GUD FITES

One of the most enjoyable fights I have had in a long time. Thank you to all involved! Caldari Militia can bring the pain when they want to.

This whole fight started as a mistake.

I had a look at the plex on D-Scan and saw a firetail and thought better of it, but when I hit the warp button I had not changed my target.

So off the the plex I went. First time my target warped off *sad face*. Next try he stick around to give me a good fight :) [though eeebill use of ecm :P] I got lucky with enough missed jam cycles to reduce his ship to spinning fragments. Just then the cavalry arrives and I am too slow to GTFO.

SO I do the only thing I can do, overheat and go down fighting! Things were looking slightly better than grimm when suddenly Thrasher!

Heaps of fun, thanks guys, see you in my gun cams :)






Got the cam started a bit late on the next one. ( Bloody good fight though! Had me to 3% hull. Lucky the retribution is a tough ship. [Yay for DCU, T2 resists, and lot of hull :P]

Thanks to TnG1200 and EmissionGeneration for the donation of the Ship for some low sec hijinks :) More to come...

For completeness here's my fit;
[Retribution, Kiting-brawl]

Small 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Heat Sink II
Tracking Enhancer II
Damage Control II

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I

Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
[Empty High slot]

Small Energy Locus Coordinator I
Small Energy Locus Coordinator I

Navy Multi in cargo

Thanks to the nice ppl at Failheap for posting it.

Exile

....aaaaand I'm back.

2012 was a year with little to offer for me, a torrent of RL crap ruining my life in New Eden. But it's behind me now. Thank goodness for that. Because I can return to New Eden with a fresh perspective.

I kind of returned about November and got back in touch with my best-est space friends the [R1DER] alliance. It was great to catch up with the old guys and all of the new faces. I spent my time in the Black Dragon Fighting Society not with the Black Rebels as I was way out of touch PvP-wise and I just wanted to do my bit for the corp and show some brotherly love to our new up and comings. Plus I am shit at PvP so it's probably where I should be. Not with those cut throat REAL PvP'ers.

I have only just left [R1DER] to go wander the dark parts of New Eden on my own. I miss everyone already and I really really miss the [R1DER] Forums. Nothing quite like them in Eve I assure you, I might not miss all the ponies so much...but maybe I do :P

My reasons for leaving are pretty simple, it's not them' it's me.  Becoming an alliance, and adding a drafting corp, along with a couple of other corps now starting to specialize in different areas of the Eve spectrum of violence, I have fallen out of my place, or the place I had imagined I occupied within the Black Rebels. I also feel that I need to go it alone for a while, and toughen my self up and "earn my patch". I cannot hold a candle to many, well most, of the other pilots. I don't think I ever will. I had become so intimidated buy the size of the corporation, and the growing alliance that I was putting myself through a whole lot of stress due to some sort of performance anxiety. I simply felt like I did not deserve to be flying with these guys. If you Know [R1DER] you know just how stupid I was being. It's pretty much a do what ever the heck you like kind of place with a great bunch of people more interested in having fun than obsessing over KB stats or comms, fleet doctrines, yadda yadda yadda. You know the kind of stuff that is the death of fun in a game like this and makes you feel like it's your second job.

So TL/DR I was having stupid imagined issues and needed to step out for a bit, grad some fresh vacuum and get my head sorted.

I now fly truly solo, in shit fit T1 frigates [most of the time away] that I love. Under my own selfish private banner. Nothing but my ammo to keep me company. It's quiet, but gives me a lot of room to think and play.

My current thoughts on my play experience is to fly T1 Stuff, with no implants, no boosters [which I have never used], no drugs [not used them either] and try to spend the lowest amount of isk I can on fittings. I read in a few very successful PvP pilots blogs that meta is ok as far as modules go, you can compensate with player skill. There's a challenge, Challenge accepted :)

Your average T2 fit T1 frigate will set you back between 10 and 20 or so million isk. I intend to spend around 3 to 5 mil per frigate. I will try to pick my fits and ships accordingly. I am a brawler, I suck at kiting, so I will be picking tanky ships with bonus to damage or resistance maybe, or both if I can. I see this giving me trouble in many scenarios but I will try a few non-standard modules and tactics for low sec frigate stuff and see how I go.

So the plan is, take out my Junk Yard Dogs, an die in a fire until I acquire some of this ephemeral "player skill" people keep talking about.


I have also begun recording my fights as a learning tool, as recommended by my space buds in [R1DER]. I cannot tell you how helpful this is, esp now I have a computer that can do it at a decent frame rate.

From time to time I'll put them up here.

Like the one below.

As time goes on I might add some commentary, but that will be after I manage to say something other than, "Oh Crap! Oh Crap! Oh Crap!"

