"Gods, I wish I could walk away for the SOMERblink player-initiated controversy, but I can't." says Mabrick. And here am I likewise reluctantly plunging into this rabbithole.
Look, let me get one thing clear - I don't gamble, I've never "blinked" and I don't have any personal financial interest here. No one pays me isk to write, not even TMC or EN24 both of whom will take anyone with a keyboard and an Eve account.
I do however like Eve. A lot.
And it's because I like Eve that I don't wish to see the Eve dominated by this petulant "oh he got something I didn't" whining that the community is so addicted to.
It's destructive.
Whining about the monocle led to a crisis at CCP that saw 200 people laid off. Many companies fail to survive such turmoil, we're lucky we still have Eve after that. And why? Because "he gets to wear a monocle and I don't get one waa waa waa."
If you jumped on that bandwagon shame on you, you idiots almost killed CCP.
Fast forward to Scorpiongate. Some PR dude at CCP gave out some freebies. "Oh waa waa waa, I didn't get one, shoot the monument."
Sheeez. Big babies.
Now on to the latest controversy. Turns out that through a convoluted chain of kickbacks people who route trafffic to GTC sellers as affiliates can leverage Eve assets into real money. "Oh waa waa waa, I'm not getting any."
How about you get off your butt and inject some value into the sandbox?
Look I don't gamble and I think gambling is generally a way to part fools from their money (or isk as the case may be). But clearly there's a significant section of the community that loves it, which is why SOMER has so much isk to burn.
Let's go over that again - some people (probably not you) LOVE IT. The rest of us play elsewhere in the sandbox and aren't affected except being occasional beneficiaries of SOMER philanthropy. I doubt many people wish they'd never given Kil2 ships to fly around and solo with.
So either you are someone who likes gambling with Somerblink in which case you should consider the billions you spend to be money invested in entertaining yourself (and I think most of them do). Spending isk on a blink is not a level-headed investment in 1/20th of a Golem, it's money spent on fun. So those guys aren't losers, they spend isk and receive fun.
Or you are someone who doesn't play in which case the parting of the isk from SOMER's customers serves to make us richer - SOMER buys ships from us, sponsors events and helps keep the sandbox full of paying customers by entertaining people in a distinctive way, people who might otherwise get bored and quit.
No one was harmed in the making of this situation.
Until it became a drama.
Now we've had DNSBlack make a point of RMTing to show CCP they're in the wrong. There's a fair chance he'll get banned. So we have an incredibly invested player who's put a lot into the community at risk of never playing Eve again because of ? what? principle?
OK, let me tell you about principles. Here's one: THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
If you were raised in a Christian country as I imagine a lot of readers were you were raised with that principle. In fact as it's Old Testament it also pertains to Jews and Muslims.
Feel proud that your country stood up to Hitler? Feel sympathetic towards your country's war heroes?
Let's have another look at that principle: THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
It's pretty clear. It doesn't say don't kill but fighting Hitler's ok.
My point is principles always have to bend in the real world. No principle, and it's hard to find a principle more basic, more morally right that Thou Shalt Not Kill stands up to every situation. Of course it's alright to defend your family, your country. People who insist that it isn't don't generally survive to pass their folly down to succeeding generations (unless protected by people willing to kill). It's a mean old world and if a community of true pacifists arose some bastard would call round, kick their door in and take their lunch money.
So here we are in Eve, the community hysterical over someone getting something they didn't, people throwing themselves under trains in protest, the company having to make some kind of resolution out of this dog's breakfast of a situation.
Want to know what you should do?
Move on.
Nothing to see here.
The whole thing is stupid, and will be tragic if valuable people in the community like DNSBlack end up getting perma-banned. Which is a real possibility.
Now the people I'm really cross with are the sheep.
Look, we're all different. Some of us are narcissists, staring into the mirror, mirror, mirror am I the fairest in the land? Oh shit, someone else is fairer? And they got given an Ishukone Scorpion?? Outrage!
But that's them.
Just because those somewhat lunatic narcissists explode when another player gets given something they didn't get doesn't mean the rest of you have to follow their lead baaing. We had it with monocles, we had it with Scorpions, we are now having it with affiliate fees. Just stop mindlessly rabbling over something that doesn't affect you in the slightest because if you derail the game's development, if you bring the company down, then it will affect us.
Just move on.
Friday, 25 October 2013
Friday, 18 October 2013
Ten fun things to do with a deployable siphon
CCP Soniclover has broken the sound barrier with a dev blog that has provoked a cacophony of wailing from some of Eve's richest players. All the fuss is about an innocuous looking box that sits outside someone else's POS drawing off valuable moon goo from moon harvesters and simple reactors.
Let's have a look at how we can have fun with this new toy.
1) Evil Deathstar of Doom. Train up Starbase Defence Management, drop a syphon outside an idle moon harvester on a barren moon, name the siphon "Dyspro!" and wait for targets to roll up. A stealth bomber alt with a point will make sure no one escapes while your defences lock them up.
2) Bear Trap. Drop a cyno outside some nullbear's pos, get your gang on the blops a few jumps over, and watch it with your recon ship. When they rock up in a dusty Maelstrom to shoot it, light your covert cyno and get your crew back from League of Legends.
3) Patchday rush. Stockpile a load of mats before patchday then when the expansion goes live churn out dozens of siphons for your local trade hub at the super-inflated prices. Undercut the market frequently the price will rocket downwards but it should start out at least 5-10 times the mineral value of the module.
If the BPOs are seeded in dangerous space buying them there and moving them to trade hubs is incredibly lucrative (if you don't get caught and killed).
4) Patchday gankfest. We know the blueprints will be seeded in NPC stations. In some previous patches new BPOs have been seeded only in stations in dangerous space, for example Noctis and Venture BPOs were seeded in Outer Ring at the ORE stations. Hilarity may ensue if a big bunch of people unfamiliar with nullsec are trying to get hundreds of BPOs through your camp.
