Tug of War...

Just a funny from tonight's mission running...

The Directors of HBHI are met in the Real once again and for the last time for at least a year. For a weekend of fun and family, and some flying of the Deadly Skies of EVE.

As I type this up on one screen, on the other screen I am piloting my Noctis to Jita to sell off the L&S I have collected from this evenings missioning for the Sisters.

Tonight was the first time I had tried the new Mobile Tractor Unit, MTU... or Noctis killer as I see it. It's not a big deal really, but the old Noctis holds a special place in my heart, always has. I get the idea behind the MTU, I just always liked the idea of a guy having to actually DO his own Lewt & Slavaging... having some automated unit do it for you is... well, it's a hell of a lot like botting.

All botting really is is automating a task or tasks you see as tedious to free you to focus you active game play on the stuff you don't find tedious.

RMTer's run automated programs that mine ore in EvE, because they don't care to actually play EvE, they just wanna make ore and ISK for RMT. Mission botters run automated programs that fly their ships in PvE for the same reasons. Now we have CCP making us automated programs that do tasks we see as tedious... such as running a Noctis. So we have a CCP made bot, a structure that tractors and loots all our wrecks into a nice pile for us to salvage and simply grab the lewtz... meh.

Haven't been really interested in em until Strigon says from the bar that he is running one in his missions. So I figure I am playing solo, and I assume that was the target player for this mod, so I buy a few to try out. I anchor one and find it is wayyy too slow. I am running L4s solo inna HAMgu.

I finish the first site and pop back one hop to get my Noctis, now refitted with x8 Salver IIs, and when I land on the first wreckball... I have to wait for approx half the wrecks to be tractored into range of my Salvers... Hmmm, that really isn't optimal or even workable. OK, I read up and it seems you can anchor more than one so on the next site I drop two 5km apart and as we have company over, a fire in the fireplace, drinks, good food and my sons are home, I start running the site pretty much forgetting the MTUs. I AFK the site checking only occasionally to re-target and re-tap F1...

The site is dam near done when I notice there are like only 5 or so wrecks near the MTUs... WTF?? I watch and notice a single wreck is moving... it stops near one MTU only to be grabbed by the other and tractored over to it, only to be grabbed by the first and tractored back, only to be grabbed by the second and tractored back, only to be grabbed by the first and tractored back...  OH FUKKIN PLEASE!!!!  LOL

CCP can't even do bots right...too funny.

With these bots we all will Fly Wreckless... See you in the sky! =/|)=


PS... just to put-it-out-there as twere, a EvE Meetup in planned out our way for tomorrow night...  just saying...  =]

Dogfish Head Alehouse
Falls Church, VA

ISIS, ISIS on the Wall…

“I Just Can’t Fly That Shit at All…”

Have you opened ISIS yet? Do so now, for some, many I feel, it may be a bit of an eye opener.

I really, REALLY like the interface… I am a draftsman by education (when I was in college CAD was so new we were saving our file on floppies… 5.25” floppies).  From that standpoint I find the layout is very pleasing, what wasn’t was my rankings. Turns out I am all L5s on only a few ships… What surprised me was which ones.

Freighters…  sheesh. Turns out I am all L5 on the Fenrir, Providence, Charon and the Obelisk. The part that really sux is… I have never even sat in, much less owned, one of these. I can fly most of the ships of each race. Almost all the Matarii ships, three quarters or more of Caldari and Amarr and about half the Gallente. I am pleased some are at L4, but not as many as I had hoped.

The number of certifications required for Freighter mastery is minimal, Armor Reinforcement, Shield Reinforcement & Navigation Support.

In two days on the 23rd I will have been flying the deadly skies of EvE for three years. I have 46m SP and I have spent almost two and a half years of that time in Anoikis from C1 to C6, living out of a POS.

I joined EvE at the tail end of Tyrannis, Incursion dropped very shortly after. I grew up in Incursion and have lived through Incarna, Crucible, Inferno and now I have crossed the Rubicon… Hopefully, and with the help of ISIS, Tur will finally Master of some ships he actually OWNS before the Summer 2014 Expansion hits.

It’s been a great three years and I am looking forward to the next three…

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

CARBON™ Chauvinism…

~Adapt or TiDie…

Aren’t we just sooooo LUCKY we live in the “Goldilocks Zone”? Just the right distance from the Sun… not too close, not too far… jussssst right! oh really?

