Ship Grimoire - Cruisers

Ship Grimoire
Chapter 1 Cruisers

So, you have all no doubt hopped onto EFT at some point, and built a fantasy boat, wondering whether that 5,000,000.00 ISK for a Vexor for instance, is a total waste of ISK. Should you fly it at all, will it perform in PvP, and will it make the ladies throw their bras and panties at you as you fly by? Well, this comprehensive list will give you the bottom line on all those ships you wish you had a good excuse to buy, undock, or fly.

*Note: If you do not see your favorite ship listed here, it is either A) Flying Scrap Metal, B) Just Not Listed Yet, or C) I honestly do not have enough experience with it to do more than repeat what I have seen or heard.

Ratings: Between 1 and 10, 1 being very poor performance, 10 being the best possible performance.
Gangs:
Small - Around a half dozen pilots
Medium - Around a dozen pilots depending on fleet composition
Large - A dozen or more pilots depending on fleet composition





CRUISERS

Omen
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 5 PvE Rating: 3
Strength: Damage
Weakness: 15 Mbit/sec

Frequently overlooked and underrated the Omen is much like the Thorax; high damage output, paper thin tank. The downside is that the Omen cannot field five medium drones like a Thorax, which is likely why it is easily considered the underdog of the Amarr cruisers. However, being a T1 variant of the Zealot, its damage output scales greatly with skill points and weaponry. It performs noticeably well in L2 missions as it is able to quickly deal with incoming alpha before it is overwhelmed.


Maller
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 2 PvE Rating: 1
Strength: Tank
Weakness: 0 Mbit/sec

The Maller, often lauded for having a serious tank for a cruiser, is nothing more than a floating asteroid in a small gang. Although good for adding weight to a smaller gang, the Maller merely delays the inevitable realization that without even moderate damage output or some secondary role to play, it is rare that you will see this ship in a PvP setting. Fielding no drones whatsoever, this cruiser is a flying coffin in any PvE mission above L1 difficulty.


Arbitrator
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 5 PvE Rating: 4
Strength: Drones
Weakness: Turrets

The Arbitrator, much like the Vexor, is a drone boat that can field up to five medium drones with a bonus to damage per skill level in racial cruiser. However, the Arbitrator plays more of a logistics role in that it receives a bonus to tracking disruptor effectiveness. This classes it in a role that is not filled by many other cruisers, both dealing significant drone damage and having a utility bonus. The Arbitrator is not seen in small pitched combat very often, but those who fly it will quickly find it adds a layer of protection to the entire gang. Having comparable capabilities compared to the Vexor, the Arbitrator comes in as a close second in dishing out the pain in L2s missions, and will still easily complete them.


Vexor
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 6 PvE Rating: 5
Strength: Damage, Tank
Weakness: Utility

The Vexor is a staple in standard small gang combat and you will usually see at least one stray pilot floating around dealing death in a cruiser gang with this damage heavy cruiser. Being able to both field five medium drones and dish out blaster damage via a bonus to hybrid turrets, the Vexor is versatile in the way it can take out its foes. This ship is a miniature Dominix in every way and is very popular among newer pilots. It also doubles as an excellent mission runner and will effectively neutralize any L2 on the map.


Thorax
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 5 PvE Rating: 3
Strength: Damage
Weakness: Blasters

The Thorax, like the Omen, is a damage dealer. It has the added bonus of being able to field five medium drones however, which puts it a class above the Omen in versality. However, being a far cry from the range that a Vexor is capable of it is easily kited by hostile pilots and dispensed with from a distance. Thanks for nerfing blasters CCP, btw. Still a staple in almost all gang combat where sentry fire is not a factor, the Thorax is well loved and likely holds this spot more out of a sense of legacy than usefulness.


Caracal
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 3 PvE Rating: 2
Strength: Range
Weakness: 10 Mbit/sec

The Caracal, or "Crapacal", as some of us like to call it is the black horse of cruisers. Not really fitting in an ideal role in any way, it is more of a hanger-on in gang combat than a useful asset. Though it does have the added advantage of ranged damage like its T2 variant the Cerberus, it fields a poor tank and useless drone bandwidth. This ship though good for training purposes, should be left in the hangar once the pilot becomes accustomed to combat operations.


Blackbird
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 4 PvE Rating: 1
Strength: Electronic Warfare
Weakness: Tank, 0 Mbit/sec

The Blackbird is a surprisingly good ship for PvP but is often overlooked or ignored by pilots seeking more pew pew than jam jam. Unable to do any significant damage on its own, the blackbird is a floating liability in space that performs a role that most gangs could greatly benefit from. Given the recent nerf to the jamming range of such ships as the Falcon, the Blackbird has become a perfectly viable alternative due to being cheap and disposable. Fit T2 jammers on this puppy, and you have a miniature Falcon for around 10,000,000.00 ISK. Unfortunately, due to having no drone bandwidth, damage, or tank role bonuses whatsoever, this ship should never see the inside of a mission pocket unless it is in a wormhole where Electronic Warfare is effective against Sleeper rats.


Stabber
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 3 PvE Rating: 1
Strength: Speed
Weakness: Everything else...

The Stabber. To be honest, I only see pirates flying these, and these are cheap pirates who cannot afford a Vagabond. Why do they fly them? Because they are afraid to lose a ship, even a cheap one. These speedy devils have a few advantages as a relatively heavy tackle in null security, but other than that, I would not expect to perform much of any other kind of role in a ship of this low caliber. Even in PvE it will perform poorly due to low artillery damage and a laughable 5 Mbit/sec bandwidth.


Rupture
Preferred: Small Gang PvP - Null Security
PvP Rating: 6 PvE Rating: 5
Strength: Tank
Weakness: Artillery

The Rupture, suffers from the curse of relative anonymity among newer players still under the impression that all things Minmatar perform poorly with low skill points. The Rupture, lovingly nicknamed the "Ruppy" by veteran pilots, actually performs exceedingly well for a ship of its size. Having a naturally high tank and base speed, versatile damage range, and able to field five small drones, this cruiser has the best of both worlds. In small gang combat, a Rupture will be able to effectively engage and often speed tank any target larger than itself, and take quite a few hits to boot. In PvE it performs on par with a Vexor due to its versatile nature and speed.

