Back to Roots

  News has been saturating the interwebs with CCP hyping the winter expansion. But it looks like they are actually trying to reconnect with their player base and they are making sure the players know their focus is back on FiS.

  On Facebook you have pictures of the artists working hard on the new ships, while on Youtube  they show a bit about the nebulas they will implement. Those are pretty neat and will certainly give a new detail to encourage immersion in Eve.

  Many have called the upcoming expansion a grab at low hanging fruit, to which I say "so what?". If this is what it's like to get low hanging fruit, then I am all for it. CCP needs to regain trust and prove themselves again so they can bring subscribers back and recoup the 8% drop in sub fees. If proving themselves means making the game better for everyone then there isn't much to complain about is there? Unless you're just a bittervet that will find anything to whine about.

  If CCP is pushed and motivated like this now, perhaps we can keep them moving forward and gaining momentum by encouraging their successes and critiquing areas that need improvement. If you rage and whine constantly, it just becomes noise to them. It can have its place and can be used to great effect, but don't make it the only response they get if they slip up.

  Hmm...this post took a turn I didn't anticipate. I'm simply saying that while things aren't magically perfect now and CCP has already proved themselves, they are heading in the right direction and getting priorities straightened out. There has been a surge in transparency, which can only lead to good things.

  In other news, we are still getting Aurum. I'm hoarding every bit so far just to see how much I rack up and what I can blow it on. Or if they allow you to transfer Aurum I'll pool all the Aurum I get and see about a profit. Then again, Mem could look pretty good in a new jacket.

  Good things are in the works here at PH this winter, as well. We are working on a new home, one that I will have far more control over and one that will hopefully be a bit more sleek. I'll let you know when that gets closer and hopefully I don't lose anyone in the shuffle.

  As for in game,  I'm having a blast this month helping kill nearly 10 carriers and a ton of other shiny stuff like there's no tomorrow. We found a new neighborhood that has kept us busy and the bloodthirst sated. I thought I would never say this, but between that and the upcoming rebalances....I am looking at getting into capital ship. Iknorite?

  More immediately, though, I recently became a logistics pilot and I am having a blast with it. For some reason, I get my biggest kicks out of support classes. Way back before I quit WoW years ago, I got into healing on my druid. Now I enjoy fight the little red bar and making sure my mates are safe under fire. While I fly plenty of dps, it's just a different perspective when you're multitasking the whole fleet with your reps and your buddy with energy transfers and drones and all that fun stuff. If I'm not flying ECM, it's usually logi now.

  There's also Sleeper story line items to talk about, but that I'll have to leave for later. This is getting to be a ridiculous and rambling post.

  Cheers
-Mem

Wormhole Wisdom #8

  Trust only what your overview shows you. All else is deception.

unless it's patch day, then you may not wanna trust it either.

End Year Merriment pt. 2

  I really should just wait it seems. Goodness. More and more devblogs are coming out in a torrent of mind blowing content and proving that the Winter expansion will be the most epic since Apocrypha. Although it's hard to top wormholes, imo ;)

  First up, we have an interview of the CCP CEO Hilmar.  A very interesting read, the TL;DR being that they are back on track in the spaceship business.

  And now get ready to change your pants.

  New Tier 3 Battlecruisers with BS sized guns!

  Awwwwww yeaaaaaaaaah. It seems the teaser picture that was posted on Facebook a bit ago was exactly this. The Tornado will be joined by a new ship for each race in the Winter. They are taking on the role of a true battlecruiser, all gank and little tank. Think that the Drake is a brick and not worth the time to shoot? Not anymore, since supposedly these new ships will eat through it and anything else they can hit. C1 WH POSes were never more scared than now.

  So will all the fanboy glee out of the way, let's check reality and go through the usual points.

• We watch what they do, not what they say
• Hopefully this doesn't totally unbalance the game
• Hopefully this expansion doesn't completely destroy the game patch wise
• What does this mean for the market?
• Without lots of target painters or bonuses to tracking, they may only be useful for a few things
• CCP finally listening is good, but they need to do more than just grab the low hanging fruit. Keep on with the momentum.

  If anything more...or when, really...comes out I'll just edit this post so that you don't get spammed with more. So keep an eye on this space, good things are coming.

  Me? I'm gonna need to go change.

-Mem

End Year Merriment

  These fall and winter seasons are turning out pretty interestingly with CCP. Sadly it is coupled with 120 people losing their jobs, luck to you all, but more and more content seems to be pouring out from the dev teams.

