Et Tu, Brutus?

Welcome to the nineteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than  CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This post will be short and to the point

I will not be taking part of the blog banter this time around.

The reason you may ask? Mainly because I do not know enough of the situation as most and could not possibly comment with the conviction required, simply because I have not read enough about it now some of you may be saying I should care more and read more about it, I do care how the CSM operates and how it affects us, the players as a community, but frankly as long as it continues to improve our gameplay, however small, it will benefit us in the long run.

Posted using Wordpress on my iPhone

so i decided to be a bit more active in the area of the game i clearly suck at, pvp.

i joined a few fellow alliance members and proceeded into hostile space some 20 jumps away from our home, we are all flying covops and stealth bombers.  The aim to kill as many as we can but mainly just to harass any reds going through our chosen target system. the op started 4 days ago and so far we killed a few, and harassed lots, and i’m really enjoying the op, i think hit and run tactics are my style.  i’ve not managed to get a final blow on anything yet, but i have gotten on some killmails and even 1 most damage done.  I’m still learning the finer points of bombing runs, but it’s a learning curve that i’m climbing.

I must say thanks to prometheus09 of The Captains Log fame for posting a blog about bombing runs, was a good read and very informative, original post here.  There is also a post on the eve forums here, which has another informative guide to bombing runs.

I’m not sure how long this op is going to last, but i will be there for a bit yet.  BTW i haven’t lost my ship yet, although i did come close.

More details will follow when the op is concluded

hi guys,  first things first, my apologies for not posting anything for a bit, RL stuff, and my playtime has been sporadic at best, but i’m hoping to be back to my usual self soon.

AT8 has finished and congratulations to Pandemic Legion for winning the 3rd time in a row.

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As you may or may not know i’m not much of a pvp’er, however i decided to jump on sisi yesterday with a corp mate and do a bit of pvp with him just for shit’s and giggles as well as a bit of practice with fits and losing ships.  We started out with battleships i was using a navy megathron ( it was free so who am i to complain )  my friend was using a navy raven,  we picked a random planet and warped to various ranges and commenced the shootout,  he had warped to 70km,  30km away from me so he got first blood, since i was t2 blaster fit,  i hit my MWD  and burned towards him, still taking damage,  i got in range and opened fire, cut my mwd and set orbit at 5k,  i couldnt believe how fast his shields and armor melted, he popped shortly afterwards.  Round 1 to me,  it turns out that he was passive fit and was geared more towards dps.

Round 2 we used HAC’s,  same again random planet and random ranges,  we both landed and this time i was closer but not close enough for blasters, he was using torps and neut’s, i again, hit my MWD and started burning towards him, however i couldn’t get enough speed to get in range, he was travelling faster then me, however since i was active fit and out of range (some of the time) for his neut’s, my armor rep was having an easy time, keeping up with the damage. We kept going for 20mins, and then decided to call it a draw.

Round 3, Using Battlecruiser,  Brutix for me and a Ferox for my mate,  I was blaster fit again with mwd and a webber this time,  random planet and random distance.  we started killing each other with the usual i’m gonna win attitude,  my shields melted fast, and i wasn’t denting his,  my armor started taking damage, this wasn’t going well for me,  but at least it wasn’t melting fast.  i eventually get through his shields, with my armor at 70% his armor is going fast but by the time i get his armor to 50%  mine is at 30%.  I was thinkin i’m gonna explode here,  and then the unexpected happened,  he warped off,  disconnected  Not good, sent him a mail on eve-gate  (which i really love btw)  turns out that it wasn’t a disconnect it was a RL thing and had to quit,  he mentioned it on comms but i wasn’t paying attention since i was trying to stay alive.

It was very enjoyable and we are going to be doing this a lot more on sisi.  and as well as doing a bit more pvp on TQ.  So expect to see me around

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Planetary Interaction

I haven’t got into it as much atm, but i do have some basic items being harvested in 0.0  I will be experimenting soon.

Fly Safe and Kill Well

So i thought i would post my fitting for my mission ship, it handles level 4 missions with ease, i’ve yet to try it out on level 5 mission, but i will eventually.

So here it is:

Proteus Strategic Cruiser

Subsystems:

• CPU Efficiency Gate
• Nanobot Injector
• Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
• Hybrid Propulsion Armature
• Localized Injectors

Low Slots:

• Centum A-Type Energized Reactive Membrane
• Damage Control II
• Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane x2
• Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer x2
• Corelum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer

Mid Slots:

• Corelum C-Type 10MN Afterburner
• Imperial Navy Cap Recharger x2
• Optical Tracking Computer I

High Slots:

• Heavy Neutron Blaster II x5

Rigs:

• Medium Auxilary Nano Pump II x2
• Medium Anti-Explosive Pump II

Ammo:

• Void M

Drones:

