Things I Am and Could Have Been

Congratulations on the mess you made of things

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

And oxidation is the compromise you own

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

Tv On the Radio - DLZ

It's over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think I like it.

Raise What's Left Of The Flag

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

Flogging Molly - If I Ever Leave This World Alive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyone else feel that way sometimes?

I've Said Too Much

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight, I'm

Losing my religion

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

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

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

Voices From The Void: Episode 16

Voices From The Void and You. In perfect Harmony.

Voices From The Void: Episode 15

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

Voices From The Void: Episode 14

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

Or our session with White Tree of the CSM!

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

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

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indeed.

Voices From The Void: Episode 13

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

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

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube:


Check out the shownotes!

Voices From The Void: Episode 12

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

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

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube.


Check out the shownotes!(Timestamps coming soon)

Back to Basics

Nobody said it was easy

It’s such a shame for us to part

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Aww take me back to the start

Coldplay - The Scientist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, a fun excercise.

Voices From The Void: Episode 11

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

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

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube:

Check out the Show Notes

The Rifter Renaissance

Came the last night of sadness

And it was clear she couldn't go on

Then the door was open and the wind appeared

The candles blew and then disappeared

The curtains flew and then he appeared

(Saying, "Don't be afraid")

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Noble Exchange/Red Light District

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

Blake - Glengarry Glen Ross

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations.

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

Voices From The Void: Episode 9

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

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

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on our site.

Listen on youtube:



Check out the Show Notes(Coming Soon)!

Guide: Reaction POSs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CCP, You So Crazy!

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

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

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

I do not like where this is going.

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

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

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

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

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

EveNews24
Dotlan
Eve Fitting Tool
EveMon
EveHQ
Battleclinic

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

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

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

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

Voices From The Void: Interview of CCP Sunset and Soundwave

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

The Podcast Page.

The Youtube Channel.

Voices From The Void: Episode 8

BAM!

Check it out!

Introducing The Outlaws.

So it goes.
Kurt Vonnegut

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

Please visit the forums and put in your application!

Voices From The Void: Episode 7

Bam!

Check it out!

Latin For Gold

"Well, do you mind if I look round the car a little bit?"
Well my glove compartment is locked so is the trunk and the back
And I know my rights so you gon' need a warrant for that
"Aren't you sharp as a tack, you some type of lawyer or something'?"
"Or somebody important or somethin'?"
Jay-Z - 99 Problems

If you buy a Plex ingame, CCP doesn't make much money off you. Essentially you're paying 2.50 extra for your subscription. It's something, but nothing impressive. A while back someone told me that we should all just buy plex ingame one month to protest CCP. I had to explain to them that would actually make CCP MORE money since it costs slightly more for 30 days of plex than 30 days of subscription. Even if you're not paying CCP anything, someone is providing the Plex.

Let's take a step back a year or so. Plex used to be tied to the station it was generated in, you couldn't move it. For a long time this was the status quo, then some guy(we'll call him Jeff) came into the room while people were talking about plexes.

They talked about some random shit for a while, then Jeff asked what the obvious question: "Wait, they can't be moved? Why?"

And the apparently obvious answer was "Oh, so they can't be destroyed,"

Then Jeff crinkled his forehead and said something that made everyone else in the room feel pretty stupid, "Why not? They've already paid us for them,"

So a patch later, they were mobile. And some idiot loses thousands of dollars of them in a Kestrel. What does this have to do with today? Lets take a look at Aurum.

This is a new way to destroy plexes, and to actually get something from them. So it goes without saying that this is probably a positive for people that don't like Incarna to start with. It mean the subscription costs won't be going towards these projects. This is a way for CCP to make money to go towards Incarna related development, plain and simple.

So if it's plain and simple, why am I rambling on about it? The issue I have with this is the way they're presenting it to me. Lets just say that Jeff may've had some input on these things.

Lets take a look at this and this.

Now there is some serious nerd rage going on about the flimsy ingame reasoning. I'm not going to address that, because those people are missing the point. The reason CCP has to shoehorn in a flimsy ingame reason for it is because this will make them more money.

Aurum will be essentially plex, and it has a real money cost. If you lose it ingame, you are putting more money into CCP's pocket.

I guess I shouldn't expect CCP to admit "We're doing it because we want more money," but we all know it.

Voices From The Void: Episode 6

Check it out!

News Update

If you're reading this, it's an article that I've posted on Eve News 24, which is back up for now.

I want to say, first and foremost, this is not some sort of “We’re back and this time for good” kind of thing. The news is back on. Let stick with that for now.

Been a fun last month and a half for all you news addicts out there. For those of you in the know, a few major news happenings have gone unreported, and I’d like to catch you up.

