New Year's resolution time!

So I've been logging in to Eve here and there for the past few months. Mostly just changing skills around and playing the market again, which has done well to occupy me in short burts. The more I play however, the more I start missing the harvest of tears. During my last stint playing the game, I had a lot of fun scamming people, and I managed to make several billion isk off of the activity with almost no effort involved. While this was a great source of income for me, and enabled me to buy all kinds of shiny new toys, it lacked the adrenaline and visceral satisfaction of entrapping some overconfident fool and making his ship go boom that I got from the ninja game.

That being said, I made a new years resolution this year: At least once every few weeks I will fit out a ship and undock. I will not re-dock until that ship has been destroyed or I have killed at least five nerds (preferably both).

This is a pretty good goal, and luckily this is a great time to start trying to PvP again. With the new criminal flagging system in place and the recent (and massive) buffs to T1 cruisers, getting idiots to engage in ridiculously unfair fights in high sec should be easier and cheaper than ever.

To start the week off I am going to try and fly my very first Vexor. I have never been a huge fan of Gallente ships, but with the recent buffs to T1 cruisers, the Vexor is now an incredibly beastly and versatile ship. It's new ground, but I have always been about stepping out of my comfort zone and taking the plunge so here's to hoping I have as much fun with the Vexor as my tinkering with EFT suggests I might.

Stay tuned and I'll let you know how it goes :)

Movin on up!

Well friends, it's been a while. This is not to say I've been idle in my absence from this blog.  

It's been a long road for me down the path of darkness, and I feel that I have learned a lot and come a very long way during my time in New Eden. I can clearly remember being very pleased with myself the first time I ransomed someone's Dominix for 50 million isk. I also remember being downright smug the first time I got 150mil in ransom and then killed the guy anyway and had one of his faction mods drop. I can also remember the pride I felt the time I killed someone's ratting Raven solo in an Jaguar, while he begged that I spare it. This was all a ton of fun and phenomenally profitable, or so I thought at the time. 

However, I can now say with absolute certainty that I was doing it wrong the whole time.

I stole this yesterday:

Frankly, it was easy. TOO easy, in fact to really get into the details and have it be remotely entertaining, but all I can say is that I am not proudly serving as a (very fake) recruitment agent for my new corporation. With my newfound position of (fake) authority, a whole new world has opened to me, and this has inspired me to work towards a new goal.

I'll post more about this goal soon, but until then, damn it feels good to be back in the ninja game... even if the game has changed. :)

Hubris, shame, and lessons learned.

So, I lost a paladin yesterday, and I learned a few things.

It went down something like this. I had docked my ratting paladin in a station a few jumps from my normal ratting system, and logged in yesterday intent on moving it back to the corp POS in the system where I normally store it. There were reports of reds in the area, so I held off for a while, waiting for things to die down. I logged my main in and chased the reds for a bit in an alliance fleet until they, seemingly, left the area. So I scouted my alt in the paladin to one system outside my destination. There was a bit of confusing intel about the location of the reds, and just as I entered the system, they returned. My heart jumped a bit as I was afraid I may be caught, but I quickly parked my ratting ship in a nearby alliance pos (first mistake), and tabbed out to my main account to rejoin the home defense fleet. I briefly tabbed back to my alt as it was exiting warp to the POS to set it to orbit the POS, or so I thought. At this point I tabbed back to the main account without much thought given to my second account.

We chased the reds around for a while until it was reported that they were at, and in, one of our posses trying to bump something out. This was, of course, my second mistake as it didn't click to me that they may be trying to bump my ship out. I merrily followed the fleet into the fight at this pos, but not before watching my alt and her beautiful paladin blossom into fire as I landed.

It occurred to me later that as I had tabbed back to my alt to set myself to orbit the POS, I was *just* exiting warp, or more likely, was still in warp. I am sure your imaginations can do the rest.

So yes, I lost a billion isk+ ratting ship. However, as with all losses, I can definitely say I learned a few things.

I learned a good lesson in shame and humility for one. The money itself isn't the issue as I have enough money to replace this ship and its fittings several times over, but the *shame* I felt upon losing it made my stomach turn. This actually not my biggest loss ever, nor even my most embarrassing, but it stung.

I also learned (and frankly I already knew this) that there's no good reason to spend over a billion isk on a subcap pve ship. I used to laugh at people who did it when I was a ninja in high-sec, which is what makes this all the more ironic. As I have settled back into the habits of 0.0 life and was beginning to make more and more isk, I unknowingly was succumbing to the same trap that causes carebears in highsec to spend ridiculous amounts of isk min/maxing their pve ships. Hubris, over-confidence, and the illusion of safety. My entire eve profession used to revolve taking advantage of these idiots, and without even realizing it, I had fallen into the same carebear trap that I used to profit off of.