Am I Evil?

Plotting the slow, subtle, and yet egregious demise of our new friend and former corpsmate I find myself wondering, have I developed a pathological lust for destruction, harm, and foul play in MMOs over the course of the past decade since I began playing them?

The short answer: Yes.
The long answer: Well, here goes.


So, what is it about the internet that makes it the great equalizer while at the same time creating a vacuous hole with which every vermin in society can roam almost entirely free with wild abandon, able to reap undue harm unto others in ways that would get them locked away in real life?

In most MMOs with intangible and permanent artifacts, one finds oneself immersed in a static and perpetually stale world where intransitive material goods are just waiting to be seized at some opportune time through social interaction, timing, chance, perseverance, and a little greed. This is true of most realms in the virtual world where there are no real consequences for lewd, outlandish, or otherwise civally disobedient behavior that would typically result in stiff citations or small claims in real life. The closest we come is for blatantly seditious or malevolent behavior that is universally criminal in nature and immediately acted upon by whatever authorities have jurisdiction at the time.

However, in an MMO like EVE or others which have transitive materials that can easily exchange hands or simply cease to exist through various actions taken upon or received from them, the rules change in a subtle but fundamentally extreme way.

Knowing this, where does this put a person like me, who has spent years as a social group leader off and on for a decade now, largely helpless to enact tangible reprimands or punishments for the kinds of rampant misbehavior, greed, and userism that so opaquely colors everything around us?

It puts me in the unique position of planning, manipulating, coaxing, and enacting every tiny little evil thing I have ever dreamed about doing to people for a decade, when I have thus far been mostly helpless to do so.

What does this all mean? Well besides alerting you that I may have a college degree in Philosophy, which I do, or that I am an avid philosopher period, which I am, it lets you know that there are no limits to the depths of subtle, manipulative, heinous, and maniacal things to which I will do to those who cross our social group and attempt to do harm, within the limits of the game mechanic and EULA of course.

So if you were wondering, do I have an evil side, the answer is, you do not want to know.

One Ship To Rule Them All

In a game defined largely by material assets such as ships, at least on the surface, there are often ships that stand out amongst others. For me, it was the Nighthawk. While on the one hand a lot of us are here in the AU-F because we enjoy meeting new and interesting people who we can enjoy the online entertainment industry with, we all maintain a secret guilty pleasure; our precioussssss ships. Everyone loves some good booty... er, I should say loot, and there are quite a few ways we all indulge ourselves whether it be Varian's drooling obsession with T3, Kuroda's abhorrent desire to fit everything with faction modules, or my own sick passion for collecting frozen corpses.


Summer of '08

Having never really experienced real PvP I found myself in an L4 last summer, with a few friends, scowling at a Heron that had warped into our mission, flipped our loot, and was blinking menacingly. Our friend Troy, who was hotheaded enough already, decided that he could not stand for this, and began firing on the frigate. Caught up in the heat of the moment I too assigned my drones to attack in attempt to eradicate this pest from the mission pocket.

Of course, the more experienced of you will realize, this was our first mistake. No sooner had we begun firing on the Heron, than it warped out, and a gang of T2 ships warped into the pocket on top of us, all blinking, locking us down with all the rage and fury of a Viking invasion. Here I was, fresh into a Hyperion that I had spent my last dime on a week earlier, being target locked by you guessed it, a Nighthawk. Oh the humanity! Missile after missile pounded my armor from what seemed like a million kilometers away, which was in reality maybe 50km. My armor, melting before my eyes, my ship worth more than the family jewels, pelted by death from afar, sent me trembling towards my warp button, as I headed for the nearest station. As I begin to align for warp I fired a few rounds off at him with my rail guns. The rounds hit, but there was not a scratch, he was totally unfazed. I was outclassed in every way. It was time to get out of Dodge. Much to my dismay, shortly after escaping certain doom, one of our pilots in a Harbinger was scrambled and made into little tiny pieces of space debris.

Even though everyone else managed to make it to safety somehow, the lesson had been taught. Nothing is ever as it seems in the dangerous world of EVE Online, and the dark seedy underbelly you find in most major cities in real life, is just a warp away in this MMO.

Having made a lasting impression on me, this Nighthawk pilot in fact did me a favor. Now I had witnessed just how devastating a substantial ship divide can be for a newer, inexperienced, or unprepared player. This Nighthawk, was the epitome of prowess and danger to me now, forming my outlook and sense of the game for months down the road.





Back to the present...

So ok, sure, everyone has had this kind of experience at one point in this game. It is the new player experience. It is no different than when we logged onto Warcraft for the first few weeks and see people in raiding purples, nor when undocking in a rookie ship after a few days of playing the game and suddenly find ourselves straddling a Freighter or Tier 3 battleship which seems to go on forever into space compared to our seemingly tiny gnat of a ship.

Now that I have the Nighthawk, have battle tested it in a real PvE scenario, and am preparing to usher it into PvP in the next few days, what are my impressions of how far I have come since last summer, and whether the long wait was worth it? After all, it took me nearly ten months of training to get to the point where I was ready to train to a ship that costs 250,000,000.00 ISK just to purchase let alone fit and rig.

Well, I am here to say, it was worth every second. Not only is this ship fun to pilot, but it gives you a sense that, well, your time in game has produced tangible results beyond the social aspect that keeps you coming back. Sure, I warn everyone to avoid acquiring more and more ships just for the sake of acquiring them, but given a positive outlook on the game that focuses on building relationships with other players online, I can indulge guilt free in such things as a shiny new 400,000,000.00 ISK Command Ship that I will gingerly take onto roaming gangs while I get a feel for its capabilities.

What does this say for the young character in the game, still focusing on leveling off those core skills, those battlecruisers, those first few T2 ships, and whatnot? Well, it says, hang in there! This game is about patience, not luck. When you set to train something, you wait, you do not hope. It will come! Those 45 day training regimens you ponder endlessly while staring at EVEMon and just wishing you could, "Fly that T2 ship already!", are worth every second. Because it happens, eventually, given time. No competing with people for drops, no worrying that everyone else will see your prized item drop whenever you are not present in the raid, no frustration when you accidentally spend too much DKP and you cannot even enter the running for it the one time it does drop, none of that.

