Today we got a batphone from some friends who said "2 Rattlesnakes doing sites in a C4 Pulsar, accessible only via a crit hole".
The entry system was 6 from our exit.
Count me in. I went to Amarr, dropped off my Enyo and fit up a Blarpy in record time, and in we went. Tengu, 4 Blarpy, bait Prospect (yeah, he brought it along), Hawk and Dram with 2 Scythes, versus two Rattlers with RR and cap transfers. Plus we may not get out again. But #YOLO.
The targets were some nubsticles, who had 2 kills and 6 losses between them. Our plan, to break their tanks, was to bump the two ships apart, breaking the RR chain and cap chain, and hope to hell the Rattlers didn't drop either Geckos or Acolytes on the frigs. The Scythes were probably fine, and you could easily disengage one or both if the Geckos went for them.
In the end, it mattered not. We dropped in, spread points, pushed the two fatties apart and...they ejected and warped their pods out. So we stopped one of our guys from madly trying to get a killmail he was dead set on getting, and we boarded our new prizes.
Of course, only one of us was going back the way we came. We evacced 4 frigs, and then I jumped the Rattler I'd stolen, and crushed the n766 we came in via. The remainder got out the new N766, which coincidentally exited a few jumps from the last. Bueno.
The Rattler I nicked was T2 rigged, Pith X-type XL shield booster, RF TP, and worth about 900M, the other a bit less. So we all made about 200M, and the victims avoided having a couple of billion ISK in losses splashed across zkillboard.
A fair exchange, I think.
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Migration Patterns
So, it seems there is a bit of a migration happening at the moment. I found my way through to Podion a few nights ago, and there were four cyno frigates on station. Well, three after I used my alpha panther. But you get the idea.
I was there to collect a stash of crap. There were half a dozen ships and 450M of crap which had been there for about a year, collecting dust, since I moved out of NC Dot. Back then I had all my caps, save for my cheaply bought Chimera, out in Immensea. It had taken me quite a while to move alll the shit out there via wormholes, and then we were redeploying to Stain, to have a crack at some Russians because of reasons. I got sick of moving shit around in my Nidhoggur(s) and had a half-arsed go at moving the crap out of null. So there it was in Podion.
Seems that there's a lot of people doing the exact same thing, punching out massive numbers of jumps of cap ships before the 4th of November. In the hour I was in Podion, there were no fewer than 30 carrier jumps, and 4 dread jumps, plus a JF or two. A lot of activity half an hour before downtime as nullbears rationalise their existence and get the logistics sorted before Phoebe drops and they can only do it twice a week.
I think that by and large the player base has come to terms with this. Like a band-aid being ripped off quickly, the paain is gone now. Indeed, the majority of people who are at least semi-active will have made their decisions.
You can also see this in sov changes. Brothers of Tangra has been rationalised - 50+ systems and 3,500 scrubby botlords were handed over to Shadow of xXDeathXx holus bolus last week, comprising a few constellations in the Dronelands and several corporations. There's theories that these AFK neckbeards are just abandoning sov and packing up to highsec to avoid the jump changes and the decrease of utility in access to highsec, but I'd be wary of assuming that losing a few hundred rental peons and changing sov and corporations between allliances correlates directly with organisations abanddoning far-flung space.
From what I've seen, as I lurk these areas for the upcoming murderfest, there is still a lot of industry going on in these areas. It is overstating things to say that it's now impossible to live out there - after all, if you can produce 1,000 Garde II's a month, what else do you need to carrier rat 23.75/7? You have virtually no consumables beyond POS fuel and topes, and there are ice belts. Ice belts that are heavily raided and farmed, mind you, so I don't see a lack of local supply.
For the non-carrier ratters, a couple of industry guys with a BPO can supply T1 ammo fairly effectively. Ships can be a bit more of an issue, but again, not impossible. The difficulty of just buying them in jita and using a shopping and carting service provied by your alliance or corp logistician is maybe worse than it was before - but if it's truly abysmal, then in theory you have two options: produce locally or use a wormhole. The first option is what CCP wants to see in nullsec, clearly - organisations producing locally and consuming locally and fighting locally, not having 80% of toons existing in highsec to drive the sinews of nullsec.
Without a doubt, there are large ructions underway. Just looking at some of the Dotlan behaviour recently:
Brothers of Tangra. 350 systems to 144 and falling; 12K members to 5,500.
Shadow of xXDEATHXx. Recieved the majority of those losses via the transfer.
Greater Western Co-Prospecrity Sphere. Definite trimming of the ranks going on.
