Streaming EVE on OWN3D

Over the last 6 months I have been enjoying watching Sard Caid's twitchTV stream. I prefer watching streams to highlight videos since streams show solo/small gang EVE for what it is, hunting with 99% boredom and 1% terror. Most videos exclude out the 99% boredom part which is where most of the strategy lies. If I wanted instant PVP I would play CounterStrike.

With the alliance tournament broadcasting on OWN3d I did a little research and noticed that both twitch, and own3d offer free streaming accounts. With a little digging I learned that the software needed, xsplit is available for no cost. With about an hour of configuring and installing and troubleshooting I was broadcasting on the OWN3D site. :)

My current play style is basically running a small gang as FC once or twice a month, plus lots of solo roaming 3 or 4 times a week. The solo roaming can be a pretty lonely existence so I started to broadcast the feed. With as many as a dozen viewers I jumped through gate after gate until eventually DIAF, sometimes with a kill or two, sometimes not.

All in all I have really enjoyed broadcasting and will now be broadcasting all of my future solo activities and probably some of my gang activities as well. You can find my broadcast when it is up at the top of this blog site (once the tourney is over), or at my site on OWN3d called 'Toterra'. Videos of the roams will be uploaded when complete. In general I will be broadcasting when I am on from 0200 to 0500 eve time depending on my RL schedule.

Cheers!

Blog Banter 35 - Lovely Rifter - Pity it Will Never Be Released

Like pretty much everyone else who plays EVE I was excited by the Lego Rifter and voted for it. Now that we have released 10,000 votes the project is moving on to the next phase - the review phase. This is how Lego describes this new phase (just the essential bits) :

What happens now?
... "LEGO Jury" composed of designers, product managers, and other key team members will examine the idea ... determine if the concept meets our high standards ... and fit with the LEGO brand. ... When finished, we make a "go/no go" decision to develop and sell the Rifter. ...
The LEGO CUUSOO Team

So here is the important question... do you think EVE, and the EVE community what with the goons and Mittanigate and all that, fits with the LEGO brand?

The other three projects from LEGO CUUSOO all fit nicely. Two spaceships are textbook LEGO products which totally fit with the brand. Minecraft is a reletively non-violent game that has actual similarity to LEGO in many ways, it fits nicely. Do you think a game where people get drunk on stage and say stupid things, a game known as a griefers paradise, a game with a terrible public perception fits with the LEGO brand?

No, it does not. Time to get excited about Back to the Future I guess.

I do hope that I am wrong.

Note: There will be no podcast this week as I am off to Bermuda for long needed vacation.

Scram Web - An EVE Online Podcast - Episode 3 - The $19.95 a Month Edition

This is the third episode. I discuss EvEisREAL, loosing ships to a gate camp and T1 Solo cruiser fits. Enjoy!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Solo Roaming in Cruisers ... On a Budget

An absolutely fantastic post on Failheap-Challenge by Prometheus, [HOW2PLAY] Solo Roaming in Cruisers, gives detailed fitting and tactic recommendations for Brawling T2 and faction cruisers. If you read only one thing about EVE PvP strategies this week, that is the post you want to read. In it he covers a variety of ships that he feels are ideal for roaming around in.

For Prometheus, he has a laundry list of attributes needed for a roaming cruiser...

- tank more than 35k ehp
- not be reliant on cap boosters
- align faster than 7 seconds
- be faster than 1200m/s before heat
- be capable of dealing over 550dps

Any ship that can meet these requirements can be counted on to stand up in a close range fight against similar and even many above class ships.

The problem with his post is that the ships are expensive. At about 200 million isk per ship they are hard to justify for many players. So the question remains, how close to that level of performance is possible using T1 ships? After a bit of playing with PYFA I came up with the following fit for a rupture:

Tank is just short of the 35k target, but close enough IMHO. It is not reliant on cap boosters, however cap is limited if those small neuts are in fact used. It is a bit slow to align however it is faster then the 1200 m/s. DPS is just over 80% of the target.

