Entry: six hundred seventy-five.
I finally heard what Morsus Mihi and Brick were up to the other day. My CEO found them in a low-sec location that I won't name, but it seems they've been moving to Curse. I can't honestly remember who owns Curse, but my feeling is that the Angel Cartel presides over that domain. I'm looking forward to hearing how things go for Morsus Mihi and Brick after they've moved in.
Now that all but the very last few members of those alliances have left Delve, things have been pretty quiet. With Cascade now making up the majority population of Delve at any one time, the population average has dropped from one hundred fifty, to one hundred twenty, to one hundred, to seventy, to fifty. With a population that small, I sense that there won't be many frigate gangs to bomb on the 1DH-SX undock any time soon.
With those allies gone, there has been some serious grumbling within the alliance about what Cascade is still doing in 1DH-. Cascade controls seventy-two systems between Querious and Delve, and the alliance has technically been deployed away from home for over three months. If Cascade isn't going to push back the Freeport mission, or attack Evoke and Ewoks to prevent capital construction in Delve, then what are we doing in 1DH-?
My simple answer is that it is to prevent station flipping over the course of dealing with Raiden. Raiden does control a small portion of Querious and does pose a serious threat, and it would be the best practice to stage out of Blood Raider space to prevent Cascade assets from being trapped in stations by Raiden. My answer, however, may not be the real reason Cascade is still in 1DH-. To be blunt though, I don't want to leave.
In recent history, Cascade has moved several times since going home so many months ago. First, we staged in CZK- first, then P-Z, followed shortly by FV-SE8. After a month long period in Stain, we redeployed yet again to 1DH-, and we've now been here for a month or two. I and my CEO are tired of moving, and I'm sure much of the alliance feels the same. At the same time, much of the alliance wants to go home, while I don't.
Given the war fatigue settling in with many of the members, as well as depleting wallets, there is an additional factor not yet mentioned: the alliance leader.
Recently, he's been absent for days at a time with no one to take over the reins even temporarily. Additionally, he has apparently not been comminucating with the alliance as to what is going on and what he plans to do and simply attempting to do everything himself. You could say that Cascade is facing a crisis period, to the point where the alliance leader has been disassociated from his main corp and had to move to the asset holding corporation. Things are looking a little dire.
It'll be interesting to see what Cascade's next play will be in the next few days. Will we move, and if so, to where? Will Archie remain the alliance head? If not, will he go peacefully or try to take the alliance with him? If he does remain, how will he remedy his serious issues stemming from trying to run the entire alliance by himself, and will his plan put an end to the threat of corporations leaving the alliance? What is Cascade's next objective, or do we even have one?
Equally as interesting, what will my corporation do if the alliance disbands? Will the member corporations of Cascade create a new alliance free of the current leader? Will my corporation even join it? Who's left to join that meshes with our corporations goals aside from Goons, TEST or Against All Authorities? Will we even join the DRF and have to learn Russian?
Living in interesting times can be such a curse.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
One False Step
Entry: six hundred seventy-three.
Yesterday the CFC brought down yet another frigate roam. You know the sort: cheap, tech one hulls with tech one fits, but when there are eighty of them, anything dies fast. I managed to cash in on the opportunity and extract a heavy price from them despite the cheapness of their fleet.
The CFC frigate fleet had been bouncing around a lot, using a one thousand below station bookmark, off station bookmarks, warping to gates, generally trying to pick off tiny groups of bigger ships in the area. I happened to have a spot roughly in the same area as them below the undock, and warped to it. Their fleet was some four hundred kilometers away. I crunched the numbers and quickly determined that it would take me approximately seventeen minutes to reach their position.
I did not have that kind of time, and they were not going to give it to me.
I warped up to a handy bookmark I have, a pounce on the station, and waited. They warped in some time later, and created a few wrecks before warping out, one of which was rather conveniently placed. Once they had warped off, I warped down to this wreck at ten and discovered my new favorite bombing spot. It's below the massive docking ring of the station, but plenty close for bombing the undock while being out of the way of everything and unaligned to any celestial. I made the bookmark, and warped back to a pounce.
Some time later, the CFC fleet warped the undock at zero, which dropped them out about twenty below that actual undock terminus. I warped to my new bombing spot, and noticed almost immediately that much of the fleet was microwarping at the terminus. I aimed for the terminus, decloaked, launched the bomb, and attempted a warp out.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my regular bombing fit, as I'd acquired it via contracts on the cheap. As my bomb exploded, my systems overloaded, trying to keep up with the massive amount of incoming information. My Manticore was destroyed, and I found myself podded due to the crippling lag I'd induced in the slaughter.
