Yet another great weekend. I stared it by getting a hanger full of alloys with two triple BS spawns, logged for lunch and then signed back in.


As soon as I’d loaded my corp chat exploded, “grab a ship, any ship!” WTF??

It turns out that one of our allies was under attack by another alliance that wanted to move into 0.0 space. We didn’t want this to happen so mounted up to help defend their space. 23 pilots left out home system and headed the 20+ jumps to assist.

Once we arrived we realised just how well defended they were the main gate had well over 140 ships sat on it, all with drones out and organised into groups depending on the ship role, the tacklers were orbiting the gate tightly, the snipers were sitting 150-200 KM from the gate (with BC & Frig support), and the damage dealers were scattered around with drones deployed so that no-one would get past.

The systems that we had come to defend were a bottle neck, with one way in and one way out. The aggressors were inside, being harassed by friendly gangs and unable to leave due to the gate blockade. No more re-enforcements could get through, unless they were on our side, and with constant gangs roaming to kill scouts the chance of a capital fleet jumping on us was remote at best.

After 10 minutes of sitting at the gate, waiting for a target to shoot the word came that they wanted to negotiate for terms. They had lost over 60 ships, and killed just three.

We’re not sure how it panned out, or what the terms were as we were thanked for the help and sent on our way home. It was then we decided to go for a roam around our space to keep the locals in check. Unfortunately no-one seemed to be out and we were left flying with no targets at all.


The fleet operation was very good practice though, and a lot of fun.

One ship down, Hundreds to go.

I’m back to eve now after a short break in order to go to a very muddy music festival in the south of England. First day back I spent over 12 hours ratting, with hanger full of alloys I couldn’t decide what to do with it. I had three choices, sell it for 75% of empire value, refine it and sell it myself, or refine it and make stuff to sell. I went for the thirst option and I’m now the proud owner of over 1000 E-War drones of various sizes.

I’m hoping the demand for these if high, as no-one else seems to be selling them within 20 jumps. If they don’t I can always use them myself I guess…

Whilst I was waiting them to build I decided on to go for a roam. The first place I set as my destination was a collection of systems that are regularly frequented by macro’s in very full haulers. Unfortunately it must be a Chinese holiday as no-one was around so I headed on over to space belonging to Stella Polar, an alliance that for some reason or other are set to red with us, so shoot on sight.

Three jumps from their home system the map showed five pilots active in space, considering I was in a frigate I wasn’t overly confident about my chances but carried on regardless.

Jumping into the system I hit the scan button, nothing showed. Moving to the other star gate I scanned again, and got a command ship and a raven, with no POS on scan. I managed to scan them down to one of two belts and warped in, just in time to see then run away from me. Not sure why, I was in a frigate and unless ravens have received a serious nerf he should have been able to tank my damage.

Oh well, no fight so I headed home.

Three jumps from my home base I saw a shuttle slow boating it towards a gate, I followed and got a lock. Only to see it jump. Following the thought dawned on me that it could be bait for a gate camp on the other side. Unfortunately I was already going through.

An ship was sat on the other side and had me locked b4 I had seen him. Hitting all the buttons on my HUD I waited for the ransom demand, none came. Awesome, a good old fashioned fight. We had each other scrambled and webbed so neither was getting out until it was over. Unfortunately my NOS and two rocket launchers didn’t hold out against his 200mm cannons for very long and although I got him well into armour I died a valiant death trying to protect my little ship.

Luckily my pod escaped, as my clone was set back to empire, I’ve changed that now.

Back to the grind stone, going to buy myself some more BP’s and carry on building up the collection, only have 200 so far.

Peskey gate camps

Although it started nice enough it’s been a fairly annoying week.

During the weekend I did a bit more flying round shooting things than usuall, and even took a 50+ jump round trip to help some people out in their war (friends).

The call went out for help late last week, we were told that an alliance to our north was under attack and that Proper response were invading their space and trying to kick them out. As we were on good term with them our leaders said that we would help out with the fighting and send pilots accordingly.

Me and a corp mate set course on Saturday night and off we went, only to get their and find the whole situation in a mess, with no real leadership. No-one seemed to know what was going on, or where the bad guys were. Then talk came through that they were talking peace and that proper response may be surrendering. We wanted a fight god damn it!


