Setting Up Camp…

or~  I Love a Force Field, Dunt You?

OK, I am in the Temp C2 and living out of my Loki. I have scouted the new hole completely, made multiple BMs and “test” run a site already… “Test run?” you ask… well, I love my Loki and properly fit she is a smash site runner, at least on Guristas in Null, but currently she is MAX CloakyLoki fit… not DPS fit so I was a wee worried at her ability to take C2 Sleepers… I should nae hae worried… she did fine. Yes, I had to carefully manage range and the incoming DPS, but I never got below 50% Shld or below 60% CAP… I was well pleased.

So I scanned and scouted and waited until I had a favorable Lo-hole. The last two A239s lead to Null for some reason… sheesh… but I finally got one just one hop from Hi last night so I ordered my A-Lt., Angel, to our HQ in Eglennaert to fly in a POS and mods. Now that she can finally pilot a Mammoth, I had her load up the Sm Minnie POS and a basic Mod load… CHB, SMB, a balance of Arty, ACs & Ewar mods. I had copied all BMs to corp, she made the run to the hole without incident, this was the one that worried me as all the rest will be just fuels etc. All Sleeper L&S we run in cloakies, but the POS & mods need a larger Indie.

Got in, warped to my selected anchor moon and ran through the setup. Anchoring > Fueling > Onlining all went smoothly… Thank the Gods… FF went up and we have a Camp.  =]

OK, anchored and onlined the mods I had brought in and then had her make the 4 hops to Jita, load up on fuels, a full load of stront and x2 full loads of ammo for currently setup guns, make the run back, again smooth sailing… whew… Loaded all guns, filled the Stront Bay and brought Fuels up to 15 days. We have a POS, a permanent resident who can run CovOps scanners and we are set for at least 2 weeks.

So tonight (or soonest) I need to bring in a ship or two…  a Noctis… actually I’ll prolly use Salvage Thrasher (easier to on th’ wallet to lose)… I’d “like” to have a second Loki setup specifically for Sleepers, but I dunt have a spare 600M ISK laying around… so I’ll pick something I can run Sleepers in and better “afford” to lose. I also need a Cheetah and mebbe a shuttle or two… but whatever I keep in here it will be a bare minimum ‘cause a Small POS can never be a Deth Star and if attacked, while they are still a POS, they are obviously the easiest of the POSes to take down.

So begins in earnest my search for a C3/Lo to call our own… Waking up to the very familiar light of the K5 Red Giant sun that reminds me of our old C2, a K5 Red Giant too… I am happy again back in W-space even if it is inna tent and a temporary hole…

Now if I can just get my corpmates to visit and run some sites and raid some holes and such…  =]

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

Bumbling Around in the Black…

or~  Wormhole Transgressions Without Bad Intentions…

Last week I started scouting out wormholes but I have only really put 4 days work into it as I took a break for 4 of those days. Took the fambly to a little known backwater (and rather backwards) planet the locals call “Uurth”. I have found and claimed a really lovely spot. Shady trees with a beautiful view of a sweet little protected cove that looks out to a fantastically large bay… We setup camp and swam and fished and I spent as much time as I could in a hammock… ahhhh.

Well, “all good things” as they say… So we warped back, dropped off the fam and I crewed up and we got back in the hole. All in all we have scouted 12 holes, classes C2, 3 & 5. Most have been C2’s with Stat Lows and Stat C2’s but a few have been less plebian. Found one C2/Null/C5, never saw that combo afore. All were occupado, some moar so than others. A few had dead POSes and live POSes from diff corps. I had only one ‘close call’ as twere…

I popped thru a hole and an Astarte was camping the hole, or had just arrived or something. He was at approx 15km range but he was not prepared for someone to come thru as his react time sukked. I cloaked and fired off the MWD simultaneously, manually translated vertically and the Astarte passed behind and below me at 3500m. He popped his droans (1) Ogres, too slow and (b) too early so they trailed far behind him and were no help to him at all. I had BMed the return, gone to tactical system view, selected a warpable and I went to warp as he passed below & behind.

After that it was business as usual, stay cloaked, make safes, scout around. I have discovered something (or simply been damn lucky)… in every hole I scouted, I dscanned down the POSes I saw, determined which moon they were at and warped to 100km… every time I landed approx 100km from the POS (low of like 80something and a high of over 200) and never once was decloaked by anything. As I am flying a T3 Loki with the Interdiction Nullifier Subsystem, Warp Disruption bubbles (and ‘dictor bubbles) are not an issue for me either.

