Welcome to the New Home of the Blog Banters

After much pleading, bribes, threats, and cajoling I managed to convince Seismic Stan to hand the custodianship of the Blog Banters to me:

Handing over to Kirith also makes me feel a little better as I pretty much snatched the then dormant Blog Banter out from under his nose by relaunching with BB27 in August 2011 off the back of his blogpost comparing and contrasting EVE Online with World of Tanks. This feels like the right decision to me.
I think Kirith's broad experience and maturity makes him the perfect man for the job. It is important that the Blog Banter tradition remains a grassroots community service and I think Kirith's experience and conduct shows he would continue to steer the good ship BB in the right direction.
Put simply, the guy is EVE royalty and an all-round solid fellow - leaving the Blog Banters in his hands takes much of the sting out of the decision for me.

Thanks for the kind words, Stan.

With that said and the hand off happening already, I want to assure everyone that the Banters will continue to operate much like they have under Stan's regime: every month I'll send out a call for posts on blogs about a topic that are due out a particular day, I'll compile the posts into a list, and then get a volunteer to make a summary (with a reward of a PLEX if all goes well). Why change what isn't broken, right?

So what happens next is that I have Canada Day this weekend and I'm off work next week (but not going anywhere other than day trips) so I will work on setting everything up for the next Banter which I plan to have go live in the middle of July. I'll be emailing those bloggers on the list next week with the topic.

If you have ideas for topics, feel free to email me at kkodachi@gmail.com or find me on Twitter: @KirithKodachi.

Blog Banters Needs A New Custodian

Seismic Stan has decided to hang up the hat as current custodian of the Blog Banters.

Seismic Stan is one of my favourite people in the Eve community and his slow disengagement over the past year has saddened me. I really wanted to fly with him in a fleet sometime. Perhaps someday we will.

When Crazy Kinux gave up the ghost and moved on, I was considering grabbing the Blog Banters and running them put was beaten to the punch by Stan. I was not disappointed as I knew at the time he would do a great job.

Now, they are up for grabs again amoung a lot of talk about whether blogging is on the way out, supplanted by Twitter and conglomerate news sites.

Blogs have a place in this world, and blog banters are the piece that pulls us altogether. I want them to survive even if the Evebloggers.com and Eve Blog Pack don't. 

Let me be that custodian, Stan. Let me continue the good job you have done already.

New Goal - Filthy Space Rich

I'm approaching seven years in Eve Online in September. Seven straight years with no break longer than a week or two. That's how much I love this game.

Right now I'm enjoying Faction Warfare immensely, working on my FCing skills occasionally, improving my PvP skills so that I don't get the shakes and make stupid mistakes (as often). For income I'm importing ships and mods into low sec and making really decent ISK in the process, a steady stream of credits that keeps me well equipped for the war and the scant time I have to play and lose ships for a small investment of time to check a few orders and move stuff around.

Life is good.

But now, I want more. I am Space Rich, I want to join the ranks of the Filthy Space Rich. My net worth is measured in tens of billions, I want it to be measured in trillions. I want to be able to use petty cash to buy a Wyvern to throw away in an event. I want ISK to lose all meaning.

There are many paths to this goal, but the one I've decided upon is capital construction. It appeals to the side of me that wants the least effort for the biggest gain.

So begins the skill training as my alt trains Production Efficiency V and Capital Contruction skills.

Project Vulcan has begun.

Tank Tuesday: Bonus

Its BACK!!!

So yeah, my rekindled passion for treads continues into this week.

This week I was playing these tanks on regular rotation (tier in brackets): Leopard (V), Panzer IV (V), VK30.02 (VII), Jagdpanther (VII), and Jagdpanther II (VIII). I was having an OK time and still loving my tank destroyers and learning that the mediums were better at distance sniping than up close brawling, but that essentially gave me 4 long range tanks and nothing but my artillery hunting Leopard for up close brawling.

Truth is, I really missed my Tiger II. I sold my King Tiger to fund my Jagdpather II foray but after getting that beast up to best equipment I find its OK, but too much like my beloved Jagdpanther but with a higher profile and tougher targets. I miss the heavy tank and the fear that big gun could put into people.

Well, I got a nice bonus at work so I snuck ~$55 out of the pot and invested in some gold for the first time in a long time. I used the gold to purchase and outfit the Tiger II and man, I am so glad I did. In the few matches I've had since I bought it I've had a lot of fun and decent success. I love that big 10.5 cm L68 gun.