Drone Alliance Stopped at Tribute’s Door

Lets talk about the Drone Alliance Invasion first. Anyone who has the ability to load up dotlan(or the ingame map for that matter) has realized that the regions of Geminate and Vale of the Silent have fell to the Drone Alliance forces. R.A.G.E is down to about a thousand people, from a high of four thousand only a month ago. The alliance is dying quite quickly, but the only question left is if they’ll go all the way to disbanding. I think not, but it’s too early to tell.

Majesta is, as of this article still holding strong(they’ve only lost a third of their players so far), and I get the feeling they’ll be deploying elsewhere as an additional feint sometime soon. Basing out of Curse, they could do some real damage to the Drone Russian Federation heartland, and while the Charlie Foxtrot is hitting Cobalt Edge periodically, it could cause the Drone Alliance to start prioritizing defenses. This also assumes Against All Authorities is going to stop in Detorid, and if they face absolutely no resistance there, they have no reason to stop.

As for the Tribute battles, the stalemate has commenced. While the Drone Alliance has had some serious successes in the individual battles, they’ve lost or refused to engage during the important ones. No stations have been successfully won by the Drone Alliance. This is in large part due to the interference of the CF coalition from the west. Now that they’ve stalled their forward momentum, the DA is turning inward and consolidating their new acquisitions.

RaidenDOT, Red Alliance, and Solar seem to’ve split up Geminate already. The systems have settled down. Pandemic Legion doesn’t appear to be gaining any permanent space in this conflict. Any systems they’ve taken have been given over to the other players. Looks like they’re only in it for the money and the killmails, as only PL would be. Even NCDOT looks to be gaining some space in Vale of the Silent, which looks to be split mostly between White Noise and RaidenDOT.

The Effects of the War In the North

Now these movements all mean a number of other things in regard to the actors involved. NCDOT has mostly abandoned Providence, which sees a resurgent CVA taking space once more. White Noise has abandoned it’s Tenerifis holdings and is putting up at best a token defense of it’s core Detorid space. They’ve gone all in on Vale, and if the tide turns, they’ll be without space quite quickly. Taking it back will require all their force, since they’d be facing a combined AAA/Stainwagon force, which they could conceivably beat back, but not very quickly.

As White Noise loses it’s space in the south, the allies of AAA find themselves gaining more than just a foothold, with whole constellations being doled out. Formerly minor powers are quickly establishing themselves as mid-majors in the bid to be noticed when more space gets handed out. There’s movement, but without the resistance of WN or the greater DRF, it’s mostly peaceful.

The NCDOT/Evoke feint in Pure Blind, has been successfully beaten. At no point was it more than a distraction, but if you lived in Vale or Geminate under the NC, it was a successful one. NCDOT has been participating fully in the DRF invasion lately.

RED.OverLord has an Executor Corp Now!

RED.OverLord has finally set a new executor corp as well, after the previous one was completely banned from the game in the wake of the Big Bas scandal. This is pretty good news for anyone who’s been wanting standings set during the Tenerifis and Detorid war.

Everything Else

So that’s where we stand now, if you live in Delve and Querious, I apologize, but the only accurate descriptor for your conflicts are “shitty little wars”. When that heats up, or some of the more major players get involved, fine. But for now, we’ll let that go.

So now you’re up to date, and you’ll have some context for the next news story to come across your desk in the next few days. If you’ve got a tidbit of information(Battle Reports, Other kinds of news) you want to share, message me ingame at Hallan Turrek, and I’ll run with it.

Voices From The Void: Episode 5

I'd like to direct you to the latest podcast, and the parody song contained within. Enjoys.

Oh, and read my post on this page(it's about three or four posts down), I'm a fucking prophet. 2 1/2 months ago and I had this whole war pegged. Also, Majesta Forum dump. Love those guys, but seriously Trina screwed 'em hard and good.

What is this, I don't even

There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind
Just to save his own
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place against the kingdoms throne
The Impressions - People Get Ready

So. This new little things patch is another nerf to 0.0 life. I'm not calling it a good or a bad thing, but I am pointing it out.

Now you might be asking... "What are you talking about Hallan, heck, now we can find anomolies in 10 seconds and from anywhere in the solar system!". Guess who else can find them? The red that just jumped his interceptor into system. This, coupled with the true sec nerf has really hit the anomaly runners hard. As if it wasn't bad enough to only have one Sanctum in certain systems, now if you're trying to run it, you'll be tackled in 30 seconds when a red enters system.

Don't forget the true sec nerf either, this is coming very shortly after most of Null-Sec became terrible for running anomalies.

