So, Assault Ships. Those frigates that are so popular right now. I love them, I hate them. I love them, because of what they can do. The firepower they pack in such a small, maneuverable package. I hate them, because I'm still not all that used to them, and I sure don't know what they really can do. The second part of that gets me into trouble more often then not, as either I try to engage something I really shouldn't have, or I don't know the capabilities of the one I'm attacking, and do something I shouldn't.
Case in point, Assault Frigate IV had just finished training, and I was eager to get out and try them. I hadn't done too much on what the FOTM frigates were yet, but as I had enjoyed flying the shield-fit Firetail, I figured the next step from that would be to grab a Jaguar. I figured it would act like a tankier, and gankier Firetail, with a little less speed, and, I wasn't disappointed with that. Roaming around, I eventually found a fight with it, there were two pilots in system Phloater of the Tuskers, and one other.
Crossing my fingers that it wasn't the Tusker, I loaded Barrage and set orbit to 6km hoping to stay out of his optimal, and I jumped to the planet he was on scan towards. Landing, and seeing that it was the Tusker, I wound up my Afterburner and went for it. Lock. Scram. Squeeze the trigger and start firing the Autocannons and launching the rockets. His shields fall quickly to the hail of metal slugs and rockets, but his armor holds well. My shields start failing before too long. Looking down at all the modules I have active and starting to push my afterburner to overheat and try get out, I notice that I had never turned on my webifier. Pushing my ship to it's limits trying to get out still wasn't enough, as his railguns punched a final hole in the hull.
Lots of mistakes in that fight, from not looking at what guns he had, to not using my web. Did I have a chance? If I had flown perfectly, it could have ended differently, but that's the fun in this game. Mistakes happen, and even if you should win, you won't always.
Having a couple of Wolves in my home station, along with the couple of Jaguars that I had intended to use first, I decided to fit one of those up as a brawler and use that as something different. Pretty soon the call came in that atanV had found a Myrmidon running missions, and was probing him down. Heading his way, he soon called that he was warping into the mission, and would call when he landed point. Shortly after that he gave the call for me to come in and warp to him. The Wolf hit warp and soon enough I landed there and started to primary the battlecruisers drones. It didn't take long until he was starting to pull them in so we wouldn't kill them, reducing his damage output considerably. Starting to work on the Myrmidon itself, it was soon crumbled under the autocannons of my Wolf and the Stabber Fleet Issue atan was flying. On comms with atan before it popped we decided that I would drop point and go for the pod. Catching it, we right away invited him to the ransom channel, which he decided to decline that, and forfeit is rather expensive pod.
Liking the Wolf more and more, I started to use it as my primary ship. Flying it out to Ansou, I had a Rifter and Taranis on scan. I attempted to find the Rifter, but it was bouncing around to various celestials, and then safed up. Figuring that my Minmatar frigate would be a good match for the Interceptor that was flying around, I loaded Fusion, hoping that it would be a brawler of some sort. Landing at the planet the 'ranis was at, we both came towards each other, and landing a hit that wiped his shields clear out in one volley, I figured this could be an easy fight, until I realized that I had missed my scram at the same time, and he got himself out to 15km and proceeded to pick away at my shields with his railguns. After attempting to sling him into range once, with no success, I decide to get out of there before he breaks my cap, as I'm needing to rep his damage in my armor now. I overheat my MWD and align out, just as I notice the rifter landing on grid with us.
Heading back home to Iges, it wasn't long before I notice the Rifter pilot. Knowing for sure now that he's with the Taranis, I figure that I'll give it another shot. Scanning the rifter down to belt 4 in the VIII cluster, I warp in and engage. Taking his shields out in two volleys, and making quick work of the tech one frigate's armor, the Taranis lands 10km off of us. With the Rifter out of the way I get to focusing on the Taranis again, but even with Barrage, he's still too far out of my Autocannon's range to land decent hits, and is steadily running me out of cap with the use of my armor rep. As his orbit came around behind me, I aligned to the sun and burned out my MWD as I got out of there. GFs were exchanged in local as I docked up and repaired.
Once again, back in the Amoen/Avaux loop, it's quiet until I get to Avaux. Getting in there, I scan down Oneida27 in an Omen, sitting on the station. Normally people on stations don't make me think twice, but being that he's flashy red and had cost me a kill earlier, I decide to go in for it. Landing quite far from him as I warp to the station, I dock up quickly, so I'd hopefully be by him on the undock, and I was correct. Locking up and opening fire, he launches his drones. Blasting his shields in a couple volleys, his drones quickly work through mine, so I decide they're the biggest issue here, as his lasers aren't tracking my Wolf at all. Soon enough he's microing them in whenever they take damage, so I decide that's the time to overheat the autocannons and blast into his ships tank. With my nos stealing the capacitor to fuel my rep, I'm able to shrug off most of the remaining damage from the drones, along with the odd hit his Cruiser is able to land, but his armor is failing under the constant gunfire. Soon enough his structure gives out, and I go to scoop the loot, when I notice I hadn't deposited the loot from an earlier kill, and am unable to grab everything. About to warp out and drop a can, Phjil, his corp mate comes out in a Thorax, and I decide to just leave what's there. Pondering going for Phjil yet, I decide that discretion is the better choice here, as I've got a full cargo of modules that are good for the bank account.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Industrial Fury
Well, after one post in between, I'm once again breaking the timeline of events. Today has just been one of those days. You know, one of the ones that makes you love this game. Especially love being a pirate in this game.
The day started with deciding to jump in a Thrasher. I've flown a couple before without great luck (and this one ended in an un-spectacular blaze of not so much glory later, as I hit "warp" on the wrong system as I was traversing high-sec, and started slow-boating back to the gate I had just left), but had one left to try make good use of, and that I did.
Heading into the fruitful Amoen/Avaux loop, I head the short way through it, which was empty other then the docked up regulars, until I hit Avaux. Along with one local, who is normally docked (and was here) there were four neutrals. Warping to the scan spot I've made in the centre of the system, I quickly see that there's a Covetor on scan, but what really caught my eye was the Hulk, Vexor, and Iteron III I had on scan towards the four cluster. Warping to belt 1 there, and they aren't there. Scanning quickly, I find that they're at the #2 belt. Jumping to it, and overheating my prop and tackle I land 20km off of all of them. Hitting approach on the Hulk, he never starts aligning as I get a scram on him, but at the same time my computers target the Vexor, and my autocannons start blasting at the Cruiser. After one volley lands, the Vexor quickly aligns out, and warps off.
At this point, my thoughts right away turn to ransoming the pilot, so I invite him into the Repo. ransom channel, but he declines the invitation right away. All the while, his Hobgoblin Is have been slowly nibbling at my shield tank, but not enough to give much worry, as his tank melts. Able to get a point on the pod, I right away invite him to the channel again. This time he accepts, but after a few rude remarks, he wakes up in a clone vat.
With the Covetor still on scan, I right away turn my attention to finding it, and soon have it scanned to belt 1-1. Warping in, and landing right on top of this Mining Barge, as it's dispatching a couple rats with it's drones, I disable it's warp drive, and invite it to the Ransom channel, and get a reply of
Leboc Deninard > sorry ff busy
Soon enough I get a request for a private conversation from this pilot. Talking with him, he soon doesn't agree with any terms that would leave him his ship, so I proceed to repossess his assets the hard way.
Once again able to get a point on this capsule, he never replies in the allotted time, and soon enough there's a floating corpse.
