Re-examining the Exploration Loki and Proteus
I was reading over my old post today and generally looking at reader stats from while I had been gone when I noticed that two of my post still saw traffic on a daily basis. Both of those post were for exploration ship fittings of T3 cruisers: the Proteus and the Loki. I figured why not revisit those post and fittings to see what had changed. Lets look at what I am using now in comparison.
My first Loki posting can be found right here. The past two months, I have been using my Loki for lowsec exploration in Bloodraider space (combat and radar sites). This was its original purpose and it still performs admirably at doing so. My current fitting is the same as it used to be with an upgrade to a Caldari Invulnerability Field. I, once again, tried replacing the 220mm’s with 425mm’s, but I just didn’t like the loss of tracking. Replacing a Republic Gyro with a Tracking Enhancer II was an overall loss of dps when taking into account tracking disruption. Bloodraider frigs tracking disrupt constantly in the combat sites so it is a major concern for me. When fighting other factions be sure to take the specialized ECM of the faction into account for your fitting and do not only look at tank and dps. Just because EFT says you do 1337 dps doesn’t mean squat if you cannot actually hit anything.
Orbiting just outside of optimal by 500 or so meters with the AB running seemed to be the sweet spot for hitting everything while lessening just about all damage coming in from the target using the 220mm’s(result may very). One technique I did use was to just orbit the largest npc ship in the pocket and take out the frigs as they came within 12km. Remember folks, in lowsec spending less time completing a site not only increases your isk/hr ratio but also lessens the chance someone will “interrupt” you.
I was wary at first of being cap stable at less than 50%. This ends up not being a problem though unless you have more than one battleship neuting you. Often times it was remedied by turning off the afterburner or pulsing the shield booster. On the extremely rare occasion I still was not able to keep cap at a safe level (damn neuting towers), a quick warp out to rejuvenate the capacitor was all it took to continue on.
Final Build for the Loki:
[Loki, Trickster/ scan]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Damage Control II
Corelum C-Type 10MN Afterburner
Pithi B-Type Small Shield Booster
Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Large Shield Extender II
Codebreaker I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Defensive – Adaptive Shielding
Loki Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst
All lvl 5 skills:
DPS 414
Omni tank 292/ Bloodraiders 452
EHP: 56057 omni/ 87939 (Bloodraiders)
Cap Stable at 48%
Speed: 809 m/s
The Proteus build here underwent a major overhaul in comparison. I replaced the active hardeners with Darkblood Energized Membranes, upgraded to neutron blasters, dropped the mag site stuff completely, and redid the rigs. Getting rid of the mag site gear allowed me become cap stable and increase my overall dps while still using the cov-ops cloak. I was also able to add a Tracking Enhancer II to help the blasters out a bit. I now strictly do combat and radar sites with this ship in both Gurista and Serpentis lowsec. If for some reason I really want to do a mag site or two, I swap out the codebreaker or the probe launcher as needed.
The rigs can be played around with a bit. Cap stability with the MWD running is not a priority. The MWD is used to close distance to the target and then usually shut off. Leaving it on not only increases the amount of damage coming in, but reduces the dps of the blasters due to potential tracking issues. I just like being cap stable when possible and neuting is not usually an issue when dealing with Serps or Guristas. Unless you run into a neuting tower or two. I really hate those things. Really. Hate. Them.
I toyed around with using 250mm rails since the hybrid buff. Having the range was nice, but the dps left something to be desired and made completion times for most sites uncomfortably high. Not to mention, you almost have to downgrade to an afterburner or risk getting smacked around by any long to mid-range battleships that may be in the pocket due to MWD signature bloom.
You could also change out the Nanobot Injection subsystem for an Augmented Plating subsystem if you do not mind the loss off 100+ tank versus Serpentis and 150+ tank versus Guristas. This would give you another 18,00-24,000 EHP skills depending. I played around with both and just came to prefer the Nanobot Injection subsystem. Attribute it to my old missioning habits.
Final build for the Proteus:
[Proteus, Scanner]
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Dark Blood Energized Magnetic Membrane
Dark Blood Energized Thermic Membrane
Tracking Enhancer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Republic Fleet 10MN MicroWarpdrive
Codebreaker I
Large Capacitor Battery II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Proteus Defensive – Nanobot Injector
Proteus Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Proteus Propulsion – Localized Injectors
Proteus Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Proteus Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Hobgoblin II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
All lvl 5 skills:
DPS 472
Omni tank 153/ Serpentis 498/ Gurista 677
EHP: 25373 omni/ 59685 Serpentis/ 81496 Gurista
Cap Stable at 43%
Speed: 1600 m/s
Next I’ll be looking at something I acquired since returning to EvE, a Tengu. And yes, I have a bit of a crush on it at the moment.
The EvE Online Community
I debated long and hard about starting this blog back up after being gone for so long. Having recently returned to EvE, I was not sure if I wanted to put forth the effort into keeping a regularly updated blog, writing fiction, and staying in touch with the ongoing changes in the game. After spending roughly a month playing again, I decided to give it another go.
Upon returning, one of the first things that I noticed was how many of my favorite bloggers had moved on much like I myself had. Mynxee is gone, though still keeping tabs on the game. (I see you lurking on various forums.) Shae Tiann is, hopefully, enjoying her new job and I wish her the best of luck. Escoce seems to have fallen off the face of the universe. Crazy Kinux moved on as well with a new job and I wish him the best of luck (even though it is late in coming). And soon to be, the Eve Players Blog portal will be coming down. It will be missed by many I am sure. Myself being one of them as it kept me in touch with the game even when I wasn’t playing. These are just a few that have moved on to other things.
I also realized that a lot of those blogs I loved to read are still here and ultimately helped me decide that returning to writing was something I should continue. Not for the readership per se, though I hope they enjoy what I write, but for myself.
Recently, there were a couple of occurrences which brought to light perceived favoritism CCP had towards the various player media outlets (blogs, podcast, and websites) which caused some rumblings within the community. One question came to mind when I read the various posts and comments about it. Who do you write/podcast/v-cast for besides yourself? Those are the only people you need concern yourself with to my way of thinking. If CCP decides to turn the spotlight on you for whatever reason then awesome. If they don’t though and instead highlight someone else, does it really matter to those who regularly read, watch, or listen to you? Being one of those unknown listeners/ readers/ watchers myself I can tell you it doesn’t. You do not lose any credibility because of it. We the audience will not lessen our appreciation of your works for lack of a spotlight from CCP. We enjoy everything you put the effort into creating even if we do not necessarily agree with the message contained therein.
I guess what I am trying to say is keep doing what you are doing. It is the vibrant community of EvE that brings a lot of us back and keeps even more of us still playing year after year. Every time we lose an active member within the EvE online community it diminishes us as a whole. The only thing I hope for is someone else will be there to pick up the torch and keep the light shining.
