omgwtfsplosion

Posted: 2010-02-19 | Author: | Filed under: eveonline, ships | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Recently, a friend of mine linked a chatlog. Apparently, someone had bought a Rorqual without realizing that, being a capital ship, it could not use gates. Subsequently, he lost it on a gate. In the chatlog, he essentially explodes. With rage and idiocy.

Before that, another friend, through a series of coincidences, had all his chars outside his WH when the server crashed. When the server came back up, the WH connecting him to his 3-4 bil in assets was gone, with no way to get back in.

I’ll go ahead and let you imagine his reaction. Short story, a GM let him back in.

As I’ve heard before, Eve is a game of tens. You start out in a rookie ship and 100k isk sounds like shitloads. You get a frig and 10 mil sounds like shitloads. You get a cruiser and 100 mil sounds like shitloads. you get a BS and a bill is a shitloads. You get a carrier and usually by that point you think 500 mil is being poor.

With insurance the way it is, losing a ship isn’t much, and you can usually bounce back with the money. A personal nightmare of mine used to be losing all of my assets at once and finding myself back in a rookie ship with an empty wallet. My personal Eve nightmare has now changed to all of my friends stopping playing and possibly losing everything. And/or getting blamed for a giant corp theft or something.

In any case, if I did find myself in a frigate mining again, I still wouldn’t explode. I have friends now, friends that loaned me startup capital in a heartbeat, so even if I do find myself in a fucking navitas mining fifteen units of veldspar every fucking 60 fucking seconds until I want to hang myself…
Where was I going?

Anyway, in our WH, when we have to close a wormhole, we usually jump a bunch of medium and small sized ships through, jump the Rorq through, move the ships back through and then the Rorq, which so far has only failed few times, but we fixed that. Anyway, this scenario leave us in the situation of having a 1.7 bil ship, alone, on one side of a wormhole that usually, if we’re trying to close it, has several people on the other side that want to kill us.

I can’t accurately portray that risk, so let’s basically call it the equivalent of sticking your todger into a women’s bathroom at the annual switchblade owner convention.

Anyway, I’ve had losses before and they really didn’t bother me. When I lost the large tower to a highsec gank after getting it safely out of a C6, I made a witty comment in local and left. I lost a friend’s domi to a blob, I wished them a nice day. I would go on, but I’d like to hear your stories. What’s the worst loss you’ve had, and have you ever exploded like this idiot?

Journey to 9UY4-H

Posted: 2010-02-17 | Author: | Filed under: screenshot | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

I believe in Providence’s NRDS policy. I believe that it is a critical training location for new pilots and a location where you can make some of your first steps into nullsec space. After a few months of playing eve, I wanted to get into the nullsec games so I spent some time mining Dark Glitter in Providence. There I learned how to take orders from a FC, watch local, scout, “run the pipe”, etc… …

NRDS Not Red, Don’t Shoot. An engagement policy of corps/alliances where “red” refers to having negative standing, leaving neutrals as “shoot only after being shot at”. More usual in low security space than in 0.0, due to the greater number of genuinely friendly/indifferent neutrals in areas of higher population.

wiki.eveonline.com

All good learning experiences that helped me grow in my Eve career. I would hate to see CVA loose Providence as it would rob other new players of the same exposure to nullsec.

I didn’t feel like mining last night so I bought some mods in Jita 4-4, hopped on an alt account, and set a course for 9UY4-H, which was recentry taken from CVA by Ushra’Khan.

Leaving empire and entering through KBP7-G I expected resistance or a Heavy Interdictor Bubble on my way to Unity Station, the outpost in UY4-H, but I made my way through alive. When I reached Unity Station, I wasn’t able to dock as my alt is in a NPC Corporation.

Here are some screenshots of the heavily Mobile Warp Disruptor’ed Outpost.

Perhaps someday I will fight the fight in nullsec.

First Cyno Adventure

Posted: 2010-02-13 | Author: | Filed under: ships | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

Don’t even think about getting into Capital ships until you have Jump Drive Operation to V with the two support skills, Jump Drive Calibration and Jump Fuel Conservation, to at least III if not IV. These are completely necessary skills in order to move a capital around. Jump Drive Calibration is especially important because it grants a 25% increase in maximum jump range per level (!). Additionally, Jump Fuel Conservation reduces fuel consumption by -10% per level.

We got a link to a C5 with a C140 WH (1,350,000,000 kg max jumpable mass) to Babirmoult (0.18) in the Solitude region. I brought out a scout from WH space and watched the only station in the system for an hour as I planned out the jumps for the Carrier and coordinated logistics with my Cyno-capable corpmate. If my Jump Drive Operation support skills were at 0, then it would have taken us 6 jumps. Good thing I spent the time training up the support skills to III.