Flying around for another couple hours with nothing else that tickles my fancy, I dock up for a while and rest for a couple hours. Jumping into a Rifter after losing the Thrasher, I made my way down to Kennick. Soon finding myself near the VIII cluster, with another Hulk on scan, I warp in, landing around 15km off of this Exhumer. With the Afterburner firing up and extra power on the Hulk, I manage to grab it as it's aligning out. This one doesn't have any drones, and I invite him to the ransom channel. Third time is a charm, right? It turns out that it truly is.
[04:08:57] Teck Togenada > hello
[04:09:05] Teck Togenada > how much do you want?
[04:09:08] Dischordant > 100m and I stop firing?
[04:09:20] Teck Togenada > hmm
[04:09:39] Teck Togenada > k
[04:10:05] Dischordant > thankya sir.
[04:10:11] Teck Togenada > pleasure doing business with you
[04:10:17] Dischordant > it has been
[04:10:19] Dischordant > o/
[04:10:25] Teck Togenada > o7
Parting ways after this mutually beneficial agreement, I end up in Pellile, where I saw a Prorator on scan, but soon enough it's gone as a pilot leaves system. Not knowing where he went, I made my way into Dour, and after finding no viable targets, I came back to Pellile and made the short hop over to the Grispire gate. Coming through, I right away saw the pilot that had left Pellile was in local here. Warping all around, I couldn't find him, so I ended up docking up to stretch my legs for a few minutes, and saw the Prorator's pilot in the station. Coming back to my ship 10 minutes later I noticed that he had left the station, but was still in the solar system. Jumping into my Rifter and getting back into space as fast as the little frigate could go, I soon find the hauler on scan at a customs office. I land on top of it, and see right away that he's aligning to get out. Lock resolves and my scrambler disables his ships ability to warp. Opening fire right away as I invite him to the ransom channel (there's really a common theme here today) as I know he has a friendly in system, he accepts the invitation.
[ 2012.04.25 04:08:57 ] Teck Togenada > hello
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:05 ] Teck Togenada > how much do you want?
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:08 ] Dischordant > 100m and I stop firing?
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:20 ] Teck Togenada > hmm
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:39 ] Teck Togenada > k
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:05 ] Dischordant > thankya sir.
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:11 ] Teck Togenada > pleasure doing business with you
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:17 ] Dischordant > it has been
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:19 ] Dischordant > o/
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:25 ] Teck Togenada > o7
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:35 ] Dischordant > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:39 ] MaverocK > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:43 ] Dischordant > itnerested in saving the ship?
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:53 ] MaverocK > how much?
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:57 ] Dischordant > 80m?
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:10 ] MaverocK > 50m
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:15 ] Dischordant > 75m
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:24 ] MaverocK > hehe 60m
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:31 ] Dischordant > 70 will be my final offer.
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:56 ] MaverocK > ok i will sent you 65m
[ 2012.04.25 05:31:08 ] Dischordant > 70, or you get a 65 m refund and no ship
[ 2012.04.25 05:31:39 ] MaverocK > ok i send
[ 2012.04.25 05:31:47 ] Dischordant > waiting on 3m
[ 2012.04.25 05:32:01 ] MaverocK > why?
[ 2012.04.25 05:32:10 ] Dischordant > because that wasn't the agreed upon amount
[ 2012.04.25 05:32:38 ] MaverocK > ok as you wish
[ 2012.04.25 05:33:09 ] Dischordant > still waiting
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:06 ] Dischordant > I do mean it.
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:07 ] MaverocK > i send you 70m
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:26 ] MaverocK > sorry
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:27 ] Dischordant > you sent 67.9m
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:31 ] MaverocK > wait
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:35 ] Dischordant > so I'm waiting on the remainder.
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:04 ] MaverocK > ok this time
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:11 ] Dischordant > it's been a pleasure.
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:13 ] Dischordant > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:17 ] MaverocK > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:25 ] EVE System > MaverocK was kicked from the channel by Dischordant
Effective until: 2012.04.25 06:05
Reason: "agreement reached"
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:35 ] Dischordant > !!!! WHAT A DAY!
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:41 ] Vivien Sureflight > No kidding O.o
The day started with deciding to jump in a Thrasher. I've flown a couple before without great luck (and this one ended in an un-spectacular blaze of not so much glory later, as I hit "warp" on the wrong system as I was traversing high-sec, and started slow-boating back to the gate I had just left), but had one left to try make good use of, and that I did.
Heading into the fruitful Amoen/Avaux loop, I head the short way through it, which was empty other then the docked up regulars, until I hit Avaux. Along with one local, who is normally docked (and was here) there were four neutrals. Warping to the scan spot I've made in the centre of the system, I quickly see that there's a Covetor on scan, but what really caught my eye was the Hulk, Vexor, and Iteron III I had on scan towards the four cluster. Warping to belt 1 there, and they aren't there. Scanning quickly, I find that they're at the #2 belt. Jumping to it, and overheating my prop and tackle I land 20km off of all of them. Hitting approach on the Hulk, he never starts aligning as I get a scram on him, but at the same time my computers target the Vexor, and my autocannons start blasting at the Cruiser. After one volley lands, the Vexor quickly aligns out, and warps off.
At this point, my thoughts right away turn to ransoming the pilot, so I invite him into the Repo. ransom channel, but he declines the invitation right away. All the while, his Hobgoblin Is have been slowly nibbling at my shield tank, but not enough to give much worry, as his tank melts. Able to get a point on the pod, I right away invite him to the channel again. This time he accepts, but after a few rude remarks, he wakes up in a clone vat.
With the Covetor still on scan, I right away turn my attention to finding it, and soon have it scanned to belt 1-1. Warping in, and landing right on top of this Mining Barge, as it's dispatching a couple rats with it's drones, I disable it's warp drive, and invite it to the Ransom channel, and get a reply of
Leboc Deninard > sorry ff busy
Soon enough I get a request for a private conversation from this pilot. Talking with him, he soon doesn't agree with any terms that would leave him his ship, so I proceed to repossess his assets the hard way.
Once again able to get a point on this capsule, he never replies in the allotted time, and soon enough there's a floating corpse.
Flying around for another couple hours with nothing else that tickles my fancy, I dock up for a while and rest for a couple hours. Jumping into a Rifter after losing the Thrasher, I made my way down to Kennick. Soon finding myself near the VIII cluster, with another Hulk on scan, I warp in, landing around 15km off of this Exhumer. With the Afterburner firing up and extra power on the Hulk, I manage to grab it as it's aligning out. This one doesn't have any drones, and I invite him to the ransom channel. Third time is a charm, right? It turns out that it truly is.
[04:08:57] Teck Togenada > hello
[04:09:05] Teck Togenada > how much do you want?
[04:09:08] Dischordant > 100m and I stop firing?
[04:09:20] Teck Togenada > hmm
[04:09:39] Teck Togenada > k
[04:10:05] Dischordant > thankya sir.
[04:10:11] Teck Togenada > pleasure doing business with you
[04:10:17] Dischordant > it has been
[04:10:19] Dischordant > o/
[04:10:25] Teck Togenada > o7
Parting ways after this mutually beneficial agreement, I end up in Pellile, where I saw a Prorator on scan, but soon enough it's gone as a pilot leaves system. Not knowing where he went, I made my way into Dour, and after finding no viable targets, I came back to Pellile and made the short hop over to the Grispire gate. Coming through, I right away saw the pilot that had left Pellile was in local here. Warping all around, I couldn't find him, so I ended up docking up to stretch my legs for a few minutes, and saw the Prorator's pilot in the station. Coming back to my ship 10 minutes later I noticed that he had left the station, but was still in the solar system. Jumping into my Rifter and getting back into space as fast as the little frigate could go, I soon find the hauler on scan at a customs office. I land on top of it, and see right away that he's aligning to get out. Lock resolves and my scrambler disables his ships ability to warp. Opening fire right away as I invite him to the ransom channel (there's really a common theme here today) as I know he has a friendly in system, he accepts the invitation.
