New Site Template

Check it out, website overhaul.

I like everything but I'm not sure I'm sold on the background image. Input would be welcome.

Death By Drone

So March is coming to a close and I looked at my meager kill mails for the month and saw nothing but POS mods and a couple SBUs, all destroyed while I was in my Wyvern.

There is a good reason for this. We're currently in a major war with the DRF in Geminate and my crappy gaming schedule means I'm not online on weekends, and weekday nights tend to be quiet in terms of actual fighting. So I find myself joining fleets whose main goal is to reinforce and destroy POS.

Now some pilots might bemoan the lack of excitement but I don't mind it too much except for the lacklustre results on the killboard. These capital ops allow me time to get used to using the Wyvern in fleets so that things like forgetting "Fighter Bombers follow you in warp" don't happen. It also allows me the chance to fire up Fraps and take some more footage for future movies.

I also take time to chat in corp and Ninveah channels to catch up with folks. All in all I have a good time.

That being said, I do miss some small ship action. With Kla'strit getting some more combat ships up in Pure Blind, I plan to try and help out there when I can more often. If I can just keep from inadvertently screwing up my jump clone timer.

Being Reasonable: Followup

Yesterday's post generated a lot of comments and since my blog has shitty commenting I figured I'd just do it here.

S.W. said...
I've seen the number for sanctums at around 75 million an hour, and in the threadnaught someone posted that they are making 100 million an hour. I think the real concern is that nobody has provided real data, neither CCP nor the legions of tearful sanctum pilots in the forum. I feel like I need to go run some nullsec anomalies (but not Sanctums or Havens) to see what the isk/hr rate is on them, to get a real feel for what these changes mean

I too would like to see real data.

Also wonder if the baseline is what the average income is for L4s in Hisec. What's that number nowadays?

The most common number I hear banded around is 10-20 million ISK per hour, not sure if that is with
looting/salvaging or not. Assume pros can get more.

Gar said...
I think the idea is to create areas that are more "valuable" than others. Having a dynamic system in which any area can be upgrade means no one has to fight for the space. They can simply put up their TCU's and start upgrading the system.

Wouldnt these changes bring in a larger need for alliances to fight for more valuable property?

Typically alliance income comes from membership dues and moon goo, while anoms and ratting are personal pilot income. So I think its unlikely an alliance would choose to fight over better ratting space but I'm not sure. I'm all for having "lumpy" space values and reasons to pick system A over system B to claim, I question if hitting the regular grunts is the best way to do it.

Agent said...
Whether a player can make 100mil vs 25mil an hour in a sanctum will have no impact the population in nullsec. Isn't it more likely that CCP's goal has nothing to do with population control, but rather with the ease of vastly concentrating ISK? Put another way, should EVE's 360,000 players have 20,000 who can afford super-capitals or should it only be 1,000? Should super-capitals be personal toys or something an entire alliance needs to scrape together?

Of all the arguments I've heard for nerfing anoms in null sec the issue of ISK inflation is the strongest one. However, it is not one that CCP Greyscale has made in two or three posts (including original blog). Its all about "driving conflict and making space for small new alliances, etc". I also doubt that most supercapitals are funded by players ratting/plexing but I could be wrong, and I doubt that supercap proliferation will be slowed by this change since it requires minerals and sov space to make them, not ISK. While the number of independents who can afford 20 billion might go down, the less demand might lead to a lower price of the ships themselves which are currently estimated at 12-14 billion to make.

Regardless, I think some players of limited resources will leave null sec when they find they cannot replace their losses as quickly.

Motriek said...
I gave up on 0.0 anoms some while ago. Topped out around 50m an hour if I was lucky. Then I pit an alt in a wh Corp. Problem solved. And if that was nerfed? I'd park the alt to run l4's in hisec. 65m easy with a T2 fit, and way less risk of losing a faction/deadspace fit.
Back to th original point. This effectively re-creates sec status 'waterfront' in 0.0. Which makes it easy to perma-afk-cloak alts in all the best systems. In fact, there are so few -1 systems, they will all be perma afk-cloaked. Which really, is win. Can you imagine how hard the tears about afk cloakers will fall? Seriously, exploration will take off.
Did I mention I don't run anoms?

I have heard wormholes done right are a gold mine for players in them. One good benefit of this change might be more diversified income generation tasks such as exploration and wormhole exploitation which I'm all for.

Logan Fyreite said...
I don't have any hand in anoms so the hell do I know. I just know that it seemed a little strange that any system could upgrade to be as good as a -1.0 truesec system could be. I think this is supposed to provide a reason to go out there and fight for better systems. Think of the strife this will cause among big coalitions if one ends up suddenly better off. That's just a guess of the impact but I hardly think it is "pulling the rug out from hundreds if not thousands of grunt players is the right approach."
ISK is still super-easy to come by if you have the time to do so. This just seems to be taking a step to turn off this particular isk-faucet.

Like I've said, if the ISK faucet is the problem, TELL US! We're smart players, we can understand the benefits of reigning in ISK inflation. Hell, cut bounties in half across the board to fight inflation in that case.

As for causing strife between coalitions, the current scuttlebutt is that the Technetium bottleneck with the majority of the tech moons being in NC space was done on purpose to give a "conflict driver" and induce alliances to attack NC space and break up the coalition. If true, we can all agree that the end result was a richer and thus stronger NC due to the profits from those moons. Thus if the same logic holds true, the Drone Region Forces are going to be even harder to shift from space. After all, they took a full on power bloc invasion from the NC and repelled it (props to PL for the enfilading attacks).

StevieTopSiders said...
Conspiracy Theory! CCP is trying to influence 0.0 politics, because they hate coalitions. Remember when they put all the Tech moons up north? They did that in hopes that alliances hungry for moon goo would break up the NC. Now, they want to tackle the DRF. Because the Russians have so many systems with low true-sec, CCP hopes that again people will break them up to get good anoms. My money is on it not working.

Oh hey, there it is. :)

Jeremie said...
The problem with this solution is that it kills the major isk income source for the casual player, and makes them less able to fight. On the flipside, had they made any changes to how mining works, they might be able to eliminate or reduce the bot problem, which in turn, reduces both income and material into the larger alliances, which then reduces the use of super caps in the field, which then allows for more space to be opened up because you will then only use supers for critical operations.

 I agree. And yes, I would like to see some progress made on macro ratting and mining.

Arrhidaeus said...
I would support this change if the value of systems in 0.0 was dynamic, so those who always wanted the best space would have to periodically invade people and move to maintain it, rather than just bunkering down.

And:

TeaDaze42: @kirithkodachi I argued against tying upgrades to _static_ truesec values but CCP didn't like the idea of making it dynamic based on use :( (about 19 hours ago from web in reply to kirithkodachi)

 
Planetary Interaction resource depletion is a pain in the ass but it does make resource extraction more interesting. I think dynamic changes to true sec status would have been awesome, even if it was such that a value could only vary a certain amount so that the shallow null sec systems (thanks Mord for the naming) never got better than the deep null sec systems.

Mord Fiddle said...
With regard to asking CCP to show their work, well said.
Given their tendency to pratfall from one unanticipated macro level outcome to the next, there's a certain irony to CCP's design team leads acting as though they're Eve's solution when they're demonstrably the problem.

I would love to see their model on how they predict what the players are going to do. Its possible their model is accurate, but I would love to see the assumptions and supporting data points.

Calderus Rex said...
I'd love to see an investigation into this by someone in the NC with a credible ability to collect, analyze, and present data (ehem, like you KK!). Personally I've managed something around a sustained 60-80M / hr, running sanctums in Delve, using two accounts - BS + Carrier. Not 60-80M per acct, that's total (avg 12M ticks on each acct). That's without the 10/10 escalations, and I have not invested that much effort in perfecting fit/skills/ships, so maybe 120-150M / hr is possible (2 accts). I've seen others get higher using ridiculous means (ehem, titans / moms for ratting), although, as PLs last trip north demonstrated, that can come to a rather rapid and poor end.
That said, I think the change is a good idea, they've just slightly over-shot the break-even point. They should have aimed break-even slightly lower, with top end space being that much more lucrative. Give a REAL reason to fight over the best stuff.
I get that people with crappy space (in terms of truesec) don't like it...that's, ehem, the point! If you don't like it, go take better space.