We have quite a few former Warcraft raiders in this corporation, and I think they can all attest to the fact that in EVE everything comes with patience, which is such a wild change from relying so heavily on luck and perseverance.

In EVE, if you want it, you can have it. And I got it. My preciousssssss.







*Note: If you are interested in how I fit the Nighthawk for missions presently here is the build that I use. In the future, I am going to use a T2 Large Shield Transporter on Mithos which will allow me to boost the Nighthawk's DPS while maintaing a more than sufficient tank for any and all mission types.

Null - What You May Not Know

Here is an older post I found laying around that is good source material for newer pilots who still feel very uncomfortable in low or null security when the veterans leave them to their own devices, so to speak.



Heh. Before I go posting a huge How To Be Self-Sufficient In Low And Null in the next few days I thought I'd do a little... tooting of my horn, all in good fun though, with a real purpose in mind, as I do not really care about my records except for hauling. Take a look at this page and tell me if you notice something. Hell, tournament and PvE related losses aside, I have quite a nice record, no? What's that, 4.67:1 kill/loss ratio? So ok, how do I do it, huddle in stations half the time? Well, low and null are not as burninatingly dangerous as you might first believe, or have a mindset revolving around such a concept. You just have to feel the air so to speak, and know when your environment is giving you a green light for certain activities and when there is a sometimes obvious sometimes not so obvious red light going off.

Yes, I am a scout on Mendolus, and yes I spend a lot of my time in a covert hauler, but TBH I spend quite a bit of time in my blockade runner as well, or ratting in various BCs and BSs, or traveling up and down the pipe or area with Mithos in a Geddon, but I have few losses. And I have been out in the Domain/Providence area for eight months now. Careful planning, frequent experience with Citadel and the way it operates, astute use of the starmap statistics options, or a forward scout, or a covert ship, and a good understanding of low sec game mechanics, will pretty much guarantee that you squeeze through a low sec pipe. Only once in a blue moon will you be caught in a situation where you have even a greater than minimal chance of getting snagged not to mention where it concerns moving ships of cruiser or greater size. It all sounds easy on paper though, you're thinking right?

Ok, well look at how many times I have lost a ship coming through the Yong or Kheram pipes. Ah, zero. Interesting eh? Hell I used to take Maduin down the Yong pipe in a Bestower to supply the troops when we had a no-fly in Empire during the merc wars last December while he was not in the corporation, and still did not lose a haul. K, enough with the tootin', let's get down to the real math and aesthetics of it.

I know quite a few of you have lost ships heading down the pipes, while ratting, while doing just a normal routine in low and null security, nothing to do with PvP, so what's the trick? This is not gonna make sense at first, but after having spent eight months in Providence now, I can feel the temperature on any given night, and give you a good prediction of what's a good idea or not. For instance, let's say Lachrymal is floating in Providence, I can tell you that you are not going to want to rat while he's within twelve jumps of you, seriously, don't bother. Let's say, there's a bunch of neuts that I have never seen before coming in and out of the area in H9-->7Y and they show fine on the checker but they are flying ships that don't rat easy, again, might as well dock up and see what shakes loose while you wait.

Little things, too numerous to count, such as the examples I listed, let me live a relatively comfortable life in low and null. Hell some nights I float around in my Occator through systems that have either ongoing or impending engagements between reds and blues, because I know when my chances are better than my risks. I even got caught in my Occator heading down the pipe with the Misaba tower, and other misc. items totaling +400mil when three neuts tried to bump me off a gate so they could pop me, but I planned ahead, I had a gang of scouts in combat ships, and I took action based on their advice and my experience (sic), and was never safer, even when engaged by hostile neuts.

It is all about numbers and aesthetics in some sense, and having a good feel for what wager or bet you are making on one calculated risk or not, will mean that when you do get caught with your pants down it would have to be one hell of a random occurrence (such as three seemingly nonchalant neuts in cruisers passing up the Kheram pipe looking for haulers just within the two or three minutes I decided to go down the pipe myself). I planned for that possibility, and it actually occurred, and I made it out Scot free. As a starting pilot, an older pilot who is just now feeling the pull towards low and null living after having gone on a couple of gangs and struck it rich with the veteran ratters, or just anyone who has recently become interested in the real game of EVE where stuff actually happens, I implore you to take note of the subtle nuances out in space.

The only people who police low and null security are its residents, so learn to read their temperature, know when response times are good, know when systems that may even have reds are locked down and safe as if they were not even there, know when certain reds have been AFK for hours, know when certain neutrals are questionable, etc. I can tell you that the main reason I see for people losing ships has to do with locale and inexperience. And a lot of these people losing ships would survive better and get their bearings faster if they were in a different location. Lots of people feel more comfortable in low security space, as you think to yourselves, well there are sentry guns on stargates and towers, that will ward off the smaller ships, and as long as I am careful mining and ratting, I will be able to make it out.

The problem is frequency, misconception, and a reluctance towards the unknown. Low security is a comfort zone, only a few jumps from the safety of Empire, it does not feel quite like the cold depths of 0.0 space yet, where bubbles, capital ships, huge alliances, and engagements occur, and there are usually tons of people actually friendly to you floating around at all times within a handful of jumps. However, let's be honest, low security is the trash heap of the game where every cutthroat with a few ISK to spare hops in a ship and sees if he can snag some poor ratter or miner sitting at a belt fit with nothing but PvE gear and pretty much helpless to defend themselves.

For the same exact reason a lot of people seem to prefer low security space, those same reasons are why you find more pirates, more danger, and more frequent PvP encounters. Half the pirates that come into the low sec area bordering Providence will not jump past Misaba. That should tell you something right away.

Low security is great for a few things, it is great for its ready access to Empire space, it is great for its missions of which L4s have incredible payouts and quality, it is absolutely amazing for a starting corporation to place research, production, or starter POSs, and you can rent corporate offices there to facilitate operations. Plus it is a lot easier to get a rookie or carebear to come down to low security where they do not feel like they are miles away from safety and can run for the hills at a moment's notice if trouble arrives, so to speak.

