Eve Opportunist

BB32: Life's not consensual.

2012-01-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

This month's Blog Banter comes from Drackarn of Sand, Cider and Spaceships. He has foolishly chosen to poke the hornet's nest that is the non-consensual PvP debate. Whilst you read his question, I'll be finding a safe place to hide.

"A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons' Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an "opt out of PvP" option.

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?"

Like I post in my title, life is not consensual. PvP shouldn't be either. Above all, this is a game, if you aren't having fun then go play something else. If Eve loses a few players because it is too brutal, too hard for those players, too difficult for them to stay alive, I say let them go.

I know that business sense says that you should expose your product to the largest audience possible, so that might mean that CCP offer some option to allow those really risk adverse players an option to play Eve without risk.

How wrong that would be, how many ways that system could be gamed, taken advantage of. All hauler accounts would be combat opted out, miners would be too, industrialists. It would remove more than half the targets from high sec, ruin corp warfare.

Alternatively, when would CONCORD deploy to be proactive, could you no longer even target another ship, guess that rules out RR, to name one thing. Would they arrive a second or two after aggression (don't they already)?

Eve's supposed to be a cold, dark, ugly place. No part of eve is forgiving, not Highsec, not Null and certainly not Lowsec. If eve as a whole analogous to any location, it would be down a dark, cold, wet alley. Highsec is closer to the light of the street, the wetness on the ground is less pronounced but the cold is still all around you. 1.0 is the closest to the street, but still back from the light. Lowsec is further down the alley, where the light just barely reaches, that place where dark things lurk, begging for your wallet. Null sec is like the path off the alley, the small narrow pathway that leads to a dead end, one way in, one way out, it just takes one Thug slipping in behind you to make it even more unforgiving.

From the second you step down that Alley you know it's not safe, it's the place your mom frowned at when you were a kid, that place that just never feels right, never feels safe. Not even the thugs who live in that dark place think of it as safe, think of it as home. They know how dangerous it is, they are prepared. The first time you follow Eve down that alleyway, you aren't prepared.

I won't say that high sec has too much protection, but they certainly have enough. There are so many mechanics that can be used to stay safe. You get a 24 hour notice before war targets get to shoot at you, docking mechanics, given you can survive that long, jump mechanics. The more you look at it, the more you realize that outside of suicide ganking, something that can be avoided by scouting your route, or just not AFK piloting (in most cases), there isn't a whole lot in Highsec to worry about.

It's like the pilots who want the ability to opt out of combat just don't want to learn the game. They expect to walk down that alley and not have to learn to protect themselves. They don't want to take the time to learn the ways to protect themselves. They don't spend the time to learn about avoiding combat, can agression, and how to avoid being shot at in missions. They just want to hide in their little bubble and get away with what they think Eve is all about.

Well here's some news, Eve's not that game, Eve's the game that seduces you down its dark alley, and comes out with your blood on her hands and your money in her pocket.

It's the universal risk that keeps me coming. Eventually you might emerge from that alley, a little blood on your hands, a little money in your pocket. Decrease that risk, let people avoid it and Eve begins to lose that charm. Begins to lose that danger, lose that intrigue, lose me.

From mehgle to EAGLE!

2011-12-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

An entry for Kirith's "Redesigning the Eagle"

With the added bonus of suggested changes to the Moa!

How about the Eagle actually does something with those Claws?

Currently the Eagle gets the following bonuses:

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range per level and 5% bonus to shield resistances per level.

Heavy Assault Ship Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range and 5% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage per level

In sum that is a 50% bonus to optimal range from the cruiser skill alone, and another 50% bonus from HAC 5. If there is one thing that is true about bonuses we know that 100% bonus to anything is good right? Well not exactly; let's just say that the long range sniper position is already covered by more than one platform, ie Rohk, Apoc, and maybe arty Maelstrom. Realistically the real game changer are the new tier 3 BC's, who with BS weapons join their battleship brothers in being able to engage at long range with surprisingly good damage as outlined in Kirith's post.

So we need to fit the Eagle into a new niche, and I propose the mid-range, anti-tackle support DPS role similar in speed and ability, if with poorer tracking and slightly more range, to the Vagabond. (I know I know; "a Vagabond pilot proposing a new-Caldaribond" but stick with me.)

The first problem stems from the second bonus to optimal range, indicating that the Eagle should be sitting out with the snipers, but its weapons (who have been sold-out for damage to achieve the range needed) give you an anemic 213 DPS at 190km + 24km (locking out to 213km). Using the fit below, keep in mind this is not an optimal fit, just spitballing to outline my point. Fit has 12.3k EHP, enough to be sneezed at and killed. Do not attempt unless you are a professional.

[Eagle, rail range]

250mm Railgun II, Spike M
250mm Railgun II, Spike M
250mm Railgun II, Spike M
250mm Railgun II, Spike M
250mm Railgun II, Spike M
[Empty High slot]

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range

Reactor Control Unit II
Tracking Enhancer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Medium Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
[Empty Rig slot]

Such a sell-out fit to allow the eagle to even fly in a traditional snipe apoc/Rohk fleet, let alone the newer 100km ranged Tier 3 BC fleets. Even then your DPS is little more than that of a frigate, in the stop-it, that tickles range, and your volley is a whopping 746.... Not even cresting 1k, and hardly enough to, at max damage, peel through shields. Not to mention not even closely competitive with the Naga or the Rohk.

That's the first bonus we should get rid of, but not the whole thing, just the 10% bonus offered by the HAC skill. Instead, replace the bonus with a 7.5% rate of fire increase, negotiable down to 5% RoF increase. Here's the trick though, and this is something that will draw some heat, we need to force the Eagle to be a rail platform, I like the blaster Eagle but, the eagle needs to fill a specific role, not one of half blaster fits and half rail fits.

GEagle is not impressed, wants to be a BEagle.

Specialization means it would be more useful in its intended role, while less useful out of that role. For specialization's sake, the rate of fire bonus will only apply to Rails and not the more generic "Hybrid" bonus. We have to do this because Blasters and Rails share many attributes and can't be set apart like AC vs arty where a falloff bonus screams AC and an Optimal Bonus screams arty. We have to specifically designate Rails as THE weapon for the Eagle. Similar to, but more explicit than, the Vagabond and A/C or Torps on Stealth-bombers, HAM on Sacri's, Arty on Muninn...

From that one change, now rails get a specific bonus to their rate of fire and the bonus no longer implies long range use, like the current optimal bonus. Let's face the truth, the eagle has not fit in the long range role since the release of tier 3 BS, if not before.

It moves them to the currently under-populated mid-range DPS class of ships, akin to its spiritual brother the Arty Muninn, and to some extent the pulse-shield Zealot and 220mm Vagabond. An intended range of between 20-80 KM from target.

The second largest problem of the Eagle is the crap fitting given to the ship, even at max skills. The numbers I will talk about below are what I call "peak skill fitting." To me this means that you go into PyFA/EFT and select the all 5's template when you are looking skills, granting you the elusive "perfect" skill base to theory craft off of.

Eagle : "Does it look like I have trouble carrying stuff?"
Man : "No, no it does not."

I expect a HAC (a skill intensive ship to sit in, let alone fly properly) to at LEAST be able to fit a full rack of mid-tier guns for the class, a decent buffer tank, and damage or DPS modules in the lows. The Eagle can't even pull any of this off. Instead it gets a HUGE pool of CPU to draw from, even fitting with 250mm rails, and a bunch of other CPU hungry items you have a large amount left over.

Then to oppose that it has a tiny powergrid. Not enough by 15% to fit mid-tier guns (200mm rails) an MWD, a LSE, Invul, Photon, and point. Let alone high tier guns.

The eagle should get a 10% reduction in peak CPU, losing just shy of 55 tf CPU and gain 10% Powergrid, a little more than 110 grid at peak. I think the following should be a possible fit, if only barely with most level 5 fittings skills similar to the 220mm/medium Neut/3 gyro/2 TE Vagabond.

[Eagle, Caldaribond]

200mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Invulnerability Field II
Warp Disruptor II
Photon Scattering Field II

Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

[Empty Rig slot]
[Empty Rig slot]

I realize the rigs aren't filled but they can be fit with whatever vOv

The next problem is the speed of the Eagle, the Cerb was always a Nano-able ship because its base speed was barely high enough to keep it out of most danger without having to go to far into stacking penalty of doom land to get you up to speed.

The base speed of the Eagle is a slow 164 m/s, in fact this is the slowest ship in the entire HAC class, Even the supposedly "slow" Amarr armor tanking HAC's have a faster base-speed than the Eagle. Here I thought Eagles were pretty fast animals, they should have name the ship class the Sloth instead. Not to mention agility values on the Eagle are very poor.

Something with my name is SLOW? unpossible.

Base speed of the Eagle should be increased from the current 164m/s(or 204m/s with max skills) to 194m/s, boosting max skill speed to around 242 m/s, giving it viable, but not overpowered speed in comparison to the other speed based HAC's. For reference the Vagabond's BASE speed is 239m/s, and that with the ships bonus and max skills equals out to 373m/s. The aim isn't turning the Eagle into a replacement Vagabond, but a ship in a similar class, yes. The Eagle would also need an agility buff to bring it more in line with other mid ranged skirmish ships, once again removing it from the current duldrom as the sloth of HAC's.

The final problem with the Eagle and one of the problems with the Moa - lack of drones. It joins the Zealot and the Cerb as the only three HAC's without drones. I would improve on nature here, and fix that, on the eagle along with a similar adjustment to the Moa. I would give the Moa a 15m3 drone bay and matching bandwidth(I'm so smart, as Sae points out below, the Moa already has a 15m3 drone bay, research fail, and CCP fail). The Eagle would get 15-25m3 of bay/bandwidth, enough to fit 3-5 light combat drones or dishonour drones, to fight off tackle.

"Man I wish I had something to get this tackle off of me!"

The Eagle already has most of the other requirements for its new role.
- 6 highs with a utility high and five guns. (check)
- Sufficient Shield HP and resists (check)
- Good capacitor (check)

The Moa should receive the changes to speed as well as the changes to agility, if you can't have the beagle, you can still have the boa!

How am I actually named something graceful?

Fugly ass ship design is fugly, calling it an Eagle is like calling Quasimodo a hottie.

I r pretty!

The problem with the Moa/Eagle ship is that they are trying to represent two very different animals with a single ship. Both are birds, but one is flightless and enormous, larger than an Ostrich, the other may be one of the most (at least in America) revered flying birds of prey.

Because of this the current Moa ship model fails to make sense for either of its namesakes. The asymmetrical design, lacks any of the clean lines of birds of prey, let alone the intimidating look of Eagles, or the natural sleek grace of flightless birds like the Moa, hell, any kind of impressive look at all would work.

I am not an artist so my contribution for the redesign of the ship model ends here, with these images of the Birds that this ship hull is named after. (Onyx non-withstanding) Might inspire someone else to create a few new Moa/Eagle hulls.

Moa's, larger than a human. (All but the Lesser Moa was)

Shoop-de-swoop.

Haast Eagle and Moa, predator and prey.

The perils of patching

2011-12-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure (and too lazy to go look) if I have ever posted about the numerous patching problems I have with Eve on a consistant basis, and I know that looking at the tech issues forum that I am not nearly the only person, I just seem to be the only one with problems with nearly every patch.

Patching, meant to be done with Lego's right?

First I have to say, thank CCP for the repair tool, I used to have to download the full installer after nearly every patch to get back online. It's not like I am using an unusual computer setup either, Intel processor, Windows Vista ultimate x64 (yes yes I know I know, I haven't had the money to buy windows 7 ultimate though), 8gb Ram (recent addition, up from 4), GTX 460 video card. So not exactly "exotic."

In any case I have seen all kinds of errors. I always get the "corrupted install, patch failed" message with almost every patch, leading me to come up with a huge list of things to try to get Eve to work again. Sometimes it's pretty simple, just let the repair tool run and it will fix everything (given the time it takes to do so, roughly 10-20 minutes each time, or clearing the cache if you can get back into the game but are still having other issues, but almost every time the repair tools detect missing bits in my files.

So with all this in mind I get home from work yesterday, looking for a little quality Eve-time. With the server having already crashed after the morning patch, I was expecting the worst. I had already had good luck with the Crucible patch as it only required the repair tool to run before it worked, so I knew the odds were stacked against me.

Well those are the odds I suppose, the patch failed and I had to run through the repair tool, but once that was complete I was "ready." Only not really, I opened eve and the login screen had no cool Crucible splash, just a black background with the usual login prompt. I prayed it was a small bug and logged in anyway. Only to find my hangar blacked out as well, and on top of that in space I could see all the brackets, but no nice new nebulae, nor any other damn thing, just all blackness. (Did CCP forget to turn on the lights?)

Enter the usual-post patching troubleshooting.

1. Save out my overview settings, fits, and cache files. (after you export them from eve they are located in documents\eve\)
From Anxiir - "exported overview and exported fittings yes. actual overview and cache/settings, no.

It is located in appdata/ccp/-location of eve install-

you can get there easily by typing %appdata% in the start menu search box and pressing enter - then go up a level."

or just %appdata%\ccp\

so %appdata%\ccp\eve\ holds all the actual program files.

2. switch between the "two" cards listed in the graphics menu, I usally operate on #2 (though I only have one card I think it detects the dual core GPU as two cards.) This didn't fix anything other than moved my window 2" to the right. Changed that back, resized the window, docked and undocked again. No change.

3. Close and restart Eve, Login screen was still black, logged in anyways, and no dice.

4. rebooted my computer \o/ .... .... ..... No change

5. Updated my graphics driver, I was one whole rev behind, maybe that'd fix it, or at least get me ready to play BF3 (as advertised). No change.

5.a. Swear at my computer (DIRTY WHORE!)

b. Pet my dogs when they come to figure out why I am so angry.

Why you make me get out of bed for this?

6. Sigh deeply and investigate the forums for people with similar issues, using the search function to see if there is a thread on this with (hopefully) a fix. There wasn't, though there were people with a whole host of other problems and a GM suggesting that people re-install directX from a folder in the eve game directory, so I gave that a shot (nada).

7. Finally drop a petition to see how fast I can get attention. Attach screenshots of black screens to prove I actually have a problem.

Word.

8. Wait for a response.... for 15 minutes. Run out of patience....

9. Uninstall Eve! (DAMN GAME, DIDN'T WANT YOU ANYWAYS!)

10. Re-install Eve. (I <3 You, don't leave me!)

11. Wait 1+ hour for it to download and finish installing.

12. Log in to find it's working! Look at the clock and realize... I don't have time to play!

13. Copy over all my settings, verify it is still working, reset my overview, windows, chat channels... log off.

Now had #12 not fixed it, I would have waited for a response from CCP, who usually ask for the following (so attach them right off the bat through the web petition interface and not the Eve In-game petition interface) Run dxdiag.exe and save then upload the results. As well as run eve with the Log server enabled to do this (the log server part)

Using the logserver
(to minimize problems with this, its recommended that you either restart your computer or check Task managers process list for unresponsive instances of Eve.exe)

1. Find your Eve folder in Windows Explorer
2. When you have the Eve folder open, find "logserver.exe" and launch it (Do NOT have EVE running)
3. Select "File" -> "New Workspace"
4. Start Eve like you would normally do
5. When you have reproduced the bug, Eve crashes or when you kill the process if it hangs, select "File" -> "Save workspace as..." and save the workspace in a place you'll find it again.

Then upload the resulting file to your petition. From there you just have to let CCP take over. Fortunately I usually only get to re-install to fix things! Thanks to CCP Xamother for the quick response, (responded inside of 45 minutes from my last update, a good turnaround) but by then I had already logged off and went to bed.

Work you sonofabitch!

Dissapearing through a WH and returning, loot laden

2011-11-09T05:10:00.000-08:00

I get home from work yesterday and honestly just can't focus on writing my novel for NanoWriMo, so I log into TS and decide to move my new (and shiny) Loki from Stacmon to TXW.

As luck would have it Rote had a gang out so I hopped in their channel to hear if there was anything sexy going on. As it turns out they had just returned from a shield BC roam, where losses were to be had against Agony Empire, and had just probed out a active WH in a nearby system. By active I mean, has people in it, fighting sites, not sleeper sites.

I was already moving up the pipe from Stac to TXW at that point, and started to wonder if I was going to make it in time to participate. So I yelled at my ship to go faster, simultaneously startling my dogs with my enthusiasm.

I was able to land in the target system just as the order was given to jump through and engage. Now as usual, Rote has a habit of starting out with 5 guys interested in flying, and then 'suddenly' when there are kills to be had, fleet spikes from 5 to 15 quickly, so the fight was a lot less interesting than it could have been, but rape ensued!

It turns out that not only had we made a lucky catch, but we had incredibly lucky loot drops as well, check out the Tengu (I barely missed out on the killmail). Oh, and the Proteus. I think we let one t3 escape the slaughter grounds, then salvaged and looted the field, including the sleepers they were farming, and headed home, without even collapsing the WH and trapping people behind. (well I was impressed)

My webloki performed great, landing an extra point when needed and the much needed webs that I am sure the other t3's didn't appreciate. It does shit-all damage, but it's really there for the webs.

Now let's see what else I can get in on kills with using the Loki.

107 posts, 107 mil sp

2011-11-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

No, really, I planned this.

Okay maybe not.

So I am up to 107 mil sp with Logan, and have done pretty much everything I want to skill-wise with Logan, sub-cap. I would like suggestions with what to do next. Look at my skill sheet (now closed).

No I will not be training towards flying a Orca/Exhumer/freighter/supercap, but other possibilites include getting my electronics skills to 5, ie all the assorted ewar skills to 5 so I can be maxed out for TD's, damps, ECM, and TP. Other possibilities include Marauder 5, Command Ship 5, and all the assorted carrier and dread skills?

What do you guys think I should do next? I've gotten a lot of "shield comps to IV" so that is likely already on the list.

I will leave my sheet open to the public for a week or so and then lock it back down once I have chosen my path. One remap is available so I can always get out of the good ole leadership doing charisma set of attributes!

Here is my current skill breakdown for those who are interested.

Most winter expansion changes on Sisi!

2011-11-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

So why aren't you already logging in there to help with that bittervets disease?

I was going to do a change list when I got home, but tgl3 beat me to it!

Go take a look on his post here.

The new Nebulae look amazing, a welcome change to Eve I think, Similar in scope to when they fixed how the planets looked. Now someone should fly over to WH space and see if there's identifying nebulae out there as well and if they can see any k-space nebulae from way over there!

Someone stole the cop car is the only thing that makes me sad about the changes, also known as the v3 changes to the Comet.

Looks like some kind of fish with a big attractor light on the top.

Early Tier 3 BC status

2011-10-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Now with slot layouts added, speeds and agility numbers, and sig radius.

First leaked by Reddit, apparently from scraping against sisi's DB,

Reddit leaked tier 3 bcs stats

More extensive raw data from Sisi, currently compiling BC stats from it.

http://pastebin.com/TkY3rY6q

I'll copy the important bits into here aka everything that isn't a comment, (from reddit)

Oracle
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus: 7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret tracking speed and 7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret optimal range per level.
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Energy Turrets 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Energy Turrets 50% reduction in the capacitor need of Large Energy Turrets

Naga
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Torpedo Velocity, 5% bonus to Torpedo explosion velocity, 10% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret optimal range and 7.5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret tracking speed per level.
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Hybrid Turrets 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Hybrid Turrets 50% reduction in the capacitor need of Large Energy Turrets 40% reduction in the powergrid need of Siege Missile Launchers 58% reduction in the CPU need of Siege Missile Launchers

Talos
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage and 10% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers per level.
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Hybrid Turrets 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Hybrid Turrets 50% reduction in the capacitor need of Large Energy Turrets

Tornado
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret Rate of Fire and 10% bonus to Large Projectile Turret falloff per level.
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Projectile Turrets 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Projectile Turrets

Let's look at generalizations that can be taken from these numbers.

CCP has wisely decided to use a "role bonus" instead of just providing the masses of PG/CPU needed to fit BS sized weapons. This will prevent the majority of attempts to uber tank these ships and use them for something other than their intended use, or even the idea of 100mn BC's running around. Now usually these role bonus effects get modified by a pilot's ship skill level, so the question remains if someone with BC V will get more out of the "95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Projectile Turrets 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Projectile Turrets" bonus.

And now a bit more specifics;

I still hate you Sun.

First up we have the Oracle, the already promising looking Amarr "true" BC. A tracking and optimal range bonus almost screams for use of Mega Pulse/Scorch and some kind of kiting setup, using that extra BC "speed" while your extra tracking on the already HAX tracking of lasers keeping everything hostile around you, dead. As with all these new BC's I am not sure exactly how this will fit into a gang, other than just bringing more BS sized guns to a BC/cruiser fight. In a large way this might be the Amarr answer to the nano Tempest.

Now obviously the energy reduction for these guns is needed given the hull size of BC, but is strangely absent in favor of MOAR RANGE with the optimal bonus. This is going to be interesting because the question stands if the Oracle will need to be injected just to fire it's main guns for any period of time? I guess only time will tell!

Prelim other stats
8 high slots with 8 turret slots (looks like I was wrong about the whole no 8 guns thing!)
3 mid slots
6 low slots
3 rigs (medium rigs)
17 total slots (h+m+l)
180m sig radius, no drones. Agility is a respectable 0.57, top speed of 200 m/s

So with this extra data it looks like I was mostly right, this is the second slowest of the new line of BC's but it is also the second most agile. No Drones, and 8 turrets means a built in vulnerability to light and fast ships (yay!).

Next up we have the Caldari Naga. A lot of people were expecting a cruise missile ship here but instead these early stats show another Caldari Torp boat. BUT WAIT! It actually has !TWO! sets of bonuses. Not only do these stats show a pair of torp bonuses but also a pair of hybrid bonuses. Could it be it will have both?
...
....
.....
No, or at least very unlikely. Minmatar being the kings of split weapons and all that, but in addition to that thought, I think the dev's are still trying to figure out if torps or hybrids are the better way to go for this boat. For testing on sisi/their dev servers they have included both sets of bonuses to make a final call while balancing.

-Hybrid-Naga-san

With a bonus to both optimal range and tracking speed (both useful for rails and blasters) this would be the little brother (or sister) to the Rohk, and effective both at range and up close, a good step to seeing the Caldari a bit more diversified from the usual missile approach. I would rather see this in-game as a strong ship rather than yet another torp/missile boat introduced to the Caldari line, although I suppose the Ferox already fills the role (poorly) as the Caldari gunboat BC.

-Torp-Naga-chan

So its not a cruise missile naga? I'm surprised, this is a interesting departure from the norm, and could be seen as something of an influence from the Khanid line with a pair of strong bonuses towards the short range missile system instead of the usual long range bias placed on Caldari missile ships. Or if not bias than weapon system range ambivalence. The torp speed bonus gives a range increase to torps but the real important bonus is the second one, a bonus to explosion velocity to torps is huge! It means this ship could actually engage ships other than BS's with it's torps and be able to hit for at least decent damage, similar to a large stealth bomber, though less sneaky! Torps vs other BC, especially bonused like this, makes a whole lot of sense and seems to go hand-in-hand with the class's apparent idea to get tracking bonuses to large guns, enabling them to down-engage a "bit."

8 high slots and 8 missile launcher slots
6 mid slots
4 low slots
3 rigs (medium rigs)
18 total slots (h+m+l)
190m sig radius, no drones. Agility is the highest at 0.58 with the lowest top speed of 195 m/s.

So where do I start here, what did the Caldari guy miss the memo that the max number of slots for these things is 17 (all the others have 17) and toss in an extra slot for fun?! What the hell is up with that. Anyways, I have not posted some of these numbers, but the shield/armor/hull numbers for these ships are LOW, like lower than some cruisers. Very glass-cannon. And this was across the board.

You giant Bronze bastard!

Wow, the Talos. So clearly this ship is going to highlight the hybrid changes, but I have to say that I am a little disappointed that this isn't a drone boat. Okay, don't laugh at me too hard. It would be sweet to have a new BC able to field 5 or even more heavy drones. A-la the Myrm pre-nerf. Hopes aside, indications show that webs will be a part of the changes to fix hybrids and more specifically blasters. With 90% or so webs, and a damage bonus to Hybrids, the Talos will be able to theoretically pin down and destroy it's targets, but I wonder how much of a difference this will actually be?

Tracking for blasters needs to be looked at as well, but this is a good start. 90% webs will make a huge difference, but there is a lot depending on other things for this ship. Agility and top speed will be key, ie will it be able to burst to top speed to hunt down other kiting ships like (presumably at least) the Tornado and Oracle, or at the very least the nanoCane, or NanoTempest? If it can, then it will indeed be a huge leap forward in blaster ships. If not it will fall into the category of all current blaster ships, you either land in range and have a chance, or you don't and are ineffective until you can close range.

8 high slots with 8 turret slots
4 Mid slots
5 low slots
3 rigs (medium size)
17 total slots (h+m+l)
sig radius is 200m, and sports a 25m3 drone bay/bandwidth, the only one that does, fitting that it is a Gallente ship. In addition it's agility is 0.56, and max speed is 210 m/s, making it the second fastest, only behind the Tornado.

Low HP across the board, for instance the Talos here has the following HP base;
Shield : 2111.0
Armor : 2272.0
Hull : 2597.0

In comparison the Deimos sits at
Shield : 1160.0
Armor : 2040.0
Hull : 2531.0

This brings me up to the (overly) anticipated Tornado. Winner of the design contest (though there are rumblings that the other ships in this class will be player designed as well). It will finally see the light of, well I was going to say day, but let's just say Eve. I'm initially a little worried about this ship, the Minmatar do specialize in kiting, range control and hit and run, and this looks like another ship to put in the mold of the nanoCane, Vagabond et al. So the reason why I am worried is that it looks like the Tornado will sit in the same role as the nano Tempest. The Tempest will still have the heavy Neut's and or utility high slots and probably a much more favorable slot layout, but that the Tornado sits in the same role shows a real lack of creativity on the side of CCP. I would have liked to see something more versatile, without a range bonus of any kind, but possibly another arty platform. With the falloff bonus the Tornado is going to be another premier falloff fighter with auto-cannons, a stat that doesn't merge well with arties.

