Friday, December 30, 2016

Deep Null Unfriendly DED Site Running

So this is what I've been doing for the past few weeks.

 Before I continue, I want to make some points and perhaps a quick disclaimer;

1. I'm not a PVE expert.

2. Do not try what I have done with the expectation that I will work for you. My terribleness, is only trumped by my own dumb luck.

3. The fits I post are monsters of bad choices and too much money. Don't replicate them.

4. FFS, don't email me asking me for more details.  Read that like one more time, if you even consider it. I got into some trouble with my C13 backpacking trip posts, now people think I'm the expert on confessor PVE.. and email me all the time to fine tune C13 site running. STOP IT!  I just blog for my own self gratification! Make your own way, leave me alone!

Sorry... off topic vent there. 

Idea Genesis:

I, just like anyone unfortunate enough to find this blog (mom), are seeking inspiration for our own activities in EVE. I've always said this to people, EVE is about taking an idea, a fit, an example or even a conversation and making it happen, just to see the outcome.

A few years ago, I went to my first EVE Vegas in 2013 and  my very first player presentation I saw was this poor son of a bitch. Hats off to the this guy for standing in front of a room full of beards and showing them, there are different ways to play the game. You can hear it in his voice, public speaking isn't his strong suit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J46MTETfFc

If you don't have time to watch, you should make time its a great example of a player making his own way, doing the best he can and giving 0 fucks doing it.

For those of you who don't have time to watch, I'll summarize. He might be the worst public speaker I've ever seen, aside from perhaps myself, but if you look past all that, you can see this guy is on to EVE gold and sharing it with us, free of charge.

What Joker describes is, essentially going deep into unfriendly null sov owed regions and runs DED sites using black ops PVE boats.  7/10s,8/10s, 10 of 10s. All with neutrals in local and often taunting them while he's doing it. Now it might not be a "new idea" but from the perspective of a guy like myself with little to no NULL PVE experience but to me, it looked dope and NEW!

Ever since I watched it, I wanted to do it myself, just never felt so inclined.Well I did it, and its kinda fun.

 Making it happen: 

 1st off, having multiple skilled pilots on 3 accounts is slightly key to making this work. Also understanding Covert Cyno jump ranges, what ships you'll be fighting and using correct tank and DPS to do these sites quickly, and better yet find the sites quickly too. Most of this info you can find online if you google, but for those not knowing how to Covert cyno.. well.. here's a quick description.

A covert cyno capable ship, my case a Proteus. Lights a Covert Cyno generator and covert jump capable ships simply right click on the pilot and select "Jump to player". Here is a link to the site I use to figure out how far I can travel from my staging point. (not my actual staging point you sneaky fuckers.. but an example)

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/range/Sin,4/M-MD3B






The red circles are the systems you can travel to if someone lights the covert cyno on the other end.

Easy right?!


The scout.

My least skilled pilot/account is about 60 million skill points, he flies the scout. The goal of the ship is to move quickly through defended SOV Null and scan as quickly as possible. With this ship, I can cover multiple systems and bypass bubble camps, drag bubbles, while still being able to haul Covert Cyno fuel for multiple jumps to and fro. I've found that when setting up a jump off point, the use of my wormhole experience has been able to help me to move in large amounts of fuel/equipment while by passing low sec and gate camps.

[Proteus, Git in Git fked]



Lows:

Damage Control II
1600mm Steel Plates II
Experimental Hyperspatial Accelerator
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Capacitor Flux Coil II

Mids:

Scan Pinpointing Array II
50MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Scan Rangefinding Array II

Highs:


Anode Electron Particle Cannon I
Anode Electron Particle Cannon I
Anode Electron Particle Cannon I
Anode Electron Particle Cannon I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Covert Cynosural Field Generator I
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher


Rigs:

Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II

Subs:


Proteus Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Proteus Defensive - Adaptive Augmenter
Proteus Engineering - Power Core Multiplier
Proteus Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Proteus Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier


Sisters Core Scanner Probe x80
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M x1948
Nanite Repair Paste x100
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x8
Liquid Ozone x625


Now before you rip into me for not having T2 guns, or having like 80 probes (shift drag was mean to me).. 1st this character can't use T2 guns, and I really just put guns on it as an after thought, I don't expect it to ever need to shoot anything.. its just a scout. As for the rigs, well it was one of my old heavy armor proteus hulls I had lying around. I didn't see the need at the time to strip them for hyperspacials.

So, suggestions going forward if I wanted to fine tune it next time. (hind site being 20/20). Ditch the T2 Armor rigs, install hyperspacials, ditch nearly all tank and install either more cargo hold or gyros or nanofibers. Maybe even dual prop it for crashing gates, if a hostile cepter got lucky on a uncloak some time. This fit has WAY more CPU and Power left over, so I could change it quite a bit if I wanted or cared enough. 

Again, first time doing this.. cut me some friggen slack bro.

 Scouts job: 

Find a section of space where the Sec value is the lowest and your preferred rats exist. 

For my first run I chose Deep Fountain Serpentis space C-N4OD

Set my destination.. and go, not much can stop this rig.

This section of space is player occupied by ... whoever... names not important.. they can't stop me even if they wanted to. I tell them so, each time I pass through one of their gate camps. (btw, gate camping is pvp version of mining, you're bad if you do it, and you're not good at this game. May your characters get testicle cancer.)

The point of picking this one, was simply, it was in the middle of the map and was in range from my kick off point in NPC null. My launch point for my PVE Black Ops ships was in Deep NPC controlled Outer Ring Null.

Fuel being the key to my activities, I needed an NPC null sec region that I could set up a POS or some Mobile depots. (not the shit ones btw, the really hard to scan ones, their name escapes me at the moment) Its not that hard to find you Covert Cyno fuel in most NPC Null stations, but honestly, there isn't really a good station near deep fountain, so a small POS became my fuel station. A small POS costs about 200mil with fuel and equipment to run it, so who cares if someone comes and smashes, I'm not really storing much in it anyway.

The whole point of the POS is simply to make it possible to hold extra Jump fuel, not ships, though, I'm thinking of expanding my operations to include Black ops capable ships, for some future sorties. We'll see what I feel like doing next :).

All the scout does is, jump into the system, scan down the combat sites. Once one is found, I simple set up a safe point to covert cyno in the PVE ships. Once they arrive, they cloak up and then I reset the scout in an adjoining system, just in case things go sideways and I need a covert cyno exit.

I've found the better the Sec status, the better the chance for DED's.. but I'm not 100% on that, it just seems to be that way.


The PVE ships:

Now again, I'm not a PVE expert, the ships and the way I'm doing this might be totally wrong. Before I made this fit, I had NEVER done a DED site above 7/10. I had no idea what to expect or how long it would take.

Hind sight being 20/20 these ships and the dual spider RR/cap transfer is a bit much. In like the 10 some sites I've done so far, I've had to turn on both of them 2 times because I simply fucked something up or wasn't paying attention. More of an insurance policy more than a requirement. I figured, why chance it when dealing with this much money.

I dual box two of these

[Sin, Right boob]


Lows: 

Centus A-Type Armor Thermal Hardener
Imperial Navy Drone Damage Amplifier
Imperial Navy Drone Damage Amplifier
Centus A-Type Armor Kinetic Hardener
Imperial Navy Drone Damage Amplifier
Centus A-Type Armor Thermal Hardener

Mids:

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Sensor Booster II
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link
Federation Navy 100MN Afterburner
Large Micro Jump Drive

Highs:

Improved Cloaking Device II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Centum A-Type Medium Remote Armor Repairer
Centum A-Type Medium Remote Armor Repairer

Rigs:

Large Anti-Kinetic Pump II
Large Anti-Thermal Pump II


Drones

Hobgoblin II x5
Warden II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Vespa II x5
Garde II x5

Targeting Range Script x1
Optimal Range Script x1

This bad boy cranks out 680 DPS and can effectively track and one shot an incoming NPC frig at 105k range.



Again, I know there are better drones, better ships, but this was the first attempt at concept.

Process: 



Step 1: Scout finds DED 8/10 or 10/10

Step 2: Scout creates safe spot for corp bookmarks.

Step 3: Covert Cyno in both Sins to the safe spot.

Step 4: Scout leaves or becomes eyes in adjoining system.

Step 5: Sins warp to DED and go into the first room

  • The second I come out of the Gate warp, I pick a celestial that's on the other side of the next room gate and align to it with both characters. I do this for a lot of reasons; one, it gives me a common place both micro jump drives will arrive at; two, it puts me closest to the gate after the MJD, for less time burning back to the gate after the rats are dead. 
  • I begin locking both ships for the spider tank, once both ships are at full speed and aligned to the celestial, I MJD. Since both ships are identical in most ways, they land within 3k of each other. 
  • I then start repping both ships and cap transferring both ships, in typical spider tanking technique.   
  • I drop my Wardens on both ships, and start locking all frigs and destroyers. They are the fastest and some can even scram you so they should die first. Side note, when the frigs are approaching you, they have nearly no transversal, so the wardens just blap them out of the sky. 
  • If any cruiser or battle-cruiser gets below 30k, its next to be targeted. I clear all the cruisers/frigs before switching to the battleships, because the sentry drones have no trouble hitting them at nearly all ranges.
  • Once all the rats in that room are dead, I simply yank drones, and after burn both ships to the gate. With this particular after burner, I'm moving at about 300+ or so. Relativity fast. 
  • After all the rooms, I simply bookmark the final can warp off, wait for the site to dspawn.
Step 6: Cyno back to my staging point. Refuel and log off in space.

