Tuesday, August 30, 2011

We… WIN?

We… a small, 3 man pirate corp war dec’ed another small, 3 man who-knows-what-they-do corp, and we are nom nom’in dey asses BADLY… (and I mean badly, they all have exactly zero, NONEWHATSOEVER kills)… We currently have keeled them to the tune of 13 kills & 3 podkills. Now I cannot claim any of these as I have been in 3 engagements with 0 losses and 0 kills… But, and I say this with the utmost assurance as they cannot even kill me… overall they suk.

Now things have been fun and have gone well for us in this regard. I have been getting into some PvP like I wanted (though not as much as I was hopin for) and while I am not getting kill mails, I am also not the subject of other’s kill mails, so far so good. The other guys in our little corp are simply having a ball… Yea, we have to do the waiting and the gate games and the station games and shit… but when they have gotten a shot at the WTs, they (read “we” for purposes of ego) have been either been victorious or the WTs broke off and ran.

We also have the usual WT’s trying smack in local, loggin on in Alts and SPAI’in on us and or smackin in local etc., etc. …  Now we ascribe to the Sun Tzu Book of Piratey Ways… Book the First, Pg 111, Ch 3: “See No Evil, Hear no Evil, Smack no Evil”… The Eminys ONLY contact with us is via our “Diplomatic Pressure Systems” or DPS for short (IE we shoot them until they see things our way).

The ONLY exception to this rule is “The Right Of Ransom”. When we are in the ‘right’ (IE our “Diplomatic Pressure Systems” have given us the Right) we very kindly and with the utmost regard for the poor buggers we are a buggerin, allow them the possibility of a Formal Cessation of Hostilities for a VERY reasonable (ran)sum of I$K. This gracious, heartfelt offer is made but once, without debate or extended conversation. Pay up or the dying will continue.

So I wake one fine day, none of my corpmates are on, and I am putterin about my quarters taking care of some of the endless paperwork that goes hand in hand with piracy… (yea, we got bureaucrats too) and I realize I am being convo’ed by one of the WTs… now normally we simply set the Comms to autoignore, but as I was reachin to disconn, I read his statement to me about how he found it funny how badly our ransom plan went… I closed the connection with a mild curiosity about what he meant. Then I saw there was new mail waiting in my inbox… a letter from CONCORD…  Hmmm…

It seems our little 3 man pirate corp has been War Dec’ed by…
An Alliance.
A 40 corp, 4500 man Alliance.
A BIG Alliance…
An EFFIN BIG DAMN Alliance…  well fuk me runnin.

I am not quite sure how to take this. You see Oz and Fer, they’re happy as pigs in shite. They see this as a MAJOR “thing”. A BIG DEAL. And I grant you, if Piracy and Griefin is your be all and end all in EVE, yea, OK, I can sorta get that this could be seen as some kind of major recognition that you are “Making Someone Who Counts Cry”… But see I am only a student. I am NOT a lifelong, dedicated, died in the wool kinda pirate. I just wanted to learn how to be better at PvP.

I fear I may have fallen in with bad men,       and scoundrels.

OH, and the corp we originally dec’ed… they dec’ed us, this makes the War mutual. By that I mean we don’t have to pay one red I$Kie now. The War stays active with no end until BOTH corps agree to drop it. This is an absolutely idiotic move on their part. As long as we are Dec’ing them, we have to pay for the dec EACH week. Now it is free for us to fight them from our original corp.

Our options? We create and jump to a second corp, which is NOT dec’ed by the WT’s OR the WT’s Alliance frens, and from that corp we WarDec the WT corp and start it all over again. Now, you have to understand, for an Alliance to Dec anyone is one helluva lot more expensive (hundreds of millions of I$K per week) than for a corp to dec a corp (2 mil per week)… so this becomes epicostly for the guys we originally dec’ed to keep going.

Do the math:
(1) Made original War Mutual -they reduced our war costs to ZERO;
(2) Got an Alliance to Dec us – megacostly and we jumped corps so only inactive alt holding the dec’ed corp open, no one to make war on  = complete waste of I$K.

Add up their losses/costs:
13 ships, 3 clowns (I’m sorry, I meant clones…)
+ Alliance Dec costs (approx 250 MILLION I$K per WEEK)
Against our losses/costs
losses 0.00
+ Dec costs (now 0.00)
= this is just stoopid.

Now while the above numbers look fascinating and all, my reaction was not ‘quite’ the same as Oz & Fer’s… I want, one day… one day soon, to go back to HB, settle back into our C2, work on makin I$K, keepin the POS fueled, runnin sleepers, maybe moving up to C3’s and C4’s… and yes, defending our WSpace and Raiding Stat C2s and hopefully getting in some PvP along with all the above… But I don’t wanna piss off a 4500 man Alliance and have them take it into their heads… even a small percentage of their 4500 heads… that TurAmarth is a guy to be on the lookout for AND if anyone sees ‘im or is ‘ilk, let’s go hunt down and KEEL ‘im and is ‘ilk…  I don’t wanna bring that kinda trubble to my corp.

“The best laid plans of mice and men…” as they say. So, what to do, what to do? Well, first off I jumped corps as planned and the new corp is now actively at war with the WTs… Then came RL…

I experienced my first real, live earthquake. Yuppers, I was within 50 miles of the Mineral VA earthquake. And directly after that we had good ‘ol Herricane Irene come to town… during which we left town, and then came home to a power outage… so my OL time had been curtailed this past week to say the least.

So I login last night and find my mind has been perkin away at this during ‘All The Fun’ and I have, unbeknownst to me, decided to (temporarily) go back to the hole take a training break and make some I$K. This is a practical as well as a “Me Runnin Away From Incredible Stoopid Odds” solution as I am pert near broke anyhoo... I am… really.    I swear.

