Fiction Friday - Series 3: Chapter 14

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13

* * * * *

I celebrated that successful patrol later in the evening with a fine escort from the local capsuleer only hedonistic establishment and one little blue pill. As I rode away on waves of physical and chemical pleasure the guilt from the ship crews that might have died in our battle drifted off in the other direction.

The next morning I had the usual coming down from the pill but successfully resisted the urge to pop another and call in sick. I knew I had a problem, but I thought it was under control now. I wouldn't find out how wrong I was for a few months yet.

I checked my messages and saw that there was a "meeting" down at corporate headquarters in an hour to discuss patrol routes and schedules. I showered, shaved, took some pain meds for the headache, and left the apartment. It was a short walk down the corridor to some moving walkways that transported me quickly to the main pavilion hub where I switched to another walkway. Soon I was in the "capsuleer corporate district" of the station where several corporations had offices. The district had very high ceilings and was lit like daytime on a temperate planet, with many bushes and trees in planters and gardens. Some people in the aera were busy going to and fro but some were enjoying the benches for casual conversation.

I hurried on to IPRC's office and spent a few minutes in the front talking with the receptionist, getting some forms and biometric authentication scans completed. He was a Gallentean male about my age but not a podder; most employees working the desks and offices of corporations on the level were non-capsuleers. Soon he let me go on back through the security scanners and I was escorted by a young lady in what I suppose was conservative attire for a Gallentean office back to the lounge.

She offered to get me a coffee which I accepted and she left. Seven Six was here with several others and he bounded out of his chair and over to me.

"Hey Kirith! Come on over, let me introduce you!" he said enthusiastically with his arm on my shoulders.

"That's Kla'strit from last night's roam. Good work, by the way, you'll fit in nice here. And that ass there is Minessis, don't listen to him. Wavecutter, good guy. You know Lucius of course, and Mae," he leaned in to mock whisper, "don't get too close, you don't know what you will catch." Mae gave him the finger. "And last but not least we have here..."

"Barak Vorn!" I blurted out as the man being introduced looked up from a datapad.

He got a confused look and asked, "Have we met?"

"Um, yes actually," I sputtered, taken off guard. "Back in the State, at Perimeter almost two years back. You brought in some Gallentean ATVs that me and my brother facilitated transfer of to the planet. We were working with a guy called Rusack."

A light went off in his head. "Oh yeah, I remember now! Sold those to an Amarrian, right? Blodel?"

"Yeah, that's it." I hesitated a second before speaking again, unsure if I should stop there. But my conscience refused to be silent. "Look, you tried to give me warning about deal with Rusack and I brushed you off rudely last time we met. I always regretted being an ass that day and I wanted to apologize."

"Hey, don't worry about it," he laughed. "Long forgotten."

"Well, I felt I owe it to you." I sat down in the chair beside Barak. "Say, you haven't heard from Rusack lately, have you?"

"Funny you should ask. I just got back from delivering a load of holoreels to him in Slays, three jumps from here. He's based out of the Stacmon V Impro Factory station for the past few months."

"You don't say..." I said casually as my heart rate picked up and mind started racing.

Happy Holidays!

Today at noon I'm off for the holidays which means I will be working even more so at home with the Carebear Brigade. As such the blog and podcast will be silent until January.

I've tentatively picked the evening of January 17th as the date for the "Bring Me The Head Of Kirith Kodachi!" live event. Its a Monday since that's when I get free time and it will be starting around 8-9pm EST which is 0100-0200 Eve Time. I haven't decided on a location yet, but I'm thinking far from my usual stomping grounds to keep NCDOT from super-piling on.

I already wrote the next Fiction Friday post for tomorrow and it is scheduled to be published at 9AM tomorrow EST.

And finally, its been a while since we checked in on the Carebear Brigade so let's take a peek.

More Money

Near the beginning of December I talked about how I was going to setup more colonies.

To this end I've scheduled Korannon to train up basic planetary management skills when Industry V completes in the next couple days and I'll have his set up a factory planet where I will import some purchased raw materials and produce higher level items for reselling. It seems like a nice compromise between taking effort and making money. Unlike the extraction where I feel if I miss a cycle every day I'm losing the game, this will feel more hands off I hope.

Well, due to real life pressures it took longer than I hoped to get set up and running but last week I finally managed to do it and set out to produce some commodities for profit. I picked Robotics to start because I was familiar with the production lines and I knew they were in high demand.

I'm pleased to report I made about 10% profit on a 166 million ISK investment as of last night when the last of the produced robotics sold. Excellent. I'm still ironing out the kinks but hope to run another batch over the next couple days and see if the turnaround time can be streamlined any more, and consider if I want to expand to a second production colony.

