Fixing Eve: Assault Ships

Despite the buffs, I've yet to be really thrilled by any Assault Frigates fits that I've seen so far. As I've said in other posts, this is because I don't want to fly an Assault Frigate without an mwd because of the vulnerability to camps and gangs. Saturday evening alone I evaded five camps in ten minutes just roaming around Hev; I would not have been able to do that in an afterburner fit ship.

However, when fitting an mwd, you either need to go dual prop, or kiting fit (which my Interceptor already does). CCP could not give AFs an extra mid for dual prop, because that extra mid could be used for a great many more broken things instead. I completely understand why this would not have been possible.

My solution?


Assault Drives

Create an entirely new prop mod, only usable by Assault Frigates. This "assault drive" functions like an afterburner most of the time, but when you overheat it, it functions like an mwd. Hey presto, problem solved!

Now, most people I suggest this to say something along the lines of "that's horribly broken!", but I beg to differ.

First, it does not do anything that an AF cannot already do. Any AF can strap on two prop mods; it's just that with the limited midslots on frigates, they will probably be unable to include tackle/tank/web or whatever other midslot module the ship is based around. Nobody is screaming that those dual prop ships are overpowered; in fact, I don't think anyone is even bothering to fly them.

Second, this is a really easy way to balance AFs without impacting other ships. Because it's an AF only module, CCP can tweak the assault drive to do exactly what they want it to do. Feel that AFs should only have 60 seconds of mwd speed? Adjust the heat damage accordingly. Feel that full mwd is too slow/fast? Adjust the overheat bonus. And so on.

With an assault drive, AFs would have a decent chance of navigating gate camps and actually finally get into scram range. The initial mwd "charge" would make AFs much like EVEs cavalry, smashing into the enemy for a short, sharp engagement - the kind of fight you envisage from something with the word "assault" in the name, no?

It also prevents AFs from competing directly with Cruisers, giving each a distinct role. AFs might have comparable tank or damage output, but they would lack the longevity in manoeuvre heavy fights, as they would need to constantly break off to repair the heat damage to their assault drives.

Of course, nothing like this is going to happen, but I think that it would make a better fix than what we currently have, while actually giving Assault Frigates a unique role/feature, which they sorely lack right now.

Crow v Vexor

 

The hunt:

The last time I took on a Vexor in my Crow it was largely because I could not find anything else to fight. This time, however, I decided to engage simply because I knew that victory was possible, and I was prepared to take my chances in order to get an above class solo kill - my very favourite kind of kill.

He was sitting in a belt, either bait or ratting. Vexors aren't usually bait ships because their drone bay makes them scary for frigates, so I though the chances were good that he was ratting. Since he had probably jumped to zero and then moved some distance towards the rats, I warped in at 20 km with a preheated point.

I had guessed the range correctly, and landed my point as soon as I dropped out of warp. I activated my mwd and settled into a 18km orbit while loading Javelin (I tend not to jump in with Javelin loaded, as I may need to close - or open - some distance in a hurry).

He opened fire and sent his drones after me, but they were not Warrior drones, so they stood no chance of catching me. With that established, it was simply a matter of whittling down his tank before he exploded.

2012.01.22 10:33:00

Victim: Damad Aideron
Corp: Federal Navy Academy
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Vexor
System: Lisbaetanne
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 7380

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Crow
Weapon: Thorn Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 7380

Destroyed items:

250mm 'Scout' Accelerator Cannon
Uranium Charge M, Qty: 154
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Core Scanner Probe I, Qty: 4
Expanded Cargohold I
Overdrive Injector System I
Core Scanner Probe I (Cargo)
Uranium Charge M, Qty: 256 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 310 (Cargo)
Tungsten Charge M, Qty: 80 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

250mm 'Scout' Accelerator Cannon
Reactor Control Unit I
Salvager I
Medium Shield Extender I
Core Probe Launcher I
Medium Shield Booster I
100mm Reinforced Nanofiber Plates I
Heavy Neutron Blaster I
Warp Core Stabilizer I (Cargo)
Praetor I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)


Afterthoughts:

From the killmail, and the lack of rats in the belt, it looks like he was actually doing some exploration. Huh.

Fights like this tend to be very one sided. However, you don't know who's favoured until you actually engage. If he had been packing Warrior II drones, or I had landed within medium neut range, or one of any number of things had been different, I would have stood no chance of winning, would have had real difficulty just saving my ship.

But once you find out that they don't have any of those things, then you have inevitability on your side. That really front-loads the excitement in many cases, although I've still been known to mess up even "safe" fights.

Fitting a Vengenace: Theory Edition

So, Crucible 1.1 has hit, and Assault Frigates have been buffed. Time for a new fit.

Now, given the Vengeance received +1 high slot and +10 CPU, the obvious thing to do would be to simply throw a nos onto my old fit, say thank you for the ROF buff, and fly away in a strictly superior ship.

However, dps and vulnerability to neuts were not the reason I stopped flying the Vengeance. Can this new Vengeance solve some of the problems the old Vengeance suffered from?


What are we trying to fix?

I stopped flying the Vengeance for two reasons, both related to speed.

First, I'd all too often find myself warping to a belt/mission only to see my intended victim sitting 30 km away. Overheating my afterburner, I'd start towards them at a lazy 900ish m/s, and not be terribly surprised when they warped away before I got into overheated point range.

On a similar vein, if there was an impromptu gang fight, I'd find myself left out by all the mwd manoeuvring, unable to catch up to the larger (and supposedly slower) vessels.

Secondly, though, the Vengeance lacked the ability to evade any gangs and camps that I met on gates or at plexes. Too slow to either burn back to the gate or burn out of range, simple bad luck would cost me my ship. Wrong place, wrong time. I was once kited for 10 minutes by a Kestrel until his FW gang arrived. No amount of clever manoeuvring is going to throw a long point when you can't even crack 1 km/s overheated.


Problem > Solution > Problem

The obvious answer to my speed problem is fitting an mwd on my Vengeance, and the new role bonus makes this a far less painful solution than it once was.

