Time Flies

This past week marked two years since I created the Aurelius Federation.  Does it seem so long ago?  For me it feels like only yesterday that I was sputtering about in a shield boosted, armor repped, passive targeting fit Incursus being obliterated by frigates in an L1 mission and cursing CCP for its obviously evil game design that must certainly be hellbent on obliterating rookie pilots and their expensive ships.  But in reality, what amounts to ages in a game world have passed since then, and I find myself thinking lightly of stashing 100,000,000.00 ISK worth of bombs in a corporate hangar somewhere, that I know will see little use, or tossing a 350,000,000.00 ISK booster on a ship because I want to really have fun the once or twice a month I even do L4 missions for income,  or traveling through 0.0 and being more comfortable there than in a station in Empire, floating about in a POS, being amused at rookie or inexperienced pilots who are as of yet still learning how to avoid cloaky Dictors or general harassment down pipes and ways.

It is the best of both worlds for me, in all honesty, still holding onto the idea that I too was once just another rookie pilot in a 50k frigate, zipping about in the great expanse of space, staring in wonder at the starry backdrop of the game, with my imagination running wild at the sheer potential of the future laid out before me to now knowing that I am well versed and experienced in the game to the point that it becomes harder for me each and every day to relate to those who are not.

I still get that way from time time, even as I can fly all but four or five ship classes in the game, even if not all the racials.  Starting the last 85 day leg of my journey to having a Nyx pilot is the real culmination for me as the Nyx is one of the reasons I became enthralled with the content of the game.  Such a wonderfully pleasant and foreboding ship, even more so now that it is a capital killer.

But of the corporation itself, through countless ups and downs, winners and losers, friends and enemies, successes and failures, one thing remains that I keep in mind, and promises me that I have made a difference for those around me, as intended.

The size of our corp has drastically changed since the Provi days. Even thought the number is big, if you remove alts we probably end with 20 or so players. TBH I like it. Living from a POS is hard. Even harder when you have a big group and thinking that any day all shit can be stolen. It can definitely happen, but with this group very unlikely. I know that we will eventually grow again, but I'm not in a hurry. I think this is a great time for us to grow as a team to be ready for the future size growth.

 - Dante Styx

I have managed to find and surround myself with sensible adults who are here to enjoy a game and nothing more.  What could be better?  I do not have snot-nosed driveling children nipping at my heels within the corporation, nor do I have deceitful avarice filled mongrels chomping at the bit for every tiny little step up the ladder they can make by any means and at any cost.  Life ingame is good.

So, although I could wax philosophical or reminisce for hours until this post feels like a novella I will instead close with how I feel after two years and how I hope to feel after another two.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.


i.e. I wouldn't change a thing, to be perfectly honest.

Runs Like A Charm, Feels Like A Job

I like to believe that I am surrounding myself with, and constantly seeking, friends first in this game, and corporate members second.  I know it is naive of me, and given the fact that I am looking for friends in of all places, EVE Online, it means that I am already at a distinct disadvantage.  EVE is not a nice, warm, fuzzy place where you sit down and drink a glass of cognac with your favorite companions on a quiet winter's night.

However, for that very reason, I run the AU-F like I would a social club or as the head of a family.  You get in on looks and personality alone, whether you're the most skilled pilot in the game, or you can't find your undock button on a good night.  And based on that personality, you are accepted with open arms, and expected to uphold the family environment I maintain internally within the corporation.  On the outside, it is all business.  On the inside, I would rather talk about booze and women, than be ultra serious and hardcore about the game as a whole.  These things lead to a fairly pleasant dichotomy where on the one hand, the corporation maintains or attempts to maintain the strictest sense of professionalism, business, and diplomacy, and on the other, when it is a quiet night, we are in our corporate channel talking about booze, women, body parts, and the kitchen sink.

But, sometimes this backfires, as we have found in the past week, when tensions ran high, and words were spoken that a few people seem to not want to take back.  Having quit the Senate, raised a fair amount of ruckus at both the corporate and alliance levels, and then retreated from participation in general as if to add insult to injury, members of this corporation have done everyone around them a great disservice. 