Annoucement: "Bring Me The Head Of Kirith Kodachi!" Live Event

Next year is going to be a big one for the blog. I'm approaching 2000 posts and will be celebrating six years of (mostly) regular posting in February. When I hit 1000 posts at the beginning of January 2009 I had a little contest with around 100 mil in prizes so this time I need to do something bigger.

For the past couple months I've been planning and now its time to let the readers know what's coming. I'm going to hold a little live event called "Bring Me The Head of Kirith Kodachi!". Here's how its going to work.

In late January or early February I'm going to go online in a low sec system, warp to a planet, and stay there for 30 minutes or until I'm dead and podded. I'll advertise the time and location at least a week in advance so anyone is free to come kill me (or save me if they are so inclined). There will be prizes for Final Blow and Most Damage on the kill mail of the ship, and everyone on the pod killmail will split a third prize. Finally, there will be a small reward for turning in my frozen corpse.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the ship I will be using will be a fully fitted Caldari Chimera carrier? That's right bitches: capital killmail time. I of course will be fighting back with all the drones at my disposal so don't think this is setup as a turkey shoot.

I fully realize there is a possibility I'll get dropped on by some large alliance with supercarriers that gets wind of the event and can be arsed to come get me, but I'm hoping the threat of another alliance doing the same thing will make them hesitate at least. There is also the possibility I might survive the 30 minutes and make good an escape! If so, I'm keeping the prizes. :P

So start planning your attack readers. I look forward to seeing what you can do.

New Podcast Artwork

Rixx Javix of Evoganda blog fame was commissioned to do some artwork for the podcast website and I put them up today.

Here's a look at the banner and channel logo.

More Thoughts on Providence

On Thursday I mused:

However, there is several good reasons for NCDOT to stay and make a home in the region.

[...]

2) No serious competition. The big alliances don't really desire Providence so the chances are low anyone is going to kick you out for your space. They might kick you out for political reasons, but not for the space itself.

To which the esteemed Mord Fiddle of Fiddler's Edge commented:

What do they want? Provi, of course.

The "Nobody wants Provi" is pre-Dominion thinking. With system upgrades available, Provi is much more attractive than it was of old. Further, Nullsec space is needed to build Supercaps - the ultimate coin in New Eden.

Unless a wild card or two comes into play, I expect NCDOT and Evoke will carve up Provi between the two of them after the holidays.

CVA can no longer win the region by relying on the indifference of others. Providence is now valuable turf. If CVA wants it, they will have to become strong enough and clever enough take it and hold it from all comers.

And today on his own blog:

CVA, NC and Ev0ke have finished gobbling up all the "free" space in Providence. After the holidays I expect that party to begin in earnest as NC and Ev0ke attempt to take full control of the region. Kirith Kodachi over at Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah wonders how much of Providence space NC wants. My answer is "half', with the other half going to Ev0ke. The old conceit that no-one wants the wormy old Providence region is pre-Dominion thinking. With system upgrades available, Provi is much more attractive than it was of old. Further, Nullsec space is needed to build Supercaps - the ultimate coin in New Eden. Provi has value these days, and anyone who wishes to hold it will have to do so through strength of arms rather than indifference on the part of the competition.

First off, Mord Fiddle is far more in tune with New Eden politics and is better an analysis of the situation than I am and I have no reason to think he is wrong about the current scenario.

Now the root of my point 2 in my original post stems from the observation that since Against ALL Authorities eviction from Catch non of the large power blocs made a move against the New Provi Residents (now mostly ex-New Provi Residents) which suggested to me that the space might be too expensive for the quality therein, regardless of system upgrades. I thought that having a station in system made upkeep more expensive for the sov holder, but a quick check of the sovereignty mechanics via Evelopedia shows that outposts add nothing to the bill.

So in light of that, one can say that the major powers that have decided to make Providence their home is going to be NCDOT and Ev0ke, much like Mord has stated. Rumours have it that Important Internet Spaceship League have cut a deal with Ev0ke so along with Not Found. <404> and Ewoks they control over a third of Providence. It remains to be seen if NCDOT expands itself into the local constellations from the "LFA Pocket" or whether they bring in allies to occupy the space once evictions occur.

A third possibility is that Ev0ke Bloc and NCDOT are content with the space they currently occupy since there is a high number of stations and combined with upgradable space it can support a fair number of industrialists with relatively easy access to empire, and leave CVA, The Kadeshi, Chaos Theory, and Legio Astartes Arcanum alone as sort of a local "PvP preserve". Unfortunately that feels more like wishful thinking than an actual strategic possibility but weirder things have happened.

