Welcome to the twentieth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by 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!

With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: “Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all…but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it’s needed.”

********************

“So? You got it all out of your system? Those guys really ruined the race for you, didn’t they?” She handed him some painkillers and a drink.

“Who ruined it?” Mike grumbled.

“Those griefers who set up traps along the course of the race . . . they ruined it for everybody.”

Mike winced as he tried to open his eyes. “No. They were what made the race special. It is DEATH race, not ‘oooh, I can jump fast race’. Tell the truth, I don’t believe many griefers exist, at least not as many as people think.”

“I hear people all around talking about them, though.”

“Semantics. I will leave it to better people than I to do the definitions but what some call griefing others say are just the nature of the universe we are in. Some of my associates would probably be happy if they were the only people within three jumps of the belt they happen to be in. I don’t mind a little company . . .and I am willing to accept the fact that some of the company might be less than welcome or friendly. Thing is, we only allow grief to happen if WE make the mistakes.”

“So it is the victims fault? Oh do NOT go there with me.”

Mike winced and rolled over. “I went into 0.0 in a well announced path of a race. I cannot fault Agony for being there to greet me. I have read of many scams, almost ALL of them are based on the greed of the victim. The only griefing I can imagine even coming close to being not the fault of the victim is hisec ganking of miners. A well planned suicide gank crew can catch almost anybody. But if you pay attention and watch for the signs . . . and the changes to insurance . . not as bad as it once was. Smack talk . . . well I have block on my channels for some people who have irritated me. If they get to racial or below even my low standards . . . I no longer hear them. If they cross some very well defined lines then I block and toss their files to the authorities.”

He tried peeking again and found she had dimmed the lights. “Blame the victim DOES have validity. The guy who lost billions in a kestrel . . . it was his fault. He was not griefed, he knew damn well the chances he was taking. If I took my proteus into nullsec I would be a glowing target for every person who felt that killboard statistics were important. They would not be griefing me, they would be playing their game and I would be playing into their hands.”

“But you did take the race loss hard.”

“Yup, I don’t like losing and I wanted to do better. But I wasn’t griefed, I was killed, fair and square. I paid to enter that race and so I was the victim and I WAS to blame. I make a big thing about being what some call a carebear. But I have my eyes open, well figuratively speaking anyways. The big hunts and events of New Eden may be distasteful to some but then so is a Gallente Mardi Gras in Amarran holdings. You know what made me decide to become a capsuleer? In the end it was the stories of betrayal, of scams and of piracy. I wanted to be part of something larger, more dangerous than just planetary shenanigans. Even if I am not one of the predators, I want to prove that I am a canny prey.”

She smiled and kissed his forehead. “You need more rest.”

“I am a panda . . . I show up and fire missiles then I run.” He chuckled and was snoring a moment later.

“Panda? She called up the database in the next room and read the file of a long extinct beast of legend. The first line made her start laughing and looking back at the dark room where he was sleeping.

Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.

“Still a big old teddy bear to me . . . ”

***********************************

Lessons

A few people told me that they felt this was a weaker subject for the blog banter. Thing is most of those people are regulars to the game and ahve adjusted to the mindset.

Put yourself back at the start, you have come out of games where friendly fire is impossible. Where pvp happens only in special areas or only when you purposely fly a special tag making it possible. Now you come here. Ganks, scams, suicides and pvp . . . we are an unforgiving group and some laugh if they are threatened with “I am gonna petition this!” type threats. I found it hilarious the anger and disappointment generated when one such petition was successful!

If players really want to be safe from other players . . . well, ask CCP to make a single player version of the game Eve-Elite. I played Elite on an Apple IIc long long ago. I like this better, with all the things that can go wrong there are so many more things that go right. Mainly the people I talk to. . . . you folks make this game addictive.

m

The bar was not too busy but he was sure that would change, slowly. He nodded to the people he knew and looked for some of his corp mates. They had pulled a few tables together along with some folks from the alliance and it looked like the party had already started. As the pitcher went around he grabbed a free cup and filled it, sipping he told Kry, “I need permission to ‘pass the hat around’.”

Kry shook her head. Mike always seemed to think that he should let her know what he was up to, then he went wandering off like the Cat he was and did his own thing. “For what?”

“I am thinking of entering the Death Race.” That got all the tables attention. He spent the next few minutes giving variations of his stock answers. “No, I do not expect to win. No, I do not expect to survive, Victoria already offered to kill me in a far less expensive way . . . told me it would be more fun as well. No, I didn’t take her up on it. Yes, you can help.”

“Tell me more about the race.” Kry sat back, the queen listening to the jester.

