Blog Banter 40: Van Damme In Space?

While I'm not sure I'd call this a triumphant return to EVE blogging, the topic of the latest Blog Banter (BB40) caught my eye. Interstellar Blood Sports? Sounds like the everyday life of a lowsec pirate to me, I thought.

No, not THAT Bloodsport. Not even when you count that ECM drones are the blinding powder of EVE.

Upon reading further into the question, however, I quickly discovered that the commentary was intended to focus on tournaments and "eSports" in EVE Online. The next statement that popped into my head was, never mind, that's nothing like real PVP. Normally I'd have let the matter drop there with a smug return to my dinner, but on further reflection, the comment was so stuffed with my own assumptions and pre-conceptions that I couldn't resist poking at it to see what came out.

Catching Up

Huo Lung > Do you comment on like every other kill of yours? You need to just resume blogging. :P

Fine then, I WILL. :P

In fairness, it has been just about three months since I've posted anything updates of my own life in internet spaceships. In that time, we've had a ton of stuff happen in-game, a lot of which I don't even remember clearly enough to comment on. Thus, in lieu of a wordier post with all the things I normally include in my blog, I'll just list a few highlights of the past three months as a Black Rebel.

• March was a relatively slow month overall, thanks to some RL concerns I had come up for the first few weeks. March was also the beginning of R1FTA's holiday to my old stomping grounds of Citadel and Black Rise lowsec, the native habitat of the Caldari and Gallente militias. There wasn't a whole lot of activity for me thanks to my absence, but I did chalk up a kill during an engagement with a Crusader in my Thrasher, notable as my only solo kill of the month.
  
• April wasn't much more exciting than March in terms of the amount of PVP I engaged in, but it does stand out as being the first time I participated in a supercap kill. Full story is over at Dirty Protagonist's blog, ain't no sunshine. (Read it if you haven't already, it's funny.) Apparently Friday the 13th is bad luck after all...
  
• A few days before our Nyx kill, Peri Simone lead the weekly "Target Everyone, Somebody Fire" roam out of Heild on a Tuesday night. As we'd sort of expected, the trip ended with a skirmish with Gunpoint Diplomacy, and R1FTA didn't fare as well as we'd hoped. Spirits were somewhat low, but the Rebels were determined not to be outshone, and during a second round (in which Peri handed me the reins) we gave RANSM a GF. (Note: The battle report is kinda messed up because the two fights happened in the same system, despite being an hour apart. The final score for the second round was three Ruptures and a Thrasher killed, while losing two Ruptures, a Stabber Fleet Issue and a Jaguar.)
  
• The first two weeks of May opened with a couple of activities I don't normally avail myself of - Hulkageddon ganks and POS bashing. There was also a Jaguar which I hero-tackled with my Rifter (and survived!), an optimistic young player who engaged my Ishkur on a gate (and ended up being my first above-class solo kill), and a hilarious 2v2 guest-starring Naoru Kozan of the Tuskers (after which the Daredevil and Thrasher pilots refused to undock while we were in system). Of course, since this blog simply wouldn't be complete without one of my own fiery deaths, I'll include an account of my fourteen-minute frigate 1v1.

I do feel obligated to write a post about the upcoming FW changes at some point, since so much of my own PVP career has been as a member of the Caldari militia, but I'm quite frankly trying to avoid it - so much has already been said about FW in various venues that I'm not sure I can add anything new to it, and I feel a little too out-of-the-loop to be confident that I'd know what I was talking about. (Which I suppose has never stopped anyone in EVE before, but...) Still, I'm once again trying to renew my commitment to posting here regularly, so hopefully you'll see more out of me in the future.

In the meantime, fly dangerous! o/

FC Review: 21 February 2012

This post was originally put up on the Black Rebel Rifter Club's corp forums, as part of a series of weekly roams entitled "Target Everyone, Somebody Fire!" organised by a corpmate looking to gain more experience running gangs. Last night was the second in this series of roams, and I stepped up to FC for the event.

Start time: 22:00, including Rifter combat and general lazing about by the FC
Route: Heild > Otosela > Amamake

This week's episode of TESF, titled "This Can Only End Well!", was guest-hosted by Dian Lung. There were a number of excellent killmails to be had, but unfortunately, many of them were at the FC's expense. :P

Anniversary

Almost two years ago, I undocked a ship with the intention of using it to PVP, without any idea what I was doing. Realising this milestone has made me reflect on the changes that have come over the past two years, and the people I've had the pleasure of meeting and flying with (and sometimes against). PVP is mostly a social activity for me, so I think it's appropriate that I take the opportunity to offer my thanks.

