Fighting Spacecraft: Rupture

Enjoy the latest Fighting Spacecraft article over at the Tribune: Rupture.

Character Sale Promo

One of my directors is selling an alt with 31.8 million skillpoints:

Skills

Hulk pilot
freighter pilot
Gallente BS 5, Gallente cruisers 5, Gallente frigates 5
T2 large hybrids and AWU 5
Probing skills
POS gunner
43 skills at level 5

Positive wallet: 1,000 isk
Security status: -1.9 (Can still go into 1.0 space)
No kill rights (for or against)
Character is in 0.7 Amarr space
In NPC corp now
Neural remap status: Available
Implants: full set of +4

This is a steal at the starting price of 6.5 billion, so if you are looking for a handy alt, give it a look see.

Also, Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!

Fiction Friday: Chapter 9

Last installment of 2009. If you are enjoying the series, I'd appreciate a comment to let me know. I think there will be at least two more chapters of this story arc, maybe three or four depending on how the final scenes play out on paper.

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

* * * * *

"How are we possibly going to find him?!"

By this point of reading my story you might think poorly of my intelligence. I had, after all, made quite a few missteps that in hindsight were easily avoidable. But I was young, just out of Common School, and had never experienced much of the cluster beyond our little corner back home and even there I was pretty insulated from a lot of stuff. Naive does not being to describe it. But I wasn't stupid.

"First, check all our documents to see if Rusack put a contact number or address on anything. I don't think he did, but its worth a check," I said.

"He didn't, he kept his fingers out of everything. Well, except the money."

"Still, check. Look for any number that you don't recognize."

"Alright," he said without much hope. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to pay someone a visit."

* * * * *

Rusack had obviously done this type of job before, and it was pretty easy to guess he had used this exact station in Perimeter system before too. He knew the people to talk to, what officials needed palm grease, which to avoid, what work crews could be counted on to do the job and not ask questions. You don't get to know that much without being around a lot. Hell, I would say you had to live in a station to get that much traction. Hotel rooms, even the seediest long term suites, were expensive in Perimeter but a small apartment could be affordable to a successful "businessman" like Rusack.

I made my way to the main concourse deck and employed a public terminal to browse through the list of residents looking for Rusack or some spelling thereof. I didn't find any but I didn't really expect to as I figured he would be a fool to use his own name to rent an apartment. I then entered my station warehouse renter access code and brought up the Goods Inspection report so I could note down the name of the crooked inspector Rusack had bribed. "Jacob Sintol," I muttered to myself.

I flipped back to the resident directory and searched for his name. A hit came up: "Sintol, J - Deck 20, Apt 197". I logged off the terminal and made my way towards the residential lifts, pondering my next step.

Caldari stations are typically set out so that the main concourses and corporation offices are on what is referred to as Deck 0, or the Ground Floor. Depending on the size of the station, decks 1 through 10 are commercial districts with the exclusivity and quality of the businesses slowly degrading as you rise through the levels, with local residential groceries, restaurants, and other businesses existing on the upper commercial decks. Living quarters for long term inhabitants start on deck 10 and, just like the commercial decks, their quality and size decrease the higher you go.

Deck 20 was still pretty low on the grand scale of things for this station. Things didn't get dicey until around deck 50 so it looked like Inspector Sintol had been doing very well for himself, especially in a well populated and busy system like Perimeter.

As I got off the lift on deck 20 and followed the signs towards apartment 197, I considered how to get in the door and what to do after that. I passed numerous doors and a few people out and about until finally coming to my destination where I pushed the buzzer and tried to look relaxed.

"Yes?" a voice queried through a concealed speaker.

"Inspector Sintol? It's me, Kirith Kodachi. You inspected our 'frozen vegetables' yesterday?"

"And?" he asked suspiciously.

"Everything is fine," I assured him in my breeziest tone. "Rusack asked me to hand deliver some information on another, er, 'inspection opportunity' that came up suddenly. He would have come himself but he needed to shuttle down to the planet to firm up details." He didn't respond right away so I played my trump card. "He knows it is very short notice so I sent along a bonus fee to cover any inconvenience for you."

The door beeped and opened up a crack. I put on my best smile and held up my debit card which had a grand total of ten credits and change on it but he couldn't tell that from there. As I hoped, he greed overcame his caution and he opened the door all the way.

"Come on in."

I strode past the entryway and waited while he closed the door behind me, surveying the apartment for signs of other people. It was a modest apartment so unless he had a wife or child in a bedroom or washroom, I figured we were alone. Judging by the single armchair in front of the vid screen, I figured I was right.

The door closed and I grabbed his lapels and slammed him against the wall. I wasn't a big guy; average height, average build. Sintol had a few inches on me and a lot of pounds, but it was all mush and I was young and in decent shape.

"Where's Rusack?"

The inspector sputtered in indignation and tried to remove my hands from his shirt. I pulled him forward a bit and then slammed him harder against the wall so that his head smacked a little, taking out my rage and frustration. I think it showed on my face because his face changed from surprise to fear and confusion. "I... I... I..." he stuttered.

"Rusack has my money! Where is he?"

"I... I don't know!" he finally got out. I slammed him again, driving my knuckles into his collarbone a bit more. He cried out in pain, "Please stop!"

"Tell me where to find Rusack. Stop wasting my time! A number, an address, something! NOW!"

"Please, I don't know..."

"BULLSHIT!" I slammed him harder yet again against the wall and he put his hand to the back of his head. "Stop protecting him and start thinking about yourself, you lying piece of shit! I'm out millions of ISK, broke, and very very angry. If I can't find Rusack, I'm going to take it out on you."

I had never really hurt anyone before, my sole fist fight in school being a couple of wild punches before we wrestled to the ground and punched each other in the side of the head. I don't think I would have gone much farther than pushing the old man around and making lots of noise, I was already startled by my last shove and felt a little bad for hurting him. My how things have changed.

"I don't know where he is!" he pleaded. "But I think know where he lives!"

"WHERE?"

"Deck 81! I went there a couple years ago to pick up some stuff from him!"

"What apartment?"

