Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - 2011/09/30

Last Tuesday I received a message from Letrange to contact him ASAP. At first I thought something bad had happened but this was far from the truth. The reason was this: during a trip down South, Letrange's dad met up with Montreal entertainment kingpin Donald K. Donald, and Mr DKD had given him a pair of tickets for the rock opera "Tommy", performed by none other than The Who's Roger Daltrey and his band. Tommy was but half of the show, which lasted over three hours without intermission or encore in true Who tradition. In the spirit of this most awesome show, here is The Who performing Baba O'Riley.

Fly like Keith Moon

o7

Wednesdays of Fail - 2011/09/28

Institutioned by Winterblink and Urban Mongral of the late Warp Drive Active podcast, carried on by Ga'len the Wandering Druid of Tranquility, it is now my duty to bring to you the one great source of laughter and/or tears of blood from the sheer pain applied to the optic nerves of anyone who gazes at them: The Fail Mail! To me they are one of the big reasons to keep playing even in these present dark times. You never know when you will come across a ship so badly fit that you could probably have killed it with a hard enough pod bump!

Ah yes, the Fail Mails are slowly starting to trickle in. I like this! This week's Fail Mail comes from ex corp and alliance mate Havegun Willtravel of Mobile Alcohol Processing Units. Some time in mid summer as I was taking my break from all things related to Internet Spaceships, Havegun was doing his solo thing in Decon, looking for something tasty to kill or to be killed by. It didn't take him very long and after while he landed on this:


[Cerberus, Zodin Zeldamiere's Cerberus]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System I

10MN Afterburner I
Small Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 25
Large Shield Extender I
Invulnerability Field I
Invulnerability Field I

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
[empty high slot]


http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=13817241


Hrmmm.... OKAY! Here we have another case of "it doesn't mean that because you can get in the ship that you absolutely have to fly it". Apparently the character was so young that Havegun, being the good sport that he is, actually told him in Local "Dude, I wouldn't do this if I were you". But Zodin was feeling invincible in his brand spankin' new HAC so he charged Gun's FULLY MAXED OUT Vexor head on. Apparently the battle was very short and after seeing the T1 fit Havegun's prophecy was fulfilled. To all new players out there, THIS is exactly what not to do with your training. Before you field a ship, make sure you can fit it correctly. I mean, if you have to fit a small cap booster to support 2 Invuls and an AB, something is very very wrong with your cap skills. Lesson learned I hope!

Havegun Willtravel, you sir are on the receiving end of some ISK. Because it is the only module that's actually worth something to this ship, you will be receiving 799,999 ISK, this being the value of one of the Ballistic Control System II.

Do you have a funny killmail you would like to share with the community? If so, please evemail the killboard or BattleClinic link to Cozmik R5 in-game, or send it via regular e-mail at r3dfiv3@hotmail.com

Just as WDA and Ga'len have done in the past, the sender of a killmail that has been posted on the blog will receive a small ISK prize, the value of a random module fitted on the ship; dream on if you think I'll pay for Faction, Complex or Officer mods!

Keep your eyes open for Fail, and rid New Eden of these atrocities!

o7

Dock 94 is alive!

Last friday during the Montreal EVE meet a few of us were discussing the possibility of joining Maulos' Quebecois only pirate corp, but the next morning somebody showed up in the EVE MTL channel that I wasn't expecting. After building a monster of a computer, my old corpmate and pupil si Gong logged back into EVE Online as we were sipping beer, trading stories, and eyeing Montreal babes. It has already been over a year since he was forced to get out (long story) and he's been busy with real life stuff so he took a lengthier break than he intended to. Now things have calmed down for him and he surprised the Hell out of me as I was having my breakfast in front of my computer screen.

Having just about 6 months of EVE experience and taking a year+ long break did have a negative effect though. Let's say he took a few hundred meter drop off the Learning Cliff and he has to get reacquainted with EVE's awesome and intuitive UI (!), so when I told him I wanted to go visit him anyway he was more than happy to have me over so I could fix the placement of his windows, set up his overview, look over his skill tree, and of course reinstall useful little apps like EVEmon and EFT (both of which he had forgotten then name of XD). Once that was done I had him get out of the NPC corp he was in and rejoin Dock 94 so he could again have access to better agents to make a bit more ISK faster.

So what did si Gong wake up to? Well first he had to customize his Jin Mei character because Incarna happened - by the way I had kept him informed about what was going on in EVE during his absence so he knew about the Jita Riots - and he walked around a bit in his closet... er, captain's quarters! He had a bit less ISK than he remembered but at least he had a good selection of ships: a Drake for missions (tank is good, needs work on missile skills), a few PvP frigs, some Thrashers with one fit for salvaging (he left before the Noctis arrived), and of course the Orca he had won in an EVE Radio contest. And we had done a good job of setting up his skills so to go with the Orca he got himself some decent industry/mining skills, but he didn't neglect his combat skills as he can now T2 fit Gallente AND Minmatar frigates (Rifter maybe?) and some time this week he will be Assault Ship capable, and when he's done with Evasive Maneuvering V Interceptors will be opened up. And all this without neglecting the all-important support skills. The only cruiser skills he has right now are mainly T1 for Gallente, Caldari and Minmatar ships, but he is very close to T2 missiles to complement the decent tank he built for the Drake. So soon he won't need my awesome fire power to deal with L4's quickly when quick ISK is needed. He will be advised not to rush for the T2 cruisers just yet, you can be sure of that!

