Of New Players & Trial Accounts

Frequently in low-sec space one happens upon a helpless noobie. They can be doing anything really, I have learned not to try and rationalise what they are doing when I find them as it inevitably doesn't make sense!

Some typical and more normal examples:

• Sitting at a planet.
• Mining in their Navitas/Catalyst, Vexor etc.
• Pewing the rats.

In practically all cases their ships will be poorly fit. I know many of us started this way and have found our way to where we are today but there surely must be a better way to help people learn how to fit their ships and to open their eyes to the dangers of certain areas of space.

The new player experience must be the answer to this and also therefore be the way to overcome this blight that is afflicted upon those poor hulls. God knows how CCP should do it though, I wish I had the answer.

Perhaps the answer is a far more in depth tutorial system that goes into much more detail, something like the way the film Starship Troopers goes, "Would you like to know more? Asking that question once you've completed your current tutorial step and giving you further options of what you can choose to learn about.

It almost could be simplified to a follow a flow chart structure.

Given that new starters are asked on the EVE website what type of character persona they want, maybe this could lead the type and makeup of the tutorial they receive?

This deserves much more thought than I can give it here anyways.

So, back to topic. What do I do with these lost and blighted ships? Well I'm a pirate so I explode them of course. So now I have a wreck with loads of random modules in it and typically a noobie Pod under the grasp of my point.

What to do with the Pod now?

Many of my corpmates at this point will release said Pod for a comedy ransom of some description, after all trial accounts can't pay isk ransoms as they can't give money. I on the other hand explode them out of hand if they are under two weeks old, always keen to add to my collection of frozen corpses.

Many say that I'm making these new players leave the game by my actions. I'm not sure I do, what would you do and what's your opinion?

Unexpected Escalation

Some time ago, before I lost it I was flying around in Mallet's Mallet, my Cyclone.

I had located a missioning Talos and brought in my probing alt to find me a warp in. Within minutes I had a warpable hit and my Cyclone landed within 10km of the fearsome Gallente Battlecruiser.

I gained point on my unsuspecting prey and started to quickly take it down whilst taking little damage myself. Then something I didn't expect occurred....

First, a Helios decloaked right next to me followed within moments by a Drake. Not wishing to look a gift-horse in the mouth I locked up both of my new companions whilst I finished off the Talos. My point was then applied to the Drake with my drones and guns on the Helios which practically instapopped.

The Drake wasted no time tackling and engaging me. My active tanked shield boosting Cyclone tanking his damage fairly well with him making maybe 5% progress past what I could repair back with each volley. I reloaded to EM ammo in my guns and launchers after polishing off the Helios and set about his inevitably buffer fit Drake.

Progress was slow but steady through his shields, overheating my invuln to stabilise the progress he was making against my active tank. The overheat paid dividends and I was soon well in control of the damage restoring comfortable tanking of his damage. My cap booster was nowhere near running out of charges so I became confident that I was going to emerge victor.

Soon after his Drake was a smouldering ruin and the pilot sped his pod to safety. I had the old adrenaline shake back and savoured its short lived effect. I had though to myself when the Drake landed oh crap I'm gonna die but the much underrated Cyclone proved her mettle despite my low expectations.

The Cost of the Language Barrier

I catch quite a number of Pods in game.

Where possible, so in 90% of occasions I will attempt a ransom unless the pilot is on a trial account (as they cannot pay an isk ransom). In probably half of these attempts I am thwarted by the laguage barrier due to:

- Their failure to understand the offer of a ransom.

- My unwillingness to spend time on Google translate.

Take if you will this example: I recently caught the Pod of a Vexor pilot who had been ratting after I removed his vessel. On attempting ransom he replied in Russian. As he was an old toon and the system was otherwise quiet I used Google translate. Sadly it didn't suffice and after I'd used a translated message he simply went stone cold silent.

Waiting a couple of minutes and having received no reply I podded the guy. His subsequent Pod mail revealing a set of +5 implants.

Wouldn't it be helpful if there was some tool available that helped in these situations? Maybe some stock phrases in multiple languages?

If I get the time one day I'll do so and post it here. In the mean time I'll carry on amassing frozen corpses!

Wanted

Kirith's bounty has bumped up quite a bit lately, first in increased by 50 million, then about a week or two ago by another 100 million. More enraged customers I imagine! Kirith's current price on his head is now over 210 million isk!

I do wish that CCP would develop a system which allowed you to see who had placed these bounties on your head.

Wish I knew who to thank.

