Dark Matter

Patterns

2011-08-23T11:45:00.023-04:00

Applied Knowledge

Most of what I do is rather ... supercilious if you were to look at it from the outside. Do I know a lot about the actual politics of the game, the who's who of EVE, nor a fraction of them even know me? Probably not. Do I have spies everywhere, dozens of alts planted in this or that power structure, intimate knowledge of the comings and goings of everything around me? Not likely. Do I need any of this to know what is going to happen because people are just too easy? I sure don't. How many of these people have an actual linear understanding of human history to know their place in it, to actually understand how it works, even with toy guns? If you ask me, very few. Toy guns or no toy guns, people and their foibles are the same everywhere you go.

What then behooves me to bother making predictions or assume I know anything at all about what will or will not happen in the grand scheme of things out in null sec? Well let us assume for a moment, that there is something interesting about human nature, aye that it is predictable. Applied knowledge, is the knowledge of the why, not of the how, nor where, or even when. What one learns on a small scale elsewhere, applied to a large scale at the present.

Let's face it, a vast majority of people are rather unimaginative, static, and terse when it comes to dynamic thought and experience. Most people are incapable of expressing themselves outwardly in a way that does not predate their current circumstances, i.e. communication and expression are often the most difficult tasks especially when asked to distinguish new and dynamically outward thought and conjecture. Mental projection, empathy, and the ability to resolve oneself from one's own humanity in order to interpolate information without personal investment are not traits commonly shared by most people I have come across in life. Think about it, how many of us are writers, artists, well versed communicators? How many would even try if you honestly asked them to give it their best effort? Most of what you find is loose ideas, rough thoughts, drafts of things that people really may understand underneath the surface, but are incapable of expressing in thoughts on a page or words aloud. That does not mean they are unable to comprehend complex systems, it just means they are unable to reproduce said systems themselves.

Now what is it about null sec that this has anything to do with? Well for instance, how is it that I can predict the rise to power of a single pilot in an entire alliance, twelve months prior? How is it that I can almost pinpoint the exact way that rise to power will occur? In fact, I predicted how it should have occurred, but the final detail was that it would occur privately, a private exchange of power, not public. Instead what we have now is a huge public fiasco that has dragged on for months and months, all because the person in question, has not the capacity to understand nor the actual malice in them to do more wrong in order to do a greater right. But you know, that is the best part of it all, I knew this when I made the predictions, banking on that person fouling it up, so they could then be pinioned to their own failures. Something that will bear fruit in the months to come, as an entire coalition gnaws on them to death all the while smiling with a toothy grin, championing them publicly, hoisting them on their own petard.

Now, we find ourselves at a crossroads, unable to wield any true clout ourselves, but warbling back and forth between impossible choices that leave little room for anything but XOR solutions. This is the crux, the final hubris of human nature, that people do not really understand what happens when you accumulate vast enough amounts of influence over others, that you become your own worst enemy.

What is this game about, as with any game, it is about having fun. Though each person has fun in their own way, that fun forms a collective impetus or will, that revolves around there being actual conflict, struggle, and the means with which to combat forces beyond your own control. What happens when the latter is taken out of the equation? Well the fun goes with it. I am told, nearly ten thousand people are bored to tears, they fight an endless war of attrition with meatshield against meatshield, they have no illusions that this pattern must continue lest they are trampled afoot by a coalition of fairly limitless resources, and they are upset. What has the game become that the only thing left for them is to fight a forever war just to keep space that now holds no actual merit by virtue of the very fact that they are now tethered to it for the conceivable future? Is the only fun truly left to them to threaten a minor power bloc of a couple hundred people with their own of more than ten thousand? What would they find when they spent a week migrating down this way, a couple puffs of smoke in the air from our fleets as they ducked and ran from overwhelming odds? What point then is there, if this is the only fun left to them? Well, there is none. This is the crossroads of your gaming life, where you realize that winning is not nearly as fun as you imagined it would be, and in reality it was inconceivably more fun to get there in the first place, when there were legitimate and yet moderate threats to one's meteoric rise to the top. The view from the top, in a game, is a pretty stark and abysmal place, left with the notion that the only entertainment value remaining is mutually assured destruction against the only ones to share the top rung with you, or an endless stream of meaningless campaigns one after the other against forces that not only cannot even begin to put up a significant resistance to your encroachment on their lands, but cannot even put up enough to entertain your own troops for more than a fleeting moment of hope that there is something left to them, something significant, other than annihilation against the only other opposing force remaining. Winning does not quite look the same from the top as it did from the bottom.

I find myself, unable to form my own thoughts into a proper conceptualization of what I mean by any of this, which may or may not amount to a lot of rambling, and not much else, but I can tell you one thing, I wholly believe that the null game will become a North Versus South campaign before this is all said and done. And I have no illusions that if CCP does not truly hit null sec issues with a huge hammer in the Winter Expansion, that the purpose of being out there will dry up like a grape in the sun, as there will no longer remain any real fun to be had, fighting over space for the sake of space, on behalf of either one side or the other, what then is the point of it all? Pit supercap wall against wall every night for all eternity in an endless grind of needlessness? It would be like a disturbing recreation of No Man's Land, with literally nothing to gain of it.

Hmm, I hope I made at least a little sense, I can tell you one thing though, the writing is on the wall for our friend's in the north, a meatshield will falter and be disbanded, and the refugees of an entire coalition will find themselves on a great migration to the south, then the real interesting part begins, waiting to see if it is too late for CCP to fix what Dominion started.

It comes down to impulse control, give a typical person any kind of influence over other people, and you create a monster overnight, finding new ways to abuse that power and use it near constantly to their own benefit, as not all benefits are material in nature, far from it. All the while that near constant abuse, and the playing of the only hand one has been dealt, is a weakness, and the beginning of the end, a vicious cycle of one failed leader after another, again and again. Give someone like me power, and I will not, will not use it unless forced to. But the last thing you would ever want is for a person like me to feel forced to act, because it is final, without mercy, and permanent. This is oddly much like the DRF, having been forced to action, they are without mercy, without regret, without malice or pause, conquering one region after the next, simply because they were forced to take arms for the first time in a very long time, and to band together for one purpose. This is how it works, those without malice, without mercy, acting only when given no other choice, swift and final are their actions, mercy needless when one only acts on just cause in defense of home and citizen.

For all intents and purposes, I really have little sway over things at all, truly, but what sway I do have is enough for me, enough to tip the iceberg I think.

Trail Of Tears

2011-07-25T21:54:00.015-04:00

Trail Of Tears

Travel From A Scout's Perspective

Believe it or not I rarely use the common trick of a microwarpdrive and cloak so often implemented to instantly warp off a gate safely as possible while traveling in low or null security. For all the hundreds of times years ago that I flew a Bestower up and down the Yong--}Mamet pipe, I never lost a ship. I will use a cloaky ship more often than not sure, but if I am using a conventional ship, I can name on my hands and feet the times I actually got caught with my pants down and could have used the warp trick, and even those times, I got away without it.

Why?

Patience, no seriously. I am obsessively patient.

That's not say I do not take risks, it is to say that wait until those risks hit a low point before moving down a pipe or attempting to travel in all manner of ship.

So how does a typical night go for me if I say, want to move a battlecruiser from high security to null security? I will walk you through step by step what I do, and maybe you will pick up a few tricks, or be reminded of a few things you often forget to do yourself, or are shown how risky I actually am, even though I bet against odds, not numbers, i.e. if there are reds along the way, I will rarely travel through them, but if they are in the system over, I will chance slipping by them when I get intel with good indication that they will not be back soon enough to find me. The key to travel is to not be seen, period. If no one knows you are there, you do not have buddies you are traveling with that draw attention, and you wait until the area is quiet, it is likely no one even knows you passed through. That is the key, it is as simple as that.

Still docked...

A few things, first open up DOTLAN, look at the route, ask yourself:

Are there often small entrapment gangs along this route?
Is this the only route into the constellation I am attempting to get to?
Are there side pockets of space where reds frequently loiter for a time?
Is channel intel frequently proper for the first jump into low or null security?
Is my ship larger than a cruiser?
Is it fit for PvP?
If I undock it now, there is no question I am willing to lose it?
Are there stations in most systems along the way that I have docking rights in?

A few things about ships themselves:

Warpstabs, useless...fit buffer and pray the batphone works, or burn back to the gate; solo reds are rare, if they are present, it is usually bombers or battlecruisers, and those are either ineffectual against cruisers or larger, or get mopped up by friendlies frequently.
Shuttles; nearly invulnerable in low security and a safe bet in friendly null security as hostile bubbles or bubble pilots are loudly announced on intel channels.
Pods; never fly around in a pod, shuttles are available almost everywhere, even in null security.
Haulers; T1 haulers are some shit...a poorly fit Brutix can literally one shot a Bestower, so ask a corpsmate about cloaky transports or capital services and only use a T1 hauler if there is no one else to do your hauling.
Speaking of cloaky transports...I highly suggest training a cloaky transport. Being able to move your own stuff on your own terms any time day or night sets you a world apart from your rookie counterparts who lose T1 haulers weekly.
Buffer or align time, ? A healthy mix is best, if you are in something smaller than a cruiser, align time is pretty good already, and sticking inertia stabs on something bigger is silly, however... if it is a cloaky, align time and base velocity are always more important than anything else. If it is a BC or larger, do not bother with mitigation like inertia stabs, warp stabs, etc. rig for PvE, fit for PvP, carry your PvE fittings in your hold, and make down the pipe.

A few things about accounts and eyes:

Do you dual box with more than one monitor? Then you need a character that can fly Covert Ops or Stealth Bombers. Why? Because you are most likely to get caught by a camp, than by roamers, roamers light up intel channels, campers simply get reported now and then, since everyone who has been online for awhile already knows they are there, and if no one has taken them out, intel reports can be somewhat infrequent. Sit your Covert Ops character at 250km from the gate, behind or above it, and relax, kick your feet back, and smoke a cigar, knowing that there are literally no hostiles on the gate you are about to jump through. And for the enthusiastic, you can even scout yourself!
I don't dual box, do I suck? No, create a dummy character on your account, hop in a shuttle and dock in the first low or null sec system if able to, if not, simply log out in a safe spot. When you wanna see the status of the system and cannot get proper intel, log the alt, look for yourself, log off, log your main, fly through.

A few things about intel channels:

Intel channels can be good some nights, bad others, slow, fast, frustrating, lifesaving... intel is provided by people and people are not perfect. Log your character on and keep a good 5-10 minutes of intel reports to browse over before moving any major assets or ships that are vulnerable to gangs. Give yourself plenty of time to finally see that report of OMG a thousand reds camping the first gate in the pipe! Trust me, it happens.
Don't fuss with [Solar System] status? If you have to ask, the intel is probably not going to come, or the fact that it is not being reported means the forces in system have been active long enough that intel has slowed down to more of a casual status update of caution that the system is unsafe, as noted above. If you wait those 5-10 minutes, and see no casual updates, chances are good, there's not actually anything there to be reported.

A few things about the starmap:

Pop open your starmap and put it on... well the star map view. Set a destination, and start poking around in the menu system, there are filters for ship losses in the past hour, gate jumps, people docked, people in space, cynosural fields, the whole shebang. The starmap is a good indicator if things are going on in unknown space.

Guess it's go time...

First off, if you are going to travel, you need three things while in open space:

Local window open, viewable and expanded to include at least 10x pilots at once.
Intel channel open and viewable
Directional scanner open, set to 10,000,000km, 360 degrees, using combat overview settings.

When you land on the first low or null gate, pop a directional, is there anything offgrid waiting? Maybe you should be cautious if there is.

When you jump into the first low or null gate, DO NOT break your gate cloak, DO pop a directional, is there anything waiting there for you as well? If there is, consider your chances and either attempt to continue or burn back to the gate after waiting out your session timer until it is almost up.

As you travel, do pilots enter local while you are in warp, moments before you jump, or shortly after you jump? Watch for gate flashes, that means the pilot either left or entered from the gate you are at.

Are there any intel updates along the pipe while you travel, hostiles that have suddenly appeared for whatever reason? Remember when you checked DOTLAN in station, now you easily recall that the system they are reported in is not along the pipe, so you can make a more informed decision on whether to proceed.

FML I landed on a gate with a hostile gang, guess I should just look away from my monitor as they turn me into a pin cushion. Stop, do not give up, but do not overreact and do NOT return fire of any kind and for the love of all that is holy do not jump through that gate right away unless you literally have a death wish, you are one ship, if there are more than two or three of them, your chances are vastly smaller if you fight or panic and jump right away, and if you already know what your chances are enough to know whether to return fire, you are a veteran and this guide is more of a refresher for what you already know. Wait for them to fire on you for Christ's sake, (you get the idea yet that panicking and immediately jumping through is a death warrant yet?), you are in control here, they must decide who fights, and who follows, a divided force is less effectual. What are your actual chances of getting away after they attack you? How many ships aggressed, what ones did not? If you jump through and for the ones that were able to follow, will they easily be able to target lock you before you warp off? If only one tackle is able to jump through, how fast are they? Maybe they will not even be in disruptor range by pure chance alone, i.e. it is very possible you land +30km away from one another when you both jump through. Rookie gangs will often open fire all at once when you are nearly dead, because they want to whore killmails for bragging rights, so never give up, ever. If they all open fire, jump through the gate, and laugh all the way home.

FML I jumped through a gate and a hostile gang that was not in intel is here, guess I am going to lose my ship. First off, do they have bubbles setup, or are there bubble ships present? Second off, what size is your ship, and what is the smaller tackle they have? Do you see any sensor booster animations or remote animations from one ship to another? If they are not setup for tackle of any kind, or have very few tackle, and you are in a smaller ship, your chances improve a lot. If you are in a larger ship, your best chance is to take note of the tackle they do have, and attempt to pop them before the others reach you. Slim, but possible.

FML I jumped through a gate into a system with no station and a hostile gang is somewhere in system or I am about to try warping away from them and escaping. STOP. Do not warp to the next gate at 0m, do NOT. You should have come down this pipe previously (will be explained in some tips and tricks at the bottom of this guide) and setup safe spots or tacticals such as a bookmark offgrid and above or behind the gate so you can use your dscan to check for hostile camps, or avoid bubbles. If you did not, simply warp to a random celestial at 20-70km and take your chances, once you land safely you should have already made a bookmark while in warp, that you can then warp to. Once you begin warping to that bookmark, make another, warp to that bookmark, warp to a random celestial again, warp to another bookmark you made while en route, etc. etc. you capice? Bore them to death, unless you're in something larger than a battleship, they will be unable to probe you before you warp off to a new bookmark in the middle of nowhere. And most red gangs do not bother probing for travelers, they probe for mission runners.