Of course the whole time, I'm hitting Dscan like a mad man, paying attention to what ships are on D, kill boards of those in local, watching for scouts, tackle, probes... signs that I might be getting hunted. If anyone comes calling, I can simply MJD away, or warp away and cloak... or blackops jump away and cloak. Maybe, if I'm feeling frisky, I can try and blap the tackle.,. who knows. :)

The whole process once the DED is found takes me about 45 minutes, give or take the type of site I find. The entire time, I know fully well that I have nearly 4 billion in assets in space, local is full, local knows fully well what I'm doing and they either can't or won't stop me. It gets the blood pumping let me tell you.

So far I haven't found a huge pay day in DED stuff, most of the loots I've gotten were fairly lack luster, a Pith X here, a vindi blue print there.. but the fun for me is getting inspired by someone to do something, then making it happen. I've made enough isk/items to cover 1 of the sins so far, but I've got that bug to do something in the game again, which really is my goal at the end of the day.


Maybe next time I'll fly dual widows... :)









Saturday, December 17, 2016

So I tried to join a null sec alliance, outcome as expected.

I know this blog is named "Invading Your Hole" and historically its been a very wormhole focused blog, but EVE is about reinvention to me and some times you just need to try something different. I should have renamed the blog "The adventures of a guy who takes EVE WAY TOO SERIOUSLY!"

I know its me, it can't be everyone I encounter but sometimes I just get this overwhelming urge to punch babies in the face when I see something I've deem crazy going on.

My grandfather used to say, "If you encounter one asshole in a day, you can say, that guy's an asshole. But, if you encounter nothing but assholes all day, chances are, you're the asshole".

Well, I'm the asshole.

Call it arrogance, call it pride, call me a bad person, whatever, I'm slowly coming to terms with it. I just don't get along with people, which is sad, cause I'm a fairly reasonable person, who enjoys the company of others.

Story time: 

I've been adventuring around in my Cov Ops Proteus in my alt STIHL, just seeing what people are doing, scanning things out, checking out wormholes, trying to be inspired.

I found myself in Fountain while doing some Black Ops BS DED sites (I'll post fits and results later) and I realized I was really deep in Null, so deep that getting my BLOPs refilled would be a challenge. Well, lets look at what kind of corps we have around here...

I checked who owned the system, who was in local, who was in their recruitment channels and found one that spoke English! I asked them what it was going to take to join them.

They told me, they were drug makers, some of the best in EVE. I was like DAMMNNN son.. I like gittin high!!!! The corps name is

Es and Whizz

Some kind of play on words about RL drugs or something, I dono, I just know, I've never done that before and it seemed interesting.

I went through the app process, which was some sort of super annoying questionnaire, which I'm assuming someone somewhere reads, I dono, I'll just through hoops sure.

 Then it came to sending in an API which to be honest I think is a little dated, all important information I think you can gleam from an API, you could simply find from kill board behavior, but whatever, I'll play along.

I send in Spears API. Someone pipes up in coms and says "This API has an expiration" Well no shit, you don't think I'm going to send one without an expiration, what sense does that make. You're going well beyond a simple history check by asking someone to forever give up privacy, for the duration of their EVE career.

My response to my general observation of something so incredibly absurd was "Well that's our policy". Well that seems like a dumb reason.

Spear my man, you're going to try new things remember, you're here to do what Null folk do, blend in, don't make waves.

Ok fine, I'll send you an API that will NEVER expire, because that's a thing for some reason. Not like I won't just delete the fucking thing a couple days later anyway. The expiration date simply makes that process easier. Whatever. I'll just set an alarm on my phone.

Deep breath.. New things!  I'm here to try new things!

I get in! yay, i'm a Null guy! wooooo. I have an intel channel.. I have a fleet channel.. I have another and another.. All these channels that are very important to someone, for something.

Lets do this!

I then begin going on about my business and then ask to get my alts in.

 'you can get your alts in, but they too need full API's that don't expire'.

For. Fucks. Sake.

Ok, fine, maybe I've been bad with my alts and now they are going to uncover the deep spy who has multiple personality disorder and refers to himself in the 3rd or perhaps 4th person and does bad things with alts. Sure..

Here ya go. I ask in voice coms, do I need to send two more annoying questionnaire google docs? or can I simply send in an EVE mail with the two API's?

"O no.. EVE mail will be fine"

The mail was sent.

3 Days pass. 

Maybe the guys (7 of them) are just really busy doing other stuff, but I did manage to get STIHL in, he was my scanning cov ops pilot so I figured, I wouldn't spook the locals having some random proteus in system.

Sir Lomax, my other BLOPS pilot I guess his application is still pending. They were on the same mail as STHIL but he does have more assets so,, I figured he needed a deeper look. (I don't actually know that, I just guessed because if one got in, I'm sure the other would have? I honestly don't know, I'm just doing my best to figure out the situation).

4 Days Pass. 

Its my day off, my day to play EVE my single day out of the week to devote to a video game, lets do this!

Sir Lomax is still not invited to corp/alliance, no biggy, I'm sure those folks in charge are just busy.

STIHL, my scout finds a 8/10 in the main system that we all operate out of.

I see there are other people in local and I ask. "Hey is anyone doing that 8/10?" one guy responds with "Havens". Nice, I'll drop my toons in get her done.

Since I know Sir Lomax isn't in corp/alliance, I know fully well he is going to bother the people in system. I link his name for all the locals to see.

STIHL > Sir Lomax is my alt, please don't freak out.

This is the friendly local convo that followed. These people are our "blues" btw.

[ 2016.12.17 13:31:38 ] Kjellerup > Seriously, get those alts in corp/alliance or keep them out of here
[ 2016.12.17 13:31:57 ] STIHL > i just told you they were
[ 2016.12.17 13:32:12 ] STIHL > and I've applied
[ 2016.12.17 13:36:36 ] Kjellerup > No problem .. you guys can get docking rights again when you're in



Dick head here, Kjellerup, proceeds to remove my entire alliances ability to dock in the station. These guys are just miners and ratters. They were in space and go no warning what so ever. Simply, O you know all that stuff you though you had access to, yea, well you don't anymore, cause... reasons.

[ 2016.12.17 13:37:55 ] STIHL > I've been in wormholes for the past 5 years, i'm not sure what that means
[ 2016.12.17 13:38:51 ] STIHL > are we in some sort of null drama right now? Should I be upset, i'm legit confused as to the context of what you said.



I wasn't kidding, I legit didn't know that person did that, or that was some sort of consiquence for telling them in local chat, I literally was the exact same pilot who was already in there. This fuck stick was busting our balls because of some sort of legalistic issue. What the actual fuck?!

[ 2016.12.17 13:39:59 ] rigar Muutaras > im gettting denied to dock
[ 2016.12.17 13:41:21 ] roger Hanis > dud wtf
[ 2016.12.17 13:41:44 ] roger Hanis > we got miners and people in combat ships
[ 2016.12.17 13:43:03 ] STIHL > I'll reimburse your losses if there are any, clearly I've made some sort of mistake or tripped an unwriten rule or something.
[ 2016.12.17 13:43:14 ] roger Hanis > wow



I was serious, clearly I stepped on someones dick and I was some how responsible for this calamity.

[ 2016.12.17 13:43:48 ] STIHL > i'll leave, would that make you happy?
[ 2016.12.17 13:44:16 ] roger Hanis > im leaving since i can do shit now
[ 2016.12.17 13:44:41 ] Kjellerup > I asked you nicely to get your alt in corp or out


Are you serious right now? Is this real life?! Did you just deny an entire alliance the ability to dock because of a missing blue square on the bottom of the picture? I can prove that its me, I am that pilot, I'm no one else.. I'm not some sort of sktizo. I lost my temper.

[ 2016.12.17 13:44:51 ] STIHL > fucking null sec people never change. This is the reason why I've been in wspac efor 5 years because of people like you
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:18 ] Kjellerup > Well you are causing the drama really
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:26 ] STIHL > nope
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:33 ] STIHL > I just told you.. This
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:37 ] Sir Lomax > is an
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:40 ] Longinius Spear > alt
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:42 ] Sir Lomax > we
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:45 ] Longinius Spear > are
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:47 ] STIHL > the
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:49 ] Kjellerup > I know and I dont care
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:50 ] Longinius Spear > same
[ 2016.12.17 13:45:52 ] Sir Lomax > person
[ 2016.12.17 13:46:02 ] STIHL > its not tuff to wrap your little pea around
[ 2016.12.17 13:46:49 ] Kjellerup > Obviously you're having problems understanding that your alt is welcome here, once he is in corp or alliance
[ 2016.12.17 13:47:43 ] STIHL > its not intentional.. look at my time in the corp.. I just joined.. I've only been doing this for like a day.. the CEO simply hasn't invited him yet, he isn't online, why are you doing this.. i mean seriously
[ 2016.12.17 13:48:25 ] Kjellerup > Why is it so hard for you to log him off until you're in corp?
[ 2016.12.17 13:48:30 ] STIHL > you're punishing people not even effected by it, by simply to my guess not having a 'hall pass'
[ 2016.12.17 13:48:47 ] STIHL > cause he is part of my triple box process..
[ 2016.12.17 13:49:17 ] Kjellerup > lol
[ 2016.12.17 13:49:48 ] STIHL > if i left the corp would that fix the issue?
[ 2016.12.17 13:49:58 ] STIHL > could you let this miner pleaes return to a station?
[ 2016.12.17 13:50:04 ] Kjellerup > As I said. Docking rigths well be back when  Sir Lomax is out or blue
[ 2016.12.17 13:50:39 ] STIHL > how about if I'm out of corp and so it Spear? would that fix the issue also?
[ 2016.12.17 13:51:00 ] Kjellerup > I have nothing against you
[ 2016.12.17 13:51:09 ] STIHL > clearly you do
[ 2016.12.17 13:51:19 ] STIHL > or we wouldn't be having a little pissing match right now
[ 2016.12.17 13:51:38 ] Kjellerup > You can just log him off
[ 2016.12.17 13:52:30 ] Kjellerup > I opened the astrahus
[ 2016.12.17 13:55:37 ] Kjellerup > Im gonna close it again in 5, unless you move your neut out of system


Where was this threat before you turned off docking rights the first time?