Back we went to our own space, as reports were now coming in of a large fleet assembling in a system only 1 cyno jump from out home system, not a good place for it to be. Full throttle we headed back, guns at the ready, spoiling for a fight.

Half the way home we managed to catch up with two ships that belonged to a corp we know to be ISK farmers. One in an Iteron Mk 5 and the other in a Bestower, we decided to try and get them both.

As I was in the lead I over took them in warp (being in a frigate has it’s perks) and set up on the other side of the next gate they were due through whilst my corpie followed at a distance to help out once I had them locked in place.

Through one came, the Iteron, my eyes lit up. It could only be a matter of time before his friend came through and joined the (one sided) fight so I locked and activated my warp scrambler. Rockets tore through the space between us and into his hull, the ship turned, he was trying to warp. Then away he went, with his shield half way down he had got away. Going back through the gate I started looking for his friend when they both logged of. Any prospect of the kill gone.


We carried on home hoping that the fight would still be raging when we got their only to find it log over after the enemy fleet had disbanded, they either saw us mustering and thought better of it, or had met up to compare paint jobs. Either way, a night of crap PvP.

I then decided that it was time to fill up on some more skills and fly some much needed modules out to 0.0, so I clone jumped back into empire space.

I’d been their for less than ten minutes when I got killed at a gate camp in a 0.4 system. They were sat tanking the sentries on the gate, and popped my shuttle, and pod with a smart bomb as I warped to the gate. I lost a full set of +3 implants, I’ve avoided the market all day as I don’t really want to know the current value of them.

Tonight should be fun, back to empire, this time in a ship, so that I can re set my jump clone. Life sucks sometimes.

Low Sec Stupidity

Just a few hours after posting the previous post I had an accident. Out of pure stupidity I got my nice shiny ship all blown up.

I was wondering back into empire space to put my ship to sleep for the night when I saw a kestrel sitting next to a gate all alone and with no pilot. Thinking that it was a bit weird I slowed to a stop and clicked the “Info” button, mistake.

Seconds later my shields began taking a pounding as two (yes two) ships de cloaked and shot me. Since I was in jump range I went through.

Safe on the other side I sat cloaked for a moment to see if they would follow, they did, I locked them both and started firing, only due to the late hour and several beers I had consumed I had (somehow) managed to lock the star gate. Concord didn’t seem to like this so they blew my ship apart in several well aimed volleys.

I can only imagine the look on my pursuers face when they lost the kill, but gained the loot (all T1, nothing to shout about).

Luckily the whole set up cost me less than 5 mil, I’m not that cut up about the loss, just the massive hole in my ego.

On other news, this weekend has been a busy little time for our alliance. The short story is that some people came spoiling for a fight, and we showed them the door, and got them to replace equipment lost during the fighting. Bless.

I may elaborate on this more during the week, depends what mood I’m in.

The plan for this week is to get back to empire and get some more of this skill finished. I may even see if I can organise some of the empire based alliance members into a low sec gang for a few hours, I’de love to get some FC experience, and I’m not sure 0.0 is the right place to start given the current climate, and the inability of my computer to handle more than 50 ships in the same grid.

Fly safe, see you on the beach…

Low Sec Boredom

I haven’t had much chance to play lately, when I have its been back in empire. Don’t worry I’m not sat in Jita. I’m trying to get a big skill out of the way so I’ve moved back to empire so I can use the implants in my jump clone for a week or so. This has left me unsure as to what to do. My standing with agents isn’t very good, as I’ve never been much of a mission runner so I can’t make money that way. I don’t have the patients to run the trade routes, and I don’t have the time to make things, I’m only back for a week!

That left me with one option, PvP.

I’ve sold a load of alloy I had stacked in 0.0 to fund my little endeavour and have set myself up in a system close to the fringes of empire space. My chosen location is only 2 jumps from a well known gate camping position so people to shoot at are in plentiful supply.

I’ve never been a pirate, and don’t intent to be. The only people I’ve shot at have shot me first (or at least locked on). All apart from one, and this guy was just plain stupid.

