Righteous Fury and Unholy Rage

The Captains Log 30/9

Righteous Fury

Now that I have had a little taste for suicide ganking I decided to try it out some more. So I sent out Epimithius09 in his trusty mining Navitas to locate a nice target in a belt somewhere. I found one Hulk that had fitted two Gisti B-Type Small Shield Boosters; however I wouldn’t be able to take it on by myself so I left it alone. I then came across a mining op in progress consisting of two Hulks, a Retriever and an Orca. Scanning the Hulks revealed they did not have a tank so I should be able to gank them. So I parked Epimithius09 next to a hulk and proceeded to mine some Veldspar.

So there I was happily mining some Veldspar while I got Prometheus09 ready to suicide gank one of them, when all of a sudden a Tristan, flown by Moonfluff, warps in next to me. He proceeded to bump me around a little and then he can flipped me. Now what the hell is wrong with the universe when I get can flipped while trying to suicide gank someone? Well I couldn’t let this insult slide past so I fitted my suicide gank Vexor for frigate killing (badly fitted I might add, Epitmithius09 has terrible skills). I warped back to the belt where Moonfluff was flying around my can and proceeded to engage him. I managed to knock him down into structure before he managed to get out of point range (I did have a MWD but I ran out of Cap) and warp off. He then left the following messages in local, while comfortably docked up in station.

Moonfluff > `hahahahaha

Moonfluff > that was the biggest can flip beating i have ever seen hahaha

MouthofEternity > ?

Quickload > There was a guy that tried a cap flip trick. And failed badly

MouthofEternity > ah

Quickload > cap = can*

MouthofEternity > figured that was what you meant

draycot > i see thiarer doesnt change

Quickload > vexor vs silly frigat … he got me pointed and still i manage to escape hahaha

Well this is just adding insult onto injury and made me all the more determined to get revenge. It was at this time when Daquris logged on and I began to explain to him what happened. While going over the chat logs though I noticed something, Quickload was speaking for Moonfluff. This could mean only one thing: Moonfluff was Quickload. To make things even better Quickload was flying the Retriever in the mining fleet I was scouting out before. Well if I needed anymore reason to suicide gank that fleet I had just go it.

So Daquris and I warped into the belt with the mining fleet and proceeded to lock up one of the hulks. He wasn’t the guy that can flipped me but he was in the same corp and he was flying a more expensive ship. The Hulks armour and shields peeled right off the structure like banana skin of a banana, laying bare its delicate insides, which were quickly smashed to pieces.

Daquaris > HULKOMANIA IS RUNNIN WILD BROTHER

Prometheus09 > that poor poor hulk

Prometheus09 > I hope it is in hulk heaven

Prometheus09 > I guess that’s what happens to can flippers

GOSMIC > i dint flip,,,

Prometheus09 > your friend did

Prometheus09 > your ship was worth more

Prometheus09 > should spank him for bad behaviour

Moonfluff > hahah you guys are nubs

Moonfluff > I was the one that can fliped hahahah

Moonfluff > they just watched

Moonfluff > where not even in my fleet or anything

Epimithius09 > moofluff = quicload who was mining in the same fleet

Moonfluff > no

Moonfluff > lol

GOSMIC > u supid….

Epimithius09 > Quickload > vexor vs silly frigat … he got me pointed and still i manage to escape hahaha

Moonfluff > that was Moonfluff tho

Unholy Rage

Well after that encounter we decided to gank someone else, and now that there was two off us I felt we could take out that Hulk, flown by Jessy Parker, that had the two Gisti B-Type Small Shield Boosters. However, while we were tracking him down Daquirs had to leave. Not to be deterred I enlisted Die1 to the cause. Once we tracked down what belt he was in we warped to him ready to acquire some tasty loot. Jessy though had other ideas. While we had warped to 0 he had warped to bookmark and was 20km out for us. As soon as we arrived he warped out to a safespot and then back to the station where he docked up and then undocked and warped back the belt again. We followed him once more but he warped out again as soon as we landed. We continued this little dance for a little bit until we realised that his regular clockwork like movements meant only one thing: He was a macro miner. At this realisation all compassion I might have felt for him flew out the view port into the vacuum of space. This guy had to die no matter what. So instead of following him around after he left the belt we waited at the bookmark he warped to. Sure enough that’s where he landed when he warped back in, only this time he wouldn’t be warping back out.

Our ammunition lanced across the void slamming into Jessy’s hulk. Our damage though was being repaired by those damn shield boosters quite well. Sweat began to bead across my forward as I realised that we might not be able to kill him. We were half way through armour when concord arrived and proceed to jam my ship. I sat back in bitter disappointment, this macro miner was going to live another day. Then to my amazement my screen lit up in beautiful explosion. It took me a moment to comprehend that it was the hulk and not my Vexor. We had done it and to make it even better he dropped one of the boosters. So whoever says suicide gankers are the scum of the universe, just remember this, we are doing everyone a favour and killing all those macro miners. 

