Confess your sins to Bob

We make light of the learning curve in Eve, even after over six years of continuous game play I still learn new things all the time. Those lessons are far more nuanced than they used to be, admittedly, but I still get surprised by some crazy shit I didn't know almost every week.

Which got me thinking. What are the top five most stupid things I've done in Eve? Yes, there's a lot more than five, but for the sake of brevity...

5. In my early days of PvP [cough] I would can flip miners in HiSec belts. It frustrated me when they anchored Giant Secure Containers in the belt so I trained hacking to level 3 to mess with them. Yes, I really did.

4. Warping an alt in an Orca from my HiSec to my POS without scouting it first. Orca lands in a bubble 600km's off the POS greeted by a Hound, an Arazu and a Dominix. I had a couple of months worth of ice related products on board to make POS fuel with, too. Ouchies.

3. Rolling a NullSec connection with a corp mate, totally misjudging the mass limit on the hole and rolling him out in Red Alliance space, over 20 jumps from HiSec in a Faction Fit Abaddon. No, he didn't make it.

2. Tackling an Orca that was scooping a tower but my two Asteros were unable to break his shield regeneration. So I warped one out to re-ship for more DPS and soon discovered the Orca had warp core stabilizers fitted. -_-

1. Offlining modules in a POS in preparation to move out of a hostile system when I offlined the whole tower. Three haulers floating in the force field were killed by one bomb and I managed to online the tower 15 minutes later without anyone noticing. >_>

When have you been gripped by the dumb?

Credit Stealing Bastards!

I've recently resolved to go back to a more pro-active style of hunting. The trapdoor spider approach, whilst highly amusing when it works, was destroying my soul with the endless hours of waiting. I'm going to pretend that I've got better shit to do, OK?

After a long day at the office and under a searing sun I was pretty shagged when I slumped into my plush leather captain's chair last week. I was sure some time spent in the service of Bob would rejuvenate me, so I got to exploring the chain. I had a couple of transient connections which may have scored me a Heron at a Relic site had I been about a minute faster, but I'm really after more interesting prey than that, so I return to my home system and just as I'm about to switch to another character I notice a new signature has populated my scan window. I quickly scan it down to find a K162 connection to a C3. The spawning mechanic being what it is, there's no way for me to know if it was a player jumping the hole that spawned it or if it was a chance based spawn, I'm certainly hoping it's the latter and there is nothing on D-Scan to indicate I have a visitor. So I jump through and D-Scan the new system to reveal an engaging discovery. Lots of Sleeper wrecks, a mobile tractor unit and two Rattlesnakes. However, there is an active force field also.

I find the Rattlesnakes quickly and as I land on grid with them in my Astero they are just finishing the site and both are warping back to the safety of their POS. It's possible they spotted me jump in, but there are very few signatures on scan so I think they may be under the impression that they have no open entries. A quick look at their killboard and my eyes widen; they've lost three Rattlesnakes in the last month fitted with Dead Space active shield boosters, shield boost amplifiers and A-Type Adaptive Invulnerability fields, worth over 700 million ISK on their own. The planet they warped to has only one moon, so I warp in on it at range to monitor their movements. It's about now that it all went horribly wrong. As luck would have it, warping in at 100 km's from my angle of approach got my Astero de-cloaked by the force field. They've spotted me for sure. I warp off and cloak up, cursing my bad luck and apologising to those in comms that I was rallying for the intercept.

To my amazement, even after salvaging the site they had just finished, they started up again. So once again the fleet is forming up, arriving at the HiSec connection as they finish the site. Next time they go out, we strike.

Only they didn't go out again. For whatever reason, they got suddenly gun shy. One Rattlesnake stayed camped in the POS whilst a Helios and Astero buzzed about their chain, never spotting our fleet but not resuming normal activities either. After an hour of this we call off the hunt and I resolve to camp the system with my scout until suitable prey turns up again.

What followed was a week of frustration. For days they'd barely log in at all and when they did, just idle at POS for a while before logging off. I was really starting to regret this idea all together when finally one of their pilots logs in already piloting a Kronos and immediately leaves the POS to go kill some sleepers without checking system at all. I'm not sure if he's brave or stupid, but I'm betting on the latter. My mains are 30+ jumps away so I put the call out in a shared intel channel only to discover my only entry is in the middle of butt fuck nowhere and they are all the best part of thirty jumps away too. With my quarry only having three combat sites to run, we're never going to get there in time. So I silently watch in my Astero and say a little prayer to Bob for a better connection next time.

