Break It Up

  Just wanted to make a quick post since I won't be for a week. I am on Spring Break for the weeks...rather early which is really getting annoying, but whatever...and I won't be able to post anything or be on Eve much at all. Won't you have more time, not less? You'd think, but I am not doing the normal holiday thing and sitting on the beach all week. I am heading out of town at 7 am tomorrow to work with Habitat for Humanity and build a house over break. No rest for the wicked, eh?

  So, while I may not get to relax as I would normally...and kind of need to...I'll at least be useful for something. If I get time to myself with some wi fi, I'll probably just be updating PI and whatnot. It's a good time for me to be training T2 heavy missiles and all my T3 skills up to 4 and 5.

  Hope you all have a good week and I'll see you when I get back.
-Mem

Wherein We Melt Face and New Shinies

"Check check, hostiles are within four AU of my position. They are incoming." Mem listened to his corp mate over the channel beneath the safety of his cloak.

  He watched his overview blink. "No, they are on grid now. Buzzard and Drake he--check that, 'Phoon with 3 drakes, phobos, and more landing."

 It seemed that sitting at the sun did work quite well, even if it screamed bait. The hostiles seemed obliging and it was about time. It had been a while since Mem had been in a good fight and they had taken their time to take the bait.

  "Please jam the Drakes as quickly as possible." His corpie instructed.

  "Consider it done." Mem replied as he de-cloaked and began locking down the entire enemy force, aligning to the nearest planet. Never enough Caldari jamming programs when I need them, he thought with annoyance.

  He started the counter measures on as many ships as he could, most doing their duty while some failed. The buzzard was starting to burn out of the Phobos' bubble and toward Mem, so he released his drones and assigned them to it along with a counter measure that was freed up as a Drake warped out. His fleet was beginning to land.

  "Bubble is down, start landing points, people."

  Ships began to bleed shields and armor was stripped from their hulls, the damage mounting more as ships continued to land.

  Soon the field was silently strewn with pulverized pieces of titanium metal and frozen corpses. The wreckage was already being looted and the fleet reforming back on their connecting wormhole.

  "I'll salvage the Phobos wreck, the rest aren't worth it." He keyed over comms. It was always good to get some use out of so much destruction.

 Chatter was droning between fleet members, but he didn't notice until someone called out.
  "Chimera, repeat they have pulled out a Chimera and they are reshipping into a shield gang."

  Memoo recloaked and started motoring towards a planet, just in case. It proved a prudent decision, since a Sleipnir landed a few moments later.

  ****-------****

  The fight was pretty cool and the fact that they brought round two was even better. We don't run into many people willing to bring the fight in wspace. And lately it seems killing carriers is becoming a regular thing for us. Best way to describe it was something two corpies said later:


-Most people must see a carrier and run away. ADHC froths at the mouth...
-Yeah people with carriers think they are scary. They are a flame to our moths.

  The amazing part was how fast we reacted. We didn't have logi, but they had a basi on scan so a couple of ours reshipped very quickly and, I have to say, our Falcons did a stand up job. Not that I'm biased. Of course not.

  The rest of the fight went well, with the subcap enemies warping in and out when we lost points, but not doing much of anything to us. The last to be around was a Ferox getting reps from the carrier even though it was only a matter of time til he succumbed. A Tengu also kept warping in at range, each time I was able to perma-jam him thankfully. I hate even yellow boxes as an ECM pilot. It was the best fight I've had in a long time and they even had a good time, giving GFs in local. I'm proud of our guys..and gals ;) for their awesome efforts on such short notice. Of course, this is taking place when I'm supposed to be doing work, but don't tell anyone.

  Beyond that? After the fight, we had a good kspace link and I went out in my pod to Jita. Waiting there was my brand new and beautiful Tengu. Ooooh yeeaaaa, I have finally become a Tech 3 owner and lover. I've fought with myself between 2 or 3 diff types of fits due to my limited ISK. I think I am happy with what I have, I'll get the other subsystems another day when I recoup the financial hit. For now, I am giddy as a...well I am happy. There's even ECM subsystems *evil cackle*

  Fly deadly
-Mem

Face Off

  So with the new character creator that CCP has developed, our choices in looks has become quite varied and creative. I have seen some scary, some funny, and some very well done portraits. It's only natural something like the Face Card Game would come around.

  I initially saw this as amusing, but not something to think about. Until I added Memoo. Now I seem to check it at least once a day, if only to see what ridiculous things are voted for on him. I am a bit surprised so far since his stats are:

Memoocan	Times Offered
INTIMIDATING (100%)	1
CREATIVE (100%)	1
ATTRACTIVE (90%)	4
REALISTIC (79%)	3
FUNNY (61%)	2
SHREWD (59%)	2
DRAMATIC (58%)	2

Can't get it to align, sorry.


