A War Story

Dred Nots has a bit of a history with war decs.  Nothing extensive, but we have declared war on others in hi sec and in low sec.  Some were successful, some were not.  As always in Dred, what we do, we do for teh lolz and in that regard, we have never had a failed war.  

My personal experience with war decs predates the first Dred Nots war experiences.  As a young pup, the first real corp I joined was Cadre.  I had met them with an alt in FW and joined the corp when they left the Republic and struck out on their own.  One of the first things we did was assist with a war effort for the Wildlands.  Our role was to assault the hi sec industrial machine, while our allies assaulted the main fighting force and infrastructure in Gee Dub.  We accomplished this through war decs.  

Our primary objective at the start of the war was to reinforce one of their POSes.  It was my first time out in a BS for a fleet.  Despite it being a structure shoot, I was on edge the whole time.  We always rolled dirty and never flew with logi in those days.  We had scouts along the route from null in case they formed up a fleet to respond, and had a scout at the station where a few of the indy dudes were holed up.  The null seccers eventually did form a fleet but they were too late, and when they were finally reported heading our way, we had reinforced the POS and were heading to a forward base to dock for the night.

The next day is when their shit hit their fans, and splattered all over everybody.  I logged in and was immediately invited to fleet.  They wanted canes, but I only had my BS and a stabber with me.  Without hesitating, I jumped in my trusty (lol) stabber.  Apparently the tangos were out doing a mining op.  We burned towards their mining expedition at full speed.  Our scout said they were out in two hulks and were at 0m/s.  As we hit the final outgate to our destination, the FC confirmed with our cloaky scout that the two hulks were in the belt and still at full stop.  Our scout said yes and the order to jump in and warp was given.  Upon landing on the tangos, I noticed that there was not two hulks, but one hulk, and one orca.  Shouting and laughter erupted on comms and I pointed the orca right away despite the other pilot having been pre-established as primary.  I ended up missing the hulk kill but that orca pilot went home very sad that day. http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=8211383

Immediately after the orca went down, another scout watching the POS we reinforced started yelling on comms.  They were out repping the armor on the POS mods we had also shot.  They were in a Panther, a Sleipnir, and a Scimi.  This could only end well.  We made best speed back towards the POS stopping only to grab as many webs as we possibly could.  All three ships were less than 2,000m from their POS shields.  Again, as we were on the final outgate, our FC confirmed our scouts location and gave the order to jump.  Our scout gave us an excellent warp in and we landed in the middle of their group of ships.  Webs and points were instantly applied to all three, and we made short work of these travesties:

Panther - http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=11895250 (eve-kill kills aren’t lost we just can’t find them =P)
Sleipnir - http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=8211693
Scimi - http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9502443

The sleip pilot decided to come back in a snipe tempest and exact some revenge... unfortunately that didn’t end well for him either
Tempest - http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=8211700

All in all it was a very good start to the war.  In those first two days we had done well over 2B in damages.  It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately it only lasted a week as the null sec assault had failed.  My corpies at the time all proclaimed that this kind of war was unheard of.  They said usually it is all stalemates and docking games.  Whether that was true or not, at the time I had no idea.  All I knew was that this war dec had given me one of the most fun weeks that I’d had in game up till that point.  

Good stuff,

Dred

Asteroids Don't Be Givin' Me No Sass

This blog entry is a comprehensive guide to the Art of Cyno Killing. In it you will learn not only how to kill the enemy Cyno pilot, but you will also learn how to troll them in local afterwards. With this step-by-step guide, you will rise above the typical foibles of PvP and ascend to the status of Cyno Killing Grandmaster. 

All true Cyno killers begin their journey as mere Battleclinic killboard whores, but if you dare to delve deeper, as you will learn how to do in this guide, then the Cyno Killing world will be your proverbial oyster. Read on if you dare to embark on an incredible Cyno Killing Journey!

 -----

Excerpt from Chapter 5: A Nigga's Gotta Eat - Get Dat Pod, Get Dem Bounties, and Scoop Dat Loot

True Cyno farmers quickly learn that there's gold in them thar hills. That is, Cyno killing can be a lucrative enterprise. While it is possible to extort Cyno pilots for ransoms in lieu of killing them, this Cyno Killing Grandmaster asks, "Where's the fun in that?" Indeed, one can have his proverbial cake and eat it, too, when killing Cyno pilots.

