Tuesday, 16 March 2010

EVE Blog Banter #16: Do you wish to know more?

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: "Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. EVE is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you'd like to share with the wider Eve community?"


First, Happy birthday EVE Uni. I do hope they keep going as strong as they have for the last six years, especially if they keep coming to low-sec and giving good fights like this one last week where our mixed gang engaged a fleet of approximately twenty EVE-Uni (please excuse shameless Tusker plug).

And so to the question at hand: What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out?

A bit difficult to answer for me. I'd been doing my homework in fits and starts on EVE for a long time before I actually started playing, I read loads of blogs and websites, observed my friend using both of his characters and consequently learned loads before I took the plunge. I felt that I went into EVE truly with my eyes wide open. That said, there were still things that I learned and also some misconceptions I picked up on that perhaps might benefit from being set straight. I am going to focus on those related to Low-Sec space, so here we go in no particular order:

1. In most parts of Low-sec most gates are not camped. Faction Warfare areas do seem to be the worst for this though, so be warned.

2. The Directional Scanner can save your life.

3. There is no Sec. Status hit for shooting at someone who is Red on your overview.

4. You can shoot someone who is red on your overview anywhere & anytime.

5. If anyone shoots a "non-red" character near sentry guns, the sentries will shoot them, but not you if they shot you first, that is unless you are red yourself of course.

6. Many parts of Low-sec are empty of players most of the time.

7. Interdiction bubbles cannot be used in Low-Sec.

8. Most Low-Sec gate camps can be succesfully flown through in a frigate hull with minimal risk.

9. When you undock from a station you are invulnerable for 30 seconds unless you activate any modules or tell your ship to move. You can however stop your ship and remain invulnerable during those 30 seconds.

10. Don't fly what you cannot afford to replace immediately.

11. If you get caught and a ransom offered, think about the value of your implants and hardwirings plus the cost of clone replacement before blowing off or being abusive at the person(s) who just destroyed your ship. You are far more likely to survive the episode.

12. Not all pirates are honourable. (shocking I know!)

13. If you want some variety in your game, some risk and more of a challenge then find yourself a quiet low-sec system and think about doing some exploration, ratting and perhaps missions. If you don't then stay in High-Sec.

14. Even a Frigate can kill your Battlecruiser ;)


Disclaimer: All the above is written by a pirate, so my views may be erm....slanted?

Sunday, 14 March 2010

How could I forget the Exotic Dancers

An addition to my previous post where I mention about losing a Rifter to an Ishkur, the Rifter lost was one of my birthday presents and in it were held a few items to make the party lively, notably Spirits & a hareem of Exotic Dancers. With the demise of the Rifter the hareem were lost, though the Spirits survived! Hurrah!

I happened to mention this in local and the pilot of the Ishkur very graciously contracted me some more Exotic Dancers, party on!

Thanks von Diel!

Achievement unlocked, 20 points

This week I killed something which I had been wanting to do since I became an ebil piwate, I killed a Retriever mining in low-sec. Yes I know I’m easily pleased but it was awesome and I was very chuffed.

Other than this rather entertaining kill it has been another bloodthirsty week in the life of a pirate, feels like loads of ships have been helped to go back to their nature as micrometeorites and space dust. Battleclinic says I have now podded over 100 pilot’s too!

This week notably I had three fights against Ishkurs, Don, a corp mate of mine advocates that you should never kill the drones on a Ishkur and just concentrate on the ship itself. I do disagree on this and to date I have always chosen to kill the drones first. In a Rifter there really isn’t an alternative otherwise you die in a fire. My chosen method is to burn away from the Ishkur keeping him out of range and shoot the drones down as they come, granted this is easier when those drones are not Warrior II’s! In the three fights I have been fortunate that I have not been alone for the whole fight. In one fight I did lose my Rifter but in the other two I prevailed with a combination of overloading repper & AB while shooting the Drones, until my corp mates arrived anyway. The Ishkur is certainly a fearsome opponent for a Rifter. Sure while I kite the Ishkur and it’s drones I lose point and the Ishkur could warp off, but I tend to find that their bloodlust seems to make them not notice this, bonus!

This week I have lost a lot of ships including my first Thrasher loss, a lot more than I have in any week since I started playing I think, current tally sits at 7 since last Sunday. Quite an entertaining loss was to Trony, who said after the fight that he had come to Hevrice to kill me after reading the blog, surely my writing can’t be that bad ;D. Good fight again Trony and nasty Taranis you have there schooling both my corpmate Kishin and then me as I warped to his aid.

