Press Release - Guild Launch Goes to Space

 I've been asked to help do some promotion and write some material for a site called Guild Launch that is expanding its Eve Online services such as corporate forums, website hosting, and more. Here is a press release with a contest. Check it out.

For Immediate Release
September, 28 2011

Guild Launch Goes to Space

Guild Launch Announces Eve Online Platform Support with series of Promotions

Richmond, VA — September 28th 2011 — Guild Launch
http://www.GuildLaunch.com/ is running a series of Eve Online promotions to kick off the
release of their Eve Online hosting functionality. Promotional prize packages include a trip to
Reykjavik for Eve Fanfest, a trip to Atlanta, GA to meet the Eve content team, a brand new
gaming computer and multiple years of Guild Launch’s top tier of service. The Guild Launch
Eve Online platform will include API integration, rosters, Eve image display as well as Killboard
functionality.
“Eve Online is one of our favorite games here at Guild Launch and we want to release
our Eve functionality with a splash. Giving away a trip to Eve Fanfest is a very special prize and
the opportunity to meet the Eve content team is very unique” says Stephen Johnston, company
founder.
The promotions are open to players of any game and are designed to work with 3rd party
hosting of all types via embeddable widgets. The promotions that are active, as of today, are the
Eve Online Top Site contest which is a vote based contest and a Correspondent contest which is
looking for a writer to cover Eve Online topics, and be compensated as a freelancer, for Guild
Launch and Beckett Massive Online Gamer magazine. These contests will run until December
and are live on the Guild Launch community site at http://www.TheGuildLife.com/.

Guild Launch is the leading provider of services to gamers in guilds, kinships and clans
playing over 250 online games. Guild Launch’s easy to use and customizable, Guild
Management System supports a finely tailored set of features focused on the needs of MMO,
FPS and online gamers of all types. Features include social networking, DKP, Forums, Calendar
Planning, Roster Imports, Newsletters and a high degree of customization and security
unmatched in the industry.

#########

For more information, press only:
Mike Bilter, 804-497-3428, mike.bilter@guildlaunch.com

For more information on Guild Launch:
http://www.GuildLaunch.com/

Vacation Next Week

I will be on vacation next week so blogging will be slow. I do expect to record a podcast episode though so keep aneyeout for me in the Ninveah in game channel.

Fiction Friday - Series 4: Part 8

Previously:
Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

* * * * *

The first small targets exploded in a flash, the particles of lead accelerated to near light speeds ripping through their inadequate armour in a flash. Some other targets were tougher, with shields and plates that could divert and absorb the energies, but only for a few moments before they too were debris.

Luccul in his Drake arrived and began working on the cruisers, taking them by surprise with attacks to their flanks. He launched drones and had them attack some destroyers making for Kla'strit's Maelstrom which in turn was accelerating to top speed to close with the nearest Cartel battleships to engage with his 800mm autocannons.

I set about adding to my target list as approaching frigates were destroyed. Soon I was firing at destroyers as the last two enemy interceptors got under my railguns and I launched my drones to deal with them.

The enemy fleet was being decimated but their poor electronics and command structure was slow in seeing it. They probably didn't even realize yet that the escort ships had been neutralized and the cruisers were about gone. The Maelstrom chewed through two old and broken down Machariel hulls before they enemy started taking a withdrawing stance. Luccul was trading salvos with another so I changed my ammunition to antimatter as I approached and opened fire in his support. The target's port side disappeared in a flurry of explosions.

The remaining 3 enemy battleships and a single battered battlecruiser entered warp moments later. The battle was won.

"Good work, team," Kla'strit broadcast. "I'll let the salvagers know they can clear up the pocket, and I'll see if my agent has any more work for us."

"Roger," I replied. "We'll wait here until the salvage ships get here."

The big Maelstrom aligned to the station and accelerated to warp speed while Luccul approach several wrecks to see if anything survived intact. I simply sat in place and reviewed my comms for messages, composing a reply.

"Hello, who's that?" Luccul asked.

I stop concentrating on the message I was writing and focused on my overview again. A ship, a pod pilot ship to be exact, was 30 kilometers off of the Drake's bow and 45 kilometers from me. It was a Pilgrim, an advanced Amarr cruiser with some impressive electronic warfare capabilities. "I don't know, Luc. But he can't do anything here in high sec unless we act stupid. He's probably looking at the salvage. Leave him be."

The pilgrim was not advancing on any of the Cartel ship wrecks, however, and instead was making its way steadily towards us. I checked the pilot information, one Forsa Jolummin of the Amarr Imperial Academy. I tried to open comms with the newcomer but it was not accepted. "This is odd, Luccul. Make your way towards me and make sure your drones are under control. Don't target him either, I don't want any mistakes."

The battlecruiser came around and starting moving towards me. Seconds later the Recon cruiser activated its afterburners and started closing faster.

"What the hell is going on?" I wondered out loud. "Luccul, you don't have a GCC or kill rights or anything, do you?"

"I swear to god, man, I've done nothing."

"Then what is this bozo trying to prove?"

"He's locking me," Luccul reported, his voice climbing a bit higher as adrenaline upticked in his body. At the same time, the yellow indicator started flashing on my screen. "Same here. Screw this, let's go and pick up the other guys and come back in force." Luccul agreed and we brought our vessels around together. The Drake, being a smaller and more agile ship, sped up and entered warp first. My Rokh battleship reached just over half speed when my ship's AI reported the most dreaded words a pod pilot can ever hear...

"You cannot warp because you are warp scrambled," it purred at me as the icon for the Pilgrim went red.