“OK, in a couple of weeks a group of insane pilots will all pay for the privilege of starting in an unknown system in lowsec, race through nullsec and end somewhere in hisec. After the first system violence between the races will be allowed. Violence from outside of the contestants is expected. No cloaked jumping, no cyno leaps, no capitals, no shuttles, and no T3 strategic cruisers. I plan on joining them having the basic requirement of the 5 Million entrance fee and a complete lack of common sense.”

Mar, down the table grinned. “So, an interceptor is it?”

“I can fly any one of them now and that WAS my first thought.” Mike admitted. “I was out test flying my stiletto, seeing how fast I could make her. Was about to start asking you to practice with me . . . but then i got to thinking.”

“Uh oh.” Mar grinned as he said that.

“Yeah. That rule about violence being encouraged made me think that maybe surviving might be more important than just being fast. The quick ones will be first for the funeral processions and gate camps. Maybe ’slow and steady’ wins the race might be the philosophy to try.” Mike took a pull from his glass. “So I started looking back to my roots . . . the Drake.”

“A racing Drake? You’re mad!” A pilot pulled up a chair and sat. “The name is Kotacko, I would go with an interceptor if i was entering. Instead i plan on camping the race if it goes near my turf.” He grinned at Mike. “I have read some of your stuff, writers are on my ‘hit list’ so I hope to se you out there.”

Mike grinned. ‘Hopefully for only half a second, or so.”

“A drake will die to a camp. Bubble and watch it waddle, Twenty stealth Bombers and you have pwnage.”

“That assumes twenty stealth bombers are waiting. But I decided against waddling in a running race. Which lead me to my next plan. A disco Typhoon. If I could get to the first jump fast enough i would be the wildcard to end all wildcards.” His grin took a wolfish cast. “They would be sure I would roll it on the first turn and take all their sparkly little interceptors out.”

The table laughed and Mike took an other drink. “So which plan are you going to go with?” Chewy was asking that one.

“None of them. I am asking for the alliance to sponsor me and I am going to ‘represent!’” Mike made a fist and held it high. “I am going to fly a mining ship.”

There was stunned silence for a moment and then the table started laughing. “You almost had me there. I thought you were being serious.” Mar gasped.

Mike roared back. “I am serious. We are miners and makers. I am taking a mining ship into the race. Now I am passing the hat for the ‘Hulkageddon Runaway’ fund and I would appreciate it if you all tossed some isk in to cover basic expenses . . . fittings, fuel, funeral.”

The jug was passed around and drinks were refilled as the groups alternated between trying to convince Mike to take an interceptor and trying to find a mining ship with a chance of making at least two jumps before dying. Chewy was the first to toss two million isk into the fund.

*********************************

Lessons

When entering a race or contest decide what YOUR winning conditions are. I am out to stun and amuse. I doubt I will get very far but that does not mean I won’t be trying.

You are welcome to toss some isk towards this project, if you enjoy reading my blog I’d appreciate the help . . . Mike Azariah in-game is already fitting and practicing.

Fair warning. If I talk to you in game there is a distinct chance you might wind up in the blog, one way or the other.

I am trying to find the page in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about the inappropriate vehicles that were being considered for the Mint 400

m

It was like the last run down the ski hill before the thaw removed the option. More corp members than Mike had seen in one place for a very long time gathered and mined a hidden gravitational site Marham had found. Retrievers, hulks, even a pair of Orcas showed up and the small belt lit with a criss-cross of mining laser fire. Hulkageddon, just around the corner. They talked of previous times that the miners had been hunted. Both as wardecs and in the last two Hulkageddons.

“If you want the Veldnaught back, Kry . . . ” Mike offered.

“No, the smart gankers scan before they hit. We never even got a nibble the last time.” Kry sighed dramatically over the comms and Mike grinned.

“Well maybe you will get more this time.” He turned the Hulk for home as most of the decent rocks had already fallen to the relentless onslaught of the mining crew.

*******************************************

It is coming, and being prepared is not being scared but being ready.

So, what is the best tank/defence plan for when you KNOW the gankers are coming?

m

Mike growled as he dragged the current market prices across the table towards him and started transferring them into the comm. “You’d think there was a better way to do this than transfer here and there.” He then added the stats from his latest blue prints and squinted to make sure the numbers added up. He had, more than once, taken a loss in contructing his own ships. It didn’t stop him from doing it because he took pride in the making.

Kry dragged a chair from an neighbouring table and sat next to him, the chair turned backwards. “Ah, the life of industry and trade. What are you up to?”

Mike grimaced. “Just trying to see if I am losing isk or making it. I have hangers full of stuff and I do not know if I am better off recycling the things or putting them up on the market. Then I want to run a price estimate of the Rokh I am going to be making, not to mention the Tarani . . .or whatever you call a bunch of taranis ships. But I am not made to do spreadsheets. I am a capsuleer, dammit, not an accountant.”

Kry laughed. “But you use a manual program like that, forcing you to enter data one piece at a time?”

