Cya in Space

My 2 ISK...

2011-07-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I held my piece during the controversy.

1. MT items - I was confident that they would not start selling magic bullets or "I win" ships. If they post them, I quit, too easy and too many people with that attitude. I think CCP get it. We, the veterans, have invested a significant amount of money (in the form of PLEX and monthly subscriptions) and time in this pasttime. Faster training for new accounts is one thing, but anything that allows someone to leapfrog training time for money is bad.
2. Expensive vanity items? Capitalism will work this out. If you don't want them item, don't buy it. Too easy.
3. Leaked internal stuff. I thought golden goose was added by irate fans, but I saw it in the leaked "Fearless" newsletter. Someone should probably tell CCP that subscribers might not like to be considered so. "But subscribers weren't meant to hear that," some might say. Well the rule in customer support is, "Always speak as if the customer is listening." This reinforces polite manners dealing with the customer, and ensures that any internal communications witnessed by the customer are not damaging to the relationship. Plus, "the EVE customer is a golden goose" attitude will develop into a corporate culture, if it has not already....and that's bad. "Customer satisfaction is our only goal...." or "A Happy Customer Will Continue Subscribing and Invite Friends" would be a much better attitude to build into their corporate culture.
4. Greed is good? Note the question mark, that simple character sets up that issue of the newsletter as a debate. The format of the page where microtransactions are discussed clearly lays it out as a pro/con discussion.
5. Can I Haz Ur Stuff? The ones who left will either return, or they won't.
6. Walking in Stations. 5 minutes of entertainment. I note that my usual way of doing business in station has not changed. If I'm in station for long, I can go stand someplace else with a different view. Be nice to have community areas and stuff, and the ability to decorate, but I think we'll see such things down the line. I would like the ability to spin my ship in the new hangar. And it would be nice if we turn off Captain's Quarters to see the old hangar. I'm confident that old-school spinning shall return.
7. Minimum requirements and multiboxing. CCP's stated minimum is one client with minimal settings. If you want to run more than one client or more than minimal settings you need a machine with greater than minimum requirements. I can run two clients and my machine is getting to the point where it barely meets minimums for some of the new games. Core 2 Duo, 4 GIG RAM, 9800 GTX+ with 1 gig is getting long in the tooth.
8. DIAF and such. Helicity wasn't permabanned for his out of context remark...not directly. He was permabanned for his reaction when they spoke to him later. The proper reaction would have been "I did not mean that literally, it is a figure of speech/'net meme."

Back at it (Pirating)

2011-01-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

After about a 3 year hiatus, I decided to go back to lowsec. First hunt, guy autopilots into a gate. What a moron! But do I want to blow most of my positive sec status on one shot? What the hell, why not? So I shot him.

Then I got tired of waiting and no traffic. So I scanned the system for anoms and such. 6/10 plex. Went for a ship to run it in, something nimble where I can get out quick. Gila. Ran first room, np. As soon as I land in second room and hit dscan, probes out, two different set. One German, one Russian. Warp out.

Returned in covops, cloaked, but the warp @ range function doesn't work with DED plexes, it put me at 0 on the gate, decloaked, with a sleipner right there. So I ran away a bit, cloaked and watched the gate.

Sleipner left system. Back into Gila, start running again. Sleipner is back, so I decided to watch for him and if he showed up (I was 30k+ away from warp-in point) I would warp out. Always aligned. He showed, I disengaged, checked alignment, and watched his velocity, if he tried to come for me I'd bolt. He disconnected or ninja logged.

Two minutes or so later, I've re-engaged the pirates and unknown to me, gotten closer to the warp-in. Here he comes again. Recall sentries, align to warp. Drat, scrammed. Launched hammerheads and started shooting him with missiles, but it was all over. Got my pod out though.

In station I'm staring at a PVP drake. HAM and buffer and MWD with a scram. PVE Gila didn't do well against sleipner, but the drake might. I had just built the drake a couple hours before. So, maiden voyage, back to the plex, and sure enough, the guy's sitting on my Gila wreck like some kind of hyena on a kill.

He isn't leaving. Not scared of a Drake. Five minutes later, I know why. Damn that sleipner's tough. Active tank, set of ecm drones won the fight for him. Broke my lock when we were both about 50% shields. I relock at 20% and he's back up to 90%. Game over.

Should have known that a 4+ y.o. character isn't going to have some lame fit on a commandship in lowsec. I wouldn't. I had a couple months character age on him too. Usually can do well based on skills, but when you're against another well skilled character, tactics win.