[ 2016.12.17 13:55:48 ] Longinius Spear > I'm moving my cyno, keep your shorts on
[ 2016.12.17 13:56:19 ] Longinius Spear > i don't use gates
[ 2016.12.17 13:58:59 ] Longinius Spear > o/ please fix whatever you changed for the corp i joined. to all i'm sorry for the mix up.. I misunderstood maturity levels here
[ 2016.12.17 13:59:35 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Local : XF-TQL


An hour or so later, docking rights were returned to my corp/alliance, but only after I apologized again in local.
 
 
I think the part that makes me hostile about the whole thing is the blanket moronic attitude of the person. The "This is the process, this is the policy, even if it doesn't make sense at this very moment, we are going to follow it just the same, fuck you and any issues it causes".

I think that's what i have so much trouble coming to terms with. The "we do it because we do it' kind of thinking. This isn't creative thought, this isn't adaptive thought, its just, this is the machine, and that part turns because it was deemed 4 years ago to turn. Don't ask why, don't question it, don't change.

Yea, after the whole non expire API thing, the 4 some days of being ignored and then this.. Its reminded me exactly what Null Ring kissing bull shit I've been missing in Wspace.

The whole blue, someone triggers some thing.. not blue.. You can dock, o wait someone stole a rat from someone else.. you can't dock anymore, now spend the remainder of your day trying to unfuck something. All my faded bad memories of being in Null under the thumb of -A- came rushing back to me. That one time, they reset us for an entire weekend before someone belt ratted in the wrong system, our null overloads spend the weekend camping our exits.

All that came rushing back to me.

Naww its cool, deuces. I'll make my own waves.  








Saturday, December 10, 2016

Fun response to calling out people

 Oooo I've gotten some spicy messages on the topic of those two corp members I commented on in a previous posting. LINK

Some of the messages were super poopy and didn't really offer much so I didn't post them, but this one does hit some points which I thought I would address in a special posting.

After re-reading what I wrote and what this person (anon) responded with, I could see how some confusion about my points could be interpreted. 

I'll break it down for clarity, because there seems to be much emotion in this one, which is great, I love the passion!
 

"I know all the players you're talking about and it makes ME sick to see how you shittalk them on a blogpost with things that are supposed to stay internal."

 Fair point.

I never did explain to each member, me simply being in your corp will thus make your corp and its inner working more "public" and less "internal". I typically say this to the CEO upon entering a corp, "Hey, I'm a blogger and a podcaster" will this be an issue if I share stories about what goes on inside your corp?" I don't ask EVERY member, cause honestly it just gets confusing. I remember saying this to your corp recruiting person and if I remember accurately, he said "eehhh No problem"! (best Borat voice) I'll remind people what a blog is, its an unqualified diarrhea of the mouth, for anyone with an internet connection and read by people who enjoy staring at diarrhea.


 "This + the fact you're insulting people over their own decision not to fight something (and get whelped in the process) is pathetic."

Without getting too bogged down in the mechanics of how time and space work, I'll just keep it simple. We had time to adjust our fleet LONG before these two guys decided to go home, and they knew it. Hence why I insulted them.

Not only did I insult them, I called them on they're goal of them even playing EVE in the first place. Hell, why they even had PVP ships in a wormhole at all. I challenged their manhood at a Mexican Pro Wrestling level. Called them on their shit while it was happening. I didn't wait and just flame them on my blog, I called them sack-less Tibetan monks getting run over by Chinese tanks.

It wasn't just because they ran, because you can run in some situations, it was because I was pinged in corp chat to be a part of this AND volunteered to be bait for this OP. In a bait ship I'll remind everyone that cost more than BOTH fleets combined. Then I offered to pay for every lost ship!


"If they don't wanna fight, why insult them afterwards?"

Because as a self righteous blogger of a game I love, I feel obligated at my core to share what total emasculated players these two are.  You're welcome :)

"I feel like you're way too emotional over this and I don't think you really wanted to write what you just wrote."

Yes to 1, No to 2.

Having passion and emotion for this game is what keeps me logging in. Having that drive to share what I've experienced with total strangers is why I blog and podcast.

Am I too emotional? Yes, I could see that, it is a video game after all, I'm not blind to that, I've accepted this and made my peace with it. To both my readers (mom and you) thank you for letting me go this journey.

Did I not want to write what I wrote? Absolutely not. Sharing this as I see it, has given me a new found drive, and for that, I thank you. WoW can never offer this level of drama for me, to be honest, I'm actually very grateful to everyone involved.


"You have NO right to say what is a pussy and what is not."

Now you just wait a second, I do have a right. So do you, we all do. As individuals with our own minds and opinions I have just as much a right to call someone a pussy as they have a right to call me one right back. 

"As a LONG time reader and listener of your podcast and supporter, I think you're needlessly slandering a corp over your own feelings."

So you're the other reader hu? This is going to make mom super happy, I've been reassuring her for years now that she wasn't totally alone in reading my blog. Its going to go a long way in convincing her she hasn't totally wasted her time in her support.

Also, I'm not "needlessly slandering a corp" at no point did I slander the "corp" and if I did, I'm sorry for that. I intentionally slandered these two pilots/players with my opinion of them and they should have played like they had a pair, which they don't. Just wanted to clear that up for you.

"I feel like if you'd joined my corp and if we didn't take a fight on the spot, you'd probably write the same hate-filled, childish crap you just wrote"

Well, dear "long time reader", if you look back there are multiple instances where I flame the poop out of people who don't fight I think, you maybe right in a sense. Past instances of where I bring someone into a private convo and explain in great detail about how I would abandon a fully fit space craft at the sun, with the entire intention of having them fly it and kill me with it, and they refused, yea this type of thing doesn't sit well with me.

So hind site being 20/20, would I react the same in an exact same situation knowing what I know now.. Yep. I'd still call them shitbird pussies.


"Seriously, according to KB they have 100 members, you call them all shitbirds now?"

I think you're at that point again where you're confusing me calling these two pilots out and their entire corp, which I still don't think I did. As a matter of fact, these two pilots in question did mention their own KB's and how amazing they were. Trust me, these two pro pilots have no trouble defending themselves, they just need to fight more in situations the outcome isn't nearly 100% in their favor and  they can ride the coat tales of others/the blob.


 "This is very very low, wretched and disgraceful, and you can be sure I on.... " (sorry the message got cut off, i'm sure it was very meaningful and I'm sure you can image what it said)


Is what I did low? Is it wretched and disgraceful? Maybe, if we were dealing with real life. Since this is a video game and I'm a very well adjusted man in real life (so my mom keeps telling me HI MOM!!)... I think I'm A-OK with this outlet for my frustrations.

You keep being you, I'll keep being me.

Wormhole Life Culture Part 1: Corp Ship Name Tags

Hello everyone,

I'm back at it, sharing my opinions on things I'm no way qualified to give an opinion on.

I thought I would start a multi part blog series called Wormhole Life Culture. Living in a wormhole is a culture after all. I figure anything that a group of players/people could self identify as being one way or another collectively could be referred to as a 'culture'.

At this very second in my EVE game play, I'm not in a corp with other people. Its not from lack of trying mind you, I just haven't found a corp that offers me what I'm looking for. What that is, well I'm not exactly sure, I just know the corps I've talk to thus far, don't completely do it for me, so to speak. Not sure any ever will, but till I find one, I'll keep looking and keep blogging.

Today, I want to share one of the reason why I said no to to the culture of my last corp offering.

Wormhole Corp Ship Name Tags. 

Example : " ☜∰☞ " Insert name here

I've commented on them in the past at different points, one of them specifically was during my EVE Vegas scouting presentation


I had no idea that, this relic ideal system was still so prevalent with wormholers who say they take themselves seriously now.

Here are the pro's and cons as I see them. 

Pros: 

  • When Hitting D scan in whatever system you instantly know which ship is 'on your side'. 
  • You can stay totally silent in coms with the knowledge all ships on D are accounted for one way or another.  
  • Pilots can be lazy and not be forced to be aware of whats and who are on scan at all times. 
  • You at a glance can see who's on your side and who isn't.
Cons: 

  • With as much Dscan ship information that you can gain in the Pro's, it can be just as easily lost if the 'other guys' choose to copy your ship name tag.  
  • Any information that you think you have, is instantly lost when the other guys choose not use your culture of self identifying with a special squiggle 
  • Pilots can be lazy and not be forced to be aware of whats and who are on scan at all times.  
  • You at a glance can see who's on your side and who isn't.  This is in both places because for as much intel advantage as you seem to think you gain, you give up that advantage right back to the people outside your corp.

When you list the pros and the cons to using a Corp wide ship naming convention it results in a zero sum game (no bonus for either group) if one thing didn't exist. Then it turns into a near total value lost for the people who use corp ship names.

1. D Scan

2. Select Ship on D Scan

3. Ctr (your keyboard button under shift) and C

4. Open your own ship rename (right click on your hull, select "Rename")

5. Ctr (your keyboard button under shift) and V

Just like that, all bonus's the people who are using a ship naming convention are now GONE! In fact, they're not just gone, but they're now suddenly working against the very popular goal, which is to not have your stuff exploded from being an idiot.

In all seriousness, I thought such an obvious intelligence flaw in an activity should be overwhelmingly obvious to anyone with half a brain. The trick was simply telling them,

"Hey you know that thing you've been doing, yea its dumb, stop it" and they could then respond with "uhh yea you're right, its fucking dumb, maybe I should stop"

NOPE, not having it. We'll not have any of that thin stuff goin on around these parts.

