That's Nice In A Creepy Way

You may recall that my industrial alt corp, Insisto Armamentarium, is currently under a war dec from a corporation called Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club whose single member is called MeLuvYU LongTime. Not much has happened on that front since December; still war decced, still no sign of hostiles.

Then Kirith had this show up in his inbox:

Click to receive full impact.

That's very nice sentiment and well written... even if the character's portrait is quite creepy. So here is my public reply:

Dear MeLuvYU LongTime: I'm married, honey. Going on twelve years this May. I'm flattered but I'm not available. I suggest you look up a nice strong Brutor and settle down with him and have ten kids. Later, KK

Raise Shields!

Last night I did the "datacore run", from Tash Murkon to Placid, back to Derelict, over to Domain, and back to Tash Murkon again. I don't need the datacores from agents to do my invention as I factor in the market cost anyways, but it saves me some cash liquidity for other purchases and its pretty easy task with Derranna's cloakiness in low sec areas.

With the new cache of datacores she ran some Invulnerabilty Field inventions and got 9 successes on the first run of 10 (WOW!) and 4 successes on the second run of 10. So overall 3 above expected. Nice. I'll start building those this weekend. I also threw in four Cloaking invention tries, find out Sunday how they go.

Next week I'll review my available capital and look into another round of ship invention, this time checking the profitability before putting certain BPCs in the labs.

Adaptation

Welcome to the forth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by yours truly. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's EVE Blog Banter comes to us from Manasi of A Mule in EvE. Manasi asks "How do we, EVE bloggers, adapt to changes as they are thrust upon us (speed changes, no more ghost training, all the Dev blogs, etc), or as our lives make playing the game different (more time, less time)?"

* * * * *

For me, I read voraciously anything I can get my hands on. Item descriptions, guides, dev blogs, intelligent forum postings, etc. I experiment in game and out of game with Eve MON and EFT. I look for the silver lining in any change. And sometimes I just plain do what I want to do even if there are more efficient ways to do it.

For example when the Rokh was announced I decided I would be a Caldari rail gun pilot even though the majority of players said they sucked. I took my new Rokh into level four missions when everyone said the Raven was the only decent Caldari mission ship. I ran missions for Minmatar Republic Fleet instead of Caldari State Navy. Quite simply, I play my way and not what the crowd says and I have fun because of it.

Speed Nerf? Ok, everyone is slower. Faction Warfare? I tried it out and I can see the appeal. Apocrypha? Hard rats or not, I'll be there with bells on.

So to summarize: find out as much as you can, don't be afraid to experiment, and do your own thing to have fun and not what the crowd says you should do.

Participants:

• Attitude is Everything
• "If I could save time in a bottle…."
• The Game with the Thousand Faces
  
• [OOC] January's Blog Banter
• New Ballgames, Same Home Team
  
• EVE Blog Banter #4: I Don't Know
• Adaptation
• CK's Blog Banter #4
• Roll With the Punches
• Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
  
• We, the EVE-bloggers
• Adapt or Die
• I'm in ur blogosphere, hijackin' ur Blog Banter (4)
• Blog Banter
• Opportunity or Burden?
• Mystic Pizza
• "Stay on target…"
  
• January EVE Blog Banter
• Re-Prioritization
  
• Bonzai in my Bookcase
• Delicious!
• EVE blog banter: Adaptation

Are you talkin' ta ME?!

Reading through the new NPC AI dev blog CCP Gangleri responded to a player comment thusly (emphasis mine)

Originally by: Gamer4liff
Not to beat a horse to death but please tell me there is still a place for solo players in this content? Or at least those who like to be self-sufficient. I wouldn't want to get too many corpmates involved in my suicidal wormhole exploration adventures. I'd really like to base my advancement using this system on my schedule, and not have to worry about other people's.


Some people solo lvl5 missions even though it is less profitable than doing lvl4 when measured in ISK per hour, those missions were never meant for solo play. But some people still do it. There simply comes a time when having more people is more efficient, and rightfully so, cooperation should be more efficient in most cases.

Our goal for the Sleepers was to make each encounter more like a PvP battle, so if you bring a solo BS against a gang of Sleepers you are going to lose, hard. Unless you are that good, guess we'll have to see.

Wow.

In current game mechanics, there is no belt rat encounter that I feel I could not handle in a properly setup battleship. Maybe some 0.0 Officer spawns are different, but the length and breadth of 0.0 space I've ratted in has demonstrated to me that I can handle them easily. But this dev makes it sound like solo play is out of the question.

But there is more; CCP Ytterbium states:

Concerning the solo concerns for W-space: we took into consideration all player styles during the Sleeper design process. That means soloing is possible for the easiest situations you will face, but as mentionned CCP Gangleri, it will be challenging to do so. For fighting against Sleepers ourselves, we can tell you not to expect the current "shoot and loot" approach toward existing NPCs.

On more difficult situations, a proper small/medium gang made of versatile ship classes and roles will be recommended. Again, depending player skill and experience, this can vary greatly as it may be possible to do so in less numbers, like the level5 mentionned example, but that falls into a question of how much efficient would it be to do that.

In all cases, remember that W-space remains an unknown, hazardous area and as such teaming up with other players even on situations meant to be solotable will increase your chances significantly.

Ok, so a step back from the original dev statement, but still seeming to indicate that w-space rats are going to be much harder to take on.

Of course, some questions arise:

1) Are they refering to belt rats and exploration complex groups as a whole?

Right now in 0.0 scanning down a simple complex can prove to give a challenge to a good solo battleship. So if the dev responses are taking w-space complexes into account then it just might be that group play is required for taking on the exploration content while belt ratting is still vulnerable to a well piloted battleship. Which leads to the next question...

2) What level of pilot are they talking to?

A pilot with 5 million skillpoints in a battleship is not the same as a 20 million or 40 million skill point pilot. True, most of that 40 million probably does not apply to a particular battleship setup but it is indictitive of the quality of the support skills. A Tech II tank, Tech II large weapons, Tech II drones, Tech II support skills, and overheating go a long way to improving the ability of a pilot in a battleship.

So when the devs claim that a solo battleship will "lose, hard" against a gang of Sleepers, are they talking to a pilot with medium skills or elite skills. Because it makes a difference in my opinion.