  The newest one is pod killmails. Finally we get to see what is plugged into our victim's head! This is something I've wanted for ages because in wspace, it is a regular practice to pod people out. I've nabbed quite a few myself, some of which were probably worth more than the faction battleship they were piloting moments before.

  The devblog is short and sweet, but I am definitely looking forward to it. Sadly I do not believe this change will be retroactive, but it simply means that I will have to pod all those people again so I can see what they use :P

  With small things like this eeking out before the Winter expansion....I am really curious to know what is coming for us. All the hush-hush makes me think epicness of epic proportions of which Eve has never seen before is headed our way. And I'm really hopeful that is true. But I will keep some reservations.

 Still...can't beat what's been happening lately. While I am sad people had to get fired, I think CCP might finally be moving in the right direction and realizing what they need to do and the priorities on which they need to focus. Which is not to say they shouldn't have aspirations or other places and ideas to play with non-Eve ever. Just...pace yourself.


  Anyways, I'm still alive and kicking somewhat so hopefully I can get some good topics written up soon. I think I'll have one on ECM. Odd that I love it and talk about it but have never dedicated a post to it. vOv

  Get pumped!
-Mem

EDIT: Leave it to me to speak too soon. Hot off the press:


"Let me give you guys a little more information on what is coming. Starting next week we will be producing a series of 'In Development' video blogs which will look at what the various teams are planning for Winter 2011. I want to stress that these videos will not contain release dates as we are aiming to provide a lot of stuff and do not want to commit to a date we cannot keep. These will include:
 Engine trails - Yes, that's right we are adding engine trails to EVE and we will show the work in progress so far.
 New ships - Recently we featured a shot of the Tornado, the Deviant Art contest winner, on the EVE Facebook page. We were not happy with just giving out one ship so we will be showcasing all four new ships.
 New nebulae - These new background sin the EVE universe are stunningly beautiful and will add to the immersion and feeling of being in deep space.
 Team BFF - This team should be Best Features Fullstop and CCP Soundwave will give an overview of what his team has in store. Capital ship balancing, balancing hybrids, assault ships bonuses and much more will be added during winter.
 Customer Relations - The Lead GM's will talk about changes to how petitions are handled, more options for Stuck petitions and how we aim to deal with your issues as fast as possible. We are not just going to stop there. We will bring you more video blogs about what is in development for EVE Online."

O.O Yes. Please. So look forward to those eh?

Blog Banter 29: What's It To Ya, Mate?

  I have failed my blog banter writing the last time or two, but I'll get back to it. CK's BBs are gone and now we have a new era led by Seismic Stan of Freebooted.

  The premise is the same, so no worries there. This time around, the question is:

"EVE Online is renowned for it's depth. Its backstory, gameplay and social aspects are all qualities that draw players in. What does immersion in EVE Online mean to you?"

  This is actually a bit of a timely thing too, because I've been thinking about this as of late. I think I have mentioned before, or if not then I am now, that Eve is the first game and MMO in particular that I have ever been compelled to write about. I think it's one of the very few MMOs that lend itself to more than just "How To" guides and shallower topics.

  Eve is a single shard universe and as such, is able to offer much more in the way of political intrigue, player interaction, reputation persistence, and other enduring characteristics. I think the social aspect is what really keeps people here, though. When other games push players into competing for the same quest item, it tends to make them more combative and less likely to play with others. Which is ironic since these are massive multiplayer games and the whole point is to play with others. While Eve certainly does make players compete for resources, it's more direct and you can make sure another player dies for trying to take your macguffin.

  But the part that has had me thinking lately is Eve's actual lore. I have played other MMOs and never cared to learn much of the lore while I played. I skipped the stories and got to collecting or killing whatever I needed to level. Eve's lore is a bit more involved, in my experience. You can always skip over the mission text you get from agents, but going through a system plagued by an Incursion is a little harder to ignore. Or for those more interested in the unknown, why is a Sleeper protecting abandoned facilities.

  That last is why I am interested in the lore. There is a massive hunt for some clue that will move the story forward for the Sleeper mystery and it has quite a few people searching and theorycrafting. That is a pretty effective tool for keeping players engaged and props to Dropbear for perpetuating it. Although, I am getting a little frustrated that we supposedly haven't found the right thing yet, despite doing everything short of dancing naked on a Sleeper Enclave. Well...not that we would admit to at least.

