Well, with the holidays upon us I will be super busy with family and travelling so while I intend to try and play Eve as much as I can squeeze in, do not expect any blog posts for about a week or so. In addition, this is post #999 so I'm going to have to resist the urge for quick updates so blog post 1000 can be extra special.
Until then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and Fly Safe!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Blog Post Headers
If you come to my blog website and look at old posts, you will see I've created post headers that appear based on the attached tags for my major categories : PvP, PvE, Ships, Skills, Industry, Mechanics, Politics, and Tribune. The idea is that you can see at a glance what the post is about and it gave me an excuse to use some graphics from the Eve Data Export files.
Hat tip to Karthis at Teeth and Claws for showing me the rough direction to pursue to accomplish it.
Anyways, I'd like opinions on what people think. I'm still refining the idea for posts with multiple tags, but comments and ideas are welcome. Essentially I have the ability to inject any HTML code based on the tags so I'm open to suggestions :)
Hat tip to Karthis at Teeth and Claws for showing me the rough direction to pursue to accomplish it.
Anyways, I'd like opinions on what people think. I'm still refining the idea for posts with multiple tags, but comments and ideas are welcome. Essentially I have the ability to inject any HTML code based on the tags so I'm open to suggestions :)
OUCH
Look, I can understand flying the best ships you can afford. I know the glow of satisfaction I get undocking in the carrier or Navy Raven.
I can understand the attraction of a Golem Marauder T2 battleship for running level fours. Its an awesome ship.
I can even understand pimping out your awesome ship with the faction, deadspace, and officer modules to make that awesome ship even more awesomer.
I get it. I really do.
But for god's sake, don't take it into low sec to run missions. A plain T2 fit Raven would suffice. Heck, even a T2 fit Navy Raven is cheaper than an officer shield booster nowadays. Use that in low sec. Its still pimpin'.
Because if you do take your faction/deadspace/officer fit Golem battleship into low sec and lose it... well... you're going to hate yourself.
* * * * *
To be fair, I'm wondering if the bulk of the hostile gang was held back out of Sukanan constellation meaning our intel channel wouldn't report them, and a lone Recon or Interceptor went in and tackled after a neutral alt probed him down. One might not notice fast enough one hostile in system or reported in the intel channel.
Still, I couldn't fathom having that much invested in a ship and using it to run missions especially when a plain Raven would do just fine. Hopefully my alliance mate recovers from this blow and carrier on with Eve life, wiser but poorer.
I can understand the attraction of a Golem Marauder T2 battleship for running level fours. Its an awesome ship.
I can even understand pimping out your awesome ship with the faction, deadspace, and officer modules to make that awesome ship even more awesomer.
I get it. I really do.
But for god's sake, don't take it into low sec to run missions. A plain T2 fit Raven would suffice. Heck, even a T2 fit Navy Raven is cheaper than an officer shield booster nowadays. Use that in low sec. Its still pimpin'.
Because if you do take your faction/deadspace/officer fit Golem battleship into low sec and lose it... well... you're going to hate yourself.
* * * * *
To be fair, I'm wondering if the bulk of the hostile gang was held back out of Sukanan constellation meaning our intel channel wouldn't report them, and a lone Recon or Interceptor went in and tackled after a neutral alt probed him down. One might not notice fast enough one hostile in system or reported in the intel channel.
Still, I couldn't fathom having that much invested in a ship and using it to run missions especially when a plain Raven would do just fine. Hopefully my alliance mate recovers from this blow and carrier on with Eve life, wiser but poorer.
Apparently They ARE Paying Attention
Back at the beginning of December I mentioned how my industrial corp, Insisto Armamentarium (INSAR), had been war dec'd by an alt corp called Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club (KKFC), presumably a font for FINEG to try and annoy me. I dropped Derranna from the corp as she was the only valuable member and carried on with my life with little bother.
Well, on Dec 19th the war came to an end and figuring they got bored with paying for a meaningless war, I put Derranna back into the corp. Well, this morning I got the message from CONCORD telling me that INSAR has been war dec'd again by my very own stalker corp. An early Christmas present to be sure.
Anyways, Derranna's roles have been dropped and she will be safe from any surprise attacks once again, and whoever is behind KKFC can waste more ISK paying to upkeep the war again.
* * * * *
In industrial news, the Onyx sold for a really nice price of over 99 million (which translates to over 20 million profit even at higher material costs) and I was able to buy the parts for the 110 Invulnerability fields and another Onyx build. Should have them on market after Christmas.
Well, on Dec 19th the war came to an end and figuring they got bored with paying for a meaningless war, I put Derranna back into the corp. Well, this morning I got the message from CONCORD telling me that INSAR has been war dec'd again by my very own stalker corp. An early Christmas present to be sure.
Anyways, Derranna's roles have been dropped and she will be safe from any surprise attacks once again, and whoever is behind KKFC can waste more ISK paying to upkeep the war again.
* * * * *
In industrial news, the Onyx sold for a really nice price of over 99 million (which translates to over 20 million profit even at higher material costs) and I was able to buy the parts for the 110 Invulnerability fields and another Onyx build. Should have them on market after Christmas.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
7 More Things
I got tagged a couple more times for the "7 things you didn't know about me" so here is a post to appease those demanding to know more about little ole me.
8. I'm fairly short for a man at 5' 7" and I'm extremely jealous of people taller than me. Die tall people, die!
9. Favourite computer game growing up was Civilizations of course. In university I lost a few grade points to Master of Orion.
10. I worked at a full service gas station for 2 years, pumping propane and diesel alongside regular gasoline for minimum wage in horrible Ontario weather: bone-chilling cold winters and bloody-hot summers.
11. I got married at the age of 23 in 1997.
12. Graduated with a diploma in Computer Science (Honours).
13. When I doodle I draw maps of fantasy worlds, making history and politics up as I go.
14. I hate raw tomatoes.
There. Now carry on with the really important stuff like Eve!
8. I'm fairly short for a man at 5' 7" and I'm extremely jealous of people taller than me. Die tall people, die!
9. Favourite computer game growing up was Civilizations of course. In university I lost a few grade points to Master of Orion.
10. I worked at a full service gas station for 2 years, pumping propane and diesel alongside regular gasoline for minimum wage in horrible Ontario weather: bone-chilling cold winters and bloody-hot summers.
11. I got married at the age of 23 in 1997.
12. Graduated with a diploma in Computer Science (Honours).
13. When I doodle I draw maps of fantasy worlds, making history and politics up as I go.
14. I hate raw tomatoes.
There. Now carry on with the really important stuff like Eve!
Duels - Redux
Since the beginning of September I owed Mynxee a rematch from our set of Duels in where I thoroughly spanked her twice (Rupture and Rifter) and let her escape in her Rapier because I didn't want to break her spirit in one night. I intended to meet up with her a while ago but our alliance wars and operations kept me close to home working with the group.
Last night I figured things had calmed down enough for me to take a trip back to my old Factional Warfare stomping grounds in Evati and give it another go with Mynxee and see how much she's sharpened her claws in the intervening months. Flying with the Bastards and her Hellcats I'm sure has given her the practice to go with her determination.
I took the aptly named Thorax cruiser Mynxee's Bane with the exact same setup as last September despite the changes that Quantum Rise brought to the game.
(Click to see the full details)
As you can see, the ship has very little tank and instead relies on its impressive DPS and ECM drones to try and kill before getting killed. I'm considering dropping the MWD for an afterburner and seeing if that can get me more room for better defences, and dropping a Mag Stab for a Tracking Enhancer. But that's another post.
We met in Evati in a safe spot of hers and dispensed with the pleasantries as I barreled towards her. Immediately I saw an improvement in her reflexes as her drones actually launched this time and flew towards me with their own ECM systems. I had the advantage though, 5 x EC-600 versus 5 x ECM-300.
We got in close range and opened up the weapons, each of us getting a jam cycle here and there and sheilds ripped off in short order. I noticed I was missing too much since I think she had an afterburner and my web was not slowing her down much at all (60%). Quick math shows that at 1250 meters my guns needed a transversal on the target of 171 m/s or less and I'm pretty sure she was going faster than that. I pulled back to 5000 meters to fight in falloff and started getting hits, and then I got lucky with another jam or maybe even two. Either way, she went down and I did the happy dance since I was only 30% armour left and getting very nervous.
Here's me with her wreck. Taken for the gloating factor:
She had her blood up and asked for another go. I agreed because after all, this Thorax was built to die.
A few minutes later she came back with a new Rupture and we engaged again. I didn't get the number of lucky jams this time (did she install an ECCM?) and my attempts to manage range for maximum damage seemed harder; I noticed that she upped from 220mm autocannons to 425mm autocannons and I wonder if she but on some damage mods this time?
Whatever her setup, I was doomed and went down in a blaze of glory, assuaging some Mynxee's hurt pride I'm sure.
Great fights and I plan to come back late January to make sure the holidays don't put any rust on her pvp skills.
Last night I figured things had calmed down enough for me to take a trip back to my old Factional Warfare stomping grounds in Evati and give it another go with Mynxee and see how much she's sharpened her claws in the intervening months. Flying with the Bastards and her Hellcats I'm sure has given her the practice to go with her determination.
I took the aptly named Thorax cruiser Mynxee's Bane with the exact same setup as last September despite the changes that Quantum Rise brought to the game.
(Click to see the full details)
As you can see, the ship has very little tank and instead relies on its impressive DPS and ECM drones to try and kill before getting killed. I'm considering dropping the MWD for an afterburner and seeing if that can get me more room for better defences, and dropping a Mag Stab for a Tracking Enhancer. But that's another post.
We met in Evati in a safe spot of hers and dispensed with the pleasantries as I barreled towards her. Immediately I saw an improvement in her reflexes as her drones actually launched this time and flew towards me with their own ECM systems. I had the advantage though, 5 x EC-600 versus 5 x ECM-300.
We got in close range and opened up the weapons, each of us getting a jam cycle here and there and sheilds ripped off in short order. I noticed I was missing too much since I think she had an afterburner and my web was not slowing her down much at all (60%). Quick math shows that at 1250 meters my guns needed a transversal on the target of 171 m/s or less and I'm pretty sure she was going faster than that. I pulled back to 5000 meters to fight in falloff and started getting hits, and then I got lucky with another jam or maybe even two. Either way, she went down and I did the happy dance since I was only 30% armour left and getting very nervous.