I was already in a fight with a Kestrel in a belt, he’d been ratting prior to me entering and quickly warped away and docked. Moments later he re appeared in another belt I was in and locked me, tried to scramble me and his web turned on. He wanted a fight.

Seeing an opportunity I bookmarked a wreck 22 km from him and warped out of the system to the first planet in my overview.

Seconds later I descended back into normal space and a red blinking box announced the location of an unfriendly ship 3000km from me. I was fairly sure that the ship I had been fighting couldn’t have beaten me here so locked and checked the pilots info.

He was from an alliance that was at open (although not declared) war with my own and had been part of a several raids that I could remember just from the last few weeks.

What made this a bit harsh is the fact he was flying a shuttle, unarmed, sat next to a planet.

Missiles jumped from my ship and ripped his shields and armour away in one volley. His hull came next as he tried to warp away and soon only his pod was left, floating in a cloud of dust and twisted metal.

As the kill mail appeared I turned my attention to my previous “client” and warped back to the bookmark I had just left moments earlier. The kestrel was still sat their, in the same spot, 22 km away.

I locked on and began firing, he did the same.

Orbiting at 25km my ship kept out of range of his web and sensor damps. Slowly it became obvious that my missiles were doing much more damage than his and I saw his ship begin to turn away, possibly going for warp.

Seizing the chance I changed course and headed right for him, exchanging volleys until the last moment I had his warp scrambled. I turned of my launchers and opened the local chat window.

“Good fight” I said,

“u going to ransom” came the reply.

At this point the idea seemed fairly tempting 2-3 million would be a nice take to replenish my missile bays. I didn’t want a ransom however, so I pointed my ship towards the station and left him alone with a ship that was trailing smoke and body parts, quite content of the good fair fight that I had won. Besides, I had to repent for killing a shuttle…..

I’ve somehow managed not to loose a ship yet, which is bizarre considering I really don’t care about them. Their not hard to replace, and cost chump change, I’ve even been looking for fight. But I guess unless they outnumber you 4-1 no-one want s to fight any more.

What did ever happen to honour amongst soldiers?

Friggin Fun

Another great night yesterday. A few of us were sat around in out home station, chatting about weapon rigs and throwing cats from the air locks when we decided some gang action would be fun. Seven of us ganged up together and headed out.

We had already decided that we would be using frigates as they are very cheap and we didn’t really have any desire to bring them home again. We were out to have some fun, and hopefully get someone else to come play with us.

We formed up at a gate and set of, with a scout always one jump ahead to call out contacts and the gang tightly controlled to keep us together.

And so it began….

Several jumps in and all we’d seen were friendly’s on they way to scout meetings and bake sales, a quick chat to see if any action was expected and we moved on. It quickly became apparent hat for some reason the inhabitants of the drone region had all gone home for the night, and although their were signs of fighting, (pod kills in last hour etc..) we were yet to find anyone.

Then, just as the banter became crude, and we started to comment on the colour of each system we hit pay dirt. The scout reported 5 neutrals in the next system. We were each assigned a belt and we jumped in, fingers hovering over the function keys ready to ruin someone’s day.

In we went…. changing session… they sky was red……right click……….bugger.


Their was over 15 asteroid belts, we had been assigned the first 5. By the time we had check them all they would be in deep safe spots. We cut our losses, although we hadn’t lost anything, and left.

Next time we would find out how many belts b4 we jumped into a system, lesson learnt.

After a dozen more jumps, and still no action we we’re starting to get nervous. Had we stumbled onto the test server?

Then we ran into some more blues, after a quick chat we found out that they had just came through a gate camp with multiple big nasty ships sitting pew pewing smaller more vulnerable ships. Sounds like my sought of fight….

We headed towards this mysterious gate with the belief that any self respecting gate camping pirate would gladly fight a few lonely frigates coming back from the depths of 0.0.

Moments later we were on the gate into the system that held hope of a good fight, our scout went in. Vent went quiet. The scout was silent……Loading,…….Loading………

Bugger, "The node has crashed me out!"

Damn.

But hay, who are we to complain, we figured we might as well jump, as even if their was a camp set up on the other side, that’s what we were here for!

We all jumped, are screens went black……screens still black…….still black……..

COME ON CCP THROW ME A BONE HERE!