Ripard said “In order to survive in 0.0, you have to learn, develop, and practice a whole skill-set around managing deficiencies in the so-called "game" you are playing.”

And yes, my blogging of late has sorta become all knee jerk reactions to stuff Jester (AKA Ripard Teg, CSM8) posts over on his blog Jester’s Trek… But I am not really ‘playing’ much as RL still has a firm grip on the short hairs as twere… but I am keeping up with the blogshere and Ripard tends to delve into topics that moar oft than not cause said knee jerk reactions in my brain… thence causing :words: to pour from my fingers… and as I still like writing about EvE, here we are.

Just FYI for them as what cares… I got on a KILLMAIL this past Saturday!!!  First one in what, 4 months or moar… and then, of course, I died, was podded and ended up wakin up in SYJ’s NPC Null base… yuch. I had done fergot to reset my Med Clone back to Empire… then I missclicked and accidentally jumped (swapped) clones in the same effin Null station when trying to blood jump back to Empire and hadda wait out the 18.5 hr timer (Yea clone skills!) until late Sunday night… oh well, I whored a KM and made two… creating content for those around me in the verse (and I had some fun and lost my Gnosis too…) now back to our irregularly unscheduled programming…

I have issues with the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ thing. The basic idea has a very strong carbon based bias… a sorta carbon chauvinism. A race evolved on the dwarf planet Pluto (and if one had/has/could arise there (and might not THAT stick a wrench in the moon/planet debate… I mean, who wants to have evolved on a moon?) or one evolved on say Saturn’s moon, Titan (a moon that is most definitely NOT in the Sun’s Goldilocks Zone yet has strong evidence of surface water in a liquid state, a prime ingredient in what we call ‘life’)… these races would definitely not define their Goldizooks Zone near the same way we do even if they too be carbon based in their chemistry.

I strongly feel, as is stated in the wiki on carbon chauvinism, that this limits us. It limits our imaginations as to what constitutes ‘life’ and that means we run the risk of not recognizing other forms of life as ‘life’… this could have serious repercussions in mankind’s future if we ever DO actually get off this one lone rock and GO out there, “where dragons be”…

“Why, Tur, are you going on about this and WTF should I care?” doth you ask, (and if you dint, you should have and I’m gonna assume you did so…) glad you asked I am, and tell ya I will… I see CARBON™ chauvinism taking place in EvE.

“How does ‘carbon chauvinism’ equate with whateverthehell ‘CARBON™ chauvinism’ is?” you ask of me… (curious one aren’t ya?) OK, 

Carbon chauvinism states that there is only one kind of life 'possible' IRL...

CARBON™ chauvinism states that there is only one 'acceptable' way of life possible IVL... (and we'll argue about it until the End of Time, or we go into permanent downtime, whichever comes first.)

I define ‘CARBON™ chauvinism’ as:

A neoturlogism meant to disparage the assumption that the CARBON™ Coded Mechanics of virtual life in New Eden (EVE Online) are as they are and should be, e.g. as designed by their creators, but instead must be rewritten, edited, changed and iterated upon by the creators for the edification and benefit of the most vocal members of the playerbase.

Because those particular players are whiney, needy, entitled, self-indulgent, juvenile and LOUD… and ‘they’ want EVE Online to be the way they want it and they want it NOW.

Gankers want a Gankers Paradise… War Deccers want War to be FREE… Nullseccers want ALL OF SPACE to conquer… Industrialists want taxes outlawed and Invulnerable Transports… Losec pirates want CONCORD removed… and Griefers want to be able to attack anyone anytime anywhere at zero cost… (because everyone knows noobs and pubbies DESERVE it and the game would be far better off if they quit, right?)…

Jester pegged it… managing deficiencies…

What did he mean by ‘managing deficiencies’? He was referring to the ships/fits/fleets/tactics and strategies one uses within the bounds/limits/constraints/rules/laws and mechanics of EVE Online. How one Manages (works/plans) around the Deficiencies… around the ‘Deficiencies’… now here’s where things get sticky. What makes up Deficiencies in the Mechanics of EVE Online is a highly subjective subject… What is the definition of ‘deficient’ anyway?