So last night I get on and AI and Spiro have the BMs and a decent lowsec to the C2… I swap ships and head out in “Kilroy” my Hound. 15 hops to home. I get there and AI brings me in… Ahhhhh… the Crazy Marble never looked so good to me. I BM the entrance and jump jump… and I’m home.  =]

I BM the exit hole, warp to the relay point and… OH CRAP!!!!!!!!!  WTF IS THE SHIELD PASSWORD!?!?!?  I land, 250 Klicks out and cringe while aligning… wait, I’m not being targeted or fired on…. Whew! OK, I set the shield PW that I ‘member setting up, cross my fingers and warp down to the POS. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. I land safely ‘tween the Ship Maint Hangar and “Haven” the Med Ship Assy Array… only to discover I cannot access ANYTHING!!  LOL  I am not in corp OR Alliance!! Heck I’m not sure if I log off I’ll not get ejected and killed when I log back on…

You see as I unnerstand it your ‘ship’ does not save the POS Shield PW… so on loggin back in, the POS Shield ejects you(r ship) and then see’s you as an eminy and keels you. At least that’s the theory and I dunt wanna test it… so I warp to a 30 KM above the surface of the moon BM AI made and fly 55 KM into the moon… and log off happy to be safe at home… in the deadliest space in EVE.

Tomorrow I’ll kill some Sleepy Guys, make some I$K and think on what to do what to do…  =]

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

Thursday, August 25, 2011

After Action Report: #WCA-2011.08.24-TE-GPI

After Action Report of War Combat Activity
Captain TurAmarth ElRandir/GPI Corp.

Date: Approx 01:00 to 05:00 GMT - 2011.08.24
Location:
Station: Federation Navy Assembly Plant
Planet: Dodixie IX - Moon 20
Constellation: Coriault
Region: Sinq Laison

I awoke in my quarters in FedNavAssyPlant Dodi-IX/20 and contacted corpmates Oz, Fer and friend SM and determined the WT’s were not active ATM.

After the morning Triple-S (shit, shower and shave) as I was lookin forward to the prospect of some action, I grabbed a quick handmeal  (recombined BLT on fauxwheat, not as good as the ones I used to sneak at the crèche, but nuthin ever is as good as it was back home is it?) which I eat standing in quarters instead of a sit down breakfast at my favorite cafe on the concourse. After eating I took a lift down to the Hangar Bay and checked on the progress of the Initial Fitout of my new Navy Issue Vexor “Dicombobulatius”. I watched as the work was completed, inspected & accepted and I signed off on her. She is ready for trials.

I then went to the bay where “Narker” (my Std. Issue Vexor) was docked and went over her with the crew chief. All was in order, I signed off and accepted her as ready for combat. I boarded and ran through the pre-flight and weapons checks. Shortly thereafter the WTs became active and I undocked and we fleeted up ready for action.

I warped up to my ‘250KM Vert SS @ FNAP-IX/20’ (a SafeSpot 250KM vertically above the FedNavyAssyPlant), Oz warped to me and setup a CAMP (Combat Ambush Maneuver Position)  and I then warped to the 250KM Horiz SS @ FNAP-IX/20 (a SafeSpot 250KM Horizontally in front of the FedNavyAssyPlant) and setup my CAMP.

One of the WTs undocked in a shuttle and warped away before I could get in lock range. He immediately warped back landing approx 500KM off station approx in line with a local Beacon. After observing us for a short period, the WT warped to a SS at the ‘rear’ of the station and docked. At this time Fer joined us at station and took up a CAMP directly at the docking bay entrance.

As we maintained overwatch for the WTs, I warped out to the Beacon and warped back in to 100KM off station. I then flew out to 155KM and made a SS. At this time Os had to break off and dock up due to a technical issue.

Shortly after, A WT undocked and was engaged by Fer who attempted a SCRAM. I warped to my SS at the Station docking bay entrance but the WT was able to break Fer’s lock and warp away before I could aggress. He warped to open space, probably an offgrid SS. I took up a CAMP at the docking bay entrance and Fer warped off to check the other stations to try and find the WT. The WT had docked up in another station in Dodixie system. We maintained CAMPS. At this time SM joined us and took up a position on the other side (back) of the station and target locked me in preparation for RR support. We maintained CAMP.

1st ENGAGEMENT:
04:49:10 a WT in a Std. Issue Mrymidon undocked and approached me. We both acquire target locks, the WT launched 5 Hammerhead II drones, I launched 5 Valkyrie II drones;
04:49:51 the WT attacked w/ his drones and guns, I respond w/ my drones;
04:50:02 WT started trying to warp scramble;
04:50:25 WT broke target lock w/ ECM;
04:50:29 Re-acquired target lock and resumed offensive;
04:50:43 WT broke target lock 2nd time w/ ECM;
04:50:44 Re-acquired target lock and resumed offensive;
04:50:46 WT broke target lock 3rd time w/ ECM;
04:50:48 Re-acquired target lock and resumed offensive;
04:50:53 Interference from WT warp breaks target lock, WT warps away;

04:50:57 WT drones continue active attack until Command & Control Link is lost then go inactive, my drones auto-engage the 5 Hammerheads he left on the field. I cancel offensive operations, recall my drones then scoop all 5 abandoned Hammerhead II drones to cargo bay;
END OF ENGAGEMENT

I docked and repaired all damage to ship and drones, total cost: 186,983.00 ISK

Total time of engagement – 1minute 47 seconds
Damage done: Both ships had armor damage, neither critically;
Loss: WT abandoned 5 Hammerhead II drones
(approx 3,121,499.40 I$K  / 624,299.88 I$K ea. @ Jita Med Buy Price)

We discussed the engagement and I refit "Narker" with dual SCRAMs.

We continue CAMP operations.

