I started in Olfeim shortly after downtime but the only thing in system is an Archon, so I’m moving on to my favorite system: Amamake.

Sitting at my safespot I can blanked to whole system with my directional – which is kinda nice. No annoying having to warp around. Starting to scan I see a Rupture. Not sure if I can take him on I narrow him down anyways – there’s only one way to find out.

Rupture jumped out.

Rifter on scan. Rifter leaves system.

What’s that? A burst at belt IV – 1? I’ll have to check that out. I warp in and am a bit stunned to see the beams of mining lasers. Before I can recover my chin from my desk he warps.

Back at my safespot I decide to convo the guy to ask if he has in fact the necessary mining permits. Convo rejected. Guess not.

Oh, he’s back at the belt! This time he just sits there as I explode his ship which is in violation of the Amamake Nature Protection Area Act. Having done my duty the little bloodraider in my rears his ugly head and I corpsify the offender.

- I may not be a very good blood raider because I felt a bit bad for the one day old guy, so I gave him 1 million ISK -

Anyways, with a nice and fresh corpse in my hold I decide to move on and peek around the neighboring systems a bit. In Frerstorn a fight could have happened. I had narrowed a Rifter down to one belt and warped in. And he flees!

I aligned back to the next Stargate on my route, and scanned quickly around to maybe find him again.

Just as I’m about to warp out he comes back  - he wants to fight after all – but what is that? He has his corpmate in a Hurricane in tow.

Time for my dramatic exit of course. Sitting snuggly at zero on the Stargate I challenge him to a frigate one on one but nothing comes of it – a potentially very fun and even fight ruined.

With only 20 minutes of today’s playtime left I decide to make my way back to Olfeim to log out there. Amamake is busy but there are too many T3 cruisers for my taste on scan, so this time I don’t linger.

I jump into Olfeim just as a guy called nerdkiller in a Rifter warps to the couple of belts 65 AU away. Time to follow him and scan from my spot down there. He seems to cycle through the 3 belts – maybe he is ratting? Then I have him on 5 degree scan at one belt.

Warping there shows the tail of his ship warping off in direction of the Dammalin gate. Following again – maybe he’ll peek into the Angel plex there. He is sitting at the gate though.

I somehow feel that he is staring at me as intently as I am staring at him. Then he warps to one of the two belts in scanner range.

Honourable space samurai duel is on!

I reload to Barrage to test my theory on his Rifter fit – if he wants to fight he is probably PvP fit. And given that our characters have much the same age I guess we have a similar if not the same fit because from toying with Evemon and EFT I’m quite sure that most other fitting variants are a bit more skill intensive to get on the ship.

Score. I kite him at 6 km without taking much damage and his ship becomes space litter – attempting to lock up his Pod to raid another corpse fails though. He warps out and greedily I approach his wreck.

Smart pirates check their scanner before looting! Psimana anti-pirates me in his Dramiel but at least I get my Pod out and satisfied to have had a good fight I dock up and log off – looking very much forward to my next session which will hopefully be a bit longer.

CCP got in the way.

They updated the Singularity build of the character creator and introduced a new station service which allows for recustomization at will – without the use of the sculpting tool though.
Your face and body stay the same but you can change your outfit, hair and so on as much as you like. On Singularity this service is free but I think there is the possibility to use this as an ISK sink once it goes live – anyways this remains to be seen.

So, from the title of this post you probably guessed it: the build includes the tattoos we’ve been missing! And not only that but piercings as well. Also there are horrible disfiguring  scars.

All of that is p. relevant to my interests so instead of jumping into a Rifter and killing people I play Space Barbies with – I think I mentioned it already – horrible disfiguring scars!

Right now you can only get tattooed on your face but from the looks of the UI I’d like to guess that in the future we can get inked all over – full sleeve tattoos would look p. good with the sleeveless shirts on the characters I think. But since we can’t walk around yet facial tattoos are of course higher priority.

BTW I think the Sisi patch included all that Captain’s Quarters jazz but if I’m right it is currently not enabled.

Anyways, look into the face of evil – The New Sebadai:

Got hit in the face with a shovel.

I mentioned in my last post that I’m thinking about getting a second account. Well, I did! So let me introduce Toshnem, Vherokior, Serpentis loyalist. Currently sitting in a station and training some skills before I move her to Syndicate (not actually Toshnem, because the account is not mirrored to Singularity but close enough):

Knifefight at age 13.

That is a newly implemented Top by the way.

Anyways of course I didn’t stop there but rather continued playing around with my empty character slot (Protip: never finalize a character in an empty slot on Singularity) and here are some more examples which I’m liking alot:

Amarr male:

Slaver Hound wasn't properly trained.

Civire female:

Just let me scan your forehead, Lady... OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EYE?

Brutor male:

Broke his nose and fucked up his tattoo at the same time. Turns out rust and duct tape don't cover holes in the floor very good.

Gallente male:

Nice glasses, dude. No wonder you're a bit emo with that kind of chemical burn though!

Intaki female:

What?! No scars? You living in a plastic bubble?

-

Overall these are pretty amazing. The character creator is very nice as it is on Tranquility but with this update it gives the character the much needed final touch to move them from regular old dudes to Capsuleers in New Eden.

I for one look forward to seeing them on the live server! Make it so, CCP!

Second of all last weekend I got drunk instead of playing much, so this will be mainly another planningsession/thoughtdump.