"WHAT?!"

More Space: The Debate

I think my opponent is not just wrong, he's also an ass.

Yesterday in my "7 Ideas to make a lot of blog traffic and comments" post the 7th item on the list generated the most comments (both here and on twitter):

7. More Space - Either new systems accessed by wormholes, or opening up the Jove space, or adding new regions, anything to change up the status quo.

I struggled with whether or not to add this one and the feedback was almost universally condeming the idea:

#7 I would prefer they fixed low-sec before adding more space.
...
We don't need more space at the moment.
...
I like these, other than the new space. Fix the space they have.
There is so much area of low sec and areas of Null that are vast stretches of nothing.
The risk/reward for low sec is simply not there.
The risk/reward for Null is only there in some areas.
...
A lot of those ideas address symptoms. More space, for instance, won't help until CCP rebalances existing space
...you think we need more space? I fly around and every system is empty. Scratch #7 

There were a couple voices that agreed with me, albeit conditionally:

#7 would go a long way towards helping imho, but the space would need to be huge to allow "real" expansion to it instead of immediate annexation by the current large power blocks.
...
7. More Space - additional space would be nice, but i think you'd run into the same exact issues presently in nullsec, there would have to be something radically different about the new space like whs to make it actually work.

Basically, more than any other item on the list it drew the most attention so I'm going to talk about it here right now. Brace yourselves.

I can see where the people are coming from that say, essentially, "we need to make better use of the space we already have since there is a lot of empty systems". Fundamentally from the point of view of most efficiency I can agree with that.

However, from an aesthetic point of view, I must disagree.

Ah peace and quiet!

Space is large.

But if there is 3-5 pilots in the local of each system for a stretch of five systems, it feels crowded and depleted in terms of resources.

So space feels small.

I like when I am going through null sec and low sec and I see nary a soul for five jumps. It makes the interaction all that more interesting and exciting instead of mundane. I want there to be civilization (high sec) and outposts of civilization surrounded by sparsely populated wilderness that can be explored and investigated. I don't want my space to be cheek to jowl urbanized sprawl.

Anyone seen my car keys?

(Even wormhole space is losing its lustre of unknown and unexplored. So much of it has been colonized and is claimed that its rare to find a wormhole that no one lives in.)

Part of the overall problem with regular space is that local condenses a system to a single view. It doesn't matter how big an actual system is and how many sites and belts it has to exploit, a pilot gets a view of all other pilots at a glance. Its like trying to hide from a person in a city where all they have to do to narrow you down is step into each quarter of the city to get a hit on your presence.

If local were less useful as an intel / location tool, i.e. operated on constellation level instead of system level, it might be that space would regain some of its vastness and emptiness.

Of course, the other option is to add more space to hide in. More wormhole systems would be cool, or another class of wormhole accessible systems that are internally connected by weird ancient gates and can have sov and outposts built, essentially a null sec starting from scratch without the easy facilities of high sec nearby.

As for fears that any new space would be quickly annexed by existing power blocs, I answer that we face that issue with any new feature introduced that is worth exploiting. We guard against this as best as we can and try things anyways.


EDIT:
Another point I wanted to make but forgot until re-reading is that prior to the Sanctum nerf null sec space was considered equally good for the most part all over the regions. Part of the reason for nerfing the sanctums that CCP gave was that they wanted to create less homogenous space, having some desirable space and less desirable space. This of course has the impact of the populations that can be supported in these systems. In other words, don't expect CCP to make all space universally useful as they feel that makes for a boring stale game; they like variety and thus empty systems are a result of this philosophy.

It may be that adding more space is a more palatable course of action to the developers over making all space more "useful".
/EDIT

 * * * * *

In the end, I suggested more space to simply change the equations of the current status and to mix things up. Done right, like wormhole space was, it can add a large portion of new game play to the universe.

Seven Things CCP Can Do To Revitalize Eve

I started composing this post before the dev blogs about the return of ship spinning / cyno effect / gun icons and new font were released and I have heard rumours that another dev blog is in the offing that will be even bigger in terms of Flying in Space content, but I'm going to propose seven changes / additions that CCP could do over the next few months to revitalize the game.


1. Super Cap Balancing - OK, that was an easy one we know is coming, but let's get it and done right.

2. New Ships - Remember those two ship design contests and the awesome entries selected near the top. Tornado anyone? Get them in game.Tier III tech 1 battlecruiser that is more damage and less tank than the tier II battlecruisers would be enough to throw the current fleet design theories for a loop, or even make them equally powerful in terms of damage and tank as the tier IIs but on the secondary weapon system for that race (Gallente drones, Caladari rails, Amarr heavy assault missiles, Minmatar... drones/missiles/guns combo a la Typhoon).

Alternatively, make them tech II ships that are deep space exploration vessels with only 4 weapon hardpoints but have marauder bonus and bonuses to probing/hacking/etc.

3. Fix Blasters - give them enough tracking / signature resolution to be able to hit same size targets at optimal when target either has no propulsion mod or it has one but friendly webs are in play. This will help to put Gallente vessels (and some Caldari ones) back into rotation.

4. Update Incursions - Everyone agrees that the Incursions were done well for PvE content but have been mastered by the people who run them on a consistent basis. Add some more randomness to them to spice things up and keep fleets on their toes.

5. More Live Events - They may not mean much in the grand scale of things, but no one ever says "I went to a live event and was bored". They breathe life and excitement into the mundane.

6. Update Faction Warfare - make having control of an enemy system in FW worth something, like the ownership of faction warfare stations switch allegiance AND enemy factions can't dock at each others stations AND the sentry guns start to participate at that station. It may not be much, but it might be enough to make taking a system deep in hostile space for a staging area worth it.