20 minutes later the same WT I had earlier engaged warps back to station, lands in range and re-engages me. He acquires target lock, launches 5 more Hammerhead II drones and attacks;

2nd ENGAGEMENT:
05:10:43 Target acquired and locked;
05:14:35 I attempt to warp scramble the WT;
05:14:50 I launch 5 Valkyrie II drones and engage WT;
05:14:51 I engage my Dual 180mm Prototype I Automatic Cannons (initial strike, 187 damage);
05:15:10 WT engages me w/ onboard weaponry;
05:15:40 I am unable to overload my mods as suggested by SM (lack of skills);
05:15:43 WT deaggresses and docks;

05:15:47 WT drones continue active attack until Command & Control Link is lost then go inactive, my drones auto-engage the 5 Hammerheads he left on the field. I cancel offensive operations, recall my drones then scoop all 5 abandoned Hammerhead II drones to cargo bay;
END OF ENGAGEMENT

I docked and repaired all damage to ship and drones, total cost: 116,686.00 ISK

Total time of engagement – 5 minute 2 seconds
Damage done: Both ships had armor damage, neither critically;
Loss: WT abandoned 5 Hammerhead II drones
(approx 3,121,499.40 I$K  / 624,299.88 I$K ea. @ Jita Med Buy Price)

Again a confirmed kill slips through my fingers… But my confidence is growing with every engagement. We discuss the areas where my fit might be improved based on past performance. The WT got away from me because he was able to break my target lock, 1st through ECM and 2nd by breaking range through superior speed, though not “fast” his Myrm was able to outdistance my Vexor and break lock.

I need to refit w/ an AB or better a MWD, this will cause some issues with CAP & CPU, and I will need to adjust other mods to allow the CAP an MWD costs, but Ima go play with PYFA and I will work those out.

Next time!!!!!

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

FUKBEANS BANANNASLIPPERS FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!...

Well, I did it… I got into a fight, on purpose, fought well, and lived to tell about it …  =]

Last week I dropped roles, and left the C2 for Dodi to join w/ Oz & Fer in their pirate corp. The 1st few days I was sorta just biding my time at Dodi and waiting for them to tell me what to do… Then I figgered out that it is up to ME as to what to do. This may seem obvious to some of you but lemme ‘splain where it come from…

When I first joined EVE I spent the 1st month or so solo’in around just getting a ‘feel’ for the place. I just bumbled around with no plan or guide which can lead to some really interesting discoveries and experiences. When you have a guide you feel ‘safe’. You know the person leading you by the hand ‘Knows All About This Stuff’ and will advise you and keep you safe. When you don’t have a guide… well, life can be vastly more interesting…   =]

Like the 1st time I saw the Caldari Prime Titan, THAT was a stunner. I had just completed the training that opened up Cruisers to me and did some reading and research and had decided on a Stabber as my 1st cruiser. The Stabber is a small, fast std. Minnie Cruiser and a nice step up from Dessies without being too BIG a jump up in terms of cost, fitting, handling, etc. Anyhoo, I had researched and bought a nicely priced hull several hops away from where I was at the time, and I jumped in a shuttle and made the run to pick her up, fitted her out (mostly T1) and headed back to my home base. In all the runnin around buyin, getting and fittin all the mods I ended up comin back through some systems I had never gone through before… including the Luminaire system in the Essence region.

As I was passing through I noticed a marker about something called the “Caldari Leviathan”. Huh? A Leviathan is a Titan, the biggest ships in EVE are Titans and they are NOT allowed in Empire space. I had to see what this was about so I warped to the marker and… well, you gotta see it for yourself.

Now understand this is one of the 4 largest ships in ALL OF EVE… these things are upwards of 7 to 9 MILES long. This one was surrounded by a fleet of approx 40 or so (by my count) Caldari Navy BS & BC class ships. The ship is so large that if you warp to say, 50KM out and turn off tactical and HUD… you can’t even SEE any of the 40 or so support ships… but the Titan is a plain as day in front of you. As you approach you start to see little specks moving around the ship… get closer still and you begin to realize those ‘little specks’ are a FLEET flying around it… as you even get closer you realize those ‘little specks’ are Battlecruisers and Battleships AND they look like flies swarming around a dead horse… that was when I brought my brand new Stabber to a full stop… and just sat there… in awe.

It was only after sittin there like a tourist for some time that I realized there were ships other then the NPC fleet present AND they were fighting… Get that. I dint even notice the fighting… I swear. Several Capsuleers were flying around INSIDE the ball of Cal Navy NPC ships… and firing on some of them! I watched as a Cal Navy Raven was asploded… the pilot what killed him then looted the wreck. Hey!! This could be FUN! So I went tactical, decided on the smallest BC I could find nearest to the edge of the fleet, flew to just within my optimal range… aligned to warp out… targeted the ship… and started the music…

And I died. Badly. Really, really badly… and quick too. LOL…

You see, as my guns started to strike home the ship I was firing on, AND a very large number of other ships in the NPC fleet, ALL targeted ME and ALL fired on ME and ALL at the same time… Wow. I lasted just long enough to think “WTF!?!?! SHIT! I need to warp outta here!!” I popped as I was trying to start to initiate a warp out.

I sat there in my pod as it rocked in the shock wake and cloud of smoke and debris from my brand new paint-still-wet Stabber wreck… and man was I pissed!  I LOL about it now, but at the time I was as ready to rage quit as I have even been. Anyhoo… I went and bought and fitted out a new Stabber and got over it. Later I went back and this time watched the other pilots at work carefully and saw they used drones to aggress a ship, and when that ship and others fired back on the drones they then opened fire on the ship directly while pulling their drones back… this tactic breaks the aggro from ALL the Cal Navy fleet ships (for some reason including the one still being fired on) and allows the pilot to then take as long as he needs to down any single ship he wants... Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…. NOW I see what I did wrong.

My point being, if I had had a guide or a friend along, yes, I would not have lost my 1st Cruiser… but the sheer delight of discovery… and yes, even the loss of my ship… was simply too much fun to have missed out on in a guided tour. Plus I have a really wonderful memory and a great noob story to boot.  =]

So how does this relate to my sittin in Dodi and waiting on ‘Orders’ from Oz & Fer? Well, you see after my son AI, our RL friend SL & I founded HB and joined the Alliance we started to get War Dec’ed and we’d fleet up and try and fight back. Now when I was on my own… the trubble I got in was MY FAULT… I pwnup to it and took it like a noob, no problemo, But… during the Alliance wars, if you were going it alone and got ganked by WTs or if you lost badly… noobed it up or flew a faction ship and had a large I$K loss… you got hammered by your mates and allies. Not everyone was hard on everyone… but I have to admit I caught it too and was harsh with some of those who were “costing” us the war by losing ships. I myself had several losses and went so far as to write up an apology to our FC’s for a loss of mine... out of shame.

