a merry life and a short one

What It's Like

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 May 2016 17:39:00 +0000

Not about to see your light
But if you wanna find hell with me
I can show you what it's like
Till you're bleeding

DANZIG - Mother

I've got nothing against CTAs, organized ops, and fleet doctrine ships. In fact I'm well aware that that's a huge part of what makes the game fun. Being a part of something way, way bigger than you are is sort of a draw for people. It's a draw for me.

But I always find the most enjoyment in PVP while part of roaming gangs of killers. It's the interactions on a smaller scale that really make me want to log in. So when I found myself dreading the idea of logging into EVE, because I'd be needing to check for ops and fits and logistics and everything else I knew it was time to move on.

Noir. today is not what I remember (but what corp is after 5 years?). It would be a ton of fun for someone seeking 0.0 warfare, but not for me right now, given my low levels of commitment to and time for the game. Not to say I won't want to do that sort of thing later, but right now? I need to fly a little freer.

So I mailed my resignation and dropped corp. And right now I'm flying around in High Sec looking at my assets window.

Yeah that's the stuff.

There's always been something remarkably freeing about not having anything stashed anywhere. I'm not sure a non-eve player will ever understand the significance of that. It means I can go anywhere and do anything and never worry. And that's definitely a kind of freedom.

Also if you're wondering what that vague shape behind the window is, that's a Svipul I kitted out. Here's the fit if you're wondering:

[Svipul, Blackjack]

Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Medium Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Initiated Compact Warp Scrambler

200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
Small Ghoul Compact Energy Nosferatu
Core Probe Launcher II, Core Scanner Probe I

Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

I really would've preferred to use T2 rigs, but I'm apparently not skilled for that. I am however, skilled for any Destroyer again. I may give Command Destroyers a little look in a while, but for now I'm gonna go see if anyone wants to play with this.

Stayin' Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 May 2016 16:03:00 +0000

Waste time with a masterpiece, don't waste time with a masterpiece
You should be rolling with me, you should be rolling with me, ah
You're a real-life fantasy, you're a real-life fantasy
But you're moving so carefully; let's start living dangerously

DNCE - Cake By The Ocean

One of the most popular posts on this blog is my Stealth Bomber Guide (64k views!). I wrote it back in 2010, and outside of the fittings (which are outdated due to module changes in the last 6 years) it's still, if I do say so myself, fairly valuable advice.

I've been giving some thought to how I'm going to update it. I'd like to ensure that it remains useful going forward. While thinking about that, I had to give some thought to what keeps a Stealth Bomber safe in combat. Then I realized that I'd thought it out so much it probably deserved its own blog post.

Really there are 4 things to keep in mind. Each has different applicability depending on the circumstances of the fight itself.

One:

Your own ability to recognize and respond to threats.

This is an easily overlooked skill that most pilots need. If you're flying a Stealth Bomber any ship that's 30k or closer to you is a threat. But it goes beyond that. Threat recognition is not an instantaneous thing, even to the best pilots. So there should be a hard range that, once an enemy enters, you know to GTFO or cloak.

With a fragile ship like a Stealth Bomber, it's going to depend heavily on your range. That's why my Bomber guide talks about maximizing range. For one it gives you the longest period of time on the field, but beyond that, it gives you time to react to threats and make decisions.

Hastily made decisions can, with training, be often the correct ones. But sometimes you'll screw up, so the more time you can give yourself to work out the best course of action, the better.

Two:

The defensive capability of your ship.

This is less important to a Stealth Bomber. But not unimportant. If you get tackled, you're almost always gonna die unless you're lucky with how the engagement goes. Your tank is just too poor to keep you alive for very long.

But still, getting caught by a bomb run, or shot a little as you're re-approaching a gate can become a problem if your tank can't handle a little damage.

There are bomber fits with medium shield extenders and damage controls that try to give you longer periods of time on the field but it's really a losing battle. You're not playing to the Bomber's strengths, which are Range and Stealth.

That isn't to say these are necessarily terrible fits. Bombers have a wide range of uses, arguably moreso now than ever before. But it all depends on how you plan to fly it.

Three:

The threat you represent to the target and/or enemy gang.

It's usually safe to say that bigger ships will see you as a huge threat, and the enemy gang will want to clear you off the field quickly if they're facing a gang of stealth bombers. If, every time you decloak, an interceptor burns your way, you're going to have serious difficulty staying on the field and applying damage.

But this is situational. Are you the only Bomber in the gang? Are there others? How far away are you from the fight? It ties in strongly to point one.

If there's a bunch of DPS ships on the field and you think you have a shot at winning the engagement, the ideal solution is to take out the DPS that is easiest to kill first. A good FC will play it that way. Now that may be a Stealth Bomber at 60k away, or a blaster cruiser that has you tackled.

But threat also comes in things that aren't DPS. Perhaps it's a jamming or neuting recon. Perhaps the target or gang thinks they can extricate themselves if they take down the tackle. Take a look at the enemy gang or target, and keep your own gang's composition in mind. Figure out what a reasonable person would think is the greatest threat. Then keep and eye on who targets you or burns for you.

Always do the best to understand what threat you represent to an enemy.