What is the problem with this? The problem is that null security is actually a better training ground for newer pilots than low security. I implore anyone who presently thinks low security in Domain is safer than Providence to come out and live for a week or two even in a cruiser, in Providence. I guarantee you that as long as you remain on your toes, that you will have FAR less potential encounters with reds, depending on your location of course, but also depending on the comfort factor. How long do you think it takes a pirate gang of a handful of ships to zip down a low sec pipe, pick off a couple juicy ratters or miners, and safe up before anyone realizes what happened? Not very long. How much warning do you think you will have when this occurs on a slow night when there are few blues or neutrals to report this hostile gang coming down from Empire which is only two or three jumps from you? Very little. On the other hand how long do you think it would take a gang of a few reds to travel from Empire to H9-J8N which is a total of some 12 jumps? How long do you think your warning would be that they were coming in your direction as they move from one system to the next every minute or two and Citadel dings off updates on their locations as they proceed? It takes them a long while, and you almost always have more than plenty warning.

So I implore, anyone who feels like low security is the best place to get their feet wet to turn that sentiment on its head, and do what probably sounds like the most counter intuitive thing they could do, treat null security as if it were the safer place to get your feet wet, because it is. I skipped low security when I first dinged Cov Ops frigate, and went straight to Syndicate 0.0 to see what it was all about and learn how to survive in a harsh but relatively barren environment. This probably all sounds like cloak and daggers, smoke and mirrors, or a dog and pony show at the moment, but trust me, in time you too will know what it is like to zip through low and null and have a high comfort level, and also totally accept and acknowledge the risks and rewards you encounter on a daily basis. After all, that ship is only a pixel on the screen, and as long as you are having fun, and you can replace that ship if it is lost, do not be afraid to take calculated risks! You cannot take it with you when you log off the game, after all.


*Addendum: After further inspection, I have remembered that I in fact DID lose a ship traveling through the pipes, loooooong ago, on Mithos when I first started training him for battleships. I made a rookie mistake, by assuming that since Citadel seemed relatively quiet, that I could just shoot down the pipe without checking the starmap or scouting ahead and instead took a slow, cumbersome, hulking battleship with no warpstabs fit. I got poned. I will edit this post later with the link to the loss on the KBs as I do not think the KBs actually auto-loaded it because it so old. Citadel is a tool like any other, and it is not always right for every job, though you may be able to use it to knock some stuff loose, for some jobs you need that box wrench laying in the bottom of your toolbox as well, so to speak.

Cloaking - Art, Form, Function

If anyone has ever wondered about the basic requirements, art, and form of ships that use covert cloaks, I covered it with a friend recently, as noted below in the chat log:



Member: Thinking about working up to the really nice cloak
Mendolus: yea, it doesn't really take long in some ways, but the skills to fly the ships that use them do, you can use a [covert] cloak with just Cloaking IV, but to fly a Cov Ops you need Electronics Upgrades V (10-12 days) and Racial Frigate V (9-10 days)
Mendolus: but they're super sexy ships, I live by my cloaking ships 75% of the time
Mendolus: You'll also wanna train Warp Drive Operation IV, Evasive Maneuvering IV, Navigation IV, and if you are feeling really bold and you wanna make a scout ship that will really earn every ISK, you can train a few levels into Advanced Spaceship Command for the added agility (even I haven't done this yet and I'm a scout on Mendolus)
Mendolus: the reason I say Warp Drive Operation IV is because the Amarr Covert Ops ship is like the Caldari one, it has a stupid high capacitor requirement to initiate warps, and in large systems with a distance of 75 AU from gate to gate, or even just traveling as a scout for a fleet or if you are running from pursuers, the last thing you wanna have happen is you run out of cap charge, lol
Mendolus: if you train Warp Drive IV you should never have probs tho
Member: yeah, I can see that as being bad
Mendolus: er I meant up above you can use a Cov Ops cloak with just Cloaking IV :D
Mendolus: Proofread fail!
Mendolus: 8-}
Member: takes way to much CPU looks like
Member: wanted to fit that on my BC
Mendolus: Nah, that's the thing, the ships that can use the Cov Ops Cloaking device have a ship bonus to those devices
Mendolus: Covert Ops Skill Bonus: -98% to -100% reduction in Cloaking Device CPU use per level
Member: zomg
Mendolus: I thoroughly enjoy all things cloaky, but as a PvP cloaker, you're always literally on the verge of death at any moment, BUT the chances of that death are stupid slim compared to regular combat pilots, however regular combat pilots have a high survival chance overall in combat situations because they have defensive/offensive systems ya know?
Member: Yeah
Member: if a scout gets caught then that's it
Mendolus: Now, Force Recons like the Falcon who can warp cloaked have defensive systems as well, but if you get caught by more than 2-3 people, those systems won't matter.
Mendolus: yea, so like in a Cov Ops frigate you may only have a 1% chance of being caught a majority of the time you fly, but that 1% is death whereas a regular combat pilot may have a 50% chance of being locked as a primary target by a hostile fleet and then some variable chance of dying depending on the encounter, etc.
Mendolus: I really enjoy being a scout, it's an adrenaline rush, and you play a pivotal role in a fleet that others shirk off because they would rather be listed on killmails than play a role in the fleet that makes or breaks the fleet's survival, which is a lot of responsibility
Mendolus: Plus being a scout means you're on your own almost the entire time the fleet is active, and if you get caught, no one is going to come to your rescue.
Mendolus: Even if they tried, you'll be dead before they can even jump through to your side and begin firing on hostiles.
Mendolus: But that's what makes it exciting, gotta go all balls deep as a scout and if you are good at it, you are always relied on.
Mendolus: The alliance is always looking for new scouts, and it'd give you the opportunity to observe regular PvP while not risking ships all the time as well.
Mendolus: :)
Mendolus: Altho, a probing rigged Cov Ops is generally around 50,000,000.00 ISK with ship, riggings, and fittings.
Mendolus: I have had the same Helios since last August, however.
Mendolus: B-)

*Note: The downside to having low Warp Drive operation and running out of cap is not as obvious as it seems. The reason it is bad to run out of capacitor as a scout is that you get stuck in a system while your pursuers are able to setup shop so to speak and create a gauntlet at the next gate for you to try and bust through.