“Well the systems are not compatable, what choice do I have?”

Kry waved for him to shush as she opened a comm channel and waited patiently. “It’s me, have you got it up and running yet?” She paused listening to the responce in an earbud. “I know, but if you wait till it is done . . . .it will never be done.” another pause. “Well so a few bits need tweaking. does it get the feeds? Does it compare prices? Are the prices current? Then it sounds pretty damn done. Look, I have a corpmate here . . . . ” Pause “No, he’s not that cute . . . anyways he dabbles in making and breaking and would be willing to be a guinea pig for your program.”

Mike murmered a protest and was waved silent again.

“Right, ok, I’ll have him contact you and treat him nice, he is one of those fragile ego kinda guys.” Kry laughed and closed the connection. “There, you are all set. Just a few steps to go through and then . . .”

“Guinea Pig,” Mike finished her sentence.

“My friend is making a program that bypasses the manual entry and allows you to search the data bases and see whether it would be better to recycle or sell. It gives estimates on costs of building ships. It even updates you on the best ores to be mining in a cost effectiveness calculation set that is dynamic to current market prices. That is how she got in touch with me. She heard about my mining.”

Mike grinned. “Queen of the Carebears.”

“And you all are my loyal subjects.” Kry sniffed imperiously and then grinned. “I have been trying to get her to join up with us but so far she wants to go it alone.”

“She making any isk doing all of this?” Mike asked.

“She is going to go with a subscription model. Try it for a month. The most you will lose is less than you lose when you don’t pay attention to your drones in that Ishtar of yours. One month, you try and I am willing to bet you will be offering her more for a long term subscription.”

“Fine, fine, who am I to argue with the Queen?”

“Damn right.”

**************************************************************

The program does exist and I am bug testing it for a friend. If and when it is active and better set I will give y’all the links, right now it is still being looked at by a few folks from the forums. Funny thing is the fact they are violently defending their rights to use spreadsheets. As if a better interface is some sort of attack on the srs biznz of internet spreadsheets.

Stay tuned if you are thinking of trying this out and I will let you know when its author is a bit closer to done.

m

He squinted at the planet that floated in the simulation and then touched a control, colors lit the dull surface in an overlay of information.

“That is pretty, what is it?” Dee asked from the side.

“New interface, I am just learning the quirks of it prior to laying down the first control center.” Mike rotated the planet slowly and shifted the color scheme again. “The colors show the density of the deposits, I am trying to keep one in mind as I bring up a second so I can find the sweet spots on planets where more than one resource is close enough and plentiful enough to be of use.”

“So the sliders there are to . . . ”

“Hisec planets have been tapped for a long time, so relatively speaking they are almost empty, I have to slide the indicators way down to show any resources.” Mike adjusted the image again ne nodded. Good enough for now. It is going to be interesting, come the day of the openings. I have the notes from the professor as to two sites he would like me to ‘reserve/defend’ and then I have one or two for corp interests. So I hope to get one in for myself.”

“Isn’t there a limit to how many you can place?”

“Based on education. I have been studying for a while now trying to qualify to place the centers and improve my scans.”

“Studying for a while, eh? What would that equate to in university terms?”

Mike ran his hand across the top of his head and looked out the window at the hanger. “They haven’t set a criteria, yet. I figure I am about at a BSc. level and working to get to Masters before the ban is lifted. But what with the wars . . . ”

“Wars? You mean the battles with the Sansha?”

“Well that has gone kind of quiet. Nobody is sure what they are up to but since the big battle at Maut. A few odd shuttles here and there . . . but that is not the shooting war. We got decced.”

“Again? Why this time?”

Mike shrugged. “Not sure. But he made an odd choice of people to attack. A Gallente based corp and it turns out he cannot come to Gallente space. We did the usual investigations.”

She corrected him softly. “You did.”

“No, others did some good research as well. But we got a line on his corp, his friends, his ships. The usual. Now he is not a tyro, he flies stuff I cannot even afford to look at, Nightmare, Widow, Rattlesnake . . . that sort of thing. But when we dug deeper we found out he is a jackal.”

“Jackal?”

“He scavenges other peoples battles and tries to trick them into engaging him in combat. Uses a Stabber for his ‘bait’ then brings back the Rattler and killes them off. If the enemy looks impressive he has a few worker bee’s with Ravens who will remote rep and back him up. So we brought in a few people and watched his operation. Sent in our own bait and he brought out an Ashimmu to meet it. We decided to show him we care and dropped in to visit and pop his little faction ship.”

“Make him mad?”

Mike grinned. ‘Oh no. We were foolish and total failures. He got that ship cheap and we revealed our trap and then stood there watching him in his Rattlesnake and two Ravens yelling at us at how much he is ahead. ‘Come test my ship!’. We laughed and refused to rise to the bait, proving what losers we are. We left some people to watch him and dispersed. But we are all parked nearby and will drop in and visit him again, sometime soon. He hasn’t managed to kill any of our ships, but that is, no doubt, just an oversight.”

