Flight of Dragons

The journey's end.

2012-02-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

As some of you will know, I've cancelled my EVE subscription.

My reasons involve real life, rather than any dissatisfaction with New Eden. And for those who worry about that sort of thing, it's not even that anything bad, exactly, has happened in my real life. It's just that my family and I have made some decisions which, although good for us in the long term, mean that I won't be playing EVE in the medium term.

And of course, that means this blog won't be updating any more.

I'm not very good at "goodbyes" (is anyone?), so I'll simply say that it has been an absolute pleasure flying and blogging my way through New Eden, and EVE is easily the greatest MMO I've ever played. I hope, one day, to come back to it.

As people have occasionally found my blog helpful, I shall leave Flight of Dragons running for the time being, but my Starcraft blog will be taken down in due course - there are simply so many other ways to get Starcraft info that nobody is going to miss it.

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~Theodor Seuss Geisel

Oh, the frustration.

2012-02-13T01:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, my killboard looks a little empty. No wins, no losses.

But that doesn't mean I'm not active. There's a ton of stuff that just doesn't show up on a killboard. The following encounters, for example, all took place over the course of a single evening.

Crow v Hurricane

I logged in for an hour after work and found a Hurricane sitting in a belt in Adirain. I didn't think I was likely to win, but there was a chance that he was artillery fit, so I jumped into the belt.

As it turns out, he had autocannons. I hit about 50% shields on the approach, but then actually managed to get under his guns - he was missing nine out of every ten shots. He also had a flight of light drones, though, and I was fairly certain that I could not clear the drones fast enough to avoid exploding (although I have rockets, it takes a few volleys to down a drone if it isn't webbed), so I bailed.

We both wished each other a "gf", and the pilot confirmed that he did indeed fly artillery fit Canes some times. Luck of the draw, and all that. He also complemented me on my approach, which was nice of him, as I'd been feeling like I really screwed it up. Apparently, just surviving an approach against an auto 'Cane gets you points.

Crow v Jaguar

After waiting out my GCC, I engaged a Jag in Jov. I approached, took control of the fight, and started beating on his shield tank. He tried very hard to close with me, but my speed advantage was enough that he stood no chance at all.

After he hit 50% shields, though, his two buddys show up in a Falcon and a Nemesis (wtf?). I laughed, and left when the first jamming wave hit me.

Malediction v Tengu

After dinner, I log back in and probe down a missioning Tengu in Jov. I come back in a cap boosted, active tanked Malediction (all the other Tuskers were too far from home to participate, so I needed a fit that could tank the Tengu's damage while I solo'd it), and jump into the mission.

The acceleration gate puts me 160 km off the Tengu. I'm fast, but not that fast. He warps out, while I sit in the mission, chatting with Dian. He doesn't come back.

Afterthoughts

I've posted about the less cinematic aspects of solo roaming before. Here, I had three potentially awesome fights, and yet I ended the day with nothing to show for my efforts but some heat damage and a repair bill. Such is a pirate's lot.

This sort of thing happens reasonably often. The Crow (and the Malediction before that) has given me the ability to escape fights that I would otherwise have lost (which is probably all of the above, if I'm honest).

It's a mixed blessing, however. On one hand, I'm able to engage in fights that really push me, without always having to pay the "stupid tax" that comes with trying to solo above class ships. On the other hand, "almost" rarely makes a good story. These fights are the pirate's equivalent of a fisherman's "one that got away".

Low activity warning.

2012-02-06T01:07:00.000-08:00

Just letting everyone know that there probably isn't going to be much posting this week. I was working over the weekend, and what little spare time I had went into racking and bottling a large batch of home brew.

I did spend an hour in New Eden (being able to log in only after the Tusker's Titan kill), but the only target I found was -9.9 Ares that resolutely refused to engage me.

Profit Account for January 2012

2012-02-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

Evekill statistics for January 2012:

Kills: 17

ISK destroyed: 0.48 billion

Losses: 2

ISK lost: 0.3 billion

Efficiency: 93.19%

Kill/Death ratio: 9/1

Battleclinic Rank: 20,201 (+1,902)

It's been a pretty good month for me. Although I've had higher kill counts, almost all of these kills were solo. My losses were part of my early drive to really push the Crow to the edges of its engagement envelope, and otherwise I've not lost a ship.

I've also been going on longer solo roams as I get back to my nomadic roots. I don't always find something, but it's great to get out and really shake the dust off. Now that Interceptors V has finally finished, I'm hoping to reach some even more distant areas of low sec before T2 Launchers finish and I try and get in on some BC shield gangs at the end of the month.

The December/November figures can be found here.

Schedule of Income

Solo Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 24,867,025

Ransoms

Nil.

Nil.

Total Solo Income

ISK 24,867,025

Group Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 19,400,000

Malediction et alia v Vargur (ISK 19,400,000); the final payment.

Ransoms

Nil.

Nil.

Total Group Income

ISK 19,400,000

Total Income

ISK 44,267,025

Schedule of Expenses

Solo Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 26,225,764

Crow (ISK 13,112,882) - Crow v Slicer.

Crow (ISK 13,112,882) - Crow v Bellicose.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

Nil.

Nil.

Other expenses

ISK 352,081

Repairs (ISK 339,131)

Ransom CSPA (ISK 2,950)

Contract fees (ISK 10,000)

Total Solo Expenses

ISK 26,577,845

Group Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

Nil.

Nil.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

Nil.

Nil.

Total Group Expenses

Nil.

Total Expenses

ISK 26,577,845

Schedule of Profit (Loss)

Total Income

ISK 44,267,025

Less

Total Expenses

ISK 26,577,845

Net Profit (Loss) (see note 3)

ISK 17,689,180

Appendix 1: Comments & Criticism

A modest profit, although if I'm honest, it would have been a small loss if I had not had some delayed payments from last month's Vagur kill come in.

Even so, I would not have been terribly unhappy with the results. If that's what a bad month looks like, I'll take it. In exchange for that small loss, I would have spent hours on roams all over low sec, and generally having a good time.

That's not to say that I'm taking my focus off profitability. Not at all. It's simply that we have to keep these things in perspective. An hour or two of ratting would have put me back into the black. As it is, it's been more than six months since I've had to do any kind of pve at all.

It's a good life.

Income

Income was low, as I was primarily soloing T1 frigates, destroyers and cruisers. None of my T2 attacks resulted in a successful kill, but that's something I hope to keep working on.

I did have a few opportunities for ransoms, but all my potential ransoms got themselves podded for being too slow to pay. I loathe time wasters.

Expenses

My losses are the result of my stress testing a new ship, and while I prefer not to lose ships, I'm fairly relaxed about this month's losses.

Improving Performance

I've (finally) trained Interceptors V, so I hope to take on more ambitious targets. My Drake's T2 weapons should come online mid month, so I may get some BC gang action happening too.

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.

Fixing Eve: Assault Ships

2012-01-30T00:44:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-25T01:14:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-23T01:43:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-20T01:49:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-18T00:36:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-16T00:47:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-12T00:57:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-11T00:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-10T01:28:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T00:24:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-06T00:36:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

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

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

Capital & Liquidity

Notes

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

One year on...

2012-01-01T02:15:00.000-08:00

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.

Life Imitates Art

2011-12-31T03:47:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I received an awesome new Jedi ~~dressing gown~~ robe. Shut up. Real men love Jedi.

Anyway, while I immediately recognised the intrinsic awesomeness of this gift, I underestimated the hood. I mean, hoods are theatrical and all, but hardly a comfort thing.

How wrong I was.

Putting the hood up makes my head and ears feel just that little bit warmer, almost cosy, in fact, and by cutting off my peripheral vision slightly the hood focuses me entirely on my monitor/keyboard. So yeah, I now play EVE in a Jedi ~~dressing gown~~ robe with the hood up. Deal with it.

As I was testing out my new Crow, it suddenly occurred to me: I now bear an uncanny resemblance to my avatar.

Malediction et alia v Vagur

2011-12-26T23:39:00.000-08:00

The hunt:

I heard the first attempt go down when I first logged in. I was not sure what was going on, but something was clearly happening in Jov. As I was passing through that system on my way to Adirain, I offered to help, but the crew were too focused on the fight to give me a response. Sadly, this was the result:

2011.12.21 20:46:00

Victim: Bartomeu Sosimo
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Lachesis
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 14172

Involved parties:

Name: Sanityfree Soldier (laid the final blow)
Security: 5.0
Corp: Liquid Cold
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Vargur
Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II
Damage Done: 14172

Destroyed items:

Invulnerability Field II
Small Capacitor Booster II
200mm Railgun II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Large Shield Extender II
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 56
Navy Cap Booster 400
Spike M, Qty: 110
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Warp Disruptor II
Caldari Navy Havoc Heavy Missile, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 871 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 271 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

F85 Peripheral Damage System I
200mm Railgun II
Large Shield Extender II
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 28
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Qty: 2
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Power Diagnostic System II
Warp Disruptor II
Navy Cap Booster 400, Qty: 20 (Cargo)
Spike M, Qty: 794 (Cargo)
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 902 (Cargo)

Apparently, Bartomeu had scanned down the Vargur at a mission and warped in on him, holding point for a dps ship. However, Bart took far more damage than he had anticipated from the Vargur, and had gone down before his backup could navigate the warp gates that separated the warp-in from the fight. The Vargur escaped and logged off.

Undeterred, Konig decided to try his luck by sitting in the mission in a Hound. Since the Vargur had provided such a spirited defence on the last attempt, and because he had proved adept and destroying tacklers, my Malediction was added to the gang to provide a secure second point; Konig would probably need to bail pretty fast.

Sure enough, the Vargur logged back in to continue his mission, and he must not have realised that Konig was in the same corp as Bart, because he warped right back into the mission. Konig established point right away, and we proceeded to jump into Jov from Aeschee and warp to the mission.

However, the Vargur was game for a fight, and blew the bomber out of the sky before we could land, once again escaping to a station and logging off.

2011.12.21 21:06:00

Victim: Konig Dreizehn

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Destroyed: Hound

System: Jovainnon

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 2129

Involved parties:

Name: Sanityfree Soldier (laid the final blow)

Security: 5.0

Corp: Liquid Cold

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Vargur

Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II

Damage Done: 2129

Destroyed items:

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo, Qty: 28

Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

Warp Disruptor II

Dropped items:

Ballistic Control System II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Qty: 3

Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo, Qty: 14

Medium Shield Extender II

Salvager I

Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo, Qty: 707 (Cargo)

This was a disheartening second loss, but Tuskers are a stubborn crew. While someone suggested that the Vargur would be ill advised to return, I pointed out that he had effectively won the last two engagements; why would he not come back?

Still, there was obviously something not quite right here - a pve battleship should not have been able to deal so easily with our tacklers. Something more dedicated was required.

With this in mind, we had Jaxley's Claw log off from within the mission. My Malediction loitered in the next system, and we had a Wolf and Hurricane nearby for dps. After about 10 minutes, our neutral alt reported the Vargur logging back in. Once he was back in the mission, Jaxley relogged.

Without waiting for a point, I also jumped into the system, warping to the mission. Jaxley dropped out of warp first, of course, and established point. I secured a secondary point as soon as I landed on grid, and we settled into safe orbits, watching our combat logs.

The Vargur had a go at both Jaxley and I, but we finally seemed to have found tacklers the Vargur couldn't hit. Time to ask for a ransom.

The pilot, Sanityfree Soldier, seemed game, and we brought in our Wolf (with scanner) to establish the level of ransom we should be asking for. 1.5 billion ISK would have been a real steal for Soldier, but he could not afford more than 100 million. As the drops were likely to (far) exceed this value, we brought in our dps (Bart's Hurricane) and opened fire.

Bart had two tracking disruptors on his 'Cane, but he was nevertheless forced off the field by the Vagur! He also managed to chase off the Wolf, leaving only Jaxley and I able to hold a point. The tracking on the VagurJax and I were flying armor tanked Interceptors - the added signature radius from the shield extenders could have made all the difference (edit - according to Jaxley, he was actually flying an MSE Stiletto, and not a Claw, so I guess we had some leeway).

Of course, two Interceptors were never going to be able to break the active tank of a cap stable pve battleship. We needed something tough enough to tank the Vargur's damage, while also having enough dps to break it's tank.

Finally, Tsubutai, who had been monitoring our Vent conversation, decided to come to our rescue and warped in his Machariel. With two interceptors holding the Vagur in place, the Machariel was able to pound it to scrap. Victory at last!

2011.12.21 21:41:00

Victim: Sanityfree Soldier

Corp: Liquid Cold

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Destroyed: Vargur

System: Jovainnon

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 99367

Involved parties:

Name: Tsubutai (laid the final blow)

Security: -9.8

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Machariel

Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II

Damage Done: 33243

Name: Morin Blain

Security: -9.7

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Wolf

Weapon: Wolf

Damage Done: 29734

Name: Bartomeu Sosimo

Security: -9.3

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship:

Weapon: Warrior II

Damage Done: 22962

Name: Jelen Sidheil

Security: 1.6

Corp: CNRN's Named Recursively Now

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Drake

Weapon: Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile

Damage Done: 11660

Name: Taurean Eltanin

Security: -10.0

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Malediction

Weapon: Warp Disruptor II

Damage Done: 1768

Name: Jaxley

Security: -10.0

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Stiletto

Weapon: Warp Disruptor II

Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Large Capacitor Control Circuit II, Qty: 2

Small Tractor Beam I

Cap Recharger II

EMP L, Qty: 100

Salvager II

800mm Repeating Artillery II

Tracking Enhancer II, Qty: 2

Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer

Contaminated Nanite Compound (Cargo)

Condensed Alloy, Qty: 20 (Cargo)

Precious Alloy, Qty: 17 (Cargo)

Broken Drone Transceiver, Qty: 3 (Cargo)

Tangled Power Conduit (Cargo)

Dark Compound (Cargo)

Fried Interface Circuit, Qty: 11 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Shadow Serpentis Tracking Computer

Tracking Speed

Cap Recharger II, Qty: 2

Pith X-Type X-Large Shield Booster

EMP L, Qty: 100

Salvager II

800mm Repeating Artillery II, Qty: 3

Power Diagnostic System II

Phased Plasma L, Qty: 201

Gist X-Type 100MN Afterburner

Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer

Lucent Compound, Qty: 5 (Cargo)

EMP L, Qty: 56 (Cargo)

Sheen Compound, Qty: 9 (Cargo)

Phased Plasma L, Qty: 115 (Cargo)

Crystal Compound, Qty: 29 (Cargo)

Gleaming Alloy, Qty: 16 (Cargo)

The killmail answered a lot of questions about the events leading up to the Vargur's eventual destruction. The faction tracking computer had allowed the battleship to swat aside all but dedicated tacklers and apply dps onto our Hurricane despite the two tracking disruptors. How very, very awesome. Full credit to Soldier for the fit.

Afterthoughts:

This is the sort of thing I love about flying Interceptors; you can do some light solo work, but when something big comes up, you can also play a necessary role in fleet. While you can optimize your fit for one over the other, there is enough overlap that the two fits are not mutually exclusive.

Bart handled the loot split, and took it all to Jita, where it fetched over a billion ISK - easily the most profitable kill I have ever been part of. After reimbursing the lost ships, we were still left with about 200 million ISK each. Time to buy some Caldari ships!

I have a new blog.

2011-12-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

I'll start by saying that nothing is changing with Flight of Dragons.

However, my recent inability to play EVE following the Crucible patch got me playing Starcraft II. During that time, I came to enjoy the convenience of being able to log in for a brief period of guaranteed pvp; I might waste 30 minutes on EVE without finding a fight, or I could just play a SC2 match. When time is limited, Starcraft offers a known return on investment.

Because I like to do things properly, and because this blog has been so helpful to my development as an EVE player, I have started a similar blog for my Starcraft exploits. Expect something similar to the Punisher Plan - a record of my attempts to find an appropriate army and develop my skills as a player. I don't know if any of my readers also play SC2, but I thought I'd let people know about the new blog in case they are interested.

My larger chunks of playtime (as and when they occur) will still be devoted to EVE, which I strongly prefer.

Malediction v Probe

2011-12-22T00:42:00.000-08:00

The fit:

Rocket Launcher II x3
Salvager I (offline)

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Cap Booster II

Damage Control II
Small Armor Repair System II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thruster I

I only carried five Cap Booster 75's in the Booster itself; there were no reloads in the cargo hold. In part this is because the Malediction already has a restricted cargo capacity, and I need some space for loot and salvage. However, it's also because the Booster is not meant to be running through the whole fight, but rather to give me the extra cap I need to rep incidental damage; if I need to reload the Booster, I probably should have bailed some time ago.

The hunt:

The fight itself was not particularly meaningful - even the best fit Probe is not going to give a well piloted Malediction a run for it's money. And in this case the pilot was new, trying his hand at low sec exploration without understanding the basic rules for surviving low sec.