So I may have been ready to join another corp and go full-on PewPew, but now I'll take some time to be a teacher again. I will probably have him join me on a few exploration ops as there can be much more ISK in that than just missions, plus he actually enjoys mining once in a while. But he also wants to learn The PvP so now that we're in the same corp we can shoot the crap out of each other; I expect many Rifters to die in these little experiments :)) So sorry Maulos, I will not be joining you guys in the near future. si Gong has also told me that a few of his buddies want to make the jump into New Eden so guess what, there may yet be more people to train. Oh, and no worries... podding is part of my curriculum >:)

Fly like a master; hire an apprentice

o7

PS: right-clicking the highlighted names of pilots will NOT bring up a menu XD

One night in Montreal

Yesterday we had a special Friday night EVE Meet to celebrate German capsuleer Carbon Freezer's vacation in our sweet city. Carbon was living in Montreal up until a year and a half ago and used to be a meet regular. After accepting a job he couldn't refuse he went back to the Fatherland and now lives in Trier.

So beer was consumed, stories were exchanged and even corp application were discussed, all on a perfect night on the Brutopia terrasse. It was a pretty awesome way to start the fall season :)) Here's a short pictorial of what will be remembered as the September 23rd Carbon Meet:

Clockwise from bottom left: Crazy Kinux's horns, Letrange stretching, Carbon Freezer hiding, K'na waving, Havegun Willtravel gunning, Felix Dcat peacing, Uozag doing nothing in particular, and Don Pellegrino barely showing up

From left to right: Felix Dcat, Cartboard Box, Maulos, unkown neighbor getting blobbled, Crazy Kinux's chest.

From left to right: Havegun Willtravel, Don Pellegrino, Uozag, Felix Dcat

The LaSalle borrough players: myself Cozmik R5 and K'na

Members of the old Blog Pack: Blogfather Crazy Kinux and Letrange

Beer haze means I don't remember your name, O Torontoan of Rooks and Kings and girlfriend! On the right is Letrange, and on the bottom Maulos' cranium.

And this is what a Montreal EVE Meet looks like. We do this every two weeks, usually on Saturdays at 7PM, always at Brutopia with their fine in-house brewed cereal juices of awesomeness. We always welcome new EVE players. If you would like to know more, contact us in the EVE MTL in-game channel or post in the thread I maintain in the Events and Gatherings section of the EVE-O forums. I raise my pint of Cask IPA to everyone who came, and here's to many other fine meets!

Fly social

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - 2011/09/23

On this social networking site with the "F" logo one of my old home town buddies as been posting tunes from the 80's, but new wave and pre-Hip-Hop just doesn't cut it. This does. Enjoy Iron Maiden as its engines were firing up the afterburners !!!

UP THE IRONS !!!!

o7

Wednesdays of Fail - 2011/09/21

Institutioned by Winterblink and Urban Mongral of the late Warp Drive Active podcast, carried on by Ga'len the Wandering Druid of Tranquility, it is now my duty to bring to you the one great source of laughter and/or tears of blood from the sheer pain applied to the optic nerves of anyone who gazes at them: The Fail Mail! To me they are one of the big reasons to keep playing even in these present dark times. You never know when you will come across a ship so badly fit that you could probably have killed it with a hard enough pod bump!

After two weeks of posting my own fail mails from my BOZO past, guess what... I have finally received a Fail Mail! This week's mail was sent in by SuicidalPancake of Quantum Horizons. A bonus is that this is a capital ship killmail, and I've made no secrets of how much I hate capitals. The more dead capitals the better. Oh if anyone has a good supercap killmail, fail or not, please send it in so I can make fun of it XD So without further adieu, let take a look at this slow fat-assed piece of Caldari engineering (sorry Kirith!):

[Chimera, WarheadRex's Chimera]