  Attractive and realistic are top? I'm a bit flattered I suppose :P The fun part is going through match ups and deciding who represents an attribute better. I have come across corpies and familiar names and had some fun. If you're not careful, you may just watch a half hour disappear before you know it. Mech also had attractive as his top pick so far, so I guess I make some good looking guys.....wait...that didn't come out right.


  Anyways, check it out and have some fun. In other news, be on the look out for the second episode of New Eden Chronicles. It is rather late in coming, but is in the works nonetheless. I am excited and we have some great stuff for you guys. 


  Fly safe
-Mem

The CSM Debate

So a new election year has come for the Council of Stellar Management, now going into its sixth iteration. It seems each new group pushes CCP harder and farther, a good thing indeed with the way CCP can act like a spoiled child that only wants new shinies. They work for the playerbase, or at least that is what they are supposed to do. They give voice to our concerns and demands, hoping that our universe's overlords will bend to listen. It's a lot of work and a lot of dedication put in for something that many people see as "just a game". So who would want to do this anyways?

Well there are quite a few this year it seems, names familiar and not. Kelduum Revaan, CEO of Eve Uni, has a campaign running I think, as well as Roc Wieler, and I am truly hoping one of my corpmates pushes to be a candidate. Roc, though, is my biggest pick and I will be voting for him. I hope you will too, but that's something for you to decide. Why do I want him? Good question, one that I will now answer.

In my mind, Roc is an exceptional capsuleer with a great amount of experience, knowledge, talent, creativity and character. In his own words:

"You’re getting an intelligent, charismatic bulldog that won’t back down from a fight. You’re getting a man that will stand tall and proud, shouldering your requests to the CSM, and then to CCP. You’re getting a cigar smoking, exercise driven ex-Matar Colonel that will fight with his last breath for what he believes in."

He loves Eve because of what the universe is and what the players make it to be with who they are.

"A game succeeds or fails not based on board room meetings, or even how good/bad a game might be; it depends on its audience. A game is only as good as its players. "

He sees the CSM as what it is: a voice of the people. While CSMs have done well to keep that in mind, they need to remember that their agenda is to be that of the capsuleers they represent. But that doesn't mean he is a puppet. He has his own mind and a sharp one with ideas to fix Factional Warfare and Third Party Apps, although they are only his opinions and not part of his campaign.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. He's a quality candidate and has had to fight just to apply to be one. But he is not my only choice as a candidate for the CSM. While I do prefer Roc's approach of doing what it is the playerbase thinks needs doing, I do want specific attention. Can you guess where? That's right, wormholes.

Embalizym, my aforementioned corpmate, is an excellent choice and to my knowledge the only wormholer that is going for it. She is as tenacious and bullheaded as she is nerdy. Yes, a woman *gasp* Mynxee isn't the only one around to kick CCP in the balls. And she is happy to do so to make sure CCP stays in line.

For Em, the important things are "balance, critical thinking, empathy, being painfully honest. anarchy and innovation" while she is less than enthusiatic about "people who rely more on numbers than skill, yes men, lap dogs & puppets." Very straightforward and honest in who she is and how she approaches any situation.

Understanding that wormholes are a growing and popular part of Eve, it is desired that the opinion of this group is heard, particularly in the following:

Overhaul of the BM system
-The current system is unwieldy at best
-A quick improvement would simply be to allow for adding bookmarks linked in chat, with the option to go directly to a folder
-Is it necessary that BM's first go to the general folder then the assigned?
-Implementing corporate bookmarks

POS Mechanics
-Refit T3's from POS's - require the ship be stored and unfit, make the change, then relaunch the ship, thus no redrawing
-Improved hangar tabs - allow for different tabs in different hangars, personal storage
-There is an option to name ship arrays and corp hangars, but it does not work, either remove the option or let us name them
-Allow for on lining of multiple modules at once/ why is it limited?

Scanning, WH's, etc.
-Why is D Scan in KM, people only care about AU
-Fail to jump bug, etc. There are bugs in WH's too.
-Perhaps implementing outposts in WHs to fix issues encountered with POS life

Now, there are also other issues in EVE and solutions for them:

Dealing with Bots and Nulsec
-Nulsec Bots are a problem, but cannot be easily removed because they must be detected
-Nulsec is effectively hisec for the locals, murder for anyone else
-Nulsec is often called static, unchanging

Change local to delayed (perhaps with modules to allow for faster local, etc. in more developed systems) - bots lose their security net, people have a chance to sneak around, making nulsec more violent, less static

PvP Issues
-Docking games, allow for some manner of stopping people from docking when engaged
-Hisec wars, and the fixing of

As is the trend, she does have an affinity for a particular area of space. Naturally, she hopes to finally bring more attention to wormholes and shape them into functional areas of space that they deserve to be. The CSM minutes from December noted that there is a desire to have players migrate to 0.0 space, including wormholes. So it is only logical that such a space needs work and Em is the one to get it done. Wormholes are ignored by just about anyone that doesn't live in them. The CSM has called it a "mini-game" and CCP seems to think it's good for little beyond day trips. But CCP also likes to vaunt how the game has developed through their players. Did you think CCP came up with jetcanning or alliances? Nope, that was all us players. So what if wormholes weren't originally intended to be what they are now. Working with the players as the game evolves is what the CSM, and by extension CCP, is all about.

