Fiction Friday- Series 2: Chapter 6

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

* * * * *
"Congratulations Ensign, you have passed the first test."

The voice originated in my head but was not mine. I could see, hear, feel nothing. It wasn't even black, it was just gone.

"Now, we will begin adding inputs starting with external sound."

Suddenly I could hear. Fans whirring, consoles beeping and chiming, mumbled voices talking, footsteps, chair creaks.

"Heartrate?"

"98."

"Alpha waves?"

"Within acceptable levels."

"Alright, let's go for vocals." The voice raised and addressed me. "Ensign, we are going to activate your vocalization commands. You will subvocalize to communicate. Don't try to talk, just think about talking."

A speaker squawked and warbled. "Try to focus, Ensign. Its part of your body, learn to use it." The speaker quieted and a barely recognizable computerized voice said, "Hello?"

"Excellent, Ensign. We're going to practice by having you say your name, rank, and serial number." I complied and slowly the computerized voice became clearer as I adjusted to the different way of thinking. When I finished the main voice said, "Good work. Eventually you can modify the software to make the voice sound more like your vocal cords but for now we are going to move on."

"Activate visual sensors."

A room came into being in my brain. I was seeing, but not through my eyes. I wanted to blink, I desperately felt the instinct to blink, but nothing happened. My body's neural pathway messages were intercepted into the pseudo-pod's hardware hookups. "I can't blink," my external voice said with an edge of panic. I knew it was trivial, but it seemed like the most important think in the world at that moment.

A man looked right at 'me'. "OK, I understand, focus on me, think about what you see. Think about what you can see. Come on, now, stay with us, you're doing good." I did as he instructed and realized that without turn my head or eyes, I could see all around me. The room was completely visible and my brain processed it into a 3D model in my head. The demand to blink faded into the background.

"I'm OK now. Thanks doc."

He smiled. "No problem, Ensign. Tomorrow we're going run through some more exercises, chart your responses, get you used to the pod's neural interface. But we're done for now. I'm going to disconnect the inputs and then flush you out."

I tried to nod, realized that was impossible, and instead vocalized an affirmative. A moment later the world went dark and silent. There in the darkness I had a momentary thought that I had died like a percentage of new pod pilots do on their first disconnect from the pod. Something just fails and they come out like a vegetable or simply dead. One of our classmates, top of the class and brilliant at everything she tried, got in the pod, pass all the tests like she had been doing this for years, and then upon disconnect she simply stopped living. This is why each candidate went through the process privately and the results not known to the other candidates until all the tests were done for everyone. No need to jack up everyone's nervousness any more than it was already.

I felt something, not through the neural connection but in my limbs, as the pseudo-pod's access hatch at the bottom was opened and the goo flushed out with my naked body with it. I landed unceremoniously on a drainage floor and puked/coughed up the goo that was in my stomach and lungs. It was a horrible sensation.

Two assistants came over and helped me to my feet after I was done heaving. The doctor stood in front of me and held my eyelid up and flashed a light in my eye as I tried to find my feet with wobbly legs. "Name and rank?" he asked.

"Kodachi," my hoarse voice responded with effort, "Ensign."

"Congratulations, Ensign. You have passed the second test."

Faction, Deadspace, and Officer, OH MY!

Here is my latest Eve Tribune article that I wrote while researching high end modules for the Wyvern.

The Battle of MH9C-S

I mentioned on Monday how Ushra'Khan along with all other New Provi residents came rolling in on Monday and set about to attacking MH9C-S system (aka MH9) in an attempt to begin to kick Paxton Federation out of Providence.

On Wednesday afternoon the first reinforced timer was due to end, on the Infrastructure Hub (aka I-Hub) and Paxton rallied its forces to prepare to try and repel the invaders. I wasn't there (:sad face:) but I will let my alliance leader Randall Alba describe it as he posted on Scrapheap Challenge:

Since the initial attack on MH9 Paxton have been on a full war footing with all active pilots expected to be in fleets ready to defend our little corner of space.

The iHub was due out of reinforced just after 20:00. Fleet formed quickly as we entered EU primetime reaching about 160 as our friends in CVA came from empire to support.

Scouts were deployed and a close eye kept on the map for force buildups. The only major concentration seemed to be in 9UY with a titan ready to bridge.

Reports came through that the titan was beginning to bridge but a comms failure meant that the target system wasn't know immediately. The defence fleet couldn't move to block until hostiles began to enter system, most burned out of the bubbles and warped off to regroup.

Enemy was located at the gate to T-R. Sniper fleet warped to engage and an extended action occurred near the gate with both fleets manouvering on grid and using warp outs to reposition. U'K and friends eventually disengaged to reform.

The iHub was by this time out of reinforced so the decison was taken to engage the SBU's which immediately brought the hostile fleet back to engage.

Carriers were then deployed to repair the ihub. The full force of the remaining hostiles relocated to engage them with the main defence fleet in pursuit. Carriers were safely extracted to a friendly POS.

Shortly after this U'K appear to have decided to call it quits for this one and began to pull out.

SBU's were again targeted but the only interference was from an occasional straggler.

All SBU's destroyed and repairs to iHub ongoing as I had to leave to get some sleep.


Battle as seen on PXF killboard

http://www.paxton-federation.info/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=67006

A big thanks to our friends who came to help directly and also those who were operating nearby and intercepted a number of hostile supply vessels en-route.

It was an intense totally smack-free fight and I think everyone had lots of fun.

While no one has any illusions that this is the end of the invasion of our constellation, its a satisfying outcome and a big morale boost to the alliance. Great work to my alliance mates for fighting the good fight and showing that we will not go quietly into the night.

Supercarrier Disucssions - Part 2 - Tanking

Previously:
Part 1 - Drones

In a normal Caldari carrier, there is virtually no question that you will fit an active tank with a Capital Shield Booster accompanied by boosters, hardeners, and cap recharge modules to keep that repper running as long as possible.

But in a supercarrier the same equation becomes less clear. After all, there is no Super Capital Shield Booster and the base hit points of the supercarriers makes the repair rate of the module less impressive and a passive tank with extra high resistances very attractive. With 2 million shield points and a 90% resistance across the board, an enemy fleet has to deal 20 million points of damage to get through the shields alone.

So let's look at numbers. An unfitted Wyvern with my skills (& Caldari Carrier V) looks like this:



With a base of 1.3 million hitpoints and minimal resists its not that impressive but I wanted to show the starting point.

The current fitting uses a typical carrier resistance boost, hitpoint boost, and local repair:

The problem is that is with all the high slot modules deactivated and 13 minutes is not a very long capital engagement, especially if you include the jump in hit to capacitor. Still you can see the impact of the higher resistances as the effective hit points jumps from 4 million to almost 19 million. (Note: this setup and the following include some implants as well for boosting shield hitpoints.)

If we forgo the Capital Shield Booster and the CCC rigs, we can add some more Explosion resistance and a million shield hitpoints boosting the effective hit points by 12 million. That means an enemy fleet has a lot of points to chew through and its not as vulnerable to capacitor running dry. In a typical fleet situation, even a small amount of remote repping will make the supercarrier nearly impossible to take down without a significant enemy capital fleet.


I realize that "dream" setups and EFT-warrioring is no substitute for critical thinking and experience. I'm leaning towards the massive 31.8 million EHP buffer tank but I'm hoping commenters will chime in and give their opinions based on their experiences.


