In EvE there is a certain rhythm to things. Corporations and Alliances grow and contract. Players achieve amazing heights only to end up burning out and afk'ing for months at a clip. In the nearly four years I've been active in this game I've come to a sort of acceptance. What is impenetrable today will become a sponge tomorrow. Walls can crumble, and sometimes all it takes is a gentle breeze.
Recently I've had the good fortune to get into some really good fleets and I've enjoyed them immensely. The FC's I've flown with are great and all the pilots I've had as fleet-mates are more than competent. From the outside, looking in, all would seem wonderful. But knowing the game, and people in general, I expect this to be a temporary phenomenon.
During the disbanding of a recent fleet, I caught a faint whisper among friends on comms. Part jealousy, part desire just to see the world burn, a couple of pilots expressed a frustration. The frustration that their power and strength is dependent on outside forces, namely the ability to pull together fleets manned by pilots that are normally neutral at best, or, enemies at worst. I understand that frustration. I also know that the power they feel is a result of what is frustrating them, not in spite of it.
And that brings me to the title of this post, "Strength Is A Fallacy". Everything in EvE is situational. For my fellow Sinners, I'd suggest that our recent success with new "friends" be considered just that, situational. Someone, somewhere, will throw a monkey wrench into the machine. Don't be misguided into thinking the current status quo will remain. Now is not the time to get cocky.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Isk vs. Reward
In the last podcast the Ransoms and Roams crew discussed what makes a pirate versus just being a low-sec pvp'er. The long and short of it was that it takes more than just a -10 sec status to be a pirate. One thing we discussed was making some isk from piracy, namely ransoming people. Many "outlaws" never, or almost never, use this tactic. Some only ransom pods. Only ransoming the pod though is limiting your possibilities for a payout in my opinion. Others find the idea silly, who wants a wallet flashing for a few seconds when you can a shiny kill on the board forever? For a dedicated pirate though... it can be a really exciting way to help support your pvp career.
There is a lot that goes into ransoms, you have to have a target that is worth something, has an ability to pay, you have to negotiate terms, you have a time investment that can get you hunted down by others during the process, etc. For some it's just not worth the trouble. For others, myself included, it's an art form, and when successful is sometimes it's own reward far beyond the isk generated. It's a good feeling to stick a gun in someone's face, demand their cash, get paid, then watch them leave system with a little less isk and a lot less dignity.
One road block to demanding ransoms I think some people face is a desperation to put kills on the board. This can be a real problem in the case of heavily competitive corporations, or it can be entirely imagined as might be the case for pilots that feel stats and numbers are the end-all-be-all of gaining respect. If you find yourself in either of those scenarios, well then my friend, you're doing it wrong. Especially if you consider yourself a Pirate.
Pirates of the 18th century were free men, they elected their captains democratically, they sought to make their livings through combat rather then tedious manual labor, or even worse, they had escaped servitude and had no other means to sustain themselves. I think there are many of us who call ourselves "pirates" in eve that romanticize the notion that pirates are the true free men, going into the dangerous waters and taking what we can, while avoiding capture and punishment. We have no other means of support. Combat must be profitable if we are to continue doing it. You certainly won't find us mining in a .9 system or running lvl 4 Caldari Navy missions. Life in a 0.0 alliance, ratting for our isk? Not a chance for us true free men.
Another argument for ransoming people, and this one is more practical and less philosophical as above, is the additional rewards you can sometimes obtain. If you are a seasoned ransomer you may have found yourself in situations where people that have paid you will sometimes come back and offer to pay you for blue-status. Sometimes your services may be requested for a fee. Other times, having demonstrated your self a man of your word as well as skilled with weapons, you are invited into intel channels. A true goldmine can await in those channels at times. I remember a particular "carebear" that sold ships in a high-sec pocket surrounded by low-sec, many times he would give us pirates a heads up on sales of Orca's and BS's in exchange for a fleet invite for his alt to get in on the action. We got some decent kills from that arrangement.
Well, I would never tell another pirate how to fly, but I hope I've made at least some one out there reconsider ransoms.
There is a lot that goes into ransoms, you have to have a target that is worth something, has an ability to pay, you have to negotiate terms, you have a time investment that can get you hunted down by others during the process, etc. For some it's just not worth the trouble. For others, myself included, it's an art form, and when successful is sometimes it's own reward far beyond the isk generated. It's a good feeling to stick a gun in someone's face, demand their cash, get paid, then watch them leave system with a little less isk and a lot less dignity.
One road block to demanding ransoms I think some people face is a desperation to put kills on the board. This can be a real problem in the case of heavily competitive corporations, or it can be entirely imagined as might be the case for pilots that feel stats and numbers are the end-all-be-all of gaining respect. If you find yourself in either of those scenarios, well then my friend, you're doing it wrong. Especially if you consider yourself a Pirate.
Pirates of the 18th century were free men, they elected their captains democratically, they sought to make their livings through combat rather then tedious manual labor, or even worse, they had escaped servitude and had no other means to sustain themselves. I think there are many of us who call ourselves "pirates" in eve that romanticize the notion that pirates are the true free men, going into the dangerous waters and taking what we can, while avoiding capture and punishment. We have no other means of support. Combat must be profitable if we are to continue doing it. You certainly won't find us mining in a .9 system or running lvl 4 Caldari Navy missions. Life in a 0.0 alliance, ratting for our isk? Not a chance for us true free men.
Another argument for ransoming people, and this one is more practical and less philosophical as above, is the additional rewards you can sometimes obtain. If you are a seasoned ransomer you may have found yourself in situations where people that have paid you will sometimes come back and offer to pay you for blue-status. Sometimes your services may be requested for a fee. Other times, having demonstrated your self a man of your word as well as skilled with weapons, you are invited into intel channels. A true goldmine can await in those channels at times. I remember a particular "carebear" that sold ships in a high-sec pocket surrounded by low-sec, many times he would give us pirates a heads up on sales of Orca's and BS's in exchange for a fleet invite for his alt to get in on the action. We got some decent kills from that arrangement.
Well, I would never tell another pirate how to fly, but I hope I've made at least some one out there reconsider ransoms.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
I'm A Stalker
I've seen a particular pilot in local the last few nights. I don't want to mention his name but let's just say he is in the top 20 on BC, this week he has 100 kills in 3 days time almost all of which are solo, and is a sneaky bastard. Even catching him on d-scan is hard, he flies a cloaky Tengu generally. Basically the only time you actually see him is when he's shooting you or someone else in the face.
On the second night of seeing him in local getting kills while I was sitting around twisting my nut-sack, I decided to grab a cloaky and keep an eye out for him. Maybe learn a trick or two, maybe steal a BM for later use, just gather some info on his style really.
So here is some of what I gathered:
1) He likes to sit cloaked on the stations with short undocks. It's a damn effective technique.
2) He generally doesn't leave wrecks or corpses sitting there if he plans on being there for a while.
3) He seems to change his position frequently.
4) He cycles thru systems, kinda like a roam but not really. More like a patrol.
5) He is an opportunist in every sense of the word. Every conceivable kind of target is on the menu for him. Noobs, haulers, pirates, pvp'ers, any type of player or ship will do.
You might be thinking, "Hey, I do those things!". Trust me, you don't do them like this chap does. It was impressive to watch because it was all standard stuff, just done with a sort of precision that you don't see often. I wouldn't say I learned much, but what I will say is that I see why it's good to be precise. If anything, I felt a little more motivated to step my game up. That was the real value in watching this guy fly. Not to learn new stuff, but to see the old stuff done right.
I had a short convo with this fellow in local last night. Real nice guy. I'll leave you with the words he signed off to me with... "Solo is an art-form!"
