Laedy in Red

Where's Laedy?

2011-07-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

So, it has come to my attention that I have neglected this blog for over 4 months. There's a few reasons for this but they're boring to list, so I'll make a long story short and just link you an interview I did with the Starfleet Comms Podcast. The lovely hosts were Penelope Star (fellow WGOE'er) and Noise.

CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST LINK

I talk about:

- Leaving Pandemic Legion and joining HYDRA RELOADED
- The Alliance tournament, including details on the controversial final match
- What I'm up to these days, and why I'm not really active in EVE or blogging at the moment
- My thoughts on Incarna and what I feel EVE needs
- A small rant about ECM and Falcons (as always :P )

I had loads of fun doing it, those guys are great! I think the more EVE podcasts and blogs out there the better. The EVE community is awesome, it's what keeps me coming back to this game time and time again.

As I talk about in the interview, I'm going back to Uni full-time. I actually start tomorrow! I'm pretty excited :) So, I'll be focusing on that and I likely won't be playing EVE much or updating this blog for a good while.

Much love to anyone out there that is still reading this blog.

Fly fearlessly o7

The most e-famous moment in my EVE career

Speaking of meta-gaming

2011-03-09T04:13:00.000-08:00

I just listened to a very interesting interview with Mazziliu from PL at Kugutsumen.com :

http://www.kugutsumen.com/showthread.php?8011-Xutech-interviews-Mazzilliu

It was recorded about 4 weeks ago, but in light of all the security drama lately, I think it's very timely.

Before this, I had never heard Mazz speak. She doesn't really actively play EVE at the moment (I haven't seen her login since I've joined), but I hear she is still active in the "spy" game as you may call it. Xutech does a good job with the interview, as we get to hear about her beginnings in EVE and seeing Pandemic Legion and Sniggerdly grow from its humble beginnings as a pirate corp, to what it is today.

I think she had some really good insights into what makes Alliances rise and fall in EVE, from witnessing it all first hand many times through meta-gaming of some sort or another. She also makes some really good points about the often lack of security in many Alliance's forums (ironically, I know) and security issues in 3rd party apps in EVE in general.

I mentioned briefly in my previous post that the whole spy/meta-gaming thing really doesn't interest me, that it all seems like too much :effort:. Yet as I listened to that interview I now understand that it's just a different playstyle in EVE. It is still very much part of the game, and as long as people don't break the EULA or the laws of their country, then it's all fair game right? And she obviously gets a huge thrill out of it!

One thing is for sure, she is one smart cookie.

What a week! (PL forum leaks etc)

2011-03-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

PL Forums Leak

First off, Wow... a lot has happened in the last week!

Everyone is talking about the Pandemic Legion forum leaks. I don't have much to say about it, except that I am now a lot more wary about the passwords I use, and security on the internet in general. I had to go change all my passwords to pretty much everything, including my personal emails and all.

I'm somewhat interested by the information being released, but mostly I really don't care for politics. I actually find meta-gaming thoroughly boring, but I understand why it's a necessary evil in this game. Internet spaceships are serious business etc...

Captain Serenity - The Angry Carebear

In other sad news, one of my favourite EVE bloggers is leaving the game. Captain Serenity has recently made this post saying his goodbyes from EVE and blogging in order to focus more on RL pursuits. I wish him all the best in his bright future ahead of him (I just found out he is only 15!!!)

PEW PEW PEW

In more fun news, this is what I've been doing lately:

A rose (guardian) amongst thorns (Abaddons)

I flew a guardian for the first time ever! Ever since I first saw this ship, I've always wanted to fly it, simply because I think it's one of the coolest looking ships in the game. Not because of its shape, but its colour is just brilliant! Gold and red on a spaceship... mmmh the Amarrians really do have the best taste in design.

It was rather fun to fly too. Pandemic Legion are extremely organized with their logistics. There are separate comms and channels for logi pilots. It felt good to contribute in that way. Also, logi pilots get their ships for free \o/ What more could I ask for?

Suddenly Tengus! That's me in the Sabre in the front :D

I finally got to fly in a "Thundercat" fleet! That is, Tengus and Basilisks, as shown above. You may have read in a previous emo blog post, I was lamenting on always missing out on these gangs. Well, I finally got to an op on time, and got involved... by flying a Sabre!

Every time I get into a Sabre, I make my peace with God. Knowing full well that I am likely to be primaried, and especially having no experience flying them in bigger fleets like this, I was extremely surprised to have lived to tell the tale! The lag was especially bad. It felt like I was running a slideshow on my Mac laptop. I realized after today, that I'm going to need to get a PC sometime in the near future.

Women Gamers of EVE (WGoE)

I haven't had a chance to talk about this in my blog yet, but about 2 months ago I was made an Administrator of the WGoE ingame chat channel. I had been a Moderator since mid last year, but recently Malindah (the channel Admin) has quit EVE Online and has left Arancia Detto and I in charge. What an amazing responsibility!

The channel has been a haven for me. It is a welcoming, encouraging and troll-free zone for women of all ages and backgrounds to meet and chat about anything and everything.

I realized recently that the only information available about the WGoE channel out of game, was a very outdated wiki (as in, was last updated in 2006). So Arancia and I decided to change this. I've made our very own EVElopedia article on the EVE Online website!

I also made a forum post in the "My EVE" section of the forums. The response has been fantastic! The WGoE channel has been growing exponentially, and is buzzing with activity. If you know any women that play EVE Online, invite them to WGOE=Public channel or get them to eve mail me, and we can set up a voice interview.

P.S. - I'm also looking forward to organizing another "WGoE Op" (women's only) roam soon! The last two were a lot of fun, so this next one should be huge!

Don Pellegrino's guide to CSM voting, 2001 edition (plus video)

2011-03-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

My friend, Don Pellegrino (from Pod Liberation Authority) has created this hilarious and helpful little diagram to guide us on how to vote this CSM election:

It's funny because it's true!

Also, Don is a very talented young man and has recently released a very impressive and fun PVP video.

Check it out here:

Nanofiber Internal Structure

Happy voting!

My friends like to shoot me

2011-03-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

So I logged in today, and am instantly convo'ed by my friend PMSing (who is also in PL) who tells me "Quick! Get into a ship and get into fleet! Stuff is going down!" So I get into fleet and am excited to get going, but the fleet composition is mainly Tengus and other Caldari shield tanking ships and recons, which I can't fly or don't have in my hangar.

I'm scrambling around, panicking, trying to find something I can fly so I can quickly get there and not miss the next Titan bridge out. Everyone seems preoccupied, and no-one is answering my pleas to lend me a corp hangar ship, or certain modules I need to get one fitted for myself.

My friend Duncan also logs in at this point, and we decide to get into shield Tempests and make best speed there together. No luck, we miss the Titan bridge :(

We won't give up! We'll make our way there anyway, 22 jumps!

