Wake up!

Three Camps, played by yours truly at Brutopia's Sunday Night Open Mic. This is an American Civil War era reveille, but somehow I don't think that 1800's military drummers had high-powered free-floating kevlar-headed marching snare drums in mind when they wrote it :)

Enjoy!

o7

The Downward Spiral

You jumped through the wrong gate!

What do you do when you have limited play time and still want to kill stuff? Well, you camp a well-travelled gate of course! Having escaped or died from a ton of these in my time, I do enjoy turning the tables and preying on the hapless unscouted capsuleer once in a while, even though I much prefer fast roaming gangs and actual fleet engagements. While on one side gate camping maybe the crudest form of EVE PvP, it is also the least stressful and it's a good opportunity to get to know the new people you fly with and also have a good laugh, all the while staying on high alert with our ears constantly straining to hear news from the scout on the other side who could be calling in something juicy at any moment.

We also do keep our ears to the ground for anything that may appear in the neighboring systems, like a Bhaalgorn who looked like he wanted to play Station Games™ will an alliance mate; he would have died quite nicely too if only said alliance mate hadn't aggressed him first, allowing the Blood Raider boat to dock up after getting melted to half armor. Mate swore he was aggressed first and even took a screenshot of the combat logs, ready to petition. A quick look, a massive facepalm and a strong advice NOT to send this to CCP later, we did have a good laugh about it.

So as you notice my security status is plunging like a meteor. I did say I was resubbing for The PvP only and in this regard I do believe I am succeeding. And it's not one single gate camp that will change this. There is talk about a possible redeployment where I could possibly grind up a bit of favor with CONCORD, but I will not slow down my blood thirst. The PvP is too much fun!

Flying safe is out of the question!

o7

Settling back in

Sorry about that tower, but it was in the way!

Well, It's been two weeks since I resubscribed my EVE account and I must say, not only did I miss the game more than I expected but I haven't had so much fun in EVE in a long long time, possibly since the early BOZO days! I knew coming in that if I was resubbing it would be for The PvP only and that my security status was probably going to take a crazy dive so I didn't waste time. One of the first things I did was to roam around the familiar Everyshore Low-sec areas within three jumps of my previous corp's HQ, and sure enough I found a 9-day old character ratting away in a Maller. I wished him a bombastic "Welcome to EVE" the only way I know of course, but also taking time to give him a bit of advice; I didn't have time to give him fitting advice though XD

I rejoined the EVE community shortly after my real-life buddy Cartboard Box started being more active and rejoined his old corporation from his Atlas Alliance days, and soon after CB sent me an enthusiastic message saying "DUDE! You gotta resub!". I wanted to wait until the football/drumline season was over but the coming changes in Odyssey 1.1, CB's enthusiasm and another Montreal EVE pilot giving me a PLEX caused me to reconsider and go right ahead with the resubbing.

As Cartboard promised, he opened me the door to Arcana Imperii Ltd with the promise of good times The PvP without pressure and where everyone knows what they're doing and what's expected of them. I then spent a couple days moving assets to the area of operation and my first op was a multiple but quick POS bash to solidify our alliance's foothold in our region. It was also a good opportunity for nice screenshots as you can see above :)

We also did some gang ops and roams resulting in a few good battles such as a Brave Newbies party crashing; I was the one to suggest using fast and cheap attack cruisers and with CB doing the scouting and target calling, the destroyer gang dropped down easily. I had my first ever use of jump bridges and covert jump bridges for some good ol' "Hot Drop O'Clock" action. It's always impressive to see a Titan filling your screen, and it's a much better feeling when said Titan is on your side!

Another good op was yesterday's roam towards Old Man Star, and we found a gang that was itching for a fight just before we got there. And it was a hotly disputed fight at that! Technically, the other side had the fire power advantage, while we had solid fits and logistics support. But better fleet discipline - after one crazy experience with a frigate gang that could have gone way wrong - and good target calling (part of it by yours truly when a lull happened on comms) prevailed and we can safely say we won the ISK battle.

As one can imagine, all this has given me back my enthusiam for EVE which I had lost about a year ago. I even went so far as to awaken my long dormant second account! I'm not sure exactly what direction my alt's training will take but she's already taken the first steps towards a good PvP role so she will not turn into an industrialist or anything! Meanwhile the low SP crew is also busy, with trade alts in Amarr and Dodixie, a cyno/hauler at Chez Stan HQ, and even my old trusty scout which for now is parked at the favorite home I've ever had in all of New Eden, 5E-VR8 in the Paradise constellation of Curse. This character's main purpose in life is to die repeatedly in the Doril pipe :)

Well there you go, I'm back and actually loving it! My next post will cover some more The PvP action, some of the ships I love to fly and my downward spiral towards the dreaded -10 security status. I give it about a week or two. Oh, and come see the EVE Gate in New Eden. It is truly beautiful ^_^

Fly dangerous because it is the only way to fly

o7

Posting from inside!

Ma Vaga!

OK, I cheated a bit using Photobucket to upload the pic but yes, I am indeed updating my blog from inside EVE Online! The TRUE return will happen soon.... >:)

Fly dangerous!

o7

Hero worship

Today, one of my all-time heroes totally made my day. His main hobby is to push the outside of envelopes. He flies wonderful machines usually named after his glamorous wife Glennis. Yeah. THAT hero! The good general is not only very alive but pretty active on Facebook and when I noticed he was answering people's questions I had to throw him one. And the badassitude came straight out:

Q: General, what is the enemy plane you feared the most? A: None.

This is why I worship him. Thank you General Yeager for taking a few seconds of your time to answer a question from a nerdy guy out of Longueuil Quebec!

Fly like The General. That is all.

o7

A new drug...

As I wait for the perfect opportunity to resub to EVE (yeah I could do so pretty much now and skill-flip but the temptation would be too great and I'd play too much for my own good), another new drug has started having its effects on me, waking up my competitive side as well as my ever present need for speed. In the very near future, expect my blog to have a lot of this:

Welcome to Trackmania Nations Forever!

^_^