The questions.

Good evening people!

Over the last week or so I have had a question out there in the blogging universe. I EvE mailed every writer from the blog pack(1) and asked them 2 very simple questions.

"1. If you could only fly one race for the rest of your EvE career which race would you chose and why?

2. What is your favorite *looking* ship in EvE? It does not have to be combat effective or usefull in any way... just asteticly pleasing. (Mine is the Gallente Shuttle for instance)"

I then posted the same 2 questions on the forums of 0utbreak, Rote Kapelle and Fla5hy Red.

So I have been getting EvE mails and been checking the forums and got a good response from everyone, over 60 replies to this little questionaire found their way into my little notepad of doom(tm) And I can now reveal the results.

I am going to talk about the results, starting with the last place and working to the first place winner. I will be adding my opinions.

Gallente came last with a disappointing 3 votes. Your either sitting at range with drones and rails doing very little to help the gang due to laughable DPS or trying to motor into close range while being annoyingly kited by other ships. There is very little versatility in Gallente and I think that this is the reason it has come last in this vote.

Caldari came in next with 5 votes and I think I know why. Who has NOT been jammed by 'that fucking Falcon' while out in gang? Anyone?  Didn't think so. The people who like Caldari are generally spec'd to fly Falcons and Tengus as the be-all and end-all of EvE. And to be honest... most people have an alt or main who flies a Falcon. Hell, Hannibal is a 'Falcon alt' but I very rarely use him in such a capacity. Caldari do 2 things very well. They can fling missiles at range and they have good EWAR.  Again, as with Gallente, they have very little versatility.

Next we have 2nd place Amarr with 17 votes. The Amarr have a good ship in every catagory in my oppinion and can be used in a variety of roles. Guardians are the Armor Reps of choice for all armor fleets (bar triage carriers) they have arguably the best combat recon of the 4 with the Curse and the best HAC in the Zeaolt that can be utilised in either shield nano, sniper or armor gangs. They have a solid battlecruiser in the Harbinger and all of the Amarr battleships are good in thier own way. Shield? Sniper? Armor? DPS? Recon? HAC? Bigger shit? The Amarr have all the bases covered. Beams and limited damage range are where the Amarr is let down. If an amarr fleet came up against a gang with high EM resistance... game over.

First place, obviously is Minmitar with a whopping 38 votes, the sheer vesatility and ships available to the Minmitar is outstanding. The Hurricane can be tanked to whichever version the FC asks for and can fit either AC's for in the face melting or Artilary for sheer first strike alpha. The Small ships of this race include the PVP favorite the Rifter. Nearly every pirate or PVP'er in EvE can trace his roots back to the humble Rifter.

My first kill was in a Rifter and I killed a Retriever mining in Aurohen.

The Rupture is a PVP beast and can, again be fit for 'in the face' armor brawling or kiting shield DPS. Then you come to the Vagabond, Munin, Broadsword, Stabber Fleet all of which are great ships with different fits for different roles. The Rapier, though arguably not the best recon, definetly has it's place with those long range webs holding stuff down. The Battleships of the Minmitar can again be held up as shining examples of versatility.

Am I suprised by this outcome? Hell no, I would of chosen Minmitar myself!

Honourable mention must go to Capt Red and Lt Rook of 0utbreak. For thier answers they went for 'Jovian' and 'Angel Cartel' respectively.

Jovian is an interesting idea and, with an nod to Rixx over at Eveoganda, the question came up 'would you chose to forsake all other races at 100mil SP to fly nothing but Jovian from then on?' Personally, I think it would depend on the ships and versatility that they offer. Versatility is a huge thing in EvE and I would have to think hard before making such a choice. 0utbreak was likewise split by the question. Something to come back to sometime? Maybe.

Angel Cartel ships huh? That would mean you could fly... The Dramiel, Daredevil, Fury, Cynabal and Machariel. Thats it right? Interesting as the 'cookie cutter' fits for these ships are all shield IIRC and doesn't really fit into the versatility arguement... maybe that why it only got 1 vote!

This is already a very long post so I will announce the 'best looking ship in EvE' tomorrow morning. If you wish to have your say on the best looking ship I will take comments on this post into account when announcing tomorrow.

CONFESSION: I think I may have squewed the results slightly to cause this outcome.

I am an EvE player that is dedicated to PVP. I don't do any carebear stuff (unless hauling PVP ships counts) and when I have done it in the past I have been very, very bored.

I am not in contact with any pure PVE players in EvE anymore so the questions were asked to PVP players and this showed in the results with Minmitar being arguably the 'best' all round PVP race.

Would this result change if I asked 60 pure carebear players? I think it might... What do you think?

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

(1) All the blog pack members I could find anyway! If you didn't get an EvE mail it's because you don't advertise your ingame character!

P.S Exciting things in the works for Blog Pack members and readers! Stay tuned!

Crucible: Re-Ignite the Fire

 

12 days and counting.... 

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

Blog Banter 30: The Crucible?

"With the Winter expansion possibly being named 'Crucible', it certainly is a melting pot of refinements and tweaks aimed at making the EVE experience smoother and more wholesome. If the developers suddenly found themselves some spare resources and approached you for an additional feature to include before release, what single concept would you pitch them and how would you implement it?


For bonus points, the one thing lacking from this "patchwork" of iterations is a cohesive storyline to package "The Crucible" together. How could this expansion be marketed to potential new customers?"

So what single thing would I do if I had control of the EvE online development team? I would make low-sec more enticing to live in.


I believe there are some simple ways of doing this so I hope you will forgive me in doing multiple small changes instead of one big change.

The first thing I would do to make Low-sec livable is up the rewards and pay from scanning sites found there. Better rocks, better salvage, better bounties and more chance of faction/officer spawns. I would not up the bounty on belt rats, these are fine and don't take any skill to do. 

I would use the system rating (0.1 - 0.4) and balance the rewards vs the sec status of the system. IE you would find better plexes in deep low-sec 0.1 systems than you would in 0.4. 

I would also use a 'local counter' and based on the number of people active in a system in a 24 hour period it will cause more (or less) deadspace plexes to appear the next day. This should create more traffic in low-sec and more groups working together... and more pirates to target them.

Along the same lines I would also put some pirate missions into low-sec systems. I enjoy a little roleplaying in other games and enjoy reading the background of the pirate faction in EvE though I have never done a pirate mission. Making these more accessable would be interesting and bring more people to low-sec. I would make the pirate frigate blueprints (Dramiel, Cruor, Daredevil and Worm) the main drop of the mission arcs in low-sec while reserving the Cruiser+ blueprints for null-sec'rs. 

Now to have pirate missions in Low-sec I believe you should have faction pirate stations as well. Here is my thinking on how the new pirate stations and pirate mechanics should work. 