Obviously this ship can not keep up with it's T2 and faction counterparts. However it is pretty close. A Vexor or a thorax also can be fit quite nicely to be very close to meeting Prometheus' criteria.

I would suggest to anyone, if you are going to be trying out one of those expensive fits, fly and loose at least 5 of these cheaper T1 cruisers first. Otherwise you are just throwing money away.

Edit: Since someone asked me, here is a possible Vexor fit (Keep in mind that I am not overly familiar with fitting Gallente)

A little less tank then the Rupture, but, counting the drones, more gank. A very nice ship and one that should be feared.

It is the Mistakes That Get You

Today I wanted to talk about two recent losses I had to gatecamps. In both cases I could have survived, but I made tactical errors that cost me my ship.

The first fight led to this lossmail: Jaguar Lost In Providence

After a long run through null from syndicate I had been bumping around near the Dital and Assah entrances to providence looking for some action. Withe the recent changes to Assault Ships I am still looking for my 'New' Jaguar fit. Jaguars now have the tracking bonus so in theory the web is no longer as needed. This plus the extra low-slot makes for several interesting possibilities. The fit I was in was a heavy tank, some gank MWD fit with two medium shield extenders giving it about 15k EHP and + decent shield recharge rate. This is a very tough nugget. A nanofibre in the new low slot makes this ship about as fast and maneuverable as the shield Rifter. On the downside, damage is only mediocre.

The problem with this fit vs a more ganky fit is that with the lowish DPS it can take a long time to kill a target. I was not going to be popping anyone under the eyes of their gang. Unfortunately all I could find were a series of 5-10 ship gate-camps in the area.

In the end it was one of these camps that got me. In 9-FOB on the 4B-NQN gate I jumped into a HIC bubble. There was a gang on the other side so rather then bump back and forth a few times, I decided to burn away. I failed to realize the significance of the Ashimmu on the field :(. With it's high price tag and bonus to webifiers it was likely fitting a faction web extending it's range. Not realizing that this was the major threat on the field, I was more concerned with the small ship tackle, my escape trajectory brought me within about 15km of this ship where I was promptly stopped cold. Going 300m/s 20km from gate while under MWD was not going to get me to safety.... I died.

The loss led to this loss-mail: Jaguar Lost In Syndicate

This was a bit of an experimental fit, an active armour tanked Jaguar. I have seen these before and thought, with the extra low-slot, it was quite viable. In this case however it was the pilot (me) who led to the loss. There was a gate-camp on the FD-MLJ to PF-346 gate (pretty much always a camp here). However the gate to X-M2LR was clear. I jumped through and held my cloak. 'Perhaps something interesting camping the other gate would come and chase me' I thought. Not a bad plan but execution is key. I held my cloak until something came through, in this case a stealth bomber uncloaked. I gave chase but couldn't catch it. At this point a Sabre came through and launched a bubble. Not having aggression and still 20km from the sabre I was safe. I could outrun a sabre or burn back to the gate. Unfortunately at this point I mis-clicked my overview and resorted everything by name. By the time I had my bearings (which entry was the gate) the sabre had moved into range and I was tackled. With other ships pouring in certain death came soon later. Oooops!

The importance of both of these losses was not that gate-camps killed me, it was that they killed me ONLY after I made avoidable tactical mistakes. Gate camps are a fact of life in 0.0. Some of them will be un-escapable. However most of them are not perfect. They can be dodged in a fast ship. It is the mistakes that get you.

Sidenote: Today is the 100-year anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic. For e the historical significance is this.... it is the first of many huge, and entirely avoidable, tragedies of the 20th century. Pity the 21st is off to an even worse start.

Professional EVE Players - The EVE is EASY project

When I first noticed the EVE is Easy website and videos from Garmon and Willl Adama, I was stunned at the professional quality of the videos and the amount of work that went into the projects. I suspected that it might be more than just a hobby project and it turns out I appear to be right. In the latest video, a 'preview' video, the content and more importantly, the comments, indicate that this is going to be a paid site. See the video and comments for yourself here:

EVE is EASY - Dual Thorax Guide [preview] + New EIE Site Details!