I did consider buying a Lowe straight up instead. Its also tier VIII but gives a bonus to credit and experience generation since its a premium tank. But I've had a love affair with the King Tiger so stuck with it and glad I did. I missed you too, baby.

I doubt I'll ever get into a tier IX tank, but I might work my way up to the tier VI light VK28.01 tank that is the successor to the Leopard, and maybe even the tier VII Aufpanzer Panther light tank.

Listening To Feedback

When the proposed changes for industrials came out as part of the continuing tiericide initiative, there were a few problems with them:

- Mammoth was not the biggest hauler for Minmatar, but rather the butt-ugly Hoarder was

- A lot of industrials lost the second high slot hurting their ability to fit a cloak and probe launcher for wormhole work

- Each race got a fast hauler and slow but tanky hauler, and the Gallente and Minmatar with their extra haulers just got balanced inbetween the extremes

Faced with a playerbase that was upset by the demoting of the classic Mammoth to also-ran status, the first issue was resolved very quickly. Then today after a weekend of going over feedback in the forums and 'other sources', he posted a change of heart:

-Special purpose bays - This will be for Hoarder, Iteron Mark II, III, and IV. We wanted to do this originally, but held back because of concerns about racial inequality. Based on feedback I'm now hoping you guys will be fine with this inequality, as long as it isn't so favored towards Gallente that no one would ever train another race for hauling.
-More separation between the two basic hauler types - I want to achieve this through several means including giving the faster haulers better warp time (up to 6au/tick instead of 4.5au/tick), taking a mid slot away from the cargo focused versions to highlight the tank on the others (this will partly be counter-acted by giving back the second high to the cargo versions), along with other small changes to make some of the tankier haulers stand out a bit more.
-More quirkiness overall - I won't go into specifics right now, and it won't be anything extremely drastic, but I want to try and get each ship within a role set apart from the others as much as possible to avoid any feeling of homogenization (though I still feel that the very simplistic hauling system doesn't provide a lot of room for variation that wouldn't severely handicap some ships).

This is a great step forward for this class and I'm sure I'm in the majority that having some uniqueness in the races is fine as long as its balanced out overall in the long run.

I can't wait to see what the special purpose bays are going to be. A special Ore only super hauler? A Planetary Interaction maven ship like the limited edition Primae? A hauler with a Ship Array that can carry 1-2 destroyers? The possibilities are intriguing.

Denying Fights - Short Term Win vs Long Term Loss

Without further comment I'm going toe repost something from a post by Unforgiven Storm on his blog, failed CSM8 candidate and Goon, titled The Will to Login is a Two Way Street:

Then The Mittani made a post where he explains that our “foremost goal is always the denial of the enjoyment of the enemy: no fun allowed for our enemies”. He’s forgetting that he is also denying fun for his people, but he is the boss and this is not a democracy, so shut up and fight. And that I did. 

We now decided to include in our tactics blue balling, we form up 1000 people in 3 or more fleets, the enemy joins 1000 people to fight us, makes 20 jumps under TIDI, takes then 1 hours to come to us and we dock. They get pissed like hell and go back under TIDI and takes them another hour. Fun yes, for a moment, I get some laughs but not has fun has fight them and killing them would be, that is for sure. 

Yesterday I went on the new Baltec fleet, the FC decided to blue ball them and went to a pos, after 2 hours of showing them our dicks we come back home and they left furious. Everybody was laughing, hahaha… 

After dinner I see 2 pings for Baltec and Tengu fleets… I closed my computer and went to bed earlier.

(Emphasis mine)

How To: Eve's New Launcher

I've read and heard about a lot of people not liking the new launcher and after I figured out the optimal way to use it I like it. It's easier to switch characters than ever before. Let me show you how.

1) Open the launcher and click the Auto Play checkbox in the bottom right corner.

2) In the settings on the Start Up tab, make sure you uncheck the box for closing Eve Launcher after starting.

3) Log in and it will auto-launch the client. Select your character, start playing.

4) Meanwhile, the launcher is waiting patiently behind the scenes for you.

5) If you want to be another character on the same account, just close the client and hit PLAY on the launcher. You are still logged in! If you want to launch a second client, just switch to launcher and click the "Switch Account" link, enter username and password and hit enter and BOOM! New client launches.

Easy mode.

In my Hanger

Drackarn over at Sand, Cider, and Spaceships did a post about what's in his hanger so since I feel like stealing ideas today, here's my post of my hanger's ships.

I have more stuffed away here and there, but this is the bulk of it.