Dee laughed. “Losing the war, eh?”

“So the Sansha tell us, so this jackal tells us. I must be some sort of bad luck. Every war I am in, we are assured that we are losing.”

“So they tell you.”

“Well, I am but a poor Gallente pilot, I HAVE to take their far more experienced word on important matters like that.”

Dee laughed and changed the subject to other matters, like what was for supper.

**************************

We have a corp rule against smack talk, but the boss lets us read it. We laugh a lot in my corp.

I am looking forward to how the Planetary stuff will go. If you plan on getting in on that and you have not been to the eve university tutorial you are a damn fool.

The battles against the Sansha have ’stalled’ but the final battles were recorded and are available on youtube

I might recommend this, this, or this

The alarm woke Mike form the first sound sleep he had had in a real bed in weeks.

He did not appreciate that but he rolled to his feet and muttered “Audio only, Go”

*Sir, you requested notification if a Sansha raid was detected within 12 jumps*

“Yes, thank you, Hi, low, or nullsec?”

*0.2*

Mike looked up at the ceiling reviewing the ships in his hanger. “Ready the Stabber, upload coordinates and planet, notify the fleets I am in.” He pulled on a utility coverall and sprinted from the room. In the lift he continued to give orders to his crew. “Skeleton only, unload all but 1500 rounds. Full survival suits or you aren’t on my ship.” He paused, he had a nasty feeling he was forgetting something. “Open twin comms, Syne and The Summit. Local offset. Activate fleet voice as soon as we have it.” No, that wasn’t it.

The Stabber lept from the hanger and shot out, warping almost before it was clear of the docking rings. Gates flashed by as the sit reps came in. Julianus Soter was commanding the fleet and Mike confirmed vox comms as he jumped into the 0.2 system. Julianus was calm and clear as he callled warp in points and identified the new ships as friend or foe when they came inot orbit around planet IV. He was even calm as the enemy identified the General as a priority target and removed his ship from the field in a focussed attack. Mike had driven the stabber straight into the pack of Sansha battleships and was tagetting, orbitting and cycling guns for all he was worth. He almost missed Julianus calmly asking that he call the targets and coordinate until the Generals return.

“Ok, gang, lighting up target. If you cannot see the indicators then hit whatever I am closest to.” Mike kicked the microwarp drive and came within spitting distance of a battleship and watched as the shields and armor fell off in huge flaming chunks. He lined up a second as the first explonded and called the shift of target.

*Pirate incoming, consider hostile and eliminate*

Mike looked from the warning to the name and quickly found the Dramiel orbitting a short distance away. “Locking him up.” He activated neuts and the guns and the Concord override. This was not a time for hesitation or niceties. Either you were with the fleet or you were a target. The Dramiel melted and the next pirate was driven off swiftly. They returned to popping the battleships. When he was targetted Mike grinned, taking it almost as a compliment. Julianus had returned so his services were no longer needed and he warped his pod away from the wreckage of the stabber with an almost gleeful smile on his face. Shortly thereafter the villians, both Sansha and pirate were swept from the site and not a single civilian was lifted from the surface of the planet.

Mike pointed his pod towards one of his bases and spent the short flight reviewing what he had liked and disliked about the stabber and trying to decide what cruiser to try next. He looked woefully at his bank balance and tried NOT to let it drop to the next lower number of digits. He settled on a Thorax for his next vessel vowing to try each of the cruisers to find the one that ‘fit him’ the best. Congratulations echoed through the fleet as they all went back to their respective bases and Mike decided that even losing the ship had been worth it, his first time in command of other capsuleers in a battle for the defence of innocents.

In his bed, quite a few systems away, the covers moved and a lovely arm stretched out and then stopped, patted his side of the bed and a voice asked. ‘Hello? Where are you?”

In his new ship he still wondered what he had forgotten.

*******************************
I want to thank a few folks who showed me lowsec FC’ing and contributed to me NOT making a total fool of myself when I was suddenly handed some responsibility. Thank you Black Claw, Keeves, Crorono. You each helped to make a carebear grow a pair.

So I need to find the right ship for taking into combat, I can fly any cruiser and fit most of the weapons, I fly Minnie and Gallente HACs now and again but I am not rich enough to take those into the hellish furnaces of the Live Events. Somthing that can take a bit of a hit but I understand that if you get a LOT of attention you are gonna go pop right quick. Nothing too overpriced so no meta 4 stuff unless I have it lying about in a hanger.

The chaos is such that I am not too sure about fielding too many drones but we will see how this one holds up, after that, perhaps a rupture?

If you have a good fitting send it to me or toss it on the comments.