I would love to know what Ev0ke and NCDOT are planning, but in the end it matters very little to me and my allies. We're here to fight and advance when we can and retreat when we must.

Fiction Friday - Series 3: Chapter 13

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

* * * * *
As we materialized in the new system, Nhi'Khuna gave the orders. "Kirith, Seven, warp to Kla, help him out. The rest of us will align and I will fleet warp."

"Roger, warping to Kla'strit," I responded with my heart beat picking up.

"Break break! Local spike!" Seven shouted excitedly. Seconds later he added, "Same corp as target." I checked the local feed of new transponders in system and saw that our Vexor friend had five buddies coming to help. I checked my directional scanner but only saw the Wolf and Taranis of my wingmates and the Vexor of the enemy. The other two gates into the system were beyond my ship's range.

"Keep scanning, I want to know what we're dealing with before we warp in. Fleet on gate, re-approach in case we need to run."

"Kirith coming out of warp," I said in third person to avoid confusion.

Kla'strit broke in, "His tank is something fierce. I gotta warp out, these drones are killing me."

"You run, man. I got a point on him," Seven replied, "and Kirith is here too now." I brought up the combat HUD and targeted the cruiser while booting the warp disruptor systems. "Locked and pointed," I broadcast. Kla'strit's Wolf banked and rolled into a quick accelerating and warped out. My ship closed into a tight orbit on the Vexor while I targeted the Hammerhead drones that were attack the Taranis.

Suddenly Seven Six spoke up. "New targets on scan! I've got a Thorax, Bellicose, Ferox, Incursus, and Brutix! We can take 'em! Warp to me now!"

"Warping fleet. Kla'strit, get back in there. Kirith keep point on Vexor, Kla and Seven get points on the Thorax and Brutix. Primary Brutix, secondary Thorax," Nhi'khuna ordered calmly. I nodded approvingly at the choice to remove the high damage Gallente ships first as their blasters and drones could be devestating. "Lucius," she added, "jam the targets."

The enemy fleet landed first right on top of us and I felt my stomach tighten as the warning sounds of multiple locks was heard. Kla'strit's assault ship arrived as they started firing, but to my relief only the Incursus engaged me as the rest went after Seven's much more dangerous interceptor. "Warp out if you have to guys," Nhi'Khuna said, "We're not here to die."

Our heavy ships dropped out of warp and the battle was engaged.

"Point on Brutix!" Seven exclaimed. Other pilots called out points as well and the night sky was streaked with charges and missiles and engine trails of speeding drones.

"They're targeting me," Mae informed the fleet. "This thing has no tank, I'm going down fast."

"Brutix and Thorax jammed," Lucius reported, "that should help."

"Hostile Brutix is going down, they're trying to break off, spread points!"

The Blackbird and its ECM turned out to be the key to the battle. One by one the enemy ships were destroyed before they could bring enough damage to destroy any of us. We had a close moment when Lucius was primaried and his weak shields were stripped, but they failed to keep a disruptor on him and he warped off while we killed the Thorax. He shortly came back at 50 km from the fight and still continued to jam ships while we went to work on the Ferox. Only the enemy Incursus managed to escape once they realize the outcome was certain.

"Good work team," Jakk Blakk said over comms once the last enemy ship exploded.

"Hey, I managed to get a point on the Vexor pilot's pod. Anyone want to pop him?" Seven Six asked.

"Kirith, as this is your first roam with us, you get the honours."

I balked at the thought. Destroying the ships in a pitched battle was one thing, but to actually take the life of a defenseless human being was quiet another.

Suddenly a text broadcast appeared in local. "You guys are sooooo fukd! I'm part of a big alliance and we're friends with BoB and we are going to war dec yor punk gay ass! We will greif u til u quit! FUCKING GAY FUCKERS!!!!"

I triggered my weapons to fire on the pod without another thought.

NC. Continues to Expand

The question around Providence is whether or not NCDOT is digging in for the long haul in Providence or not. With the acquisition last night of three more station system, MH9C-S, D-GTMI, and QBL-BV, their control up to 8 station systems and 11 systems overall.

When they originally deployed in Yong, I think the general impression that it was a vacation deployment for them to hot drop some fleets in Provi and environs and then move on. However, there is several good reasons for NCDOT to stay and make a home in the region.

1) Supercap production facilities. You need secure upgraded sov space to anchor the big assembly array, and the old "LFA Pocket" is one of the better ones to choose.

2) No serious competition. The big alliances don't really desire Providence so the chances are low anyone is going to kick you out for your space. They might kick you out for political reasons, but not for the space itself.