As per the norm, now that I've posted this someones going to end up podding me now :(

Oh, and no I won't pod myself to claim it, I like having a bounty.

Threat Assessment

During my life as a pirate many people have implied that I just drop lucky with targets and/or comment along the lines of why they "don't find those targets".

Well over the course of time I think that I have stumbled across an answer.

You see, I don't believe at all that they don't find the targets or certainly that they don't come across them.

I do believe that when they do find that Hurricane in a belt they have a penchant for believing that it's a trap or that the pilot will have fit their ship effectively.

I on the other hand rarely assume a ship is bait, though I obviously understand some are and I usually will assume that most people have not fit their ship very well. As a result of this I'll generally engage that Hurricane in my Rifter, or that Navy Dominix in my Jaguar and I'll either get the kill, escape or sometimes lose my ships in a good fun fight.

So many times someone will assume that X target isn't worth engaging in Y or that something is bait or a trap. Stupidity is highly prevalent in EVE pilots, take that chance unless you are certain and don't be led by assumption.

Whilst I have identified many people who overestimate or are over cautious in Corp there are some, like me who are crazy enough to take those chances. Here's looking at you Valgore!

Without this approach I never would have engaged a Drake last week who was ratting in Heydielles, right next door to Old Man Star. Smells & looks like bait/trap but totally wasn't and succumbed to my Merlin (eventually).

I've had this post drafted now for a long time, reading a recent blog post by Azual Skoll reminded me to actually publish it, as it seems he's experienced something along similar lines.

April 2012 Character Review

Starting with the statistics for last month:

5 Ship Kills (All Solo)

2 Pod Kills (Both Solo)

89,257,837 Isk cost to victims

No Ships Lost

4,335,266 Isk income from ships destroyed and as such profit due to no losses sustained.

Whilst it is again nice to turn a profit, the kills above really demonstrates the level of activity. With the launch at work I've had very little time in space. Thankfully having sustained no losses makes this bearable.

These are the skills trained by Kirith since the previous month. I decided to train all racial BS skills to III, the mood simply took me that way.

Large Autocannon Specialization IV
Gallente Drone Specialization II
Gallente Drone Specialization III

Large Artillery Specialization II
Large Artillery Specialization III
Large Artillery Specialization IV
Cybernetics IV
Amarr Cruiser I
Amarr Cruiser II
Amarr Cruiser III
Amarr Cruiser IV
Caldari Cruiser IV
Minmatar Battleship I
Minmatar Battleship II
Minmatar Battleship III
Energy Pulse Weapons I
Gallente Cruiser I
Gallente Cruiser II
Gallente Cruiser III
Gallente Cruiser IV
Amarr Battleship I
Amarr Battleship II
Amarr Battleship III
Caldari Battleship I
Caldari Battleship II
Caldari Battleship III
Gallente Battleship I
Gallente Battleship II
Gallente Battleship III

Quite a number of skills trained with Gallente Drone Specialization IV now done in May with Minmatar Battleship IV with V in the cooker.

Trading saw some attention in April generating 389m isk and the alt continued to train for a Thanatos, though that alt has temporarily diverted into PI skills this month to revisit the Thantos in a month or so. The market has gone a little haywire this last week by the looks of things in some respects so I will keep an eye on how that settles.

Total Ransoms Received: 550,360,662.30 Isk (No Change)
Battleclinic Rank:  472 (+11)

Renewed Commitment to Roaming

A post I drafted back at the beginning of March.

I had grown pretty lazy a while ago, finding myself rarely leaving the comfort of my favourite system of Adirain aside from going back to Hevrice to change ships before returning to such familiar territory.

I'd also by doing this distanced myself from my pirating roots. Once I'd come to this realisation I vowed to myself to do something about it.

Several months on I've been good and spent much less time simply sat in Adirain and drastically more time roaming. For the most part I roam around 15 or so systems forming something of a circular route.

I do still get many fights in Adirain but have expanded my area of operation and plan at some point to spend holidays back in Heimatar roaming my old hunting grounds. I just need to get myself organised with the logistics, though that'll be much easier when I have my alt flying a carrier!

I'm really enjoying roaming more than I have in a very long time and finding some fun fights along the way. I commend any readers to give it a go, pirate or not. Low-sec really isn't camped at every nor even most gates.

What's in Your Hangar?

Following on from the esteemed Rixx Javix, Drackarn & Jester here's what's in Kirith's hangar. Finding it very interesting to both what's in others hangars and how they name them!