Four:

The damage a doomed target or gang can do before they die. And the ease by which they believe you can be dispatched.

So, just because a gang is going down doesn't meant that they're not a threat. I've seen so many Stealth Bomber pilots lose their shit as a target enters structure. They lose an orbit, or they stop paying attention to their own hulls.

Don't do this. Remember that the guy or gang you're burning down is likely going to shift their tactics when they realize they're about to die. Where previously they focused on the threat the various ships represented the shift now goes to "what can I kill before I die".

A good pilot will know when to do this the moment they're tackled. No help is coming and they're gonna die. Time to bloody the enemy. Some pilots might figure it out when their tank breaks, others might never figure it out.

The important thing is that you are watching for this shift in tactics. And, as per point one, you have both the time to react to this, and a way to negate the threat (be it leaving the field, ewar, or cloaking).

Conclusion:

The biggest problem you'll run into is that all these points assume rational actors with perfect understanding of the game. Maybe the target thinks they're dead when they actually have a decent shot at winning the engagement. Maybe they think they have a decent shot despite having a gang of 20 ships burning them down.

You can't know these things before hand, but you can understand their behaviors in a way that allows you to know how to react to the problem they represent to your survivability. The longer you live the more use you have to your gang. The more kills you get. The more fun you'll have.

But hey, if you die, just reship and start over. In EVE nothing is forever.

We Will Rock You

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 May 2016 01:19:00 +0000

There's no time for us,
There's no place for us,
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us.

Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever

Suicide roams can always attract my attention. They let me harken back to my days as a low sec pirate. But there I was stuck in 0.0 with shit to do in real life. So I said my goodbyes and logged out.

Started taking out the trash, putting clothes in the washer and something inside me went "nah, let's do this shit". So I logged back in, jump cloned to one of my 100 Rifters stationed in Evati, and burned hard for Kheram, the low sec rally point for our roam.

It wasn't an uneventful time, but everyone else was in Jita buying either a Talos or a Rook so I avoided conflict. By the time everyone was outfitted my clothes were finished washing, so I threw them in the dryer and settled in for what was sure to be a very short nullsec roam.

Now, at this point you oughta get some background on why Noir. and Mercenary Alliance in general was doing a suicide roam. Many of you may know Alekseyeve Karrde. He's been the CEO of Noir. for over 8 years now. Hell he'd already been CEO for a few years when I joined the first time around.

I learned most of what I know about PvP in Noir., so it just made sense to me to join back up when I came back to the game and needed to relearn the old and learn the new. It's been a rewarding and fun experience. Plus I get in on the tail end of the Imperium Eviction. That's just fun to say.

But to get there I had to poke at Aleks first. His first response was "put in your application" so I did. And very shortly thereafter I was flying with some very fun pilots.

Then a little while back I heard some rumblings. Nothing serious but enough to make me be on the lookout for big changes. A few days ago I saw that Aleks had decided to leave Noir. (not the game, though, if you're wondering). Nothing acrimonious, mind you, he's just one of many long time corp leaders who wants to try new things. I know that feeling all too well.

But it's because of that fact that Alek's farewell roam is organized. We were going to take about 60 pilots who don't give a fuck into nullsec and wreck some shit. And wreck some shit we did. I could go into detail but it was wildly successful as a roam and wildly unsuccessful as a suicide roam.

We wrecked all of the shit. Hell, we killed 3.5 billion isk in ships before we ever left the starting system of Kheram. And we got back out of null with our suicide ships intact after 4 hours in CVA space.

About 2-3 hours in, by the time we're all giddy with anticipation on what we can kill next, something magical happened. Fortunately for you guys (or perhaps unfortunately, I'm not sure) Aleks was streaming on twitch at the time (and with his permission I've uploaded the pertinent part to youtube), so I can present a piece of Noir.'s history right here for you to see.

Fly safe, Aleks.

Having a Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 07:00:00 +0000

You can't start a fire,
you can't start a fire without a spark.
This gun's for hire,
even if we're just dancing in the dark.

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark

The jump was smooth. I winced a little as the fatigue hit, but it was mild. 2,000 meters away from my ship sat a Catalyst.

I set my orbit for for GTFO range and pulsed my microwarp drive along with my cloak. My Manticore responded like a dream.

The battle began in earnest. Torpedoes were flying, points were called and we started working on the enemy gang. A Phantasm... a Daredevil. Juicy targets caught in a bubble and engaged.

I laughed as I realized if I didn't decloak soon I'd miss out on the shooting. Then I ran into a Titan.

Capsules are completely prepared for any level of bodily waste you can produce. So when I shit myself a little, the system just sucked it up and kept on a booking.

I should be clear here, so you don't think I was overreacting. See... I thought this was a trap at first. It felt a little too pat. A little too easy.

But I jumped in because... "fuck it" that's why. You register your objections and then you follow your orders. What's the worst that could happen?

As I thought about that, my cloak deactivated. Because I don't mean "I ran into a Titan" like it showed up on grid 50 clicks out. I mean I took a hard left and the right wing of my bomber scraped a 20 meter gash into the side of a fucking Ragnarok.

Then I look at my overview. It's a blue titan. There's a friendly carrier out as well.

I can't help but think... what in the actual fuck is going on.