Its not that simple.This activity is so ingrained in their heads that simply telling them, won't work.

This is very much like smoking cigarettes, why anyone ever thought this was a good idea, we may never know. People still do it, people have been told it will shorten their lives, make their teeth yellow, give them social leprosy and pigeon hole them with a classification of folk who simply can't be bothered to give a shit.  

Corp ship tag naming conventions are on this same level.

Just like smoking I think they were invented back when people simply didn't know how to copy and past. In the long history of EVE perhaps it wasn't always an ability to copy and paste your Dscan results, but since they are now.. we know better as a culture and we should be smart enough to stop it.

I'm making my solemn vow at this point going forward. Any corp that asks me to use a ship naming convention as part of their normal day to day is filled with lazy idiots who probably chain smoke cigarettes and can't predict the consequences of informed idiocy.

If you are reading this, feel that I'm wrong, thats fine! People who know better will exploit your own failings in the future, hell Marlbro is still a multi billion dollar company filled with lots and lots people who all need jobs. But for the rest of us, well we enjoy the explosions and cheaper healthcare.

God damn it, I need a smoke! (quit 14 years ago)

Friday, December 2, 2016

Searbhreatharch and Spike Fields

Hello EVE Peeps!

After a brief break, some WoW action, I'm back at it again. Trying to get that passion back and I may have found it!

The last 2 weeks for me:


Where I last left off, I was removing SUSU's citadels from our C4 static C3, Static C2. This was one of the most painful and long processes I've done in a long while. The multiple trips back and forth from Kspace, moving out my staging POS and all the gear it took to make 3 citadels work.

Ugg soo long.

I did little at a time over weeks while I played WoW with Bronya. Well WoW does what it always does at higher levels, it turns into a pure grind fest filled with guild drama about raids. Meh, been there done that.

Now back to EVE.

During the past two weeks I interviewed with about 6 different corps. I simply went into the Recruitment channel and typed "Bitter vet, looking for a fresh perspective and friends!".

I was spammed with about 10 convo invites, each from a different group. Each one had something different to offer. One guy who I was seriously considering was doing some Null sec Merc ops. They essentially get hired by one or more null groups to fight ratters, gate camps, whatever deep in enemy space. Like hired guerilla solders. I thought that would be awesome, till I asked them if the mercs members in the corp got a cut of the money. The answer was a resounding "NO". "We use the money for paying for fleet ships".

I was like wtf?! Who wants to be a merc with no pay? Thats not a merc group, thats simply a job and exactly like all other corps. Some one getting paid other than line members. Meh. Not for me. Its not like I need the money, but I do like having some kind of goal in mind other than "go here and blow these people up, while you make me rich" blah.. I passed.

The next corp I was considering was a low sec combat group. These guys have fleets every night with lots of blues they team up with to fight larger gangs. A loose group great pilots with only one goal. Blow everyone else up! I was super tempted, till I asked them what they do when they don't have many members online. They simply said, "kill alphas in mining ships who simply wander into their little systems". Like, that was what they did the majority of the time. Then I visualized just being a low sec bully all the time, which has its draws.. it just doesn't hold my attention for a long time.


Finally, I came across a wormhole corp recruiting. Now I know a lot of wormhole players, friends with most of them, with the proper desire, I have a good relationship with most. I'm even confident that I could get into nearly any of them, baring any language barriers. What enticed me about this one talking to me was how enthusiastic the CEO was while he was talking to me voice. How enthusiastic the members were when they were talking to me in coms.

See to me, skill, kill boards, histories, accomplishments all that stuff, is totally secondary. I want to fly with people who want to be there, have fun, enjoy themselves! You can teach fits, tactics, its the enthusiasm that really draws me in.

Not only that but their CEO talks like "Borat", his entrance question was "How much Sex you have?!?!""Because we want people who fuck!" Not anything EVE related, just some random disarming question. It made me laugh. Frankly, as someone who attempts to entertain himself, I get along with people who make me laugh. He is a charming mother fucker, even though his command of the English language is lacking.

He said they played during my Time zone which is really what I need in a wormhole corp. They fight everyone, which is a huge plus. They have noobs and experienced pilots too, good mix. I like it.

Sure, I'll give it a go.  I joined Partisan Squadron with just Longinius Spear. I figured while I felt these guys out, my alts could just collect all the ships and crap in Kspace.

These guys lived in a C4 static C3, Static C4. They had two citadels and each time I logged in to play there were at least 8 or so people on Team Speak. Good number for small fights, random ganks and that type of thing. Stuff I liked doing :)


I moved in some combat ships, heavy armor, along with my Tard inspired scout tengu. I found some kills for people and got into some fights. It was good times.


Now the bad:  (caution the remainder of this is one long rant, If you don't like that type of thing, stop reading now)


During my time with Partisan Squadron I noticed they preferred running sites to finding targets. Thats ok, I'll let that pass because they have newbies who need money, PVP isn't everything for everyone, I'm ok with it.I can just do other stuff.

But one particular instance I had found some targets 2 jumps away, a whole bunch of ventures and tech II ventures (whatever those are called) gassing in a C5. I started baiting with my tengu and calling over my support.

These were the questions I heard over coms:


Member 1: "How many are there?!"

Me: "A lot, I'm alone here, need back up"

Member 2: "What kind of ships are they flying"

Me: "I dono. like 8 ventures and shit, I need a bubbler to catch them, I can't lock them fast enough with my tengu"

Member 1: "What kind of ship should I bring?"

Me: "A bubbler, I just said that, there goes 3 more, they are running home, lets kill these things!"

All the ventures and crap were just alts but they did ship up to 3 guardians and 5 or so Vexors and a Strat. Thats when they all came came for me.

I was sitting on a wormhole tanking their entire fleet, asking calmly for more ships to assist, we have targets a plenty out of their citadel shooting me.

Enter our hero Searbhreatharch https://evewho.com/pilot/Searbhreathach/

character image


This person began with what I thought was some sort of combat jitters, excuse riddled diarrhea of the mouth on the reasons why our 10+ member fleet COULDN'T"T fight that gang.

 Searbhreatharch: "We can't tank that!" We'll Die"

Me: I'm tanking them fine.(I was sitting there tanking their dps and full nuets with my tengu)

This guy continued on and on about how it was "Dumb to fight them" about how we will "Just lose" hes doing this while I'm sitting and fighting them. He goes on on and about what to bring, what we didn't do right.. on and on and on.. during battle coms. 

I'm calling targets and this fuck wit Searbhreatharch  is going on and on and talking over me, while I call targets about how its dumb and we should all head home.

I started shouting over him and saying "Please save criticisms for after the fight, we have targets, battle coms please" But this turd continued to go on and on.

I was stunned. Turns out, my support for my baiting (which was going on for like 10 minutes btw) was a bunch of destroyers and bubblers. They didn't think to reship when I called the vexors on D.

Ok.. I get it, I brought a knife to a gun fight. I can see where this shit bird could criticize the fleet, but to do it during the op in combat?!?, while the FC at the time was calling targets? Thats just noobish and disrespectful.

I shrugged it off, figured it was just a miscommunication. We only lost one ship because we were fighting on the wormhole. No one was in any real danger because when people got low they could simply jump through, its not like a bunch of Vexors and a Strat where going to hunt down some T3 D's .

O well.

Even after we shipped back up to bigger stuff, the space turd continued to go on and on about how we were going to die. 

Story number 2:

Today, I'm slightly AFK doing something on another character when people in corp chat start pinging me.

"SPEAR GET IN HERE" We have targets"

Fuck ya, I like targets, lets do this.

Me: "Where do you need me, what do you need?


Someone says they have 2 strats and a proteus. I was like "ooooo I'll bait that"

I move my tengu down the line. My support for this was op was 1 Falcon, 2 Augours, and other random armor DPS cruisers. More than enough to deal with that. Our targets were 2 jumps down the line.

I sat on the targets hole and dropped probes, acting like I'm just a scout tengu that is slow boating off the hole. Good target for 3 combat ships.

All of a sudden the scout watching the citadel says 6 more pilots log in.

I said "Awesome this should be good!"

This is when "Searbhreathach" began again with his "its dumb to fight them".

I was like "wait a second, we don't even know what they have, those could be alts"

He (in the falcon, two jumps away from the bait/target situation) warps off.

What the fuck?!?!  You not only ran from a fight, but you ran from a fight in a falcon (that could cloak) that was 2 fucking jumps away!?!  Are you shitting me?!

He starts telling everyone in the fleet that we can't take those numbers. They haven't even undocked yet, I'm sitting with my dick in the wind baiting on their hole, we haven't a clue what they will bring and you RUN!?

I said this to him. Word for word.

"I'll pay you for your ship if you lose it" In fact, I'll pay for EVERY SHIP IN THE FLEET" if we wipe. I have the money, its no big deal. I just need the back up".

The answer as shocking as you might think was "No, its not about the ISK".

My jaw dropped.

This is when our second hero Spike Fields https://evewho.com/pilot/Spike+Fields


character image
 Not only agreed with Searbhreathach, but backed him up about how it was dumb to fight them.

I reminded him along with other people on coms that we don't even know what they are bringing. The targets were 2 jumps away, and we could pick our fights if we needed to.

Nope, not going to have it. The simple fact that 6 more pilots logged into their citadel was enough to not only spook these two fucks, but enough to make them try and convince the remainder of my back up fleet to leave the situation.

I reminded them along with the CEO, "I'll pay for your losses, I just need back up" "Who fucking cares if we die?!?

Nope, they weren't having it.

I lost my patience... I saw red...

I have never in all my EVE days encountered cowardice to this level. I've seen where people wouldn't take a free ship I left at the sun to fight me because they thought it was some sort of trap, but never from within my own corp.

I said to them over voice coms.