Merriam-Webster Online: Deficient

de·fi·cient - adjective \di-ˈfi-shənt\ : not having enough of something that is important or necessary

1:  not good enough, not as good as “x”.

2:  lacking in some necessary quality or element <deficient in judgment>

3:  not up to a normal standard or complement:  defective <deficient strength>

As with most things in life, real or virtual, the definition of “(not) enough of”, “(not) good enough”, “(not) as good as”, “(not) lacking”, “(not) up to standards” are all highly subjective assessments and definitions. A Griefer’s Deficiency is a Carebear’s Sufficiency, and vice versa…

A Max Stabbed Cloaky Nano Blockade Runner with unscannable cargo hold is, to a Carebear, “adequate” while Gankers cry “UNFAIR!”…

A Cloaky Cyno CovOps sittin quietly in local is, to a nullsec PvPer, “working as intended” while Nullsec Industrialists scream “UNFAIR!!”…

The 2000 man fleet Bridging in on your 500 man POS bash fleet and crashing the server “saving” the Titan you had just bumped out of the POS shields is “UNFAIR!!!”…

The 100 man sniper gate camp sitting 100km out from a densely bubble caged gate slaughtering the 1000 plus Hisecers who came for a CCP Sponsored Live Event is “UNFAIR!!!!”…

IE before Time Dilation (TiDi), ‘Lag’ or server overload issues such as black screens, client crashes, server crashes, etc. created by large fleets of players in one system (on one node) limited the sizes of workable effective fleets and fleet fights… This caused CCP’s ‘War on Lag’ which ended up with the stop-gap of TiDi being rolled out. With TiDi we are now able to field fleets approx. twice the size of pre-TiDi fleets and still have (barely) workable fleets and fleet fights, granted s-l-o-w-l-y, but ‘slow but up’ is a far cry better than the ‘down and petitioning’ of a server crash on contact. Frustrating yes… but unplayable? Seems like most of those who get involved in these now HUGE fights and events stay even after things go to shit TiDiwise…

So back when managing deficiencies meant dealing with/coping with/planning for the (based on your gameplay perception of) ‘reality’ at that time, IE the virtuality of New Eden’s Laws of Physics/Mechanics of EVE… well TiDi changed those Laws of Physics/Mechanics, so now managing deficiencies meant dealing with/coping with/planning for the changed (improved?) Laws of Physics/Mechanics.

One of the things I love most about EvE is that it IS a virtuality… a virtual life… and you know what?

Life is hard.

IRL the MOST one can do is slaughter sheep and goats by the herdful, paint your arse red then genuflect, dance and pray to whatever pantheon of deities you dream up… but the Laws of RL Physics just keeps them apples a fallin, birds a flyin and worlds a turnin… God (singular or in committee) dunt rewrite his code for no man…

But in New Eden we dunt pray to our gods do we?… we email em! And when we do we rant and bich and cuss and moan and demand and complain and whine and cry like self-absorbed children… and they listen… and then, very often, they actually DO change the Laws of Mechanics in this virtual verse we share… based on the ‘prayers’ of the loudest (and largest income source?) group…

Now I don’t mean new ship hulls, or modules or even changes to the EHP/DPS/range/speed et al of a line of ships or even new anchorable structures… oh no, I am talking about basic CHANGES to the Way the World Works… And so the tactics and strategies one uses within the NEW & IMPROVED Mechanics of EVE Online change. And we have to adapt or die… and guaranteed many of us will post and forumwhine to the Gods on High… well, the ones far to the north at least.

IRL we rail against the vagaries of life… we shake our fists a the sky when the earth shakes and opens up and swallows our homes, we beat our breasts and curse the gods when tornadoes spin down from heaven and trash our trailerparks… but in New Eden, we curse CCP when Nullsec Tornadoes trash a fleet of noobs and Hisecc PvEers…

I am not an old MMO gamer (I’m OLD and I’m a gamer ok?, just not an OLD MMO gamer…) I have however played FPS’s since Commander Keen and setup and ran Doom Servers for small and large groups… but I never once asked ID Software to change the Mechanics of the Doom ‘verse… I accepted that up was up and down was down and that you could stand on someone’s head and they would never know you were there unless they looked up… (and when you killed em by whacking them in the head with an axe it was hilarious!)…

I have personally never played any game before EVE where the Devs would CHANGE the Mechanics of the game simply because the players bitched… and TBH, I am not really sure they should… CCP needs to remember, you can’t please everyone, and trying to do so will only do two things… piss off everyone and leave them beholden to them as are paying the most… and that aint the majority of EvE players. Right now it’s a few large groups that came from outside of the game and they have NO allegiance or care for the rest of us… the majority of us… at all.