Fuck it. I'm not having any of this shit. I set a new orbit around the massive piece of space debris that was masquerading as a Minmatar supercap. Which was on the field for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY. Pretty much every target managed to burn out and get away as well. The whole exercise was nothing but a hilarious opportunity to gank a Catalyst. And gank it we did.

As we headed home I couldn't believe what had just happened. Still, regardless of our luck, I was getting tired. Just as I was about to dock up, I heard about a Bhaalgorn playing station games a few systems out. Everything about the target sounded wrong. A huge and expensive ship in a system with 10 reds all docked up in the same station?

Who the fuck did we think we were? But the FC told us to go in when the Bhaalgorn aggressed. And I jumped, again, into what was almost certainly a trap.

What's the worst that could happen? Of course an Oneiros undocked.

Now to be fair it undocked exactly 35 seconds after the Bhaalgorn exploded. And we looted the field of 350 million isk worth of mods while he watched helplessly. Also we popped the wrecks for good measure.

On the whole it was a pretty good day.

Opening the Door

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 13:56:00 +0000

Holy water, cannot help you now
A thousand armies, couldn't keep me out
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've come to burn your kingdom down

Florence + The Machine - Seven Devils

I'm in nullsec. A random glance at the 300 people in local reveals a collection of pirates, mercenaries, killers, and sov holders. I'm still not sure which is worse.

I dodged 2 gatecamps to get here. When the Sister's of Eve asked me to come out to Pure Blind so I could run a few missions, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I've spent the last 4 and a half years wandering wormhole space. I've seen wondrous things and I've seen horror. Yet... nothing like this. I jacked into the 'net to find out what's going on.

Apparently, the CFC has kicked up the hornets nest. Started calling themselves the Imperium. I think most people wanna take 'em out just for the pretentiousness of the name.

The galaxy is on fire but there's money to be made for a good pilot. There are opportunities to exploit. And there are corporations in the thick of this that would be happy to take me on.

The old itch comes back. There's voice in my head saying "You're the best pilot in the galaxy. People have forgotten that. Show them what they've been missing."

I look around one more time. Still surrounded. Pirates, mercenaries, and killers...

This is home.

Bad Romance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 22:00:00 +0000

There's a humming in the restless summer air
And we're slipping off the course that we prepared
But in all chaos, there is calculation
Dropping glasses just to hear them break

Lorde - Glory and Gore

Hey.

Long time no see.

It's been, what, 4 and a half years since I posted here? Or logged into EVE at all. Anyone who used to read this might have questions. Where'd I go? Am I back?

I can answer the 2nd question easily: Yes. I'm back.

The first one's a bit more complicated. There was a time when it was the most important part of my day. Blogging, podcasting, news, and recording advertisements took up every free moment. When it was good it was great, and when it was bad... well. Long story short? I got into an argument with someone and said "fuck it".

I went into my options, scrambled my password and email and disappeared. But... like a lot of things I do, it wasn't as permanent as I thought it'd be. I've done a lot of other things in the mean time.

The thing I'm probably most proud of is writing for the SCP Foundation. Some of my friends there play EVE, and I got the itch again after listening to them talk. Then customer service, about a week ago, got me back into my accounts.

I don't know what I want to do or even blog about. I've got 100 Rifters sitting in Evati but it doesn't really seem as active as it once was. There's less things tying me down right now, but I suppose that'll change as I get more involved in the game. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But for now, I'm free to chart my own course. I'll be putting this blog on a once weekly schedule. We'll start with Thursdays and see where we end up.

By the way, the Gankalyst is pretty cool. Just saying.

Things I Am and Could Have Been

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:17:00 +0000

Congratulations on the mess you made of things

I'm trying to reconstruct the air and all that brings

And oxidation is the compromise you own

But this is beginning to feel like the dog wants her bones, say

Tv On the Radio - DLZ

It's over.

So I got to spend a month in charge of an alliance. After losing a fairly large corp, while the DRF closed in, I took over the reins from an alliance leader who needed a break.

I'm a PvPer. I'm a PvEer. I do it all in this game. I don't like the neat stratification that everyone wants everyone else to be a part of. If you're on my side of the wars, you're on my side. I don't care if you're a carebear or the most hardened PvPer out there. There are no people that are less than me, just people who need to be educated and people who don't.

Still it was a change to go from the voice of reason and experience to the guy they have to listen to. To be sensitive to the amount of respect I get publicly... because I usually don't care. An alliance leader getting dissed is a big deal... because if it's not made into one... the level of respect for that leader goes down a lot. You gotta handle it carefully.

With help from subordinates(and a healthy dose of delegation) I got a moon mining/reaction operation underway providing the alliance with a few billion a month in income... our own set of renters were also paying us for the use of our space. I got a program going that provided pilots with PvP capable ships pre-built and ready to go. I got a mineral buy-sell program working for our miners. I improved our previously dismal participation in CTAs. There was a lot of contribution from the alliance members.

Of course, the time came for us to make a decision on staying or going. I made the decision to get out of Tenerifis. Since two weeks ago when I called that, the DRF has pushed all the way to our front door. They haven't started hitting our space, but then again... it's not really our space anymore anyway.

