Breaking News: Terrorist Violence in Arnstur Leaves One Dead and One in Slightly Emotionally Distraught Condition

Good evening,

A lowsec terrorist struck suddenly and violently in Arnstur earlier today, leaving one dead and one in slightly emotionally distraught condition.

Recalling the incident, the surviving Venture's capsuleer captain explains that if it wasn't for his Rattlesnake fleetmate and comrade that he would have been surely killed.

grizzly 2: "I was just sitting at Arnstur VII - Asteroid Belt 1 with Lurp and mining when suddenly this Dominix came out of nowhere! I was like, 'Lurp we should go man!' but before I knew it the Dominix was like, 'Bam! Bam!' and then Lurp was like, 'ugh... fly you fools!' so I just like booked it!  ...if it wasn't for Lurp I'd have been a goner..."

Unfortunately, the Rattlesnake pilot succumbed to his wounds before he could be rushed to hospital. Further, Cantor Ryan, the terrorist killer is still at large, and an investigation into this attack is ongoing.

While law enforcement is presently operating under the assumption that the Venture was the intended victim in this crime, other Criminology pundits have suggested that perhaps it was the Rattlesnake escort that was the target all along.

If you have any information relevant to this case or pertaining to the whereabouts of Cantor Ryan, then please call the anonymous Concord Crime Stoppers Hotline.

- Chigurh Friendo

A Farewell to Arms, Take 2

What is EVE Online?

Where to really begin? It is a game, although it is hard to remember that at times. It is the best game I ever played, and it is the worst game I ever played. It is a second life, from every conceivable point of view. It is big, complex, complicated, unforgiving, bleak, dark, exhilarating, exasperating, and yet, it is immensely fun. It is not a journey to step into lightly as it requires time, it requires dedication, it requires effort, it demands attention and learning and it accepts little in the way of mistakes. It is a universe that does not hold your hand, and does not pretend to, a world filled with warnings of the "abandon all hope" kind and people, actual people, who would wish you harm for the sole reason of being in their vicinity.

I'll start with this: If you play EVE without interacting with people, you are doing it wrong, and you will not last (although not lasting might be a blessing-in-disguise, since if you really get into it, the game will haunt the back of your mind).

EVE has some of the worst single-player content ever devised. Its PvE is a grind, of a very, very, repetitive kind. The missions are all the same, and after a few days of gaming time, you will grow to learn most of them by heart. Do not play EVE for the PvE content. You will quit. Exploration and incursions are not truly better: Yes, they are more interesting than grinding missions, but they get repetitive all the same. I really do not know why CCP has not attempted to create dynamic mission content, as it would make PvE far, far more interesting, and inherently a surprise. The static content gets old, the fact that all the information in on Google is not helping, either. Do not play EVE for the PvE. You will quit.

The EVE economy is amazing. It is entirely player driven (and this will also drive you nuts). Yes, a player-driven economy is incredible. It sounds amazing, it functions amazing and it allows for the kind of manipulation that turns wealthy people into the economic elite overnight (yes, you need money to make money, so you need some starting capital). But not all is rosy: It can take a very long time to buy specific modules for a ship you need (unless it is generic as heck). Doubly so if you operate away from the economic centers of the game universe. Trust me, as someone who plied the less-than-central interstellar highways, taking an hour to put a specific ship together is just not fun. If you do enjoy creating, however, EVE offers quite a bit of industrial content. From mining of asteroids for resources (and, you might be surprised, but I enjoyed mining with friends, and did it for several months - It is by far, far, far more interesting than running missions, which shows you just how bad they are), through manufacture, planetary resource extraction and the market interaction needed to turn your effort into money (and the latter will take time and effort and piss you off again and again), playing EVE for the industrial aspect is viable (I have two friends who do just that).

So if the PvE is so horrid and the economy can, at times, make you want to shoot yourself, why play EVE? Because it offers a PvP experience unlike any I have seen before or since. The fact that PvE is a grind, the fact that ships require time to put together, and the fact that EVE has a permanent loss model (your ship got blown up? No, it will not wait in space for you to come and pick the pieces up again - Forget it, this is not WoW) means that combat is a rush. I can all but guarantee that the first time you engage a human foe in EVE, you will get the shakes. If not the first time, then the first time you face truly adverse odds. If not then, then when you beat them. EVE PvP, at least if you fly solo of with a very small force of friends, is an incredible rush. I truly believe it has no equal in the realm of gaming. The first time I fought outnumbered, engaging two enemy frigates in my Caldari Navy Hookbill and defeating both, I shook like a leaf. It took me half an hour to calm down enough to analyze the engagement and see what the heck even happened. The feeling was amazing. I did not defeat some game AI. I took on two actual players, put my ship (and pride, and effort) on the line, and came out victorious. Nearly two years into the game, I fought my first 1v7 fight. I barely made it out alive, and scored not a single kill, but I barely could sleep when I powered down my computer afterwards. Here were seven other pilots who wanted to kill me. I was outnumbered, outgunned and a little bored (which is why I got into that engagement in the first place). I almost killed one of them before my efforts to keep them separated finally failed and I had to bail out as fast as I could. As my ship warped away from the engagement, I truly felt alive. Mind you, I am not an amazing good pilot. I am definitely not the worst EVE has to offer, but I am merely adequate. This engagement made me feel like the PvP gods whose videos get uploaded on YouTube and it was incredible.

This is why you should play EVE. It is also why you should not.

