The more things change...

... the more they are the same.

I was a Dead Terrorist for about a year. The recent shake-up and collapse in Feythabolis shook my personal commitment to the alliance, and I have left. It was not an easy decision, since the corp I was in is a great group of guys, and I had flown with them (albeit in another corp) in another alliance prior to DT. DT and RENT are both great groups, and I wish the best for them, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the life of a full-time losec pirate, which appears to be the recovery plan (at least in the short term) for DT. So what now? I went home, although it's not the same home I left, exactly. The first player corp I joined has changed from a mixed-purpose PvP/PvE/Indy corp to primarily an industry corp. In fact, my indy alt is in that corp, and happily popping out T2 frigates a couple times a week like a pregnant rabbit.

I'm here because it's comfortable, and I don't really like being in The Scope - the crap in corp chat there often annoyed me. I don't exactly fit in here either, my fleet of ships tends towards combat ships: AHACs, BCs, Tacklers, and HICtors rather than Barges and Haulers but I know everyone here (they have been here a long time). I've had a couple offers for PvP corps, but not sure I want Faction War, or LoSec piracy. Who knows, but for now, I'm back in a comfortable place, with a group of guys I like a lot. Another thought, maybe I can be the catalyst to revive the PvP arm of the corp. There are a couple others like me who would enjoy more combat already, so let's see what happens...

Feythabolis Evacuation: Day Three

Sleeping in a pod is second nature to a capsuleer. It's actually more comfortable than many beds I've been in over the years. Feyth is just as empty when I log in - two other pilots tonight, but nobody's talking. First scan reveals no wormholes, so I take out the Battleship and unload a few rounds into the local Angels. It makes me feel better, but a neutral pilot appeared in system, so I docked back up, switched out to my Helios, and started the search again. First two systems are a bust. For all the time I spent scanning wormholes in empire, I could find one in practically every system. Here, when I really could use one, I go system after system without finding one.

Rumor has it there's an alternative way out coming - but it's 18 jumps through questionable territory, before waiting and trusting our former enemies to not shoot us. Not once but 5 times - after all each ship needs to move. I don't trust that, and corp leadership agrees - don't trust them. I keep scanning, now I have a new neut. Two systems left in this constellation to scan. Lots of great anomalies and signatures, but not one wormhole. Finally - a hit. First wormhole and it's only 5 systems out from the station. As I get set to warp in, local bump. +1. +2. I scan. Cheetah, Malediction. Red.Overlord. Hmmm. I recall my probes and watch directional. Minutes pass. Finally, local is empty. Now, to see if there is a road home...

I enter the wormhole, which has bizarre effects on my systems. Capacitor is drained below 50% just entering system. There's a shining silver quasar at the heart of the system. I bookmark the "entrance" and drop my probes. I've dropped over 30 probes tonight, according to the scanner. Lots of signals. I immediately filter out the Anomalies, focusing on the signatures. First one is a grav site. Second is a wormhole. Third is radar site. Fourth and fifth - two more wormholes. As I'm working through these signatures a corpmate reports that SWBV is no longer showing Dead Terrorist claim on the system or the station. Looks like we are trying to buy our way out. I'd rather they have to grind through this just like we did. Teach them the pain we experienced, day after day, station after station, system after system, structure after structure...

I know I may lose docking rights to the station where my ships are, so the race is on. I start checking the wormholes. First goes to nullsec - Scalding Pass. No love there in xXDeathXx space. Second goes to Cloud Ring... Promising and close to an empire exit, 5 jumps to an NPC station. Third goes to another WH. Back in the original WH. Launch the probes again, hoping for more luck. My wife is interested in EVE for the first time ever, as I explain what I'm doing she has only one question: How long is a wormhole there? Less than a day and she knows I won't be in bed anytime soon. Dangit. Should have scanned all the signatures the first time, gotta filter out the successes by memory now. More radar sites. One more WH - leads to Kavlevala Expanse. That's not helpful. Clock is ticking, but at least we still have docking rights. Well, here goes nothing. I head back to the station to board my recon. Get it out first, if I can. I load it up with as much as I can, filling it with modules, ammo and loot.

After the last few weeks, 4 jumps through familiar (but hostile) nullsec doesn't bother me at all. Neutrals in system - check. Gate camps on the empire exit - check. Hop safes, scan gates, no bubbles. What kind of nullsec gate camp doesn't anchor bubbles? I jump through F7C-H0 into Alsavoinon. Losec. Safer but scarier here - everyone is neutral and I know as a former losec resident that gate camps can tank the guns. I fly careful, checking my gates before arrival, and finally I'm free. One recon, docked safely in empire HiSec. I verify my medical clone is in SWBV, undock in my pod, and start the self destruct timer. I did the math. Even paying to upgrade my clone, I come out way ahead getting that recon out. If I'm lucky twice, and get the HAC out, anything else is icing on the cake. I hear the final countdown, the pod cracks open, cold space surrounds me...