So anyway, it was a good lesson, and as strange as this may sound, I am glad that it happened. Every time I would move this ship from one system to the next, it was one huge stress-out that I frankly didn't need. Having it gone sort takes a weight off my mind in a strange way.

And of course, just because I can't leave this post without saying it...

Didn't want that ship anyway.

-Vil

The War is dead, long live the War.

War is over in Delve, but it is just beginning in Catch.

I have mixed feelings about this development, as I really don't like the Refugee Coalition of MM/RZR/Br1ck, but I happen to hate the DRF even more than Refugees. I suppose that a cessation of hostilities at home does present me with more wonderful opportunities to go and fuck with Drone Russians in Catch, so that is a mark in the plus column for this whole thing.

For some background, our friends in Against All Authorities capitalized on Drone Russian deployment up to old Northern Coalition space by sacking most of the systems in Provi/Catch that White Noise. had taken from them in wars of antiquity. With the war in the north sweeping into clusterfuck space and their part in the conflict more or less finished, White Noise. and friends resolved to come back home and "crush" AAA and their allies, not only to retake their space, but to sweep AAA off the map altogether.

With the overwhelming wealth and supercapital superiority of the DRF forces, this seemed like it would be a fairly easy thing to do, and indeed, WN. had a few early victories, but with the entire south rallying to assist AAA against the might of the DRF, things may not be as simple as the Drone Russians think.

We (S2N) have already had one smashing victory against White Noise. and NC. in providence (I totally meant to write up a BR for this), as well as a Red Alliance titan kill yesterday in Tenerifis (Boom), so Nulli and friends participation in this war should make this a pretty interesting fight.

Personally, I see the fights we had with MM and co. as something of an idle distraction. Most people who know eve politics understand that fights like these could only go on for so long before something gives and non-invasion bropacts are made. The DRF on the other hand, is a serious threat. With clusterfuck forces still being pressed hard in Pure Blind and Fade (though after the VFK hostage situation, not as hard), and WN. and NC. pushing AAA hard in Teneferis, Catch, and Provi, these Reds seem to be intent on literally conquering the world.

Their expansion must be stopped, and if making peace with the former Northern Coalition blob is part of the price to pay to go make sure that they are, that's a price that seems worthwhile to pay.

Hopefully good fights and good times will be had. Stay Tuned.

-Vil

Swingin' in the Wind

Before I even start, allow me to present the KB report for the battle of M5-CGW:

http://killboard.nullisecunda.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=32200

7 Carriers, 7 Dreads, and ~35 Battleships killed, with nearly 25 billion isk lost by the Refugee Coalition.

I wasn't planning on playing at all tonight due to the fact that I had work this evening, but due to a RL family situation, I ended up having to call out. Between bits of RL buisness however, I had some time to burn so I logged into Eve at around 02:15, just time to hear that a battleship fleet was forming up and was about to leave, destination unknown. The goal for the evening hazy to us rank and file types but after the pure win that was the last fight, I figured it may be worthwhile to attend.

I headed to our staging system and shipped up in my trusty geddon before heading out to our Titan, listening on comms for orders, but the only chatter present was idle and mostly concerned with people getting their ships fit and in place. By the time I made it to the Titan, several minutes had passed and the fleet was at the ready and the chatter had dropped to a minimum, but no word was yet given. After a few quiet moments, the euros started to grumble, and the inevitable Fukung spam began in alliance chat as boredom was quickly setting in.

Finally, the FC informed us that our target wasn't materializing at present, and to stand down, but stay in fleet and on comms. I was somewhat dissapointed as I docked, and prepared to log out to devote my full attention to RL matters of a significantly less interesting nature, but as fortune would have it, the Eve gods smiled upon us and no sooner had I returned to station and gotten a drink that our FC came back on comms and told us to book it back to the Titan. Within a few minutes the call went up and we bridged... into the middle of Delvecore nowhere.

The goal was again not entirely clear, but after a bit of warping, jumping, and general shuffling, we ended up on yet another friendly Titan, and were back to the waiting game. The natives were just returning to restlessness when the FC again pops up on comms and tells us to look alive. Having flown with this Alliance for a bit now, I can usually tell by this particular individual's tone of voice weather or not it is goin down, and he definitely had an undercurrent of "its fuckin goin down" in his tone. A final tense moment of silence passed, and finally, the call went up to bridge bridge BRIDGE...

...and the next words that the FC uttered were music to my ears: "Get in here, bubble the caps!".