3) Hotdrop range of a lot of null sec. You can cover all of Providence and Catch from the LFA Pocket with a supercarrier and jump drive calibration IV.

4) Lots of nearby hostiles. No multi region napfest around here; there is Initiative, IT, Stainwagon, AAA, the denizens of Curse, and of course the residents of Provi itself all close to hunt and shoot.

So the next question is, how much space does NCDOT really want?

The Great Learning Skill Purge of 2010

The second installment of Incursions was released today and with it the learning skills are no more. Praise the Maker!

As planned, Kirith put his reimbursed skill points into Small, Medium, and Large Energy Turrets and got all of them to V for Tech II lasers. Then I used what was left to take care of a couple of the resistance shield compensation skills to level IV.

Meanwhile, Korannon used his reimbursed skills to train Warp Operation to level V and get started on Navigation skill. There are still a lot of basics he still needs to make those Transport ships durable and useful.

Finally, my Wyvern alt used her few hundred thousand points to finish Jump Drive Operation IV so can jump as far as Kirith can with the same amount of fuel usage. This means she can move the Chimera at the same time as Kirith is in the Wyvern (or vice versa in a pinch) which gives me some more flexibility. She is going to continue getting skills for the Wyvern to make her useful... not combat useful but at least logistically useful.

A few other alts had some points reimbursed but nothing of importance came of it.

Now to wait for the final installement of Incursions coming in January.

Bombs Away!

Last night I logged in, did a couple carrier jumps, and then settled into Providence to look for some pew pew. After a dismal start to December so far, I was hoping to turn it around.

I started scouting in the Crow, checking out neighbouring systems to S9X. I7S and G7A were empty, and 0BZ had a five man team of Chaos Theory alliance running some sanctums or something else ratting related, but quickly safed up at a POS when anything hostile appeared in local.

But in 6-O things looked a little more interesting...

Legio's station services in that system have been a favourite target of local FCs for a while now. A station is not very good use if you can't repair ships or change fittings, right? So Legio was out on the station running repairers on the services to get them back in working order. For us, it presented some targets.

At first there was a punisher doing cyno duty for a carrier so we tried a driveby to kill it for annoyance factor, but the repping Thanatos carrier beside it prevented that from working. There was also a Myrmidon, Dramiel, Dominix, Abaddon, Basilisk, and Osprey on station, along with an Onyx that showed up later. We decided we would form up a bomber wing and have some fun.

We got five stealth bombers, three Manticores and two Hounds. We tried to filter into system casually and formed up for a bombing run. Shout out to our FC, Vaia Sunn for getting us into position without any premature decloaking. We approached, synchronized our ranges, and waited for the order to launch.

Go! F1 to decloak, F2 to launch, and then warp off! As I moved through space I saw I still had two bombs in my launcher. CRAP! I didn't wait before hitting F2 and the cloak deactivation was slower than I expected. No kills (maybe a drone or two) but at the same time, no losses.

We regrouped to try again. As we formed up for another run, we watched nervously as the Dramiel pilot moved around trying to see if we came back by decloaking us. Count down the ranges, get aligned... GO! F1 to decloak, wait a half sec, F2 to launch, see the green flash, warp! It was a successful five bomber launch this time, but did we have any success?

"I got the Myrmidon killmail!" from one pilot. "Osprey here," from another. "Holy shit, I got a Dominix!" Sure enough, three ships downed by our little bombing run. Now, it was mostly due to all of them being setup for repairing the station services with no tank to speak of, but every kill counts in a harassment campaign. The name of the game is morale, folks.

With that done I logged off very happy.

Why Echlon is a "Massive Disappointment"

It bugs me when high-on-their-horse people say "its free so you should appreciate it!" or "remind me to never give you a gift" when someone complains about another useless free ship for the hanger from CCP.

First off, its not free. The artists and developers who made it were paid by YOUR subscription money. So instead of producing a vessel that would integrate nicely in the fabric that makes up Eve's universe for years to come, we get a ship that is limited in number thus intrinsically more rare, thus a bigger target for suicide ganks, thus considered to be worth more.

So anyone with half a brain that follows the "Don't Fly What You Can't Afford To Lose" policy sees that a rare ship that is hard to replace whose function is at best marginally better than a Tech I frigate is not worth flying.

After all, how many Primaes and Zephyrs and Apothesises do you see in space these days? At least the Primae hull got reused for the Noctis salvager so the expenditure on making it was not wasted.

So yeah, I'm disappointed. I appreciate its a gift and not intended to change the balance of the game by giving it to us, but it makes my sad when new ship hulls are produced that will not see the light of day for all intents and purposes. Its a waste.

So here's hoping CCP follows the Noctis example and makes useful versions of the Zephyr, Apothesis, and now Echelon available in the respective loyalty point stores.

