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?

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.

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

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.

My Best Ransom Evah!

Last night started slow, very slow. I had just destroyed a noob Catalyst a few jumps from Hevrice when a corpmate mentioned that he had been engaged by an Ishkur. I asked if he would like me to burn to his assitance. My offer accepted I set off, though as I jumped into Hev he signalled that it had been destroyed. Cue sadface.

It was long however before a gang of Sentinel, Jaguar & Rapier entered Hev space. I was sat at a tactical close to a belt as the Jaguar landed with Incognito's Ishkur. I warped to his aid as the Sentinel landed. Expecting the Rapier who had also been sighted to be inbound, ItsMe brought out his Cynabal. We called the Jag primary (which in hindsight was a mistake), realising our error we switched to the Sentinel and quickly dropped it, swiftly followed by the Jaguar. They went down just in time to save 'Blog Moar!' the Wolf which was fulled capped out from a sticky end.

Back at my tactical repping up and waiting out GCC a second Ishkur lands at zero on the belt, I report it to Incog & Itsme and engage calling point as I land. The Ishkur literally dissolves in front of my eyes at astonishing speed, the fit tells the story here. Following the Assault ships demise I attempt ransom of the pod after a quick check of his age (2006 I think).

Here follows a copy/paste from my activities last night from out ransom board which tells the story:

Date: 27.06.2010
Location: Hevrice
Vessels ransomed: Pod
Pilot: Kaobserver4
Amount: 635,323,037.92mil
My Share: 211,774,345.97isk

Involved Pilots:
Incognito
ItsmeHcK1
Kirith Darkblade

Fun as follows:
EVE System > Channel MOTD: Hello, one or more members of The Tuskers are prepared to destroy your vessel. Should you wish to pay a ransom to save your ship, please do the following immediately:

1. Turn off all modules (including guns, missile launchers, webbers, scrams, etc.) and recall all drones. Stop your ship.

2. From the time a ransom amount appears below, you will have 30 seconds to pay the amount specified. Right-click the picture of the pirate stating our demands and select "give money" to do this.

If you do not comply immediately, we will re-open fire on your vessel. If we get nervous for any reason we will re-open fire on your vessel.
Kirith Darkblade > hi
Kirith Darkblade > 100m to save your pod please. pay to me
kaobserver4 > lol, hi
kaobserver4 > Allow me to get to a station and I'll send it.
Kirith Darkblade > you can send it here
kaobserver4 > Yeah, but there's the chance of you scamming me.
Kirith Darkblade > then you will be freed
ItsmeHcK1 > There's a chance of you scamming us too.
Kirith Darkblade > we honor ransoms, guaranteed
kaobserver4 > lol. True, true.
Kirith Darkblade > viewforum.php?f=35
Kirith Darkblade > quickly check that link
Kirith Darkblade > if i scam you, i have to repay it and get kicked form corp
Kirith Darkblade > thus i wont scam you
kaobserver4 > 70mil sound fair then? It's about all I have atm.
Kirith Darkblade > agreed, please pay to me
Kirith Darkblade > you are free to go
kaobserver4 > There's 700 for bein' an awesome pirate. :D
Kirith Darkblade > :D ty
ItsmeHcK1 > :D
kaobserver4 > Your Corp is based on piracy then?
Kirith Darkblade > It is
kaobserver4 > Is it recruiting?
ItsmeHcK1 > oh god :D
Kirith Darkblade > Recruitment is indeed open atm
ItsmeHcK1 > Dude, I love you. :P
Kirith Darkblade > viewforum.php?f=2
kaobserver4 > Love who?
ItsmeHcK1 > You.
kaobserver4 > Oh.
kaobserver4 > Why?
ItsmeHcK1 > 700M! :D
kaobserver4 > Yah. :D
kaobserver4 > I was eating god damnit, lol, I'm dead the next second. It was awesome.
Kirith Darkblade > :D
lncognito > it's been an awesome last 15 minutes actually
lncognito > so much action ;3
kaobserver4 > Yeah, I'd be interested in joining. The one I'm currently in is really really boring-
kaobserver4 > You guys have a vent?
Kirith Darkblade > we have
Kirith Darkblade > I was like, guys i have an Ishkur pointed.
Kirith Darkblade > Then, he died :(
ItsmeHcK1 > And we were like 'WE ARE IN ON THIS SPLIT!'
kaobserver4 > xD..
lncognito > ;3
kaobserver4 > c.c
lncognito > EVE System > Channel MOTD: Guests may join us on Ventrillo. Presence in this channel is no guarantee of free-passage from the Tuskers.Hostname IP: texas.ventriloservers.biz<br>Port Number: 3840<br>Password: walrus
ItsmeHcK1 > I noticed him, I get a share! :P
lncognito > What type of corp was your old corp?
lncognito > I notice thats your first loss mail in a while
lncognito > recently resubbed?
kaobserver4 > About two months ago.
kaobserver4 > Rusty as hell. c.c
Kirith Darkblade > Kaob, just to confirm that you accept that I am keeping this ransom payment of 635m isk?
kaobserver4 > No give it back.
Kirith Darkblade > I'm not giving it all back
kaobserver4 > lol, I'm on vent you oblivious tards.
Kirith Darkblade > >.>
ItsmeHcK1 > We know. :P
kaobserver4 > "No, no, kick him!"
ItsmeHcK1 > Still. :P
kaobserver4 > I'll plug in my mic once I finish eating.
kaobserver4 > once*
Kirith Darkblade > Can I keep it then? :D
kaobserver4 > yeah.
Kirith Darkblade > \o/ you're a gent
Kirith Darkblade > :)