5) Cloaky Camp business as usual. A nullsec cloaky camp is usually done by a stealth bomber and often there's an intent to get kills. Usually people get safe when a neut comes into local but when the neut doesn't leave they often get desperate enough to go back to their regular activities. A stealth bomber with a damp can kill a battleship before the battleship can lock it up. If your main interest is another Eve account or another game it's very low risk to tab back in once in a while to see if targets have turned up. When you do this you learn the rythyms and lifestyles of the defenders - when they are active, when they log off and so on. Perfect for well-timed siphon operations. Now not only are you interdicting ratting and mining but you're also stealing moon goo. You can even, with a stealth bomber, blow up lone battleships or battlecruisers that come to deal with the siphon and get out before the pos defences point you. Overheat those torp launchers!
6) Watchlist the defenders. I keep the orange status in contacts for people I am actively targeting in my current operation. When I do a new operation I clear out all the -5 people and start watchlisting people from my new target. That way when I see an orange I know it's probably someone that is defending against my current op. So do this - drop a siphon, cloak off it, dislike the person who comes to blow it up in contacts with a note of which moon they're defending and add to watchlist. Eventually you have a list of people who will defend against siphoning with an easy to check list of whether they're logged in. Find a moon where all the people defending it are logged out, drop a siphon and collect in peace.
7) Other people's siphons. The professional thief is a business-minded individual and one way to succeed in business is by controlling your costs. So why put yourself to the expense and labour of setting up siphons when you can just use other people's? A recon ship is great for lighting covert cynos to bring your blockade runners in to collect other people's moon goo. An interceptor is even quicker and can check entire systems for deployables with a single pulse of its core scan probe.
8) Economic warfare. You don't even need to collect the goo - just siphon someone's goo and watch their spreadsheets start smouldering at the edges as even if they take the goo back they lose 20%.
9) Anyone for a roam? Roaming nullsec in fast ships is going to be enormous fun as in addition to the buff to the amount of ground you can cover nullsec is going to be full of halfbaked defenders in kitchen sink ships trying to catch blockade runners. To add to the fun you should be able to catch a few halfbaked blockade runners. To add to the profit add a blockade runner or agility industrial (eg Sigil, Badger) to your fast gang.
10) Play the market. Now might be a good time to find some nice quiet moon material market and start discreetly stockpiling it. I have a feeling moon goo prices are on the way up!
 |
| Nom nom nom slurp $$$$ nom nom $$$$ ching! |
Let's have a look at how we can have fun with this new toy.
1) Evil Deathstar of Doom. Train up Starbase Defence Management, drop a syphon outside an idle moon harvester on a barren moon, name the siphon "Dyspro!" and wait for targets to roll up. A stealth bomber alt with a point will make sure no one escapes while your defences lock them up.
2) Bear Trap. Drop a cyno outside some nullbear's pos, get your gang on the blops a few jumps over, and watch it with your recon ship. When they rock up in a dusty Maelstrom to shoot it, light your covert cyno and get your crew back from League of Legends.
3) Patchday rush. Stockpile a load of mats before patchday then when the expansion goes live churn out dozens of siphons for your local trade hub at the super-inflated prices. Undercut the market frequently the price will rocket downwards but it should start out at least 5-10 times the mineral value of the module.
If the BPOs are seeded in dangerous space buying them there and moving them to trade hubs is incredibly lucrative (if you don't get caught and killed).
4) Patchday gankfest. We know the blueprints will be seeded in NPC stations. In some previous patches new BPOs have been seeded only in stations in dangerous space, for example Noctis and Venture BPOs were seeded in Outer Ring at the ORE stations. Hilarity may ensue if a big bunch of people unfamiliar with nullsec are trying to get hundreds of BPOs through your camp.
5) Cloaky Camp business as usual. A nullsec cloaky camp is usually done by a stealth bomber and often there's an intent to get kills. Usually people get safe when a neut comes into local but when the neut doesn't leave they often get desperate enough to go back to their regular activities. A stealth bomber with a damp can kill a battleship before the battleship can lock it up. If your main interest is another Eve account or another game it's very low risk to tab back in once in a while to see if targets have turned up. When you do this you learn the rythyms and lifestyles of the defenders - when they are active, when they log off and so on. Perfect for well-timed siphon operations. Now not only are you interdicting ratting and mining but you're also stealing moon goo. You can even, with a stealth bomber, blow up lone battleships or battlecruisers that come to deal with the siphon and get out before the pos defences point you. Overheat those torp launchers!
6) Watchlist the defenders. I keep the orange status in contacts for people I am actively targeting in my current operation. When I do a new operation I clear out all the -5 people and start watchlisting people from my new target. That way when I see an orange I know it's probably someone that is defending against my current op. So do this - drop a siphon, cloak off it, dislike the person who comes to blow it up in contacts with a note of which moon they're defending and add to watchlist. Eventually you have a list of people who will defend against siphoning with an easy to check list of whether they're logged in. Find a moon where all the people defending it are logged out, drop a siphon and collect in peace.
7) Other people's siphons. The professional thief is a business-minded individual and one way to succeed in business is by controlling your costs. So why put yourself to the expense and labour of setting up siphons when you can just use other people's? A recon ship is great for lighting covert cynos to bring your blockade runners in to collect other people's moon goo. An interceptor is even quicker and can check entire systems for deployables with a single pulse of its core scan probe.
 |
| Shit dude - just act natural.... |
8) Economic warfare. You don't even need to collect the goo - just siphon someone's goo and watch their spreadsheets start smouldering at the edges as even if they take the goo back they lose 20%.
9) Anyone for a roam? Roaming nullsec in fast ships is going to be enormous fun as in addition to the buff to the amount of ground you can cover nullsec is going to be full of halfbaked defenders in kitchen sink ships trying to catch blockade runners. To add to the fun you should be able to catch a few halfbaked blockade runners. To add to the profit add a blockade runner or agility industrial (eg Sigil, Badger) to your fast gang.
10) Play the market. Now might be a good time to find some nice quiet moon material market and start discreetly stockpiling it. I have a feeling moon goo prices are on the way up!