I had the worst headache upon respawning in the medical bay. After it wore off, I took a look at my combat logs.
Thirty-two final blow killmails at the same time after an hour of patience. Most were tech one, although there was the occasional tech two, cruiser, or pod. And although several people show up on the kills, aside from one poor soul who died before my bomb hit him, I was the only person actively engaged in killing them at that time. The timestamp on my bomb explosion is zero three thirty-nine (03:39) on eleven twelve twenty eleven (11-12-2011). Additional kills were logged for me throughout the hour as the CFC fleet continued to roam in 1DH-SX.
Me, I was reveling in the destruction I'd inflicted from their one false step for the rest of the night. I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
Computer: terminate recording.
Yesterday the CFC brought down yet another frigate roam. You know the sort: cheap, tech one hulls with tech one fits, but when there are eighty of them, anything dies fast. I managed to cash in on the opportunity and extract a heavy price from them despite the cheapness of their fleet.
The CFC frigate fleet had been bouncing around a lot, using a one thousand below station bookmark, off station bookmarks, warping to gates, generally trying to pick off tiny groups of bigger ships in the area. I happened to have a spot roughly in the same area as them below the undock, and warped to it. Their fleet was some four hundred kilometers away. I crunched the numbers and quickly determined that it would take me approximately seventeen minutes to reach their position.
I did not have that kind of time, and they were not going to give it to me.
I warped up to a handy bookmark I have, a pounce on the station, and waited. They warped in some time later, and created a few wrecks before warping out, one of which was rather conveniently placed. Once they had warped off, I warped down to this wreck at ten and discovered my new favorite bombing spot. It's below the massive docking ring of the station, but plenty close for bombing the undock while being out of the way of everything and unaligned to any celestial. I made the bookmark, and warped back to a pounce.
Some time later, the CFC fleet warped the undock at zero, which dropped them out about twenty below that actual undock terminus. I warped to my new bombing spot, and noticed almost immediately that much of the fleet was microwarping at the terminus. I aimed for the terminus, decloaked, launched the bomb, and attempted a warp out.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my regular bombing fit, as I'd acquired it via contracts on the cheap. As my bomb exploded, my systems overloaded, trying to keep up with the massive amount of incoming information. My Manticore was destroyed, and I found myself podded due to the crippling lag I'd induced in the slaughter.
I had the worst headache upon respawning in the medical bay. After it wore off, I took a look at my combat logs.
Thirty-two final blow killmails at the same time after an hour of patience. Most were tech one, although there was the occasional tech two, cruiser, or pod. And although several people show up on the kills, aside from one poor soul who died before my bomb hit him, I was the only person actively engaged in killing them at that time. The timestamp on my bomb explosion is zero three thirty-nine (03:39) on eleven twelve twenty eleven (11-12-2011). Additional kills were logged for me throughout the hour as the CFC fleet continued to roam in 1DH-SX.
Me, I was reveling in the destruction I'd inflicted from their one false step for the rest of the night. I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
Computer: terminate recording.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Dead Space
Entry: six hundred seventy-one, supplemental one.
Since I logged into the neocom network, very little has happened today. A RAZOR fleet camped the 1DH- undock for a short bit, then a Black Legion gang did it, and then there were constant reports of a well known shifting gatecamp run by Admiral Ackbar and his six or seven other versions of himself. Apparently I had just missed yet another CFC Rifter roam down to 1DH-.
It's amazing how little was going on, and how dead 1DH- felt today, and how empty it feels now. The place is no longer bustling with the activity of a one hundred fifty active inhabitants on average, with the occasional red fleet spiking local to a little over two hundred. As of right now, there's a grand total of fifty-seven active. CZK- was on average this active at all times when that was Cascade's capitol.
With nothing to do, I clone jumped to an old body I left in LGK-. An instantaneous forty jump trip is always nice, beats piloting a pod that far. I podded the rest of the way to TG- to pick up a Crusader I'd left there, and made the trip back to 1DH-, planning to hit the bridge in K-6K16 to F20Y-, which would put me one jump out of 1DH- and avoid that cloaky nine-of-one shifting gatecamp.
The largest population I encountered along the way was forty four in LGK-, followed by approximately twenty three in V-3. All other systems from TG- to K-6K16 had a population of six or less, with only CNC- having a population of six, CZK- a population of five, and the rest having a population of one aside from myself or empty.