Suggestions from those of you NOT on my side? No thanks. ((Thanks Ghost Hunter but I won’t be bringing a Zephyr because they are ‘immune’))

m

The asymetrical curve of the Navy Scorpion slid into the system and Mike activated the comms. “Requesting docking clearance for . . .”

The comm interupted his normal request. “Come home.”

He’d been only gone a few weeks but it felt like much longer. What he had to do next wasn’t going to make things any better either. He activated the automated docking system and then triggered the pod release. As welcoming sounds of the new ship settling into a hanger rung through his vessel he was showering and deciding what to wear. He settled on a decent set of casual clothes that did not smack of utilities nor were they some offshoot of a uniform. He had had enough of those for a little while.

He waited for a gantry to roll up so he could climb down out of the beast of a ship towering above others nearby. Ev and Scotty waved from the side but Mike barely noticed them, he only had eyes for Dee stalking across the hanger floor towards him. He could tell she was angry but not sure why.

“You. Did. Not. Call.”

“Oh, um, yeah.” Mike ran his hand through his hair and grimaced. “I’ve been monitoring a a lot of new communications and after I got shot down in Tama I had to quick make another and then when I got to Kiht I . . . ”

“Tama? Kiht? Wait, have you been fighting the Sansha as well?” Her eyes widened and she followed him across te hanger to the lift up to the residential levels.

“Kinda fell into it on the way back, there was a call and word that the Sansha were fielding a wyvern. They needed everybody they could get on the field and I was handy.” Mike shrugged. “Lost my drake and then got a new ship, went on the next two calls. Jumped all the way over to Kihtaled to confirm a false alarm, then I’ve been working my way back. Was almost home when another call came in for Vlillirier.”

“What happened?”

“Another Sansha traitor showed his colours, this time in a Thanatos.” Mike chuckled. “Someone collected a very big bounty, over 1.4 Billion. I took a side trip to do a very close scan of the wormhole they use then backed off and tossed torpedos at both the thanatos and the slave that was piloting the other capital ship. Then the countdown started. The Slave said that the wormhole would only be open anothe five minutes, we fought and shot and tried our best to keep her away from he exit but a carrier is hard to slow down. So . . ” Mike wiped a hand across his eyes, “I and probably a few others did desperate stupid things.”

“What could you do?”

“I rammed the carrier with my bomber, trying to lock the shields and bump her off course. Locked up and hit the accelerator for all it was worth. Moved her, too!” Mike grinned. “But it was stupid because I knew she was using smartbombs for close in defence. I lost the ship and not even my pod got clear.” He stopped walking and turned to face her. “I died, Dee. It was over quick but I died, I FELT a part of the console come in through my chest as the pod burst, I touched space with my bare hands. I.” He stopped talking and just looked at her shaking his head slowly.

Dee looked up at him with a quiet expression on her face and said nothing.

“I’ll understand if you don’t want to see this me anymore. I have heard some people have trouble adjusting to knowing someone who dies and refuses to stay dead.” He looked over her head and tried to find the right words, the ones that would tell her what he wanted her to know. “This is a new body but it is still me in here. I am still here, just a year younger and a bit wiser.” He closed his eyes, not wanting to see her face, knowing how much the look of rejection would hurt. “I love you but I understand if you cannot love what I am. What I’ve become, I”

A hand on his mouth stopped him from continuing. “Come on home, you idiot.”

He opened his eyes to see she was grinning and crying and stepping in to hive him a hug that made his ribs creak. “Home?”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lessons

Ramming works, but you have to be willing to take loss to do it if the target is smartbombing
I am amazed that so FEW folks that love the tears haven’t joined the events just so they CAN betray all of humanity.
The Summit (channel dealing with the rp of the events) is a mix of important info, high drama, and watching paint dry
I am slowly learning names of key players in this event, and wondering which one will cackle madly and declare for the Nation next
I do not care that they are pixels and npc’s I curse outloud when a Slave declares that they just managed to lift 400000 people from the planet
I want to hire the Nation next time there is a planetary emergency, they seem to do evacuations better than anyone in history
I have now lost 2 ships and am looking forward to the next battle. I blame OUCH for making ship loss only an issue of funding, not of anythign else. I do not know or care about implants lost. I HAD FUN.
Dying doing something stupid and heroic is SO WORTH IT

m

summary of the first day of the summit

http://tufl.wordpress.com/

This

“At pivotal times in history a new frontier has suddenly opened and the race to get the new, the best, the exploitable . . . especially the exploitable . . . has been run.” The professor adjusted his notes and looked across the desk at Mike. “One of those times is approaching us right now.”

Mike nodded. “I see that coming as well, but that is not exactly why you called me all the way here, is it?”