Unfortunately our comms got messed up, and Duncan was ahead of me and dies to a camp on the way. I make it through the camp shortly after, but then my computer crashes and I'm raging at my mac laptop. All in the meanwhile, my husband is trying to get me off the computer and persuade me to go out to the markets with him, as I'm listening in on comms at my Alliance absolutely owning the crap out of whatever they were shooting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Basically, I'm trying so hard to get to this fight, you have no idea. I've been missing out on so many good fights lately, always just 5 minutes too late. I'm REALLY desperate to get to this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a few jumps of emptiness, (I'm nearly getting there!) I land into the system of Y-2ANO - and I remember shortly after I jump in why this is familiar. I see in local various CONVICTED alliance members, including some fellow Aussie friends Opije, RaptorF22 and Zamone (the latter two of which I know IRL).

As I jumped into system, I warped immediately to the next gate just hoping that there is no bubble (I'm trying really hard to best-speed it to the pew pew destination). In mid-warp, Zamone says hi in local, and so do my other friends. I think I know what's going to happen... I make a small plead before I land in the drag bubble 70km off gate. "Please don't kill me guys, I've had a bad day" (which was true, don't ask).

Now imagine this, just 1 week ago, I was having dinner in the city of Melbourne with Zamone and Raptor. They are lovely people, and we had a great time hanging out with the regular Melbourne EVE players meet-up. But considering my previous blog post regarding the matter of shooting friends ingame, I can understand what happened next:

https://www.pandemic-legion.com/killboard/view_kill.php?id=374795

I tried to burn away and warp, but got scrammed. I hardly even got to fire a shot as I popped very quickly in my paper-thin suicide Tempest.

Zamone assured me she still loves me, but I could tell they were rather excited to kill me. LOL.

I, on the other hand was very very emo. I mean, I don't care about losing a ship, it wasn't even rigged and it was fully insured. What I did care about however, was that I missed out on the whole fleet fight I was so desperately trying to get to. Also, I missed out going to the markets with my husband, and as I write this, my pod is camped in a system so I can't even get home. Altogether, this makes for a pretty shitty day.

Makes me think, is this is some kind of bad karma for my previous post? It's just kind of ironic that this happened don't you think? Maybe I'll think twice about killing my friends next time, especially if they're solo. It's just kind of mean isn't it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. This is what I missed out on

Null sec special on Lost in EVE Podcast

2011-02-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

This week I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest on the "Lost in Conversation" Podcast!

Background: Lost in Conversation is intended to be a 'raw' podcast that's focused on 'talk' about all things EVE. This is a roundtable-like podcast with guests (known and unknown) joining the cast lead by Jade or Jayne. This is a relaxed podcast, filling in bi-weekly between the main Lost in Eve podcast sessions, bringing you the kind of conversation that only New Eden capsuleers will appreciate!

For those of you who haven't heard Jade and Jayne's podcast before, you really should. Especially if you're chilling out (eg: mining, doing missions, or going on a long drive - usually 1-2 hour long show) and want something EVE-related to listen to, their show is a really great listen and often with a lot of laughs.

You can listen to it by streaming it from here:

http://www.lostineve.net/2011/02/28/lost-in-conversation-episode-7/

or you can go to the LiE forums and download it/listen on itunes from here:

http://www.lostineve.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=372

I'm just listening to the recording now, and as expected, it's pretty weird hearing my own voice (and my mic sounds weird I think). Also, I had only had 3-4 hours sleep when we recorded it at 8am, so excuse me if I don't sound coherent.

You may notice I was really quiet for the first half - this was due to nerves and not really knowing much about the Providence region history/politics, so I didn't comment much. On the jump bridges topics though... I have some opinions :)

Hope you enjoy it!

Carebear Legion?

2011-02-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

I guess this is what happens to PVP Alliances that take sov:

Yes, that's Pandemic Legion there doing cosmic anomalies in a titan, a super and a few carriers.

And this is a beautiful Avatar being subjected to carebear duty.

I'll tell you what, I've never seen rats die so fast.

Shooting my beloved

2011-02-22T23:31:00.000-08:00

I'm a pretty social person. I know a lot of people in EVE. I'm in a lot of different chat channels, read a lot of blogs, and I've always flown with many different people. I've corp-hopped my fare share too.

And so it is very very likely that sometimes when I'm roaming, I'll come across people I know and will be in a situation where I might have to shoot them.

What do you guys do when you come across these situations?

Friends and Foes

I remember the very first time I flew with Mynxee and the Hellcats. I was so excited, because they were the first females I had encountered in EVE. It was a lot of fun, but I remember that nearly every system we jumped into, Mynxee would be waving hello to someone. She had so many friends in the game, and everyone seemed to know her. We'd often come across a gang, and she'd say "Sorry guys, they're my friends, we can't shoot them" so we'd have to move on.

I don't know about you, but one thing that really annoys me in EVE, is having too many "blues". I've always chosen to join corps that have very few blues. Being an Australian, I already have so little targets available in my timezone, the last thing I want is even less people I can shoot at.

A while back, I used to solo roam a lot in Old Man Star system. I would often gang up with randoms in local, when the need arose. One corp I used to gang up with a lot was The Python Cartel.
One thing I loved about the Python Cartel is that they treated me like a great friend if I was in fleet with them, yet when I wasn't, I was fair game (and vice-versa). We had a mutual respect that if there was an opportunity to fight, we would.

I recently talked to a friend ingame that was extremely upset at some other girl (hateful even), because they had just been roaming together the day earlier, and then the very next day this chick went and killed her with her gang. I thought to myself, man I hope I never encounter this person in space, because I would have probably done the same. It's nothing personal, but sometimes I don't even look at people's names when shooting them. All I often see is ship type and alliance. Is anyone else like this?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An awkward situation

A few months ago, when solo roaming in my Vexor, I came across a situation where I saw an old corp-mate siting in a vagabond at 50km off a gate in low-sec. I say hi in local, but he doesn't reply. Strange, I thought. We were pretty good friends in that time we were in corp together. No matter, a fight is still a fight. I charged at him and got within scram range, and targeted him, hoping he would aggress first (since I was flashy and he wasn't). Nothing. 1 minute passes, and still nothing. I try bumping him, to no avail. I then realized he's AFK. Sitting at a low-sec gate in a vaga AFK.
A bit of a dilemma.

I decided to go for it anyways. I agressed under gate guns, which in a vexor, is not the best idea. My drones were dying fast, and I was reaching hull, but I managed to align out, kill the Vaga and warp out. I actually nearly died to the gate guns, which would have been rather embarrassing.