I have been curious about this as I have ‘read’ you should not do this, the risk is too high, or use a POD as the autodefense systems do not target PODs… which is not true as our POS targeted my POD moar than once, though it never fire on me. I however had never read of, heard of nor talked to anyone who could confirm a kill on a cloaky from warping to a Moon with a POS at 100km. As to why I am trying this with a T3 Loki… well, a T3 is the only ship which can run a CovOps AND an Interdiction Nullifier… so “IF” I ever do get declaoked I am counting on being able to get cloaked back up and initiate a warp out afore the POS auto systems can get a lock on me… of course… if anyone is home and awake, this might not go so well as I hope… but we’ll see I guess.  =]

Also, warping in closer than 100km I would not try as I understand the POS mechanics are suppose to ALWAYS anchor the POS at the center of the grid when you are on the right grid to anchor a POS…. therefore it will not be “at” 100 or “at” 0… it will be wherever the center of that grid is.

Keep in mind the 12 holes I scouted had a minimum of 1 POS and a max of 3 in every hole, and I warped to 100 AT EACH… we’re talking approx 24 POSes tested in the last 4 days… this is at least the beginning of a statistically valid sample… I find this… interesting and it make me brain bubble with plans for defensive strategies.

I have decided to setup base, probably on a temp basis, in a C2/Lo/C2 a pilot has offered to us, as what we want is a C3/Lo or at least a C2/Lo/C3 to we can start working in a higher risk hole, and making a commensurately higher reward. I will setup a Sm Minni Spike, I call it a tent, prolly name it “Coleman” or “Pup Tent” or some such…  LOL. Just enough to give me the bare minimums same as we did back when my CEO and I were gonna raid an empty C2 we found that was LOADED with sites, which worked out OK even though we hada buncha sites raided out from under us.

After I get camp setup I will move one of my Apprentice Lt’s (or ALt’s) in and then I can choose each day either to go on a scouting trip or run some sites… either way from now on I’ll be waking up in the deadliest space in EVE, where I belong.

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

Blog Banter 36: The Expansion of EVE

or~  “The Future’s so Bright, I Gotta Wear… a Ray-Banicle…”

"With the Inferno expansion upon us, new seeds have been planted in the ongoing evolution of EVE Online. With every expansion comes new trials and challenges, game-changing mechanics and fresh ideas. After nine years and seventeen expansions, EVE has grown far more than most other MMOGs can hope for. Which expansions have brought the highs and lows, which have been the best and the worst for EVE Online?"

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

I joined EVE on November 23 of 2010, just 7 days before the 1^st Incursion Release. I have been ingame 1 year 6 months as of this writing, so I have experienced Incursion, Incarna, Crucible and now Inferno. I began my EVE blog, (shameless plug -> “A CARBON Based Life”) after 6 months ingame in April of 2011. This was prompted by my home corp's discovery of wormholes and a strong shared interest in the W-space lifestyle. Up until then we had been sorta bouncing around, as so many do in the early days and months in New Eden, trying to find our ‘game’… in W-space we had found not only our game, but our homespace in EVE.

My main take on the EVE expansions I have lived through has been overall fantastic. My rankings are based on a personal and subjective 10 out of 10 rating, not on features but an overall feeling of how they affected me ingame.

Incursion: RANKING 10/10 - Incursion was a wonderful intro to EVE for me as very shortly after I finished noob-skool, got my wings, bought and badly fitted a Destroyer, the Minmawin Thrasher (still a fav of mine) and ventured out on-my-own as ‘twere… I was on a buyin spree and inadvertently ran across one of the earliest (as best I understand it now, possibly the very first) Sansha Incursion. A better introduction to a SciFi Spaceship MMO for me could not have been scripted.

I was enthralled. I warped to the moon nearest to the Incursion… it was visible from there. I warped to the battle and just sat and watched… mesmerized. (I posted the story here… skip down to, “I have seen…”) I was totally hooked.

Incarna: RANKING 4/10 – Then came Incarna and I never looked so good. Yea, the Char Creator was graphics heavy and it took forever to do my makeover… but the end product was worth it as far as I am concerned, the comparison between old and new is cartoon and near-photo IMHO. The CQ was (and is) a waste of code until we can OPEN THE FRAKKIN DOOR. Arum is wasted on me as I will never be using ANY MT system. I dunt even buy PLEX as tis. The rest of it was background to us in our hole. I really did enjoy the riots though… (hence the '4' out of 10)  =]

Crucible: RANKING 10/10 - Crucible was next and I was well pleased. T3 BCs, Newbula, Corp BMs, etc., etc. all to the good.

