Interview With The Scampire.

There are two things people want more than sex and money: recognition and praise.
Mary Kay Ash

Long time readers may know: I like to mess with scammers whenever I can. There's just very little in this game more satisfying than playing mind games with someone who makes their money by playing tricks on people. I do this a lot, but this guy seemed to be a poster child for the kind of guys that I talk to. It starts simply enough: with me insisting in local that scammers can't possibly be making very much money. Every time, at least one of them starts a convo with me to prove me wrong.

daddyloonglegs > I made 20 bil in 3 weeks
daddyloonglegs > spamming jita local
Hallan Turrek > You see, there's a problem here.
daddyloonglegs > yep?
Hallan Turrek > You claim to've made a huge amount of money by lying to people. So why would I believe the claim?
daddyloonglegs > well
daddyloonglegs > it's up to you
Hallan Turrek > It sure is.
daddyloonglegs > and I really don't care whether you believe me or not
Hallan Turrek > Because you send mails and start convos with people you don't care about convincing of your coolness?
daddyloonglegs > nope
Hallan Turrek > Well, logically you wouldn't yeah. But here we are.
daddyloonglegs > my business is much more complicated
daddyloonglegs > and it is scam
daddyloonglegs > well
daddyloonglegs > it depends on definitions
daddyloonglegs > I like to call it overpriced sales mkay
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > if you don't believe me
daddyloonglegs > check out this
Hallan Turrek > I don't think you've made any money on this, or at least not anywhere near as much as you claim.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > look
daddyloonglegs > just look
daddyloonglegs > Improved Crash Booster Reaction x 4
daddyloonglegs > Ammatar Slave Trader Insignia x 4
daddyloonglegs > Ammatar Slave Trader Insignia x 4
daddyloonglegs > Brynn Jerdola's Tag x 4
daddyloonglegs > Small Drone Durability Enhancer II x 3
daddyloonglegs > Low-grade Spur Alpha x 3
daddyloonglegs > Small Drone Durability Enhancer II x 3
daddyloonglegs > Medium Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer II x 2
daddyloonglegs > Medium Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer II x 5
daddyloonglegs > Medium Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer II x 4
daddyloonglegs > moar?
daddyloonglegs > and these are only contract sales
Hallan Turrek > Alt accounts accepting it, to make yourself look better to the scamming community? For shame.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > you dude look pathetic
Hallan Turrek > Why thank you.
daddyloonglegs > you think I have so many useless alts?
daddyloonglegs > go check them
daddyloonglegs > convo them
daddyloonglegs > I use alts
daddyloonglegs > to sell shit
Hallan Turrek > I know that. I saw the contracts you "completed".
daddyloonglegs > dude
daddyloonglegs > I know what is a poor null sec dweller's life like yours
daddyloonglegs > ratting
daddyloonglegs > ratting
daddyloonglegs > still no money to afford kewl ships
Hallan Turrek > Yes, I must be a pretty hardcore PvE'er. I admit.
daddyloonglegs > and I make 1-4 bil a day
daddyloonglegs > depends on effort
Hallan Turrek > No you do not, I believe that was my whole point.
daddyloonglegs > I guess it sucks that you have to be killing damn npc 24/7 for a month
daddyloonglegs > to afford such money
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > well
daddyloonglegs > check this
daddyloonglegs > wait
daddyloonglegs > let me log on my alt
daddyloonglegs > almost theeere
daddyloonglegs > lol 1 min
daddyloonglegs > seriously