Some interesting changes were to be seen, however, largely in claims on space. YHN- has been successfully recovered by .-A-., as well as one or two systems leading to YHN-. GE- was still owned by White Noise, but pretty clearly abandoned. V-3YG7 station was under siege by a group of about fifteen blues, presumably Legio.
Legio had taken several of the systems leading to CZK- as well, and one system on the path to CZK- was entirely unclaimed. Otherwise, there were no notable changes that I've seen, excepting previous knowledge of Raiden taking over some systems in Querious, most recently L-6BE1 and V-3U8T (not to be confused with the V-3 in Catch, both are often referred to as V-3), and one or two surrounding systems such as GOP-GE.
I just wish that there was something more exciting to talk about than what group owns what space. Politics can be such a bitch.
Computer: terminate recording.
Since I logged into the neocom network, very little has happened today. A RAZOR fleet camped the 1DH- undock for a short bit, then a Black Legion gang did it, and then there were constant reports of a well known shifting gatecamp run by Admiral Ackbar and his six or seven other versions of himself. Apparently I had just missed yet another CFC Rifter roam down to 1DH-.
It's amazing how little was going on, and how dead 1DH- felt today, and how empty it feels now. The place is no longer bustling with the activity of a one hundred fifty active inhabitants on average, with the occasional red fleet spiking local to a little over two hundred. As of right now, there's a grand total of fifty-seven active. CZK- was on average this active at all times when that was Cascade's capitol.
With nothing to do, I clone jumped to an old body I left in LGK-. An instantaneous forty jump trip is always nice, beats piloting a pod that far. I podded the rest of the way to TG- to pick up a Crusader I'd left there, and made the trip back to 1DH-, planning to hit the bridge in K-6K16 to F20Y-, which would put me one jump out of 1DH- and avoid that cloaky nine-of-one shifting gatecamp.
The largest population I encountered along the way was forty four in LGK-, followed by approximately twenty three in V-3. All other systems from TG- to K-6K16 had a population of six or less, with only CNC- having a population of six, CZK- a population of five, and the rest having a population of one aside from myself or empty.
Some interesting changes were to be seen, however, largely in claims on space. YHN- has been successfully recovered by .-A-., as well as one or two systems leading to YHN-. GE- was still owned by White Noise, but pretty clearly abandoned. V-3YG7 station was under siege by a group of about fifteen blues, presumably Legio.
Legio had taken several of the systems leading to CZK- as well, and one system on the path to CZK- was entirely unclaimed. Otherwise, there were no notable changes that I've seen, excepting previous knowledge of Raiden taking over some systems in Querious, most recently L-6BE1 and V-3U8T (not to be confused with the V-3 in Catch, both are often referred to as V-3), and one or two surrounding systems such as GOP-GE.
I just wish that there was something more exciting to talk about than what group owns what space. Politics can be such a bitch.
Computer: terminate recording.
The Thunderdome Is Getting Nerfed
Entry: six hundred seventy-one.
Some political circumstances have come about that are going to cause a reduction of deathing in the Thunderdome known as Delve.
Firstly, Morsus Mihi is moving away from Delve. Multiple sources confirmed this, and that they were in fact moving back North. Sources were suggesting Guristas Space, which is to say Venal if I recall correctly. Why Morsus would move there when all the action and all their remaining space is in Delve is beyond me. Maybe they plan to strike a vengeful blow at the Deklien Coalition. My guess is that the blow will land quite softly upon the CFC, however, and cause more pain for Morsus than the CFC. This change is already taking place and appears almost complete, as residence in 1DH-SX has declined considerably and there has been an influx of public contracts from Morsus Mihi members.
Just in case, for those not in the know, the CFC is the Deklein Coalition. The CFC is what the Deklein Coalition calls themselves. CFC stands for Cluster F**k Coalition, go figure right? It has its charm, don't dog it.
Secondly, Brick Squad is leaving Delve. Supposedly they are becoming Against All Authorities' pets and moving into Catch. Again, this move baffles me, as both the action and their space are in Delve. There won't be much to do in Catch aside from grind out some new sovereignty, which does make sense if Brick is simply tired of defending its space from the CFC invasion. According to the mails, this change will take place within the next few days.
Will Cascade remain blue with Morsus and Brick? I can't say as I know. My initial guess would be "yes", but it begs the question, "To what point?" If both are going to be too far away to help and be helped, there seems little reasoning behind remaining blue except for possible futures which could result in Brick and Morsus moving back to Delve.
Third, Against All Authorities will be resetting Cascade and Nulli and are already on enemy terms with Morsus and Brick. This means that Against All Authorities might well decide to invade Cascade and Nulli space at some point in an effort to, if not expunge us, then just take some of our space to rent out. This change is supposed to take place by the end of the week.