I've left the alliance, another of the larger corps has left as well. Split Infinity is down to 127 members. Half of that is almost certainly alts. The alliance hasn't completely failed, but it's coming close.

I had a lot of fun in there, and am only a little bit annoyed that my first foray into alliance leadership had to come at such a bad time for the alliance, but sometimes that's how it goes.

I got a little taste of a completely different gaming experience.

I think I like it.

Raise What's Left Of The Flag

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:08:00 +0000

The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don't shed a tear
I'll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive

Flogging Molly - If I Ever Leave This World Alive

PvP in low sec can be a lot of fun if you do it right. With that in mind I loaded up a T1 frigate and headed through low-sec with a small gang of alliance mates in their own frigates.

After passing through Rancer and Criliere without incident, I headed down to Metropolis. I'd tried to get someone to come and meet my gang earlier in the day, but no one was available on such short notice, so I passed by Evati without meeting any Bastards, and through Gusandall without meeting anyone from Mean Corp. I took the gang through one of the 2/10's in the area, just to show them that making money in low-sec is pretty easy. After that, we headed Amamake way.

That was a bit more fun... a little bit down the pipe, in Orfrold, we found a Hurricane in a belt. It took us a while, but he died, and we looted the field just as an anti-pirate gang came rolling through. After taking the time to wait out our GCC, we headed out again. Just as we went through the gate into Klogori, the Hurricane pilot was waiting on us in Dramiel. I knew that with gateguns on his side, he could conceivably take out our whole fleet, so I gave the order to warp away. As we began to warp away, he tackled one of our pilots... one he'd apparently shot first in the last system.

Gate guns go hot, and his Dramiel goes flashy. I stop myself, call a stop on comms, and target the Dram. Unfortunately due to the delay, the only pilots who didn't warp were myself and the one the Dram had tackled.

The other pilot in my fleet had the good sense to point his opponent as well, and I put my autocannons on from 20k away in an epic piece of killmail whorage.

After that we settled down and kept burning to Amamake. Once we got there, I told the rest of my pilots to blitz into the remaining belts. I warped into belt 3-1 for what I assumed was a quick death. An Ares and Caracal were waiting on me.

The Ares instalocked me and the Caracal began to shower me with missiles. I called my mates in, who quickly tried to swarm the Ares. Apparently he was a bit better of a pilot than I thought, cause he kept point on me most of the fight and avoided the rest of my fleet. After a certain amount of time a Mach and a Daredevil came in to join the fray.

At this point it was a Mach, a Dram, a Daredevil, and a Caracal against 2 Rifters, 2 Crucifiers and 1 Punisher. The Mach took a few potshots at me but failed to hit, while the Daredevil tried to close in. Very quickly one of my fleetmates scrammed and webbed the Daredevil, about 50k away from where I was. I gave up on getting out alive myself, and ordered everyone else to swarm the Daredevil. Just as I did the Mach switched targets and managed to one shot one of my gangmates.

The Ares and Caracal kept working on me, just as a mistake of mine caught up to me.

I'd overloaded my AB for too long, and it shut down. I almost caught it in time but no dice. If I had, I might've been able to shake the Ares long enough to get away(as I'd done a few times already, without actually warping out). But without the AB, he kept a nice normal circle going and the Caracal whittled me down. This whole time of course, the rest of my gang is finishing off the daredevil. Around this time, another one of my gang got oneshotted by the Mach.

Right around the time I popped, the Daredevil died, and almost immediately another gangmate got oneshotted.

I gave the order for all surviving fleet members to warp out, get to safes and then get out through the Osoggur gate and into high sec.

The final battle was ill concieved, but with the roam over, I wanted to go out with a bang. Luckily we killed the Daredevil, which more than made up for the loss of the t1 frigates. Plus we had some fun, which was the whole point of the outing.

Sometimes the inherent problem with piracy and low-sec seems so apparent. I love to visit, but I don't want to live there. But if I make enough visits... I HAVE to live there.

Anyone else feel that way sometimes?

I've Said Too Much

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:35:00 +0000

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight, I'm

Losing my religion

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

So the battle for HED-GP was kind of a downer. The DRF brought an overwhelming supercap blob, and we decided not to engage at all. I did however, get some neat pictures of our fleet in transit.

After I got back home, downing a Interdictor along the way, I snapped a picture of my new Chimera. It's so pretty.

Voices From The Void: Episode 16

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:13:00 +0000

Voices From The Void and You. In perfect Harmony.

Voices From The Void: Episode 15

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:37:00 +0000

Don't forget to check out Voices From the Void Episode 15!

Voices From The Void: Episode 14

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:56:00 +0000

Don't forget to check out this week's episode.

Or our session with White Tree of the CSM!

It's not like I was pretending to be nice...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:58:00 +0000

The man said, "Why do you think you here?"
I said, "I got no idea"

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

So, I've been recruiting into my corporation. Things have been going well so far, a bit slow but that's expected. I did however, just kick out one member of my corporation for breaking the one corp rule we have. That rule is "don't be stupid,".

