Blog Banter 21- The Middle Child

Welcome to the twenty-first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost who a few month ago asked "Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?" Is it? I'd like us to explore this even further. Is Low Sec being treated differently by CCP Games than Null Sec (Zero-Zero) or Empire space is? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither Alliance nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What's needed? Or is everything fine as it is?

First of all, I'm not in the blog pack.  But I'd thought I'd respond to it anyway, as its food for thought.  Now I don't live in low sec, but I have ventured there.  In my early days of the "pew pew" (bout 6 or so months back), I'd occasionally take a few of my corpies and we'd go and romp around low, trying to find a frigate or a cruiser soloing things while trying not to get pushed around by the real pirates.  We'd go for an hour or two, and either get podded to hell or come back empty handed but proud that we didn't epic fail.  So that's mainly my experience.

As for low security being the forgotten place of EVE, I'd have to disagree.  I think its that deep dark place that most of us would like to avoid, like that bad neighborhood or back alley.  Its a foreboding place, and quite daunting to the "pew pew" noobs that we were back in the day.  Not to say I'm not still a noob, I just know my way around a little better now.  

As for how CCP is treating it, I feel that it is like the middle child.  Null is the oldest, and CCP's proudest achievement while Empire is the baby, getting all the extra love.  Where the middle child is forced to get by in the shadow of the oldest and competing with the youngest for extra attention.  So yes, I think CCP is treating it differently.  First of all, Faction Warfare, according to most other bloggers (I have never participated in it) is quite broken, glitched, bugged, whatever.  Also, tactics need some lovin'.  While I think its great that they made it only possible to use bubbles in null, gate guns are still a pain in the butt for any frigate trying to hit up targets on the gate.  

Which brings us to the fourth part of this banter.  I think that gate guns should be removed.  Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but it would definitely encourage people to use smaller ships that don't have to have enough tank to withstand the gate guns.  Hell, I'd "pew pew" in low sec more often if I could take out a thrasher fully fitted for gank and just run around there looking for targets.  That'd be fun!!

Oh wait, there's a third part?  Hm... to make a living.  Well, all the people out there seem to be the scum and vile villainy of the universe, so its probably not clean money they're earning.  It is possible, but not easily done, to make money out there.  You can PLEX, you can rat, but you run the risk of having a gang pop up on you.  But again, this is true for any low/null sec system.  Except in null you are probably in an alliance with friends to tell you if there is a camp on the gate or station.  But is the risk worth the reward?  I don't think so.  Ratting in low sec is not nearly as profitable as null, and not nearly as safe as empire.  Mining is risky, but doable, but again it can be more profitable elsewhere.  The only real profit is in selling ships/trading out of low sec hubs.  To make it more profitable in low security, they should probably make ratting a much more profitable experience.

So, there's my schpeil on low sec.  What do you think about the situation out there?

Oh yeah, don't forget to check out the other "real" blog banter entries:

Blog Banter 21 – Fish Heads and Baby Ruths
Low Sec = Wild West
Arr, Yer be talkin' bout me lowsec
Low Sec: I Wanna Talk to You
Making Low Sec Matter - Project kick-Off
In the Ghetto  
Blog Banter 21: Friggin' Low Sec

Essay's!

Why is it so much easier to write about things on this blog than to write them for school?

Oh yeah, cause I consider this fun.  And there are no grades to worry about, deadlines to meet (No, there won't be a dedicated day for a post), or grammar to truly have to care about.  Sure, I take pride in my writing and try to uphold a standard for grammar (no lazy capitol letters or "u"'s instead of you), but I'm not worried about sentence structure or any of that.

I guess I'm writing this post because I'm pissed at the fact that I have to write 3 or so essays today, which means to relaxation time to either nap, watch football or play eve.  So this is my five minute break, to sit here at my laptop and type away at something I enjoy doing, rather than something that is a bit of a chore.