7. More Space - Either new systems accessed by wormholes, or opening up the Jove space, or adding new regions, anything to change up the status quo.

Tank Tuesday - Medium Tanks, What The Hell?

I've decided that Tuesday's blog post every week is for World of Tanks.

I reached elite status on my tier IV light tank Panzer 38 nA very quickly which meant the tier V medium tank Panzer IV was available to me. With the grid up the tank destroyer line proceeding slowly I decided to splurge my credits on the new tank and try out mediums for the first time.

Sniping with Tank Destroyers I get.

Long range bombing with artillery I get.

Running and gunning scouting in a light tank I get.

Medium tanks? I don't get.

I mean, I get the theory: slower and heavier than light tanks, faster and lighter than heavy tanks, they kill smaller stuff and try and be eyes and flank the heavy stuff, blah blah blah. But I was just getting smashed in my first forays in the Panzer IV. Utterly useless.

I did some forum searches and and soul searching (more of the former than the latter) and determined my difficulties stemmed from several areas:

1) Stock Tank Syndrome - the base weapon of Panzer IV and the first upgrade weapon are both tier III, one with poor penetration and the other with poor damage. No wonder the tier IV light tanks were laughing at me. I've upgraded to a mid level gun that is actually powerful enough to give light tanks concern and there are more upgrades available later on that give the tank good bang for its firepower buck.

2) Actually not a brawler - I was treating the tank like a Soviet or American medium which are typically brawlers up on the front lines, but the Pz IV is more of a sniping medium tank meant to hang back a little more and provide distance support. (Again, the upgraded weapons will help). This is good because I like sniping and am fairly competent at it with my StuG tank destroyer.

3) Not used to having turret weapon - I spend so much time in the tank destroyer where I have to find a solid spot to aim my tank and then aim the gun, I quickly forget how to fire and dash in the medium tank: stop, aim, shoot, drive again.

Last night I tried a few matches and started to feel a little more competent, but its going to be a while before I feel comfortable.

Right or Wrong, FC is God

I have a rule.

If I join a fleet, I've signed a contract to follow the FC's instructions until I leave that fleet. Its a two way contract: he can rest assured I will do what he instructs to the best of my ability, and I know he is trying his best to keep us alive and get us some kills. Mistakes will happen since nobody is perfect, and I'm not saying I'll be a mindless automaton, but if the FC gives a command I'll not counter it without a really good reason.

* * * * *

Last night I logged and and started getting familiar with the local area around Amamake in Heimatar region. I took trusty (and rusty!) Hurricane #3 out and looked for trouble.

In Egghelende I warped into a belt and saw a juicy Enyo sitting ~120 kilometers away. I quickly warped to a celestial behind him and back to the belt at 100 km but he was gone. However, a quick scan showed an Enyo and Vengeance near a faction warfare beacon so I warped in...

... just in time to see the Vengeance finish off the Enyo about 50 km from me and then warp off. Well, shit. I looked around for the Vengeance some more but he left and I fumed.

At this time corp mate Acute Dragonis ( "A cute dragon is what?" I was tempted to ask) logged in and he offered to show me some sites and get more safe spots. So we went for a cruise, he in his Wolf assault ship and me still in the Hurricane (note to self: need more ship types).

We started heading up to Evati area and along the way ran into a neutral Firetail frigate at a gate. He started reporting my presence in local chat instead of his intel channel (insert snickering noise here) and I jumped through. On the other side, a second Firetail showed up.

"I'm going to approach and see if he'll engage," I said cockily.

"I wouldn't do that, he's got friends in local," my fleet commander warned.

By then it was too late and as I tried to warp off I was locked and scrammed by the Firetail. I engaged back as the second Firetail and a Thorax and Enyo arrived. A militia friendly Nemesis decloaked and threw some torps at the firetail I had engaged and we got him down to half armour...

"De-aggress and try and jump through the gate," my FC said.

My instincts told me to go all in on the Firetail and try and take him down with me. I wasn't going to survive long enough to jump, I thought. But years of ingrained instruction took over and I shut off my gear and sat on the gate spanning jump.

I didn't make it.

I managed to get the pod out and Acute Dragonis did not lose his Wolf. Not sure what became of the Nemesis pilot that tried to help us, but hat's off to you sir for engaging.

We exchanged good fights in local and I went back to Dal for Hurricane #4. By the time I got back we moved on towards Evati some more but ran into another powerful gang and had to hold up. It was getting late so I docked and parted ways.

Its not the stellar start to life in Minmatar space I was hoping for, but anything is better than losing a ship to NPCs.

Fiction Friday - Series 4: Part 7

Previously:
Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

* * * * *

"OK, by the book gentlemen," Kla'strit instructed. "Kirith and I will warp in first, catch their attention, and give the signal for you to come in, Luccul."

"Roger," the Drake pilot responded.

"Let's go."

I reached out with my mind to send the signal to the massive acceleration gate to lock on to my ship's structure and propel us at faster than light speeds in a small real space inversion, just like my own warp core does in normal flight. Acceleration gates are commonly used for navigation into areas of "deadspace" where the underlying subspace structure is disturbed or in flux and makes warping through it slightly dangerous. The danger areas can be mapped and navigated around but that is time consuming and still fraught with hazards, but an acceleration gate can generate a more solid short term inversion that plows through the fluctuations like a bullet through a New Caldari windstorm.