Trying Something New

The Captains Log 28/9

Well I have spent the last few days consolidating the rest of my assets into a couple of stations (god my assets list looks nice now) and then felt that god awful desire to kill something (I should be writing up a prac report). One of my corp mates, Daquaris, was out getting a few kills so I decided to join him and see what fun was out there to have. Looking though my ship hanger I saw a lovely sight; most of the ships I owned were sitting in there. I picked out a Vexor and fitted it up with pure gank, ready to reduce our target ships to little more than atomic particles.

After flying 22 jumps with my main and an alt to scout, I was in the target system. It didn’t take Epimithius09 long to find a hulk mining Veldspar in a belt. A waste really, there was plenty of better priced ore floating around his Exhumer that would get him better ISK. Ahh well it was time to put him out of his misery. My Vexor and Daquaris Thorx landed on top him and proceed to acquire targeting locks on him as our sentry drones were deployed. The chirping of my targeting lock was suddenly broken by the roar of my blasters as they pumped their antimatter ammo across the void into the Hulks shields, quickly piercing them and pealing the armour right of its structure, opening the ships interior to the cold vacuum outside. As my screen lit up with that ever beautiful flash of a ship ending its life I sat back in my chair and put into effect emergency protocol 417 (Doctor Who reference) and watched a Martini materialise in front of me. As I took my first sip concord warped into the belt and proceeded to lock my ship. I smiled in satisfaction as the blasts from concords weapons tore my ship apart and reduced it to smouldering ruins.

After the deed was done Daquaris began to smack talk in local trying to get a few tears from the pilot who had just lost his ship. I on the other had a chat with Zolzter and was quite civil with him. Unlike others, such as Aiden Mourn, I saw no need to further humiliate him. All in all it was quite successful, I got my money back in insurance and the loot I sold from his wreak and the sec hit was not to bad. Just to let every one know this is my first ever Hig Sec gank in two years of play.

Combat Log Week 39

The Captains Log 28/9

Kills

Harbinger – Went on a little roam into Brick space with my Onyx to camp a gate and got this kill. We had to run off though as Brick Squad decided to come out and chase us away. We lost a Harbinger the chase.

Loses

Manticore and Pod – This one brought about the end of Operation Kent.

Operation Kent: Deep Freeze

The Captains Log 23/9

Well I’m only a couple of days into Operation Kent and I’m going to have to put it in the deep freeze for awhile. This isn’t because I want to, but because I lost my Manticore today, leaving me with only one PvP ship, my Onyx (I do have others but they are not for general PvP or have no fittings). I’m not sure how it happened but what I do know is that I disconnected after I had being shooting some ProviBlock ships as they jumped through gates, which naturally gives me a aggression timer. Normally, I log straight back on but today I was printing out some unit work while waiting for a connection and my printer got jammed so I had to fiddle with that. The result was I only hopped back on 10 hours later to find myself in a new clone. I presume that after I disconnected the ProviBlock guys probed my ship down and removed me from their space. I have lost some more implants, but that was not so bad, as I only had two +3’s in my head (I’m learning).

So what now? I have being thinking about joining the Bastards to get some PvP experience out that way or maybe even the Red vs Blue war I have read about today. Alternatively, what I really should be doing is making ISK to buy my dreadnaught with, so maybe I’ll just stay around Sys-k space doing plexs.

There is one thing for sure though, Operation Kent is not over. I will be back and I will be getting my share of blood.

Re: Cloaking Is Broken

The Captains Log 23/9

A response to Hallan’s post on cloaking. Also reads Manasi’s post

As a regular cloak user I also agree that cloaking should be modified to allow AFK cloakers to be found. Note if you are not AFK cloaking it should be hard to find you.

Just as Hallaan proposes, I also agree that cloaking signatures should be introduced which can be used to probe down cloakers. However, I don’t think that a ship should always have this signature. The reason for this is becuase I can probe down a person in one cycle if I have an idea of where they are. If I know they are watching a gate camp I put my probes out put them down to the smallest size and get them in one go. Due to this I have my idea.

Instead when a cloak is activated it starts to release a form of radiation, which can be probed down. The longer you have your cloak activated the more radiation that is released into the sounding space making the signature stronger and thus easier to probe down. There is only one way to remove the radiation that is surrounding your ship and is to warp. Once you load a new grid your radiation signature is reset.

Naturally, the different meta levels of cloaks would release the radiation at different rates, thus making it easier to find cloakers using low meta levels. I am of two minds about covert ops cloaking devices though. These ships are meant to be able to cloak so it seems natural that covert ops cloaking devices should not release radiation. However they can still be AFK cloakers. Either way, they would have lowest rate of radiation emission.