Here's me with her wreck. Taken for the gloating factor:
She had her blood up and asked for another go. I agreed because after all, this Thorax was built to die.
A few minutes later she came back with a new Rupture and we engaged again. I didn't get the number of lucky jams this time (did she install an ECCM?) and my attempts to manage range for maximum damage seemed harder; I noticed that she upped from 220mm autocannons to 425mm autocannons and I wonder if she but on some damage mods this time?
Whatever her setup, I was doomed and went down in a blaze of glory, assuaging some Mynxee's hurt pride I'm sure.
Great fights and I plan to come back late January to make sure the holidays don't put any rust on her pvp skills.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Greed Is A Good Thing
Rebuilding the wallet from its current state of less than 100 million ISK is proceeding slowly but steadily. I built one of the 12 Onyx Heavy Interdictors today and will get it on the market tonight. That will find the next build, maybe two if I'm lucky.
I did 20 invention tries of Invulnerability fields and got 11 successes, so I might build and sell those first. Also on the docket is 4 tries at Covert Ops Cloaks. There is enough for me to build and sell for the rest of the month for sure, possibly into the new year. Expected profit on each Onyx is looking like over 18 million per ship, so about 225 million for all 12. If I get 20 Covert Ops Cloaks, that's another 200 million or so, and another 30 million for the Invul fields... so my wallet should be back over 600 million when this current building phase is complete.
I did 20 invention tries of Invulnerability fields and got 11 successes, so I might build and sell those first. Also on the docket is 4 tries at Covert Ops Cloaks. There is enough for me to build and sell for the rest of the month for sure, possibly into the new year. Expected profit on each Onyx is looking like over 18 million per ship, so about 225 million for all 12. If I get 20 Covert Ops Cloaks, that's another 200 million or so, and another 30 million for the Invul fields... so my wallet should be back over 600 million when this current building phase is complete.
Charge!
On Friday an Alliance Mission Day was declared: all corp taxes were to be set to 100% and everyone was to run missions and loot and salvage for their corporation to donate the proceeds to the alliance cap ship program.
I logged in for a bit early on and ran some missions with some corp mates in my shiny new Navy Raven. Here is me and a mate in his Golem... sigh, just when I thought I had the best mission ship.
Later on in the evening, I logged in again to help with the cause. Only this time the voice comms and channels were filled with chattering voices talking about how a POS of a corporation in the alliance was under attack in Verge Vendor!
The site was 20 jumps away and some debate was had as to whether or not the small tower acting as a cyno waypoint could be saved in time as the enemy fleet had two carriers and a Moros dreadnought. But the enemy was attacking the POS guns first and we determined there was time. We assembled a fleet of battleships and ECM and hit the road.
I picked a Falcon to boost the ECM count and I like doing the sneaky-cloak thing.
The enemy fleet consisted of the aforementioned cap ships and about 14 battleships. We had a smaller number of combat battleships but two Scorpions and a handful of Falcons which really tilted the favour to us. Targets were assigned and we jumped into system.
The enemy obviously had warning cause they up and ran as we warped to the station. We did catch one slow Dominix battleship that tarried too long, and one fighter got left behind from one of the carriers. We saved the POS and the enemy docked up. At this time I had to log and I don't know what happened with negotiations at this point.
* * * * *
Which brings up a point I want to discuss.
While our fleet approached our alliance diplomats tried to determine what was going on. During the conversations the hostiles tried to suggest some compromises and such. I commented to the fleet that it seemed to be a bad decisions to begin negotiations after opening fire first. Someone else said "No no, that's the way to do it: get your gun on their neck and negotiate from a position of strength."
I didn't follow up as we were in fleet and approaching the target, but I do want to say here I strongly disagree. While its true that sometimes you have to show your strength for someone to take you seriously, I think its very stupid to smack someone and then ask them nicely to move out of your way. It forces your target into a corner: either stand up and fight back, or lose face and retreat. It cuts off options of future cooperation and compromise. We were forced to go and defend our POS and attack agressively whereas diplomatic negotiations might have avoided the conflict altogether.
Unless you're looking for a fight, opening communication with a blaster or missle first is not the wise choice.
I logged in for a bit early on and ran some missions with some corp mates in my shiny new Navy Raven. Here is me and a mate in his Golem... sigh, just when I thought I had the best mission ship.
Later on in the evening, I logged in again to help with the cause. Only this time the voice comms and channels were filled with chattering voices talking about how a POS of a corporation in the alliance was under attack in Verge Vendor!
The site was 20 jumps away and some debate was had as to whether or not the small tower acting as a cyno waypoint could be saved in time as the enemy fleet had two carriers and a Moros dreadnought. But the enemy was attacking the POS guns first and we determined there was time. We assembled a fleet of battleships and ECM and hit the road.
I picked a Falcon to boost the ECM count and I like doing the sneaky-cloak thing.
The enemy fleet consisted of the aforementioned cap ships and about 14 battleships. We had a smaller number of combat battleships but two Scorpions and a handful of Falcons which really tilted the favour to us. Targets were assigned and we jumped into system.
The enemy obviously had warning cause they up and ran as we warped to the station. We did catch one slow Dominix battleship that tarried too long, and one fighter got left behind from one of the carriers. We saved the POS and the enemy docked up. At this time I had to log and I don't know what happened with negotiations at this point.
* * * * *
Which brings up a point I want to discuss.
While our fleet approached our alliance diplomats tried to determine what was going on. During the conversations the hostiles tried to suggest some compromises and such. I commented to the fleet that it seemed to be a bad decisions to begin negotiations after opening fire first. Someone else said "No no, that's the way to do it: get your gun on their neck and negotiate from a position of strength."
I didn't follow up as we were in fleet and approaching the target, but I do want to say here I strongly disagree. While its true that sometimes you have to show your strength for someone to take you seriously, I think its very stupid to smack someone and then ask them nicely to move out of your way. It forces your target into a corner: either stand up and fight back, or lose face and retreat. It cuts off options of future cooperation and compromise. We were forced to go and defend our POS and attack agressively whereas diplomatic negotiations might have avoided the conflict altogether.
Unless you're looking for a fight, opening communication with a blaster or missle first is not the wise choice.
The Station
This month's Eve Blog Banter comes to us by Roc Wieler of Roc's Ramblings. Roc's asks us to "write a story about a fellow EVE Blogger, or an EVE player whom has inspired you or affected you in some tangible way. After your story, describe why you chose them, and any Holiday wish you have specifically for them".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One would think that abandon stations would be silent, but then one would be wrong.
There are creeks, groans, and numerous hisses from the super structure as the gravity from the nearby moon it orbits pulls the station in its slowly decaying orbit towards its ultimate fate as a shooting star. But that is years in the future; for now it is just an abandoned, if noisy, station.
Nih’Khuna treaded slowly down the corridor in her enviro-suit and mag-boots. No need for a full space suit here as the radiation of open space was still blocked by the plates of the station exterior. It was pitch black inside but her halogen lights on the side of her helmet provided enough illumination to make her way forward deeper into the relic.
* * * * *
The message had come unsigned and untraceable, but only a few knew the address to reach her directly. “Thought you might be interested,” said the note, accompanied by a few pictures and coordinates in quite space of the Minmatar republic. Nih’khuna was not an explorer by any stretch of the imagination but she did have a soft spot for abandon sites like this. Plus it actually looked less salvaged than most abandoned stations and it might even have something work taking.
* * * * *
She finally got to a control room and using her hand torch cut a large hole in the closed door. Fortunately it wasn’t a blast door or she would never get through with merely a portable hand laser. While she waited for the hot metal edge to cool from the new circular opening, she shone her lights through and inspected the interior.
Across the room she saw a dead body still sitting awkwardly in a chair perfectly preserved in the vacuum but this did not faze her. She was well familiarized with the characteristics of death in the void. Her attention was quickly grabbed by the banks of computer screens and boards, still intact and undisturbed. “Perfect,” she thought, “those will fetch a fine price on the market in Molden Heath.”
The improvised entry had cooled enough to allow her in and she was about to crawl through to investigate further when her comm dinged.
“What it is?” she asked crossly, annoyed at being disturbed.
“Sir, we have contacts,” he first officer reported gravely.
* * * * *
Nih’Khuna ran as fast as possible in the low gravity and magnetic boots. As she hurried through the confusing corridors her first officer continued to update her on the happenings outside.
“Two contacts, presumed to be large since we detect them already... scanner blocked by the station... sending out probe... got it. Two battleships for sure. Getting more telemetry.”
Nih’Khuna pondered the possibilities. Perhaps they were explorers that just stumbled upon the abandoned outpost coincidently at the same time she was here. Yeah right, her cynically brain whispered.
“Ok, we have confirmation. Two Raven battleships broadcasting State Navy codes. “ A pause. “They are locking .”
She had chosen to dock her Punisher combat frigate in the semi enclosed dock of the station so that it would not be detected on any long range scans or probes. It should not be possible for the ships outside to target lock her vessel amoungst the jumble of the station and docking facilities. That meant they were targeting the station.
Nih’Khuna ran harder.
* * * * *
“They’re firing!”
Moments later an explosion rocked the station so hard that Nih’khuna was lifted off her feet and slammed shoulder first into the bulkhead wall, her breath knocked out of her. As she struggled to her feet, she strained to ask for status.
“We’re ok sir, they are hitting the main bulk of the station. But hurry up! This place is a deathtrap!”
An accurate description, she thought wryly. She set off again as fast as her burning lungs would take her. It certainly seemed a lot farther back to the dock than she remembered walking. Did she get lost? Take a wrong turn? Panic started to set in.
No, there it is, she thought with a massive wave of relief. The sign on the wall pointed down a left corridor and she knew the dock was close.
“INCOMING!”
She didn’t have time to stop running completely and brace herself before the torpedoes impacted with the force of an angry god. She was thrown from her feet again and crashed into a jutting panel, bone in her foreman snapping like twigs. She screamed in pain and nearly blacked out, slouching down the wall and cradling her left arm.