It was only about 20,000 kilometers until the warp inversion dissipated and we decelerated back to sub-light speeds. Immediately my overview lit up like a Gallentean whorehouse: Angel Cartel frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships in almost every direction.

"This is not 'sneaking into Teon', Kla. This is a full on invasion."

"Yes, I'll have to have a little chat with my agent on mission details," he replied.

I brought the ship around and aligned towards the only open area of space. (Since the danger of deadspace is mostly with deceleration from light speeds to sub-light speeds, warping out of deadspace is usually not a problem.) As the ship came about I started instructing the targeting computers to get fixes on the nearest frigates and destroyers. Like all pirate factions, their line troops typically had poor quality ships and equipment and usually only a few frigates would be given the necessary electronic warfare modules like disruptors and stasis webs that would be a cause for concern. I prepped the five Caldari State Supplies Vespa-II Elite Class drones in the drone bay for launch; my big guns were unable to track fast enough when the small ships got within 25 kilometers of me and started orbiting but my drones were more than a match for the ramshackle small ships of the pirates and renegades.

And anything moving in a straight line towards me? Dead, I don't care how small your signature is.

"Looks like groups 1 and 3 are targeting me," the pilot of the Maelstrom reported. "I got the rest," I responded. Kla'strit then sent a message to Luccul to come on into the deadspace. "Go for the cruisers and battlecruisers with your heavy missiles, drones on frigs," he instructed.

I made sure my targets were only the ships lighting me up, and but a trace process on the Maelstrom's and Drake's stats so I knew if my wingmates were in trouble. It wasn't likely though, the hulls sported some of the strongest shield defence systems in the cluster outside of capital ships, and the enemy ships were in many cases leaking radiation and missing armour plating.

The nearest frigate threat was 55 klicks and closing fast, with three more right behind him. I assigned two pairs of turrets to each target and opened fire.

Moving Light

Heh heh heh...

Image courtesy of Eve-Outtakes.

I packed up the Chimera for the trip to Minmatar space. My selection of ships is small as I can always purchase more once out there. A couple Hurricanes, an Astarte, a Raptor for running around, a Harpy, and something else, I just can't remember what it is.

Two jumps from now I should be ready to go for Sunday night. Someone tell the Amarr to travel solo that night, I need to practice my one on one.

New Meme: Your First Ever Lossmail!

Can you track down your first PvP loss on some killboard somewhere?

This is mine:

2006.10.06 10:17:00

Victim: Kirith Kodachi
Corp: Interstellar Privateers of Res Comunis
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Merlin
System: MHC-R3
Security: 0.0
Damage Taken: 0

Involved parties:

Name: Redrig Bayer (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.6
Corp: Art of War
Alliance: Cult of War
Faction: NONE
Ship: Lachesis
Weapon: Valkyrie II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Iron Charge S, Qty: 120
Thorn Rocket, Qty: 30
Small Shield Booster I
Light Ion Blaster I
Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 686 (Cargo)
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 200 (Cargo)
Thorium Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Uranium Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Thorn Rocket, Qty: 248 (Cargo)
Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 1120 (Cargo)
Drugdealer Passcard to Storage Area (Cargo)

And as a bonus, here is the blog post I wrote about it:

This morning I headed out in my Merlin frigate Death Threat III and started heading back to the old headquarters where I was going to switch to a shuttle. Along the way I went one jump out of my way to pick up a shield recharger I purchased and then went back on the trail. Unfortunately, the insta bookmark to the next gate was setup to come from the first gate and not the second one I was at from my sidetrip. Sure enough, I warped in 18 klicks out from the gate and a gate camper was there locking on to me. Having never been in PvP I felt foolhardy and decided to try and make a run for the gate. I'm fast, right? And small? He shouldn't be able to hit me, right?

Wrong. Only 3000 meters from the gate I was dead and soon after mercifully podded to save my clone the embarassment of warping back to base without a ship. Sigh.

So come people, whip 'em out!

P.S. man, remember insta-bookmarks you needed for getting around anywhere in good time? Can I get a hell yes for warp to zero?

That Happened Sooner Than Expected

BAM! I got you!

Tanks is surprisingly popular in our house lately. The first thing I hear when I get home from work is "I wanna play toynks!!!!!" from Twin B, aka Sean. Twin A, Luke, follows up with a "Yeah, tanks!"

It all started a few weeks ago when the boys saw me playing tanks and sat on my lap for a session. The excitement of looking out for bad guys while daddy drove around the map was so much fun that the technophile, Sean, had to give it a try himself.

Well, I wasn't about to let a 3.5 year old in a random battle with 29 strangers. For one thing, he would just get killed really fast and for another, he might start shooting friendlies and get blacklisted. But there is a Team Training mode in which he could drive around the map without outside interference.

Except for one thing. Team training needs at minimum two tanks.

So Sean got his own World Of Tanks account (hooray for free-to-play) and WoT got installed on the old computer (which has an upgraded decent video card so can handle it for the most part). Then I could log in both machines and have Sean roll around on his own.

Well Luke (and yes, I do say to him occasionally "Luke, I am your father") was not about to let Sean have all the fun so he started using my computer and account to drive around too. There is a lot of help from me to get them unstuck so I try to stay on open maps like Malinovka and Prokhorovka but the boys have their own opinions and Sean likes the city of Himmelsdorf (aka "Himmeldorfy!") and Luke like Sand River because it has lots of buildings to crash through.

And all was well... until they discovered the joy of PvP.

Apparently driving around exploring the map and occasionally passing each other was not enough. Sean wanted to shoot the bad guy. And as soon as Lukas realized what was going on, well he was on that mouse and trying to bracket Sean right away.