Well, I got three fights in on Saturday, two which I lost to one win. I am now at a intermediate stage in my PvPing. There are fights I can win easily and fights that I can’t win of course and then there are – most interesting to me – fights I could’ve won if I had done something differently.

In my opinion there are three factors which determine PvP prowess in EVE: SP, gear and skill.
Each is important but not the sole deciding factor. Many have this misconception that SP is most important. Well, it’s not. But it’s not totally unimportant either, just make a fit in EFT and plug in the skills of a new character and the skills of a trained one. Note the differences in tank and damage.

Gear is of course enabled by SP or simply ISK in the case of faction stuff.

And skill is of course knowledge, experience, all that hard to define stuff you have to learn by dieing repeatedly.

Let’s look at Saturdays fights. This I won easily. I think skill had little to do with it. We slugged it out at point blank range and my fit was simply better. SP, too, probably because I’m able to fit T2 guns and pretty much all my SP are focused to make my Rifter better.

Didn’t stand a chance. I should’ve run. I don’t know why I didn’t. In fact I knew better beforehand but engaged anyways. So, the loss could’ve been avoided.

Interesting fight. I guess from how the fight went down that he had either the same or a very similar fit. So, with gear being the same he won because of superior SP. More damage and more cap to repair himself longer killed me. But I believe I could’ve won.
Instead of going for shortrange I should’ve loaded barrage to kite him and maybe even reload to fusion and close in once he had reloaded himself. The fight wasn’t short and it was reasonably close, so there would’ve been plenty of time for tactic decisions.

Next time I’ll do better I’m sure.

-

Time for some more plans:

I have started to stockpile gear in Jita and Rens which awaits shipping as soon as I have decided on where exactly to put my bases. The plan is to move them through highsec with Red Frog and split it in smaller packages for the final jump into lowsec for intrepid newbies to hopefully make a quick profit because between time constrains and the possibility to use courier contracts I really can’t see why I should bother with hauling myself.
I really hope this will work out!

Secondly I toy with the idea to get a second account. Ever since I quit smoking I measure everything I pay for to entertain myself in cigarette packs and two EVE accounts would come to six packs. I blush to admit it but in the old days this wouldn’t even be a full weeks supply.

So, why the second account if I don’t want to do my own logistics and don’t have the multitasking abilities necessary to dual-box? Well, Sebadai is a lowsec warrior but it occurred to me to try out life in NPC Nullsec – clearly Sebadai can’t do this because PvP there doesn’t lower security status… maybe I am a bit weird?
Also it is a current ambition to fly all races frigates which I could speed up considerably by splitting the training between two characters.

Maybe I should just say that I’d like the added flexibility a second account would offer.

I’ll have to sleep over that some more.

-

CSM voting has begun, so make your voice count. Personally I go for Prometheus Exenthal. My vote may be slightly uninformed but from reading the Jita Speakers forum he seems to be most relevant to my interests.

To  begin with the lifestyle of a nomad had its allure, however EVE is designed in a way that makes this very difficult. Sure, one can always buy a new ship “on the spot” after getting killed. But I believe it would be much faster to just fly back to base and jump in a new ship. On the other hand I enjoy roaming. It’s no problem for me to do a hundred jumps or more in a session. I don’t like “lazing about” waiting for fights to come to me.

So here’s my solution: more than one base.

My initial goal are at least three bases. One should be central, possibly somewhere between Amamake and Old Man Star – I quite like that name and have for that reason alone considered basing in OMS itself. But I think then I would have to have a forth base near Amamake.
Second base should be near or somewhere in Molden Heath because I make my ISK in the Angel complexes there – more about that later.
This leaves Caldari lowsec as the last location, Black Rise or Lonetrek are likely candidates.

Amarr lowsec I’ll still have to scout out, if I like it, sure, there goes number five.

The limiting factor is cash of course. If one T2 fitted Rifter with faction ammo clocks in at around 8 million I have to make some major cash to stock each base with at least five fully fitted ships.

I also need to think about where exactly these bases should be as in how much jumps apart?
Thinking 30 or 40 at the moment.

Some people were so kind to offer me corp memberships which I declined. The above is the reason. I feel like doing my own thing at the moment and I don’t want to be the guy who never participates in corp stuff because he’s always at the other end of the universe.
Having said that I enjoy hanging out in chat channels, so if you have or know of a cool channel let me know by all means.

So, ISK:  I’ve been running Angel Creo-Corp Mining Complexes. They can be pretty good. Early on I lucked out and got the b-type small shieldbooster which sells for 50-60 million.

Sadly more often than not the plex only drops some crappy Overseer Personal Effects. Why CONCORD buys these I don’t know. 200k for old socks and dirty underware seem a bit excessive.
You guessed it: the money is infuriatingly inconsistent.

The shield boosters are also the reason that the complexes are pretty consistently camped in Highsec and get run pretty often in Lowsec by Dramiels. On the positive side they are very low effort to do if you see an empty one while roaming: just check Overseers Structure in your overview settings, kill and loot the structure in each pocket, ignore all the NPCs and they take no five minutes to do.

If I get good loot I drop it off at the nearest station and contract them to my “market alt” who can pick it up and sell it at my leisure.

