We Saw, We Came, They Dropped Carriers on Us

So after a very boring "vacation" back into W-Space (tearing down and setting up POS's is so broken), I finally returned to our Low Sec home.

Nothing much was going on so I jumped into the scanner and set out to try to find a nice wormhole to either find some targets, or find some sites to run to make some isk.  The pipe was very empty, but the third system did have a C3 with a Damnation and Prowler online at their POS.  Watching for a few minutes it was obvious they were afk, probably playing WoT or something.

The fourth system yielded a Radar site and a couple more items I needed during the next Jita run.  I swapped out the scanner for my Cane and with the help of a friend quickly finished off the site.  At this point it looked like a fairly boring night and I was deciding if tweaking my PI setups might be in order.

But alas the wonderful world of PI was going to have to wait.

Someone broke into Comms and announced we had a small group setting up a gate camp in a neighboring Low Sec pipe.  This was quickly followed by additional information that said group had 8-10 reserves in a neighboring system.  Cool it was a bait gate camp.  Time for some fun.

It took the required 15 minutes to get everyone to close WoT and get back into EVE, and to rally.  I was impressed, as we quickly pulled together a 20+ man BC gang.  Usually this takes 30-45 minutes as someone needs a module, a setup posted in Fleet, is 5 jumps from something they need etc etc etc.  My rule of thumb is to allow 2-3 minutes past the desired start time per desired person in the fleet to get the show rolling.  Looking to get a 30 man fleet rolling, better plan to leave an hour past the announced start time.  I assume this is not a linear formula, but maybe it does take a day or two past the start time to launch a 1000 man fleet.

Anyway, the group camping the gate had consolidated their fleet onto one side of the gate and consisted of a scorp, tengu, couple of BS's and BC's.  About 11 total.  So the plan was hatched to engage them at range from the front, while the main force went the long way, waited for them to aggress, and then jumped through and slugged it out. Perfect plan, except their obviously neutral scout saw us coming and they warped off to a station.  Oh well, that still beats the hell out of doing PI.

But the night was far from over.

So we proceeded to play the waiting game and my favorite "chase the bouncing scout" game. (for what it is worth, never choose to be scout if the system you are assigned to scout does not have a station, and you do not have a cloak).  After what seemed like forever, a close call at one of the scout's safes, and endless debate on how to get them to engage I am about ready to call it a night.

"Check, Check, Check has anyone got any torps?"

No wait that's a different story.

"Check, Check, Check the main group is aligning.  Wait.  They are aligning to your gate."

"Burn to optimals, burn to optimals, prepare to engage, Scorp will be primary, BS's Secondary."

Now in a Cane with Autocannons, my optimal is sitting in their copilots seat, so I burned to 10km and hoped to be close to something as it uncloaked.

Gate Flash, followed on Comms "Drake jumped on landing, rest are holding"

"Weapons free, Kill it"  Of course it uncloaks 20km away from me, so I burn towards the Drake and manage to get a few shots in before his hard candy coating cracked to reveal his soft, gooey pod.  Amazed there were no more gate flashes.

"They are holding at zero" came the intel from the other side.  Followed quickly by "They are jumping, everyone is jumping"

"Shoot what uncloaks, but get the Scorp as soon as it decloaks"  "Engage the geddon, get that geddon"  "Scorp has uncloaked, primary is the Scorp"  "Cyno Lit, Cyno Lit" "Carriers on the field" "Burn to the sun, everyone burn to the sun" "Holy Sh*T" "Battle Comms please" "Everyone burn to the sun, warp when your can" "Someone get a safe" "I have a safe" " x up in Fleet Please" "Warp to sun and bounce to safe" ....

So with my heart pounding (far less then stalking a noctis solo in a wormhole, or lining up a T3 kill though) I warped to the sun and proceeded to bounce safes.

Quick analysis showed only one loss.  Well we finished even, BC for a BC, and I experienced my first Hot Drop.  Not a bad night.

But wait there's more ... now how much would you pay.

So we warp back through the group and jump to the other side of the gate to see if they want to play again.  We sit there for 4-5 minutes till we get word that the party is breaking up and the carriers are leaving system.