Inferno: RANKING 10/10 - Last but nae least we have Inferno… MISSILES!!!!!!!!!!! YAE!! (and the new Hound still gives me inappropriate reactions…) New graphics almost always a win.... new UI, no so happy with, but no desire to forumwhine ‘bout it either… WarDec / FacWar changes and Mercs 0% impact seen on W-space so meh… so, so-far-so-good.

My fav so far, Inferno by a mile and that is JUST for the new missile effects…  though, I did notice one thing I am not happy with… what happened to Probe Launchers? Aren’t probes just a weird missile with a sciencehead instead of a warhead? Come on… no love for probes??

So what’s all this mean?

For me, EVE is a Virtual Reality moar than anything else. To me, therefore, as time has gone by each time there is a question or an argument or a discussion (with or without Missile and Lazors) I ask myself, “Self?” I say, “Yes?” Self answers, “In this particular case, in this specific postulated circumstance, what happened/happens/might happen In Real Life?” “Hmmmm…” responds Self… The answers I get are complex and hairy… like RL. They should be the same in EVE.

We have, I believe we all can agree, two basic differing philosophies in EVE. The Carebear and the Griefer. Oh there are a million shades of grey betwixt these two and I personally believe many moar Carebears have Griefer alts, and many moar Griefers have Carebear alts than fess up to it. But everyone seems to take a stand with their main char siding with whichever playstyle they prefer best. Carebear or Griefer. PvE’er or PvP’er.

Jester writ in a way I will use sorta sideways in his recent post, “QOTW: Taking EVE too seriously” as regards the Carebear Oddball’s gank loss to the Griefer Kaeda Maxwell.

Oddball goes to some length to make his case to… “…suggest a system of natural Consequences which may be of use in curbing such competitions like 'hulkageddon' - or at least limit them to the low- and null-sec systems where they belong.” The age old cry for a (Non-Consensual PvP) NCPvP Free EVE, or at the least an NCPvP free Hisec in EVE.

This is set against Kaeda Maxwell’s lengthy response justifying the gank… “You don't however see me going onto the forums and writing some wall of text quoting the EULA to try and get CCP to remove mining from the sandbox because I don't consider it fun or entertaining…”

My point? CCP has set themselves a hard, hard task. That of creating and maintaining a Sandbox Based MMO(RP)G that creates and maintains a delicate balance of strong adversarial emotional and cerebral forces on its players.

So, for each expansion CCP has to plan how to alter, tweak and adjust the forces of Carebear vs Griefer or, dare we say it?… Good vs Evil? Yes… Good vs Evil… the age old drama mama that in prehistory kept ‘em enthralled at the feet of the Travelling Storyteller, brought em in in droves to see Shakespeare’s plays and keeps em lined up outside theaters today to see “Star Wars” and “Battleship”… and drama is what keeps us logging on and undocking our well fitted ships carrying much needed fuels for our POS in a place where we can virtually LOSE that ship and mods and cargo. We dunt wanna lose OUR ships, but we do love the stories of them as do.

Those of us who undock and die and undock and kill and rage quit and gloat and log back on day after day are PASSIONATE about EVE. Why? Because it is COMPLEX, because it is HARD, because it is DANGEROUS… because all of that makes it cerebrally satisfying and emotionally fulfilling. This is not to say that all those who prefer the carebear life are enamored of NCPvP and the danger, see Oddball… but if he really hated it THAT much, why does he log back on? Why forumwhine? Why waste his time and effort on such a blatantly unfair pastime? Perhaps because, whether he recognizes it or not, EVE is WORTH playing not just because of its complexity and depth, but also due to its inherent danger… I personally believe that without NCPvP, the complexity and depth would not be enough for most of us.

So, CCP has to listen to us… but not to do what we WANT… but to do what we NEED. And what we need is to be entertained and interested and challenged and enthralled. They have to create and recreate and balance and rebalance on a razor edge, the forces of Good Vs Evil, Carebear vs Griefer… they can never ever make the mistake of making one side happier than the other… they need to keep us ALL INTERESTED in “What will they do next?”

