A Tale Full of Fail…

or~  “One Day This Idiot Joined Our Corp and…”

The few who follow this may have noticed that I aint blogged much lately… simply not much to blog about… Log on, fleet up, kill Guristas, salvage wrecks, log off… rinse & repeat. We haven’t even been really plagued by neuts nearly as much as usual, at least not when I have been awake (read online). Boring actually if one must be honest ‘bout it.

My Fail 

Biggest excitement I have had is a night when I lost both my Mael and my Loki to the effin Guristas… I was tryin’ out different tanking strategies and workin my way up the anomaly ladder…

 Guristas Anomalies by Difficulty

• Class 01 = Guristas Hideaway (easiest) [not in our system]

• Class 02 = Guristas Burrow [not in our system]

• Class 03 = Guristas Refuge [not in our system]

• Class 04 = Guristas Den

• Class 05 = Guristas Yard [not in our system]

• Class 06 = Guristas Rally Point

• Class 07 = Guristas Port

• Class 08 = Guristas Hub

• Class 09 = Guristas Haven [not in our system]

• Class 10 = Guristas Sanctum (hardest) [very rare]

• Level 01 = Guristas (Class X) (easiest)

• Level 02 = Guristas Hidden (Class X)

• Level 03 = Guristas Forsaken (Class X)

• Level 04 = Guristas Forlorn (Class X) (hardest)

IE:

(C04) Den = very easy

(L02/C05) Hidden Rally Point = hard

(L03/C07) Forsaken Port = much harder

(L04/C08) Forlorn Hub = hardest… and so on.

This means the Forlorn Hub and the Forsaken Hub are the hardest regular anomalies available in our system and therefore have the highest bounties… so S.O.P is to bounce between these two Hubs and try and complete them as quickly as possible… bounties are paid out by CONCORD every 20 minutes, this is the “Bounty Cycle”. The moar Red Crosses you can wreck in 20 mins, the higher the Bounty Cycle for everyone in fleet.

In fleet I have no tanking problems. The Guristas aggro switch so at most you might have to tank the whole incoming DPS for one spawn, but very rarely for the whole site. In my Mael or Loki I can solo the Dens, Rally Points & Hubs and so far some of the Hidden variants with impunity but not anything higher in difficulty without risking my ship. Oh, and in some of the sites…  the Cursed Foul Black Hearted Guristas web and scram… so you might see how I may have selected the wrong site to play in solo and BLAMMO! Lost my Mael… crap crap crap… OK, I figger I can pop in, in my Loki, grab the lewt from my dead Mael and warp out… uh… yea… right.

Sooooo… after losing my Loki I POD back to station, again, refit a Drake for max tank with tractors and salvagers and THEN I was able to get my loot AND salvage both lost ships while shruggin off the incoming DPS like a water off a…  (lol) duck’s back. But, other than that little bit ‘O foolishness it has been just the normal daily dull ISK grind.

Spai Fail

As I have said, things were quiet ‘round our system… until this past weekend… and man oh man do I love it when a good griefin op goes so badly wrong.  =]

You see, we had a Spai infiltrate out corp. This guy, Surgeon42 (yea, I’m namein’ names but I aint drunk and he aint suicidal and this aint a Fanfest stage…) applied for membership, the Directorship did the usual vetting and he “seemed” OK on the surface. Keep in mind that in EVE, corp infiltration and spying can be actually quite easy what with each account having 3 toons all wayyy to easy to kill off and create anew… many griferbears keep 1 toon as their Main, and recycle the 2 alts.

So, we get an app, our guys do the std. vetting and find nothing obviously amiss, we accept him on the 9^th and on the 13^th he, and some friends, AWOXed this blinged out Golem… which caused us a smidge of trubble as we are renters ultimately of Raiden and Awoxing is a kicking offense. Note: definition of Awoxer, and where the term ‘Awox’ came from.

We felt this awoxing was possibly politically motivated due to this from him in our corp chat:



“Surgeon42 > Ill extend the offer i gave to accsis, i'll leave corp peacfully for 300m. Otherwise raiden. will not be pleased. Thats is my only offer, take it or leave it.”