• Hammerhead II x5
• Hobgoblin II x5

STATS

• Cap Stable at 50% (everything Running)
• Speed 542m/s (with AB) 204m/s (without AB)
• EHP: 38,401
• Shield Resists: 12.5% (EM) 65% (Thermal) 86.9% (Kinetic) 56.3% (Explosive)
• Armor Resists: 75.6% (EM) 84.1% (Thermal) 92.1% (Kinetic) 79.5% (Explosive)
• Defence: 417 (Sustained) 417 (Reinforced)
• DPS: 564 (Total) 434.6 (Turrets) 129.4 (Hammerheads) 1403 (Volley)

Now i enjoy using this ship, its fun and it’s close range which i used to hate but having flown this into missions i got used to being close to the rats and killing them faster then my battleship ever could.  I still think i could improve it altho maybe not much.  If anyone has any suggestion’s i’d be happy to hear them.  And I look after this ship, I will never engage a ninja, griefer or pirate in this ship EVER, (just for those of you that enjoy that sort of thing ) Unlike i did when i got my first Navy Megathron and engaged a ninja, i lost that ship and learned a valuable and expensive lesson there.

Now i will be finishing of my skills for this shortly so the stats will improve (stratigic cruiser to lvl4 or 5, (at lvl3 atm)  all my armor skills to lvl5 (they’re at 4 atm) and the subsystems to lvl4 or 5 (lvl3 atm)).

Anyway see ya all in game.

ok CCP have announced the pairings for the up and coming AT8. Original post is here.

my predictions on the initial  round are as follows, (highlighted in bold and red)

Now you maybe wondering why i have picked these teams, as you may have from one of my previous posts here,  i have my favorites, so of course i want them to win, as for the others, especially those that i’ve never heard of, i’m just playing a hunch or a guess if you like.  But anyway you look at it, it should be a very good and entertaining tourament.

So i finally decided to get my ass back down to 0.0 and as you may or may not know, i’m not a big fan of pvp at the moment, so this isn’t about that. However i got to our alliance’s space and bm a few safespots and then proceeded to the nearest station to buy myself a ship for plexes and ratting.  I bought a dominix, and fitted it, not quite upto spec yet, mainly because i haven’t faced Angel En Masse,  i’ll be tweaking it soon.  I headed back to a system that our alliance controls and scanned for a plex.  I knew there was a few in this system from corp mates,  found several and decided which one i wanted to do, i decided on an Angel Haven,  gave a quick shout in local to see if anyone was doing the plex and recieved a negative, so i invited a couple of corp mates to join me and got the fleet started, with me as a fleet booster.  I warped to the haven and yay  rats appeared and various ranges, mainly at 72km away and started shooting me.  I locked them up and launched my Hammer 2’s.  “Go get em boys”.  i opened fire with my t2 350mm Rails and antimatter charges.  My shields go, which i expected and then my armor starts taking damage, no worries there, i’m armor tanked.  We then proceeded to kill every wave of rats that spawned.  I Had a worrying moment when my armor hit 38%, but killed a couple of rats and my repper was able to cope again, and repped back upto a respectable level.

Now you may wonder how this was fun?  I enjoy PvE, i would and will enjoy PvP when i eventually get into it properly.  But the fun is in the fact that killing rats quickly and thoroughly is and making the isk in the process.

Now as some of you have already worked out, i made a few mistakes in my first plex in my new alliances’ space (i have done other plexes in my old alliances’ space in catch)

1. I used Hammer 2’s against Angels, (I should of used Valkyrie 2’s for higher explosive damage)
2. I launched Hammer 2’s, (I should of launched sentry drones to start with till they got closer)
3. I used antimater charges ( I should have had long range ammo as well as short range ammo)
4. My Tank isn’t strong enough (probably because i’ve gone for a mix of dps and tank)

I know i made these mistakes, and i am currently fixing the problems   so all should be well for next time.   I will post my old fit and my new fit in the next few days

Ok the CSM Elections are up and running and as the title says Vote Now.

CSM Elections are important if you want the game to develop in a way you and others in the game want,  the candidates are many and varied in their policies and what they aim for.

Now you may or may not wish to know who i have voted for and i have voted for 2 different people. (i have 2 accounts)  Now the first person i have voted for is a popular choice amongst the Eve Bloggers and that is Mynxee, the reason being, i have no love for lowsec, i avoid it like the plague most of my losses ingame have been in lowsec.  but i do agree that the content in lowsec is sparse and needs more improvements even if i’m not going to use it, and also the UI does need some improvement so that we can change it to how we like it.

The second person i have voted for is Centurax, the reason for this vote is because i am mainly a PVE person, a carebear if you like and i would like to see some of his ideas come to light and deployed on TQ, because i’m selfish like that

And Now I will repeat go VOTE NOW before it’s too late

EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA

Happy Birthday Eve,

yes eve has turned 7 this week and we all would like to wish a happy birthday to the MMO we all have come to know and love or loathe.  Lets hope for another 7 prosperous years with lots of exciting new content.