That said, mwd frigates need to be very clear about what kind of targets they engage, and how, because a scram can just ruin their day. My other two mid slots and my utility high need to be devoted to the kind of fight I am looking for.


Potential target - AB/scram frigates/destroyers

While a scram does give me problems, it's not insurmountable. Fitting a neut in my high slot, for example, would shut down an enemy frigate's own prop mod and turn the fight into a straight up slugging match; the Vengeance is very good at that kind of fight.

I could fit a web for higher dps and a reduced speed disadvantage, or I could fit a cap booster to keep the neut and repair system running more smoothly. Some EFTing (when EFT gets updated) will give me an idea of the cap situation, and I suspect that these numbers would inform the booster/web decision. If a booster is called for, it raises the possibility of a second repair system.

Essentially, this fit would charge headlong into combat, and try to quickly shut down the active tank and manoeuvring systems of the enemy frigate/destroyer before brawling it down in a straight up dps/tank vs dps/tank fight; a battle Vengeance is uniquely well equipped to win.

Of course, the neut would be a wasted slot against larger ships. A cap booster could serve a dual role here, though, and help sustain the Vengeance against medium+ neuts. I would still need to get under the larger ship's guns (which might work, if they had no web, or no scram), however.

Alternatively, I could try a ranged kiting fit, but my Crow already does a far better job of that.


Potential target - cruiser+

Against this sort of target, the key thing is getting under their guns, so a secondary prop mod would probably be very useful - even if they don't have a scram, the sig bloom on an mwd (despite the role bonus) would probably make the job harder than it needs to be. It also eats cap that I will want for the repair system.

The good news is that these ships are very sluggish once you drop a scram on them, reducing our need for a web to maintain dps (although it is still useful for killing drones quickly). This makes fitting the afterburner relatively pain-free.

Obviously, a nos in the high slots would help enormously in countering enemy neuts.

Again, this fit would want to make a fast approach, but it would not look to overwhelm the target, but rather grind it away, countering any efforts to dislodge it.

Unlike the previous fit, though, this would be a very poor choice against ships outside it's intended engagement envelope; anything packing a web and scram will just leave if it looks like the Vengeance will win.


Decisions, decisions.

When I started this post, I had thought that I would end up wanting to try the "big game hunter" first, largely because my Crow already takes apart most ab/scram frigates.

However, with the cap booster rather than a web (which is something I came up with while typing), the "cap attack" Vengeance reminds me of what I was trying to do in my early days with the Punisher until I realised that it could not sustain an active tank and a neut. Perhaps with a cap booster, the Vengeance can (or, like the Punisher, it could fit a buffer tank).

It also looks like the "cap attack" Vengeance would not be terrible against pve fit cruiser+ because of the Vengeance's innate cap regen bonus (although the mwd penalty will affect this). This gives it a wider engagement envelope, which is always good when roaming.



And that's a good thing.

Malediction et alia v Dominix & Dominix

 

The hunt:

I was roaming the spaceways in my Crow when our intel channels reported two Dominix (Domini?) in Jovainnon. They were in the process of being probed down, and some dps & tackle was needed to make the kill.

Because other pilots were reshipping into battlecruisers, I took the opportunity to reship into my armour Malediction - I thought that the added point range would be very helpful in dodging large neuts. Besides, it had been a while since I flew my Malediction last.

My corp-mates and I then gathered on the gates, waiting for the go signal. When everyone was in place, I was given the signal to jump through, and I was fleet warped to the Domini. Coming out of warp, I reported an acceleration gate, which I activated. Coming out of warp a second time, I was about 50 km from the two battleships, but with an overheated mwd and an overheated point, that's practically nothing.

Setting my orbit at 22 km, I called in the other pilots, making sure to identify which battleship was pointed, and which was not. The second Domi must have been distracted by trying to kill me - they were throwing all their drones at me - and not seen the spike in local until it was too late. We had them both locked down.

That's when I learned that heavy neuts have a range of 24 km, not 20 km as I had previously thought. Managing to get in range (my 22 km orbit had thrown me out to 24+ initially), the second Domi was able to hit me with a heavy neut, which in turn allowed the drones to catch me and start doing some actual damage.

My point held up, though, so I reported the need to bail while I aligned out. As soon as I got confirmation on the back-up point, I warped away at about 25% armour. I then pulled a fast 180 and returned to the fight - the fantastic thing about having an active tank is that I was at 100% armour by the time I got back.

Setting my orbit wider this time, everything else ran smoothly, and the battleships were ours.

2012.01.15 15:42

Victim: Magnat Jo
Corp: The Scope
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Dominix
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 48062

Involved parties:

Name: Gist General / Angel Cartel
Damage Done: 23244
Name: Susitna
Security: -9.8
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Damage Done: 9963

Name: Yahrr (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.4
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Tengu
Weapon: Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 6635

Name: OOMPUS LOOMPUS
Security: -9.4
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Thorax
Weapon: Warrior II
Damage Done: 3078

Name: Shigeru Tamura
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 2808

Name: Morin Blain
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 2334

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Warp Disruptor II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

425mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Qty: 2
Drone Link Augmentor I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Drone Navigation Computer I
Damage Control II
Large 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Reactive Plating II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Iron Charge L, Qty: 2614 (Cargo)
Stolen Passkey (Cargo)
Lead Charge L, Qty: 342 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge L, Qty: 1122 (Cargo)
Scan Resolution, Qty: 14 (Cargo)
Large Sentry Damage Augmentor I
Large Ancillary Current Router I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Warden I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead II, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 7 (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Small Tractor Beam I
Lead Charge L, Qty: 72
Drone Link Augmentor I
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 3
Drone Navigation Computer I
Sensor Booster II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II, Qty: 2
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 10 (Cargo)
Warden I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead II, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 8 (Drone Bay)

2012.01.15 15:43

Victim: Captain HlaPeX
Corp: The Scope
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Dominix
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 39944

Involved parties:

Name: Shigeru Tamura (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 14808

Name: Susitna
Security: -9.8
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 11205

Name: Yahrr
Security: -9.4
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Tengu
Weapon: Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 6487

