Back in the Service of Bob

Way back when Pirate Faction Data and Relic sites started appearing in W-space I used to spread Bob's love to all who would stumble upon the Class 2 Wormhole I called home. Using Night Fever as an instrument of His Divine Will, all visitors were bathed is His Holy Electromagnetic Glory and their frozen husks offered as tribute at the true centre of that system's star. Following the offering, a recitation of the Prayer of Bob would follow and, in keeping with tradition, Bob would soon see fit to lead another into my place of worship for ritualistic sacrifice. They were the halcyon days of low class wormhole systems.

With the passage of time however, the greed of the explorer waned, fewer and fewer chose to make a sacrifice to Bob and as a Blood Priest of the Almighty, I was left with little to do. With my attention being drawn elsewhere and the lion's share of explorers I encountered merely trying to bait Bob's Holy Instrument, I reluctantly decided to withdraw from active ministry.

Over the last twelve months much has changed in New Eden, most notably in regards to Alpha Clone States. It has seen an influx of old and new characters returning to active duty and, in keeping with finding ways to financially support active duty, explorers are returning to Anoikis. Although still not in active ministry, Bob is surely trying to tempt me. Over the last several days I have seen numerous incursions into my region and, for old time's sake, I have seen fit to demonstrate the power of Bob's love and the kill marks are racking up. But already it seems some have taken note.

Several pilots have fallen victim in recent days, none of them of note, all of them I suspect to be Alphas. Until today. A K162 connection from a Class 2 wormhole occupied by The Glory Holers may make for some interesting content. Before too long an Anathema is on scan and I patiently lay in wait for him, wondering if his greed will get the better of him. Before long he lands in the only Relic site in system and goes to work. Reflexively I align to his position and hit warp, getting de-cloaked as I land and immediately unleashing Bob's Divine Wind. As I align to a celestial and see D-Scan is clear, his ship and very soon his pod, explode in glorious fashion and Bob is pleased.

Reciting the prayer I clean up the mess and deposit the frozen husk in the depot atop my Astrahus Citadel. As a devotee of Bob's good work I need no proof of his existence, but for the heretics that remain unconvinced I present to you exhibit A. Just moments after the clean up a Drake is in system, probing and warping about. My suspicion level is high but the pilot gives no indication of being bait. Emboldened by Bob's deliverance I throw caution to the wind and engage regardless. I know there is another Anathema in system, probably watching the Drake, perhaps even coordinating with it, so I do my best to counter the prospect of a brick bait Drake by engaging with my Rook and applying additional damage from a Nemesis. It's very unlike me to dual box, but I leave my destiny in Bob's hands.

I get a nice warp in on the Drake, apply tackle and cycle my two Caldari jams alternately, keeping him perma jammed for the most part. Meanwhile my Nemesis is unleashing Torpedoes on the target whilst keeping him painted, giving my Rook's Heavy Assault Missiles every chance to land for maximum effect. Appropriately the Drake is significantly well tanked, but his fate appears sealed. As he hits low armour the Anathema I had seen briefly on D-Scan earlier appears at very close range but I won't be distracted from my target just yet. I lock him to switch tackle as the opportunity arises and have my Nemesis switch his target painter to the smaller target. The Drake soon explodes and I turn my attention and drones to the Anathema that now has my Rook tackled. As expected, D-Scan is now filling with all manner of hostile vessels no doubt coming to prosecute my Rook. Unequipped to jam out the Anathema and make my escape I decided that I will, at the very least, take him with me. I align the Nemesis out but leave him on grid for as long as possible to help kill the surprisingly durable little frigate and it does eventually explode but not before back up tackle has arrived and my Rook succumbs to the overwhelming firepower focused upon it.