Good lord does this guide ever end?

Technically I am only getting started... but I will be adding to this guide periodically until it covers the full gambit of travel through low and null security space. For now this is a good start, it gets you into the pipe and gives you a few tools to keep yourself secure and solid.

A few pro tips:

Grab a T1 frigate, pop a microwarpdrive and some overdrives on it, and head down the pipe in an empty clone. Make a bunch of bookmarks in every system you plan on passing through or sticking around in:

Tacticals above the gate or behind it opposite all other celestial bodies in system, at distances of 250km (on grid usually), 500km (offgrid usually), and 750km (guaranteed offgrid).
At least two safe points in the middle of nowhere, not in line with any stargates or stations, i.e. first warp to a random celestial as far away from your present position as possible, then warp again to another random celestial in a different direction as far away as you can, make a bookmark on the second warp, i.e. you do not want to actually sit between the warp line of a stargate and any other body in space. You CAN be uncloaked by passing ships in warp, and if you go AFK thinking all is hunky dory, you may come back to a station screen and a new clone. This goes for sitting ANYWHERE near a gate under a few thousand kilometers as well, as people warping TO the gate, or traveling anywhere around it during combat, may very well uncloak you. If you think I am pulling your leg, it has happened to me more than once, even in safe spots a few times as well, hence the warning about safes aligned with stargates and celestials.
Bookmark the station you use frequently if it is low security.
Create a slingshot out of stations you use frequently, --to be explained at a later date.

Trust yourself, if you are flying it in space, you are pledging yourself to EVE's cardinal rule, you have agreed to the possibility of non-consensual PvP at any moment no matter how rare or unlikely in your present location in space. So do not be overly cautious; if it seems quiet down the pipe, it probably is, if it isn't, well you cannot predict the future so do not wait around hoping it changes on your account. You may lose a ship, or you may not, time to find out.

It's a game, you can always make more money, and I can tell you as a scout, I fly the most paper thin ships, with the least fittings, first into the fray, alone and to fend for myself. From a fatalistic point of view, if I can fly around crashing hostile gate camps for years and lose only a handful of ships, you should be able to take a battleship down the pipe on a quiet night with no incident.

Winning

2011-07-22T13:04:00.002-04:00

We have taken a big leap here, brokering a deal for seven systems and seven outposts. As a smaller alliance, now we simply need one thing, more members.

Is our next member you or your corporation?

I for one, certainly hope so. If you are out there, and you are good people, we need ya!

It's clobberin' time!

Recruitment

2011-07-11T11:08:00.000-04:00

Recruitment
Finding New Friends

The Aurelius Federation is spinning up again after more than half a year in hibernation.

The basic idea is that we are now back in Providence, life is good, and any pilots that want to experience the vast spectrum of entertainment value available in the depths of null security, need only apply to the corporation for the opportunity.

We have few requirements, other than the obvious, we want to gather up a bunch of people with similar interests, who have one goal in mind, growth in all things null security.

Believe it or not, Providence is actually extremely ripe for those looking to establish a base of operations and profit on said base. Right now the atmosphere in the region could not be more primed for small alliances to grow and expand.

While NRDS is not the most desirable way to operate politically, it always presents interesting challenges. Thankfully the vast swaths of space out there thus far seem to be bereft of neutrals, which leaves me to wonder, will the next six months in Providence be the best yet?

If the Aurelius Federation has more than a hundred active members in six months, I will have to say, without a doubt, best six months ever.

State Of The EVE Forums

2011-06-22T13:54:00.008-04:00

State Of The EVE Forums

Awash In A Sea Of Gibberish

What is it about the EVE Online forums these days that makes my skin crawl and the milk in my glass curdle? I guess if I had only played the game for a year or two I would not know the difference, and maybe I would remember my own time when things seemed better, even though they were not.

However, I firmly believe that the height of EVE Online was in the spring of '08, shortly after Trinity was released, when all the old timers from the beginning were still the dominant force in the game and on the forums.

I remember thread after thread, detailing life in EVE, how to make it, where to go, what to do, encouragement, positive criticism, fan created content as far as the eye could see.

Things were good, you could pop the C&P section open and see countless threads by both pirate and victim alike, detailing their success and failure on a day to day basis. Pirates actually existed, insofar as, they were a legitimate, professional, and well renowned force in the game at almost every level.

In fact, I adored, admired, and respected piracy in the way you respect Robin Hood, except that he were stealing for himself, and not others.

Then low sec died, then CCP got caught red-handed a number of times, then null was crippled politically and mechanically, then BOTs became the norm, not the exception... and then?

Well, I have spent a long enough time away from the game, eight of the past twelve months, that I am not as particularly invested in the grand scheme of things as I might have been before, but I can tell you that to be honest, I am kind of tired of all the bitching and moaning from the newest crop of players.

Most of the old timers that I grew up around are long gone now, and I find myself surrounded by a sea of my peers who have a grand sense of entitlement and huge ego to match. Who are these people? Are they playing the same game as me? CCP never had enough resources to go the distance and never will, and for the better part of five years a lot of people were nearly perfectly content with that because the people they found themselves flying next to or against at night were the cream of the crop; wonderful, interesting, and dynamic individuals from all walks of life, all viewpoints, all creeds, you name it, fighting the good fight, and going home proud to be a part of the best MMO community in the world.

Well, that has come and gone, and I think part of it may be that somewhat older players like myself, have succumbed to a real bitter veteran syndrome, not the meme kind that gets tossed around on the forums all the time, but a real fondness and nostalgia for the wonderful community we all found when we started here.

To all the whiners, naysayers, endless flames and complaints, and myriad tapestry of completely mundane and negative posters out there, please, please do not turn this into Warcraft.

CCP never had the resources to make this game flawless, and they never will. So make the best of it, and hope they do not repeat their mistakes like they did with Dominion, because at the very least, I can guarantee you that unless a couple million people subscribe to this game overnight, CCP will not be devoting more time to it than they have already, so you can either live with it, or gtfo.

Absence, Hearts, And All That

2011-06-13T14:24:00.006-04:00

Absence, Hearts, And All That
Turns Out I Am Back

Well, my stint away from the game was entertaining, but it ended in fiasco so here I am.

In all honesty, I needed time away from EVE to clean up my personal life, and being neck deep in game with political doodoo like I was last summer and early fall, EVE was on the short list of burdens I had no choice but to lift for a time. What was supposed to be six months away before taking another look at the state of the game ended up being eight. And although I had quite the entertaining time visiting with, raiding with, and helping out old friends in World Of Warcraft (Yes, that's right!) I am glad to be back.

While the game may be trudging along as expected, good things are being squeezed out now and then by CCP to the degree that I at least feel they are giving it their best shot with whatever resources they have. In retrospect, I feel a bit nostalgic for the days when the general forums on the EVE website were not rife with constant belittling of CCP, any of its affiliates, and their attempts to develop or do... well, just about anything.

I think it has gotten a little out of hand, and although implausibly naive of me, I feel a little guilty as if I had a hand in stirring up this wild rumpus on the forums as a vocal antagonist for months after Dominion came out. Then again, Dominion and the foibles that followed it for nearly two years now are not really at all things I could have reasonably assuaged or prevented so... that's just the way it is.

Anyways, I would like to start blogging again sans the rambling, so here goes.

I am back, Aurelius Federation is back, and while it has now basically boiled down to no more than myself and my close friend Jacob, we are still at the core, ourselves. After all, he and I started this corporation, and he and I will finish it.

What do I want out of the game this time around? That's easy. I want to kill stuff... and lead fleets of all shapes and sizes in doing so. Contrary to what may be popular belief among my friends and associates in game, and also due to my longstanding career as a combat scout a vast majority of the time, I am quite bloodthirsty and violent by nature, but I generally like to hunt solo if I am going to be firing my weapons, i.e. I like the hunt more than the kill and we all know how thirsty most players are for killmails themselves.

When do I start? This week! Given the very limited amount of standings our alliance has set, and that we run NBSI in all space, it should be pretty interesting!

Paradise Lost

2010-07-07T13:30:00.025-04:00

Losing your faith is a tough thing regardless of to whom or in what that faith is placed in. In a shocking blow to my own continued journey through all the turbulent ups and downs of EVE Online, I have found myself suddenly bereft of any and all faith in the developers at this time.

It is not something I expected, nor do I on the other hand feel like it is misplaced or emboldened by my own somewhat muddled personal experiences in the game itself as of late, per diplomacy and tactical combat, or lack thereof, insofar as tainting my outlook in general is concerned. This is a legitimate plea of concern and bewilderment at some of the design and development decisions made by CCP in the past year or so, maybe longer now that I have the advantage of hindsight.

One thing is certain, in today's world economy, a decent product or service will fail whereas a superb or well orchestrated one will barely skirt by. I believe that CCP may have fallen a victim of the times in that they are now forced to keep finding newer and newer carrots to propel the deus ex machina ever forward, for fear that any sudden stops along the way, or any scenic routes taken, will forever stall the product out, and lead to the branding going to the wayside as we have seen with other MMOs in recent years that suddenly found themselves lacking further funding or impetus from their shareholders, going from releasing new patches and content frequently, that added much polish and new veneer to the content of the game, to squeaking by with flowery updates few and far between that maintain a thinly veiled skein of new development or redress of old content that needs polish less but makes it appear that a great deal of effort is being put into the game client, i.e. Warhammer Online for literally the last two years since release.

Beyond going into detail ad nauseum I will just summarize what I can see from factual, anecdotal, and personal views and notes.

CCP claimed, and I remember this well, as little as I trudge through every scrap of new developments and rumor mills, CCP clearly claimed about a year or so ago, that they would in no way, shape, or form, take away from the support, development, progression, and funding of the EVE client itself while pursuing such side projects as Incarna and DUST512.

What do we find a year or so later, in the digital age, where multinational companies like BP still think they can buy their way to the top of the Yahoo! search list in order to obfuscate the obvious and wage a PR campaign without anyone noticing, is that CCP have suddenly found themselves in a financial black hole. Having somehow entrenched a seemingly vast majority of their development resources into side projects, they are now telling us that not only are they not even as of yet fully appraised of the entire scope of the lag issues introduced with Dominion, and shockingly worsened with Tyrannis, even seven months after Dominion was released, but that they are literally incapable at this time of devoting any additional resources to resolving any major ongoing contrivances, conflicts, and issues in the main client itself until after said side projects are fully fleshed out and released.

Wait a second, please. You should read that again. Let me quote it so it stands out, I want to make sure you are reading this correctly, as it is paraphrased directly from the CSM summit meeting in Iceland that occurred two weeks ago or so.

Having somehow entrenched a seemingly vast majority of their development resources into side projects, they are now telling us that not only are they not even as of yet fully appraised of the entire scope of the lag issues introduced with Dominion, and shockingly worsened with Tyrannis, even seven months after Dominion was released, but they are incapable at this time of devoting any additional resources to resolving any major ongoing contrivances, conflicts, and issues in the main client itself until after said side projects are fully fleshed out and released.

Did you catch it all this time? Good.

Now, for an old salt, ingame, like me, this matters more because I have already lost that shiny new rookie feeling where everything is still so mysterious with this sheen of discovery and entertainment to it, I am well versed enough in the game to know pretty much anything that is available to me via the content of the game itself to the point that, not only have I experienced or dabbled in a vast majority of it, but I have found myself bored or generally disinterested in that same majority, save the things I have not experienced to their fullest extent, i.e. 0.0 sovereignty and capital warfare and the extenuating circumstances of political conflict and resolution that reside therein.

In English, 0.0 is the only place for me in the long run, and now it looks like CCP has not only fubar'd 0.0 once but twice in consecutive expansions with reports leaking out on the EVE-O forums that various entire regions are suffering from untold lag issues when there are so very few people in the region as a whole, and engagements in double digit numbers are nearly impossible in certain circumstances.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as well, as each new content patch fixes one thing and breaks another. Now, I know what most veterans who have stuck with the game for longer than I, a two and a half year span, would say, and that is, welcome to EVE Online, adapt to it and move along like the rest of us.

The only difference now is these issues are accelerating at a shocking pace, and the development company is now so blatantly desperate to create new revenue rather than support existing revenue that they have for all intents and purposes done a full 180 degree spin on their previous stance regarding allotment of time, energy, manpower, and resources, and given their claim that most issues with 0.0 including the sovereignty mechanic itself, which has failed to achieve the so called Emergent Theory they so lauded during its development, will not see a legitimately genuine look-through and appraisal until after Incarna which even now is rumored and slated to be looking at a Summer of '11 release date. That's just under twelve months from now folks. Twelve months.

Being a programmer, and being not only THE programmer at my place of business, but nearing on being in some terms a senior programmer after having almost five years under my belt, I have myself seen, bore witness to, and caused whether directly or indirectly the exact same issues that CCP has. As you start off with a foundation and continue to put frame after frame, room after room, kitchen sink after sink upon that frame, it becomes laden and unwieldy, and it is almost as much work to fix or expand the foundation than it is to just start over entirely. I have gone through not one, not two, but three entire rewrites of the client application at my place of business for this very reason. The client became so laden and overburdened with thread and lag issues over time that it was like spaghetti, and the only way for me to address the issues I had built into the application slowly over time with new additions in every nook and cranny of the code, was to start from scratch. Eventually I settled on an independently operating and modular design, concurrent threaded model that feeds into a single thread at runtime to ensure continuity and flow. Each module can operate independent of the other, as long as it is provided with some cursory data flow to begin or continue operations, i.e. there is a very clear and unwavering contract between each module as to exactly how they communicate with one another. I am adamant personally that this new modular design will stand the test of time as each module itself can be rewritten independent of all other modules so long as the contract is upheld. Obviously this is likely not an option for CCP as the client code for EVE is undoubtedly millions of lines of code whereas I deal with under fifty thousand lines, easily. The programmer in me is very disturbed by what I know is likely the problem with the EVE client, at least in theory, and maybe this is bad in the sense that, ignorance would be bliss for me, I could logon, play the game, adapt to the lag issues, and be happy as a clam like a lot of people would be, but I cannot. I like knowing the truth, whether it hurts or not, it is the cost and suffering of enlightenment and I never shy away from that.