Part of her wanted to tell her ship to take off and get out of here to save themselves. The station was breaking up; it was only a matter of time before the Punisher was trapped. She had died before; this time would be no different. Except that she wasn’t plugged into her pod and this death would be final. Can’t activate a clone without any consciousness, right?
“Sir? We need to go now!”
“I’m comin’,” she whispered.
She forced herself up and staggered down the hall in a haze of pain. Suddenly she was in the large open space of the docking bay and the scaffold leading to her ship was before her.
“Here comes another!” shouted her crewman over the comms. This time she held on for dear life with her right hand while standing still and as the explosion ripped through the station hulk she managed to keep from flying off like a projectile into the open bay. As she stood back up she looked at her ship and cursed. The last salvo had caused it to break the moorings and begin drifting away from the dock. Ten meters already and growing, she had to act fast.
“Lieutenant, open the hatch!” She began to run and at the end of the scaffold she launcher herself into the void at the side of her ship. The hatch there began to open and she sailed through the micro gravity into its maw and into her ship where she ended her flight with a bone-jarring crash as the ship’s artificial gravity kicked in and she twisted her ankle with another flash of pain.
“Get us out of here!”
The Punisher’s engines roared to life and she felt it leap into action. She couldn’t get up; there was no time to get to the pod. The crew would have to fly it out of here themselves. Her comm. Was still open and she could listen to the bridge crew.
“We’re clear of the station.”
“They’re locking us!”
“Set destination anywhere, just get us to warp! WARP NOW!”
“We’ve got incoming drones!”
“GODDAMNIT, WARP NOW!”
* * * * *
Nih’khuna’s arm itched beneath the cast and her ankle was cold from the ice compress. Her nurse was an ugly old Brutor that didn’t care for her at all. The pod pilot half wondered about jumping in her pod and self destructing to get a new clone body.
Her visitor took a drink of her coffee and sat back further in the uncomfortable chair. “So, Caldari Navy, eh?”
Nih’khuna snorted. “Not bloody likely. Those were two siege Ravens. The State does not send those ships on missions into hostile territory without serious escort. Those ID codes were spoofed.”
“So, a personal vendetta?”
“Absolutely. Someone set me up. Someone who knows me well enough to know I’d get out and explore that station. Someone who has a serious grudge.”
“Any ideas?”
“I have a few.” She crumpled the printout of the message she had received this morning in her good hand. The message said simply, “Hope you’re feeling better. KK”
“Oh yes, I have a few.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to my old Strife Mercenaries Nih'Khuna who introduced me to Eve and gave my 5 million ISK back where I was a complete noob to get going and buy some skill books. He escorted me through low sec space in my Merlin with all my possessions and introduced me to the gang I flew with for the first two years of my Eve career. A good friend and an awesome CEO, Merry Christmas buddy!
Other Blog Banter Posts:
- CrazyKinux's Musing: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
- The Wandering Druid of Tranquility: What will your verse be?…
- A Merry Life and A Short One: EVE Blog Banter #3: What Not To Do
- Mad Rant: My Hero
- The Ralpha Dogs: A Greeting Card
- Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah: The Station
- Diving into Psyche Diver's Psyche: CK's Blog Banter #3: Praise and kudos
- Roc's Ramblings: Blog Banter #3 - PyjamaSam
- Protosolus: EVE: Blog Banter 3 - A Piratical Legend
- Blogging from inside the Pod: The 'Jita Incident'
- Achernar: Citizen Zhang
- Cosmik R5's EVE Blog: Blog Banter: Tribute to an EVE player - Letrange
- Letrange's EVE Blog: Is it December Banter time already?
- Life in Low Sec: EVE Blog Banter #3: Reverend Book
- Sweet Little Bad Girl: Blog Banter #3
- Votrian's EVE Blog: EVE Blog Banter #3 - my influences
- Zen and the Art of Internet Spaceship Maintenance: Blog Banter #3 Ships that pass in the night
- A Mule in EVE: The reawakening
- Jinarre's New Eden: Blog Banter: Inspiration
- The House Theodoulos: EVE Blog Banter #3
- Flashfresh - The Pirate: EVE Blog Banter #3
Friday, December 19, 2008
Success!
The 7 Onyx invention jobs came out of the lab this morning and I found myself with not the 2 expected successes, but 4! That drives the invention cost per run down to 9 million ISK from over 16.5 million. Now I have to start building them and selling them to rebuild my wallet. Curses for spending a billion ISK this month on the Orca and CNR (and associated equipment)!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
War is Ended
The wars against Hunters Imperial and Legi0n corporations are coming to a close as we ended our mutual status and they did not pay to continue. Let's take a look at some of the final numbers, shall we?
- Duration: 40 days
- 119 Ships killed to 54 Ships lost
- 3921.37M ISK lost for them to 1556.88M ISK lost for us
- Battleship: 14 killed - 6 lost
- Battlecruiser: 9 killed - 5 lost
- Crusier: 15 killed - 6 lost
- Recon Ship: 9 killed - 3 lost
And best of all...
- Capsule: 30 killed, 8 lost
P.S. Mynxee, I owe you a duel. Expect to see me in the coming week :)
- Duration: 40 days
- 119 Ships killed to 54 Ships lost
- 3921.37M ISK lost for them to 1556.88M ISK lost for us
- Battleship: 14 killed - 6 lost
- Battlecruiser: 9 killed - 5 lost
- Crusier: 15 killed - 6 lost
- Recon Ship: 9 killed - 3 lost
And best of all...
- Capsule: 30 killed, 8 lost
P.S. Mynxee, I owe you a duel. Expect to see me in the coming week :)
Tonight, I Mean It!
Still no luck logging on last night, Twin A was being a brat and not going down to sleep peacefully as is his role in life.
I did log in to change a skill and just missed a big battle in Sukanan in which our alliance and some friendlies laid the smackdown on a hostile fleet. A couple interesting things to note in this battle:
1) We killed a faction fitted Navy Raven.
2) The Megathron we lost might have survived had it not been the victim of friendly fire (the Abaddon getting second most damage on it was a friendly).
3) Apparently, they jump bridged four falcons into the battle from a Black Ops. If so, this is a powerful example of the strategic value of a Black Ops battleship in which you surprise an enemy: he thinks the surrounding systems are clear of hostiles and engages, then you drop reinforcements from 5 light years away. Fortunately for us in this battle, they did not turn the tide.
This last point makes me wonder if I should get the Black Ops training in February before the winter plan.
I did log in to change a skill and just missed a big battle in Sukanan in which our alliance and some friendlies laid the smackdown on a hostile fleet. A couple interesting things to note in this battle:
1) We killed a faction fitted Navy Raven.
2) The Megathron we lost might have survived had it not been the victim of friendly fire (the Abaddon getting second most damage on it was a friendly).
3) Apparently, they jump bridged four falcons into the battle from a Black Ops. If so, this is a powerful example of the strategic value of a Black Ops battleship in which you surprise an enemy: he thinks the surrounding systems are clear of hostiles and engages, then you drop reinforcements from 5 light years away. Fortunately for us in this battle, they did not turn the tide.
This last point makes me wonder if I should get the Black Ops training in February before the winter plan.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
This and That
I haven't been playing much lately. Real life has been especially busy and the hoped-for game time last weekend was dashed when the mother-in-law never came to visit. Still, I hope to get a block of time to login in either tonight or tomorrow night.
I went and bought the Navy Raven I was talking about on Monday. Got it for 289 million which I thought was a great price considering these things used to cost minimum 800 million a year or so ago. The Loyalty Point stores feature really burst that damn open. Now if only CPP would get off their asses and let these faction ships show on the market instead of contracts only.
I've been a regular headhunter lately, recruiting two ex-Strife members into m3 Corp and courting a third. I've been selective of the former Strife Mercenaries I approach because I know some of them, while still great guys, would not be able to handle the anit-pirate stance and NRDS; they are simply too trigger happy. Also some of them are too restless to handle the slow pace of development in the corp and alliance. They like to rush in head first to the next challenge and that is partly what helped to kill us last year.
Derranna got the Datacores and Decrpytors and put 7 invention tries for Onyx BPCs in the oven, expected out in two days.
Korannon finally finished his travels of Domain region picking up all those minerals I inadvertantly purchased last year. His Assets list is now nice and clean.
In skill training updates Derranna completed the leadership training for installing Mining Foreman links on the Orca and is now working towards the skills for the Mining Foreman Implant. Kirith completed training for installing the Captial Energy Transfer module and is now in a month and a bit of getting skills up to level IV for better performance.
Finally, this is post 984 and coincendently my blog will be four years old this coming February 21st. My first post had the subject "Why?" and the content was "because I can." Ah brevity, my forgotten talent. Anyways, with Christmas holidays coming up my time for blogging might be sparse so I have doubts I'll post 16 more times before I go on blogging vacation. I am planning some sort of contest or lottery to celebrate post 1000 and 4 year anniversary so keep watching this space!
I went and bought the Navy Raven I was talking about on Monday. Got it for 289 million which I thought was a great price considering these things used to cost minimum 800 million a year or so ago. The Loyalty Point stores feature really burst that damn open. Now if only CPP would get off their asses and let these faction ships show on the market instead of contracts only.
I've been a regular headhunter lately, recruiting two ex-Strife members into m3 Corp and courting a third. I've been selective of the former Strife Mercenaries I approach because I know some of them, while still great guys, would not be able to handle the anit-pirate stance and NRDS; they are simply too trigger happy. Also some of them are too restless to handle the slow pace of development in the corp and alliance. They like to rush in head first to the next challenge and that is partly what helped to kill us last year.
Derranna got the Datacores and Decrpytors and put 7 invention tries for Onyx BPCs in the oven, expected out in two days.
Korannon finally finished his travels of Domain region picking up all those minerals I inadvertantly purchased last year. His Assets list is now nice and clean.
In skill training updates Derranna completed the leadership training for installing Mining Foreman links on the Orca and is now working towards the skills for the Mining Foreman Implant. Kirith completed training for installing the Captial Energy Transfer module and is now in a month and a bit of getting skills up to level IV for better performance.