Now, I'm willing to accept some losses. This is not an elite PvP corp. However, when I talk to a member about his poor piloting, or poor fitting, he can be either apologetic, defiant, or ambivalent. Only one of those options will make me willing to overlook a stupid loss or a terrible fit. If I'm talking to them about a loss, they better listen, and I'd better KNOW they're listening.

So when this guy lost a Noctis worth a billion isk in high sec, I chatted with him about it. Nothing too mean, just offered him a fit to use in the future that would make a gank like that expensive and hard to pull off in a limited time frame. Then we discussed his terrible Devoter fit.

He was not receptive enough to the advice I offered, so I handled it the best way I know how. I waited for him to dock his ratting Archon and I kicked him out of the corp. I took his access away in a variety of places and waited for the inevitable convo. When it came, I accepted it.

Hallan Turrek > Get a cyno set up and get the fuck out.
Hallan Turrek > Have a nice day.
Sanctus Angelus > wtf?

And that was that, I closed the convo. He wasn't done yet though. Local lit up almost immediately.

Sanctus Angelus > yo you could have let me jump out at least
Sanctus Angelus > ?
Hallan Turrek > Eh, if you set up a cyno now, you'll probably get out in one piece.
Sanctus Angelus > if your were gonna kick me you could at least let me get my shit out
Hallan Turrek > Hey. You read the rules.
Hallan Turrek > I wasn't kidding.
Sanctus Angelus > what did i break?
Hallan Turrek > "don't be stupid"
Hallan Turrek > So really just the one rule I have.
Sanctus Angelus > how was i stupid then?
Sanctus Angelus > for being ganked in high sec?
Hallan Turrek > Ahh, see you're wasting precious time. Right now no one in here will gank you if you undock. You should get on that, get a cloak and wait till you get that cyno going.
Sanctus Angelus > way to be an asshole

Indeed.

Voices From The Void: Episode 13

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:48:00 +0000

Voices From The Void is a podcast. As much fun as it was doing ENN, I found that there was often much more to talk about than I could fit in a video that was less than 10 minutes long.

After I met the always awesome Arydanika, we decided to start a podcast of our own. We’ve been going strong a while now, and if you’d like to get updated on current events (and perhaps get a laugh every once in a while), download the podcast… or visit the youtube channel. It’s always less than an hour, by design(and not, say anywhere between 30 minutes and 3 hours like other podcasts). Enjoy the show and remember to listen to the voices. The musical parody is only available on the site itself, not on youtube.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube:

Check out the shownotes!

Voices From The Void: Episode 12

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:02:00 +0000

Back to Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:58:00 +0000

Nobody said it was easy

It’s such a shame for us to part

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Aww take me back to the start

Coldplay - The Scientist

So, I was surfing the forums and noticed quite a few topics on suicide gankers in C&P. One of those things I've only done a little of in my past. Most people that have followed this blog for long periods of time know that there are few things I won't try at least once. So I loaded up EFT and put together a fit that I figured could take out a Hulk in one shot.

[Tempest, All In]
Gyrostabilizer I
Gyrostabilizer I
Gyrostabilizer I
Gyrostabilizer I
Gyrostabilizer I
Ballistic Control System I

Sensor Booster I, Scan Resolution
Sensor Booster I, Scan Resolution
Sensor Booster I, Scan Resolution
Sensor Booster I, Scan Resolution
Warp Disruptor I

1400mm Carbine Howitzer I, Republic Fleet EMP L
1400mm Carbine Howitzer I, Republic Fleet EMP L
1400mm Carbine Howitzer I, Republic Fleet EMP L
1400mm Carbine Howitzer I, Republic Fleet EMP L
1400mm Carbine Howitzer I, Republic Fleet EMP L
1400mm Carbine Howitzer I, Republic Fleet EMP L
Heavy Missile Launcher I, Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher I, Thunderbolt Heavy Missile

It's one thing to have a fit that can theoretically do the job, quite another to do it. The first attempt was a failure. I fired before my speed lowered(as I came out of warp), and was far to close to the ship I was aiming for. As a result, I did no damage and was destroyed.

I waited out my timer and started again. This time I approached my target, who was sitting still. With 0 transversal, the Hulk popped in one go. The added bonus was that it was the same Hulk I'd shot at before. In full view of Concord that were still in the belt.

So, to ensure that wasn't just a fluke, I tried again. Same result, another dead hulk.

This was sorta fun, so I decided to do it once more before clone jumping back down to null-sec. The net loss on each gank is about 25 million(after insurance). But if you have an alt available to salvage/loot, that's lessened somewhat. The real trick is checking the ships beforehand to see if they have valuable loot. Hitting the right ship can generate a tidy profit.

I decided to pick on pilots that were probably bots. Given that my first target was still there when I got back after a 15 minute wait, I'm pretty sure I nailed that one. All that said, I believe the fit I'm using is using to many modules. The missile launcher/sensor boosters are really not needed, but they're relatively cheap, so I'm not too worried about it.

Still, a fun excercise.

Voices From The Void: Episode 11

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:11:00 +0000

Voices From The Void is a podcast. As much fun as it was doing ENN, I found that there was often much more to talk about than I could fit in a video that was less than 10 minutes long.