Old Screenshot

Rixx Javix posted an old screenshot so I thought I would post a few of my old ones from 2006. Enjoy!

Odyssey Thoughts

So I've had two good play sessions in Odyssey now, doing my PvP thing and I want to put out there my impressions so far.

Tags4Sec

I personally have not gone looking for tags either in belts or on market but it nice to know the option is out there. I hear its put some people into the belts in low sec which is good as they have been ignored for a long time. Last night on comms one guy was commenting on how he spent a lot of ISK to get his sec status back up but in a few short ops had come back down to about -5 again. So I guess the tags are really only if you have too much ISK or plan to stay positive sec status. For me, I like the PvP opportunities my -9.8 gets me.

New Ships

I have yet to see the new Battlecruisers in space, but I did sell three Navy Brutix BPCs to pad my wallet. This one will take a long time to tell if it makes a huge splash or not.

Rebalanced Ships

The Tiericide initiative has breathed some new life into battleship theorycrafting but in low sec at least is has not translated to more battleships in space. Faction cruisers on the other hand, especially Navy Vexors, have become very popular and the fleet I was in last night was made up primarily of Navy Vexors and Navy Augorors, and we attacked a fleet with Navy Ospreys. Bizarre to this old timer.

Probing / New Hacking Minigame

Haven't tried it yet.

New Jump Effect

Nice but has faded into background noise for me now. This is a good thing as you don't want something you are going to be doing 40-50 times a session to become jarring or annoying.

Discovery Scanner

Like the jump effect, I don't even notice the anoms and sigs anymore when I jump into a system unless I'm looking for a plex in particular. When I try exploring I will have more feedback.

Radial Menus

This for me has been a big win. I set it up on my left click mouse button with medium delay and I use it a lot when selecting things in the overview. Its very handy with the sliding function for quickly selecting different ranges for orbiting. More like this please!

Resource Rebalancing

It is ostensibly the reason for the big war in Fountain between Goon-led CFC and TEST Alliance but I have not experienced any other impacts locally in low sec yet.

* * * * *

Big lesson from this post: I need to try probing and the new minigame.

Post #2386

I am going on vacation for a few days, taking the kids to the Zoo and Wonderland in Toronto. So this will be the last post until next week. Unless I get bored and inspired at the hotel. With these monkeys, that's not likely.

Since its Tuesday, let's do a Tank Tuesday!

Last week I logged into World of Tanks again and looked around. Yeah, I got the treadhead bug again. It took me a couple matches to find my groove and it sucks playing on a Standard account as it means I usually lose credits with my JagdPanther II due to the insane cost of shells for the guns, but I was able to upgrade to the big gun on the tank finally and actually have some decent chance to penetrate Tier 8+ heavies again.

The Tier 7 Jagdpanther tank destroyer and Tier 5 Panzer IV medium continue to be my best tanks with a Ace Tanker Mastery Badge1 each, and I've been trying to drive better with my Tier 7 medium VK30.02D as I too often treat it like a tough brawler instead of a long sniper. I really am missing my Tiger II heavy tank and desperately trying to avoid dropping some cash to get gold to buy it so I can drive my monster again. Sigh.

We'll see if the current tank driving holds up before I get too frustrated again. With no new tanks affordable on the horizon for me it could be a short stay.

1 -

Montolio Was Right

EDIT: I composed this post prior to getting news of Pandemic Legion and other alliances working with TEST to fight the goons in J5A. It remains to be seen if this is a "good fight" opportunity for PL or a strategic shift. 

This morning's post was going to be a rebuttal to Glevon Goblin's Eve News 24 post about how the Mitanni made a mistake and the CFC was thus doomed:

He now made a mistake. His first one within EVE (suicidegate was outside EVE). And probably his last one too. I believe this mistake will be his undoing.

But Corelin did a fine takedown of that ridiculous assertion that I have nothing to add to it.

I do, however, want to talk about TEST alliance for a minute.

Right and Wrong

Back in January I predicted that the Honey Badger Coalition (HBC) and the Cluster Fuck Coalition (CFC) would never go to war this year:

There has been several suggestions around the meta-community lately along the lines that a war between the Goon-led Cluster Fuck Coaltion (CFC) and the TEST-led Honey Badger Coalition (HBC) is brewing and practically inevitable this year. 

First off, let's define what we mean by "war". I'm not talking about a dust up over some moons, or a conflict between a few alliances that are parts of each coalition, or an exercise in war-games over a constellation or a region. We are talking about full scale sov war with the goal being the utter destruction of one side or the other, or at least pushing one side out of null sec sov holder status which usually precedes a breakup and a few alliance closures. Total war, if you will; an existential threat to both sides. 