“Yes and no. I have drawn up a simulation I would like you to watch.” The holoscreen lit and projected the map of New Eden above them. “The timeline begins when the ‘bell rings’ and the rush begins.” There was a pause and then all of the hisec portions of the map began to light up. Nullsec also lit as well, leaving lowsec the darkest. “As you see from the color indicators the hisec operations will be overrun by many, what is it you call them, ah, carebears.” The professor tapped the nullsec indicators. “Down here, beyond the reach of Concord the rule of might will lessen the impact as individual alliances will take entire worlds for their own . . . if there is a profit to be made.”

“I see you don’t expect a lot impact in lowsec.” Mike waved a had at the darker regions.

“This is just a projection based on past data. There will be some pirate alliances that may set out to farm some planets but for the most part, lowsec will still be a place to go through, not stop.”

“I don’t know, sir. If there is money to be made there will be people to take the risk. But you didn’t bring me here just to show me a projection. What can I do for you?”

The professor sighed and touched a control that showed the process of a single planetary extraction operation. “This. Up until now mining has been done with the operation . . . and site decisions done by ‘feet on the ground’. But now that is about to change. I know that you specialize in asteroid digs and remnants found in space but do you have any idea how much we will lose of ancient ruins if a mine can be placed from orbit, launch pads wherever the land plateaus enough? The same resources that modern pilots will be exploiting were, no doubt, valuable to others in the past. We are going to lose that past.”

Mike looked at the map and nodded. “I see your point but I doubt there is much we can do about it. The odds of you getting a podder to enter a gravity and slow down their isk flow is somewhere between zero and none.”

“No, that die is cast, as it were. I . . . we are asking something else of you. We want you to join the rush, but we have noted a few planets for your mines to be set up on. These planets may have ruins on them and we have teams out already trying to find ‘clean areas’ for you to drop the operations down on. We are not trying to stop the rush but control who and how it affects key sites. You and some other pilots will be part of the ‘Footprint Initiative’. We scout out the endangered sites and forward specific target coordintaes to the member pilots.”

“I am already in a corporation that I have no interest in leaving.”

“And we are not asking you to. This is not something for profit, this is something that will probably mean that you will make less than your competitors. The FI will span corporations and alliances but its long-term goal is a better connection between the ground and space. You have been called to the stars but we are asking that you remember your roots.”

Mike frowned back at the holoprojector. “So how do the long-range projections go?”

The professor smiled. “The further into the future we go the less accurate the predicitons become but I think this will be like many other trands in the past. The land rush will be large but the usage and actual production will be limited to those best suited to it. In the weeks and months and years to come the distribution of active pilots engaging in the planetary mining will dwindle to some who will be best suited or the most cut-throat. There will be no ‘free isk’ to be found though many think there will be. Their disapointment will be palpable and their tears will flow like rain onto a water world.”

‘You seem to almost relish the thought of their tears.”

“You seem to forget that this land rush is like watching young adults going back to their early classrooms to steal pencils and paper and not caring about those who still work and learn there. The Land Rush may look exciting from your side but think of the men who will be working the factories on hellish worlds. The pristine planets that will be scarred by orbital launches to feed the voracious appetites of space wars. We are the natives and you are dividing up our land without a thought for us.”

“There are no natives on plasma planets.” Mike mused but he nodded to show he understood what the professor was saying. “OK, I am in. Have you people start scouting and giving me coordinates and I will plant your flags and protect the site.”

*************************

Now I know all the news is not out but I wish CCP would allow for ‘erasure’ of unused things. Towers with long abandoned. People who will stake claims and then not work them. Old corp names with no members left. Will the last one out lock the door and turn out the lights?

Oh, as the professor said, there will be the rush for the new shiny . . . which will peak and then slowly tailor off. But will the bases be left on the planets? Floating cload harvesters in decaying orbits, unloved, and forgotten?

Better, will there be a way to remove/reclaim/recycle them if they are left alone too bloody long?

m

Mike looked over and sighed. Kry was heading up the gangway and she looked like she had a full head of steam going. He settle back at his desk and frowned at all the paperwork that was accumulating and shoved to one side. He set the maker for one coffee and one glass of tea.

“You . . . you . . . Cat, you!” She slumped. “Where have you been?”

“Um, out and about? Mainly working for this agent who sends me after pirates.”

“You do know we had a war on?”

Mike smiled. “I haven’t been far.” He tapped his comm padd and two ship schematics filled the space between them. Another touch of the controls brought the smaller one to the fore. “I have been scouting about in my bomber, keeping an eye on things.” A touch hilighted the larger. “And I slapped this together in case we needed to be a bit more convincing.” The Megathron rotated slowly in the space. “I call it the Big Rifter.”

“Good, as long as you are not still naming ships after me.”

Mike chuckled. “No, I even changed the name of the Kry Baby. But now the war is over and I hardly saw hide nor hair of the enemy. They get tired of looking at our POS?”