A note about recent 'fit' posts

2010-10-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

These are primarily fit for C5/C6 wormhole operations, but could be used for high end mission or exploration site fleets as well.

Armor fleet is 2 Guardians, 1 salvager, plus DPS ships.
Shield fleet is 2 Basilisks, 1 salvager, plus DPS ships.
More DPS means doing sites faster, but loot is split more ways. Balance is up to you.
I have looked for non faction modules where ever possible. Bling IS nice though.

If your purpose is different, your fit will be too. "Form follows function." Somebody said that and it is one of the things I love about EVE.

YMMV

cya in space
Xal

Fit - Myrmidon for shield logistics fleet (combat salvager)

2010-10-29T04:49:00.000-07:00

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable.

[Myrmidon, Myrm - Shields]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II

Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Photon Scattering Field II

Small Tractor Beam I
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I

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

Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x10
Hammerhead II x5

Fit - Ishtar for shield logistics fleet

2010-10-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Ishtar, Ishtar - Shield (T2)]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Invulnerability Field II
Caldari Navy Photon Scattering Field
Invulnerability Field II

75mm Gatling Rail I
Small Tractor Beam I
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I
Salvager I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender II
Medium Core Defence Field Extender II

Fit - Drake for shield logistics fleet

2010-10-29T04:46:00.001-07:00

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Drake, Drake - Shields]

Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Invulnerability Field II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Photon Scattering Field II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile

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

Hobgoblin II x5

Fit - Dominix for shield logistics fleet

2010-10-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Dominix, Domi - shields]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer

Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Optical Tracking Computer I

350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L

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

Garde II x5
Hammerhead II x10
Hobgoblin II x5
Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot II x5

Fit - Dominix for armor logistics fleet

2010-10-29T04:31:00.000-07:00

Designed for 100k effective HP, armor buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Dominix, Domi - armor]

Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer

Optical Tracking Computer I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Warp Disruptor II

350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L

Large Anti-Explosive Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I

Garde II x5
Hammerhead II x10
Hobgoblin II x5
Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot II x5

Fit - Dominix Navy Issue for shield logisitics

2010-10-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Dominix Navy Issue, DNI - shields]

Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II

Large Shield Extender II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Optical Tracking Computer I, Optimal Range
Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Caldari Navy Photon Scattering Field

425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L

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

Garde II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot I x5
Medium Armor Maintenance Bot II x5

Fit - Basilisk

2010-10-29T04:24:00.000-07:00

Need two of these supporting each other, each with logistics 5. For logistics 4, make sure the other pilot substitutes a second Energy Transfer Array for one of the shield transporters.

[Basilisk, Basi - Shields]

5x Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large Energy Transfer Array II

2x Invulnerability Field II
Photon Scattering Field II
Large Shield Extender II
10MN Afterburner II

Power Diagnostic System II
Damage Control II

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Semiconductor Memory Cell I

Fit - Gila

2010-10-29T04:23:00.000-07:00

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Gila, Gila - Shields]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Co-Processor II

Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I

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

Garde II x5
Hammerhead II x10
Ogre II x5
Hobgoblin II x10

Ouch

2010-10-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Was trying to be a low/nullsec explorer. Active tanked Tengu with cloak and probe and heavy missiles. I was set up to do radar and combat sites. I felt confident of my abilities to explore in wormholes to find my way through to other areas of low/null. I found a combat site in lowsec called "Minor Blood Annex". It's minor, so I'll just go see what's there.

Landed to approximately 3 dozen Blood Raiders. 12 Battleships and support. Web/scram frigates. Heavy neuting. Long story short, Tengu lasted about 60 seconds. Active tank wouldn't work, no AB. Was able to kill one of the scrambling frigs but not the other.

Bought the hull when they were still 500mil. Approximately 200mil worth of subs. Maybe 50mil in mods and ammo. And about 37k in skill points.

Not my finest hour. Taking a couple of days to forget a bit...

Cya in space

Are Those Pirates?

2010-10-04T17:07:00.001-07:00

Xalorous was moving a ship, long boring trip through empire. So I logged in my other character. Hardly an alt. Fully skilled, separate account, blah blah.

Anyway, saw a guy comment in local that some 'nub' is can mining in belt one. Went off in my Domi to see. Sure enough, he's using a mining cruiser to mine into a can. So I see 20 or so wrecks in the belt. I start salvaging them for something to do.