Exploration Loki
Having had a couple days to play around with the Loki, I decided it was worth the isk. As a exploration vessel, the Loki performed admirably with any task I gave it from dodging lowsec gate camps to handling a 6/10 plex with only a couple warp outs. Those warp outs were due mainly to my nervousness about getting a brand new expensive ship blown away by rats more than anything. Here is the fit I decided to go with while exploring in Bloodraider areas:
[Loki, explo eft]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Damage Control II
Codebreaker I
Corelum C-Type 10MN Afterburner
Pithi B-Type Small Shield Booster
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Loki Defensive – Adaptive Shielding
Loki Electronics – Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Offensive – Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Engineering – Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Loki Propulsion – Fuel Catalyst
With my skills and implants: DPS: 403 close / 321 Barrage Tank: 242 omni / 337 bloodraiders Capstable@ 37% w/o the codebreaker Probe scan strength: 95 Speed: 750 m/s EHP: 47232
I juggled between an active and passive shield fit for a few days before putting this together. I could find no way to make a passive tank work while still dealing adequate DPS. The low slots had to be moved from gyros to SPRs. That coupled with the blooming signature meant the trade offs were to great for me. I opted for a large extender over a boost amplifier for the increased shield hitpoints as I felt 3000 some odd just wasn’t enough. The 220mm ACs help deal with tracking problems of frigates versus medium turrets without the need for a web or TE.
If anyone has ideas about how to improve the overall performance of this loadout please let me know. ( Aside from upgrading some of the modules to faction or better deadspace as appropriate. )
Names have power over those who let them.
I paced impatiently as the contracted hauler unloaded the last of the of the huge crates onto the hangar’s floor and moved her ship out. My compad beeped letting me know that payment had been received and a full manifest followed afterward. I glanced down the page. Everything seemed in order. The hangar crew started to open the crates and store the various modules, equipment, and ships that just arrived. I waited impatiently as the crew used the hangar’s cranes to remove some modular ship components from various crates and start putting them together along a hull. The components seemed to attach themselves once they were seated on the correct areas of the hull. The whole process took less than an hour including checking the fittings and seals. I gazed at the ship now come to life before me. It was the pinnacle of modern warship design based on the new technology coming out of the wormholes. A Loki strategic cruiser.
The hangar crew spent the next couple hours fitting the modules and weapons to the Loki. I had two specific purposes for the ship. It was to be both an exploration vessel and a warship taking unwary prey indiscriminately. I only needed to change out one of the modular systems to change between the two. The emergent locus analyzer would be switched with the tactical targeting network for a quicker lock time after decloaking. It wouldn’t affect the sensor recalibration time, but it did shave off a second after the sensors came back online. This is a ship that can stand equal or more punishment than a battlecruiser, deals slightly less damage, and is more maneuverable. I loved it without even having flown it yet.
Of course, many pilots argue that for the price of a Loki and fittings, I could have gotten twelve fully fitted battlecruisers and a couple recon ships as well. Having flown both ships already, I was unsatisfied with the BCs due to thier lack of speed and the fact they turned like a brick. And recons, while nice, just lack the firepower one needs when operating solo. Recons also do not have much defense once an opponent gets close. They operate much better in a fleet or gang where they are a force multiplier.
The excitement over the past week started to catch up to me soon after the Loki was put together. I headed to my office and collapsed on the cot behind the desk. Taking off my boots, I figured i had better get some sleep before putting the Loki through the crucible. As I drifted off, I wondered what I should name her.
***Readers I would like suggestions as to what name my new Loki should have. Reasons why you chose the name would be appreciated. I can’t wait to see what yall come up with. There will be an ISK prize for the name chosen so please be sure to leave the name of the character you would like the prize to go to.***
New theme in the works
Going through a bit of a theme change over the next week so please excuse the mess.
A pirate’s life for.. eh wait, huh? Where did you come from?
“…and captained by a man so evil, that hell itself spat him back out?” PotC
After being gone for such a long time, I imagine all of my readership has disappeared. I needed to take a break from Eve as some RL things needed my full attention. I was also starting to feel the beginnings of burnout for one reason or another. Sorry for not informing folks here.
I have been back for about 2-3 weeks now, just in time for Tyrannis and all that entails. The expansion did not affect me one way or another really. I dabbled a bit in PI and found it boring. Nevertheless, I have a couple things on the back burner cranking away that will hopefully pay for the investment in a couple months.
After being gone so long, it took a couple days to get back in the pilot’s seat as it were. I now feel the relaxed awareness I remember when moving through lowsec camps or running some lvl4 missions absentmindedly. I’m sure the shakes will return the first couple of pvp fights I have and then they too will disappear.
————————————————————————————————
Couple of interesting notes though on happenings since I returned:
Isk through missions seems easier to get than before even with the “mission nerf”. I say this because since I have returned, I made enough isk to buy two Gilas, a Rattlesnake, a few Ishkurs, and another Domi. I fitted them as appropriate with some faction gear but they are mostly T2. I’m not sure if the amount of isk I made was a result of my experience or just finding good deals when getting rid of lp. From reading various forums and blogs, my experience seems to be peculiar so take it as you will. By the way, I am in love with the rattler! I want it to be the mother of my future children.
I am still a member of TRAMPS alliance through GT’s corp, Tigris Cleptum Gaza. I was glad to see this once I brought GT back online last week. I have been catching up on alliance goings on with Escoce and generally trying to figure out what I wanted GT and the corp to be doing. PVP is still a mainstay, but I’m thinking about moving into lowsec exploration as a second focus for the corp. While those thoughts meandered through my mind, TRAMPS received two wardecs a few days apart from each other. Neither affects those of us in lowsec really, but other members of the alliance are highsec indy/mission types and a couple of them got popped. Nothing major though and not nearly worth the cost of deccing an alliance. One of the wardecs was dropped yesterday and I anticipate the other will run out after a week as well.
Looking forward to catching up with those of you I haven’t talked to yet. Fly casual!
SSOD: New Beginnings
Quite a bit has been going on over the past couple weeks for me. SSOD has undergone a change in management through a hostile takeover. What I mean is the old CEO, Chainer, went MIA and is still MIA. A vote was taken and passed. Chainer was removed from CEO and expelled from the corp. Deno stepped in to become the new CEO with Caels as Director. Various divisions with the corp received new leadership, including the Production division which is now being overseen by yours truly.I could go into more detail about exactly why things happened this way, but Deno has a nice post explaining everything over on his site.
Now, I find myself in a position of leadership for an area I have some experience in, but not a great deal outside of T1 manufacturing. So why did I accept the position then? Because the industrial side of Eve is very interesting to me and was on my long list of things to delve deeply into at a later date anyway. After a bit of research I have a good grasp of what is needed, the processes involved T2 and T3 manufacturing, and the difficulties we will have operating out of w-space.
Besides just understanding the industrial processes, I must recruit for my division. Yes this means you my carebear (with teeth?) friends. Interested in learning what living in a wormhole is like? Want access to those juicy nullsec ores without the constant watching of local? Want the chance to manufacture goods in support of the corp and for personal profit at much reduced expenses? Ever been interested or are currently experienced in T2 and T3 research and production? Then SSOD needs you! We have openings currently for positions within the Production Division operating both in and out of our personal wormhole. You can contact myself, Varnoka, or visit our forums for more information.