Finally, this is post 984 and coincendently my blog will be four years old this coming February 21st. My first post had the subject "Why?" and the content was "because I can." Ah brevity, my forgotten talent. Anyways, with Christmas holidays coming up my time for blogging might be sparse so I have doubts I'll post 16 more times before I go on blogging vacation. I am planning some sort of contest or lottery to celebrate post 1000 and 4 year anniversary so keep watching this space!
The 7 Facts Meme
Karox over at One Man and His Spaceship has tagged me with a meme. The nerve!
The rules:
1) I am a purple belt in Can Ryu Jiu Jitsu and plan to become a black belt in 2010.
2) I share my birthday with Jennifer Anniston who is far prettier than Angelina Jolie in my opinion.
3) My favourite movie is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan but my second favourite movie is Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray.
4) My computer was a Commodore VIC 20 and I got it for Christmas when I was 10 or 11 and didn't sleep for 48 hours after getting it.
5) I don't drink alcohol. Ever. No beer, no coolers, no wine, no liquor.
6) I absolutely hate my voice which is why I am reluctant to get on voice comms.
7) I once predicted I would roll three sixes on three dice in one try and I succeeded.
Ok, who to tag? Well how about... nope, tagged already. Maybe this person... darn. Tagged. Ok, I know, I'll tag.... sigh. You know what? Let's just say if you read this and yuo haven't been tagged already, consider yourself tagged :)
The rules:
- Link to the original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
- Share 7 facts about myself in the post - some random, some weird.
- Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.
1) I am a purple belt in Can Ryu Jiu Jitsu and plan to become a black belt in 2010.
2) I share my birthday with Jennifer Anniston who is far prettier than Angelina Jolie in my opinion.
3) My favourite movie is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan but my second favourite movie is Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray.
4) My computer was a Commodore VIC 20 and I got it for Christmas when I was 10 or 11 and didn't sleep for 48 hours after getting it.
5) I don't drink alcohol. Ever. No beer, no coolers, no wine, no liquor.
6) I absolutely hate my voice which is why I am reluctant to get on voice comms.
7) I once predicted I would roll three sixes on three dice in one try and I succeeded.
Ok, who to tag? Well how about... nope, tagged already. Maybe this person... darn. Tagged. Ok, I know, I'll tag.... sigh. You know what? Let's just say if you read this and yuo haven't been tagged already, consider yourself tagged :)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
User Manual or Installation Guide?
Ship invention is a bugger of a thing. Unlike module invention, there are a lot more considerations to take into account because the cost and thus risk is so much higher.
The big question is what decryptor to use? For ship invention, its almost always more profitable to use a decryptor to increase the number of runs and/or quality and/or chance of success but they are expensive. Do you spring for the one that gives +9 runs but drops the material efficiency to -6 and drops your chance of success by 40%? Or do you go for the one that adds 5 runs, drops efficiency to only -5, but increases chance of success by 80%? Or something inbetween?
In the end, for my 7 invention jobs to try and get Onyx BPCs from Moa BPCs, I settled on User Manual which leave the odds of success alone, but gives a -3 ME and +2 runs for three runs per success. Out of 7 attempts I'm hoping for at least 2 successes.
So:
7 Decryptors @ 11 mil = 77 million
56 Mechanical Engineering Datacores @ 350K = 19.6 million
56 Caldari Starship Engineering Datacores @ 210K = 11.76 million
== ~108.4 million ISK
Assuming 2 success for 6 runs
== ~18 million ISK per run.
If I get lucky and get a third success, the cost per run drops to around 12 million. If I get unlucky and get no successes, my cost per run is infinite :P The old adage holds true: don't try to invent what you can't afford to lose.
The big question is what decryptor to use? For ship invention, its almost always more profitable to use a decryptor to increase the number of runs and/or quality and/or chance of success but they are expensive. Do you spring for the one that gives +9 runs but drops the material efficiency to -6 and drops your chance of success by 40%? Or do you go for the one that adds 5 runs, drops efficiency to only -5, but increases chance of success by 80%? Or something inbetween?
In the end, for my 7 invention jobs to try and get Onyx BPCs from Moa BPCs, I settled on User Manual which leave the odds of success alone, but gives a -3 ME and +2 runs for three runs per success. Out of 7 attempts I'm hoping for at least 2 successes.
So:
7 Decryptors @ 11 mil = 77 million
56 Mechanical Engineering Datacores @ 350K = 19.6 million
56 Caldari Starship Engineering Datacores @ 210K = 11.76 million
== ~108.4 million ISK
Assuming 2 success for 6 runs
== ~18 million ISK per run.
If I get lucky and get a third success, the cost per run drops to around 12 million. If I get unlucky and get no successes, my cost per run is infinite :P The old adage holds true: don't try to invent what you can't afford to lose.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Oh Shiny!
Over at Morphisat's Blog he reports a new toy, a Caldari Navy Raven battleship:
Here's a quick EFT comparison:
As you can see, the Rokh can get more raw damage with my skills, but the CNR has better defence, cap management, and drone bay along with the fact that it can choose damage types to deal unlike the rails being locked to Thermal and Kinetic. And as I improve my missile skills for the Dreadnought, the CNR will increase damage as well.
So next time I have a spare 300 million, I'm going to pick me up one of these.
And here it is. I finally bought a Navy Raven. Always thought it was a little too expensive, but now that the prices have dropped below 300mil (!), I just had to get one ;).
It looks nicer than the run of the mill Raven, and adds a bit of DPS with it’s seventh missiles launcher. Also it provides more of a buffer as it has a lot more shields ! You do go through ammo pretty fast now though, good thing I can build my own missiles !
At a price point below 300 million, I'm thinking of getting one for mission running and then turn the Insisto Oblivum II Rokh Battleship into a second PvP ship so that the Vera Causa doesn't have to switch mods so often.Here's a quick EFT comparison:
As you can see, the Rokh can get more raw damage with my skills, but the CNR has better defence, cap management, and drone bay along with the fact that it can choose damage types to deal unlike the rails being locked to Thermal and Kinetic. And as I improve my missile skills for the Dreadnought, the CNR will increase damage as well.
So next time I have a spare 300 million, I'm going to pick me up one of these.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Also, New Forum Signature
Playing with Gimp 2.0 freeware I came up with this on a first try. The alliance logo is not my creation, merely borrowed from our killboard. The name came from Cool Text Graphics generator website.
The carrier is mine :)
"Come On, Undock!"
Last night I logged in and was informed that we were camping a war target in station. "ORLY? What's he flying?" I asked. "Manticore," was the response.
I figured I could use this as an opportunity to try out the new Eagle Heavy Assault Cruiser I bought a couple weeks back.
(Click to embiggen)
As you can see, it can sling antimatter ammo out to 35 km with ease and the tracking is such that I can easily hit ships with a transversal of 1300 m/s or less. With a six second lock time on a corpmate's interceptor, I was confident that any stealth bomber undocking would only have a sliver of window to make his escape and no time at all to pop any of my frigate buddies.
Unfortunately, the war target was off eating or whatever and we didn't see any action. But we prevented him from having any fun in Eve and sometimes that's all the victory you need.
* * * * *
In other news, I completed training for Sensor Linking IV which gives me access to Remote Sensor Booster IIs and I've got a Myrmidon cooked up for that purpose with three of them installed. Now I'm back on Energy Emissions V (which I switched from to avoid the skill completing during this week's patch as a saftey precaution) and that skill completes tonight. Soon capital energy transfers will be mine!
I figured I could use this as an opportunity to try out the new Eagle Heavy Assault Cruiser I bought a couple weeks back.
(Click to embiggen)
As you can see, it can sling antimatter ammo out to 35 km with ease and the tracking is such that I can easily hit ships with a transversal of 1300 m/s or less. With a six second lock time on a corpmate's interceptor, I was confident that any stealth bomber undocking would only have a sliver of window to make his escape and no time at all to pop any of my frigate buddies.
Unfortunately, the war target was off eating or whatever and we didn't see any action. But we prevented him from having any fun in Eve and sometimes that's all the victory you need.
* * * * *
In other news, I completed training for Sensor Linking IV which gives me access to Remote Sensor Booster IIs and I've got a Myrmidon cooked up for that purpose with three of them installed. Now I'm back on Energy Emissions V (which I switched from to avoid the skill completing during this week's patch as a saftey precaution) and that skill completes tonight. Soon capital energy transfers will be mine!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Bad Form
I was going to post about last night I used the Nomad jump freighter instead of the Orca to move some ships and supplies for a friend, and explain my reasons but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the big news of the last 24 hours in Eve.
Over at Misguided Adventurer we get the overview:
Already speculators are buying up all the Ferrogel and Fermonic Condensates on the markets and buy orders have skyrocketed in price. The T2 production market is going to be very unstable for a while and I'm putting produiction plans on hold while it all shakes out. I'm not too worried, eventually the market will find a new equilibrium and profit margins will still exist.
However, I do want to admonish CCP for this debacle. The scope of this exploit caused by the bug (if the stories are true) is astonishing in terms of ISK and duration. Four years? Surely someone somewhere brought this to attention sooner than recently? Trillions of ISK? That is enough to fund multiple wars and in a game where making your opponent pay for his losses is how wars are won, having one or two alliances with essentially a free supply of ISK is unbalancing in the extreme, especially since the amount of money suggested could buy motherships and titans.
Four years. Come on CCP, that is unacceptable.
Over at Misguided Adventurer we get the overview:
For four years, exploiters such as that had been supplying the market with the materials needed for many T2 products. The market adapts to this supply input and the exploit becomes the norm. Then suddenly, the carpet is pulled out from the supply chain and normalcy has no clear definition. With supply way the hell down in an instant, what is the market doing? It looks strikingly similar to a NASA shuttle launch. Prices for T2 items related to the minerals used by the exploiters have already jumped and some predict that the wars being fought at this very moment could soon hit a supply snag, changing the political and military fields immensely. We live in interesting times, do we not?The exploit mentioned was that a bug in POS moon reaction mechanics meant that advanced moon materials were being made essentially out of nothing. Estimates say that over four years that multiple trillions were made by those alliances aware of the bug. Now that CCP has fixed the bug and banned those using the exploit and removed assets, the supply of advanced moon materials is going to be cut significantly, and with demand remaining the same prices will rise as a result.
