March Grab Bag

So, to start things off, the corp and our friends have mostly moved en masse to a C5 wormhole which we've deemed Nexus. I now fly a freakin' MOROS, and I got to use one to blow up the single POS owned by the people we evicted.

During the eviction I also lost my brand-new Proteus to an instalock gatecamp manned by [RED10] on the Miroitem gate out of Rancer. Whoops. Lesson: The only time you should take a wormhole-fit T3 through frequently camped areas is either alongside more T3s to back you up or if you intend to lose it.

Anyway, we've started doing escalations in Nexus, and the sheer amount of cash we pull in, even distributed among 10+ pilots, is mind boggling. I actually spent a few hours doing things with XML and spreadsheets to make a thing that allows us to fairly distribute ISK from said escalations.

And because of that, I've basically become the alliance's bursar.

Sadly the spreadsheet isn't always accurate and I've been having to recalculate a lot of the shares once we get the actual money in for the salvage and tags, since the spreadsheet pretty consistently overestimates how much money will come in. I might do some experimenting and see how using sell orders as opposed to buy orders for the calculations works. I'd rather underestimate the amount of ISK each person gets from the loot and send a little extra to the alliance wallet than overestimate and be short by hundreds of millions of ISK.

I've done that a few times and it is supremely embarrassing to ask for the money back when I can't cover the mistake by taking it out of my cut.

Of course it doesn't help that E, our CEO and the alliance executor, now gives a couple guys in the alliance who do T3 production what he terms as low-value Sleeper salvage, instead of selling it off for ISK. I need to get a list of what he considers low value Sleeper salvage so I can either convince him that it's not low value - some of the things like Electromechanical Hull Sheetings are underwhelming in low volume but are worth a lot in high volume - or note that those items aren't counted for the purposes of sending people their shares.

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We've also been juggling the different POSes we use, and my cans o' stuff seem to have been lost in the shuffle. You'd think a couple secure containers tagged with ☼ would be easy to find. However, in the search for them I did find where the low value Sleeper salvage has been getting put, so I know what stuff to remove from my spreadsheet when calculating shares for escalations. I also think I've figured out why there's such a huge discrepancy between the estimated ISK from Sleeper loot and the actual ISK we get - sales tax in trade hubs. I'll need to figure out a way to reliably make the spreadsheet factor that in so we get more accurate estimates.

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When it comes to the CSM, I'm naturally in support of the "Wormhole 5" - Nathan Jameson, James Arget, Ayeson, Cipreh, and Chitsa Jason. I like Nathan Jameson the most out of those, so he got my endorsement during the pre-election. Unfortunately my alt account hasn't clocked 30 consecutive days of being subbed yet, so I only get one STV ladder this year. I think said ladder will look something like this:

1. Nathan Jameson
2. James Arget
3. Ayeson
4. Cipreh
5. Chitsa Jason
6. Apricot Baby (for giggles)
7. Psychotic Monk
8. Sgurd Battersea (unless he pulls out)
9. Psychobitch
10. Korvin
11. Unforgiven Storm
12. corebloodbrothers
13. Ali Aras
14. Mangala Solaris

That's about it for this grab bag post - I'll try to to more focused posts later on this month.

Rabble Rabble

So, while the rest of the EVE bloggers and the subreddit are busy jizzing themselves over the abortive bloc war between the HBC and the CFC, I'm going to just sit here in my corner and talk about dread blapping and the POS revamp.

So first, dread blapping. Apparently Two step, CCP, and the CSM as a whole see the ability to fit a dreadnought to kill tiny shit as a problem. They seem to forget the need for a fleet of webbing and target painting subcaps to allow this to happen at all.

Two step posted this in the forming threadnought:

"My issue with dread blapping is that there isn't a counter to it other than "bring more stuff". I am fine with dreads killing caps and battleships, but if I show up in small sig cruisers, dreads shouldn't be dominant.

FYI, this isn't something that I just came up with out of thin air, this has been a frequent complaint I have heard from many different corps and alliances. What makes EVE PVP great is that you should always be able to counter a specific fleet setup without just bringing 2x the numbers. That isn't the case with dreads + webs/painters."

To which I respond with a hearty "You are full of shit!" The only mechanic within EVE PvP that currently has no counter is permajamming with ECM. If you're anywhere in high-end wormhole space, you can BET people will be using TD/TP/webs/points/the whole goddamn kitchen sink against you. Wormhole space is fucking cutthroat. People in high-end space use tracking dreads primarily for shooting the fuck out of Sleeper battleships in a timely and (relatively) low risk manner. I say relatively, because it's still wormhole space and while the NPCs might not be able to kill you, someone bigger, meaner, and more prepared is probably watching you right now.

Paranoia's a way of life in Anoikis.

People in high-end space use these same dreads to drive off intruders because they're territorial bastards and they will use the biggest, baddest, meanest ships they have to scare you away. A blapping dread has far more of the "oh shit" factor going for it than a pair of T3 cruisers. It's also a statement - "We're so loaded with ISK that yes, we can easily risk multiple billion's worth in ship and fittings to make you run the fuck away."

Honestly, people. High-end w-space. You're supposed to be smart and resourceful. you know your enemy will use webs and painters to make you easier to shoot. Unless you're jammed out, you can always fight back with tracking disrupting, sensor dampening, and blowing the support fleet to kingdom come.

Saying there's absolutely no counter whatsoever is patently false, and being mad that people don't roll over when they see [AHARM] on grid is dumb. You jump into someone's home, they'll fight back using all means available.

You want a good, fair fight? Fucking arrange one.

That said...if CCP does change it, and they probably will, I won't be mad unless I can't paste Sleepers in C5s anymore. That money goes right to me making things and getting in fights. I'll be really pissed if my income stream is fucked.

Moving on to the POS revamp...well, not much to be said. The Goonswarm propaganda machine's covered THAT pretty well already, so I'll just say I'm glad it's still happening, if far more slowly than I'd hoped.

Still, someday...I'd love to have a space city in my wormhome. Dreadnoughts at anchor, smaller ships flying about doing things, and a big damn picture window I can sit behind while I drink a beer, manage my PI, and shoot the shit with my alliance mates.

I'll just keep dreaming.

Pop 'n' Splatter

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

Pod killmail.

Drake killmail.

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.