So far, with only one really bad fail (stand up Incarna and take a bow), out of 9 years and 17 expansions… I’d say they are doing better at a very, very difficult task than any other MMO out there… and I include WoW as it does not have the grit of reality, the complexity and harshness that casts such a bright light on the simple pleasures and the very real satisfaction found in the acts of friendship and community that far, far out numbers the amount of drama in EVE… but can be so very boring to read about.  =]

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

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Null is Dull, Lo is... (well it’s Lo) and Hi is too Dangewuss...

or~ Ima go Stick My Head inna Hole…

Cloaked in my Cheetah scouting a POS

One or two of ya may have noticed I have not updated me blog in a while…Well, I been busy with some RL stuff and… TBH, I got bored. I am not sure when bittervet disease normally strikes… I had doubted it could strike one so young as I ingame… but it did. At least that’s what it feels like.

My last musings here on my time in nullsec were about my personal take on the the big shakeup with Raiden losing the bulk of its systems and corps (including us)… meh. After that I bloodjumped out to Hisec to join in the “Sack of Jita Experience”… was funnish, but again, meh. After that I did two pieces on an “Incidental Blog Blather” started by Rixx and a short on the new Hound and missiles over on Sisi…haven’t posted anything since.

You see… I was having a lot of trouble those last few weeks coming up with things to say. I had plenty I wanted to post about, but none of it was stuff I was comfortable writing up as it had to do with my ever increasing and very real lack of interest in loggin in due to… conditions… beyond my control.

The corp I had joined in null is a group of guys I really like and respect and I/we have known them like forever(ish)… and they are this really great Indy corp and have done, and are doing, some really amazing stuff… but I am not an Indy guy. However one of my fav PvP’ers was already a part of them and two others were going to join and the two other Dirs in my corp wanted to go try null, so as I have already written ‘bout, I went too.

But as spring started to unfold outside the window, attendance started its usual summer decline as is normal in the MMOG world… the problem was as the PvE (site running) branch is the smallest division and the guys I wanted to fly with most were on less and less… until I was loggin on to find a just few guys on and flying, but ALL were mining… no one for me to to run sites with almost ever and I dunt have the mad skills and blinged out ships that would allow me to get up to the 15 to 30M ISK Bounty Cycle our top site runners are capable of… When we all flew together our shares would get upwards of 15 or moar a Bnty Cycle… but solo I rarely saw over 5 to 8M a cycle…

Now 5 to 8 Million ISK every 20 minutes is still a very decent amount of ISK… but I simply dunt like “grinding” alone…and if yer not grinding at it, you dunt see even 3 or 4 M ISK per cycle… again, why am I complaining? Cause I found I really dunt wanna do ‘this’, play EVE, alone no matter how much ISK I can make.

.

This to me seems weird cause when we lived in the hole, for over nine months, there were many, many times I would be logged on solo and while I really preferred to have guys to fly with, living in the hole there is so much moar you have to DO… Scanning the daily sigs, fuelling the POS, I could solo the C2 sites so well I could AFK them a bit and blog or work on the Fuel or Loot & Salvage Spreadsheets, plus as I was a Director, I had access to everything and could be involved in it all… and all of that would keep me INTERESTED and busy until someone else did log on… In null I had nothing... as I was not a Director, I had NO responsibilities… and therefore nothing to DO except run sites or… or… or… M I N E... ye gods… just effin kill me please.

So I found myself loggin on less and less and staying on when I did, for shorter and shorter times. In the last few weeks I often dint even undock at all. So I wrote up and Letter of Resignation, contracted all my ships and mods out and bloodjumped out to Hisec. My ships were delivered and… I found I had even less reason to log on than in null. My CEO (and son) had stayed in null to grind up ISK for a move back to W-space and the other Dir in our little corp had actually left before me… though I knew not where he was or what he was doing as I rarely saw him on at all… less than me as far as I could tell.

Tonight was the first time I had logged on in over a week. Both my guys were on and we talked a bit about things… I was dithering over whether or not to go back to null, seems our leaving had stimulated some discussion in Helix on the subject of PvE/P players and what did Helix have to offer etc., etc. so now they are (somewhat) moar actively getting involved in PvP… at least trying to… go figger huh?

Anyhoo… As I said I was dithering over going back or…? Or what else could I would I wanna do? Well, I had thought back when I moved back up to Hisec to scan down and do some W-space exploring. AI said he had not seen any holes for sale lately so I thought I’d take a look. I jumped in my Cheetah and scanned down the local sigs in Eitu… Ah ha! Two holes, schweet… off I went.