Anyway, tonight, if I do get on, I hope to get in on a gatecamp to get some good kills.  I hope its a corp run gate camp, because those tend to have five or six people rather than the NC ones which have 15 to twenty.  Or a corp roam, those are fun too.

Ah well, back to writing stupid essays and studying for major tests in the next week.

Hoping your days are prosperous, and that solo nyx kill is right around the corner. Heh.

Hianmar, a.k.a. The EVE Gamer

On POS Bashing

Ok, so a few posts back I said I would never ever go POS bashing again.

Well, it seems that I lied.  I ended up going on a CTA about 10 minutes after I posted that blog, in which we attacked 5 POS Towers with upwards of 500 people, and 4 titans.  This, however, was a lot less boring, but definitely a lot more laggy.  I have to say I was impressed, the POS's dropped like rocks.  We shot two, and I got on both KM's (along with 300 other people).  Then our 250 man drake fleet headed out to X70 where we we camped the stations for an hour, but only got one kill, a vagabond.  So much for that.  Besides, who'd really want to engage a huge fleet anyway?

So after that, I went back home and hit the sack.  There wasn't much else going on, and it was about 12:50 AM.  It was a long day, and I have an even busier one today, what with RL work and all.  Homework is a bitch.

Hoping you get into a fight today,

Hianmar.

Incursion

So, as it turns out, CCP will in fact be releasing an expansion this winter.  So far, it looks to be pretty interesting, and will greatly benefit the PvE players of EVE.  There will be a salvaging vessel based off the Primae hull, AI improvements, and many other small but tasty goodies to the world of the carebear.

Hold on, that's not me.  Damn.

Anyway, there are some things I will be able to use, and some that I find to be pretty sweet.  Take for instance the new character creator!  I finally get to redo my fail character portrait from way back in 2008, when I had no clue what I was doing.  WOOT!  Also, they are introducing a new PI control system, hopefully reducing all the "click, click, click, damn, click..." to a "Click, there we go!" scenario.

But perhaps the coolest thing coming in this expansion, from a PvPer's standpoint is this: "Further improvements include... a Sansha Mothership, Fighterbomber..."  That's right.  You read it,  a Sansha Mothership and Fighterbomber.  That is some serious kick ass!

Also coming with Incursion are improvements to nodes and grid, so hopefully there won't be too many visits from that creature of the abyss, "Lag". 

Hoping your days are prosperous and a fight is never far away,

Hianmar, a.k.a. The EVE Gamer

POS Bashing

A couple of nights ago I had the opportunity to go on a roam for the first time in a few days (I've been very busy in RL), so I was pretty happy to finally get out on some alliance pew pew action.

Until I found what we were doing.  One of our scouts found an offline Evoke POS, and our FC decided to go shoot at it.  Sounds like fun, right?

Well maybe if your drunk/high, as some of the fleet was at the time.  For me, it was really boring.  It eats up missiles, you do high damage for your ship, and you it takes about two hours with a 40 man gang.  BORING!  Especially since no one decided to come retaliate.  It may be fun if you drop in a couple of carriers or dreads, which asks for another fleet to come and attack.  That would have been fun, and we would have gotten some kills.

But alas, it was not to be.  In their inebriated state, our FC's decided not to risk it.  So half an hour later and about 20% into the POS's shields, I decided to hit the sack and traveled the 6 jumps back to friendly space.

I have to say I was disappointed, for multiple reasons.  One, there was no resistance.  Two, there was very little action (we got bombed once by one bomber...).  And three, it took forever.  So fleets to avoid, POS bashing with battle-cruisers.

Anyway, I hope your days are prosperous and a fight is never far away.

Hianmar, a.k.a. The EVE Gamer

PS- Long range targeting 5 in 6 days 16 hours.  That means its logi time!!


PPS- Oh yeah, and I am a few days away from a Falcon (after logi of course), but even longer to fit.  I really can't wait to give this bad boy a test. I just need cov ops 4 and cloaking 4.  Thats about 6 days too. 