In order to profit from Cyno killing, one need merely scoop the contents of the destroyed Cyno ship.

There really isn't much to it. After the fun is done, just scoop the loot.

The payoff comes in selling the relatively valuable Cyno modules on the open market.

Another way to earn income while Cyno killing is to kill enemy Cyno pilots stupid enough to light a Cyno with a bounty on their head. This becomes especially profitable if the enemy Cyno pilot is also in an expensive pod at the time.

Although not an expensive pod, the following log demonstrates how we can combine introductory trolling techniques (which we learned about in Chapter 4) with some of the income earning methods described so far in this chapter:

[ 2012.12.05 05:38:45 ] Starbuck Cross > yay i kill cyno alts .. i am a pvper lol
[2012.12.05 05:39] For your termination of Starbuck Cross we have paid you 926,309.04 ISK from their bounty pool.
[2012.12.05 05:39] For your termination of Starbuck Cross we have paid you 2,991.66 ISK from their bounty pool.
[ 2012.12.05 05:41:19 ] Chigurh Friendo > famous last words before a pod express :)
[ 2012.12.05 05:43:04 ] Ora Montalle > lol i just finde it funny bro .. but what ever is fun for you .. its no biggie for me .. just part of the game
[ 2012.12.05 05:43:48 ] Chigurh Friendo > it's a 'cost of doing business' for cyno alts
[ 2012.12.05 05:44:06 ] Ora Montalle > do you ever do real pvp or is this your only thing in Eve ? [2012.12.05 05:44:16 ] Ora Montalle > i am not crying i am realy curioius
[ 2012.12.05 05:44:19 ] Chigurh Friendo > real pvp as in cyno killing? sure do
[ 2012.12.05 05:44:24 ] Ora Montalle > cuz to me its as boring as mining
[ 2012.12.05 05:44:38 ] Chigurh Friendo > asteroids don't talk back after you kill them
[ 2012.12.05 05:44:51 ] Ora Montalle > lol

Cyno Ship
Cyno Pod



Chigurh

the day the rifter died

twilight sparkle/55, the rifter that killed 55 ships, died moments ago in a blaze of glory!

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=17811892

EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Heild
Cassius Clayy > Gavin2505 gf
Gavin2505 > gfgf
...
Cassius Clayy > watching ur stream, that riftter was my gift to black rebels, i flew her for one year, knew ranis was gonna come in, againg gf!!
Gavin2505 > cool
Gavin2505 > i thought i was toast tbh
Cassius Clayy > u were!
Gavin2505 > :D
Cassius Clayy > keep flying deadly o/
Gavin2505 > you too dude o/

he was
http://www.twitch.tv/gavin2505/b/337483210?t=99m15s

cass

Sweet Fucking Revenge

Pilot:
Chigurh Friendo

Tango:
Sasawong
Sheltering Sky

For those of you unaware, Sasawong is an ECM Thrasher pilot who, long ago, after first kiting me with an Arty Thrasher inside a minor plex, would later reship to a devious ECM Thrasher of the same name and viciously kill my prized Hookbill. The stunning nature of this defeat would present me with a genuine dilemma: given his refined combat algorithm... how was I to deal with an opponent such as this? At first, I had been remiss to figure out an answer to this question. Nonetheless, upon further reflection, it had dawned on me that utilizing electronic warfare of my own might afford a solution to the problem at hand. Moreover, since it was my ultimate goal to kill Sasawong and exact my revenge, it is Sasawong, himself, who deserves credit for driving me to explore the possibilities offered by specialty ewar-based fits. The fruits of such endeavours have been plentiful, but, after our most recent fateful encounter, I can finally say that I feel validated in my ship design. Even so, as the story I'm about to tell will relate, the lead up to my victorious outcome was not one without its trials or perils.