Fourth, Pandemic Legion has already left Delve. Where just last week PR- was filled with Pandemic Legion, now it is barren. I've heard that Pandemic Legion has moved north into Tribute or Vale from a few sources, but no source seems real sure about what happened. Perhaps they are taking their own space up north? Perhaps they got tired of being denied fights in Delve? Maybe some combination?
With those four major changes in effect, I expect to see Evoke and Ewoks escalate in activity, as they are also based in and attempting to take space in Delve. I expect the Raiden invasion of Querious to either slow down or drastically increase, as there will be fewer enemies for them to deal with. Whether it slows down or speeds up depends on if Raiden is intent on holding space in Querious when, to the best of my knowledge, they already hold a good chunk of space in the East. I also expect to the CFC invasion to speed up in the short term as they take what remains of Morsus' and Brick's abandoned space.
In addition, because of the .-A-. reset of Cascade and Nulli, I somewhat expect to be moving out towards Nulli space to defend against .-A-. at some point in the future, but not for some time. Until then, I suspect Cascade will be alone in its endeavors to push back the CFC freeporting invasion, as Nulli has yet to appear on the board. I am unsure whether that results from standings issues with Morsus and Brick, or if they simply do not care about Delve.
Perhaps one of the bigger questions is, "What comes next?" If the CFC does succeed in freeporting Delve, do they go home, or do they continue the campaign? If they go home, enemies will be few except for low-sec, and hard to reach even with jumpbridges given the size of CFC space. I once made a trip from VFK-IV to 6VDT-H in an effort to find something to shoot, and even with jumpbridges, the trip was forty jumps one way. If they continue the campaign however, will members grumble about not being able to make ISK?
We will just have to see how things turn out in the longer turn, but the implications seem clear for the short terms. The Thunderdome will be coming with less Thunder.
Computer: terminate recording.
Some political circumstances have come about that are going to cause a reduction of deathing in the Thunderdome known as Delve.
Firstly, Morsus Mihi is moving away from Delve. Multiple sources confirmed this, and that they were in fact moving back North. Sources were suggesting Guristas Space, which is to say Venal if I recall correctly. Why Morsus would move there when all the action and all their remaining space is in Delve is beyond me. Maybe they plan to strike a vengeful blow at the Deklien Coalition. My guess is that the blow will land quite softly upon the CFC, however, and cause more pain for Morsus than the CFC. This change is already taking place and appears almost complete, as residence in 1DH-SX has declined considerably and there has been an influx of public contracts from Morsus Mihi members.
Just in case, for those not in the know, the CFC is the Deklein Coalition. The CFC is what the Deklein Coalition calls themselves. CFC stands for Cluster F**k Coalition, go figure right? It has its charm, don't dog it.
Secondly, Brick Squad is leaving Delve. Supposedly they are becoming Against All Authorities' pets and moving into Catch. Again, this move baffles me, as both the action and their space are in Delve. There won't be much to do in Catch aside from grind out some new sovereignty, which does make sense if Brick is simply tired of defending its space from the CFC invasion. According to the mails, this change will take place within the next few days.
Will Cascade remain blue with Morsus and Brick? I can't say as I know. My initial guess would be "yes", but it begs the question, "To what point?" If both are going to be too far away to help and be helped, there seems little reasoning behind remaining blue except for possible futures which could result in Brick and Morsus moving back to Delve.
Third, Against All Authorities will be resetting Cascade and Nulli and are already on enemy terms with Morsus and Brick. This means that Against All Authorities might well decide to invade Cascade and Nulli space at some point in an effort to, if not expunge us, then just take some of our space to rent out. This change is supposed to take place by the end of the week.
Fourth, Pandemic Legion has already left Delve. Where just last week PR- was filled with Pandemic Legion, now it is barren. I've heard that Pandemic Legion has moved north into Tribute or Vale from a few sources, but no source seems real sure about what happened. Perhaps they are taking their own space up north? Perhaps they got tired of being denied fights in Delve? Maybe some combination?
With those four major changes in effect, I expect to see Evoke and Ewoks escalate in activity, as they are also based in and attempting to take space in Delve. I expect the Raiden invasion of Querious to either slow down or drastically increase, as there will be fewer enemies for them to deal with. Whether it slows down or speeds up depends on if Raiden is intent on holding space in Querious when, to the best of my knowledge, they already hold a good chunk of space in the East. I also expect to the CFC invasion to speed up in the short term as they take what remains of Morsus' and Brick's abandoned space.
