I had a rather interesting adventure last night in my efforts to assist the final evacuation of Barleguet assets. A lot of folk left stuff behind thinking we would return and the logistics guys are now working overtime to shift all the contracts. I think I cleared ~20 contracts last night and more keep coming in. I actually quite enjoy stretching the legs of my Anshar. My plan is to keep going up until this weekend and then evaluate how big the backlog is. Most of my jumps went fairly routinely and I got a bit of a rhythm going. Occasionally my cyno characters would get popped but my JF was never in danger. Though, I did end up on a mini adventure.
My derpitude started on Monday when I was positioning my cyno alts. I had forgotten that my Anshar was still in Sendaya after moving all my usual alpha cynos away from there. Derp. So I quickly podded Bizar Raizen over and into position. "Skill point penalty". Oh shiiii.... My skill queue had JUST passed my current clone. So off goes Evasive Maneuvering 5 on a short holiday. Good thing I'm not flying interceptors too much right now. I was facepalming pretty hard at that point but there was work to be done so I soldiered on, got my Anshar back into Highsec and started making my way over to Stacmon. However, I also remembered that burn Jita could fire up at any time. So I logged on another character in high sec, got him in a Rifter and went over to web my Freighter for faster warps. I had never done this before. I thought that it would be possible to web someone whilst in their fleet without concord response. Unfortunately I was wrong... Another lesson learned.
Roll on Tuesday. With everything in position I started the ball rolling and blitzed through 10-15 contracts in just over an hour. Along the way I had a few... interesting encounters with my cyno characters. When I light a cyno I cycle it off, set station as destination and then turn autopilot on. This means that if the character survives the 10 minute cycle then it will dock on its own and I can focus on other stuff. If it dies and gets podded then I just end up inside the station in a new noobship. However, when minimised I still get sounds from that client (yes EVE has sound!). So should someone target me, for example, I hear the locking sound. I usually just ignore it and focus on my JF pilot making sure it is safe. Though sometimes I come back to the cyno to find them alive... and next to an enemy wreck. Yesterday I was able to add a Cruicifer to my tally of AFK kills with cyno characters. The other being a Nemesis which didn't even get through my shields. They were evein kind enough to leave 3 Hobgoblin IIs behind which I scooped up, adding insult to injury. Station guns are a cyno's best friend.
After my 15th or 16th contract I noticed someone looking for help moving stuff from a more obscure location in null sec within jump range of Barleguet. So I got in a chat with them and agreed to pick up the contract if they could get me a cyno out there. Once at the location, I go into the contracts menu to grab their contract. After accepting I look in my assets menu a little confused. I didn't have anything at the station I was docked in. I did however have stuff at an old null sec station Brave were working out of in Y-W6. Turns out I had accepted the wrong contract. Blargh. You see, I didn't really want to go out to Y-W6. I flirted with it on the Monday night since there were a few contracts there. I got a cyno alt in position, had modules donated by a nice Brave member who happened to have a cyno ship out there and then proceeded to light the cyno. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated the jump distance and was unable to actually make the jump from Stacmon (I forgot I only had JDC3 and needed JDC4). Before I could jump to Barleguet, which would have put me in range, the cyno ship got popped by some locals who didn't appreciate me lighting cynos on their doorstep. So I was a little hesitant to go back there for any more contracts.
However, now I was in a bit of a pickle. I was reluctant to toss the 200M collateral and the contract customer was not online. My only realistic choice was to get it done. I quickly grabbed the correct contract for my current location, delivered it and then made my way back to Barleguet. Fortunately, I was able to pod one of my cyno alts directly to the Y-W6 station. The next issue was locating a cyno generator and some ozone as there were none in the station. A quick look on the market showed that there were some 2 jumps away in TXW. Out I go in my pod without much to lose as it was an alpha clone. On my way there I find the TXW entry gate bubbled but no locals in system. I continue on, grab a cyno and some ozone and fit it onto a rookie ship. Okay, now to get back. I jump back into the bubble and suddenly realised that I was in a bit of a predicament. There were rats on the gate. Holding cloak I try and figure out what to do. Without much to lose I decide to make a beeline for the closest bubble edge. The rats start to lock me and a Breacher appears on grid, at the opposite side of the bubble. My heart skips a beat it as it starts to lock me too, then I realise it will be out of scram range. I click the next gate and start spamming warp. As soon as I exit the bubble I align out and warp before the red boxes appear. Phew, I could breathe a sigh of relief. Time to get my cyno sorted.
I arrive back at the Y-W6 station and dock up, noticing a Hurricane sitting on the undock. Balls, that might slow me down a bit. I undock anyway and start moving towards a reasonable cyno position, ready to dock back up if needed. Just as I look over to my other screen to prep my Anshar the Hurricane pops me. I was about ready to give up at this point until I noticed that the cyno generator and ozone both dropped! Quickly I get in my new fresh rookie ship, undock, loot my wreck (which was still directly on the undock) and dock back up again. At least I wouldn't have to go on another shopping trip yet. Evaluating my options, I decide to log off that character for 10 minutes and grab a drink in the hope that the Hurricane would get bored waiting. Logging back on, I find it still sitting on the undock. Being impatient, and probably a little stupid, I decide to try again anyway. I undock and creep into a good cyno position. The Hurricane doesn't lock me this time. I get my Anshar on the Barle undock ready to go. I light the cyno and look back over to my Anshar pilots screen. I right click the capacitor and get to the jump to button and hold for 5 seconds while I check the cyno isn't locked up. Things look good. I jump and I dock. Great success! So I load up my Anshar and get ready for the jump home. Interestingly the Hurricane still hasn't killed the cyno yet. As I undock my Anshar it looks like the Hurricane has woken up. He locks me up and takes a chunk out of my shield as I jump out. Safely back in Barleguet I breathe a sigh of relief as I watch the Hurricane pop my cyno ship. I don't think I'll go back to Y-W anytime soon. The locals aren't very hospitable.
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Monday, 7 April 2014
The shakes and my first solo PvP kill(s)
Last night I experienced the shakes for the first time whilst playing EVE. I've been in plenty of fleets. I've undocked plenty of times but I've never really experienced the shakes that a lot of players have described before. Sure, I've been shocked, surprised or excited and left annoyed or happy at times (like my first Viator loss) but never had that "buzzing" feeling people describe that they get after a significant fight in EVE. I think I finally found it.
It is a sensation that I haven't felt in a long time whilst gaming. In essence it is an adrenaline rush. It is strange to equate adrenaline rush and video games. Imagine the feeling you get from a thrilling rollercoaster ride and the buzz that endures afterwards. Now imagine that whilst sitting playing a video game. Hard to imagine. It is quite a pure sensation given the lack of physical activity that would usually stimulate it. EVE has given me that feeling back whilst gaming.