Varn’s advetures in wormhole space 1
Journal Entry 001, WH ops, SSOD member Varnoka
“Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of isk out there on the wind; the isk just waiting to be plucked like a peach on the limb.”
This thought crossed my mind after spending a whole day in Dodixie trying to get everything ready for my move into the wormhole and another two days trying to get in. The static lowsec exit kept coming up in Amarr space and I was afraid I would have to travel there in my pod while the contract hauler brought the gear to the lowsec system’s station. Having performed many a mission for the FIO against the Amarr, they did not take to kindly to me being in their space. Patience paid off though and the lowsec entry point opened in Sinq Laison for me. I contacted the hauler, who said there wouldn’t be any problems, and I flew off to act as scout in I. C. U., my trusty cov-ops.
The gear secured in the corp’s hangar in the wormhole had me breathing a sigh of relief. The list totaled two assault frigates, one bomber, a battlecruiser, a mining barge, and various gear and fittings. Not to mention the things I brought for the corp. I contemplated bringing my Proteus, but with the intel I had received on these Sleepers, it didn’t seem a good ship for the task being primarily close range support or exploration fitted. It would stay mothballed with my other gear in known space for now.
This was my first time being in a POS. I spent a while becoming acquainted with the operation of the various modules and defenses. I also met most of the other corp members I would be spending the majority of my time with. Since they were just going to bed when I arrived, I bid them good night and headed back to I.C.U. The ever shimmering and twirling of the POS shields would take some getting used to though. As I launched out the shield, a feeling of wonder came over me. What adventures awaited me? How would we cope being disconnected from known space? Would anyone remember me when I got back? These thoughts ran through my mind as I set about launching my probes and scanning down the anomalies and signatures in the system. Time later for existential contemplation, there was isk to be made.
Change is in the air again…
Alot of change is going on in the next couple of days. Varnoka will be joining SSOD in their operations while GT takes over the reigns of GOTGR. You may know of SSOD from Chainer’s blog since it is his corp. This came about while I was helping Chainer move some supplies for SSOD recently. I had gotten to know a number of SSOD’s members through alliance chat and they seemed like fun folk to be with. The move will also fulfill my desire to explore wormhole operations and all that entails whilst supplying me with the occasinal pvp action. What can I say, once a pirate…
One reason for the sudden change was the tedium of mission running was really starting to wear on me even with breaking it up with exploration. I could do just about every level 4 without even glancing at The Mission Guide. The need for isk has been marginalized since I no longer have plans to set up a research POS anytime soon. Having liquidated the majority of my assets also helped in the isk area. Going into a wormhole on a semi-permanent basis will be a change for me. Before, I had looked at short forays never planning to stay longer than a couple hours. Now though I’m starting to learn of the logistical difficulties firsthand. This is a challenge I’m looking forward to and already had some interesting discussions about it. Having read a number of blogs dealing specifically with wormholes allows me to be a little more confident, but there is so much still to learn.
The added benefit of being in a corp with other players will be nice as well. It fulfills one of my resolutions to become more social in my game playing outside of a chat window. Besides the few times I fleeted up while in the Tuskers* and my short stint in the FDU, I hadn’t really done anything with anybody. Basically the game for me was a PvE grind with a chat window. Hell some nights I did nothing but chat and station spin while checking the occasional order on an alt. To really enjoy this game you have to DO stuff with OTHER players. Band together for some goal and go after it with everything you can. Succeed or not, you will have enjoyed yourself much more than just killing Serpentis after Serpentis with your drones or missiles. I guarauntee it.
*not counting blowing up ships solo
My Runnin with EveHQ
So during downtime today, I decided to really play around in EveHQ and see what all the fuss was about. I have had the program for about 2 weeks now but hadn’t really messed with it outside of checking market orders on my alts. I was still used to pulling up EveMon or EFT since their familiarity was comforting. You have to admit the first time you look at EveHQ and all the options, buttons, tabs, API downloads, etc it is a bit daunting.
First thing I messed with was Prism, the market/asset add-on. OMG! I’m in love with this thing. It took me a bit to get the market price filters set up correctly since you have to fiddle with the pricing criteria to eliminate the outlandish orders. Being able to quickly scan my assets for items that I own and their actual market value based on different regions is just…just…*faint*
Where was I? Oh yea. So after I recovered from that and saw my actual net worth I almost fainted again. I really need to consolidate and get rid a bunch of stuff that I don’t use. During the next week or so, if I run across anything that might be a good buy for yall I’ll put up a little post on a separate page here (titled Varn’s Yardsale) with my going price. And if your interested, let me know IG (evemail Varnoka) and I’ll contract it to you. Most will be ships since I have them rigged and fitted already. If no one’s interested after 4 days then to the contract market they go for maximum profit. If I come across any juicy faction stuff that will be listed also.
Under Prism is also the Rig Builder utilizing salvage you currently have. It list current market cost of materials vs. market price of rigs. Handy that one for those of us who make our own rigs. It also has a Recycler tab which I didn’t really mess with but seems geared for the serious loot reprocessor. Nice stuff all around for the industrialist, marketeer, or mission runner.
The EveHQ fitter is something familiar to almost everyone. Coming from EFT it was a bit confusing at first since the layout and information presentation is a little different. I also found some discrepancies between the two in regards to cap stability and tank. Not sure why that is. Probably some option I missed. If anyone knows a reason please inform me so I can correct. Yes, I made sure that I had the same implants selected in both so it isn’t that. I think I like it better than EFT after spending some time with it. Being able to see a weapons tracking is nice and I like how it doesn’t round off numbers. A more easily understandable item info is good as I found EFT’s a pain at times. The targeting speed analysis is well layed out so you can readily see how fast you’ll lock different targets without having to click multiple times. The ability to easily switch different implant setups is just sweet. Overall, I give it 9.5/10.
The skill planner is much like EveMon and easy to get used to. Nothing new there just a different layout. The Item Browser though was interesting. Not only does it give you the usual ingame info, but it also breaks down the building requirements to include skills and components, research needs, and what it will recycle into. There is also a price breakdown for all you traders out there.
Overall, EveHQ is a worthy tool for any Eve player. There are some other aspects of it I didn’t mention like the trip planner, POS manager, and wormhole information addons. These addons are not important to me right now, but its nice knowing they are there if I need them. I recommend for yall to go download it and give it a try for a bit. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Carebears vs Pvpers: Changing Points of View
Earlier today or last night, I’m not sure which, I had an interesting”discussion” with a, lets just call him a pirate, while I was running a combat site down in GT’s old neck of the woods with Varn in her Proteus. I had seen him and his corpmates in the area the past month GT was based there. It was their little pocket of lowsec and I respected that having done a bit of lowsec marauding myself. They never seemed really interested in me till today though. The pirate entered the system while I was running the site. I kept an eye on the d-scanner and saw some core probes and a pilgrim on scan. I figured I would have just about enough time to kill the primary BS spawn and get out before he could get to me. Just as I was about to engage, the pilgrim was decloaked by the wreckage I had created at the warp-in point. I immediately warped out and cloaked up hoping he might get bored once he realized he wouldn’t get me today. I was just one jump from highsec and he was flashy red so no real worries about gatecamps trapping me. Thus ensued our discussion.
