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Showing posts with label fleet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fleet. Show all posts
16 October 2014
Pretty Lights
31 August 2014
Well Connected
With Hyperion nearly a week old the changes made are most definitely being felt in my corp. With the addition of a second static to class four wormhole systems we knew for sure that life would be busier. Instead of having one or occasionally two holes connected to our home system we would have two and occasionally three. It turns out, however, that we were very wrong. The new norm seems to be we have a whopping four connections into our system at any given time. This is not something we were expecting and massively changes the nature of our home system. Instead of being an outpost system in w-space we seem to be very much a thoroughfare. Even more mental adjustments need made than was expected and the number of online pilots to ensure proper security just quadrupled. Not terrible for us but the really small corps will feel the pain there.
The changes to jump distance based on mass has had it's desired impact on hole rolling. I've rolled our C3 static with my Orca once so far. This seemed to take a lot longer but had no more risk than before Hyperion as we had well scouted the system before declaring it dead. The C5 wasn't any better as we've not yet tooled up for running anything in C5s. Since then we've mostly been using battleships for rolling duties but more on that later. Thankfully, the increased length of chains and/or number of direct connections to home has given more potential for places to go scouting thus reducing the need to roll holes. With these longer chains we can keep ourselves amused by at least the prospect of finding someone to explode. Case in point, last night we went three or four jumps through wormholes to kill a poor miner. Even better, a C5 crew didn't like the look of us and tried to roll us away. I look forward to more opportunities like those.
These big changes to wormhole space have necessitated a change to how we will be composing our fleets in future. Until now we have had our PvE ships, mostly Tengus with remote reps, and our PvP ships were just about anything else we fancied flying. For hole rolling we used Orcas, sometimes with but often without support. Now our plan is to be flying PvP-ready ships all the time. Logi support, points and webs spread on ships, maybe even some EWAR waiting in the wings. If we're running sites the same fleet should be able to warp to a hole for unexpect pewpew without a second though. Hole rolling will be in a similar vein - out go the Orcas and in come properly fitted battleships. Truth be told I've been wanting to make a switch to something like this since we tried to take on some site runners in a C4 connected to use some months back. They swatted us down like just another wave of sleepers, a fairly easy wave at that. Until now there hasn't been the motivation but it seems wormholes just got more dangerous.
So far I'm liking the changes. Time will tell if I keep that frame of mind.
The changes to jump distance based on mass has had it's desired impact on hole rolling. I've rolled our C3 static with my Orca once so far. This seemed to take a lot longer but had no more risk than before Hyperion as we had well scouted the system before declaring it dead. The C5 wasn't any better as we've not yet tooled up for running anything in C5s. Since then we've mostly been using battleships for rolling duties but more on that later. Thankfully, the increased length of chains and/or number of direct connections to home has given more potential for places to go scouting thus reducing the need to roll holes. With these longer chains we can keep ourselves amused by at least the prospect of finding someone to explode. Case in point, last night we went three or four jumps through wormholes to kill a poor miner. Even better, a C5 crew didn't like the look of us and tried to roll us away. I look forward to more opportunities like those.
These big changes to wormhole space have necessitated a change to how we will be composing our fleets in future. Until now we have had our PvE ships, mostly Tengus with remote reps, and our PvP ships were just about anything else we fancied flying. For hole rolling we used Orcas, sometimes with but often without support. Now our plan is to be flying PvP-ready ships all the time. Logi support, points and webs spread on ships, maybe even some EWAR waiting in the wings. If we're running sites the same fleet should be able to warp to a hole for unexpect pewpew without a second though. Hole rolling will be in a similar vein - out go the Orcas and in come properly fitted battleships. Truth be told I've been wanting to make a switch to something like this since we tried to take on some site runners in a C4 connected to use some months back. They swatted us down like just another wave of sleepers, a fairly easy wave at that. Until now there hasn't been the motivation but it seems wormholes just got more dangerous.
So far I'm liking the changes. Time will tell if I keep that frame of mind.
31 March 2014
Geo Fleets Up
The best part of writing about Geo on Saturday was I got it into my head that I should make an effort to get into a Brave Newbies Fleet. Around 21:00 a ping went out on jabber that a massive fight was going on in Sendaya. This was just the thing I needed so I logged into comms and jumped into EVE. Suddenly everything went slow as the time dilation dial read 11% TiDi. Oh my, over 1000 in local? Crikey! I jumped Geo into a cheap Atron and got into fleet.
From comms I could hear it was a tricky undock with snipers picking off people as they left station. Wanting to get in on the action quickly I thought "what the hell, it's only a million ISK" and hit undock. With the 11% TiDi effect it took forever to actually be spat out into space but once there I immediately warped to an insta undock bookmark. Warping takes forever in major TiDi and it gave me plenty of time to imagine fleets of snipers sitting waiting for me at the bookmark. Landing there none of my fears were founded and I realigned to the staging POS and warped off.