After I met the always awesome Arydanika, we decided to start a podcast of our own. We've been going strong a while now, and if you'd like to get updated on current events(and perhaps get a laugh every once in a while), download the podcast... or visit the youtube channel. It's always less than an hour, by design(and not, say anywhere between 30 minutes and 3 hours like other podcasts). Enjoy the show and remember to listen to the voices.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube:

Check out the Show Notes

The Rifter Renaissance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Came the last night of sadness

And it was clear she couldn't go on

Then the door was open and the wind appeared

The candles blew and then disappeared

The curtains flew and then he appeared

(Saying, "Don't be afraid")

Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Ok, so I've been a bit deficient in PvP in these last few months. Maybe even up to a half a year. Not much point in it, no profit in it. No fun in it.

I started to wonder why I wasn't going out to PvP at all, and I realized it was a base fear of losing my ship to lag. As CCP has improved their game, they've curtailed my gaming experience more and more. But fuck it, I want to go shoot something.

I put a Rifter together a while back for my pirate alt, and never used it(the ship or the alt). So I hopped into the ship on Hallan, and set out for the horizon. Alone.

At first I was snaking my way through Tenerifis, then Detorid. I found nothing to shoot and made it out to Insmother. Deeper into DRF space. I spotted what was likely some juicy targets in KD-KPR, and forged ahead.

No one saw me all the way there, so I was able to jump into system without them being warned. Sadly, due to my own mistake(I hit the button too fast) the system scanner refused to work for me. I decided to try my luck at a belt and picked one at random.

I landed on a ratting Drake, and being that I was in a flimsy rifter I pointed him.

After he recovered from the sheer manliness of that move, he launched drones and started hitting me. Sadly the Rifter was MWD fitted, and while I'd already turned it off, the missiles still hurt. So after shooting down a Warrior I for spite, I warped myself out.

After a short rest, I shotgunned another system, landing on a Haven just as it's occupant warped away. After that I decided that Etherium Reach might hold more promise, and after cutting through The Spire, headed straight for LXQ2. Hopefully something there could kill me.

Of course I arrived on the gate to low sec without incident.

Going through was even more boring, and I started to imagine that all of EVE was conspiring to ruin my roam.

So after burning to Akkio, I was about to head into high sec. But then I spied an Ibis, 400 kilometers from the gate. I overshot the pod, as the Ibis died far quicker than I imagined... and missed it as he warped himself away.

It was no one else's fault but my own. Sloppy flying by a rusty pilot. At least it was just an Ibis this time.

So now I had a GCC to wait out, which gave me time to notice how close I was to Evati. I couldn't pass that close to my old home with the Bastards and not stop by, so after a wait, I headed out.

Sadly the system was dead, so I decided to check out the 2/10 that Kane Rizzel patrols regularly in Gusandall. The entry key had already been taken, so I docked up, quite despondent.

Then with a puff of inspiration, I decided to visit the system where I got my very first piratey kill. Sure enough, there was someone in the system. I warped myself to one of the belts near the center after a scan confirmed he wasn't near the gate. The first belt I landed in was a bust, but I quickly narrowed him down with a directional scan.

I landed 30 kilometers away from him. I moved to close immediately He was still fighting an Angel Defacer, it popped just as my scram landed, and our dance started. His web took hold of my ship, and my guns began to burn through his shields. In mere moments my own shields had disappeared, and I started taking armor damage. I kicked my repper and nos on and watched as the last of his shields evaporated.

Almost as quickly, his armor and then his hull were gone. I did not repeat my previous mistake, and snagged the pod this time. After a closer look at his fit, I realized he'd shield tanked it. An odd choice, but his to make. I scooped the loot, waited out my timer, and docked up in Emogranlan.

Maybe not as much action as I was expecting, but a clean kill comes so rarely to me these days. I'm happy with that.

The Noble Exchange/Red Light District

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:30:00 +0000

That watch costs more than you car. I made $970,000 last year. How much you make? You see pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids. You wanna work here - close! You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you cocksucker? You can't take this, how can you take the abuse you get on a sit? You don't like it, leave.

Blake - Glengarry Glen Ross

A while back I showed you a picture of the currency exchange that demonstrated money spent, and then consumed by the CCP monster. It turns out that I was a little off. I've had a chance to take a look at the new noble exchange store, and I've changed my mind considerably. So here's a new image that helps demonstrate the currency cycle in EVE just a little bit more effectively.

So who's ready to start buying clothes for their avatar ingame that have similar costs to the same clothes in real life?

Lets compare a men's dress shirt in eve to the same dress shirt elsewhere. Quoting from Riverini's post on EN24:

- Men’s ‘Sterling’ Dress Shirt – 3.6k AUR -> 0.97 PLEX -> $16.97 -> 388 Mil ISK

17 bucks for a dress shirt for your Avatar. Neat. How much would a dress shirt actually cost me down the street? 11 bucks at Walmart. I would link it but that seems like free advertising for them, and I'm not cool with that.

When ingame items of similar use for your goddamned Avatar cost you more than the actual item in real life... something's fucking wrong there.

Who wants to go out and buy a 62 dollar monacle? If this accurately reflects the costs of developing this stuff, everyone who said CCP was wasting our time with it is absolutely correct.

