Mind Warfare

This is why I came to WH space.
Me, against the many.
I have little firepower, and few defenses.
I have only my wits, and skills, against their superior firepower and numbers.

I slide through the depths of space, watching...
waiting...

Silent, but deadly.
They will know the meaning of fear
As they probe for me in futility.
Only to have me strike when they are lax.

I know where they are.
I know how many of them there are.
I know what they fly.

I know my enemy.
The enemy is mine.

The Curse

The sensors immediately began seeking my corp mate's ship as I got clearance to undock in my new Amarrian Force Recon ship, a Curse. The complete ship cost well over 100,000,000 ISK, most families are lucky to make 10,000 ISK in a single standard year, which equates to 10,000 standard years of labor (for them) and a few minutes for me.

That being said, it would be silly to fly this cap draining ship immediately into combat. None of my main line ships have ever been so radically different from my Blasterz n' Dronez approach to PvP. Thus, a corp mate had agreed to do a few test duels with me.

In short, Antigone's Revenge was kitted out as follows:

[Curse, Eater of Capacitors]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field I
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Warp Disruptor II

50W Infectious Power System Malfunction
50W Infectious Power System Malfunction
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Improved Cloaking Device II

Core Defence Field Extender I
Core Defence Field Extender I


Hammerhead II x5 [x2]
Warrior II x5 [x2]

As Brick0Joe's Harbinger landed on me, I ordered a long range orbit of 25 Kilometers to minimize his damage while I neuted him.

A few seconds later, I was comfortable orbiting him, taking minimal damage from his lasers while his drones nibbled away at me. I began locking them, only to find out I had a 10 second lock time per drone. Note, drop the cloak, not terribly useful for solo fights.

However, my neuts kept cycling off, as I would continually wander out of their current max range (26 km). In a real fight, I'd have lost point by now, but I'll need to practice staying within certain distances from a moving target, although Recon Ships IV will be done in 2 days, so that should help in gang fights.

As my shields dropped to about 20%, I told Brick that his sole flight of drones were now destroyed, as it would be poor etiquette to actually destroy them in a test fight. By now, my neuts were taking noticeable effect. Brick's lasers had stopped firing, and he had slowed down considerably.

I engaged my MWD and closed into a tight orbit of 500m. I deactivated my 2 medium neuts and began to cycle to two small neuts I'd use to keep him capped out. Suddenly, beams lashed out at my ship, taking a large chunk out of my shields. I immediately reactivated my other two neuts and pushed another 800 charge into the core. This time, I didn't turn off my medium neuts until I was certain he was actually dead in the water.

It wasn't too long before Brick was forced to concede the fight. Although, I've learned a few valuable lessons before I take Antigone's Revenge into a real fight.
1. Drop the cloak, makes it harder to tackle and attack drones.
2. Fit a medium SB, to take/harass out drones.
3. Drope the Overdrive II for a PDU II, the extra grid, cargo for cap charges, shield, cap, and cap recharge are all more usefull than 125m/s.
4. Work on MWD/range micro
5. Guestimate how long each ship class should take to cap out. I put out about -50 cap/sec at range and -32 cap/sec close up, or -82.5 total cap/sec.

Frigates- 1 cycle pretty much
Cruisers- circa 1400 cap = 28 seconds at range, 43 sec close up, 17 sec in omfg mash buttons!
BC's- circa 3000 cap = 60 seconds range, 93 seconds close up, 36 sec in omfgmb!
BS's (probably a bad idea to begin with)- circa 7k cap= 140 sec at range, 218 seconds close up, 84 seconds in omfgmb!

Soon, very soon, Antigone's Revenge will slip out into the dark of space... seeking revenge.

Skills, Gotta Get Them All!

Many people complain about the inherent advantage older players get than newer ones, because there is basically no way for a newer char to get more skill points than an equal char.

Proponents of the current skill system claim (with a good degree of truth) that newer players can become just as proficient as any older player at doing any one thing, but that older players are just proficient at more things.