I like this all of this to a point(for entirely selfish reasons). I gave up running anomolies a long time ago, because they were too easy to find. Now they're even easier... and I know the profit margins haven't gone up. Now if you're lost among the Hubs or whatever, you'll probably have time enough to get away. If you're planning on running Sanctums, you're in more danger than if you were in an asteroid belt. Havens are about equally as dangerous as belts. Only they take much longer to finish off.

So now you have to pay attention, there is no other option. This is good and bad, as that's how it's sorta supposed to be. If you don't pay attention to local, you deserve to get killed. This also kills any safety Carriers had. They better be fucking aligned and paying goddamned attention, or they will get tackled and die. End of story.

So is this good or bad? It's neutral. People will still do the stupid stuff, and they'll still die. Now they'll die more often, and hopefully it'll only be my enemies and neutrals, and not my blues.

But how often does that work out?

The other half of the spectrum is the boost to mission runners. The reduction of agent types to just 3, with combat, mining, and courier... that removes some of the more serious barriers to entry in missioning. You want to mine? You can mine. You want to run couriers? Go ahead.

You want endless combat missions? Go for it.

If that wasn't enough, there's no difference between agents of similar level. If you could run any level 4's before, you can run all of them now. And you get paid like you're running for Quality 20.

CCP's been listening to the "it's too easy in 0.0" arguments. Made by the same people who run level 4 missions all day long under the protection of Concord.

0.0 just got punked by a bunch of carebears.

Other important changes include the blueprint copy changes(you can tell them apart now! Amazing! Even the devblog wonders why they weren't always like this). Oh, and simplier social skills. Awesome.

The one thing in this patch that was certifiably awesome(having bookmarks on the overview), got pushed back to the next patch.

Voices From The Void: Episode 4

Episode 4 is out. Check it out!

And on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPGHrg2jz3I

Why CCP Should Fix Jump Bridges Even As They Nerf Them

Oh, life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

So if you came here expecting anything other than the name of the post, you'll probably be rewarded.

I rant sometimes.

Lets begin.

For anyone who is unaware of how jump bridges work, lemme break it down for you. In order to use a jump bridge, you need to know the POS password of the POS it's next too. Now, that don't make any goddamned sense, but bear with me.

This means you need to have at least one POS in the system with a public password. Jump Bridges don't let you through if you don't have the right standings, but you still need a password. There is no option to just allow standings to determine who uses it. That's pretty fucked up when you consider the scale some alliances work on, but bearable, since Jump Bridges do allow logistics to be incredibly easy.

Jump Bridges also cost 300 million per month per system. Particularly complicated networks cost billions. This is also bearable, since for 300 million a month, you can connect to two systems at once, and are afforded incredibly easy logistics. Anyone else starting to see a pattern here?

Cyno Jamming costs 600 million a month. That's effing expensive, but worth it on a high value system. Jump Bridges allow you to get capitals in that are friendly, without needing to turn off the Cyno Jamming. This is an incredibly useful and very common sense approach. If you're friendly, I should be able to let your capitals into my system.

So, CCP naturally says that Jump Bridges are too easy, and nerf them. Now, let me be clear, jump bridges needed a change, and this is a far cry from how far I thought they were going to go, but come on CCP: You need to wake up. You want to nerf JB's: fine. But in the same patch, in the same goddamned patch, you need to fix all of the issues with POS's, standings, and the like.

If you're going to nerf things, fix these things too:

1: Allow Jump Bridge owners the option of allowing for no password.
2: Allow POS's to allow people inside based on standings alone.
3: Allow jumping to Cyno Beacons in Cynojammed systems.
4: If you're halving the number of available Jump Bridges in any system upgraded for them, half the cost of the upkeep too. (Seriously, this is a "duh" moment if there ever was one).

Do that, AND nerf jump bridges the way you outlined, and you and I don't have a problem CCP.

With this following on the heels of the True Sec nerf, you need to give the 0.0 guys something or they will be out for blood. Don't say I didn't warn you.

This is a long time coming... all of it.

Voices From The Void: Episode 3

Here she is. Enjoy.

ENN will be on hold until EN24 comes back up. I cover the news pretty well in VandV.

Guide: Fitting Tackle

You really had me going
Wishing on a star
The black holes that surround you
Are heavier by far
Duncan Sheik - Barely Breathing

First of all, the main role of pointing frigates in combat is to do just that, point. Not put on additional ewar, not to DPS(although a few fits can point and DPS), and not to try to slow down targets. You can do stuff like that, but that's not what this guide is about. I'll probably include links to some very good guides on transversal and piloting interceptors later, for now, I'll add comprehensive fittings.