Now, for me, like I said, as a veteran, and as a young adult reaching a somewhat poignant age milestone in the next sixteen months, I have the unfortunate circumstance of having to make decisions that an adult would make rather than a youth would make, i.e. I have to think about the short term as it relates to my personal life and goals compared to simply doing whatever I want and entertaining myself in any way I feel.

That is to say, I do not really feel like I have the luxury to wait around another year just for CCP to start addressing all these issues with what to me is the most prominent and entertaining (i.e. retentive) content in the game, especially when it has already been seven months since they turned it upside down and shook the framework loose.

For me this means a few things, that are not as grim as I am undoubtedly making them sound to my friends and companions, but are still a little depressing. First off, I am going to be scaling back my number of accounts from four to two, as I simply cannot bring myself to drop the subscription on my capital pilot in the rare event these issues see the light of day from CCP in the next six to twelve months well ahead of how they claim this is all going to pan out. Second off, I am going to be going casual to the point that as of now I am putting the Aurelius Federation in hibernation and/or social mode, with people free to come and go as they please, or to find a suitable alliance in the Northern Coalition for us to all go over to, while I maintain the Aurelius Federation with an alternate character in the interim. Cmdr GAT is already on the case with this, looking into various alliances here and there, and joining them to discern whether they have the right feel for us as players. Thirdly, this means that as of now, EVE is no longer my nightly passion more so than it is the longest running MMO that I have until now never taken a real break from whether at the leadership level or at a personal level. Until now.

It is not something I thought I would find myself doing, though I feared it may come to fruition, but it was really the CSM summit, I do not know if it was just one too many sour grapes from the developers after years of watching them fiddle and tinker with every little thing while leaving broken content broken and introducing new content that is broken, then leaving it in the dust to develop even more new content or if it was just that I have been at it so long in EVE that I am now a little turned off more than a rookie or relatively fresh player would be. I do know one thing, I am not really so much mad at CCP as I am sorry for them. I know given the time, energy, resources, and money there would be no limit to what they could do, but to be honest, at this point I think they are in very short supply of any of it. This is not due to any one thing other than the fact that EVE is a niche game, and that means funding is always a thin line because there is not a surplus of subscription money or cash shop novelties like name, race, gender, server, etc. like there are in other MMOs.

What does this all actually mean, well it means as usual there are a million things racing through my mind, but I am able to put so very few of them to words, though I am sure some would disagree and argue that point, as much as I see the wall of text above me continues to grow.

The basic gist is, I may not be logging on much for weeks and months, and where my own members go, I may simply follow, as I said to a good friend the other day, you can only learn to lead if you learn to first follow, that tired old cliche, that so many in the previous alliance we were in could learn from, but I digress.

The options include:

1. AU-F somehow slips through the door into a very large and stable NC alliance, upon which I can simply be content to participate within an existing framework regardless of the game client's absurd and lingering problems.

2. Cmdr GAT finds a very nice corporation in a very nice alliance within the Northern Coalition and pilots in the AU-F join said corporation, including myself, at which time I just become another member, which is fine.

3. A suitable corporation for the lot of us cannot be found and we unfortunately have to go our separate ways at least ingame, and maintain our friendship without having the corporate flag to share, or maintain a friendship outside the game itself.

4. The people in the AU-F, about half of them if not more, who are already at the same point I am, all hang up their turrets for weeks and months, or for good, out of disillusionment with the direction the game client and developer are going.

I am chagrin to say that the last option is likely to be the course of action for a majority of the amazing friends I have found in EVE and will still continue to maintain said friendship with regardless of whether we are logging into EVE nightly, weekly, monthly, or never again. I know Devin only really plays because he has friends like us to enjoy the game with, and Cmdr GAT is finding it increasingly hard to believe in the game, Kubert has disappeared now for more than week (although I have no idea why, and it worries me), Kuroda Tsu does not play much at all anymore, though he can thank me for that indirectly as our friendship took a nose dive, Varian Knight and his cadre of RL friends have long since quit entirely and moved onto LOL, Huff has taken a big hit in his personal life and is finding it difficult to entertain himself with the game, Meatay is off having the time of his life during the summer months, Nylint is of course only able to play in spurts as his job is very taxing, Amos is lucky he gets to play as his wife absolutely hates the game, Rayth I think only plays because of the group we have fostered here, much like Devin, and Rasnow, being a new father, does not have 5-6 hours a night to roll around in space and devote to a single enterprise, though he would adore doing so, he has rightly chosen to go more casual to better support his family, which does not mean he will or will not leave EVE, it just means he is or will not be on much. Sorry to anyone I have not listed, but are in a similar position.

To me, playing this game, was always about seeing if I could amass a veritable army of people like those I have surrounded myself with for the past two and a half years, but the unfortunate part is that there are so few amazingly unique, strong willed, determined, genuine, independent, and intelligent people out there in the EVE subscriber base that these are the few good men (and women on occasion) I have been able to find in the entirety of my time in the game thus far. And to me, the fact that I found as many as I did over that time span, is a success.

So, without any further pomp and circumstance, I am signing off on what is likely to be the last blog entry here for an indeterminate amount of time, as I scale back my support of the development company CCP and pursue other interests in both RL and in the gaming entertainment industry.

I hope to see you in the plumbs of space on occasion but unless one of the first two options listed above becomes a reality, when I log onto the game may end up being based around training regimens alone, which means weekly or monthly, depending on the circumstances.

Adieu, my friends!

Pandora's Box

2010-06-21T13:50:00.012-04:00

Dominion released a veritable bounty of unsavory issues into the game as I am slowly beginning to come to terms with over time. Prior to the expansion, you had a system that had grown stale and redundant, its participants forced into destroying dozens of towers over the course of what could be weeks just to drive out the current residents from space they wanted to claim. You had the equally redundant task of spamming your own towers into the constellation in order to contest the space, which again, took time, what was it, a whole week for it to fully update the contested territories after each DT?

Now what we have is the following...

Bring large conventional fleet

Knock out Cynosural Field Jammer

Jump in capital fleet

Anchor SBUs

Kill iHub, TCU

Anchor TCU

Profit

It takes what... 8 hours? I may be slightly sketchy on the ins and outs, but the basic point is, sovereignty is now measured in 24-72hr blocks, rather than week(s).

Here today, gone tomorrow, now the little guy has a chance, this so-called Emergent Theory, sovereignty now costs so much to maintain and defend, the large power blocs could not possibly hold it all themselves, thus giving rise to EVE Online: The New Guys, right?

Well, we would all like to think so, and our previous alliance would as well, along with a number of its new affiliates up in Pure Blind. But what is really happening?

The rewards are becoming less and less appealing, and now that the only region in the game to welcome any influx of newer players is long gone and never to return, we have a perceived net loss of initiative out in the plumbs of space. What does the little guy, i.e. a smaller alliance with few assets and even less leverage or influence, gain from going to null space?

Let's face it, not much. Sovereignty can be stripped away by a fleet of as little as fifty battleships in a matter of a day or two against smaller groups incapable of fielding half that many pilots on a good day, let alone in all T2 fit battleships of the close or long range variety respectively. I have watched it happen in Wicked Creek, and I am sure I will watch it happen in Pure Blind too.

What it boils down to me for me is the same conundrum I found myself staring at in Warcraft when I came back after a six month break to find the guild of hundreds I had fostered as a mix of all types, be they casual or hardcore, slowly degrading, or so I thought at the time, into an atmosphere of fanaticism and hardcore mentality. This was about half way into the Burning Crusade release, and I could not have been more aghast and shocked. How could they do this to what was formerly my precious guild of people from all walks of life, I would say to myself as I watched on from a spectator's viewpoint for the first time, unable to change a single thread in the puzzle to my liking.

Looking back, I should have known, it was not the people themselves, but the game, always the game, catering to the bottom line, those who play the most. It makes sense right? The people who have all the time in the world to devote to the game should get the most enjoyment out of it correct? Well, not true, my friends, not true, and it seems Blizzard, and now subsequently CCP, are either already aware of this or slowly being charged with it over time.

Casuals. MMOs are such a dime a dozen in some sense these days that a development company has to follow one carrot with another as the subscription base devours them like so many skittles on a hot summer's day. As we see CCP continue to release content, alterations, and changes to the game that seem geared entirely towards making things faster, quicker, more fluid and dynamic, changing course at the slightest breeze, we see two things.

1. EVE null security was never meant for casuals anyways.
2. EVE null security cannot support a casual mentality so long as everything in the game, theoretically if not literally, is consumable including the skillpoints in your head.

What the developers at Blizzard have figured out, much to my chagrin after years of believing it myself, is that the hardcore player base is like a gnawing hunger, never satiated no matter what you give them, it is never enough. They are now effectively doubling back on the trend I saw when the Burning Crusade was halfway through its life cycle, they saw what catering to only a hardcore mindset does to an MMO, it creates an insatiable hunger that never ends and only exponentially escalates into absurdity, the more you say to people, "You can have it all if you just spend one more hour in the game," the more they spend two hours, or three, but not all of them, only some, those inclined to have the time, energy, and wherewithal to be hardcore players in any MMO they subscribe to.

Blizzard has been backpedaling on this, to my knowledge, quite literally for years now, inventing new and easier ways to gear out or experience all the game has to offer right out of the box after every new content release. This is the best of both worlds for Blizzard, their hardcore players can devour new content as always, being the best of the best, flaunting the fact that they have little to no real purpose or lives outside of the monitor, while the casuals, slower but determined, will eventually catch up, at least until new content is released. Blizzard has done it, they have finally found how to hook all players, not just some.

Okay, so I've been talking about that other game for awhile now, do I have a point?

Yes. My point is, in EVE, everything is consumable down to the training you do, in theory. What this means is that the only way to compete is to have as many or more assets than your competitor, and to lose yours slower than they lose theirs until one of you keeps going and the other is forced to retreat.

Think about it.

Do you see a way for casuals to succeed in the player controlled regions of the game, i.e. null space?

I sure as hell do not myself.

Now the ironic part is, I can be, often are, and am a hardcore player at heart. I am obsessive in the sense that, I pick one particular pursuit or passion at a time, and I mindlessly, in some sense, pursue it until I accomplish the goals I set out for myself. But I am the exception I have found, and not the rule.

In order for smaller groups to succeed in EVE, every contributor has to be like me, in principle, and insofar as it concerns their commitment level. You want a few systems to claim sovereignty in 0.0 and to prosper and hold said systems? You better gather up at least as many people as required to field a conventional fleet of heavy hitters up to and beyond fifty people at once, if not more. Consistently, night after night, not a one time deal, I am talking, whenever it becomes necessary, and it will, you field fifty or more ships, every, single, time. This is not a casual mindset, and if you have ten casual players, and only one is online at any given time, you multiply that factor to 3000 players, and suddenly the most you could ever hope to muster at any given time is 300 people, and that's if you're lucky. 300 people is barely enough to fight a moderately sized alliance with high participation levels. And our previous alliance had at its peak about a thousand people, and we saw just that, maybe a hundred people online on a good night, and if we were lucky, twenty people ready and willing to participate even if Rome was burning.

Look at Systematic-Chaos, a short while ago they had almost three thousand people, but they could not route their opposition, alliances with numbers in the ballpark of 700 or 300 total members. Why? Because Systematic-Chaos was full of casuals. Their own members have reiterated that again and again on the CAOD, trying to vindicate themselves in light of their alliance's complete and absolute meltdown in a matter of weeks.

How, could the combined forces of one alliance with +2500 members, and another with +2000 members (Primary.) not overcome the meager forces of one alliance with 700 members, and another with 300?

Consistency and participation. C0VEN and Stain Empire, so I am told, had +90% participation levels, and everyone who showed up, showed up in the ship they were asked to, and nothing else. Vastly different from the account that members of Systematic-Chaos gave of their own alliance, lack of numbers, people unwilling to fight for their own space, poor fleet composition, poor leadership and initiative, more carebears than not, etc.

Without trying to sound too much like a jackass... hearing people in Systematic-Chaos talk about why their alliance had an epic failcascade reminds me all too much of the reasons I pulled my own corporation from our previous alliance. The writing is on the walls folks. It is an unfortunate reality that casuals do not a null security sovereign holder make, and even more unfortunate that the only way to ensure long term survival and prosperity is to do one simple thing: get rid of them.

Now, those who know me well, know that I am a champion of people's rights, I work hard to make sure all my own corporate members know that they are more than welcome to be who they are, feel comfortable with who they are, and enjoy the content of the game in their own way while within my corporation, so long as they do not interfere in any other person's ability to do so themselves. This little caveat has served me well and I stick to it tooth and nail without exception. However, my corporation made the choice to remain a mix of casual and hardcore elements, as it allows me the luxury of upholding said caveat. But as I see the numbers dwindle away in the corporation, I wonder to myself, has it been naive of me to dream the dream that I could maintain a mix of casual and hardcore players all the while attempting to help alliances establish themselves in null security?

Probably so, but I never shy away from allowing myself to be labeled as a dreamer, as half the joy of life in my opinion, is being able to imagine all the possibilities out there for oneself and those who one surrounds oneself with.

But, remember the lesson, null security is for hardcore elements, the casual life died with Providence, and so little else remains but to succeed by shucking off and sacrificing the ability to champion people's rights in lieu of a more restricted right to be, or continue living the impossible dream, as you watch friend after friend slowly fade away over time, unable to compete in an environment where the hardcore elements, struggling to accomplish the goals they desire, continually prey upon the casuals, who will never be able to supply those goals, as it is their nature, being a casual player, you cannot very well expect someone with three kids, two jobs, and a bad back to sit at a computer six hours a night pelting TCUs so you can claim sovereignty over pixels on the internet. And to be honest, in my opinion, it is morally reprehensible to try and prey upon them by peer pressure, coercion, guilt, or malice, to do so otherwise. These people rightly put their families first above all else, and members of the alliance who thought to change this, should be expelled faster than I can finish typing this sentence. If it were up to me, either the decision would be made to go hardcore and expel the casuals, or to go mixed casual and hardcore, and resign oneself to the reality that sovereignty is unattainable with such a platform.

Does this make me a hypocrite, on the one hand lauding the rights of people to be themselves in an online environment, to feel safe, secure, and nurtured by caring and genuine leaders who put the people's interests above all else, and on the other shake my fist at those same people because they are the very reason why a group based on said environment can never succeed at sovereignty and they need to either commit to being hardcore or leave?

Of course. But I never claimed to be a simple man...