Assault Frigates

2 x Hawk (“Raven Guard”)

5 x Jaguar (“Lucy”, “Minnie Mouse”, “Prize”, “Tourniquet” & “Grifter”), Minnie Mouse has been with me a long time, dating back to when I could first fly AF's if memory serves! Prize is only partially fit and I won in a lottery run by a corp-mate. Tourniquet would have to be the most enjoyable Jaguar fit that I use.

2 x Vengeance (“Pookie”)

1 x Wolf (“Kitten Face”), a nice balance of fearsome DPS with some staying power.

Battlecruisers

2 x Cyclone (“Boosters & Ignition” & “Mallet’s Mallet”)

4 x Drake (“Centurion”, “Poodle 3”, ”The Spaniard” & “Welsh Green”) Centurion is designed to tank gate guns all day long and some may argue is more of a PVE fit. Seems almost obligatory to have a PODLA fit in there too. The Spaniard has a bit of an oddball fit and is a test bed that I’ve rarely used so far.

4 x Hurricane (“Bingowings”, “Thrudd”, “Tinkerbell” & “Tunguska”). A veritable mix of fits here. Surprising factoid is that Tunguska was my first Hurricane and that it still lives is miracle!

2 x Tornado (“Banzai” & “Thumper”). Short and long range variations.

Battleships

1 x Abaddon (“Dr Thermaplugg”). My neuting Abaddon, you can guarantee that now I’ve got one I’ll never be online the next time Tuckers find a Carrier to kill!

1 x Maelstrom (“The Eye of Chaos”). A little bit of pimp in here, not much though as you know I’m pretty averse to it.

2 x Tempest (“Duellist” & “Zippy”). One shield and one armour tanked.

Cruisers

2 x Bellicose (“Fatso 2” & “Torchwood”). Stupid comedy fits on both.

1 x Blackbird (“Malice”). Never actually flown it!

7 x Rupture (“Severina” & “Sevora”). Armour and shield tanked versions for brawling & kiting respectively.

1 x Scythe (“Low Sec Miner”). Obvious is obvious, sadly not a great fit due to the lack of a web on it. May change this sometime.

5 x Stabber (“Pointy Stick”). Not a lover of kiting so this is still the first five Stabbers I bought when I got Minne Cruiser V.

2 x Stabber Fleet Issue (“The Modded J Bomb”). Very enjoyable fit to fly. 1 of them isn’t fitted yet.

1 x Cynabal

Destroyers

5 x Thrasher (“S&M Freak”, “Arthur”, “Squeal”). Shields, Armour & Arty fits. Lacking a suicide ship so must address that presently ;).

Frigates

4 x Breacher (“Stupid Idea”). As per the name. Claim to fame was killing a pvp fit Rifter in one of these up close brawling ships…

2 x Burst (“Minor Challenge”). Noob killer tbh.

1 x Caldari Navy Hookbill (“Phish Food”). Fitted up and never yet flown.

1 x Cruor. Not yet fitted due to inability to use lasers.

1 x Dramiel (“Evil Bastard Reborn”). Rarely flown but takes me back to its highly successful predecessor.

1 x Griffin. Partially fit.

1 x Imperial Navy Slicer. Not fit yet for the same reason as the Cruor above

1 x Merlin (“Trigonometry”). My current weapon of choice, uses projectiles as I cannot use Hybrids.

1 x Probe (“Prober”). Another noob killer, would like to test against a regular Frigate though!

1 x Republic Fleet Firetail (“Private Pile”). My one and only ever Firetail. An unusual but effective fit.

27 x Rifter (“200”, “Cap Boosted”, “Cookies!”, “Demon 2”, “Green Giant”, “Grumblecub 5”, “Grumblecub 6”, “Hobbes”, “Kaned & Unable”, “Lightbulb”, “Make do & Mend” & “Sheelds”). So many Rifters, 200 & Cap Boosted get renamed before undocking and are named to help me identify what variation they are.

2 x Slasher (“For Lols”). Noob killer again.

5 x Vigil (“Speeddo”, “Teh Weirdo”, “Whoosh”). So fast they’re daft.

1 x Primae

Interceptors

1 x Claw (“Griphook”)

1 x Crow (“Black”)

1 x Malediction (“Fear & Malice”)

3 x Stiletto (“Jog On”, “Slowpoke”, “Tada”). Solo & gang fits in here.

1 x Zephyr

1 x Minmatar Shuttle

Elsewhere

1 x Drake

3 x Thrasher

11 x Rifter

1 x Wolf

123 ships in total! Fittings and rigs for all of them, I wonder how much isk I have invested in ships?

What's your hangar look like?