• Faction Pirate stations do not agress players who are below -5.00 security status even if they have GCC or aggression. This means that criminals can engage on station without worrying about the guns.
• Faction Pirate Stations will not have bounty offices but will have an Assasination Bureau where people can post rewards for the destrustion of players with a positive or negetive sec status. The reward can only be claimed if the kill happened in Low-Sec or Null-Sec.
• Faction belt rats will not aggress anyone who has a +5.00 status with their faction unless shot first. They will then defend themselves as normal. 
• Faction plex rats in low-sec will continue to aggress as normal as they are protecting something. 

 These idea's are very basic. Having faction missions available, especially to low-sec dwellers means you can twist the mechanics to give yourself an edge if you get the standings with the pirates of that specific area.

I see it working well for people who wish to role-play. 

So if you want to hunt for targets in Amarr low-sec you get some standings with the local Sansha pirates. You can then warp into a belt and help 'Defend' you friendly pirate from evil carebears. 

This will help immersion too because as a Sansha RP'er you don't really want to kill that 'Friendly' rat in the belt do you?

My last idea is, I think, rather clever. 

Have NPC targets as well as other players. Now I don't like shooting little red crosses for hours on end. I would rather shoot another player but to do that I need to find them. So what would be good? BAIT.

My Idea is to have NPC Battleships, NPC Industrials and NPC Frieghters running around in low-sec. I mean how else will the eagerly awaited new holo-reels and spirits get to that station in Resbroko without moving through space??

So you see a NPC fleet, Maybe a NPC Charon with a couple of NPC Ravens and Scorpions for support.

Anyway as a Pirate you have 3 options.  

1. You call your mates in and destroy it, picking up the loot from the ships and making a quick profit.

2. You get in a cloaky and you watch. You get an alt online and let your enemy know where this convoy is and were they are heading. You get your fleet ready and follow it a couple of jumps behind. Your enemy engage the convoy and you then jump thier fleet. Epic lols then ensue. Trap sprung!

3. You don't have a fleet but you do have a stealth bomber and you wait until a fleet aggresses and start whoring when possible. 

Aggressing the NPC fleet will cause GCC and aggression just as you would get if attacking  another player. You will also lose security status and reputation with the convoy's parent corp/state. The Charon could be carrying anything including ships, minerals or general crap. 

The convoy will behave like sleeper rats from wormholes and will include webs, scrams, neuts and remote reps. They will swap targets and work as a team. This will make for a fun engagement and should bring out more fleet fights and small gangs.

I have described a 'big' convy here but they could be as small as a one industrial with a frigate scouter. 

Another thing you could do with the above is make the NPC transports vital to maintaining the war effort and bring Faction warfare into it. This Charon could be bringing in specific equipment to help the Caldari war effort against the Gallente. 

The FW miltia need to make sure it gets to it's destination and have to guard it through it's journey. This could bring FW alive with rewards at the end. Player Pirates could make hit and run skirmishes on the miltia fleets and the iopposing FW gangs could try and set up a blockade that the convoy fleet must clear.


My idea's all centre on bringing more people into low-sec and then making thier stay enjoyable and profitable. Low-sec needs more and I think some of these ways... maybe all of them... would help.

The bonus point question, that depends if we are talking  with my new features or not. 

If we are then I would go down the pirate faction line and really big up the fact that you can effectively 'Join' a pirate faction and get help from local belt pirates and live in pirate owned stations. Push the ideology and backstories of each pirate faction and have incarna style events where the pirates sieze the stations from the previous occupier.

If we're talking the real ecpansion then I don't know. It is hard to market something that won't change the game that much. Maybe bigging up the destroyer buff and explaining (again I know)that even a young player can use theses ships to get under the guns of the new Tier 3 BC's and show a fleet of them attacking a Tier 3 gang. I'm not sure but thats the best idea I have at the moment. 

If anyone out there in reader land (IE YOU!!!) would like to make a blog post to go with Blog Banter 30 but have no where to post it then please feel free to email me at neily_7@yahoo.com with your pre-written blog post and I will post it live here on The Beginnings Of Piracy. (I will spell check before posting =P) 

Fly dangerous o/
Mail

Other blog banter 30 writers:
Inner Sanctum of Ninveah
Evoganda
Freebooted
Beyond Space
Sand, Cider and Spacerships 
*New* Finders Keepers 
*New* 2nd Anomaly from the left
*New* Mad Haberdashers
*New* Poetic Disclosure
plus more to come I am sure....

A petition to CPP

This is a petition I sent to CCP just before down time.

"Hi guys,

I just recieved a courier contract and 3 Hurricanes and a Vaga are missing from it. Here is what happened leading up to this.

I bought the Hurricanes and Vagabond from Amarr VIII station on my frieghter alt, Theknownkillu. He bought about 1,3 bil of ships and mods as I am starting PVP in a new area.

I put everything I bought into a General frieght container, apart from 3 Drakes which wouldn't fit.

The total in the container came to 107k m3.

I then threw this into my Charon and took it to Osmeden. I then contracted it to my main. Mail Lite.

This is where it gets confusing...

I tried to then contract the load to Chayni but realised I already had another contract outstanding on Mail Lite so had to cancel the outstanding one to Lady Aero and recontract the load in question to my alt Hannibal Vexor who then contracted it to Chayni, who was bringing it in by jump freighter.

Mail then recontracted the cancelled contract to Lady Aero.

The courier contract was completed which means the package was not broken.

I have checked the assets of all my charcters and can't find my ships anywhere. Plus I would not of been able to open the container with either Mail or Hahnibal as both were in TXW-EI and using the asset window to create the contracts from Osmeden.

Please can I have my bloody ships back.

Hannibal/Mail"

Yeah so... When the contract was completed and Hannibal had it in station the container I only had 67k m3 instead of 107k m3 of the 120k m3 the can can accomadat.

I haven't got out with Rote yet but I now have atleast 'some' of my ships in. I'll be making safes and scouting around in a Dramiel for a little while, just to get used to the area and stuff.

Looking forward to joining up with some Rote fleets soon.

I will keep you updated with the petition... lets see if CCP customer service works.

Fly dangerous o/

EDIT: What the FUCK! I have logged back in after downtime and found my ships sitting snug in Hannibal Vexor's ship bay in TXW!

I swear to GOD they weren't there 30 minutes ago... I love EvE...

Mail

Where is Mail going??

So I'm not going to be joining 0utbreak and I have asked the same friend who jumped me into D87 if he would mind awfuly jumping me back out. Luckily he's a very good friend and said no problem.

So I am waiting in the drop off system for the Jump Freighter before moving it all to a new staging area for another Jump Freighter back into Null.

Where am I going?

Well... I looked around and asked some people and checked out some forums. I wrote an app to Shadow Cartel where Helicity is currently flying and nearly posted it before realising that I'm not bored of flying with Fla5hy Red... I'm a bit bored of Low-Sec itself.

And I think thats something to do with the mechanics of EvE online itself, namely gateguns and GGC.