Some days later, having succumbed to boredom and revealing myself by blowing up an Astero and an Epithal of theirs I was ready to give up on my camp. So I log in, cloak and hit D-Scan expecting nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly my watch list pings, it's the Marauder pilot again! The connection to K-Space is better now and I put out the call as I arrive at their POS and see the Kronos warp off to a combat site. He's got seven to grind through, we've got time. The fleet comes together as he's salvaging the first site, we're ready to pounce the moment he gets back into the Kronos and starts on site two. As if knowing that, he does absolutely nothing, switching from Noctis to Velator, logging off, logging on some PI alts, logging on again and finally, logging off.

I table flipped. Fuck this! I had a job to go to anyway so, once again, I apologise to my fleet members and go to work. For the record, I had a ripper day and made many PLEX worth of human monies =]. Upon logging into Eve after work I am immediately hailed by Jack Haamilton and linked the following kill mail. The credit stealing bastards! ;)

Op success. Thank Bob that's over.

Coming Out

In my last post I wailed on Wingspan a bit for their seemingly exclusive modus operandi of picking fights with those that are unable to defend themselves. I've received some criticism for this with the argument being made that my killboard and tactics more similarly resembles theirs than I'd like to admit. Despite clearly stating in my last post that I'd be a hypocrite to suggest I don't do it myself, I'd like to address that.

I consider myself an equal opportunity PvPer. Will I gank the Epithal pilot doing his milk run? Yes. The miner huffing on gas in his 20K ISK Venture? For sure. The newbie explorer hacking a Relic site? Absolutely. Does this make me just like Wingspan? No. No it doesn't.

I live in W-Space specifically because of the unknown. The level of paranoia that you have to operate with just keeps it engaging, for me at least. The chief problem I find is content. As an Australian time zone pilot, my hours of operation are conspicuously light on population regularly logging in to find only 15,000 players online and only a fraction of those scattered amongst the over 2,000 Wormhole systems. We down under W-Space types really are starved of PvP content of any significance. Our evenings are invariably spent hunting any pilot we can find, regardless of what they're doing. As such, our best chance of getting a good fleet fight invariably comes from POS or POCO timers. If your enemy has a deadline, you can plan a time to have your people assembled to meet the coming wave. But those instances where you stumble upon like minded PvP groups? Well, they're few and far between for us Aussies, so we satisfy our appetites on whatever falls our plate.

It's not what we want to do, it's what we're forced to do. For Wingspan, it's all they do. But chin up, lads. At least you're not grinding rocks for a living.

For those wondering what happened with the POS siege, well, as expected, when a defence fleet arrived the aggressors faded into the ether. The POS owner was able to safely extract all of his high value items, Marauders, Faction Battleships and the remainder were abandoned in the off chance that the POS owners could maintain hole control when the reinforcement timer came around. Alas, they could not, heavily out numbered they either logged off or went AFK so I set the Chimera to self destruct and passed on the insurance ISK to their CEO. If nothing else comes of this, they learned some important lesson on POS defence. It goes something like this...

1. Always keep at least one hauler in your SMA full of POS guns and ammunition. Even under reinforcement they can be anchored and onlined from the safety of the force field and used to destroy not just aggressors, but interdiction bubbles. They're no good to you in the Corporate Hangar Array, once you're reinforced there's no way to access them.

2. Always keep spare Strontium on hand.

3. Always have Armour Logistics ships on hand to repair incapacitated modules.

4. Always have multiple hole rolling ships on hand and interceptors to run the gauntlet of interdiction bubbles.

5. Always have every pilot trained in Starbase Defence Management. With the low skill requirement now there is simply no excuse for not having it.

Blue Balls

I try to be civil with my fellow EVE players, be they hapless noobs or jaded bitter vets but you can't help but form certain opinions of those you encounter when you see the same pattern over and over again. I was reminded on Reddit about one particular Wormhole Alliance that I've had the displeasure of crossing swords with in the past in this article. La Division Bleu are infamous for never getting involved in a fight that isn't an absolute certainty or only fighting under conditions that will allow them to withdraw to HiSec without risk. You can try to provoke them into a fight and they will blue ball you until you say "Fuck this, roll the hole!" and then try to gank your rolling ships. Truly a class act and yes, that was sarcasm.

