Fleeting Up

So, decided to start running some fleets and get practiced at FCing. End result is I don't know what I'm doing. Well, not completely clueless because I have been in fleets for a couple years now and been watching what others do but it is hard to appreciate everything that goes into FCing until you are the one doing it.

Last night we took some thrashers out and baited a Dramiel. Then we got baited a few times and went home ISK positive. Tonight was not as great. Took out some Caracals and found an obvious bait vindi. Went as well as expected.

Battle Report

But I'm having fun. And hopefully our guys are too. If you see me out there come fight.

Fanfest 2017

Pulling the trigger. See you all there.

Daily Incentives

Have the recurring opportunities gotten people into space and driven conflict? I'm not sure about others but it has for me. There have already been a few encounters with other WH dwellers that were hunting or avoiding being hunted that I would not have interacted with if I had not been traversing our chain to get that sweet sweet 10k sp. They haven't lead to kills but they have lead to bits of excitement. 

In one case the site running Raven I tackled jumped the hole and when I followed he was with 4 more of his brethren and so I noped out in my lone svipul.

In another case I found Exit Strategy camping my way back in and got to evade bubbles and people trying to decloak the Endurance my indy alt uses to kill belt rats for the daily.

In many more cases I log in to kill the rats for the bonus sp and end up talking to and doing stuff with my alliance mates. It's pretty easy to sucked in even if you logged on with the intention to only play the few minutes to get the daily done. 

I don't know if my experience is representative of the eve population as a whole but I can't be the only person this is working for either. 

Roaming in the Warzone

We took out a kitchen sink shield cruiser fleet this week. I use the term cruiser fleet somewhat loosely since one of the alliance mates decided to bring a "flagship" in the form of a Machariel he bought that day. I decided to dual box and bring a Sabre and a Caracal.

We formed up in Solitude and started to make our through Syndicate heading towards Cloud Ring. My Sabre did plus one duties since I had warp speed rigs and could bubble up and catch things ahead of the fleet. A couple jumps out I found an VNI using anchored bubbles to catch people. He starts to move out of the bubbles and I quickly tackle him and call for the fleet to come in. Unfortunately, his drones hit pretty hard and I go down just before logi can get reps on me after landing. RIP Sabre.

I head back to reship as the fleet pushes on. I catch up and we finally get into cloud ring and try and catch some miners and ratters but they POSed instead of warping to the now bubbled station. We press on and on the other side of the gate we find a smallish camp. Similar sized to ours but mostly T1 cruisers to our 50/50 mix of T1s and HACs. I bubble up their fleet and jump back through the gate and bubble that side as well while also following targets on my Caracal. A rupture comes over and starts to plink at my Sabre.  So I come back through and refresh the bubble before haviong to bail again. We're doing well taking down a trio of Arbitrators and a Vexor when I see a Barghest landing with a couple HACs. I start to call out contact when I then see a 40 man Svipul fleet belonging to the Culture landing in my bubble.

I call out what I see and the FC calls to disengage the fleet. Most of our guys make it out but the Flagship Machariel is tackled by the first fleet and goes down swinging against many many tactical destroyers. During this time my Sabre gets infinite pointed by an Onyx and I try my best to shake him but finally the Svipuls come back to finish my 2nd Sabre off. I might have been able to slip away if I wasn't splitting my attention and getting my Caracal off field.

We then extract the going long way home in order to not get in between the Svipul fleet and whatever onjective they were going for. All in all it was a good day. We won some and lost some and our Mach pilot had a blast even if that ship didn't last as long as he had wished it would.

The Process is the Point

I've found out in the nearly two years I have been playing eve that I find planing to be more fun than the execution of the idea. I love coming up with a goal and taking those steps to achieve it. Gathering supplies and setting up a base. Creating my own little own home wherever I happen to be at the time. That might be in low sec or a wormhole or in my current case Solitude.

So, that is what I am doing now. Gathering my ships and POS modules for an extended stay in the far reaches of the Gallente Federation. We've caught yet another wardec which has put a damper on starting up my industrial operations but I do have my JF pilot out of corp so I can still do that leg work while putting the mining operations on hold. My little plan is a bit more ambitious than past plans but I should be able to work on it at my own pace while still joining with alliance ops in the region. So, bit potential things in the future but right now I'm enjoying putting everything in place.

Moving In

So, I have started to move into our new home in Solitude. We're not abandoning our WH but we're doing more content and more roams and such in k-space.

Overall, Solitude is an odd place. It is a high sec island but logistically it operates like npc null or deep low sec since it is seperated from the rest of Gallente space. To this end I bought an Anshar jump freighter.