In Highsec you can maybe get a guy who’s just waiting around in the third room till the structure respawns to aggress you so you can steal his fat loot:

Fig. A: Fat Loot

I was really glad about that kill. Not only was it a destroyer with fat loot but the loot did actually drop, too. Also this broke my chain of bad luck incurring loss after loss for a week straight.

I’m also pretty proud that I managed to stop overheating my guns right on time. One cycle longer and I would’ve burned them out like a fool. Again!

-

This post is sponsored by Bug Akane who gave me a stack of Rifters.

-

A glimpse into the future

Cyberin from Hands Off, My Loots! gave me a Firetail, so as soon as I can reasonably fit the thing you’ll be a able to read about its life and fiery demise.

I’m still working on some fiction, so stay tuned. It’s about the janissaries of EVE: Kameiras

-

Edit:

I have changed my blogs look because the transparent textboxes seemed to cause long loading times as well as slow scrolling speed when viewed with the IGB. Rather retarded because I have the link in my character bio.
This theme performs much better and I’ll probably change the background, too, because now it doesn’t need to be dark to keep everything readable.

This month’s topic comes to us from @Tetraetc – “Tetra’s EVE Blog” – who asks: “Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts wherever. Would the reduction of the alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (or the modifcation of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?”

Oh boy, the first Blog  Banter I can join in. Of course I’d write an article!

Even if it should be about something I know next to nothing about like these humongous alliances which control New Edens vast 0.0 zones.
I’ve never been to Nullsec. Yet.

Luckily I know a bit about sociology and philosophy – I took several courses at University and yes, it was because of a girl, we were a couple for a short while, no, the story doesn’t have a happy ending, my ego suffered a bit but at least I picked up some education.
Anyways. What I am saying is that I can do this. I can actually say something about alliances in EVE!

-

So. I think I will have to start at the beginning which is the individual player.

My assumption which may be pure fallacy is that I can take every individual player and shove him kicking and screaming in one of several broad drawers:

Carebears. It’s EVE, I got to mention them. Irrelevant to my topic though  - I’ll define these as players who treat the game as if it was single player and generally don’t like it if they get “interacted” with.

You have the regular dudes. They build stuff, explore, mission and even might fleet up and shoot people in these huge fleetblobs (100+) I hear so much about. I think EVE forum speak calls them carebears, too. I shall call them citizens.

Next are the soldiers. They like PvP. A lot. But they hate losing, so they make sure they always have the odds on their side and call this tactics.

Then there’s Dr. Evil. Psychotic, megalomaniac supervillains. I think you know what I mean.

And last but not least we have lone wolves. Channeling Mad Max. The misfits. They do it solo.

Note for the easily offended:
I am talking about playstyles as I have observed them in the last weeks, no personal reflections whatsoever are intended! I believe that most players are not what they play – I am no lone wolf in my real life but I really like that playstyle.

Now imagine a brand spanking new EVE with todays number of players. No one knows anyone.

IT’S THE AGE OF THE WOLF, MAN!

A golden age for the lone wolves. Everyone scatters before them while they roam freely, killing whom they please, whenever they like.
I think this is what’s lamented when someone says “solo PvP is dead” – if this mythic age ever actually existed I am not too sure about.

But in either case: soon it’s all over.

FEUDING TRIBES

Soldiers start banding together and they start killing the wolves. Some might join up with the soldiers, others roam on, still admired because they are romantic figures, Quixotes, but largely without much relevance to the “big” stuff.
The move from single fights to proto-warfare is complete.
Citizens, too, form corporations for mutual protection and cooperation in this new environment where not a single killer is out to get you but a whole gang of them.

STATE

It’s just a question of time till “tribes” start cooperating as well. Much easier to kill of the other guys if you bring twice the numbers. Dr. Evil is born and with him alliances dominate all.

EMPIRE

That’s today. Repeat the last two steps as Dr. Evil becomes even crazier. Only this time it’s alliances forming powerblocks.

-

So, to finally answer Tetraetc’ question:

I think this is a natural  progression. If CCP were to restrict this with game-mechanics players would work around this and eventually form these powerblocks anyways.

I think it might actually be better to introduce an actual mechanic for them, so that “outsiders” can see who is in bed with whom but that’s a consideration far beyond my limited horizon regarding EVE.

So, I’ll just say all Empires fall eventually, either crumbling from within or because unwashed barbarian hordes come visiting.

Of course that’s when history repeats itself.

EVE can be seen as a quite interesting social experiment. Maybe there’ll be revolutions leading to democracies one day.
I’m not 100% on this but it seems to me that as far as systems of governments are concerned New Edens alliances are still stuck in the Godking-phase, so there certainly should be room for some evolution.

-

So, that’s it for my first Blog Banter. Here’s to many more to come!

