This week in skill training

Science III

Hull Upgrades III

Energy Emission Systems I

Assault Ships V (ongoing)

...or not

This evening was my first spell 'on duty' for the war effort.

It wasn't quite what I was expecting. I asked for a few pointers in the militia channel but I guess people were busy typing their x's and didn't notice.

I spent a while listening in on the conversations about war targets in distant system x, and war targets in even more distant system y although it didn't appear much came of any of the reports.

Eventually someone mentioned that there were some targets in a system close enough to be reachable before bed time so I headed on over. Local showed 1 red star and a handful of purple, it was also packed with a bunch of 'non-combatants' although it looked like Concord felt differently!

So I flew to the 'plex, nothing but a few NPC battleships (on our side!), did a quick tour of the stations expecting a small group of friendlies sat outside waiting for the target to come out. Nothing.

So then I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I did a quick couple of tours around the surrounding systems. Nothing.

Closest I got to a fight was a flashy pirate that warped into the 'plex just as I warped out. Probably for the best though!

Hopefully things will pick up and they'll be some slightly more talkative people around next time...

Into the fray

I finally bit the bullet today and signed up for Factional Warfare.

Of course, nothing it ever quite as simple and straightforward as that, and I'm left waiting on timers again!

I'm really very new to PvP in Eve, obviously I've been shot at and killed plenty of times, but I've never actually entered into combat with another capsuleer voluntarily. Factional Warfare was (apparently) designed for people just like me, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I wanted the option to pull out of it later on if I find that it's not quite my cup of tea, but I didn't want my employment history to reflect my fickle nature so I created my own corp and signed that up. I've got about 16 hours of the 24 left, so I should be able to enter into my first pew pew sometime tomorrow. I really have no idea what to expect but I'm quite excited.

Most of all, I'm hoping I might find some like-minded pilots to join forces with somewhere down the line. My little crew has slowly dwindled and I'm the only regular player left so things have been a bit lonely recently!

So, Amarr scum, quake in your pods for MalphasWats will be bringing his guns to bear in a system near you!

Send in the clones!

The hero always gets the girl.

I've been running missions for what seems like forever in an effort to grind my standing with Republic Fleet up to 8.0. I want to be able to use jump clones so that I can set myself up to explore 0.0 space and still be able to pop back to run missions or maybe get involved in Faction Warfare.

I read up a fair bit on the subject but the information I could find was a little ambiguous: In some places it said you needed 8.0 personal standing and 8.0 corporate standing, and in other places it said 8.0 personal or corporate. A very subtle difference and since much of the documentation was a few years old, and was mostly conjecture posted before jumpclones were even implemented, I was a bit stuck.

I figured I could just ask on the forums, but I'm allergic to MMPORG forums and I didn't want to come out in a case of The Rage. I took the other option instead: just bloody try it, once upon a time, someone else would have done the same.

Well, I finally made it to 8.0 personal standing, so I was able to try Hypothesis 1: since getting 8.0 personal and corporate would mean just creating a 1 man corp, setting up your jumpclones then rejoining your old corp, it seems pretty pointless to require both at 8.0, much more sensible for it to be or.

The result: Hurrah! You just need a personal standing at 8.0 or a corp standing at 8.0 to use jumpclones.

I figured that with jumpclones set up, I'd be able to send one off into the 0.0 void and have a wander about. I actually did a bit of scouting and found an area that looks like it might be a good '0.0 starting area'.

Of course, what I really need is to be a member of a corporation that actually has some presence in 0.0 space (or just presence in the game! my current corp has only 3 people in it, 2 of which are me!). Pretty much all of the commentaries I've read about 0.0 is that you don't last long on your own but we'll see, exploring is all just part of the adventure.

Last week in skill training

Informorph Psychology I & II

Shield Upgrades IV

Assault Ships V (ongoing)

A Series of Mistakes

I have a theory.

It's a pretty good theory.

Life, particularly life as a capsuleer in New Eden, is a series of mistakes, a chain of bad choices.