I have found having my own JF is really useful but also terrifying to fly. A 7+bil investment is not something you really want to lose from a silly mistake. So, I double and triple check the situation before undocking and making a jump to my next system.

It's odd that flying a transport ship in EvE can give me bigger shakes than any other game.

Pilgrimage

Our wormhole chain opened up to Canard last night, Being just three jumps from New Eden and the Eve Gate I decided to go see it for myself since I had never been. There is a sort of quiet solemnity there. Many people before me have dropped cans. Some are advertisements. Some mementos. Some are messages to lost love ones. I found it very touching and a bit sad.

Sometimes Things Just Fall Apart.

So, the big op didn't work out quite as we wanted. This is how it started...

The alliance found Wolf Rayet C6 and decided to run it in thrashers and T3Ds. We ran some sites and then the residents decided to drop a carrier into the site and escalated the site. Well we weren't going to take that sitting down. So, we brought in Ishtars and reinforced their tower.

Now, my previous post is the next day with us getting forces in and trying to set up another tower to stage out of. The previous tower wasn't properly stronted and came out of reinforce at a time we could not defend. So, second tower it is. This was just the start of our bad luck. And lack of planning didn't help. But snap decisions to try and evict a Russian corp out of their C6 is pretty much our thing.

Anyways, No Fun was camping the entrances and sniping our scanning ships as the connections all went EOL and collapsed. So, we have a couple guys in the hole with no scanning ships trying to find a way to get more people in with the second tower. So, one guy is scanning in a mammoth and another in a phobos and we get a chain back out. Of course this chain is full of camping stealth bombers and sabres. But we get stuff in and set up the tower but someone forgot the stront again. No worries, we can make a run and get more.

Well, this is when the neighbors in the C5 we just opened up decided to YOLO a shield tanked Nag into a Wolf Rayet and start shooting our new POS before moonwalking out. The tower quickly goes into the 2 hours of reinforce the stront we had gave it. Now, the Russians wake up and grind down that POS with their caps. End result is we have no POS and random dudes just logged off in space.

The next day we extract and find a way out and back home while evading the Russians camping the holes and setting up bubble traps. I find a way out through a frig hole and get my two characters that I brought out into null where I quickly find a C2 into a C3 back into high sec.

So, op was not a success but we did learn some lessons about wormhole sieges and the value of proper planning. But don't worry, this didn't dent our confidence and we're back on another deployment. One that has been a bit better organized.

The Command Room

So, sitting in what has become the command room in the alliance teamspeak server. We have big things happening in the next few days that I'll be able to report on after it's done. Op Sec and all that. Needless to say we decided to jump both feet into something before checking the depth of the water. Which of course is the Dredd way. So, keep tuned and I'll have more to report.

Arms Dealers

Been a long time since the last update. I'm going to try and be a bit more dedicated to writing. Gotta get past the idea I have to post only really interesting things. I like reading about people's average days in eve so maybe someone else will as well. So, here goes...

We've become arms dealers. Our fearless leader threw this up on eve reddit. We unloaded a good deal of our stock on hand of T3 dessys today with more in production right now. So, a lot of planning and hauling was done by the alliance. Hands down I think this is the best way to monetize wormhole life. By taking the gas and salvage to the next step of T3 production you add an enormous amount of value. That is not counting the billions in blue loot we've pulled in. The machine this alliance has become is impressive.

We buy the mats from line members so they get paid then run the production and the profits go to the alliance warchest. The end result is individuals get wealthy and have some ISK in their pockets and also the alliance has the funds to provide 100% of the ships for our PVP fleets. Also, free skill books and a ton of PVE ships to hand out to members running sites or gas harvest.

From what I can tell this is a rarity in EVE. An alliance that really does go all out in making sure its members have all the tools to maximize their daily activities. All we need is for people to undock, make ISK, shoot our enemies and basically have fun. By having fun they get paid and the alliance gets paid. It's not top down or bottom up income. It's a back and forth of people supporting one another which creates a lot of buy in.

So, this started as a what have I been up to and turned into an explanation of our alliance's philosophy.

If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of check out www.dreddalliance.com and/or talk to a recruiter in game.

A Change of Pace

So, I'm wrapping up the last bits of the T3 construction project. After that is done I need to figure out what is next. I've been enjoying the WH life these last few months but I've started to miss my other activities such as tech II manufacturing, trading and the ability to just relax and run some missions. You end up so isolated in j-space that it feels the world just moves on without you. There is comfort in that but it's also nice to step outside and feel the pulse of New Eden. Who knows, maybe I'll even start recruiting.