*Sends me a scam mail with his alt.*

Hallan Turrek > Wait, am I supposed to read that?
daddyloonglegs > I'll trade you
daddyloonglegs > to show the money
daddyloonglegs > if you are that persistant in denying the fact
Hallan Turrek > I doubt you would do such a thing.
daddyloonglegs > I never said I'm going to complete that trade
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > 16,6 bil would be too nice for you
daddyloonglegs > ok almost there
Hallan Turrek > Having money of your own and having money from scamming are two different things. You can make way more money from legitimate trading, after all.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > no you cant
daddyloonglegs > trade thanatisa
daddyloonglegs > for some reason I cant do that
Hallan Turrek > That's not going to happen.
daddyloonglegs > just trade her
daddyloonglegs > why?
daddyloonglegs > lol dude
Hallan Turrek > You really have to ask the question?
daddyloonglegs > well you don't believe me
Hallan Turrek > That's true.
daddyloonglegs > that someone is inteligent enough to make in 3 weeks the amount of money you have to spend 2 years to get
daddyloonglegs > lligent*
daddyloonglegs > and it's your problem
daddyloonglegs > I just wanted to prove you are stupid
Hallan Turrek > Well oddly enough, that's the exact opposite of the case. I don't think anyone would be dumb enough to think you can make more money from scams than not.
Hallan Turrek > Sure it can make some money, and if you're lucky it can make a lot. But you can make more money from legitimate means.
daddyloonglegs > ahahah
daddyloonglegs > you underestimate people's dumbness
Hallan Turrek > I've underestimated yours perhaps.
daddyloonglegs > yeah right
Hallan Turrek > But we can play this game all day long.
Hallan Turrek > There's no way you can prove to me you're successful at scamming. Well there is one way, but you're not sending me any money, so lets just leave it be.
daddyloonglegs > I can show it to you
daddyloonglegs > in the trade window
daddyloonglegs > 16,6 bil isk I have now
daddyloonglegs > 3,4 were spent on expenses
daddyloonglegs > just trade thanatisa
daddyloonglegs > I'll show you
daddyloonglegs > you can have any screenshots
daddyloonglegs > of markets seles
daddyloonglegs > market*
daddyloonglegs > I can prove you are an idiot anyway
Hallan Turrek > Seriously, we're still here? I mean I'm stuck in Jita cause I clone jumped down to buy some stuff. Why are you here?
daddyloonglegs > you can deny the grass is green as long as you want
daddyloonglegs > I like to show idiots they are idiots
daddyloonglegs > I'm proud of myself.
Hallan Turrek > This wouldn't be as satisfying if I didn't know for sure you're dead set on proving your success. If you had it, you could just enjoy it right? But this drive to prove it, means you got nothin'.
daddyloonglegs > lol
daddyloonglegs > just lol
daddyloonglegs > go on ratting dude
daddyloonglegs > on*
daddyloonglegs > ok dude
daddyloonglegs > I have some serious business to run you know
daddyloonglegs > maybe in a couple of months I'll buy your alliance =p

What this guy fails to realize, and what I think a large number of scammers just don't get is this: The truly successful scammers don't want recognition. They don't feel a need to prove to anyone that they're successful, they just are.

The Northern Coalition: First Impressions.

I felt I could look back at my life and get a good story out of it. It's a picture of somebody trying to figure things out. I'm not trying to create some impression about myself.
Alan Alda

Part One:

Well I can tell you the first thing I've noticed. These guys are organized. Logistics, isk generation, jump bridges... it's all there in triplicate for you to peruse. 5 gets you 10 that they have actual real life accountants(who happen to play the game, of course) doing actual real accounting for them ingame. Joining up is like being swallowed up by this downhill snowball that no one knows how to stop. The trick is enjoying the ride.

Of course, if you read the news or the forums you'd think the NC were the most disorganized bunch of misfits out there. You'd also be under the impression that PL were handily beating the crap out of them in their own backyard(it's difficult for even the Drone Russians to convince themselves they're winning on that front). I think the problem is in realizing just how much of the NC there is. The reason you'll hear them say that losing a ratting super carrier isn't a big deal is because it genuinely isn't. Whereas the average player might think of that as a crippling blow, and some lesser alliances/coalitions the same, around here it's really really not. If they lost 10 of them at the same time, that's a big deal to anybody, but some idiot with a fail fit isn't helping anyone if he showed up to ops anyhow.

We're talking about a coalition a couple thousand shy of 20k people. That's just the full members, not counting anyone else. This may sound redundant, but I'll say it anyway: That's a lot of fucking people. So I start to see why the organization is so important. I also can see why sometimes an idiot might get a hold of a supercap. And why it might not matter too terribly much if it's lost.

Part Two

So this is all observed as a non-combat pilot. What did I see when I got actually involved in some fighting? Lets take a look. Note that you won't get names out of me, even if they're easily found in other ways. FC's are as far as I'm concerned a non-person. I'll refer to them as "The FC" and that's all.

An emergency CTA went up saturday night, and I saw that a bomber wing was being formed as an auxillary fighting force. It's own independant fleet to supplement existing forces and help out in the battles to come. That sounded pretty cool to me, so I joined the fleet and rushed myself to the system of action, R10. Sadly, the drone Russians did not show. Like at all. So the NC downed the SBU's and that was that. We went ahead and made our way to the system that the FC told us to go.