They can try to tank damage, speed tank damage, or both. Staying still is a death sentence. Trying to tackle a Vaga/Cynabal/Stabber Fleet Issue is suicide. Beware of Hurricanes, beware of big drone boats with neuts. Beware of other frigates on the field. Beware of snipers sitting 100k away. Beware of bombs with your MWD running. You job is to point anything that can't kill you, and hold it until it's either dead, or pointed by someone else.

Lets talk a bit about the various sub-roles in tackling. Namely: Fast Long Point, Tanked Long Point, and Tanked Short Point.

Fast Long Point

The point range bonus interceptors are ideal for pointing from range(shocking, I know) and very little tanking is expected/required. These ships are useful in catching a bomber... or certain utility ships.... something that poses little threat to frigate sized ships, but is hard to catch.

Amarr

[Malediction, Fast Long Point]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Sensor Booster II
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II

'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket
Salvager I

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


One of the faster and coolest looking frigates in the game... you will love flying this. The faction MWD(Coreli C-Type) is in the 20 million range, so it will double the value of the ship should you choose to get it. It will make you cap stable, but this lasts for 10 minutes without it. Don't worry about shooting anything in this, the rockets are just for show(and drones). The sensor booster will let you target out to overloaded point range(36 kilometers), which is important. Leave it unscripted, cause the extra range from the script doesn't help you. More scan resolution does(if only a little bit).

Gallente

[Ares, Fast Long Point]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Sensor Booster II
Warp Disruptor II

Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Salvager I
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I


Remarkable lack of Nano's on this, since it's main selling point is all that structure. Work around that, and you still have an incredibly fast ship with low sig radius and an ok EHP. Most of the same things that applied for the Malediction apply here as well. Same deal with the faction MWD, where this all lasts 8 minutes instead of 10.

Matari


[Claw, Paper Tiger]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Warp Disruptor II
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
[empty high slot]

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

This ship does not have the natural resistances to armor tank, it does not have the CPU to effectively harden it to armor tank, it has 4 low slots, but not enough fitting to make it do anything other than go VERY fast. The roles of the two Matari 'ceptors are reversed, with the long pointing version having a decent tank but being comparably slow... while the one without a point range bonus is faster than any other non-faction frigate.

Caldari

[Raptor, Fast Long Point]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Sensor Booster II

75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Iron Charge S
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Iron Charge S
75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Iron Charge S
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Gremlin Rocket

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

This one tries to do everything, and is ok at all of it. Not great though, and for a specialized ship, that sucks. Can DPS from outside normal point range(if only just barely) which none of the rest can effectively do, EHP is low, and speed is lower too. You'll find that Raptor is the least suited ship to the tackling role. If you trained Caldari Frigate 5, use the Crow.

Long Tanked Point

Interceptors without that long point range can be fitted to tank decently, and should be... they're ideally suited for ships that could pose a threat to frigate sized ships, things that aren't Vagas/Cynabals or Snipers at range. Something like a Hurricane, or an assault missile fitted drake. You hold the ship for just long enough to get the gang in.

Amarr

[Crusader, Tanked Point]
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Radio S
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Radio S
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Radio S
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Radio S

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

Tanks well, and can put out mediocre, DPS. It's also incredibly fast for such a ship with a plate on it, so it's got that going for it.

Gallente

[Taranis, DPS Frigate]
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II

Warp Disruptor II
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
1MN Afterburner II

Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


Hobgoblin II x2

The Taranis is not a ship for the faint of heart, you'll see many other more conservative fits floating around, and if you want to try one, go for it. I fly the Taranis for the rush, and you'll get that and more out of this. It's the fit I used to get this kill. So take from that what you will. You pick your targets carefully. This one is set to point at range, while the one I used to kill the drake had a scram. I just pulled in real tight and scrammed him, while still running the AB. It's fast... and if it isn't on fire, you're not flying it right. On this fit, the AB will be used when you want to apply DPS to a target. Otherwise MWD and stay the hell away.

Matari

[Stiletto, Best Long Point]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II

Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Sensor Booster II
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
[empty high slot]

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I





This ship is fast for it's tanking ability. One of the harder ships to shake off, this is the go to ship for a longer point that can hold it's target for a while. The added bonus here is that the ship can point and tank from outside of t2 heavy neut range... making it the best choice for pointing, period. The fitting is incredibly tight, and if you need to drop the guns, go for it. Shooting stuff is not your job.

Caldari

[Crow, Fast Tanked]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Medium Shield Extender II
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

A bit like the claw, but without the point bonus. If you want to fly an Interceptor, and you're caldari specced, this is the only real option for you. That said, it's one of the better ones in this role... nice tank, pretty fast.