No matter if you have zero capacitor charge or not, your ship will initiate a warp, even if it only jumps a few hundred thousand kilometers towards the intended destination. So it is not like you are going to have no capacitor and be unable to escape the current grid that your ship is on. This is a very important bit of information that is not readily available nor obvious. Who would assume that a ship with no capacitor can still warp, or limp for that matter?

Other skills I forgot to mention that are sometimes necessary, or come highly recommended:

Electronics V
Covert Ops IV
Astrometrics IV
Astrometric Acquisition IV
Astrometric Pinpointing IV
Astrometric Triangulation IV
Cynosural Field Theory I

Thievery - Not For Everyone

So, it seems this blog is increasingly becoming more of a guide on how to save your skin in EVE and not get burned.


Thus far, I have kept my mitts off the Caerus project, have let the Expedition leaders such as Rayth, Ajax, Sarah, and Nlor maintain a level of autonomous operation that allows them to make their own command decisions, and overall just let the project evolve on its own. I still plan to do so for as long as the project is active.

The Caerus project, being more of a summer diversion, but still a serious expedition into a new game mechanic, has gone well for the most part, and I have been proud of the focus that I have seen from the members who participated, but we have hit a rather sour note.

Now, granted, the following story is very discouraging in some respects, but I would like to point out the amusing silver lining to the whole scheme.

Vhero Min, confirmed corporate thief, via private communique on the corporate forums before I deleted his account, has stolen four Raven class ships from the Caerus POS, one of which was a CNR estimated at approximately 500,000,000.00 ISK.

Now, as you all know, or at least as I know, Vhero Min and his supposed friend Sennka have been in the corporation for three months. They did not log very often, they did interact when they were present, but for the most part they were just wall flowers.

However, this weekend, having asked to get their alt into the corporation so they could leave it in the WH system while their main was in Empire, Vhero stole the member's private assets listed above.

Let me break this down for you:

Two Account Scenario (Vhero, Sennka)
90 days per account.
180 days for both.
650,000,000.00 ISK average for a 60 day GTC.
1,950,000,000.00 ISK average for 180 days worth of GTCs.
900,000,000.00 ISK average for the ships stolen if he is lucky.

One Account Scenario (Vhero)
90 days per account.
650,000,000.00 ISK average for a 60 day GTC.
975,000,000.00 ISK average for 90 days worth of GTCs.
900,000,000.00 ISK average for the ships stolen if he is lucky.

Notice how the math does not add up? I am personally amused by this.

So I brought it up with Vhero in private, and he said it was his first theft, was merely an experiment, and that he woulda gotten away with it if he had not left his shuttle at the POS. He hopes I have learned a lesson. How kind of him.

So even with just one account for three months, that is 975,000,000.00 ISK in game currency for what may have been 900,000,000.00 ISK in game assets stolen.

Golden.

Don't quit your day job, Vhero, please.

So, the lesson here is that security is paramount in EVE, as people who did not finish elementary school abound everywhere you look.

I hope he enjoys having to roll a new account because every corporation Vhero Min joins from now on receives an EVEMail alerting them to pod him repeatedly for shits and giggles because he is a corporate thief, and a bad one.

Shameful.

Now that we have the name of his main account, things will progress from there as well.

You can see me right now, rubbing my hands together, eager for bloodsport, right Vhero?

*Note: It has been brought to my attention over the course of the past week that more ships were taken than initially reported, along with a plethora of basic fittings, supplies, harvested materials, and etc. However, I still stand by my account of the events at hand insofar as someone who spends three months in a corporation knowing that all corporate assets are and forever will be inaccessible to them then stumbles upon a private project operated by members of the corporation is no thief. They are merely carrion animals incapable of hunting prey, and instead rely on nature, chance, or real predators to do their work for them.

What aspiring corporate thief loiters in a corporation for three months knowing full well that the CEO keeps everything in a vault slathered with security measures to the point of obsession? Obvious failure is obvious.

AU-F Manifesto

Well, I hate to be a hard ass, as it is not the role I generally like to play in a group dynamic, but with all the new members we have brought in among other factors I believe that it is going to be necessary to lay down some groundwork in writing for the first time.

By applying to the corporation, you are committing yourself to a player group, and all the stipulations and expectations that go along with it, of which I am overjoyed to say we have very few compared to other corporations and alliances.

These rules, stipulations, and guidelines are as follows:

DO

1. Follow the NRDS in Domain and Providence
2. Follow the NRDS in all regions as it applies to blues.
3. Live in Domain, Providence, or Phryxia.
4. Read this blog for updates on corporate information.
5. Read the various corporate mailers.
6. Read the default corporate mailer, always.
7. Live in Providence while at war IF asked to do so.

DO NOT

1. Ask a question before looking for the answer first.
2. Ask for the answer because you do not want to look.
3. Ask to be escorted without reading the travel guide.
4. Ask how ratting works without reading the guide.
5. Ask favors JUST so you do not have to do the work.

So, okay, why am I laying down the pimp hand all of a sudden? Did I forget my Ritalin this morning? No, it has just become too much of a hassle to answer the same questions all the time on top of the duties I already have.

I will be honest, I love to help people in MMOs, it fulfills me to be in a player group, and work together with people so that everyone involved is a little better off than they were before. On the other hand, I have learned from my mistakes in Warcraft, and rather than being lenient to the point of absurdity and just slapping people on the wrist constantly, I am going to be very clear. If you do not read this blog, or follow a majority of the guidelines listed above, you are going to fall behind or literally be left behind. If you wanna keep up, put in the effort, do not be dead weight. If you just wanna play the game and totally relax when you log on you have every right to do so in this corporation, just do not expect everyone else to drag you behind them.

I spend anywhere from ten to twenty hours a week doing administrative stuff for the corporation, and get little actual entertainment value out of the game in between, so I cannot go around answering the same questions every night on top of that especially when half that time I just spent was writing guides or posts exactly like this so you guys can stay in the loop. So everyone needs to encourage newer members who have not yet been given all the details, and older members who for whatever reason have not gotten with the program, to follow the guidelines above. CEO is a very rewarding position and I thoroughly enjoy seeing the fruits of our labor when the ZeeOhSix's, Falgoria's, and etc. of the corporation excel at the game and earn their wings so to speak, but I cannot carry people towards the finish line.

