I, Leader

As I've mentioned previously here, my position within my corporation is as one of several directors. My remit concerns watching the corp purse, determining where the ISK comes from and goes to, and making sure we have enough ISK to pay all corp members their share of loot, PI and mining proceeds. I've been doing this for a small number of months and things have been going well. Just under two weeks ago I arrived online to discover a surprising evemail from the corp CEO - he was announcing his retirement from wormhole life and was wanting to know which of the directors would be interested in stepping up to the plate.

Now, there was once in the past where this same question was asked under slightly different circumstances. At that time I put my name forward and caused a little drama as it appeared I was competing with a very popular CEO. I wasn't, but the CEO and I agreed that I should stand down from the election and maintain the status quo for the sake of the corp. As a result I had to give a reasonable amount of thought towards whether I should take the chance a second time.

Considering the different circumstances between this time and last time I decided that offering myself up for the position was a good idea and I posted my interest. The support flew in from all the other directors to my appointment as CEO which, combined with the outgoing CEO's approval, resulted in an almost seamless switch of positions. And just like that, I became the head of a highly competent and self motivated wormhole corp.

Describing the corp as "highly competent and self motivated" should give a pretty good idea as to how much effort I expect this new role to take. I've flown with a lot of the pilots for the best part of nine months. During that time we came through a corp theft drama as a result of some intentional, mildly disruptive activities by an outgoing director. We all pulled together and took the corp through a difficult time quite successfully. In a slightly cliched way the drama was perfect as it only made us stronger. This means I know the other directors don't need me micromanaging day to day operations within the corp and I trust them implicitly. In turn this means while I have an additional level of 'things' to think about, they are only high-level ideas for corp projects, initiatives, and direction. As this is mainly out-of-game thinking time, I can handle that while out riding my bike. Thus, I should hopefully have in-game time to shoot at sleepers with the rest of them...

...the CEO is still allowed to do that, right?

Escalation

The build up to the next expansion is here. Inferno hits us in just under a month, but today brings the pre-instalment of Inferno - Escalation.

There is absolutely no point me going through the features that are getting added and the changes that are being made to pre-existing content. Needless to say, there has been a lot of speculation what these changes will bring. The biggest indicator, as always, is the market. Particularly the massive increase in mineral prices.

The increases in mineral prices has led to a lot of suggestion that mining fleets will become more common place in the weeks and months that pass from today. I'm not entirely sure as boring mining is still boring. Still, as if to underline how boring mining is, Helicity Boson and The Mittani are endeavouring to liven it up with Hulkageddon V. That's not to forget the counter-initiative - Griefergeddon. And these follow on perfectly from today's Escalation patch, beginning sometime after the 28th of April and continuing through the whole month of May.

Actually, thinkning about it, it's almost like Helicity and Mittens have been in collusion with CCP in marketing this. Think about it

• 24th April - Inferno - Escalation
• 28th April - Goonswarm burns Jita
• 29th April - Hulkageddon V begins
• 22nd May - Inferno
• 31st May - Hulkageddon ends

Certainly we are in for a busy month ahead. Whose side are you on?

(( Edit 24/04/2012 12:12 - Helicity confirmed Hulkageddon starts on the 29th ))

Fun Contracts

My attention was drawn to the following contract currently available in Jita.

All you could possibly want for a fun party

A party pack. Now what a fantastic idea. It does disturb me somewhat that the top item in the contract is a corpse. I dread to think what that may be for. Looking down the rest of the list I don't think there is much missing that could be considered essential for a party - booze, smokes, dancers, and small arms to really liven the evening. Maybe there should be a DJ added in and a sound system? But for this contract, Jmam really has thought of everything. You even get a Janitor to clean up after you and coffee for the morning. Actually, there was one thing Jmam wishes he'd put in this contract. I gather the source of Exotic Dancers is questionable and I've been informed that the next Party Kit will contain a supply of antibiotics in case of infection.

This surely beats the usual packaged contracts which contain a ship and all the fittings someone else thinks you might need. Often the ship isn't even there.

Go have a look for the contract, there should still be a few hours left on it now.

Which One Is The Parody?

No EVE content today but stick around. These two videos will only take six minutes of your time.

First we have the original:

Yup, that was bad. Really, really bad. Now purge your ears with this cover:

Okay, so that song is never going to be a classic but damn, those guys took a really terrible song and made it only bad by singing it well.

Happy Friday.

Unexpected Silence

I appear to have taken an unplanned break from blogging this week. For a change, in game events have taken precedence to writing. The good thing is I should have plenty to write about as a result. I'll be back next week as normal.

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!

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.

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.

[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

[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

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.

