And more rust comes off!

As I wrote in my last post, I'm starting to get back to the habit of flying around in 0.0 space in a semi-safe sort of way. As I'm mostly flying solo for now I'm sticking to small/fast ships because while I'm not as poor as I used to be, a T2-fit battlecruiser is still a nice chunk of ISK, and I don't have any spare HACs to burn yet. So my ships of choice for this little scouting endeavour: Rifter (T2/named solo fit) and Taranis (forced oral sex fit). Now that I have the entrance constellation nicely bookmarked I'll probably use my special "Yay for small rigs" Jaguar a bit more, and to go deeper I'll use the speed-fit Claw and make bookmarks till my Great Wildlands folder bursts at the seams.

Unlike last weekend I didn't bother to bring some warp bubbles with me; I need time to practice anchoring them at the right spots, time that I didn't get anyway, and I'll do this on Sisi where I can spam 0.0 space with bubbles with little to no risk. This time I concentrated on making as many bookmarks as possible. The entire entrance constellation is now fully bookmarked with multiple safespots per system, and both on and off grid tacticals on each gate. The only thing missing is some deep safes, but for now I've got plenty of escape vectors and I can make more bookmarks on the fly easily.

Great Wildlands is special as far as 0.0 regions go. It's not heavily populated the way Curse or Syndicate are because there aren't tons of stations in every system. There's only three systems with stations and in the rest of the space sovereignty cannot be claimed. But it does a have a few things going for it: it's the springboard region towards sovereignty space and also has a connection to Curse, so there's always a bit of traffic, but at the same time there are a lot of dead-end constellations that see little traffic so it would be easy to feel safe there. Add to that the fact that the entrance is only 8 jumps away from one of EVE's major market systems, and you suddenly have some target-rich space. So of course after doing a whole bunch of bookmarks and seeing what kind of traffic was out and about, I decided to fly more aggressively and maybe get a kill or two... or four!

This happened in two acts: the afternoon roam with the Rifter and the evening roam with the 'Ranis. To start the first act, I parked my Rifter at a tactical on the EO2 gate in 8YC, and watched what traffic may come out of the station system going up towards Empire. When a lone Rifter jumped through I warped to the gate but the pilot was just fast enough to evade my attack. Of course I smacked in Local a bit in order to maybe get him to fight. I was surprised by his response though: "I have much respect for Clown Punchers, and I'm even thinking of applying"... Ohkay! I've been out of BOZO for a few months now but somehow I still have a red stain on my nose :) Sure, all he had to do was "show info" but I still found it funny to be told that as I'm smacking him! But as this is happening a second Rifter jumps through, and clearly seeing me at my on-grid tactical he just stood there. I waited a bit to see if he wasn't the lead for a bigger gang, but after about a minute I decided he wasn't so I warped to the gate and started dancing. Apparently my solo fit was better than his maneuvering fit because I tore him up despite having smaller guns. The pod warped out so we saluted each other and I went to the wreck to loot it. Funnily enough his stuff is still halfway towards my cargo hold when the gate flashes. I brace myself for what may uncloak but I'm relieved to see a Punisher exactly in scram range, and he goes down like a ton of bricks. W00T! Two kills under two minutes, a first in solo flight for me :))

Act Two got under way after I put my boys in bed; I still had 12 hours to go before the possibility to get back in my learning implants so might as well keep doing fun stuff! Wanting a bit more speed and more damage I undocked the Taranis and headed out. Being in something faster allowed me to complete my bookmarking much faster and better, And I even paid a visit to the station systems of EO2 and M-M. There was more traffic about than during the afternoon so I had to fly carefully if I didn't want to get blobbed, but after a while I discovered that I wasn't dealing with a 12-man fleet, but with 3 small gangs. But at some point Luck shined on me, when two unrelated T1 frigs got to the M-M gate in EO2 just as I finished getting my tactical bookmark. I warp in and jump through, and just as I get on gate ready to tackle the first frigate, another Rifter, the gate activates and the fun starts. I hurt him so bad that I don't even have to pull out my drones! And what followed is still striking me with disbelief. After the Rifter died I'm able to tackle and kill the pod in front of the Merlin who was a bit late in helping his buddy. I then tackle him, kill him even faster than the Rifter, and again I'm able to send him on a one-way trip to his home station! YAY! Two kills plus pods under 2 minutes, even better than in the afternoon! Tip for PvP beginners: a pod will warp off as soon as you click "warp". When you know you're about to get wtfpwnd all you have to do is select a celestial (avoid moons as they can have POSes) and spam the warp button. Theoretically I shouldn't have been able to pod these two guys but then again I think their experience in pod safety was a tad lacking.

