Finally!

The right time, place, situation all converged today for me to get out and show my FC chops to my, now not so, new alliance.

As I was sitting cloaked at an entry system waiting to scout my alt through, a 50+ red gang began roaming through our space. I kept my eye on intel and then in the FC channel the Alliance lead asked if anyone was available. No one responded, so I said fuck it, why not? I said I was there and he asked if I could form up a defense fleet. Of course I said I would, and burned straight back to home, dodging the enemy fleet in my Cheetah and gathering my own intel on them.

They were light, mostly t2 frigs with 4 guardians and some dictors and a couple command ships. I had already gotten the fleet formed and asked for Battleships, thinking they would be their usual sniper HAC gang. It was too late to change my mind, that would look indecisive. Fortunately, only a handful of us were able to even field a BS so our gang was good anyway. After an agonizingly long time, we got numbers I was comfortable with, about 28 people, while the enemy moved further into our space. We'd move with what we had and get ahead of them via jump bridges.

We moved out, the gang topped out at 36, and our enemy made our jobs easy, slipping into a single entry dead end constellation. We also got word another 40 man gang had formed up to fight them and then another gang of unknown size, so we had to use text comms to coordinate with the 3 FC's. Ok, the fight was going to be one sided, but nothing I could do about that.

We grouped up and held the single out gate for awhile before the main FC decided to move in and scare them up. Long story short, we ended up splitting our fleet up to two gates (stupid, I know, with that many fleets involved) and on the WRONG side of their escape route. Yeah, I know where this is going. The enemy fleet bolts for the out gate and we all jump, warp, and jump through after them. Fortunately the main FC was prepared and the enemy only found lots of bubbles. We hit the gate and jumped in.

I took a short time to take in the situation, had to swap overviews quickly to ensure blues were engaging, then ordered uncloak and began calling primaries. I wasn't going to use the main FC's primaries he was typing out, it would take too long. I had my fleet sort by name, and anyone with an A or B name was wiped out quickly. I ordered the fleet to sort by distance and began calling out more primaries.

I called a Damnation Secondary and hesitated a second, then said scratch that, new secondary, xyz in a wolf. Soon enough though, I was left with very few targets and the Damnation came up, I called for tackle on it but he got away by either jumping or warping, I didn't see. I have no idea how long the fight went, but I felt pretty good with my target calling, my decision making, and my general fleet movement.

While it was a decisive victory for us, and all of that due to our overwhelming numbers advantage, it did a lot for my confidence by giving me a larger list of targets than I was used to and earned me some respect among my alliance and some coalition members as well. It's just what I need to start taking some fleets out that they may not be used to.

The Hurricane

I've used this blog to bitch quite enough. So, something informative, I hope. The first in what should be a series of posts dedicated to the ships I fly.

Most of these will be Minmatar, since that is all my main flies, but my alt is working on flying some other ships so they may make it in here eventually. I'm not going to beat the rifter horse to death any more than it already has been, either. Let me begin with one of my favorite ships in Eve: the Hurricane.


The Hurricane is a tech 1 Minmatar battlecruiser, and being a huge fan of flying t1, I've had a lot of time with this mini star destroyer. Oddly enough, in my early Eve career, I disliked this ship and really wanted the Cyclone to be good, but we'll cover that ship another time.

This ship is extremely versatile, filling just about any role you can imagine, with a 8/4/6 slot layout. I have a few personal favorites, one of which I no longer get to fly.

First, I like to have a nanocane on hand, using a setup similar to the Vagabond Heavy Assault Ship, I use 220mm guns, HAMs, 2 LSE II's, Scram, MWD, 3x Gyro II, 2x Nano II, and a DC II. Rigged with 2 more extenders and anti-em or you can go for more speed, though that isn't really necessary, your sig radius is enormous. The speed on this guy is just to get you close to your prey quickly, less about tanking, except against Battleships. This setup can put out nearly 700 dps on my skills with 4 warriors and 1 hammerhead. Throw 425's in instead if you know you're going up against something bigger than you.

Next up, I have a sniper BC to go along in sniper HAC gangs. I use 5x650mm II's due to my fitting constraints, 3x Heavy launchers, 2x LSE II, 1x MWD, and a SB II, unscripted, but with scripts in cargo for different situations. Gyros, DC II, and RCU's to fit it. When I train AWU V this setup will be using 720's and hit much further out, as it is now it hits at 70km+.

Lastly, I used to fly my Hurricane like a battleship, back before I could fly battleships. I would take it to any BS fleet and hold my own, tanking POS's without a problem and even helping with a medium remote rep, which I will defend to anyone. I recall a fight with one of our BS's getting to 1% structure before we repped him out and wiped the enemy fleet. We took no losses and had I NOT fit that rep, he would have been lost. Anyway, the fit was 6x650mm II, 2 Heavy launchers, warp disruptor, target painter, ECCM, scripted sensor booster, 800 plate, dc II, 2 EANM II, and 2 gyros. I used to tank this setup a lot more, but I started using Gyros to increase my alpha, landing me top on most killmails.