3) Will HACs and Command Ships fare better? I.e. Why are the Sleepers better?

Is it a matter of higher speeds, better resists, varying damage types in which case a more agile and elite ratting ship would do better than your typical belt Raven or Domi? Or are these new rats actually smarter and employ Electronic (not Electrical :P ) Warfare intelligently?

If the former, than experienced pilots in a Nighthawk or Ishtar might be able to burn through anyways. From all indications, its the latter but the key word is "intelligently". Any newb can throw a NOS on a target, but is it the right target at the right time? We shall have to wait and see.

To summarize, despite Dev statements saying solo play will be limited in w-space it remains to be seen what the actual conditions are going to be. To that end, I've set up a test client and logged successfully into Sisi test server; when the new content goes on I'll be there with my camera and notepad.

Wormholes Rats Announced

New dev blog on NPC changes contained this goody:

That is why for Apocrypha, we are unleashing an ancient race into the universe: the infamous Sleepers, lurking throughout the vast unknowns stretching at the other side of the Wormhole maws. Do not underestimate them, as they will remain radically different from the regular pirate factions you are used to. More often than not, they will give you some substiantial bang for your buck and will require player gang coordination and effort to be dispatched. More details are left for another Dev Blog, but at the moment, know they have comparable player attributes and thus require variations of PvP fits to engage.

Who are the Sleepers? Well, they are one of the ancient races that existed prior to the current empires. And from the skill book "Sleep Technology" we get "[t]he Sleepers were masters of virtual reality, neural interfacing and cryotechnology".

Sounds very promising and brings up a point: am I going to need a Code Breaker and Analyzer on the wormhole expeditions? Derranna can use both but I had not considered it before now.

Wormhole Exploration Ships

First off a few assumptions.

Let's assume that the dev blog and accompanying threadnought are accurate and that my speculations are not way off base as a result.

Let's assume that early on a lot of people will be doing small expeditions in and out of w-space to explore, rat, and bring back as much as possible. That is to say, not major POS settlements.

Let's assume that me and an alt are one such small expedition and I plan to go in w-space and explore and rat for a few days before returning. What ships do I use?

You need to cover a lot of requirements with two pilots. DPS/Tank for ratting (and the rumour is that these new NPC rats will be smarter and operate more like players so possibly drones, EW, warp outs... so a standard ratting Raven may not be the best choice), prober to find wormholes, scout, salvaging, method of transporting goods back to k-space, and ability to not run out of ammo.

A Maruader at first blush would seem to be ideal for the role. Large DPS at half ammo usuage; extra high slots for utility purposes like salvager/cloak/tractor beam, huge tank, and large cargo bays. Except you have to be extremely rich or foolhardy to take a ship worth 700 million ISK and practically uninsurable into null sec space where you might run into anyone.

But a battleship hull is the ideal platform. Looking at the available options we see that the Dominix really stands out as ideally suited to the role. Drone DPS does not expend ammo, fit nice tank in lows and use mid slots for combat purposes, and some high slots for utility work. The large drone bay offers good flexibility and the hull is cheap at ~49 million before insurance.


(CLICKINESS ENSUES)

So that solves the DPS, Tank, ammo, and Salvaging issue. I still need decent cargospace to hold loot and a prober to find the way around.

I first considered a Prowler Transport ship with Covert Ops Cloak and one of the new probe launchers the devs mention that requires minimum CPU. Not the most efficient prober, but its got the sneakiness and cloak to get around relatively safely and good cargo hold.

But then I thought about the Orca (who am I kidding, the Orca is always on my mind): its got huge cargo space and the ship maintenance array. I could store Covert Ops ships for Kirith who has decent probing skills as well and he could switch into the ship when searching for an exit wormhole. Plus I could have some other smaller PvP ships in there like an interceptor or recon. Need to change a setup? Spare mods in the hanger and use the Orca to change the ship in space.

The downside of course is that the Orca is expensive and large. There is no telling how often wormholes capable of allowing an Orca and Dominix through would appear. So I think unless I'm part of a multi-pilot expedition where the advantages of the Orca's facilities really come to the fore, I'll stick with the Prowler or Cheetah for Derranna (which one depends on the size of the Tech 3 loot).

Black Widow

Last night I was faced with Bling Temptation again.

Last time I faced it I ended up with an Orca and Navy Raven and an empty wallet. So when Lady Bling and I throw down, I'm usually the one losing.

My wallet, after selling two Onyxes, was practically burgeoning at over 700 million ISK. The itch was there. The burning sensation of Lady Bling breathing down my neck. My new temptation? A sexy Caldari Widow Black Ops Battleship.

I logged on my buying alt Korannon, sighed at the healthy wallet size, and dove into the market. Battlecruisers... battleships... Black Ops! Expand... and no Caldari group. There are no Widows for sale in Domain. I wanted a Widow badly (sleek black hull and red stripes like makeup on a beautiful woman) but not badly enough to go looking for one.

However Lady Bling and the attendant Bling Lust would not be completely denied. To scratch the itch I bought two Dominix battleships and the Black Ops skill book. Expensive at 150 million total but still left my wallet over 600 million. The Widow can wait... for now.

Wormhole Speculations

After 974 posts and 33 pages, the vocal minority has had their say on the wormholes devblog along with a handful of good dev responses.

There appears to be two camps among the forum whores of the thread: those who think this new space will be occupied by large alliances with a POS on every valuable resource, and those who think logistics will be nigh impossible to be able to maintain more than one POS at a time.

(There are also two other camps on the topic of whether the new space is Carebear Heaven or Yet-Another-Pirate-Total-Hell-Death-Gate-Camp from Hell. Yes, I said Hell twice. Sue me.)

* * * * *

First off, let's define some terms that the devs annouced in the thread for simplification.

K-Space = Known Space, the current High sec/Low sec/Null sec that we know and love in our regions with their constant stargates and borders. Approximately 5200 systems.

W-Space = Wormhole Space, the new null security space that is accessible only by a shifting network of wormholes that connect K-Space systems to W-Space systems and W-Space systems to other W-Space systems. Approximately 2500 systems.

K-W = K-space to W-Space wormhole jump. Wormholes are stable for a set time OR an amount of ship mass that passes through it. The inverse is W-K as all wormholes are bidirectional.

