So, umm, Hi.....?

Well, it's been a while hasn't it....

Subsequent to my last post two and a half years ago a lot has changed!

I've had lots of real-life changes and boy has EVE changed. Hopefully a few of your stalwarts are still out in space. I've seen that good old Miura Bull & Kirith Kodachi are still out there and several familiar faces still in the Tuskers. o/ guys.

Out of game I've moved house several times, got married, and got a Spinger Spaniel (Humphrey). I'm still living in Cornwall in the UK though and still work at the same place too. Though I can't remember what job I had back then so guess that might be different now. Can't imagine leaving Cornwall.

In game, well much of my last post still stands really. Ship changes galore and the trusty Rifter isn't too well balanced against the other T1 frigs out there anymore. Crimewatch changes and how much are plexes nowadays? Over a billion iskies! There are loads more changes but summary to say I felt like that noob just logging in in the first week of play wondering where to start.

Thankfully I've persevered and am enjoying EVE again. I've been back through most of my ships in Hevrice and brutally pulled them apart in an effort to find loadouts that will work. Old rigging had to be scrapped as they just weren't appropriate anymore and one hell of a shopping list from Jita! I can't say that it all works, but it's a start and I'll learn and tweak accordingly.

Coming back to EVE I found that Kirith wasn't in the Tuskers. It wasn't a big surprise as inactive members are periodically removed from Corp. As I'd left a post on the corp forums before I un-subbed I was allowed to reapply and rejoin the Tuskers. It still feels like home and has the same air about it. I haven't had much opportunity to get on corp comms yet sadly as my headset had befallen some mischief wile I've been away and frankly sounded to other that I was in a blowing gale when i spoke. New headset arrived yesterday so all sorted on that front now.

Now, being back in the Tuskers there aren't many members still based out of Hevrice. Lots of members have moved several jumps away and are based there. Hevrice still feels like home to me though and I'm a little reluctant to move. That's saying nothing of the roughly 100 fitted and rigged ships I have there in my hangar! No small feat to move even with a couple of carriers at my disposal. I'm slowly moving a few hulls over but it's going to take time to work out what I want to house there.

Since playing properly three years ago I trained a number of skills I can't remember even thinking about while not quite being active and in space. I keep being surprised at having things like Electronic Attack Frigate at V for example. Coupled with my own  skills there are new ones that I can train and new modules that exist. Hull rigs, drone damage mods to name just two examples. I have so much to learn!

Anyway, I've waffled quite a bit for this post so hope to be back with more to say. Back to spaceship violence and to add to my kill tally for September, 76 so far!

See you soon

Facing a cliff

Hi There,

Not entirely sure how many people are still following me as its been a while since my last entry. My apologies for going dark with no notice.

Though my accounts never lapsed I was not in game properly until recently. Much has happened over the last few months out of EVE. Things like moving house again coupled with a huge uplift in workload.

I doubt I'll return to the levels of play I had previously, but this is EVE and you never can swear to things like that. I have decided that live streaming has to be parked as I can't justify the space on a dual screen rig plus my new house doesn't get fibre broadband yet.

Anyhow, I wanted to talk about my experience in coming back to the game.

Returning to EVE has been hard. I return to be met with changes to most ships I can fly. Additionally I have many ships in my hangar all of which were fit and are now equipped with obsolete fits. The crimewatch changes also happened changing the aggression and flagging rules.

So where do you begin when confronted by this degree if change?

Crimewatch perhaps is the least disruptive as I have flown how I used to and suffered no unexpected problems. I do like that you can now dock safely after fighting in a belt. I still have little clue about the changes though.

The changes in ship roles and stats. Well that's a bit more frustrating as although I'm learning I still know little about the changes made to ships I'm warping in on. Obviously this also affects my choice of ship to undock too. I've found that I'm undocking ships that haven't changed like the Rifter and losing them easily against newly tweaked opposition.

To overcome this problem I've decided to basically get everything in my hangar exploded and start over building load outs from scratch again. I will have to refit many ships in my hangar with weird and sub-optimal fits to lose them but I guess that's part of the price of taking such a long unplanned break.

Enjoy reaping my ships!

o7

Sustainable Solo Piracy

Prompted by some recent posts by fellow bloggers and also by a couple of conversations I've had with other players in game on the question of whether solo piracy can be self sustaining I figures I'd talk about it a little.