... and I wake up in SWBV. Make sure I pay to keep my clone updated. That's always painful. I board the AHAC fit Deimos, verify the guns and scripts are loaded, fill the hold with ammo, and set destination back to the WH system. It's still quiet out here, but it looks like R.O.L. will have the station and system in the next few hours. Not sure I'll be back for any other ships, so I bid farewell to my trusty interceptor. She's survived way too long, and it hurts to just leave her deep in 0.0 but I have to focus on the valuable (and most likely to succeed) ships on this evacuation. Back I head. Both WH are stable (still) - maybe I'll try for a third run and get the inty out after I dock up the Deimos. I jump into Cloud Ring, and the system is empty. It's empty until the inbound gate to F7C-H0. Fatal Ascension. I don't know them. There's a single Vagabond on the gate here. I'm guessing that means the camp in F7C-H0 has grown, since they have an out-of-system scout now. I weigh my options. The Vaga is a mean ship. However, I'm fit with rails and a buffer tank - if it comes to a fight I might have a chance. I warp to the gate, land at 0 (he's 2500 off me) and jump through. Strangely, there is no-one on the other side. I look for the nearest celestial to my directional - a moon. Less than ideal, knowing my luck I'll land on a tower, but I align and activate my warp drive. The Vagabond has decloaked, and is targeting me. It's a race between my align and his target - I'm sure he's called his friends and he's got a point. I watch my acceleration gauge as I reach top speed to activate warp - and I'm out.

I hop from the moon (landed just out of range of a POS) to a safe not far from the out gate. I scan the gate. Hmm. Two Sleipnirs, a Malediction, Stabber, two Vagabonds (including my friend from the other gate) - and four anchored bubbles. Well, the AHAC is an afterburner fit. Top speed is maybe 500k/sec. Not exactly a bubble evasion ship, and the buffer tank won't survive the damage that camp can do. So, I call it a night, shut down all systems, and log. I'm taking a couple days off to rest. I'll be back late this weekend, and will decide what to do then. But it looks like (fingers crossed) I might have most of the valuable stuff out.

Good Night, EVE. Keep the nightlight on - The Dead Terrorists are coming back from the deep south, and we want explosions...

I am a Dead Terrorist

I am a Dead Terrorist. I have been part of this alliance now for almost a full year. Right now, I'm deep in Feythabolis, and it is a ghost town. I'm wandering systems looking for a short wormhole route to empire. Hisec, Losec, I don't really care. I just want to try and get out with what ships I have left. You see, I took a weekend off and did some family time. Admittedly, in the midst of an ongoing battle to claim the region, but family always comes first. That was Friday. I got back Sunday, way to late to check mail and find out how the weekend went. You always know things aren't good when the first mail you read has "Reset" in the subject line.

I'm not sure which story is true, there are a few of them, but this is what I know. Shortly before the reset, there was a brief email (at the corp level) to get online, get you crap together, and evac. And when I say shortly - I mean maybe an hour or two. I, of course, was a few hundred miles from my computer, so totally clueless until long after the fire, and now there is nothing but a few wandering pilots and the occasional enemy fleet. I log in, load up my only local ship (a Helios) with what it can carry (a few hundred rounds of Caldari Navy Antimatter, M), and set destination for the former carebear home system in Feythabolis. 18 jumps across enemy territory (since all territory is the enemies now...). It was quiet. Not one neutral, red (or blue) the whole way. Then in SWBV, there are three of us. I dock, unload my ship, undock and make some in system safes, and start scanning.

You see, in deep 0.0 wormholes, sometimes there is an empire link. Hop in a WH, scan down another, see where it goes. Wormhole operations depend on these empire links to get loot out and fuel in. I start scanning...

Four systems. Easily 20 signatures (I'm ignoring the Sanctums and Havens instantly, they aren't in that count). Not one wormhole. Time's up for the night. I sleep in my recon now, cloaked about 1000k off the station I used to call home. It's safer out here, right now, than inside. And there are fewer ghosts, outside...

Quick Skill Update

Minmatar Cruiser V completed today. That's two classes of Tech 2 ships (fully T2 fitted).

I suppose the skill roundup is due...

Combat Main:
As mentioned above, Minmatar Cruiser V completed today, after having worked through the appropriate gunnery skills for Medium T2 Projectiles (Arties and Autocannons). This toon is on the road to flesh out all "BC and below" combat ships (not including T3) for all races. I dread the road to Amarr - I have none of the skills for energy weapons really trained at all. Hence Caldari roundup is next, getting those T2 missiles and all missile support skills trained to at least IV before the Caaldari Cruiser V grind. Once that's done I'm taking a lightweight break and training (and learning to fly) EWar Frigates for all races. Although paper thin and usually early in the targeting list, an inexpensive ewar frigate seems like an interesting way to disrupt the flow of battle.