What I did enjoy was the ability to warp in at range while still landing an immediate point. I had him scanned down to the sun, but I could not know the range. My point covers nearly 60km, however, so I can jump in at 30 or 70 km and still cover half of the standard warp-in zone. In this case I warped in at 30km, and found him sitting about 25 km off me.

I started applying my dps almost immediately, and ignored his request to ransom his ship.

2011.12.16 14:35:00

Victim: Shin VanKaundur
Corp: The smiling syndicate of Hari kari
Alliance: Shadow of the Apocalypse
Faction: None
Destroyed: Probe
System: Lisbaetanne
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 560

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Foxfire Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 560

Destroyed items:

1MN Afterburner I
Salvager I
Prototype ECCM Radar Sensor Cluster (Cargo)
Gatling Pulse Laser I (Cargo)
Charred Micro Circuit, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Thruster Console (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Core Scanner Probe I, Qty: 6
Core Probe Launcher I
Codebreaker I
Inertia Stabilizers I
Small Energy Transfer Array I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)

However, I did manage to catch his pod, and I ransomed it for 3 million ISK. Another case, sadly, where a new player has plugged in a "free" implant that he does not have sufficient funds to actually save/replace. I suppose the killmail would have provided some bragging rights, but I'd far rather have some ISK - I'm perpetually space poor, and I've got a whole new line of ships that I want to be getting into, which requires some up-front spending.

Afterthoughts:

Not too much new to say about this fight; it was not particularly challenging. However, it did underscore just how useful the speed and point range of the Malediction is when hunting small, fast, and elusive targets. My Vengeance might have a wider theoretical target envelope, but the Malediction is far better at finding (and bringing to battle) it's smaller range of targets.

After the fight I had a chat with the pilot about how to survive in low sec. It's a talk that I've had with dozens of pilots now, and it changes only slightly (based on whether the pilot is looking for pvp or pve). I've half a mind to write up a basic low sec survival guide, but I appreciate that the people who read this blog are pretty salty, and don't need a guide of that type. The people who do need it probably don't read this blog.

Malediction v Jaguar

2011-12-20T02:33:00.000-08:00

The hunt:

I was flying my experimental solo Malediction (active armor tank with a cap recharger in the spare mid), and I was roaming around the Aeschee area when spotted Bojangles in a Jaguar. Of course, I decided to say hello.

For whatever reason, I run into Bojangles a lot when I am testing Malediction fits; I practised holding a point under fire from his Hurricane when I was putting my original shield Malediction through it's paces.

At this point, I don't remember whether I warped in on him, or whether I let him warp in on me. Either way, we were both looking for a fight, and we made it happen. He/I landed far enough off that we had to burn towards each other; I remember putting my engines on half speed to try looking like an AB fit brawler - I did not want to scare him off with the threat of kiting.

Once I landed point, I set my orbit for 20km and settled in to see what he had. He was only moving about 1.2 km/s, so there was no chance of him landing a scram. However, once he loaded Barrage, he was actually able to hit me, if only barely.

Since I could not defeat him on range (at least, not if I wanted to shoot back - holding point at 26 km and calling in backup would have defeated the purpose of the exercise), I decided to try defeating him on tracking, and I closed my orbit to 15 km, which is about as close as I cared to get. However, he seemed to be able to continue hitting me, although not well. When I say "not well', he was scoring "barely hits" about once every two or three shots. I was frustratingly close to evading his damage.

Next I tried pulsing the repair system, to see if I could keep up with the damage, but even with the recharger, regular use of the repair function quickly drained my cap. While the booster would not have made a difference in the long term, in the short term I probably would have been able to tank the damage.

Eventually, I disengaged. I could not evade his damage, so I was not going to be able to sit back and try breaking his tank.

Afterthoughts:

I did not even open fire in this fight; because of my low dps I'm just not going to win any damage races. Far better to just get out, which is what fleet interceptors excel at.

I must admit that I was surprised that Bojangles could a) track me and b) hit me. Isn't this where Interceptors are meant to shine? Of course, I only have Interceptors IV, so I'm still getting a fair amount of mwd bloom. I'm definitely going to get Interceptors V within the next month, so it will be interesting to try a fight like this again to see if the reduced signature radius offers any greater protection.

The cap recharger was disappointing. Not only did it add very little in the way of cap (even with the repair system pulsed rather than left running), and it's only noticeable at all near peak regen - towards the extremes it might as well be an empty low slot.

This is particularly frustrating when a repair cycle and an mwd cycle arrive together (my mwd skills are weak - only level III), which forces me below peak recharge. A capacitor booster would have freed me from this concern without any appreciable downside; I'm not going for cap stability, after all.

Fitting a Crow

2011-12-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

In my last post about flying a solo interceptor I reflected that I might try flying a Crow after I train Caldari Frigates V. This got me messing about with Crow fits on EFT. I was blown away by the results.

As an aside, when I first started playing my instinct was to always look for other people's fits on Battleclinic or somesuch. Now that I have more experience, and more confidence in the way I fly, I always build my fits from scratch.

The fit:

Rocket Launcher II x3
Salvager I (offline)

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Medium Shield Extender II

Damage Control II
Nanofibre Internal Structure II
Micro Auxilary Power Core I

Small Bay Loading Accelerator II
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II

Further thoughts:

That extra 15 CPU just makes a huge difference. With the extra fitting space, I can drop a fitting mod in the low slots and put in the Nanofibre. This actually makes me faster than my Malediction fit, despite the lower base speed - about 200m/s faster!

The inbuilt range bonus means that Javelin can hit out to 23km without any range rigs, letting me plug the EM hole AND get a damage rig in place, bringing my dps up to 80, which is about what I was doing in a Punisher. That's fairly respectable, and lets me break a fair number of active tanked frigates, providing they are not hardened against kinetic damage.

Against other fast ships I can switch to faction rockets (which still have a 15km range) and up my dps to 98. Still not very high compared to a Crusader or a Slicer, but I'll actually apply most of that damage as I have no tracking issues.

I could drop the Damage Control for a BCS, which would boost my dps to 115. However, that would drop my EHP from 5117 to 4045 and my peak regen from 20 hps to 17 hps. Not a worthwhile exchange, in my view.

There is a price to pay, though. I lose the Malediction's extended point, which means I have less ability to just back off while holding the enemy in place. It also means that I'm much easier to hit; the MSE and shield rig push my signature radius way up.

Conclusion:

I'll need to test this, of course, but my instincts tell me this is better. I commented at the end of the Punisher Plan that while the Punisher was a fine ship, if I had to do it all again I would have flown Caldari.

As a new Eve player I thougth that my true love would be lazers and cap warfare, putting me squarely in the Amarr camp. As it turned out, what I really enjoy are missiles and regenerative tanks. Trying to incorporate these both into small Amarr hulls has been a struggle, largely because active armor tanks are poorly designed for small ships (Oh, how much better would it be if regenerative plating actually, you know, regenerated?); you need two modules to provide buffer and regen when a shield tank incorporates both into one module. On small ships, module space is at a premium.

So after a year of forcing myself into a limited range of - admittedly excellent - Khanid ships (and enjoying myself the whole time, let it be said), I'm now keen to broaden my horizons and start flying the ships I probably should have been flying all along.

Malediction v Catalyst

2011-12-14T01:15:00.000-08:00

The fit:

Rocket Launcher II x3
Salvager I (offline)

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Cap Recharger II

Damage Control II
Small Armor Repair System II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thruster I

I was looking for a solo Malediction fit, and this is what I threw together. I had been going to put a Cap Booster in the third mid over the Cap Recharger, but when I saw it in my hanger I decided to give it a go. In part this is because my mwd skills are weak (something I will be working on in the coming year) and I'm not cap stable with the point and prop running (something like 9 minutes). With the Recharger, I get get full cap stability.

The hunt:

I went on a local roam, checking out the nearby systems while looking for a likely target. I wanted something slow and short ranged, and preferably without an active tank; I wanted to be able to kill it on my own rather than have to call in dps once I landed a point.

After a few jumps, I spotted a Catalyst bouncing around some belts. I was a little uncertain, as destroyers tend to have good range and tracking, and they have received a damage buff recently that I've yet to have any experience with. On the other hand, I ought to be able to leave if things got tough, and many Destroyers are fit for point blank brawling to maximise their dps.

Rather than try and jump in on the Catalyst directly, I jumped one belt ahead and waited; I would rather he jumped into me than the other way around. However, he took a little longer to arrive than expected,and I did not want to miss my opportunity, so after a minute or so, I jumped into his belt at 20km.

Landing perfectly (within my point range but beyond his) I immediately began to orbit at 20km while activating my point. I then turned to my combat log and my overview for more info.

According to the overview, the Catalysts speed never exceeded 800ish m/s, so I guessed he was AB fit; range dictation would not be a problem. He also could not seem to land any hits on me at 20km, so I moved my orbit to 15km (which means an actual orbit of about 17km), well within my striking range (if I enjoy the fit I can move up to T2 rigs, which pushes my range to 22km).

Switching to Javelin rockets - because of the speed penalty I like to start fights with faction ammunition - I opened fire and reduced his ship to a wreck.

2011.12.12 20:09:00

Victim: Jimmy English
Corp: Federal Navy Academy
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Catalyst
System: Lisbaetanne
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2943

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Foxfire Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 2483

Name: Serpentis Chief Spy / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 460

Destroyed items:

Gyrostabilizer I
Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Light Electron Blaster I, Qty: 3
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 660
F-M3 Munition Inertial Suspensor
Small Hull Repairer I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Dual 150mm Railgun I (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 8049 (Cargo)
50mm Reinforced Titanium Plates I (Cargo)
Stasis Webifier I (Cargo)
Small Energy Transfer Array I (Cargo)
Cargo Scanner I (Cargo)
Ship Scanner I (Cargo)
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Civilian Shield Booster I (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Tracking Speed Disruption
Damage Control I
Light Electron Blaster I, Qty: 5
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 660
Hammerhead I (Cargo)
50mm Reinforced Titanium Plates I (Cargo)
Small Energy Transfer Array I (Cargo)
Thorium Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
200mm Reinforced Nanofiber Plates I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Ship Scanner I (Cargo)
1MN MicroWarpdrive I (Cargo)
Civilian Shield Booster I (Cargo)
Light Ion Blaster I (Cargo)
Uranium Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

I also captured his pod, and he offered me 5 million for his implants. While this might seem a little low for a 2009 character, the killmail heavily suggested that he was a returning player. He paid the ransom, and I sent him on his way.

Afterthoughts:

Obviously, I'm quite happy with how that worked out, but the truth is that pretty much any interceptor fit for range could have made this kill simply because he couldn't hit out far enough to threaten me. As a result, I can't really comment much on my fitting choices.

So Recharger v Booster is still up in the air. I suspect the Booster is the way to go, especially when my skills make me cap stable without the Recharger. This guards against heavy neuts (or medium neuts against long point Cruisers where I need to get in close to get under their guns, and also allows me a period of heavy repping.

I'm tempted to put a BCU in place of the Damage Control, but this would drop the EHP (and rep power) of the fit significantly. I'm not sure if it's worth it.

The truth is, for this kind of work, a shield Malediction is probably better, having higher ehp and capless regeneration. The difficulty is that the range rigs won't fit unless I downgrade the shield extender to meta 4, the added sig makes me easier to hit, and I have no rig space to patch the EMP hole, making my Crusader/Slicer matchups a nightmare.

Still, I may give it a try, depending on how my armor fits work out. Equally, once I have Caldaridps, and an inbuilt range bonus.

Very sexy.

Crucible: First Impressions

2011-12-12T01:12:00.000-08:00

I know I'm probably a little late to the topic, but I'm just so blown away by Crucible that I'm determined to spend a little time on the good (and less good) in the patch.

Engine Trails

This is probably my favourite change among many good changes. Not only does it look awesome, but it adds a sense of depth and motion to New Eden that is often lacking from sci-fi games (it's the nature of space, to be fair).

Ever since playing Privateer way back when, I found that I often felt more like I was sitting in a turret than a space ship, as there is little in the way of natural speed indicators (which is very realistic, just not all that fun). Eve has done a better job than most, but the engine trails take it to the next level. Bravo.

However, the real reason that this makes it to the top of my list is the added tactical depth it adds to the game. Until now, enemy ships have simply been points in space; I can get a rough sense of their relative vector through my overview and the "look at" command, but this was a distraction from flying my own ship.

Now, though, I can quickly get an idea of each ships vector (meaning speed and direction) just by looking at the engine trails. Changes to that vector are immediately apparent, and I can react accordingly. I've yet to really put this to good use, but the potential astounds me.

I imagine that FCs are going to be even more ecstatic. You should now be able to tell at a glance whether your fleet manoeuvres are working as planned; that guy who aligned to the wrong planet or who is falling behind because he forgot to overheat his mwd will be immediately obvious.

Of course, it will be obvious to the enemy as well, so a devious FC will probably be thinking of all sorts of ways to feed bad intel to his opponent. I am reminded of Master and Commander, where Captain Aubrey tells his men (who are pretending to be civilians in order to lure a French vessel into combat) to be "lubberly and un-navy like".

Hevrice

I did a fair amount of roaming yesterday, and I have to say that so far Hevrice is the most beautiful system I've encountered. Someone in the CCP art department must love us, because I can't think of any reason why they would have picked Hevrice, an unimportant nothing of a system, for such a breathtaking piece of scenery.

It's not just beautiful, though. It's right. One of the finest pirate corps in New Eden now lives at the heart of a nebula, a symbolic detachment from empire space and all that it represents. A hidden system for an outlaw corporation. A place of shadows for dark deeds.

Okay, I'll stop now. But it seriously is beautiful.

CCP wanted to create a sense of location and belonging in New Eden. They succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

T2 Ammunition

I wouldn't be a real Eve player if I did not include a few complaints in a post about Eve, so here's one. The penalties were removed from T2 turret ammo, but not T2 missile ammo, despite the fact that this penalty was (according to the dev blogs) supposed to be removed also.

Perhaps it was an oversight, or perhaps it is coming in a supplementary patch. Regardless, this needs to be fixed. I have a kiting Malediction I want to fly. With engine trails.

Some good news and some... good news.

2011-12-10T02:03:00.000-08:00

First of all, I thought that I'd let everyone know that the manual reinstall was a success and I can now get back into New Eden. I won't be able to play properly until tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to seeing the new engine trails on my Malediction - for some reason, it's my funny little Interceptor that I've been missing the most.

On that note, I'm going to take a little break from my Caldari/shield training to get Interceptors V. I've been really enjoying a mwd Malediction, both solo and in fleet, and it makes sense for me to max out a skill that I seem to be using all the time. This means that my Merlin/Caracal/Drake shenanigans will probably be delayed into the new year. It's fitting in a way; the first year of my character's life devoted to Amarr frigates, with the second devoted to Caldari cruisers and battlecruisers.

In other awesome news, however, it seems that the Tuskers have been wardec'd!

Now, I know that some of you are thinking "WTF? Aren't you guys all -10 anyway? Why would anyone waste money wardec'ing guys you can already engage anywhere, anytime, without penalty?"

Well, I'm not sure what's in it for Devious Decorum (or their alleged backers, Shadow Cartel), but that's not really the point. The point is that someone paid good money to fight us, which probably means that they are going to, you know, fight us! How awesome is that!

Of course, my visions of on demand, 24/7 pvp are probably a far cry from the reality, but I'm basking in the illusion for the moment. We've been forced to travel a long, long way for decent fleet fights recently (see our Dram roams to null sec), so the idea of someone actually forming up a fleet for us and delivering it to Hev is just a dream come true.

My corp mates feel that this is likely to be a whole lot of nothing, but this is a brave New Eden. I mean, have you taken a look at Hev recently? I live in a pirate base in the middle of a freaking nebula! I have engine trails! I've actually managed to install the Crucible patch! There is no level of awesome which is out of reach!

Accordingly, I face the coming war with naive optimism.

Where are the November accounts?

2011-12-09T01:06:00.000-08:00

For the two of you that actually follow the monthly accounts I post, I thought I'd provide an explanation regarding the lack of accounts for November.

Because my patch problems started before the end of November, I've not actually had he ability to log in and sell any of the loot that I accrued over the course of the month. This means that preparing the accounts now would have simply resulted in a large (and misleading) loss figure, followed by a (hopefully) large (and misleading) profit figure for December once I am actually able to bring the loot to market.

Rather than produce two meaningless sets of accounts, I've decided to roll November and December's accounts into one, which means they should be coming out at the beginning of January.

I'll also be posting a one year character review around that time.

Dramiel Roam #2

2011-12-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

While I'm still waiting for a hard copy of the Eve client in the post, I do have my bandwidth back, so I see no reason not to write the posts I had planned.

About a week after our first Dramiel roam, we decided to do the same thing again; our last "last chance" to fly Drams before the nerf. Of course, I flew my shield Malediction as I can't sit in a Dram and my next training priority is Caldari for the Merlin/Caracal/Drake.