Because I'm real nice I split the ransom three ways with the corpmates who had undocked to take out the Ishkur!

The high & lows of heat

Last post I stated how I now could use heat, prior to actually being able to overheat modules I almost percieved it as a simple concept, overheat -> kill opponent however after using heat a few times its not quite so easy and requires some careful micromanagement. My initial observations:

1, Overheating individual modules by pressing the green bar over the module itself asks for trouble. It's too easy to overheat the module but turn it off in doing so. This cost me a Thrasher kill and lost me a Rifter in the process.

2, Trying to click on those small overload rack buttons is not what I want to do in combat. Keyboard shortcuts help a lot here, I have mapped CTRL 1-3 to overload my racks.

3, At Thermodynamics III the heat damage taken by my modules was pretty high, now I have it at IV it seem much better. Being careful not to burn out your modules is a fine balance. I find it awful as I'm colour blind to red & green which isn't a great combo when we consider the colours in play on the modules during overloading...

I can however sum up and say that heat does change to outcome of fights, my engagement with a Coercer this morning convinces me thus, more details below.

I haven't been in so many fights this week as I wasn't online Sunday - Thursday due to some OOG commitments, my usual synopsis below:

Coercer
This fellow landed on Noir at a Faction Warfare complex, Noir unfortunately got caught on the gate and called for aid, myself and Ka Jolo were in system and hurried to him, sadly we didn't arrive in time to save him but I managed to scram the Coercer and engage, I popped as he was at 15% armour, leaving Jolo to finish him off. My first engagement against a well setup Coercer and I can say that they are nasty!

Raptor Rasta the Caracal master?
This fellow the Tuskers had quite a few fights against last weekend, I think in total he lost at least 5 Caracals & was podded three times. I chalked up two Caracal kills, here & here. and his Pod once too. There is talk that whoever kills him the most times in our curent campaign is in line for a 10m isk prize, I'm currently joint top at the moment so if this becomes a reality I should be in with a shot!

Catalyst
I happened upon this fellow by accident. I had jumped into the system and found a Rifter on the gate with me. I wanted to Rifter to chase me so warped to something obvious, a nice faction warfare mission. I used the gate as I landed but alas he hadn't followed but entering the room there was this Catalyst. He warped out on seeing me so I tried to pursue but he evaded me. I went back to the FW mission to find a Stabber Fleet Issue on the gate with a regular Stabber just landing. I used the gate and re-entered the mission as the gate only allowed T1 frigs, destroyers and Indys. Less than five seconds after I landed the Catalyst came through too. He died quickly and my Rifter was never in danger.

Coercer
This morning I had an epic fight with this Coercer, he jumped me at a Faction warfare mission gate as I was going for a Rifter & Slicer inside. I took tremendous initial damage and only overheating my armour repairer kept me going while I closed to point blank range. Once the damage was holding I overloaded guns, and gradually removed his armour and hull. I finished the fight on 50% structure. I would have finished the fight ahead of this but had somehow managed to switch off my armour repairer, god knows how as it hadn't burned out. My victory was bittersweet though as after I repaired and dropped off my loot (which was plentiful) I got caught by the very Slicer I was after and kite-killed.