In addition, because of the .-A-. reset of Cascade and Nulli, I somewhat expect to be moving out towards Nulli space to defend against .-A-. at some point in the future, but not for some time. Until then, I suspect Cascade will be alone in its endeavors to push back the CFC freeporting invasion, as Nulli has yet to appear on the board. I am unsure whether that results from standings issues with Morsus and Brick, or if they simply do not care about Delve.
Perhaps one of the bigger questions is, "What comes next?" If the CFC does succeed in freeporting Delve, do they go home, or do they continue the campaign? If they go home, enemies will be few except for low-sec, and hard to reach even with jumpbridges given the size of CFC space. I once made a trip from VFK-IV to 6VDT-H in an effort to find something to shoot, and even with jumpbridges, the trip was forty jumps one way. If they continue the campaign however, will members grumble about not being able to make ISK?
We will just have to see how things turn out in the longer turn, but the implications seem clear for the short terms. The Thunderdome will be coming with less Thunder.
Computer: terminate recording.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Combat Probing
Entry: six hundred sixty-six.
I only tried combat probing in null once, long before yesterday. My results back then were pretty shaky, and I was certain I was no good and in need of some serious teaching. Seven months have passed since then, no additional training in combat probing obtained, no practice completed, leaving me only with the theoretical knowledge that I possessed before my first attempt back then.
Yesterday, the fleet commander was asking for a cloaky prober. No one was volunteering despite repeated calls. I offered myself up as a last resort if a more experienced once could not be found, and as can be guessed, a more experienced one was not found to accompany the fleet.
FC set destination for 3-F from 1DH-. Jump bridges were down, in part because of Raiden hitting them, in part because of Atlas merging into Cascade, so we took the long route through the Z3V- gate.
My first failure occurred in L-6. I reported what appeared to be a cyno on a station and a Thantos at that cyno. I had not, however, actually warped towards the cyno, and when the FC ordered a Drake to warp in and aggress, the Drake ended up pinned on a tower on a moon near the station. The FC replaced his ship and gave me a mild scolding.
To be fair, I didn't promise good results when we set out, saying that while I was technically capable, I didn't have any practice in the art of playing hide and seek.
We continued our trek towards 3-F, and I jumped in alone from 0TKF-. I bounced above the Efa gate and caught sight of a gatecamp: three drakes, a dramiel, a hound, and a firetail, with two drag bubbles, most likely set up from the 0TKF- and I1Y- gate. I should have checked, but didn't have the presence of mind to do so at the time.
I warped down to the gate as the Drakes approached the drag bubbles, settling approximately forty kilometers off the Efa gate towards the bubbles. I reported being within five of one Drake and ten of a second, the third nearly back at the Efa gate. FC ordered interdictors to jump in and drop bubbles.
Unfortunately, five people jumped into 3-F, a fact I missed as I watched the Drakes align to safes and warp off. I decloaked and began the targeting sequence a second too late to catch any of the Drakes on the gate with either my Warp disruptor II or my Warp Scrambler II.
I deployed probes, and began scanning. Thanks to my earlier scanning attempts in L-6, I had a capital class and up filter active while scanning for Drakes, only realizing the mistake five minutes in. I quickly changed the filter to scan for all ship signatures, knowing that I was looking for a Drake, and picked up a full Drake signature at a belt near planet ten.
I warped in at ten, approached, decloaked, laid down both points and called for support. The Drake targeted me, opened fire, salvo after salvo smashing shields and armor as I attempted to keep my signature radius small and fast with an afterburner. Some seconds later, an interdictor landed, bubble went up, I aligned out and took another two salvos on the align out before exiting the disruption bubble and warping. The fleet cleaned him up for me. I escaped with thirty-nine percent armor integrity.
After another few minutes of scanning, I determined I wasn't going to get any hits. I should have had the fleet warp to a specific safespot so that I could ignore their signatures and probe some more, but again the presence of mind escaped me.
On the trip back, we stopped in L-6 again, and I managed to find a ratting Raiden Tempest in an asteroid belt with just directional scan. I warped to the belt at twenty, saw the tempest aligned, and approached. At ten, I decloaked and attempted to lay down both of my points only to have the ratter warp to station and dock.
In retrospect, I should have simply continued the approach and bumped him first, laying down the points once I was automatically decloaked.
Suffice to say, being the prober is a difficult task.
Computer: terminate recording.
I only tried combat probing in null once, long before yesterday. My results back then were pretty shaky, and I was certain I was no good and in need of some serious teaching. Seven months have passed since then, no additional training in combat probing obtained, no practice completed, leaving me only with the theoretical knowledge that I possessed before my first attempt back then.