(P.S. Jason, I KEEL YOU!)

Supercarrier Disucssions - Part 1 - Drones

There is not a lot of conventional wisdom to be found on the intertubez about fitting and using supercarriers. This
is most likely due to the fact that out of Eve's hundreds of thousands of pilots, the number of them owning a supercarrier is a small percentage of those.

Side note: I've gotten to like calling them supercarriers over motherships or moms.

So this post is part or a short series with me pontificating about a part of the ship class and you commenters then telling me why I'm full of shit. Onwards!

* * * * *
Part 1 - The Drone Bay (No, not the periodic podcast)

Relevant Ship Bonuses:
- Can field 3 additional Fighters or Fighter-Bombers per Caldari Carrier level
- 200% bonus to Fighter or Fighter-Bomber control range

Relevant Stats:
- Wyvern has 200,000 m3 drone bay
- Fighters and Fighter Bombers are 5000 m3 each
- Wyvern has 12500 mb bandwidth
- Fighter bandwidth is 125, Fighter-Bomber bandwidth is 500.

What this all means is that a supercarrier can potentially launch a flight of 25 Fighters/Fighter-Bombers if they have Caldari Carrier V and 5 Drone Control Units installed in the high slots. Of course, the first lesson you learn in Carrier School is that, generally speaking, Drone Control Units are not worth giving up your utility high slots for on a carrier, and triply so on a supercarrier. We'll go on about high slots another time, for now assume we are not going to bother with any drone control units as 20 drones is sufficient for my purposes.

You could take a flight of 20 Fighters and another of 20 Fighter-Bombers and call it a day. That would fill up your entire drone bay and leave you with no point defence against non-capital targets. On the other hand, one might think why bother with Fighters at all? Well, Fighter-Bombers are not assignable to fleet mates but Fighters are, so we want some of them for tactical flexibility. Here is what I propose as a first pass.

As you can see, simply removing one Fighter or Fighter-Bomber gives enough space for a flight of:
- heavies
- 2 x mediums
- 2 x lights
- medium ECM
- sentry
- medium armour reppers
- heavy armour reppers
- medium shield reppers
- heavy shield reppers

... and still have 1800 m3 for more drones left over. Yes, I know I should get tech II sentries, its on the list.

Should I get more E-War drones? Another flight of heavies? Sentries? And should I have spare Fighter-Bombers and cut back the number of Fighters to merely 10 or 15? What's the loss rate of drones for supercarriers? What mix of the different types of Fighter-Bombers is the best?

These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Just When You Thought You Were Safe...

So on Sunday Chaos Theory dropped sov in AY-24I for some internal reason, possibly due to a corp leaving the alliance. Paxton Federation decided to go shoot the offlined POS and sov mods and CVA came to join in the fun and drop its own Territorial Claim Unit. U'K and friends called a CTA and came to destroy that TCU and get Chaos Theory back in the game.

For us it was just a fun time taking advantage of Chaos Theory's moment of vulnerability. Apparently for our new neighbours and their -A- overlords, it was all the excuse they needed to evict us.

Yesterday a combined fleet of Ushra'Khan, Chaos Theory, Daisho Syndicate, Star Fraction, Noir, "[b]asically everyone who isn't blue to PXF and living in Providence is here to kick our asses" showed up and put one system into reinforced with a nice sized fleet and supporting capitals and supercapitals. We could not match the numbers arrayed against us so they held the field.

Ultimately, since we never agreed to any conditions for remaining in Provi, and U'K were apparently lobbying for us to be removed along with CVA from the start, we were going to do something to piss people off enough to force their hand. Even with Against ALL Authorities sitting this one out, we can't match their numbers and the alliance had no illusions about how tenuous the situation was. On the upside, morale remains high and the plan is to go down fighting however is feasible.

So Long Sweetheart

Derranna is up for sale.

EDIT: Link to auction on forum.

This was not a decision made lightly. I spent the entirety of last week wrestling with whether or not it was time to let the girl go. She's been with me a long time, has a lot of useful skills, and has served me well.

But that's the problem: "served". Lately she's been nothing but a skill trainer. I've lost any interest in the hassles of invention and manufacturing now that writing and trade pay so well so her massive array of science and industry skills are going to waste. And I really don't ever see me going back to that as a secondary play style in Eve because my real life situation has been altered radically such that logging in to move some materials to a factory station or put ten blueprints into a lab for invention is just more effort than I want to invest.

I just want to PvP. And since I have Kla'strit as a PvP alt while Kirith is guarding the supercarrier, Derranna is a third wheel.

What about having a jump freighter pilot? Well, Korneilia (my other alt from last year with 5 million skill points) is only a couple months training from Jump Freighter so I'm working her up to spec, and probably towards an Orca afterward. Then logistically, she will match Derranna.

As I said, it was not an easy decision. But my Eve life has changed and its time to let go and change with it.

This is all assuming of course, that she actually sells :P

Rapier Wit

On Friday night I actually got a couple hours to log in and do something. I felt the need to kill people and with Kirith lodged securely in the Wyvern (rechristened Vendetta Arcanum) I turned to my erstwhile alt Kla'strit who had been put back into m3 corp just for this purpose.

I pulled out his Rapier and joined a fleet... that disbanded two minutes after I arrived. DOH!


No matter, that's the great thing about New Providence, always more action around the next jump. While I was waiting for a new fleet to form up, I flew up to AY-24I station system currently held by Chaos Theory and buzzed the station with a corp mate in a stealth bomber. A Harbinger battlecruiser was floating outside the station and we engaged for shits and giggles, fully realizing he could dock before we killed him. Which, he did. Oh well.

But then five minutes later a Rorqual undocks. "Bait?" I asked in my corp channel. But the big industrial cap ship drifted out of undock range so banking on the theory that half the world has an IQ less than average, I tackled him and the bomber started putting torpedoes into his side while I let the alliance know.

Another red undocks, this time in a Basilisk and starts repping the Rorqual. Then the Harbinger undocks and targets me. Hmmm, I think, might be tough to hold this tackle before the cavalry arrives. Then reports of a 20 ship Systematic Chaos fleet one jump out comes across the intel channel and my director advises me to pull out. Reluctantly, I warp off and was glad the Harbie didn't have me warp scrammed.

After the red fleet moved on, we formed up a gang and did some roaming. I helped catch a Hurricane battlecruiser and the pilots pod obviously being transported (pro tip: warp stabs don't work against bubbles), and then later we tangled with an Agony Empire frigate gang in which I helped catch two of them and a pod. All in all not too bad for good time.

I did find myself frustrated a couple times when I was the tackle on the far side of a gate from the gang and my locking times were too slow. Could have caught a Cynabal at one point which was especially galling as its a cruiser and not a frigate. I'm thinking of dropping one of the large shield extenders for a sensor booster instead of the Signal Amplifier in the lows. I'll post about the Rapier setup later this week perhaps, time for a good analysis.

Return of D-GTMI

Last night Against ALL Authorities returned D-GTMI system and station to Paxton Federation. The publically stated reason is because they respect Paxton and they know Paxton was against the land grab war that CVA started with many of the other holders.

But it seems odd on the surface. In null sec station systems are some of the most desired territory because they offer protection for assets and pilots that a POS can't, as well as the added bonus of station corp hangers, repair services, markets, factories and labs... Quite simply they are the most valuable assets in null sec space. So why did AAA give D-G back without any conditions?

