Monday 27 August 2012

A Long Time Ago in a Constellation Far Far Away...

Welcome to the 39th Blog Banter - the community discussion that stretches across the many communities of EVE Online through the use of arcane bloggery. The conversation is open to all and readers are encouraged to visit all of the entries that will be listed below as the discussion progresses. Be sure to leave your thoughts there when you do.

For enquiring minds who would like to know more about the Blog Banters, check out this short explanation or read this overview of the subjects covered in the last year.

After a some heavy topics in the last few editions, this time we'll be taking a more relaxed trip through the thoughts of the blogosphere. The origins of this month's concept come from a suggestion from EON Magazine editor Richie "Zapatero" Shoemaker.

"Some say a man's home is his castle. For others it is wherever they lay their hat. The concept is just as nebulous in the New Eden sandbox. 

In EVE Online, what does the concept of "home" mean to you?"

 ===============================================

A Long time ago some three years ago in a constellation in Heimatar Kirith's first home was found in a system called Aralgrund. Kirith moved there within a week of being "born", it remained his home until he became a member of The Tuskers. The system 0.4 security status and adjacent to a high security system, it was pretty populated with POS's and a number of null sec groups used it for jumping capitals to and from but ultimately fairly quiet.

It was a great staging system and I had many routes established for roaming. There were a few well known pirate groups operating nearby, M34N coalition & The Bastards come to mind first. I cut my pirate teeth in this area and I have thought of it as my home for the best part of two and a half years, even though I haven't been based there in such a long time. It says something that I still have a jumpclone there and a small stash of ships, the ships showing just what I flew when I lived there. I still go on brief visits to see how the land has changed. I must go back again soon!

Something changed recently though and it certainly wasn't concious but I no longer think of Aralgrund as my home but instead now feel that Hevrice is Kirith's home, it's taken a long time for it to become my home more than just a base of operations. I hope that Hevrice will remain Kirith's home as I definitely feel comfortable there with a huge familiarity with the neighbours and surrounding systems.

Although I'm trying to cut down the stable of ships held in Hevrice I still have over 90 fit ships in Kirith's hangar, any thoughts of moving even with two Carriers would be a logistical nightmare! A bit like moving home in real life.

So, home to Kirith is Hevrice.

Friday 24 August 2012

A little quiet

I've been somewhat quiet on the blogging front, this is mainly as I'm enjoying broadcasting my live stream so much! I know I've only been live streaming a very short time but its been a blast.

I'm finding that I'm being more agressive in finding fights and taking greater risks. Sure this means that I'm losing more ships but its fun! There's an element that I want to make the stream into good viewing when I'm considering targets. It is also nice to be able to ask the viewers what they want me to fly.

I had my biggest isk loss to date yesterday to Balkan Express and it got caught on camera.

There have been several comedy moments too, like the UNDEAD alliance gang that jumped on my Rifter, all 20 or so of them including Battleships to the poor Russian Wolf pilot who lost his 150 mil Wolf and associated 280 mil Pod. He could've paid 15 mil to save the Pod but didn't even try to overcome the laguage barrier despite my best Google translate attempts.

I got myself into a 1v1 (which I don't normally do) against Astral Dominix, a fellow blogger and told him afterwards that he'd just been on TV! Gf Astral, maybe next time.

Following a suggestion I've also created an in game channel called KD Twitch, so you're welcome to drop in.

And finally, the censored panel isn't off centre, it's just hiding standings. It's the most common comment people make :P

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Ragtag Roam

Some time ago I'd had a hankering to lead a fleet. It certainly wasn't born out of any great competence that I had in the field, and mainly was due to my own lack of availability / ship specialisation to take part in fleets led by others. I would actually say that I'm a mediocre FC, but also that I want to improve.

Thus it was that I advertised a roam and a bunch of foolhardy Corpmates bravely signed up. No guarantees were offered on those ships that signed on ever returning to Hevrice again.