[ 2012.04.25 04:08:57 ] Teck Togenada > hello
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:05 ] Teck Togenada > how much do you want?
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:08 ] Dischordant > 100m and I stop firing?
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:20 ] Teck Togenada > hmm
[ 2012.04.25 04:09:39 ] Teck Togenada > k
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:05 ] Dischordant > thankya sir.
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:11 ] Teck Togenada > pleasure doing business with you
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:17 ] Dischordant > it has been
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:19 ] Dischordant > o/
[ 2012.04.25 04:10:25 ] Teck Togenada > o7
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:35 ] Dischordant > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:39 ] MaverocK > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:43 ] Dischordant > itnerested in saving the ship?
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:53 ] MaverocK > how much?
[ 2012.04.25 05:29:57 ] Dischordant > 80m?
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:10 ] MaverocK > 50m
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:15 ] Dischordant > 75m
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:24 ] MaverocK > hehe 60m
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:31 ] Dischordant > 70 will be my final offer.
[ 2012.04.25 05:30:56 ] MaverocK > ok i will sent you 65m
[ 2012.04.25 05:31:08 ] Dischordant > 70, or you get a 65 m refund and no ship
[ 2012.04.25 05:31:39 ] MaverocK > ok i send
[ 2012.04.25 05:31:47 ] Dischordant > waiting on 3m
[ 2012.04.25 05:32:01 ] MaverocK > why?
[ 2012.04.25 05:32:10 ] Dischordant > because that wasn't the agreed upon amount
[ 2012.04.25 05:32:38 ] MaverocK > ok as you wish
[ 2012.04.25 05:33:09 ] Dischordant > still waiting
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:06 ] Dischordant > I do mean it.
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:07 ] MaverocK > i send you 70m
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:26 ] MaverocK > sorry
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:27 ] Dischordant > you sent 67.9m
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:31 ] MaverocK > wait
[ 2012.04.25 05:34:35 ] Dischordant > so I'm waiting on the remainder.
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:04 ] MaverocK > ok this time
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:11 ] Dischordant > it's been a pleasure.
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:13 ] Dischordant > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:17 ] MaverocK > o/
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:25 ] EVE System > MaverocK was kicked from the channel by Dischordant
Effective until: 2012.04.25 06:05
Reason: "agreement reached"
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:35 ] Dischordant > !!!! WHAT A DAY!
[ 2012.04.25 05:35:41 ] Vivien Sureflight > No kidding O.o
As you can see from that log, it took a little gentle coaxing to get the full amount out of him, but a couple extra rounds from a Rifter's autocannons really do tend to move things along quite nicely.
All said and done, that's definitely been my most profitable day in New Eden.
Fly dangerous
'Chord
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
And we now return to our regular programming
So, after the quick interlude of the Repo. roam from Saturday, back to the solo stories I've been collecting for a while. I'll probably be trying to post a little more regularly with the backlog of notes that I have, considering I've still got another post worth from before I've been flying Assault Frigates, which I've nearly been flying for two weeks now.
Leaving Iges to do my normal roam, I warped into Covryn. I usually pass through quite quickly, due to a heavy Ninja Unicorns alliance presence most of the time. I've never had a chance to fight them yet, and really don't know too much about them other then they dropped the small pos we set up earlier, and that they like to fly big ships. That last part though, is why I've never had a chance to fight them.
This time though, seeing a few neutrals in system, all young characters, I decided to stick around and see what I could find. Soon I had scanned down two Punishers and a Kestrel down, all sitting at the sun. Not sure what to expect, but figuring all I had to lose was a Firetail, I warped into them. Landing around 10k off of them I figured that the Kestrel would probably be the most dangerous, and the one with the smallest tank, so I locked him first. I was correct with my thoughts that he wouldn't have much tank, as it turned out he had none. Not expecting the Kestrel to drop quite as fast as he did, I hadn't begun to lock either of the Punishers yet, only starting once I had the Kestrel into structure. By that time though, one of the Punishers was already warping out, and the other warped out just before I closed in on him enough to get the scram on.
Getting into the pilot seat the next day and heading to Avaux, John Valentine was in the area also. It didn't take too long before I noticed a Merlin, Incursus, and Tristan on scan. Once again, this was another group of three new players, and especially with JV being right nearby in a Wolf, I felt quite confident about going in on them. Warping in, I landed near the Merlin and opened fire. Web, and scram on it, autocannons were overheated and spewing their hot metal towards it, and it's shields failed quickly, but the incoming damage from the three ships was tearing through my Firetails shield tank. Able to drop the Merlin with around a third of my shields left, I turned my attention to the Tristan, as the Incursus still hadn't quite closed range yet. John came out of warp just as I opened fire on the Tristan. My shields failed and armor didn't have much strength to resist the onslaught of the Merlin's rockets and railguns, but the combined firepower of the Minmatar frigates dropped it as the bolts were starting to fall out of the Firetail's structure. Aligning out, and overheating my afterburner to the point I was afraid it would tear the ship's already burning structure apart, I was able to get out of scram range from the Incursus, but was able to point my autocannons in his direction and fire a few pot shots before warping out.
A few fairly uneventful nights of podding around over the next couple days and eventually I landed on a gate, with Abonella from The Tuskers landing on top of me in a Malediction. Thinking this could be a good fight for my Firetail, I hit my AB and burned towards, getting my web and scram fired up. Looking back on this fight, it would have been a great had I loaded Barrage (As I've noted quite often). Thinking that the Malediction would probably have a MWD, I was surprised when it was pulling range on me. Not thinking quite straight at the time, I never did overheat my afterburner. Eating into the Maledictions armor, but watching the damage disappear as his armor rep kicked in. I kept on a straight approach, trying to have my Firetail close in on this Amarr interceptor, but it was able to keep pulling range. Eventually, the rockets coming from the Tusker's ship broke the shields on my Firetail, and I attempted to pull range and get back to the gate, but was unable to before the final rocket landed. GFs were exchanged, and I talked to the Tusker pilot for a little while, saying that I had expected a MWD fit. It was also here that I found that I had been closer to breaking the Amarr's tank, as it had almost run out of capacitor. Lessons learned.
As always in a pirate's life, it's either feast or famine. Not having much luck again for a couple days, I was out with h0tsauce. Finding a Rupture and Rifter in Intak hoss tried to scan them down. The Rifter left system before long. Focused on the Rupture then, it didn't take too long before he had the Cruiser scanned down at a customs office. He jumped in and got point as I came into system. Watching the warp bubble surround me as I hear that hoss is going to have issues, as his capacitor is failing. Coming out of warp around 10km off of the Rupture, I hear that hoss was out of cap and couldn't maintain point, but I was able to get in and snag the cruiser before it was able to warp off. The cruiser by this point was hitting armor, but had very little tank to it, and dropped fast.
