A friend thinking of getting into Eve asked "If I choose a race other than Caldari, can I still hang out with you if our races are at war?"
Short answer: Yes.
Long Answer:
There are four playable factions (aka races) in Eve and several non-playable ones. Each of the four factions has three bloodlines to make 12 options for your character when starting. The four factions are called Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, and Minmatar. The first two are allies, and the last two are allies, and each alliance does not like the other. In fact, the Caldari and Gallente had nasty war a while back before the modern era, and the Minmatar used to be enslaved by the Amarr before they rebelled.
However, all this bad blood in the current Eve storyline has been settled down such that the factions have no open warfare against each other. Think of it like the Cold War: lots of little flare ups fought by proxy agencies or black operatives, and lots of build up of fleets, but no open fighting.
What this means for players is that choosing a faction and a bloodline only really impacts your starting region and skills. For example, a Caldari newbie would have Caldari Frigate IV and Missile Launcher Operation IV while a Minmatar starting character would have Minmatar Frigate IV and Small Projectile Turret IV (depending on schools and profession picked) but from there both characters are free to train any factions ship skills and any weapons. Similarly, they could pick up and leave their starting region and go to any of the other four factions' regions to live there. They will suffer no ill effects except perhaps finding their equipment and ships at a higher price due to availability.
However, if you run missions for a NPC corporation, sooner or later you will be assigned missions that pit you against faction Navy NPCs of the rival faction of the corporation agent's faction. Heh, confused? Basically, if you run missions for a Minmatar agent you will have some missions where you are fighting Amarr and/or Caldari navy NPCs. These missions cause your standings with the Amarr and Caldari factions to fall while they rise for Minmatar and Gallente. Eventually, if you run enough missions your faction standing will fall so low that their NPC police units at gates in their space will attack you (although the attacks are pretty lame).
This is all well and good, but for 90% of the Eve population it is meaningless. Why you ask?
Because its the player factions that mean so much more.
There are several major player factions in lawless space and two of the largest, GBC and Red Swarm, are in the midst of a massive war that has been going on for months if not a year. Kill on sight rules the day in their space followed by NBSI: not blue, shoot it (allies and friends are marked with blue symbols on the screen, enemies red, neutrals with nothing. NBSI means treat all neutrals as enemies).
So my point is that until CCP releases some form of Factional Warfare between the major NPC factions, it won't matter whether you pick Amarr or Minmatar for your character unless you are big into roleplaying.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Convoy
Last night a call went up in corp chat that the POS needed fuel and there was a need for escorts, scouts, and more haulers to go to the local market hub and get the fuel. A few people jumped up as escorts and scouts right away so I figured I'd help out as a hauler since my alt Barak was in system and had just joined m3.
There was only two low sec systems to go through, the rest of the 8 jumps were high sec. But it took us twenty minutes to get through those two low sec systems as when we went to make our pass through pirates seemed to materialize out of nowhere and a frantic battle erupted on a gate between our scouts and other allies not in our convoy and pirates.
As we sweated it out in a safe spot in the first low sec system, worried that a scan probe would reveal our location and an enemy fleet would warp in, the battle raged at the gate. Finally our side drove off the enemy and the three haulers including mine made a break for it. We go through safely and took a different and longer route home, also through two low sec systems but no pirate activity in these ones.
All in all an exciting evening and it was good to do something with the corp to show the colours so to speak.
Later on I decided that in order to practice with the carrier I'd need a relatively safe system to work in. So I jumped Barak to the carrier and got a m3 corp mate to generate a cyno for me. The new system I'm in will be more populated with friendlies and has a corp POS so I can practice there with little worry of being assaulted. Ok, less worry. :)
There was only two low sec systems to go through, the rest of the 8 jumps were high sec. But it took us twenty minutes to get through those two low sec systems as when we went to make our pass through pirates seemed to materialize out of nowhere and a frantic battle erupted on a gate between our scouts and other allies not in our convoy and pirates.
As we sweated it out in a safe spot in the first low sec system, worried that a scan probe would reveal our location and an enemy fleet would warp in, the battle raged at the gate. Finally our side drove off the enemy and the three haulers including mine made a break for it. We go through safely and took a different and longer route home, also through two low sec systems but no pirate activity in these ones.
All in all an exciting evening and it was good to do something with the corp to show the colours so to speak.
Later on I decided that in order to practice with the carrier I'd need a relatively safe system to work in. So I jumped Barak to the carrier and got a m3 corp mate to generate a cyno for me. The new system I'm in will be more populated with friendlies and has a corp POS so I can practice there with little worry of being assaulted. Ok, less worry. :)
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Other Online Games
What? There are other online games besides Eve? *GASP*
Seriously, I'm not talking about MMORPGs, I'm talking about games of a more sedate nature that I participate in.
Gameknot - Online chess between 697,658+ players. Free accounts can get up to 12 concurrent games, and each game gives between 3-7 days to make your move (depending on settings when the game was created). Leagues, teams, tournaments, and a rating system. I've finished over 1000 games on Gameknot since I started a couple years ago.
YourTurnMyTurn.com - This website is similar to Gameknot but with a smaller user base and a selection of games besides Chess including some obscure ones. I play Go on this site but only a couple games at a time. I enjoy Go and I find it far more fun and exciting than Chess, but it suffers in the online waiting-days-for-turns format. Face to face games are where Go excels. Still, I like to keep sharp and YTMT's website does that. Again, all free.
Conquer Club - This is basically a free website to play games of Risk without violating trademarks. Plus they a whole slew of fun options besides the basic game and you can play multiple games at once. Again, you have 24 hours to make your move so no rush. I just started this week so I'll update in a while as it goes.
Seriously, I'm not talking about MMORPGs, I'm talking about games of a more sedate nature that I participate in.
Gameknot - Online chess between 697,658+ players. Free accounts can get up to 12 concurrent games, and each game gives between 3-7 days to make your move (depending on settings when the game was created). Leagues, teams, tournaments, and a rating system. I've finished over 1000 games on Gameknot since I started a couple years ago.
YourTurnMyTurn.com - This website is similar to Gameknot but with a smaller user base and a selection of games besides Chess including some obscure ones. I play Go on this site but only a couple games at a time. I enjoy Go and I find it far more fun and exciting than Chess, but it suffers in the online waiting-days-for-turns format. Face to face games are where Go excels. Still, I like to keep sharp and YTMT's website does that. Again, all free.
Conquer Club - This is basically a free website to play games of Risk without violating trademarks. Plus they a whole slew of fun options besides the basic game and you can play multiple games at once. Again, you have 24 hours to make your move so no rush. I just started this week so I'll update in a while as it goes.
Trinity Is Announced
The next major (largest?) Eve expansion has been announced for release on Dec 5th, next week.
While I'm happy to see the new graphics and all, I'm more stoked about the chance to see if my investment into Battleship invention pans out. It wasn't a make-or-break investment for Razor; if all five invention tries fail I'm out about 400 million ISK which can be recuperated in other operations in a couple months. The Scorpions and ship components I've stockpiled can easily go into other operations.
Also, last night I had a little excitement. From the incident report on my corp forums:
While I'm happy to see the new graphics and all, I'm more stoked about the chance to see if my investment into Battleship invention pans out. It wasn't a make-or-break investment for Razor; if all five invention tries fail I'm out about 400 million ISK which can be recuperated in other operations in a couple months. The Scorpions and ship components I've stockpiled can easily go into other operations.
Also, last night I had a little excitement. From the incident report on my corp forums:
Since I missed the action last night arriving too late, I went out solo looking for any pirates through Parts and area. After a few uneventful jumps I ended up in Old Man Star with about 11 in local including some reds from Angels of Redemption.Next time I see Hiflungdung I won't be so patient.
I warped to the Ladistier gate to check out the local names and see if any -5 sec status pilots were around. At the gate I run into Hiflungdung of Blunt Force Syndicate sitting there in a drake. He has a positive sec status and not red to us so I'm not too concerned with him.
Then the yellow threat square lights up. WTF? He's locking me?
At first I think he's playing around. After all, my sec status is positive, I've made no threatening moves or words in local, and as far as I know we're neutral to his corp. But as soon as the threat square goes red he launches missiles at me to my surprise.
So here I am in a Tech 2 outfitted Brutix with 5 EC-600 jamming drones in my hold being assaulted by a signicantly younger character in a drake hitting me with tech 1 missiles and getting pounded by the sentries. I'm 90% sure I can take him without a second glance but I'm far from home in a system with a couple reds and the thought does occur to me that he could be bait.
I wait patiently for about 20 seconds (according to the logs) watching my shield melt, surprisingly slowly actually but I'm not complaining. I'm about to start to lock him and approach to attack when a big red flashing Apocalypse warps to the gate from Angels of Redemption corp. Now I don't know if it was coincidence or whether they were working together because I got spooked and jumped into Ladistier.
Once in Ladistier there was one red in local and not at the gate so I warped to the station to get a feel for whether or not I was being pursued. At the station I did not dock but watched local climb a bit with another red.
Suddenly one of the reds undocks in a shuttle, looking for me I presume. He quickly docks. A few seconds later he undocks again... in a Chimera.
"NEAT!" I think to myself and immediately start flying towards it. He begins locking me but I'm not concerned as I can dock in a second if anything gets ugly. I approach leisurely and he still hasn't completed locking me at which I laugh a little as I see a sensor booster graphic in effect on the carrier. As I get to about 10 km another red warps to station, this one in a Hurricane. Ah, the cavalry, and local fills up with a couple more reds.
That was it for me. Fearing gate camps on any exits and enemies closing in I dock at the station and log for the night. This morning right after downtime I logged in and got my ass out of low sec so I can head back to friendly space.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tipping Point
I just realized something. Including the 5 new ships, there are 45 Caldari ships. Right now I can pilot 25 of them of which 5 I consider practically useless to me (Bantam and Osprey for mining, Griffin and Condor two slow and fragile, Badger mk I overshadowed by Mk II).
When I get the two Recon ships followed a week later by the two Heavy Assault Ships, I will have tipped into the second half of the useful Caldari ships.
Just thought I'd mention it. Very exciting times.
For the curious, a small spreadsheet of Caldari ships, the ones in bold are the ones I can't fly yet.
When I get the two Recon ships followed a week later by the two Heavy Assault Ships, I will have tipped into the second half of the useful Caldari ships.
Just thought I'd mention it. Very exciting times.
For the curious, a small spreadsheet of Caldari ships, the ones in bold are the ones I can't fly yet.
Electronic Attack Frigates
Out of the five new ship classes coming out in the Trinity patch (estimated Dec 5th!) the two Tech 2 battleships got the most attention because they will be the most sought after. The Heavy Interdictor gets a lot of forum time more for its low sec abilities than 0.0 bubble applications, and the Jump Freighter's future as replacement for carriers as haulers in 0.0 combined with its massive costs cause a lot of discussion.
But the fifth ship in the list, Electronic Attack Frigates (EAS), get ignored a lot of the time. The goal of the ship class is to provide a small fast moving electronic warfare platform for frigate sized engagements. Fragile, it depends on its speed and ECM jamming (for Caldari) to stay alive and cause havoc against small enemy gangs. It completes the trifecta for T2 frigate gangs: interceptors to catch them, EAS to jam them, assault ships to cause damage. A roving gang with two interceptors, three assault ships, and one or two EAS could easily take down lone battleships, gangs of cruisers, or mining/industrials with frightening ease, and the speed at which they move make them difficult to catch.
Kirith is nicely positioned for these ships already as the main requirements will be Electronic Upgrades V and Caldari Frigate V and he has them both.