Here are my guesses:

1) Not Needed. Three jumps from D-G into Catch space is the station system HED-GP which is owned by AAA and is part of their jump bridge network as well as a entry back into high sec. From they perspective, D-G is only an entry point into more Providence.

2) Deep In Hostile Territory.

D-GTMI is at the most northern point for AAA space and close to Paxton stations that like to attack anything moving in D-G when it was in hostile hands. We kept the station services disabled as much as possible and frequently roamed through there. In order for it to be useful to AAA, they would have needed to put in a serious presence to keep it clear. Giving it to another friendly alliance and they faced the same problem, in fact the reds in AY-24I are facing this exact scenario constantly, being harassed by Paxton gangs and station services damaged to make the station a bunker and nothing more. Unless Paxton is removed, living in D-G is a tough sell.

3) Good Will. Even though AAA asked for nothing and received nothing for giving D-G back to Paxton, you can't help but wonder if the act coupled with not being kicked out of Providence altogether will influence future decision making by Paxton's leadership. It can't hurt either because...

4) D-G Costs Money. Holding sovereignty over a system with a station costs ISK, lots of it in Dominion. If you can't make use of the system and the station is functionally useless, then its an ISK sink of the worst kind. Abandoning it leaves it open to possibly a more powerful hostile alliance taking root. Giving it to Paxton returns their northern border to a known state (roaming gangs of hostile but no sov threats) while not costing them further ISK.

All around, its a win-win scenario for Against ALL Authorities. That's the style of smart alliance leadership.

Fiction Friday- Series 2: Chapter 5

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

* * * * * *

The aptitude evaluation tests were given over a stressful two weeks. There was no studying which made you feel even more helpless as these tests pretty much determined your destiny and most of the cohort wanted into the Command Corps for the fast track to ship command.

Alas, most of them were disappointed but Jace and I got the option for the Corps and we did not hesitate for sending our applications. Cryst, having a talent for math and sciences, had the option of Engineering or Signals and picked the former in hopes of becoming a chief engineer on one of the Navy's big ships one day.

Despite her being in a different naval division, a lot of our intro courses were the same and she spent most of her studying and free time with us instead of other engineers. I didn't mind as I liked her. I thought about trying to become more than friends with her but I could see plain as day on Jace's face that he was totally smitten with her short brown hair and slight stature and I held back my flirtatious instincts. For her part, Cryst seemed oblivous to Jace's affection and treated us both the same with her easy going manner and distinct unfeminine manner.

I often wondered if her ignorance of Jace's feelings was real or not. Did she just not want to hurt his feelings, or was she really that clueless. Surely a pretty and smart girl like that knew the signs, so I figured she was just playing it safe. For his part, Jace was too worried about rejection so never came out and actually asked her out on a date or anything (not like we had a whole lot of free time for relationships with the massive coursework we were assigned on top of our daily regimen of physical activity and hands-on training). I was surprised that a tall and handsome guy like him would be shy around the ladies but it turned out he grew up on a deep space mining outpost with his father and three brothers and only saw other people through holoreels and the occasional supply trip twice a year to the nearest station. An environment like that builds character but not familiarity with societal niceties.

So we remained a trio of friends precariously balanced on small beans over the swamps of relationship confusion. Compared to secondary school and its raging hormones and developing brains, it was easy.

* * * * *

The year of training was intense and difficult but the constant effort made the time fly past. As three month courses finished and another set began, Jace and I had less overlap with Cryst's increasingly engineering related courses and it meant we had to pick up our own study habits since we could not rely on her organizational skills to see us through. We spent many a long night quizzing each other over the details of the latest chapter, drinking Extra-Caffeinated Quafe to keep alert. Power curves, acceleration graphs, transversal velocity calculations, space-time deformation mechanics, inertial dampener emergency repair procedures, the list goes on and on.

On top of all the learning, hands on training was introduced in that year. First we used simulators with live-feedback controls, and then after 9 months we finally got into space on Kestrel and Hookbill frigates specially converted for trainers and trainees. Each flight we were assigned a different post with different responsibilities and we were expected to know them all to a competent level. It was hard stuff but it was an amazing feeling as we got better and more experienced. The first time we navigated the ship through warp to a beacon and "destroyed" a training drone was a high unlike anything I had experienced up until then.

Finally the year was complete and we received promotion to Ensign. Our class had a wild party on Kisogo station and we drank ourselves into the worst hangover of my life the next morning. Still, bright and early, Jace and I met in the commons square and marched to the office to submit our names for consideration to the Capsuleer program.

Time Is On Our Side

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

What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?

* * * * *


Don't change a thing.


If CCP continue to make an engaging and dynamic universe with increasing number of options for emergent gameplay, than the percentage of female players will increase naturally as the playerbase evolves through time.

I believe that the original base was so predominately male to begin with due to our culture and gender roles defined in the 70s and early 80s. As children of the 90s and 2000s grow into adults and look for entertainment, I think a larger percentage of those gamers attracted to Eve will naturally be female as gender roles evolved into more open ones when those new players were growing up.

Changing the formula now would be an insult to the current gamers that love the game for what it is.

If there is something inherently male about Eve and it will never increase beyond the 5% female playerbase it has now (and I'm willing to concede that is possible), then so be it. I'd rather play Eve as it is now with a bunch of guys and a few brilliant girls than to dilute the experience to have the chance to interact with more women.

I play Eve for the pew pew, I don't care whether or not the person on the other end of my barrel is XX or XY.

Other Participants:

1. The Ladies of New Eden
2. Is EVE a man's world?
3. Sorry, No Pink Spaceships Here Please
4. EVE Blog Banter: Chicks 'N Ships
5. Eve Blog Banter: The Girls Who Fly Spaceships
6. It’s not about fluffy bloody Kittens people!
7. Space Boobies Are Bad, m'kay?
8. Special Blog Banter: I Like Girls
9. Special Edition or making Eve More Casual
10. I wish my wife played EVE
11. Is there something special about women?
12. CK's Blog Banter
13. The Female of the Species
14. EVE Online Can Appeal to Women By Adding Casual Content
15. Blog Banter: The Ladies
16. Women Who Want EVE
17. Tech 2 stilettos
18. New Eden doesn't need to change for Eve – Adam needs to get over himself
19. EVE Online and… women (sorta)
20. Think Outside the Spaceship
21. EVE's monthly banter - Women, women, women
22. Girls Just Wanna Have... Guns!
23. Draco Horizons (Blog) <-- Needs to add intro (with links) and list of participants
24. Don’t change Eve for me!
25. Where Are Teh Laydeez of EVE?
26. Where Are All The Wenches?
27. EVEquality: The Rise of the Female Gamer
28. Women? In MY SPACESHIP? Is she from Mars as well?
29. Blog Banter: Captain Kirk Hates Eve <-- Needs list of participants
30. The Female of the Species
31. The Ladies of New Eden
32. EVE and the X by X Genetic Succession Unit
33. Sociability V
34. Girl on Girls in Space
35. What women want (in Eve)
36. Time Is On Our Side
37. Roc Appeal <-- Needs to add intro (with links) and list of participants
38. Women in EVE
39. Getting In Touch With Our Feminine Side
40. More to come...

Supercarrier Enabled!

Late last week my Director Max came to me and said he found someone in the alliance who was looking to offload their Wyvern and preferred to keep it in the alliance. "Hey!" I said, "I'm in the alliance!"