For two hours I sat and watched my screen change through various shades of black, then maybe that was just the alcohol!


Once I finally got back onto the server took me 4 minutes to traverse the 400m to the gate so that I could jump. I wasn’t happy, especially since most of my gang were either still locked out or had long since logged in and been killed by rats waiting for the ship to respond.

So it was that alone I began the 17 jumps back to my home base so that I could log of knowing that my ship was safe to fight another day.

Then it happened, 6 jumps from home the call went across alliance chat that several tech 2 ships had entered our system and had been actively hunting ED members.

I saw red and started willing my ship to move faster, bolts were shacking, doors were rattling and the engine began to cry as I flew through gate after gate at breakneck speed.

Moments later I entered the loop where we had the guy cornered, I was in a Merlin fitted for drone killing and tackling, so sitting amongst the battleships and destroyers I felt a little small to say the least.

He came through the gate we were passing, I asked with cat like reflexes and jabbed his name until my fingers bled and knuckles wept. In less than a second I had him locked (impressive) and was racing towards him at 800m/s, closing the distance quickly I saw that my gang mates had only just realised he was in system.

His ship started to turn, he was going to try and run into warp. I willed my finger onto a button and it’s icon went green, I had him scrambled! He wasn't going anywhere WOOT.

Now orbiting at 1km I clicked the rest of by icons, NOS turned on, sensor jammers came to life and my web sucked the life from his engine. He was a sitting duck.

He must have known this, but instead of ejecting and warping away he fought on, T2 drones appeared and began shooting, I turned on my smart bombs, and the drones began to cry…..I laughed!


It was all over within two minutes, he was dead, we took no losses and I collected the loot. He was fully fitted with tech 2 gear and fought well. Unfortunately for him, he chose to fly with cowards, his friends logged off before we could hunt them down.


One kill for the night for the gang, which I assisted my making sure the victim remained for the show, I even managed to scramble his Pod as he tried to fly away from his wreck.


“The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed during war.”

Chinese Proverb

Wolf Pack

So their I was, sat watching my missiles do the dirty on some drones, trying to make up the rest of the corp rent that I missed last week and the call to arms came through alliance chat.

Some people had come into out little corner of the universe and tried to mark their territory. We weren’t happy and went after then. At the time I was again in my drake, unfortunately not the correct setup for pvp so I rushed back to the station and jumped into a Merlin, bumping my head on the way in.

Quickly checking my fittings from the last time I flew it, I realised that it was still rigged as a blockade runner from my visit to empire and the resulting gate camps I had to run to get home. Luckily I had checked, as it wouldn’t be the first time I’d un docked and not had any weapons fitted.

Looking through my available modules I settled for a few sensor jammers, NOS, and some smart bombs. I knew that they were mainly in large ships, hurricanes and the such, and were flying without escorts or scouts. The theory was that if I was small and fast enough I could get in close and scramble them whilst working on the shields and drones with the smart bombs. The ship cost total of about 1 million ISK. Not a massive amount, more importantly, it was a ship I could afford to loose.

Once we’d started to form up on the gate I couldn’t help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. Here I was sat in the middle of space, in a ship that costs about as much as any tech 2 module, and I was on the right side of a hunt.

Once assembled we jumped, they were nowhere to be seen. I didn’t think it would be that easy.

We spread out, the main fleet sat on the gate ready to jump out of harms way whilst I ran around the system checking the connecting systems. I became a scout, one of the most exiting things I’ve ever done. My job was to let my comrades know the location of the other fleet so they could go and kill it. By doing this I was putting my ship and capsule on the line.

I could go on for a while of how we moved from system to system like a well organised organic mass for 20 minutes, with the fleet commander issuing orders and naturally and calmly as if he were ordering takeout, but their really wasn't much point.

They had run away, the speed that we counterd the attack was awsome, the fire power bought to bear was formidable, and our courage un stoppable.

They didn't come back that night so we all headed back and continued chaining rats, and making bread for supper.

I’ve had my first fleet op, and I have to say. Its much more enjoyable than the confused mess that was my last encounter. I’m certain of what I want to do now, that’s PvP, preferably in a fleet, its always nice to have friends watching your back……


"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. "
Jimmy Carter

Why do I play Eve?