But the fifth ship in the list, Electronic Attack Frigates (EAS), get ignored a lot of the time. The goal of the ship class is to provide a small fast moving electronic warfare platform for frigate sized engagements. Fragile, it depends on its speed and ECM jamming (for Caldari) to stay alive and cause havoc against small enemy gangs. It completes the trifecta for T2 frigate gangs: interceptors to catch them, EAS to jam them, assault ships to cause damage. A roving gang with two interceptors, three assault ships, and one or two EAS could easily take down lone battleships, gangs of cruisers, or mining/industrials with frightening ease, and the speed at which they move make them difficult to catch.
Kirith is nicely positioned for these ships already as the main requirements will be Electronic Upgrades V and Caldari Frigate V and he has them both.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
ECM Jamming Comparisions
Al asked in a comment to last post for an exact comparison between Kirith and Optivus based on the jamming abilities that Optivus specialized in compared to Kirith and his more scattered approach to training.
First off, definitions for the non-Eve readership. There are several types of Electronic Warfare in Eve which amount to either making it harder for enemy ships to hit you or your allies, or making your ship and your allies hit the enemy harder. Electronic Counter Measures (aka ECM) are modules you put on your ship and when activated against an enemy ship they will attempt to overpower their sensors and break all locks they have (called jamming), a powerful ability as most weapons and utility modules in the game require locks on target ships to do anything.
The Caldari faction has several ships that give bonuses to ECM modules making it the "racial" electronic warfare type even though any ship or any faction can use ECM modules if they desire.
OK, now on to the comparison of the skills that allow and affect ECM jamming.
Electronic Warfare - allows use of the modules and 5% less capacitor need per level. Kirith IV, Optivus V
Frequency Modulation - 10% bonus to falloff1 for ECM modules. Kirith IV, Optivus IV
Long Distance Jamming - 10% bonus to optimal range2 for ECM modules. Kirith IV, Optivus IV
Signal Dispersion - 5% bonus to strength of ECM modules. Kirith IV, Optivus IV
As you can see, except for the Electronic Warfare skill the characters are at the same level. Where then are the other 2 million skill points Optivus has in Electronics? Well, ~400K comes from the Electronic Warfare skill, another ~800K from Long Range Targeting that Optivus trained to V, another 200K in Signature Analysis, and Signal Dispersion is 79% trained to level V for another 800K skill points.
Now, another thing that affects ECM jamming is the bonus of the ships being used since your skill in using the ship affects how much bonus you get. The relevant ship skills:
Caldari Frigate - Kirith V, Optivus IV
Caldari Cruiser - Kirith V (finally), Optivus V
Caldari Battleship - Kirith IV, Optivus IV
Recon - Kirith 0, Optivus V
So while Kirith can get 10% more ECM strength in the rarely used and paper thin Griffin frigate, Optivus has a vast advantage in the Recon ships (Falcon and Rook) because while I'm having Kirith train for them, I don't see him going all the way to Level V for the skill. Level IV should be fine for me which means Optivus still gets a 10% strength bonus in the Falcon and 20% strength bonus in the Rook, impressive improvements.
Summary:
While Kirith is pretty much equal to Optivus in jamming in all T1 ship classes, the latter has a definite advantage in the T2 cruisers even after Kirith's training plan for those ships completes. Should my corporation or me go back to Null sec space to live again, having a scout like Optivus could prove useful.
1 - Falloff is the distance from optimal range at which your chances of hitting have fallen from 100% at optimal range to 50%. In theory, at optimal range + 2 x falloff range you have a 0% chance of hitting your target.
2 - Optimal range is the farthest point at which your chance to hit is still 100%. In theory everything below that range is 100% to hit but tracking issues come into play more as you get closer. Hence optimal range is the point where tracking difficulty and to hit difficulty intersect.
First off, definitions for the non-Eve readership. There are several types of Electronic Warfare in Eve which amount to either making it harder for enemy ships to hit you or your allies, or making your ship and your allies hit the enemy harder. Electronic Counter Measures (aka ECM) are modules you put on your ship and when activated against an enemy ship they will attempt to overpower their sensors and break all locks they have (called jamming), a powerful ability as most weapons and utility modules in the game require locks on target ships to do anything.
The Caldari faction has several ships that give bonuses to ECM modules making it the "racial" electronic warfare type even though any ship or any faction can use ECM modules if they desire.
OK, now on to the comparison of the skills that allow and affect ECM jamming.
Electronic Warfare - allows use of the modules and 5% less capacitor need per level. Kirith IV, Optivus V
Frequency Modulation - 10% bonus to falloff1 for ECM modules. Kirith IV, Optivus IV
Long Distance Jamming - 10% bonus to optimal range2 for ECM modules. Kirith IV, Optivus IV
Signal Dispersion - 5% bonus to strength of ECM modules. Kirith IV, Optivus IV
As you can see, except for the Electronic Warfare skill the characters are at the same level. Where then are the other 2 million skill points Optivus has in Electronics? Well, ~400K comes from the Electronic Warfare skill, another ~800K from Long Range Targeting that Optivus trained to V, another 200K in Signature Analysis, and Signal Dispersion is 79% trained to level V for another 800K skill points.
Now, another thing that affects ECM jamming is the bonus of the ships being used since your skill in using the ship affects how much bonus you get. The relevant ship skills:
Caldari Frigate - Kirith V, Optivus IV
Caldari Cruiser - Kirith V (finally), Optivus V
Caldari Battleship - Kirith IV, Optivus IV
Recon - Kirith 0, Optivus V
So while Kirith can get 10% more ECM strength in the rarely used and paper thin Griffin frigate, Optivus has a vast advantage in the Recon ships (Falcon and Rook) because while I'm having Kirith train for them, I don't see him going all the way to Level V for the skill. Level IV should be fine for me which means Optivus still gets a 10% strength bonus in the Falcon and 20% strength bonus in the Rook, impressive improvements.
Summary:
While Kirith is pretty much equal to Optivus in jamming in all T1 ship classes, the latter has a definite advantage in the T2 cruisers even after Kirith's training plan for those ships completes. Should my corporation or me go back to Null sec space to live again, having a scout like Optivus could prove useful.
1 - Falloff is the distance from optimal range at which your chances of hitting have fallen from 100% at optimal range to 50%. In theory, at optimal range + 2 x falloff range you have a 0% chance of hitting your target.
2 - Optimal range is the farthest point at which your chance to hit is still 100%. In theory everything below that range is 100% to hit but tracking issues come into play more as you get closer. Hence optimal range is the point where tracking difficulty and to hit difficulty intersect.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Eve Offline
Last week was terribly busy. Jiu Jitsu test Wednesday night, concert Friday night, Warhammer all day Saturday, housework and power outage for a good part Sunday, so needless to say I didn't get a lot of Eve gametime in. What I did have was spent getting Razor production and sales going.
I moved my selling operations to Rens because I was finding I wasn't making a lot of money very quickly with the trading that I'm doing with Seven Six's money and the prices in Hek were starting to approach Rens prices anyways. I quickly sold all 110 Invulnerability fields and used the proceeds to get a Blackbird BPO and the skill books for the Minmatar Freighter.
I can hear the question: why do you need a Fenrir when you have Barak and his Obelisk?
Well, its like this: I have a lot of specialized characters right now. Korannon as CEO and trader, Derranna as inventor and manufacturer, Sun as researcher, Barak as hauler, Kirith as combat pilot.
Its too much switching and remembering who is where doing what. I can't get rid of Sun even though Derranna does all the same work because Derranna can only run 10 lab slots. She can train up for one more, but that's it. I have 14 slots on my labs not including invention slots so I need Sun to pick up the slack.
Korannon could easily be replaced if I ever decided to train Derranna into trading and CEO, but that is not something easily done at this point in her training path.
But Barak brings only the freighter skills to Razor and Derranna was only two (expensive) skills from it. By training her up for a freighter, it will leave me with Barak to do whatever I need with. Of course, the real question now is do I sell the Obelisk to fund the Fenrir, or buy the Fenrir honestly? Still on the fence on that point.
Which brings me to Optivus. I sold all his assets and bought a Falcon. I gave him some more ISK and bought some skill books and parts so he could outfit it with a couple T2 heavy launchers and a covert ops cloak. Now the question is, what next? He is slightly more advanced than Kirith in recons but I'm catching up, and he doesn't fill any role that Kirith can't do just as well besides the Recon ship. I've been wracking my brain for idea but beyond solo PvP (which the Falcon is a poor choice for) I can't come up with anything.
If the character came from anyone else but Al, I would strip down the assets and sell the character for ISK on the forums. But Al gave me his creation in good faith so I can't do that. Perhaps I will train up his cynosaural generating skills and use him as a cyno/scout alt.
Decisions, decisions.
I moved my selling operations to Rens because I was finding I wasn't making a lot of money very quickly with the trading that I'm doing with Seven Six's money and the prices in Hek were starting to approach Rens prices anyways. I quickly sold all 110 Invulnerability fields and used the proceeds to get a Blackbird BPO and the skill books for the Minmatar Freighter.
I can hear the question: why do you need a Fenrir when you have Barak and his Obelisk?
Well, its like this: I have a lot of specialized characters right now. Korannon as CEO and trader, Derranna as inventor and manufacturer, Sun as researcher, Barak as hauler, Kirith as combat pilot.
Its too much switching and remembering who is where doing what. I can't get rid of Sun even though Derranna does all the same work because Derranna can only run 10 lab slots. She can train up for one more, but that's it. I have 14 slots on my labs not including invention slots so I need Sun to pick up the slack.
Korannon could easily be replaced if I ever decided to train Derranna into trading and CEO, but that is not something easily done at this point in her training path.
But Barak brings only the freighter skills to Razor and Derranna was only two (expensive) skills from it. By training her up for a freighter, it will leave me with Barak to do whatever I need with. Of course, the real question now is do I sell the Obelisk to fund the Fenrir, or buy the Fenrir honestly? Still on the fence on that point.
Which brings me to Optivus. I sold all his assets and bought a Falcon. I gave him some more ISK and bought some skill books and parts so he could outfit it with a couple T2 heavy launchers and a covert ops cloak. Now the question is, what next? He is slightly more advanced than Kirith in recons but I'm catching up, and he doesn't fill any role that Kirith can't do just as well besides the Recon ship. I've been wracking my brain for idea but beyond solo PvP (which the Falcon is a poor choice for) I can't come up with anything.
If the character came from anyone else but Al, I would strip down the assets and sell the character for ISK on the forums. But Al gave me his creation in good faith so I can't do that. Perhaps I will train up his cynosaural generating skills and use him as a cyno/scout alt.
Decisions, decisions.
Golden Marine XII
On Saturday the 12th Golden Marine Tournament, aka GMXII, was held at the Battle Bunker St. Laurent store. Fourteen players from Deep Space showed up and the battles commenced.
Game 1 - Versus Jason (An00bis) and his Tau
I made a crucial error at the beginning. I ignored the fact of the night fighting first turn and deployed on the flank with cover in my deployment zone and no where else, and then turned first turn to my opponent so when I came out of cover, I would get smacked. And that is exactly what happened.
Jason made no errors and lit up everything to poke its head out with markerlights and then promptly reduced it to slag. My tanks when down with a whimper of protest and I was pretty much wiped out before turn 5. Ok, completely wiped out. In exchange, I killed one unit of Kroot.
Ouch.