In particular this comment is very telling:

No Scams :)

We are going to be working on this website full-time pretty much, so there is going to be a commercial aspect to it. The details aren't worked out yet, just stay tuned for the 14th!

eveiseasy in reply to benos59 1 day ago 6

Have Garmon and/or Willl Adama become full-time EVE players. Apparently such professional players do exist in other games. The life of a pr0 is pretty sweet (seee http://www.purepwnage.com/) I guess.

If so this is an interesting development within EVE. Of course they may not actually be the first. Aside from the RMT guys mostly running bot farms there are rumors of Russian FCs being paid to play. In a game where virtual goods have valuations in the thousands of dollars, such a development is not surprising.

As for the EVE is Easy site there are now more questions than answers. We don't know how much it will cost, will it be a one-time fee or a subscription model, nor exactly how successful it is going to be. All will apparently be revealed in a few days when the site goes live. We do know that Abbadon21, who seems to the third person working on this site, has his own instructional site with a one-time membership fee of $30.

So I wish these guys good luck with their venture. I don't know if I will subscribe to the site. Depends on the cost mostly. But with Garmon and Adama running it, it is quite tempting.

Of course if you are looking for an introduction to EVE pvp you really can't do any better than take the Agony Unleashed PVP-Basic course. We teach groups of students the basics of how to fit and fly frigates in 0.0. We also offer an intermediate course in destroyers, and an advanced course in cruisers which cover a wide range of topics in much more depth.

Edit: $15 per month... $199 for a lifetime subscription ... too rich for my blood.

Scram Web - An EVE Online Podcast - Episode 2 - The Percocet Edition

High on percocet due to a shoulder injury, I decided to record a second episode. Enjoy!

Topics Discussed:

• Feedback from first episode including how to fight a blaster ship.
• A fight in Syndicate involving me vs a punisher, dramiel and two stealth bombers.
• Shout-out to Sard Caid for his live stream.
• Discussion of what is happening with minerals.

Download this episode (right click and save)

Minerals... The Perfect Storm

In the 2000 movie 'The Perfect Storm' a confluence of several large weather systems all at the same time merged to create a massive storm in the North Atlantic that claimed several lives. Since then any time an event happened where several rare events coincided to reinforce each other it has been referred to as a 'Perfect Storm'. What we are seeing today in mineral prices in EVE is an example of such an event.

Here are the following elements:
1. Large ISK faucets: With incursions introduced last year, combined with ever more productive ratting from higher skilled/equiped average players, ISK per player is on an upward trend.

2. Mass Bannings: CCP Sreggs and team have started mass bannings of bots and RMT traders who operate, among other things, huge fleets of mining ships extracting minerals. The influx of minerals into the markets from these operations is reduced.

3. Proposed Rogue Drone Changes: Rogue drones are going to be changed to have bounties instead of dropping minerals. The influx of minerals into the markets from these operations is reduced.

4. Proposed T1 Rat Drops: Wrecks from rats will no longer have the relatively mineral rich T1 meta 0 loot. The influx of minerals into the markets from these operations is reduced. Edit: Just confirmed that meta-0 items to be replaced by one unit of metal scrap. This refines to less tritanium than most modules and no other resources.

and the icing on the cake...

5. Hulkageddon: Starts later this months. With the huge backing of the angry goons this should be the biggest Hulkageddon ever! Miners beware! The influx of minerals into the markets from these operations is reduced. Lost ships (ganked and gankers) will increase the demand for minerals to facilitate replacement.

The end result is that speculators are predicting a massive drop in the supply of minerals, which coupled with a cash rich player base, will result in a massive spike in ship and other product prices. We have seen 2x increases in battlecruiser prices already. Other ship classes are also showing similar increases. Ruptures for example are now priced above 10 million ISK. Since insurance payout adjustments lag the market in increasing the cost of loosing a T1 hull has gone from very small to now as much as 50% of the purchase price.