I hope tomorrow to be posting my latest character review.

A change of scenery

Since last weeks post I have now trained Thermodynamics to III, it will be at IV in less than a day. This can only be a good thing and I plan to use it masses when flying some of the cheap throwaway ships that i have. Ive been clone jumping around quite a bit this week too, I now have a stable of ships in The Bleak Lands which is smack bang in the middle of Minmatar / Amarr faction warfare. I've also been around my Heimatar "home" as that's where my Thermodynamics skill book was. I've been in on 8 ship kills this weeks, which while not masses I am happy with considering i have only had a single loss.

I have been pleased to see now that my sec. status as others see it is now at -10.0, whilst I know that it isn't a true -10 it's still nice to have obtained this level of criminal standing.

Lets review the weeks activity:

Vexor
This fellow was hopping around the belts and seemed to be leaving some wrecks in his wake, I assumed that he was ratting. When I eventually saw him i noticed that he was mining too. Now he was a toon of a reasonable age, and many folk always warn about engaging Vexors in frigs but my experience has only perhaps once ever fought a Frig killing Vexor fit, so I engaged and he died. He paid a ransom to save his Pod and was allowed to go free. We chatted a little in local afterwards where I managed to blind him with science regarding the directional scanner and how i had found him.

A day or so later, I can't quite recall, the pilot was in local again and this time in a Thorax. I engaged him again to find I had sprung a tarp! Ohnoes! His friend, who was only young jumped in with a Vexor. I soon had 10 Hammerheads chasing after me plus the ships guns. In retrospect I utterly failed this fight and should have opened up a wide orbit to kite and kill the drones and then move into the ships, but i sat in close orbit and got nuked to hell. But credit to them both for having the stones to come back to low-sec and bait the pirate. I really hope to meet these guys again. They were also so pleased that they killed me and got some T2 mods.

Rifter
I had seen this pilot in a couple of systems and managed to get the drop on him in a belt, he was young and appeared to be looking for a fight so I obliged, It was a good fight which whilst I think it was only going to go my way unless I did something stupid wasn't completely demoralising for him overkill and-blow-him-to-bits-in-5-seconds. Since the fight I have exchanged a few eve-mails with the pilot where we talked about the reasons he couldn't do full damage on me whilst i could on him and several other points. I wish him luck should he decide to go the fully fledged pirate route.

Hurricane
In a gang merrily roaming across the faction warfare zone, this Hurricane and a Brutix were spotted in a complex, as we warped in the Brutix was popped as it appears they were fighting and not working together. I made towards the ship, but had it's full firepower turned on me so moved out of range as my shields were stripped along with half my armour, once someone else was under fire I moved back in by which time he was in serious trouble as the rest of our gang had engaged. The pilot was not amused by the loss of his ship.

Arazu & Jaguar
Entering Amamake, now there was an experience. Talk about a hornets nest. Our bait went into a belt and found a whole host of evil stuff. An Arazu decloaked just near him and he pointed it, the rest of the gang jumped in heedless of the rest of the evil stuff there too, this was going to be a hit and run. The Arazu melted fast and so too did a Jaguar that strayed too close to us. As they popped a bunch of battleships landed, 3 Armageddons were sat together on my overview, scooping what loot we could we bugged out for no losses to our side.

Stabber
Back again in Heimatar I had a Stabber on scan, whilst he appeared to be at a belt on scan, he was not to be found. He must either be in a mission or perhaps a cosmic anomaly, doing a quick 30s scan, a single anomaly appeared. Smiling to msyelf I headed there post-haste but no! He's 60km away salvaging, I make maximum burn for him using my new overheat ability! I probably didn't need to as he didn't react to my presence until I started shooting him. I took 5% shield damage in the whole fight, after his ship was destroyed the language barrier proved too much for him to understand a ransom request so I podded him, not a moment to soon as there was a Jaguar landing as I exited stage left.

Catalyst
Back in faction warfare space within five minutes this guy was in a complex, he was a 2007 character so i though twice about engaging. I warped into the plex and he warped off. I chased him around a little then went to a deep safe, a couple of minutes later i went back to the complex to find he had returned. I took some heavy hits from his railguns on my way in but once under their tracking made short work of him. The pilot refused a ransom and was another corpse added to the collection.