Without too much detail, here is the gist of it. The pirate assumed I thought of myself as a hot shit noob/carebear because I piloted a T3 and got away from him and that any moron could do exploration. I agreed that exploration was easy and even easier in a T3, but his other assumptions were off base. To me he sounded hurt I didn’t stick around and let him kill me. Now, anyone who knows me understands that I know I’m not much of a pilot in Eve. Hell even after 2 years I still consider myself a newb in the game. And I often times make stupid mistakes. *cough* Losing a faction fitted Ishtar to NPCs. *cough* So, were am I going with this?
The whole situation had me wondering why someone would assume that just because another person has a nice ship and high sec status that they think of themselves as all that and a bag of chips? I personally have quite a number of nice ships, well fitted, that other players would kill to have and it’s not because of ego but because I had the isk at the time to buy them and I like new shiny toys. 
I have finally gotten to the point where I understand how to make isk relatively quickly without out-of-game resources and without scamming other players. Was it because he assumed, due to my high sec status and standings, that I was only a complete carebear and did nothing else? Was it some misplaced anger against the “carebear” style of playing? This animosity between carebears and pvpers is something I have never understood. I myself am kind of the middle ground. I like to pewpew every once in a while, but I also enjoy the trading, manufacturing, missioning side of Eve. Having the ability to do all of these things is what makes this a great game. The carebears think all the pvpers/pirates want to do is make their life hell and the pvpers/pirates think the carebears want to make this game into HelloKitty Online. Now everyone doesn’t think this, but the vast majority does for some reason. Or so it seems from reading various blogs and forums.
What neither of the two extremes realise is that they cannot survive without the other. I believe nullsec alliances are really starting to find this out now with the sovereignty changes that came with Dominion. Not all of them mind you, but enough that I hope it will start to change the perceptions of people. Some alliances already understood this and had strong industrial backbones with which to capitalize on the industrial upgrades. In lowsec and highsec though this will take longer to change. It is one of the reasons I joined TRAMPS, to help change this perception that pvpers and carebears cannot cohabitate or even benefit from one another’s success. I feel this will take a fundamental change in the thought processes of most players to be successful. If TRAMPS is able to do so in just a handful of players during my time, I feel we would have accomplished a worthy goal.
Welcome to my new home!
I’m glad you could find your way here and hope you enjoy your stay. There is some chicken gumbo on the stove along with the jambalaya. Chickory coffee is in the coffee maker. For those who want it, I have cafe-au-lait brewing on the stove also. Beer is in the cooler outside beside the table covered with boiled crawfish, crabs, and shrimp. Make yourselves at home.
And no way in hell will there be one of those “happy new year take a look back/forward post”…ever.
Proteus Exploration Fits
I had a request from Flashfresh for the fitting of my Proteus. I feel honored he would ask actually. Flashfresh was one of my early influences when I initially got into pirating on Geaux Tiger. Here’s to hoping I don’t embarrass myself too much.
I have 2 main fits I utilize depending on whether I expect gate camps or not, though both could be used in either situation. These fits are for lowsec exploration only. For nullsec I do not recommend them for three reasons; the first being that neither has the nullifier adaptation to escape bubbles, the second is I believe the tank is not adequate (correct me if I’m wrong please), and the third is the DPS is rather bleh. A Tengu would make for a much more viable nullsec solo exploration ship.
I have both setups shown tanking for Serpentis. The tank would be approximately 170 more for Guristas. They are also shown with my skills and implants; hence cap stability will vary as will damage and speed.
This fit uses the Drone Sythesis Projector inlue of the Covert configuration. It is my primary fit so far as my drone skills out shine my gunnery. Using the MWD-cloak trick makes things pretty safe for the unexpected gate camp. It has an extra utility high slot and only 3 turret slots allowing for a salvager to be fitted without loss of potential DPS. Using the drones, I actually gained 50 DPS over the blaster fit using Hammerhead IIs.
I believe this fit is best for solo lowsec exploration. DPS is greater with same tank and speed as the blaster fit while still being cloak capable while scanning. It also allows for carrying a full flight of EC-600s for pvp defense as well as 4 sentries for long range engagement of hostiles. The need for closing distances quickly is eliminated due to drones. Kiting is an option to reduce incoming DPS also.
Let me know your thoughts on these fits as I am always looking for improvements.
Proteus: Fugly but Functional
Finally got the pictures of the Proteus uploaded. Sorry for the delay.
Good, Bad, and Real Fugly
I got GT down into my new lowsec region last night without any real problems. Managed to hit most of the systems I went through for BS rats to help with upping my sec status. Got on GT some more today and night for some more ratting and to see what the locals were doing. All I really ran into was a ice mining op and a couple missioners during my 6 hour semi-afk playing time on him. Went pretty well over all. Got his sec status down to -6.2 I believe before I logged off him. He was -6.7 at the beginning of the day.
I also bought myself a present for xmas, a Proteus fitted for lowsec exploration for Varnoka to use. Price was reasonable for all the parts/modules. Total cost was around 600mill. So of course I had to try it out right . Moved down to where GT used to be since the area was quiet. First system I hit took me awhile to get used to probing again and operating under cloak. Got a Ladar sight, which unfortunately no one was on that could utilize it. I’ll check tomorrow and see if its still there and if anyone wants to harvest it.
Also got a hit on a combat site. I actually prefer these most the time as it keeps me active and involved after scanning stuff down. I had never heard of the site before, Serpentis Logistical Outpost. I figured the Proteus could handle lowsec sites pretty easy so went on in. First room was nothing there, so warped to the second and just about shit my pants. Fifteen some odd BSs, full cruiser and frig support all of which were elite with damp and/or web scram abilities. I decided to hunker down and take the frigs out first then concentrate on the cruisers. What with a decent active speed tank I should be fine. Launched Hobgobs and started firing. Took me about 3 seconds to realize my cap was disappearing fast and the amount of damage incoming was pretty sever. I finally noticed the neut towers and decided to bug out just as my last cap was eliminated. Proteus got out with 17% armour left and I was hyper-ventilating.
After I calmed down a couple minutes later, I decided to go get my Ishtar and lay waste to the site. How dare they almost take out my new Proteus! Passive with Dread Guristas Invul hardener had me at 1200+ defence. Oh yea they were gonna pay now. Made it back to the site, popped Sentries and worked on the first tower while orbiting. Frigs decided to scram and web me..all 4 of them. Shields were holding at 48% though and one tower was down. Switched sentries to the other tower and glanced at my cap, around 35 percent left and dropping fast. Cap went, hardener quit and the shields started to melt. Fuck!
