, I encourage everyone to vote. Casting no vote is a vote against the entire CSM which I feel is a shame.

PL and TEST Working Together (not really) Providing Lots of Fitting Advice

2011-03-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

Recently Test Alliance Please Ignore managed to snag the forums from Pandemic Legion and have made them available. Most of it is major drama crap, but there are some really useful nuggets. PL is known for some innovative fittings (how many alliance tournament wins?) so the forums dealing with fittings were particularly interesting. Here are some of my favourite posts after spending a few minutes browsing:

Smallish Gangs:

LR HAC / HSLR
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-24012-.html

Drake Gang Guide (not the traditional one, but works with smaller fleets)
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-33238-.html

Small AB HAC Gang
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-28920-.html

For larger fleets there are lots of posts (this is PL after all), but these got my eye.

AB HAC Gang
1. http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-24603-.html
2. http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-28888-.html

Artillery Counter to the Drake Blob
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-28631-.html

P.S. Only a couple of more days on the cheapfleet challenge to go!! lots of great entries... but we still need more. See here for details.

Ships I Fly - The Punisher

2011-02-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

Ever since hearing about how great an autocannon Punisher is from a lecture I heard from eve university, I have wanted to try one out. A Punisher is a very sturdy ship with a naturally strong armour tank, plus a significant bonus to armour resistance. Being an Ammarian ship it has a large capacitor, and a bonus to capacitor usage of lasers. Obviously this means that it is best fit with Autocannons ;).

Although lasers have certain advantages, autocannons lack of capacitor usage, combined with easy fitting, means that a Punisher can fit a massive (for a T1 Frigate) buffer tank + an effective active tank. The EVE FNG blog has a great post discussing fitting autocannons on a Punisher and why it is superior to lasers. His posts and ravings about the Punisher are why I started looking at them again in the first place.

Using his fit as a baseline I have made a few changes to make it more effective with my particular skills. Here is my fit:

[Punisher, Toterra's Punisher]
Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet Fusion S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet Fusion S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet Fusion S
Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

I choose to go with the 125mm AC II instead of the 150mm for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I feel that tracking is the most important characteristic on small, close range weapons (idea for a future post) and without a tracking bonus I felt the punisher would benefit from the 125s. I have also enhanced the tank with a Nano Pump, which increases the active tanking of by 10%. This combined with the punisher's 25% resist bonus makes for a tank of well over 50dps per second. Even without the NOS it can run for a minute and a half.

Looking at it over I felt that there were several weaknesses of this fit. Firstly, it is slow and lacks agility. With a 5.4s alignment speed and top velocity of 814 m/s this ship is not going to win any races. Also the lack of additional e-war could be an issue. A webber in particular would be highly desirable.

So I took this bird out on a few low-sec solo roams. The first ship I engaged was an Ishkur. It is a bit unfair to test out against a T2 frigate but, it was the target of opportunity. I immediately started pluggging away at his drones. Knowing that my tracking was not going to be the best I was not surprised that the damage was slow, however it soon became apparent that there was not damage whatsoever. Checking my overview revealed an indicator that I was being track disrupted.... not a good thing. I quickly switched my guns over to the Ishkur, where started to do damage. I also adjusted my orbit to minimize angular velocity (I wasn't getting under his guns so no point in trying). However I had wasted 40 seconds of time, and a chunk of my buffer tank on the drones and I wasn't going to make up the difference. Not long afterwords I blew up and my pod fled for greener pastures.

Not a great start. Time for a second try. For the next several night I flew this ship looking for targets. An Omen (ammarian cruiser) was my first target and provided me with my very first successful ransom. Even as slow as a punisher was, it was able to get under the guns of the Omen. I also engaged and defeated several armour tanking T2 Fit Rifters. The two Rifters each could have escaped (they were faster + had me webbed), however for some reason they continued to sit there and orbit me even after entering structure. As I have noted before, most pilots will continue with their initial plan and not modify or run when things change. Under these circumstances, a Punisher can easily out-last a Rifter in a straight up slug-fest.

It was a later engagement that revealed the disappointing side to the Punisher again. I had scanned down a Dramiel and a Jaguar from different corps at a belt. As I suspected they were going at each other full bore when I arrived. Both their ships had entered armour once I achieved lock. I quickly took a couple pot shots at the Dramiel to both whore the killmail, and to ensure that it would go down before escaping. However I aligned my ship to the Jag and, quickly switched my guns once it was obvious the Dramiel was going down.

Normally a Jaguar would eat a T1 frigate for lunch, however this Jag was now entering structure and if I could just hold it there it would die real quick. Regrettably he did the obvious, lit his afterburner and fled. If I had been in a Rifter I would have been able to catch up, and I would have probably webbed him. In a Punisher .... no chance. KILL DENIED :(

So to summarize, the Punisher is a great little ship with a hell of a tank. However it is a one trick pony. It won't catch anything that wants to escape and if things go south... time to get your pod ready to flee.

In short .... it is no rifter.

P.S. Several more great entries in the cheapfleet challenge... but we still need more. See here for details.

Destructoid Review of - EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition

2011-02-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

Destructoid (a gaming website) recently posted a review of the EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition box. The reviewer did a pretty crap job. As is often typical with reviews of EVE reviews he took the trial, got confused, got bored, died, didn't understand what was happening and eventually quit the game leaving a review riddled with factual innacuracies (somehow his shuttle contained all his assets and was blown up mid-warp). As can be expected the 156 comments on the review show a blend of EVE fanbois hating the review, mixed with a few people who actually had a similar experience and went back to WOW.

Now I am not saying that it was a good review. Rather the review and the comments reveal a real problem with the game. As much fun as it is to laugh at EVE's steep learning curve, it is new players that give the game life. If they are bored or frustrated then they will simply quit and move on. Most players start on a free trial anyways so there is no investment lost for them.

The Commissioned Officer Edition is an example of everything that is wrong with the way EVE tries to help new players. The main advantage to it is that it comes with an implant that boosts attributes and learning. However the implant only works for a month. If the implant is destroyed you can petition a GM to get it replaced.

That is right... CCP ships a new player friendly feature that likely requires petitioning a GM to use. What a great way help lower the learning curve.

P.S. Several more great entries in the cheapfleet challenge... but we still need more. See here for details.

YARR! My first Ransom :)

2011-02-20T22:15:00.000-08:00

While running through low-sec I cam across an Omen sitting at a planet in Vitrauze...

[ 2011.02.21 05:56:42 ] Serivous > how much?
[ 2011.02.21 05:56:56 ] Toterra > 10 million
[ 2011.02.21 05:57:26 ] Toterra > 15 seconds yes or no
[ 2011.02.21 05:57:30 ] Serivous > teach me to stop paying attention
[ 2011.02.21 05:57:35 ] Serivous > money has been sent
[ 2011.02.21 05:57:49 ] Toterra > have a good doay

YARR!

God I love this game :) Are there any other games out there where this sort of thing is even possible?

P.S. We have now two entries in the cheapfleet challenge... looking for more. See here for details.

Contest - Toterra's Cheapfleet Challenge - Frigates

2011-02-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

*NOTE THERE HAS BEEN A DELAY IN MY JUDGING-GIVING OUT AWARDS. MY INTERNET IS DOWN. I SHOULD BE BACK UP IN A COUPLE OF DAYS TO ANNOUNCE AND REWARD THE WINNER*

When I started playing EVE one of the best resources out there was the Cheapfleet Challenge contest on Battleclinic. Basically it was a competition for the best fittings for T1 frigates, destroyers and cruisers, using affordable Meta-3 using and lower gear. It gave me a great starting point for various fits that were affordable and much more effective then my early fail-fit attempts.