On the second night of seeing him in local getting kills while I was sitting around twisting my nut-sack, I decided to grab a cloaky and keep an eye out for him. Maybe learn a trick or two, maybe steal a BM for later use, just gather some info on his style really.
So here is some of what I gathered:
1) He likes to sit cloaked on the stations with short undocks. It's a damn effective technique.
2) He generally doesn't leave wrecks or corpses sitting there if he plans on being there for a while.
3) He seems to change his position frequently.
4) He cycles thru systems, kinda like a roam but not really. More like a patrol.
5) He is an opportunist in every sense of the word. Every conceivable kind of target is on the menu for him. Noobs, haulers, pirates, pvp'ers, any type of player or ship will do.
You might be thinking, "Hey, I do those things!". Trust me, you don't do them like this chap does. It was impressive to watch because it was all standard stuff, just done with a sort of precision that you don't see often. I wouldn't say I learned much, but what I will say is that I see why it's good to be precise. If anything, I felt a little more motivated to step my game up. That was the real value in watching this guy fly. Not to learn new stuff, but to see the old stuff done right.
I had a short convo with this fellow in local last night. Real nice guy. I'll leave you with the words he signed off to me with... "Solo is an art-form!"
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Alts Can Save Your Ass
Logging on this morning before DT, I decided to camp a gate solo for a bit. Lesbotrain local was empty minus 2 docked up toons, so I set myself up in a pounce with an alt on the other side of the gate. Normally this is all I would need for a little solo-camping fun. Today I decided to try a third alt in a neighboring system just to give myself an extra heads-up in case danger lurked just over the horizon.
It was damn slow. More then 30 mins passed without much traffic into Lesbo or the rear system my backup alt was watching. One Hurricane from the rear, looked like he went to a safe then back to the out gate. But not much else. Finally, just what I've been waiting for, a T2 Minmatar hauler lands on the Lesbo gate, and it's the non-cloaky, NICE! Before I warp down to the gate and claim this ship and it's precious booty I have a quick look at scan on the backup alt. Wait-a-minute! 3x Hurricanes, I narrow scan down to my in-gate, yep on 5 at the gate. Well crap, I don't like the looks of that. I mean if the hauler is untanked I should have time to pop it and run but I could lose the cargo to the 'Canes, or if it is tanked I could get caught. I decide to pass on it and see what happens.
Hauler jumps in, sits there until it's cloak fades, still sitting there, still sitting there, +1:30, +2:00, finally it warps. Hauler goes right to the rear low-sec gate and jumps. I switch over to the alt in there and notice a nifty little convo in local. "Go back through and slow boat this time". Hmm. Wonder what this is about lol. Well the hauler pilot does just that. But I ain't biting.
Hauler pilot finally makes his way down slowly to the gate, holds for a minute, then jumps. It was so damn obvious it wasn't funny. I wanted to shoot it badly but not worth losing a HIC over it. Like that really sexy chick from down the street, till you find out who she's been fucking, then you wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Well a few minutes later the Hauler pilot is back at the gate. This time in a cov ops. LOL. He jumps and immediately starts dropping probes. Combat probes. I bug out and dock. Effectively cock-blocking these baiting faggots. I'm the only Sinner online so no chance of taking the gang on. I don't know what I could really take 3x Hurricanes with solo. I suppose a Machriel, but I don't fly or even own one of those. Oh well. Need to get ready for work anyways.
Moral of the story... The more eyes you can have the better. That might sound super obvious but it's lesson I think people keep needing to learn over and over. I know I'm guilty. It's something I want to start subtly getting my fellow Sinners to employ. We lost a fight the other night that we would have seen the back-up coming had any of us with nearby alts just had them parked next door to see the backup coming.
Fly paranoid,
Terror
It was damn slow. More then 30 mins passed without much traffic into Lesbo or the rear system my backup alt was watching. One Hurricane from the rear, looked like he went to a safe then back to the out gate. But not much else. Finally, just what I've been waiting for, a T2 Minmatar hauler lands on the Lesbo gate, and it's the non-cloaky, NICE! Before I warp down to the gate and claim this ship and it's precious booty I have a quick look at scan on the backup alt. Wait-a-minute! 3x Hurricanes, I narrow scan down to my in-gate, yep on 5 at the gate. Well crap, I don't like the looks of that. I mean if the hauler is untanked I should have time to pop it and run but I could lose the cargo to the 'Canes, or if it is tanked I could get caught. I decide to pass on it and see what happens.
Hauler jumps in, sits there until it's cloak fades, still sitting there, still sitting there, +1:30, +2:00, finally it warps. Hauler goes right to the rear low-sec gate and jumps. I switch over to the alt in there and notice a nifty little convo in local. "Go back through and slow boat this time". Hmm. Wonder what this is about lol. Well the hauler pilot does just that. But I ain't biting.
Hauler pilot finally makes his way down slowly to the gate, holds for a minute, then jumps. It was so damn obvious it wasn't funny. I wanted to shoot it badly but not worth losing a HIC over it. Like that really sexy chick from down the street, till you find out who she's been fucking, then you wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Well a few minutes later the Hauler pilot is back at the gate. This time in a cov ops. LOL. He jumps and immediately starts dropping probes. Combat probes. I bug out and dock. Effectively cock-blocking these baiting faggots. I'm the only Sinner online so no chance of taking the gang on. I don't know what I could really take 3x Hurricanes with solo. I suppose a Machriel, but I don't fly or even own one of those. Oh well. Need to get ready for work anyways.
Moral of the story... The more eyes you can have the better. That might sound super obvious but it's lesson I think people keep needing to learn over and over. I know I'm guilty. It's something I want to start subtly getting my fellow Sinners to employ. We lost a fight the other night that we would have seen the back-up coming had any of us with nearby alts just had them parked next door to see the backup coming.
Fly paranoid,
Terror
Friday, August 5, 2011
A 1v1 before breakfast.
Finding myself with an hour of freetime this morning I decided to log on an alt I've been training up and head out to low-sec for some fun. With just a basic Rifter fit and a desire to kill, I set out on my way. The area was quiet. Seven systems in a row with little or no activity. Then, upon entering the last system on my predetermined route, I spot three Rifters and a Hookbill on D-scan. Only six in local, one is me, one is a 3 day newb, the other four are piratey types. YESSS!
I make sure to be spotted on d-scan and begin hitting the belts. While leaving the third belt, a Rifter lands just as I enter warp. This gives me enough time to get the pilots name and look him up quickly. Now, sitting in a safe and aligned, I put out a request in local. "Hey (name-withheld) wanna 1v1?".
The response was delayed. By now these guys have figured out I'm in a safe and ganking me probably won't happen as easily as they thought. After four minutes I finally get a response. "Sure. Pick a belt or a planet." So I warp to a belt and give my location in local. I've warped in at "0" hoping this pilot is not an arty rifter coming for me at range, if so I'm screwed. Nope, He's standard fit, and lands 2200 off me.
And so it begins. Immediately we lock and point each other. What? No web? I'm not webbed? He's way out DPS'ing me but now I begin pulsing my AB, messing up his tracking just enough for me to hold on. Due to fitting issues on this new alt I'm using 125's and tracking just fine. Then, I capped out. That's right, completely dead as far as cap goes. Web and scram drop, I'm into hull and no juice to run the repper. So I start pulling away hoping to get some regen while outside gun range. The other rifter was already aligned to something the whole time, no idea why, he was winning. So I'm quickly able to get out to 25k from him.
