A day in the life

So at about 0600hrs eve time it's 10pm my time, and i'd called my GF as i usually do around then mostly every night. I told her i blew up some spaceships but was pretty much unproductive.

Ironically, today turned out to be an amazingly "productive" one. I woke up to the dulcet tones of the FC screaming for more people to join fleet and proceeded to witness a humungous battle...see below blog post. There's also a youtube video about it, here.

After that i did some ingame housekeeping and tried to refit a guardian logistics ship and an ishkur and then proceeded to go on roam after roam that night with 3-4 gangs and got on more kills than i've ever done.

1st gang engagement 1
1st gang engagement 2
3rd gang engagement 1

I'm starting to learn who the sucky Fleet Commanders are and will be avoiding joining their fleets. I find the lack of communication, the lack of repetition in orders, and mostly the plodding camper mentality that betrays a lack of motivation to obtain and retain 'intel'

Was fun and i really liked my assault ship, may it rest in peace, although i was attempting to make it better but the market and the gatecamps put a crimp in my plans...it worked okay until it died. I was so panicky when that happened i forgot to attack. lol. carebear instincts die hard. Anyways, the below is the loadout i want to get for it next time


[Ishkur, CumGetSum mk3]
3x 150mm Railgun II (Caldari Navy Iron Charge S)
Small 'Solace' Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
1MN Afterburner II
Faint Warp Disruptor I
Small Capacitor Booster II (Cap Booster 200)
Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Co-Processor II
2x Small Ancillary Current Router I

Come get some

Well, it was a good thing i lost my logistics ship couple days ago, because this morning i woke up on the sofa with the FC yelling for people to get into fleet. They'd just undocked Geddons&Guardians and warped to outgate when i fully woke up and relearned how to switch out my drone augmentor for a cyno (sans ozone) and remember how to undock. Personally, i'd have rather taken a shower at that point. Anyways, off i went and caught up to the main group as the FC was yapping about 200 people about to fight in our target system over a station (russians and -A- pets.) Since we were only 66 in fleet i figured we're gonna diieeee like last time, even though we had 2 triage carriers on standby. By the time we got their our ingate was clear and a huge fight was brewing on another stargate with subcaps. Our FC got us on the tail of an enemy blob and that's where we got most of our kills - apparently our logistics team bit the big one right away but me and my fellow armageddons were ignored for (apparently) bait low-sig-radius Tengus of our allies who had sniper tornados at range on the enemy being lured about. Once our guardians popped (no broadcasts from them nor comm chatter) our FC called for a cyno but the one triage carrier ordered in was primaried. Apparently, this new target lured the enemy away from close range to the Tengu group and allowed them to survive a bit longer. Soon after the carrier popped we were forced off the field because the enemy started getting logistics help and we lacked the numbers by then to overcome this.

So the picture above is when we whored onto -A- kills they were getting from putting a bubble up at the soon to be ex-russian station...We warped soon after to the wreck broadcasted and i think i got on a few more KMs. Then it was warp off time again for us until we warped back to undock to whore again on some carriers (i think i got a single shot off on one or two at most before they popped)...By that time -A- had cyno'd in their supercapital fleet and the station melted.

So there was nothing we could add so got warped off to outgate where i proceeded to ignore orders and madly looted. i only got faction ammo though because the good stuff had been swiped by more nimble craft.

Engagement on alliance killboard

cluster fuck

After weeks of getting lost in null-sec space (Querious region) i'm finally getting the hang of things here...I've noticed my "unique skill set" is badly needed around here: Most FCs in this alliance don't have good intel on regular enemy gangs that roam our territory. I think it's the problem of "intel channels" where a smattering of rote messages really doesn't convey context at all.

Anyways, i finally got involved in a fleet fight out side of my experience with ACE--
[killboard of engagement]
first battle experience flying in logistics team. I learned some valuable lessons the hard way, in a battle that we couldn't win. We did a "leeroy jenkins" onto a gate held by an overwhelming force preventing our escape after we tried to attack a station coming out of reinforced mode in B-R5RB. The friendlies seen in the killmail were the force that arrived not 10 minutes later and chased the bad guys away...if only our fleet commander had kept his cool just a little bit longer we would have all made it out alive from O3Z5-G

Problem is our gang wasn't big enough, since my logistics team was only 3 others and i was voted squad commander. My biggest problem was misunderstanding the final order for "logi to warp in at 30km" and "get on your anchor" since i ended up approaching the FC...it really didn't matter much in the long run against such odds and their fits were for sniper anyways.
A friend in "ACE-- public" told me that the best logistic pilots