The last time I remember such a sensation is in my early days playing competitive Counter Strike. I played at a reasonably high level in some great teams and participated in a number of tournaments, both online and offline. Often, when I first started playing, I would get the shakes. When everything was on the line, when every single shot fired could change the game, the pressure would be immense. There are plays I made over 5 years ago that I remember in great detail to this very day. I can play them out in slow motion in my head because they had such an emotional impact. I remember the adrenaline rush that they gave me and the shakes that persisted afterwards. Unfortunately the feeling did start to fade over time as I became a more experienced player. Arguably it made me a better player as my decision making would come to the front rather than playing from instinct. Hopefully it doesn't fade too quickly with EVE.
So what elicited this magnificent feeling? A simple solo bombing run. The third bomb I've ever launched to be precise. However, it wasn't a particularly standard bombing run. A standard bombing run would usually involve setting up near a group of relatively stationary targets clumped within a bombs explosion radius. This was a little different. HERO is currently taking more sovereignty and we are shooting structures in siege bombers. Often small fleets will show up to harass us such as Crows which will circle the fleet and pick off bombers around the edges, seriously hindering operations. This time we were harassed by a small kestrel gang. Initially there were ~10 in the gang. One of our veteran bombers noticed they were constantly running their MWDs, causing their sig radius bloom making them a juicy bomb target. He managed to set up off the fleet and let a bomb rip directly towards them as they approached the fleet destroying 8/9 of them solo! Naturally I was inspired.
About 30 minutes later 5 members of the previous gang returned, again in Kestrels. This time they were a bit hesitant to close range on us. Holding a wide orbit they stalked the perimeter for stragglers. Carefully I watched and realised that they were anchored to a Kestrel which would take the lead. This allowed me to predict their movements. I also noticed that their wide orbit would eventually come close to one of my perches off the structure. This was my opportunity. I warped to the perch cloaked putting me ~100km off the gang. Tracking their movement I realised they would swing past me at ~60km so I set off to try and intercept that position. This is quite tricky, they were doing ~2km/s which meant that I would have to lead the bomb ~20km in front of them. As I got to ~70km they started to make a sharp turn directly towards me. Panicking I quickly aligned to the lead kestrel, decloaked and launched my bomb. I hesitated for a split second checking that the bomb launched and then start my warp out as fast as possible. This gave the kestrels time to lock. "Manticore no, no, no" came over mumble followed by the FC realising I launched a bomb: "Oh... Oh... Ooo... OOOOO ... BOOOOM". I warp out to my safe in 7% armor leaving 3 wrecks and a damaged kestrel in my wake. Cheers erupted over mumble as members of the support fleet warp to my last position, finishing off the last 2 kestrels. Buzzing with excitement I sat back in my chair contemplating what I had just done. Yesterday was a good day.
PS: I actually caught the whole thing on Fraps and put it on YouTube in a hurry. However, a concerned commenter noticed some OpSec in the video so I took it down. At some point I will edit it when I get clear guidelines on what needs to be removed.
It is a sensation that I haven't felt in a long time whilst gaming. In essence it is an adrenaline rush. It is strange to equate adrenaline rush and video games. Imagine the feeling you get from a thrilling rollercoaster ride and the buzz that endures afterwards. Now imagine that whilst sitting playing a video game. Hard to imagine. It is quite a pure sensation given the lack of physical activity that would usually stimulate it. EVE has given me that feeling back whilst gaming.
The last time I remember such a sensation is in my early days playing competitive Counter Strike. I played at a reasonably high level in some great teams and participated in a number of tournaments, both online and offline. Often, when I first started playing, I would get the shakes. When everything was on the line, when every single shot fired could change the game, the pressure would be immense. There are plays I made over 5 years ago that I remember in great detail to this very day. I can play them out in slow motion in my head because they had such an emotional impact. I remember the adrenaline rush that they gave me and the shakes that persisted afterwards. Unfortunately the feeling did start to fade over time as I became a more experienced player. Arguably it made me a better player as my decision making would come to the front rather than playing from instinct. Hopefully it doesn't fade too quickly with EVE.
So what elicited this magnificent feeling? A simple solo bombing run. The third bomb I've ever launched to be precise. However, it wasn't a particularly standard bombing run. A standard bombing run would usually involve setting up near a group of relatively stationary targets clumped within a bombs explosion radius. This was a little different. HERO is currently taking more sovereignty and we are shooting structures in siege bombers. Often small fleets will show up to harass us such as Crows which will circle the fleet and pick off bombers around the edges, seriously hindering operations. This time we were harassed by a small kestrel gang. Initially there were ~10 in the gang. One of our veteran bombers noticed they were constantly running their MWDs, causing their sig radius bloom making them a juicy bomb target. He managed to set up off the fleet and let a bomb rip directly towards them as they approached the fleet destroying 8/9 of them solo! Naturally I was inspired.
About 30 minutes later 5 members of the previous gang returned, again in Kestrels. This time they were a bit hesitant to close range on us. Holding a wide orbit they stalked the perimeter for stragglers. Carefully I watched and realised that they were anchored to a Kestrel which would take the lead. This allowed me to predict their movements. I also noticed that their wide orbit would eventually come close to one of my perches off the structure. This was my opportunity. I warped to the perch cloaked putting me ~100km off the gang. Tracking their movement I realised they would swing past me at ~60km so I set off to try and intercept that position. This is quite tricky, they were doing ~2km/s which meant that I would have to lead the bomb ~20km in front of them. As I got to ~70km they started to make a sharp turn directly towards me. Panicking I quickly aligned to the lead kestrel, decloaked and launched my bomb. I hesitated for a split second checking that the bomb launched and then start my warp out as fast as possible. This gave the kestrels time to lock. "Manticore no, no, no" came over mumble followed by the FC realising I launched a bomb: "Oh... Oh... Ooo... OOOOO ... BOOOOM". I warp out to my safe in 7% armor leaving 3 wrecks and a damaged kestrel in my wake. Cheers erupted over mumble as members of the support fleet warp to my last position, finishing off the last 2 kestrels. Buzzing with excitement I sat back in my chair contemplating what I had just done. Yesterday was a good day.
PS: I actually caught the whole thing on Fraps and put it on YouTube in a hurry. However, a concerned commenter noticed some OpSec in the video so I took it down. At some point I will edit it when I get clear guidelines on what needs to be removed.
Friday, 28 March 2014
Industry Experiment Update
Atrons have been flying off the shelves so far. I've been popping them up on contract as singles, three and five packs, priced at 1 million per fit Atron. I even got a 1 million ISK tip for one of my 5 packs, so it looks like customers are happy. A full Jump Freighter load per week is just about perfect and so I started my next production run. With my current skills it takes just over 7 days to make 128 Atrons resulting in a nice weekly routine. I've also been able to cut costs substantially by acquiring modules for the fit via buy orders in Jita. So to break even on my next batch, after accounting for all costs, I would only need to sell the contracts for ~600,000 ISK. I was dithering over whether I should drop the cost of my contracts to account for this, however I don't want to scare other contractors out of the market and cause supply problems. With this in mind, I also don't put them them all up at once. I'm purposefully spinning out supply, so that other contractors also get a chance to sell and so that they don't simply get bought out and re-listed. I'm not really sure how well this is working but it seems like a sensible plan. I'll keep my eye on it.