I got a crash course in fleet bomber fitting and tactics along the way. I asked a few questions, but nothing too complicated, as we started to move. I was impressed though by the knowledge the average pilot in fleet had. Most were reasonably to extremely competent in both fitting and tactics, and for the first time in a while, I felt like the noob. But I learn fast, and I'm fairly certain that in a pinch I could work out exactly how the bomb runs/tactics are performed. It'll be a few months before I try them myself though.

We decided to camp a jump bridge in drone space(in R-6KYM) for a bit, and got a few kills doing it, but it didn't take long before we got called away to another emergency CTA. We ran through jump bridges, gates, and even a little bit of empire to make our way to 6OYQ-Z, which is when the fun really started.

After some time of getting set up(tactics that I'll be keeping a bit close to the chest for a bit), we began to do our bomb runs. Over the next two hours, we'd wind up, do some runs and then get reloaded at our POS. Sadly there weren't enough of us to kill much outright, but we were doing more than enough damage to drive the PL fleet off the field to rep. That was on top of the regular fleet doing the same and it helped keep them off the field. We kept on doing it, and after enough attrition the PL fleet eventually left. We outnumbered them heavily in the end, and it was only a matter of time before they left.

Note to PL, pound for pound you may be better than the NC, but don't go engaging someone who outnumbers you 15 times over and then complain that they outnumber you on the battlefield. Deal with it or go home.

I lost my own bomber to a badly timed lag spike right around the time that the rest of the bombers were actually scoring kills. I'm pretty sure my inexperience may've spoiled my own runs a couple times as well, but towards the end I was doing a much better job. Again, for a first outing, I did as well as can be expected. I get the feeling that my much enjoyed "100:1" K:D in bombers may be well out the window if I keep doing this, but efficiency and effectiveness are not equal things.

There was something that struck me as different than anything I'd experienced before. We needed bombs after the first 4 runs. We didn't have bombs but we didn't have to go find a station selling them. Behind the scenes someone was bringing in a can of them for us. That was on the fly as well: someone said to someone "we need bombs to keep doing this" and someone got us bombs. It's the little things that strike me about this humongous organization.

I Joined Majesta Empire

So I had an opportunity to join a mega alliance and I took it. There are a lot of things I can do any time, but getting in an alliance with some people who're familiar with me already is not one of them. A NC alliance is a nice home mostly because they fit in with my theory on warfare in Eve, illustrated by the motivational poster above.

That is not sarcasm, and the "don't blue anybody" crowd can appreciate that thinking or not. I've never understood you, and you'll probably never understand me on this. Suffice to say, I'm going to see where this road takes me. Should be fun.

Advertising Take 2

If you do not like advertising at all, do not read this.

Selling Out.

So, I thought I do my advertising a bit less uselessly. On the top of the blog, there is a link to a site that sells eve time codes. It's linked on the Eve website as a secure seller, and that's good enough for me.

I won't recommend it until I buy one myself, which I should be doing in the next couple of weeks. That said, if you're buying them regularly, or you plan on buying one... use the link on the far right. It'll get me a 5% commission on the sale. If you're planning on signing up to do this on your own website, use the affiliate link on the far right. If a network of folks start doing this, I'll get a bonus as well. If you buy there and have a bad experience, let me know at simpleliberty at gmail.com. Or comment on this post.

I see no reason not to include something like this on my site. The whole idea is to make a bit of isk from this blog, but to do honest work for it. I'm broke ingame right now, so it's a good time to start. I won't use a commission for much other than a time code anyhow.

That said, I'd be open to banner ads on the right and top of the blog. If your corp is recruiting, or you've got a service you'd like to offer, send me an eve mail. I can make funny ads, but if you want something high quality, find an artist first.

I'll be selling 3 spaces for now. A 468x60 at the top, just above the posts(where the Eve Time Code Bit is for now). That one'll be 100 million isk a month. A 125x125 on the right, where the affiliate link is, would be 50 million isk a month.

Finally, I'll put up a 120x600 at the bottom of the stuff on the right for 25 million isk a month. The less intrusive you want the placement, the better the deal.

You've got options, of course. You want something bigger? Pay a little more. Want a long term advertising plan? You'll get a discount if you pay upfront. Want a text ad instead? I can do that.

EvE mail me(Hallan Turrek), and we'll set something up. It's first come first serve, so we'll see what we can see.

The Third Oldest Profession

So I've started to run ads on the site. I figured it couldn't do any harm, but I seem to be getting a bunch of Isk sellers and asset sellers. Is there anyway to fix that?