Tanked Short Point.

Finally, Assault ships come in two flavors... DPS and Tanky. However, each of the races has a different way of doing it's job. This is where scrams will be used, and in some cases webs. Webs have been optional for a long time, but where used they can be very useful(Since the MWD changes that made scrams shut them down). These ships, once they achieve point, aren't going anywhere, because they're probably pointed too. Be damn sure your gang is ready to help you. These are ideally suited for tackling bigger and dangerous ships, the kind most frigates shy away from.

Amarr

[Vengeance, Immovable Object]
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Damage Control II
Small 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

Small Nosferatu II
125mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
125mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S
125mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I, Republic Fleet EMP S

Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I



This ship is slow. I mean REALLY slow. It's the only one fitted with a MWD, because without it, it wouldn't even catch half of the battleships out there. You'll be burning hard with MWD on, probably overloaded, and once you get the target in scram and web range, hold him there. Your tank is impressive, and really your job is to sit on a BS and make sure he goes nowhere until the gang gets there. I don't particularly like the ship, but tanking over 100 DPS a second is going to last you a long time. Sadly, this is for single targets, more than one or two, and it'll be easily overwhelmed. I suggest you leave this one in the hangar and pick something else.


Gallente

[Ishkur, TankyTackle]
Armor Explosive Hardener II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Scrambler II
1MN Afterburner II

Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]

Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Hobgoblin II x5

The Gallente Option is actually the DPS assault ship. However, it's a doozy... probably the best non-faction frigate in the game, the Ishkur is a dangerous boat. It's one fatal flaw, and what makes it less than ideal for "fast" tackle, is that when fully tanked out, it turns like the Titanic. As is the case with any heavily armor tanked frigate, you lose part of the point of having a frigate(align speed). In this fit, you'll ride in like a fucking Valkerie, point something, and put on significant DPS while the gang gets there. Just be sure not to overshoot the target, cause you align about half as fast as a BS. Also be sure not to kill it till everyone else gets on the killmail(JK, you're flying a brick for a reason).

Matari

[Jaguar, Tanky Point]
Power Diagnostic System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II

Medium Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Small Nosferatu II

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


The Jag: A shield tanker who can run a small gisti B-type shield booster indefinitely(not that we will be doing that) with decent base resists. Faster than the other options as well(as expected since it's a shield tanking Minmatar ship), but not many people's first choice. With this fit, you can scram the target, and comfortably wait until the cows come home before you need to worry about dying. The NOS allows you to keep running the AB and point even if you're neuted all the way down(it'll kill the invuln, but you've still got impressive EHP without it).

Caldari

[Harpy, Tanky Point]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II

Photon Scattering Field II
Medium Shield Extender II
1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II

Light Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I



The Harpy is a shield tanked Ishkur, basically. It's a bit faster, and can put out respectable DPS on it's targets. This is a nice balanced ship, which doesn't excel in any of it's strengths, but comes close.


Conclusion

Some notes: a lot of these ships assume you have near perfect fitting skills. Some of the shield boats will need shield upgrades 5 in order to work(or a 1%/3% CPU implant). You can do named modules to fix some of these problems, it's up to you.

Spring the extra 30 mill or so for implants: "Zor's Custom Navigation Hyper-Link" will give you a 5% bonus to MWD or AB speed boosts. "Hardwiring - Eifyr and Co. 'Rogue' CY-1" will give a 3% boost to your ship velocity. Neither are incredibly expensive, and they equal aproximately 10% of speed increase above 5000 M/S. 5000 becomes 5500, which is an impressive yield for the price of the implants. Less than that, is still viable, and the implants help all ships you fly as well. They've been part of my standard implant set for a year. I'm probably increasing the price of them just by posting about them. Oh well.

Again, these are just one component of a successful gang, you need other ships fufilling the other roles, or these fall flat on their face. Taranis/Ishkur/Harpy aside, these are not solo boats, and will die if they get caught alone.

On stacking penalties: Increases to base speed are multiplied by the MWD. This is important on ships that rely on speed, because it means that the stacking penalties(if another overdrive only adds 20 M/S for example, it's going to be multiplied by at least 5, and perhaps more depending on your skills/implants) are less of a big deal. Still, if the next module only adds 5 M/S or .1 align time, you're probably wasting a slot.

V and V: Episode 2 and Eve News Now: Episode 22

This week's Voices From The Void.

And Eve News Now.

So, Stuff Happened.

You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.
R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Some people who know me well enough, know I live in central Alabama... so I was smack dab in the middle of the area hit hardest by the Tornados this week. Been without internet for a while, but we got away relatively unscathed. Thought now would be a good time to put out an update about some various things.

