'Cane vs Drake

First, happy Christmas everyone. I'm still without broadband and using my IPhone's personal hotspot facility in a non-3G area.

Just 4 days left before Kirith finishes his Rifter plan, I'm excited at this thought!

I've had this post lined up for a long time, just never gotten around to posting it.

For ages I've been of the assumption that the match up of Hurricane vs Drake is a matchup that would end in stalemate, and as such I've avoided it.

A quick look at the loadouts and vital stats of typical 'cane & Drake fits that I use:

The Drake

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Warrior II x5



470 DPS before heat, 1136m/s and 82,959 EHP. 


The Hurricane

Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Warp Disruptor II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Warrior II x5
 
674 DPS before heat, 1311m/s and 49,515 EHP. 

Although the DPS output of the two ships is quite different with the Hurricane massively outclassing the Drake, the sheer EHP of the Drake combined with the speed differential being fairly small means that the 'cane is going to have to run it's MWD to keep effective range. By having to MWD so much the sig. radius bloom is going to favour the Drake's missiles. Based mainly on these assumptions I had avoided the matchup, until recently when I found a flashy Drake and I happened to be in my shield gank cane (above).

The Drake was on the undock of the station , I landed around 25km off him, him quickly locking me up and starting to hit me with his missiles. This was just the situation I feared, I needed to close range to 3-5km so I had to burn my MWD to get there, overheating my MWD i pulsed it towards him to reach him with the least amount of MWD use possible. Missile damage spiked as I did so, but I quickly closed on him and applied staggered neutralisers to try and remove any shield hardeners and opened fire, a second MWD activation was needed to get to the desired range, very suprised at the progress I was making through his shields which further increased as I hit my optimal and overheated my 425's the Drake quickly crumbled, indeed my shields were only at around 50% by the time it exploded.

This exercise proved to me that it does pay to challenge your assumptions from time to time.

New Solo PVP Guide

My good and long time friend Miura Bull has recently posted an excellent guide of how to get started with solo PVP.

I do encourage you to go and have a thorough read by following the following link:

http://brutorbullfighter.blogspot.com/2011/12/r1fta-school-of-hard-knocks-guide-for.html

No I Haven't Disappeared Again....

Hello dear readers,

I have not as you may be thinking fallen off the EVE wagon again.

I have however just moved house in real life and as those of you in the UK may sympathise with have fallen foul of BT. My internet connection was switched off a week ago and the new connection supposed to go live tomorrow. Unfortunately I have just been informed that my install has been postponed until January 9th! Needless to say that I am not impressed.

I am able to log in using my IPhone as a personal hotspot, but my 500MB will not last long.

I'm able to log in from work, but obviously can't do much. I'll be in touch as much as possible but there will not be much piratey content for a little while.

o7

November 2011 Character Review

Hi again, still working through my backlog of blog topics whilst adding some to the list. It feels like it’s been a quiet month for me with limited in game time, there has definitely been a big sense of anticipation and excitement over the Crucible expansion deployed this week.

Let’s take a look at the statistics from November first:

25 Ship kills (15 Solo)

7 Pod kills

4 Ships lost (All Solo)

0 Pods lost

138,489,544 isk income from ships destroyed

13,000,000 isk received from ransoms

102,819,227 isk cost of losses

48,670,317 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

A far better month than last, achieving a fair profit. The beginning of the month was much busier than the latter half, due to me having low game-time which I was fully expecting. I lost two Jaguars, a Bellicose and a Rifter.

I’m still not loving the Jaguar; one loss was to a Rapier as I got entangled in an asteroid belt whilst chasing another ship. The other Jaguar to a Wolf who was waiting for an agreed fight with a corpmate and caught me as I was trying to warp out to leave them be.  I lost the Rifter being overconfident in attacking a Crusader, really not expecting a web instead of point. The Bellicose, well I decided to fight a Rapier who had uncloaked nearby despite the fact that I was already aligned and ready to warp, not the best plan tbh but I got bored J.

This is how my skill distribution looks at the moment:

 

Continued dedication towards the ‘Rifter Plan’. Acceleration Control V, Thermodynamics V & Energy Management V completed. Still on course to have completed the Rifter Plan by the end of the year. Thank you to all those who commented on my last post about what to do next, no decisions reached yet.

I still toy with the idea of buying a Fleet Stabber & Scythe, but as yet haven’t done anything about it.

My alt accounts continue to do excellent work on my behalf. 526m isk profits made from station trading. Contract trading on a single contract slot is sporadic at best, but when I get a buy/sell I make a bonus 10m isk for negligible effort. Skill training swapped back from my Prober to my mission alt this month who has been padding those social skills to make maximum benefit of LP gains. I’ve been looking again at the option of a Carrier and don’t feel that it’s necessary at the moment so may go for something mission busting like a passive Rattlesnake.

Post Rifter Plan

As followers of my blog will be aware I’ve been working on the Rifter Plan for practically my entire EVE career with the objective of flying a max skilled Rifter of my preferred loadout. My preferred Rifter loadout is what I have affectionately named Grumblecub and looks like this:

H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket

M: 1MN Afterburner II
M: Warp Scrambler II
M: X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

L: 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
L: Small Armor Repairer II
L: Gyrostabiliser II

R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

She belts out 162 (187) dps and goes 1097 (1424) m/s. In short she’s a monster and I love flying her.

Once I complete this goal in about one month time I will be at a point which I haven’t been in EVE before, ever! That point is wondering what to train next. I have a number of skill plans input into EVEMon and I’d be grateful for any constructive feedback or suggestions which I haven’t considered from my readers.

The main thing to bear in mind is that I usually fly solo, rarely being available for most organised fleets.

Here are the options:

• Max out the skills for all the ships I can currently fly. I do have the willpower to do this :P

• Autocannon/Artillery Tempest. Feels like more of an option that I would use in fleets but maybe could attempt solo in an AC Tempest.

• Torpedo & Neut Typhoon. I have heard that people solo in these, but aren’t torps supposed to be dreadful?

• T2 Large Projectiles to fly the Tornado & later BS’s. Certainly going to be flavour of the month.