So why in the world would CCP premier their items with such high costs? I can only assume the idea is to start with impossibly expensive items, get a few suckers at that price, and then lower the prices later(but not down to a reasonable price, just reasonable in comparison). It makes good economic sense for them to do that, but this is blatently screwing the playerbase.

I've read and re-read the original dev Blog by CCP Zulu, and you know what? I want to know who was lying to these people. I've yet to meet anyone who wanted this. A random "hey it might be cool if one day," here and there sure. But not "OH MAN I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL I CAN DRESS UP MY CHARACTER IN SPECIAL CLOTHING".

Since they've announced, there are plenty of folks that say "It's not so bad," and "It might be cool" but not anyone who thought "GOD DAMN IT I WANT A CUSTOM SKIRT ON MY FEMALE AVATAR,". If they think the average eve player wants more clothing on their characters, they do not know their player base as well as they think they do.

I'm often one of the ones who'll come out and say that things are not as bad as the doomsayers and bitter vets say it is. CCP, you make my job harder when you come out with a 62 dollar monocle. This is like that last slice of pizza: you might not want it, but it's there, so you kinda want to try it. I thought to myself, "Fine, I'll convert one plex and buy an outfit, I like the game enough, and RP enough, and want to try this new content out enough to do that,".

I'd ask CCP what the point of this was? Is it money? Fuck you. I already pay for this game, and I was more than willing to drop just a little bit more on your "Princess Barbie Playhouse" bullshit. Emphasis on "a little bit". Not a quarter of my goddamned paycheck you giant assholes.

Since I can't really throw the finger up to this giant pile of horse shit, I'll do the next best thing. Turn it off. I'll also show you how. Uncheck the box that says "load station environment".

Congratulations.

You're now playing a game about internet spaceships again. Yaaay.

Voices From The Void: Episode 9

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:05:00 +0000

Voices From The Void is a podcast. As much fun as it was doing ENN, I found that there was often much more to talk about than I could fit in a video that was less than 10 minutes long.

After I met the always awesome Arydanika, we decided to start a podcast of our own. We've been going strong a while now, and if you'd like to get updated on current events(and perhaps get a laugh every once in a while), download the podcast... or visit the youtube channel. It's always less than an hour, by design(and not, say anywhere between 30 minutes and 3 hours like other podcasts). Enjoy the show and remember to listen to the voices.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube:

Check out the Show Notes(Coming Soon)!

Guide: Reaction POSs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:42:00 +0000

You don't stand a chance
against my prayers
You don't stand a chance
against my love
They outlawed the Ghost Dance
but we shall live again,
we shall live again
Robbie Robertson - Ghost Dance

I intend to make this a basic guide to taking moons, and turning it into profit using complex reactions. I intend to take you from start to finish in making Sylramic Fibers. Lets get started.

First of all, I've done the hardest part for you. I've picked out something for you to produce. If you didn't know yet, you'd want to do the research yourself into moon products. I use this tool to tell me what I can make with the resources available to me: Reaction Materials Info Page. One of the most important factors to your profitability is what you can get for free. That means asking yourself "which moon resources, no matter how cheap, can I get a hold of?" Once you know that, you'll be further on the way to deciding what to produce.

If we look at that page, we can see that Sylramic Fibers are made from Ceramic Powder and Hexite. If you click to look at the full bill of Materials, you can see that Ceramic Powder is made from Silicates and Evaporate deposits, while Hexite is made from Platinum and Chromium.

The thing about POS's, is that you want to keep the raw number of POS's to a minimum. A large POS is the standard for fuel counts. Mediums take half the fuel of a large, and smalls take a quarter of a large's fuel.

So why does it matter if I use 4 smalls or one large? Lets look at the numbers for a Caldari Large, Medium, and Small Tower. These numbers will assume your alliance has sovereignty on the system in question(Which reduces the fuel costs).

Caldari Large Tower(1 Hour of Fuel):
Coolant: 6
Mechanical Parts: 4
Oxygen: 19
Robotics: 1
Enr. Uranium: 3
Nit. Isotopes: 338

Caldari Medium Tower(1 Hour of Fuel):
Coolant: 3
Mechanical Parts: 3
Oxygen: 10
Robotics: 1
Enr. Uranium: 2
Nit. Isotopes: 169

Caldari Small Tower(1 hour of Fuel:
Coolant: 2
Mechanical Parts: 2
Oxygen: 6
Robotics: 1
Enr. Uranium: 1
Nit. Isotopes: 85

Pay special attention to the Robotics, Enriched Uranium, and Coolant numbers. Oh, and use this tool to plan out your POS setups.

You'll notice that the numbers don't scale down the way you'd expect. That's because EVE is pretty unforgiving in rounding. That and the fact that you can't use less than 1 robotics an hour. 4 Smalls actually cost a significant bit more than 1 large(Since, besides Isotopes, Robotics is the single largest cost associated with fueling), while the capacity of the POS's in CPU and Powergrid aren't increased at all. You can do as much on 1 large as you can do on 4 smalls, but pay less to do it.

There are a number of applications for smaller towers in EVE, but for complex reactions, it's almost all Large Caldari POS's.

So now you've decided on the POS to use. You'll generally want to run POS pairs for less complicated complex reactions. Sylramic Fibers is one of those, so we'll talk about why a POS Pair is a better choice than just one POS.