I would also like to see the introduction of T2 combat probes, which would be used to probe down cloakers, as well as giving a bonus to normal probing.  Naturally, they would have longer training times then normal probes.

In regards to the directional scanner, I think it should be used to locate the cloaker once you are on the same grid as him. You can not use your directional scanner to locate a cloaker unless your are one same grid as  him, he just wont appear on it unless you are on the grid.

Anyway that is my idea.

Operation Kent: First Blood

The Captains Log 22/9

With Operation Kent now in play I decided it was time to go and chose a ship and get it in position to deal some damage to the Proviblock alliances. After some deliberation I decided to use my Manticore for this operation, so I took a noob ship over to the Sys-K Stain Region staging point, picked it up and took the Jump Bridge network to empire, where I sat out side a providence entry point.

While waiting, intelligence reported that there was a gate camp one jump into Providence that had a Eris in it. Perfect. Another chance at a bombing run to try and take out a Interdictor after the failed attempted on the Goonswarm Sabre that resulted in the destruction of my Hound. Now if only I had a bomb launcher. I raced over to nearest system with one for sale, picked it up and fitted it to my ship.

Once in Providence I decided to warp immediately to the gate and hope I entered warp before the Eris got its bubble up, thus putting me within striking range. Unfortunately, the bubble went up first so I got caught in it. My brilliant piloting skills though got me out of the bubble, so I started to drift into a bombing run position behind the gate. Before I got into position though a UK vagabond (who I’m blue too) jumped through the gate, prompting the Eris to put up its bubble and for the whole gate camp to rush into the bubble.

Now this was problematic. I had the perfect opportunity to use my bomb, but I was not in position and it would therefore take me my full align time before I could warp out. Additionally, I was not quite in range as I was 40km out, meaning any target had to be within 5km of where the bomb exploded. So throwing all caution into the wind and ignoring my own advice on how to use a bomb, I decided to go for it.

I hit approach on the Eris, uncloaked my ship and launched my bomb and watched it fly across the void towards its targets in eager anticipation of the resulting carnage. The sound of lock alarms though brought me back to the real world as my overview indicated that a Brutix was establishing a lock on me. Sweat began to pore down my head and my heart began pound. If this guy managed to lock and tackle me this operation would be over. I was half way aligned when his lock resolved and hybrid ammunition began to pound into my shields. Then it happened, my Manticore finished aligning and entered warp just as the stargate was lit up in enormous flash as my bomb exploded.

Checking my log it turns out the Brutix that was shooting me was utilising railguns, giving it a sniper fit. Also my bomb had failed to kill anything and only damaged a Proteus that had being sitting on the gate. Ah well there will be more opportunities in the future.

Testing… One, Two Three

For the last two weeks I have being busy doing uni work, so I have had no time to play Eve. Come Saturday though I got on just to try the new factions ships and in particular, the Gila.

I only really tried the one set up and that was a passive tank.

High Slots

3 x Arbalest Heavy Missile Launchers

2 x Empty (didn’t know what to put here)

Medium Slots

3 x Large Shield Extender II

1 x Shield Recharger II

2 x Invulnerability Field II

Low Slots

1 x Power Diagnostic System II

3 x Shield Power Relay II

Rigs

3 x Medium Core Defence Field Purger

16 x Heavy Drones : )

After playing around with it I came to the conclusion it can fit one hell of a passive tank and do a decent amount of damage. However, flying it solo isn’t the way to do it. I ran into one couple (pictured bellow) who were by looks of it using cap transfers, remote shield repers and NOS to take down anyone who attacked them. All in all it is one hell of a nice ship. I think I might buy one for myself (after I get a Dread and then a Proteus).

I also got to see some of the new fighter bombers in action and they make some very pretty explosions. Once concern is the amount of Lag that his may cause. Also they have a hard time hitting anything that is sub capital ship, which I saw in a Stabber Fleet Issue which was tacking next to no damage from the fighter bombers as he flew around.

Operation Kent

The Captains Log 17/9

Well I have just got a new operation up and going: Operation Kent (took me awhile to think of that name). For now I can’t release any details as it involves a bit of secrecy. What I will tell you is that it should net me some nice kills. Well that’s the intention of it anyway.

I actually tried to get this operation running a couple of months ago but it failed and it has taken me that long to my character in position again to take advantage of recent opportunities. As it turns out all the preparation I made for the operation was unnecessary. Ah well it’s good to take precautions. 

Dominion – Is this how SOV is going to work?

The Captains Log 17/9

CCP DevBlogs are coming out thick and fast. This one though is more of a public service announcement for and details some dates for Testing of some of Dominions new features.