So, I was sat their last night, watching missile after missile crash into the side of a few drones, wondering what drones think about when I’m not here tearing their little ships apart, and I found myself wondering why I play Eve.

I’m not a kid, by no means, but neither am I middle aged, if you were to look at me in the street you’d probably think I was on the way to the pub, or returning from work in some open plan office. I doubt you’d be wrong, but I also seem to spend a huge amount of my time watching my virtual ship do various things.

Now, don’t get the wrong end of the stick here, I’m not saying that I’m losing interest in Eve, far from it, but I couldn’t help wonder why I was playing.

I think I’ve finally sussed it out. If I weren’t playing Eve, there is a fair chance that I’d be watching TV, or playing on a console instead. Eve doesn’t take time away from the rest of my life, it just fills most of the gaps- a time that is usually filled with TV.

The only difference between TV and Eve is that unlike TV I can have a say what the outcome is (Not counting the “interactive” TV that charges a fortune to vote people off). This outcome varies greatly, from which ship you want to fly, to whether or not you want to join in the war that’s happening next door.

No other game that I’ve played on such a scale is so open to so many playing styles and choices. I’m a fan of FPS games, but again these tend to be linear, with choices limited to left or right at the end of passages.

I think Eve is a great game; I even like the pirates and scammers. After all, what’s the point of creating a utopian world? It just wouldn’t be realistic.

I’m back to ratting now, as you may have picked up on. The main aim at the moment is to get myself sorted in 0.0 space. That means having lots of liquid assets, spare ships and modules to fit them for multiple tasks.

I also want t equip my clones with the best implants, so that when I’m not playing I can jump back to safe space and learn that little bit quicker-but again, moeny is needed.

I’m now getting 200 damage from a good hit with my missiles after fitting my Drake with a bunch of rigs, my shield will also be getting a little better, once I can find some Purge rigs. Not sure why I’m going to fit them, I can already tank 3 BC and 4 Frigs without worrying.

I need to start trying to find some ice belts in the drone region, lots of POS’s are springing up, and selling ice products should be quite lucrative….

Bye for now, and fly safe.

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"" ~Eve Merriam

The end of an Empire

Christ my head hurts, well not my head, Barbs head, but then she is me. Or am I her?

I’m confused.

Last night I took a trip back to Empire space, that is, space where people can’t shoot you without reason. I chose last night to go as our little war with the privateer alliance has juts came to a close. This means that we can travel freely in empire without being shot at every gate camp they have set up, WOOT.

The sole purpose of my trip was to fill up on a few necessities, like bread and milk. That is if bread and milk make your ship faster and guns more dangerous.

I spent just over 200 million ISK, almost my whole wallet, on skills and modules that I’ve found nearly impossible to find in 0.0 space. I’ve also managed to create a contract for most of my stuff to be bought to my new home over the next few days; so hopefully, it’ll be waiting for me when I get home.

One thing struck me as I went through the gate into my first “safe” system for almost a month, I didn’t like it. I’m a changed man, I used to like the fact that whilst under the protection of concord I was safe from harm, but when your in a system of 600 people (Jita), the odds are that you’re not going to like at least 20-30 of them. I’m guessing this number, I’m fairly sure that If I met every one of them, I’d want to punch half in the face, and drown another quarter, no real reason, I’m sure their lovely people. But they all seem to complain about the lag in Jita, yet still insist on using it for everything from ratting, shopping, selling and ganking noobs.

Anyway, back to my point. I’ve spent the last month staring at my local chat channel, ready to warp and shoot when someone comes near. Not having to do that (or rather not being able) is almost like having to learn to drive on the other side of the road. It just feels, well wrong.

Within minutes of entering the system I felt like a nomadic herdsman, coming home from hunting to find a McDonalds in his back garden, and neon lights offering various services for cash.

I can’t wait to get back to safety of 0.0. I know I’m in mortal danger the entire time I’m there, but I feel safer for some reason.

One good side to my trip is that my head is now full of 34 new skills, from baking to long ranger weapon somethingorother.

Wallet empty and not wanting to come back any time soon, I’m off again back to 0.0. Hopefully my next trip won’t be for a while….