Only 1 in local in the WH enterance system. I watched as he switched in between a Legion (T3 Cruiser) and a Sacrilege (T2 Heavy Assault Ship). Meanwhile, in the neighboring systems of Faurulle and Agaullores, there was a 25 person lowsec gategamp. Sheesh, well Eve is about adventure, right?

We decided that the timing wasn’t going to get any better so we planned our route.

  1. Lonetrek, Otsasai (0.35) Caldari State
  2. Black Rise, Iwisoda (0.24) Caldari State, Distance: 8.431 ly
  3. Placid, Grispire (0.18) Gallente Federation, Distance: 8.265 ly
  4. Solitude, Babirmoult (0.18) Gallente Federation, Distance: 9.333 ly

I got my scout into the 1st system, Otsasai, and cloaked him up outside the station.

Corpmate with a Cyno cruiser in place in the next system, green light issued for jump, cyno up, WHEEE! *jump*

I laded some 8k off of the Cyno cruiser so I cloaked up. Now comes the fun part where your Cyno ship cannot move for 5 minutes. After the capital ship successfully jumps, you have two options. Wait for the cyno cycle to finish or self-destruct your ship. The first two systems that we had to jump into were practically empty so we waited the full Cyno cycle.

Everything was going great until the last jump into the system with the WH when I got this notification when attempting to jump:

[ 2010.02.13 04:52:58 ] (info) This jump destination requires 7466 unit(s) of Oxygen Isotopes, but you only have 6615 in your cargo hold.

Um, uh oh. I tried to jump again.

[ 2010.02.13 04:53:10 ] (info) This jump destination requires 7466 unit(s) of Oxygen Isotopes, but you only have 6615 in your cargo hold.

Additionally, the WH from our C6 into the connecting C5 was going to close in less than 3 hours.

I guess I didn’t read the Dotlan jump calculations carefully enough. I rushed my scout around and picked up another 2,000 units (300 m3) of Oxygen Isotopes and jetcanned it right next to the Carrier.

The Cyno Cruiser flew past some lowsec gatecamps in neighboring systems and into position. We dropped the last cyno right on top of the WH (less than 5km) so the Carrier could jump in right away.

Local looks good, green light issued for cyno, cyno up, *jump*.

[ 2010.02.13 05:22:38 ] h > lit @ 2.8k

*jump*

[ 2010.02.13 05:23:01 ] Blake > landed 7k away
[ 2010.02.13 05:23:04 ] Blake > closing range
[ 2010.02.13 05:23:10 ] h > burn fast 😛
[ 2010.02.13 05:23:22 ] Blake > 60 m/s!
[ 2010.02.13 05:23:23 ] Blake > lol
[ 2010.02.13 05:23:26 ] h> XD
[ 2010.02.13 05:23:37 ] Blake > almost there

Overall a success. Now we have some remote repping power in WH space.

Cyno Operation Tips:

  1. After your Cyno module is activated, click it again to stop the cycle. This will ensure that you do not go into another Cyno cycle and become a sitting duck for another 5 minutes.
  2. Scout, scout, scout! Have corp mate(s) or alt(s) scout 1 or 2 systems ahead in your capital ship jump path. You can watch local traffic and really see when you have a good jump window.
  3. Train the Jump Drive Operation support skills up to at least III, if not IV.
  4. Cyno operations can be a blast. How else can you get through 13 systems in 1 jump?
  5. Don’t fly what you cannot afford to loose.
  6. Oh, and as always, check your clones and ship insurance before undocking.

New Project: Build a Carrier in WH Space

Posted: 2010-02-11 | Author: | Filed under: industry, ships, wormhole | Tags: , , , , , , | 11 Comments

When I started my Eve account, I had dreams of becoming a master builder. Since then I’ve put a lot of industry jobs on hold to go mine in WH space. To some mining is boring. I however, have enjoyed my mining career. I’ve been able to buy some nice toys due to hours of sitting on Arkonor roids including a Freighter, T3 Cruiser, Orca, 2x Hulks, Plexes for a 3rd account, and even a Carrier that is currently sitting in lowsec awaiting a good link to our WH system.

Even though I have concentrated on mining over the past 1.5 years, I have done some building such as T1/T2 drones, T1/T2 Hybrid guns, and basic T1 modules since the BPOs were cheap. Now I’m embarking on a large project – build a Carrier in WH space since I’m becoming impatient waiting for a nice link from lowsec to our WH system and honestly, what is Eve without new challenges?

As many of you know, the majority of Eve projects begin with a spreadsheet to see if your idea is ISK-feasible. So now onto the estimations.

With a ME10, PE1 Thanatos BPC, I will need:

  1. Megacyte 17,941
  2. Zydrine    41,849
  3. Nocxium    232,855
  4. Isogen    823,502
  5. Mexallon 5,287,183
  6. Pyerite    14,128,271
  7. Tritanium 57,790,100

This comes to 784,000 m3 of minerals with Tritanium being the biggest spacehog. Sheesh, that’s two freighters full of minerals!