These 2 mechanics make blobbing in lowsec a better tactic. Why? Well it's to do with sharing gate gun agression. If there are say 3 or 4 of you in shield/nano Battlecruisers and start engaging on gates your soon going to have problems with your tank especially if your targets point and fight back. With more people, say 20-30 all going GCC at the same time on the gate, means by the time the guns have cycled through your fleet members your tank has had time to recharge (unless your a gategun magnet). Aso in fleets of this side your normally alpha'ing stuff off the field so engagements are quicker and Gate Gun aggression isn't as much of an issue.

In Null these things disapear and the art of solo and small fast gangs can be refined. I know there are blobs out there and I know I will probably die to one in the near future. I also know that there are small fleets, soloing and fun times to be had in Null.

So I stopped looking into the low-sec side of things, after thinking about Shadow Cartel, Tuskers, Bastards and the other corps out there that I respect, and started thinking, who in Null I could see myself flying with.

0utbreak, I tried and failed, fair enough. the reasons were trivial in honesty and as someone who has been recruiting people for a while I think a little too trivial but thats cool. I will try them again someday I am sure.

I didn't want big blobs, I hate big blobs unless it's for specific targets. I classify anything of 35 or more as a big blob. That counted out alliances like Darkside. and -Razor-

So I started thinking about it and then I started looking around in game and on the forums at Rote Kapelle. What made me think of this was that one of my main commenters on the blog here is Logan Fyreite and he has a good blog and is also a member of Rote Kapelle.

I also remembered that Ripard Teg at Jester's Trek was a new member of Rote as well. I started reading up on Rote and joining some public channels until I ran into Chaos Dreams of Creative Cookie Procurement (GIRL.). I started a convo which turned into an interview which turned into an application and an EvE mail to Tsumei Meyren the CEO.

In less than 18 hours my application to [GIRL.] will be accepted and a new era both for me ingame and for this blog will start. I will be continuing to post as normal but from a new perspective. I am happy and excited about this new prospect and the pew which will ensue!

To my Fla5hy Red boys, I love you and will continue to watch you from afar. I am around in public channels and will have a JC where you are stationed. I will come back and pew now and again if you will have me. I have had a blast and will always treasure the time I spent with you, both the TGA oldies and Fla5hy Red newbies. 

I'm not looking forward to moving my fleet in a Freighter again though!!! I hate Charons's... And don't worry Hattori... Noone from Fla5hy is lending it to me... Lol!

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

0utbreak Trial Over

Hey everyone,

So I had a great time out in Null with 0utbreak but unfortuantley it has come to nothing. I thought I would give you the final count of my time out in the Curse region.

With the 16 kills from last time I added another 8 kills on Wednesday evening and 7 kills on Thursday night bringing my total up to 31 kills in the 12 days I was out there.

I want to thank 0utbreak for having me and hope that in time I can come fly with you guys again.

I am now on the hunt for another corp that could fulfill my PVP needs. If anyone has any idea's please leave a comment or EvE Mail me in game.

Fly Dangerous o/

Mail

Trial period in review

Evening o/

So most of you know that I have been flying with a different gang recently and have been 'on trial' with them so to speak. I still haven't had a yay or nay so I have decided to review myself since being in the Curse Region.

First off, ships killed since Sunday 23rd October 2011:

1. Thantos (Fleet)
2. Badger MKII (Solo)
3. Rifter (Solo)
4. Dramiel (Fleet)
5. Vagabond (Fleet)
6. Dramiel (Fleet)
7. Hurricane (Fleet)
8. Hurricane (Fleet)
9. Stabber (Fleet)
10. Drake (Fleet)
11. Scorpion (Fleet)
12.Kestrel (Fleet)
13. Curse (Fleet)
14. Tengu (Fleet)
15. Crusader (Solo)
16. Flycatcher (Fleet)

Thats 16 kills, 13 while in fleets and 3 solo kills. Also have 2 noobship kills and 5 capsules which I have not included.

My losses are:

1. Taranis (Solo)
2. Taranis (Solo)
3. Jaguar (Solo)

So I haven't lost anything while in fleet with 0utbreak yet, which is a good sign.

So lets look at the numbers.

I have lost two Interceptors and one Assault Frigate. This amounts to 70,267400 ISK lost for me personally over the last 10 days.

However in the last 10 days I have taken part in kills totalling a massive 3,566,748,790 ISK destroyed. No matter how you look at it, it's a good number.

I am finally enjoying Null Sec PVP. I tried the big blocs (Razor, Sniggwaffe, Defi4nt) but now have found a good small gang PVP corp that do exactly what it says on the tin and do it WELL!

I am looking forward to getting into the game later this evening and pewing some more.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

A couple of kills and a bug.

Hi everyone,

So I was out yesterday evening so got my EvE time during the day. This is both good and bad.

It's good because I get to go out solo and experiment with things without having to turn down fleets and stuff.

It's bad because you don't have anyone to chat to or generally arse around with because most normal people are at work and don't get online till later in the day.

So I launched my Dramiel (of course) and headed into K-B where I know 0utbreak have a warp disruption bubble and I thought I would camp it for a little while on my own, creating a nice warp in 180km from the bubble and 200km from the gate. It was slow going and I could of probably roamed around a bit but was feeling lazy.

I caught a Reaper on the bubble and blew him to bits. I always think it's worth killing newb ships... especially in Null as you never know if they are carrying a shiney mod or something. I carried on camping and saw a Dramiel on scan. Seconds later he landed in my bubble and I went down for the fight.

We both engaged our scrams at the same time and started the slow dance of death, I think it was about 50-50 in damage... Until a Cynabal Pirate Cruiser suddenly appears and we both disengaged and started motoring away. The Cynabal took some pot shots at me from (what I thought) was 60km away.

Now this is where the BUG comes in. A couple of times over the last few days, and then again with this Cynabal the distance and speed part of the overview stops working. So the Cynabal which was showing as 60km from my Dramiel doing 5m/s on the overview was actually doing over 2km/s and was 16km from my Dramiel and had me pointed. Fuck!

I burnt away from the Cynabal in the opposite direction to the other Dramiel and managed to warp out in 16% structure. Gf's were offered in local and a bit of friendly banter ensued.

After repairing and challenging the Dramiel pilot to a 1v1 in my Jaguar, which he refused, I jump back into K-B and go back to my ninja spot. A few minutes later a Crusader Amarr Interceptor appears on scan and moments later lands in my bubble.

I warp to the Reaper wreck (which I had left there as a convienent 'warp to' point) and engage the Crusader. He first tries to run for the gate but soon realises he won't make it so engages. It is a close fight as I accidently orbit at 500m with Barage loaded but remedy that mistake and take the Crusader out.

While we have been fighting a Kestrel has warped to the gate 50km or so away and starts burning towards where I am now looting the Crusader wreck. I am in deep armor (in a shield tanker) but decide to try my luck against the Kestrel.

