Monday, April 28, 2014

Burn Jita

So, Burn Jita is over, and I’m a little disappointed.  Sure, I was able to kill about 30 billion in ships, and sure, total kills were above 600 billion.  On those accounts, it was a good weekend all around.

But I only managed to lose 3.1 security status.  I’m disappointed in myself.  I had hoped to bring my ratting alt down to negative security status, but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

For those of you who haven’t participated in a Burn Jita in the past, here’s generally how the fleets go.  The CFC had two fleets running around the clock, with various FCs rolling responsibility in two or three hour shifts, usually.  It’s similar to what happens during hellcamps.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Boredom and the API

This is one of those articles that posits a problem without presenting a solution.  Sorry.  Sometimes that happens.  After all, I don’t know everything.  But I think this problem is large enough that it deserves to have attention drawn to it.

I’ve mentioned already how I’m somewhat disengaged with Eve.  Part of that is due to the stagnation in null-sec.  A lot of people – myself included – would agree that a null-sec with a lot of small groups would be more entertaining than the current Cold War null-sec, where there are really two groups that matter, with at third who has pretty much been taken out of the fight, and a fourth who’s more interested in holding onto what they have than projecting power beyond Providence.  That’s a lot of space to be carved up by essentially four groups.

What this leads to is a tendency for the best null-sec roaming and small-gang fun to be had by corporations and alliances who AREN’T based in null-sec.  Wormhole corps and low-sec pirate corps near null are no doubt having a field day.  There are a lot of renters out there who don’t have the faintest clue how to resist a gang (though they do know how to safe up), and the small-gang skill of an average null pilot approaches zero asymptotically.

Pretty much, we’re talking Lindisfarne in 793 A.D.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

I Want a Challenge

I’ve been finding myself increasingly disengaged with Eve the past couple weeks.  It’s not that I haven’t been playing; I’ve been spending a lot of time running around FW sites shooting frigates.  In my eyes, that’s still a great way to brush up on basic mechanics and counters.  It’s a lot easier to fly and lose T1 frigs against other, equally balanced frigs than it is to lose T2 cruisers or above.  I’ve already covered a lot of my observations about that sort of flying in previous posts.

It’s fun, and I’ve been logging time in game.  It’s not that.  My corp has a lot of players who hunt FW pilots.  Sure, you have your farmers, but there are also a lot of FW pilots who really enjoy the low-risk PvP.  They tend to charge into battle quickly and often, which makes for great content.  And having friends nearby to share intel and team up when we run into a blob only makes it better.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

In Other News… Razor Welps a Fleet

A few months ago, I wrote a summary about the CCP event that saw the empires combining forces to strike down a pair of pirate research facilities.  It ended up being a complete disaster for the Empire forces.  Razor and a number of other null-sec alliances combined to camp the entrance gate and pretty much obliterated the piecemeal collection of pilots who meandered into the system without much organization or coordination.  It was a classic example of organization overcoming disorder worthy of Sun Tzu.

On Friday night, CCP was running one of their carrier kill events, offering a number of PLEX to the pilots who inflicted the most damage.  Naturally, myself and a number of Repercussus pilots wanted to participate, so about ten of us made our own way to Tama.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Lessons: Cop Killer

I have to admit, but the minimal premium of 9 million the Police Pursuit Comet is over the price of a standard Comet, I just had to fly one.  Sure, it may not have any stat advantages over the standard model, but it was just fun to wander around pulling folks over.

Let’s cut to the chase… I actually found opponents were more eager to engage me than they were a standard Comet.  Something about “fighting the power”, I suppose.  If you’re looking for a good fight, try flying a cop Comet around faction warfare space.  Folks take fights they never should, just for the chance to kill one of them.

My night began with a quick roll through Black Rise.  I chased a few folks away from sites – particularly in Kedama – without being able to pin them down.  In one instance, I warped after the same guy seven times, from site to site to sun to planet, only to lock him and realize he was stabilized.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Thoughts on the CSM

With the CSM candidates having been announced earlier this week, every blog and podcast dedicated even part-time to Eve has been interviewing candidates and sharing their preferences for individual options.

Yeah, I’m not going to do that.

Quite frankly, each of you has a brain in your head, and more than half of you are probably able to judge how to apply it best to an election.  If not, well… a population gets the representation it deserves.

Instead, I’d rather talk about platforms.