Unfortunately their fits are rather old at this point. I think that it is time for a new 'Cheapfleet Challenge'.

Here are the rules:

This contest is for T1 frigates only. (if there is interest I will do larger ships later)
Toterra will be the only judge and decision will be final. I will take into account any comments positive and negative from other players about fits. Both fits for fleet and for solo work will be evaluated. If there are a lot of entries I may look for additional judges.
One entry per character. If you are making a change then mention it at the top of the post.
Fit will be evaluated for it's PvP ability. I do not care about PvE.
Any module > Meta-3 will disqualify the fit.
No Rigs.
No Faction Frigates.
If two identical submissions, the first one qualifies. Later submissions are disqualified. <--New
Grand Prize will be one empire faction frigate from the same faction as the winning fit. (hookbill, firetail, comet or slicer).
Five 5 million isk prizes will go to honorable mentions, one for each of the following categories (note I changed this on Feb 19):

best e-war
best tackler
best gank
best ship to bring to a fleet
best ship for solo work

Contest will end on March 15, 2011 at midnight EST. (the ides of march)
Prize will be contracted to winning character from Jita 4-4 by March 22, 2011.
Comments on fits are very welcome

Post a comment in the comments portion of this blog post containing the following

Your character name (to receive the prize if winning)
Brief description of the fit (200 words or less)

Fitting in EFT export format as seen elsewhere on this blog

The following metrics (Assuming all lv 5):
EHP :
DPS :
Speed :

For example here is what a posting should look like

Toterra

This is a fit for a Breacher. It works best against another solo frigate that has been fit for AB/SCRAM with short range weapons (like 90% of the pvp frigates out there). Set the keep-at-range to 16,000 m, turn on the disruptor and pelt away. If you can hold range and they can't hit you they will eventually die. It can also be a great tackler / scout for a fleet.

[Breacher, Cheepfleet Breacher]
Capacitor Power Relay I
Capacitor Power Relay I

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

TE-2100 Standard Missile Bay, Piranha Light Missile
TE-2100 Standard Missile Bay, Piranha Light Missile
TE-2100 Standard Missile Bay, Piranha Light Missile
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

EHP: 1497
DPS: 48
Speed: 2783 m/s

Incarna... All this work when we just want to play Poker

2011-02-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

CCP just released the first devblog discussing what is coming with Incarna gameplay. I am almost impressed. Like the character creation process it involves fantastic technology. Unfortunately, like the character creator, it is more a demonstrator of the technology rather then part of the game. The problem is that no matter how good looking the graphics are, it is totally irrelevant if it does not add to any game play.

In the first iteration coming to tranquility this summer (read fall), we will be able to walk around the 'Captains Quarters', whatever that is. The 'Captains Quarters' will provide much of the functionality we currently see from menus and the like. For example we will be able to do things like clicking on a wall to call up the Planetary Interaction interface.

Is this a good thing? I don't really know, but I never felt like the current interface to start doing planetary interaction was a problem. Rather it was the whole planetary interaction interface that caused carpal tundral syndrome and destroyed mice.

The other problem, the the reason I call this a technical demo, is that it is basically a single-player environment. You will not be able to interact with other avatars like you can do in other MMOs. I understand that this is just for the beginning, and in the future (don't hold your breath so it may be a while) you will, but it is pretty sad that CCP is finally giving us Avatars without actually letting us interact with other Avatars. 1990 called and CCP seemed to answer the phone.

Assuming EVE continues to be the massive cash cow for CCP driving tens of millions of dollars of development, and computer graphics technology continues to improve, I can see Incarna being interesting ... eventually. However I can't say that the current devblog is all that encouraging. CCP seems overly fascinated with fancy graphics technology and does not seem to care about gameplay issues and what makes EVE a success. Go and play minecraft for a bit. That game has a graphics engine that looks anything but realistic, but gives exceptional gameplay. CCPs Incarna is trending in the opposite direction.

Lets face it, if we can't shoot each other in station, at least let us play poker.

Flashy Red is the New Blue ;)

2011-02-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

YARRR!!!

So I have now successfully joined a pirate corp. Should be a lot of fun. The corp is called 'The Tuskers' and is probably pretty familiar to most EVE bloggers out there thanks to Rifter Drifter and others blog from past and present bloggers (See the Tusker pack sidebar). Actually it is kindof odd. Agony (the last corp I was in) had only a couple of active bloggers. Whereas the Tuskers seams to be filled with them despite having a fraction of the membership. Interesting trend.

Anyways, The Tuskers is what is considered a pirate corp. In EVE pirates generally refers to Low-sec PvP corps. While both 0.0 and lowsec has PvP, it is generally only the low-sec that is considered pirates. The reason for this is quite simple. Low-sec PvP is really bad for a pilot's security status. Even before joining while flying around looking for fights my status dropped from a nice 3.5 to a 1.1. I am sure within a few weeks or less I will be sitting at -10.0. No more hi-sec for my main soon.

Obviously this results in some interesting changes. No longer bound by the Rules of Engagement that Agony has I am able to partake in all sorts of unethical mischief. Having said that we still do have a 'Tusker Code', similar to many other pirate corps. It enforces that we do things like honour ransoms and not be dicks in local. All of which contributes to a healthy low-sec culture.

Another impact of being in low-sec is the different game mechanics that I am going to have to learn. I nearly lost a Rifter the other day by flying near a gate soon after killing someone. The guns on the gate are not just for show! Much to learn indeed.

Anyways, I am off to go plan some shopping. Most of my junk is stuck down in 0.0 hoping that someone will move it at some point. But I am heading to Jita to put together a half-dozen ships and get them shipped out to the Tusker home base..... This may be the last time I make it to Jita without interference in a long, long time.

The advantage of unusual fits

2011-02-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting fight the other day that highlighted the importance of non-conventional fits. As said before I am in the process of changing corps. As a result I am running pretty lean. My collection of ships and modules is sitting in a 0.0 system waiting for a someone to accept a contract to ship it out. Meanwhile I have been flying around in a simple Rifter, trying to get familiar with low-sec mechanics.

Anyways, I came across another rifter from the corp I am currently in the process of applying to. I decided to engage him. When engaging another solo rifter it is a pretty safe bet that it has something like the following fit:

[Rifter, Typical]
Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Small Armor Repairer II

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

Small Nosferatu II
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
[empty rig slot]

This is a great setup that can handle ships of all sized. It does good damage, and can hold itself together in a fight. I fly this setup regularly. Having said that, I am a big fan of the shield rifter. I have earlier commented on my MWD fitted shield rifter. However of late I have been running a similar setup, but with an afterburner and tracking enhancer instead of a MWD and nanofibre.

The main advantage to this shield rifter is that it is unusual. This is a huge advantage when engaging another rifter. 99.999% of the time the enemy will start shooting either RF Fusion or Barrage. Both ammo types are effective against armour, but no so effective against shields. Couple this with the large EHP buffer that the shield provides and the natural repping of the shield, and you have an easy fight on your hands.

What made this last fight interesting was that my opponent had the same idea. He was also flying a shield rifter. Except his was equipped with an energy neutralizer to further make a mess of the cap hungry small armour repairer on a typical rifter. In this battle both pilots had the same assumption. We were both flying ships that we figured could easily kill our opponent. In the end the battle dragged on and on as we realized that we just were both shooting the wrong ammo. Since I was setup with a bit more damage than him and a bit better buffer he entered structure about the same time I entered armour. His neut managed to silence my scrambler and he fled just before I managed to finish him off. We both switched to more appropriate ammo and went back at in a minute or two later, and I manged to come out ahead in a much faster battle.