Harpy
A small gang of Tuskers was now formed and a report of tackle on a Harpy was received. Two additional Rifters plus an Arazu went in, The Harpy took out the first two Rifters then started on me, making good ingress into my armour before he popped. He dropped a rather nice Faction Shield Booster plus we recovered all the modules from our fallen comrades wrecks. A nice net gain!

This time next week i'll be preparing the next character review, they do come around fast.

Explosions, more explosions!

This entries title will probably bring a cringe from any WoW players out there as the cry from Grand Mekengineer Thermaplugg at the end of Gnomeregan! But anyway I digress.

It has been a busy few days in terms of explosions, I've both killed some and lost some and had some really exciting and fun fights amongst them, I think I have lost most of the fun ones though to be honest! I have now come to see the value in Thermodynamics and the ability to overheat modules, which has led me to bring forward my training of Thermodynamic a couple of weeks due to losing a few fights that I could have won if I could overheat. All I am missing to commence training is Engineering V which is now underway and Thermodynamics will be at III by next weekend well on its way to IV. I've also been doing some work on training plans for other ships after the Rifter, but thats for its own post I think at some point in the hopefully near future.

Lets summarise recent events then:

Iteron
The friend of mine who convinced me to start playing EvE has a couple of accounts and one of them took delivery of their covops frigate the other day. He brought it over to Verge Vendor and found me an Iteron in a belt while I was out of system, meaning I could warp straight in to the right belt. Not a great deal to say other than that it had three shield boosters fitted, not entirely sure why he thought that was a good idea. He declined the ransom and set his Pod to self destruct so I saved him the trouble.

Rifter & Griffin
Reports came over voice comms that a frigate gang was in our home system and had warped to a belt, many of us scrambled to the belt and I made for the system and belt as quick as possible. I managed to land when only this Griffin & Rifter remained, we Podded the Rifter pilot but I beleive all the others got away with the Pods.

Hyperion & Megathron
While we were engaged with the frigate gang (above) these two Battleships started firing on a corp mate as he undocked, once the frigate gang was despatched we headed back to engage in a mix of ships, we all had GCC though so I did not have great hopes for my Rifters survival. The Hyperion was about to go down as I landed so I headed to get point on the Megathron. I caught him easily and soon enough the rest of the gang had him pointed too, at this time though the Sentries started firing on me so I bugged out just in time with 40% structure!

Armageddon
This chap one of our probers found in a Wormhole remote repping his Tower, our gang dropped on him like a ton of bricks and toasted him. We managed to extract a sizeable ransom from him to save his Pod & Tower, which I have just bought and fit 18 Rifters with!

Catalyst
Not alot to say about this one aside from his peculiar behaviour. I don't know whether he knew that I was following him but he landed at the top belt, warped off then the same at the second. I assumed that he warped as he was ratting and there were non present but when he died and I saw the mining fit I did scratch my head.

Three in a Row
This morning I logged in to test my sound as I have been having issues with it recently. I undocked with no sound but an Incursus on scan at a belt, feeling it would be rude not to say hi and went in and killed him & his Pod. I then saw another Incursus and an Iteron on scan at a beacon together, making myself known I roasted the Incursus first then the Iteron and of course their Pods. Epic fail on the Iteron loot drops :(. The latter incursus pilot did tell me that he didn't want to fight in local, but hey what's a pirate supposed to when people make it so easy?!

As I'd only logged on for a few minutes I did force myself to dock up and log even though the system kept filling up with ships I could go shoot. My willpower taking control for once.

So onto the losses, I'll be quick as this is getting to be a long post.

I lost a Gank fit Rifter after a tangle with a Dramiel, the Dramiel broke off once I had toasted his Warrior II's it was just after that I sighted another Rifter in a belt and went for it. It was reasonably close but I didn't break through all of his armour (about 10% to go). I can only say in my defence that I hadn't recoved from the Dramiel and was flying a Gank fit Rifter which I still don't like. I think I only have one more to lose now :)

I lost a crap fit Rifter in a very exciting fight vs an older player in a Tracking Disruptor fit Rifter. This was very close and Thermodynamics would have won the day for me if I had the skill!

I lost a Rifter I had just picked up from Bosena when I fought the Rifter from loss 1 above, this was so close coming down to who got their volley in first. It was that close that I thought I had won when I heard the explosion! Sadly I was looking at my Pod, he confirmed finishing on 27% structure. I had capped out several times, so better cap skills or Theromdynamics would have saved the day.

