Oh wait...I forgot to blog...

Now that the holidays are here and work has slowed to a standstill. I can take a breather and get back to non-essential tasks. rehash #20197 Life is busy!

Eve wise I used to have 10+ hours 5 days a week in which I could semi-afk play EvE. Now with the new RL job and such I get about 4 scattered hours of interactive play time a week. This means I'll more than likely fall back on manufacturing and trade for a bit. Yes yes, becoming another semi retired EvE blogger.

The "Industrial DeResolution" wormhole corp. I founded continues to do well. Having recently picked up 10 new members and a C3. We are chugging along like crazy which is awesome considering I as the CEO am mostly offline. Fortunately the Directors and mates are keeping it moving. One such director "Chromite" from South Africa is being himself and trying to conquer all of EvE through industry. The other directors are just blowing stuff up which is just fine.

I still have the C1 which is kind of my holiday WH now. Mostly for the PI and the quiet now. I might do some light T2 material refining in there and keep the sites worked as I get 30 mins here and there to focus. I sold my RHEA and Carrier a while back. Might be time to rebuild both for grins. Zomb can now fly Minnie Dreads as well.

I still need to check out the new toys from the winter expansion. New mining frigate looks like fun. My vagabond got it's new nifty frill (hats of to Rixx Javix and the frill seekers). New destroyers and such etc. Now I have a safety to stop me from being stupid in Empire (lolz) and can flippers can get shot at by all apparently. Oh when I click stuff the camera shifts to it now. OH and I cannot seem to find the jukebox anymore?

Either way. Still out here and I'll blog now and then.

Cheers

EVE SOB

All dressed up...Still no place to go! :(

It's been over a year now since Incarna was released in June of 2011. Introducing walk in stations as a new feature. With all the controversy around micro transaction and honestly the release lacking any true value to the game. Most people simply turn off captains quarters and well go about there day in spaceships as if nothing ever happened.

Since Incarna we have had these gorgeous new avatars that can be customized and tailored to fit pretty much any PG-13 image one wants to fly around space. We were also given head to toe clothing to don which was cool but pointless because people could at best see a head and shoulders. Many worked the angles and cameras to include some more "goods" in there portraits. I forget the exact patch in the last year when the e-perv full body view feature was released. It finally gave anyone the ability to see what we saw when strutting about our CQs, well assuming it meets the co-eq requirements to wear a shirt and pants. The games T for teen and we can see floating naked frozen corpses, but heaven forbid if some one undocks with out SHOES!!!

Yet still there is a limited application to all this eye candy. Niffty Jiggles here was built to strut and dressed in her leather Officers outfit is in the prime of her social life. She should be frequenting the bars and officers lounges in Caldari Stations. She should be able to use her "assets" to advance her career and gain advantages over her peers. Yet for the last year when she steps away from the mirror and to the door she is greeted with the same message "Station atmosphere not yet decontaminated for capsuleer consumption." The same she has seen every damn time she has pressed that button in her capsuleer life. Honestly it pisses her off that she can undock and be one with her spaceship, get blown to bits and wake up in a med bay light years away. Yet the brilliant minds of New Eden cannot allow her to walk and breathe clean air outside of her little room. Every damn time she walks out to look at her Raven, she wonders how it is she is standing on an open air balcony and YET she can breathe the air.

With DUST looming and in Beta the military application of two legs VS a meat suit in a pod is painting a stark reality. Folks can wander about and shoot at each other down on the dirty planets. The fictional propaganda videos dramatize an attractive woman executing payback to a double crossing orbital commander who nuked the ground forces he hired. Ya know, she walks up behind the dude and points her pistol at him. Psft, yeah right. Like THAT shit is ever gonna happen! It might be fun and well there have been some station campers over the years I'd love to walk up to and shoot them in the head. Especially now implants costs are in pod kill mails. Heck I'd even be happy with the ability to flip them off or moon them from my open air balcony.

The bottom line is CCP has given us this thing. Stacked a failed micro transaction business on it. And yet we really don't have anything to use it for today or in the future. Yoda perhaps said it best "DO or DO NOT! There is no try!" While I love my spaceships and the current focus on spaceships. This Incarna crap should either be developed into something useful or scrapped all together. Shit at least let them run and jump and bounce and jiggle next patch. Perhaps make them walk right and not take awkward scissor steps when they cannot quite figure out if they are on that EXACT spot you just clicked. I mean how hard is it to build a bloody corridor and a common area and let people wander about?

OK off to sit on my sofa and entertain myself. Heck I might just go poke around the Worm Hole for kicks.

Cheers

EVE SOB

W-Space...

So for a little over a month or so now I've been living in a C1 wormhole. Our Small corporation is doing pretty well and while our kill board reflects some teething problems. I am happy with K11:D19 for now as some are cheap shots at IBIS that we jettisoned from and others are just lessons in WH life. We are also new at PvP and well Drakes aint always awesome.The lads and I are working on fixing all that too.

While the C1 ranges from busy to dead quiet. We are doing a fair job at making ISK from it. I've been able to nab a few kills as well to only one real loss. Zombinutz sitting at K33:D10 makes me happy. The loss was a silly mistake. I grabbed a broadsword when I should have grabbed a 'cane and well I really should not have flown either to help a empty Itty V. Then again if a mate says help I try and help ;) I have a few nice solo kills too, so all in all the WH has added more PvP for me.

Logistics in the WH are actually pretty easy if you just learn to break everything down into Itty V hauls. Having 4 Itty V pilots and a few cloaked scouts makes all the difference when the freighter parks in a station outside our HighSec N110 exit.

Like wise we have a small arsenal of ships in the C1 now. Everything from scanner frigates to carriers are in there now. We have flattened 8/10 of the customs offices to allow folks to enjoy the cash cow of WH PI. Our towers are setup and full of fuel for the next quarter, lots of ammo and guns, plus just about every array or POS mod we might need ever. So "Home" is cozy.