Found a C3 and a C1. The C3 has a Losec and a Hisec holes; is occupado with a Lrg Minnie Spike well defended. A Hoarder was floating unmanned in the POS and two Drakes were running sites. It’s a large system and I was not on Dscan when I popped in so I had cloaked and made some safes, scouted their POS and then popped probes to scan down their holes. They rousted out a CovOps frig and a Noccy and quickly cleaned up their wrecks when they saw my probes. They have a stat Lo and Hi which I scouted out.

Popped back out to Eitu and then checked out the C1. Also Occupado with Two Towers but only one Forcefield… one tower was DEAD with some incapped mods. The other, another Cal Lrg Spike, was all quiet, no one awake. I made some safes, one out of scan range of the live spike, popped probes but found no holes other than the one I came in through.

By then I realized something… I was happy. I was ENJOYING MYSELF... I was back scanning and cloakin and flyin around in the deadliest space in EVE, solo, and I felt... satisfied… go figger huh.

So I popped back out, docked up and refitted my Loki for W-space

and headed back out, popped back into the C3, settled in at SS4, a safe that was way off tangent from anything and off Dscan range of the holes and the POS, ordered the Night Watch to Cloaked Stationkeeping. I settled back in my command chair and ordered a kauffee. It was a real pleasure to see the whole crew once again happy at their work. I could hear the offwatch gathered in the forward lounge singing an old Matarii homecoming song…

No, this is not “our” W-space… but all we have to do if find a hole to call our own. We’re back in W-Space and I have no intention of ever leaving again.

The HDF =Lochotic= back n the space she was made for...

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

OH… MY… GODS…

or~  DIDJOUSISEEWHATTHEYDID?!?!?!…

Today was a GOOD day!!

OK, I am a Matarii… a gunboat guy. I LOVE Minmawin ships and I LOVE GUNS… but, they have one real downside… they aren’t a lotta fun to watch. Oh I do enjoy clearing my HUD and zoomin in real close… the muzzle blasts are a real blast... especially with the changes Crusibble brought. Out of sync firing order is vurra cool… and when lazors miss, OOOooo  AAAhhhh…  when guns miss though, not so much.

But, the first off-race ship I ever trained up on was the Drake as ervybody said the Duck is the Wormhole King due to its massive tank, and dey was right. Granted its Heavy Missile DPS was lacking in comparison, but balancing is balancing…

However, I fell in love with missiles when I was runnin C1 Sleepers.. vurra nice to have SOME kinda amination… and so one of my very fav Winmatar ships quickly became the Hound. I was at first put off by its styling… but, like a sore tooth it kinda grows on ya… and you find you just can’t stop fiddling with it. Of course I have hated as much as anyone the missile launch ‘fartcloud’ effect… all you needed was a nice “Blattt!” to go along with it… cripes.

But… that has all changed (soon)!! I caught wind (LOL) of a hint and dropped by Sisi today and By The Gods they dids it!! The new Hound  is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much bettah!!! Still a gangly thing but DAYUM do I like it!! And the Torpedo launchers!!!  WOO HOO!!! And the Bomb launcher!! Whoo boy! All in all I am one very well pleased Matarii…

OK, so I am in nullsec and alone on Sisi which is not at all unusual. I undock and spend some time just taking a good long look at her… Ahhhh… =]

Then I want to see the animations so I warp out to the planet and yea buddy! They look GOOD. I warp back to the station and I’m gonna pop out a few cans to shoot when I realize… I can shootz the station!!!  LOL  I lock it up, go to orbit @ 30Km and start poppin Torpedoes… Man oh man!! What a nice feeling to SEE your torps pop out, then fire off their rockets and swing away in a loverly tangent and disappear into the dock trailing smoke…  Ahhhhhhh…

If you get te impression I am pleased… you dunt know the half of it! Oh and I ‘frapsed’ the whole thing and edited and uploaded it to YouTube and linked it above… I hope you enjoy as this is my first ‘frapsing’…

I ‘fraps’ with CamStudio (not Fraps, lol) from camstudio.org and edited with nuthin moar ‘en Win Movie Maker. Again, hope you enjoy watchin… I sure enjoyed makin it.  =]

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

What’s in YOUR Hangar?...

or~  …Rixx’s Accidental Blog Blather #1.   =]

Picked up this “Accidental Blog Banter” from Drackarn over at Sand Cider and Spaceships, He gots it from Rixx Javix over on Eveoganda... Rixx lists what ships he has in his hanger, all 55 of them. At the end he asks "So, what's in your hanger?"

