Bot Bot, Do the Robot

The other day I learned about the report bot feature which was recently added to EVE.  Let's just say I hope CCP doesn't ban me from the button =D.  This feature is so useful, be it for lulz or for actually reporting a bot (there are so many these days...), there will hopefully be a downturn in the number of them.

That aside, I've been ninjaing but haven't been shot by anyone since my last happy ninja post.    I'm currently trying to decide what to train up for after I can T2 fit a Hawk class Assault Frigate.  They are so fun to fly and are pretty badass for salvaging missions.  I may also replace my Dramiel with a Worm, since my Dramiel only sees action during active war time patrols and is therefore useless all the rest of my playing time. 

Will hopefully have another blogpost ready after I actually get on later tonight, but right now I got to run (literally =D).

Fly Dangerously, Die Epically,

Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer

Why I Hate Drakes

This evening -whoops- morning, I engaged my first ever attempt at a solo mission runner ganking with my PvP Drake. 

As it was my first time using the Orca-Hotswap technique, I decided to just go for it and see what happens.  It looked like just a solo noob mission runner running a mission alone, with a noctis alt cleaning up after him.

The only problem was that my opponent was in a drake.  Three drakes in fact, as he warped all three of his characters (I'm 99% sure they were his alts) in to aid him.  Despite the fact that all the characters were about five months old or younger, they still could tank at their best 550 DPS, which is what my drake does.  Then they popped my drones with their drones (which is weird because I thought I'd popped them all with my hawk) before starting to slowly eat through my 60k EHP buffer.  At about 50% shields I knew that if I didn't get help, my drake would die.  I didn't want to just stow my ship because I knew that if I did, I might have the problem of the ship popping due to damage mechanics.  So I shouted in a ninja public channel for RR and I was promptly assisted. 

However, by the time he actually warped in, I was in armor with my drake.  Sadface!  While I was busy getting RR, I had to reload, which meant I stopped firing.  The three drakes took this to mean I was going to let them go (they had no points, I had one of them pointed).  There was a little delay with the RR which thankfully was not a problem due to my previous statement. 

When I finally got my RR on me, I re-engaged the newest character only to find that he had an equal tanking ability to all his fellows.  This sucked.

Then they shot my RR friend in his osprey, so he warped out.  Then their damage came back on me and I went into hull!  I warped away -no points, remember?- and promptly bounced to my safe. 

All of this was an hour full of standoffs, coordinated dual boxing warp-in's while shooting the drones of three drakes.  The worst bit was I tanked all three of them better in my Hawk.

So if you ever wonder why I hate drakes from now on, that's why.

Night/Morning,

Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer

Hianmar

An Unintentionally Fail Fleet

So, we were bored and one of the alliance FC's was like, "Hey! Let's go screw around in Pure Blind!" So we get there, 5 or so jumps... and there's nothing going on.  So bored, we check intel for the nearest available fight.  Well, it just so happens that there's a 16 man gang next door.  We're all thinking "WOOT! Fight time!!!" However, while we may have 2x the numbers (about 30), they had 2 logi's to our 0. 

We thought we could take them and we probably could have.  Let me first say I don't think this was the FC's fault, he tried his best.  He was as clear as he could have been.  Still, it should have been easy: go in, kill logis first, and then take out the rest. Except for one tiny problem: we got confused with our targets.

See, they had a guy named TheOnePunisher, flying a Scimitar.  They also had a punisher in fleet, you know the little Amarr T1 frigate.  The Scimmy was called primary, FC said "Primary the Scimi's as they uncloak!",  shortly followed by "PRIMARY IS THE PUNISHER!!!"  Now you can see where this is going. 

Despite having clearly stated that the SCIMITARS were the primary, some people looked for and fired upon their punisher.  If only this was the only fail thing that happened.