So I got conditioned. In time of War, you WAIT and follow ORDERS. You play it SAFE. You do NOT go solo. You do NOT lose ships at any cost. This was what my experience in the Alliance fleets had taught me. If we can’t blob em and WIN, stay in station so you stay safe and don’t piss off anyone… I hated war in the Alliance. I thought this was the way it was for everyone and that was partly why we, my corp, ended up sorta permalivin in the C2.

Now keep in mind I love the C2 and our POS and I’d live there no matter what… but there was a distinct feeling of “climbing into our hole and pullin it in after us” during the last 2 war decs. So… we lost some corps… the Executor logs off (and no one has seen him for over a month now…) and finally the wars cease.

So what do I do but leave the C2 and my corp just to intentionally go right back to War?

I hate war right? I hate the waiting and the BS and the ‘fear’ of losing. Well, all that hatin and fear actually was why I was here, but THIS time on MY terms. I wasn’t being dec’ed and on the defense… I was one of the people doing the dec’ing and gettin offensive! Plus I really like and respect the abilities of the guys I am flying with and believe I can learn a lot from them without any of the hammering and blame game shit that went during the Alliance wars. Not that there weren’t pilots and FCs in the Alliance that I liked and respected… there were and are. But this time it was by MY choice that I went to War.

So I have come to a realization… an epiphany if you will… the only problem with war in the Alliance was… nobody tried to ENJOY it. Many of us… me included I am ashamed to say, took it FAR too seriously. Keeping careful track of ships and I$K losses. I know that that is the measuring stick for who won/lost wars in EVE… but there is the other side to that coin… it can be FUN if you let it/make it be fun. Yea, ok, keep track of the ships & I$K… but don’t let that stop you from enjoying the game or doing your best to learn and get better. Accept the losses and support and help the pilots who lose. Get them back in the saddle and help em back out onto the field and back in the game. And LOL over the losses and slap each other’s backs over the wins at the close of the day.

This past weekend, Oz, SM and I ganged up and got into a fight with Oz’s WTs outside of Dodi station. SM is a member of our brother corp in the C2 and uses RR aggro mechanics to join fights as he is not actively IN the war as an aggressor or defender, but if he RR’s someone who is in the war, then he garners aggro against the other side… IE he goes flashy RED to them. Now he cannot fire on the other side until they fire 1st. But he can continue to RR if they don’t, greatly assisting the side he is supporting, and if the other side does shoot at him then he can actively join in the fight.

The 1st night I was not yet in corp w/ Oz so I too was going to be using RR aggro mechanics. I was in station thinkin about the (I hoped) fight to come and I realized I don’t have to sit there and ‘wait’ on Orders… yes, we are going to work as a team and I am by far the junior member of said team… but that does not mean I have to be mute and skeered. So I manned up and have been far more actively involved and mentally prepared for a fight than I have been since Fer was teaching me WH tactics and suchlike months ago in the C1. I felt good and I felt ready.

I was in Dodi and we all ended up there. 2 of the WTs undocked, Oz & SM were outside and called me out. I took a deep breath, and undocked. One of the WTs was in a Brutix and another was in a Stabber.. I was in a Vexor, Oz was flyin his Legion and SM was in a Drake. Oz took on the Brutix and SM and I locked Oz up and started RR’in him. I had 5 Med Armr drones out and workin. After a min or so Os said “OK that should do it Tur.” Another WT undocked ina Rifter and immediately attacked me.

SM joined Oz against the Brutix and I defended myself from the Rifter. I pulled 2 of my RR drones in and launched 2 Ogre Is which I targeted on the Rifter. I started up my guns, DCU II and armor repper and orbited the Rifter at 1000m. He ate my shields down in good order and started in on my armor while I and my drones worked on him. I got through his shields and was getting deep into his armor in good time while my repper was tanking his incoming better than he was mine. Then we both got RR assists. Oz sent his RR drones on me and a neutral pilot began armor repping the Rifter after I had got him into hull.

Now it was a stand-off between me and the Rifter as his armor and mine were now fully repped against each other’s DPS. Oz & SM finished off the Brutix and Oz ordered me to deagress. I untargeted the Rifter and pulled in my drones. After 30secs Oz told me to dock up which I did. We had got 2 good kills, the Brutix between SM & Oz and a Stabber Oz popped… I never even saw the Stabber fight as I was busy with my fight.

If not for the neutral RR the Rifter got, I would have popped him. I had him into hull and he had me only into armor… and not deep either. But RR works both ways... I got RR from Oz and while I would have LOVED a Rifter kill my 1st time out with the guys, I was happy overall with my performance. Yea… I had the shakes and my heart was pounding like a trip hammer… but I kept my cool and for one reason and one reason only… I was fighting on MY terms. I WANTED to be there I WANTED to KILL them I WANTED to fight. All but 2 of my other PvP encounters have been me getting attacked and being on the defensive. I felt very good about the whole engagement. If I lost my ship, so what, I eventually will, that is a given… but the chance to fly and fight and learn from and with these guys who I like and respect is very very worth it.

The next night we tried again… This time I had been accepted into corp and no longer needed to use RR aggro… but we couldn’t get the WTs to come out and play, they just played station games and stayed docked up or ran and docked as soon as we jumped in system. Booring…  Ifn yer skeered, SAY yer skeered!  And to think that someone in this game is skeered of me… LOL

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

PS Update:
From Fer - "Tura, 5mins after you logged they engaged, I killed the Stabber & Brutix and got both of their pods."  sheesh...   =]

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

I’mmmmmmmmmmm… OFF to be The Wizard! ...