The effect of this on the game is dramatic. Expect players to become a lot more cautious with their suddenly expensive ships. For example I recently lost a Diemos on a roam with my corp. It will cost me almost twice as much to replace it. I am considering purchasing a cheaper ship like a stabber fleet issue, that will still fit the same gang doctrine but not impact my wallet.

At the same time that time honoured and ridiculed profession, mining, has suddenly become much more lucrative. Expect a lot more mining fleets in empire and out in 0.0.


This effect will be most pronounced on new players. A 10 million isk rupture, a 70 million isk Drake will completely change the new player experience, for the worse.

Of course the CCP in-house economist must know about what is happening and could predict these changes. He has several possible tricks up his sleeve that could ruin a speculator's day. He might delay one or both changes to the loot mechanics. I don't think that will happen however. What I think we might see very soon is a change to the amount of minerals per hour mining. Either increasing the refined amount of minerals per unit of ore and/or increasing the mining yield of mining lasers both would negate some of the effect on the overall market, while still making mining as a profession viable.

This is an interesting time for the EVE economy. Personally I think these changes are long overdue. The loot mechanic of getting minerals just always felt wrong. By making mining a viable and important profession again, messing with botters, things will eventually achieve a new, better equilibrium then before. I just wish I had the forethought of stocking up first.

Using Gate Aggression Mechanics to Split Apart the Enemy

Recently I left on a nice long round-about roam. Or at least that was the plan. Oddly I seem to have been stuck in Providence. I can't seem to make it very far without running low on ammo/cargo space for loot :). Earlier this morning I logged on and had a very quick fight on the 9UY-H to H6-CX8 gate. I thought that this fight represented some very basic strategy that any pilot aspiring to solo pvp must know.

The situation was this. I was in an Enyo and saw a Jaguar on d-scan. A Jaguar vs an Enyo is a good fight, could go either way. The main issue being wether or not the Jaguar tries to pull range or not. Anyways, I engaged him on the H6 gate and quickly started taking him down stripping him of his shields and well into armour. Unfortunately his buddy in a Sabre popped through the gate. With the added DPS from the Sabre + the likely additional points and webifier, this turned from an easy win to a likely pod-loss. Aligning for the sun I hit the overloaded MWD bailed out. :(.

At this point I decided to keep on trying for these guys. My systems were damaged (but not offline) from overheat so my effectiveness was reduced, but I figured if I could take on one of them alone I should still come out on top. Warping back to the gate I took a quick glance at them and jumped through.

With only the two ships against me I was in a very safe situation. Neither of them alone or together could prevent me from getting back to the gate. Of course they were also 'safe'. No way I could engage them both at the same time. What I needed to do was get it so that they were both in a state of aggression on opposite sides of the gate. That way they could neither get out through the gate, but help would have to wait the full 60 second timer to come in.

Clearly they were on to my plan. I couldn't get either of them to aggress. So I started giving them a little encouragement. On the side of the jaguar I inched slowly off the gate. My plan was to convince the jaguar to engage me since I could not immediately go on through. It worked. I was about 4000m from the gate when he opened fire. I quickly motored back to the gate and jumped as soon as I could. Shields were dropped to about 50%.

Now I had a very small window to act. I had about 60 seconds before that jaguar could come in. Fortunately the Sabre decided that he was willing to play into my plan and he launched a bubble, giving him aggression. I immediately locked and approached the Sabre, scrambling it once in range and opening fire. He returned fire but, with only a slight DPS advantage, and a much weaker tank, he went down before the Jaguar's aggression was up. Thanks to his own bubble I was able to get the 90m+ isk pod as well :). The jaguar finally came through but, after the drubbing I had given him solo earlier, was in no mood to play without help. I probably could have engaged him, but I did have significant damage so I just played it safe. I looted the wreck, popping what I couldn't hold and left.