The two latter losses were exhilarating fights which I really enjoyed despite losing.

I feel like I have missed covering a few things, but I can alwats write them up in another post if or indeed when they come back to me.

The Artillery PVP Rifter - Initiation

Yes, a strange post title and indeed combining the artillery and pvp in the same sentence. More on that later.

Quite a few kills in the last few days so a quick summary of them:

Vexor
I decided to jump clone back to Heimatar a for a 24 hour stint back in my "old stomping grounds" and looking in my hangar I remembered that before I headed off to pastures new with The Tuskers I had bought fit some PVP Artillery Rifters but had yet to test them. So I set off in one and eventually came across a Vexor in a cosmic anomaly. My heart sank a bit when he was 130km away and I was Afterburner fit. Worth a try anyway I deemed as there were plenty of rats closer than I so I might be able to close before I appeared on his overview. Keeping a close eye on him he was aligned to warp out but he either can't have seen me or assumed I had a short point fitted as I pointed him from 20km and settled into a wide orbit. My modest damage plus that of the rats was more then he could handle and he died quickly. I took out his Pod too when he wasn't paying the ransom.

Raven
I was missing my Corp mates so jumped back to Verge Vendor at the earliest opportunity. A Raven was spotted in a mission nearby, If I recall a 2006 character. A prober came a soon dug him out upon which we went in and took him out very quickly. His Pod went too when he was quite rude in our ransom discussions. I assume looking at the fit that he either must have been inactive some of his lifetime or that perhaps the character had been sold to another player. Triple tank type hull repairing Raven ftw amirite?

Rifter
Hevrice and its neighbouring systems are in Faction Warfare zone and there are quite a number of plexes and missions spawning. I decided to wait on one while doing some scanning and this little Rifter warped right onto the acceleration gate with me. I had advised the corp that he was inbound and two other fleet members landed to whore the killmail, unfortunately pirate willpower didn't hold long enough for the fourth member of the fleet to get on the mail and he got toasted no matter how much I kept asking for people to hold fire. He got away with his Pod though.

Myrmidon
Keeping my eyes on the scanner I saw this Myrm on scan before it docked up. I advised corp so they decided to undock a few ships on him as he undocked. Unfortunately as Rifters are not so good at tanking Sentry Guns I merely warped in to get on the Killmail and then warped out again. I look forward to the day I have something big enough to participate in.

Drake
Last night I logged in to find a T1 Frigate gate in action in Old Man Star. I headed out to join them as quick as I could. They had taken quite a toll on the locals by the time I arrived, listening to three ships being killed just while I was on my way! Unfortunately the killmails for two Incursus we got before this Drake that we killed are missing somewhere in the ether. This Drake and a Thorax were at a Faction Warfare mission that had spawned so we engaged, unfortunately it was a trap and we got obliterated, but not before taking the Drake down for the loss of three T1 frigs. Not a bad swap.

Imicus
I saw this on a gate and was certain it was bait for a trap so I jumped through the gate to have a looksee. Nothing on the other side so I jumped back through and killed it while the pilot must have been afk. I took out his Pod too so I guess he wasn't a happy bunny when he came back. I still have no idea what he was doing there though!

Rupture
This fellow was in Hevrice, I think the only unfriendly in the system at the time so I don't really know why he hung around. Heedless we proceeded to work on scanning him down and when we got very close to 100% he warped away. Not to worry though as within a minute or so a corp mate called point and warp to Romeo. A whole bunch of us blobbed him and saved Romeo's Exequeror from a sticky end (Cheer \o/) so the Rupture died fast. We snagged the Pod too when the pilot declined the ransom opportunity.

Merlin
I found this fellow in a Faction Warfare mission complex and discovered him 70ish km away. I reported it to corp anyway and a couple of corp mates were in the vicinity so tried to get there before I or he died. I was gratified to see him engage me, but it was a very close fight. I was capped out by the end and at 99% Structure but once I had broken his shield it was game over for him. Noir managed to get a single volley off at him but my other Corp mate didn't quite get a lock in time and I wasn't in a state to hold fire.

Catalyst
The final kill for this review is a 2 month old player in a Catalyst, frankly me getting this was pure chance as I picked up a Catalyst on scan as I left a gate. I knew he wasn't at the gate so took a guess at one of the belts on scan and warped straight there. I landed 3km from him and it was a quick death for his ship. I attempted a 5m ransom from him but he said had no money so I sent him via the Pod express.