As we were waiting out our GCC, the Rifter we had seen before came back. Still sitting at the customs office, this Rifter soon landed beside my own and opened fire. His tank didn't hold out for long, and with h0t en route, I wanted to let him get in on it also, but my autocannons had other plans, as his structure disappeared after a single volley. Getting a point on the pod, we decided to try and ransom it. It became apparent rather quickly that he was stalling for time, especially once we saw the original Rupture pilot enter system again, along with another. As the Rupture pilot landed on grid with us, this time in a Rifter, we decided it was time for the pod to begone. Turning our attention to the new pilot once again, we also see an Arbitrator land around 80km off of us. Finding the Rifter about as tanked as the one we just dropped, we just melt it. Scooping the loot, and not wanting to deal with drones, we warp out and exchange GFs with the pilots.
And that's it for the backlog of pre-AF flying. I'm really going to have to make sure I fly cheaper ships more often, while I love the ability to engage larger targets, it really has been hurting the pocketbook when I've lost them.
Fly dangerous
'Chord
Leaving Iges to do my normal roam, I warped into Covryn. I usually pass through quite quickly, due to a heavy Ninja Unicorns alliance presence most of the time. I've never had a chance to fight them yet, and really don't know too much about them other then they dropped the small pos we set up earlier, and that they like to fly big ships. That last part though, is why I've never had a chance to fight them.
This time though, seeing a few neutrals in system, all young characters, I decided to stick around and see what I could find. Soon I had scanned down two Punishers and a Kestrel down, all sitting at the sun. Not sure what to expect, but figuring all I had to lose was a Firetail, I warped into them. Landing around 10k off of them I figured that the Kestrel would probably be the most dangerous, and the one with the smallest tank, so I locked him first. I was correct with my thoughts that he wouldn't have much tank, as it turned out he had none. Not expecting the Kestrel to drop quite as fast as he did, I hadn't begun to lock either of the Punishers yet, only starting once I had the Kestrel into structure. By that time though, one of the Punishers was already warping out, and the other warped out just before I closed in on him enough to get the scram on.
Getting into the pilot seat the next day and heading to Avaux, John Valentine was in the area also. It didn't take too long before I noticed a Merlin, Incursus, and Tristan on scan. Once again, this was another group of three new players, and especially with JV being right nearby in a Wolf, I felt quite confident about going in on them. Warping in, I landed near the Merlin and opened fire. Web, and scram on it, autocannons were overheated and spewing their hot metal towards it, and it's shields failed quickly, but the incoming damage from the three ships was tearing through my Firetails shield tank. Able to drop the Merlin with around a third of my shields left, I turned my attention to the Tristan, as the Incursus still hadn't quite closed range yet. John came out of warp just as I opened fire on the Tristan. My shields failed and armor didn't have much strength to resist the onslaught of the Merlin's rockets and railguns, but the combined firepower of the Minmatar frigates dropped it as the bolts were starting to fall out of the Firetail's structure. Aligning out, and overheating my afterburner to the point I was afraid it would tear the ship's already burning structure apart, I was able to get out of scram range from the Incursus, but was able to point my autocannons in his direction and fire a few pot shots before warping out.
A few fairly uneventful nights of podding around over the next couple days and eventually I landed on a gate, with Abonella from The Tuskers landing on top of me in a Malediction. Thinking this could be a good fight for my Firetail, I hit my AB and burned towards, getting my web and scram fired up. Looking back on this fight, it would have been a great had I loaded Barrage (As I've noted quite often). Thinking that the Malediction would probably have a MWD, I was surprised when it was pulling range on me. Not thinking quite straight at the time, I never did overheat my afterburner. Eating into the Maledictions armor, but watching the damage disappear as his armor rep kicked in. I kept on a straight approach, trying to have my Firetail close in on this Amarr interceptor, but it was able to keep pulling range. Eventually, the rockets coming from the Tusker's ship broke the shields on my Firetail, and I attempted to pull range and get back to the gate, but was unable to before the final rocket landed. GFs were exchanged, and I talked to the Tusker pilot for a little while, saying that I had expected a MWD fit. It was also here that I found that I had been closer to breaking the Amarr's tank, as it had almost run out of capacitor. Lessons learned.
As always in a pirate's life, it's either feast or famine. Not having much luck again for a couple days, I was out with h0tsauce. Finding a Rupture and Rifter in Intak hoss tried to scan them down. The Rifter left system before long. Focused on the Rupture then, it didn't take too long before he had the Cruiser scanned down at a customs office. He jumped in and got point as I came into system. Watching the warp bubble surround me as I hear that hoss is going to have issues, as his capacitor is failing. Coming out of warp around 10km off of the Rupture, I hear that hoss was out of cap and couldn't maintain point, but I was able to get in and snag the cruiser before it was able to warp off. The cruiser by this point was hitting armor, but had very little tank to it, and dropped fast.
As we were waiting out our GCC, the Rifter we had seen before came back. Still sitting at the customs office, this Rifter soon landed beside my own and opened fire. His tank didn't hold out for long, and with h0t en route, I wanted to let him get in on it also, but my autocannons had other plans, as his structure disappeared after a single volley. Getting a point on the pod, we decided to try and ransom it. It became apparent rather quickly that he was stalling for time, especially once we saw the original Rupture pilot enter system again, along with another. As the Rupture pilot landed on grid with us, this time in a Rifter, we decided it was time for the pod to begone. Turning our attention to the new pilot once again, we also see an Arbitrator land around 80km off of us. Finding the Rifter about as tanked as the one we just dropped, we just melt it. Scooping the loot, and not wanting to deal with drones, we warp out and exchange GFs with the pilots.
And that's it for the backlog of pre-AF flying. I'm really going to have to make sure I fly cheaper ships more often, while I love the ability to engage larger targets, it really has been hurting the pocketbook when I've lost them.
Fly dangerous
'Chord
Monday, 16 April 2012
Repo. Roam, April 14th
I'm bad at following plans. Especially longer term ones. I think I have ADD or something, especially when it comes to skill training. I've EVEMON'd three or four different skill plans by now, but it always leaves something I'm not happy with, either I rush into something bigger too fast, neglecting my core skills, or I take care of those core skills, and it seems like it'll be forever until I'm flying anything new. Like I had said before, I'm a sucker for instant gratification. Now that I've been flying Assault Frigates for a while, and thoroughly enjoying them, I always seem to want something new and shiny. Another class of ships, another races ships. While I've been able to restrain those thoughts (usually by going into EFT and seeing how poorly my skills translate), the nagging thoughts are still there. Once I wrap up on getting Energy Systems Operation V and Electronics V (about a week away for the two of them to be finished), I think I'll be starting to work towards getting my T2 medium projectile turrets trained, before training up my Minmatar cruisers. The Rupture is a boat I really have been wanting to fly for a while now, as much because it brings more to the table with it's firepower/neuting capability in a fleet, as well as being a capable solo ship. While my Assault Ships are great for solo, when everyone else has big guns out, I feel like it would be nice to bring something more to the table.
Speaking of which, this past Saturday we had a Repo. roam, this would be the third organized one since I've been in corp, and while not a smashing success while I was there, it really was my first real taste of fleet combat. I was the -1 scout for the fleet in my Jaguar as we were moving around. Other then h0tsauce, who was the forward scout soloing a Vexor before the fleet got to him, things were fairly quiet until the gang got to Aubenall.
