AAR: Knowledge Is Power

"Now, it may seem I am a hypocrite, as earlier I stated that I needed a contest of forces for something to be fun, and blobbing something with Bombers does not seem like much of a contest. I respond with this: a contest of forces is not always directly between two groups of spaceships. It can be a contest between the hunter and intel channels, a contest to not be caught by gate camps, a contest to patiently out last your opponent. Things do not simply boil down to which spaceship explodes first, but how you get and arrive at that point. It is why I was attracted to wormholes in the first place, not necessarily the PvP, but the hunt itself." (Exploitation and Counters - Null Sec Edition)

That was from a post on November 14th, 2014, and it still holds true today. Indeed, any conflict of forces is much more than just punches back and forth, or bullets flying, or any violent action. It always, at the end of the day, comes down to knowledge.

If you have ever played the excellent Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Within, you have a good idea what I am talking about, even if you haven't seen Eve necessarily from that perspective yet. The mod cranks the difficulty up to harsh amounts and gives you an expansive inventory of tools to help combat these new threats. Even Normal difficulty has a harsh learning curve to it (I failed my first two attempts).

But tools are nothing without the knowledge of how, where, and how much to use them. This is why intel is important. It lets you bring the right tools, warn you of future threats, execute the perfect door breach, a superb overwatch trap, or just position optimally.

While not all of these situations are applicable to Eve, the base concept is. The fact is, the more you know, the more effective you are. Just remember the 6 P's.

Proper
Preparation
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

That knowledge becomes even more important when highly vulnerable and expensive assets are at risk. For Eve, this largely means Capital Ships, which can be very easy targets when caught alone without a supporting fleet. And, spoiler alert, I work alone at the moment, and rarely ask for backup from friends because they tend to not be close by.

So when I found a Raitaru anchoring in a close by C6 Wormhole with no noticeable backup or defending fleet, I figured I'd do something a little risky. I was going to solo-bash it down before it completed with one of my Dreadnoughts. Even with a cheap T1 fit I easily could exceed the 5000 DPS damage cap, which meant the bash would take about 16 minutes. 20 minutes in total because the Siege timer works on 5 minute intervals. Not too bad.

So, I go home, refit, and start jumping the Dread a few jumps over to get it ready to enter system. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying too much attention to my home system at the time as I was refitting, so I jumped my first gate with them in local. I noticed them while I was already in warp, and a quick DScan told me it was a Stratios with Core Probes out. I wasn't too concerned, I see that a lot in low sec, its a really good exploration ship. So I continue on and make my jumps to the appropriate system while I scout the wormhole in more detail with my alt before committing.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Darkani, the Stratios pilot, be in my local again. Not just passing through either for exploration, but hanging around.

This sent up a few red flags for me immediately. The first was easy: there was only one Signature to scan in system, which was the wormhole I was about to siege, which was practically worthless to her in that ship. It should have taken at most a minute to figure out what it was and moved on. The second was more about the region cosmology. See, in order to get to my home system of Partod (which is where she initially saw me), you had to pass through the system of Sharza, which is where my Dread and the wormhole was. Meaning that if she was exploring normally, she should have already scanned this system and should have just passed on through without a second glance.

She didn't though, she was sticking around, which meant she was no longer interested in exploration. She had another goal in mind now.

Being my usual paranoid self I immediately looked up her killboard history. Active with a wide range of different pilots. NPSI fleets tend to look like this, and it was this kill that gave it away for sure. I also happened to be an NPSI participant as well, or at least I was on occasion over two years ago. Now I just hang out in the Spectre Fleet and Bombers Bar channels. If she was connected to them and she was hanging around to see if she could get back up, then she would have to make contact with an FC before doing anything. Which she did...

darkani > any fc online ?
Xackattack Avianson > what's up
Xackattack Avianson > there's 10 online
darkani > plz accept private

I had all I needed to know I was in danger before, but that was the final bit that nailed it. And if that wasn't enough they sent out a rage form up for me. HVT stands for High Value Target if you don't know.

I like NPSI groups. I think they do a great service to the game. But I'm not going to roll over and give them a 3+ Billion ISK kill, but nor do I want them to waste their time. So I decided to have a little fun to let them know that I knew. 

Blodhgarm Dethahal > on a scale of 1 to Space Dust, how rusted does my Naglfar look darkani ?

That didn't get much of a reaction though judging by the talk in Spectre Fleet chat, so I had to go a bit more direct.