What does any of this mean for my own corporation, the Aurelius Federation? It means I have some tough decisions to make in the next six months, I grow older every day, and while nearing on thirty may seem like a fairly trivial milestone as it concerns age itself, as certainly thirty is undoubtedly young and brash to others, I find myself wondering, I am almost thirty years old, do I have the luxury of dreaming anymore, or do I consign myself to reality, and make the kinds of choices an adult would make.

As I told the executor of our previous alliance, and/or his close associate, if I had merely been given the power to eradicate insubordination, by force, and to expunge all the... unfortunate dead weight that were and are the casual players, as much as I abhor myself for contemplating such a thing, I would have fought to my last breath in game to do so. But having had my hands tied by neither being bequeathed nor denied said power, I could do nothing but sit idly by, shaking my fist and roaring at others around me, who were destroying the very thing I was trying to protect. To protect the right to decide, do we choose people over content, or content over people. The choice is at present, yet to be made, and I no longer desired waiting around for it to happen, as again, I grow older every day, and my patience to sit around as people wring their hands trying to figure these ^ things out wears thin with me quicker than ever before.

I am and always will be a lion at heart, and those who know me best, those few friends I have had with me along the journey of the past few years, know well that my fervor knows no bounds, and if unleashed, I am a frightening person to list as one's enemy or antagonist. If only I had been given the chance to use that fervor, passion, and spirit to compel the kinds of change that although unsavory would have produced results given the goals and intentions of the alliance as a whole, maybe I would not be sitting here pining at the abysmal losses I see day after day, and the continued fail fits, of the very kind I and many others continued to decry, day after day, night after night, but would instead be leading fleets of dozens and dozens of battleships, all properly fit to the teeth, roaring through space, letting our enemies hear that we are not few, but many, each hell bent on their annihilation.

Sharks swim alone, they die alone, whether in a feeding frenzy in which they devour one another, or from starvation when there remains no prey, but lions, a pride fights, lives, and dies together, and if any one lion questions the authority of the leader, he is eliminated or driven out, without question.

I find myself feeling less and less inclined to be the nice guy in MMOs anymore, and more inclined to be who I really am, but that is something for another time.

EVE has been under quite a load bearing stress for six months, and with the most recent loss of some net $30,000 USD worth of assets in a single day due to a poor and broken game mechanic, it seems like things are going to get worse before they get better, much worse. There is no room for casuals out there in null security anymore than CCP would have liked there to be, as they have somehow managed to make it almost impossible for casual life in null security, when their every intention seemed to be the exact opposite of that.

Oh the best laid plans of mice and men...

Lions And Sharks

2010-06-16T10:42:00.039-04:00

There are a couple things you do not do in a player group. One of them is lie to people when things are not going so well. It cheapens their sense of value and integration and costs more in loyalty later once things hopefully get better and you suddenly lift the curtain and reveal that it was all smoke and mirrors. People deserve the truth, be it obfuscated to protect them or not, they deserve to know when things are not working as intended, because they are the only ones who can change it. Leaders only provide the path, it is the people who follow it. The second, is you do not take one format, and replace it with another.

There are as many types of corporations and alliances in this game as there are fish in the sea, but one thing remains true, if you recruit casuals, the chances of them becoming hardcore through their own volition or your persistence, is about as good as the chance I'll land a hot date with Katy Perry and find myself messing the sheets up with her an hour after posting this blog, wish as I may.

For every ten people the AU-F itself has ever recruited, maybe, maybe one of them has persevered and become a regular fixture and consistent presence in the game, let alone grown into a veteran player, capable of holding their own entirely, independent, self-supporting, and experienced, as is always my goal, I do not need followers, I need brothers. The rest, well... if they do not quit the game, they simply fade away over time, leaving the corporation, and flitting from place to place, and as far as I can tell, never really doing much in this wild game of ours.

So, what happens when an alliance made of mostly casuals with limited experience, solid experience, in combat tries to change the formula? A whole lot of nothing. You can make casuals into fighters, but you cannot force them to it, that's why they are casual, they did not sign up for an account to this game so you could be their overlord and they your serfs. But members of the alliance we were previously in, save the executor himself, who all my members, myself included, are convinced is the best alliance leader any of us have ever seen, these members were convinced they could force casuals to be hardcore, with little to no leverage, to boot.

Leverage, it is an innately hideous thing, that lets you pretty much dictate terms, to just about anyone who has any stake in it, that's why it is called leverage. Well, how exactly do you force casual players, who are just here to yuck it up and have a good time, to pit themselves headlong into battle night after night, week after week, making little to no income of their own, having little to no real entertainment because they and the FCs are so inexperienced that it usually means a quick and expensive death?

The answer is, drum roll please, you don't. But oh will people try, and try they may. When a vacuum in power opens up, the hounds move in, and what you find is, the people who left, were the ones who deserved the power, because they were also willing to give it up when it became clear their positions were compromised for any reason, and the ones who snatch it up in their absence are the last people you'd ever want to have power over others. I call it, personally, though I have no idea if it has been coined already, The Caesar Complex. Successors, in general, are a bad lot, all the work to get the great machine churning has been done, and they come along, and lack the awareness and hindsight to know and actually understand what came before them, they have a point of view disparity, and eventually over time you find out that the Prodigal Son is in fact the Infernal Son, lusting for power and influence, convinced with a grandiose sense of entitlement that they are the only ones who deserve the power, having done so little of the actual work to get there in the first place, etc.

Well, before I ramble on about stuff that probably only interests me anyways, that is, the way the old phrase, absolute power corrupts absolutely is such a morbidly true cliche, let me say this, when you give people an environment like the internet, where there are no rules, and you give them power, they could be a living saint in real life, but on the internet the moment the world's laws and consequences disappear, you find out what is lying dormant in that saint's heart, their true nature. The old excuse that nothing matters here, is true, it does not matter here, but it matters out there because if these same people were to make their way into CEO positions of multinational corporations in real life, and the like, what you find is what you would expect, the limitless power and sway they find themselves with, and the feeling of invulnerability and being above the laws of society, turn these otherwise caring and genuine people into monsters. I think all of us with any interest at all in the world at large have seen plenty evidence of that in the clear light of day in the past few years alone.

As a philosopher, I find it exceedingly interesting and poignant to watch these things play out. Sometimes I interfere with the natural course of things to see just how much it would take, if anything were enough, to change the inevitable outcome of giving someone who is not prepared for it, absolute power over others, or even the illusion of it within an illusion, having not been given any actual power, but not having the semblance or notion of it taken away either.

This probably makes little sense to anyone but myself as it is really my own grand experiment, but suffice it to say, I am always, always curious to see whether the will of one person can hold at bay the will of the hounds that constantly lurk in the corners, waiting for their opportunity to fulfill their own sense of entitlement and grandeur at any to cost to those around them.

Hundreds, hundreds of people in our previous alliance, deserved a lot better than they got from a select few members of the alliance, who decided that it was their job to speak for people, when they understand people the least of anyone else. If the alliance had started with a hardcore platform then the sharks would have been right at home, and no one would have any reason to say they weren't justified with trying to use people up like Kleenex, but the alliance was more of a large extended family, the same as the AU-F itself, which is what made it such a breath of fresh air when we first joined, and a family needs lions, not sharks. I am afraid to say, our previous alliance has only a handful of lions left in the fight, and the sharks are winning.

What happens to a pride of lioness and their cubs when the lions that protect them are killed by hyenas, I wonder?

I will be waiting, and watching, to find out, as always.

One of my favorite passages in all the literature I have read, sums all this drama up entirely, in what I hope will be a final chapter on our corporation's eternal struggle to help build something from the ground up, as I think we have all given up on that notion and are instead going to seek an established alliance the next time around where there is not, hopefully, an eternal power struggle over scraps and bits. Even if there is a struggle over actual vast wealth and assets, that I can live with, but this never-ending struggle over what to me is a parched man slowly dying in the desert, is folly and I will not be a party to it any longer, whether I was trying to prevent it or not, it is like watching strays fight to the death over a discarded apple core. There are so many more entertaining and amazing experiences the alliance could have had but instead an unfortunate number of its members decided they would rather fight amongst themselves over scraps. So this passage, for me at least, coming here to play this game not only for entertainment but also camaraderie and brotherhood, and if only more could really understand it, especially those who would benefit from it most, means the world to me in a situation like this:

The old man said, 'I see around me here
Things which you cannot see. We die, my friend,
Nor we alone, but that which each man loved
And prized in his peculiar nook of earth
Dies with him, or is changed, and very soon
Even of the good is no memorial left.
The poets, in their elegies and songs
Lamenting the departed, call the groves,
They call upon the hills and streams to mourn,
And senseless rocks - nor idly, for they speak
In these their invocations with a voice
Obedient to the strong creative power
Of human passion. Sympathies there are
More tranquil, yet perhaps of kindred birth,
That steal upon the meditative mind
And grow with thought. Beside yon spring I stood,
And eyed its waters till we seemed to feel
One sadness, they and I.

The Ruined Cottage
William Wordsworth

You cannot take the game with you, folks, so be sure those arduous endeavors you take upon yourself will result in fond memories, rather than self gratification or validation, as no one ten years from now but you will honestly care whether or not you conquered an internet game and lorded over hundreds of people like a despot as the right arm of an entire alliance or more. If I told you that I led a guild of almost fifty people when the original Diablo came out and that at the time it was a wildly new phenomenon for me at the tender age of 16 and for the time itself in '97 to do so would it really mean anything to you? I didn't think so. So remember, you will be alone with your memories, so make sure they count. Personal thrills are a dime a dozen and you can just as easily get them by popping in a Halo disc and shooting some grunts or laying the pimp hand down on some tool with an online moniker like xXKillYouDeadXx, but having fond memories of experiences, meeting good friends, and achieving amazing things together is by far the most precious of commodities.

Penultimate

2010-05-19T14:35:00.019-04:00

Why do I want to fly a Nyx? Of course the easy answer is that I am guilty of wanting to indulge in the game's high end content. The more difficult answer is that I honestly do not trust others to fly it first. Without going into too much detail, I can tell you I have seen some pretty ridiculous stuff done with capitals before, and I do not mean that in a good way. My idea of doing something ridiculous is not having enough money on my main account to insure my capital before joining the second engagement in the D-GTMI battle, and coming out four hundred million short after reimbursement from Aralis of my own fault. That's unconscionable to me. How could I forget when I knew my dual box setup was down for the count at the time and I could not relog another character cuz the fleet break was a mere five minutes? Unthinkable! Oh, but after a few months since my own capital loss, the things I have seen... *shakes head* I had to help a pilot out who had his carrier stuck in an NPC 0.0 outpost where the hostiles were hostile and the neutrals were hostile on top of hostile... the best part was he had no calibration, so how he got the thing there to begin with is beyond me, so I kindly helped him out by using my calibration skills to get it out of harm's way in a single hop. That required a beer before and a beer after, given that a fleet of a dozen or so hostiles was zipping back and forth up that pipe all night long, it was four in the morning, and my eyes were glued to the screen like there was a swimsuit competition on. From the time I got my eyes on the station to when I jumped out to the cyno it took about thirty five minutes of careful observation and noting who's who. Something like:

Dual box cloaked eyes on station, wait, wait, wait, locals ratting or docked, wait, new red, wait, red left, two new neutrals, one left, one docked, another undocked, docked, undock capital pilot in a shuttle, ha, someone pop me so I know if you're watching, c'mon fools, I warp off, safe spot towards planet, maybe think a POS if someone is watching, warp back, docked, gang of six jumps in, jumps out, did not come to station, reds gone, just neutrals and blues left, ratting or docked, okay, undock capital pilot again, is someone wise to me, we will see, c'mon pop my shuttle, noobs can never resist giving away their positions, they pounce at the slightest stir in space, 20k loss compared to carrier with command ships and heavy assault cruisers in its ship bay is easy math, c'mon c'mon... aaaaaaaaaaand absolutely nothing, jack squat, no one is watching, or they are as sly as I am or better in which case they have the right to teach me a lesson, ok *dock capital pilot and board carrier*, *takes ample swig of Guinness* let's do this thing, *undocks*, slingshot, going going, gone! *cloak* ok, time to align to safe, aligning, aligning, *uncloak*, warp warp warp, in warp! *cloak* ok cyno buddy, *takes another dripping sloshy gulp of Guiness* let's go! *uncloa...FOOF* and I'm gone in a flash! Just call me Flash Gordon, brosef. That's how you get outta hostile space.

I am convinced that people just simply do not care or cannot put two and two together. Here is what I imagine them thinking when they put a capital in a situation like I had to get them out of: "After all, it's just pixels in space, forget the twenty four hours straight of ratting or pounding out missions it took to purchase that carrier and fit it, or the fact that I have a complete lack of navigation skills, I wanna jump it through hostile space and run rip shod on the seat of my pants! Oh noz, *POOF* I guess it is back to T1 frigates...boy am I the best capital pilot ever or what?"

As is the case with anything that has an intrinsic value beyond the time and energy committed to its production, I firmly believe that in the right hands a supercap is basically priceless in today's game environment. When carriers, dreads, and etc. are treated like so many pieces of candy by rookie and experienced pilots alike it becomes obvious to me that a perfectly executed drop of a handful of supercaps can annihilate billions worth of ships in mere minutes, with little to no risk to themselves. Hell, I have seen it done three or four times already, though I have not witnessed it directly.

So, yes, it is a guilty pleasure to want to fly a fairly formidable but expensive ship, but more than that, I would rather see it flown the right way, because the alternative is unsavory at best.

I think I might just actually and seriously go emo for a whole day if I have to hear a story about some rube who was given the first alliance supercap and decided it'd be fun to aggress at a gate in low sec to pop a couple hostiles, only to find himself swarmed over by every Tom, Dick, and Hairy in the tri-region area, and lose his supercap in a most painfully slow and excruciating manner. In fact, in going emo, rather than cut myself, which would be folly, I think I'd like to cut him instead. Yes, yes I think that would be nice. Quite nice.

...

Although, there is a rumor, most foul, that my industry alt is beginning a twelve month training regimen to Sniper Apocalypse, Paladin, and... Avatar! *gasp* Say it ain't so bud, say it ain't so, only the sexiest ship in the entire game, as if I will ever fly one. But one can dream, can he not? At least along the way I will be max training some of the most useful fleet battleships I can think of.

:)

The Lost Art

2010-05-19T10:07:00.019-04:00

The lost art of artful deception. Most of what one ever needs to know from others is what others themselves do not know one needs. Confused yet? Okay, what happens when you say something wrong among a group of your peers? They correct you, right? What happens if you say something wrong on purpose, knowing they will correct you? You learn something without asking them to give you the answer. They are none the wiser, and you walk away with something you did not have before, knowledge with no primary source.