"You make me fucking sick" "This is a fucking video game, no one cares about your kill board" "Players like you who don't fight, make me fucking sick. How the fuck did you even find your way into Wspace, you're a god damn disgrace and you should be ashamed of yourselves." This is a video game based on explosions of ships, not only your own but others.

 I'm not exactly sure if they have heard that before, but they then told me that I'm nobody, that my kill board isn't even that good, they've been in wormhole space longer than me and I was nothing". 

I know I should have just kept quite, but I was like "mother fucker do you even know who I am?!". (I know that sounds arrogant as fuck, but seriously I think my time in this game has earned that remark.)

 I pulled all my ships out of the hole, removed my roles and said my goodbyes.


Done and done.

 So any of you ever encounter either of these shit birds, send them a fuck you from Spear.

Look at his EVE Who, I'm not alone in my assertions of Searbhreatharch

Here are some of the highlights.



Avatar






obsessed with killmails, cant take jokes without crying to the higherups, bombs allies for killmails, brings neutral fleets to capital move operations

 






Dont even consider, just mute him and pretend he doesn't exist because this guys a joke, the only thing he has probably amounted to in life, is his proclaimed epic killboard. Thinks hes among the best in eve yet everyone cant stand this guy and for the wrong reasons. Mute and move along







Genuine thief. Do not accept into corp. His KB is padded, and he works with a war dec alliance, so when he gets burned he war decs you. He also has an alt named CavFighter and a scan alt named Luna Temper that he will seed into your wormhole. Avoid at all costs.

Avatar






These are all his toons I know about. Let any in your corp at your own risk.
Aristaeus Shikkoken, Luna Temper, zyon97, Chigivaro Konchini, Mogwai Dune, Joe90 Togenada, Esa Allier, Searbhreathach, CavFighter








He's a troll, A awoxer and has been kicked from nearly every corp in the game, including ours , after 3 days of begging for roles and getting nothing he left. He would have you believe that's hes not the awoxer and every one on here is trolling him and will tell you some bull about him knowing other potential awoxers in your corp


Avatar






Irish guy in his 30's, acts like a child - has serious mental problems and is autistic in real life.



Monday, September 19, 2016

Down the Pipe - Ep. 63

Hello Everyone, 

This is Down The Pipe -  Episode 63. Released after a much longer time than normal.

Both Bronya and I are some what away from game at this time and don't have very good things to say. But, if you are looking for a change from our usual "up lifting style" of broadcasting, this is your episode.

Lots of salt and vinegar to be had. I tell a story about how I try and AWOX my AFG corp mate, after decommissioning the citadel out from under him.
.
BTW as of 9/19/16, he and his tengu are still in space, in a box... floating... alone... and cold.. with no friends to be found.

Music is by Emerald Park - Open.

Remember, if you like the intro music to all these podcasts, you can listen to the Youtube music playlist found here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20z4edLGxHE&list=PLCfRott_9lV_PmWebV5-DJ1RW6QoFJeQ-

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

SUSU/Blog Update

Hello everyone!

I'm back to my infrequent posting habits again. Its not like I don't have a wealth of opinions on EVE to share, its just that I simply haven't really had the drive to post or participate with the community in any real meaningful way. Not that posting on this blog really is all that 'meaningful', but hell, you're all reading it aren't you?! Gotcha!

Joking aside, I would regretfully inform you that SUSU 2.0 is has died. Its been dying for the past month or so, but I'm putting it to rest in the following weeks. How did this happen you ask? Well I'm glad you asked.

Core members simply had other shit to do. That's really the gist of it. Summer time in EVE isn't exactly filled with players as it is, but I and others found it tremendously painful to log in on a regular basis and scan the chain looking for content. This caused an issue for those who did log in on a regular basis, without the support or help with normal wormhole hunting tasks, people questioned why they should be flying with inactives.

Honestly I can't blame them, I didn't really want to do it either. This caused a chain of people simply not wanting log in. I was forced to recruit my ass off, or close it down. Frankly recruiting open minded people to our way of doing things was getting harder and harder. When we did get someone in who actually knew their ass from a hole in the ground, they questioned why we flew like noobs intentionally.  When I explained, because its fun! They explained, well losing ships all the time isn't fun. Meh.. Valid point.

So I sent out the typical "The corp is dead" mail to anyone who might have not figured it out yet. The team speak server is going down shortly and most people have yanked all their stuff.

Good news though most of the active members have joined other PVPwormhole groups, I'm happy to say that their KB histories weren't too damaged by our shinnagins and they aren't tainted forever.

So whats in Longinius Spear's future?

Well, I've got some semi ridiculous ideas floating around in my head. Not sure I'm down for more Wspace direct hunting at the moment. Wspace is going through a strange time, the transition to citadels isn't 'odd' to say the least. I'm 'not sure I like where its going over the current POS model, I might go into greater detail on that topic in a future post.

One of my ideas was provided by Urban Oxide. I should set up an alt in Hard Knocks Home hole and simply read from 50 shades of grey in local chat. Just some light reading in their local chat would add a certian flare.

Another idea I had was doing a bit of aggressive market manipulated trading in one of the minor trade hubs. (not Jita) I think there is room to work out some really hard core math. With my new found wealth, i'd have to fun wars or pos bashes or something. Maybe some ransoms. Be less of a puppet or agent of destruction, and more of a behind the scenes puppet master.

All of my ideas involve causing problems for everyone else, no idea why. Perhaps this is how I get virtual attention when no one reads this blog

EVE is the place for reinvention. Maybe I'll get lucky again (the way I got lucky with C13 backpacking) and inspire people to play EVE more. BTW.. that fucking C13 post is still getting a fk ton of hits, with the follow up mails to me in game asking about my fit/alternate ways of doing it.

I'm sure once I come across something fun, I'll share it with all of you. Here's to limitless ideas, fresh perspecitives and rebirths.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Down The Pipe Ep. 62

Hi everyone

Bringing you another Episode of Down the Pipe Podcast.


http://downthepipe-wh.com/episodes/2016/7/27/episode-62

Down The Pipe Ep. 62. No guests this time, though we did have some planned it just didn't work out.

Not entirely, we did have a special guest that was "Bronya's Mouse click", which keeps interrupting a little less than I do. :P

We talk about the failed invasion on my corps wormhole, some null things and random Pokemon Go stories...  


Song is C2C - Delta (cool video, great song)





Of course this video is added to the Down the Pipe Intro music playlist on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCfRott_9lV_PmWebV5-DJ1RW6QoFJeQ-

Friday, July 22, 2016

Getting Snooty - The Attack on Abe Froman



                                                      Don't get Snooty with me! -- Actor never seen again

Friday: I was pinged on slack with this message. 

"We are being shot at!!!!"




The above picture is a fairly good size fleet bashing Abe Froman 1. Sadly because I'm an idiot and don't know how EVE time works, it was the middle of the afternoon for everyone, but Kildress.

Sigh..

O well, one more thing I need to sort out once this is over.

My goal for Abe Froman the citadel was for its timer to be set for friday night starting at around 8pm EST. This didn't happen.

By the time anyone got online, the 1st timer was triggered, starting a 24 hour timer to come out Saturday afternoon. 4pm EST. Not the best of times, but manageable. This gave us just enough time to work on hole control, and run some intel on why this attack was happening.

We figured out it was some Wspace pvpers and Null sec pvpers who seemed to specialize in ganks. Their Kills were all overwhelming numbers with almost no losses. Not the kind to sit around and brawl when the outcome was in question.

This lead us to believe that this was a one off attack for a group that was just knocking on our door, so to speak.

Step 1. See how many connections we had.  We figured out, we had only the two statics, and the C2 static was Crit. The list of ships meant a lot of mass was put through one of the holes. Counting the battleships and their respective masses, we figured out the fleet must have gone back out the way they came. The other reason for a crit connection would be to reduce the chance we could get a batphone fleet in to help with defenders. But if this was the case, the C3 static would also be crit, which it wasn't.

Strange.

Step 2. Figure out if they had an invasion POS erected.  After some quick warping around, we didn't find anything out of the ordinary. I guess the attackers liked hard mode.


Step 3. Get hole control.

During an invasion, it is absolutely essential you maintain hole control for the duration of the timer. Without it, the defenders could bring in more pilots, either in corp or out. If you can't bring in more defenders, you can't maintain the advantage.

I warp to the hole and check for a fleet.  Nothing.

I better roll it. I warp my battleship to the hole and jump through. I see a stratios uncloak and tackle my torp typhoon. Well thats crazy, good thing I didn't use a rolling battleship for rolling! I put the Stratios into half armor and he fucks off.

Well 1 pass done!

The stat was from  "Straight Outta Wormholes". I'm thinking, great, now we are fighting a coalition of peeps and these guys are the ones guarding the hole.

O well. get this shit on! We get some more battleships and random things to finish off the hole and fight them.

They explode us more.

Typhoon loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55122941/

Armageddon loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55123185/

Exequror loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55123157/

We lost some other random things but after fighting with them for a bit, and figure out they aren't here to support the invasion, they were just connected to us. Cool, we'll fight'em anyway!

After fighting those guys, we said good fight and local and rolled the hole. Waiting for hostile probes to launch. Nothing.

Well if they aren't going to maintain hole control, we sure as shit will.

We crit the holes. It was approaching late night for me, and the only person online was our AUZ TZ player, so he was left with the mission to watch for scouts and do what he could to keep them out while the corp slept.

 Saturday:

I wake up, get some coffee and checked slack to see if our AUZ player had any issues. He had instructions to ping me (wake me up) if he needed assistance. Nothing, no action.

I logged in and took over my watch of the crit holes. I also, because the AUZ guy was but one man, rolled both holes to reset the EOL timers, and just incase a scout slipped by him in the night.