As I work around, I see a new spawn. Pop drones, no more spawn. As I think about warning the noob that they're probably coming to flip his can, the same guy as made the comment earlier warps in. I deliver my warning, telling him not to shoot. Well the pirate sees my wrecks as a chance to can flip ME. Which he does. And I don't have a point.

So I talk to the guy in the mining cruiser and he DOES have a point. Pirate, who is in a Harpy, proceeds to take from the mining can as well. Mr. Mining Cruiser tackles the Harpy and I attack with drones. At which time Mr. Harpy attacks me.

Huh? Harpy vs. Domi. He can't think...

Oh, hell, he's got help.

Loki and Raven to be exact. They show up as I'm learning to use drones in PVP. He keeps shooting them. T2 Hobgoblins aint cheap.

So, I warn Mr. Mining Cruiser not to shoot Loki or Raven. Too late - he already aggressed. So I told him to bug out. Which he did.

So, Loki and Raven are remote repping Harpy. Harpy web scrammed me. He's killed about 6 small drones. I got more but they don't damage him fast enough to kill him before the reps cycle.

No way a Harpy is killing my Domi with 2 large reps and a ton of resists.

Stalemate.

Except I have ECM drones on board (these jam their target). This would be the second time they've saved me, if they work. He managed to shoot two of them before I figured out the trick. Which is: pop em out, sic em on him, give them time to get a cycle off and call them back. Repeat.

Except I'm not getting a jam. Damn. Time to bring Xal back to help.

Except Xal is 18 jumps away (well, 6, but 18 including jumps to get a PVP ship) and can only do logistics by the time he gets here since Mr. Pirate's GCC (global criminal countdown) is almost gone at this point. I needed a Jam or big alpha (enough damage in one cycle to kill it before his incoming reps cycle) on the Harpy.

I keep checking up...no change, Harpy is saving ammo, shooting about every 5 minutes or so. Scram on, web not.

So I told him in local, "Stalemate".

To which I got static in reply. As in nothing. Boooring. No tears without trash talk bud.

So I tried to jam him again. Woah it worked.

Quick warp!

Doh, my surprise made me wait too long. So I tried again but this time I clicked him, clicked station, popped drones, put mouse on 'Warp' icon, hit 'drones engage' key. Watched the point icon. Poof there it went. Recall drones. Warp, warp, warp.

I was free.

Still searching

2010-09-27T03:44:00.003-07:00

Trying to find the right fit can be hard. Primary difficulties are my schedule and my desire for a fun but serious group without too many restrictions and requirements.

I've moved out of the system where the pirate corp that I was looking at is based. They declined my application for the implied reason that I didn't have enough small group PVP experience. I would like to state that when my work cycle started, I had about 1100 points on their killboard. That score would have put me in fourth place - one place ahead of the recruitment officer - if I had been eligible to be listed. It's odd, I cut my teeth in lowsec for 18 months flying in small gangs. Since then, even when I was in large alliances, I almost always flew small gangs, since I didn't have the fleet ships trained. I have since trained those ships, and even trained caps, but I am most comfortable in small gangs.

So, that means that their letter was a polite dismissal for some other reason. Probably the fact that I haven't been flying for about a week. Due to my work schedule, I am gone for 8 days, followed by 6 days when I can play. I informed some of the members of that corp that I would be gone for a week, except logging in to change skills and market orders. Evidently they either are not flexible enough to live with that schedule, or they lack the internal communication to disseminate such information when provided by a recruit, or they had some issue with me personally and they're not able to be forthright with me about it.

So, regardless of their reason, they are not a good fit for me.

No hard feelings.

Cya in space...

Targets, and kills

2010-09-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

Still trying out that new corp. A piratical bunch. Good natured internally. Tonight was fun, lots of chasing targets around, but we caught some. I started off flying a rifter, for the inexpensive nature of it, but soon switched to a Brutix since the targets were a bit larger than I wanted to fight in my rifter. Nothing wrong with losing the Rifter, but I think I'm going to work my way down to it.

Ninja Salvaging

2010-09-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

1. The more targets, the harder it can be to sort through all the ships in the system when probing.
2. Not all mission runners are noob carebears. The very first that shot at me, re-shipped to a combat ship and then destroyed my nicely fit Brutix.
3. Use all your advantages. Don't forget that you have a second character logged on in system. Have it in a support ship and ready to fly.
4. Bookmark the mission rooms for salvaging later, if the target doesn't bite.