Name: OOMPUS LOOMPUS
Security: -9.4
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Thorax
Weapon: Warrior II
Damage Done: 3971

Name: Morin Blain
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 3473

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Rocket Launcher II
Damage Done: 0
Name: Gist War General / Angel Cartel
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Drone Link Augmentor I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I, Qty: 2
Sensor Booster II
Drone Navigation Computer I
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 4
Heavy Capacitor Booster II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II, Qty: 2
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 18 (Cargo)
Large Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I, Qty: 2
Ogre I, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead II, Qty: 8 (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Scan Resolution
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Disruptor II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Reactive Plating II
Large Armor Repairer I
Scan Resolution, Qty: 24 (Cargo)
Hammerhead II, Qty: 7 (Drone Bay)
Ogre I (Drone Bay)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)


Afterthoughts:

I've been almost exclusively roaming solo recently, so it was great to get in on a little bit of impromptu gang action. As much as I've been enjoying the Crow, it felt great to be flying the Malediction again in the role it was meant to fill.

Of course, my mistake regarding the range of heavy neuts was less than smooth, but then, for most of my early career I was a brawler, and up close all neuts look pretty much the same.

Combat Cloaky

The hunt:

I was roaming about one night when I became irritated by an abundance of afk pilots sitting in safe spots. These were not high end ships, but rather rookie ships and industrials and the like. These pilots were hiding in plain view, secure in the knowledge that the pathetic combat values of their ships and the effort of actually finding them would keep them safe.

At first I just ignored them, but they were everywhere, and they cluttered up my D-scan dreadfully. Finally, I decided that someone needed to do something about this, and I returned to Hevrice to collect my probing ship.

However, they were right, to an extent. Jumping back and forth between ships would be a pain, especially as I would have to wait out my gcc between each kill because otherwise the station guns would try to vapourise me on the dock/undock.

And that's when it hit me: I needed a Combat Cloaky! I could save masses of time by just killing them in my probing ship, and it would be far more amusing that using an actual combat vessel.

Quickly throwing together something laughably called a fit, with one rocket launcher, a cloak, expanded probe launcher and about three scrams (in case of warp stabilisers), I set out on in my trusty Anathema to hunt.

I made no effort to hide my probes, but quickly scanned out an Iteron that soon painfully slowly fell to my rockets.

A Prorator nearly followed, but I forgot about the locking delay and he warped off when I uncloaked but could not immediately point him.

For my next kill I warped in at range (to ensure it was not at a pos), and then warped in a second time, dropping cloak as I did so. It turns out that this Velator was actually not piloted, but since it was cluttering up my D-scan, I destroyed it any way. Apparently, that still nets me a killmail.

By this point, my combat probes had been out for a good 15 minutes, and the other afk pilots were taking the hint and bailing out of Aeschee as fast as they could. So, after waiting out my gcc, I called it a night, feeling very much like  OFFICA LADY SHANIQUA after a full day of SERVING JUSTIC.


Afterthoughts:

Sometimes, you need to leave the serious pvp behind for a little while and just do something crazy and fun. This is part of why sucide ganking is so popular; although I've never been a fan, I've not condemmed others for enjoying it. For my part, I had loads of fun on my JUSTIC PATROL, and I hope to do it again some time.

Which probably means I need to come up with a decent combat fit for my Anathema.

Crow v Bellicose

The hunt:

This was another fight that happened because I let someone engage me on a gate. Flying an Interceptor, I'm pretty much immune to all but the best gate camps in low sec, and I'm certainly not going to be caught by a random encounter on a gate unless I'm unlucky or not paying attention.

In this case, I was happy to let the fight happen. I knew I could not kill the Bellicose, as if things went wrong for him he would just deagress and jump out. That said, I wanted to see how I would do - I'm still interested in seeing how large my engagement envelope is.

He could not hit me worth beans, so I played tag with his drones. He kept pulling them in and putting them out, so it was slow going. The lack of web means that while I can still hit drones, I hit them for far less damage. It also makes it easy for him to recall injured drones, so only managed to kill a couple.

At about 30% shields, I decided to leave. There were no celestials directly away from him, so I chose one on a tangent and hit warp. My change of course carried me into medium neut range, however, which canceled my warp and shut off the mwd. That allowed him to hit me with a scram, and I was done.

2012.01.08 10:12:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Crow
System: Ladistier
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 4125

Involved parties:

Name: Remus Starwinder (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.4
Corp: Rep-X
Alliance: Bringers of Death.
Faction: None
Ship: Bellicose
Weapon: Piranha Light Missile
Damage Done: 4125

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Salvager I
Warp Disruptor II
Thorn Javelin Rocket, Qty: 597 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Thorn Javelin Rocket, Qty: 150
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Medium Shield Extender II
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 552 (Cargo)


Afterthoughts:

This was a pretty safe fight for both of us, although my own margin of error was lower than his. It's not so much that Remus (gotta love the handlebar mustache, btw) did anything clever to beat me, he just remained alert enough to take advantage of my eventual screw-up. And good for him, too.

In these little ways I'm learning that the habits I developed flying an Assault Ship don't always carry over well to Interceptors. The truth is, Assault Ships are very forgiving, with beefy tanks and significant dps, and so your piloting does not need to be as clean as it does when flying an Interceptor, where your piloting is your tank.

This explains why I did not enjoy flying Interceptors when I first tried them; whereas AFs require high character skills, Interceptors also require high player skills, and it's only been in the last few months that my player skills have been high enough to actually make good use of the Interceptor's strengths.

Evidently, though, I've still got some room for improvement.

Crow v Rifter et alia

The hunt:

This particular fight went down when I was heading back to Hevrice after salvaging my wreck from Crow v Slicer, and I saw a flashy Rifter sitting on the gate. I was not interested in fighting, as I had a load of loot and salvage, but he jumped through with me, with the obvious intention of engaging me on the other side.