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations." ~David Friedman

The plan of things to come....

Woot, 200 ,million in the bank. Not a massive achievement for many people, but the first time I’ve had so much money in pure cash, without the need to spend it on recent losses. YAY.

I’ve got another drake fully fitted after my previous loss, and our little corner of eve has been quiet the last few days so I haven’t had to put my poor drake back into harms way…yet.

I’ve decided that my pew pew ship is going to be a Raven, a pure missile boat at heart. Having learnt valuable lessons previously I’m not going to rush into this endeavour without the proper skills, this in mind, I’m going to fill my hanger full of Merlin’s for the next few weeks, full of Webbers and warp scramblers. This is so that when the call to arms is sounded I don’t run straight into a fight in a ship that will cost a weeks ratting money. Maximum I’ll loose a few million per fight, an manageable loss to get started I think.

The other plus side of this is that it will free my Drake up for mopping up rats in my spare time, without having to re-fit it every time. So far I’v got about 1 million SP in missile skills, with most of the basics running at Lvl4. Once I get a Raven kitted with Missile rigs and Nos, (not to mention an awesome active tank, it should enable me to hold my own in most fights….we’ll see.

I’ve also hatched another plan this week, that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

So, if all goes well, I’ll be sitting in a frigate this time next week, whizzing around your hull at 900m/s slowly draining your shields and NOS ready for a corp mate in a bigger ship to come and finish you off.

See you on the other side.


" May God have mercy on my enemies because I won't " Gen. George S. Patton

Fight Night

Without doubt last night was the best night of my eve career so far.

This is for two very simple reasons. The first is that I died, the second that it was my choice.

Yep., that’s right, I strapped myself into a drake, and warped into the middle of a fight, for no other reason than I wanted to. Let me explain from the beginning.

Last night whilst I was ratting, a gang of bad guys appeared in our system and headed straight for our station spooling for a fight. Having already decided that if someone came into our territory that I would drop what I was doing and go and say hi, it was with a cry of glee that I started to align for the jump gate to go and help out.

Moments later, amidst the confused chatter in alliance chat, and on vent, I managed to make out that they were sat about 20km from the station, shooting at anyone that tried to fight back.

It was around then that I came into the system, pointing my ship towards the station I hit warp, I’d set the distance to 70km, as my ship was capable of throwing missile after missile up to 60k this would put me in a nice place to sit on the edge of battle and snipe so to speak. IT didn’t go quite like that.

Just as I got to the station we had started to organise and fight back, and boy did we fight back. Missiles and drones filled my screen, crisscrossing space like a flock of birds, only these were birds that wanted you dead!

Locking on to the nearest target, a Hurricane Battle cruiser I saw that it still had full shields. Luckily I had previously been shooting drones, so all my launchers were full of Thunder bolts, missiles that deliver an EMP charge, ideal for getting rid of those pesky shields.

Now, before I go on, I’d like to point out that I knew I wasn’t going to make much of a difference in this fight, my sole aim was to last as long as possible and try to help out my alliance for a bit.

Once more unto the breach….As my first missiles slammed into the shields of the Hurricane I smiled, for the first time in the months I’ve played eve I was in a fight by choice. I hadn’t been ambushed or insta-popped at a gate, and I stood a chance of inflicting some pain.

As my second, then third volley smashed into the shields of the guy in front of me I notices two ships heading for me, not a problem, they were small……

Bad decision, as soon as they got within 20km, my engines were webbed and my warp engines wouldn’t work. I just had to hope my tank would hold against the annoying little buggers!

During this time I had go the hurricanes shields almost down. Seven or eight volleys with seven missiles in each had gone his way, each inflicting 170 damage. That’s around nine thousand damage point, all in a few minutes. It was going well.

It was around this point that the hurricane pilot must have seen me, or at least decided to take care of me. His guns started tracking me, and his two friends that were orbiting me far to fast to be shot at jammed my sensors. I was dead in the water.

Round after round from his 250mm cannons slammed into me, shacking my head and causing me to bite hard on my bottom lip. Aware that I was already dead, my ship just hadn’t caught up yet I grabbed a beer and sat back, idly hitting the warp button to the moon in front of me, just in case the scrambler lost his lock.