The worry was that as long as he did not dock up we could not kick him from corp until, at the earliest, when the server came back up after downtime. If he was able to get logged on before our directors could get logged in and kick him, then he would have another day to continue working against us.

Here is where it gets interesting… this doofus for some reason then comes back down to our system… for the life of me I can’t possibly figure out why. I mean, we are obviously gonna wanna kill him, POD him, resuscitate his corpse, then Kill him again… and while we are primarily an Indy corp and we are not PL, or the Tuskers, we are also not totally clueless when it comes to PvP and there are quite a few of us to boot. We figured he was lookin to setup a hot drop… but, if that was what he wanted why not wait until we are rattin in fleet or until we have a big mining op going… why basically warn us by AWOXing and THEN coming back in system? I mean we were ready.

Everybody shipped up in PvP ships and we kicked him from TS. He warped around in system a bit, then went to the one POS where we have a SMA setup for general access so we can store ships outside of the station. He kicked out a Hound of mine and another frig, but they weren’t worth the effort to bump em out so he went to another POS where we did have an Orca with an AFK pilot undocked. He was in a Retribution and so dint really stand a chance of bumping an Orca all the way from the spike to the FF… especially as we were able to jam the Orca back up against the tower easy. He was smackin in local and corp, he convo’ed our CEO and tried to ransom (yea, right)… so he started orbiting inside the POS and doing… nothing. Then he dummied up and left the FF twice, both times he risked getting popped and he never had the upper hand, but he also never went so far out he couldn’t duck back in.

Then he got bored… he said so…

In local:
“Surgeon42 > Two quick points, what i did was nothing personal against you, or the corp.”

“Surgeon42 > And 2nd im docking now, so u can kick.” 

Then… he self destructed his Retribution and a few minutes later warped his pod to the station and docked up, whereupon our CEO kicked him with extreme satisfaction. As far as we know… he’s still hiding in there somewhere. Yup, ship-seppuku to keep it off our killboard… FAIL. Dint even try and warp to the unbubbled gate and make good his escape… a vastly moar Griefer-honorable tactic than asplodin yer ship, whining that you ‘dint mean it’ and dockin up in station SO you can get kicked…  FAIL.

Nothing personal huh… really? Well, I dunt know about him, but it was damned personal for all of us. That Awoxing cost us a bit. The corp had to replace the Golem (valued at 1.1Bil ISK) and paid a fine for the Awox to the Alliance plus the loss of ‘face’ even though our CEO did it right, immediately contacted the Alliance leadership, told em what was happening and made immediate restitution.So he got a blinged Golem kill on his board and cost us approx 1.6B ISK and put us on the Alliance’s KB as having Awoxed once… I still call it a major fail due to how badly he ended up using his membership in our corp. With a little thought and the willingness to spend some time, he could have hurt us so much worse than he did… I know there are those out there who will figure a 1.6 Bil hit and the loss of face moar than enough, I say they’re wrong.

If I was ever going to do something like this… I would plan very carefully and really maximize the DAMAGES… He squandered an opportunity and that is a fail in my book… and dunt get me wrong, I and my corp, are really, really glad he blew it like he did.  =]

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

EVE Online Ships – The LEGO Rifter Project

First, this pic...

LEGO Rifter

Second, yes... that is a Rifter made of WIN!!  (ok it's made of LEGO).  =]

If you have the love for EVE at all, you now have no choice but to go here and do this, SUPPORT.

OK, this is just a quickie post to bring you news of, and ask for support for, the "EVE Online Ships - Rifter" Project. I saw this a while back and I support it fully. I just now (1) saw we had gone over 500 votes (over 5000 now) and (B) I saw Seleene is onboard and supporting this so... to quote our new CSM Chair, 

"...I have to take a moment to get the word out about something so ridiculously awesome that you must know about it right the hell now."  =]

I agree and dearly hope that this could potentially lead to LEGO Hounds and LEGO Maelstroms and LEGO Nidhoggurs... and maybe even a LEGO Noctis!!. I want ALL the "Ships of EVE". However, for this to become reality, some help is needed.