As we bridged in there were at least fifteen assorted Refugee carriers and dreads on the field and one Nyx supercap. Apparently these geniuses were either reffing a CHAOT POS or repping one of their own, or both (I never got a straight story and never cared to ask), and we managed to catch them with their pants down. Needless to say, Bricks were shit, assholes were puckered, as we appeared on field and started to lock up targets. The next few moments were hectic however, and due to a rather unfortunate and unclear bit of luck, the Nyx was able to escape unscathed. However, we had the rest of the dreads and carriers locked down nicely, and there was still much bloody work yet to be done.

With no resistance at all from the RC, we casually destroyed a Thanatos and a Chimera. As we were finishing up the Chimmy and were about to open up on a third carrier, hostile RC Abaddons appeared on the field and the real fight began.

Unlike the engagement two nights ago, MM definitely had a mind to try and fight to save at least some of their haplessly doomed caps, but victory was again not to be as the RC Abddons began to immediately bleed ships with no losses on our side other than tackle. As the battle continued to ratchet up, our occasional allies of convenience Black Legion. appeared on field and also joined the fray, causing our enemies to fall even faster. Our target calling was spot on, and, like last time, the RC gang couldn't hold themselves together enough to focus on the task at hand and kill things or keep themselves alive.

Though when you look at unique snowflake fits like this, it's no surprise that such simple concepts as focus fire are over their heads.

In the end, refugees died, more refugees died, and nothing of value was lost. Well, almost nothing of value...

Yeah, that's me. Pictured here I am executing a very complex maneuver of, well... yeah... pretty much dying in fire. Oh well, my geddon served me well up until now and it's sacrifice was not in vain. I have to say, the RZR Apoc wing did a much better job than the main MM Abaddon force, at least they killed a (single) battleship, so ups to them for that... I guess... lol.

The best part of all of this and the puzzling part of all of this is that RC almost certainly knew we were forming up, and went ahead and swung their carrier dicks out in the wind anyway. I mean don't get me wrong, I am damned glad they didn't do the smart thing and stow the caps, but I just can't understand some of the decisions these people make. Well, I just hope that POS they were all shooting at was worth it for them...

Good times, and well worth the loss.

-Vil

Panic!

Suddenly, Geddons... dozens of them!

We formed up for an impromptu op at around 21:00 and were told to hop into our relatively new and as-yet largely untested Armageddon fleet battleships and book it to Delve for a possible fight.

We formed up fairly quickly and got our shit together on our nearby Titan and began to wait while our cyno got in place in Delvecore. We were informed that there was a 60-70 man Abaddon fleet reffing a POS and that a fight was possible. However, all ops recently against the aptly named "Refugee Coalition" of MM/Br1ck have pretty much ended with no fight at all and us shooting a structure out of spite, so I was fairly convinced that this would be yet another blueballs situation. After a few minutes, our FC came onto comms and told us to look alive, as bridge was going up shortly.

We sat quietly for a moment, poised and at the ready... and the order was suddenly given to bridge. When we loaded grid many hearts jumped as we saw said 70 man MM/Brick "Hellcat" Abaddon fleet shooting at a GENTS POS. My excitement was short lived however as the fleet almost immediately warped to the NOL outgate after we appeared on the field, hoping to again avoid a straight fight. Unfortunately for the poor NC refugees, they landed right on top of the dictors that our FC had placed on that gate. One jumped through in case they tried to jump, and the rest stayed at zero on gate and sat, waiting with baited breath to see what the Refugees would do.

The MM fleet now had a terrible choice to make, jump through and attempt to burn out of the bubble and fight or escape, or burn away from the gate and fight here in O-I. Either way, they were very likely committed to some sort of fight. As our Geddons landed on gate, bubbles went up and the Abaddons continued to hesitate, finally opting to burn away from the NOL gate and make a go of it in O-I.

Either way, the Refugee fleet was doomed. Targets wilted and died fairly quickly, due mostly to to MM's rediculous lack of organization. At a certain point a brave MM Scorpion got a jam off on our FC, and was rewarded for his heroism by being the next ship primaried.

Our backup FC took over target calling duties while the primary FC got his jamming situation sorted, and the slaughter continued. In the heat of battle it was a bit difficult to tell exactly how well we were going to end up faring against the Refugee fleet, and I will admit that I personally had concerns about this geddon concept vs. a coherent and well organized Abaddon fleet, but luckily, no one could ever really accuse the NC of being coherent or organized, and the battle was handily won.