There was now a bit of waiting around while the FC got himself and everyone else organised. Everyone was told to be in Frigates or they'd be kicked from the fleet. This was to make sure we got the full 6 AU/s warp speed. Eventually we started out and I took a fleet warp to somewhere. It didn't matter where I was going, I just needed to be ready to start targeting, tackling and shooting flashy ships. I landed on grid and tackled the thing closest to me, someone else called point on comms so I switched to another ship which someone else also called. This grew old quickly so I concentrated on locking up primary, secondary and tertiary targets. The flood of broadcasts made this both easy and yet confusing. Easy because the names were in the fleet broadcast window, but confusing because sometimes I'd be trying to lock a new target and it wouldn't work. I quickly worked out that this was because the broadcasts were scrolling so fast I was clicking someone I already had locked. Okay, just need to pay more attention to that window then. More warping around the system, each time trying to lock the ships nearest to me. Quite often the target fleet would already be in warp as we landed so locking them was impossible. Our FC sounded a bit overwhelmed at times but did a decent job keeping it (and us) together as we bounced around trying to land on a fleet and pin them down before they fled us.
Eventually we regrouped at the POS. With the numbers we were facing the FC announced that people should ship up into cruisers if they had them. I stuck with the Atron because I was still finding my feet and didn't want to waste any more ISK than I had to. There was a long flurry of messages and comms chatter on what ships people should take. Eventually everyone seemed to get themselves organised and we all formed up again on the FC.
Throughout the rest of the evening I maintained the same level of confusion as to where I was in space. Each time the FC warped us I kept the same routine of locking up what was nearest and shooting the primary. With the larger ships around now it was often hard to finish locking the enemy before it popped but I kept trying. All through the evening TiDi stayed in the 10% to 40% range. At one point someone uttered the classic line "local is down to 750" which raised a few laughs. The only time I've seen local like that is in Jita. Towards the end of the evening the RvB Ganked roam swung around to come fight us. I've been in a few RvB Ganked roams but never faced up against them. In my head I imagined I could hear Mangala Solaris calmly calling primaries and hoped my name didn't come up. To be fair, in an Atron it would be unlikely. After a short scuffle the Ganked roam fled the field leaving us victorious (or so I was told - I hadn't a clue what was going on).
With midnight coming up I needed to head off to bed but checking my personal killboard I was happy to see I had been blessed with 22 kills worth 2.5 billion ISK. Somewhat amusingly, during the evening I dropped 0.3 in my sec status, which is more than I did during my failed attempt at being a pirate. This is definitely more what I had in mind for Geo, it's just a shame it took me so long to get to the right place with him.
From comms I could hear it was a tricky undock with snipers picking off people as they left station. Wanting to get in on the action quickly I thought "what the hell, it's only a million ISK" and hit undock. With the 11% TiDi effect it took forever to actually be spat out into space but once there I immediately warped to an insta undock bookmark. Warping takes forever in major TiDi and it gave me plenty of time to imagine fleets of snipers sitting waiting for me at the bookmark. Landing there none of my fears were founded and I realigned to the staging POS and warped off.
There was now a bit of waiting around while the FC got himself and everyone else organised. Everyone was told to be in Frigates or they'd be kicked from the fleet. This was to make sure we got the full 6 AU/s warp speed. Eventually we started out and I took a fleet warp to somewhere. It didn't matter where I was going, I just needed to be ready to start targeting, tackling and shooting flashy ships. I landed on grid and tackled the thing closest to me, someone else called point on comms so I switched to another ship which someone else also called. This grew old quickly so I concentrated on locking up primary, secondary and tertiary targets. The flood of broadcasts made this both easy and yet confusing. Easy because the names were in the fleet broadcast window, but confusing because sometimes I'd be trying to lock a new target and it wouldn't work. I quickly worked out that this was because the broadcasts were scrolling so fast I was clicking someone I already had locked. Okay, just need to pay more attention to that window then. More warping around the system, each time trying to lock the ships nearest to me. Quite often the target fleet would already be in warp as we landed so locking them was impossible. Our FC sounded a bit overwhelmed at times but did a decent job keeping it (and us) together as we bounced around trying to land on a fleet and pin them down before they fled us.
Eventually we regrouped at the POS. With the numbers we were facing the FC announced that people should ship up into cruisers if they had them. I stuck with the Atron because I was still finding my feet and didn't want to waste any more ISK than I had to. There was a long flurry of messages and comms chatter on what ships people should take. Eventually everyone seemed to get themselves organised and we all formed up again on the FC.
With midnight coming up I needed to head off to bed but checking my personal killboard I was happy to see I had been blessed with 22 kills worth 2.5 billion ISK. Somewhat amusingly, during the evening I dropped 0.3 in my sec status, which is more than I did during my failed attempt at being a pirate. This is definitely more what I had in mind for Geo, it's just a shame it took me so long to get to the right place with him.
1 December 2013
Alliance (and friends) December Roam
Our industrial division kindly donated 50 Drakes to the alliance with the insistence that they be whelped on some foolishness. I added a handful of Ospreys I had lying around and we had ourselves a theme roam. For reasons unknown to me CVA have us set as "Kill On Sight" making destination number one obvious - Providence. I took a bunch of screenshots over the course of the roam but one of our Interceptor pilots was filming the whole thing and spliced together the Providence incursion while I slept.
