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!

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!

An audience with the Roughnecks

Earlier this week some myself and some fellow Tuskers had some great fun. A number of us had noticed as were passing through the Aeschee solar system that there were more than the regular number of Roughneck battleships in space, it was also apparent that a lot of Roughnecks had GCC. They were shooting a POS, a POS belonging to Devious Decorum. Devious are some of our neighbours, a fellow pirate corp who we lock horns with frequently. Anyway, we didn't have the numbers to do anything about a battleship fleet so we just kept tabs on them.

A little while after the POS bashing had been noticed a member of Devious had convoed a fellow Tusker and we agreed to lend some assistance against our mutual target The Roughnecks. Most Tuskers shipped into BC's where possible except for Noir & myself who either can't fly (me) or didn't have one ready to go (Noir). Joining with the Devious fleet the fun commenced. We warped in, Noir and I charging around the field getting points. A few of the BS's escaped as only really had two tacklers at the start. It wasn't long before we had laid waste to the field, however a number of the Roughnecks reshipped and returned to the field at range. Burning out across distances of 100km to get points Noir & I were like blue arsed flies charging around and holding them in place while the BC's blew them to pieces for us. I had a dicey moment with a Tempest where I was completed neuted, webbed & scrammed with drones on me. Into 50% armour and logistics saved me \o/. We got a few Pods too which was cool. Roughnecks deployed a Nidhoggur Carrier to the field and Devious escalated themslves dropping Killer Chick's Nyx Supercarrier onto the field which absolutley destroyed the Nid in a incredibly quick time. A smaller number of the Roughnecks returned to the field again and were summarily despatched. Praise where praise is due must go to the Devious logistics pilots who did an excellent job.

After the fight, Devious had lost two BC's, Tuskers lost nothing \o/ and Roughnecks lost 21 ships/pods to the tune of 4.4bn isk as you can see in the report below:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=6821680

Fun times!

In other news, my Dramiel is still kicking ass 58 kills according to our killboard in it so far, not sure if that includes pods :)

On the subject of killing Pods, I have passed the landmark of 200 podkills. In a rare moment of not podkilling yesterday I obtained a ransom of 100m isk from a 2007 player who i had releived of his Ishkur.

AT8 round 2 this weekend, day 1 some some shockers (two smartbomb teams and Erebus no show) and some of the commentating is just so bad from the newer presenters :(. Tusker team is up again this afternoon vs Dead Terrorists with hopes of doing better than last week, I wish the team good luck, may your Mega-pulses strike true.

All in all it's been a good week!

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!

The Hunter Became the Hunted

Today I had a days holiday form work so I it was a fair no-brainer for me to have an EvE day.

It was a quiet morning before downtime with a few people evading me in a Rifter and two Hulks. Jumping into my home system I found local crowded with a couple of people at POS's, a couple of old pirates docked up and a single "target" player. Deciding that it wasn't worth the risk of being jumped by the older pirates I left the target alone and moved on to the next system over.

The next system over was empty, so I warped to a gate many AU's away. Just as I arrived at the gate the target I had seen jumped into this system. Pulling a U-turn in my Rifter I headed back to a scanning safe. To be disappointed by one of the aforementioned old pirates jumping in aswell. Holding at my safe he didn't stay long and must have only been passing through, I set about scanning for the Rupture.

On a related topic, I don't know what happened to the fear of Ruptures I previously held, I seem to be rather gung-ho about attacking them lately!

Anyway, I digress. Eventually the Rupture turned up at a belt, I assume he had been in a safe. Warping into the belt my heart sank a bit when I saw him 35km away. Putting the pedal to the metal (If Rifters have pedals?) I closed the distance as quick as possible. Using the camera zoom I noticed he was moving away from me, but not aligned with anything, at 12km he turned and I thought he was leaving.

I got my lock and scram in before he could and we both started taking shield damage, he dropped a bunch of hammerheads on me along with a Nos, Neut, Web & Scram. This didn't look good! Primarying the Hammerheads I took a couple out before they were recalled, my cap had gone and I was struggling to hold scram and I could forget about the AB. Where I could I grabbed a Rep cycle and everytime my cap-booster had reloaded I dropped a new charge into the Capacitor. I was quickly down to below half armour. Taking care of the last Hammerheads I started applying damage to the Rupture itself. Damage on me at this point had dropped massively thanks to there being no more drones. My opponent was still getting the occasional Neut cycle out but he was clearly capped out but I made pretty quick progress down to half structure when I needed to reload. Slapping in new clips of ammo I resumed the offensive and at around 10% structure the pilot requested me to stop guns for 10m isk. Before I had time to reply the Rupture was a pretty explosion and I locked down the Pod. Deciding to offer a Ransom of 10m isk (see what I did there?) we agreed and I received the ransom and let him away with a day pass.

After the fight and good fights exchanged the pilot wanted to chat so I warped away to a safe. We spoke awhile about the fight and it turned out that he was a friend of the Stabber & Scythe pilots who I came across last weekend. I blew up his friends Scythe and Pod and the Stabber got away. He had been trying to hunt me down for a couple of days. This suprised me as I had no idea that I was being hunted! Perhaps we will lock horns again some time.

The overriding factor of this fight for me was that the Cap-Booster had once again saved my ass big-time.

Afk Stabber

By chance this evening I stumbled across a Stabber sat afk at a planet. I was sure he would be in a belt but alas it was not be, thinking to myself that he can't be at the planet I checked to make sure. There sat some 50km from my warp in point was said Stabber. Approaching at full burn there was still no reaction. I left targetting to the last minute so as not to scare him off and land my point. Settling into orbit I starting pecking at his shields, they went down very slow, incredibly so in fact. I actually wondered if I could break them with my measly 27 (I think) DPS. I noticed then that he had started boosting... so he was there. Chewing to 75% took one full hopper of EMP ammo, things starting going quicker down to around 60% when after calling for help in local he realised we were the only two pilots in the system. He asked me how much to leave him alone so I switched off my guns but holding the point web & nos, I countered asking what he would offer. After receipt of my 8 million isk I let him go about his business.

Quite a profitable evening