18 December 2012

Pop 'n' Splatter

Killing a Drake pilot and then catching the pod. Always feels good.

Pod killmail.

Drake killmail.

14 December 2012

F&I: Please Do Your Homework

I spend a lot of time poking around in the F&I section of the EVE forums. While there's a lot of great ideas - Drone UI revamps, making PI optionally more complex as well as more profitable, "Pocket Dreads", the list goes on - there are many decent ideas that are hamstrung by a lack of research. And there are a ludicrous amount of simply terrible ideas like "Wormhole Stabilizers".

But the focus of this post is that middle class of F&I, the idea that is, in general, fairly good, but happens to be completely hamstrung by a lack of proper research.

Case in point: Someone just suggested an XL Shield Extender to help close the gap between the potential EHP of shield and armor tanked ships. While personally, I believe that shield tanking is just fine due to the front-loaded nature of shield reps and local recharge, it's nice to have options.

The problem with this idea is that, frankly, it's poorly researched and poorly thought out. In an attempt to be civil, I didn't say this in my post, but it's basically like the OP thought about it for two seconds then spewed out what he thought was a good idea without doing any research or consideration of how this module will be used and abused - and admit it, we abuse the shit out of everything in this game.

Really, people. If you're going to suggest something, at least take the time to consider how it compares to what already exists ingame as well as how it will likely be used by your fellow capsuleers. It's an extra ten minutes. Tops.

It'd also be nice if you at least tried to use proper English, or made a note of your inability to do so due to it not being your native language or due to disabilities such as dyslexia.

It really is hard to take people seriously when they shit out a post like they're texting their BFFs and OMG did you see her hair and ugh.

Please.

At least try.

12 December 2012

First Post, First Kill

Seems fitting to me. To tell the truth, this isn't the first thing I've killed, but it's the first ship I've killed that I received the killmail for. It also helps that I actually remember what happened due to an excellent log kept by my alliance member, who I'll call C for now.

For context, I recently (as in, no more than week before the events of this post) bought and fitted out a PVP Proteus. The fit is based on this Battleclinic fit.

I know, I know. Battleclinic, ew, right?

However, I did say based on. Not copied verbatim. I don't have any Faction/Deadspace gear right now, nor do I have T2 guns. My fit differs in that I trade an EANM for an Armor Layering Membrane II and the 1600 Plate for a Capacitor Power Relay II.

In general, our alliance treats any ship we don't recognize on d-scan as hostile. Fairly paar for the course given we live in wormhole space.

The Battlelog

At 22:19, Judas and Shawnakthx notice a Caracal on D-scan. C logs in and announces in our alliance intel channel that he is going to pop probes.

22:23 : Judas tells C to wait to pop probes as there may be a Caracal in system. C switches to a Helios, warps to his safe cloaked, and begins using d-scan to pin down where this Caracal might be while forming a fleet and getting into voice comms.

At 22:29, C sends a Jabber ping calling for PVP pilots to log in. One minute later, myself, B, and Alex are ingame, in fleet, and on comms. Talk about response time. By this time, C has pinned down the Caracal - and his alt in a Drake - at a POCO, sitting AFK and letting their shields recharge since they had been running sites.

22:33 : C warps, cloaked and at range, to the POCO while myself, Judas, Shawn, and Alex warp in with guns hot. I'm first to arrive, and I'm oriented poorly - I'm on the other side of the POCO from the targets but well within my 31km point range. I instantly lock both ships and get point on the Caracal while MWD burning directly towards it to get into optimal for my guns.

Oops - instead of intercepting the Caracal, I bounce off the POCO. Thinking quickly, I manually pilot off the  POCO then turn to intercept the Caracal, who has - finally - begun shooting back. As the rest of the fleet lands on field, the Drake skedaddles before anyone else can lock and point him. Shrugging, we turn our attention to the Caracal and ignore the warped-off Drake, whose pilot has undoubtedly pissed himself.

Once I get close to being in range, I switch off my MWD and close the last few kilometers at normal speed, then orbit the webbed and pointed Caracal at 5km, pouring basic T1 Antimatter M into his ship.

Two minutes later, at 22:35, the Caracal is dead, and we scramble to lock the pod, which unfortunately warps away and bails out to wherever he came from.

Analyzing the Fight

First, the killmail. A well-fit Caracal, though a dead giveaway that 0rbiter wasn't expecting a fight. With 2 empty lows and an empty rig slot, he wasn't making the best use of his fitting options to maximize his ship's effectiveness. He could have put on an extra BCS to improve damage, added a Shield Power Relay to boost  the recharge rate of his shields, and tacked on an Anti-thermal Screen Reinforcer to plug the hole in his resists. The sense backup array is an interesting touch - Sleepers don't use ECM, so I'm not sure what he thought he was going to need it for. Maybe to fight against ECM boat jamming, but that didn't seem to do much for him.

Note that Sleepless Patroller on the killmail - this meant he was running sites in the wormhole, and that 22k damage means he had a decent tank. Since his presence was noted 16 minutes before the kill, he had more than enough time - at ~50.5 HP/s of shield recharge - to be back up at full health before I beat his nose in. I don't know whether it was his tank or the Drake's tank that broke first, but since they both warped to the same spot within meters of each other, it's a reasonable assumption that this was one guy dualboxing, and that his Drake alt likely had worse fitting skills. Especially awesome is that 0rbiter's last recorded loss was in 2008, and eve-kill knows of nothing else between then and now.

The best part all this is that he never got me past 75% shields, at a rough guess. Had the Drake stuck around, I'm sure this fight would have taken longer, though whether it would have had the same result or not is a mystery to me.

Lessons Learned

0rbiter learned not to intrude on an occupied wormhole. Hopefully he keeps a closer eye on D-scan next time, since the wormhole system is small enough that you can get a 360 max range scan from just about anywhere and not miss much.

I learned that point > web, especially if you're going to be the first on field. And fitted as I am, I'm pretty likely to always be first on field. Someone else can always web targets, but I have a 62km diameter sphere in which I can get tackle on someone and make them STAY, so 2 points is a more effective fit. The only exception to this is if I'm expecting a solo fight, in which the point/web combo is more useful.

I'll also be keeping a medium armor rep, that omitted 1600 plate, and a webber in my hold so I can more easily refit to tackle different situations. The 1600 plate is likely to take the place of the cap power relay, since bumping my EHP from 42k to 90k is worth an extra 2 seconds of align time and a speed reduction of ~100m/s. I can always offline it if needed, anyway.