As a pirate (and it took me about six months to end up as pirate in lawless space), I found the dark recesses of my psyche. I enjoyed the hunt more than the kills. I enjoyed stalking a target across star systems, biding my time. When in my hunter mode, I would engage on my terms, and on my terms alone. Often, the battle was decided by the single mistake my mark made that enabled me to snare him. The battle was over before it was begun: The discharge of weapons was solely a formality. It was great fun, but I soon found myself enjoying the violence. I am certain not everyone has this malevolent streak in their personality, but if you do, EVE will bring it to the fore. I enjoyed robbing people of their hard earned in-game efforts, even when I made no profit, just to spite them and collect their "tearz" - Invariably in form of curses, hate mail and an increasing bounty placed on my head (infrequently reduced by my losses of space ships and people claiming bits and pieces of it). I would kill every ship I could kill out of principle, and I was reasonably good at this particular hunt. It was thus that I got called a great many things in-game: People whom you blow up are not very often courteous to their killer, yet I enjoyed them all. 

If this thought scares you, do not start the client. Ever.

The other reason why not to play EVE is this: It is addictive. It is not addictive because you like EVE itself. In fact, you are likely to dislike so many things about the game you won't know where to start to tell them. It is addictive because it offers an escape from the real world into a universe where death cannot bind you, where risking your life is at most risking your pride and some imaginary money, and where you can be pretty much whatever you like. It is also addictive because it lets you do things that would end with you being removed from society altogether, and it lets you relish them and savor them. Finally, it is addictive because of the rush of combat I mentioned: Other games will seem dull. Other gaming risks will seem trivial. Other games will on longer be fun. EVE is entirely capable of utterly destroying your enjoyment of other games. Finally, EVE forces you to grind to afford your play style. You will need to put effort to make money. While this is not different from other MMOs, at some point you will feel like a junky trying to fund their next fix and that is not a fun feeling to have in a game.

So, how do I sum up two years of life in an alternate universe? It is with regret that I say that I will retire. For how long, I cannot say. I tried to retire once before, and that lasted for two weeks. For the sake of my sanity, I hope I can step away for good, but I am not entirely sure that I can. The thrill of combat no longer comes as easily as before, and the pleasure of simple kills is not as clear as before, but the depths of space still call to me if I stay ground-bound for long. To emphasize: I have a great life, an amazing girlfriend, a well-paying job I enjoy and co-workers who are smart, funny, and witty and most of them are good friends. I am truly lucky to be where I am now. Yet, my alternate ego is in the back of my mind, beckoning me to undock a space ship and look for trouble.

In a way, after two years of EVE, I am Angelus Ryan as much as I am the real me, here on 21st century Earth. Just as I cannot stop being me, I cannot stop being Angelus Ryan. All I can say is that Angelus Ryan is retiring (again!) and taking up residence on a planet somewhere, and trying hard not to look up the skies, or reminisce on his captain's career.

But it is not easy, for the void is calling for me to dive into its depths once more, whispering from the shadows and telling me that my journey is not yet done.

So why play EVE? 

Because for all its flaws (and there are more than you can count), EVE is the greatest game ever made.

Fly well!

o7

-Angelus Ryan, signing out for (hopefully) the final time.

P.S.
No, you cannot have my stuff!

Fires and Tales

Once upon a little firetail in New Eden, I first found a rifter in Molden Heath.  He was from the local cool dudes, RANSM. "Alright, man" I thought, "I like RANSM, when you see them in local, it usually means a fight."

I was only a few jumps into my roam for the night and I could tell he was looking for me. After several cross warps, one of us finally just waited.  I was a bit quicker, and was able to kite outside of nosferatu range.  Unable to regenerate capacitor for his tank, it was not long before he was KM, and warping his pod off.   We chatted a bit after.  He said he'd been out for a while and took the fight pretty sure it was not going to end well.  GF GF and thanks for taking it anyway.

After that, I went a good few jumps and found fuck all. So I turned around and headed home.  When I reached the Joas constellation I checked around quickly before hopping the island and settling back into my pocket.  The couple jumps I made paid off with another fight, against a punisher.  It was very similar, in a more one-sided way, to the fight with the rifter.  I kited, he died.

So I hopped the island home, checked the belts and found a burst mining, and killed that.  For some reason, I just couldn’t call it a night.  I jumped around a bit, staying within a few jumps of home, hoping to find something local, and eventually my persistence paid off.  Back in the home system, a ferox had come into local.  I found it ratting in the belts, and thought, “Ferox vs Firetail! Ferox vs Firetail?  Fuck it, Dude.  Let’s go bowling.  Warp to 0!”

I don’t really know what to say about this fight.  It happened.  Makes you wonder sometimes...  

In any case, I felt great.  I couldn’t have felt better.  This was my first pirating solo roam and I had four kills under my belt.  I bought the Firetail when my old corp was going on a Firetail roam, in which I could not even participate due to timing issues.  The Firetail then sat in a hangar for months until that night.

A couple days later I took that firetail out again and found a drake to engage.  I had a couple of people, both in frigs, with me that night.  They were waiting on the gate but not in system.  I warped in on the drake to see what we could do, and started killing his drones off.  The drake had no webs, so tanking missiles wasn’t a problem.  The guys jumped in and warped to me, but before they landed a cane friendly to the drake landed and started shooting me with 220s which hurt a bit.  With a second flight of drones to deal with, and the increased dps we buggered off.

Fail Roam completed, and a few days later I decided it was time to sacrifice to the PvP gods the ship that brought me so much glory and honor that first night.  I found an arbitrator in the belts in Yish.  Apparently, a neuting, web, scram arbitrator is a tough fight for a frigate. I must not have been thinking straight, for whatever reason, and that’s what ya get.    

Dead Firetail    

Makes you wonder sometimes...

Dred/G

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