As a pretext to my story, allow me to say that Sasawong and his alt are no strangers to me. Ever since I have made Amamake my second (fourth, actually) home I have encountered him on a regular basis. Most often, Sasawong will flee at the first sign that his opponent is a kiter. Nonetheless, I had, on occasion, managed to secure tackle against him before he (or his alt) could warp off. Regardless, these encounters tended to be little more than exercises in futility and frustration... that is, until today. To put my eventual defeat of Sasawong in context, however, one must first understand the nature of the battles preceding it.

The first of our engagements saw me tackling a Cormorant that had been perched on the landing beacon within a plex. Despite a promising beginning, I would ultimately find myself forced to flee the field in the face of enemy landers. My tackle, you see, had prompted the arrival of not only his alt but had also rallied other locals sympathetic to his faction warfare camping cause. This misadventure was merely a setback, though, and I was convinced that I could still come out on top if only I could engage under the right circumstances.

Thus, a day or two later I was excited to see that Sheltering Sky was stationed at a plex in Vard. However, as I will soon relate, this was an encounter so frustrating that it nearly dashed my hopes entirely about whether killing him would be possible whatsoever. This time, our engagement began with me tackling his Cormorant on the plex-gate grid, itself, but I was soon dismayed to see that after I had given my 'x' in fleet, it was his alt who spiked local first, not my own fleet mates. Furthermore, his alt had a shorter warp distance and was certain to land faster than my own backup would arrive. I knew that I was probably going to have to abort this battle, because I feared that his Hookbill alt lander would chase me away and thereby terminate my point. What happened next, however, was even worse. Not only did the Hookbill force me to drop longpoint, it shut down my locks and ewar altogether. The damn Hookbill had ECM jammed me! Thankfully, by this time I was already burning well away from the Cormorant, so I was in little risk of being alpha'd. Nonetheless, I was deeply distraught. Given the coordination demonstrated and the nature of his helper alt's support fit, I could scarcely imagine how it would be possible to kill him without a significant amount of backup of my own. Certainly, it didn't seem possible to solo such a frustratingly crafty opponent.

Thus, I wasn't even really searching for Sasawong when I found him on the plex-gate grid preceeding our final battle. I had been chasing other Coercer and Cormorant pilots around the minor plexes of Dal. However, it was Sasawong's Thrasher that I watched warp into the site upon my landing. I knew that he would either be a fast-lock Alpha Arty Thrasher or an ECM Scram Thrasher. Nonetheless, I entered the plex clinging to the hope that a pre-overheat on my MWD prop mod might give me the momentum needed to soar out of scram range and thereby re-engage before he could either flee or snare me in his dastardly trap. What's more, I knew that even if I were to prevail in our initial exchange of blows, that his alt would surely spike local and come to his aid. Thus, prepared for the worst, I warped into the site. As expected, Sasawong was stationed right on top of the beacon at zero. In a flurry of motion, I spammed my modules and set my little condor into flight, dashing away from my foe, firing missiles and lighting my ewar, hoping against hope that my little vessel would survive Sasawong's fury. To my amazement, my Condor had done it! Hurtled by its momentum, the Condor had been scrammed and then drifted past the edge of scram, enabling me to not only re-engage my MWD, but also allowing me to break my opponent's lock with ewar of my own. I was now in position to kite my enemy to death, but I wasn't out of the woods yet. I had to ensure that I would hold point whilst avoiding swings, all in the face of an enemy who was rabidly overheating his prop mod. We carried on like this for a while. Sasawong would burn at me and then burn away, but ultimately, these spurts and spats proved too much for his propulsion module to bear and it sputtered to a grinding halt. With Sasawong's propulsion module seemingly extinguished and my own orbit stabilized, it appeared that my victory was safely in hand. Just as I was taking toll of my dominant position, however, my attention was drawn to the local channel accompanied by a sinking feeling in my chest. Lo it was Sheltering Sky "plus one", and I was in a race against time, now more than ever. Overheating my missile launchers, I hammered dscan and watched Sasawong's health diminish in the face of my sheer determination. This time, it was another Cormorant that was coming to join the fray, and I would be hard pressed to deliver the killing blow before its arrival. As my missiles discharged, each volley brought me closer to the inevitable. Either I would be scattered into space as derelict debris... another frozen corpse floating in the ether... or I would return the favour in kind to my underhanded enemy. With the last bit of thermodynamics management that I could muster, I hurtled a barrage of missiles so fierce that Sasawong's bulkheads burst asunder. With his vessel destroyed and capsule jettisoned, I would watch my opponent fly off and I would make my hasty retreat while evading his backup's arrival. Clear through the heavens, I would set my course for the sanctity of Uplingur; my coffers full of precious technology and my spirits bolstered by the knowledge of my miraculous fortune in light of a cunning victory and harrowing escape. And so ends this chapter of my tale: a recount of savoury revenge; of just desserts; of payment in kind.