I learned quite a few things from this fight;

1. Thrasher is still and awesome ship, and a great equaliser
2. Pilot age is not necessarily an indication of how the fight will go
3. I need to work on my micro management of modules more
4. Nuets really ruin your day on an active tanking ship
5. How to embed videos from you tube

I flew up to The Bleak Lands FW Amarr area as I had heard form many [R1DER] pilots that it was a fur ball of small gang and solo PvP. Sounding just like my cup of tea I grabbed a dual rep incursus and hit the warp button.

I aplogise for the warrior II info box on the screen, was a result of some frenzied miss-clicking. Better vids to come, promise :)

One thing I always hated about Auner...was all the damn vampires!

Well this is not pert three of my Scarebear series, but a quick how do you do.

The RL Despair Squid has kept me pretty busy the last couple of month. But I have subdued it for now and am back ready for more of the R1FTA Bois antics. I missed you guys and the pew that knowing you involves.

First official day back I met DARKSTAR in Auner and got our first kill within 10 mins of logging on. Cheers DARKSTAR, fellow Aussie, and Top bloke.

Then we got cocky, why not, and tried to take down and Ashimu with a Rifter and a Merlin. With predictable results I guess :P But I have to admire a guy who flies ships like that in a place where you could easily loose them. The Guy has balls and Isk, all Credit to him.

Then RL came and found me and I had to leave my violent second life behind again.


...but I will be back!

Lookign forward to fleeting with the R1FTA crew again and many good times.

Feeding a Habit - part 2 (Scared Bear)

So my PVP alt was nearing readiness...or so I thought.

I surfed on over to Battelclinic, scoured Scrapheap, and pestered the more combat oriented members of my Indy corp. You might laugh at asking indy guys for pvp fits, but well as I had learned many cold hard killers have manufacturing and mission alts, so I did get some great fits, looking back these days I actually have half a clue and can see that.

But, and dear reader it is a BIG but, my emerging death-machine had no where near the skills needed to fly these things. So after reading a good getting into pvp guide, and a pirating guide or two I built a couple of dozen rifters and a bunch of T1 mods to fit them with and dropped them in a station that bordered low sec. This was going to be my first pirate base. Kind of dumb if I had become a big bad red flashy pirate, as the local navy may have objected to my picking up my ships in patrolled space. But well live and learn, or die and learn as was in this case. Shit it was only a rifter or two (slow learner lol).

My first system for hunting was Pertnineere, neighbouring, Y9G-KS. This still makes me laugh.

Can you guess who lived in Y9G when I decided to start my low/null sec roaming?

It was the home of and erudite bunch of gents who went, and some still go, by the name of No Trademark.
Great bunch, oh yeah ruthless, racist, rude, lolfest killers to a man, well in game any ways. I would like to say that I learned heaps from my run ins with them, but the trip to a clone vat is too fast to really process much.

What I did learn was that I had far more to learn than I could ever have imagined.

My TZ and my RL commitments make it hard for me to fleet up, yeah many of you know how much that sucks. I also have nno figured out a good way to make loads of isk, and refuse to spend RL money on anything else but my subs. This does not make the perfect recipe for pvp fun, but I get buy.

I kept up my roams, oh how short they were, and had some fun, and very few wins, but I had them.

I learnt about gate guns, and how firgs are not the best for attacking ppl on gate in low sec. I learnt that assault, frigates are tough buggers, Arazu's are sneaky bastards with ridiculously long point range, and can be INVISIBLE!!!! Oh and they always have friends, well almost always.

Repeated ganks buy Arazu's in the belts of low sec around solitude started my love affair with cloaky ships.
And this love affair is only now reaching a point where I can fly my, hopefully, ultimate solo SB fit. Yes I am one of those dumb-asses that still think an SB can be a viable solo pvp ship. We shall see in about 2 weeks I will have the skills I need for it to shine. Then I will go out and have a good time loosing them, and tell you of my adventures.

My solo adventures were fun, but also frustrating, and way too quick. I did some thinking and decided to start looking to join a pvp corp to see if I could get time to fleet up with like minded psycho's and get a few KM's.

Well servers are up again!

Time for me to go, and you to.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling again, if you can possibly stand any more, watch this space in the coming week, or weeks :P, for Part Three -Bear for Hire.

Cheers,

Meat.

Feeding a Habit - Part 1 (Carebear to Scarebear)

Bear with me tonight, this is more of a ramble than post :)

[Caution the following post contains bad spelling and Jargon]

Once upon a time in carebear land I had a happy peaceful mining toon, well I had three happy peaceful mining toons. Enthusiastically munching away at roids, turning rock into useful things, and then letting other people have fun blowing them up.

Well we all know what happens to every carebear corp at some stage in its' Eve existence...The War Dec.

War Decs are normally a time for panic, bluster, and fail fits. (I got famous for about a week on the Scrapeheap forums once for losing a Fed Navy Comet that was fitted with Auto Cannons and had no ammo :) )

Many carebears hate so called griefer corps, or mercs with too much time on their hands, for declaring war on them to fill in the hours between paid jobs or for lols, or simply because they have a ridiculous name, or had too big a mouth in local. (personally I cannot resist indy corps with war like names. they get just a li'l bit more 'special' attention when I am in local and bored.)