The alliance we are in are nice folks and we do weekly alliance wide ops. ranging from C6 sites to hostile C2 take overs. Our Alliance leader has pretty much no life to get in his way (well he works and has a wife, but he is ALWAYS on). So he does a good job keeping things going.

Our corporation could use 3-5 more warm bodies. So If you are looking for some W-Space fun drop Zombinutz a mail in game. We don;t so much require any W-Space experience, or PvP uberness. You simply have to get along with others and not be afraid to fight when needed. I'd say 10M SP is prob a good idea as well. We do background checks and require limited API keys as part of the alliance rules.

Cheers

EVE SOB

August 2012

The blur of summer with my kids on vacation and the many changing facets of EvE in that time leaves me a little lost as to where to begin.  With that I simply must begin so here goes.

First thing: HealthCare for Space Hermits is no more (including sub R&D corps as well). Basically that chapter is done and frankly was boring the sh!t out of me. I had lost interest in EvE and was going through the motions week after week. No slight on the alliance HCSH was in or the folks who were in it. Super awesome bunch of folks who like highsec living. I was just done with empire 100% of the time. Thanks to all the folks who were part of my little corp. over the last few years. Fly safe and live well.

Second thing: Zombinutz’s adventures with The Silent Trust Alliance is also no more. I got tired (as did the member corps) of the alliance talking big and doing nothing. No slight there, had some fun with the member corps. I finished my chimera training and used it for logistics and combat.  I got some kills, flew some fleets and lived in lowsec for a bit. So all good and best of luck to those I flew with. Fly dangerous and live short brilliant lives. I may never return to Khanid space, except perhaps to gather up my stuff and GTFO.

Biggest thing: I founded a new corp: “Industrial DeResolution” and joined a W-space alliance. I moved into a C1 and have been living in here for 3 weeks or so now. DERES is a Small corp. still but comfortable with the C1 and the isk it generates. The new corp. is basically combine so to speak. If it’s in the WH it’s ours and we all work the WH and the spoils are split between the corp. wallet and active members. It’s basically a group of old EVE mates who were looking for a change. That change is more PvP, some place new, and well we still build stuff too. I was introduced to the alliance through an old HCSH mate who had moved on. So far it’s all smooth sailing and super fun. Not sure where this will go, but well I want to log in again. So it's a good thing.

I am finding W-Space a good blend of PvP and opportunity to make isk. I like the solitude of it with the danger (and pray) lurking in the shadows. The "fog of war" aspect of the PvP works for me as well and keeps it interesting. I get to use all the 0.0 space toys (well not Moms and titans) and well targets come to me mostly or we find each other in day trips through secondary WHs. I am far from an expert on WH yet and I have many “lessons” (exploded pixels) to learn in here, but EvE is fun again. 

Industry in the WH is also pretty cool too. I can mine ABC rocks with some care pretty much openly which means I can build hulls end to end without spending any isk. With T2 minerals and alchemy balances I might setup a nice little T2 manufacturing shop as well. I could make T3's but well for now the PI alone makes me happy. The logistics of the C1 is challenging for sure with the max jump sizes etc. However it’s more a matter of planning and many smaller loads. Kinda takes me back to early days before I had a freighter or jump freighter. A simpler time when the Itty V was king.

Well not much else to say right now. As I get my feet wetter and have more things to post I shall. I try to at least post once a month, which might be lame, but it’s about what I find the time for right now. Seems I skipped July, opps! At least I am into EvE more again and should have more to post about.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Margin trading and a hot drop.

My time in EvE has been a little fractured this month. Running here and there in RL getting my Achilles sorted out (in a walking boot now, rehab starts in 2 weeks). As such the blog and frequency of posts are the first things to slip. Sure I could blog every day about what I did that day. I just don't think any of you want to read about what mission I ran, or lowsec belt rat I killed, or rock I mined.

I did have two new events/activities happen of late in EvE. The first was margin trading with my freshly trained trade alt. The other was hot dropping my carrier on a fleet from the folks who war decked our alliance.

Margin trading:

I am still getting a feel for this sport. Lots of watching items, calculating profits, and playing the 0.01 ISK game with other traders. I started out with a meager 2M ISK and closed out around 200M isk after my first week trading. Starting with small things like ammo and t1 drones. Then larger things like cruiser hulls and assault frigates. Shifting markets as they flatten and hauling stuff to another trade area when I find a good delta. However for the most part I've been trading in Jita and so far ISK out of nothing I have been making.

People call trading PvP and while I can see that you are competing with other players for those free ISKIES. I cannot say it's thrilling like the kind of PvP where you try to blow each other up. So yes, I don't see the PvP thrill of EvE trading. Sorry for those who get excited over it. I am just liking free ISKIES.

Hot dropping space pimps:

A war kicked up with The Silent trust and International space Pimps. We were once allies but ISP had a falling out with the alliance leaders and went there separate ways. We lived in peace for a while but some POS attacks and counter attacks lead to ISP war decking us. OH well, more PvP for me :)

The war was lame with a lot of station camps and a whole lot of nothing happening. I had suggested we fall back into lowsec, take some time to burn down some customs offices and see if the fight undocked and came looking for us. In the process I had offered to bring my carrier to help with the customs offices. FC said awesome, I took a shuttle ride over to my carrier.

On the ride over ISP started to log in pilots and neutral alts started poking around our fleet in lowsec. Our own scouts showed a comparable enemy gang forming. FC asked me if I was willing to HOT drop on gate. I said I'd drop it anywhere he liked so long as the fleet stayed to fight with me if they countered with caps. Fleet was game so I prepped the carrier for a fight.

So a camp was set up on the lowsec entry gate and sure enough the enemy fleet jumped in and attacked. I had undocked the carrier at the first gate flash and on command the cyno was lit and I jumped in. I was expecting a fight and perhaps a little rush. It was the first time I had committed the carrier to combat. What I got was a good chuckle and 2 kills.

Literally reds scattered like roaches when the light goes on. We managed to pin down a hurricane and a curse. ECM in the fleet locked them down and the 'cane was called primary. I started locking as soon as my over view rendered and I JUST got fighters on the 'cane. The curse got a little more of my attention and was obliterated before most of the fleet could shift fire.