After docking back in Dock 94 HQ I really felt like a big chunk of rust had come off. It was all the more satisfying as my play time in EVE had started painfully. In case you didn't know, the Epic mission arcs are epic. So epic in fact that I came really close to loosing my Maelstrom (9.6mil ISK repair bill) and lost a Jaguar when I tried the blitz approach. Do these guys have Sleeper AI? It sure seemed like it, and maybe worse. But even before I went out to Great Wildlands I did something that was extremely satisfying, and even made my young boys laugh: I suicide-ganked a scammer in Rens! My time in EVE started getting better all of a sudden :)))

Fly dangerous but plz warp your pod out

o7

Shaking the rust off

Come to Brutopia !!!

Last Friday was kind of a special moment for me in EVE, even if it's very common nature to most players. It was the first time I left my fully-implanted clone behind to jump into an un-implanted one, as I was getting ready to fly dangerous/stupid as I usually do over weekends, and it didn't take long for me to do the "fly stupid" part. Feeling enbolded by my lack of semi-expensive implants and by a hangar full of PvP ships, I proceeded to fly around the Minmatar/Amarr border, looking for likely targets for my Taranis. I wasn't very lucky with easy targets though as the only ships I had on scan were pretty much all tied to a POS, and the only traffic I crossed seemed to be the faction militias; there were many open combat sites now visible on the overview but the ships on scan like Vagabonds, Hurricanes, some recons, and more than a few tacklers, would probably chew me up in no time. So I left the combat sites alone and kept looking for a softer target. I didn't find a single mining ship, and the only ratting ship I saw was a Drake, but I got cocky after seeing the pilot's age and went for it. Bad idea. The fight lasted longer than I expected but inevitably his more numerous Warrior I's overcame my puny hull tank. *Sigh*... kids, don't tackle a Drake in a 'Ranis, m'kay?

As I got my pod to head for Dock 94 HQ and a new ship I was trying to decide where to set sail. Should I go to low-sec Derelik and risk getting turned perma-red to CVA? Should I go to the Gallente low-sec? Should I go to Curse and see how T and Q would welcome my trespassing? But as I'm thinking about this I'm listening to EVE Radio (I think I'll start asking for ISK for the publicity...nah!) and it's right on the transition between DJ Blacklight (see previous post about the Goons) and DJ Amergin, who is announcing he's to take a fleet out to the EVE Gate to spam secure containers all over the New Eden system, in a 25-man publicity stunt. I got nothing much to do, I want to head to low-sec or lower anyway, there will be most probably a trap... wtf am I waiting for! I'm the first one to X up for fleet and get shoved into the Wing Commander slot. Well, at least he picked someone who's been in a few fleets before :) Instead of a Taranis, this time I intend to fly cheap, and I needed room for a couple small containers anyway so I hopped into one of my Jihad Thoraxes, and then proceed towards the fleet's rendez-vous point in the Genesis region, 24 jumps away. The fleet's composition is quite eclectic, being formed mostly of T1 frigates of all races, a few cruisers, some people being fleet op veterans, and some on their first fleet. Oh, and one Drake. As soon as I noticed the Drake in fleet I smelled something fishy. Things got even fisher when only a few minutes before departure the Drake pilot, Heiar Helmet, decided to switch to an Apocalypse... yes, some of you can see where this is going, right? Let me tell it for those that don't.