Keep up the good work CCP.

i thought i would add a couple of my favorite screenshots in place of a post:  so here you go enjoy

There will be better and more to follow, and maybe some combat ones as well.

ok the list of participants have been announced, Original post is  Here.

Now we all have our favorites and we all have various reasons for them. and so i’m gonna ask a question, who’s your favorite and why? it may be as simple as “i’m a member” or more complex such as “I’ve seen what “name here” can do solo and would love to see what they can do in a small gang on an even playing field”.

The participants:

Against ALL Authorities
Agony Empire
Arbeitaholics Anonymous
Atlas Alliance
B A N E
Beyond Virginity
BricK sQuAD.
Circle-Of-Two
Cry Havoc.
Curatores Veritatis Alliance
DarkSide.
Dead Terrorists
death from above..
Dystopia Alliance
Electric Monkey Overlords
Electus Matari
Erebus Alliance
Eve Engineering
Get Off My Lawn
GoonSwarm
Honourable Templum of Alcedonia
HUN Reloaded
Huzzah Federation
HYDRA RELOADED
Important Internet Spaceship League
Indecisive Certainty
Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate
Intrepid Crossing
Ivy League
Leguinea Romana
Majesta Empire
Manifest Destiny.
Monks of War.
Morsus Mihi
Mos Vape Heavy Industries
Negative Ten.
Noir. Mercenary Group
Old Intentions
OWN Alliance
Paisti Syndicate
Panda Team
Pandemic Legion
Perihelion Alliance
Pitch Black Legion
Plutonix
RAZOR Alliance
RED.OVERLORD
Rote Kapelle
Silver Twilight Enterprises
Snatch Victory
SOLAR FLEET
Soldiers of Thunderstorm
T o r m e n t u m
The G0dfathers
The Kadeshi
THE R0NIN
THE SPACE P0LICE
The Star Fraction
The Tusker Bastards
The Wrong Alliance
Unaffiliated
Ushra’Khan
Veni Vidi Vici
WE FORM VOLTRON

Now some of these alliance’s i’ve never heard of, but New Eden is a big universe, or so i’ve been told. If you’re all wondering who i’m gonna be cheering for there will be a few;

Atlas Alliance: the reason being, the alliance i’m in in rent from alliance and if they win, it’ll be a party atmosphere for a while

Curatores Veritatis Alliance: the reason being, i roamed providence for a while and it was nice not to be shot at and also i’d like to see this alliance fight on an even playing field, would be great to see them fight against -A-

Pandemic Legion: Just because i want to see if they can stay the champions.

And that’s more or less it, unless i see a team, fighting well and using some good strategies.

I’ve read lots of these and i thought it was about time to take part.  CK has certainly sparked a lot of interest with this latest installment, the original post is Here

EVE Online, as the saying goes, is probably the most hardcore MMORPG currently available to the gaming masses. Hell, let’s be serious it’s one a the very few true MASSIVELY MULTI-PLAYER Role-Playing Game out there, and one of a handfull who’s seen its subscriber numbers go up since its launch. But gentlemen, we have a problem.

I say gentlemen because, though there are few ladies roaming New Eden, the truth is, there are too few of them. As @Mynxee wrote about in “The Real Sisters of EVE”, in a recent issue of EON magazine (issue #018 for those curious souls), EVE is an MMO that is overwhelmingly played by male, and where the female player population hovers at a about 5% of its total subscriber base.

I am one of those who believes that, though the game should not be changed to specifically go after that part of the gaming population, EVE Online would greatly benefit if somehow the balance the 2 genders roaming New Eden would lean towards an equilibrium. So I ask…

What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?

my experience with female gamers is limited, i’ve known a few but too few to mention and not many of the ones i do know play many MMO’s.  I’ve asked several of the ladies in my life what could be done to make them interested in flying internet spaceships and came to the conclusion from their answers that i’m more confused now then i was before i asked them.  However it seems that quite a few of female gamers like puzzle games and similar.  So i thought about how that could be incorporated into Eve, not an easy task to implement no matter how you look at it, but i thought about hacking complexes and wondered if there could be something done with the hacker module, eg: if a pilot approached a structure that needed hacking, you would target and activate the hacking module this would then bring up a little screen containing a puzzle which you would need to solve to open the target, a timer could be added to make it a little more interesting and if you failed to solve the puzzle in the time limit a rat or 2 would be spawned to keep the risk to reward ratio.  this method could also be modified for a few other things like finding a deadspace complex with a locked gate you would need to solve the puzzle to activate the gate unless you have a key of course.

Other then this the only thing that would attract a few more female gamers is Incarna or allow the players to paint there own ships, the ladies would probably end up with Pink (Pink spaceships is just wrong!!)

But truthfully i think Incarna will bring a few more female gamers into the game and probably lots more male gamers too.

Related Posts:

Ombeve – The Ladies of New Eden
The Cataclysmic Variable – Sorry, No Pink Spaceships Here Please
Rantuket – I wish my wife played EVE
Random Ramblings – Hell hath no fury
Kirith Darkblade – The Female of the Species