This ship really begs the question, "Will it be able to fit a full rack of 800mm?" To answer that I look at the bonuses it sports and can firmly conclude that no, it will not be able to mount 8 800mm guns(but I might be incorrect). Between 5-6 guns yes, but 8, I think that would be largely overpowered, and more than slightly the favorite of the new BC's. Keep in mind the Hurricane, when designed and for a long time on Sisi started off with 7 turret slots and then was reduced to 6 before release to Tranquility. I think something similar will happen here, and the Tornado will get more utility slots and less than 8 guns.

8 High slots with 8 Turret hardpoints
5 mid slots
4 low slots
3 rig slots (medium rigs)
17 Total slots (h+m+l)
Sig radius of 170m, and no drones. Agility is the worst of all ships at 0.54, but top speed is the best at 225 m/s.

I look forward to all those stathead people out there to tell me if it is possible to rack any of these up with a full set of the biggest guns but I will assume at this point that it is. Going to be an interesting balance game with these things.

CONCLUSIONS

I think that a line in the sand (since CCP isn't willing to draw one for us) is needed for these new ships. They are more of a conventional "BC" than the previous sets of tier 1-2 BC's. Realistically current BC's should be re-named and re-skilled to heavy-cruisers (ships with heavier armor but cruiser class armament) and this new class should retain the name BC (ships with battleship weaponry but lighter than average armor in comparison to a BS). Then a new BC class of ship skill could be introduced into the game instead of consistently mixing and muddying the BC class with what are essentially going to be two completely different types of ship.

To really make a good call on the usefulness of these new ships, it will be important to look at these bonuses, agility, and slot layout. As will their supposed light to non-existant tanks, and exactly what that means. Especially in this era of logistics, tank and spank. Time will tell! (or rather has told)

NEW CONCLUSIONS

Slot layouts minus the Caldari one look pretty even, I am not sure why the Caldari gets an extra slot but hopefully that will get taken care of in balancing. The lack of drones and across the board low hp seems to suggest that these will be very glass cannon like. I wish I had the time to poll more numbers in there and put them up against ships like the Cane or Harbi but I just don't have the time to do it right now.

I think the better idea is to scale back on the number of weapons they can fit and then only give them 5-6 high slots with the same numbers of mids and lows, reducing slot layouts from 17 to 14/15. Right now these things look very strong, and possibly will take the place of most tier 1 BS in terms of gank power, but of course not tanking power. Though with these slot layouts they will not be far behind (keeping in mind that the Drake is also 8/6/4.

Rise of Rebel, Part 4, Subjugation

2011-10-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
- Abraham Lincoln

It had been impossible to adjust, being looked at like meat, like a dumb, obedient dog. Crammed in the tight quarters with the rest of the chained circles of slaves. Weeks and then months ground by, each second worse than the last. To some extent I felt bad for my behavior then, but I never knew what it would lead to. I resisted the guards, preventing our purchase because of my struggles. Growled at the interested buyers, scared them away. Slaves who came in after us were bought before us, Ammarian Holders and other "decent" slavers (according to Bulkar at least) left us alone like we carried a plague. Most didn't have to come close when inspecting the slave groups to know I was the problem, the guards let them know, and started showing us off to the worst of an already bad lot.

Rozor was the first to snap. I let his fists rain on me, wishing, hoping he would hit something vital that the guards missed, and put me out of this life. Without a family, without my family, I was nothing. Worth nothing, beaten, shunned, I sat outside the circle, but still chained to it. I slipped further and further into a depression unlike any I had faced. There would not be such an easy escape from this life.

Rozors beating did what the guard hadn't. Buyers kept coming through, and at some point I was too weak, too tired to make a stand anymore, to care anymore. We were purchased by some Angel Cartel toughs, the fact that we were simple labor seemed to meet their requirements, that we were all so beaten down, I'm sure that didn't hurt. By then I had lost weight and any muscle I had. They shocked, beat and collared us with electric collars for control on the journey through the smuggler gates of eve. The slight lurch in my stomach at each jump was the only thing that let me count the jumps, 33, to our destination. If that was in a straight line, or just a route to avoid customs....

The ship we were in rumbled into a rough dock and we were shuffled off the ship like so much cattle. Pushed and prodded still, we made our way to the small casino in the middle of the outpost. As the toughs took their payments for delivery to the casino's tables, we were taken by a new set of grim and humorless overlords, assigned menial jobs as if we were not there, in area's we had no idea how to get to. Then taken and beaten until we "learned some respect for our new masters."

There was no escape, the outpost was isolated in dead space, that forbidden zone between civilization and the dark of space that somehow managed to be neither. It around then that with a final sickening hurt I knewI had been broken, and I worked as if my life depended on it, the deep dark depression now turning into something darker, something that made me want to excel at what they asked me to do, as if that would convince them to save me. I hated myself for it, but couldn't help it, I lived, I rejoined my brother slaves as another to their ranks. It was around then that a new leader of the facility, Thomas, showed up. He must have been the son, or cousin, of someone powerful in the Cartel. Power radiated off him like so much heat and the deference the guards gave him stunk of connections.

He took joy in "training the slaves personally." There was nothing any of us could do, right or wrong, to be spared. During the day we worked like janitors, cleaning up the aftermaths of parties, unloading stores from ships and slaughters when fights broke out.

Uldrik had been the first to get a taste of the pain doled out by Thomas like candy. Our group was one of few on the casino, all broken men, scared of the fist, of the glance of the guards, or the bite of their discipline. It wasn't enough control for Thomas, he desired more. His men came to the small quarters the five of us shared, pressing the rag that passed as our door to the side for Thomas. He stepped in and looked us over, thumbing a single six sided die between his palm and thumb. The game, as it were, was explained to us, slowly, deliberately. He would roll a single six sided die. If he rolled a six he said, "Then I'll move on, all nice-like." At first you start out hoping for a six. This time I was a five, he rolled a two.

Uldrik was pulled from the room, wet smacks and thuds the only sounds we could hear. I cried, wishing it was me instead, that his pain was my fault, if only I had gotten us sold sooner...

Uldrik was deposited back in the room, bleeding from the eyes and ears, we did our best to cover for him, but he was never quite the same. He lost hearing in his right ear, his right eye kept a deep red hue. It was then that we started talking of escape, of some kind of life where Thomas, where these Angel thugs wouldn't own us anymore. Dreams of lost freedom. Foolish dreams.

Desperate hopes for men trapped deep inside dead space, in some system they didn't even know the name of. Some claim planning escape is almost as important as completing it, but planning for escape, for freedom, is false hope if there is no real chance of it. Bulkar had been the hardest to convince of the need to plan, but then of course we weren't with his precious god-fearing Amarr, who would "never let this kind of treatment of slaves stand." We were with the heartless Angles, we thanked their lack of toxins to control us. Physically, psychologically, it didn't matter.

Thomas had been initially sated by the damage he caused on the slaves. He still trained the guards how to "handle" us better. Their beatings were brutal, more so than before, but at least Thomas left us alone.

We didn't expect it to last; it didn't last.

He came back, with the same die, only changing our numbers, he had a knack of finding the weakest of us each time. Bulkar came back with ragged, lazy knife cuts across his chest, mumbling incoherently to himself, it took weeks before he made sense or even spoke to the rest of us again. Rozor was next, his pinky fingers and small toes broken and splinted and then re-broken. The pain was to remind him of the grace that Thomas left him alive each day. It was weeks before he was allowed to get the nanobot medical injections to help heal his toes, his pinkies still turned at crooked angles to the rest of his hand. Rozor remained defeated, but still somehow defiant through all of it, drawing from some central core strength I wish I had. Somewhere along the line I stopped wishing for a six, and just wished for anything but my number.

My turn was next. Thomas strode in, and told me I was number four. Blind, callous hope spread through my body, four had never showed up on the die before, I was hoping to be spared. Then die stubbornly rolled to a stop on four, laying between us, slaves and master. Thomas looked unsurprised and his guards took me into the hall. I should have resisted, should have fought, but I walked meekly along with them.

He stood there, staring at me for a long time, and did nothing. I, in turn, stared at the ground, feeling his eyes on my head. His guards pushed me to the ground and Thomas stood over me, as if gloating, looking down at me as I knelt. I felt something deep inside of me stir, but I wasn't sure what, it was deeper than the fear, the depression, even hate, the sensation seemed somehow familiar, I knew it, but couldn't remember the name of the feeling. It rose as the moments crept by, I suddenly knew that it was hope, hope that this was all he needed from me, that maybe the others had been defiant, deserving in their beatings, that I was safe. I clung to it as the last emotion I had.

Then blows came. Only after the hope was pounding in my chest. His sharp, hard kicks and knee's to my chest, compressed the air out of me explosively, and he never stopped for a instant, letting me feel each blow and creak as my chest took each blow. I kept my eyes closed, unable to take a breath, taking kick after kick, each one twisting that hope inside of me, driving it into my heart more effectively than any toxin could, cutting me open far more effectively than any knife. I started hoping that each blow would be the last, that I would live and serve just to avoid one more kick, one more knee...

When he was done, when we were done, I would have thanked him for stopping, for each breath, if I could have spoken. I had tears running down my cheeks, I remembering wanting to thank him for stopping, as if he couldn't stop before then, as if he did me a favor for beating the hope out of me at all. I spat out mouthfuls of blood from the gouges my teeth had taken out of my cheeks, but the tears were of happiness, I had deserved it, he was right to punish me. He had taken that brief hope and turned it into a twisted kind of fear, obedience. I'm not sure what my injuries were, I coughed up blood for weeks, my chest ached for months more.

Thomas never returned for Kolf, he didn't need to. Broken in spirt now, our quaint little escape plans were just the feeble mess that hoped for a empty container and deep dark space.

The exact spot we found ourselves now.

There's a Stabber in my nanoRupture

2011-10-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

NanoRupture vs Stabber

or

"Why you shouldn't fly the stabber."

It's pretty simple really; I don't even have to dig all that hard to start showing just how much better the Rupture is (in every way) than the stabber. Let's just start with a slot layout comparison, now the stabber here is a tier 2 cruiser while the Rupture is a tier 3, so we already know that the Rupture is going to have more slots to show for that, as well as other better stats to back that up

Stabber - 6 high, 3 mid, 3 low, 5 m3 drone bandwidth and bay, 3 rig slots.

Rupture - 6 high, 3 mid, 5 low, 25 m3 drone bandwidth and bay, 3 rig slots.

In addition to that the Rupture has better base hp across the board! Already that should be enough to tell you that short of the price tag difference, there is really no reason to buy a stabber let alone fly in one. Okay I suppose that some people will say "what about the speed man, the stabber is soooo much faster."

Well yes, I suppose you are right, but let's look at two test fits, without rigs. Nano Rupture (t2 guns) vs the Nano Stabber (also with t2 guns).

[Stabber, Standard]
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Large Shield Extender II
Warp Disruptor II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Warrior II x1

[Rupture, nanorupture norigs]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Warp Disruptor II
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Medium Energy Neutralizer II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Small Energy Neutralizer II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M

Hornet EC-300 x5
Hornet EC-300 x1

Now while the Nanostabber holds the advantage in speed (still) the Nano Rupture wins in every other way, more EHP, much better DPS, better engagement envelope, as it can hit out to about 32KM (opt + falloff), better gun tracking, ability to use faction ammo out to the ranges the stabber will likely be fighting at, further multiplying it's DPS. Even as heavy tackle the Rupture is a bit better, overheating close to the base speed of the stabber under MWD.

Then you throw in being able to use 5x drones vs the 1 drone from the Stabber, and the utility of neut's to immobilize light, fast tackle getting close to you?

I've heard that people fly the Stabber to "get ready" for a ship like the Vagabond. Realistically the Nano Rupture, especially with rigs, is a much better option to train with. The hull feels heavier than the Vaga or even the Stabber, but the guns hit much more realistically towards what you get out of a Vaga vs similar from the stabber, and the slot loadout is much closer to the Vagabond on the Rupture than the Stabber.

The always flawed approach is to look at a NanoStabber vs a NanoRupture in a 1v1 engagement, so let's save that for last and instead look at application vs targets. The Rupture's better engagement range, and still intact ability to stand off (kite) targets forges it's very true reputation for being a great solo boat, able to up-engage and then disengage if things are going badly. The stabber has much lower DPS, without downgrading the guns (lowering it's DPS further) there is no room to fit anything but small neuts, rockets, or assault missile launchers. None are very good options. (In be4 defenders)

Now I was using all level 5 skills to look at this, so the numbers in use may vary a bit, but what the Rupture loses in speed, it makes up for in range, DPS, survivability and utility.

Taken from the only view the stabber gets of the Rupture. Right before it dies.

I'm not all THAT impressed

2011-10-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Yesterday the Eve-world was hit by a bomb shell of Hellmar proportions; the massive, and deserved, letter to the fan base.

Now other than that dev blog already being inaccessible, and the terribly worded unavailable notice, I'm just not all that surprised to see this letter from CCP.

Why? because it comes too close to being just another ploy, and already an effective one. If just by releasing this blog CCP starts to see more people re-sub, or new players come in from the attention it will undoubtedly draw then it was a full on success. CCP's in a unique place here. Theoretically at least, they have the resources to draw from now that they did not have before(this being close to the end of their 18 months, or at least 13-14 months), with the last of the CQ's being completed, even though only one person in a time in there please, they now have some dev cycles they can use to fix parts of the game that need some fixing and have since either their release, or in some cases (hybrids) for the last 2+ years.

Right now is the perfect time for Hellmar to draw people back in with promises to address those things nearest to our hearts, the spaceships. I was expecting this blog for as long as Jester over at Jester's Trek and I guessed it's content with perhaps some more clarity or at least accuracy than he did a few weeks ago looking at problems with the game from my perspective.

The task list looks impressive, but how much of that will actually get done in the next 2 months? or how much will just be heavy-handed, and forced into some kind of change so they can mark the checkbox next to the problem with a big ole check even if their "fix" just breaks 10 more things with eve gameplay.

It's a good start; but one that shouldn't have taken this long to bring into place. I'm reserving judgement on this until I start to see how these changes will happen, and over what time-period. I suggest you do the same. As always, nothing has changed in-game yet, so if you still hate Eve's current problems, you are still going to hate eve's problems because nothing has changed. If you still have fun with Eve then Eve's still fun. Now, as always, all that's left to do is wait to see what CCP does with this letter, and momentum change, will they capitalize and turn the game around, fixing all those things they can in a admittedly short time, or will they devote 1/4 effort to every project and in doing so fail to fix any of them?

Time, not Hellmar, will tell.

Criminal is in the Name

2011-08-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

EVEOGANDA : Criminal Intentions

First let me state, that as in my comment there, I will not be sitting over here trying to convince Rixx's character that he is a criminal. Self perception being what it is... let's just say that is futile, and would be like trying to convince Stalin that what he was doing was evil and unjust, he certainly didn't see it that way.

The idea that "nobody" controls lowsec just simply isn't true and can be clearly defined by looking in the upper left corner.

This is taken from just some random screenshot I found online, I didn't have time this morning to fly all the way to Rixx's home system in lowsec just to make a point on my blog! It clearly states "Sovereignty > Amarr Empire" and if Rixx still lives in List then it likely says Sov is Gallente. Out in Syndicate, it says Sov > Syndicate. Even when you engage in combat against a neutral, non-flashy target, your GCC lists (usually) the Empire/Republic/whatever that is pissed at you for engaging in combat in highsec, and lowsec, but not in nullsec.

"Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory."

Sure there are no police, faction or otherwise in Lowsec, as are present in Highsec, but it's a lot like the wild west analogy brought up by Rixx. One where if you jump into the real fort (aka highsec) or to an outpost (aka stations in lowsec or gates) the guns will engage you and your criminal acts (Global CRIMINAL countdown, security status punishments and restrictions) are punished in some fashion or another. I'd get into a million game design arguments here but I really don't think that 15 minutes is a fair offset for fighting in lowsec, it should be much shorter (5 minutes). In lowsec, Law is "enforced" or maybe better explained by "represented" by your security status. Kill enough ships, pilots, pods etc, and your security status drops below -5.0 making you "flashy"until you use another broken mechanic to rat your way back above -5.0.

Punishments in lowsec may be light in comparison to highsec (CONCORDOKKEN) but they are still present and are enforced by the controlling parties and Concord in the case of your sec status.

Ships of all sizes do indeed have crew, so although the pod might or might not escape and the legality of destroying another players pod is questionable (although with the monstrous sec status hit one takes for killing a pod strongly suggests that it is illegal). Digressions aside, it has long been established in PF, or as cannon that ships, even frigates, do indeed have crews in addition to the capsuleer.

Now survival rates and "real math" aside (that would lead to the startling knowledge that the eve universe would be facing near extinction with the current crew losses faced on a day-to-day basis). The proof is in the pudding that fights and kills in lowsec made against other capsuleer ships do cause casualties, and is a pretty solid crutch used in RP, as by this token we are all mass murderers to some extent (especially you high-sec red + killing people, those ships have crew too!).

This image, shamelessly stolen from a post entitled "Your frigates have crew" on Backstage (thank you Victoria Valadeus, of KotMC), and originally from a Dev blog on the same subject, clearly shows that there is sizable crew on most ships and even room for passengers with the maximum capacity stat. Survival stats are much lower than I would expect(I think it should be closer to 80-90% survival or more across the board), however, people are sure to die as a result of Rixx's ship opening fire on them.

Now on to the more philosophical argument, does Logan and by extension Rixx understand what they are doing?

I am sure Logan, the character, is aware, he knows some of his crews, and understands loss all to well. Does this deter him from fighting? No, as he also is aware of his cause, outlined by Stimulus, requires bloodshed to enlighten and advance their cause. To him these deaths are justified, further, he sees himself as a freedom fighter on a scale that not even pilots of Ushra'Khan can comprehend.

Rixx on the other hand seems, judging by Rixx blog post, chooses to either not understand the deaths he inflicts or marginalizes them by not choosing to acknowledge their deaths, or instead, like pirates, claims to own his own house and only direct force to bring him to justice would label him a criminal. Or that he is simply defending his home, albeit aggressively.

Criminals aren't "criminals" because they are in jail, they are criminals long before then, judged by acts they commit. In the confines of this game, capsuleers are largely "above" the law of concord in null and lowsec with the obvious exceptions (gate guns, sec status). Does this freedom grant us, as capsuleers, the ability to stand above the repercussions of our actions, I think the answer there is a resounding yes. If every time one broke a "law" in Eve or murdered an innocent, you were punished fully, I think Eve would take a bit of a turn for the dull.

While certainly individual capsuleers in eve each have different view to death and loss in eve, and the destruction that they cause, and others cause. I'll wrap it up here and just simply say that to some level we are all criminals in eve, all the rest is up to perception, both yours and theirs.

AT9 group stages day 2!

2011-06-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

Did pretty well yesterday, here are my official choices for today!

Sunday June 12th

15:00 RAZOR Alliance vs. Wild Boars
15:20 Circle-of-Two vs. Outbreak
15:40 RvB - Red Federation vs. Babylon 5..
16:00 White Noise vs. SOLAR FLEET
16:20 WE FORM VOLTRON vs. POWER OF TWO
16:40 Aggravated Assault.. vs. The R0NIN
17:00 Black Legion vs. Nulli Secunda
17:20 Lack of Imagination vs. B A N E

BREAK

18:20 Pandemic Legion vs. Unaffiliated
18:40 Ushra'Khan vs. HYDRA RELOADED
19:00 Against ALL Authorities vs. Raiden.
19:20 Negative Ten vs. DarkSide.
19:40 Vanguard Imperium vs. Sev3rance
20:00 Perihelion Alliance vs. Paisti Syndicate
20:20 The G0dfathers vs. Get Off My Lawn
20:40 The Kadeshi vs. Wildly Inappropriate

AT9, group stages, round 1.

2011-06-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

So just because Rote Kapelle was put out in the second round, that's no reason to stop covering AT9!!!

Good fight to our opponents, our setup was banking that they would not bring the setup that they did, or the more common 3x tengu setup, our gamble failed and as you could tell, our setup didn't work out all too favorably in our favor. Now this week has been busy for me so I will be guessing the match winners in the shortest fashion possible this time, while still retaining some thought as to how they did so far.

This should keep this post from taking 2 days to write as well, especially since AT9 starts up again in about an hour!

15:00 The Kadeshi vs. The G0dfathers - G0ds did well in their second match, I think the Kadeshi might be the slight underdogs here, but still manage to win.

15:20 Get Off My Lawn vs. Wildly Inappropriate - LAWN, gotta love those guys, fought back into it and will manage to win this one as well.

15:40 Perihelion Alliance vs. Vanguard Imperium - Perihelion made a believer out of me, 10v10's tend to be a bit harder than the 5v5 slugfests of the two last weeks and Vanguard did great the first two weeks as well, this will be a match to watch on the first day, if not the match to watch.

16:00 Sev3rance vs. Paisti Syndicate - I'm surprised to see Sev this far, Paisti is more their match and will carry the day this time.

16:20 Negative Ten vs. Against ALL Authorities - -A- has looked strong so far, I'll give this win to them.

16:40 Raiden. vs. DarkSide. - Raiden. came back in week two to win and advance, nice work gents.

17:00 Ushra'Khan vs. Pandemic Legion - What a bad matchup for the first round for U'K against PL.

17:20 Unaffiliated vs. HYDRA RELOADED - At least our Syndicate bro's made it through, okay they aren't our Bro's but have a very hard matchup vs Hydra, good luck.

BREAK

18:20 Lack Of Immagination vs. Black Legion - Black Legion made it through! Should be a good fight.

18:40 Nulli Secunda vs. B A N E - meh, don't really care either way here, sorry guys.

19:00 Aggravated Assault.. vs. WE FORM VOLTRON - VOLTRON, I liked their name last year, nothing has changed.

19:20 POWER OF TWO vs. The R0NIN - Another good match I think, and definately one to watch, POWER I think will win, but barely.

19:40 White Noise vs. RvB - Red Federation - Yay red-fed!

20:00 Babylon 5.. vs. SOLAR FLEET - Crap, running out of time!

20:20 Circle-of-Two vs. RAZOR Alliance - Bring more shineys!

20:40 Wild Boars vs. Outbreak - Go Outbreak!

AT9 week 2 Predictions, now with soup!

2011-06-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, I lied, no soup for you!

As mentioned week one was a good showing for more than one alliance. The matchups are out for the next week. Pretty simple (for once) actually, each team was ranked, winners vs losers as the first ranking point, then points earned. Points earned were figured as follows;

Winning Team Points

The winner of each match gains a 25% bonus to the total ranking points scored. The points values for each ship are available in the match rules page.

Intentional Handicaps

If a team begins the match with less points value worth of ships than their opponent, and wins the match, they score extra ranking points equal to the difference in the two teams' values.

This put Paisti and Razor in the top two spots, 63.75 points each.

After that matches were done #1 vs #2, #3 vs #4, etc...

I'm operating under the assumption that if you go 1-1 and have around 70+ points you will be close to making it into the next round, 83+ points and you are nearly surely granted a spot in the next round.

Saturday June 4th (AKA the losers half of the bracket)

15:00 Dark Taboo vs Waterboard - Both teams were massacred last weekend, both losing without killing a single ship. Unless both teams come out with substantial handicaps, somewhere in the 10-20 point range, and win, nither of them will be making it on to the next rounds. Looking at reports shows that both teams suffered mostly at the hands of flights of ECM drones, perhaps signaling to fit a few smartbombs on their ships to weed off the pesky drone jamming swarm. Since taboo has a password protected killboard and I already covered how stupid I find that, Waterboard will win here but still fail to advance.

15:20 Controlled Chaos vs Chain of Chaos - This is one of those matches you can only hope happens. Chaos vs Chaos... Everyone's always getting these two alliances confused, myself included! It's a good thing that there won't be commentators looking at this match, I can only imagine the confusion then. Anyways, nither team fielded very good setups in the first round, an initial look at the NAWTI setup looked decent, sleipnirs supported by some ECM blackbirds, then I actually looked at the losses they have posted, and now I can understand why they didn't post all of their losses! Sleipnir was active-tank fit with large shield boosters (at least it was shield tanked), the Blackbirds tanked by a 800mm plate? No wonder they went down without a fight. Controlled Chaos didn't fare too much better, 2 x cerb, a rook and a Cyclone, even on paper that sounds like a weak setup that has-to depend on range as part of it's tank. OINK paid them due credit by wiping them off the field without a single loss. Once again, these teams will have to come in with a 10-20 point handicap to stand any chance of making it into the next round. Seeing their first setups, I'll give the nod to NAWTI, their setup looked to be at least headed in the right direction.

15:40 Adeptus Arbetus vs Legion of the Damned - Adeptus came to the first fight wholly unprepared, and apparently for good reason, after suffering a massive corp-theft and loss of their FC the day before their match against AAA. While AAA might have been involved, I think the tourney just made an easy scapegoat for the saboteur and a nice excuse for the loss in the first round. Unlike Adeptus, Legion of the Damned showed up with a ballsy, good setup, centering around two Machariels, unfortunately, they faced a setup like that's worst nightmare, a TD heavy team that killed the effectiveness of the Machariels to lay down damage at range, or even in close. With the weight of experience on their side I think Legion has a chance to field and win with a handicapped team and get them close to advancing into the next round.