We got called names. The other side rage logged. I hung with the fleet while my cyno pilots timer was done then bounced the carrier back home. Overkill perhaps, but it's EvE. No one give you a fair fight. Funny thing is we would have won the fight anyway, but that one drop pretty much ended the war. We snagged a stealth bomber before the war expired. Fun stuff.

Cheers

EVE SOB

A REAL Kill for Zombinutz

I've been frustrated of late with EvE PvP. Mostly because I am alone 90% of the time and as such mostly a charitable kill for the roaming gangs. Ironically enough I was scouting for some alliance mates bringing a fleet of frigates down to our lowsec base last night. To set up Jump Clones for them etc.

We hit local after a few bumps (disco apoc vs t1 frigates can be fun) to see a Myrm in local. Said myrm had just caught an Alli mate of guard in a drake. We pinned the Myrm in station and the games began. Me in a 'cane with a SB and 2 T1 frigates Vs the Myrm. We all got tired real fast of station games and the myrm pilot said he would fight us if we let him off station. I said pick his planet and it was on at planet 8.

I was refreshed to see Ahniolator honor his call. We all landed at 0 and began the fight. It was clear early he was active armor tanked. I had guessed double repped as he was repairing massive chunks when we hit close to structure. I was a little scatter brained and did not nuet right away. I was also torn between helping keep the drones off the frigates and going for the myrm. Hindsight blah blah, I should have just hammered the Myrm,

We lost two frigates before claiming Ahniolators tripple repped, double cap boosted Myrm. I did not even make a play for his pod in respect for him honoring the fight. We exchanged GFs in local. Some banter about it going the other way if it was just the 'cane and the Myrm. My 'cane is past due for her fiery death so I was cool with that. It was good to almost fight 1:1 with a like class boat. Ahniolator had a 39J trip home, so I gave him a spare minnie shuttle I had kicking about. We wished each other well and I invited him back anytime for a rematch.

Again props to Ahniolator from [Test] for honoring a good fight. Perhaps there is hope left for me and PvP. We shall see but this is a step in the right direction.

Cheers

ZOMB (EVE SOB)

Planetary Interaction: FLASH BACK

Back in 2010 I did a short series called "making free isk" and vol 2 in August 2010 was about Planetary Interaction. A lot has changed since then in our beloved EvE, and the P.I. info is now dated. Needless to say in my email recently was this comment for my August 2010 post:

"Anonymous: May 23, 2012 4:29 AM
Hey eve SOB good job making a PI guide.
i make about 2 billion a month from PI and im just 
looking around seeing how other people do it. but 
yeah when i started out i would have loved a guide 
like this.


So ya Props to you and i like the way u think keep 
up the good work o/"


First off all thanks to the nameless reader for the kudos. Second thanks for flashing me back almost 2 years to the topic and in game activity Planetary Interaction. I have maintained in one way or another a P.I. farm since it's inception. I've had as many as 45 planets working for me over the years in both high and lowsec. Everything from 23H to 6 Day cycles as well. For the most part I've made POS fuel stuffs, but nanite repair paste, construction blocks and POS towers/modules as well.

P.I. Has made/saved me billions of ISK over the years. When I was fueling 2-3 large POS in lowsec the monthly run off alone netted me ~1 billion ISK a month and saved me about the same in POS fuel costs.

Today I have cut back with my last move to just 20 planets. Focused 100% on keeping a small highsec POS fueled. I run 6 day cycles that takes 15m to restart the entire thing. I haul it all in once a week (some times every other week) and produce enough POS fuel stuffs in a week to fuel my little POS for a month. I've been taking a solid break from ice mining but with a few orca loads of ice I can stockpile a lot of fuel. When it comes to POS fuel I like to have a few months of fuel for all my Active towers in the corp hanger. It's also a great CASH cow should a shiny tempt me.

Either way I can honestly say that P.I. IMHO has had a huge positive effect on EvE for the industry/market player. I wounder with DUST coming how much longer we can ride this gravy train. How planet level contention will effect POS fuel prices, and what ripples in the fabric will come of it.

As always curious to see it all unfold and looking forward to another 2 years of EvE.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Dude....wait...WHAT?!?!?!

SO kind of as a follow on to my last post about failures and frustrations. A little real life event happened yesterday that made me like the charming pooch above.

I was playing some tennis with my wife and mini clones when POP! I blew out my left Achilles tendon. Before all you fitness buff scold me for not stretching. I did stretch and had been playing for about 45mins when it happened.

The sad thing of it all was it was  a familiar De Ja Vu type thing. I busted my right Achilles in almost the same manner 10 years ago (yes yes I stretched then too).

However I actually stopped to think as I was limping off the court to the ER that perhaps this would give me more time for EvE PvP while I recover. At the very least the painkillers will help me be more charitable to the rape squads I bump into.

Just sharing.

Cheers

EVE SOB

failures and frustrations

EvE is known for being a harsh place. Sure empire is like a big comfy chair at the end of a artillery range. Most of the time you can hang out as you please unless it's your turn to take a volley of ammo from a random stranger. Only place you are "safe" is in station and even then folks can steal your stuff if you click the wrong link or hire and trust the wrong dude. So over time you kind of accept the fact that some day, no matter how careful, you are gonna get your stuff blowed up or your iskies cheated away from you.

My current frustrations are old frustrations. I am trying to explore PvP with Zombinutz my hacked together Caldari PEW PEW pilot. In the past I've tried 0.0 and found the time requirements were not gelling with my RL. So I pulled outta there for the greater good. Well that and I got very frustrated missing epic fights by an hour and being left to watch the standing fleet stand down.

I spent some time floating about in lowsec in rifters and hurricanes. I've flow stealth bombers about and pods out of 0.0 through camped areas. I get how to avoid getting blowed up (most of the time) and am willing to commit to a fight. I even joined a new corp. and alliance as they move out to live in lowsec. The focus there being to shoot other EvE players. 