Co-Processor II

Power Diagnostic System II

Power Diagnostic System II

Damage Control II

Capital Shield Booster I

Shield Boost Amplifier II

Invulnerability Field II

Invulnerability Field II

Caldari Navy Photon Scattering Field

Caldari Navy Heat Dissipation Field

Caldari Navy Ballistic Deflection Field

Drone Control Unit I

Drone Control Unit I

Drone Control Unit I

Capital Shield Transporter I

Prototype Cloaking Device I

Large Capacitor Control Circuit I

Large Capacitor Control Circuit I

Large Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hammerhead II x10

Hammerhead II x20

Warrior II x9

Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot I x30

Templar x8

Firbolg x7

Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot I x30

Garde II x30

Ogre II x45

Praetor EV-900 x30

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=14198442

First of all, I'm not going to analyse the actual fit of this thing; if you want to ask someone about various Chimera fits and how one would fail, ask Kirith Kodachi :) The fail in this Chimera's death lies somewhere else. You see, this carrier was killed in a system called SG-75T. This system is a really bad place for a solo carrier to fly in for two reasons: 1- there are no stations, and 2- there are no POSes. So getting safe in the event of blobbage, not that great. Another reason for fail is the apparent cloaking device malfunction. I mean, why fit a cloaker if you don't use it, right? But not only did he apparently not cloak, this Chimera got killed by what? 19 frigates and 2 interdictors. WOW! So my Columbo report on what happened that night in SG-75T: Mr Rex was happily killing anomalies after being cyno'd in by an alt, and because doing PvE in a faction-fit carrier is super easy Mr Rex decided to go grab a beer and watch a bit of TV while his fighters were tearing the Angels a new one. And suddenly a bunch of Fremen came in, decided to posture up to tame Shai-Hulud. With Mr Rex clearly away enjoying his beer, they turned Shai-Hulud into a billion tiny little crysknives !!!

SuicidalPancake, you sir are on the receiving end of some ISK. Because it is the one module that could have made this kill a non-event, you will be receiving 1,259,510 ISK, this being the value of the Prototype Cloaking Device I.

Do you have a funny killmail you would like to share with the community? If so, please evemail the killboard or BattleClinic link to Cozmik R5 in-game, or send it via regular e-mail at r3dfiv3@hotmail.com

Just as WDA and Ga'len have done in the past, the sender of a killmail that has been posted on the blog will receive a small ISK prize, the value of a random module fitted on the ship; dream on if you think I'll pay for Faction, Complex or Officer mods!

Keep your eyes open for Fail, and rid New Eden of these atrocities!

o7

Rough schedule

I am starting to realize that I may have resubbed a tiny bit too fast. No, I'm not suffering from burn-out after only one month. The reason is simple: when you have two boys with an ex-girlfriend and one of them has started school and the other one is still at daycare, expect to be called in to help. While this does nothing to help with the already strained relations with the ex (let's say we've set each other "red"), my boys have to come first. And so it is that I have to get up at stupidly early hours and either ride or walk to my boys' place so the ex can leave early enough not to be late for work - in case you don't know, morning traffic in Montreal is an olympic sport; I'm actually happy I don't have a car anymore - and we each take a boy to his destination for 7AM. Remember when I said EVE and kids don't mix? Well apparently it wasn't just when the kids are present with me *sigh*

And as before I still have my other distractions in which I have just as much interest as I have in EVE, and in some cases much more. The end of summer and fall is upon us and this is my favorite time to be outdoors; the fresher air, the colors, the smells... I need to find a planet that has late-September weather year 'round! With every month that passes my bike is getting better equipped to go farther and farther, and with my fall vacation coming I'm praying for some good riding weather. Next on my bike related shopping list: cycling shorts, pants and boxers (with shammy cushion "where it counts"), handlebar bag, front and rear lights, travel panniers (I do have a trunk bag), fenders, new grips and bar ends. Over the winter I'll start looking into the more serious stuff like the BOB trailer and camping gear. My objective: in summer 2012 I want to take a month long vacation, probably late August to early September, maybe even all of September because it just rocks, and out of that month I want to take two weeks to ride wherever the roads and paths may lead me. I will have to plan out a vague itinerary that will eventually lead back to my house. This should be pretty awesome :)

When I took my EVE break in May it turned out to be not just an EVE break, but a complete gaming break, apart from a few games here and there, mostly when my boys were with me and on crappy rainy days. The break was just long enough that now I really feel like fragging/flying/racing and there are a few games that have either come out or are on the way that I'm interested in. Good examples are: WH40K Space Marines, Hellgate (Tokyo expansion soon!), Rage, Diablo III, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, rFactor2 and Microsoft Flight (aka FS11). But playing rFactor1 this past weekend, not to mention the whole Incarna/CQ debacle, made me notice something: my computer is now 3.5 years old and it's showing its age. At the very least I will need a newer nVidia video card. Yes, I am sold to nVidia ever since the Riva TNT came out. And when you read that a lot of people who have video card issues with games have ATI cards, and with most gaming companies working hand-in-hand (I was think of other body parts) with nVidia when developping their games, take a wild guess what video card is better for gaming! I should also get a memory and OS upgrade though, but I only have so much money to throw around. Real Life being greater than Pixels, I'll have to make some choices because in the midst of all the cycling, camping, and now computer gear I'd like to buy, I have put aside an electronic drum kit that I plan to get around Christmas, maybe a bit after. When the drum kit gets to my place I have the feeling that I'll be turning a big page on my gaming career.