"Single Drake lingering to scoop drones, just one drake, come on guys get this dude."

So we jump back through, see a single Drake scooping some Ogre II's and proceed to liberate our captured friends from the belly of the beast.  Always bet on Stupid getting you a kill.

So now we decide to call it a night, are all making best speed back home when the stragglers of the group cross jump another unrelated Drake (wow bad timing on his part).  So I quickly turn around just before our rear scout announces he has hero pointed the Drake.  A couple of the stragglers jump back through and force the Drake back to the gate where he jumps right into 4-5 of us landing on the gate.  Easy Kill.

So the night ends with 3 kills (2 due to shear stupidity and one to poor timing), and 3 of our fleet notching their first kills.  So hats off to the three Carebears that can now call themselves a PvP'r.

I only wish every night was this exciting.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Always Bet on Stupid

This is for sure my favorite motto when it comes to PvP.  I don't know how many times after killing someone I sit back and scratch my head and wonder what the heck they were thinking.  Last night was no exception.

I logged in expecting a night of heavy logistics, as I needed to get some stuff moved and I know I have commitments to attend to in the coming nights that will not allow me to get what needs done, done.  So I was a little disappointed listening on Comms that we had found a C5 with several Mag sites and I was not going to be able to participate in the Billion Isk funfest.

But as I am loading up the truck for its 20+ jumps to market, I hear on Comms a small skirmish on the wormhole to the C5.  Disappointed, the nights primary activity is scrubbed and everyone proceeded to go about their "normal" Low Sec lives.  For some this was a jaunt to mining and WoT (seems the two are inseparable now for some), scanning for other WH's, Sec Grinding, and running logistics.

So as I get about 9 jumps out and to my first of several "stops", the normal "chatter" of Comms is broken by a slightly higher than normal pitched voice of one of our regular WH Scouters.

"Check, Check, Guys, Holy F*^K, Guys, Shit I am sweating, Guys there is a group of 3, no 4, shit 5 guys setting up a POS in here.  Holy F*$K its got 9 minutes.  There is a Domi, two navy issue ships, Orca, Bestower, Drake, Cane, Maller, and 5 are manned. Holy Sh*T guys get here now!!".

Now I am pissed.  I mean really pissed, this kind of fun does not come along every night.

Decision time.  I open my Jump Clone list and sure enough the only Clone I have in the area of the soon to be fight is my "PvE/Training" Clone with all 5% implants and  several +5's.  The thought of heading out to a large fight in a Clone worth about a Billion Isk does not excite me, but missing the fight excites me even less.  So I pop out of my ship, stop learning about the intracies of POS Guns, and wake up 9 jumps away, feeling a little smarter and a heck of a lot better at gunnery then I had moments before.

Unfortunately, I was still 2 jumps from my HIC and 5 from the fight.  Off I went.

So final plans are being layed.  The Armageddon Navy Issue is 200km off the POS.  I assume its supposed to be "protection".  The Domi is in closer, and the Bestower and Orca are hanging out right on the POS (Cloaks FTW for the Orca by the way.  Why they had it sitting at the POS during the 30 minutes online time is beyond me.  They were fortunate that we did not find them 10 minutes earlier.)

The decision was made to go after the Domi and See if the Navy Issue would engage.  Not the approach I would have used with multiple HIC's and ECM on the field, but a solid plan.

The party never waits for anyone, and the group jumped in about a minute before I arrived at the wormhole.  As I am screaming through warp towards the fight I hear the Domi is in structure.  At this point the Navy Issue has not even moved.  Our Cyn pilot starts to burn out to him in hopes that he is far from his speakers and the screams of his friends.  As I land on grid, the Domi has just been finished off and the Pod is being popped, Too late to get in on that fun.  As I align to the Navy Issue, our Cyn pilot just gets him locked and pinned as drones appear and the ship starts to move.  I initiate warp and land within range of the Navy Issue.  It did not take long melt under the pressure of the group.  We catch the Pod again and send other w-space explorer back to the comfy confines of the CQ in K-space.

