Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Tis Saturnalia Once Again...


or ~ Why is there a Tree in the POS?? <- this may be on every Christmas Post from now on…  =]

Just a note to all who read the stuff I post here… The holidays are being very good to me and mine, hope all of you are having happy and safe holidays and have had a chance to reconnect with kith & kin.


It’s nice to reacquaint once self with those people who are always makin noise in the background and tryin to get you interested in things that you and I know are simply not as interesting, or important, as…
> what one is skilling up for now, and what to skill for next,
> what fuels are needed, and by when, for the POS (or POSes),
> keeping “them” (no matter who they be) out of your system(s),
> and all the other fascinating things we all “do” here in New Eden.

But that’s what these dead of winter days of gatherings & gift giving, family & frens and dining & drinking… (til you puke up multicolored fruit cake… which BTW, IS real) are for, right?

As for Flyin the Deadly skies of EVE… Well, we three, the Directors of HBHI, were not able to come together in the Real this year. Our Illustrious CEO is in Florida, Strigon is up north with his family and we have a weird driving schedule this year… We spent a half day in NOVA (Northern Va) with ants and onkles and tomorrow we spend a half day half as far north with other fambly… weird, but good stuff all around mostly…

The big issues for HBHI this year start off with the fact that ATM I am sick-unto-deth-sick. I wanna DIE sick. And the wife is on the mend from the same illness so things are extra special weird from that perspective… but meh, what do you do huh? HTFU as we say, right? =]

> This year saw us move from our old C2 in late January and try several months in Null… a personal Meh for me.
> Around late May I left Null and started bumbling around in the black solo. I was back in W-space and I was happy again…  =]
> In June we bought and moved into a C3, the homehole we now have.  We setup “Serenity Station” and, I believe, all of us have been much happier ever since… I KNOW I am.
> In August we had a very interesting turn… Mabrick of “Mabrick’s Mumblings” (a blogger by a different mother) joined us in W-space… and has taken to it like a duck to water.
> I got all skilled and trained up on PI and have been making some nice addl bank ever since… Thanx Mab!
> With ORE’s rollout of the “Venture” Dedicated Mining Frigate I have finally found my personal joy-in-mining… loverly little ship that.  =]
> There are some new Dessies I am very enamored of, but most of all the “Algos”… a Gallente Droan boat with styling that harkens to the great days of the first airships and really lovely ArtDeco-esque lines… Plus I am quite taken by the Minnie “Talwar”… a missile boat that does very impressive Alpha for a Light Missile boat.

Crucible to Inferno to Retribution, 2012 was a very interesting year for EVE as I am sure most will agree…Let’s hope 2013 brings as much, fun, excitement and change as 2012 did… as the Chinese saying goes,

“May you live in Interesting Times.”



So grab a Grolsh from the Beer Tree out on the ramp, pull up a seat and let's talk spaceships... =]

Fly Safe and see you in the Sky and Merry Christmas everyone! =/|)=

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Operational Security in Time of Holiday...


or~ How Mabrick Messed up...

This is a somber post… a post about a mistake. A mistake a good friend of mine made which has cost the life (well, one of the clones at least) of an unknown capsuleer. Yes my friends, a costly and dastardly mistake.

In his latest post Mabrick found evidence of a spaceship that ‘seemed’ to be a “Tengu” sittin at ‘0’ at Sol, our very own sun here in the Sol system.

Now setting aside the ramifications of the well established facts that the New Eden Local Group (the EvE star cluster) is located in a galaxy some unknowable millions (billions?) of light-years from Sol system AND is also located 22,000+ years in our future…

Uh hem, AND supposing this feat was accomplished via some previously unknown space-time mechanic, mebbe wormhole travel really does include a bit of time travel as has been contemplated by them as learned in such esoteric things…

Also setting aside another distinct and equally as far-fetched possibility… and the ramifications thereof… that this is not in fact some other ship of uncanny parallel design built and flown by some other ‘unknown’ sentient species from a totally different time and place, a possibility that boggles the imagination just slightly more than the aforementioned New Eden Capsuleer finding his way to Earth does… (and that was a very boggling experience for ME I’ll tell you not for nothing!…)

Presuming ALL OF THIS then it is just within the realm of possibility that a Tengu piloted by a New Eden capsuleer somehow…

found his way… Home for Christmas.