First of all, things are going well in Split Infinity. We're marching to war right now, but it's a good one. AAA and allies have decided that if the DRF wants to attack the North, we should hit them in the South. This is a good and solid plan, so I'm happy to participate. Time to take some space.

The podcast is still going strong, with a thousand hits this week. My thanks go out to the community for supporting me in that.

Other than that, a bit of PvP and a bit of PvE... it doesn't seem like I've really DONE much this week(except play through Chrono Trigger like twice while the cable was out).

Stay tuned, cause ENN is still coming, and so is the podcast.

Voices From The Void: Episode 1

Check it out. You might like it.

Here's this weeks' ENN if that's what you're looking for.

New Podcast: Voices From The Void

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For the Devil

So, turns out editing for four hosts was a bit much for Jade. We all got together after he decided to hang up his microphone, and we've worked it out so that Dani and I will just run our own podcast, and boy howdy will it be awesome. LIE is still going to be a thing, I expect. But I can't speak for Jade.

So visit us over at Voices from the Void. And stay a while.

Eve News Now: Episode 20

Forgot to crosspost this yesterday evening.

And on youtube!

CCP's Tech II Damage Control

And I'm here to remind you

Of the mess you left when you went away
It's not fair to deny me
Of the cross I bear that you gave to me
You, you, you oughta know
Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know

Ok, I'm not a CCP hater. I've disagreed with them in the past, but all in all, I'm a fan. They make a game I play and make my own content for, so obviously there's some love there. Still, how they could let the latest forum issue go the way it did is just confusing.

And not in a good way, like these underwear.

We all remember the initial introduction of PI, right? When people could still buy stuff off the market, and reprocess it to make tons of money, right? What we had there were professional game developers making a very basic and stupid mistake. That should never have made it onto the main server, and yet it did. So we were all left scratching our heads and wondering how anyone could be that incompetent.

It's ok CCP, nobody else likes where this is going either.

And here we are again. The recent forum debacle has shown us that CCP's been pretty bad at learning from those kind of mistakes. This annoys me, it should annoy you. What's worse is that they were unclear in describing the exact extent of threat. "Our database is secure" is not what I need to hear from this sort of breach. That's the annoying part, their database was secure, they were at no risk of having client data stolen. They did that part of the work. The part they forgot was protecting us.

Now let me say first of all, I never visited the new forums. I found out about it the same way most people did, through Helicity Boson. Now I'm not a gloom and doom type, but most of what was said there makes sense, and it scares the shit out of me that CCP could allow such an exploit to go unaddressed until 30 hours after it's deployment. It should scare the shit out of you.

This guy gets it.

So mostly we're dealing with a purely forum based security breach. At least that's what the damage control post would lead me to believe. It's unlikely anyone had enough time to really screw with your PC through creative html placement. One doesn't need javascript to really fool you, especially when you're already on a trusted site. Still, there's a low likelyhood that anything actually happened. You're probably safe, and so is everyone else.

Look Lisa! A Guarantee. I'm sold. How do I give this guy my stuff again?

But why in the thousand gory hells was it even possible to screw us over? Shouldn't someone be looking at this stuff? Jesus H Christ. This ain't even the 2nd time this has happened, CCP has a long history of screwing up pretty basic logical outcomes. Deleting boot.ini when you patch? Why the fuck not? Forgetting that you can reprocesses stuff, even though you just made it reprocessable? Sure. Allow a gaping security hole in the forums to pass through inspection and multiple people reporting it in Beta Testing? Shine on you fucking crazy diamond.

CCP's choice of unicorns and rainbows on the login page starts to make a lot more sense in this context.

Even a cursory glance at CCP's history shows they've got some problems in their past. Reading all that info indicates that there used to be problems with generating items, but it's fixed now. But it used to be pretty broken. CCP just kept making do, and making mistakes. And counting on the playerbase to catch those mistakes.

CCP has a bad reputation for not taking very much care with their product, and this is not the first time they've fucked up royally. They've gotten very good at damage control throughout the the years, because they've had so many self made problems to deal with.

Sure he shot Marvin in the face, but at least he can blame it on being a Scientologist.

They're never going to make everyone happy. Lets face it, CCP couldn't do that even if they never ever ever screwed up. But they do, consistently. It's gotten so bad that whenever a patch DOESN'T include some crippling game breaking bug, it's remarkable.

Kind of like this guy going through a day without pissing himself.

What The Hell Is This?!

I wander from star to star,
As I glide bleakly through the night,
Though I travel near and far,
I've yet to find the one that's right.

A red, an orange, a white a blue,
Planets that spring forth with life,
And moons that glimmer in starlight too,
Comets pierce as sharp as knives,

Yet not one among them them will come to me,
Still onward up I'll climb,
I travel on, in my reverie,
Until the end of time.