  I also find the skills training a more involved and immersing aspect since one must plan and train the necessary skills to do what they want. It requires far more patience than most MMOs and I quite enjoy being rewarded while I'm not playing.

  All this is why I have stuck with a game that might have squished my brain otherwise or beaten the will out of me long ago. The internet family I found in my corp, Adhocracy Incorporated, does also make Eve worth playing. I play the way we recruit, focused more on meshing well with other players rather than focusing on player SP or what they can do for me in game.

  But is there something this question has missed? Is there another aspect that you find is more immersive or is what really hooks you into Eve?
-Mem

CCP....Listens?

    I know, I know it's a crazy concept. But it seems with the most recent devblog that such a concept is not outside the realm of possibility.


"While not everyone agrees that supercarriers are to blame for everything, there were some issues that kept popping up:
 Supercapitals are too hard to kill.
Supercarriers are far too versatile.
The Titan superweapon is too powerful.
Dreadnoughts are not good enough.
Remote ECM Bursts should not work on ships immune to ewar.
Sub-capitals are useless in fleet fights."

Well yes, these points have been such for a long time. Whatcha gonna do about it?


Supercarriers
Drone bay can only hold fighters and fighter bombers.
Reduce Shield, Armor and Hull hitpoints on all Supercarriers by 20%.
Reduce drone capacity.
Aeon, Revenant and Wyvern: 125000 (25 total Fighters + Fighter Bombers)
Hel and Nyx: 150000 (30 total Fighters + Fighter Bombers)
Remote ECM Burst: Does not affect ships that are immune to electronic warfare (Supercarriers, Titans, Triaged Carriers and Sieged Dreads)

Fighters


Increase signature resolution to 400

Dreadnoughts

Remove drone bay from all dreadnoughts.
Siege Module I: Boost damage bonus from 625% to 700% to compensate for loss of drones.
Siege Module I: Duration time reduced to 5 minutes. Fuel cost -50%.
Moros: Remove drone bonus.
Moros: New bonus: 5% bonus to Capital Hybrid Turret rate of fire per level.

Titans
 Remove drone bay from all titans.
Reduce Shield, Armor and Hull hitpoints by 20%.
Superweapon: Cannot shoot sub-capital ships.

Logoff timer 
 After a player logs out, there is a check for player aggression every 15 minutes. If you have been aggressed, the timer extends for 15 minutes; if you have not been aggressed, you disappear as before. Note: this is only for player aggression and will not change what happens when you log off during fights against NPCs.


  Oh. Well. Ok....sweet. Supercarriers having less health is good I guess, only ever had them dropped on my head and laughed since they can't touch subcaps. I'm kinda sad about the no more drone bay on dreads cuz I want a Moros eventually and it's known for its ability to engage subcaps in a better capacity than other dreads. But still, the bonus to replace drones is an ROF which is neat. Siege being fast can be handy for vulnerable for less time, but will it eat more stront? I don't think so with the new boost to damage which is very nice. Titans have no more drones and now have less HP vOv Not sure I care. The fighters nerf does hurt carriers as well, so being careful not to make carriers useless against sub caps entirely is something of which they need to be mindful.

  Then the last bit that had me thinking CCP has been secretly reading my posts. Log off timers. Now, instead of simply a 15 minute timer, you can extend the timer longer and longer as long as you keep aggressing the target. This means that you have all the time you need to burn down the guy that decided to try to get away by logging off and waiting. Finally, that is not a valid tactic. I am wondering how many Russians we can get that simply knee-jerk log off xD But does this only apply to caps or to all ships? Better be all, imo.

  All in all, good changes that have been needed for some time. There are a few more that I would have liked to see on the list, but I shall choose to be sated for the time being. Also, don't forget that this is a devblog, not patch notes so the timeframe for these to be implemented has yet to be seen unfortunately.

  Does this affect your gameplay in a significant way?
-Mem

PS. Turns out the logoff is for all ships, which is good. Also, the comments section  for the post has some good kernels and plenty of tears if you want.

Winter Is Coming

  It's true, winter's coming.  Trust Mr. Stark there, he knows what he is talking about after all.

  But what I mean to reference with the mention of winter's impending arrival is, of course, more closely related to sooper srs interweb spaceships.  In particular, the Winter Expansion that now has a devblog release of its own.

  Before you run off to read that though, take a look at an interesting letter to the Eve public from Hilmar, if you haven't seen it already.