W-W = W-space to W-Space wormhole jump. Operate the same as K-W.

* * * * *
We know that all W-space is null sec like current 0.0 space. We also know that jump drive capable ships cannot jump into or out of a W-space system, although a capital ship could use a big enough wormhole to enter W-Space.

We know that wormholes will be found anywhere in K-Space. We also know that the W-Space has "true security" values like 0.0 so that some of them will be more dangerous (and thus more lucrative) than others. For our purposes, assume the safest W-space systems are ranked -0.01 and the most dangerous ranked -1.00 just like in 0.0 K-Space.

We also know that the high sec K-W wormholes will lead to W-space on the -0.01 end of the scale, low sec K-W to the -0.50 part of the scale, and 0.0 to the -1.00 part of the scale. Most of the time. Sometimes, you might end up in total-hell-death W-Space from Jita.

What we don't know is the exact mechanics and associated probabilities involved. That's important so I bolded it. Let me say it again in another way: the devs have given us the high level view but not the nuts and bolts view and how this new space is exploited depends very much on the devils in the details.

Also, consider this: if each region is about 100 systems, they are adding the equivalent of 25 regions. In the past two years, they've added only 9 regions (Black Rise and the drone lands). There are all told 42 null sec regions in K-space so in effect the W-space increases the size of null sec space by about 60%.

Since we don't know how often W-space system Alpha will connect to give W-Space system Beta... not to mention we don't know if there is factors determining which part of K-space Alpha may connect to beyond security status probabilities (and we don't even know how much that weighs on the randomness)... its impossible to say right now how easy or difficult it is going to be for anyone, large or small, to maintain a POS presence in W-space.

Or it might be possible but require so much effort in terms of manpower and time that all K-space null sec holding entities don't bother. On the other hand, if some Dyprosium moons are found they might be worth the effort. Alternatively, if tech III farming is highly profitable compared to 0.0 ratting for bounties, it might lure an alliance or two in.

TL; DR - We don't know enough to speculate on how W-Space will be exploited in the long term. To say end game will be large alliances holding all valuables is vastly premature. Likewise to say no one can do it is equally foolhardy.

Regardless, I'm very exicted to try out this new content and I'm even considering setting up a client to get on the test server.

Station Games

Last night I logged in for about 40 minutes, enough to stretch out in the pod and check the evemail... and *almost* get in on a kill.

As I checked the mail the alliance chat blinked. "Anyone want to get this war target?"

Apparently a war target was lounging in Ordat camping the IAC station with his Deimos Gallente heavy Assault Cruiser in hopes of catching one of us unawares. Only one war target in a cruiser? This seems like a job for the Gank Falcon!

Gank Falcon - four ECM mods, AB, Web, and Scram in the mids. Two Heavy Neutron Blasters and a HAM in the highs, damage mods in lows. Great for sneaking up on and killing cruisers and smaller.

As I warped in a fleet formed to try and take him and I joined in. We then spent the next ten minutes trying to bait him into a trap and just when we thought we had him, he escaped. I'm not sure, but I think our bait ship lacked a point to put on him. If true... *forehead slap*

We had hopes we could still get him, but another wartarget logged in and undocked in his Thanatos carrier. Uh oh. They've baited us before, using the carrier as a solid base to throw ourselves on. We know engaging capital ships on the station undock ramp is fruitless but we love fighting so much we don't always listen to our own advice.

Fortunatly the gang I was in was not so foolish to tangle with the carrier when it was obviously safely in re-docking range. We camped the area for a while, but the Deimos enemy did not give us a chance to get him before I logged.

On the upside, my alliance did get it later.

(I know I know, sad excuse for a PvP post... I hope for more action later this week)

Skill Suprise

For my winter training plan I needed to buy four new skill books.

Signal Suppression... done.

Nanite Interfacing... done.

Nanite Control.... what the heck? Not only is it not available on market, but the buy orders are outrageous. Oh well, I'll check in Amarr. Next!

Neurotoxin Recovery... ok, its not available either. With a sinking feeling in my stomach I jump over to the nearest hub and confirm my suspicions.

Both Nanite Control and Neurotoxin Recovery are skills related to illegal Boosters. The thing with boosters is that a lot of the skills and materials can only be found in non-standard sources: exploration sites and pirate loyalty stores. These skill books must be included in that list and hence the supply is extremely limited. Since they both reduce the possible side effects when using boosters, the demand is high amoung booster users.

So I've removed them from the list until they can be purchased in the future.

In the meantime, back on the plan. I've been knocking off as many short skills as I can to reduce the plan from many entries down to a shorter list of items of multiple days. It feels like faster progress that way. During the day I work on a short skill or two and overnight I am working on Heavy Drone Operation IV and V to get those tech II heavy drones I need for flying Dominixs and Megathrons now.

Meanwhile, over in Derranna-Land I'm over halfway through Cybernetics V for the mining foreman implant.

Skills Versus Classes

One of the most distinguishing features of Eve that sets it apart from many other MMO games is that there are no classes. Much like real life, you have characters and careers that they can pursue but change at any time.

Over on Andrew's World of Warcrat blog Of Teeth and Claws he gets into a debate with Tobold over whether or not the "hybrid" classes of Druid and Paladin are too powerful (or rather too flexible compared to other classes) because they can do any part of the "holy trinity" (i.e. Tank, DPS, Heal) effectively depending on the specification they have chosen. This allows them to access more raids I gather from the posts.

This got me thinking how in Eve players are not restricted to roles except by their own choosing. Depending on the ship you pick and the modules fitted on it, you can fill any roll in Eve's combat (Tank/Tackle, DPS, "Heal") as long as you have the appropriate skills.

Of course, that's the catch: your skills train at a rate that cannot be increased by time invested in game. So a WoW player could grind levels for a short week and have a decently equipped level-capped character while an Eve player skill can't fly a basic Cruiser decently in the same amount of time. The WoW player could conceivably grind multiple characters in different classes up to cap and the Eve player is still considered a horribly inexperienced newb.

Speaking of level cap, the optimal training plan and character attribute distribution means that someone could train all Eve skills in about 4 years. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

No and Yes

No, I did not get on Eve last night like I wanted to.