There is also a general increase in interest in w-space, due to the buffing of blue poo, addition of nullsec relic and data to C1, C2 and C3 space, the above-mentioned nerf to supercaps online, and so on. BUGRY is seeing a lot of new join requests, some from spais and clearly unsuitable dweebs, and others more genuine and honest. It is definitely good. It will be interesting to see if this is a sustained population icnrease or if it will ebb and flow, because what has happened over the past 3 months in w-space is likely to be what happens to nullsec: people panic, throw the toys from the cot, move out, find that life is not better and grass is not greener, and then return to their old ways and old haunts. We shall see - after all, migrations happen on instinct, not by organisation.
I was there to collect a stash of crap. There were half a dozen ships and 450M of crap which had been there for about a year, collecting dust, since I moved out of NC Dot. Back then I had all my caps, save for my cheaply bought Chimera, out in Immensea. It had taken me quite a while to move alll the shit out there via wormholes, and then we were redeploying to Stain, to have a crack at some Russians because of reasons. I got sick of moving shit around in my Nidhoggur(s) and had a half-arsed go at moving the crap out of null. So there it was in Podion.
Seems that there's a lot of people doing the exact same thing, punching out massive numbers of jumps of cap ships before the 4th of November. In the hour I was in Podion, there were no fewer than 30 carrier jumps, and 4 dread jumps, plus a JF or two. A lot of activity half an hour before downtime as nullbears rationalise their existence and get the logistics sorted before Phoebe drops and they can only do it twice a week.
I think that by and large the player base has come to terms with this. Like a band-aid being ripped off quickly, the paain is gone now. Indeed, the majority of people who are at least semi-active will have made their decisions.
You can also see this in sov changes. Brothers of Tangra has been rationalised - 50+ systems and 3,500 scrubby botlords were handed over to Shadow of xXDeathXx holus bolus last week, comprising a few constellations in the Dronelands and several corporations. There's theories that these AFK neckbeards are just abandoning sov and packing up to highsec to avoid the jump changes and the decrease of utility in access to highsec, but I'd be wary of assuming that losing a few hundred rental peons and changing sov and corporations between allliances correlates directly with organisations abanddoning far-flung space.
From what I've seen, as I lurk these areas for the upcoming murderfest, there is still a lot of industry going on in these areas. It is overstating things to say that it's now impossible to live out there - after all, if you can produce 1,000 Garde II's a month, what else do you need to carrier rat 23.75/7? You have virtually no consumables beyond POS fuel and topes, and there are ice belts. Ice belts that are heavily raided and farmed, mind you, so I don't see a lack of local supply.
For the non-carrier ratters, a couple of industry guys with a BPO can supply T1 ammo fairly effectively. Ships can be a bit more of an issue, but again, not impossible. The difficulty of just buying them in jita and using a shopping and carting service provied by your alliance or corp logistician is maybe worse than it was before - but if it's truly abysmal, then in theory you have two options: produce locally or use a wormhole. The first option is what CCP wants to see in nullsec, clearly - organisations producing locally and consuming locally and fighting locally, not having 80% of toons existing in highsec to drive the sinews of nullsec.
Without a doubt, there are large ructions underway. Just looking at some of the Dotlan behaviour recently:
Brothers of Tangra. 350 systems to 144 and falling; 12K members to 5,500.
Shadow of xXDEATHXx. Recieved the majority of those losses via the transfer.
Greater Western Co-Prospecrity Sphere. Definite trimming of the ranks going on.
There is also a general increase in interest in w-space, due to the buffing of blue poo, addition of nullsec relic and data to C1, C2 and C3 space, the above-mentioned nerf to supercaps online, and so on. BUGRY is seeing a lot of new join requests, some from spais and clearly unsuitable dweebs, and others more genuine and honest. It is definitely good. It will be interesting to see if this is a sustained population icnrease or if it will ebb and flow, because what has happened over the past 3 months in w-space is likely to be what happens to nullsec: people panic, throw the toys from the cot, move out, find that life is not better and grass is not greener, and then return to their old ways and old haunts. We shall see - after all, migrations happen on instinct, not by organisation.
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
C4 Wolf-Rayet Ratting with Enyos
Here's my very first YouTube video.
Theoretically, we should be able to get this down to 8 or 8.5 minutes per site. With the new (slight) buff to blue poo income this should be about 100-120M per hour per toon if you use 4 Enyo's and 2 Guardians and the Enyo's have MWD's, with the Guardians positioning themselves properly. Unlike in the video, where it was more or less "let's see if we can do it".
Sig on the Guardian is 269 with MWD on, taking into account the W-R effects. 23 on the Enyo without MWD, and 123 with. This is a survivable level of damage application from the Sleepers, even accounting for the poor piloting skills (ie; lack of transversal) in evidence.
