This week in skill training

Science III

Hull Upgrades III

Energy Emission Systems I

Assault Ships V (ongoing)

Factional Warfare Report

Well, I was all set to not really have much to post about this week, which was a shame. I've mostly been shuffling stuff around between stations.

Today though, I got my first taste of factional warfare.

I'd spent the last day or so flying around kitting out a Hurricane and a Stabber and dragging them out to my FW base. This was my first Hurricane and I wasn't entirely sure how best to fit it, but I figured out something that looked ok, then I fitted a slightly less expensive stabber with a fairly standard autocannon/web/scram and took that out for a spin.

I figured I'd start off with a FW Mission, a test of my loyalty. I flew out to the 'plex and learnt my first lesson: minor beacons are only for Frigates! Back to my base station, swap ships for a Rifter and head back out to the mission area. Thankfully I still had the system to myself, but even so, it was a bit trickier than I was expecting for a level 1 mission, lots of frigates and destroyers that could hit me pretty hard. I was forced to warp out once, but quickly got the mission finished and headed back to claim my prize!

Not a bad start I thought, so I switched up to my stabber and headed out on patrol. After a few minutes a call came out that there were some contested systems that needed locking down, so I headed that way to help out. We didn't get much action, just a load of faction NPC ships and were mostly left alone. Once they were shut down and I'd gotten my standing rewards, I headed back out on patrol, not really sure quite what to do.

I ran into a Sacrilege on a gate and let my excitement get the better of me, instead of jumping through I engaged, quickly had my Stabber reduced to nothing and got a free trip to the clonebays.

Next up I dropped into my brand new hurricane and set out again. I responded to a call to help shut down some more 'plexes in a system a few jumps over, and that was where the fun really started.

I was sat on my own, guarding a Major site alone whilst my fleetmates wound down the timer on the minor site when a local pirate warped in to take a look around. Now normally I turn tail and run at the sight of pirates but I was feeling lucky so I stayed put. He engaged me and I quickly started returning fire. To my surprise I got some help from the Faction NPCs at the 'plex and I very quickly got my very first killmail:

2008.08.20 14:45:00

Victim: ****
Corp: ****
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Arbitrator
System: Ezzara
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 3539

Involved parties:

Name: Bane Torpedo / Minmatar Republic
Damage Done: 2316

Name: MalphasWats (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.2
Corp: subDimension Mercantile
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 1047

Name: ****
Security: -1.9
Corp: ****
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rocket Launcher I
Damage Done: 176

Destroyed items:

Valkyrie II, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 22
Tracking Speed Disruption
Overdrive Injector System II
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
Hammerhead I, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
Nanofiber Internal Structure II, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Large Peroxide I Capacitor Power Cell
Small 'Arup' I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Valkyrie II, Qty: 7 (Drone Bay)
10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Balmer Series Targeting Inhibitor I, Qty: 2
Tracking Speed Disruption
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 968 (Cargo)
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

I was only responsible for a third of the damage, but I felt pretty good! I'd actually come out of an encounter with a pirate on top, for the first time!

I stayed on grid and was joined by my fleetmates to wait out the rest of the timer. It wasn't long before we drew the attention of another local.

This time we were up against a Deimos and things were looking tight. My guns were hammering him, webber sapping his speed, scrambler forcing him to stay put under the onslaught of our little gang (and the Faction battleships!). I was the biggest ship in the group and my ECM made me the primary target. Shields went pretty quickly, so I hit my armour repper and crossed my fingers.

We both entered structure within a few seconds of each other and it looked like I might just make it:


Victim: ****
Corp: ****
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Deimos
System: Ezzara
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 9411

Involved parties:

Name: Republic Sigur / Minmatar Republic
Damage Done: 6635

Name: MalphasWats (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.2
Corp: subDimension Mercantile
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: 650mm Artillery Cannon I
Damage Done: 2425

Name: ****
Security: 0.0
Corp: ****
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Ship: Dramiel
Weapon: Dramiel
Damage Done: 351

Destroyed items:

Damage Control II
Warp Disruptor II
Trimark Armor Pump I, Qty: 2
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 4971 (Cargo)
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 3
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 189
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Dropped items:

Stasis Webifier II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II, Qty: 3
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 126

Got him! Sadly, he popped just a fraction of a second after I did but I actually found my self smiling at the loss of a very expensive (relative to my wallet) ship.

All I had left nearby was a Rifter, so I headed to collect that and started hauling my loot back to a station to pick up later.

My first real taste of PvP and I actually really enjoyed it. Everything was insured so I didn't lose too much, just a whole bunch of time flying around refitting the ships!

Refreshed and Invigorated

I have returned from my very restful (although virtually internet free) holiday. Camping in the south of France. Mynxee made a post a few weeks ago about eve overlays, every time I looked at my car, the top box made me think of Expanded Cargohold I modules.

I had a fair amount of time to think about Eve and various plans and I think my continuing enjoyment of Eve is going to rely on me finding a decent Corp to fly with. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to go about finding a group of likeminded pilots to fly with, but I think that in order to really get the most out of Eve, I need to be flying with a larger purpose in mind. For the glory of the corp , not just my own personal agendas!

I was able to keep a limited eye on Eve news via the blog pack, although data charges in for'n clims are extortionate!

I'm quite excited about the upcoming changes: speed nerf and suicide nerf. I never had the skills or cash to fly a nano boat, but I was always uncomfortable with the fact that MWD were mandatory; I like there to be an actual choice between fittings and personally I prefer the non-cap-killing-sig-enhancing afterburner, with the changes to the way stacking penalties will work and the MWD/scrambler change, afterburners might become a viable choice.

I think the 'suicide' changes are fairly ammusing, almost a non-event until the last little throwaway "Oh, and you won't get insurance payouts if you're killed by Concord". I have no real issue with suicide kills in hi-sec space, I think it adds to the rich tapestry of Eve Online, the only safe place is docked in a station and all that. At the end of the day though, it really is only used by a certain type of player.

All-in-all, it looks to be exciting times ahead.

Bon Vacances!

I'm on holiday at the moment, camping in France. I've managed to find a McDonald's with free wi-fi!

I had planned to write a buch of post and set them to auto publish before I left but I didn't have time in the end

I'll be back in a week to scratch my ever growing Eve itch!!