I found the new statics and crit them. This time though, I set up a cloaked battleship on one side of the crit hole. The reason for this was, if they left a scout in the hole, and wanted to bring in their fleet, they would need to scan out an entrance. The moment the scout jumped through the crit hole, the battle ship would uncloak and jump heavy back into our home, thus trapping out the hostile scout.

Repeat till all scouts are either trapped out or the timer is up.

Not my first rodeo.

About 4 hours before the first timer we saw our first set of probes. We had enough players on to see if the hostile scout. It was a tengu. The strange thing was, he dropped a mobile depot at a safe first. We instantly set to finding it with combats and then encapping it.

The Tengu which we guessed wasn't warp cloaked fit, seemed to just warp around from safe to safe, till he logged off. Very odd for an invasion scout, but whatever.

About 3 hours before the timer, an astero uncloaked in the hole and dropped probes. We waited for it to jump through our crit holes. Nothing, they just probed down a single hole and yanked probes. Weird.

About an hour before the timer we out, we realize we have another SIG connected to home. Please don't be a frig hole.. please don't be a frig hole... boom.. not a frig hole, but it was a dangerous Unknown. Scout jumps in, and says. multiple mining ships on scan, out of a force field.

An hour before the timer, and we have an abvious bait. happening connected to us. Now here's the problem with getting podded out with less than hour on a timer, we can't use those pilots for defense.

For fucks sake....

I do what any good leader who isn't fit for command would do.


I Scream "GLORY ME BROTHA!! WITNESS!!" JUMP JUMP JUMP!!

Scout gets a warp in, we send in the saber. Sabre lands and bubbles up.

Calls out many many more ships on D and landing.

Vindicator... Sviple... Sabre.. Loki.. Proteus.. Crow...

Guess what I decided to gank these miners with?

My solo Bhaalgorn !!  Go big and stupid or go home!

Bhaalgorn loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55132988/


I was not alone in my silliness.

Typhoon Loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55133023/

Typhoon Loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55133009/

Sabre Loss https://zkillboard.com/kill/55132951/

The reason we went for the bait with battleships was we wanted to put on as much mass on the hole as possible, in the event the newly connected group decided to 3rd party our invasion.

Yes, I did manage to welp our fleet on a random connecting force minutes before our citadel timer was coming out of reinforced. I'm that fucking pro! ... sigh.. kill me now.

When our fleet landed we knew we were fucked. we just went for shit that pointed or bubbled in a hope that we could possibly get our pods back to the citadel before the timer came out. We were successful in that one thing, destroying the hostile sabre, even our suicidal tackle sabre pilot who managed to bubble himself slow boated his pod out of his own bubble and made it to safety.

I screamed. "Quick roll the hole while they loot out wrecks!!"

We managed to get a bunch of rolling maulers through the hole and as we were crushing it. One guy of the baiting force says in local.

"Why's your citadel in-capped"

To which I answer

"You're guess is as good as mine"

And close the connection and hope to god they didn't seed a scout and are looking to come knocking or offer to work with the attackers.

 During the time we waited for the timer, I had some strange conversations with the attackers. I figured since these people may not know who to ransom/threaten whatever, I would introduce myself, or at least be a point of contact.

I found one of the attacking corps public channels and decided to chat it up. :)

I'm Sir Lomax. 

[ 2016.07.16 16:11:07 ] Sir Lomax > hi there :)
[ 2016.07.16 16:12:09 ] Traavemynde > \o
[ 2016.07.16 16:12:16 ] Sir Lomax > you guys recruiting?
[ 2016.07.16 16:13:24 ] Traavemynde > nope
[ 2016.07.16 16:14:15 ] Sir Lomax > Any idea when recruitment will be open?
[ 2016.07.16 16:14:42 ] Traavemynde > in 2-3 weeks
[ 2016.07.16 16:15:26 ] Sir Lomax > Are you guys a wormhole corp? Interested in buying one?



I figured I might be able to see if they wanted to buy the hole they helped invade. LOL.


[ 2016.07.16 16:15:44 ] Traavemynde > kinda and nope
[ 2016.07.16 16:35:45 ] Sir Lomax > o/ xmaster
[ 2016.07.16 16:36:20 ] Traavemynde > \o xhamster
[ 2016.07.16 16:36:43 ] Amarr Shakaru > jan kannst du uns nen exit geben? :)
[ 2016.07.16 16:38:21 ] Sir Lomax > Ich bin auch der Suche nach einem Ausgang
[ 2016.07.16 16:38:45 ] Sir Lomax > rekrutieren ihr?
[ 2016.07.16 16:39:15 ] Amarr Shakaru > nein wir sind voll
[ 2016.07.16 16:39:31 ] Sir Lomax > :(
[ 2016.07.16 16:45:13 ] XMaster96 Xv3 > o/
[ 2016.07.16 16:45:15 ] XMaster96 Xv3 > ja
[ 2016.07.16 16:45:44 ] XMaster96 Xv3 > dann muss ich aber scanne, und es kann sein das ich ausgespert werde
[ 2016.07.16 16:46:57 ] Traavemynde > das Getriebe ist offensichtlich Bogeymen etwas?
[ 2016.07.16 16:48:07 ] Amarr Shakaru > keine hektik, BB is wieder off
[ 2016.07.16 16:48:12 ] Amarr Shakaru > verschieben wir auf morgen
[ 2016.07.16 16:48:19 ] XMaster96 Xv3 > ok
[ 2016.07.16 16:48:40 ] XMaster96 Xv3 > ich glaube die sind gerade noch sehr schreckhaft ^^
[ 2016.07.16 16:48:47 ] Amarr Shakaru > ja hehe
[ 2016.07.16 16:48:54 ] Amarr Shakaru > habt ihr die wenigstens erpresst?`
[ 2016.07.16 16:49:05 ] XMaster96 Xv3 > ne
[ 2016.07.16 16:49:24 ] Amarr Shakaru > ok
[ 2016.07.16 16:56:02 ] Sir Lomax > o/  Lord Periclitor
[ 2016.07.16 16:56:47 ] Lord Periclitor > hello fellow nerds and tom of germany
[ 2016.07.16 16:57:01 ] Traavemynde > \o LP
[ 2016.07.16 16:57:08 ] Amarr Shakaru > lol hi LP
[ 2016.07.16 16:57:11 ] Sir Lomax > LP is your corp recruiting?
[ 2016.07.16 16:57:55 ] Lord Periclitor > depends, you wanna get recruited?
[ 2016.07.16 16:58:12 ] Sir Lomax > Yep.
[ 2016.07.16 16:58:33 ] Lord Periclitor > why do we want you?
[ 2016.07.16 16:59:08 ] Sir Lomax > Well i'm a honest trustworthy guy, and I send flowers to my mother on mothers-day
[ 2016.07.16 16:59:26 ] Sir Lomax > two qualities that make for a great EVE player
[ 2016.07.16 16:59:54 ] Lord Periclitor > well, join our public chan and try poking recruiter
[ 2016.07.16 17:00:07 ] Sir Lomax > whats your public channel?
[ 2016.07.16 17:00:32 ] Lord Periclitor > STRCU Public
[ 2016.07.16 17:02:32 ] Sir Lomax > Thanx !

They gave me another place to chat it up while we wait for the timer.

Random German gang, one of them said in German something about finding an exit. That could mean they are trying to get out of their home hole and form up with a fleet, or they are trying to evac from our hole.

I went to the next channel.

[ 2016.07.16 17:00:43 ] Sir Lomax > o/
[ 2016.07.16 17:01:19 ] Sir Lomax > Anogra poke
[ 2016.07.16 17:01:37 ] Sir Lomax > LP says you might be recruiting
[ 2016.07.16 17:05:19 ] Anogra > hey  Sir Lomax
[ 2016.07.16 17:05:22 ] Anogra > how might i be of assistance?
[ 2016.07.16 17:05:36 ] Sir Lomax > looking to hear more about recruitment.
[ 2016.07.16 17:07:58 ] Lord Periclitor > mi balls are itchy
[ 2016.07.16 17:08:20 ] Anogra > we are looking for pilots willing to live in wh's on a permanent basis and fly with us on the different fleets we do. Also pilots who are able to create some content on their own. we are not here to hold everyone's hand :D
[ 2016.07.16 17:08:33 ] Anogra > some info about us are in our recruitment add, in the forum post linked in the motd
[ 2016.07.16 17:08:34 ] Traavemynde > Lord Periclitor , i have told you several times to take a shower... Amarr has good one if you need...
[ 2016.07.16 17:08:41 ] Anogra > xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:08:45 ] Amarr Shakaru > lies
[ 2016.07.16 17:09:41 ] Anogra > quite now kids, papa is talking ;)
[ 2016.07.16 17:09:43 ] Lord Periclitor > i don't wanna shower with tom of Germany, I would feel slutty
[ 2016.07.16 17:10:26 ] Anogra > Sir Lomax anything not coverd there, feel free to ask
[ 2016.07.16 17:10:33 ] Traavemynde > just dont drop the soap
[ 2016.07.16 17:10:39 ] Anogra > my question to you, is why are you seaking to leave  Semper Ubi Sub Ubi ?

At this point Anogra opens a convo with me.

