It Had to End Sometime...

I have been very luck with my expensive ships.  When I’ve flown carriers or dreads, I’ve done so safely and without incident. 

I use solid practices to move them around.  When I light cynos, I do it off of only stations with plenty of clearance in docking range.  I give plenty of distance between my 5 km sphere and all elements of the station, and have never bumped when I lit a cyno myself.  Before I hit the cyno, I do a quick dscan to make sure no one is inbound, so I know I won’t wind up in some random part of the system.

On very rare occasions, I’ll light a cyno in a system that has no station.  When I do, I watch the traffic for a while before I jump, and if it looks to get a fair bit of through traffic, I’ll use the self destruct cyno (setting your ship to self-destruct and lighting the cyno only during the last 10-15 seconds of the cycle, so the cyno is on grid for the barest amount of time), then immediately warp off to a safe and cloak up.

And, generally, that works really well.  So well, in fact, that I’ve never lost a carrier.  I’ve never lost a dread either, but I don’t fly them frequently enough for that to be a habit, as much as a lucky string of events.

So, I’d say I’m a very safe capital pilot.  Or, at least, I was.  My run ended yesterday.  All tolled, the butcher’s bill was about 4.5 billion isk.

And it all happened because of module positioning.

Burn Jita

So, Burn Jita is over, and I’m a little disappointed.  Sure, I was able to kill about 30 billion in ships, and sure, total kills were above 600 billion.  On those accounts, it was a good weekend all around.

But I only managed to lose 3.1 security status.  I’m disappointed in myself.  I had hoped to bring my ratting alt down to negative security status, but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

For those of you who haven’t participated in a Burn Jita in the past, here’s generally how the fleets go.  The CFC had two fleets running around the clock, with various FCs rolling responsibility in two or three hour shifts, usually.  It’s similar to what happens during hellcamps.

The Raven Navy Issue Thing...

So, recently, TMC covered an interesting ALOD of a RavenNavy Issue.  I was actually laughing as I realized where the story was going while I read.

Suffice to say, the player was a WoW player who bought PLEX to pay for a very, very expensive ship (to the tune of 44 bil).  Naturally, this ship was ganked, and the pilot raged in local.  He threatened to find the players in real life and make them suffer.  At this point, a Goonswarm member contacted him, convinced him that he represented a group who defended and reimbursed ratters, got him to trade his second pimped out Raven Navy Issue (also purchased with PLEX) and paid him 500 mil for the service of moving his ship safely to a nice ratting system.  Suffice to say, it didn’t end well for him.  He ended up losing billions in isk.

Now, this player did a face-plant into the difference between Eve and WoW… namely that Eve is laissez-faire, while WoW is a playground with very observant babysitters.

The End of the Small Scale Fight?

This one is going to be odd.  I don’t know where I’m going with it as I write it, so we’ll see how this turns out.  I’m of two minds regarding whether small-gang warfare is truly coming to an end, or whether it’s simply in desperate need of innovation.

Over at Jester’s Trek, Ripard Teg talks about how it’s becoming increasingly harder to find small-gang fights.  In a nutshell, the average size of a roaming gang is increasing rapidly because:

1. Effective logistics ships are easier to fly,
2. The number of skill points of an average pilot is increasing, meaning they can fly better ships and more easily fly with boosters
3. Warp speed changes make slowing down and tackling roaming gangs easier, meaning nano and kiting gangs are nearly impossibly to fly these days (a familiar tactic of hunters).
4. Pilots are generally very risk-adverse, and simply won’t engage unless odds are overwhelmingly in their favor.

This has, he states (and re-states from his alliance mate), caused a general up-tick in the size of “small gang”.  The risk-adverse nature of Eve players naturally means fleets responding to invaders are increasing in size – no one wants to reward roamers with a whole fleet of kills, which only encourages more roamers.  But hunter gangs themselves will increase in size: defenders are bringing more logi, which means the hunters need more dps to break that logi.  As players become more experienced, they learn to anticipate everything, which tends to make them more risk adverse (“I’m not undocking without five logi”).  So fifteen is increasingly becoming fifty.

We Don’t Want You Here

I haven’t posted much in the past couple days because of a really big RL opportunity I’m handling.  I’m not ready to say what it is yet, but if things go the way they’re heading, I’ll be losing my EU TZ play time, and that’s a very good thing.

But in the interim, let me talk a little about Eve’s long-term future.  There’s a great article that just posted to TMC by Tubrug1 talking about this very problem.  He tends to focus on mechanic changes, but I’m going to go off on a slightly different tangent.  His is worth a definite read, though.  It’s truly insightful.

In order to survive long-term, Eve must maintain a certain number of players to keep its bills paid.  I don’t much care whether these players pay with PLEX or subscription fees, though others do, because both mean revenue for CCP.  And ultimately, revenue is all that matters to CCP.  Every decision is tempered by whether it will generate additional revenue or not.