16:00 Corcoran State vs Reverberation Project - Corcoran State lost in what appeared to be a close match against B A N E, even though they didn't manage to kill anything, they held on close to the end, their last ship falling with inside a minute left in their match. Their setup in the first round seemed solid but was defeated by the strong turtle power of the Widow led team they faced. Reverberation Project on the other hand, had no such luck, facing off against a minmatar heavy setup that made short work of the tech 1 BC's and support, easily clearing the field of them while they were unable to kill anything. Both teams here will need to field handicapped setups in order to advance to the next round, but I am not sure either will do so. My bet is Corcoran state comes out with a win but does not advance.

16:20 United Front Alliance vs The R0NIN - UFA, fresh off their crippling loss to G0ds will, unshockingly, have to fight with a handicap to stand any chance of making the next round, but so will the R0NIN after their loss to Ushra'Khan. I have to admit I was surprised that Ushra won in that fashion, especially after I picked against them, but the R0NIN made a few mistakes in that match, their rook leaving the ring, thus turning the match on it's ear. After looking at UFA's losses, including a armor tanked Cyclone in their first match I feel pretty confident choosing the R0NIN this time, though it will be interesting to see if they will arrive at the match with a large handicap in the hopes of making it to the next round.

16:40 Clockwork Pineapple vs Transmission Lost - Well GROON you just HAD to let me down didn't you. Our Syndicate sparring partners lost while facing a very unconventional active tanking, or at least heavily tanked Scimitar that absorbed their Tengu's fire with ease, while still having the reps to keep the rest of the RAZOR fleet they faced alive when they tried to change primaries. Transmission Lost on the other hand lost in a very fast match against a ECM and minmatar heavy setup that jammed and crushed their HAC based setup with ease. In one of the rare cases so far where a team without a logistics ship was able to beat a team with one, largely due to the pair of EAF's fielded by the Paisti Syndicate. I think GROON shows up with another solid setup and we have a good fight here, but both will once again have to field a handicapped setup in order to advance to the next round.

17:00 Dead on Arrival vs Morsus Mihi - DOA brought a solid setup into the first match, but ended up facing the scissors to their paper. Two key components of the DOA setup, both fielded by the Curse, being TD's and Neuts were pretty useless against the cap independent team they faced, and soon they were all removed from the field, but the opposing Tengu's. MM on the other hand showed up with a Logistics Tengu, that was primaried first and removed quickly, once that lynchpin was removed from their setup, they barely managed to kill a destroyer before they finished dying. Both teams scored 2 points in the first round, and will need to operate at a handicap to stand a chance of making it through. A win plus a handicap seems a little much to overcome but stranger things have happened. I think MM's experience will get them the win, but it will be once again interesting to see if they come with a handicapped team.

17:20 The Star Fraction vs Smacked Alliance - I was honestly sad to see the Star Fraciton do so poorly in the first round, because it meant that there was little chance we would be facing them in round two or that they would advance past that. Their dual Curse setup brought too much EWAR and not enough DPS, especially when their EWAR proved mostly ineffective against the Tengu/Loki combination they were fighting. They did manage to kill off a single destroyer before falling, netting them 2 points. Smacked brought a solid setup, one that would have suffered heavily at the hands of the 2 Curse's SF brought last time, but found another enemy in a trio of Tengu's. Their Sleipnir setup had a hard time breaking any of the Tengu's they faced, losing to the trio while managing to eliminate just one of the opposing destroyers. Once again both teams will have to look to deploying handicapped setups to have a chance at advancing. Honestly with SF's history in the last two or so AT's Smacked has a good chance of advancing to the next round, even with a handicapped setup.

18:20 Test Alliance Please Ignore vs RvB - Red Federation - Just two points prevented the penultimate match of Red Fed vs Blue Republic. Instead Red lands up with a tough match against a TEST team that was surprised in the first weekend by a trio of Tengu's used by Brick Squad. Their trio of Gila faction cruisers were only able to remove the opposing destroyer before succumbing to missile fire. Red fed faced off against a menacing pair of rattlesnakes fielded by our next opponent, Perihelion Alliance. Their tier 1 and 2 BC's were unable to put much of a dent into the faction battleships before dropping, only able to remove the Rattler support, scoring 8 points. TEST will show up in force again, looking to win with a handicap setup if they want to have any chance of advancing, while Red Fed has marginally more points, it means that they can afford to handicap less and with a win still stand a chance at advancing.

18:40 The Conglomeration of Ill Advised Ideas vs RvB - Blue Republic - The Conglomeration faced a tough 5 man BC setup in the first round, their shield tanking Rupture, claymore and Scimitar fleet was made short work of, folding to the CVA fleet, but not without killing a single Cyclone. Blue Republic fought hard against Outbreak. but we unable to come up with a win in their match of drakes vs Tengu's. The Blue setup was much better than the comparable Conglomeration setup, and with the 12 points from the kill of the basilisk, means they will not have to handicap much, if at all to make it to the next round.

19:00 The SPACE POLICE vs Northern Coalition. - The Police pulled together 14 points in their loss to near system rivals Neg10 in a battle of Cyclones vs Tengu's. That 14 points will be helpful but they will still need a win in order to have a chance to advance. The matches from this point on will rely less and less on handicap setups to advance, and starting here there is a good chance that either team will field a full 50 points. Northern Coalition squared off against newcomers Bacon and LOST. Though to be honest their Dual Rook setup failed in the way most ECM setups will eventually fail, that being a missed jam means a lost ship, not to mention very low DPS. I think the SPACE POLICE will have more drive to win this match.

19:20 Mos Vape Heavy Industries vs Sev3rance - Apparently Mos Vape can't add very well, or just have issues counting to 50. Their first setup was worth 53 points and cost them the match, even if the skillful piloting of the Kadeshi team hadn't already defeated them. Mos ended up with 17.5 points, half of their actual kill points once their infraction was discovered, leaving them with not only a loss but significantly less points that they would have otherwise. I think the penalty wasn't steep enough, and they should have lost all points gained. In any case, Sev3rance faced a close match but lost to yet another triple Tengu setup, despite nearly winning against them with the craft use of EC- Drones. They did score 18 points in their loss and showed a lot of skill getting as close as they did.

19:40 Atlas. vs Get Off My Lawn - Atlas suffered a few piloting errors that ended up costing them their first match, but such is the breaks in the AT. They managed to kill a proteus and a destroyer to bring their total up to 18 points before being brought down first by a burnt out MWD and then by a boundary violation. LAWNs first match went the distance, lasting the full 10 minutes before Raiden. pulled away with a victory. LAWN's setup was solid but ultimately unable to defeat the Logi backed Tengu setup fielded by Raiden. If Atlas continues to make mistakes my money is on LAWN.

20:00 Capital.Punishment vs Black Legion - Well the Maraner led cap.pun team let me down once already and it turns out that it was due to a likely spy in their ranks leaking their likely setup to their opponents. The interesting thing to see will be if that same spy or a different one leaks the next round's setup to Black Legion. Black Legion fought against RK last round and narrowly avoided beating us, but still scored 20 points. Both teams need a win in order to advance, and this will likely be a brutal match, if a bloody one, only the winner will advance.

20:20 Babylon 5.. vs Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive - Babylon 5.. brought the 3 tengu setup and managed to lose with it, one of the only teams to bring that setup and lose. They still managed to kill a few ships, but ended up losing, somehow, allegedly because they didn't move their Tengu's off 0 from the warp in. I-RED on the other hand fought a long and bitter battle, they ended up barely losing with a very unique 2 Loki, Oneiros setup, against a dual Mach setup. In the end the simple ability of the I-RED team to field something unexpected and still do well with their setup vs a solid Mach setup, in addition to scoring 29 points to Babylon 5..'s 25 lends me to think I-RED will win the match, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

20:40 Majesta Empire vs GoonSwarm - Majesta fought what was one of the closest and likely most heartbreaking matches, losing by just 12 points to the White Noise. Team, after white noise managed to come from behind to kill a Sleipnir and a Dramiel and take the points lead. Majesta fielded a solid setup, thankfully not more Tengu's, instead opting for Sleipnir, and canes with some support. Goons on the other hand brought Sleipnirs with logi support but still fell in a very close match to yet another Tengu setup. They did manage to score 34 points, leaving them within striking distance to get into the next round with a solid win in this round. I'll stick with Goons here, and wish them luck against ME.

Sunday June 5th (AKA the Winners half)

15:00 Perihelion Alliance vs Rote Kapelle - Perihelion did a great job in their first match showing up with a very unusual setup that while low DPS managed to take out Red Fed and never truly had their tanks tested. They will be a tough opponent for us, having just barely won our match against Black Legion. We are both experienced Tournament teams so it really will come down to skill. In the past neither team has showed up with the same setup twice, so we will have to see if that trend continues. Once again I definitely choose RK!

15:20 Raiden. vs The Obsidian Front - Raiden. fought out a win from a tough match against LAWN, their Tengu setup performing in much the same way as they intended, but still made some strong errors, one of their pilots burning out their missile launchers well before the end of the fight, costing them a decisive victory in the process. The Obsidian Front had a inside track on the win after securing the setups of their Foes pre-match. Admittedly this advantage stood them in good stead, and their dual Golem setup was still strong, up until one of their members made a similar overheating mistake as the Raiden Tengu pilot, only with midslots instead of high. It's these kinds of mistakes that can cause lost matches, so it will be interesting to see who cleans up best in this round. My thought is Raiden will put up the stronger showing.

15:40 White Noise vs The Initiative - White Noise fought a bloody, bloody battle against their first round opponents, leaving just a Dramiel on the field opposing their Proteus. They won in points and edged close to making it into the second round regardless of a win or a loss in the second round if the battle is again very bloody. With 57.5 points, white noise will likely only need 30ish more points to guarantee a spot in next weekend, and 20 to be on the cusp. In the last match of last weekend The Initiative faced off against a similarly setup opponent, Logistics and Tengus, but was able to dominate the field with more effective calls from their still intact FC. They swept the fight, 50-0, and now are in a great position to advance, needing roughly 20 points to make it into the sweet spot to advance. It will be interesting to see if both teams come for the complete kill or go for more turtle based setups designed to get them their points and get out. It's a real toss-up, but I think in a close, and bloody match that Init. will win, but White noise will score enough points to advance as well.

16:00 Circle-of-Two vs Wild Boars - I view Circle-of-Two as one of AT9's favorites, they stood out in round one, crushing their opponents while taking no losses, their 5 S(scimitar, sleipnirs, sabers) setup proving to be effective and devastating against a curse/Logi backed team on the other side. Wild Boars came into round one as an unknown to me but quickly proved themselves against Controlled Chaos fielding the only two Myrmidons I think in the tourney. They managed to wipe the CC team pretty easily, after the CC team made some mental mistakes, like moving before the match and going outside the arena. Even if they hadn't made those mistakes Boars would have won that fight. I'm going to side with the favorites, though every part of my under-dog body wants Boars to win. Both can advance with a bloody enough match.

16:20 Important Internet Spaceship League vs Against ALL Authorities - BDEAL aka IISL, had an easy time in the first round, crushing their opponents sleipnir setup with ease, everything seemed to be going their way, but a closer look at the setup they faced, shows some interesting anomalies, mainly active tanking Sleipnirs, 800mm plated Blackbirds, no luck on jams apparently. AAA went up against what I would say is one of the weaker setups fielded, Caldari Navy Hookbill, Celestius, Cynabal, Blackbird and Tengu, AAA had no problem powering through that assorted mess and cruised into this round with the maximum amount of points. BDEAL and AAA face much tougher opponents in this round and will have to prove their setups against a much more difficult foe, but with a bloody battle both sides could advance. Even though the AAA guys we fought last year are no longer with AAA I'll still root for them.

16:40 Unaffiliated vs B A N E - I'll be rooting for my Syndicate brosefs in the Unaffiliated after they cruised through the first round without a single loss, but they will face tough opposition in B A N E who also made it through the first round without a loss. Bane fielded the only Widow we have seen so far while Unaffiliated brought another unorthodox setup that worked well, things will have to change on both setups if they are brought again, but it will be good match.

17:00 Electric Monkey Overlords vs The G0dfathers - EMOOOOOOO, okay okay I'm done. I-CUT, I think, is their ticker, and they proved it by cutting out the chances of their opponents in week one, their Minmatar setup cleaned the field, leaving only a Echo of ECHO behind when they were done. Look I can do cheesy, bad commentary too, I should apply next year. G0ds brought a 5 man 5 tier 1 BC setup, one of the few brought, and had tremendous success against their opponents, overwhelming them with EC drones and DPS. Both teams did very well in their fights so it will be interesting to see what will happen with this matchup, I think EMO will pull the upset here and continue on to the next round. Like the rest of these high-scoring teams, G0ds can advance with a bloody match, needing just 20ish points to secure a spot in the next round.

17:20 Ushra'Khan vs Ignore This. - Ushra pulled through, my Minnie brosefs slid past the first round with ease, employing dual Sacri's, logistics and some support to clear the field, showing those dirty Amarr how to fly those shiny ships. Ignore this was hard to ignore (there I go again) in their first victory, while they did lose a single ship to DOA, they managed to wipe the field and move on with authority, Fielding yet another variation on the ever-popular Tengu setup. I'll be pulling for Ushra to continue on, though Ignore This has a great chance to make it to next weekend if they can eek out a few points against whatever Ushra brings to the field.

18:20 Vanguard Imperium vs Intrepid Crossing - So let me try to get this right for once, VI, who hold some southern sov, in and around Querious and Delve(thanks anonymous) did a great job taking out MM in week one. Their solid setup of Sleipnirs backed by a logi had little trouble with the MM Cyclone setup and has left them in great shape to advancing to the next round, while a win would be nice to seal the deal, it is not required. With as few as 10-20 points and a loss they still stand a good chance to advance. IRC either lucked out or chose well (your choice of words) when they were pitted against Star Fraction in the first weekend. The Tengu and Loki combination they selected was easily able to down the two curse, logi and bomber setup used by the Star Fraction. It will be a tough matchup between these two as they square off in round 2, both sides can advance with a bloody battle. I think IRC has the slight advantage here, but I'm going to go with VI instead since I did such a shit job of researching them last time, apparently.

18:40 P0WER OF TWO vs Brick Squad - P0WER brought 3 tengu's and a Destroyer as cannon-fodder, they lost the Dessy early in the match but easily swept the rest of the hostile field of the 5 S's. The three man Tengu setup looks to be one of the strongest fielded and proved it time and again against varied opposition. Brick brought the exact same loadout, down to the Cormorant. It will be strange to see them bring separate setups after having so much luck with the three tengu's, in a close match I'll choose Brick.

19:00 Curatores Veritatis Alliance vs Outbreak - CVA, the dirty RPers! Used converted Minmatar ships to push their opponents into an early grave, their 3 Cyclone, 2 Ferox setup brushing off all but one loss, eliminating their foes. Their setup was solid, obviously, but their piloting was alo good, using their ships and drones to the best effect, and coming away with a win. Outbreak opened their week one with a bang, using a variant on the Tengu setup to crush a similar drake setup. Neither one of these teams seem weak, and both made it to the round of 16 at least, last year before being eliminated. In a bloody battle that ends up seeing both teams advance I think that Outbreak squeaks away with a victory.

19:20 Negative Ten vs Bacon Fortress Gaming Syndicate - NEG10 showed up as well with a two Tengu setup, managing to pull out a solid win against their first round opponents despite losing some of their ships. Bacon surprised me by beating NCdot and turning out to not be an alt alliance, seems I've been wrong a lot. Bacon fielded the dual Sacri setup with a Logi further buffering the t2 resists. I'm not going to be surprised again, and think Bacon will come out just ahead in this fight.

19:40 The Kadeshi vs Aggravated Assault - The Kadeshi fought the illegal points setup(53) in the first round and still did well, their Vagabond based setup reducing the Megathron to low structure before the match ended with their opponents being penalized for their failure to count to 50. Aggravated Assault was another team to field the triple Tengu setup, their screening Dessy being their only loss in the first round. I think the Kadeshi will come up with a solid counter to the triple Tengu I anticipate to see from Aggravated assault.

20:00 Lack of Imagination vs Solar Fleet - Imagination used theirs and came up with 3 x Proteus instead of the 3x tengu look we saw so many times, they pulled out a win and buried their opposition, managing to take out the Machariels they were facing with a bit more ease. Solar, one of the few people to beat a 3xtengu setup slipped by their first round opponents, even if barely, their tactic worked. Imagination showed up with 3 x proteus and killed a Mach setup and Solar came with a Mach setup and beat 3 x tengu. Should be a good matchup, no matter what setups are brought. I like the Proteus and the Mach so there goes that Tie breaker, I'll go with Solar on a coin flip.

20:20 Nulli Secunda vs Wildly Inappropriate - Nulli squeezed by I-RED in the first week of fighting, in a close fight they proved to be the tougher, only their Machariel making it out of the fight in one piece. Nulli had to adapt on the fly to counter the I-RED setup, as it wasn't something anyone else saw coming. Wildly used the Tengu setup to relieve Goons of their ships, left with only a Tengu at the end, they still managed a victory. In this I will give the flexibility and thinking on their feet advantage to Nulli, who I anticipate will make this match a good one.

20:40 RAZOR Alliance vs Paisti Syndicate - RAZOR and Paisti took a one point handicap to be the highest rated teams on the ladder, and still managed to complete their matches without loss. RAZOR faced the trendy Tengu setup in their first match and still took no losses while eliminating the opposing team with ease. Paisti had a bit easier of an opposing setup, facing a dual ishtar setup, but still made it through without loss. Voting against RAZOR screwed me last week, and I won't let that happen again. I think Razor comes through in this battle just barely ahead but both teams advance on points to the next round.

Man these things take forever to write! Until next week, good luck to all. Hopefully RK will make it to the next round!

AT9 Weekend 1 results!

2011-05-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

I was so right! Well only 65% right I suppose(21/32). The first week was exciting, a dangerously close match for RK that left me wishing for more points was of course the highlight for me, but there were other good matches to be had.

The two Red vs Blue teams had no luck in their two difficult matches, and now it looks like Rote will get the honor of matching up against the victorious Perihelion Alliance in the next round, well given that the AT standings don't shift before then. Any team with two wins will automatically qualify to go on to the finals, so we will both be gunning for the win to get there.

Current standings are Here. Be warned, CCP has already made one or two mistakes (since corrected) that have shifted things around a bit, so I will wait for the official announcements, hopefully soon this week before breaking down the upcoming match-ups.

I have to eat a bit of crow here, first, Bacon Gaming Fortress Syndicate, you managed your upset nicely, crushing the setup fielded by NCdot. This proves what I had already assumed was a known fact, that being, EWAR, expecially ECM, based setups have a high chance of failure in the 5v5 rounds. Too much ECM in this fight meant not enough DPS, and I am sure every time they missed a jam, they lost a ship. Good job to Bacon, good luck in the next round, you look to be facing off against The Kadeshi, a challenging matchup if there ever was one. Kudos to Vanguard Imperium for their win vs MM.

Clockwork Pinapple, well let's just say you didn't do so well against the sharp (har har) pilots of Razor. You dropped down to the low bracket list, and have a very small chance of advancing, how could you!

Capital Punishment, I think this quote says it all, "Ynot Eyob also wanted to thank the -CAP- team for a good fight, but admitted that his team won due to intel on the kind of ships the -CAP- team would field." Gotta keep a lid on those setups!

Some notable losers included TEST, Goons, MM, Chained and Controlled Chaos. Better luck next match.

Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows (Part Five)

2011-05-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

The assault on the casino started small, a small explosion at the gates as a heavy truck pressed past the reenforced gates like they were hardly there. Automated turrets slid from concealment all around the complex, taking aim at the speeding truck. As they finished deploying the truck shimmered, putting off a cross between heat and static. My equipment was far enough away to not be caught in the blast, but the electro-magnetic pulse was localized enough to damage or disable most of the turrets, their guns locking in place, or slumping ineffectively. The only turrets left operational were on the far side of the complex. Well out of the fight, as was the large truck, now immobile.

Security wasn't long in reacting to the sudden change in environment, groups of dark suited men clumped out of the casino, supplemented by groups of uniformed and hired thugs. I picked up my binoculars and focused in on the group nearest the gatehouse, sporadic gunfire crackling now from both the diversion and ahead from the casino. Both cells seemed to be in full action. Granted they both represented different causes at each spot, but both were working perfectly.

My anarchists slid up the hill, from cover to cover, returning fire, the casino's security guards fighting mostly exposed against the building were taking casualties. A second group of them held the underground exit. They were dishing out as well as they were taking, maybe more so. The teams there had heavier weapons, and were firing from more concealed positions. The tenor of the battle was changing, security forces had much heavier weapons than anticipated.

Some of the security teams were isolated but were taking cover now, having made the distance between the parking lot and garden. The ones that weren't, were either dead or running back inside. A ripping explosion drew me back to the underground parking lot, a thread of smoke led back to the underground lot, a large fireball expanded from what used to be a strong point in the advancing anarchists line. The sight of the scattered terrorists drew my lips into a grimace, I reached down and grabbed my rifle, just in time to see a second missile rip into the anarchists.

Security was turning the tide of the fight, but all might not be lost yet. I pulled the rifle into line, leaning into the scope, snugging the butt of the rifle into my shoulder. I moved the scope over the fight, yet another missile spanning the distance between the now retreating anarchists and the security forces. Scattered groups were running headlong from the fighting now, the warning sounds of sirens moving towards the casino inspired more movement from the anarchists, they were now disengaging wholesale.

I spun the rifle to the back of the casino. I had missed Harcourts driver and security detail move his car to the back entrance. I hadn't missed him leaving, yet. His security was focused mainly towards the now more sporadic gunfire from the front of the casino. The door moved open, my finger tightening on the trigger, it was only 5 maybe 7 feet between door and car. This rifle was special, loading a single, high explosive round. Specially designed to fly to the point of target, it took all the skill out of being a sniper.

First out was Harcourt, his grey eyes scanning the area quickly before reaching behind him to guide his heir, his son out the door. His hair was salt and pepper now, but my intel photographs marked him true. I could feel my mouth curling in disgust at the sight of the little runt and his father. I tracked them both to the car, Harcourts security must have been holding everyone else inside to insure his safe getaway. Next out would be his wife, through all my research on him, I had not been able to find an identity of his wife. The poor woman must want to die, living with such a corrupted, evil man.

His wife was bent over, hiding from the gunshots she perceived aimed at her, raven black hair tickling something in the back of my mind. He covered her to the car, she stood straight just before ducking in. The rifle caught a glimpse of her face and pulled it to the side, the sight stopped me cold. A sudden cold sweat trickled down between my shoulder blades.

The image captured by the gun, was a spitting image of my dead sister, her black hair a different style now, but the scar just above her eye from where her first puppy had bitten her. It haunted me from my dreams, mostly from my nightmares. Here she was, with Harcourt, with their son. The rifle sagged on my shoulder, my finger twitching on the trigger, the round firing high over the car, barely missing Harcourt, striking a security officer in the chest before exploding ageist the wall, the high explosive round shattering the side of the building.

Harcourt's car peeled out from the side of the casino, and tears ran down my cheeks, unabated. My sister was alive, I couldn't kill her and her family like her husband had killed mine. The gun clattered to the ground, single fire self destruct active. It's slow beeping narrating my memories of her. First I saw her when I was just a kid, she was a few years older than me, the oldest of our family. She raised the small dog up to her face, the thing had snapped at her playfully, catching the ring in her eyebrow. The dog hadn't understood, or cared. She cried out in pure pain, still careful to place the dog on the ground before tending to her wound.

In less than a week she had been back with the dog, her face roughly bandaged, she loved that dog. I hadn't seen her since the day before we'd been attacked. I checked the records when I had been freed, slavers didn't keep accurate records, anything but a count. I'd tried but had never been able to find anything. I refocused, and realized I had left the roof, my body doing it's best to keep me safe a vague memory of the beeping growing in intensity as the det charge on the rifle grew nearer to execution.

For the first time I wished I had never left TXW, I desperately wanted to be back with Usagi. I moved through the hallways of the hotel like a ghost, reaching the lobby from the emergency stairs as the sniper rifle exploded on the roof. Security and police rushed by, ignoring the crying Minmatar exiting the building. I didn't attempt to conceal my capsuleer status as I exited, reaching the station, transferring more money to the anarchists I had left behind. They would have to tend for themselves. I numbly travelled back to the station just a planet distant, enabling my neocom just long enough to buy a shuttle and prep it for launch. It would take less than 24 hours to travel back to TXW.

Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows (Part Four)

2011-05-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

Nobody had came out into the alley when the screams started, or stopped. I had to leave the knife behind, but at least I had a name. A name I hadn't heard of before. The name had turned quickly into a dead end, perhaps he had been lying, or too far gone to tell the truth. Nobody had known who he was talking about. Maybe it was just his name I ended up with, or worse a new player I didn't know.

Frustrated, I had cursed the lost time, and re-focused on the real reason I was there. For the first time in years one of the slave traders linked to my enslavement even more years ago, would be out in the open, more importantly, with his family. It would only be fair, he and his family for mine. It would be a waste of assets in this place to kill him, but I was well past worrying about those ramifications.

First I had to flush him into the open, for that I had to use some of the cells to form a diversion. Yesterday, after the attack on me I had heard rumors that my target, and family, had showed up to the same casino they would be today, betting and watching the capsuleers Alliance tournament. One cell would rush the casino, eliminating the guards, while another distracted the local police, with a suicide bombing aimed at their headquarters just blocks away.