This LEGO CUUSOO page needs 10,000 support votes in order to be seriously considered by LEGO. There is a short registration process to go through, DO EEET!; Then click "SUPPORT"; then send the link to your corp, your alliance and your WTs!! This is a project to get LEGO Corp to make EVE Internet Spaceships a very SERIOUS BUSINESS indeed...  =]

If the number of supporters hits 10,000 then LEGO will seriously look at working with CCP to produce official LEGO products for EVE online.

DAMMM!

How freakin cool is THAT!

Moar Links:

behemothjosh's photostream

The Rifter is #3!!! in the Top 10 for last week,

2012/03/23 Congratulatory message from LEGO for +500 votes

As of this post, 5,342 Supporters... Fellow Pilots, we are moar than halfway to having an "affordable" model of your favorite EVE spaceships... only 4,658 supports to go!

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


UPDATE: 12.04.20
OK, we are getting close!!  As of today, we have 8,367 supporting votes... we need only 1633 moar!

2012/04/06 Congratulatory message from LEGO for +5000 votes

At the 5000 vote level LEGO states, "...at this stage, one of our model designers produces a concept model. Right now there are a few projects in line for one ahead of this, so we won't start right away. We'll build one once we are able though, and will keep you posted here."


Let's give LEGO a reason to get working on that pre-production model!!  =]

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

UPDATE: 12.04.25
OK, we are getting close!!  As of today, we have 9,420 supporting votes... we need only 580 moar!!!

Only 580 supporting votes to go!!!

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

UPDATE: 12.04.25
OK, you DID IT!!!  10,000 supporting votes achieved!

2012.04.26 Congrats on 10,000 Supporters, czar

You've done it! You and all of the EVE Online fans voting for this have together achieved 10,000 supporters for the EVE Online Ships - Rifter project. We're fans of awesome spaceships too, so we're excited about this one.

You've built quite an impressive LEGO Rifter. It captures the essence of the ship with LEGO bricks, and it will serve as a good starting point as we explore the possibility of transforming this into a LEGO product. 

Congratulations on achieving 10,000 supporters. We now officially advance this project to the Review phase.

Now.... what ship do we ask for next?   =]

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

UPDATE: 12.05.08

Bad Gamer, No LEGO!!!

Seems unlikely we will ever see a LOGO Rifter, or any EVE Online ships, for sale anywhere at any time... Why? We're BADDD people... 

The FireflySerenity playset did not pass the LEGO Review for, and I quote,

"...we have decided that as cool as the Serenity model is, the Firefly TV show and Serenity film contain content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11."

If Firefly was to harsh for em, how do you think they will feel about us?  It's a Godsdamned shame...

See  "BrandStandards: What makes an appropriate LEGO product?"

ISK Can’t Buy You Happiness, But it Can Rent You an Titangasm.

~or  “Inflation, while Good For Balloons, is Bad For EVE.”

There is a problem in New Eden… (NO! really?)  =]  We are awash in ISKies… there is too much ISK coming into the economy and not enough going out, inflation is rampant, the proletariat are running amok in the corridors, the bourgeoisie are flying their Titans in the nude and slammin Jager like their all CSM Chairmen… … oh…  wait…  ok, so things are pretty much normal in New Eden, we still have too much ISK coming into the economy…

So what could be done to fix this? Here are a few of…

CCPs IDEAS:

(ref: Infernal Q&A with CCP Soundwave)

“Infernal Inflation Games”

In the upcoming ‘Inferno Patch’’ they have announced…

1. Their gonna give all the Droans in the Droan Regions a Cease and Desist Order to stop them from hauling Droan Minerals all over EVE no matter what they’re doin. So no moar gunmining, they’re gonna be replacing Droan Minerals w/ Bounties. However this move (surprise, surprise) will actually become another ISK Faucet and lead to a possible (probable?) increase in ISK flowing INTO the game adding to inflation so…

2. so offset the above we can “…expect some “Reward Balancing” later in the year...” IE bounty Nerf.

1^st Incursion Bounties will get the Nerf Bat

2^nd (and possibly) increase Transaction Tax,

3^rd (and MAYBE) “…considering lowering ALL bounties across EVE.“…by approx 10%.”