Bubble Wrap

So, let’s pretend a pilot travels to Jita and decides to buy a medium Domination tower.  Let’s further assume that this pilot spent the last, oh… three years in null-sec, very rarely traveling through high-sec.  When he did, let’s assume he always traveled in PvP ships, and carrier-jumped the majority of the way through empire space.

So, this enterprising – and entirely fictional pilot – decided he wanted to move a tower and a few of the nicer POS modules to the HS static for his wormhole.  Of course, to do it all, he had to use a fully expanded Iteron Mark V…

You see where this is going, don’t you?

What is Elite PvP?

“Oh, God, is this sov bloc scrub really gonna talk about elite PvP?”

Yes, yes he is.  Sharpen your spears, boys.

Elite PvP… you always think you’re elite, but everyone else can think of several reasons why you aren’t.  Ever since the tragedy in Doril during the live event, people have re-opened the discussion about elite PvP.  I’ve seen a couple reddit posts about this, too.  Is it possible to come to a consensus about what elite PvP is?  Probably not.  But I play Eve, so I’ve already shown a willingness for self-abuse.

First, realize this: I’m not talking about FCing.  I’m talking about individual tactical piloting skills of the average player, not the meta strategies of fleet commanders.  You can have an elite fleet commander leading a bunch of scrubs, and you can have a fleet of wonderful elite PvPers without any FC at all.  The two are not casually related.

I’m not an elite PvPer, but I strive to be.  I need to improve a whole lot and gain more experience in a wider variety of situations.  But what exactly am I striving for?

Razor Alliance Welcomes You to Null-sec!

Step 1: Announce a battle.

Step 2: Have a battle on the way to the battle.  (all of those losses were suffered against PL when we warped to attack their navy apoc fleet).

Step 3: Rage in the forums.

To set the record straight, I know of no devs who are in Razor, and we didn’t receive advance notice.  Razor has been deployed in Doril for about two months now, and it was pure coincidence that CCP’s event ran right through our warzone.

But, Razor was the first null-sec alliance on the field, camping the Sendaya gate in Zealots to take out anything that jumped through.  Goons came in with a sentry doctrine, probably to prove yet again that drone assist needs a nerf.  In fact, the only frustrating thing for us about the whole day was when the Goons were stealing our kills by assigning drones to a fast-locking target caller!

At first, it was a trickle.  Then the whole fleet came out.  By that point, PL, NC., Darkness, and many, many more null-sec alliances were on the field, and we were all popping anything shiney that came through the gate.  T3s, navy and pirate ships, T2 battlecruisers… it was an orgy of destruction.  And

Character & Cowardice

The way you conduct yourself in each situation builds a narrative about you.  This is called character, and equally applies to organizations, too.  In many cases, an individual character is much easier to redeem than that of a whole group.  Character, when publicly known, generates reputation.  But you control your character; you don’t control your reputation.  A deservedly bad reputation is a reflection of poor character.

A null-sec alliance should hold character in high regard.  Entities that respect their enemy, offer equal fights, honor diplomatic agreements – both in letter and in spirit – and have pilots who honor 1v1s, don’t scam, and abide by their word will face adversaries, not enemies.  Hatred, spite, and deceit do not contribute to a positive reputation.  Another player can respect your alliance even if they are opposing it, but only if you have good character.

I’m starting to think Insidious Empire has poor character.

Is that because I was killed afk-ratting up my sec status in Tenal while I put my daughter to bed?  No; I was afk, they killed me; that’s how the game is played.

Is it because Insidious Empire now controls Cobalt Edge, space Razor had previously controlled?  No.  We didn’t offer even one fleet to defend it.  Our plan was to use it for renters, but with the CFC rental program up and running, that plan went to the wayside well before any of us knew who EMP was.

No, the reasons I have no respect for Insidious Empire lie with how they operate, not what they do.

The first thing that made me question their character was Phreeze’s news postings on TheMittani.com about Razor’s activity.  Not only is it inappropriate for the leader of an alliance actively engaged in grinding structures from Razor to post updates about Razor, but he took the opportunity to spin the facts multiple times.

For example, I’d be okay if he said, “Insidious Empire conquered Cobalt Edge”.  Technically that’s true, but his boys faced no resistence.  But stating, “Insidious Empire conquered Cobalt Edge from Razor Alliance” without immediately following up with, “When contacted, Razor confirmed that it had no interest in Cobalt Edge and wished Insidious Empire well,” misrepresents the action entirely.  It implies that plucky pilots from EMP overcame noble defenders and deserve a triumph through the streets of Rome.  Even had another reporter written the story, it would be more forgivable.  As it is, he did a shady thing, for no real purpose; EMP has no hope of taking Tenal; Razor has no interest in taking Cobalt Edge.