CCP has chosen a path in game development that puts them in a situation where they could pay dearly if they don’t listen to those who pray the loudest, and tithe the most…wonder what the gods make of that?

Personally, I’m glad God doesn’t have an email address… imagine the RW if he ran things the way CCP does.

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

Being BAD in Space...

~or "I don't Suck at EvE! I'm Just PvP Challenged..."

Once again I find fertile fodder in the words of the estimable Jester... though, this time, they are actually the words of his corpmate, Cassius Longinus, CEO of Stimulus corp in Rote Kapelle.

Ripard's post, "Being good in space"is a repost of a Rote forum post by Cassius on Fleet PvP philosophy and mindset and as Cassius says, it's about Attention in Fleet.. It is a very good post. It also made me to ask a question I have oft asked myself ever since I first locked and fired on a live player for the first time in EvE...

"Why do I suck at PvP?"

Read the post, it's really good... but it makes some assumptions about the capabilities of players. Ima take it point by point...

First he touches on 3 basic points...

(1) "having skillpoints to be useful"
(2) "being staged for all eventualities"
(3) "not fitting your ships like a shit-lord"

(1) Skillpoints...
SP is a time and choice thing. New players aren't gonna have high skillpoints regardless of what they choose to skill on, its time based. If you focus skill, a very narrow path to get to say, Logi 5, then you can have overall low SP and yet still be a Logi 5... or if like so many like me, you have dabbled here and there in your early months and years, your skills can be a bit all over the place as you tried different things and end up with fairly high overall SP but nothing really all L5ed...

So much of SP is about choice. I bumbled around a bit at first just working my way up the ship tree until I found a love of the Noctis and salvaging. I felt I could really contribute in a way that was sorta leet and soloish, both of which I like and yet be of real value to my corp and fleet mates. We ran L4's missions and I nom nomed up the L&S behind the DPS fleet adding value to our joint ops and adding ISK to our wallets.

Then we found wormholes... and I skilled up for ships n fits as necessary for life in Anoikis and my skilling changed. Finally, after we joined SYJ, I found I still wanted to play a 'small but important' role and so began skilling into logi and support roles such as dictor and Ewar, and so my skilling changed again...

Tur will break 45m SP before I turn 3 this Thanksgiving... but my skills are all over the place. Unless you buy a focus preskilled toon (which is allowed and such but I personally consider it cheating yourself out of the full experience of what EvE can be and treating it like nothing more than 'just' a game... but that's just me) or join Gewns and do the whole Bloodjump into deepest Null when you undock your toon for the very first time thing... (where you are 'given' a Skill-Q cheat sheet along with free ISK and ships) then you are probably somewhat like me in that your skills are a bit like the transcript of a college student who has changed majors 3 or 4 times.

(2) Staging...
I can only assume he means having enough and the right types of ships located in or near the corp/Alliance most usual AOs (Areas of Operation, IE home system and any usually roamed systems & constellations etc.) This is driven solely by ISK as is so much of EvE... makeada ISKies you canna buya da ships... don't and you can't... 'nough said.

(3) Fits...
What can I say here? He specifically states "not fitting your ships like a shit-lord"... I have written my take on this in my post "Failfits N Winfits..." where I discuss fitting in EvE. A topic that many consider themselves expert and leet in and who will hound and troll any who dunt blindly follow their fitting strategies and freely-driven-down-your-throat advise.

This is different in fleet. There are comps (ship types n fits) that are far far better than any 'ol kitchen sink, because the FC will be better able to utilize the ships under his command by knowing their capabilities based on carefully theorycrafted doctrine fits.

But fitting is intentionally a contentious and highly debated subject in EvE because of the very large number of mods and possible fits for each ship type. So 'shit-lord' fits are any non-doctrine fits in fleet (that don't work as intended) and any fits your FC/leadership and corp/Alliance mates disagree with... no matter what they may have died in when they were new/younger or experimenting...