Ahhh… Home for Christmas. What a loverly thought hmmm? Except… Mab had to go and blab.

You see out of curiosity about this lone capsuleer sitting wayyy up there 8 light minutes away from the planet his genes were formed and shaped on… the world of his kinds birth… out of curiosity I went to the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) site to check up on our intrepid traveler and there he was… sitting calm and idle at Sol. I gazed in wonder at this brother from the stars… Five minutes later, what I watched transpire… simply tore my heart out…

It seems the GSF, that Theocracy of Thieves and Thugs… that Ebil Empire of Villainy and Perfidy (look it up)… those Gamers Who Want to Ruin YOUR Game have somehow (as they always do) discovered the methodology whereby our Tengu pilot found his way to Earth… and, as is their way, they send a gank fleet of ‘Nados and… well… you can see for yourself the outcome below…


The blame for this cloneloss… for the pain, suffering and anguish this capsuleer went through (lessened to a degree by whatever level of the “Infomorph Psychology” skill this pilot may have had… which strengthens the pilot's mental tenacity and helps one HTFU to the reality of having ones conscious detached from their physical form, transmitted across the galaxy and then integrated into a vat grown clone… which can be very unsettling to the untrained mind)… PLUS the LOSS of SKILLS associated with the loss of a T3 Cruiser!!! A fate far worse than simple clonedeath…  I place the blame for ALL OF THIS squarely at Mabrick’s fingers.

Had he held firmly on to the hard won lessons of the Tao of Holes, he would have not allowed his sentiments, his “feelings” at this time of holiday to get the better of him… he would have realized the danger he would place this unknown capsuleer in by blabbing… uh, ahh… blogging, the existence of and exact location of this ship to the WHOLE INTERWEB!

Operational Security NEVER Takes a Holiday!!!! Just imagine what would happen if the GSF ever got aholt of Santa’s Itinerary!!!



Fly Safe and KEEP your mouth shut!  =/|)=

===================================================

PS and Off Topic…
I GOTS ME A NEW MOUSES!!!

I have been having some ship issues of late… seems we will be doing any ol thing any ol where and unless I am zoomed in close and watching my ship constantly… it ‘tends’ to have a mind of its own and will, without warning or orders… just fly off in any ol direction. My corpmates attribute this to crew dissatisfaction and outright mutiny… but I differ on this as I feel they are a scurvy yet loyal bunch and I blame it squarely on Mechanical Difficulties. IE I gotta bad mouse.

I have gone through 2 wireless meeses lately… one was old and I knew it was getting t’wards the end of its usefulness and the other, while much newer is also….well… crap. It was a cheap Drug store quik buy and worth ‘bout as much as I paid for it… which was not much indeed.

So…. while out doing my last minnit shoppin yesterday w/ my dottir I bought me a Bran New Mouse!!! And WHATTA Mouse I’tis!!! A Mad Catz, Cyborg R.A.T. 3 corded Gaming Mouse. Now this is not the Mouse ‘O My Dreams… that one is the Cyborg R.A.T. 9 wireless Gaming Mouse… or possibly the Cyborg R.A.T. 7 M.M.O. Gaming Mouse… I am conflicted on those 2… but at $150 US for the 9 and $85 for the 7 I felt I could just barely justify $49.99 for the 3… and MAN O MAN whatta mouse!!

No more Mechanical Issues for me!!  Adjustable from 900 to 3500DPI; preset DPI rocker to 4 std DPI jumps: 450, 900, 1800 & 3500; 3 fully programmable buttons; 3 Cyborg Modes; ST programming Software (download); Gold Plated connector; Braided USB Cable… and more.

Slick, hi-tech, comfortable under your hand… and it looks SO DAMN COOL!  =]



Merry Christmas to all my brothers and sisters in New Eden and especially to those of us who live… On the Other Side of the Sky…   =]

Friday, December 21, 2012

Still Here, But Not…

or~  I  GOTS  ME...  A  Jay Oh Bee!!