• Stiletto, I really should have learned to fly Interceptors by now shouldn’t I? But again, it seems more of a gang oriented ship and whilst the Claw is a combat Inty it’s allegedly terribad.

• Max out sub-cap Drone skills (excluding Sentries). Other than being tedious I don’t see a negative aspect here.

• Tengu. Expensive but I imagine they’re very versatile. Also, are they that much better than a Drake?

• Blackbird/Falcon. Again, gang work screams out loud here, how about a solo cloaky Falcon though…..?

• T2 Heavy Assault Missiles. Application for the HAM Drake and maybe on the Cyclone too for up close brawling.

• Vengeance. My maxed missile skills would love this ship, but lots of folk are flying them.

• Stealth Bomber. Black Ops gang based, flimsy as hell. Definitely a nice to have but would I use it often?

So what do you think? Please let me know your opinions.

Pirate Meetup

A little while ago a bunch of pirates tried to organise time to be out of there spaceships to have a meetup in real life. Pirates being notoriously reliable types resulted in fewer turning up than was hoped for, however that didn’t stop the four of us that did turn up having a right good time in London.

Thanks to Wensley, Causticum & Overnauta for coming along, it was great to actually meet the people behind the avatars.

And, something like this wouldn’t be complete without a photo, courtesy of Causticum.

Navigation Skills

Recently I reached a landmark with Kirith’s skills. That landmark is that he has now trained all of the Navigation skills to V, with the exclusion of the Jump Drive skills.

Those Navigation skills at V and the benefits gained by them being at V are:

- Acceleration Control (25% bonus to Afterburner & MWD speed boost)
- Afterburner (50% bonus to Afterburner duration)
- Evasive Maneuvering (25% improved ship agility)
- Fuel Conservation (50% reduction in Afterburner capacitor need)
- High Speed Maneuvering (25% reduction in MWD capacitor usage)
- Navigation (25% bonus to sub-warp velocity)
- Warp Drive Operation (50% reduction in capacitor need of initiating warp)

To achieve the skills above, you’ll need to assign 4,096,000 skill points.

There are only three additional Navigation skills available at the current time, which Kirith has no plans to train:

- Jump Drive Calibration
- Jump Drive Operation
- Jump Fuel Conservation

The etiquette of the good fight “gf”

Lots of bloggers talk about combat etiquette in EVE; it’s a topic that comes up regularly. It is general practice for the dastardly pirates that are members of The Tuskers to offer a good fight (gf) after any fight. The preceding fight may not have been good but good etiquette calls for some recognition.

I might congratulate an opponent on attempting to withstand an overwhelming assault, likewise the same to an opponent who has defeated me. Of course if you or the opponent is podded, gf is generally challenging to offer in local! Though it has been known to be sent in the mail afterwards.

Recently I was chilling in my Rifter in Adirain, a favourite hotspot of mine. I see another Rifter on scan, I know who the pilot is as I recognise him from around and about the area who likes to fly pvp fit Rifters. Clearly he’s seen me on scan too. He is bouncing from place to place and settles at the sun. He’s been there around 30 seconds when I decide that he’s indicating that he wants a fight by not having moved off.

I warp to the sun and sure enough he’s there. We engage each other and before long his Rifter is destroyed. It wasn’t a close fight but I offered gf in local. I was somewhat surprised then when the pilot said in local that it wasn’t at all a good fight and that of course he didn’t stand a chance against a pilot with superior skill points.

Tuskers are forbidden from engaging in local smack talk so any statement in local I make always tries to be well thought through before being said. Therefore I had to consider what I said carefully if I was going to respond. I felt that I needed to say something. After a few moments pause I asked why knowing that I was in space that he had chosen to wait at the sun and also chosen to engage me when I landed at the sun. Unfortunately the pilot didn’t want to justify his comments and simply left system but not before the following parting statement…

“It’s always the fucking Tuskers”

I actually took that as something of a complement to our Corporation.

Learning: Using a Titan Bridge

Another learning opportunity I had recently which I wanted to share with you. Again on the same basis that I’d never done this before I can assume that a number of you out there have never done this before either, well unless you spend most of your time in null space I imagine.

A little while ago I was invited to a fleet. Once in the fleet we were advised that we would be using a Titan to bridge to another system. One of the fleet members was kind enough to acknowledge that there were pilots in fleet who’d never encountered a Titan before and advised us that in order to jump using the Titan we should right click the Titan.

It was also reinforced NOT TO BUMP THE TITAN!

Now as the process is a bit vague I figured that I’d clarify a bit:

• You need to wait for the order to jump, this will be given once the Jump Portal Generator has been activated.
• You need to right-click the Titan.
• Click Jump through Titan to “system you are jumping to”.
• Voila, you have now Titan bridged.

I hope this is helpful should you ever come across an occasion where you need to.

Also for the record, no The Tuskers don’t have a Titan!

Learning: POS Passwords

For the first time in my EVE career I recently came upon an occasion where I needed to warp to a POS, through the POS shield itself. I was a member of a substantial fleet. Upon undocking the fleet commander gave the fleet members a POS password and instructed the fleet to warp to a designated pilot within the POS. It was reaffirmed that the password should be entered before entering warp.

Now I’m not sure if I was the only one, but I had no idea where I was supposed to enter the password. The rest of the fleet were warping off. Should I potentially make a fool of myself and ask over fleet comms? I certainly didn’t want to. Holding off entering warp whilst feverishly asking in corp. channels where I should enter this password. Thankfully a corpmate piped up saying that I should right click my capacitor and choose the option for entering the POS password.

So simple, yet I didn’t know. I felt that if I didn’t know then I should share the information with those of you out there that don’t know either.

October 2011 Character Review

Hello,

Contrary to my position last month where I was at somewhat of a loss for topics to blog about, I now have a list of topics I plan to blog about. I'm not going to dilate this post with them as I prefer to keep my posts generally clear and about a single subject.

Time to assess some statistics, as an accountant in real life I do like playing with numbers, oh and spreadsheets! We'll leave the spreadsheets to one side though shall we.

27 Ship kills (17 solo)
9 Pod kills

6 Ships lost (4 Solo)
0 Pods lost

57,056,451 Isk income from ships destroyed
0,000,000 Isk received from ransoms (Sadface (again!))