Edit: I did a bit of research, there is actually a review process available for this. I just gotta wait until it's active. So I'll see how it goes.

Edit 2: This is too much work for too little gain. SUSPENDED. Though I might try the time codes guy.

Star Stuff

Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash,
As we fell into the sun,
And the first one said to the second one there,
I hope you're having fun.
Paul McCartney and the Wings - Band on the Run

So I've always been one to try out weird and crazy stuff. One of the things I've always wanted to try in Eve was to approach the surface of a star. Well yesterday I did just that. Now there's nothing really special about it, it's been done. People've also bounced right the heck off of them too. I approached it and realized something. When I got under 100km, I could use the "look at" command. You can do that with planets too, but they're not nearly as spectacular.



Notice anything odd about it? The part that you see in space, and the actual model of the star are actually totally different parts. Some things you can only learn by trying it out.

Oh and yeah, it took about 16 hours of flying or so to get close enough. But I had to know.

Photos From The Wasteland

To live and not to breathe,

Is to die, In tragedy,
To run, to run away,
To find what you believe.
Green Day - Jesus of Suburbia

I got bored. I also figured if I kept up at the pace I was going, I was never going to get through with this. So I took about 4 hours and went from Outer Passage to Fountain. I hit every region along the way. Here's a photo dump: I snapped at least one quick picture of each region(I forgot to snap one in The Spire though) along the way. It also includes all the images I'd taken so far. I've hit every region in Eve now, and been as far north, south, east and west as you can go.

Here's the zip file.

Here's the fit I was using as well. I should have loaded SOME weapons on it, and it was stupid not to. I realized that about 5 minutes after I got into 0.0. If I wanted to try a speed run I'd skip on the Stabs and go full nano, then rig it for warp speed. Same align time(3.9), almost double the warp speed(from 3 to 5.9 with T2 rigs). Honestly I probably should've done that anyway.

[Tengu, Explorer 1]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I

Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II

Expanded Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

Tengu Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Tengu Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier
Tengu Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Tengu Defensive - Supplemental Screening
Tengu Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer



Now that that is over with, I've put my Tengu up on the market. 300 million ISK in Jita, by the way. Pretty good price.

Oh, and all of you with assets all over the place. Suck it.

I bought a shuttle and now it's time to get started on finding a corp, or recruiting for my own. I've got a couple of ideas knocking around in my head still.

I definitely want to join a giant alliance, eventually, but with Incursion coming, I think I want to stay free to deal with the Sansha storyline on my own. This is the part I'm not sure about. There are corps out there that're already set up for doing this. Do I join them, or work with them while building up a corp? Choices!

I've got some time to think about it though, so I'll come to a decision eventually.

Wandering New Eden: Surf and Turf

If I've gone overboard
Then I'm begging you
to forgive me
in my haste
When I'm holding you so girl
close to me

Dave Matthews Band - Crash Into Me

Immensea and Detorid

So I had to pick a theme for this, and I figured taking a picture of an ocean planet in Immensea was pretty much a prerequisite. Knew I'd be doing Detrorid next, so figured a desert planet to compare with might work out. First off Immensea, system RU-PT9:





I like the style of going in for ever closer views, to get a full sense of the detail. Here's a Barren Planet in RT-9WL out in Detorid:





Again, gotta love the level of detail on these planets.

Next up Wicked Creek and Scalding Pass.

I Bypassed a Historical Moment on Sunday

So, I heard about the huge battle taking place on Sunday, and I deliberately avoided it. As it was going on, By chance, I was literally only a jump away at one point. Turns out the LXQ battle became significant as the largest battle in Eve history. I thought about going in just to say I was there, but with the expected huge module lag, and the unexpectedness of how things go once you jump in to something like that, I decided against it. Was that the right or the wrong call?

And yes, that means the tourism updates you get aren't of where I am now, but only where I've been. Deal with it, cause it's way safer that way.

Wandering New Eden: Mists of Faith

Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
Closer to where I started,
I'm chasing after you.
Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment

Feythabolis and Omist.

This'll be mostly pictures.

First up Feythabolis, I decided to photograph a Amarr Factory outpost in 3L-Y9M.

Here it is in action:






And from a bit further away:





Out in Omist in VULA-I I took a few pictures of my ship as well:





I've also come to the conclusion that not every picture is going to be a goddamned masterpiece, so sometimes I should just snap a picture and keep moving, instead of changing my video settings.

Next up Immensea and Detorid!