Blog Banter #10: Oh Reginald!?

Welcome to the tenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's banter leans a little, OK a lot, on the academic side. It comes to us from xiphos83 of A Misguided Adventurer, who asks the following: " Victor Davis Hanson argues that western culture, comprising of ideals such as freedom, debate, capitalism, and consensual government, are what make western society so successful at waging war. These ideologies create a warrior who's direct participation in government, ability to think freely, and desire to remain free, fights harder and is willing to suffer more than his conscripted foe. Though a military must remain a structured oligarchy to fight a war effectively, why in a world where military conflict is as familiar as breathing are there so few alliances that embrace these ideologies when governing their members?"




Victor Davis Hanson's argument is flawed. That was easy.

Aw Shit Son.

There are few things in this life that I've ever been sure of. I knew my wife wasn't coming back. I knew I'd win re-election last term, and I know now that Spectre sucks.

Ramir Jonas - Gallente Senator

You probably won't recognize the man in the picture, that's alright, not many do. That's Spectre, the Eve Newb. He's that guy that lost during the last blog banter contest. He's been on a bit of crusade recently about his really very stinging loss.

He believes he was cheated! Spectre, if you're reading this I've got a little message for you.



I'm throwing down the gauntlet, you wanna rumble? We'll rumble. You wanna pick daisies in the fields all day with the sun shining brightly in the sky and a warm breeze gently wafting... uh never mind.

Point is, I'm throwing down the gauntlet.


Bring it son.

Obsidian Operation #1

They came with beasts from the blackness. With their and claws and fangs they grabbed them. Everyone but me.

Child - 300

Stage One, Getting Started.

I logged in and heard the call, we had a target. Someone somewhere paid us some money(specific eh?) to do our covert ops thing and harass Cold Steel Alliance. Excellent.

What's that you say? I can't do that? I don't know how to yet? I've never done it before? All I've got is theory?


We found a convenient wormhole from our home system to a place 4 jumps from where we'd need to cyno in. I went through, made my way over, and in a few short minutes I was there. K1Y-5H the sov 4 constellation capital of Cold Steel Alliance.

Stage Two - Blow Shit up

So I took stock of my surroundings, we had our transdictor(a cloaky transport ship loaded with bubbles) blocking the system off. I warped to their station to take a look around, and very shortly after that, they decloaked a few stealth bombers of their own and targeted the transport ship as it dropped a bubble. SnailB, the transdictor pilot manged to kick his microwarp drive on and outrun the points, before warping away. We were thouroughly impressed, but then we saw something promising.

The stealth bombers started shooting at the bubbles, so we decloaked our stealth bomber fleet and an Arazu and popped one. As we did so, they undocked a Thanatos and Maelstrom. Now the rest of their stealth bombers started on the bubbles again. We timed it perfectly again and took another one down under their noses.

For the rest of the night they moved three carriers around with their ships to keep them safe. We cloaked and waited.



A day later, and they closed the constellation, everyone was told to leave and local started to consist of just us. I suppose they thought that would deter us. Some people still tried to play, and we managed to catch some trying to run away.

Finally on the last day of the op, I managed to pop a Covetor alone after he got tangled in a bubble.

All in all? A good few days.

OOC: Update - July 2009

Bit late, but here we go.

I should be able to pick up the frequency of posting sooner or later, but I really ought to remove the "probably Wednesday thing, since I've yet to actually update near that day.

Beyond the new writing commitments I've made, I've also decided to move, and it's taking money and time to get it done.

I've moved into 0.0 for a while at least, and joined up with some old friends in a new corp. Obsidian Operations. It's got a fair number of old Bastards as members, and is led by Jedziah. I'm going to have some fun.

Peace.

What's Next?

Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.
David Starr Jordan

"So what do you want to do?" Sarah sat across from Hallan in the makeshift office he'd set up on their new Myrmidon.

"Well, now that CONCORD doesn't think I'm a criminal anymore, I'd like to go back to high sec,"

"That's not what I mean Hal, the Gallente millitia is a lost cause. Where are you going?"

"I don't know really,"

Sarah stood up and reached into her pockets, she pulled out a strip of paper and placed it in front of Hallan, "I know these guys, they're good. You know some of them too actually,"

"Obsidian Operations?"

"Yes,"

"Alright,"

The One Where I Start Something.

So I started a little conflict a few days into my 0.0 career.

EVE System > Channel changed to GQ-XQ Local Channel
Psychotic Turtle > lol, that aeonyx guy is a fucking loser. I have fought his alliance for a year, they are the most pathetic alliance in game with worst pvp'ers. You guys are 100 times better pvp'ers than his pathetic alliance.Coms out.
Hallan Turrek > Why hello! You seem like a nice guy, will you be my friend?
Psychotic Turtle > i was reffering to stain empire, you guys are a whoile different story on your own i will not go in to right now as to not crush your spirits, i suggest you guys keep playing and keep learning.
Hallan Turrek > Oh thank you so much, I am so new to this after all. I appreciate you holding back for me.
Hallan Turrek > I'll be honest, I could never raise hand in anger.
Psychotic Turtle > learn to.COms out.
Hallan Turrek > Oooh, that coms out thing is so cool.
Hallan Turrek > I wish I'd been able to think up something so incredibly original like that.
Hallan Turrek > /emote sighs
Hallan Turrek > I'm just stuck with the same old thing I guess.
Psychotic Turtle > stop talking or i will come back and live in your home systems for another week
Hallan Turrek > You see, that right there? That's a promise you can keep.
Hallan Turrek > All this talk of being bad, that's total BS, you can keep saying it, but saying you'll live somewhere, that's something you can actually do.
Hallan Turrek > So go on, live. If you can.
Hallan Turrek > I get the feeling you'll get bored after a while, but by all means, have fun.
Hallan Turrek > Cat got your tongue? Too bad. "Coms out,"
Hallan Turrek > No it seems pretty stupid when I say it too. Heh.