I can't help but feel like this is some sort of troll.

But I still think it's pretty hilarious.

Changes of Pace and Taste

In my previous post, I gave a partial list of recent engagements I've taken part in, both as the hunter and the hunted. While dredging up examples of kills and losses to post to my faithful readership (all three of you :P), I started mulling over some of the differing trends between the engagements from my time in Caldari militia to the ones I've had since moving back to Molden Heath and joining R1FTA. Below the cut, you'll find some of my observations, as well as predictions on where these trends will lead in the future.

Note: I'm very much the sort of person who processes information through conversing with others, or failing that, by formatting it into a blog post. I can't guarantee that the content of this post will be coherent (or even particularly interesting) to anyone else, but commentary is welcome all the same.

Explosions!

Since this blog is about EVE Online, and the vast majority of the pilots I currently fly with are in the game for the "pew pew", I thought I'd give a summarized version of the spaceship murder I've recently been party to in the name of "good fites".

• A hat trick of firsts: my first night in R1FTA, my first kill as a member of that corp, and my first killmail as a member of the corp, all on the same Myrmidon.
• A brawl with RANSM at the Angel Creo-Corp plex in Heild. This was actually a series of four separate engagements: Haerod's Enyo and Duke's Wolf popping Dirty Protagonist's Coercer while my Jaguar and Ris' Enyo took Totera's Thrasher down (later joined by Haerod's Tristan and Aliaksandre's Rifter). Second, a group of us jumped on Titus' Bellicose after I had reshipped into a Stiletto. The third fight was a larger frigate and destroyer brawl that spelled the end of the same Jaguar that had killed Totera earlier. Finally, a little later that evening, I had a 1v1 against SneakyBadger's Thrasher that I lost by the skin of my teeth (Sneaky was at 6% structure when my Retribution popped). 
• A pair of 1v1s with Naoru Kozan of the Tuskers where I lost a Retribution and a Jaguar. Due to the comments left in the second lossmail, I suspect the surprise pointing incident was arranged by Jaxley. :P
• This Vagabond aggressed my Retribution on the undock of our home station while I was typing something to a corpmate. Though he managed to burn 40 kilometres away in the time that it took me to dock and reship, it wasn't quite enough to escape my Lachesis' point range.
• Unfortunately, not everyone who offers 1v1 fights has good intentions. This particular pilot offered a "friendly" duel in a Nighthawk, showed up on field in a Daredevil (which stood far less of a chance against my Hurricane's 720mm guns), and then proceeded to call in a gaggle of friends to gank my poor battlecruiser. I was miffed about the entire affair for about half an hour, but after that, it was more hilarious than anything.
• On the generous invitation of my friend anf fellow Woman Gamer of EVE Shalee Lianne (who sounds SO CUTE on comms!), I spent a few hours camping gates in The Forge lowsec with her and her corp, Imperial Outlaws. Among the results were a Talos (my first tier 3 battlecruiser kill), a Lachesis and a Ferox.
• Last but certainly not least, the only explosions to come out of a brief venture into Innsmother with my partners in crime Huo and Judge. We had just returned from a tour of 0.0 featuring some module lag shenangians and a frustrating lack of kills. On the lowsec gate from L4X to Skarkon, I saw a gate flash, and what popped up but a Vindicator? Unfortunately, contrary to Cyber Ten's assurances, it did not end well. (Despite that, though, we had a blast - pun definitely intended!)

While I try not to dwell too much on killboard stats, I'm pleased to note that in the past eight days since joining R1FTA, I seem to be on my way to setting personal records for both kills and losses - I'm currently at 21 kills for the month (with a record of 53 in March of 2011, primarily due to participating in the Wensleyday Roams), and 12 losses in the same period (with a record of 14 in March of 2011, likely also due to the Wensleyday Roams :P).

I certainly won't claim those as examples of prolific PVP activity - I know pilots who pull in as many kills in an average-to-busy month as I have in my entire four-year EVE career - but if I maintain the pace that I've set for the month so far, it'll represent significant changes in both the quantity and quality of my fights in New Eden. I'll discuss that in more detail in a separate post, so if you're interested, keep an eye out!

Rebel Yell

Lots of stuff going on since my last post, which probably isn't that surprising, given that it's been three months (ish). For the sake of keeping this entry relatively brief, I'll go through the broad strokes rather than minute details. Apologies in advance if things seem a little disjointed as a result.