Yesterday, the fleet commander was asking for a cloaky prober. No one was volunteering despite repeated calls. I offered myself up as a last resort if a more experienced once could not be found, and as can be guessed, a more experienced one was not found to accompany the fleet.
FC set destination for 3-F from 1DH-. Jump bridges were down, in part because of Raiden hitting them, in part because of Atlas merging into Cascade, so we took the long route through the Z3V- gate.
My first failure occurred in L-6. I reported what appeared to be a cyno on a station and a Thantos at that cyno. I had not, however, actually warped towards the cyno, and when the FC ordered a Drake to warp in and aggress, the Drake ended up pinned on a tower on a moon near the station. The FC replaced his ship and gave me a mild scolding.
To be fair, I didn't promise good results when we set out, saying that while I was technically capable, I didn't have any practice in the art of playing hide and seek.
We continued our trek towards 3-F, and I jumped in alone from 0TKF-. I bounced above the Efa gate and caught sight of a gatecamp: three drakes, a dramiel, a hound, and a firetail, with two drag bubbles, most likely set up from the 0TKF- and I1Y- gate. I should have checked, but didn't have the presence of mind to do so at the time.
I warped down to the gate as the Drakes approached the drag bubbles, settling approximately forty kilometers off the Efa gate towards the bubbles. I reported being within five of one Drake and ten of a second, the third nearly back at the Efa gate. FC ordered interdictors to jump in and drop bubbles.
Unfortunately, five people jumped into 3-F, a fact I missed as I watched the Drakes align to safes and warp off. I decloaked and began the targeting sequence a second too late to catch any of the Drakes on the gate with either my Warp disruptor II or my Warp Scrambler II.
I deployed probes, and began scanning. Thanks to my earlier scanning attempts in L-6, I had a capital class and up filter active while scanning for Drakes, only realizing the mistake five minutes in. I quickly changed the filter to scan for all ship signatures, knowing that I was looking for a Drake, and picked up a full Drake signature at a belt near planet ten.
I warped in at ten, approached, decloaked, laid down both points and called for support. The Drake targeted me, opened fire, salvo after salvo smashing shields and armor as I attempted to keep my signature radius small and fast with an afterburner. Some seconds later, an interdictor landed, bubble went up, I aligned out and took another two salvos on the align out before exiting the disruption bubble and warping. The fleet cleaned him up for me. I escaped with thirty-nine percent armor integrity.
After another few minutes of scanning, I determined I wasn't going to get any hits. I should have had the fleet warp to a specific safespot so that I could ignore their signatures and probe some more, but again the presence of mind escaped me.
On the trip back, we stopped in L-6 again, and I managed to find a ratting Raiden Tempest in an asteroid belt with just directional scan. I warped to the belt at twenty, saw the tempest aligned, and approached. At ten, I decloaked and attempted to lay down both of my points only to have the ratter warp to station and dock.
In retrospect, I should have simply continued the approach and bumped him first, laying down the points once I was automatically decloaked.
Suffice to say, being the prober is a difficult task.
Computer: terminate recording.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Anonymous Comments
It didn't take much to notice that people without blogger accounts were suddenly signing up to drop me comments, two of the most notable being Monster from Morsus Mihi and ilikepie from wherever. Doing a show info on their profile revealed no posts, no blogs owned or followed, and profile views under 10.
Like I said, pretty clear. I appreciate the fact that people went to enough trouble to create blogger accounts solely to drop comments (maybe just for me, maybe not), but it leaves me wondering about the 99% of people who don't do that.
To that end, I've enabled anonymous comments. All I ask is that you sign your comments with an identifier, preferably your EVE main character name. However, if I start getting trolls all of a sudden, I'll disable automatic approval and enable approved comments only. Let's not live under bridges, ok?
If you already have a blogger account but no blog, I strongly encourage that you create a blog. I personally like to read the battle report blogs more than metagaming blogs, but I'll be honest, the metagaming blogs get alot more attention, not to mention there's a great deal of them on the blogpack Rixx has.
That said, I pretty much don't read anyone on the blogpack. Maybe 1, maybe 2, I'm not real sure and am too lazy to check. But when half or more of the blogpack is metagamers, and they all talk about the same stuff at pretty much the same time, I don't find a real point. 1 is enough. If metagaming is your style, just be aware of your competition, and that with the number of them out there, you'll probably drown in the mix.