"I think.. 23?" I tightened my grip and clenched my jaw. "Yes! Definitely 23!"

A measure of relief washed over me. It wasn't a solid lead, but it was better than nothing. At the very least it might give me a pseudonym to track down. I threw the other man to the side and he stumbled onto his knees on the floor.

"Good, I don't need to scrape my knuckles." I walked over and roughly helped him up by the back of his collar. "Now let's find something to tie you up with so you don't go calling Rusack before I can see him."

Bad Day For Triple A

I logged in last night with the intention of doing some ratting with Kla'strit to continue to improve his sec status and was surprised to see this message flash in the intel channel:

"CARRIER TACKLED IN HED ON KEB GATE NEED DPS"

I hesitated. I was on the laptop with no voice comms, and the overview setups were not perfect like on my gaming PC. Should I stay back? Should I rush in?

Well of course I rush in! Who wants to read a blog post about how I didn't go try and kill a carrier?

So I logged into Kirith, spent half a second picking a ship before deciding that the new Manticore Stealth Bomber in my hanger would bring lots of DPS while being a cheap loss should things go sour. Fortunately it was already setup with everything but a name last week so I was able to jump in, load more torps in the cargo bay, and undock the good ship Kirith Kodachi's Manticore.

Since I was off voice comms and flying off the cuff so to speak, I didn't try to join a fleet. I made best speed with a lot of other blues to HED, was relieved to see the in-gate clear, and warped to a safespot cloaked 200 km off the Keberz gate to make sure I wasn't warping into a deathtrap. I'm foolhardy, not foolish. The situation was as advertised: a Nidhoggur carrier was indeed tackled on this gate... with two other carriers, a pair of Archons.

Yee-ha.

I warped in, locked up the primary, and unloaded the torps while putting remote sensor dampeners on one of the other carriers in an attempt to disrupt the remote repping. No bomb launches though; too many friendlies in the cross-hairs.

The adhoc fleet poured firepower into the Nidhoggur and slowly its armour began to fall faster than it could repair. Enemy bombers warped in and dropped bombs on our fleet and I weaved and wove my way between them, warping out once to avoid testing the effects of a bomb on a bomber. Finally the Nidhoggur carrier fell into structure and soon after exploded in a flash of light.

The fleet turned its firepower to the first of the Archons while attempting the jam the second but it opted for self destruction rather than give us an official killmail, and by all reports the second Archon did the same. Kudos to the fleet commander for relaying his commands to HED local chat so us pile-on-ers could see what primary was while not being on voice comms. Much appreciated.

I left after that, not wanting to sour my first capital kill with a reckless loss, and once back in base I gave my newly blooded Manticore a worthy name: Nidhoggur's Bane.

EDIT: According to Scrapheap Challenge, "[t]hey were drunk and suicided into you. They insured their ships before, so good job killing them, I think that was the point". Also, "[t]he carriers are all one guy, and yes, he was 99% likely drunk, 100% likely insured, and more than 100% couldn't give a crap about losing a couple of carriers :p". How rich do you have to be to make losing three carriers OK? Don't answer that, I don't want to actually know.

* * * * *
Along with the carrier deaths I participated in, my CEO and another corpmate participated in an eariler fleet that took down a -A- Chimera carrier in HED. While I'm sure a powerhouse like Against All Authorities can shrug off those losses its still a bad day for those pilots. I'd love to be a fly on the inside of their forums right now to see the reaction of the losses.

* * * * *
A final footnote.

While I was wrapping up my ratting efforts with Kla'strit after all the action died down, a neutral in a Wolf assault frigate warped into the belt I was in. A first I ignored it since it was not red, but then I considered the possibility it might be hostile so I aligned to station.

My Typhoon was not a big loss should anything go wrong so instead of warping right away I gave him a chance to see what he would do. Better to find out if this neutral is a hostile with my shit ship than someone else's nice Tech 2 ship. Sure enough, he locked me and put a warp disruptor on me.

I figured I could not kill his frigate in a ship with battleship weapons and my light drones would probably be insufficient to kill him fast enough before they were targeted and killed. I considered calling for assistance but I was worried about calling in more ships into a possible trap. Instead I opted for the emergency flight of Hornet EC-300 drones and spammed the warp button while they did their job. Sure enough, after a few seconds my opponent lost his lock and I sped away to safety.

I reported the hostile action in the intel channels and his alliance will be getting a nasty-gram from CVA about being put in the KOS list.

Swamped

I haven't been playing Eve a lot due to being absolutely swamped at home with Christmas coming up. Plus, my work shuts down between Christmas and New Years so I won't have much time for blogging. Its easy to find 10-20 minutes to write something down at work, its much harder at home where the twins and wife demand attention at all times. Still, I'll try in the evenings to get some posts out.

I will be writing my next chapter for the Fiction Friday on Thursday but none the week after. I'll try to leave it on a cliffhanger for you. I'm also writing a new Fighting Spacecraft article for the Eve Tribune this week for next week's issue.

Define "Too Many"

As Derranna works on her combat training, it might occur to the reader of this humble blog that I am indeed insane.

"Why, in god's name, do you need three combat characters?"

To be fair, Kla'strit came to me via serendipity and not design but that still leaves the fact that I have a well trained combat main (Kirith) and now I'm training up a second combat character (Derranna). It seems nonsensical but I have reasons.

1) I want to experience Minmatar ships with tech II projectiles, but I don't want to take time from my main's training plans to train either.

2) Derranna is pretty much hit the limit of industrial activities I'm interested in. I mean, she can build every Caldari ship including Tech III, she can invent, reverse engineering, etc. I don't want to train mining skills again (I did  it on an  alt once... waste of my time) so I figure it combat skills or nothing.

3) Having two combat characters gives me options in terms of how to approach various situations. I.e. missions can be done with one battleship and one logistics or two battleships. In PvP I can tag team a couple force recons, or I can send in Derranna when Kirith has jump cloned to empire.

4) Supercap pilot options. I.e. if I ever get my Wyvern I can put Kirith into it and use Derranna for my day to day tasks.