Running Sites

I spent a long time hanging out though a K162 in a neighbour C4 hole today. I woke up to reports of a mining op next door. While Epi tracked the three Hulks down I got myself ready to jump through to take advantage of the situation.

Unfortunately we didn't already have a set of bookmarks for the sites in this neighbour so d-scan was being used to narrow down the location of the grav site we hoped to find these poor miners in. We also didn't have combat probes available, Epi being in a Nemesis, so catching these guys was possibly going to be tricky.

The wormhole connection was out of d-scan from their POS so when the Hulks warped back  home I was given a cue to jump through. I parked myself on their POS to watch manoeuvres while Epi went back to tracing where the elusive grav site was located.

"Got it" said Epi and he warped in to await the arrival of the Hulks. After some time they eventually warped back and we waited for the call to jump to Epi and commence firing. The call never came and Epi decided there must be another grav site. Bugger.

Again two of the Hulks warped back to the POS but this seemed rather quick. We wondered if they had been spooked by the so-far unnoticed probes. Well, might as well resolve the other grav site, which Epi did with efficiency while I watched the Hulks doing nothing from their POS. There was still that third Hulk hanging out in the grav site so when Epi jumped to the new signature you can imaging our surprise when the site was empty. Seriously, a third grav so close?

In scanning the third site down it seems we definitely spooked the gaggle of miners as they warped out and almost instantly back to the POS and eventually logged out. Most of my corp headed off for food but I was still hopeful that the newly active Iteron V would be taken out for some PI harversting.

Sadly it wasn't to be. I sat watching him for about an hour before he logged out. Well, wasn't like I had anything else planned. Our normal static connection seemed to lead to an infinite chain of C4s with static C4s and no K162s in sight. Oh well, still to actually loose some missiles in anger from this Tengu.

This Is War

As well as recruiting members to our corp, our alliance is also recruiting whole new corps. An unexpected bonus from this was a new corp who joined us a couple of days ago brought a high-sec wardec with them. Seems this was an unfortunate coincidence, which I can believe. I've been director in a corp who joined a new alliance and in the joining cool-down we got wardecced. Ho hum, these things happen.

I set to work on my usual intel gathering routine. It's been some time since I found myself on the receiving end of a wardec so I'm a little rusty. Taking a look at the aggressor corp I found that they only have three members, of which only one appears to have any kills or losses. Hmm, interesting and not really that scary.

Let's go hunting. Only there is no indication of the guy anywhere in New Eden thus far. The corp description suggests we can buyout the war for a mere 300 Million ISK but I think we should have a little bit of fun with this. I mean, we are over 200 members now and how often do  you get to hunt in hisec?

I'm looking forward to seeing either the aggressor corp numbers inflate or the war getting abandoned. The question is, if they abandon the war do we still have a chance to make it mutual? I've never been in a position before where we'd want to try that. I'll let you know if anything actually comes of this.

Hypocritical Idiocy

Hopefully this is the last I'll have to write on the whole Mittens Fanfest controversy. Actually, I'll state it now: This is the last I will write about that whole pile of fail. Three posts is way too much.

On Friday night DJ Funky Bacon on Eve Radio¹ hosted a show dedicated to the whole Mittensgate issue. On the show while I was listening were Seleene and Two Step. To be honest I wasn't paying that much attention as the show just seemed to be going back over everything I've read since the whole thing kicked off. Also it was way past bedtime and I was tired.

The interesting part happened after I headed off for some sleep. The Mittani himself appeared on the show and during the interview someone decided it would be a good idea to post the alleged real address of one Alexander Gianturco, aka. Mittens. This was not the wisest thing that someone could have decided to do, but this is the internet and stupid things like that happen from sub-par intellectuals (or drunk people). The really, really dumb thing happened just after when some other twit decided to post an incitement to go visit said address and "rape [Mittens'] wife".

Now I'm not sure if suggesting such a thing could ever be deemed acceptable. Even amongst my close friends where a certain level of personal insults can be freely distributed we would never veer within a hundred miles of  such a sick suggestion as that. And that's where we all know exactly how to take each other. An in-game chat room full of random people? Really?

Whatever came before that statement with Mittens' ill advised comments at fanfest this guy should not have ever suggested such a thing. I'm glad I didn't see the comment or know the character name; I personally don't ever want to know if I'm online at the same time as that sick guy. I really hope he gets a permanent ban to remove him from the Eve gene pool forever. I also suspect someone may also have to give the guy pointers on why his actions are more than a little hypocritical.

¹ If you don't listen to Eve Radio you should. The music tends to be good, the DJs I've heard are a high calibre and they sometimes organise roams or other events².
² Why yes, I am flirting with Jester-esque footnotes.