Now, the elephant in the room is that everyone involved both at the corporate and alliance levels made some sort of mistake, whether it be pride, assumptions, apathy, disrespect, overzealous nature, or etc.  The problem I see is that everyone but the people in question, continues to be willing to work these differences out, like mature, independent, and responsible adults.  So what's the problem?  I ask for everyone to act like an adult, that is not really much to ask to be honest.  In fact, it is relatively little.  Certainly mistakes were made by all parties, but only a few were absolutely unwilling to resolve these conflicts at all, and instead chose to retreat into the shadows.

Before I myself say things I will regret, I want to clear the air, from my perspective.

I work to the betterment of ALL parties equally, and so long as I feel those parties understand that this is my role here, I will work for them, even if they are in part or in whole responsible for the circumstances that cause me to need be involved to begin with.  I make no judgments, I make no grievances, I make no agendas, I simply try to resolve.  But I have limits that I set, and those limits have been crossed, and once they are crossed, that is the end of it.  Just like the Kematian's, the Zee's, and the Mark's of the corporation, these people who cross that invisible line with me, are never given my faith or confidence again, whether they choose to stay or not and regain it themselves in the eyes of their peers, it will still never again be from me.  In fact, I implore them to do just that, to stay, regardless of whether I myself lost faith in them, as this is my way, not the only way, and I am certainly not whom the only opinion matters.  But they never choose to remain, never.  So, with my usual foresight, that I typically keep to myself, I would like to say now, that they were given every consideration by myself, every possible consideration, and they refused to yield to my role as mediator, and instead I find myself feeling insulted, by being thrown in with the lot as if by association I am no better than the slander thrown wildly against all others.  I am sorry, but I am the last person that one wants to take for granted.  Do not mistake me for someone who bends, I am unbreakable.  This is a family affair, and if you do not want to be part of a family and work your problems out like one, this probably isn't the place for you.

The Dark Ages

Well, this time I can honestly say that my long hiatus from posting here has been deliberate. 


Fatal Ascension has successfully relocated to the Scalding Pass region and my intentional public blackout is now at an end, as we have established ourselves wholly in our new area.

Couple easy things to note, that have been going on in the most recent weeks, be they gloriously successfully or arduously difficult, are the following:

• Logistics hauling with capital ships, SUCCESS
• Medium to Large organized combat fleets, POSSIBLE
• Getting carebear and newbie pilots to come out to Scalding Pass on their own, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
• Getting people to NOT warp into engagements in ones and twos, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
• Getting people to realize Scalding Pass neither resembles nor even remotely likens to Providence, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
• Gaining focus from a core group of a few hundred in the alliance, SUCCESS
• Securing most infrastructure in our new sovereign systems, SUCCESS
• Making ISK for myself at a personal level, NEAR IMPOSSIBLE

 Now, I could go into all kinds of details about this or that, but considering this is an ongoing process, and that emotions are so high right now, I may spare the whip, and loosen the chain instead.

The alliance is going through the growing pains any alliance in our position would be.  Having been shucked from the proverbial cornucopia that was Providence, we have found ourselves in what appears to be a relatively inhospitable area of 0.0 space but what is in reality the best opportunity we have been given since my corporation was created, personally. 

With various fleet commanders leading sparse fleets here and there, too busy, like myself, to devote a majority of their time to one thing or another, the alliance is suffering from too much too soon, but in light of this, we cannot help but ride fast and furious, as it is the only way this stuff is going to get done.

Because of this, coming to a fleet near you, will be I, Mendolus, Empire Fleet Commander of the alliance, striking out into the depths 0.0 once more, to lead weekly fleets, and bolster cohesion, coordination, and participation.

I may not be the most experienced, in some respects, but... at the risk of sounding like I am tooting my own horn, I would like to think I extremely capable, give my years of experience at leading group activities in multiple MMOs.  After all, a fleet battle is nothing more than a carefully orchestrated chain of audible, visual, and other sensory reception and command.  And the only fleet commanders I have ever seen in this game, that do well, are the ones that master themselves first, and others second.  So, to battle, we ride at dawn.