I too would have been fine with a devaluation of shallow null sec but it seems so extreme. Perhaps the issue is that they overdid it on the initial Dominion release to begin with? Nah, they could not have possibly made a mistake, right? Models of causality and all that. And surely they would come out and admit a mistake.

Naoru Kozan said...
I don't live in null-sec so I'm not at all sympathetic to players not being able to afford super caps for ratting.
Though CCP's change to null-sec does seem very arbitrary. Maybe they could rebalance the "true-sec systems" to spread them out more and redistribute the high end moons?

I'm pretty sure the majority of players hurt by this are the ones buying drakes and maelstroms, not supercarriers. I could be wrong, but from my experience the big rollers do it through insane hours online ratting/plexing but are a minority, or other income means like me (writing, trading, tech II manufacture, etc).

As for redistributing them, if they do it evenly then the "conflict driver" reason is moot, right? A slight redistribution might be helpful but that seems unlikely.

Talinthi said...
Well my uber long wall'o'text got lost this time :( oh well heres the shortened version :)
these so-called "high-end" sites sanctums and havens are quite low isk/hr there are many better ways to make isk if one actually takes the time to look for them. Frankly i dont get how people can sit there and keep turning there guns/missiles on and off as they cycle from rat to rat.
Other forms of isk making for NULLSECCERS only:

[snip]

They were especially nice for casual players with not a lot of time/attention but I agree with your point that they can adapt to survive.

TetraEtc said...
Have a cry kiddies... you cant make as much isk unless you fight for the better space... and not just pay for it.
Isnt that the point?

That may be the point, but it might not actually be the result. If the alliances sitting on the deep null sec space can fight off all comers due to having superior ISK generation sources, then after a possible initial upheaval and stabilization you are back to a static null sec on the resource much like NC is virtually immovable on the Tech moons in the north. Concentrated valuable resources lead to fortresses on those resources and it is hard to wrest power from the powerful.

NoizyGamer said...
It's not about the density in null sec becoming too great, its the economy. I keep hearing about how the money supply is growing too fast. At Fanfest, CCP Dr.EyjoG said he wanted to see the growth in the money supply slow from 2-3% per month down to 1-2% per month. The Dominion sov changes are THE biggest money faucet in the game. Maybe these changes will slow that faucet down.

Again, if money supply is the issue, make it point number one in the reasons! And deal with other huge faucets like missions and insurance.

Rixx Javix said...
I fully support this change and think it makes perfect sense and is long overdue. And while it is only a small step in the right direction, it is an important one that will form the foundation for future changes and resolutions to long-standing problems that exist post-Dominion. Congrats to CCP for having the balls to do it and the wisdom to see that it needed doing.
And that was as low-key and well balanced as I can be.

I'm starting to get the feeling you don't like me; there is a tone of confrontation here. If you want to have it out, please throw me an email, I'm not comfortable having people mad at me. (Another reason I would be a terrible CSM member.)

Anyway, I would be very interested to know what the "future changes and resolutions to long-standing problems that exist post-Dominion" are that this lays the foundation for. The expected consequences in teh dev blog all seem to be immediate and self-contained:

Expected consequences

• Some alliances will immediately start wanting to look for better space
• In the longer run, there'll be more conflicts going on, with more localized goals
• Newer alliances will have an easier time getting a foothold in nullsec
• Coalitions will be marginally less stable
• Alliances will have to choose more carefully what space they develop, where their staging systems are, and so on (low truesec systems generally tend to be in strategically inconvenient places)

If there have been some followup, I'd love to know what they are.

Finally, stealing from our alliance boards, one of the leadership had this to say about the subject:

However Pilots who rely on Sanctums/Havens for 100% of their income will need to adapt.
However Corps who rely on taxing their members for 100% of their income will need to adapt.

Remember CCP is only nerfing two anoms, Sanctums/Havens. This leaves; Moons, PI, Industry, Mining, Manufacturing, WH's, Missioning, Exploration/Profession sites etc.

Small Gang/Roams might drop down to BC+Logi's to keep the costs down (IE less BS/HAC/Recons).

Chin up guys, adapt or die. Personally I'm in the "adapt" camp, CCP won't be getting rid of this pilot so easily!

Indeed.

NOTE: I haven't had a lot of time to follow the threads on Eve-Online forums and such so if CCP has given more insight that I'm missing here, please post a link in the comments to it.

EDIT: Jester's Trek post on the matter strikes very true for me. Here is a part:

This change is going to do nothing to reduce the blob, or to hurt large alliances in EVE Online.  Large alliances, even those in poor space, could care less about ratting income.  It'll be a blip on their radar, nothing more.  This change hurts two entities in EVE Online:

1. the small 0.0 corp that relies on ratting taxes to pay for sov upgrades, towers, and reimbursements; and,
2. the individual pilot, new to 0.0 and PvP, who uses ratting to pay for their own ship losses early in their PvP career.

Those small 0.0 corps and new 0.0 players are going to respond in the only way they can: by looking for new sources of funding.  In some cases, those new sources of funding will come from joining larger 0.0 alliances with better ratting space.  In others, those new 0.0 players are going to fall back to jump clones and Level 4 missioning in Empire.  Either way, the small 0.0 alliance and the small 0.0 gang is who CCP Greyscale is hurting here.

I'm Trying To Be Reasonable...

I'm really trying to see the issue from all sides, I really am. But its hard to see how this change makes sense. Its hard to see how this was not put to the CSM 5 last summer or winter first. I just... I just don't get it!

Let me start from the beginning. CCP Greyscale posts a dev blog about changes to anomalies (aka complexes) in null sec. The idea is that null sec has gotten too flat with the advent of upgradable systems and that the anomalies that spawn from the upgrades will have their quality determined by the system's true sec:

Those changes in full
We've batched nullsec up into five security bands, based on the current truesec values that are already available via the datadump: 0.0 to -0.2, -0.3 to -0.4, -0.5 to -0.6, -0.7 to -0.8 and -0.9 to -1.0. (And yes, we're rounding in the same way that we do in the UI currently, so the boundaries actually lie at -0.25, -0.45 and so on.)

Firstly, we've evened out the upgrades so each one has four sites in it now, rather than five in the first and four in the rest. We're also retaining a mix of the sites that we're aware are regarded as "filler" by high-end players, for several reasons: to act as genuine filler so the earlier upgrades in some systems aren't empty; to give newer players resources they can use without much competition; and to give people running anomalies a little more safety from marauding enemies.

In terms of the high-end sites that high-end players are after - Havens and Sanctums for normal factions, and Hordes for drones - the break-even compared to the current system's maximum of four is around the 3rd and 4th band (-0.5 to -0.8 space), which are -1 and +1 respectively. Below this, things get worse (0.0 to -0.2 systems won't get any high-end sites after the change), but the -0.9 to -1.0 band can potentially gain an extra six top sites with full upgrades. 26 of the 34 regions have at least one system in this security band, with half having 5 or more.

Emphasis mine. I've seen it said that a player running the Havens and Sanctums pulls in around 30-35 million an hour while the next quality complexes down bring in 9-10 million. So essentially the lowest quality upgraded systems in null sec lost over half their value.

But one of the goals of Dominion in providing upgradable space was to increase player density in null sec. This change seems to indicate that player density got too high and they want to cull the herds so to speak. Sure, some players will glom onto the alliances in control of the high value space with its plethora of high end sites, but most will be forced to look back to high sec mission running.

There was an outcry about this change and CCP Greyscale took to the forums to post this:

Hi again,

Update on the above post: we've looked at the concerns brought up here, and done another evaluation pass as mentioned above. The outcome of this is that, while we understand and appreciate that these changes will negatively impact residents in some areas of space in the short term, we feel that on balance they are still likely to result in a noticeably positive overall outcome in the long run. This decision is mainly predicated on the fact that we still have a sufficient degree of confidence in our models of nullsec causality.

We understand that many players have alternate models that predict negative outcomes; we will of course be monitoring developments post-deployment to confirm whether or not things are developing in the way we are predicting, with an eye to modifying the proposed system if we see unexpected negative outcomes occurring, but we don't believe that the arguments raised by players in this thread weaken our model sufficiently to justify changing our plans at this stage.

We appreciate that this decision is not going to be regarded as a positive one by most participants of this thread, and we of course respect your right to continue to express your previously-noted disapproval here in a civil manner.