“You have NO IDEA how many hours I spent manning the guns waiting for them to start something.” She growled. “I had a cot set up in the POS so if something started while I was asleep . . . ”

“You sleep? While ‘roids still wander the belts?”

She growled and shook a fist at him. “They interrupted my mining. I am just glad we took the battle back to them and ended it once and for all.”

“Yeah, I been meaning to ask about that. The other folks who joined us and helped out. Not that I object but who the hell were they?”

“I was wondering that myself. I was there when one of them met up with Smeg and I think they know each other from some previous encounter . . . but neither said much beyond basic war conversations. But I am sure there was a lot that wasn’t being said.”

“What, like something out of the movies? ‘We even yet?’ or maybe ‘I’m your father, Luke?’” Mike laughed. “You have the most interesting imagination, that sort of stuff never happens in real life.”

“Well there was something going on . . . I’m just sayin.”

Mike waved it off. “So I am almost ready, been studying like a demon.”

She smiled. “Soon the belts will be cleared so much faster. I might even be able to free up a bait hulk I had for the last ‘event’ that you can borrow till you have one of your own.”

“Bait hulk? You took one out during Hulkageddon?”

Kry primped her hair for a moment. “A Queen must keep up appearances, even in the face of adversity.”

Mike facepalmed and shook his head. “Queen of the Carebears, hunting gankers, manning the guns to defend a POS. I swear, Sab is a bad influence on you.”

She looked down her nose at Mike. “No, he was the jaws of the trap that the hulk was bait for.”

“I stand corrected, you are a bad influence on him.”

“Damn right.” She sniffed imperiously then they both started laughing. “Oh, I need you to man the recruitment channel, tonight. I will be busy.”

“Me? I don’t know anything about recruiting. I . . . I might blow it.”

“Easy there, ya wimp. You talk to them, sound them out. Let them know we are mining, industralists, missioneers. Casual as we can get and only ask for a sense of humor and a love of old comedies. We have little tournaments, the occassional low and nullsec roam, wormhole explorations, and mining ops, as the mood takes us. How hard is that to tell someone?”

Mike muttered. “Sounds easy when you say it.”

“This from a man who made speeches and ran for CSM? You are being lazy! Now find me some recruits or I will put you in charge of POS fueling for a month.”

“Yes ma’am.”

*****************************

Lessons

You can play Eve solo . . . but it will wear thin, fast. People make the difference. We have one of the most vibrant communities in gaming and whatever you are looking for, there is a group here, for you. You should get out of the npc corps as soon as possible unless you are in them for a reason (like avoiding wardecs).

The other thing you can do is join a chat channel other than the ones forced on you by the default settings. This is where you readers come in. What are the ‘other chat’ channels that you hang out in aside from your own corp private ones? I will collect a few of these, play chat-whack-a-mole for a few sessions and bring it back here to a future blog post.

m

“Let’s say this is you. A small corp making a living downing hi-sec POS’s. In your travels you encounter this. A defenceless POS owned by a very famous Eve personality. You make a choice. You decide to be the bad-guy and go after that famous POS.”
If ever a small example of the butterfly effect video was brought to life this might be it.

Epimithius09 (hence forth called Epi) is the leader of the Concord Preservation and Recovery corp (.CPR.). Their corp documents proclaim them to be fighting an ecoguerrilla war against abandoned and offline POS’s that pollute lunar landscapes all across New Eden. For the most part, that is what they have been, a small alt corp eking out a hisec living bringing down the occasional player owned station.

Then there is Chribba. Veldspar ‘God’ who is famous for his honesty and reliability, not to mention his massive holdings such as a hisec mining Dread. (Yes Virginia, there IS a mining Dread). He does not shoot anything except rocks. He does not pvp. He is the host of many eve services on and offline including eve-search, eve offline, eve agents, and Chribbas third party service. He is known to all veteran Eve players, and his services are used by many every day of the year.

Epi sees Chribbas POS and decides it is too damn tempting. He (and his corp) war dec Chribba. In Epis words . . . “Why did we war dec Chribba? Because he had some POS’s that would be easy to kill and make us a nice profit. Also, because it would be fun. Did I know who Chribba was before I placed the war dec? Yes I did. Did this influence my decision? Yes it did. Normally I won’t war dec an alliance as it is too expensive to do. I made an exception here as it was Chribba.”