On closer examination of the Anathema it's clear what his purpose was. Fitted with a 400mm armour plate and specifically tanked to resist electromagnetic damage, this explorer was designed to resist Night Fever. It might have worked too, except that the pilot was from the same Corporation of the previous Anathema I had vapourized. Both Wingspan and That Cloaky Bastard have made far better fists of it and missed out, I wasn't about to fall for a somewhat ham fisted attempt. Not that I don't appreciate the effort though, I really do. Good fights, see you on the flip side. =]

The Bar Hound

On the way back to my HiSec staging area after yesterday's first day out with Bomber's Bar I take a gate and see a suspect Orca being attacked by a pair of Proteii [that's plural for Proteus :P] from Vendetta Mercenary Group. I seem to recall them being HiSec WarDec griefers but this Orca is flashing yellow, I can't ignore that. I set my kite up at 30 km's, damp his scan resolution so he can't send his drones after me and send my Nova Rage torpedoes to assist in the take down. I can only assume the Proteii were of the cloaky variety because they didn't seem to be doing a whole lot of damage and my little Hound that somehow survived the smart bombing debacle of earlier in the day had himself another billion ISK kill. I really must do this Bomber's Bar thing more often, it's getting me nice kills just by undocking!

Day two in Bomber's Bar and I'm joining a fleet that's been going for several hours with limited success. En route to the rally point, some twenty odd jumps through High and LowSec regions, the comms are electric as they try to take down a Rorqual being supported by a SubCap fleet. Despite losing six or eight bombers spirits are high as they've taken some high value targets down in the process, coming out in front of the ISK war to the tune of about a billion ISK. As they fall back to staging some pilots drop fleet, but already more are joining. It's a living, breathing animal with an insatiable blood lust and I'm just a little bit inspired to be a part of it.

With the element of surprise gone the connection to that particular region of NullSec is to be rolled away and a new one sought out. Bob was unkind during the rolling process, taking our scouts to several sparsely populated regions but we eventually hit pay dirt. The fleet of around forty Black Ops, Recons and Bombers laid in wait whilst the hunters did what they do best, simultaneously stumbling upon Carriers grinding for ISK. One group made warp before tackle could be laid but the second target was not so lucky. Sitting 350 km's from a POS forcefield with his fighters engaged at long range we jumped through the wormhole into Curse, waited for the bridge and jumped on our target. Now, I've been on a lot of Carrier kills in my time, but I've never seen one succumb to SubCaps so quickly before. I landed perhaps two, maybe three volleys, before this one popped, but I guess that's what happens when you don't take tanking seriously. A 2.5b ISK Nidhoggur is a pretty decent start.

The fleet quickly looted what there was of value and reformed not having to wait long before another scout finds a pair of Nidhoggurs engaged in ratting. Cyno up, through the bridge and finally the chance came to sling some focused void bombs at a target. His shield buffer was significant and the Falcons did a fine job of keeping the fighters off our backs. Eventually he succumbed however, quickly exploding once his shields were breached. With attention switching to his friend D-Scan began to light up, a rescue fleet was inbound. The call was made to clear the bubble and align out, the fleet comprised a large number of small ships that would tear through our bomber horde in short order if allowed to. As I had been preparing to make another bomb run I was well clear but I could see some of our number being positively pedestrian in their efforts to clear the warp bubble. That lack of urgency cost a few of them their ships, a Rapier and a pair of Bombers if I recall correctly, but it mattered not, the ISK war was, once again, well in hand.

Two Nidhoggurs and an Orca down for about six billion ISK, I think I like it at the bar. :)

Time to hit the bar.

With a week off from work before the Solstice I thought it was high time, after six years or so in the Eve Universe, that I hook up with Bomber's Bar. It's not something I can usually do as they operate well outside of my time zone but with little else to do with my days this week I could at least waste one day as a bomb lemming. I missed out on the shenanigans in M-O but 10% TiDi would've done my fucking head in anyway, so it's a blessing in disguise. Nonetheless, Bomber's Bar got some great publicity out of it having bombed a Machariel and Cerberus fleet to dust and as the public roam fleet coalesced it became clear I was going to be a part of a very large fleet.

Something like seventy bombers and various Black Ops, Recons and Blockade Runners formed up in HiSec whilst the hunters went looking for content. I was quickly reminded of my brief forays into NullSec as we sat waiting for a target to present itself for almost ninety minutes. Comms was rapidly deteriorating into bad jokes and piss pulling until a frantic voice called "Check check!". Comms went silent as the hunter called the target, a Rhea class Jump freighter well off a gate with a Widow escort. It smelled like bait but with 70+ bombers in fleet, who the fuck cares? The Cyno went up, a bridge was established and we all fell through the apeture onto our target. With the Rhea called primary and the Widow out of lock range the damage on the freighter was tremendous but the cavalry was landing. A Cynabal and a Hurricane were horribly under equipped and quickly called primary, driven off almost as quickly as they arrived so damage was resumed on the Rhea. It gloriously exploded and the pilot was liberated of about ten billion ISK worth of ship and loot. Meanwhile, our Arazu had managed to keep the Widow in place and when attention was turned to him he was dusted in efficient style. Two and a half billion more there to the kitty.