As an aside, I'm really looking forward to Caldari frigate V because sometimes you just want to take out a T1 frigate, and I've not been able to fly on that complements my skills. The Caracal will give me my first taste of cruiser pvp, too.

We had more Drams than last time, but no Sentinels or Interdictors. We had learnt our lessons from last week, and used a password protected sub-channel for vent, and spent far less time in each system. In that sense, the roam was more "professional" and we managed to avoid any serious response from the local null sec residents.

This meant that we actually did not find as many challenging fights as last time - perhaps a single fleet engagement - and most of our kills were solo travellers. While objectively better by null sec standards (avoided risk while hitting more expensive targets), I'm not sure it was better by Tusker standards. Towards the end of the roam we had a few pilots wanting to engage an obviously far superior fleet (with probable carrier backup) just for the challenge. However, cooler heads prevailed, and we simply went around.

Ironically, we had our own "spy" this time. We had a guest in our fleet who was a full time null sec resident himself, which meant he had access to the intel channels. In true Tusker fashion we completely ignored the opportunity to win the espionage war, and instead had him relay to us all the nasty things that were being said about us behind our backs. Much hilarity ensued.

Afterthoughts:

I'm not going to try and go through each engagement, but there are a few learning points for me to record.

To begin with, our lack of an Interdictor hurt us. There were probably about a half dozen small ships that simply slipped away because of their fast align time. A bubble would have been a huge help.

This also led to a rather embarrassing (for me) incident where I pointed one of my own fleet mates. A frigate had jumped through the gate and, being an Interceptor, I orbited the gate at 500m so that my long point could cover the entire spawn zone. With my point pre-triggered, I tried to catch the frigate as soon as he appeared on my overview.

The first time I was to fast, and he was still protected by the gate-cloak (even though I could see him). The second time was too late, and he disappeared from my overview just as I clicked on him. Of course, everyone below him on the overview then moved up a spot, and I ended up clicking on (and pointing) one of our Drams.

Now, I'm used to roaming solo, and I sure as heck want to see every ship that lands on grid with me. However, in the patented Tusker training style (ie, mock the heck out of you), it was suggested that this was not an awesome plan in fleets. As I now had 60 seconds of aggression to kill while the fleet moved on, I set up a separate fleet overview that did not include fleet-mates.

I had another embarrassing moment later in the roam after a bombing run against us. I had my mwd shut off, of course (although am I right in thinking that the mwd signature reduction on Interceptors makes them pretty safe from bombs even when the mwd is running?), but I took a little bit of shield damage.

Two things then happened at the same time. First, one of our Scimitars locked me up to give me reps, and second, I tried to point the bomber. As you can probably guess, my auto targeting locked the Scimitar first, so when I activated my point I hit the friendly again. Ugh.

Now, some people say that auto-locking is for noobs. I strongly disagree; it's free intel when flying solo. Is that neutral that just landed going to engage you or the other guy? Has your target launched drones? Auto-lock gives you a quick list of who to kill in small engagements without distracting you from the piloting and ship management that is so critical when you 1vX.

None of that means it's not completely fail when paired with Logistic ships, however. Once again I accept the mockery of my peers (I'm serious about it being a teaching aid, by the way. I'm not going to make either of those mistakes again.) while I turned off auto-lock for the duration of the fleet.

All together, I felt like the corp performed much better than it did on our last null sec roam, while I made every mistake from chapter 1 of "Fleets for Dummies". Still, it was a good time and I'm glad to be getting out of Hevrice and learning a bit about null sec.

Having Issues.

2011-12-02T00:40:00.000-08:00

No real update today, for two reasons - both of which are Eve related.

First, I'm having internet problems. I'm on limited bandwidth and the recent patch maxed me out. It should fix itself in a few days when my bandwidth refreshes, but in the meantime my access is limited.

Second, though, the patch does not seem to have worked for me. The repair tool also seems broken, as it just sits on "(3/7) Initialising..." without doing anything. It looks like I'm going to have to manually install the patch, which means another download in a few days.

I've already posted a notice to my corp mates, and I thought I'd repeat it here. Worst case, I can't get the patch to work when my bandwidth refreshes, and then I have to look at cancelling my subscription; I simply can't afford to constantly download huge packets of information in the hope of making Eve work.

However, we're not there yet, so hopefully you hear back from me in a few days.

Dramiel Roam #1

2011-11-30T03:39:00.000-08:00

The hunt:

Suleiman had decided to organise a Dramiel roam through null sec. Few of us fly Dramiels in the Tuskers - we're space poor pirates who can't afford such things - but this was going to be a last opportunity to fly them before the coming nerf. Plus, it sounded completely awesome.

The fleet was restricted to shield Drams and Scimitars. As some of us are not capable of even sitting in a Dram, shield Interceptors were also allowed, as well as a couple of Sentinels for e-war and an Interdictor. Of course, I jumped into my shield Malediction, ready for some pew-pew.

We set off through 0.0 with about 18 ships, mostly Drams, and ran into a gate camp. There were about 8 of them, mostly in cruisers, but despite the class advantage, it was a complete massacre. We wiped them out to a man, with no losses.

Continuing on our way, we spent several hours blowing up ships in TEST space, and generally having a good time. Things took a turn for the worse after about our 5th hour of roaming.

We had jumped into a dead-end system to fight with a gang of BCs and Logistics ships. It was a close fought battle, but we were on the winning side; our manoeuvrability allowed us to pick away at stragglers and then get out before the counter-punch came. However, in the middle of the engagement, another gang jumped in.

We warped out, thinking that these were reinforcements for the locals, but in fact they were hostiles. Wounded from our own attacks, our initial opponents were wiped off the field. The victors then decided to camp us into the system, which, as luck would have it, held no wormholes.

Their gang quickly swelled to about 30 BCs and support, and our scouts told us that the out gate was locked down tight. We tried to log out, but they persisted for over an hour. Eventually I, and others, had to drop from vent and head to bed.

Getting home:

Later in the week I tried to get myself back to Hevrice. I picked an off-peak period and made my way back to low sec. I dodged some locals, and was doing well when I had a stroke of bad luck.

I was warping to a gate that was too far from any celestials to scan in advance. Using d-scan mid warp I could see two destroyers waiting for me. I knew this meant there would be a camp on the other side, but I figured that my odds of running it were better than trying to escape the waiting destroyers and finding a way around.

Jumping as soon as I hit the gate, I was followed immediately by the two destroyers. The bubble was up on the other side, so I aligned to a celestial and began to burn out of the bubble. My speed, I hoped, would be enough to save me.

However, as fate would have it, one of the destroyers loaded grid close enough to me to hit me with a scram! Speed gone, I tried to drift far enough from the bubble to get my pod out, but to no avail.

Afterthoughts:

A dissappointing end to what had been an excellent roam.

I did not learn until much later that the gang camping us in had joined our vent channel, so they were not fooled by the log-off attempt. It's something of a tradition in the Tuskers to joke about how easy - and pointless - we are to infiltrate. We have no corp wallet to steal, and because we mostly roam solo in cheap ships, we have little intel of value.

However, I don't think we can just laugh this one off. It was, truthfully, pretty fail. Our lax security cost us an hour of play time, and I lost a ship. Other members of my corp may also have lost ships, or have been forced to abandon them. That's a clear win to the null sec guys.

Tuskers don't do spies. Not because we're too honourable, but because we don't care. This ties into Mord's recent comment about contextual differences between low sec and null sec. For Tuskers, the fight is the point; we're not fighting for ideals, territory, or isk. Even winning is not strictly the goal. We're fighting because we want to improve our technical flying skills, and become the best pilots we can be. So infiltration is seen as a distraction from what really matters (at best) or crutch for poor pilots (at worst).

Of course, as we learned to our detriment, that does not make infiltration any less effective. Not a lesson I'm soon to forget; it cost me a ship.

Equally, I think we underestimated the null sec intel channels. Staying in one place (TEST space) for so long allowed the locals to put together a response fleet (and finding us was easy once they were logged onto our vent). While the timing and location seems to have been bad luck, a top quality null sec FC could easily have been shadowing us, waiting for just such an opporunity.

Still, it was a fantastic roam, and I very much enjoyed playing fast tackle for the fleet. Of course, in a Dram fleet, speed was not really what I was most useful for. Instead, I was a fast locking point on gates, and a good way of landing a point in latecomers to the battle without putting myself in too much danger.

Indeed, we had so much fun, we decided to do the whole thing again the following week.

Fleet roles: Scouting

2011-11-28T01:52:00.000-08:00

The Tuskers have had a couple of fleet roams into 0.0 that I want to post about, but lack of time (and internet issues) means I’m not getting a report up today. However, there are a number of spin-off topics I want to post about, and this is one of them.

***

This is not a “how to” on fleet scouting; I’m not Azual, and I can’t claim anything like his expertise on fleet warfare. Instead, these are simply my observations on certain fleet roles after participating in a number of Tusker fleets. Take from that what you will.

That said, it seems to me that every fleet needs two kinds of scouts; pathfinders and rangers. While the roles are similar, they require different skill levels and ship setups, and the success of a roam can be made or broken by the quality of the fleet’s scouts.

Pathfinders

These are what I would call entry level scouts. Their role is typically to stay one or two jumps ahead (or behind) the fleet as they travel from point A to point B. They are the eyes and ears of the FC and are practically under his remote control; they go where they are told, and only where they are told. The FC needs to know exactly where they are and what they see.

Almost anyone can fill this role in a pinch. Typically, it helps if they are flying a fast ship so that they can move at the fleet’s pace, rather than forcing the fleet to move at their pace. And being cheap with a fast align time means that the FC can fearlessly send them into potential traps; they will either escape, or their destruction is no real loss. Interceptors and many T1 frigates make ideal pathfinders.

These same ship qualities also make for excellent light tackle, and since the pathfinding role ends when the fleet stops moving, pathfinders often double as the dedicated tackle for the fleet, giving them a role in combat as well as on the move.

Because new pilots usually fly fast, cheap ships (although they don’t feel cheap to the new pilot), they are often given the role of pathfinder. It’s also a good way to integrate them into the fleet; it keeps them busy and talking to people when they might otherwise not know anyone during those long spells of just sitting on a gate, waiting for intel. And because the role comes with a fair degree of micromanagement from the FC (depending on the FC and the circumstances, of course) a new pilot will feel fairly confident that they are doing the ‘right’ thing, whereas they might flounder if left too much to their own devices.

Rangers

These scouts are the ones sent out to actually find the enemy, and they require a very specific skill set. Because an entire fleet is (literally) waiting for them to do their job, they are under constant pressure to find a balance between accurate information and fast information.

This is somewhere I go very, very wrong. A good ranger has a natural feel for the information coming in through his overview and his d-scan; he knows that Drake is at a POS without jumping to the POS to take a look, he quickly deduces that the Maelstrom is outside a station, and he can tell that the Merlin in the belt is bait.

I, on the other hand, don’t do ‘feelings’. I roam the way I fly – focused and meticulous. I excel at anything that requires these skills and my fights are won through management of my ship: cap management, heat management, module management, range management, and so on. There is nothing ‘magic’ about what I do; I’m just working the numbers.

So when I roam, I start by jumping around so I’ve quickly d-scanned the entire system, and then start narrowing down every target that I’m interested in, starting with the highest priority and working down the list. I won’t conclude that a ship is sitting on a station until I’ve seen it with my own eyes, or had it on 5 degree d-scan with a range check.

This is fine when roaming solo, and has gotten me many kills that others would have missed (while probably costing me at least as many fights that I would have found if I’d moved on the easier targets). However, it is needlessly time consuming for fleet work. Equally, though, I get very uncomfortable when trying to rush this process, which makes me a poor ranger.

On the other end of the spectrum you have pilots like [name removed by request] (who is one the best rangers I’ve ever flown with in my - admittedly limited - fleet experience), who can seemingly jump into a system and tell you where everyone is and what they are doing before he’s even loaded grid.

Of course, what he’s really doing is exactly what I would be doing in his place: bouncing around the system using d-scan. The difference is that [name removed] processes that data faster than I do, and is able to come to (correct) conclusions based on less information. And ultimately, that’s what makes him a better ranger than me.

Ship choice for rangers is a little more wide open than it is for pathfinders. While a ranger needs a certain amount of speed to find the enemy, there are different ways to start the fight. So one ranger might fly an interceptor to warp in and point the enemy, while another might fly covops to provide warp-in info for the pathfinders. Yet another might fly a bait ship. Ship choice will depend very much on how the FC intends to bring the enemy to battle.

Practical Applications

Moving, with some trepidation, from observation to theory, it seems to me that it is important for an FC to know (at least informally) who his pathfinders are and who his rangers are.

Pathfinders, by and large, are not going to make good rangers. The fleet will move more and hunt more slowly, letting targets escape and increasing the chances that the locals will have time to organize effective resistance. Everyone loses - except the enemy.

Rangers, on the other hand, make perfectly decent (even excellent) pathfinders, but it’s a waste of talent. If someone needs to run into an insta-lock bubble camp, let it be one of the disposable pathfinders, otherwise you are down a ranger and forced to use someone else in the role they would have filled.

Purifier 2.1

2011-11-23T00:56:00.000-08:00

The fit:

Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher x3
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Core Probe Launcher

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Medium Shield Extender II

Nonofibre Internal Structure II x2
Ballistic Control System II

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

The hunt:

I had tried camping a radar site, but things had not worked out. Rather than a battleship (or even a battlecruiser) the site was run by a Tengu. Because of the comparatively small sig radius, I thought my dps would not likely be enough to solo the cruiser. I called for backup, but the Tengu finished the site before backup arrived.

However, we did have a small fleet now, and we stumbled on a Ferox at a belt, so we (myself and two battlecruisers) all jumped in.

I took up a position about 50km from the fight as I did not need to be in point range. I aligned to a celestial and opened fire, with impressive results (okay I was impressed, but then I usually fly low dps ships). We quickly subdued the Ferox, and he agreed to pay a ransom of 60 million ISK.

This underscored a problem with long range missiles. When he agreed to a ransom, I already had two volleys in the air, so although I immediately shut down my launchers, I nearly blew him up via delayed dps!

However, language difficulties meant that the Ferox had thought he was paying a ransom of 60,000 ISK rather than 60,000,000 ISK. When he could not pay the agreed ransom we refunded him his payment and destroyed his ship.

2011.11.20 13:40

Victim: Arch3Ang3l
Corp: Reblier Ancbeu Administration of Defence
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Ferox
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 19712

Involved parties:

Name: Susitna
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 8348

Name: Ronan Jacques (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 5588

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Purifier
Weapon: 'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher
Damage Done: 4479

Name: Serpentis Watchman / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 1297

Destroyed items:

Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 10
Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2
Shield Recharger I
Photon Scattering Field I
Medium Shield Extender I
Signal Amplifier II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 15 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 2978 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 3
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 40
250mm Railgun I, Qty: 2
Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 60
Invulnerability Field I
Warp Disruptor I
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Serpent F.O.F. Light Missile I, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 1850 (Cargo)
Mining Drone I (Drone Bay)

Strangely, although I am on the killmail, I don't actually receive any credit from Battleclinic.

Afterthoughts:

This was not a challenging fight, and if I had been in my Vengeance or Malediction I would not have bothered to post about it. However, there are still learning points here for a bomber.

I was the last one to land at the fight, so I had less time to inflict damage. However, I still did more damage than my Vengeance would have done if I had been first on the scene, so I'm happy with the contribution that the Purifier seems to be able to make to BC fights. More and more I am of the opinion that even if I can't solo in this thing, there is a future here for fleet dps/ewar; I'm certainly not regretting the training time I have put in.

However, this was my first real experience with the dps delay that plagues long range missiles. While not a big deal in this case, I could see it resulting in lost dps in a fast moving fleet fight.

I was not fired upon during the engagement, so I can't yet comment on the MSE, but I certainly did not feel disadvantaged by the lack of mwd; sig bloom can kill you just as fast as lack of speed.

Purifier 1.3

2011-11-21T01:10:00.000-08:00

The fit:

Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher x3
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Core Probe Launcher

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Small Capacitor Booster II

Nonofibre Internal Structure II x2
Ballistic Control System II

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator

The hunt:

It had been a bit of a depressing day, actually. I'd found a handful of targets, but something went wrong on each approach. Perhaps they finished their mission before I could creep into range. Perhaps I uncloaked myself on a wreck or structure. Different stories, but same result: no kills.

So when some of the lads found some trouble a few systems over, I was happy to head over to help them out. I was a couple of jumps off, and the fight was already under way.

We had a Cyclone and a Drake on the field to their Myrmidon and Hurricane. Going by com chatter, our Cyclone had been jumped by both the Myrm and the Hurricane, and Naoru's Drake had jumped in as support. They Myrmidon, for some reason, was called as primary. Presumably he had been first on the field.

