There Is a Reason After All

My corp owns a C6 wormhole, though we’re part of a null-sec alliance. We do that sort of thing; while we all PvP, we each dabble in other areas of the game. Some of us like to do industry, some rat, some do PI, some market trade, and some of us run wormhole sites to earn isk. It makes for a well-balanced group.

We recently dropped an astrahus in our wormhole, so I was eager to get some ships in there. I occasionally scan down WH chains to find targets to kill, and I figured that basing that clone out of the wormhole with my hunting ships made more sense than waiting for a good connection in our null system. Go where the fish are, right?

I had my first ship – a Proteus that could scan down future connections to k-space for stocking a few more vessels – and three separate times, I headed to our connection only to find that the static hole had closed before I could arrive. Finally, on the fourth day, I managed to each the hole. I was ready to clone jump back to known space, happy to have successfully inserted a clone in my destination.

Lessons: Always Honor Ransoms

Let’s face it; you don’t decide to “shoot all the things” and engage in generally satisfying PvP because you want to get rich. Generally speaking, the kinds of PvP that earn you lots of isk are massively disconnected from genuine piracy. If you want to get rich, camp the trade routes and engage in war decs, gank freighters or mission boats, or camp low-sec entrances.

These activities, I’d generally refer to as true piracy – there’s a natural money-making element of them. Why did pirates attack merchantmen instead of galleons? Because that’s where the low-risk profit was.

On this blog, I talk about improving your PvP skills. That usually means learning to fly better, it often means learning to cope with “the blob” and being prepare to manage multiple targets, and it sometimes means preparing not for an easy gank, but the more difficult act of getting away with the loot and dodging the response fleet that hits you afterwards. All of them are skills that you need to cultivate, else you end up whining about blobs, cheap tactics, and start getting bitter.

But, every so often, you have the opportunity to conduct a good, old-fashioned ransom.

Siggy is Much Better than Siri

My new alliance, Psychotic Tendencies, uses Siggy.  I love Siggy, even though my past use of it was limited to three weeks between CEI and RP when I was part of Sky Fighters.  As a tool to gather information and save time, it’s invaluable.

Siggy is a cosmic signature mapping tool that serves as a central repository for sig scan information among a corporation or alliance.  Curious what cosmic signature XYZ in system A is?  Click on that system in Siggy and see if anyone in your corp had previously scanned it down.  When mapping wormhole chains, it works like old-style D&D graph paper, allowing you to map your routes effectively and easily.

More often than not, one of the first things I do when I log in is to check for wormholes in our home system.  I’m looking for anything that shortens the way to Jita, or serves as a conduit to feeding grounds.  Typically, I’m looking for low or null exits.

You can imagine how delighted I was when I woke up and checked Siggy to find this:

That’s a tremendous amount of work, most of which was done by a single person in my corp.  He’s my new best friend.

Those of you who have been following action in null-sec recently will note one particular hole… a direct connection to a system in Cloud Ring, where the content lived (up until the Imp deployed there and smashed it with a mountain).  There’s still some fun to be had, though, including a brave lad ratting in a Vexor in an anomaly with numerous neuts passing through (I’m not going to link it out of respect for his brass cojones).

Without me logging in and seeing that robust chain mapped out in Siggy, I wouldn’t have gotten that kill.  If you travel through wormholes with more than just yourself, it, and the programs like it, are content-generators.

Have you folks played around with Siggy or any of the other mapping tools?  What’s your favorite?  Give me your best “content-creation” story!

Lessons: Take the Bait

There are many different kinds of bait in Eve.

A lot of times, you see a situation that’s almost too good to be true – for instance, a veteran low-sec pirate in a corp that almost certainly has its own logistics team traveling gate-by-gate in a Megathron.  Sure, you may think you can tackle and whittle down that Megathron, and things are looking good when you get him into half-shield and he still hasn’t called in help.  So, you inch a bit closer to ensure you’re under his guns, and he hits you with dual webs and a scram as local fills up.

This isn’t an article about that kind of bait.  It’s obvious he wanted to be caught, and you should feel bad for falling for it (well, okay, only a little bad, as you were willing to fight and some pilots really do pilot around solo in exposed ships).

But on the other hand, a pilot who’s trying to bait you represents a pilot who thinks he’s in charge of the situation.  And as you know from reading this blog, thinking you know something is usually the first step in a great fall.  Sometimes, walking into a trap with either a firm exit strategy or a means of turning the tables on your opponent is worth the risk.

The Problem with Metas

Fleet compositions are a great thing.  They allow a large group of players to quickly have ships accessible for a variety of purposes.  They allow the logistics team (or person!) to quickly buy, deliver, fit, and contract standardized ships for an alliance’s needs.  They allow players to quickly understand how to fly their ships based on clear direction and guidance.