To return to the title of this post relating to the Artillery Rifter, I can say that tracking is an issue. DPS is still reasonable as I think I get 93 from it. I will try versions with tracking rigs rather than falloff in future to see how much that helps. The trump to this ship will be Frigates with MWD's but they seem to be fairly rare. Of course the major weakness of this is the tank as it's paper thin but I'll lose a few and then decide whether to keep refining it or whether to ditch it for now like I did with the "Gank" Rifter.

In other news, yesterday was a sad day for The Tuskers. Wensley a long time and (in)famous? member left. The hole he leaves I am sure will be a large one but I wish him all the best in his 0.0 adventures. Although I didn't get to fly with Wensley, I'm sure those that have read his blog will feel like they have.

You know when sometimes...

You know when sometimes you just shouldn't say some things.

Like when you say "This vase has been in our family for generations"

Then you turn around and knock it off the shelf, smashing it into tiny pieces. Well, the last few days since I posted about the Cap Boosted Rifter have been a bit like that. You see, I almost knew it would happen too, and that from the moment I sang its praises it was doomed. So here follows the highs and lows:

I'm watching local and see a pilot in system in a Rifter, I recognise his name as someone I killed a few weeks back and thus decide to go play tag with him. I eventually locate him as he must have been docked up. He's in a belt with a Catalyst and a Stabber. None of the belts occupants were Tuskers so I report the activity to the Corp and jump on in myself. The Catalyst had popped by the time that I landed and the Stabber was engaging the Rifter. The Rifter pops as I'm 30km away from the Stabber. I report this to the corp too incase anyone else fancies a look. The Stabber engages me and I maintain a distance around 20km to attempt to wear down his cap through his use of the MWD. I'm taking a fair bit of damage but coping well enough until a couple of corp mates lands in the belt. The Stabber is taking damage fast and I want to get on the KM so hit . . . approach. Like an idiot. Certainly enough my dear old Rifter went boom and I was kicking myself. I'd also failed to attempt to use any hostile effects on the Stabber with him being so far away so didn't get on the KM either. Bah! At least the Stabber died.

The "Macro haulers" that pass through Hevrice have a new tactic it seems, they are posting noobships at the gate and setting them merrily dawdling off 340km from the gates to scout for their haulers. Of course being that far from the gates, the gate guns can't hit an aggressor. So I set off after one of them in a cheap throwaway fit, unfortunately as I'm 50km from the gate a couple of frigs jump in and decide they don't like me. They MWD after me as I'm trying to warp away but stop me in my tracks. The Rifter catches me first and is taking a fair toll. I think I could have perhaps taken him out if it weren't for the Tristan catching me tackling and setting his Warrior II on me as I had the Rifter down to half armour. Another Rifter down the drain.

Later in the evening I'm on a roam with a corp fleet and we find a mission running Megathron. He's a 2004 character but his fits is nothing short of appalling which has to suggest that the account can't have been either his all that time or active all that time. After a bit of dodging some larger fleets that were in the area we jumped in and took it down very fast. The pilot lost his Pod too, unwilling to pay the ransom.

Logging in yesterday I set off shooting the noobships that are on the gates taking out three Impairors and the pilots Pod twice too. Afterwards a gang is formed up and we head off. This gang ultimately ends up in a fight outside a station, first our "bait" blows up an Arbitrator before the cavalry arrives (I missed the KM), what happens next is rather strange as a Curse appears in front of the station and agresses. Again I don't target him before he is gone in a pretty explosion followed by his Pod, apparently the pilot lost around 2.5bn in implants from full +5% hardwirings along with a high grade slave set! I missed both KM's again though, Grrrr! The Curse pilot says that lag killed him, but I swear I have never heard that lag spikes launch your drones? The pilots in the station however won the day by undocking in one, then two and then three battlecruisers which ripped our small ship gang to pieces quick smart before we could effect an escape.

Last thing before logging last night we encountered a small gang of Zealot, Dominix, Guardian & Pilgrim on a gate. They agressed us and the Zealot went down, but not before the pilot BBQ'd my Rifter in around 4 salvos, along with Noir's Rifter soon after. We didn't have quite enough in our gang to break break the guardian so a tactially withdrawal was ordered.

Hail the cap boosted Rifter!

First and foremost I do have to say how much I am pleased with my decision to join the Tuskers, its been really enjoyable so far and I don't see any reason for that changing.