There were the inevitable few last minute folks  joining and we headed off in a motley array of ships, our fleet comprising:

1 x Brutix
2 x Cyclone
1 x Drake
2 x Harbinger
1 x Imperial Navy Slicer
2 x Prophecy
1 x Thorax

Once I'd seen the ships formed up I wondered if I should have advertised a tier 1 Battlecruiser fleet!

The Slicer in fleet, piloted by Vlad acted as our Scout doing a fine job indeed. We set off down towards Kirith's ancestral home in Heimatar.

Little was sighted of interest until we reached Mannar where a Rupture & Hurricane were sighted in space. After pondering a plan to draw out an engagement one of our Harbingers warped to the station they were loitering at. This action drew fire from the Rupture & Hurricane along with a Pilgrim which undocked. An Archon also undocked too, which felt like total overkill!

The fleet jumped in and warped to our badly beaten up Harbinger who had to deagress and dock to save himself, our fleet landed amongst theirs sending the Rupture fleeing. I called the Pilgrim primary as the easiest and most expensive thing to explode, the Hurricane next and despite being repaired by the Archon we manged to break the reps and take it down. We switched to the Archon after the Hurricane getting him to 50% armour before he was able to safely redock again, our efforts to bump him off station being unsuccessful.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13458905

Docking afterwards for repairs and waiting out our criminal timers our scout who was ahead of us reported a Drake gang heading towards us, around 12 strong. I asked my fleet members for suggestions as this was beyond my confidence to engage. Our gang had the potential to hurts theirs if we were able to brawl them up close and avoid being kited however this would probably require us to suicide our gang into theirs.

We ended up playing a game of cat and mouse over a gate eventually jumping into them as they were sat at zero on their in gate. Primary was called and then comms got confused causing half of our gang to reapproach and jump back as our targets burned for range, this cost us two ships for no kills.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13459327

The fleet was despondent as we waited out GCC in station back in Mannar, repairs were made while we waited and our two casualties left fleet. All the time tabs were kept on the Drake gang who appeared to be camping us into the system. A short while later the Drake gang moved on towards Verge Vendor and our remaining fleet continued onwards. After a few jumps we received two pieces of intel:

1) The Drake gang was coming back towards us.
2) A Shadow Cartel Battleship gang was pursuing them.

At that time we estimated that we had a two or three jump lead on them. I was keen for us not to be herded onwards and clatter into a waiting gate camp as we neared the Faction Warfare hot zone. However, before I could do anything about it we landed on gate with a neutral Typhoon not affiliated with the Shadow Cartel gang. We jumped as the Typhoon did and I gave the order to engage under gate guns as nothing showed up on directional scan. Boy it had some hitpoints, as it hit mid armour it was joined by a Harbinger, Scorpion & Abaddon. Intel also now indicated the imminent arrival of the Drake fleet.

Our fleet quickly started to disintegrate under heavy fire when the Drakes joined the fray causing me reluctantly to give the order to bail with the Typhoon in low structure. Two Prophecy, our Drake and Slicer were the only ships to escape. One of the Prophecys warped back in at range to a gate but was unlucky enough to land on top of the Drakes and got torn apart.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13459529

The Drakes finished off the Battleships, which they did on short order sadly though they were able to clear the field before the Shadow Cartel Fleet landed on them but continuing after them in hot pursuit towards Heimatar.

Given our now vastly reduced fleet I called the operation over and we began heading for home, Hevrice. Feeling guilty for being in one of the few remaining vessels I vowed that I'd shoot anything I saw on the way home.

Thus it was that a neutral Caracal & Harbinger jumped through a gate with me into Angatalie I shot at them, I thought I'd targeted the Caracal but found myself engaging the Harbinger. My active tanked Prophecy was having very hard time tanked gate guns plus the Caracal & Harbinger. I'd made a serious hold in the Harbinger but as I was teetering at 60% hull I warped out to a belt.