Yes, I'm pretty annoyed.

Discussion about skills later today.

Nighthawk

Way back on my Playing with the Orca thread where I mused about using the Orca as a mission support platform, my good friend and corp mate Talinthi commented:

thats why you use a command ship for lvl4s not only do they move quicker over those annoying large gaps between warpin and accel gates they also fit into the maint bay of the orca.

Well, I never turned down an excuse to load up EFT and play with ship builds! Let's go!

First off the skills. I would need about 50.5 days of training to get to Command Ships IV, the lion's share being the 27 days for Battlecruisers V. Ewwwwww. But at least its a skill that really comes in handy for Drakes, Brutixs, etc.

Here's the build I put together from first principles for running level four missions.

(Click to enlarge)

The DPS with the five light drones is decent at 450 but still less than either of my mission running battleships (Rokh at 575, CNR at 545), although the heavy missiles would be more effective against cruiser targets than the cruise missiles are. Range is OK at ~73 km.

Tank is impressive, going all passive for 440 broad spectrum damage absorbed at peak regen. Not as strong as the X-Large active tanks on the battleships, but doesn't require cap booster charges to maintain and it has a smaller signature than either larger ship. A bit faster at 175 m/s compared to 118 for the Raven and 111 for the Rokh.

It looks promising overall. Not many missions where I would think a battleship would be a superior choice by default. However, the price tag is higher than even a Rokh .... but you know what? Its still cheaper than the CNR. Maybe this spring I'll look into training command ships after all since it would be a good boon for PvP play as well to have the option.

Wormholes Unveiled

Hot off the presses: Dev Blog On Wormholes

Allow me to point out the extremely exciting parts:

Wormholes will bring us to this new frontier, appearing all over New Eden as a result of a cataclysmic event, the nature of which we'll reveal in the coming months. These wormholes are unstable and will spawn and vanish randomly throughout the known universe. A pilot who stumbles across one of these stellar phenomena can fly through it and travel to unknown space, where there are no stargates or stations, just the unexplored void of a new solar system. And when I say "new solar system" that is exactly what I mean. It will not be moving you to instanced space but rather to one of the thousands of new solar systems we will be adding to the EVE universe.

So new solar systems, not instances. That means new asteroids belts, exploration content, moons.

The wormholes themselves will be open only for a randomly determined amount of time and can only let through a certain amount of mass before they collapse. Pilots should carefully consider the information their ship's computer gives them about a wormhole before committing to travel through it. Although there will always be a way back to known space from wormhole space, you may have to search long and hard to locate it. And in that process, you may find wormholes that lead you to even more unexplored wormhole systems, launching you on a voyage of exploration the likes of which EVE has never seen before.

Not sure if the wormholes will remain stable until the mass limit is reached or collapse semi-randomly regardless. MOAR INFO REQUIRED!

Which begs the question of how you will find the wormholes. Well, we are in the process of revamping the entire scanner mechanic, making it faster and easier to use.

Followed by a bunch of vague descriptions on how the new system will work. Another dev blog required, and testing on SISI.

Why should you fly through these wormholes then? Well in the solar systems on the other side of the wormholes you will find new exploration sites patrolled by a brand new type of NPC. The salvage and loot drops from these NPC's and the exploration site rewards will provide you with the raw materials you will need to reverse engineer the technology that makes construction of the new Tech 3 ship modules possible. There will also be exploration sites with ore-rich asteroid belts just waiting to be found by an adventurous industry corp.

Few items to note here:
- Tech III technology raw materials come from salvage and loot of the new NPCs. Not sure if this includes the materials to build the tech III mods themselves but I would think so.
- Exploration content may only be these hidden belts. The normal "pirate outposts" could be absent altogether or replaced with these Wormhole NPCs

There is also the chance that you could stumble across a route through wormhole space that links two widely separated areas of known space and gives you a lucrative, fast trade route for as long as the wormholes stay open. Or perhaps the route leads into the backyard of your sworn enemy...at which point you may be faced with the question of what ships to send through to maximise the potential of the mass allowance the wormholes possess.

Putting it all together, it might be such that you find a wormhole from Ordat to new space, but that you never get back to Ordat or anywhere else in Sukanan from that new system. If you get left behind in the new system and the wormhole collapses, you might find a new exit that appears in some deep 0.0 space.

Thus, long term operations like setting up a POS could be considered risky. No mention of Ice belts in the new space.

One important point needs to be made: Wormhole space will not be able to be claimed as sovereign space. This is partly due to current implementation restrictions regarding how we added 46% more solar systems to EVE but mainly because we wanted to design an area of space which, while risky to travel through, is open to all players all the time. We have not forgotten about the desirability of space for colonisation, and will be looking at ways to implement that gameplay feature in the future. In fact one of my biggest challenges will be stopping PrismX from adding ten thousand systems now that he's gotten a taste of being a deity in creative mood.

Because of the unpredictability of the wormhole connections, it seems unlikely major alliances can "claim" space in vast swathes like they do in 0.0. There could be potential for a medium sized corp to grab a nice wormhole system and defend it with a permanent presence, mining the 'roids and NPCs for profit and having a pilot always in the system to locate the wormhole out if need be.

Also, note that number 46%. There are over 5200 accessible systems in Eve today; 46% of that is around 2392 new systems. That is the sound of my jaw dropping.

Is The Weekend Over?

I didn't get any chance to log on this weekend due to helping the mother in law move to a new apartment... up three flights of stairs. *Groan*

On Sunday I was able to change skills and get the parts for two more Onyxes in the factories, but nothing besides that.

Sigh.

Hopefully I can get on for a good time tonight.

* * * * *

Our alliance was war decced by our old friends Incarnation of Evil (INCA) for an unknown reason. Could be related to some issues we have had with a small local pirate group, or it could be for something else. INCA seems to be living in Molden Heath region and we've had no dealings with them in a long time, but in the end it doesn't matter. We'll fight and see how it goes.