All of these reasons are valid in my humble opinion, after all, it's just a game to while away the idle hours that accumulate in RL on slow days or when you need a bit of Eve to cheer you up or mellow you down.

Well my first war dec was spent in station in fear of our aggressors, as directed by my corp management. My second was a bit more experimental (Hence the navy Comet loss). My third, the longest and most violent at that time in my Eve existence, is where I had the fortune to take part in a meaningful way under a good FC and got some kills and held the field against Mercs and griefers, not all the time, but in a few battles.

I became more experienced, more confident, lost some of the pvp 'jitters' and acquired a taste for blood.

Mining was never the same again, missioning was empty, and now only a way to generate isk for my growing addiction.

PVP.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank those heartless, mean spirited bastards, for taking the time and spending the isk to open up a whole new level of Eve for me.

Honestly if you have never really got into the combat side of Eve, in particular the role of the aggressor, you have not played the game.

Its one thing to Kill some AI pirates, its quite another to jump in to a hostile gate camp and bait, point and trap your opponent, have your buddies jump in and watch him go down as his buddies either make a break for it or burn in for a good fight.

To all the guys, and gals who have assplodded me, podded me, and in their turn been keelded and popped by me GFGF.

Still gets my heart racing, and its worth flying around for an hour or two to end up circling each other wondering who will run out of hull first.

I have read that many pirates and top ranked killers in Eve have started out like myself as an indy or mining toon. Just like me they probably also still have their indy toons, saves you a bit on ship replacement and fitting to be sure, and most are ready to admit it.

Did they also have their eyes opened by a blood thirsty killer who used to hunt rocks instead of men?

The War dec that opened my eyes was with No Trademark when they used to live in syndicate near solitude.
They rang rings around us, but we had a go at fighting them and learned a thing or two. They even gave me a decent fit for a Navy Comet :P

Now on the other side of the War Dec I give great respect for players who band together to fight off myself and my corpmates. It's a lot more fun to have someone fight back. I do honour my 1v1's and I try to not fight way over my enemies ability to fight back. After all a close fight is a good fight.

Hell yeah I like to win, but there is no fun in popping some poor guy in a frig with and alpha cane. (Well maybe a little bit of fun, but not as much as a frig vs frig fight.)

So I created a pvp alt, and got him training while I read a lot and went out and did some roaming on my indy toon to get some experience. I died a lot, but I learnt a lot. No where near enough of course, I have always been a slow learner, but what I did have is a lot of fun, and many heart racing adventures.

I roamed Null, low, and WH space, when that came into being, and while my poor abused under skilled indy toon never became a combat monster, I became a very good blockade runner, and scout.

An important lesson in combat is your are more effective in the long term if you do not get killed. Dead men only stink up the place.

Meanwhile my new PVP alt was getting more skills and now ready to jump in a well fitted frig and, I thought, do some damage and make a name for himself.

Tune in next time for Kills, spills, and lols...

Fly Dangerous,

Meat

Borrowed Meat

"The best clones are constructed from human cadavers..." from http://www.eveonline.com/background/cloning/clon_02.asp

This got me thinking. After your first death in a pod you are borrowed meat, recycled form biomass, any biomass.

Does that make a capsuleer undead? A Frankenstein's Monster? A Golem?

Make up your own mind, for me all the pilots of New Eden are living on borrowed time in a state of technological post mortem animation. We stride the stars as Gods but are composed of the waste of the universe. Is this why we span the full spectrum of ethics and morals?

What about our souls ? (If you believe in them)

Does the soul come across in the infomorph?

Or does each capsuleer lose and essential part of his/her make up in their first death experience? Might explain why isk and renown are more favoured by the pod pilot class than any other of the social levels of New Eden.

Does this casual attitude towards the death of the body engender the low regard we have for the death of tens, hundreds, even thousands of the men and women who crew our vessels? It is important to remember that when your flying anything larger than a frigate you have living breathing people roaming the hull you are piloting. For the doubters...http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1243933.

When lose your ship the first thing you do is spam warp to a celestial so those lasers, bullets, missiles, and gobs of superheated plasma don't rip your pod apart. A good thing if you make it out, you keep your implants (significant investment for most pilots), save the cost of a new clone, the inconvenience of waking up in a vat far, far away, and if you're like me a whopping migraine. The transfer always gives me a migraine.

When, if ever, do we think of the men and women who died when our ship died? Or those lucky/unlucky enough to survive the death of the ship and cling to life in its crippled hull? Are they press ganged by your opponents, left to suffocate, die of exposure, thirst, or starvation? Or do they end up as red goo covering salvaged components?

How many of our former crew end up as biomass for cloning programs*?

Food for thought...Are we Masters or Monsters of our own destiny?

*"Soylent Green is people!"