154,078,063 Isk approximate cost of losses

97,021,612 Isk "Loss" for the month

Apparently its not been a very efficient month for me, the main reason being my two Drake losses, both PODLA type Drakes and both of which lost in fleet engagements. The first was a small Tusker BC gang versus a gatecamping BS gang and the second against a Brutal boosted Hyperion that annihilated three Tusker Drakes. November is going to be fairly quiet with limited in game time so I don't expect too much activity in the coming weeks.

I have some more experimental ship fits waiting for me in Hevrice, nothing ground breaking and I saw one of my experimental fits quoted on someone elses blog the other day, it's only a couple of Jaguars but I really want to love flying Assault Ships and it just never happens for me. I've also bought a replacement PODLA Drake along with a replacement artillery Thrasher. I lost an arty Thrasher yesterday and were it not for an error on my part (DERP: switched off guns!) would've won, so I've decided to replace and try again.

This is how my skill spread looks as of this morning:


More work towards the Rifter plan sees Tactical Shield Manipulation & Missile Projection V finished, Acceleration Control V is currently cooking. Another good chunk of skill points added to the pool, further enhanced over the norm by the recent addition of three +3 implants. I upgraded from my +2's to try and ensure that my Rifter plan completion target of December 31st 2011 can be achieved. It's going to be a close run thing!

I'm still toying with the idea of buying a Fleet Stabber or Fleet Scythe, but haven't settled on fits I'm sold on so we'll see how the month goes.

My alt accounts are still doing a sterling job. Only 383 million isk contribution this month from station trading, although I've only operated just over half the month so I guess that tells the story. I've decided against building and selling a character as an isk generator for now, as I was considering it last month. I have started doing a little contract trading, using just a single contract for now. In the next week, skill training should switch back from my prober to my combat alt to start the process of skilling her up for a Carrier. Which Carrier to go for I'm not sure. Archon seems the best mission tank, Thanatos for some versatility or a Chimera/Nidhoggur incase I am asked for helps repping a POS? Anyone able to offer some opinions?

Anyway, that's enough for now. Might get to go ingame soon.

Scythe Down

It is with heavy heart that I must say farewell to my Scythe, I had fit it for entertainment but really had become fairly attached to it. I did enjoy undocking and baiting some local hoodlums (like myself) to attack it. It has paid for itself many times over.

I had been determined to see if I could take out an Assault Frigate with it, so on Saturday I found one, a Jaguar. Were it not for some fine GTFO efforts by the pilot Gun Dam I'd have killed him without much risk to myself, as it happened he got out with 40% hull.

Later in the day though, I fought him again. This time though I made a big mistake, well two. First I had run out of all but EM rockets so was shooting at his highest resist, second and more fundamentally I burned out my guns really early and had to sit there for a long time just waiting to be taken apart.

Props again to Gun Dam for engaging me a second time, a good fight and based on his comments I think I just gave him his first above class kill pre Tuskers application.

Now, should I buy another now the fit is known?

My First Ever T3 Kill

The title says it all really, I would add however that it was a solo kill too.

The pilot was doing a mission/complex in Adirain when I probed him down. Admittedly I was quite surprised that I managed to probe him down given how popular 'unprobable Tengus' are. Once I had him probed I warped in, in my Drake convincing myself that he must be stabbed.

To my delight I found that he wasn't. Woohoo, game on. Now unfortunately and not what you want when fighting a shield tank my Drake was out of Thunderbolt Heavy Missiles. Yes, out of Navy, Fury and regular after spewing copius volumes at another Drake the day before! Thus I set about him with Scourge Fury. As soon as I got point I advised my corpmates in vent, several making best speed to me.

The Tengu was dieing fast until he hit about 35% shield and made something of a last stand, I assume overheating. The last stand didn't last long though, just five seconds or so and after that the phrase "The quarterback is toast" did sound across vent. He was down.

Apologising to my corp mates for having killed him before they arrived I set about salvage and looting. Checking the killmail it turns out that it was a pretty poor fit, not even rigged and with twin shield boosters! Still it doesn't take anything away from this being my first ever T3 kill.

I Wish More Pilots Did This

A couple of days ago I cam across a pilot in Costolle flying an Caracal. I watched him for a little while and he switched to a salvaging Atron. Eventually he swapped back to the Caracal and was ratting in the ice belt. I warped in on him in a shield buffer tanked Rifter. Landing point I made swift work of him, until he started yelling "STOP" in local. I turned off DPS but noticed the damning signs of a disconnect, nothing I did was taking effect. Sure enough moments later the client closed, my internet died and I had to wait for it to reactivate and lot me log in. I was onvinced the pilot had gotten away in 20% structure which was all there was left when I had tried to stop firing. I was a sad panda. I log in and my Rifter is warping back following my insta warp. The Caracal isn't there anymore. The pilot is talking in local so I guess he got away. But, if he got away then his comments in local don't make sense. Sure enough I check the combat log and I popped the Caracal.

Moments later though the pilot wants to fight me again! Tusker policy is not to 1v1 so nothing is agreed, I simply wait in the Ice Belt. He warps in a Catalyst, which I swiftly destroy. I catch his Pod to ransom him and he asks to fight me again! Now, do I let him go and reship knowing he might not come back or do I pop the Pod. Beleiving that this chap is actually daft enough to return once more I let him go, he comes back in an Incursus! The Incursus dies really fast, it has dual small shield boosters fitted which its fair to say isn't an ideal way to tank one. Again I catch the Pod to ransom. He elects to be podded so naturally I oblige.

The guy is really friendly in local and genuinely seems to have enjoyed being involved in PVP, even though I wrecked three of his ships and one Pod. The fights weren't testing to be honest, but it was nice to meet him and hopefully encourage him to get more involved in PVP. It'd be great if more people had such a great attitude towards ship loss.

So.. Podmails...Yay!