Oftentimes, one may find me making bold predictions, speaking in platitudes, or grandiose terms, waxing philosophical about this or that state of the game, the people that play it, and in general the human condition. Am I right in my predictions a fair majority of the time? I would like to think so. I did predict a number of months ago that Scalding Pass would become the new proxy war for SC and NC once the SC campaign inevitably failed in a most miserable fashion. I was also told at the time I made the prediction that I was the only CEO in the entirety of the alliance who even remotely touched on a topic or concern of that nature. I once predicted what would happen to a rather unsavory member who led a coup and took a couple dozen of my more hardcore members with him, enticing them with promises of riches and glory, as he was my better, he told them, and they need only follow him to partake. Twelve months in advance I said, he will have not a friend in the world, just you wait, I said. Twelve months later he was begging anyone to take him in, because he lost it all. Fancy that. Do some of my predictions seem outlandish and absurd at the time, and on occasion even more so after the fact? Perhaps.

People underestimate carefully constructed falsehoods and more often than not, will fail to even realize that the speaker is not wrong by ignorance, but by volition, or even not so much that they are wrong, but they are antagonizing or emphatic in such a way as to glean what they want from those around them.

The more mundane and two dimensional character could be best surmised as what we commonly refer to as a troll. But one who strives to master the written and spoken word and make predictions based upon it, is known as a soothsayer or oracle. Now, I am not so bold as to believe I have some preternatural ability to foresee future events more so than I am so keenly aware of my surroundings that often the air feels thick to me before something stirs in the shadows. Having bred myself early on in the game as a scout, and having scouted countless roams, I have had the unique opportunity of consistently being in a position where I may simply watch and observe. Thus I may not have as much a preponderance of experience as some, yet I understand things just the same. Without sounding too sure of myself, I believe this is why I often find myself as one of the top fleet commanders wherever I go.

More so than that, however, in keeping this novella on topic, I find myself gleaning information constantly wherever I may find it. In alliance chat, watching local, reading the EVE forums, Scrapheap, talking to my own members, alliance members, leaders, intelligence channels, you name it, I am usually lurking in the shadows somewhere.

I find it more amusing when people seem to revel in pointing out my obvious mistakes or misinformed opinions and ideas, because quite often, I will have simply said whatever popped into my mind concerning the subject, knowing full well someone will leap at the opportunity to tell me the truth and correct me, thus giving them a false sense of superiority. Gotcha. None the wiser they are, none the wiser.

Perhaps, this is why I am also the Intelligence Officer for the alliance, no?

A month or two ago, I made a bold prediction, that by the time of the summer expansion, people would likely be leaving 0.0 in droves, out of a lack of faith in the game mechanic or any eventual resolution to said mechanic. The rhetoric served its purpose and meted out its eventual end and I am happy with that, and I would be amused to find anyone who looks back on that period of the game, and wonders if I am a loon or not for predicting a part or parcel of the ubiquitous EVE is dying argument. I hope they find it amusing, to be played like a violin.

Now, this has obviously not been the case, in the sense that 0.0 is alive and well, and anyone who knows the history of the game, knows 0.0 was a better place when fewer people were in it anyways. However, what has changed has been exactly what I feared, but could not bring myself to say. People are losing faith, but they find themselves unable to do the unthinkable, and like a deer in headlights, they are simply staring at a train wreck waiting to happen, unable to move out of the way. The air, ambiance, environment, feel, undercurrent if you will of 0.0 life has dramatically changed. No longer is CAOD filled with fun content and immense and yes sometimes trivially overblown rivalries, keen interest, and excitement, but is instead filled with this subtle sense of frustration. Posts made, threads started, sit idle for an hour, two hours, maybe more, before people even bother to tire themselves with caring anymore. You hear words like stale, pointless, what does it matter when it comes to who wins what, and who loses.

There are the Goons, simply wanting to return to their roots in Scalding Pass, and remember a time when, as implied, the game and 0.0 life itself, had a flare for the fantastic. There is Atlas, reeling from having the very game mechanic they took advantage of, along with -A- to render all of Providence impotent, turn around and annihilate them time after time. Now, mismanagement aside, or preemptive strikes that slowed the momentum of war, and etc. the general idea is that it seems quiet, too quiet.

It seems that the initial shock, anger, disbelief, and denial over the fallout from Dominion has now turned into apathy. What does it matter anymore, they say, why fight over the same space over and over, they ask, why bother, some of my own members will say from time to time. Why has expansion after expansion been released for two years, and nothing has really changed, they pine.

Why, indeed.

...but out of the murky water rises a figure of doubt, in the back of our minds, that asks, "Whose fault is it really, the game developers who raised the bar and failed, or the players who reached too high to begin with?"

Interestingly enough, who knows what I myself do in fact, believe or not, as I said, maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong, I care not whether anyone thinks I am wrong one moment from the next, I only care about the truth, however I can find it.

So the next time someone starts poking at my opinions, claims, or predictions, you can imagine me sitting behind my monitor laughing as I revel in them providing me the information I actually wanted to begin with, and knowing they will forget ever having given it to me, like a thief in the night. This is not to say I am never wrong, that would be a pretty ludicrous claim, but that I do my very best to never say something unless I know I am either right, or I am wrong on purpose because I am simply blathering out whatever comes to mind at the moment.

Life is only worth living if you can accept that it is truly, in the end, a Divine Comedy...

...and this game is no different in that regard.

Time Flies

2010-05-07T12:18:00.015-04:00

This past week marked two years since I created the Aurelius Federation. Does it seem so long ago? For me it feels like only yesterday that I was sputtering about in a shield boosted, armor repped, passive targeting fit Incursus being obliterated by frigates in an L1 mission and cursing CCP for its obviously evil game design that must certainly be hellbent on obliterating rookie pilots and their expensive ships. But in reality, what amounts to ages in a game world have passed since then, and I find myself thinking lightly of stashing 100,000,000.00 ISK worth of bombs in a corporate hangar somewhere, that I know will see little use, or tossing a 350,000,000.00 ISK booster on a ship because I want to really have fun the once or twice a month I even do L4 missions for income, or traveling through 0.0 and being more comfortable there than in a station in Empire, floating about in a POS, being amused at rookie or inexperienced pilots who are as of yet still learning how to avoid cloaky Dictors or general harassment down pipes and ways.

It is the best of both worlds for me, in all honesty, still holding onto the idea that I too was once just another rookie pilot in a 50k frigate, zipping about in the great expanse of space, staring in wonder at the starry backdrop of the game, with my imagination running wild at the sheer potential of the future laid out before me to now knowing that I am well versed and experienced in the game to the point that it becomes harder for me each and every day to relate to those who are not.

I still get that way from time time, even as I can fly all but four or five ship classes in the game, even if not all the racials. Starting the last 85 day leg of my journey to having a Nyx pilot is the real culmination for me as the Nyx is one of the reasons I became enthralled with the content of the game. Such a wonderfully pleasant and foreboding ship, even more so now that it is a capital killer.

But of the corporation itself, through countless ups and downs, winners and losers, friends and enemies, successes and failures, one thing remains that I keep in mind, and promises me that I have made a difference for those around me, as intended.

The size of our corp has drastically changed since the Provi days. Even thought the number is big, if you remove alts we probably end with 20 or so players. TBH I like it. Living from a POS is hard. Even harder when you have a big group and thinking that any day all shit can be stolen. It can definitely happen, but with this group very unlikely. I know that we will eventually grow again, but I'm not in a hurry. I think this is a great time for us to grow as a team to be ready for the future size growth.

- Dante Styx

I have managed to find and surround myself with sensible adults who are here to enjoy a game and nothing more. What could be better? I do not have snot-nosed driveling children nipping at my heels within the corporation, nor do I have deceitful avarice filled mongrels chomping at the bit for every tiny little step up the ladder they can make by any means and at any cost. Life ingame is good.

So, although I could wax philosophical or reminisce for hours until this post feels like a novella I will instead close with how I feel after two years and how I hope to feel after another two.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

i.e. I wouldn't change a thing, to be perfectly honest.

Runs Like A Charm, Feels Like A Job

2010-04-19T13:57:00.003-04:00

I like to believe that I am surrounding myself with, and constantly seeking, friends first in this game, and corporate members second. I know it is naive of me, and given the fact that I am looking for friends in of all places, EVE Online, it means that I am already at a distinct disadvantage. EVE is not a nice, warm, fuzzy place where you sit down and drink a glass of cognac with your favorite companions on a quiet winter's night.

However, for that very reason, I run the AU-F like I would a social club or as the head of a family. You get in on looks and personality alone, whether you're the most skilled pilot in the game, or you can't find your undock button on a good night. And based on that personality, you are accepted with open arms, and expected to uphold the family environment I maintain internally within the corporation. On the outside, it is all business. On the inside, I would rather talk about booze and women, than be ultra serious and hardcore about the game as a whole. These things lead to a fairly pleasant dichotomy where on the one hand, the corporation maintains or attempts to maintain the strictest sense of professionalism, business, and diplomacy, and on the other, when it is a quiet night, we are in our corporate channel talking about booze, women, body parts, and the kitchen sink.

But, sometimes this backfires, as we have found in the past week, when tensions ran high, and words were spoken that a few people seem to not want to take back. Having quit the Senate, raised a fair amount of ruckus at both the corporate and alliance levels, and then retreated from participation in general as if to add insult to injury, members of this corporation have done everyone around them a great disservice.

Now, the elephant in the room is that everyone involved both at the corporate and alliance levels made some sort of mistake, whether it be pride, assumptions, apathy, disrespect, overzealous nature, or etc. The problem I see is that everyone but the people in question, continues to be willing to work these differences out, like mature, independent, and responsible adults. So what's the problem? I ask for everyone to act like an adult, that is not really much to ask to be honest. In fact, it is relatively little. Certainly mistakes were made by all parties, but only a few were absolutely unwilling to resolve these conflicts at all, and instead chose to retreat into the shadows.

Before I myself say things I will regret, I want to clear the air, from my perspective.

I work to the betterment of ALL parties equally, and so long as I feel those parties understand that this is my role here, I will work for them, even if they are in part or in whole responsible for the circumstances that cause me to need be involved to begin with. I make no judgments, I make no grievances, I make no agendas, I simply try to resolve. But I have limits that I set, and those limits have been crossed, and once they are crossed, that is the end of it. Just like the Kematian's, the Zee's, and the Mark's of the corporation, these people who cross that invisible line with me, are never given my faith or confidence again, whether they choose to stay or not and regain it themselves in the eyes of their peers, it will still never again be from me. In fact, I implore them to do just that, to stay, regardless of whether I myself lost faith in them, as this is my way, not the only way, and I am certainly not whom the only opinion matters. But they never choose to remain, never. So, with my usual foresight, that I typically keep to myself, I would like to say now, that they were given every consideration by myself, every possible consideration, and they refused to yield to my role as mediator, and instead I find myself feeling insulted, by being thrown in with the lot as if by association I am no better than the slander thrown wildly against all others. I am sorry, but I am the last person that one wants to take for granted. Do not mistake me for someone who bends, I am unbreakable. This is a family affair, and if you do not want to be part of a family and work your problems out like one, this probably isn't the place for you.

The Dark Ages

2010-04-19T13:22:00.000-04:00

Well, this time I can honestly say that my long hiatus from posting here has been deliberate.

Fatal Ascension has successfully relocated to the Scalding Pass region and my intentional public blackout is now at an end, as we have established ourselves wholly in our new area.

Couple easy things to note, that have been going on in the most recent weeks, be they gloriously successfully or arduously difficult, are the following:

Logistics hauling with capital ships, SUCCESS
Medium to Large organized combat fleets, POSSIBLE
Getting carebear and newbie pilots to come out to Scalding Pass on their own, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
Getting people to NOT warp into engagements in ones and twos, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
Getting people to realize Scalding Pass neither resembles nor even remotely likens to Providence, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
Gaining focus from a core group of a few hundred in the alliance, SUCCESS
Securing most infrastructure in our new sovereign systems, SUCCESS
Making ISK for myself at a personal level, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE

Now, I could go into all kinds of details about this or that, but considering this is an ongoing process, and that emotions are so high right now, I may spare the whip, and loosen the chain instead.

The alliance is going through the growing pains any alliance in our position would be. Having been shucked from the proverbial cornucopia that was Providence, we have found ourselves in what appears to be a relatively inhospitable area of 0.0 space but what is in reality the best opportunity we have been given since my corporation was created, personally.

With various fleet commanders leading sparse fleets here and there, too busy, like myself, to devote a majority of their time to one thing or another, the alliance is suffering from too much too soon, but in light of this, we cannot help but ride fast and furious, as it is the only way this stuff is going to get done.

Because of this, coming to a fleet near you, will be I, Mendolus, Empire Fleet Commander of the alliance, striking out into the depths 0.0 once more, to lead weekly fleets, and bolster cohesion, coordination, and participation.

I may not be the most experienced, in some respects, but... at the risk of sounding like I am tooting my own horn, I would like to think I extremely capable, give my years of experience at leading group activities in multiple MMOs. After all, a fleet battle is nothing more than a carefully orchestrated chain of audible, visual, and other sensory reception and command. And the only fleet commanders I have ever seen in this game, that do well, are the ones that master themselves first, and others second. So, to battle, we ride at dawn.

The Hardware

2010-03-02T18:09:00.016-05:00

In the interest of sharing, I suppose I ought to post a few pictures of what my gaming room setup is like as well. Bear in mind one of my dreams that I want to fulfill someday is to have a setup like the guy in the Matrix movies, with a big rack of monitors in front of me like some sick mad scientist's dream! HUZZAH! So you may see a little bit of that shaping up already... >.<

Enjoy! I know I sure do :)

Blogging

2010-03-02T11:17:00.007-05:00

I have always faced a rather dubious conundrum with updating this blog. It mostly centers around the fact that I am always so busy ingame. Certainly too busy to update a blog more than once every week or less, as has been the case for about six months now, much to my chagrin. However, that should be no excuse in some sense, because this blog is my outlet and podium to express the opinions, interests, developments, events, and stories that define my entertainment experiences in this game on a nightly basis.