The Hardware

In the interest of sharing, I suppose I ought to post a few pictures of what my gaming room setup is like as well.  Bear in mind one of my dreams that I want to fulfill someday is to have a setup like the guy in the Matrix movies, with a big rack of monitors in front of me like some sick mad scientist's dream!  HUZZAH!  So you may see a little bit of that shaping up already... >.<

Enjoy!  I know I sure do :)

Blogging

I have always faced a rather dubious conundrum with updating this blog.  It mostly centers around the fact that I am always so busy ingame.  Certainly too busy to update a blog more than once every week or less, as has been the case for about six months now, much to my chagrin.  However, that should be no excuse in some sense, because this blog is my outlet and podium to express the opinions, interests, developments, events, and stories that define my entertainment experiences in this game on a nightly basis.

I wish I could say that the energy required to post nightly is there, however.  To be honest, most nights in the past two months straight since we started our Northern Campaign and then returned once more to Providence, only to be expelled forcibly weeks later, I have spent sitting around, planning, thinking, contemplating, brooding.  It does not sound like much, but in reality, it is a constant nightmarish landscape of mental landmines, quagmires, paradoxes, loopholes, juxtapositions, and any other morbidly fascinating but overused social cliches one can think of.  It would not be that far from the truth though.

So, for my faithful audience, who still checks in every few weeks, to see if this mentally exhausted CEO has bothered to post a trick or two, I wanted to thank you.  I may not speak volumes, but there are always volumes waiting to be spoken.  Everyone has seemed to grow accustomed to my lengthy wall texts in our private corporate forums, in channels while logged into the game, and in their game mailers, so I guess, maybe in some sense, it is good that I do not also bombard a blog with the random ramblings of an overworked administrator who is trying to dig his way through the mile high stacks of paperwork, to make sure his corporation and alliance have every possible chance available to them, to succeed, flourish, and be entertained in a game rich with potential for growth and experience.

Thanks, to you, my relatively silent audience, for keeping up the faith.  I think I will change my New Year's Resolution to updating this blog at least every other day, from now on.  Ready for the wall text symphony?  I shall name it, Symphony R3 Opus no. 10 in E Minor, hidden pun intended.

Toy Soldier

No, not the 50 Cent song, just a Strategic Cruiser, of all things.  I bought one.  I swore I would never do so when they came out because of the skill point loss and exorbitant cost at the time.  However, the price has dropped down to where Command Ships were when T3 came out, so I did not feel so, ...robbed, after purchasing one.  Of course, coming from a veteran, saying a ship that cost 400,000,000.00 ISK to purchase, modularize, rig, and fit is relatively cheap, probably sounds like insanity to any player under a year old.  However, given that I bought the ship knowing I could afford to lose it, not planning to lose it, but knowing I could at any time, I have fully prepared for its use.

What do I think so far?  I am not entirely sure, I love the idea of the ship, and being a scout, and fitting it for scouting, it's like the pinnacle of slippery mechanics.  However, I cannot get over the alien look of the hull, with the protruding cockpit coming out of the bowels of the ship, almost like it is right out of one of the Alien movies.  On the other hand, it handles extremely well, which is certainly more pertinent than its aesthetic appeal, and I am absolutely pleased with its agility above all else.

That being said, I am pleased to hear that you no longer have to destroy the rigs to reassemble the subsystems, and that means, I only need one of these puppies!  It is a beast, for sure, sporting 110k EHP, 3.4 second align time, Covert Ops cloak, decent strength combat probes, and immunity to interdiction mechanics.  I plan to take it out to our new region in the coming weeks, and go officer hunting.  Aptly named, Templar, I have discovered a fondness for this ship that I may nurture in the coming months, in light of the introduction of T3 frigates at some point in the near future, of which I will undoubtedly and wholly invest myself in, when they are released.  I am after all, most comfortable in a trusty Covert Ops ship, zipping about space, unseen but omnipresent, like a thief in the night, I am a scout at heart.