Failure Cascades

Over at Life In Low Sec Mynxee opens up a discussion about corp drama bombs:

Ahhhh, the Corp Drama Bomb. Spend any amount of time in player corps in New Eden and you're likely to experience a corp explosion that leaves you blinking your eyes and thinking, "WTF happened?!!!" Everything was going great--corpmates liked each other, people worked well together, corp goals were being pursued and achieved, energy and enthusiasm were high. Then something--maybe one event, maybe a series of related events--initiated a failure cascade that tore the corp apart, probably damaging or even destroying relationships among players along with it.

While the discussion revolves more about how Drama Bombs occur and what factors lead into them and the almost inevitable failure cascade that can follow, I decided to review my checked past and look at some corporate / alliance failure cascades I've had the pleasure of participating in myself.

Late 2006 - early 2007 : IPORC / Strife 1.0
My first corp I was part of, the group of us were all fairly young players and tried to dabble in piracy, holding low sec, mercenary work, 0.0 in Syndicate, moon mining, and mission running. Ultimately we just burnt out and fell apart to our own directions.

Mid 2007 : Omen Incorporated & Coreli Syndicate
A group of us old Strife pilots joined back up together and were recruited into Omen Inc. We tried to make a good go of it there but ultimately the CEO was a power hungry jack ass and we left Omen to join another corp in our alliance that looked a lot better, Coreli Syndicate. It was a lot better: more organized, experienced, enthusiastic... but then the leadership broke ranks over course of the corp and essentially spilt down the middle. I might have stuck with one of the halves of the corp except I was well and truly burnt out from corp drama after this and the previous Omen Inc debacle, and I left 0.0 to regroup alone.

Early 2008 : Strife 2.0
I still can't believe this spectacular example of a failure cascade. We were doing so well, gelling, enthusiastic, recruiting good people, having fun time. Then we tried to work with an alliance back in Syndicate. Alliance politics burnt our visionary CEO out, frustrated some pilots eager for other 0.0 experiences, and we never really recovered from the tension even though there was no real drama bombs at the time. We left the annoying alliance and tried to regroup in low sec, but our main leadership either took a break from Eve or went to 0.0 themselves to make ISK and the remainder were quickly scattered in a "hiatus" over the summer that we never recovered from. We are all still friends and a couple have tried to rebuild the corp for Strife 3.0, but I was too scarred from the feeling of abandonment from the last time and having a good time in m3 with its far more grounded leadership and solid plans.

Sin Versus Widow

The discussions with my good friend Lucius over his Redeemer led me back to thinking about my own Black Ops Battleship aspirations. As we were hanging out in Providence improving sec status and wallets with ratting we agreed that the Black Ops ships seemed ideally suited to ninja ratting in dangerous space. With a friend or alt with a Covert Cyno in a Covert Ops ship, movement around an area to avoid hostiles is easy and safe while the ship boasts a decent damage capability.

Currently I am training up for Gallente battleships. While I love my Rokh seven different ways to Sunday, it is expensive to buy and fit out even if you get the full insurance on it. And its not ideally suited to solo work. The Raven and Scorpion are cheaper, but again suffer from being more gang ships, the latter especially so. On the other hand, all three of the Gallente ships have solo capabilities and the Dominix and Megathron are cheaper than the Rokh. I already have tech II rail and armour tanking skills and I'm scheduled for Tech II heavy drones this winter.

But combine the two thoughts (training for Dominix and Black Ops ships) and you come up with the question: Caldari Widow or Gallente Sin?

The Caldari Widow is the tech II Scorpion and like it has ECM bonuses as well as superior missile firepower (and the usual Black Ops trappings like jump drive, cloaking bonus, and jump bridge capability). Defence-wise its not more durable than the Scoprion as it has fewer shield points but a slight resistance boost, and its ECM does not get the bonus to optimal range like a Scorpion does. Furthermore, while its bonus to ECM strength is 20% over the 15% for the Scorpion, how likely are you to train Black Ops V? I'll give you a hint, its a rank 10 skill... that 45 days for my +4 implant character.

But it does have some decent firepower. Five launcher hardpoints with Raven-like bonuses to rate of fire and range, and the usual battleship-minimum-sized drone bay (excepting the Rokh you bastards!) of 75 m3.

The Gallente Sin on the other hand has the exact same bonus as its Tech I couterpart the Dominix, getting a bonus to Large Hybrid guns and Drone damage... but only four turret hardpoints. However, since the main threat from a Dominix-based ship is from the heavy drones and the Sin has a larger drone bay at 400m3 (largest of non-capital ships in the game) this is not a big deal. Like the Widow the Sin has about the same base defenses as the Dominix but has better agility and base speed.

In other words, the Sin is pretty much about the same in effectiveness as a Dominix with the added Black Ops bag of tricks.

So, for the purpose of Ninja 0.0 Ratting with some bouts of gang support PvP for friendly cloaky ships, which would be a better choice for me? Well, let's first answer the question of how I would fit these beasts and then look at a the raw numbers. To EFT!

Keep in mind these are complete off-the-cuff builds without any real thought or effort put in to them besides "oh, that would be nice!".

Widow:


Sin:

(Click to embiggen)

As you can see, the Sin is better suited to ratting due to better tank and damage. Even with the railguns turned off, the Sin gets almost as much DPS as the Widow with missiles and medium drones! On the other hand, in PvP the ECM of the Widow can be far more valuable than the DPS the Sin provides, and if I switch to Cruise missiles the DPS of the missiles and Drones combined is as much as the Cerberus which means its sufficient for ratting. (Side note: notice how I used 6 racials and doubled up on Gallente and Caldari ECM mods? The reasons are discussed here if you missed it.)

But the Sin has that huge drone bay for added flexibiliy. And an extra utility high slot I am sure I can fit a tractor beam on there. But a ratting Widow could drop from ECM mods for a bit more tank and some Ballastics Control Systems. And the Jump Bridge mod could wait in station until PvP rears its head.

As you can see, I'm all over the place with this post.

In the end the pros and cons cancel each other out it comes down to one salient fact: do I want to take the time to train Gallente Battleship V, a 36 day skill? The answer is no. I have too many other things on the go to train that skill for now. And the Widow is soooo pretty.

Besides, who has half a million to plop on a ship right now anyways?

Eve Masterclass - ECM Modules And Math

"That Scorpion can permajam 5 ships!"

"I was permajammed and couldn't fight, nerf Falcons!"