Yes, I am gainfully employed once again after 14 months as a SAHD… (Stay At Home Dad), and (of course) in my 4th week here, as I am just settling in and get moved up from the basement to an actual CUBICLE of my very own… we have a slightly major issue crop up. Now this is bad as it was… well, BAD… but it was good as in plenny of OT for the past week and as I are a contractor and have Mon & Tue off (good) I dunt get paid ifn I dunt work (bad)…

However, all of the above has whacked my OL AND Bloggin time in the head with a Louisville Slugger… so to paraphrase Emergent Patroller… I have been getting up early, getting home late, crashing hard and dreaming “…about braiding network cables into my hair.”  Uh only not… the hair thing… but what a great line huh?  =]

I will be back as soon as things calm down a bit… we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and the latest reports are it is no longer a train coming this way… so watch this space, I am not perma-podded yet!

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

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Lost Ships and New Found Friends...

or~ Life in the Hole…


The last few nights have been… well they were EvE nights, as in you can never tell what’s gonna happen next…   =]

Firstly no one seemed too into anything at first… our Illustrious CEO was baking cookies and therefore only partly involved in the game… he kept goin AFK… Strigon was, well Strigon. Unless people are dying or shit’s asplodin or we’re runnin an Op, he’s not the most involved guy either… lots of offscreen stuff getting his attention… he hates the waiting game. I mean we all do, but Strigon goes AFK the second someone else says, “Hold on a minute.” Spiral, as usual was all raring to go do anything, but w/ AI and Strigon AFK’ing and me PI’ing… he ended up doing the waiting game too… all in all things were a bit boring ‘round the old Etherestate in the early hours of our usual uptime.

AI did keep saying “Sites?” every now and then, and those of us actively on TS would limply respond… I mean we all wanted to go do sites, we got our assess raided hard a few nights ago and lost a butt ton of ISK… went from like 16 sites to 5 in one evening… ran em off two, three times by just being active in the hole but we never had enough people OL to make a serious stab at running the rest as they were the tougher class of sites… but first there was…

All the Unpleasantness…

We did run two the night before but we got Hot Dropped by a nine man WH Small Gang Fleet. Seven members of “The Kairos Syndicate”, (a 142 man W-Space corp that focuses, rather well, on WH-PvP) and two tag-alongs (or alts), “HighHeeledHarlot” of “Village Dung Heap” and “Jhella” of “Galactic Milkmaidens On Acid”. Both of those are OMCs (One Man Corps).

I was in a PvE Armor/Cruise Navy Phoon a good friend had left with us (1) so he would have a Sleeper ship in our hole JIC and (b) for me to use the rest of the time… and yea, I lost it… but I lost it to a group of very good W-space pirates, ya have to hand it to them, they did it just right. We had 4 guys OL running sites in fleet, a Kronos, a Golem, a Phoon and my Navy Phoon. We are experienced and were watching Dscan and never saw a blip. And they just Hot Dropped us like we were AFK mining in null…

I started yelling on TS when I saw the first flashy orange icon land in our midst (ok, not actually yelling, but by the gods that sight does get the adrenaline flowing…) and then another and another and another and another …. all told 9 ships streamed into the site as we all hit a pucker factor of +9 and tried to build speed and warp out.

The new Micro Jump Drive (MJD) proved its worth in spades… my CEO in a Kronos was primaried and they attempted to scram him but with the MJD he was able to microwarp 100 klicks out and get clear… The Golem was also MJD fit and shortwarped out... as the next most expensive ship, I was secondaried and scrammed when I was just below 75% speed and that was that… so Spiral got his Phoon out also. Once I knew I was gone I turned and put everything on the nearest ship and went down fighting with everything I had… and I did get my POD out… pretty good at that I am…  =]

When all this started Mab shipped to his Stealth Bomber… he was on site when I warped my POD out so I dint see the action but he said got a clean bomb run in on em, no kills but he read off the [combat] log and the numbers sounded like he put some hurtz on em… I do so wish he had killed one or two though… as I understand it he is going to write up his side of it over on Mabrick’s Mumblings so I’ll leave his part in the fight to him.. I will admit I’d a loved to see their faces when they were in that initial “Yea! That went well.” moment after the fight only to have an SB decloak and drop a BOMB on your fleet… =]

I believe the Hot Drop may have been partly due to the sheer size of our current C3. With a radius of 30 au, 98,806,306 km (not my original figure of  471,000 km, which pjharvey, she of Tiger Ears fame, promptly pointed out... and which is the radius of the SUN in that system... screwed by an incautious cut n paste again... <dubblefacepalm>) it is impossible to Dscan the whole system. No matter where you are, there will always be the possibility that a hole you cannot ‘see’ has spawned and is letting people in without any warning. I don’t know for a fact that such a hole is where [KAIRS] came in from, but it makes hole security that much harder for a small corp like ours.