So I contacted the fellow and we negotiated and agreed to a price that I felt was a steal considering it came fitted with faction and deadspace modules.


My payment for E-ON #19's Testflight article came in and I had the required ISK. I logged in last night to fire some evemails off to arrange things and he was online. "Want to do the exchange now?"

"Sure," I answered, "Why not?"

Even though we had no reason to not trust each other, we agreed to ask a member of Paxton Federation's High Council to act as a third party to hold the ISK in escrow during the exchange. Its best to be prudent in Eve. We searched around for a member of the High Council that was online and not on a roam, and realized Max was the only one. I thought it was weird to suggest my own director but the Wyvern owner was fine with that, rationalizing that getting scammed by two people in a respected corp like M3 was unlikely.

As we prepared for the exchange, a report of a fleet of 20 hostiles roaming went out and we stood down, not interested in having a mishap in the exchange (and my counterpart perhaps wondering if I was a plant). The reds moved on, local was alliance only, and we met at a friendly POS.


As I approached the ship, I was in awe at how big it was and how easily seen from a distance.


He exited the supercarrier, I boarded it, and Max transferred the ISK. Deal done. Here is the camera looking at the front of the ship, examining the flight decks.


Side note: if you board a ship fitted with modules you do not have the skills to use, they simply go offline. I wasn't sure before last night.


Surprisingly agile for a big ship. Compared to a freighter it feels nimble.


In warp to a deep safe spot. Never log off at a POS! You don't know if it will be bubbled to hell and besieged  when you come back.


Standing watch over the system.


This is not the end of Project Wyvern of course. I need to do a lot of skilling up for Fighter Bombers, the Remote ECM Burst, and Caldari Carrier V for 20 drones/fighters of doom. I need to rebuild the wallet so I can afford some fighter-bombers and some more drones, and some fancy implants.

NOTE: For anyone ready to say "you shouldn't get the ship until everything is ready for you to fly it" I can only respond with: this is how I like to play my game, start with something tangible and improve it over time. Besides, the purchase was a steal at current supercarrier prices.

For the curious, here is the current setup. This is not taking into account any implant effects.

Question for the masses: I've heard that rigs you do not have the skills for still work if someone else installed them. Is this true? I'm going to train Jury Rigging IV anyways but would like to know if the CCC II rigs are doing any good already.

Tyrannis: Lacking Content?

 Eve players are spoiled.

First off, we don't have to buy the game off the shelf (real or virtual) in order to play it, we just subscribe. Our expansions are free and twice yearly, and often have several new content changes/additions. All in all, its a good deal.

So when Tyraninis' feature page was launched there was some disappointment from several parts of the player base over the lack of announced new features. Instead there was only two: Planetary Interaction and Eve Gate (the website allowing access to in game emails, calendars, pilot and corp information, etc).

(Sarcasm On) Wow, only two new features for free? How dare they!? (Sarcasm Off)

Eve Gate is neat and handy from an organizational point of view, but its small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. But the fact of the matter is that Planetary Interaction is huge both in implementation and impact on the game.

In terms of implementation, they need to add the items for the various facilities that can be placed on the planet, the logic to mine materials and hook up to factories, schematics to produce new items that were simply NPC sold before, an interface to manage it all, skills to control access to it, logic to determine scarcity on popular planets, etc etc etc. And in terms of impact, the economy is going to be in flux for weeks if not months after this releases as major starbase operators look to power their facilities without visiting major hubs for supplies in high sec. The secondary effect could be the establishment of new smaller hubs in low sec and null sec as more items can be produced locally.

Follow that up with the hooks it will have for open warfare in the future, including the connection to DUST 514, and you have a major content delivery in the works there, on scale with (if not surpassing) the implementation of wormholes.

Being the fanboy that I am, I'm willing to cut CCP some slack on the major features of Tyrannis for now, assuming that the list of small improvements closer to release is similar to the quality of life improvements we saw in Dominion.

Shameless Recruiting Post

Remember that "bold prediction" from last Monday?

[T]he other argument that fits the rumours and evidence is that AAA see no need to remove Paxton and prefers to leave our alliance alone as being good neighbours for "good fights" without sov warfare nonsense.

Well, all internet rumours seem to be holding out that prediction and indeed Paxton will be allowed to remain in Providence for the time being. Paxton leadership did not negotiate this result, it was merely stated unilaterally by Against ALL Authorities leaders on various forums threads. Indeed, it appears as if AAA are going to return D-GTMI to Paxton with no questions asked. We are not viewing this as a victory or reward, merely reality and possible indications of the respect we have earned from our opponents.

The upshot is that we now exist in a region surrounded by reds. LFA is dead, FCON reportedly moving north, the other Holders long gone and CVA in low sec. Surrounded by people we need to shoot (but aren't necessarily working together) and without direct threat to our sovereignty as the whole region has been declared off limits to sov warfare by AAA.

Welcome to constant small to medium gang PvP.

Which is where the recruiting comes in. We need more bodies to continue to make Paxton Federation a local powerhouse in this war torn region so if you think you might be interested in null sec warfare without huge battleship lagfests and sov war mechanics, this is the place for you.

Paxton is a tight-knit alliance with excellent ship replacement program and upgraded systems for ISK making potential with four stations for security and other military advantages. Our corporation, M3 Corp, is a significant part of Paxton's PvP capabilities and sport some excellent and skilled FCs and capital pilots and we would like to add other capable pilots to our ranks.

Join our public channel, "M3_PUBLIC" and talk to our members there for more information.

Fiction Friday- Series 2: Chapter 4

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

* * * * * *

Congratulations Recruit!

After months of hard work you successfully made your way through the hardest basic training in the cluster! But now the real work begins. Over the next two weeks you will attend testing sessions to evaluate your mental and physical aptitudes so that the navy can properly assess where you will fit best. Once the evaluations are complete, you will apply to one of the major branches and upon acceptance begin training in your general field. In the future you may be given opportunity for specialization in that field as well.

In order to help you make your decisions, here are descriptions of the major branches in the Navy.

Engineering Corps

The largest of the divisions in the Navy, the Engineering Corps is responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of every starship, outpost, and station under our control.

Your training will be broad at first, focusing on standard engineering concepts and skills while you and your trainers continually evaluate where your strengths lie. After a year you may be asked to specialize in various systems such as power generation, ordnance regulations, or structure construction/maintenance. Advanced applicants may even be asked to participate in the Research and Development division where Naval engineers and civilian contractors work on the next generation of weapons and systems for maintaining Caldari technological superiority on the border regions.

Signals Corps

The modern battle is often won or lost on the information each side had available to them, and the Signals Corps sole goal is to ensure our fleet commanders have the most detailed data possible. As an apprentice of the Corps you will be instructed in the most modern methods of secure communication and information analysis. As you specialize, you will have the opportunity to specialize in cryptography, data storage and retrieval, signal analysis, electronic warfare and counter measures, and eventually advanced electronic research and design.

Logistics Corps

An army marches on its stomach and a fleet fights on its fuel. The Logistics Corps of the Navy is dedicated to procurement and distribution of the necessary supplies to all corners of Caldari space and beyond. Part of this monumental daily task is ensuring assets in the care of the Navy are properly stored and easily found from distant warehouses when called upon. For munitions and starbase fuel this can be of critical importance.

An apprentice to the Corps will study the main logistics channels of the State and the Navy, and further specialization into various procurement channels is part of the advancement scheme.