So those are my opinions on a couple candidates to keep an eye on. I wish them luck in the days to come, as well as all candidates that are running.

Since I am already on the topic, I might as well mention things that have been knocking around. One of those is that the CSM itself could use overhaul in its execution. Well what do you mean? I mean the structure. Someone mentioned something like this and I would like to see it applied. Instead of electing an entirely new team of CSM, why not work more like the American Senate and stagger such changes. Keep half of the old CSM as an anchor to bring in the new candidates and maintain the established relationship and trust with CCP, while moving the CSM forward as a whole. As it is, the new CSM members have to get acquainted with the process and whatnot and CCP has to learn new faces and attitudes all at once. Might as well ease into it instead. Food for thought.

Another thing I have noticed in the CSM is that its members tend toward pushing changes that are important to them, rather than looking at each part of the whole and improving it overall. This can be good and it is certainly a natural inclination, you improve what you care about. But it can lead to favoritism. More than one CSM member lives in nullsec? Guess what gets brought up quite often. Yes, there are large number of players that live and work in nullsec, but that is hardly the entire game of Eve.

Since this is getting a little long, I'll just do TL;DR versions of some points:

-Roc had the idea in relation to FW, but why not apply dynamic content to more than that? Missions and perhaps exploration as well. Make it more alive and more worth the brain power.
-Along the lines of my CSM thoughts, when looking at changes and balances, see what can work for more than one area of space (highsec, lowsec, null, and wspace) and push for what can benefit many over a certain type.
-Instead of trying to get expansions out on some pointless timeline, why not just stop them. Stop giving us expansions, start working on what is already there. I like the move towards killing jump bridges and nerfing supercaps for example. We want to make what we have better more than we want more useless hangar decorations or broken mechanics. Fix hybrids, fix FW, obligatory fix lag (although ppl need to whine less about that imo), etc etc. Make more modular ships in the line of T3s.

I must say CCP is certainly doing a good job of working with the CSM, an opportunity no other player base has to affect their entertainment. So I do have to say thanks to CCP for allowing things like this for us all to enjoy Eve that much more.

Choose wisely!
-Mem

PS this has been sitting for a couple days, so forgive formatting issues and the little things.

Guest Fiction- Purpose

  Today I have a treat. Ardent Finder, my corpmate as well as my brother, has been working on a fiction for a little while now and asked if I'd post it. I'm quite happy to and hope you enjoy it. I am debating if this could become a thing. Do you have fiction you'd like others to see? Just mail me at memoocan.nec@gmail.com and I'll take a gander. So with that, I give you "Purpose" by Ardent Finder. Feel free to leave a comment to let him know if you like it.

=======


"Kspace." sighed the pilot. "It's times like this that remind me why I live in a wormhole."

 As countless ships streamed past, transiting in and out of the jumpgate, the local public comm channels were inundated with sales pitches, scammers, bickering and a thousand other conversational topics. The cacophony drove into the capsuleer's skull until he killed the feed with a sharp gesture.
Shaking his head dourly, he signaled the jump, and his ship leapt across the light years instantaneously, carrying him away from the chaos of the trade hub.

"Gotta keep moving," Ardent said to himself. "Just a few more stops on the way and then back into our wormhole. Back to freedom."

  An interminable number of jumps later, Ardent had enough of the tedium. He pulled up a map to check his route for any way to shave off a few jumps, and his thoughts began to drift.

"Too many people out here. Don't know who anyone is. Who's an enemy, who's a friend. Anyone neutral is an unknown. Not like home. Black and white, there. Us versus them. Easy. Clean. What did I ever see in Empire space that kept me going before I discovered wormholes?"

  Ardent noticed his comms picking up a little flicker of activity in a low, disused band, mostly static. He asked the coms officer to adjust the filters. Some capsuleers ran a full crew complement, but Ardent preferred a skeleton bridge crew and paid them triple going rates, as life expectancy on a combat capsule ship was short. It ensured loyalty, quality, and allowed him to sleep at night.

"Mostly static. Probably an automated beacon on one of those ruins finally giving up the ghost. Maybe some local out in a skiff with a barely-functioning comm system." He dismissed the interruption and continued to muse.