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
BB #50 Goons Inc welcome you to High Sec (tm, pat pending)
Matt Westhorpe tactfully pointed out an omission in my previous BB# 50 post. There I was wracking my brains for something about the Rubicon expansion that would "cast a die" that would throw the fate of the universe into a new direction and I rather missed the elephant in the room.
What changes forever on November 19th?
High sec becomes conquerable for the first time ever.
Sure it's only POCOs and you have to manage the wardec mechanics and so on. But if this is the direction CCP are taking Eve it's a fundamental fundamental upheaval in the game universe.
So what if CCP intend over the next 5 years to privatise EVERYTHING in high sec? POCOs, Concord, faction police, research slots, market fees?
It's possible although almost certainly it will be within much sharper parameters than more dangerous space. We won't, I think, see any dead-zoning (the practice of assigning a captured station to a 2 man dummy alliance that locks access then never logs on so that none of the assets in the station can be retrieved by spies or remote market trading).
Let's have a look at how individual elements in high sec might work as private concerns.
First, I don't think all elements will necessarily be conquerable. It would make a lot more sense if player politicing, similar to what we see in the CSM elections is used. Equally auctions might be used to privatise elements of the high sec infrastructure.
So if the manufacturing slots of the Caldari Steel corporation are privatised then the most logical method might be to auction them, station by station to the highest bidder. The winner of the auction then acquires the right to set fees and collect income. As it is high sec we may well see some limit, so griefing players can't buy up all the material research slots and set them to a billion isk per hour.
For religious and political organisations elections make more sense. The CSM has developed some expertise at CCP on election management, there's a certain elegance to feeding that know-how back into the game. One day we may see a Wright transferable vote to decide whether Mynnna or Chribba should be God-Emperor of the Amarr!
Policing is an interesting one. For years the perceived wisdom in MMO design was that player policing doesn't work. It was tried enthusiastically in Ultima Online but the "reds" always held an initiative advantage: waiting all day in case someone commits a crime is boring. However with Crimewatch Eve got closer to a properly effective punishment system - bounties and kill rights really do make life more dangerous for people who attract them. It's not a huge stretch to imagine an extension to Crimewatch that flags suspects for police attention, player police.
Now what about the quiet, introspective, high sec player who just wants to do his own thing without being disturbed. Frankly he's shit outta luck. CCP Soundwave was very clear at Fanfest that players should be able to dick with other players, that we are all content for each other even if we don't want to be. That's quite extreme to my mind especially since the demographics of Eve, once you get past the loud shouty drunk people who dominate Fanfest and Evemeet actually has a high proportion of quiet introspective insulated players who simply have no idea about CSMs or Goons or any of this other Eve hardcore jargon and are essentially playing solo.
So if we do go down the path of opening up high sec to the vicissitudes of the space-powerful then expect it to be done over a long time and with kid gloves. But is it possible that Eve could be gently nudged that way step by step over a 5 year period?
Absolutely!
What changes forever on November 19th?
High sec becomes conquerable for the first time ever.
Sure it's only POCOs and you have to manage the wardec mechanics and so on. But if this is the direction CCP are taking Eve it's a fundamental fundamental upheaval in the game universe.
So what if CCP intend over the next 5 years to privatise EVERYTHING in high sec? POCOs, Concord, faction police, research slots, market fees?
 |
| It's what Maggie would have wanted. |
It's possible although almost certainly it will be within much sharper parameters than more dangerous space. We won't, I think, see any dead-zoning (the practice of assigning a captured station to a 2 man dummy alliance that locks access then never logs on so that none of the assets in the station can be retrieved by spies or remote market trading).
Let's have a look at how individual elements in high sec might work as private concerns.
First, I don't think all elements will necessarily be conquerable. It would make a lot more sense if player politicing, similar to what we see in the CSM elections is used. Equally auctions might be used to privatise elements of the high sec infrastructure.
So if the manufacturing slots of the Caldari Steel corporation are privatised then the most logical method might be to auction them, station by station to the highest bidder. The winner of the auction then acquires the right to set fees and collect income. As it is high sec we may well see some limit, so griefing players can't buy up all the material research slots and set them to a billion isk per hour.
For religious and political organisations elections make more sense. The CSM has developed some expertise at CCP on election management, there's a certain elegance to feeding that know-how back into the game. One day we may see a Wright transferable vote to decide whether Mynnna or Chribba should be God-Emperor of the Amarr!
Policing is an interesting one. For years the perceived wisdom in MMO design was that player policing doesn't work. It was tried enthusiastically in Ultima Online but the "reds" always held an initiative advantage: waiting all day in case someone commits a crime is boring. However with Crimewatch Eve got closer to a properly effective punishment system - bounties and kill rights really do make life more dangerous for people who attract them. It's not a huge stretch to imagine an extension to Crimewatch that flags suspects for police attention, player police.
Now what about the quiet, introspective, high sec player who just wants to do his own thing without being disturbed. Frankly he's shit outta luck. CCP Soundwave was very clear at Fanfest that players should be able to dick with other players, that we are all content for each other even if we don't want to be. That's quite extreme to my mind especially since the demographics of Eve, once you get past the loud shouty drunk people who dominate Fanfest and Evemeet actually has a high proportion of quiet introspective insulated players who simply have no idea about CSMs or Goons or any of this other Eve hardcore jargon and are essentially playing solo.
So if we do go down the path of opening up high sec to the vicissitudes of the space-powerful then expect it to be done over a long time and with kid gloves. But is it possible that Eve could be gently nudged that way step by step over a 5 year period?
Absolutely!
Monday, 14 October 2013
BB #50: The die is cast
What's in a name?
For an Eve expansion rather a lot, they think long and hard about finding a name that works on multiple levels - lore, publicity, new player attraction and most of all inspiring and guiding the current players.
Eve's upcoming expansion is called Rubicon and launches on November 19th.
So what's in this name?
Rubicon recalls one of the greatest changes in world history, the moment Julius Caesar committed to changing the world-dominating Roman civilisation from a Republic into an Empire. "Alea iacta est" he said, "the die is cast" the great gamble committed to and the world forever changed. (Hatip: Noizy).