The inevitable local chatter from the shocked owners of the POS ensues of "Where did you come from", "Is this your hole" etc etc.

So the initial scout says in Comms, "Hey everyone, lets leave the grid, everyone warp off to the last planet, and I will warp back in cloaked off the Navy Issue wreck and see if they come out to loot and salvage it."

I laugh in my head and think to myself "no way they are THAT stupid", then I immediately say to myself "always bet on stupid".

So off we go to the last planet, and not 3 minutes pass before a laughing scout comes on Comms, "Warp Warp, the Maller came out to loot the wreck, I have him."  This was quickly followed by a little more worried voice "Cane and Drake in warp, they are on me".

So I land again in the middle of the fight and learn that HIC's with no prop mods are great for gate engagements, but suck in open space.  I will need to adjust my fit.

So the Maller is already half way through Armor, so we finish him off and send another on the white light express back to K-Space.  At this point the Cane and the Drake run in opposite directions.  The drake back towards the POS and the Cane farther out.  The Drake was primary, so we decided to stay on him.

I bounce to the closest planet and back into the scrum.  I manage to get a few shots in before the Drake burns out of range. "Why the hell did I not grab the Rapier I think, but remind myself of the value in my implants and am thankful I am in my HIC.

So finally, with me trailing the fight by 60km, the Drake goes down and the fourth person is given a free, one way trip to the afterlife (about 6 seconds for most capsuleers).

After that we are pretty much convinced that we are done, unless the Orca wanted to try to turn the tide of the battle.  As we prep'd to reship and start hitting the POS, we heard there was a fight back in the Low Sec system we came from, so off we all went back the wormhole.  We sat there on the W-Space side to avoid spiking local, eventually heard we had successfully gotten them to fight on another wormhole in the system. So we all started jumping.  At that point we broke the cardinal rule of W-space of "prober jumps last".  The hole collapsed as we were jumping and one pilot, in a "Drake with no Probes" (parody song anyone) was left behind.

Well turns out the Cane on the second hole was bait, and the pilot tackling him had the good sense to hit D-Scan in time to see the massive incoming fleet from their POS.  We disengaged, and scattered to safety.

The thought of continuing to fight a larger group did not appeal to me.  So I docked up and proceeded to pod back to where I had left off my logistics run.

Turns out the Maller and Drake were their two scanning ships in the wormhole, so while we had stranded one pilot, they were stranded till they could get word out for another scanner to log on and find them another way to get their 4 fallen comrades back into the hole.

The story ended well for the Drake pilot, as he convinced the new "owners" of the system to let him out in exchange for a small fee and not warping to all their combat sites. and killing a single sleeper.

So "Stupid" won the day with an extra Navy Issue kill, because someone had gone afk in a 500m Isk ship, and an additional Maller and Drake kill because someone could not resist trying to "salvage" a little bit from a bad situation.  I will never know what possessed the Maller pilot to try to loot the wreck (of cap boosters)  not 5 minutes after the battle was over, with us having 3 known cloaky ships on the field.  But I thank him for the fun.

So here's to Forrest as he was so right when he said "Stupid is as Stupid Does".

Fly Safe (or smart)
Mick

Could "Instant PVP" work in EVE?

I have read with interest the posts regarding WoT and EVE here.

As well as the link in that post to the idea of a "Virtual Combat Simulator" in station when the door in the CQ ever opens.

I also listen on Comms most night to a core of players in the alliance that play WoT while either "fittings spinning" or mining or some other mindless task in EVE.

I am intrigued by the thought of "Instant PVP" within EVE, but in the end I just think no matter what they do, it will never match real PVP for one reason.  Finality.

Sure, CCP could find a way to introduce some "Station Based PVP Simulator", but there does not seem to be a way to make it a substitute for PVP as it is now, because if it ends up like every other "spawn type" combat game, than it has no finality and will become nothing more than a "video game" to me.

If the Simulator  makes you grind combat to get to new tiers, to use better ships and mods, but at no risk to ever losing anything, then whats the point.  The "thrill" of most EVE PVP to me is stalking the T3 running combat site, finding the Covetor mining and getting to him before he sees you.  Being able to use Probes quickly to not spook the prey.  Sure going on roams looking for a like sized fleet and either taking their bait, or engaging them is great, but not the heart of PVP to me.