The killer here is I seem to stink at:

A: Finding a play time that in conducive to PvP and PvP fleet participation
B: Picking a corp. with active PvPers.

I had high hopes but now I am frustrated.

- Like a friend has a week old application into a "we need people NOW" corp.
- Like I lead the alliance for kills whoring cyno alts when I ahppen to undock into them.
- I have the ONLY post (unanswered) in the PvP alliance forums. Ya know looking to co-ordinate fleets.

Anyhow solo PvP is a very frustrating place in EvE from my perspective. There is a good chance I am doing it wrong and hunting in the wrong place. However there is a solid line between courage and charity in lowsec these days.

Yesterday the bait drake did not even wait for us to lock each other up before it's 4 friends jumped into local.  I was willing to fight it and expected a fleet to jump in. Yet the wolves were over hungry and I had plenty of time for me to warp to a safe spot. I mean at least let me think you are not bait and wait until you have a firm grip on my warp drive before you call in the squad. The sad sad thing is with one other battle cruiser with me we could have burned down the whole damn lot (well perhaps not the vulture). I should have tried regardless, but charity aint my idea of fun.

I hope it gets better soon as killing cyno alts is lame...

Cheers

EVE SOB

May 2012

Last month I talked of a move coming for me in EvE. In fact it has come, or more to the point, a few moves have happened. I’ve always believed that change is a healthy thing and thus far these changes have been positive.

The first change is moving my R&D Corporation out of the Okunda constellation. This involved tearing down 35 PI planets, a POS, and moving a lot of “stuff” (read “crap”) across the lowsec pipe and many jumps to my new home. It took some time to bleed off all R&D jobs and shuffle standings about before ultimately standing up a new smaller R&D POS in my new home.

Having a rhea and multiple Blockade runner trained pilots made this move much easier. It was also a great chance to spring clean my crap and sell off a lot of junk I’ve been dragging about. Moving the BPO collection was a little hairy, but went off without a hitch.

The Second change was Zombinutz joining a new corporation and alliance and moving into lowsec Khanid space. Ultimately this move is to get more PvP focused and I have confidence it will happen. So far the only KM is that of a poor lowly noob ship cyno alt. It’s dirty but well it’s a kill. I am excited to get in on some fleets and kill something a little more substantial.

The new alliance grows steady with a mix of PvP and Indy types. Having a Rhea alt makes me a popular dude as we shuffle things about. Also ironically right as I shifted I finished training my base Chimera skills and built the hull. So that made moving the fleet about much easier. I need to finish triage modules next but for the most part the chimera is ready for duty should the call come.

Big news in game would be around Burn Jita and Hulkageddon V.

Burn jita basically was a suicide gank lock down of EvE biggest trade hub. Somewhere like ½ trillion ISK destroyed and well a lot of forum fuss and EvE political flexing. In reality for me it was pretty much an excuse to visit other trade hubs and focus a little more on other aspects.

Hulkageddon V is the next event in a semiannual gank fest on mining barges started by helicity boson and this year picked up and backed by the goons. Normally a weeklong event, this time around we are seeing a month of hulkageddon. However it’s still an event that prays on the industry of eve under the guise of stopping bot mining. It still has prizes and still remains the time when miners take a break and focus on other things or we make metric crap tons of gank boats and sell them at marked up prices. For me this month I am inventing like crazy before datacores get a nerf.

On the note of hulkageddon perhaps some fresh targets might be a new spin on an old theme. With all the offline POSi floating around empire and lowsec. A civic duty to the community might be an event targeting POS’s and associated parts might be fun. Sure it might require a little more planning and work, but well burn Jita was in all fairness a very well executed showcase of what players can do. Ganking mining barges is so 2009 all ready.

Until next time folks

Cheers

EVE SOB

April 2012

It's been a steady time in and out of EvE. A RL family vacation to warmer parts recharged some batteries. A loss of a director and friend in EvE kind of slowed me down a bit in terms of corp. growth. In all things I feel a sense of shifting sails and uneasy decks under my feet. Change folks, change in all things is the taste I find in the winds kiss. I feel the pull on the wheel as my rudder seeks a fresher heading.

For well over a year I've called Kiskoken and it's surrounding pocket of highsec systems home. It's been very good to me and my hermit life style. Cut off from the rest of lonetrek by a small lowsec pipe. I found it to be a very quiet place with equally quiet neighbours. A lot like the sleepy little Country town in North Western Massachusetts where my Prime clone resides in the real world. Kind of the EvE equivalent of the classic North Eastern USA small country town if you will.

Like all things pristine it has found popularity of late. It's a excellent place to set up a R&D and manufacturing corp. It has ample free moons, a number of 0.5 systems, an Ice belt on a dead end system, and large fat belts full of ore. First bounce into the pipe there is a build station with a instawarp to the highsec out gate. It's got a lot to offer for the small corps. looking to poke away at life in EvE. A fact that most of the locals try to protect. Working hard to keep the larger alliances out, as best a small group of loners can. I fear this effort is failing and a lot of new faces are regularly in local. Even the locals have been fighting laterly and the belts are often contested.

I feel more and more that the run is coming to an end here for me. I've personally assassinated entire systems in rocks, several Ice Asteroids, and extracted billions of planet resources. I've researched BPOs till my labs grew tired and built shuttles to jump freighters out here. Yet there is only so long a man can mine ice and keep his trigger finger gloved.

So a move is coming for me in EvE. I cannot say where because well I have not decided yet. Ultimately I can see a few different paths for my 4 accounts. I can see more combat for Zomb, perhaps trying a lowsec corp. or even piracy. For Sob and the HCRND crew, I can see less time mining and more time trading for minerals for builds. With each BPO I buy and research my ship builds yield more profit. I find myself more and more buying rocks over mining them. So it's time to restructure my base of operations towards that. Like wise I am down to 1 medium POS now and even that is larger than my current needs.

We shall see what the rest of April brings, but change if only subtle, is coming.

cheers

EVE SOB

P.S. Rhea build post coming. I am actually taking my time and writing this one less like the crazy crack ferret style I normally blog in. So no holding ya breath now.