The fleet got underway towards Humanity's entry point into the cluster and about 3 jumps later our stealth-bomber scout calls a big BC/BS gang camping the way in. Heiar, who happens to live in the area, goes to one of his safespots and calls everyone to warp to him. And as I come out of warp, space turns into Studio 54 and I swear I can hear the Bee Gees in the background! His smartbombing antics are mostly a success, but a destroyer, 2 shuttles, the stealth-bomber and my Thorax all survive and are able to get through the camp, which either failed horribly at catching us or just disbanded after their buddy had blown his cover. And finally, a few jumps later, what is left of the EVE Radio fleet gets into the most popular dead-end system in the entire cluster, and we still have 4 containers to anchor. The stealth-bomber pilot, asdlkf, anchors both of his with the intended EVE Radio advertisement, while I decided to put a different spin on it. The first container is a monument to those who got their asses smartied, and the second is an advertisement... for the EVE Montreal Pilot Meets at Brutopia! The return trip was pretty much uneventful, except for a convo with Omgah of the Jerk Cartel, who told me the new BOZOKast was out :)

Saturday morning I was still in my PvP clone, as I'll call it now, and because there is rumour of a move to 0.0 in the semi-near future I decided to get a bit of my 0.0 rust off and head towards Great Wildlands, which is surprisingly close to Rens. Once again I take out Sheik Yerbouti into dangerous space, this time carrying a small T1 bubble; I knew the odds would be totally against me if more than 2 ships came across my "camp", but this little practice op was more about getting back to flying semi safely and making bookmarks, and of course anchoring the bubble so it catches something. Well, I think I need to hop on Sisi and practice a lot more because my bubble couldn't catch a cold in the dead of winter! Plus, the great demon Murphy was interested in me; as I was anchoring the fail-bubble a Probe warped to the gate on autopilot, alnding 15km from the gate but over 60km from me, and I'm in a slow ship. I was able to tackle it and give it exactly one round, but he was too close to the gate and jumped to safety, while I was stuck with gate aggro. By the time I jumped in he was long gone and I lost him. I come back to my bubble, which has now anchored so i can now give it a test, which fails completely by my landing on the gate at 0 meters. Great. As I start unanchoring the thing a Bellicose jumps in and heads to the only other gate. More fail on my part: I'm just on the edge of my own bubble when I try to follow, and I got a message in the middle of my screen that translates to "HAHA YOU SUCK!". The second try is successful and I get to the gate just has the Bellicose jumps. I jump after it and pursue it to the next gate and finally, fun starts. That bitch Murphy is still around tho, as my ECM drones don't get a jam in, and the Belli is T2 fit with tons of drones and a neut. *Moar sigh*. Well, at least I didn't get podded and I'm still very close to home!

So all in all, that was an interesting weekend, but yes, it appears I've gotten a bit soft around the edges. Time to harden the fuck up!

Fly dangerous and flip the bird to Murphy ,,i,,

o7

My only post on the Goonswarm thing

Earlier on EVE Radio...

[ 2010.01.29 23:46:36 ] Battleship Bob > so how do you pay bills in eve again?

[ 2010.01.29 23:46:59 ] Cozmik R5 > thru the corp wallet

[ 2010.01.29 23:47:33 ] Cozmik R5 > when you're not Goonswarm you can set it to pay automatically

[ 2010.01.29 23:47:44 ] DJ BlackLight > L O L ! ! ! ! 11111eleven

:))

Fly better than Goons

o7

Two years in EVE

Yesterday, on January 20th 2010, Cozmik celebrated his two years since his graduation from the Republic Military School. Yep, 2 years already. Damn time flies! It seems only like yesterday that I was playing on a Classic Graphics client, that I had to find a stargate around my screen in order to manually align to it, that interceptors were going 7000+ meters per second without a single implant or faction module, and that Nano-anything ships were "I win" buttons that were extremely difficult to catch unless you had 10 webs on the guy. Oh, and warp scramblers didn't do dick all to MWDs and assault ships in general were barely flown because it was awkward to fit them successfully. And the price of rigs and salvage... one of the things that allowed me to start the PvP lifestyle at such a young age was the ISK made from ratting and salvaging Angels and Sanshas; Alloyed Tritanium Bars were priced around 450000 ISK apiece, and Melted Capacitors around 300000. Rigging my own ships was unthinkable though. One time I did rig my ratting Thrasher with "affordable" shield and projectile rigs (4-5 million each) and of course, me being me, I got cocky enough to go ratting in Low-sec and the inevitable happened. I felt stupid for taking such a chance but in the end there were worse things and I moved on.