[ 2016.07.16 17:11:09 ] Anogra > [17:10:39] Anogra > my question to you, is why are you seaking to leave  Semper Ubi Sub Ubi ?
[ 2016.07.16 17:15:30 ] Anogra > [17:08:20] Anogra > we are looking for pilots willing to live in wh's on a permanent basis and fly with us on the different fleets we do. Also pilots who are able to create some content on their own. we are not here to hold everyones hand :D
[ 2016.07.16 17:15:33 ] Anogra > [17:08:33] Anogra > some info about us are in our recruitment add, in the forum post linked in the motd
[ 2016.07.16 17:15:39 ] Anogra > [17:10:25] Anogra > Sir Lomax anything not coverd there, feel free to ask
[ 2016.07.16 17:15:42 ] Anogra > [17:10:39] Anogra > my question to you, is why are you seaking to leave  Semper Ubi Sub Ubi ?
[ 2016.07.16 17:15:50 ] Anogra > that covers it till now i belive
[ 2016.07.16 17:15:58 ] Sir Lomax > lol ya,
[ 2016.07.16 17:16:27 ] Sir Lomax > You guys seem to have your stuff together
[ 2016.07.16 17:16:45 ] Sir Lomax > was looking around and saw you guys did ops, thought I would put out a feeler
[ 2016.07.16 17:18:24 ] Sir Lomax > what kind of wormhole are you looking to live in 'on a perment basis'?
[ 2016.07.16 17:19:10 ] Anogra > we are currently residing in a C3 while members accumelate skills and some isk. our next step up would be a C4 while people skill into the next tier doctrine and stock up on it
[ 2016.07.16 17:19:38 ] Anogra > due to we accept people of any skill level there are people with low skills that takes time to get into our doctrines
[ 2016.07.16 17:19:57 ] Anogra > and ofc, its summer and alot of people are prioritizing RL (as we encurage them)
[ 2016.07.16 17:20:06 ] Anogra > so no large change untill summer is over atleast
[ 2016.07.16 17:20:27 ] Sir Lomax > yea, i kno whow that is, summer people don't log in as much. Too much outside time
[ 2016.07.16 17:21:27 ] Anogra > its not a worry. they come back after summer, and if everything catches fire, they will come as well :D
[ 2016.07.16 17:21:49 ] Anogra > even i have alot less online time during summer even though i am working this summer, simply coz alot of rl stuff needed to be done
[ 2016.07.16 17:22:08 ] Sir Lomax > are you all german?
[ 2016.07.16 17:22:18 ] Sir Lomax > Any USTZ people, thats my primary time
[ 2016.07.16 17:22:31 ] Anogra > we got...ehm.. 0 germans atm xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:23:13 ] Sir Lomax > SCAN one of the pubs I jumped into had people speaking German is why i asked
[ 2016.07.16 17:23:14 ] Anogra > we have a couple of USTZ, though our primary and strongest tz is by far our eu
[ 2016.07.16 17:23:26 ] Anogra > simply because we havent gotten hands on anyone willing to build a ustz
[ 2016.07.16 17:27:19 ] Sir Lomax > Well i commend you on your efforts in this C4. Nothing more fun than rattling a cage :)
[ 2016.07.16 17:27:43 ] Anogra > always fun :D
[ 2016.07.16 17:28:48 ] Anogra > c4s are great for farming statics for pvp and pve :D
[ 2016.07.16 17:29:04 ] Sir Lomax > yep.
[ 2016.07.16 17:29:32 ] Anogra > i noticed ur current corp lives in one of those great ones
[ 2016.07.16 17:29:39 ] Anogra > C3/2 statics
[ 2016.07.16 17:29:56 ] Sir Lomax > yep
[ 2016.07.16 17:30:02 ] Anogra > short way for supplies, and easy to roll for better chains for pvp and c3 easy farm
[ 2016.07.16 17:30:39 ] Sir Lomax > we don't much farm anymore
[ 2016.07.16 17:30:48 ] Anogra > what makes u want to leave ur current corp? they seem fairly active and live in a nice wh
[ 2016.07.16 17:31:23 ] Sir Lomax > would save me a trip if you evict them :)
[ 2016.07.16 17:31:36 ] Anogra > even decent planets for PI those into that
[ 2016.07.16 17:31:44 ] Anogra > those elusive storm planets
[ 2016.07.16 17:31:52 ] Sir Lomax > lol the PI is trash in here
[ 2016.07.16 17:31:56 ] Anogra > sounds like you are unhappy with ur current corp. why?
[ 2016.07.16 17:32:12 ] Sir Lomax > I'm not unhappy. Just don't want to move my stuff
[ 2016.07.16 17:33:20 ] Anogra > -_-
[ 2016.07.16 17:33:33 ] Sir Lomax > if overall lazyness isn't a good reason to switch, i'm not sure what is
[ 2016.07.16 17:34:10 ] Anogra > haha, but thats only if we actually evict :P
[ 2016.07.16 17:34:26 ] Sir Lomax > you did evict those in that c1 or was that just an offline pos
[ 2016.07.16 17:34:54 ] Anogra > target of opportunity
[ 2016.07.16 17:34:56 ] Anogra > :D

[ 2016.07.16 17:35:14 ] Anogra > we evict if someone pisses us off, or if they have something we want
[ 2016.07.16 17:35:30 ] Sir Lomax > Thats a fair reason on both ends
[ 2016.07.16 17:35:40 ] Anogra > a lowsec small corp pissed us off by reffing some pocos. we replied with killing their alts tower in lowsec abit later with a small cap group
[ 2016.07.16 17:35:53 ] Anogra > but we dont evict for "fun" or "content"
[ 2016.07.16 17:36:20 ] Sir Lomax > I think only Wspan does that, and not really much anymore
[ 2016.07.16 17:36:54 ] Anogra > they tried to blackmail us not long after we moved in. "pay us 200m/month or we will evict you"
[ 2016.07.16 17:37:08 ] Sir Lomax > yea, thats one of their things
[ 2016.07.16 17:37:17 ] Sir Lomax > you would be amazed how many people just pay
[ 2016.07.16 17:37:24 ] Anogra > we laughed, killed and podded their scout and rolled the static xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:38:00 ] Sir Lomax > they do have a good shstick though, carpet all the holes, ransom everyone they meet.
[ 2016.07.16 17:38:35 ] Anogra > ye. but they aint really dangerous as they dont field proper fleets
[ 2016.07.16 17:38:36 ] Sir Lomax > thier trip wire network is boss though, they have people mapping chains not even in their holes, giving intel to everyone
[ 2016.07.16 17:38:51 ] Anogra > they try to "blob" in lesser ships and hope the ones they fight dont know how to use guardians xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:39:18 ] Anogra > anyways. i digress xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:39:29 ] Anogra > we are recruiting. no SP requierment or mandatory fleets
[ 2016.07.16 17:39:35 ] Anogra > people are asked to prio RL>game
[ 2016.07.16 17:39:42 ] Sir Lomax > makes sense
[ 2016.07.16 17:39:53 ] Anogra > but when they are online and something is up, we expect people to preform their best, whatever that is
[ 2016.07.16 17:40:14 ] Sir Lomax > when you say best, do you mean best ship? thats alway a point of contention fo rme
[ 2016.07.16 17:40:44 ] Sir Lomax > like i fly stuff because I prefer quanitty vs quality
[ 2016.07.16 17:40:56 ] Anogra > we happily share fits and experience and knowlage and expect members to share theirs as well with newbies. We have a code of conduct which prohibit members from scamming, ganking in highsec or other types of griefing
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:18 ] Anogra > preform their best = fly the best they can according to the doctrine/shiptype asked for
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:19 ] Sir Lomax > code of conduct? in EVE? thats a thing?
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:27 ] Sir Lomax > ahh
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:33 ] Anogra > we do have a higher moral expectation of people
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:43 ] Anogra > then most of eve
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:47 ] Anogra > mostly, just dont be a douchbag
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:50 ] Anogra > xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:53 ] Sir Lomax > lol fiar enough
[ 2016.07.16 17:41:54 ] Sir Lomax > haha
[ 2016.07.16 17:42:15 ] Anogra > when it comes to preforming. if we fly our BS doctrine, dont bring a frig unless the FC asks for it
[ 2016.07.16 17:42:28 ] Sir Lomax > ahh
[ 2016.07.16 17:42:59 ] Anogra > in random cruiser fleets most fits are welcome, though we do have some fits saved for our main armor fleets
[ 2016.07.16 17:43:20 ] Anogra > but logi fits are set in stone. no other fits are allowed or welcome without an FCs expressed consent
[ 2016.07.16 17:43:41 ] Sir Lomax > sure, some random shield logi in a bunch of armor would be nuts
[ 2016.07.16 17:43:54 ] Anogra > we also roll with that everyone skills into guardians so we always have logis, and can rotate who flies logi depending on how many we need
[ 2016.07.16 17:44:11 ] Anogra > our pve fleet is shield, and primarly consist of drakes + osprey
[ 2016.07.16 17:44:16 ] Anogra > cheap and efficent xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:44:20 ] Sir Lomax > totally
[ 2016.07.16 17:46:17 ] Anogra > we have some special rules when it comes to sites in our own wh. sleeper sites (anom, data and relic) are off limits apart from on our harvest ops
[ 2016.07.16 17:46:26 ] Anogra > ore/gas and nullsec data/relics are free for all
[ 2016.07.16 17:46:28 ] Sir Lomax > off limits?
[ 2016.07.16 17:46:41 ] Anogra > but in any other wh, all sites are free for all
[ 2016.07.16 17:46:51 ] Anogra > meaning, no one is allowed to do them outside the corp op
[ 2016.07.16 17:47:04 ] Sir Lomax > o are the corp ops scheduled ?
[ 2016.07.16 17:47:27 ] Anogra > same time and day each week
[ 2016.07.16 17:47:35 ] Anogra > so its predictable
[ 2016.07.16 17:47:46 ] Anogra > not a random ping "we do harve st now, durr durr"
[ 2016.07.16 17:47:47 ] Anogra > xD
[ 2016.07.16 17:48:24 ] Anogra > we also run a buyup program in the wh, buying anything people harvest from sites, ore, gas, relic, data, pi
[ 2016.07.16 17:48:30 ] Anogra > corp buys everything
[ 2016.07.16 17:49:08 ] Anogra > harvest ops are done on the same principle as the buyup. we have a spreadsheet where we put in when people join the fleet
[ 2016.07.16 17:49:15 ] Anogra > or when people leave
[ 2016.07.16 17:49:32 ] Sir Lomax > really, thats very similar to what sleeper social club used to do
[ 2016.07.16 17:49:32 ] Anogra > once fleet is over, stuff is piled and i pay everyone according to how long they have participated
[ 2016.07.16 17:50:20 ] Sir Lomax > you do that in a c3? I've only heard of that in like a c5 or higher
[ 2016.07.16 17:50:29 ] Anogra > corp takes 20% tax on buyup, rest is devided amongst people in fleet. its 1 share per warm body in fleet. adding alts will make it faster /more isk/h for everyone) but will not entitle said person to more then 1 share
[ 2016.07.16 17:50:45 ] Anogra > we buildt our system to be applicable anywhere we live
[ 2016.07.16 17:50:55 ] Anogra > so people are used to the system once we move to a higher class
[ 2016.07.16 17:51:05 ] Anogra > then there isent a new system in addition to a new wh and such
[ 2016.07.16 17:52:15 ] Sir Lomax > ahhh
[ 2016.07.16 17:55:03 ] Anogra > any questionas?
[ 2016.07.16 17:55:47 ] Sir Lomax > Not sure you would answer it honestly
[ 2016.07.16 17:55:53 ] Anogra > :)
[ 2016.07.16 17:55:57 ] Sir Lomax > lol
[ 2016.07.16 17:56:14 ] Anogra > give it a shot
[ 2016.07.16 17:56:21 ] Sir Lomax > Do you know who my main is?
[ 2016.07.16 17:56:26 ] Anogra > wcs i wont give an answer:)
[ 2016.07.16 17:57:06 ] Anogra > that is indeed an interesting question
[ 2016.07.16 17:57:22 ] Anogra > although the name seem familiar, i cant say anything pops up
[ 2016.07.16 17:57:54 ] Sir Lomax > So thats a no?
[ 2016.07.16 17:58:14 ] Anogra > kyllä
[ 2016.07.16 17:59:58 ] Sir Lomax > no, and I don't think you can make the umlou in EVE names in this game
[ 2016.07.16 18:00:17 ] Sir Lomax > is that how its spelled "Umlow"? the little dots above german letters
[ 2016.07.16 18:00:24 ] Sir Lomax > oomlou?
[ 2016.07.16 18:00:31 ] Anogra > its finnish actually
[ 2016.07.16 18:00:39 ] Anogra > the one i used
[ 2016.07.16 18:00:52 ] Anogra > kyllä = yes
[ 2016.07.16 18:01:02 ] Anogra > u could also use "joo" or "niin"
[ 2016.07.16 18:03:32 ] Sir Lomax > I'm learning a bunch of linguistic stuff from this conversation
[ 2016.07.16 18:03:44 ] Anogra > finnish is a messed up language
[ 2016.07.16 18:03:48 ] Anogra > i moved here about a month ago xD
[ 2016.07.16 18:04:59 ] Sir Lomax > From where?
[ 2016.07.16 18:05:07 ] Sir Lomax > you moved to Finland from?
[ 2016.07.16 18:05:23 ] Anogra > norway
[ 2016.07.16 18:05:58 ] Anogra > still not a german :P
[ 2016.07.16 18:06:15 ] Anogra > what made u belive we were primarly german? we'v been called russian twice, though we only have 1 russian with us xD
[ 2016.07.16 18:06:36 ] Sir Lomax > Google translate detected german
[ 2016.07.16 18:07:00 ] Anogra > google translate should stop hogging and share, coz its high as fuck xD
[ 2016.07.16 18:10:22 ] Sir Lomax > What I'm trying to figure out is how are SCAN, STRCU and your corp all linked, you say you're a c3 corp, but you're working together with epople in complicated histories
[ 2016.07.16 18:10:55 ] Sir Lomax > A bunch of you are from hole control, but now you're all kinda doing your own thing
[ 2016.07.16 18:12:28 ] Anogra > friends knows no boarders
[ 2016.07.16 18:12:30 ] Anogra > :D
[ 2016.07.16 18:12:47 ] Sir Lomax > yep. :D
[ 2016.07.16 18:48:07 ] Anogra > misses has movie and sweets ready. time to bail :D
[ 2016.07.16 18:48:09 ] Anogra > *wave
[ 2016.07.16 18:48:16 ] Sir Lomax > o/
[ 2016.07.16 18:48:25 ] Sir Lomax > GL with the misses'