I was surprised and delighted to read the latest devblog a moment ago:

devblog can be found here

"Killmails are great. They serve as reminders of good fights (or dubious mistakes). They let you measure losses inflicted on your enemy in cold hard ISK. They also demonstrate some interesting choices in ship fitting, or cargo-movement attempts. If you're so inclined, they provide a way to track your kill/death ratio, and measure it against your peers. I especially like the ones where a pod gets squished. But I’ve always felt that those pod-mails were missing a certain... something.

In the forthcoming Winter expansion, we’re adding a much-requested piece of additional information to capsule killmails: They will now list the fitted implants of the unfortunate victim."



Although it's not going to change my gameplay, as a pirate they are going to make some real nice reads. I wonder if resources like Battleclinic & killboards will list the value lost in implants in the mails, hope so :)

Breacher solos PVP fit Rifter

No I am not making it up, this did happen last night. Fortunately it's not an embarrassing tale of how I lost a Rifter to a Breacher, but how using one of my 'fitted for the lols' Breachers I killed a properly pvp fit Rifter, it wasn't even the Breacher I had fitted with a faction mod (which I've yet to undock).

The killmail is here:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_det ... d=10801083

And here is how it happened:

I have GCC following blowing up an Imicus and am chilling in a scan spot waiting it out in Adirain, not daring to try and dock with GCC in a paper thin Breacher. The Rifter is on scan in system. A Wreathe then comes on scan at the planet 2 customs office so I warp in at zero. On my way in the Rifter appears on scan with the Wreathe and the Wreathe leaves scan. I think oh crap I'm going to die so try to warp out on landing with the Rifter. I get tackled by the Rifter, by the time I lock him up and engage I'm at 70% shields. I immediately overheat my highs and my AB. There is no way I can dictate anything much in this fight being properly tackled so it's in the lap of the gods, reallistlicy I know I'm going down so am just waiting to warp my Pod out. I'm pretty surprised that I'm clinging on and hanging in there and the race through hit points begins. It's ends with a blue flash and me being in 40% hull. Hooray for the Damage Control II!

Total madness, I still can't work out how I did it!

September 2011 Character Review

Hello again,

I haven't blogged in a little while. I've not had the muse to find a subject to blog about and rather than witter on about nothing in particular I decided to wait for a more structured post. Like this one.

So another month has gone by, first let's take a look at the stat's:

25 Ship Kills (16 of which Solo)
10 Pod kills

1 Ship Lost (1 of which in a Solo encounter, Cable I'm looking at you!)
0 Pods Lost

107,666,853 Isk income from ships destroyed
0,000,000 Isk received from ransoms (Sadface)

6,018,788 Isk approximate cost of losses

101,648,065 Isk "Profit" for the month

Clearly it's been a very efficient month for me, nearly a clean sheet were it not for that single Rifter loss at the beginning of September. Although my time in game nowadays is a total shadow of what it used to be I have found that generally on every occasion that I do get to log in as Kirith I manage to get a kill. My target selection is relatively careful in that I tend not to engage members of other large local corps on the basis of risk of being ganked. With such limited in game time I tend to base myself out of Adirain on the boarder of the high-sec Arnon system from where the first Epic Arc starts, although Hevrice remains my true base of operations.

The level of profit for the month too I find very satisfying given the few number of kills, and it's a nice top up to my other income sources. Sadly I don't get opportunity to participate in any formal gang operations due to how their timing works with my availability.


Missile Launcher Operation & Gunnery have seen the biggest change in skill points. I finished off Warhead Upgrades V and as mentioned last month runded off the skills I needed to use ECM drones. I'm still cracking on with the Rifter plan with around 96 days to go to finish it off and be able to fly a max skill Rifter. I also love how these skills will instantly affect practically everything else I will ever fly. Tactical Shield Manipulation whilst not an amazing skill by any means is currently training. I hope that my willpower remains strong and that by the end of the year the Rifter plan will be as good as nailed.

I didn't really try any new ships in September other than having fun with one of my Scythes which I had in my hangar already, the Scythe has paid for itself already after having claimed the lives of two Rifters and a Thrasher. I've thought about buying some of the Caldari ships that I'm not so well skilled for for something different but yet to commit. Perhaps I'll try the Scythe or Stabber Fleet Issues for size.

The alt accounts are still doing very well for me, particularly in station trading with profits of 585 million isk even after having nearly a week where I didn't do anything. Always keen to find further ways to expand my isk resources I'm looking at building a character for resale at the moment. Otherwise I'm thinking along the lines of an Archon for one of the alts.

The curious case of the Sleipnir

This last weekend I found myself online for a few hours. During the course of the day I managed to get a few kills. It all started with Grumblecub 2, my Rifter finding an Omen ratting in Adirain which was little challenge as the pilot had fitted shield and armour tanks along with a mix of lasers, artillery & missile launcher. Sometimes I feel like I should tell the pilot about how to better fit their ship, however they never seem to want to hear about it after their prized posession has been destroyed.

Next up, a call went out that a small BC gang had been seen a few systems from Hevrice. Three Tuskers including Kirith in BC's plus one in a Dramiel set off in search. We eventually lost them as we were a few jumps behind, however our scout found a Hurricane and we caught him as he jumped through the gate, the dual webs on my PODLA Drake thwarting his efforts to reach the gate we destroyed him in short order.

Heading back towards Hevrice I was trailing behind the gang and caught sight of a Catalyst ratting in Costolle. His warp core stabiliser failing to save him as two volleys of heavy missiles were sufficent to destroy him before he could warp away.

Much later in the day I was cruising around in my Dramiel (can't remember if I said I'd bought another?) and saw a Retribution and Sleipnir slowboating away 450km off the Hulmate gate in Onne. I advised the Corp of my sighting and moved on. Back in Adirain and a Brutix had jumped in seemingly afk from Arnon, knowing that time would be of the essence I jumped into a Drake and made best speed to the gate. He must have come back at some point during my missile bombardment as he returned fire and started telling me to stop in local. It didn't take long before his Brutix was destroyed and swiftly after his Pod too.

While waiting out my GCC for popping the Brutix, Corp chat picked up on my comment about the Sleipnir and a small force assembled to engage it. Running the gate guns our response force waited at the Onne gate in Aeschee. As soon as the Sleipnir had been tackled we jumped in and quickly took it down with the Retribution swiftly following. We were surprised with the speed the Sleipnir dropped and the lack of bling loot contained within. During the process of dealing with these two a Rupture was found in local and swiftly dispatched.