5) At the end of the day, Derranna is expendable.

What I mean by that last one is that while I'll never sell Kirith, I'm not opposed to sending Derranna into slavery for huge gobs of ISK. And one way to increase her value is to expand her repertoire of abilities into combat skills, because no one cares much for a character with esoteric industrial skills out the ying yang but a character with solid industrial skills AND awesome combat skills? Very valuable.

I have no plans today to sell Derranna as I have no great need for more ISK. But the thought is always there at the back of my mind.

Dread Pirate Roberts: Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.

Impressive

A month ago I talked about how I was starting to repair the security status of Kla'strit in my free time. And then a couple weeks ago I talked about the ratting ship I decided to use, the Typhoon.

Well, its been going slowly but considering the time effort I am not displeased. He started at -6.30 and is currently at -5.46. The ultimately goal is to get back to below -2.0 so that he can travel anywhere, but right now I would be happy with -3.99 so I can have him run missions for Republic Fleet out of Gulfonodi and adjacent systems in Molden Heath region. Why missions instead of ratting? Well, I could upgrade him to a full tech II fit Maelstrom in high sec missions and get more familiar with artillery and autocannons without having to constantly watch local for hostiles.

Speaking of ratting, the Typhoon has been very impressive in ratting. The five launchers and 3 artillery often provide more than enough DPS to take out a couple battleship rats and the Ogre IIs are merely icing to speed things along. The tank has been sufficient so far and cap stable enough that I don't feel opposed to running it constantly against tougher rats. What more can you ask for in null sec ratting?

Fiction Friday: Chapter 8

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

* * * * *

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"Well," replied Korannon, "I think we should have asked for half up front while we still had possession of the ATVs. I mean, what if he..."

I waved dismissively. "No, no, no, Rusack won't fuck us over. I mean, he's a friend of Jamil." Jamil was an acquaintance back home.

"How well does Jamil know Rusack?" my brother asked, playing the devil's advocate all of a sudden. I was tired and my head was starting to ache and his sudden doubt made my blood pressure rise. "Look," I said a little harsher than I intended, "its too late now to act like a Gallente. Its done. For better or worse." I sat back in my chair again. "Let it go."

He was tired and aggravated too but rather than fight with me again he got up in a huff, mutter something about going to our apartment to shower, and left. I was left stewing and the doubts raised by Korannon brought back the memories from last week of when we met the man, and Barak Vorn's warning: "he's got a rep for being... slippery."

My good feeling from earlier was totally gone and I took out my comm unit and pulled up Rusack's name. It buzzed and buzzed but no answer. I tried again with no success. I didn't have Blodel's address so I went to the terminal and brought up the station directory but didn't know the exact name of Rusack's shell company or Blodel's corporation. I fretted over whether or not I was worrying for nothing (Rusack's probably just really busy), I checked our account (still empty), and then called my brother.

"What?"

"OK, I got a bad feeling now too," I admitted. "I tried to call Rusack but he's not answering. I want to call Blodel to see what's happening but I don't know his corp name."

Korannon swore. "Look it up on the transfer forms we signed, the intra-station shipping manifest will have the destination warehouse contact info on it." Damn, I thought, I knew that. "I'm coming back," he said as he disconnected.

I brought up the forms on the terminal and sure enough there was Blodel's corp name and contact info. "Starlight Adventures," it read, "3322-7738." I punched in the number into the terminal hoping for some visual contact. The screen beeped and Derranna, Blodel's 'assistant', appeared on the screen.

"Hello Kirith," she said with a mild look of surprise on her face. "How are you?"

I didn't have time for smalltalk. "Hi Derranna, is Rusack there?" Behind me I heard Korannon enter and walk over to stand behind me.

"No, he left an hour ago after we paid him." Her face became concerned as she started to sense the tension on this side of the connection. "Why, is there a problem?"

"You paid him already?" my brother asked over my shoulder.

"Yes, 12.6 million ISK."

We heard a male voice ask Derranna a question from off screen. She turned and spoke to the questioner, "Its the brothers, they want to know where Rusack is." Blodel walked on screen and waved Derranna out of the console chair so he could sit down and see us. He didn't waste time with preamble.

"Boys, if you're looking for Rusack now, you're already screwed."

"What do you mean?" I asked through clenched teeth. I heard Korannon groan behind me.

"I mean, you idiots didn't secure collateral with a known criminal. Have you never done business before?" he asked mockingly.

Korannon spoke up behind me, "This office and the transfer fees cost all the money we had! We're broke now!"

"Not my problem boys. My advice is take this as a life lesson and go home." Behind him I could see Derranna's face was sad for us but she nodded in agreement with her boss. Blodel terminated the connection and when I angrily attempted to reconnect the terminal spit out a "blocked" message. I slammed my hand on the keyboard and the terminal let out a forlorn beep.

I turned my chair back to Korannon and his face was ashen. "What are we going to do, Kir? We don't even have enough cash to get home? What are we going to tell Father?" The thought of facing our father in disgrace filled both of us with dread.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to find that motherfucker and get our money."
 

Overshot

Last night Havegooda, author of the Low Sec Roamer blog, and myself met for a duel in Rens. The agreed upon conditions were tech 1 frigates and no ECM.

In the preparation for the duel I went over the frigates available to me and tried to pick a contender. A quick investigation showed Havegooda was capable of flying Rifters so I speculated I would most likely face one such ship in our duel, so I wondered what would be best to counteract it or something like it. My own Rifter? With no tech II projectile skills (yet) that seemed unlikely to be able to compete. Merlin? Nice big tank but the split weapon system and bonus for only two turrets makes it poor for 1 versus 1 work (CCP, add turret to Merlin, m'kay?).

I considered the Incursus and Tristan as I have Gallente Frigate V and excellent drone and blaster skills, but I was leery of doing a knife fight with an accomplished Rifter pilot. Frigates are not my strong point; I like ships with big asses and big guns.

I decided to gamble and go a different route. Not many frigates are capable of fighting at range but the Kestrel is one of them. I was going to equip it with light missiles and MWD and try to kill him far from his engagement range.