Blog Blog Blog Away

Wee... I just realized I posted something like 4 (now 5) posts, mostly things that I'd had rambling around in my head as ideas for a blog should I ever start one.  Now I know my creativity is a little lacking, but I'm hoping that posting lots of "fast fictions" will help with that, and I hope to have about 1 a week at the bare minimum.

As for other posts, I will probably write a draft in the downtime between fleets or when I don't have the time to do much else.  Those will probably occur every day or so.  Though it may seem like I'm focusing more on quantity rather than quality (I noticed that it might seem that way with 4 or 5 halfway decent posts in one day), I will try to keep up a standard of excellence when it comes to grammar.  One thing that pisses me off is when people fail to capitalize or punctuate things correctly.  So feel free to leave me hating comments if my grammar should slip.  As to keeping this up, I hope I can keep this up.  It will help me to focus at least some of my thoughts into semicoherentness (Spelling?  Hell, is that even a word? Spell check says no but I'm going to keep it).

Anyway, I'm kind of experimenting with google blogger.  I've tried wordpress, but this seems to be working out quite well, and is fairly simple for me to use.  As you can see, my train of thought is wandering like a the skill path of a noob who can't decide what ship he wants to fly.  I should really go to bed, it's 12:07 (EST US) and I need to wake up early what with school and all.  Huh... I guess it was only 4 in one day.  This is technically Wednesday, not Tuesday.

Good night my 1 or 2 readers, Hoping your days (or nights *YAWN*) are prosperous and a fight is never... far... away....
*headdesk

Fast Fiction #2 "Blind Jump"

YC 17.09.112
0010 Hours     

     Hianmar sat on the Jump bridge, prepared to jump in to the next system on his route, waiting for the "all clear" from the those who were already in system.  He pinged the intel channel.
     "MT9Q-S Status?"
     No response.  This had him worried.  He pinged it again.
     "MT9Q-S Status? Anyone?"
     Again, no response.  Was the system so dead or uninhabited that no one would respond to a simple request for whether or not it was safe to jump in?  He entered the command to approach the jump bridge, and the engines in his Drake, a battle-cruiser class vessel, rumbled to life.  As he approached, he checked intel one last time.
     "MT9Q-S Status?"
     Still no response.
     "Stupid intel" Hianmar grumbled and accessed the jump bridges navigation network.  "Here we go" he thought, while simultaneously entering the password and confirming that he wished to jump.  The jump bridge cast an isolated wormhole that would send him who knows how many light years away and his sensors went dark.  The next thing he knew, before he could even relaunch his camera drone, he was bombarded by five or six different notifications at once.
     "*********** has started trying to warp scramble you","******* has started trying to warp scramble you", and so on.  As his camera drone finally made it out of the launch bay, he saw five or six stealth bombers, all with points on him, and a few recons and an interdictor.  It was the fact that they were all hostile that got his attention.
     "Oh fuck"  Cursed Hianmar.  He quickly located the POS and turned his ship in its direction, activated the micro-warp drive, and entered the force field password.   As this was going on, his overview and point defence systems were screaming at him.  He checked, and noticed that there were five or six bombs about to hit him head on.
     He watched as the bombs hit him, and noticed they were doing a lot more damage than they should have.  His shields absorbed the blow well, but he still dropped to 80% capacity.  Checking his systems, he noticed that his shield hardeners, which make up about half of his defense, along with his damage control unit were lying dormant.  He quickly turned them on with the amount of thought it takes to move a finger.
     It had now been about 10 seconds, but it had seemed more like 5 minutes.  Another wave of bombs was incoming, and having seen that their initial volley hadn't worked, they started to fire torpedoes in Hianmar's direction.  With 15km still to go, at 1.2km/s, it was going to be close.  If they breached his shield, his drake would crumple like paper, as they are notorious for.  Whether he was going to make it or not, he needed to warn others in the intel so they wouldn't make the same mistake.
     "MT9Q-S IS HOT! DO NOT JUMP IN, STEALTH BOMBERS ON JB's. 10 REDS IN LOCAL.  REPEAT, DO NOT JUMP!"
     As he continued on towards the POS, he realized he might actually make it.  Though he was taking damage, and his low shield warning was blaring in his ears, his ship was still around 30% shields, and he had only another 5km to go.  Though he was being bombarded by bombs and torpedoes and peppered with artillery fire, at the rate of damage he could easily make that last sprint.
    With one final push, he overheated his micro-warp drive.  Hoping to beat the last wave of bombs headed towards him.  As he entered the safety of the POS's shields, he decided to run a damage diagnostic of his ship.  Despite taking numerous torpedo and bomb hits, his ship had managed to come out of it without a scratch.  Well, minus the fact that he had only 13% shields left.
    Doing a quick sweep of the surroundings, the bombers had left his scanners completely, either cloaked up or had warped off, he noticed the 7 wrecks littered around the jump bridge along with numerous corpses.  2 Elite Frigates, 1 Elite Destroyer, 1 Frigate and 2 Elite Cruisers and 1 Battlecruiser wreck.  Hianmar quickly lost his feeling of confidence at having survived that camp was replaced with his relief at not ending up as another corpse or wreck out in the freezing cold.