Did....did he just apologize? He's....soul searching? As a corpmate put it,

"Is...is that for real? I'm not reading an elaborate mirror of eveonline.com with wish-fulfillment written on it? Cannot wrap head around a CCP that self-aware."

 It is a bit surreal coming from the company that seems to permanently have its head buried in its own nether regions. What is this, renewed hope I feel budding warm in my chest? It springs eternal after all. 

  But now we move on to the good stuff. Or at least the stuff that has me really excited, but is probably just me putting off my justifications for fail execution and the need for a billion patches. Still. Hope.

Linky to devblog

"We hinted that we’re up to something big. Following Hilmars letter to the community it’s time to unveil the first step of actions we’re taking. As we said we are planning something unparalleled. A significant part of that plan is the immediate refocusing of all the EVE development teams on EVE’s core gameplay: spaceships.

 More programmers, more testers, more designers and more artists than ever working on bringing you meaningful and engaging improvements and additions to EVE.

 Before we can elaborate on long term effect we will need further internal planning to take place and we will keep you updated on that progress. However the short term effect of this refocus will be evident immediately in dev-blogs coming out in the next days and weeks and in actual changes hitting our test servers. Right now we're going to give you a high level sneak peek of the winter 2011 expansion. The specific deployment date has not been set in stone but it will be on Tranquility well before Christmas.

 EVE Online´s Winter 2011 expansion will be themed around improvements to warfare and PVP. We will be talking more specifically about each of the features and items in the coming weeks but, for now, here‘s an overview of what functionality, systems and gameplay we‘re going to improve and add to.

 Hybrid weapons balancing

 Factional warfare

 Assault ships

 Capital ship balancing

 New T2 modules

 Starbase logistics management

 New EWAR-Drones

 T2 Rigs manufacturing

 Ship spinning

 New font

 More captains quarters

 Time dilation

 I want to make it clear that this is not a final list. As we go through design and implementation phases some things may require more work than initially expected and others may not hold water in the design phase and therefore may not make it into this particular expansion. Similarly some things might get added to the list. We will keep you updated on our progress every step of the way because, as Hilmar said, communication is one of the things we are dedicated to improve.

 It‘s time to get serious about these spaceships.

 Arnar Hrafn Gylfason Senior Producer of EVE Online"


....



....


*squeeeeeeeeee*


*cough* Pardon me.

  First of all, this has the biggest potential to break Eve asunder. Worse than Incarna, although it has things that faaar more people want and the game needs. So...um...let's break this down a bit.

Hybrids- It's about time and man am I glad to have a Vindi now. But I wonder how they think they will do so. Less damage, better tracking or range? Rails need more dps so nerf tracking? No clue..

FW- That'll be a nice injection that is late but hopefully will be appreciated. You know...as long as it's done right.

ASFs- You mean they might actually be a viable ship to use instead of just a more expensive gimp? Sweet, my Hawk thanks you.

Caps- Again, about time. I hope this balancing includes longer logoffski timers and no SDing..or at least a much longer SD timer.

New T2 mods- I'm guessing for caps here? Can't imagine what other mods don't have T2 variants. That'll be an interesting one to keep an eye on.

Starbase Logi- I know a few people that will certainly appreciate that. Not sure what it will entail in CCP's mind though.

EWAR- new drones? Now that I will definitely follow, because...well I love EWAR. But new drones? Didn't know any new ones were needed.

T2 rigs- If this means that I could viably fit T2 rigs on my ship without double or tripling the price from that alone I'm all ears.

Ship spinning- Ok here I call shenanigans. You're putting this as a feature? Really? Before it was what you were relegated to, not some privilege and it never should have left since CQs suck at being intuitive.

New font- Well that's definitely good on the communication front and it's been needed for years. But not really FiS feature.

CQs- Oh...good....mk...so instead of a rust bucket to walk in circles in, I'll have shiny walls to stare at? Call me when I can actually leave said room.

Time dilation- This one is pretty cool and you should check it out on SiSi. Bullet time in space FTW.

  So I certainly appreciate the new "SRS BZNS GAIS" attitude, I just hope it keeps momentum and that we can see the actions clearly reflect the words and intentions. It is just a game, but if it's your job and you wanna claim to listen then we pay attention to what is done, not what is said.

  That being said...I'll keep this warm and fuzzy a bit longer if you don't mind.

Cheers,
-Mem

The Warrior's Path cont.

The Warrior's Path part 1

  Sadly, by the time we killed the Loki and ran to the next wormhole the opfor had retreated to their POS. But we didn't want to give our hand prematurely, so we had a bit of bait go in to see what they did.