The Cyclone tanked like a trooper, but was going down by the time I landed. I had warped in at about 30km and immediately opened fire on the Myrmidon, who was at about 20% armor. However, just after I launched (but before my torpedos hit), primary was switched to the Hurricane. This made sense, but was a pity; my torpedos stripped away most of his armor, and my second volley kept him there; since he was barely able to tank me, I suspect that the three of us would quickly have broken him.

Nevertheless, I switched targets. I had aligned to a planet that kept me near enough the fight to target each of the two BCs, so that was not a problem. Still, I need to break this down, step-by-step, because everything that happened next took no more than a few seconds.

First, I left-clicked the Hurricane on my overview. Then, I hit the "target" button, and my overview started beeping at me, indicating that I am trying to target something. As soon as the target was locked, I reengaged my torpedo launchers.

However, the beeping continued, and I realised that my autotargeting system was trying to target the drones that both ships had just sent my way. I immediately spammed my "warp" button, but nothing happened.

That's when I realised that I no longer had the celestial I'm aligned to on my HUD because I had left-clicked on the Hurricane, bringing that up instead. I quickly tried to reacquire the planet on my HUD, but at this point I was already in my pod, because an mwd bomber has just over 1k ehp.

It was over for me that fast.

2011.11.20 09:51:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Purifier
System: Indregulle
Security: 0.2Damage Taken: 817

Involved parties:

Name: Jaxx Blackfox (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.7
Corp: The Jazz Lounge
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Myrmidon
Weapon: Hammerhead II
Damage Done: 790

Name: Jethro Winchester
Security: 1.3
Corp: The Jazz Lounge
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Warrior I
Damage Done: 27

Destroyed items:

Core Probe Launcher I
Cap Booster 75, Qty: 5
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Ballistic Control System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Caldari Navy Mjolnir Torpedo, Qty: 108 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Qty: 2
Warp Disruptor II
Core Scanner Probe I, Qty: 8
Caldari Navy Mjolnir Torpedo, Qty: 39
Small Capacitor Booster II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanite Repair Paste, Qty: 51 (Cargo)
Cap Booster 75, Qty: 20 (Cargo)

Naoru was able to finish off the Hurricane and point the Myrm. We rushed to reship, but the Myrm launched some ECM drones and escaped.

2011.11.20 09:53:00

Victim: Jethro Winchester
Corp: The Jazz Lounge
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Hurricane
System: Indregulle
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 18296

Involved parties:

Name: Naoru Kozan (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.5
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Thunderbolt Fury Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 16759

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: 'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher
Damage Done: 1537

Destroyed items:

Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Warp Disruptor II
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 20
Tracking Enhancer II, Qty: 2
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Damage Control II
720mm 'Scout' Artillery I, Qty: 3
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Large Shield Extender II
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 880 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Gyrostabilizer II, Qty: 3
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 40
720mm 'Scout' Artillery I, Qty: 3
Warrior I (Drone Bay)

Afterthoughts:

Wow, are these bombers fragile. Granted, the timing sucked, but I should have used the right-click drop-down menu to target the Hurricane. My reactions were correct, and in time, but the process I used was a legacy of flying interceptors and assault frigates - you want your target to be on your HUD because you are constantly using your orbit/keep at range/approach buttons to control range and speed. That just does not work for tank-less bombers.

While I don't have a killmail to show for it, I was happy with the dps I was able to put on the Myrmidon, and the single volley I put on the Hurricane was decent. If I can avoid dying, I can contribute meaningful dps to a BC fight, which was one of my goals with bombers. Even if I can't solo in them, I can always fit them up for range and lob salvos at whomever Sule is kiting.

Still, I've been consistently disappointed by the lack of tank on this build, so I'll probably try the MSE fit next. I'll have to lose the mwd, but I've not really used that anyway; most of the time I'm cloaked up.

Purifier 1.2

2011-11-18T02:11:00.000-08:00

The fit:

Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher x3
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Core Probe Launcher

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Small Capacitor Booster II

Nonofibre Internal Structure II x2
Ballistic Control System II

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

The hunt:

I spent some more time scanning down wormholes, and discovered a C1 with no W-space wormholes, just another low sec exit. Checking out the exit system, I found myself in Derelik. I decided it might be worth roaming around a fairly quiet area of low sec where the Tusker tag did not automatically set off alarm bells (and was not set to red in contacts).

As it happened, I jumped into a system that was being scanned down by someone doing exploration. I sat tight, and let him finish scanning and move on. My hope was to let him get used to my presence in local, scan down the valuable sites while he went to get his site-running ship, and then ambush him. It might have worked, except it turned out that there were no valuable sites in this system.

Checking the galactic map, I saw that most of the systems around me were empty, but there were a couple nearby that had a few pilots in space. Time, I decided, to check them out.

Nearly everyone seemed to be either cloaked or posed or docked up; about what I expected in a backwater like this. It reminded me very much of my time in Amarr low sec. However, I did manage to catch a Wreathe leaving an unarmed pos (else I would not have dared uncloak). Sadly, he was not carrying anything of value.

After waiting out my GCC, I returned to my wormhole, only to find that the exit to Verge Vendor space had disappeared! As the wormhole had had plenty of time remaining on it, someone must have actively closed it. I was now a long way from home.

Rather than try and make the long journey back to Hevrice, I instead decided to keep roaming W-space looking for a closer exit. I eventually found one that put me only a half dozen jumps from Hev, but the exit was in high sec.

Boy, was THAT a learning experience. Despite emerging in the middle of nowhere, the Federation Navy was on me immediately. And despite my two Nanofibres, the gate guns seemed able to shoot at me before I could hit warp. With no tank, I barely managed the three jumps into low sec. A very close call.

I docked up for repairs, waited out my aggression timer on the gates, and then returned to Hevrice.

Afterthoughts:

This was the first time I had fired my torpedos at another player, and I was impressed by the volley damage; I nearly alpha'd the (admittedly untanked) hauler. Of course, the second volley was a long time in coming.

This kill was not a real test of the Purifier, or my fit, but it did give me a good taste of what I needed to do. I screwed up by hitting orbit rather than aligning out (not that it made a difference against this target), simply from force of habit.

The loss of my return route was a stark warning about the dangers of W-space. Up until then, it had not seemed a big deal, but all of a sudden it looked like a much, much larger place. Something to keep in mind.

The run through high sec was also illuminating. Solo bomber fits come in two flavours; mwd/booster fits and ab/shield fits. Mwd fits are more popular because you can outrun drones and because you have added maneuverability as well as an immunity to large neuts.

However, ab fits have their advantages. No sig bloom, for a start, and a much larger tank. This makes them better against missile ships (I am told) and as my damage type pushes me towards fighting Caldari ships, that's no bad thing. However, it would also have made a huge difference on the high sec run, allowing me to take a hit from the gate guns without worrying that I was going to explode each time. It also gives you more fitting space for other options; an ab Purifier can fit T2 launchers, if it wants to.

I'm going to stick with the mwd fit for now, but I look forward to trying an ab in due course.

Purifier 1.1

2011-11-16T02:25:00.000-08:00

Feeling Rusty (part 2)

2011-11-11T00:50:00.000-08:00

The hunt:

Returning to the Hev station after my Malediction loss, I reshipped to my trusty Vengeance. I double checked the loadout and the cargo hold, and slipped back into space.

At first I had trouble finding the Bellicose and I feared that I would be denied the opportunity for a rematch. However, he reappeared after a short while; perhaps he was just replenishing his drone supply.

I warped back in on him at another belt, and the fight was on at once.

I knew he had neuts, but I didn't really care; the Vengeance is not a dancer, it's a brawler. Orbiting at 500m seemed good. Predictably, I'm neuted at once, which strangely gave me a degree of confidence; the Bellicose did not really understand how this fight was going to work.

My cap regen is just silly, so I had no problem activating any of my non-repair system mods. Using my web, I turned my attention to the drones and destroyed them with the Caldari Navy Foxfire I had preloaded. The second wave of drones received the same treatment.

At this point, we both moved into the second phase of the fight. I reloaded to Gremlin Rage to break his shield tank, and he had eaten through my shields and was hitting my armor. This meant I now had to try squeezing repair cycles out between his neut cycles, and because I'm using a Coreli repair system (as opposed to the more cap hungry, but powerful, Centi repair system) I was able to do so.

I started pummeling him with overheated launchers, but switched off the overheat once my launchers hit 50%; this was going to be an endurance fight and I could not afford to burn anything out. I also noticed that I had missed one of his drones, presumably because my targeting system had been full when I initially engaged them. I could not effectively engage it with Rage rockets, so I'd have to just let it be. The damage was low, but every little bit helped him.

The next few minutes seemed like hours; they were very, very tense. My entire focus was on keeping my modules online and maximising my my rep cycles. I didn't even notice Kaal pull up in his Harbinger and ask if I wanted help. After not receiving a response, Kaal simply parked himself next to the fight to watch.

We both entered structure together, but he had far more structure than I did. Still, my rep cycles were putting me back up into armor each time, so it was simply a matter of timing. Would his shot catch me right at the bottom of a rep cycle, or would I grind him down?

As it turns out, luck was on his side and a "solid hit" at just the wrong time turned my hull to scrap.

2011.11.06 08:39:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 4263

Involved parties:

Name: Siva Surya Kshatriya (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.2
Corp: Buccaneers of New Eden
Alliance: The Forsaken.
Faction: None
Ship: Bellicose
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 3616

Name: Serpentis Trooper / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 647

Destroyed items:

Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 7
Damage Control II
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
Warp Scrambler II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Small Bay Loading Accelerator II
Standard Exile Booster (Cargo)
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 564 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 364 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 420 (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 440 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 21
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Adaptive Nano Plating II
1MN Afterburner II
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)

Kaal then immediately blew away my opponent (thanks, Kaal!).

2011.11.06 08:39:00

Victim: Siva Surya Kshatriya
Corp: Buccaneers of New Eden
Alliance: The Forsaken.
Faction: None
Destroyed: Bellicose
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 10332

Involved parties:

Name: Kaal Redrum (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.8
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Harbinger
Weapon: Heavy Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 482
Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Gremlin Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 9850

Destroyed items:

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Qty: 2
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I, Qty: 2
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Large Shield Extender II
Tracking Enhancer II
Republic Fleet Fusion M, Qty: 66
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 745 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Warp Scrambler II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Control II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator, Qty: 2
Medium 'Gremlin' Power Core Disruptor I
Gyrostabilizer II
Republic Fleet Fusion M, Qty: 132
Barrage M, Qty: 958 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 414 (Cargo)
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator (Cargo)
Small Armor Repairer II (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Fusion M, Qty: 487 (Cargo)
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I (Cargo)
Damage Control II (Cargo)

Afterthoughts:

As we both warped our pods away (and Kaal scooped my loot and started salvaging - thanks, Kaal!), we wished each other enthusiastic "gfs

However, I'm pretty disappointed in my performance; this fight could have easily been won outright if I had screwed up less.

1) Although I knew the Bellicose was shield tanked, I preloaded Caldari Foxfire, not Caldari Gremlin. Yes, that was mostly to shoot at the drones, but there was some shooting at the Bellicose between waves. I only needed another 500ish damage to win, so squeezing a little more dps out of that initial exchange could have won it for me.

2) I should have checked my overview rather than relying on my autotargeting system to determine if all the drone had been cleared. One drone, over several minutes, almost certainly made the difference between a win and a loss here. I'm satisfied that, after having screwed up, I did not compound my error by then trying to clear that last drone, but it should simply never have happened.

3) I did not reactivate the overheat on my launchers at the end of the fight. Killing the overheat early was fine, but I should have turned it back on when we entered into structure. Again, this would have probably made the 500 damage difference that I needed to win.

4) I did not overheat my repair system or pop my Exile pill. This was REALLY dumb. I had it in my head that this would increase my cap usage, which I could not afford. It's true that overheating my repair system would have caused it to cycle faster (which means it uses cap faster), but it makes no difference to the individual cap cost per cycle. Instead, I would have repaired an extra 20% or so, which would have turned this into an easy win. Popping the Exile would have done the same thing, with no cap consequences at all.

So, without trying to diminish or excuse my opponent's win, I really snatched defeat from the jaws of victory here. I've simply spent too much time away from the game (unavoidable) and too much time (when I am playing) freeloading in fleets. That's not strictly fair, I suppose, but fleet work does focus on a very different skill set, so I have allowed my solo skills to atrophy.

I need to do something about that. I think I'll probably spend the next month or so avoiding fleets if I can (except perhaps black ops) and focusing on those long distance solo roams I used to do so often. I'll probably die lots, and lose a ton of ISK, but if I can get back on top of my game it will be worth it.

For anyone that wants to fight a Vengeance, however, I'll point out my opponent's initial mistake, which was turning on the neuts too soon. As you can see from my bat-rep, a Vengeance can easily run everything except the repair system under neuts; the cap regen is simply that good, even without rigs.

That meant that Siva's own cap was suffering, which had consequences later in the fight, as there were a couple of periods where he must have turned off his neuts to avoid capping out. If he had not burned cap when it didn't matter, he could have kept the pressure up. Instead, he should have waited until I actually started using the armor repair system before starting the neuts.

As an aside, it seems that Lady Luck loves a fool, as Kaal was able to recover my deadspace repair system and salvage an intact armor plate. With the other loot taken into account, I'm probably actually ahead, financially.

Feeling Rusty (part 1)

2011-11-09T00:35:00.000-08:00

The hunt:

Sometimes it takes a specific event (or series of events) to really crystallise a thought that's been lurking at the back of your mind.

I had just logged back on after a long absence, and I was keen to pew-pew. I undocked in an AB fit Malediction (plate, no neut) and went looking for trouble.

Trouble was easy to find. A Bellicose was bouncing around the celestials in Hev, and I decided to give it a go. He was looking for a fight too, and we missed each other a couple of times before I finally landed right on top of him.

I immediately webbed and pointed him, and set myself into a wide orbit to avoid neuts. After doing so, I concentrated on destroying his drones, which were the main threat.

Unfortunately, although I had activated my afterburner, the client had dropped the command somewhere, and I was so focused on destroying his drones that I did not notice. To be sure, I knew what the range was, and I could also see that he was neuting me, but I assumed that he had two webs or the like, and so I did not think I could do much about it. Instead, I moved into the tightest orbit I could, hoping that I could still get under his guns with my reduced speed. It didn't work.

2011.11.06 08:18:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Malediction
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2400

Involved parties:

Name: Siva Surya Kshatriya (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.2
Corp: Buccaneers of New Eden
Alliance: The Forsaken.
Faction: None
Ship: Bellicose
Weapon: Hobgoblin I
Damage Done: 2316

Name: Serpentis Defender / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 84

Destroyed items:

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Warp Scrambler II
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 129
1MN Afterburner II
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 3
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Small Armor Repairer II
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 414 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 450 (Cargo)

Warping my pod out, I dropped a "gf" in local and went back for my Vengeance.

Afterthoughts:

As I warped away from this fight, the idea that I had lost my edge really began to take root, building on the events of the past month or so. I had pursued a target well outside the engagement envelope of my own ship, and then made a stupid rookie mistake that had ended the fight before it was even really begun.

Time away from the game has a performance cost. Equally, my life in Hevrice has been something of a soft one; corp mates find targets and help take down larger ships, small gangs do battle under expert leadership providing an endless parade of easy kills, and generally I can rely on other pilots to mitigate my own weaknesses.

How different from my solo days in Amarr space or Molden Heath. But one fight can be a fluke, right? Going back with my maxed out Vengeance was sure to produce a different result...

Killmail etiquette

2011-11-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

This is a post that I've been meaning to put up for a while, as a result of discussions I've had with other pvpers, both in corp and out. None of my comments are directed at anyone in particular.

Killmail whoring. It's an ugly term for an ugly practice, but we've all done it. We all like being on killmails. We all like seeing our Battleclinic rating and our combat efficiency go up. So we all like to get in on low risk killmails, even if we didn't really "earn" it.

Because we all do it, we also all tolerate it, to one extent or another. Still, there's a line out there somewhere, and when a fellow pilot starts crossing that line on a regular basis, resentment starts to build. Here's my take on the "unspoken rules" of killmail whoring.

1) You need unequivocal approval to join any one on one fight.

Nothing pushes a pvper like a straight up 1v1; these are the fights we all dream of, the fights where you learn and grow as a pilot, win or lose. These fights are also rather hard to come by, so having someone jump in uninvited deprives you of a great experience, a valuable learning opportunity, and an attractive killmail.

Furthermore, interrupting these fights tarnishes your reputation, your corp mate's reputation, and your corporation's reputation; your victim will never believe that your intervention was not by design, so don't intervene lightly.

For these reasons, always get express permission before interrupting a 1v1. Simply asking if they want backup will do the trick. If they say "yes", you're in the clear. If they say "no", leave them be.

2) You need tacit approval before joining any fight where the target needed to be brought to battle (scanned down, bubbled, bait, etc).