Wait, that setup is slightly wrong: I had two Small Aux Thrusters rigs to put my speed over 2700 m/sec. Oh well, I'm too lazy to fix the image.

Anyways, we met in Rens, I saw he was in Rifter as expected, and we warped to planet 1 to exchange ammo cans for agression, and warped to planet 20 twenty kilometers apart. I immediately moved to my range and it quickly became apparent that his afterburner Rifter would never catch me and my DPS was easily absorbed by his tank. I thought about just waiting until his cap finally gave out (if ever) but instead we called it a stalemate and we docked up to repair overheating damage and tweak the setups.

I knew I was probably done for; he had my measure and would probably catch me in the rematch so I swapped out the shield booster for a tracking disruptor in hopes it would keep me alive.

We warped directly to planet 2 as we still had aggression to each other and I tried to move away again. Sure enough he flew towards me at full speed and my heart sunk as I saw his velocity climb to over 3000 m/sec, more than enough to catch me fast. I tried to overheat my MWD for more time but it suddenly winked off as he got his warp scrambler on me. He first salvo hit and my shields evaporated and I knew the end was near. I spammed the MWD in hopes of some miracle and.... it activated?

Did he run out of cap for his scrambler? I haven't been hit again, is the tracking disruptor that powerful? Nope, neither was true. He simply flew out of range.

In the discussion afterward he told me he overshot me with his MWD on and before he could switch to afterburner and by the time he turned around I had opened up the range again and my missiles plowed into him in a flurry of pain. He didn't get a chance to activate the repper soon enough and his Rifter exploded to my dropped jaw of surprise.

I've seen overshooting a target happen before, hell I've done it myself in an interceptor. This time it proved fatal as my light missiles needed only a short amount of time to catch up to him as he turned around. A good fight and a narrow victory for me.

The Vultures Are Circling

I've been training leadership skill lately not only so I can be a good sqaud / wing booster when in a position of command but also so I can fit out a nice Vulture Command Ship. My requirements for the warfare links are done and I can now fly my latest addition to the fleet, Rearguard:


On paper it doesn't look too intimidating: anemic DPS, decent passive tank due to resistances, rather unremarkable. But let's see what it does to the

average ship of the line battleship. Here is a Megathron sniper's stats before and after applying the squad commander from the Rearguard:






From my skills, there are more shield and armour hitpoints, better agility, and longer targeting range. From the Rearguard's warfare link modules there are better resistances and lower signature radius. The end result is a ship that can absorb much more damage and get out slightly faster. With a Siege Warfare Mindlink implant I could get even better resistances and more shield points for ships underneath my command level.

A shield tanking ship like a Rokh benefits even more as its natural resistances are augmented even more by the Command ship.

Skill Training Philosophy

Last night I was bored watching TV with the wife and I decided to compare Derranna's progress as a newly budding combat pilot with Kirith who has been training combat skills practically for three years. For those new to this blog, Derranna is my industrial alt created a month after Kirith back in '06 but up until this year has been focused on non-combat skills. I ran out of industrial things I wanted to bother to train and decided to make her more combative.


I quickly noticed that in some areas she was up to or almost up to specs, like in Navigation and Engineering, but in others she had a long way to go like Gunnery and Drones.

Then I decided to throw Kla'strit on the chart since he has roughly the same skill points as Kirith but is all combat skill trained in Minmatar. The results were a little surprising; see the chart here.

Surprises:
- Kla'strit has over 3 million more skill points in Gunnery yet is only specc'd for Projectiles. He's trained a lot of support skills and specialization skills to V whereas Kirith remained at IV.
- Kla has more skill points in Leadership despite only having Skirmish Warfare Specialist skill and not the other. Of course, he trained that to V.
- Kla has 78 fewer skills than Kirith but over half his skills are at level V whereas both Kirith and Derranna have only a quarter and a third respectively of their skills at level V.

Basically, what I see here is that even though Kirith and Derranna are mainly purposed for different things (combat versus industrial) the skill training philosophy I employ makes them look very similar at the high scale while the two combat characters look quite differently, mine reflecting my desire to train as broadly as possible while Kla'strit reflecting the desire to focus intently.

I don't expect this to change in the future.

Schwing!

Holiday Gift from CCP!

As bitter cold descends upon our global offices, the EVE development crew has managed to thaw out it‘s frozen asteroid heart and give a little something back to you. Our team has been secretly planning and wrapping a holiday gift for pod pilots the universe over—the Zephyr.

The Zephyr is a unique starship design, relying almost entirely on solar winds for sublight propulsion. Super-light sails allow it to ride the torrents of photons streaming through space, and its barebones construction gives it a tiny sensor footprint and almost negligible mass. Originally conceived by the ascetic Intaki polymath Valsas en Dilat as a demonstration of minimalist starship design, it was never intended as a commercial venture. The recent discovery of the uncharted Sleeper Territories and their myriad wormholes has brought the Zephyr new attention - its mass makes it an ideal exploration vessel. Valsas remains adamant that the Zephyr never sees mass production, but at the close of YC111 he authorized the Intaki Syndicate to distribute a single hull, paired to a specialized Prototype Iris Probe Launcher, to every registered capsuleer.

 Sweet! Can't wait to try it out. :)

Damn You Accessible And Well Populated Null Sec Region!

I had a few minutes last night and I was hatching a plan. I wanted to make money.

Not because I need more ISK as I am well stocked with ships and equipment and have no pressing needs for anything besides the unaffordable Wyvern (which I do not have patience nor nerves to work towards) bit because I thought a non-combat task to do in quiet times when I don't have voice comms would be interesting.

I decided to try importing goods from high sec into Providence, theorizing that buying low in a hub and selling high in null sec was a "cannot lose" proposition. As I opened up two clients and compared prices of items I was in for quite a shock. Yes, there was profit to be made, but a lot of items were cheaper in Providence than they were in high sec. Some items actually were cheaper in high sec and a couple even showed promise of profit around 50-60 million per trip (minus fuel costs) but that required an outlay of almost a billion ISK and I was hoping for something in the hundreds of millions profit for my efforts.