Full KB battle report is here:

http://killboard.nullisecunda.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=31951

48 kills vs. 6 losses, with nearly 8 billion ISK worth of hardware removed from the Refugees' hangars. Not bad for a day's work.

I dare say that it may have gone better for MM/Brick if their initial reaction wasn't to just run the fuck away as soon as they saw hostiles in local, as this fight was just about as evenly matched as you can possibly get, with a slight advantage going to the Refugees fleet consisting of the better-tanked Abaddons. As it happens though, they panicked and ran, causing them to go to pieces as the inevitable fight started. I guess the "good fights" that they supposedly came to the thunderdome looking for are only "good" if they involve overwhelming numbers and/or friendly supers on the field. Well, whatever, if they won't fight, I guess we will have to keep *making* them fight.

Major props go to our Logistics. We only had a handful of Guardians to begin with, and they were able to keep almost everyone alive. The few losses we had were mostly in the first moments of the fight before everyone was properly set up. Once everyone was settled the guardians were able to keep up with the damage output of the Abaddons quite easily.\

Good times, and great fight.

- Vil

We're sorry. (Updated with extra awesome)

Lo and behold, I am still alive and kicking out in the ThunderDelve. It's been pretty busy recently, and I have been having great fun, but I haven't really had much time to make posts so this page has been languishing in neglect.

However, one thing did catch my eye today on the Eve-O forums that I thought merited a bit of my time. Word travels fast so it's not likely news to anyone who reads this, but here's a copypasta:

(From CCP Pann, CCP community/PR manager)

Hi, everyone

Some of you who have been around for a while may remember me. I was the original community manager for EVE. These days, I oversee the PR and Community teams. While most of what I do happens behind the curtains, I am still aware of what’s going on front and center. I would be lying if I said that what’s happening now didn’t make me sad, but I’m not here to ask for your sympathy. To be perfectly honest, I’m here to buy time while we try to sort things out. No sense in lying about it so I'll call a spade a spade.

It’s clear that many of you are angry . There’s a lot happening, things are changing quickly and we haven’t been as forthcoming as you were used to in the past. I’m willing to step out front and take a lot of heat for that since I was the one who made the decision to hold off on responding for a while to see if things cooled down once the new wore off.

I was wrong to do that and I apologize. We should have said something much sooner. We should have done more to address your concerns and be forthcoming, even if we weren’t going to be able to immediately give you all of the answers you were looking for or the answer your questions in ways that will instantly turn those frowns upside down. To be even more candid, I cannot answer all of your questions, either, but I am working with the people who can to start getting those answers for you. Again, I know we’re doing this past the expiration date of your patience but I hope you’ll bear with me.

I know that, with very few exceptions, most of you don’t know me from Adam. I haven’t earned your trust or respect; therefore I have no right to ask anything of you – but I am going to try, anyway. Can I please count on at least some of you to help bring the pitchforks and torches down a few notches?

Like I said, I won’t be able to answer all of your questions tonight, but I promise we’ll start getting some info out tomorrow. As I see it, the chief complaint is regarding the high cost of goods in the Noble Market. Second, many people are unhappy about the Captain’s Quarters. Third, there are some performance issues with Incarna. I would appreciate it if you would confirm my observations or tell me what I’m missing, but I do ask that you do it in a productive way. I will remove posts without prejudice if they are counterproductive to the conversation I hope to have with you.

If you’ve read this much, thanks for staying with me. If you have something to say, I’d like very much to hear it.

Humbly yours,
~P~

(link: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536065)

TLDR:

"Don't mind our blatant money grab, shitty FAMC (Forever Alone Minmatar Closet) feature, and generally wasting the last two years of development on shit that matters not fucking at all. We're super duper sorry. We aren't changing anything, of course, but we just want you to to know that we know you are pissed, and that's a bummer. We also want you to know we are working very hard on coming up with another canned PR-speak response to give you after we've made sure to wait until it is good and truly too little too late, or after we have managed to botch something else.

<3 <3, see you in WoD. BRING MONEY."

So basically, this:

-Vil

P.S. Credit due to RaZor Flash for reminding me of this *perfect* clip.

UPDATE:

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=932

Instead of me just inferring they are telling us to fuck ourselves, they are now very directly saying "go fuck yourself, we think it's fine and aren't going to change it."

I hate to make this particular comparison, but let's look at Blizzard Entertainment. You can say what you will about Blizz and their subscriber base, but when they were about to go and make a big fucking PR mistake, the community stepped up and voiced their disapproval. Even Blizzard fucking checked themselves and did the right thing. Take a queue from the 800 pound gorilla here CCP and preserve your user base before desperately grasping at a new one (and going about it TOTALLY wrong).