Even if the fight is not going to be 1v1, someone put a fair amount of work into finding this fight. While they may well welcome assistance, you should make your intentions clear in plenty of time for them to object.

Usually, the easiest way to do that is to join their fleet and ask where you should be ("you want my Malediction on the gate, right?"). You've given notice of your intentions, and if anyone feels strongly, they have a chance to object.

3) If there has been a public call out, you are generally free to jump in...

If they didn't want company, they would not have advertised the fight on vent or in chat. Still, good manners suggests publicly signalling your intentions as early as possible. Again, this gives people the chance to object if they feel strongly ("Actually, it looks like we've got enough people right now")

4) ... unless the fight is nearly over by the time you get there.

When three frigates have nearly downed a battlecruiser, I guarantee you that none of the pilots will be pleased when you show up and open fire as the last sliver of structure disappears. It was a tough fight, and the killmail no longer shows that, especially if you are flying a heavier class of vessel.

Don't even ask. Be a man and help them try and point the pod. There will be other fights.

Politeness will probably push your corp mates to offer you a slice of the loot. Bow out; they'll respect you more for it.

5) Be a rain maker.

Some pilots are alpha hunters. They actively seek out targets and are very, very good at finding them. To a certain extent, the Tuskers (by virtue of their recruitment process) are all alpha hunters (although I'm more than happy to accept that certain members of the corp stand out above the rest).

However, many corps also have another kind of hunter - beta hunters. These guys spend most of their time in station or in safes, but are always happy to lend a hand when a fight is found. There's nothing wrong with being one of these guys (and it has nothing to do with pvp skill), but try to make sure that you are providing the corp with a fair share of kills, and, by extension, your fellow pilots with a fair share of killmails.

Of course, these are just my own views, and they are very general; the specifics of any given situation (or set of personalities) may well override them. Feel free to add your own views, rules, or guidance in the comments.

Malediction & Jaguar v Merlin & Rifter

2011-11-04T02:10:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

This is a recent fight, which I have been prompted to post by Cable's account here. I always find it interesting to see the same fight from different angles, and so I'm posting this now so that people can read it alongside Cable's account.

I had started my day in New Eden by roaming in my trusty Vengeance. I had encountered a Merlin, piloted by Yarr Beard, that was sitting at the sun. I jumped in to say "hello", but Yarr Beard was a sneaky 300km off the warp-in point. He wanted a fight, but also wanted to be able to choose those fights. Very cunning.

He told me in local "I'm brave, but not suicidal". Fair enough, I thought. It would have been a pretty one sided fight, and he was clearly too canny for my flashy Vengeance to sneak up on, so I continued on my way.

Later in the day I switched to my Malediction as I wanted to test the armor tanked fleet interceptor (with web!) I have posted about previously. As I roamed around, I again saw Yarr Beard sitting at the sun. This presented me with an excellent opportunity to test my fit, so I jumped in again.

As before, I landed about 300km from Yarr Beard, so I started burning towards him. Around this time Cable asked me if I wanted a hand with the Merlin - he had clearly spotted us both at the sun on Dscan. You can always count on Cable for good manners when it comes to killmails (which reminds me - I need to do a post on killmail etiquette), but I could not in good conscience claim to have engaged the Merlin yet, so I told Cable he should feel free to jump in and see if he could land any closer than me.

Of course, 300km is not actually that far for a fleet interceptor, and I do about 4km/sec before overheat, so I actually reached Yarr Beard before Cable landed. Yarr (for short) liked his odds against my interceptor better than he had liked the odds against my Vengeance, so he let me catch him. I broke my approach early so I did not get carried into scram range, and pointed Yarr at a safe distance.

Now, the fit I was flying was not using any missile range rigs (something I intend to change, as I think I can safely lose the locking speed rig as the benefit is negligible), so my theoretical range was only 15.2km. That meant my actual range was closer to 13km; very close to scram range. I danced about the Merlin, peppering it with rockets and evading his efforts to scram and web me.

It was around this time that both Cable and the neutral Rifter landed. Cable, of course, was a long way off, but the Rifter was disturbingly close. He immediately burned towards me and tried to engage.

Now, I probably would have bailed at this point, but the arrival of the Rifter had distracted me from my piloting long enough for Yarr to hit me with a scram. I was stuck, and started to take damage from Yarr's missiles.

I told Cable that I couldn't handle them both, and we quickly fleeted up so Cable could warp to me. I called the Merlin primary (I know it has a stronger tank, but a quick look at the damage coming from the Rifter told me that Yarr Beard was by far the more dangerous of the pair), and Cable started to pile on the hurt as soon as he landed, while I tried to align to a celestial while overheating my rockets.

I knew Yarr would have a strong tank, but I had not realised just how strong it would be. Favouring a cap boosted active tank, he was very, very resilient. Fortunately for me, my Malediction is fairly fast, even without the mwd on, has a low signature radius, and has a stupid amount of ehp for an interceptor (just shy of 6k ehp). With Cable's overheated dps added to the mix, Yarr exploded just as I entered structure.

2011.10.30 20:03:00

Victim: Yarr Beard
Corp: Caldari Provisions
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Adirain
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2460

Involved parties:

Name: Cable Udan (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1193

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Foxfire Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 1267

Destroyed items:

Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Qty: 2
Null S, Qty: 59
Small Capacitor Booster II
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Light Neutron Blaster II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Null S, Qty: 600 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Null S, Qty: 59
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Medium Shield Booster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 52
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Navy Cap Booster 400, Qty: 8 (Cargo)
Standard Blue Pill Booster (Cargo)

That left just the Rifter. I was so close to destruction that he could easily have finished me if he had not been distracted by Cable opening fire. He allowed me to drift outside of point range, and my mwd roared into life, quickly putting into a wide, safe orbit while I held point on the Rifter. He soon fell to Cable's guns.

2011.10.30 20:04:00

Victim: Kodz Tokar
Corp: Ordo Mercuia
Alliance: Dec Shield
Faction: None
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Adirain
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 1589

Involved parties:

Name: Cable Udan (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1589

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

Destroyed items:

Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 143
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I, Qty: 2
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Egress Port Maximizer I
Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I
Republic Fleet EMP S, Qty: 340 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 143
Small Armor Repairer II
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Qty: 3
Republic Fleet EMP S, Qty: 143
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 680 (Cargo)

Cable and I both pointed the pod, and ransomed Kodz for 5 million. Cable handled the ransom, as it was practically a solo kill, and asked for 5 million based on the character's age. I think this was a mistake because this was clearly someone's alt; they were very aggressive for a new character and clearly knew what they were doing. There was a good chance they had +4s or +5s for enhanced learning. In any event, they immediately agreed to the ransom and we let them go.

At this point, Cable left with the bulk of the loot while I stayed around to salvage some of the T2 wrecks that were presumably results of Yarr's earlier engagements. As I was salvaging, Yarr jumped back in with another Merlin.

Now, I was trailing hull fire, here, and not being active or passive tanked, I was in no better shape than I had been at the end of our last fight. Rather than engaging directly, then, I simply held a long point on Yarr Beard and gave Cable the warp in. I was unable to offer further assistance, and the fight was a real nail biter - Yarr's tank held out for a long time before it finally succumbed.

2011.10.30 20:26:00

Victim: Yarr Beard
Corp: Caldari Provisions
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Adirain
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3501

Involved parties:

Name: Cable Udan (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 3501

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

Destroyed items:

Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Qty: 2
Medium Shield Booster II
Small Capacitor Booster II
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Null S, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Navy Cap Booster 400, Qty: 7 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Damage Control II
Null S, Qty: 134
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 56
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

We pointed Yarr's pod and offered him warm "gf's" in local; he had fought exceptionally well against above class ships (and 2v1 odds) and then come back for more. We chatted for a bit, and then Yarr asked us to pod him to save him the time spend returning to his home base. We obliged him.

Afterthoughts:

I really like the durability of the plate fit Malediction, but really disliked the lack of regen. I also feel that any mwd Malediction needs at least one missile range rig, which would boost my theoretical range from 15.2km to 17km; enough that kiting becomes less of a chore. I'm going to mess about with things a little, and see if I can come up with something that still gives me a web while also having a little more depth than just a big tank.

I also really enjoyed fighting in the Malediction generally. I think I'll put together an ab fit for solo work. I should still be fast enough to navigate low sec safely, but better able to take on ab frigates, kiting at the extreme of scram range. Of course, my shield fit mwd Malediction has also proved to be a decent solo kiter, so perhaps that's another option.

Reading the Tusker forums, I see that Yarr Beard has put in his application to join us. I wish him the best of luck, and am sure he will be a credit to the corporation.

I suppose I should also thank Cable for, *ahem*, saving my sorry mwd ass when Yarr Beard managed to land a scram on me. Of course, we will never speak of this again.

Profit Account for October 2011

2011-11-02T02:06:00.000-07:00

Evekill statistics for September 2011:

Kills: 29

ISK destroyed: 2.13 billion

Losses: 3

ISK lost: 0.12 billion

Efficiency: 94.61%

Kill/Death ratio: 10/1

Battleclinic Rank: 23,757

Another month without as much time online as I would like, in this case because of travel. Not getting to play much is something of a trend these past few months, and to be honest I don't think that's going to change for a while. Times are tough.

Still, my efficiency is up, largely because I spent the first part of October flying point for some of Suleiman's BC roams. Sule's roams are awesome for effeciency, because we mostly crush everything we engage, which is pretty much anything that has fewer than two logi's or E-war boats. Managing to avoid stupid deaths has also helped.

I've tweaked the format of the accounts again, moving the Explanitory Notes (which change very little from month to month) to the end of the accounts, with my comments following right after the statement of profit/loss. I think most people will find that a bit more accessable.

I have also taken to manually adjusting the Evekill values; while better than Battleclinic, it's still crediting my lost deadspace modules as three times more than I actually pay for them. I'm erring on the side of too expensive, but the scale of the error needed to be dealt with. In future, I may break down each loss into parts so that any changes I make are transparent.

Last month's figures can be found here.

Schedule of Income

Solo Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 57,575,961

Ransoms

ISK 101,500

Bounty on Jethro Tchull (ISK 92,500)
Bounty on Mike Avery (ISK 9,000)

Total Solo Income

ISK 57,677,461

Group Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 35,000,000

Malediction et alia v various; fast tackle on a BC roam (ISK 5,000,000)
Malediction et alia v various; fast tackle on a BC roam (ISK 16,000,000)
Malediction et alia v various; fast tackle on a BC roam (ISK 10,000,000)

Malediction & Jaguar v Merlin & Rifter (ISK 4,000,000)

Ransoms

ISK 2,500,000

Kodoz Tokar (ISK 2,500,000)

Total Group Income

ISK 37,500,000

Total Income

ISK 95,177,461

Schedule of Expenses

Solo Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 37,017,323

Vengeance (ISK 37,017,323) - Vengeance v Curse; a gate camp.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

ISK 37,161,950

Vengeance (ISK 37,161,950) - Vengeance v Dramiel & Loki; was lured off gate and then forgot to overheat my prop mod when burning back.

Other expenses

ISK 949,148

Repairs (ISK 936,248)

Ransom CSPA (ISK 2,900)

Contract fees (ISK 10,000)

Total Solo Expenses

ISK 75,128,421

Group Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

Nil.

Nil.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

ISK 18,934,789

Malediction (ISK 18,934,789) - Malediction v Vagabond; forgot to overheat my prop mod when fleeing (again).

Total Group Expenses

ISK 18,934,789

Total Expenses

ISK 94,063,210

Schedule of Profit (Loss)

Total Income

ISK 95,177,461

Less

Total Expenses

ISK 94,063,210

Net Profit (Loss) (see note 3)

ISK 1,114,251

Appendix 1: Comments & Criticism

In theory, I turned a profit this month.

In theory.

Of course, that "profit" doesn't even pay for the month's ammo, an expense not included in my accounts because it's so hard to track. I'm clearly not going to get rich like this.

Not that getting rich was a real priority.

Income

Acting as fast tackle for a BC gang may be fun, but it's not the big bucks. There are too many people involved for things to be really profitable, especially as tech 1 BCs typically engage other tech 1 BCs. No decent ransoms. No decent salvage. And then split 5-10 ways.

Solo roaming was more profitable, but I did not do much of it due to real life commitments and travel.

Expenses

The good news is that I'm dying less. My maxed out Vengeances are much harder to kill, and there have been several encounters that I have managed to escape simply on the basis of my resilience. However, when I do lose a Vengeance, it's about twice the cost of my basic fit.

That said, I'm flying the Vengeance less these days; the Malediction is just better at navigating low sec safely. I'm thinking of putting together an AB brawler fit for solo work while I keep the mwd fits for fleet work.

Improving Performance

Last month I set a goal of a 10/1 kill ratio, and I achieved that goal. I want to try and keep that ratio up, but I also need to actually turn a profit here so I can afford to expand my range of ships.

Bombers are a big unknown here. I finally get into a decent SB at the beginning of this month, and with the potential to take on larger targets I should theoretically become more profitable. However, I also recognise that getting into a new hull is a learning curve, and I may well see my profitability nosedive as I find all the different ways that SB don't work.

Appendix 2: Explanatory Notes

Accounting basis

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

Capital & Liquidity

Notes

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

Vengeance v Taranis

2011-10-31T01:43:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

I was cruising around the Hevrice area when I ran into Taranis in Meutrelle. Now, it was a while ago, so my recollection on this point was a little fuzzy, but I think he asked me for a 1v1. I refused, of course, but did mention that I was going to be hanging about at the 2nd cluster for a while. This kind of loose talk gets me into trouble from time to time, and this was no exception; he decided to jump in on me uninvited!

The fight was not the graceful dance you might expect from a frigate fight. We were both close range brawlers, and we went at each other hammer and tongs. I had heard of the Taranis's face melting dps, but I had assumed that it would not, as a mere interceptor, be able to significantly threaten my Vengeance.

I don't think I need to trot out the old cliche about assumptions, do I?

He was AB fit, and he was packing a web, so he was able to dictate the range. Shockingly, he decided to get right up close so that his blasters could do their work.

I counter webbed, of course, but mostly as a dps boost. As he wanted to get in close I decided to oblige as it would (possibly) mess with his tracking, but it would also keep his speed lower than if I tried to pull range. Lower speed is good for my rockets.

It did not take me long to realise that I was going to lose this damage race, so I overheated my launchers (which I had loaded with faction, rather than rage, because of his high speed and low signature) as well as my repair system. I also popped a synth exile, all the while wishing it had been a standard pill. Was it enough to shift the momentum of the fight?

Barely, as it turns out.

Fights like these do not require great piloting skills; you simply set your ship in motion, turn on everything, overheat the important stuff, and then wait to see if it was enough. In this case, it was. But it was a close call.

2011.10.08 17:13:00

Victim: Yuri Zhirkov
Corp: FLA5HY RED
Alliance: The Defenders of Pen Island
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Muetralle
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 1688

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 1688

Destroyed items:

Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Light Ion Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Corpse (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 306
Damage Control II
Light Ion Blaster II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II, Qty: 2
1MN Afterburner II
Void S, Qty: 910 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 538 (Cargo)
Miner II (Cargo)

We wished each other a good fight and went our separate ways.

Afterthoughts:

I know blasters have a bad reputation, and I rarely see blaster boats about. But whenever I run into one they give me a much closer fight, hull for hull, than any other kind of weapon system. If I had not been flying a maxed out, deadspace fit, syth supported ship, I would have been toast. The fact that the Gallente interceptor can pull a trick like that against an assault frigate is very impressive.

In fact, there's a chance he could have turned it around despite my best efforts. Probably out of habit, he seemed to set his orbit to 500m or so. This brought his speed down, which improved my dps. If he had instead set his range to something slightly higher (assuming his blasters could continue to operate in optimal) he would have increased his speed and my damage would have fallen slightly. The fight was so close that this sort of thing could have potentially swung the result.

Change is in the... air?

2011-10-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen it already, Azual has done an amazing job of sumarising the leaked ship balance changes. However, whereas Azual is a sophistacated man with wide ranging tastes and diverse experiences, I'm a narrow minded, Amarr focused, rocket slinging, small ship flying pirate.

What can I say? It's a niche.

But with that in mind - and the obvious caveat that the balance changes are in beta - here's a look at the things that jump out at me.

Destroyers are getting buffed!

Destroyers receive increased HP and capacitor, a significantly decreased sig radius and no longer have a rate of fire penalty. It's not clear yet whether this will carry over to the T2 versions (although they have no rate of fire penalty, it will be interesting to see if they also get a slight dps boost), but it would make very little sense not to at least drop the sig radius - it's the same hull, after all.

