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!