As I see it, instead of creating moar bounties just to end up lowering them, IE directly reducing the amt of ISK that can be ‘earned’ ingame, why not create moar ISK sinks?

MY IDEAS:

I have an issue with Bounties… according to Lore, CONCORD is financially independent of the Empires due to income from: Loyalty Point Stores, Pilot Licensing, PLEX and Smuggling Fines… these simply do not seem to be enough to cover running costs AND the bounties they payout. CONCORD needs moar ISK!!!

Add that to my personal love of the Lore of EVE (I’m an OLD scifi buff) and my preference for accurate detail (at least as accurate as is workably possible) then I can easily think of a few decent ISK sinks just beggin to be added.

I.  Docking Bay Fees\CQ Rent

Think about it. You can live in ANY NPC station in ANY part of Empire, dock a mixed FLEET of SPACESHIPS, with maintenance, power, logistics and other attendant costs… FOR FREE???  Oh come on! You gotta be kiddin me! Wanna a reasonable ISK Sink? Charge Docking Bay Fees for ‘each’ ship, and rent for the CQ.

Detail: Fees/Rents based on either:

A. Term Contracted same as Corp Offices;

B. With a Corp office, Fees included and priced accordingly;

C. No Corp Office or Contract, priced per dock up at hourly rate. Fee rates reflect same scaling as current Office Rentals.

NOTE: This is NOT a new ISK Faucet (Transfer) for null. Systems can still be rented, but the Docking Fees\Rents are absorbed by CONCORD or the station itself as station costs (a sink) NOT as income for the renting Alliance.

II.  HR & Internal Logistics for Ships

The Lore (and common sense) says the Ships in New Eden are crewed. These crews must be fed and paid… OK, add Logistics Charges per ship, based on Crew size, to cover required food, clothing, medical services and pay... The Cost of Doing Business as ‘twere. And yea… dunt pay yer crew, you can’t undock that ship.

There is an extremely detailed and well thought out post on this idea here.

III. CONCORD Fines for Agression

Add a fine to CONCORDable agression, not only do you lose sec status (and possibly your ship) but you will ALSO have a fine (deducted or manual?) in line with the severity of the action. Not so much as to make Hauler Ganking unprofitable, just a bit less profitable than it is now. This would create a sink and reduce an existing faucet.

Detail: for can/wreckflipping, base fines on % value of shiploss and/or loot dropped?

Detail: for ganking, base fines on % value of ship and/or cargo/minerals dropped and/or destroyed?

Detail: for podkilling, a base fine for no implants and scale fine based on % of Implants lost?

Detail: scale fines across secs? Higher fines for Hisec to lowest fines for Nullsec?

Detail; as CONCORD does not operate in W-space, no fines there?

NOTE:

Upside - may help to incentivise moar people into low/null and possibly W-space.

Downside(?) - may make Hisec ‘safer’

IV.  CONCORD Gate Charges?

Add an ISK charge for every gate. Prolly VERY HIGHLY unpopular BUT… does give EVE a permanent unavoidable ISK sink.

Detail: base charge on mass? By ship class? By sec status?

Detail: higher charges for Hisec scaled to lowest for null?

Detail: No charges for Wormholes… (holes are not a mfg’ed ‘Gate’)

V.  Income Tax?

Create an Income Tax for EVE…

LOL,   yea…. right… sorry, I just HADDA add that one for the lolz…  That’d make the Incarna Riots look TAME…  =]

I personally feel very strongly that #1 and #2 SHOULD be a part of the game. They are in keeping with the Lore and would add greatly to immersion by adding another, deeper level of virtual ‘reality’ to this wonderful ‘verse we inhabit. We should not be able to live for free. Is it at all reasonable to have to pay several million ISK for OFFICE space and yet you can DOCK a FLEET of ships for free?

And to pretend that ‘one lone man’ can run and fly and fight a Rifter (the size of a 747) all by hisself, much less a Rokh or a TITAN… no matter how amazing he may believe his amazing brain to be, is simply foolishness. These are REASONABLE costs and should be a part of the game.

YOUR IDEAS:

Tag, yer it!

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