Our old C2 could be dscanned in total from pretty much anywhere insystem, it was quite small at only 8 au, 74,375,970 km (again corrected by TE and not the 134,600 km bla bla bla...) though of course with only 6 planets and 16 moons the PI was not nearly as good as it is in our current system with 10 planets and 58 moons… so you take the bad with the good I guess.

And, I guess I should add that I am a wee bit broke ATM… bought a Hound to replace one I lost playing with Sleepers… made 2 successful runs before the Argos guns got me. And bought myself one a them new fangled Dessies… the “Talwar” (wonder what that means)… and I LIKE it!


Hi
x7 - Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Light Missile Launchers / Cal Navy Scourge Light Missiles (48 ea.)

MID
X1 -Sm. Shield Extender II
x1 - EM Ward Amplifier III
x1 - Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II

LOW
X2 - Ballistic Control System IIs
X1 - Co-Processor II

RIG
Sm. Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Sm. Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I
Sm. Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

DPS: 128 / 1049 volley
5.52k EHP
Resists: 58/54/58/50

CPU: 97%
CAP: 77% (Stable)
Speed: 319m/s
Align: 4.78s
Sig: 69.1

Strigon was in his new Corax (I know not his fit) and I was orbiting the spike (our Control Tower in the POS) at 25,500m which is kinda cool as it puts you right in the flux zone of the POS shield. For them as dunt know, a POS force field breathes… it oscillates in and out… sorta like waves across a really big soap bubble… this space the shield covers and uncovers as it breathes is the flux zone… and orbiting in it can be visually interesting.

Anyhoo, Strigon goes fully outside of the FF and I bump my orbit up to 26,000m and lock him up… he locks me in return and I fire a volley, one volley only Yuri. He fires a volley… I see my shields drop to about 75% but his all but disappear! WOW… I fire a second volley, one volley only, and he goes to low armor!! I AM LIKING THIS SHIP!

Then, of course, Strigon drops back under the POS shields and reships to his Golem… uh huh, yea right… I adjust my orbit to 24,000m far enough inside to be invulnerable, I aint stoopid enough to take this thing up against a Golem, no matter how happy I am with it against a similar class ship. He did state he had no tank on his and I do have a decent tank on mine… decent for a Dessie that is.  =]

Making Friends the Wormhole Way…

Back to last night and us all finally getting around to fleeting up and runnin a few sites… So we finally bestir ourselves and get all set to go out and do this ting, when AI says, “AINeumann > but must scan first as one wise one said once... Cough Cough (Tur)” Seems after the ganking of my Phoon the night afore AI had decided to heed my advise on getting a grip on the holes BEFORE we went out and ran sites in our lovelry PvE fitted ships… LOL… Anyhoo, so AI goes out, drops probes and ends up with a few we need to close. OK, I reship to my T1 Phoon but he tells me to this “Closer” a plated Domi fitted for nuthin but mass closing…

You see I have no idea how long I have had the req skills but I have never flown a Domi afore… interesting. It is fitted with nuthin but plates, the largest MWD it can take, a probe launcher (JIC) and a cloak (also JIC)… LOL! So I warp out and start in on a hole leading to a C2/Hi that has a live POS and an Orca on scan but ‘seems’ inactive… IE ervybodies asleep in ‘dere. So I pop through, and back, wait out the polarization timer, and repeat… at one point I am waiting out the timer and Strigon lands in his Orca, pops though and back and warps off to crit the other hole.

I pop through, MWD off, land turn and watch the hole close… shit. LOL… shit. Oh well… it’s life in the hole. I go to online the Probe launcher…. Uh… crap. No lol. crap. It’s a T2 launcher and I can’t run that yet. Crap, crap, crap. Hmmm… OK, what the hell, I click on ’local’ and type…

“Hello? I know we wormholers dont talk in local but.... we were running a mass closing op and I got trapped in your hole... any chance I can get an assist OTHER than return to Hisec via deth?”