If/when you do create your own blog, be sure to give it it's own unique twist to seperate it from the 200+ other active eve blogs out there. If you want readers, you need that pzazz.
With that, I'll close this out with a question: What do you like about my blog and what would you like to see more of?
Like I said, pretty clear. I appreciate the fact that people went to enough trouble to create blogger accounts solely to drop comments (maybe just for me, maybe not), but it leaves me wondering about the 99% of people who don't do that.
To that end, I've enabled anonymous comments. All I ask is that you sign your comments with an identifier, preferably your EVE main character name. However, if I start getting trolls all of a sudden, I'll disable automatic approval and enable approved comments only. Let's not live under bridges, ok?
If you already have a blogger account but no blog, I strongly encourage that you create a blog. I personally like to read the battle report blogs more than metagaming blogs, but I'll be honest, the metagaming blogs get alot more attention, not to mention there's a great deal of them on the blogpack Rixx has.
That said, I pretty much don't read anyone on the blogpack. Maybe 1, maybe 2, I'm not real sure and am too lazy to check. But when half or more of the blogpack is metagamers, and they all talk about the same stuff at pretty much the same time, I don't find a real point. 1 is enough. If metagaming is your style, just be aware of your competition, and that with the number of them out there, you'll probably drown in the mix.
If/when you do create your own blog, be sure to give it it's own unique twist to seperate it from the 200+ other active eve blogs out there. If you want readers, you need that pzazz.
With that, I'll close this out with a question: What do you like about my blog and what would you like to see more of?
Bust, Roam, Month in Review
Entry: six hundred sixty-two.
After a few days away from space-faring combat, I came back and almost immediately joined up on a fleet to break a gatecamp. The FC requested specific ships, one of which was bait. I didn't have anything that fit the bill except a Cyclone. I showed him my fit, and he said it'd be ok.
After a short formup, we headed for 6Q- with me going plus one jump of fleet.
When I get to 6Q-, I didn't see any hostiles because of the wrong overview being up, so I start alignment to 1-SMEB and quickly find myself warp disrupted and being hit by autocannon fire. I called the fleet in, overheating my invuln and warp disruptor II as they started to land on the 6Q- gate in the previous system A-ELE2. A Rapier, Stiletto, and Tempest are targeting me, all firing, thinking me alone and ultimately defenseless.
Just before they jump in, I point the Rapier, who made the silliest of piloting decisions by webbing me at fifteen and keeping within fifteen of me.
The fleet lands on the A-E gate in 6Q- and chases down the Rapier while the Stiletto bugs out and the Tempest cloaks up. Pretty easy kill.
Shortly after that, those of us that were on the gatecamp are invited to a nano roam. As it turns out, the only FAIL members who joined were all from my corporation, as the only FAIL members to break the aforementioned gatecamp were also in my corp.
The roam itself was largely uneventful, more so for us few FAIL guys. Things were quiet, probably because Capsuleers were going door to door in stations getting candy, or, you know, getting drunk. After a trip through Nulli space however, we ended up in Stain and managed to snag a Brutix who was successfully baited on station at RPS-0K and wasn't able to dock in time. The Morsus and Brick portion of the fleet at least managed to snag a Hulk and a Harbinger on the way towards that Brutix kill. After that, we roamed a little deeper, and not finding anything, turned back towards home.
The way back was a failure. We were burning back to 1DH-, and having found almost nothing, and in RPS- ran into a sniper Machariel gang with a Scimitar for support. After a minute or two dancing, the FC decided to engage. Points were called and interceptors largely avoided dying, but critical communications errors resulted in our fleet biting off much more than it could chew. All said and done, we bugged out with zero kills and five deaths.
Thankfully, none of us FAIL guys died. We're either pro or not all that important. Frankly, I felt unimportant, as only one flight of Warrior II's was set on me, barely scratching my shields at all during that minute or two of combat.
Right about the time the survivors burned for 1DH-, the new month began. As it turns out, my corporation, Militaris Industries [UDEAD] managed to break Paragon Fury's [PFURY] four month reign on the alliance killboards. UDEAD scored one thousand thirty-two kills in that month, PFURY scored one thousand seventeen.
Typically UDEAD would come in a close second to PFURY, but apparently injecting the few new recruits we've gotten into battle has paid off, netting us those extra kills to put us over the top of the also recruiting PFURY. PFURY has many more members than UDEAD and many more active combat pilots, so it's especially pleasant to see that our small group of combat pilots pulled through to take rank one. It should also be noted that UDEAD lost approximately half of what PFURY lost that month, but I'll couch that with PFURY having several Fleet Commanders and UDEAD having none.