We still have no idea what the Sleipnir was trying to do just slowboating off into space.

All in all, quite a fun day

Landmark: 200 Corpses!

Crossed a landmark this morning. Kirith has managed to collect in excess of 200 corpses. Fortunately they are kept in a station container converted to a freezer so that the smell is contained.

Gruesome yes, but I like my little collection.

Meme: Your First Ever PVP Lossmail

Inspired by Kirith Kodachi's post I figured that I would share with you my first pvp lossmail, indeed I beleive it was my first ever lossmail.

2009.08.14 06:57:00

Victim: Kirith Darkblade
Corp: Pator Tech School
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Aralgrund
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 1604

Involved parties:

Name: MykaVeLi (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.0
Corp: Boulevard Nites
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Broadsword
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1604

Destroyed items:

Fusion S, Qty: 1478 (Cargo)
Damage Control I
Small Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
200mm Reinforced Crystalline Carbonide Plates I
150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, Qty: 3
Fusion S, Qty: 106
Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain

Dropped items:

EMP S, Qty: 1587 (Cargo)
Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Fusion S, Qty: 212
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I

Likewise I also blogged about my first loss here, but to save you time and the effort of a mouse click I present it to you here. It was my first ever blog post:

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."

For a very young character, looking back I'm not ashamed of the fit I was killed in!

For Laughs

This Sunday I had some time in game and that time turned out to be great fun.

There were some fun a frollicks with a Dominix & Drake combination who seemed to come to Hevrice looking for a fight. Three BC's from The Tuskers formed up and took up the offer of a fight, Kirith in a Drake. Turns out the Dominix was active shield tanked and it happily shrugged off the kinetic damage from our three Drakes. The Drake working with the Dominix landed some 50km off and I went for point on it, which unfortunately took my dps off the Dominix. My Drake vs the hostile Drake, both HML fit we spewed misiles at each other with gleeful abandon as I was a long way away from the Dominix and out of range. Unfortunately whilst we were have our own little head to head one of the Tusker Drakes went down against the Dominix. My fight with the Drake was pretty even but as we both were close to being broken I (over)overheated my launchers and managed to melt them. Warping out to repair my heat damage and regen shields our opponents fled the field and left system, it was a fun fight but I have to learn to better manage my overheat. gf's exchanged in local.

Later on I switched to Grumblecub 2 and jumped in to the neighbouring system, Jov. I spotted a Mantcore in a faction war mission and warped in. The Manticore was about 170km away but I burned for it anyways, I got within 26km before they warped away but not before they had fired a couple of very ineffective Torpedo volleys at me. I warped out and then warped back to the mission where I waited patiently. After a short while the Manticore lands with me and is destroyed in very swift order, the best part of this was having no GCC as he'd agressed me earlier. Over the course of the afternoon I kept checking to see whether I could catch them again as they came back to try and finish the mission, sadly to no avail.

Back in Hevrice, I spot a Rupture in space. It didn't belong to anyone in The Tuskers so I dock and reship to one of my own Ruptures. By this time he's left system so I set off in pursuit towards Aeschee. In Aeschee he's flitting about and I'm not sure what he's doing. I know who the pilot is but can't fathom his random warping. Eventually I pin him down to a belt, warp in and destroy if swift order. I had hoped for a more challenging fight but was satisfied to have gotten a kill in a Cruiser as I don't fly them very often.

Back to Hevrice and I decide that I'm a little bit bored. I get into one of my Scythes, this is one of the hulls which I mentioned the other week that I wanted to have a laugh with. Undocking I'm fearful that I'll be laughed out of space but set off in search of targets.

A few systems from home I park in a belt trying to act like a good little miner and it isn't long before a Rifter pilot tries his hand like a moth to the flame that is a miner in low-sec. He lands and I'm upon him determined not to let him get away. I engage and literally within the blink of a eye he's toast and warping his Pod out. I literally laughed out loud and couldn't stop giggling. I had destroyed him before a corp mate could even land in the belt, it was so so fast! Again no GCC.

Within minutes of securing my loot I'm back in my belt "mining" and another Rifter lands with me, another dance and another dead Rifter. This one did better though taking me into 80% armour and trying to make a run for it. Through careful overheat of propulsion, point & guns he doesn't make it out. No GCC again.

I can't see this tactic working for long before people get wise to it, but at the moment its hilarious!

Meet Grumblecub

Well, meet Grumblecub 2 actually. Grumblecub (1) actually exploded a few days ago after I made a mistake. The fight was going rather splendidly and looked very one sided until I managed to click approach and get shredded in short order.

Well without further adieu this is loadout:

[Rifter, Grumblecub]
Small Armor Repairer II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Gyrostabilizer II

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Scrambler II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S

Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

He's a brute, and quite similar to many cookie cutter Rifter fits out there. The big difference being 200mm Autocannons in place of the 150mm Autocanons. Given the Rifters impressive bonus to tracking they track very well. Damage comes out at a whopping 162 dps, which from a T1 frigate is impressive. Speed settles at around 1050m/s. I'm enjoying flying it, but she's tight to fit and will need very good fitting skills. After the initial test I've shipped in a load of stock ready for the meat grinder.

Shopping...

In the caharacter review I mentioned that there was a temptation to blow my trading profits by buying more and more ships for Kirith. Needing no encouragement, although it was given by long time blog follower Kirith Kodachi.

I've not been in space in a while, so have decided that I needed some retail therapy. Therefore today I logged in my alt sat in Jita who holds Kirith's pursestrings and decided to buy fittings for the following unfit ships in his hangar:

3 x Bellicose
5 x Breacher
1 x Ferox
1 x Probe
2 x Scythe
5 x Vigil

My pending-transport cargo container in Jita now is brimming with modules awaiting the next transport run to low-sec.

I'll admit that the ships above are far from renowned for their combat prowess, but that's the reason they have sat there unfit and therefore unused. As a result the fits I've chosen are a very eclectic mix! I'm sure as and when they inevitably appear on killmails some laughs and raised eyebrows will be seen. I've splashed out a bit too on a few of the loadouts which is blatantly nonsensical but I got a bit carried away with the likes of a complex MWD on one of the Breachers! It's all fun though, right?