EDIT: If anyone thinks I'm frothing at the mouth mad about this, you are mistaken. I actually did not give it another thought until I saw a post today where someone was complaining about my twitter complaint. :) At the end of the day, my Echelons will go into my storage hanger with the rest and I'll never think on it again, nor lose any sleep over it.

And on the upside: Learning Skill Reinbursement tomorrow day after tomorrow! Now that's a gift! Thanks CCP! You're still number one in my books regardless of the Echelon.

Empty Handed

I actually got in a fair amount of Eve (for me at least) this past weekend. Unfortunately I've got nothing but a Cyno Kestrel killmail to show for it.

On Friday night I flew at one point an Ishkur, Onyx, Astarte, and finally an Arazu in various efforts to harass Legio in 6-OQJV along with other corp mates, but Legio seemed unprepared to come out and fight besides a few bombing runs that caused no damage. While it was fun flying with the corp and getting some much needed small gang fighting in, I really wanted some action.

On Saturday night everything was super quiet so I made some necessary bookmarks and then ratted for a bit in the Tengu. I was watching the kids while the wife was out so I couldn't go too far from home base.

Then on Sunday night I was watching the kids again so while they were sleeping I joined in another Legio harassment gang and we tried to catch a Rapier running around as well as a steath bomber and whatever else came by. This is when we pounced on that cyno Kestrel of an AAA pilot in I7S. I started off in my Crow but later moved to the Astarte again to provide DPS should Legio get careless. Alas, no luck.

Being in CVA is pretty much the exact opposite of the Northern Coalition while still being involved in null sec. Whereas in the NC there was always some fleet somewhere chewing on something, often we in m3 are doing the only action in CVA and allies during the North American time zone. This is partly due to CVA being majority in the European time zones and I think our European members are having more action and success than I am.

The current political situation is dicey to say the least. With NCDOT actaully claiming a whole constellation nearby in the PI5 pocket, there is some speculation and concern that they are staying in Providence for the long haul. This leads to the possibility that Ev0ke and NCDOT may choose to evict us completely. Rumour mills suggest that Important Internet Spaceship League have cut a deal with Ev0ke to keep their space. No idea what is up with Legio, Chaos Theory, and The Kadeshi in terms of relations with the others. 

Regardless, CVA is here to stay regardless of the outcomes. If we can't have the space, we'll do everything we can to make it miserable for anyone trying to make a living here.

Fiction Friday - Series 3: Chapter 12

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11

* * * * *

"Um hello?"

Nhi'Khuna's head and torso appeared on a holopad and she cocked an eyebrow upon seeing me fumble with a housecoat that was more sheer than I was used to.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked.

"No, I was just trying to figure out how to turn on the goddamn shower." I managed to say between clumsy attempts to fasten the garment without flashing my caller. "Why can't the Gallente make things with buttons and knobs like normal people?"

She let out an honest guffaw and laughed hard. "My god, you are quite the provincial, aren't you?"

I felt my cheeks redden even further. "Its my first time out of Caldari space," I offered lamely.

Nhi'Khuna wiped the tears from her eyes and said, "Well, how about you forget about the shower? We're going to do a short roam and this would be a good chance to meet the rest of the crew."

"Alright, give me ten."

* * * * *

"OK Minessis, Seven Six, you  guys will be forward scouts, check the belts, look for something good. Kirith, you're new so we'll have you be rear scout, make sure nothing bad comes up behind us. If we find something we'll call you in. Jakk, Kla'strit, Lucius, Mae; you're with me. Broadcasting destination now."

The scouts, Seven Six in a Taranis interceptor and Kla'strit in a Wolf assault frig, sped off the station undock zone and warped to the Ostingele gate. After the all clear came back from them, the heavy ships disembarked from the station and aligned as a group to the gate; Nhi'Khuna as Fleet Commander in her Prophecy battlecruiser, Lucius in a Blackbird cruiser as our ECM support, Jakk Blakk our CEO in a Caracal cruiser, and finally Mae West in her big Brutix battlecruiser. That last one made the ex-State Navy pilot in me have the shivers as it was one of the most feared of the Gallente ships we had to think about facing.

I aligned and warped with the main fleet to the gate, but held back as they jumped through. As they aligned the scouts would jump into the next system and look for threats or targets; and once they were in warp I would jump through to keep an eye on the system after they left in case a hostile fleet moved in behind us as part of their own roam or a trap.