The Divine Comedy

We are about to embark on what I believe will be the grand journey that most of us have been preparing for in this game for years.  Though I wish it were under vastly different circumstances, we have been compelled beyond all other reason to initiate a mass exodus from what was the most unique and wonderful place in the game.  Providence was rife with good, bad, and everything in between, and although our time there seemed to be at a close this past fall, as the Apotheosis of Virtue alliance struggled to find it's place in the game, we inevitably found our way into the Fatal Ascension.  Fatal Ascension was quite literally on the verge of greatness, and we were extremely fortunate to have been granted permission to participate in their journey.  However, the best laid plans, are often the first to be dispelled.  Fatal Ascension, is leaving Providence.

Why, you ask?  Not for lack of wanting to defend, uphold, and support our CVA brethren with every dying breath, but because of circumstances beyond our control.  You will note that I have been using a unique signature now for a week or two.  When I am feeling particularly inspired, I turn to poetry, art, literature, and music.  These are the trades I ply in, my ultimate passion, and something I am hoping to aspire to at some point in my life when the time is right, if you had not noticed my penchant for the English language already, that is. 

Let me explain the imagery you see, and maybe that will help explain, why I have so many abject fears for player driven 0.0 content in this game, and who I think is only making it worse, and not better.  The image is a popular piece that depicts a scene in The Inferno by Dante Alighieri.  This particular scene occurs in the fabled eighth circle of hell, the one directly before the pit containing Lucifer himself.  The eighth circle is reserved for those who commit various forms of fraud, and in this particular scene you are witnessing the fraud of the corrupt politicians, assailing Virgil and Dante by leading them in false hope, to a bridge that goes nowhere. 

To me, this is powerful metaphor, for how I feel about the state of the game at this time.  The winged demons in the foreground, with the true red icons, are the Titans of -A-, assaulting the righteous forces of the CVA and its affiliates.  In the background, the vast swarm of nameless demons, circle and approach, coating the skies with their numbers.  In the relief, to the lower right of the imagery, are the malicious, but meager forces of the UK, biding their time, waiting for -A- to finish their work, so they can move in and assault CVA from behind.

Now, you may ask yourself, okay, so Mendolus obviously has some deeply entrenched hatred for -A- and UK, what's the big deal there?

It is not that I dislike them, per say, it is that I am ultimately disappointed in the depths of their hubris and lack of foresight, to see that the game is going to suffer by their actions.  CCP introduced this lag issue with the new more fluid sovereignty mechanic last December.  Not only did sovereignty get a dramatic makeover but it became terribly more fluid than ever before.  Couple that with a new lag issue that favors the aggressor and you have a serious problem on your hands, especially where it concerns the most populous power structures in the game, and their own self control, or lack thereof.  What this boils down to me, is a game.  And like any game, where more than one person plays, there is some underlying competitive nature to it, regardless of the content of the game itself.  Now, pit that with a game like EVE that is almost solely based on competition between players at every turn, from the market system, to the capital engagement and sovereignty mechanic, and you have a game that relies on the entertainment value of its opportunities for conflict and resolution.

What happens when that conflict no longer amounts to a fair challenge, and instead amounts to whomever has the best timing, adequate numbers, and will?  You need all of five hundred pilots, most in capitals, some in conventional ships, to completely lock down an entire solar system.  There is no way for the defender to provide adequate defense if you maintain that presence.  Sure they may jump a fleet in, but the grid will not load, and you will simply shoot them, defenseless ships in space, with no pilot actually controlling them.  This is not a game.  This is a space simulator.

What does this say for the reputation of player driven 0.0 space as the richest most diverse and affluent content in the game, in the long run?  Not a whole lot.

EVE is based on the rewards of taking calculated risks whose potential reward outweighs said risks.  If that changes for player driven 0.0 content, because the most populous power blocks in the game cannot exercise a little self control long enough for CCP to fix the lag issue, then player driven content is going to take a serious hit.  All the veterans from at least Trinity forward, saw this happen to low security space, slowly but surely, over the course of twelve months, once the reward of going there no longer outweighed the risk.