As I sit here, typing this up, I haven't really played much EvE for the past week or so. This is mainly because I'm waiting for Amarr Cruiser V to finally finish (5 days from now) and let me fly the Curse (Neuting from 30km away? Hell yah)

Currently, there is only one way of 'catching up' with the older players SP wise. That way is by purchasing a character (for a large isk sum) from somebody else made. I don't really like this 'solution', namely because it requires that you literally become an older player. As I sit on 4 billion + isk, I don't really want to buy an Uber PvP char (which probably costs 10b +) because I've invested over a year into Lanissum.

Instead, I'd like to suggest a few alternatives to purchasing an entire new character.
1. Instead of transfering the purchased character, the new character's skills (and assets, etc) are merged with yours, and the new character ceases to exist.

Pros: You get your SP's, they get their ISK, CCP gets more disk space, you don't have to trash your precious main.

Cons: Can't really think of any, although if you change your mind, it's not like you can just resell the char. (Well, you could, but then you'd basically be doing the same thing I'm trying to avoid here)

2. Instead of buying a character, you buy individual skills (pay x isk to finish a currently training skill now). The exchange rate would probably have to make it more expensive than buying a new char (I think that rate is about 200mil ISK/mil SP, so maybe 250m ISK/SP?)

Pros: You get exactly what you want, right now, instant gratification.

Cons: CCP doesn't get their $14 fee (kinda lame, since all they do is a quick database manipulation -_-)

3. Instead of buying a character, you pay to increase your training rate for a certain amount of time (or SP). Similar to the current noob 'x2 training bonus until 1.6 mil SP'

Pros: You get what you want.

Cons: If you just want to finish a skill NOW, too bad. And you better have a plan for all that extra 'bonus training' if you don't want to waste it.


I most prefer #2, although #3 would do in a pinch (namely because it's 'already implemented'). I especially like the idea of being able to actually catch up to older players without becoming one of them.

What do you think?

Well, That Went Well....

Today, we went a wormhole op thought up by the Benevolent Leader, Golden Helmet. It was a dismal failure. We spent half the day scanning down wormholes and finding 0 targets. As we went deeper into U-space we kept bookmarks at all the wormholes.

It was a great plan, until one of the wormholes collapsed, separating 8 or so of us from our direct route home. When we finally did find a wormhole into lowsec, it was 30 jump trek home. And we still didn't get any kills.

I eventually had some fun in Amamake, 3-1 freeforall style, to offset the utterly boring day I had.

All Hail the Benevolent Leader, Golden Helmet.

Massacre

I was shaken from my reverie as my Ishtar suddenly lept into warp towards an asteroid belt. I quickly asked Spectre, our FC, if he had warped us all to 0. I sighed after receiving an affirmative, as my Ishtar's tank was reliant on speed. Reaching down to the comm panel, I warned engineering to hit the MWD as soon as we landed in the belt.

Before long, the shuddering increased again as the Ishtar re-entered normal space. Asteroids were becoming visible on the view screen, and the signatures of enemy ships were resolving. As soon as I landed, my Ogre II's slipped into the depths of space, chasing a Brutix which had been primaried. The Ogre II's went in for the kill, litterally blasting it apart, while I orbited the maelstrom of the fight, secure from danger.

But before my Ogre II's reached a rupture, their next target, an enemy Falcon uncloaked. I immediately siezed the initiative and began streaking towards it. Unfortunately, the Falcon pilot noticed me and ran away. As I was now effectively on the outskirts of the fight, I ignored the primary calling of Spectre.

Instead, I targeted an enemy Stealth Bomber which had uncloaked and begun firing off volleys of torpedoes at my comrades. I locked and pointed it instantly, depriving it of the ability to cloak or run. My Warrior II's danced around the now helpless Nemesis. Just as it entered structure, a volley of torpedoes from Lachesis's Stealth Bomber landed a direct hit, ripping through the flimsly craft.