Already speculators are buying up all the Ferrogel and Fermonic Condensates on the markets and buy orders have skyrocketed in price. The T2 production market is going to be very unstable for a while and I'm putting produiction plans on hold while it all shakes out. I'm not too worried, eventually the market will find a new equilibrium and profit margins will still exist.
However, I do want to admonish CCP for this debacle. The scope of this exploit caused by the bug (if the stories are true) is astonishing in terms of ISK and duration. Four years? Surely someone somewhere brought this to attention sooner than recently? Trillions of ISK? That is enough to fund multiple wars and in a game where making your opponent pay for his losses is how wars are won, having one or two alliances with essentially a free supply of ISK is unbalancing in the extreme, especially since the amount of money suggested could buy motherships and titans.
Four years. Come on CCP, that is unacceptable.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Industry Watch: What Next
Well, one of the four Basilisks have sold (yay) and the profit margins are not great (boo). My wallet is recovering still from the purchase and outfitting of the Orca command ship christened Titanic and now has enough scratch to think about the next project.
Let's check the BPC container:
Hmmm, a one run Cerberus BPC and multiple runs of Widows. Well, I don't have the ISK to buy the parts for a Tech II battleship so looks like I'll build that Cerberus and get it out of the way. Time to do some more inventing eh? Those are max run copies of the Ferox up there, and in another hanger recently delivered:
That's right: 7 max run copies of Caracal, Moa, and Blackbirds that will be invented into Cerberus, Onyx, and Falcon BPCs.
But wait, there's more!
That's 20 max run BPCs for invulnerability field invention and 20 max run BPCs for Large Shield Extended invention. Time to pick up some datacores.
Let's check the BPC container:
Hmmm, a one run Cerberus BPC and multiple runs of Widows. Well, I don't have the ISK to buy the parts for a Tech II battleship so looks like I'll build that Cerberus and get it out of the way. Time to do some more inventing eh? Those are max run copies of the Ferox up there, and in another hanger recently delivered:
That's right: 7 max run copies of Caracal, Moa, and Blackbirds that will be invented into Cerberus, Onyx, and Falcon BPCs.
But wait, there's more!
That's 20 max run BPCs for invulnerability field invention and 20 max run BPCs for Large Shield Extended invention. Time to pick up some datacores.
Exchanges We're Willing To Take
Last night I amazingly found myself free to log in and play again. I was surprised as anyone, I can assure you.
Some corp mates were gearing up to run a mission and I jumped in the Insisto Oblivium II Rokh battleship to help out. The mission was Blockade against Sanshas so I was happy; Sanshas melt under hybrid firepower.
So me in my Rokh and two corp mates in Ravens warped in and made short work of the enemy waves. While we were finishing up the call went out that a hostile war target was camping a gate nearby in high sec in his Amarr Abaddon battleship, setup for apparent sniping.
I checked the wife. Still on the phone? Good. "X" me up to the fleet.
I docked and requested ship instructions. "Ranged DPS" I was told, so I powered up the Vera Causa Rokh battleship and outfit it for long range combat with 8 x 425mm Railgun IIs with Caldari Navy antimatter; with two tracking computers my optimal was 70 km and 29 km falloff and a DPS of 566.
We rallied outside the target system and a forward team of a Malediction interceptor and Arazu Recon went in to try and get him tackled. The target warped to station and soon docked. Minutes later he undocked in a Manitcore stealth bomber and we listened on Team Speak while our forward team played cat and mouse trying to catch and destroy the ship in hopes that he would dock up and bring the Abaddon back out to play.
Finally the enemy was caught and dispatched. The pod was chased to Amarr system itself and we hoped we would see something bigger for the gang to attack. Unfortunately, he undocked in a Minmatar Jaguar assault frigate and in a dogfight with our interceptor he came out on top.
We regrouped. I was sent in to act as bait and try to get him to engage again, but our opponent probably felt he had pushed his luck as far as it would go and chose not to engage. We called it a night after a while and I docked up, satisfied to have flown with the alliance once again.
Although both sides lost a tech II frig, the Manticore was rigged and the Malediction was not, making it a big win for us in terms of ISK lost on the night. That's an exchange we're willing to make.
Some corp mates were gearing up to run a mission and I jumped in the Insisto Oblivium II Rokh battleship to help out. The mission was Blockade against Sanshas so I was happy; Sanshas melt under hybrid firepower.
So me in my Rokh and two corp mates in Ravens warped in and made short work of the enemy waves. While we were finishing up the call went out that a hostile war target was camping a gate nearby in high sec in his Amarr Abaddon battleship, setup for apparent sniping.
I checked the wife. Still on the phone? Good. "X" me up to the fleet.
I docked and requested ship instructions. "Ranged DPS" I was told, so I powered up the Vera Causa Rokh battleship and outfit it for long range combat with 8 x 425mm Railgun IIs with Caldari Navy antimatter; with two tracking computers my optimal was 70 km and 29 km falloff and a DPS of 566.
We rallied outside the target system and a forward team of a Malediction interceptor and Arazu Recon went in to try and get him tackled. The target warped to station and soon docked. Minutes later he undocked in a Manitcore stealth bomber and we listened on Team Speak while our forward team played cat and mouse trying to catch and destroy the ship in hopes that he would dock up and bring the Abaddon back out to play.
Finally the enemy was caught and dispatched. The pod was chased to Amarr system itself and we hoped we would see something bigger for the gang to attack. Unfortunately, he undocked in a Minmatar Jaguar assault frigate and in a dogfight with our interceptor he came out on top.
We regrouped. I was sent in to act as bait and try to get him to engage again, but our opponent probably felt he had pushed his luck as far as it would go and chose not to engage. We called it a night after a while and I docked up, satisfied to have flown with the alliance once again.
Although both sides lost a tech II frig, the Manticore was rigged and the Malediction was not, making it a big win for us in terms of ISK lost on the night. That's an exchange we're willing to make.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Eve Tribune Article On Orca
The editor was looking for someone to play devil's advocate to his article supporting the recent high sec suicide ganks using the Orca as a platform to organize and launch the attacks from, so I stepped up and wrote one.
Its not something I feel strongly about but I wanted to give another perspective.
Its not something I feel strongly about but I wanted to give another perspective.
I Am Weak
Last night before going to bed I checked the markets and found an Orca on sale for my price range. So I bought it. Instant gratification anyone?
So here she is. As usual click to see it in full sized glory.
Here I am undocking in it. Haven't picked a name yet. Titanic perhaps? Boondoggle?
Although I don't do much mining, the tactical flexibility of having a mining command ship for future endeavours plus the ship maintenance array for transporting ships and the decent cargo capacity it boasts makes it an all round utility ship.
Interesting side note: according to EFT, the align time is 43.6 seconds compared to 44.7 seconds for the Fenrir freighter, and the Orca's top speed is 75m/s compared to 120 m/s. It is slower in autopiloting through high sec than the Fenrir as a result. For comparision, the jump freighter Nomad has a 28.6 second align time making it faster than both by far. Of course, neither frieghter can fit mods or carry assembled ships without courier contracts, nor give any bonuses to tractor beams or gang links.
Now, let's check in with the care bear bridgade and get their reaction:
They approve.
So here she is. As usual click to see it in full sized glory.
Here I am undocking in it. Haven't picked a name yet. Titanic perhaps? Boondoggle?
Although I don't do much mining, the tactical flexibility of having a mining command ship for future endeavours plus the ship maintenance array for transporting ships and the decent cargo capacity it boasts makes it an all round utility ship.
Interesting side note: according to EFT, the align time is 43.6 seconds compared to 44.7 seconds for the Fenrir freighter, and the Orca's top speed is 75m/s compared to 120 m/s. It is slower in autopiloting through high sec than the Fenrir as a result. For comparision, the jump freighter Nomad has a 28.6 second align time making it faster than both by far. Of course, neither frieghter can fit mods or carry assembled ships without courier contracts, nor give any bonuses to tractor beams or gang links.
Now, let's check in with the care bear bridgade and get their reaction:
They approve.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Orca Pilot (Almost) Ready!
Derranna completed her training for Mining Foreman V and then Mining Director I this evening, meaning she has the prerequisites for the Industrial Command Ship skill which I promptly purchased for 45 million ISK. She still has a couple months of training to get the skills to use some Mining Warfare Links and the Mining Foreman Mindlink I want.
I checked the markets to see how the price of the Orca is doing now that the initial rush is over and supply and demand are settling down. In Amarr the lower sell orders were around 700 million and this morning before downtime they the buy orders were at 500 million. However, when I checked tonight competition had driven the two closers together, sell orders bottoming at 675 and buy orders rising to 650. I expect perhaps prices will now descend gracefully to the 600 million mark and maybe below in the coming weeks. I was tempted to buy one right now, but decided to wait for a bit.
I checked the markets to see how the price of the Orca is doing now that the initial rush is over and supply and demand are settling down. In Amarr the lower sell orders were around 700 million and this morning before downtime they the buy orders were at 500 million. However, when I checked tonight competition had driven the two closers together, sell orders bottoming at 675 and buy orders rising to 650. I expect perhaps prices will now descend gracefully to the 600 million mark and maybe below in the coming weeks. I was tempted to buy one right now, but decided to wait for a bit.
Patrol
Friday night I had some unexpected free time (which was balanced out later in the weekend when I didn't get my expected online time Sunday evening) so I logged in to find some action.
Except our war targets are in a failure cascade.
Throughout the war with Legi0n and Hunters Imperiale, we have typically seen the same 10-20 pilots from their ranks out fighting. This is from corps with over 30 and 40 members each. Well in the past week they've been bleeding members and many of them that have left have been those that fought the most early on. Its gotten to the point where we are at war with nothing but ghosts.
I suspect that when they decc'd us they thought we were mission runners primarily and they would run us into station and pick off the stragglers. I don't think they excepted us to prosecute the war with such enthusiasm and vigour, chasing them down to their bases and missions with superior numbers and experienced PvPers. When you're outnumbers always and have very few victories over weeks of war, its wears a corp down. Out killboard reports an efficiency of 71.5% with 114 ships killed (3786.52M ISK) to only 49 ships lost (1509.39M ISK). Also worth noting is the 30-6 cpasules killed ratio. We are blood thirsty.