Chigurh

"The only ones who may shoot are those who are willing to be shot."

I shall take a short detour from my usually philosophical posts and post the record of a specific engagement. Then I'll of course proceed to make a philosophical point about it, but that is hardly something I can resist.

It was a fine Saturday morning and I undocked for a short belt and DED complex roam. It did not take long to spot a Worm frigate in the Enden plex surrounded by its Warrior II combat drones on my d-scan, so I decided to re-ship to my Hawk and see if I can goad him into a fight. I grabbed a spare key to the complex and set forth.

[07:32:22] EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Enden

Local has two people I know well, plus the Worm pilot. The known locals are nowhere to be found, so they don't worry me much, for now. I spool up my warp drive and break the light-speed barrier, speeding towards the Angel Creo-Corp installation.

The d-scan reports a Worm still in the complex, and nothing else on the scanner. I arrive at the first acceleration gate, and my Hawk interfaces with it to warp deeper into the deadspace.

I arrive at the first base, accelerate towards the next gate and enter warp, ignoring the swarm of Angel pirates around me. I exit warp in the second installation, blow it up, collect the code to the final acceleration gate and enter warp again.

I warp to the third base. The Worm is indeed there, 44km away from me, orbiting some random structure in the complex.

I set an intercept course against the worm, cutting manually through his orbit so I can close the range despite being slower than he is. I approach the Worm to about 24km and the yellow box on my overview lets me know he is aware of my presence. I am pretty sure I can win regardless of what that Worm is packing, so I welcome the interest.

Then the Warrior IIs attack as the Worm pulls range. I am not pointed, but he just went GCC on me. Okay, I'll play.

I clear 4 of the 5 Warrior IIs, and he recalls the sole survivor. My shields are in great shape, he is now missing about half his drones, so far so good.

Another flight of drones heads my way. More warriors. While clearing them I reverse direction and the Worm follows suit. I flip around and he does me a favor by flying right into scram range. I web him for added measure. I am not webbed, nor pointed. Did he really just GCC on me in a PvE fit, or is he conserving cap for an active tank?

Well, time to find out.

I blast most of his remaining drones, leaving two to buzz about (they can't do much harm, and I could definitely use extra loot) and concentrate on the Worm. He goes down relatively quickly and explodes into a debris cloud, his paltry active tank no real contest to the rain of rockets.

Kill: Halthoris (Worm)

I decide to reward the pilot's aggression in the local comms channel:

[07:48:07] Angelus Ryan > gf

I guess he has hard feelings, instead:

[07:48:23] Halthoris > go fuck yourself

Well, then, allow me to retort:

[07:48:34] Angelus Ryan > Said the man who fired first.

[07:48:50] Local Pilot 1 > :)
[07:48:57] Local Pilot 2 > lol

The final Angel base rewards my efforts with a Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner. Not bad for breakfast.

Now, lets disregard the fail fit on that Worm, and consider the whole situation. I won't lie: I would've fired the first shot and killed him anyway, given the chance.

I am a pirate, that's what I do: I blow innocent people up.

If he had any sense (given his PvE fit), he would have warped off immediately as I landed on grid. There was no reason for him to engage me, and there was no reason for him to let me catch him even if he did decide to waste his drones in a futile attempt to kill me. His ship was faster, and he had no point to keep on me anyway.

But, bad pilots are common, and they are a pleasant, even if not rare, surprise. It is his reaction to the loss that I find outright strange.