With various people having to head off we went back to hisec for refreshments before discussing where we would go next. Nobody had any bright ideas so instead we started looking for hotspots of activity in the in-game universe map. While that was being trawled we set off in the general direction of Barleguet, home of Brave Newbies Inc. They seem to be a fun bunch always up for a fight so if we were going to dispose of all these surviving Drakes somewhere it would be a certainty that they would help do just that. En route to Barleguet our scouts discovered a hive of activity in Aulbres. It appeared to be a massive frigate fight was happening so all we could do was fly right in and give them something bigger to shoot at. And shoot us they did.
All in all it was a really fun night. The only problem we had of the evening was the form-up time of just after midnight. This confused a whole load of people who took "Just after Midnight on Sunday" to mean "Sunday night". This meant people were going to be 24 hours late. Oh well, next time we know better. Thanks to the scouts, logi and of course the FC for making this a fun night. I love it when my alliance gets together and does stuff. This is what makes us more than just a gaggle of corps who happen to fly under the same banner without actually knowing each other.
With various people having to head off we went back to hisec for refreshments before discussing where we would go next. Nobody had any bright ideas so instead we started looking for hotspots of activity in the in-game universe map. While that was being trawled we set off in the general direction of Barleguet, home of Brave Newbies Inc. They seem to be a fun bunch always up for a fight so if we were going to dispose of all these surviving Drakes somewhere it would be a certainty that they would help do just that. En route to Barleguet our scouts discovered a hive of activity in Aulbres. It appeared to be a massive frigate fight was happening so all we could do was fly right in and give them something bigger to shoot at. And shoot us they did.
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| Primary is, um, shoot things... |
7 October 2013
CZ FFA
On Saturday my fellow Scots over at the Crossing Zebras podcast hosted a community free for all in the infamous Asakai system. Given the first I knew about this event was the posts on my alliance forum suggesting ship fittings what else could I do but haul a bunch of ships there and prepare to die lots.
Although the suggested ship fits had been on our forums for ages it was still the night before when I finally bought all the ships, mods and (most of the) drones. I decided I wouldn't stage out of Asakai's single station as it would probably be camped to hell and I at least wanted to be able to fly around looking for fights as well as fleet up with my alliance. I looked around and decided to stage my ships in Rakapas as that was the closest, non-hisec system with cloning facilities. I was reminded by someone how hard it should be to get podded in lowsec and, combined with discovering I couldn't reach from Jita to Rakapas in one jump with my jump freighter, decided to stage out of Okkamon. This would conveniently be on my route back to Asakai from Rakapas should I be unlucky enough to get podded. In the more likely situation where I found myself without ship but pod intact I would only have one jump to reship.
With all the hulls and modules bought in Jita and jumped across to Okkamon I left Geo to the repetitive task of fitting the ships up to be combat ready. Thankfully there is now a 'Fit' button on the in-game loadout browser making this task easier. Please CCP, could you make that group and load the guns too? Oh, adding my tobacco, spirits, wine and janitor automatically would be nice too. Once the ships were all ready it was time for Orea to make his nervous sojourn into K-space. I think I've mentioned before that Orea has a real fear of systems featuring 'local'. That fear (or possibly, "beer") didn't stop him flying his cloaky, scanny loki right into a lowsec system where lots of people were staging for a fight. It's only lowsec though so it all worked out fine.
The clock rolled around to 19:50 on Saturday. I got myself on comms, logged in and fleeted up. Sending Geo in a Hound to scout Asakai I was in and rolling around the safe spots I had already prepared. Once the rest of the alliance was all shipped up we met up and started nosing around for some trouble. Already there was a massive wreck field at the sun and we kept pouncing down to brawl with some of the other fleets adding to the wreck field. We were doing so well until another of the alliance was coming in from hisec. We headed over to the Ikoskio gate and were landed on by an armour HAC fleet from BALKAN and friends. We died.
I quickly reshipped and got myself back into Asakai. The others were not so well prepared as me and I spent a while bouncing around safes again. I should have went back for one of the disposable frigates I took to Okkamon but by the time I thought of that it was too late. We had a another good run killing some famous names and having a blast. Fighting had largely switched to a small faction warfare complex. These only let frigates use the acceleration gate but the mass of cruisers at the gate were doing their best to stop that happening. After a good run we lost all our ships again to the combined might of, um, everyone. Having learnt my lesson from last time I decided to blow a couple of the Incursus I took with me. The first one landed at the small plex just in time for me to realise I hadn't reordered the modules into a sensible manner. I activated my cap booster instead of my dual reps and died without firing a shot. Reshipping into another Incursus I reorganised the modules en route. Landing again on the small plex gate I was intending to take on Xander Phoena. He turned out to be 45 km away so I picked the nearest target and at least managed to shoot him before dying and getting podded. I have no idea how I got podded, I never yet saw the pod, just went from ship to session change to white screen to floating corpse...
The rest of the crew were reshipped and ready as I swung past Okkamon to pick up another cruiser then onwards to join them. The event was in its dying throes and targets were few and far between. We went from plex to plex and down to the sun looking for looters. It really was all over though and just as we were about to call it quits ourself I spied a lone Hurricane sitting at the medium plex. I had barely called it when I found Orea in a fleet warp to pounce on the poor guy. Of course the 'poor guy' had friends who conveniently landed on us when he was half into armour. Try and we might to take the 'cane down with us his logi-bros got him repped up nicely and our fate was sealed.