Just little extra post that needed to go somewhere. Real content coming tonight.

Eve News Now: Episode 19

Check it out.

And on Youtube.

CCP Really Screws Up(READ THIS)

If you used the "new forums" go here. Read this. Now.

TL;DR Your computer may be at serious risk. Get on a clean computer and change your passwords, or clean your computer to make sure it's not compromised. ASAP. It's possible that nothing happened, but there were some VERY easy ways to get all your information and even get a keylogger onto your system.

If you think someone in EVE wasn't doing that, I've got a class 12 wormhole to sell you.

Recruit Me! Also Co-Hosting Lost In Eve.

Well I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damn depressed,
That I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed,
I ain't ready for the altar but I do agree there's times,
When a woman sure can be a friend of mine.
America - Sister Golden Hair

First of all, check me out. I'm now officially one of the co-hosts of Lost In Eve.

Now on to the post:
I have now left Majesta Empire. It's been a long time coming, but a bit of a hard decision. You see, everything about null-sec war annoys me. The timers, the grinding, the alarm clock ops. Or at least it would've if I'd ever really committed to them.

I got fed up with avoiding logging in so I wouldn't get committed to another 6 hour op that I just didn't have time for. The members were nice enough, but I had no real friends the entire time I was there. So essentially, there were many reasons to leave and one very good reason to stay.

The money.

After just under a 5 month stay, I'm bit over 5 billion richer. This is significant to me in many ways but the important thing to remember is that I only got geared up to really produce isk over the last 2 months. About 2/3's of that 5 billion was made in the last two months. How, you might ask?

First of all I set up a reaction POS pair. I defrayed costs through planetary interaction, with one character making enough robotics for both POS and the other making enough Coolant and Mechanical parts to do the same. I created fernite carbide from materials(Specifically Vanadium and Scanadium) I bought in Jita. Rough profit after all costs were accumulated was about a billion isk a month. I ran this pair for 3 months. I may in the future explain this in more detail with a guide, but for now, you should know this is a ridiculously profitable enterprise.

Second of all, I stopped wasting my time on Sanctums. This may strike you as odd, but it's one of the first steps I took to making money in Null-Sec. You see, I had a Tengu with almost 700 DPS, doing very good damage to elite frigates as well. That thing could burn through Sanctums. With fighter support I could bring down 20 million isk a tic. But it's constant work. So I spent a lot of time spinning my ship instead.

You can spend 5 hours doing it, and hope for a Dread, or you can scan systems for signatures instead. I chose the second option and damn was it a good one. Suddenly having to figure out what to do with a Gila BPC, Rattlesnake BPC, 15 Enhanced Ward Consoles, and a Pith A-Type X-Large shield booster all at the same time became a problem of mine. I ran gas clouds as well, and developed my Gas mining skill to max. That's 50 million isk a site, and you finish it in an hour(which you spend "mining" so you can do plenty of other stuff in the mean time). I'll take that.

Basically if you do the right things, and put in the right things in the right places, you can make a shitton of money. All they ask for is commitment, and while that's not a terrible thing, I'm not quite ready for that yet.

Next stop, a wormhole corp. I wouldn't mind if they're PvP focused, but they need to have a strong PvE backbone, because I want to learn how to do that. Anyone recruiting?

Eve News Now: Episode 18

Check it out!

On Youtube!

The Come From Behind Win.

This blog has been taken hostage by the rainbow farting unicorn liberation front. 5 million isk or the content gets it. You have one day.

Eve News Now: Episode 17 & Lost in Eve

Check out the News.

Or check out the news and me talking about a whole bunch of other stuff.

Direct youtube link.

Guide: Securing High Value Items

We could have had it all,
Rolling in the deep,
You had my heart inside of your hands,
And you played it to the beat.
Adele - Rolling In The Deep

Every time I see someone with a huge but avoidable loss it bothers me. There are some pretty deliberate ways you can avoid big losses. But going into the ins and outs of not losing your officer fit Golem is not something I'm interested in. You know what does interest me though? High value cargo. This guide is going to go over some of the basics of securing high value cargo inside what should be secure space. Here's some simple rules.

Rule Number One: If you're moving high value cargo anywhere, don't tell anyone until you're done.

Rule Number Two: Don't move high value cargo during a war dec, on any character that anyone has active killrights on, or on any character that's got an aggression timer to pretty much anything.

Rule Number Three: You're not paranoid, you're protecting your investment.