Then I make a couple ‘a safes, settle the Domi in one and eject to go find the POS (POSes don’t POD on automatic) so I can look up the corp and write/convo to see if I can buy my way out. It’s worth a shot as my only other option is bloodjumping after self asploding the Domi… which I can always do later, but which I cannot UNDO at any time.

So, I am in the process of dscanning and narrowing down which moon the POS is at when I get a Priv Convo from a “Mslynx” of “Insidious Design” a 53 man WH corp and, I assume, the owners of the POS. She says…

TurAmarth ElRandir      > Hello...
PTCLynx                     > so you got trapped?
PTCLynx                     > you and the domi?
TurAmarth ElRandir      > uh... yuppers... <faceplam>
TurAmarth ElRandir      > yup... I was scouting your POS so we
                                    could write ya'll and ask for an assist...
PTCLynx                     > I can invite you to fleet for BM of high
TurAmarth ElRandir      > OK... and... just so you know.... the
                                    Domi is a shit fit mass closer...  =]
TurAmarth ElRandir      > lemme warp back and jump in her...
PTCLynx                     > Call it good will for Christmas rgr
TurAmarth ElRandir      > and your corp will be set Blue to us in
                                    return...
TurAmarth ElRandir      > =]
PTCLynx                     > good thing I can hold my mates off you
                                    have been scanned already
TurAmarth ElRandir      > that would be of course.... nice.  LOL
TurAmarth ElRandir      > OK back in the hole Closer
PTCLynx                     > you are in a fleet
TurAmarth ElRandir      > ahh, sry.... been busy...
PTCLynx                     > no worries

We fleeted up and…

Mslynx                         > www for BM
Mslynx                         > we will not agress
TurAmarth ElRandir       > OMW
Mslynx                         > rgr
TurAmarth ElRandir       > hope I live.... =\
Mslynx                         > we will not agress

I warped to her and landed 68km from a B274… =]  Well, well, well… will wonders never cease? Mslynx uncloaked for a sec and we said our goodbyes as I burned through the CAP pushing that fat ol lead plated bich at over 800m/s into jump range of that sweet sweet hole…

TurAmarth ElRandir       > well.... TY and Merry Xmass!
Mslynx                         > peace on earth lol
TurAmarth ElRandir       > ya'll are blue to us unless you decide
                                     otherwise.... my corp
thanx you
Mslynx                         > Good to know. nice to have friends
TurAmarth ElRandir       > yes ‘tis.... =]
TurAmarth ElRandir       > ‘specially in holes...  =]

And the icing on the cake?. the cherry on top? I was a mere eight hops from home…  =]

Yes… Peace on Earth… and Good Will towards all my Brothers and Sisters in EvE

===================================================

For them as might be interested, the Fight Logs:

The Beginning:
I already had NO shields (I am armor fit) and I was running my Lrg Armor Repper at approx 80% armor when the attack began. The attacking corp may have gotten last blow, but the Top Damage was dealt by the Sleepers, and lastly an Emergent Defender… Damage Done: 30,641, total damage taken: 68,049.

AI Escapes from SCAM w/ MJD!
2012.12.10 03:48:47 (combat) Warp scramble attempt from "Boshell"  [KAIRS];LOST; ;LOST;(Astarte) to AINeumann [HBHI];AST;(Kronos)
2012.12.10 03:48:51 (combat) Warp scramble attempt from "Jhella" [GMMOA](Purifier) to AINeumann [HBHI];AST;(Kronos)

I am SCRAMMED:
03:48:55 (combat) Warp scramble attempt from "Caledoni" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) to you!
03:48:59 (combat) Warp scramble attempt from "Boshell" [KAIRS];LOST; (Astarte) to you!
03:49:00 (combat) Warp scramble attempt from "Thaeden Jul" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) to you!