He broke cloak first, and was 10 km from me. I tried to remember if an overheated scram reaches that far, but it had been so long since I used one I couldn't remember. To be safe, I decided to align to a celestial and activate my mwd - my initial speed ought to ensure I was carried out of point range. It seemed to work, so I activated my own point and began to orbit him outside of scram range. He'd done me the favour of aggressing, and I was not about to waste the opportunity. Opening fire, I began to chip away at his tank.

That's when a Catalyst and a Velator jumped through the gate, and started targeting me. No, that wasn't a typo, I was ambushed by a Velator. I don't think the three ships were all together, but for some reason, whenever I'm fighting someone on a gate (or elsewhere, for that matter), any third parties are guaranteed to target me first. I have no idea why this is.

The newcomers forced me to break dps (ie, effective range) on the Rifter for a few moments while made sure I was not going to get into scram range of the other two ships. I resumed dps, but the pause was enough that the Rifter survived long enough to deagress and jump out. Damn it!

I then turned on the Catalyst, noting that while I had been keeping range on the Rifter, the Catalyst had managed to strip my shields away. Now that I was able to focus on avoiding his dps, however, I managed to stay in high amour and so I began returning fire. He was not tanked nearly so well as the Rifter, and he went down fast enough that I was also able to hit the Velator.

2012.01.07 18:27

Victim: Tod Aldent
Corp: BlackBird Technologies
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Catalyst
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3204

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Crow
Weapon: Thorn Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 3204

Destroyed items:

150mm 'Scout' Accelerator Cannon, Qty: 4
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 21
Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Damage Control I
Nanomechanical CPU Enhancer I
Small Armor Repairer I
Plutonium Charge S, Qty: 2488 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
Small Ancillary Current Router I, Qty: 3

Dropped items:

150mm 'Scout' Accelerator Cannon, Qty: 4
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 35
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 3032 (Cargo)

Afterthoughts:

My first 1v3! Although I obviously had ship quality on my side, both Rifters and Catalysts are more than capable of taking on an Interceptor solo, let alone in a gang. It was really quite exciting, trying to evade all those pilots while putting them down one by one.

This is part of what makes flying an Interceptor so different from flying an AF. While my Vengeance might have been able to tank all the incoming damage (or it might not), I certainly would not have been able to out manoeuvre my opponents in this way.

I wish I'd managed to get that Rifter, though. I probably would have if I'd overheated my launchers early in the fight. Something to consider for next time.

Crow v Stiletto

The hunt:

I was on a roam, when I landed on a gate with Stiletto sitting at zero. He was not flashy, so I jumped on through. I saw him jump after me, so it seemed that he fancied his chances.

He broke cloak first, and the range between us made me feel fairly comfortable engaging - I was beyond scram range, and I was pretty sure that he couldn't keep me in the fight if I really wanted to leave.

So we began orbiting each other. He was artillery fit, and had a rough time hitting me. When he did hit, he did very little damage. If my shield skills were any good, there would have been a real question about whether he could break my peak shield regen.

On the other hand, I found myself unable to hit him at all. I have no range extending rigs on this Crow, because with Interceptors V, it hits out to 22km with Javelin rockets. Of course, I don't have Interceptors V (And yes, I am aware that I am sounding like a broken record on this point, and Interceptors V is clearly the most important skill in all EVE, but I'm training it as fast as I can!).

Because CCP can be very cruel, they have left the speed penalty on Javelin rockets, despite removing it from gunnery ammunition. While probably an oversight, and will be fixed "soon", it left me in the following situation:

If I loaded Javelin, I was too slow to actually dictate the range agains the Stiletto, and my imperfect skills left me unable to hit him. If I loaded faction, however, the rockets were not actually fast enough to catch him (faction rockets have a velocity of 2,250 m/s before skills and bonuses, whereas Javelin has a base velocity of 3,375 m/s). Because Interceptors V adds a 10% velocity bonus to my rockets, either tactic would probably have worked if I was at max skills.

Still, I was not about to give up; all I needed to do was figure out a way to get close while having Javelin loaded. Cunningly, therefore, I broke away and very obviously warped to the sun at 50 km. This gave my shields a chance to top up, and I expected him to expect me to expect him to warp to the sun at range (ie, 20-30 km), and so would actually warp in at 50 km. Putting him right on top of me.

Dissappointingly, he didn't warp to the Sun at all. Even though I'd not laid a finger on him - which meant that he was "winning" - he did not appear to fancy his chances. Instead, he just waited out his aggression timer and left.


Afterthoughts:

Another fight made difficult by my lack of a clear speed advantage. While I may grumble about my rockets, the truth is that it would have been very hard to hold onto him if I had started winning - just as he was unable to hold onto me.

Of course, rockets give me a huge advantage here: I can get in close (making it harder for him to escape) and actually keep hitting him (theoretically - max faction rocket velocity in a Crow is 5,062.5 m/s), whereas there is no way the tracking on his artillery is going to be up to the task.

2011: The High Points

This was a post inspired by Jester and FNG, and I hope you will all forgive me the self indulgent reminising.

Jester made a list of the most significant events in EVE for 2011. FNG noted that the events on Jester's list, while significant, did not affect him on a personal level. His own list would be full of events that made little difference to anyone but those involved; special kills, and the like.

I whole heartedly agree with FNG, and this got me thinking about my own list of memorable events. After some (brief) thought, this is what I came up with.

5) Punisher 6.3: This was my first low sec kill, and a classic Punisher v Rifter. While I had made some other kills previously, they were in high sec, and the pilots were other noobs. This, on the other hand, was a genuine, scary, low sec roam hitting a genuine, scary, low sec Rifter. The details of the fight have faded from memory, but the ship itself is the only early combat kill that really sticks in my mind.

4) Punisher 19.8: While I had read about the Tuskers, and even managed to join the corp, this was one of my first chances to see them in action. Flying with Kishin was an eye opening experience; as I think I say in my post, I was struck by the fact that, rather than congratulate himself for surviving a 1v2, he chastised himself for letting one get away. My entire perspective on EVE pvp shifted that day.