So we get to the crux of the issue: Lukas is on my account driving around in a tier IV fully upgraded light tank (Pz 38 nA for the win!) and Sean is in a rookie tier I tank. Sean might be able to aim and hit better, as he is the more technically adept of the twins, but Lukas one shots the little T1 Cunningham every time. My wife looks at me and says, "Get Sean a better tank!"

*Groan* I have to grind up a second account?

So last night found me running around Himmelsdorf and Malinovka in Sean's tank desperately trying to earn experience and credits to at least get the Tier II light tank, the M2. I finally succeeded in my quest around 11 pm and had to take it for a test drive to see if he would like it. Boy, is it fast! He should have no trouble zipping around the maps now.

But now he needs a bigger gun to compete with Luke...

Hurricane #3 - Still Alive!

Last weekend I went out in Placid one more time before packing up some ships to go to Minmatar space. I wasted no time on lower Placid and instead went North.

At this point I was in the Kadavr Black Guard so I was in the Mimatar militia making a lot of juicy war targets floating around from the Caldari militia. This made things a little easier as I could engage these war targets on gates and stations without sentry gun interference.

In Moclinamaud I detected a Hookbill in space but not at a belt. But he was at a Faction Warfare military beacon. I warped in through the acceleration gate and saw him 80 km away dueling with Gallente NPCs. As I moseyed over towards him he warped off and I followed him towards a station where he opted to dock.

I decided to camp his acceleration gate for a bit to see if he would come back and within a minute he did. I started locking... and he locked me back! WHAT? I watched local to see if it would spike with a fleet of his friends as his scram activated and rockets smashed into my shields. Nothing yet, so I turned on him with drones, autocannons, and disruptor.

He switched fire to my drones and I lost one in short order before calling the rest back. He had a super tight orbit so my guns were missing, but his damage on my shields was minimal. I had no web to slow him down, so I opted for a two prong approach: I set my ship to move in a straight line so he would start to corkscrew orbit behind me, lowering transversal... and more importantly I turned those two medium energy neutralizers on him.

In seconds his scram dropped and I pulsed to put a bit more range so my autocannons could hit harder, and his speed dropped as his afterburner ran out of juice. Seconds later, he popped.

I did an embarrassing little happy dance for my first solo kill in the Hurricane and dropped off scavenged loot in station before carrying on.

Unfortunately, the Caldari were out in full force and I had to evade a couple small gangs a couple times at gates, one in particular was well setup but I was on my toes and a couple gate crashes later had them all on one side and me warping off on the other.

Nevertheless, I was pleased to end the night with one kill and no losses and look forward to more when I move over to Minmatar space this week.

I Am A Cylon: Battlestar Galactica Revisted

Long time readers might remember me last year gushing about how much I liked the Battlestar Galactica board game. Well, the annual Bachelor Party came around again and this game was once more front and centre.

TL;DR - Still an awesome game, looking at getting one of the two expansions for it.

We played two games, this time there was 6 of us as Andrew's brother Pete joined the same five we had last year.


Game #1 - Lessons in Treachery 

Players:
Andrew - Helo
Pete - Chief
Metin - Starbuck
Bill - Zarek - President
Dave - Adama - Admiral
Brian - "Boomer" Sharon

The game started slowly for the attacking Cylons but unbeknownst to the human players both sleeper cylons were active, me and Metin. We didn't know each other was out there, but the failed skillchecks started mounting up fast.

Starting Positions.

Early in the game I was president and Dave took it from me in a crisis. I was not pleased as I wanted to try being political leader (and I was a cylon and wanted to negate the president's power) so I made an immediate power play to get it back, arguing that the Admiral and President being the same person was a recipe for disaster. The others didn't buy it  and blocked my bid, putting me on the high probability list for being a cylon.

The humans made good distance early and after a second jump of distance 3 they were still above half for all resources. This was actually a bonus for the cylons as it meant that the cylon sympathizer who appears in the mid point cylon phase is on the cylon side (as opposed to being on the human side if any resource is below half). Pete got the sympathizer card and was sent to the cylon ressurection ship where he started actively trying to thwart the humans.

The suspicions on me got me sent to the brig and soon a skill check came around that removed all doubt. Myself, Metin and Andrew contributed to the check but all the cards except the ones Andrew put in were negative making myself and Metin look like Cylons. I figured the gig was up and my next turn I revealed myself and went to the Cylon locations, while Metin hung around to continue to actively work against them on the Battlestar Galactica.

Up to this point, we were getting a lot of water shortage crises so Brian decided to solve that but accidentally spilling a full glass of water on the game board. While it dried in the sun, we had lunch.

After lunch, with the cylon and human sides out in the open, we worked tirelessly to destroy them. I played a super crisis card and caused the Colonial One to explode. They were getting hounded and damaged by cylon fleets so they forced a jump and lost some population. But finally morale was getting low and Metin finally revealed himself (while still free from the brig) and his reveal cost them their last morale point.

Game, set, match.

Victory as Metin takes the last of the morale away with his reveal!

Game #2 - Death To Smoochy

Bill - Apollo
Dave - Helo
Brian - Baltar
Andrew - Col Tigh - Admiral
Pete - Starbuck
Metin - Roslin - President

Once again I was given a cylon card to start. Damn, I was really hoping to be human this time. Unbeknownst to me, no one else is a cylon at the start.

It did not start well for the humans.

 The game started rough with multiple cylon fleets showing up and a lot (I mean a lot!) of raiders and heavy raiders on the attack. The cost in vipers was high as we worked to the jump but we prevented serious damage and after the jump we worked to repair them as quickly as possible.