That's all for today,
-Greyscale

Of course the natural question is, "can you show your work?". Give us the models, show us how you expect to see the outcome of more conflict out of this. Show us what you expect to be acceptable losses in null sec populations. Make us see what you see, Greyscale, 'cause its not coming through at the moment.

Make no mistake, this change hurts my corp and alliance at a wallet level. This will make it harder for us to live and fight in null sec. Coupled with the bitterness of the perceived rampant botting and CCP's unwillingness to combat it to any serious degree and there is some serious concern that many veteran players will give up after this change.

While I understand the desire to make different parts of space have differing values, I do not feel that pulling the rug out from hundreds if not thousands of grunt players is the right approach.

Fiction Friday - Series 3: Epilogue

I hope you enjoyed Series 3. I'll be taking a little break for a few weeks before I start series 4.

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17
Chapter 18  Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24

* * * * *
Derranna never really forgave me.

There was a couple Minmatar podders in the corp who had contacts to smuggle her back to the republic where she was taken care of by organizations designed for helping liberated slaves. With her education and intelligence she quickly adapted to freedom and even went through the process of becoming a pod pilot herself. Heck, she even ended up working for a couple years with Korannon and I before she finally moved on. Her younger sister was freed by a group of operatives she hired after becoming a very rich pod pilot so that bit of guilt was removed, but she could not get past the fact I killed Blodel no matter how much she came to love being free.

The corp's covert access to Federation officials suffered a lot after Nhi'Khuna's and Delvara's involvement in the little fiasco in Stacmon came to light. No warrants were issued for their arrest, probably due to Delvara's abilities with the Galnet, but everyone became leery of working with such brazen and law flaunting rogues. Without tacit approval for our activities it became a lot harder to work and the corporate headquarters was moved to Molden Heath in a couple months where the application of the law was a lot less stringent.

There was a warrant issued for my arrest however. Not surprising as I made no effort to hide my identity and someone had to take the blame for the two deaths in the dining room of the Lucky Hanger Bar and Grill. Funny thing is, even though the warrant is applicable in all Federation space it was issued in my original family name and has never been updated to my new self-appointed last name "Kodachi" that I had done legally through CONCORD. I'm sure if some bureaucrat ever put two and two together they would realize the mistake and update the warrant, but thank god for lazy government employees and byzantine red-tape processes. I can even dock in Stacmon and not get recognized. It might have something to do with Delvara erasing my biometrics data before he bugged out so it was worth the 25 million ISK I eventually paid him.

Was it all worth it? Well, I did feel a lot of emptiness after everything settled down. Revenge that is quick and painless is not really worth it, is it? I wish I had some way to make him suffer for a few months like my brother did before he finally expired but what is done is done.

Unfortunately, it was not the end of the story.

He may have been the black sheep of his family and I may have shot Blodel in self defence, but Amarrian honour cares not for such trivialities.

Revenant Versus Wyvern - The Rematch

Back in November I looked at the just released test stats for the Revenant and compared them to the Wyvern supercarrier. The stats changed by release time and with news that an auction for a Revenant 1-run BPC is starting at 50 billion, with an estimated build price of 12 billion, I figured I should look and see if it outperforms my baby.

To EFT!

Revenant:
Special Ability:
100% bonus to fighter, fighter-bomber damage and hitpoints

Amarr Carrier Skill Bonuses:
10% bonus to fighter and fighter-bomber max velocity per level
Can fit 1 additional Warfare Link module per level

Caldari Carrier Skill Bonuses:
50% bonus to Capital Energy and Shield transfer range per level
Can deploy 1 additional Fighters or Fighter Bombers or Drones per level

Role Bonuses:
99% reduction in CPU need for Warfare Link modules
Can fit Projected Electronic Counter Measures
200% bonus to Fighter or Fighter Bomber control range
Immune to all forms of Electronic Warfare

Revenant

Wyvern:
Caldari Carrier Skill Bonuses:
50% bonus to Capital Energy and Shield transfer range per level
5% bonus to all Shield resistances per level

Can deploy 3 additional Fighters, Fighter Bombers or Drones per level
Can fit 1 additional Warfare Link module per level

Role Bonuses:
99% reduction in CPU need for Warfare Link modules
Can fit Projected Electronic Counter Measures
200% bonus to Fighter or Fighter Bomber control range
Immune to all forms of Electronic Warfare

Wyvern

Comparision:
The Revenant comes base with a lot more shield points and armour points and a slot layout geared to shield tanking (7 mids, 5 lows) so I set it up much like my Wyvern with an extra PDS in place of the sensor booster. The Revenant also has an additional high slot so I filled it with a Drone Control Unit to take advantage of the 100% damage bonus.


The Wyvern with the 5% per level resistance bonus still wins out on sheer effective hit points even though the Revenant has more base hit points due to the extra PDS. The Revenant does have a large capacitor which might allow it to survive a bit longer in extreme danger, but surprisingly the Wyvern has a 3 second advantage in align time and better scan resolution

In terms of damage, without the extra drone from the drone control unit the two ships do identical DPS with Fighter Bombers and Fighters. Activating the drone control unit gives the Revenant a significant advantage. The fighters and fighter bombers of the Revenant are much more durable with the 100% hitpoint bonus but the Wyvern has twice as many so its a wash.

However, tactical flexibility goes to the Revenant since it can carry two full flights of fighter bombers AND two full flights of fighters (minus one fighter) and still have 5000 m3 for regular drones. The Wyvern can only carry one full flight of fighter bombers and one almost full flight of fighters in order to have that 5000 m3 for smaller drones.

All in all, the Revenant does not impress me as a ship worth three times as much as a typical supercarrier.

EDIT: Jester over at Jester's Trek posts a fascinating take that looks at the Revenant from a completely different angle. Check it out.

Bring Me The Head Of Kirith Kodachi II

As I mentioned in this week's podcast episode, BMTHOKK II is officially going to happen. Here is a link in case you need to refresh your memory or want to look at the video again (gah, I so want to redo that video based on what I have learned since then).

Essentially, the next event will be in the summer, most likely August, and on a weekend afternoon so more people can attend. Location to be determined, probably in Placid low sec as that is closer to home now, but Teshkat is still in the running. I'll probably be flying a new Chimera carrier again as it has the defenses to last long enough against moderate firepower.

I'm accepting donations to go towards buying and outfitting the carrier as well as the prizes. Send ISK or contracts to Kirith Kodachi with a description of BMTHOKK II and you'll get a shout out in the official release when it all goes down.

I'm hoping Mike Azariah and the Gallente Hero Channel folks can be pulled away from Sansha incursions long enough to come help defend me again, and I'll be extending an invite to Noir to make a return visit as well.

If any super rich bitter vet wants step up and donate a Wyvern Supercarrier (or the ISK to buy one), I swear I will use that in place of the Chimera.

(Image created by CoolText - please feel free to use the image in your own posts about the event. Thanks!)

Why Geminate?

The Forever war continues and the question a pilot might ask is why are two major coalitions doing their large scale fighting almost exclusively in Geminate region? What makes it so valuable / special? Why not start a second front?

The answer lies in logistics.

Have a look at the north eastern map of null sec:

North East Null Sec

Those three regions in the middle of the image are the inaccessible Jove regions. The two long purple lines connecting Venal and Tenal to Oasa and Cobalt Edge are the stargates that pass right over the Jovians, if I'm not mistaken the two longest connections in the cluster.

The upshot is that althought those regions feel adjacent to the regular pilot travelling by stargates, they are inaccessible to Supercarriers even with Jump Calibration V. And since sub capitals are virtually useless in modern sov warfare in terms of destroying POS and structures compared to supercarriers (rough calculation: you need 320 mid range BS to match the firepower of 20 supercarriers) then launching a full sov offensive from Oasa/Cobalt Edge to or from Tenal/Venal is impossible.

So what is inbetween the core regions of the NC and the core regions of the Drone Russians?

A big jump, but not as big.

Geminate region.

It is possible from Kalevala Expanse and Etherium Reach regions to reach Geminate and vice versa, as well Geminate is well within range of low sec for staging purposes. Both side want Geminate as a buffer to limit the options of the other for striking deeper into their territory.

As for opening a second front, both side would be forced to stage in low sec which may be OK for a short campaign, but really stretches pilots and resupply lines thin in the long haul as everyone likes the chance to be close to home for reshipping, R&R, industrial chores, home defence, etc.