Yo HO HO and a Bottle of Quafe!…
(Back to how Tura is gonna become a PvP GOD…)

Well the (current) war has ended and (so far) no one else has dec’ed us SO… I spent the last week basically killin, lootin and salvagin the Nefarious Forces of Naptime solo… This past week has been kinda weird… very few allies or corpmates have been on when I have and I have not been on nearly as much as usual so I was usually alone in the C2 when ingame.

For me this was partially due to the War and also due to our last few stat lowsec holes have sukked ballz…  Either multiple lowsec hops with obvious gate camps on the route or seriously way too far from any of the major hubs or Dodi etc., etc. …

This setup several conditions…  1. It was somewhat boring but coincided with some RL shit I needed to devote time to and 2. It allowed me to work on my scanning uberness… running skillz to L5 and practicing… PLUS 3. it allowed me to solo a Sleeper Site or 2 each night… shiney… I needed the I$Kies plus while boring to a degree, I must say I enjoyed the break from the hectic ‘usual’ goings on…

It was kinda nice having the hole all to myself… life in EVE the way it should be for me. Rural… like living in the country. You know the cities and the Great Unwashed Masses are “out there”… but you can CHOOSE when to deal with em… on your own terms. I’ma country boy at heart… If I ever lived in Jita… I’d rage quit in a week.

Well, last night my boys were comin back to the hole (seems we finally got a GOOD Empire hole and nice HiSec) and, as the War had ended ervybody had popped out for store runs and suchlike. So my guys were coming back in, SL having just bought and fitted a Nightmare (SCHWEET!) and I had a vurra nice load of Sleeper L&S with a load of Arkonor to run to Jita, only 15 hops out…. Sweet.

Sold ervything, banked a nice 100M I$K… bought, on the Corp wallet, a load of the fuels we were shortest on and got meself a can full of Med ECM drones. Then browsed the market looking at ships… almost bought me a Fed Navy Comet… but it was ‘round then I got to chattin with Oz and Fer and decided to go ahead with my plans to jump corp and become a Pwndawon Learner.

Oz  & Fer had joined together  and setup a Pirate Corp and were War Dec’n and Can FengShui’in (we don’t can FLIP, we Can Feng Shui… we are doing pubic service and simply cleanin up all those cans that so many lowlife litterbug pilots toss out near stations…  =]  ) and gankin and partakin in suchlike piratical activities… and I’ma join up!

So I made the run back to the POS, spent some time fuelin up the CT. Then cleaned up my cargo bay, did the dishes, straightened up my room and packed a small kit bag. Went to my office, sat down and… sat there with my finger hovering over the enter key… with the “Remove All Roles” selection blinkin on screen…  and found I was somewhat overcome with emotion.

I dint want to leave HB. It’s my home. My corp. My son and our good RL friend founded it together. This was SILLY… I am going to come back, this is only a training sabbatical, this is TEMPORARY… a few weeks at most, I NEED this training, I am not leaving EVE and I still have my incorp alt in the POS… granted the lowskill bich can’t DO much of anything… but “I” can still logon as her and be incorp and in the POS… then why couldn’t I push that key??

Weird huh? I mean… this is all virtual… not “REAL”… and yet this place (read game) evokes such strong emotions in me… I can’t quit my corp because it will CHANGE who I am… it will change ME somehow…

So I close out of the Corp Management App, lock up my office and go down to the Ship Hangar. I board my Vexor, the one I fitted out for this right before we were Dec’ed last week… undock and align to the HiSec hole… then I spent a few minutes just gazin at the POS... at my home in the stars. I feel like a teenager who is leaving home to go to college… except that I AM coming back to stay, not leaving to start a new life out “there”. I warp to the hole… and through the crazy marble to the adventure that awaits me on the 
other side.

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

PS… the above was SUCH a GOOD ending I had to add this after…
I made my way to Dodixie, 20+ hops, and after I got there I swapped ships to my ‘Phoon and went out and did what I call, “Sittin on the porch”. I undock and stop ship immediately then go vertical until I am level with the docking bay entrance… then I sit and watch the local parade of fools as they dock, undock, warp to and away, and sometimes… often… fight and kill each other. I thought things over and finally loaded up the Corp Management App on one of my command consoles, reselected “Remove All Roles”… and hit enter. 

Tomorrow my Training begins.

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Fellowship is Breaking...

One of the amazing things about MMO(RP)Gs is the sense of community... nowhere more so than in EVE. Our corp is part of an Alliance… and I am very sorry to say that it feels, and looks, as if that Alliance may be breaking.

The Alliance we joined had been around for some time before we formed our corp and joined up. As a matter of fact my corp CEO (my son AI) and our Security Director (SL, AI’s RL Marine corpmate) had been members of a corp that was in this same Alliance many months before I joined EVE. As I understand it, they left that corp (and hence the Alliance) because their CEO was not very active (as we understand it he had RL issues that took precedence, but still…). I have heard over and over again and again here that the most successful corps and Alliances are the ones with very active CEOs and Leaderships.

As any organization grows it takes on increasing responsibilities and expectations from its membership, whether in RL or in EVE… or any venues for that matter where people get together in groups to attain common goals and share in common interests. Without an active and involved leadership, these groups, whether virtual corps or Alliances or RL clubs, groups, companies etc., cannot support and coordinate activities and efforts and they WILL fail. The members will leave and break up to seek out groups and such that fulfill their desired goals and interests.

If you have a corp or Alliance and you have something come up in RL or any situation where your effectiveness as CEO or Executor will be hindered or significantly reduced, you should work to see to it that there are people in leadership positions with the power, responsibility and drive to keep things active and working while you deal with whatever it is that is taking precedence in your available time.

I am very sorry to say, our Executor has not done this and something, we know not what, has and is keeping him away and unavailable. This has lead to a great tragedy… The POS in the C1 owned and operated by our Alliance was allowed to run out of fuel… the forcefield went down and the POS was attacked and raided… with a very heavy loss in ships and mods.