Fits:
Theoretically, we should be able to get this down to 8 or 8.5 minutes per site. With the new (slight) buff to blue poo income this should be about 100-120M per hour per toon if you use 4 Enyo's and 2 Guardians and the Enyo's have MWD's, with the Guardians positioning themselves properly. Unlike in the video, where it was more or less "let's see if we can do it".
Sig on the Guardian is 269 with MWD on, taking into account the W-R effects. 23 on the Enyo without MWD, and 123 with. This is a survivable level of damage application from the Sleepers, even accounting for the poor piloting skills (ie; lack of transversal) in evidence.
Fits:
[Enyo, Sig Tank]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Dark Blood Adaptive Nano Plating
Centii C-Type Explosive Plating
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Small Hybrid Ambit Extension I
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Dark Blood Adaptive Nano Plating
Centii C-Type Explosive Plating
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Small Hybrid Ambit Extension I
Hobgoblin II
[Guardian, Wolf MWD]
Damage Control II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Corpii A-Type Thermic Plating
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Reactor Control Unit II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Large 'Regard' Remote Capacitor Transmitter
Large 'Regard' Remote Capacitor Transmitter
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Damage Control II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Corpii A-Type Thermic Plating
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Reactor Control Unit II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Large 'Regard' Remote Capacitor Transmitter
Large 'Regard' Remote Capacitor Transmitter
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Large 'Solace' Remote Armor Repairer
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Hobgoblin II x 5
We will try this out with dualprop Augorors in the near future.
Sunday, 26 October 2014
The Boondocks
I have a job to do at the far edges of the k--space map. It involves a murder, some capitals, and a Panther.
In real life, one thing I learned as a geologist, managing drilling programs with budgets of $13M per annum, is that scheduling and logistics are as important as having a plan (or in the case of mineral exploration, a target to test). I became pretty good at project management, scheduling, and organising. I also have a knack for finding unconventional ways of getting the drill down to target.
In EVE, for the current project (which I won't get into details on, sekrit skwerls), because it can only really kick off after Phoebe drops, the incoming jump changes and mobility nerf for capitalss and BLOPS fleets puts a bit of a barrier in front of my scheme.
Our target(s) live at the literal edge of the EVE maap and we all live in a C4. Its not really a big problem getting out of the C4 on any given day, it just requires a clean clone and 2 minutes. We even suicide pod ourselves at the Alter of Bob anchored within the sun in our wormhole. That way our corpses become sacrifices to Bob, and we scream the prayer as the suicide timer ticks down to zero.
Getting from lowsec to the target system, Dotlan says, requires 5 BLOPs bridges. Or 45 k-space jumps. Or maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe a wormhole.
Doing it all via BLOPs will be, post-Phoebe, just as time consuming (on average) as taking gates. It will however, maintain the intel blackout for the enemy more effectively than banging through 45 jumps. It won't be very good to get all the way out there and suffer jump fatigue on the vinegar stroke. It also requires 5 alts to be in position with Cyno 5 and appropriate ships, which is a nightmare to organise.
Doing it all via gates is possible. Hoofing 45 jumps through nullsec in a T3 / Bomber / BLOPs fleet isn't impossible given the location, the people who live there, and the fuel, fatigue and other impediments to portal and jump movement. The problem begins in the last 5 jumps before the target, wwhich are all bubbled to hell and back. You may be getting an idea of what this project entails, by now.
Nullified T3's, ceptors and MWD-fit bombers are the go, for getting through bubbles.
But most importantly, and my preference, would be to find a N943 to lowsec, somewhere, and just carve 40 nullsec jumps off the whole thing. The problem of course being that wormholes aren't reliable conduits, despite being perfect for clandestine movement between k-space regions.
i have even considered finding a K346 hole and locking the fleet inside and ragerolling it into the general vicinity of the target. In a way this may be just as effective.
The problem with all this? I really want to bring a Nag. This is because when Phoebe drops, a key element of carebear defence of their -1.0 upgraded bear dens will be essentially neutralised because caps will be able to take gate. Having a cyno jammer in system will stop a hotdrop, but not stop someone who cynoes into the system nextdoor and jumps gate like a scrub.
So, this is my challenge. Mathematically work out a route for a nullified T3 fleet to get 45 jumps into deep backwoods Carebearistan, with or without a BLOPs component to the travel, and somehow get a murder of nags into position in case of success.
The tradeoff studies commence.