Should CCP ever decide to finally open the Jove regions (i.e. Jovians finally died off / disappeared / enslaved) the dynamic would change the Geminate would no longer be the gateway region, but until then it shall always be contested.

Size matters: small groups fight harder, but lose anyway

Thought this is interesting and how it applies to Eve:

While ants can be irritating to humans, they don't generally pose a huge danger to us. However, groups of ants are often extremely aggressive to one another, frequently fighting to the death. A new paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B studies the how ants' fighting tactics change when facing opposing groups of different sizes.

Red wood ants (Formica rufa) are very antagonistic, engaging in knock-down, drag-out brawls with other colonies. In the spring, the workers emerge from their burrows and often come across groups of workers from rival colonies. The groups will generally fight until one side is rendered helpless, and the group left standing wins the territory. But when the stakes are this high, what happens when the groups are unevenly matched?

By setting up battles with different numbers of ants on each side, the researchers found that ants in smaller groups fought much harder than those in larger groups did. When a small group of ants (five individuals) went up against larger groups (ten or more), ants in the smaller groups captured and attacked enemies at much higher rates than individuals on the opposing side did.

So, how does this happen? It seems that ants are capable of “numerical assessment,” and can somehow figure out whether they are in the smaller or the larger group. While scientists already know that animals such as lions, hyenas, primates, and birds have this ability, they aren’t yet sure how this cognitive skill works in any or all of these species.

However, despite their relative lack of enthusiasm, the larger groups still came out on top, exhibiting higher overall levels of aggression and lower numbers of fatalities. Despite fighting harder, the small groups couldn’t overcome their numerical disadvantage. While small groups may not be able to beat large ones, their higher individual levels of aggression can put a pretty big dent in their opponents’ fighting forces, and might be able to limit the overall success of these big groups.

Emphasis mine.

New Recruitment Video

Here is the second draft based on feedback from corp mates and people in the community who saw the first one. A big thanks for the feedback too.

Its not exactly where I want it to be: my footage library is still small and heavily leaning towards BMTHOKK and some cap fleets I was in for structure bashing (not exactly riveting), and I'm still getting the hang of editing and transitions. But it felt cleaner and I can see that once I get some small fleet footage and some more scenic shots it will get better. Also, bonus: no PvE combat footage :)

The director in charge of recruiting is pleased with it and wants it to go to wider distribution.

Enjoy!

(NOTE on music: Its more of the typical Eve heavy rock / numetal but the guys like it and it has spunk. )

Rest and Relaxation

The Forever War in Geminate had some serious mood swings over the last week with the NC making some gains, but they were all wiped out with a string Drone Russion Forces showing for the last O2O timer. Thus all the timers are reset and we're back to square one.

FCON is taking a one week break from the action to recuperate and replenish so when I logged in last night I found some corp mates ISK making back in Pure Blind and I decided to join them. One quick swap with the Wyvern alt and I docked, jump cloned, and grabbed the Tengu for some haven busting. Got the sec status up to an even -7.0, booya.

In other news, I purchased a Chimera BPO a couple weeks back to help out with an m3 Corp initiative to generate a new stream of income, and then last week purchased a researched Capital Construction Parts BPO for the same thing at a steal price. Put them in for copying last night as the initiative is still spinning up.

Finally, I took the break in action as a chance to move some PvP ships for Kla'strit to the capital logistics office. A second Maelstrom, a Hurricane, a Slepnier, and a Vagabond were all put in the corp hanger for transport, giving me more options for PvP when Kirith is tied up in the supercarrier.

All in all, a good night even if it lacked any PvP action.

Fiction Friday - Series 3: Chapter 24

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17
Chapter 18  Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23

* * * * *

I fought down a bit of nausea as we left the artificial gravity field of the Bestower and moved into the microgravity of the station's vacuum interior. The escape pod model was about 20 years old at least and the limited sensors it had for observation were designed for use in open space, not inside a station. All the screen showed was solid structure in all directions making us effectively blind.

I had set the pod at a low velocity to move from the ship and roughly calculated that it would take about 3 hours to hit the far wall. We would picked up by Nhi'Khuna or the station AIs before then. Contact with Delvara ended abruptly as we were making our way to the pod and nothing was coming in from Nhi'Khuna. I figured our chances of escape were low. There was nothing to do except sit back in the acceleration couch and wait.

After the excitement of the fight and the run, the absolute silence in the escape pod during its free flight was odd. I was strapped into a long couch beside Derranna, and after a couple minutes of silence I turned to her and said, "Hey, thanks."

She must have been lost in thought because she startled and looked at me. "What?"

"Thanks for saving me back there. Rusack had me and was going to cut deep. I figure you saved my life by shooting him."

She turned back to looking forward, her face going cold and hard. "Shooting at you," she mumbled.

"Pardon?"

Turning back with anger in her eyes and heat in her face, she elaborated, "I was aiming at you, not Rusack. I missed."

"Why would you shoot me?!"

"Why? WHY?! Because you strolled into the restaurant and started shooting at my lord's business partner! Because you attacked without warning or provocation! Because you shot and killed MY MASTER!"

"That was self defence," I angrily retorted. "Besides, I'm saving you from slavery!"

"Saving me from a life where I had everything I needed! I lived in greater comfort than most Amarrians, I had a good education and training on starship control." She lifted her fingers and started counting out the things she lost. "I had subordinates and respect. I was able to give my little sister a good life." She turned her ire back to me. "And now what do I have? Freedom? Freedom to starve on a backwater Gallente world somewhere?  Freedom to beg for food and shelter? Freedom to whore myself out to a new master that will not take care of me?"

"I'll take you to the Republic!"

"OH GREAT, everything is better now!" She raved sarcastically. "Instead of being beholden to a Gallente sex pervert I'll live in squalor at the behest of some tribesman somewhere. I FEEL SO RELIEVED!"

I said nothing and she sat back in the gravity couch, tears flowing and emotionally spent. I was angry at her ungratefulness but it dawned on me that I was tearing her from everything that she ever knew, a life that she had some measure of comfort in, for the great unknown. She was scared. And she probably had a great amount of affection for her deceased master and he was gone. Sighing, I let my anger go.

Suddenly the pod lurched.

Derranna wiped the tears from her cheeks and asked, "What was that?"

"Tractor beam. Don't know whose yet."

I felt some acceleration and then my ear bud chirped. "OK Kirith, sit tight. We're getting out of here."

Carebear Brigade Checkin

Its been a while since we checked in on the Carebear Brigade, let's take a look...

OH DEAR GOD, THEY'VE GONE FERAL!

MyTube

I have a YouTube channel! As I experiment with making video for m3 Corp recruitment drive and the video for BMTHOKK I decided to go all fancy. You can find it here.

Here is my latest effort, a first draft at a m3 Corp recruitment video.

It was made with clips from four sessions, one of which was BMTHOKK and another which was a PvE session as me and some corp members worked on the ISK equation. As such, not enough PvP footage but I'm working on a new version. Comments welcome.

Incursion Storyline Interview

I had a chance to send some questions to CCP's storyline masters CCP Dropbear and CCP Headfirst back in January and totally missed the email response with the answers I received on January 19th. I suck. I blame the excitement of BMTHOKK around that time.

Anyways, here is the interview now, sadly almost two months late.

* * * * *

1. Is there going to be more information (or misinformation) released about the inner workings of the current Sansha nation? I.e. how the structure of the True Slaves is organized, is there any True Citizens left, what are the new mysterious pod pilots made from ordinary citizens, etc?

As we move forward with the Sansha Incursion plot line, you can expect to see at least some of your storyline questions answered during the finale, which will take place shortly before the final phase of the expansion launches. Players who have made an effort to show up to as many events as possible are already piecing the story together from the clues we’ve dropped.

1a. Will we get a chance to 'meet' some True Slaves through fiction and explore their motivations (or lack thereof)?

While the chronicle system of publishing has come to an end, we’re exploring other options for presenting narrative fiction to the player base. For now, the best way to find out about what’s going on is by staying current on the forums, following fan sites, and showing up to events as they occur in game.

2. Are we going to get a chance to explore what has transpired with Master Kuvakei in the 70+ years since the four empires crushed his original Nation in YC 37? I.e. any confirmation whether or not this is Sansha Kuvakei or a clone or an imposter?