On applying for a new corp

2010-09-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

I sent in an email application to a corp that I'm interested in. Only the first one I messed up the email address. Oops, that took a day to notice. Now it looks like their recruitment department is out hunting targets or on a game break.

random acts of kindness

2010-09-14T06:47:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in passing that I didn't have enough money to re-insure my clone. Primary drawback of almost 70mil SP is 13mil for a clone.

An old friend heard this and gave me enough ISK so that I can equip a cruiser and still have enough ISK in the bank to replace it and re-clone. That was an awesome thing to do and I haven't been the recipient of that kind of generosity since noob days.

Either way, if he gets caught by a gang that I'm in, I might still shoot him, but I'll also pay his ransom, as long as it's same order of magnitude of the ISK he gave me.

Thanks Darkstar

Xal
cya in space

New gadget on blog, new goal.

2010-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Recently was asked for some short/mid term goals in Eve. I said destroy a billion isk and reach 10:1 Kill/Loss ratio.

Battleclinic.com combat record for Xalorous shows 12 Billion destroyed (??) and an abysmal K/L ratio. So forget the isk destroyed. My new goal is 10:1 Kill/Loss ratio (K/L) before I reach 400 losses. A very difficult goal, lets see how close I can get.

204 Kills
136 Losses

Means I need about 3800 kills before I get 264 more losses, if it goes down to the wire or 1224 kills without a loss.

Whew! False alarm.

2010-09-11T07:29:00.001-07:00

Old clone in completely different region. Intact, ready for training.

Oh, Damn!!! Welcome back, doh!

2010-09-11T07:17:00.001-07:00

Break over.

Logged in. New direction in mind. Dangerous one. Need clean clone. Ahh, there's one. Jumped into it. Oh shit!!! Same station. Destroyed +4 training/missioning clone.

Doncha just love Eve sometimes?

It happened AGAIN

2010-04-22T22:35:00.001-07:00

Ok, so now I think I may have a problem with my motherboard. Or there's a serious problem with Windows 7. One of them is eating my hard drives. I blanked a drive, installed Win7 and this morning it crashed. As in the drive is not visible even in BIOS. What are the odds of two physical hard drive failures in one week?

Grrrr. And I just ordered Starcraft II for the beta, should be getting a code today...

Ouch

2010-04-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my hard drive crashed. "That's OK, you're an IT professional, just restore from backup and move on."

Ok, so my hard drive crashed and I don't have a backup. OS, programs, these are fine. I still have my XP disk and I can still get online and with a spare hard drive I will soon reinstall Win7 + Eve et al. the problem is that I've started keeping my receipts from my bills, taxes, etc. as digital copies. So I've lost 2-3 months of receipts.

So....Ouch.

PVP Quick Lesson 2

2010-04-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Rifter vs Dramiel

Ok, this time I was on a gate and saw a flash. New neutral in local. He decloaks. Uhoh, it's a Dramiel and I was 20k off the gate and burning like crazy to get to it before he killed me. Ok, he's locking now, drones out. Locked, taking damage, pointed. Rifter's a goner, right? Oh hell, tank isn't on. DC on, small repper on. Ok, that's a bit better. 5k, 3k, spamming 'Jump' button. Whew, made it through. Warped away to stay away from the guy. Oh yeah, he aggressed and I got through. He has to wait a minute.

I reported this fight on Vent. The corp guys were eager to chase him down, but it was close to downtime and he was marking safes as he went, so time expired before we could catch him.

PVP Quick Lesson 1

2010-04-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

Rifter vs Shuttle

Huh? How is this even a fight? What possible lesson could you learn from killing a defenseless shuttle? Why even bother? Well, I warped to the gate, and as I landed I noticed a shuttle 15k off the gate. Red. I locked him and he locked back. As I'm turning on the mods, I wonder why he locked me. I finally decided he's either hardcore and pretending he had some modules to shoot back, or he was a real noob and didn't have 'lock back' turned off.

How was it a fight? Well, he had a friend. The Crow (and more later) came through from the other side of the gate and tackled me. I started calculating whether my insurance would cover replacing my ship. Just for practice I keyed the mic and reported in Vent. "Xal in [system name]. Crow on [gate name]. Crow is aggressed. Xal's tank holding but Crow's out of scram range."

A corp-mate in system showed up in a Sabre and the Crow burned away.

Two things struck me about this fight.
1. My Rifter actually survived. I attribute this to the fact that I kept my speed up so that his missiles did a reduced amount of damage. (AB on and set to approach him).
2. Crows don't like Sabres.

Real life...