But the other issue I have with EMP comes from the line members.  Beyond a general arrogance and fifteen-year-old demeanor in local (perhaps I’m just sensitive to this, since Razor has a no-local-talk policy that really makes sense), I’ve seen no evidence that EMP has any interest in engaging at equal numbers – or even when they slightly outnumber their enemy.

Where is this coming from?  Last night, I and six other goats were hunting a small EMP gang that decided to camp A1RR.  They had a Falcon, Vexor, Thorax, a couple tacklers, and a couple more DPS ships.  Yes, remember that: a Falcon.

We had a Vagabond (me), prober (my alt), Rapier, Harbinger Navy Issue, a Vulture, and a Sabre, and another DPS ship.  We were light on tackle other than our Rapier, but we did have a Vulture and a Sabre.

I believe we were dead even on numbers (if you include my prober, which was in a scary Buzzard), but that Falcon would completely eliminate one or two people from the field.  Had we been in EMP’s gang, we would have burned off from the gate, or warped to a nearby planet, set up, and engaged.

Their reaction?  They fled for the hills.  We tried to chase them – becoming strung out in the process – and they still fled.  That got me thinking about previous engagements with EMP.

I don’t believe any EMP pilot has ever agreed to a 1v1 with me.  I don’t believe any EMP fleet has ever engaged at equal numbers, regardless of composition (and, let’s be honest, the fleet we had yesterday was a kitchen sink response fleet; hardly very organized).

One might argue, “Yes, but they didn’t know what you had in nearby systems”.

If by “didn’t know” what was in the nearby systems, you mean they didn’t take the time to check local as they fled across the breadth of Tenal, then yes, you’re right. ::sarcasm::  They also have static campers throughout our major systems.  They did know what we had.

“But, do you expect them to engage when they aren’t assured of victory?”  Yes; we did.  It’s called a game.  If you only engage when the outcome is certain, what’s the point of playing?

We’re not talking about sov warfare here; nothing was at stake except a couple hundred million isk each – a paltry sum – but as they say, “blood will tell”.  When roaming pilots are risk-adverse, it says something about the character of the alliance.

They came come up with all the agit-prop they want; no one in Razor is going to fear them unless they demonstrate the warrior’s way, and ganking ratters isn’t it.  By all means, continue ganking ratters, just be honest about what you’re doing; padding your killboard, not improving your skill.

Not hating, just saying…

War and Peace

Life in sovereign null-sec consists of alternating periods of peace and war.  If you’re reading this site, I assume your interest isn’t as much in the fertile fields of ratting space, but rather in the vacuous, crystallized air vapor-dotted swaths of battlefields.  You most likely live for the wars.

But hold that thought for a moment.

Null-sec alliances cycle between deployments and down-time.  During a deployment, they’ll stage out of some distant system, where all PvP characters are expected to base themselves for the duration of the campaign.  Alliance contracts, logistics, and jump freighter services are all moved to that staging system.  All PvP fleets stage out of that system.  The deployment may be as insignificant as a search for “gudfights”, or as important as an all-out bloc sov war lasting for months (albeit unlikely; one of those hasn’t happened in years).

People tend to think the “exciting” times are the deployments themselves.  They see the large fleets and fleet battles as the height of PvP in Eve.

Interdictions ≠ Ice

Goonswarm announced another ice interdiction.  To be honest, I don’t much care what their goals are.  As a loyal CFC member, I relish the opportunity to kill folks in high-sec.  My security status isn’t quite low enough yet, and I make plenty of isk to afford to buy it back.

This will be my fourth interdiction.  “But Tal, we’ve only had one ice interdiction before.”  Did I say ice?

In my mind, we’re not interdicting ice, but rather laziness.  Hulkageddon, Burn Jita 1 & 2, the ice interdictions… to me, they’re all the same.  We’re a force of Darwin come to show you how to become better players.  In the end, it’s not the high-sec player we prey upon.  It’s the stupid high-sec player.

Mining ice without protection during an ice interdiction?  Yeah, that’s stupid.

Flying a 9-bil mission Tengu in any situation?  Stupid.

Auto-piloting a jump freighter through high-sec?  Stupid.

Because, in Razor, we don’t’ limit ourselves to the identified targets; we’re looking to run an isk-positive ganking operation.  Ganking isn’t a play style we’re used to (for example, I was on 5 fleets during which we had to explain the new aggression mechanics to our members… we simply don’t hang out in CONCORD space).  It’s fun because it’s different for us.

Our strat ops are the place for objective-oriented PvP.  For interdictions, we’re out for fat, juicy kills.  And tears.

How can you survive?  Don’t fly officer-fit Tengus.  You don’t need them for missions.  Ever.  Don’t be predictable.  Don’t assume that innocuous-looking ship is alone.  Don’t warp directly to your target.  Keep dscan open.  Simple.  Well, it’s simple if you’re used to it.

But wisdom is coming.  Embrace the knowledge we provide.