So there you go, a slight update about why there are no sweet kills to post or funny/awesome in-game stories to tell. I will be posting the "Wednesday of Fail" later when I get home not only because of my work's firewall, but also because posting from this old and decrepit version of Internet Explorer is a complete bitch. Trust the Montreal municipal services to be 5 to 10 years behind on technology... jeez !!!

Fly with your heart, not with your head

o7

Edit: [rant] A little rant about something that's bugging the fuck out of me lately in EVE. Lately I keep seeing "FiS" everywhere. I want everyone to know that FiS stands for FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE SKI. It has NOTHING to do with space, ships, or both used together. [/rant]

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Avast maties !!!

T'day's the day where yon' carebear must walk the plank! I no care if Capt'n Boson is missin' on them there high seas, but the night a gankin' we shall have !!!

Bring on the wenches and let pour the rum, we be celebratin' Talk Like a Pirate the only way that matters: WITH BROADSIDES A'BLASTIN' !!!!!

YARRR!!!

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - 2011/09/16

This week's tune is a true classic, and a big one. Make sure you have 20 minutes ahead of you :)

In EVE, I've had a pretty quiet week because getting up at 5AM is kicking my ass. When you have two kids and you're separated/divorced, and one kid is in school while the other one is still at daycare, it's a complete bitch. Yep, can't wait for June and it has nothing to do with the end of summer... oh well, back to Pink Floyd so I can relax my senses.

Fly as much as you can, and enjoy every second of it.

o7

New Meme: Your First Ever Loss Mail

Oh damn, what a doozie !!!


[Thrasher, First loss ever]
Power Diagnostic System I
F-M3 Munition Inertial Suspensor

Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Small Shield Booster I
[empty med slot]

250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I, EMP S
Salvager I

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=3075642

The day after I joined Clown College, of course I had this EVE thing down, right?

*insert wrong answer buzzer here*

Just like any n00b out there, I was minding my own business ratting away try to score the highly coveted Alloyed Tritanium Bars which at the time were worth a nice 500k ISK a pop. And feeling full of myself and my climbing skills (a whopping 1.2m SP at the time) I wanted to rat better rats so I went down from 0.7 systems to 0.6, then 0.5, then 0.4 obviously. So I entered Amamake and in a pure n00b moment even ASKED if people minded if I ratted XD. People did leave me alone for a bit; I had come into Amamake with nothing but ammo in my hold so everything showing up meant I had a bit of ratting time. Until Garmon said in Local "Alright, that's it!" and gave me a nice lesson in HTFU 101. As anybody losing the first ship of course I was miffed, but I admit I wasn't exactly clear where Low-sec started. I found out that day :)

But now looking at Garmon's avatar pic I spot a much hated monocle. Mmmmm... maybe I should have a rematch. What say you Garmy? Mano a mano, Ruppy vs Ruppy for old times' sake? I slap thee with my dirty cycling glove and throw it at thine feet...

Fly hard

o7

PS: Hey Garmon, I may have been hating your guts at the time, and I'm sure you were laughing your head off. But seriously, this loss turned out to be an awesome lesson, and with better training at BOZO I came to realize that you had actually done a good thing. For this I must thank you immensely. I'm still waiting for you to pick up that glove though >:)

Wednesdays of Fail - 2011/09/14

Institutioned by Winterblink and Urban Mongral of the late Warp Drive Active podcast, carried on by Ga'len the Wandering Druid of Tranquility, it is now my duty to bring to you the one great source of laughter and/or tears of blood from the sheer pain applied to the optic nerves of anyone who gazes at them: The Fail Mail! To me they are one of the big reasons to keep playing even in these present dark times. You never know when you will come across a ship so badly fit that you could probably have killed it with a hard enough pod bump!

This segment of my blog being still very new, I still haven't received any fail mails from players past or present. So once again I will delve into my past, in this case March 26th 2008 when I had just graduated from Clown College and had been accepted as a full-on BOZO. We had just become Blue to a corp which had been Red to us for a while, namely Appetite 4 Destruction, and we had started doing roams together. And those roams were some of the best times I've had in EVE, especially when coming across something like this, the Cloaky-Nano-Stabbed-Armor-Repping-Zero-Propulsion Armageddon:

 
[Armageddon, Trail Steven's Armageddon]
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Large Armor Repairer II
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Cap Recharger I
Fleeting Warp Disruptor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Multifrequency L
Improved Cloaking Device II

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Hammerhead II x10

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=4343521

One would think that someone who can fit so many T2 modules would know better than to fail so much at fitting a battleship, But EVE is full of odd people doing odd things. Let's analyze this thing a bit. I get the cloaky part; this is obviously a ratting boat living on the border of Catch and Curse. Not exactly the safest place to rat mind you, but I've done worse. The nano, this is where things go South; it may help the battleship be a bit more nimble but only just, and at the price of structure. Now the warp core stabilizer... *sigh* this module examplifies the word "fail" in my book because it rarely does what it is intended to do, and of top of that it messes up targetting, kind of like if a sniper had a beer bottle in front of his scope. The Large Armor Repairer II isn't a bad modul in itself, but in a laser boat that seems to be lacking in capacitor regeneration, not so sure. And finally, who needs a propulsion module anyway? I noticed that the drones died with the ship but I don't remember if we caught this guy AFK or if we killed him so fast he forgot he had 'em. I'll forgive him his lack of rigs because back then there were no such thing as sized rigs and their price was immensely prohibitive. Remember Polycarbs and Trimarks at over 60 million? Man that time sucked for rigs!