I've always held aspirations for Kirith to be self sustaining, well that overstates it actually. It would be better to say that when I started out with Kirith I wanted him to be self sufficient. For the first eight months he actually was. Somewhat coincidentally this change in sustainability occurred around the time I joined The Tuskers!

As I've said before, out of EVE I'm an accountant which tends to result in me wanting to create a spreadsheet for pretty anything EVE related. Therefore it probably wouldn't surprise you that I maintain a log on a spreadsheet of every ship I've flown which links directly to the kills it caused and the isk efficiency of every ship. Sad, yes. True, also yes.

Overall Kirith's efficiency when we look at the cost of losses versus the income generated from module drops from those I've destroyed it appears that my piracy career has cost me around of 800 million isk, this while my actual lifetime efficiency is incredibly high at around 95%.

So what useful conclusions can be drawn from all this information which I have at my disposal?

Statistics by hull type:
Assault Frigate: 92% efficiency, Isk loss of 382 million
Battlecruiser: 98% efficiency, Isk loss of 133 million
Battleship: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 156 million
Cruiser: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 167 million
Destroyer: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 35 million
Faction Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk loss of 136 million
Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 155 million

Kirith doesn't really fly ships with added bling, so very few faction or deadspace modules have formed part of this isk sink. I consider that I fit ships fairly frugally albeit not as much as I once did, but still I mostly fit a meta scram over T2 on the basis of cost vs benefit.

Kiriths drop into negative efficiency occurred when I started flying T2 frigates, by the third Jaguar loss all my months profitable flying had been undone. Granted, I state a cost to me of 800 million isk which is not the truest reflection as it ignores the ransoms of over 600m which I've received over my career.

There are other pursuits which a soloist can do while actively hunting. A couple of examples being ratting and anomalies, the rewards while certainly not high are reasonable and are an excellent way of getting people to fight you.

When I first set out as a pirate I needed all the isk I could get, I meta 2 fit my Rifter and they cost me less than a million isk each. I also ratted despite originally not actually being able to destroy a Battleship rat in my low skilled Rifter. In addition I looted everything, including making return trips if necessary. None of these secondary income streams are reflected above.

Now that I have other income sources I'm far less concerned with sustainability almost to the point where I don't think about it at all. If I wanted to be more sustainable and efficient I would stick with fleets and gang work. This strays from my heart which is more of a soloist and as I like to fly with some degree of reckless abandon it would change the way I play the game significantly.

Can piracy be self sustainable? Simply put, yes it can but with some considerations:

• Fly T1 hulls, preferably small ones.
• Carefully fit your ships and don't spend where you don't need to.
• Balance the risks when considering your targets.
• Some ratting doesn't hurt, when you find yourself with a Battleship rat pop it for an easy 500k isk.

Factoids

• Most profitable ship: S&M Freak, an armour tanked Thrasher bringing home a profit of 61 million isk.
• Biggest loss: Duellist, an active tanked Tempest I took out to spring a trap which got swiftly overwhelmed losing me 156 million isk.
• Most efficient ship: A cheap meta fit cookie cutter Rifter which took down 257 million isk total in five  ships back in 2010, achieved efficiency of 96.3% as it only cost me 955k isk in hull plus fittings!

Any stat's you'd like to know, shout out

Grumblecub Revisited

Although the first part of my EVE career was totally dominated with maximising my skillset to support flying the Rifter, I seldom find that I take to the space lanes in it. That's not to say by any margin that my skills have been wasted as the vast majority of the skills are totally transferrable to oither vessels.

Recently the Merlin & Incursus seem to have the edge over the Rifter thanks to their recent buff. Taking my preferred fit, the mighty Grumblecub out for a spin I found no Merlins nor Incursus but did run into other Rifters, proving that it popularity isn't totally a thing of history.

It wasn't until I did this that I quite realised just how at home I feel behind the sticks of the Rifter. The sheer firepower of this monster catches many by surprise. 198 dps from Grumblecub under overheat, a pity I can't edge it over 200...

It may now be outclassed and easily beaten, but it's akin to a blood relation to me and I really must fly it more often.

May 2012 Character Review

Is it just me, or did the last month fly by seemingly very quickly? Straight down to business then with the statistics for the last month:

50 Ship kills (31 Solo)

16 Pod kill (13 Solo)

2,559,261,053 Isk cost to victims (140,637,816 Isk received in loot)

8 Ships Lost

0 Pods Lost

211,192,519 Isk lost in value of ships destroyed

(70,554,703) Isk lost for the month

As you can see from the kills & losses above I've been far more active in game this month than I was the previous month, something I'm very pleased with. I have also flown far more recklessly which shows in the losses. Despite losing isk in the month when comparing kills & losses I've had a lot of fun in the process and that's what matter ultimately to me.

The ships I lost were:

1 x 400mm plated Rifter, a great 1v1 against a Merlin. In an effort to streamline my hangar I've been flying some ships with old fits that have been gathering dust. Despite this I've found some great fights, like this one.

1 x Suicide thrasher, a took a little part in the early stages of Hulkageddon. Actually I lost three Thrashers but 2 don't count in Corp as they were killed by Concord. I can't say I "enjoy" ganking but it was an interesting change for a day or two.

1 x Hawk, I engaged a Prophecy in a belt and whilst the brain said he's likely bait I wen't for it anyway. My Hawk died swiftly to him.

1 x Hurricane, Going back for revenge on the Prophecy I land with him, unfortunately for me he calls in a couple of Tornados to help leaving me buggered. Can't blame him and a fun twist.

1 x Vengeance, my first outing in the Vengeance was with a potential new Tusker, we roamed down to Heimatar where we ended up in a 7 vs 2 engagement. This tough little nut amazed me and we didn't go down without one of the best fights I've had in recent memory.

1 x Rupture, lost in when I managed to land right on top of a Talos. Quick and messy loss.

1 x Vigil, pretty lolfit. One evening a few of us went out in frigates for fun and I decided to try and lose this contraption which I did by getting one-shotted by a Thrasher.

1 x Stabber, on a long roam I ran into an EVE University gang in Heimatar. Jammed scrammed then deaded but this Cruiser amazed me by taking out an Enyo!

Here's what Kirith's skill chart looks like this month:

These are the skills that Kirith has completed training of this month:

Gallente Drone Specialization IV
Minmatar Battleship IV

Minmatar Battleship is still cooking and gets finished on Friday, right on cue for the roam I hope to take out. Might even buy something silly to lose on it, it's only isk right? Anyone have any thoughts on Fleet Tempest & Machariel fits out there.....?

After Minmatar BS V completes it's on to Heavy Drones all the way to V which will take me just about into July all being well.

I haven't prioritised trading this month, netting just 66m in profits. The market scene is still all over the place I find when not looking at it daily. My future capital pilot diversified into PI some more and has trained for an Iteron V to make the process easier. Now done with that she's back to training for the Thanatos. Speaking of which I've taken the first steps towards acquisition of the ship so more on that one day in the future. PI though is my carebear activity of choice and I'm pleased with the returns I'm getting which is the main cause of my lessened focus on station trading.

Total Ransoms Received: 555,360,662.30 Isk (5m Isk received in the month)
Battleclinic Rank:  447 (+25) 

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.

We'll return to you after this short message...

Thanks to to my readers who have "put up" with my posts about station trading recently. I know it's quite different from the norm but after two weeks I have run my case study and after this post normal order will be restored.

To review then the station trading case study....

After two weeks of station trading without leaving a station once I made a meagre 1.5m isk. Now this clearly isn't much and wouldn't even buy you a T2 Rifter.

Before simply laughing and ignoring this exercise consider these points:

• I started with just the basic starting isk, anyone doing this in reality would invest starter capital and massively increase immediate profitability. My two alts on the same account as Kirith have a capital invested of around 35m isk each and use just 5 market orders. They each yield regular daily almost passive income of 2-3m isk.
• Doing this exercise took about 3 minutes per day.
• If you did this on your two alt accounts that's pretty much one T2 Rifter per day for 6 minutes work!

Back to normal now, promise!

First Day Back

So this evening upon getting home from work I got my home pc and laptop setup to play eve. After that was done I was left with only 90 minutes to play spaceships. Less time than I would like, but that frequently tends to be the case!

So I log back in and am in Adirain. Sat in station in my Breacher (of doom!), I have three other ships in station. All BC's which is odd as I normally only keep one in Adirain along with a Rifter & Cruiser. I notice I need a clone upgrade and decide to do that later.

Local is busy but everyone is docked in station with me. I decide now is a good time to move my prober back to low-sec from Villore. Before my absence I made the mistake of allowing my sisters combat probes to time out in space and had needed to buy more.

Villore being next to Old Man Star I jumped in. Now being I a Covops I expected to be safe....

Wrong! Whether I failed/lagged or was too close to one of the campers when I jumped through I don't know. I selected my warp to target then  my cloak broke after I activated it. Instantly locked an popped, I was amazed to get the Pod out tbh.

So I turned around and went to Dodixie to replace my Covops in exchange for 30m iskies. This time I headed back to low-sec via a different route! Safely!

Anyway, back to Kirith. After my prober shenanigans are done I undock in a Drake, Adirain is busy but little in space. A Sentinel, Rifter, Thrasher, Arbitrator, Tristan are all in system at different times but I fail to nuke any of them.

The arbitrator warps away as I land with him. the Tristan swiftly pulls range, picks on a Warrior II and then warps off in armour. The Thrasher pulls range as I attack him on station and escapes.

Other notable(ish) events in Adirain were being yellow boxed by a neutral Hurricane on the high-sec gate until he got bored and jumped out as BC vs BC with gate guns on their side isn't a fight I'd choose! And I blew up a Covetor and his Pod.

I eventually decided to return to Hevrice to downsize ship. On my way one system out I cross jumped an 8 man gang coming the other way. Lucky timing! Docking up I switched to a Thrasher as another small gang jumped into Hevrice.

Undocking I warped to a watch point on the Jov gate to get eyes on their fleet and fed back their fleet composition over vent as Sulei had formed a BC fleet to counterattack. The gang jumped from Hev to Jov and then on into Aeschee. In Aeschee the two enemy gangs engaged each other. Sulei put the Tusker gang in Jov on the Aeschee gate and jumped in to the two gangs. Meanwhile I was busy reshipping to a Drake and making my way to the Tusker fleet.

Sadly by the time I arrived the gangs were broken and had scattered and I missed out on the mails.

So, not the busiest or most explosive of evenings but it's good to be back.

November 2011 Character Review

Hi again, still working through my backlog of blog topics whilst adding some to the list. It feels like it’s been a quiet month for me with limited in game time, there has definitely been a big sense of anticipation and excitement over the Crucible expansion deployed this week.

Let’s take a look at the statistics from November first:

25 Ship kills (15 Solo)

7 Pod kills

4 Ships lost (All Solo)

0 Pods lost

138,489,544 isk income from ships destroyed

13,000,000 isk received from ransoms

102,819,227 isk cost of losses

48,670,317 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

A far better month than last, achieving a fair profit. The beginning of the month was much busier than the latter half, due to me having low game-time which I was fully expecting. I lost two Jaguars, a Bellicose and a Rifter.

I’m still not loving the Jaguar; one loss was to a Rapier as I got entangled in an asteroid belt whilst chasing another ship. The other Jaguar to a Wolf who was waiting for an agreed fight with a corpmate and caught me as I was trying to warp out to leave them be.  I lost the Rifter being overconfident in attacking a Crusader, really not expecting a web instead of point. The Bellicose, well I decided to fight a Rapier who had uncloaked nearby despite the fact that I was already aligned and ready to warp, not the best plan tbh but I got bored J.

This is how my skill distribution looks at the moment:

 

Continued dedication towards the ‘Rifter Plan’. Acceleration Control V, Thermodynamics V & Energy Management V completed. Still on course to have completed the Rifter Plan by the end of the year. Thank you to all those who commented on my last post about what to do next, no decisions reached yet.

I still toy with the idea of buying a Fleet Stabber & Scythe, but as yet haven’t done anything about it.

My alt accounts continue to do excellent work on my behalf. 526m isk profits made from station trading. Contract trading on a single contract slot is sporadic at best, but when I get a buy/sell I make a bonus 10m isk for negligible effort. Skill training swapped back from my Prober to my mission alt this month who has been padding those social skills to make maximum benefit of LP gains. I’ve been looking again at the option of a Carrier and don’t feel that it’s necessary at the moment so may go for something mission busting like a passive Rattlesnake.

The etiquette of the good fight “gf”

Lots of bloggers talk about combat etiquette in EVE; it’s a topic that comes up regularly. It is general practice for the dastardly pirates that are members of The Tuskers to offer a good fight (gf) after any fight. The preceding fight may not have been good but good etiquette calls for some recognition.

I might congratulate an opponent on attempting to withstand an overwhelming assault, likewise the same to an opponent who has defeated me. Of course if you or the opponent is podded, gf is generally challenging to offer in local! Though it has been known to be sent in the mail afterwards.

Recently I was chilling in my Rifter in Adirain, a favourite hotspot of mine. I see another Rifter on scan, I know who the pilot is as I recognise him from around and about the area who likes to fly pvp fit Rifters. Clearly he’s seen me on scan too. He is bouncing from place to place and settles at the sun. He’s been there around 30 seconds when I decide that he’s indicating that he wants a fight by not having moved off.

I warp to the sun and sure enough he’s there. We engage each other and before long his Rifter is destroyed. It wasn’t a close fight but I offered gf in local. I was somewhat surprised then when the pilot said in local that it wasn’t at all a good fight and that of course he didn’t stand a chance against a pilot with superior skill points.

Tuskers are forbidden from engaging in local smack talk so any statement in local I make always tries to be well thought through before being said. Therefore I had to consider what I said carefully if I was going to respond. I felt that I needed to say something. After a few moments pause I asked why knowing that I was in space that he had chosen to wait at the sun and also chosen to engage me when I landed at the sun. Unfortunately the pilot didn’t want to justify his comments and simply left system but not before the following parting statement…

“It’s always the fucking Tuskers”

I actually took that as something of a complement to our Corporation.

Breacher solos PVP fit Rifter

No I am not making it up, this did happen last night. Fortunately it's not an embarrassing tale of how I lost a Rifter to a Breacher, but how using one of my 'fitted for the lols' Breachers I killed a properly pvp fit Rifter, it wasn't even the Breacher I had fitted with a faction mod (which I've yet to undock).

The killmail is here:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_det ... d=10801083

And here is how it happened:

I have GCC following blowing up an Imicus and am chilling in a scan spot waiting it out in Adirain, not daring to try and dock with GCC in a paper thin Breacher. The Rifter is on scan in system. A Wreathe then comes on scan at the planet 2 customs office so I warp in at zero. On my way in the Rifter appears on scan with the Wreathe and the Wreathe leaves scan. I think oh crap I'm going to die so try to warp out on landing with the Rifter. I get tackled by the Rifter, by the time I lock him up and engage I'm at 70% shields. I immediately overheat my highs and my AB. There is no way I can dictate anything much in this fight being properly tackled so it's in the lap of the gods, reallistlicy I know I'm going down so am just waiting to warp my Pod out. I'm pretty surprised that I'm clinging on and hanging in there and the race through hit points begins. It's ends with a blue flash and me being in 40% hull. Hooray for the Damage Control II!

Total madness, I still can't work out how I did it!

September 2011 Character Review

Hello again,

I haven't blogged in a little while. I've not had the muse to find a subject to blog about and rather than witter on about nothing in particular I decided to wait for a more structured post. Like this one.

So another month has gone by, first let's take a look at the stat's:

25 Ship Kills (16 of which Solo)
10 Pod kills

1 Ship Lost (1 of which in a Solo encounter, Cable I'm looking at you!)
0 Pods Lost

107,666,853 Isk income from ships destroyed
0,000,000 Isk received from ransoms (Sadface)

6,018,788 Isk approximate cost of losses

101,648,065 Isk "Profit" for the month

Clearly it's been a very efficient month for me, nearly a clean sheet were it not for that single Rifter loss at the beginning of September. Although my time in game nowadays is a total shadow of what it used to be I have found that generally on every occasion that I do get to log in as Kirith I manage to get a kill. My target selection is relatively careful in that I tend not to engage members of other large local corps on the basis of risk of being ganked. With such limited in game time I tend to base myself out of Adirain on the boarder of the high-sec Arnon system from where the first Epic Arc starts, although Hevrice remains my true base of operations.

The level of profit for the month too I find very satisfying given the few number of kills, and it's a nice top up to my other income sources. Sadly I don't get opportunity to participate in any formal gang operations due to how their timing works with my availability.


Missile Launcher Operation & Gunnery have seen the biggest change in skill points. I finished off Warhead Upgrades V and as mentioned last month runded off the skills I needed to use ECM drones. I'm still cracking on with the Rifter plan with around 96 days to go to finish it off and be able to fly a max skill Rifter. I also love how these skills will instantly affect practically everything else I will ever fly. Tactical Shield Manipulation whilst not an amazing skill by any means is currently training. I hope that my willpower remains strong and that by the end of the year the Rifter plan will be as good as nailed.

I didn't really try any new ships in September other than having fun with one of my Scythes which I had in my hangar already, the Scythe has paid for itself already after having claimed the lives of two Rifters and a Thrasher. I've thought about buying some of the Caldari ships that I'm not so well skilled for for something different but yet to commit. Perhaps I'll try the Scythe or Stabber Fleet Issues for size.

The alt accounts are still doing very well for me, particularly in station trading with profits of 585 million isk even after having nearly a week where I didn't do anything. Always keen to find further ways to expand my isk resources I'm looking at building a character for resale at the moment. Otherwise I'm thinking along the lines of an Archon for one of the alts.

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

Meme: Your First Ever PVP Lossmail

Inspired by Kirith Kodachi's post I figured that I would share with you my first pvp lossmail, indeed I beleive it was my first ever lossmail.

2009.08.14 06:57:00

Victim: Kirith Darkblade
Corp: Pator Tech School
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Aralgrund
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 1604

Involved parties:

Name: MykaVeLi (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.0
Corp: Boulevard Nites
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Broadsword
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1604

Destroyed items:

Fusion S, Qty: 1478 (Cargo)
Damage Control I
Small Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
200mm Reinforced Crystalline Carbonide Plates I
150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, Qty: 3
Fusion S, Qty: 106
Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain

Dropped items:

EMP S, Qty: 1587 (Cargo)
Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Fusion S, Qty: 212
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I

Likewise I also blogged about my first loss here, but to save you time and the effort of a mouse click I present it to you here. It was my first ever blog post:

Introducing Kirith Darkblade

....Scourge of the seas, erm I mean space! Or at least I hope to be, only time will tell. So, writing this I find myself just two and a half days old with about 160,000 skill points, Eighteen and a half days left of my free buddy program trial and having lost my first ship to a more badass pirate. The first of many I daresay.

Well I am new to EvE, though it doesn't feel like it as my "buddy" never stops talking about it, I have a good idea of the game mechanics already spending quite some time reading up on everything that I could regarding the game. What particularly appealled to me was a life of piracy mercilessly shooting anyone I please and blowing stuff up.

My choice of race has been informed by my reading up on Frigates, specifically the Rifter. Hence I have stumped for a Minmatar. I already have had my first acquistion, combat with and loss of "Mighty Mouse" my first Rifter. Thankfully it was fully insured so just cost me the modules. I didn't stand a chance against my opponent in their far superior T2 Heavy Interdictor - Broadsword who was waiting for me when I undocked frm the station. What I should have done in hindsight was redocked, but unfortunately I wasn't able to as the station hadn't finished my undocking sequence. My next daft decision was to try and warp away whereby I was swiftly locked, scrambled and gunned down. "gf" was exchanged in local as I beleive is the way it is done. I got away with my pod though so that's some consolation!

I am taking advantage of the 100% bonus to skill training time at the moment to race towards a basic level of competence, focussing at the moment on my gunnery & learning skills. Before too long I should be able to use T2 guns in my new rifter "Baron Greenback". I am basing myself in Heimatar lowsec, at least for now.

I like the idea of creating my own little corp, for just me and a hauler alt, but quite a few people recommend staying with the NPC corp or a player corp before creating your own. Certainly at the moment I cannot aford to anyway at 1.6m isk.

Talking of isk, I have been very lucky in the generosity shown by my "buddy" to get me started. I think compared to the free months gametime he gets if I subscribe he sees it as a worthwhile investment compared to the cost of a gamecard. He has given me a hauler load of rifters, fittings and ammo to get me started! All I have to do is insure them, fly them to my base of operations and then see how long they last...

Tonight I think I will start moving across the Rifters, and I really must create my own Hauler alt."

For a very young character, looking back I'm not ashamed of the fit I was killed in!

For Laughs

This Sunday I had some time in game and that time turned out to be great fun.

There were some fun a frollicks with a Dominix & Drake combination who seemed to come to Hevrice looking for a fight. Three BC's from The Tuskers formed up and took up the offer of a fight, Kirith in a Drake. Turns out the Dominix was active shield tanked and it happily shrugged off the kinetic damage from our three Drakes. The Drake working with the Dominix landed some 50km off and I went for point on it, which unfortunately took my dps off the Dominix. My Drake vs the hostile Drake, both HML fit we spewed misiles at each other with gleeful abandon as I was a long way away from the Dominix and out of range. Unfortunately whilst we were have our own little head to head one of the Tusker Drakes went down against the Dominix. My fight with the Drake was pretty even but as we both were close to being broken I (over)overheated my launchers and managed to melt them. Warping out to repair my heat damage and regen shields our opponents fled the field and left system, it was a fun fight but I have to learn to better manage my overheat. gf's exchanged in local.

Later on I switched to Grumblecub 2 and jumped in to the neighbouring system, Jov. I spotted a Mantcore in a faction war mission and warped in. The Manticore was about 170km away but I burned for it anyways, I got within 26km before they warped away but not before they had fired a couple of very ineffective Torpedo volleys at me. I warped out and then warped back to the mission where I waited patiently. After a short while the Manticore lands with me and is destroyed in very swift order, the best part of this was having no GCC as he'd agressed me earlier. Over the course of the afternoon I kept checking to see whether I could catch them again as they came back to try and finish the mission, sadly to no avail.

Back in Hevrice, I spot a Rupture in space. It didn't belong to anyone in The Tuskers so I dock and reship to one of my own Ruptures. By this time he's left system so I set off in pursuit towards Aeschee. In Aeschee he's flitting about and I'm not sure what he's doing. I know who the pilot is but can't fathom his random warping. Eventually I pin him down to a belt, warp in and destroy if swift order. I had hoped for a more challenging fight but was satisfied to have gotten a kill in a Cruiser as I don't fly them very often.

Back to Hevrice and I decide that I'm a little bit bored. I get into one of my Scythes, this is one of the hulls which I mentioned the other week that I wanted to have a laugh with. Undocking I'm fearful that I'll be laughed out of space but set off in search of targets.

A few systems from home I park in a belt trying to act like a good little miner and it isn't long before a Rifter pilot tries his hand like a moth to the flame that is a miner in low-sec. He lands and I'm upon him determined not to let him get away. I engage and literally within the blink of a eye he's toast and warping his Pod out. I literally laughed out loud and couldn't stop giggling. I had destroyed him before a corp mate could even land in the belt, it was so so fast! Again no GCC.

Within minutes of securing my loot I'm back in my belt "mining" and another Rifter lands with me, another dance and another dead Rifter. This one did better though taking me into 80% armour and trying to make a run for it. Through careful overheat of propulsion, point & guns he doesn't make it out. No GCC again.

I can't see this tactic working for long before people get wise to it, but at the moment its hilarious!

Meet Grumblecub

Well, meet Grumblecub 2 actually. Grumblecub (1) actually exploded a few days ago after I made a mistake. The fight was going rather splendidly and looked very one sided until I managed to click approach and get shredded in short order.

Well without further adieu this is loadout:

[Rifter, Grumblecub]
Small Armor Repairer II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Gyrostabilizer II

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Scrambler II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S

Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

He's a brute, and quite similar to many cookie cutter Rifter fits out there. The big difference being 200mm Autocannons in place of the 150mm Autocanons. Given the Rifters impressive bonus to tracking they track very well. Damage comes out at a whopping 162 dps, which from a T1 frigate is impressive. Speed settles at around 1050m/s. I'm enjoying flying it, but she's tight to fit and will need very good fitting skills. After the initial test I've shipped in a load of stock ready for the meat grinder.

Back to what I enjoy most in EVE

Long standing blog followers may remember that I used to have a knack of finding and destroying poorly fit Battlecruisers with my humble Rifter. Well earlier this week I managed to lure one out to fight me after scaring his Scythe in a belt. After a little banter between us he was convinced that his Hurricane would have no problem destroying my Rifter and warped to the belt I remained in. It soon became clear once we were committed that he had underestimated the power of the little Frigate. I offered him the chance to pay a ransom to keep his ship, he declined saying he didn't have enough isk. Of course that meant that I had to destroy his ship. Snagging his capsule afterwards he was in no mood to pay a ransom on that so I transported him back to the clone vat. Apparently he's going to quit EVE don't you know?

Well, he didn't as since then he appears to have lost even more ships.

On unrelated news today I took delivery of my new Battlecruiser stock, Seven new hulls and fittings for six new and untested loadouts. Four Drakes, two Cyclones and one Hurricane. I've now fit them all and look forward to taking them out.

Also, given my new fitting ability post learning skill removal I've bought a single new Rifter with a untested fit to have a play with. Grumblecub will see you in space soon.

Pop!

It's not been the busiest few days, getting on for just a few hours of an evening this week. It's had its low points, like where I landed on gate just as a gang of 10 or so faction frigates did in my Drake resulting in me losing not only my Drake but also my Pod and along with it my bounty which was up to over 110m too.

Last night though, saw my most enjoyable moment since returning. Typically, and doesn't it always happen when you need to log off to go or do something? Just before I needed to head out to collect my girlfriend from work I land off of a belt in Adirain. It was busy in system and I'd been chasing around after various craft in my Rifter. Eventually a Black Rebel Rifter Club pilot arrives. We start closing with other, until at about 70km a second Rifter arrives causing the Rebel pilot to bug out after I assume fearing a TARP! I sadface in local and he suggests meeting for a 1v1. I mention that I have to log to collect the girlfriend, so we will settle that score another day. As we are talking the second Rifter is closing on me until at about 20km I decide to engage him. I have friends in the system but this is serious business of Rifter v Rifter combat! So they are aware of my engagement and wait looking for other targets. So our two Rifters are engaged, and aside from me forgetting to activate my web for the first minute I'm having the better of things. I see ships on 360, a bunch of frigates so I overload everything and pop him just after his friends arrive. I thought I was a goner until I hear warp drive active and escape at 88% structure and a sliver of repped armour. Repping up in a safe I have to go to dock so that I can log out without the risk of agression in space, braving the sentry fire I dock and log wishing my fellow Tuskers good hunting. Based on the killboard it seems that they did.

I do beleive that I have reignited my love of the Rifter....

Jelly Legs

Ok, so this morning before I head to work I was back in the saddle of a Rifter. It's feeling a bit alien which I do not consider a great sign. In retrospect, the Rifter which I undock in is not what I'd consider my normal configuration for two reasons:

1, It's shield buffer tank fit.
2, It has an MWD.

I surf around my home area of low-sec for a while until after about an hour I find a Cormorant in a faction warfare complex. As I enter, he warps out. He's still on scan though so I warp out to avoid rat agro and warp back to wait on the acceleration gate in the hope that he will return. After around 5 minutes, although it seems far longer he warps back and I lock him up. What I don't expect is that I get tackled in return! His scrambler swiftly kills my MWD meaning that I can't get under his railguns in time, with the result unfortunately being that my Rifter goes boom. Gf's exchanged in local I warp home to lick my wounds and wait out GCC. Safely in my home station I realise that I'm still on the adrenaline rush. I stood up and walked away from my laptop while the timer ticked down needing to rid my body of my self induced high.

Seems it's going to be a while before I get back into the swing o' things.

August 2010 Character Review

Well hello there! It's been a while hasn't it. Kirith is still very much alive, but not so much kicking right now.

Following on from July, which as I noted in my last post was my least active month spent in game at that time August has been even less active with me recording under 1 hour of time spent in game in the whole month. When I did log in I jumped in my surprisingly long living MWD Jaguar and tagged along with a few Tuskers harassing the neighbouring systems. Unfortunately no kills were had but still it was good to be on vent with the guys, meeting up with some of the new blood that had joined since my play time dropped dramatically. It's been a very busy time in real life for me which has led me to look at and rebalance how I'm spending my time, needless to say I'm really enjoyin the way life is right now though I do miss the banter with my Corp mates.

It's a bit late in the day to be writing my overdue August character review, so I'm going to bring you up to date with where Kirith is up to today in some respects, although I did export the graph below at the end of August so apologies that things are going to be a bit disjointed.

Kirith has now completed Minmatar Cruiser V and has all the support skills in place to make these things deadly when flown in anger. Being so rigid on working towards the ultimate Rifter of course means that all those support skills scale really well when shipping up. My bigger hulls really will kick out the hurt. Kirith is also now over the 20m SP bar and boy that seems to have happened fast. Small Autocannon Specialisation V is cooking as I type before I get onto interleaving the skills to fly one incredibly badass Hurricane. The shortest skills I have left on the Rifter plan come in at just under 12 days each with the longest at 23 days!

Here's how Kirith's skills broke down at the end of August:

No play time to speak of means that all other things not mentioned, including my trading income have halted. I have kept up skill training on the alt account, I aim to get one of my alts into a plex busting Tengu in time.

I would like to pick up my blogging again and get back into the saddle, even if it's just once a week but we will have to see how that goes. Now I need to get some fittings for my cruisers shipped down to Hev!

Remember my motto my fellow pirates; take a chance for you never know what you and a Rifter can achieve!