Abandoned sentries and launched hammers to take out the frigs fast. Shield was slowly going down from 30% and only two frigs left to go. But it was for naught. Three of the BSs that had been out of range finally got into range and I could do nothing but watch as my Ishtar was destroyed. I sat there stunned in my pod not believing that a lowsec combat site just took down an Ishtar, and easily at that. I warped back to station and forlornly got into the Proteus.
I logged out to see if there was any information about that site. A quick search turned up that the site was not for solo work really. Most people recommend the use of RR BSs or Ravens with Basilisk support. I was lucky to get my Proteus out for sure. The loss of the Ishtar and DG Invul will hurt yea, but they can be gotten back soon enough.
This was the first time in a long time that I felt a challenge as a solo player in the game going up against NPCs (not including WHs which I only did briefly). And I have to say it feels good really. Now I know there are some surprises still to be had even after 2 years playing the game. Gets me all excited again. Looks like I may be spending a lot of time looking at swirly spheres when I’m not on GT.
P.S.: The Proteus in full cov-ops/exploration set-up looks ugly as hell to me. I’ll put a picture up of it later in the day.
Plans within Plans
Logistics.
I hate them.
It is a pain in the ass trying to figure out how to move goods 20 odd jumps from highsec–> lowsec when the route is through an area I’m KOS in. And that’s just for Varn. Geaux Tiger has to move 30+ jumps through 0.0 and lowsec to get there. Or 25+ jumps through highsec then lowsec which means not moving anything but his Claw and leaving the rest for Varn to try and move.
Total I’m looking to move roughly 22,ooom3 in ships and goods right now. Enough to get me started and to have a back-up or two incase/when stuff gets blown up. I thought about just using a couple of T3 cruisers, but that is a bit much for an initial investment in the area right now. Want to see if it will be worth moving more assets out there before putting too much ISK on the line.
Looks like I’ll be training up for a DST, 16 days total all told to be able to move goods safer to my new FoB. The area looks promising though. Very low sec rating means a good chance at finding good ores in grav sites and better loots in the radar and mag sites. Not to mention it seemed a lot of the belts in the area had battleship spawns. And with such a low sec rating, even the BC spawns had ok bounties. The main selling point though was the low population. Over a week of scouting all I mainly saw was other explorers with very low sightings of pirates. So far everything is looking good.
My plan until my DST is ready will be to get out there in an AF (0.0 ratting setup with cloak). My initial scouting was mainly just system hopping at various times of the day to see how the population was. A lengthier stay ratting in the area and running anoms will give me a better feel for the ebb and flow of the locals and allow me to become familiar with the corps. They will also get used to seeing me. Hopefully, I can make a couple of good contacts and build up a little trust.
"What?! This isn’t a single player game?!?!"
“The same thing we do every night Pinky…Take over the world!”
Quite a bit has been going on since I posted the Gila mission fit. I have scrapped Operation Wayland for those who were wondering what was going on with that. No static wormholes in any systems in my area of operations. The few I did find were C3, C4 and already occupied by quite large corps active during my timezone.
As great as the Gila is at missioning, it just can’t compare to the Raven. So I went ahead and got a Raven and fitted it quite well with a pretty standard gank fit and some faction mods. Managed to increase my mission completion time by about a third. Its been over a year since I flew a Raven or CNR and my skills are much better now for those ships. Isk/hr saw a nice increase as a result.
Varn and GT are back again in Tigris Cleptum Gaza (GOTGR) (my personal corp). Initially it was just to avoid the npc corp tax rate, but has evolved a bit. I was looking to join a corp but was finding it difficult to find one which had all the elements I was looking for. I mentioned this in the blogger channel and Escoce approached me about joining his alliance. After some Q and A, I submitted an application and joined up United Trade Syndicate (TRAMP). It is a perfect fit for me. I already knew alot of the members as they are bloggers themselves and we all seem to have similar thoughts on projects and future plans. I have high hopes for the alliance once the infancy stage is over.
Along those lines, Tigris Cleptum Gaza looking to make a move into lowsec on a more permanent basis. I had my eye on a certain region for a while, but logistics of moving there made it daunting going solo. Being in an Alliance now though makes the task a bit easier and it will hopefully be happening in the next couple weeks. Not sure if setting up a POS out there would be feasible given my limited resources or even if it will be needed. It’s something I’m looking into currently. Though the lack of stations friendly to me in the area might make it a necessity. If anyone is looking for a laid back corp in a friendly alliance who does a bit of everything, drop me a line ingame. Recruitment is open for Tigris Cleptum Gaza, though I make no claims to being either organized or driven per se. Its all about having fun.
This is a pretty big step for me. I had been in a couple of other corps, but was never that active with the other members. I figured it was about time to partake in the MMO portion of this game and see where it would lead me. Who knows, before long I might be organizing ops; growing my corp to more than me, myself, and alts; and become a player within the larger politics of the game. One can only wait and see.
Lvl 4 Mission Gila
Been spending quite a bit of time since Dominion playing with the revamped Gila. This thing is awesome. I have a passive shield Ishtar already and wanted to see how the Gila compared to it in missions. In EFT, the Ishtar had more tank (obviously) but the Gila is able to fit an AB and be a decent cap stable passive fit. The HAMs I fitted gave me 70 DPS compared to the Ishtar’s 75 DPS from 150mm Rails.
Tried it out in SE, AE, Vengance, etc. You know all the ones that can test your tank. Though Blockade has yet to appear for me. Did full room aggro/popped triggers in each and had no problems. Never had to warp out. Key was dropping a can and orbiting at 15km with AB running. Dropped sentries once I was in orbit and had removed the webbing frigs. Concentrated on cruisers/BCs first to remove dps and then let the drones self-target the BSs with me adding HAMs.
Here’s my fit: (edited to reflect current use Dec 9, 2009)
[Gila, Mission copy 1]
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Flux Coil II
Shield Flux Coil II
Shield Flux Coil II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Domination Invulnerability Field
Dread Guristas Invulnerability Field
Domination 10MN Afterburner
Arbalest Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile Range: <24.6km
Arbalest Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Arbalest Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Torrent Assault Missile
Drone Link Augmentor I
[empty high slot]
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Garde II x5
538 Omni tank, 681 Angel, 549 Serp
479 dps with my skills
554 m/s
cap stable at 47%
HAMs will be upgraded as skills and funds allow. Heavy Missile Launchers could be fitted if you want for increased range at the expense of about 10-20 EFT dps. I actually tried this at first, but found that the defender missiles fired by the BCs and BSs made it so you consistently lost 1 out of 3 missiles you fired. Making the loss of dps more in the range of 35-45. With the speed of the Assault Missiles and decreased range of use, the loss of DPS from rat defender missiles is almost non-existant.
