#2

This post has taken far longer to write then I intended. It turns out that changing jobs takes up a lot of your time. a consequence of this is that I have had less time than expected for EVE. However I have had some fights and have been doing research into the AT as this is something that i would like to participate in this year.

What to fly?

I have decided to focus on flying larger ships for the meantime. Why? Greater engageabillty and I haven't really done it before. Arianne has over 80mill skillpoints but has mostly flown frigs for over 5 years, I feel that it is time for a change. I have a tendency in EVE to do what I feel comfortable with. I pick a ship and fly it until I know exactly what it can do and how to fly it and win nearly all the time. The best pilots that I know are willing to take risks, this is something that I want to start doing more.

The ships that I've picked are the Vexor, Myrm and the Cyclone and progressing to the VNI, Stratios and the Gila. My reasoning is that I have rarely flown with drone boats and would like to have a greater understanding of them, the Vexor is a great little ship and can be fitted up relatively cheaply. The current fit I have is hull tanked but I will try a couple of other fits when I've lost a few of these. I also have picked the Myrm as well as I've watched quite a few streamers have a lot of fun with this fighting against small gangs, it also enables me to try out different drone combinations. The cyclone in a way is the odd one out, however I have always enjoyed missile ships so decided why not?

And FIGHT!

I've been running some of the Gurista sites, partly to get some fights, partly out of boredom. I've had two fights that resulted in Killmails.

Fight 1

https://zkillboard.com/kill/52709470/

https://zkillboard.com/kill/52709476/

Tactic: I saw the two Vexors arrive on short scan and debated whether to take the fight. As this was my first time out in the Cyclone I thought Fuck it why not? My shields were almost at full and I had a full amount of cap boosters, I switched to Nova missiles and waited for them to land. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to take them both down but wanted to see how I would hold up. I focused on one of the Vexors, and was silently kicking myself for not bringing a Blue pill. They were both Disruptor fit and so I had full range control, which I did not exercise well. However one of them went down before me so I was satisfied.

Learning points:

1. The additional tank that the Invuln gives is approx 3/3.5k,  I think that in this case the microjump drive would have been far more beneficial, I could have killed the first Vexor and GTFO.
2. Always, always have drugs :P
3. Implants- I have been doing a lot of shopping recently and need to use optimised implants, here I was in a Snake set but with gunnery implants so not very helpful.
4. I am still trying t force myself into only using hotkeys, under pressure I tend to revert back to using my mouse. I want to stop.

Fight 2

https://zkillboard.com/kill/52709834/

Tactic: So I started this fight at range which was not so good for me as I was unable to use my neuts and was instantly losing around 100 dps. Still I launched drones and decided to go for it. I am still earning which drones are right for which situation and annoyingly enough I can't remember which ones I used. However not long after sending my drones to attack I was jammed out. Bastard had brought ECM drones. I took this as an opportunity to test out my tank (yeah once again I didn't have drugs). I also foolishly did not even think if using my mircojump drive. Ah well, the Brutix died immediately afterwards by a small gang so I got on the killmail.

Learning points:
1. BRING DRUGS
2. Actually use mods to get away.
3. Links- the dirty word (to some), this fit tanks brilliantly with links and Exile, when deciding too fly it this was one of the points that I liked about it. I have a link pilot set up I need to use her.

Misc

I've been playing around in a dual web no scram Merlin, nothing very high tech, but some good fun. I've got a kitey Tristan fitted out which i'm going to have a go with next.



Alliance Tournament

One of my goals for this year is to take part in the AT, I've always watched it and really appreciated all the skill and theorycrafting that goes into it.  I've started watching some of last years AT footage and looking at the different compositions that are commonly used with the aim of improving my knowledge about what is needed from a composition.