Looking at the 'scoreboard' we killed more than we lost but we spent more ISK doing it. Who cares? I didn't go to Asakai to win any awards (although I did score points most on my alliance killboard for the event), I went there to have fun and fun is exactly what I had. I kicked the crap out of my security status. I can't remember how long ago it was last below 4. It's still pretty healthy at a heady 2.9 now so I won't have to go ratting in nullsec any time soon. The other thing I got other than having fun was adding a raft of notable names to my short list of kills - Bagehi, Mangala Solaris (twice), Sindel Pellion, House2twist, and of course Xander Phoena who joins the vanishingly rare ranks of people I've had a beer with and also exploded in EVE. My thanks go out to Xander and the others at Crossing Zebras for arranging this and I cannot wait for the next bout of pointless violence.
Although the suggested ship fits had been on our forums for ages it was still the night before when I finally bought all the ships, mods and (most of the) drones. I decided I wouldn't stage out of Asakai's single station as it would probably be camped to hell and I at least wanted to be able to fly around looking for fights as well as fleet up with my alliance. I looked around and decided to stage my ships in Rakapas as that was the closest, non-hisec system with cloning facilities. I was reminded by someone how hard it should be to get podded in lowsec and, combined with discovering I couldn't reach from Jita to Rakapas in one jump with my jump freighter, decided to stage out of Okkamon. This would conveniently be on my route back to Asakai from Rakapas should I be unlucky enough to get podded. In the more likely situation where I found myself without ship but pod intact I would only have one jump to reship.
With all the hulls and modules bought in Jita and jumped across to Okkamon I left Geo to the repetitive task of fitting the ships up to be combat ready. Thankfully there is now a 'Fit' button on the in-game loadout browser making this task easier. Please CCP, could you make that group and load the guns too? Oh, adding my tobacco, spirits, wine and janitor automatically would be nice too. Once the ships were all ready it was time for Orea to make his nervous sojourn into K-space. I think I've mentioned before that Orea has a real fear of systems featuring 'local'. That fear (or possibly, "beer") didn't stop him flying his cloaky, scanny loki right into a lowsec system where lots of people were staging for a fight. It's only lowsec though so it all worked out fine.
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| Dare to fly a Noctis down there? |
The clock rolled around to 19:50 on Saturday. I got myself on comms, logged in and fleeted up. Sending Geo in a Hound to scout Asakai I was in and rolling around the safe spots I had already prepared. Once the rest of the alliance was all shipped up we met up and started nosing around for some trouble. Already there was a massive wreck field at the sun and we kept pouncing down to brawl with some of the other fleets adding to the wreck field. We were doing so well until another of the alliance was coming in from hisec. We headed over to the Ikoskio gate and were landed on by an armour HAC fleet from BALKAN and friends. We died.
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| BALKAN and friends. |
I quickly reshipped and got myself back into Asakai. The others were not so well prepared as me and I spent a while bouncing around safes again. I should have went back for one of the disposable frigates I took to Okkamon but by the time I thought of that it was too late. We had a another good run killing some famous names and having a blast. Fighting had largely switched to a small faction warfare complex. These only let frigates use the acceleration gate but the mass of cruisers at the gate were doing their best to stop that happening. After a good run we lost all our ships again to the combined might of, um, everyone. Having learnt my lesson from last time I decided to blow a couple of the Incursus I took with me. The first one landed at the small plex just in time for me to realise I hadn't reordered the modules into a sensible manner. I activated my cap booster instead of my dual reps and died without firing a shot. Reshipping into another Incursus I reorganised the modules en route. Landing again on the small plex gate I was intending to take on Xander Phoena. He turned out to be 45 km away so I picked the nearest target and at least managed to shoot him before dying and getting podded. I have no idea how I got podded, I never yet saw the pod, just went from ship to session change to white screen to floating corpse...
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| Not my best angle. |
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| The 'Scoreboard' |
29 October 2012
What to do with Geo?
It has been a while since I last mentioned the toon I created specifically for PvP. My intention with Geo was to have someone I could jump to when W-space was quiet and/or I just wanted to shoot someone in the face. To be fair, my time as CEO is taken up a lot with various administrivia and actually shooting at sleepers. This generally doesn't leave much time for playing with Geo, but it does happen.
I've taken Geo on a couple of RvB Ganked roams and had great fun. If you want to experience flying in a relaxed atmosphere and landing on gates as a giant ball of purple death then you should try it. No matter what the theme is, make sure you fit your ship to lock fast otherwise you'll miss out on most kills. Even with that in mind I've still managed to get on 4.7 Billion ISK worth of destruction and, more imporantly, I've had a blast doing it. Shame I can't get out on those roams more often. I particularly enjoy that nothing is expected of me. Nobody even cares if I screw up and die early.
I tried doing some solo PvP but I don't seem to have the killer instinct to get involved with that. I think it has a lot to do with not really knowing what my ship is actually capable of, but there is also a lack of the social aspect to it. Flying around solo looking for people to explode doesn't feel like my style, I'd rather have someone there to discuss what to do and where to go. When I do go out on my own I just seem to fly around lowsec and not see anyone. Maybe this is something I'll shake with some combat experience, or maybe solo just isn't for me. Time will tell on that front.