March 2012

It's been a quiet time in EvE. A lot of mining and PI keeping POS online as they tick away. I've been building a rhea over the last 4 months or so. Choosing to react all composites from base moon minerals using 1 to 2 large towers in low sec. I have to say that building jump freighters is a PITA. While I built it for about half the market price. There are far better ways to make/save ISK in EvE. In the end though it does feel good to fly what you build and well if none of us took the time to build jump freighters eventually there would be none to buy.

We had another war in this  month. A small "mercenary" corp. decked our alliance consisting a combination of what seemed to be alts and a few older players. It was apparently retaliation for us shooting back when a suicide ganker hit an alliance Mackinaw fleet. Ah well, we might be bears but we also know EvE is PvP based. PvP is a 2 sided coin right?! ;) Such is the way of things...

Anyhow said war was short with only a hand full of kills. In the end the mercs took a thrashing and negotiated an early end to the war. Zombinutz got in on a few kills to boost his sorely underpopulated Kill board in the form of a nice Tengu and megathron kill. I also got to actually shoot at someone with the Manticore I fit up sometime last year for a war that never really saw much action. So I guess there is a good side to this war.

This year the hermits will be looking to add members as we have seen some folks drop off out of the game. RL tends to keep all our active members busy and it's been a good while since we all were fleeted up doing some thing together. Then again the hermits are kind of like that by design. A safe place to do your own thing but have support of a corp. and alliance when needed/desired. All the same I'd like some more warm bodies in the corp. as we poke around in lowsec more and start to get more requests coming out of 0.0 for carrier/dread builds. We have had a few folks after Nyx, but sadly the alliance lacks the 0.0 access we need to build them. We have several skilled builders who can build pretty much anything. We have the mining means to hover up the minerals for these mammoth critters. We simply don't have the ties to a 0.0 system with the sov. to build Moms and titans. Ah well perhaps this will change this year. For now though more active hermits is the goal. So if you are looking for a Indy corp. in a good highsec alliance with plenty of business. Send Zombinutz an evemail/Private chat request or drop in to "HCSH - Tavern" our pub channel for a chat. We are picky because well we like to "know" each hermit as we welcome them to the family, but we accept all people who embrace the hermit way of life.

The real world in the USA is a busy unstable place. The economy is in recession and the job market is kind of hit or miss. I've survived a number of "reorgs" as my current employer shuffles and redefines it's business model to move past a 3 quarter slump. This tends to hamper my EvE time and it is not uncommon for me to disappear for a week or so now. Much the same goes for any of the folks I see online alot as they do what must be done in the real world. Infamous blogger Rixx Javix of Eveoganda last blogged about the pain of closing the doors of his RL business and the uncertainty ahead. It's been over a month since he posted. I fear that EvE has lost a great community champion to RL here. I truly hope he and his family are doing well and we will all read about his triumphant return in his signature style soon. The busy life also seems apparent in my South African Hermit brothers. Seeing them mostly for quick "howzit?" as they steal a moment to set training queues.

On that note, I'll close with glad tidings of prosperity and good health to the EvE community. Until next time.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Griefer activities: A carebears perspective...

TL;DR: Carebears need to be smarter and HTFU. With some "no shit Sherlock" advice on how to avoid greifers from a career 'bear.


So with a recent Blog Banter being about non-concentual PvP and the common perception that all carebears hate to fight and want to hide and cry. I decided not to write a late blog banter post, but rather compile some thoughts on the matter of Highsec Carebear life and some common types of grief attacks that prey upon us. I'd also like to impart some common sense to the issue and some VERY simple things carebears do that make them easy targets and how to reduce the risks. The truth of it all griefing is a part of EvE and supported by a large percentage of the community and the games maker CCP. EvE is a PvP based game, and like it or not most carebears actually spend most of their game time supporting this. By this I mean every rock mined, every item looted, and every ship built in some way or another feeds into the larger world of conflict that is the guts of EvE. That naga locking up your mackinaw was probably built by one of your corp. mates, or perhaps even you funshine bear. It's nothing personal and simply the circle of creation and destruction at play.

OK lets real it back and validate my carebear credentials. Here is my resume towards the profession of carebear in the form of the 2 main pilots I own(I have 4 accounts, all pilot slots filled):

SonOfBraben was born and named as homage to David Braben, the father of my first Space game love Elite, on October 18th 2009. He sits today at 32M SP with 2 alts sharing his account who add another 8M SP in the forms of PI and indy functions. SonOfBrabens skill pie chart is below, you get one guess to what his life in eve is about, bonus points for what PvP ship he flies:

Next up in my resume for the profession of carebear is my second accounts main Pilot Zombinutz. Born of all the ideals as a Caldari PvP (yes yes, chuckle away) pilot with a side task of hauling for SoBs mining on November 11th 2009. He sits at 36M Skill points with 2 alts adding 2M more SP to the account once again in PI and Indy support. The downside to all this is the significant time he spends in an Orca not a PEW PEW boat. Here be his skills as documentation of the shameful failure of his original creation:

I also have 2 other accounts with a fully trained hulk/mack pilots each. One has a Jump freighter alt the other cyno alts, oh and yes more PI and Indy support alts. I spend a LOT of time boxing all 4 accounts destroying asteroid belts and whoring ice. Honestly I am as much of a carebear as freaking bedtime Bear, the original carebear.