I orbit close with my AB on to try and minimilise incoming damage from the guys rockets. As I bleed into structure the Kessie is still at 20% shields so I disengage and tacitically retreat (read: run screaming like a girl) out of range and into warp. I have again survived, this time at 38% structure. I hang out for a bit and wait for my shields to repair themselves.

I head back to my spot to find the Kessie pilot has disapeared and a Flycatcher is in the middle of tacking down a Manticore. I think about making a run back to D87 and repairing before coming back to try and take out the Flycatcher myself, then I look in the 0utbreak channel and see Ziggy is online.

I tell him what is going on and he jumps into a Cynabal to back me up against the Interdictor who is now off the gate looking at some wrecks.

At this point I have full shields but no armor and 38% structure remaining. I wait for Ziggy and when he lands on gate I warp to the wreck the Flycather is closest to and get point and start engaging... and he starts to melt. Ziggy gets one shot off on him but otherwise it's a solo kill. I finish the engagement with 70% shields. I didn't know Flycatchers were so squidgy. I will definelty be marking those down in the 'solo'ble' column!

I hung around for a little longer but 30+ man fleets started rolling through K-B and D87 so I decided to call it a night and start getting ready to go out. All in all... A good day in my book.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

P.S Only 54 shopping days till Christmas!!

Happy Halloween

Hi everyone and a very happy all hallows eve to you all.

I found this blog this morning while reading through the EvEbloggers.com site. Go have a quick read as it is a good write up of a good 1v1 fight between a Taranis and a Vengence.

Back? Good.

Now you may notice why I am linking to this Blog. The Taranis was piloted by Fla5hy's own Yuri Zirkov. I especially loved this sentence...

" If I had not been flying a maxed out, deadspace fit, syth supported ship, I would have been toast."

Using Drugs and Deadspace mods in a frigate fight. I have to give him props as, as far as I know, thats pretty rare but obviously made all the difference.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

Old friends and new ships!

Hi all! Just a quick on tonight.

First off I have been flying my old friend the Dramiel again today. I'm trying to get as much use out of it as I can before the nerf in the winter expansion.

First off I took it out to a bubble camp that 0utbreak had going on in the lower part of catch. We caught this scorpion pilot but then his 30 man gang came in for revenge and popped our bubbles so we decided to tactically retreat home for a bit.

After a bit of a chill out we started roaming the local area when a scout saw a curse and Tengu coming into D87. I warped to the gate to be followed by a friendly Vaga. The Tengu uncloaked first and we both went for it, calling point and the rest of the gang in. The Curse uncloaked so I disengaged from the Tengu to motor to the Curse for point.

Now tackling a Curse in a Frig is normally a one way ticket to podsville, neuts and flights and flights of drones are bad news for frigs.

Luckily my fleet take pity on me and call the Combat recon primary over the Tengu. The Curse goes down and we switch to the Tengu and he soon pops too. Just in time actually as his gang if 3 x Tengu and logi/BC support start to arrive as we withdraw from the field.

After another long AFK from me I rejoin just as a nano gang is about to form up. I ask if they want a Dram or a Vaga and get told Dram. Then someone asks if they have a sabre pilot? I put my hand up and get a Corp Sabre handed to me.

I don't tell them that I have never flown one before... I mean how hard can it be?

The gang leaves and we notice a hound following us so we bubble up on the next gate and the hound gets popped. First kill and I ain't on the killmail!!! WTF!!

Nothing really happens on this roam. I miss a couple of ships by not bubbling up fast enough or by poor placement. We also try and drop a couples of capitals on some station gaming carriers to no avail.

All in all it was a good start to my Sabre career... IE it came back in one piece but doesn't get any good Kills.

As the fleet starts forming for what would of been my 4th op of the day, my 1 year old son decides to show he has a career as an acrobat and somersaults out of his cot with a huge bang! No more EvE for me tonight!

Fly dangerous 0/

Mail

Gangs and Solo.

Good morning,

So last night I logged on to TS and ScoRpS decided to start putting a gang together. Fantastic, I ask what is needed and get told to jump in either a Drake or Arty 'Cane.

PODLA Drake it is. (If you don't know what this is, it's basically a double web HML Drake with 2 x Nano and 2 x BCU's)

So I hang around for a few minutes and the order comes to go to the POS and start approaching the Titan. This fleet has turned from a general roam into a suicide Titan bridge fleet. Only one problem with that... I'm a trial member and, as such, do not get access to the POS. I pipe up on TS and ask what they want me to do.

A quick discussion happens and I am given a temporary password, just so I can take part in the fleet. Awsome.

So I warp to the POS and sit in jump range of the Avatar, waiting for our scout to find something to jump us into. After a little while the scout finds a Drake, Armageddon, Huginn, Hurricane and Megathron on a station and warps over to see if they will engage.

As soon as they go red box the cyno is opened and the order to jump is called. The opposition fleet disengaged as soon as the cyno opened, all except a lone Drake pilot. The Battleships, Recon and Hurricane dock up while the Drake, still red boxed on our scout, is called primary and swiftly dispatched.

We take the fleet on a roam through Doril and back round to D87 but find absolutely nothing. On return to D87 a bio is called so I go AFK for 30 mins or so.

On return most of the fleet have gone and it's me and ScoRpS left. I jump into a Jaguar and start wandering the area around D87.

I find a Drake one jump out in a mission or plex so quickly head back to station and grab a Rapier to scan him down, only to realise that I had bought a probe launcher but NO PROBES! D'oh!

Giving up on that idea I head back out in the Jaguar and start looking for a fight.

Now I should probably fill you in on this Jaguar. It's armor tanked for a start.

The fit runs like this: [Jaguar, Double Web]

3x 150mm Light AutoCannon II (Republic Fleet EMP S)
Small Nosferatu II

2x Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II
1MN Afterburner II

200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

This thing runs about 160 DPS overloaded with a little under 7k EHP and does about 1,200m/s also overloaded.

The idea behind this is to counter anything that comes in close. Dramiels would make for a good fight... at least a normal fit one would.

So I was out in this thing and tbh I was hunting the cocky Dramiel pilot hoping to repeat what I did a few days ago, though this time without the killmail whores!

So anyway abot 10 jumps into my circular route I finally run into a Dramiel and we start the engagement.

I close in and put the double webs on and start pouring on the damage and then... I'm capped out. What the hell? And hang on a second.... Is that Dramiel SHIELD BOOSTING?!

I get the Dramiel down to 50% structure before I go pop.  I say good fight to the russian... who ignore me and head home without my Jaguar. Once home I do a little research on this guy and find his fit.

All I can say is... My Jaguar would be able to take on a normal fit Dramiel... This is not normal, but it worked for this guy and he got a good kill out of it.

[Dramiel, Russian Dramiel]

2x 150mm Light AutoCannon II (Republic Fleet EMP S)
Small Nosferatu II

Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Small C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Power Diagnostic System II
Gyrostabilizer II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

2x Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I

3x Warrior II

Ah well. I know now that I need to swap my neut for a nosferatu to try and keep my repper going as long as possible.