I mean some of this stuff is pretty simple. If you want to know how ratting works, read the guide I spent four hours writing, then come and ask me if you still have questions. If I had to explain how ratting, among everything else, and this game has the most extreme learning curve of all, works to every incoming member or regular member who has not learned yet, it would be all I did. That's no fun at all, and I'm not doing it.

Seriously.

This is not a matter of me saying, "Never ask me questions, I am the Great Oz, and I will only hold counsel with the bravest of the brave", but more of a "Do not abuse the generousity and charity of those around you," kind of thing. I know everyone just wants to log on and have a great time without doing a bunch of reading like they are studying for an exam, but the problem is others have done that work already, and even bothered to publish the results, so show them some gratitude by reading if you really wanna know the answer. But I mean sure, if you wanna know how a target painter works, or something else that is not likely to be in some random blog or guide somewhere, or would literally take you hours to track down, just ask. But if you wanna know what we did the night before, read the blog or mailer! Can you imagine if everyone that wanted to know the latest scoop on a national news story called a single hotline rather than crack open a popular news venue and read for themselves? Chaos.

I tend to treat player groups I am in like family. Unconditionally adore you guys to death, and enjoy everyone's unique personalities and eccentricities, but if I see you getting lazy, you'll be the first to know.

Now, let's all toast a beer, preferably a Guinness, and go shoot some shit, that's what we're here for after all, right?

Recent Mining

As dusk levels the fading light of the day, a beast lumbers from it's sleep, with an ancient, festering hunger rumbling deep from within its bowels, urging it forward, from system to system, in search of the most prized find for venture capitalists in all of New Eden, asteroids.

No, this is not the keen opener to a classic novella, but instead an introduction to your newest manager, Meatay "The Beast" Pickle, our resident Orca extraordinaire and mining foreman!

Having volunteered himself to sound off on, implement, operate, and manage our mining operations, Meatay has already shown himself to be one seriously hardcore miner. He threw together a mining operation in the past few days that netted almost a million cubic meters of ore in a single night. The week before that he facilitated the stock piling of nearly 200,000 units of helium isotopes refined from the ice his and others gangs brought in to the corporation.

This guy likes a hard rock, and I'm fairly certain that with a name like Meatay Pickle, it's likely his own. His wife must be one happy customer! *BADDUM DUM BOOOOSH*

Ok, well, that's all I have to say about that, before he comes for my scraggly hide and turns me pod into metal scraps!





*Note: Picture provided courtesy of Meatay Pickle

Recent L4s

As the week has seemed to drag on for some of us through turmoil after turmoil in real life, there has been an ongoing and most fruitful campaign to host L4s. Devin, Fogwlker, Psycronex, and myself have been hosting L4s for a few days now, and they seem to be going extremely well.

Now, while everyone is getting accustomed to these L4 missions, I highly suggest that you seek out Huffdaddy as well in the near future, to do these same missions in the Mamet area on quiet nights when the environment permits.

The reason for this? Well it's simple, we need more people to be on standby for fun and good times, and while Nakri is a great mission hub, it's out of the way and kind of separates our forces, so to speak. Not only that, but you will be eligible to use free frigates or insured cruisers at your leisure, for those of you still in those ships! Eventually, should you devote enough time to low and null security endeavors, you will become eligible for insured battlecruisers as well, and that's just some win right there.

I may also bite the bullet once more and hop on Mithos to finish my own Zoar And Sons standings grind as I got to L2s a month or two ago but then POS administration kind of took precedence overnight.

But for now, ISK is ISK, fun is fun, and I am very pleased to see that L4s and money making ventures in general are being led by our veteran members. Good stuff!

Ice Mining

The ice mining done by members of the AU-F thus far has been a story of success. I only had to purchase a handful of liquid ozone in order to fuel up all three POS this past week after we accumulated a whopping 300,000 units of helium isotopes, and other various fuel components.

I would like to personally commend the efforts of such members as Cmdr GAT, Meatay, Sarah Tuttle, and any other members I may have heinously forgot; don't hurt me!

Ice mining has become crucial to our development as we branch out, invest, and extend our reach into Providence over the course of the summer. We are running rather dangerously low on funds at the corporate level at this time due to having invested heavily in T1 BPOs and ships. The ships will return value to us when they are lost, but the T1 BPOs will return value only when we begin printing copies and selling them on the contractual market. So during this time of transition as we solidify our corporate portfolio, every unit of fuel counts.

But, to give everyone a better idea of what it requires to fuel our three POS, I will list out the various fuel components along with the rough estimate of how many units we need per month, the volume of those units, and their average open market values.



Helium Isotopes are used by our two Amarr towers.
Units/mo approx. 475,000
Volume approx. 71,250 m3
ISK/mo approx. 142,500,000.00

Hydrogen Isotopes are used by our Minmatar tower.
Units/mo approx. 325,000
Volume approx. 48,750 m3
ISK/mo approx. 97,500,000.00

Coolant is used by all towers.
Units/mo approx. 15,000
Volume approx. 30,000 m3
ISK/mo approx. 22,500,000.00

Enriched Uranium is used by all towers.
Units/mo approx. 7,500
Volume approx. 7,500 m3
ISK/mo approx. 41,250,000.00

Mechanical Parts are used by all towers.
Units/mo approx. 10,000
Volume approx. 10,000 m3
ISK/mo approx. 6,600,000.00

Oxygen is used by all towers.
Units/mo approx. 45,000
Volume approx. 45,000 m3
ISK/mo approx. 4,500,000.00

Robotics are used by all towers.
Units/mo approx. 2,000
Volume approx. 4,000 m3
ISK/mo approx. 13,600,000.00

Liquid Ozone is used by all towers and varies with use.
Units/mo approx. 300,000
Volume approx. 120,000 m3
ISK/mo approx. 60,000,000.00

Heavy Water is used by all towers and varies with use.
Units/mo approx. 300,000
Volume approx. 120,000 m3
ISK/mo approx. 7,500,000.00


Totals:

Volume approx. 456,500 m3
ISK/mo approx. 395,000,000.00


By my estimates, as I have hauled all this fuel almost exclusively myself this month, so I have kept a keen eye on our input, is that our ice miners have collectively saved us around 175,000,000.00 ISK thus far through donating their time, effort, and ice as they mine in gangs a few times a week.