Game 2 - Versus Adam (spooninurface) and his Space Marines
Adam was inexperienced, and the board was small and we classified the craters as smoking area terrain to add some blockage of lines of sight which in hindsight created too much cover. I wish I had changed that because the end result was me moving with impunity and his devestators and scouts being completely blocked off. Adam, if you're reading this, I owe you a rematch with a better table setup.
As it was, my army's superior mobility proved to be deciding and I knew the game was well in hand when my damaged wave serpent tank shocked a full squad of ten marines off the board. Lesson: Don't stay near the board edge unless you are fearless.
Game 3 - Versus Max (Lostknight) and his Tau
Tau again? I vowed to redeem myself.
Unfortunately, my tanks didn't make the same vow.
Losing the guardians and their wave serpent was disappointing but not unexpected. They are my suicide squad. But having the rangers assaulted by a damaged drone squad and losing the fight (they needed the Farseer to bail them out), and then the Fire Prism coming on and missing the hammerhead only to get stunned then destroyed by it in return, well, my fate was sealed.
Another loss.
Game 4 - Versus Rob (Dark Scythe) and his Dark Eldar
Being the only two Eldar players at the tournament, the organizers thought it would be cool to see us fight each other. Our armies were eerily similar. Archon/Farseer in transport with bodyguard (Incubi/Scorpions), unit in transport (Warriors/Guardians), jetbikes, heavy support tank (Ravager/Fire Prism). Instead of a second unit of guardians in wave serpent I had two vypers, and instead of a large unit of warriors on foot I had my rangers.
Very similar armies, except I had better armour, weapons, and range. Yeah, Dark Eldar need a rewrite, stat!
All those years of fighting Andrew's Kabal of Fractured Shadow, I knew exactly how to deal with the Dark Kin and ripped up his army in due course. I used my Vypers to suicide attack the Ravager early on, while his corrseponding suicide attack by his Jetbikes failed and I moved on to roll up the rest of his army.
A solid victory.
End Results:
9th Generalship
4th Presentation
3rd Sportsmanship
8th Army List
6th Overall
Pictures can be found in this thread.
Analysis:
Tau have always given me trouble, but I think part of the problem on Saturday was that I haven't played them enough lately and I made some mistakes, combined with bad luck, and it threw me some losses. The game against Rob was almost an exclamation point in highlighting how out of date the Dark Eldar are in the new rules. Mechanized Eldar have the speed and the firepower to make mincemeat out of them. And the game against Adam was an example of an old pro taking advantage of a player not that familiar with the game and a total newb to fighting Eldar.
Interesting note: The squad of scorpions never made it into close combat in four games, unheard of for me. In the games against Tau they never got close enough (although I was one bad difficult terrain roll from assaulting Max's commander) and against the Space Marines and Dark Eldar the grav tanks performed exceptionally that I didn't need to assault.
Conclusion:
The tournament was excellent, decent missions, well-organized, and lots of fun to be had. The venue was awesome, kudos to GW for hosting and providing some gift certificates that we randomly drew to award (yay me for getting one!).
One of the best Golden Marine's ever.
Game 1 - Versus Jason (An00bis) and his Tau
I made a crucial error at the beginning. I ignored the fact of the night fighting first turn and deployed on the flank with cover in my deployment zone and no where else, and then turned first turn to my opponent so when I came out of cover, I would get smacked. And that is exactly what happened.
Jason made no errors and lit up everything to poke its head out with markerlights and then promptly reduced it to slag. My tanks when down with a whimper of protest and I was pretty much wiped out before turn 5. Ok, completely wiped out. In exchange, I killed one unit of Kroot.
Ouch.
Game 2 - Versus Adam (spooninurface) and his Space Marines
Adam was inexperienced, and the board was small and we classified the craters as smoking area terrain to add some blockage of lines of sight which in hindsight created too much cover. I wish I had changed that because the end result was me moving with impunity and his devestators and scouts being completely blocked off. Adam, if you're reading this, I owe you a rematch with a better table setup.
As it was, my army's superior mobility proved to be deciding and I knew the game was well in hand when my damaged wave serpent tank shocked a full squad of ten marines off the board. Lesson: Don't stay near the board edge unless you are fearless.
Game 3 - Versus Max (Lostknight) and his Tau
Tau again? I vowed to redeem myself.
Unfortunately, my tanks didn't make the same vow.
Losing the guardians and their wave serpent was disappointing but not unexpected. They are my suicide squad. But having the rangers assaulted by a damaged drone squad and losing the fight (they needed the Farseer to bail them out), and then the Fire Prism coming on and missing the hammerhead only to get stunned then destroyed by it in return, well, my fate was sealed.
Another loss.
Game 4 - Versus Rob (Dark Scythe) and his Dark Eldar
Being the only two Eldar players at the tournament, the organizers thought it would be cool to see us fight each other. Our armies were eerily similar. Archon/Farseer in transport with bodyguard (Incubi/Scorpions), unit in transport (Warriors/Guardians), jetbikes, heavy support tank (Ravager/Fire Prism). Instead of a second unit of guardians in wave serpent I had two vypers, and instead of a large unit of warriors on foot I had my rangers.
Very similar armies, except I had better armour, weapons, and range. Yeah, Dark Eldar need a rewrite, stat!
All those years of fighting Andrew's Kabal of Fractured Shadow, I knew exactly how to deal with the Dark Kin and ripped up his army in due course. I used my Vypers to suicide attack the Ravager early on, while his corrseponding suicide attack by his Jetbikes failed and I moved on to roll up the rest of his army.
A solid victory.
End Results:
9th Generalship
4th Presentation
3rd Sportsmanship
8th Army List
6th Overall
Pictures can be found in this thread.
Analysis:
Tau have always given me trouble, but I think part of the problem on Saturday was that I haven't played them enough lately and I made some mistakes, combined with bad luck, and it threw me some losses. The game against Rob was almost an exclamation point in highlighting how out of date the Dark Eldar are in the new rules. Mechanized Eldar have the speed and the firepower to make mincemeat out of them. And the game against Adam was an example of an old pro taking advantage of a player not that familiar with the game and a total newb to fighting Eldar.
Interesting note: The squad of scorpions never made it into close combat in four games, unheard of for me. In the games against Tau they never got close enough (although I was one bad difficult terrain roll from assaulting Max's commander) and against the Space Marines and Dark Eldar the grav tanks performed exceptionally that I didn't need to assault.
Conclusion:
The tournament was excellent, decent missions, well-organized, and lots of fun to be had. The venue was awesome, kudos to GW for hosting and providing some gift certificates that we randomly drew to award (yay me for getting one!).
One of the best Golden Marine's ever.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Update: Carrier Safely Moved
I got an opportunity today at lunch to make the move so I took it and the jumps were successful with no surprises or threats. Now I can refit and practice in a system filled with fewer unknown threats.
Aridia - Wretched Pit of Scum
The Aridia region is one of the most deadly that I've visited. No, I didn't get ganked there, but this morning while moving Derranna through in a Probe frigate I ran into two gate camps, and previous living near here when Kirith was part of Coreli Corporation left the impression on me that Aridia is full of nastiness. I like it when prowling, not so much when travelling.
Reminds me of a story: a friend was trying to move his Raven battleship with all his worldy possessions through Aridia into Fountain. He had another friend scouting as is proper protocol (although he was violating the "don't fly what you can't afford to lose" golden rule) and between when the scout checked a system and when he jumped in a Battleship gate camp appeared. His Raven lasted for all about thirty seconds. He quit immediately after that; unlike me he never drank the Eve kool-aid so to speak.
Anywhoo, what the hell was Derranna doing in Aridia you ask? Long story, but its Friday and work is quiet so sit down, lean back, and read away.
You may recall the character Barak Vorn that I inherited from another friend who went on to other things in Real Life (TM). Well, along with the useful freighter he also came with a Carrier.
For the non-Eve players out there, each faction had access to about 37-40 ships of various sizes and requirements. The smallest and cheapest are frigates costing about 50K-200K, the typical ship of the line is a battleship costing 100-130 million. The bigger ships are classed as capital ships and start in price around one billion ISK, ten times more than a battleship. Carriers are the smallest of the 5 capital ships each faction has, but still more massive and expensive than any non-capital ship.
The downside to these behemoths is that they are too large to use the normal jump gates that connect all the systems in Eve (exception being freighters; they are more massive than carriers so don't ask me why in terms of logic, its a gameplay-balance thing). The only way to move capital ships is to have another character create what is called a cynosaural field in another system that the carrier pilot can lock onto and jump to directly. Its annoying logistically because you have to get your "cyno pilot" to the target system which often involves harrowing journeys themselves since capital ships are also forbidden from high security space (again, the exception being freighters for the same reasons as previously mentioned).
Cyno jumping does have its upsides. The capital ship can cover a lot of distance in one jump (13.5 light years for Barak's carrier) avoiding any intervening gate camps and the surprise factor can be crucial in combat; carriers are deadly with the waves of drone fighters that they carry.
But back on topic. Guess where Barak's carrier is located? That's right, Aridia region. In one of the busiest systems in that region to boot. I want to practice with the carrier but not in a system filled with potential hostiles. I would like to move it someplace safer but need a cyno in a low sec system within range to get out of Aridia first, and all of those potential systems required Derranna to brave the dangers of low sec so she could make the cyno field for Barak. This would be part of the logistical issues capital ships have that I was mentioning.
Anyway, Derranna in her little Probe frig was not a juicy enough target for the gate camps and she made it through to the first waypoint without issue. I'll probably wait until Monday morning before I actually do the move to avoid any weekend surprises.
After all, it would suck donkey ass if I lost the carrier.
Reminds me of a story: a friend was trying to move his Raven battleship with all his worldy possessions through Aridia into Fountain. He had another friend scouting as is proper protocol (although he was violating the "don't fly what you can't afford to lose" golden rule) and between when the scout checked a system and when he jumped in a Battleship gate camp appeared. His Raven lasted for all about thirty seconds. He quit immediately after that; unlike me he never drank the Eve kool-aid so to speak.
Anywhoo, what the hell was Derranna doing in Aridia you ask? Long story, but its Friday and work is quiet so sit down, lean back, and read away.
You may recall the character Barak Vorn that I inherited from another friend who went on to other things in Real Life (TM). Well, along with the useful freighter he also came with a Carrier.
For the non-Eve players out there, each faction had access to about 37-40 ships of various sizes and requirements. The smallest and cheapest are frigates costing about 50K-200K, the typical ship of the line is a battleship costing 100-130 million. The bigger ships are classed as capital ships and start in price around one billion ISK, ten times more than a battleship. Carriers are the smallest of the 5 capital ships each faction has, but still more massive and expensive than any non-capital ship.
The downside to these behemoths is that they are too large to use the normal jump gates that connect all the systems in Eve (exception being freighters; they are more massive than carriers so don't ask me why in terms of logic, its a gameplay-balance thing). The only way to move capital ships is to have another character create what is called a cynosaural field in another system that the carrier pilot can lock onto and jump to directly. Its annoying logistically because you have to get your "cyno pilot" to the target system which often involves harrowing journeys themselves since capital ships are also forbidden from high security space (again, the exception being freighters for the same reasons as previously mentioned).
Cyno jumping does have its upsides. The capital ship can cover a lot of distance in one jump (13.5 light years for Barak's carrier) avoiding any intervening gate camps and the surprise factor can be crucial in combat; carriers are deadly with the waves of drone fighters that they carry.
But back on topic. Guess where Barak's carrier is located? That's right, Aridia region. In one of the busiest systems in that region to boot. I want to practice with the carrier but not in a system filled with potential hostiles. I would like to move it someplace safer but need a cyno in a low sec system within range to get out of Aridia first, and all of those potential systems required Derranna to brave the dangers of low sec so she could make the cyno field for Barak. This would be part of the logistical issues capital ships have that I was mentioning.