The 400m3 drone bay allows for anything you want and plenty of replacements. I use the DLA instead of tractor/salvager due to having a dedicated salvage boat and it allows for the drones to target stuff farther away when I get damped.
Now some people might go for more of a nano fit. And that’s not a bad idea. But I tend to do mostly Serp and Angel missions which have quite a few webbing frigs. Hence a bit more tank with the SFC II x3 and SPR II. This allows me more time to take out the webbing frigs while moving at glacier speeds.
The Domination Invul Field along with the Domination AB are key to cap stability for me while the DG Invul Field gives me that extra oomph to the resist. They also allow for the fitting of the HAMs over regular Assault Missile Launchers as with this fit the Gila is a bit tight on CPU.
The Gila has become my ship of choice for any mission that involves mostly close range BSs or long distances between gates. I still use my Domi with 350mm rails for missions where rats start out or maintain long distances. Nothing like insta-popping frigs/dessies at 80+km. Even then though, I have used the Gila to good affect with the increased maneuverability making up for the Domi’s range. I might end up using the Gila exclusively though once I get my missile skills above the level 3s and 4s I have now.
Operation Wayland
I had been scouting this pocket of low security space for a week and had seen little activity. Two Federation secured systems guarded the only entrances to the pocket which meant most pirates would not be able to get here easily. The pocket also wasn’t on any route to major areas. Hell, it wasn’t even on any secondary routes for that matter. One of the entrance low sec systems had a bit of traffic but that was nothing to worry about as it could be avoided easily with the way the jump gates were set up. Everything looked good for the op.
I had contacted Varnoka two weeks ago when I had come up with the plan. After a bit of butt chewing from her, she calmed down enough to actually listen to me and what I had to say. The operation would be to exploit exploration complexes for research goods and equipment while I raised my security rating with Concord. Wormhole placement, times, and information would be gathered as well to see if any regularly showed up in the systems. If one was found that was regular, we would then launch operations to exploit the Sleepers there and return to Federation space to sell the technology. That way we could base ourselves in regular space without the expense of moving a POS into the Sleeper system. With both of us piloting either Heavy Assault Cruisers or Battlecruisers, we should be able to easily handle up to Class 3 wormholes. Not having a POS meant we could range into Sleeper systems already “claimed” by corporations for quick snatch and grabs of either sleeper tech or the occupants. I sent her a data file with specifics on cost analysis, profit margins, and time analysis for her to look over.
Four days after our conversation she sent me a short message, “Do it.”
As I sat in front of the comm console I wondered if a week was long enough to have scouted the low sec pocket. There were a couple of large POSs anchored to various moons in one of the systems, but I had seen nothing of the owners. Could be they came only once a month for refueling and gathering of moon resources. I had yet to go and get an eye on them in fear of defenses they might have. Not that the owners would have any impact on the operation anyway. I hit send on the encrypted message waiting before me, “Operation Wayland is GO GO GO.”
For Old Times Sake
It took me a couple weeks to arrive in Essence from Evati after the Hellcats party. I stopped along the way to patrol some of the systems I was traveling through and try and catch up on rumors in various places. All I had was one of the free Rifters from the party, so I was being more cautious than normal. I had sent a short message to the Lady I had spent my night in Evati with; I had yet to hear anything. Probably for the best anyway.
On my way back, I had noticed an increased amount of people in local once I hit Sinq Laison. In the past, Sinq and lower Essence tended to be relatively quiet. Now though, there were a number of Battle Cruisers and Cruisers at the various gates I passed quickly through with local comms averaging 5-8 capsuleers. Arriving in my home system of Adirain, a number of reds showed up on local comms; Bushwackers. I shrugged it off as a passing gang and breathed a sigh of relief. I was back. The system hadn’t changed while I was away. Not like I expected it to, but with those wormholes popping up all over the place you never know. I docked at the CBD station and made my way to my quarters. Inside, I collapsed on the bunk behind the desk not even noticing the cloud of dust that shot up from the mattress. Sleep overtook me like a Claw Interceptor.
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
What the hell was that. I awoke and looked for the cause of the damn noise. Oh, the comms console was going off with an awaiting message. I drag myself out of bed and make my way over hitting the receive button. I enter the security password and insert my finger into the biometrics for confirmation of identity. A rough feminine voice started talking.
“GT, how have you been? You could have at least let me know you were going off grid for a while you asshat. Do you know the kind of hell I had to go through to keep your things from being taken by FIO for crimes against the Federation?! I had to burn every favor I had in this backwater part of Essence to convince them to just secure the gear and place it under my supervision! Plus, it took me 2 months to erase the records that led them here without getting caught myself! You owe me. Oh yes, you owe me now you back end of a chingavatsu who has sex with gringats!” The message ends abruptly and is promptly scrambled and erased.
Yea, I missed you to Varnoka. Damn she’s pissed. That message was almost a month old. She had probably calmed down by now. Maybe. Hopefully. I turn and look around my quarters. There wasn’t any dust on the surfaces and the bottle of scotch was still in the middle of the desk unopened. The message attached to it was missing though. She must have read it when she came looking for me. I take a quick shower and change into some old clothes I have in the closet. Time to check the hangar and see if everything is in order.
All the gear and extra modules are stored and arranged neatly in their proper places. The ships appear to be in better shape than when I left. There are new fittings where the old malfunctioning ones had been. After a quick inspection of a few of the Rifters, it looked like maintenance had been performed recently and they were all ready to go.
I just stared at the Rapier class Recon in front of me. It was beautiful; three 650mm Artillery, two Shadow Serpentis Webifiers, a Republic Fleet Warp Disruptor, two large shield extenders, Micro Warp Drive, and a Covert-Ops Cloaking Device. The ship had sexy written all over it. I had never taken it out. Oh I was fully skilled to fly it, just never had the chance. One last hurrah was in order for old times sake. I had talked to Ka Jolo, my CEO, and recently made him aware of my intentions to leave the Tuskers. I had a wait till my roles within the corp were dropped before officially tendering my resignation. One last patrol out of respect for the corp was in order and this ship would be perfect.
I undocked and warped to my usual scanning position. I start the scan and sit back to relax. Almost immediately, the scanner returns a couple of hits. Two Vexors are off system plane, probably doing missions for one corp or another. There are two Thrashers though bouncing from one belt to another hunting The Serpentis that patrol there. I warp into a belt cloaked at 100 kilometers to see exactly what they are up to. I come out of warp and almost collide with the biggest damn veldspar roid I’ve ever seen. My cloak drops immediately from proximity. Damn there goes the surprise factor. One of the Thrashers is only 13km away from me. I start to lock him up and engage the webs, disruptor, artys, and MWD burning out to 27km.The Thrasher tries to return fire and close distance but is shortly nothing but a pile of scrap. I warp out of the belt and leave the pod on its own.
Back at my safe, I realized the other Thrasher never even seemed to react to the engagement. Interesting. And he is now back to warping from one belt to another. Man Barthelme appears in system and we decide to go after the Thrasher. I lock the Thrasher down in a belt and Man proceeds to make it scrapmetal. Not a thrilling fight, but it is good to work with an old corpy before I leave. Man moves on and I decide to make my way down to Vitrauze and check if any Hellcats are around.