Was he somehow enraged at the outcome after firing the first shots of the engagement? That is sheer folly. Every time you open fire on another ship, you are beyond redemption. You've pushed another pilot into a fight of kill or be killed, and if you fail to destroy his ship or drive him away, he will shoot you down, and he will be damn right to do so.

There are only two expected outcomes for such an engagement: One side disengages or one side perishes. If you are not ready for it, then crawl back into high-sec (where you obviously belong), or avoid other pilots in low-sec like the plague. You have a d-scan and eyes for a reason: If you see someone land on the same grid as you, then run like hell, but don't expect a quarter to be given if you start a fight you can't finish.

-Ang.

[P.S: The post title is stolen from Code Geass, which is a totally amazing Anime series, and you really gotta watch it, if you haven't yet!]

Death of a Legend: Rest In Peace Mr. Farenheit

Buddy you're a boy. Make a big noise playin' in the belts... Gonna be "a big man some day". You got 'roids on yo' face. You're a big disgrace. Jet-canning your shit all over the place, singin': "We will, we we will rock you! We will, we we will rock you!"

And so...

Freddy flies warily down the belt, with his shield booster to go! Ain't no sound but the sound of the rats, machine guns ready to go!

Are you ready?! Are you ready for this!? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Out of the turrets the bullets rip - to the sound of the beat!

Another rat bites the dust. Another rat bites the dust. And another one gone, and another one gone. Another rat bites the dust! Hey! Freddy's gonna get you too, another rat bites the dust!

Hurricane! Hurricane! Hurricane!

You wanted to fly your - Hurricane! Hurricane! Hurricane!
You wanted to fly your Hurr-i-cane!You wanted to fly your 'Cane!

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide... no escape from reality...

Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see...

I'm just a poor boy. (That's me --> Chigurh Friendo) I need no sympathy, because I'm easy come; easy go, Little high; little low.

Any way the wind blows... doesn't really matter... to me... to me.

Mamaaaaaaa, I just killed a man!

Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead! Mamaaaaa, life had just begun, but but now I've gone and thrown it all away!...

[ 2012.06.14 17:43:28 ] (notify) For participating in the podding of freddy mercury1 your security status has been adjusted by -3.4758.

Mamaaaaa oooh... I didn't mean to make you cry, If I'm not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on... as if nothing really matters.

But wait!

I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies, like a tiger defying the laws of gravity! I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva! I'm gonna go! Go! Go! There's no stopping me! I'm burning through the skies! Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit! I'm traveling at the speed of light! I wanna make a supersonic man of you!

Don't stop me now! I'm having such a good time! I'm having a ball! Don't stop me now!

If you wanna have a good time, just give me a call!

Don't stop me now, cause I'm having a good time! Don't stop me now! Yes I'm having a good time! I don't want to stop at all!

But wait!

I've paid my dues, time after time... I've done my sentence, and I've committed many crimes... And bad mistakes, I've made a few. I've had my share of sand kicked in my face, but I've come through!

And I mean to go on! And on! And on! And on!

Because, we are the champions, my friend! And we'll keep on fighting till the end!

We are the champions! We are the champions! No time for losers 'cause we are the champions, of the world!

Chigurh

PS. - Can anybody find meeeeeeeeeeeeee somebody to love!?

Song Sequence:

Queen - We Will Rock You
Queen - Another One Bites the Dust

Queen - Bicycle Race
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

Queen - We Are the Champions

WARNING: You Are About to Submit a Blog Entry. Do You Want to Proceed With This Dangerous Act?

Greetings courtesy of one Tandros Mar'Sek,

My name is Tandros, and I'll be contributing entries to this blog from the perspective of a once-prosperous market character who was lured into a life of low-sec piracy, poverty, and destitution.

In general, my other blog entries will have a slightly different theme as I will alternatively be discussing PvP engagements or regaling you with stories of failed ransoms...

Instead, for my first entry, I thought that I'd share with you an excerpt from the petition that I submitted to CCP not too long ago "for my recent acts of stupidity". As far as petitions go, this was mostly a protest, but it should also serve as an introduction to the nature of my character and give you a bit of an idea of what I've been up to lately in New Eden.