"Multispecs are ok if you don't know what you are fighting."

After the post where I commented on a Rook pilot's poor setup an anonymous commenter said:

Using Multi's is not always a bad idea, especially if you do not know what you will be going into. I usually carry a racial of each type (sometiems 2 caldari) and fill the rest of my slots with racials, for added flexibility. But yeah... he was prolly a noob without full t2 fit.

I figured I should do a quick post on the intricacies of how ECM works and why I think Racial ECM mods are almost always better than Multispec ECM Mods.

First off, let's define everything so we are all on the same page.

ECM, aka Electronic Counter Measures, are a mid slot module you can place on any ship but only certain Caladri ships have a bonus to their performance which is why they are not used elsewhere by experience pilots. When fitted, a pilot can activate an ECM mod against a target and the module then has a chance to "jam" that target which in effect breaks all of its current target locks and prevents any more from being obtained for the duration of the jam which is 20 seconds. Multiple ECM can be targeted at a single ship.

There are five types of ECM modules: one for each of the sensor types of the four factions (Amarr = Radar, Minmatar = Ladar, Caldari = Gravimetric, Gallente = Magnetometric ) called Racial ECM mods, and one called Mutilspec because it has equal strength against all four sensor types. The Racials on the other hand are strong against their respective type and very weak against the other three.

The chance of an ECM module to jam is calculated as thus:

(Strength of ECM mod against target's sensor type) / (Target's Sensor Strength)

For example, a Thorax with a sensor strength of 15 is attacked by a Gallente Racial ECM mod with Magnetometric strength of 11.90577, a Caldari Racial ECM mod with a strength of 3.96859, and a Multispec ECM mod with a strength of 7.93718 all mounted on a Falcon. The odds of each one successfully jamming are:

Gallente Racial: 79.37%
Caldari Racial: 22.05%
Multispec: 44.10%

So one would think that having Multispec mods fitted would be the best option when you don't know what you are going to be jamming, right? Well, not exactly.

Let's look at three cases where a Falcon is trying to jam a Thorax with 6 ECM modules. First case where two Gallente Racials are used and four other racials, second case where six multispecs are used, and a third case where we have one Gallente Racial, three off-Racials, and 2 multis.

Case #1 - 2 On Racial, 4 Off Racial

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	15	79.37%
11.90577	15	79.37%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
		98.76%

See the 98.76% at the bottom? That reflects the chance that at least one of the six modules will achieve a jam against the Thorax. It is calculated as thus:

1 - ((1- (chance of first jam working)) * (1-(chance of second jam working)) * (1-(chance of third jam working)) * ...

In other words, the chance of getting at least one jam is the inverse of the odds of all jams failing. Ok then? On to case number two.

Case #2 - Six Multispecs

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
		98.91%

As you can see, the cumulative result is virtually identical. However, the multispec ECM module has 50km less range and uses 50% more capacitor. When you are a Falcon using range as a defence, being at 100 km from the action opposed to 150 km is a big deal.

Case #3 - 1 On racial, 3 Off racial, 2 Multispec

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	15	79.37%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
		98.18%

Again, virtually the same amount of success as the previous two. So of our three cases, only case one with six racial ECMs gets the lower cap use and awesome range while still maintaining a decent jam percentage. But what about if I only have one On racial and 5 off racials?

Case #4 - 1 On Racial, 5

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	15	79.37%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
		95.56%

Surprise! The cumulative effects are still such that the Thorax is jammed 95% of the time.

* * * * *

Now time to get exotic. What if we are trying to jam two enemy cruisers, one Thorax and one Moa with a sensor strength of Gravimetric 16? Assume we are going with either 6 Multispec or 6 Racials and not a combination, and also assume we have two On Racials for each one (as Gallente and Caldari are very popular, I tend to make sure I have two of those Racials loaded).

Case # 1 - 2 On Racials per ship, 1 Off Racial per ship.

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	15	79.37%
11.90577	15	79.37%
3.96859	15	26.46%
		96.87%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	16	74.41%
11.90577	16	74.41%
3.96859	16	24.80%
		95.08%

As you can see, those cruisers are in trouble. BUT WAIT! What if they are two Thoraxes and you have to split your On racial ECM? Or you only have one Caldari and one Gallente ECM fitted for some reason?

Case #1b - 1 On Racial, 2 Off Racial per ship

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	15	79.37%
3.96859	15	26.46%
3.96859	15	26.46%
		88.84%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	16	74.41%
3.96859	16	24.80%
3.96859	16	24.80%
		85.53%

As you can see, now we're in trouble! No wait, we're not in trouble. The odds of jamming each ship is still above 85%. That's still pretty good odds for jamming them a long time, long enough to reduce them to rubble.

Case #2 - 3 Multispecs per ship

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
		89.56%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	16	49.61%
7.93718	16	49.61%
7.93718	16	49.61%
		87.20%

Ah, not as strong as the 2 On Racial scenario, but slightly better than the 1 On racial each scenario. Not worth it for the loss of range and higher cap use, is it?

* * * * *
One last cruiser scenario. Three enemy cruisers, two Thoraxs and a Moa.

Case #1 - 1 On racial, 1 Off racial per ship.

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	15	79.37%
3.96859	15	26.46%
		84.83%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	16	74.41%
3.96859	16	24.80%
		80.76%

Still sitting pretty at 84% per Thorax and 80% on the Moa (that one extra point of Sensor Strength on the Moa makes a big difference, eh?). And with Multispecs?

Case #2 - 2 Multispecs per ship

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	15	52.91%
7.93718	15	52.91%
		77.83%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	16	49.61%
7.93718	16	49.61%
		74.61%

Now we are seeing serious degradation of the Multispec performance.

So we have seen that Racials perform in most scenarios almost as good or better than Multispec ECMs with the added bonus of 50% bonus to range and cap use. Against cruisers. What about ships with more sensor strength?

* * * * *

Battleships have high sensor strength. Like a Megathron for example with a strength of 21. What are the Chances of jamming it?

Case #1 - 2 On Racials, 4 Off Racials

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	21	56.69%
11.90577	21	56.69%
3.96859	21	18.90%
3.96859	21	18.90%
3.96859	21	18.90%
3.96859	21	18.90%
		91.89%

Still healthy at almost 92%. And Mutlispecs?
Case #2 - 6 Multispecs

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
		94.21%

Just over 94%.