The upshot of all this blather is that I had logged in Friday to find no war targets near by and no gangs looking to go find them. I decided to go on a roam to a nearby low sec area where they have been known to appear so I jumped into my blaster Harpy and set course for the unknown.
No war targets were to be seen, and at one point I passed a hostile Lachesis and Zealot going the opposite direction at a low sec gate, but I lacked the firepower to engage and they did not give chase. Besides, we have strict orders of engagement and I think I would have been violating them in this case. Regardless, I finished my roam through low sec and ended up in high sec in Domain region and completely lost; seriously, I could not find my position on the map. Freaking Domain is too big.
Fortunately the nav computer knew where I was and autopilot marked the gates to get me back home. With the war winding down and no word on the next action, I might get some exploration done with Derranna and Kirith working together to fine tune the operation for when we head to null sec some day.
Except our war targets are in a failure cascade.
Throughout the war with Legi0n and Hunters Imperiale, we have typically seen the same 10-20 pilots from their ranks out fighting. This is from corps with over 30 and 40 members each. Well in the past week they've been bleeding members and many of them that have left have been those that fought the most early on. Its gotten to the point where we are at war with nothing but ghosts.
I suspect that when they decc'd us they thought we were mission runners primarily and they would run us into station and pick off the stragglers. I don't think they excepted us to prosecute the war with such enthusiasm and vigour, chasing them down to their bases and missions with superior numbers and experienced PvPers. When you're outnumbers always and have very few victories over weeks of war, its wears a corp down. Out killboard reports an efficiency of 71.5% with 114 ships killed (3786.52M ISK) to only 49 ships lost (1509.39M ISK). Also worth noting is the 30-6 cpasules killed ratio. We are blood thirsty.
The upshot of all this blather is that I had logged in Friday to find no war targets near by and no gangs looking to go find them. I decided to go on a roam to a nearby low sec area where they have been known to appear so I jumped into my blaster Harpy and set course for the unknown.
No war targets were to be seen, and at one point I passed a hostile Lachesis and Zealot going the opposite direction at a low sec gate, but I lacked the firepower to engage and they did not give chase. Besides, we have strict orders of engagement and I think I would have been violating them in this case. Regardless, I finished my roam through low sec and ended up in high sec in Domain region and completely lost; seriously, I could not find my position on the map. Freaking Domain is too big.
Fortunately the nav computer knew where I was and autopilot marked the gates to get me back home. With the war winding down and no word on the next action, I might get some exploration done with Derranna and Kirith working together to fine tune the operation for when we head to null sec some day.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Question of the Day
Battleship Drone Bay Capacities - Descending Order
Sin - 400
Dominix - 375
Typhoon - 175
Panther - 175
Armageddon - 125
Megathron - 125
Kronos - 125
Redeemer - 125
Navy Megathron - 125
Vindicator - 125
Hyperion - 100
Maelstrom - 100
Abaddon - 75
Apocalypse - 75
Raven - 75
Scorpion - 75
Tempest - 75
Paladin - 75
Golem - 75
Vargur - 75
Widow - 75
Navy Apocalypse - 75
Bhaalgorn - 75
Machariel - 75
Nightmare - 75
Rattlesnake - 75
Navy Raven - 75
Fleet Tempest - 75
Rokh - 50
So the question: Why, in this day of medium drones having severe trouble hitting frigate sized targets, is the Rokh the only battleship with a less than 75m3 drone bay?
In other words, what aspect of the Rokh makes it necessary to punish it by forcing it to use one flight of mediums (and thus being vulnerable to frigates) or having two flights of lights thus hurting its maximum DPS potential? As compared to say, a Hyperion/Abaddon/Maelstrom?
I really want to know the reasoning. And "its not a drone race" would be an acceptable reason if other Caldari battleships were similarly handicapped.
Sin - 400
Dominix - 375
Typhoon - 175
Panther - 175
Armageddon - 125
Megathron - 125
Kronos - 125
Redeemer - 125
Navy Megathron - 125
Vindicator - 125
Hyperion - 100
Maelstrom - 100
Abaddon - 75
Apocalypse - 75
Raven - 75
Scorpion - 75
Tempest - 75
Paladin - 75
Golem - 75
Vargur - 75
Widow - 75
Navy Apocalypse - 75
Bhaalgorn - 75
Machariel - 75
Nightmare - 75
Rattlesnake - 75
Navy Raven - 75
Fleet Tempest - 75
Rokh - 50
So the question: Why, in this day of medium drones having severe trouble hitting frigate sized targets, is the Rokh the only battleship with a less than 75m3 drone bay?
In other words, what aspect of the Rokh makes it necessary to punish it by forcing it to use one flight of mediums (and thus being vulnerable to frigates) or having two flights of lights thus hurting its maximum DPS potential? As compared to say, a Hyperion/Abaddon/Maelstrom?
I really want to know the reasoning. And "its not a drone race" would be an acceptable reason if other Caldari battleships were similarly handicapped.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Thoughts On Hunting Stealth Bombers
Stealth Bombers are a very unique ship in Eve. They are fragile as all hell being a frigate but pack the weaponry of a half a Battleship. They have some cloaking prowess but can't warp cloaked making them vulnerable when on the move. They are at once very easy and very hard to kill, and very dangerous to some targets and completely useless against others.
Hunting them can be a pain against a smart pilot. If he gets into position and cloaks he can wait for the most opportune moment and target to strike against. Or he can stay hidden for as long as it takes to avoid a stronger foe.
I initially joined the hunt in my Crow interceptor. Why not the Raptor you ask? Well, the Crow is slightly faster (4890 m/s to 4577 m/s) and more agile and I felt I needed all the speed I could get to negate damage from the incoming missiles should he uncloak and attack and I get the chance to run him down. But I didn't know the numbers since the expansion came into effect and ship speeds were adjusted and missile damage mechanics were changed.
So I decided tonight to sit down between twin responsibilities and look up the numbers. The question: would the interceptor survive an onslaught from the stealth bomber?
There are a lot of numbers to consider: Explosion Velocity and Radius of the missile, velocity and signature of the interceptor. Plus whether or not the Microwarp Drive helps or hinders the incoming damage as it exchanges a low signature for a higher speed. I won't go into the missile damage formula in detail (although you can see the effort here) but suffice to say that it takes the missile's base damage and reduces it by comparing the ratio of the target's velocity to the missile's explosion velocity for one damage reduction and the target's signature to the missile's explosion radius for another damage reduction.
In other words, the lower your signature and the higher your speed, the less damage a missile will do to you.
Well, plugging the ships into EFT's damage chart and having my Manticore attack them I see the DPS is at about 17 for both when MWD is active, and 34 when its off. For comparison, using an afterburner which gives a smaller speed boost but no signature penalty drops the incoming DPS to 15.
Regardless, the fact of the matter is that either of my interceptors can absorb that amount of damage for a little while. On the other side of the coin, my Crow and Raptor are causing about 44 DPS in return if they can get within optimal range. So it looks like my idea to grab the interceptor was a good instinct, if only the war target had uncloaked and engaged. Too bad.
Hunting them can be a pain against a smart pilot. If he gets into position and cloaks he can wait for the most opportune moment and target to strike against. Or he can stay hidden for as long as it takes to avoid a stronger foe.
I initially joined the hunt in my Crow interceptor. Why not the Raptor you ask? Well, the Crow is slightly faster (4890 m/s to 4577 m/s) and more agile and I felt I needed all the speed I could get to negate damage from the incoming missiles should he uncloak and attack and I get the chance to run him down. But I didn't know the numbers since the expansion came into effect and ship speeds were adjusted and missile damage mechanics were changed.
So I decided tonight to sit down between twin responsibilities and look up the numbers. The question: would the interceptor survive an onslaught from the stealth bomber?
There are a lot of numbers to consider: Explosion Velocity and Radius of the missile, velocity and signature of the interceptor. Plus whether or not the Microwarp Drive helps or hinders the incoming damage as it exchanges a low signature for a higher speed. I won't go into the missile damage formula in detail (although you can see the effort here) but suffice to say that it takes the missile's base damage and reduces it by comparing the ratio of the target's velocity to the missile's explosion velocity for one damage reduction and the target's signature to the missile's explosion radius for another damage reduction.
In other words, the lower your signature and the higher your speed, the less damage a missile will do to you.
Well, plugging the ships into EFT's damage chart and having my Manticore attack them I see the DPS is at about 17 for both when MWD is active, and 34 when its off. For comparison, using an afterburner which gives a smaller speed boost but no signature penalty drops the incoming DPS to 15.
Regardless, the fact of the matter is that either of my interceptors can absorb that amount of damage for a little while. On the other side of the coin, my Crow and Raptor are causing about 44 DPS in return if they can get within optimal range. So it looks like my idea to grab the interceptor was a good instinct, if only the war target had uncloaked and engaged. Too bad.
All Quiet On The Sukanan Front
I got online for a solid hour last night but the action was sparse.
One war target was in the high sec system Anjedin just outside of our Sukanan constellation floating around in a Manticore stealth bomber. A few of us tried to catch him but he was not to be found. The gang dispersed back into low sec and I jumped from my Crow interceptor into a Buzzard Covert Ops with Recon Scan Probe Launcher; I decided to see if he would be careless.
I blanketed Anjedin with Spook scan probes (20 AU range) and ran scan after scan looking for a juicy hostile. I got some hits on Neutrals running missions, but no Manticore. Finally I saw him decloak and jump into the neighbouring high sec system and soon after log off.
A few more war targets were spotted about 10 jumps away but I wanted to log soon myself and there was not a huge amount of enthusiasm to go after them since they would probably dock up as soon as we got in range anyways. So I went to my base and jumped in the Ninveah and undocked in it so I could organize the drones into logical groups and play with my eleven fighters a bit outside the station.
Not much action but I did get to chat with corp mates and made sure the enemy stayed honest. All in all an honest night's work.