OK, so now that I have validated my claim to being able to speak to carebear perspectives and label myself a 100% certified career carebear. Let's get back to this business of greifer activity and how it effects the 'bear life. To do this lets identify a few definitions of major griefer actions against 'bears shall we:

Suicide Ganker: The practice of seeking to blow up a non-hostile target via means of surprise and pure firepower under the understanding that you too will not survive the encounter. High ISK killed vs. low isk spent, lots of tears and easy way to lose sec status if you want to be flashy red. SoBs WTF?! rating 10/10

Can Flipper: Seeking out jet can miners with the intention to bait them into shooting back so you can then blow them up. Not about stealing ore, but easy kills and tear harvesting with no sec status loss. SoBs WTF?! rating 6/10

Ninja Salvager/looter: the salvager looks to steal from and piss off mission runners by salvaging all there wrecks making ISK and harvesting tears. The looter is much like a can flipper looking to insight rageful retaliation garnering agro and the ability to return and gank. Kills and tears being the gain, but no sec status loss. SoBs WTF?! rating 5/10

Greifer war Decs: Declaring war on soft carebear targets with the goal of getting easy kills and stopping their productivity. Kills, tears, and perhaps the least risk of any greifer pursuit. SObs WTF?! rating 1/10

These are some of the more common activities greifers take part in. Some notable EvE events around the above include hulkageddon and the recent blue Ice blitz by the goons. In these cases they are more about market manipulation than tears to be honest. Also IMHO those caught by them are not doing everything they really should be in terms of avoiding them as well.

In all cases these are legal activities within the game and part of the creation and destruction cycle that is the core of EvE economics. People need stuff to blow up, folks pay ISK for things to blow up, 'bears make ISK building or providing the materials to build stuff to blow up. Here a nice lifecycle picture for ya:

Now that we have defined some common actions by greifers. Lets suggest some common sense around not being the victim, and rather being the proud and prosperous 'bear. Ya know the kind the greifers come to when they want 50 Nagas built for a good price, over the one they gank.

Avoiding the Suicide Ganker:

1. DON'T AFK MINE! Seriously if you have to be away from your keyboard, don't leave a mining fleet in space. UM...I might just gank you for the sheer lesson of it.

2. DON'T MINE at 0! The lazy bored greifer loves people who sit at zero. It requires zero work for them to warp to you at optimal.

3. DON'T MINE IN THE SAME SPOT ALL THE TIME! Sure same system and belt, but adjust where you are often through a series of book marks. Mine on the outside of the belts semi-circle one day, the bottom another, the top the next. Chew one end off the belt then warp to the other side. All this makes the suicide ganker have to work harder to land at optimal.

4. ALIGN TO STATION (or GTFO BM)! Yeap, takes 20 seconds, and saves you 20 seconds of "OH shit! OH SHIT!" time.

5. DO NOT BOT MINE! Cheating douche bags deserve to get ganked. If you bot mine in a system I mine in, and I am sure of it, there is a good chance an ALT of mine will land on you in a gank Naga!

6. TANK YA BARGES! A hulk in highsec with orca support should not be fit for max cargo, even then shield tank it. I once tanked a drake in lowsec on a gate for almost 3 mins, concord would have saved my ass in highsec and at least I was a PITA while being dumb.

Avoiding the Can Flipper:

1. DON'T JET CAN MINE! Seriously, if there is nothing to flip there is no can flipper.

2. ABANDON ALL CANS AND WRECKS! Blue is a can flippers least favorite color. It also lets noobs clear the wrecks that honestly most of us litter the belts with.

3. DON'T SHOOT BACK IF FLIPPED! Other than changing to a nice shade of red, they cannot legally shoot you until you flip back. If you do shoot back and you did not follow #2. Log off for the day and go play angry birds. Shooting wrecks extends timers...

4. IF YOU MUST SHOOT BACK! Either be ready for a nice bloody fight or suicide gank them with an alt in a NPC corp, so you can go right on mining afterwards.

Avoiding the Ninja Salvager/looter:

1. BE NICE! Honestly in the endless drudgery of level 4's I've ran. 90% of the times where I've had a ninja and opened a private chat to ask the Ninja how there day was going. The Ninja was pleasant and professional, we had a nice chat, and they went on to other grumpier bears.

2. ABANDON YA WRECKS! LOOT BLUE = no agro. Yet you can still loot and salvage them. Boring for most, but an open buffet for the dude who actually wants to just steal ya stuff. Know thy ninja, before doing this.

3. HAVE FUN WITH IT! Honestly the most fun I've ever had doing a level 4 mission was when I played a "get the damsel first" game with a ninja. Yeap, that mission as a level 4. Pretty cut and try blast them and loot the damsel. In the fun game version. I warped in and out. I waited logged out for 5 mins as the magnate could not DPS down the structure the damsel was in that time. In the end I simply warped in my second account in a sentry domi, and my main in a wolf. Warped out and back in, popped the structure, and raced the ninja to the can. Won by 3KM. Seriously the most fun I've had in the 100's of times I've ran that sodding mission.

4. DON'T BE A GRUMPY BEAR! That shit is what they want.

Avoiding the Greifer war Decs:

OK no bullet points for this one as it's not quite as cut and dry. It's sometimes not a result of what you have or have not done. There are many dynamics to highsec war decs. Ranging from random selection to revenge and just about everything in between. I've been dec'ed to practice PvP. I've been dec'ed my corp. was an "easy target". I've been dec'ed out of spite (Honestly). Even had an alliance dec'ed when out head got mouthy in local after being ganked. DUMBASS!

In all cases wars are a good time to dip your toe into PvP. All be it mostly station games, hide and seek, or the other side not logging in. It's a great chance for us 'bears to work on our fleet skills, have some major laughs on voice coms., and have some good clean fun. I actually keep a stockpile of T1 battle cruisers and meta 4 mission loot in the corp. hangers just for wars. Mostly the fights are one too many and the greater number typically wins the round. I get folks into a "dead heads" (implant less jump clones) and give them a hull to fit and blow up. It's kind of a QA test of the shit we build in the real world application, for you role-playing 'bears. For me it's an excuse to blow shit up, being a closet PvP wanna be 'bear. I firmly believe ALL EvE players should be able to fit and fly at least a BC for PvP.

Now it does not mean you cannot mine, or run missions, or make large amounts of ISK during wars. Having a simple "non mining in open belts" policy during wars still lets you mine mission rocks and scanned grav sites all day and night. If you are smart and follow some of the suggestions above with some added common sense around local. You can mine open belts too. I did for at least 2 of the dec's on my corps. mostly because I spend a lot of time getting to know the regulars and my HQ is in an island of systems separated from the rest of high by a short lowsec pipe. With one way to fly in just put a scout on it. I have extensive bookmarks all ready in place and a limited number of folks in local, most of which I know. If you be smart, a little paranoid, and don't afk mine chances are you will mine just as much as you normally do.