TL;DR: I used gate aggresion mechanics to isolate each member of their gang on opposite sides. This included baiting the Jaguar by moving somewhat off gate to encourage him to take a chance. These same tactics can also be used in larger gangs.

Mittani has Resigned - Removal from CSM and 30 Day Ban Imposed by CCP

According to the following dev-blog : http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=28576.

Personally my respect for him is much higher then before the entire incident started. He clearly has done exactly the right thing in response to his actions once he had read the transcript. CCP did exactly the right thing by banning him for 30 days and removing him from the CSM. I understand there are those who called for him to stay on, but it appears he made his decision and I actually applaud him for it. It was really the only action that was possible. His resignation from the chairmanship and removal from CSM 7 should end this story and put an end to the distraction it has caused from an incredible fan-fest and launch of DUST514.

He will be able to run in a future CSM and for once, I can say without reservation, that we will likely have my vote.

Edit: Just listened to the 'State of the Goonion' .... I take it all back. "We will test the waters by destroying Jita" ??? "Understand that I have been fucked" ??? What a self-important twit.

Edit2: WTF is all this crap about this being CCPs fault for not vetting the presentations ahead of time. Do people really want all player driven communication to be censored first! Let's face it, next years alliance panel will be lame. CCP gave us players a little bit of rope and we (or at least our alliance leaders) hung ourselves. It what world can we, the players, blame CCP.

Edit 3: Mittani seems to have calmed down and understands what is happening. Voices of the Void Interview. CCP had no choice. Tough but that is just the way that it is. And I agree with him that the media stories were so innacurate, however that is usually the story. Anytime you hear a story in the news and you know more about it then the reporter, the mistakes just make you cringe. Deal with it.

Goons Finally Wrecked EVE... Fanfest Controversy

So the big take-away from fanfest has suddenly turned overnight from Dust514, ship re-balancing, cruicible, and now everything seems to be focused on a poor choice of words from the Leader of the Goonswarm Alliance/part-time CCP spokesperson/CSM Chairman for life/The Mittani/Mittens. I was there in the audience and in the context of the venue, the context of the discussion and the panel itself it didn't sound so bad. However, taken on it's own this is a huge PR disaster. This is what he said...

"Incidentally guys, if you want to make the guy kill himself his name is ### ###. It's "#" "#" "#" "Space" "#" "#" "#"
He has his own corp. Find him."

This is really bad. It is in clear violation of the CCP Terms of Service, and, much more importantly, in violation of the Laws of the United States if not Iceland. Encouraging a mob to get someone to kill themselves over a social network type situation (and that is what eve is) is not something that CCP or Sony wants to be associated with.

What are the implications?

Firstly for the Mittani who, once sober and reading the above quote realized his mistake it is pretty much the end of his EVE career. He has already gracefully apologized and given his ISK to the victim. He has declared that he will step down from the CSM after talking to them. No Rush Limbaugh here. I suspect there will be a permaban placed on his accounts from CCP in an effort to quell the PR disaster. I don't think that he will face prosecution in the US for his statements nor will he be disbarred, although both are certainly possibilities. It is possible his taking full responsibility and apologizing will reduce the impact but far from certain.

For CCP this is about the worst clusterfuck imaginable. When trying to launch a new product that will be free to download onto the PlayStation network, to suddenly be associated with a case of apparent cyber-bullying is not good. Sony may very well pull out. It depends on the amount of press this receives. Video games have a history of tension between role-playing violence and those who would like to prevent kids from playing violent games. As a result there is a surprising amount of resilience to gaming companies to controversy.

If Sony pulls CCP's chain then EVE has a problem. I would not be surprised if there was a patch preventing suicide ganking in the very near future. There will certainly be clear modifications to the Terms Of Service and EULA coming.