I scanned a link to highsec via a C2 and assembled my NPC shopping list:

  1. X-Large Ship Assembly Array, 90 M – builds the Carrier
  2. Component Assembly Array, 9 M – builds the Capital Ship parts
  3. Capital Ship Construction Skillbook, 65 M – I allows you to build fighters, III allows you to build Carriers. Only took some 3 hours to train to III with +4’s
  4. Small Ship Assembly Array, 90 M – builds Fighter Drones

Along with the NPC orders, I needed some BPCs so I started searching contracts in Jita.

  1. Capital BPCs purchased in Jita 4-4, each 5 unit run BPC was around 2-6 M for a total of about 180 M
  2. Thanatos BPC ME10 PE1, 70 M
  3. Firbolg BPO ME 20 PE 5, 75 M

Raw mineral cost based on Jita 4-4 buy orders:

  1. Megacyte    44.3 M
  2. Zydrine    56.3 M
  3. Nocxium    20.9 M
  4. Isogen    44.5 M
  5. Mexallon    15.6 M
  6. Pyerite    90.4 M
  7. Tritanium    156.0 M

Total: 428.1 M

A few nights ago we had a route from our WH -> C5 -> C2 (occupied with miners) -> C2 -> Highsec and lowesec exits. My corpmate and I made 2x Iteron V runs to get the X-Large Ship Assembly Array (25,000 m3) and Component Assembly Array (12,500 m3) into our WH system. They are currently anchored and offline (as to not consume fuel) since we are currently gathering minerals.

The biggest hogs are Mexallon @ 53,000 m3, Pyerite @ 142,000 m3, and Tritanium @ 578,000 m3 (!). That’s a LOT of Tritanium. Needless to say, I’ve been working on Veldspar, Plagioclase, and Scordite roids since they have the highest yield of the three minerals. I have the money to buy the Tritanium from Jita, but lack the will to haul it all in. So the more Veldspar I can eat up in WH grav sites, the less I will have to haul.

I’ve just started mining and have one hangar filled with raw ore so stay tuned for more industry adventures!

[Feb 17 Update]

Of course a few days after I write this article and bring construction equipment into WH space we get a nice WH link that is big enough to allow Capitals to enter. Details here.

Irony, my old jackass of a friend

Posted: 2010-02-11 | Author: | Filed under: eveonline, ships, wormhole | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Let me rephrase that:
Irony, you jackass son of a cross-eyed whore. And screw you too, Murphy.

Remember how I’ve been whining about losing a PoS in a C6 for the last few weeks? Last night, I get this:
.

I logon, and someone by the name of Henner Borgenson has apparently found the PoS and contracted the BMs to Blake, who contracts them to me. We get in our scan alts, burn a way out through four systems in under an hour, and I head back to the PoS to get my Viator, my ship of choice for hostile environments.

Unfortunately, my Viator, rigged as it was, holds 7.5k m3. A large pos, packaged, is 8k m3. So, I take the only available hauler that can hold 8k m3, a trusty Iteron V that someone fit low-friction nozzles to for some reason. I put two stabs, two nanos and an expanded cargohold in the lows and a protocloak in the high, rounding it off with as many shield extenders as I can fit in the midslots and an invul field to cover it. I head out to highsec, and fly to where the BMs are, pick em up, and fly through WH space to a C6, which, lo and behold, has the PoS. I start to unanchor, warp out, warp to 100km, and cloak, setting an orbit of 160km. 55 minutes later, my hauler has made it to warp-to range of the PoS and it’s about to unanchor. I warp to it, scoop it and burn like hell out through the C6 and connecting C2, making it to highsec. Exuberant, I log onto an alt and start clearing anomalies in my C1 while warping the hauler. Half an hour later, I tab into the hauler and notice someone firing at me with cruise missiles. Five seconds later, I’m warping in a pod to the nearest station, buying an itty V and a cargo expander, clinging to the brief hope that the gank was a solo one and the dude is docking to get his own hauler. Shit don’t happen, I arrive at the scene and find my wreck completely looted, along with three battlecruiser wrecks.
It could be the fact that it’s currently 2:30 in the morning, but I really didn’t feel too bothered by this. I guess that I’d already written the tower off as a loss and was treating it as a bonus.
Anyway, I am now, hypothetically, 360 mil poorer than I was a few hours ago, not including the under 5 mil hauler. I WAS going to give Henner Borgenson a letter praising the skies and all the heavens for this glorious day, but he’ll have to settle for a “thanks for thinking of me” note. And some iskies once I manage to get a third and fourth tower running >.>

If anyone asks, I made 20 mil off the sleeper sites as I was ganked for 360 mil.

So, the end result from this is moving “normal space” up to number three on my “list of things to loathe”, finally overtaking “Idiots in expensive ships” but still behind “well-organized gatecamps” and “Pomeranians”

Next time, I’m employing red frog industries for my hauling needs…Curse my impatient self!

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