At the time I had my sights set on flying a Vagabond but I had no clue as to how I would pay the exhorbitive price for the ship and all its modules and rigs. Today, a scant few million ISK buys you multiple Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing rigs. Around the time of Empyrean Age, there were no different sizes and 60 million ISK was the price of a single Polycarb rig. When Quantum Rise arrived their prices dropped a bit, but they were still more expensive than the average interceptor. That was when assault ships came of age though, and the sized rigs in mid-Apocrypha turned them from good to great.

So here I am, 2 years after diving into EVE for the long haul, and here I am again asking myself the ever present question: what now?

I've done the full-time PvP thing and I found it great fun when done loosely, but too seriously and I lose interest; I'm not a military type guy and if someone barks at me I'm gonna bark right back, 10 times louder, which would make the whole thing suck for everyone.

I've done the wormhole thing which is very up and down in terms of action; combat sites in W-space are more interesting than anything the NPCs can deliver in K-space, intruders have to be hunted down down be they scanning frigs all the way up to a full-on POS bash, but on the flip side when all the combat sites are done and there's only mining to do... that's when EVE gets turned off and I either go fly fast in FS9, beat the shit out of my drums, etc.

I've done the exploration thing once in a while, but I admit I've not been very lucky with the things I scan down, and the amount of travel involved can sometimes play tricks on my short patience fuse. But still I do get lucky once in a blue moon and find something worthwhile.

It would also be worth looking at the things I absolutely refuse to do in EVE before I decide where to aim my ship:

I refuse to mine. Last time I did was because a mission required it to initiate the spawn and I felt dirty doing it.

I refuse to do the industrial production thing. When a game becomes a job people burn out. And I've seen it happen too many times lately. Yes, industry needs to happen in order for me to buy stuff to blow up and get blown up. And yes I have built stuff from time to time, especially in my starting months when I had access to tons of minerals from just casual ratting and I could built Rifters to get blown up in without consequence. But building stuff while following a spreadsheet, and dealing with production costs, profit margins, and so on... Yow! I have enough problems with real-life finances as it is that I don't need a whole new set of finances to melt my brain.

I refuse to play a game with an alarm clock. This is the full-on PvP experience brought to the extreme, and in my book it's over the limit of sanity. I play EVE because I want to, not because I have to.

And finally I refuse blobfests. When I read about people bitching about lag, and how Dominion broke fleet fights, I just shake my head and wonder why the fuck people keep doing it. "Because it's epic" they'd say. Yeah, epic but people bitch about it and not just since Dominion. People have been bitching about lag in fleet fights since the first day I've been in the game (probably more since Day One) and yet people still cram as many people in some far-away system in Querious as they do in Jita, only the bunch in Querious as got drones out, fighters out, missiles and ammo flying, remote-reps going, cap-transfering and more, all in one single spot in space. At least the 1000+ in Jita are docked up and only busy with price mark-ups and scams; I'd love to see what would happen if everyone undocked from Jita 4-4 at the same instant. To read people saying "WAAAAA LAAAG!" is really ironic because the ones bitching about lag are the ones creating it. Good job! This is what blobfests are to me and I will not participate.

So where does this leave me in EVE? Am I about to give away my stuff? Nah, not yet anyway! EVE is really harsh when things go wrong or start sucking a chunk out of real life, but when the stars are aligned and things go right there's simply just no game like it. And no matter how others will try to be like it they will continue to fail for a long time to come I think. And hey, I still need to train a lot stuff, and I better train because I didn't just get a full set of +4 implants for nothing! Yes, it took just short of forever but I finally understood the mechanics of jump clones. Don't ask, I'm just extremely dense :) So I still want to do some solo or smallish-gang PvP, but I also need the flexibility to do my own thing when I want; it doesn't mean that because I'm online I'm automatically available for PvP or a big complex or something. Anyway, we'll see what the future brings. Being in my own little 2-man corp is fun but I'm starting to miss some action once in a while. I've already asked my corpmate how he felt about moving to 0.0 because it's looking very much like this will happen sooner or later, but I don't want to do the move at any price. I've been in here for 2 years and I hope I stay in here for a lot longer.

Fly with your heart

o7