I'm going to keeping looking at some more item but right now in station trading looks easier and just as profitable for the time required.

Why are prices in Providence so competitive with those in Domain high sec? I figure there are a couple reasons, the first being that Providence is easily accessible to high sec through a couple pipes and easy jump freighter access. The second is the large population, both holders and neutrals, which gives incentive for importers to run the risks and bring things in as well as allowing normal pilots to just sell regular surplus items.

Ships of the Line

Ship of the line
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



HMS Victory in 1884, the only surviving example of a ship-of-the-line

A ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century, to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear. Since these engagements were almost invariably won by the heaviest ships carrying the most powerful guns, the natural progression was to build sailing vessels that were the largest and most powerful of their time.

From the end of the 1840s, the introduction of steam power brought less dependence on the wind in battle and led to the construction of screw-driven but wooden-hulled ships-of-the-line; a number of pure sail-driven ships were converted to this propulsion mechanism. However, the introduction of the ironclad frigate in about 1859 led swiftly to the decline of the steam-assisted ships-of-the-line, though the ironclad warship became the ancestor of the twentieth-century battleship, whose very designation is itself a contraction of the phrase "line-of-battle ship."

In Eve parlance, a ship of the line refers to Fleet sniper battleships capable of firing long range Tech II weapons beyond 150 km. But why?

That's a question that comes up sometimes from new players moving from Empire and into null sec. Why are Ravens not welcome? They have range and DPS. Why not short ranged battleships with incredible tanks and DPS? They are everywhere in low sec. Why not HACs? Faster and great range. Why Tech II weapons? I can get enough range with best named gear and don't need to spend a couple months on Large Hybrid/Projectile/Energy Turret V.

Well, I'll tell you why. Battleships represent the best combination of defense, damage, range, and affordability.

Heavy Assault Cruisers are expensive since their insurance will not cover more than a tiny fraction of their cost, and battleships tank better and do more DPS in general.

Short ranged battleships survive in low sec because the small numbers in the typical engagements  means long range ships will never generate the DPS to take them down before they escape, while the lack of warp disruption bubbles and sentry gun fire to negate interceptors means it hard to pin an enemy fleet down anyways. Also, long range ships can use short range ammo to fight in close making them flexible; short range battleships are simply out of luck at long ranges.

Ravens and other missile ships suffer from the delayed reaction of missiles due to their flight time. By the time the salvos arrive the target is usually dead and a new primary selected.

Tech II Weapons

Tech II turret weapons are not just about the extra damage you get from having the specialization skill. Its also about the ability to use the Tech II ammo. In a recent discussion a pilot pointed out that his DPS in his Rokh was estimated only 33% less for the same range, which in a fleet battle should be noise, so why bother with the 60 days of training for Tech II weapons if there is more important training to do?

Veteran pilots pointed out that most Fleet Commanders would not accept a tech 1 sniping battleship to fleet so by not doing the training he would be indirectly be putting more pressure on other pilots to step up with correct battleship fittings. I then attempted to point out why Tech II weapons are more than just a bit more DPS.

Example 1:
A Megathron with my skills using 425mm Prototype Gauss rail guns and Caldari Navy Iron Large charges, supported by a Tracking Computer II with Optimal Range Script, Tracking Enhancer II, and two Magnetic Field Stabilizer IIs
= 192 DPS @ 150 km optimal and 37 km falloff

A Megathron with my skills using 425mm II rail guns and Spike Large charges, supported by a Tracking Computer II with Optimal Range Script and two Magnetic Field Stabilizer IIs
= 288 DPS @ 149 km optimal and 37 km falloff


So not only do you sport 100 points more damage per second but it required one less module to do so. A spot that can be used for more tanking or more damage.


Example 2:

On a Rokh with the range bonus, you can use Caldari Navy Tungsten Large and get up to 150 km optimal without any range increasing mods, so the advantage of Tech II weapons is not as obvious, but Spike ammo gets higher DPS at ranges approaching 200 km giving you more tactical flexibility and effective DPS than best named weapons; why fight in falloff if you don't have to?


At the end of the day, Tech II weapons is better all around for ships of the line, and the training has never been considered wasted.

Procrastination

Last Christmas my sister got me a G15 keyboard that I was asking for. I mostly wanted it for the LCD display but the programmable keys (seen on the left hand side) were attractive too. I had visions of macro-ing commands like "Drones Attack" and "Drones Return" and "F1 to F8". This was the time before weapon grouping you see, and eight weapons on the Rokh got a little monotonous at times.

The LCD worked perfectly and soon I was seeing who was talking on teamspeak while in game which is extremely useful for putting names to voices, especially in large fleets and someone is going "warp to me, warp to me!".

But I could never get the macro keys to work in game. They were setup right according to the instructions but in game there was never any success. I swore I would try again but procrastination combined with always being busy meant I gave up and moved on. After all, weapon grouping came in Apocrypha and solved my biggest bugbear anyways.

Then last week I was listening to Song Li sing praises about his G13 gaming keypad on his Missions Collide podcast and how the macro keys made life easier for him and I got to thinking how I am wasting half my keyboard's functionality by not solving that issue.

So this past weekend I actually had some free time to mess with the software and try to figure out why the macro keys refused to work in Eve. Eventually I remembered I was cursed with Windows Vista (came with the computer, only option at the time, and I was too impatient to try and install my own OS as I wanted to play Eve RIGHT AWAY) and to make key strokes while playing Eve get picked up by Teamspeak and Ventrillo I have to run the programs in admin mode because I run Eve in admin mode for auto-patch reasons and other difficulties. Once I changed the macro program to run as admin as well, the two programs could share keystrokes and I was off to the races.

Let me tell you, I wish I had not waited so long! Not only do the drone commands work brilliantly, I have also tied my first four midslot activations to macro keys so I don't need to tie them to high spots for the F1-F8 keys. On top of that, the six programmable keys have three memory sets so I can have 18 programmed macros. I tied the second set of six to toggling overheat on and off on the first three high spots and first three mid spots... because trying to get the little green button in the heat of combat is insane BTW. So far in my testing in non-PvP activities the macro keys are great.