  Here I'll fast forward. It ended being a lot of waiting, we showed our hand and didn't get a kill but decided to stay on the hole to see what they did. They had a Tengu popping in at range to harass us with missile volleys, but we couldn't nab him. So I decide to motor out to 200km in a few different directions to try to get him to engage me or see if I can decloak and point him. But no luck.

  So now I am just sitting. 200 km off the hole. Which we have bubbled. Great plan, right? It's far enough out that they can drop the bubble and warp to me and far enough to look appetizing. I had been trying to log for a while though so I was getting tired of waiting and bored since they probably wouldn't come out. They had been logging pilots in and shipping up for the entire time we sat, so we were hopeful but things tend to disappoint.

  These guys didn't disappoint. Suddenly a Drake lands 15 off me and we start to go at it. The fleet initiates their way to me just as the hostile fleet gets into motion. Suddenly I have a flycatcher bubbling me and their entire drake swarm primary-ing my idiot self. I had my AB running so I have to wait for it to stop so I can kick on my MWD. Time waste means they have vaporized my shields and are eating my armor. Which then goes faster when I try to MWD out of the bubble...dumb. And now they drop a Thanny on us. Awesome.

   There's so many of them, 25 or 30 if I remember which was quite a bit more than us. So I watch my armor melt off, then my structure goes bit by bit. I am hopeful since at some point the bubble went away so I was ready with my overview set to Pod Saver. Spam warp, Spam warp, Spam warp, Spam warp, Spam warp. Why didn't I eject...what an idiot >.>

  So I am now in my pod slamming the warp....just as our HIC decides it's a good idea to bubble me....awesome.....motor out, motor out, motor out.....ohai der Mr. Drake don't mind----nevermind.

  I went a bit ragey here, logging off after I replaced my attribute implants at the very least....took a shower and came back to listen to the rest of the fight. I was mainly mad at myself for a couple reasons and some rage came from the surprise of not being able to save my pod like I expected. But we put up a knock down, drag out, brawlfest that is one for the books.

 Every time we killed one, they just reshipped to another Drake and came back. So we had to start getting pods. With the Thanny repping, it was a bit harder but awesome calls were made and their fleet was getting whittled down. When we died, we got out and reshipped to come back for more, but weren't as close to the fight. Short of it? We won, including taking down the Thanatos in the end when they started to burn away and warp out. That was insane, with 34 kills and we lost only 9 pilots, including me and my pod. Talk about epic.

  Then they surprised us by giving good fights and thanking us. Heh? Apparently, they had moved out of nullsec because they were tired of getting good fights but then getting dropped by supercaps.  They came to wspace because they wanted exactly what we had just given them, a good ole' fashion bloodfest. So major props to these guys and I can't wait to see them in space again. We need more like them.

  So despite my losses and missing out of the killmails for that fun, I was glad to have been able to be the catalyst for it. Lucky thing I just got paid too, but I think I'll be flying cheaper for a while. Or at least not taking as many risks.



  Haha yea, I almost had you didn't I. Not take risks? What is this, Hello Kitty Online? No risk, no ISK amirite?

  It was then that I looked at my personal killboard.

  I guess with all this recent activity I've had, I finally hit the 100 billion mark for ISK destroyed, with 4.2 bil of it being in one morning at the first of the month. Sweeeet. I feel like I should have some sort of event or something...all the cool bloggers do after all :P  We shall see.

  This is why I came to wspace. This is why I play Eve. The great fights, the great people and the great times. And of course, Bob wills it!

  Although this reminds me that I need to make a post about the second run of Russian POS bashing I did last week. Hope you're enjoying this all as much as I am.


  Fly risky
-Mem

The Warrior's Path

  There are times in every Eve player's career when they just have one of those times they think "wow...that was just epic-ly full of epic epicness." And one of those times has come yet again for me.

  I'll have a TL;DR at the end if this doesn't get put into two different posts. Basically, you want to look at our killboard and specifically at Oct. 1st. We can't even fit it all onto the front page it's so long..

  So I woke up yesterday, late since it's the weekend and I am trying to avoid my work, and decided to pop on to update my PI and skills if they were running out. Bringing up comms gave me a bit of interesting chatter, the type that usually involves shooting someone. So I made a comment about how I was probably going to miss it since I just got on and needed to get bookmarks and all that jazz.