Anyway, Derranna in her little Probe frig was not a juicy enough target for the gate camps and she made it through to the first waypoint without issue. I'll probably wait until Monday morning before I actually do the move to avoid any weekend surprises.
After all, it would suck donkey ass if I lost the carrier.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
One Day And Thirteen Hours
The three week training of Caldari Cruiser V is almost over. Still another week and a bit after that to my Recon ship, but that is no big deal.
Oh sweet Falcon, soon you will be mine...
Oh sweet Falcon, soon you will be mine...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
T2 Production
Last week I bought the supplies to make 110 Invulnerability Field IIs which is not too hard. Minerals for the invulerability field Is that make up the base of the tech II item, advanced moon materials for the shield emitters, a few industrial goods, and bam! I'm done.
This week I need to buy suppliers for building 4 Hawks (Assault Frigates) and 10 Covert Op Cloaking Devices. This requires a lot more ship components to be built than the invul fields, so I needed quite a bit more advanced moon materials. Not a big deal... until I couldn't find any Fermionic Condensates. Not in Hiematar, Metropolis, or Molden Heath regions.
Well, I wasn't about to travel to Jita for one material, so I checked my spreadsheets and saw I needed that material for only one component for the Hawks so I simply went on the market and bought the components directly instead of building them myself. More expensive but it allowed me to get all the Hawks into the factories this morning and should be ready tonight.
For those not familiar with Eve's manufacturing (aka crafting), here is a diagram that explains it.
At the simplest, manufacturing involves taking minerals from asteroids and putting them with a blueprint into a factory to produce Tech 1 items (top left circle and top middle rectangle) which you can then use or sell. Anyone and their dog can do it pretty much without any training.
Tech 2 production is a lot more involved and hence the rest of the diagram. Not only do you need minerals from asteroids, you need the Tech 1 item (quick explanation: almost all Tech 1 items have Tech 2 version which doing the same thing as the tech 1 version only much better), industrial goods that you buy from NPCs, Ship Components, and the blueprint for the tech II item.
The ship components themselves are built from blueprints and advanced moon materials. The advanced moon materials have to be created (in a reaction) from processed moon materials, which are created from raw moon materials, which are mined by player starbases from moons.
My operation buys the minerals and advanced moon materials from the market, leaving the mining, refining, and reaction-ing to other players.
Of course, this totally ignores the blueprint research side of things, and the skills required for ship component and tech II construction which varies depending on the item.
This week I need to buy suppliers for building 4 Hawks (Assault Frigates) and 10 Covert Op Cloaking Devices. This requires a lot more ship components to be built than the invul fields, so I needed quite a bit more advanced moon materials. Not a big deal... until I couldn't find any Fermionic Condensates. Not in Hiematar, Metropolis, or Molden Heath regions.
Well, I wasn't about to travel to Jita for one material, so I checked my spreadsheets and saw I needed that material for only one component for the Hawks so I simply went on the market and bought the components directly instead of building them myself. More expensive but it allowed me to get all the Hawks into the factories this morning and should be ready tonight.
For those not familiar with Eve's manufacturing (aka crafting), here is a diagram that explains it.
At the simplest, manufacturing involves taking minerals from asteroids and putting them with a blueprint into a factory to produce Tech 1 items (top left circle and top middle rectangle) which you can then use or sell. Anyone and their dog can do it pretty much without any training.
Tech 2 production is a lot more involved and hence the rest of the diagram. Not only do you need minerals from asteroids, you need the Tech 1 item (quick explanation: almost all Tech 1 items have Tech 2 version which doing the same thing as the tech 1 version only much better), industrial goods that you buy from NPCs, Ship Components, and the blueprint for the tech II item.
The ship components themselves are built from blueprints and advanced moon materials. The advanced moon materials have to be created (in a reaction) from processed moon materials, which are created from raw moon materials, which are mined by player starbases from moons.
My operation buys the minerals and advanced moon materials from the market, leaving the mining, refining, and reaction-ing to other players.
Of course, this totally ignores the blueprint research side of things, and the skills required for ship component and tech II construction which varies depending on the item.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Breaking Down Optivus Slysonn
Another friend left Eve and bequeathed his character to me. My friend Al started very soon after I did and he choose the same race (although different bloodline) so it will be interesting to see what his skills are compared to Kirith as they are both Caldari combat pilots. So I will run down the skill categories and compared them.
Corporation Management: Kirith 24K , Optivus 0
Mainly for anchoring things.
Drones: Kirith 1 million, Optivus 535K
I went for tech 2 medium drones for my Rokh, Al was just on the verge of getting them.
Electronics: Kirith 2.2 million, Optivus 4.1 million
He has about three skills trained up to level V that Kirith is only at level IV.
Engineering: Kirith 1.7 million, Optivus 2.8 million
Again very similar but he has three more skills at level V instead of level IV.
Gunnery: Kirith 4.2 million, Optivus 120K
No contest and not surprising as most Caldari pilots spec for missiles, Kirith is an aberration.
Industry: 9000 to 250
Yeah, neither of us were into manufacturing with these characters.
Leadership: 10K to 0
Kirith has the beginnings of a commander in him, Optivus not interested.
Learning: 2.2 million to 1.9 million
Not much difference there. Mostly a couple of skills taken to IV where he stopped at III.
Mechanic: 950K to 98K
This is indicative of the training I did for Tech 2 armour tanking whereas Optivus just need good cargo expanders.
Missile Launcher Operation: 612K to 2.2 million
Here we see the inverse of the gunnery skills. Optivus is ready for Tech 2 Heavy Missiles and has a lot of other skills at IV instead of III.
Navigation: 1.2 million to 566K
Kirith went for interceptors which required Evasive Maneuvuring V and Navigation V, both of which Optivus has only at IV.
Science: 343K to 328K
Very similar skillset.
Social: 271K to 117K
I have slightly higher due to more mission running and hence wanting better return.
Spaceship Command: 3 million to 3.9 million
Kirith has a greater range of ships available to him, but Optivus has Battlecruiser IV (instead of III) and has already attained Caldari Cruiser V and Recon up to IV.
Trade: 607K to 1.4K
That month last winter I spent trading shows up here often in any character comparison. Still, some useful skills in here for turning loot into ISK.
TOTAL:
Kirith has 162 known skills, 26 at maximum level V, 18.5 million skill points
Optivus has 90 known skills, 23 at level V, 16.8 million skill points
Based on his skillset, Optivus is specced as an expect ECM jammer pilot, best suited to flying a Blackbird or Falcon/Rook recon ship, spewing heavy missiles at all comers.
Next step is to audit all his assets and consolidate them, and plan how to use this extra pilot.
Corporation Management: Kirith 24K , Optivus 0
Mainly for anchoring things.
Drones: Kirith 1 million, Optivus 535K
I went for tech 2 medium drones for my Rokh, Al was just on the verge of getting them.
Electronics: Kirith 2.2 million, Optivus 4.1 million
He has about three skills trained up to level V that Kirith is only at level IV.
Engineering: Kirith 1.7 million, Optivus 2.8 million
Again very similar but he has three more skills at level V instead of level IV.
Gunnery: Kirith 4.2 million, Optivus 120K
No contest and not surprising as most Caldari pilots spec for missiles, Kirith is an aberration.
Industry: 9000 to 250
Yeah, neither of us were into manufacturing with these characters.
Leadership: 10K to 0
Kirith has the beginnings of a commander in him, Optivus not interested.
Learning: 2.2 million to 1.9 million
Not much difference there. Mostly a couple of skills taken to IV where he stopped at III.
Mechanic: 950K to 98K
This is indicative of the training I did for Tech 2 armour tanking whereas Optivus just need good cargo expanders.
Missile Launcher Operation: 612K to 2.2 million
Here we see the inverse of the gunnery skills. Optivus is ready for Tech 2 Heavy Missiles and has a lot of other skills at IV instead of III.
Navigation: 1.2 million to 566K
Kirith went for interceptors which required Evasive Maneuvuring V and Navigation V, both of which Optivus has only at IV.
Science: 343K to 328K
Very similar skillset.
Social: 271K to 117K
I have slightly higher due to more mission running and hence wanting better return.
Spaceship Command: 3 million to 3.9 million
Kirith has a greater range of ships available to him, but Optivus has Battlecruiser IV (instead of III) and has already attained Caldari Cruiser V and Recon up to IV.
Trade: 607K to 1.4K
That month last winter I spent trading shows up here often in any character comparison. Still, some useful skills in here for turning loot into ISK.
TOTAL:
Kirith has 162 known skills, 26 at maximum level V, 18.5 million skill points
Optivus has 90 known skills, 23 at level V, 16.8 million skill points
Based on his skillset, Optivus is specced as an expect ECM jammer pilot, best suited to flying a Blackbird or Falcon/Rook recon ship, spewing heavy missiles at all comers.
Next step is to audit all his assets and consolidate them, and plan how to use this extra pilot.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Describe Eve
In my last post I got into a comment discussion with my friend about why missions in Eve are not as strong a part of the game as they are in WoW or other MMOs. It was hard to answer without going into describing Eve. So I decided a full post was the only answer.
Imagine a sandbox the size of a football field. Best quality sand. Found in the sandbox are various toys: shovels of all materials and sizes from little plastic ones to mechanized backhoes, buckets for kids and dump trucks, toys cars, dune buggies, tents, wooden forts, climbers, rockwalls, a small swimming pool, etc. And also there are tools and materials to make every toy found in the sandbox, and some materials are just lying around, some are buried and need to be found with a metal detector.
Now, imagine releasing about 500 hundred kids from age Kindergarten to grade 8 in this sandbox.
And one adult to supervise. That is Eve.
Quickly what happens is that the younger kids stay close to the adult for safety but the rest of the sandbox is the wild west run rampant. Kids can make elaborate sand castles using the tools, but only the bigger older kids can use the fancy backhoes and dumptrucks. Some big kids will help the little ones, others will push them over and take their toys. They might get in trouble by the adult if she's close, but maybe not if the little one wandered too far away.
Some older kids will get organized with their friends and work together to build massive sand castles reaching over their heads. And then a bigger group of kids comes over to knock it down. Why? Because it was there, that's why. Maybe a pushing war will start, maybe throwing sand at each other. Adult is too far away to stop it so maybe some kids run away and one group wins the say. Maybe the other kids will come back. You never can tell.
That is the mentality of Eve, but with adults instead of kids, free in a sandbox with no society forcing them to acceptable norms. The "adult" is the protection the game offers to new players that is not perfect but mostly satisfactory, and new players sometimes wander too far away from the protection and get ganked. The sand castles represent the deep space empires groups can build and fight over. It is literally a free-for-all on a grand scale.
In this metaphor, missions (aka quests) represent one group of toys out of the whole sandbox and that is how it was designed. A study was done and showed that Eve players had an average lifetime of 7 months, which I figure is about the time to get int a good mission running ship and master level four missions. People who stick only to that component of the game quickly run bored and quit soon after and I'm not surprised because missions in Eve are very simplistic and easy once you have the skills. They fail to see the rest of the sandbox beyond their one toy of choice. Those that do end up hooked for a lot longer.
There, I hope that rambling post makes sense.
Imagine a sandbox the size of a football field. Best quality sand. Found in the sandbox are various toys: shovels of all materials and sizes from little plastic ones to mechanized backhoes, buckets for kids and dump trucks, toys cars, dune buggies, tents, wooden forts, climbers, rockwalls, a small swimming pool, etc. And also there are tools and materials to make every toy found in the sandbox, and some materials are just lying around, some are buried and need to be found with a metal detector.