One thing I will add about war decs. It's VERY annoying when your war dec'ed and the other side station spins or sits in space cloaked. I think there should be a clause in all decs where the war is void if:

1. The aggressive party has more than 50% of its members docked 50% of time when actively logged in.

2. The aggressive party has more than 50% of its members cloaked in space for more than 50% of active time logged in.

That would sort a lot of this out.

As will all things I blog here, they are just my take on stuff. I am sure there are other forms of greifing in EVE. I am sure there are prob better ways to counter them. However in over 2 years I've lost 2 mining barges. One to a drake on a lowsec gate where I was being and idiot. The other was me warping a new Hulk to a belt and answering the phone before turning on its active shield talk. Also being an idiot.

Cheers

EVE SOB



Fuel blocks...

POS owners be ready for Jan 24th and crucible 1.1! The fuel block cutover is coming.(oh an the other stuff)

Sure hope my POSi swap over gracefully to the new fuel and don't all go offline.

In other news, I'm am still carebearing in highsec. Nearing the end of a long Rhea build.

Cheers

EVE SOB

Blockade Runners: A real life use case.

A while back I posted about the Viator and promised to do a comparison between it and it's Caldari cousin the Crane. Flash forward over a year and I've put quite a few AU on both hulls across mostly high and lowsec uses. I've actually got 3 pilots who can fly one or the other of these two hulls and I use them all almost daily as I ferry stuff about. I can also say that the original Viator that I purchased for the post is still alive and has certainly been placed in harm's way A LOT!

So let's review a little here. Back in November of 2010 my main industry pilot finished training for a super agile Viator fit. I had asked around over blockade runners Vs deep space transports. I got back a solid response "Blockade runners 100%!". Back then I was looking to move goods through lowsec in smaller amounts. In this regard the original fit for "Nothing to see" was perfect and the fit remains the same and unchanged today. It's my go-to cloaky hauler for which I favor more trips in greater safety for those select items one must often truck through hostile space. Here is the fit as it has been for over a year:

FIT: Viator - Nothing to See (Cost ~80M ISK)

HIGHS:
-Covert Ops Cloaking device II
MIDS:
- "Cetus" ECM Shockwave I
- Invulnerability Field II
- Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I MWD
LOWS:
-Nanofiber Internal Structure II
-Local Hull Conversion Inertial Stabilizers I
-Expanded Cargohold II
RIGS:
-Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer
-Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I

The fit is basically a poor man's 0.0 Viator fit. It's 100% agility with a hint of "OH F**K!" insurance and honestly I've used the insurance more than once. The closets I came to loosing this hull was actually in highsec. I was hauling P3 goods from amarr space to caldari space taking advantage of some truly awesome deltas in SO and BO between both. I jumped into a 0.5 mid way right as a Smart Bomb camp went off. The first cycle of the smart bombs took me from full HP to 23 Hull. I was all ready aligning when it went off and I mashed MWD and the INV field and cleared the radius and warped right as the second cycle fired. I've also used the ECM to save a friend from a gate camp in low. I was on my way back empty. Got a "HELP! " in corp. chat and was 1 system out. Jump into system saw my mate pinned down in a drake by a hurricane a nice 7KM away. I aligned to the best celestial that would take me through the fight. Told my corpie to mash warp too, hit the MWD, ECM in range, then warp. I made it out with just enough cap to hit a safe and my corpie made it out as well. The Hurricane pilot dropped a "OMFG WTF!?" in local and we all had a chuckle over me saving a drake with a 100M ISK BR. I have some friends who fly the same fit who tell me the ECM has helped them shake fast tackle and get away before. So I can attest that the above fit is agile, survivable, and sound.

I also played around with deep space transports a bit as well when I needed to move POS parts around before I got access to a jump freighter. Honestly I can see them being a great shallow space run about at best. Basically a Bustard is a badger MK II with a better tank. The increased warp strength might save you from a solo dude with a disruptor, but it will not break a scram without an additional warp core stabilizer. I tested it with a 'ceptor with a scram and a disruptor. Base hull can break the disruptor but not the scram. Even fit out with 1 WCS, that sole 'ceptor can pin it. With two WCS it can get away from a single duel point 'ceptor. Sorry but that be LAME! Add to that that it cannot warp cloaked and has stuff all cargo space if you fit for agility. I agree Deep Space Transports stink and need some love.

OK! Back on track here. Blockade runners mate! The Viator Vs the Crane and such...

THE VIATOR

THE CRANE

Name: Viator Hull: Iteron Class Role: Transport Developer: Duvolle Labs Blockade runner transports are the fastest type of industrial available. Utilizing sturdy but lightweight construction materials and sacrificing some cargo space, these haulers are able to reach speeds greater than those of a cruiser while withstanding heavy fire - factors which make them ideal for zipping through dangerous territories with valuable cargo. Gallente Industrial Skill Bonus: +5% cargo capacity per level +5% velocity per level Transport Ships Skill Bonus: -5% armor repairer duration per level -98.5% to -99.25% bonus to cpu need of covert ops cloaks

Name: Crane Hull: Badger Class Role: Transport Developer: Kaalakiota Blockade runner transports are the fastest type of industrial available. Utilizing sturdy but lightweight construction materials and sacrificing some cargo space, these haulers are able to reach speeds greater than those of a cruiser while withstanding heavy fire - factors which make them ideal for zipping through dangerous territories with valuable cargo. Caldari Industrial Skill Bonus: +5% cargo capacity per level +5% velocity per level Transport Ships Skill Bonus: +5% shield booster boost amount per level -98.5% to -99.25% bonus to cpu need of covert ops cloaks