Before this, when we were hunting this fleet and playing gate games, we had 2 dictors.  The first one, a sabre got popped trying to trap the enemy fleet.  The second one, a flycatcher, was a total dumbass.  He took the FC's silence during our cloaking time to mean "BUBBLE UP!"  He repeatedly bubbled up as the fleet attempted to warp.  This happened often, and our HIC pilot got blamed several times.  It was a pain. 

All told, our fleet got 1 kill, an Apoc who logofskied and then we caught him on log in, so only one person got on the kill.  Comparing that to our 5 losses, a frig, a dic, and a 3 battlecruisers, it looks pretty bad.  Sorry to our FC, who was pretty cool about the fail.  And despite the fact that it was a unsuccesful roam, I still had fun.  Nothing like being locked up by 15 reds, while aligning in retreat knowing they could at any moment drop a point on you. 

In other news, my corp has instigated a 15 kill/month policy which is entirely reasonable.  However, I have gotten exactly 1 kill this month, and that was a pod.  Blame CTA's where we shoot nothing but towers and the ones where we kill things (iHubs and POS's) are at 3 in the morning.  I have school and errands to do.  No thanks, so I have some work to do.

Designing an Internet Spaceship

I've been looking into the Devian Art finalists, or semi finalists whatever, and I have to say there are only a few that strike me as interesting, cool, or practical.  However, the one that really takes the cake in my opinion would have to be the one to the left.  Designed by *dreamwa1ker, it has all of the above; Its cool, practical and interesting.  It is just too epic.  Not too mention he includes plans for the other three races.

Since my alt has been getting the skills to use more and more tech two stuff, looking at this awesome looking minmatar battleship really has me drooling.  The thought is there, he plans out mid, low and high slots!  He has cargo, base stats, drones and hardpoints!  JUST READING IT IS MAKING IT APPEAR TO CLOSE TO REALITY!

So yeah, my votes with this guy.  I hope he wins, I want my own Tornado.

Pitch Forks and Randomness

I think everyone should keep a pitchfork in their hanger.  And by pitch fork I don't mean a literal pitch fork, I mean a ship you will readily go out into battle to defend your system with and not care if it goes boom.  This makes it much easier when your put in the "We need shield logi's and battlecruisers ASAP at a safe POS in *-*.  Intercepting a hostile gang that is x jumps out" to respond "Ok, who has a warp in?"  Thus you get to have fun not far from home!

Today was one of those days I got to take my pitch fork out for a spin and my pitch fork is a drake.  Mainly because our fleets seem to be mostly shield/speed ships possibly because they are good at what they do but more likely because they are cheap.  I took out my second drake that I've purchased since my time in 0.0, one that has seen many engagements and made it out alive, and threw it at the Darkside gang we were engaging.  Sadly, today was not one of those times, when despite our superior fleet numbers, we still got our ass handed to us.  Well, it was probably more even since half our people will still docked or doing whatever.  So my trusty Crimson Tide III was popped due to being the apparent subject of the enemy fleets missiles, but not before I managed to get some blood and guts smeared on her hull.

So I went and reshipped into my "slightly" smaller and less reliable atron; which under gate camp situations is a fine ship for playing tackle but in the drone laden battlefield of the small gang fight is an easy target for drones.  I decided, given that T2 drones rape T1 Frigates, to play warping games while acting as an additional tackle against the speedy and hard hitting darksiders, managing to hop onto a tempest kill.  There's three more kills for my increasingly pathetic looking kill board.  I think I'm averaging a kill a day, though sadly 15 of them were on day 1 (I think).

RL fun is winding down (I've been taking SCUBA lessons for the past month), so I should have more time during the weekdays especially for more fun and games.  Along with that, I can now fly my first T2 ship: the basilisk.  So now I can play logistics with fleets who so often seem to need them.  I have no problem skipping off kill mails (See my killboard =P), but my skills are a bit lacking.  Ah well, another week for fitting them right isn't so bad.  And then it's time for my last few skills till remap!  Hurray!

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

Hianmar, a.k.a. The EVE Gamer