Now, imagine releasing about 500 hundred kids from age Kindergarten to grade 8 in this sandbox.
And one adult to supervise. That is Eve.
Quickly what happens is that the younger kids stay close to the adult for safety but the rest of the sandbox is the wild west run rampant. Kids can make elaborate sand castles using the tools, but only the bigger older kids can use the fancy backhoes and dumptrucks. Some big kids will help the little ones, others will push them over and take their toys. They might get in trouble by the adult if she's close, but maybe not if the little one wandered too far away.
Some older kids will get organized with their friends and work together to build massive sand castles reaching over their heads. And then a bigger group of kids comes over to knock it down. Why? Because it was there, that's why. Maybe a pushing war will start, maybe throwing sand at each other. Adult is too far away to stop it so maybe some kids run away and one group wins the say. Maybe the other kids will come back. You never can tell.
That is the mentality of Eve, but with adults instead of kids, free in a sandbox with no society forcing them to acceptable norms. The "adult" is the protection the game offers to new players that is not perfect but mostly satisfactory, and new players sometimes wander too far away from the protection and get ganked. The sand castles represent the deep space empires groups can build and fight over. It is literally a free-for-all on a grand scale.
In this metaphor, missions (aka quests) represent one group of toys out of the whole sandbox and that is how it was designed. A study was done and showed that Eve players had an average lifetime of 7 months, which I figure is about the time to get int a good mission running ship and master level four missions. People who stick only to that component of the game quickly run bored and quit soon after and I'm not surprised because missions in Eve are very simplistic and easy once you have the skills. They fail to see the rest of the sandbox beyond their one toy of choice. Those that do end up hooked for a lot longer.
There, I hope that rambling post makes sense.
Turkey Shoot
In order to get better standings with Caldari Navy so I can run my own level four missions if corp members are not around without heading back to Minmatar space, I've been forced to run level two missions. And rather than buying a whole new ship to do so, I've been doing them in my rigged out tech 2 battle ship.
*stunned silence*
While the Eve crowd gets up off the floor, let me explain to anyone who might be reading this what that means (waves at Karthis).
There are five levels of missions (read: quests) in Eve that you get assigned to you from agents belonging to big NPC corporations. Each agent offers missions of one level and you can only talk to agents if the NPC corporation likes you enough (aka have standings with that corporation). In order to get to the agents that offer higher level missions, you need to accept and complete lower level missions to get improved standings.
Level one agents are generally available to everyone except enemies of its corporation and level one missions are designed for newbies flying basic frigates. Level two missions are designed for players that have been around a bit longer and fly cruisers. Level three for the experienced pilots in battlecruisers, and level fours are for veterans in battleships. Level 5 missions are designed as group activities by many veterans in powerful ships.
So to say I'm running level two missions in a rigged-out tech 2 battleship is like saying a level 60 WoW character is doing quests designed to be accomplished by a level 15 character. Its overkill in the extreme. But hey, we do what we have to.
I figure I need about 5-10 more missions and I'll get access to the level 3 agent I'm aiming for. Probably take the rest of this week or so, depending on if I get to join in level fours with my friends.
*stunned silence*
While the Eve crowd gets up off the floor, let me explain to anyone who might be reading this what that means (waves at Karthis).
There are five levels of missions (read: quests) in Eve that you get assigned to you from agents belonging to big NPC corporations. Each agent offers missions of one level and you can only talk to agents if the NPC corporation likes you enough (aka have standings with that corporation). In order to get to the agents that offer higher level missions, you need to accept and complete lower level missions to get improved standings.
Level one agents are generally available to everyone except enemies of its corporation and level one missions are designed for newbies flying basic frigates. Level two missions are designed for players that have been around a bit longer and fly cruisers. Level three for the experienced pilots in battlecruisers, and level fours are for veterans in battleships. Level 5 missions are designed as group activities by many veterans in powerful ships.
So to say I'm running level two missions in a rigged-out tech 2 battleship is like saying a level 60 WoW character is doing quests designed to be accomplished by a level 15 character. Its overkill in the extreme. But hey, we do what we have to.
I figure I need about 5-10 more missions and I'll get access to the level 3 agent I'm aiming for. Probably take the rest of this week or so, depending on if I get to join in level fours with my friends.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Updated Template
I updated the template:
- new simple title banner of my favourite battleship in Eve,
- avatar pictures from Eve and Deep Space instead of stupid little black smiley,
- moved the permalink for posts from the timestamp at the bottom to the post title,
- widened the posts area by 200 pixels to make better use of screenspace.
More changes in the offing when I get time.
- new simple title banner of my favourite battleship in Eve,
- avatar pictures from Eve and Deep Space instead of stupid little black smiley,
- moved the permalink for posts from the timestamp at the bottom to the post title,
- widened the posts area by 200 pixels to make better use of screenspace.
More changes in the offing when I get time.
Golden Marine XII Next Weekend
Due to the craziness in my life, I'm not running the 12th Golden Marine tournament this year but turned it over to a couple trusted friends on Deep Space. Fortunately, I'm still able to participate and my 1107 pt Eldar force will be making an appearance. Army list is as follows:
HQ
Farseer with Fortune
= 85 pts
Elites
10 Scorpions including Exarch with Scorp Claw
= 177 pts
+ Waveserpent with Twin Shuricannon
= 100 pts
10 Guardians with APG Shuriken Cannon, Warlock with Destructor
= 120 pts
+ Waveserpent with Twin Brightlance
= 135 pts
= 142 pts
= 120 pts
2 Vypers with scatterlaser, Shuriken cannon
= 110 pts
Fire Prism
= 115 pts
== 1104 pts
One Week To Go!
Seven days and nine hours to for Caldari Cruiser V. Wow. It actually went by faster than I expected it to feel.
This means I can be sitting in a Falcon or Rook in two weeks after I train Covet Ops IV and Signature Analysis V, both of which are useful in their own right.
Then another 3 days for Assault Ships IV and I'll be ready to train Heavy Assault Ships. Checking out the Logisitics cruisers, after I get the Recons I'll only need Long Range Targeting V, a 7.75 day skill, to be ready for them. Not a high priority but I might do it simply to be complete.
Derranna's training is working on long skills, Caldari Starship Engineering V for another 15 days after a week of training already, and then Cruiser Construction V which is another 20 days. I might even go for Caldari Encryption Methods V to complete the ship invention trifecta.
This means I can be sitting in a Falcon or Rook in two weeks after I train Covet Ops IV and Signature Analysis V, both of which are useful in their own right.
Then another 3 days for Assault Ships IV and I'll be ready to train Heavy Assault Ships. Checking out the Logisitics cruisers, after I get the Recons I'll only need Long Range Targeting V, a 7.75 day skill, to be ready for them. Not a high priority but I might do it simply to be complete.
Derranna's training is working on long skills, Caldari Starship Engineering V for another 15 days after a week of training already, and then Cruiser Construction V which is another 20 days. I might even go for Caldari Encryption Methods V to complete the ship invention trifecta.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Rokh Versus Raven
I've been running missions with a corpmate (from now on known as Grey) and he flies a Raven. I decided to look at, based on my skills, which battleship is better for running missions.
Rokh - Passive Tanking
Lows:
3 x Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
2 x Power Diagnostic System II
Mids:
Tracking Computer II
Invulnerability Field II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
3 x Large Shield Extender II
Highs:
8 x 350mm Prototype I Gauss Gun
Rigs:
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Drones:
5 x Vespa IIs
Raven - Passive Tanking
Lows:
3 x Ballistic Control System II
2 x Power Diagnostic System II
Mids:
3 x Large Shield Extender II
2 x Invulnerability Field II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Highs:
6 x 'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
2 x [empty high slot]
Rigs:
Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Warhead Flare Catalyst I
Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Drones:
2 x Wasp Is
2 x Vespa IIs
1 x Hornet II
According to EFT, with drones factored in the Rokh has a volley of 1565 and DPS of 479 while the Raven vollies 2852 and DPS of 454. For defense their shields are 21664 and 20342 respectively and resistances are about 1-2% higher for the Raven.
I was a little surprised the Rokh outdamaged the Raven but then factor in the ability to switch damage types and the Raven is a lot more attractive. Also, my missile skills are merely adequate so let's see how the numbers change if my skills are bumped up: just putting several skills to level 4 from level 3 (especially Warhead Upgrades and Cruise Missiles) jumped my volley to 3032 and DPS up to 474.
So yes, the Raven is a better mission running when the changing of damage types and non-issue of tracking is factored in, even for me and my uber gunnery skills.
The next question is, what about torpedoes? Replacing the 6 cruiser launchers with 6 siege launchers gave a volley of 4277 and a DPS of 569! With my level 3 missile skills. WOW! I can see why CCP are cutting their range down in Trinity because that is damn impressive.
Rokh - Passive Tanking
Lows:
3 x Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
2 x Power Diagnostic System II
Mids:
Tracking Computer II
Invulnerability Field II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
3 x Large Shield Extender II
Highs:
8 x 350mm Prototype I Gauss Gun
Rigs:
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Drones:
5 x Vespa IIs
Raven - Passive Tanking
Lows:
3 x Ballistic Control System II
2 x Power Diagnostic System II
Mids:
3 x Large Shield Extender II
2 x Invulnerability Field II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Highs:
6 x 'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
2 x [empty high slot]
Rigs:
Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Warhead Flare Catalyst I
Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Drones:
2 x Wasp Is
2 x Vespa IIs
1 x Hornet II
According to EFT, with drones factored in the Rokh has a volley of 1565 and DPS of 479 while the Raven vollies 2852 and DPS of 454. For defense their shields are 21664 and 20342 respectively and resistances are about 1-2% higher for the Raven.
I was a little surprised the Rokh outdamaged the Raven but then factor in the ability to switch damage types and the Raven is a lot more attractive. Also, my missile skills are merely adequate so let's see how the numbers change if my skills are bumped up: just putting several skills to level 4 from level 3 (especially Warhead Upgrades and Cruise Missiles) jumped my volley to 3032 and DPS up to 474.
So yes, the Raven is a better mission running when the changing of damage types and non-issue of tracking is factored in, even for me and my uber gunnery skills.
The next question is, what about torpedoes? Replacing the 6 cruiser launchers with 6 siege launchers gave a volley of 4277 and a DPS of 569! With my level 3 missile skills. WOW! I can see why CCP are cutting their range down in Trinity because that is damn impressive.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tech 2 Missiles
So I've decided (this week anyways) to train for Tech 2 missiles after I complete the Recon and HAC skills in early December.
Originally I was abandoning missile altogether but its become apparent that outside of leaving Caldari almost entirely, I'm hamstringing myself too much. Only the Rokh has enough rail turrets to cover all high slots, all other rail ships have some high slots that either must be a missile or utility:
Merlin: 2 guns /2 missiles
Moa: 4/2
Ferox: 5/2
Harpy: 4/1
Raptor: 2/2
Eagle: 4/2
Vulture: 5/2
And to make matters worse, the new ships are all missile using. So time to bite the bullet and increase my flexibility.
I'm going to start with Tech 2 Heavy Missile Launchers as that will be the most useful: cruisers, battle cruisers, recons, and HACs can all use them. After that, probably Standard Missile Launchers for frigates, and that also opens up Assault Missile Launchers. Finally, I'll train up tech 2 cruise missiles for the Battleships and Stealth Bomber.