In recent times I've spoken of my disdain for Wingspan. The pattern is very similar to that of La Division Bleu, exclusively attacking either weak, defenceless or horribly outnumbered pilots. They make no secret of their tactics, indeed I dare say they wear it like a badge of honour. But really, there's no honour because there's no fight. It's just murder. Now, I don't take issue with this, I'd be a hypocrite if I did, indeed I thought with their expanding numbers there was a good chance they would front up for a decent fight again but alas, my hopes have been dashed. They seem mired in their play style and oblivious to what they're denying themselves.

A four man corporation occupying a Class 4 Wormhole is just the sort of seal clubbing exercise that Wingspan are currently intent on executing. Initially reinforcing and destroying a small tower, they have now also reinforced the remaining large tower. A cry for help was sent out and the promise of content wasn't one I was going to ignore; our player driven MMO needs these sort of events, after all. So our small band of Aussies, and I'm talking four pilots here, committed to come and die in the ships he had scattered around his POS to a force that was far greater than our own. A massive unknown in all of this is Wingspan's intent, however. We don't know if this is an eviction so they can claim the system or just something they're doing to drive content but it's presumed it's the latter, they're very fond of telling everyone "we're not satisfied until you're content" and whilst it's an amusing double entendre it's rarely actually the case, sadly. Either way, let's make best speed and die in a fire, at the very least it'll be something interesting to blog about.

It's upon arriving in the target system that their motives become really fuzzy. They're critting the holes, indeed rolling them when a pilot tries to enter system. They're actually preventing content. This isn't a thirty strong Proteus fleet with Guardian support, oh no, this is Bex in a Crow. I could maybe understand if it was indeed an eviction and an attempt to claim the system but the information I'm receiving is that isn't the case. So what is the point then? You set a timer so you can have actual content but then don't actually want a contest? I really do wonder if they know they're not actual space ships they're flying, they seem that terrified of losing one. The other variable is of course, profit. But anyone who's ever sieged a POS knows the victims won't allow their goods to fall into the hands of the aggressor. Every ship will be set to self destruct, insurance will be collected and the aggressors will get a POS killmail for their week of hard work. Worth it? I can't imagine how. But I guess I'm of a different mind. I'd rather fight and lose than not fight at all.

A Flying Start

The move to Aridia has so far yielded many lols and some funny kills; I think I like it here. To kick things off I moved out to the region in an Astero to try and find a Wormhole chain that would aid me in bringing some ships in. We're in a two system HiSec pocket surrounded by LowSec systems so it seemed the best option. With no good connections in our staging system I moved one jump over to the only other HiSec system, drop probes and slow boat back to the gate. I've only just started probing system when a Sabre with a criminal flag jumps in. I don't think too much of it, there's plenty of people with poor security status in an area surrounded by LowSec, but I turned on my Damage Control regardless. Immediately the Sabre burns towards me, tackles and starts shooting. I wasn't going to miss out on a free kill for anyone, so I returned the scram and the Sabre pilot realised his error all too late.

During our move operation Iyokus jumped a gate in HiSec to find a Tengu being wailed on by a couple of war targets. Being a lover of mischief, he yellow boxed the Tengu himself, who promptly fired on him scoring Iyokus a kill with the assistance of Concord. There is no limit to human stupidity. But the real fun was yet to come.

This morning we find a very convenient R943 connection in our staging area connecting us to a C2 Black hole system with a HiSec connection. At first we thought it would be a handy route to bring in more goods but then we noticed a bit of Orca traffic in and out of the HiSec connection. Some new residents were setting up a tower. So of course we proceeded to camp the HiSec, only four jumps from Dodixie to welcome the Orca back on his return. In the process of waiting we had a couple of explorers wander in who we had to dispatch, but one in particular got very angry and came back with haste in a Vexor, only to lose that too. Just as we've cleaned away all of the wrecks and cleared up D-Scan, the Orca's scout Astero jumps in, burns off the hole and cloaks up. We hold our nerve, remaining invisible, waiting for the prize. Minutes later there is wormhole fire and the Orca presents itself. We immediately uncloak and burn for its position. He cloaks up, but his fate is sealed with three ships converging on his last visible position and uncloaking him in just a few seconds. The three of us get tackle and start pounding on his shields and bumping him away from the safety of HiSec. Then there is fire on the Wormhole behind us, reinforcements? Of a sort; a corp mate of his in a Thorax was the offending ship but he wasn't too interested in sticking around, warping off to POS and leaving his stricken friend. The next move was a strange one but the Orca pilot clearly knows he's doomed so he jettisons a Nighthawk from his Ship, boards it and we quickly tackle it and start withering away at the shields. It's clearly not geared up for DPS and poses no threat allowing us to dispatch it and the Orca in short order. Oddly, no kill mail turns up for the Orca, so we've taken screen shots and sent off a petition. No idea what will come of it, probably nothing, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. =]