I wish I could say that the energy required to post nightly is there, however. To be honest, most nights in the past two months straight since we started our Northern Campaign and then returned once more to Providence, only to be expelled forcibly weeks later, I have spent sitting around, planning, thinking, contemplating, brooding. It does not sound like much, but in reality, it is a constant nightmarish landscape of mental landmines, quagmires, paradoxes, loopholes, juxtapositions, and any other morbidly fascinating but overused social cliches one can think of. It would not be that far from the truth though.

So, for my faithful audience, who still checks in every few weeks, to see if this mentally exhausted CEO has bothered to post a trick or two, I wanted to thank you. I may not speak volumes, but there are always volumes waiting to be spoken. Everyone has seemed to grow accustomed to my lengthy wall texts in our private corporate forums, in channels while logged into the game, and in their game mailers, so I guess, maybe in some sense, it is good that I do not also bombard a blog with the random ramblings of an overworked administrator who is trying to dig his way through the mile high stacks of paperwork, to make sure his corporation and alliance have every possible chance available to them, to succeed, flourish, and be entertained in a game rich with potential for growth and experience.

Thanks, to you, my relatively silent audience, for keeping up the faith. I think I will change my New Year's Resolution to updating this blog at least every other day, from now on. Ready for the wall text symphony? I shall name it, Symphony R3 Opus no. 10 in E Minor, hidden pun intended.

Toy Soldier

2010-03-02T10:59:00.006-05:00

No, not the 50 Cent song, just a Strategic Cruiser, of all things. I bought one. I swore I would never do so when they came out because of the skill point loss and exorbitant cost at the time. However, the price has dropped down to where Command Ships were when T3 came out, so I did not feel so, ...robbed, after purchasing one. Of course, coming from a veteran, saying a ship that cost 400,000,000.00 ISK to purchase, modularize, rig, and fit is relatively cheap, probably sounds like insanity to any player under a year old. However, given that I bought the ship knowing I could afford to lose it, not planning to lose it, but knowing I could at any time, I have fully prepared for its use.

What do I think so far? I am not entirely sure, I love the idea of the ship, and being a scout, and fitting it for scouting, it's like the pinnacle of slippery mechanics. However, I cannot get over the alien look of the hull, with the protruding cockpit coming out of the bowels of the ship, almost like it is right out of one of the Alien movies. On the other hand, it handles extremely well, which is certainly more pertinent than its aesthetic appeal, and I am absolutely pleased with its agility above all else.

That being said, I am pleased to hear that you no longer have to destroy the rigs to reassemble the subsystems, and that means, I only need one of these puppies! It is a beast, for sure, sporting 110k EHP, 3.4 second align time, Covert Ops cloak, decent strength combat probes, and immunity to interdiction mechanics. I plan to take it out to our new region in the coming weeks, and go officer hunting. Aptly named, Templar, I have discovered a fondness for this ship that I may nurture in the coming months, in light of the introduction of T3 frigates at some point in the near future, of which I will undoubtedly and wholly invest myself in, when they are released. I am after all, most comfortable in a trusty Covert Ops ship, zipping about space, unseen but omnipresent, like a thief in the night, I am a scout at heart.

The Divine Comedy

2010-03-02T00:47:00.011-05:00

We are about to embark on what I believe will be the grand journey that most of us have been preparing for in this game for years. Though I wish it were under vastly different circumstances, we have been compelled beyond all other reason to initiate a mass exodus from what was the most unique and wonderful place in the game. Providence was rife with good, bad, and everything in between, and although our time there seemed to be at a close this past fall, as the Apotheosis of Virtue alliance struggled to find it's place in the game, we inevitably found our way into the Fatal Ascension. Fatal Ascension was quite literally on the verge of greatness, and we were extremely fortunate to have been granted permission to participate in their journey. However, the best laid plans, are often the first to be dispelled. Fatal Ascension, is leaving Providence.

Why, you ask? Not for lack of wanting to defend, uphold, and support our CVA brethren with every dying breath, but because of circumstances beyond our control. You will note that I have been using a unique signature now for a week or two. When I am feeling particularly inspired, I turn to poetry, art, literature, and music. These are the trades I ply in, my ultimate passion, and something I am hoping to aspire to at some point in my life when the time is right, if you had not noticed my penchant for the English language already, that is.

Let me explain the imagery you see, and maybe that will help explain, why I have so many abject fears for player driven 0.0 content in this game, and who I think is only making it worse, and not better. The image is a popular piece that depicts a scene in The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. This particular scene occurs in the fabled eighth circle of hell, the one directly before the pit containing Lucifer himself. The eighth circle is reserved for those who commit various forms of fraud, and in this particular scene you are witnessing the fraud of the corrupt politicians, assailing Virgil and Dante by leading them in false hope, to a bridge that goes nowhere.

To me, this is powerful metaphor, for how I feel about the state of the game at this time. The winged demons in the foreground, with the true red icons, are the Titans of -A-, assaulting the righteous forces of the CVA and its affiliates. In the background, the vast swarm of nameless demons, circle and approach, coating the skies with their numbers. In the relief, to the lower right of the imagery, are the malicious, but meager forces of the UK, biding their time, waiting for -A- to finish their work, so they can move in and assault CVA from behind.

Now, you may ask yourself, okay, so Mendolus obviously has some deeply entrenched hatred for -A- and UK, what's the big deal there?

It is not that I dislike them, per say, it is that I am ultimately disappointed in the depths of their hubris and lack of foresight, to see that the game is going to suffer by their actions. CCP introduced this lag issue with the new more fluid sovereignty mechanic last December. Not only did sovereignty get a dramatic makeover but it became terribly more fluid than ever before. Couple that with a new lag issue that favors the aggressor and you have a serious problem on your hands, especially where it concerns the most populous power structures in the game, and their own self control, or lack thereof. What this boils down to me, is a game. And like any game, where more than one person plays, there is some underlying competitive nature to it, regardless of the content of the game itself. Now, pit that with a game like EVE that is almost solely based on competition between players at every turn, from the market system, to the capital engagement and sovereignty mechanic, and you have a game that relies on the entertainment value of its opportunities for conflict and resolution.

What happens when that conflict no longer amounts to a fair challenge, and instead amounts to whomever has the best timing, adequate numbers, and will? You need all of five hundred pilots, most in capitals, some in conventional ships, to completely lock down an entire solar system. There is no way for the defender to provide adequate defense if you maintain that presence. Sure they may jump a fleet in, but the grid will not load, and you will simply shoot them, defenseless ships in space, with no pilot actually controlling them. This is not a game. This is a space simulator.

What does this say for the reputation of player driven 0.0 space as the richest most diverse and affluent content in the game, in the long run? Not a whole lot.

EVE is based on the rewards of taking calculated risks whose potential reward outweighs said risks. If that changes for player driven 0.0 content, because the most populous power blocks in the game cannot exercise a little self control long enough for CCP to fix the lag issue, then player driven content is going to take a serious hit. All the veterans from at least Trinity forward, saw this happen to low security space, slowly but surely, over the course of twelve months, once the reward of going there no longer outweighed the risk.

So yes, I think -A-, UK, and others, who abuse a mechanic just to win the game as it were, and drive all the competition out, are the fraudulent politicians, forever manipulating the public, with espionage, subterfuge, word play, coercion, and yes, brute force. There are few enough players in 0.0 as it is, for them to be playing a cheap parlor trick, and driving an entire region of thousands of people back to Empire. It will give 0.0 space a reputation for futility and once it acquires that reputation, it will only degrade from there, regardless of how coy the power blocks try to be in encouraging people to come rent their space; space that is still smoldering with the fires of war that drove the previous residents out against all possible odds, with floating, lifeless, macabre corpses silently drifting through the frozen reaches of space, heralding the futility of player drive content in 0.0 space, if the players themselves, ruin it for everyone.

I have more words to say on this issue than I could ever put to a keyboard, and suffice it to say, this is only the tip of the iceberg with me, as usual. However, I will say now, that if CCP does not come up with a hotfix, patch, fix, or resolution to this lag issue within 4-6 weeks from now, I predict that player driven content in 0.0 will be in serious decline by the time the summer expansion comes. I would almost go as far as to say that the game itself may peak in subscriptions at this time, after being on the rise for so many years, slowly but surely, and that we may actually see a deficit for the first time, because people who had a fond and unrequited love for player driven 0.0 space, will no longer have any reason to believe it has entertainment value for them anymore, and will simply wander off to other games and other adventures.

Let us hope, that the more populous power blocks in 0.0 space, come to realize, before it is too late, that winning the game, is not nearly as important, as having fun, and you can only have fun in a game, if the competition is fair at the most fundamental level. Otherwise the losing team will simply quit instead of continue to play another round, and then you are left with a game board that has only your pieces, and no competition, and that, is no longer a game.

Where this leads us, the Fatal Ascension, is something only time will tell, but it looks like it is going to lead to even more opportunities, for us to stake a claim on a little corner of space, just for ourselves, and call it home. That in and of itself, is the best good that could have ever come from this tragic turn of events, that almost resembles a real Divine Comedy, with all the irony, and metaphor, and lessons.

Stories

2010-03-01T10:53:00.006-05:00

I miss the people we have lost along the way. From the ever studious Tishlin who went off to sea on the west coast to become an ocean surveyor for the US navy, to the Vox who was such a unique and flavorful individual with an incredibly rich personality who just one day, was no longer with us, to the Surianna with her sweet and compassionate personality who was dragged away from us by her fiance, Rishal, with the penchant for glory who thought everything comes easy, to the Kematian and Zinger who were such a wonderful, lively, and interesting couple, until he made it clear the game was nothing more than a plaything to him and whether he hurt people or not was less his concern than whether he got be wild and carefree, to the GNO1 with the hilarious name, who was such a witty personality, and never ceased to amaze us with his vast knowledge of modern technology but in the end did not seem satisfied to be playing a game with what must have seemed like a bunch of immature kids to him in some respect, to Darko who was as suave as he was industrious, ever striving for more and more fiscal glory ingame, but never quite having the time in real life to devote to it as his acting career took him away more and more from the game, to ZeeOhSix who was at one moment the most jovial aerial stunt and race pilot, having led such a rich and wonderful life in his nearly 50 years, and then at the other the most angry and volatile person you could imagine, lashing out at everyone and everything around him, to Cyto Brixe who was the pirate you loved to hate, a fierce woman who on the one hand pushed and compelled our pilots to greatness, and on the other recruited more pirates into the corporation on a whim, claiming they were reformed, to Jaxon who was easily the most charming, considerate, and wise man I ever met in this game, full of the most wonderful ideas, hopes, and eternal optimism, who just wanted to experience this grand space opera for himself, and was grateful to find friends to enjoy it with, as an older man in his fifties, and not apt to typically be understood or considered a valuable personality, by younger more foolhardy generations, but someone whom I wish I could be friends with for life even to this day, though real life has taken him away from the game and email correspondence is just a tiresome burden in the end, to GRI3V, Achilles, Ajax, Shaun Tsue, Northwind, Kurobane, Sexah McGoo, Ravenor, Johnny, Troyd, Blurtie, Nlor, Koner, Riikar, and to the others, not named but certainly not forgotten, I wish you could all come and see and experience and journey with us once more.

MMOs are just games, but it is the people that make them mean something to me, and you are all fondly remembered, either good or bad, whether you know it or not. Memories are the best kinds of treasures, and only the fortunate figure this out at such an early age as I have. I feel grateful to know that I will remember the lessons I learned from each person, and the stories I can tell about each and every one of them. Grateful to know that pixels mean nothing to me compared to the people I share them with, a hard fought lesson to learn, but one that sets me apart from other gamers, ceaselessly trying to conquer a world full of intangibles at any cost to themselves or those around them, intangibles that one cannot even touch in real life.

Capital Fleets

2010-01-29T13:55:00.004-05:00

Capital Fleets
Scout's Perspective

The Client
Can't See Can't Fight

It is absolutely imperative you setup your client properly before a capital battle. You may be using a NASA supercomputer in some basement in a government complex in Florida, but that still does not mean you are going to have the bandwidth to function in a capital engagement with hundreds and hundreds of ships on the grid at one time.

Turn off ALL effects.
Turn down ALL graphics.
Zoom out!
Close unnecessary channels.
Do NOT play in windowed mode.

The Overview
Holy Brackets Batman

You can easily find yourself lagged out for thirty seconds if you so much as flip over to a new tab in your overview that has all brackets showing in space. In addition to that, without a proper overview setup, you'll play hell even finding the primary target regardless of whether it has been broadcast or not.

Turn off ALL brackets on ALL tabs.
ONLY reds and neutrals on your primary tab.
Create the following overview settings*:
- Planets, Stations, Sun, Control Towers, No Ships
- Only carriers
- Only dreadnoughts
- Only battleships
- Only interdictors and heavy interdictors
- Only super capitals

*Note: It is assumed that you will have stargates, cynosural beacons, mobile disruptors, etc. on all overview settings listed above.

The Mechanics
Here's Your Memo

CVA and holders use a spider chain setup for their carrier fleets that is and should be required of all capital pilots in the future. I will post that setup here later tonight.

That being said, one of the most important things to know as a new capital pilot are the following:

Flying a capital in a large fleet engagement is a lot like being a forward scout, you are going to be alive one minute and dead the next, so get used to it, and do NOT panic.
As per the note above, pay attention to who the FCs are, and do exactly what they say, and nothing else. If they tell you to eject from your ship, you do it, no matter how crazy it sounds. Anything short of this can wipe an entire fleet. Never panic.
Know your POS mechanics:
- You must change your shield harmonic BEFORE initiating a warp sequence to a foreign POS bubble. Not during warp, not while aligning for warp, but BEFORE you click Warp To...
- You must set your capital ship to KEEP AT RANGE of the control tower to stay within the bubble and avoid drifting or being bumped out.
Do NOT activate needless modules before a cynosural jump as it takes a majority of your capacitor to initiate your jump drives.
People are going to die, you may be next in line, so shake the nerves, and make sure you align, warp, fire, disengage, retarget, cycle your modules, move, stop, or whatever else the FC says the moment they say it lest you get trapped in a sling bubble and are relieved of your ship. Do not think, do. The FC does the thinking.
Know your fleet window and how it works:
- To change squads in a free move fleet right click your character portrait and navigate to the fleet drop down menu.
- To jump to a cynosural field easily, watch the broadcast history for a new cynosural beacon, right click it in the broadcast window, and jump. You may also find all active cynosural beacons available to you through right clicking your character in any channel and using the menu.
- Carry extra topes in your corporate hangar, you will not be able to jump to a cynosural field farther than your range, and may be forced to take more than one jump to reconnoiter with the fleet. This may or may not cost you extra fuel.
Know your game mechanics. There are too many things to emphasize here, understanding that your ship will warp even at 0 cap, or that you cannot jump to a cynosural beacon while scrambled are some but certainly not all of the most important things to know. Without this basic knowledge, you are more liable to go down in a fiery ball of flames undocking from station or getting separated from the fleet, than going down in pitched battle in some epic engagement. We all wanna have fun together, not die alone and miserably.