You guys are the best.

Cloaking

Anyone who plans on living in low or null security, and given recent developments within the corporation, this should be everyone, should train to use a Prototype Cloaking Device.


Skill(s):

Electronics V
Cloaking I

This training should take you all of five days if you have adequately trained your learning skills.

The reason for this is simple. Being able to warp to a safe spot and cloak up may save your ship and pod in a tough situation. Please use this module with discretion however, as it has penalties associated with it that are applied to your ship. For ratting, this module is a must have in any system that does not have an outpost to dock at or an AU-F POS to warp to. For PvP, please carefully consider and weigh the pros and cons of fitting this module to your ship, given the nature, purpose, and composition of the fleet, including the ship you yourself are flying.

T1 BPO Research

A few weeks ago, using both personal and corporate funds, I purchased a large majority of all the T1 BPOs in the game that cost less than 10,000,000.00 ISK per blueprint. There are multiple reasons why I did this, but the main reason is for our ship program. By the end of the week, all ships publicly available to corporate members through the replacement program will be fully T1 fitted for PvE, PvP, Salvage, Ratting, or Exploration.

The contracts issued to the corporation will inform you on how the particular ship has been fitted via the description value when you mouseover the contract link in your contracts window. The reason for this is so no one has to run to Empire to fit a ship on the fly, which as Dante noted last week, can be a real pain when you want to participate and have a good time, but suddenly find yourself trudging all the way back to Amarr for a new fit after losing your ship.

Please note that battlecruisers will continue to be available per request and eligibility only, and will not be publicly issued. These battlecruisers will be fit according to your specific request and purpose. Not all members are eligible for battlecruisers, so please ask ahead of time whether you are eligible.

Touring Providence

I know I have promised numerous times to take people out to Southern Domain and then into Providence itself, but this time it's gonna happen. For the next three days, for an hour or so a night, I am going to be asking everyone online who has not gotten an adequate tour of Providence to come out, even in a shuttle, and see the sights, and be given a brief on what there is to do out there in CVA land.

These tours will not last long, they will be rather short and sweet, but I wanna make sure all the new guys are given the opportunity to learn what we are all about. Until then, I am going to be asking people whether they have listened to Varian's audio blog yet or not, and if they have not, then they should. It is thirteen minutes of yummy goodness, ranging from everything to what we do here at the AU-F, to what Providence is like, and what you can expect from the space we inhabit.

See ya then!

Logistics

Often a greatly underrated profession, logistics pilots provide support both in and out of combat. POSs remain online due to their valiant and tireless efforts, fleets receive vital repairs both during and after pivotal engagements, and commodities, luxuries, and staple goods move in and out of sometimes dangerous territory at the request and gratitude of countless residents of low and null security space.

But this profession, often overlooked by those who have not had to experience the shortcomings of being without it, is an endless journey of task after task, haul after haul.

I am talking fuel, ships, goods, minerals, livelihoods, and every other manner of well being that stems from the ability of a corporation and alliance to move materials with almost guaranteed safety and security.

As a medium sized corporation, much larger than the majority, but still small enough to experience significant growing pains, we are finding ourselves at a crossroads. There are numerous pilots in the corporation who are able to fly Transports such as the Viator pictured above. Many of them have professed an interest in supporting the corporation and preventing me from going insane, by hauling fuel, goods, materials, and the like in and out of Providence.

As GAT has announced, we are forming a Logistics wing in the corporation, just for this purpose. These pilots, are going to sustain the corporation on a long term basis, until we have a Jump Freighter, such as the Ark, with which to provide even greater stability and potential for boundless growth as a player group.

I am going to begin placing corporate sponsored courier contracts in and out of Providence for players, such as yourself, who can fly a blockade runner, and assist me in the day to day grind of corporate administration.

Okay, so the elephant in the room however is, "Mendolus, you have been fueling the POS yourself for a couple months now, what has changed that leads you to think others should haul this fuel instead of yourself? Shall we nickname you SpongeDude LazyPants?"

Well okay, granted, I just hauled an additional 200,000 m3 worth of fuel to Mamet myself in a matter of 5-6 hours earlier this week with no incident, and granted I am so accustomed to this routine that I can gather the appropriate materials, get them to Mista, and haul them all myself in one fell swoop. But here's the deal. As I had announced in a previous post, I am working towards an Ark now. A 3,500,000,000.00 ISK Ark, mind you. Where is this money going to come from? Well, out of my own pocket, and that's fine, I eagerly anticipate being able to use a Jump Freighter to move that same 200,000 m3 of fuel in one single jump from Mista to Misaba. The only problem is, I need to actually make that money, and that means I need to rat 2-3 times a week for personal profit. How long do I have to make that money? About a month and a half. That sounds like a long time until you think about how much ISK/night I would have to earn to get 3,500,000,000.00 ISK in 45 days. I would have to earn 75,000,000.00 ISK/night starting today, every day, until the day I ding the ability to fly the Ark on Maduin Ardens.

Pretty daunting, even for a veteran player.

So I need to refocus on many things, one of which is obviously ISK, but another which is, surprise, things like this blog, the new fittings photo album, and other various public works that I am now devoting a great deal of energy to in order to bolster the corporate portfolio so that you guys never lack for information, support, encouragement, resources, and etc. But I cannot do these things if I continue to have to haul fuel all by myself, haul T2 goods all by myself from one place to the next, haul ships one by one from N8XA-L to Misaba in order to insure them at the corporate level, etc.

For every person who has offered to assist in hauling with their blockade runners, I implore you, take up the torch, and support your buddies, as even though corporate hauling does not pay directly, it will pay in credit, when I go to consider who is eligible for the battlecruiser replacement program for instance. Not only that, but there are going to be dozens of courier contracts assigned at the corporate level by myself alone, from ratting in 7Y, which is money in your pocket.

So, anytime you see a courier contract at the corporate level that is marked as a fuel haul, or a commodities run in the name of the AU-F, please complete it! These things make everyone's lives easier ingame. You might even get some freebies from people who are grateful that you hauled their goods the same day they contracted them!

Burninate!