Drackarn weighs in with a grand total of 59 in his home hangar alone.

Ima add my acounting but just know this... afore I went down to null, I sold off a buncha ships in a fit of House Cleaning Gone Wrong...  so my total is down a wee bit from normal… so I am addin em ALL up… (except shuttles… I gots lots ‘o them all over New Eden)

whe I am:

x1 Hound-bumber

x1 Vigil-Ninja Salver

= 02

Staged out from Null:

x1 Cheetah-Cloaky W-Spaceboat

x1 Hookbill-RokketBoat (just plain old FUN!!)

x1 Jaguar-FAF (for fun)

x1 Wolf-HAF (for fun)

x1 Maelstrom-PvE T2 null Guristas anom runner

x1 Hurricane-PvP T2 null Guristas Belt runner

x1 Tornado-PvE null Guristas Belt runner

x1 Blackbird-Max Jammer (experiment)

x1 Loki-PvE T2 null Guristas anom runner

x1 Noctis-null salver

= 10

At home sys:

x1 Vigil-Ninja Salver

x1 Cheetah-Cloaky W-Spaceboat

x1 Firetail-PvP std. T2 (for fun)

x1 Thrasher-Throwaway Salver

x1 Typhoon-top wingy bit for true

x1 Macharial-a GIFT… fit for ‘cursions (never used LOL)

x1 Noctis-shmoctis

x1 Hoarder-POS fueler

x2 Mammoth-Hisec trashtruck

x1 Mastodon-lo/null/hole trashtruck

= 11

At mining sys:

x1 Rifter-PvP std T2

x1 Scythe-Mining Cruiser (yuch!)

x1 Vexor Navy Issue-PvP T2 for WarDeccin…

= 03

Total=26

"What's in YOUR hanger?"

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

The Sack of Jita 4-4…

or~  “Mittens Fiddles (with the Market) While Jita Burns”…

So many wrecks... so little time. I was just a lurker at the Sack of Jita, dint really join in the fun so much as warp around watchin. I had an A-Lt in Jita and a Ninja Salvage Vigil and a Cloaky Hound. I logged in when I read, courtesy of Stabs at Stabbed Up, that it had kicked off 2 days earlier than announced and 1 day earlier than leaked… LOL.  'Goons' and 'honesty', 2 words used in conjunction only in jest.

 Fig. 1 – The Sack of Jita 4-4 Begins, the view from 400km out.

“What I Saw”…

Basically on kickoff night it was really something to see. I logged on my A-Lt, undocked  and from the Jita main trade hub at the Caldari Navy Assembly Plant at Jita Planet 4 Moon 4 (Jita 4-4) and spammed ‘warped to’ to an instawarp I have 2000Km out from the undock… and (1) instantly realized TiDi (Time Dilatation) was at 10% and working very well and (B) as I  s l o w l y  warped through a butt-ton of flashing bright orange ships at the undock (Fig. 1; I had not reset OV from my Null Neut set) and I landed, at 2000Km, at the end of an amazing string of ships that were strung out all the way back to the station.

I warped out to one of my overwatch BMs and started watching… I soon realized that:

1.      I could not see the station for the mass of ships. See ‘Fig. 1 & 2’…

2.      I did not see any CONCORD ships… I thought CCP had mebbe turned off CONCORD as there were no CONCORD or CalNav NPC ships visible… then I saw them in the OV at the same range as the mass of private ships…  huh? Turns out I could not see the police and Navy NPCs due to the MASS of private ships occluding the station!

Fig.2 – TiDi @ 14% / 2100+ players in system

Wow. Impressive to say the least… and this was with approx 2100+ players in local, which is about 600 over the rough norm of 1500 players in Jita at any given time. But I think, mebbe, there were moar players outside than docked which is far and away not the norm here.

I kept seeing muted and hidden hints of explosions in the mass of ships and every now and then a ship would pop outside of the mass in a bright clear flash of bluewhite death light... I hit ‘CTRL-F9’ and cleared my screens and HUD of all Nav and Tac displays and I was graced with a view few will ever see… keep in mind TiDi was running at an average of 10 to 15% so I was watching in slowmo as twere… but (Fig. 3)… the Jita 4-4 dock was on fire!

Fig.3 – The Dock is Afire!!

As you can see above, it was really something to see.