I think what I need to do is find a casual PvP styled corp. I'm not in it for some nullsec powerplay, I just want to fly around in a group who have an idea what they are doing and shoot at people. While the Ganked roams are fun I think fleets of 150+ would get boring if that was all I did with Geo. At the same time, I don't feel like I would be any good in a fleet of only two or three. I guess I need to start trawling though the recruitment forums.
My plan right now is to polish up some more skills for flying Stealth Bombers and see if I can hang out with the Bombers Bar folks. Beyond that, who knows. Sometimes it's good to just be a grunt and fly 'somewhere' to shoot 'something'.
I've taken Geo on a couple of RvB Ganked roams and had great fun. If you want to experience flying in a relaxed atmosphere and landing on gates as a giant ball of purple death then you should try it. No matter what the theme is, make sure you fit your ship to lock fast otherwise you'll miss out on most kills. Even with that in mind I've still managed to get on 4.7 Billion ISK worth of destruction and, more imporantly, I've had a blast doing it. Shame I can't get out on those roams more often. I particularly enjoy that nothing is expected of me. Nobody even cares if I screw up and die early.
I tried doing some solo PvP but I don't seem to have the killer instinct to get involved with that. I think it has a lot to do with not really knowing what my ship is actually capable of, but there is also a lack of the social aspect to it. Flying around solo looking for people to explode doesn't feel like my style, I'd rather have someone there to discuss what to do and where to go. When I do go out on my own I just seem to fly around lowsec and not see anyone. Maybe this is something I'll shake with some combat experience, or maybe solo just isn't for me. Time will tell on that front.
I think what I need to do is find a casual PvP styled corp. I'm not in it for some nullsec powerplay, I just want to fly around in a group who have an idea what they are doing and shoot at people. While the Ganked roams are fun I think fleets of 150+ would get boring if that was all I did with Geo. At the same time, I don't feel like I would be any good in a fleet of only two or three. I guess I need to start trawling though the recruitment forums.
My plan right now is to polish up some more skills for flying Stealth Bombers and see if I can hang out with the Bombers Bar folks. Beyond that, who knows. Sometimes it's good to just be a grunt and fly 'somewhere' to shoot 'something'.
16 July 2012
Thukk You, Frill Me! - Aftermath
I've just found my way back to Jita after the 'Thukk You, Frill Me!' Protest run and subsequent RvB Ganked roam. This turned out to be a somewhat slow-burning event with a successful, die-in-a-fire ending. So, on that basis, I am quite happy. The fleet peaked out at almost 200 members which is apparently not a record for a Ganked night, but was up there quite high.
The fun began in Jita with a flashy Armageddon undocking and redocking as he was shot and ran out of shields. We decided this wasn't acceptable and headed over to unleash 100+ Stabbers on him. He died and we set off for Akora, the first lowsec system where we met up with our fellow fleet members with poor sec status. From there we headed to the Thukker head office of M-MD3B via N-RAEL. There were a few potential fights on the way but the only thing that actually materialised was a poor Thrasher that wandered into our path. Funnily enough when local spikes but something close to 200 people the tendency of the locals is to dock up.
Just before M-MD3B we had a sniff of a battle. Due to some cunning randomness on the EVE autopilot's behalf our fleet had split into two groups and was about to land on a gatecamp in a fantastic pincer movement. As I was in the smaller fleet we were ordered in first. We jumped in to find, well, nothing. Disappointed by this turn of events we headed to the Thukker Mix station to protest. It appears the Thukker Mix CEO had heard of Seismic Stan as the protest organiser as, when Stan and a few others opened fire on the station, it was only Stan who got popped.
Now the protest was out of the way, I stuck with the RvB Ganked fleet for the journey down to find some more fights. We headed down to Utopia in Curse and ran around a little trying to find someone to fight. People were getting a bit frustrated at this point and ended up chasing some non-flashy ships into Sendaya. As Sendaya is lowsec, the gate-guns took offence at this and started shooting. Eventually the offending Megathron died, but by then I was with the main body of the fleet heading for Catch.
We were told to set our destination for GE-8JV and we were never to make it past there. A couple of jumps out we received word of an Against ALL Authorities fleet in GE-8JV. We had been on the go for five hours or so and it was time to die. We jumped into the system and immediately re-approached the gate to see what the -A- guys would do. Obligingly they came to us at zero and we all jumped back into V-3YG7. I don't believe I've ever seen so many battleships in one place, nevermind ones that would like to blow me up. We aligned away from the gate to see what was going to happen and as -A- came through they bubbled up and the fight was on. Our FC started calling primaries and I actually managed to get myself sorted and shooting at the right things. First we took down a Phobos before switching to a Navy Armageddon. We couldn't break through the reps on the 'geddon so we switched targets and killed a Curse and then a 1.2 billion ISK Loki.
By this point the twenty or so Armageddons' smart bombs were taking their toll and I found myself in my pod. After a worrying minute where I thought nobody was going to pod me back to hisec I found myself in Hek. Hmm, why is my clone in Hek? Oh well, home to Jita. I had great fun. I went out to die and I managed that quite successfully. I also managed to help destroy almost 2 billion ISK worth of stuff so I died happy.
Oh, yeah, and bring back the Frill.