Operation: Get Money. Get Paid.

So, I'll start out this post by saying it's been awhile since my last post. Been busy with a new job and haven't been on EvE as much lately. Less time in EvE means less things to write about. With that out of the way let's dive into what I've been doing.

The alliance moved into a wormhole a couple months ago to start a Tech III building campaign. So fat it's been a rousing success. The alliance warchest is looking great. Individuals are getting ISK and we've had some nice fights.

Now this has been intended to be a temporary move until we move to our next stage in our long term plan. However, the ISK faucet is addicting and honestly I'd forgotten how much I love living in j-space. I'm thinking this might be the best place for a small to medium sized alliance to live. It rewards coordination but the slave is so compartmentalized that you aren't living in fear of getting farmed constantly by some null-sec bloc. There is that upper limit of what people can easily bring against you and I think that works on our favor.

I don't know what the long term will bring but right now I'm loving getting that money.

Nice Guy is Nice

So, EVE gets the (at times well deserved) reputation of a hive of scum and villainy in the MMO universe. But sometimes quite the opposite happens. This is a story of one of those times.

So, the alliance decided to move on into a wormhole. At first the idea was to find a base we could keep occupied with some characters and use it to do weekend ops. Go in, run some sites, get ISK. Maybe a little PvP on the side. However, the moment we found the WH we wanted we got wardecced. Again.

We decided against fighting another pointless hi-sec war against yet another griefer alliance. Instead we moved into the WH with most everyone and started living there full time. Well, I decided that living in a WH AND maintaining my K-space POSes was going to be too much work. I had done that before when I lived in the C1 a few months back.

So, I started dismantling my low-sec reaction POSes. On the 3rd POS, which was my staging POS for my Rorqual for low-sec mining ops, I got distracted after starting the unanchoring process on the tower and forgot about it.

Fast-forward a few days. I get an email from a random character saying he found my unachoring tower and had taken it. I was thinking we has going to be trying to get some ISK for finding it and selling it back to me. Turns out he was just being nice and held onto it to keep it safe. He contracted it back to me free of charge and just asked if he and his corp could get blue standings. They are apparently a small-ish indie corp that does a bit of low-sec content in our area. I agree to the standings and send a bit of ISK his way as a thanks.

In a game where there is no reason to not steal whatever isn't nailed down this guy decided to take the higher road and do a bit of space kindness.

The ganks and betrayals in EVE get the headlines but stories like this happen all the time too. So, keep fighting the good fight and fly safe out there!

What does it mean to own space?

So, with the upcoming sov changes due to release this summer there will be a lot of people looking to own a bit of space in null-sec. Whether they will be successful or not remains to be seen. This and a conversation I had got me thinking about what "owning" space means.

I'll warn you that I haven't figured it all out and the following is just the start of my thoughts.

In EvE you can mechanically own a system by claiming sov. However, that does not mean you really own it. You could be there only by the grace of some greater power whether by renting it or simply because they want you as a buffer or as content for their members.

On the other hand, you CAN own space even where there is no mechanical way to do so. Wormhole groups certainly don't let a lack of sov mechanic stop them from claiming wormholes as their own. Low sec groups and NPC null groups can dominate large portions of space even though they nominally under the control of NPC factions.

I would say ownership of space comes down to being able to use the space as you see fit AND having the power to protect that ability. Other people may live there but it is by your grace and they could be ejected if that is what you desire. This could take many forms. It could be the industrial alliance that wants to build and mine. It could be the safe haven for a pirate corp to rat and run sites to fund their PvP habit. It could be building a mighty POCO empire for passive income.

I will also point out that not everyone wants to own space and it isn't necessary to really do much of anything in the game. You can raid other people's space for minerals or sites. Or raid it for content by getting fights from them. You can do this as a nomad or being settled in an NPC station. You could have the ability to control the space but would rather just let people come and go as they please.

So, in the end, I think that "owning" space might be as much of a mindset as it is anything you can do in game.

Playing with Big Ships

Well, I took my first step into owning capitals and bought a Rorqual today. Now, I have had an Orca for a long time but is only nominally a capital ship. I got a Providence freighter a few months back but those things can go through hi-sec. This time I got a honest to goodness, can't go into hi-sec, uses a jump drive, Capital.

Now, the tricky thing with capitals is that the ones for purchase are in Low or Null. And they may be not where you want them to be. Which means taking a series of cyno jumps to where you want them. And that has to be in Low or Null. Where people can kill you. This made me nervous. I just spent a couple billion and I have never done anything involving cynos.