On the face of it it seems an odd and perhaps even overblown word to use in the context of the promised Rubicon changes. Much of the changes seem routine, they're adding a couple of new ships, tinkering with the stats on some underpowered ship classes, pretty much like every expansion.
What's revolutionary about Rubicon? What will change Eve forever?
The answer could be nothing, it's just a meaningless buzzword that sounds cool and perhaps will usher in a wave of cool Roman sounding names like Eve: Imperium and Eve: Casus Belli and so on.
But I don't think so.
I think it's going to be one of those moments, as insignificant seeming at the time as stepping across a stream, that we look back on and go, that was when Eve changed.
There are two key elements that pave the way towards a new New Eden.
First is the warp acceleration change. Smaller, higher tech ships will move faster. This radically changes the playing field in pvp and offers a huge threat to pve and mining activities in dangerous space. But more it's a change in the balance of power between the have and the have-nots. At the moment the people who project power across the galaxy are supercap owners. With this change subcap pilots can threaten faraway regions - an interceptor gang that might roam 30 jumps away today will be able to cover 90 jumps in about the same time when Rubicon is live.
Next is the start of what seems likely to be a wide range of deployable structures. We may even in time see the phasing out of POSes, not by their deletion, but by the availability of deployables that do the same job better. The deployables also serve the goal of adding range to subcaps. Note this isn't an advantage being added that supers will get excited about - they can already refit and carry plenty of cargo - it's a shift towards subcap supremacy.
So that's where I think the grand plan for Eve is going, the change that is coming - we're moving towards a sov conquest game that isn't dominated by a few hundred pilots with very expensive ships, that isn't settled by acres of passive nullbears who pos up when threatened, but one which is opened up to the slings and arrows of a thousand voracious roamers.
And maybe some day down the line, in 5 years time, we'll look back and say Rubicon, that's when the game changed forever.
For an Eve expansion rather a lot, they think long and hard about finding a name that works on multiple levels - lore, publicity, new player attraction and most of all inspiring and guiding the current players.
Eve's upcoming expansion is called Rubicon and launches on November 19th.
So what's in this name?
Rubicon recalls one of the greatest changes in world history, the moment Julius Caesar committed to changing the world-dominating Roman civilisation from a Republic into an Empire. "Alea iacta est" he said, "the die is cast" the great gamble committed to and the world forever changed. (Hatip: Noizy).
On the face of it it seems an odd and perhaps even overblown word to use in the context of the promised Rubicon changes. Much of the changes seem routine, they're adding a couple of new ships, tinkering with the stats on some underpowered ship classes, pretty much like every expansion.
What's revolutionary about Rubicon? What will change Eve forever?
The answer could be nothing, it's just a meaningless buzzword that sounds cool and perhaps will usher in a wave of cool Roman sounding names like Eve: Imperium and Eve: Casus Belli and so on.
But I don't think so.
I think it's going to be one of those moments, as insignificant seeming at the time as stepping across a stream, that we look back on and go, that was when Eve changed.
There are two key elements that pave the way towards a new New Eden.
First is the warp acceleration change. Smaller, higher tech ships will move faster. This radically changes the playing field in pvp and offers a huge threat to pve and mining activities in dangerous space. But more it's a change in the balance of power between the have and the have-nots. At the moment the people who project power across the galaxy are supercap owners. With this change subcap pilots can threaten faraway regions - an interceptor gang that might roam 30 jumps away today will be able to cover 90 jumps in about the same time when Rubicon is live.
Next is the start of what seems likely to be a wide range of deployable structures. We may even in time see the phasing out of POSes, not by their deletion, but by the availability of deployables that do the same job better. The deployables also serve the goal of adding range to subcaps. Note this isn't an advantage being added that supers will get excited about - they can already refit and carry plenty of cargo - it's a shift towards subcap supremacy.
So that's where I think the grand plan for Eve is going, the change that is coming - we're moving towards a sov conquest game that isn't dominated by a few hundred pilots with very expensive ships, that isn't settled by acres of passive nullbears who pos up when threatened, but one which is opened up to the slings and arrows of a thousand voracious roamers.
And maybe some day down the line, in 5 years time, we'll look back and say Rubicon, that's when the game changed forever.
Saturday, 12 October 2013
Soloing in a frigate
I just had a really nice solo fight.
I entered http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Black_Rise/Rakapas#sec, warped to a safe near the sun and D-scanned. Few things about. Narrowed scan to 5% and pointed the camera at a small plex and found an incursus. I was in a tormentor.
I warped in and activated, picking up another incursus on D-scan (mid range 360 degree, 1.4 AU). Ho hum, win some lose some, what the hell give it a go.
Killed the first one while the other one sat on the gate for a bit dithering. He came in just as I was finishing off the first one. He then hit me quite hard and I was in structure and started using my AAR. We had about a 5 minute repping contest then he must have run outta cap charges or something and couldn't keep going. He tried killing a drone but I recalled it then launched it again after he lost interest.
http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=19973146
I realised after the fight that I had overheated my guns to 98% wrecked! I also had 40% structure left and had used all of my 24 nanite paste in my AAR. That was cutting it close!
The reason I won was because I could completely control range with web and scram. So I sat at 6km and shot them with Scorch.
This low sec small scale stuff is very good fun and very good training. If you're interested in getting involved join SEDNA PUBLIC or watch Saiyon's stream
I entered http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Black_Rise/Rakapas#sec, warped to a safe near the sun and D-scanned. Few things about. Narrowed scan to 5% and pointed the camera at a small plex and found an incursus. I was in a tormentor.
I warped in and activated, picking up another incursus on D-scan (mid range 360 degree, 1.4 AU). Ho hum, win some lose some, what the hell give it a go.
Killed the first one while the other one sat on the gate for a bit dithering. He came in just as I was finishing off the first one. He then hit me quite hard and I was in structure and started using my AAR. We had about a 5 minute repping contest then he must have run outta cap charges or something and couldn't keep going. He tried killing a drone but I recalled it then launched it again after he lost interest.
http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=19973146
I realised after the fight that I had overheated my guns to 98% wrecked! I also had 40% structure left and had used all of my 24 nanite paste in my AAR. That was cutting it close!