Xackattack Avianson > we're literally doing this 1 jump from amarr so get in here
Xackattack Avianson > it's going to be a 3b+ kill likely
Blodhgarm Dethahal > it won't
Blodhgarm Dethahal > sup people
Xackattack Avianson > hehe
Blodhgarm Dethahal > if you are interested there is a C6 in that system tho with an anchoring Ratairu
Xackattack Avianson > nevermind lol
Blodhgarm Dethahal > which I was going to bash until I noticed miss Darkani
Xackattack Avianson > do you think there will be defenders
Blodhgarm Dethahal > honestly probably not, I was going to solo bash it after all :P
Xackattack Avianson > if there's defenders we could help

It is a rather tempting offer, but I just stay silent and make preparations to move my Dread back home. Too much intel has already leaked out to public channels at this point, and I would rather not get involved in this situation anymore. So after a little more patience to let the locals clear, I pop a cyno, and jump home safely.

And that was that. A fight without a single shot fired, and a Dreadnought saved.

If I am allowed to get on my soapbox for a moment (which I am, its my blog so fuck off)...

In Eve there is this near obsession with killmails and 'fights' and particularly the fabled 'good' fight. That isn't wrong, its just another way to view and play the game. However, I find that vision extremely limiting. I can't tell you how many 'fights' I've turned down over the years simply because my scouts have reported a danger ahead of time, or because I knew that our fleet composition couldn't beat theirs, among many other reasons. A battle always begins with a fight for knowledge, whether it is to gain it yourself or prevent the enemy from acquiring it, it doesn't matter.

In this last instance, I won that fight, and it quite possibly saved my Dread. I think the Eve community would greatly benefit by expanding their definition of the word 'fight' and outright removing the term 'good' fight.

A recent forum post by CCP called 'The 8 Golden Rules of Eve Online' briefly talks about this as well. With quotes like "You consent to PvP when you click 'undock'." and "There is no such thing as 'a fair fight' or 'an unfair fight'. There's only a fight. Circumstances are irrelevant." With quotes like these you can get a reasonable idea of what Eve is all about.

It is all about PvP.

More so than even the developers themselves I think realize. PvP doesn't begin with clicking the undock button. Some have joked that 'Market PvP' is a thing (which it is to be honest). But it goes farther than that. No matter what you do, or where you are, you are part of this community, and it is by sheer presence that you are a PvPer. Even those ultra carebear Incursion runners PvP. They have to learn to defend their ultra-pimped out ships from being ganked. There is a conflict of forces there. The market trader has to learn to build spreadsheets, analyse data, look for trends, to stay competitive, or else they risk losing money, rather than making it. A scout has to battle intel channels, gate camps, and communicate effectively back to their FC. A Jump Freighter pilot has to keep an emergency cyno on standby for escaping dangers.

You are not a PvPer by clicking an arbitrary button. You are a PvPer because you are you. You, as a person, are a force. A power that has the ability to contest and be contested in turn. If I wanted to get really philosophical I could argue that you PvP in real life every second because you compete with others for a job, a degree, and on and on.

But I won't, this is about internet spaceships philosophy, not real life philosophy.

I have never seen a better description of the fabled 'good' fight.

So when you miss a kill, or die, or lose ISK to a misplaced market order, or not building a spreadsheet correctly, or failing to conceal your scout, or do anything that results in a failure... do not complain.

Nod your head, accept it, and ask... What could I have done better? It is the mindset and the knowledge that you take away from it all that can turn any fight, even a loss, into an actually good fight, and not just a 'good' fight.

But at the end of the day these are just my thoughts and viewpoints. You be you. You play your Eve. This is my Eve, and I love my Eve.

I suppose I should end this post off with a killmail, since this fight had none. Gota keep with some traditions I guess.

So here, have this guy who thought it was smart to mine ice in a low sec with active people... in an Orca.

AAR: Eve Capitalism At Its Finest

We all have things that we need to do in our lives. Buy food, go to work/school, piss and shit, clean, buy gas.

Eve isn't all that much different sometimes. When there are real assets that you have worked to earn on the line and at risk, it pays to do some very basic things to keep them safe. Sometimes people just don't know better. Other times its just straight up incompetence.

I live in Genesis. I've lived out here for perhaps 3-4 weeks now, mostly surviving off of scanning and exploration. Other, bigger entities than me make a living off of other things, like industry. Moon Mining and Moon Reactions are two of the big ones out here, both of which require POSes.