A few Bushwackers appear in local as I leave Adirain. Aeschee seems to have its normal amount of people with most of local being reds to me. Onne and Hulmate have a few folks, but none are at belts or planets, probably doing missions for some corp. Then my scanner picks up an Archon. Then another Archon appears with a Nid… and a Thanatos..another Thanatos..another Thanatos..a Chimera all appear within a matter of seconds. What the hell is going on?! Thankfully I’m cloaked up. Nope, no cyno is up in system. I narrow down that they are all undocking from a station. After watching for a couple minutes, They begin to disappear off scan. Must be a covert cyno then from a ship I cant see or they are warping in system to bring the pain down on some poor POS. I warp to the Vitrauze gate. Time to leave dodge before the shit hits the fan.
As I jump into Vitrauze, my overview lights up with flashing reds and I hear the sound of a battle. I hold my cloak a second and try to figure out whats going on. There is a Drake, Legion, Hurricane, and Maelstrom on gate with drones out. A wreck is in the vicinity as well. My cloak drops as the drones following the Legion get close to me and I quickly hit the MWD while aligning to a planet right in front of me. Mashing down the cloak and warp buttons hoping I can get up to speed before they lock me. Almost immediately, I’m locked by what I think is the Legion and my warp shuts down. I’m starting to take damage and my shields are dropping fairly quickly. I target the Legion and Maelstrom putting my webbers on them while releasing my ecm drones on the Legion. I’m praying to get out of range of any scrams or that my drones will get a lucky jam allowing me to warp. I’m in armor by now and realize I’m not going to make it. My beautiful Rapier crumbles around me and I await warping out in my pod. Nothing happens as my ship explodes…
My pod is locked down and I’m taking some small amount of damage when one of the pilots opens comms with me. That is the last thing I remember.
Eve-O Fan Music
It has been a few weeks since my last post and I apologize for the break. One reason for the break was I have been trying to find fan made music based upon or influenced by the game we all love, Eve-O. I found mostly parodies with a smattering of original music. I also found out about a couple of people who are currently working on some music that has yet to be made public.
I know some of you were interested in my findings, as such I decided to make available a list for your enjoyment. I will list the artist first with a brief description and let you decide for yourselves who is your favorite. The artist are listed in no particular order. If I have misspelled anyone’s name or given credit to the wrong person please let me know and corrections will be made forthwith. Enjoy.
Curzon Dax: Well known from the Eve-O forums for his parodies.
Alienhand: A DJ well known for his use of Aura voice overs mixed with various styles of music.
Luminus Aardokay: Parodies. DJ aMusic on SI-Radio and podcaster of The Planetrisk Show.
Suas: Parody. Found on you-tube.
Roc Wieler: Original music.
sweeteck2: Parodies. Found on you-tube.
NitroG: Parodies. Found on you-tube.
0eleuthereus0: Parody.
If you know of any other artist who have original music or parodies based upon Eve-O leave me a comment so I can include them in the list.
Voyage Home: Finale
I awoke feeling like a 1400mm Howitzer was going off in my head. There was something heavy on my arm. I drearily opened my eyes and saw something black laying on it. Oh, it was a head..attached to a body…of a woman..of a good looking woman. Man, why don’t I ever remember the important stuff. Like, who is this and did we have a good time? I close my eyes and try to ease my arm out from underneath her. I feel her turn her head and put a hand on my chest, “Good morning GT.” I open my eyes again and look at her. She is smiling lazily at me with that half awake look that makes me want to just stay in bed. Guess we had a good time.
I smile back, “Good morning gorgeous. I need some meds for this headache. Be right back.” She smiles and rolls over going back to sleep. I get out of bed shakily and head for the bathroom. Wait where is it? Oh there it is. I open the cabinet and take some pain pills downing them with a pouch of water. You would think after thousands of years humans would have figured out how to fix alcohol from giving you a hangover. After splashing my face, I wake up a bit. I can already start to feel the meds kick in. Must be the good stuff.
Looking around from the doorway of the bath, I start to notice this is definitely not anyplace I rented. Holo’s of some blue and brown planet almost completely cover one wall. There are a couple of chairs around a low table in one corner of the room…the chairs have pinkish cushions on them. A desk in another corner faces away from the main door and has neatly arranged data consoles on it. Yea, not a rented place by a long shot. I look over to the bed. My robe, pants, and boots lay in a pile next to it. There is no sign of the woman’s clothes. The bed cover barely conceals the woman’s lower back. She appears athletic, about 5’6″ tall, and of mixed parentage. There is a glow about her skin I just can’t place. Maybe its that she is just so pale next to her deep black hair. She is beautiful by any measurement I can think of. And that begs the question; what the hell is she doing with me?
I move over to the comm console and put in an order with a local cafe for some breakfast food to be delivered in a half hour. I have no idea what this woman might like, so I choose a variety of different things. That done, I start putting on my clothes quietly getting ready to leave. I don’t want anything I had done last night or in the past to come back on this woman. The memory of my wife still haunts me sometimes. As I move to the door, I take one last look at the vision of what might have been. She really is beautiful. I wonder what her name is?
I make note of the address of the apartment as the door softly closes behind me. The concourse appears familiar and I realize I had passed through this area going from the hangar to the party last night. As I make my way back to the hangar, I turn over the idea of sending the woman a note. Let her make the decision of whether or not to continue whatever it is we have. That decided, I stow my things in my Rifter and get ready to enter the pod. Who knows what the future will bring. The Black Sea is full of possibilities.
Voyage Home part 2
I exited the Jump Freighter into the station trying avoid the dock crews working on unloading the monstrous containers. The freighter had landed somewhere in lowsec. The crew had been secretive about where and I couldn’t blame them. Freighters made great targets for pirates. After a quick inquiry at a comm station, seems I was in Molden Heath just on the fringes of highsec space. Ah, back home.
I was still wearing the robe the monks had given me a week ago. It was comfortable, didn’t resemble anything Amarr related, and folks just didn’t look at religious figures twice. Probably had to do with everyone having something they felt guilty about when doing so. I had also found it useful a number of times to get favors done or avoid questioning while on various stations. Even with my lowered security status, the appearance of being “reformed” helped in situations when dealing with local law enforcement.
I got directions to a rather cheap cafe’ and made my way there marveling how things hadn’t really changed out here. Shady were deals going on in dark corridors, ladies of leisure beckoned from strip clubs, and capsuleers thought they owned the whole place. Yea, nothing had changed.