In real life, one thing I learned as a geologist, managing drilling programs with budgets of $13M per annum, is that scheduling and logistics are as important as having a plan (or in the case of mineral exploration, a target to test). I became pretty good at project management, scheduling, and organising. I also have a knack for finding unconventional ways of getting the drill down to target.
In EVE, for the current project (which I won't get into details on, sekrit skwerls), because it can only really kick off after Phoebe drops, the incoming jump changes and mobility nerf for capitalss and BLOPS fleets puts a bit of a barrier in front of my scheme.
Our target(s) live at the literal edge of the EVE maap and we all live in a C4. Its not really a big problem getting out of the C4 on any given day, it just requires a clean clone and 2 minutes. We even suicide pod ourselves at the Alter of Bob anchored within the sun in our wormhole. That way our corpses become sacrifices to Bob, and we scream the prayer as the suicide timer ticks down to zero.
Getting from lowsec to the target system, Dotlan says, requires 5 BLOPs bridges. Or 45 k-space jumps. Or maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe a wormhole.
Doing it all via BLOPs will be, post-Phoebe, just as time consuming (on average) as taking gates. It will however, maintain the intel blackout for the enemy more effectively than banging through 45 jumps. It won't be very good to get all the way out there and suffer jump fatigue on the vinegar stroke. It also requires 5 alts to be in position with Cyno 5 and appropriate ships, which is a nightmare to organise.
Doing it all via gates is possible. Hoofing 45 jumps through nullsec in a T3 / Bomber / BLOPs fleet isn't impossible given the location, the people who live there, and the fuel, fatigue and other impediments to portal and jump movement. The problem begins in the last 5 jumps before the target, wwhich are all bubbled to hell and back. You may be getting an idea of what this project entails, by now.
Nullified T3's, ceptors and MWD-fit bombers are the go, for getting through bubbles.
But most importantly, and my preference, would be to find a N943 to lowsec, somewhere, and just carve 40 nullsec jumps off the whole thing. The problem of course being that wormholes aren't reliable conduits, despite being perfect for clandestine movement between k-space regions.
i have even considered finding a K346 hole and locking the fleet inside and ragerolling it into the general vicinity of the target. In a way this may be just as effective.
The problem with all this? I really want to bring a Nag. This is because when Phoebe drops, a key element of carebear defence of their -1.0 upgraded bear dens will be essentially neutralised because caps will be able to take gate. Having a cyno jammer in system will stop a hotdrop, but not stop someone who cynoes into the system nextdoor and jumps gate like a scrub.
So, this is my challenge. Mathematically work out a route for a nullified T3 fleet to get 45 jumps into deep backwoods Carebearistan, with or without a BLOPs component to the travel, and somehow get a murder of nags into position in case of success.
The tradeoff studies commence.
Saturday, 25 October 2014
The Long Game
One thing which fascinates me about EVE is that you can play the game at three paces simultaneously - the short game, medium game and long game.
The majority of the time you play the mid-term game; resourcing, logistics, petty day-to-days. This is fascinating in and of itself, and here I put in PVE in all it's forms, and industry. PI, for example, you do for mid-term goals such as affording a new PLEX, or a new ship, or saving versus a rainy day. You may not know what the rainy day is yet, but you save for it. This includes, incidentally, skill queues etc.
Some of the time you play the short game; tactics, PVP, marketing. This is the most exciting part, obviously, mid-term game that you've been playing for days, weeks or months to get whaat you need to get in order to do PVP, you couldn't really PVP. Not outside of noob ships.
When you get up to the level of bittervet (it's an official rite of passage whining on the forums) you get to play the Long Game. This is the engine room of content creation, emergent game play, diplomacy, wholesale spying and insertion of rogue elements into foreign entities to gather intelligence. This is the game you play in nullsec, we are told.
But, honestly, the boiler room of the Long Game is really the wormhole environment. You hear about people plotting super kills in nullsec for a month? Well, in w-space, feuds last several years. People seed caps into wormholes a month ahead of schedule. Corporations and members plot betrayals over the course of months, and execute them on command.
People camp systems for shinies, for capitals, for ganks regularly. Literally at any time, BUGRY has 2-3 alts camping various bear dens, just in case. I have a couple of corps, entire corps, on watchlist, gathering behavioural patterns and noting them down in logs, to hopefully map out the golden time to seed a cloaky fleet for a gank on a weekend.
But sometimes, just sometimes, you play the Long Game solo. Like when your alt gets trapped in a wormhole. This tips the intel gathering process on its head, and so you stay logged out all weekend and gather intel on watchlists, and you discover 17 toons really are only 3 guys. You discover that they all sign in prime Russia time, and only then.
So, plans to tip over at least 2 POSs on Tuesday. Or at least get the second into armour, so they can't unanchor it without significant logi humping, which I don't know that they will do.