Originally I was abandoning missile altogether but its become apparent that outside of leaving Caldari almost entirely, I'm hamstringing myself too much. Only the Rokh has enough rail turrets to cover all high slots, all other rail ships have some high slots that either must be a missile or utility:
Merlin: 2 guns /2 missiles
Moa: 4/2
Ferox: 5/2
Harpy: 4/1
Raptor: 2/2
Eagle: 4/2
Vulture: 5/2
And to make matters worse, the new ships are all missile using. So time to bite the bullet and increase my flexibility.
I'm going to start with Tech 2 Heavy Missile Launchers as that will be the most useful: cruisers, battle cruisers, recons, and HACs can all use them. After that, probably Standard Missile Launchers for frigates, and that also opens up Assault Missile Launchers. Finally, I'll train up tech 2 cruise missiles for the Battleships and Stealth Bomber.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Hey you... Die?
Last night I joined some corp mates on running a level four mission like I've been wanting to do for a while now. I debated which ship to take on the journey.
An assault ship like the Harpy would have been great for anti-frigate support but not much else. I considered a Ferox battlecruiser which would take on frigates, cruisers, and help out against battleships, but I needed to buy one, outfit it, and that was a lot of hassle especially when I had a perfectly good Rokh battleship already in my hanger and it could handle all kinds of rats since I use the ship for mission running solo style.
So I threw some ammo in its hold and whisked off to join them. When I get to the system I warp to the mission and start targeting the slew of frigates.
And I can't hit them. Even with blasters!
You see, when I run missions myself I warp in and immediately turn around and start moving away. The rats target me and give chase, dropping the transversal velocity to near zero allowing the tracking of even rails to ping the small ships and drop them like flies until they get within 15 kms and then I finish them off with my drones. Easy.
But the rats in this mission had all targeted the other two pilots and were orbiting them meaning the transversal was through the roof and not even the superior tracking of the blasters could hit them. Since I didn't have a webber I couldn't slow them down and thus was useless against the frigates. The cruisers and battleships? Those I could rape and and did so with gusto, leaving our combined drone armada to deal with the frigates.
An assault ship like the Harpy would have been great for anti-frigate support but not much else. I considered a Ferox battlecruiser which would take on frigates, cruisers, and help out against battleships, but I needed to buy one, outfit it, and that was a lot of hassle especially when I had a perfectly good Rokh battleship already in my hanger and it could handle all kinds of rats since I use the ship for mission running solo style.
So I threw some ammo in its hold and whisked off to join them. When I get to the system I warp to the mission and start targeting the slew of frigates.
And I can't hit them. Even with blasters!
You see, when I run missions myself I warp in and immediately turn around and start moving away. The rats target me and give chase, dropping the transversal velocity to near zero allowing the tracking of even rails to ping the small ships and drop them like flies until they get within 15 kms and then I finish them off with my drones. Easy.
But the rats in this mission had all targeted the other two pilots and were orbiting them meaning the transversal was through the roof and not even the superior tracking of the blasters could hit them. Since I didn't have a webber I couldn't slow them down and thus was useless against the frigates. The cruisers and battleships? Those I could rape and and did so with gusto, leaving our combined drone armada to deal with the frigates.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Blog Template Update Coming
I realized the subtitle for this blog was "The Warhammer 40K Blog of the Black Storm Renegade Marines" and about 10% of the posts have to do with warhammer anymore. :P
So expect a template update this week, maybe some pretty Eve ship pictures.
So expect a template update this week, maybe some pretty Eve ship pictures.
Is It Cheating?
When I run missions, as soon as a mission is assigned I look it up in the collected guides from other Eve players to see what to expect. I didn't used to do this but when I lost my 300 million ISK Rokh (RIP Insisto Oblivium the first) to a mission where the small warp scrambling frigs were triggers to additional waves of drone battleships (Attack of the Drones back when it was first out) I learned a harsh lesson: knowledge is power.
A lot of missions are pretty straightforward in the execution: warp to room, target the small stuff first that can get under my tracking, and work my way up. Its the missions with triggers that you can suddenly find yourself facing twice as many rats as your expected when you warped in. So I read the guide, see what others reported, and act accordingly. So far its worked: rarely do I warp out when taking armour damage, and only rarely am I surprised. And never dead.
But I admit it does feel like cheating. I always think I should be warping in with nothing but the mission description, sitting on the edge of my seat, eyes peeled for an unexpected wave. And I would if I could afford it but in Eve losing a powerful T2 outfitted and rigged battleship is no small matter for all but the richest, and I'm not rich. Wealthy yes, with lots of ISK sunk into ships and mods, but my mission Rokh is easily the most expensive. I'd hate to lose it again.
* * * * *
In industrial news, Razor is building 110 Invulnerability Field IIs this week which is our largest batch thus far. I'm settling into a schedule like this: build and sell cloaks at the beginning of the month, build and sell Invul Fields in the middle of the month. Each batch provides the profit for the dividend and more money to invest into ship invention. Now that we've setup for the T2 battleships, I can start looking into smaller invention project like frigs, destroyers, and cruisers.
A lot of missions are pretty straightforward in the execution: warp to room, target the small stuff first that can get under my tracking, and work my way up. Its the missions with triggers that you can suddenly find yourself facing twice as many rats as your expected when you warped in. So I read the guide, see what others reported, and act accordingly. So far its worked: rarely do I warp out when taking armour damage, and only rarely am I surprised. And never dead.
But I admit it does feel like cheating. I always think I should be warping in with nothing but the mission description, sitting on the edge of my seat, eyes peeled for an unexpected wave. And I would if I could afford it but in Eve losing a powerful T2 outfitted and rigged battleship is no small matter for all but the richest, and I'm not rich. Wealthy yes, with lots of ISK sunk into ships and mods, but my mission Rokh is easily the most expensive. I'd hate to lose it again.
* * * * *
In industrial news, Razor is building 110 Invulnerability Field IIs this week which is our largest batch thus far. I'm settling into a schedule like this: build and sell cloaks at the beginning of the month, build and sell Invul Fields in the middle of the month. Each batch provides the profit for the dividend and more money to invest into ship invention. Now that we've setup for the T2 battleships, I can start looking into smaller invention project like frigs, destroyers, and cruisers.
Friday, November 09, 2007
The Ships I Like
Its been a while since a new ship class came available to me. Last one was Assault Ships back in the early summer I think. So I've had some time to fly and get used to what I like and don't like and now I've decided to list out the ships I like in each class. You, the reader, get to suffer.
Frigates
Out of the T1 frigs I've flown, my favourite is the Merlin. It looks cool, and has decent stats. I hate the split weapon system but its not really about damage all that much anyways. The Kestrel is a good utility ship with a large cargohold and lots of missile hardpoints, but the Merlin will always hold a special place in my heart.
Destroyers
Since I only use this class for salvaging, I'm going to go with the Thrasher. Good cargo space, fast, agile, and two low slots for expanders.
Cruisers
I love the look of the Caracal, but I don't have the missile skills to make it rock in PvP. At best I'm a support pilot in it. The Moa only has four turret hardpoints so while it can tank decently, its got low DPS. So I turned to Gallente and the Thorax has everything I want: lots of blasters, decent speed, ok tanking, drones, and not too expensive.
Battlecruisers
The Ferox is like a big version of the Moa: not enough turret hardpoints especially when compared to the fearsome Brutix. The Drake is ok for missile guys, but the Mrymidon fits my style a lot better. Favourite? Brutix for the same reasons as the Thorax.
Battleships
Finally a Caldari turret ship not crippled by inadequate hardpoints. The Rokh is perhaps my favourite ship to fly overall: awesome tanking, decent DPS, ability to do well with blasters or rails, and enough dronebay to field five T2 mediums. In fact, comparing the Hyperion and the Rokh is proof positive that the Moa and Ferox would not be overpowered with +1 turret hardpoint at a minimum.
Tech II is more difficult since I can only fly Caldari ships at this time so I won't bother. Out of the T2 frigates I have available to me, I like the Raptor for its low price and high speed. Although the Manticore has the potential to be fun.
Frigates
Out of the T1 frigs I've flown, my favourite is the Merlin. It looks cool, and has decent stats. I hate the split weapon system but its not really about damage all that much anyways. The Kestrel is a good utility ship with a large cargohold and lots of missile hardpoints, but the Merlin will always hold a special place in my heart.
Destroyers
Since I only use this class for salvaging, I'm going to go with the Thrasher. Good cargo space, fast, agile, and two low slots for expanders.
Cruisers
I love the look of the Caracal, but I don't have the missile skills to make it rock in PvP. At best I'm a support pilot in it. The Moa only has four turret hardpoints so while it can tank decently, its got low DPS. So I turned to Gallente and the Thorax has everything I want: lots of blasters, decent speed, ok tanking, drones, and not too expensive.
Battlecruisers
The Ferox is like a big version of the Moa: not enough turret hardpoints especially when compared to the fearsome Brutix. The Drake is ok for missile guys, but the Mrymidon fits my style a lot better. Favourite? Brutix for the same reasons as the Thorax.
Battleships
Finally a Caldari turret ship not crippled by inadequate hardpoints. The Rokh is perhaps my favourite ship to fly overall: awesome tanking, decent DPS, ability to do well with blasters or rails, and enough dronebay to field five T2 mediums. In fact, comparing the Hyperion and the Rokh is proof positive that the Moa and Ferox would not be overpowered with +1 turret hardpoint at a minimum.
Tech II is more difficult since I can only fly Caldari ships at this time so I won't bother. Out of the T2 frigates I have available to me, I like the Raptor for its low price and high speed. Although the Manticore has the potential to be fun.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
One Weeks Down...
... Two to go. Or more accurately, 16 days and 8 hours until Caldari Cruiser V. Sigh.
Last night I ran a couple more missions to build up the bank account again. Over 65 million again, and I'll probably run another today to get over 70 million. Then I'll have enough to set up a couple more PvP ships, a blackbird and maybe another Harpy to replace the one I lost in that complex last week.
Last night I ran a couple more missions to build up the bank account again. Over 65 million again, and I'll probably run another today to get over 70 million. Then I'll have enough to set up a couple more PvP ships, a blackbird and maybe another Harpy to replace the one I lost in that complex last week.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Rails Versus Blasters
I've been flying a blaster Rokh for fun lately and decided that it was pretty cool, but did it out-damage my Rail Rokh when using blasters with Iron ammo? So I decided to do a comparative analysis using Quickfit of the best named and tech II largest rails and largest blasters.
The spreadsheets can be found here.
The skills set is Large Rail Specialization and Large Blaster Specialization both to IV, Caldari Battleship to IV, and the ship in question is equipped with an active Tracking Computer II and three Magnetic Field Stabilizer IIs. I am ignoring factors such as tracking, capacitor usuage, and target transversal speeds or resistances. This is simply a look at raw damages for the extreme ends of the ammo available, Antimatter and Iron, as well as the middle using Lead. Also, I look at the bonus of using Faction ammo, and then the Tech II variants. All calculations are done in Quickfit version 1.3.
Conclusions:
My main question, if blasters with Iron out-damage rails with antimatter, was answered with a straight no which wasn't surprising. What was surprising was the margin of difference, over 15 pts per second! With a full rack that is 120+ pts per second difference!
When using the same ammo the blasters obviously had the advantage, but I admit I was mildly surprised to see how much more the blasters increased when using antimatter compared to using lead, almost 30 pts/sec more. When using iron, the difference was only over 10 pts/sec.
The meeting point in my comparisons was rails using antimatter and blasters using lead, or rails using lead and blasters using iron. At those configurations the weapons raw DPS was roughly equal.