  Looking put across the system he had just jumped into, Ardent breathed deep and was awestruck again at the stark beauty of space. A curtain of glowing nebula stretched around in the impossible distance, punctuated by the intense blue burning point of the system primary, dozens of AU away from the entry gate. A nearby planet loomed out of the darkness, the crescent of it's dayside showing brilliant blue seas and verdant landmasses. The nightside was lit with a tracery of cities and roadways, an inlaid filigree of civilisation.

  As he drank in the grandeur, the Ardent knew this was one facet of the life of a capsuleer that had called to him. But what else had called him? The romance of adventure in the unknown, to be master of his own fate, wandering the cosmos wherever whim or chance took him. Again, another facet. But he knew there was something missing. Something else lurked back in the depths of his mind, but he couldn't recall it. Like when a word is at the tip of one's tongue, he knew it was there, but it stayed frustratingly just out of mental reach.

"-yday! We are und-"
The desperate words rang across the quiet bridge, emerging from the warbling hiss of the static, jerking Ardent out of his reverie.

"Get it back! Filter it out and lock it down!" He barked the order out. "Set condition one."

  The bridge sprang into life as tactical and engineering stations ran combat systems up and warmed up fire control systems.
Ardent crossed the bridge to stand at the com officer's shoulder.

"What have you got for me, Signals?"

"Filtering back now, sir"

"On speakers." The growl of tangled transmissions poured out of the speakers for a few seconds before a voice resolved out of it once again.

"-rives down, taking f-" Static once again cut off the call, but a smooth, uniform white noise this time. Ardent glanced down sharply. "That doesn't sound like a failing com."

"No, sir, that sounds like jamming"

"Get me a bearing."

"Already on it, bearing is three two zero by two zero zero."

"Well, done Signals," Ardent said to his coms chief. Signals smiled at her commander's approval as she returned to her task.

"Guns." He addressed his tactical chief.

  The officer replied, "Directional shows a transport and four combat vessels. Transport is a civilian Minmatar ship, others are various types common to pirates and smugglers in this region. Wait, I now show another transport, this one of Amarrian make."

"Slavers." Growled the captain, his eyes narrowing. His anger was echoed by his crew of Minmatar and Gallente officers. "Map shows a belt in that direction, set course and warp."

  Ardent settled into his chair and linked to his ship, his mind running through its command runs and systems as he merged with his vessel to become the unified being that was a capsule pilot's advantage. Ardent Finder and the Vagabond called Shenlong became a gestalt of righteous anger and vengeance as the ship exited warp transit and dove into the asteroid belt.

  The slaver ships had crippled the transport and circled it like vultures as their slave ship approached to reap its harvest of flesh and suffering. At this range, the cries for help could be heard through the jamming and the confusion of the Slavers was apparent as Shenlong appeared on the field.

  Ardent bared his teeth in a predator's grin as he released his drones and sent them screaming at the slave ship as his 220mm autocannons spun up and spat white-hot fury, tearing through shields and armor. The ship lurched in agony before detonating in a bloom of soundless light.
The other ships, one frigate, a cruiser and two battlecruisers, turned to face their aggressor, opening fire.

'Sir, cruiser appears to be rigged for logistics," Guns' voice spoke in Ardent's head.

"Acknowledged, Primary target acquired."

  Shenlong swept into a orbit around the cruiser and pounded its shields down, then began chewing through armor.
Suddenly, Shenlong's speed dropped like a rock.

"Frigate has us webbed. And our warp core is offline, must have a disruptor. Micro is still operational."

Ardent sent his drones and a few missiles to keep the tackler company as he finished off the cruiser. Tandem explosions lit the asteroids as the tackler joined its sister ship in death.

"And now for the main event," Ardent smiled grimly as he sent his ship dancing among her foes like a dervish.

  Neurons and command linkages burned with fury, blood and coolant sang in exultation as the pilot reveled in the joy of skilled combat. He remembered. "THIS is why I became a capsuleer. Why I left humanity behind, why I left my life behind. The price I paid for this power was for a purpose.
We all chose this life for different reasons, some for wealth, some for the thrill of danger. Some to torment others for their own amusement. I chose so I might make a difference."

  Guns cycled, missiles roared from launch bays, drones circled and spat fire, and as the first battlecruiser's fate became clear, the second seemed to rethink it's priorities.

"Sir, target bravo is aligning, attempting to rabbit."

"We can't have that, now can we? Point him."

  The tactical officer activated the warp disruptor and the enemy com channel erupted in renewed panic as warp drives shut down.
  As the first target was destroyed, attention turned to the fleeing enemy and the ship was reduced to a crippled hulk in short order.

"Cease fire, open a channel with the enemy vessel. Get me the transport on the line as well, if their coms are still working." Ardent breathed deeply, composing himself after the rush of combat. After all this time, it still got the blood flowing like the first time.