Instantly, I lached onto yet another Stealth Bomber which had unwisely shown itself during the fight. I laughed at it's pittiful attempts to escape, as my Warrior II's shredded the doomed Manticore.

Suddenly, the silence of space was no longer punctuated by the silent concussion waves of blasters and torpedoes. As soon as it had begun, the fight was over.

The enemy had lost 1 Battlecruiser, 3 Cruisers, 2 Stealth Bombers, and 2 Frigates. We lost nothing.

The fight was not as one sided as it looks, they did have a falcon, but they failed to protect it from my Ishtar, which forced it off grid.

As the fleet was preparing to warp to a SS, our scanners picked up an enemy Abbadon and Stabber Fleet Issue fleeing into Amamake. We briefly considered the danger of bringing our GCC'ed fleet into Amamake, possibly the most dangerous system in EvE (after Rancer), but decided to press the matter.

As my Ishtar phased out of Jump Space, I could already see the projectiles and lasers streaking across the silence of space. I immediately locked the Abaddon and sent my Ogre II's, despite the sentry fire, on it. It was a race against time, the Abaddon was straining, ever so slowly to get within 2.5 Km of the gate, it was less than a kilometer away. Throwing all caution to the wind, I ordered my Ishtar into a tight 500m orbit of the ship, and activated my triple blaster battery. The shuddering was immense, I couldn't tell when my volleys left the Ishtar and when sentry fire hit it.

Just as it seemed like the Abaddon was going to escape from us, Kerblamo's Tempest phased into Real Space and fired a torpedo volley into the stricken Battleship. Suddenly, it's engines died down... the piloting lights flickered out... and it just sat there, for a moment, before the majestic ship imploded on itself.

Checking my sensors, I realized that the Fleet Stabber was still here, on the gate, even though it had had more than enough time to make good it's escape.

It was a mistake we capitalized on.

The Simple Things in Life

Leaving my quarters, I checked the comms channels on my way to the hanger. They were rather quiet tonight... so I would be flying solo. Peering into the depths of my hanger, I saw a small ship that I hadn't flown for a very very long time.... the Taranis Tech II Interceptor Class Frigate.

As I left the docking ramp I punched in a course for Siseide, which would take me through Amamake. I didn't fear getting caught in any gate camps, as I would be almost impossible to point before I warped off.

Soon, I arrived in Siseide.. it was a quiet system tonight, only 4 in local. There was a Hawk, Punisher, and Tristan on scan. It was apparent that the Tristan and Punisher were together, the Hawk was an unknown factor.

I detected the Tristan at a belt, I immediately warped in, only to see the ship warp to yet another belt. The ships computer anticipated my command and threw me into warp. Seconds later, as the tendrils of the warp stream gave up their grasp of my ship, the klaxons blared as both the Punisher and Tristan were within 10 Km of me.

Grinning, I ordered a tight orbit around the Tristan, the more immediate threat. My warp scrambler and stasis web held him down. As soon as the lock resolved, my pair of light drones slipped into the cold of space, seeking their target. The vibrations were so sharp, I didn't notice when my trio of blaster batteries fired, nor when I took a hit.

The Tristan didn't hold out for long, dying horribly as one of my drones flew into, and exploded out the other side of the ship with a good portion of the frigate's innards.

As I turned my attentions to the Punisher, the ships computer notified me of shield failure. Ignoring the alert, I pushed the attack, ordering a speedier, but wider orbit. However, it soon became apparent that we were both taking proportional amounts of damage. Deciding that the situation was untenable, I disengaged my afterburner and orbited even closer to the Punisher. Hoping that the superior firepower of my blasters could surmount his superior tank before my Taranis gave way.

Just as the last of my ship's armor gave way to hull, the Punisher suddenly imploded, atmoshpere, crew, and myriad of other debreis venting into the cold of outer space. I immediately locked the pod and destroyed it, collecting yet another corpse for my already commendable collection.

Noting that only I and the Hawk pilot remained, I vacted Siseide on my return trip home.