These “metas” (as they’re often called) allow quick, meaningful participation regardless of the fleet type.  They’re the meat and potatoes of fleet PvP.  And that’s a very good thing.

Unless, of course, you hate the metas.  But let me back up.

What the Heck is Going On in WH Space?

Every year, one of our awesome Repercussus pilots put on the “12 Ganks of Christmas”, a holiday event that actively encourages RP pilots to go into WH space, find targets, and arrange for their abrupt return to kspace.  A successful catch nets the prober an isk bounty, and the acclaim of his corporation.

As you could expect, this gives a PvP corp like Repercussus some focus to our murdering ways.  We base out of Tamo, a low-sec system that affords excellent wormhole connection opportunities.  Plus, our pilots have been very eager to explore those WH connections this year.  When I’ve personally logged in, I find that most of the connections are already scouted.  So, we’re definitely exploring our chains very well.

And yet, we’re struggling to fill those twelve ganks (instances, not ships).  It’s definitely not from a lack of effort, but rather a dearth of WH residency, at least among those we’ve found.  And it’s not a matter of the enemy seeing us and safing up.  Rather, we aren’t finding any ships or wrecks on dscan.  If space had tumbleweeds, we’d have quite the collection.  We even joked about starting a WH corp so we could farm it for kills every so often.

So, my question to the community is… is this normal now for WH space?  I remember WHs being filled with pilots, but is this no longer the case?  Or did we just get very unlucky?

Ripples In a Pond

Ed Note: So, it seems that a lot of what I predicted ended up being true.  I wrote this post earlier today, before CCP’s adjustments to their proposed changes, which reduced some of the resists.  Rather than redo the whole post, I’ve decided to just post it in full.

Let me begin this post by stating that I generally don’t read the forum discussions about rebalances before posting my comments here.  I try to form my opinions first based on my own play style and how proposed changes affect it, then move into thinking about others and what it all means for them.

This comes from my native subjectivity – I don’t believe there is an objective truth for meaning.  So, why waste your time trying to come up with the “single best solution” in a detached, objective way?  Every solution , even “successful”, every “right” needs to be tied to an objective, a perspective, or an agenda.  When some says to you, “This is right!” you should ask yourself, “For whom?”  If you hear, “This is correct!”, ask “In what circumstances?”

So, I’m going to write about what matters most to me… whether the recon changes will make my gameplay more fun.

I Didn't See That Coming

This will be a short one, but I wanted to share two events I didn’t see coming.

The first… the Rhea patch introduced Eve players to Thera, a system that CCP wanted to be the “Mos Eisley of Eve”, which would attract all sorts of seedy sorts to conduct illegal business and serve as a type of central hub for the wormhole community.

This system is a WH system.  Suffice to say, I was shocked – Shocked! – to discover that the first thing Eve players did was turn it into a giant killing field with 40 billion isk in destruction within the first 24 hours.

I was floored.  I was surprised beyond measure that such fine, upstanding citizens of the galaxy would resort to base devastation at the drop of the hat.  I mean, it’s not like null-sec is like th… err… I mean it’s not like WH space is… well… but low-sec doesn’t see…

Let's All Prognosticate!

First off... shame on you, potty mind!  I said "prognosticate".

In the last of my, “What does it all mean?” posts about the Phoebe jump changes and the effects it will have on null-sec, I’m going to indulge in a bit of fortune telling.  I’m going to peer through the veil of time and bring you, dear readers, golden morsels of delightful insight from the future.

Err... 

That pretty much means I’m gonna make wild guesses about how things are going to be in the final state of the world.  This is wildly convenient for me, since it’s easy to make rock-solid predictions about Change Set #1 in the long-term when Change Sets #2 & #3 will be influencing the game well before these long-term states exist.  So, basically, I have nothing to lose and can’t be proven wrong by talking about a future that won't exist.  Wee!

Yeah, pretty much this is all for fun, so take it with a whole damn salt lick, not just a grain.

Hyperion Wormhole Changes

As promised, I wanted to give a few thoughts about the new wormhole changes being launched in the Hyperion patch.

But first… CCP: can you please stop reusing the same names?  It’s really hard to have T3s and Tier 3s, Hyperion and Kronos the ships and Hyperion and Kronos the expansions… let’s be unique, shall we?

Anyways… There are a few changes which I think can safely pass without too much comment.  The adjustments to WH effects, for instance, will be quickly adapated to by the WH community – the only disruption we should see is a few lossmails from people who haven’t yet figured out exactly how much of an effect these changes will have.