The project itself has been interesting. I've enjoyed working out the logistics required for manufacturing in EVE. When I played Rift, the crafting system was extremely basic. You didn't even need items to be in your inventory, they could be sitting in your bank. As long as you had the materials, which could conveniently be sourced from an auction house within the crafting area, you could simply "press button, receive bacon". Not very engaging. However in EVE, working out all the steps and figuring out how to connect the dots in the most efficient way is quite satisfying. It has been a good learning experience and I have a lot of sympathy for contract maker and industry folk now. The amount of clicking is frankly ridiculous. There really need to be some ways to fit multiple and rename multiple ships implemented and some sort of template system for manufacturing jobs.
It was also a lot of fun moving my Jump Freighter around for the first time. I feel like my trusty Viator might start gathering dust, though I guess it is still handy for quick shopping trips to nearby trade hubs. I made my first Jump Freighter round trip on Monday, in order to get my first batch of Atrons into Sendaya, and have since completed a bunch of alliance courier contracts over the past week. The first few jumps were quite nerve racking and I did have one minor bump off the Sendaya station. My heart leapt into my mouth as I watched my Anshar drift helplessly at 500m/s away. Fortunately I was still within docking range by the time the session timer ticked down and docked up safely. Some minor adjustments to cyno position were made and I haven't bumped since. Having the Jump Freighter has also given me quite a "free" feeling. It is like learning to drive and getting your first car. It grans a certain feeling of independence and freedom. The knowledge that I can shift all my bits and bobs through the EVE universe if we redeploy again is liberating. Now I just need to figure out how to rescue some of the ships I have randomly strewn about null sec space.
Looking onward, I want to expand more into manufacturing. As such, I've started up a pure Industry and manufacturing alt. Whether this will lead to a high sec POS for research and invention or not I don't know at this time. If I wan't to try out T2 production, I have a suspicion that it will require me to do my own invention to get the T2 BPCs. However, until I get to that point some expansion of my T1 manufacturing seems in order. Managing an alt with 10 slots working T1 items is a nice short term goal to set and should provide some more income on the side to start investing into other projects. I have a few ideas in mind, which I will undoubtedly write about soon. For example, I've been brainstorming ideas on jobs for new players to earn some ISK outside of the more standard options that we have available. I'm a bit out of touch with how new players can make ISK in low sec. Some conversation has been has on comms on what veteran players would be willing to pay new players to do for them. One example that was brought up was scouting wormhole chains for routes out to key high sec locations and then selling the bookmarks. I know that I'd be willing to buy some of these for a quick route to Jita. I have a few ideas of my own, though I think some experimentation is in order before I get into the details.
The project itself has been interesting. I've enjoyed working out the logistics required for manufacturing in EVE. When I played Rift, the crafting system was extremely basic. You didn't even need items to be in your inventory, they could be sitting in your bank. As long as you had the materials, which could conveniently be sourced from an auction house within the crafting area, you could simply "press button, receive bacon". Not very engaging. However in EVE, working out all the steps and figuring out how to connect the dots in the most efficient way is quite satisfying. It has been a good learning experience and I have a lot of sympathy for contract maker and industry folk now. The amount of clicking is frankly ridiculous. There really need to be some ways to fit multiple and rename multiple ships implemented and some sort of template system for manufacturing jobs.
It was also a lot of fun moving my Jump Freighter around for the first time. I feel like my trusty Viator might start gathering dust, though I guess it is still handy for quick shopping trips to nearby trade hubs. I made my first Jump Freighter round trip on Monday, in order to get my first batch of Atrons into Sendaya, and have since completed a bunch of alliance courier contracts over the past week. The first few jumps were quite nerve racking and I did have one minor bump off the Sendaya station. My heart leapt into my mouth as I watched my Anshar drift helplessly at 500m/s away. Fortunately I was still within docking range by the time the session timer ticked down and docked up safely. Some minor adjustments to cyno position were made and I haven't bumped since. Having the Jump Freighter has also given me quite a "free" feeling. It is like learning to drive and getting your first car. It grans a certain feeling of independence and freedom. The knowledge that I can shift all my bits and bobs through the EVE universe if we redeploy again is liberating. Now I just need to figure out how to rescue some of the ships I have randomly strewn about null sec space.
Looking onward, I want to expand more into manufacturing. As such, I've started up a pure Industry and manufacturing alt. Whether this will lead to a high sec POS for research and invention or not I don't know at this time. If I wan't to try out T2 production, I have a suspicion that it will require me to do my own invention to get the T2 BPCs. However, until I get to that point some expansion of my T1 manufacturing seems in order. Managing an alt with 10 slots working T1 items is a nice short term goal to set and should provide some more income on the side to start investing into other projects. I have a few ideas in mind, which I will undoubtedly write about soon. For example, I've been brainstorming ideas on jobs for new players to earn some ISK outside of the more standard options that we have available. I'm a bit out of touch with how new players can make ISK in low sec. Some conversation has been has on comms on what veteran players would be willing to pay new players to do for them. One example that was brought up was scouting wormhole chains for routes out to key high sec locations and then selling the bookmarks. I know that I'd be willing to buy some of these for a quick route to Jita. I have a few ideas of my own, though I think some experimentation is in order before I get into the details.
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Sociopaths in Space
That statistics page on Blogger tells me that people are visiting my blog which is nice motivation to keep writing it, even if that number is still relatively small. It also shows links which have redirected traffic to the page. On a couple of occasions I've noticed traffic from other blogs that I read which is really satisfying. So I got a nice surprise today when I noticed some traffic being redirected from Kate 'On at Eve PLEX, a market focused blog. However, much to my dismay, the reasoning behind that traffic was a little embarrassing. You see, I have been called out as a sociopath: Sociopath Callout Erotica1.
Before you read on, no, I am not Erotica1. I ashamed to share a blog post with that name. My reference is much lower down the page and refers to my previous post. The post itself, as far as I'm aware, is not why I was called out. I was called out in reference to a comment which I made on a recent post at Jesters Trek and that my most recent post is ironic in light of that. Jester has recently been making a series of thought provoking posts regarding the changing culture of EVE online. Jester posits the dark side of EVE, in which players revel in the pain and misery of others, is getting worse and that this is detrimental to the game, particularly in the recruitment of new players. His main point, is that the intensity of the activities taking place is increasing. Now, I don't completely agree with him, though I'll get to that later. I suggest you read Jesters post before continuing, some of the comments may be of interest too: The bonus round
For those who don't wish to read right now I'll briefly summarize. Jester describes a recent scam carried out by Erotica1. Erotica1 is a well known ISK doubler, however they occasionally take a victim into "the bonus room" where they get the victim to provide an API key and hand over, quite literally, all of their EVE assets. Ships, ISK, cashed in LP... everything. They then say they will further multiply the value of all the items given to them, if the victim "remains faithful". What follows is where things get controversial. The victim is made to carry out a series of acts designed to break and humiliate them whilst being recorded on teamspeak. The recording is then published for all to hear. The link is available on Jesters post.