Survived the assault, but heavy cost.

 However, another fleet moved in and once more we were on the defensive. The numerous assaults keeps everyone busy and not many skillchecks are obviously failing from sabotage so suspicions are low at the moment. Honestly, with uber-parnoid humans having lost last game and thus using Investigative Committee cards to keep the skillchecks non-secret, plus with no other cylon helping me, I've been unable to do much in the way of real damage.

Here we go again! Scrabble vipers!

 At the halfway distance point morale was just below half so when Brian is revealed as cylon sympathizer he is thrown in the brig but remains human. Pete is the other cylon and reveals himself to throw Andrew in the brig which makes Dave the admiral. Dave is inordinately happy to get the nuke tokens again so suspicions fall on him as the second cylon.

Morale below half already, part of the human plan to avoid the cylon sympathizer.

Yet another cylon fleet!

 As the latest cylon fleet moves in there is a crisis which if failed causes the humans to lose two food. The skillcheck is made public again (stupid Investigative committees!) and I am forced to a decision: publicly cost the fleet two food resources and reveal myself as a cylon, or let the chance go by and hope for another one?

I decided to go for it and hope that the supercrisis I get will help finish the humans off as their resources are running low. I throw negative cards on the check, the food is lost, and I am quickly dispatched to the brig.

Resources running low all over, me and Pete trying to finish them off.

The fleet makes eight distance and needs only one more jump to safety. At this point it has become apparent that two colonial ships on the board are enough if either are lost to doom the humans, so we cylons look for ways to kill them as the humans conspire to keep them alive while navigating other crises.

Either one of those two colonial ship markers are enough to finish the humans if lost.

My supercrisis, a massive cylon fleet activation, is surprisingly passed by the humans so the activation is not as big and this allows them the breathing room to force the jump a turn early with no threat of losing all population (which was down to 2).

Humans win.

Analysis 

This is still an awesome game. The paranoia, the backstabbing, the panic and the relief, it combines to be a rollercoaster ride of emotions and suspense. My only regret is that I didn't get to be a human in one of the games.

You could tell by the second game (our fourth overall) that the humans were starting the get the hang of how to best thwart the cylons: executive orders to make best use of abilities more often, investigative committees for important skill checks to force the cylons out into the open, try and get the sympathizer to be on the human side by letting one resource dip below half early on, etc. Yet despite all that effort they were still one bad roll or skill check from dying.

In hindsight, I wish I had waited to reveal myself a bit longer in the second game, and let Dave dig himself deeper into the suspicion hole he had started to dig for himself. Oh well, next time.

New Home

Tonight I'll be applying to Kadavr Black Guard under the stewardship of Nashh Kadavr.

I looked at a lot of good options and offers, many I was so tempted to try out. Choosing was near impossible and thanks to everyone who contacted me.

In other news, the Hurricane Experiment will continue tomorrow night in Placid, and then next week I'll be moving to join up with my new corp mates back in Minmatar space.

I Was There - Blog Banter

"In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be assured?"

I was there.

I was there when the new tier III battleships and tier II battlecruisers were released and changed the face of the game forever. What would Eve be with the Drake, Hurricane, Maelstrom, and Abaddon?


I was there when the graphics were overhauled and Eve went from being pretty to being drop-dead gorgeous.

I was there when the Drone regions were opened up and a new land rush began.

I was there when planets were redone and looked so amazing and real.

I was there when the awesome Empyrean Age downtime occurred and factional warfare began with a bang.

I was there when the wormholes opened and the Sleepers awakened, and I read reports of pilots getting lost in space for days or forever, leaving empty ships behind as they podded themselves to escape.

I was there when the Sansha incursions started.

I was there.

Eve is about space and spaceships. I don't care that you are developing Incarna and the Noble Exchange, CCP. In fact, I support you in that endeavour. But you can't stop working on the spaceships. We came for the spaceships, we'll stay for the spaceships, but we won't stay for a bar on a station.

I don't give a rat's ass about the CSM, CCP's communication strategies, or the colour of my avatar's pants.

I care about spaceships. Give me more reasons to say I was there, or I might end up saying "I used to be there."

New Lottery: Widow, Abaddon, Worm

I've got a new lottery running for all you folks! Proceeds going to Noir Mercenaries 200th Contract war dec celebration.

This is a lottery for three different prizes:

1st prize: Fully Fitted Widow Black Ops battleship
2nd prize: Fully Fitted Abaddon Battleship
3rd prize: Fully Fitted Worm faction frigate

There are 50 tickets and can be purchased for 20,000,000 ISK each. Each ticket has a chance to win one (and only one) of the three prizes. If you buy multiple tickets, you may win multiple prizes. The ships are located in Placid region, low sec.

To purchase a ticket send ISK to Kirith Kodachi with a reason of "NinveahLottery8" to be tracked properly through SOMER's Lottery service. Link to lottery site can be found here.

The winning numbers have been secured using Chribba's locked dice and a link to the roll can be found here and on the lottery page.

See my lottery page for details on how to purchase tickets.

Skill Training End Game

Kirith climbed over 87 million skillpoints a little while ago. He's pretty much a pure combat character and at this point he has cross trained for all weapon systems, tanking methods, and faction ships at the Tech II cruiser level and lower, with only Caldari (his starting race) having Tech II battleships, Tech III strategic cruiser, and capital ships.

Well balanced combat character.

He's currently training Large Projectile Weapons V so he can finish off the weapon systems with Tech II large autocannons and artillery. After that, I'm going to work on Tech III ships as the skills are cheap and quick to train.