-

Participants:

1. CrazyKinux’s Musing: EVE Blog Banter #25: And by Alliance you mean…..?
2. BB25 What sov changes will come? | A Mule In EvE
3. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: Alliances and Sovereignty
4. Blog Banter 25: Nerfing Nulsec « OMG! You’re a Chick?!
5. Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? | Nitpickin’s
6. Blog Banter #25: Alliance and Sovereignty Limiting PvP in 0.0? | Sarnel Binora’s Blog
7. Blog Banter #25 – Mad Haberdashers
8. Alliances and sovereignty | Eve Online Focus
9. …Shall we not Revenge?: BB 25: What if the Alliance vanished?
10. Blog Banter: Alliances and Sov
11. EVEOGANDA: BB25: Sov ‘n Go!
12. » TBG:EBB#25 – Alliances and Sovereignty To Boldly Go
13. Freebooted: BB25: Leviathans of the Deep
14. Wrong Game Tetra ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
15. EVE Blog Banter #25 – Human nature what art thou? | Way of the Gun
16. Who cares about Sov? – Hands Off, My Loots! ~ well sorta like an entry! :p
17. The 25th EVE Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty – The Phoenix Diaries
18. Achernar: The space commute
19. Wandering the Void…my EvE musings. – Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty
20. (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #25: How To Break EvE. « Prano’s Journey
21. Captain Serenity: Blog Banter #25 – Crappy mechanics
22. Helicity Boson » Blog Banter #25 Nullsec and sov.
23. BB #25 – “With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?”
24. Boom! Hull-Shot?: It’s the End of the Eve as We Know It
25. sered’s lives: EVE Blog Banter #25 – Size does matter
26. 25th EVE BB – Medieval Solutions to Spaceship Problems | Inventions of a New Eden Industrialist
27. Eve Blog Banter #25: “Have Alliances and Sov Limited PvP and RP in 0.0?” « Align Outbound
28. Banter 25: Sovereignty, Alliances and Power Blocs | TheElitist
29. Blog Banter 25 – But I just left all that! « A Scientist’s Life in Eve
30. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
31. >>>Vigil Ant: Alliances and SOV by Munny’s eyes.
32. Latro’s Bunker: Blog Banter 25 -Nullsec and Sov
33. A “CareBears” Journey » Blog Banner #25: Alliances and Sovereignty, and their affect on PVP and RP
34. Blog Banter #25 – Unstoppable « Roc’s Ramblings
35. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
36. EVE Blog Banter on PVP in Null Sec « Evehermit’s Blog
37. Sleepless in Space: Blog Banter #25: Moar Low Sec!
38. Escape Velocity: BB#25: The Condition of Mere Nature
39. Imagine a Null Sec…. « the hydrostatic capsule
40. Blastrad tales » Coagulation
41. Yosagi Yojimbo – Gallente Exile: EVE Blog Banter #25: And By Alliance You Mean Blob?
42. More to come…

This image seemed to get linked daily in IAC, usually whenever a new player asks something about the UI or game mechanics.
In my first post I said:

I am a new player but not a total noob. My first trial was two years ago and last year I actually was subscribed for three months or so

Yeah, that trial two years ago? On my first day then I saw this pic for the first time.

I think it’s a load of BS!

In my opinion EVE is quite easy to get into, but challenging to truly master – which is no problem: skill comes with practice!

Of course this may be easy to say for someone who starts the game with some previous experience. Well, I think my only real advantage is that some part of my brain remembered most of the various acronyms in use.

I won’t deny that EVE is very complex and there is very much to learn about its mechanics.

So, how can a newb take the “cliff”?

Easy! The solution is focus and research.

I don’t live in wormholes, so I don’t need to know about their mechanics.
Do they interest me? Sure! Will I check them out? Definitely! But before I go I’ll get some intel.

As rookies today we have it easy. EVE has been around a long time, so we don’t have to boldly go where no man has gone before! - If anything we are standing on the shoulders of giants.

I like PvP, so I researched it: aggression mechanics, guides specifically aimed at newbies, ship loadouts, videos. You name it and it’s out there, one use of google away.
The same goes for PvE, industry or whatever else strikes your fancy.

There’s no need to find out everything for yourself when some players have compiled all the info you need.

I want to stress ship fittings especially. There is absolutely no reason to fly around with embarrassing “failfits”. You are not the first guy to sit in that ship, so just use the cookie cutter for now.
There’s enough time to come up  with your own awesome fitting variants once you understand what makes a good fitting – from looking at various ship loadouts its obvious to me that they need focus, too.
Only one type of tank, either short- or long-range weaponry. In EVE ships resemble scalpels, not swiss army knives – which makes sense for a MMORPG.

Having said all that: you still need to put all this theory into practice. Especially if you are like me and came here because of the awesome PvP EVE offers.

There seem to be three schools of thought on newbie PvP, lets look at them:

A. The Carebear Trap

You can’t PvP till you have X skills.

B. Cannon Fodder

You need to find a corp that lets you tackle for them.

C. Get A Rifter

You’ll lose a ton of ships but they are cheap anyways.

A. Don’t do this! This is why I quit my previous three month gig. You’ll get bogged down, will never feel ready. You’ll get used to being afraid and everything will start to feel futile.
The other guy will always have more skills, right?
Well, who cares! – you can still blow him up!

Sadly some people seem to actively spread this myth, to the point of discouraging any noob who wants to have a go at Pew Pew.
Just yesterday I was told that I’m to “young”  to PvP.

I must be doing something wrong then… just can’t figure out what that is!

Now, B. and C. are not mutually exclusive but I think B. is still a bit pessimistic. To me it sounds like you might as well not be there. Not really making a difference.

But I have no experience with that, so I might be wrong! I’ll talk about what I’ve been doing – option C.

It is definitely possible and you’ll feel pretty satisfied when you get a kill.

Yesterday my luck was out – four losses, no kills. My worst roam so far.
But I find I learn much more from my losses and will become a better pilot because of them.
Note however that in each of these fights I was the initial aggressor – apart from this maybe, we were both hunting the same guy and ran into each other, I think – so I am far from being a hapless victim.