I couldn't bring myself to call him by name, Harcourt Durand. He had financed the raid on the backwater colony my family had lived on. The raiders had been brutal in separating men from wives, parents from children, in an effort to keep them all under control. Honestly, it hadn't taken much to find his involvement, his financing for these kinds of raids wide-spread in their notoriety. It was just a shame the slaver who had actually done the work had died before I had gained my freedom.

The Casino grounds were wide, spread out in a show of luxury on an otherwise back-water planet. It wasn't well known, but it was well protected, and well designed. Automated defenses did most of the work, covering the approaches and doors with equal vigilance. Probably using the most sophisticated intelligence and sensors to determine threat from guest, likely under the direct fire control of one or two controllers in the security building.

I hadn't had any hand in helping the cell design their attack on the Casino, to them it was a symbol of the corruption in this sector. Money that should have gone into their schools, or to promote more jobs in the area went instead into helping build this. It wouldn't be long now before they got their chance for some payback.

I moved to the other corner of the overlooking building, towards the diversion, but left the massive rifle where it lay at the casino's corner, next the the rumpled security officer I'd found up here. He'd recover, but that recovery would be slowed by the drugs I'd put in his system to keep him quiet and out of the way for the next hour or more.

The diversion was the classical choice, a nondescript government building, some kind of tax organization or another. The important factor was it was a easy target, the cell hitting it was small, and expendable. Their plan I had fully vetted, the diversion being usually more important than the main attack. Some of their number would slide into the building, others waiting just around the corner. The advanced group would take out security camera's and guards without anyone sounding the alert. The plan didn't hinge on the lack of an alert, but it helped.

Once security was down, the other teams would rush in and get as many people out as they could, while others planted the bombs. Then they would also evacuate the building. Anyone left inside would be collateral damage. It was harsh, but the more attention pulled there would be the less response to the casino. I wrapped my hands around my binoculars, waiting…

-------

I didn't see or hear anything for a long time, each minute that passed made my heart rise in my chest, I wandered back to the other side of the building using the scope to scan the casino. Harcourt's vehicle was already there, he and his family safely inside through one of the underground entrances, but after the attack, there would be no where to go but out the doors and into his car. Looking back over at the federal building, nerves ran amok in my head. I started running through everything that could go wrong. Not that I could expect to hear from that team until the explosion, I just wish I could have heard anything.

Police radios and emergency networks were too encrypted to listen-in to easily, so all I could do was wait. I heard and then saw first one and then a second police car whine around the building I was in at high speed, headed directly for the diversion, their passing directly preceding the whip-snap of high velocity gunfire in the distance, muted by the streets. I checked the timeline, no surprise one of the guards, or the automated system had alerted. It was already a race against time.

I pounded my fist against the side of the roof, heading back to my binoculars to watch. I couldn't see anything through them, just watch the steady stream of police headed in that direction, fire and medical units passing by slowly, well behind the line of fire. Some one must have detonated a bomb early, the single loud crack and sudden surge of smoke over the rooftops confirming it.

A ripple of other cracks sounded shortly afterwards, deep black smoke bellowing from the middle of the city, the diversion had been successful, to a point at least, two more police patrols passed the bottom of the five story building I stood atop. Now for the main attraction.

Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows (Part Three)

2011-05-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

My bed felt empty when I woke, I allowed myself a few minutes for my mind to catch up with my body. I had landed here just under 24 hours ago, between organizing weapons, and talking to contacts I had only made it back to my second apartment in the city at just past day midnight as they called it here. That'd be roughly 0500 standard, still hours before sunrise, actually just heading into dark, a rough 3 hours ago. Days were long, but so were the nights.

I had been recognized by the various cell leaders I managed to contact yesterday. A interesting group of fighters if I had ever met any. The thing about creating a stimulus was you didn't need to find people who's views matched yours exactly, just ones with influence, resources, and malice usually were good enough. The first group had started out as a militia going nowhere quickly, looking to expand their credibility by pulling off something "large." They'd be the hired muscle in this case, lots of guns, very little experience or intelligence. A perfect distraction.

Some of my other cells, though I doubt they would love being called that if they found out who else they were 'working' with, included various independent hackers, anarchist groups, and a single old Rote crewman who had grown tired of the good life after retiring from a STUGH battleship just after AT8. Likely just after watching my Bhaalgorn get torn to pieces. He had been most helpful, but wouldn't be participating further.

I slid out of bed, still mostly dressed, I had left my boots on, the shirt resting over a chair close to the bed. Today would be my chance to get ready, and clear any remaining trail back to me. A rustle drew my attention to the wooden, though metal reinforced front door. Feet moved on the other side and I tensed, soft whispers just barely registering with my enhanced hearing.

My time was up in this apartment, I grabbed my leather jacket, my mind taking off at incredible speed, the apartment was on the second floor, overlooking a convenient escape stairwell mounted to the side of the building. Windows be damned, I plowed through, my crash corresponding to crash of some kind of ram, or person slamming into the front door of what was previously my apartment. I landed sideways on the stairs, using my momentum to propel me over my back and onto my feet, tearing off down the single flight of stairs, my booted feet crunching noisily in the alleyway. I looked back just in time to see a pinched Amarr face peer out the window.

Looking out like that always confused me and I wished for a weapon to reduce my tail by one. I barreled around the corner, just as three pursuers, including the Amarrian, made it onto the balcony. They were too slow by seconds, sheer luck had saved me this time. I wasn't clear yet.

My heart beat in my ears, drowning out the sound of any pursuit, and of my footsteps. I pounded down one street and then the next, ducking into the dark alleyway, noticing for the first time the oppressive darkness all around and the chill in the air. Implants activated deep in my skull, lightening the surrounds, a small overlay map appearing in view at just the right place. It networked sounds and sensory inputs too small for my brain to make out to map the local area, just two angry red place markers falling off behind me. I threw on my coat to combat the cold and mute my sounds a bit, aiming towards a corner that would hopefully lead me back to a main street, where ambush was less likely.

I near slid to a stop around the next corner, the Ammarian inches away from me, slug thrower raised just below my shoulder level. A bad place for him, especially given the surprise registering on his face, he must not have expected me so soon. My body crouched, more by instinct than command, my right arm was leading around the corner, it popped up slam against the gun-holding fore arm, jarring the gun up and to the side, the bang of the gun rattled my eardrums, some kind of hasty suppressor reducing the crash of the high velocity slug to a bark.

The Amarrian, to his credit, did not wait to see if his shot had landed, his other hand was already in motion, heading towards a nasty looking knife concealed in the folds of his pants. It came up towards me with incredible speed. My left hand met his just above his wrist, denying his first thrust by redirecting it outwards, my right arm and hand pivoting to twist around his right, taking the gun out of the fight while I was able to stay inside his arm span.

My left hand balled and struck while his side was exposed, striking his exposed armpit before I came at him again, my fist connecting with the side of his face, sending him limply to the ground, his face bleeding, or possibly that was my knuckles. I realized I was still holding his gun arm, and relieved him of the gun, a smallish caliber pistol, well worn, with a improvised silencer attached to the end. The two other goons crested the turn behind me, winging barking shots off the wall next to us both. I ducked back, considering taking the Amarrian out of the fight, more permanently.

The two other goons took that option away from me by charging me in a show of sheer bravery. One that I ended with three shots, the first one, quiet, impacted in the ground next to goon one's boot. The next took goon two just below the sternum, dropping him mid run to the floor as the impact and exit of the bullet separated his spine from his body, tossing it all over the ground behind him. No body armor, I mentally noted, and moved on to my next shot. One that should have missed, but goon one, failing to continue his luck from the first shot, dove towards me. Firing his gun, like a bad holo-drama, as he flew through the air towards the ground. Not surprisingly, his shots missed by a wide margin. My third shot was headed for the ground, an easy miss if the goon hadn't dove towards it, bullet three met goon one's eyeball and exploded, with the bullet and remnants of his brain, out the back of his head. It was the kind of crazy thing that can only happen in a fight for life and death.

The Amarrian stirred at my feet and I have him a short, sharp kick to the side of his head for his trouble, reaching down to take the knife from his limp hand. My map resolved in my vision again, apparently the Amarrian hadn't gotten so much in front of me as I had run in a tight circle, taking two lefts, a right and then three lefts. I smirked, nearly as smart as some of the things I said to Usagi. It was time to see who, and why. The knife was deceptively sharp for it's size, I made sure to dull the blade on the wall while waiting for my visitor to wake. It also took about that long for my hands to stop trembling.

Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows (Part two)

2011-05-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

It always was a thrill sneaking through security, though basically perfect forgeries and identities were a dime a dozen for someone with the resources of a capsuleer, sneaking past a Federal ID checkpoint always served to pour in the adrenaline. One person ahead of me, a short, loud and rather foul smelling Intaki businessman chatted with the security as they read through his paperwork. Though corruption had fairly gutted most of the credibility of anyone on this planet but the federal guards, they were still serious. I moved up, my turn.

The fedralist stared at my ID and then back up to me, quiet as he regarded yet another minmatar worker staring down at him. He took his time checking my name against various warrants, known criminals, CONCORD pirates. I showed up in none, well, I guess I should say that my current ID showed up in none of the databases and I was shuttled through as just another traveller, a migrant worker even, my pod jacks hidden by the tall collars of my currently in fashion jacket. It was a small grace against the hot wind blowing in from outside, but a welcome distraction from any further questions.

I had taken more detours and shuttles than I could count. If it weren't for the small computer keeping track of my movements, I would have been lost by now. Instead after just short of 24 hours of travel, and 20 hours of sleep. I was inside the, well let's just call it, personal hell. At least it wouldn't be for much longer, if everything went to plan.

It had been a while since I last stepped foot planet side. Dust tickled my nose as I stepped outside, the planets 1.13g, more than what I was used to, but not uncomfortably so. To fit in a bit more I had removed the spikes from my forehead, dropping them off along the way, along with my other piercings. It was tough to fit in more than that, even on a Gallente world.

The first stop was to a small apartment I rented months prior, a change of clothes immersing me into the local culture. Tight leather greyish pants hugged my body closely, a red and white slashed t-shirt covered my chest, I slipped of my more simple sneakers in favor of heavier boots. I stopped by the mirror, chuckling at the image, briefly wondering what Usagi would think. Turning slightly, I think I knew. I waited for the flush of that thought to clear my cheeks before heading back out.

My usual mohawk somewhat subdued after hours of travel, drooping more from the heat in the air. Moving through the streets unnoticed was easy, even if people had been paying attention. Eyes down, minding my own business I easily escaped notice of the three Police just outside the hotel, not that anyone would have reason to expect any trouble. I certainly didn't. The lobby was nice enough, squalor by podder standards of course, a simple polished rock entry way, with a small bar to the left.

The bar was less than impressive, the heat in the bar some ten times that of the outside. Probably to let the men and women inside wear as little clothing as possible. The heat formed pinpricks of sweat on my forehead, joined quickly by the rest of my body. I brushed the sweat off my forehead irritably with the back of my hand, scanning the bar, heading to one of the tables in the back.

I had to weave through several throngs of dancing teens, the table I was headed to had five occupants already, a bit older than the rest of the crowd, but still unconsciously swaying to the beat of the music thrumming through the air.

They turned as I approached, one of their team holding a gun on me. I hoped they remembered me, or I would be off to a bad start.

Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows (Part one)

2011-05-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

I awoke slowly, the soft buzz of my alarm in the back of my ear, waking me and not my sleeping companion. Our naked bodies were twisted together, meeting in the most intimate of places. I looked down her back, noting with a satisfied grin the scratch marks on her back, my hand innocently cupping her hip, the sheets half covering us both.

I lay there for a moment, enjoying her so soft skin against mine. I willed my hand to slide down and squeeze her supple ass, her back arching, pressing against me as I did. I let out a quiet noise of approval, running, no, scratching, my fingertips up the curve of her ass before removing my hand from her.

I disengaged my body reluctantly from Usagi's, leaning down to kiss her neck as I withdrew, intentionally leaving the covers where they lay. The view was more than worth it. Picture worthy even, soft light pushing through the tinted window in my bedroom doing wonderful things to the curves of her body. Wonderful enough to consider getting back into bed and waking her, again, but the annoying, insistent inner ear drone of my alarm wouldn't let me. I turned to my closet, blindly reaching in for a pair of pants and shirt hanging there, my eyes unwilling to leave the sight on the bed for long. The cool shirt slid over my chest, over the red marks left by her fingers, on my back and covering the marks on my chest from her teeth, yes, it had been a good night.

There was a soft Napanii murmur behind me as I turned around, looking back at her, this time her eyes on me, and I couldn't tell if she was enjoying the show or sad to see me go, or both. Technically we were in my quarters, but I was still the one leaving. I pulled on my pants, grabbing finally for the jacket strewn on the floor, I took one last, long, glance over my shoulder and then stepped out. I had spent more of my time looking at Usagi then getting ready, and was already late.

------

The next four days would be critical, various cells were becoming impatient, and understandably so. I had set them up for years. Carefully plotted their hate and ambition to meet the needs of my cause instead of theirs. Taking each cell and placing them carefully at the throats of others. I took my seat on the small, inconspicuous shuttle for second time in as many weeks. Last week had just been observation, watching, testing, putting final things in play.

This weekend wasn't just going to be the opening rounds of this years Alliance Tournament, but the settling of a score long overdue. I leaned back into the seat, muttering about the overly long loading time, even though the loading time had saved me from missing the shuttle entirely. The flight times of the interbus shuttles would seem forever as opposed to flying myself, but I needed to be unnoticed. I closed my eyes, the image of Usagi on my bed appearing behind my eyelids, a small involintary grin appearing on my lips, her smoldering gaze looking up at me, it sent a pleasant, if sad shiver up my spine. My eyes snapped open when the hiss of the shuttle compressing met my ears.

I turned to the small window, watching the ship slide out of the TXW-EL station, headed towards Vestouve and Empire, a STUGH and then Veto. vagabond undocking in unison, their capsuleers blissfully unaware of our shuttle just to the side of them, the lean HACs twisting towards the 5-F gate. I turned away from the window, tucking my hand under my chin, willing the time to pass faster. Settling this score would be nice, but at this point, getting back might even be nicer.

AT9 Week 1 predictions

2011-05-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Thankfully after the initial blip of the banning rule, since outlawed, rules from last year have been largely unchanged, the main addition being the new qualifying rounds of 5v5 instead of 10v10. It will be interesting to see how many copycat setups from last year we will see come 10v10 time. First it's time for the new 5v5 rounds. 50 total points and a max of 5 pilots per side should speed things up and change the mechanics of each fight significantly.

Another interesting thing to note is the addition of pilots who flew with each other last year now being a part of different teams. GENOS spent some time in PL before breaking off in time to rejoin Hydra Reloaded and form a team there. PL will of course be fielding it's team from years past. Meanwhile, some members of GENOS left to join Goons and Rens911 to field their team.

The main contention will be if setups with don't use the 12 point Logistics cruiser in 5v5 will be outclassed by the ones who do. One on hand the Logi can deal out impressive reps, keeping things alive under all kind of DPS especially t2 ships, but using that 12 points elsewhere can significantly increase the punch of the ice ships you do have by allowing the addition of another DPS ship. T3's also seem, to me, to be very powerful here with their mix of EHP and DPS, and inherent strengths vs ewar offered in a smaller engagement. How many t3 setups will we be seeing, and of those how many will be anything other than the boring Tengu setups that I expect?

Only time will tell. Match pairings for the first weekend have been posted, and there are some oldies to the tourney as well as some newcomers, even some alt based alliances. It will be an interesting ride. Good luck to all.

Saturday 28th

15:00 White Noise. vs. Majesta Empire - White Noise wasn't in AT8, but I have high hopes for them this time. Majesta Empire did better than I expected last year, getting into the round of 32, before being put out of the tourney by The Wrong Alliance. They fielded solid setups, so it will be a tough call. I think White Noise. loses a close one here.

15:20 Outbreak vs. RvB - Blue Republic - Blue Republic is another newcomer but as a PvP focused and high-sec war focused Alliance I think they have a pretty strong group of pilots to pull from, I wonder if they will be able to show their skills here against a very good Outbreak team. Outbreak nor Blue were in at8, but Outbreak is a classy, solid, pvp organization. Their experience and sp will pull through here.

15:40 The R0NIN vs. Ushra'Khan - Both teams did well in at8, R0NIN advanced to the round of 16, Ushra dropped at the round of 32. It'll be a tough matchup, so we will go to the fittings and team setups they used from last year. Both teams fielded a Bhaal in their final match and lost. I can't argue with those kinds of risks, The R0NIN will edge out a win here.

16:00 GoonSwarm vs. Wildly Inappropriate - With Goons under new tourney management, I imagine, I'm betting they will be much improved, well able to handle WI. An easy choice.

16:20 Paisti Syndicate vs. Transmission Lost - LOST is a newcomer and look like a combination lowsec, 0.0 and WH alliance. They will be facing off against tourney regulars, the Paisti Syndicate. Last year the Paisti Syndicate lost to eventual AT winners PL in the round of 16, their minmatar-heavy setup failing to do any damage to the strong PL setup. That being said, they offed a few good teams on their route to that loss and will provide stiff to overwhelming competition for LOST.

16:40 Get Off My Lawn vs. Raiden. - LAWN, man I love these guys. They did let me down a few times last year, losing to The R0NIN and then being put out of the tourney by Dystopia alliance. Geeze! Raiden. wasn't an alliance last tourney, formed of some of the better ex-Bobbits, so I have high hopes for them this year. It'll be close but I'm going to root for LAWN!

17:00 Northern Coalition. vs. Bacon Fortress Gaming Syndicate - NCdot, Bacon, I just, don't, know, wtf, fail.

17:20 The G0dfathers vs. United Front Alliance - G0dfathers lost to CVA in the round of 32 last year, and have to still feel bad about that! Dirty role-players. United didn't participate last year, but are a large, Sov-holding NC alliance. I'll try not to hold that against either of them. G0d's is my guess.

18:20 Electric Monkey Overlords vs. Reverberation Project - I've never heard of Reverberation Project before, but looking at their KB, I'm honestly not impressed, at all, come on guys, they do have a good logo though. EMO has a great name and I went with them last year, so EMO again this year. I hope Mannar, Elarel, and Schoor are still treating them well.

18:40 Babylon 5.. vs. SOLAR FLEET - Bab wasn't in it last year, But SOLAR was, making it into the round of 32 before being put out by the Panda Team. They had a solid showing up until that point, and I will take them in this match.

19:00 B A N E vs. Corcoran State - I think the Corcoran state is a pretty solid lock for a loss here, just like when they lost their space in Geminate, oh snap! B A N E, minus all the spaces, are solid, low-sec pirates last time I bothered to look. In any case they should have little trouble with Corcoran.

19:20 Test Alliance Please Ignore vs. BricK sQuAD. - TEST vs "alliance veterans" BricK. It's a tough call here, Brick did well last year, but failed to make it into the final week after Cry Havoc easily crushed their Minmatar heavy setup with a Mach heavy setup. They won their first match handily, using a Tengu based setup to out spam the opposition. TEST has a chance to surprise early, but it will be against tough opposition. My money will rest with Brick in this early matchup.

19:40 Lack of Imagination vs. Atlas. - Lack seemed the poster-child of an alt alliance when I saw it's some 29 members and 3 corps, but I did some further investigation, and they do include the more or less active hellsrejects, so perhaps they will have some combat pilots. It's going to take a lot for them to be able to fight against the talent that Atlas can bring to bear.

20:00 Rote Kapelle vs. Black Legion - I privately envy their Muninn based fleets in 0.0, almost worth giving a copy-fleet a chance! Maybe sometime after we win! GL Black Legion, love your killboard.

20:20 POWER OF TWO vs. Smacked Alliance - Smacked Alliance seems to be mostly lowest and WH space, but look pretty good, some of their members filing up 60+ kills a week. POWER on the other hand is a solid Russian based corp, I believe they have some good pilots but I am not sure. It's a tough call. I'm not sure who will win this one but I'll go with Smacked Alliance.

20:40 Unaffiliated vs. Legion of the Damned - Unaffiliated, long time residents and irritants in Syndicate are solid PvPers, but that hasn't translated into success in the AT's. I predict more of the same for the poor folks of U, with the newcomers, Legion of the Damned taking the win to close out day 1.

Sunday 29th

15:00 RvB - Red Federation vs. Perihelion Alliance - The other half of red vs blue, the red fed show up here. Similar detractors and to the blue fed. They face tough opposition in Perihelion alliance. They stood out to me last year, facing touch competition in AAA and MM. Though they lost to both, their matches came down to the very close end. They fielded solid setups both times and had poor luck against what they faced. Experience will be key here.

15:20 The Obsidian Front vs. Capital Punishment - Looks like these guys have met in space before. Though only briefly and more of a gank than a fight. My money is begrudgingly on Cap Punishment, especially if they have Maraner as one of their FC's.

15:40 Negative Ten vs. The SPACE POLICE - Another tough fight to predict. Both were in at8 and had some rough opponents, all pre-requirements to doing better this year. This will definitely be a test of wills, I'll say Negative Ten, they didn't field any Drakes or Tengu's last year though their cane, rupture setup didn't quite get them through.

16:00 Curatores Veritatis Alliance vs. The Conglomeration of Ill Advised Ideas - Ill Advised Idea's. Hmmmm, I haven't heard of them before, and by the look of their 6 sub 10 member corps, they are either another alt alliance OR a small group who doesn't PvP much. I'll say alt alliance. CVA should walk through this one.

16:20 Mos Vape Heavy Industries vs. The Kadeshi - The Kadeshi split their matches last year, not quite qualifying for the finals. Mos Vape on the other hand chose to send one of their members off in style their second match, deploying hull tanking Mega Navy Issues. Mos also lost their first match, though it was closer than their second. My vote is with the Kadeshi for this match.

16:40 The Star Fraction vs. Intrepid Crossing - While -SF- might at one point have won this matchup, or at least be expected to put on a good show, after last years disappointing, to say the least, performance, I just can't back them. Intrepid Crossing on the other hand, made good their first round loss last year with a solid second round victory mainly focused around Tengu/Drake and rook setups, both times. That's the problem with ECM setups, sometimes you win with ease, and others not so much!

17:00 Morsus Mihi vs. Vanguard Imperium - The Khanid role-players have a tough matchup in the first round vs Morsus Mihi who have managed to do very well in the past. Vanguard is part of the NC I believe and have fought hard for their space, but I doubt that will do much to stop MM. It will be a close fight.

17:20 Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive vs. Nulli Secunda - I-RED moved out to Syndicate a bit ago, but I haven't had any direct experience with them so far. This HAS to mean they fail at PvP! I-RED's new to the tourney this year. Matching up favorably against them is nulli, 0.0 sov holders around delve, also tourney newcomers this year. I have to lean towards Nulli given some of I-RED's losses.

18:20 Aggravated Assault vs. Sev3rance - Aggravated must be unhappy that CCP decided to spell their name wrong, for that slight I think they have the power to sever Sev. All things being equal, Aggravated Assault are relatively small, but operate in 0.0 with 126 members. Sev lives in Vale and PB, with about 821 members. Neither of them were in last years tourney, so I will go with the unknown here. Aggravated Assault all the way!

18:40 RAZOR Alliance vs. Clockwork Pineapple - I'd love to see Clockwork work over RAZOR here but both are very competent so it will be a close fight. GROON wasn't the last at, but RAZOR was. It's a tough choice because the RAZOR team was rather, err sharp, in it's matches. My vote is with my Syndicate brethren, Clockwork Pineapple!

19:00 Adeptus Arbetus vs. Against All Authorities - AAA without a doubt on this one, still remember our epic battle with them last year, unless those people have moved on, I actually have no idea. Some Adeptus research, they weren't in at8, and seem to be a steadily growing alliance looking to solidify their name in AT9, after some trouble with -SF- and their freestation in Providence. It will be a tough match for their entry into AT9, I think AAA will be up to the task.

19:20 Important Internet Spaceship League vs. Chain of Chaos - IISL made it to the round of 32 last year before being put out by Atlas alliance. Their setups were solid, if a little light on numbers, all the way through their final loss coming after dispatching the 14 billion isk Flagship Bhaalgorn of Atlas. Chain aka NAWTI is a stead pirate alliance in and around Eve's lowsec, facing up against IISL will be a challenge though they have met in the past, distant past. NAWTI has a well deserved reputation as fighters and will look to extend that reputation on IISL. It will be a close match, but I think IISL has the slight edge heading in.

19:40 Ignore This. vs. Dead on Arrival - Ignore This. is a newcomer to the AT, their alliance centered around a single corp but their kill-board looks above average, so there might be some home for them. They have been operating in Fountain with G0d's against TEST and IISL, killing more than a few caps last week alone. I'm not sure what that has to do with the tourney, but there you have it. Dead on arrival on the other hand looks to be a WH corp that goes around and kills people, in the face. Oh wait, they just want to kill people, but don't actually get that many kills? Their killboard leaders have about 47 kills... I'm not sure they are going to have what it takes to face off against the pilots of Ignore This. but test server time could prove me wrong.

20:00 Wild Boars vs. Controlled Chaos - Man, I don't know about this one. Both of their killboards look pretty good, Controlled Chaos is a sov holding alliance, in Pure Blind and Tribute, while Wild Boars look to be a 0.0 PvP alliance basing out of Tribute. It'll be a close fight for sure, but I think Controlled Chaos will come out on top.

20:20 Waterboard vs. Circle-of-Two - Circle of Two put in some great fights last year, winning their first three matches and making it to the round of 16. I'm happy to see them in again this year, their matches were well executed with strong setups. Oh, did I mention they flew Freki's in the last tourney? Yeah, and lost 2 of them in their match against Voltron that put them out of the tourney. Now that takes some balls. I hope to see more of the same this year. Waterboard on the other hand, seem to operate out of NC space, holding a small pocket of sov up there. I just don't see Circle being slowed down here.