I hate POSes. I've had to set them up, manage them, tear them down. Then reset them up, manage them, and tear them down... again. Working with the damn things is tedious, labor intensive work. That being said, you only have to do three things to protect your POS, or more importantly the assets inside. One: fuel with Strontium. Two: anchor and online defensive turrets. Three: keep supplied with Fuel Blocks.

The first and second is do and forget. The third is a constant upkeep. And for the life of me, I can't understand why someone would forget to keep their Control Towers fueled when these things cost hundreds of millions, sometimes billions of ISK.

But in the relatively short time I've been out here, I've found two offline POSes. The first was a dud, the second netted me about 400 million ISK.

I really hated hauling this shit.

And that isn't all. Not only have a found offline POSes, but I have found online POSes with defensive modules that are not even anchored. For the uninitiated, if a POS module is unanchored, it is in an open free-for-all, and anyone can scoop it into their cargo and run. So far... I've found four POSes with this affliction. One of which had an entire Control Tower just sitting unanchored unattended at a moon.

Ok, so fuel can sometimes slip your mind. Maybe you are busy in real life and can't log in for 5 minutes and throw more fuel in the bay. Maybe your account lapsed. Maybe you got podded and can't make it back in time with more fuel. But forgetting to straight up anchor your modules? That is literately step one in setting up the POS.

Shit... I'm sitting outside a POS right now that has its defenses incapacitated and unable to function. As if the owners could care less about even the vague appearance of safety.

And then there is the icing on the cake: Mobile Siphon Units. See, I was bored one day and decided to dump 100 million on buying some Siphons to steal some moon materials from the local POSes. I found some that didn't have defenses online, and slapped them down, expecting them to live for at most two days.

It's two weeks later and they are still alive. Not only are they still alive, I have actually witnessed the owner of the POSes come online, warp to each of them in turn to collect the materials he had harvested, and go offline again. I don't know if he is blind, doesn't care, or is afraid of me retaliating against him if he tries to destroy my Siphons.

I just don't get it. They are simple, very simple steps you can do to secure your assets and hard earned ISK. And yet, here I am, profiting off of the backs of the stupid or lazy.

This entire region is crazy.

AAR: Executing Time... and People

I'm not dead! Well, I died a few times to get here but that's besides the point.

To be honest, my motivation for Eve severely dropped, and had been dwindling ever since the collapse of Protean Concept. When Isogen 5 collapsed I joined Semper Ubi Sub Uni and more or less just threw in the towel and quit for a while, occasionally subbing every now and then to do stupid things, like ganking with a Marauder.

Four months ago I founded my own corporation and just started doing my own thing, but I still didn't have the motivation to start back up again. So my accounts lapsed once again. But, here I am, in my second consecutive month subbed, for the first time in what feels like a year. So what happened?

In short, Ascension happened. The introduction of the Alpha clone let people log in and do basic things to help new people get used to the game. An infinite trial of sorts. Well, the Alpha status isn't just for new comers, but for old vets like myself as well. Because, to me, the most powerful, and wonderful thing about Eve, is its social aspect. And talking is free. Being able to talk with old friends without feeling obligated to pay was a nice feeling, though I suppose that's a moot point since I re-subbed anyway. That was mostly thanks to a real life friend of mine wanting to get into the game since he heard it was now 'free to play.' His newbro enthusiasm was quite warming to my cold bittervet heart.

People encourage people, and it is through our interactions that we can achieve something that is otherwise impossible.

Even if it is completely by accident.

When I went inactive, not all my friends did the same, and they have all gone their separate ways. We sometimes still call on each other for help. I, for instance, have started living in low sec, and taking the opportunities as they come to me, mainly through exploration and DED Complexes.

I had about 1.2 billion in loot I needed to sell, so like any old disgruntled W-Space bittervet, I wasn't going to take the commoner's route of stargates, I scanned for wormholes to Jita. In the middle of scanning I encountered a fleet sitting on a wormhole.

The fleet was of the corporation Tempest Legion.

On a whim I took a screenshot and posted in chat with my friends. Just on the off chance that one of them was nearby. Little did I know, a few of them were really close by.