Good fight all around. Anyways, the point of this whole post is that by going with non-conventional fits you have a great advantage. Both of us had non-conventional Rifter fits. They were not strange EFT warrior fits, nor were they super rare, just not what one typically expects. As a result we both were super confident going into the battle that the enemy would be setup wrong against us. As it turned out we were both right.

Here is my Afterburner Shield Rifter Fit:

[Rifter, 125mm shield ab]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
F-aQ Phase Code Tracking Subroutines

1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
[empty high slot]

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

Frigate vs Cruiser - Strategies

2011-02-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

One of the more interesting 1v1 battles out there is a cruiser vs a frigate. From the point of view of an outsider it should be obvious who wins. A cruiser has both the firepower advantage and an advantage of being able to take a lot more damage. However the reality is that these battles are a lot more interesting then you would think. For me the first cruiser vs frigate battle I was in was way back in a DOS game called 'Ancient Art of War at Sea'. In that game sea battles were fought between 1800 era ships of the line, battleships and frigates. Battleships were slow and hard hitting. Frigates were fast and nimble, but not very powerful. Ships of the line were in between. Since these ships could only fire sideways a fast frigate could maneuver so that the larger ship could never hit it. By dashing in an out a frigate could, given a lot of time, eventually take out a larger enemy ship. Eve is similar. Frigates can use their speed and small signature radius to avoid damage from larger ships. However in EVE, the larger ships have some countermeasures. Drones, energy neutralizers being the most important. The most important thing however is to go into a fight with a plan.

Lets look at what weapon systems a cruiser might have that are a threat to a frigate. In order of ease to mitigation we have:

1. Guns: In most cases if the cruiser's guns can hit the frigate with anything close to full damage, the frigate is going to die. The trick for a frigate is to make a cruisers guns useless. This involves using a combination of high angular velocity and a low signature radius so that the cruisers guns can not track the frigate. In most cases this is going to involve getting into point-blank range, paralyzing the target, while orbiting as fast as possible on afterburner. The medium guns on most cruisers just can't hit an afterburner equipped frigate that is orbiting it. The cruiser will typically try to get range and kite the frigate, which breaks the orbit and crashed the angular velocity. Ergo it is important for the frigate to scram (take out the MWD on most cruisers) and if possible webify (further kill the speed) the cruiser so that it is unable to do so. Remember that a Warp Disruptor is pretty useless here as it does not shut down a MWD and most cruisers with a MWD are faster than a frigate with an afterburner. If the frigate fields a MWD as well, then it suffers from a sig radius bloom effectively making the cruiser's guns track 5x as fast. The exception to this is an interceptor. An inty may want to use it's high MWD speed and relatively low signature radius to mitigate damage.

2. Small Drones: Most cruisers have largish drone bays stuffed with light drones. It is pretty typical to face 5x Warrior II or 5x ECM drones. Either case is a big problem. #1 priority for a frigate is to start dealing with those drones once they are launched. The good news is that frigate guns can usually kill 5x Warrior II before it's tank fails, however it does take a lot of concentration so be ready for it. ECM drones are a different and possibly worse problem. Not only do they prevent you from firing your guns, but they also shut down you scrambler and webifier. All of a sudden the enemy can start manouvering, pull range and then kite you with warp-disruptor range. Death is soon to follow.

3. Energy Neutralization: All frigates have a capacitor disadvantage to cruisers. Energy Neutralizers allow a cruiser to suck the capacitor of a frigate dry. Even for frigates that don't use cap for weapons (autocannons and missiles), no cap means no afterburner, no warp scrambler, no stasis webifier and no armour repper. One way of avoiding neutralizers is to keep range. Unfortunately that is not usually an option (see point 1). Really the only way of dealing with neutralizers is NOS. A small NOS should suck enough cap from a target ship to at least power the scrambler and afterburner. As for repping.... forget it.

4. Stasis Webifiers: If there is one thing that a small ship fears... it is the Stasis Webifier. If the enemy can land a couple of these on you... the whole advantage of being small and fast goes out the window. This is why minmattar recons are so feared. One common 'Fishing' technique for a cruiser is to fit two webifiers. This pretty much locks down a frigate making it easy prey to medium sized guns.

5. Missiles: Missiles do damage with very different calculation than turrets. A small ship can reduce damage from a missile thanks to signature radius and speed, however it is pretty much impossible to drop the damage to zero and still be in a position to do damage in return. Also cruisers have the ability to fit assault missile launchers which are basically frigate based weapons with a higher firing rate. Assault missile Caracals are devastating to a frigate.

The good news for the frigate is that with careful target selection and effective piloting it is possible to successfully kill cruisers. The bad news is that if a frigate can not mitigate the 5 weapons listed above, a frigate will die very very fast.

EVE Online Blog Pack -- I am in!! ... and other changes

2011-02-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

One of the goals that I had when I started blogging was to make it into the CrazyKinux's EVE Online Blog Pack. After some initial writing and hopes I realized that this was going to take a while. Soon I began writing mostly just because I wanted to get something off of my chest. My original goal of getting into the blog pack was largely forgotten. That is until there was a recent post where he was looking for submissions. A few days later and I am now in :). Mission accomplished.

So what does this all mean?

For one it means that I will probably get a few more readers. That is a nice thing. However it also means that I have a responsibility to actually put some effort in. God help me I may even need to proof read some articles.

Anyways, big thanks to CK for adding me to his list. Big thanks to my readers for continuing to follow me talk about EVE PvP, even when it was clear I had no idea what I was doing.

In other more personal news, I have decided to leave Agony Unleashed. Having flown with them for a year in a half I have decided to try something new in EVE. It is hard to leave a group of friends I have been with for so long. The really are a great bunch of guys (and a few girls). I wish them all the best.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

2011-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

So in my last post I talked about taking an active tanked Cyclone into battle. Results were a little disappointing. In two tries it got hit with neuts twice, making for two losses without even a single kill. For my next attempt I tried fitting the Cyclone with kiting in mind. This is what I came up with:

[Cyclone, Wannabe Vaga]
Tracking Enhancer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption

425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay, Flameburst Light Missile
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay, Flameburst Light Missile
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay, Flameburst Light Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Projectile Collision Accelerator I

Valkyrie II x3
Warrior II x2

My goal with this ship was to engage another battle-cruiser or cruiser, and hold them at 20km range or so while slowly pelting them with barrage. Using my superior speed and maneuverability I should be able to hold range on most targets larger than a frigate. Yes, my dps was crap, however with the 2x tracking disruptors I felt that I could potentially drop enemy damage down to 0. I also had a bunch of defender missiles in cargo so even a missile firing drake would find itself doing far less than the expected amount of damage.

After a few systems I found myself camped in a station in Curse by a Sleipnir, a Rifter and a Drake, with a Falcon cloaked on grid. After un-docking a few times, and re-docking once they locked me up and put on the hurt, I went to go make some dinner. When I came back they were still there. There was another agony gang operating about 10 jumps away. I dropped in their channel and they seemed busy with other, juicier targets. So I bought 4 stabs in station fitted them and warped off.