Turns out these guys have a history of camping systems and dropping covert cynos for a fleet of black ops battleships. Sounds like fun to me, but not so much for everyone else. The alliance was, unhappy to say the least.

It's all simmered down for now, but I still think the whole thing is pretty funny.

Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won't You Die?

Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

"Last month Ga'len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith "WebMandrill" Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completelyfrom EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?"

Dying is easy. It's living that's hard.
Luke Spencer

Everything in the Eve universe that can kill you can die. A Titan is scaring the crap out of you? A huge NPC spawn from a level 5? A Rifter with a warp scrambler that's holding you down for that gang that's coming for your skin? POS guns? It's all killable in Eve. That's one of the beautiful parts of eve, anything that can kill you can itself be killed.

Well almost anything. Enter the Sentry Gun:

This almost never actually happens.

So that begs the question, why? It's an exception to the rule in eve, and it's also an integral part of living in low-sec. Most high sec dwellers don't even notice or care about sentry guns, but in low-sec, they protect the gates from the predilections of pirates. As soon as a non-criminal is fired upon by anyone, they spring to life and defend truth, justice, and the CONCORD way.

Anyone that runs is a pirate. Anyone that stands still is a well disciplined pirate.

So these sentry guns begin to thoroughly kick ass. They've got huge damage potential across all damage types, and are impossible to kill. In effect, it's a built in advantage for the non-criminals of the game on gates and stations. It can be used to lull people into a false sense of security at times, and at other times it's the tipping point in a battle.

So why not take away their indestructibility? It's at least worth talking about. What would be the advantages and disadvantages?

Pro: Making them destructible would make low-sec more interesting. We're not talking about making them easily killed, at least a battleship should be required to take them down. You could clear them out before an engagement to even things up for your side. In effect it makes things more interesting because it gives you a bunch of options for engagements. On average things stay the same because it takes a special effort to take them down, but eventually they'll respawn.

Cons: Pirates would be getting a boost from this, and a fair portion of the player base don't like pirates. It might make it easier to gate camp, but gate camping happens now.

In the end ask yourself this: Why shouldn't they be killable?

Beneath this mask there is more than machinery.

Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Turrek,

and ideas are bulletproof.

Oh. Totally didn't know. Sorry about that.

Please don't kill me.

Other Banters:

1. Diary of a Space Jockey, Blog Banter: BE GONE!
2. EVE Newb, (EVE) Remove You
3. Miner With Fangs, Blog Banter - It's the Scotch
4. The Eden Explorer, Blog Banter: The Map! The Map!
5. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, "Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!"
6. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Kill the Rats
7. Mercspector @ EVE, Scotty
8. EVE's Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #9
9. A Merry Life and a Short One, Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won't You Die?
10. Into the unknown with gun and camera, Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey
11. The Flightless Geek, EVE Blog Banter #9: Remove a Game Mechanic
12. Sweet Little Bad Girl, Blog Banter 9: Who is Nibbling at My House?
13. One Man and His Spaceship, Blog Banter 9: What could you do without?
14. Life in Low Sec, EVE Blog Banter #9: Stop Tarnishing My Halo
15. Cle Demaari: Citizen, Blog Banter #9: Training for all my men!
16. A Mule in EVE, He who giveth, also taketh away?
17. Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter 9
18. Morphisat’s Blog, Blog Banter #9 – Randomness Be Gone !
19. Facepalm's Blog, EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without
20. Memoires of New Eden, You're Fired
21. Kyle Langdon's Journeys in EVE, EVE Blog Banter #9 Titans? What's a Titan?
22. Achernar, The gates! The gates are down!
23. Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #9: Down with Downtime!
24. I am Keith Neilson, EVE Blog Banter #9-F**K Da Police
25. Ripe Lacunae, The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
26. Clown Punchers, EvE Blogs: What game mechanic would you get rid of?
27. Estel Arador Corp Services, You've got mail
28. Epic Slant, Let Mom and Pop Play: EVE Blog Banter #9
29. Deaf Plasma's EVE Musings, Blog Banter #9 - Removal of Anchoring Delay of POS modules
30. Podded Once Again, Blog Banter #9 - Do we really need to go AFK?
31. Postcards from EVE, 2009.07.02.00.29.06
32. Harbinger Zero, Blog Banter #9 – War Declarations & Sec Status
33. Warp Scrammed, Blog Banter 9 – Never Too Fast
34. Ecaf Ersa (EVE Mag), Can a Tractor Tractor a Can?
35. Thoughts from an Accidental Minmatar Revolutionary, EVE Blog Banter #9 - Aggression timers, WTs and Stargates
36. Mike Azariah, I don't put much stock in it...
37. Rettic's Log, Blog Banter: Overview Overload
38. A Sebiestor Scholar, [OOC] EVE Blog Banter #9: Slaves
39. Diary of a pod pilot, [OOC] EVE blog banter #9: Because of Falcon
40. Roc's Ramblings, Blog Banter #9 – Taking Things Slow
41. The Gaming-Griefer, EVE Sucks, But I Love It: The Memoir of a Masochist
42. Letrange's EVE Blog, Blog Banter #9: Bye Bye Learning Skills
43. Lyietfinvar, Remove that monopoly
44. Sceadugenga, Blog Banter #9
45. Industrialist with Teeth, EVE Blog Banter #9