Do you have a funny killmail you would like to share with the community? If so, please evemail the killboard or BattleClinic link to Cozmik R5 in-game, or send it via regular e-mail at r3dfiv3@hotmail.com

Just as WDA and Ga'len have done in the past, the sender of a killmail that has been posted on the blog will receive a small ISK prize, the value of a random module fitted on the ship; dream on if you think I'll pay for Faction, Complex or Officer mods!

Keep your eyes open for Fail, and rid New Eden of these atrocities!

o7

A slump already?

I have a confession to make. Ever since I've been back in the game I've done my fair share of solo PvP attempts and my luck has been worse than awful. From dead roams with close to zero traffic in dozens of jumps, to buggy/laggy gameplay playing with visuals and controls, to plain and stupid piloting fail, since my return my kill/death ratio appears stuck in an uncontrolable nose dive. Wanna know how bad? I have no shame so here goes: 1 Punisher killed against 2 Taranii, 2 Rifters, 1 Rupture and 1 Hurricane lost. Yeah... fail, fail, fail, and more fail. Would you like some fail on the side with your fail? Sure, why not!

Part of why I fail is I think I play too much as a gang tackler would. I also think I follow the "real men hull-tank" mentality in a sport where everybody tanks their ships. I don't want to say that most EVE players aren't real men, but it's easy to see that a lot of PvPers fly tanky ships in small gangs to have the slightest advantage. Completely understandable. Another reason for fail is that there is so little traffic these days that I tend to bite off more than I can chew; there are some immensely fail fits out there so course if there is the slightest chance that I can kill say a Hurricane with a Rifter I will take my chance and try it. This has not been ending well lately :)

Another way to end a roam real quick is to fight under your adversary's terms. I learned this from yesterday's experience: don't. I had spotted a Cyclone in Decon and he followed me next door (unpronouncable system, even for a french speaker like me), and as I was in my Hurricane I thought that this could be a good fight. But of course he had buddies flying around in as yet unknown ships. From a safe-ish spot in space I called out the Cyclone for a dual, but instead another player, the corp CEO I think, answered the call. A bit of banter in Local ensued because I obviously wasn't talking to him, but he insisted on giving the fight. I gave up on the banter and said OK, let's meet at Planet 1. Bad decision. We both landed on top of one another and I discovered he was in a Pilgrim. Ending up drained of all cap which shut down my Invul II, DC II, point and MWD. My guns and drones didn't need cap but the Pilgrim had a tough armor tank. I did overheat my guns but in a lag SNAFU only possible with this iteration of the EVE client the overheat button wasn't showing up as being turned on, and yet the red bar of the damaged mods was showing. Seeing this I decided to cut the overheat to preserve my guns for a longer fight, but lo and behold NOW the little button went bright green. I then turned it off, or so I thought. Next thing I knew my guns were all dead. Awesome. It's sad cuz it still took the Pilgrim a while to kill me. Oh and I forgot to mention: no matter how I tried I was stuck with Barrage in my guns. I wanted to switch first to RF EMP to go for the Cyclone, and attempted to switch to RF Plasma when I saw the Pilgrim, but to no avail. I was getting unbelievably stupid messages like "there is no room in your guns" or some shit. Hell I couldn't even simply unload the Barrage! Yes, at some point I was really questioning the reasons for my return.

But you know what? I'm not gonna let the damned stupid buggy-assed game get to me this time. I'll just keep on PvPing, maybe join a group soon. There is a project I have with a fellow Montrealer but if the project takes too long to take off I will simply join someone else who's ready to rock yesterday. I've had a few interesting offers so if my luck doesn't turn I will have to make it turn.

Fly safer than I do... shouldn't be too hard these days!

o7

Where were you when 9/11 happened?

September 11th 2001 started out as a glorious day. So glorious in fact that I had decided to be a bit lazy and take the morning off. This would allow me to get up later, have a nice breakfast, etc. But as the morning show was ending on the radio the announcer got all serious and said something about a plane crashing into one of the towers of the World Trade Center but the details were very vague as it had just happened. That got me out of bed in a hurry and I went straight to CNN. First expecting that some noob pilot had smashed his Cessna 172 into the building, it was clear that it was something more serious judging by the size of the hole in the building and the amount of smoke coming out. This day was about to get a lot more interesting but at this point I didn't know to what level. Time to make some coffee and keep watching the events unfolding.