Blodhgarm Dethahal > http://puu.sh/tcJsm/aaedbf69a9.jpg
Atomoxetine > where?
Atomoxetine > which wh?
Blodhgarm Dethahal > some random C2
Atomoxetine > jtag?
Blodhgarm Dethahal > J223853
Atomoxetine > 431?
{...}
Rottingham Joringer > Blodhgarm Dethahal wtf are you doing in our chain?
Blodhgarm Dethahal > they are gone off DScan now
Blodhgarm Dethahal > I was just diving... lol
{...}
Atomoxetine > from anara? middle of nowhere...
Blodhgarm Dethahal > I live there
350125GO > lol
350125GO > figures
Atomoxetine > small universe.
{...}
350125GO > you always wind up randomly in the middle of shit
Atomoxetine > happen to see where they went?
Blodhgarm Dethahal > BWB-K162-C4 in 853
Blodhgarm Dethahal > most likely, I was in the middle of scanning when they popped up
Rottingham Joringer > We were about to take their bait when you linked that picture

Now, regardless of where I go, I always carry a Mobile Small Warp Disruptor II with me in my cargo when I scan. It has been a habit of mine for many years. I love these things. No one expects a scan ship to bubble, and it doesn't have the kind of footprint on DScan that an Interdictor or Heavy Interdictor has. It came in handy to have for this fight.

I knew where my allies were, and I knew where the enemies were coming from. I had confidence in my friends that they could win on their own, so my job was to prevent them from escaping, and get them as many kills as possible. So I anchored my bubble on the enemy's wormhole, 70km off in the direction of my ally's wormhole. Knowing the fight was taking place inside my ally's system, if the enemy was going to retreat, they had to jump out, and warp back to their wormhole. If that happened, my bubble would intercept them and pull them out of warp 70km early, completely out of position and vulnerable. An easy clean up job to the pursuing ally fleet.

It didn't work out exactly that way, but it did play another purpose: scaring the enemy. This bubble anchors in exactly 1 minute and can seem to come out of no where. When the fight got under way, the enemy tried to bring in reinforcements, but the fear of the bubble (which got spotted by 2 reinforcing Guardians) prompted them to bounce off a nearby planet first and then warp to their destination, effectively delaying them and splitting the enemy fleet in half. For the two Bhaalgorns that I saw jump in, this was a painfully slow process of a measly 2 AU/sec warp speed, twice. In that time frame, my allies were able to kill most of the enemy and force them out of their system.

It was at this moment my bubble served its original purpose: pulling ships out of warp. Unfortunately, due to previous scouting, a vast majority of their pilots were able to avoid it. But a single Guardian missed the memo, which I ate gleefully.

And with that I tipped my hat, and left the bubble behind to be killed by my allies, who warped into it on accident.

Rottingham Joringer > rip drag bubble
Blodhgarm Dethahal > worth it, got me a Guardian kill
Atomoxetine > u indirectly and directly fucked their entire fleet
Blodhgarm Dethahal > hmm... yeah I guess so.. lol
Blodhgarm Dethahal > that timing tho
Atomoxetine > could not have planned it better
Rottingham Joringer > we're like dudes confessors
Rottingham Joringer > Blods like Hey guys look at this damn fleet
Blodhgarm Dethahal > I just thought it would be interesting to post, on the off chance you guys were close
Rottingham Joringer > as all 3 of us put 2 and 2 together that we're looking at teh same group
Blodhgarm Dethahal > I didn't realize you were that close... lol
Atomoxetine > i saw the tags and thought he was trolling somehow
Rottingham Joringer > same

I'm not going to take credit for the out come of the fight, as I wasn't there at it. At best I was a 3rd party ganker. And none of this would have worked out the way it did if SOUND had not been able to win that initial engagement. But, at the end of the day, what does it matter? It's just a moment between friends that left me grinning ear to ear.

And to top it off, I even found a high sec in that chain that accomplished my original goal of hauling loot.

It just shows that, no matter how prepared you think you are, you never know what's out there.

Battle Report C4 Side
Battle Report C2 Side

Total ISK Killed: 3.9 Billion
Total ISK Lost: 81.9 Million

Reformation

With summer coming up, it was decided by Absolutely Certain leadership to merge our corporation into Isogen-5, a C5>C5 group. Reason being is that activity drops a lot during summer, and that can mean death to a small group, as inactivity breeds inactivity. It was already happening to me, my finals came up, and I was not feeling an extraordinary motivation to log in every day to help PvP and find/provide content.

Since merging into Isogen-5 I have...

• Gotten them hooked to Blops
• Welped to Lazerhawks
• Dunked Low-Class
• Brawled BRAVE

Content is out there and loose, you just have to find it and have the people to exploit it. This is what I wanted Protean Concept to be when I was a Director in it, and it feels good to be part of an organized, good, fun group of guys to play with.