My hauling alt, Korannon, at 18 million skillpoints has virtually no combat skills but has specialized primarily in hauling (freighter, Orca, Tech II industrials) with some hacking and analyzing skills thrown in for exploration purposes. He's working through Covert Ops V right now and will train up  astrometrics skills next to become a proficient prober.

No guns, no missiles, no drones.

Finally we have my Wyvern parking alt, Selia, who has trained for nothing but flying a Wyvern for her 25 million skillpoints. She is currently working on drone skills so that she can think about doign combat some day in the future.

Supercarrier pilot means never saying you're sorry.

She's got a lot of skills to go before she's combat ready, but her tanking skills are up to par and she can at least defend herself with drones now.

For Arydanika

From our task board at work. Seriously.

Cruising the Placid - Hurricane Style

Last Sunday night the Hurricane experiment started and let's just say it was an ignominious start.

I went out and cruised lower Placid looking for trouble but quickly came to the realization that on Sunday nights at least this part of space is dead. I saw a few faces in local but rarely any ships on directional scanner. I did give chase to a Vexor cruiser at one point but he outpaced me.

I then headed north to upper Placid and things immediately started looking up. And got horribly off the rails.

I dropped into Oulley and warped to the Orvolle gate. While sitting there I was using the directional scanner to look around and narrowed a Thanatos to possibly sitting on a station. Curious, I selected the station in my scan window and clicked on the jump button.

Confused? So was I when I realized my ship jumped instead of warped. In my foolishness I thought that selecting the station in the scan window was going to act like selecting it in the overview and change the active buttons. Of course it does not so I still had the Orvolle gate selected when I jumped instead of warped. Well, faction police in high sec just LUV to see me.

I went back to base and got a new Hurricane and went back to upper Placid, avoiding Oulley and the harsh lesson it served there, and in Renarelle things got interesting. I warped to the Vlillirier gate and landed just as a Rapier jumped in and a Loki cloaked. I wasn't sure if they were working together so I jumped through into Vlillirier and found myself on gate with a Slepnier. I quickly opted to reapproach gate and sat there for a few seconds while I saw what the command ship was going to do. Eventually he tried ramming me off gate and I jumped. He jumped as well but I had the initiative and quickly reapproached gate again (no sign of Loik or Rapier) and jumped through back into Vlillirier and made my escape as the Slepnier followed too slow.

On the Aldranette gate I landed and found myself with another Hurricane. "That's more like it!" I thought to myself, but hesitated when I saw it was an FCON pilot. "Hmmm, null sec pilots rarely cruise low sec alone," I mused, but it was getting to the end of my night and all I had to show for it was a loss to faction NPCs. He locked me up but didn't engage, and we orbited each other at 1000 meters, a dance that was pleasant to watch while neither was firing. I couldn't attack first as the gate guns would put me out for certain... so I waited.

Red box. I'm pointed so I open up ready to fight and ... lock drops? What the hell? DAMN! ECM drones. And the gate flashes and local climbs as the rest of the FCON gang hops in. I know I'm dead so I concentrate on getting the pod out. I chatted for a bit with the FCON gang in local, congratulating them on the nice trap and then log out, a bit despondent.

LESSONS LEARNED

- pay attention to what I'm clicking
- lower Placid is dead, upper Placid a lot more active.
- bait Hurricane is bait. Get eyes on other side first.
- ECM drones are only awesome when they yours.

Fiction Friday: The Rifter

This is my entry to the Inspired By Images Of Eve Competition 3. More details and links to all entrants can be found at Starfleet Comms.

* * * * *

"Another day, another cred," Jorge said with a sigh to his best friend Ricky as they lugged their personal mining gear through the airlock and into the combined storage area and locker room. Ricky chuckled and shook his head. "You get a whole credit?" he asked in mock surprise.

They shared a fatalistic laugh and exchanged more banter as they stored their stuff in their respective lockers and headed for the shower. After they were clean and dressed in the off duty green coveralls with their name on a badge stitched into their breast that was standard wear for members of the colony, they left the locker area and passed through a bulkhead into the small colony's command and control deck.

"Hi daddy!" Officially children were not supposed to be waiting in the C&C but in a colony this small and this isolated rules tended to be bent and broken with regularity to make the life of the miners a little more bearable. Jorge's 6 year old daughter Tess ran up and into his arms and he picked her up and swung her around and she giggled. "Hi uncle Ricky!"

"Hello Tess," he responded warmly. The colony had only 22 people on it and only Jorge and his wife had children, young Tess and and her teenaged brother Gim who was waiting sullenly in a chair be the hatch to the corridor. The boy was looking unhappy at being forced to watch over his little sister. "What trouble could she get into on this rock?" he asked angrily many times before.

Jorge put his daughter down ("She is growing so big!" he thought with a touch of sadness) and turned to pick up a clip board to sign his team out for the day. "All went well," he told Stephane who was manning the C&C control panel, "we sent about 20 m3 ore into the smelter."

Stephane, in his blue coveralls denoting he was a member of the colony administration staff, ignored the other as he concentrated intently on his screens. "Steph?" Jorge called again. Steph looked up as if he was surprised to see him or anyone else there and said, "Oh Jorge! Quick, come take a look at this."

Puzzled, Jorge and Ricky moved over to the screen and looked up at the rarely used local space grid view. There in the centre was an icon representing the large asteroid where the colony had been established to mine scordite, and off to either sides were the other local asteroids that the colony mined as well, gravitationally locked in their familiar positions. Today, however, a new icon had appeared, a red triangle off in the corner. While the men processed this new strange sight it moved slightly a few pixels across the screen.