The Lag
Syrup With Your Pancakes

Lag is the most important part of a capital engagement. Knowing how to operate your ship under these adverse conditions is the difference between idly sitting by as the rest of the fleet pelts hostiles, and watching your own guns light them up at the same time. The fleet commander of the engagement in D-GTMI could not stress this enough. If you know anything, know how to cycle your modules properly.

Turn off Auto Repeat on ALL modules.
Remove all weapon groups.
Engage targeted weaponry and logistics in the following fashion:
- Target ship; once a lock is acquired, a target box appears on your display.
- Activate weapons or support modules
- Double click all module icons next to the target box to deactivate the cycle.
- Verify you did not double click space and have begun to drift.
- Rinse and repeat.
Engage self modules at will, bearing in mind that they will deactivate after one cycle and you will have to continually repeat each cycle manually.
Be patient. Just because you cannot see anything happening, does not mean it is, or that it will not start shortly.
Add your squadmates to your watch list.
Watch your broadcast window for who needs what. It will be too confusing to watch some channel for squadmate X to announce he needs shields, a message which he may or may not be able to even send with lag.

Wrapping Up
Yes, You Have A Dirty Mind

I had never flown a capital into an engagement prior to D-GTMI nor would I say I jumped into the system knowing what the french toast I was supposed to even be doing half the time. However, knowing basic game mechanics, listening attentively, not talking out of line or spamming fleet chat with frivolous questions, and being patient, calm, and collected, pretty much allowed me to catch up with the veterans the entire time and run with the best of them. Do not be nervous or apprehensive, your fleet commanders are seasoned veterans who will and can explain all the subtle nuances of the engagement to you before you actually cyno into the fight.

It is not the most complicated thing in the world, nor is it really much different in some sense than any other encounter. Just remain calm, listen carefully, and do not over analyze things during battle, just do what you're told and do it right. Most of what you will be asked to do is no different than piloting a rookie ship. It is just on a grand scale. If you ignore the price tag on your ship, and resign yourself to losing it, as it is just pixels on a screen after all, you will be a boon to the fleet, not a burden. I cannot say the same for the few dozen pilots who cyno'd out on our fleet without orders when things got sketchy at the POS in D-GTMI. If I were their FC I would woop some serious ... for how selfish they were. The capitals were being reimbursed by CVA, and those pilots needed to grow some.

Judge, Jury, And Executioner

2010-01-26T12:34:00.023-05:00

Judge, Jury, And Executioner
Sometimes Your Choices Are Made For You

We have been cast off, expelled as it were, from the proverbial pool that spawned the corporation we are today, no longer a member of the Apotheosis of Virtue, but still pursuing that long term goal, finding a place to live, be it by the flag over our corporate banner and the people that it entails, or the physical space we reside in, that every member of this corporation can thrive in. Because this corporation was founded on the platform that every person gets their shot at all things EVE, and we do not restrict ourselves to solely PvP, PvE, or Industry endeavors, it makes it rather tricky for us to achieve this lofty goal without an alliance of brethren to make it happen.

For us AOV no longer supported this goal if in practice not if in principle. Content to chase hostiles in small roaming fleets night after night, declare war on neutrals in Empire with some history of hostilities against Providence residents, and play it safe politically, while dreaming of greater glory, the alliance executor offered us every opportunity to rise to our own occasion, wholeheartedly, but unfortunately little incentive to do so in the end. What with half a dozen burgeoning capital pilots, members aching for frequent fleet activities involving more people than you count on both hands, and for strength in numbers, it become more and more of a burden for us personally to support long term goals that we so often felt were all on our shoulders alone , whether this was merely our perception or a reality, which in some sense is one and the same. Our alliance numbers dwindled over the course of a full fiscal year while our goals remained the same. The formula was simply not working.

Four weeks ago when we met with the alliance leadership to discuss plans to move North because the AU-F was struggling under its own weight and it looked like were going to lose a good enough portion of the members that make this corporation what it is that I simply had no choice but to take action, at which time we were told by the leadership a lot of "You cannot do this. You cannot do that." insofar as it concerns gaining ground with the powers that be up in the North. It was not that this was right or wrong, it was the principle of it. Here the AU-F was gasping for breath living in an environment, the alliance, where we were struggling to find reasons to even log on at night, and I was being told we should not do what is best for our corporation, and should instead consider moving everyone in one fell swoop out to NPC 0.0 and make a stand. The ubiquitous chest pumping campaign, as it were. It confused me to be honest. Our corporation, burned out and frayed around the edges, was gasping for relief, to be able to enjoy the content of the game again and be a part of a larger whole not the larger part of a whole as far as activity levels are concerned, and we were being asked to pick up all our stuff, jump into the gaping maw of hell, and fight to the death. We needed relief not fire and brimstone.

Thankfully, we came to an agreement, given that everyone just wanted what was best for the alliance, which in turn meant best for the AU-F as well, that we would continue to pursue a campaign in the North because AOV was not nearly large enough to make any further progress in Providence under its current platform and approach, and too small to entertain and sustain itself and moreso its lofty goals in the ever more bustling and packed Providence systems.

Due to factors well beyond our control, the Northern campaign had to be scrapped merely three weeks after it began, and we started trickling back to Providence. Now, I had told the officers, there would only be two reasons why I would return to Providence and ask them to come with me.

The format or environment of the alliance drastically changed in a way that I felt was conducive to the growth we needed to survive as a corporation while maintaining residency in greater Providence.
The environment of Providence vastly changed so that it became apparent a corporation or alliance of our size and with our particular goals could begin to flourish once more OR would be better off by comparison to NBSI 0.0 space.

Well, we never got a chance to meet with the alliance leadership to discuss the first point, and the second point as you all well know, has come to fruition even if merely by the fact that NBSI 0.0 itself has now deteriorated to the point that I believe our best opportunity to participate in the grand scheme of things and throw our lot in with good people, is now in Providence ever more so, and in some sense, specifically because we are now a free agent corporation, which vastly changes the potential we have to join an alliance that has the numbers, environment, and goals we have so dreamed of ourselves for six months or more. An alliance comprised of corporations like our own; a family environment where everyone knows your name.

Aside from this, because it is all behind us now, and while we wish our former alliance brethren the best of luck in their own endeavors, we have ourselves potentially been given the golden opportunity to join an alliance that is on the verge of everything we have dreamed of, has a wonderful power structure, and a leadership that strives for everything we have in the past six months. Meaning, all things EVE, and all things Providence. It was only when I felt like our alliance could never achieve these things with its present approach in Providence that I had to consider getting out, and finding NBSI, which would be more appropriate for an alliance of AOV's size and activity levels. However, Providence is more than amazing for this potential alliance of more than six hundred members, and by joining them we add to the whole, both bettering them, and being bettered ourselves in return. We will make our own difference, be it small or large, but that difference will not weigh heavily on our shoulders alone, it will be a shared burden.

Though I have interacted directly with the leader of this alliance only a few times in the past, I can tell you right now, if you have ever extended your trust to me as a friend and not just a CEO, you should extend it to him as well. This I can assure you, by my word.

To Fatal Ascension and to Raven Shadows, executor of Fatal Ascension, the AU-F extends its utmost offer and pledge of unity, camaraderie, and resources to better support, defend, and expand upon the interests, principles, and faculties of the greater Providence region, its holders, and its residents.

We who are about to die, salute you.

Disclaimer: Do not toss in the victory towel or start partying and getting excited about a wealth of opportunities opening up to us just yet as I will be formally applying for our membership in the Fatal Ascension alliance this afternoon at 23:00 EVE time pending we are granted final approval of the move. Nothing is as of yet written in figurative stone.

Veteran's Curse

2010-01-21T09:15:00.017-05:00

Veteran's Curse
It Can Happen To You

So, I have been milling about since my vacation in October, desperately grasping at straws to figure out, as I say to myself often upon logging on, "After more than twelve months in this game, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

Logon
Undock
Shoot Stuff
Drink Beer
Make Merry
Share Stories
Entertain Friends

It sounds simple, right? Well, I had been told previously by a number of old timers, that there would be this wall I would hit, with the scope of the game suddenly laid out before me, and having experienced enough of it, I would then wonder, is there anything left, and why do I keep logging on anymore. This sounds ludicrous right? EVE is a huge sand box, there is no endgame? But at a personal level, there is. We all set long term goals for ourselves in EVE once we have had enough experience under our belts to know how to plan ahead six months or more, and when we finally reach that place we had hoped to be, and are then faced with even more planning, we start to wonder, is enough enough? Now, amazing friends to keep me entertained nightly and vice versa aside, I had always assumed this would not happen to me. There's a wealth of wonderful content to experience in this game, so surely I would not run out of steam right?

I did.

So I decided, I guess it was around the middle of November, or so, that the corporation as a whole should just take a huge load off, as we had been going hot and heavy for almost ten months straight at that point, trying to conquer the world, as it were. This was right about the time BEOR, GRIEV, and friends came on board to the AU-F. Unfortunate for them, though I could not really explain at the time, that half the officers were feeling and acting burned out and needed a nice long break from it all. So we lost them. Okay, shit happens. I can live with that, sad as it may be.

Then Dominion drops, and everyone comes back bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the world, and toss their lot into the grand scheme of things. Oh woe is the pilot and group of players who discovers all that glitters is not gold, quickly, and drastically. Dominion brought change alright, but not the kind of change we can believe in, to be cliche.

However, after mucking around in Dominion for almost two months, and having launched our immense Northern Campaign and seen a rejuvenation of corporate incentives, energy, and motivation, I personally feel as refreshed and ready to take on the game as ever before. Maybe it helps that I just purchased, fit, and dazzled at my very first capital ship in the game, my Thanatos, named Simulacrum, because I still have a hard time believing I can now pilot one, let alone that it is physically sitting in a station with my character on board, even though I have been training towards it since September of last year. Maybe it was seeing everyone rush forth to pursue the campaign up in the far reaches of space more than well enough across the entire universe from where we have lived, breathed, and died for a year or so now.

So, I am back, and I am hungry for all things EVE, but here is the catch...

You are sitting down, right? You did not have a big lunch and you do not have a mouth full of milk at the moment with which to conveniently spew out of your nose?

The Northern Coalition is evidently going to turtle their primary assets, RAZOR and Morsus Mihi space, and retreat from Geminate, in order keep at bay the hounds of Triumvirate.

Our Northern Campaign? Poof.

I already shit my pants, don't worry about me.

So what now? I really do not know, I do know that I am continuing with my own project, the empire project, which I am now calling, the Gremlin Campaign, as I am just enamored with that term militarily, merrily dreaming of a some amazing ship model ingame named the Gremlin. This campaign will base out of Caldari high security space so no one needs to throw up their hands and pick up all their PvE or mining ships and mingle back to Domain or anything. And Varian's VERSA project, being a glorious success in my opinion, will continue as planned, but the scenery may change, though I am not certain on the details as it is all being hashed out still.

So what is the bottom line? More change is on the horizon but no one should panic and pick up all their stuff and retreat en masse back to Providence. However, it is in all likelihood that we will have to regroup there, and figure out what to do next, as far as a corporation goes, esp. since we will have to consider the alliance as a whole in the grand scheme of things too. I will be meeting with the heads of the alliance this weekend hopefully, to discuss options, etc.

The next post, hopefully later tonight, or tomorrow, will detail the various competing factors we may or may not have going for or against us, as it concerns gaining access to NBSI space, or taking what we can get and being happy with it. It will help me solidify my sense of the patterns laid out before me, and with any luck, ease the concerns of anyone who is thinking:

What the french toast? We just spent four weeks on a huge campaign only to have it disappear before our very eyes! Mendolus, your untimely death shall be by my hand! Have at thee!

Hopefully to ease those concerns with calming talk such as:

Well, the campaign was only meant to last 6-8 weeks anyways, succeed or fail, so we simply had to cut it short, due to factors beyond our control.

In the end it seems Dominion has opened some doors to us demographically but closed just as many if not more.

Crossroads

2009-12-29T12:15:00.016-05:00

Crossroads
A Fork In The Road

The Path Already Traveled...
There are not very many times either in real life or an online environment where things really matter so much that it is almost palpable in the air. Sure there are tumultuous sometimes violent encounters between opposing forces, ideals, or peoples, but I am talking about times of pivotal decision making.

Last night the corporation convened for a rare but important meeting to talk about what we want out of this game not as corporate or alliance members but as individuals. Though most of the leadership suspected as much, we were all pleasantly surprised and overjoyed to hear that the sentiments were largely unanimous. We want to have fun, and we want to have fun together. Wherever it is, whatever it is, as long as its fun, and we are adhering to our ideals as a group, then we go for it. This is what the AU-F started with, and if I have my scruples, that is what it will continue with. We are here to enjoy an online game and the friends we choose to play it with. It is as simple as that.

The Pause...
Now, the lingering question in everyone's mind is, why are we not doing this now and why did we stop doing this in the past month or so? As per the last post made here an unfortunately long time ago I implored everyone to take a much needed breather in anticipation of a flurry of activity after Dominion dropped. The former happened, the latter, having something to do after Dominion actually dropped, did not. Not because of us, but more so because of the content of the expansion itself. Things did not pan out like we had all hoped they would. So since then we have been trying to apply this same formula (having fun for the sake of fun) to the alliance as a whole. Sparing you the gory details, this has been easier said than done. Our idea of sacrifice versus personal entertainment differs greatly from others, it seems. However, we are giving it everything we have got within reason, without sending the lambs to the slaughter, so to speak.

So because of this, the corporation has voted to not take on the Stain Project after all. And by corporation, I mean, we asked for volunteers to go out to Stain, and got no more than we could count on one hand, and with room to spare at that. This is the AU-F as a whole that has spoken on the matter. And I take very seriously what the majority of the corporation desires as a group at one point or another when opportunities are presented to us. What does this mean? I do not know. But we hope to find out soon after meeting with the leadership pool of the alliance. One thing that is clear, however, is that at this time Providence has gotten just a little bit too crowded for our tastes. CVA itself, sovereign power and one of the most respectable power blocks in the game, have no part in this, per say. They set forth on this path years ago, and could not have fathomed that the changes in the game mechanic and the player base would yield such a relatively inhospitable environment financially, rather devoid of the means which we all need to maintain our personal levels of entertainment. When I can squeeze out an L4 and bank more in fifteen minutes than I can in an hour on any average night out in Providence, then you know it is time to look to the horizon for a time and find another herd to track.