Would you have killed an old friend like that, in that situation? I kind of justified my actions by telling myself that if I hadn't done it, someone else would have. Right?
- BTW, the guy was really good-natured about it, we talked a while later and had a laugh. Turns out he had fallen asleep at the keyboard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What made think of this topic

Yesterday I was roaming in a dramiel gang with some guys in my alliance. We roamed to a dead end system we often visit, and immediately get tackle on a vexor. We all get in on the kill mail, because it seems the vexor is AFK shooting a Control Tower, since he didnt even try and aggress any of us. Very strange, we thought.

Well, this seemingly little kill escalates into something a lot more interesting. We were sitting at this tower, pondering if it would be worth it to actually kill it ourselves (since there were a lot of nice POS modules floating there). When suddenly a gang of about 10 ships (Battlecruisers + HAC) warps in on top of us, seeking revenge for the Vexor. We all burn away, and watch them for a while. They huddle together, so there's nothing we could engage with our frigates.

Then I take a closer look at the gang. It's CONVICTED alliance. I have friends in there. A guy I had been roaming with just a couple of days earlier is in a drake, as also is Captain Serenity, who's blog I am an absolute fangirl of. I felt really bad, because what we did later was really dirty.
Basically, we did this:

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8972452

We cynoed in 4 super-carriers and 1 carrier on top of them, killed some of them, then finished off the POS they had been working on for what must have been ages (since it was already in hull). The supers killed the control tower extremely quickly, and we scooped up all the nice POS modules for ourselves. All up, it was worth about 2 bil we "stole".

One of my friends from the CONVICTED gang convo'ed me and told me what a bad girl I am. I think I've also lost respect from Captain Serenity too :(

Also, one thing I've noticed since joining Pandemic Legion, is the amount of hate people have for this alliance. Friends' reaction are often: "LAEDY nooooooo. You joined PL /o\ WHY???" like it's the most evil and dirty thing I could have done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyways, what I wanted to say with this blog post is this:

If you see me in space, and we say hello and we are friends and stuff, if you're not blue to my Alliance I will likely still shoot you. It doesn't mean I don't love you, but it means I respect you enough to know we can still be friends even if we kill each other. Agreed? ♥♥♥

Awesome New Blogs to Read

2011-02-17T05:14:00.000-08:00

A couple of my EVE friends have just recently started their EVE blogs, and they are really great!

Ariartus

http://yarria.blogspot.com/

I've known Ariartus for over a year now, she is a dear friend and fellow piratess. She is one kick-ass chick! Seriously, this girl has no mercy, so watch out if you ever see her local.
Her blog is written in a humorous, entertaining style. It's colourful, chaotic and lots of fun. Please do check it out and subscribe.

Dian Lung

http://recovering-carebear.blogspot.com/

I love the concept of Dian's new blog. As the title says, she is a "recovering carebear". She blogs about her journey venturing out into a new scary world of PVP. In particular, she is trying to fly solo for the first time and she details all her success and failures in an honest and insightful way.
It's great to see her progress as her confidence grows. To make her even more encouraged, go to her blog and comment and give her some inspiring words and advice!

Mysterious Delve

2011-02-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Like a thief in the night, and in just a few impressively organized hours yesterday, Pandemic Legion has made the move to our new home, Delve!

I think I've only ever roamed into Delve once or twice very briefly, so I have no idea what awaits me.

Some kind corpmates have taken all my gear there already, so all I needed to do was travel 54 jumps (mostly through scary high sec) in my dramiel in order to get there.

From Pure Blind to Delve, the land of Milk and Honey

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long to get into some action today already. As I logged in, Soho Torres was FC'ing a Dramiel op into Atlas space. We had about 8 dramiels (i think?), 1 stilletto and a kitsune.

We were playing around in I1Y-IU (Querious) for ages, trying to bait some -A- guys into engaging us. In the time I was there, we managed to kill a curse, and other stuff kept playing station games. Even 3 of their bhaalgorns did nothing as our dramiels tried to tempt them into aggressing by sitting at zero and not moving at all. Nothing would budge. We had seen some carriers dock and undock, and finally one of them got the balls to aggress.

And so I witnessed my first Supercarrier hot drop:

https://www.pandemic-legion.com/killboard/view_kill.php?id=366247

I've never seen a carrier melt so fast, it was impressive.

Now, one of the reasons I joined a corp in Pandemic Legion, was to experience this exact kind of thing. Not just this carrier gank, but the ability to gather force with such short notice. Being in such a highly organised alliance is rather awesome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just in the last week I've experienced the following things, all for the first time ever in EVE:

- Flying an Abaddon. I flew it on a POS bashing with my Amarr alt Janice Khan, on one of PL's famous "Hellcat" fleets. Thankfully we did get to shoot some ships too, as we stumbled across an unfortunate Drake gang, that was quickly decimated.

- Flying a Munnin. I've had the skill to do so for ages, yet had never flown one before. Someone lent me one for a LR HAC gang, and I have to say: What a sexy ship! I must buy my own soon.

- I bought my very first Zealot. Amarr have the best looking ships. Seriously, they are just beautiful! I have been able to fly Amarr T2 frigs and cruisers since nearly one year ago, and I still have never flown them, can you believe it? Soon I hope.

- Titan Bridging! Embarrassingly, I had never titan bridged before, and so when the FC ordered the fleet to titan bridge, I didn't know what to do! I was panicking as I was the last one left behind and I was shouting to some mates in another channel "QUICK HELP! HOW DO I JUMP WITH A TITAN BRIDGE???" as my FC was saying calmly over comms "One moment, we just have to wait for Janice Khan to jump through..." Thank God that Elise (my lovely ceo and FC) is a kind soul and didn't scream at me "hurry up and JUMP you fucking retard!" as many others I'm sure would have. After what seemed like an eternity a friend tells me "Just right click on the titan and 'jump'." Phew.

- I managed to die terribly in a travel fit drake in 0.0 in my very first day of being in HABIT. Because of my trashed sec status (-8), I have to travel fit all my ships that come out of high sec. What happened was that I logged in and immediately jumped into a drake and fleeted with some PODLA friends to go roaming. Well, since I have my passive modules hidden on my HUD, I didn't realize that my travel WCS were still fitted. Basically, I jumped into a camp (couldn't target anything because of :LOL WCS: ) and died. To cope with this tragic loss, I decided to make a funny troll comment on the Killboard. This started a threadnaught I'm rather proud of. A lot of people got the joke and went with it, yet some people actually believed it and demanded I be immediately purged from PL for being "a bad" and "inexperienced with 0.0 mechanics". Sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how my marriage to the enemy is going (as detailed in my last blog entry). My NC hubby is very very happy to have his PL wife in Delve and far away from his home turf. So things are getting better and better.