20:40 The Initiative vs. Dark Taboo - Well anyone who password protect their killboard have to be bitches, see CVA. Taboo claim to have sov, but Dotlan says they don't so my guess is renters somewhere either North or South, they also claim to be "the balance between being too big and too small." Their recruitment, or rather intro page is more like a litany of bad cliche's. 700ish members and 30+ corps, doesn't look that good. Thus The initiative look even better than usual in this matchup. Init boasts some strong corps like Evol as well as DRUCKWELLE Evolution. Last at nither of them too part, because of that the match will be closer than it should be but Init will still walk through this one.

The right height.

2011-05-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

The past couple days had gone by in a grumpy haze. I had gone out in fleets, or at least tried too, but not even that had eased my mood. Despite the bomber kill I got while trying to stir up trouble.

I sighed, staring into the terminal screen, noting that I would once again not be able to make it to the Friday night fleet, one I had hoped to make this week, and not just because I had promised Cass my guardian. I wish I had another glass to throw.

I stood and stepped out of my bedroom, making my way over to my well stocked bar. Well, kitchen I suppose it was called, not that I bothered cooking all that often anymore. I pushed around some bottles, mentally shutting down the nanites that swarmed my blood usually, keeping me from getting drunk, sick, drugged, or otherwise killed and took a long pull from a older, half full bottle of tequila. The stuff always got me into trouble.

It burned all the way down to the pit of my stomach, as did the second and third gulps. I took a deep breath and turned, placing my hands on the island sat in the middle of my kitchen, looking out the window into TXW. I just couldn't keep my mind from wandering, stood there for some time, staring out into space but seeing anything but. Everyone's got their own demons, women always happened to be mine.

Idly I reached back to the bottle of tequila lifting it to my lips a few more times, the warm feeling spreading from my stomach down my arms and legs. Whispered thoughts and ideas coming into clarity and then action. I primped a bit before leaving, clean shirt, pants, hair more organized than usual, adding a little more cologne to cover the smell of the tequila I could feel in my veins.

I checked the clock, 0225, she was notorious for showing up to fleets, in pod, ready to go, very early. It would be hard to explain to her she needed to come out of her pod for them to speak. I checked the pilot status board, she was still in her quarters.

I won't say my pace was calm and unhurried, but I somehow managed to avoid looking like a fool at a dead run to the spot I had planned for my ambush. It was nearly unavoidable, between her quarters and her ships, hopefully the right spot.

My back pressed up against the cool steel of the hallways to the pilots quarters in TXW, I nodded to other passing pilots and crew as they headed to their hangars, readying for tonights fleet. I'm just waiting here, trying to look like part of the wall. Waiting for her to walk by.

I had time to reflect on what exactly brought me here.

I'm tired of waiting to see if she just wants to flirt with me and tease me, or something, anything else. I sigh sadly, my stomach dropping a bit as I try not to think about that too much. The liquid courage running through my body will only work as long as I don't think about that.

Subtle movement out of the corner of my eye as she turns the corner and sees me, thankfully alone. I don't give anything, but recognition, time to pass through her features before one of my long arms slides around her waist, pulling her towards me as I twist my body around, pushing her gently, but firmly against the wall. I've made sure not to box her in but to escape my grasp she has to head back the way she came, or pass all the way around me. Her eyes flashed hotly, I didn't stop.

I leaned down, kissing up her neck, towards her ear. My hand slid down her narrow waist and over the flair of her hip, moving around to cup and lift her ass towards me suggestively. Thus forcing her body to arch towards mine. I leaned towards, my lips just barely grazing her ear, my words so soft, they don't carry past her ear "I think you should be headed towards my quarters after this fleet, of sex."

I release her ass, lowering her off her toes. Disengaging myself from her and slide around the corner, heading the long route, back to my quarters. It takes all my willpower not to look back at that corner. I turn the first corner away and realize I hadn't been breathing, my mouth popping open, gulping down lungfuls of semi-stale station air.

-----

I kept the alliance kills list open on my terminal as I work, watching minutes roll by without any significant action, judging my chances tonight by the billboard. It looks bleak for a long while, until reports of battle filter down into the kill table, she's killed 3 ships more or less on her own, the fleet is on it's way back to the station. I get a chill that runs down to my toes, half excitement, half pure dread. I shove it all back in my mind, headed for the shower.

Barely free from the shower, but dry at least, I slide on my pants, proxy alarms beeping somewhere deep in my eardrum, someone was approaching my door. I pull my shoes on, leaving them untied, hopeful I know. Just reaching for a shirt as the main "someone's at your door" buzz slides through my rooms. A single quick glance at the monitor confirmed it was her, alone.

Pulling my shirt over my head was never elegant, the three spikes planted there made sure of that. I managed with a minimum of hassle even while narrowly avoiding tripping, sliding the hallway door closed. The door opened to reveal Usagi, I could have stopped myself, but didn't want to, needing a quick mental picture of her standing there in my door. It ended up not being a quick mental picture, my eyes moving down her body. Regaining some sense took a few seconds, but I stood to the side, "glad you could make it gorgeous, please come in."

'Charming,' I said to myself, hiding my self grimace as she stepped in. She looked around before turning to face me, her back to the island in the middle of his kitchen. The position made me think of how much easier it would be if he just forced her over that counter, it looked the right height. Her voice, slightly higher pitched met my ears. "Was glad you asked me to come." Probably choking back laughter. Most capsuleers would be laughing at the small space, but it was all he needed, here at least.

The door slid closed, unnoticed, behind them, the same metallic rumble whisking the door closed. I smiled, feeling my cheeks heat up a bit, remembering. "I'm not sure 'asked' is the right word to use, but I needed to do something, short of stewing in here for another night." Her eyes had caught mine and I found it suddenly difficult to talk. I had learnt from last time this happened and just kept my mouth shut for a moment.

I broke the silence, "may I get you anything?" Me perhaps? My arm saved me indicating the stash of booze behind me. Though I wasn't sure if it was indicating the booze or just re-emphasizing that I was included in the anything.

It seemed she had gotten her laughter under control now, mostly, her voice had returned to normal. "Whatever you're having is fine." Her eyes moved off mine to look at the stash behind me, I thought I caught a twinkle in them as she looked at all the booze. My free hand slid around hers, my body requiring that I touch her, make sure this is all real. How she wasn't slammed up against the island already was a mystery, I was barely holding that part of myself together.

I blurted out, "you look great." pulling her closer as I said that, my right fingertips tracing up her side, having to go some distance before finding a shirt under her jacket. My eyes held her gaze, the distraction of her skin carried the pause on uncomfortably.

Simply Casanova, I was, more like how was she still even here. I realized I didn't have any glasses, umm, on-hand. "I uh, don't exactly have a" moron "glass right now…" A nervous laugh spilled out of my lips. "I hope something out of the bottle is okay?" M-O-R-O-N. I forced myself to shut up internally.

She blushed, likely from embarrassment, of me, but her smile still made my knee's a little shaky. "Bottle is fine, thank you. I…"

You are still an idiot… SHUT UP! Ahem.

"I probably have some extra glasses I could give you…." she trailed off looking up at me and then down to my hand around hers. "…assuming you need them…" I stepped closer to her, her soft, clean scent hitting my nostrils memorably, "No, I'm sure I'll eventually get around to buying more, they much such a satisfying crash when thrown properly too."

It hit me just then, I was a complete ass, and rambling, I apologized, and offered her a seat. Graciously she replied "It's okay, I enjoy listening." I knew that meant she didn't need for me to continue.

"I have the couch there, and the table if you prefer?" I smiled, "I'll sit on the table." Where was that bravado I had just a few hours ago? Damn tequila. I grabbed two bottles from behind me, watching her move away, her body moving with the soft grace that belies speed. I stripped my eyes from her swaying ass, and looked at the two bottles that had won by default.

"It would be rude of me to take your seat." I looked up and she stood next to the couch, a private smile on her face. I reply with "Umm, Tequila and Vodka." I slide into my couch, towards the middle, reaching up to grab the front of her pants, twisting her into my lap, for the most part, her ass on one of my thighs, her face just inches from mine.

Her being that close, that sweet smell, the warmth of her body, my hands went white around the bottles, my other arm providing a sort-of back rest for her. I resisted tearing at her like a animal, turning all that desire into a grin, looking up into her beautiful blue eyes. Mumbling something about her choice of seating, I just stared into her eyes. She took the Vodka bottle, placing it on the table next to us before sliding herself out of her jacket. Leaning down to show off her lower back tattoo, bluish-black it resembled the Gurista's design, with a Usagi touch to it. That detail added to the mental images didn't help, one bit.

I looked down, stuck with the Tequila bottle… shit. "You would leave me with the tequila bottle, stuff gets me in trouble." So far, this time it had been good trouble, I popped open the top with one hand. "Enjoy the trouble you bring upon yourself!" A little toast to lighten the mood, right? I meant to take a quick gulp, but found my mouth inundated with tequila, forced now, I was swallowing quickly, the tequila fire spread down my back, a hot shiver following the liquid.

Usagi took a large pull off the Vodka bottle, grinning as she took it easily. "Terrible." Looking back down her body I notice her short tank top, showing off her stomach, my free hand, curing around her back to run fingertips over her stomach. I looked back over to her, lust rising, quipping back, "yes it looks terrible," I acted as if I was going to stand, not that I could, for more than one reason. "Should I get you something else?..."

Usagi leveraged her hips and arms, pushing me back against the couch, her voice all at once an authoritative, undeniably seductive and emphatic no. I couldn't have stood after that, and didn't want to. My fingers, on the damned soft, smooth skin of her back, tracing small patterns. Fingers spanning and contracting on her low back. Just touching her made me shiver, "I think that's the first smart thing either of us has said all night." I joked, before taking another long pull from the tequila to hide my self-satisfied grin.

She took another drink, as if winding up for something big, tossing the vodka bottle back on the table, sliding around me quickly, hotly, her legs to either side of mine now, hand wrapping around… the tequila bottle, taking a swig from it as well, before placing it behind her on the table as well. Her hips groung into into mine, biting my lower lip was the only prevention from groaning out loud.

I released my lip just as she leaned down and kissed me, her body pressing into mine in JUST the right way, her lips parting a bit, teasingly letting me taste the vodka and tequila on her lips. It was the first time she'd kissed my lips, the electricity was definitely there. My mind moved towards the off position, my hands sliding down her legs, I could feel the blood thumping past my ears, barely picking up her words. "What do you want?" It was said in the same tone as her no, shaking me and my mind back to 'on.'

I fumbled around a bit, trying to come up with something other than the mono-syllabic, though true, response of 'you.' I went with "I think I've made that pretty clear? I want to see if you and I are…" compatible, no, umm, right? No. Meant for each other, how melodramatic can I be? NO. "More." I hope if someone was writing a story about this they would put a period after that word, and not the question mark it felt like.

Her hands guided mine higher on her body, up her firm thighs, hips and flat, taunt stomach, sliding my large hands over her chest, strands of her red hair falling out of her pony tail, and over her face. "Are we?" She asked, while working me like a master. My vision had just clouded over, lust bubbling up and over, I tried to say something, anything, my mouth worked, then, later actual words came out.

"If this is come kind of new torture technique please only ever use it on me." I panted those words out like a first timer. At this time I would tell this woman the truth of anything she asked. "I mean, if we weren't, would we be here?" I threw out the words, desperate.

My hands spanned her chest, teasing her back, trying to force her mind down to his primal level. It failed, she sighed softly, talking as she turned away, her hips still firmly on mine, warm body pressed up against me. "This means nothing. Sex is just sex. I want to do that with you, but also…" her voice broke a bit, moisture forming in her lidded eyes.

"Once we start down one path, we can't ever go to the other." Slid my hand around the back of her head, turning her back to face me, the back of her head was still slightly wet, red hair tangling in my fingers. I told the truth, "I think we both know, and want, this to be more than sex, or we would have had at it days ago and not looked back. Instead I find myself brooding in here, breaking my only glass because I just assumed you'd show up." For me, I left out. "Tripping over myself like a moron I may add."

She turned like a cat in my lap, looking down at me, directly into me. "Can you love me?" There it was, I had left off the jealous part of me stalking back into The Last Gate trying to find out if she had left with Morgane that night and not me. I wasn't sure. When ever are you? Shut up, I dove in.

"Only if you'll let me." I stopped looking at her eyes, expecting the worst. By the time I looked back up her eyes were closed. She mouthed something, maybe 'thank you.' She leaned back down to me, her lips finding mine, this kiss slamming my brain fully into the 'off' position, and everything else to on. I hardly let her pull back enough to tug her shirt off. Mine didn't last much longer. nor in one piece.

Let me say; the counter, it was the right height.

=================

Usagi's Blog

A Bittersweet Date

2011-05-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

The door slid closed behind me, rustling slightly against the metal around it, otherwise, quiet. Sadly so. I took a few steps into the room before grabbing the nearest thing that could break. The blossom of glass against the steel wall made me smile until I realized I had just destroyed the only glass in the room. Not sure if I was mad because there was nothing else to break, or because I had nothing else to pour my whiskey into.

Ah well, the whiskey bottle fit in my hand well enough, the cap didn't explode nearly as nicely as the glass had. I contemplated shooting it as the liquid slid over my tongue, taking some of the sting off the day, but not all. I sunk into a chair, glumly staring out at my hangar bay.

The past few weeks I had been spending more and then more time around Usagi. At first, admittedly, it had just been nice to have someone to talk to. Though usually our conversations started and ended in abrupt, strange ways. I didn't mind, after all, while the company was nice, the scenery was better.

We had made plans to celebrate VETO arriving in TXW, well once alliance command allowed us to. One of their few restrictions had been to gag us on their arrival until they had all made it. I had cornered Usagi into coming down to The Last Gate with me, but we had both missed out on Saturday night.

By the time Tuesday rolled around I had recouped enough courage to ask again. I met her, walking up to her quarters as she was leaving. My eyes move over her body as she walked towards me, a purposeful gleam in her eyes, alongside a small lack of focus.

We walked in silence until we arrived at TLG, I was just trying to stay confident and not stumble in front of her, or worse, into her, at this point.

I headed to the bar for some more liquid courage, with Usagi just behind me. I took a whiskey, but Usagi, already several ahead of me, it seemed, took something stronger. I turned to see Raxip approaching from further down the bar, his usual pint in hand. I felt, more than saw, Usagi slide into a seat next to me, downing yet another shot. Raxip and I made some small talk that I honestly can't remember clearly, I was busy trying to watch Usagi as she bent over the bar for each of her shots. Something about fleeting with me more often, it had been a while since we last flew together.

Raxip took the initiative to introduce himself to Usagi, while she took the chance to take a verbal jab at me, in reference to fleeting with me. "I dunno. He hides a lot. I've been looking for him for weeks."

I stopped a bit short of choking on my whiskey, throwing out the first thing that came to mind as she shook Raxip's hand. "Only been hiding from you, perhaps you've been spending too much time in your quarters again." I threw back at her, only semi-defensively.

I couldn't tell if her flirtatious grin was aimed at me or Raxip, my eyes narrowing as pessimism took hold. Chuckling in spite of myself with her reply; "That is where all the fun is, you know."

I took the chance to trace her body slowly with my eyes, drawing out my reply. "Then why haven't you granted me access yet?" A strange look passed over her face at that second, one I wish I could have examined in closer detail, in private. Raxip took this chance to throw in some question about Rote that drug my eyes off Usagi, though not for long.

I took Usagi's own advice and went back to work on her, tugging her to my side, so I could lean over and smell one of the shots she was taking, not to mention tonguing. The smell from the empty shot was enough to clear my sinuses, and my head for a few seconds.

"So, you two…? Or still trying Logan?" Raxip queried, 'innocently.' I glanced over at him, trying to determine the path of his question, finding it harmless, I quipped back, "she acts all flirty here, but I'm still trying, sadly." The sadly part came out a bit louder than I had meant it to, as I thought it was more a note to myself then for public consumption. Her glass, semi full again passed under my nose, again, clearing it. "Good lord…"

Raxip waved over at a newcomer, someone I could not quite see, but made Usagi give a rather loud, to my ears at least, near drooling. "Oh wow." I thought if it caught her attention it would be worth a look and glanced over catching a quick glance that was worth an unspoken wow.

Usagi turned towards me then, chiding that she came here with me for a reason. I was starting to not be so sure, but the soft touch of her lips on my forehead, somehow deftly avoiding the implanted spikes placed there sent a lascivious shiver down my spine, and tightened my hand on her side briefly.

I tried to recover quickly, "my lips are a little lower hun." My hand releasing her side and reaching down to smack her ass playfully, and I admit, possessively. My hand stayed there for the rest of the night, mostly motionless, mostly. I was overtly pleased with my 'tactful' introduction of my hand on her ass.

Usagi was clearly taken by the newcomer, who introduced herself as Morgane Lysander. Usagi was barely holding back her drool, I had to admit that Morgane was quite attractive. I pulled Usagi into my lap, reminding her that I was here with her. She seemed more than willing, sliding down into his lap. It felt… comfortable, and I left my hand on her rear.

I spent the next few minutes trading verbal barbs with Usagi, attempting to keep her interested in me, and not wholly focused on Morgane, while talking to Raxip as well as Morgane. I couldn't tell if Raxip was trying to divert my attention or gain Usagi's, but Usagi was of no help. One second readjusting herself provocatively on my lap, making the hair on the back of my neck stand straight, then seconds later, going so far as to flash Raxip a few seductive smiles. Smiles that should have been meant for me.

Raxip decided to turn his attention towards trying to distract me from Usagi, amidst a conversation about Raxip's dancing prowess he sprung the invitation to dance before their next joint fleet we both made it to. It would have to be a date! Besides, that fleet would have to be lucky with that kind of ceremony before hand.

An annoying beep sounded deep inside my ear, requiring my attention, I could stay no longer. While the beeping grew slowly in intensity, and irritation. Still I waited, taking the time to enjoy the feel of Usagi placed in my lap. When I could wait no longer, I carefully lifted her from my lap, standing behind her for a moment. Holding in the conversation for just a moment longer, hinting to Usagi she would be welcome to intrude into my quarters, trying to make it as obvious as I could.

I leaned down, kissing her on the neck, my mouth open a little bit, tongue flicking out to take a small taste of her skin before giving her a playful bite on the side of her neck. Her hand slid down my arm as I stepped away, giving the brief impression that she wished I wasn't leaving. It was little more than brief as she gave a curt, polite wave goodbye, refocusing on Morgane.

I stepped between the two, shaking Morgane's hand before moving towards Raxip, scooping him up in my arms for a tight hug, getting him back for a similar act weeks ago, pulling back with a grin, just in time for him to plant one on me, clearly winning the exchange.

I could do nothing but laugh, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, taking one last look back at Usagi, then over to Morgane, then back to Usagi, wondering if by leaving I had just lost a chance, to be dropped off at the hands of Morgane. As I walked out, I hoped not.

Several hours had passed since then, my matters resolved, door closed, alone. I twisted in my seat, the whiskey bottle mostly gone now, drank in silence, I headed for my computer, quickly pulling up the allowed access list, removing the second ID, character by character. I turned for the bedroom, but didn't make it, tripping over my own, uncooperative feet, landing squarely on my face. I snorted once, maybe I am a lightweight, then closed my eyes.

---------((OOC bar is OOC))--------

The Last Gate - Usagi's take.

It's interesting how two people can do the same thing, see the same thing but still see it completely differently.

The Art of the Defeating the Slingshot (The Art of Part 4)

2011-05-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Your target, hapless at 21 KM's from you as your DPS of choice pounds him down. There seems to be no escape for this poor, fat, slow ship. It turns away, burning to escape, MWD active, pulling range quickly as his speed shoots up to MWD levels, passing 23KM you act quickly, turning towards your running target, thinking there's no way you'll let this kill get away!

5 minutes and a loss later you realize you have just been the victim of the slingshot, pulled into range and killed by your "easy" kill. Shame burns your ears as your pod warps away.

How could this have been avoided?

Avoiding the Slingshot, while maintaining tackle and getting that kill, is more difficult than it sounds. For those who have read my previous post about the Slingshot, you might have already come up with a few good idea's.

Basically the idea is to stay outside of overheated web/Scram range, even at the cost of losing your point and the target getting away. Of course that is less than ideal, so we'll try to avoid that.

The first of course is knowledge of what your opponents ship is capable of. Know, roughly, what it's top speed should be, and plan accordingly. For instance when he starts burning away, know how much speed you need to catch up to him and don't fly after him at full speed, instead match his speed to maintain your range, so when he tries to turn back into your path you can easily avoid it and just use that chance to pump more rounds into their ship as they pass 0 transversal.

One automated tactic is to use the "keep at range" button. When he starts burning fast away from you, use your MWD and keep at 18-26km. This should automate keeping you at range outside his scram and web range.

Knowing overheated ranges of various scrams and webs is also a good idea. Rapiers/Huginn and Arazu/Lach non-withstanding, here are some of those ranges broken down.

Type Range Overheated With gang boost Loki(and overheated)
Warp Scrambler I 7.5km 9km 10.7km (12.5km)
Faint Epsilon 9km 10.8km 12.8km (15km)
Warp Scrambler II 9km 10.8km 12.8km (15km)
TS/Domination scram 11.5km 13.5km 16km (18.8km)
Stasis Web I-II 10km 13km 14.2km (17.9km)
TS/Domination web 15km 19.5km 21.3km (26.9km)

If you really want to be depressed, look at similar numbers for ships like the Bhaalgorn, with a Loki. How about you just avoid those, without backup, okay?

Usually under a web, you can still get away or at least try to get into warp before the scramble lands, but to be safe, 18-26km distance is usually good, or close to your max point range while he tries to snag you with this move. Though this is inside of heavy neut range, to be safe from neuts you should fit a faction point and stay outside of 28/29km of every battleship we suspect have faction neuts, or 24km for best named heavy neuts. Anyways, fat chance of staying clear of those every time.

Always have range and speed on your overview, but keep your eye especially on range, both to stay inside point range, and outside their scram/web range.

Manual piloting really helps here, instead of using "keep at", instead point your ship at a point that will only pass at the nearest 18km from the ship you are closing on, and update your heading as they spin towards you, manually keeping your distance from them. Of course this takes just a little practice to be able to eyeball or use the tactical overlay a good approach angle, but it is much more reliable in keeping you out of trouble than any other method.

Previous Art of's

Art of the Slingshot

Art of the Vagabond

Art of the Rifter

EBB #26 : Beauty is destruction.

2011-04-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

This month's topic was proposed by @KatiaSae of the much praised "To Boldly Go" blog. Katia asks: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As an astrophotographer, I've found it in the stars and planets of New Eden. Where have you found it? Perhaps you've found beauty in the ships we fly? Maybe it's the sight of profits being added to your bottom line? Or maybe it's the pilot portraits you see in the comm channels? Where ever you've found it, write about it and post an image." Don't be afraid go beyond the simple visual aspects of EVE as well. Is the EVE Community in itself a thing of beauty? What makes EVE the game, the world, the Community, so appealing to you?

As is usual for me, my enjoyment of Eve started as finding my way in the game, learning new things to do, skilling into new ships, learning and mastering new and innovative ways to kill, and fight my way through it. Soon enough I started to find just as much enjoyment out of the friendships and corp banter, at least in good corps. Around that point I had already made it past the toughest parts of the learning curve, had two accounts, fought in both major 0.0 wars and minor ones. Roamed with Pirates and anti-pirates, and everything between. PvE and PvP.

Somewhere along the line I found that combat in Eve is what drove me to play the game. Not the massive fights, but the good, small ones, where individual pilot skill, ship fittings and guile played a larger part in the fights. Perfect comms during a fight became beautiful, looking back at battles and trying hard to find fault with how I or my gangmates flew. Frapsing the battle and enjoying the replay, watching the beauty of the battle, ships dancing around one another, explosions, the quiet intensity in every command. Expectations of each fight, individually being better each time, and every fight it's own flower.

It was along this road that I found groups of like-minded people, and that had it's own beauty. It's not that Eve is, in it setting, beautiful, it IS the dark place its supposed to be. What everyone does with that back-drop that makes the explosions on screen all that much more pretty. Everyone is actively trying to think out of the box. One of my favorite quotes from eve is, "This is Eve, if you aren't actively trying to inconvenience someone, in some way, You've got a lot of catching up to do."

Even when I'm taking a small break or without enough time to play as much as I want to, I can still look back and watch some PvP video's to get my fix of explosions and re-kindle the beauty I find in each.

Other banter's :

The Art of the Slingshot (The Art of part 3)

2011-04-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of the most useful tools when solo or in a small group and engaging one or a few nano-type ships, like the Vagabond/Cynabal or even some battle cruisers, is the Slingshot.

NO! Not this kind of slingshot!

The situation is this, you in your slower, heavier, scram/web fitted ship is being effectively kited by a faster kiting opponent. You can't catch them, and can't bring them into a fight at your range. If you are caught off a gate, or in a belt, your chance at catching them is nil, and all that is left is a long, slow death, begging for help. Help yourself by learning and effectively using the slingshot. Bring them into engagement range and allow your heavier weapons to tell, heavier tank to shrug off their damage while you crush them.

Once engaged by your unsuspecting target (he's busy thinking you're his kill) the first thing he will do if he's a good pilot is try to pull parallel with you, to match heading and staying at your side, working to prevent this exact maneuver, usually somewhere between 16-24 KM from your ship. First thing is first, get him in the right position for the slingshot. Turn directly away from him, and as your stern(ass) spins around to face him(mooning him), you activate your MWD, as if you are attempting to escape. Pull range like mad, as if trying to escaping, heading for 26+ km, or 30+ if he has a faction point. It may be a good idea to try to align towards something you can warp out to just in case you do get out of point range and want to bail quickly before he recovers point.