We continued that pattern for a few jumps, our scouts checking the asteroid belts and anomalies for any sign of capsuleers or important Serpentis pirate ships, everything else we left alone. Sometimes we would come across a desperate Serpentis fleet on a gate while waiting for the scouts to report and they would foolishly engage hoping for easy pickings or mistaking us for civilian ships; we dispatched them without a second glance.

Placid region is one of the wild regions of Gallente space, far from the hubs of Essence or Sinq Laison regions. Some of its space has CONCORD fast response facilities, but most of it has only the basic security forces around planets and stations and the Serpentis pirates run rampant everywhere else. Into this mix the capsuleers are thrown as a wild card, sometimes keeping the pirates in check and other times simply attacking each other. That was where we came in.

I admit I had some doubts about the veracity of IPRC's claims of clandestine Federation approval for their activities in Placid, but I was willing to give it a chance since I had lost faith in everything organized in the State.

The fleet was in Vey, scouts in Frarie, me one back still in Intaki, when the message went over the comms from Seven Six. "Hey guys, I got a hit near the bottom belt, Vexor."

"Go get him," Nhi'Khuna ordered.

"In warp."

"Kirith, jump into Vey and warp to us. Kla'strit, warp to the top belt in case he goes there before Seven lands."

"Roger," Kla'strit and I replied in unison. My heart beat picked up. Sure, I had done some fighting as part of the Navy, but those instincts had gotten a little rusty and this was no pirate ship in need of repairs and an overhaul, this was a full fledged pod pilot in a top of the line cruiser.

Seven Six began giving us a narrative. "Coming out of warp... come on, come on... I see him! ... I'm ten klicks off, he's moving! I think he's aligning! ... Locked! ... DAMN, he warped out! I think he headed towards... yeah, he's coming to you Kla!"

By this time I had landed at the gate with the main fleet and waited for the next order. Silence on comms for a second, then Kla'strit in his distinctive Minmatar voice said, "Vexor on scan." A few more tense seconds. "Here he is," Kla'strit said very calmly in stark contrast to the other scout. "Locking... and point."

"Jump jump jump!" Nhi'Khuna ordered the fleet. "Let's go get him."

Tactical Flexibility of Supercarriers

With NCDOT living in low sec in Yong and with jump range of all of our operations here in CVA, their super capital fleet hangs a shadow over everything we do. It has led me to think a lot on the power of supercarriers and Titans and whether or not they lean to far to the overpowered side of the balance spectrum. There is certainly a lot of opinion in the community that this is so, but this is not a "Nerf Supercaps!" post. Instead I simply want to look at the current situation and discuss it.

First, let's look at the range of a supercarrier with Jump Drive Calibration IV based out of the Yong system.

As you can see, there is 153 valid destinations in range in eight regions, including most of Catch and Providence regions. All the supercarrier fleet in Yong needs is one alt with a cyno beacon and fuel to hotdrop anyone even though they are many many jumps away. This means that any small or lone capital operation in 153 systems has to be extra vigilant of any neutral or hostile coming through because NCDOT has a lot of supercarriers and it only takes a handful to obliterate a fleet of capital ships.

On top of that threat, we have their Titans and the jump portals to contend with. Fortunately, their range is not as long as that of supercarrriers.

Despite only have 3 light years less range (7 compared to 10 for the supercarriers) the number of systems that can be accessed is cut in half. Still, from Yong a good portion of the main targets, Providence and Catch, are still in range it is nowhere near as encompassing.

Nevertheless, those 74 systems have the double threat of being hotdropped by a supercarrier fleet and a conventional fleet from the Titan's jump bridge, making almost any significant operation fraught with peril. The best way to counter this threat would be to have your own supercapital fleet on standby, or setup some traps to bait these ships to their death. Unfortunately, this is difficult for small entities without extensive super capital resources.

This is exactly why cynosaural field jammed systems are in such high demand; it removes this threat and allows some measure of operations to occur.

So the question for the masses is this: do you feel that the current state of super capital tactical flexibility is acceptable?

Interdicting

Its been a while since I've looked at a ship class with no experience or strong expectations on how to fit it. I pretty much ignored interdictors since I could never find myself prioritizing Destroyers V over another skill until very recently, especially with the Heavy Interdictor in my arsenal.

So now that I can actually fly the Flycatcher, I found myself at a loss for fits beyond the unique-to-class Interdiction Sphere Launcher. For the uninitiated, while Tech I destroyers are designed for dealing with frigate classed hulls with lots of small weapons with bonuses to tracking, the Interdictor class is designed primarily for the ability to launcher warp disruption bubbles with any combat ability secondary. (That may not have been the devs' intent, but it is certainly the result.)

So I checked some corp mate ship fittings and played around and came up with two setups for slightly different purposes.