You produce 2X the profit. If you want to just do a complex reaction from entirely bought simple reactants, a single POS is fine. You'll make more money, and find it much easier to use available resources though, if you do the simple reactions as well. I'm going to provide you with an image, that should help somewhat in explaining this.

It's pretty complicated, but the information is all there. So each POS needs at minimum 3 Silos, 1 Complex Reactor, 1 Simple Reactor, and a choice between 1-2 Moon Harvesting Arrays and 1-2 Silos. If you're really very lucky, you'll get two moons in the same system with all of the resources you need. Otherwise you'll be stuck with the setup as displayed in the image. This is usually still profitable(check your numbers) but not always. So be careful.

So I'll explain the setup in words alongside the picture.

POS 1:
Mine or Transport in Evaporate Deposits and Silicates
Using a Simple Reactor, turn Evaporate Deposits and Silicates into Ceramic Powder. This will produce 200 units per hour, and consume 100 of each of the reactants.

POS 2:
Mine or Transport in Platinum and Chromium
Using a Simple Reactor, turn Platinum and Chromium into Hexite. This will produce 200 units per hour, and consume 100 of each of the reactants.

POS 1 and 2:
Transport 17k Ceramic Powder from the First POS to the Second POS, which is producing Hexite instead.
Put the Ceramic Powder into a Silo.

POS 2 and 1:
Transport 17k Hexite from the second POS to the first POS, which is producing Ceramic Powder instead.
Put the Hexite into a Silo.

Both POS:
Using Complex Reactor, turn Hexite and Ceramic Powder into Sylramic Fibers.

After a week, come back, pull out all the Sylramic Fibers and transport the stuff across POS's again.

After a month, what you have should pay for the POS fuel for the next month, with some profit besides. Here's a link to the POS setup(Note, you will need two of these). And yes, you've got 500 CPU free. Enjoy putting up a lab on one, and a few production facilities on the other if you'd like.

Here's a link to a spreadsheet with current prices(As of this post).

There are many other methods and ways to do this. There is no one way to handle it. You'll have to figure out what works best for you. This should get you started though, so enjoy.

CCP, You So Crazy!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:02:00 +0000

Great news, everyone! You'll be delivering a package to Chapek 9, a world where humans are killed on sight.
Professor Farnsworth - Futurama

So uh. Yeah. Lets quote CCP's latest thingymahbob.

CCP Atlas has some great news for 3rd party developers in his latest dev blog. Read all about the new business license and monetizing 3rd party apps here.

I do not like where this is going.

So if you follow the link, you'll find a dev blog update. This dev blog update is uh... not great news. It's not great news for me, not for you, and not for anyone else except a few application developers. So I have a fansite agreement with CCP for my blog. As it stands right now, I can post anything I damn well please. If people donate isk to me, that's great. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. On top of that, I run my own podcast. My Co-Host actually put quite a lot of work, time, and some money into getting that running as well.

Now I've taken care that through all of my interactions with advertisers, I've not taken a single cent of actual money. If people want to support it through isk, I provide advertising for them to do so.

None of that matters. Despite some backpedaling today that seems to say "Oh well this is a rough draft and nothing is set in stone yet", the draft we've been presented indicates that my podcast site will need to pay 99 dollars a year to keep running.

Essentially, I have to pay CCP to do free work for CCP. Now, I'm not as worried about myself. What I do worry about, and what you should worry about, is everyone else.

Here's a quick list of stuff I can think of, off the top of my head, that will need to pay CCP 100 bucks a year to keep operating.

EveNews24
Dotlan
Eve Fitting Tool
EveMon
EveHQ
Battleclinic

That's a short list. I have a whole bookmarks folder devoted to Eve websites. Oh, and CCP's definition is so vague that it's possible that transactions that take place entirely inside eve will also fall under this type of license. Yes, mercenary corps will have to pay CCP 99 dollars to provide their services to others ingame. I'm sure that's not what CCP had in mind, but it's what they said.

CCP won an award a while back for best community. Part of the reason for this is the easy availability of material, and the low barrier of entry. Got a website and and idea? You can contribute to the community.

In the guise of finally allowing third party apps to make a profit, CCP is trying to monetize the greatest resource they have, and one of the only reasons to keep playing their game: the community. They're not even going to make that much money off it either.

They're killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and no matter how much they go digging... honestly it's not pretty in there.

Voices From The Void: Interview of CCP Sunset and Soundwave

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:21:00 +0000

CCP Sunset & CCP Soundwave pause from the glorious afterglow of the first week of televised Alliance Tournament IX group rounds for an interview. Along with some engaging conversation about ATIX we also delve into The Mystery of CCP Sunset, Incarna, DUST514 and this winter's upcoming expansion.

The Podcast Page.

The Youtube Channel.

Voices From The Void: Episode 8

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:40:00 +0000

BAM!

Check it out!

Introducing The Outlaws.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 20:58:00 +0000

So it goes.
Kurt Vonnegut

So, I've been holding off on posting this week until I got some stuff out of the way, but it's all done now and I can safely say that The Outlaws. is open for recruitment.

Please visit the forums and put in your application!