A new HABIT

2011-02-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

I have a new corp! I got accepted into Habitual Euthanasia [HABIT] a few days ago. It is the corporation (part of Pandemic Legion alliance) that I made my colourful application for, in a previous blog post.

If you're wondering why it took so long for me to finally join, well the answer is rather complex and involves a bit of domestic drama, so here it goes...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You see, my husband Rawden (ingame character name) happens to be in a corp that is part of the Northern Coalition. As you are probably aware, Pandemic Legion have had a campaign running to fight the NC for a few months now. This was causing two main problems in my application. First, PL members were suspect of recruiting a potential spy. Secondly, my husband was very very against me joining an alliance that was his main ingame "enemy". Despite a potential security threat, HABIT kindly decided to accept my app anyways, yet because of my husband's ingame sensitivities I agreed to wait until a better time to join (that is, until PL stopped actively fighting the NC).

Three weeks passed, and I became increasingly antsy. Genos Occidere (my old corp) then joined PL, and there went a lot of my old roaming buddies. Every time I logged in I would hear them talking about how much fun it was, all the huge OPs they were going on etc... I found myself getting a little jealous even.

I then had a few streaks of really really bad luck in EVE. I found myself dying a lot when trying to solo. Falcons, bait ships (even bait rocket and laser fitted bombers), and blobs everywhere. After one particularly bad day in EVE (I lost 5 ships), I went out for a coffee with my husband and I told him about my boredom with the game, and how I really wanted to join a big alliance, and try new things (i.e. please let me join PL!). He put his prejudices aside, and said "OK honey, you can join Pandemic Legion." Yay!!! "With one condition, you're not allowed to kill me, or two of my irl EVE friends in my corp." A fair deal I think. Considering him and his two friends are complete carebears (not that there's anything wrong with that), it is rather unlikely that I will ever see them in a PVP situation.

And so the next day I applied. Then the day after, I logged into to see this. Me in my shiny new corp:


How cool does that corp and alliance logo look?

By the time I've written this post, I've already spent a few days trying to settle into my new corp. They seem like really chill guys, and have been very nice and welcoming to me.

It has been a great experience so far. I've already learnt so many new things, flown new ships and had many new experiences in EVE. My EVE boredom is certainly gone, and I intend to blog about it a lot more in the coming months. All the ups and downs and dramas included. And trust me, there's a lot of good drama :P

To my new corp and alliance members that may read this blog, thank you for making me welcome into your EVE home, even if some of you think I'm a spy ^^ Much love ♥

Frigank 8

2011-01-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

Frigank 8 is Prometheus Exenthal's new EVE pvp video, and it is absolutely fantastic.
It's my favourite yet of the "Frigank" series, and sadly the last one.

If you have any interest at all in flying frigates, then you need to watch this series (although he has also made quite a few other PVP vids using bigger classes of ships too) and you will learn a lot.

He specializes in using ships that are not very often utilized in solo PVP (i.e. crap) and tries to be innovative and make the best out of them he can. He's always solo (not even scouts or anything), and is often outgunned and outnumbered.

It also boasts a great soundtrack, so chill out and enjoy!

EVE Habitat in a Shoebox

2011-01-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

I thought this little craft project I did recently was way too much fun not to blog about, so here it is:

Why would I spend/waste time making this glorious EVE diarama you ask?

I recently applied to join Habitual Euthanasia, which is a Corp part of Pandemic Legion alliance.

They have a very strict recruitment process in which you have to fill out an intensive application form.

It consists of various questions about yourself and current gamestyle, as well as showing good knowledge of how to handle certain PVP situation and having to post various ship fittings.

You can see my public application for yourself, at the PL Forums here.

The application took me roughly 5 hours to fill out. The word document I had saved at the end was 10 pages long! I've never even had to put that much effort into getting an RL job. These guys are very thorough :)

Anyways, after the initial application has been considered, it is Corp tradition to provide applicants with an "Arts and Crafts Project" to do before being accepted. Fearing the worst, I was quite relieved to be given the choice of some relatively benign tasks. The choice was to make either these paper birds or the following craft:

I chose the latter because it just seemed more interesting and creative, and it really was very fun to do.

I hand-drew those ships and other items in the box from looking pictures at online, cut them out and coloured them in with soft pastels. It gave them a vibrant, colourful look I was after, which contrasted with the black background of the box. Hope you like it :)

Wish me luck in my application to a new corp. I dearly love Mad Bombers (my current corp), but I feel the need to move on to something new and different in EVE. I want to try flying Cap ships and be part of large scale fleet battles. It's something I've never experienced, and I feel like I have so much to learn.

Good fights, ganks, and free ISK

2011-01-10T04:38:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit of a nomad in EVE lately. I roam with different people everyday, and I clone jump nearly every second day too, since I get easily bored. I've given up on camping EC- Torrinos gate with my corp for a while, since I'm apparently a pretty bad tackler (probably cause I'm always daydreaming while gate-camping), and being flashy (Torrinos is high sec) I find it slightly difficult getting ships larger than a frig in and out of there safely.

So I've been back to my Amamake and surrounds stomping grounds.

A couple of days ago a guy in Amamake local asked for a 1v1 when we were both in Ishkurs. Not many people are interested in 1v1's in Amamake, so I accepted gadly. He had a good fit, and it was such a close fight!

http://www.madbombers.net/eveKB/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=18110

Anyways, what came about of that fight was even better. I had a good chat with the fellow, and he ended up being so happy that someone in Amamake was willing to fight him 1v1, that next thing I know, my wallet icon is flashing and he has deposited 250mil ISK into my account! Just for being a good sport.

That's the thing I've found about EVE time and time again. It really does pay to be friendly to people sometimes. Karma and all that :P
So, then afterward I fleeted up with my new rich buddy and we both died in a fire trying to kill some ruptures, but we killed one and it was fun anyways.

I've been enjoying my Ishkur again lately (since I got AF lvl 5!), with this other cool engagement to show for it:

http://www.madbombers.net/eveKB/?a=kill_related&kll_id=18167

A Jag, catalyst and dramiel versus me. The dramiel managed to get away in the end, but was a really fun little skirmish.

----------------------

Speaking of good fights. I had the opposite done to me the next day. Well I'm used to being ganked, but I thought this one deserved special mention:

http://www.madbombers.net/eveKB/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=18168

I usually don't engage members of Heretics corp/alliance at all. Anyone who is familiar with Amamake knows they are never alone, there will always be a cloaked rapier/falcon etc waiting for you along with that seemingly innocent rifter....

But this time I thought I was engaging a solo arazu in my Ishkur. Little did I know that Failed diplomacy are blue to Heretics. Next thing I know, a cyno pops up and all this crap is on top of me. A Panther, a Sin, Rapier, and not one, but TWO Falcons. Now, that's a stylish gang. I had to laugh, all that for a little ishkur. These guys are pro I tell you.