"What is it?" Ricky asked the controller.

"It appears to be a ship of some sort. I'm not picking up any thrusters or scanners. I'm not picking up anything at all. It just coasted into view a little while ago and hasn't done anything but coast since. Its not very big. Bigger than a lifeboat but not an industrial or mining ship." They were all afraid that a mining ship was going to show up someday and strip their small find of all useful ore despite the legal contract claim they had purchased from the Republic.

"It might be someone in trouble," Ricky said, "I think we should light them up and see what's going on."

"No no no," Steph shook his head emphatically. "Let's just let them drift out of view. We don't need any trouble."

Jorge was torn. On one hand he wanted to help people that might be in trouble but on the other hand he too was worried about outside interference of the colony. Their life might not be easy there but at least it was their life and their decisions. But he thought how he would feel if his family was in trouble and others ignored them and that made up his mind. "We got to see what's going on, Steph. If people are in trouble we are obligated as human beings to try and help them."

Steph shook his head and sighed, but nevertheless activated the controls for the scanner to send out LADAR beams and illuminate the mysterious object. They went out and returned at the speed of light and in moments the computer started constructing an image of what we were looking at.

"A Rifter!" Gim exclaimed from behind the adults. The Minmatar Republic designed frigate warship resolved on the screen as the light beams had more time to scan it. "It looks damaged, see the scorch marks here and here?" Ricky pointed out on the screen. "It's venting gases too," Steph added, "but no detectable radiation or activity."

Jorge realized the other men were waiting for him to make the next decision. Although the colony had no official leader per say, Steph was usually the final word on shifts, vacations, selling the processed ore to the market, and arranging for a warp capable ship to bring supplies and shuttle people to and from the outpost. This, however, was beyond his ken and he was not comfortable with that. As the head of the only family on the station and the oldest man, the others deferred to Jorge.

"Alright, let's go get the tug Ricky. We'll see if anyone is on there that needs our help. Kids, go tell your mom what's going on."

* * * * *

"The generator looks like it shut down automatically when the capacitor bank blew," Ricky observed. They moved further into engineering, their mining suits working sufficiently in the airless corridors of the frigate. "But the warp core is still whole," Jorge observed.

"Yeah, but why are their no bodies? The escape pods are still in place. Its creeping me out, Jorge. Maybe Steph is right, maybe we should just get out of here now that we know there is no one here."

"No Ricky, we need to find the ship logs. If this ship has been floating out here for longer than a month, then it's free to salvage. Think of how much money we could get for the parts of this ship!"

"I dunno Jor, this is a warship, not some industrial."

They rounded a corner into the back of the engineering compartment and Jorge let out an "Ah ha!"

"Well that explains the lack of any crew," Ricky said. There in the middle of the room was the bulky interface for an empty capsule dock, with cables leaving it in all directions to interface with the rest of the ship.

* * * * *

"Gim, pass me that hammer."

The teenager scooted below a hanging power conduit and grabbed a mallet with a rubber head from the tool box. "This one, dad?"

"Nah, I need the ball peen hammer. This bolt is stuck in harder than an Amarrian's wallet in his pocket." Gim laughed at the joke and Jorge marveled again at how the project of stripping the Rifter of its useful parts had opened the sullen boy up out of his shell.

Jorge felt good; spending time with a happy son and improving the life of his fellow colony members. Some parts of the ship would be sold as scrap salvage and other parts used to update the old colony's computers and equipment.

Ricky slid down a ladder. "Got that warp core mount off yet?"

Jorge hammered with all his might despite being cramped below a bulkhead support behind the device. The stuck bolt finally shot free and the ringing stayed in his ears for a few seconds. "Yeah, finally!" he moaned.

"Awesome! This is going to bring a nice chunk of change in for us!" Ricky rubbed his hands together with a gleam in his eye. "I'm going to use my share to buy a real holoreel projector."

* * * * *

"That's my ship," the electronic voice stated. Steph took turns sweatingly staring at the control panel and glaring Jorge.

"I understand that," Jorge told the avatar on the screen, "but we were well within our rights to salvage it. CONCORD law states..."

"That's MY ship," the avatar growled menacingly.

"Jorge..." Ricky muttered in warning.

"You can't have it!" Gim shouted defiantly from the back of the room. "BE QUIET!" his father yelled at him from over his shoulder. "Daddy?" Tess said with fear in her voice and tears brimming in her eyes. "Its OK honey," he lied.

He turned back to the monitor. "Look, we already salvaged and sold most of the parts. But we will pay you the credits we got for it. Please, we are just miners and our outpost is defenseless. We don't want any trouble."

The avatar was silent for a moment. Then it spoke, "I don't need your pathetic credits," and terminated the connection.

"He's locking us," Steph whispered.

Jorge turned to run to his children at the back of the room when the first salvo of missiles tore through the colony.

Noir. Mercenaries Fundraiser

Noir. Mercenaries is approaching 200 contracts this fall and to celebrate they want to simultaneously declare war on the 10 largest alliances in Eve. In order to afford this massive effort, they need to raise somewhere in the area of 6-7 billion ISK. Alekseyev Karrde approached me to help with this fundraising and I gladly agreed.

What I am doing is putting up some old ships in my hanger up for lottery (which I will set up tonight when I get home and Eve is all patched up) and the proceeds from the lottery will go towards Noir's war dec bill.

If you wish to donate outside of the lottery, send ISK to me with reason "Noir Fundraiser" and I'll make sure its added to the pot.