"the 30 km is so you can orbit, without being bumped, and so you can warp out with out bumping. Anchor orbit, 5-20 km, depending on what your doing, and where at. Might be a bit more or less. Have a logi channel to sort out the who to cap chain with. Normally you get the guy above & below. your job is the send cap down to the person below you, and keep the guy above you alive, since he is sending you cap. Use the watch list to track your anchor, orbit always and the next one is your cap buddy and the third is the guy sending you cap"

Anyways, to start from the beginning we formed up to hit a structure in red alliance territory and after getting promises for 6 logi and more than 30 geddons we left with half that amount. We got to O3Z5-G but never made it out of there. Our target system was "a bridge too far" as russians were blocking our exit, although thankfully they weren't probing us down. Why thankfully? well, it turns out our recon/intel/tackler team couldn't pour piss out of a boot without printed instructed on the heel. To add insult to injury, the only one talking on teamspeak was our FC and even fleet chat was empty of intel reports or "roger/copy that"
Sadly, this was the day i decided to switch my microphone program to my backup computer and i kept trying to use my main keyboard to key in to talk. ouch.

If it was one of IHaveTenFinger's fleets we would have never hired complete morons nor people whose command of english was poor. Not to mention firing anyone so incompetent they didn't know what "rolling SS" nor "ping/warpin points" were. We had recon ships and tacklers loitering with our Battleships/Logistics group like doofuses.

What i've been doing for the past day is exploring the area in Immensea region. Getting warpin points and spots for rolling SS, especially in o3z5-g. I'm in a very expensive covert ops ship that i think will avoid most gate camps i run into even in low sec.
[Helios, level4 cov ops]
'Smokescreen' Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher
Limited 1MN MicroWarpdrive I
Caldari Navy Small Shield Extender
Basic Magnetic Scattering Amplifier
Supplemental Thermal Barrier Emitter
empty mid--slot
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
2x 'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
2x Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
1x Warrior II

A friend in ACE-- public gave me a tip to help blow past gatecamps

"do the align+mwd+cloak in the direction that makes him turn the most that also takes the least amount of align time on your part. Perpendicular is better then making him turn 180 dergess if you get into warp faster. If you have nothing to align to for a warp out, he gets the align time working for him so pick your warp out, then wait till he is furthat away ,or his heading is away, then do the warp, mwd then cloak. Make a ss that has NO aligning needed, if your going to run the route a lot, and keep your people n places open so your not right clicking space trying to get out. Then you right click warp to ss, hit mwd then cloak or cloak + mwd; cloak then mwd, since you get a free cycle"

Hopefully that'll work wonders for my Viator fit too. *crosses fingers*
[Viator, smuggler]
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Invulnerability Field II
ECM Burst II
Damage Control II
2x 'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
2x Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I

============================

in other news, i'm getting my alt CEO in ordo ministorum to unlock all my bpos in Kourmonen so i can get them organized again. I'd gone inactive for a long time and when your corporate office can't pay bills everything gets put into 'impounded' and when you rerent the office everything gets shoved into 'division 1 hangar' which sucks if they're all locked down. there's 5 research stations in there and i have every single tech1 blueprint original (although only ship bpos up to cruiser) lying around. So, yeah, alot of 'voting' and waiting 24hrs to enable unlock using my CEO. 'Shares' in eve are a total pain in the ass.

I sure do have alot of assets lying around in my corporate hangars. wow. My main account is in a null-sec alliance and i'm making quite alot of isk running 'cosmic anomalies' in a -0.8 system. After this deployment in catch we're back to that area in Querious and i can start raking in the dough...course, i've also put up stuff on the market in null sec and i must say sales have been promising on meta MWDs and meta warp jammers

fleeting propulsion inhibitor
faint epsilon warp scrambler
limited 1mn microwarpdrive
experimental 10mn microwarpdrive
sisters core scanner probe
beta reactor control: diagnostic system
TE-2100 standard missile bay
hardwiring - inherent implants 'squire' pg2
hardwiring - inherent implants 'squire' cc2
hardwiring - zainou 'deadeye' zga100
hardwiring - zainou 'gnome' kza500 & 1000
hardwiring - inherent implants 'noble' zet300
hardwiring - inherent implants 'squire' ee2
hardwiring - eifyr and co. 'rogue' dy-1
hardwiring - eifyr and co. 'rogue' gy-1
hardwiring - zainou 'gypsy' kmb-25
hardwiring - zainou 'gnome' kxa1000
eutectic capacitor charge array [not so much]

online again

yah back online! first thing i did? cash in all those datacores for about 260m isk. I've been out for 16 months and if you do that math the income sucks, but it was free and the final tally isn't bad.