The reason I won was because I could completely control range with web and scram. So I sat at 6km and shot them with Scorch.
This low sec small scale stuff is very good fun and very good training. If you're interested in getting involved join SEDNA PUBLIC or watch Saiyon's stream
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Nine days of pvp
It's been a highly entertaining October so far for me vis-a-vis Eve pvp.
A corp-mate, Saiyon, has been doing streaming via Twitch TV. His channel is well worth a look - even when I'm not on!
So last week Tuesday he streamed and we went out in frigates looking for kills. We were both in gank Merlins, one of my favourite low sec pvp frigates. The beauty of the Merlin is that it's very easy to fly and involves less microing than active tanking ships. It supports a great tank with Medium Shield Extender while offering over 200 dps which is extremely high by frigate standards.
Here's my fit - they don't always win!
First fight of the night was with some poor soul who had just started. I think it may have been his first pvp fight. He and a friend decided to come in to us, tristan and breacher against 2 merlins and melted superfast.
After a bit we started getting stalked by someone and after following us several systems he jumped in on us as we engaged a Punisher. Fortunately we beat both of them. Almost certainly this was our first occasion that we were stream sniped, someone watching Saiyon's stream and using it to hunt us.
It wasn't going to be the last time.
Shortly after we spotted a Vengeance. A Vengeance is a tough T2 frigate and fair game for us. Even with suspicions that he might have backup it's worth taking a shot because we do enough damage we might kill it before it gets help.
Turned out he was too tough for us, almost certainly getting link bonuses, even before his 3 Vengeance friends warped in.
Then we got stream sniped. By a friendly!
We'd encountered a Falcon a couple of systems back, had a brush with a Wolf from his corp and run away. It turned out he jammed both sides in that fight but I'd thought he'd helped his Wolf against us.
He joined the Vengeance fight firmly on our side and started jamming out Vengeances. With our gank Merlins we burned through 3 of them before the last escaped, utterly powerless. Turned out they were shiny spider repping Vengeances with Corelli A mods, victims of the social randomness of Eve that people just jump into fights. Still fantastic for us - not many people kill 3 deadspace fit Vengeances with a pair of Merlins!
We got to murder a few more people with the utterly unfair advantage of a Falcon. Great ships. The power of being able to decloak and jam a small gang out almost entirely is astonishingly strong in small gang pvp.
After Saiyon went to bed I carried on with another pilot, Caedes, and we got more nice kills. It's very possible and very fun to kill T2 and faction frigates with cheap T1 frigates costing less than 10 million isk - we got a total of 5 assault frigate kills and 2 faction frigate kills over the night, some but not all Falcon-assisted.
After a break of a couple of days we went roaming in Cyclones last Saturday. I got a SFI to aggress me on a station and my colleagues warped in and finished him off while I tanked both station guns and the SFI using dual ASBs, surviving in structure as he died. The frigate pvp we've been doing has been very useful practice for picking up skills - I wouldn't have managed the ASBs as well if I'd not got a lot of practice using a dual ASB Breacher a couple of weeks ago.
It was a nice change to fly battlecruisers after a lot of frigate piloting, they feel so powerful.
Saturday night was the Crossing Zebras FFA organised by Xander Phoena and Mangala Solaris. I freigtered down a bunch of merlins and condors. Speaking cynically the smart thing to do in FFAs is kite and snipe but it's more in the spirit to brawl, I set myself up with both options.
The FFA was staged in Asakai, sadly without random lost titans this time but still a fun place. The local low sec residents are Talons of Blood and they did a great job of vigorously opposing our trespass. Indeed first act was to bust a TALON gatecamp on the nearest highsec exit which Mangala adeptly FCed. My trusty Condor got a point on a Navy Exequror, a very shiny kill to start the night and I traded several condors and merlins for a bunch more kills. I got into a couple of solo frig duels with an Executioner and a Kestrel which I won narrowly and got rather schooled by an amazingly fast Tristan. There was plenty of bigger stuff to help kill including a rather daft Typhoon who was smartbombing 50km off the plex gate. Most of the event was spent inside FW plexes to shut out all of the people who had turned up to escalate the event - there was a random Prophecy gang which seemed to have forgotten to invite any logis and a very professional looking Sacrilege gang that no one wanted to take on plus the constantly reshipping and ferocious Talon gangs.
Plus we shot each other of course! I got to add to my celebrity kill collection by bagging both of my hosts and also - slightly to my embarassment - I discovered afterwards I'd snagged three Twostep kills. Poor Twostep. We shoot you because we love you <3 p="">
Sunday night Saiyon streamed again and we continued our streak of killing faction frigates with Merlins. It really feels like the Blaster is the dominant weapon in this format. If you fly in low sec pvp you either have to be using Blasters or you have to be controlling them with either webs or neuts. There's no weapon that can trade damage with a blaster and with our tactics of entering these plexes and sitting on the beacon at zero we catch most people before they can pull range. Three of us normally means 3 webs which means our primary is going to be at optimal for us. The Merlins and Incursuses are great ships for gangs of 2-4 frigates.
Tuesday we went out and streamed again, with more people from SEDNA getting involved. The stream has been great for encouraging people to come fly with us. We're getting loads of kills and we have a good banter. We also give out kills, we certainly make enough mistakes and take enough foolish risks that people watching our stream and hunting us or people just out hunting anyway are finding us very engageable.
If you want to fly with us we stage from Vullat, normally fly tech 1 frigates with T2 mods and if you hang in SEDNA PUBLIC (in-game channel) and ask to come along we can invite you to the public area of our Teamspeak and you may get to see yourself on the stream!
A corp-mate, Saiyon, has been doing streaming via Twitch TV. His channel is well worth a look - even when I'm not on!