The fun began in Jita with a flashy Armageddon undocking and redocking as he was shot and ran out of shields. We decided this wasn't acceptable and headed over to unleash 100+ Stabbers on him. He died and we set off for Akora, the first lowsec system where we met up with our fellow fleet members with poor sec status. From there we headed to the Thukker head office of M-MD3B via N-RAEL. There were a few potential fights on the way but the only thing that actually materialised was a poor Thrasher that wandered into our path. Funnily enough when local spikes but something close to 200 people the tendency of the locals is to dock up.
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| Purple Stabber ball |
Just before M-MD3B we had a sniff of a battle. Due to some cunning randomness on the EVE autopilot's behalf our fleet had split into two groups and was about to land on a gatecamp in a fantastic pincer movement. As I was in the smaller fleet we were ordered in first. We jumped in to find, well, nothing. Disappointed by this turn of events we headed to the Thukker Mix station to protest. It appears the Thukker Mix CEO had heard of Seismic Stan as the protest organiser as, when Stan and a few others opened fire on the station, it was only Stan who got popped.
Now the protest was out of the way, I stuck with the RvB Ganked fleet for the journey down to find some more fights. We headed down to Utopia in Curse and ran around a little trying to find someone to fight. People were getting a bit frustrated at this point and ended up chasing some non-flashy ships into Sendaya. As Sendaya is lowsec, the gate-guns took offence at this and started shooting. Eventually the offending Megathron died, but by then I was with the main body of the fleet heading for Catch.
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| Planet ahoy |
Oh, yeah, and bring back the Frill.
13 April 2012
Roaming Thoughts
So with my first proper lowsec roam taken care of, and four kills under my belt. What are my thoughts? Well, for one I had a fun time even if it was quieter than I had hoped. I have spent enough time flying through lowsec in the last year to realise that it is pretty empty and not the scary wasteland I once thought it was. When looking for a fight this isn't really what you want though. It was also fun to be in a fleet actively hunting for targets in an organised manner.
I had one realisation for the minute or two we would have sitting on each gate while our scout was a system over checking for targets. Anyone jumping through would think we were camping the gate which was definitely not the case. We would already be aware of the security status of someone jumping through and whether we wanted to try and catch them or not. On more than one occasion someone with positive sec status would see us and burn back to the gate rapidly. As we were all in Frigates or Destroyers there would be no way we'd survive the gate guns for long so had no intention of engaging those ships. It was amusing to watch through as I'm more used to being on the wrong side of such surprises.
Finally, do I want to go on another roam? Hell yes, it was lots of fun and I've already been out with the same guys for a second roam with two more kills, and my first loss. It'll be even more fun when I've got more of the essential skills - I can't even use a MWD yet. Pretty soon I'll need to find a suitable corp for Geo as well. Any suggestions? I've nearly one million skill points now!
I had one realisation for the minute or two we would have sitting on each gate while our scout was a system over checking for targets. Anyone jumping through would think we were camping the gate which was definitely not the case. We would already be aware of the security status of someone jumping through and whether we wanted to try and catch them or not. On more than one occasion someone with positive sec status would see us and burn back to the gate rapidly. As we were all in Frigates or Destroyers there would be no way we'd survive the gate guns for long so had no intention of engaging those ships. It was amusing to watch through as I'm more used to being on the wrong side of such surprises.
Finally, do I want to go on another roam? Hell yes, it was lots of fun and I've already been out with the same guys for a second roam with two more kills, and my first loss. It'll be even more fun when I've got more of the essential skills - I can't even use a MWD yet. Pretty soon I'll need to find a suitable corp for Geo as well. Any suggestions? I've nearly one million skill points now!
11 April 2012
On The Roam
With the ships all set up and our fleet all ready we undocked and headed into lowsec. We spent the first few jumps doing a mini circuit of Derelik but pickings were slim to none. As I mentioned on Monday the real destination was a big loop of Molden Heath so we headed there next.
Just into Molden Heath we ran into a Jaguar taunting us around the system. We engaged him on the sun but he just burned away and warped off. The merry dance continued on a couple of sites as he jumped around trying to split us into multiple groups. This tactic worked to a certain extent and on a jump gate into a complex he landed on grid with a group of four of us. One of our number was pretty close to him so tackled him while the rest of us tried to get in range. This was about 70 km from where the rest of us were. Now 70 km is about the worst distance to cover as burning towards the destination is just as bad as burning away to 150 km and warping back. Needless to say the tackle died before we could get in range. With this unfortunate start behind us we regrouped and headed deeper leaving the Jaguar to his own devices.
It wasn't long before we had another target twitching under our noses. Our FC had found a Stabber worthy of our attention. Tackle was called in and got a successful hold on the ship. The rest of us jumped in and warped to the FC. With eight in our gang the Stabber didn't have much chance. First blood for Geo and third highest damage. - not bad for a thirteen day old character.
Two systems later and we had a Drake seeking our attentions. Exactly the same setup as before with the FC scouting the location and then calling tackle in. Tackle calls point and we all warp in. Strike two. It appeared this kill wasn't well received as we all had to scatter pretty quick when the Drake's friends arrived on grid advertising a fight we couldn't win. Thankfully we all got away and kept on the move for a few systems until they got bored.