This ended shortly before the timer was coming out. Anogra was part of the orginal invasion group, but was logging off to do whatever with his sweets.

About 15 players logged in and prepared for the final timer, which came and went, without any pressure from the attacking group. I guess we weren't a good target of opportunity at this point.

 Don't fuck with the sausage king of Chicago. 

Crazy, but after all this I could still go and join a wormhole corp :)


Special thanks to FOFO from HK for messaging me 4 days after the fact if we needed some help. :P Better late than never right?! haha






Monday, June 27, 2016

New Down The Pipe Ep. 61

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the late post/podcast. Bronya and I have been total slackers, but we have a new podcast for you. Its just us talking about things and catching up.

We tell stories, talk about new things, try and recruit people into Wspace PVP.

Enjoy

http://downthepipe-wh.com/episodes/2016/6/27/episode-61 

The intro music (my favorite part) is from Fever The Ghost - Source. I added it to the DTP intro music play list. Crazy video but great song.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

New Down The Pipe Ep. 60

I'm going to start promoting my connection to Down the Pipe on this blog, because why not?


Short post that a new down the pipe is out, special guest Noobman from HK.

Enjoy.


http://downthepipe-wh.com/episodes/2016/5/10/episode-60

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Citadels and the human element

Hello space friends,

Citadels were released a week ago or so and we already have one up in our home.

The "Abe Froman". The sausage king of Chicago. I weep for future generation that doesn't know that reference. I named it this for two reasons. One, I thought it would be funny and two, Farris Bueller says very clearly to the camera when confronted by his friends in the movie, "you can never go too far". I always thought that was slightly profound and a play style dream for me.


One thing I've noticed from a small wormhole corp CEO's perspective, I've lost some control. You might think, so what, isn't less management responsibilities better? Yes and no, here's a scenario that we may see more in the future.

In our corp we have about 400 million worth random T1 cruisers, frigs, destroyers and haulers for everyone's use. These are ships with the primary reason for existence being, to be destroyed in PVP glory. Prior to the citadel release we had these ships sitting in a corp pub SMA for all in corp to use. Now, they're in the citadel.

Here lies the issue.

As we slowly trundle toward the eventuality of POS's being removed and everyone owning citadels we must begin to embrace the citadel way of life. So lets play like that POS is gone and I want to continue loaning out ships and equipment using a shared Corp hanger system.

What happens if I or any corp gets a bad egg? Someone with mayhem on their mind. Not just an infiltrator but a person not so different than myself that just wants to see the world burn.

There are two scenarios that I've thought about.

1. The New Recruit -- This person joins the corp with a citadel and shared hanger with the give no fucks attitude. Day one, he scoops all the shared hanger stuff and places them in his personal hanger. He doesn't tell anyone hes done it, and no one really knows he's done it since there isn't a record that I can find at this time.

Now that new recruit can't move the stuff because most of the time he can't fly half the stuff in there, but he's just doing it to troll the people who live there.

The question goes out, "Where is all the public stuff?" Silence. No one knows. No one saw it happen because its a small corp and not everyone pays attention to this. Fingers point, people say "Meh didn't want that shit anyway". Life goes on.

Then a little bit later as people go back to using the pub hanger, he does it again.

More fingers point, more "didn't want it anyway", the CEO eventually admits that "This is why we can't have nice things". Pub hangers go away.

What happens to all the stuff that one guy scooped and stuffed into his personal hanger in the citadel? He could eventually move it out, but odds are this guy is just looking to troll folks or he may be been suspected and then purged.

The stuff remains.

What I'm wondering is, as these citadels live on and are slated to not be deconstructed but be transferred, the items remain inside of them. The older the citadel, the more things that could be inside of them as the greater the chance people leaving the game, not moving things out, or this very same citadel trolling occurs.

Since the citadel owner/CEO never truly knows whats inside of it, and decommissioning one in a wormhole would thus destroy its forgotten contents anyway. Why not just blow it up yourself to get the forgotten goodies inside.

**EDIT!!** Noobman from HK informed me that by decommissioning the citadel, it drops all the space goodies in lots and lots of cans.. Putting this in after the fact... Thnx Noobman!


This moves me to part 2.


2. The Reverse Safari CEO. A CEO who doesn't know whats inside, but suspects a great deal of things are inside, destroys it himself.

This can be done by a rogue CEO simply removing all corp roles to a citadel at the worst possible moment.

Now the debunked, leaderless corp simply needs to form a bash fleet to get maybe  half of their combined stuff out? When it does drop, its going to be in a huge pile of different peoples things spread out, some won't drop because of normal loot farie mechanics, but how would you divide that up?


You might be saying that, all that stuff could happen in POS's, but here's the difference. In a tower, you can see the modules holding your things. There is also a finite amount of space in each of those modules, which means all yes, you could do the same thing over multiple towers, but when your targets are spread out all over the place, risk is mitigated to an extent, simply from a theft logistics point of view. Also, FUEL, before you could siege a tower to the point where getting more fuel in the hole is an issue. A citadel is there holding all your things no matter if its fueled or not. This giant brick, holding all your stuff, that will be there forever, or until you gather up your forces for the promise of maybe half your stuff. Because your half, might not be the half that drops.


I'm not pointing out that I'm going to do any of these things, but after living in a wormholes for almost 5 years now, you tend to get a little paranoid. The "what ifs" become more actual threats that need to be addressed, because lets be real, this is EVE.


The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?"