So last week Tuesday he streamed and we went out in frigates looking for kills. We were both in gank Merlins, one of my favourite low sec pvp frigates. The beauty of the Merlin is that it's very easy to fly and involves less microing than active tanking ships. It supports a great tank with Medium Shield Extender while offering over 200 dps which is extremely high by frigate standards.
Here's my fit - they don't always win!
First fight of the night was with some poor soul who had just started. I think it may have been his first pvp fight. He and a friend decided to come in to us, tristan and breacher against 2 merlins and melted superfast.
After a bit we started getting stalked by someone and after following us several systems he jumped in on us as we engaged a Punisher. Fortunately we beat both of them. Almost certainly this was our first occasion that we were stream sniped, someone watching Saiyon's stream and using it to hunt us.
It wasn't going to be the last time.
Shortly after we spotted a Vengeance. A Vengeance is a tough T2 frigate and fair game for us. Even with suspicions that he might have backup it's worth taking a shot because we do enough damage we might kill it before it gets help.
Turned out he was too tough for us, almost certainly getting link bonuses, even before his 3 Vengeance friends warped in.
Then we got stream sniped. By a friendly!
We'd encountered a Falcon a couple of systems back, had a brush with a Wolf from his corp and run away. It turned out he jammed both sides in that fight but I'd thought he'd helped his Wolf against us.
He joined the Vengeance fight firmly on our side and started jamming out Vengeances. With our gank Merlins we burned through 3 of them before the last escaped, utterly powerless. Turned out they were shiny spider repping Vengeances with Corelli A mods, victims of the social randomness of Eve that people just jump into fights. Still fantastic for us - not many people kill 3 deadspace fit Vengeances with a pair of Merlins!
We got to murder a few more people with the utterly unfair advantage of a Falcon. Great ships. The power of being able to decloak and jam a small gang out almost entirely is astonishingly strong in small gang pvp.
After Saiyon went to bed I carried on with another pilot, Caedes, and we got more nice kills. It's very possible and very fun to kill T2 and faction frigates with cheap T1 frigates costing less than 10 million isk - we got a total of 5 assault frigate kills and 2 faction frigate kills over the night, some but not all Falcon-assisted.
After a break of a couple of days we went roaming in Cyclones last Saturday. I got a SFI to aggress me on a station and my colleagues warped in and finished him off while I tanked both station guns and the SFI using dual ASBs, surviving in structure as he died. The frigate pvp we've been doing has been very useful practice for picking up skills - I wouldn't have managed the ASBs as well if I'd not got a lot of practice using a dual ASB Breacher a couple of weeks ago.
It was a nice change to fly battlecruisers after a lot of frigate piloting, they feel so powerful.
Saturday night was the Crossing Zebras FFA organised by Xander Phoena and Mangala Solaris. I freigtered down a bunch of merlins and condors. Speaking cynically the smart thing to do in FFAs is kite and snipe but it's more in the spirit to brawl, I set myself up with both options.
The FFA was staged in Asakai, sadly without random lost titans this time but still a fun place. The local low sec residents are Talons of Blood and they did a great job of vigorously opposing our trespass. Indeed first act was to bust a TALON gatecamp on the nearest highsec exit which Mangala adeptly FCed. My trusty Condor got a point on a Navy Exequror, a very shiny kill to start the night and I traded several condors and merlins for a bunch more kills. I got into a couple of solo frig duels with an Executioner and a Kestrel which I won narrowly and got rather schooled by an amazingly fast Tristan. There was plenty of bigger stuff to help kill including a rather daft Typhoon who was smartbombing 50km off the plex gate. Most of the event was spent inside FW plexes to shut out all of the people who had turned up to escalate the event - there was a random Prophecy gang which seemed to have forgotten to invite any logis and a very professional looking Sacrilege gang that no one wanted to take on plus the constantly reshipping and ferocious Talon gangs.
Plus we shot each other of course! I got to add to my celebrity kill collection by bagging both of my hosts and also - slightly to my embarassment - I discovered afterwards I'd snagged three Twostep kills. Poor Twostep. We shoot you because we love you <3 p="">
Sunday night Saiyon streamed again and we continued our streak of killing faction frigates with Merlins. It really feels like the Blaster is the dominant weapon in this format. If you fly in low sec pvp you either have to be using Blasters or you have to be controlling them with either webs or neuts. There's no weapon that can trade damage with a blaster and with our tactics of entering these plexes and sitting on the beacon at zero we catch most people before they can pull range. Three of us normally means 3 webs which means our primary is going to be at optimal for us. The Merlins and Incursuses are great ships for gangs of 2-4 frigates.
Tuesday we went out and streamed again, with more people from SEDNA getting involved. The stream has been great for encouraging people to come fly with us. We're getting loads of kills and we have a good banter. We also give out kills, we certainly make enough mistakes and take enough foolish risks that people watching our stream and hunting us or people just out hunting anyway are finding us very engageable.
If you want to fly with us we stage from Vullat, normally fly tech 1 frigates with T2 mods and if you hang in SEDNA PUBLIC (in-game channel) and ask to come along we can invite you to the public area of our Teamspeak and you may get to see yourself on the stream!
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Crossing Zebras Community FFA – 5th October
Heads up people who like shooting other people. Or even if you haven't tried it much and think you'd like to give it a go. On Saturday it's the Crossing Zebras FFA and it sounds like everyone is welcome.
I'll be there, hopefully with some colleagues from SEDNA. It's always particularly nice to shoot people you know (as The Ancient Gaming Noob noted at 6VDT after he blew up my Zealot, just after I in turn had blown up Poetic Stanziel).
If you're not sure what to bring here's a cheap Merlin fit I've been using tonight. I actually had three of them blown up but they did pretty well for themselves (5 assault frigate kills and a hookbill plus some T1 frigs).
I'll be there, hopefully with some colleagues from SEDNA. It's always particularly nice to shoot people you know (as The Ancient Gaming Noob noted at 6VDT after he blew up my Zealot, just after I in turn had blown up Poetic Stanziel).
If you're not sure what to bring here's a cheap Merlin fit I've been using tonight. I actually had three of them blown up but they did pretty well for themselves (5 assault frigate kills and a hookbill plus some T1 frigs).