2010-04-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

Due to a combination of real life issues and errands, and a need to spend time with my family, I have been playing little of the last week.

I've been having a good time running around with the corp (Agony Unleashed), chasing folks out of our little area. One thing I'll say for this group, they drop whatever they're doing and show up fit to kill whenever there's a scent of a target. More in the next article.

cough cough

2010-04-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

I was legitimately, miserably sick last week for three days. I spent a lot of time playing Eve. (See Carebearing article). Now I find that all those chores in real life that I put off last week still need doing, only now they're short deadline or late.

Carebearing

2010-04-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my "ground up, PVP only lifestyle" has been more of a ground up "exploring sovereignty with a PVP oriented group (Agony Unleashed)" lifestyle. With the Infrastructure Hub (IH) technology added with the Sovereignty overhaul, we have been able to upgrade one of our systems to a high military level and have added a Pirate Detection Array. This has made ratting both simple and profitable. I spent quite a bit of time online last week, most of it running anomalies.

I look forward to spending some isk on some real combat ships and taking place in some ops where I stand a real chance of losing those ships. In line with my ground up approach, one of those ships will be a faction frig (Hookbill or another), others will include a couple of cruisers including a Moa and a Thorax. Finally, I will include a couple of Blackbirds so that I can prepare for using Falcons when my confidence level improves.

PVP University - PVP-ADVANCED

2010-03-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

I want to say thank you to Caldak and the rest of the PVP University staff. I do not think I have had a more enlightening 8 hour period in EVE in the almost four years I've been playing.

PVP-ADVANCED is a two night, four plus hours a night, course in fleet PVP. First night is the concepts, a classroom portion. The second night is your hands-on class roam. We were 60 cruisers strong, maybe more at the beginning, as I joined late.

PVP-BASIC and PVP-WOLFPACKS are the prerequisites. In those courses, the students learned how to follow FC instructions, how to communicate on voice comms (and when not to-which is most of the time), how to fit for the hydra principle, how to be effective in a group without a whole log of isk involved, the importance of bookmarks, the importance of movement, and most of all, how to follow your FC and use the abilities of your fleet against the opposition.

PVP-ADVANCED picked up there and covered more advanced topics. We flew cruisers -- no T2 hulls allowed and we were encouraged to minimize our investment and to pay up our insurance. I have found that when I'm not worried about replacing a ship, I can lose it and the only down side is it takes a while to catch back up to the fleet.

I especially enjoyed the part of the class portion where we discussed how to choose primaries. The most dangerous and fastest to kill top the list. These include the force multiplier ships, jammers and logistics. Last to kill are the hard nuts like heavily tanked drakes and command ships. Intelligence, communications, independent action all play a strong part in the success of a fleet.

Independent action? Yep. You have to act within your role as best as you can in each engagement. The FC cannot and should not micromanage each pilot. Interceptors have to know to break engagement before they are destroyed once another pilot has the target tackled. Fast tacklers have to know to get that tackle and communicate it to the group. Jammers have to know that when a Falcon joins the field, htey don't need permission to switch to that Falcon. And if you're in a blaster boat and a Falcon decloaks next to you, close and kill. Orders not required.

Mostly I enjoyed listening to Caldak orchestrate his scouts. Sometimes multiple single scouts, sometimes entire squadrons or other small groups. Once I volunteered to jump through a gate and was told to turn around and burn back and jump through on contact. One of our group agressed without orders and was thus stranded on that side with the enemy. Turns out that we were bait. I figured that out as soon as I heard his doom announced by Caldak. Along the lines of you picked that fight, now you're stuck with it. The idea had been to look like we jumped in and turned around to run away when our scout spotted the main enemy force.

High point of the roam, for me, was when we heard about a 20 ship battlecruiser fleet lead by command ships. And here we were with about 60 cruisers. We kept hearing intel on them, with drones deployed, bubblers in position and everyone set up for a fight. He never said it, but I know Caldak didn't want to jump our fleet into such a setup. It couldn't work out for us. He kept getting intel reports and we finally got into position to attack them when they weren't fully prepared for a fight. And we did. We pounded that battlecruiser fleet. We lost many more ships than they did, and we left the field before they did, but we did kill an even value in ships. This was according to the opponent's killboard. Not bad for a bunch of students. Caldak even told us later that they wanted a rematch. By the time we re-shipped and headed back, they had moved on to re-ship as well, but we never found them again.