But the main thing that real PVP has that makes it so great is the finality.  The ship lost is really lost.  Time to make that isk is gone.  It "hurts" to lose that Zealot, that Covetor, the mined ore in the can, the implants, and everything else.  It causes emo rage, tears, people to flip out and do stupid stuff, classic convos and evemails.  It is why we PVP in the first place.

Its also why certain people just will never PVP.  They just can't handle the thought of losing stuff, even if the corp gives them the ships.

I would love to see CCP spend some effort to come up with a class of "realistic" missions, with skills that don't just involve shooting bigger and bigger red crosses.  Have missions where you have to use D-Scan, probing, cloaks, hunting, warp scrambling.  Have missions that you might actually fail if you don't find where the target is in time.  Make more realistic AI fight back.  Role out Sleeper AI to all L4 missions.  Make random triggers, how hard could it be to have spawns be one of 2-3 with different triggers.

There are so many things CCP could do to improve the game play more than adding a zero loss simulated PVP simulator to the game.

Fly Safe,
Mick

200m between success and failure

After all the "fun" I had last week, I finally got a chance to take my recently reconfigured Cloaky Legion out for a spin in the Low Sec pipe.

The third system turned up two wormholes. The first was a C3 and showed no signs of activity.  Upon warping into the second, I immediately saw a Legion on scan with 10-15 wrecks, and no POS in site.  Could my luck really be this good?  I had hoped for maybe a Covetor, or a Drake or two, but a ratting T3 was too good to hope for.

So I got on Comms and called in the brute squad, while I tried to pin down the site he was running.

"Do you have probes this time?" came a question on Comms, man I am never going to live that one down.

So right about the time I think I have the site he is in, the Legion warps off.  Did I decloak, did he see me?  A quick warp to 100km off the site showed that he had simply finished the site.  I quickly checked all the planets and while there was a POS, there was no sign of the pilot in any ship.  Guess he was visiting this hole.

Sure enough in a few minutes a lowly salvager showed up on scan.  I warped back to the site to watch him salvaging the wreck.  Man I hope he was not calling it a night.

I warped back to the wormhole and jumped through to provide the brute squad a warp in for the operation.  Once they were in place I jumped back into the hole and warped back to the site in time to see him finish the last few wrecks.  Soon enough he warped off and disappeared from D-Scan.  It seemed like forever, but eventually the Legion reappeared on scan.  Time to start the hunt.

The second site I tried was the right one.  I bookmarked a wreck, bounced to a planet and arrived 30km from the Legion that was burning away towards a new spawn.  I quickly bookmarked a second wreck, bounced again, and promptly landed in the middle of 4 Sleeper Frigates.  The closest was a mere 6,000m away and closing.  The Legion was almost 35km away, but closing.  I held my breath and prepared to make the best of it if the Sleepers decloaked me.

I started moving towards the Legion as the distance between me and one of the frigates continued to shrink.  5k, 4k, 3k and I was ready to mash the AB and target the legion.  Hopefully I could get within overheated disruptor range before the Legion saw me and was able to react.

The numbers kept creeping down past 2500, past 2300, to around 2200, then mercifully started to creep up again.

The Legion kept closing distance, and in a minute was at about 14km from my ship.

I commanded the Brute Squad to "Jump Jump Jump" (why is it always necessary to say it three time?)

I decloaked, hit the AB, primed the warp disruptors and guns then started to mash the target button for the agonizing delay time.

The Legion turned to warp off, but was caught.  Soon enough the Brute Squad landed and the Legion melted under the combined fire.

A nice kill.  Lucky too.  While we might have had a chance had the Sleeper decloaked me 30 to 35km off the Legion, it was much easier at 15km to execute the attack.

I scoped the nice nights work of loot and high tailed it back to Low Sec and a station.  This ended the successful maiden voyage of my Cloaky Legion.

Fly Safe,
Mick

Should I Stay or Should I go Now

It was a very interesting week, to say the least.