Also I do stupid mistakes, even if I got much of the theory down. An Incursus got away because I have accidentally been fitting disruptors instead of scramblers, so his microwarpdrive didn’t shut down.
After “fixing” my fit I would’ve been able to tackle a Nemesis had I still had the disruptor!

So, I learned that there’s a time and a place for each module.

As for the cheap part, sure, to begin with your ships cost next to nothing but they get more expensive fast – I’m a fan of the new shiny as much as the next guy.
I’m not talking about ships – got currently no desire to get into a cruiser and for some reason I just don’t like destroyers – I’m talking about gear: rigs, T2 armor rep and damage control do add up and next Sunday I’ll add T2 guns to my arsenal.

Maybe in that part I’m doing it a bit wrong.

So killing a few rats here and there might not cut it much longer. I’ve been looking at the static DED complexes. 1/10s and 2/10s seem easy enough, sadly my first two runs haven’t  yielded good loot but I know (second hand) that if you get lucky some of the faction stuff will fetch a pretty penny.

I’m also considering sidetracking my training a bit to do some Exploration.

-

I haven’t talked about the new player experience in terms of how the game welcomes you: take the time to do the career advancement missions, you’ll learn a lot.
The only one I am a bit dissatisfied with is the advanced military one – it teaches you about some PvP concepts but can’t compare to the real deal.

But I admit I have no idea how that could be made better!

The Sisters of Eve Arc is okay, too, if a bit too long in my opinion.

Also, don’t underestimate the community, most people by far I met have been pretty chill and very helpful, too.
At worst my convo was rejected. I fancy that I am a chill guy myself, so if you made bad experiences it just might be your own fault.

To try to translate a German proverb: it shouts out of the woods as you shout into them!
- hope that’ll make sense.

-

There’s only one thing left to say: it’s a sandbox, do what you want and don’t let anyone tell you what to do!

But if you need some inspiration check this out!

5,505,000 ISK. Dead only.

I have a vague idea who put it there but I can’t be sure, because as far as I know the CONCORD authorities don’t disclose that kind of information to criminals.

This is the story of how I got a bounty on my head and got to keep my head, too.

But first things first! Thursday night I logged in to queue up some skills. The training wasn’t about to run out till Friday evening and I had a lengthy session planned but with free room in the skill queue I get nervous and you can never know if something comes up at the last minute.
Well, to my surprise a contract was assigned to me: a kind benefactor, a pirate of Molden Heath lowsec, had left me a gift. The Thermodynamics skill!
I won’t name you here cause I forgot to ask you if that’ll be alright with you but you know who you are! Many thanks again!

That was the first 4 million ISK skill down, the second I wanted to get is Infomorph Psychology. To my surprise the skill costs only 900k!
Either I had previously done a price-check on the wrong skill or it cost that much at some non-school station that doesn’t issue the skill.

I found a good use for all the ISK which was saved and got myself a personal killboard.
A useless expense at my point of a Pod Pilots’ career some might say – well, it is pure vanity I guess! If I do something I just have to do it in style.
Friday evening came and I started my roam. Instead of going via Molden Heath lowsec I took a shortcut through highsec because I wanted to check out what Caldari space had to offer in terms of targets.
I didn’t get far though. Emboldened by my success against a Cormorant  with railguns I engaged a Thrasher. It turns out that seven 200mm autocannons hurt. A lot.

Eleven jumps back to Rens. Kitted out a new Rifter and decided to check out a dead end lowsec system  which is cut of from Amamake by a single 0.5 security system.
I had a bit of fun playing cat and mouse with another new player, also in a Rifter, in the two Deadspace areas there but ultimately I couldn’t catch him.

I was just about to leave when Glazios jumped in. Web, scram and started to shoot. He didn’t aggro me though and jumped back into the highsec system.
I had to wait out my timer before I could follow him. I was sure that he’d be gone, never to be seen again.

Finally the local authorities cleared me for gate activation again and I jumped through just in time to get a glimpse of him as he jumped back into Olfeim. I cursed a little and reapproached the gate to follow him once more.

This time he was waiting for me. Almost at once we engaged each other. Another loss. His Rifter was shield tanked, so my Fusion rounds were somewhat less than ideal.
I am considering using Phased Plasma to fight Rifters – and other ships which can be shield or armor tanked – because while it isn’t the best against one type of tank it isn’t horrible, either.
I think I’ll use it as a nice alternative to Fusion or EMP if I can’t be sure what I’m up against.

Back to Rens. Next Rifter.

Again I set out to Caldari Space. Several uneventful systems later I see an Outlaw Broadsword at a Stargate. Now, that is a T2 cruiser and I don’t think I’d stand a chance.
We both jump simultaneously. As soon as I load the System I hit warp. But I was to slow, I am warpscrambled.

His autocannons tear into my shield and armor and I decided to at least go down fighting. I kick in my ab, rep and damage control and once more I settle into a 500m orbit. And once more my adversaries guns cease to hit me!

My little pea shooters don’t do much but I am not yet an Outlaw, so I got the gate guns on my side and I realize that I can win this fight with that kind of help!

His shields start to drop.

Having come to the same conclusion the Pilot ceases hostilities and starts making his way to the gate, ever so slowly.
I actually scream at this point! I must get the kill! Just imagine the glory, the ultimate bragging rights!