Some of these details have been revealed already, usually during events. The most recent Incursion cinematic trailer also revealed a couple of good hints… Also, keep your eyes on www.ihavereturned.com for even more information.

3. Will there be any technical articles released describing how True Slaves and other Sansha slaves actually operate, or how their modifications are implanted in their bodies and function?

Between the existing chronicles, Hjalti Danielsson/CCP Abraxus’s recent novel The Burning Life, and the official forums, a lot of this has already been expressed. But it would be great to have a unified source of information on all things Sansha, wouldn’t it?

4. Will GM/Dev live events still occasionally occur once the automated Sansha Incursions are released on after Jan 18th?

We’re confident that, given the kind of attention they’ve received from our players, live events will continue even after the final release of Incursion. While they were an inspiration for the design of the Incursion system itself, live events will still be used to convey other important parts of the storyline. Beyond that, we’re hoping to explore particular factions, individuals, themes, and events.

5. Is there a definite long term storyline arc for the course of the incursions or is it being left open ended? I realize this might be a hard question to answer without giving too much away, so I follow this up with a related question that might be more answerable:

As much as possible, we’ve enjoyed leaving the major twists in the Sansha plot up to the players, with the outcomes of major battles deciding what happens next. That said, we have some interesting ideas for different directions we could go. As far as the Incursion feature itself, with new NPCs, etc., the gameplay there is designed to be open-ended so that we can advance or discontinue it once we feel the story has run its course.

5a. Are there plans to possibly allow the other pirate empires (Guristas, Blood Raiders, Angel Cartel, and Serpentis) to launch their own incursions (or similar pve events) in future expansions? Or are they too 'civilized' to disrupt the empires the same way?

We’ve definitely considered the idea, but whether or not it makes it into the game anytime soon depends on where it fits into our current priorities, especially with Incarna on the horizon.

6. Will more light be shed upon the supposed collaboration between the Jove and the Sansha?

There was never any collaboration between the Sansha and Jove.

7. Will more light be shed upon the Sansha ability to control wormholes at will?

Inquisitive and creative members of the Sansha opposition have already compiled an immense amount of field research into how they’re able to control wormholes, and those people have come to some interesting conclusions… probably the most profound of which is that it seems the Sansha are generating these portals from a single source device, a fact discovered by clever players “backhacking” the invading forces during the Antem uplink series of events.

8. The four main empires and the other four pirate empires have considerable military might and much to lose to Sansha. How will their lack of action on the issue be explained?

Some of this was explained in the chronicle “Uplifted,” while the rest has been covered by the times when representatives from each nation show up during live events. The basic premise is that the Sansha, who are masters of cybernetics and hive mind computing are, not surprisingly, also quite adept at electronic attacks. Their viral broadcast easily disables the bulk of typical national and factional fleets. Capsuleer vessels, on the other hand, are modern marvels of Jove technology enhanced by other major scientific advancements barely a decade old; hence, they’re the only ones with the ability to respond consistently to the Sansha threat.

9. I swear to Jove I will pay you isk if you get Master Kuvakei to show up local when an incursion happens in Ushra'Khan's current space and says "We come for your people."

If Master Kuvakei ever shows up in your system, you had better hope you’ve got a few hundred of your best friends with you…

* * * * *
A huge thanks to CCP Dropbear and CCP headfirst for answering my questions back in January, and thanks to CCP Adida for making it happen.

Yes, I Do Actually Play This Game

Last night my "game night" looked to be shot as SWMBO had a rough afternoon with the Carebear Brigade and the house was a mess after they were in bed, and she was feeling under the weather. I postponed my night in lieu of dishes, a metric shit-tonne of dishes.

So instead of hitting the computer at 8 pm, I sat down at 9:30 and logged in to record the podcast with any comments from the peanut gallery in Ninveah channel.

"Kirith! Get in fleet now!"

THE POWER OF GREYHOUND67 COMPELS ME!

Before I knew it, the Wyvern's yellow alert sounded and I met at the rally POS. Turns out a failed / infiltrated sov transfer of a system in Vale of the Silent region got borked and Solar Fleet took control and planted structures and towers. Looks like a second front opened up for the Geminate War.

Click to Engiganticate.

 After we did some reinforcement and service disruption in Vale, we moved to the Forever War system of O2O in Geminate and reinforced some towers which went really fast with the dreadnought and supercap fleet we had going. We took down some POS modules to give killmail evidence for accounting purposes to our respective alliances.

You could tell I was rusty because early on in the evening I started cursing in our corp channel we have for communicating during these ops.

Me - "Dammit, I left some of my fighter bombers behind! I warped too soon!"

Solio - "Um, don't they follow you in warp?"

Me - "... Yeah, right. LOL!"

Sigh. Only solution is to get in more fleets!

Solution For Hybrids

There is a lot of talk these days about how hybrid weapons, especially blasters, need a fix to work properly in the current Eve combat environment. There have been tons of posts and discussion about how to address this issue but there are a lot of difficulties and making sure the balancing does not go too far the other direction and make the overpowered. So I'm going to propose something radical.

Get rid of hybrid weapons.

Yes, I'm serious. I believe it might be easier than balancing blasters and rails to fit alongside projectiles and lasers while still being desirable.

How to do it? Easy. All Gallente ships (and pirate ships based on Gallente hulls) with bonuses for hybrid weapons are now equivalent bonuses for laser weapons. All Caldari ships (and derivatives) with bonuses for hybrid weapons are now equivalent bonuses for projectiles. So the current weapon mastery table goes from:

Faction - primary / secondary
Amarr - Lasers / Missiles
Caldari - Missiles / Hybrids
Gallente - Hybrids / Drones
Minmatar - Projectiles / Missiles / Drones

To:


Faction - primary / secondary
Amarr - Lasers / Missiles
Caldari - Missiles / Projectiles
Gallente - Lasers / Drones
Minmatar - Projectiles / Missiles / Drones

Once this is done, all the affected ships would need a review to make sure they still make sense and some ships might overlap too much with a corresponding Amarr or Mimatar one, but overall it should not take too much effort. All hybrid blueprints, modules, rigs, and charges could be substituted for corresponding laser or projectile version.

The upshot of this change is that it would be easier to balance lasers versus projectiles instead of lasers versus projectiles versus hybrids. Plus, with blasters and rails out of the mix there is more leeway for the other weapons to have their attributes modified without trodding on the removed weapon systems.

* * * * *
So do I think this would actually happen? No, there is too much invested effort into the backstory and universe to simply dump hybrids. And my ten minute thought experiment makes it look easy when a thorough check would reveal lots of hiccups. But I thought I would throw it out there to make people think.

CCP, Send My Cheque to 123 Hell Yeah!

Back in October I entreated upon CCP to bring the overview in 2011:

There is one thing that bugs me about the overview. We have 7 classes of ship sizes (frigate, destroyer, cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship, capital, and supercapital) and 3 sizes of icons to fit them all into such that Titans use the same icon as battleships.

(Please excuse my sad MS Paint skills.) The overview has more ability than that and we should encourage, nay DEMAND, that CCP address this deficit. ;-)

In order to be constructive, I have a proposal for new icon classifications.

As you can see, I propose using triangles to mix with the squares for sub capitals, and pentagons for capital and super capitals. For NPCs, perhaps something more subtle.

This small change will allow pilots to quickly pick out the various ship classes faster at a glance rather than having to add the ship type column and scan through it all the time.

Today I had 15 minutes free so I logged into Sisi to fool around with the player character and check out any changes and I was shocked to be presented with new icons in the overview:

Their is a unique icon for capital (same one for the Wyvern FYI), battleship, cruiser/battlecruiser, and I dropped a kestrel from my hanger to see the new one for frigate. The effect is that you can immediately tell there is different hull types on the field at a glance without having to compare pixels on squares.

I approve.

More mods makes me meaner, right?

In other Sisi news, tattoos, sun glasses, piercings, scars, and some new clothes are available. Here is Kirith with some studs, scar, tattoo, earrings, and a nose piercing or two.

Yes, that is a diamond in my nose.

And here is alt Sun Tomah with less modifications as befitting her more public spokesperson role.

Fiction Friday - Series 3: Chapter 23

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17
Chapter 18  Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22

* * * * *

Stations are huge, but still much less massive than a small moon and the gravity they generate is insignificant for the most part. Thus it makes logistical sense for ships to dock inside stations and get the benefit of protection from natural or hostile forces as well as an easier time to service the ship and load/unload cargo.