Gambaratsu!
The majority of the time you play the mid-term game; resourcing, logistics, petty day-to-days. This is fascinating in and of itself, and here I put in PVE in all it's forms, and industry. PI, for example, you do for mid-term goals such as affording a new PLEX, or a new ship, or saving versus a rainy day. You may not know what the rainy day is yet, but you save for it. This includes, incidentally, skill queues etc.
Some of the time you play the short game; tactics, PVP, marketing. This is the most exciting part, obviously, mid-term game that you've been playing for days, weeks or months to get whaat you need to get in order to do PVP, you couldn't really PVP. Not outside of noob ships.
When you get up to the level of bittervet (it's an official rite of passage whining on the forums) you get to play the Long Game. This is the engine room of content creation, emergent game play, diplomacy, wholesale spying and insertion of rogue elements into foreign entities to gather intelligence. This is the game you play in nullsec, we are told.
But, honestly, the boiler room of the Long Game is really the wormhole environment. You hear about people plotting super kills in nullsec for a month? Well, in w-space, feuds last several years. People seed caps into wormholes a month ahead of schedule. Corporations and members plot betrayals over the course of months, and execute them on command.
People camp systems for shinies, for capitals, for ganks regularly. Literally at any time, BUGRY has 2-3 alts camping various bear dens, just in case. I have a couple of corps, entire corps, on watchlist, gathering behavioural patterns and noting them down in logs, to hopefully map out the golden time to seed a cloaky fleet for a gank on a weekend.
But sometimes, just sometimes, you play the Long Game solo. Like when your alt gets trapped in a wormhole. This tips the intel gathering process on its head, and so you stay logged out all weekend and gather intel on watchlists, and you discover 17 toons really are only 3 guys. You discover that they all sign in prime Russia time, and only then.
So, plans to tip over at least 2 POSs on Tuesday. Or at least get the second into armour, so they can't unanchor it without significant logi humping, which I don't know that they will do.
Gambaratsu!
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Groundhog Day
I logged Miskoranda out in the C4 after blapping the tower. The killmail shows 2.9M damage because the shooting dragged on past downtime. So, off to bed I went wondering what the response of Eaters of Planets EVE would be?
Would they online all the other blocking towers? Would they put guns up? Would they be online?
No, they'll jimmy up another small Amarr tower in exactly the same spot as the dead one, and I'd get another chance to blow it up, unopposed.
So, it has begun again, AFK dozering the blocking tower out of the way for the second day in a row.
I've let as many people know to keep an eye out for J111009; hopefully a can with a probe launcher will arrive, or someone will hop into Beggars Bowl channel that has found their way in, and I'll get a way out. Or indeed a way in.
Because I am now interested in how many of these towers I can topple before they kill me or someone else kills me. I'm estimating...4.
Would they online all the other blocking towers? Would they put guns up? Would they be online?
No, they'll jimmy up another small Amarr tower in exactly the same spot as the dead one, and I'd get another chance to blow it up, unopposed.
So, it has begun again, AFK dozering the blocking tower out of the way for the second day in a row.
I've let as many people know to keep an eye out for J111009; hopefully a can with a probe launcher will arrive, or someone will hop into Beggars Bowl channel that has found their way in, and I'll get a way out. Or indeed a way in.
Because I am now interested in how many of these towers I can topple before they kill me or someone else kills me. I'm estimating...4.
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
J111009
I done fucked up. I packed everything into my collapsing Geddon except the actual probe launcher. I've got the probes, got the depot. But no launcher.
The good thing about this, if there is in fact a Good Thing, is that the residents are Russians and have jimmied up small placeholder towers on all the moons. So, in a Geddon with Curator IIs, I have begun AFK bashing said POS sticks and, within a few hours, will have some solo POS kills.
The Geddon is already dead to me, unless someone rolls in and is feeling generous (hint: at least find me a probe launcher!), or I manage to find my way back in eventually. So, worst case scenario the local sign on and gank me. Or randoms gank me. Or i farm a half dozen dead sticks in the next few days and SD.
The good thing about this, if there is in fact a Good Thing, is that the residents are Russians and have jimmied up small placeholder towers on all the moons. So, in a Geddon with Curator IIs, I have begun AFK bashing said POS sticks and, within a few hours, will have some solo POS kills.
The Geddon is already dead to me, unless someone rolls in and is feeling generous (hint: at least find me a probe launcher!), or I manage to find my way back in eventually. So, worst case scenario the local sign on and gank me. Or randoms gank me. Or i farm a half dozen dead sticks in the next few days and SD.
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