Sometimes you get lucky.

Stupidity is a Bubble

I think that all of the Capsuleers that go into null eventually do something stupid, usually in the first few weeks of their living there.  And as I joined my new corporation, I new undoubtedly that I would do something stupid that would get me killed.  So I did not buy any ships worth more than 60 mil, made sure my clone was up-to-date at ALL times and had the intel channel for my current region opened and viewable at any given time. 

I was prepared for the mistake that was to come, and I tried my hardest to avoid it, but I didn't count on bubbles.  Those things are awesome when they're on your side, and they are the bane of the 0.0 noob when they are not.  First, lets get some basic bubble principals down:
1) You cannot warp in a bubble, regardless of who put it up.
2) You cannot warp your pod in a bubble.  So if your ship goes pop, and your still in bubble, your pod will also go pop because its slow and cannot (probably) burn out of the bubbles range.
3) You can use MWD's and AB's in the bubble, but there are probably unfriendly ships there to ruin your day.

So so far 80% of my losses so far have been due to the evil bane of the bubble.  Oh, and all those were also because I forgot to check intel.  STUPID!  And that is counting pods.  Basically, if you jump into a bubbled gate, your best bet is to burn either out or to a gate.  Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don't.

So just check intel, and don't do anything too stupid and expect to get away with it.

Hoping your days are prosperous and a fight is never too far away,

Hianmar, a.k.a. The EVE Gamer

Fast Fiction #1 "Easy Money"

YC 15.09.112 
2000 Hours 

Hianmar sat at his desk, surveying the space visible through the large glass window in the observation deck of his private quarters.  He never could get over the sheer vastness of the world outside, even though he had been a capsuleer for well over a year now.  Most people expected you to get used to it, the feeling of immense freedom as you piloted several tons of metal with the capability to destroy cities through the immeasurable nothing.  Hianmar simply couldn't, and he didn't want to either.  He loved that feeling of wonder as he undocks from a station, where you look around 360 degrees to make sure it is safe, but also marveling at the sheer size of you home, the station.  He would have gone on in his reverie for a few more minutes, had his terminal on his desk lit up and displayed a notification:

New ISCC Message
Transmission Type: Mail
From: Toobindicular Guy, Member of Deep Core Mining
To: Hianmar, Member of Therapy. Corporation in the Alliance Wildly Inappropriate.
Subject: Spot of Trouble

Hianmar sighed, and decided to see what his old mate had gotten himself into this time.  He and Toobs hadn't really spoken in a while, due to the fact that Toob's was grounded planet side because of his recent undertaking of advanced studies.  Because of this, he didn't have the time to fly too often, and when he did it was only to remind himself of how to fly.