And for CFC and HBC, that's not going to happen in 2013.

And I am totally correct so far and I'm confident to say that I'll remain correct for the rest of 2013. Unfortunately, I am correct for the wrong reasons and the spirit and base assumptions behind my prediction is wrong.

My prediction was based on this reasoning:

There are many reasons why I am making this prediction, but primarily it has to do with one simple fact: the core of each coalition, Goons and Test respectively, still like each other. Remember that Goons mentored the early Test pilots, giving them space to live and grow without the rough period of finding their feet in the wilds of null like a lot of nascent alliances must do. A Big Brother / Little Brother metaphor if you will. And although Test alliance has grown up and can stand on their own two feet for some time now, there is still a banked amount of goodwill between the leadership of these two alliances. As Goons/Test goes, so goes the majority of the alliance in their respective coalitions. 

On other words, they still like each other so war will be avoided. For now, 2013 at least I predict will be clear.

However the HBC collapsed. There is no other accurate word for it. It convulsed and came apart at the seams like a poorly made suit. Over the past six months hints have come out about why it collapsed and much of the blame can be laid at the feet of Pandemic Legion who were really only in the coalition for "good fights" and not sov level warfare, especially not sov level warfare that threatened the precious moons that line their pockets with copious amounts of ISK. Need to pay for all that fuel used in hot drops don't you know!

Seeing Montolio and much of TEST chomping at the bit for a sov level war with their partners in Technetium cartels, Pandemic Legion activated the Emergency Procedures and effectively neutered TEST right out of their control of their own coalition. Seeing they were no longer in control of their own destiny, TEST decided to bail and salvage some pride. Seeing the rambunctious little adopted brother exposed and mostly on their own (quite by design), CFC leadership moved in this past few weeks for the beat down lesson.

Real Challenge

Make no mistake: there are a lot of other easier regions CFC could have got new moons for their levies to support their infrastructure than Fountain. This is merely an excuse to deliver a backhand slap to TEST for the temerity to challenge big brother Goon. Only metagame-clueless morons like Glevon think differently.

And another mistake not to make: TEST is going to lose this war and lose it badly, if they haven't already. The only interesting part of the outcome is to see what happens after they lose the first real challenge to their sov level existence. Will they concede and come back under an understanding Goon paternal arm with their tails between their chastised legs? Will they take their beating and try to rebuild in low sec? Or will they, after finally facing a real challenge on their own and failing (and failing badly), break apart like the terrible coalition they built?

Interesting times.

Remember TEST, Montolio was right.

Fiction Friday: Old Times 2.6

Previously:
0.1
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4

2.5
* * * * *

I took my foot off of his neck and stepped cautiously around him in case he was still feisty but the fight seemed to have left him. As I put the rod down on a nearby small table he lifted himself to his elbows and peered at me in dawning recognition.

"What.. Kirith?"

"Hello Jax," I answered evenly. I had replayed this meeting a million times over in my head, how I would face the former best friend who I was forced to fire upon to try and save civilians, who testified at my court martial and set up the conditions to get me drummed out of the navy. I was prepared for him to snarl at me, or haughtily mock me, or ask for forgiveness, or yell at me, or even wordlessly attack me... I was not, however, prepared for tears.

He fell back on the floor and sobbed. "So this is how it ends." 

I was speechless. 

"Did they ask you do it," he choked out bitterly, "or did you volunteer?" 

"I'm not here to kill you Jax," I finally said. I turned on the lights and shut the door. I looked closer at him and saw he was near the breaking point. He was gaunt with ill fitting clothes that smelled stale and a thick unkempt beard and oily unwashed hair. I reached over to help him up and he startled and pulled back. Through the tears streaming down his face I saw confusion and fear. After a moment he let me grab his arm and help him up and I moved him to a chair near the wall. I saw brown and yellow bruises on his face and side of his neck. "Dammit, when is the last time you slept and ate?"

He slouched in the chair and wiped his nose and eyes with his sleeves. "I can't... I can't sleep too long." He waved in the general direction of the main console on the wall. "Fucking AI... starts buzzing and flashing... if I stop movin'.... can't unhack it..."

A little bit of psychological warfare, I thought to myself. Probably standard for non-coalition 'guests' at the station. "Why didn't you just get in your pod?" I asked as I waved in the direction of the gantry. 