Now with him "behind" and your MWD helping you extend the range from him, he will turn as well, trying to bring you back to his kiting range of 18-24 km. To close the distance faster he'll light off his MWD, this is where having velocity on your overview pays off. Wait for him to build some speed/inertia with the MWD or AB. Usually this is somewhere between 900-1200+m/s, or enough speed to start closing the distance between you and him, the deeper he "bites" the better luck you will have catching him at the end of this maneuver. Use a little judgement and at the right time, when he's committed to closing range, that is when you control-space to kill your forward boost, but leave your MWD active, waiting for your speed bar to drop just below the 3/4 tick mark on your HUD, giving your ship the best chance at a fast rate of turn. Repeatedly click approach target towards him, leaving your MWD active.

Now you are turning towards him and he is still burning towards you, the range between you should be dropping quickly, faster as you gain speed towards him. The easy way is to continue to mash the approach button, but this is not the best way, there is a chance he will correct and the wasted time you try to go directly at him let's him escape. The harder way it's going to take some practice. Try to eyeball where his path is going to take him in space and where you can be to bring him to a Closest point of Advance, then aiming for where he is now. You just need that CPA to be inside of your scram/web range so 11-14km.... Now don't forget to overheat your MWD/Scram/Web for extra speed and extra range on your tackle. Once he slings himself inside of your scram web range, apply DPS and tackle, don't let him out... Alive.

If you miss the first time, try try again, until either you die or he does, or you escape.

Another pro-tip is that most people don't think very well in 3-d space, but it's difficult to describe what I am talking about so I will do my best. Generally if you are on the same "plane" as the nano pilot, he has a better chance of avoiding your slingshot because distance is easier marked that way. Try the same maneuver with a slight angle added. Force him to be behind you but above the plane you are currently taking away from him, or even below you as most pilots always like to be above their targets in the game, force them to feel more agressive. If they are thinking, "oh no, you aren't getting away from me." You are already close to success. To put it simply humans, in general, are more likely to mis-judge the distance when operating with angles to the target as well as range.

Executing this tactic successfully can net you some nice kills in ships that should never be able to land tackle on, or up-engage faster, light, nano-ships. I won't even try to count how many times I have seen his in PvP video's where the Ferox catches the Vagabond. Or the Abaddon catches the BC. When I re-find video's where you can clearly see this happening I will post them.

Example Video's for the slingshot

Endless Subversion's Mind Game or Direct download

Prom's Friggank series, can be found in this handy FHC link

Followers abound and breaking most visits in a day

2011-04-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

So I promised myself mostly that when I hit 30 followers I would say something about it. I was looking through those who follow my blog and found many people who's blog I read on a consistant basis,

Sard Caid - Who's blog was the first I read, and got me into the idea of blogging, while he was playing around as a part of Rote Kapelle. Still a good read even though it's rarely updated. Also introduced me to Flashfresh's blog, the Blog pack, Raxip Elamp's blog and many others.

Raxip Elamp - as mentioned above he was one of the first blogs I read and damned if not entertaining. Raxip and I share a "special" relationship of undisclosed status (even to us). Now go write some more of your fiction!

Flashfresh - Another early read, keeping me entertained for quite a long time, another great read.

Rixx Javix - Of course someone I consider a friend, and the artist/writer of Eveoganda, recently added to the ranks of Rote Kapelle, of course enjoying his corps trial period!

Lady Shaniqua - She writes a very entertaining blog over at http://ladyshaniqua.blogspot.com/. I follow her exploits with an interest that can only be categorized as stalker-ish.

Cebit - Who's good looks (and nice kills) keep me coming back to his blog, http://cebit.evepress.com/

Shalee Lianne - Writes two blogs, one IC and one OOC(but eve related for those who aren't lolrpers), incidentally she needs to get back into updating both her blogs =P http://shaleelianneirl.blogspot.com/ and http://amarrian.blogspot.com/

Eve SOB - Found his blog on one of my lazy days passing through the eve blog lists over at http://www.evebloggers.com/ and haven't been able to give it up since. He's even got a pet name for me that makes me sound even more overweight than I already am... BBW. Great blog, keep it up.

Arrhidaeus - Blogs on http://antiquityinspace.blogspot.com/, or Cogito Ergo Yarr. Has a very entertaining writing style and is much better than Hallan Turreks eve-blog!

Mynxee - Of course everyone knows Mynxee now, but it wasn't always that way. Her blog is still a great read, http://lifeinlowsec.blogspot.com/

The musings of the man behind Ecliptic Rift, Always entertaining even if he operates in an entirely different perception of the Eve universe than I do. His views keep me thinking and expand how I think about the game.

Laedy - Her wonderful blog, Laedy in Red. I liked her more in MH ;)

Too many others also follow me and write great blogs, people like Kishin Hattori, a true pirate. Myrhial Arkenath, Dairy of a pod pilot. Quivering palm of The Planet Risk Show, something I wish I had more time to follow. Kirith Darkblade, Who I hope hasn't left eve! Romeo Blakstorm, who has swapped over to being Oxidizing Agent, his blog is also lacking for updates. Miura Bull, of Brutor Bullfighter.

And to all the others, well you are basically unimportant. No, I kid, gotta love Noam, Crazy Kinux, Dante, Astrial Stargaze, and Kalaratiri.

A special shout out to one of my oldest readers who's never once complained or commented, and I have no idea who he is, a round of applaus to Zuke Prime!

In any case, thanks for reading my bog and I will try to keep the semi-sporadic updated coming.

I have to say that just one mention from Eveoganda and my google analytics stats started to look like Mount EVErest.

What a weekend...

2011-03-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Horray, for the first time in seemingly ages I was able to take most of the weekend off and actually get some playtime!

I logged in when I got from home and was able to head on over to some fertile hunting grounds in a support role, giving two buddies a hand in a scimi, evening the odds a bit and scoring a few kills while they were at it. The back to TXW once that fun died down, or blobbed up as the case may be. Tiwa was about to head to bed when he noticed a blip of people in Espigore, 2 jumps into lowsec from TXW, a Rooks and Kings Carrier doing a Level 5 or something like that... anyways,

A general call for help was put out and of course we responded in force, nothing like a cap kill to bring out the troops. We guessed RandK were trying to bait in our caps, the joke being on RandK since we didn't need any caps to kill that carrier. Well and their Falcon was a bit slow on the draw/cyno drop... They showed up in Vestouve in force as we headed home, a couple of carriers and BS, I had already passed them, but they were unable to land a tackle on any of us and we made it back to TXW safely.

So after nerding up before the wife got home, I took time to welcome her come and have some dinner and then rejoined comms to see I had just missed the friday night blob fleet, shield BC's. Damn it, had to catch up in a Dramiel arriving just before the first big fight of the night... Props to the peeps in NM- (Valor Empire) for undocking to face us. Our gang comp was a bit better than theirs, as can be the case when a roaming, pre-planned fleet faces up against a hasty home defense fleet, the fight was very fun, the best of the night!

I had to keep mobile, but I had my dram properly fit, that is dual prop, and was able to avoid being tackle and killed when diving through their undock to land tackle, DPS etc... Never even had to use my MWD, as an aside; Dramiel's are just stupid fast.

We had our first major disappointment of the night when our fleet of about 20 landed opposite another, similar fleet of about 20. They refused engagement because "they were there to hunt TEST, and would happily join us in a fight aginst TEST." I was pretty "disappoint" at that point because our fleets were similar with the exception that they held a bit of the EWAR advantage and we had 4 suddenly Tempests in our fleet augmenting our BC DPS (and Usagi's Tengu). I think we would have steamrolled them as well and that might be part of my frustration but I just wanted to fight.

FORTUNATELY FOR US, TEST came to the rescue and was more than willing to send in the drunk-gang! Not that we used the other gang's help, we managed their drunk fleet handily. Masses of t1 frigates littered my screen as we jumped through, with a smattering of t1 cruisers. It ended, well, predictably. I think a TESTie put it best when he said something like It's a good thing we had to pull off, clearly we were too good for you.

After that we just made best speed for TXW. All that in just one night of playing Eve, man I missed this game.

Saturday I logged in and headed down to Stacmon since our alliance is pretty dead during my early morning, jumping in my bits and pieces shield rupture I headed out to lowsec and made it a whole 1 jump out of Stacmon before the ROOS decided to try to kill me with a gatecamp. Thankfully their Devoter missed me by something like 4 meters and I was able to make the gate in low structure to jump back into Stacmon.

Angry and happy to have targets I swaped out to an Abaddon and was warping into the Ostingele gate when another of my Alliance mates said hello and we joined forces to wipe out the evil ROOS! It didn't go great, but my two losses were easily recouped by the single kill we managed, a pimpy Devoter. Around then I roamed around a bit more, trying to find something else to kill in lowsec before logging off to start my actual weekend at home. I came on a bit later but ended up going out and drinking with the wife and her hot friends, so who can blame me!

Sunday I came online mid-afternoon and found time to try to get some kills with Rixx over close to our neighbors, but they wouldn't play even though ALMOST got a drake at the undock. His friends were too scared to even agress us, except him and this one Apoc with really long ranged Mega Pulse II's that could only hit my curse when I wasn't dampening him, or more accurately when I missed the damps, hey I was at 100km alright! So judgy!

A little later on a couple FA guys were trying to corner a Drake in NG- their two turned into 13, and they failed to get anyone though they did trap myself and the Drake in NG- while they sat on the TXW gate...

Once a response fleet was formed we did a little gate shifting, our fleet ending up on the TXW gate with them on the TXW gate in NG-. The hunters had become the hunted. They made the valiant charge into us, but to no avail, we held the field and managed to catch most of those who lived as they tried to escape to 5-F.

After that I decided that I had better log off BEFORE I did something horribly stupid and thus ended my weekend on a high note.

Well....

2011-03-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

I was in the process of writing a weekend in review for me but instead we got another fight in TXW... Fights > Words.

So instead I recommended you immediately go download and watch
There be dragons

Big download but worth the wait, a solid 30 minutes of fights in there. Great small fight pvp movie. Music is chosen well imho, but I like the classical stuff sometimes. Good concept for 2 person gangs, very well executed.

Weekend in review sometime this week!

Vote for CSM

2011-03-09T09:27:00.001-08:00

Well I already voted, did you?

Vote for CSM now here

Thought I'd post in case you missed everyone else's post on it!

If you have voted, here's your reward...

Reward

Rise of a Rebel Part 3

2011-03-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

Previous entries Part 1 Part 2

Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions.
~Ambrose Bierce

Part 3

The casino shuddered under yet another impact, throwing Logan to the ground again. The only thing on his mind was making it to a barely space-worthy cargo container, stumbling down the passageway to storage as the casino hummed with the mournful song of destruction. A lack of food and sleep made each step harder, the last few months of living a slave on this casino slowly pulling from his strength. The adrenaline kept him upright, warring with exhaustion combined with the dull thuds and tremors running through the small station from decompression and explosions kept threatening to push Logan to his knee's.

It was the thought of freedom that kept him moving towards perceived safety. A few weeks prior a massive cargo container had been pressed into one of the cargo bay's. It was pried open by the slaves assigned to the casino and contents used to resupply the casino. Ever since then the slaves had taken out various other supplies, moving them into the always near empty cargo rooms in the Casino. A single hatch had been left open for access, propped open by a simple mop handle.

Now that container represented their only way to escape, slaves weren't given escape pods, too expendable. The slaves knew it and had all made plans to run for there if ever needed. Things came into more clarity when security had been bolstered suddenly, a nasty man named Kruul stopping by for a visit they said.

Logan stumbled again, slamming his knee to the ground, the deck jumping, tossing him off his feat. Strings of groans and the twangy snap of metal breaking filled the air. The entry to the cargo bay was just ahead, the door hanging casually open taunting him as blood ran from his nose.

Limping steps carried him into the bay, another dark form in a room full. The lighting was mostly out, only flickering emergency lights showing the doors and parts of the deck around the giant shape of the cargo container. Rozor stood at the entry to the container, the small door propped open with a long wooden handle. Nobody else was in sight.

Logan drew closer to Rozor, noting the gash running down his arm, both of them stopping under the smallish door, long enough for another explosion to rock the casino, neatly sever the wooden pole holding the door open, slamming them both into the cargo container, their heads leaving neatly paired dents in the smooth metal of the container.

It didn't take long for them to regain consciousness the way the container was being slammed side to side by explosions, hefted from the remnants of the casino like so much trash. The cargo container's small power supply kicked online, some unused supplies jostling around, held in check by bright yellow cargo straps.

The silence of the container was broken by a pair of soft groans, just inside one of the service entries to the overlarge container. Limited lighting spread tight cones of light across the empty space. One light highlighted the bodies of the two men, haggard janitorial coveralls hanging off their bodies. A long jagged cut bled down one's forearm, ugly red blood trickling from the wound, down the mans black skin, pooling to the side of his arm. The other struggled to his feet, using a long wooden mop handle to help him stand.

"Did you see anyone else? Once the attack started, I just ran here." Rozor nodded his head, sitting up from the deck of the container, checking the gash on his injured arm gingerly. The wound didn't seem deep, just ragged. Logan looked at his arm, then back to Rozor's face. "What happened?"

Rozor removed his shirt and wrapped it around his arm, looking back over to Logan. "Ran into security, they were headed in the opposite direction, spared the time to throw me against the wall, or maybe it was just the explosions. I caught a glimpse of Klolf but he was being pushed along by that bastard Thomas towards the escape pods." Tears slid down Rozor's face slowly, wiped hastily away by his fist. "There wasn't anything I could do, like a coward I just hid around the corner as he was pushed by... I hope they make it..." His eyes went distant as the container shuddered again, silence settling over the container.

Logan walked to the hatch they had come through, fumbling to check the seal of the door, looking at the small dents where the door had slammed them both inside and shaking his head, walking back to Rozor. "I guess we just wait?" Rozor nodded, sliding with his back to one of the bundles of supplies, shoulders slumped. "Rescue, death or enslavement, take your pick. Any is a better option than that place was." He left the rest unsaid. In roughly two hours the container would run out of power and turn into just another piece of space garbage.

Logan slid down to the floor, back to crates of carbon, plenty of time to reflect on everything.

Welcome behind the Mask LURCH!

2011-02-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

Recently Rote Kapelle has been happy to accept LUCRH into the fold. Made official by this kill, http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=47671

Not only has this expanded RK's membership by 20-30 members, but, to my surprise, also added several bloggers to the Rote fold. So welcome LUCRH.

Courtesy of Rixx Javix

Leading his corp is of course Rixx Javix of EVEOGANDA Fame

The bloggers under the LUCRH banner

Jushin Dragon's Flyin On The Edge

Tai one on's creatively named Tai one on

With one or two more likely to join soon.

Other RK Bloggers

Paritybit's EVE's parity bit

Misan's Serious Thukking Business

Usagi Tuskino's Chaotic Dreams

Dwindlehop's Uninvited But Not Unloved (Hissy fit averted!)

Turning into a respectable stable of bloggers, now to get some of them posting more often.... WHAT?! I can dream!

New system on the market

2011-02-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Nice System in Syndicate looking for new occupants, inviting scenery, Intaki stations, plenty of room.

Friendly neighbors including convenient lowsec, routing to Stacmon. Solitude, Cloud Ring and Outer ring just a few jumps away.

Private dead end ratting systems adjoining, but the premier attraction is the overly friendly occupants of the surrounding area, sure to welcome you with a bang. They will provide both prime feasting opportunities and hard and fast schooling.

Previous tenants clean, though foul-mouthed. Through scrubbing and cleaning included free with purchase. New carpeting and Drakes throughout the system.

The grass really is greener here, move now to see how beautiful springtime in Syndicate really is.

Vacancy open for a limited time only, act now! No price too low, no applications rejected.

Apply at any of the friendly real estate agents located, for your convenience, at all TXW-EL stations.

A deal like this can't last long, ACT NOW!

Option to buy at the end of the rental term.

Eve + eve = Super eve?

2011-01-25T06:06:00.000-08:00

One of those things I have long thought of is how to make eve a better, specifically, larger, place. Essentially, barring K-Space, Drone regions, and Black Rise, eve's about the same size now as when I joined. Okay I guess looking at those spaces makes me think it is indeed much bigger, BUT the problem still stands that more % wise players have joined the game than those expanses of system additions can make up for. To reflect this, when I joined the PCU record was 11k users, and perhaps 60k total subscribers. Now it's somewhere to the tune of 4-5 times that amount, somewhere near 64k concurrent and who knows how many active accounts!

To me this plays into a lot of the problems I have with eve. Now maybe this isn't the most fully thought out idea, but eve needs to be at least two times bigger. two times is a pretty arbitrary number so let me clarify a bit.

High sec could likely be kept about the same size, perhaps each race could get one more Lonetrek sized region complete with highsec, stations, level 1-5 agents, ore, etc. Spread out the massive clumps of similar quality L4 agents out a bit and drive separation of missioners to other area's. This would help to spread out the majority of clumps of people in highsec, and let's face it, the industrialists new and old, would love to get the chance to find new places, markets and people to profit from. The simple re-distribution of players from highsec alone would make tremendous sense.

Extend this expansion to Lowsec as well, and especially Lowsec. Right now risk is high because most of the well-known lowsec area's are quite honestly over-hunted, this doesn't mean there aren't fights to be had, but more fights between pirates than between people interested in defeating the pirates, there isn't any area for them to expand either. Too many Hyena's and not enough calfs. Doubling (or more) the space available to expand into and with less hunters the calfs could have a chance to multiply and perhaps dig in, providing more viable infrastructure and combat against pirates.

Nullsec suffers from similar problems. Large alliance conglomerates hold at least 80% (that's an official Logan guesstimate) of the current 0.0 sov space, and there are really only 5 NPC controlled area's fo people who want to fight in 0.0 without being in sov space, (Curse, Syndicate, Parts of Venal, Great Wildlands, and Stain?) Anyways, adding more space would allow alliances currently hanging onto the coat-tails of the NC or the Russians to expand out and find new space, and settle it. Sure they would need to fight for it but make this space outside of jump range for Titans or supercaps and force them to build their own infrastructure for a bit before connecting it back into that type of warfare. Anyways, this would make new power-blocks, and expand the eve shard.

As for WH Space, damn if I know CRAP about that. Every time I have been there it's been to kill something or other, so double the space there would be pretty sexy too (amirite?).

The bottom line here is that even though Eve as a game has expanded by leaps and bounds; it has been outdone by the expansion of the player base. Keeping the galaxy so, well to put it in easy to understand but inaccurate terms, small, is contributing to the criminal over-crowding in comparison to the sparse, bleak expanse it used to be(and should be).

TLDR;

Eve

+ More eve

_________________________________________

Super Eve (Well okay, it's Eve Laurence, but we needed something sexy here)

Even better Logan this time.

2011-01-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

I think I more accurately got Logan this time, thankfully without having to spend $10!

Oldest Logan Picture

Newer Logan

Newest Logan

Bit meaner, harder look...

Still no headspikes!

Tons of great new avatars out there.

Brought to you from

Image by Cass

Dev blog on re-changing your changed char portrait!

2011-01-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

Check it out, but I'll spoil it all for you at the bottom

Dev blog

The Future
We will be introducing the ability to repeatedly recustomize characters in a future release. The current plan is to introduce this at the same time as we release tattoos, scars and piercings so players can take advantage of these new assets. We are still in the early design phase, so we don't have any more details at present. Expect a devblog explaining more in the coming weeks.

At least it is in dev stage, better get face spikes!!!

Not sure I like the new Logan

2011-01-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

But he was as good as I could get him without better makeup/tattoo/SPIKES IN FORHEAD options!

Old Logan

New sexified Logan

At least I could still put on a mohawk!

Re: The Downward Spiral of Low Sec

2011-01-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

I didn't want to post a big long response in reply to THIS. So I tried just writing a few words in response, but once I got started I just couldn't stop. So like Jager Da, I'm going to post it here instead.

Sadly the post is opinion and not fact based. While it makes some quality points, perception being one of them, your underlying arguments are flawed and based only on the opinions/perceptions of the people you have read and the opinions you have formed because of that "research."

The pirate take of freedom is nothing but an illusion that continues to choke the life from Low Sec to this very day. They want freedom but no consequences for their actions. They want targets to shoot yet they offer nothing in return.

In fact, most pirates offer services and opportunities for the enterprising entrepreneur. You just need to know where to look, who to talk to, who is trustworthy, and of course accept a margin of acceptable and profitable loss. I know of more than one industrialist that make incredible profits by supporting and supplying small to mid sized pirate corps with ships, and logistics that would otherwise be unavailable barring the use of alts. Black Frog is one good example and well known.

The thing that really makes me chuckle about your fact-based argument is when you take the time to call pirates, assholes,

The only place they can be an asshole and get flashy red in the process.

That sets the tone, the perception, if you will, of your entire argument. You perceive pirates as assholes so that is the idea that pushes the rest of your post. Pirates just play the game differently than say a carebear. Does that make them any more of an asshole than a bear? or than any other player in the game? no.

You, like the angry carebear who has just been killed in lowsec, are spreading the perception that lowsec is dangerous and impassible. I can't even recall the last time when I was carefully moving through lowsec that I died to a gatecamp, or a smartbombing BS. It's only when I don't pay attention or just warp to 0 that I die in stupid ways, and even that hasn't happened in quite a while, despite my flailing attempts!

In my opinion you are falsely accusing lowsec of being higher risk than nullsec. To the unwary, who think of it as just a step down in risk from highsec, of course it is risky, you are going from a PvP with "flags" (wars, can flags, ninja's etc) area to one where you can be attacked at any time. The same caution used in nullsec should also be used in low and last I looked IS BEING USED IN LOWSEC by those people who live there.

Maybe your argument would be more convincing if your said in the short term lowsec is more dangerous given the following,

1. you aren't using a scout or due diligence when transporting valuable goods through lawless lands
2. you don't do any research on how to survive or thrive in the lowsec area you are just about to try to live in.
3. you expect lowsec to be as safe as highsec around stations and gates.
4. you don't expect every T;D;H coming along to be actively trying to kill you.
5. you don't make contact with the pirates in that area to try to create an understanding or even scout them to see what their movement patterns are/engagements/foes/friends etc.

It would be like living in w-space, but never even opening your dscanner while you ran a site in a class 1 or 2 wormhole. You are ASKING to be taken unaware and killed. It's even worse than that, because you still have full local functionality. There is approximately no reason for a smart mission runner or semi smart belt ratter to ever be caught in lowsec. Just like in nullsec.

So why do you say lowsec is more dangerous than nullsec? Is it because you are actively hunted in far greater number than in null, not really the truth given the numbers of roaming gangs we see in our corner of null. Perhaps it's because there is a lack of an alliance or coalition wide intel channel letting you know 5 jumps before hostiles are on top of you, not that it's not just as possible to put a system like that in place on your own + friends in lowsec. Even with that channel people still die. Let's look at how lowsec is safer than nullsec.

In Lowsec there are always safe stations to retreat to, you can store your goods inside and there is nothing the pirates can do to get into them and take them from you or at the very least deprive you of access to those items. Jump clones means you can leave your stuff there, completely safe and go off and do something else if the pirates in your area are determined to camp you in place. Nullsec on the other hand see's changes of owners of station systems on a fairly regular basis. One could lose a fleet of ships there or if they manage a POS and their POS is put under siege they could lose just as much in CSAA's and corp hangars out there Not to mention moon-goo profits.

If you enter null with the same failures/assumptions of invincibility, you are going to die. Likely in the first null system you jump into because of the 24/7 camp that happens to sit there and the fact that you are just as fresh meat to them as you would be to pirates in lowsec.

Is lowsec dangerous? yes. Isn't part of that question also supposed to be, is lowsec supposed to be dangerous?

Is lowsec broken? Perhaps to some it is. Could it do with some looking at, of course it could but then so could almost every aspect of every game created. I might not say that everything is functioning "perfectly." But neither is lowsec in a downward spiral. Lowsec is still currently very similar to how it was when I first started playing. a little worse in some area's and a little better in others. But overall...

Lowsec survival links for those too lazy to go find them.

Eve wiki
Forum link by Kessiaan
Prowler lowsec fit

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

2010-11-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

~Attributed to Harry S. Truman

I was going to say today, but by now it's been out for about a week, so let's just say recently!

RECENTLY, CCP announced that the much hated, and much revered Learning skills would be getting canned. I've long been on the fence about this change but I think it's a change worth making. Giving every attribute a base +12 and eliminating what could be up to four months of a new players start so they have a better chance to learn skills and move forward the rest of their eve career might be playing to the lowest common denominator, but to me makes a lot of sense.

Especially the way that CCP is pulling this off, refunding the skill-points, removing the skills from the market, a really well thought out plan and I for one look forward to figuring out what in the world I will be spending my 4 mil sp I currently have in learning skills on.

So far I have come up with a few options. I could train Caldari Battleship from 0 (current) to level 5 and then have all races BS5, Cruiser 5, and Frigate 5. That still leaves me with 2 mil sp in the bank, so to speak, to place into another skill later down the line when I really need it, say just before the tourney or upon realization that I need that probing skill at 5 NOW! Maybe then I will be forced into going the cap ship route. Thanks to having level 5 in pretty much everything else! Or finish up all the t3's for all races to l5. As always, so many options, so little time! The great unlearning is upon us, rejoice!

Last night, she said...

2010-11-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

So last night was my wife and my whole hand(5 year) anniversary. Well since we met each other at least. We went out and got dinner, had some wine, went out to the bars....

Okay fine, I'll get to the point

Friday night is blob night, here's what we get up to on blob nights! By our leet FC

Lets check that pocket.