So it was a surprise to Hianmar to discover that not only had his old buddy come back to the reaches of space for more than a joy ride, but he had also left his previous corporotion.  So it was with a sense of of apprehension that he opened the mail:

/Start Msg./
Hian,

I am in a spot of trouble, due to some of my recent actions.  Put it this way, I've angered the top brass in my last corp and now they are looking to send me to hell in a handbag should I set foot out of the station.  Sure I could take them, but it would be so much easier if I jump cloned out and if you gave my stuff a lift.  So I need you to move my assets to somewhere where I can eventually get into the action, hopefully somewhere near you.

Now your probably asking, where and what is in it for you?  Well, some staging system for whatever corp your in, or somewhere in low sec where I can lay low for a while.  As for reward, I can get you a good amount of cash, upwards of 100 million ISK for this.

Only question left now is are you in?

Toobs

/End Msg./

"What has he done now?" Hianmar wondered to himself.  But then he realized it didn't matter.  He'd washed his hands of the bounty hunting and mission running life of the high security pilot.  He was now in the war and fighting profession and shooting his fellow capsuleer was so much more rewarding than taking down the pathetic and stupid pirate scum of Empire.  And besides, he didn't want to get involved in whatever mess Toob's had caused and even though he'd been a capsuleer for about the same time as Hian, he was often spooked too easily.

/New Msg./
Toobs,

All right, I'm in.

Hian

/End Msg./


It was too easy, like taking candy from a baby.  54 Jumps for more than 100 mil?  Toob's must be really worried, but Hianmar sure wasn't.  He got up and exited his quarters, heading in the direction of the Jump Cloning facilities.

As he stepped in, he thought to himself: "Easy Money".  If he could only make this kind of money more often.

First Post!

Well, I have been thinking about starting a blog for quite a bit of time, ever since I started reading those of the wonderful members of the blog pack.  So here goes!

First about me!  I've been playing eve for about a year now, and have a great love of the game.  Its just one of those things that is so awesome it kicks ass.  I started out as most of us did, thinking the only way to have fun in the game was to make money, and so I mined like a silly noob for many of my early days, occasionally venturing into the deep and scary realms of low sec and null.  Quite soon after this time, I joined a PvE corporation who taught me the ways of earning the mega ISK.  This was fun, saving up for cool ships I'd fly once or twice but then just let sit in my hanger as I saved up for the next one.  It was only in the last month that I decided I'd had enough of the carebear life, and decided to go discover the realm of PvP.

I joined a corporation in the Wildly Inappropriate Alliance (WIdot), and have met a great crew of people.  Its a null (0.0) alliance, and so I've been gradually learning about all the different and confusing mechanics of null sec tactics.  Granted I'm not very good at the "pew pew" but the few fights I've been on have been entertaining and totally worth it, getting on some 15 kill mails in one night!  I have also made plenty of stupid mistakes, including jumping into a hostile gate camp with my alt (By by hauler and hello pod express!) and warping at 0 to a station when there were 10 reds in system and intel was screaming "BUBBLES ON STATION"!.  Needless to say i did make it to my destination that time, just minus my ship and a head full of implants.  Basically I've learned that not checking intel and/or local equals death and a free ride on the pod express.  But all in all, its been great fun.  I have several more ships waiting to get into fights and eventually go boom, including my a RR Dominix that I've always wanted to fly for reals in PvP, especially now with my T2 drones at 90% of max possible dps!

My goals for the future are to obtain a carrier and use that till it dies as well.  I also hope to be able to fly all T2 Gallente ships at that point with excellent skills, and possibly those of the Caldari.  This of course is months away, and this is just my general plan for my EVE skills. 

So I think that's enough now for my first post.  You get a generally a good idea of where I've come from and maybe a vague idea of where I'm going, which is better than what I have.

Anyway, hoping your days are prosperous and a fight is never far away,

Hianmar a.k.a. The EVE Gamer