3) Vengeance & Dramiel v Caldari Navy Caracal & Tengu: Another crazy Kishin experience, and my first T3 kill. I remember this kill especially because of how it contrasted with Punisher 19.8. I entered the fight because Kishin called for backup rather than simply because I was there. I survived the fight rather than being casually swatted aside. I contributed rather than effectively being a spectator. It was a really good feeling. I think that's when I first started feeling like I was doing more than just freeloading off my corp-mates.

2) Vengeance et alia v Dramiel et alia: It's actually only the Pilgrim at the end of the fight that sticks in my mind, but it's not something I'm likely to forget any time soon. First and foremost, I remember because my corp mates did not abandon me when I was pointed, despite the seeming certainty that they would be destroyed. I was completely new to the Tuskers, and there were no bonds of loyalty between us beyond a corp ticker. But they stayed anyway.

Secondly, I remember the intense micro it took to keep the Pilgrim pointed, myself alive, and the drones under fire; I was taken by surprise, but I rose to the occassion.

Finally, it's the first time I met/flew with our commander in chief, Ka Jolo.

If you've never flown with him, I'll tell you that no matter what's going on, Jolo always seems calm. He can be in he middle of losing a ship, and his voice stays low and even. So here's me, freaking out over all this micro, unable to believe that I'm still alive (and wondering when my luck will run out) and Jolo calmly strolls up (Jolo does not warp anywhere, he strolls. Seriously. Even his Interceptors.) in a Hurricane to resucue us and extract an outlandish (in my noobish eyes) ransom from the Pilgrim.

All together, it was very much a "welcome to the Tuskers" moment.

1) Punisher 18.5: I've never put as much effort into a single kill as I did into this one, and I have never, before or since, soloed another Battleccruiser in a T1 Frigate. It was also the second above class kill I needed to apply to the Tuskers, and so this kill is indelibly linked my mind to joining my corp. The two events, taken together, have probably been the most rewarding experience I have had in EVE to date.


Disclaimer

I did not reread any of these fights before (or after) posting about them, so there may well be some inconsistencies. However, that's not the point. Instead, the focus of this post is about the lasting impression these experience left on me.

I've tried to be pretty honest about how I felt, right up to the wide-eyed noobishness that I can see clearly on the page. Truth is, those moments of noobish wonder, that feeling of crossing a threshold, are the most powerful experiences EVE offers. Part of the magic of this game is that it offers so many thresholds for us to cross.

Crow v Slicer

The hunt:

I'm getting serious about my little Crow. I'm enjoying her fun, fiesty nature, that irresistible blend of speed, tank and dps. Sure, she's not much to look at, but I love the way she moves.

Getting serious is not always easy, though; that "getting to know you" phase can be a real roller coaster as you put her in unfamiliar situations and find out what she will (and won't) do.

And let's not forget the cost! Sure, there are some fun things you can do on a budget, but eventually you are going to have to splash out to cover expenses.

Amusing metaphors aside, any ship you decide to fly heavily needs to be thoroughly stress-tested. By pushing the envelope until it tears, you find out what you and the ship are truly capable of. This is why I've been throwing myself at Cruisers recently, and this is why I engaged the Slicer.

I tried to jump in on him at a belt (so he's obviously pvp fit and skilled), but, as so often happens, he jumped out before I landed, probably trying to jump in on me. I stayed put, and he warped back in for a fight.

I knew that I was never going to be able to out-range the Slicer, and even if I could, he would be fast enough to break free of my point - a Slicer moves at about 3.2 km/s before overheat. However, my Crow tops 4 km/s before overheat, so I decided to try and get in close and evade his tracking; Slicers are often quite greedy, and fit the heaviest guns they can.

My ehp should be a little higher than his, and my damage fairly consistent, so if I could get under his guns, it would be a fairly short fight. Of course, if I couldn't get under his guns, it would also be a short fight; Slicers have insane dps.

So I set my orbit for 500m and immediately overheated my launchers. Because I was not trying for range, and because I wanted a speed advantage, I loaded faction rockets, which have a higher dps than Javelin. I rammed them straight down his throat.

While I did not chat with the pilot afterwards, I think I surprised him, as Slicers do not usually expect to be involved in a close range brawl. And my combat log tells me that I managed force a miss on about one of every three of his shots. That's not as much mitigation as I had hoped for, but then his speed was so high that he kept managing to temporarily gain some distance whenever my ship slowed (as it does, settling into a 500m orbit). As I turned to pursue, he'd land a few shots until I got close again.

What I had not anticipated, though, is that my own dps was being mitigated too. Although I could hit him easily, each volley was at a reduced damage because of his high speed. An issue I had overlooked simply because I'm not used to engaging targets as fast as a Slicer.

I was far too close to the Slicer to disengage, so I simply gave it all I had. Ultimately, though, I lost the damage race, and exploded.

2012.01.07 17:28

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Crow
System: Ouelletta
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2556

Involved parties:

Name: razzukel certiko (laid the final blow)
Security: -7.2
Corp: DAXUS-AG
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Imperial Navy Slicer
Weapon: Medium Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2545

Name: Serpentis Guard / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 11

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Thorn Javelin Rocket, Qty: 900 (Cargo)
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Dropped items:

Salvager I
Rocket Launcher II
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 117
Medium Shield Extender II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
I got my pod out, and wished the pilot a "gf". He'd earned it.


Afterthoughts:

This is a perfect example of being too cunning for my own good. I thought I had a plan, but ultimately I overlooked a key factor: the mitigation of my own dps.

While I think that Slicers are definitely outside of the "safe to engage" box, if I had to do it again, I'd make a few changes to my approach.

First, I'd wait till I had Interceptors V (it will finish in late January). I have no idea what kind of difference that would make, but tracking is a funny beast. Glancing hits aside, it's pretty binary: you get hit or you don't. That means signature tanking sucks all the way up until it's horribly, horribly broken. Perhaps the reduced signature radius would have made a difference here.

Second, I would have set my orbit for something a little wider, such as 2-3 km. The Slicer was able to pull range because my ship slowed down. If I had used a wider orbit, I may well have given him the same tracking problems, but without allowing him to pull away as easily. If he could not pull away, I would not have needed to pursue him, giving him perfect shots.