Chribba takes up the story from there. Asked how he reacted when he saw the wardec. “Pulse rose from 80 to 180, I’m not a pvp person so I was starting to wonder how long I’d have to hide in station I have been randomly decced before but nothing of the serious kind, small 1-member corps.” Chribba decided to post that this war looked serious in the Crime and Punishment thread of Eve forums. I asked if the result was what he had been hoping for. “tbh I didn’t know what I had hoped for, my general insight was more to just let them destroy the towers, wait for the war to end and resume previous life The C&P was more of a notice from my side since it felt like they was actually going to do it compared to the other random 1-man deccs but to my surprise people joined in big numbers and for that I am very thankful, and while still scary for me (even though sitting cloaked watching) it was good for for most based on what I heard.” Chribba in turn referred me to Jonny 101 ” I do suggest you talk to Jonny 101, he was one of the major organizers (on his own) and pretty much ran the show while I was sitting cloaked.” So from one source to the next, I moved on.

Johnny continues the story. “Chribba was attacked, I organised the defence in a shiny ship from his pos, Exalted, Noir and Duty showed up bravely, joined by Repo to guared it in the TZ . Pirates and mercenaries band together in defence of Veldspar. Giving Chribba their services free of charge, the unprecedented event that the cnp pirate community banded together behind these mercs to aid Chribba. Special mention of timaios and Erichk Knaar as the heroes of the day. If anything, I’ve taken this further than Chribba wanted but I like my overkill and people were eager to defend him. Truly it was a cooperation between some of eve’s most respected mercenaries and the cnp community. The battle was short, we had about 50 people repping the pos. Several got shot and so went to change to combat ships, but Erichk Knaar got back first in his rokh. He began opening fire on the enemy, who all shot back at him, Noir’s own gang was remote repairing him and I, and the other FC’s ordered our people to remote shield transfer Erichk as well. This might seem like neutral repping but that is in fact wrong EVERY person boosting erich was flagged to the enemy who were in a pathetic fleet of about 5 very poorly fitted battleships. The fight was no great tactical victory, merely an example. What happens when you’re up against the combined forces of some of eve’s most respected mercenaries, the CnP community and Chribba’s good vibrations. Any one of the four corporations I mentioned above could have soloed this with ease but we want to show the eve community that we hold Chribba highly and time he spends combat fitting pos’s is time he isn’t using making us services.”

This was so impressive that even the offending POS attackers admired the effort. Nara Wolf: “I personally have no issues with Chribba or most of the parties involved. Those of you who banded together in the defense of Chribba without descending into pettiness and hate, bravo, seeing the community work together like that was awesome. The sight of all those Pospreys was awe inspiring, I hope you all had fun blowing us up. We knew what we were doing and don’t mind the wardecs or the smack-talk, just keep in mind it’s a game and enjoy yourselves, I know I will.”

Was this impressive? Hells yes. To see groups of mercs stand for something more than profit was inspiring in and of itself. But I started this with the quote from the Butterfly Effect. It does not stop with the POS defence, no no no. Now the forces that banded together under Chribbas banner have started to go after other corps and alliances. If an alt was in CPR that is reason enough for them to dec whatever corp or alliance the ‘main’ lives in. Jonny 101 has spent 5250 mill of his own cash and 250 mill of donated to wardec the Privateer alliance. Sys-k has dropped IMM since they held another character common to Epi. (Or so it is claimed by the FoC [Forces of Chribba].)

Has this ended? No, In Eve very few things end. The sand shifts and the tides change but there will always be the historical moment when the forces of Crime and Punishment stepped up to defend a pacifist. By Jonny’s measure “Bottom of the barrel “pvp” corp attacks Chribba. The elite of eve’s mercenary community and the worst pirates in the game band together to curbstomp them into the stone-age.”

I asked Epi if this was true. “No. We failed to take down two of the POS but we got one POS. Additionally business will continue there are more POS out there to be removed and they will be taken down. Business will continue as usual : )” When asked if he could go back in time, would he do it again he replied “Of course it was fun and we got a POS out of it : )” Epi had nothing but good things to say about Noir and Chribba and even the pilot who bagged him. He plans on continuing the good work of his corp although he will not repeat the wardec on Chribba ” If he left it offline I might try it it again. But its quite expensive so only if i could do it and get something out of it. This dec showed that he pays attention to war decs so we probably wouldn’t be able to kills a pos before he could defend it.”

In related news another corp had picked up the cause of the War on Chribba and the forces of good are not so swift to leap to the defense seeing the threat as distant and inconsequential. Chribba may not feel the same way about that . . . he did, however mint and give medals to all who participated in the first war. I managed to get something even better, an autographed photo of Chribba for my own corpmate, Mechanoid Kryten that reads “To te Carebear Queen /Chribba” in his best handwriting.

The best thing about Eve is the ability to set your own win parameters. Each side of the above war feels that they won. In my opinion, they all did. Each played the game they wanted to play and interacted with other folks. Each was kind enough to allow me the time to ask 10 questions (a self imposed limit) and I quoted from those interviews for this report. If there is some issue or aspect of Eve you think would make a good story for the Tribune please contact the editors or leave a comment below and we will see if it can be done.