Faction Warfare

In my last post I mentioned that I would be increasing my Minmatar standing so that I could participate in some Faction Warfare while I train up my learning skills (which still have until 10th October to complete!). Well it didn't take long to get the standing up to the required 0.5 so it was with some enthusiasm that I enlisted in the Minmatar Militia. Expecting to be greeted with a busy Militia & corp chat window I noticed after 30 minutes that very little was being said in Militia chat and nothing in corp (to date I have not seen a single post in corp chat). I made numerous posts looking for a fleet but nobody seemed to notice. In frustration of this turning out to be a damp squib I logged off thinking that things would be better later.

So logging back in and most of my subsequent visits since have been a very similar experience, sometimes there is a bit more activity in Militia intel. My attempts bar one, which I will talk about below to join a fleet/gang, have been without success which I am finding highly disappointing. I had visions of easy access to gangs and lots of flying around in a fleet either large or small.

So to my single successful fleet experience. I have to say it was highly enjoyable. We were a mixed gang of approximately 7-10 pilots in mostly frigate sized craft up to battlecruiser size. As a small expendable tackler I volunteered for scout duty, even though I did not have a mic available to use voice comms. It was approximately 40 minutes to downtime when the fleet formed. We quickly got organised and a single player volunteered to lead the fleet, I was swiftly sent off to specific gates and systems with the fleet always on the other side of the gate to me. Firstly we spotted a WT in a shuttle but he was far to fast for us to lock and catch, then we stumbled upon a WT in something far bigger than we had anticipated...an Armageddon. Our fleet commander was slightly apprehensive about engaging as some of us were new to the saddle (like me), but he decided to take a chance. I soon had the big 'geddon tackled and agressed when the rest of the fleet jumped in and engaged him. I should really have bugged out to repair but held in there too long and my Rifter was swiftly shredded by his Berserker II's. Now in my pod I warped to a safe spot before heading back to pick up a new ship. On the way I received my insurance payout. While I was on my way to resupply I heard a few of the gang drop out as they lost their ships. Our Hurricane pilot, who was also quite new was fairly miffed about it's loss and my guess is that he couldn't afford to replace it. The latest update was that the gang had taken out all of the WT's drones and were into his structure and within seconds the 'geddon was down. Hurrah! Reviewing the fight we lost two frigates, one cruiser and two battlecruisers to his battleship. It was tremendous fun though and i must commend the fleet commander Damorus Merad on an excellent job.

Aside from the experience above, the rest of my time in Faction Warfare has been extremely boring and I have resorted to cruising belts to pass time. On my last sortie I had my loot ninja'd by a pilot in a Moa. Sheer audacity! Obviously this guy was looking for a fight so I thought I would test my mettle. Beginning to orbit him and tackle it became swiftly clear that this might not work as he got a few salvos offs that took big chunks out of my shields as I pecked away at his. He didn't seem to have a point on me, just a web but with my AB on I managed to get into a nice orbit and his damage output dropped to a manageable level. With my meagre skills I had unloaded two hoppers of EMP ammo at him by the time I was through his shields, it looked like he must have been passive tanked. Unfortunately by this point my Nos must have drained his cap dry as I had nothing to keep my repper going and was bordering on structure with him only at 60% armour so I decided to bug out rather than lose my Rifter without need. On reflection I was very pleased with my performance, I doubted my chances against a cruiser with my paltry combat skills which only allow me to fit my ship in a basic fashion. Given the chance I would try it again.

Until next time

How about some Faction Warfare?

So, as I alluded to in my last post I am training learning skills for a while so I set to thinking what I could do. Faction Warfare has some appeal to me but it seems I need to raise my Minmatar standings to 0.5 from 0.2 to be able to participate. To that I end I have hauled one of my Rifters over to the Rens area and will be undertaking some missions for the Brutor tribe until I raise my standings enough to sign on.

EvEmon!

My "buddy" had recommended that I download a program called EvEmon to plan my skill training, so dutifully I did when I first created the account. As you probably know it requires an API key from the EvE Online website. New accounts cannot obtain this for 72 hours which is a pain in this ass when you want to get it set up and plans in place!

So, last night being over 72 hours old I got hold of my API key, and all I can say is "Arrgh, learning skills!". After some time messing about with another program called EFT that I had been recommended to download I had created my preferred Rifter setup. I then knew what skills I needed to train and should train to get the most out of it. Entering all those skills into EvEmon gave me a training time of over 500 days, yikes! It then made some suggestions to me about learning skills which I accepted which brought it down to around a year of training time, the downside of course is that I now have a about a month of training time on learning skills ahead which is not what I had in mind! I doubt there will be many posts from me until it is done. I think I'll be bugging my "buddy" as some of these learning books are pricey to a noob like me.

Introducing Kirith Darkblade

....Scourge of the seas, erm I mean space! Or at least I hope to be, only time will tell. So, writing this I find myself just two and a half days old with about 160,000 skill points, Eighteen and a half days left of my free buddy program trial and having lost my first ship to a more badass pirate. The first of many I daresay.

Well I am new to EvE, though it doesn't feel like it as my "buddy" never stops talking about it, I have a good idea of the game mechanics already spending quite some time reading up on everything that I could regarding the game. What particularly appealled to me was a life of piracy mercilessly shooting anyone I please and blowing stuff up.

My choice of race has been informed by my reading up on Frigates, specifically the Rifter. Hence I have stumped for a Minmatar. I already have had my first acquistion, combat with and loss of "Mighty Mouse" my first Rifter. Thankfully it was fully insured so just cost me the modules. I didn't stand a chance against my opponent in their far superior T2 Heavy Interdictor - Broadsword who was waiting for me when I undocked frm the station. What I should have done in hindsight was redocked, but unfortunately I wasn't able to as the station hadn't finished my undocking sequence. My next daft decision was to try and warp away whereby I was swiftly locked, scrambled and gunned down. "gf" was exchanged in local as I beleive is the way it is done. I got away with my pod though so that's some consolation!

I am taking advantage of the 100% bonus to skill training time at the moment to race towards a basic level of competence, focussing at the moment on my gunnery & learning skills. Before too long I should be able to use T2 guns in my new rifter "Baron Greenback". I am basing myself in Heimatar lowsec, at least for now.

I like the idea of creating my own little corp, for just me and a hauler alt, but quite a few people recommend staying with the NPC corp or a player corp before creating your own. Certainly at the moment I cannot aford to anyway at 1.6m isk.

Talking of isk, I have been very lucky in the generosity shown by my "buddy" to get me started. I think compared to the free months gametime he gets if I subscribe he sees it as a worthwhile investment compared to the cost of a gamecard. He has given me a hauler load of rifters, fittings and ammo to get me started! All I have to do is insure them, fly them to my base of operations and then see how long they last...

Tonight I think I will start moving across the Rifters, and I really must create my own Hauler alt.