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Report and very short interviews from the London Eve meet
As always it's a great pleasure to go along to these Eve meets and chat to fellow players. There were three of us from SEDNA which was fantastic - maybe next time we'll get some T-shirts done.
This time I and a friend also interviewed some players, just asking two questions:
What is best in Eve?
What will change for you in Rubicon?
I'm very grateful to the enthusiasm of the people we asked and especially indebted to Vel who helped me by doing a load of interviewing (including interviewing Chribba while having no idea he was someone Eve-famous!)
Apologies in advance to anyone who's name I mangle - you can ask for a correction in the comments.
Saiyon Sedna
What is best in Eve? Solo kills
What will change for you in Rubicon? SOE ships
Amber Sedna
What is best in Eve? Diversity
What will change for you in Rubicon? being able to steal with siphons
Vel
What is best in Eve? knowing that you can always go to a scarier place
What will change for you in Rubicon? might play more
Priete Future Corps
What is best in Eve? The players
What will change for you in Rubicon? Not seeing much special
Arnulf Ogonkoya Radiant
What is best in Eve? Interesting people
What will change for you in Rubicon? The deployables, the depot.
Kituran Curaunsi
What is best in Eve? The Sandbox
What will change for you in Rubicon? Might fly Marauders
Ezek Price Wrecking Shots
What is best in Eve? that it's meant to be played cruelly
What will change for you in Rubicon? siphon
Kaish8 Origin
What is best in Eve? The kills
What will change for you in Rubicon? pvp based on deployables
Andromeda Puttra ex-Golden Scimitar
What is best in Eve? pvp, awoxing
What will change for you in Rubicon? SOE ships
Kiliu Amodynamicspowercontrolcop
What is best in Eve? The community
What will change for you in Rubicon? The depot
Tiberius Trifectus Syn.
What is best in Eve? Its depth: so much to do, so many difficult things to master
What will change for you in Rubicon? The new code for deployable structures will open up opportunities
Chribba Other World Enterprises
More info here
What is best in Eve? Community
What will change for you in Rubicon? Warp acceleration (speed)
Rentonbl Altsl Black Omega Security
What is best in Eve? The ability to do anything
What will change for you in Rubicon? my pvp prospects - for the better
Me Bad Phoenix Society
What is best in Eve? Making people cry.
What will change for you in Rubicon? High sec PI rule change (more crying)
Minijoegann Resilience
What is best in Eve? The Raven
What will change for you in Rubicon? Less play
Sn4keyes Sacred Templars
What is best in Eve? The people
What will change for you in Rubicon? The ability to steal for my alliance
Det Resprox TRIAD
What is best in Eve? Community and complexity
What will change for you in Rubicon? Nothing - only flies Caldari
Ugleb Joturn Risi
What is best in Eve? Roleplay
What will change for you in Rubicon? not much
Sovari TRIAD
What is best in Eve? Player involvement to drive future development
Cpt Plumb Scope
What is best in Eve? Everything you do involves in some way interacting with other people and the game is so open it is created by the players around you.
What will change for you in Rubicon? How I as a specialist in pvp will torment large alliances
Mad Ani (no alliance)
Mad Ani runs several alts operating hidden cameras in conflict zones in Eve and streaming them to twitch tv. His twitch stream is here.
What is best in Eve? The player base drives a fluid dynamic.
What will change for you in Rubicon? The new interceptor functionality will greatly help him to position camera alts and twitch integration may affect him significantly.
CM Tacitus Ascendancy Nulli
What is best in Eve? Friendship makes a smaller world
What will change for you in Rubicon? T2 battleships will be more useful
Krackie Segmentum Solar Nulli
What is best in Eve? Meta-game
What will change for you in Rubicon? Interceptor bubble immunity and warp fix, new ships
Ninja87 600 Segmentum Solar Nulli
What is best in Eve? love T3 ships, Proteus for the win
What will change for you in Rubicon? training for a Kronos just for the pimp factor
CCP Maiden Steel
Very knowledgable and interesting gamesmaster, formerly a low sec pirate with Tuskers and Hellcats. Her twitter is here.
What is best in Eve? To kill people and collect their tears.
What will change for you in Rubicon? not much
DJ Maddog Eve Radio
What is best in Eve? It's a different game compared to other games, it's not about leveling up.
What will change for you in Rubicon? Twitch integration, interceptors, warpability.
Jus_J4ck Eve Radio
What is best in Eve? Community (he then left for champagne with said community)
What will change for you in Rubicon? a chance to go back in.
Chrispy Bacon/DJ Damage Red Dawn Mercs
What is best in Eve? Development
What will change for you in Rubicon? nothing
Arline Key PIE inc
What is best in Eve? Community and how devs talk and interact with us
What will change for you in Rubicon? Roleplay aspect which will definitely change with the reduction of Empire power over the capsuleer community.
Touji Sinstdar Panda
What is best in Eve? Community
What will change for you in Rubicon? More suspects maybe?
Jared Reidel Dark Rising
What is best in Eve? The fact that I don't have to log in all that often
What will change for you in Rubicon? I'll be able to carry my shit around.
Mitch Taylor Dark Rising
What is best in Eve? Sandbox
What will change for you in Rubicon? Siphons and deployables
Donny Osmond Eve protection agency
What is best in Eve? social side
What will change for you in Rubicon? dont know
Corina Reglaeius Mindstar
What is best in Eve? social side, having a crack on comms.
What will change for you in Rubicon? don't know
Superkid Mindstar
What is best in Eve? holding plexes open
What will change for you in Rubicon? being a carebear
Marcus Gord Akva Vit
What is best in Eve? 'To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women!'
And last but not least:
Sort ("Do you know who I am?") Dragon Resilience
Formerly Coalition Leader of HBC and TDS.
What is best in Eve? Alcohol
What will change for you in Rubicon? Alcohol
Big thanks to everyone who took part. Please note that names are as we were told them and there's at least one moment of metagaming in choice of name.