It's late, i want us to move quick, but there IS a 19 man bubble on the map pretty close to the route home, so I take us over that way. Sak jumps in, says there is 50 in local, and I tell him to go get eyes. He derps around a bit (THEY ARE ATTACKING AN OFFLINE TOWER AT A PLANET!), but gets us a fleetcomp of: a few carriers, a few dreads in seige, a cyno up, and roughly a 50 man BC heavy mishmash fleet w/ no (non capital) logi.

I get the fleet off gate to a tac, and start publicly debating with myself... Lexa is bugging like champ, and I kinda want to get home rather than derp the fleet, BUT I famously pussied out on Thursday night against a fleet I could have squeezed some kills out of (even if we would have died horribly) and I was pretty emo about that, PLUS, I had specificly loaded us towards BCs or "whatever you could afford to lose" specificly so I could go have a scrap. So: Fuck ya. Balls deep.

I tell Sak to get me a warpin, as the cyno is down... he indicates that the show is @planet six at zero, so I order fleet to jump in, align, and after 10s, warp to planet six at optimals. This meant zero for DPS, 50 for logi, and 30 for me.

We do land right in the middle of fuckoff blob, and I order bubble up and start calling primaries.

I could write a book about primary calling last night. I probably should.

The bottom line is that I had brackets on, which I always use to try to best understand the SHAPE of the engagement on grid. Unfortunately, this time, there was SO MUCH on grid that this plan backfired utterly. I simply could not get an idea of the force disperal. So I quickly went to targets by range.

This meant I started with 3 drakes (I always try to call primary, secondary, tertiary)... some people were hurfing a bit but at this point, I'm just steamrolling with drake calls. The GOOD news is they go down rather quick, which allows me to get my pants on a little more, and I start preferring canes to drakes on calls.

My watchlist is showing me ships getting repped (rather than popped) so I'm happy to keep strolling through primaries eventually getting into the truly tanky ships (abbadon, etc.) There was ONE drake they had enough reps on that I wasn't able to immediately break it and had to switch off of. Meanwhile, I'm keeping a point on one of the carriers, and asking other people to keep points on the others. this started to suck as that carrier was slowboating away from the fight and my ranges were getting mucked up, so I started incorperating any other calls into my call-chain. If someone said "I have XXX tackled", I'd bump XXX to my secondary slot, and just keep steamrolling.

They cyno'ed in more carriers around this time, but I kind of just didn't care, as we continued to have no trouble popping things through their capital reps.

About this time, dreads are insta-cynoing out once their siege finishes, and we don't have bubbles to stop it (our hic died). Atan and Bacc are crying like babies on private channels to cyno in their toys, but we don't have an exit cyno sorted yet. I'm still calling primaries, and try to load another eve client to get a cyno alt loaded in TXW, but my framerates go to shit and I abandon the effort. I finally decide i don't give a shit if they lose them, and if they want to bring them onto the field, who cares.

So, I thumbs up the operation, supers come on, and bacc starts calling carrier primaries. I continue to call subcap primaries as they appear (they were broken at this point, but keep warping in "to help")... eventually this dries up, and all focus is on maintaining capital points and getting fighter-bomber DPS onto carriers.

I order our carriers to start looting as we go, letting the supers concentrate on dps, and move scouts into nearby systems to watch for reinforcements.

That doesn't happen, and we are left with a huge ass field full of loot. Looting took about 15 mins, by which time I was super nervous, so we evacced caps and went home.

I was SURE I was suiciding the fleet, and I wasn't. There are also all kinds of kills on the board that I know I didn't primary, so i'm very interested on hearing xbox's recording of the fight, because I don't remember much- it was really a blur.

At the end of the day, logi kept us up, tackle kept them there, and generally, we couldn't have done much better (maybe 2 carriers left that we shoudl have pointed).

It was easily the best fight of my eve career. Thanks for everyone who convinced me to do the unsmart thing.

Seriously, 66 kills and 6 losses. That's a night I'm sure nobody will be forgetting soon. Nice job Rote!

And just as importantly, Happy Anniversary wifers!(She doesn't even know of this blog, so lolz)

A good new look

2010-11-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

So after much messing about with the ever so painful Blogger tools to update the look of the blog, I have settled on a new look! I know everyone can tell given that you are reading this via RSS but come on over and check it out.

Thanks to Rixx Javix for the beautiful work done for my Alliance that translated so smoothly into a nice image for this site. Go check out his blog and other assorted amazing work over at EVEOGANDA.

Coming soon I plan on figuring out another quality post like the Vagabond guide, maybe a different ship, or a different topic, but first I have to figure out what! Until then I'll just go back to being mostly silent while the holiday season kills my playtime!

EBB #22. Loyalties of an Opportunist

2010-10-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

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

This month topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why, and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

So let's just say I have never been the most "loyal" of followers while in eve. Usually I find myself on the other side of decisions made by those in-charge. At least until the semi-recent past, pre-STIMULUS.

So what makes STIM so different? I'm not 100 percent sure to be honest. I've pirated, been the CEO and co-CEO of two mildly successful merc/pirate corps. Been in industry corps, robbed them blind, mined for them, produced ships, traded, the whole gamut. STIM just feels like home. It's that feeling that has slowly added a bit of loyalty stock the longer I remain in STIM.

STIM capitalizes on PvPers, we are elitist assholes for the most part, willing to do crazy, suicidal things on a regular basis in search of just one more kill. We enjoy the fight and more often than not find sick satisfaction in dying in a horrible fire to those blobs more than 2-3 times our size. We operate in mostly lag-free environments, with little to no mandatory ops to go kill xxx TCU or setup xxx SBU. It's real, pure, fast paced eve-style PvP. Mesh STIM with four or five like minded corps in RK and you get a solid backdrop of not only corp but alliance.

Jay Carr said,
“They were fast-moving opportunists encased in cynicism and proud of it.”

And I have to say we are proud of it.

For the record, I chose to join STIM after reading up on them after my previous corp disbanded again, from day one of my trial I was in more fights, better teams and stronger leaders than most of my previous years in eve. While I still maintain ties to some of the other pilots, corps and alliances I used to fly with STIM is where my usually fickle loyalties lie.

After all,

“I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles around my neck” - Stanley Baldwin

Other Banterers

EVOGANDA

Chocolate Heaven

Merry Life and a Short One
The Elitist
A Mule in Eve
Mike Azariah

FENDing off the last few weeks

2010-10-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

So I suppose I have been slacking and not really coming up with anything creative to post here! Meanwhile in eve Rote Kapelle has been having a great time back in Syndicate.

We'd love to take the credit for pushing Primary. (the recent additions to TXW) into inactivity, but really it seems that World of Tanks and a lack of will to play the game has gutted the attempt to re-form and re inspire the Primary. Alliance. A bit of a shame as we were looking forward to some good fights in TXW for a change. Over the last few weeks their activity has really trailed off leaving us searching for more targets, and finding them.

Heh, Rote Kaput. Good one!

We engaged in a CONCORD sanctioned war against "The Fendahlian collective" and their friends "Sacra Cupola." The fights were fun, but mostly consisted of station games in either Stacmon or Dastryns, but that fit me just fine as we were able to score some good kills and the FEND gents were good or rather nice enough to continue to fight, bringing out numerous ships and hulls. Didn't matter to me, got to fly in my Abaddon of sheer tankyness for a while, haven't been in that beast in ages! Repairing in station costs way to much isk btw!

I am impressed with Ushwi Hobak who was apparently quad boxing against us. he got on so many kills because he brought out a well tanked Maelstrom, plus scimitar basilisk and usually at least one other DPS ships. We kept trying to kill him, but no luck, or at least no luck very often as he was able to tank and redock at will. Such is the fun of station games! In any case, props to the quad box, pretty impressive. He wasn't so successful at keeping his fleetmates alive, so we ate them up pretty well. Including these couple engagements, Stacmon Slaughter. That Vagabond pilot should read my guide btw, was inside scram range from the undock of the station, paid the price. While they were at it they provided a few lolzy killmails, like the Rapier without a Web.

Most memorable moment goes to the pilot "losingsleep." We had just forced their camp in stacmon to dock and killed his Raven while doing so, he left in a shuttle and returned in a Cyclone. Johnny Cruz mentioned on vent that he was travel fitting that thing with stabs, I, still fit for station games, had two scramblers on the Abaddon, ready to pin him down. He warps into the station again, apparently trying to either salvage or tease us with his invincibleness due to over-stabbing. I'm pretty sure his smile dropped when my four points and Johnny's two points landed on him. Suddenly forced to stick around landing us with a very funny killmail.

Anyways, war was soooo last week. This week we have joined the intrepid pilots of Reaper Industries, our long-time friends, into the Rote Kapelle fold, providing a much needed boost to our EU TZ. It's great to have them around, and RK gangs now tend to roll out of TXW on a near 23/7 basis.

In other internal news, voting for our alliance Logo has finally been completed. I have to say that I am sad, my personal favorite, "looking up, no RK" failed to make it into the last rounds. Though I am happy that all the back-and-forth over the logo will hopefully now be over. I was put in charge of organizing a fair vote and getting a final result and was amazed to have it finished before Christmas 2020.

To the left here is a sample of the winner, well close enough! Now that the vote is over my responsibility for dealing with it also ends, horray!

So that mostly covers the last two weeks, until next time, here is looking up, no RK! Thanks for the work Rixx Javix, very impressive!

A long journey home

2010-09-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Our week had been building up to this. Cassius strolled in casually to the meeting room, ahead of me, a smallish but once empty bar up on the capsuleer decks of mid station of Reynire. Now filled over capacity with pilots from the assembled corporations of Rote Kapelle.

Truth was Rote Kapelle had been absent from it's adopted home in TXW for close to two and a half months now, working to strew seeds of the revolution from Pure Blind to Providence. Taking our lumps and giving them against the monolithic NC and New Providence in one place or another. During these months spirits and morale had been up and down in quick succession but nothing compared to the current feeling in the room.

It wasn't tension but anticipation, for blood, for home, for a fight. We were all quiet as our leaders and assembled FC's broke the news of our plan to the rank and file, in person this time, ensuring no confusion. I moved to the back of the room, looking back towards our brief.

"As we stand here, your Remote Repair BS are being delivered to your hangars, from station storage and prepped for combat. Our token force in TXW will attempt to convince the new locals," smiling a bit at the comment, "into combat. The rest of the fleet, meaning you, will stand by in Vestouve, with light cap support for backup." There were some involuntary nods around the room, one of those reflexes you gain from years of briefings. I was one of the nodders. I scanned the room quickly with slight embarrassment. Of course there had been no need to nod, this was hardly the first time we or rather I had heard this plan, but it would be the last. None had noticed, fortunately enough saving me the casual barbs passed around like candy in these meetings. When the briefing broke up short seconds after that a light murmur of voices filled the room as the pilots of Rote Kapelle moved towards the doors.

Some had already remotely jacked into their hangars, or comms systems, ordering cargo in or out of their holds, prepping their delivered battleships for combat before arriving at them, joining the fleet, chatting on their communicators. I stumbled slightly, still getting used to this new clone after my recent clone jump, and my foot careened off the floor from my misstep and then down right on the outside foot of Usagi Tuskino. I tried to recover some, but my tall frame was already overbalanced, somehow I was able to remain upright although nearly falling into her, I started to apologize quickly. Looking down to meet her eyes, those shocking blue eyes unnerved me instantly, as every time I saw them, making my already awkward apology stutter from my lips. She waved dismissively, a small smile sliding over her lips as she moved away, her mind obviously on something else.

Once I stepped from the bar, I grew in confidence with each step closer to my hangar I got. It was like I could feel the power there. I set my body more or less on autopilot, moving instinctively, quickly towards my pod and waiting tempest-class Battleship. The sweet feeling of becoming something greater, bigger looming ahead. I joined the fleet channel, placing quick orders to move some large cap boosters into the waiting injector, my mind meshing with the comms channel, quiet now, assigning me to the second squad of the first wing of the fleet.

I broke the mental connection and refocused as I entered the room housing my pod, already inside my tempest, only marginally aware of how I got there. My excitement grew, a smile spreading over my face as I disrobed. I guess some people said you never got used to submerging in pod fluid, giving up control, that was never true for me. I had always been a dreamer, meant for something greater, to be something amazing, my voluval mark reinforced the popular view that I was below notice, just another man, ugly man, but inside. No matter the number of times I had been warned that I was the bloated and stupid rock I had never given up hope, even if their world was the mountain, my hope didn't die. It was one of the few things that had kept me alive as a slave was this hope, carefully guarding it, clinging to it fearfully like a secret that could be taken away at a moment notice. It had survived that and still it lived on.

***

Connecting to a pod was like being reborn into that thing I had always wanted to be, something greater. While Battleships were ponderous and slow the simple feeling of power could overwhelm the untrained senses. While I could still feel myself in the pod it was a distant and largely unconscious feeling, I simply was the ship. I twisted the camera drones around my ship, prepping my guns with Barrage L and powering up all systems. I had barely settled in when the order to undock came from our FC. I had already cleared for undock, placing me next in line and then suddenly pushed out of the station.

Relying on drilled in precision I set destination for home, my tempest turning towards the first gate with a touch of my will. The order to warp was not long in coming, and I was once again one of the first into warp, jetting towards the low security gate ahead, TXW a short 6 jumps away. I kept my ship on course, laughing at myself as if I was some other person looking back at the meeting in the station. I thought to myself that surely had not happened to me, it was a memory from another life, filing it away I jumped through the gate on command.

Reports were not encouraging as we made our way, only 5-6 of the new inhabitants were nearby, but our friends in the station as well as pilots on scene had seen none of them in space. Determined not to waste any further time, our commander pushed us ahead, a very unfortunate Vexor meet it's timely end with a small section of our fleet removing it from space, our large ships near invulnerable for a time against the "peacekeeping" gate guns employed in low sec.

The Concord ding to my security was hardly worth noting, even lower than caring about the loss of life and money for our victim. We waited briefly in Vestouve hoping for a fight in TXW, but none came. With assured speed we moved back into TXW, orders already circulating for the formation of another, smaller, nimble fleet to assemble in TXW 8-8. It was set to leave in 1 hour.

***

Leaving the pod was another matter entirely, I ended up feeling very alone. On the floor of the same room, my consciousness collapsed into the small shell that was my body, my thoughts battering around inside my head, as if it was suddenly too small for me. I dry retched, gripping at the floor, tears filling my eyes as I did. I struggled to my feet, grabbing a simple towel to wipe the goo from my eyes, already headed to my next ship. I didn't notice if people saw me, naked, awash in the glow of my hangar, approaching the sleek monstrosity of my Scimitar. Like the Tempest the Scimitar was powerful in it's own way, able to project shields across the vastness of space, all while moving too fast to follow. In the shadow of the vast cruiser I left the towel, repeating the process of connecting to the cruiser, as always, opting to spend my time inside the hull of the powerful ship, viewing it as a whole rather than as a simple man.

***

The hour passed quickly, maybe even too quickly as I scanned the fitting of my ship, making last minute changes and bantering in the new fleet for parts, all the while passing sarcastic we have returned comments into the local FTL channel. I was slower on the undock this time, forcing my cruiser through the mass of ships at the undock point and then getting it pointed out toward the gate took a bit longer than needed but being back out in space, powerful once again was it's own reward.

The cruiser leaped into warp, feeling even faster and reckless as my blood rose to a near audible hum in the pod of my ship. Our first challenge was to find a fleet willing to face us. After several attempts and even more half fights and quick kills, we arrived in MHC, seemingly finding a interested party. In fact the fleet we were able to find was made up of only CPU/Tabula Rasa, scared to fight against the trappings of their imperialistic and wanton needs, they left the field quickly, leaving their mate to die under our hammer. Behind us they slunk back to the gate, catching a straggler before we could return to save him.

A few jumps later a hostile force that best matched our own was detected. We were forced to redeploy hastily, blocking their route. Our scout reported their fleet launching drones and throwing up a bubble, it was time to fight. I stretched my will across the fleet, mentally marking members of the fleet to follow through the fight, hoping to catch those in need of repairs before their ships buckled. We jumped, space buckling at the number of ships moving across space. We found them in place on the other side, the battle was already on.

Usagi and her blue eyes was one of the first to go down in the fight, her Rook removed from the field before I had finished locking her for repairs, she had been foolish to reveal herself so soon into the fight. From there things seemed to stabilize. We were still taking a fair amount of damage, Scimitars burning for range while the rest of our light and speedy fleet attempted to lay down fire on the requested ships. They were dying, but not fast enough.

FALLGUY was one of the next to go down, his Vagabond crumpling under reps, at the same time my lock failed after another lucky jam from EC-300 drones swarmed around me like insects. I burned hard, trying to maintain range and escape from under the net of EC drones in vain, they would stay on me for much of the fight, until their owner was removed. We might have lost a Vagabond but they were dying as well, 0458 proved to be a bloody minute, 4 of their ships lost for just two of ours. My reps were working overtime to keep BlackFalcon01 alive but another lucky jam and distance allowed him to fall to the guns of our opposition. But he was the last. Their heavy ships tanked our fire best they could and disengaged the other side of the gate. The battle was bloody, but ultimately we were victorious, holding the field.

Returning to TXW with half our fleet seemed oddly like a loss. We had come to expect to lose few ships in a battle, but even so we once again proving ourselves strong and our fight was motivation enough to be stronger. The bloody fight fresh on our minds moved the CPU gang once again out of our way, despite their now similar numbers. The rest of the flight home was more or less uneventful, never once stressing our gang to the point our fight had.

Our FC moved the fleet into dock, dismissing us as we entered station. I sat there for a bit in my Scimitar, spinning camera around the outside of the ship for moments before disconnecting.

***

Sometimes it's worse than others, and you find yourself on the floor minutes later, coughing, unable to form thoughts, wishing vaguely for just one more moment in the pod. At least that's how I felt right then, weak, out of sorts, unable to think clearly. Luckily, my body was moving, working off years of completing the same task, I gripped a new towel and pulled it slowly over my body, cleaning it as I left the ship, the previous towel either removed by some unseen employee hired in one of my smarter moments or swept out into space like so much junk.

I walked into the quiet dressing room in TXW, my mind more or less settled now. I pushed to get myself through the quick routine of a shower, getting dressed and doing short work on my hair. I stepped out of my section of the Hangar Bays, long strides taking me the shortest route to the local capsuleer pub we all tended to favor after well just about any fight. Even pilots who had lost ships had made it there before me, but one knowing look was all it took for almost everyone to understand. I guess not everyone has such a hard time leaving their pod as I do, but at least they understand it.

I was happy to have missed the "AAR" as our FC's called them where pilots mistakes were pointed out and shamed. I felt I must have made some, possibly costing people their lives, or ships. Each loss weighed heavily on my mind as I looked up at the simple cork board in the bar that had hard copies of kills and losses listed. Right now it was more kills than losses but I felt as if it could change at any moment. Often times it would be updated before the pilots even returned home from a fight. Nobody was quite sure who did it or why, but there were plenty of comments tacked to the side of kills before they dropped off the bottom of the board.

A pair of unsolicited shots slid down the bar towards me, I looked up to see smiles all around, I took the first shot quickly, the faint buzzing of responsibility, fatigue and loss slowly wiped from my mind as the smile spread to my lips after a few minutes. I could barely keep up with some in the bar, but I managed to catch up at the very least... I think.

Pewed right in the face!(again)

2010-09-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

We like to eat CSAA

Shortly after we all made it into Provi, let's say about a week and a half, give or take, PL decided to come a-knocking. While USUALLY we can be counted on to fight just about anything, especially the stupider the odds, engaging in TCU/CSAA fights just aren't our bag baby!

When our friends in Asset Liberation called for our help in defending a POS with said CSAA's we had a chance to chow up but mostly it all just ended up in failure. Call us out of practice, or blame the evil lag monster, the POS wasn't long for this world. During the crushing of the CSAA located in KPB, we had some rather bad blows against us, as Alpha and passwords lent PL some easy kills.

In any case, with that part over leadership made the decision to head back to Syndicate and our old system of TXW.... "soon." For now we just moved everything out of KPB and have started staging for the move back. In the meantime all our trouble makers are setting out to go find some of their own trouble! I immediately headed for Ivar where I had been setting up a place to Ninja-kill missioners and otherwise harass people.

I had specially outfit a Navy Issue Omen to be my go-to people killer after they aggressed me because I needed to find SOMETHING to use that bloody ship for! Not too long into my playstint this sunday I tracked down a Vargur just finishing a deadspace mission. I popped in to say hello there in my salvage fit vigil. First I salvaged a large wreck and then stole a little lootzies to see if I could get a bite. Yellow box.... and bam, into structure! Holy crap, praying for a fast align I headed back to the station, making it out in 56% structure in one shot, close one!

I jumped into my ONI, heading back to the Vargur hoping they were still there. Indeed they were but a painful 35km from my warp in point... I pushed the AB up to full speed and started taking a near-immediate pounding. Let's just say the ONI wasn't up to the task but at least it made it out alive, no embarrassing ship loss to post on the alliance kill boards.

I endured the laughter of my target in local, wishing I had brought that Abaddon down from Rens already, having it already fit and ready to go, but I had left it behind shipping other ninja essentials instead. Oh well.

I logged for a bit and by the time I came back there was no more bear activity in my chosen system, leaving me bored and itching for a fight. I was just three jumps from Rens and a further 3 from Amamake, a piratey plan formed in my head. Suicide time!

Well, ok, that's what I call flying into the top belt of Amamake. I fit a Rifter of the 400mm plate version in Rens quick, insuring it and leaving off the rigs. Flew straight down to Ama, and on the jump in I barely avoided being squished by the resident's gatecamp.

I warped into the top belt expecting some action but found none, not even after minutes of loitering. Top belt dissapoints again!

10 minutes of warping around looking for targets revealed a xxxxxXXXXXDeathXXXXXXxxxxxx rifter moving between the belts. I waited for him in the top belt, about 100-150km off the warp in, Close enough for my AB Rifter to close quickly but far enough away that help warping into the other rifter wouldn't be close enough to matter for a bit.

So the Rifter landed shortly after that and pretty much from the start my plan went downhill. I zoomed in, noting his 2k+ speed and pegged him for a MWD user. My web and J5b warp scrambler would take care of that. As soon as I got into range I knew he was bait and my hunch was correct as a Arazu and Cane landed at the warp in, some 70-80 km from me and this other rifter.

Now the smart thing to do would have been to scramble the other rifter, push range on him, and spank the warp out button, before the Razu and cane closed enough distance to kill me, but who said this was a smart fight? I wanted to kill that Rifter, so I kept to my fight, eating through his shields and armor as the Cane drew inside range, pelting me with 425mm rounds from about 40-50km eating up my shields and parts of my armor with near hits. The Arazu landed points on me just as the hostile Rifter popped, and despite my attempts to escape, I was shortly dispatched, my pod speeding free of the encounter.

Hey at least I was able to kill a fully t1 fit rifter before I died! Anyways, back to Rens and a 15 minute timer later I was back into the area with another Rifter. Now sadly all the fight seemed to be gone from the system and short of two faction warfare blobs declining to engage each other in the nearby system of Auga there was nothing going on.

I parked my Rifter nearby and intend to re-visit shortly. That is if I can log in at all this week!

Providence is for Pew!

2010-09-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

With the conclusion of our Pure Blind bike ride, the gentle fellows at Rote Kapelle have decided to extend our little field trip and make asses of ourselves in Providence, neatly avoiding the IT blobbing of Syndicate, but hopefully not scaring off any new targets there!


Not the provi you are looking for

So, off to Providence!

Wait no, not that Providence! It being the preferred freighter to kill during out PB road trip.

Instead we find ourselves deep in one of the arms of Provi, meeting up with our long-time friends in Reaper Industries and their Alliance, Asset Liberation Front.


Yep, that's the one.

Our logistics move was done Friday, Rote Flexing it's Logistics/capital backbone hard to get it done in a single day, with the final movements completed on Saturday. I was lucky enough to have my stuff moved Friday and be able to move my clone into the new habitat for STIMmyness in QBL, Reapers Junkyard.

As a hello to our new Providence neighbors we departed soon after in a joint fleet of RK/Asset nanoHAC swarm intent on finding some kills.

We steamrolled a bit, starting with this poor Vagabond pilot, who buzzed the station right as the fleet was forming and undocking. Poor timing and good tackle proved his vaga wasn't long for this world.

Following that we moved out to G7 catching a Rapier, part of the Vagabond's fleet, on the gate out of QBL, turning him into dust just as quick as we could uncloak him. DACO was thought to be camping along FSW to MH9C area, I had just flown a Cov ops through the area but had been able to sneak past. However we turned and burned for the bottom pipe, looking to catch the rest of the En Garde fleet, managing only to catch them once they had caught up with a blue fleet... who they were also blue to, damn standings. HAHAHAHA just kidding, we killed a Drake, then put another deep into armor before it jumped out and nearly got a Drake for our trouble. Suddenly we were joined by a carrier on the gate, the blues were cross repping the Geddon left on the gate, trying to deny us a rightful kill! Fairly it was a good attempt, but near 200k damage, a few good bumps, the carrier reps were overcome.

This time we headed back up to pay DACO a visit but they had intel on us by then and had moved out of the way. We plowed on, heading for R3- on the way back to QBL.... well the round about way back. En Garde wasn't happy thanks to our previous kills and were happy to provide a response fleet once we jumped into their smallish gang in 1-1I. We claimed first blood, knocking down a Phantasm, Harbinger, and a fleeing Drake, followed by a brief lul as most of the rest of the En Garde gang warped off. We looted and pulled range, and they warped back in with support on the other side, they were able to catch Cassius, eventually killing him. We were still able to skirmish, darting down to score 2 more BC's and a cruiser kill before they had all were able to warp out from our split tackle.