----------------------

Well, the next thing I have planned to do (with the ISK I was generously donated), is to fly a Maelstrom. I recently (after what seemed like forever) finished training Minmatar BS lvl 5 and large T2 projectiles.

This is my inteded fit:

So me and my famous blogger friend - Gallente Justice Officer Lady Shaniqua - are going to do a pro Maelstrom duo sometime soon. Please wish us a good roam and no falcons, so we can blog about it gloriously :) Can't wait!

Imagine - EVE Online

2010-12-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

I was bored, so I made a little song parody video!

It's in honour of all my friends ingame that die terribly everyday whilst trying to solo.

Chilax and enjoy :)

Lyrics are here

Weird EVE glitches

2010-12-08T04:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I've been gone from blogging for ages, although I've been back ingame pew pewing happily.

Today I want to share some cool screenies I've collected for a while.

Back when I first started the game (with the old mac client and old graphics) I used to get a lot of very strange graphics glitches.

My mac laptop would overheat, and my graphics card used to produce amazing and trippy visuals.

It was extremely distracting, especially if I was trying to PVP. Can you imagine trying to shoot someone while this is happening to you? Weird faces are staring at you and ingame items are all surrounding you in a chaotic mishmesh cube you're locked in.

Believe it or not, I got very used to this and would play like this regularly, until one day it all went away after a new CCP patch/expansion.

I still get some weird effects (the last two pics), but nothing quite like my psychedelic younger days in EVE. Also, please don't judge me on my crap PVE fits, I was a noob back then ok? :P

Enjoy!

Seriously, this one freaked me out the most

I loved this effect, although it was a bit rarer

This type of thing was the most common occurences

I wish we could paint or customize iterons like this


Everytime I shot a missile, the ventrilo man's head would shoot out my kestrel!

Same as before, but the Itunes icons shooting out of my domi :D

This is a common glitch that still has not been fixed by CCP!

My dramiel and my Velator are BFF's

Please feel free to share/link some of your own weird glitches here in the comments!

Taking a short break

2010-10-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a short break from EVE to focus on some RL stuff. Probably about 4 weeks or so.

In the meanwhile, I'm setting some long skills on my characters, so it should be nice coming back to see those done by then!

Assault Frigate lvl 5 on Laedy has been a dream for a long time. I look forward to the rockets buff that is coming one day, and flying a vengeance :D
I also ♥ Ishkurs a lot, so I should be flying those a lot more too.

Anyways, I won't be updating this blog for a little while, so see you when I get back!

Nice things for the man of the house

2010-10-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't mentioned this in my blog before, but I do have an adoring husband that also shares my EVE addiction. His ingame character name is Rawden, and recently he turned 40 y.o! I got him a special Birthday present:


(Handsome isn't he?)

Yes, that's a Megathron model from the EVE store! It's the nerdiest thing I've ever bought I think, but he loves it, and it's sitting on top of our TV cabinet.

I also got him one of these:

You see, Rawden is a Gallente Federation purist. He's got about 55 mil SP I think, and he is fully Gallente-only specced. I don't think he would mind me saying this, but he is a hardcore carebear though, so our interests in EVE often don't match. On the rare occasion I will try and run some lvl 5 missions with him, or he will try some pvp with me, but it usually ends up with one of us incredibly bored. So we're happy to do our own thing. He's in his study pwning Gurista scum in his Kronos, and I'm in the lounge pwning noobs in Amamake or dying horribly to Falcons.

When I first created a character in EVE Online, I actually wanted to make a Caldari chick (because I just thought they looked way cool) but the hubby wouldn't let me because he was like: "No! I can't have my wife be a different race to me, we'd be at war! You have to be Gallente."
And so here I am. Gallente - Intaki and happy.

I guess I really should thank him after all this time, because had I chosen the Caldari route who knows where I might have been by now. Probably in an NC corp flying Falcons or running sanctums in a Golem or Tengu or something. WHO KNOWS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quick side-note: Speaking of Falcons, I guess I should do a little update on my previous blog post "My first corp drama!. It created an unexpected threadnaught in the comments section, that is still going. Some people are just really passionate about their ECM and I guess I should leave it alone from now on. I'm sorry if I offended anyone! On a good note though, my beloved corp and I are bonding more and more, and I have noticed a strong decrease in the falcon addiction. Thank you all for your kind words and advice through this hard time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyways. For my darling hubby, Happy Birthday!!!

New Character Portraits

2010-10-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

As talked about in a new dev blog by CCP t0rfifrans, the new character creation tool is up and running on the Singularity server. It's far from finished (as is explained in the dev blog) and some of it is down right terrible at this stage, but it is a hell of a lot of fun so far.

There isn't yet a lot of choice for clothes and other cosmetic details (the eyebrows are terrible!) but if you're like me and you can't wait to play around with it, go download the Sisi server and have a look for yourself.

This is the closest I've been able to make a portrait that looks like the current Laedy:

And this is a pic of what the full avatar body looks like so far:

I think she's pretty in a simple way...

If you're really looking into making hotties though, I would highly recommend Caldari Civire, they look way cool!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news. I haven't actually been playing EVE or posting on my blog as much as I usually do. I'm kind of lacking some motivation to do so at the moment, not sure why.

I finally flew the shield boosting Cyclone though! Thank you to my sponsors that gave me the ISK to do so last time I posted about it.

This is my fit:

I managed to die twice to police in high-sec (well, one was at Jita undock to The 0rphanage too). I still need to fix that damn sec status YET AGAIN. Anyways, I actually had some really fun fights in the cyclone with some buddies also in BC's, and also a nice Orca gank. He jumped into an 0.0 entry system blind /o\

I'm hoping to get some solo fights next week, since I haven't done that in soooo long. Wish me luck, and no FALCONS!!!!

My first corp drama!

2010-09-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Remember how I posted a few weeks back, about how being in a corp is like being in a RL relationship?

Well, this is my scenario at the moment:

I fall in love with my new corp, Mad Bombers. Everything seems peachy. I spend a week moving lots of my stuff to my new home in 0.0. I make bookmarks everywhere, I get to know the neighbours, I sign up to the Mad Bombers forum and even post my RL pic there. I'm thinking, yeah this is going to be a very long-term relationship!

And then I find out that my new partner is a heroin addict.
And by heroin I mean FALCONS.

I couldn't believe it. I saw them using falcons in some of our random gangs and at first I thought, oh it's ok they're just using a few falcons for fun here and there, no big deal. Surely it's not a habit. Everyone dabbles in ECM every now and then right?

Then serious warning signs started showing. Someone posted a Falcon ship fitting thread in the forums, and then I see this:

Check the 5th most ship used in kills. FALCONS.