----------------------------
Petition:
----------------------------

When I was in Hadaugago (0.9 security status) recently, I saw a flashy pod on grid with me by the RMS M2.1 Station undock.

I figured that since I was in hi-sec and that since this pilot was apparently a criminal, that I would be able to freely engage. After warp scrambling the pod and opening up with my Claw's autocannons, I was informed that the insurance on my ship had just been reimbursed... and then half-a-second later I saw a notification that the Minmatar sentries had done terrible, terrible damage to me.

This is one of those "I wish I had a time machine" scenarios, because I have just spent three months stranded in low-sec for acts of piracy committed there... and I have no desire to go back. Believe it or not, it took me that long to rat up the sec to get the hell out of low. This is the type of time frame it requires for a single-account pilot to actually make any headway when they don't have the luxury of resupply alts and so on. Grinding is one thing, but do you have any concept of just how boring and repetitive sec-ratting as a low-skill character is? This isn't even a skinner box because there is no reward. It's a "you died of dysentery" type of gameplay choice where you are set on the fast-track to full negative-ten criminal status.

The thing that really perturbs me about this incident is how the heck am I supposed to tell, based on the overview, that I couldn't kill the pod? It was flashy red. To add insult to injury, after I podded the pilot and warped off I looked at my own aggression notifications... Lo and behold... my timer is YELLOW. I'm not even GCC? Why, then, was I killed by sentry guns?

What's the point of having completely obscure gameplay mechanics? If the pilot is flashy and supposedly criminal status to me, then can I engage them or not? What's the point here and how do your overview settings make this even remotely clear? Why bother having flashy pods if they can't be freely engaged?

I suspect the answer is that "we plan to fix this in Inferno". Well, that's just great. So what do people do in the meantime? When I see someone flashy on overview, can I engage them or will the sentries blow me up?

I guess the true solution to those rhetorical questions above is: just don't shoot anyone ever. That's clearly the safest thing to do. And in the meantime, I can go about running missions in this sandbox, because that's incredibly entertaining. What about people who want to actually enjoy the game interacting with players in a relevant capacity rather than fumbling through painfully arbitrary and obfuscated gameplay mechanics and horrendous PvE?

I wish I hadn't killed that pod... not because I feel remorse for having committed the act and not because my actions were a deliberate effort to grief another player. I strictly thought I was acting in accordance with allowable gameplay. Wrong again.

If I *really* shouldn't do something, how about you make the warning messages at least partially relevant. "Do you want to proceed with this dangerous act?" Could you possibly come up with a more asinine and unclear warning message? Why not simply state the consequences i.e. "If you shoot this flashy pod then you will incur a YELLOW aggression timer and the Minmatar sentries will blow your ship up. Oh, and your security status will be adjusted from -1.9 to -4.8 for no apparent reason." That's a bit more clear at least.

Of course, I should happen to be in a 0.9 system when making this mistake. You're really busting my balls here... Costly error on my part. Thanks for the 'warning'.

Tandros

The Most Dangerous Game

"I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason.'" - General Zaroff ["The Most Dangerous Game" - Richard Cornell].

There is no other quote in the written history of mankind (that I am familiar with, at least) that is as correct, and as disturbing, as this. As I read that short story, I became more and more aware of my predatory instinct. I realized that becoming immortal in the skies of New Eden has allowed this instict to come to the fore.

Immortality has turned the mixed excitement and terror of a confrontation into pure excitement.

A rush.

A drug.

Like no other.

Space, as does immortality, harbors no inhibitions. Cries and laments do not carry in a vacuum, nor do morals. Aside of the strong-arm of the hated CONCORD (which does not reach everywhere, nor everyone), there is little to stop one from taking the carefully labored fruits of another for his own, except that one other.

No reprecussions, no retribution, no regret.

Fellow immortals, once you (almost inevitably) reach this conclusion, know you are on a slippery slope with only one outcome: You will become hunters. Some may be solitary hunters, others may be pack hunters, but hunters we are, and we all seek the most dangerous prey of them all.

Thankfully, death cannot take us, either. So hunt we shall.

Now go kill someone,
Ang.