PLANS

1. More fleets, hopefully now that I'm settling into my new job I will have more time for these.
2. Move my drugs to where I'#m staging now. I have a few that I've bought but I need more.
3. Use my link alt
4. Continue with theorycrafting, both for solo fits as well as fleet and AT.
5. Hotkeys- Use them and possibly reset them up.
6. Don't be a dumbarse, in the fight with the Brutix I should have got out. Admittedly I haven't been playing much and need to get back into EVE but mistakes like that are just frustrating.
7. Learn more abut which drones for which situation, both by flying and be reading abuot them.
8. Start recording fights
9. Possibly set up a new missile based clone or crystals?

#1

A little over a week ago I decided to return to EVE. Why? Quite simply I missed it. I only stopped playing due to a combination of lack of time and poor internet connection. One of those is fixed and the other is on the way to being so.

Prior to taking a hiatus I had been toying with the idea of both flying larger ships and doing more small gang stuff. As well as changing corporations, I love SKRMR but I've spent most of my EVE career flying in loosely organised corps and I felt that to maintain my interest and motivation to play I needed something new. So here I am in The Tuskers. I've also decided to take notes on what I'm doing, any good piloting or mistakes that I make as well as goals that I have. I always reflect on fights and writing it up helps me understand further any improvements I need to make.

So here are notes on Day 1:

Fight the first:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/51975644/

Not very exciting. After playing around with the new camera and then turning it off I found this guy at a plex, two shots and he was dead. Still it was comforting to get a kill.

Learning points: I need to relearn and sort out my hotkeys, I have a Razer Widow keyboard and in retrospect it wasn't the greatest choice as it is really big and I have small hands so I struggle to use hotkeys. Using hotkeys definitely is faster than using the mouse so it is something that I need to persist with (or buy another keyboard)

Fleet time:

I was a little nervous before going on this fleet as it was my first proper fleet for over a year. And as I realise in retrospect the largest well organised fleet that I had ever probably been on, my previous experience of fleets mostly consisted of flying a maulus on BRAVE fleets with an alt prior to their implosion, the rag tag fleets run by Peri in R1FTA and a few better organised ones run by Patrick.
Anyway on Friday I swallowed my anxiety and we headed off and found....very little. Still it was a good learning experience for me. I had a couple of fuck ups but on the whole enjoyed myself.

Learning points: At some point early in the fleet a new destination was set, I and a couple of other fleet members had our autopilot set to prefer lower sec status as oppose to prefer shortest route, I realised this quickly as 90% of the fleet left system whilst I was in warp to a gate and changed my settings. I'm happy that I picked up on this quickly.
During fights I occasionally got separated from the rest of the fleet, this is totally my screw up, I am used to either flying support (and being left to my own devices) or just in fleets where people either anchor on FC or do their own thing. Much as I am frustrated with my small screw up I have learned from it and will improve for next time. Use of the tactical overlay really helped me as the evening progressed.
Finally I just need to play more, the more I play the better I am at relaying instruction whilst ensuring the I have enough cap, using the right ammo etc,etc. This was my first evening playing EVE since September, and much as I could have flown better in the fleet I will take onboard my screw ups and hopefully not make them again :)

Post fleet fun:

After dying to high sec irritants I, much to my surprise, awoke in Skarkon. Apparently I had never changed my home station. I first of all changed my home station to Das and then took out one of the inteceptors that I had left there.
Side note: all these interceptors were named some variant of Cake in honour of the great Crake Gaterau and paid for by his legacy after his first visit to Doomheim.
I plotted a short route through null, going through systems wher there had been one or two kills in the last hour. I started to chase an atron which led me into this instalocking keres plus gatecamp.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/51983012/

Learning points: Whilst checking for number of kills via the ingame map is great for finding a direction to fly, checking the killboards for kills is also important and would have told me that there was a camp worth avoiding in that system.

I ended my evening flying around my old 10-15 regular path in a rail Merlin. I found very little to fight. A random guy in a arty Thrasher wanted to fight me and called me a loser for not doing so but I couldn't see any viable chance of winning the fight. My fit did lowish dps and had minimal tank, my aim was to kite out from damage and that won't work against arties. I took a fight against an executioner and was whittling down his tank but he managed to leave the fight in half hull. At this point tired I docked for the night.