While looting we mostly re-approached gate, just in time for their fleet to come back and neatly split us between N8XA and 1-1I. I was stuck in 1-1I having moved to range as they started to warp in. Kakizaki made a costly mistake, staying in one position too, outside of 150km from the gate,a cov ops was able to probe him down, and have the rest of the hostile fleet warp on top of him. The TS chatter made him realize too late, and his Huginn was downed quickly. Meanwhile, the half gang on the other side killed a Harbinger and Vexor. Using a moment their gang left the gate, the rest of our gang moved by and we were all able to depart to QBL with no further kills or losses. End result was 10 kills to 2 losses in a fun, skirmish engagement, quite the warm welcome to Provi! I look forward to more fights of the same as the rest of the weekend was uneventful for me.

I flew a Scimitar later in the weekend, but was mostly un-needed as our tanks didn't face a significant threat while I was on the field. (even though we engaged a Ashimmu gang, well before they ran like hell...)

Hell in a cell, eve-style!

2010-09-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

EVE SOB comes up with a great idea, check it out.

Basically the rules are as follows,

- 5M to enter with all ISK going to the Last Frigate flying in fleet (minus fleet referee)
- T1 non faction frigates only with any fittings.
- All entrants join a single fleet and fighting begins when they enter the “CAGE” system
- If you leave the “CAGE” system you are removed from the fleet.
- If you dock in anything in the “CAGE” system you are removed from the fleet.
- If you are in your pod you are removed from the fleet.
- Once removed from the fleet you are out of the fight and no ISK for you.
- Gate crashing the system is allowed and expected.
- No restrictions on implants or boosters.
- Faction/T2 frigates or above are not allowed unless a gate crasher. :)

Fittings are unlimited as warping to fleet member will be allowed and should take care of the cloakers and folks who safe up. The “CAGE” system region will be in LowSec and easy to reach from Null or Empire space. The region will be announced to entrants a week before and the CAGE system 1 hour before the bell.

Although I am a bit dissapointed I will be unable to find and kill him within the rules of the match, but trust I'll find a way into killing him anyways, better keep an eye out Mr Zombie.

More details will be posted as they come, hopefully this will have another impressive turnout, and more kills this time! Die once, come back as a spoiler later.

Ze Death Race!

2010-08-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Rewind to Sunday, 1745 eve time, me logging in, hoping the start of the race isn't too far away. You see I had guessed wrong, thinking Misaba would be the start of the race, when it turned out it's not-so close brother Assah was indeed the start. I left my station in a hurry, forgetting to swap from my ever-present Vagabond to my dual prop, speed fit Stiletto with points. I only realized it one jump out but time being what it was and being 11 jumps from Assah left me to jump jump jump with no time to turn around and change ships. Besides it seemed that everyone else was going to be flying frigates, not at all a bad opponent for my vagabond, if I had just managed to catch up.

To your cars Mentelgen!

Fleet chat was quite funny, blood pumping, people quoting music, hoping for the start of the race. Mike's Party boat and the disco phoon for sure drawing the attention of many. Time ticked down slowly as I sped through space, hoping to make it in time. 1800 ticked over and I was a single jump out, but already I knew I was too late. First way point was T-R. Sticking with my mantra of "you pay your money and you takez your chances!" I plunged through the G-5 gate, expecting to see some combat on the other side. Instead I found empty space with the trail of gang mates in the race leaving the system before I even jumped in. The second jump, 9-F, had a cane, with the support of the thrasher and Sabre on the gate, bubble up, hoping to catch some unwary pilots. They were the first on my plate. I uncloaked and headed for the outgate, locking the Sabre, and unleashing rounds into his shield, my Barrage M doing a decent job of hitting the fast moving Destroyer. He missed his scram tackle and fell behind. I warped out as my D-scanner picked up a few more fast tackle, I, not wanting to risk it, headed to the next gate.

Damn Traps!

I emerged on the far side of the gate, 4B-N local sitting at around 25 pilots, almost all Agony. I entered warp, nosing towards the planet closest to my outgate, or so I thought. Turns out I warped to the gate, not the planet (skillful I know). I ended up trapped in a well place Agony push bubble, somewhere close to 70km from the gate. Not thinking I moved towards the gate, MWD on, locking my guns first on a nearby Ishkur and then on a further Sabre, engaging my 220mm guns as I tried to make for the gate, breaking one of my own Vagabond rules as I did. I should have pushed for range, swinging around later to make it to the gate there would have been a good chance I would have survived, hell even killed the pesky small tackle that wished to scram my Vagabond. Instead, my death course was already set, the Vagabond Death Knell was quickly scrambled by the skillful Agony gang, reducing my momentum to a slow crawl. I luckily pushed out the side of the bubble, allowing just enough of my Vaga to be outside of the bubble that when my pod dropped from the shattered HAC I was able to warp out to a nearby Moon before being crushed. Other racers were meeting similar fates and I headed back to Assah to re-ship and try again. I made my way carefully, the previous Sabre and cane camp had left to join their compatriots in 4B-N. My pod made it all the way back to Assah, only to hear through the gang that Persephone Astrid had already crossed the finish line. Yeah so what if I gave up at that point!

I shook my head and headed back to pickup my now useless Stiletto, taking it back over to Rens. Shoulders slumped in defeat, I later found out that the Sabre I had been shooting at was eventually killed by a well placed bomb.

In any case it was all great fun, I just wish I had been able to make it to the start line sooner, would have been a blast to give Persephone a run for her money, or at least attempt to kill her. Alternatively I wish I had stationed a smartbombing BS in R3- to catch those pesky, no guns fit, speed setups and teach em what the death race is all about. Maybe next time.

Looking forward to it Rixx, great work, and I can only imagine it was a lot of work! I'll be around for the next one.

Look to the below links e for a list of winners and the first 14 Participants, I even netted a cool 20m for first kill! I rock like that!

Results link
Top 14

Keep watching the Death Race blog for the next event!

And of course the amazing EVEOGANDA Blog

The short list of Shiny!

2010-08-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

Along with Shota Cypher, Eve SOB, and Rixx,

I too will follow the mighty example of Astral and talk about what two ships I would love to have dropped into my hangar!

Well my list is a little hard to come up with because I can already fly all of them, it would just be a matter of buying them and outfitting! So I will focus on ones I don't currently own! That eliminates quite a few, making my choice much easier.

The Daredevil, just something about that sexy 90% web and nice damage gets me going with this ship. I've been leaning towards flying smaller, faster ships recently so this fits right in!

Since I have both the frig V skills for this little meany I would like to see how it handles. Other than some tourney time practices with it, I have no idea what it could do. Ahh the days of the 90% webs, how I miss you so. ANYWAYS, on to the number one on this list of wants!

Simply put, I guess my dreams must be pretty screwed up if you look at the two models of these two very similar ships. While being a very FOTM ship, the Dramiel still holds a lot of intrigue for me. I have yet to fly one since the faction frigate changes, but man do they ever look sleek and deadly!

Notching up impressive speed, a strong amount of EHP and the ability to keep out of range when needed the Dram is a easier choice to fly than the Daredevil. Feared across the cluster by now it still impresses me with how fast it can lock, speed AND ability to lay down some good DPS with just two guns.

In other news I have recently picked up my 21st public follower, so I guess I can say someone reads my blogs, so welcome to the newcomers, great to have you, cookies are issued in Saranen right now, come on down, over, or up!

The Rapier who thought he had a Vaga.

2010-08-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Rote has taken a vacation from Syndicate for a bit, and moved up close to Pure Blind, operating out of Saranen. Recently our activity has been way down, but that is very usual for our alliance as a whole since it is after all summer.

In any case RK has declared war on a few entities down there, currently we are at war with Mostly Harmless. Up until yesterday I hadn't had enough time or much luck finding any war targets in or around the lowsec area and I was never around for any of our recent gangs, so I headed out to highsec to see what I could find.

One of our members was being "camped" into the top torrinos station by a Rapier, since I was already in Nonni I started heading up that way post-haste, even though I thought for sure the Rapier would be gone by the time my Vagabond made the 6 or 8 jumps out there.

10 minutes later I appeared in Torrinos Local to find the Rapier was still sitting outside the top station and my corp mate, was actually in a travel fit Condor (not much help). Oh, and there were 7 WT's in local not just the Rapier, a fact that was omitted prior.

I warped to the top station at zero, expecting to have to dock quickly because the rapier was bound to have friends nearby. As with all Caldari Stations, the dock radius is absolutely MASSIVE, like bump proof, you can't kill me massive. I decided to stick close to the station while assessing the situation.

Moments after I landed and laid eyes on the Rapier, at a cool 76km from my Rapier a second WT warped back into the station, in a Ishtar. Now let's just say I have had a few bad piloting experiences ending in near death of my Vagabond regarding Ishtars and leave it at that. I'm not a fan when someone else is flying them, although as targets go they are far from as deadly as say a properly fit Curse is. In fact, now I think I could likely take one in a 1 v 1 fight, but with the Rapier there, usually webs + points + sentry drones is going to equal me leaving if I can dock OR a dead Vagabond.

I paced the station wearily, dodging around to the side of the station, putting the Ishtar at a place where it would have to fly around a portion of the station before having a clear shot at me, and placing undocking ships also unable to run right at me. Using the Station as a blocker can be very useful.

In any case, some of you must be wondering, or not but I am going to tell you anyways, why in a Vagabond, IE a nano boat, I am not afraid of a Rapier. It's simple, I know two things, 1. Solo there is no way a Rapier can tackle and kill me unless I just don't fire on him. 2. I haven't agressed, this is high-sec and we are at a station, he gets me in a sticky spot with backup, and I just undock, and warp away, as I said undock was on the other side of the station.

It must have been right around then that two WT Dominix undock from the station. My heart rate jumped up a little and then a little more as the range on the Rapier steadily dropped as he approached me. I returned his lock once he was in range (damn you terrible lock range on the Vaga). I also decided to open fire, so I aligned out towards another planet, minimizing my transversal to him, while keeping it high between myself and the two Domi.

My barrage M was making short work of his shields and just then he webbed me, at 50km! Well he must have at least one Faction Web then, crap! Oh well I guess I was already in this, just as the Domi's both stop moving and drop... Curators.

Why Curators? Well if I was not a Vaga and just some random shield based ship, yes Curators at their range (around 75-85km) would have been a good call, but against a Vagabond? Base shield resist of 70% em? Outside of the curators optimal range... The Rapier closed in, But I was the one smelling blood.

My point went active at 28km, and he was already in armor. I thought for sure he would try to burn away, try to disengage, but he just approached closer, shooting past me, 1km/s at less than 500m from my ship. Carelessly he must have thought getting closer would hamper the tracking of my 220mm guns. No such luck, his flyby setup his loot perfectly in front of me. When he popped, I looted as I passed and warped off, coming back seconds later for all I had missed. I guess he had missed the memo that the trap was being sprung on him. Sadly neither of his faction webs dropped... but at least I got another chunk of nanite paste!

His mates in the domi's scooped drones and warped off and then back to the station, and I was left, briefly, alone.

Shortly thereafter another Vaga, belonging to the Rapier's CEO arrived and started toying with me, revealing to be a HML version, while I was flying the Medium Neut version. His Fury Scorge missiles hurt at times, but mostly we just played a mutual game of cat and mouse. Him, unwilling to leave the protective envelope around the two domi's that had once again undocked, Me unwilling to go into the envelope of dominess!

Here are a few sweet tips kids. You can warp to sentry guns around high and low-sec stations, at varying ranges. Same goes for cans in space, anchored or not. Just have to be outside the 150km range of the gun or can you want to warp to. Using this and a bit of math you can give people hell but not give them time to properly respond before you are already gone. Torrinos top station has a few cans strewn about it, and a veritable cloud of sentry guns around it. Using these guns as a reference and the cans as warp out points, never landing at zero mind you, let you get caught for being stupid, I stayed alive, although dipping into low shields numerous times, forcing me to remove myself from the field, still in one piece.

It turned slowly into a fun, but ultimately futile standoff as the Vaga and Domi tried to trick me into range or tackle me to kill me, but were rather unable to do either. I'll blame pilot skill for that one ;)

I've made sure to save time to go see them again sometime soon.

Now can anyone tell me why that's a terribly fit Rapier? I look forward to it!

A bittervet pill to swallow

2010-08-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Man, I don't blog for a week and look what happens. Apparently Eve's on the Verge of falling apart! (again)

Yeah, that recent patch, you know the big one, the one that changes a bunch of things... yeah like last week. What do you mean there hasn't been one? Look, with this level of bitching there has to have been one. Haven't seen tears like this since... well, the Nano Nerf!

Look, I'm not kidding. It's not like CCP suddenly and drastically changed eve by any stretch of the imagination. Problems that people are on about today are the same problems they were on about when I first started playing. Swallow this pill carefully.

Sure, there's Lag, it's a problem that just won't be solved for so many reasons I can't and won't even take the time to point them all out here.

Sure there are blobs, no encouragement to do small gangs, no tactics > bringing more people (for the most part). Lowsec is a mess. Seriously!

Seriously NOW all this crap is suddenly game breaking? It's not mattered up until right damn now. Right when CCP's working on two other major projects people were CRYING about... Boohooo why can't we get Incarna now, we've been promised that for YEARS.

I blame blogging for the band-wagon negativity, I blame the CSM for trying and succeeding to publicize them not getting their way; and honestly I blame the poor souls who spend their time bitching about it. It's those who add to this fire. More power to them, they are expressing their views, but are they going to make me all EMO and mad at a game that's still fun? ummmm, nope!

I'm a skeptic about change in general, and always have been, did I think that the NanoNerf was going to suck, yes! Did it end eve for me? No. Eve's a simulation of real life, learn to adapt and overcome. It's like all the fun's gone from eve, it's not, damn it's still there, just like it was last week and the week before. Did lag stop those delicious tears of Hulkageddon 3 Helicity? Is lowsec suddenly that much worse because they aren't patching it tomorrow?

Oh wait, more ships killed than ever you say? That can't be! HG3 a smashing success, piracy on the rise? FW bringing people into lowsec even if it is for lame blobs? People loving PI and writing constant (and irritating since I don't PI) blogs about them? More blogs every week, video's released for eve action?

Right now activity in eve seems low, but hey! It is summer. Every summer I have played eve things get slow, real slow, down from 50 man gangs to 3 man gangs slow. This summer it's even worse than usual! Thanks 2:

SC2 just releasing, there are a variety of other good games out there right now pulling from the eve player base, like Red Dead Redemption, NCAA 2011, soon Madden, plus older games that are still good, like Dawn of War 2 : Chaos Rising. Those are just the games I can think of from the US.

If you are going to leave and you are an alliance leader, the guys who support EFT, or any other out of game mod, Corp CEO's etc. Then I am sorry to see you go, but it is your choice. If it's not fun, go find something fun. Don't leave eve because some noteables say it's terrible, leave when you stop having fun.

It is almost as if some people think that Eve was a desolate wasteland before THEY got there, so when they leave it's gonna return to it's ugly state. Eve's no more broken than it was 6-9 months ago. No less, but by god you would think it was the worst game ever the way some are going on about it! To further burst that bubble, when you leave I'm sure no less than 5 people will want your job, begrudgingly maybe, but they are there too.

This all reminds me of when I had the most fun in eve... When there was 14k concurrent users. Why? Because you could still solo and find more soloers, you could engage in fights and be sure not to see a 60 man blob land to kill your 5 man gang, sure 10 or 30 might show up and do the same, but not 60+. Otherwise everything was the same, we still had lag, we still had bad mechanics, we still had all the problems we have now. I lived with them then, I'm sure as hell gonna live with them now. Maybe as drop in subscribers returns us to that era, I for one can only hope. In short; my Eve is still fun. When the 30 factors needed combine for a good fight, or a good roam, it's the same game to me it was 2 weeks ago or even 3 years ago.

Here's to seeing a wasteland! Yes that is CCP HQ

Sorry to see you go, leave your keys on the way out so someone else can pickup where you left off if they like. I'll still be here.

For other great posts on the HTFU subject check out

EVEOGANDA
EVE SOB
Letrage's EvE Blog

No Blog Banter ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah

2010-07-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

Like the wise Kirith, although slightly less adamant than him. I will not be posting on this months Blog banter. Honestly the whole idea of it just doesn't really effect me that much.

I participate in small gang warfare, even after all the "improvements" suggested by the zealous CSMers, or the upcoming CCP backed new content, nothing really fixes or significantly changes my style of game play. If you are really looking for yet more opinions on the CSM to CCP relationship, I recommend taking that interest over to the list of active posters on the Blog Banter.

No Blog Banter ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah

Blog Bantererssss

You too can be Jason Statham or David Carradine!

2010-07-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

RJ over at EVEOGANDA has launched a new idea, a change in the concept of internetz spaceship racing as we know it.

Death Race 2010 is pretty simple from the looks of things; but it will be tough to win. The following is a snippet of the rule set coming from Rixx.

"On Sunday, August 22nd, hundreds of Eve pilots will embark on a dangerous, crazy and highly competitive race from their low-sec launch system, through the murky gate-camped systems of zero space and emerge once more into Empire!"

Looks pretty crazy, I must say, and seemingly a very good idea. I will be one of those crazy pilots, probably more killing minded than others there, just waiting for the right time to kill some peeps! I expect small fast ships, bigger fast ships and slower but more powerful bruisers to show up in numbers, it will be interesting to see who even makes it to the starting lines let alone the finish!

So how does it all work?

"To enter just pay your entrance fee indicating the name of the in-game character who will be participating in the race. The entrance fee is non-refundable and will be used solely for the Race prizes. If you don't show up on Race day you don't play, simple as that."

RULES:

"• Entrance fee is 5 million isk per racer
• Enrollment begins on August 1st, 2010
• Shuttles and Cloaky Ships are not allowed
• Ships that can fit a Cyno are also not allowed and using a Cyno is forbidden
• Aggression is permitted after the race starts
• Gangs, Teams and Corps are permitted (But each racer pays the entrance fee)
• Fleet up will occur in a low-sec system to be announced
• The Death Race is Sunday, August 22nd and will start at 18:00 Eve time

> Other details will be announced as race day approaches. Details regarding entrance fees and enrollment will be posted shortly."

This should be a great event, I look forward to seeing the prizes and more importantly, the carnage. There should be a Death Race 2010 dedicated Kill Board so people can watch the fights as they progress, and the losses. I'll make sure to suggest that to Mr. Javix.

As for some clarifications, he hopes fitting swaps, changes to ships in flight will cost the people who do such dastardly things, a bunch of time, the one valuable commodity in a race such as this. T3's are allowed so it should be interesting seeing who shows up in those gilded ships, ready to avoid the bubbles of nullsec but drawing every greater numbers of gankers and interest with every system they fly through. Possible ship idea's are flowing now, so good luck to all!

Until then, tune those engines, pay your fee, and I'll see you on the track.

Sexy and Shiny

2010-07-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

Feared pilots across New Eden are only enhanced by the ships they fly. Thanks to a great listing by Kirith, there have been many other bloggers displaying what they think are the top five badass looking Pirate ships or rather, for me, ships in Eve.

Let's start it off with #5!

#5 Has to be the beautiful but ultimately difficult to fit, fly and use Navy Omen. It's the short range brother of the Zealot, packing quite a punch and a small drone bay to boot, but its look is just one of pure sex appeal. Hire extra crew to keep all that chrome polished!

#4 the so ugly it's sexy (in my opinion) Vagabond. While I love this beast, I can say that it is far from the most sexy ship in the game, but for me it's still close to the top despite it's flying Vulture/Chicken look some claim it has.

#3 has to be the sleek black sex appeal of the Curse! All neuts NOS and drones, speedy and shield tanked. I miss the extra thruster it used to have in the back, but none the less, still just another sexy variation of the sleek Yarrbitrator hull.

#2 Guns bristling, lazors pewing, there is no substitute for the sex that is the Crusader! One of a few frigate class hulls to house 4 gun slots, the Crusader shows them off well, hanging them from wing to wing, dripping menace and death. While it is a difficult ship to fly just right, and a harder one to fit outside the cookie cutter setups usually employed, the Crusader is still damn sexy!

#1 my all time favorite Pirating boat, the Rupture. While recent graphical changes have limited it's previously even more sexy rear-Castle, the Rupture retains it's 19th century Warship vibe, giving it the broadside needed to finish first in my list. It also helped that I flew it near constantly for over a year I liked it so much. I always imagined throwing crazy parties, while waiting for targets to show up or just after they did, all housed in the rear of that fine ship.

Others chattering about the same topic :

Kirith Darkblade
Mail Lite
Kishin Hattori
Arrhidaeus

I will try to keep updated if more people post the same, but I'm not promising anything!

We are Rote Kapelle

2010-07-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since RK looked collectively at our front page and re-did the wording introducing our alliance. Through some collaboration and revisions on my part, this is are a few samples of what we came up with. I like them both so it's going to make the "choosing" process later down the line harder =/

There are those who see the hand of god in turning hounds against their fellow man. Zealots who proclaim their religion loudly, their "savior" providing their chains.

There are those who yearn for the freedom of their brothers so strongly, that they bind themselves as surely as if they wore a collar.

Some declare themselves free of religion while worshiping their production lines and financial devices.Others build temples of bureaucracy, chaining and sacrificing freedom in the name of securing said freedom.

There is a secret. They are all mad. And they envision themselves your master.

You wake up in the clone vat, you wake up in the clone vat, you wake up in the clone vat, and suddenly there it is, staring at you. What now?

What now?

Perhaps; you can flee empire, running to the edge of the galaxy. You can build your own civilization there. You can duplicate the errors of empire, and then YOU can be the tyrant. But now you are a virus propagating the perverse system. No longer a victim, instead the victimizer. Sufficient, though perhaps selfish.

Perhaps you can ignore your terrible knowledge. Go back to the University of Caille, lock your office door, and explain to the students how the system may be flawed, but it is all we have. Tell them to ignore the demons, because if they don't look at them, then they can't become them.

That is a lie, which will be evidenced by the corpses of those you teach.

There are those who know what you know, and are doing something about it. This insanity cannot be fought with rhetoric, and will not JUST GO AWAY. The blood of the free will spill, and where it falls, people will wake up, as if from a trance. And they will be free as well.

When you are finished running. When you are finished lying to yourself. When you are ready to fight the oppression of the system, the free men and women of Rote Kapelle will be nearby.

Rote Kapelle is a front organization for various individuals and corporations who are dedicated to the absolute destruction of the memetic and sociological chains which bind transhumans to the dead ideals of the empires. To this end, they use every tool in their grasp to fight back at the darkness of oppression.

It may be the man in the boardroom fingering his unregistered pistol under the table. It may be the mechanic working on the jump drive of the State Carrier in Luminaire. It may be the young woman walking by you right now, coat stuffed with explosives. It may be the family man building ammunition and explosives in his private workshop to fuel the revolution.

When you are ready, we are Rote Kapelle.

Alternatively :

There are those who see the hand of god in turning hounds against their fellow man. Zealots who proclaim their religion loudly, their "savior" providing their chains.

There are those who yearn for the freedom of their brothers so strongly, that they bind themselves as surely as if they wore a collar.

Some declare themselves free of religion while worshiping their production lines and financial devices.

Others build temples of bureaucracy, chaining and sacrificing freedom in the name of securing freedom.

    There is a secret.

                        They are all mad.

                                     And they envision themselves your master.

We are expatriates and ex-patriots. We are traitors, and terrorists. Spies and infiltrators. Betrayers of their nightmare-dream. We are the discarded children of the nations that sought to enslave their very own flesh and blood, to bind and shackle us to their benefit: our toil, our tears, our sweat, our blood, for their profit. We were once you. We have removed the shackle, refuted the lie, awoken from their dream and repulsed their efforts to return us to the fold. We have found enlightenment. We are no longer their servants.

All of mankind’s children are offered the same choice that we were, of freedom or servitude, yet few have the courage and conviction to choose the path we are taking and all of the difficulties that it holds. Grizzled veterans and newborn alike, we are the revolutionaries of New Eden; we fight every day to show the people of these tyrants that they die for everything worth nothing to them. No one person is any less significant than any other in this fight. It is a war of extirpation, a war whose end is the devastation of these empires. A war on a scale never before seen, involving all, man, woman, and child.

From the heart of the empires to the edges of known space, with the self-stylized kings, queens, emperors and gods who try so hard to be separate and different, yet who only succeed at fooling themselves, we fight them all. They do not rule us any longer. We have torn the veil that blinds the common man to the truth: the truth that, be it empire or the very fringes of known space, a tyrant is a tyrant. The populace trades in freedom of the individual for the “freedom” to draw borders, to levy taxes, to write their own laws. Our blood and theirs stains the path that all must one day walk. The slaves and sycophants bleed to cover the truth. That their lives and the lives of their masters are forfeit.

One day you will find us. Some will come to hunt us, some to ridicule us, and some will simply cheer from the sidelines. You are all our enemies; those too entrenched in your ways to accept what must be, what is, and what will be. Those too afraid to choose a side are our enemy as surely as any star spanning nation. You are either with us or you are against us. There will be no sidelines in this war. No simple negotiation or notification. We claim no space - we travel with the winds of war take us, our home is amongst the stars and darkness of New Eden. What purpose to claim the stars as your own save to exclude others from them and to exert your perceived power over those you allow entry.

Every day our numbers swell with podders and freebirths alike. The family man, the pirate, from the simplest to the most enslaved are among us. The disillusioned, they came to seek the truth. They came to seek freedom, to escape from the oppression of the oligarchies that demand we all submit. When you are finished cowering in fear or sicken of turning a blind eye to the system, The day when you are ready to stop fighting for a system that only grows off your blood, join the revolution. We will never tire. We will never surrender.

When you are ready, we are Rote Kapelle.