I was watching the gate as I saw local spike, I kept watching the gate and eventually saw two Guardians, Scorpion, Blackbird, two Canes, Myrm, Prophecy, Brutix and Thorax. With us in a fleet with mostly shield 'Canes, a Phobos, and two Scimitars we were good for the fight. our FC called the fleet to the sun and waited for them. As they warped to the sun, I came into system and warped in as fast as I could. The blackbird was called pirmary as the Scorpion hadn't hit the field yet, and I landed around 40k off of it, I overheated my MWD and burned towards it, and by the time I had it locked it was already hitting structure. Getting a couple rounds out of my autocannons into it, the hull of the cruiser failed. When that happened, we turned our attention to one of the Guardians, when the Scorpion hit the field. With our FC calling the Scorpion primary, I started burning out towards it, when the FC changed primaries back to the Guardian who was hitting low armor at the time. Getting our rounds back into the Guardian, hammerof thegods in one of our Scimitars started calling that he was taking hard hits, but our other Scimi, piloted by Ivan En'vec was apparently jammed by the Scorpion. With the Guardian we focused hitting 1/3 armor, he started to regain armor and we were unable to break his tank. Through all this Ivan was able to get one round of reps into hammer through the Scorpions jams, but it wasn't enough and he went down. At this point, with their heavy ECM, and two logi boats still on the field Atan called a full retreat, which was managed without any more losses.
At this point we left system and tried to put some distance between us. Hammer went afk for a few minutes before re-shipping to a Cynabal and joining up with us, but Ivan, who had been having trouble with his VoIP called it a night. As we were moving through towards Maut, I picked up a gang with two faction BS and two Guardians, with a couple others. Realizing the pipe to Maut would be a trap for us, we detoured into Aldranette, and Nenanamalia, where we attracted the eyes of Gallente FW pilots. Soon enough we were being tailed by a 10 or so strong gang of mostly Drakes, with some fast tackle, and a few others. Eventually the bulk of our fleet was ordered to warp into Oinasiken, but the FW gang had warped directly to the gate. With our BCs crashing the gate, they tried to get through the other side and started to primary various fast tackle in an attempt to get everyone out. They bagged a Comet and Ares, but ended up losing Mal's and Dahren's Canes.
It was at this point that I had to head out, and it turned out I missed some of the good kills too, with the highlights of the rest of their roam being an Apoc, along with a Hurricane and Drake.
It was definitely a good time, and I look forward to more corp roams like that. I enjoy solo combat, but the change of pace with having more targets and such a hectic environment is a welcome change. In the next couple days I'll probably get back to another blog post with my solo escapades.
Fly dangerous
Chord
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Master Procrastinator
I've been meaning to do another blog post for a few days now. I lie, it's been more like a week since I originally planned to write this. Every time I think about it though, is when I see local spike in whatever system I'm docked in when I'm about to start writing, and then it slips my mind.
Especially with how long I'm leaving these posts now, I'm more and more glad about the fact that I've been keeping fairly detailed notes on any fights worth mentioning. Of course most kills I've been getting are hardly worth mentioning, but I'm sure that's the way it is for most pirates in this game. The drops off those though are lending themselves to support my habits though, so I won't be giving up on that any time soon.
Speaking of supporting my habits, I've now got three colonies going for PI. They've been up for about 6 days when I write this, and I think that they're nearing the point of paying themselves off already. Not wanting to take too much time off of my combat-related skill training right now, I just got myself to Command Centre Upgrades III for the time being. It's enough to support two extractors, four basic, and two advanced production facilities, with nearly 100% uptime (on two of my planets, because I didn't search too long and hard, [everything is in 0.3 sec systems, just for ease] the extraction rate is slightly too slow to keep everything running all the time, but I don't have enough space to add more extractor heads). I'm hoping this is enough to make me self-sufficient for the time being. That said, even though I can fly assault ships decently now, I really do need to remember that bigger and harder hitting, is also harder on the bank to lose. I've still got some rifters I need to make good use of.
One other bit of news, is that I've completed the 30 day assessment period in Repo. and now am a full member, and quite glad to be.
Enough with the introduction, on with the show!
Hanging out in my old SW:TOR guilds Teamspeak, where Repo now has a channel if the need arises, I was chatting with my old guild leader from there. All of a sudden I got a message ingame that he added me to contacts in Eve. Soon enough, he was out in Placid with a Stiletto, so along with h0tsauce we went out roaming towards OMS. Not getting much action, I was a jump ahead of them in Heydieles and had a hoarder on scan. Not being too familiar with the system, and what ships are pos junk (now I know that hoarder is actually pos'd all the time) I jumped to a customs office. As soon as I hit warp, I realized that I actually had selected a different office from the one I had been scanning. Kicking myself for this mistake, and thinking I might lose the hoarder, when I land I realize how incredibly lucky I actually was when I land on top of a Viator that had just uncloaked at the customs office. Grabbing a point on it, the others jump in on me, and we drop the hauler.
Able to get a point on the pod, we invite him to the ransom channel, and end up getting another 20 million ISK out of him in trade for his pod. Not bad for a random jump.
Didn't find much more on the roam there, until we came across a cormorant in a plex. Judaires had joined us by this point in a griffin, so we figured that even though Markocius was unable to get in, we may have a decent chance to grab this destroyer with the help of the Griffin. Judaries went in, and was able to get a point on it, and was jamming it decently as we were heading through the acceleration gate, but when he missed a jam he was quickly forced to jump out.
The major problem at this point, was they were both MWD equipped, and had gotten around 80km off of the gate, and I was flying a AB Rifter, with Hoss along side me in an AB Incursus. Being slightly faster, I was the first in range of the Cormorant, and he started firing, doing some serious damage from well outside my range. getting within around 15 KM from him, I was starting to realize I wouldn't get to him before exploding, so I started trying to put some range between him and myself thinking I had to get out of disruptor range. Yeah, that's right, I'm smart enough to burn away from a MWDing, single mid destroyer, to get out of point range. Needless to say, it didn't go over. Adding insult to injury, Lucsar said something in local about "it's a Cormorant" which made me /facepalm after the fact.
Re-shipping into a Firetail Iges (I've got an addiction to these things, they just look too cool), with just myself and h0tsauce left on for the night, we decide to check the ever fruitful Amoen/Avaux loop.
Hoss was the lead ship, and saw a Thorax and a Caracal on scan, both seemingly named after their pilots, but in Japanese. Both of the pilots being quite new he quickly scans them down to an area in deadspace. ith no complexes near there, he decides to head back to Iges where he has a probe. Going into system, I scan down where their mission is to try save a little time, but before h0t is able to come back and scan them down, they leave, and both seem to dock up. Waiting them out though, they both come back out fairly soon, but only the Caracal leaves the station. Eventually, being curious I warp to the station to see what the Thorax is doing, and fairly quickly he docks up. After about 10 minutes, with both of them docking/undocking/warping to the mission and back, hoss is finally narrowing down the scan with the Caracal down there, and the Gallente crusier sitting on station with me again. After a little while of this, he ends up approaching my ship, which hasn't moved the entire time since I warped in. After bumping me, I see him yellow-box me, and open fire. Winding up my autocannons, I start shredding his shields, and armor. Being such a new character, he really didn't have any tank to speak of on that cruiser, and it went down fast.
Some time during our waiting games, Maleficas had gotten on, and joined us in trying to get these two cruisers. So as I was dropping the Thorax, h0t had gotten a 100% position on the Caracal, and they were both warping in. Scooping the loot from the Thorax, I soon followed. Landing with them already both laying into the Caracal, I start adding my damage to it, and it doesn't last long.