As the CNN reporters were describing the scene the unbelievable happened live right in front of my eyes; in a fraction of a second a passenger plane, now known to be United Airlines Flight 175, appeared on the right edge of my TV screen and literally cut the second tower in half. I barely had time to digest what had just happened that I was startled by my ringing phone. It was my then soon-to-be girlfriend who was also a co-worker, frantically telling me "Ben! Do not come to work! All court activities have been stopped and we may even be evacuated!". OK, this shit all of a sudden got very serious. And needless to say, all sorts of Hell broke loose on all TV channels, radio channels, the Internet, etc. And that's when we learned that the planes had been hijacked by terrorists and turned into massive kamikaze bombs. It dawned on me that two planes hijacked in the world's biggest super-power and striking the biggest landmark in one of the world's biggest cities meant one thing: there could be more of those in the air. My fears were realized a few minutes later when the Pentagon, the biggest military seat on the entire planet, got hit. I immediately thought of only one thing: DEFCON 1. World War Three. I immediately went on the web to find out if something else was going on in other countries. I read the reports of buildings being evacuated all over the place, especially the big ones like the Sears Tower, the Petronas towers, even Place Ville-Marie here in Montreal. The two buildings then collapsed and the rest is history on the darkest scale.

It was quite eerie to see the skies completely devoid of aircraft, except for the screeching roar of an F-18 fighter jet once in a while. This may not have been the start of WW3 as I had feared, but it was clear that the world as I had previously known it a day earlier was no more.

Over the years I have met many Americans online through various games, and I know that pretty much all of them were affected in one way or another by those dark events. I've also met a few New Yorkers and even a few years after the events some were still very sensitive around the 9/11 subject. I fully understand this. So here we are, ten years after the world was brought to a grinding halt by a bunch of religious fanatics. But the New Yorkers have picked themselves up and now not only is a new World Trade Center being built, it will be even more grandiose than the previous one, with a special memorial to honor those who have lost their lives on that horrible day that had started out so beautifully.

If you have lost someone who was dear to you, or if you know of someone who knows someone who got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, my heart goes out to you and I salute your courage.

I very rarely say it but this is the day to say it: Fly Safe.

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - 2011/09/09

This video was suggested by Havegun Willtravel of Mobile Alcohol Processing Unit [MAPU]. And I approve every fucking bar of it :)

On the EVE front: I took a solo roam though Black Rise and Placid tonight, and I think that EVE and Low-sec in particular are hurting more than I thought possible. I've seen deep 0.0 space A LOT busier than this. Total shame really. And I couldn't get a fight even if I begged in Local. They must've been scared at the sight of Moi in my uber-skilled Stabber XD Oh well, I will catch something at some point somewhere, before CCP turns off TQ :))

Fly like EVE is dying... it just might revive it !!!

o7

Blog Banter #28: Here's my coffee CCP

Welcome to the Blog Banter #28. In the light of the recent events regarding EVE, CCP, the CSM and a bleeding player base, blogger Seismic Stan of Freebooted has opened the banter and asks this question:

"In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be assured?"

Ever since Tyrannis came out, it has become apparent that Crowd Control Productions Inc. has not been treating its flagship game the way a flagship should be treated. They've been treating it as a test bed for an eventual planetary based first-person shooter and its means of communication with EVE (Dust514 with Tyrannis, PI and all that jazz), and also for an eventual vampire MMO (World of Darkness with Incarna, space Barbies, etc.). All this is old news. And now a new name is being given to the part part of EVE Online that is its main purpose in life and it boggles the mind to see a company refusing to name the game that is its bread and butter by the name they gave it. The game is called EVE ONLINE the last time I checked, not FLYING IN SPACE. And because that part of EVE has been neglected for so long because of other pet projects, the player base is now losing patience and a lot of people are leaving for greener pastures. "The 40000 people logged smile at you" or something like that is a comment I have read on the forums lately. And it's a pretty shallow comment when you realise that a year ago that number was more around 50000. Attrition much?

At every FanFest CCP beats its own chest about the number of subscribers. Now tell, how many of you have more than one account? How many have more than five? Hell some people have more than TEN accounts; I seriously doubt that these people have anything remotely ressembling a social life but I digress. I sincerely hope that the number of subscribers is calculated based on mailing adresses and not game accounts because this would only proove that CCP is full of hot air. But people actually logging in and playing, these numbers do not lie. Less people playing despite a very high number means only one thing: interest is waning. And every time CCP does or says something (see what I did there Hilmar?) that upsets player interest, they shoot themselves in the foot. As I write this EVE may not be "dying", but it is hurting. A lot.