Most stations have a maze of ship-sized corridors leading to docking rings and hanger access piers and capsuleer vessels have access to restricted causeways to docking levels with priority traffic overrides. They differ in some minor details (Amarr causeways being large and well lit to extravagant ship berths, Minmatar having claustrophobic and dark path ways to magneteo clamps) but they all operate the same: docking tractor beams on the sides of the ship corridors guide the ships through the station to the assigned berth.

Gallente stations, however, are quite different. Mainly for aesthetic reasons the docking levels are vast well lit  open concept caverns stretching through the length and breadth of the station. Ships and cargo containers are guided by massive arrays of tractor beams and drones to their berths, holds, and warehouses. The traffic control of these stations are powered by redundant AIs with teams of human oversight and are marvels of engineering.

One of the advantages of the open concept (beyond the visual appeal) the space can be used for moving ships or containers in an optimal route, no need for specialized cargo lifts or additional bulkheads. The downside is it requires a lot of vigilance to prevent debris from breaking off of a ship or container and floating into the route of another object. Each level has a number of AIs running small tractor beams on the look out for unsecured objects and directing them to security for evaluation and fines being levied on the irresponsible parties. Or arrest for those attempting something illegal, such as leaving a station level and trying to get to another.

* * * * *

Derranna and I made our way to level 23's docks where Blodel's ship was berthed. While security to access maintenance stairwells was always stringent and the security checkpoints for elevators to other levels was on high alert, the guards at the docks were not advised to watch for anything yet thanks to Delvara's interference on communications. But time was running out.

Derranna used her station pass to access the passenger umbilical for the Bestower, an Amarrian industrial ship. I had to present my pass to the overseeing machine but since I had not been identified as the suspect in the events at the bar yet, it had no reason to prevent me from leaving the station. We were halfway down the umbilical when Delvara said, "OK, shit has hit the fan. The level AI has gotten test and taken over a lot of the tasks I was spoofing directly. You've got to move NOW!"

"Time for casual is up, Deranna," I said as I hurriedly grabbed her upper arm and started to trot.

"Where do you think we're going to run to?" she asked angrily. "We can't depart without my master's authorization and he's dead!"

We entered the ship. I looked around for crew but none were to be seen. "Which way to the escape pods? Preferably one that exits to the starboard side?"

"Escape pod!? What the hell? We're in the station, there is nowhere to escape to," she explained loudly as if I were crazy.

I was getting angry. I was just trying to save her from slavery, didn't she see that? "Look, Dee, I have a plan and it involves an escape pod. We can get there and try to escape, or we can stay here until time runs out on us and they catch us and throw us in a jail and throw away the key. Because you know what? They're not fond of people getting shot and killed on their stations."

She had a torn look on her face as she locked eyes with me. I didn't understand why but I didn't have time to figure it out. I asked one more time with clenched teeth, my patience almost gone. "Where are the escape pods?"

She came to some sort of tortured decision and turned. "This way," she said dejectedly.

Guest post: Japan and CCP Response

Mr Mann contacted me asking if I would post the following for him.

Ethics and Eve (Eve Online and the Japan Earthquake)

Unless you live under a rock or are snobbish about your news sources, you know Japan was rocked today by a nasty quake that will likely disrupt the entire country for weeks and months to come.

The title above isn’t a misnomer it is a challenge, to the player base, CCP, the CSM, and the players in Japan who have suffered a real loss.  Eve is unique in that stupid actions in the game will result in someone smarter than you teaching you a rather harsh lesson, no do-over’s, no givebacks, no free passes (99% of the time).  The disasters in Haiti and more recently New Zealand probably affected some Corps/Alliances but Japan itself is unique as well… as a people they are more homogeneous and less likely to associate with the rest of the player base.  This is a problem… because roughly 1% of Eve plays from Japan, and with the internet, power, and life in general in turmoil for the foreseeable future 1% of eve is about to go dark.  

“but excuse me Mr. Mann.. Why should I care about this? I just wants to blow up internet spaceshipz!, get lost, be quiet and go cry somewhere else”

I like anyone else reading this, play Eve for the fun, for the explosions, for the friends, for the lols, and yes my fair amount of grinding boredom, camping, POS shooting and the like… I have escaped from traps, fallen into them and woken up in a pod, set traps and gone on roams of my own, solo kills and the whole damn corp whoring in on my KM.  All these things happen because I sit at my desk and I make choices, I push the buttons, and I am playing a game where those actions have consequences.  No magical CCP fairy will come along and make it better.  1% of Eve has just had a choice made for them, accounts will expire, towers will fail, assets will be irretrievably lost. 

Here’s the Ethics part… I remember from a friend in CVA at how taken aback they were when they lost control for a day and –A- guarded Providence exits like it was their own.  This was both honorable, and just because it was the right thing to do, it also preserved a hunting ground for gang roams.  Starting today the whole player base has a similar choice:

A)     Find their stuffz and kill it cause I wants it!!!!
B)      Protect a defenseless part of the community so EvE doesn’t lose a whole country

I’m sure someone with better understanding or creativity (its 4 am here) and energy can invent a better solution but those are the basics.  I sincerely hope CCP gets involved to monitor traffic in game from Japanese ISP’s and if all is well, then we’re all good.  If the numbers drop to near zero then they need to make some business decisions as well, write off a whole country (cause by the time they get back all their stuff will be dead or gone) and let them start from scratch, or be creative in identifying strong Japanese corps and get them some Dev Hax or DED protection until they can rejoin us. 

I for one will be considering leaving my current corp and hoping CCP forms up something in-game to allow volunteers to keep towers up and defended until they can get back.  I hope others will join me in this effort. 

EvE… This is our game, learn it, love it, live it or die trying… Now you have a choice to make, help or don’t, but however, bad your day was… theirs was worse, I will be helping.

Mr. Mann… out.

A Man's Perogative

So I changed my mind about training for and saving up for a jump freighter. Just too impatient I guess.

I got Amarr Cruiser V and realized there were a few support skills I really should train up to be a better capital pilot. So Tactical Logistical Reconfiguration went into the queue, to be followed by Jump Drive Calibration V, Fighter Bombers V, and Capital Ships IV. I know, I know, JDC V should have been a higher priority but it wasn't until recently I felt the pain of not having it. Regardless, I'm doing them now.

For Korannon, I have been going back and forth between several options that I finally decided to just up his basic skills which were lacking. Shield skills, energy skills, and navigation skills for more hitpoints, more cap, and more propulsion mods. Then I have to figure out what to do next with him. I'm leaning towards planetary interaction skills to make another passive income stream.

* * * * *

So what to do with the money I've got saved up if not for the Rhea? I opted to invest in a researched Chimera blueprint original so that I can assist with the corp efforts to start a capital ship building program.


* * * * *

In planetary interaction news, my two robotic resource planets were running afoul of depleted resources for base metals and chiral structures, so I took an opportunity a couple nights back to reconfigure the two colonies from scratch in new locations on the planet. So far only one oops when I forgot to route reactive metals back to the launchpad but I caught that the first day. Looks like volume is up for now and should keep my factories busy.

Other Online Distractions

Since the majority of my free time comes in small doses, I use a variety of online games to scratch the gaming itch. I tried out some new ones recently so I thought I would blast out mini-reviews.

Gameknot - An online chess site with millions of registered users, its exactly everything you would want for playing chess. Casual games, tournaments, rankings, stats, databases, puzzles, leagues. I've been a platinum member for years and have played over 1800 games.

Weewar - This is a turned based strategy game that can be amazing or horrible depending on the individual games. There are hundreds of maps to choose from to start a game and lots of different settings, but even a perfectly fun map can be ruined by a poor sportsman of a player on the other side. Still, the good experiences outweigh the bad for the most part. I was a full member for a year but since it got purchased by EA I've been playing free as it went through a bad patch of no support and poor stability. Seems better now and a lot of veterans came back.

Blight of the Immortals - Still in beta, this game is one of two new I've tried done by Iron Helmet Games. The idea is that you work with (or against) other players to stop a zombie apocalypse in a fantasy setting. I've played about 5 games and I really like it. The mechanics are real time but slow paced enough that you only need to check a couple times a day to give orders and respond to events. You score honour by fighting the zombies and win by having the most honour when the zombies are finally eradicated. I plan to keep trying this out.