Fight or Die

The annoying fight or flight response we all possess as a vestige of our mortal past is a great hindrance to our actual prosperity as capsuleers. In New Eden, death is not a mortal threat. At most, it is a monetary setback and a stung bit of pride.

Yet, most of us still fear "dying", silly as that might be. Some of us fear it so much they never venture far from the protection of CONCORD, forgetting that CONCORD provides no protection, only revenge, and a very non-satisfying, non-personal, brand of revenge at that.

But such is human nature. Even those of us who do not fear death, still dislike losing and that's not what we're here to discuss.

The point I wish to make is that the person most dangerous to the survival of our ship is often ourselves. Sure, it is possible for our reach to exceed our grasp, and it is painfully easy to fall into a trap, but in all those cases, our first response often defines the outcome. Because of this, it is important to develop the correct response for the cases where things happen when we least expect them.

Our basic, programmed, response in those cases is trying to run. It is also often the exact reaction that causes us to lose our ship.

Why, you ask?

Because the flight response is irrational. The flight response for a capsuleer is most often a blind attempt to enter warp, without regard for the actual feasibility of the attempt or whether the alignment vector will take us dead onto the path of the rushing attacker. The most common scenarios where we are surprised by something occur when someone warps in on us without us noticing and when we enter a new system.

The second case is actually somewhat simpler: The gate cloak enables us to survey our surroundings and assess whether we are likely to be able to enter warp, whether burning back to gate is viable, or whether the only option is to go balls to the walls and try to take someone down with us. The edge of an unpleasant surprise is well dulled by delaying our decision for a few seconds.

In the first case, we often have very little time to make a decision and using this time right is critical. In a quick-aligning frigate, immediate escape is possible if we notice the intruder as he starts to decelerate from his warp, but anything slightly less agile, such as an assault frigate (especially if your prop mod is running), takes several agonizingly long seconds to align and may well be caught if the attacker lands within his point range.

So let us assume the following: We were not paying attention our directional scanner (fail #1), we were not paying attention to our overview (fail #2). This leaves us with someone appearing on grid with us, pretty close to us, at some random location in, say, lowsec and this is the point where we can make our decision for the first time.

Needless to say, if we got this deep into trouble, we've screwed up, but now we need to dig our ship out of the grave, because giving up is always silly.

Every ship has an optimal range. Your first concern in a combat situation is to maneuver into your own optimal range and deny your enemy the ability to fight in his. In the situation above, getting into your optimal range is your first concern. It serves to do two things: First, it gets you into position to fight. Fighting is always better than dying without firing a shot. Second, it does something your opponent may not expect: It throws you into the engagement. Turning an expected gank into a hard fought fight is a good way to turn the tables on your assailant. It might even make him panic in turn and after all, the best defense is a good offense.

The most basic (and probably the quickest) way to do this is to try and pull into your usual, pre-programmed, orbital distance (you have one, right? And it is a setting that makes sense for your fit, right?). If you opponent is short-ranged and you are long ranged, you might just slip out of scram range, often winning you the day, or enabling your escape. If your opponent is long-ranged and you manage to run him down before he can pull away, then again, you may have well snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. If your ranges match, then the fight becomes either a short range DPS battle (which still gives you a chance to win, assuming you are not outmatched outright) or a long range duel, which is relatively easy to escape if you need to (two long point fast ships often have a hell of a time keeping each other tackled due to their relative speed being too high for human reaction times and control lag. Of course, if your attacker is much, much faster and agile than you, then it won't help).

Needless to say, this won't win you all your fights, and better knowledge of ship fits (and practice, practice, practice) will lend you better tools to respond to surprises (after all, you probably don't want to rush a Myrmidon in a speedy frigate just because your orbital preset is 500m), but training to supress your flight response will serve you well.

In short, in the absence of any reliable information, you must still act in the way that improves your chances of winning the engagement. In the most basic sense, this requires pursuing your optimal range as early as possible. Always remember, as the saying goes: When pressed to make a decision under duress, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the second best is the wrong thing, and the absolutely worst thing you can do is nothing.

Fly well and don't freeze,

Ang.

who i am

    like to pod noobs
    dont know why

cass

Angels Fall First

I've been told that an old flick raised the idea that we can be defined by two questions:

1) "Who are you?"