I have been known for doing this sort of thing before, fitting a couple of Slashers & Bursts for combat in the past. Amazingly I still have both of each, the Slashers have bagged a kill or two aswell!

I should get some time in space this week but am not sure that I'll get these new toys this week. Time will tell!

August 2011 Character Review

So I must've been back in game for a month already! Time flies. It seems like I've hardly been active but when we look at some stats it appears that I've achieved more kills than I thought:

26 Ship Kills (22 of which Solo)
13 Pod kills

4 Ships Lost (1 of which in a Solo encounter)
2 Pods Lost

35,444,059 Isk income from ships destroyed
15,000,000 Isk received from ransoms

80,672,210 Isk approximate cost of losses

(30,228,151) Isk "Loss" for the month


This month the main benefactors of SP gain have been Electronics & Gunnery skills. I have trained up Long Range Targeting to make better use of my Drake and Hurricanes, Electronic Warfare so that I can eventually get access to ECM Drones and the big skill that was Trajectory Analysis to V from the Rifter plan. Currently ticking over at the moment and again from the Rifter plan is Warhead Upgrades to V at around 19 days. After that I will top up Electronic Warfare before doing another Rifter plan skill.

In the month I've become quite taken with the Drake and not just the PODLA fit, I really enjoy flying them and am slightly ashamed to say that I've seldom been in a Rifter. I have just bought a new Dramiel though and am itching to Assemble it and hop aboard as it only got delivered last night. I quite fancy taking a Cyclone out but somehow never find the inclination in game. I don't envisage that I will be sampling any other ships in September but we'll see I guess.

My alt accounts have been doing marvellously for me in August with profits exceeding 650 million Isk just from station trading. I think having this much Isk is a bad thing as I can't stop buying Kirith more and more ships. His hangar is just swelling!

Normal order resumed

Apologies for any inconvenience during yesterdays downtime of the blog, seems that I had been quarantined by Google, probably due to comments made by bogus users linking all sorts of malicious sites. I've deleted all the old comments that contained links and also deleted a number of links from the main page.

No posts to speak of recently, haven't spent much time in space.

Hopefully back to business as normal, and I'll be bringing you the August character review soon.

The One That Got Away

Some elements of my play last night were quite sad. For example taking delight and being pleased with myself for destroying a Catalyst undocking from a station with my Drake. I had been feeling that low after losing three ships (Jaguar, Rupture & Hurricane) in a row that any kill of any description felt good! Adding to the hardly exciting or meaningful kills were an Executioner in a belt & an Iteron undocking from another station. I did manage to snag all three Pods though which I was rather impressed with as I was in a battlecruiser. So all in all my evening was not a waste but not terribly exciting either.

That is until I noticed a Hurricane arrive in top belt in Adirain, he killed the single rat in the belt and sat there. Could this be a second trap of the day for Kirith to spring? I kind of sensed that it would be, but I figured i'd have a go. Warping in with my Drake I landed 13km from him. Lock, missiles away, point, close the distance, double webs. Unsure whether he's armour or shield tanked I'm using navy scourge heavy missiles, his shields are gone in a couple of volleys and then I hit armour, looks like he's triple trimark armour tank soo this'll take a while. Cue, local spike by about 8. I align out and overheat MWD, his fleet of cruisers & battlecruisers lands and I'm burning away. I notice an Ares with them too and think I'm not getting out. 30km from the Hurricane bait ship and my warp drive engages. Suprised much? Yes me too! Sadly lost five drones but I saved the ship

I dock up and log as it's time to pick up the girlfriend. So, what have I been thinking since? Could I have taken any of his fleet down and survived? I firmly beleive that had the Ares not been there then I could, unfortunately he was so I can sleep soundly knowing that I did all I could, saved my ship and got away from the trap.

So far my opinion of the PODLA setup Drake....pretty damn good thank you very much.

The Importance of Effective Communication

It's one of the biggest aspects that differentiates business as a whole, piracy in EVE can be consiered a business and therefore I would say that this topic title is appliicable and it is just as critical here as it is in the real world.

It is also an aspect of EVE that has provided me with much consternation since my return to the game.

As a corporation, The Tuskers use a mix of verbal communication through Ventrillo, and written communciation through corporation channels. The preferred method of communication being over ventrillo and it is insisted upon that if you are online in EVE then you should also be on vent. An excellent rule.

This morning provided me with a superb demonstration of why this is so important when I logged in to update my skill training to find an Armageddon in a belt in Hevrice. I had no intention when I logged in to undock, but curiosity bit me to see who was this other person in local. I should have logged into vent to advise my corpmates but I didn't. There is more than one reason for not doing so, the first was not really a good one and the second, well I'll come onto that in a minute. Ultimately I undocked, warped in on the battleship and sprung a trap. Losing a Hurricane, an avoidable loss had I advised my corpmates I am certain and we probably would have come away with the big "W". Once I was engaged, I put some comments in a text comms channel but these were too little too late.

Over the last couple of days I've seen this sort of thing happen a few times, admittedly this is the first time I've done it myself. I don't know the reason for it, or why there is a reluctance to use vent as its such a powerful asset, not using it costs iskies and pride. I imagine part of the reason for not communicating about targets, and I know I am guilty of this on rare occasions is the desire to get the solo kill. But really, we're a corporation and a team who should be working for the "greater good" and not individual benefit. I know for one that I should listen to my own lecture here. Today is the marker in the sand for me personally, and I want to rid myself of this bad habit.

Unfortunately for me, and the second reason for me not being on vent is that I seemingly have developed a technical issue since re-subscription which prevents me being understood by everyone else when I speak on vent. Don't get me wrong, I don't speak swahili or anything and my communication skills are very good, they have to be in my job. My vent is normalized and connected/logged in just fine. I can hear everyone else clearly, however when I speak a proportion of people can hear and understand me just fine but a bigger proportion of people say that either they can't hear and/or understand me. It's doing my head in to be honest and I wish I could fix it. It is having a detrimental effect on my ability to work with and effectively contribute to my corporation and is just completely doing my fruit in! I'd love to hear any suggestions on how it could be fixed. For the record, my headset is just fine.