Neptune's Pride - The second Iron Helmet Game, this is their first one. Its a space empire PvP game with similar time based mechanics. While the rules are simple, the complexity of player versus player strategy and diplomacy make it quite intense. I've only been playing free but the worst part is having players drop out giving the neighbours a huge advantage. I won't be staying with this game because although you can play casually, the PvP nature can allow for a player to launch and attack that you don't get to respond to until too late. I just don't have the stomach for that kind of stress.

Large Coalitions Are Not Bad For Eve

A post at Eveoganda by Rixx Javix had me sighing again. Not the post itself, which was a good discussion about how changing how standings work could change the game. No, the thing that made me sigh was once again the concept of coalitions was under attack.

I talked about how the success of the Northern Coalition was not bad for Eve and how all grand alliances come to an end eventually,but today I want to address some common misconceptions that I feel underlie the concerted effort to destroy coalitions by changing game mechanics.

Misconception #1: Coalitions Stifle PvP

If anything, coalitions create environments that stimulate PvP! By creating areas where more people feel secure and move out into null sec, it creates more space in which hostile gangs can roam looking for kills and fights. Also, by having a coalition to work with, people are more likely to form into fleets and go fight the enemy rather than huddling alone and afraid in a station somewhere because most of their alliance is logged off in that time zone.

Also, there is a whole class of PvP that can only exist with coalitions and that is the Power Bloc Wars: MAX 2.0, NC versus DRF, Clusterfuck versus IT, StAAAinwagon versus The Initiative and Friends, etc. These wars span months and many regions, sometimes involving thousands of pilots and massive mercenary contracts. These are the wars that make the epic posts on forums and blogs, not the small brush wars in Syndicate or Curse.

As a counterpoint to the misconception, take Providence as an example: under the CVA and Holder coalition Providence thrived with large population and plenty of small hostile gangs running through at all times through the week. When our corp went back at the turn of the year we found most of Providence to be a wasteland.

Misconception #2: Coalitions lead to the Blob

First off, I mean the soul-crushing lag-inducing blob, not the "oh shit, they have more than we do" blob. Yes, coalitions make it easier for large fleets to strain the resources of the nodes but the reason blobs are necessary in sov warfare is more to do with the fact that Dominion puts all the pressure of taking systems on a low number of structure timers. Even without coalitions, sov warfare necessitates the most pilots each side can muster at one place at once.

Without serious Area of Effect weapons, there is no reason to not blob. Now I'm not advocating the return of the Titan Doomsday, but more weapons like the supercarrier Projected ECM burst and Void bombs would help out here.


Misconception #3: Life will be Swell in a post-Coaltion Null Sec

For a view of how like in a coalition-free null sec would be (assuming coalitions give up and break up once game mechanics turn against them, which I doubt since eve players tend to be very clever in adapting to changes), take a look at Syndicate and Curse regions. Due to the prevalence of non-conquerable NPC stations, we see many small corporations and alliances get their first taste of null sec life in these two regions. Its not an easy life, but a dedicated and talented group can carve a small kingdom in these regions without fear from coalition warfare pushing them aside.

I like these regions. I've lived in Syndicate and recognize the benefits. But I think an entire null sec like that would be boring, especially since without the prevalence of dockable stations that these two regions support you would quickly find much of null sec a wasteland in terms of pilots.

Misconception #4: Small Alliances have a Right to Space

Underlying all of this negative press for coalitions is that small alliances cannot grab space in null sec and exist without a bigger alliance or coalition pushing them out with ease. To which I say, so what? Eve is a social  and political game as much as an internet spaceship one and small alliances looking to grow and own space should have to go through hoops and diplomatic hurdles to get there, either by spending time in NPC null sec or renting space. Eve is hard mode bitches, nothing should be handed for free.


Misconception #5: Ending coalition will actually End Coalitions.

The alliance formerly known as IT was a coalition in everything except mechanics, hence why it fell apart so easily in the face of Goons and TEST. But the fact remains that if the current coalitions are broken, eve pilots would simply form bigger alliances in order to overcome that deficit. Instead of coalitions stretching across multiple regions, single alliances will.

And where will the little guys be then? Still screwed, yet even more so since they will need to give up their own alliance identity and be subsumed into the greater alliance in order to have the benefits of null sec.

* * * * *

In the end the answer is not to try to destroy coalitions but instead to increase the sandbox flexibility with different zones for different playstyles. Wormholes was a brilliant addition because it opened up a new style of null sec that many people love and swear by, coalition free. Why can't CCP add a couple more null sec regions like Syndicate and Curse, chock full with non-conquerable stations? Or even constellations like the Sisters of Eve in Pure Blind? Or a second phase of wormhole space where constellations have static permanent holes to each other allowing for a slightly large entity to move in yet still keep coalitions at bay?

Its time to add to the sandbox if its getting to full, not punish those who choose to build the biggest castles.

Eve Master Class: The Mechanics of Command

This is a repost of an Eve Tribune article I wrote. I am very happy with how it turned out and wanted to include it here for inclusion in my master class series.

* * * * *

Leadership is a life skill that you either master or it masters you. Leadership in Eve is no different and the old maxim, "lead, follow, or get out of the way" holds very true. Fleet Commanders are made, not born. Sure, you might have some natural attributes that helps you master the art of leadership, but only in the forges of combat can a leader rise to its true potential.

This article has nothing to any of that. Go read Machiavelli or Sun Tzu. I'm going to talk to you about the mechanics of command, or more accurately, the mechanics of Leadership in Eve.

In a fleet pilots placed in leadership positions of the fleet hierarchy can boost the performance of pilots under their command. Shields, armour, electronic warfare, mining, etc. can all be improved by a significant amount if the skills and equipment of the Squad leader, Wing Commander, or Fleet Commander are up to the task. In this article we explore those skills, modules, implants, and ships so that pilots can begin to step into the leadership role with confidence.

Skills
Leadership / Wing Command / Fleet Command :
These three skills are the basic skills of leadership and allow for the control of more squad members, squadrons, and wings respectively. In addition, Leadership grants a 2% bonus to subordinates' targeting speed per level. Every pilot should train Leadership to level V so that they can lead a squadron of a full 10 members when called upon.

Note: when calculating the bonuses a player only receives the highest of the bonuses of the leaders above him. For example, if his wing commander has Leadership III and his squad commander has Leadership V, the pilot will receive the full 10% bonus from his squad commander and not the 6% bonus from his wing commander. This is true of all of the leadership bonuses we will discuss in this article.

Also note that bonuses only apply to ships in the same solar system.

Armored/Information/Siege/Skirmish Warfare:
These four skills are the base PvP leadership skills and grant the following bonuses:

• Armored - 2% bonus to armour hit points per level
• Information - 2% bonus to target range per level
• Siege - 2% bonus to shield capacity per level
• Skirmish - 2 % bonus to ship agility per level

Note that there is a subtle difference between Armored Warfare and Siege Warfare. The former grants hitpoints while the latter grants the extra space to get more hitpoints. This is an attempt to balance shield's natural recharge ability but can be an incredible pain for capital and supercapital ships.

Armored/Information/Siege/Skirmish Warfare Specialist:
The four specialist skills allow for the use of the warfare link modules of which there is three of each kind. We will discuss them in detail later on but basically they provide additional bonuses to pilots under your command when fitted and activated on your ship. They can only be fitted on ships with a special bonus and of those ships most of them can only activate one at a time.

The first level of the skill allows for use of the respective modules, and subsequent levels increases the effectiveness of the modules by 100%.

Example: the Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defence module gives a base 2% bonus to armour resistances of your boosted fleet members, but with Armored Warfare Specialist at level II it increases to 4% and at level IV it is up to 8%.

Mining Foreman & Mining Director:
Miners need love too and these two skills fill the same roles as the Warfare and Warfare Specialist skills do for PvPers. Mining Foreman gives a 2% bonus to mining yield per level while Mining Director facilitates the use of the three Mining Foreman Link modules which we will go into later in more detail.

Warfare Link Specialist:
Finally, we come to the Warfare Link Specialist skill which boosts the effectiveness of all Warfare Link and Mining Foreman Link modules by 10% per level.