I'm pretty convinced I can see where the most recent chain started and it ended with the demise of the Mordant Core.

I'm not usually one for anthropomorphication but I really did like that little ship. The chain started with the incorrect choice to spend the first part of my cycle running errands. I needed more ammo, had to move some stuff around, check some prices. Y'know, donkey work that needs doing from time to time. If I'd gone right out and started shooting stuff for people, I probably wouldn't have been around when I was given this particular mission.

On the face of it, it looked fairly straightforward: go here, shoot this, steal these documents. No problem, that's that the Mordant Core is all about but then there's the bad choices.

To cut to the chase of what could end up being a very long and boring story I should have gone for the defiler first, it would have cut the transit time between targets right down and it would have taken more damage out of the equation.

I've grown complacent over the last few days - I very nearly lost the Mordant Core twice last cycle and it was mostly because I wasn't paying attention. They say you learn even the simplest of lessons the hard way in New Eden and I wouldn't argue. I had plenty of time to think about my complacency, my lesson learnt on the long trip to Rens to pick up a shiny new Jaguar Assault Ship to once again fly under the banner of the Mordant Core.

The Blockade

I've been working for the Republic Fleet since I first got my Capsuleer status approved. They're not bad to work for, the pay isn't overly insulting and they don't ask too many questions; It's not as if I have anything to hide, my behaviour has been exemplary since day one, I just don't like people asking stupid questions.

"I just received a transmission from reliable sources"

Ha! 'reliable sources', I've heard that one before and I didn't buy it that time. Of course, I said nothing to old Ornljor, he's a nice enough guy but he is pretty straight down the line, 'You can count on me'.

I made my way to the hangar where Mordant Core was waiting silently, almost menacingly. Her systems lit up at my touch as my pod slid into place, engines roaring to life. 'Steady' I thought, 'no rush'. I fired up my 'net interface, a new model comms unit I had installed just a few weeks ago. I had my own 'reliable sources'.

From what I could see, the Angel Cartel weren't putting much effort into whatever it was they were doing: you move fleets of ships and ordinance around, people notice. From what I could see, the biggest threat was going to come from a stasis tower that had gone 'missing' from a poorly guarded deadspace area a few systems over.

So, all that was left was to point the sleek, gleaming shape of the Mordant Core at the co-ordinates and activate the warp drive.

'Yeah, just what I thought, few frigates and a stasis tower, nothin to it'.

I'd like to think I handled it gracefully. I'd like to think that the metric fuckload of hurt that was visited upon the Mordant Core didn't leave me with the kind of look you see in old cartoon vidcasts. I'd like to, but I'd only be fooling myself.

I didn't realise until it was too late that they weren't your average run of the mill Angel Cartel cannon fodder. I was facing down 4 elite frigates and 4 elite destroyers.

I got out but only just. Not a happy bunny.

Thing is, if I don't complete the mission, I'll never live it down. I have a spotless record with the Fleet but you fail one mission and they really make you pay for it.

Gonna need a bigger boat.

Next up is In Awe, it's certainly bigger but that really just makes it easier to hit. I launched again, determined not to let what should have been a simple mission get out of control. I ready all my systems as I feel the warp drive spinning down, no need to rush, the sequences are burned into my muscle memory, just relax and let the ship do her thing.

It goes better, the frigates go down without putting too much strain on my shield generators but by this time the Angels are well and truly onto me, they've got re-enforcements coming and this is really turning out to be a bad day.

Gonna need a bigger boat.

I have a bigger boat, but it's not my favourite ship. It's a Maelstrom class Battleship and it's as slow as a spacecow.

I spent the next hour and a half strafing in and out of the deadspace pocket whilst the Angels sent ship after ship. The pounding was overwhelming and a freak sensor glitch nearly lost me my ship! This was not going well but eventually, I got a lucky shot in and killed their Fleet Commander. The resulting chaos forced the Angel Cartel to withdraw and re-think their assault.

I've no doubt they'll be back but next time, I'll get better intel and I'll be ready for them.