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