Seeking Skilled Comrades

Just in case it has escaped your attention, the esteemed low sec pirate corporation The Tuskers, of which I am counted as a member have reopened recruitment recently.

The Tuskers are as I mentioned above a low-sec pirate corporation. All of the pilots operate both solo and as part of small gang warfare. Typically we don't fly around in huge fleets and it is unusual that we are found in battleships, battlecruisers being our favoured vessel of choice for gangs.

We are a friendly bunch and camaraderie is high, I'd consider The Tuskers to be quite professional in the way in which we carry out our piracy. We do not smack, we always honour ransoms and duels.

If the above appeals to you then take a wander over to our recruitment forum here and have a read through the application process.

The process is pretty in depth and we like to test not only your skill, but also your knowledge and character too. Skillpoints too do not a 'leet' pvper make so do not be deterred if you don't have the likes of 30 millions skillpoints! I don't think I had ten million when I joined!

I hope I'll see some of you on the forums soon.

o7

Back to what I enjoy most in EVE

Long standing blog followers may remember that I used to have a knack of finding and destroying poorly fit Battlecruisers with my humble Rifter. Well earlier this week I managed to lure one out to fight me after scaring his Scythe in a belt. After a little banter between us he was convinced that his Hurricane would have no problem destroying my Rifter and warped to the belt I remained in. It soon became clear once we were committed that he had underestimated the power of the little Frigate. I offered him the chance to pay a ransom to keep his ship, he declined saying he didn't have enough isk. Of course that meant that I had to destroy his ship. Snagging his capsule afterwards he was in no mood to pay a ransom on that so I transported him back to the clone vat. Apparently he's going to quit EVE don't you know?

Well, he didn't as since then he appears to have lost even more ships.

On unrelated news today I took delivery of my new Battlecruiser stock, Seven new hulls and fittings for six new and untested loadouts. Four Drakes, two Cyclones and one Hurricane. I've now fit them all and look forward to taking them out.

Also, given my new fitting ability post learning skill removal I've bought a single new Rifter with a untested fit to have a play with. Grumblecub will see you in space soon.

EFT Warrioring

So when time in space is limited, one's attention turns to EFT. The perpetual question of what to do with some of those unfitted hulls that are in my hangar comes back to mind. A multitude of Vigils, Breachers, Scythe & Bellicose bought in a moment where I thought "one day i'll come up with some miraculous fit for those" but didn't...

Quickly getting bored of trying to find a viable PVP fit for any of the above, bar the Bellicose which met with more success my attention swings back to Hurricane, Drake & Cyclone loadouts. Before long I've input 3 new Drake fits I wan't to try, 1 Hurricane fit and a Cyclone fit.

Of course now having theorycrafted the fits I want to buy them, and of course replace that Drake I lost last week. So after spending close to 200m iskies in Jita on hulls & modules I await the next transport bringing new shiny & rusty toys to low-sec.

Hopefully I shall regail you with tails of their dominance in due course.

Pop!

It's not been the busiest few days, getting on for just a few hours of an evening this week. It's had its low points, like where I landed on gate just as a gang of 10 or so faction frigates did in my Drake resulting in me losing not only my Drake but also my Pod and along with it my bounty which was up to over 110m too.

Last night though, saw my most enjoyable moment since returning. Typically, and doesn't it always happen when you need to log off to go or do something? Just before I needed to head out to collect my girlfriend from work I land off of a belt in Adirain. It was busy in system and I'd been chasing around after various craft in my Rifter. Eventually a Black Rebel Rifter Club pilot arrives. We start closing with other, until at about 70km a second Rifter arrives causing the Rebel pilot to bug out after I assume fearing a TARP! I sadface in local and he suggests meeting for a 1v1. I mention that I have to log to collect the girlfriend, so we will settle that score another day. As we are talking the second Rifter is closing on me until at about 20km I decide to engage him. I have friends in the system but this is serious business of Rifter v Rifter combat! So they are aware of my engagement and wait looking for other targets. So our two Rifters are engaged, and aside from me forgetting to activate my web for the first minute I'm having the better of things. I see ships on 360, a bunch of frigates so I overload everything and pop him just after his friends arrive. I thought I was a goner until I hear warp drive active and escape at 88% structure and a sliver of repped armour. Repping up in a safe I have to go to dock so that I can log out without the risk of agression in space, braving the sentry fire I dock and log wishing my fellow Tuskers good hunting. Based on the killboard it seems that they did.

I do beleive that I have reignited my love of the Rifter....

Settling Back In

This weekend I've been online a fair bit both days whilst my girlfriend has been at work. I'm glad to say that I've gotten a few shots off in anger this weekend, which has been very satisfying and helps in blowing away some cobwebs. I really need to rid myself of the newbie nerves and as much as the adrenaline high is and was a great thing, the last thing I need right now is anything to distract me from performing at optimal.

I'm not sure if it's me or the times at which I have been online, but the space lanes have been very quiet with few potential targets to be had. I have managed to probe down a few vessels but they were very alert and either warped out as I arrived on scene or cloaked up.

Saturday was the more lively day for me, even though it commenced with me getting bored enough to get GCC for popping a Velator & Pod on the high-sec gate in Hevrice. In the afternoon a bunch of us formed up in BC's to spoil a triple battleship group running a site in a nearby wormhole, though sadly they had left by the time we were ready. Deciding against wasting the small gang if BC's we took a short jaunt towards Intaki managing to catch this Hurricane on the way out, and this Arbitrator on the way back.

Sunday was a much quieter day, albeit the day which I managed to probe down some nice targets I only managed to lay waste to a ratting Caracal. There was an afk Hyperion, again on a high-sec gate who unfortunately woke up while we were bumping him off gate.

Hopefully next time I immerse myself I'll see some more action. I've decided against going for a Heavy Interdictor for the time being, sticking with some of my existing plans for now.

Having undocked and flown my Drake & Canes around over the weekend I feel that I'm getting a nice feel for them and am enjoying them. I was a bit disappointed with my Drakes tank against sentry guns, expecting it to be rather uber. I'll be looking to create a better fit for this purpose.