So, I did what I always do. Research it. Read guide after guide. Checked out contracts as well as sell orders in every nearby region. Checked DotLan to plan potential routes. Looked up the docking radii of all the stations on my proposed route. The activity levels. Finally, I pulled the trigger and found one at a reasonable price just 3 cyno jumps away from where I wanted it be. Waited for quiet moments and made the three jumps.

So, what am I getting for my 2 billion and change investment? Well, I'll be able to provide jump clones to alliance mates and other friends. Why grind standings when you can make those clones with a mere multi-billion ISK ship? I should also be able to provide sweet sweet mining boosts for alliance mining ops if we ever start them again.

But the main reason?

Because it looks cool and I've wanted one ever since I started playing eve and was in my first mining and industrial ships. So, I can mark that goal off my list. Oh and it transforms and that should be reason enough.

So, in my tradition of naming such vessels after horribly doomed industrial space ships from media (my Orca is the Nostromo), I present to you the Ishimura:

What Sec Are You?

We have a lot of divisions in EVE. Are you a carebear? Are you a pirate? Where do you live? I want to give a shoutout to those pilots that defy categorization.

Hello, I'm Orson Brawl and I'm a high sec, low sec and wormhole player. I do industry, trade, tech II manufacturing, exploration, incursions, small gang and solo PvP. I dip my hands in everything. I log on each day and decide what part of this huge universe I want to explore. I have chores and I have labors of love. I bear it up sometimes and my blood urges to go out and blow up ships sometimes. I play for stories. What did I do? What have I learned? I research enemies and potential allies. I EFT warrior. I go out and explode. I build relationships and I shoot people in the face. I blob and I get blobbed. I make ISK and lose ships. I forge my own path and join others. I lead and I follow. Most of all I have fun, make friends and write stories.

If you identify with any of this. You're normal.

Don't accept other people's ideas of what EVE is. Make your own path. Your own fun. Your own game.

If you see me in space, give me a "o7" or shoot me. Either way, we create content. We create memories. We create the reasons why we stay in this crazy game.

Let's go out and create OUR game.

The post where I ramble on...

I really ought to write more. It's one of those little things that when you get out of the habit it's harder to get back into it. Part of it was me being less disciplined then I should be and part because my life in New Eden the past few weeks has been less exciting than usual.

Both issues are in my control though.

So, what have I been doing lately my dear reader may ask. The quick answer is moving. Moving in Eve is a lot like moving in real life. You pack up your belongs that you have likely strewn across an entire region (or two) and consolidate them. Then you figure some way of getting those items from point A to point B. Typically in something big and slow and expensive like a freighter (the in-game equivalent of a U-Haul). Then you spend hours taking trips back and forth. It feels less like a game and more like a job. That's immersive game-play for you...

But being back in green (Gallente) space has been worth it. Although, I am missing Khanid. It was charming in a rundown, trailer park sort of way. We had our little low sec pit we lived in and got to troll around in HED-GP. Not terrible ways to spend a lazy evening. This problem is we out-reached our grasp and poked the wrong pirate corp which happened to be NC. pets/allies. We can hold our own but not when one of the big null-sec corps decides to start taking down POSes. So, with the trailer park on fire we get out before the coming tornado flattened our remaining assets.

So, bring back to being in control. Writing more is simply about sitting down and doing it. But, how does one make a life in space more interesting? Well, stop waiting for content and go make some. We haven't been doing our usual PvP roams so I decided to fit up a scram-kite incursus and head down to FW space with the intent of making ships explode. Turns out the exploding ship was mine this time but I learned some things and had a nice chat in local afterwards. All in all I call that a win.

Or at least a draw...

Trials and Tribulations of a Hi-Sec War

Let me start off by saying this post isn't about complaining. It's not about being griefed or not being able to EVE the way I want. This is about what I don't understand about the nature of Hi-Sec PvP.

As a little background, my corp has recently joined an alliance of like minded people. This alliance also enjoys doing a bit of white knighting and fighting those who prey on those that cannot fight. So, we decided to wardecc a fairly major Hi-Sec PvP alliance. We knew it would be a tough fight but the idea of fighting the good fight and maybe bloodying the nose of a "grief corp" is an appealing one. Being the good guy in EvE is hard and often times unrewarding in game but can be rather rewarding in an out of game sense.

Now to the part I don't understand. Why do people engage in the style of play on a regular basis. Why do so many people belong to the alliance we wardecced? Nearly every fight has been on a station and so every fight has involved playing station games. Our opponents are much better at this than we are and it shows but that isn't what I am getting at.