The Fork...
Now, CCP is talking under their breath about looking into adding NPC agents to player controlled space, and I think the reason being, is exactly what has happened to Providence. Providence is like a thermometer for all of EVE. It has both elements of Empire, low security, and null security all wrapped into one. And so you get this sort of massively complicated dichotomy with which if you were to take educated samplings of, you would get an idea of what is and is not working in the game itself, except for capital engagements of course. And so I think at some point in the next six months Providence may be viable again for pilots in our position, loyal to Providence, but unable to make a day's wage out there, so to speak. But I no longer have the patience personally to waste away another six months waiting for something to happen, to give me purpose out here. I want to have fun sooner rather than later, especially after spending the past few months wondering what we are supposed to really be working towards out here in the end.

Bearing this in mind, it behooves the Alliance to take up this initiative and find us space to live where we can prosper and flourish but not directly oppose or risk harming our brethren in Providence space. The AOV leadership has taken up this charge, which is what the Stain project is about. And the charge is, gain standings with the north. The north, comprised of the power block known as the Northern Coalition, with such alliances as RAZOR, Wildly Inappropriate, and Morsus Mihi, are not directly at odds with Providence residents or sovereign powers, and are the most logical choice of a place for us to go prosper and flourish and maybe maintain a long term and permanent residence should we find ourselves liking the space so much that we do not want to return to Providence. Not only this, but in the two years I have been gaming in EVE, I have only seen good from these alliances, rarely bad. In fact Morsus Mihi has always had my utmost respect, because they fly incredibly professional PvP fleets that are awe inspiring the few times I have seen them.

The Decision...
Now, the elephant in the room is, that the Alliance has chosen to take on the Stain Project, but we have not. So what does this mean? I do not know. I want to go back to the drawing board, but I want decisions to be made in days, not weeks, as this has already gone on long enough, the confusion, and lack initiative that is. We are going to convene with the alliance leadership at the earliest convenience, and bring these issues to light. The first order of business is we are temporarily and/or permanently leaving Providence. The second order of business is we do not wish to pick up our pilots, drop them into inhospitable space, and tell them to fight tooth and nail for survival. The third order of business is we want to primarily live in an environment that is conducive to wealth and progress first, and an environment that is target rich for combat fleets second. We had the former for the first six months we came out to Providence. Now we seem stuck in perpetuity with the latter, which is not good for the bottom line. Wars are waged with the dollar not with the soldier, in a philosophical sense. If we cannot fund our operations, what does a target rich environment give us? A whole lot of nothing.

The Path Yet To Be Traveled...
So before us lies two paths. One path leads to compromise between what the alliance thinks it needs and what we think we need. The other path leads to compromise between what we need and what the alliance thinks it needs. Which comes first? I am apt to believe after having devoted twelve months to alliance initiatives thus far that we need to make a few decisions for our own benefit that do not hinge solely on whether or not it benefits the alliance first and us second. I am trying hard to include the alliance in the grand scheme of things nonetheless but only time will tell if I am able to maintain this particular initiative.

The Rock...
So, times are changing and with those changes comes uncertainty. But to give everyone a rock to lean on I would like to announce the advent of the long awaited Empire Project. I have tried, unsuccessfully, for more than half a year, to get a project rolling that provides all pilots, new or seasoned, with a consistent, stable, safe, and lucrative environment in which they can prosper and flourish in every way. So far I have been largely unsuccessful because my time is so micromanaged that I rarely had more than a day every other week to devote to this end. Now, however, having come to the realization that things are not going to get done unless I have help doing them, I have a tactical director, Varian, able to take over the combat responsibilities that I have tried so hard to also maintain over the past six months, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This leaves me much more time for administrative responsibilities and for infrastructure development, such as the Empire Project. So for this reason, regardless of what we do or do not do as a corporation or alliance, you will find, someday soon, in a system near you (if you live in Caldari High-Sec) a wealth of PvE opportunities with which to pursue both in missions, exploration, and industry. I have little to no details at this time because I have been unable to make a move on the project with all the uncertainty lately, but I can tell you it will happen regardless of all else.

So, if you are uncertain about what we are going to be doing in a week or two, as am I to a degree, one thing you CAN do is start pounding out Caldari missions to gain standings, or moving your mining and exploration ships to The Forge region. As early as tonight. Or sooner if you are bored.

See you in space my friends!
Mendolus

Hurry Up! And wait...

2009-11-10T12:18:00.006-05:00

Hurry Up! And wait...
You want relaxation, I've got
your relaxation... right... here!

Hey hey! It's been a long month since I posted here. Wonder why? Well not much has happened to be honest. No that is not a bad thing, it's good. Why is it good? Because Dominion, it is coming. My favorite phrase at times, has always been the tried and true, if you cannot do anything about it then the only thing you can do is hurry up and wait for it. This old cliche could not be more appropriate for our time ingame at the moment and for the past few weeks.

For the past month, if I haven't been on vacation, I have been taking it easy, playing this or that game, hanging out with these or those friends, taking a much needed EVEcation to get my druthers together in anticipation for what I am hoping will be the biggest expansion yet in EVE insofar as its likelihood to dramatically change the landscape of the entertainment experiences possible to us.

Because of this, and because of a number of other issues, namely that lately a significant and somewhat alarming portion of our more active members have had real life issues come in between them and a nightly jaunt through space, I have issued, though not directly until now, a sort of moratorium on hardcore gaming within the corporation. Now is the time for everyone to sit back, soak in all the hard work they have done for this corporation and for themselves over the past ten months since we first deployed a POS, and to enjoy all things non-EVE related. Go out, buy or play a console game, sub again to an old flame MMO, and enjoy yourself. When Dominion comes out there will likely be more things to entertain or occupy us than we can even mention in one sitting, so until then, take a break! That's what I am doing. I have run this corporation since the spring of '08 and rarely taken more than a week here or there to just sit back and relax until this past month. So I highly recommend everyone else do the same to avoid the inevitable burnout of putting one's nose to the grindstone at any one thing for more than six months at a stretch. Just make sure you check in on the game every day or so for emergency dispatch or critical information. For example, the showing we had two nights in a row for the CVA incident was simply amazing.

Dominion releases in December. We have a few more weeks of utter carefree time to simply smell the flowers, so have at it! While you're at it, pick those flowers, give them to your significant other or hopeful flame, and get some! Lord knows you have plenty of free time right now while things in EVE are in a holding pattern and nothing major is going on.

:)

Your friend,
Mendolus

In The News Vol. #4

2009-09-29T10:17:00.003-04:00

In The News
Vol. #4

Well, I am going away for a bit, and I have left the care of the corporation in the hands of the Senate. I do not anticipate any wild debauchery or occurrences while I am away, nor any critical emergencies, but just in the rare event that something does happen, all the officers and some of the managers know how to reach me.

You know the drill, although I will not be updating the corporate/casual schedule, considering we are at a time of war, and all days are corporate anyways. Pairing up in twos or greater to achieve safety in numbers is paramount during a time of open conflict, not that I expect our WTs to do more than fit officer gear and piss their ships away in pitched 1v1 combat against crazy odds. Seriously, a gankfit Nighthawk worth 1.3bil against an Abaddon? Can we say no contest.

Instinct; alive and well.

So last night we ganked a mission fit Cerberus. He happened to be coming our way as we went his way. Funny thing is that he nearly got away, but my instinct kicked in. Having done all the intelligence reports myself, I know this guy never flies Cerberus in combat, so I had a sneaking suspicion he was trying to earn some ISK to afford to PvP more, esp. in HAM Drakes, since he seems to like high yield missiles.

So we land on the gate two or three seconds too late to tackle him and he warps off, we pursue, our scouts making best speed to keep up with him. A jump into the pursuit, he warps off first to a gate, then off into a safe. Bingo. I know this game, it's called bait and switch. He was betting on the entire fleet running in a straight line like a hive mind. Only this mind had not one but three wholly capable FCs. So as the report is coming in that he warped off to a safe, I holler over comms that he is doubling back on us, and we should get tackle on the gate we just came through. Sure enough he lands on grid seconds later as our tackle are in route. Needless to say, he left shortly thereafter without his ship, and short 180mil that he had before, and was now relieved of.

Sorry, but bait and switch is the oldest trick in the book, and it does not work if you remain in local and are visibly seen to jump to a safe. He had no aggression, his best bet would have been to dock or log off like a chump. Thankfully for us, he had some nerves, and decided that it was more honorable to give chase and let us have our opportunity to dare and catch him. Good fight, my enemy, good fight.

Border null, a killing ground.

I have noticed a discouraging amount of losses in the border systems of Providence along the low security pipeline. Please, do not linger in major pipelines, esp. those near capital systems. It is just no good at all. And do not travel more than 3-4 jumps without a scout or stabs if you are in a battlecruiser or larger.

Suddenly questions...

I am usually a pretty helpful guy and pretty understanding, but there is one thing that gets in my craw every time. Nosy endless questions. Where are you guys? How many ships are you flying? What fit do you have? Who is FC? Who is scout? What belt are you mining? Are you hauling valuables? How much are they worth? Can I join? Can I come? Is there a fleet? Why can I not get into fleet? Why can I not get into your private ventrilo channel? Why can I not know every single tiny security detail about your covert operations? Can I loiter in the system you are trying to operate discretely in and blast all the intelligence reports into alliance chat or warp about and act suspicious?

Okay, so maybe I am exaggerating some but last night was pretty bad. Look, if there is something going on, and you are not immediately invited, there is always a reason, it may or may not be you, but there is a reason. So do not ask. The more you ask, the more I grow suspicious, and I am not a paranoid individual. Only a small handful of our freshest recruits do this kind of thing and I hate to be a hardliner but it needs to stop. No, we will not tell you when we are moving hundreds of mil in various materials, no we will not tell you why we have people in a private channel in ventrilo, and no it is not a fleet, we are just comparing epeens like its the locker room after a winning game and Big Bill has it hanging all out and is talking about the girl he banged last night, and no if we do not answer, it is because you are not privy to every tiny security detail of our alliance, so just chill, the more you ask private and sensitive questions about our operations, the more unsettled and frustrated I get, and I do not easily frustrate.

Capice? :)

Advocated is back.

The alliance we love to hate, Advocated Destruction is back in low security on and off again. What makes these guys so frustrating? They are like cockroaches. They loiter about, in T2 cruisers, battlecruisers, and T1 battleships, in numbers of typically a dozen or more, and wail on people in low security. Let's face it, these guys have come into 0.0 a handful of times and gotten the holy snot pounded out of them every time within minutes, so it is obvious that they cannot cut it, and simply overcompensate. Oh yea, real tough guys, floating around in more than a dozen ships all tanked to the max, and docking up the moment real trouble arrives. It took them five minutes to gank my single Brutix, and all I had was a DC, EANM, and a single plate, no rigs. I mean seriously, five minutes? Takes the game to a whole new level of pansy ass scarebearing if you ask me. Ooh look at the scary fleet popping solo blues and neutrals here and there, shaking in their own booties because they are deathly afraid of real competition showing up. Sad shit man, sad shit.

Lessons learned.

Let me paraphrase how our present war came to be and you tell me if this makes sense.

We declared war against a small corporation that was harboring a known scammer who we owed a debt of repayment to, by force. Said player then biomasses a 24,000,000 SP character, in order to hide his main account's identity from us. Said corporation then joins a NEUTRAL alliance. This alliance automatically enters an active war by admitting the corporation. Aggression between our own alliance members and theirs is immediately possible so long as the war was active in the first place. It was.

So, let me reiterate, this alliance executor accepted a warring corporation into his alliance in the middle of the afternoon on a week day. A few of our alliance members pop a Hulk of theirs. Logic goes to negotiate terms with these guys when he logs on to find that they have joined an alliance, because all he wants is the scammer, he is not here to aggress and combat a neutral alliance. He knows nothing of this Hulk as of yet as the first thing he does is convo the opposing executor. Everything seems to be going well, until the executor is alerted of his member's loss of a Hulk. In a nutshell, the guy goes batshit, talking about how he cannot believe that Logic is talking to him about a CEASEFIRE knowing that his guys have been popping his pilots.

First off, wild flailing accusations are pretty facetious, second off, do not accept a warring corporation whose own TZ and that of his aggressors is in the USA in the middle of the day on a weekday and expect the hostile forces to distinguish between one corporate avatar and the next. You have a red background with a white star, you are going to die. How ffs hard is that to understand? Seriously? I bet even a preschooler could understand that. You jump on a Merry-Go-Round as it is spinning real fast, and guess what, you got yourself a nice booboo, ya numbnuts. What did you think was going to happen, "Oh noz, big scary alliance took in our war targets! Cease and desist, we must huddle in the the corner and weep in fear!"

Right.

Anyways, we honored the CEASEFIRE once it was publicly declared, they did not, so who's at fault here?

Gremlin squadron.

Gremlin squadron flew last night, with a dedicated crew of old salts in fancy ships. We snagged that Cerberus pilot real good; it was a joy. I hope to lead some of these Gremlin gangs here after I get back from vacation. One can only hope this war, and the combat experiences it has thus yielded, never ends.

The price of war.

What is it, about inexperienced pilots, whose wallets are bloated from carebearing, that makes me cringe every time? Oh, maybe it's seeing damage control fit bombers, or solo gankfit Nighthawks worth more than five of my own, or battlecruisers half-ass fit with plates and trimarks that likely do jack for giving it good EHP, or projector rigged Falcons, or a solo gank fit CNR worth almost a bil, or people mining in an Orca who are in a time of war and are not aligned to a station in the system or warp stabbed, or just undocking an Orca period in a time of war, I mean ffs yo. These guys forced our hand on this war, and now I see them zipping about in daddy's new shoes. Better dig deep in the closet for those old loafers with the hole in the toe, because you are about to run out of shiny pairs of Doc Martins with which to roam about on the unsafe city streets, ya friggin' idiot. Who flies solo in ships worth +1bil when they know we run in gangs? Seriously? How dense do you have to be? But no, please, continue, I am looking to score a 500mil drop myself, so please fit that officer booster, I can haz shinies?