There's an unlimited number of possibilities for this ship and I have many more that I have used, including a tackler with dual webs and a minimal armor buffer tank, but mainly, I use the first two.

Don't be afraid to fly smaller ships when your peers are flying t2 or Battleships. Every ship has its role and it is best if you can fill that role well, rather than move up too quickly and be unable to fill your role effectively.

Time's up

Time for me to make a change. Flying with friends sounded like a good idea to me at the time, but after a good two months it is wearing on me. A lot of it is very complicated and I hope it doesn't affect our out of game friendships, but I simply can fly with these guys and I know they can't fly with me. We see the game differently, not only in terms of carebears and pvp'ers, they are the former and I am the latter, but in level of play. I take only a few things very seriously and one of those things is gaming. It's not for everyone but I can't have fun just casually playing an mmo, I have to be good at it and I like to work with other good players. I expect a certain amount of commitment so that we can all work together efficiently and crush our enemies - that is fun. What is not fun is losing time end effort to casual players who just don't really care so they don't know what they're supposed to do when in fleet. When you fleet up with me, we depend on each other, my ship is in your hands and yours in mine. If I make a mistake, it can cost others their time, so I try to minimize that. If you come in with a "whatever" attitude and you fuck up and cost me time I probably won't fly with you again. Don't waste my time I won't waste yours.

My Corp has been wasting my time. They said they wanted 0.0, I gave it to them, they claimed they wanted to pvp, opportunity was provided. They said they understood there would be some commitment, they were not prepared. To remain in a pvp alliance like ours, you have to stay active in pvp, that is what we joined for, industry would be on the side or at most an equal partner to our combat activities. To date I have 2/3 of our kills, meaning I am carrying the Corp, allowing them to sit back and profit off of our space without earning the right. I am not against the non combat professions, I do some myself, but if I go rat or mine at least I have shed blood defending our spac and have ships ready to fight at all times. The alliance hasnt really noticed this to my knowledge, but I have and combined with the inactivity of the very people I joined this Corp to play with in the first place and a personality conflict with one of the directors and I've had enough. You tell me one thing and do another, that's a waste of my time. You don't show up to help me fight and I lose ships, more time. You do show up poorly fit and making mistakes, more time. You sit back and earn isk off of our space while I earn our place in the alliance, and now it's over.

Hope they enjoyed the free ride I gave them, and I hope the alliance stands up and takes notice when they contribute nothing. I tried to warn them, I tried to teach them. Yep I'm a bit gruff, a lot harsh, and I take gaming more serious than others, but I just don't want to waste your time.

Note: excuse any spelling errors I did this on my phone

Musings of a Con

Subject: Name Withheld
Location: Jita Solar System

They say the devil's greatest deception was convincing the world he didn't exist. I'm not the devil, but in my line of work, it's important I convince the universe that I am someone else, something other than what I am, basically, that I don't exist. What am I? Call me a rogue, a thief, a criminal, but I would say I am a teacher. I teach people valuable lessons, I am a con artíste. Corporations exist to be taken advantage of. They sit in concord patrolled space and think they are invulnerable. I teach them that they are not.

It is the challenge that drives me, my job is not easy, and I do it only for myself. My services are not for hire. Think what you will of me, but I do not hate my competition; you are all my competition. I merely look at life as a contest, a game if you will, and it is meant to be played to win. The greats are still out there to be beaten, and my name added to the unwritten Con hall of fame, but I am well on my way.

Eve Book, Alliance Tournament, and Fleet Command

I started reading the Eve book: Empyrean Age. I know I'm late in getting it, but I am impressed so far. It started out by pulling me in and has held my interest to the point that I'm almost half way done. Very good and I recommend it to any Eve player or sci fi fan.

Next up, my alliance is planning to participate in Alliance Tournament VIII and I am applying to participate. The tourney is a big deal for Eve in my opinion, it generates a lot of publicity for the game and gives gaming in general some more main stream appeal. It's also a good way for corps and alliances to get the word out and get some new blood.

I hope to be selected and get to blast some friends and enemies alike in the arena.

Lastly, I have taken the plunge and decided to start FC'ing for my alliance. I have been the corp FC and I've run a lot of gangs before this corp and while I've been a part of it, but when we joined the new alliance I wanted to sit back and watch a little. I have been in the FC channels listening and going along on gangs waiting to learn how they operate before throwing in with them. I have done it now and we had a very successful small gang roam. I hope to bring some fresh perspective to this alliance's fleets so we can break out of our typical mold and learn some more from them as well.