But wait! Another battleship warps in! Its a Raven!

Case #3 - 2 On racials, 1 Off Racial per ship

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	21	56.69%
11.90577	21	56.69%
3.96859	21	18.90%
		84.79%
11.90577	22	54.12%
11.90577	22	54.12%
3.96859	22	18.04%
		82.75%

Ah, what if we have a bad setup day?

Case #2b - 1 On Racial, 2 Off racials

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	21	56.69%
3.96859	21	18.90%
3.96859	21	18.90%
		71.52%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
11.90577	22	54.12%
3.96859	22	18.04%
3.96859	22	18.04%
		69.18%

And with Multispecs?

Case #4 - 3 Multispecs per ship

ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
7.93718	21	37.80%
		75.93%
ECM Strength	Target Sensor Strength	Chance of success
7.93718	22	36.08%
7.93718	22	36.08%
7.93718	22	36.08%
		73.88%

So here we can see Multispecs are starting to look more preferable in the case of multiple high sensor strength targets when off racial to your installed ECM mods, but the difference not very significant. For my money, I prefer the high range and better cap use of the Racial ECM mods.

Side Notes:
- Minmatar ships have the lowest Sensor Strengths, for example the Rupture is 12 compared to 15 for the Thorax, 16 for the Moa, and 14 for the Maller. For this reason, I always tend to double up on Gallente and Caldari ECM mods first.

- There are ECCM modules you can fit to your ship that will almost boost your sensor strength. For Cruisers, this means one of them will get you to battleship-like strengths and might make the difference between life and death against a jammer ship. Two can make a Falcon's life very difficult indeed. On battlecruisers and battleships, it can make them seem un-jammable. Only problem is that they take valuable mid slots on your ship so they tend to be overlooked.

- There are also Remote ECCM projectors so that a support ship can boost friendly ships' sensor strengths by up to 120% at a range of 25-50 kilometers. Again, valuable mid slots required.

- ECM Drones are like little flying Multispec jammers with low strength but are evidence of the power in numbers. The Wasp EC-300 is strength 1, Vespa EC-600 strength 1.5, and Wasp EC-600 is strength 2. Against a Thorax they have a chance to jam of 29%, 41%, and 51% respectively.

- See info about the Caldari jamming ships here.

Um, Maybe Not

So, my friend had a Redeemer BPC (Amarr Black Ops tech II Battleship for the unsure) and asked if I could build it for him, hence why I was quickly training up Amarr Starship Engineering.

I plugged the material requirements into a spreadsheet, and having learned a valuable lesson from the Vulture Debacle, I got the prices for the materials off the market to see what kind of savings my friend could expect.

Price of Redeemers on the market: 510 mil ISK

Cost of parts to build Redeemer: 526 mil ISK

See? Its JUST like the Vultures. Throw in an invention cost for the BPC and the market price is 30-40 million below current build price. The question is why?

I have a hypothesis. I believe that like Vultures, Redeemers do not sell frequently and the current ships on the market were all built prior to the POS Exploit. After all, the lion's share of the Redeemer's build cost comes from advanced moon materials: 149 mil for Fermonic Condensates, 163 mil for Ferrogel, and 76 mil for Hypersynaptic Fibres, total 388 million or 73% of the total.

At pre-Exploit prices? 81, 111, and 48 million to bring the total build price down to 391 million.

Basically, the market correction for the new reality in Advanced Moon Material prices has not propagated to the Redeemer (and Vulture) markets. Fortunately, this will correct itself as the lower priced ships sell (albeit slowly) and with no new ships being produced the remaining supply will rise in price until it becomes profitable to build them again.

E-ON Award Predictions

For my Eve Tribune article this week, I look at the nominees for the various E-ON awards and post my predictions.

Skills Update

I haven't blathered about my skills in a while and since I'm feeling a tad under the weather and work is too busy to go to Jiu Jitsu class, I figured a post was in order.

Historic landmark in skill training today! Kirith is finishing his basic Carrier training with the completion Capital Energy Emission Systems IV. This is the third and final milestone on the carrier training path, with Feb 7, 2007 being the point I announced my intention to train for a carrier and July 18, 2008 marking the point I could actually sit in the ship. Here we are almost two years later and I'm just about done. Phew! To be fair, I had a few side trips in there for tech II rails and blasters, shield mods, overheating, etc, but you get the gist of it: capital ship training is long haul only.

Next step is the Winter Training Plan coupled with a couple weeks of Gallente cross training to get access to the Gallente battleships: Dominix, Megathron, and Hyperion. Especially the Dominix for a cheap PvP battleship platform since the Scorpion is very role specific and Raven too expensive for my goals.

Meanwhile, a friend asked if I could build an Amarr Redeemer Black Ops battlehship and I agreed to it depsite the lack of Amarr Starship Engineering skill. I bought it and I'm working it up to IV this week as a break from the leadership skills I've been beavering on for a while now.

Ratting Cerberus

Here is the Cerberus I snuck into 0.0 before downtime today.

(Click to Embiggen)

I like it a lot for belt work: decent DPS with T1 ammo, fast and agile like a cruiser yet tanks like a battlecruiser, cap stable, decent range. Sometimes if I'm feeling nervous I can fit a cloaking device instead of tractor beam and that allows me to hide when hostiles come into system.

This Here Is A No Fly Zone

Last night I finally got a solid hour to log in and catch up on alliance and corporate happenings. While I was there, fitting out a ship to take to Providence for ratting, some bad guys flew into our constellation with trouble on their minds. The Sukanan defenders quickly rallied and a fleet formed up.

The fleet consisted of some alliance mates and friendlies, and I was unsure of what ship to grab. DPS? Tackle? In the end I settled for the safest choice and picked the Falcon Recon ship: you can always use a bit more ECM on your side. And since the enemy ships were reported as Hurricane, Myrmidon, and Rook (which is the combat/non-cloaking version of the Falcon) I figured it was a good choice.