Anyway, once that's done, I get to the Amarr grindstone - and since I have no energy weapon/laser skills trained at all yet it will be a long one. However, when completing Amarr Cruiser V I get to move to the next round - Command Ships, beginning with the appropriate leadership skills and ending with BattleCruiser V and then Command Ships to IV.

Industry Alt:
Finally getting the actual production skills up to V, to save that last 2% of minerals and materials in my T2 production. Frigate V done, Cruiser V is up after Production Efficiency V completes. Someday this toon will fly a ship larger than a Cruiser (well, maybe) that isn't a hauler. Right now the goal is multi-racial ship invention and construction through the command ships, and the skills to build all the components.

Super Secret Alt:
Can you say the long haul? This toon is working a focused plan on Carrier/Dreadnaught (which makes a short hop to SuperCarrier), after recently getting into Recons and HACs. I'll get back to you in about 332 days...

EVE Blog Banter #22: Corporation Loyalty - Brothers and Sisters till the end?

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

This month topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why, and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

So this is an interesting question, since I run multiple accounts and multiple characters (yeah, how do I manage that, exactly...) Without giving away details, my personal (not character-specific) loyalty is to the first corp I joined. They are a good group of guys (although many are currently away from EVE) that I still chat with out of game, even though they may not be playing right now. The only reason my main left that corp was to maintain my 0.0 PvP lifestyle - the corp was too small for the alliance we were in (as far as active PvP toons) so we did a pseduo-merge with another corp that was in alliance, basically mothballing the original corporation until better times (a.k.a. more game time for the veterans to be able to effectively recruit and train new members). If that corp became an active PvP force again I would (with due consideration and notice to my current corp) head back at my earliest convenience - to fly with guys I like personally.

This is not to reduce the value of my current corp. I have flown with this group in multiple alliances, other members from my old corp are also here, and the group is just as solid, reliable, and entertaining as my old corp (which makes sense, since we were in multiple alliances together and we all got along already). The trend here? It isn't the corp - it's the pilots. That should make sense to anyone who has played a multiplayer game - the appeal is the players you fly with - where they go, you likely will go as well if they are a group you are close to. I even experienced this recently with an RL friend who played EVE with a different group originally. His core group of players had a corp collapse, they all went different ways, and he joined up with my corp for a while. Now that his old group is re-forming, he has left (best of luck!) to fly with his in-game friends - and I understand and respect that completely.

If you are playing EVE, and you don't play with (not just against) others, you are missing the biggest part of the game, and the main attraction to the game - the social aspect.

Time and Alternate Income Streams

Just like in our real world, money makes EVE go 'round. It takes ISK to buy whatever it is you want - that shiny new faction frigate, the Tech 2 Ice Mining Barge, or a fully decked out SuperCapital. For many of us, PvP is the life and breadth of EVE - so ISK is gained by looting the wrecks of our victims and selling that loot on the market. But sometimes, lady luck shines elsewhere, and your coffers run dry and your ships get blown up faster than you can afford to replace them. Even with the recent "buff" to T2 insurance, you can't replace a Taranis hull (let alone the mods) with the insurance payout, so what's a poor PvP player to do for ISK generation?
The obvious thing is to run missions, right? Yawn. Sitting around for hours on end doing "target, orbit, shoot, loot, salvage, repeat" makes a dull EVE session. Well, there's market manipulation, right? Frankly, too much for me, shuttling around large quantities of item X from point A to point B - not the way I want to spend hours in EVE. Planetary Interaction (if you have the skills, time and no issues with repetitive stress injuries) will provide a thin income stream, especially if your Corp or Alliance is buying POS fuels at market rates. Not too hard to set up an Enriched Uranium chain, or Oxygen and Coolant. Ice mining earns decent money - if you have something else to do while your toon sits and cycles the lasers every 5 minutes.

The inventive (and amoral) character can scam their way into millions - just look at that Caldari Navy Raven sale via station trade...