The only part of this particular PVP-Advanced class that I disliked was the timing. 2359 Eve time. Friday night, I finally put myself to bed at 0400. I got only 2 hours of sleep. I knew the price, and I decided to pay it, but if I'd had another class at a different time, I would have preferred it. Saturday night, I knew with Daylight Savings Time kicking in that I would be finishing at around 6am local, IF the roam was short. Not something Caldak's roams are known for. So I went to bed early, intending to wake up in time to join the class at 2359. Well, I woke at 3am local (0200 game time), which was really 4am and finally got into the game an hour later. I roamed with the fleet for 5 hours.

All in all, an experience I would repeat, gladly. With a bit more preparation in my personal schedule to make the classes early morning instead of late night.

Busy week

2010-03-20T19:50:00.001-07:00

Last week I made the decision to apply to join a long-standing, well-repsected PVP corporation. I have spent much time over the last week flying with them, especially this weekend. I won't be going into any details over who they are until I find out what sort of policies they have. I feel like things are going well so far, and maybe I can find a fit here.

So far, I've gone on a roams in a destroyer fleet, a battlecruiser fleet, a HAC fleet, and a T1 Cruiser fleet. So far, I've managed to lose a destroyer, and to get on a few mails.

Cya in Space.

PVP University - PVP-Wolfpacks

2010-03-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I went on the roam last night. Was a lot of fun, even though we didn't find many targets. With 60ish destroyers, enemies melt. Primary enemies were SB and Smartbombing battleships.

I managed to dodge one of the latter into the teeth of a smartbomber. Oops. Bought the ship to lose it and I succeeded. Was a lot of fun, and a great experience.

I recomend Agony Unleashed's PVP University to anyone who wants to learn PVP, hydra fitting, fleet comms, skirmishing/recon.

Cya in Space

a first step

2010-03-13T02:45:00.001-08:00

It was really a coincidence. I signed up for the class a long time before I made the decision to re-learn Eve from a PVP perspective. The fun part is that taking the Agony Unleashed PVP University course PVP-Wolfpacks dovetailed with my new focus. The theory part of the course is behind us and we get practical experience in a roam tonight. I can already tell that the destroyers, though not as nimble as their frigate cousins, far outweigh them when it comes to firepower.

Like many others, I overlooked destroyers when I was striving to get into my first Moa. I had tried a destroyer for level 1 missions, but found that they were about 5 times as expensive as a frigate (before insurance) and I excelled in losing ships. Learning to make the frigates work for level 1's and later some level 2's was a valuable lesson. Focus on one type of tank always. Focus on one type of weapons, if possible. Loved the spunky Merlin, in spite of its multiple personality disorder. Big brother Hawk is my homage to the Merlin. Almost always have one in my Hangar.

Back to the dessy. No tank, all gank. Just a smidge of EWar. Yet with numbers, a formiddable fleet. Hit and run tactics or close range slug fests. Properly fit and flown, they are an excellent choice for a Hydra fleet.

So, what's a guy with umpty million skillpoints doing in a PVP class? I know how to fly, and I'm pretty good at fitting ships. I can fly in a fleet and even contribute. I just lack the mindset of knowing how to make best use of a group of ships. So, I guess it boils down to learning how to develop tactics and strategy. Best way for me to do that is to learn the standards first.

Cya in space ;-|

Ok, so now what?

2010-03-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't have the excuse of being a newbie any more. I have to own my noobishness now. You see, I've been at this, playing Eve Online, for going on four years now. I have two mains. Yeah, I think a 30 mil skill point character stops being an alt at some point. I have played and quit the game numerous times, though "quitting" was always more like hibernation. I kept skilling.

So, after almost 100 million skillpoints in four years, what have I learned about Eve Online?

Focus is everything. My 30 million SP character is as devastating in PVP as my 60 million SP character, because he is more tightly focused.
Skillpoints only gets you access to the equipment and gives you some bonuses. But a 50% boost of performance when the skill level is low, still won't get you the same performance as someone who is stretching their equipment.
OCD and lack of focus led me to dabbling in depth. I've done a lot of a bunch of different little things, but I haven't mastered much.

So, here I am, with a new appreciation of making the most of what you have and realizing that I'm going to have to work hard to stretch the limits of my characters when they're both working on MAXIMIZING skill sets instead of just acquiring them. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Starting with T1 frigates and moving up from there. I plan to learn PVP. Until no-one will face me 1v1 without me spotting them.

Cya in space. (From now on, this friendly greeting will have a new meaning.)

Hello Eve!

2010-03-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

Going to have to reclaim my old blogspot name, but this name may suit the topic better.