Much guffawing and slapping of backs ensued and I had to admit, I had a pretty big smile on my dial. Not so much for the kills themselves, but for the excited enthusiasm from some of the new breed who had never participated in such a take down. Some of them professed to literally shaking and one could barely form words. I do miss that feeling.

The fleet reformed on the BLOPS bridger and our hunter soon had another target. A Rorqual sitting about ten kilometres off of an outpost. With a devil may care attitude we immediately jumped on it, bumping as best we could and applying damage. It quickly activated its panic module and it was about this time we realised we had tackled a Rorqual in Pandemic Legion's main staging system. Oops.

A moment later a cyno is lit and no less than three Titans and a Supercarrier were on the field. Miraculously we all got out, but the fun wasn't over. Clearly outgunned we proceeded to make pests of ourselves, first nailing a Sabre on a Jump Bridge and then making another run on the Rorqual. Another Sabre landed and was quickly dispatched, but not before he got some bubbles down and the Titans landed again. A few of our number got caught but the casualties were light.

Cloaking up and reforming on the BLOPS again I got interrupted by my wife and warped off to a safe. Turns out she saved my little Hound as one of the fleet members had played turncoat, dropped fleet and provided a warp in for the Titans right on top of our BLOPS ships and bombers. I return to my desk to see my fleet mates scrambling to escape but very few did, brought undone by a Pandemic Legion turn coat.

The fleet was officially over, but the ISK war was easily won. If you can fly a bomber, do yourself a favour, hook up with Bomber's Bar and throw caution to the wind. Join the "Bombers Bar" in game channel and the "Bombers Bar ML" mailing list. You won't regret it.

I've created a Monster.

Of my Citadel tenants there is one who has displayed a potential blood lust, lamenting with me about missed opportunities to persecute explorers fitted with warp core stabilizers. We've all been there. You bookmark a system and lay in wait like a good trap door spider, see a potential victim wander in, set up a warp in for tackle, uncloak at point blank range and scram your target, only to see it align and warp away. Which is why Night Fever works so efficiently.

So I shared my fit with my tenant, not really expecting anything to come of it. It is, after all, a significant investment for a very specialized purpose. Some days later, logging in to check on my little empire, I'm greeted with excitement and a kill mail...

Wingspan had a crack at the explorer just before hand and were brought undone by the warp core stabilizers, so they get a consolation prize and appear on the kill mail too, but let's hope this is just the first of many sacrifices made to Bob by the latest scourge of the Universe and Blood Priest of Bob, Zebuhla.

Fit for Porpoise

With the update to Singularity curiosity got the better of me so I logged in to look at the newest addition to the ORE fleet of boosting vessels, the Porpoise. It's a ship that should be of particular interest to wormhole residents not just for its boosting properties, but because it can take advantage of frigate sized wormholes and the ores and ices that lay within.

The new feature of interest however, is the range bonus it receives to medium remote shield transporters.They can stretch their effectiveness to well beyond thirty kilometers and when your boosts have a range of about twenty five, it's perfectly suited for keeping your mosquito mining fleet alive.

Used in a shattered wormhole system that only allows the passage of frigates and destroyers it adds a layer of survivability to otherwise low hanging fruit. Of course, the ship laying down the shield reps had better have survivability itself or it's all for nothing. In keeping with that thought, I came up with this.

Set up as a mining fleet booster and logistics platform it's actually pretty durable. With the afterburner going it's able to maintain a capacitor level of around 40% as long as you have cap booster charges. Importantly, it has 64,000 EHP with which to sustain incoming fire. With a flight of five medium drones it's not totally unable to defend itself either, put a drone damage amplifier on there and the DPS goes up to over 200. Enough to make any frigate take note. It's still going to fall, make no mistake, but coupled with a pair of well tanked Procurers it could be a hell of a job and the outlay of ISK required will not be so steep as to make it an unacceptable risk.