  To which I got "No, you definitely won't miss it."

  "Oh, I guess I'll get bookmarks and head out."

  Listening to the chatter intently now, it seemed that we had been playing around with Narwhals Ate My Duck in our chain a bunch, popping some of their frig sized hulls and ended up running into White Noise in a nullsec link. We had tackled a Proteus that then got reinforced by an Archon.

  So I hopped into my trusty Drakghar, a Legion with an interesting fit that has served me quite well.  As I got out there, we were jamming the Archon and having to kill the Prot in between jams. It wasn't long before his tank gave way and melted under our fire. I think we also podded him. Nearly 2 billion worth of destruction in one small cruiser hull....astounding. All that was left was to work this Archon down before he decided to log or self destruct.  Until the Chimera landed.

  Our force was too small to burn the Archon and now the Chimera was going to make things even harder. But thanks to our two ECM pilots, of whom I have to give major props, they kept the Chimera jammed the whole time. The Archon kept cycling in and out of triage to get cap from the Chimera and keep his own reps up, despite our neuting power. It was like fighting uphill through molasses and every time you think you're at the top, a fresh wave of molasses hits you and drags you back. I just kept popping his drones and fighters, then back to neuting and dpsing the carrier itself. It was especially annoying when the Chimera started to smartbomb and nearly killed my entire flight of Hammerheads.

  "Chimera disappeared! Chimera has logged!"

  What?! With all our notifications, nobody has noticed him go and the Archon most likely wasn't far behind. But here's a couple stupid points I want to bring up. Amusing that it's, yet again, Russians doing it too.

• Log off timer for a cap is 15 minutes. Wtf is that about CCP? We don't roll in dreads or supercaps so downing caps in that time is stupid.
• Some modules shut off when you log, some don't. Cloaks decloak, but reppers keep running? CCP, fix it to be one way or the other for all modules.

  So now it was a race against time and the carrier's offline reps. After a few heart pounding minutes, we finally had it capped out so that the reps stopped running. But now we needed to eat through 3/4ths of its armor and the structure before it disappeared. At this point, I began to cycle my overheating on and off to make my guns last as long as possible, but still get some good dps out of them. 

  It was getting so close and comms were getting quiet as it got closer. Pixel by pixel the armor chipped away and we all were urging it down further.

  "It'll melt like butter when we get it to structure."

  It felt like an eternity trying to wear it down, finally getting some excitement with structure bleed. We had no clue when he had logged and didn't know how long til we lost yet another cap kill to Russian flee tactics, but it was intense.

  Structure. Everyone overheat! Burn that sucker down!

  Then came the blessed explosion.

  Wait...that Proteus was twice as expensive as the carrier? Yup...apparently so.

  And wow what a way to start your day. But it seems this chain was to be the chain blessed by Bob, god of wormholes, and the chain that would keep on giving.

  As we were fighting the Archon, a Narwhals manti had decloaked and then recloaked near us. We had also had some more of their cloakies following us around the chain, so it wasn't long til most of our fleet was nearly home and our scouts ran into a Harby, while its buddies staged in their home system.

  Two of ours that had stayed at the nullsec engaged the Harby and, by a comedy of errors both jumped out when they thought he jumped. So he got back to the hole that went towards his home, only to run into another one of ours. Ohai der Mr. Harby. Uh....you seem to be missing a couple slots there bud. With the Ducks out killing Russians, I guess only alts are left to guard home.

  That was when we moved the entire fleet to engage what force they had waiting. By the time we got there though, only a cane, guardian, brutix and something else that warped out was there. The cane got out thanks to someone getting jammed or something. It was ok though, for some reason both the Guardian and Brutix were pointed but didn't jump through the wormhole to run. Soon they both met their manufacturer.

  This gave us a good bit to talk about as we headed home. But yet again, we would not make it there. Instead, a Duck ran around in his Loki and engaged one of our Tengus. So we all waited for it to jump into our fleet on the other side of the wormhole, while 2 of ours tried to break him. This wormhole was in the direction of the Duck home system.

  Of course, this all got confusing when one of our pilots got engaged by the residents of the next hole over toward our home. Two conflicts at once made things frantic. Finally the Loki jumped in half armor and we polished off his Loki and pod.  It seems it was the season for a Duck hunt. We then rushed to our corpmate's aid, who had been reinforced by one of our cloakies and both had been pushed through the wormhole before they got popped.

---

  Keep an eye here, the second half of this whole story comes in the next post.
-Mem