My situation

So there I was...

I logged off of Eve, as I've been getting considerably burned out lately, trying to keep a corp running and productive on my own. I still manage to log in every day, but after an hour I just need some first person shooters. I left vent on, though, and I heard our former CEO (I'm acting as CEO now) talking with someone else I hadn't heard from in very long. Cool. I logged off of my shooter and back into Eve and started chatting with them.

Some background: Things haven't been going extremely well within our corp, at least in my opinion. Others may kid themselves, but our move to 0.0 space has broken us up a bit. In November, my coworkers started playing Eve again, and in December, I rejoined them. We all wanted the same thing, we wanted a bigger corp, and we wanted 0.0, and everything that came with it. I had other friends from back home who had a corp of moderate size and they were looking to get into 0.0 as well, so it seemed a perfect fit.

We joined and I began to get involved immediately. I knew what the 3 of us wanted, and I meant to get it. Since these were already friends of mine, I didn't have to get used to them, it was full bore from the start. I am a very strong personality, love it or hate it, or tolerate it, it's who I am. I know what I want and have my own idea on how to get there, right or wrong, I'll decide. I'm open to others opinions, but when I know something won't work, I'll tell you, and it's not usually the nicest way.

So these guys all basically bought their toons, and I had the most experience out of all of them, starting in 2006 and having been in a 0.0 alliance for over a year. I knew what we needed, how to get there, and I began slowly taking the initiative. That got me the pvp director position. From there I steered us away from becoming a CVA pet (phew) and toward another option, our own alliance with some corps we all knew.

I never fully was into it, but it was the best option at the time for us. We uprooted and moved and wasted a month with this other corp (the third went with IT) and never got anywhere. I finally pushed again for us to go our own way and just find an alliance in 0.0 already and join that. We did.

Have you ever pulled teeth? Try pulling a carebear from his safe rocks in high sec. We weren't a huge corp, 50'ish members, and most of us had multiple accounts, so maybe 18 to 25 actual people. In my mind, we had to move everyone, we wouldn't survive as a corp with people sprinkled all over in high sec and in 0.0, so I made a compromise: we'd move 5 of our best pvp'ers out to 0.0, get things ready, and then move the rest up when we could train them and show them how safe it was.

For the first few days, 5 of us got into some fleets, a CTA started and for the first few fleets of that, we had the best turnout in our Alliance. Then it all fell apart. Before the CTA even ended, we went from 5 pvp'ers to 3, to just me. No one was ever online anymore, and when they were, it was to change skills or to sit in station.

I was the only director playing at that point, and I had to take charge of the corp, get our assets set up and represent us in pvp, because with the requirements of the alliance, we'd get kicked out if I didn't.

All of these guys we had in corp who said they wanted to go to 0.0 and start pvp'ing or mining fat rocks and ratting, suddenly weren't around. Suddenly, they couldn't afford a cruiser, suddenly they didn't even get into Ventrilo.

So, the corp falling apart around me, I took over as CEO and began trying to salvage those members we do have left who participate. That is where I am today.

A guy from the old Alliance messages me. They've joined a friendly alliance and ask how we're doing, I lie. We chat a bit about fleets and how things are going, he tells me they're doing great up there now, finally. Of the three that were in charge of that corp, he was the most grounded, and he says the other two are really starting to come down to earth and are out there pvp'ing. That's cool, I never really wished ill on them anyway. Then it comes out, he offers me a place if I ever need one, they'd be happy to have a pvp'er like me. Yeah, whatever, I've got responsi... yeah, starting to actually sound good, who needs responsibility.

Well I don't take him up on it, but I tell him the real situation we're in, I'm doing great, personally, but the corp is kind of dying, so sometime in the future it might be a possibility. Where his corp was smaller and should have died off after we left, they're thriving, gaining members, and we're dying. Oh well.

So there it is, my corp burning around me, and an offer on the table to get involved with another corp who is active. I'm still not going to do it, I will put in my best effort here, which means more recruiting, less pvp'ing, and possibly getting tossed from our alliance for low participation. That's it, I have no wisdom to share, no point to make, just my situation right there.

Gotcha!

The tower unanchored after downtime while more people started logging on. I was running way too long and risked getting caught. Some were even members of the mark Corp, and while I wasn't worried about them blowing up my ship, I was worried they might realize what was happening and get the tower first. I had too many more runs to do to pick up all the fuel so I decided to leave it all behind and just wait for the tower. I scooped it up and warped to the station, tired as hell. I said fuck it, logged and went to bed.

It's been a few weeks and I have sold almost everything, totaling 1.5b in isk plus the blueprints and a drake I decided to just keep. I even had the pleasure of going through my journal to find the CEO of the mark Corp purchased back some of his goods.

I'm happy with the take and it's time to put my alt away for a month or so or maybe forever.