Time for my dinner, so I'll speak to ya'll again soon.

July 2011 Character Review

As promised, I present my latest character review. Nearly a year after the last! Sadly I cannot regail you with massive increases in SP as the account was inactive for a long stretch.

In the week since reactivation I've played little although I have just 1 kill and 1 loss recorded. I did try and pick a fight with a Navy Comet this morning but after a couple of logoffski's and gate hugging he went back to hi-sec.

I'm using EVEmon now instead of EVEHQ so my skill disposition pie chart looks different:



Since the last review I've jumped nearly 5m SP. The big benefactors being:

- Missile Launcher Operation mainly through the training of Heavy Missile V and the associated specialisation for my Heavy Missile Drake.

- Navigation due to High Speed Maneuvering V.

- Gunnery the big winner with Advanced Weapon Upgrades V & Surgical Strike V.

I'm just rounding out Heavy Missile Specialisation IV and Guided Missile Precision to IV to get my Drake to a good level before I throw in Propulsion Jamming V from the Rifter Plan. I quite fancy a Broadsword you see.

Shipwise, I'd just crawled into Minmatar Cruisers when we last reviewed and was looking forward to Minmatar Battlecruisers. Well, now I have both Autocannon & Artillery Hurricanes in my hangar with a few cyclones sitting unfit. I also have Drakes ready to undock. Like I said a moment ago, I'm thinking Broadsword next but equally could go in other directions. Playing casually certainly seems to make the longer skills pass quicker.

My alt accounts income had stopped last review, now I am glad to have that back up and running. Rebuilding start up capital is the name of the game at the moment and it's coming along nicely. I'm nowhere near filling my 125 available orders yet but making steady progress with 119 million isk profits made and reinvested so far. Reading my last review, it seems I wanted the alt to be a plex buster in a Tengu. I'd forgotten that until reading so that hasn't happened!

Hopefully I'll have more meaningful information to post in due course.

o/

Jelly Legs

Ok, so this morning before I head to work I was back in the saddle of a Rifter. It's feeling a bit alien which I do not consider a great sign. In retrospect, the Rifter which I undock in is not what I'd consider my normal configuration for two reasons:

1, It's shield buffer tank fit.
2, It has an MWD.

I surf around my home area of low-sec for a while until after about an hour I find a Cormorant in a faction warfare complex. As I enter, he warps out. He's still on scan though so I warp out to avoid rat agro and warp back to wait on the acceleration gate in the hope that he will return. After around 5 minutes, although it seems far longer he warps back and I lock him up. What I don't expect is that I get tackled in return! His scrambler swiftly kills my MWD meaning that I can't get under his railguns in time, with the result unfortunately being that my Rifter goes boom. Gf's exchanged in local I warp home to lick my wounds and wait out GCC. Safely in my home station I realise that I'm still on the adrenaline rush. I stood up and walked away from my laptop while the timer ticked down needing to rid my body of my self induced high.

Seems it's going to be a while before I get back into the swing o' things.

Ringing the Changes

Well well well, so as you know from my last post I'm back in the EVE universe. Last year saw me go cold-turkey overnight from EVE and adjusting my real life priorities and how I spend my time, including of course what proportion of that time gets invested into computer games. Things are now much more settled and I feel ready to pick up from where left off, if such a thing is really possible. Now I am back I intend to play casually and not be bound to routine or a commitment to play.

I have reactivated Kirith and I have also reactivated my alt account. Whilst my focus is Kirith the alt account allows me to meddle with Trading again during opportunites where I cannot shut everything out, get on vent immerse myself in piracy.

Coming back to the game the first thing I had to do before I could enter it was to create myself a new avatar, I have to say that I did find it a bit tedious. Though for a first attempt at throwing together something similar to my previous image I am happy with the end result.

So I'm in game, everything looks a bit different. I have yet no idea what AUR are and I can no longer spin my ships :(! Oh and I apparently have 2.8m SP to spend as learning skills are no-more, well that's kinda cool I guess.

To decide where to put my 'free' SP I consulted my corpmates, and was given many good suggestions. I think I settled on AWU5, Surgical Strike 5 and Heavy Missiles V along with a few bits here and there. I've had to reinstall Evemon & EFT and throw together new skill plans as everything got deleted last year. I hope to return to delivering a monthly character update, much as I used to. And yes, the Rifter plan still lives and runs alongside my other plans!

So, what's in my hanger? Holy crap I've got 71 ships in Hev 5, I don't remember having all those! Aside from about 10 ships they're all fit and ready to undock too. I have I think reacquainted myself with my ships, the basics of flight, settings & shortcuts.

It seems that when I left the game last year I did so with Battlecruisers V in the skill queue, couldn't have asked for better! So it was a very nice surprise to be able to fly these mighty gunships now, hopefully you'll hear of my exploits as and when they occur.

It is fabulous to see that there are many familiar faces still in The Tuskers, I've said hello to many of them. There are though many new names who I have yet to get to know. I'm looking forward to catching up with Kishin soon, not seen him yet and I've missed talking with him alot.

Last night was my first real opportunity to get back into space for a few hours while the girlfriend was out. A medium sized Tusker gang was abroad and I elected to abstain due to my limited time commitment. I set about solo roaming in my amazingly long surviving Jaguar and as much as I'd love to regail you with stories of great deeds I didn't manage to find anything to engagein the whole three hours. Hopefully next time will be more fruitful.

Hi....

It's been a while.

So, I have reactivated on the try Incarna for 5 days basis.

Getting reacquainted I undock in whatever I was sat in when I last logged in as I now can't see it due to seeing my avatar instead. It appears that I'm in Severina, a Rupture. Having done a complete reinstall of the EVE client I have only the default overview and setting, no shortcuts, nothing.

I hit the D-scan, hello little Incursus. I'm rusty but narrow him down to a belt, pleased with how quickly it all comes back to me.

Warp in, lock, point, boom. His pod escapes my slow lock time.

Adrenaline level.... I've got the shakes and the adrenaline of the first kill. Awesome!

Hello EVE, I think I'll be back.