Fail Mail - Hyperion Edition

Last night I logged on just mainly to move my Omen from Sujarento to Nennamailia. But I saw a Hawk loitering around a plex entrance so I decided to try my ship against it. Easy Victory. Dual Medium ASB won't help you when you spend the first part of the fight shooting at my drones, sir.

I got back to Nenna safely but had encountered a largish militia fleet on the way. I decided to join them because "what the hell". They were flying shield ships but the only shield ship I had in base was a rail Harpy so I took that.

As I was racing to catch up to the fleet the call came out on comms "War Target Hyperion tackled in Kedema!"

Wait! I'm in Kedema!! As the fleet, which was a couple jumps off turned around and raced back, I helped the Stiletto tackler keep the Hyperion busy. Which was surprisingly easy as there was no drones and he had railguns fitted and he was 80 km off the gate. I threw on my tackle and just as the fleet was about to arrive a war target in a Maller shows up ~40 km off.

Now I make a mistake. Eager to get a point on the Maller for the arriving fleet I hit approach and get in way too close and get scrammed. I tried to get away but without the MWD I could not, and I failed to try to get under the guns upon this realization. As the medium ASB runs out of charges, I run out of time.

Fortunately, the Hyperion and Maller both die.

Now take a look at that Hyperion killmail:

Mission Running Fit?

Now look at the summary:

Loot gods hate us.

Best part? He had drones he never bothered to try and use on the Stiletto which was alone for a good minute before I got there. 

Capacitor Balancing

On Sunday I was out and joined an armour fleet running with Tech 1 cruisers and Tech 1 logistics, a fairly common themes these days. The Omen fit is based on Ripard Teg's FOTW Omen that I could remember with the FC saying "we leave in 3 minutes" and me buying mods off the market in low sec.

I like the pulse Omen; it has a nice engagement envelope while still boasting a healthy tank and speed. Our fleet was very successful including an engagement where we smashed a hostile fleet camping a gate in Tama. I snuck in on the Talos killmail from ~40 km away, thank you Scorch crystals.

But there is something I noticed during this fight: capacitor runs out quickly.

Kil2 and Kovorix released Bringing Solo Back podcast episode 21 this month (Thank you!!) and in there they discussed the Retribution cruisers and the chilling effect they've had on battlecruiser usage. One thing they noticed that Tech 1 cruisers had going against them was the small capacitors they had in comparison in comparison to battlecruisers and Tech 2 cruisers.

And it struck me: this is a perfect method for distinguishing Tech 1 cruiser hulls from battlecruiser and Tech 2 cruiser hulls. For battlecruiser, not only do you trade speed and agility for more DPS and tank, you also have greater capacitor reserves to run those cruiser modules from. For Tech 2 cruisers, they can sport the equivalent DPS and movement profiles but have the advantages of range or resistances or specialization (or any combination thereof) as well as improved capacitor reserves.

Its perfect as that its an advantage that rewards longer term thinking and planning in a fight without giving a massive brawling advantage in a short term fight. I approve and I hope it was an intentional design feature.