  The screen switched to show a light haired man with blood running down his face on a bridge filled with smoke, sparks and flickering consoles. Crew in the background struggled to get ventilators running and extinguish flames, administered medical aid to wounded.
"Captain, we surrender, we'll pay anything you ask-"

  Ardent's icy tones cut off the enemy captain's pleas. "Cut your drives, take all offensive systems offline and stand to. I'll deal with you in moment."

Signals muted the audio feed at her captain's gesture.
The screen split as the transport's captain appeared, his face haggard with stress and loss.

"Captain, your attackers have been dealt with, what is your situation?"

  The Minmatar man tugged on his dreadlocks as he relayed his summary. "We're carrying a group of newly freed ex-slaves. We noticed we were being dogged three systems back. Well, they caught us coming into this system. Our escorts engaged them long enough for us to get into warp, but their frigate got ahead of us and cut us off. I assume that they destroyed our escorts and then arrived to finish the job. Blew our engines, but were careful not to breach the main hull. Didn't want to damage the merchandise, I suppose." The man's voice filled with bitterness.

"Any casualties?" Ardent asked.

"Three dead, two wounded. A power run overloaded when our engines went, killed a woman and her two children, two men attempted to rescue them and suffered burns."

"Doc, expect patients," Ardent sent the order over the intercom to sickbay, then returned to the com screen. "Captain, we'll be off-loading your people shortly. Medical attention will be provided as we transport you to a station where your ship will be replaced and an escort arranged. I'll discuss this with you further once your people are safe aboard. Ardent Finder out."

  The Captain nodded his thanks as the screen blanked and the line to the enemy ship came back up.
"My first thought was to ransom your release and have you carry word back to your masters."
Relief lit the man's face as he attempted to babble his thanks before Ardent cut him off.

"Then you killed two children."

"We didn't know, we never meant to kill anyone, we wanted them alive it was just business please let us go I swear we'll never..." the man's descended into a frantic babble as the stony expression and icy glare began to register the capsuleers extreme displeasure.

"What's that proverb you Amarrians have? 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap.'"
The man paled as Ardent continued. "To use another cliche, 'Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.'"
The man screamed in desperation as Ardent Finder blew his ship into an expanding sphere of vapor and wreckage. He exhaled, the weariness after a fight washing over him.

"Signals, file a report with the authorities. The bounties won't be much by our standards, but should give these people a nice boost in their new lives. Ops, handle the rest, send the captain to me when they are settled. I'll be in my quarters. "

  The crew acknowledged the orders as their Captain entered the lift, wrapped in his thoughts as he smiled to himself. Renewed purpose is just the thing to lift one's spirits.

Shoreleave

  I am going to be out of town doing wedding photography for the next few days, so I may or may not get to play, much less write a post about Eve. I'm scrambling to get a bunch of things done today before I have to go on top of trying to attend classes from 10 to 9.

  So in the interim, there's the CSM elections. Now that candidacy is open, it'll be interesting to see who steps up and campaigns for it. I am hoping someone with a voice for wormhole dwellers, as it seems the previous CSM failed utterly to understand our play style. There was one or two in my corp thinking of running, but I'm not sure if they were serious. My life is far too hectic to want to add that responsibility and I have other priorities.

  You may also be interested to know that it seems CCP is getting a little smarter. They have devoted a team to all the small tweaks the CSM and players have demanded. Interesting, no? Some awesome fixes have already been implemented apparently and I am glad. Like no more remote repping a criminal in highsec. Take that griefers and cowards. Anyways, looks like Eve is getting fine tuned and all is the better for it.

  Short post is short.
-Mem

Alternative Income

  I am hardly a rich man in Eve. I make enough to replace ships I lose and put a little away for big buys down the road, but I ain't making billions in wspace. We don't live here for the ISK, we just live here because the environment is what we feel Eve should be everywhere. I am kind of a jack of all trades, but master of none. I can trade, but don't have the patience or acuity to have a big operation. I do PI, but only for the good of the corp. I can mine, but that's not exactly a jackpot. So I am always looking at doing something better or finding something new to bring in some extra ISK. If I could PLEX my account every month somehow, I'd be happy as a lark.

  So I've been playing with an idea lately, but I'm unsure about it. That idea is character selling. Basically, you train a character for a little while for a specific purpose, whether it's an orca alt or a marauder or something else, and then sell it on the Eve O forums. I have corpmates that do this on a regular basis and it is quite interesting. I've looked around and found the Resource and Rules thread for character sales, as well as a FAQ and a post for tips on what to do before selling a character.