It took another half hour before we got word of a Rupture on d-scan. By this time my beers were in full effect and the details of the kill are a bit fuzzy. It was just after this that two members of The Bastards met up with us. Thankfully they were on our side and arrived to a touch of awe from a couple of folk in fleet. The highlight comment on comms was "Oh, you're in The Bastards. I love your work".
With two Bastards in tow we went hunting for more kills, but they were elusive. It took the best part of an hour, and a few missed opportunities, before we acquired our final target of the evening. This target was the weirdest of the night. We were all parked on a gate when the Drake jumped into us. We all got lock but I was expecting him to burn back to the gate and jump through. I held off on aggression and got ready to follow him through while the rest of the fleet tore through his shields. About half into armour I decided not to miss the killmail and started shooting as well. He died seconds later.
It wasn't until afterwards I realised I wasn't showing drones on my overview and the Drake had actually aggressed us. Oh well, I could've hit him harded but at least I got on my fourth killmail of the evening. And with that we decided to call it a night. There were no further targets as we headed back to Derelik and off to sleep.
Just into Molden Heath we ran into a Jaguar taunting us around the system. We engaged him on the sun but he just burned away and warped off. The merry dance continued on a couple of sites as he jumped around trying to split us into multiple groups. This tactic worked to a certain extent and on a jump gate into a complex he landed on grid with a group of four of us. One of our number was pretty close to him so tackled him while the rest of us tried to get in range. This was about 70 km from where the rest of us were. Now 70 km is about the worst distance to cover as burning towards the destination is just as bad as burning away to 150 km and warping back. Needless to say the tackle died before we could get in range. With this unfortunate start behind us we regrouped and headed deeper leaving the Jaguar to his own devices.
It wasn't long before we had another target twitching under our noses. Our FC had found a Stabber worthy of our attention. Tackle was called in and got a successful hold on the ship. The rest of us jumped in and warped to the FC. With eight in our gang the Stabber didn't have much chance. First blood for Geo and third highest damage. - not bad for a thirteen day old character.
Two systems later and we had a Drake seeking our attentions. Exactly the same setup as before with the FC scouting the location and then calling tackle in. Tackle calls point and we all warp in. Strike two. It appeared this kill wasn't well received as we all had to scatter pretty quick when the Drake's friends arrived on grid advertising a fight we couldn't win. Thankfully we all got away and kept on the move for a few systems until they got bored.
It took another half hour before we got word of a Rupture on d-scan. By this time my beers were in full effect and the details of the kill are a bit fuzzy. It was just after this that two members of The Bastards met up with us. Thankfully they were on our side and arrived to a touch of awe from a couple of folk in fleet. The highlight comment on comms was "Oh, you're in The Bastards. I love your work".
With two Bastards in tow we went hunting for more kills, but they were elusive. It took the best part of an hour, and a few missed opportunities, before we acquired our final target of the evening. This target was the weirdest of the night. We were all parked on a gate when the Drake jumped into us. We all got lock but I was expecting him to burn back to the gate and jump through. I held off on aggression and got ready to follow him through while the rest of the fleet tore through his shields. About half into armour I decided not to miss the killmail and started shooting as well. He died seconds later.
It wasn't until afterwards I realised I wasn't showing drones on my overview and the Drake had actually aggressed us. Oh well, I could've hit him harded but at least I got on my fourth killmail of the evening. And with that we decided to call it a night. There were no further targets as we headed back to Derelik and off to sleep.
9 April 2012
More Pew Please
Recently I've become increasingly interested in getting involved with some lowsec roams or general small scale PvP. I'm not particularly interested in 'honourable' one on one duelling as I believe in the whole "don't fight unless you've already won" philosophy. That's not so say I'm adverse to fighting in uncertain circumstances, but I would rather be in a group of people than relying solely on my own skills and the honour of my opponent.
I've become a little protective of my existing characters' security status, and over-protective of my low number of ship losses. This means I don't want to take either Orea or Dhal out on such roams. Plus, getting Orea out of his wormhole can be a pain without prior planning. Anyway, Orea gets to do his own solo hunting for soft targets and I'm happy with that. The solution to this problem is obviously to create a character exclusively for roaming around to find some pew pew, thus Geo was born.
During the week an invite went out for an Alliance roam. Even though Geo was only thirteen days old how could I pass up the opportunity? It takes very little skill to fit a half-decent Rifter and not much more for a half-decent Thrasher. I rearranged the skill queue accordingly and flew two Rifters and two Thrashers to the form-up system. With my ships in place all I had left to do was wait for the fleet advert.
I joined fleet and we spent the next hour forming up in Derelik. We were informed the route would be taking us around Molden Heath. This isn't a region of New Eden I've spent any time in so none of the system names were familiar. With my copy of Eve Tactical Maps open in front of me I could see a nice little cluster of interconnected lowsec systems in Derelik. This lead to a very convenient loop of lowsec systems which, I correctly guessed, would define the roam.
Finally we were all set in our fleet of nine and off we went.
1 Heavily influenced by Kirith Kodachi's recently published fit for his Rifter.2.
2 Suggestions for improvements are welcome, just remember this is a character with only 600,000 SP.
I've become a little protective of my existing characters' security status, and over-protective of my low number of ship losses. This means I don't want to take either Orea or Dhal out on such roams. Plus, getting Orea out of his wormhole can be a pain without prior planning. Anyway, Orea gets to do his own solo hunting for soft targets and I'm happy with that. The solution to this problem is obviously to create a character exclusively for roaming around to find some pew pew, thus Geo was born.