Last night, a PvP fleet formed on the fly at the alliance level, to combat some reds randomly zipping around in Providence space. I had planned on doing some fuel hauling, certainly the most exciting thing I could think of, but instead found myself drawn into Fast Times At Providence High. Yes, there were shiny ships, and we fondled them with our missiles, lasers, scripts, and TLC until nothing was left but memories and thin space. Right off the bat we managed to pop a Zealot before Logic had to go AFK to pick up his wife. I must say, everyone was decidedly bloodthirsty that evening as within seconds after the Zealot was popped and the pilot podded, the wreck was looted and salvaged, and the corpse was scooped. Seconds.

However, we found ourselves trying to camp some random noob who had evidently, or so he claimed, came back to the game from being gone a long while only to find himself in a red corporation a few jumps into Providence. He was toying with us, I know he was, because he was ratting the belts, while he knew people were trying to kill him, and the whole while he kept clamoring to talk to a CVA Diplomat, he kept docking and undocking, begging us to smelt his juicy hull into ingots of win with our lasers of pew.

After Logic logged for a bit, the fleet dispersed somewhat, leaving me as Fleet Commander of only three other people, Quixote in a Rapier, Falgoria in a Thorax, and LaserX in a Taranis. I myself was flying my trusty Onyx, aptly named Old Ironsides, having once taken on a gang of eight battleships and a smattering of battlecruisers, and lived to tell the tale.

Much to our chagrin, our little friend left his red corporation in an attempt to shake his KOS status, and he continued to play games in local with his Ferox. As we warped to 0m of the station to spy him out, fortune would have it that he was just then undocking. He then proceeded to warp to a planet, and shockingly he chose one in the system that had no other celestial objects amongst it, so I had only two choices, the planet or a belt. He now had a 1:2 chance I would pick correctly.

Well I landed on grid at Planet III after taking a guess he was inexperienced enough to warp to 0m of the planet, and what do you know, there he is 3km off my bow! Bubble up! A few volleys of fun later and we sent him packing back to whatever rock he crawled out from.

The most entertaining part of the night was his pleading in local, which had all the makings of an afterschool special. I do not have the log with me at the moment, but I'll just give you the general idea with what he really meant included in italics:

Trisx: I am not a pirate, I want to speak to a CVA Diplo!
Trisx: I ebay'd this character, but I'm waiting for a juicy hauler to pop so I can afford to lose this ship!
Trisx: HALP! I was having fun toying with you!
Trisx: PLEASE STOP! I haven't even popped that hauler with 2bil worth of BPOs yet!
Trisx: If you go away I will pirate people in twenty minutes and piss you off.
Trisx: guess I'm quitting the game again, to go back to my main where I will burninate your blues!

Now, while this may seem unusually cruel for us to simply remain silent to his pleas as we wailed on his ship like a caveman trying to get his hot date back to the lair, but here's the way it works.

Anyone who is set KOS via corporation or alliance, remains so until they join a blue/neutral corporation or alliance, or leave their corporation or alliance and pay restitution to the parties they have wronged in the past and then enter into talks with a CVA Diplo to have their KOS status revoked. Or as a corporation or alliance they may do the same respectively, leaving alliance, or corporation or alliance pays restitution, etc. This guy had done none of that. Not only that, but he was deliberately playing with us in local, taunting us to catch him. Not exactly a wise move on his part knowing that he was being actively pursued. No one is this stupid. Okay, okay, this guy could not have been.

There are spies everywhere in Providence, and every red has a story, the reason we keep silent in local is because that wall of silence is a power over them. Not only that, but it is also amusing to see what they write sometimes, because some of them must think EVE is real life the way they talk in local as you are burninating their ships and podding them back to hell.

Overall, it was an awesome night, and I do enjoy the random opportunity to command a fleet whether small or large, but the lesson learned here, is that random PvP on nights when there are ample targets with which to pursue are usually the same nights where you get multiple exciting kills that you will talk about again and again for weeks afterwords.

Next time I am hunting some tool in Providence, I can only hope that he too has some wild story about how his dog ate his homework, he failed calculus, his parents grounded him from EVE for six months, he just came back to the game, and to please spare his pirate ship so he can go wail on ratters after we leave him be.

Sorry, not buying it. We will give you a free ride to your medical bay, where you go from there is up to you! CVA handles the diplomacy and sorting the who's who of Providence space, it is our job to escort reds back to Empire one way or the other, not to cajole them with diplomacy. Not only that, but it did not feel right. This guy did not have the feel of someone who was truly at odds with how to resolve the fix he found himself in. Gathering intel, or waiting for a kill worth his time, is what I imagine he was up to. But again, it is not really our job to sort that out, we just give them a one way ticket to Empire.

For those of you interested in how I made this determination, as it involves counter-espionage which is a big factor in this game, here is a list of curiosities that led me to believe this guy was craftily attempting to give the impression he was harmless:

• Asking if CONCORD would aggress him if he went back to Empire yet he had positive security status
• Ratting the belts after professing interest in getting to the safety of Empire and knowing he was being actively pursued
  
• Having been in the system for more than a few days already, and still had not figured out how to contact a diplomat
• Knowing to ask for a CVA diplomat after having said he had been gone from the game for a long time, if he could remember exactly who to ask for after so long, he should remember how NRDS works as well
  
• Acting like he thought he could clear his KOS status by leaving his present corporation
• Being in space period, knowing he was KOS
• Not leaving in a pod or shuttle to Empire, to worry about his Ferox once standings were addressed with a CVA diplomat, it's a Ferox FFS not a carrier he'd leave behind.
  
• Warping to a planet rather than docking at the station since he was in range
• Evidently knowing the jig was up, so finishing the ploy by being destroyed
• Just a gut feeling that his words and behavior were too conveniently stupid

Now, sure, he may very well have been this inexperienced or idiotic and I may very well have just been unusually paranoid last night, but again it is not my job to determine that, even though I had a great time trying to sort it out in my head as I scooped his smoking corpse from the glowing hot wreckage of his pod.

That is the one gray area of Providence, a murky reconnoitering of seemingly neutral or harmless people who are in fact there to cause real harm in some form, shape, or fashion. Be on your toes, not every neutral you pass by in Providence is merrily ratting, hauling, or minding their own business. Some of them are calculating how valuable your ship is, and reporting it to hostile combatants and taking a cut of the score when your ship is destroyed minutes later.