Learning points: I should have carried different times of ammo, with Javelin I might have managed to get under the guns of the Thrasher and a merlin is a cheap enough ship to risk throwing away. Range control, I was a little over cautious in the fight against the executioner, hence him being able to warp away, I should have had full range dictation with two webs and I should've held him. Fatigue and a few beers at this point didn't help either.

PLANS:

1.Buy more ships and set up my base in Das, I want to bring some drone boats as I've never really flown them before and possibly focus on rocket/missile ships as well.
2. Learn about the new ships-command dessies and faction ewar frigs.
3. Go on and take out fleets. I do not think that I would be comfortable leading a large fleet, but a 3-4 gang is a good start.
4. Kill all the things. I fight at my best when I fly often. My time is still somewhat limited by commuting but I aim to be in game as much as possible.
5. Reflect and write up on interesting things that happen.

Anyone who has read through my wall of text is welcome to comment with further suggestions.


Thanks for reading,

Ari

Warp Stabs Will Not Save You...

IF YOU ARE AFK.


http://zkillboard.com/detail/33362793/

http://zkillboard.com/detail/33362085/

http://zkillboard.com/detail/33360895/

 (All above are the same guy at different times)

http://zkillboard.com/detail/33233897/

http://zkillboard.com/detail/33236327/


This was a public service announcement brought to you by Arianne Stone. Do not expect any further announcements unless she gets really bored again.

And.....FIGHT!

 I've read quite a view blogs discussing risk averse pilots and what this means for EVE. I speak only from my perspective and what I enjoy in EVE.

I have spent most of my time in low sec, and in what would be described as a pirate corp. I however would probably not describe myself as a pirate, I consider myself a lowsec pvper. I have killed non combat fitted ships, I spent a large part of last summer irritating gunless plexers. But for me the thrill of EVE pvp lies in chasing a target who wants me dead just as much as I want him so. I fly in frigs, mostly because I enjoy the fact that they are highly disposable, and most people are willing to engage them.

With the increased benefits of FW there are, or so it feels, more people in low sec. The new plex system means that they are usually within 10k of the beacon, thus encouraging pvp. There are still a lot of pilots who will warp and not fight, often fitting warp stabs and running at the first sign of danger. I find this disappointing;  fighting in low sec often appears at the FW plexes now, and it is possible to go on a roam through 20-30 systems and have every person that you find run away from you. The most successful roam that I had recently was when I was in a frigate and engaged destroyers, there are many people are out who will only fight if they feel that they seriously out gun their opponent.

I split people being risk averse into two categories:
1. Bears- these people are risk averse because their prime motivator at the time is making isk, they are not interested in fighting, you trying to kill them is just interrupting them making their isk. I don't care if you run from me, if I kill you then I'm pleased because I got an explosion and possibly a reasonable fight, or a shiny killmail; but if you get away that's fine, you've succeeded in not losing any isk, I've only missed out on what would probably be a dull fight.
2. Got to win pvpers- Everyone who has fights wants to win, any fight I engage in I hope to have at least a 30% chance that i'll win. Pilots who always have to out gun someone in the fight, whether through ship type, number of people or links. Winning means different things to different people, for me knowing that my personal skill is what won me the fight is more important then anything else. Will this style of play ruin EVE? No, it just makes it harder for the predominantly solo pilots like myself to get to do what we enjoy the most.

 Can anything be done to encourage people to fly solo more? I don't know, the FW plex limitations are great for restricting the size of ships that are fighting at any one time but do not prevent multiple players from engaging you at once. The limited engagement mechanic is an interesting one and is designed to make 1v1's easier, I got challenged to a duel the other day which I lost, massive derp on my part, my guns were pre overheated and ready to lock when I landed, along with my scram and web and they just never started to fire, it then took me far too long to realise this and I never stood a chance. The issue in low sec with this mechanic is the lack of Concord, anyone can join in on the fight and all they lose is sec status. So far so gloomy, I really don't know how to get people to appreciate my play style and enjoy the thrill of finishing a fight with 10% structure knowing that you gave your all and were successful and out played someone.