second thing i did was train new skills. My main character i've had since march 2004 is getting really close to 50m skill points spread all over (i have ~240 skills)

third thing i did was breeze into Fua constellation and spotted some salty dogs in Naguton. that was comforting, knowing the neighbourhood hasn't gone to pot.

fourth thing i did was realize i'm 40m isk shy of grabbing a 'capital ship' skill book...best way for me to get it is run missions out of Nakri. But, i heard agents got boosted so i might consider moving closer to Fua. time to go agent searching. oh crap, they didn't 'boost' it as much as 'nerf' agents...I've lost alot of locate agents i relied on as well as some lvl4 agents for sarum. It's not world ending, but it sure ruins the flavor...Nakri is still mission hub of choice for Sarum NPC corporation.

Fifth thing i did was swear, because i've forgotten the names of most things on the market and some solar systems give me vertigo

Sixth thing i did was realize i need an Orca more than i need Muffy to train Capital Ships. Which means i'm thinking of resubscribing my other two accounts and get back into the game full time...unfortunately for me i've already paid upgrade fees on 3 different romance related sites. Can you say "Time Management"?

offline for Tyrannis

been offline since april 20th. Starving student stuff. I should be online sometime this summer. Not really looking forward to it...i had all my blueprints locked down in kourmonen system's many laboratories, plus one tower (thank god only one) in Amod. I assume the innards were popped for loot by (most likely Ghost Festival) long ago. It'll be a pain and a half just dealing with the tower, blueprints, and impounded stuff. might even lose out on office slots in naguton, and possibly even Deepari. eeeps.

The lost blueprint research times will hurt, as well as the lack of skills training. But, meh, whatever...i'm sure by the time i can afford eve-online time Starcraft2 will be out.

I'll be curious as to the social environment of Fua Constellation. Hopefully someone able to maintain stability will be present, or have presence. If it's really bad i'll probably consider popping off a resume to Evolution. haha...wouldn't that be funny to hear SirMolle's voice again...what, it's been like 10 years or so? sheeesh. One thing for sure, i wouldn't be able to tool around "playing house" like i've been doing with this [one-man] corporation of mine.

I doubt fua will be buzzing with planetary governors. At least i bloody hope someone's doing the weeding. lol. bah.

Why i love Eve-online so much

CrazyKinux asked,

"...what makes the game special for you?

What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see a continuous growth in its subscriber.

To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?"

First of all, kudos to CCP for having a rose-coloured vision of the universe they've created where dastardly plots are unhatched and lauded over the internet (eg. Ubiqua Seraph of olde; and BoB's dissolution) whilst random friendships are made that impact many ingame (ie. the Butterfly Effect youtube video)

Secondly, I don't believe in the above fairy tales at all and am overjoyed with the stability of the region of space i've settled down quite happily in, free from "anti-pirates", "griefers" and "carebears" alike. The chaotic maelstrom of low sec that i'd imagined years ago, while I mined Scordite asteroids and bought and sold commodities like antibiotics between different NPC corporations, was worlds apart from the kind of 'Wild West' concept i'd had of honorable anti-pirates chasing off two-bit amateur pirate bands. I'm sure CVA roleplays that to the hilt in their nullsec area, and I idolized them back in the day.
Ironically, the pirates weren't amateurs - it was the wannabe anti-pirates who I witnessed as the flavour of the week. The "pirates" i met weren't anti-social paranoids, they were actually a stabilizing presence that kept the riffraff away (like high sec carebears and griefers; those that want to remove ALL risk to themselves while impacting others.)
After a while I managed to secure friendly relations with the locals and played around with the player owned station feature for almost two years before tearing down all but one tower. For a one-man operation it was amazing that I could not only setup and maintain a string of starbases, but also have time to mine, run missions, stalk carebears attempting to mine Jaspet (and kill them while lecturing them about the uselessness of mining something less valuable than veldspar, per cubic meter,) take part in large fleet operations with the local presence, and play around with the exploration features. Oh, plus research blueprints.
I wouldn't have been able to enjoy so many varied activities if the constellation I was in wasn't as stable as it's been. It also helps to have solid local presences in Sinq Laison region (Veto in Groinhard) and Genesis region (Chain of Chaos in Antem) next door...Even though I love to pretend they're public enemies number 1 & 2, i'm very grateful for their stabilizing presence even if i've considered them villains, for years.