Administration Corps

At its heart the Navy is a vast bureaucracy and the Administration Corps provides the grease to keep all parts working smoothly together like a well ordered machine.While not the most glamorous division, without us the Navy would fall apart in chaos and confusion.

Primarily responsible for financial and personnel decisions, apprentices to our Corps will be required to study from all disciplines in order to have the best base knowledge of how the Navy works and how the people and their jobs make it work. Promotions into specialized areas of the Corps such as overseeing recruitment and basic training, aptitude testing, cost savings, Human resources assignments, and more will become available to the most qualified officers.

Officer Corps

Command of a ship or a base takes a quality that is not easily measured but is easily recognized when on display. The Officer Corps is the most sought after division and yet the most difficult to gain entrance to as we only accept those with sterling marks on their qualification tests and the best psychological profiles.

If accepted into the Corps, you will begin the most difficult training to learn how the Navy operates and how its assets must be guided with a steady hand and clear vision. You will serve tours on ships of various classes, and in several bases and stations before your first assignment. If you meet expectations, you will progress through the ranks with more command at each level and if you surpass expectations you may get your selection of posts.

The Officer Corps also hosts the elite Capsuleer Program which has even more strident qualifications for acceptance. See our ombudsman for more information.

[scribbled in margins: "70% survival rate for pod pilot wannabes... ouch!"]

I Still Work For the Eve Tribune

Here's proof: Eve Gate Alpha review.

Awesome Visual ECM Guide

Head over to Rifter Drifter and check it out.

Repost: U-Haul: Never Again

I wrote this on Andrew's old old blog years ago. While he was digging up articles for his new blog he reminded me of it and I thought I would put it here for posterity's sake. Its an amusing tale for those that didn't live through it, and any bad press for U-Haul is a good thing in my books.

* * * * *

Back in December of 2003 I moved into a new house. The move was an almost-disaster and surviving it was a miracle. Anyways, I thought I'd post it here so people can avoid U-Haul like I now swear to do. Enjoy!

Moving Report Day 1: Closing Day Spend day cleaning and packing while waiting for Lawyer to call that our keys are ready. I make a trip to grocery store and Future Shop, but lawyer still hasn't called. My wife and Mother-in-law talk about going out to Walmart all day but wait until 3:00 pm before they go. Lawyer calls at 3:30 that the keys are in and they close at 5:00 pm. It takes roughly 45 mins in good weather to get to Almonte where the lawyer is, and its raining and rush hour outside. I quickly call Kim and get her to come back, and then we are out the door by 4. Stress rises as traffic woes increase and it becomes apparent we are going to be late. We have to call the law office and ask them to wait an extra 15 minutes for us, which they agree to do. We get the keys and start to head for Carleton Place, but promptly get lost in Almonte. Fortunately, Almonte is small and we muddle our way through. We get to the house, tired and cranky (well, me at least) but at least we made it. We need some cloths to help with the cleaning so I head out to Canadian Tire. Didn't know there was a big sale and ended up almost getting trampled by a crowd. As the cashier said, "I think the whole town is here!". Escaping that lot with my life, I head back to the house, finish our cleaning, and head back to Ottawa for tomorrow's big move. Day 2: Moving Day Get up in a good mood. Snow on the ground... uh oh. Well, its not too much. *crosses fingers* I go to the Uhaul dealership to pick up my 24 foot truck. I get in there and they have no idea who I am or what truck I reserved. Um, come again? I pull out my sheet and say "But I confirmed my reservation!!!" No luck. I call the Uhaul central office to ask where the hell my truck is. After 10 minutes on hold, the guy there says the dealer should have a truck for me. I speak with the dealer, still no truck. The guy from the central office speaks with the dealer. Again, still no truck. After ten minutes of arguing on the phone with the central office, the dealer turns to me and says, "The best we can do is give you a truck after 5, maybe 6. Depends when it comes in." Its 8:30 in the freaking morning and I've got people coming to help me move. Needless to say, I'm not too happy. I leave in disgust and return home and start scouring the phone book for another truck available before the evening. As luck would have it, I find one but I have to go to the far side of Gatineau to get it... and bring it back the next day. (For those that don't know, from south end Ottawa to the North side of Gatineau is a 40 minute drive through downtown Ottawa and downtown Gatineau... in good weather.) Well, its better than Uhaul could offer. I grab my friend David to drive my car back and we venture out into the snowy day. Its a long drive but eventually we find the Hertz dealership and secure a moving truck. Oh boy, its Standard transmission. I buckle down because I know I have no choice and I dredge up decade old memories of driving my mother's Cherokee Jeep back in high school. Somehow, I manage to navigate through downtown Hull and downtown Ottawa and make it back to the townhouse even though the truck is sliding through the slush all over the place. But dude, where's my car!?! Somehow I managed to lose David in downtown Ottawa and there is no sign of him. With the snow covered roads and blowing winds, I fear for his life, and more importantly, my car. Anyways, while I have Kim call the Police to find out if there's been an accident with my car, we start loading the truck. By now its 11:30 and we are two and a half hours later than I hoped thanks to Uhaul, but with the help on hand we make good progress and soon the truck is filled. Its cold though, and the snow is blowing and the wind howling. We slowly freeze even though we are bundled in winter coats, and Kim and I worry about poor Dave. Near the end, David shows up with my car intact! Hurray! Turns out he lost me at a yellow light that I went through (what?! Me go through a yellow light? Never!!!) and he stopped at and never saw me again. Since he did not know exactly where I lived and none of us thought to exchange cell phone numbers, he couldn't find the townhouse. So he drove up and down streets in my neighbourhood looking for a big Hertz truck and got lucky. Relief floods the crew. We head for Carleton Place in good spirits, with the weather slackening and the roads clearing. The unloading goes surprisingly smooth with light winds that do not freeze us to the bone. We set up a system with two men in the truck passing to two men who take the stuff to the door where another two men move it inside. Everything is unloaded in record time and we head in satisfied with the end result. We tear off the boots and coats and sit down to some beer and pizza. No thanks to Uhaul, the move was a success! Day 3: Cleanup The alarm goes off at 6 am and I try to make my sore and achy body move to the shower. I've got to get the truck back to the far side of Gatineau before 8 am, and I managed to rope my father-in-law into picking me up afterwards. Poor sod. Anyways, I'm off before the sun comes up and the roads are clear and traffic is light. I have no problems getting the truck back (besides one stall where I was trying to take off in 4th gear instead of 2nd) and soon we've hooked up with Kim and her mother for breakfast near the old townhouse. Kim and I go there after breakfast to cleanup and meet the landlord for the final inspection. At 10 am we start cleaning and it takes the next 3 hours to finish up, including a quick run to walmart to get a new mop because we forgot the old one at our new place. It's hard to make our bodies move but we somehow find the energy and just finish the mopping as the landlord arrives. A quick tour, hand off of the keys, and we are back on the road to Carleton Place. Exhausted again, we pull into the driveway and collapse on the couch. Feet and back ache, tired, broke, but the move is complete. Let the unpacking commence!