I hope I get to try this Jaguar on a solo 'normal' fit Dramiel at some point.

Fly Dangerous o/

Mail

Fla5hy Red... Asylum?!

Hi everyone,

I got a bit of a shock today when some of my corp mates split off from Fla5hy Red and started another corp called Fla5hy Asylum.

'Fla5hy Asylum is a sister corp of Fla5hy Red 
1v1's and Ransoms Honoured 
We are here to show new or old pilots the ways and means of low-sec combat. 
For recruitment or just a chat join "Flashy Red Lounge" 
Or convo Lost touch Awesome Torres or Ollie Khan.'

I had to ask what this new corp was set up for, as I hadn't heard anything about it, in our alliance chat.

Better than this dude...

IT'S ONLY A DAMN ACADEMY!

FLA5HY RED HAVE OPENED AN ACCADEMY TO TRAIN NEW AND OLD PLAYERS ALIKE IN THE ART OF LOW-SEC PIRACY!

Follow the above instructions if interested in a life of EvE crime and low-sec PVP.

Fly Dangerous o/

Mail

The 'Thought'

So yeah while I work I was mulling over the changes being made to Destroyers, in particular their 'rock, paper, scissor' effect.

No we all know that this effect occurs in EvE online in certain circumstances. Their are some ships you know that will kick the ass or others.

I think, with the new changes, Destroyers will become the tier 3 battlecruiser killers. They have got boosted EHP, agility and speed. The rate of fire -25% restriction has been removed and they have much smaller sig radius. All this adds up to one thing in my mind...

They will be very very hard to hit with big guns, like say those on a battleship or new tier 3 battlecruiser. A frig won't hurt the new BC class as they do not have enough DPS and anything bigger than a destroyer will get ripped apart!

I personally think a group of tier 3 hunting Dessies in fleets are going to be a common sight once the new expansion comes in.

Excuse me... I'm off to stock up on Thrashers :-)

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

A roam and a thought.

Ok so I will start of describing my first official roam with my new flying buddies, Outbreak.

About 3pm ET Ziggy caught me and told me of a semi planned roam for 7pm ET. I asked for ship types and he just shrugged at me and went AFK. Fair enough.

So at 7 I'm on comms and ready to go. Ship types are discussed and they decide on a Tengu/Recon roam. Mail doesn't fly a Tengu so that was out and they wanted combat recons rather than force... Of which I had none. Doh!

So I asked what they wanted me to fly and they wanted some inties as fast tackle. That I could do and to be honest since reading about the upcoming Dramiel nerd I want to fly my Dramiel as much as I can.

So off we went, Tengu's, Recons, Scimi's and tackle. A couple of jumps out we found a large gang being scouted by a Dramiel. We tried to catch the Dramiel in a bubble from our Sabre but he ran back to gate and the large Drake heavy gang he was with didn't seem all that interested in fighting us anyway. We reaches our first destination to find noone there and nothing to fight. We turned around and started heading towards HE'D-GP where we were sure we would be able to find a fight.

On the inbound gate was a small camp of a Hurricane, Vagabond, Sabre and a second Hurricane/ We jumped on in and while my colleague in his stiletto caught the Sabre I went for tackle on the Vagabond that was 100kn from the gate. I caught him in quick time and then prayed while the gang finished off the Sabre before switching to the Vaga and motoring I to range. Vaga went down and I had my first tackle/kill of the night.

The hurricane was next and was caught by the stiletto and I went into put a secondary point on the guy while the fleet warped to a near by planet and back at range to finish him off.

After the fun on the gate we headed to the sstation and watched a hugging proteus for a while before setting up 2 drag bubbles 80km off the station to try and catch anything cling towards us. A Hurricane thought he would be smart and warped to an old wreck 100km off the station but before he blew the wreck up I powered up my warp drive and caught him before getting the rest of the gang in to show him he wasn't so smart after all!

We stayed around the drag bubbles for a while and caught a Stabber who foolishly warped straight to station without bouncing off a planet first. Then the local residents started undocking an Abbadon gang and 2 Thanatos carriers and we decided we should leave them to it and head home. I was promoted to scout and led the way home without casualties. That was a really fun night and I look forward to repeating it shortly.

My break is up so I need to leave my thoughts on the new destroyer bonuses till later... Maybe tonight.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail.

The Scoop... New ships layouts and bonuses

I might have got the scoop on the other bloggers.

None of these details are CERTAIN IN ANYWAY but here we go.

Tornado (Minmitar)

Slot Layout: H8, M4, L5, R3 (8 Turret points)
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus:
5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret Rate of Fire
10% bonus to Large Projectile Turret falloff per level.
Ship Bonus
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Projectile Turrets
50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Projectile Turrets

My thoughts: Personally I think this thing is going to be a mini Machariel. It will be doing battleship DPS, maybe more with ROF bonuses and add to that Battlecruiser agility and speed. I aprove!

Talos (Gallente)

Slot Layout H8, M4, L5, R3 (8 Turret Points)
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus:
5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage
10% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers per level.
Ship Bonus
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Hybrid Turrets
50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Hybrid Turrets
50% reduction in the capacitor need of Large Energy Turrets

My thoughts: You have to remember this will be coming with the Hybrid upgrades as well so add a 20%  tracking bonus to this and you start to think... Extra tracking, Web bonuses, Damage bonus AND Battleship DPS. Not so underpowered now huh?

Oracle (Amarr)

Slot Layout: H8, M3, L6, R3 (8 Turret points )
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus:
7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret tracking speed
7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret optimal range per level.
Ship Bonus
95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Energy Turrets
50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Energy Turrets
50% reduction in the capacitor need of Large Energy Turrets

My thoughts: I was right, with the Optimal Range bonus and that many lows (6!) this thing is going to put Zealots out of business.

Naga (Caldari)

Slot Layouts:  H8,  M4, L6, R3 (8 Launchers AND 8 Turret points)
Battlecruiser Skill Bonus:
10% bonus to Torpedo Velocity,
5% bonus to Torpedo explosion velocity,
10% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret optimal range
7.5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret tracking speed per level.
Ship Bonus
 95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Hybrid Turrets.
50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Hybrid Turrets
50% reduction in the capacitor need of Large Energy Turrets
40% reduction in the powergrid need of Siege Missile Launchers
58% reduction in the CPU need of Siege Missile Launchers

My thoughts: No this isn't a TYPO thats 8 of either Turrets or Missiles. As far as I could see this thing gets bonuses going either way. Also think about my comm ents above regarding the Talos, the tracking (amongst other things) on Hybrids is getting a buff anyway and this thing ALSO gets tracking bonuses and range bonuses. Damn...

Also I might as well put in what I know about the AF changes... they're all getting agility buffs of around 10% and the Enyo is getting a top speed change my 10 m/s.