Problem was that I wanted a fight and was felt silly to be running away from one, even one that I had no chance of winning. I knew from earlier that the Rifter was fit with a warp scrambler, and had seen it top out at well over 2k per second. This would have killed my speed. With me being unable to move the Sleipnir would be able to put down enough damage that I would have been dead in a few seconds. And the Drake just added to it. The Falcon would have jammed me so I wouldn't even have been able to fight back. OTOH I could simply run away. I knew this, they knew this... so what was the next step.

The Sleipnir pilot convoyed me asking me to settle an argument with the rifter pilot about whether I had a rack of WCS or if they just failed at tackling. After a minute or so this turned into a request for a 1v1. First I wanted to try against the Drake pilot. He chickened out. So instead I offered against the Sleipnir. This would hardly be a fair fight. A Sleipnir is like a Cyclone... on steroids and bionic implants. After providing some assurances to the Sleipnir pilot that this was not a trap... he agreed.

I figured the fight would likely be over in seconds. I was wrong. It became a 6 minute long slug fest.As soon as I landed on him I pulled range out to 20 km. Then I targeted my guns and missiles onto him, but most importantly, also my tracking disruptors. His first volley tore into my shields but after that he was doing very little damage. His drones started to attack and I placed my drones onto him hoping to take them out.

Here is where I did a few mistakes. Rather than shoot my assault missiles at his ship I should have sent them after his drones as well. Also, since I had 3 medium drones, they could have still gone after his ship leaving my 2 warriors and my 3 assault missiles on his drones. Instead I kept my assault missiles plugging away at his shields while it took forever for his drones to die. Also while he was cycling his drones in and out as they started to take damage, I was not. This would have made it harder for him to take my drones out.

After several minutes of this my drones were gone, but he still had several drones in the air, now slowly being taken out by my missiles. Meanwhile my shields were failing under attack from his drones and the occasional hit from his guns. He was able to rep his shield whenever it went down, although his cap was running low and I was starting to get some traction against his armour. In the end it was not enough. A last burst of overheating as my armour quickly was ripped to shreds was not able to make enough of a difference. Once he hit my pathetic amount of structure I quickly died.

All in all I am very happy with how well things turned out. If I had better e-war skills, fit 2x TE instead of one and stocked 8x warrior IIs or ewar drones then things could have gone differently. As it was this was not a battle I was ever likely to win. GFs all around. Respect for honouring the 1v1 on both sides and my pod limped home.

For some reason I still love the cyclone despite having lost 3 of them without a kill. I will definitely be trying these out some more in the future.

Trying out an Active Tank Cyclone

2011-01-31T14:39:00.000-08:00

The Cyclone is definitely the poorer cousin of the Hurricane. Whereas the 'Cane is a pretty standard ship seen all over New Eden for PvP and PvE, the Cyclone is a rare beast. It has only a fraction of the DPS, less fitting room, fewer turrets, and lacks the double damage bonus of the 'Cane.

There are a couple of things going for the Cyclone however. It is the most maneuverable battle-cruiser in New Eden. It also has a 37.5% (at BC V) bonus to shield repping. This means that a Cyclone should be a beast of an active tank ship.

Active tanking is using either an armour repper or a shield booster to repair damage being done by an enemy. In essence it is converting capacitor to EHP. In small engagements it can make a huge difference. Time is both a friend and an enemy to an active tank fit. The longer the engagement the more EHP can be repaired. OTOH, the longer the engagement the sooner the ship is likely to run out of what little buffer it has or run out of boosters.

Active tanking is like performing a direct minus on the enemy dps. If you can rep 300EHP per second, and the enemy is doing 400 DPS, the real DPS of the enemy is only 100 DPS. If the enemy is doing 300 DPS the enemy is effectively shooting blanks. If the enemy is doing 1200 DPS (concentrated fire from an enemy game for example), then your tank is pretty much useless. As a result active tanking really shines in the 1v1 or a 1v2 situation where it has the chance to completely negate the enemy DPS.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is a big difference between EFT DPS and real DPS. Although a 'Cane should be able to do 600 DPS, thanks to fighting in falloff, some tracking negatives, and less than perfect skills, it will more likely be doing about half of that, 400 DPS at the most. As a result the repping can in fact keep up, even though EFT would show otherwise.

The most popular active tank battle-cruiser is the Gallente Myrmaddon. The Myrm has a 37.5% bonus to armour repping. However there is a significant advantage to armour repping over shield boosting. A shield booster's shield modules have to share mid-slots with propulsion mods, e-war, and capacitor boosters. An armour repper can have pretty much the entire bottom rack dedicated to armour tanking (armour reppers, hardeners, damage control, EANM, etc). On the plus side there is something that a shield booster has that is not available to an armour repper. That is the X-Large module size.

I tried out two possible fits of Cyclones:
[Cyclone, single rep high DPS]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
F-aQ Phase Code Tracking Subroutines

X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Compact 'Limos' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Compact 'Limos' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Compact 'Limos' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Capacitor Safeguard I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I

Warrior II x2
Valkyrie II x3

and

[Cyclone, Dual Boost]
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II

X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay, Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay, Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay, Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I

Valkyrie II x3
Warrior II x2

Both of these fits do about 400 DPS, have about 28,000 buffer tank, and have a repping power of around 350 EHP/450 EHP overheated. The HAM fit has a bit more DPS and can web as well as scram a target. The dual boost fit does less DPS, and can only scram, however it can sustain it's repper for a lot longer. With an afterburner instead of a MWD niether of these ships is a speed demon, instead the goal is to engage the enemy on 0.

So one evening I took these ships out one at a time. In the end it was disappointing. In both cases I came across the nemesis of the active tank ship, the energy neutralizer. The single boost ship engaged an Arazu. While doing great damage against the Arazu a Hurricane showed up and placed it's dual neuts on me along with it's DPS. It also had a friend of a Rifter and a Sabre so the damage incoming was quite high. I continued to tank them for a surprisingly long time, however in the end I couldn't keep up and went down without landing a kill :(.

Since the nuets so messed me up I tried the dual boost next. This could have gone well. Again I engaged a hurricane, and tanked it just fine.... until his BS friends showed up and sucked my cap dry :(. Down I went.

I am definitely going to try the active tank Cyclone again. I think I need to choose better targets however. I was determined to get into a fight to try the ship out so I entered fights that I should have avoided. As a result I basically fell for bait twice and paid for it.

Incursion = CCP fail at game design

2011-01-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

Despite weeks of posts on the forums warning them that the entire incursion mechanic was not compatible with EVE's aggression mechanics.... they still release this massive game-design failure.

Explanation: The white crosses are CONCORD ships that just one-shoted an entire fleet that was fighting the Sansha incursion.

Basically, unless you are an experienced player who understands the odd aggresion mechanics of hi-sec, Incursion = death.

EDIT: Oh look.... here is another similar picture of what looks to be a different site:

EDIT 2: Looks like they are fixing it with the current patch. Some are saying that this is dumbing down' the game. However there is really no reason for anyone to be RRing someone in hi-sec with a GCC. Concord arrives in seconds and no amount of logistics can save a ship. Instead the mechanics were making effective pick up groups absolutely impossible.

Don't just shoot the primary!

2011-01-25T12:42:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I continuously try to do better in is maximize my effectiveness when participating in small gangs. When a pilot first starts running in gangs they typically follow the FC to the letter and concentrate on the Primary to the exclusion of all else. As an introduction this is a good thing. There is nothing worse for a fleet then to split fire across the enemy fleet. The FC is calling primary because he/she wants that target down since it represents a major threat to the gang. If everyone starts shooting at other targets then the whole concept of focused fire is lost and the gang is doomed.