Because I'm looking for ridiculous situations this month, I'm expecting a net loss - which I can afford, thanks to my profit last month - and I'm going to try hard not to think about my efficiency rating.

A blog post about blogs. How exciting!

I've recently (or not so recently - I've been distracted by my internet problems at the beginning of the December, and then some other posts seemed time sensitive) been asked to provide a little bit of exposure for a new blog by the members of a new corp, REPO. I don't normally do that sort of thing (so please don't everyone suddenly start asking), but REPO is a rebuilt Blood Money Cartel (or at least, a new home for many of the old members), a corp I had a great deal of respect for before they closed their doors. As such, I don't mind letting people know that they are back in business.


How do I get on Taurean's blog list?

This would be a pretty short post if all I did was link to REPO's blog (See how I keep using their name? That's three times in four sentences. It's almost like I've done some marketing or something.), so I'm going to ramble a little about why I link the blogs that I do in my blog list.

It's actually stupidly simple. Like this blog as a whole, my blog list is designed to serve my needs, not anybody else's. I'm actually quite the introvert (no kidding, right?), and I have very little need or desire to talk about or promote myself - I'm actually quite taken aback by how well received this blog has been.

As such, my blog list is simply a list of blogs that I enjoy reading, and I want to know when they have been updated. One or two, like the Tusker Public Relations Desk, are utility links, but mostly it's just blogs I like to read.


How do I stay on Taurean's blog list?

Of course, there are some rules I follow, and I imagine that most bloggers have their own versions of these rules, and any blog I'm going to link has to do most of the following:

1) Post regularly. Unless your posts are truly exceptional (like Kishin's now defunct financial blog), I will ruthlessly delist practically any blog that does not update regularly. Some leeway is allowed for real life - that happens to everyone - but I dislike seeing blogs sit idle for regular prolonged periods; I have limited surfing time due to real life commitments, and I want to spend it looking at blogs with new content.

2) Post stuff I like. Everyone will "like" different things, so I'd never suggest tailoring your blog to a specific person or group of people, but you can post as frequently as you like and if I am just not interested in your posts I'm not going to want to visit regularly. If I don't want to visit regularly, I'm not going to put you on my blog list.

The REPO blog is an example of this. It's got some regular posts, but many of them are interviews with corp members. These seem quite popular, and I've seen a fair number of blogs do this, but it's just not something that interests me. I'm just as disinterested in other people as I assume other people are disinterested in me.

3) Post stuff that makes me better at EVE. Related to point 2), I write this blog to help improve my game. I like other blogs that help me improve my game. Suleiman can get away with posting every few weeks because he's a superb pvper and fc, and his posts are full of very, very useful information. Wensley may not be on my blog roll, but I still check in every month or so because he occasionally posts something made of solid gold. FNG manages to be both prolific and useful; some of his posts on rockets and Khanid ships still inform the way I fly, and he heavily influenced the early choices I made in the game, despite the fact that we fly in very different ways.

4) Post stuff that's relevant. Another rewording of points 2) and 3), it explains why there are so few metagame blogs on my blog roll. While probably fascinating to a certain set of EVE players, it got old for me pretty quick. Null sec sounds exciting the first few times, but you quickly realise that it's just the same thing happening over and over again with different tickers slapped on the pilots (in fairness, they probably feel the same way about my own activities). And it makes zero difference to my life in game. Jester is the one exception, but then Jester is in a league of his own. If he runs for a CSM seat again, expect this blog to carry promotional posts supporting Jester's election. It will mean missing out on his dissections of CCP, but the guy has clearly earned it.


Do I care if I am on Taurean's blog list?

Probably not, frankly. While more successful than I expected, I'm hardly considered one of the great and the good by the mainstream EVE blogging community; you are unlikely to find me in the EVE blog pack any time soon. If exposure is your main aim, the blog pack should be your main goal. As such, REPO should probably focus on impressing Rixx from Evoganda, the current keeper of the blog pack.

Looking back on my rules, I suppose they boil down to "post lots of stuff I like". It's not rocket science, but perhaps it will be of use to some new EVE bloggers out there.

Crow v Vexor

The hunt:

So, with Caldari Frigate V I was finally ready to set out in my new Crow, using the fit I posted here.

I made my way south towards Essence, which is usually a good way to find a pvp frigate to tangle with. That's really what I was looking for; something to put me through my paces so I could try adapting to my reduced point range.

However, it was early, and most of the pvpers seemed to occupied with other things, much as I had been lately; holidays are like that. Because of the lack of targets, I did not immediately write off the Vexor when I saw it on D-scan.

In truth, I'd think twice about taking on a Vexor even in my Vengeance. They have a decent tank and enough drones to actually apply dps. If they have a neut, it gets even harder. I probably could do it in a Vengeance, but it would be a close run thing.

On the other hand, my Crow would (hopefully) engage outside of neut range and be able to get out if things got too hot; that's what that MSE was all about, right? So I jumped into his belt at range, and landed a fast point.

In my Malediction, I would have orbited at 20+km while I took out the drones, but with only a 24 km point, I needed to start a little closer; 18 km felt about right. I wiped out the first wave of drones, but ignored the second wave; they were Hammerheads, and simply couldn't catch me.

I then turned my rockets onto the Vexor itself while tightening my orbit to 15 km to ensure solid hits - I still only have Interceptors IV, so I'm a little short on range. I marveled at the simplicity of having a racial damage type (something I've never had to worry about since giving up turrets about six months ago); choosing my ammunition was very straight forward!

While not stupendous, the Crow's superiour dps (as compared to my kiting Malediction) was immediately evident as I began chipping away at the Vexor's tank. He was doing his best to hit me, but to no avail. Eventually, inevitably, he popped.