 For me the best fights are like a game of chess, you start with the same number of pieces, it's how you use them that counts.

A Slow Month

Real life has unfortunately prevented me from being in game very much this month so I don't have a lot of fights to write about. However I do have a shiny new set up and hope to be putting it to good use as soon as things die down at work.

I've taken out a TD firetail a few times this month to great success. http://r1der.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16234896 being a good example, with an optimal range script and the thrasher scrammed I'm able to whittle away at their shields with little threat to my ship. I had a fun afternoon flying a rifter, I managed to get in two fights with other rifters, which I won before being outgunned by a small gang of goons. The first goon ship to land was a dual rep incursus which was unable to hit me at 8,000k but my dps was too low to break the reps, I would like to try the rifter against an Incursus again to see if I would be able to run it's cap low enough to break it's tank. 

Last Friday I went on one of Judge Sarn's famous drunk roams, from what I remember it was good fun and we got in some great kills against some raging noobs, see   http://thethunderhorsechronicles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/judge-sarn-lead-black-sheep-on-another.html for details.

The largest part of my Eve time this month has been spent on forums and listening to podcasts. I first heard of http://crossingzebras.com/ through twitter, podcasts have never really interested me, I commute to work and tend to listen to music and read on my commute, however I thought that I would give Zebras a chance as Xander was doing interviews with all the CSM8 candidates who were interested and I'm always curious as to how the candidates will sell themselves. So far, with the exception of Night Beagle all the candidates have done well imho, evcn Xenuria exceeded my expectation of him. Some of them have a stronger platform then others, personally I dislike the "I stand for everyone" platform, it's not possible, in the end you will weigh up the options and decide what is best for the game based on your own personal experiences and biases, not the random guy who evemailed you a diatribe on why suicide ganking should be nerfed. Marc Scaurus is the candidate who I'm likely to be backing as he is the only guy to be standing on a low sec platform and is interested in making low sec as a whole more appealing to players, not just focusing on FW. He interviewed reasonably well, although I didn't get a strong idea of what he thought should be done to improve low sec only that he felt that it should be improved.

When I was a new player I spent about 3-4 months in the uni, I didn't really enjoy it, the corporation was too large for me and I found it overwhelming. I also quickly realised that large fleet fights weren't going to be my thing, and at the time that was the standard Eve Uni fighting style, so I left and became a pirate. However I have always been quite fond of the uni, despite it's flaws, the arrogance and pomposity of some of the members, it does a good job keeping new players in the game and teaching them the basics of Eve. I do spend some time of the Eve Uni forums and offer comments on subjects that I find interesting and think that my perspective might be of use, thus I read Kelduum's post on the 317b being taken away from the Uni. I came away disappointed, it appears beyond doubt now that John was botting, and thus the isk being taken away is the right thing to do afaik, no corporation or individual should be able to profit from botting. And no third party should be able to find out any information about what I've done on my account via CCP, it is private even if they stand to profit from my actions. Greed is a terrible thing and can impair even the most rational person's judgement.

On that note I'm off to play Blink and become space rich from gambling :)

Tusker's FFA

Apologies for the extreme lateness of this posting, I've been having issues with my computer and editing the video into a vaguely presentable state took far longer then expected. I also have lost the post that I originally wrote straight after the event so am just writing off the cuff.

At the beginning of January The Tuskers held a frigate free for all and I manage to spend the whole 6 hours flying in it. I had an absolute blast, I spent most of my time at the top belt just engaging the ship that was closest to me, all technique went out the window. I'm proud to say that I was one of the top losers for the event, I curse the fact that I left system to pick up one of my ships and thus missed out on an hour or so of shooting ships. 

I'd like to thank The Tuskers for putting together such a fun, well organised event, also for giving me lots of ships to explode :D

The video below shows some of my highlights from the event, apologies again for the poor editing of it, I'm still learning, hopefully next time it will be better.

EVE is real

......I even have to make shopping lists.

I do have a couple of posts planned computer issues have prevented me from uploading a video that I made of The Tuskers FFA but soon.