Back in June at the height of Incarnageddon, Monoclegate, the Jita Riots or whatever happened on Quebec's St-Jean-Baptiste day, CCP called in the Councill of Stellar Management for an emergency meeting to heal what was a wide-open wound. And now it seems that the paying customers of CCP are being kept in the dark on what was actually said there because of a pesky little thing called the Non Disclosure Agreement. So let me get this straight, we the player elect a council to deal with CCP about some problems, bring some solutions to said problems, and basically making sure the players are happier, therefore more willing to stay on as a customer, but CCP then tells the CSM that it can't inform the players what actually happened? Way to make people trust you CCP! So if the company only listens to what the player-elected council says and does whatever it wants after, then the CSM has failed and has become pointless. Sad to say but there it is.

So the only way to assure EVE's and ultimately CCP's survival is simple: DO NOT ONLY WATCH WHAT WE DO AND LISTEN TO WHAT WE SAY! The players have been repeating some things for years on end now, and the only response we got were things like "18 months", "soon™", "after it is implemented", "soon™ (redux)", etc. All the while releasing the "test bed" material, usually half-finished and broken, which is stuff the majority of the players didn't want or need anyway, and they break something that was working perfectly before. Well I as a player say this: how about adding content that the players actually ask for instead of just improvising stuff that will get ignored. And how about picking up the pieces of the myriad things the players keep telling you don't work as intended. We the players are a major part of the bread that CCP can put on its table. If CCP keeps biting the hand that feeds it, at some point the hand will be a lot more careful before it feeds again.

On a personnal note, I'd like to point out why I came back when I was already on leave even before Incarnageddon started. I've said it many times, there is only a very small percentage of the game that I'm interested in, but I'm interested enough to pay for it. If the part of EVE Online that I love dies, I want to go down with it. As long as there will be people to catch in belts, duals to honor and even ships to lose, I'll be playing. I hope that day is far off and I also hope that CCP smells a really strong batch of player-prepared coffee and adds even a tiny amount of content to the tiny part of EVE I have been into for the past 3.5 years, 4 years this winter.

Fly dangerous

o7

Wednesdays of Fail - 2011/09/07

Institutioned by Winterblink and Urban Mongral of the late Warp Drive Active podcast, carried on by Ga'len the Wandering Druid of Tranquility, it is now my duty to bring to you the one great source of laughter and/or tears of blood from the sheer pain applied to the optic nerves of anyone who gazes at them: The Fail Mail! To me they are one of the big reasons to keep playing even in these present dark times. You never know when you will come across a ship so badly fit that you could probably have killed it with a hard enough pod bump!

Because It hasn't even been a week since I've announced that I would be doing this and haven't yet received killmail links, as promised here is an example of pure Fail I once met in the Mya system where I was expecting to fight some Basgerin Pirates, but instead landed on top of this:

[Vexor, Arbai's Vexor]
Expanded Cargohold I
Expanded Cargohold I
Quantum Co-Processor I
[empty low slot]


1MN MicroWarpdrive I
ML-3 Amphilotite Mining Probe
[empty med slot]


Miner II
Miner II
Miner II
Miner II
[empty high slot]


Mining Drone I x5

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=12023996

OK, where to start with this one... we have one of the less bad Gallente PvP ships fitted up for mining. This alone tickles my neurons! At least there was an intention of serious mining as the T2 modules attest. Isn't the Exequror a better choice for mining for a young Gallente pilot? Someone industrially minded (ie: Letrange) would know, but this brings me to my next point: the complete lack of any kind of tank. I killed this thing with a Rifter and I will readily admit that some T1 frigates have given me more of a challenge going through their tank. So I suspect that on top of not having any tank modules fitted, the character didn't have much in the way of tank skills... was too important training those Miner II's maybe! My memory failed me with the number of drones but he DID throw a whopping three Warrior I's at me. They're not on the killmail though because they were out in space in a vain attempt to hurt my Rifter. And then there's the MicroWarpdrive... oh damn how did I forget the ONE MEGA-NEWTON module ?!?! The fact that there were so few drones in a ship that gives awesome bonuses to them means only one thing: the pilot wasn't ready for a Vexor. But the last bit, the clincher of The Fail: what in the name of Ronnie James Dio was this ship hoping to achieve in Belt One of a three belt Low-sec system ?!?! I guess he was lucky it was I who turned this vague semblance of a cruiser into space dust; the Basgerins would probably have either ransomed or podded its pilot on top of it!

Do you have a funny killmail you would like to share with the community? If so, please evemail the killboard or BattleClinic link to Cozmik R5 in-game, or send it via regular e-mail at r3dfiv3@hotmail.com

Just as WDA and Ga'len have done in the past, the sender of a killmail that has been posted on the blog will receive a small ISK prize, the value of a random module fitted on the ship; dream on if you think I'll pay for Faction, Complex or Officer mods!

Keep your eyes open for Fail, and rid New Eden of these atrocities!

o7

Edit: now that I'm out of the Reich, here's the actual fit and the link to BattleClinic, because the old AMC killboard has since died.