My ship disintegrated around me, the capacitor empty, the shields over loaded and the hull being shredded I ejected into space and tried to warp away from the melee.

Unfortunately I was already locked by several people and it didn’t take long for my capsule to become nothing more than an extremely cold grave.

I couldn’t help think that I should have served my crew better, but then, they do come free with the ship!

I woke up moments later back in the station and started to equip another drake, hoping that I could go back out and fire of another few rounds as the fight came to a close.

Un fortunately I couldn’t get my hands on any more missile launchers, or for that matter any shield upgrades. So I was resigned to sitting in the station listing to my comrades in arms’ chase away the enemy’s ships and attempt to track them out of our space.

I lost a fully fitted Drake, which I had spent around 45 million crafting, and I didn’t care. I would build another one, and do the same thing next time because I had had my trial by fire and tasted blood, and I liked it.

Be warned if you’re thinking of coming into the drone regions, I’ll be here, I’ll be waiting.

Kill mail can be seen here.

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."- Winston Churchill

There's a rat in my kitchen,

Well, apart from a stinking hangover on Saturday morning that lasted well into the afternoon I’ve had a good weekend. I haven’t lost any ships, and my wallet is now nice and full. This is mainly thanks to the lowering of the corporation rent that I have to pay, and the fact that I paid 40 million to much last week.

I’m now able to fill three containers of alloy in about 3 hours, easy money considering. My passive tank and missile skills are fantastic and my drake is nearly fitted how I want it. Two more skills which I should be getting from empire this week, and it’s done. Resists should be around 70-80%, shield capacity of over 15k, and recharge time of 360 seconds. All adds up to one hell of a rat killer. Especially when I’ve maxed out the 60km lock range with missiles. I can sit at the edge of a belt and smack the crap out of a spawn for hours without taking armor or (more importantly) hull damage.

In my last post, I had a rant about pirates coming into our system and looking for a fight, unfortunately over the weekend I can only assume that I’ve scared them all away as not one person came into our little corner of eve that wasn’t flagged blue. Well, that’s a lie, one person came in, but they spent an hour floating round cloaked. Were not sure what he was doing, but I’m going to go ahead and assume that it wasn’t good. What makes this infraction into our territory worse is the fact that he was French……..

We may be involved in a war within the next few weeks, a real war this time, where people come looking for a mutual fight, and the looser get embarrassed on the forums, or has to hand over some cool stuff.

This is in contrast to the war we have just had with merc coalition, where they sit at gates in empire and insta' pop you the moment you jump into a system. Luckily though, they have been nerfed with the last patch so it should now be safe to go back to empire space. I may even go on a few suicide runs and see if i can get a few of them, would make for some cool kill mails....

So I’m starting this week with a healthy wallet, the intention to go back to empire and getting a jump clone, and start getting skills for tech two drones ready for the jump into PvP, which I’m really looking forward to! Bring it on baby, Eve’s about to get interesting….


"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Sir Winston Churchill

No place like Home

I found myself ratting last night, nothing out of the ordinary, pushing the F keys, and waiting till your cargo hold gets full of reasonably expensive things. Ring a bell?

Its exactly the same as mining, only with the added bonus that if some pirate does come into local and try to ruin your paintwork, then you have at least a chance of fighting back, due to the vast array of weapons sitting on your hull.

This however doesn’t seem to deter many people (myself and my corp. included) from running at the first sigh of an intruder in our little community. Usually running from a fight is one of the last things that I would consider doing. Especially when I’m strapped into a ship full of weapons, drones, and a passive tank that would make Kim Jong II moist.

Despite the fact that I know my weapons can deal some vicious damage, and that my shields can soak up damage that would flatten a small city I still tuck tail and run at the first sign of aggravation.

Last night, while I was sat popping rats, it dawned on me why this happens.

It’s the same reason why I continue to eat at McDonalds and KFC, even though every fibre of my slowly degenerating body knows that it bad for me, because I’ve been told for so long that I’m wrong, that I’ve started to believe others over my own sense of logic and reasoning.