I also feel especially good about my record last month. One hundred thirty-four kills, only five losses. That's twenty more kills than average, half the losses, and means that I account for thirteen percent of all the kills for my corporation. Two of my losses were pods, approximately two million ISK each since I fly without implants, and the only loss I can't recall is my friend who lived too long, Rudra the Wolf.
It's been a great month for combat, and it's only going to get more exciting as more null-sec entities are moving down to Delve for a piece of the action. Pandemic Legion is coming back into the mix, and Raiden decided to drop in as well. We're even seeing triple a, Nulli, and Vera Cruz fleets coming our way. The only major powers not down here getting in on the action these days are White Noise, Shadow of Death, Red Overlord, Red Alliance, and NCdot.
Computer: terminate recording.
After a few days away from space-faring combat, I came back and almost immediately joined up on a fleet to break a gatecamp. The FC requested specific ships, one of which was bait. I didn't have anything that fit the bill except a Cyclone. I showed him my fit, and he said it'd be ok.
After a short formup, we headed for 6Q- with me going plus one jump of fleet.
When I get to 6Q-, I didn't see any hostiles because of the wrong overview being up, so I start alignment to 1-SMEB and quickly find myself warp disrupted and being hit by autocannon fire. I called the fleet in, overheating my invuln and warp disruptor II as they started to land on the 6Q- gate in the previous system A-ELE2. A Rapier, Stiletto, and Tempest are targeting me, all firing, thinking me alone and ultimately defenseless.
Just before they jump in, I point the Rapier, who made the silliest of piloting decisions by webbing me at fifteen and keeping within fifteen of me.
The fleet lands on the A-E gate in 6Q- and chases down the Rapier while the Stiletto bugs out and the Tempest cloaks up. Pretty easy kill.
Shortly after that, those of us that were on the gatecamp are invited to a nano roam. As it turns out, the only FAIL members who joined were all from my corporation, as the only FAIL members to break the aforementioned gatecamp were also in my corp.
The roam itself was largely uneventful, more so for us few FAIL guys. Things were quiet, probably because Capsuleers were going door to door in stations getting candy, or, you know, getting drunk. After a trip through Nulli space however, we ended up in Stain and managed to snag a Brutix who was successfully baited on station at RPS-0K and wasn't able to dock in time. The Morsus and Brick portion of the fleet at least managed to snag a Hulk and a Harbinger on the way towards that Brutix kill. After that, we roamed a little deeper, and not finding anything, turned back towards home.
The way back was a failure. We were burning back to 1DH-, and having found almost nothing, and in RPS- ran into a sniper Machariel gang with a Scimitar for support. After a minute or two dancing, the FC decided to engage. Points were called and interceptors largely avoided dying, but critical communications errors resulted in our fleet biting off much more than it could chew. All said and done, we bugged out with zero kills and five deaths.
Thankfully, none of us FAIL guys died. We're either pro or not all that important. Frankly, I felt unimportant, as only one flight of Warrior II's was set on me, barely scratching my shields at all during that minute or two of combat.
Right about the time the survivors burned for 1DH-, the new month began. As it turns out, my corporation, Militaris Industries [UDEAD] managed to break Paragon Fury's [PFURY] four month reign on the alliance killboards. UDEAD scored one thousand thirty-two kills in that month, PFURY scored one thousand seventeen.
Typically UDEAD would come in a close second to PFURY, but apparently injecting the few new recruits we've gotten into battle has paid off, netting us those extra kills to put us over the top of the also recruiting PFURY. PFURY has many more members than UDEAD and many more active combat pilots, so it's especially pleasant to see that our small group of combat pilots pulled through to take rank one. It should also be noted that UDEAD lost approximately half of what PFURY lost that month, but I'll couch that with PFURY having several Fleet Commanders and UDEAD having none.
I also feel especially good about my record last month. One hundred thirty-four kills, only five losses. That's twenty more kills than average, half the losses, and means that I account for thirteen percent of all the kills for my corporation. Two of my losses were pods, approximately two million ISK each since I fly without implants, and the only loss I can't recall is my friend who lived too long, Rudra the Wolf.
It's been a great month for combat, and it's only going to get more exciting as more null-sec entities are moving down to Delve for a piece of the action. Pandemic Legion is coming back into the mix, and Raiden decided to drop in as well. We're even seeing triple a, Nulli, and Vera Cruz fleets coming our way. The only major powers not down here getting in on the action these days are White Noise, Shadow of Death, Red Overlord, Red Alliance, and NCdot.
Computer: terminate recording.
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