As a reference... here is the first 4 sections of the EVE Terms of Service:
From the terms of service:

1 You may not abuse, harass or threaten another player or authorized representative of CCP, including customer service personnel and volunteers. This includes, but is not limited to: petitioning with false information in an attempt to gain from it or have someone else suffer from it; sending excessive e-mails, EVE-mails or petitions; obstructing CCP Employees from doing their jobs; refusal to follow the instructions of a CCP Employee; or implying favoritism by a CCP Employee.
2 You may not use any abusive, defamatory, ethnically or racially offensive, harassing, harmful, hateful, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, threatening or vulgar language. (Alternate spelling or partial masking of such words will be reprimanded in the same manner as the actual use of such words.)
3 You may not organize nor be a member of any corporation or group within EVE Online that is based on or advocates any anti-ethnic, anti-gay, anti-religious, racist, sexist or other hate-mongering philosophies
4 You may not use “role-playing” as an excuse to violate these rules. While EVE Online is a persistent world, fantasy role-playing game, the claim of role-playing is not an acceptable defense for anti-social behavior. Role-playing is encouraged, but not at the expense of other player. You may not create or participate in a corporation or group that habitually violates this policy.

TL;DR - EVE Fanfest + Mittani = Drama

Note: The target of the attack is alive and well and is still mining in space mostly oblivious to what is happening it seems.

Agony Teaches CCP To Stop Sucking

So far it has been quite a fanfest. Most of the sessions have been quite good, or if not good, entertaining. As expected the alliance panel was a drunken fiasco. It started serious with eve university giving a powerpoint presentation, went to audio clips of people singing their national anthems for ransom, and ended as a mittani three way love-in between test, dns black and the mittani.

The dust514 keynote was a blast despite being an hour late due to technical issues. Orbital bombardment is good. They didn't show the opposite of ships on the ground returning fire but according to the round table that should be possible as well. It seems that they are going to start with making dust a factionwarfare tool to begin with and expand later to include 0.0.

Today's sessions were also good. Ship balancing and redesign is going to be huge. Basically there is no ship that is immune to the sweeping, and seemingly awesome changes. In short, ship tiers are going to be removed and replaced with a more role based outlook. Bonuses will align around what the ship is supposed to do, not arbitrary hodgepodge fits.

Other changes of interest are the apiece stuff for developers. Expect great new 3rd party tools coming soon.

Of course the big news for Agony is that the new producer, CCP unifex, is former agony, or at least a past student. Awesome!!!! Expect the future to be about spaceship explosions!!!

On a side note any inkling of pay-to-win is dead. Devs are publicly and privately tripping over themselves declaring that it is gone, gone, gone! This is good.

And one last thing..... Missile TRAILS!!!!

Fanfest 2012 :)

Just got into fanfest:). I got to say Iceland is really great. Everyone from the airport to the hotel to the restaurants to even the other tourists are very friendly. I am staying in hotel odinsve located in the center of reykjavik. About a 10minute walk down to the spectacular harpa convention center. The weather has been iffy.... Cold yesterday with a few snowflakes fluttering in the wind, however the sun did peak out on occasion which was nice. Today, the first day of fanfest, it started out raining. I, recovering from a night drinking with other agony members, staggered down to the site and got my tickets.

So what am I looking for from fanfest?

In general what I want to see is that CCP continues their push to get EVE to achieve its potential. There is a lot of talk about Dust514, and considering the number of press that have been invited, the launch is going to be a big deal. I just want to see that the flying spaceship part is not left in the dust.

View of the bay in the sunlight (mountains are about 1000m high)

Harpa convention center

A lineup of spaceship nerds

Great new trend in PVP Videos

Like every other aspiring EVE pvp'er I on occasion watch one of the awesome Garmon or kil2 or Kovorix or Prometheus Exenthal videos to see how it is supposed to be done. I am not bad at this game. I can fly around 0.0 or low-sec just like they do. I can warp to 0 at ease. Gate camps.... I see them all the time. Sometimes I even impress myself by cleverly landing in a belt just as the hauler warps off.