Since the first day I logged onto the Eve-Online forums and started whoring them, I’ve hardly read a post that wasn’t put their by a pirate, or privateer if you prefer claiming that unless you follow their way of setting up a ship your doomed to a life floating round in a 3 Meter egg wondering where it all went wrong.

I’m going to prove this wrong, with my passive tank, heavy missiles, no scrambler and no Nos I’, going to stand up against all those pirates that have previously had free reign through our little system and say NO, we will not be moved-This is my home, YOU SHALL NOT PASS.

I’ll let you know how it goes….

Howdy

Over the course of the weekend just gone, several things happened, most of which will bore you, some of which will make you blush, and some would simply get me arrested!

Above all else one will stick in my mind, it ended with a woman sat on the bus staring at me like I was about to pin her to the floor with the corpse of her dead Aunt Mildred and slap her round the face with a cold pancake (try it, it’s not as nice as your thinking). How this came to be is a long story, well not that long, since I’m at work at the moment, it needs to be kept brief……


So I’ll start at the beginning.


Most people will be aware that for the last few days the .xml file your Eve characters has been bust. Really bust, so bust that you couldn’t use it, that’s fairly bust, don’t you think?

This led be close to desperation, so close I took up drinking, yes that’s correct, I started drinking FRUIT JUICE!!! May god forgive me! I had to find a way of making sure that I remembered when skills were going to finish, so that I didn’t waste any of the extremely precious time in which to gain more SP*. This gave me several options, well two-I’ve never been that creative….

Firstly I tried just to remember when the skills were likely to finish, this could have gone better, because although I did remember that I needed to start Missile Projection to lvl 3, I was already dribbling down my chin sat in the corner of some bar by the time came around (it had been a long week at work!). When I did regain my sobriety the next day I dutifully started the skill going, and proceeded to put on my running shoes (there is a good reason for this, that I’m fairly sure should be illegal), and started to leave the house.

Since my first attempt to remember skill changes hadn’t gone too well I decided to try my second option. Grabbing the first pen I saw I scribbled the next skill that I wanted to train, and time that would be able to start it onto the back of my hand.

What seemed like hours, and several gut wrenching cramps later I found myself many miles from home, and knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to get home under my own power by the end of the day, let alone ready for the skill finishing, I grabbed the first bus that ambled my way.

The bus was full, standing space only, but hay, that’s why we have legs, because humanity can’t manage to put enough seats on a bus. This is why I found myself standing next to a woman, who, on later reflection may have been Dean Gaffney’s older (and uglier) sister.

It was only halfway through the journey that I noticed the woman next to me (Mrs Gaffney) slowly moving away from me, it was around this point that her face took on the appearance of a bung beetles testicle.
It suddenly dawned on me that I’d worked up quite a sweat during the morning, and she didn’t look like the sort that was into the “natural” aroma of a man.

I shrugged it of faster than a midget wrestler on heat. It was only after I got my breath back, and started to slowly regain consciousness, that I put together a few things.

Firstly I had just ran for a buss, in the middle of one of the hottest days so far this year. As a result I was sweating like an oiled hippo in an orgy. It must have looked like I was nervous…

Secondly I looked like I was about to die due to the aforementioned running, I didn’t have my happy face on, I’d left that 5 miles behind me as I ran up a hill.

Thirdly I had “15:20 – Start bomb” wrote on the back of my hand, it happened to be just gone quarter past three.

If your still not sure where I’m going with this you really need to read more Jessica Fletcher. Short story is, I’m fairly sure that the woman on the bus thought I was about to set of a bomb and ruin her nice new Sunday dress (it wasn’t that nice, in fact it looked like a baby seal had exploded in her lap, I just thought the sentence sounded top notch)

Now in hindsight, I realise it was a bit dumb to abbreviate “smart bomb” to “bomb” on the back of my hand and then place a time next to it. Especially on a crowded bus…but hay, how was I supposed to know I’d run into the only woman in England that can read my illiterate scrawl - sideways, on a moving bus!

Sometimes I’m convinced god hates me. But then I’m not sure I like him either, he never buys me cake.

I know this is a very tentative link to Eve, but hay, its my Blog, so screw you!


*if you don’t know what SP’s are, then leave now and play WoW, and if you don’t know what WoW is, then keep reading-there is hope for you yet.