I set my Valkyrie IIs on the nearest ship:
03:49:02 (combat) 43 to "Caledoni" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) - Valkyrie II - Wrecks

I start taking the attackers DPS:
03:49:05 (combat) 1968 from "HighHeeledHarlot"[-V.D-](Manticore) - Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo - Hits
03:49:05 (combat) 16 from "Boshell" [KAIRS];LOST; (Astarte) - Valkyrie II - Glances Off

Attackers add a Heavy Pulse Laser II:
03:49:07 (combat) 233 from "Caledoni" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) - Heavy Pulse Laser II – Grazes

Attackers add a Hvy Neutron Blaster II:
03:49:12 (combat) Heavy Neutron Blaster II belonging to "Boshell" misses you completely - Heavy Neutron Blaster II

My Drones keep at them:
03:49:14 (combat) 17 to "Caledoni" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) - Valkyrie II - Penetrates

Attackers add a Hvy Electron Blaster II and Hobgoblin IIs:
03:49:18 (combat) Heavy Neutron Blaster II belonging to "Boshell" misses you completely - Heavy Neutron Blaster II
03:49:19 (combat) 22 from "Caledoni" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) - Hobgoblin II - Penetrates

I get my Cal Nav Scrge Cruise Missiles on target:
03:49:24 (combat) 508 to "Caledoni" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) - Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile – Hits

Attackers add Warrior IIs:
03:49:25 (combat) 25 from "Thaeden Jul" [KAIRS];LOST; (Absolution) - Warrior II – Smashes

I get my 800mm ACs on target:
03:49:26 (combat) Your group of 800mm Heavy 'Scout' Repeating Artillery I misses "Caledoni” completely - 800mm Heavy 'Scout' Repeating Artillery I

Over the next seven seconds I must have changed targets, but I don’t remember doing so…

I lose lock (damped/Ewar/neuting?):
03:49:33 (notify) Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile deactivates because its target, KA ♣ Honos, is not locked.

I am Hvy Neuted by the Bhaalgorn and start losing Mods:
03:49:35 (notify) Large Armor Repairer II requires 400.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 0.1 units.

I lose lock again (?):
03:49:36 (notify) 800mm Heavy 'Scout' Repeating Artillery I deactivates because its target, KA ♣ Honos, is not locked.

My hardners start going offline due to Neuting and I am CAPPED out:
03:49:37 (notify) Prototype Armor Explosive Hardener I requires 24.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 10.7 units.
03:49:38 (notify) Prototype Armor Thermic Hardener I requires 24.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 15.4 units.

Nash MacAllister Whores on the KM with his Navy Scorp, only 2 shots taken!
03:49:39 (combat) 786 from "Nash MacAllister" [KAIRS];LOST; (Scorpion Navy Issue) - Mjolnir Javelin Torpedo - Hits

My Brave Valkyries keep doing their best but to no avail… at 03:49:47 (combat) 1731 from "HighHeeledHarlot" [-V.D-](Manticore) - Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo – Hits… Last Blow.

I warp my POD out safely.

Total fight from landing to Phoon DIAF:
03:48:47 to 03:49:47 one minute exactly.

If… when…  you go down, at least have the good grace to go down screaming and kicking them in the ballz while you burn!!!   =P


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

Monday, December 10, 2012

AdVentures in Mining...


or~ (grumble, grumble) Mab stole my title afore I could use it (grumble)...

HDF =Petra Canisque=
ANYONE who has followed my blog for any length of time has to know I hate mining with a passion. I mean it. It is the most suc thing IMHO that you can do in EvE. Peroid. I’d rather bash a POCO, I’d rather bash a POS, I’d rather bash my face in with a solid Tritanium scale model of a Hulk afore I would “choose” to go mining… until now.   =]

Meet the Venture…. ORE’s newest mining ship and their first foray into dedicated Mining Frigates to boot. Ahhhh now THIS is moar like it!!! You see pretty much my main issue with mining is its core activity… IE ‘changing targets’. I have mined in Hisec solo, I have mined in W-space, in fleet and scary solo, I have mined in null inna BIG fleet… and it is just so damn sedentary… so… so… PASSIVE… it sux the life outta me. I HATE passivity… BUT, mining at 420ms, or better yet, at 2600ms… now THAT shit is nothing but unadulterated fun!!! AND I am making bank too boot! OH Hell Yea!

THIS is a piece of Heavy Equipment
The Venture even looks the part too. A big, scratched up, dirty, YELLOW (good color that) piece of De-CONSTRUCTION equipment if there ever was one… a Space Rockcrusher. Close up it gets even better… the details are great. The ORE logo, stenciled Model Numbers, the damn thing even has work lights. I love every inch of her, especially the very clear and evident command deck/cockpit.