So, if you are a gamer and looking for something to make your experience more enjoyable, I highly recommend a gaming keyboard from Logitech.

Celebrity Spotting

Dillon Arklight of Podded podcast was flying through local in a UK frig gang. We didn't catch them.
Carry on.

Fiction Friday: Chapter 7

Previously:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6


* * * * *


With the Port Authority clearance we could now arrange to have the containers shipped to yet another warehouse, this one adjacent to the planetary shuttle transport bay so that they could be shipped down to the surface. I started rummaging through the printouts on the desk for the contact information of the station crew to arrange the move while wondering where my brother was. as if summoned by my thoughts, the door opened and he strode in.


"Hey Kor, look, I"m sorry about what I said," I got out before he could say anything. "I was tired and exhausted and didn't mean it."


"Yeah sure," he replied sullenly. "Forget about it." I could tell by his expression that he felt the exact opposite of his words.


"We'll get that bastard after all this shit is done. We'll put in one of those anonymous calls to the police or something, you know? We'll fix it. Just... later."


He nodded his head with its unshaven face and tired eyes. I resolved to take this up later when we were both more rested. I decided to get his mind off it with some work.


"Ok, we got work to do. Port Authority was by and cleared the stuff."


"No problems?" he asked, perking up a bit. Business was like a stimulant to him, I wonder why Father never liked him; they had so much in common.


"No, not really besides the guy being a jerk about it." I relayed the story of the inspector with as much forced joviality as I could muster in an effort to lighten the mood and it seemed to work, or at least he decided to go along with it. We had a chuckle at my expense and got back to work. Korannon easily located the contact information for the work crew (it was in the terminal and not on a printout) and made all the arrangements with ease, 1500 units to one hanger for Blodel and the other 1000 to another hanger for smaller dealers to pick up from.


After all was in motion I contacted Rusack to tell him the news. "That's great, guys!" he effused. "I get the ISK once the transfer to their hangers is complete and I'll send you your share right after that." We signed off and I sat down tiredly but kind of happy once more. It was going to work out, I thought.


The work crews were not scheduled to arrive for a couple hours so we left and went back up to our quarters to take showers and a rest. I set my alarm to force me awake and we pulled ourselves together with clean clothes and cups of coffee, and then made our way back to our warehouse hanger. Back at the hanger we met the work crew, signed the release forms, and watched them work over the next couple of hours.

Once the last container was removed and the work crew signed off, we retired back to the office to sit down and await our payout. While we waiting Korannon had a far off thinking look on his face. I waited for him to say something as I recognized that look and I knew prompting him would not speed up the process any faster. After a minute he looked right at me and said something that chilled my soul.


"Maybe we should have asked for half the ISK up front before signing everything away."

Red Door Painted Black

(Image from MissMayraQ and used under Creative Commons license)

The image is apropos of nothing in the post except the Rolling Stones Paint It Black was in my head last night as went warped into battle. It was an exciting night and I'm going to tell you why.

I logged in and immediately word was up about a fleet gathering. It was looking for short ranged remote rep battleships and I, loving battleships, immediately signed up even though my time frame was limited. I hopped into my Armageddon Memories of Mynxee and warped to the rally point.

As the fleet was getting ready however, report came in of an incoming Goonswarm fleet: about 29 Drakes and various smaller ships putting their numbers around 70-80.

The ProviBlob sprung into action as the Goons approached the region capital of 9UY. The order went out to reship to mid range battleships and I quickly docked up and entered one of my new Megathrons, Vae Victus:


I rejoined the fleet and a short while later we moved out as reports of Goons messing up locals in 9UY continued to come in. It sounded like they wanted a fight, and we were going to give it to them.

The next thirty minutes in 9UY were a series of hectic close ranged engagements, mostly with us trying to bubble and engage them but a few times they attempted to turn the tables on us with a series of bomb strikes, at one point a number of bombs stripped my shields and most of my armour; thank god for Damage Controls and Logistics.

Every warp was fraught with danger and shouted commands over voice comms:

"Align planet 2! Align align! Align planet 2"

"Drakes on station. I have warp in."

"XXXX is primary, YYYY secondary. Now YYYY is secondary, get him guys!"

"Enemy is 100 klicks off planet 1. I have a warp in."

"Bubble bubble bubble bubble! NOW KILL THEM! DAMMIT!"

"I'm right in the middle of them, warp to me now, warp now... ah crap. I'm dead."

"I need a scout, anyone got a covert ops?"

"ZZZZ in Nighthawk primary, get ZZZZ!"

"BOMBS!"

Most of the fighting occurred at ranges within 20 km and I foolishly forgot to load Anitmatter into my cargohold so I was gimped with long range Spike ammo with an optimal of 137 km all battle. Oh well, we had lots of firepower and I didn't have to worry about switching ammo for the one or two times the enemy was at 80 km. Lesson learned.

In the end we outnumbered and outgunned them over two to one and we killed 25 and lost 8 (the killboard says 27 to 6 but two Tempests that died were with us but got on the wrong side of the killboard due to "friendly fire"). I got in on 12 enemy killmails which was awesome and one friendly killmail which is not so awesome but allow me to explain.

The friendly Tempest, Belamont, was in my battleship squad. After one exchange of fire we were at the gate and I had him targeted for remote repping as his armour was down. The enemy Drakes warped in and I targeted one of them and activate my weapons but forgot to change which target I had selected. I realized my mistake immediately and deactivated my guns after one salvo fired. I then used my remote repper to repair the damage I caused and he was almost back at full armour anyways.

The bombers that killed him happened later, but there is no timestamp on the killmail to indicate that. Oh well.

That battle puts me at 17 kills for the month and we're not even halfway through it. Too bad I can't start stockpiling kills for January.

Hit You Like A Typhoon

I don't like ratting in Battlecruisers. It feels too slow and too... fragile. I like to rat in big honking battleships.

I've been working on Kla'strit's security status using a cheap Cyclone setup and while it works it feels to much like work. I want a more relaxing ratting experience.