Change of universe

As much as I'm starting to have more fun in EVE since my return, on this Labor Day weekend I couldn't get much done because of an extended parental duty weekend. I've mentioned my theory on EVE and kids often enough so no need to repeat myself. But at 4.5 and 5.5 years old I can already see the makings of a pair of future gamers. That part of my genetic legacy is impossible to deny! Now the interesting part is to make sure they don't abuse the interest too much, and most importantly nip any negative behavior that may happen in the bud, which ain't always easy. Two guys, one computer... yeah, fun!

So what do kindergarten sons of a hardcore gamer play? You'd be surprised! The obvious one for boys their age is the games on the Hot Wheels website. But of course after seeing dad in action it didn't take long for them to want to try true games. I did show them EVE PvP but face it, EVE is slooooooow! But First Person Shooters? Different story! Of course I'm not talking about FPS games too violent or realistic; they do have a good grasp of what is fantasy and what is reality, so no CoDs, MW2, GTA and etc. I'm not into those anyway. But they love Quake, especially with esports fugly graphics! They haven't started deathmatching yet but they do understand how to move around and switch weapons. But this weekend another game grabbed their interest: Mechwarrior4:Mercenaries!

The fun part about Mech4 for them isn't only the walking around in gigantic "robots" (they aren't calling them mechs yet), it's looking at the mechlab screen! Seriously, they spend more time fitting the mechs than they do on the field, where they usually go all alone or against a single weaponless assault mech I made for them to practice on. Something just grabs them as they try to balance their fits; what weapon type goes where, what can be fitted with 2 tons left, how to free up some tonnage for jump jets, that sort of thing. Some of their fits are pure fail, but others are quite good. To determine this they have me enter a multiplayer game against bots and if I start decimating the competition the fit gets the seal of approval. And the favorites: for Leandre it's the Supernova because he has a thing for high-powered energy weapons (Amarr pilot in the making), and Timothee prefers the Marauder II for its massive railgun... I hope hybrids get fixed before he gets in EVE!

So yeah, having youngsters playing grown-up games is doable, but the most important thing is to make sure that they understand that games are games. And of course I'm writing about this because this has been a truly dismal weekend weather-wise, either too hot and humid or pissing rain; video games are NOT my activity of choice for my tornadoes. OK, is it my turn yet? I WANNA PLAY !!!

Fight hard and get crits!

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - 2011/09/02

How better to start the first weekend in the blog pack with something truly epic. Here's Ronnie James Dio at his very best.

On the EVE front: things are coming together for the Montreal crew. There is even talk of a corporation being born. Of course we may have to play some really sweet Stradivarius (or some really loud Gibson Explorer) to coax some guys into resubbing and being part of our weasel-like cunning plan, and maybe add a few beer bribes! In any case, our plan sounds fun so here's to hoping it comes to fruitition.

Another thing I've been thinking about... ever since Ga'len, the Wandering Druid of Tranquility, has put tarps on his fine Amarr ships, we have basically been without the educational service called Fail Mail Friday. Well, my Fridays are sort of taken (for example by Black Sabbath here) but there are plenty of days left in the week. Therefore, I would dearly like to reinstate the posting and commenting on that thing which makes eyes bleed in sheer pain, The Fail Mail! The principle will be quite simple because it will be the same as it has been ever since the Fail Mails came to fame in the days of the Warp Drive Active podcast, and then on Ga'len's blog. If you have a funny/stupid/mental/painful killmail you would like to share, please send me the killboard link via evemail to Cozmik R5 (yes it's a FIVE, not an "S"), or by normal e-mail at r3dfiv3@hotmail.com . I will of course be paying out ISK to whoever gets his killmail posted on the blog. It will be the market value of a random mod fitted on the ship, but do not expect to be paid billions for Officer mods! So, sounds like a plan? I'll make Wednesdays my Fail Mail day because to me, Wednesdays are always full of fail. So maybe I can break the curse this way :)) I'll find one of my own doozies to start the festivities.

Fly dangerous, but not in Rocket Drakes or Omni-Repping Hurricanes !!!

o7

I made the pack !!!

As of yesterday, Beyond Space is now part of the new revamped EVE Blog Pack. Yay moi !!! Of course this will mean a few things that will affect the way I post, although ever so slightly; the powers-that-be at the Blog Pack (ie: Rixx Javixx) know that I'm an unrepentant non-conformist, and I take a lot of pride in doing things my way. But yes, I will conform to a few rules, like linking the individual blogs of the pack (I do have a link to EVEoganda's Blog Pack page), participating in the blog banters, posting regularly, etc. I will also try to ease up on the occasional swearing, but EVE being EVE and CCP being CCP there are sometimes situations where a string of swear words is the only logical response. Besides, I'm not forcing anyone to agree with what I think.

That said, I've received news yesterday that one of my real-life buddies will most probably resubscribe in the near future, and with the same goals I have: blow stuff up. Not for money or ransom, not for grief or revenge, just for the sake of seeing pretty lights! This should make for an interesting autumn :)

Fly dangerous

o7