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/

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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/

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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/

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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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