Lets do a thought experiment to see why. Imagine two gangs engaging each other, each with 10 identical ships. Each ship has 100 DPS and a tank of 10,000 EHP. One gang focuses fire on primary after primary. The other gang has no focused fire at all.

For the gang with no focused fire it will take 10,000/100 = 100 seconds to destroy each of the enemy fleet. However this won't happen. In this imaginary battle the focused fire fleet will destroy an enemy ship every 10,000/(100*10) = 10 seconds. Every 10 seconds a ship on the non-focused fire fleet will be destroyed. At the 100th seconds the last remaining non-focused fire fleet will be destroyed just as it finally lands the killing blow on the focused fire fleet.

So far you probably thinking that the title of this blog is messed up. I just argued for focusing fire, not thinking about other targets. This is where reality comes in. In real battles we are not using the imaginary ships I described, rather we are using real ships (ok maybe not real in the physical sense but real in the sense that pixels and databases are involved).

Lets look at a common small gang ship that I fly. The nano-cane is an awesome ship whose speed, firepower and reasonable price make it a favorite for small gang PvP. However, if we look close we see that it actually has 4 distinct offensive weapon system.

6x425mm Autocannon: These provide the bulk of the offense delivering up to 600 DPS at short and medium ranges.
2xMedium Energy Neutralizers: These provide the ability to place massive cap pressure on an enemy ship, while the hurricane does not really need the capacitor thanks to the Autocannons.
1xWarp disruptor/scrambler: Prevents an enemy ship from being able to disengage when taking damage. If a scrambler shuts down the MWD as well.
5xWarrior II: Provides moderate amount of damage against ships of all sizes.

In general in battle the Autocannons are targeted at the primary. They are the main DPS and focused fire is what the FC is asking for. But what about the other three weapon systems? Should they be put onto the primary, or is there something better for them to do?

The energy neutralizers could have some effect. If the target has an active tank (a triple rep Myrmadon comes to mind) then they will be very effective, but in general the primary is a cornered beast and nueting it will not really make much of a difference. Even if the ship uses cap for it's weapons since it is soon to die, you neuting may not have any effect at all. Rather it is a better idea to put the nuets on a non-primary ship that is vulnerable to capacitor warfare. The perfect example of this would be an enemy logistics ship. By powering towards and then neuting an enemy logistics ship, you effectively take out one of their major force multipliers. If there is no enemy logistics, look for an laser or hybrid boat and put strain on it. Often this alone will neutralize the enemy ship and make it ineffective in the battle.

The warp disruptor/scram can also be put to better use then the primary. Unless there is a reason to suspect that they primary has not already had its warp drive shut down, or likely to in the future, put that point on someone else and call it. The FC will likely make that ship a future primary and without point it will be able to warp off. This is especially important during the mid-point in the battle when an enemy realizes that the battle is lost and people start running. Without spreading the points around, most of the enemy will be able to run.

The warriors could be placed on the primary. However they only represent about 10% of your total DPS, and they will take time to travel to the target (which may be dead by then). It is much better to place the warriors onto another target, especially a small ship that will be most impacted. Enemy interceptors, Light dictors and e-war ships are ideal targets. Interceptors will have to run from the fight to save themselves. This means that they will not be able to land points on your gang nor will they be able to apply e-war from extra mid-slots. Dictors are also lightly tanked and will not last long under attack from a flight or two of warriors. E-war ships (falcon, blackbird, rook) are also great targets for drones. Even if you are jammed the drones keep on fighting, forcing them to make choices about whether to flee (costing their fleet their e-war) or stay (and risk being destroyed). Even if there are no enemy ships on the field to engage, I would still recommend assigning them to a different ship then the primary. Any ship when it starts to take damage is likely to panic and either run away or request reps putting load on their logistics.

So next time you are in a small gang fight, make sure that you use all of your offensive weapons to their maximum potential. Pay attention to the FC, but also think about what else you can do. If you can remove one or two other enemy ships from the fight, in addition to laying down the DPS, do so. If the whole gang can do this it means that your small gang able to take on a larger gang, and still come out the victor.

Email Phishing.... don't be a victim

2011-01-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

Now that Goonswarm has officially taken over control of security at CCP ;) there is a great article about e-mail phishing scams and account security by CCP Sreegs that every EVE player should read. E-mail phishing scams have become quite a problem with EVE players. I personally receive several e-mails per week from EVE Online.com. Lets have a look at one of them...

As you can see I need to fix something with my account. I thought I had setup a re-occurring payment system.... oh well let me just click on the nice link and fix it. Look the link says account management so that must be where I want to go.

WHOOOOO!! My virus scanning software had that link flagged in its database as unsafe! Rather then going to the actual account management website, the link goes to http://222.22.22.222/pnp/eve/https/secure.eveonline.com/login.aspxReturnUrl2fAccountManMenu.aspx3faid3d103543aid193543.htm (note I changed the ip address to prevent some fool from actually going there from this blog). This site is definitely not related to CCP or EVE online!

Now this page is from an e-mail about a month ago so the url clearly has been marked as a problem. However I bet if I had clicked on that link back on the 13th of December, it would have taken me to a site that looks EXACTLY like the actual Eve account management site. I would have entered in my username and password onto the site and the next day, everything my character has in EVE would have been sold by a real-money trader or something. With luck a petition would get some of it back in a few days, but I, and possibly my corp/alliance would have been screwed!

Moral of the story is NEVER EVER EVER trust any link on any email from EVE ONLINE. If you need to do something navigate yourself to eveonline.com and do it there. Even if you are pretty sure it is legitimate, don't take the risk.

Reading the Game Logs

2011-01-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

When I got started PvPing I kept on dieing. One thing I noticed was that while the enemy was hurting me, I was barely scratching them. This made no sense to me until I discovered the game-logs. If you look under your EVE folder in 'My Documents' you will see a folder called 'Game Logs'. This folder contains log files from combat actions of your ship. A new file is started everytime you jump or warp.

At the top of the file is a header:

------------------------------------------------------------
Gamelog
Listener: Toterra
Session started: 2010.10.20 03:28:37
------------------------------------------------------------

This simply contains the date and character information. More interesting is information about warping like the following:

[ 2010.10.20 03:28:48 ] (notify) Warping to Stargate (9KOE-A)

In this case I have warped to a stargate and this is logged. Then we get to the real meat of the log. Each time you warp scramble (or disrupt) someone you get the following type of statement:

[ 2010.10.20 03:29:55 ] (notify) You have started trying to warp scramble Isaak Hamilton [101SM]<S2N>(Ishkur).

Then each time you fire a gun or a group of guns you get a message like the following if one of the weapons hits:

[ 2010.10.20 03:29:55 ] (combat) Your group of 150mm Light AutoCannon II hits Isaak Hamilton [101SM]<S2N>(Ishkur), doing 139.9 damage.

or the following if they all miss:

[ 2010.10.20 03:29:59 ] (combat) Your group of 150mm Light AutoCannon II misses Isaak Hamilton [101SM]<S2N>(Ishkur) completely.

Conversly you receive information about what the enemy is doing to you. Here I am being scrammed by the enemy:

[ 2010.10.20 03:29:57 ] (notify) Isaak Hamilton [101SM]<S2N>(Ishkur) has started trying to warp scramble you!

Here I am being hit:

[ 2010.10.20 03:30:33 ] (combat) Isaak Hamilton [101SM]<S2N>(Ishkur) aims well at you, inflicting 112.3 damage.