I'm quite certain that someone enterprising is already developing a bait version of this ship with some sort of absurd shield recharge tank; I'm looking at you, Trinkets. You take the bait and suddenly a swarm of small shield tanked ships are upon you, getting combat boosts from the bait you've bitten, just to rub some salt in the wound. Should make for some pretty decent lol-mails. =]

A Fitting Title

There's a lot of significant change coming to Eve next month and I'm yet to find a single instance where CCP might have over reached. Alpha Clone states promise to bring more people to the universe, off grid boosts will be a thing of the past, industrialists will get their buildy buildings, Rorquals can no longer hide impervious to raiders and it would seem the days of the Eve Fitting Tool and the Python Fitting Assistant are numbered. The in game fitting window is nothing short of brilliant, allowing a pilot to experiment with all manner of fittings for ships they fly and even ones they can't. Citadels get the treatment, too. It's beautifully designed and, from my rather cursory examination of it, not at all buggy.

It's not going to mean those other fitting tools won't have a use, of course. They can, after all, be used out of game and this one cannot. It certainly makes your average Joe far less reliant on out of game tools though.

Anyway, it's on Singularity now so do yourself a favour and check it out.

A Miner Problem

The recent DevBlog regarding the various changes to mining makes for some interesting reading. As a reasonably enthusiastic miner in my early days I have pretty well developed skills in mining that I haven't taken serious advantage of in years, so it's fair to say the changes have got me intrigued. And I really like the direction that CCP are taking, too. It's clear CCP want to bring the risk back to mining as the mining barge and exhumer overhaul of the past made under used mining platforms virtually invulnerable and far more effective at extracting resources. It effectively killed the annual Hulkageddon event as no one bothered to use a Hulk anymore with the Skiff being only marginally less efficient but next to ungankable in HiSec space. As someone who reveled in blapping unsuspecting Hulks mining AFK in HiSec regions, this was a massive disappointment.

There's an awful lot covered in the DevBlog but one thing caught my eye in particular. The Porpoise. The name gives it away as a smaller version of the Orca and, in keeping with ORE design, the Primae hull was an obvious choice. The fact they have given it the sort of mass that it can traverse a frigate sized wormhole is telling. Now those lucrative shattered wormhole systems that spawn NullSec ice and ore will have a dedicated hauler/booster to assist in a mining operation. I wrote about this conundrum some time ago, finding a solution in the form of an unscannable, off grid Command Destroyer, but with offgrid links no longer being a thing, the Porpoise is a timely addition. I suspect Noobman, the Wormhole representative CSM, had a fair bit to do with this addition and I'm pretty happy I gave him my vote now.

The bonuses of the ship are interesting. Much like an Orca, only slightly less effective in the boosting role, but with the interesting addition of a 400% bonus to the range of medium remote shield boosters. A decent sized fleet of shield tanked Prospect or Endurance frigates, backed up with Shield links and remote shield reps, would be a tough nut to crack for a small gang. Moreover, the Porpoise itself looks to have a pretty capable tank, enabling the remote reps to stay on the field long enough to allow the fleet members to escape as you'll no doubt see yourself called primary. Of course, in an Orca that'd be the sort of loss you couldn't possibly countenance, but the Porpoise is going to have a value of around sixty million ISK, so a degree of risk is certainly worth it for the occasional loss you might sustain.

Now, I love what CCP are trying to do here. A well organised mining outfit could see itself as very defendable. The sheer amount of Drone DPS would make any small gang nervous. Indeed, if it became popular enough you might see Wormholers fitting smart bombs in their utility high slots to deal with the drone threat effectively; but there's the rub. Will it be popular?

That question can best be answered by examining the nature of the lion's share of miners. It's far from being scientific, but my experience has been that they are rarely wolves in sheep's clothing, they're just sheep. I can count on one finger the amount of times I've lost a ship to a mining fleet and it was only because we were in Brave Newbies space, horribly outnumbered and they knew we were coming and had time to have Rapier tackle on the field for when we inevitably dropped in on their mining operation. RIP Confessor. Every other time I've caught a group of miners with their pants down it's resulted in their demise.

I truly hope I'm wrong. I think it'd be great for the game if we saw large groups of miners venturing into dangerous space with nothing more than their mining lasers and enormous balls, I just can't see it happening. Even so, the Porpoise is a great addition for Wormholers in particular and will make fuel production without the reliance of K-Space an actual reality, as opposed to the purely theoretical one it has been, to date.