We formed up on a gate where the bad guys would have to come through to leave the area. While we were still sorting out assignments and ship types, they jumped into our camp and we engaged. The Rook was declared primary and four ships including mine hit it with everything we had; it melted quickly as it does not have the most impressive tank to begin with but since we had not the time to assign pilots to tackle the battlecruisers, they made their escape and scooted out of our territory as quickly as they could.

Nice to get in on an unexpected kill, especially of a Tech II cruiser.

Looking at the kill mail, I have to shake my head. Obviously this is a ship of a rookie ECM pilot: ECM Mulitjammer IIs are not only worse than the best named version (albeit cheaper... but if you're going cheap, do it on a Blackbird for crying out loud), but using racial jammers are preferable in all cases where you have at least four ECM mods. Plus, cap recharger? Unless his skills were complete crap, he should have been more than cap stable without that useless mod. And the one of the Signal Distort Amps was a Tech I version... pathetic. If you're going to fly a Tech II ship, fit Tech II mods. Sigh.

Playing With the Orca

Back to Eve content! Whew! All you Eve pilots probably had your eyes glaze over after that last post, eh? Well, no worries: this blog continues to be 99% Eve related for the foreseeable future.

I know how a carrier's Ship Maintenance Array and Corporate Hanger Array work when you and the carrier pilot are both in the same corporation. But this past weekend I had the question arise in my brain as to how it all works when the two players are in different corporations and not in the same alliance.

It all came about because I ran a level four mission and decided I was going to loot and salvage like a good level four mission runner does for maximum profit. Its been a long time since my Thrasher Destroyer/Salvager has seen action: the Vacuum Cleaner with its 5 Salvager Is and 3 Tractor Beams throwing stuff into its 650 m3 hold was itching to get out there. However I quickly remembered that module sizes had been increased since I last cleaned up after myself in a mission and found myself having to make a couple trips to get all the loot back to base. Kind of annoying really.

So I started to idly think how could I loot and Salvage better. First idea was to use a Badger MKII to do the work but its lack of high slots for salvagers and tractor beams put the kibosh on that idea quickly. But what about Derranna? I could have her fly around behind Kirith in a Mastadon or Prowler picking up the loads in its large bay.

And as the thought thread moved in that direction, a light bulb lit over my head: the Orca! With its large cargo capacity and bonus to tractor beam range (up to 70km), it seemed like an ideal utility ship for mission clean up. I considered several configurations: the Orca alone with tractor and two salvagers seemed too inefficient; three tractor beams bring wrecks to Kirith doing the salvaging beside the Orca seemed to have too much client switching; but having Kirith do all the work and then jettisoning the cargo when 650m3 reached to allow Derranna to tractor in the can seemed to be the best idea.

And at that point I got curious: could Kirith, being in a different corporation from Derranna, use the Hanger and Ship Bay? I had to find out. I got Derranna to fly over to Goram in the Orca and undocked Kirith. Here is what I found out.

1) While not ganged, Kirith could not do anything.

2) While ganged, Kirith could access the Corporate Hanger at least on the first tab by putting stuff in and taking it out. No idea if corporate access rights apply as Derranna is in an NPC corp.

3) While ganged, he could only access the Ship Maintanence Array if Derranna configured her ship to allow fleet members to use it. Then he could change modules, store the ship, and launch a ship.

If only the Orca had a 500,000 m3 ship hanger instead of 400,000m3. Then Kirith could have his salvager in the Orca and once the mission is complete, simply fly to the Orca, get his salvager while storing the Raven. I wouldn't have to fly back to base to do the switch. Alas, it is not meant to be. However, the concept of salvaging with the aid of the Orca definitely seems workable, and its not out of the realm of possibility of storing a combat ship in the Orca in case things get hot for some reason.

After all this thinking, I remember that the Orca is a command ship and can fit Warfare Link modules. I opened EFT and played with the effect of having the Orca as sqaud booster with Shield gang modules installed. By itself the CNR now boasts a 516 DPS tank (as long as cap charges hold out). With Derranna and the Shield Harmonizing and Active Shielding links (more resistances and faster booster respectively), it goes up to 619 DPS tank. That's a significant boost; the only better command ship for the role would be the Vulture since it gives a 3% bonus per level to Shield link modules.

So looks like I have a new skill training plan for Derranna once she's done with Mining Director V and Cybernetics V. Its only 22 days to get Siege Warfare to V and Siege Warfare Specialist and Warfare Link Specialists both to IV (and Warfare Link Specialists helps with the mining modules as well anyways).

Slapped Silly

On Saturday I got together with Andrew and we played once more a game of Twilight Imperium. Here is the custom map we made. Sorry, no pictures; we were wrapped up in the game and no time for luxuries like cameras... or heat.


Although it felt like we booth got into a good start (see image below) Andrew had a bit of good luck in finding a free space dock on a powerful 5 resources world adjacent to Mecatol Rex (see green below) and wisely set up another spacedock and base beside wormhole A. With those two forward based installed, and a wise use of some hostile neutrals to cut off my advance for a turn, I lost a step in the game and he pushed hard to keep me from coming back.

Image 2 - Early turns. I was in the blue base, Andrew in the green.

As we progressed into the mid game it became apparent that despite the equal number of objective points, I was in trouble. As you can see from the third map, the big battles were mostly in my territory and numerous blockades of key systems and my inability to mount small clearing attacks due to his racial ability costing me twice as many command counters to do so meant he was able to build up an impressive lead in resources and logistics.

Image 3 - Key battles.

As we entered the end game I tried several things to come back and secure objectives to win but my empire was crumbling leaving me with few resources to do so. Andrew easily reached our agreed level of twelve and then beyond, securing what can only be described as a major victory in the process. And my first loss in 3 games.

In hindsight, I think it was a combination of Andrew's small bit of fortune on getting that early powerful spacedock base near Mecatol Rex (AND able to build on it due to Production strategy card later on that turn) along with some small misteps on my part on not securing my empire well enough. Plus it always felt like I was short fighters or infantry and constantly scrambling around to get both. Once behind a step I never really caught up.

Despite the crushing loss, it was a damn fun time and I really liked the map layout. It felt like there was good reasons to go multiple directions and use the different wormholes as well as go directly at Mecatol Rex. With a few minor changes, I would definitely replay this map and game again.

Next time Andrew, foul Arch-nemesis, next time! *shakes fist threateningly*