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!!