I also saw the change to the Dramiel. Not good for Dram pilots like me.

The CPU will drop by 12 and the Powergrid by 1. CCP will also be changing the scan resolution from 990 to 750mm and reduce the max velocity by 13m/s. There goes my Dramiel fit.

Now another new bit to mention,  and this one I quite like. A buff to Destroyers.

First of the Role Bonus of -25% rate of fire is going which meansthey will fire as fast as a frigate.

All four of the Destroyers will be recieving extra Shield Capacity, Armor HP and Capacitor. and a reduction in thier signature radius. The Comorant and Coercer will also recieve a buff to thier Agility and Max Speed.

Fly Dangerous o/

Mail

New Blog Banner

Hi everyone,

Just been messing around with a new banner for the blog. The one I had yesterday seemed a bit... disjointed in my opinion so I tried to merge all the elements into one. I think it looks quite good. What do you think??

Will be on EvE this evening for some pew and update the blog later as well as I have some things to say about Jesters' Blog post about the best ships in each catagory. I want to mull it over before posting though because it's going to be the beginning of a new series on the subject.

Fly Dangerous o/

Mail

Malware Warning

Hi everyone,

I think everyone who has come to this site in the last month or so on Firefox (and maybe Chrome) has been getting an attack warning.

I think I have now resolved this issue but need some people to verify this. Can everyone  who is reading this please open my blog in Firefox/Chrome/IE and whatever other browsers you guys use and let me know if it is all clear.

Post in comments please =)

EDIT: Since posting I have been playing around with the design and layout of the blog. Hope you like it.

I am planning to add a really cool banner later tonight after work. I hope it lives up to the Blog Pack standards =)

A couple of screenshots from the Thanatos kill last night...

Dead Thanatos

HI MOM!!

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

Logistics done, let the pew begin!

So this morning I was up nice and early to get the Charon freighter those last 20 jumps to where I was meeting a friend with a Rhea. Once there I started thinking of the easiest way to get into my new staging system in 0.0.

So I looked at the different possibilities on offer to a lowsec pirate like me. Obviously lowsec was a preference but 80+ jumps through lowsec was NOT going to happen. I also discounted trying to get through one of the five most dangerous systems of EvE HED-GP.

So what I was left with was a 36 jump journey with 4 lowsec and 16 0.0 jumps (the rest being high obviously).

I decided to do this in a Taranis. This is a good travel ship as the fast align speed can get you through even 1.0 systems without damage while it is still a combat ready ship able to take down anything I may decide to engage.

So off I went and got 6 jumps from my destination when I ran into a Sabre interdictor. Now I should explain that I have solo'd a Sabre before in a Ranis while in Sniggwaffe with Hannibal. Knowing this I engaged and got totally boned. I was in structure when he was in half shields and I just couldn't lay down the hurt quick enough. I also got podded so I was back where I started. 36 jumps to go... Again.

Fitting up another Ranis I decided to try a slightly different route and again only 8 jumps from the destination I hit a little snag and I was once again back in my station.

Ok now was time to stop thinking about potential fights and just get to my new home system.

Out came the Loki and I sent my alt to grab me the interdiction nullifier. I already had a spare covert ops subsystem. With these bolted on and a couple of nanofibers in the lows to help my warp align times I set out again.

This time I didn't hit anything and made it to D87. My friend passed me over my new fleet of ships and I started fitting up a ship of each class ready to get some pew on. It came faster than I thought.

I got on TS3 and announced my presence. There was a fleet one system out engaging a stabber fleet and a Hurricane. As I listened to the engagement I started fitting up one of 2 Hurricanes I brought with me. Then over comms I hear that a Thanatos has warped to the gate. I hear people talking about engaging so jump in the newly fitted up Hurricane and start x'ing up in comms for a fleet invite. Until I get the fleet invite I am running blind so start following a friendly Tempest, hoping to God he's going where I want to go.

Two jumps out and I land on the fight with my new friends and fall straight into the PVP zone with drones out, orbit set and guns ablaze.

The Thanatos is tanking us until he starts having cap management problems... Not to mention we bring in a Capital ship of our own.

With reports of 100 man fleets coming in from all over the place we all know we have to kill this guy and get the hell out. He starts going into low armour and you can tell his cap is all but gone. As he hits structure he activates the self destruct and logs off. We take the Thanatos down before the 2 minutes are up but can't get the pod as it insta warps.

To loot the wreck we need haulers so the rest of us are on guard duty while they come in and start grabbing the loot for us.

So all in all an eventful day and a good introduction to the Corp I am on trial with. First kill a capital ship. I wasn't even in system for 30 minutes when that came up... This could be fun.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

So home now... EvE time! Zzzz

So I'm home after a shitty 12 hour shift at the residential home where I work as a carer I should now turn my computer on and get straight into EvE. I have things to do, like pilot a damn Charon 20+ jumps...

You know what? The 'misses' just came in with a bag of chips and I have some beer to drink. Getting that freighter to Berta can wait. I'll do it tomorrow.

If your also having a meh' night have a look at this, 6 things you thought you knew about pirates at Cracked.

Night guys!

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

Do I admire CCP CEO Hilmar?

You know what, I think I do.

I've just finished reading this interview at eurogamer and I like what is being said. It takes a lot of guts to stand up infront of a community like the one in EvE and admit when you are wrong. Come on we're like a slathering hoard waiting to kick the crap out of CCP for every little thing we perceive that goes wrong.

The fact that he thought about resigning and then decided that this was his mistake and he would lead EvE out of the dark summer of 2011 shows real dedication to EvE online and us as a community. Just don't fuck this up Hilmar

More blogging later... At work right now but had to get these thoughts out there while I had them!

Edits: spelt Hilmars' name wrong and fucked up some punctuation.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

A new sense of belief in CCP?

So recently a whole load of stuff has come out of Iceland and CCP that shows they are finally going to listen to the player base and even admitted that they were wrong about how they were prioritising WOD and Dust514 above EvE.

I personally wasn't to bothered about CCP making other games and even more honestly I would probably have played WOD and was also thinking of getting a PS3 as I currently own a 360 and Dust isn't coming to my system. What I was bothered about was that while they were making these other games they stopped the excellent development of EvE online... At least that is how it felt.

So after the management decided to refocus on EvE a flood of new dev blogs came out basically telling most of us exactly what we wanted to hear. First thing... no more bloody door. Ship spinning was back and to be honest I missed it.

Next up we have PI changes.

As a pirate I sort of like the custom offices as they are useful warp points. However also as a pirate I don't like them as they are useful warp to points for my targets too. Do player custom offices change this? Not really but it might be something else to fight over and the more fights in EvE the better.

Next was the news of the Tornado that everyone thought was going to herald a new tier of battleship. However CCP threw us a curve ball today and told us that it will actually be a tier 3 battlecruiser. What's more it will be a battlecruiser that can use Bs sized guns and will be accompanied by 3 other new battlecruisers, one for each race. Awesome!