And Andrew's comments from the original posting of the moving report:

I must say, the day was amusing on a few counts:

a) I've never driven in snow before - yet there I was at 8:00 slogging my way to Dalton's place to pick him up BEFORE THE PLOWS WERE OUT. I took a fun slide thru a red light coming off the Queensway at March Road - thankfully people were kind enough to anticipate a lack of stopping power, and let me slide through safely.

b) Walking into Bill's place, the conversation went like this:
"Can you pick up David at South Keys, we don't have a truck."
Uhhh.... sure - has he arrived there yet?
"I don't know - I don't have his cell number, and the home line is already disconnected."
Uhhhm - alright - I'll try.

Luckily for us, David showed up at the bus stop 30 seconds before we arrived.

c) Trying to make sure Bill's wife didn't go insane while Bill was out in the snow with a big-ass truck he'd never driven. "Don't worry Kim - Bill couldn't possibly have another accident - he's already used up his quota for this lifetime". I never said I was kind.

d) Driving into the sun on crappy roads around 3pm towards Carleton Place. Can you say blinding???

e) Dropping David off, and then promptly getting lost on Montreal road. I have no sense of direction - never have - probably never will. I ended up on Innes Road. Don't ask.

f) The Sens lost. Well crap. What a horrible end to the day.

Well, So Much For That!

Remember that deep safe spot I was making using questionable techniques recently? CCP says no:

What we're doing
We're defining a "deep safe" for these purposes as any bookmark which is more than 10AU further from the local star than the furthest-out celestial object (planets or stargates).

• You will no longer be able to create bookmarks outside this range
• You will no longer be able to issue a "warp to" command to any location outside this range
• You will no longer be able to open a cynosural field at any location outside this range

This should make these locations essentially unreachable, thus forcing ships within a given system to use the other measures available (docking, cloaking, warping around an awful lot) if they want to avoid being shot at.
Additionally, please note that we will be doing a "clean sweep" during Tyrannis deployment: ALL OBJECTS outside the 10AU perimeter will be removed, and by "removed" we mean "permanently deleted". Ships, cans, territorial structures - nothing will survive. If you have characters in ships outside this distance, the ship will be destroyed and your capsule will be returned to the station that your clone is set to. If you have things parked at "deep safe" spots that you'd like to keep after Tyrannis, or characters parked out there, we strongly recommend that you move them prior to May 18^th.

Personally, I still think they are going the wrong way on this but I don't get a vote. Sigh.

I pity the fool that logged his titan/supercarrier out at one of those and doesn't move it back within range before May 18th. ;)

Bold Prediction Time

Paxton space in Providence region will not be invaded by Against ALL Authorities. I have no strong evidence for this bold prediction, but I have a lot of circumstantial evidence and rumours.

1) Paxton was for the status quo (i.e. no sov wars) prior to the aggression by CVA and the Holders into Catch and AAA knows this through spies.

2) AAA liked having a "garden" in the region next door for simple no-consequence fights. They even offered for CVA to go back to that no-sov-war hostility after the fall of D-GTMI in exchange for giving back said system. When CVA refused the deal the greater invasion of Providence was planned.

3) The new Holders that AAA is helping to install are supposedly going to get standings reset to AAA once CVA is scrubbed from the region. Thus it looks like when the old Garden got unruly, AAA ripped out the bad plants and reseeded it with more compliant groups.

4) Paxton space, excepting D-GTMI, has been untouched by sov claims despite being very active in all CVA and Holders fleets during the fighting.

5) CVA was spotted participating in Factional Warfare instead of fighting in Providence.

So based on those three presuppositions, why would AAA not attack Paxton and remove it from the board much like STEEL and Severance were? One argument is that Paxton space is not a tight pocket constellation and thus not as attractive, but the other argument that fits the rumours and evidence is that AAA see no need to remove Paxton and prefers to leave our alliance alone as being good neighbours for "good fights" without sov warfare nonsense.

My prediction will be either verified or proven false soon. CVA is a shadow in Providence now after last week's major offensive controlling merely 5 disconnected stations out of Providence's 50. Besides Paxton, only LFA is still around from the old Holders and they lost one station in their pocket constellation to U'K this past weekend. (Note: FCON is still holding systems in Northern Catch.)

If my prediction is true, and CVA is soon pushed completely out of Providence yet Paxton remains, the resulting region will be a chaotic combination of hostile entities locked in constant warfare gang and fleet warfare but with few opportunities for taking each other's space (especially if AAA steps in when something does threaten).

Sounds like fun actually.

Fiction Friday- Series 2: Chapter 3

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2

* * * * *
The next three months were hell.

I had hoped that Chief Bates had picked me out randomly and used me to make a point to the whole class of recruits that first day, but it soon became obvious that his hatred of me was sincere.

According to him, my uniform was never clean, my bed never made properly, my physical fitness levels inadequate, my intelligence was questionable, my reflexes were pathetic, and so on. He took almost every opportunity to make sure I got the crappiest tasks and the least downtime. There were many days I was forced to try and function on less than two hours sleep.

But I persevered. Before the events in Perimeter I might have balked at the unfair abuse and walked out but things had changed a lot for me. Losing everything and wondering if my brother was alive while in the station brig really set the bar for mental torture and this attempt to get in the navy was my only viable option left; I had no where else to go, and I knew my brother was doing well from correspondence with the hospital (by law, as his signatory into indentured servitude I was due status information until he was mentally competent again).

I also had my spirits boosted by side commendations from Chief Bates' assistant instructors, and words of encourage from other recruits. By stoically taking the brunt of his aggression I became something of a hero to the others and  that in turn made it easier to simply do as instructed regardless of the pointlessness or injustice of the commands.

The more I refused to show weakness or frustration, though, the more it infuriated Bates. As time went on the tasks became harder, the demands more frequent, and the punishments for perceived failure more severe. Finally, two months and a bit in, he went too far.

We had only three and a half weeks of basic training left and the hard part of the training was past with most of the class still intact. There was fifty-seven of us left and we were already starting to plan our application to the various branches and departments of the navy once we were done. It was morning and we had just finished getting into uniform and making our bunks, standing at attention for when the Chief arrived.

As he always did he strolled down the centre of the two lines we made on each side of the room, giving a once over of our state of attire and bunk sheets as he did so. About two times a week he found some fault with me or my bed so I was unsurprised when he stopped in front of me.

"Recruit, your bunk is UNACCEPTABLE!" he yelled, spittle flecking my face. I did not flinch; the first time a couple months ago when he did this I foolishly moved to remake the bunk and got assigned latrine duty for a week for moving when I had not been told to do so. Doesn't really matter, I got latrine duty most of the time anyways but I didn't want to give him easy excuses to punish me.

"You will remake this bunk NOW!"

Freed from attention I quickly turned, tore the bed down, and remade it with the same perfection it was to begin with. We had done this many times before and I was getting to be a real pro.

"You are a failure, recruit Kodachi! DO IT AGAIN!"

I stifled a sigh and remade the bunk again, once more returning to attention at its foot.

"You call that bunk made? A drunk Gallentean can make a better bunk than that! Pathetic! AGAIN!"

One of the aides, shuffled his feet nervously, wanting to say something but afraid of incurring the old dog's wrath. As I tore off the sheets once more, he continued. "In fact, I think you need more practice to at least get this simple job right. You will remake every bunk in this barracks and then we'll see if you can get the hang of it."

I inwardly groaned. There was sixty bunks in the barracks and remaking the bed took about 2 minutes each. I was going to be here for hours and that was if I was lucky. But there was nothing to do for it and I set my mind on the task at hand, fearful that a stray fold or untucked corner would force me to start over.