High Slots	1	High Slots	1
Medium Slots	3	Medium Slots	4
Low Slots	3	Low Slots	2
Rig slots	2	Rig slots	2
CPU	250	CPU	285
Power Grid	135	Power Grid	125
Calibration	400	Calibration	400
Capacitor Capacity	875 GJ	Capacitor Capacity	843.75 GJ
Base cargo Capacity	3000 m3	Base cargo Capacity	3500 m3
Inertia Modifier	0.55x	Inertia Modifier	0.48 X
Mass	11,150,000 kg	Mass	11,150,000 kg
Shields	1266	Shields	1758
Armor	1899	Armor	1196
Hull	2602	Hull	1969
Signature Radius	115 m	Signature Radius	125m
Max Velocity	170 m/s	Max Velocity	165m/s
Ship warp Speed	9.0 AU/s	Ship warp Speed	9.00 AU/s

So bonus wise one be armor tanked and the other be shield tanked as one would expect based on race. Respectively they get armor rep or shield boost skill bonus and a -98.5% to -99.25% bonus to cloak CPU needs. Otherwise they get 25% increased cargo and speed as race industrial V is required to fly them. Honestly I don't know anyone who tanks these with active boosters/reppers here. Sure above I fit an invulnerability II, but it really only gives me 650 EHP more. So bonus really does not come into play for the REAL job at hand.

I played around with the Crane and Viator for a more lowsec focused application. No bubbles in lowsec to bust out of means we can get into warp faster. Less fast tackle in low means we can be cloaked a little longer before warping. So we can focus a little more on the max cargo capacity and let the hulls agility get us through.

In this area I mucked around with both hulls with a pair of Medium cargo hold optimization I rigs. The viator had 4,959.4 m3 and the Crane had 5,785.9 m3. Viator was 115m for sig and 0.42x for inertia, while the crane was 125m and 0.36x for inertia. So crane wins round 1 being faster to get moving and more base cargo.

I then went after max cargo capacity. The viator with the extra low slot pretty much topped out at 10,279.2 m3.The crane weighed in a close 2nd at 9,405.8 m3. One might ask what difference 873.4 m3 can make? Well let's consider nanite repair paste at its 0.01 m3 foot print 873.4 m3 means I can fit 87,340 more of them in my viator. If I sold that difference at 24K each, that's 2BN isk more in that cloaky ship. Then again having a full bay of nanite repair paste is not the best way to move around 24.6 BN ISK. So let's look at getting that large tower out to lowsec shall we. Large tower is 8k and it runs 40 blocks of fuel an hour. So the Viator drops the tower and puts 11 hours worth of fuel in it, the crane drops the same tower but only 7 hours worth of fuel. So an extra 4 hours of fuel before I need to bounce out there with a Jump Freighter and fill up the fuel bays and drop the rest of the towers arrays. Viator wins round 2 for giving me 4 more hours for a clear jump window and 2BN more isk worth of nanite repair paste I can cram in it.

I looked at adding a small shield buffer tank to each for those pesky smart bombs. Without getting too silly with SonOFBrabens skills. I can get the Crane to 15.2K EHP, 67/73/69/65, and a sig radius of 135m with 9.4k M3 cargo. The Viator 11.8K EHP, 67/58/79/65, and a sig radius of 120M with 10.2K m3. So the crane wins round 3 being able to use its extra mid slot to punch through those highsec smart bomb gate camps.

Last I tried to blend it all together and come up with a more survivable variant of the 0.0 fit I fly on my original Viator. I did not EFT this or get too silly with faction mods etc. Just named meta 4 and T2 where my alts have skills to fly. They are fit thus:

The Crane: Just Passing By - lowsec/highsec fit.

Highs:
- Covert Ops Cloaking device II
Meds:
- Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
- Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
- "Cetus" ECM Shockwave I
-Invulnerability Field II
Lows:
- Expanded Cargohold II
- Expanded Cargohold II
Rigs:
-Medium cargo hold optimization I
-Medium cargo hold optimization I

The above fit is pretty much how I fly the crane with my Freighter alt. I use it to ferry small goods around high and lowsec when a charon/rhea just does not make sense. It's actually cap stable so the ECM can be turned on and left on if you get de-cloaked. It's 7K EHP w/ 1/61/56/51 without the inv II on and 9.1K EHP 30/73/69/65 with it on. So it can take a smart bomb and GTFO (yes not going to tank for long, but that's not the idea). I has a sig radius of 135M which is so-so. Top speed of 203 m/s and a inertia modifier of 0.36x. Cargo is 9.4k m3 so it can still deliver a large tower with 7 hours of fuel to lowsec.

It's not the most awesome fit ever but it does what I want it to do. Gets small goods about empire and low. I've also dropped towers with it flying in through 12 man lowsec entry gate camps...

The Viator: :) o/ - lowsec/highsec fit (yes the name is cheeky)

Highs:
- Covert Ops Cloaking device II
Meds:
- Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I MWD
- "Cetus" ECM Shockwave I
- Invulnerability Field II
Lows:
- Expanded Cargohold II
- Expanded Cargohold II
- Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Rigs:
-Medium cargo hold optimization I
-Medium cargo hold optimization I

The above fit is pretty much how I fly the Viator with my lowsec PI/POS/cloaky scout alt. I use this fit for everything from moving small stuff to and from the POS to hauling in PI goods. It's NOT cap stable by any means but she is FAST! It's 5.5K EHP w/ 1/41/71/51 without the inv II on and 6.1K EHP 30/58/79/65 with it on. So it might take a smart bomb and GTFO. I has a sig radius of 115M which is a little harder to lock than a barge ;). Top speed of 229m/s with MWD off and 1293 m/s with it on and a inertia modifier of 0.35x. Cargo is 8.0k m3 so it can still deliver a large tower if needed.

Again, nothing stunning here fit wise. Gets the job done and does not cost an arm and a leg.

So really either hull is a awesome blockade runner. The fits above are not perfect and some might feel the need to flame. However they do what I need them too and my pilots can fly them. In all cases this is just my take on how I fly them and how they rate side by side.

Cheers

EVE SOB