I looked over contracts in Providence for Typhoons and found one on auction starting at 50 million that included three Large Capacitor Control Circuit rigs. Rationalizing that the ship alone was worth 50 mil, I placed a bid and was quite pleased a week later when I won it.

Last night I shuttled over to 9UY where it was located and bought modules and ammo to outfit it. I went with what I know about ratting: missiles and shield tank, with lots of PDS modules for perma-running Afterburner and shield booster. The end result:

If you're thinking "Oh My GOD!" in disbelief, I don't blame you. But it should be more than capable of getting the job done. If the missiles and drones prove to be sufficient, I'll swap out the artillery for some salvagers and tractor beams but really I'm most interested in the security status improvements.

Once it was setup, I scouted myself back to Paxton space and was about to start ratting when the server had a crash. Ah well, I'm ready for tonight.

Fake EDIT: I know Amarr drones with EM damage would be better against Sanshas, but Kla'strit doesn't have any Tech II drones available to him except Gallente ones. And he cannot use Tech II large artillery or cruise missiles.

Mr Editor To You

Eve Tribune issue #50 has hit the stands with two articles from me (one a reprint of a recent blog post to add some filler) and I did the editing on this issue and next week's. Hope you enjoy!

New Forum Sig

M3 corp has developed a meme for forum sigs based on the handiwork of our esteemed CEO. Here is my new one:

Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? The lines are exquisite, the shape lovely, with a come hither look.... too bad about Scarlett blocking the front of it.

God, I love Chimeras.

HED Run

Instead of my usual Sunday night Eve time my wife and I spent it decorating the Christmas Tree much to my dismay (I could have vetoed but after 12 years of marriage you learn when to pick your battles). So instead my Eve night was Monday evening, i.e. last night.

I expected it to be quiet as it usually is after weekends and I was not surprised when fleet finder showed nother of great interest. I could have done some more work on Kla'strit's sec status but I felt adventurous so I jumped into the Gank Falcon named Bracket and set a course for Ushra Khan's station systems.

It was pretty quiet along the way until I was about half way there and entering the first UK system when I spotted a hostile. I began doing a search to see if I could find him, then local began to spike. I was a few hundred clicks off a gate when numerous reds appeared on grid, local reaching to 24 enemy pilots.

Then they began to shoot. Each other.

Turns out I stumbled into a Brick Squad fleet fighting a combined UK and AAA fleet. I watched with some amusement and some frustration, wishing I could assist my neighbours even though they are red to us. They're good neighbours, you know? Anyways, it appears they didn't need my help and eventually they held the field and started to drift off.

At this point I got wind of a fleet organizing back home so instead of continuing on into UK space I turned around and made best speed for the rally point. They were looking for Amarrian Zealot HACs, Amarrian Guardian logistics, Interdictors of any type, Interceptors of any type, and T1 frigates. Since I couldn't fly any of the first three, I turned to my stable of Interceptors.

I have a Raptor for shuttling/scouting/long range disruptor point, a Crow as a chase interceptor with a high top speed, and a slower Taranis that can dish out the DPS. I opted for the Taranis this time as I wanted to play with the newest toy.

As the fleet finished its formation we got wind of a "neutral" gang of Tech 1 crusiers terrorizing friendlies nearby. We paid them a visit, wiping out the eight cruisers in short order and in turn losing a Heretic Interdictor.

Next we did what is referred to as a "HED run". HED-GP is a Against All Authorities station system in Catch region only three jumps removed from D-GTMI station system in Paxton Federation space in Providence region. In addition it is one of those rare null sec systems directly adjacent to a High Sec system, Keberz, making it a popular route into 0.0. A "HED run" is where we go into that system and mix things up with whoever we find.

The interceptor wing led the charge and chased a few ships; I don't know for sure if they caught any as I was a jump behind due to not hearing a command properly but the Paxton killboard has none so maybe CVA interceptors picked up the initial kills. When I got to the Keberz gate in HED the reds had scattered.

But then a hostile Cerberus warped to the gate and got caught in the almost-permanent warp bubble deployed there about 80 km from the gate. Yeah, you bet we jumped on him as fast as you can say "boo". I got into a tight orbit with my scrambler activated and blasters running. He was a tough tanked ship and he targetted me as he probably didn't like him MWD being shut off but his heavy missiles caused only minor shield damage each salvo and the local Scimitar logistics ship took care of that with ease.

Then, as his shields approached the breaking point, another hostile uncloaked and a single word over voice comms was heard: "BOMB". I gritted my teeth as I saw the bomb icon on the overview sail to within 10 km and I figured it was do or die as I kept my course and stayed in orbit around the Cerberus.

BOOOOOOOM!

My shields and all my armour except ten points (not ten percent, ten actual hitpoints) were gone, but the structure held, the tackle on the Cerberus remained, and logistics soon but my shields back in place. The Cerb went down shortly after that and you will notice the bomber was fourth in damage; it was win-win for the Brick Squad bomber as we were all hostile to him including the AAA Cerberus.

After that we knew AAA would not sit around docked up waiting for us to leave and the response fleet would probably be more than we could handle (in the past, mutliple Doomsdays were the usual response, thank goodness for Dominion changes) so we completed the HED run with an expedient exit. At this point I was near the end of my allotted time so I took my leave of the fleet and docked up back at base.

Three killmails overall for me and I survived a bomb. Not a bad Monday night after all!

Kirith's Taranis:

Gank Thorax

Last weekend a corp mate listed a Thorax build that had some things that I did not agree with and a discussion ensued about those fitting choices. I decided to post what I think a good solid Thorax build would be.

Role: Solo or small gang DPS ship with some tackle capabilities.


Obviously you could go with damage drones for more DPS but ECM drones can be a life saver against small targets and Minmatar cruisers without ECCM.

The Difference Between PvP Fit and PvP Ship

Last night I had about 40 minutes to log in so I joined up with Max and others and we went on a roam. Max chose a Vagabond and I did as well.

