Yes this is a blog post and yes it is Mail Lite writing this. I am back and have been for a couple of weeks now, settling into my new EvE home.
Upon logging back into EvE I was faced with a dilemma because Fla5hy Red had been closed and the pilots I had known and flown with for a long time had been scattered to the 4 winds, some trying the game of real life and other going off into other corps and doing their own things. So I had to make a decision, where did I want to go next?
My first thoughts upon logging back in was to fly with Stay Frosty, created by Rixx Javixx over at Evoganda. They are an amazing bunch of pilots and I had a couple of really good fights while I was messing around in Caldari faction warfare on the rare times I did log in during my hiatus from EvE online.
Also Astral Dominix is over at Stay Frosty at the moment and the friendship between him and me, though we may not speak for a while and lose contact when we each go our own way, has always been great and started through our respective blogs when I got him to come fly with The Black Rabbit Academy for a while years ago.
Another option and one I was sorely tempted by was returning to Chokepoint and Paradox Collective as I had some of my favorite fights while flying with them, living in Low-sec but roaming null for targets was the best of both worlds and I enjoyed my time there immensely and even started FC'ing and taking gangs out. Chokepoint really helped me grow and it was a near thing, I even put my app in...
Then I realized there was one place I had always wanted to go, one place that, since roaming with them as part of Defenders of Pen Island, had always been calling to me and I had always ignored it.
Shadow Cartel is probably the largest low-sec piracy alliance in EvE and they do not believe in blue standings. Having such a big organisation means that there is always someone to fly with, always something to do and always people to chat to on comms. I can log in and go out knowing that if required I can find a couple of wing men at a drop of a hat and I am enjoying every minute of it... well apart from some of the 'authoirty' figures being a bit... yeah... well you don't become a pirate to listen to the authority do you?
So I am now in Shadow Cartel and have been for about a month now and I will now start updating this blog, getting into fights to write about, hopefully catching some videos of these GF's and also adding my completely irrelevant opinion to any EvE discussions that may occur... and I might as well start now.
Last night I logged on, jumped into a Navy Megathron and formed up as ordered. I had no idea what was going on except it was something big. We had 30 odd dreads in fleet and a 25 man back up sub cap fleet ready to roll out at a moments notice, not something I have really done before but OK whatever.
So I am chatting in fleet with the other ShdwC guys, trading disturbing images of lady-boys and nice photo's of boobies (cheers for that Rath and Tara by the way) and awaiting for orders.
After waiting for nearly 2 hours the order comes and we land on a Erebus, immediately we lock it up and start applying the pain, the dreads go into siege. We notice a Dead Terrorist Skiff mining barge so I lock him up and pop skiff is dead... interesting to see a -10 toon from a pvp alliance in a mining barge but what ever...
Dead Terrorists then also warp an Oracle, Abaddon and a Navy Armageddon to the Erebus and they also go down.
Now I have to admit something; this Titan makes up 100% of my Supercap kill record. I have never been on any others so I am a happy bunny right now. I will remember the 27th November 2013 for a long time...
However...
There is a problem with this kill. A lot of people are calling what we did to catch this Erebus an exploit so let me explain. When you log of a Titan in a POS it emergency warps 1,000,000km from the POS and disappears into nothingness untill you logg back on. Then it re-appears at the 1,000,000km spot, aligns to the POS and warps back to the spot where you logged it off.
Now since Rubicon (awesome by the way, I will do a post on that later) and the changes to warp mechanics a Titan getting up to speed for warp has been increased and a ship with warp speed rigs and agility mods has the chance to get on grid with a Titan before it enters EWarp. This meant that a member of ShdwC managed to get a 100mn MWD bump ship onto grid before the Titan managed to get into Ewarp to his POS.
The problem with this? There is no way that a pilot, caught during Ewarp can save his ship. The warp can not be cancelled and no offensive mods can be activated, no cyno lit etc. Sure you can put your hardners on but that is all. And while you CAN be pointed it does not actually take effect on the ship and will still Ewarp to your log off point. Bumping someone or using bubbles in 0.0 are the only way to stop a ship getting into Ewarp at the moment.
That raises an interesting question though doesn't it?
If you are allowed to bubble someones 1,000,000km log in spot (here for info on that) and catch them before they can enter Ewarp why could you not do the same with targeted points? I think the main issue here is the fact that the caught pilot, when being bumped from entering Ewarp can do nothing to defend himself, but someone who is bubbled at the same type of spot in null can, as his Ewarp is automatically cancelled. If this is the case then maybe they need to make infini point HIC's do the same as bubbles to make low sec just as dangerous for super-capital pilots as null sec space.
A lot of people are saying that if you log at a POS in a SC or any other ship you should be totally safe when logging back into the game and should just appear back at the POS and can never be touched. I'm not sure I agree with that. I am more for the risk vs reward thing. If you want to use your titan to bridge another gang then you should have to RISK logging in the Titan, you should be able to cancel you Ewarp in case there is a problem so that you can take defensive or offensive measures. I think this would add a lot of meta gaming opportunities to EvE, like having a fleet on stand-by for a titan log in just in case, having scouts and spys out and about to detect enemy movements and all sorts of other stuff to make sure that you allainces biggest asset doesn't get taken out.
EvE has always been about risk, from the Carrier ratting in a plex in null-sec to an auto-piloting Ibis happening to go through Rancer or a miner in a belt getting suicide ganked. EvE is not safe, why should it be safe for these SC pilots? Give them 30 seconds of rick so that there alliance can reap the benefit of a jumpbridge.
That's my thoughts on it anyway!
Fly dangerous o/
Mail Lite
P.S I have to say that the Erebus pilot was really good about the whole thing, nicely played sir! o7