Now, using some data pulled from Jester's blog, we can see what they are currently testing for the Coercer:

[-|n] destroyerPenalityTurretROF
[-] destroyerROFpenality: 1.25
[*] armorHP: 782.0 => 860.0
[*] capacitorCapacity: 562.5 => 703.0
[*] shieldCapacity: 625.0 => 688.0
[*] signatureRadius: 83.0 => 62.0

So, we have roughly a 10% boost to shield and armor, but also a 25% buff (ie, a reduction) to sig radius! For comparison, the sig radius on a Punisher is 38. This means that the Coercer is going to go from twice as easy to hit as the Punisher to roughly one and a half times as easy to hit. Is this enough of a buff? I don't know - that's something that will need to be tested. But I'm willing to bet that CCP is going to keep buffing until the numbers do work.

This means that destroyers may suddenly become very viable solo ships against a fairly wide range of targets (right now they just try to gank frigates, often without success). With enough tank and firepower to brawl down a frigate, and enough speed and agility to get under the guns of a cruiser or battle cruiser (while still pumping out stupid amounts of dps) the face of small gang pvp might well be changed forever.

Exciting times.

Javelin missiles are being unnerfed.

Javelin missiles have always been stupid. They give you increased range, but slow you down. This is not a "perpendicular" nerf - a nerf to an attribute you are not using - but rather a straight up design flaw.

If you want extra range on your missiles it's either because you are being kited, or because you are kiting someone. In neither case are you helped by moving more slowly. For this reason, I carry only a small load of Javelin rockets and use them to hopefully drive kiters out of point range while I try to escape. It's more of a theory than something that seems to work in practice.

However, it looks like CCP is going to remove the penalties on a huge range of T2 ammo, including Javelins. This is a real game changer for Amarr missile ships, as it suddenly makes kiting a serious option. I've messed about with this on my Malediciton even with the speed penalty, but this opens up the field to non-interceptors.

A kiting Heretic looks like a real possibility as this hull gets a range bonus to rockets. If it also receives a boost similar to T1 destroyers, this will almost certainly become one of my core solo ships.

What about a mwd kiting Vengeance? Can a Sacriledge now keep up with an AC Hurricane gang and still contribute some dps? I can't answer these questions yet, but I'm looking forward to experimenting once this change goes live.

Blasters are being buffed right.

I don't fly turret ships, but I rejoyce for my Gallente and Caldari bretheren. It looks like blasters and rails will become more viable while also keeping their unique flavour - there was a real risk that they would simply become an AC/arty knockoff.

Fitting a Malediction

2011-10-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Well, after being abroad for a week or so, I've finally found a computer that has a keyboard that does not drive me crazy. I'm not getting into New Eden, but at least I can post.

I've been playing around with different Malediction fits acting as fleet tackle, and this is what I have largely settled on:

3 Rocket Launcher II
Salvager (offline)

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Medium Shield Extender II (actually using a meta module until I get Shield Upgrades IV trained)

Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core
Co-Processor II

Small Ionic Field Projector I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

With perfect skills (which mine are not) this ship has 5518 ehp (albeit with a massive resist hole over EM), does 3994 m/s before overheat, and has peak shield regen of 14 hps.

I enjoy the fact that this interceptor is both fast and solid, and I like flying it in fleet engagements.

However, there have been a number of roams recently where I have been acting as fast tackle for the gang but the target has been very, very fast. What ends up happening is that only Suleiman can actually keep up, so I hold point while Suleiman solos the ship (everyone else is trying to reach the fight).

That works fine when Suleiman is around, but when he's not it's just me and the target, and I either die or have to let them go. So I was thinking about trying to fit a web onto my Malediction as a way of helping the gang catch up. Not something I'd use in most cases because I don't want to get that close. However, being able to actually slow a target when needed could be very handy.

Here's what I'm thinking about:

3 Rocket Launcher II
Salvager (offline)

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Langour Drive Disruptor

Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plate
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Small Ionic Field Projector I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

This has 5872 ehp, does 3659 before overheat, and has a negligible shield regen (4hps). However, the resists are very even, with 61% being my lowest resist.

So, does this fit look like an improvement over my current fit? I'm not interested in moving to something with significantly less tank, so I guess what I'm asking is if the addition of a web and 300 ehp is worth the loss of 300 m/s and 10 hps?

An alternative (on the armor tanked Malediction) would be to swap the nano plate for an Overdrive Injector System II, which gives me only 5168 ehp (which I guess is still decent for an interceptor, if a little low for my tastes) but brings my speed up to 4116 before overheat.

***

Since writing the above, I've considered some of the suggested fits that people have shared in the comments to my earlier posts. However, I'm convinced that I NEED a long point (although a scram instead of a web is totally reasonable).

The reason for this is the way that Tuskers fly. The typical gang that I fly point for is a nano/kiting gang that keeps range while focusing on one target at a time. Life is easiest for a nano gang when all your targets are moving at roughly the same speed. If the primary suddenly grinds to a halt because I've hit him with a scram, the gang is faced with two choices: break speed to keep within weapon range (which lets the rest of the gang catch up to them) or switch to a new target (which means the dps up to that point has been wasted). Neither are good options.

On top of that, though, is the general safety and convenience factor; I don't need anything but a long point against most targets, and that keeps me safely out of neut and scram range. The wider orbit also lets me outrun drones and reduce missile damage. All plusses.

So feel free to comment on the above fits, and recommend changes, but do keep in mind that at the end of the day I'm looking for a rock solid interceptor with the ability to catch and slow a nano ship as well as a long point.

Taurean Eltanin v Darius Carnifex (part 3)

2011-10-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

Some hours after my loss to Darius and his Loki, Tawa and I were part of a small gang that had jumped in on a mission runner. The op had been a bust - I don't remember exactly why, but it probably had to do with the distance we needed to cover in order to reach the mission runner - and I was returning to Hevrice in my Malediction to reship.

As I jumped into Hev, I saw Darius in a Vagabond, sitting a little way off the gate. I held cloak and discussed this with the fleet. We agreed that I would try and point the Vagabond, and then the rest of the fleet would jump in. Tawa, in particular, was keen to strike a blow at Darius.

I broke cloak and started speeding towards Darius. He immediately opened fire and began burning away from me to keep my transversal low; I compensated by maneuvering towards him at an angle, but he was fast. Very fast. I'd only seen him fly a Dram before, and Drams are meant to be fast, so I thought nothing of his speed as I have little experience with Drams (although in hindsight I recall that his Dram was faster than Wolf's).

However, I have a little more experience with Vagabonds, and this ship was fast even for a Vaga. I closed the distance slowly, taking fire on the way in. Fortunately, I fly a pretty buff inteceptor, and I was doing pretty well.

As soon as I landed point I summoned the fleet, and they jumped in. I then spent my time trying hard not to let Darius escape. He started burning away from the gate, though, and this meant that my fleetmates couldn't actually catch up!

I realised it was time to bail, but Darius was not going to let me go easily, as he used his speed to keep me in point range; presumably he overheated his point and prop mod. As his tracking seemed good enough to hit me regardless, I aligned to a celestial and started spamming warp. I had nearly escaped his point when I exploded.

2011.10.09 10:03:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Malediction
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2336

Involved parties:

Name: Darius Carnifex (laid the final blow)
Security: -6.2
Corp: Acephalia Inc
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2336

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Co-Processor II
Salvager I
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 150
Small Ionic Field Projector I
Gremlin Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 588 (Cargo)
Thorn Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Damage Control II
Rocket Launcher II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Phalanx Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 426 (Cargo)

As I warped my pod to safety, I prepared to drop a "gf" in local, but Darius got a comment in first that stopped me.

"fail"

He's just all class.

Afterthougths:

This fight was a huge learning experience for me, as I'm still a relative noob at flying an interceptor.

First, this is one of several fights where I've been able to land point to no effect because my backup can't actually catch up to the fight. I'm going to post more on this separately, but one of the weakness of my beloved shield fit Malediction is the lack of a web or scram for slowing down fast ships.

And if I am going to fly a shield tanked Malediction, I should actually skill up for it. I'm about 1000 ehp below max with my current skills; having decent shield skills would have let me escape this fight easily. While on the subject of skills, my mwd skills are also too low; I could get another 2-300 m/s out of this fit if my mwd skills were at max, which again would have let me escape the fight.

I also forgot to overheat my prop mod on the escape again. My excuse here is that overheating the AB on a Vengeance is nearly always pointless, so while I never forget to overheat my point, weapons or repair system, I rarely think to overheat my propulsion modifier. Again, if I had thought to do this, I probably would have survived the fight.

Finally, I found it quite difficult to maintain point on the Vaga (before I decided to bail and he decided to chase me) so I'm going to drop the kiting rigs for targeting and sensor rigs to let me take full advantage of my improved point range. If I get my missile range skills to max (only one more rank to go) I'll still have a 15.2 km range on Javelin rockets, which is more than enough to kite AB fit frigates.

All told, this last fight was a story of a noob in an underskilled ship getting spanked by someone who knew what they were doing - when Darius summed up the fight as "fail" he was quite right. So far I've been able to get by on the fact that few ships are set up to combat interceptors, and that people often have more important things to worry about than targeting me (ie, my backup). Flying against a competent high-speed pilot has underscored my weaknesses.

I'm also left with mixed feelings about Darius himself. He has destroyed me twice, yet I can't help shake the feeling that he's simply not that dangerous. Each time he's beaten me he has relied on a combination of my own lack of skills/experience and a ship that costs 10x more than mine (plus snakes?). That's about as exciting as me jumping my Vengeance in on a month old Rifter; the result is hardly unexpected.

As a comparison, toothslayer has also beaten me twice, but has also died to my launchers on one occasion. Technically, this gives him a worse track record than Darius. However, toothslayer has fearlessly engaged me (and won) in equivalent ships; he's a skilled and aggressive combat pilot that deserves the respect of other combat pilots.

I suppose that, in the end, Darius is a niche pvper. He uses high speed, high investment ships to outmaneuver and destroy low speed, low investment ships (and that's not a criticism, it's a reasonable tactic and he's clearly good at it). Outside of that niche, however, I've not yet seen anything I need to fear.

Still, I look forward to crossing swords with him again some time. He's surprised me before, and may well do so again.

Taurean Eltanin v Darius Carnifex (part 2)

2011-10-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

The next time I saw Darius, I had just jumped into Vif, looking for targets. Not seeing anything of interest in system, I burned back to the gate to continue my roam.

Just before I hit the gate, two ships landed. The first was Darius in his Dramiel, and the second was a neutral pilot in a Loki. Because they had clearly warped in together, I assumed that the Loki was a boosting alt for Darius.

Darius jumped through the gate, while the neutral Loki engaged me. I had to smile. There was no way I could kill the Loki, but if I engaged then I would be unable to jump out when Darius jumped back in. And if I just jumped through, Darius could try to catch me. Cute.

Of course, I jumped. I knew from past experience that Darius was no real danger in his Dram, and I could either warp away or burn back to the gate before the Loki was able to join him. I also put the word out on vent; perhaps someone nearby would like a shot at the Loki.

However, as I loaded grid I saw that Tawa had landed on the gate in his Jaguar, and had engaged Darius. I moved to assist, but the two ships were much faster than me, and so it was a hopeless act. I turned and started heading back to the gate.

I must have lost track of time, though, because the Loki jumped through much earlier than expected. He immediately pointed and webbed me and opened fire. I overheated my repair system, but exploded about 1km from the jump radius of the gate.

2011.10.08 18:08:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Ladistier
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 1994

Involved parties:

Name: F3mm3 F4t4l3 (laid the final blow)
Security: 3.7
Corp: Acephalia Inc
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Loki
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1555

Name: Darius Carnifex
Security: -6.2
Corp: Acephalia Inc
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Dramiel
Weapon: Dramiel
Damage Done: 439

Destroyed items:

Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 50
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Small Bay Loading Accelerator II
1MN Afterburner II
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 540 (Cargo)
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 150
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Damage Control II
Warp Scrambler II
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 548 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 480 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 392 (Cargo)

Unfortunately, Tawa was also unable to escape, as the Dram kept him pointed until the Loki was finished with me (unlike me, he had aggressed, so burning to the gate was not an option).

Afterthoughts:

I messed up pretty badly here, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I was in no danger at all until I burned off the gate (knowing there was a Loki waiting to jump through), and even then I would have been fine if I had remembered to either a) keep better track of time, or b) overheat my freaking afterburner.

So yeah, I earned this lossmail by snatching defeat from the jaws of... warping away.

However, I now understand why Darius was trying to goad Wolf and I into hanging around after my first encounter with him: he had his neutral Loki on the way! When he saw that he could not break my tank he probably powered up the alt and tried to keep me in play until the Loki got their.

Glad I warped away when I did, then.

I have to admit being surprised by the aggressive use of the Loki, though. There are one or two boosting alts in the Tuskers, but they tend to be used primarily to scout, probe, or boost. I don't think I've ever seen them used in actual combat. But then, we're space poor pirates that can't afford to risk massive isk investments like that. That said, the Loki was clearly in no danger engaging a couple of flashy assault ships on a gate.

Still, this loss, which Tawa and I stumbled into, probably explains why we acted the way we did when we encountered Darius again later that day...

Taurean Eltanin v Darius Carnifex (part 1)

2011-10-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

When I first wrote up this post, I titled it "Vengeance v Dramiel". However, before publishing the post, I had a couple of other fights with the same pilot, and I thought it was worth linking them together as they share some common threads. Hence the unusual title.

I encountered Darius for the first time when I jumped into Jovannion from Aeschee. He was in his Dramiel, and I was in my Vengeance. He was flashy, and I was flashy. You see where this is going, I hope.

So we engaged each other. In truth, he engaged me, as he was kiting fit and he was in no mood to get close. Darius opened fire, and launched his drones.

Being unable to target the Dramiel, I proceeded to target the drones. I destroyed one or two before they were recalled, and at that point the fight developed into a stalemate. He couldn't break my tank (or even my passive shield regen), and I couldn't get a scram on him, no matter how much fancy flying I tried.

I was fairly relaxed about the fight because I knew I could simply de-aggress and leave; had we been at a belt, I would have been stuck until help arrived, but this was not the case. Instead, I used the opportunity to practice my manual piloting. I managed to get an overheated web on him a few times, but never a scram. I could hit him with my Javelin rockets, but he would simply pull range until his shields regenerated.

Eventually, Wolf jumped in with his own Dram, and I invited him to have a go at Darius. Wolf was in a slower build, though, and with no web he could not hold Darius in place. After relaunching his drones Darius started eating away at Wolf's tank, but I quickly put a stop to that with my rockets. Without the drones, Darius could not break Wolf either.

Eventually, Wolf and I got bored and warped off (evading Wolf meant that Darius could not actually keep either of us pointed, so we did not have to use the jump gate).

Now my initial writeup ends here, because I don't usually comment on the character of my opponents unless it is in a positive way. However, what followed has some significance in the light of later events. You see, Darius started talking smack.

Not particularly creative or crude smack, but smack nonetheless. He denigrated the Tuskers and the fighting prowess of our corp, as well as our own moral fortitude for "running away". More bemused than anything else, I simply told him that he could not break our tanks and we could not catch him, so we would all probably enjoy spending our time doing something else.

Afterthoughts:

This was my first real fight against a Dramiel, and I can't say I was too terribly impressed. Sure, the ship was fast, and it was certainly irritating to fight, but from where my Vengeance sits there are plenty of ships that can kite me all day.

At the time, I did not understand what Darius thought he would achieve by acting out in local. In the light of subsequent events, however, I now think I have a pretty good idea...

Things are changing

2011-10-09T22:38:00.000-07:00

For the longest time, I've been a huge fan of my little Vengeance. It's a ship with the same strengths and weaknesses as me; slow to react but highly resilient and doggedly determined. It's allowed me to ease into New Eden without pushing myself as a pilot; I can focus on learning how to actually play the game.

More and more, however, I find myself dissatisfied with my Vengeance. I appreciate that my timing is poor - they just decided to buff assault ships - but there it is.

The problem, you see, is that I am losing ships to bad luck, rather than bad piloting. When I screw up, I'm happy (not really happy, per se, but you know what I mean) to suffer the consequences. But when I just randomly lose ships to "circumstances", it drives me crazy.

The hunt:

Yesterday, I was flying around in a frigate gang, and we had gone roaming up to Anamake and the surrounding area, looking for a fight. We hadn't had much luck, and we were heading up towards where the Sinners live, because we were sure we would find some trouble there.

So, I jumped through the next gate in the sequence and loaded grid. I saw a neutral Curse sitting on the gate with his drones out. The Curse is not the tankiest of ships, so it seems an odd one to camp with, but that did indeed seem to be what the Curse was doing.

After alerting the following gang, I considered my options as I sat in cloak. He was 14 km from me, and I could either burn back to the gate or try and warp off. Being neuted and webbed while I tried to get back to the gate seemed pretty poor, so I decided to try and warp out.

Turns out, though, that the Curse was of the insta-lock variety, and I was pointed as soon as I broke cloak. I tried to burn away, but I was capped out immediately, and I moved a grand total of about 3km before I went down.