I panic. What could this mean? Would you leave someone you love because of a drug addiction? Or would you stay there and help them overcome it, and if they can't then just accept and love them and stay with them anyways?

Well, I pretty much did the worst possible thing I could do so early in the relationship. I posted my views on the corp forums.

Of course, I happened to pick a particularly bad day to try the INTERVENTION, as I was feeling rather emotional, edgy, and in a trolling mood.

It started off as a post in the offensive falcon ship fitting thread, with a small rant about my disappointment in them and that I thought they were better than this (typical relationship manipulation crap). Then the forum discussion descended into outright e-peen waving (linking km's) and sarcastic thread derailments, while some members white-knighted me and others were FURIOUS and threatened to kick me from corp.

Ahhh... The first lover's tiff.

It all ended later in the day, with the offending posts/threads being deleted, and me sending an apology email to the senior members.

I don't want to start a fresh discussion/drama about FALCONS here, so I'll suffice to say I think they are the bane of solo (and small gang) pvp'ers in EVE, and wouldn't mind if ECM was completely deleted from the game. Most of the people I admire and look up to in EVE think the same way too.

The fact remains that I have made a commitment to my corp for now, and I have to accept them for who they are. It doesn't mean I need approve of it or to fly in a gang with falcons in it, but I'll live with it and still do my own thing and play the game how I want it.

I feel like I'm writing to an Agony Aunt for some advice here:

Anyone have any suggestions or care to share experiences on how to deal with a beloved Corp's destructive addictions?

Many thanks

Laedy

Shiny happy people holding hands

2010-09-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

Skill point Milestone

Today I've reached the big "Five-O". That is, Laedy is now at 50 million skill points!
The skill I'm currently training (Shield Compensation lvl 4) is not very exciting in itself, but it is indicative of a new direction I plan to be taking in EVE soon.

You see, for most of my EVE career I've been a Gallente armor tanker. This year I've cross trained into Minmatar and have flown some shield Hurricanes and Ruptures, but I have never flown an actively shield tanked ship.

Well, I've been inspired by some of my friends that have been flying Cyclones and Maelstroms lately, and so I decided it was about time for me to train up my shield skills better and to try these ships out.

I don't yet have the skills for large T2 projectiles, but I can already do a mean Cyclone so I'll be trying it out soon. Any suggestions on other cool active shield ships I should try, please let me know. I can't wait!

Mad Bombers

Is my brand new corporation !!!

Actually, those big exclamation marks there are an attempt at me trying to be very positive and happy about finding and settling into my new home. The truth is, I'm still quite sad about leaving my former corp, Bi-Polar Bears.

As you may have read in my last few posts, I've been hanging out in Amamake a lot in the last couple of months. This meant that I was often shooting at Minmatar militia and also fleeting up with random friends. The Bi-Po guys were always very tolerant and let me do my own thing, considering I'm Australian and in a different TZ to most of them and all. In the last week though, things became a bit awkward, as I found myself fleeting up with the enemy, and shooting some semi-friendlies. Oops. So, since I'm quite stubborn and was not likely to change my behaviour, I thought it was best to leave before I caused any real trouble.

It's weird you know, whenever I leave a corp I always feel like I'm breaking up a relationship or something. I left on good terms though, so that's a good thing. I love the Bi-Po guys a lot, but for now we'll have to remain "just friends". Just a shout out to my buddies Loren Gallen (one of the most scary and best pilots in EVE), Eddie Valvetino, Ashenshugar, Grom, Calderus Rex, Sirah and others. Much love, thanks for all the roams. I learnt a lot from you guys ♥

The GOOD news is that I have a lot of friends in Mad Bombers already. People I have known in the game for quite a while, and some of them (Azi and Zamone) I have actually met irl. There are lots of Aussies in there too, so we have a lot in common and play in the same Timezone. They are a great bunch of guys and girls, and I know I will call this corp "home" for quite some time.

Mad Bombers - So awesome, we RP as ourselves.

I'm already starting to settle in, and trying to overcome my 0.0 fears (we live in Venal). I even got some nice solo kills in my Taranis yesterday!

The kindness of strangers

(The post below is an account of my latest thoughts and experiences on the generosity of people in EVE)

Upon making the decision to change corps, I realized that I would no longer have my income source available to me. That is, the very easy and lucrative Factional Warfare missions (which on average, I can make 100million ISK per hour running those lvl 4's).

I came up with a cunning plan to grind up a skill-less alt into the Gallente militia just to pick up the lvl 4 missions for me. I spent 4 hours running about 15 missions. When it came to my very last mission I terribly messed up. I got distracted, and my speed-tanking dramiel alt died. Seriously, I'm so bad at PVE.

That was me ^ emo-bear

I was pretty emo about this, so I decided to dock up and go and hand in all the missions (about 14) and get the standings for my new alt. Well guess what? Apparently you can't get standings for Factional warfare missions unless you are already in the militia as well. My new alt was not in the militia, and there was no way she could get in because she didn't have the 0.5 standings required. So it was a catch 22.

I was idling in system, feeling sorry for myself when I saw a fellow blogger in local. He was flying a Tengu, and I asked him to come and help me tank that last mission so I could complete it and then go to bed. Understandably, he declines because we are in low sec and I think he feared it could be a trap to gank him. He then tells me he's a fan of my blog, and gives me 50 million isk to help cover my Dramiel loss! How nice is that? I did feel a lot better. I don't know if I should say his name publicly here, but I thought it was really sweet.

The next day I get into Mad Bombers corp, and I tell them in corp chat my story at being emo about the dramiel and also of losing my income supply. I was saying how I'm not sure how I'm going to go about making isk now etc... Next thing I know, my wallet flashes and I have 100 million isk in there! One of my new corpies, Jason Marshall, decided to give me isk just to help me feel welcome. Well, it sure helped, thanks Jason! (I think he might have been drunk though, not sure).

I've had a lot of people be generous to me in this game. Last Christmas, a complete stranger gave me 50mil isk as well. I had actually just killed his ship in Old Man Star, and he was still jovial enough to give me a present (he may also have been drunk).

I'm not sure about Karma or whatever, but I do often try and be nice to people. Pay it forward, that type of thing. I often find myself replacing ships of noobs I just pirated, or just giving them isk and advice on how to defend themselves in the future. Most of my pirate friends think I'm weird and a complete bleeding-heart. Don't get me wrong, tears can be fun too (I love reading hate mails etc) but sometimes the satisfaction of helping others is even better don't you think?

Women, Russians and Drakes

2010-09-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

The Women

(This is a pretty cool movie btw)

I'm very very excited about a couple of things lately.

My friend Azi logged in tonight and excitedly exclaimed that she had found 2 more girls that play EVE Online that also live in the same city as us (Melbourne, Australia)!
As you may know, an estimate of only 5% of EVE's population are female, and of that 5% it's even more rare to find a girl that is Australian, AND that lives in the same city!
We immediately all had to meet up on Teamspeak for a chat.