Now this guy's buddies begin showing up. But they are 50-75k from the warp in and sitting still. Good, they aren't going to interfere. I spot my opponent turning towards me and see his speed rising. This new alt has really only basic skills so I need to relock as I've gone out of targeting range by now. The distance is closing quickly and at 18k I begin clicking in space, spinning my ship up then around, getting some transversal and hoping he glides right into my waiting web. I'm not going to point him this time. That might sound stupid to you but my reasoning is that he probably won't run with his buddies watching, he's not MWD fit, and I just need whatever cap I can save.
The fight resumes. Same as before. I'm not webbed? This time I settle my orbit in as close as possible and hope for the best. I'm getting smashed again, but so is this guy. He's not repping anymore! His point drops! He's capped out! I've got enough for one or maybe two cycles on my repper. I'm below half structure at this point and screaming at my repper to "hurry-the-fuck-up" thru it's cycle. And yes, just enough armor to hold on for another few seconds. The other Rifter is about 90% structure now. Then 75%, then 50%, then 25%. I'm almost thru his hull and I'm sitting here on fire with about 10-15% hull left on my own ship. Then the shiney explosion. It's him, he's popped. I instinctively lock the pod, then think better of it and warp the hell out. His buddies might not let me get away with podding this dude.
I get convo'd by the dead rifter's pilot. He thanks me for the fun then immediately starts in with the excuses. That's pretty normal. A lot of people feel it necessary to tell you all the reasons they think they lost. But this guy begins telling me his web was offlined from burning out his mids earlier, repairing in station, then forgetting to online it before undocking. That makes sense. It's unfortunate for him, nice for me. Even so, this guy had everything else going for him, gang bonus's I'm sure, a ton more SP's, more DPS, more tank, better cap, etc. I may sound arrogant but I think I just flew better, I never once saw this guy give any indication of manual piloting or deviating from any of the basic tactics. It was a nice feeling to out fly that guy.
I make sure to be spotted on d-scan and begin hitting the belts. While leaving the third belt, a Rifter lands just as I enter warp. This gives me enough time to get the pilots name and look him up quickly. Now, sitting in a safe and aligned, I put out a request in local. "Hey (name-withheld) wanna 1v1?".
The response was delayed. By now these guys have figured out I'm in a safe and ganking me probably won't happen as easily as they thought. After four minutes I finally get a response. "Sure. Pick a belt or a planet." So I warp to a belt and give my location in local. I've warped in at "0" hoping this pilot is not an arty rifter coming for me at range, if so I'm screwed. Nope, He's standard fit, and lands 2200 off me.
And so it begins. Immediately we lock and point each other. What? No web? I'm not webbed? He's way out DPS'ing me but now I begin pulsing my AB, messing up his tracking just enough for me to hold on. Due to fitting issues on this new alt I'm using 125's and tracking just fine. Then, I capped out. That's right, completely dead as far as cap goes. Web and scram drop, I'm into hull and no juice to run the repper. So I start pulling away hoping to get some regen while outside gun range. The other rifter was already aligned to something the whole time, no idea why, he was winning. So I'm quickly able to get out to 25k from him.
Now this guy's buddies begin showing up. But they are 50-75k from the warp in and sitting still. Good, they aren't going to interfere. I spot my opponent turning towards me and see his speed rising. This new alt has really only basic skills so I need to relock as I've gone out of targeting range by now. The distance is closing quickly and at 18k I begin clicking in space, spinning my ship up then around, getting some transversal and hoping he glides right into my waiting web. I'm not going to point him this time. That might sound stupid to you but my reasoning is that he probably won't run with his buddies watching, he's not MWD fit, and I just need whatever cap I can save.
The fight resumes. Same as before. I'm not webbed? This time I settle my orbit in as close as possible and hope for the best. I'm getting smashed again, but so is this guy. He's not repping anymore! His point drops! He's capped out! I've got enough for one or maybe two cycles on my repper. I'm below half structure at this point and screaming at my repper to "hurry-the-fuck-up" thru it's cycle. And yes, just enough armor to hold on for another few seconds. The other Rifter is about 90% structure now. Then 75%, then 50%, then 25%. I'm almost thru his hull and I'm sitting here on fire with about 10-15% hull left on my own ship. Then the shiney explosion. It's him, he's popped. I instinctively lock the pod, then think better of it and warp the hell out. His buddies might not let me get away with podding this dude.
I get convo'd by the dead rifter's pilot. He thanks me for the fun then immediately starts in with the excuses. That's pretty normal. A lot of people feel it necessary to tell you all the reasons they think they lost. But this guy begins telling me his web was offlined from burning out his mids earlier, repairing in station, then forgetting to online it before undocking. That makes sense. It's unfortunate for him, nice for me. Even so, this guy had everything else going for him, gang bonus's I'm sure, a ton more SP's, more DPS, more tank, better cap, etc. I may sound arrogant but I think I just flew better, I never once saw this guy give any indication of manual piloting or deviating from any of the basic tactics. It was a nice feeling to out fly that guy.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
I'm Back!
After a detour into 0.0 and a short stint in Goons, a month unsubcribed to clear out the burnout, and some real life drama, I'm back. And it's good to be home. I'm back with my boys in Sinners, the corp is back from the dead with some fresh faces and the old crew active again (minus ocha who is enjoying life in Tuskers).
Sinners has joined an alliance called Yarr Collective and moved from our ancestral home in Lonetrek to a new system nicknamed "Lesbotrain". It's a much busier system then Auro had become and our new neighbors seem to like fighting us so we've got plenty of targets. All of our new corpmates are real good guys and fun to fly with. Everything seems to be falling into place in-game. I came back at just the right time and am really glad I did. I'm having a blast!
Look for a post from me tomorrow with more details on some of the really fun things we are doing.
Fly drunk!
Terror
Sinners has joined an alliance called Yarr Collective and moved from our ancestral home in Lonetrek to a new system nicknamed "Lesbotrain". It's a much busier system then Auro had become and our new neighbors seem to like fighting us so we've got plenty of targets. All of our new corpmates are real good guys and fun to fly with. Everything seems to be falling into place in-game. I came back at just the right time and am really glad I did. I'm having a blast!
Look for a post from me tomorrow with more details on some of the really fun things we are doing.
Fly drunk!
Terror
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Slim Pickings, Slow Nights
Dantumi/Aurohunen area has been pretty dead for a couple weeks now and there just isn't much to shoot at. It's even been pretty dead all along the pipe to OMS. Compounding the problem is our corp activity levels, or complete lack thereof. I was online for 7 hours yesterday and one(1) corpmate logged on for 10 minutes to change a skill. That's utterly depressing. Time for a recruitment drive methinks!
Desperately tired of roaming around solo in an AF I've started solo-gatecamping for lulz again. This is some pretty low-man-on-the-totem-pole shit folks. Popping noobs and badgers. The only upside is the hatemails, emo-rage rants, and at least I'm putting SOMETHING on the killboard. I could get lucky too, the right hauler could have a hell of a payday in it's cargohold. Hey, I can dream, right?
Desperately tired of roaming around solo in an AF I've started solo-gatecamping for lulz again. This is some pretty low-man-on-the-totem-pole shit folks. Popping noobs and badgers. The only upside is the hatemails, emo-rage rants, and at least I'm putting SOMETHING on the killboard. I could get lucky too, the right hauler could have a hell of a payday in it's cargohold. Hey, I can dream, right?
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Battle Rorqual
So I'm waiting out GCC in my Drake and safed up in Auro, I'm scanning and I see a Rorqual towards Propel Dynamics. A Minute later he's on scan by Merc Club. Then off scan. A minute later back on scan. He's obviously warping between stations. No cyno up or anything. Thinking it would be funny to go mess with it, I warp in to the undock. Sure enough the Rorqual is sitting there, aligning to Propel Dynamics. Then this frigging thing redboxes me. I was stunned for a second but called out on comms for everyone to ship up and help me kill this idiot in the giant mining ship. This is the end of Hulkageddon after all, and that would be a nice cap off to great week of ganking mining ships.