The Basics:

People can scan your cargo without you ever knowing. A passive targeter will hide their target lock until they activate something on you. The cargo/ship scanner is not something that'll show up either. They can be sensor boosted to pretty much instantly lock anything short of a light drone, and in a fair number of cases, they'll manage to get a scan off on a cov-ops ship. Always assume your cargo is being broadcasted down the line to a fleet of battleships that's wondering if it's worth killing you or not. One day it will be.

I'm aware that there are methods to put couriers into cans and make their contents a mystery, but that's a beacon to anyone who's looking for a nice juicy cargo to snatch. They'll know you're hiding something for a reason and gank you for the hell of it.

Research:

First of all, here's a tip that'll save you a lot of trouble. You don't need to put a blueprint into a POS to research it. The Scientific Networking skill will allow you(at level 1) to place the blueprint in the corporate hangar(you will need an office there for this to work) at a station in the same system as the POS.

You can then run the research remotely, without ever exposing the blueprint to any danger(except the danger of someone stealing it out of the corporate hangar in the station). Additional levels in that skill only allow you to be further away from the BPO and POS when you initiate the research, while they'll always have to be in the same system.

In addition, invention, or anything that requires you to have items on hand, will require you to drop those off in the proper modules inside the POS first. You can still leave the BPOs in the station though.

Sweating the Small Stuff: Moving small items through high sec.

So now that is out of the way. Lets assume you need to move a Drake BPO x systems to where your corp's High Sec POS is. The path is all high sec. A large number of people will just throw it in a shuttle, set it on autopilot, and forget about it. These people are stupid. Unfortunately a good portion of the time, this works... which breeds a sort of complacency.

More paranoid folk will always warp to 0. This is better, but still not as effective as you think. Even more paranoid folk will take a cov-ops frigate, throw on the cov-ops cloak, fit it for max maneuverability and always warp to 0. These can still be smartbombed (smartbombs work in high sec, in case you thought it did not).

What to do then? Well, there is another ship in eve that warps cloaked, and has the ability to fit if not an impressive tank, then at least a decent one. Those are force recons. Most force recons can fit a decent if not impressive shield tank if they're not fit out for combat. This makes it incredibly unlikely for you to die to smartbomber. Outside of a T3 ship, which is pretty damn expensive, the Force Recon is the best suited ship for this job.

But even with all this, if your cargo is valuable enough, suiciders will come for you. You can solve that problem by breaking up loads into smaller parts. Yes you expose yourself to more jumps and therefore more danger, but if you take all these steps together, you become an unlikely target. There are, after all, plenty of folks autopiloting in shuttles. They're an easier target than you.

So what if your cargo is incredibly valuable, but you can't break it into smaller parts? If you want to go further down the paranoia path, only take the item a few jumps a day, and log in at different parts of the day to get it done. Sure it's time consuming, but think about how much work you'd need to do ingame to get enough money to pay for another one of what you're moving. Is it worth it to be paranoid?

So that's the small stuff. What if you need to move something big?

Big Problems: Moving big items through high sec.

You'll find things to a bit less complicated from here on out. Your options for large items are a lot less numerous. It goes in this order: Orca>Jump Freighter>Freighter>Cloaky Transport Ship>Warp Stabbed Transport>Regular Industrial.

Lets ignore the regular industrial and warp stabbed transport. The cloaky transport shouldn't be used for more than medium cost loads, as it's still pretty low on HP(works the same as the Force Recon's earlier). The Freighter is sometimes the ONLY thing you can use to move something, because sometimes things are just too big to use anything else. If this is the case, be careful of high population systems, break your cargo up if you can... and if you just can't: Only move a few systems a day. Always warp to 0 and never use autopilot. If it looks like you're about to land on something you don't want to be landing in, log out.

Sometimes you get lucky and you can use a Jump Freighter, which can jump from High Sec into Low Sec. You can cover a lot of ground jumping into empty low-sec systems with a station, then docking and moving the cyno further towards where you need to go. Then the Jump Freighter can go straight from low-sec to high sec via gates and complete the journey. Jump Freighters, when properly used, are impossible to catch. That is only if you follow the rules I stated at the start of the guide though.

The Orca is special. Stick a 100mn MWD on it, put a cloak on if you really want. After you hit align(starting from 0 speed) turn the MWD on and off. When it finishes cycling, you'll be in warp. What's so special about all that? It has a corporate hangar that'll fit up to 40k m3, and space for 400k of assembled ships as well. You can't cargo scan a corporate hangar. You can have an insanely valuable item inside, and no one has to know. On top of that, you can actually fit it out with an impressive-ish tank. And remember, if time/skill points isn't a factor, you can use these much safer methods to move small items as well.

So that's that. Opinions are welcome, as are any things I've left out.