The difference is that, while I run away or die at the gate.... they seem to have a different outcome. Why is it that my armor repper seems to be completely overwhelmed by incomming damage, while they have to turn it off on occasion to fool the massive enemy fleet that they are taking on solo into thinking that he is close to going down? Why is it that I find myself webbed well out of range of a rapier, while they seem to effortlessly sling themselves right at it and land a scram?

Fortunately the answers to these questions is starting to become more apparent. While in the past most EVE videos were accelerated playbacks of good fight after good fight, we are starting to see a bunch of videos that pause the action and actually explain what the heck they were thinking and how they do it.

Let's go over some of the best....
First we have Kil2 and Kovorix's Bringing Solo back youtube channel. They have a bunch of great winning, and more usefull, loosing fights complete with commentary. Good stuff.

The other big one is the EVE is EASY site put up by AT IX winning Genos Occidere pilots Garmon, Duncan Tanner and Will Adama. Very detailed information complete with maps, a lot of pausing, and a lot of thought. I really like this site. My only complaint, if you could even call it that, is that since they pause the action so much you don't realize just how fast paced the engagements are. These pro's really can think through all the tactical scenarios faster than I can start powering back to the gate. Great stuff.

Also worth looking at, especially for beginners are the videos being put up by Agony Unleashed as supplimentals to the PVP BASIC instruction that they (and I as a member of AU) offer. The two videos so far, one on tracking and spirraling, the other on the all important directional scanner, are signs of good things to come. Great work!

Back in Agony

So after spending a year wondering New Eden, I have returned to the only corp where I truly felt at home, Agony Unleashed. It has been an interesting year, I participated in 500 man Maelstrom fleets, asked for and received ransoms, failed at starting a noob corp (twice) and joined the carnage of Red vs Blue. But Agony is really where I belong. A null-sec corp that cares more about blowing stuff up then blowing up their ego. I seem to have joined at a good time too. Several old members are back. We live in Syndicate now, which, with Outbreak moving into our home system this past few days, should provide for much pew pew.

Just before I joined up Temprail (from Agony) completed a nice video called 'This is Syndicate'. Unlike the usual EVE video this one combines both great fights with an artistic eye. Well worth watching...

The 'Arenas' of EVE

The Mittani tweeted a few days ago:

I withdraw any support for 'arenas' or 'battlegrounds' in #eveonline, it already exists in RvB. Holy shit this owns.
@TheMittani #tweetfleet

He brings up a great point that I think is lost on many players. In EVE most thing that are in other games come about as a mechanic, are player driven. There are no set arena's in EVE. However there are lots of Arenas.

For me an Arena is a place you can go to get some mostly consensual PvP action without much effort. Grab a rifter or other ship you are willing to loose, and head to any of the following places and you will inevitably get a fight. Obvisouly RvB is effectively an arena setup in high-sec and provides quick PvP. However if you are looking for something different there are many other easy places to find pvp.

Arena #1 Amamake: Upon arrival in the system warp to the sun at 0. You have about small chance of landing on a fight. Then use the directional scanner to scan down each of the planet clusters. Look for comparable ships like Rifters, Merlins, Incursis and Punishers. If flying a T2 frigate look for these plus destroyers and other T2 frigates. Warp to a belt when you find something. If nothing there stay for a 30 seconds or so then warp back to sun. Great practice for directional scanning. You will almost always get a fight within a few minutes. Typically, about 50% of the time, the target will have one or two ships backup that will arrive soon after fight begins. Also check out nearby Auga and Dal.

Arena #2 Molden Heath (Bosena/Heild). Expect several small pirate gangs to be operating with cruiser and under sized hulls. Gunboat Diplomacy and Black Rebel Rifter Club are very active and will engage any small target very quickly. In addition there are several other groups operating in the area plus tourists. The static plexes in Heild are more often then not the main spot where fight occur. Check Sard Caid's feed which may be active and is a great source of intel. In general major pirate corps in area will accept and honour 1v1s. Molden Heath lowsec forms a nice loop that is great for a quick roam.