As for this blog, detailed battle reports will be rarer now. Unless a fight it is a very interesting / fun / funny / thought provoking it will not be posted. AARs about personal / corporate milestones will still be posted too.

Instead this will be mostly me being reflective on doctrines, fights, fits, and politics in wormhole space. I already did this to a degree, reflecting on a fight and how I could have done better, but now I will be focusing specifically on that aspect rather than just recollecting events happening in game.

This will mean posts in general will be less common, but hopefully the ones that are posted will be richer in content.

AAR: Hesitation vs Reward

A Battleship is slow, cumbersome, and tends to lack utility in a fight. It is also an excellent tool to project large amounts of damage over distance and soaking up large amounts of damage in return. Nothing exemplify these traits more than a Marauder, which while in Bastion gains range bonuses and tank bonuses, with the already natural 1000+ DPS capabilities. It also makes you completely immobile for the module's duration. What this means is you have to pick your fights carefully: know when to go, know when to stay put, and know what poses the most threat to you.

Ilaister had found 4 ratting Dominixes down the chain in a C4. We form up and move out with two Stratios, one Tengu, and a Paladin, and I guess Shaded's joke Lasergu is also with us too. A new bro follows a little ways behind in a Devoter. As Ilaister found the Dominixes they had warped off the site they were in, back to their home connection, which just so happened to be the connection we were sitting on. A Vexor jumped in and saw us sitting there, so we were spotted and the Dominixes would be warned not to jump in. All the little ships jumped in to prevent them from warping off, in our eagerness to land tackle everyone jumped, except for my Paladin, which I kept to stay for tackle, as most likely they would jump into me once they got tackled. Indeed they did, and two Dominixes jumped into my waiting arms, with some of our fleet coming back to spread tackle. The other two get away, but one was caught latter. Very simple gank.

Hesitating to jump initially with the rest of the gang netted us at least one more Domnix which we otherwise would have not gotten. So, maybe there is some reward to waiting and not jumping the gun in eagerness.

Not too long after that I was scouting on my alt, and I found a reduced C5 connection in a C3, inbound. I jump in and I'm greeted with a Slicer and a Legion sitting on the hole, part of the same group of this Venture we killed earlier in the C3. Pretty simple, form up small 3 man gang, and smack the shit out of them. I hold back with my main this time to put more attention on scout. The new bro comes up with a plan to use a passive shield bait Sigil to see if they have any more hidden somewhere. I've seen similar fitted Nereuses before, so I was expecting either a good bait or a total waste of a ship. It was good bait though, he warps off to Planet 6 and gets tackled by the Slicer. At this point the rest of the fleet was shown to us: three Navy Vexors, a Rook, and a Proteus.

At this point I do send my main down the chain to help, mindlessly grabbing my Paladin again. In the meantime we were in full scale brawl at Planet 6, over a dead Sigil, which tanked 66k damage, not bad. When I did finally arrive we had lost two Stratios, and in return killed two Navy Vexors, a Rook, a newly arrived Hawk, and the Slicer. We still had Guirdarr's Tengu tackled at the planet, and it was his expensive active tanked one too. That was a problem, as I had just realized that the C5 had a Cataclysmic effect, which nerfed local tanking, which was also what my Paladin was. I hesitated at jumping in because of it, but Ilaister eventually berated me into action and I jumped in to assist Gui, who was now breaking under the DPS pressure of a newly arrived Rattlesnake. He dies as I land on grid, but I do manage to finish off the Proteus. I MJD off and warp back home. A Heretic jumps out as if in attempt to bubble me once I jump out, but the hole is verge, as it was a very small mass hole. So I just jump out and close it, getting us a Heretic kill.

Could I have saved Guirdarr if I had jumped sooner? I don't know for sure, but I don't think so under that DPS and nerf to his tank. It is a shame we lost it, as it had been a very valuable baiting and ultra heavy tackle ship. For those interested in the stats, you can see them here. Stats are with Mid-Grade Crystals and Tengu Links, both of which he had. Also obviously outside of a Cataclysmic effected system. It was inspired by this fit, and I know he didn't seem to take much damage but that was because of him jumping a wormhole, so the session change reset it. They both can tank shit loads of damage, even under heavy neut pressure. RIP in pieces.

Was a good fight though, and it was nice to see Mr. Bait Hauler come back into play again. Thanks to our new bro for that bait Sigil, and here is to many more.

Battle Report

*Edit*

I did have a nice chat with one of their members just a few minutes ago about the fight. You can find the conversation here.



Blöd