And that is why I love Eve-online so much. The vaunted 'sandbox' marketing spiel by CCP versus the stabilizing presence of real eve-online players. Oh, i'm sure there's backstabbing and spies a plenty in this one server universe, yet my faith in a 'player's word is their bond' still endures to this day.

the long sordid blueprint project

I have three accounts. i created the other two shortly after realizing, if i was going to start my own corporation, that i needed blueprints if i was ever going to fulfill my ideal corporate mission of logistical support.
I'm still not sure if it's a viable niche market to break into. lol
Never become a CEO. All your ingame profit gets sucked down this blackhole...this maw of cthulhu like proportions. madness.

To make a long story short, i came upon a low sec system about 10 jumps from my main center of operations which was also a great NPC commodity trade hub for electronic parts. That's another story. I'm pretty much out of that business, even though i've had a freighter for over a year or two.
Kourmonen system (near Mynxee's hangout in Amamake) had the good fortune to be a pirate haven. Good fortune because the MuffinFactory [TORY] corp kept all the lazy carebears away, which means great commodity prices and cheap laboratory slots. Of course, then along came Faction Warfare and the muffinmen left in a huff. Luckily, nothing has really changed for prices/lab slots.

Hourly costs for most of the stations there are 8-10isk (that's massively lower than what you'll find in high sec) and wait times i usually find for material efficiency research to be a week on a good day, with copy slots having less than a week wait.
Time is the killer, so 3 accounts = 9 characters = 90 lab slots going at once. It's enabled me to upgrade a portfolio of tech1 BPOs any industry carebear would drool at.
Sadly, i don't have any battlecruiser BPOs to my name yet. I'm torn between a harbinger and a prophecy. Harby for just plain building it for use, or the prophecy for invention purposes. I'm new to invention, but that's yet another story.

When i first started upgrading blueprints i first found myself lost as characters flew between stations to upgrade or 'deliver' blueprints and i started delivering other characters' bpos and forgetting who had to begin more upgrading.
My second attempt had characters focused on one station, which failed because i only had so many blueprints and got lost in the minutae of what blueprint to put where (sometimes the best way to upgrade was to start your ammo/drone bpos first and work your way up to ships.) Not to mention corporate security loopholes made multiple station keeping a nightmare if you wanted to shift blueprints around at times.
My third try at keeping myself sane was to move all the blueprints to one station and make it my HQ (thus securing my BPOs from potential corp thefts)...that worked out okay since i found i really didn't spend the time to check up on my lab jobs that often, so having increased wait times for upgrades really didn't matter that much (besides it was always dirt cheap)
This evolution took about 3 years..i ended up moving the HQ to the bottom station and creating a rather large petition as completed blueprints disappeared during the change-over.

My final (hopefully) iteration happened about 2 years ago when I shifted my HQ to it's current location in Amod and locked down my entire blueprint collection. The irony is that i know the exact date i did this on because CCP decided in it's wisdom to screw up a patch note that fooled me into thinking this was the perfect time to try 'lockdown', and ended up creating a huge petition mess.
Eventually, everything got sorted and it's fine now. All my original blueprints are locked down in 4 of the 5 stations in the system. I now simply fly my labrat characters between stations upgrading as i see fit. I know enough about pvp and pve now that i can make educated decisions on what and how much to upgrade/copy.

It's even at the point where i have my 'mains' researching my newly purchased BPOs at low sec POS labs i have at my deathstars in Fua. i found the temptation of just one basic mobile lab per tower to be low enough that i'm not painting a big bullseye on my towers (i avoid advanced mobile labs, maintenance bays and corporate hangars like the plague)...besides, my idea of POS defense has evolved enough that i should be good enough to deter most folk from even trying for my large towers.

Besides, it's fun to play with Scientific Networking skill finally (i'd avoided it in the past simply to keep me from delivering a 'job' in one kourmonen station, that i wasn't at currently, and then forgetting about it)

One day i hope to start buying BC and above blueprints...i think my short term goal is to get the prototype cloaking device bpo.
Oh, and i find ME 100 on ammo, ME 50 on ships...with PE of 20...to be just fine for my uses. to be honest, i've never even tried figuring out "perfect ME" for my blueprints. Nor have i really looked into what blueprint would be best to manufacture for sale...I would like to research which blueprints need what type of minerals. that would be fun.