So the Caldari one will be a torpedo spewing uber kiting Drake like thing.

The Minnie one will have bs sized AC's and probably be the best of the bunch in my opinion. Can you imagine your general Hurricane fit but with BS sized guns? Yummy!

The Galente one will be interesting as they are planing to re-balance blasters as well. This could mean we see a faster more heavy DPS ship that might actually be able to track something smaller than a damn supercap!

And of course the Amarr new BC will immediately be turned into a cheaper version of a sniper Zealot. I just hope they think of the capacitor on that one as my Abaddon has enough problems firing all it's guns for long periods of time let alone trying to squeeze them onto a damn BC.

Last thing that caught my attention in the upcoming expansion was pod killmails. Thank you CCP for doing this. I very rarely get podded these days and when I do I generally only have a PG4 implant in my head. I can not wait to see the amount of slave and crystal sets that get podded by me and my pirate brethren. No more 'ah that was clean clone neway' in local while crying in Corp you just lost your crystals! Stand up and be proud.

I know one thing... My ISK proficiency is about to soar!

Last fo is a personal message to CCP. Your doing well. People are starting to look upon your new direction and focus and see that you are making amends for past mistakes. This is now your ball game. We as a community are showing we are ready to embrace you again and give you another chance to really bring EvE online to the forefront of MMO gaming. DO NOT FUCK IT UP THIS TIME.

Ok that's it for tonight. 12 hours of work tomorrow and then back to running logistics in my Charon... Tell you what CCP, do something about this fucking ships warp speed and all sins are forgiven!

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

Quick update time!

Just a quick note before bed.

I lost my Dramiel today to a Navy Hookbill. I could of taken him but also had the rats of his faction on me which did 63% of the total damage. Still a good fight though.

I send my heartfelt condolences to those being cut from CCP and do find it slightly disturbing that it seems to be the community team who worked so hard over the summer to try and reassure the EvE universe that CCP were still with us that will be let go. Goodluck guys but I know you will be fine as you guys are amazing and any company will be lucky to have you.

I will be following Jesters attempted blogging marathon as he attempts to blog up to 15 times a week. If he can keep his excellent standard up for all those posts I will crown him my new blogging master.

I will be attempting to fly with a new group of players over the next few weeks. I just need to sort out some logistics and then pew pew. Anyone got a Rhea I can borrow? Lol

I also recently noticed I have been removed from the blogpack so I have no idea who is reading this now but will continue to post about EvE and what's going On with Mail and Hannibal till the end.

I am really looking forward to the winter expansions which include pod killmails showing what the pilot had in the way of implants... AWSOME!

I guess if I was Jester I could of made each of these points into a blogpost of there own and I may return to some of these points tomorrow and expand.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

Looking for small gang PVP

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping that I have finally sorted out the virus warning thing that comes up on this damn blog everytime someone tries to read it. There is no virus as far as I can see though I do admit to not being the most anal about computer security.

Anyway, last night I logged on, undocked my Dramiel and got invited to a fleet as the screen resolved. Saiyon and Amber Shouna were in local and inviting me to come pew with them.

Now to explain this, I will point you to the EvE O forums and this post here. Back? Ok good lets continue.

So Saiyon and friends had agreed for me to FC for them and give them a first hand view of low-sec PVP from and 'experienced' pilot (LOL) and we had agreed to meet up in Isho and head out from here.

As I undocked I hit scan and, ignoring the now friendly Arbitrator and Maller, I notice a Wolf on scan. Still in the 10 sec undock timer I narrow the Wolf down to the sun and engage warp.

Saiyon is, at this second, telling me to jump on mumble (which i didn't have) and supplying me with and address and port etc. Dropping out of warp I am 20km from the Wolf so start closing in while telling Saiyon and Amber to warp to me without warning of what I am doing. Understandably their reactions are a little slow and the Wolf is tearing through my shields while I am slowly messing up his Armor... to slowly...  and I had to make a run for it.

As I ran my fleet mates landed and the Wolf bailed. Good fight Duke Thunderhorse of Black Rebel Rifter Gang. =)

(P.S Durzo, I saw your comment and will be looking you guys up soon for a chat)

So after Saiyon changed out his fit I started heading off to Mara to poke around a bit. I jumped in and saw a Caracal on scan and got Saiyon and his mates (now joined by Fang Tang in a Vexor) to hold in Hasama. As I was trying to narrow the Caracal down a Heron dropped combat probes and scared him out of Mara. Damn it!

Noticing Htrag of CBS in his Nighthawk and his links alone in local I called the gang in and get them to a safe spot on the Dantumi gate while I go in to try and scare up a fight.

On the gate as I jump in is a Drake, Daredevil and Rifter. I start burning off them and decide to do a little solo trick here. I watch the Daredevil start burning towards me and lowered my speed to slightly faster than the Daredevil to try and get him off the gate and more importantly away from the Drake.

Playing with my speed I manage to pull a 90km range on the Drake with the Rifter 30km off me and the Daredevil 10km off. I slow slightly and let the Daredevil get a scram on me. I hit full speed and orbit and activate everything I have.

We're dancing in the ring of death and he has his web on me slowing me down and hitting me hard with his Neutron blasters while I have loaded Fusion ammo and start stripping his armor away at a good rate.

The Rifter has closed and has now joined in the fight, with another web on me and compined DPS of a Neutron Blaster Daredevil and a 150 AC fit Rifter, this fight could go either way.

My shields are gone as the Daredevil explodes and I immediatley switch to the Rifter. I am now in deep armor and watch carefully as first his shields and then as he hits half armor I hit structure. This is going to be close. My Damage control does it's job and the damage definetly slows, just enough for me to finish the Rifters armor and strip his structure till only a pod sat in the middle of a wreck.

I finish the fight with no shields, no armor and 86% structure not to mention some fleet members who didn't get in on the kills. Whoops...

The Drake is still around but by now I have brought my fleet mates into Dantumi, he bails and heads to Ossa.

We check out the local systems finding nothing then head back up the pipe through Isho, noticing Duke is still out in his Wolf, and towards Tama.

Unfortuantley we find very little on the way to Tama. A couple of BS's we couldn't take (Scorp and Machariel) and a Rifter who didn't want to play.

As we hit Tama RL interrupted my carefully laid EvE plans. My 1 year old boy woke up needing some milk and cuddles to go back to sleep.

Sorry I didn't get any kills for you guy Saiyon, Amber and Fang. I promise that when we go out over the weekend I WILL get us a fleet kill and not be totaly selfish ;-)

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

The return of the solo pvper

Two posts on the same day you guys are so spoilt (if anyone even reads this anymore with that damn virus warning)

So anyway my last entry was quite down hearted but this one is much more upbeat. First of I decided to go on another roam today, this time in my Dramiel. I also decided to head to an area that I have called home and still think of as my spiritual birth place, Ishomilken.