Here are the dates

The faction ships test will take place on Friday the 18th of September at 18:00

The supercapitals test will take place on Friday the 25th of September at 18:00

And the sovereignty test will take place on the week of the 5th to the 11th of October (subject to change)

For the supercapital test everyone will be getting all skills to level 5. So if you want to fly a Titan, here is your chance. Also there was this picture attached to showing how SOV is going to work (though no other details).

There is also this information of the forums (which I presume was data mined)

On Sisi right now:

Territorial Claim Marker

Once a successful override has been made, any Territorial Control Units in the system will become vulnerable to attack.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/W4lly/capture3.png 

This picture indicates that taking out the claim marker isn’t going to involve just shooting it and blowing it up, you are going to have to use disrupter fields to make it vulnerable. The other interesting thing to not is the onlining period of 24 hours for the claim marker and the disrupter field (this is not evident in the picture. The disrupter takes 24 hours to online and then another 12 hours to disrupt the claim module, so 36 hours in total). It is fairly evident that this is the equivalent to stront for current POS warfare. Basically an attacking alliance is going to have to keep their disrupter field/s alive for 36 hours, which presuming they put it up in their prime time, it will be quite vulnerable for the majority of time. They will then have to attack the claim maker, which after that 36 hours will be out of their prime time so in all likly hood they will have to wait longer before they can take it out. If they do get the numbers and take out the claim marker and put up their own, they are going to have to defend it for 24 hours before it becomes invulnerable, giving the defenders plenty of time to take it out and put up their own. From the above information it seems apparent that you are going to have to put up a disrupter unit on every gate, so systems with lots of gates are going to be easier to defend.  

The system does sound alright to me, though I want to see it being tested first. It is going to force alliances to obtain players from multiple time zones or form coalitions with other alliances to make up the numbers they are missing. Also you can see how this may move battles away from blob warfare (some of the time) as alliances are going to have to really on small gang warfare to defend both modules. Though this does not mean that the defending alliance wont blob the units to take them out. Additionally, this going to make SOV more fluid as the whole system is going to be quicker take and hold SOV.

However, people should not get carried away just yet. There has being no other details released yet so there may be other mechanics we don’t know about yet, such as how DUST 514 is got to integrate into this. As for how we could change from the current system to this one, I have one idea. CCP could release a mini patch which that makes the claiming module available to everyone, though they do nothing as yet. People grab them and put them up in systems they control, if you don’t have SOV there at the time you can’t put one up. CCP then puts the full patch onto EVE and SOV changes from the old system to the new one.

Anyway that’s the latest till next time.

Dominion – The Capital Battlefield

The Captains Log 16/9

Another DevBlog is out, this one deals with upcoming capital and super capital ship changes. Assault frigates are also looking to get a +75% boost to the speed of afterburners as well, though there seems to be a lot of hostility towards it. 

Just a quick run down

Titan – Removal of the AoE doomsday and replaced with a single target super weapon. Their weapons will get a bit of a boost and a hitpoint increase. They will be looking at further developing the Titan. The death ray will have a RoF of 5 minutes, consequently the ship will be immobile for 30 seconds and can’t jump from 5 minutes (Quoted from here, subject to testing). They will have the damage output to one hit a Dread, but not another super cap.

Motherships – Gone. Instead we get Super Carriers (SC) (don’t like the name). They lose a few things that Motherships had but get a hitpoint increase and get Fighter Bombers, a new type of fighter for SC only, that are designed to kill capital ships. The cannot be assigned.

Carriers and Dreads – No real changes but they will still be important in the future.

What does this mean?

So what do I think of this? Personally, I would have liked to have seen doomsdays become scripted giving you a choice on what to use (sing target or AoE) as this gives them a bit more versatility. Sub Cap fleets may even become a more important part of large fleet battles as they don’t have to worry about being instapoped by a titan or two. On the other hand capital ships may be more vulnerable. Remember Goonswarm and friends display of power with the 27 Titans killing a Carrier with their doomsdays? Now it is going to be 27 titans killing 27 capitals ships every 5 minutes. I do have to wonder about the Leviathan though. What is its death ray going to look like? As we all know Caldari are missile users; so are they going to get a Torpedo the size of a battleship (or bigger) that travels at 100m/s? I can foresee the Torpedo being primaried by the whole fleet.

On the other hand though, it may be harder for alliances go get titans with the other changes being introduced in Dominion. If CCP’s grand goal is realised and there are multiple small alliances and moons that don’t provide as much ISK as they do now, it may be harder for alliances to gather the funds to build a Titan.

Super Carriers though are a bit of an unknown. We will have to wait until testing on sisi to see how much damage they can put out before any comments can be made about them. However, I do like the general direction they are going towards. I think I’ll have to for train one (Fishy can be in one in 23 days, though I have to get the relevant fitting skills etc).

So to finish this off here is a picture of the Amarr super weapon