2011.12.31 09:46

Victim: Kenner Plaude
Corp: Center for Advanced Studies
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Vexor
System: Melmaniel
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 4430

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Crow
Weapon: Thorn Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 3974

Name: Serpentis Chief Scout / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 309
Name: Corelum Chief Infantry / Serpentis
Damage Done: 147

Destroyed items:

Limited Neutron Blaster I, Qty: 2
Small Nosferatu I
Overdrive Injector System II
Uranium Charge M, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
200mm Railgun I (Cargo)
Medium Armor Repairer I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Medium Capacitor Battery I (Cargo)
Hammerhead I, Qty: 7 (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 176
Limited Neutron Blaster I, Qty: 2
Sensor Booster I
Overdrive Injector System II
Local Hull Conversion Expanded Cargo I
Type-D Altered SS Overdrive Injector
10MN MicroWarpdrive I (Cargo)
Medium Shield Booster I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
F-293 Nutation Target Coupling (Cargo)

This is when my reduced point range came back to bite me. I hit "approach" just as the Vexor was about to blow up so that my trajectory did not carry me away from the pod. I then landed a point on the pod, and hit my orbit button so I could begin ransom negotiations. I've done this dozens of times in my Malediction.

However, my Malediction has a 30km point, whereas the Crow only has 24km. Somewhere between my residual motion, my orbit command and the pod's motion, I was thrown out beyond point range, and the pod warped off. Damn!


Afterthoughts:

I was very, very pleased with how the Crow performed against the Vexor, and I very much enjoyed flying it. I can see myself spending a lot of time in this ship, and I'll be making an effort to max it out over the coming month or so.

Obviously, I need to adjust my flying habits in light of the reduced point range, but simply hitting "approach" a second time (after targeting the pod) rather than "orbit" will probably solve the problem.

Crow v Caracal

The hunt:

Recently, I've been feeling that my roams have become a little too comfortable. There's always a fair amount of action around Aeschee, and I can usually find something within four jumps of Hevrice. These systems are so heavily bookmarked that I'm never in any real danger of having to fight something that I don't want to, and I don't even need to look at the system maps; I jump from HS1 (hunting safe one) to HS2 to HS3 and, ta-da, I've scanned the entire system.

With this in mind, I took a long, meandering roam through Essence, Placid, Lonetrek and Black Rise, looking for fights outside my home turf. It was good to be in unknown space again; checking system maps and bringing up unknown profiles on pilots in local.

Many systems were completely empty, and I could enjoy the new views of Cloud Ring and other nebulae. Other systems offered targets, but most of these proved elusive, or obvious traps. I tried to engage a Slicer, Jag, Rifter gang, thinking that I might be able to isolate the Slicer and take him down. They decided they had better things to do, however, and I moved on.

At some point in my roam, found a Caracal ratting at a belt, and I immediately decided to try my luck. While in warp, I needed to make a snap decision regarding the ammo I used; a choice that would potentially make or break the fight.

Obviously, a Caracal would have no trouble hitting me. However, my speed would hopefully mitigate a significant part of that damage, and allow me to try and brawl him down. If I used Javelin rockets, then I would be able to stay safely out of scram range, but my speed (and thus, my damage mitigation) would be lower, allowing him to hit me for more damage.

On the other hand, if he was purely fit for ratting (rather than being bait or using a pvp fit) then I could load faction rockets, increasing my dps and speed, but reducing my range. If I went for faction rockets and he had a scram (or long point and web) then I was simply going to die.

Being a long way from home, I decided to play it safe and loaded Javelin. I was surprised at just how much damage I took from each volley the Caracal sent my way, and I again found myself wondering what kind of difference Interceptors V would make - I promised myself that I'd find out before the end of January.

However, I was doing a decent amount of damage in return, and I was chewing into his tank. Unfortunately, my shields beeped the 30% warning at me while he was still at half shields, so I wished him a "gf" and warped off to wait out my gcc.

The rest of my roam was fairly fruitless as I found myself in the wake of a large fleet that had made everyone skittish. I ended up only catching an Imparitor and the owner's blank clone.


Afterthoughts:

This was a fight that my Vengeance would probably have won fairly easily, assuming I could have caught the guy in the first place. For this reason the mwd bonus in the proposed AF changes really interests me, as it would make AFs decent at actually catching targets, an area where all but the Jaguar really fall short at the moment.

That aside, I was impressed my how much of a beating the Crow actually took, and how much damage it actually put out. I need to max out many of the relevant skills, and I'm looking forward to the difference that will make. Despite being depressingly ugly, the Crow is fast becoming my favourite solo ship, although a buffed Vengeance could probably give it a run for it's money.

Profit Account for November & December 2011

Evekill statistics for Nov/Dec 2011:

• Kills: 55
• ISK destroyed: 5.56 billion
• Losses: 6
• ISK lost: 0.15 billion
• Efficiency: 97.3%
• Kill/Death ratio: 9/1

Battleclinic Rank: 22,103 (+1,654)

As I mentioned last month, problems with the patch prevented me from selling my loot, making any accounts I prepared for the that month and this misleading. Instead, I decided to roll them together into a single accounting period, so that the discrepancies cancel each other out.

Given that these accounts cover a two month period, my kills are fairly low, but then I was unable to log on at all for two weeks, and then holidays also cut into my play time. I'm pleased with the efficiency I maintained, however. Battleclinic API reader has not yet picked up my last four kills, so my rank is lagging a little.

October's figures can be found here.

Schedule of Income

Solo Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 75,956,248

Ransoms

ISK 8,000,000

Jimmy English (ISK 5,000,000)

Shin VanKaundur (ISK 3,000,000)

Total Solo Income

ISK 83,956,248

Group Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 203,000,000

Malediction et alia v Vargur (ISK 190,000,000)
Purifier 1.3 (ISK 13,000,000)

Ransoms

Nil.  

Nil.

Total Group Income

ISK 203,000,000

Total Income

ISK 286,956,248

Schedule of Expenses

Solo Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 47,542,568

Malediction (ISK 14,535,324) - Malediction v Bellicose.

Vengeance (ISK 33,007,244) - Vengeance v Bellicose.
 

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

Nil.

Nil.