It started a little over a week ago, when I logged in to find yet another person had setup a POS in my system.  I am truly amazed at the number of people that cannot figure out I have a POS in this C1.  Sure its over 14AU from the Sun, but really who goes through multiple hours of work without checking every planet.  This is like the 4th time this has happened.  Maybe picking an outer planet for my POS was not such a great idea.  Maybe I should have put it in the middle of the system instead.  Oh well, time to deal with another lazy explorer.

So I quickly find the POS, get the corporation running it and fire off a nice "hey there" evemail requesting that they remove the POS from my system.  I headed off to bed thinking like the last 3 times this would be resolved and the corp would realize their error and move on.

Well I guess my luck had run out on reasonable and lazy both being adjectives to describe my guests.  

While watching the POS the next day, I saw 4 characters log into the POS.  I got one into a conversation that went something like this.

Reasonable Current Occupant (played by me) "Hey there, did you not see my POS in this system?"

Person Too Lazy To Check (played by leet Euro PVP'r) "I don't see no POS, except the one offline."

RCO "Did you check Planet 11?"

PTLTC "Nope"

RCO "Might want to"

PTLTC "I might not"

RCO "Why not?"

PTLTC "I don't care if you do or don't have a POS."

RCO "Okay, I will plan accordingly"

PTLTC "Flyz Safe"

So now what? A quick check shows the corp in question is a decent sized PVP alliance from NPC Null Sec. Not really someone I would expect to be interested in a C1.  In addition, a quick check of planets showed at least 6-7 people already had setup PI on planets.  Now the POS was not my main worry, but the fact that there is no way to really "kill" their PI at this point.  So like it or not, they had the ability to make my life in this hole much less desirable.  On the other hand, I had no desire to simply pack up and leave.

So I asked myself "Should I stay, or should I go now."  

Now when I acquired this hole it came with 4 BS's, but I knew that would not be near enough firepower to take down a Large Control Tower. I also knew that using "hole denial" was unlikely to yield much results, since they were only here for the PI and on the opposite side of the world from me.  They would need to only have access to PI maybe once every few days, and we would have to have almost 23/7 coverage for weeks to make an impact.

So I figured I had a few choices:

 Find 40-50 of my closest buddies in Drakes, 

 Build more Battleships that would be trapped in the system

 Leave

Well, I had no desire to simply pack up and leave such a nice C1, that generates so much pretty planet goodies.  On the other hand, I did not really like the idea of investing 1B to 1.5B to make a large enough BS fleet to make an impact, unless I knew for sure I could muster the pilots to fly them.  Fortunately for me, most of my alliance and friends are Killboard junkies, always looking for a fix.

So as I was preparing to take the offensive (read shuttling a crap ton of mins into my wormhole), I got a reply from their CEO that basically said "RAWR, we are old and leet PVP corp.  We see no sign this system is yours RAWR.  Pack your flying circus and leave. RAWR."

Well, I like circuses.  Especially flying ones.  Hope they would find my show to their liking.

Have I mentioned I am a DOTLAN junkie?  If not, well "My name is Mick, and I am addicted to using DOTLAN to monitor my wormhole."

Final plans were made to hit the system over the weekend to insure maximum coverage and play time for our pilots.  So the middle of the week turned into a waiting game.  One day DOTLAN showed a ton of jumps during their play time and I was wishing I had a way to check notifications for POS attacks while out of game.    I was relieved when i finally was able to log on and see no notifications.  But I did have a surprise.  They had setup a second POS on the outer planet with mine. (Hey at least they finally flew out to that area).  So now we had double the fun waiting for us.

So POS 1 was very well put together.  12 ECM, 14 Small Arty, couple Warp Distruptors, Couple Webs, and a few hardeners.  Overall a very nice setup and one that would not be a cake walk to take down.  The second POS was weird.  12 Medium Auto, no ecm, no warp, no web, and a ton of hardeners.  While the hardeners would make the shooting time increase a ton, the POS had no real defenses, as the Medium Autos could easily be sniped. 