His shields are gone and his armor goes down fast.
At this point my recollection gets a bit fuzzy, I am not sure if he actually dipped into structure but that was when he had made it. He jumped out.

A fellow IAC member told me I should’ve bumped him. For sure! If only I had known about that before.
With all the excitement I even forgot to at least make a screenshot. So, I can offer no proof for this story. Most people will have to take my word on it but you, too, know who you are and next time I’ll get you!

Well, we both got a good laugh out of it in our private convo!

I take the disappointment with good grace but still, on the off-chance  that he lingers a bit I follow him through as fast as I can.
No Broadsword to be seen. However there’s a flashy red Thrasher on the gate, piloted by Raxip Elamp of Veto. He targets me and it is clear that he wants to fight, waiting for me to open up on him.
I take a long look at his ship. I know I don’t stand a chance. I apologize and jump out.

In the fight against the Broadsword I had taken a bit of structure damage, so I dock up and call in a professional repair crew. But I certainly don’t want to linger, so I undock again as soon as they’re finished.

In the meantime a Thanatos had undocked as well. I had some capital ships on directional before this but I hadn’t yet beheld one through the lenses of my camera drones.

I quickly snapped a picture before continuing my roam, the angle isn’t all I could wish for but I was a bit worried for a second that he’d squash my like a fly.

I make my way to Raeghoscon. There’s two guys in the system and I warp to a Planet to check out the belts with my scanner.
There’s one frigate here. TAMPLIER BOGA’s Worm.
I checked up on the guy. Hasn’t got his license much sooner than I have, he’s flying a Gurista Frigate but he certainly don’t looks as if he’s a pirate.

I start to narrow  him down and check out his ship. From the slot layout I guess that he’s probably shield tanked. I reload to EMP.

Score! One belt and the Worm are left on scan.

I land 20 km from his position. Not too bad but he might still give me the slip.

I started afterburning and managed to snatch him with my scrambler. Boy, do his shields drop fast! I switch overview tabs and target his drones, a Hobgoblin I and two Hammerhead Is, but I don’t take too much damage, so instead of killing his drones I go for the coup de main.

His armor is hovering a bit around, I had misjudged him, clearly there is an armor repairer going. But it doesn’t do him much good and he explodes!

Over a great distance I hear my voice commanding “Get the Pod!” and I have him targeted, hit scram … and he warps out!
I accidentally scrambled his Hobgoblin.

I loot the wreck and chill a bit at my newest safespot.

My neocom blinks. A new mail. TAMPLIER BOGA  has added me as a contact with terrible standing.
I have made an enemy, I find.

Engineering 5 is about to finish in one hour, so I set destination to Aedald where the Thermodynamics skill is waiting for me and set out.
Of course I inform IAC corp chat of my latest kill and get a few congratulations. Yeah, I, too, am fishing for compliments. Sometimes at least.

One corpmate informs me that I have a bounty on my head!

I show info on my ship, click my portrait and there it is! A massive bounty for such a new Pilot as I am. I pause a bit to gloat.
I think this might be a compliment by TAMPLIER BOGA but the number is a bit odd. Maybe his corpmates chimed in?
I’ll probably never know for sure.
Enough time spent in self-admiration! I continue my voyage.

And it is quite the uneventful voyage till Saidusairos where I see Kilisforgestige. From having seen him earlier I know he’s flying an Incursus and I think I can take him.
I offer him a one on one fight. He declines.

Guess I’ll have to do it the hard way.

I do my now familiar scanning routine and find him at an asteroid belt, warp to him and without further ado I lay into him. His ship starts to go down fast.

But what’s that? Glazios who killed me earlier warps in! Both Pilots are in the same corp – clearly this was a set up and like a fool I ran headfirst into their trap!

Now it’s my turn to go down fast, and my ship blows up.

I spam warp as fast as I ever can but my senses must’ve been astray from my sudden loss and  Glazios has my Pod warpscrambled!

I weep for my glorious bounty.

But what’s that? He doesn’t shoot and convos me. I accept.

3 million he says.

My head is worth more than that.  5,505,000 ISK to be exact. Maybe he hasn’t seen my bounty yet or he just takes pity on me. Another possibility: maybe he just wants to get even more ISK out of my frozen corpse.

But I fought him earlier and we exchanged a few sentences. He seemed like a nice kind of killer.
And there’s something endearing in the way he scrambled my Pod without shooting instantly.

All these thoughts race through my head in the merest fraction of a second.

Trust has to begin somewhere. And having killed a few Angels and Serpentis in empty systems here and there I can afford the ransom, no problem.

K, I say and wire him the money, done.

Thanks, he says and releases me. I warp to safety.

Glazios is a true gentleman who sticks to his word. If you find yourself on the wrong end of his guns pay up and he’ll let you go! The only damage that’ll do is to deflate your ego a bit – and my ego certainly needed a bit of deflating!

Rens is not too far off, so I head there to reship and to take the highsec shortcut to Aedald.
I pause in the busy Brutor Tribe station to sample the local cuisine. Beefsteak, rice and a hot curry-mango sauce. Tasty.

Refreshed I plug myself into Pod and Rifter once more, take the quickest route and finally start training Thermodynamics.

Time for my next destination. There seems to be a secluded patch of lowsec “south” of Molden Heath. Time to check it out.