On many of our ships in EvE we often have to sorta guess at where we ‘are’ in the ship. Where is the command deck ‘exactly’ on a Drake? on a ‘Cane? on a Noctis? But with the Venture it is plain as the nose on a Tempest… right where it should be… out in front of the main hull with a nice, wide widow so the Captain can oversee mining ops in progress… Ahhh yes.


So, as Mab said, our CEO brought a few in for us all and I fitted one up off the cuff… no PYFA or EFT theory crafting and fit gaming… just:

HI
x2 – Miner IIs
x1 – Sm YF-12a Smartbomb
MID
x1 – Adapt Invlun II
x1 – Phased Muon Sensor Disrupt I / Scan Res Script
x1 – 1MN MWD I
LO
x1 – Inert Stab II
RIG
x3 – Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

Smartbomb is ‘cause there aint no weapon I can put there that will help with Sleepers… so meh.
ADF II & Damp w/ Inert Stab and rigs is for GTFO hopefulness…

Welcome to Ring Mining
On to the fun… so, Mab fitted one out too and we headed out to a Grav site… picked a juicy (huh listen to me now willya?) fat ol Arkonor rock and started in on it… and I discovered…. Ring Mining! Or as I prefer to call it, Wheel Mining… check out the pix above and below… Ok so you get a few guys together in Ventures… one guy orbits the rocks at 2000M and each of the others sets ‘keep at range’ to the guy in front of him at say, 1000 or 1500m and go to it! At 420ms four or five guys wheeling around a rock would be one helluva sight!!!

Now there are them as will read ‘tween the lines there and say, “Damn Tur, you just setup a passive activity.” “By setting a keep at range you fly hands off… IE Passively.” Uhh… lemmethinkaboutitno. Passive to me means not ONLY are your hands off the keyboard… but they have NO reason to get back on it anytime soon… with the Venture, and keep in mind I mine inna WORMHOLE, I have PLENTY to keep me focused and to keep my head in the game... spamming Dscan, watchin the sky, and watchin that lovely little ship whiz around that rock.

I want to do a Venture fleet op where the FC gets everybody into the wheel, then does a 3, 2, 1 zero! countdown for everyone to fire up the Miner IIs (or the Modulated Deep Core Miner IIs… yea baby!) and all mine at approx the same rate (depending on skills…) so hopefully everyone fills their 5000m3 Ore Hold at nearly the same time, then either fleet warp back to POS… OR… have an Orca (or a Rorqual) cloaked up within a reasonable distance from the ‘wheel’ (5 or 10km or at a BM just off grid or whatever floats yer Orca) … everyone tops off then flies to (or warps to) the Orca/Rorqual and makes one orbit round to drop ores and then right back to it…

The NASCAR of mining…   Pedal down, turn right!?
So… Tur now enjoys mining because it is no longer a deadly dull passive activity but a hi-octane, fast paced deadly activity! Now I am gonna plug my friend, and corpmate, Mabrick’s blog, in his post, "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" (the above referred to Stolen Title, and probably the most obvious Venture post title imaginable...), in this he posts a really schweet little video clip... if you haven’t already you simply GOTTA watch it.

It stars he and I in our Ventures with Spiral inna Mack with 5 mining droans out, all working that selfsame loverly chunk of Arkonor… The Droans are a' droning, the Mack is a' chewing and the Ventures are a' spiraling 'round and round'… I bet you can’t watch it just once…   =]

And I found it most interesting to read Splatusesses blog post, “The Retribution for my sins…”, where he considers attempting to Stealth Bomb the first Venture he ran into, but, after looking over the specs, +2 Warp Stab strength, +400ms base speed, 40m sig radius and at a cost of only a few paltry million ISK to boot? …he sums up his feelings with, “Nah, this is suicide.   LOL

This makes mining an…  AdVenture!
While Mab and I were spiraling round and round I was reminded of my very first kill… I was very noob and I was in training in the C1 my old Alliance had an Amarr POS in. Ferri and I saw a ship on scan, so we fleeted up and Ferri got him dscanned down and we jumped him… and killed and podded him. A little later I found out he was a noob inna frigate w/o any weapons… and he was mining… solo… inna wormhole… <facepalm>

I was reminded of this incident because if… IF that young player had been inn a Venture… I am pretty sure (if he had been on his toes) we might not have killed him so easy as we did that day so long ago… I’ll mine inna wormhole any day inna Venture! This ship makes mining an AdVenture at last!



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