I called it a night after that, and logged off in Rurotta. Getting on the next evening, I right away head into Avaux to see what might turn up there. Talking with the ECM Daredevil pilot (who has so many safe spots, it's not even worth me chasing him anymore, since he'll just warp from safe to safe) for a minute, I notice a 3 month old character enter system. Warping to the 9 cluster, which has the high-sec gate for the system, I see a Drake on scan. Thinking that chances are decent with a 3 month old character, and that if things go bad, I could probably disengage without too much trouble, I scanned him down to a belt. Jumping in, almost on top of him, I fire my EMP loaded autocannons into the Drake's legendary tank.... Which in this case, was less then the stuff of legends. Very surprised at how quickly his shields were going down I soon hit the dreaded max-regen point around 30%, so I overheat my guns just to be sure, and am quickly into his armor, which nearly evaporates even with EMP loaded. His structure didn't last much longer, and I'm greeted with the blue flash that I love. Getting a point on his pod right away, I try to ransom it, but never get an answer. It's too bad too, I probably would have gone for 5 million ISK or so, but he ended up losing more then 20 million.
Feeling good about how the day is going, I keep on roaming still in the Firetail. Ending up in Hevrice, I see a Rifter out in space. Warping myself to the sun, and hoping he might come in and fight, I wait there for a little while before trying to actually scan him down. Soon finding him at a belt, I warp in to zero and find him waiting for me. But, rather then me explaining the rest of it, you can watch it, courtesy of Jaxley, the pilot who I was fighting.
Here's the killmail.
A couple notes from my end of the fight on there, as he says, I really should have loaded barrage, and also I really should have overheated my AB. Other then my guns, and other then on approach to try and catch someone quickly I never think to overheat my mid slots.
That's it for now,
Fly dangerous.
Especially with how long I'm leaving these posts now, I'm more and more glad about the fact that I've been keeping fairly detailed notes on any fights worth mentioning. Of course most kills I've been getting are hardly worth mentioning, but I'm sure that's the way it is for most pirates in this game. The drops off those though are lending themselves to support my habits though, so I won't be giving up on that any time soon.
Speaking of supporting my habits, I've now got three colonies going for PI. They've been up for about 6 days when I write this, and I think that they're nearing the point of paying themselves off already. Not wanting to take too much time off of my combat-related skill training right now, I just got myself to Command Centre Upgrades III for the time being. It's enough to support two extractors, four basic, and two advanced production facilities, with nearly 100% uptime (on two of my planets, because I didn't search too long and hard, [everything is in 0.3 sec systems, just for ease] the extraction rate is slightly too slow to keep everything running all the time, but I don't have enough space to add more extractor heads). I'm hoping this is enough to make me self-sufficient for the time being. That said, even though I can fly assault ships decently now, I really do need to remember that bigger and harder hitting, is also harder on the bank to lose. I've still got some rifters I need to make good use of.
One other bit of news, is that I've completed the 30 day assessment period in Repo. and now am a full member, and quite glad to be.
Enough with the introduction, on with the show!
Hanging out in my old SW:TOR guilds Teamspeak, where Repo now has a channel if the need arises, I was chatting with my old guild leader from there. All of a sudden I got a message ingame that he added me to contacts in Eve. Soon enough, he was out in Placid with a Stiletto, so along with h0tsauce we went out roaming towards OMS. Not getting much action, I was a jump ahead of them in Heydieles and had a hoarder on scan. Not being too familiar with the system, and what ships are pos junk (now I know that hoarder is actually pos'd all the time) I jumped to a customs office. As soon as I hit warp, I realized that I actually had selected a different office from the one I had been scanning. Kicking myself for this mistake, and thinking I might lose the hoarder, when I land I realize how incredibly lucky I actually was when I land on top of a Viator that had just uncloaked at the customs office. Grabbing a point on it, the others jump in on me, and we drop the hauler.
Able to get a point on the pod, we invite him to the ransom channel, and end up getting another 20 million ISK out of him in trade for his pod. Not bad for a random jump.
Didn't find much more on the roam there, until we came across a cormorant in a plex. Judaires had joined us by this point in a griffin, so we figured that even though Markocius was unable to get in, we may have a decent chance to grab this destroyer with the help of the Griffin. Judaries went in, and was able to get a point on it, and was jamming it decently as we were heading through the acceleration gate, but when he missed a jam he was quickly forced to jump out.
The major problem at this point, was they were both MWD equipped, and had gotten around 80km off of the gate, and I was flying a AB Rifter, with Hoss along side me in an AB Incursus. Being slightly faster, I was the first in range of the Cormorant, and he started firing, doing some serious damage from well outside my range. getting within around 15 KM from him, I was starting to realize I wouldn't get to him before exploding, so I started trying to put some range between him and myself thinking I had to get out of disruptor range. Yeah, that's right, I'm smart enough to burn away from a MWDing, single mid destroyer, to get out of point range. Needless to say, it didn't go over. Adding insult to injury, Lucsar said something in local about "it's a Cormorant" which made me /facepalm after the fact.
Re-shipping into a Firetail Iges (I've got an addiction to these things, they just look too cool), with just myself and h0tsauce left on for the night, we decide to check the ever fruitful Amoen/Avaux loop.
Hoss was the lead ship, and saw a Thorax and a Caracal on scan, both seemingly named after their pilots, but in Japanese. Both of the pilots being quite new he quickly scans them down to an area in deadspace. ith no complexes near there, he decides to head back to Iges where he has a probe. Going into system, I scan down where their mission is to try save a little time, but before h0t is able to come back and scan them down, they leave, and both seem to dock up. Waiting them out though, they both come back out fairly soon, but only the Caracal leaves the station. Eventually, being curious I warp to the station to see what the Thorax is doing, and fairly quickly he docks up. After about 10 minutes, with both of them docking/undocking/warping to the mission and back, hoss is finally narrowing down the scan with the Caracal down there, and the Gallente crusier sitting on station with me again. After a little while of this, he ends up approaching my ship, which hasn't moved the entire time since I warped in. After bumping me, I see him yellow-box me, and open fire. Winding up my autocannons, I start shredding his shields, and armor. Being such a new character, he really didn't have any tank to speak of on that cruiser, and it went down fast.
Some time during our waiting games, Maleficas had gotten on, and joined us in trying to get these two cruisers. So as I was dropping the Thorax, h0t had gotten a 100% position on the Caracal, and they were both warping in. Scooping the loot from the Thorax, I soon followed. Landing with them already both laying into the Caracal, I start adding my damage to it, and it doesn't last long.
I called it a night after that, and logged off in Rurotta. Getting on the next evening, I right away head into Avaux to see what might turn up there. Talking with the ECM Daredevil pilot (who has so many safe spots, it's not even worth me chasing him anymore, since he'll just warp from safe to safe) for a minute, I notice a 3 month old character enter system. Warping to the 9 cluster, which has the high-sec gate for the system, I see a Drake on scan. Thinking that chances are decent with a 3 month old character, and that if things go bad, I could probably disengage without too much trouble, I scanned him down to a belt. Jumping in, almost on top of him, I fire my EMP loaded autocannons into the Drake's legendary tank.... Which in this case, was less then the stuff of legends. Very surprised at how quickly his shields were going down I soon hit the dreaded max-regen point around 30%, so I overheat my guns just to be sure, and am quickly into his armor, which nearly evaporates even with EMP loaded. His structure didn't last much longer, and I'm greeted with the blue flash that I love. Getting a point on his pod right away, I try to ransom it, but never get an answer. It's too bad too, I probably would have gone for 5 million ISK or so, but he ended up losing more then 20 million.