So as I went to sleep on Wednesday Night, the additional BS's were built and mostly equipped, and the plan was coming together to move in some additional scanners the next night.

Well the best laid plans of mice and capsuleers never seem to go as planned.  

I logged in on Thursday to find POS 1 was now offline, but POS 2 did not have any new defenses.  This opportunity to take down the POS's while poorly defended could not be passed up, so the assault was launched 24 hours early.  And as with any spur of the moment operation, it was a total cluster.  By final count we had over 25 people trying to get ships or pods to the entrance, while the people inside tried to quickly sort out the BS's, ammo, and everything else we thought we had 24 more hours to prepare.  In the end it took only about 2 hours from announcement of the operation, to starting to snipe the Medium Autocannons.

The next 12 hours saw all the weapons on the active POS incap'd, the anchored POS destroyed, and the Online POS reinforced, but not before the corp logged in and onlined every hardener, taking the resists above 80%.  It was grueling to watch the shield tick down so slowly, but it was just a matter of time, since the guests seemed to have neglected to bring any of their leet PVP'rs into the hole.  

The next night, we turned our attention to some other space junk in the system, and took down another offline POS that had been taking up space for a month or so since it went offline.

Other then a few gawkers from High Sec, we saw no activity for the next 2 days.

The final stoke good luck, was the fleeing guests had not left enough fuel in the tower to get it all the way through the reinforcement timer, and the tower, and its umpteen hardeners, all went offline, mercifully sparing us hours of shooting at a tower with 80% resists.

All told, we killed 3 towers and around 50-60 modules.  The C1 is now clear of all space junk (save some warp bubbles that no one seems to remember where we anchored them), and I have a shiny fleet of BS's in the hole.  Maybe we can see if a fleet of 5 Tempests can crush C1 sleeper sites.

Now I just have to decide if I want to move my tower to the inner planets, or just wait for another lazy, unreasonable house guest to arrive.

Fly Safe,

Mick

Congrats to Phaser Inc.

http://www.phaserinc.com/index1.html

Congrats to one of the best and most intricate scams pulled off in EVE since I have been playing.

I saw the adds, heard the rumors, know people who "invested".

They pulled the proverbial wool over many a players eyes and walked away with a fortune.

Makes those people selling everything for 1 Trit look lamer than ever.

Just hope they don't try to make 2 Trillion quickly by doubling their money in Jita.

Fly Safe,
Mick

The complexity of "Blue"

I am color blind in real life and have trouble distinguishing shades of greens and yellows and blues, but that has nothing to due with the topic of this post.  This post is about the complexity of the political arrangements in EVE.

EVE is a great sandbox that can change on almost a daily basis.  Null Sec is ruled by Alliances, Power Blocs, Vassels, Renters and a endless stream of players into and out of corporations and alliances.

Add to that the fact that some corps and alliances are "for hire" and really only serve whoever is paying this moment.

These relationships and dynamics bleed over into Low and High sec, but not to the same overwhelming level it does in Null, where Sov issues dominate almost every aspect of the game.

Add another level of complexity when most people are really 3-4 (or more) people in the game.

There is then also the idea of anonymity in the game, and the fact that people will do things and say things to others that they probably never would face-to-face.

It gets to the point that more time is spent figuring out who you can shoot and shouldn't shoot, than the time you actually shoot.

Nothing is worse than spending 30 minutes rallying a group for a CTA or Roam, jumping 15 jumps to the designated rally spot, only to jump through and get annilihated because the CTA called by Alliance A that you are Blue to invited Alliance B that you are not Blue to and they just saw a "local spike of neuts".  Add this to the fact that Comms are usually divided, and its a mess.

Worse yet is when you spend 15 minutes chasing neuts, only to have the FC break off the chase because "the CEO has an Alt in a corp that is Blue to these guys and he said don't shoot them".

And like women, the minute you think you understand all the rules, they change.

It is a fact of EVE life that the friend of my friend is not always my friend, and the enemy of my enemy is still probably not my friend either.

Good luck figuring out where you fit in "Sea of Blues", and I hope your CEO does not have too many alts floating around.

Fly Safe,
Mick