  It can be quite lucrative, netting anywhere from a couple hundred million ISK to billions, depending on the character. But how do you price a character to sell? There's always a thousand and one opinions on any subject, so my answer may not be the same. Prices fluctuate as well so what's true one time may not be the next. If you don't want to worry about it and let someone else do the thinking, there are those who will. To my understanding at this time, though, the price is something like 200 million ISK per 1 million skillpoints, but the price can go up for dedicated purposes like the Orca or marauder pilots. The good way to find out is to simply look at what others are doing, compare and contrast what they offer with what you have and ballpark a figure. The best way? Simply try it out and see what works for you and what doesn't. I heard a rumor that you may not want to train a general alt too far or a purposed one beyond that single purpose, because then the price starts to lower. I guess there's a rule of diminishing returns in there somewhere.

  Do you have an alt just sitting around doing nothing? Think you could make a fair bit of money? Go for it, try this different market out. And if you want, let me know how it goes because I'd love to hear it. [

-Mem

Tragedy

  No, no RL tragedy or anything despite sensational headline. Got your attention though didn't it? No, this tragedy is the loss of my beautiful Viperous Strike. My falcon has fallen in the blaze and glory of battle. Kinda.

  Ok, so our connection wormhole had some guys in T3s and a carrier. One among them, Max Khaos, an old Privatear and much loathed character from wardecs in the Uni. We had scanned their hole out and found alot of anoms and sigs that they hadn't run. Tsk tsk, always keep your space clean I say. Anyways, we had a Drake run one of their anoms, completing it and started to loot. Then they decided to take notice. They shipped into 3 Scorpions, the carrier and a Legion. But the legion reshipped into a Stiletto.

OVERCOPES 1: You should leave....now

  This got us a few chuckles. Annoyingly enough, this was after like an hour so I was heading out into kspace. Well I turned around and got home to reship into my trusty Falcon. The Stiletto dropped onto our Drake along with a Falcon and some fighters. Our fleet jumps in and warps in to our beleaguered corpmate to save the day. Max Khaos is known for flying little ships that are quick, so we couldn't catch the Stiletto. Typical of him to run and then smack:

Max Khaos: ur need more than that.

  Yea.. never mind the terrible lack of spelling ability, but he sped around as we melted his Falcon friend. They promptly POSed up and logged or went AFK. Too bad, I wouldn't have minded another carrier kill on my board. So we ran a few more of their sites and I logged back at base to take a shower.

  A half hour or so later I come back on to hear an engagement occuring, so I jump into system only to find it's a different wormhole than before and warp in to watch a Domi jumping out. It seems we found a dynamic into SPL's home system. SPL is one of the top corps in the Transmission Lost alliance. We tend to run into TL every so often and usually it means they lose ships. We wouldn't want this to be any different now would we? While we got a proper fleet organized, our HIC jumped in to survey their composition. So he bubbles like we are about to attack and calls out ship types.

Widow, 2 Sleipnirs, the Domi, and a Scorpion all sitting on the hole for lil' ole' us.

  So we get the fleet and jump in and the hole drops to half mass. Primaries were called and points were spread with the bubble up. The Widow and Scorp had ended getting 70km range on the hole while we formed up, so some of us burned out and got points. I waited a bit, then de-cloaked my Falcon and started jams on the Widow and Scorp, with a few on the others. They cycled and the enemy ships were going down, the Sleipnirs being pummeled into dust first. The Domi jumped out right as we got him into structure, sadly we didn't leave anyone on the other side so he got away.  Unfortunately, the Widow had begun jamming me before getting out and the entire enemy force primaried me. Guess that's to be expected when your entire purpose is to frustrate and shut them down ;) I gave myself up for lost and just continued my jams since the bubble was up and I couldn't get out. Amazingly, our Guardian pilots got me in next-to-nothing armor and made sure I got out when the bubble went down. This was time that the Widow took to escape, sadly, so he got out. So, out I go and back in at range to finish off the Nightmare and Scorp, ending the battle. But now, with the Domi having jumped out and sending it into a critical state, our exit is tight. So we start sending out ships one at a time, while we all hug the hole. First mistake on my part. The hole disappears with half the fleet still inside, giving the TL guys a perfect opportunity. So they take it and dropped 4 to 5 bombs on us, even accidentally bombing their own guy. Fail. And here the tragedy comes, in losing my dear ship. I wouldn't have had it any other way, though, since it was battle. Just ironic I live through being primaried, only to be bombed to death.

 My second mistake was being grouped with everyone. I should have waited at range with my cloak on. Third mistake was hoping to get out and thus offlining my plate to conserve mass. All this made sure I got popped, but not podded. Although, even with my plate on that many bombs would still have destroyed me so it's not too bad. I had some of their loot which is why the KM is worth alot more than usual, but we were able to loot my carcass. The worst part? Our scanner got popped and podded in the process while we were stuck in a C5 with a C6 static. Our only ship with probes was a Drake, so we made safes and bounced around as TL tried to scan us out. On his first sig scan, our Drake pilot found a lowsec dynamic that we all ran to just as a Tengu and Buzzard found us and a Manti uncloaked as I jumped through. We were several jumps in lowsec Aridia so we started to run towards Amarr. I scouted in my pod and we made it all the way safely, so a rather happy ending.