Gevlon Pushes the Wormhole Safety Button

Gevlon Goblin put out another article today, this time talking about how the changes to WH space will be a positive thing for the gameworld.

*sigh*

Let’s get the “Damnit, Gevlon…” stuff out of the way.  Good writers who talk about Eve are up front and honest about their biases, and they call them out directly when they propose a change that benefits their perspective.  Personally, I’ve been pretty clear that I believe small gang PvP is the pinnacle of the Eve experience, since it blends both the social aspect and the thrill of having your actions influence the result.  When I propose changes that benefit this playstyle, I actively call it out, and I try not to propose changes that advance small gang at the expense of other play styles.  And I’ve certainly written about the virtues of the other playstyles, too.  Hell, the purpose of this blog is to make PvP more transparent to players making their first forays into PvP.

Gevlon makes no such effort to state his biases.  He’s a WoW player who uses charts and graphs to try to plot the optimal way to “win” a game.  He obviously applied this methodology to WoW, and he tries the same with Eve.  That, in itself, demonstrates that he just doesn’t get Eve.

He writes, “Because C4+ WH space is as far from the original design as it could be. It was meant to be a great unknown, where unexpected things happen, due to the random connections. This randomness was destroyed by the “ragerolling” process.”

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.

Separation Anxiety

With my new job comes a move away from my home of more than three decades, separation of my kids from their beloved grandparents, and a lot of anxiety about having no support structure whatsoever near me.  I’m one of those people who works very hard to keep my home secure, safe, and unchanging.  It unnerves me greatly when I need to change it up in any way.  Suffice to say, I’m going to have a lot on my plate for the next few months, both with making sure the kids are adjusting and making sure I’m adjusting myself.

As such, I've come to the difficult decision that I need to leave my new corp.  I simply won't have the time to dedicate to POS fueling, scanning down holes, and finding fights.  And, without doing those things, ultimately I’d be in it just for the kills, and that’s hardly fair to my wormhole corpmates.

Even before I left Razor, I spent a lot of time with the guys in Repercussus, a Razor corp who does a little bit of everything – null-sec, low-sec pirating, wormhole merc contracts.  I’ve admired their comms culture as well – instead of sitting doing their own thing, they’re always on comms, chatting.  That’s important to me, it turns out.  It’s one of the things I admired about Sky Fighters.  So, mixing the familiar with the variety with the  time I’ll be able to dedicate to Eve moving forward, they seem like the perfect new home.  Back to Razor.  As I said, they’re my null-sec home, and always will be.

But let me say that Sky fighters really is an amazing bunch of folks.  This was not an easy decision, by any stretch.  They’re professional, welcoming, helpful, and tolerant of my WH ignorance.  They form up within 5 minutes for a fight, and nearly 100% of online pilots join PvP fleets, which is a truly remarkable feat.  They all pitch in and help with scanning and escort fleets for haulers, etc.  In fact, that’s the reason I’m leaving; I can’t commit to doing the little things necessary for wormhole life, and I refuse to be one of those people who only does the “fun” stuff and leaves everyone hanging for the real work.

The thing that surprised me with Sky Fighters was the competence and professionalism of the leadership.  They had both an eagerness to do the work and great skill at it… a rare combination.  I'm truly impressed by how well they operated.  They foster a great culture that you can sense with every daily activity.  If you ever need a wormhole mercenary corp, consider Sky Fighters.  You won’t regret it.

Finding a good corporation is more than simply plugging in a few facts and choosing from among the corp that best fulfills those sterile criteria.  Most times, it's more about the nuances, the abstracts, and the unquantifiable that really determine a good fit.  Just look at this situation... changes to RL make one option fit better than the other, even though both are excellent groups of people.  Even if you can think of all those subjective characteristics that augur long-term success with a corporation, the question still it's about which choice is "right".  Rather, it's about what choice is right, right now.

Vending Machines

This was an idea I came across (I honestly can’t tell you where) some time ago, that I thought was so good I had to pass it along.

If you live in wormholes, you live out of a POS.  All your ships are based in a ship maintenance array, all your loot, ammo, extra modules, and supplies are stored in a corporate hangar array.  You need to routinely bring in fuel to power it, to the tune of 250 million isk or so a month (for a medium).

You don’t have a repair service handy, so any heat damage on your modules must be repaired by fitting them to a ship and using nanite repair paste.  Hull and armor damage need to be repaired with active modules, either on your own ship or remote modules on a corp mate’s ship.

Lessons: First Impressions

You can’t make a first impression twice.  It’s an old adage, and one that’s absolutely true when it comes to Eve.