"Bomb strapped to the outside of the pod," he said dejectedly. "I activate it, boom." He looked up at me with wild eyes. "They got people working the vats, Kir, I barely got out last time!" The use of my short name brought an unexpected lump to my throat. I didn't realize how much I missed my best friend.

"Alright, Jax, relax. I'm here to help."

Confusion again. "How? Why?" He stammered. I opened my mouth to enter when I heard something scrape and bang on the outside of the door. 

"GET DOWN!" I yelled as I jumped for cover.

Thoughts About the Newbie Atron

So there is this contest on Battleclinic to submit an Executioner or Atron fit for a new player interested in bounty hunting which I mentioned on Saturday.

I put together a fit that I thought would work:

Its cheap, simple to use, and grows with the player.

Over at Jester's Trek Ripard posted his version of the Newbie Bounty Hunting Atron:

[Atron, Battleclinic contest]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

I commented and we had a little back and forth:

I want to expand on my thoughts here, particularly about afterburners and microwarp drives. And bounties.

Ripard went with a MWD on his fit with the logic that you need to be able to be as fast or faster than a target to catch them. This is true when you are running down targets that do not want to be caught but if you are chasing a target over multiple jumps than a long point and fast lock time are more important.

I'm willing to bet that chasing a target with a bounty you are more likely to be faced with someone willing to turn and fight and in that case the MWD can become a liability.

When I am flying solo in low sec in faction warfare dominated space, my ship of preference is a afterburner fit Incursus, or if I'm feeling lucky, an afterburner fit Daredevil that operates almost the same way. Most fighting takes place near acceleration gates of plexes, either just outside or just inside. Sometimes you run into a target at a gate. If they turn and fight, a MWD may get you into range faster but if the enemy has a scram you are dead meat. If they have scram and web, you are REALLY dead meat! MWDs are great for getting tackle but not surviving a fight so I only want a MWD on a ship that will get a tackle and then have support come in to make the kill. Also, if I'm going with a MWD I'm fitting a long point to avoid scram range.

With an afterburner, if a target turns to fight then your scram and web puts you on even or better footing than your opponent if they scram and web you in return. Your afterburner still gives you some speed boost. Yes, there is some danger in getting kited and you need to be aware of that and use whatever you can to your advantage to close range to the magic scram range, or break his point and warp out to try and get better combat positions. Sitting inside a plex on the warp in point is an excellent example.

But overall, let's be realistic: a newbie player trying to do bounty hunting in ANY ship is going to die a lot to the players with bounties on them. I just think they will have a better chance or surviving in an afterburner ship than a MWD one.

AWOL

Life is funny. I played a lot of Eve on the weekend due to Mrs Kodachi being away but then this week at work has been all kinds of hell. So no blogging.

I haven't spent much time in Odyssey except to buy three new Navy Brutix BPCs and I'm trying to sell them in Dodixie. Hit me up if you want one at a discount.

I do expect to play this weekend, probably Sunday night.

Sigh. Back to the grindstone.

Loadout Challenge: Amarr or Gallente Bounty Hunter!

Over at Battleclinic Anabaric of So Many Demons blog and Battleclinic community manager is hosting a contest:

Loadout Challenge: Amarr or Gallente Bounty Hunter!
Leave a legacy, help a new player, win prizes
Hunting bounties is dangerous solo work. Often your only backup is luck and skill, and luck just took a vacation. Your mark is good, maybe one of the best, but you know you’re better. Hi-sec, lo-sec, 0.0, it doesn’t matter…you always bring home your prey. For the right price.
It’s time to teach a new player what you know. Put your best Atron or Executioner Bounty Hunter loadout together that a 45-day old player can use. We’re going to clean up New Eden with a fresh crop of Bounty Hunters, and your loadout advice is gonna make that happen.

The Contest:
Post an Executioner or Atron loadout here!. It must be:
Flyable by a character who’s about 45 days old, especially characters who use these packsThe loadout must be 100% flyable within current game mechanics
Must include a rationale explaining how to fly the loadout
Full stats are highly encouraged. Use EFT.
Link your fit back to this thread!

Follow the contest progress on Twitter: #fightsmart #tweetsmart #battleclinic
The Prizes:
First place = THREE 60-day EVE TIMECODES, courtesy BattleClinic Deep Space SupplyTop 3 Runners-up = 1 30-day EVE TIMECODE and 250m ISK
Read more: http://forum.battleclinic.com/index.php/topic,176629.0/Loadout-Challenge-Amarr-or-Gallente-Bounty-Hunter.html#ixzz2UxnM63Ed

Check it out!