  I bought another Falcon...man they got expensive, thankfully I found one a bit cheaper than the rest but not much. I am now autopiloting home in it while I write. Good fight and always enjoy getting out a bit. I'll have to be more careful next time. Sorry Viperous :P

  Fun times
-Mem

CCP Q&A

  If you have played Eve for any decent length of time, I'm sure you've run into a bug somewhere. With a game as old as Eve, it's bound to happen at some point. But do you know just what to look for or what to do if you find one? Well, if you don't then this might be just what you're looking for to find out. CCP is giving a guest lecture in conjunction with Eve University about bug hunting. It's open to all, so even if you never were in the Uni, feel free to check it out

  Post from the E Uni website:


"Eve University is pleased to announce a very special event featuring two CCP developers on the podium. On February 13th at 18:00 EVE time, E-UNI will be hosting this lecture which will be covering some basics about quality assurance practices for EVE, and how players can help CCP to fix bugs and improve the game.

It is a privilege to have CCP speak directly to players like this, and we are very proud to be able to bring this unique event to the UNI and to the EVE community. As such this lecture will be open to all EVE University members, alumni, friends as well as all other interested parties – as long as they are not part of a hostile organization.

The lecture will run approximately 2.5 to 3 hours, with breaks at two points, depending on how many questions are asked.

The lecture will include a general overview of software bugs, followed by presentations by guest speakers CCP Oneiromancer and CCP Konflikt on CCP Quality Assurance and the role of Bug Hunters in identifying and eliminating defects, respectively.

Topics covered:

• What is a bug?
• Types of bugs
• QA and Bugs
• Handling bugs
• Patching code
• Handling bugs – Obvious and otherwise
• Presentations by CCP Oneiromancer and CCP Konflikt
• Questions and Answers

To attend the lecture, students and guests need to have the Mumble voice client installed. Students need to be registered – while guests will be moved into the appropriate channel by the server admins.

If you have any questions for the CCP developers (in regard to this topic), please send them to Ed’rashtekaresket via forum PM or EVE-Mail (students please post in the class post on the forum), but please note that questions outside the scope of this lecture topic will be disregarded."

Cheers,
-Mem

Static Storm

  Here in wspace, we have had an...interesting phenomena since the last couple patches. Essentially, CCP broke another mechanic and this one is a rather worrisome one. Essentially, when our wormhole connection comes to the end of its life, it stays alive at the end.

  Now this might be cool if it actually stayed alive. But the problem comes when you try to jump through. It will then give you a message detailing how the wormhole is gone and you can't jump. But it's still there. The unexpected part? Every time you try to spawn, it makes a new static appear in your system. The first time we encountered this, we had 4 static wormholes in our system at the SAME TIME. That's dangerous if those systems are populated. Fortunately, they weren't and we just had to wait or crash them. Wormholes rarely have more than 1 or 2, so 4 holes is insane.  They were all the same kind of connection, yet we found they had wacky total masses, leaving us to wonder when they would randomly crash on us.

  So, hopefully this gets fixed soon because I enjoy only having one hole that connects to us, excepting dynamics of course. If you live in wormholes, keep your eyes out for this kind of thing and be careful. If you don't...well I guess it doesn't really affect you much.

-Mem

Terrible Pickup Lines

  With Fanfest coming up, you are going to be getting prepared. Booking tickets, booking hotels, packing, traveling, and so on. But what about when you are rockin' the booths in Iceland and you meet a smokin' lady capsuleer? You gotta be prepared.

  Corpies got bored waiting for a target, so we came up with a bunch of reaaaallly bad Eve related and not so related pickup lines. I also haven't slept in 24 hours so these might be funnier to me than you :P Enjoy!




-"Say baby, mind if I dock in your POS?"

-Does this rag smell like ether?

-Hey baby, I'm like an Arazu. I can make you damp from across the room.

-Hey baby, I'm like a falcon - I'll jam you up good

- Hey baby I'm like a curse I'll suck you dry

-Come over to my place and help me launch this probe... You'll love the way I run your site.

-Wanna see my Iteron Mark V?

-Hey baby, I'm like a zealot - yeah the cycle time is short but I never run out of ammo

-Lemme just undock my Thorax and we can get some action

-That's right honey -- a Command Ship.  My place.  Now.

- Hey hottie, wanna see my Geddon?

-Just let me pop this Blue Pill... We'll be set for the next 4 hours.

-You must have high stats, 'cuz those certainly aren't implants

-Mines a mammoth and id like to stick it in your POS

-Are you in structure baby? Cause you're on fire!