Other expenses

ISK 609,323

Repairs (ISK 517,523)

Ransom CSPA (ISK 11,800)

Contract fees (ISK 80,000)

Total Solo Expenses

ISK 48,151,891

Group Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 30,410,648

Malediction (ISK 14,535,324) - Malediction v Harbinger; disposable fleet tackler.
Malediction (ISK 14,535,324) - Malediction v Bubble Camp; trying to get home after roam. 
Pod (ISK 1,340,000) - See above Bubble Camp.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

ISK 25,614,150

Purfier (ISK 25,614,150) - Fleet Purifier; small micro error at wrong time.

Total Group Expenses

ISK 56,024,798

Total Expenses

ISK 104,176,689

Schedule of Profit (Loss)

Total Income

ISK 286,956,248

Less

Total Expenses

ISK 104,176,689

Net Profit (Loss) (see note 3)

ISK 182,779,559

Appendix 1: Comments & Criticism

Another month, another profit. And what a profit! I've already spent most of it, buying a Drake, a Caracal and a handful of Crows. It's allowed me to splurge a little on some Caldari ships, and start the new year off on the right foot!

That said, I was lucky. I would have ended the year with quite the loss if not for the fluke Vargur kill that covered my losses - and then some!

Still, I'll not complain about a little good luck.

Income

Aside from the Vargur, my profit arose mostly from my solo exploits; the usual collection of loot and salvage that I haul back to Jita. I like to think that there are a few items that keep finding their way back to me; sort of a lucky penny, if you will.

I did manage to pick up a few very small ransoms, which was nice. While not the big bucks, getting ransoms at all is a pretty good feeling, and if I go too long without finding a ransom I worry that I'm doing something wrong.

Expenses

My losses come in two flavours, bad luck and bad flying. Dying to gate camps, for example, is usually bad luck, and I had my share of that. Some of my other losses were just due to being rusty (Malediction & Vengeance) or unfamiliar with the ship (Purifier). November was was an expensive month.

Improving Performance

I've stopped flying bombers for the minute; the Tuskers seem to have stopped doing black ops as soon as my bomber training finished, so I've not had much opportunity to fly in a group, which is where I need to be while I'm still developing the relevant player skills.

I've also been flying Interceptors more, which brings the value of my losses down. The Crow, in particular, has made me very happy as a solo platform, and I expect that my performance will improve as I max out the relevant skills.

Appendix 2: Explanatory Notes

Accounting basis

This profit account has been prepared on the basis of income received and expenses incurred. That is, income is only recorded when the ISK has actually been deposited in my wallet and the expense of purchasing a ship is recorded only when the ship has been destroyed.

All accounts have to make decisions about when, and how, to record income, and each method has it's own advantages and disadvantages. I prefer the income received basis because it takes the guesswork out of preparation, but I recognize that this means that there will be cases where a profitable month may show a loss, simply because the bulk of the faction loot is still on contract in Jita. The reverse is also true. However, as long as the accounts are consistent, long term trends in profitability can be reliably monitored, especially if we remain alert to the possible biases.

All figures are rounded to the nearest ISK, and are derived from character and alt wallets unless otherwise stated.

Capital & Liquidity

These accounts also do not address issues of liquidity or capital. Although I may be profitable, for example, I may have no ISK in my wallet because I have converted those funds into ships and modules.

I have chosen not to address capital or liquidity for two reasons. First, this adds a great deal of additional work to the accounts, for very little additional gain. Capital and liquidity matter in the real world, where a corporation's ability to offer security for debt (capital) and meet the interest payments on that debt (liquidity) are critical issues. New Eden, mercifully, does not work like that.

Second, it would provide just a little too much information about me. If I ever have to pay a ransom, I'd really prefer that whomever is ransoming me cannot see, to the nearest ISK, how much money I have!

Notes

Note 1: "Reasonable losses" includes all losses where it was reasonable for me to engage the target and no fundamental play error occurred during the fight. Evekill costs, net of insurance, are used for simplicity, and dropped modules count as destroyed for the purpose calculating these costs, unless those modules were recovered after the fight. Manual adjustment sometimes occurs where modules have been overvalued compared to the actual price paid.

Note 2: "Avoidable losses" includes all losses where it was unreasonable for me to engage the enemy or a fundamental play error occurred during combat. Evekill costs, net of insurance, are used for simplicity, and dropped modules count as destroyed for the purpose calculating these costs, unless those modules were recovered after the fight. Manual adjustment sometimes occurs where modules have been overvalued compared to the actual price paid.

Note 3: In this line, a figure in brackets indicates a loss rather than a profit.

One year on...

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Race: Amarr
Age of Pilot's License: 1 year
Corporation: The Tuskers
Security Status: -10

Kills: 250
Damage Done: 12.48 billion
Losses: 77
ISK Lost: 0.98 billion
Efficiency: 92.73%
Kill/Death Ratio: 3/1
Battleclinc Rank: 22,103

Skill points: 19 million
Skill point breakdown:

It's been an amazing year. I've never had as much fun with any computer game as I have with EVE. In no small part this is because of the fantastic camaraderie of the Tuskers, but I have to give credit to CCP for creating such an absorbing sandbox.


Goals for the coming year:

1) Continue to support myself on piracy: Since starting my monthly accounts, I have always managed to turn a profit, even if only barely. I want to continue this success and build on it. Scraping by is one thing, but being able to afford an expensive toy or two is another. Profitable piracy will continue to be my focus.

2) Max out four more ships: I already fly a maxed out Vengeance, which ought to be a great deal of fun when the AF buff comes in. In truth, I could have maxed out another frigate, if I had really wanted to, but after so much focus, I spread my remaining skill points around a little to help me find a new direction. Now, I know I want to fly a maxed out Malediction, Crow, Caracal, and Drake. This will give me a selection of ships that I can bring to a gang, in both armor and shield fleets. If training time allows, I would also want to include another Amarr ship, such as the Arbitrator, Heretic or Sacrilege. These are "fun" ships, though, and not a priority.

3) Break into the Battleclinic Top 10k: This has been a long term goal of mine, but not something I have put much effort in to. Not dying is a very important part of increasing your BC rank, so it fits easily with my desire to be profitable. With a bit of effort, I should be able to manage this by the end of the year.

Happy new year, everyone.

Fly dangerous.