Thanks to CCP and Veto for their organisation of these events. We even have photos courtesy of Kiliv.
 |
| At the very back of the room we see Saiyon (next to CCP Falcon's right ear) and Mrs Saiyon (next to his left ear) |
This time I and a friend also interviewed some players, just asking two questions:
What is best in Eve?
What will change for you in Rubicon?
I'm very grateful to the enthusiasm of the people we asked and especially indebted to Vel who helped me by doing a load of interviewing (including interviewing Chribba while having no idea he was someone Eve-famous!)
Apologies in advance to anyone who's name I mangle - you can ask for a correction in the comments.
Saiyon Sedna
What is best in Eve? Solo kills
What will change for you in Rubicon? SOE ships
Amber Sedna
What is best in Eve? Diversity
What will change for you in Rubicon? being able to steal with siphons
Vel
What is best in Eve? knowing that you can always go to a scarier place
What will change for you in Rubicon? might play more
Priete Future Corps
What is best in Eve? The players
What will change for you in Rubicon? Not seeing much special
Arnulf Ogonkoya Radiant
What is best in Eve? Interesting people
What will change for you in Rubicon? The deployables, the depot.
Kituran Curaunsi
What is best in Eve? The Sandbox
What will change for you in Rubicon? Might fly Marauders
Ezek Price Wrecking Shots
What is best in Eve? that it's meant to be played cruelly
What will change for you in Rubicon? siphon
Kaish8 Origin
What is best in Eve? The kills
What will change for you in Rubicon? pvp based on deployables
Andromeda Puttra ex-Golden Scimitar
What is best in Eve? pvp, awoxing
What will change for you in Rubicon? SOE ships
Kiliu Amodynamicspowercontrolcop
What is best in Eve? The community
What will change for you in Rubicon? The depot
Tiberius Trifectus Syn.
What is best in Eve? Its depth: so much to do, so many difficult things to master
What will change for you in Rubicon? The new code for deployable structures will open up opportunities
Chribba Other World Enterprises
More info here
What is best in Eve? Community
What will change for you in Rubicon? Warp acceleration (speed)
Rentonbl Altsl Black Omega Security
What is best in Eve? The ability to do anything
What will change for you in Rubicon? my pvp prospects - for the better
Me Bad Phoenix Society
What is best in Eve? Making people cry.
What will change for you in Rubicon? High sec PI rule change (more crying)
Minijoegann Resilience
What is best in Eve? The Raven
What will change for you in Rubicon? Less play
Sn4keyes Sacred Templars
What is best in Eve? The people
What will change for you in Rubicon? The ability to steal for my alliance
Det Resprox TRIAD
What is best in Eve? Community and complexity
What will change for you in Rubicon? Nothing - only flies Caldari
Ugleb Joturn Risi
What is best in Eve? Roleplay
What will change for you in Rubicon? not much
Sovari TRIAD
What is best in Eve? Player involvement to drive future development
Cpt Plumb Scope
What is best in Eve? Everything you do involves in some way interacting with other people and the game is so open it is created by the players around you.
What will change for you in Rubicon? How I as a specialist in pvp will torment large alliances
Mad Ani (no alliance)
Mad Ani runs several alts operating hidden cameras in conflict zones in Eve and streaming them to twitch tv. His twitch stream is here.
What is best in Eve? The player base drives a fluid dynamic.
What will change for you in Rubicon? The new interceptor functionality will greatly help him to position camera alts and twitch integration may affect him significantly.
CM Tacitus Ascendancy Nulli
What is best in Eve? Friendship makes a smaller world
What will change for you in Rubicon? T2 battleships will be more useful
Krackie Segmentum Solar Nulli
What is best in Eve? Meta-game
What will change for you in Rubicon? Interceptor bubble immunity and warp fix, new ships
Ninja87 600 Segmentum Solar Nulli
What is best in Eve? love T3 ships, Proteus for the win
What will change for you in Rubicon? training for a Kronos just for the pimp factor
CCP Maiden Steel
Very knowledgable and interesting gamesmaster, formerly a low sec pirate with Tuskers and Hellcats. Her twitter is here.
What is best in Eve? To kill people and collect their tears.
What will change for you in Rubicon? not much
DJ Maddog Eve Radio
What is best in Eve? It's a different game compared to other games, it's not about leveling up.
What will change for you in Rubicon? Twitch integration, interceptors, warpability.
Jus_J4ck Eve Radio
What is best in Eve? Community (he then left for champagne with said community)
What will change for you in Rubicon? a chance to go back in.
Chrispy Bacon/DJ Damage Red Dawn Mercs
What is best in Eve? Development
What will change for you in Rubicon? nothing
Arline Key PIE inc
What is best in Eve? Community and how devs talk and interact with us
What will change for you in Rubicon? Roleplay aspect which will definitely change with the reduction of Empire power over the capsuleer community.
Touji Sinstdar Panda
What is best in Eve? Community
What will change for you in Rubicon? More suspects maybe?
Jared Reidel Dark Rising
What is best in Eve? The fact that I don't have to log in all that often
What will change for you in Rubicon? I'll be able to carry my shit around.
Mitch Taylor Dark Rising
What is best in Eve? Sandbox
What will change for you in Rubicon? Siphons and deployables
Donny Osmond Eve protection agency
What is best in Eve? social side
What will change for you in Rubicon? dont know
Corina Reglaeius Mindstar
What is best in Eve? social side, having a crack on comms.
What will change for you in Rubicon? don't know
Superkid Mindstar
What is best in Eve? holding plexes open
What will change for you in Rubicon? being a carebear
Marcus Gord Akva Vit
What is best in Eve? 'To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women!'
And last but not least:
Sort ("Do you know who I am?") Dragon Resilience
Formerly Coalition Leader of HBC and TDS.
What is best in Eve? Alcohol
What will change for you in Rubicon? Alcohol
Big thanks to everyone who took part. Please note that names are as we were told them and there's at least one moment of metagaming in choice of name.
Thanks to CCP and Veto for their organisation of these events. We even have photos courtesy of Kiliv.
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