This was a VERY well designed and setup Dethstar. A True Sansha Large Control Tower with a REALLY impressive array of defenses. Multiple internal mods and many ships stored in the Corp Hangar… plus 2 Carriers… that’s right, two Carriers.

Prior to this sad event… several of the corps that had joined the Alliance had opted to leave primarily due to the pressure of the constant War Decs. I felt we did OK as an Alliance in responding to the War Decs… and none of our corps was ever really hurt in I$K or ship losses but we were really hurt by the constant interruption of everyone’s time ingame.

While none of our corps were such complete carebears that they were dead set against any PvP, and most all of our pilots wanted to get involved and kick butt AND we were able to field fleets of up to 15 ships over and over again… The War Targets, of course, were not going for that… preferring hit and run and station games and 2 & 3v1 attacks. We did get one group to come out on the field and take a stab at one of our War Fleets…. and we won that one in both ship and I$K costs.

We weren’t bad at fighting back… they were simply paying the wear ‘em down game…. and that is a hard, hard game to respond to well. We are not a 0.0 Alliance and we have a mixed bag of corps with a mix of interests… and the constant Wars were just too much for some. Heck, my corp decided to put our main Chars in the C2 during this last War… I was willing to log on one of my OOC (Out Of Corp) alts for Spai and Scout duties… and I was willing to gank the WT’s OOC Spais and Scouts… but the Alliance leadership was either not logging on and several had left with their corps and there was, for us, some confusion over who if any of the leadership were left to turn to.

Then came the attack on the C1 POS… that was heartbreaking for me as that was where I discovered my place in this game… it was where I got my 1st kills… it was where I was 1st really “home” here. I was on a few nights ago and one of the Alliance corp members was on… and he was taking down the Spike and the mods that were left… a sad, sad day.

We don’t know what is going to happen now with the Alliance now… my corp is for the most part focusing inward. Keeping the POS fueled and separating the Forces of Naptime from their valuable Loot and Salvage…  I haven’t been OL nearly as much lately due to some RL issues… and I have a BUNCHA books I bought months ago that I want to use, but all of them have L4 and L5 pre-reqs in a large number of areas… so I decided to focus some real time on those skills I have been putting off due to the very large investment in time involved.

And it is really paying off… My lock time in my Drake last night was down to 1.8 seconds… Man OH man! And my scanning ability is very noticeably improved as I work my way through all of the Astrometrics books… +10% Scan Strength per level; -10% Scan Time per level; -10% Max Scan Deviation per level; +1 Probe per level … Get all those to L5 and I will become a SCANNING GOD!!!!  =]

Next is the long, long training haul to T3 Crusiers and my dream ship… a Cloaky Loki!

So ‘tween now and then my corp watches and waits to see what will happen w/ the Alliance. We do have solidarity with our brother corp in the C2… we have both made statements to the effect that we will remain in some form of Alliance together… which makes sense as we share 1 small system inside the C2 wormhole we both call home.

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

PS... An addendum to my last post... Nope, we dint sell the C4 OR the other C2 it was connected to... I split and the hole expired afore my CEO could get into it... Not his fault, I shoulda stayed inside. Oh well.... so it goes.   =P

Monday, August 8, 2011

Just a quickie....

I was all shipped up and excited at the prospect of learnin some PvP and...

BLAM! We're at war again. Now you may say, "Geez Tura, War is PVP right??" Yuppers.... but it is PvP on other's terms, not mine.

I want to go a ganking... I want to join with Oz and clean up the mess of jetcans you find around so many popular stations.. and if anyone takes umbrage at our efforts for to make a nice and clean space 'round these stations... well, they will have to just deal with our Disagreement Per Second on that. But they will have to do so at MY choosing, or rather at Oz's choosing...  =P

Anyhoo... there I was, waiting at the SOE Station in Arghnon and Oz was unavailable for a day or 2 and the Dec came in AND the Deccers have a lotta kills round Arnon way...  SOOoooo.... I fled home to the safety of the crazy marble, our C2.

On the up side... We had a couple a ships using our C2 and our Stat LowSec as a hiway last night. Seems we had a C4 w/ a Stat C2 open up in our hole and they lived in a hole connected to THAT one... LOL. Our brother corp in the C2 scanned down the C4 system, found it to be empty and near clean 'cept for a few bubbles someone left about...

So I popped in in my CovOps, made a few safes, wrote to my CEO 'bout it, logged off and we're gonna try and sell it. We sold an empty C2 w/ a Stat LowSec a few weeks ago... made 500M I$K total sale... not too shabby. So we're gonna see if we can generate some more WH I$Kies while I decide what to do, what to do....

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

Thursday, August 4, 2011

My Piratical Apprenticeship

or “How I became a Pwndawan Learner...”

Continuing the theme of how Tura sux at PvP, and his plans to unsuck hisself…
(still sounds really bad…)

In my quest to improve my PvP skills I have requested, and been accepted, as an apprentice to one of EVE’s Full Time Professional Pirates. I shall henceforth call him… Darth Nefarious.

You see Darth Nefarious (AKA Oz) was the first pirate to War Dec us early on (see this War Story) and has been a close friend of ours ever since. When we joined the Alliance we intro’ed Oz to our many new friends there. Oz has, as he said he would, joined up w/ us for several of the War Decs we have been in and when he wasn’t incorp, he assisted us in many ways. He is still happiest as a one man pirate corp so I asked him if he would be my PvP Sensei… and he said yes.  =]

Last night I was in Amarr which was the closest hub to our then lowsec hole for the C2. Oz was pirating around w/ an Ally and he advised me to put together a T1 Cruiser for my new life of piracy… I checked and found that I was able to fly far more ships than I had previously been able to. You see I have great skills up to L3 in many areas… but I had not been pushing up to L4 and 5 simply due to the extreme amount of time involved. Most L4 and L5 skills can take from two weeks up to a month of real time to complete.