2011.10.09 14:48:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Eszur
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 2389

Involved parties:

Name: Zinto Risingsun (laid the final blow)
Security: 5.0
Corp: Tribal Core
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Ship: Curse
Weapon: Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile
Damage Done: 2389

Destroyed items:

Damage Control II
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 100
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Small Bay Loading Accelerator II
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
1MN Afterburner II
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 7 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Medium Shield Booster I (Cargo)
Salvager I, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
200mm AutoCannon I (Cargo)
Power Diagnostic System I (Cargo)
4th Tier Overseer's Personal Effects (Cargo)
280mm Howitzer Artillery I (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Warp Scrambler II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 100
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 1560 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Small Armor Repairer I (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
200mm AutoCannon I (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
280mm Howitzer Artillery I (Cargo)

Afterthoughts:

Because of the Curse's fit, neither of my options would seen me survive the encounter. And as I warped my pod out, I could not help but think how differently this would have worked out if I were in my Malediction. When I face gate camps in my interceptor, I simply align to a celestial and activate my mwd. I then start spamming the warp button.

Even if I'm instantly capped out, the 10 seconds or so of mwd cycle I get moves me about 40km, which is beyond the range of all but the most insane points. So even when I'm instant locked, I'm typically clear of the camp after a few seconds, and none of the heavy hitters stand any chance of catching me.

Yes, my Malediction is fragile, and I die a lot. But when I die, I die because I screwed up, or because I don't have enough SP invested in my ship. And I'm alright with that.

This loss is not just a "one off"; many of my September losses were due to similar camps, or to being kited, or whatever. Encounters where my only chance was to hope that my enemy screwed up. And I seem to have competent enemies.

For various reasons, October is not going to be a very active month for me, but by the start of November I should have Covert Ops V trained, and a few Purifier hulls to play with. I'll also probably get Interceptors to V, along with some of the nav skills I've been neglecting. I want more control over my encounters, now, and hopefully the Malediction and the Purifier will offer me that.

Tavern Talk

2011-10-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

Devblog 1

I saw Hilmar's devblog, and I have to say that I was pretty impressed. Unlike many older players, New Eden still hold plenty of wonder for me, and I am surrounded by new frontiers.

However, that does not stop me from recognizing that a growing number of veteran players have been unhappy with the way things have been going recently. I'm cautiously optimistic that this devblog represents a real sea change; it can't have been easy for Hilmar to write.

Devblog 2

This devblog hits a little closer to home. A buff to assault ships? Awesome!

Now, there is not much in the way of details there, but I'd like to see a per ship speed buff (rather than a flat increase on all assault ships), and some kind of additional bonus. Perhaps something new, like electronic hardening.

Give assault ships a resistance to ewar; this (along with the speed boost) would make them a solid gang choice for heavy tackle, and make them the go-to choice for frigate pilots wanting to take on above class ships.

Other blogs

Being a blogger, I know that blogs come with some default options regarding reader comments. Usually commenters have to log in with one of a couple of different accounts; which accounts varies depending on the blog host.

Trouble is, I often can't log in (because I don't have an account) or don't want to (I'm on a public computer). There is an option to allow anonymous commenting, but it needs to be switched on. I wish more bloggers would do this; I suspect they would be rewarded with more comments!

Boosters

I've wanted to get into boosters for a while, but I've been put off by the cost. Synth, I can just about manage, but Standard costs nearly as much as my ship! (edit: I'm told that people are just trying to rip me off, and that a more reasonable price would be a mere 5 million; 25% of my ship's cost) And the skillbook for mitigating side effects is also going for hundreds of millions. Far too costly for a humble pilot, scraping a living from the proceeds of his crimes.

If I ever get into T2 or T3 cruisers, boosters obviously become more worthwhile, but for now I'll stick with the occasional synth exile.

Vengeance & Rifter v Cyclone

2011-10-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

This is an older kill that I forgot to post, but as it was a little different from my usual approach I thought I'd post it now.

I had scanned down a missioning Cyclone in Aeschee and made an attack run. Unfortunately, he was a long way from the warp in point, so he simply warped to a station. The pilot did not immediately leave system, however, and did not seem to abandon the mission. I tried waiting at the warp in, but he made no move to return.

Guessing that he was watching local, I reached out for assistance. At that time Cable Udan was not yet a Tusker, but his application to join the corp had been submitted on our forums. Knowing that he was in the region, I convo'd him and asked if he wanted to help catch a Cyclone. He did.

I created a fleet and invited Cable to join. Once he had done so, I asked him to warp to me (in the mission) and sit at the warp in point. After he was settled, I jumped into Jovannion and sat on the other side of the gate.

At this point it was a waiting game. If the Cyclone was keeping his eye on his mission with a narrow beam scan he would see right through our ploy. However, because there were no other Tuskers in system there was a chance that he would simply warp back to the mission once he saw me leave local. Sure enough, only a few minutes had passed before the Cyclone jumped back.

Cable immediately landed point on the Cyclone and I jumped back into Aeschee. Warping to Cable, the only question on our minds was whether or not Cable's Rifter would hold out long enough for me to land and take over point.

Impressively, his tank held out, despite the drones. As soon as I landed I started to clear the drones; a task we had agreed Cable would start as soon as he had locked down the Cyclone - a few extra seconds of dps on the battlecruiser were meaningless compared to mitigating the drone damage. Between the two of us, the drones did not last long.

Switching from Caldari Navy to Rage, I opened fire on the Cyclone. Cable and I whittled away his tank until, finally, his hull gave out.

2011.09.02 19:09:00

Victim: Opzuz
Corp: Novacorp
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Cyclone
System: Aeschee
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 24735

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Foxfire Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 15454

Name: Cable Udan
Security: -8.0
Corp: Caldari Provisions
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter
Damage Done: 9281

Destroyed items:

650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 3
Quake M, Qty: 38
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay
Invulnerability Field I

Dropped items:

650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 2
Gyrostabilizer II
Quake M, Qty: 60
Tracking Enhancer II
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay, Qty: 2
Reactor Control Unit II
Invulnerability Field I, Qty: 2
Co-Processor II
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 105
Large Shield Booster II
Large Shield Extender I
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 802 (Cargo)
Quake M, Qty: 500 (Cargo)

We split the loot 50:50, with Cable happy to buy out my share.

Afterthoughts:

It's always nice to see a plan come together. Being flashy, and a member of a notorious pirate corporation, the element of surprise is a rare treat.

As a bonus, the exercise gave me a chance to fly with Cable before he joined the Tuskers; because of my restricted play hours I sometimes find it difficult to fleet up with the new members joining the corp in this current round of recruitment.

Profit Account for September 2011

2011-10-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

Evekill statistics for September 2011:

Kills: 40

ISK destroyed: 1.6 billion

Losses: 8

ISK lost: 0.16 billion

Efficiency: 91.01%

Kill/Death ratio: 5/1

Battleclinic Rank: 26,610

Although I don't have nearly as many kills this month as some fellow Tuskers, September has been particularly busy for me; only July had more kills, and my efficiency was far worse. This is particularly surprising when I consider how little time I have actually been able to devote to Eve - there were a couple of week long periods where I was not able to log on at all. Despite the high kill count, though, there has been a shortage of treasure ships; those big kills that make you rich for a short while. Instead, it has been a bit of a grinder, with my losses eating away at what little profit I have been able to scrape together.

I have also made some changes to the way losses are valued. Until recently, I was using Battleclinic cost listings, but Tsubutai suggested that Evekill has more accurate valuations. When I compared the values attributed to my faction repair system (Battleclinic - 12 million ISK; Evekill - 5.45 million ISK) to what I actually paid for it (4.25 million ISK), I decided it was worth making the switch. This will mean a slight inconsistency between loss values when compared to the last few months.

For those interested in a comparison, last month's figures can be found here.

Schedule of Income

Solo Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 106,414,402

Ransoms

ISK 30,800,000

Bounty on Stoakes (ISK 800,000)

"Ransom" from toothslayer (ISK 30,000,000)

Total Solo Income

ISK 137,214,402

Group Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 14,515,880

Vengeance et alia v Falcon et alia (ISK 8,515,880)

Vengeance & Rifter v Cyclone (ISK 6,000,000)

Ransoms

ISK 10,000,000

Dariaz Taron (ISK 10,000,000)

Total Group Income

ISK 24,515,880

Total Income

ISK 161,730,282

Schedule of Expenses

Solo Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 79,589,357

Vengeance (ISK 17,077,984) - Vengeance v Sabre.
Vengeance (ISK 17,510,527) - Vengeance v Gate Camp.
Vengeance (ISK 17,304,505) - Vengeance v FW Gang.
Capsule with four +2 implants (ISK 12,930,000)
Malediction (ISK 14,766,341) - Malediction v Thrasher.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

Nil

Other expenses

ISK 1,842,018

Repairs (ISK 790,218)

Ransom CSPA (ISK 11,800)

Contract fees (ISK 40,000)

Donation to Joshua Baker (ISK 1,000,000)

Total Solo Expenses

ISK 81,431,375

Group Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 17,696,556

Vengeance (ISK 17,696,556) - Vengeance et alia v Cyclone et alia; a gang action.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

ISK 39,860,493

Malediction (ISK 16,718,436) - Malediction et alia v Vagabond; I was fast tackle, and I tried to hold on too long while the rest of the gang caught up. Should have bailed.
Vengeance (ISK 23,142,057) - Vengeance et alia v Ashimmu; what the hell was I thinking?

Total Group Expenses

ISK 57,557,049

Total Expenses

ISK 138,988,424

Schedule of Profit (Loss)

Total Income

ISK 161,730,282

Less

Total Expenses

ISK 138,988,424

Net Profit (Loss) (see note 3)

ISK 22,741,858

Appendix 1: Estimated Income Pending

Unsold solo roam loot

ISK 5,000,000

Total Income Pending

ISK 5,000,000

Appendix 2: Explanatory Notes

Accounting basis

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. Additionally, estimates of carried over income will appear in appendix 1.

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

Capital & Liquidity

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. Loot from previous fights, if any, are excluded from the total costs - no ISK was spent on obtaining these items, so no ISK is lost when they are destroyed.

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. Loot from previous fights, if any, are excluded from the total costs - no ISK was spent on obtaining these items, so no ISK is lost when they are destroyed.

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

Appendix 3: Comments & Criticism

Somehow, I actually managed to turn a profit again this month. Of course, that profit gets me about one T2 frigate, but I'll take what I can get.

Income

Solo roaming was again my primary source of income for this month, despite the fact that my killboard says I engaged in a fair amount of gang activity. The truth is, some of this activity was pure overkill, with a number of nearby Tuskers getting together to take on a target we could have dealt with solo or in a smaller group. Groups are only profitable when directed at high end kills, and these were not high end kills.

Expenses

My expenses shot up this month, with 8 losses. While my efficiency is over 90%, that's cold comfort to my wallet.

In addition to my usual Vengeance builds, I also lost some experimental Malediction fits, but I have to accept that testing new ships is going to come with some element of expense.

Improving Performance

As I mentioned in this post, a significant number of my recent losses occurred when I was unable to escape a no-win situation; gate camps and the like. I can improve my profitability simply by improving my situational awareness and avoiding those kinds of situations.

I would also like to improve my kills/death ration; my goal would be a 10/1 ratio, and I will be keeping that in mind when I am selecting targets.

Malediction v Various

2011-09-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

The fit:

3 Rocket Launcher II
Salvager I (offline)

Catalysed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Damage Control II
Co-Processor II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I

Not quite as fast as my last Malediction fit, but with about 5k ehp and 12 hps peak regen.

The hunt:

I've engaged in some more Malediction goodness over the last week or two; all part of practicing my kiting skills. This time I was trying out a shield tanked Malediction, to see how the extra buffer felt.

Malediction v Hurricane

I started by trying to solo bojangles in his Hurricane. An experienced pvper, I knew that bojangles would be a real test of my Malediction, and my skills. I warped in on him and got into a kiting orbit without a response; I don't think he thought I'd actually engage him.

He woke up when I pointed him, though, and he opened fire. To my surprise, he was hitting me consistently, so I burned out of his point range and warped off in 50% structure. I'm calling it a draw.

Malediciton v Arbitrator

A few days later, I decided to try my luck again, and jumped in on an Arbitrator at a belt. I kited beyond neut range, and so all I had to worry about was his drones. I prepared to destroy them, but to my delight, I simply outran them.

Turning my attention back to the Arbitrator, I decided against loading the Javelin rockets I would have needed to hit him at this range; I did not want the drones to catch me. It was an unnecessary risk, as Kaal had jumped in with his Cyclone. Unable to run, the Arbitrator went down quickly.

2011.09.22 19:38:00

Victim: Lyranni
Corp: Winterdawn
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Arbitrator
System: Costolle
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 9502

Involved parties:

Name: Kaal Redrum (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Cyclone
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 9502

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Rocket Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Microwave S, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Imperial Navy Gamma S (Cargo)
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Acolyte I, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
Tracking Disruptor I
Tracking Speed Disruption (Cargo)
Warp Scrambler I
Hammerhead I (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Tracking Disruptor I (Cargo)
Small Nosferatu I
Warp Disruptor I (Cargo)
Damage Control I
Small Energy Neutralizer I
Imperial Navy Gamma S (Cargo)
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I, Qty: 2
Tracking Speed Disruption, Qty: 2
Optimal Range Disruption, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Dual Light Pulse Laser I, Qty: 2
Infiltrator I, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
Gamma S, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Tracking Disruptor I
Imperial Navy Gamma S, Qty: 2
Hammerhead I, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)

Malediction v Celestis

On another occasion I jumped in on a Celestis, pointing him and then opening fire with Javelin rockets. For about 10 seconds I thought I'd managed to solo him, but it turned out that Kirith had simply landed nearby and alpha'd the guy.

2011.09.25 09:24:00

Victim: Mitridat Evpator
Corp: Center for Advanced Studies
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Celestis
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 8421

Involved parties:

Name: Kirith Darkblade (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 5056
Name: Serpentis Soldier / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 3044

Name: Taurean Eltanin

Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Foxfire Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 321

Destroyed items:

Inertia Stabilizers I
Medium Shield Extender II, Qty: 4
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 160 (Cargo)
Overdrive Injector System I
125mm Railgun I, Qty: 2
Battlecruisers (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Auto Targeting System I
Signal Amplifier I
Medium Shield Extender II
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 2600 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 190
125mm Railgun I

Malediction v Vagabond

I was acting as fast tackle for a small fleet; I had the Vaga pointed, and I was taking fire. I tried to hold on until the fleet landed, but the Vaga's speed had taken us 60km from the warp in. By the time it was clear that they would not reach us, it was too late to bail. Scratch one Malediction.

2011.09.25 15:14:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Malediction
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 2583

Involved parties:

Name: Madbuster73 (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: Shadows Of The Federation
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Gallente Federation
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2583

Destroyed items:

Damage Control II
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 50
Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I

Dropped items:

Rocket Launcher II
Salvager I
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Co-Processor II
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 100
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 588 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 381 (Cargo)
Gremlin Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Thorn Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)

Afterthoughts:

Another great set of lessons, here. In particular, I gained more experience in fighting larger ships, and it's clear I have a lot to learn.

Interceptors evade damage; it's just what they do. However, how they evade that damage changes. Against smaller ships they hold point beyond the effective range of the enemy; I seem to have a reasonable handle on this one.

However, that does not work against larger ships, where interceptors have to maximise their angular velocity to avoid fire. Against the Hurricane and the Vagabond I was so wary of scrams and neuts I held a range at which my angular velocity was quite low, despite my high transversal. If I had moved in close from the very beginning, I probably would have done much better.

I've really been enjoying flying the Malediction, and it's something I'm going to try doing more of. Other than some mwd skills, there's nothing about the ship that does not cross over to my Vengeance, so there is no wasted training here. In fact, it gives me an excuse to finaly prioritise my range skills.

Interceptors work well with backup nearby, however. In the past, I've had various pilots in interceptors thanking me for jumping in to assist with my Vengeance because they simply couldn't break the tank on whatever they had caught. Now, I'm seeing that from the other side; I'm not sure I could have broken the passive regen on that Celestis - 5 Medium Shield Extenders!

Next, I'm going to try an armor tanked, cap boosted fit. Shield tanking was fun, but I hate wasting the armor resists, and resistance tanking is what I love. The cap booster should allow me to hold point within neut range for a while, and run the repair system if I need to. I may even consider a nos over the salvager if I can find the spare grid and CPU.

Bounty Hunting: Competing Visions

2011-09-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

What should bounty hunting look like?

One of the concerns people have repeatedly expressed about my proposed fix for the bounty system, best articulated by FNG, is that it does not allow for the kind of bounty hunters that we all grew up reading/watching in our scifi, typified quite neatly by Boba Fett from Star Wars.

Well, they're right. As I say in my initial post, I envisage bounty hunters more like Judge Dredd, a futuristic, wild-west style law man. Competing visions; it happens.

However, I think my vision has the edge here. Not because it's "cooler", but because it's more workable. Let's take a closer look at Star Wars.