Feeling good about how the day is going, I keep on roaming still in the Firetail. Ending up in Hevrice, I see a Rifter out in space. Warping myself to the sun, and hoping he might come in and fight, I wait there for a little while before trying to actually scan him down. Soon finding him at a belt, I warp in to zero and find him waiting for me. But, rather then me explaining the rest of it, you can watch it, courtesy of Jaxley, the pilot who I was fighting.
Here's the killmail.
A couple notes from my end of the fight on there, as he says, I really should have loaded barrage, and also I really should have overheated my AB. Other then my guns, and other then on approach to try and catch someone quickly I never think to overheat my mid slots.
That's it for now,
Fly dangerous.
Monday, 2 April 2012
Waiting sucks.
I'm a person who likes instant gratification when possible. I know that it leads to problems and frustration, but I just can't help it. What really isn't helping me right now, is that I decided it was a good idea to grab a Wolf and a Jaguar and fit them out, before I've trained my Assault Ships skill too high, currently it's training from III to IV. Once it gets there in two days, I'll start bringing them out. Getting to this point though also means I'll be spending more money (even though the Firetails I've grown to love, stupidly I might add, aren't cheap). This'll probably lead me to buying another PLEX before I start having a decent income. I was reading back through the Eve FNG archives and saw him talk about using PI to make money fairly passively. That really appealed to me, so, once I've got my AFIV trained, I'll be taking a break from my combat training to get that kind of thing going, and hopefully I'll be able to support myself on there without too much trouble, but that remains to be seen.
On to the meat of this post though, the fun with explosions in the world of Eve. Once again there were the regular non-descript kills that aren't really worth doing much of a write up, though with Michael Hickey, I will say he was polite after the fact, and I was glad to give him some advice after the fact.
I had been out roaming for a while when I was in Ostingele and saw two young pilots on scan, and they seemed to be moving around together flying an Incursus and Rifter. I scanned them down to a belt where they were ratting, and warped in. As soon as they noticed me though, they both aligned away and warped out in different directions, the rifter was the second to warp so I followed it to one of the planets and managed to get a scram on him as he was trying to align out. As my Autocannons started firing their hot metal towards the other pilots Frigate, he returned the lock and turned his guns on mine. Blasting straight through his shields and chewing through his armor quite quickly, my shields gave out as his hull blasted apart. Able to grab a point on his pod right away, and thinking the Incursus may just be coming I pop it, just as the Incursus actually does land. I right away empty the Republic Fleet Fusion I had in my autocannons, and load the Barrage ammo that had been collecting dust in my cargo hold for a while (I seriously need to remember to use it more often). Orbiting the Gallente ship at 5km with him scrammed and webbed all the while, he had still been able to do a little damage here and there to the armor on my Rifter, but not more then the ships repair systems could take. Once my guns had their ammo again and were able to rain hot death on the Incursus, it didn't last long. I once again managed to grab the pod, and invited him to our ransom channel, but his response was less then polite, and earned him a one way trip to the clone vat.
Looking back on that fight, I'm quite pleased with how I did all of that. Though both characters being very new at the time is probably the main reason I came out on top, my thought processing in taking the time to load barrage and change my orbit distance when I went to work on the Incursus was probably the right one. In the time before I had the range on him he had landed a couple pretty hard hits.
Flying around in the Amoen/Avaux loop, I saw Leif Nardieu flying around in a Daredevil. After chasing him around for a while I saw him dock up, so I left myself parked outside the station in Avaux in my rifter. Usually I wouldn't even think of taking this fight on, but looking at his killboard he had lost a rather expensively, but not too well fit Daredevil previously. Soon enough he attacked, but I was also a little slow to react and get moving, so he got a few real nice hits on my stationary spaceship. Once I had my orbit, with my afterburners going though, his damage wasn't nearly so bad, and I started taking some good chunks of his shield off. The problem came in when all of a sudden, I lost my target on him. It took me a bit of time to clue in that he had ECM on this daredevil, I started spamming the lock button as soon as the cycle started to end, and his jam failed so I was able to start putting damage on him, and get my NOS helping my cap again. Getting a few rep cycles in again, we both entered structure at around the same time, when disaster struck, and he was able to get another jam on me. I was at around half structure yet when the cycle ended and I targetted him again, but it was too late, and he was able to drop me with ~1/2 structure left on his Pirate frigate.
Back in Avaux a couple days later, I saw a Navy Vexor on scan. Usually I wouldn't pay any attention to this, but it was named after the Pilot. I put out a call in our Corp and darmwand was nearby, and jumped into an Ishkur to try and take this expensive ship out. I scanned it down to a belt and jumped in. Landing 15k off I overheat my afterburner and point and go in, landing a point I settle into a 500 metre orbit, and start preparing for drones. I'm a little surprised when ECM drones come out, and start jamming me. Between trying to pulse my rep for the damage and trying to maintain a lock, I don't notice that she's actually using light blasters on this fit, and fail to adjust my orbit before my Rifter's hull gives out. darm was already in there working on the Vexor though, and had a point, so I warped my pod out and started heading home to Iges. Talking to darm over voice, he's doing fairly well against it, and had dropped a good number of drones to where she had started recalling them and sending them out again, letting him take even more out. I'm feeling pretty good that this will still end in a killmail, when he says he warped out, a Harbinger had warped in. He keeps on scanning and soon sees the Vexor's pilot in a pod and we both see ourselves on the killmail afterwards.
The next day in Iges I get on to find that atan had scanned down a Drake running missions there, but they had never managed to get a point on it when they tried to gank it. We went roaming for a while and didn't find much action, so we headed back home. Sitting there for a while, h0tsauce notices the drake back on scan, and warps to the mission right away, announcing pretty quickly that he has point, darm and I warp to him as fast as we can push our ships. We both land and get point as h0t says he's taking too much damage from the drones and is trying to get out, but sadly his Incursus doesn't make it, and that was also his last ship in system, so that leave my Firetail and darm's Ishkur to try and break this PvE tanked Drake. Neither of us are taking all that much damage after we had dropped the drones, so the only worry was if we actually could get through the passive tank. Nearing the 30% max regen point we both overheat our weapons, and the combined dps of his blasters and my autocannons push it over the edge, and his shields fail. His amour melts, and we get into hull, when we notice he ejects and gets his pod out before we have a chance to grab it. It's a free drake for us! The small problem was that neither of us, nor h0tsauce could fly it. hammerof thegods was a couple jumps out at the time, as he had gotten a GCC on our roam before that and had to wait it out. He offered to fly it back for us, so we left it's burning hull there in space, watching its shields regeneration. Eventually Hammer warps to us in his pod, but is also busy trying to link a build to one of the corp members, and doesn't go to board this drake right away. It's at this point that we notice another drake on scan. Another drake that's named after the pilot like this one was, to be specific. He lands and locks up his old ship, along with hammer's pod as HoG tried to board the abandoned ship. With the new circumstances though, apparently HoG couldn't get into the ship, so he was forced to warp out, so he jumped into a Jaguar and came back for the new fight. Right away we notice that this new Drake's priority is to take out his old ship, (he says something in local after about wanting the insurance money from it, plus something about his corp's ship replacement policy). With HoG's and Maleficas' Jaguars now in addition to my Firetail and darm's Ishkur, we make fairly short work of the Drake's shields this time, but this time we invite him to our ransom channel, to see if he's interested in keeping it, for a price. Knowing his tendency to try eject and warp his pod out, after confirming that the others have point, I drop point and start watching for a pod to come out. He had never agreed to any of the prices we wanted for ransom, and it's about then that he ejected again, but this time as he tried to get out, he found himself on the receiving end of my warp scrambler. Noticing this, he right away got back into his drake, which we then proceeded to kersplode the Battlecruiser, but he manages to warp his pod away from the exploding wreck, even with a couple of us trying our darndest not to let that happen. Quite the series of events, 2 Drakes, 1 killmail.