He addressed the rest of the class, "You are dismissed to mess hall. Reconvene on the parade grounds at 0900 hours." The recruits started to mill towards the exits, but across my friend Jace remained at attention in front of his bunk, across from my own. Others noticed him not moving and slowly the crowd quieted and came still, curious as to what was going on.

"Is there something wrong recruit?" asked Chief Bates angrily.

"SIR, NO SIR!" Jace answered, still at attention.

"I dismissed you, recruit! Why are you still HERE?"

"SIR, I AM WAITING FOR RECRUIT KODACHI TO FINISH, SIR!"

I cursed under my breath. Damn Jace for making a principled stand that was going to get both of us more shit to deal with. Old man Bates was turning red in the face and was scowling in fury at this sudden insurrection. I figured Jace was done for.

Then Cryst stepped back to her bunk and returned standing to attention. Realization of what was happening spread through the crowd like electricity and before Chief Bates could react any further the entire class was back standing at attention, defiance shining through their impassive faces. (Don't get me wrong, not everyone of those 56 other recruits liked me that much to purposely attract the ire of the Chief, but enough of them did that peer pressure caused the others to stand with the group despite their misgivings. Group cohesion was pounded into us from the beginning by Bates and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.)

As he stood there, face a bright red and fists clenched at his sides while he sputtered in fury, one of his senior aides said in a low voice, "Norm...". It took me a second to realize that it was Bates' first name and he was getting a warning from his old friend. They were facing a mutiny and that would be bad for everyone.

I finished the bunk and moved on to the second one. Except for my actions and the Chief's angry breathing you could hear a pin drop. Everyone waited. I expected the Chief to throw us all in a brig any minute, or leave them all standing there for hours while I worked. But I guess he realized he had gone too far because he breathing slowly calmed, his fists unclenched, and he came over to watch me.

As I finished the bunk he said, "Looks like you finally figured it out, recruit. You're done here, dismissed." Without waiting to see the surprise on my face, he turned on his heel and marched out of the room. I nervously looked at Jace, and his sweaty brow turned to look and smile at me. He shook a little from adrenaline. As the aides left the room we all relaxed and started towards the mess hall, the feeling of victory tangible in the air.

Chief Bates continued to give me a hard time for the remaining three weeks but it seemed like his heart wasn't in it after that day and he did it only out of habit. I survived basic training and never gave another thought to him until my application to the pod pilot program a year later when I found out my record had a glowing commendation from the old man. I guess somewhere along the line I earned his grudging respect despite my father's transgressions. Funny how that works out that way sometimes.

Skill Breakdown

I haven't had time to log in and actually do anything in Eve (or any downtime at all for that matter) so it makes it harder to blog. So I figured I'd give the 60 million skillpoint breakdown I promised last week.





As you can see, Kirith is a very generalist combat character, with lots of ship types and capable in guns (rails to be specific), missiles, and drones. The Wyvern training will increase Drones as I train up for Fighter Bombers, and a little in Electronics for the Remote ECM Burst module.

Now let's look at Derranna with her 57 million skillpoints.

Although she has been doing combat training in Tech II projectiles and Minmatar combat ships, you can see the Industry and Science still dominate her chart, and gunnery/missiles/drones are still small. Not to mention Engineering... (/me makes note to make Tech II shield tanking skill plan).

As a side note, Kirith is in the throes of the long Fighters V skill (40+ days to go) and Derranna is on the last day of Minmatar Battleship V.

How Not To Sell A Ship

So I see a thread of someone selling a Wyvern for a decent price:



The inital post is a little rambling, talking about character and officer mods possibly for sale as well, but we see twice that the price is 15 billion. Except that he then says starting bid is 15 billion. What the hell? Is it a sale or auction?


Then a bumping post seems to reinforce the selling of the Wyvern.


But I'm unsure so I post to clarify, asking what the deal is. What is the response?


The "current price is 16 bil"! No sign of bids in the thread, so unless he got bids via Evemails it seems like he pulled the higher price out of his ass. Couple that with the weird sentences that follow and I'm not confident that this guy can tie his shoes much less transfer a supercarrier to a buyer.

I understand that his first language might not be english, but the lack of capital letters, proper sentence structure, coherent thoughts, and short forms for already short words leads me to think... otherwise. Needless to say I'm going to pass on this one unless I see the price drop.

More Info On Providence Invasion

Hallan Turrek has more information on the current invasion of CVA space.

The End is Nigh

Last night AAA and allies attacked the sovereignty of 13-17 CVA systems in Providence. For all intents and purposes, CVA is done in Providence for the forseeable future barring a sudden change in the southern political atmosphere.

So far, since D-GTMI fell Paxton Federation space has not come under direct attack and according to reports Paxton pilots continue to make up a decent portion of any Provi-bloc fleets. There has been some idle speculation about why Paxton space has not been assaulted but the most sure bet is just that since we are in the middle of Southern Providence we are not a high priority target like CVA or the Severance and Steel pocket constellations. Regardless, we are prepared to fight at the end with whatever we got. And the end is near I fear.

For the corp, the war has been a good chance to prove ourselves. On the killboard we've been posting the highest percentage of active pilots (54% pilots getting in on 10 kills or more in March) in the alliance and consistently in the top 3 for most killmails despite being smaller than average. We're developing a really good core of PvP pilots and FC experience.

My only regret is that the new baby is really doing a number on my gametime but I remember this from two summers ago and I know things will settle down eventually. In the meantime, I live vicariously through my corpmates.

Meanwhile, let's check in on the Carebear Brigade who were found slacking last time...


That's better!

Shameless Blog Flogging II

There are a few bloggers that belong to my corp (or used to) and two new recent members started blogging some really good stuff so I thought I would push some traffic their way.

Lumenarious Rex has been doing some great information/instructive posts on scouting and camping at his blog A Scout's Domain. A sample:

As before, we are fairly safe making the following assumptions:

- The hostile fleet will have a competent FC
- The hostile fleet will have an competent advance scout who will not warp to 0 KM on the gate
- The hostile fleet, when faced with adversaries of greater numbers will choose to run rather than fight.

Since this particular deployment is anchored around the star gate, many wouldn't consider ship position to be that critical to the success of the camp.  That assertion would only be partially correct. Depending on the class of ship and it's role, position in relation to the gate is critical.  

As you can see, it sounds like he knows what he is doing. 

Another new entry to the blogosphere is Orakkus who is a quality Minmatar pilot and has some keen insight into that empire's ships at his blog, 2nd Anomaly From The Left: 

The Minmatar Cyclone is a ship rarely seen on the battlefields of today.  More often, the familiar style is seen in the Commandship variants, the Sleipnir and the Claymore.  Nearly all of the PVP duties that the Cyclone engaged in have been taken over by the much feared and respected Hurricane.  As much as I would like to say “Here’s a way to make it AWESOME!”, the simple fact of the matter is that due to its bonuses and due to the fact that its an active shield tanker.. there is simply no realistic comparision that we can do between the Hurricane and the Cyclone.  The Hurricane can passively tank better, do far more damage both long and short range, using any type of AC or Arty and doesn’t require you to be reasonably skilled in two weapon systems.  So, never get a Cyclone, right?

Well, besides being one of the best looking battlecruisers in the game (its got that steampunk/japanese pagoda/locomotive look going on..), it does have two advantages over the much praised Hurricane.  Its cheaper and, in very short spurts, can take much more damage if setup correctly.  This advantages are complimented by a slightly larger drone bay (40 m3) and that it is quite inexpensive to fit, and a decent PVP fit can be had with T1 equipment (which is nice when you are just starting to try out Battlecruiser PVP). 