The first setup has a single goal: bubble while surviving. To this end we have the double-bubble setup with two interdiction sphere launchers so that you can drop a bubble and jump through a gate to bubble the other side (or alternatively try to cover a large region gate). The cloak gives some tactical flexibility and since this ship is weaponless the cloak's negative impact on targeting speed is ignorable. The disruptor is for those occasions where the bubble is overkill and perhaps detrimental to your own fleet.

The second setup is more combat oriented for small gang roaming, with some anti-frigate DPS and higher top speed and agility, along with a web for pesky fast moving targets.

Note: supposed to be CN Thorn rockets.

Opinions / comments are welcome as I'm not very experienced with this class and would love to hear what people do with them.

Footnote: I can also fly the Gallente Eris interdictor but taking a look at its split weapon system, split weapon bonuses,  and anemically low CPU made me realize that only the desperate would fly that ship. Even with a Co-Processor II I was unable to fit a MWD, cloak, and two interdiction sphere launchers. Going with a combat fit looked a bit better but its still lacklustre and might as well go with the flycatcher. If anyone has a good Eris fit, please share.

Christmas Kicking My Ass

Oh no, its one of those "sorry I'm not posting etc" posts.

Real Life due to holiday season is kicking my ass, so post today is just a place holder and the Broadcasts from the Ninveah episode for this week is in danger of being postponed to next week. I'll see how tonight goes.

In the meantime, wander over to BobFromMarketing's new blog and give it a look.

Expanding the Empire

Since moving my oxygen production lines over to double the coolant production, I've found my extraction colonies easier to manage. Oxygen as an end product sucked because it took so much space in the Orca, but now I've been going a couple weeks since my last high sec delivery and the Orca is only just over a quarter full.

This frees up a little planetary overlord time so I've been considering how to best make use of it. I don't want to double extraction and production efforts but a side project with a second character might be perfect. To this end I've scheduled Korannon to train up basic planetary management skills when Industry V completes in the next couple days and I'll have his set up a factory planet where I will import some purchased raw materials and produce higher level items for reselling. It seems like a nice compromise between taking effort and making money. Unlike the extraction where I feel if I miss a cycle every day I'm losing the game, this will feel more hands off I hope.

Once I get things going I'll report back.

Fiction Friday - Series 3: Chapter 11

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10

* * * * *
As I emerged from my pod in the private decanting wing of the medical facility on the Duvolle station in Pelille, I was immediately struck by the difference in Gallentean architecture compared to the Caldari stations I was used to.

Now don't get me wrong. The popular belief that we Caldari live and work in steel grey metal boxes all our lives is pretty far off base. We have our atriums with sunlight and our living quarters are decorated with vibrant warm colours and comfortable furniture. And our entertainment districts are bright and lively and we Caldari know how to let loose and have a good time. We're not inhuman. But as I showered and dressed I gained an appreciation for why my people felt so foreign in Gallente space.

First off, everything was pastels, off whites, glowing blue or green or yellow. Nothing was black. There were no shadows - anywhere. Glass walls, floors, ceilings were not just common, but seemed almost preferred.

There were almost no sharp corners. Everything was rounded and smooth, flowing from one surface to another like it had been pushed into place instead of manufactured.

When I got into the capsuleer's pavilion, I was practically overcome with vertigo as I looked up to a ceiling I could not really see, and looked down over an edge to the common pavilion nearly a kilometer below. And bright! My god it took my eyes an entire day to adjust to the brightness of the common areas and when I finally got to my rent apartment I turned the lights right off since so many luminescent surfaces gave off plenty of light for me.

But all of that compares to the difference in people. The Gallente dress so flashy, vibrant clothing of exotic materials, some whose colour was impossible to determine. The fashions are so different from Caldari where the clothes are function and form first. Most of the women had more exposed skin than some girls I slept with back in school.

Yet for all the flashiness and exposed flesh, the people here seemed more guarded; colder, harder if you can imagine. It was as if the act of exposing themselves and their culture so forcefully caused them to hide their true emotions and opinions all the more. They say that Caldari are like stone but we have nothing on the facade of the Gallente.

Age of Caldari?

First the Drake army and now... Shield Tanked Battleship Fleets? Eve News 24 reports:

Looking over killboards, many readers have sent emails and msn convoes, why the hell IT Alliance keeps requesting shield tanked battleships for the operations with INIT against StainWagon.

Seeing shield tanked apocs, abadonns, megathrons and rokhs made many of you question the sanity of IT command. We reserached little bit about the topic and brought you the best possible answer to that.

Read the whole thing. Then ask yourself, what is the best ship for using long range turrets and having a passive shield tank buffer? Apoc? Not enough mid slots. Megathron? Not enough mid slots. Maeltrom? Active shield tanking bonus.