During the week an invite went out for an Alliance roam. Even though Geo was only thirteen days old how could I pass up the opportunity? It takes very little skill to fit a half-decent Rifter and not much more for a half-decent Thrasher. I rearranged the skill queue accordingly and flew two Rifters and two Thrashers to the form-up system. With my ships in place all I had left to do was wait for the fleet advert.
[Rifter, Geo's Rifter]1
Small Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
Damage Control I
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Limited 1MN Afterburner I
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
[empty high slot]
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
Damage Control I
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Limited 1MN Afterburner I
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
[empty high slot]
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
[Thrasher, Geo's Thrasher]2
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Damage Control I
Limited 1MN Afterburner I
Medium Subordinate Screen Stabilizer I
Fleeting Warp Disruptor I
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
[empty high slot]
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Damage Control I
Limited 1MN Afterburner I
Medium Subordinate Screen Stabilizer I
Fleeting Warp Disruptor I
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I, Republic Fleet EMP S
[empty high slot]
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Finally we were all set in our fleet of nine and off we went.
1 Heavily influenced by Kirith Kodachi's recently published fit for his Rifter.2.
2 Suggestions for improvements are welcome, just remember this is a character with only 600,000 SP.
7 February 2012
CTA - II
Returning my attention to the goings on in the system I was surprised to see comms very active again. Surely the battle hadn't resumed on the customs office already? Reinforced state wasn't due to end for over two hours. What was going on?
It turned out that our new neighbours were a little bit feisty. They'd already scored an easy kill when one of the other corp member accidentally drifted from the POS bubble (don't ask). Now we were scrapping near our POS. I jumped in to switched from my cloaky scanner to an appropriately fit Drake. Unfortunately I was too late to the party and, after losing a Drake each, our friendly neighbours warped off.
So, now the question was: Is this a coincidence or a diversionary tactic from the customs office fight?
With more corp members turning their attention to the shenanigans occurring in our system we were now able to put a proper fleet together. I was glad of the chance to take the covers off my shiny new Basilisk, although being the first time I'd flow logistics I was a little nervous. The fleet warped off to the wormhole connection to the neighbouring system harbouring our new friends. Our attention was mainly focussed on the customs office timer but we were meant to be on fleet manoeuvres anyway. Instead of dividing into teams we might as well try and have a real scrap.
We formed up and held on our side of the wormhole waiting for any action. A couple of times the neighbours jumped in and back out immediately, trying to bait us through. But we had another job to take care of and after hanging around for a while and getting nowhere we headed off to reorganise.
After making sure we all knew the game plan, and with the customs office timer almost at zero, we warped off to meet whatever may come. As soon as we landed we set to repairing the shields on the customs office and waited for any offensive action to occur...
...and waited.
...and waited. All the while repairing the shields on the customs office. Once they hit a good percentage we felt safe to leave it to naturally recharge.
All this build up and almost nobody to shoot. A bit of an anti-climax but a good outcome none the less. For a training exericise it was probably as good as it gets. We formed a good fleet, worked on comms discipline and flew under an FC who is pretty much new to us in that role. It all went well. Now we're wondering if it was all just a setup by the security team to shake us down.
It turned out that our new neighbours were a little bit feisty. They'd already scored an easy kill when one of the other corp member accidentally drifted from the POS bubble (don't ask). Now we were scrapping near our POS. I jumped in to switched from my cloaky scanner to an appropriately fit Drake. Unfortunately I was too late to the party and, after losing a Drake each, our friendly neighbours warped off.
So, now the question was: Is this a coincidence or a diversionary tactic from the customs office fight?
With more corp members turning their attention to the shenanigans occurring in our system we were now able to put a proper fleet together. I was glad of the chance to take the covers off my shiny new Basilisk, although being the first time I'd flow logistics I was a little nervous. The fleet warped off to the wormhole connection to the neighbouring system harbouring our new friends. Our attention was mainly focussed on the customs office timer but we were meant to be on fleet manoeuvres anyway. Instead of dividing into teams we might as well try and have a real scrap.
We formed up and held on our side of the wormhole waiting for any action. A couple of times the neighbours jumped in and back out immediately, trying to bait us through. But we had another job to take care of and after hanging around for a while and getting nowhere we headed off to reorganise.
After making sure we all knew the game plan, and with the customs office timer almost at zero, we warped off to meet whatever may come. As soon as we landed we set to repairing the shields on the customs office and waited for any offensive action to occur...
 |
| Orea's first Logi chain |
...and waited. All the while repairing the shields on the customs office. Once they hit a good percentage we felt safe to leave it to naturally recharge.
All this build up and almost nobody to shoot. A bit of an anti-climax but a good outcome none the less. For a training exericise it was probably as good as it gets. We formed a good fleet, worked on comms discipline and flew under an FC who is pretty much new to us in that role. It all went well. Now we're wondering if it was all just a setup by the security team to shake us down.
19 January 2012
Visions Of New Eden - I
I've captured many images during my time travelling around New Eden. I hope to share some of these here as well as capture new shots for your viewing pleasure. I thought I should start with the image used for the background to this blog.
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