We were introduced to them by Shota Cypher (he blogs about this here) and we decided to all go for a roam around Amamake tonight.

Slowly the gang grew and grew to about 8-9 people in T1 and T2 frigs. It was chaotic as usual, but we had a blast, killed some stuff and died some too.

I later had a roam with another Aussie bloke I just met, Margaret Shrike. We had some luck at first, killing a wolf and daredevil. We then roamed for nearly 1 whole hour without finding anything to shoot at. We finally found a Vagabond as I was in warp to a gate. Shrike informs me that I am about to land on top of him, and then my screen freezes up! I couldn't do anything or even quit EVE. I had to shutdown my laptop. By the time I restarted it and logged in, I was in a pod :( How seriously unlucky is that? I would've loved a proper fight with that Vaga...

Anyways, us four Aussie girls should be meeting up for lunch some time in the next couple of weeks, should be fun!

Another thing I'm really excited about is the next WGOE roam I've been planning in 2 weeks' time. I don't really want to say much about it just yet, but it should be lots of fun and also a new challenge for me as a still relatively new FC. I've made a mailing list for details about the ops, and so far there are 23 lady subscribers to the mailing list! I'm not sure exactly how many of those will turn up on the night, but should be huge.

It's weird you know... For over 2 years in EVE I hardly ever came across women in EVE (maybe, like 2 or 3, but didn't speak to them much). I didn't even think about it much at all. All of a sudden, in the last few months, they're everywhere! It's crazy.

The Russians

OH. I have to give another mention to my EVE white-knight, CHED again (he likes it when I mention him in this blog) since he helped me with some cool kills this week.

Just yesterday I was roaming in Bosboger Solar System in my rifter, when I came across a Myrmidon. I took a gamble and decided to engage him, thinking I could try and kill drones quickly, and if things went too bad I could hopefully make an escape.