Nope, the Rokh beats them all with the 5% bonus to resistances per level, lots of mid slots, and the optimal range bonus means less effort to shot higher powered armour further. If this trend continues, Rokh armies could be around the corner....

One can dream.

Project Halibut

Chainer Cygnus of the Eve Commune and Skill Training Complete podcasts is currently running an initiative to help new players in Eve:

Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about EVE and it’s myriad of hurdles to get through as a new player. I look back on my first days in EVE and wonder what I was thinking with some of my fits and skill choices. I don’t regret any of them, as they were part of my learning experience. But at the same time, I had found the EVE Blogosphere and then unnamed Tweetfleet and had access to helpful individuals. There are many Capsuleers with a similar story of finding the valuable resources those entail and how they have ushered them on to success. And countless other stories of those who have prospered without any contact or knowledge of the greater EVE community.

And we also hear about people who don’t make it past the Trial or even a few days of it because they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options available to a new pilot from the get-go. I’m sure many of those new pilots could truly benefit from discovering the this greater EVE Community as well as someone to Mentor them.

Addressing this view is the entire purpose of “Project Halibut”. My overall plan is simple, but intensive, and while I don’t expect great results, I feel I should try regardless (for personal reasons as well as the obvious betterment of the game reasoning).

I made a donation last night to help out Project Halibut as I believe that new players have the hardest time in this game and every effort should be made to make the experience less painful (until they are hostile to me, at which point the more pain the better).

Hybrids versus Lasers - An Analysis

I'm in the process of getting ready to train Tech II lasers and then Tech II Amarrian frigates and cruisers. The main reason is that the hybrid ships I specialize in are not as in demand as their laser counterparts.

Overall in the community there is a belief that hybrids are overall inferior to lasers. The weapons share a lot of characteristics: fixed damage types, instant damage, use capacitor, have various ammos for an inverse relationship of damage to optimal range. Projectiles share some of these traits but not all (i.e. don't use cap, have different damage types, fixed range types) so I don't look at them here.

Below I made a quick spreadsheet comparing the biggest caliber weapons for hybrids and lasers in both short range and long range types. These numbers are based on all level V skills and no ship bonuses. DPS values take into account reloading times of hybrid weapons.



In the long range weaponry, we can see that the range advantage of the railguns is minimal while the tracking and damage advantage of the beam lasers is quite significant. This is balanced a little by the massive cap drain of the laser weapons which requires logistics support or specialized ship bonuses to mitigate.

Overall beam lasers have the advantage in all but the most extreme cases.

For the short range weapons, the pulse lasers are obviously the superior choice. Three times the optimal range so its effective engagement envelope is far larger. Tracking is more than adequate; look at the lower chart and see that the advantage of the blaster is a small range of speeds before both are out-tracked. Damage advantage of blasters is significant but hampered by the lower range. Fitting is comparable. And while the cap use of the pulse lasers is more than twice as high as blasters, logistics and cap boosters even the playing field in most cases.

Simply put, pulse lasers are more tactically flexible than blasters in all but the extreme short range and heavily webbed targets.

Now I've ignored ship bonuses, faction and Tech II ammo, damage mods, etc because I wanted to give a relatively equal comparison of the weapons. Besides, for every Gallente ship with a damage and tracking bonus, there is an Amarr counterpart. For every Magnetic Field Stabilizer, there is a Heat Sink. For every Null ammo, there is Scorch.

Not to mention the other advantages of lasers such as not needing massive cargo holds for ammo and much faster switching of crystals compared to hybrid charges.

While I still love my hybrid based ships, I do want to explore some interesting laser based ships such as the Abaddon and Zealot.

* * * * *

I would be remiss if I did not provide a suggestion for how hybrids could be "fixed" or at least improved.

I think rails suffer most from their reputation of low DPS. This could be partly improved if combat ranges increased beyond the feasible beam laser and artillery engagement ranges where long range railguns would be superior. However, a lot of game mechanics in Eve would need to be addressed in order for this to work, not the least of which is near instanteous probing and warping onto of on grid fleets. Perhaps we need to remove on grid warping to start, i.e. up its minimum range to 1000 km instead of 150 km.

As for blasters, I think some combination of optimal range and tracking improvements are called for. While you might not think the Heavy Neutron Cannon II's range is all that shabby, remember it has the best range of all blasters and most are a lot less. A doubling of optimal ranges for blasters would not be untoward in my amateur opinion, coupled with a slight tracking increase to compensate for the changes to stasis webifiers way back that made it hard for blasters to adequately track targets at optimal range without multiple webs or web and scrambler.