Then he discusses 5 main points...

1. Listen to the FC.
2. Be good at Combat Meta.
3. Proper Range Management.
4. Grid Assessment/Situational Awareness, generally.
5. Hostile Fleet/Ship assessment.

1. Listen up...
This I could not agree with moar. Do as yer told, period. This I try to do. If we work as the fingers of two hands, a good FC can make us into his tools to grab and smash our opponents... if we act individually then it is like the fleet is retarded, has palsy and all we do is die.

2. Meta me this...
This I could not agree with moar also... just nowhere near as good at it as I'd like. I have had days where I was able to report needed info in that calm cool James T. style... but I've had far moar where Panic made it hard to do the 'Once and Calm' thing. A lot of the panic comes from things like his next part...

Understand Damage Types.
I'm shooting at X;
What ammo do I use?
What are Xs normal resist holes?
Has he plugged his holes or not?

Understand combat ranges.
I'm in X ganking X;
Do I engage with X ammo type @ long range, or X ammo type @ close ammo range?

Hostile X sitting on gate with fleet at zero;
How do we INSTANTLY split fleet to grab him?

FUCK IF I KNOW...

This is an area where things really break down for me. The sheer amount of shit one needs to know and actively think about is staggering. Look at that list, and it is by no means complete or exhaustive... and he left out FLYING your own ship for one thing... This is where I, and I am betting a lot of the PvP Challenged, panic.

3. Hold fire until...
This is vital and I am getting better at it... "...knowing ahead of time.." whether you are part of a brawling or kiting fleet is something I am getting better at as I learn to immediately recognize what ships are normally fitted for those roles.

What would be cool (Ripard the All Knowing, hint hint) would be a Chart showing the ships of EvE 'by role' with a basic T1 fit and an advanced T2 fit... now THAT would be cool and really helpful for ALL of us but especially for noobs and the PvP Challenged.

4. Where did they come from?...
This, for many, is really difficult. Situational Awareness moar than any other aspect of PvP in EvE takes a really calm levelheaded focus AND the ability to really 'see' the whole battlespace and understand the gestalt of what is happening, not just your little lazor beam and missile infested section...

Things like zoom level, do you fly with the tactical overlay on or off, do you focus on your ship or on the ship you are engaged on or on your local AO or on the whole battlespace... Add in listening to the FC and perceiving whether or not  is 'seeing' a change in the battlespace.

Then, understanding if you are the guy who should be calling it out or not. Voice comms cannot be shitted up by everyone talking all at once. Usually, the FC and a few guys, trusted players, are the ones who control voice comms. The guys who fly scout and any ancillary unit leaders, the guy FCing the Logi group usually, have priority. The rank n file are expected to listen primarily but are are also expected to interject 'relevant intel' relayed in the proper manner if it is being missed by command.

Ripard has a very good "Guide: PvP  Voice Communications" guide... WELL worth a read and an occasional re-read."

5. Know Thy Enemy...
This is damn near impossible for the PvP Challenged. Putting all the above together... He says (paraphrased)...

"If you hear 'X-fleet'... you should know ranges, DPS, tanks, resist holes... get a logi count... guesstimate how much they can tank... if an Archon comes on field, whether you can break it or not. The FC should have advised what the comp and rough DPS is..." and "...you should be following scout/FC commentary, understanding FCs decisons."

He sums up with... "The bottom line is that if you aren't getting A's on all those report cards, then you should not be complacent." 

A's hell... Complacent hell... I'd give anything to just be able to fly my ship well, contribute in fleet and not make stoopid mistakes. I shouldn't be afraid to fly... I shouldn't be worried about trying and learning. Everyone knows EvE is harsh and hard... but it's players can be far far harsher and harder than even the cold cold airless black.

It's the sheer overload of amount of data that NEEDS to be taken in, processed and that decisions MUST be made ON that causes Panic... That feeling of not understanding just What The Hell is going on that causes the Fight reflex to switch to the Flight reflex... I don't know the answer to the Info Overload I go through. But I'd bet my last red ISKie that's the same problem we... the PvP Challenged of EvE face most.

That is our Challenge.


Fly wreakless and see you in the Sky...  =/|)=