2) "What do you want?"

I'll add "What the fuck are you doing here?" as the third question, and start to answer.

So, who am I? I'm Angelus, a semi-reformed carebear still (hopelessly) clinging to my rapidly dropping sec status, a part-time pirate and a tireless theorycrafter. I am also a new combat pilot who has a hell of a time figuring what he wants to fly in the first place, where the right buttons are and how to not fail every time a fight goes south.

I also happen to be that smug bastard on the bottom of the photo banner.

What do I want?  This one is easier: I roam New Eden in the search of thrills, kills, single-malt whiskey and ISK. The ISK part was born out of obvious necessity: Thrills and kills do not come cheap, and neither does that goddamned whiskey. I'm out here to have fun, and quite often, having fun means blowing shit up. I can also tell you what I don't want: I don't want to fight in massive fleet actions, I don't want to lay sieges to star systems and I sure as hell don't want to follow orders when I don't feel like it. I do what I want, when I want and however I want to go about it.

Finally, how did I end up here? Well, you see, there is only one way truly reliable way to make friends in New Eden: Blow them up. It might seem counter-intuitive at first, but if it does, you'll realize the truth of this statement later down the line. Of course, that means that someone needs to be blown up to keep everything nice and balanced. In my case, I got the short end of the stick. It seems like ages ago, but one of my current partners in crime, Cass, cost me a Rifter. That bastard.

Since then, one thing led to another, and here I am, writing stuff for you to read. Stick around, we might not always make a lot of sense around these parts (frankly, we don't really try, most of the time), but we definitely like to make no sense in a myriad of funny ways. It also helps that the opposition likes to make no sense as well, which makes for some funny killmails (or lossmails).

As a parting shot: If I had one piece of advice to give someone starting out in New Eden: Go get blown up. Nothing stirs up the butterfly effect as much as the expanding debris cloud of a dead ship.

Trust me. I've been on both ends.

Fly well,

Ang.

Dred's Intro to Thanks For the Belt Roam

Warning: This blog contains strong adult language, strong sexual content, and brief partial nudity. It has been rated R by CONCORD.  But they don't matter unless they are shooting my ship. 

Two years. I reached that benchmark. I'm not bitter. I'm not a vet. I do stupid noob shit all the time. I can't remember a roam that I FC'ed where I didn't have to explain that, "Yes, you should be doing as the FC says, not as the FC does." I make the same mistakes multiple times. I take pleasure in causing a ruckus amongst my fellow capsuleers. I am an isk sink. Somehow, in the midst of all the noobery and bullshit and smoke and booze fueled roams, a small community has developed in the public channel for the corp I started three months into the game. Fuck knows why. I'm pretty sure I tried to shoot at every one of those guys at least once. By the way, I'm the third guy down. You can call me Dred. The rest of the guys will introduce themselves at some point.

A while back Siva sent out a mail asking our group of degenerates if we would be interested in co-writing a blog. He proposed chronicling our adventures in the likes of Flight of Dragons or Rifter Drifter. Cass of course responded right away saying he was down. Tan, and Craig were both down. Being the long-winded motherfucker I am I took a minute, responded yes in a few paragraphs of blather, and began writing. I wanted to take a different route however. I don't keep a log open during my fights. I don't keep track of how much money I make (or lose in my case) from PvP. I generally don't even remember to turn everything on, so I sure as shit don't want to fraps my fights. So I figured I wouldn't necessarily blog battle reports in that style. People have done it better then I could already. Honestly, if I were to really analyze myself as a pilot, I'd probably fire myself and then I wouldn't be playing so that would be pointless. Instead, I plan on writing about whatever the fuck pops into my head. Here is a short list: roams, politricks, suicide ganks, hilariousness, depravity, rifters, exotic dancers, drugs, recruiting, orgies, fukung, stealth hot drops, horrible fails, microcosms, synergy, canadians, rifters, hurricane bob, the merits of having a strong maritime presence as a landlocked country, penis jokes, excellent adventures, bogus journeys, and fucking rifters. I hope you enjoy.