Then I got interested in mebbe doing a little salvaging… so I switched to my 'Salv Only' OV Tab and… OMG, the wrecks were appearing and disappearing (A) in a near continous ripple and (2) FAST (keep in mind TiDi is runnin at 15% ). The dock was a steady slow motion rippling flash of bluewhite death pulses… actually quite mesmerizing to watch.  =] Oh, BTW in Fig. 3 the blueflash you see at the dock is approx 3 ships exploding basically all at once.

I tried to estimate whether or not I could effectively warp in range and actually have a chance of salvaging but I decided it would be problematic even with TiDi working so well and TBH I was moar interested in the spectacle than profiting thereby. So I just flew around and watched, took some pix and chatted w/corpmates on TS.

The next day I logged on and saw the following, which some are taking as CCP trying to nerf the Sack of Jita…. dear scrod! The 'Advisory' was put up well AFTER the SoJ started fer krist’s sake you effin whinybears…   =P

As things sort settled down after the initial huge numbers of ships ganking etc. I did give salvaging a shot and with my skills and very fast ship and dual sebos I got about half the wrecks I was able to lock onto… considering the sheer numbers of salvagers in competition I was not unhappy with my performance.

I did get a very interesting inmail yesterday from a Goon who stated I could buy an 'Opt Out from Burn Jita' (on effin SUNDAY) for only 250M ISK… yes, right.  OH AND as Bur Jita was soooo very successful they have, “decided to continue to burn Jita for the entire month of May”…  uh, yea… right.  LOL

BEGIN QUOTE:

(my A-Lt),

Burn Jita keeps rolling, but you can still opt-out!

From: Zombie Donkey

Sent: 2012.04.30 05:44

To: (my A-Lt), 

Hello,

Don't let this happen to you!

This pilot gambled and lost a fortune!

Not even industrials are safe!

Whether 30b or 30k in the hold, no freighter is safe!

Burn Jita has been quite successful for Goonswarm Federation, both financially and as a morale booster.  Thus, rather than ending Burn Jita this weekend, we have decided to continue to burn Jita for the entire month of May.  However, if you'd rather not play, we understand - that's why we're giving pilots such as yourself a chance to opt-out!

Allowing select individuals to opt-out is our way of ensuring that we continue to have access to well-stocked markets in empire. You can read more about the opt-out program here For a one-time fee of 250M, you will be allowed free passage through Jita during the month of May. In the unlikely event you are accidentally targeted, you will be fully reimbursed for your loss.

As an official representative of the opt-out program, I would be happy to get your name on the list. Please send a payment of 250M to "List Processing Inc" [CLISP] with the reason "burn jita opt-out" from each pilot you wish to put on the list. Please, feel free to contact me in game if you have any questions.

END QUOTE.

Some Links:

EVE-KILL (Jita KB Stats)

Burn Jita - First Night at the 4-4 Undock  (YouTube)
Had to add this one! Thanx to Jester...
Nyx undocks in Jita!

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

So… When is the Next Freighter Out? =]

or~ “Living thru a Coup d'état”…

Things have been… weird, little scary but, on the whole, quite boring these last few days. You see… I live in The Vale of the Silent… ‘nough said huh?

The most prevalent media posts I can find on the recent goings on in the VotS are this EVE News 24 article and this section, RaidenDOT Collapses, of another EVE News 24 leak article, and this post by a mate of mine.

OK, as ervybody is postin on the metagame ramifications of the Coup d'état in the Vail of the Silent, Ima post on how all this personally affected a single renter corp member (me) who is: not a Director; is not “in the know” on the political machinations involved and; who does not give a rats RED arse about politics.

To sum up, it was… slightly unsettling. I know I have not posted a lot of positive stuff about my time in null. But my corp wanted to give it a try and we have known the guys in this corp for most of the time we have all been ingame and we all like flying together. Plus, my corp was getting a little stagnant in the C2 and we needed to move on and up. So we had decided to take a break and take advantage of our frens moving to null and go see what all the fuss was about.

So, as to the last few days… sorry to say yer prolly gonna be disappointed. Not all that much happened, at least to me personally, in our system.

I woke on the 25^th to warnings to “Be Careful, Things Are A Happening”. Uh… ok… huh? We were sorta on a ‘hmm it could be war’ footing so as I have POS Defense skills I went out to one of our POSes and manned the guns, JIC. While sittin with nuthin ta do I browsed up the “Leak: GSF CEO Update” (linked above) where in Mittens postulates the failscade of Raiden… hmmm.