Star Wars

Finding work: When Boba Fett gets up in the morning, he does not log into some galactic bounty network to find a target. Why? Because he's a bad guy, and what he's doing is illegal. This means that people who want him to do something tell him personally.

The client base: The only people who hire Boba Fett (Jaba the Hutt and Darth Vader) are also bad guys - they are telling him to kidnap or kill people, after all.

How he gets paid: Because of the shady nature of what they are doing, there is no escrow system, no contract, and no guarantees. His employers have to hope Boba Fett does not scam or double cross them, and Boba Fett has to hope that he gets paid at the end of the day. The only "security" they each have is their respective reputations and the knowledge that each party is a dangerous, dangerous individual.

You can conduct this kind of bounty hunting in Eve right now, and I know of some people who do. All it involves is someone promising to pay you some ISK for an API verified killmail or a corpse.

If it sounds risky, like you might not get paid or your bounty hunter might try to scam you, it's because it is. Welcome to the shady world of underground bounty hunting; I hope you enjoy risk, uncertainty, and forging personal relationships.

Marketing Star Wars

Ignoring the fact that the Star Wars model requires no implementation by CCP - this is the sandbox, right? - let's look at the difficulties that CCP would have trying to "sell" the idea to existing players.

Finding work: Unlike Boba Fett, who lives his life 24-7, most Eve players spend a limited amount of time online. A full-time bounty hunter would need to spend much of that time cultivating the contacts he needs to actually find work. This would be a bar to many would be bounty hunters, who would rather spend their time pew-pewing.

The client base: Dangerous men in New Eden don't need bounty hunters. There, I said it. The vast majority of combat pilots have the skills they need to settle their own scores, and many industrialists have sufficient in-corp muscle to do the same. The people who need bounty hunters are new players or socially isolated players. Exceptions will exist, to be sure, but I've never heard a Tusker complain that he can't find a reliable bounty hunter; if he wants something dead, he just advertises a fleet.

Getting paid: Eve is full of scams. Not many people, bounty hunters or potential employers, are going to trust someone they don't know when large sums of ISK are on the line.

In short, I don't see the Star Wars model taking off in actual game play. I'm cheating here, because I can already say it hasn't taken off - CCP does not need to implement a thing to duplicate the Star Wars model.

Marketing Judge Dredd

Finding work: My proposal would have bounty hunters and potential employers linked up by an automated system; bounty hunters fly around looking for fights, and when they kill someone with a bounty, they get paid. This model works; I know because it's based on piracy, which has many adherents.

The client base: Any victim can easily place a bounty, regardless of time in game or social connections.

Getting paid: By ensuring value for money, this is as risk free as it gets in New Eden.

Wow, that looks pretty easy to sell to people!

"But wait!", I hear you say. "Why not just use your system without the high security status requirements? This will allow us to play lowlife bounty hunting scum. Surely the best of both worlds!"

Sadly, I disagree. The first point of disagreement is on principle; if you want to play lowlife bounty hunting scum, then go ahead, nobody is stopping you. Just don't expect all the trappings and advantages of respectability to boot. That would be like me complaining that being -10 comes with disadvantages; it's part of the choices I've made.

However, I actually have a more important reason for disagreeing; I don't think it would work as well.

Perception is everything

My proposed model is very different, largely because I make it respectable. This isn't about vengeance, it's about justice.

Instead of paying some lowlife to kill some other lowlife, and hoping the new lowlife is a little better than the old lowlife, I'm now paying a Concord sanctioned law-man to deal justice to the asshat that ganked me.

This change in perception is, in my view, absolutely critical. The people who want to hire bounty hunters are not pirates like me and FNG. They are not hardened nullsec warriors. They are carebearscarebears.

As awesome as Boba Fett is, there is very little market for his services. The Lone Ranger, though, is going to be in high demand. I'll bet a good 50%+ of anyone suffering from a suicide gank would happily place a bounty under my proposed system.

For the system to work, it needs to be used, and the people that will actually place bounties are, in my view, far more likely to do so in a system that they feel fits with their "moral code". Argue all you want about bringing real life values to New Eden, the fact is that many people do (including me, incidentally, and anyone following the Tusker Code).

Other comments on the proposed system

Looks good! Only problem I see is determing the values: A fitted rifter can cost anything from 500k to, well, anything, really. My regular Rifters set me back approx 10-15 mill. So who should determine value? And how?

There would need to be some kind of automated system that determines values. I'm not sure how this is done, but I know that most killboards have a program that does this, and CCP clearly has one that determines insurance payouts. Accuracy is not terribly important, only consistency. Undervaluing or overvaluing is fine, as long as everything is overvalued or undervalued in the same proportions.

I guess one question to consider is, are there any ways in which an experienced player could trick a new player into unintentionally giving them kill rights (and thus place a bounty on the newbie which is trivial to them, but is enough to effectively keep that player out of ships and ultimately drive them from the game)?

The noob would have to kill someone, without getting concorded, and without them fighting back or aggressing in any way. That's only going to happen in low sec, and only under some pretty strange circumstances. While possible, I think it unlikely. Perhaps something that could be dealt with via GM petition?

There is still no reason not to have a bounty, you lose a ship and someone else gets paid, doesn't affect me as long as I get my insurance payout.

You are right, having a bounty ought to be a bad thing. This is another reason to limit bounty hunters to high security status pilots. Lowsec dwellers fight each other all the time, and the bounty would be a bonus, not a cause. We want bounties to cause loss that would not have otherwise happened. As for insurance, it's been a very long time since I lost a ship where insurance came close to covering the true cost.

Make it so the bounty is on the clone used at the time of killing somehow? that way they cant change out of expensive clones.

This system does not revolve around killing clones, just quantifiable ship loss.

In terms of who can collect -> registered bounty hunters, the person who placed the bounty (who per the rules you stated must have kill rights), as well as a member of the corporation (at the time of the bounty) of the person who posted the bounty.

An interesting suggestion. However, a person or corp capable of avenging the loss in the first place probably won't place a bounty in any event; they'll just go out and kill the target. In the interests of keeping this simple to implement, I'd probably limit bounties to just the bounty hunter.

Cool idea. Making the sec status requirement high for bounty hunter qualification, means there would potentially be fewer bounty hunters. Too many hunters and not enough prey would really curtail PVP in Empire, unless that is the plan?

There is certainly a balance to be struck, and any qualifications for registration (including security status) would be designed to keep the number of bounty hunters down. The lawbringer model does not encourage casual or opportunistic bounty hunters. This would mean that dedicated bounty hunters should be far better able to support themselves.

Would bounties immediately become active or would they take 24 hours to become active after an evemail to notify the criminal (like an individual war dec)? IE, I could slap a bounty on someone while my alt sits in space right beside the criminal. As soon as I submit the bounty, my alt alphas the criminal before he even knows he has a bounty on him.

War decs are actions against a potentially unknown third party, and thus require notice. In order to receive a bounty, you must have killed someone, so you have already had effective notice of a possible bounty. I have no problem with "surprise" bounties, but in reality bounties would probably become active only after each downtime.

Farming bounties:
I take my alt and derp around where I think I will have a good chance of getting popped. I run, like, quad reppers on my boat or something, hoping to get as many dudes, to come help the criminal pop me, as possible. My ship is insured, and I put full bounties on all the people I have kill rights on. If all goes well, I take my main hunter, go pop them, collect the bounty, salvage/loot the wrecks, and funnel the money back to my main.

You could do that, sure. But at best, you recover the exact amount of money that you put in; ie, you recover the bounties that you placed. There is also a fair amount of risk, here, as you might end up losing the fight with your bounty hunter, or some other bounty hunter gets there first. I don't see this as an exploit. They still needed to decide to kill you, after all.

I like the idea of bounty hunting corps. Maybe integrate this with FW by creating a CONCORD militia, where people can register themselves or their corporations as bounty hunters.

Indeed, I could see this being very popular with pvpers that want to be "good" guys. The more people into pvp, the better for all pvpers. Perhaps registered bounty hunters would HAVE to be in registered bounty hunting corps; this would allow pirate corps to wardec the bounty hunters! Then they would know how it feels to be hunted!

Under your proposal, unless I missed something, a griefer could can flip someone and then lose knowing he'll now be able to post a bounty with no expiration. It also still seems to encourage vengeance-seeking, wealthy carebears who lose their pricey ships and then can unload a walletful of hurt on their aggressors. Please let me know if there is a solution.

My proposal revolves around killrights. These are not awarded if any aggressive action has been taken, so can flippers that get blasted can't then place a bounty.

I'm also a HUGE fan of asymmetric warfare. It's something that I will eventually post about, but in my view the problem with lowsec revolves is that it penalises carebears; they have to invest skillpoints into their industry AND combat skills, whereas the pirates only have to focus on combat skills. Allowing carebears to use their wealth to fight back is going to encourage them to actually venture into low sec. And that's a good thing.

Currently I think you only get killrights if you don't shoot back.

True, and I have no problem with this. You are either a combatant, or you are not.

I can see a way for a criminal to bypass your proposed bounty system. Lets' say a pirate has a $100m bounty placed on them, they can simply purchase a $100m ship, fly to a safe spot and have an alt char kill them. Bounty is paid and the pirate breaks even or close to it. Now there's no more bounty hunters chasing them through space. Does this sound right?

Assuming the alt is a registered bounty hunter, yes, you got it right. There is very, very little you can do to stop collusion between two people, or one person with multiple accounts. Another reason why potential clients need to have confidence in the bounty hunters as well as in the system.

Vengeance et alia v Ashimmu

2011-09-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

The hunt:

It started when I encountered a Daredevil flown by a pilot named Vim. Now that I have more experience with being kited, I tend to engage kiters on gates whenever possible; the increased danger of "adds" is worth the ability to just disengage and leave.

Vim had engaged me on the gate, and we had spent some time dancing about. Thanks to my Javelin rockets, I could hit him just fine. In fact, I could easily burn him down. But with a 90% web on me, I couldn't make him stick around long enough to kill him.

Eventually, he either called for backup, or a number of other faction frigates coincidentally showed up to help him out. I popped an exile booster, turned off my weapons, and simply tanked their damage for 60 seconds before jumping out.

I moved on with my roam, and some time later ended up hitting a mission runner with a few other Tuskers. While the frigates were still waiting out their GCC, I spotted Vim again, this time in an Ashimmu.

A quick discussion ensued, and, while none of us had ever fought an Ashimmu before - the Tusker recruitment drive means there are a fair number of newer players in corp right now - we agreed that we could probably take him. 90% webs and bonused neuts meant that he would probably take one or more of us with him, but we should be able burn him down. It was, we decided, a worthwhile sacrifice to take down a pirate faction cruiser.

Well, I probably don't need to tell most of you how this ended. Like lambs to the slaughter, we jumped the Ashimmu at a belt. It turns out, no matter how dangerous 90% webs and bonused neuts seem on paper, it's far, FAR worse in real combat.

Against the Daredevil, 90% web simply meant not being able to hold him or escape. Fine, we thought, we'll kill him quick and accept that we can't escape. Against the Ashimmu, however, it means you take full damage from his cruiser class weapons. Oh, and your tank no longer works.

2011.09.22 19:26:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Costolle
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 2349

Involved parties:

Name: Vim (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.6
Corp: Spiritus Draconis
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Gallente Federation
Ship: Ashimmu
Weapon: Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2349

Name: Serpentis Chief Watchman / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Damage Control II
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Warp Scrambler II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 56
1MN Afterburner II
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 288 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 581 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 784 (Cargo)
Synth Exile Booster (Cargo)
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 420 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 56
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 536 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 484 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 560 (Cargo)

Deeply traumatised, I warped my pod out and wished Vim a good fight. While he clearly understood his ship better than we did, he had not batted an eye at being jumped by three assault frigates.

Afterthoughts:

I can't speak for the others, but I felt really, really stupid afterwards. The fight had been so one sided that I couldn't believe we had thought we stood a chance. Lesson (painfully) learned.

My little Vengeance kept on giving, though. In addition to denying Vim my deadspace armor repair, I also received an Intact Armor Plate when I brought my Malediction back to salvage the wreck. In a bizarre twist, I had actually turned a profit on my foolishness.

Fixing Eve: Bounty Hunting

2011-09-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm generally pretty optimistic about Eve, and very much enjoy flying in New Eden. That said, I do recognise that certain things could work far better than they do now. I've largely kept my thoughts to myself because I don't have nearly the same level of play experience that many other pilots have, and my own focus is very narrow: small ship pvp in lowsec.

However, people like Jester, FNG, and some members of the CSM, have been very, very constructive, underscoring game flaws and coming up with ideas and fixes that seem (at least to me) to be workable and easy to implement. For what it's worth, I intend to throw my own ideas out there from time to time in the hope that I contribute something useful to New Eden.

This is my first foray into "fixing Eve", and the subject is Bounty Hunting.

The problem:

Bounty hunting (players, not rats) is broken, and everyone knows it. If someone puts a bounty on you, you reship to a noob ship/blank clone and get a buddy to blow you up. You split the proceeds. For this reason few people use the bounty system, and rightly so.

Any fix to the Bounty Hunting system needs to pass a few key tests, though.

1) Is the system secure? In other words, can the proposed target extract a benefit? This is a test the current system easily fails.

2) Does it actually offer the person placing the bounty value for money? Another test the current system fails. Even without collusion, the bounty does not guarantee a commensurate loss to the target.

3) Is the system safe from abuse?

4) Is it easy to implement?

With those questions in mind, I've tried to come up with a solution.

The proposed fix:

Suppose that instead of being able to put a bounty on anyone, you could only put a bounty on someone if you had kill rights for - in fact, placing a bounty would use up your kill rights! This would prevent the much stronger bounty system we are putting in place from being abused by wealthy characters.

When a kill right has been obtained, a bounty can be placed, but only up to the damage inflicted by the target. So if they blow up your Rifter you are going to be limited to a much smaller bounty that if they blew up your Dramiel. In the case of multiple attackers, though, you could place a full bounty on each of them! There is no safety in numbers.

Once the bounty is placed, it persists until it is collected, but it can only be collected by registered bounty hunters! These bounty hunters would need to meet certain requirements before they could become registered with Concord. The exact nature of these requirements would need some looking into, but it should include a fairly high security status, which would prevent pirates from also being bounty hunters.

Bounties can also only be collected in Empire space - high sec or low sec. Concord has no jurisdiction in null sec, and can't/won't pay out bounties for null sec kills. This prevents null sec corporations from abusing the system in the course of their wars for sovereignty.

Now, once the bounty hunter has found a target with a bounty (or more likely, roamed through low sec killing flashies on the assumption that many of them will have bounties), he receives a payout.

However, this payout is limited to the value of the ship the bounty hunter has destroyed. Any unused bounty remains on the target! This means that the target cannot easily escape the bounty by letting himself be destroyed in a cheap ship. Bounty hunters will pursue the target until they have cost him as much as he cost his initial victim!

Applying the test:

1) Is the system secure? In other words, can the proposed target extract a benefit? The system is secure, even if collusion occurs (which will be difficult) because the target must suffer a loss equal to the bounty before any payout occurs. At best, the target is put back into the same position that he was before the loss. As an extra measure, there could be a percentage modifier to the payout; ie, the bounty paid out is only 90% of the damage done.

2) Does it actually offer the person placing the bounty value for money? Absolutely. The payee can be sure that a 100 million bounty will cause at least 100 million in damage to the target, assuming the Bounty Hunters catch up to him - and there is no expiration date on the bounty!

3) Is the system safe from abuse? It seems secure, in that the bounties can only be collected by a group of niche pvpers who are required to confine their pvp to targets that do not affect their sec status. Equally, the conditions under which a bounty can be issued and paid are quite restrictive.

4) Is it easy to implement? I'm not a programmer, but the main programming change seems to be a series of if/then statements relating to a preexisting interface.

Have I missed anything?

Edit:

As originally proposed, the system worked against bounty hunters that wanted to track down targets with a non-outlaw sec status; these targets could only be attacked in low sec without triggering Concord, and they also gave the bounty hunter a sec hit!

Instead, in exchange for meeting the registration requirements, the bounty hunters would become agents of Concord and therefore able to engage ANY target with a bounty without triggering a Concord response (including a security status penalty) or gate aggression. Equally, no killright would be awarded to the target, meaning they could not then turn about and place a bounty on the bounty hunter.

This is why I feel that the registration requirements should be fairly strict, and should include a high sec status. Bounty hunters of the type envisaged are more like Judge Dredd than they are like Boba Fet; they are given the power to break some of New Eden's unbreakable rules, but are accordingly required to uphold the laws they enforce.

I would even go so far as to say that a bounty hunter should be unable to gain sec status while a bounty hunter, to prevent them just grinding their sec status back after a gank. However, having never had a high sec status, I can't know how easy or difficult it is to push your sec status to the upper levels. Hitting -10 certainly takes a fair amount of effort.