At the cafe’, I sat in a quiet corner and ordered some cheap, but hardy, traditional Sebeistor dishes. Been a long time since I had real cooking. I called up the local news agency’s sheets on the table top and the holo’ of them displayed in front of me so I could read them. The usual pirating and politics seemed to be going on. Saw a mention of Col. Roc Wieler in one article about fighting the Amarr, but the content seemed mainly to do with politics instead of him specifically. I was just about to shut down the feed at the social section when I saw the Hellcats name. Calling it up again, it was a full page advertisement for a party the Hellcats were putting on in Evati the next day. Free frigates to fight in, billions of isk in give-aways, and was even going to be covered by one of the major media outlets called SI Radio. Well, looks like I knew what I was going to be doing tomorrow.
———————————————————————————–
As I jumped through the gate and into Evati, local comms lit up. There were well in excess of 100 capsuleers in system. Hadn’t seen that many in one place since my days as a new pilot in secure space. I vectored to station 7-1 and laid in to dock upon arrival. Coming out of warp was like entering a Rifter graveyard there were so many wrecks at the undock point. How many of those were from fighting or from hitting other wrecks I couldn’t know. Luckily, I was docking at the back of the station and avoided the mess.
After taking a quick shower to remove the pod goo, I made my way to the bar where the party was going on. Rounding the concourse, I saw a large number of folks outside the bar proper having a good time even with the occasional fight going on. As I made my way inside, it seemed like every pirate I had ever heard of was there. Of course, all the Hellcats were in attendance; Mynxee, Shae, and Venom to name a few. Quite a few Bastards were in attendance as well. Flashfresh I recognized by sight and others by the patch displayed on their persons.
Mynxee was busy with the prize drawing moving to the DJ booth often to announce a winner. DJ aMusic was spinning some awesome tunes and keeping things rolling. Pilots were wandering back and forth from the docking area having a good laugh and recounting some of the Rifter fights they had just been in. The Rifters were free for anyone who wanted one to go and have a bit of fun outside the station and a lot of pilots were partaking in that gift in between drinks. I grabbed a scotch on my way out to the Rifters and had some fun myself.
Returning from the free-for-all outside the station about a half hour later, the party was still going strong. I found an out of the way table with a couple other pilots and sipped another scotch. I had decided to stay in station in case my name was chosen for one of the prizes. There was a Loki, Dramiel, and Republic Fleet Firetail I hoped to win. The other pilots and I got into a discussion about Assault Frigates versus Recons and I ordered another scotch. If the Hellcats were paying for it, I was gonna drink as much as I could.
0geauxtiger0
The CSM and Problems
As some of you may or may not know, I returned to playing EvE after being gone for over a year. My previous experience dealt with lowsec and highsec both. Lowsec was as a pirate, explorer, and FW participant while highsec was as a carebear miner, industrialist, missioner, and explorer. There were two months I spent living in a wormhole somewhere during that time. This experience took place on two separate accounts. I belonged in various corporations during that time and two alliances; TEARS and a now nonexistent lowsec alliance. I’m telling you this not only so you understand my point of view on certain matters, but so you have some idea of the my play style.
With that in mind, I would like to discuss my feelings on the CSM. The December minutes disturbed me for a number of reasons. The main reason being that the CSM is dominated by nullsec players. Regardless if they have highsec/lowsec alt characters, the majority of the current CSM have staked interest in nullsec with little to no reason to suggest any change unless it benefits them. This is readily seen when reading the minutes and the “advice” the CSM gave to CCP in all matters.
It is especially visible when it came down to discussing lowsec and Faction Warfare as a testing ground for any future sov mechanics before implementing them in nullsec. Really? The CSM supposedly listened to and read post from current lowsec/ FW players and they thought this was a good idea? It has been my experience that lowsec dwellers are there to have freedom. Freedom not only from the restrictions of highsec mechanics, but also freedom from the nullsec style of playing. Yet the CSM wants to change that to make it more like nullsec for some reason. And CCP actually agreed with them. This showed me once again that CCP is disconnected from certain portions of the player base.
But wasn’t the point of the CSM to let CCP stay connected with the player base; all sections of the player base and not just the nullsec players? This will not happen unless CCP does something to change the way CSM candidates are elected. Nullsec power blocs will continue to dominate the CSM to the exclusion of lowsec/highsec representatives purely because they can bring a solid group of votes for whomever they put forth. I personally like the suggestion of 2/2/2/1 representation someone put forth on the forums. Two representatives from each high, low, and nullsec with one representative from wormhole dwellers.
Now, some folks will say “Then the highsec and lowsec players need to better organize themselves and get behind a couple of candidates.”, which is true and I agree with. Problem is the majority of these players do not even know what the CSM is. I spent time over the past couple of days traveling in game throughout the majority of the highly populated highsec mission hubs asking if anyone knew what the CSM was and to x-up in local. I usually only got a handful of x’s and a lot of people asking what it was. As for lowsec, well its very underpopulated but I asked when I found people. Only a few of those asked knew what I was talking about.
One reason for this, I believe, is that most of those players do not care about the meta game aspect of EvE. Most of those players do not visit the official forums if they visit any EvE related forums at all. Where as the meta game aspect is one of the things that draws nullsec players to nullsec. CCP needs to bring the CSM and its elections to the attention of more players in a direct way outside of a couple of days advertising during the elections. Send an in game mail to all players notifying them about the upcoming candidate process and subsequent elections including a link to the relevant Dev Blog or forum post. Advertise it a lot more often on the character select screen news feed and login screen. Something, anything to get more players involved in the process. Until CCP actively brings the CSM to the attention of the players as something they should care about, the CSM will never live up to the potential it could be while nullsec power blocs whisper suggestions to CCP.
The last CSM I actively cared about was CSM 5 before I left the game. That CSM had, what I consider, a good mix of representatives from all play styles and viewpoints. One of the things that soured me to the game then was the way that CCP treated them and suggestions put forth by the CSM. But something back then that the CSM did include was accountability to the players. There was no hiding who gave what opinions or how anyone voted. Everything was transparent to the players. The current CSM is keeping everything hidden. There is little to no accountability for individual members on their votes, suggestions, or opinions in the December minutes.
I have read how it was supposedly difficult to figure out which member said what on the video/audio recording of the minutes. I call bullshit on that. There are to many differences in not only regional but international pronunciations of words to not be able to tell who said what. On top of that, for supposedly talking on voice comms so much between each other, you should have easily been able to tell the difference between each other speaking. Anyone who has spent any amount of time talking to people over the various voice communication programs out there knows that it only takes a short time before you can tell people apart and know who is who strictly by their voice.
The way the December minutes came out allowed any member of the CSM to either take credit for or deny an opinion recorded therein. Unless this is changed soon, this precedent allows the CSM to do pretty much anything they want, put forth any opinion they want, to push their own personal agenda without voters having a means to really call them on it.
It is my opinion that the current CSM has sever problems when it comes to representing the players as a whole. None of the current members should be re-elected given that some already stated they do not care about anything but putting forth their own nullsec agenda, the active lack of transparency from all members, and the fact that they showed little to no knowledge of what players outside of nullsec really want pushed forward to CCP even after supposedly listening to those players.
January 31, 2012 | Categories: Commentary | Tags: csm | 2 Comments »