After a while I started worryin that mebbe we could get locked out of “our” station so I moved all my ships to one of our POS’s then went back to sittin on the trigger on some POS guns. On a funny noob note, we had a corpmate drop a can and we took pot shots at it with the POS guns, then I locked up one of the POS’s Warp Disruption Battery, just to see if I could, one of ours of course… and in tryin to unlock it… I fired on it. LOL So we had a “moment” there where WE were under attack… from within!  Just like Raiden, only, not.  =]

It all ended up bein a waste of time (thank god) as nothing (else) happened in our system. A bit later that day we had a ‘blue’ pop insystem which we usually sorta ignore, I mean it’s a BLUE. But I took a gander and it was a NCDOT guy… huh? WTF? I dint say anything, and dint hear anyone else mention it as well, “Things Are Happening” right? We did get some notices of 2 TCUs getting attacked. I did a little cloaky scouting and checked out the 2 TCUs that had been fired on. No joy, just people randomly having some fun during the ‘troubles”.

Same same the next day, nothin goin on, not ‘safe’ to do ops and no ‘need’ to do anything defensewise so I logged onto my Jita A-Lt. to check training and do make some moar Sack of Jita BMs. I have several fast frigs setup for her, cloaky Hounds, Ninja Salvage Vigils, etc. I hope I might get some salvaging in but I am not going to risk her unskilled ass any moar than is really worth it. Mostly I expect to just warp around takin pix of the expected action on Fri, if there is any.

By Thur 27^th all was settling back down and I moved my ships back to the station and just ship spun and blogged. Then I saw Stab’s “Eve: it's kicked off at Jita!” post and logged onto my Jita A-Lt and… […well, it HAD all kicked off a day earlier than ‘leaked’… but all that’s for another post…]

One thing I did notice though, the timing of the Rollin coup d'état in the Vale took place just before the Sack of Jita, which has, to a degree, overshadowed the coup or at least diverted some of the attention, possibly making it a little easier to complete. So that’s about it. Things were normal, things got weird and a bit scary as re station access and our status etc., now things ‘seem’ to be settling back down, just under new management… we’ll see I guess, time will tell. I will add this, I do not like living at the sufferance of others.

I am entirely uncomfortable with the idea that someone I do not know or have any reason to trust can, with the click of a mouse, lock me (ok us) out of the station my (yea, our) ships, mods and Stuffs are in. That someone I do not know or have any reason to trust can, with the click of a mouse, change my status to ‘neut’ and put me at greater risk in null…

This is not carebear shit or whining for a ‘safe’ game. It is just an observation. But the situation is, to me, an unacceptable risk vs reward situation and I wonder how many hi and lo sec’ers would give null a try if there was a renter contract system that gave them a modicum of reasonable protection from betrayal. Nothing game changing, nuthing that nerfs griefing, just IF a corp or alliance enters into an agreement, a contract, there should be some recourse… a Betrayal Counter Measure if you will.

I realize scams, lying, cheating and betrayal are part and parcel of life in New Eden. Still, CCP and many players would like to find a way to get moar players interested in nullsec. I am not advocating CONCORD or making null itself safer, but maybe if there was an renter contract system (there is no contract system ATM) that did not leave the renters at the total whim of the renting corp/alliance. I dunt have any detailed idea’s on this… it just occurred to me.

All of this is just… ‘meh’ to me. My ‘game’ in EVE is not IN EVE at all… I am a wormholer at heart, by trade and training. I hate blobs, AFK cloakies, cyno alts, hotdrops, Sov and the damned politics… and strangely enough, I have not once, not ONE EFFIN day, felt nearly as in control of my own game as I did EVERY day we were in the hole… Now, this feeling, on the face of it, makes no sense whatsoever. I mean W-space is THE DEADLIEST SPACE IN EVE… right? It must be, says so right there on the label.

And yet… in the hole while your POS can be attacked and everystuff you have stored there… ships, mods, fuels, ores, etc., all your assets are at risk of being destroyed and lost yet… we were beholden TO NO ONE. It was OURS. The W-space system we lived in was OURS. In W-space you are sorta ‘separate’ from Empire due to wormhole spawning mechanics so how we lived, how we played the game was up to us and no one else.

Yes, we can be, and were, raided and attacked and ganked etc., etc. and we raided and attacked others too… but we were NEVER blobbed or hotdropped with a 30 man fleet, AFK Cloakies are just AFK as cynos dunt work in holes… I was happy in the hole. I am not ‘happy’ in null. But I am a corpman and I stick with my corpmates. This is our game and I’d rather fly with them in a space I dunt like than anywhere else in EVE.  =]

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