I landed in a belt after having had repaired my armour in warp and was surprised to see the two neutrals land with me within seconds. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth I set about the Harbinger again as my two fleet mate arrived. It was now totally one sided and the two neutrals got swiftly destroyed. They actually thought I'd baited them to the belt  rather than what had actually happened!

After waiting out GCC again we returned home. the operation, not quite a success and me disappointed with bringing my ship home intact (minus 40% hull).

The fleet showed me just how much I have to learn as an FC.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Live Stream



I've now started live streaming when playing Kirith. If you are so inclined you can find the stream here:

http://www.twitch.tv/kirithdarkblade

Thursday 9 August 2012

Seeing a Prophecy Through

I haven't actually posted about when and why I own a Prophecy, but yesterday I lost it. It's turn had come around when it became the next ship with insurance due to expire.

So solo roaming around in this rather elegant battlecruiser and finding little of interest I entered Melmaniel, a system a few jumps from my home base of operations in Hevrice and see an Enyo on scan. He can only be at a Faction Warfare plex which my ship can''t enter. I resolve to warp there anyway and find him at the gate.

I waste no time in locking him up and swiftly get him to 20% armour before a Kitsune arrives and jams me, A steady escalation ensues which see me engaged by eight ships. My ship was doing a grand job of tanking, but with the jams there's nothing I can do until a corpmate warps in and scares the Kitsune off. He manages also to take out a Dramiel as I go down and pays for it with his Retribution too.

It was good fun, and I was blown away by the active tank of my Prophecy, certainly an unusual fit but I had great fun.

Credit to the Goons for a good kill! GF.

Next ship out of insurance is my Fleet Tempest, hmm maybe I won't go and derp that one just yet...

Sunday 5 August 2012

July 2012 Character Review

With work being busy in the run up to and start of the summer holiday period I've found little time to actually play our beloved internet spaceship game. My lack of activity in game shows through in the killobard stat's.

12 Ship Kills (6 Solo)

3 Pod Kills (2 Solo)

2,210,866,868 Isk Cost to victims (76,549,436 Isk received in loot drops)

0 Ships Lost

76,549,436 Isk Profit in the Month

A pretty nice profit for such a low activity month. The fact that I lost no ships was a great bonus, a trend which hasn't continued into August I would have to say (I lost two ships yesterday)! Sadly I was only able to get in game on six occasions in the month to actually undock in anger. I'm hoping for some more activity in August.

Here's what Kiriths skill distribution looked like at the end of July:


Kirith has completed theses skills in the month:


Heavy Drone Operation V
Remote Armor Repair Systems IV
Biology I
Long Range Targeting V
Shield Compensation I
Shield Compensation II
Shield Compensation III
Shield Compensation IV
Shield Compensation V
Drone Sharpshooting V
Energy Pulse Weapons II
Energy Pulse Weapons III
Energy Pulse Weapons IV

Another Drone skill was training to V at the end of July in my long term goal of maxing my drone skills, I'm not doing it in a single push and am interspersing other skills from other plans I've had for ages. I was surprised that I'd forgotten to train Shield Compensation so maxed that in July. I do have a temptation to train blaster boats but for now I think I'm happy slowly diminishing my hangar stock rather than introducing a whole new line of ships for me to put in it.

Station trading with my alt continued in the month but has been changed as I headed into August, streamlining the range of modules I'm trading. As with the previous month I generated a profit of around 200 million from this income stream. I haven't done any PI at all during the month as I preferred spending my time undocking to kill things where I could.

The character who has been training for a Thanatos has now actually been able to fit and fly it and whilst it'll seee most action as a giant space truck she'll be a highly trained triage pilot when the plan is complete, not that I actually need one! I did enjoy my first Cyno experience, as an aspect of the game I'd never seen before but am sure that novelty will wear off.


Total Ransoms Received: 610,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (No movement)
Battleclinic Rank: 438 (-2)