Arena #3 Hevrice: Home to Tuskers PvP corp. In addition there are several other entities in the area. Check out Hevrice as well as the several adjacent lowsec systems looking for pirates.

Arena #4 Tama: Like Amamake this system usually has several active small gangs and solo roamers at any one time. Warp to celestials scanning down potential targets. You won't be disappointed often.

Arena #5 Syndicate: This entire region is populated by many smaller alliances and corps specializing in small gang pvp without the burden of sov warfare. Small gangs are the norm but solo fights are still frequent. Be prepared to deal with bubbles and the occasional hot drop. Best region to roam in if you are in a small gang yourself. Lots of stations for 0.0 that are NPC so you can dock. I prefer to enter from the Harroule-MHC-R3. The Orvolle-PF-346 gate often result in crashing into a gate camp getting to the main trunc. Beware there are many areas that are well connected, but there are also some dead-ends you can get camped in.

This is far from an exhaustive list. But if you are looking for a fight, either solo, or in a small gang, these areas are awesome arena's to learn the ropes of PvP and have a good time. Be warned, locals do know what they are doing. Don't fly what you can't afford to loose.

I Fail So Bad ... I killed myself :(

This made me laugh - Check out the bottom ship on the kill:http://www.agony-unleashed.com/killboard/index.php/kill_detail/75438/

Stupid BO hot-drop .... I guess Agony has found someone to replace me as Thursday night FC in the year since I left;)

At least someone else got revenge on their BO fleet ... http://www.agony-unleashed.com/killboard/index.php/kill_related/75448/

Edit: Reading this the next day it sounds like I am shedding tears. Not really meant that way. More just laughing at myself for bubbling my little gang in while tackling obvious bait.

Dear Master...

Dayton, Tama,

January 31, YC113

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Amarr

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Toterra, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Republic would have hung you long before this, for harboring Amarrians they found at your estate near Amamake. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Republic Fleet Captain whose escape pod had landed on your estate. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Tama Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get 100 million isk a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Toterra,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They don't go to your faith's Sunday school, but Mandy and me have found faith elsewhere. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them Matari people were slaves" down in Amarr. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Amarr to belong to your house. Many Matari would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in YC111 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Metropolis. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At 25 million isk a month for me, and two million isk a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven billion six hundred and eighty million isk. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Tama. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust your god has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Amarr there was never any pay-day for the matari any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the matari children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Toterra.

P.S. I hear that you often fly from Amarr to New Caldari on business. I will keep an eye out to wave to the transport ship. I am sure I can stand the hit to my sec status to properly say goodbye... Pity Amarr citizens of your stature are not allowed clones.



See the original letter here ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/in-recently-discovered-le_n_1247288.html

EVE 2009 and 2012 ... Gate Crash Bug

So after a couple of days cursing and moaning at my machine I have re-installed EVE, re-installed windows, updated drivers and the like, yet I still crash on about 5% of the gates. For example, going from Otou to Hek crashed my EVE client 100% of the time. Not all gates, and it seems not all players, but something is totally broken. With the game now completely broken for large numbers of players, we all look to CCP for answers. CCP Habakuk | EVE Quality Assurance places a nice post on the issues thread saying assuring us that 1. The know what the problem is and 2. Fix almost ready. But then, 36 hours later, bug is still there and no more information is forthcoming. I know that it is the weekend and all but, geez get your act together and talk to us.

Of course this is all familiar. A couple of years ago during the Apocrypha expansion CCP started monkeying about with cloaking and module activation. They broke the whole MWD-Cloak warp trick eliciting huge tears from the player base. They undid the changes and broke gates. Basically, everyone was disconnecting every three or four gates. Made roams very very frustrating. It took them days to fix :(

So CCP, get your act together. You are right now competing with that Star Wars game which has suffered from some serious bugs. Fix your stuff, or at least talk to your players about progress on a solution. Bugs happen, it is how you deal with them that matters.

Edit: New post from CCP https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=729810#post729810. Looks like the fix will go in on tuesday. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Taranis 2.2

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.