To my disappointment Derelik is aptly named. The few souls I saw in these systems were either docked up, cloaked or in Drakes.
An empty wasteland. But listening to pretty chill music I somewhat enjoyed my trip there – but still I don’t plan on going to Derelik ever again, even if it sports Nebulae of uncommon beauty.

But see for yourselves, I took a few snapshots there and will end this  log entry on that note.
You can click on these to view the large version.

Enjoy!

-

PostScript: looks like Kilisforgestige’s Incursus blew up after all!

Of course that much love needs to be spread far and wide, so I now have links, too.
The categories are pretty self-explaining, I think, and will of course be expanded as I come across more stuff.

I haven’t tried Red Frog and the  Jumpclone Service – both found with my amazing google-fu – yet but the comments tell of very good services. I am currently training Science Lv.4, the prereq for the jumpclone skill.
4 million ISK is kind of expensive – could’ve bought eight fitted Rifters with that amount of cash! – but I feel that it’s well worth the money.

So, what else is new?
Most of my day was spent tweaking my blogs theme and now  I’m glad to present it in its final incarnation!
I think its p. cool and I hope you’ll all enjoy it.

Sadly I’ll probably won’t have time to continue my adventures in New Eden till Friday evening. But I’m determined to double my efforts as soon as I’m undocked.
The cool part is that I’ll finish Engineering 5 on that very day which will enable me to train Thermodynamics – which is probably prohibitively expensive, too.

I’ve been reading the excellent EVE Chronicles lately and I am in the process of drafting my own stab at EVE (Fan)Fiction.

Also I’m about half done writing up my thoughts on the New Player Experience, so stay tuned!

And it was a pretty good week in my opinion. I dived headfirst into PvP and with great success, too! Not too bad for a new player I’d say.

I started my day with some more hijinks in Arnon, fighting two guys for a couple of rounds, Philthyphill and Enema77.
Phill in particular taught me that the shieldtank of the Merlin, a Caldari Frigate, is not to be underestimated. In fact I could dent it a little but was far from breaking through. He is also a sweet dude who gave me 5 million isk for my war chest.
Enema77 was a bit put out at first, I think, because I managed to waste his Imperial Navy Slicer but he got his revenge and killed me twice!
The Slicer has a pretty sleek look btw and I think I want one.

Downtime was coming up and I bought my latest Rifter “Dare MK6″. Reshipping is annoying and I really think to streamline  the process I should start buying stacks of the things!

In the meantime I had watched a tutorial about the directional scanner on youtube and of course I was eager to try my new knowledge out, so with the confidence I had gained I decided to do my first cruise through Low Security Space, or a “roam” as it is known in New Eden.

So I set my destination to Bosena, Molden Heath which is a hive of scum and villainy – or at least that’s the impression I got by reading a couple of pirates’ blogs. Setting my autopilot to “prefer less secure” it calculates a route through lowsec.
46 jumps. Oh my god. I guess the life of an outlaw is pretty travel intensive!

Lowsec has a pretty cool feeling to it. In stark contrast to highsec it is very sparsely inhabited and if you do see someone in local you can’t help but feel that they are out to get you.
They probably are. I am certainly out to get you!

Only four or five jumps in I see a lonely sixteen days old character. But even though I checked all asteroid belts with my scanner several times no ship appeared. Instead of wasting more time to pick on another newbie I press on.
The next couple of systems are empty, then I start to see more people again.

Several Lokis, Tengus and Drakes  appear on my scanner. Looking at the ships’ infos I am convinced that it would be more than foolish to attack.

18 jumps in. Arzad.
I see a Nemesis on scan, a frigate of the Stealth Bomber class. No idea how my Rifter would fare against one. But it is a frigate after all, so I try and narrow the scan down.
After some fiddling with the scanner I have it! Only the Nemesis and one asteroid belt in the results!

I click warp.

My hands shake even though I don’t know if he’ll be there.

I tumble out of warp. There he is! Pilot Asstrra, 43 km away, shooting a NPC battleship.
Doggedly  I fire up my afterburner and start the long, long approach. Surely he will warp out.

30km.

He is unfazed by my presence.
Maybe he hasn’t seen me? Maybe he doesn’t take me as a threat? I consider piping up in local, to ask if he needs help with the NPCs. A ruse de guerre akin to flying false colors.
But if he hasn’t seen me? I don’t want to startle him.

20km.

I am in targeting range. But I don’t target him yet. Surely he has seen me and thinks that I want to help him.
Total silence in local.

10km.

Finally I hit target, activate web, scram and guns. A warning pops up: “Do you really want to…” YES, DAMN IT!!

I got him! Clicking orbit I start to chew into his shields. Long seconds he doesn’t react, clearly I caught him completely by surprise.
Then he lights up on my overview, his torpedoes start hitting me. But they don’t do much damage, his armor is nearly gone before he is even halfway into my shields.

The Nemesis blows up! All I can think is “GET THE POD!” and I actually have it scrambled and kill him before my mind is capable of coherent thought again.
My plan was to kill ships and to ransom pods but adrenaline and bloodlust overcame me.
I switch to my loot overview tab, swipe the loot from the Nemesis wreck and for good measure I scoop the frozen corpse I am surprised to see. EVE really is a PvP game.

I warp to a random planet and make a safespot on the way to wait out the 15 minutes criminal countdown. I already tasted station guns two days ago and I am not eager to renew the acquaintance.