The bonus of using Faction ammo was not insignificant. The named 350mm saw a jump of 7 pts/sec, or 56 pts/sec for a full rack of Caldari Navy antimatter. The best named Neutron blaster jumped almost 12 pts/sec. The difference were not as striking at the lower power ammo, but nevertheless were there.
Finally, tech II ammo. The long range Spike ammo in rails gave damage rates comparable to using Lead ammo but at twice the range. The short range Void ammo in blasters gave damage rates 13-15pts/sec more than using antimatter at better range, but half the falloff.
The interesting part for me was looking at the short ranged rail ammo Javelin, and long range blaster ammo, Null. The rails still had the superior range by 5 km for 350mm to Ions and 10km for 425mm to Neutrons, but the blasters still had the superior damage by 10-12 pts/sec. Combined with the superior tracking speed, that is exactly why rail pilots often avoid Javelin ammo.
The spreadsheets can be found here.
The skills set is Large Rail Specialization and Large Blaster Specialization both to IV, Caldari Battleship to IV, and the ship in question is equipped with an active Tracking Computer II and three Magnetic Field Stabilizer IIs. I am ignoring factors such as tracking, capacitor usuage, and target transversal speeds or resistances. This is simply a look at raw damages for the extreme ends of the ammo available, Antimatter and Iron, as well as the middle using Lead. Also, I look at the bonus of using Faction ammo, and then the Tech II variants. All calculations are done in Quickfit version 1.3.
Conclusions:
My main question, if blasters with Iron out-damage rails with antimatter, was answered with a straight no which wasn't surprising. What was surprising was the margin of difference, over 15 pts per second! With a full rack that is 120+ pts per second difference!
When using the same ammo the blasters obviously had the advantage, but I admit I was mildly surprised to see how much more the blasters increased when using antimatter compared to using lead, almost 30 pts/sec more. When using iron, the difference was only over 10 pts/sec.
The meeting point in my comparisons was rails using antimatter and blasters using lead, or rails using lead and blasters using iron. At those configurations the weapons raw DPS was roughly equal.
The bonus of using Faction ammo was not insignificant. The named 350mm saw a jump of 7 pts/sec, or 56 pts/sec for a full rack of Caldari Navy antimatter. The best named Neutron blaster jumped almost 12 pts/sec. The difference were not as striking at the lower power ammo, but nevertheless were there.
Finally, tech II ammo. The long range Spike ammo in rails gave damage rates comparable to using Lead ammo but at twice the range. The short range Void ammo in blasters gave damage rates 13-15pts/sec more than using antimatter at better range, but half the falloff.
The interesting part for me was looking at the short ranged rail ammo Javelin, and long range blaster ammo, Null. The rails still had the superior range by 5 km for 350mm to Ions and 10km for 425mm to Neutrons, but the blasters still had the superior damage by 10-12 pts/sec. Combined with the superior tracking speed, that is exactly why rail pilots often avoid Javelin ammo.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Veteran of the Cold Wars
I've been playing for over a year but it was not until recently that I realized that I was a veteran Eve pilot. Talking to my m3 corpmates has really driven the point home for me. I've done 0.0 life, low sec ganking, missions, exploration, and trading in my combat pilot. And in my industrial alts I've done research, production, invention, ship construction, POS management, and some corp management. There is not a lot I have not participated in, the big things being serious alliance politics, fleet battles, and outpost management/construction.
The upshot of this is that I can participate with some confidence in the corp discussions and have some influence that my newly joined status would not otherwise allow. Its not that I'm trying to take over the corp or dictate direction, but merely participate in the discussion with my two cents and show I'm willing to integrate with the corp and work with them.
So far I'm decently impressed with the quality of the corp. Decent people, decent teamwork. Its only been a week, but I'm starting to feel comfortable. On the weekend I helped another guy take down a pirate.
The pirate was in a low sec system near HQ and a corpmate asked if anyone wanted to help get them. I said sure and asked what they were flying so I knew what ship to bring. He was in a rifter, the target was last seen flying a jaguar. Hmmm, we can take that I thought. I jumped in my trusty Thorax and flew to the system.
The target was docked and we parked outside. A little while later the target undocked in a Rupture and engaged the rifter. We started pounding it and my tech II drones and blasters made short work of the 1600mm plate armour. A good kill, some T2 mods in the loot that I gave to my wingman as they were projectile mods and not useful for me.
The upshot of this is that I can participate with some confidence in the corp discussions and have some influence that my newly joined status would not otherwise allow. Its not that I'm trying to take over the corp or dictate direction, but merely participate in the discussion with my two cents and show I'm willing to integrate with the corp and work with them.
So far I'm decently impressed with the quality of the corp. Decent people, decent teamwork. Its only been a week, but I'm starting to feel comfortable. On the weekend I helped another guy take down a pirate.
The pirate was in a low sec system near HQ and a corpmate asked if anyone wanted to help get them. I said sure and asked what they were flying so I knew what ship to bring. He was in a rifter, the target was last seen flying a jaguar. Hmmm, we can take that I thought. I jumped in my trusty Thorax and flew to the system.
The target was docked and we parked outside. A little while later the target undocked in a Rupture and engaged the rifter. We started pounding it and my tech II drones and blasters made short work of the 1600mm plate armour. A good kill, some T2 mods in the loot that I gave to my wingman as they were projectile mods and not useful for me.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Reimagining Dark Eldar
Dark Eldar are in the development stages at GW and are way overdue for a new codex considering the current codex was published early on in 3rd edition! They had a mini update but that does not really count. This post is about what I think Dark Eldar should be.
First off, what should they not be? They should not be an evil version of Craftworld Eldar (aka CE). Because really, CE are not actually good, they are simply self-interested. In addition Dark Eldar need to be unique not only in theme but in play style from CE which is difficult since CE is capable of several kinds of army lists with relative ease.
So let's start with theme. In my mind, Dark Eldar represent the survivors of the fall who were not completely lost to the hedonistic impulses like the general population but at the same time were not farsighted enough to escape on the craftworlds, and so took refuge in the webway. This is important: they are NOT the Eldar who created Slaanesh in their orgy of hedonism. They are survivors who saw their empire, one surpassing the power of the current Imperium, utterly destroyed beyond a hope of ever having a future, forced to live in the twilight of the webway without a home world or security.
That they survive today is a testament to their determination not to surrender, their strength of will to persevere when there is no hope for a better future. This is what makes them bleak. This is what makes them cruel and uncaring for anyone else or each other. This is what makes them Dark Eldar. Like a patient dying from cancer they lash out at all others daring to live and be happy, and they try to cause as much pain as possible.
So how does this translate to the table top?
Well first off, the base of the technology will be very similar to Eldar: psychoplastic wraithbone cores, efficient use of energy, excellent grasp of antigrav technology. The physiology of the infantry will be virtually identical to CE: low toughness and strength, decent to high initiative and leadership, fleet of foot, decent to high skills, low to decent armour.
However, what are the major differences? Well, for one thing they are organized into cabals instead of craftworlds so organization is much smaller in terms of scale, and order is enforced through strength and ambition and in some cases material gain, instead of sense of greater purpose and for the collective good. Another thing is that the industrial base of the Dark Eldar is smaller and fractured compared to the Craftworlds. I see Commaragh (spelling) as about the size of a major craftworld, maybe a bit larger, but divided by powerful Archons into "neighbourhoods" for lack of a better term.
Finally, instead of major military expeditions on planetary scales that CE sometimes launch, Dark Eldar are a raiding army, striking fast and leaving as quickly with no intent on controlling territory or denying control to an opposing military entity.
What does it all mean?
Dark Eldar should exemplify the fast and skilled but fragile mindset.
Infantry: exotic deadly weapons carried by low toughness and low armoured infantry. Perhaps improved squad leaders, and maybe even option for CCWs warriors. And hey, perhaps a better name than Dark Eldar Warriors? A little overused and unimaginative (Necron Warriors, Tyranid Warriors...)
Fast Attack: Jetbikes and skyboards are awesome ideas to provide even more speed and mobility. Perhaps add a vyper-like weapons platform skimmer.
Elites: Excellent skills, deadly weapons, perhaps a bit more survivability. Grotesques were... grotesque and didn't fit in with the theme of the army, I say toss em or redesign entirely. Mandrakes were cool but needed a bit of punch to their attack.
HQ: The definition of small but deadly for Archons and Dracons. Incubi can be the exception to the rule about the armour as the concept is just too cool. Homonculi were weird and need more sneaky tricks to act like the Dark Eldar psycher.
Heavy Support: Scourges failed because of Dark Lances being heavy 1 weapons. Perhaps give them the option to take four blasters. Talos was often far too slow and easily negated. Ravager is perfect.
As for the models themselves, I hope whoever redid the Craftworld Eldar line gets involved as the new Eldar infantry looks so good. Dark Eldar vehicles need work too, less bulk and more sleek.
That's my thoughts and opinions. Anyone else?
First off, what should they not be? They should not be an evil version of Craftworld Eldar (aka CE). Because really, CE are not actually good, they are simply self-interested. In addition Dark Eldar need to be unique not only in theme but in play style from CE which is difficult since CE is capable of several kinds of army lists with relative ease.
So let's start with theme. In my mind, Dark Eldar represent the survivors of the fall who were not completely lost to the hedonistic impulses like the general population but at the same time were not farsighted enough to escape on the craftworlds, and so took refuge in the webway. This is important: they are NOT the Eldar who created Slaanesh in their orgy of hedonism. They are survivors who saw their empire, one surpassing the power of the current Imperium, utterly destroyed beyond a hope of ever having a future, forced to live in the twilight of the webway without a home world or security.
That they survive today is a testament to their determination not to surrender, their strength of will to persevere when there is no hope for a better future. This is what makes them bleak. This is what makes them cruel and uncaring for anyone else or each other. This is what makes them Dark Eldar. Like a patient dying from cancer they lash out at all others daring to live and be happy, and they try to cause as much pain as possible.
So how does this translate to the table top?
Well first off, the base of the technology will be very similar to Eldar: psychoplastic wraithbone cores, efficient use of energy, excellent grasp of antigrav technology. The physiology of the infantry will be virtually identical to CE: low toughness and strength, decent to high initiative and leadership, fleet of foot, decent to high skills, low to decent armour.
However, what are the major differences? Well, for one thing they are organized into cabals instead of craftworlds so organization is much smaller in terms of scale, and order is enforced through strength and ambition and in some cases material gain, instead of sense of greater purpose and for the collective good. Another thing is that the industrial base of the Dark Eldar is smaller and fractured compared to the Craftworlds. I see Commaragh (spelling) as about the size of a major craftworld, maybe a bit larger, but divided by powerful Archons into "neighbourhoods" for lack of a better term.
Finally, instead of major military expeditions on planetary scales that CE sometimes launch, Dark Eldar are a raiding army, striking fast and leaving as quickly with no intent on controlling territory or denying control to an opposing military entity.
What does it all mean?
Dark Eldar should exemplify the fast and skilled but fragile mindset.
Infantry: exotic deadly weapons carried by low toughness and low armoured infantry. Perhaps improved squad leaders, and maybe even option for CCWs warriors. And hey, perhaps a better name than Dark Eldar Warriors? A little overused and unimaginative (Necron Warriors, Tyranid Warriors...)
Fast Attack: Jetbikes and skyboards are awesome ideas to provide even more speed and mobility. Perhaps add a vyper-like weapons platform skimmer.