And here I am being shot at and missed:

[ 2010.10.20 03:30:00 ] (combat) Isaak Hamilton [101SM]<S2N>(Ishkur) misses you completely.

Drones work a little oddly. While you do receive notification of being hit by a drone like the following:

[ 2010.10.20 03:30:03 ] (combat) Hobgoblin II belonging to Isaak Hamilton lightly hits you, doing 34.0 damage.

Unfortunately the log will not contain notification of your own drones doing damage.

Another problem with the logs is weapon grouping. If even one weapon in a group hits a hit is logged even if all of the remaining weapons miss. Obviously the reduced damage is indicated in the 'inflicted damage' portion however. If you want to study the logs a lot I recommend un-grouping your guns so that you can see how many hit and how many miss.

When a ship gets blown up there is a message that either your weapons are deactivating due to the enemy being blow up, or in this case there is a notification that my ship was destroyed:

[ 2010.10.20 03:31:25 ] (notify) Ship is out of control

Some other useful information in the logs includes data about running out of capacitor and failed attempts to enter warp.

All of this information can be very useful after a battle. Especially in the beginning when trying to understand the tracking mechanics. It was only by checking the logs that I began to realize why I was not doing damage. Either I was out of range or failing to track the targets. After changes to my fittings and tactics I was able to remedy this and start doing some killing. Even now after most battles I look through the logs to try and replay what actually happened. Often I discover things like not realizing that I was being neuted (running out of cap) or that my guns were not doing the damage that they should have. By continuously examining my own performance I can avoid making mistakes in the future. In this case I confirmed that for the most part I succeeded in getting under the Ishkur's guns. However I was late in switching to the drones, not that it would have mattered since the drones managed to get under my tracking somehow. In the future I should web the drones I am shooting at so that I can hit them... then go after the Ishkur.

DURKA DURKA DURKA

2011-01-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

So I had an interesting problem. Thanks to my limited play-time lately, I had an unrigged Typhoon whose insurance was close to running out. It seemed a shame to just let it expire so I fitted it up for what we in Agony call a 'DURKA'. Here is the fit...

[Typhoon, DURKA Typhoon]
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Stoic' Core Equalizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I

Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I

Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I

[empty rig slot]

The idea for this ship is pretty simple. Fly into the middle of an enemy fleet, let off the smart-bombs. Blow up any small ships within 5km, and warp off laughing at the ships pointing you.

So I took my ship on a little roam and managed to come across an OUCH gatecamp in Doril. It took two tries but eventually I managed to kill a Rifter and an Incursis. Much fun :). The next day a frigate gang came running through our home system of Hemin. They crashed into our camp on the RMOC gate and warped away to planet 4. I followed, landing just a couple of seconds too late. If I had arrived 5 seconds earlier I would have taken out their entire fleet :(. I started to chase after them but the server crashed and I couldn't find them when it came back up.

Going a little deeper into curse I came across a NI4NI gang and proceeded to smart-bomb their dramiels and sabre. Regretably nothing popped :(. I tried baiting them again and they managed to keep distance while dropping a bubble on me. No amount of warp-core stabilizers could save me then and I soon went down becoming 45 million isk richer.

A DURKA ship is something all tacklers should be wary of. Most Agony PVP-BASIC classes seems to come across one or two laying in wait hoping to pop 30 lightly tanked frigates in one shot. The trick to avoiding being wiped out is to keep out of 5km range. Also it can be a good idea to either fit a ship scanner or simply check for turrets on the model. If you come across a Geddon with no turrets you can be pretty certain that it is fitting smartbombs.

Admittedly one DURKA is pretty limited. At most I could take out a lightly tanked frigate. However in combination they can be rather devastating. There is a great video (I posted about a couple of months ago) where a handful of DURKA ships took out an Armour HAC gang.

So be careful out there of Battleships and for gods sake check for turrets before giving recon to your fleet to engage at 0. You just might find yourself in the middle of a fireworks display.

Agony PVP-Basic class being sponsored by Fly-Reckless

2011-01-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

As many of you know I am a big fan of the Agony PvP-Basic class. So much so that I ended up joining Agony. Well Silicon Buddha (himself a former Agony member) of the Fly Reckless podcast fame is sponsoring a PvP-Basic class on Jan 22nd and 23rd. If you want to take the course but have had difficulty getting in before the sign-ups are filled, or can't afford the isk, then have a look.

He is taking signups on his website first before Agony opens it up to the general public.

Fear the Punisher!

2011-01-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I am back from vacation and hope to start posting again soon. I can't believe that I made 70 posts in 2010. Man do I need to get a life :)

Anyways I came across a great new blog with a lot of great information about the Punisher in PvP. Well worth reading. I may have to try it sometime soon.

Incursion Rocket improvements - An EFT Analysis of my Claw vs Flycatcher fight

2010-12-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

So last night I had a run in with a Flycatcher. A while ago I solo'd a flycatcher with a Rifter, so I thought that my Claw would provide for a good fight, but one that I would win. I was wrong. In short, thanks to the rocket boost from Incursion, rockets are now significantly more powerful then before.

Fortunatly my enemy in that fight managed to loose his ship soon afterwords, and the loss was posted to battleclinic.com, so I have his likely fit. Lets have a look:

[Flycatcher, hydra flycatcher]
Ballistic Control System II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst II

That is a nasty little ship! No wonder my Claw had difficulty. Tech II rigs even. Lets feed it into EFT and see what difference the new rocket boost made.

Here is the image from EFT before the Incursion patch:

Here is the image from EFT after the Incursion patch with the boost to rockets:

As you can see we have gone from a firepower of 225 DPS to 235 DPS. Is that all? Did CCP fail again to provide a meaningful boost. Not quite. The problem with rockets was not their DPS, rather it was the fact that the velocity of the target could significantly affect their damage. In other words, they were least effective against the very same fast frigate sized ships they were targetting. The main change to rockets was a nearly two-fold increase in their explosion velocity, making them very effective against small fast ships like my Claw. Lets have a look.

Here is the damage graph for that fly-catcher before Incursion:

And here is the damage post-Incursion:

There is an increase from 132 DPS to 179 DPS!. That is 35% increase.

Once resistances against armour are taken into account there is a 91 DPS vs 67 DPS. Since my armour repairer can heal about 17 HP per second the net damage is 74 DPS vs 50 DPS. This means that effectively he was able to chew threw my armour buffer 50% faster than before.

So capsuleers beware of rocket Kestrals and Flycatchers. They no longer suck!

Ouch!!! Those new Rockets Hurt!

2010-12-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

Need I say more.... Toterra's Claw was destroyed

Damn... those new rockets really really really hurt!

During a fight: adapt to the enemy or die

2010-12-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Those who are able to adapt and change in accord with the enemy and achieve victory are called divine.
-Sun Tzu

Last night I had a very nice little solo fight. I was in my Claw and took on a Dramiel. After dancing with him for a bit I eventually engaged him on a gate. To be honest I didn't think I had much of a chance. A Dramiel is a deadly ship. Basically it embodies everything you could want in a frigate (tracking bonus, falloff bonus, damage bonus) and adds in three drones, a faction ship tank and un-godly speed. To even have a chance I figured I had to engage him at point-blank range and hope for the best. I loaded my best anti-shield ammo (RF Phased plasma as I had not brought along EMP) and hoped for the best.