After a couple of minutes boredom, I felt not only thoroughly punished for my first act of piracy but also I was finally able to sell my loot. Another 5 million isk!

My next couple of Rifters are more than ensured after today!

I’ll skip over the rest of my roam, cause no viable target presented itself. The only frigates I saw were two Dramiels  which are quite out of my league as I understand.

Having made my way to Bosena I went for the extra jump, docked up in Teonosude and called it a day.

My security status went down to -1.28 and I think soon I will have to worry about being cut off from highsec.
I definitely have to come up with a plan how to supply myself with ships if I don’t want to get extorted on the rather bad lowsec markets.

All in all I am really satisfied with this week and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to a peaceful life, filled with missions.

Try this: Eve Avatar Face-Off

Or you might want to read some blogs: The Eve Online Bloggers Portal or you go here: EVE Blog Bundle OPML Files or here EVE Online Blog Roll

If you’re new, like I am, and you want to start a PvP career you should check out Wensleys excellent Rifter Guide at Rifter Drifter!

That should get anyone through the downtime!

I felt like a young God once I undocked. Ready for anything. And yet slighty hesitant. Where should I go?
Doubt came upon me, surely in Lowsec I’d be the smallest fish of a sea full of piranhas and sharks.

I felt disgusted with myself, this reaction to impending danger I hadn’t anticipated.
And losing my first encounter wouldn’t be as glorious as I envisioned my entry into the world of reckless PvP.

I was on the verge of docking with my tail between my legs to train more skills when it came to me in a flash: Arnon!
It’s the system where all new players get sent to after they finish their tutorials to help Sister Alitura of the Sisters of Eve.
I remebered from my last visit that outside of the Sisters’ station players were asking for 1on1 fights, dropping Cans to give each other aggression rights.

I felt reassured. Fighting another new player sounded like just the thing for me: neither should be too much ahead by gear alone so the fights should be reasonably fair – with a good chance that I should triumph!

And really, having made my way to the Sisters of Eve station, my can named “noob 1on1″ got swiped in seconds by a guy called Tech Killa … who docked instantly.
I admit I was put out a bit and moved away from the station to drop the next can further away to put a stop to such antics, however just as I was 50km away, ready to jettison another round of Phased Plasma he undocked in a Breacher and started approaching me, clearly he just had reshipped and was now ready to fight me!

With shaking hands I clicked orbit, activated webifier, scrambler, nos and guns… and I wasted him in seconds!
While this was going on I had arranged my next fight against a Punisher flown by fellow Imperial Academy student atrum cruor. The Punisher was thougher to crack than the Breacher of mere minutes ago, but having run dry on Capacitor he was soon helpless and exploded as well.

At this point Tech Killa aproached me for a rematch, I agreed, warped to him opened up and was wasted by Concord. Our 15 minute aggression time had run out in the meantime and much laughter was had at this obvious Noob mistake.

I reshipped to “Dare Mk2″ and waited for the 15 minute criminal countdown to run out, undocked as soon as ready and there was Tech Killa waiting for me in his Caldari destroyer, sitting next to his can.
I anticipated a loss this time, because as soon as I took the can he opened up on me and my shields nearly instantly vanished. But now my web and scram came into play and settling in a tight orbit his railguns couldn’t hit me anymore and I won again!

What a day! Glory indeed!

• Getting into PvP ASAP
• A security status of -10
• Wanted stamp on my portrait
• A  certain reputation for E-Bushido
• Becoming a known solo-pvper

The first is easy enough, next weekend should see me make my attempts at rifter piloting.
The second goal should be possible in time.
Third is somewhat shaky, of course I understand that I could put a bounty on myself. I’d feel like a cheat though and certainly its against my precious E-Bushido!
As for the last two points: all depends on my ingame actions. I’ll certainly do my best!

I make this public to have a constant reminder of my goals and anyone will be able to call me out should I stray from my way – the Way of the Gun!

I am a Gamer in my mid-twenties and as you can see like many other guys playing MMORPGs I choose to have a female avatar. But I’m not one of those who actually pretend to be a girl.
Lets be perfectly clear: I am in fact a guy!

I usually always play with a female character, not only online but also in games like Mass Effect. I mostly do so because I view characters not as an extension of myself; mine is the third person narrative and I like stories about ruthless women. In a way I view myself as the author of my characters’ tales.
Of course I’m a bit inconsistent. For example I always choose my characters names with voicecoms in mind – I’d rather not be called girly names.
Seba is an old RL nickname – maybe you can guess my real name – and I added dai  for a certain “Mongolian” sound because my toon is a Khanid Cyberknight.
- which sounds a bit dirty, I guess -

I am also a German, so if my English is a bit cumbersome at times I apologize. I won’t be mad if someone points out grammar mistakes, either.
This blog is in English for the same reason I prefer the English client to the German localization: I like to profit by my hobbies.
If I’m doing something fun and can improve my language skills at the same time – so much the better!

Anyways, I am a new player but not a total noob. My first trial was two years ago and last year I actually was subscribed for three months or so – I quit because a lack of time and general RL issues.
So this time around I started a new account instead of reactivating to have a character age that won’t make people think I have tons of experience and skillpoints, a much better name and the best looking bloodline – beauty is in the eye of the beholder, don’t forget! ;-P

That’s it for now!