If you haven't already seen, Romeo Blackstorm has started a series of interviews of Tusker pilots, they are a great read and I thoroughly recommend them. You can see his latest interview with Tusker Director Ronan Jacques here.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Solo PVP Playlist

A little while ago there was a thread on The Tusker forums asking what you listened to while "pirating". Now when I'm in a gang/fleet call it what you will I do not tend to have music on the background, or if I do I have it on very low volume as it tends to get confusing when your on voice comms at the same time. However, when solo it's a different matter entirely and the volume gets cranked up loud! I thought I'd share my playlist with you;

Age of Love (Remix)

Acension, Someone (Remix)
DJ Misjah & DJ Tim, Access
Hi-Gate, Caned & Unable
Kirsty Hawkshaw, Fine Day (Remix)
Mauro Picotto, Pulsar (Remix)
N-Trance, Set you Free
Placebo, Every You Every Me Also, Cruel Intentions = Cool Film
The Prodigy, Voodoo People
The Prodigy, Speedway
Public Domain, Operation Blade
Rammstein, Du Hast
Rammstein, Feuer Frei
Sash, Adelante
Terrorvision, D'Ya Wanna Go Faster?
Tomcraft, Loneliness
2 Unlimited, No Limit Yes I admit ownership of this song

Do you listen to a specific playlist when online?

Sunday, 7 March 2010

Back in the saddle

Well, my week away is over and its back to work tomorrow. Holidays do fly by too fast and I now feel like I would benefit greatly from another week off work to recover if you will.

As I have been away my posting has been rather less than I normally aim for. Given that my playtime this week has been very low I have little for my weekly update.

Wolf
This is my most satisfying kill of the week, the pilot was working on capturing a Faction Warfare complex after having cleared the rats. Whilst his fit wasn't spectacular it was a very close run fight. His wreck contained nearly 12,000 rounds of Barrage S ammunition so that should see me for a long while. I had the confidence to go after this Wolf after I had engaged one before I went away in Onne and were it not for the untimely intervention of a neutral drake and it's T2 light drones I would have without doubt destroyed it as it survived the fight with just 15% structure. My modules and ship took a severe battering in this fight, here's a screenie of my Rifter after the dust had settled:



I'm getting somewhat of a reputation in The Tuskers for taking out Battlecruisers in my Rifter. In the last couple of days I have upheld the reputation by despatching another Hurricane. The pilot of the Hurricane was unfortunate enough to lose his Pod to me aswell after messing around with ransom negotiations, my patience does ultimately have limits, especially so when sat in a system with many potential hostiles. I did find another pilot ratting in a Drake, but unfortunately was not able to break his tank. Always embarrassing!

As I mentioned in a previous post, the time has come for me to fly something bigger and more useful to the Corp. Along the way I have decided to train for the Thrasher, which I am currently working towards. Picking up the skills to use MWD's, Neuts, Shield Rigs and Shield Extenders which I'll need for the bigger "stuff" on the way. I always save the skill to actually fly the ship to last to make sure I have all the ancillary skills I need to fly it well. All being well I should be behind the wheel? of a Shield buffer fit Thrasher at Destroyers IV on Friday (which also happens to be my 30th birthday!). Might have to go lose the five sat in my hangar on the day to celebrate!.

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

An Introduction

I thought it may be wise, given this blogs recent addition to the EVE Blog Pack to introduce Kirith to you. This will serve to save those of you he might otherwise need to trawl through loads of old blogs to work out who I am, how I got here and what I do. Of course if you still want to do that then I would encourage you to do so to get to know me better

Also, I appreciate that many readers will view this either via your IPhone (awesome aren't they!) & Capsuleer or through a third party application like Google Reader and as such may not visit my actual blog page so I thought I could mention what's there without you needing to go have a look-see.

Without further ado, and I'll try to keep it brief...

In "Real-Life" I'm a 29 year old Accountant living in Cornwall in the UK. I have been playing EVE for around six months, 99.9% of that time I have spent as a pirate in low-sec. Two or three months ago I joined The Tuskers, who for those that live under a rock (not intended as a pun or slur against miners! Though, bring your Hulks & Barges to Hevrice KK?) The Tuskers are a low-sec pirate corp based out of the Verge Vendor region. Kirith flys solo most of the time and for the first six months has only flown Rifters, so I consider him to be something of a specialist in them. Did I say that the miners could bring their Orcas to Hev too? Oh right, yes anyway.

My main blog page contains a little bit of additional information about my recent goings on, such as:

- A Picture of yours truly...
- What my security status is, been true -10.0 a while now.
- How many frozen corpses I have successfully gotten back to my hangar, 73.
- Total of all ransoms I have received. Tuskers always honour ransoms!
- My current Battleclinic ranking, around 1400 I think (too lazy to check)
- The current bounty on my head, NIL after being podded recently :(
- There are links to all my kills in chronological order.
- A list of all my losses.
- Links to all the blogs that I follow.
- Traditional tag cloud.
- Soon to be added are links to all the EVE Blog Pack members

Well, I think that will do for now.

Monday, 1 March 2010

Proud to be part of the EVE Blog Pack

Just a quick post from me today as I'm still on holiday....

I was really pleased to find myself added to Crazykinux EVE Blog Pack earlier today. This week I'll be adding links to all the Blog Pack Members to my blog page. Considering I'm relatively new to EVE (less than 6 months) it is a privelige to be amongst so many veterans and fellow respected bloggers.

That's all for now, you may carry on.