So what did I say that got me called out as a sociopath?
"I don't agree with what Erotica does but I'd hardly call it torture. The victim isn't being held captive, they can leave at any time. I do agree that they take the scam past the point at which it should stop. However, at worst I would call it bullying. Calling it torture is a disservice to actual torture victims.
Also, they don't outwardly insult their victims from what I have seen so far. They simply play off the gullibility of the victim. Is pushing that gullibility to the breaking point unethical? Probably. Honestly though I think you are blowing this out of proportion."
- Bizar Raizen
Before you read on, no, I am not Erotica1. I ashamed to share a blog post with that name. My reference is much lower down the page and refers to my previous post. The post itself, as far as I'm aware, is not why I was called out. I was called out in reference to a comment which I made on a recent post at Jesters Trek and that my most recent post is ironic in light of that. Jester has recently been making a series of thought provoking posts regarding the changing culture of EVE online. Jester posits the dark side of EVE, in which players revel in the pain and misery of others, is getting worse and that this is detrimental to the game, particularly in the recruitment of new players. His main point, is that the intensity of the activities taking place is increasing. Now, I don't completely agree with him, though I'll get to that later. I suggest you read Jesters post before continuing, some of the comments may be of interest too: The bonus round
For those who don't wish to read right now I'll briefly summarize. Jester describes a recent scam carried out by Erotica1. Erotica1 is a well known ISK doubler, however they occasionally take a victim into "the bonus room" where they get the victim to provide an API key and hand over, quite literally, all of their EVE assets. Ships, ISK, cashed in LP... everything. They then say they will further multiply the value of all the items given to them, if the victim "remains faithful". What follows is where things get controversial. The victim is made to carry out a series of acts designed to break and humiliate them whilst being recorded on teamspeak. The recording is then published for all to hear. The link is available on Jesters post.
So what did I say that got me called out as a sociopath?
"I don't agree with what Erotica does but I'd hardly call it torture. The victim isn't being held captive, they can leave at any time. I do agree that they take the scam past the point at which it should stop. However, at worst I would call it bullying. Calling it torture is a disservice to actual torture victims.
Also, they don't outwardly insult their victims from what I have seen so far. They simply play off the gullibility of the victim. Is pushing that gullibility to the breaking point unethical? Probably. Honestly though I think you are blowing this out of proportion."
- Bizar Raizen
This led to me being called out and some discourse over at Eve PLEX. Kate 'On feels that I am an enabler of people like Erotica1. I must admit, I am embarrassed to be associated with people like that and it certainly was not my intention. I think that Kate 'On did a pretty good job at deconstructing most of my argument, of which there were 3 main points, and certainly made me view the situation in a new light. The first point was my dislike of using the word torture to describe the activity. I felt that the victim could simply walk away and therefore it couldn't really be considered torture and that using the term is an exaggeration. However, Kate 'On made a compelling argument that in some cases of torture, the victim is free to walk away. In this particular example, Erotica plays off the psychological weakness of his victim, who truly believes that they can get their assets back, essentially trapping them there. My second point was that they are playing off the gullibility of their victim to carry out these acts. Again, they made the point that if the victims of these scams tend to be in a psychologically weak state then we can't judge them by the same standards of gullibility that we would apply to ourselves. I think that is a fair point, and I think I jumped the gun in this case attributing it to gullibility. Unfortunately, however, my final point is the point that I actually wanted to send home but didn't do so within the context of the post.
I think Jester is blowing things out of proportion and that it is a detrimental way of looking at things if we wan't to reduce this sort of behavior within EVE online. I personally think that drawing attention to the behaviour of Erotica1 is pointless and that energy should be focused elsewhere. What are CCP supposed to do about it? Banning the person won't solve much. In fact, it could be extremely controversial, since the harassment essentially took place out of game. Though it was a very blurry line. Changing the rules regarding scamming is also controversial, as it is a widely accepted activity within EVE online. So what to do? I personally don't think there is much CCP can do directly. However, what can the playerbase do? This leads me to look at why I think Jester is blowing it out of proportion. To me, the people who applaud the behaviour of players like Erotica1 are a minority, a despicable and depraved minority. Is it a growing minority? Maybe. However, one only has to look at the progress of other entities within the game such as Brave Newbies, E-UNI, RvB and a plethora of others to see that there are other large communities within the game who have a positive influence on the game which are also growing.
Erotica1 is a depraved bully who takes advantage of vulnerable EVE players. I am ashamed to share an existence with people like that and deeply embarassed that I have been associated with him. Drawing attention to him is not what we need to do. We should be drawing attention to the heroes within the community. Make positive behaviour the norm, make it celebrated. Make EVE a game where people say "is that the game where there is a 10 year old establishment dedicated to helping new players" in reference to E-UNI. I'm proud to be a Brave Newbie. I'm proud to be part of something positive. I'm not a sociopath... but I guess that's what a sociopath would say.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Experimenting with Industry: Helping the newbros!
One of my favourite things about EVE is the ability to come up with an idea or objective, formulate a plan and then execute it. This can range from something simple, such as building your first ship, to extremely grand and long term, like establishing a sovereignty holding alliance. My most recent experiment, currently under execution, is a simply Industry plan. I have gotten my feet wet through some simple T1 small rig manufacturing which has been going nicely on the side making reasonable profits. It has also given me some insight into the planning and logistics required to run a successful manufacturing operation. However, about a week ago I felt that it was time to step my game up a little bit.
So I started manufacturing Atrons! Not exactly rocket science. However, there is more reasoning behind this. In Sendaya, the price of frigate hulls is quite steep. This can make it tough for newbros in the alliance living on a shoestring budget to keep getting out in space and fighting. In Barleguet, fast tackle Atron fits were going for about 1 million ISK. A very basic fit but functional and useful enough that a new player can get in one quickly and start experiencing the game while feeling that they can contribute to a fleet. In Sendaya the price is more volatile and I have seen contracts for 2 million ISK and upwards (though they do often go for 1.2-1.5million/hull when buying packs). I think it is really important to get new players out in space to start enjoying the game so I set myself an objective of getting Atron's contracts up for 1 million per fit ship. I plan to supply ~100 of these per week.
So now with an objective, I had to identify why the price was high and how I could work on reducing it. In Sendaya there are no manufacturing lines. Therefore ships either have to be manufactured outside or simply bought in Jita (or another trade hub) and then shipped in. An alternative would be to build them in a nearby system that does have manufacturing lines, however this adds an extra step which new players can be put off by. Recently our fights have been skirmishes around the Sendaya undock so for fast reshipping it is a bit of a pain to keep jumping back and forth to another system to reship, nevermind the risk of losing a newly bought ship in transit. The main problem with Atron prices is the shipping cost. Realistically, Atrons have to be Jump Freighted in to Sendaya. This means ~15 million ISK in personal jump fuel or 25 million ISK in alliance courier fees. At only 128 Atrons per load (320,000 m3) making this cost efficient is a problem. Also, if shipping from Jita you have to consider the time investment in moving a freighter or an additional courier cost (though this cost is negligible if blended into other market operations). So when you consider that 128 Atrons, at time of writing, would only cost ~53 million ISK, you can see why hull prices in Sendaya are high. It is simply to cover the cost of logistics. I know there are guys out there who run frigate hulls in very low volumes, say 10 at a time, in aid of new players looking for cheaper ships. I greatly appreciate these guys and they have my respect for the hard work they do. However, for me that is just too impractical and time inefficient. It would cut into my PvP time far too much to be worth it.