After a few days of trying to find the right WH, I finally managed to find a route.  In went my carrier, with all my goodies for WH life.  I had been listening to ops on comms for a few days, and while it definitely helped me gain a feel for how my new corp rolled, it also frustrated me that I couldn’t join in the mayhem.  Listening to them dunk fleet after fleet, while not being there, was frustrating.

But now, I’m here.  So I went on an inaugural roam with my two characters, looking for some trouble. 

Unto the Breach

I’m doing something now that I haven’t done for three years: starting over.

I always kept tight control over my assets, so I’m not one to leave things spread across the galaxy.  But last week, I had 36 ships in Tenal and Curse, combining PvE, small-gang, and large fleet purposes.

But I’ve got an inkling wormhole space requires a different set of ships all together.  So my duplicate fits have been sold.  My fleet-fits have all gone via Razor contracts.  My PvE ships (all measly 3 of them, for two characters) are put in mothballs along with my boot carrier.  And each of my small-gang fits have gotten a third degree grilling as to whether they’ll serve me well. 

Jaguar, Cynabal, Rapier… you’re safe.  Gnosis, Hurricane… we need to have a little chat.

Yes, my hangar summary post next year will no doubt look quite different.

The preparation for leaving my current corporation has taken about four days, between arranging cynos, collecting assets in central locations, and shuttling unnecessary ships to Jita to sell.  The last time I changed alliances, I brought all my ships with me.  But back then, I was leaving one null-sec alliance for a more PvP-focused null-sec alliance.  All my fits were PvP (poor excuses, as they turned out, but I didn’t know any better), and I felt comfortable bringing them along.  But now, very few of my ships have probe launchers fit to them.

And I’m finally ready… to wait.  Because, once you’ve collected your assets, you need to find a way into your new home.  It’s not as simple as waiting for a suitable wormhole to empire and making your way there.

If you’re bringing a carrier in, it’s a matter of waiting for an NPC null-sec or low-sec hole, judging how long of a chain of both cynos and wormholes you’re comfortable with, and moving everything into position.  After all, you can’t prepare your cyno alts beforehand, since you don’t know where they’ll need to guide you.

If you’re moving ships one-by-one, you probably want a WH near either a trade hub, or one very close to the system where you gathered your assets. That may prove even harder to find.

It’s frustrating to see so many operations and wormholes going up on the tracker, and being unable to participate.  But scouting a route from k-space system is all but impossible… the odds of finding a single WH system from a single k-space system are infinitesimal.  So I need to wait for my corp mates to find a good route, which I can then follow.

As it turns out, I’ve had plenty of time to make my wormhole purchases and think about how I can make my 1 million m³ of carrier space stretch as far as possible – covering all doctrines, a ratting ship, plenty of probing ships, and a few “fun” roaming ships, all within the mass limit.  I also need plenty of ammo, nanite repair paste, mobile depots, tractor units, and the myriad other things I’ll need to bring to a system with no market and spotty access to empire.  And let’s not forget spare hull, armor, and shield repair modules… no repair facilities in w-space.  It’s a lot of equipment to purchase, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something along the way.

So, for the moment, I’m checking siggy (wormhole tracking program that works well with the in-game browser) on my phone to jump on an available route the moment it opens up, and trying to stay patient.  Fortunately, the character who will be lighting my cynos is coming with me, so both of them can all go through together.  But it’s frustrating to see so much activity and have to sit on the sidelines.

Moving sucks, but based on the routes I’ve seen through w-space, it’ll all be worth it in the end.

If you contemplate making a move to w-space, try not to let yourself judge the experience by the first week’s activity.  Logistics are necessary, even if it’s not your cup of tea.  Give it a little time before you make a judgment.  Once the kills start flowing, it’ll all be worth it.

Change Is the Only Constant

On Saturday, I wrote about some big news coming down the pipeline.  Now that everything’s said and done, I can announce that I’ve decided to leave null-sec and join Sky Fighters, a WH corp.

Granted, it’s big news for me, but you, dear reader, probably don’t care much.  I’ll still be PvPing and writing about PvP, and if anything moving to WH space will allow me to more easily confront a variety of situations… the next WH could take me anywhere in the galaxy, and there could be a fight through every one.  Fraps is ready, and as is my willingness to write about both my successes and failures and the lessons that everyone can take from them.

But, with each post on Target Caller, I try to give something valuable for you to apply to your own Eve time.  With that in mind, I want to give the story behind the change.  Maybe it’ll resonate with you, or maybe it’ll provide some insight that will help with your recruitment and retention efforts.

So let me spin my tale.

Null-Sec 101: Surviving Bubbles

Null-sec 101 is a series of articles meant to teach new players about null-sec, with a focus on PvP and daily life.