If you are a "PvP" player, why would you want to play station games? The end result tends to be both parties doing pretty much no fighting. Our opponents undock and if they don't have a 100% chance of winning they dock up as soon as we fire. It's certainly the smart thing. Our opponents also tend to fly rather effective but expensive ships. Better ships are very good but the risk of losing one is not to be discounted. Unless, of course you know you can tank the incoming damage for a minute to de-aggress and dock back up.

So, showing up in force hasn't gotten us fights as they will just dock up until we leave. Baiting them out with single ship hasn't worked since as soon as they see the local spike of the rest of the fleet coming in from a nearby system they de-agress and they dock up. Our losses haven't really been from actual PvP. They've been largely due to people DCing during fights and a couple people being silly trying to move around alone without scouts during wartime. Other than the one pitched battle we were able to get outside of dodixie our combat losses have been largely tackle.

So, here is the part I don't understand. Why play as a "PvPer" if you are not looking for fights but rather only kills. I support people doing what they think is fun but I just can't wrap my head around what is fun regarding the Hi-Sec PvP playstyle. It doesn't seem to lead to anything other than easy kills or ship spinning when a challenge actually comes along.

That just doesn't seem like engaging gameplay to me.

Blog Banter #61 - Origin State

Blog Banter #61 - Origin State

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 61st edition and last of 2014! For more details about what the blog banters are visit the Blog Banter page

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"What would we encourage ALL new players to do in their first month to get them to subscribe long term, if we had to give out one set of advice for everyone (which we do if we're giving general advice)?"

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The problem with generic advice is that it is well, generic. It's hard to give a set of "one size fits all" directions in any game much less the sandbox/sandpit that is EVE. You could give a "one size fits most" sort of advice such as join a corp, don't mine or get into PvP.

But what if you like playing solo? Or like mining and the building that goes along with it? What if you get more thrills shooting red crosses instead of red boxes?

My advice is even more basic.

Try Everything.

Give Mining a go. Do some missions. Explore. Get ships blown up. If you like it then keep at it until you don't. Don't like it? Try something else until you find your niche. There are as many playstyles as there are players.

EVE isn't about min-maxing your character for one task. The skill system prevents that. You can only apply so many skill points to one activity and you can get by in that activity without perfect skills. Once you advance to, say, perfect mining skills (or frigates, manufacturing etc) you're not done advancing. Higher SP characters aren't necessarily better than an newer player  but they are likely to be experts in more areas of the game than the new player. So take advantage of the fact that you have no limit to the things one character can do given enough time.

The second piece of advice I would give to all new players is to use the resources available. And the best resources are other players. Ask questions of veteran players. Join a corp if that suits you. Lurk in public channels. Read the assorted wiki pages out there. Read blogs. Just by listening to or reading about other players exploits and blunders you can learn about whole new aspects of the game. Personally, I don't think I would have trained into stealth bombers if I hadn't seen JonnyPew's guide to hunting explorers. Eve if you prefer to play solo it's great to see what others are doing and open doors to new ways to play.

So, get on out there. Explore New Eden. Explore the game. Find what suits you and don't let anyone tell you you're "doing it wrong"

Fly Safe out there!

Patience...

... is a virtue. Turns out the saying is true. I suppose "Good things come to those who wait" would be applicable here as well.

I log on and find 3 null-sec type data and relic site in our wormhole. Not bad. I could go for some more loot. I do see probes in the system on D-scan though. Hmm, with 4 connecting wormholes today I might want to wait until things cool down a bit before running sites. Then I see an Astero.

Let's see if 3 relic and data sites are enough bait for him. I fly to each site and find him in one of them. I bookmark a nearby asteroid to where he was hacking and bounce out of the site and back in about 15km off of him. I'm in my own Astero but this one fit for PvP rather than exploration. He seems engrossed in hacking so I decloak and spam the lock button while trying to get a bump off. He warps off. Damn that 5 second targeting delay.

15 minutes later...

The Astero is back. I find him at a second site. Bounce off a bookmark and try again. Same result.

30 minutes later....

Once again my friend is paying a visit. This time to the third site. To hell with the 5 second delay. I'm grabbing my Nemesis. I grab the stealth bomber from the POS and decide against staying scannable to refit to rockets and stick with the torpedo load out. I warp to a safe then bouce back to a bookmark inside the site. He's sitting 15 km off of me. Decloak. Lock. Point. Double Paint. Torps away. He melts in one volley. Quick lesson there. Don't sit still while hacking,

Also, don't stick around when someone is trying to kill you. He was patient. I was more so.