One war target was in the high sec system Anjedin just outside of our Sukanan constellation floating around in a Manticore stealth bomber. A few of us tried to catch him but he was not to be found. The gang dispersed back into low sec and I jumped from my Crow interceptor into a Buzzard Covert Ops with Recon Scan Probe Launcher; I decided to see if he would be careless.
I blanketed Anjedin with Spook scan probes (20 AU range) and ran scan after scan looking for a juicy hostile. I got some hits on Neutrals running missions, but no Manticore. Finally I saw him decloak and jump into the neighbouring high sec system and soon after log off.
A few more war targets were spotted about 10 jumps away but I wanted to log soon myself and there was not a huge amount of enthusiasm to go after them since they would probably dock up as soon as we got in range anyways. So I went to my base and jumped in the Ninveah and undocked in it so I could organize the drones into logical groups and play with my eleven fighters a bit outside the station.
Not much action but I did get to chat with corp mates and made sure the enemy stayed honest. All in all an honest night's work.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Winter Skill Training Plan
Life has been busy so I haven't had a lot of time to log in and fly around pew-pewing stuff. Very frustrating but I hope for some action tonight depending on how much the wife grumps when I stay up later. Sigh.
Anywhoo, those that can't play, plan! EveMON, where would I be without you?
My current Carrier training plan finishes around January 26th and I've decided to spend the rest of the winter getting some miscellaneous skill sets completed.
- Tech II Remote Sensor Boosters
- Tech II Heavy Drones, Caldari, Gallente, and Minmatar
- Improve Repair Drone and Sentry Drone abilities
- Improve Booster skills so I can use from Boosters comfortably in the Chimera
- Improve Nanite Repair paste abilities (just because I really like the idea)
- Tech II Target Painters and improved skills
All told that's ~72 days training most of which is skills that are less than 4 days long. In fact, only Heavy Drone Operation at 19 days is the big one on the list. When spring rolls around, I'll be ready for the next big project.
Anywhoo, those that can't play, plan! EveMON, where would I be without you?
My current Carrier training plan finishes around January 26th and I've decided to spend the rest of the winter getting some miscellaneous skill sets completed.
- Tech II Remote Sensor Boosters
- Tech II Heavy Drones, Caldari, Gallente, and Minmatar
- Improve Repair Drone and Sentry Drone abilities
- Improve Booster skills so I can use from Boosters comfortably in the Chimera
- Improve Nanite Repair paste abilities (just because I really like the idea)
- Tech II Target Painters and improved skills
All told that's ~72 days training most of which is skills that are less than 4 days long. In fact, only Heavy Drone Operation at 19 days is the big one on the list. When spring rolls around, I'll be ready for the next big project.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Back In the Tribe
Derranna dropped from Insisto Armamentarium last night into the NPC corporation called Seibestor Tribe (or something like that), one of the Minmatar catch groups. This way she avoids the war declaration from Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club and can carry on her merry way with my industrial activities.
Currently I have sold the 100 invulnerability fields for a gross of 160 million, and the Large Shield Extenders are about 20% sold.
Next manufacturing project is to build four Basilisk Logistics cruisers, and 20 Mining Drone IIs from two BPCs I got from a Chribba "love can" last winter. I'm also doing a test run to buy the salvage parts for 10 Capacitor Control Circuit rigs and sell them for profit.
Finally, I've decided to make use of my bulk of isk and begin commodities trading by buying low and selling high. No point in 700 million ISK sitting doing nothing, right? The new goal is to see if I can get to 2 billion ISK by new years.
Currently I have sold the 100 invulnerability fields for a gross of 160 million, and the Large Shield Extenders are about 20% sold.
Next manufacturing project is to build four Basilisk Logistics cruisers, and 20 Mining Drone IIs from two BPCs I got from a Chribba "love can" last winter. I'm also doing a test run to buy the salvage parts for 10 Capacitor Control Circuit rigs and sell them for profit.
Finally, I've decided to make use of my bulk of isk and begin commodities trading by buying low and selling high. No point in 700 million ISK sitting doing nothing, right? The new goal is to see if I can get to 2 billion ISK by new years.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
More Carrier Picture Goodness
When I jumped to Sukanan constellation to a friendly POS, I haad a chance for some good pics. Enjoy! (As usual, click to see full size)
Making the jump.
Profile. She's a sexy beast, no?
Head on.
Isometric.
I'm probably going to make a new blog banner and signature out of one of these. I'm leaning towards the profile for a sig and one of the other two for a banner.
Making the jump.
Profile. She's a sexy beast, no?
Head on.
Isometric.
I'm probably going to make a new blog banner and signature out of one of these. I'm leaning towards the profile for a sig and one of the other two for a banner.
Cerberus Retrieval
Due to constant wars and lack of a lot of play time, my Cerberus stationed out in 0.0 space was not seeing any action. A sorry waste for a good ship. So as part of my asset consolidation effort, I took the ten minutes to clone jump out there and fly back through 0.0 and low sec space at full throttle, blind to what was beyond the next gate.
Risky: yes. But I was willing to lose it to a gate camp, and the pod too if it came down to it, simply to get it out of 0.0. Well this time the risk paid off and I flew it into Ordat without a scratch. I refit it for low sec flying and sent it to the hanger storage for a vacuuming and polishing.
My Cerberus is setup for 0.0 ratting with Heavy Assault Missiles which get a range of 34+ km with its bonuses, and a nice high resistances buffer tank. In Sukanan constellation it will be a good mobile DPS ship for gangs.
Risky: yes. But I was willing to lose it to a gate camp, and the pod too if it came down to it, simply to get it out of 0.0. Well this time the risk paid off and I flew it into Ordat without a scratch. I refit it for low sec flying and sent it to the hanger storage for a vacuuming and polishing.
My Cerberus is setup for 0.0 ratting with Heavy Assault Missiles which get a range of 34+ km with its bonuses, and a nice high resistances buffer tank. In Sukanan constellation it will be a good mobile DPS ship for gangs.
Eve Masterclass - The Triage Module
In response to my late post last night about my carrier skills to complete, Alex asked what about the Triage module? My quick response was that I've heard the module is not that good but I figured I should put some effort into it and do a detailed analysis of the module and its pros and cons.
Basics
Carriers are the ultimate support ships. Their remote repair and energy transfer abilities are magnitudes greater than the best non-capital tech II versions. Take for example Shield Transporters:
- a Large Shield Transporter II has an 85.3 points repaired per second rate at a range of 8.4 km and an energy-to-shield transfer ratio of 1.83*.
- a Capital Shield Transporter has a 300 points repaired per second rate at a range of 45 km and an energy-to-shield transfer ratio of 1.67*.
These logistic abilities allow a single carrier to be a force to be reckoned with, but multiple carriers working in conjunction with each other are often only defeated by massively overwhelming numbers. Add to those capital logistic modules the ability to mount warfare links, large waves of drones and fighters, ship maintenance arrays, and the large numbers of defences they boast and you can quickly see why carrier pilots are so sought after in corporations and alliances.
Module Functionality
The Triage module is classed as a Siege Module and can be used only by Carriers and Motherships. It is a high slot module so doesn't take from tank or cap recharge, and it requires Strontium fuel to run at the rate of 500 per cycle (reduced by Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration skill) but it doesn't use any capacitor energy.
When active, the amount of armour, hull, and shields repaired (both remote and local) and energy transfered is doubled per cycle, and the duration of the cycle is halved. That means our Capital Shield Transporter from the example above would get 1200 shield points repaired per second instead of just (!) 300.
But there is more! You can lock up to 4 more targets than normal, and you are immune to enemy remote effects like EWAR and warp scrambling.
So in essence you become like a fortress in space with 400% better defenses, 400% better logistics abilities, and immune to enemy remote effects.
Sounds great, right?
Well there are downsides.
First off all the flip side to being immune to enemy remote effects is that you are also immune to friendly remote effects. So for example other carriers can't remote repair you should you come under attack. Nor sensor boost, or energy transfer. Essentially you are on your own while in triage mode.
Secondly, you can't move. Your speed is zero and you can't enter warp. I'm not sure if you can even jump but I'd have to confirm that, but since you need 95% capacitor to make a jump I'm guessing unless you just entered triage mode you probably are low on cap anyways from using your repair abilities.
Thirdly you can't have active drones. Your DPS? Bye bye.
Finally, you can't dock while in triage mode so don't play station games with this module or your enemy gets a free shot at you while your activation timer runs out.
By the way, did I mention the duration of the activation timer is ten minutes? And you can't shut it off early? That's right, you enter triage mode you are stuck there for the next 600 seconds so I hope the tactical situation doesn't change in the meantime.
Summary
The fallout of this is that a carrier loses a ton of tactical flexibility when it enters triage mode, to the point where most carrier pilots don't use it except for the case of POS shield repair. The loss of spider tanking and drones combined with being stuck for ten minutes is just not balanced enough by the larger capabilities of the repair and energy transfer units.
And personally, on top of all that I'd need to train minimum 41 days extra outside of my current carrier plan just to use it. Egads. So someday after I've gone for Logistic ships already I may consider the Triage Module for the Chimera, but for now its just not worth it in my opinion when I have so many other things to train first.
--
* = this means it takes 1.83 energy to produce 1 point of repaired shield in case of the large tech II and 1.67 energy for the capital version.
Basics
Carriers are the ultimate support ships. Their remote repair and energy transfer abilities are magnitudes greater than the best non-capital tech II versions. Take for example Shield Transporters:
- a Large Shield Transporter II has an 85.3 points repaired per second rate at a range of 8.4 km and an energy-to-shield transfer ratio of 1.83*.
- a Capital Shield Transporter has a 300 points repaired per second rate at a range of 45 km and an energy-to-shield transfer ratio of 1.67*.
These logistic abilities allow a single carrier to be a force to be reckoned with, but multiple carriers working in conjunction with each other are often only defeated by massively overwhelming numbers. Add to those capital logistic modules the ability to mount warfare links, large waves of drones and fighters, ship maintenance arrays, and the large numbers of defences they boast and you can quickly see why carrier pilots are so sought after in corporations and alliances.
Module Functionality
The Triage module is classed as a Siege Module and can be used only by Carriers and Motherships. It is a high slot module so doesn't take from tank or cap recharge, and it requires Strontium fuel to run at the rate of 500 per cycle (reduced by Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration skill) but it doesn't use any capacitor energy.