I've gotten in on a few skills since my Christmas day post, so without further rambling here we go:

I'm following a pilot in an Iteron "Mark something" who isn't a macro player out of the station and he appeared to warp to a belt. I follow him and sure enough he is trying to turn around and warp somewhere else. I waste no time in locking him and tackling him. At 30% armour he warps away, so he must be stabbed. However a look at local shows the pilot is no longer online. I decide to wait in the belt for him to log back in as local is predominantly friendly. I soon notice a Stabber on scan and the ship designation doesn't match any I am familiar with. I suspect that he is weighing up his options as to whether he can jump to the belt and kill me before any help can be sent to my aid. A minute or two later he lands in the belt with me and engages. I kill his drone first and then its a matter of whether indeed he can kill me before help arrives. My little Rifter is doing an admirable job of repping back the damage aided in no small part by its cap booster. It holds out long enough for both the cavalry to arrive and for us to take down the Stabber. Had I been without the cap booster I would have lost this fight and the cavalry may not have arrived in time to take out the Stabber. Although we didn't get a returned "gf" in local afterwards, I did get a mail later on commending the Tuskers and giving that "gf".

A Rifter is spotted in a neighbouring system who seems to have cottoned on to the fact that we are trying to pin him down. The pilot hunting him leaves the system and I jump in to see if I can get him to engage me in another Rifter. The pilot acknowledges my presence as a blogger in local immediately. I warp around the system a little and he states in local that I can come fight him at the Sun, I am in warp to a belt at the time and local is quiet so I warp to the sun, find him and we tackle each other. I report this to the other two fleet members sat on the other side of the gate and they are soon on their way to me. I'm asked not to kill him before they arrive so I turn off my weapons which gives him time to rep from 30% armour back to full while I still tank his damage (hurray for the cap booster again). The fleet lands and I resume fire, it's looking close and he pops while I have 40% hero tank remaining. The pilot comments that it wasn't fair as he thought he would only fight me, I am confident that had I not ceased dps to await the fleet he'd have died much quicker and it wouldn't have been close at all. He was unfortunate enough to lose his Pod afterwards, we did not attempt a ransom as local spiked and we decided to GTFO so he was sent express style to the clone vats.

A Catalyst was spied in the home system, we get quite alot of them. A corp mate and I determined to find him located him after a couple of minutes at a belt. He and his Pod died swiftly.

Logging in last night I picked up a Myrmidon on scan as I exited the station, thinking he must be in a mission I warped to a scan spot to confirm, I joined a fleet in a neighbouring system incase I found the Myrm and wanted backup. The fleet were busy finishing off a couple of pilot's at the time. Rubbing my eyes in disbelief a couple of times as it appeared that the Myrm was ratting. I went straight in after it, the pilot was pretty young. He was tackled quickly and I reported it the the fleet. I kept fire on his drones when they were deployed. applying some damage to his ship when I could. His Drones would probably have killed me before backup arrived were it not for my beloved cap booster keeping my tank running (<3). Backup landed and the Myrm went down quickly to the 5 Rifter based hulls assailing it. The pilot decided to mess around with the ransom request so was sent quickly to his clone bay of choice.

Being the only Tusker pilot in our home system as another Catalyst decided he wanted to go ratting I felt it my duty to defend the belts from the evil Catalyst, the pilot may have been new, but clearly required educating. It didn't take long to find, destroy and Pod him.

Two things are clear in my mind after I have written this;
1, The new fleet finder system is great for corp fleets.
2, The cap-boosted Rifter may lack a web but its survivability as a tackler is excellent.

Which Battleship?

A very quiet couple of days for me, seasonal workload and commitments plus being away last weekend meant that I haven't had much time online again. I did catch a couple of kills, a Catalyst who foolishly shot at me while I was trying to get a Thorax at a gate to shoot me (the Thorax warped off)and an Amarr Shuttle that was sat on a Faction Warfare complex gate for some odd reason, yeah a SHUTTLE! Go me . . . ;)

I have been thinking lately that I should train up a Battleship for nuking things like POS's, not for roaming piracy. We're talking pretty basic fit for the time being. What I would be interested to hear is which Tier 1, non-faction Battleship gives the best sustained DPS. I'm not fussed if it's not Minmatar. If you have a recomendation of a fit to match your suggestion of ship then that would be super!