And once again with that, this walloftext seems to be getting to the point I'm not sure if I should add anymore. If anyone has some feedback as to the length of these posts, It would be really good to hear if shorter/more frequent posts may be better then doing these larger posts a couple times per week.
Fly dangerous
'Chord
On to the meat of this post though, the fun with explosions in the world of Eve. Once again there were the regular non-descript kills that aren't really worth doing much of a write up, though with Michael Hickey, I will say he was polite after the fact, and I was glad to give him some advice after the fact.
I had been out roaming for a while when I was in Ostingele and saw two young pilots on scan, and they seemed to be moving around together flying an Incursus and Rifter. I scanned them down to a belt where they were ratting, and warped in. As soon as they noticed me though, they both aligned away and warped out in different directions, the rifter was the second to warp so I followed it to one of the planets and managed to get a scram on him as he was trying to align out. As my Autocannons started firing their hot metal towards the other pilots Frigate, he returned the lock and turned his guns on mine. Blasting straight through his shields and chewing through his armor quite quickly, my shields gave out as his hull blasted apart. Able to grab a point on his pod right away, and thinking the Incursus may just be coming I pop it, just as the Incursus actually does land. I right away empty the Republic Fleet Fusion I had in my autocannons, and load the Barrage ammo that had been collecting dust in my cargo hold for a while (I seriously need to remember to use it more often). Orbiting the Gallente ship at 5km with him scrammed and webbed all the while, he had still been able to do a little damage here and there to the armor on my Rifter, but not more then the ships repair systems could take. Once my guns had their ammo again and were able to rain hot death on the Incursus, it didn't last long. I once again managed to grab the pod, and invited him to our ransom channel, but his response was less then polite, and earned him a one way trip to the clone vat.
Looking back on that fight, I'm quite pleased with how I did all of that. Though both characters being very new at the time is probably the main reason I came out on top, my thought processing in taking the time to load barrage and change my orbit distance when I went to work on the Incursus was probably the right one. In the time before I had the range on him he had landed a couple pretty hard hits.
Flying around in the Amoen/Avaux loop, I saw Leif Nardieu flying around in a Daredevil. After chasing him around for a while I saw him dock up, so I left myself parked outside the station in Avaux in my rifter. Usually I wouldn't even think of taking this fight on, but looking at his killboard he had lost a rather expensively, but not too well fit Daredevil previously. Soon enough he attacked, but I was also a little slow to react and get moving, so he got a few real nice hits on my stationary spaceship. Once I had my orbit, with my afterburners going though, his damage wasn't nearly so bad, and I started taking some good chunks of his shield off. The problem came in when all of a sudden, I lost my target on him. It took me a bit of time to clue in that he had ECM on this daredevil, I started spamming the lock button as soon as the cycle started to end, and his jam failed so I was able to start putting damage on him, and get my NOS helping my cap again. Getting a few rep cycles in again, we both entered structure at around the same time, when disaster struck, and he was able to get another jam on me. I was at around half structure yet when the cycle ended and I targetted him again, but it was too late, and he was able to drop me with ~1/2 structure left on his Pirate frigate.
Back in Avaux a couple days later, I saw a Navy Vexor on scan. Usually I wouldn't pay any attention to this, but it was named after the Pilot. I put out a call in our Corp and darmwand was nearby, and jumped into an Ishkur to try and take this expensive ship out. I scanned it down to a belt and jumped in. Landing 15k off I overheat my afterburner and point and go in, landing a point I settle into a 500 metre orbit, and start preparing for drones. I'm a little surprised when ECM drones come out, and start jamming me. Between trying to pulse my rep for the damage and trying to maintain a lock, I don't notice that she's actually using light blasters on this fit, and fail to adjust my orbit before my Rifter's hull gives out. darm was already in there working on the Vexor though, and had a point, so I warped my pod out and started heading home to Iges. Talking to darm over voice, he's doing fairly well against it, and had dropped a good number of drones to where she had started recalling them and sending them out again, letting him take even more out. I'm feeling pretty good that this will still end in a killmail, when he says he warped out, a Harbinger had warped in. He keeps on scanning and soon sees the Vexor's pilot in a pod and we both see ourselves on the killmail afterwards.
The next day in Iges I get on to find that atan had scanned down a Drake running missions there, but they had never managed to get a point on it when they tried to gank it. We went roaming for a while and didn't find much action, so we headed back home. Sitting there for a while, h0tsauce notices the drake back on scan, and warps to the mission right away, announcing pretty quickly that he has point, darm and I warp to him as fast as we can push our ships. We both land and get point as h0t says he's taking too much damage from the drones and is trying to get out, but sadly his Incursus doesn't make it, and that was also his last ship in system, so that leave my Firetail and darm's Ishkur to try and break this PvE tanked Drake. Neither of us are taking all that much damage after we had dropped the drones, so the only worry was if we actually could get through the passive tank. Nearing the 30% max regen point we both overheat our weapons, and the combined dps of his blasters and my autocannons push it over the edge, and his shields fail. His amour melts, and we get into hull, when we notice he ejects and gets his pod out before we have a chance to grab it. It's a free drake for us! The small problem was that neither of us, nor h0tsauce could fly it. hammerof thegods was a couple jumps out at the time, as he had gotten a GCC on our roam before that and had to wait it out. He offered to fly it back for us, so we left it's burning hull there in space, watching its shields regeneration. Eventually Hammer warps to us in his pod, but is also busy trying to link a build to one of the corp members, and doesn't go to board this drake right away. It's at this point that we notice another drake on scan. Another drake that's named after the pilot like this one was, to be specific. He lands and locks up his old ship, along with hammer's pod as HoG tried to board the abandoned ship. With the new circumstances though, apparently HoG couldn't get into the ship, so he was forced to warp out, so he jumped into a Jaguar and came back for the new fight. Right away we notice that this new Drake's priority is to take out his old ship, (he says something in local after about wanting the insurance money from it, plus something about his corp's ship replacement policy). With HoG's and Maleficas' Jaguars now in addition to my Firetail and darm's Ishkur, we make fairly short work of the Drake's shields this time, but this time we invite him to our ransom channel, to see if he's interested in keeping it, for a price. Knowing his tendency to try eject and warp his pod out, after confirming that the others have point, I drop point and start watching for a pod to come out. He had never agreed to any of the prices we wanted for ransom, and it's about then that he ejected again, but this time as he tried to get out, he found himself on the receiving end of my warp scrambler. Noticing this, he right away got back into his drake, which we then proceeded to kersplode the Battlecruiser, but he manages to warp his pod away from the exploding wreck, even with a couple of us trying our darndest not to let that happen. Quite the series of events, 2 Drakes, 1 killmail.
And once again with that, this walloftext seems to be getting to the point I'm not sure if I should add anymore. If anyone has some feedback as to the length of these posts, It would be really good to hear if shorter/more frequent posts may be better then doing these larger posts a couple times per week.
Fly dangerous
'Chord
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