So I started out and couldn't find a decent fight in the 20+ jumps down to Isho so headed straight to one of my old favourite hunting areas, Mara.

On jumping into Mara I noticed a Hurricane on scan. I have fought Hurricanes in Dramials before and always come off very much dead. However I decided to take a look as he was in a belt with wrecks out.

Warping in I get the tackle on a neutral Hurricane and start bringing his shields down expecting to either get jumped or neuts to be slammed on me. Nothing happens accept he tries shooting me with 425ac's which miss me over and over again.I realise that my guns are doing very little against this guys shield and open a convo with him. I ask um for 50 million ISK ransom which he says he doesn't have so the fight gOSS on. Being so far from the rest of my Corp means I have no help to call in so when a Ferox comes on scan I ask him to come in and help me.

The Ferox pilot laughs at me and thinks I am baiting him to his doom... Good idea but I could really do with some help!

Then Htrag of Carebear Stare enters local. Now he is a very hostile red from a Corp I have had problems with in the past but I tell him in local where I am and in he comes to help me finish the Hurricane off. Big thanks go to Htrag of CBS on this one.

Looking at the killmail I realise why I couldn't do it alone. That is one tanky little Hurricane!!

After this fight I go back to Isho and find a ratting Catalyst and then chase a Rifter around till he dies in a ball of flame.

Then a Rifter opens a Cyno in Isho and I kill that in a old Drake I have had for about 2 years! I warp from the kill to a belt where a damn Rapier uncloaks and cyno's a Redeemer onto my ass, I manage to get the rapier into hull before I go pop!

Heading back out in my Dram I kill a Burst and log off with a good feeling, maybe lowsec isn't dead, maybe I just haven't been looking in the right place!

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

P.s sorry for not having any funny pictures at the moment. I'm blogging from my iPod touch while either on the toilet or in bed, only chance I get to squeeze one out... So to speak ;-) lol

This is what I mean...

So after my blog post yesterday I decided to take a vagabond out to find some pew in low sec. After going about 20 jumps without finding anything around I landed in Old Man Star and there was a red Hurricane in a belt with nothing else on scan. I decided to engage.

Hurricane vs Vaga should of been an ok fight so was looking forward to this. I landed and started the engagement then his friends started arriving. The dram and crusader scrammed me while the loki applied the webs and the Tengu and Cynabal brought the dps. As you probably gathered i didn't last long against that and it sort of makes my point for me...

Blobtastic lowsec pvp? Probably here to stay so I might not be...

Fly dangerous and maybe try and fly SOLO sometime!!

Mail o/

Doing what we do best.

Hit and run tactics.So a couple of days ago I went on a 39 jump roam with a couple of corpies down from Ami to Ishomilken, the spiritual home of Fla5hy Red and The Defenders of Pen Island.

We found nothing to shoot except a Hurricane who had neuts and friends. We lost 2 of our 5 frigates in this fight but carried on to Isho. 39 jumps and nothing. Great.

Anyway the next day I had to work so coupldn't get back to Ami and this is where the story starts.

I log on and find a Fla5hy fleet of BC's with Falcon support out on a roam. I realise that I am still in Isho and that I have no way of getting back to Ami quickly. So... I decide to pod myself.

Not a big issue as I haven't got any implants in this clone. So I check my clone is up to date and initiast self destruct. 2 minustes later and I am in... Eggelhende. WTF?!


I must of forgot to change my home system. What a failure.

At this time the fleet are telling me to hurry the fuck up and get into my double web Loki as the need web support. Only one thing for it. Upgrade my clone, CHANGE STATION and self destruct again.

So now I am in Ami and in my double web Loki 'Falkor' and race off to meet the gang.

Our destination is Gondista and off we go with a scout out ahead.

We find nothing on the way there to play with but thwen we get to Gondista we find a gang on the high-sec gate.

Raven, Devoter, couple of Hurricanes, Myrm, Abaddon, Brutix and a Rapier. We sit on the in gate for a minute deciding on what primaries will be for the Falcon and the DPS.


We have 2 Hurricanes, Brutix, Harbinger, Falcon, Loki so we are out numbered and outshipped but decide that with the Falcon it would be pretty even.

The falcon goes in and cloaks 50km off the camping fleet who are sitting on the gate. They are red so for once we don't need to worry about the blasted gate guns.

We all jump and start to warp to the out gate. It's a 100+ Au warp and if the othe rgang are quick they should be able to get away.

We land and I lock up the Raven but as I don't have a point on the ship I don't activate and mods on him. If I had webbed him he would of insta warped if one of my gang didn't already have point.

Doesn't matter anyway cause we don't get point on the Raven but do get point on 2 Hurricanes and a Brutix.

My webs are faction so I sit 30km from the fight locking down the primary and shooting barrage out of my 220mm Ac's.

1st Hurricane is down so we switch to the other and he goes down too. The enemy Brutix is completely useless in this fight. Our fleet is keeping range. somewhere around 20 km for the 'Canes and Harby, 30km for me in the Loki and 50km for the Falcon. Easily keeping out of a slow blaster boats range.

2nd Hurricane down and we quickly dispatch the Brutix and go to a safe.

Now our scout is looking at the gate we need to use to go back to Ami and his reports are starting to worry us. The gang we just fought are now massing a gate camp there to catch us and they are serious. We're talking Raven, 5 x Abbadon, Armageddon, Megathron, Devoter and a number of Battlecruisers.

We strike up a conversation and our FC decides to use a ruse to clear the out gate. The other gang have offered us a 5v5 BC fight. Our FC agrees but does not intend to go through with it. Our scout c#keeps watch on the gate and lo'and behold they warp of gate to swicth ships and argue about who is going to take part!

We wave in local and make our tactical retreat.

Now you may think that we were a bit cowadly there but I would disagree. We took on a vastly supierior fleet on a gate and got 3 kills to no losses. We were in thier home system so we could not garuntee a fair fight and they can tailor thier gang to defeat ours as they have prior knowledge of our ship. They could of fought us on gate but didn't and then we tricked them to get them off our escape gate.

We made our way home and started playing with a Abaddon and Drake that were playing docking games on our station. Nothing came of this and we were about to get bored when an Arazu undocks. We target and shoot it. Get him to about half armor when suddenly a cyno goes up and 15+ BS and BC fall on top of us from a Titan bridge. And yes, it is the corp from earlier and friends.

Yikes! 'Scatter' is called and we all start burning out. My Loki gets out without a problem but we lose a Hurricane and a Brutix.

Now if I was FC of that gang I would of primaried my T3 as the most expensive ship and made sure points were spread but what ever.

Fail FCing is Fail.

So lets look at the score shall we?

- We took a small gang to thier home system and managed 3 BC kills.

- They titan bridged a BS heavy gang onto our small fleet and managed 2 BC kills.

We are still 1 kill ahead at my count so bring on the next fights. Least we know they have a Titan now...

Fly Dangerous o/

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