How do I go about bringing the price down then? Well, the first thing is "local" manufacturing. In this case, I am going to produce them in Mendori, which is a good high staging system for Jump Freighting. My first run of 128 Atron's cost ~310,000 ISK/hull to produce in minerals which will finish tomorrow at time of writing (minerals were sourced from Amarr sell orders). Second, I'm going to do my own jump freighting. I can now fly a Jump Freighter on an alt which this means I only have to worry about the cost of my own fuel (with current skills it is ~15 million per round trip and will drop to ~10 million by next week). Lastly, I'll bring the extra modules needed for the contracts from Jita. At time of writing the cost of these modules is ~280,000 ISK per hull. This set up has several advantages. By manufacturing, I am able to undercut the Jita sell price by ~100,000 ISK per hull. This starts to add up quickly when considering the volume that I intend to move every week. By doing my own freighting I also cut down on courier costs. This also has a secondary advantage of not having to stick to the 320,000m3 rule on contracts. Since I fly an Anshar, I can haul ~350,000m3. Though not calculated completely here, this will allow me to squeeze in more Atrons per load along with the modules for the fit. However, for now I will stick to 128 Atrons per load as this takes ~7 days to manufacture and use the extra space to haul items that would usually be brought via a blockade runner.
Math time:
Hulls: 128 * 310,000 = 39,680,000 ISK
Modules: 128 * 280,000 = 35,850,000 ISK
Fuel: 15,000,000 ISK
Total Cost: 90,530,000
This price will fluctuate a bit depending on mineral and module prices. However. as you can see an individual with a Jump Freighter could, theoretically, make quite a nice profit while providing hulls at a very acceptable margin for new players. At 1 million per contract I would make almost 40 million ISK in profit from a 90 million ISK investment (that's over 40% return on investment). As this is once per week, it also doesn't require much extra effort. Most of the action points can be blended in with other typical market activities. My actual action plan would be the following steps:
So I started manufacturing Atrons! Not exactly rocket science. However, there is more reasoning behind this. In Sendaya, the price of frigate hulls is quite steep. This can make it tough for newbros in the alliance living on a shoestring budget to keep getting out in space and fighting. In Barleguet, fast tackle Atron fits were going for about 1 million ISK. A very basic fit but functional and useful enough that a new player can get in one quickly and start experiencing the game while feeling that they can contribute to a fleet. In Sendaya the price is more volatile and I have seen contracts for 2 million ISK and upwards (though they do often go for 1.2-1.5million/hull when buying packs). I think it is really important to get new players out in space to start enjoying the game so I set myself an objective of getting Atron's contracts up for 1 million per fit ship. I plan to supply ~100 of these per week.
So now with an objective, I had to identify why the price was high and how I could work on reducing it. In Sendaya there are no manufacturing lines. Therefore ships either have to be manufactured outside or simply bought in Jita (or another trade hub) and then shipped in. An alternative would be to build them in a nearby system that does have manufacturing lines, however this adds an extra step which new players can be put off by. Recently our fights have been skirmishes around the Sendaya undock so for fast reshipping it is a bit of a pain to keep jumping back and forth to another system to reship, nevermind the risk of losing a newly bought ship in transit. The main problem with Atron prices is the shipping cost. Realistically, Atrons have to be Jump Freighted in to Sendaya. This means ~15 million ISK in personal jump fuel or 25 million ISK in alliance courier fees. At only 128 Atrons per load (320,000 m3) making this cost efficient is a problem. Also, if shipping from Jita you have to consider the time investment in moving a freighter or an additional courier cost (though this cost is negligible if blended into other market operations). So when you consider that 128 Atrons, at time of writing, would only cost ~53 million ISK, you can see why hull prices in Sendaya are high. It is simply to cover the cost of logistics. I know there are guys out there who run frigate hulls in very low volumes, say 10 at a time, in aid of new players looking for cheaper ships. I greatly appreciate these guys and they have my respect for the hard work they do. However, for me that is just too impractical and time inefficient. It would cut into my PvP time far too much to be worth it.
How do I go about bringing the price down then? Well, the first thing is "local" manufacturing. In this case, I am going to produce them in Mendori, which is a good high staging system for Jump Freighting. My first run of 128 Atron's cost ~310,000 ISK/hull to produce in minerals which will finish tomorrow at time of writing (minerals were sourced from Amarr sell orders). Second, I'm going to do my own jump freighting. I can now fly a Jump Freighter on an alt which this means I only have to worry about the cost of my own fuel (with current skills it is ~15 million per round trip and will drop to ~10 million by next week). Lastly, I'll bring the extra modules needed for the contracts from Jita. At time of writing the cost of these modules is ~280,000 ISK per hull. This set up has several advantages. By manufacturing, I am able to undercut the Jita sell price by ~100,000 ISK per hull. This starts to add up quickly when considering the volume that I intend to move every week. By doing my own freighting I also cut down on courier costs. This also has a secondary advantage of not having to stick to the 320,000m3 rule on contracts. Since I fly an Anshar, I can haul ~350,000m3. Though not calculated completely here, this will allow me to squeeze in more Atrons per load along with the modules for the fit. However, for now I will stick to 128 Atrons per load as this takes ~7 days to manufacture and use the extra space to haul items that would usually be brought via a blockade runner.
Math time:
Hulls: 128 * 310,000 = 39,680,000 ISK
Modules: 128 * 280,000 = 35,850,000 ISK
Fuel: 15,000,000 ISK
Total Cost: 90,530,000
This price will fluctuate a bit depending on mineral and module prices. However. as you can see an individual with a Jump Freighter could, theoretically, make quite a nice profit while providing hulls at a very acceptable margin for new players. At 1 million per contract I would make almost 40 million ISK in profit from a 90 million ISK investment (that's over 40% return on investment). As this is once per week, it also doesn't require much extra effort. Most of the action points can be blended in with other typical market activities. My actual action plan would be the following steps:
- Aquire goods in Jita (market alt) - This could be via buy or sell orders
- Ship items to Mendori via courier - This would be part of a full 1 billion collateral cargo
- Set up Atron manufacturing job (hauling/industry alt)
- Ship Atrons to Sendaya (hauling/industry alt)
- Fit the ships and set up contracts (main character)
Steps 1-4 would have been part of my routine anyway. The only extra step required for me in this operation will be the fitting part. My plan is to do this during down time between activities on my main character. I'll consider it busy work when not much else is going on. So while extra work it shouldn't conflict with my usual activities as it will fill gaps in my time spent ship spinning when I can't think of anything else to do.