Elites: Excellent skills, deadly weapons, perhaps a bit more survivability. Grotesques were... grotesque and didn't fit in with the theme of the army, I say toss em or redesign entirely. Mandrakes were cool but needed a bit of punch to their attack.
HQ: The definition of small but deadly for Archons and Dracons. Incubi can be the exception to the rule about the armour as the concept is just too cool. Homonculi were weird and need more sneaky tricks to act like the Dark Eldar psycher.
Heavy Support: Scourges failed because of Dark Lances being heavy 1 weapons. Perhaps give them the option to take four blasters. Talos was often far too slow and easily negated. Ravager is perfect.
As for the models themselves, I hope whoever redid the Craftworld Eldar line gets involved as the new Eldar infantry looks so good. Dark Eldar vehicles need work too, less bulk and more sleek.
That's my thoughts and opinions. Anyone else?
Black Storm Ascendant
This weekend was one of those rare occasions that I got to game on Saturday. So not only did I play Lawrence in the promised rematch I owed him for last time, but I got to play Peter (Fleetwood_Mac) on Saturday as well.
Friday: Lawrence's Space Marines versus the Black Storm - Part Deux
Pictures!
2000 pts, Secure and Control, one of my favourites.
Lawrence used his "Ball Busting" list which consisted of over 60 marines, 7 apothecaries, lots of heavy and special weapons, and no vehicles and only one low level character (a chaplin). I used the same list as last time.
Chaos Lord with terminator armour and lightning claws
Daemon Prince
4 Terminators in Land Raider
2 x 10 Marines with las/plas in Rhino
10 Marines with missile launcher
10 Marines with flamer/plasma pistol in Rhino
3 Obliterators
Defiler
We rolled up three loot counters (each worth 666 pts!!!) and Lawrence made his first mistake of the day. I let him place two counters to my one and while his first and my first were near the centre line between both deployment zones, he placed the third much closer to one of the zones. I won roll off for picking sides and picked the zone with the closer objective.
As the battle started I used my land raider and rhinos to create a wall of cover to advance behind, and here we see Lawrence's third mistake: besides his Chaplin and Assault squad, his mobility was severely limited. I was able to grab all three objectives by turn 2, forcing him to fight to take them back which is an advantage for me as he loses firepower on the move.
He split the chaplin off from the assualt squad and tried to break my line by having the chaplin charge in deep to one of my tactical squads while the assault marines went after my terminators in the centre. Well, the chaplin broke an ankle going into the ruins and while he smacked a couple of chaos marines down, he was no match for the rest of them and died quickly. The assault marines faired better by taking four terminators down to four of their own losses, but next turn the Chaos Lord, Daemon prince, and a tactical squad made short work of them and thus revealed Lawrence's third and final mistake: by charging too early and unsupported, he lost his most mobile unit and hardest hitting character, failed to disrupt my lines, and surrendered the centre to me where I could continue to advance.
Lawrence had no quit in him and fought back hard on the flank and successfully destroyed three obliterators, the chaos lord, and a tactical squad to secure one of the objectives back. By the end of six turns he was even winning in victory points for models killed by 101 pts! But the third objective, the one close to my deployment zone gave me all the points I needed to claim a solid victory.
Admittedly Lawrence was dead tired on his feet after an all-nighter writing an essay, but nonetheless I take great pride in having faced his "ball busting" list and walked away alive.
Great game!
Saturday: Peter's Renegade Guard versus the Black Storm
Pictures!
2000 pts, Take and Hold.
I used the same list again (I really like it!) and faced off against 155 zombie guardsmen with a Leman Russ and Demolisher. All I could think was "oh boy, this is gonna be tough".
I got lucky off the start. He went first and had the Leman Russ fire its lascannon at the Land Raider and failed to pen. The Land Raider returned fire and blew the Russ up with a 6 inch explosion, taking several guardsmen with it. That set the tone of the battle.
When playing a horde army, you need to be able to bring as much of your horde as possible to maximize attacks. Piecemeal and the elite armies like mine will chew up unit after unit. Well, Peter spread out across all 6 feet of the deployment zone while I swamped the centre and used the terminators and land raider to black access for a third of his army. The other two thirds I was able to shoot and then assault.
When playing a horde army, you always need one or two or five models capable of dealing killing blows to hard units like characters or terminators. Once the Daemon Prince got into a combat he was virtually unkillable without extraordinary luck (5s to hit, 6s to wound, 3+ save) and the Terminators also absrobed charges from 3-4 squads without great duress. This allowed the rest of my army to advance, kill, and secure the centre zone.
Peter's army was ballsy, I'll give him that. But I think trimming the horde for some more ommph in certain areas is called for.
Another good game.
Friday: Lawrence's Space Marines versus the Black Storm - Part Deux
Pictures!
2000 pts, Secure and Control, one of my favourites.
Lawrence used his "Ball Busting" list which consisted of over 60 marines, 7 apothecaries, lots of heavy and special weapons, and no vehicles and only one low level character (a chaplin). I used the same list as last time.
Chaos Lord with terminator armour and lightning claws
Daemon Prince
4 Terminators in Land Raider
2 x 10 Marines with las/plas in Rhino
10 Marines with missile launcher
10 Marines with flamer/plasma pistol in Rhino
3 Obliterators
Defiler
We rolled up three loot counters (each worth 666 pts!!!) and Lawrence made his first mistake of the day. I let him place two counters to my one and while his first and my first were near the centre line between both deployment zones, he placed the third much closer to one of the zones. I won roll off for picking sides and picked the zone with the closer objective.
As the battle started I used my land raider and rhinos to create a wall of cover to advance behind, and here we see Lawrence's third mistake: besides his Chaplin and Assault squad, his mobility was severely limited. I was able to grab all three objectives by turn 2, forcing him to fight to take them back which is an advantage for me as he loses firepower on the move.
He split the chaplin off from the assualt squad and tried to break my line by having the chaplin charge in deep to one of my tactical squads while the assault marines went after my terminators in the centre. Well, the chaplin broke an ankle going into the ruins and while he smacked a couple of chaos marines down, he was no match for the rest of them and died quickly. The assault marines faired better by taking four terminators down to four of their own losses, but next turn the Chaos Lord, Daemon prince, and a tactical squad made short work of them and thus revealed Lawrence's third and final mistake: by charging too early and unsupported, he lost his most mobile unit and hardest hitting character, failed to disrupt my lines, and surrendered the centre to me where I could continue to advance.
Lawrence had no quit in him and fought back hard on the flank and successfully destroyed three obliterators, the chaos lord, and a tactical squad to secure one of the objectives back. By the end of six turns he was even winning in victory points for models killed by 101 pts! But the third objective, the one close to my deployment zone gave me all the points I needed to claim a solid victory.
Admittedly Lawrence was dead tired on his feet after an all-nighter writing an essay, but nonetheless I take great pride in having faced his "ball busting" list and walked away alive.
Great game!
Saturday: Peter's Renegade Guard versus the Black Storm
Pictures!
2000 pts, Take and Hold.
I used the same list again (I really like it!) and faced off against 155 zombie guardsmen with a Leman Russ and Demolisher. All I could think was "oh boy, this is gonna be tough".
I got lucky off the start. He went first and had the Leman Russ fire its lascannon at the Land Raider and failed to pen. The Land Raider returned fire and blew the Russ up with a 6 inch explosion, taking several guardsmen with it. That set the tone of the battle.
When playing a horde army, you need to be able to bring as much of your horde as possible to maximize attacks. Piecemeal and the elite armies like mine will chew up unit after unit. Well, Peter spread out across all 6 feet of the deployment zone while I swamped the centre and used the terminators and land raider to black access for a third of his army. The other two thirds I was able to shoot and then assault.
When playing a horde army, you always need one or two or five models capable of dealing killing blows to hard units like characters or terminators. Once the Daemon Prince got into a combat he was virtually unkillable without extraordinary luck (5s to hit, 6s to wound, 3+ save) and the Terminators also absrobed charges from 3-4 squads without great duress. This allowed the rest of my army to advance, kill, and secure the centre zone.
Peter's army was ballsy, I'll give him that. But I think trimming the horde for some more ommph in certain areas is called for.
Another good game.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Here's the Plan...
Training plan that is.
I wrapped up Cybernetics IV today and jump cloned back to my unaltered clone and plugged those +4s in. Ahhhh, that's better. I quickly put Caldari Cruiser V back on and although I'm slightly behind the original schedule now, it will be worth it in the long run.
I'm looking forward to the Caldari recons. Both the Falcon and Rook have some things I really like. I'm starting to have second thoughts about the HACs though. I don't have missile skills for the Cerebus and the Eagle doesn't impress me with only four turrets as it seems to have the damage output of a Ferox. Still, T2 resistances... I might get one and try it out.
The Vulture is looking really cool to me. Still only 5 turrets like the ferox, but more bonuses and the option for multiple command links. Of course, I'll need to train for command links :P
Or maybe I'll skip both HACs and command ships and train straight for the Black Ops. Hmmm.....
I wrapped up Cybernetics IV today and jump cloned back to my unaltered clone and plugged those +4s in. Ahhhh, that's better. I quickly put Caldari Cruiser V back on and although I'm slightly behind the original schedule now, it will be worth it in the long run.
I'm looking forward to the Caldari recons. Both the Falcon and Rook have some things I really like. I'm starting to have second thoughts about the HACs though. I don't have missile skills for the Cerebus and the Eagle doesn't impress me with only four turrets as it seems to have the damage output of a Ferox. Still, T2 resistances... I might get one and try it out.
The Vulture is looking really cool to me. Still only 5 turrets like the ferox, but more bonuses and the option for multiple command links. Of course, I'll need to train for command links :P
Or maybe I'll skip both HACs and command ships and train straight for the Black Ops. Hmmm.....
Thursday, November 01, 2007
A New Start
Last night I applied to m3 and was accepted. For the first time I've joined a corp where one of the original IPORC guys had not paved the way for me first. I'm now in a corp filled with people who don't know me and I need to step up and prove myself. I'm really excited about this opportunity.
Joining a new corp whether you know some people or not always follows these stages for me.
1) Get to know the names of the various leaders and their positions. Find out who is responsible for what and who I need to pay attention to.
2) Get to know the various areas of operations. What systems, what stations, what comm server, what channels, etc. And find out where the danger is!
3) Get to learn the politics and history. Some people may have no position of authority but may be life long friends with the CEO and have a lot of influence over corp policy.
4) Get to know allies and enemies. Other corps and alliances in the area that we fight with and against. Who is dangerous, who is a joke.
As I soak in all this info from the forums, corp chat, corp mail, etc, I make friends, chat up the locals, get into some ops, basically make myself and my abilities known. My goal in this corp is to really stand out and take a leadership role so I plan to really throw myself into operations where I can.
Note: Razor Tech will not be affected by this change in Kirith's employment.
Joining a new corp whether you know some people or not always follows these stages for me.
1) Get to know the names of the various leaders and their positions. Find out who is responsible for what and who I need to pay attention to.
2) Get to know the various areas of operations. What systems, what stations, what comm server, what channels, etc. And find out where the danger is!
3) Get to learn the politics and history. Some people may have no position of authority but may be life long friends with the CEO and have a lot of influence over corp policy.
4) Get to know allies and enemies. Other corps and alliances in the area that we fight with and against. Who is dangerous, who is a joke.
As I soak in all this info from the forums, corp chat, corp mail, etc, I make friends, chat up the locals, get into some ops, basically make myself and my abilities known. My goal in this corp is to really stand out and take a leadership role so I plan to really throw myself into operations where I can.
Note: Razor Tech will not be affected by this change in Kirith's employment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments