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?

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!

Press Ganged

No, I wasn't but our latest Tusker recruit Laronz0 was. After only just over 24 hours after he joins the corp this very young and I hope he won't mind me saying, low SP pilot was effectively press ganged into FC'ing an ad-hoc Tusker fleet. Initially he was like, no you have got to be kidding until it became apparent that we were not and he finally accepted that there was pretty much no getting out of it. A few tips & old chestnuts were spoken into vent to our newest FC along with a few puns about his World of Warcraft past concerns wipes, pallys bubbling & Rogue Vanishing and whether he knew EVE was different and that we would be upset if we wiped! All said in good light hearted jest of course.

And so we departed Hevrice in a mix of Frigate & Cruiser hulls with a couple of cloaky proby alts. Well they did and I caught up after finishing up a loot split from an earlier Raven kill with my much loathed Jaguar, determined to lose it in a fire. I was also flying one of the proby alts. (Love having two computers again!). The probers and a scout roaming ahead here follows a brief account of what we found and where we found it:

Oulletta
In system our scout had gone after an Ishkur in a belt only to find it at a pounce approximately 200km off the belt. He burned for it but as he did so a Hurricane landed. Doing a quick 180 he pointed the 'Cane and the fleet descended. The 'Cane quickly died. Killmail. We had seen the Ishkur warp out to a safe and quickly had probes on it, in fact it was that quick that some people were still in warp from the belt whilst our scout and myself were gang warped by the prober right on top of the poor Ishkur who melted quickly Killmail

Amoen
We sighted a few ships but they either kept an eye out for probes or we were unlucky. We headed on and decided to take a peek in a high sec pocket, the pocket required us to jump through a high-sec system. One of the probers found a couple of Myrmidons doing a 5/10 complex. We sent in two tacklers and quickly caught them and held them while the fleet jumped through high-sec and warped in. Myrmidon one went down quickly Killmail as I was en-route to gain secondary point on the second Myrm. Kishin stays behind and holds Myrm pilot one's Pod missing out on the KM for Myrm two. The second dies equally quickly Killmailbut the pod instawarps.

Iges
Returning to the comfort of low-sec proper we caught a ratting Thorax and his Pod in Iges Killmail.

Covryn
Moving a system or two over we bagged another ratter in his Vexor, though he managed to get his Pod clear

At this point it was getting very late and I headed back to Hevrice to dock and log for the night. In short, I had a terrific evenings fun and our newest member and newest FC handled himself in excellent style. A bunch of kills for no losses!

Kill of the Month: February

Yes I know, it isn't February anymore and no it isn't a typo.

Recently a monthly challenge was started on The Tuskers forums where throughout the month the killboards are scoured and kills are put forward for consideration as kill of the month. Last month my Drake kill in a Rifter was a contender.

There were five engagements voted on:
Tressin takes his toll on a destroyer gang in his Rupture
Bart takes out two Ishkurs in his Vexor
My Drake kill in a Rifter
Sonbalins Thorax snags a Vagabond
Latro takes out a Hurricane & Celestis in a Wormhole

As the votes rolled in it ended up as a a close run thing between my Drake kill with corp-mate SonBalin's Vagabond kill in his Thorax. The votes fell in a my favor and my prize, a shiny Imperial Navy Slicer. Granted I can't fly it but will do one day!

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.

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.

Kills are like buses

I go a couple of days without a kill then two come along within 5 minutes of each other.

Yesterday I did find myself a Rupture ratting, all was going fairly well in the fight though his drones took a large chunk of armour away, but the damage was manageable as I had all bar one drone down and was working on the last until his two friends arrived. Deciding to scarper rather than engage in a futile fight I warped away as he didn't have me pointed. The pilot was confident that he would have blown me to pieces. Though surely that begs the question of why he called his mates in?

Today I had roamed unsuccessfully until I decided to do one last circuit before calling it a night. Locating a Vexor pilot ratting and after a little belt hopping I pinpointed him and engaged. He was fighting a couple of Angels as I landed within 3km of him and pointed him. He sent his four drones after me so I decided taking them out to be priority, in hindsight I didn't really need to as the hardly did any damage to me. He was equipped with ECM and a tracking disruptor, he did get a succesful ECM jam off on me but didn't warp out or attempt to. As soon as my sensors were online I repointed him and started ignoring his drones as a known and very effective pirate entered the system and I had a feeling I knew where he was headed. I had my warp out point selected then just as the Pirate appeared in a Jaguar I engaged warp and the Vexor exploded. Beautiful timing for the explosion. Parking in a safe spot the pilot of the Vexor mentioned that I was lame for jumping him ratting and that the rats did most of the damage. I say, he should be more careful in future, regardless of who did the damage.

The pirate left the system again shortly afterwards, his departure heralded the arrival of a new player in a Cormorant. Guessing he was headed for belt 1 my scan reported a positive hit and I dived in, landing 10km away I approached, pointed and destroyed the Destroyer very quickly, nailing the Pod too. I had a brief conversation with the pilot afterwards at his request. He didn't realise the dangers of low security space and wanted to know if his ship was really gone. I gave him a few bits of advice so that maybe he is a little more aware next time.

Avast ya swabs, I be having me some Tech 2 Auto's

Well as of yesterday morning I am very pleased to say that I am now able to fit and use T2 Autocannons. I had hoped that yesterday evening I would get opportunity to slap a trio of them on my current rusty steed Nero and give them a taste of first blood but unfortunately I found no suitable targets on my short roam.

This morning I came across a Cormorant shortly after logging in, choosing the range to fight it at was a nightmare as it had both blasters and railguns fitted. It was a reasonably close run thing as by the end of the fight I had only 25% armour remaining but once the shields were gone on the Destroyer it went down quickly along with its pilot's Pod.

These latest kills renders my officially an Outlaw at -5.66 Security Status which is something else I can check off the to-do list.

Unfortunately tonight my long serving (for me) rusty steed Nero bit the dust. I had the bit between my teeth chasing down a hauler warping between belts when the hauler and I warped into a belt which had a Vexor and Wolf in it, needless to say Nero did not make it out alive.

Tomorrow I can look forward to strapping some weapons rigging to the Rifter for even more punch. The downside to all this T2 and upgrading the bog standard Rifter is of course the cost. Including rigging a fresh out of the box Rifter will be coming in at 3.5-4m isk rather than the 800k that it did a couple of weeks ago.