The most basic – and often most ignored – aspect of survival in null-sec is being able to successfully navigate it.  Most people who spent their entire Eve lives in high-sec, or even low-sec, may think it’s simply a matter of traveling from gate to gate in a fast frigate, running from anything that they can’t handle.  But bubbles change the dynamic in null-sec.

There are two things you need to know about them.  First, if you’re inside one, you can’t warp until you escape its range.  If someone puts a bubble up around a gate as you jump in, you either need to burn back to the gate and jump through again, or burn out of the bubble before warping.

Second, if they are positioned close to and in line with your destination, they can drag you off-course when you exit warp.  What do I mean?  Let’s say you’re warping from Gate A to Gate B.  Evil Pirate has put a bubble 100km away from Gate B in the direction of Gate A.  If you warp to Gate B at 0 from Gate A, you’ll actually stop right inside the bubble – 100km away from the safety of the other side of the gate (called a stop bubble).  The same mechanic works if you position the bubble in line with Gate A, but on the other side of Gate B (drag bubble).

Expect your enemy to use bubbles.  Most fleets have at least one interdictor, and often many mobile bubbles in the cargo holds of otherwise innocent-looking DPS ships.  In many cases, they’ll even drop cargo containers near the front of the bubble to decloak any ships caught.  Covops cloaks won’t save you.

So, how do you avoid them?  How do you survive solo travel in null-sec?

First, you need to choose the right ship.  Any gate can have a gate camp with a bubbler on the other side.  In these cases, your ship has to be able to survive the 11km or so you’ll have to travel to burn back to the gate and jump through.  Most gate camp fleets have a couple dedicated tacklers.  At least one or two of them will point you on the bubbled side, and won’t be able to jump through with you when you reach the gate again.  You’ll likely be followed through by the remainder – usually one or two additional tacklers. If your ship is fit in such a way that you can kill this tackler, you can survive.

But the best way to survive bubbles is to avoid them altogether.  For that, you need to be smart.  When you travel, if you see any neutrals/reds in system, do not warp directly from gate to gate.  During your first trip through a system, you’ll have no choice but to warp to a celestial first – a planet, a moon, an asteroid belt, a cosmic signature, even the sun if you have no other choice (the sun is a common warp-to, so many PvPers will default to looking for a ship at the sun).  When you warp to these, don’t warp at 0 or 100 km… warp at some range in between.  When you’re in warp, make a safe bookmark in the middle of nowhere (open People and Places, click on “Add Bookmark”).

That brings me to the next point… bookmarks are your friend.  Any time I deploy anywhere in New Eden, the purpose of my first solo roam is to make scout points off all the gates I may be traveling through.  I never warp directly to a gate, I always warp to my bookmarks.  During my first trip, I’ll warp to every gate at 100, then burn off in a random direction – in line with no celestials – until I’m about 250-300 off the gate, and bookmark that scout spot.  That way, I can warp to it at 100km from any direction and still be at a distance to warp to the gate.  These scout points let me land on grid, but safely away from any gate camps or bubbles.

I cannot stress scout bookmarks enough.  Just yesterday, I was roaming through a null-sec wormhole to drone space in my armor-fit Stabber Fleet Issue (double web, point).  In system were 5 neuts.  Luckily, I had been there before, and had a scout point off my out-gate.  I warped to the bookmark and avoided four Daredevils.  I probably could have taken at least one or two with my 220mm ACs and double webs, but I didn’t know what else was on the other side of the gate (the hostiles lived in that space), so I avoided the engagement.  I wouldn’t have had the option if I’d have warped right to the gate.

Bouncing off celestials and using bookmarks can avoid most bubbles, but not all of them.  Some constellation and regional gates are far out of line with the rest of the solar system, and can’t be “warped around”.  In these cases, there’s one last option: burning capacitor.

This trick is easy.  When you engage your warp drive, your capacitor immediately drops by the amount needed to complete the warp – even if you have to accelerate before warping.  If you then cancel your warp before entering warp, that cap energy is still gone.  By warping and stopping multiple times, you can bleed out your capacitor until you no longer have enough to warp all the way to the distant gate.  On this last warp, let it kick you into warp, then hit stop (Ctrl + space).  Your warp won’t get you all the way there, but with some practice, you can get within dscan range (14 AU) so you can see what’s on the gate.

I have one overview tab I use exclusively for scanner probes and warp bubbles.  I normally scna for ships first, then switch to my bubble/probe overview and scan for those.  If it’s clear, I’ll finish my warp and jump through.  Many times, I’ve used this cap-burning trick to get within range to scan and detect a bubbled gate camp, and avoid it.