Waitaminute... Kirith doesn't have Minmatar cruiser V. How can I be flying a Vagabond. Well the truth is I used Kla'Strit who had very capable skills in that regard. For some reason, when I'm in his Slepnier or Vagabond I feel like I'm more ready for PvP than in any Caldari ship. I think its the ability to move fast, have tackle, and provide DPS from drones and projectiles that makes it feel like a more PvP ready ship compared to Caldari that often can't provide tackle without sacrificing tank. And since I can't fly tech II Gallente or Amarr ships yet, its either "feel less prepped in a Caldari HAC" or "switch to Kla'strit and his ships".

This convinces me that once the Interdictor training is done, I'm going for Gallente Cruiser V. For the Ishtar alone I think it would be nice to have for Kirith.

As a side note, I've been hearing good things about Tempests and Maelstroms with the new projectile weapons and ammo balance. I was thinking about setting Kla up a Maelstrom or Tempest as a sniper to use in fleets should Kirith be indisposed when I discovered he has Large Autocannon Specialization but not Large Artillery Specialization. I might have to pause Kirith's training to correct that oversight.

(Fiction Friday cancelled this week due to lack of time. Next week it will be back.)

Interesting Side Effect

One thing I did not think long about with the advent of Dominion was that the new sov structures are big. How big? Well, let's review:

Territorial Claim Unit (TCU) - used for actually claiming sov = 5000 m3
Sovereignty Blockade Unit (SBU) - used to attack someone else's sov = 2500 m3

So the act of claiming or attacking a system requires some minor hauling ability, but nothing that Blockade Runners even could handle. Now, what about the upgrade structures.

Infrastructure Hub - the structure upgrades are attached to = 750,000 m3
Entrapment Array 1 - the lowest level upgrade to add permament complexes to a system = 5000 m3
Entrapment Array 2 = 10,000 m3
Entrapment Array 3 = 100,000 m3
Entrapment Array 4 = 250,000 m3
Entrapment Array 5 = the highest level upgrade which adds a whack load of permament complexes to a system = 750,000 m3

The other military and industrial upgrades appear to follow the same size progression as the Entrapment Array. And the Strategic Upgrades?

Advanced Logistics Network - allows the anchoring of jump bridges = 400,000 m3
Cynosural Navigation - allows the anchoring of cyno beacon generators = 400,000 m3
Cynosural Suppression - allows the anchoring of cyno jammers = 500,000 m3
Supercapital Construction Facilities - allows the anchoring of Capital Ship Assembly and Maintenance arrays = 200,000 m3

With the old sov system, getting a number of POS and their fuel supplies into position required a fleet of industrials and jump capable ships like Jump Freighters and Carriers and Rorquals. The new sov system in Dominion doesn't require POS fuel but the sheer size of upgrades will mean that alliances will need a lot of freighter pilots and convoys through dangerous low sec and null sec space will become more common, especially during times of sov expansion like right now as the switch over is in progress.

And people will be on the lookout to take advantage of this new reality:

NULL SECURITY SPACE - Multiple freighter fleets suffered severe losses this evening as massive logistical operations took place all across New Eden. The latest reports indicate twenty-seven freighters belonging to RAZOR Alliance [-RZR-] and SOLAR FLEET [SOLAR] fell victim to hot drops in separate attacks.

Twenty seven freighters down, ten in one fight out of a fleet of 25 and 17 in another fight. A lot of infrastructure hubs found in the wreckage. If you have a researched freighter BPO, I'd be building them like mad at the moment. And ops to escort freighters are probably going to become a more common occurrence in New Eden.

Welcome To Dominion

Ok, I did a post last night celebrating the newest Eve expansion, but this is a more substantial post.

The fleet finder is awesome. Within seconds of logging in I had found a fleet run by one of my directors and joined up. No fuss, no muss, no running around voice comms and channels trying to see what's going on. I especially love the fact that its not limited to just your corp and alliance. For multi-allied organizations like CVA and the Holders it will be an invaluable tool for coordination. Hell, it will be invaluable for anybody who is not a loner in a private one man corp.

We went on a roam and I undocked in my never-used Rook Combat Recon called Dragon Wing. And yes, the planets look amazing. More pictures of planets at the end of the post.


We roamed for a while and caught an Ishkur and Vagabond whilst losing a friendly Crow as I arrived a bit late to throw my ECM on the Vagabond.

Corp mate getting a little too trigger happy:


Then I was off voice comms so I explored the new features like the in game browser based off Chromium. It
was fast, powerful, mutli-tabbed interface. I loved it.


Loaded up Dotlan maps, made it a trusted site, and used the radar function to check out my surroundings. Why CCP have never done this themselves is beyond me. I've complained about the ingame map before and this is the perfect solution in my mind.



And now, the planet porn:

Posting From Inside Eve

Yeah, Dominion?

It rocks.

The numerous quality of life improvements has made the experience so much better.

And multiple tabs in the browser? So perfect.

So yeah, loving Dominion.

Patch Day Skills

Kirith: Since getting into tech II Gallente frigates I've been back on the leadership skills, now having both Siege Warfare Specialist and Armoured Warfare Specialist to level III. He's currently training Siege Warfare V and then has only to train all three specialist skills to IV to complete this phase of training. We'll see if I ever feel the need for Information Warfare Specialist or Fleet Command, the latter being gated by Wing Command V which is a 40 day skill (yuk).

Once I'm done the leadership skills (about three weeks) I'm going to spend two weeks to get spec'd up for interdictors.

Derranna: She's deep into projectile training still, having got a lot of the support skills to level III and IV, and Small Projectile Turret to level V, and now she's on the Medium projectile Turret V skill which is over ten days left. Then its tech II small and medium projectiles which will take to early January. After that I will probably go for tech II Large projectile training which is over two more months of training as it requires Sharpshooter V (9 days), Motion Prediction V (9 days), and Large Projectile Turret V (23 days).

Kornielia: my other freighter alt on my third account which will expire in January is done with freighter training so I'm finishing up her ability to fly tech II transport ships, use a covert ops cloak, and pop a cyno beacon. Then she will be transferred over to one of my other two accounts so I can let this one expire.