Additionally I have never really looked into implants due to how much I kept hearing about the cost and how I saw some pilots I knew avoiding PvP because they did not want to lose the very expensive implants they had. This made no sense to me… you have a set of implants that give you almost godlike shield or armor resists or something… but you won’t USE them because you can’t “afford” to lose them…  I mean one of the most basic tenants of EVE is “Don’t Fly what you can’t afford to lose.” then why buy them in the first place?? I have used a few implants I had picked up as loot, but so what if I lost them, I dint pay for them to begin with.

I was finally talked into looking seriously at implants because they can cut WAYYYY down on training times. A basic +3 set goes for approx 40M I$K and can cut from 1 to 5 days off of a L4 or L5 skill… now THAT is very worth the cost. And yea, if you get podded you lose em and gotta replace em… but 40M is a far cry from say 1 or 1.5 Billion I$K a full Slave set can go for. I still will prolly never use a full set that runs more than say, 100M I$K, but I do now feel that they can be worth the cost and worth replacing if lost.

Anyhoo… so I got a full set of Basic +3 ‘plants in my head and a full set of Shield Hardwiring ‘plants also (Hardwiring ‘plants give you very specific boosts to mods such as shield, armor, missiles, etc., etc. ). Then I took a look at some of those L4 and L5 skills I have been putting off…  and started cramming the books into my head. It is starting to pay off… I can now run Hvy Drones, Sentry Drones, my CAP, CPU and Prop use is about as good as it can get. My base ranges for guns and missiles is significantly better than a few weeks ago… etc., etc.

So I bought me a Vexor, Gallente T1 Crusier Drone Boat, found me a fit I liked via EVEMon’s Battleclinic Loadout browser, and fitted her up nice. Made the run from Amarr to Arghnon (Arnon for them as are non-pirates out there) late last night… Now I am waiting with baited breath… for tonight’s lesson in the Fine Art of EVE Piracy.  =]   Wish me luck!

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Fighting BACK...

Continuing the theme of how Tura sux at PvP, and his plans to unsuck hisself…(Jeez that sounds SOO bad…)

OK, recent PvP experiences:

+1
In the 8+ months I have been ingame I have been more concerned with learning my way around, skilling up, getting into better ships, finding my “place” here… which turns out to be a Wormholer. Living in a wormhole can be very lucrative and in the right hole, can be, strangely enough, quite a bit safer than HiSec. I have lived in the C2 ever since we anchored Serenity Station 2 months ago… but so far ALL of my losses since then have been when I am in HiSec during wars or LowSec during roams or such.

Now that I am getting settled into the lifestyle and career path I have chosen my interest in PvP is growing and my dissatisfaction with my performance in PvP is growing apace. So I had finally made a successful store run with my Whoredur (get it? Hoarder…  lol) full of gas mining products for the corp. While in HiSec at Dodi (Dodixie) station, I decided to try for a little PvP practice and do a solo LowSec rattin run. I wanted to see if I could… (1) enforce myself to keep my cool when under attack and (2) if so to work on making snap decisions, hopefully good one, IE whether to run or fight, and how to execute each in a calm cool James T. manner.

I have a love for the Stabber… I own several. It is fast and can be decently close range armed. It makes a very good Tackle Crusier and can run multiple tackle mods, Web & Scam and Neut & Nos. You do give up tank for tackle, but as with Tackle Frigs speed is your friend, you use your speed to avoid getting hit so if you fly it right you shouldn’t need a big tank… plus they are inexpensive and easy to replace. This one I am going to fly till I get popped. I want some PvP and I am willing to lose this ship to get it. Now unnerstand I want to fly home a winner… but I full well realize that I am (1) going solo and (b) I am but a nubbins still at pew pew… While this may be a really good way to get some PvP, it is also not a ‘winning’ combo in most cases. Most lowsec pirates work in teams and groups… Statistically speaking I will face a lot more PPPVP than straight up PvP.

So… I jumped in my Stabber “Back II” (get it? ‘BACK’ ‘Stabber’??  LOL) and checked the map for a nearby LowSec other than Decon…  (I say other than Decon as we have done a LOT of lowsec roams there in the recent past…) anyhoo, I end up back in Decon simply because it has good stats… not ‘too’ many pilots insystem ATM and not ‘too’ many recent jumps and not ‘too’ many recent ship and pod kills… but not none neither…

Anyhoo… I head on out and jump in. I start randomly running the ABs looking for NPCs. Now my plan is to actually rat… to kill NPCs making some bounty and loot I$K. then asplodin my wrecks to deny others the salvage cause I’m just that way you see. I warp in at 50KM, if there are NPCs, I go to work. I constantly spam DScan and I keep my tactical view zoomed out to at least 50KM so I can immediately pick up on any pirates what might warp in on my locale. I am tryin to keep my head about me, getting myself set in PvP mode… sorta preamping myself up so the sudden arrival of a live pirate won’t (hopefully) blow my cool as it usually does.

And it finally happens. Now I would love to tell you all the gritty details in a proper After Action Report style as to the Ship type, Ship name, Pilot name, etc., etc. … but that is part of the overall issue… I get overamped and the simplest tasks become incredibly hard plus, it has been a day or so ago and I am an OLD MAN… with OLD brain and deep case of CRS (Can’t Remember Shit)… anyhoo, so I had this Flashing Orange Pirate land approx 20KM out from me and he makes to do violence to my boat as it were. I go through the rush and the sudden NEED to RUN, I am trying to get a grip on myself, I turn and…

It is so hard to describe in words how I feel during PvP. Scared? Yes… but of what? I mean it‘s a computer GAME… it’s not REAL. But yes… scared. The age old “Fight or Flight” instinct kicks in and as is usual, Flight is the first response as Fight can get you hurt or killed. Fight is always a LAST resort and if there is a way to Run your instincts tell you to take it. You have to force yourself to turn and attack when you think there may be a way out… and in space, it is hard to feel ‘cornered’, if you know what I mean. Yes your logical mind tell you that he has you webbed and scrammed and you are in essence, cornered or trapped, but there is all that empty SPACE around you… Run Away! Run Away! your instincts cry…

But I don’t. I force myself to turn and attack... and so we dance… my heart is pounding… I am controlling my ship and myself and fighting ONLY by sheer willpower.