If you see a neutral in system, always assume he’s in a Sabre, or is sitting on a bubble in-line with both your gate and the nearest planet.  No neutral is safe.  If you get used to these tricks, you can successfully navigate past any bubbles without being the next fish caught in the net.

It seems cumbersome and slow at first, but remember: this is not high-sec.  CONCORD will not save you, and there are no gate guns.  You’re on your own here.  Fly like it.

Bombers, Caracals, and Talwars, Oh my!

While null sec gets most of the press on TheMittani.com and Eve News 24, CCP knows full well that most characters in New Eden spend their time exclusively in high-sec.  Now, many of these characters are market, trader, hauler, and mission alts of null-sec players, and these characters will likely never leave the protective womb of CONCORD.  Yet there are thousands of players who were turned off by the risk factor of null-sec.

Greedy Goblin makes a good distinction between two types of players, competitive and objective-oriented.  I refer to them as experience and achievement players, but the dichotomy is pretty much the same.  I’d hazard a guess that most high-sec mission-running players are achievement-focused.  Calling them carebears and leaving it at that is a great disservice both to them and to null-sec players.  After all, someone has to fill and empty the POS, run industry, etc.  If it’s not an achievement player, it’ll have to be an experience player, and the latter would much rather spend their time killing folks.

One of the CCP’s objectives with the Retribution expansion was to make PvP more accessible to the larger Eve populace, namely these achievement players.  And it worked like a charm, drawing a whole new set of players into PvP.  It’s easier to try something new when you only have to risk a lose a Stabber than a Vagabond.  Rebalancing the T1 ships made them viable again, and lowered the cost of entry across the board.

Then Odyssey came, and with it came moon goo roulette.  The CFC, Test, N3, and pretty much everyone else lost their minds as they did the region shuffle.  Wars were pandemic (see what I did there?), supercapitals were welped, fleets of AHACs and Rokhs were wiped out.  In Fountain, the CFC and Test Bros adjusted their fleet comps to counter their opponents…

…by choosing talwars, caracals, and bombers?

Wait… what?  Extremely wealthy alliances are fielding T1 cruisers and destroyers, along with stealth bombers?

I suspect this development is a problem for CCP.  A while back, they revealed some stats about player wallets, indicating that players were earning more isk, but were hoarding it rather than spending it.  I know I’m also building a cushion in case something catastrophic happens to my hangar.  What that *something* is eludes me, but I’m clearly not the only one doing it.  After Retribution, most of my hangar shifted from T2 to T1.  It simply doesn’t make sense to risk 3x the isk when I go solo roaming when I can get more fights – and ones I can win, at that – with the T1 variants.

Alliances, on the other hand, have been nerfed significantly by the Odyssey moon goo changes.  Ship replacement programs are in significant jeopardy now.  Two alliances have asked for donations from their members (donations!).  The CFC switched to caracal and bomber doctrines.  Test is fond of Talwars.  I’ve gone on several Tornado roams where Razor runs into T1 fleets.  Normally, we decimate them, but when we don’t it only takes a few Tornado losses to make the engagement isk-neutral or unfavorable.  I have to imagine this has made some alliances (those interested in isk-efficiency) risk-adverse to using their own shinies.  From the way doctrines have gotten less expensive, I’d have to guess that this has already started to happen.

Why does this matter?  Two reasons.  First, I wonder how long T1 frigates will interest null-sec players, and even low-sec players for that matter.  I doubt a group like Goonswarm will be discouraged (they’re famous for grinding structures for weeks and months on end), but is that true of everyone?  You can only spend so many days killing Caracals or Talwars before you start to burn out and yearn for the sexier kills.  My heart skips a beat when I kill a T3, an Armageddon, or a carrier because of the value of the kill.

And it’s definitely true that Eve matters because the losses are significant.  A 250 mil ship loss hurts a lot more than a 40 mil one does.  When I engage some hapless pilot with my Cynabal, my heart starts pumping and the adrenaline kicks in.  By the end of the fight, my hands are shaking – even if I’m only killing a hauler.  It’s not the fight itself, but the possibilities… it could be a Battle Badger with a cyno and I could lose my pretty little slug.  A gate camp could be waiting on the other side.  When I’m flying a Stabber?  Meh, I just don’t care that much.

Faction warfare is already a good refuge for players who want constant, cheap PvP.  And Retribution provided a huge shot in the arm for faction warfare.  It’s great, if it’s your sort of thing.  But the changes to moon goo in Odyssey have already undercut the high-risk PvP that draws a lot of people to null-sec.