Example: So back to our example Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defence module, if your Armored Warfare Specialist skill is at level IV it gives 8% bonus to resistances. If Warfare Specialist is at level I, it increases to 8.8% (i.e. 8% + 10% bonus) and if you get it to level V it increases to 12% (i.e. 8% + 50% bonus).

Note that this skill also works on the Mining Foreman Link modules.

Implants
If you are serious about being a booster in a fleet, having good skills and a command ship is not enough. There is an implant you can fit that will increase one area of leadership bonuses considerably but requires Cybernetics V and the corresponding Warfare Specialist skill to V as well. It takes some time but the payoff is worth it. They all use slot 10 in your skull so no mixing and matching bonuses I'm afraid.

Armored Warfare Mindlink: 50% increase to the command bonus of Armored Warfare Link modules and replaces Armored Warfare skill bonus (i.e. 10%) with 15% armour hitpoint bonus.

Information Warfare Mindlink: 50% increase to the command bonus of Information Warfare Link modules and replaces Information Warfare skill bonus (i.e. 10%) with 15% targeting range bonus.

Siege Warfare Mindlink: 50% increase to the command bonus of Siege Warfare Link modules and replaces Siege Warfare skill bonus (i.e. 10%) with 15% shield capacity bonus.

Skirmish Warfare Mindlink: 50% increase to the command bonus of Skirmish Warfare Link modules and replaces Skirmish Warfare skill bonus (i.e. 10%) with 15% ship agility bonus.

Mining Foreman Mindlink: 50% increase to the command bonus of Mining Foreman Link modules and replaces Mining Foreman skill bonus (i.e. 10%) with 15% mining yeild bonus.

Example: a pilot named Joe with Armored Warfare V and Armored Warfare Specialist V would get the Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defence bonus up to 15% extra on resistances. If he plugs in the Armored Warfare Mindlink the module now gives 22.5% (i.e. 15% + 50% bonus) and the 10% bonus to armour hitpoints due to Armored Warfare V is now replaced with a 15% bonus.

Modules
Now that we have covered the skills and implants the pilot must have/can use, let's look at the modules that you can fit on your ship to increase your subordinates' performance even further. Typically only one of these modules can be active at a time on a ship with certain exceptions. We will discuss the ships that these modules are allowed on in the next section.

There are 15 link modules, three for each of the types: Armored, Information, Siege, Skirmish, and Mining.

Armored Warfare Link - Damage Control: Reduces the capacitor need of remote and local armour repairers by 2%.

Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defence: Increases armour resistances by 2%.

Armored Warfare Link - Rapid Repair: Reduces the duration of remote and local armour repairers by 2%.

Information Warfare Link - Electronic Superiority: Increases ECM jam strength by 2%, sensor dampener targeting range and scan resolution penalty by 1.2%, tracking disruptor optimal and falloff penalty by 1.2%, and target painter signature bonus by 2%.

Information Warfare Link - Recon Operation: Increases optimal range of electronic warfare modules by 2%.

Information Warfare Link - Sensor Integrity: Increases ship sensor strength by 3%.

Siege Warfare Link - Active Shielding: Reduces the duration of shield boosters and shield transporters by 2%.

Siege Warfare Link - Shield Efficiency: Reduces the capacitor need of shield boosters and shield transporters by 2%.

Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing: Increases shield resistances by 2%.

Skirmish Warfare Link - Evasive Maneuvers: Reduces ship signature radius by 2%.

Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers: Increases optimal range of Warp Scramblers and Warp Disruptors by 3%.

Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment: Increases the speed boost of afterburners and micro warp drives by 2%.

Mining Foreman Link - Harvester Capacitor Efficiency: Reduces the capacitor need of mining lasers, gas harvesters, and ice harvesters by 2%.

Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization: Reduces the duration of mining lasers, gas harvesters, and ice harvesters by 2%.

Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement: Increases the optimal range of mining lasers, gas harvesters, and ice harvesters by 4.5%.

These values may seem very low but you must recall that they are increased by the respective warfare specialist skill and can be enhanced by the respective implant so with perfect skills that 2% bonus can look like 15% bonus, and then up to 22.5% with the implant plugged in. And that does not even take into account a bonus from a ship.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier most ships that are allowed to fit warfare link modules can only have one active at once. This limitation can be worked around if the ship fits a Command Processor module in a mid-slot. It has high fitting requirements (150 CPU and 50 power grid) and it is more logical to simply use one of the dedicated ships that are allowed to activate multiple warfare links instead.

Ships
Now we get to the meat of the subject, for everything else is for naught if you are not actually in a ship in space and in the right fleet position boosting your mates. If you are not using warfare links, then really any ship can work as a booster since it is only dependent on your relevant skills and implant. The bonuses are not very much and a real fleet booster can give tremendous gains with a properly equipped ship.

There are seven combat classes of ships that can fit warfare link modules, and the two ORE capital ships.

Battlecruisers: The 8 tech I battlecruisers are the poor man's command ships and rarely used to fit warfare links on as the they grant no additional bonus other than the ability to fit them and the link modules have fairly high fitting requirements (50 CPU and 200 powergrid).

Field Command Ships: These are the Amarr Absolution, Caldari Nighthawk, Gallente Astarte, and Minmatar Sleipnir. They are designed for up close and personal fighting while still supporting their fleet, and like the Tech I versions they can activate only one warfare link module at a time and have no bonus to their effectiveness.

Fleet Command Ships: This category is made up of the Amarr Damnation, Caldari Vulture, Gallente Eos, and Minmatar Claymore. They are primarily designed to support fleets through warfare link boosting and do not have the same fighting capability as their field command counterparts. They are allowed to have 3 warfare link modules active at a time AND get 3 % bonus to their racial warfare type warfare link modules per level of Command Ship skill.

The racial warfare types are: Amarr -> Armour, Caldari -> Siege, Gallente -> Information, and Minmatar -> Skirmish.

Example: Pilot Joe has Armored Warfare V, Armored Warfare Specialist V, and an Armored Warfare Mindlink implant. Using the Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defence on a normal battlecruiser he gives 22.5% bonus to all armour resistances to the ships he is boosting in fleet. However, the same pilot and module in a Damnation Fleet command ship with Command Ship skill at level IV gives a 25.2% bonus to armour resistances, and he could fit and activate two more warfare link modules as well.

Strategic Cruisers: The four strategic cruisers are normally not used for command purposes, but they can be if they fit the defensive subsystem Warfare Processor. This subsystem allows for warfare link modules to be fitted (but only one to be activated at a time) and gives a 5 % bonus to their racial warfare type warfare link modules per level of racial Defensive Subsystem skill.

Example: If pilot Joe trained up for a Legion strategic cruiser and fit his Armored Warfare Link - Passive Defence module on it with the Warfare Processor subsystem and Amarr Defensive Subsystem skill at level V, he would give a 28.12% bonus to armour resistances.

Carriers: Much like tech I battlecruisers, the four carriers simply have the ability to fit warfare link modules (only one active at a time barring fitting Command Processors) with no bonus to their effectiveness.

Supercarriers: The four supercarriers do not get any racial bonus to warfare link modules, but they have the ability to activate one extra module per level of relevant Carrier skill. This means with the Carrier skill at level 5 the ship can activate six warfare link modules. Typically it is not worth it though as you have to sacrifice many high slots for the mods and two cheaper fleet command ships can do it more effectively.

Titans: The four titans have the same ability as the supercarriers to fit up to six active warfare links modules albeit without additional bonus. It is typically not done for the same reasons as well.

Orca: The Orca acts like a Fleet Command Ship for mining operations. It has the ability to fit warfare link modules (which includes mining foreman link modules for the record) and can activate up to three of them simultaneously. On top of that it gets a 3% bonus to mining foreman link modules per level of Industrial Command ship.

Rorqual: The mother of all industrial ships, the low sec / null sec only Rorqual can do everything the Orca can do in a mining operation in terms of fleet boosting, only better. It can fit and activate up to three warfare link modules and gets a 10% bonus to their effectiveness per level of Capital Industrial Ship skill.

Go Forth and Lead
So there you have it: the skills, implants, modules, and ships you need to increase the effectiveness of your gang considerably. You can make their defences much harder with raw hit points, higher resistances, and better repairers; you can make their electronic warfare have better range and more power; you can make their ships more agile and high sensor strength; and you can make their mining lasers burn through asteroids with the ease of a hot knife through butter.