I think the result of this is quite satisfying. I found a pain point within the alliance which I felt required some attention, came up with a solution and executed it (assuming my JF doesn't go bye bye in the next few days, though I've spent a great deal of time figuring out cyno positioning!). It also isn't even 100% efficient in terms of ISK. With some extra planning one could cut costs even further using buy orders on the minerals and modules. There is also room for impovement via use of a better researched Atron BPO. The next thing I need to look at then is what other ships I can start fitting into the rotation. Atron's are fine, though a step up for the new guys is to get them flying other force multiplying ships such as EWAR frigates. Either way, I can definitely see more manufacturing on my horizon!
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
We accidentally a sovereignty
Last night the various alliances within HERO claimed sovereignty. I don't know all the details as of yet but it was a rather interesting night. It was amazing to see the organisation and manpower that the coalition was able to deploy given the opportunity. The sense of urgency and excitement was awesome. Here is my story. EVE is real, I was there yada yada.
I logged on for a strat op at 18:45 EVE time and quickly fit up an Exequror as we were running an armor fleet. The op started off a bit messy. People haven't quite got the hang of undocking from our new poop out station and we had a Tornado gang harassing us. They were waiting for our Megathrons, probing them down as they insta undocked and then tackling them before they were able to align and warp to the staging POS. Even our glorious leader, Lychton, got caught out by this and lost his mega. "Didn't want that mega anyway" he proclaimed over mumble before going to fit up a new one.
Eventually we undocked our fleet together to scare off the Tornadoes and made our way to the Titan to be bridged out. This was smooth without much waiting around, fortunate since the Tornado gang landed on us just as we bridged out. However, on land we found ourselves inside a bubble with a group of smartbombing battleships. I was pretty close so chose to burn directly away and out of smartbomb range as fast as possible, before aligning out with the rest of the fleet, and managed to avoid any hull damage. A couple of other exequrors weren't so lucky. After warping we were met by another smart bombing gang in a bubble, though fortunately this time few of us were in range and we made our way out of the second bubble relatively safely whilst destroying the aggressors. Next destination, structure bashing time!
My memory gets a little hazy here. Shortly after arriving at the structure we were engaged by multiple fleets, bubbled up and our Megathrons smashed by a bombing run, reducing most of them to 10-20% armor and some into hull. My history window then flooded with armor rep requests, making identification of the initial primaries impossible and we started to loose ships fast before logi could stabilise. I had been keeping range and was outside of bubbles staying aligned out. TiDi was at 10-20%. A request went out to get our own bombing run on the enemy fleet. The demoralizing reply of "we got uncloaked and are all dead" came back. Things were looking dire. The FC called an align that was between myself and the wall of bubbles so I maintained an align out to an alternative safe while keeping the fleet in range. Just as they got out of that set of bubbles another one went up on the fleet. Fortunately, the enemy bombers were kind enough to provide a get out of jail free card on their second run, destroying the bubble shortly after deployment, allowing our fleet to warp out. After watching the fleet get out safely I then warped to my align and then regrouped with them about 100km off our POS. The enemy fleet were on the opposite side on top of one of our fast tackle. In an attempt to get in the POS we warped to him at 100km. This put most of the fleet inside the POS, however I ended up about 5km outside the shield. Balls. I instantly overheated my AB and made best speed directly towards the shield. I was being locked and knew it was going to be close. Unfortunately it was the wrong kind of close and I got popped <500m off the POS shield. Ouch.
I had a couple of implants in, about 20 mill worth, so I felt that I would wait it out for a route home in my pod. Amid the confusion the enemy fleet was bashing the POS. A question then came up on comms "Uuhhh, is there stront in this POS?". At first nobody was sure. Though eventually someone piped up to confirm that yes, there was stront in the POS, moments before it went into reinforce. Phew! Time to play the waiting game. Realising that we were no longer a threat, the enemy fleet left. A little while later I got a private conversation invite and end up acquiring myself an Augoror from a fellow logi who had to leave for work. A little while after that Darkness of Despair, owners of the system we were in, disbanded. WHAT!? More confusion. Comms got crazy. Lots of people didn't understand what is going on. FCs explained that the systems are no loner owned and are free to be claimed. They started scrambling to organise reinforcement fleets, cynos and the logistics required to take sovereignty. We were no longer going home. We had a second wind and were taking sov. An opportunity had presented itself. It was time to get back into the action and begin a cleanup operation. I'm not 100% sure on the details, I just know that we had to go grind down some of our own structures and grind down the station in the system so that it would become ours. Unfortunately at this point I had to go to bed so I went back to the POS and logged off safely. However I was assured that content would be going until down time. It was going to be a long operation and pings were going out constantly.
In the morning, I woke up grabbed some coffee, logged in and checked that the Aug was still alive (I'd promised to give it back if I made it home). We had sovereignty and a station so I decided to dock up in our new system. Now I just need to figure out how to get the Aug back to its rightful owner.
I logged on for a strat op at 18:45 EVE time and quickly fit up an Exequror as we were running an armor fleet. The op started off a bit messy. People haven't quite got the hang of undocking from our new poop out station and we had a Tornado gang harassing us. They were waiting for our Megathrons, probing them down as they insta undocked and then tackling them before they were able to align and warp to the staging POS. Even our glorious leader, Lychton, got caught out by this and lost his mega. "Didn't want that mega anyway" he proclaimed over mumble before going to fit up a new one.
Eventually we undocked our fleet together to scare off the Tornadoes and made our way to the Titan to be bridged out. This was smooth without much waiting around, fortunate since the Tornado gang landed on us just as we bridged out. However, on land we found ourselves inside a bubble with a group of smartbombing battleships. I was pretty close so chose to burn directly away and out of smartbomb range as fast as possible, before aligning out with the rest of the fleet, and managed to avoid any hull damage. A couple of other exequrors weren't so lucky. After warping we were met by another smart bombing gang in a bubble, though fortunately this time few of us were in range and we made our way out of the second bubble relatively safely whilst destroying the aggressors. Next destination, structure bashing time!
My memory gets a little hazy here. Shortly after arriving at the structure we were engaged by multiple fleets, bubbled up and our Megathrons smashed by a bombing run, reducing most of them to 10-20% armor and some into hull. My history window then flooded with armor rep requests, making identification of the initial primaries impossible and we started to loose ships fast before logi could stabilise. I had been keeping range and was outside of bubbles staying aligned out. TiDi was at 10-20%. A request went out to get our own bombing run on the enemy fleet. The demoralizing reply of "we got uncloaked and are all dead" came back. Things were looking dire. The FC called an align that was between myself and the wall of bubbles so I maintained an align out to an alternative safe while keeping the fleet in range. Just as they got out of that set of bubbles another one went up on the fleet. Fortunately, the enemy bombers were kind enough to provide a get out of jail free card on their second run, destroying the bubble shortly after deployment, allowing our fleet to warp out. After watching the fleet get out safely I then warped to my align and then regrouped with them about 100km off our POS. The enemy fleet were on the opposite side on top of one of our fast tackle. In an attempt to get in the POS we warped to him at 100km. This put most of the fleet inside the POS, however I ended up about 5km outside the shield. Balls. I instantly overheated my AB and made best speed directly towards the shield. I was being locked and knew it was going to be close. Unfortunately it was the wrong kind of close and I got popped <500m off the POS shield. Ouch.