As he power-approached me on a gate I knew the fight was on. Instantly I activated everything but my armour repper. Within seconds both of us had lost shields. This was a little odd. I figured that he would have a shield extender. But as he hit armour two things happened.. One, I stopped doing any damage. Two he started repping his armour. Rather than a shield buffer tanked ship I was against an active armour tank. Very interesting

This is where the title of the article comes in. No plan ever survives first contact with an enemy. Time for a new plan. After checking the icons on the overview it was apparent that he had a tracking disruptor on me messing with my tracking. Even my fast tracking 125mms autocannons were not able to keep up with a fast moving ship so my DPS had dropped to zero :(. Meanwhile he was still hitting me with his guns, and his three drones. There was no way my SAR (small armour repper) could keep up to that onslaught. I needed to cut the angular velocity between us and do it quick.

I aligned for the sun and started motoring in a straight line*. This gave him a harder target to try and orbit. Thanks to my scram his speed advantage was cut significantly. I soon started to pull a couple km of range on him and angular velocity fell. My guns started doing damage again. Things started to shut down on my ship as I started to run out of cap. We were both using NOS on each other to power the armour repper, but we were both likely dry at this point so it was no use. At this point he should have reacted to my change in tactics. His plan of track-disrupting me was no longer effective, but he still had an advantage of speed and range. He should have started to kite me at this point. His ship had a fall-off bonus, plus his drones work at range, plus he had a warp-disruptor, so he could have moved to 10km and just waited for me to pop. At the very least he could have warped away (my scram had capped out and so had his disruptor). Instead I managed to keep him between 2000m and 3000m, well within both of our fall-off range. Quite likely however he was having similar cap problems as me so instead he continued to try and maximize angular velocity which played to my strengths.

I had a slight advantage of higher resists, a tech-2 repper (no cap though), and a larger buffer. He had more overall DPS (thanks to the drones) but was shooting RF EMP which was fighting against my highest resistances. In the end my choice of going with Phased Plasma because I had no EMP decided it. I was in 40% structure as he popped. GF all around I looted and then limped to high-sec to repair my burnt out afterburner.

The moral of the story is to have a plan at the start of a fight, but pay attention. When things change either adapt, or run. Look at the icons on the overview showing e-war effects and note what is being done to you. If they loose point, and you are about to loose a 100m isk ship... then run. There were lots of things I was ready to react to. For example. if he had tried to kite me at 15km, I would have switched to his drones.

*Note: The other option at this point would be to approach gate so that his orbit would crash into the gate, killing his velocity both transversal and angular.

Shameless plug ... Proposal in the assembly hall

2010-12-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

I have put the first point from my 5 Things to improve the new player experience in the Assembly hall for the CSM to look at. Go and have a look at [Proposal] Every Race Needs a 'Rifter' and also a 'Thrasher'

I would appreciate it if people went and gave it a thumbs up (or thumbs down).

Cheers!

New T2 Ammo Choices for Short Range

2010-12-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

One of the big changes with the new expansion is the boost to the short range T2 ammo. Long range T2 ammo has always been popular. Barrage, Scorch, and to a lesser extent Null have all been used extensivelly to increase the range of short range weapons despite the fact that they deliver a significantly lower damage load to faction ammo. The short range T2 ammo does deliver the same punch as the faction ammo, however it came with many severe drawbacks to things like signature radius and cap recharge. This combined with lousy tracking made short range T2 ammo drastically inferior to faction ammo.

With Incursion this has changed. Short range T2 ammo is now boosted. Gone are the weird crippling side-effects. Reduced is the tracking penalty, and boosted is the damage so that it now hits significantly harder than faction ammo. Lets have a look start with Autocannons since I know most about them...

Autocannons

In the past when going up against a ship that I believed was armour tanked I would load RF Fusion into my guns. I had barrage for the rare case when I wanted to kite, but usually I just wanted to get up close and personal. Now there is another option to choose from...

Hail S has delivers a combined load of 15.4 base damage. This is a full 12 % more then the equivalent RF Fusion ammo. While the optimal range is the same as RF fusion S, Hail has the additional drawback of 50% less falloff and 30% less tracking. In effect this means that against slow moving and/or large signature radius targets, if you can get to optimal range, Hail is what you want to use.

Lets imagine an example of two identically fit armour tanked Rifters engaging each other, both trying to get into point blank range. One has loaded Hail S and the other has Republic Fleet Fusion S. As they approach the RF Fusion Rifter is doing more damage. However once they are both at 500 metres, each being scrammed and webbed with a low transversal velocity, the Rifter with Hail S will be doing nearly 12% more damage. In the end the Rifter with Hail S will win. If the Rifter with RF Fusions S had instead tried to keep range at 5000 meters or so, then the ship firing Hail S would be deep into falloff and the Rifter firing R Fusion would win. However if the ship with Hail S had instead loaded Barrage S, then the tables would turn again.

In other words for a Rifter... at 1000 m

Hail > RF Fusion > Barrage

at 3000 m
RF Fusion > Hail > Barrage

at 5000 m

Barrage > RF Fusion > Hail

Interestingly, because of the tracking penalty

at 100 m or any situation where a combination of angular velocity and signature radius causes tracking issues to start...

RF Fusion > Hail > Barrage

I should also note that there is one case where Hail completely fails... shooting at drones. They are too fast / small. So don't go engaging that Ishkur with Hail S fitted.

Pulse Lasers

Pulse Lasers face a similar situation. Conflagration now has the same range as imperial Multi. However it has the following two drawbacks. Like Hail, tracking is 30% slower, it also consumes 25% more capacitor to fire. IOW it is the same as the old Conflagration but with less of a tracking penalty and 10% more damage. Since Lasers have a pretty decent range to start with, I think that this ammo is going to be pretty popular in slug-fests. Expect many a pilot to fit this ammo type along with scorch for when things get close.

Blasters

I think a lot of Hybrid weapons users are going to be very disappointed. Like Pulse Lasers, Blasters have an improvement to damage output and less of a penalty to tracking. The problem is that blasters are already cursed with close range and mediocre tracking that this ammo just magnifies it's weaknesses. I can see it being used in rare cases to squeeze out a more DPS in EFT, but in space this ammo just isn't going to cut it. I really wish CCP had decided to give this ammo the sort of boosts it needs to make blasters a more viable weapon type.

No More Learning Skills

2010-11-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

Someone at CCP finally got a clue.... NO MORE LEARNING SKILLS!!

This is a huge change for new players. It means that they can actually get on with playing the game, not messing around learning useless skills because they are worried that a year down the road they will fall behind in training relative to what they could be.

Thanks CCP... you make me happy long time :):):):)

5 Things a NEW PLAYER can do to improve their PVP experience

2010-11-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

Earlier I wrote an article describing 5 things I would like CCP to do to EVE to improve the experience. It got me thinking about what a new player can do to improve their PvP experience.