After my comment about being very poor in the isk stakes I stumbled into a faction rat cruiser yesterday that dropped me a Faction medium armor repairer & a Low Grade Snake implant. Once sold, these two will go a long way towards that Battleship, so I look forward to hearing your comments.

PS, everyone have a nice Christmas if I don't post again beforehand

First Fleet with the Tuskers

The last few days had been spent placing jump clones in the required places and setting up the hardware in some of those locations. That done I decided to go and have a poke around to set up some safe spots etc. While creating some bookmarks in Hevrice I scanned a Catalyst down to a belt, on warping in he had gotten himself trapped amongst the 'roids, he was around 20km away but couldn't escape for bumping off rocks. I saved him the trouble of getting himself out of the belt by taking away two of his obstacles, his ship & his Pod and thus giving him an express trip straight back to his cloning facility. Not wanting to get stuck between the rocks myself I stopped 5km away and just blew him to bits.

Afterwards I joined with an ad-hoc fleet of Tuskers. I spied a Drake at a FW complex and upon reporting it to the fleet the FC he instructed that we go and pay him a visit. He was quickly tackled and pulverised, I'm not sure whether he primaried me but I was just into armour when it popped. He paid the ransom to save his Pod and was bade farewell. There was mention of moving to a neighbouring system so I warped to the gate, forgetting about my GCC my Rifter got smashed to bits by the gate guns. Fortunately a corp mate was able to recover the few modules that survived (thank you).

Returning to the station I got into one of my stash of "Cheap & Expendable Ships" (Meta 2 fit with no rigs), until finances allow my T2 fit Rifters will have to be just for solo work. Can't really afford to lose them to gate guns like that. All my isk does tend to come from Piracy, perhaps with a few rats killed here and there to try and get some nice faction drops. Thus my isk supply is very scarce, were talking a balance of less than 5m normally.

The gang moved on and on our travels we found several ships, some were destroyed by the gang before I could even lock & shoot! but I did manage to get on a few killmails. Though I missed the Merlin KM, I got in on the Pod's. I completely missed a Thrasher & Pod kill but did manage to get on another Catalyst & Pod mail. My evening ended playing cat & mouse with a Taranis at a FW mission warp gate. I was designated to tackle him, which although I did the contents of the mission decided they took umbrage to me and I went down very quickly. I'm thinking that a heavily tanked cheap Rifter could be worth looking into, maybe with no offensive capability? I headed home after the Taranis nuked my ship but was pleased to hear that the fleet destroyed the Taranis after I had gone down.

My first Tusker fleet was what I expected it to be I think, excellent, especially considering that the FC was FC'ing for the first time. I was pleased to be a part of it and am sure that I'll be in a lot more to come.

Going to Clone Jump again soon I think to roam my normal space lanes and hopefully make some isk. I have a few erm, controversial Rifter fits in Heimatar that really need testing. There's probably a good reason you never see the fits I am testing anywhere but we'll see how they go and you can all laugh at them when they show up on killmails. I have a couple of cheap fit ones to learn in with Meta 2 gear and no rigs and a couple of T2 ones once I hopefully work out how to best fly them!

Slim Pickings

A morning free of work as I'm in until late I needed to make the most of my morning on EVE before daily downtime, just a couple of hours play time. Expecting it to be very quiet I was not proven wrong. The majority of the time being the only capsuleer in the systems I roamed. I did manage to snag a couple of kills, though only one was a true kill.

I noticed a Catalyst in system but he soon jumped out. I had no idea where he went but had a 1 in 3 chance of being correct so making my choice I jumped. Bingo, lady luck had smiled. He had warped towards a gate to hi-sec but did not appear to have warped to zero, I picked him up on long range directional scan at the gate. I warped after him on the off chance he was autopiloting, not that I could fire first due to the sentry guns. When I arrived he was there, I wanted to get him to agress me so settled into an orbit around him locking him. Using my camera drones I could see that he had activated his shield booster so I knew the pilot was at the helm, after a few second he warped away. Assessing his trajectory I again had a 1 in 3 chance of selecting the right destination. Choosing belt 1 I engaged warp. Coming out of warp 1500m away from him. He went down fast and didn't even shoot me once (because he had no ammo judging by the killmail). I managed to snag his pod too which keeps me heading nicely towards -10 security status.

My other kill which wasn't really a true kill was an Amarr Rookie ship which had been abandoned by a Moon. Yes I really was bored enough to scan it down and blow it up!