I had a couple of implants in, about 20 mill worth, so I felt that I would wait it out for a route home in my pod. Amid the confusion the enemy fleet was bashing the POS. A question then came up on comms "Uuhhh, is there stront in this POS?". At first nobody was sure. Though eventually someone piped up to confirm that yes, there was stront in the POS, moments before it went into reinforce. Phew! Time to play the waiting game. Realising that we were no longer a threat, the enemy fleet left. A little while later I got a private conversation invite and end up acquiring myself an Augoror from a fellow logi who had to leave for work. A little while after that Darkness of Despair, owners of the system we were in, disbanded. WHAT!? More confusion. Comms got crazy. Lots of people didn't understand what is going on. FCs explained that the systems are no loner owned and are free to be claimed. They started scrambling to organise reinforcement fleets, cynos and the logistics required to take sovereignty. We were no longer going home. We had a second wind and were taking sov. An opportunity had presented itself. It was time to get back into the action and begin a cleanup operation. I'm not 100% sure on the details, I just know that we had to go grind down some of our own structures and grind down the station in the system so that it would become ours. Unfortunately at this point I had to go to bed so I went back to the POS and logged off safely. However I was assured that content would be going until down time. It was going to be a long operation and pings were going out constantly.
In the morning, I woke up grabbed some coffee, logged in and checked that the Aug was still alive (I'd promised to give it back if I made it home). We had sovereignty and a station so I decided to dock up in our new system. Now I just need to figure out how to get the Aug back to its rightful owner.
Monday, 10 March 2014
A HEROic Deployment
Moving day
Moving is a pain. The logistics of moving a bunch of stuff in EVE can be awkward but has been an interesting learning experience. I'd stockpiled too many ships in Barleguet which I somehow hadn't managed to tactically disassemble yet (blow up). Not for lack of trying either! One of my Scythes has lasted at least 6 fairly large scale fleet fights without popping. That included a major fight with an RvB Ganked roam. For ships I use on a regular basis, such as the Scythe, I had been keeping 3 in stock at any one time. That way if I lost 1 or 2 in quick succession there was always at least 1 standing by so I didn't have to scramble to refit another ship. It also meant that I could plan ahead a bit and bring in my own modules during a hauling run. However, this has made shifting assets a bit of a nuisance. I had ~15 fit and rigged ships stockpiled in Barleguet which I didn't really want to disassemble as it would destroy the rigs. During the move I overheard a nice piece of advice. They described the "1 carrier rule". Basically, in EVE if you aren't packing light then you are doing it wrong. Only keep 1 suitcase (aka Carrier) worth of fitted ships in 1 system at a time. This makes sense and will be something I try and keep to whilst deployments and moves are always on the horizon.Although I had mismanaged my ship stockpile, I had dealt with my market operation quite well, letting it slowly empty out without bringing in any more goods after the deployment was announced. I think I did a lot better than those who choose to firesale at the last minute. By the moving date I only had ~1 billion worth of sell orders left which I was able to fit into a blockade runner and move to the new system. In the end I just shifted a few of cruisers with the convoy fleets then moved an interceptor and then a bomber solo. I think in future I won't stockpile so many ships. Overall I've done alright with the move and been able to cut losses. Having to leave ships behind is a little irritating, though I think that's just a minor case of ocd. There is also a chance we will be back there at some point. I only left a couple of cruisers behind and the rest were frigates. So I can always jump back and get them blown up in some solo PvP. I'm not yet ready to give up the fight on having a clean and organised assets menu though. Better planning in future will help with that. In 2 weeks I will also have my own Jump Freighter, so moving lots of assets in future will be much less painful.
Marketeering
I'm now working on building up my market again in the new home system. A lot of items were heavily overpriced so I've been steadily ferrying in doctrine modules and listing at Jita + 20% to start driving down prices and make them more reasonable for the alliance. Whether 20% is reasonable or not I don't know. I've not had many complaints but it seems much fairer than the 50%+ that I've seen on a lot of the other key modules that we use. Moving hulls is also an area I'm looking into. I've put off moving them via alliance courier contracts currently as our haulers are dealing with a heavy backlog of other contracts. There have been complaints about hull prices relative to what they were previously in Barleguet. However, my understanding is that Barleguet relied a lot on local production for smaller ships, which isn't possible in Sendayah as there are no manufacturing lines. This means that breaking even on common frigates, such as the Atron, requires a hefty markup after considering courier costs. Even if everything were to be hauled personally from Jita the cheapest I could conceivably get an Atron down to was ~700k just to break even after factoring in the cost of jump fuel. This makes provision of <1million ISK fast tackle frigates for newbies a bit difficult. However, In 2-3 weeks when I'm running my own Jump Freighter I'll look into this a bit more. I'm planning a nice side project involving a foray into manufacturing. My goal is to get Atrons, and other low profit per m3 hulls, down to ~15-20% markup on Jita sell prices while still maintaining a slim profit margin.Explosions
Although I find the logistics stuff somewhat enjoyable, I know most people enjoy the pew pew. Well, there's been plenty of that. I had a bit of an EVE bender this recent weekend so all the content blurred into 1 culminating in a huge subcap fight in Sendaya on Sunday. The main objective of the deployment, as far as I am aware, is to mess with sovereignty. Actually taking sovereignty doesn't seem to be a priority but I guess only time will tell. Over the weekend I got into a couple of siege bombing fleets targeting sov structures. Looking at my killboard I seem to have lost a bomber, though I can't remember it so it can't have been a notable loss. However, flying the bomber has been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot about the importance of tacticals and essentially strafing a target by aligning out back and forth to celestials to escape when things get hairy. I think mastering this is something I need to work on and will be important when I start actually bombing stuff. Also, being able to cloak up and essentially spectate a battle, such as our support fleet landing, is also quite fun and interesting. I like the idea of being a cloaky scout and scanning down targets so it might be time that I whipped out a buzzard from time to time.
Other than structure bashing stuff over the weekend I also got out in my Scythe a few times. We broke up a few gate camps here and there and generally tried to clean up Sendaya a bit. I also got myself into a bit of a predicament. Some sort of a sov timer was coming out and we were disorganized. So pings went out and we formed up as fast as possible and made best speed to the location. Being disorganised myself, I forgot that I only had a a couple of hours before I would have to leave. Logging out in nullsec mid fight isn't exactly conductive to survivability. However, I decided to go anyway and mark up the expected loss to the benefit of the operation. 20 or so minuted after beginning the structure bash a Harpy fleet landed about 150km off and we started bouncing. It was clear we couldn't outrun them forever and eventually their fleet caught us in a bubble. This was about as late as I could possibly stay. I managed to get out of the bubble and had to close game and run. At the time I'd written off my Scythe and 20M pod (silly implants).