Always bet on Black

Way back when I trained into Capitals I really had no clue why I was doing it other than I just wanted to own a Carrier and a Dreadnaught. I had almost no appreciation of the skills I'd have to train along with the Spaceship Command ones and even getting them done to Level 4 was a significant time investment. An investment that has never really paid off, to be fair. Oh sure, there was that time in Mai when Cracker and I undocked on a pair of NC. Carriers that had "mysteriously" drifted off the Station undock, blapping them mercilessly with the Moros and Revelation even as their reinforcements were cyno'ing in around us, unable to save their stricken friends. Then there was the time I suicide jumped a Moros into a Mate roam with the express intent of blowing up Bam Stroker's Chimera; but other than that, my experience with Capitals has been underwhelming. I haven't invested any skills to level V other than Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration to make the most of Tech II Siege modules, now of course Tech II Capital Weapons are on the horizon and any serious Dreadnaught pilot will be wanting those. It's just... i'm not a serious Dreadnaught pilot. I'm an opportunistic one, at best.

Just when I thought opportunism might come knocking again, the rug has been well and truly yanked from under me. I'm moving to Aridia in the coming days to live out of a HiSec pocket surrounded by LowSec systems and W-Space connections with the hope of finding regular content. I've begun gathering my things and planning my fleet composition when it occurred to me this would be a great time to finally use my carriers to, at the very least, shuttle my stuffs into position. Having a Dreadnaught nearby couldn't hurt either.  So it's over to DOTLAN to plan my Navigation and.... 12 fucking jumps. Do I really want to put up with chaining rookie ships for 12 jumps just so I can move a few ships and maybe a Dreadnaught or am I better off just dropping 250 million ISK on Black Frog Freight and having it all magically show up in station one day?

Black Frog wins that argument, every time. So once again, due largely to the jump restrictions placed on capitals a little while ago, my capital fleet remains unused. Why do I bother?

Mad Skills

The recent DevBlog regarding skill trading is certainly worth a read. I'm pretty impressed with how CCP have gone about this; initially floating the idea with the community and taking the best feedback from that discussion to come up with what looks like a pretty efficient model. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of it, you can read the DevBlog for that, but it does get the mind racing about how one can best take advantage of this new mechanic in the service of Bob.

Rather than creating skill points from nowhere, this system will actually reduce the total skill points on New Eden as space rich bitter vets purchase blocks of 500,000 skill points from other players and then inject only 150,000 into their heads. Frankly, I don't have a problem with that, this mechanic is borne out of making new players more useful early in their EVE careers and all Bob wants, all He thirsts for, is the unwilling sacrifices of more capsuleers. Anything that increases that likely hood is a good thing.

Of course, it also means there may well be a glut of inexperienced players flying ships they have the skill points to fly, but not the know how. How is that not awesome? I mean, don't you just love curb stomping the guy who just bought a 100 million skill point character but has no clue what to do with it? I know I do. I have fond memories of a friend buying a high skill character, fitting out a faction fit Proteus and dying horribly to a gate camp in LowSec. Close examination of his blaster fit Proteus showed Imperial Navy Heat Sinks in the lows! Many guffaws were had at his expense and I now remind myself that it's been years since I brought that up with him. I'm such a terrible friend.

Characters with less than 5 million skill points will of course reap the best rewards, paying no penalty for the skills transfer. As such, sending your low skilled scan or PI alt a few million skill points from your own main, or someone else's for that matter, will be a pretty handy option. Creating a cloaky cyno camping character will just be a matter of ISK and people will have no clue how many skill points your character has based on their age in game. The meta game has lots of potential here. The only unknown at this point is the ISK factor.

Considering a PLEX currently sells for around 1.2 Billion ISK and one month of training should net you roughly 1.6 million skill points, I expect these bundles of 500,000 skill points will sell for around 400 million ISK once the market settles from it's initial over exuberance at the shiny new thing. Of course, a lot depends on how much the Extractors are going to cost and at this stage, only CCP knows.

Depending on the cost, I see myself dropping some pretty serious ISK on short cutting some Leadership skills so I might get the most out of the Command Destroyers. Other than that, I just look forward to the ripple effect. What horrible skill will you sacrifice your hard earned ISK to circumvent?