I lock him up and start the music. He’s a bit faster than me so I can’t get in Nos and Web range but I am hittin him w/ my guns and my One Lone Drone (which I ALWAYS forget to launch… dint THIS time!!  Ha HA!) I am manually flying, jinking and constantly working to get him in range of my webber while also avoiding flying directly AT him thereby keeping some transversal velocity. He is hitting me… and getting into my shields… but less than I had expected. I am hitting him… getting into his shields… lees than I hoped but more than I expected… prolly my One Lone Drone is really helping there, Warrior I’s are quite fast and it keeps hittin him cause he is concentrating on me and not my drone.

Then another ship lands on the field… CRAP!! Is he an ally of my attacker or a neutral or, hope against hope, an eminy of my eminy?? The pirate attacking me breaks contact and warps away. The other guy also warps off…  huh? uh… whatinhell?? My shields were down to approx 50% his were down to something like 65% so neither of us were in that bad a shape. Mebbe the other guys was an eminy of his or he felt it was a losing battle… I was tanking his damage somewhat ok… I’ll never know I guess.

I warp ‘tween safes while waiting out my GCC timer then go to the local station and clear my hold of the loot I had picked up and head back out. Start back randomly runnin the belts and rattin. Doesn’t take long afore I attract the attention of another pirate. As I said before I am concentrating on tactics and fighting so I don’t know if this is the same guy from earlier, but I don’t think it was. Anyhoo… he lands really close on me and we start to dancin...

And I pop. LOL… I check the kill mail and it was a Cynabal running 425mm AutoCannon II’s… I was pwned. Oh well… I fought back as best I could but he had me webbed and scrammed and once I lost transversal, he just tore through my tank. So it goes… I got my pod out (getting good at that at least) and went home feeling a just “little” bit better about meself…

I had fought off one pirate earlier… no I don’t know why he broke contact and left but he did and I was NOT getting pwned by him at the time. Mebbe he reshipped and he was the guy who popped me later… but he dint do it the 1st time!!!


Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=

If yer goona lose… lose BIG!

Continuing the theme of how Tura sux at PvP…

OK, recent PvP experiences:

-1
Woke up to another lovely day in the POS… Hopped in my CovOps Cheetah, “Wha?” I needed to do a store run and sell some Sleeper Loot & Salvage SL and I had freed up from the local Forces of Naptime… The Cheetah has only 200 M/3 of hold space so loaded her out w/ 2 Std Cans FULL of the L&S (‘member 2 Std. Cans carry 240 M/3 of stuff).  I then scanned down the anoms and sigs in our C2… got 2 Unstab WHs and promptly went to check em out. One was the Stat LowSec exit, excellent, and the other was the Stat C2.

Got the BMs for the lowsec and warped to the new Stat C2 just to get the BMs…
1st mistake, I left the 2 cans FULL of S&L in the hold,
2nd mistake, I warped into the Stat C2 without support,

Some of you may have an inkling of where this is going… The Stat C2 was occupado and they were awake and they were active and they were HOSTILE to bumbling idiots in cloaky CovOps ships. The Other side of the hole was camped and bubbled. I was able to fly outta the bubble before they found me and then go to MWD and get far enough away that they couldn’t.

Several of my Allies were up and active and we discussed my situation and options. The Occupants of the Stat C2 moved their Crow and Onyx into our C2 and bubbled and camped the hole while their ‘Geddon Navy Issue and a Scorp jumped back and forth to mass close the hole and trap me inside… I watched, waited and maneuvered to see if I could make a run for it, but no go... I was trapped.

Oh well, not too bad as I WAS in my best cloaky and a CovOps to boot, unarmed and w/ a paltry shld tank though she was… but she was fast, cloaky and with an Expanded Probe Launcher and a full set of Sisters probes. I quickly made several safes I and started scanning for their new static exit hole. I found it fairly quickly and warped to 100 and waited and watched a while… no activity and they still had probes out… or they had found it and were camped tight on the other side and had probes out as a ruse, oh what to do what to do…

The general consensus from my Allies was either stay logged in and sit cloaked up tight at a safe until they get tired and log off or uncamp the hole… or log off and try again later that night or the next day… I can always log onto one of my alts and sorta keep on playing that way. Problem was I dint want to log off… and I dint want to wait… my 3rd mistake.

My 4th, and the fatal mistake, was taking the bet that they had not found the exit yet… I ran up to the hole and popped through… and landed right in the middle of their bubble and hole camp… and this time I did not get out. They had multiple ships and many, many drones out. I was uncloaked before I could pick a direction to run… and so the dance started.

To say I was pissed at myself is an understatement of epic proportions. I was in an UNARMED and very lightly tanked ship packed as FULL of Sleeper L&S as I could make it… so on top of the usual adrenal shock and the and FIGHT or FLIGHT shakes I hadda good MAD at myself on too…  when these guys salvaged my wreck they were going to be very, very happy. I tried to get control over myself and get away, but a Broadsword, Crow and Falcon put paid to that attempt…

As my screens cleared from the violent explosion of my ship leaving my pod rocking in the blast wake and smoke, the only thing left to me was to deny them a pod kill. I warped to the 1st planet then immediately warped to the 3rd knowing they were all flyin to each warpable in turn searching for me. I set the self destruct and waited with my tactical screens zoomed out to 75KMl. As the countdown hit 4 seconds a ship warped in at 50KM from me and started burning towards me. I popped as he was trying for target lock. Crap.

I awoke in Soshin at my old SOE station in my clean, unblemished new clone… sans Ship, sans hold full Sleeper L&S, sans full set of +3 implants and full set of Shield hardwiring… Crap. Crap… crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap…

I purchased and refit a new Cheetah and did same e same with implants… and headed home.

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky  =/|)=