-I'm the love pirate and I'm here for ya booty

-Mem

A Look Inside Pt. 4

(This post is part of a series that looks at wormholes and life within them. I will talk about everything from mechanics to perspectives and opinions on anything that relates to wormholes. The beginning is here, part 2 is here, and part 3 is here)

  So we have talked a bit about the carebear life inside wormholes with resources and opportunities. But there is certainly more to it than that. It has changed for me and others have come seeking different adventures. Many in Adhoc came seeking those pretty explosions in space and find so very many of them.

  I came for a couple reasons reasons. The bloodlust just kind of....developed. When I did finally make it here, it felt like I the place I should have been from the beginning. Like the place that the rest of Eve should be. That's something often scoffed by kspace dwellers. Highsec carebears want their safety and to be left relatively alone. Low seccers play at cage matches with the occasional blob and wishing things were different. Null sec inhabitants think they are BAMFs in their massive blobs and hot drops every 5 minutes. Lagtastic. If you are a visual person, perhaps this will help:

You may have seen that before, but I doubt that last part is ever on there. Nobody thinks of wormholes, except for daytrips or for quick shortcuts. A rather funny and appropriate analogy from my corpies:

  "WH's are more like a bunch of bronze age tribes, each controlling a very finite resources that does not really seek to expand because they do not have the infrastructure to control conquered territory. They raid for women and cattle and slaves or whatever and defend against similar raids. It is rare one tribe completely wipes out another because often they would simply disappear into the "fog of the unknown" to rebuild quietly. In modern times with GPS and satellites and etc. it is simply too hard to hide. WH's are like a throwback to the days of sail when the ocean ended at your horizon or the Amazon jungle where your radius of influence was about as far as you could walk in 3 or 4 days. 0.0 is more like 21st century Earth with respect to infrastructure, intel, etc."

  With the recent Incursions, the nullsec Russians are whining that their infrastructure is shot and this is so inconvenient and blahblahblah. And? So? Deal with it, go blow the Sansha away if you're the big bad null sec guns you always chest beat about. That goes for most nullsec in my eyes, from what I can observe. Some of the most epic tears come outta there. In wspace, you adapt to your environment every day or you die. You can't play station games or rely on local chat for easy intel. You watch your D-scan and are aware of many different aspects going on around you. Since you can't cyno into or out of a wormhole, capital blobs are impossible. You can manufacture them from inside the hole, but not many people do. Even if they do, we have shown over and over how they aren't that scary. Many times, our kills are ganks of our neighbors but we are always looking for good fights. It's just hard to find people that will bring it hard. I owe nearly all the kills I have on my board to my time in ADHC. They are amazing at what they do, some of the best, and I'm proud to be apart of it all. Great people having some great fun.

  Kills are a bit more epic when you can pull them off. In nullsec, they blow up capitals like it's nothing before breakfast. Corps rent space with others there to protect and so on. In the unknown, taking down a beast like a capital is a bit harder. Those two carriers? We sent our first connection through half its mass getting there, then the hole connecting to them went half gone as well. We fought for an hour with little more than cruisers, holding our own against bombers, triage carriers, and a BS fleet until we said screw it and brought in the Bhaalgorn to finish the job. Adrenaline high, heart pumping like I ran a mile the whole time. Bringing the fight with split second decisions is every day in there.

  In there, the small gang environment thrives and makes its true home. When you have your connections limited in mass allowance, you have to decide what roles and thus which ships will be most crucial in executing a fight. Hunting prey takes on a whole life of its own and it can be exhilarating. When you scout, you have to be able to track down and monitor activity without letting on that you even exist. Is there a POS in the system? Check D-scan. Narrow it down and watch from beneath your cloak and wait until they move. Not at a planet or anywhere you can find? Probably at a site, so run your scans and track the anomaly down. If you have to, pop probes off scan and get a quick warpin.

  I'm getting off track from my original intention. I have quite a bit to say and it's kinda just comin' out in no particular order as it should. I am also forgetting what I already wrote in the first 3 parts and being lazy as I am I don't wanna go read it all over again :P Anyways, I think the point has been made. I know many will say and think otherwise and that is of course their right. This is my opinion that I hope will soon become the opinion of more people. Too many people misunderstand what wormholes are and their potential. CCP has neglected much of it and we are told it's a "mini game" and that "players weren't supposed to live there long term". As I remember from an interview with the head of CCP, much of what is Eve developed from the players, not from the vision of developers.

  So it is that wormholes are the wild west, nobody holds sov and everything goes. For me, it is the endgame. It is what Eve is about at its core. But it may not be for everyone, it's up to you to decide.
So thanks for reading, despite the rant that is turned into most times. I think this is the end of this particular series, but knowing me I'll have something more to say later. Hope to see more of you in space, keep an eye on your D-scan ;)

-Mem