Things did go wonderfully according to plan. His 425mm AutoCannon II's couldn't track me, he had a scram, but no web or neuts, and I managed to kill nearly all his drones one by one. Only one problem: after about 5 minutes or so of working on his tank, I realized I wasn't breaking him and I was running out of ammo. He starts getting mad and insulting me in Russian in local, calling me a bitch!

~~~ As a side note, why do Russians always talk to you in their Russian language in local? I am SURE they can speak English. Can't they? It's like, they are so arrogant that they make you go to the effort of having to google translate their insults. It's very annoying. ~~~

Anyways. I ran out of R.F. Fusion ammo. Time to call in the Calvary. I asked my friend CHED and he came over from Amamake in his Drake and helped me finish him off. Russian man was not happy. He even called us "Piratey pancakes" in local. Well, that's what google translate says anyways.

Confessions of a Drake Pilot

Is a new blog by Elise Randolph. I've been reading and enjoying this blog immensely lately. Elise started this blog as part of the "Try It" Competition over at Podlogs. He entertainingly chronicles his adventures of trying out something new to him in EVE, which happens to be "Spying".
His goals are: "To plant a spy using no isk, no money, no old characters, and very little effort."

Do check it out, comment, and encourage him to keep it up!

New Banner, new attitude, same crappy pilot

2010-08-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

I have a brand new banner, and a slightly new look to my Blog!

Many thanks go to Rixx Javix of EVEOGANDA for the pretty pic above ♥♥♥

I've been having a lot of fun in Amamake again lately. I've recovered from my emo-rage attitude lately (see previous post), and I've been hanging out with my old corpies from NQX Innovations (I blogged about them in this post). We bring into gang any other friends that happen to be nearby such as Azishkra’elhykai Mizamel, CHED (my EVE white-knight) and others. I've also been helping/teaching my old friend Ellpeegee about some of the finer points of pvp. He's just getting back into pvp after a long time, and I find it's always rewarding and refreshing to help less experienced players.

I died 5 times today, in the space of a few hours. I could go into details, but I'm terrible at battle reports, so I won't. Basically most of my Amamake fights (in make-shift gangs) go like this:

"Everyone align to top belt, be ready to warp to Laedy"

"Warp to Laedy, warp to Laedy!!!"

"Cmon guys where are you???"

"Need help here, hurry up"

"Overload, get points on everything, CALL IT"

"I'm going down, keep at it!"

"I'm dead, stay on him guys"

"Stay aligned guys, be ready to get out"

"You're all going down? Warp out, warp out!"

GF GF

and rinse and repeat

It's all so chaotic and hilarious. If you ever come fly with me, you'll understand that I am extremely suicidal. I don't have much patience, I don't mind dieing over and over, as long as I get an equal or more amount of kills. We nearly had some really juicy kills too. We were very close to killing a vaga in a few thrashers, but then all 3 of us got permajammed by falcon :(

Amamake local chat is often pretty hilarious too. People whine and rage at being blobbed, falconed, about "1v1's" being dishonoured etc...

My friend Malakai and I had a particularly hilarious fight last night, when we decided to engage a rifter in the top belt. I was flying a Merlin for the first time ever, and he was in his "LOL" Stiletto (I'm too scared to ask him how he fits it, literally the worst DPS ever). Well, it turns out the Merlin is a pretty crap ship. I had a rail and rockets fit, so it was meant for kiting at 7km.

Well, this Rifter lasted for a whole 8 minutes. It was either the most epic rifter I've ever seen, or we just had the most pathetic DPS ever:

http://bears.eve-kill.net/index.php?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7478104

Total Damage Taken: 8,759

I'd say that's pretty good for a rifter... LOL Chat logs here.

I've had a few Amamake residents recognize me lately. Some will be like, "Laedy, you want a 1v1?" and then 1 minute later it's: "Oh wait, you're the same Laedy from that Garmonation 7 video aren't you? Never mind then." Like, seriously?

Recently I've also had people mention about my blog in local chat. It's kind of flattering to know I've got some readers, but then I realize that it's a lot of free intel right there for them. This one guy a couple of weeks ago was like: "Oh, no way I'm engaging your thrasher in my Ishkur. I've read what you wrote in your blog about killing AF's in that".

Oh and my favourite excuse that I've heard (after they've checked up on some info) for not wanting to fight me: "Oh, you're a girl irl? I can't fight a woman, sorry."

I do have my blog linked in my Bio though, so it's not surprising that people that are about to engage me will have a quick look in order to gain any intel. Any one else with a Blog come across this issue?

P.S. - HERE'S SOME EXTRA INTEL FOR YOU SNOOPY AMAMAKEANS:

My ships are often named: "Hannah Montana" and "Myley Cyrus"

PEACE OUT YO

Crap week, but I'll live - Also, check out some sweet new blogs:

2010-08-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

I thought about making a blog post reply to the "Blog Banter" about griefing this week (btw, my fave reply I've read so far is this, by Lady Shaniqua), but then I really couldn't be bothered. Although, I recently actually felt very griefed in EVE Online for one of the first times ever.

As you may have read in my previous post, I was podded earlier this week and lost my very expensive HG slave set of implants. I spent all my savings and bought a new set soon after, worth 2.8 bil. Expecting this set to last me as long as the last one (1 year).

Well guess what? I got podded, again.
Long story short. I'm currently flashy at -5.05. As I've said before, I hate being flashy red so much. I was just about to dock up in Auga and clone jump to do some 0.0 sec ratting, when I jumped into a Minmatar FW gang and lost my thrasher. My laptop lagged, and I wasn't able to get my pod out. I was literally 1 minute away from jumping out of my slaves. I couldn't believe it.

I lost 5.6 bil isk worth of implants in 1 WEEK.

Massive emo-nerd-rage. My poor corp mates and other friends that were online witnessed it all. I swore I was quitting EVE right there and then etc... Not a pretty sight.

Well I'm not quitting EVE, but I'm not buying any more expensive implants again. Not for a long, long time anyway. I'm going to have to change my play style quite a bit. Those who use slaves/snakes/crystals will understand this: Having nice implants is very addictive. You become so used to having that extra advantage. Especially as a solo player, it's so handy to have because I'm almost always engaging people while outnumbered and outgunned.

It's ok, I'll move on, adapt and try new things. I might be carebearing for a while though, not too keen on getting out there to hardcore pvp again just yet.

In other news:

My friend Brianna Tempest has started blogging again!
Check out her cool blog at this link.

I met Azishkra’elhykai Mizamel (the first Aussie chick I've ever come across in EVE) irl for a coffee last week! It so happens we live in the same city, and we had a blast meeting up and chatting about all things EVE and non-EVE related. She also has a blog (click here), so check it out!

I'll be getting a new banner soon for my blog. The talented Rixx Javix (of EVEOGANDA) is in the process of designing it. I can't wait!

WGOE Inaugural Op!

2010-08-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you not in the know, WGOE (Women Gamers of EVE) is an ingame channel/group started by Malindah many years ago. It comprises of strictly women gamers. No boys allowed! It's just a friendly channel where the ladies can chill at and talk about anything EVE or non-EVE related.

There is a process where you first join the public channel (WGOE=Public) and from there, you have to be voice interviewed in order to get in to the strictly female private channel. So, don't even try boys, we can tell a guy with a voice modulator a mile off :P

I've been in the channel for a couple of months now, and usually it's been pretty quiet in there. Recently though, we've been having an influx of new ladies joining, so I decided it would be a good idea to get an event together so we could get to know each other.

And so the monthly WGOE Op was born!

With just a couple of days notice, we managed to get 11 Yarr Ladies to come on the first frig roam tonight.

It was so much fun!

We had a mix of people of different backgrounds, from very skilled FC's to complete PVP beginners. Some well known EVE chick celebs came too, such as CSM rep Mynxee and Brianna Tempest (of AT8 fame)!

We started from Amamake. And not off to a good start.

In preparation, I had been carting some fitted frigs back and forth from Ossogur (high-sec) into Amamake. I had been going in my pod into Ossogur and back in the fitted ships. I did this so many times (I don't own a cloaky hauler), that one nasty F1nal Agony member must have seen me, and decided to go sit at the Ossogur gate in a Hyperion and smartbombed me as I was warping in to the gate. Talk about a griefer... He gained nothing from this, whereas it made me be 30 mins late to the op, as well as - and here is the really bad part - I lost my full set of High Grade Slaves (plus Akemon). All up worth close to 3 bil.

I was shocked. Normally in this situation I would be furious, but we had an Op to do, and I had to get back on the horse. I went and got myself a new slave set. All my savings are now gone but that's ok, it's well worth it. I had owned those implants for nearly a whole year and not lost them. I had gotten really good use out of it (hundreds and hundreds of kills) so I can't complain, it was bound to happen one day.

Anyways, tragedy aside.

The gang started off chaotically, as I had to get to know people's voices, and try and remember what ships they were flying (all T1 and T2 frigates). This was my first time FC'ing a proper gang and I was so nervous and all over the place. I'm so used to flying solo, this was a real challenge for me.

Thankfully, brave Tsumei Meyren stepped up and took the position of scout. I found out she has been playing the game for 5 years, and FC'ing on a regular basis, so we were in good hands.

The first engagement we came across was a Rupture. We all warp in, looks easy. Then Hurricane comes in, and then another Hurricane (he got out)!!! Definitely not the types of ships you want to encounter in a frig gang. We managed to kill them both, unfortunately losing Brianna and Ariartus.

And so we moved on towards Ardar Solar System. Things got a bit crazy, as some of us in gang were flashy red (below -5), while others weren't. So some ships would try and engage us at gates, and we were playing deagressing games with a drake and rapier (it was very annoying).

Moving on, we got another nice fight in Hadozeko, where we killed 2 Hurricanes (what's with all the minmatar anti-frig ships???). Poor Ariartus died in the rifter again (probably being primaried because she's flashy). Props goes to our dramiel and tackle pilots (namely Wicked Princess at the start) who were fantastic, and were burning to and getting warp in on things.

The roam got really really quiet from there on in. We couldn't find gangs that were of an engage-able size. Three of the girls managed to get a nice Comet kill while the rest of us waited, hoping for more. Nothing eventuated, and so we headed back to Amamake, ready to end the Op in a glorious last battle at the Top Belt, as we were sure we would find a fight there.

Surely enough, we got a fight in no time. We got a warp in on a Cynabal (another horrible ship to engage in frigs), and all went for it but not surprisingly, it managed to keep range and kill us one by one. To add to this misfourtune, the Cynabal was blue to me, and so I couldn't shoot him :(Within a minute a Hurricane and Tempest also landed and proceeded to slaughter the vast majority of us (including me in the Ishkur). To top it all off, the Cynabal got away to live another day.

Welcome to Amamake girls! It was a rather spectacular way to end the Op.

Below is a little memorabilia pic I made of all who came along:

Thanks to all the ladies that showed up. I'm sorry you had to put up with my woeful FC'ing, but I'm learning, and it was an honour to fly with you all.

We had so much fun chatting during the op and afterwards too. It's just a really nice change to hear all female voices on Ventrillo. Lots of pillow fights in pajamas and talks about unicorns and kittens :)

Next time it's T1 Cruisers baby! We should be able to engage a lot more targets this way, and be a bit more survivable.

We're going to make this a monthly thing from now on, so if any of you know any ladies that might be interested tell them to join the WGOE=Public channel and talk to me, Malindah or Arancia Detto.

See you there!