5. Take it easy on the learning skills
So many people say to train up learning skills and use implants. They are carebears. You want to kill stuff now, not wait a month to train up stuff that won't help you kill stuff now, and will take at least another year before they pay off. Filling your head with implants is even worse..... you PvP and you will get podded. Unless you have unlimited ISK having expensive implants will make PvP seem too expensive. Instead you should concentrate on gunnery, spaceship command and other skill that will help you blow stuff up. Don't completely ignore the learning skills, but don't concentrate on them either.
EDIT: That advise sure went out of date fast! In a couple of weeks there will be no more learning skills :)

4. Aspire to fly interceptors in fleet, not just another DPS boat
It has been said far too many times that one of the biggest mistakes a player can make is to rush too fast into larger ships. The next ship, after perhaps destroyers, that a new PvP player should go for is an interceptor. Inties are absolutely critical to any fleet. They are also one of the most active roles. Whether they are scouting up ahead, or racing to grab a point on an enemy at a belt, or just running with fleet as a tackler, the interceptor is what makes fleet PvP happen. Additionally, flying an interceptor is a great learning experience. All of the skills you learn flying an interceptor will be useful when flying other ships. Every race is blessed with a great fleet interceptor so train for them and fly them. (Note: the fleet interceptors are the ones with a bonus to warp disruption range)

3. Do some solo PvP using T1 Frigates
Start by reading The Altruists blog posting about 'Interceptor Fishing'. As mentioned before this blog posting covers a basic strategy of using a T1 frigate to bait, trap and kill a common T2 frigate. Following this strategy will accomplish several things. Firstly it demonstrates the basic strategy of grabbing someone, pinning them down, wailing on them with all you got, and hoping that your tank will outlast his. This may not be the most sophisticated strategy, but it does work. By flying solo a bunch of times, loosing lots of cheap ships that you can afford to loose, you will learn how to handle yourself in a fight. You will also learn what not to do when you yourself are flying a T2 Interceptor.

2. Join a corp that actually does PvP
I can't stress this enough. If you are not in a corp yet, or worse, in a corp that concentrates on Level 4 missions and wormholes, then leave. There are lots of PvP oriented corps out there that will take relatively new players with the right attitude. If you can't find one the easiest way IMHO is just do some solo PvP in a T1 frigate in NPC 0.0 or in low-sec. The guys who kill you.... talk to them about joining up.

1. Take an Agony Unleashed PVP-Basic course
I may be biased but if this class and the subsequent roam does not rock your world..... EVE may not be the game for you.

New Blog from Fellow Agony Member Discusses 'Interceptor Fishing'

2010-11-17T20:45:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give a shout-out to Azual and his new blog The Altruist . He opens with a really great article about Solo PVP in 0.0, or the art of interceptor fishing. This is definitely worth a read for anyone new to PVP. Interceptor fishing is a common strategy we recommend to new pilots in Agony. In short it is an easy way to reliably kill expensive T2 interceptors with T1 frigates. Take a look ;)

5 Things to improve the new player experience

2010-11-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

Looking at the recent Quarterly Economic Report I am really stunned at the lousy performance of new players in PVP. Basically players with between 1 million and 5 million SP (about 4 months of play) have what seems to be a 30 to one death to final blow ratio. This is completely disheartening and remedying this should be the #1 priority for CCP on the next expansion. Here are 5 things that I can think of that they should do. Some should be easy for CCP to implement, some require some additional game design, but all of them are doable and would help new players get over the initial start in EVE.

1. Every Race Needs a 'Rifter' and also a 'Thrasher'

The Rifter and the Thrasher are pretty much the perfect T1 frigate and destroyer. As a result these are the perfect ship for a new player in the first couple of weeks of play. Fast, easy to fly, easy to fit, decent DPS, decent tank, not too expensive, what is not to like? None of the other races has a Tier-3 frigate or destroyer comes even close. Let look at them and figure out what could be changed to give players who are not Matari something to play with in the first month.

Amarr Punisher
The simple problem with the Punisher is that it lacks the midslots to actually tackle anything. I get it that Amarr ships are supposed to be armour tanked and slow, but combining that with having to choose between fitting either a propulsion mod or a webifier is not going to work. Move a low slot to a mid slot.

Amarr Coercer
If a Punisher is bad with two midslots, the Coercer is useless with only one. Again move one low-slot to a mid to give it at least a chance.

Caldari Merlin/Gallente Tristan
Split weapon layouts = bad. This is doubly true for new players as it is for experienced player. A new player climbing into one of these ships is going to quickly realize that they need to train a whole lot more to be proficient at both hybrids and missiles. This should be fixed. Give both ships a 3/3 turret/launcher hard-point configuration which ups the DPS and give more fitting options for low SP characters.

Gallente Catalyst
Is this ship is designed to get up nice and close to an enemy and pound on them with unholy DPS? Not really, it is too slow to get in range to take advantage of its tracking bonus, has a useless falloff bonus, and no damage bonus. What exactly is this ship supposed to do? Swapping the falloff bonus for a 5% per level damage bonus would be a start.

Caldari Cormorant
This ship really can fill one role, long range sniper with negligible DPS. In a pack of 30 this is useful, otherwise it is just pointless. I say return this ship to it's Caldari roots and give it 7 missile slots and the appropriate bonuses. With the up-coming rocket buff this might actually work as a awesome platform.

2. Areas that encourage small ship vs small ship PvP

A 50 million SP character flying a BS has about 10x the DPS and 20x the tank of a 1 million SP character flying a Rifter. However a 50 million SP character flying a T2 Frigate has about 2x the DPS and 2x tank of a 1 million SP character flying a T1 frigate. We need parts of space that restrict ship size to smaller ships. I know we already have a bit of that with wormholes and missions, but I am talking about whole constellations of NPC 0.0, low-sec and high-sec that have ship size restrictions.

I think areas like this would be very popular for both new and old players. It does not create artificial boundaries as to what players can do, nor does it create carebear safe-zones where PvP is impossible. Rather it would provide an environment where new players could PvP and actually have a chance against all of the ships they come up against, rather then be restricted to the role of tackler.

3. Injectable skill complete with training

You remember when you started playing EVE. Everything seemed to have soooooo much potential. And then you realized you would have to wait before getting to the next level. I understood that the skill-training by time thing made sense, however it sure was frustrating that no matter how many missions I did in the first few hours, it mattered not to my characters experience level. I was not going to get into a destroyer for another day and there was nothing I could do about it.

Wouldn't it have been nice if there was some experience point like reward for that first 12-hour marathon of playing. That there was something I could do to get over the initial bump and start flying ships with funky new things like afterburners and maybe even get into a Tier-3 frigate or a destroyer. Instead I was frustrated and considered quitting (many do at this point).

So what I suggest is that as a reward for some of the early missions have special skill-books that inject fully trained skills to Level 3 into the pod-pilots head. Just have enough of the core skills injectable this way. I am not talking about advanced skills, nor skill to a high level, but enough to shave off a few hours to the training time for the handful of skills that new players need to feel like they are getting somewhere in the game. Making isk and grinding faction standings are not enough.... they need to feel like they are getting something similar to exp as well.

4. Discount packs of skills

Another problem new characters have is isk. Asking them to spend a million or so on skillbooks is quite a stretch. There should be some sort of steep discount for buying a pack of skillbooks that are common for new characters. Say 200k isk for all of the skillbooks needed for basic level certificates for each race. This would go a long way to making it easier for new players to not get frustrated on the first couple of days.

5. NPC 0.0 needs a boost

For many pilots the search for where to PvP is a challenge. High-sec and low-sec have complicated rules of engagement that typically leave a bad taste in the mouth, and favour higher SP characters. After all, a Rifter tackling a Brutix on a low-sec gate gets insta-popped by gate guns, while a Brutix tacking a rifter has little trouble tanking the guns.

Instead players need a free-for all area where anything goes, and has station to dock in, get repairs, upgrade clone, etc. That is where NPC 0.0 comes in. Unfortunately with the Dominion patch these areas are mostly devoid of life. Since there is no sovereignty, there are no system upgrades. Without system upgrades their profitability relative to SOV 0.0 is greatly diminished. I say these systems should be upgradable. They are controlled by Pirates, I can't think of a better magnet than that. Anomalies of all types should abound providing players with equal isk opportunities as upgraded SOV space and lots of opportunities to Pew-Pew without interference.