But there is actually a fairly painless path to passive isk generation: Datacore farming. On your main toon, you might already have the basic skills in place - Science V? Now you just need to pick a Scientific field to study - I'd suggest looking at Datacore prices and picking the most profitable. I'm going to use Gallente Starship Engineering as my example, even though it isn't the most profitable. So you train up the specific skill to at least IV (assuming you have the prerequisites in place - usually one of these: Mechanic V, Electronics V, or Engineering V). Then you find who researches the field you want to farm - and go to the best agent you can in that field. Open a conversation, start research, and get on with your life. Once a month or so, go visit your agent, collect your datacores, and move them to a trade hub to sell for profit. Now this gets interesting with three character slots on your account - you can take the time to train up the basic skills for all of them and get at a Level 1 agent without any work - in about two weeks you will get about 10 RP a day, which isn't much (only about 1 datacore a week) - but that's an additional 200-300,000 isk a week that you don't need to do anything to earn – just leave that alt character alone, collecting RP for datacores while you fly your main. If you have the time, and energy, you really want to get to L3 or L4 research agents (I have a corpmate who gets over 200 million a week with 2 accounts/6 toons just doing datacores).

And yes, I profit from sharing this, since I have an R&D alt who does ship invention, and the more datacores out there the better the price on them for me to buy.

EVE Blog Banter #20: Griefing, Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming

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

With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: "Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all...but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it's needed."

I've been playing EVE for a fairly long time. I've heard lots of calls for "HTFU", or "Griefing is against the TOS" and my personal favorite "I hope you die of cancer." Right or wrong, good or bad, EVE is a virtual place we can be someone other than our day-to-day selves. I know some really nice guys who play EVE - guys with families, who would pull over on the highway in the rain if you were there with your flashers on - and in EVE they wouldn't bat an eye at scamming your entire corp's assets out from under you. These are genuinely good people, who play EVE to escape real life. So lets start with the inevitable fact that EVE is a game, and like any other game, is an escape from your personal reality. If you take EVE too far, and blur the lines between players in a game and the characters they play, you won't like what I have to say (hint: HTFU).

Griefing
Personally, I don't like griefing. The idea that you play to make other miserable intentionally isn't my cup of tea. But I know (or like to think I know) enough to (a) not be a good target for a griefer and (b) to give as good as I get. Mind you, I have no issue with smacktalk, or laughing at someone in local. My issue with griefing (that I don't like it) revolves around the fact that you aren't playing an MMO if you grief one particular player all the time - if you get your jollies in game from being a general ass, that's cool - but I won't be one to play "with" you since that's not my style. ASCII genetalia - fine. Hassling another player so much they emo log or even ragequit - just not cool.

Ninja Salvaging
Totally within the scope of the game. Those who take this to the next level and get the mission runner to attack them and blow up their ships? Experts at harrassment. And no, this is not griefing - unless you are doing this to the same poor sod day in and day out without looking for other targets. I have even been a rookie ninja salvager, without the part where you try to get aggro and blow up the mission runner. I love this piece of the game though. Scan down a mission runner, warp in and salvage his wrecks. Back in the day, salvage could be as valuable as the loot in the cans. Today, maybe not so much, but still valuable. In addition, performing an important service keeping New Eden green by cleaning up other people's trash.

Suicide Ganking
I am of two minds about suicide ganking. First of all, I think it's a perfectly legitimate tactic - my only concern is that even with the recent insurance changes, suicide ganking doesn't have a lot of drawbacks for the ganker. Choosing your ship wisely, you can still break even (or even make a bit of profit) when CONCORD responds to your actions, which I think is an issue since you can also collect the loot from your victim. When I mine in HiSec, I watch my overview, and if someone enters the belt in a vessel that doesn't do mining duty, I am aligned and ready to warp out. Will I survive? Not bloody likely. But I'm going to try. And if they succeed, more power to them. Confession: I have not participated in alliance suicide ganks/freighter ganks. Timing just doesn't work out. But I'd do it in a heartbeat if it worked with my schedule.

Trolling
No brainer. This one brings a smile to my face, or a smack to the forehead when I'm a victim. Total HTFU.

Scamming
Scamming takes two faces, that of the corporate mole/thief and that of the Darwinian opportunist. I think the Darwinian opportunist is brilliant, after all, you should pay attention to what you are giving your ISK for. CCP makes it easy to do this safely - and victims of these scams are frankly, stupid enough to fall for them and should learn from their mistakes. The corporate mole is a different beast, but one that has some grudging respect. Taking days/months/years to develop a character who is designed just to infiltrate (and steal) is a commitment to the game I can't make - although I do have such an alt in the works.

All of these are legitimate courses of play in EVE Online - whether you (or I) like it. So, in the immortal words of every scammer, griefer, troll, and ninja salvager: "HTFU" EVE is a dark, dangerous world, no prettier than the one we live in every day, except that we don't end up face down in an alley bleeding when we get mugged in EVE. It's a game, one that supports many paths to escape the grind of reality.

And if you want more sage advice, you can send 1,000,000 ISK to Swearte Widfarend, and I'll tell you which PI materials to produce between now and October 1st for the highest profit margins, and 1,000,000 more gets you which T2 items to focus your R&D efforts on.