When active, the amount of armour, hull, and shields repaired (both remote and local) and energy transfered is doubled per cycle, and the duration of the cycle is halved. That means our Capital Shield Transporter from the example above would get 1200 shield points repaired per second instead of just (!) 300.
But there is more! You can lock up to 4 more targets than normal, and you are immune to enemy remote effects like EWAR and warp scrambling.
So in essence you become like a fortress in space with 400% better defenses, 400% better logistics abilities, and immune to enemy remote effects.
Sounds great, right?
Well there are downsides.
First off all the flip side to being immune to enemy remote effects is that you are also immune to friendly remote effects. So for example other carriers can't remote repair you should you come under attack. Nor sensor boost, or energy transfer. Essentially you are on your own while in triage mode.
Secondly, you can't move. Your speed is zero and you can't enter warp. I'm not sure if you can even jump but I'd have to confirm that, but since you need 95% capacitor to make a jump I'm guessing unless you just entered triage mode you probably are low on cap anyways from using your repair abilities.
Thirdly you can't have active drones. Your DPS? Bye bye.
Finally, you can't dock while in triage mode so don't play station games with this module or your enemy gets a free shot at you while your activation timer runs out.
By the way, did I mention the duration of the activation timer is ten minutes? And you can't shut it off early? That's right, you enter triage mode you are stuck there for the next 600 seconds so I hope the tactical situation doesn't change in the meantime.
Summary
The fallout of this is that a carrier loses a ton of tactical flexibility when it enters triage mode, to the point where most carrier pilots don't use it except for the case of POS shield repair. The loss of spider tanking and drones combined with being stuck for ten minutes is just not balanced enough by the larger capabilities of the repair and energy transfer units.
And personally, on top of all that I'd need to train minimum 41 days extra outside of my current carrier plan just to use it. Egads. So someday after I've gone for Logistic ships already I may consider the Triage Module for the Chimera, but for now its just not worth it in my opinion when I have so many other things to train first.
--
* = this means it takes 1.83 energy to produce 1 point of repaired shield in case of the large tech II and 1.67 energy for the capital version.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Carrier & Skill Update
I'm in the final throes of training for the carrier for sure as the last prerequisite skill I need for my modules is completing. On Dec 10 I'll be able to use the Capital Energy Emissions module and the Ninveah will be ready for business. The rest of the ~49 days of training is simply fine tuning and improving existing skills.
1. Energy Emission Systems IV (21 hours, 16 seconds)
2. Energy Emission Systems V (7 days, 19 hours, 49 minutes, 47 seconds)
3. Capital Energy Emission Systems I (1 hour, 6 minutes, 50 seconds)
4. Capital Energy Emission Systems II (5 hours, 11 minutes, 18 seconds)
5. Capital Energy Emission Systems III (1 day, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 52 seconds)
6. Capital Energy Emission Systems IV (6 days, 22 hours, 1 minute, 12 seconds)
7. Fighters III (1 day, 14 minutes, 10 seconds)
8. Advanced Drone Interfacing III (23 hours, 28 minutes, 42 seconds)
9. Jump Fuel Conservation IV (5 days, 21 hours, 7 minutes, 1 second)
10. Capital Shield Operation IV (5 days, 12 hours, 48 minutes, 57 seconds)
11. Capital Shield Emission Systems III (1 day, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 52 seconds)
12. Capital Shield Emission Systems IV (6 days, 22 hours, 1 minute, 12 seconds)
13. Energy Pulse Weapons IV (1 day, 9 hours, 12 minutes, 14 seconds)
14. Fighters IV (8 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes, 26 seconds)
15. Energy Pulse Weapons V (7 days, 19 hours, 49 minutes, 47 seconds)
1. Energy Emission Systems IV (21 hours, 16 seconds)
2. Energy Emission Systems V (7 days, 19 hours, 49 minutes, 47 seconds)
3. Capital Energy Emission Systems I (1 hour, 6 minutes, 50 seconds)
4. Capital Energy Emission Systems II (5 hours, 11 minutes, 18 seconds)
5. Capital Energy Emission Systems III (1 day, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 52 seconds)
6. Capital Energy Emission Systems IV (6 days, 22 hours, 1 minute, 12 seconds)
7. Fighters III (1 day, 14 minutes, 10 seconds)
8. Advanced Drone Interfacing III (23 hours, 28 minutes, 42 seconds)
9. Jump Fuel Conservation IV (5 days, 21 hours, 7 minutes, 1 second)
10. Capital Shield Operation IV (5 days, 12 hours, 48 minutes, 57 seconds)
11. Capital Shield Emission Systems III (1 day, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 52 seconds)
12. Capital Shield Emission Systems IV (6 days, 22 hours, 1 minute, 12 seconds)
13. Energy Pulse Weapons IV (1 day, 9 hours, 12 minutes, 14 seconds)
14. Fighters IV (8 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes, 26 seconds)
15. Energy Pulse Weapons V (7 days, 19 hours, 49 minutes, 47 seconds)
Kirith's Fighting Spacecraft: Coercer
Another Eve tribune article up from this weekend's downtime. The Amarr Destroyer, the Coercer!
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
November In Review
This past month saw a large downturn in the number of page loads. I attribute this to my changing of the RRS and my week off for the work trip to Las Vegas.
And the daily averages look like this:
We'll see if going forward if the numbers reflect this as a downturn or a new metric.
My busiest day was Nov 4 with 231 page loads but that was before the change to the RSS feed, my busiest day after that was Nov 26th with 166 visits.
The blog banter post was the busiest with 42 loads followed by my Dreadnought ponder post at 41.
I have 46 subscribers in Google Reader which is an increase of 1 over last month.
In November I continued to be part of m3 corp and Blackwater alliance, participating in the occasional operation to fight the enemy, typically in my Falcon. I also moved my Chimera carrier to my home base as I am finally getting the skills to use it and protect it properly, including finishing Shield Emission Systems V this past weekend and training the first two levels of Capital Shield Emissions. Derranna has been training for the Orca and is in the process of getting Mining Foreman V. Also I rebuilt my wallet to back over the billion mark.
December should see more combat, more industry, and more hijinxes from my friends at FINEG.
Month | Page Loads | Unique Visitors | First Time Visitors | Returning Visitors |
| Nov 2008 | 3,461 | 2,564 | 1,664 | 900 |
| Oct 2008 | 5,443 | 3,898 | 2,380 | 1,518 |
| Sep 2008 | 4,474 | 3,191 | 1,793 | 1,398 |
| Aug 2008 | 3,735 | 2,709 | 1,691 | 1,018 |
And the daily averages look like this:
| Page Loads | Unique Visitors | First Time Visitors | Returning Visitors | ||
| Total | 3,461 | 2,564 | 1,664 | 900 | |
| Average | 115 | 85 | 55 | 30 | |
We'll see if going forward if the numbers reflect this as a downturn or a new metric.
My busiest day was Nov 4 with 231 page loads but that was before the change to the RSS feed, my busiest day after that was Nov 26th with 166 visits.
The blog banter post was the busiest with 42 loads followed by my Dreadnought ponder post at 41.
I have 46 subscribers in Google Reader which is an increase of 1 over last month.
In November I continued to be part of m3 corp and Blackwater alliance, participating in the occasional operation to fight the enemy, typically in my Falcon. I also moved my Chimera carrier to my home base as I am finally getting the skills to use it and protect it properly, including finishing Shield Emission Systems V this past weekend and training the first two levels of Capital Shield Emissions. Derranna has been training for the Orca and is in the process of getting Mining Foreman V. Also I rebuilt my wallet to back over the billion mark.
December should see more combat, more industry, and more hijinxes from my friends at FINEG.
Two Wars Is Not Enough
I logged in Friday night and what do I find in my inbox? A War Declaration against my industrial corp Insisto Armamentarium.
What's that corp name again?
Ok, I'm sensing this is not a random war dec then. Let's see how many war targets I need to watch out for.
One. I'm assuming that's an alt, right?
Oh yeah, definitely an alt. What amuses me most is how they got the corp name wrong at first and then realized that there is a character named "Kirith" in the game who started before I did hence why I had to take a last name for my main.
Since my industrial activities are not using a POS1 this war dec is nothing more than an annoyance at most. I will need to be careful with Derranna so I won't be doing any autopiloting unless I have her drop from the corp and go into the NPC corral. If I don't, I'm not too worried about a 3 day old alt but I do have some concern about a stealth application attack: have real characters put in applications to the corp but don't accept them until they can ambush a target suddenly. Seems unlikely but not impossible.
And yeah, I'm assuming this is a FINEG alt simply because I don't know of anyone else that would go after Derranna & Co with a corp named "Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club". I mean I don't hide the relationship on this blog and the corp does have Kirith as the founder, but this act feels like something Cap'n Sandi would do.
Well whoever is behind it, kudos for making me laugh all weekend. Its nice to know I have a fan club. :)
--
1 - Lesson Learned from FINEG: don't anchor a tower you can't defend.
What's that corp name again?
Ok, I'm sensing this is not a random war dec then. Let's see how many war targets I need to watch out for.
One. I'm assuming that's an alt, right?
Oh yeah, definitely an alt. What amuses me most is how they got the corp name wrong at first and then realized that there is a character named "Kirith" in the game who started before I did hence why I had to take a last name for my main.
Since my industrial activities are not using a POS1 this war dec is nothing more than an annoyance at most. I will need to be careful with Derranna so I won't be doing any autopiloting unless I have her drop from the corp and go into the NPC corral. If I don't, I'm not too worried about a 3 day old alt but I do have some concern about a stealth application attack: have real characters put in applications to the corp but don't accept them until they can ambush a target suddenly. Seems unlikely but not impossible.
And yeah, I'm assuming this is a FINEG alt simply because I don't know of anyone else that would go after Derranna & Co with a corp named "Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club". I mean I don't hide the relationship on this blog and the corp does have Kirith as the founder, but this act feels like something Cap'n Sandi would do.
Well whoever is behind it, kudos for making me laugh all weekend. Its nice to know I have a fan club. :)
--
1 - Lesson Learned from FINEG: don't anchor a tower you can't defend.
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