Several seconds later I am in high structure spamming the dock button. I'm being neuted, webbed, scrammed, tracking disrupted, and chewed alive by Ogre II's. I manage to get docked just as Reno lands to point this guy and I ship up to a neut Domi. Tek and Croc are on the way from Dant with more BS's. NOW it's time to kill this fool.
As I'm undocking in what I think is a clever choice for this fight I hear Reno on comms, "I'm dying, uhhh, I can't kill his drones, what the hell, I can't get away, this thing is killing me". Not good. Undocked now, I drop neuts and drones on this overpriced barge. Reno barely gets out on fire. Tek and Croc still on the way. Surely THIS will be the end of this fight.
25 seconds later I'm deaggressed and spamming the dock button. I'm Neuted to death, my drones can't kill his, and my mega-buffer tank is melting like ice cream in the summer sun. Once again in structure I get docked, just barely. Tek and Croc still on the way. This is not going according to plan.
Meanwhile local is steadily growing, 20+ in local, all 0.0 people. Things are looking a little dim at this point. I wave Tek and Croc off, who are still "on the way". Now this silly guy in the overpriced mining barge is camping US in. He's dual SEBO fit and anything bigger than a frigate get's insta locked. Fun times.
Anyway... A link to this guy's battle Rorqual fit. http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=10840610
Several seconds later I am in high structure spamming the dock button. I'm being neuted, webbed, scrammed, tracking disrupted, and chewed alive by Ogre II's. I manage to get docked just as Reno lands to point this guy and I ship up to a neut Domi. Tek and Croc are on the way from Dant with more BS's. NOW it's time to kill this fool.
As I'm undocking in what I think is a clever choice for this fight I hear Reno on comms, "I'm dying, uhhh, I can't kill his drones, what the hell, I can't get away, this thing is killing me". Not good. Undocked now, I drop neuts and drones on this overpriced barge. Reno barely gets out on fire. Tek and Croc still on the way. Surely THIS will be the end of this fight.
25 seconds later I'm deaggressed and spamming the dock button. I'm Neuted to death, my drones can't kill his, and my mega-buffer tank is melting like ice cream in the summer sun. Once again in structure I get docked, just barely. Tek and Croc still on the way. This is not going according to plan.
Meanwhile local is steadily growing, 20+ in local, all 0.0 people. Things are looking a little dim at this point. I wave Tek and Croc off, who are still "on the way". Now this silly guy in the overpriced mining barge is camping US in. He's dual SEBO fit and anything bigger than a frigate get's insta locked. Fun times.
Anyway... A link to this guy's battle Rorqual fit. http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=10840610
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Hulkageddon!
Yep, it's that time of year again and Hulkageddon is in full swing. After missing out the last time around I was determined to get in on the festivities for Hulkageddon 4. And oh how sweet it is! I giggle like a school child every time a squad of our destroyers warps in and pops a Hulk. Maybe what the carebears say is true, that we are just sadistic mean-hearted people that want to ruin other peoples fun. Ahh, fuck 'em, it's not like there wasn't ample warning this was coming!
The first night kicked off with a seriously drunken group of Sinners rolling into all the nearby high-sec systems in our Thrashers and popping Hulks. The hilarity on comms was truly epic. Many homosexual references were made, slurred threats against the lives of corpmates were hurled, and Chris Hansen from Dateline's "To Catch A Predator" had to be called in at one point. It's funny what people reveal about themselves when all sauced up and flying high. It was probably one of the most fun nights we've had in a quite a long while... what I can remember of it anyways. Hell, we even won a prize for being among the first 40 pilots to get a kill during Hulkageddon!
It's the midway mark and we've yet to repeat the performance we gave on the first night of the event but I have a feeling we are going to send off this year's Hulkageddon with a bang! We have many Thrashers fitted and ready to go. Most of us have been sober all week. That right there is a recipe for carebear annihilation folks.
Also, just a few days left to go and we are still the only corp with a Freighter kill on the board! Woot!
The first night kicked off with a seriously drunken group of Sinners rolling into all the nearby high-sec systems in our Thrashers and popping Hulks. The hilarity on comms was truly epic. Many homosexual references were made, slurred threats against the lives of corpmates were hurled, and Chris Hansen from Dateline's "To Catch A Predator" had to be called in at one point. It's funny what people reveal about themselves when all sauced up and flying high. It was probably one of the most fun nights we've had in a quite a long while... what I can remember of it anyways. Hell, we even won a prize for being among the first 40 pilots to get a kill during Hulkageddon!
It's the midway mark and we've yet to repeat the performance we gave on the first night of the event but I have a feeling we are going to send off this year's Hulkageddon with a bang! We have many Thrashers fitted and ready to go. Most of us have been sober all week. That right there is a recipe for carebear annihilation folks.
Also, just a few days left to go and we are still the only corp with a Freighter kill on the board! Woot!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
A quick update
Well, as anyone that tries to play Eve a lot but has kids and bills will tell you... sometimes you just don't get to play when you want to. That's how the last two weeks have been for me. Even when I do get to log on I've got distractions like crazy. In game and out, something seems to always be going on.
On the Sinners front all seems to be going well. We have so much fun on coms, especially when we are all drunk. Myd took a turn being the drunken ass on coms this past Sunday, usually I'm the belligerent prick on Mumble, but he took that honor for the night. I'm hoping that this weekend will give me plenty of time to catch up on the killboard.
The in-game distractions... The alts were all tucked away in the Wormhole last week and everything has been running on autopilot pretty much. I was able to cash out nearly 500 million isk for about 3.5 hours of grinding on Saturday. Then Sunday I log on to scan down the day's exit and and my on-board scanner shows a fleet of ships all over the place. Almost all the ships had Russian names. SHIT! Russians. The bastards were running the last of the anomalies I'd left for Marc.
I needed to get these fucktards out a.s.a.p. I logged on all 4 accounts and started chucking all the combat type ships out of the ship maintenance array, put out 15 combat scanner probes in three spots, and tried to make it look like an armada was coming on the d-scan. I'd hauled in some warp bubbles the day before so I dropped one on the exit hole and was about to drop another when I saw a terrifying sight on scan. A small control tower had just been deployed. Quickly scanning it down to it's moon location I warped in with the hauler, dropped a bubble and cloaked. I immediately brought my Heavy Dictor over and started orbiting the tower while it was anchoring or about to be onlined. A couple drakes came out of warp a minute later, decloaking their hauler like idiots, and just outside point range so I bugged out. Good thing too because the whole gang of 8 landed shortly after, oh and Falcon too. This was getting tense. I can't let these fuckers ninja my WH or set up a short term pvp base to cock-block my isk making endeavors.
After nearly an hour of probing games and chases the small tower still hadn't come online, then all of a sudden it's off scan. Good. They realize I'm not gonna sit there and take it and my ploys have worked. They're a corp of 21, so figuring with alts in the corp, this 9 man gang is pretty much their whole active contingent. Half are less then 6 months old. Falcon pilot convo's me and congratulates me on my quick response and let's me know they are leaving. He's the CEO by the way, and he's convo'd my 2 month old CEO alt. Good, he hasn't figured out who is in charge. I don't trust him so I sit cloaked off the exit hole and bubble and watch... they are trickling out. Hauler is out and no tower on scan, excellent so far, Falcon is out, getting better, 2 Tengu's decloak at the exit... WTF, I'd never even seen them the whole time! They're out, one last ship on scan, a Drake and I want to kill it but think better of it. Fifteen minutes later and the last guy is out. Well as far as I can tell plus they've made so many jumps the hole is about to collapse.
I was sweating there for a while. To be honest I'm a little more paranoid which is a good thing. I think I was getting complacent in my precautions and general safety. That little scare helped snap me back into a more cautious mode. I'm keeping every hole that spawns double bubbled, I'm clearing my sites faster instead of letting them pile up for 5 or more days at a time, and I'm just generally taking more precautions. The down side is that almost all my free time to get in-game has been spent dicking with the wormhole.
This weekend should be a bit better and I feel like I can sit back and relax while killing people. There is no better stress reliever then watching ships go boom and pods get squished. Oh, and ransoms, need more ransoms!
On the Sinners front all seems to be going well. We have so much fun on coms, especially when we are all drunk. Myd took a turn being the drunken ass on coms this past Sunday, usually I'm the belligerent prick on Mumble, but he took that honor for the night. I'm hoping that this weekend will give me plenty of time to catch up on the killboard.
The in-game distractions... The alts were all tucked away in the Wormhole last week and everything has been running on autopilot pretty much. I was able to cash out nearly 500 million isk for about 3.5 hours of grinding on Saturday. Then Sunday I log on to scan down the day's exit and and my on-board scanner shows a fleet of ships all over the place. Almost all the ships had Russian names. SHIT! Russians. The bastards were running the last of the anomalies I'd left for Marc.
I needed to get these fucktards out a.s.a.p. I logged on all 4 accounts and started chucking all the combat type ships out of the ship maintenance array, put out 15 combat scanner probes in three spots, and tried to make it look like an armada was coming on the d-scan. I'd hauled in some warp bubbles the day before so I dropped one on the exit hole and was about to drop another when I saw a terrifying sight on scan. A small control tower had just been deployed. Quickly scanning it down to it's moon location I warped in with the hauler, dropped a bubble and cloaked. I immediately brought my Heavy Dictor over and started orbiting the tower while it was anchoring or about to be onlined. A couple drakes came out of warp a minute later, decloaking their hauler like idiots, and just outside point range so I bugged out. Good thing too because the whole gang of 8 landed shortly after, oh and Falcon too. This was getting tense. I can't let these fuckers ninja my WH or set up a short term pvp base to cock-block my isk making endeavors.
After nearly an hour of probing games and chases the small tower still hadn't come online, then all of a sudden it's off scan. Good. They realize I'm not gonna sit there and take it and my ploys have worked. They're a corp of 21, so figuring with alts in the corp, this 9 man gang is pretty much their whole active contingent. Half are less then 6 months old. Falcon pilot convo's me and congratulates me on my quick response and let's me know they are leaving. He's the CEO by the way, and he's convo'd my 2 month old CEO alt. Good, he hasn't figured out who is in charge. I don't trust him so I sit cloaked off the exit hole and bubble and watch... they are trickling out. Hauler is out and no tower on scan, excellent so far, Falcon is out, getting better, 2 Tengu's decloak at the exit... WTF, I'd never even seen them the whole time! They're out, one last ship on scan, a Drake and I want to kill it but think better of it. Fifteen minutes later and the last guy is out. Well as far as I can tell plus they've made so many jumps the hole is about to collapse.
I was sweating there for a while. To be honest I'm a little more paranoid which is a good thing. I think I was getting complacent in my precautions and general safety. That little scare helped snap me back into a more cautious mode. I'm keeping every hole that spawns double bubbled, I'm clearing my sites faster instead of letting them pile up for 5 or more days at a time, and I'm just generally taking more precautions. The down side is that almost all my free time to get in-game has been spent dicking with the wormhole.
This weekend should be a bit better and I feel like I can sit back and relax while killing people. There is no better stress reliever then watching ships go boom and pods get squished. Oh, and ransoms, need more ransoms!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Death By Boredom Is Far Less Painful Than Death By Bad Decisions
After the fiasco with the latest patch where my accounts were frozen for 2 days, I finally get back online and in my ship last night. I was excited and ready to get into some fights! When I logged on I noticed there was only one other person in local but, hey, this is Auro after all and some traffic should roll thru sooner or later. Man was I wrong. It was freaking dead all night, nothing in Auro, Dant, Mara, even going down the pipe it was dead. It was ridiculous. The slowest night I have ever seen there. Here I am drunk and ready to scrap and no one is around.
The old Professor Terror would have gotten desperate at this point. I would have been tempted to do something stupid. I've never been one to handle boredom well and when I'm drinking it's even worse. I tend to make bad decisions to put it mildly. But I'm trying to play smarter now and not lose ships to stupidity. So I took the "high-road" and called it quits for the night. I feel like that was the best decision and I know I was right because I'm not seeing a retarded loss from myself on the killboard this morning. I know some of you would read this and think this is a stupid post but there is an important lesson here. It's exactly as the title reads... DEATH BY BOREDOM IS FAR LESS PAINFUL THAN DEATH BY BAD DECISIONS! So the next time your sitting around with no traffic in low-sec, just remember, don't be the old Professor Terror and go out damn near suiciding the next thing that jumps thru a gate.
The old Professor Terror would have gotten desperate at this point. I would have been tempted to do something stupid. I've never been one to handle boredom well and when I'm drinking it's even worse. I tend to make bad decisions to put it mildly. But I'm trying to play smarter now and not lose ships to stupidity. So I took the "high-road" and called it quits for the night. I feel like that was the best decision and I know I was right because I'm not seeing a retarded loss from myself on the killboard this morning. I know some of you would read this and think this is a stupid post but there is an important lesson here. It's exactly as the title reads... DEATH BY BOREDOM IS FAR LESS PAINFUL THAN DEATH BY BAD DECISIONS! So the next time your sitting around with no traffic in low-sec, just remember, don't be the old Professor Terror and go out damn near suiciding the next thing that jumps thru a gate.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Anti-pirate corp meets Sinners for the first time, goes home in flames
Sometimes the best plan goes up in smoke once the first shots are fired. That's what happened to a gang that came face to face with us last night. This gang had every detail planned to perfection, it showed in every action they took, from the ranges they warped in at, getting people out when needed, and in reviewing their losses you can tell they had specific fits for that fleet. But it all went out the window when we didn't behave in the manner they had anticipated.
It all started when Croc and myself spotted a lone Drake jumping into Aurohunen through the Korama gate. We warped in and pointed him, began peppering him with damage while he MWD'd back to the gate. This Drake pilot didn't jump back through though, he yellow boxed and held his position. Hmmm, being used to what was coming next Croc and I instinctively align out. Yep, here it comes, local spike. We hold for a half a min until the gang is on scan to get an idea of what's on the way. 2x Stealth Bombers, 2x Griffens, and a Punisher. Sure enough they land on the gate at varying ranges, Stealth Bombers at 20km, Punisher at 0km, Griffens at 50km. Crocs out, I hold 5-10 seconds longer to get a quick glimpse of the enemy pilots names and ship types then warp.
Regrouping we realize, "Hey, we can smoke these guys". We get Tek in on it and our old corp mate from Monsters, Captain Destructo. Our gang would consist of 2x Hurricanes, a Harbinger, and a Rapier. The enemy gang retreated to a safe spot and began to smack talk in local. We got Cap't to fit a probe launcher to his Rapier then he set about probing them down. In the mean time an additional member of this nuisance corporation brought in a second Punisher. Now it would be 4 on 7 and they had ECM, it might still be a little hairy for us. This gang had killed and podded Cap't the week before.
Cap't got the 100% hit on their fleet and warped in cloaked. The enemy gang was smart enough to be aligned and by the time the good Cap't landed on them he was 50km away. The good part for us was that they WERE aligned, which meant we could warp to Cap't from the gate they were aligned to at range and land on top of them. Croc, Tek, and myself initiate warp, land and immediately the enemy warps to a second safe spot 150km from us. Damn, we didn't have time to point anyone. However... Cap't had been being stubborn and insisted on leaving his probes out. Good call, all he had to do was hit scan one more time and another 100% hit. YES! So Tek, Croc, and Cap't were able to warp right in and very quickly drop drones and points on these little pricks. I was just inside warp range so I had to warp out and back in on Tek to get in the fight.
The enemy had anticipated this and scattered the Griffens out to 65km and the stealth bombers to 30km leaving the Drake at our warp in point and the punishers orbiting. Our gang points the drake and a punisher while I'm on my way in. Drones are quickly dispatched towards the griffens before they can get jam cycles off leaving them vulnerable to damage. I land just as Captain Destructo needs to bug out, he's been primaried by the Bombers. The enemy had used the punishers as tackle but they fit them with heavy armor buffer tanks which gave Cap't plenty of speed advantage to get out of point range and leave. ECM has shut down all outbound damage from Tek and Croc. The griffens are taking heavy damage from our Warrior II's and take off just as mine reach one of them. No more ECM, Tek and Croc are free to deal damage at will now and I'm in the fight with a point on that Drake before he can bug out too. Another point on one of the punishers, the second starts running away from point range. Croc is taking heavy DPS from the Drake and the bombers at this point and needs to GTFO. Croc out and Cap't back in, it's musical chairs lol. The Drake was MWD'ing away from us but Cap't dual webbed him, slowing him to a crawl. We put our drones on the bombers and having no tank they hit structure quickly and run for the hills. We pour out everything our guns can do on this drake and let the Warrior II's finish off that punisher that's still warp scrambled. We need to get these guys down before the ECM and bombers come back.
Punisher down. Drake is very heavily tanked but under the weight of our over heated guns he's down in a short time. We out played these guys. Not a ship on their side escaped without damage. We took two of them out including what appeared to be the FC judging by age and KB activity. At least one punisher was alive but on fire and the same for one of the griffens, the other had moderate armor damage. The bombers were in need of serious repair. The smack talk from them has turned into an eerie silence, not even a return "gf" in local to our proud proclomations, well at least until Tek has his way with them in local chat for being rude!
These guys would have seriously beat down our usual gangs just a couple of weeks ago. The difference? This is Sinners now baby, and we aren't the easy kills we were with Monsters... We are fighting smarter and harder and it shows. We've dropped the baggage that was the "camping crowd" as we call them, and the others that had good piloting skills but too much mental beat-down trash to be effective. The enemy was a decently run gang, fit out specifically to fight us nasty pirates. We were able to pick apart their strengths, force them to continuously have to switch primaries, use our drones with great effect, scatter them from the fight, and hold the "bait" and "tackle" down until it drowned in the fishes mouth. Go Sinners! We do this everyday, not just when we get bored of mining Veldspar! Fuck those anti-pirate bitches!
It all started when Croc and myself spotted a lone Drake jumping into Aurohunen through the Korama gate. We warped in and pointed him, began peppering him with damage while he MWD'd back to the gate. This Drake pilot didn't jump back through though, he yellow boxed and held his position. Hmmm, being used to what was coming next Croc and I instinctively align out. Yep, here it comes, local spike. We hold for a half a min until the gang is on scan to get an idea of what's on the way. 2x Stealth Bombers, 2x Griffens, and a Punisher. Sure enough they land on the gate at varying ranges, Stealth Bombers at 20km, Punisher at 0km, Griffens at 50km. Crocs out, I hold 5-10 seconds longer to get a quick glimpse of the enemy pilots names and ship types then warp.
Regrouping we realize, "Hey, we can smoke these guys". We get Tek in on it and our old corp mate from Monsters, Captain Destructo. Our gang would consist of 2x Hurricanes, a Harbinger, and a Rapier. The enemy gang retreated to a safe spot and began to smack talk in local. We got Cap't to fit a probe launcher to his Rapier then he set about probing them down. In the mean time an additional member of this nuisance corporation brought in a second Punisher. Now it would be 4 on 7 and they had ECM, it might still be a little hairy for us. This gang had killed and podded Cap't the week before.
Cap't got the 100% hit on their fleet and warped in cloaked. The enemy gang was smart enough to be aligned and by the time the good Cap't landed on them he was 50km away. The good part for us was that they WERE aligned, which meant we could warp to Cap't from the gate they were aligned to at range and land on top of them. Croc, Tek, and myself initiate warp, land and immediately the enemy warps to a second safe spot 150km from us. Damn, we didn't have time to point anyone. However... Cap't had been being stubborn and insisted on leaving his probes out. Good call, all he had to do was hit scan one more time and another 100% hit. YES! So Tek, Croc, and Cap't were able to warp right in and very quickly drop drones and points on these little pricks. I was just inside warp range so I had to warp out and back in on Tek to get in the fight.
The enemy had anticipated this and scattered the Griffens out to 65km and the stealth bombers to 30km leaving the Drake at our warp in point and the punishers orbiting. Our gang points the drake and a punisher while I'm on my way in. Drones are quickly dispatched towards the griffens before they can get jam cycles off leaving them vulnerable to damage. I land just as Captain Destructo needs to bug out, he's been primaried by the Bombers. The enemy had used the punishers as tackle but they fit them with heavy armor buffer tanks which gave Cap't plenty of speed advantage to get out of point range and leave. ECM has shut down all outbound damage from Tek and Croc. The griffens are taking heavy damage from our Warrior II's and take off just as mine reach one of them. No more ECM, Tek and Croc are free to deal damage at will now and I'm in the fight with a point on that Drake before he can bug out too. Another point on one of the punishers, the second starts running away from point range. Croc is taking heavy DPS from the Drake and the bombers at this point and needs to GTFO. Croc out and Cap't back in, it's musical chairs lol. The Drake was MWD'ing away from us but Cap't dual webbed him, slowing him to a crawl. We put our drones on the bombers and having no tank they hit structure quickly and run for the hills. We pour out everything our guns can do on this drake and let the Warrior II's finish off that punisher that's still warp scrambled. We need to get these guys down before the ECM and bombers come back.
Punisher down. Drake is very heavily tanked but under the weight of our over heated guns he's down in a short time. We out played these guys. Not a ship on their side escaped without damage. We took two of them out including what appeared to be the FC judging by age and KB activity. At least one punisher was alive but on fire and the same for one of the griffens, the other had moderate armor damage. The bombers were in need of serious repair. The smack talk from them has turned into an eerie silence, not even a return "gf" in local to our proud proclomations, well at least until Tek has his way with them in local chat for being rude!
These guys would have seriously beat down our usual gangs just a couple of weeks ago. The difference? This is Sinners now baby, and we aren't the easy kills we were with Monsters... We are fighting smarter and harder and it shows. We've dropped the baggage that was the "camping crowd" as we call them, and the others that had good piloting skills but too much mental beat-down trash to be effective. The enemy was a decently run gang, fit out specifically to fight us nasty pirates. We were able to pick apart their strengths, force them to continuously have to switch primaries, use our drones with great effect, scatter them from the fight, and hold the "bait" and "tackle" down until it drowned in the fishes mouth. Go Sinners! We do this everyday, not just when we get bored of mining Veldspar! Fuck those anti-pirate bitches!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Getting Settled In The New Corp And Re-learning Old Tricks
The new corp is up and running. Kudos to Marc on the site, forums, and KB. Thanks for the blog link! We've got a good solid core group, everyone gets along, everyone is quite capable, and no drama whores or cry babies. We've decided to shake off some rust and get ourselves settled in to the new ethos we've compiled for Sinners. before recruiting any more pilots. One of our core principles is better PvP'ers rather than bigger numbers so there's no rush.
Just as predicted the Aurohunen and Dantumi Systems have seen an uptick in the number of ships visiting the belts and traveling through without the 23/7 gate camps Monsters used to run there. We're finding people ratting again, which is a good thing. We won't catch them all so maybe they will tell their buddies about the ratting and the giant Veldspar roids waiting to be tapped! Also we don't feel the heat from the blobs so much, another indication that Monsters was a corp with a giant target painted on it's back. The most hated from that corp have moved on or don't log in anymore and the weakest pilots that gave Monsters the reputation for easy kills have all left the area.
I'm spending a lot of time hunting rather than camping which is far more rewarding in terms of how a feel about the kills I get or the lack of huge numbers on the KB. I've done things I hadn't done in months upon months. I hopped in a T1 cruiser, jumped the high sec border system Vaaj. and went roaming solo through the Jan/Navula/Otsasai/Taisy area. The ship I chose was one I'd never piloted before, a Celestis (triple dampener fit), and I was anxious to get it into a fight. It was a slow going trip without much action until I was headed back to Aurohunen. I decided to sit in Jan, safed up, for an extra few minutes while chatting on comms with Ocha. I suddenly spotted a lone Moa on scan, narrowed him down to a belt, within about 20 secs he was moving, I narrowed him down to the next belt and aligned, YES! a new npc wreck on scan! He's Ratting! I warp in and see the Moa sitting there pilot-less... WTF? The ship is named "so-and-so's Moa" and "so-and-so" has left local. I immediately think it's a TARP and something cloaky is waiting for me to shoot this empty ship. I hesitate for a minute and set a long orbit making sure I can align or warp if something does decloak. Then I see the pilot back in the ship, all I can think is that he DC'd and the rats had the ship pointed keeping it from warping to a random spot. So I lock him up, point him, drop the triple damps with range scripts on him and start shooting. This guy is fucked. My DPS is crap so it's taking a while and rats eventually do most of the work. Just as he pops I see local spike so I decide to GTFO of the belt. Good thing, it's his corp mates coming to his rescue, just a bit too late for him unfortunately. The smack talk erupts in local, these guys are pissed, insulting my e-honor, my mother, physical appearance, psychological status, etc. I'm eating it up. They've got 4 battlecruisers, and god knows what else on the way, to take out my lone T1 cruiser... I'm the pussy? Really? These guys will get no revenge for their fallen comrade tonight, and, if we'd have had a couple guys nearby to back me up they may have lost their whole fleet. Fun times.
I've gotten a few other good fights the last couple of nights. And the thing I'm most proud of is warping out when I spot trouble on scan or smell something awry. Sounds like something you should learn in PvP 101, and I did, but you'd be surprised how off-track you can get if you let yourself. I'd been taking too many losses the last few months by staying in fights far too long trying to take someone out before I go down. The "Hero's Death" so-to-speak. Enough of that trading a ship for a ship, it's poor PvP'ing and doesn't do me or the corp any good. I'm not any more hesitant to fight than I was before. I'm just trying to play smarter. I'd grown so lazy and developed so many bad habits over the prior six months. I'm really enjoying getting back to basics again.
Link to the Moa kill I talked about.
Just as predicted the Aurohunen and Dantumi Systems have seen an uptick in the number of ships visiting the belts and traveling through without the 23/7 gate camps Monsters used to run there. We're finding people ratting again, which is a good thing. We won't catch them all so maybe they will tell their buddies about the ratting and the giant Veldspar roids waiting to be tapped! Also we don't feel the heat from the blobs so much, another indication that Monsters was a corp with a giant target painted on it's back. The most hated from that corp have moved on or don't log in anymore and the weakest pilots that gave Monsters the reputation for easy kills have all left the area.
I'm spending a lot of time hunting rather than camping which is far more rewarding in terms of how a feel about the kills I get or the lack of huge numbers on the KB. I've done things I hadn't done in months upon months. I hopped in a T1 cruiser, jumped the high sec border system Vaaj. and went roaming solo through the Jan/Navula/Otsasai/Taisy area. The ship I chose was one I'd never piloted before, a Celestis (triple dampener fit), and I was anxious to get it into a fight. It was a slow going trip without much action until I was headed back to Aurohunen. I decided to sit in Jan, safed up, for an extra few minutes while chatting on comms with Ocha. I suddenly spotted a lone Moa on scan, narrowed him down to a belt, within about 20 secs he was moving, I narrowed him down to the next belt and aligned, YES! a new npc wreck on scan! He's Ratting! I warp in and see the Moa sitting there pilot-less... WTF? The ship is named "so-and-so's Moa" and "so-and-so" has left local. I immediately think it's a TARP and something cloaky is waiting for me to shoot this empty ship. I hesitate for a minute and set a long orbit making sure I can align or warp if something does decloak. Then I see the pilot back in the ship, all I can think is that he DC'd and the rats had the ship pointed keeping it from warping to a random spot. So I lock him up, point him, drop the triple damps with range scripts on him and start shooting. This guy is fucked. My DPS is crap so it's taking a while and rats eventually do most of the work. Just as he pops I see local spike so I decide to GTFO of the belt. Good thing, it's his corp mates coming to his rescue, just a bit too late for him unfortunately. The smack talk erupts in local, these guys are pissed, insulting my e-honor, my mother, physical appearance, psychological status, etc. I'm eating it up. They've got 4 battlecruisers, and god knows what else on the way, to take out my lone T1 cruiser... I'm the pussy? Really? These guys will get no revenge for their fallen comrade tonight, and, if we'd have had a couple guys nearby to back me up they may have lost their whole fleet. Fun times.
I've gotten a few other good fights the last couple of nights. And the thing I'm most proud of is warping out when I spot trouble on scan or smell something awry. Sounds like something you should learn in PvP 101, and I did, but you'd be surprised how off-track you can get if you let yourself. I'd been taking too many losses the last few months by staying in fights far too long trying to take someone out before I go down. The "Hero's Death" so-to-speak. Enough of that trading a ship for a ship, it's poor PvP'ing and doesn't do me or the corp any good. I'm not any more hesitant to fight than I was before. I'm just trying to play smarter. I'd grown so lazy and developed so many bad habits over the prior six months. I'm really enjoying getting back to basics again.
Link to the Moa kill I talked about.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Birth Of A New Corp
It was time for a change. Monsters had been my home for 8 fun months this time around but life with that corp had gotten stale. Also, there was a mass exodus of players from that corp underway and to be honest I just didn't have it in me to stick around and help rebuild it, AGAIN. If I'm going to do that it might as well be a true restart. I think Marc and Ocha felt sort of the same. I know they had their own additional reasons for wanting out of Monsters and I'm sure it was a painful decision for all of us. We had all put time and effort into Monsters, especially Ocha, and in Marc's case, even real life dollars with the website and Mumble. I know I certainly share some of blame for why things had gotten to the point they had with Monsters and I feel bad for leaving to a certain degree. But not that bad, the corporation is old, I mean really old for eve-online and it will go on with or without me. It was there before I started playing the game, and, it'll probably be around for a lot longer.
And so it was done, our roles as directors dropped the night before, Marc and I hopped into an alt corp quickly to grab some jump clones. Then Marc created the new corporation, Sinners., a fine name for a pirate corp. After some struggling with a ticker it was done and Ocha and I put in our applications, Marc quickly accepted, and our new venture was born.
Our plans to recruit some of the others were thwarted by Reno and Epic JK who had formed their own new corporation and taken a large block of the active players. In all honesty those guys were always their own little clique within Monsters. Ocha and Marc liked those guys, me, I would like to have continued flying with a few of them, the rest I could do without. Tek was one guy we really wanted and luckily Epic and Reno had missed out on him giving us the opportunity to court him a bit.
I've got high hopes for Sinners. I'd like to see us become a respected pirate corporation. I know it's going to take effort and I'm ok with that. I trust in Marc and Ocha to do what's needed too. Our growth will be slow and that's by design. We've got stricter recruiting policies than Monsters had. Pilot's need to fly with us a bit before they can join and they need a minimum of 5 solo kills in that time to show us their talents and willingness to get into fights without a blob to save their asses. Another thing we've decided to do is focus more on ransoms and making isk from our kills where possible.There's no reason not to try and ransom some of the pilots we run into and the three of us were really good at it when we first got back to Monsters nearly a year ago, it's just something we had fallen away from. Mainly from being in gangs where either everyone wanted to whore on a kill or people foolishly insta-popped ships without giving us time to ask for a ransom. In any case, I'm really excited to be doing something new.
And so it was done, our roles as directors dropped the night before, Marc and I hopped into an alt corp quickly to grab some jump clones. Then Marc created the new corporation, Sinners., a fine name for a pirate corp. After some struggling with a ticker it was done and Ocha and I put in our applications, Marc quickly accepted, and our new venture was born.
Our plans to recruit some of the others were thwarted by Reno and Epic JK who had formed their own new corporation and taken a large block of the active players. In all honesty those guys were always their own little clique within Monsters. Ocha and Marc liked those guys, me, I would like to have continued flying with a few of them, the rest I could do without. Tek was one guy we really wanted and luckily Epic and Reno had missed out on him giving us the opportunity to court him a bit.
I've got high hopes for Sinners. I'd like to see us become a respected pirate corporation. I know it's going to take effort and I'm ok with that. I trust in Marc and Ocha to do what's needed too. Our growth will be slow and that's by design. We've got stricter recruiting policies than Monsters had. Pilot's need to fly with us a bit before they can join and they need a minimum of 5 solo kills in that time to show us their talents and willingness to get into fights without a blob to save their asses. Another thing we've decided to do is focus more on ransoms and making isk from our kills where possible.There's no reason not to try and ransom some of the pilots we run into and the three of us were really good at it when we first got back to Monsters nearly a year ago, it's just something we had fallen away from. Mainly from being in gangs where either everyone wanted to whore on a kill or people foolishly insta-popped ships without giving us time to ask for a ransom. In any case, I'm really excited to be doing something new.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
I'm A Gate Camping Bastard
Call me whatever you want, just don't call me late for the camp! Don't get me wrong... I love roams, and I love 1v1's, I like hunting missioners, and I like slipping into a wormhole and slitting the throats of those rich bastard carebears. But something about pulling out the Phobos and dropping the infinity point on a Raven with a full rack of warp stabs in the lows, ruining that bitches day, really excites me. Add to that the fact that you can camp no matter how drunk you are and I'm almost always flying faded. Some of the best hate mail I have ever gotten has come from silly 'bears jumping into low-sec without scouting first. Hell, some of the funniest shit I've ever heard on comms has come during camps.
Here's the problem though, gate camping isn't pvp. It's ganking. Any drunken asshole can do it. I want to step up my pvp game in a major way which means I've got to get off the gates and hunt. I've got to strap on smaller, cheaper ships and get into some scraps more than just once in a while... I need to be out scanning and hunting, challenging myself daily. I'm not a bad pvp'er but I've got holes in my game that desperately need plugging. There's no blogs you can read, no forums, no youtube vids, no podcasts, no other way to learn this shit then to put your guns in another pilots face and demand his cash.
My plan for the next few weeks is to get out of the gate-camp-groove that I've been in for far too long and get in some real fights. Luckily I've got guys to fly with like Marc Scaurus around who love jumping in a Rifter and heading out looking for trouble no matter how far it leads them. I'm getting kinda psyched up about breaking out of the mold I've cast myself into. A re-invention so to speak. I plan to post about the experiences I have as I go along, both good and bad, and hopefully I learn something while I'm out there. Wish me luck, or, tell me to fuck off, either way look out because you might have me in a Rifter in your system sometime soon!
Here's the problem though, gate camping isn't pvp. It's ganking. Any drunken asshole can do it. I want to step up my pvp game in a major way which means I've got to get off the gates and hunt. I've got to strap on smaller, cheaper ships and get into some scraps more than just once in a while... I need to be out scanning and hunting, challenging myself daily. I'm not a bad pvp'er but I've got holes in my game that desperately need plugging. There's no blogs you can read, no forums, no youtube vids, no podcasts, no other way to learn this shit then to put your guns in another pilots face and demand his cash.
My plan for the next few weeks is to get out of the gate-camp-groove that I've been in for far too long and get in some real fights. Luckily I've got guys to fly with like Marc Scaurus around who love jumping in a Rifter and heading out looking for trouble no matter how far it leads them. I'm getting kinda psyched up about breaking out of the mold I've cast myself into. A re-invention so to speak. I plan to post about the experiences I have as I go along, both good and bad, and hopefully I learn something while I'm out there. Wish me luck, or, tell me to fuck off, either way look out because you might have me in a Rifter in your system sometime soon!
Un-Lucky Charms
I'm not a superstitious person so the idea of good or bad luck is silly to me. That being said, I've noticed that when I fly with certain pilots I lose ships. Not occasionally, but every damn time. You could chalk some of those losses up to the usual things that can go wrong like piloting errors, lack of intel and taking bait, getting outclassed, bad FC'ing (or no FC'ing), because of Falcon, etc. But, and I've had this happen with a few guys now, when everything should be going right, the whole fight goes south in seconds. And it happens with the same guys time after time. What the hell is going on? Are these guys just like un-lucky charms for me? Anti-rabbit's foot syndrome? Should I just forget ever getting in gang with these pilots again?
The answer to all of those questions is... No. No they aren't bad luck and no I don't have to avoid flying with them. I had to think about this for a long time. I replayed several fights in my head over and over again. There had to be a reason. Some of these guys are damn good pilots. But why are the fights going so badly?
Style! We have totally different fighting styles. The answer might have been obvious to an outsider but for me it was perplexing until I stepped back and looked at it from a distance. I knew it had to be something simple. And now that I know what the problem is I can set about correcting it. It would be arrogant and ignorant for me to ask everyone in EvE to fly like I do, so that means I have to adjust and adapt when I am in a small gang with those pilots flying a different style. You'd think I would have learned this lesson two years ago when I first got into pvp. Some people are just slow to learn I guess.
The answer to all of those questions is... No. No they aren't bad luck and no I don't have to avoid flying with them. I had to think about this for a long time. I replayed several fights in my head over and over again. There had to be a reason. Some of these guys are damn good pilots. But why are the fights going so badly?
Style! We have totally different fighting styles. The answer might have been obvious to an outsider but for me it was perplexing until I stepped back and looked at it from a distance. I knew it had to be something simple. And now that I know what the problem is I can set about correcting it. It would be arrogant and ignorant for me to ask everyone in EvE to fly like I do, so that means I have to adjust and adapt when I am in a small gang with those pilots flying a different style. You'd think I would have learned this lesson two years ago when I first got into pvp. Some people are just slow to learn I guess.
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