And that brings me to my other concern.  CCP has a vested interest in providing the drug we’re all addicted to.  When an Asakai, Burn Jita, or a large wormhole fight happens and billions of isk is destroyed, some portion of that will end up being replenished with PLEX.  Granted, ship replacement and wormhole loot will replenish most of it, but not everyone is as patient as that, and some folks need isk immediately (especially after a Burn Jita when mission runners need to replace their expensive ships before they can earn more isk – that event wasn’t all about jump freighters!).  When the thousands of engagements happening every day turn from 250 mil Cynabals to 40 mil Stabbers, CCP loses.  Fewer players feel they need their ratting alts, so they unsubscribe.  Fewer players suffer huge losses, so they stop buying PLEX.  And – to some extent – fewer players get the same thrill from killing T1 throwaway ships and Bittervet Syndrome becomes more prevalent.

I want CCP to make money, particularly in ways that players can opt into and which don’t generate a pay-to-win situation, like PLEX.  The more money CCP makes, the more developers they can hire and the more advertising they can do to thwart player bleed.  I’m curious which has a larger effect on the total amount of isk lost in the game: the increase in the number of ships lost or the decrease in the individual value of those lost ships.  I’m sure CCP is watching PLEX sales and isk loss very carefully, and I suspect the T2 rebalances – and iterations of it - will reflect those discoveries.

One further side note: there’s a lot of talk about CCP doing away with moon goo as a passive income source.  I sincerely hope they don’t, because all it’ll do is eliminate most ship replacement programs and encourage null-sec alliances to further down-shift their doctrines.  I shudder to think of a null populated by slap-fights in ships that can literally be replaced by the hundreds.  A much better option would be to help better distribute those moons – both by smoothing out the distribution and introducing some advantage for living near the moons you own (which could mean reducing the cargo size of silos, perhaps?

I like an Eve that has low, mid, and high value PvP available to us pilots.

Show us on the doll where he shot you…

I had considered writing an “about me” post to inaugurate this new blog, but I certainly wouldn’t read such a post from someone else.  When I started reading Eve blogs, I was looking for tips to help improve my PvP, not learn about personalities.  I found Jester’s Trek, Poetic Discourse, and The Altruist, great blogs filled with tips I used to improve my flying.  Each expansion changes the rules and the “way” to fly, so we need a continuous stream of articles to help coach the younger players.  Those who have knowledge need to pass it on, particularly in Eve.  Hopefully, those of you who choose to comment will correct me where I’m wrong.  This blog’s goal is to serve as a resource to encourage and help new folks interested in PvP, null-sec, and low-sec combat.

But what does that mean, PvP?

The term gets thrown around quite a bit as the other half of the spectrum with PvE, but there are many types of PvP, and they each impart a very different skill-sets.  In ascending order of skill (in my opinion) are:

• Bloc Warfare: I’m confident that any high-sec mission runner has the skill to join a null-sec alliance and PvP during major wars.  Also known as “blobs”, these fleets consist of 70-80% DPS ships whose job consists of finding a target the FC calls primary, locking it, and pressing F1.  The more advanced among these folks know how to align and broadcast for reps when taking damage.  Whether you survive or die is more due to the strategies of the various commanders than anything you yourself do.
• Gate Camps: Sitting on a gate in a high-traffic area, these gangs, usually of between 10-20 people, attack anyone who jumps through the gate.  In null-sec, they usually have at least one interdictor-class ship, but all gate camps have several fast-tacklers (ships with warp scramblers and MWDs) and scouts in the nearby systems to identify targets and threats.  Gate camps are a good way to learn the capabilities of your ship – or various ships – and dip your toe in a diversified fleet.  Usually, comms discipline is casual enough that you can ask questions, and the chances of dying are very, very low if your fleet is properly scouted.  However, you’re not going to have balanced or riveting fights.
• High-Sec Warfare: Some corporations exist solely to declare war on alliances with thousands of members and trawl the corridors near trade hubs, looking for easy kills.  This form of PvP requires more skill than gate camps, since you may need to find your targets, but you still will have complete control over the circumstances, so you are very unlikely to lose your ship.  This PvP is akin to U-boats attacking an unarmed convoy.  You will get juicy kills, but won’t face any danger.
• Low-sec Gang Pirating: As low-sec PvP, you can be attacked at any time, and this carries inherent risk.  At any time, you could run into enemy gate camps or roamers and have to think on your feet.  Cyno fields can bring reinforcements at any time, too.  However, as predators, you will have space you frequently hunt and will know the normal patterns in the flow of traffic and enemies you’ll face.  You’ll still be in control of which engagements you take and which you avoid.  Individual pilots need to be much more aware and capable within their ships, but these groups usually bring overwhelming force, so occasional mistakes by one pilot don’t tend to cost them victory.
• Faction Warfare: I almost put this one sixth, after the next type of PvP.  Some faction warfare is done in groups, but a lot of it is solo.  However, because of the mechanics, getting “surprise” fights is somewhat difficult.  Skill lies in knowing the capabilities of your ship and the ships you consider engaging.  If you know which fights to take and which to pass up, you’ll do fine.  Enemy reinforcements will be slow to arrive in FW sites, which offer considerable protection.
• Corp/Alliance Doctrine Roams: Using fleet compositions that have been well-tested by your corporation/alliance, you and your mates travel through either null or low-sec and engage anyone you find.  FCs, scouts, tacklers (including bubblers) and logistics (reppers) require more skill than DPS pilots, but you do need to know the various engagement ranges and strategies to use versus a wide host of enemies.  You also need to be familiar with your role in the fleet and the protocol on fleet comms.
• Black Ops (Blops) Gangs: Using a Black Ops battleship and a number of recon scouts, these gangs sit on the bridging ship until the scout finds targets.  The scout lights a cyno (usually a covert cyno), and the rest of the gang bridges through the cyno to attack the targets.  The sneaky factor (enemies see only one recon in system when they decide to engage) is outweighed by limits on the types of ships that can travel through a black ops bridge (bombers, T3s with the Covert Reconfiguation subsystem, cloaky recons, black ops BSes).
• Sniper Gangs: Consisting of tier-three BCs – usually Torandos – fit with paper tanks to maximize damage and speed, these gangs warp in on a group of targets, unleash their alpha damage, then warp off before anyone can get close enough to tackle them.  Individual pilots need to listen very closely to FC commands, keep aligned to the right location, and follow primary targets.  While the individual pilot actions aren’t difficult, they do require quick reactions.  When a pilot makes a mistake (normally not aligning off correctly), death usually follows.  If the fleet gets into trouble, the paper tanks on these ships usually crumple very quickly.
• Small Gang Warfare: Whereas pirate gangs tend to stay very close to home, I identify this group as traveling to unfriendly/unfamiliar space.  Without stations to dock in to repair or familiarity with the traffic patterns in your roaming region, this form of PvP carries additional inherent risks.  Consisting of between 3-10 players, these gangs require players to be very comfortable with their ships and how to use them in PvP.  An individual fleet member making a mistake tends to result in lost kills or the death of the player or, in some cases, the whole fleet.
• Solo Roaming (Wink Wink): You’re the only player in cold, cold space…. But you have another character scouting or providing fleet boosts.  Even though you have an advantage that others lack, you are limited by having only one brain to split among multiple characters, and no one else to back you up if you get into trouble.  These players tend to have very expensive implants, ships, Loki fleet boosts, and scouts to ensure they have as much information and advantage as possible before heading into a fight.  However, they succeed or fail based solely on their own skill.
• Solo Roaming: Just like the previous type of PvP, but without the advantage (*cough* cheating *cough) of boosts.  Solo roaming is the most dangerous type of known-space PvP.  Mistakes in solo-roaming cost you your ship and probably your pod.  You have to be very comfortable with the moment after engagement and know how to pick your battles very carefully.
• Wormhole PvP: Perhaps the most difficult and most nerve-wracking, wormhole PvP is for the best PvPers.  With no local channel, you need to be aware of your surroundings at all times, understand the capabilities of your ship, keep situational awareness, and adjust for the modifiers in your wormhole system.  Pilot skill and awareness are critical to your survival, and being podded means you’ll be cloned in a known-space station and need to find your way back to your wormhole again.  Usually, the ships fielded are 1-billion-isk+ in value.

Each type of PvP requires a different set of skills.  To varying degrees, you need patience, knowledge, courage, judgment, serenity, luck, and risk-tolerance.  When anyone refers to PvP, he’s invariably thinking about one or two of these types exclusively.  “That’s not real PvP…” is a common complaint made by one group against another.

But they are all PvP, and I’d wager every pilot in the game can enjoy at least one of them.  No one said you need to start with solo roaming.  You probably wouldn’t succeed at it your first try anyways.  I didn’t.  I started with small gang, and was massacred mercilessly at first.  A harsh education, to be sure, but one that paid off very nicely in a good body of experience and knowledge about what NOT to do.

That’s the point of this blog… to explore what PvP is, how to do it well, understand why others do it well, and keep abreast on any news items of interest to PvPers.  It might include all the things that support PvP – markets, manufacturing, logistics, carebearing – but the focus is learning, appreciating, and studying the ways you can harvest tears from your enemies.