Go read the rest.

Fiction Friday- Series 2: Chapter 2

Previously:
Chapter 1

* * * * *


The shuttle took us two short jumps, one into Jita and the next into Kisogo. This is back before the jump gates between Jita and Kisogo were dismantled due to "security reasons" turning Kisogo into a dead end system instead of a major thoroughfare. The civilian decks of the State War Academy Station in Kisogo used to be almost as bustling as some of the stations in Jita itself, a cheaper avenue to sell items to the corporations and capsuleers as well as prime recruiting spot of servicemen finishing their time in the navy. I visited the station last year and was shocked at how its gone downhill since the closing of the jump gates; the businesses on the civilian decks were dilapidated and low brow, their only business now the off duty naval cadets and station residents.

The State War Academy School station is primarily dedicated to the training of naval cadets for the State Navy. Instead of many decks of residential apartments there are dormitories for the cadets, classrooms, combat simulation sets, hands-on laboratories, libraries and study areas, activity gymnasiums, and dignitary congress centres. There are still some civilian residental decks for families of servicemen and station attendants, but the bulk of the station is dedicated to the naval academy.

Conversely, the hangers are mostly civilian use with only a handful set aside for the Navy. Instead there are shipyards at deep space locations where the Navy's assets are well protected from prying eyes and maintained where they are safer from civilian sabotage.

Our shuttle docked at the Kisogo station and we were herded into the processing centre where our applications were reviewed and our civilian belongings stored away in exchange for military issue fatigues. I admit I had a harder time giving up my comm unit than I did my hair, but some other cadets were nearly teary eyed as the buzzers were passed over their scalp. I teased Cryst a little and she punched me in the arm in return.

After all of the others were finished we were presented to our Drill Instructor for roll call and as he called the last names we lined up as instructed.

"KODACHI!"

I stepped up into position and stood as straight as I could. But instead of carrying on to the next name he paused and looked hard at me. "Are you related to the Kodachis of Vahunomi?"

"Uh...  yes," I stuttered. I was unsure if I should elaborate or add 'sir' to the end.

"My father knew your father," he said conversationally. I could feel every cadet desperately straining to listen in on this disruption. I didn't know what to say so I simply said, "oh".

"Yep, we used to live there until your father ruined my father's business and we were forced to move to Oishami. My father spent his days working himself to death in an ice mining operation there to make sure there was food on the table."

I swallowed hard and sweat beaded on my brow. "I'm sorry?" I offered lamely.

"DON'T BE SORRY FOR ME, BOY!" he shouted in my face and I took a step back in surprise.

"GET BACK HERE, CADET! DID I SAY YOU ARE ALLOWED TO FLINCH?" I tried to regain my composure but it was hard with him yelling inches away from my face, spittle flying to strike me. I finally found my balance and stared hard at the Drill Instructors forehead while trying not to move. With a sniff he carried on with the roll call and I noticed the other cadets moved a little faster and stood a little more still.

"Alright cadets, I am Chief Petty Officer Bates and I will be the star around which your life revolves for the next 3 months. You will do what I say when I say it and I expect you to anticipate what I want before it even occurs to me by the end of your training. Today you are merely civilians play-acting, but in three months I'll turn you into real naval cadets!"

He turned to an aide. "Now you will follow Petty Officer Firiasth who will show you your assigned billets." He pointed at me. "Except you, Kodachi! You will spend some time practicing how to stand still. I'll send someone to get you later."

My face burned in embarrassment as the rest of the class exited in single file. I could tell it was going to be a long three months.

60 Million Baby!

Kirith Kodachi now has over 60 million skillpoints. Next week I'll do a breakdown chart.

War Is Hell

It was hard from me to not post my thoughts a couple months ago when the war in Providence started. I feel its been long enough and the outcome of those early days obvious enough that I can post now and not reveal any top secret information.

First off, let me say I understand how an alliance can decide to go to war when from an outside perspective everything looks fine. Relatively safe and static environments with no threats to sov may be good for wallets, they are not good for forging powerful PvP entities. Fearful of atrophying skills and combined with a desire to make things more exciting, alliance leaders may choose to go to war when none is called for.

Another factor in leading the leadership of CVA and the Holders to consider opening serious hostilities could be the fact that Providence was getting very crowded as the residents grew in numbers and more and more neutrals came to exploit the safe (again relatively) space. There was intense competition for every rat and complex.

Whether or not it was CVA or LFA leadership that were the main proponents for the war (and there have been a lot of accusations thrown back and forth) the fact was that a path was decided upon and a land grab was decided upon. But here is where the wheels fall off the bus.

The planning didn't include all of the Holder alliances for one thing. My alliance, Paxton, was effectively taken surprise by the war announcement and had mere days to prepare even though they are on the front line border with AAA. The attacks were sudden and rushed and many pilots didn't have time to move assets closer to the fighting.

But the most egregious mistake was instead of a modest attempt to grab F9E alone next door to D-G, they stabbed into Catch with an ambitious thrust that included threatening HED system, the major high sec logistics pipe for AAA and allies. Now I realize that Providence region is isolated from a lot of other near by null sec regions but surely there could have been some other space to assault that was not so important to a large 0.0 powerhouse and its coalition. Instead of starting a sov war for Fleet practice and PvP experience, we started a blood feud.

Another crucial error was working with the Goons. I said we never set the Goons blue and that is true; they were always red to us. But in several engagement we were told to ignore any reds (i.e. Goons) except those called as targets and the perception in the community was that we were working together. I actually began to believe there was upper level accords in place between Provi-blob and Goonswarm and considered if I needed to make a principled stand and leave the conflict. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) Goons imploded and the issue was removed but not before the damage was done to CVA's and the Holder's reputations.

Ultimately AAA and allies responded and retook the systems in Catch and followed it up by taking D-GTMI from us. The loss of one station system in a region with 30-40 was not a big deal, but the morale blow of the capital fleet debacle was huge and reverberated through the Provi-bloc's confidence despite outward protestations. It was apparent we were in over our heads with no larger coalition of allies to call upon.

So why did CVA et al not accept the AAA offer to end the war and return D-G? There were a number of reasons and I agree with many of them, but I also agree with many reasons giving for accepting the humbling terms. Regardless, I didn't get a vote and the decision was not accept the offer. This caused a certain amount of strife in the Holder's forums but eventually everything calmed down and a new strategy of tiring the enemy out with timers was called for, an obvious sign of the confidence blow that is the D-G capital fleet loss. Will it work? Time will tell...

From AAA perspective I imagine they cannot allow CVA to become strong again and be a belligerent enemy at their front door, and eliminating the space of allies Slyph, Cold Steel, and Severance as well as taking the entry systems to Providence indicate a strategy of isolation and destabilization. While Paxton space has been exempt from any further territorial attacks, the general consensus is that it is only a matter of time before the supercaps of AAA and allies descend upon us, the victims of a unwanted war.

Despite all the bad things that have come out of this conflict, the good side is that Paxton has grown closer together in the adversity and continued to fight in good numbers despite the overwhelming odds at times. And M3 itself has continued to develop into a strong part of Paxton and we anticipate the alliance and corporation surviving and remaining strong despite what comes in the future.