2 hours later I return and the operation is over. However, I'm also not dead. Success! Though I must admit, at this point I was kinda hoping I was dead as it was 18 jumps back to Sendaya. Since I'd already written off the ship and pop I decided just to YOLO (cringe) it back to home. I start jumping and notice a friendly in local. They strike up a private conversation with me and offer to scout ahead in their interceptor. Most of the way home is clear until 2 jumps from home where we find a gatecamp. Drat, what to do now? I'd reached a system with stations, so the option available was to log off. However, I had come so far already, I was determined to get home. So I log on mumble and check the fleet finder. Turns out there is a fleet forming up in the doctrine I'm flying. Perfect timing. So I join the fleet and find out where they are heading. Turns out they are on their way to clear the gate camp before looking for content. After breaking the camp I decide to stick it out in the fleet.
This where shit starts to get real. I can't remember all the players involved as I was pretty tired at this point, though there were roughly 3 groups and almost 1000 ships involved. I'll probably get this horribly wrong but lets try. The engagement started with an organised fight with a large caracal gang. I think this is the gang that also brought Archons, which were disposed of rather quickly, but I'm not 100% sure*. All I know is that we killed Archons in record speed at some point in the beginning of this series of engagements. The stream of missiles from the Caracals was pretty incredible, though it seemed like waiting for missiles to land before each target switch allowed us to chew through them rather quickly with our Thoraxes. This was only the beginning though. Shortly after that a Tengu fleet and a Tornado fleet landed and we had a bit of a Mexican stand off. Eventually our fleet sided with the Tornados and we began trying to engage the Tengu fleet. However, we were having trouble getting them into our desired range. They were also using a frigate as a warp out point in order to maintain range on us. I believe the FC referred to this as a tow line, a pretty cool tactic which I hadn't seen before. During this engagement we ended up with another local spike. A 100 strong Navy Apocalypse gang who also brought Archons as support. I have no idea who ended up shooting who to be honest. In the end we had killed the majority of the Apoc's and added a few more Archons to the tally, killed a ton of Tengus and held the field overall. I don't think I've seen a wreck field that big before. I also don't think I've seen a wreck field looted and salvaged that fast before!
So far I'm fairly positive about this deployment. The content seems readily available and so far the structure grinding hasn't been dull as it has brought fights. I've also learned a lot and am much more comfortable operating in null sec. I'm also wondering how long I can hold on to this Scythe. Did I mention that it's the same Scythe from the start of this post? I've certainly got my moneys worth out of it. It's a good thing CCP are adding new paint jobs to ships because this Scythe definitely needs a new one. I feel like it has graduated beyond it's rust and duct tape roots.
*Update after reading about the fight elsewhere. The Archons were part of an AHAC and BS gang which we were fighting prior to the Caracals. The Caracals didn't stick around for long after the Tengu and Tornado fleets got involved. Next time I'll try and pay attention to write a proper AAR rather than going off my hazy memory.
Other than structure bashing stuff over the weekend I also got out in my Scythe a few times. We broke up a few gate camps here and there and generally tried to clean up Sendaya a bit. I also got myself into a bit of a predicament. Some sort of a sov timer was coming out and we were disorganized. So pings went out and we formed up as fast as possible and made best speed to the location. Being disorganised myself, I forgot that I only had a a couple of hours before I would have to leave. Logging out in nullsec mid fight isn't exactly conductive to survivability. However, I decided to go anyway and mark up the expected loss to the benefit of the operation. 20 or so minuted after beginning the structure bash a Harpy fleet landed about 150km off and we started bouncing. It was clear we couldn't outrun them forever and eventually their fleet caught us in a bubble. This was about as late as I could possibly stay. I managed to get out of the bubble and had to close game and run. At the time I'd written off my Scythe and 20M pod (silly implants).
2 hours later I return and the operation is over. However, I'm also not dead. Success! Though I must admit, at this point I was kinda hoping I was dead as it was 18 jumps back to Sendaya. Since I'd already written off the ship and pop I decided just to YOLO (cringe) it back to home. I start jumping and notice a friendly in local. They strike up a private conversation with me and offer to scout ahead in their interceptor. Most of the way home is clear until 2 jumps from home where we find a gatecamp. Drat, what to do now? I'd reached a system with stations, so the option available was to log off. However, I had come so far already, I was determined to get home. So I log on mumble and check the fleet finder. Turns out there is a fleet forming up in the doctrine I'm flying. Perfect timing. So I join the fleet and find out where they are heading. Turns out they are on their way to clear the gate camp before looking for content. After breaking the camp I decide to stick it out in the fleet.
This where shit starts to get real. I can't remember all the players involved as I was pretty tired at this point, though there were roughly 3 groups and almost 1000 ships involved. I'll probably get this horribly wrong but lets try. The engagement started with an organised fight with a large caracal gang. I think this is the gang that also brought Archons, which were disposed of rather quickly, but I'm not 100% sure*. All I know is that we killed Archons in record speed at some point in the beginning of this series of engagements. The stream of missiles from the Caracals was pretty incredible, though it seemed like waiting for missiles to land before each target switch allowed us to chew through them rather quickly with our Thoraxes. This was only the beginning though. Shortly after that a Tengu fleet and a Tornado fleet landed and we had a bit of a Mexican stand off. Eventually our fleet sided with the Tornados and we began trying to engage the Tengu fleet. However, we were having trouble getting them into our desired range. They were also using a frigate as a warp out point in order to maintain range on us. I believe the FC referred to this as a tow line, a pretty cool tactic which I hadn't seen before. During this engagement we ended up with another local spike. A 100 strong Navy Apocalypse gang who also brought Archons as support. I have no idea who ended up shooting who to be honest. In the end we had killed the majority of the Apoc's and added a few more Archons to the tally, killed a ton of Tengus and held the field overall. I don't think I've seen a wreck field that big before. I also don't think I've seen a wreck field looted and salvaged that fast before!
So far I'm fairly positive about this deployment. The content seems readily available and so far the structure grinding hasn't been dull as it has brought fights. I've also learned a lot and am much more comfortable operating in null sec. I'm also wondering how long I can hold on to this Scythe. Did I mention that it's the same Scythe from the start of this post? I've certainly got my moneys worth out of it. It's a good thing CCP are adding new paint jobs to ships because this Scythe definitely needs a new one. I feel like it has graduated beyond it's rust and duct tape roots.
*Update after reading about the fight elsewhere. The Archons were part of an AHAC and BS gang which we were fighting prior to the Caracals. The Caracals didn't stick around for long after the Tengu and Tornado fleets got involved. Next time I'll try and pay attention to write a proper AAR rather than going off my hazy memory.
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