So yes, I think -A-, UK, and others, who abuse a mechanic just to win the game as it were, and drive all the competition out, are the fraudulent politicians, forever manipulating the public, with espionage, subterfuge, word play, coercion, and yes, brute force.  There are few enough players in 0.0 as it is, for them to be playing a cheap parlor trick, and driving an entire region of thousands of people back to Empire.  It will give 0.0 space a reputation for futility and once it acquires that reputation, it will only degrade from there, regardless of how coy the power blocks try to be in encouraging people to come rent their space;  space that is still smoldering with the fires of war that drove the previous residents out against all possible odds, with floating, lifeless, macabre corpses silently drifting through the frozen reaches of space, heralding the futility of player drive content in 0.0 space, if the players themselves, ruin it for everyone.

I have more words to say on this issue than I could ever put to a keyboard, and suffice it to say, this is only the tip of the iceberg with me, as usual.  However, I will say now, that if CCP does not come up with a hotfix, patch, fix, or resolution to this lag issue within 4-6 weeks from now, I predict that player driven content in 0.0 will be in serious decline by the time the summer expansion comes.  I would almost go as far as to say that the game itself may peak in subscriptions at this time, after being on the rise for so many years, slowly but surely, and that we may actually see a deficit for the first time, because people who had a fond and unrequited love for player driven 0.0 space, will no longer have any reason to believe it has entertainment value for them anymore, and will simply wander off to other games and other adventures.

Let us hope, that the more populous power blocks in 0.0 space, come to realize, before it is too late, that winning the game, is not nearly as important, as having fun, and you can only have fun in a game, if the competition is fair at the most fundamental level.  Otherwise the losing team will simply quit instead of continue to play another round, and then you are left with a game board that has only your pieces, and no competition, and that, is no longer a game.

Where this leads us, the Fatal Ascension, is something only time will tell, but it looks like it is going to lead to even more opportunities, for us to stake a claim on a little corner of space, just for ourselves, and call it home.  That in and of itself, is the best good that could have ever come from this tragic turn of events, that almost resembles a real Divine Comedy, with all the irony, and metaphor, and lessons.

Stories

I miss the people we have lost along the way.  From the ever studious Tishlin who went off to sea on the west coast to become an ocean surveyor for the US navy, to the Vox who was such a unique and flavorful individual with an incredibly rich personality who just one day, was no longer with us, to the Surianna with her sweet and compassionate personality who was dragged away from us by her fiance, Rishal, with the penchant for glory who thought everything comes easy, to the Kematian and Zinger who were such a wonderful, lively, and interesting couple, until he made it clear the game was nothing more than a plaything to him and whether he hurt people or not was less his concern than whether he got be wild and carefree, to the GNO1 with the hilarious name, who was such a witty personality, and never ceased to amaze us with his vast knowledge of modern technology but in the end did not seem satisfied to be playing a game with what must have seemed like a bunch of immature kids to him in some respect, to Darko who was as suave as he was industrious, ever striving for more and more fiscal glory ingame, but never quite having the time in real life to devote to it as his acting career took him away more and more from the game, to ZeeOhSix who was at one moment the most jovial aerial stunt and race pilot, having led such a rich and wonderful life in his nearly 50 years, and then at the other the most angry and volatile person you could imagine, lashing out at everyone and everything around him, to Cyto Brixe who was the pirate you loved to hate, a fierce woman who on the one hand pushed and compelled our pilots to greatness, and on the other recruited more pirates into the corporation on a whim, claiming they were reformed, to Jaxon who was easily the most charming, considerate, and wise man I ever met in this game, full of the most wonderful ideas, hopes, and eternal optimism, who just wanted to experience this grand space opera for himself, and was grateful to find friends to enjoy it with, as an older man in his fifties, and not apt to typically be understood or considered a valuable personality, by younger more foolhardy generations, but someone whom I wish I could be friends with for life even to this day, though real life has taken him away from the game and email correspondence is just a tiresome burden in the end, to GRI3V, Achilles, Ajax, Shaun Tsue, Northwind, Kurobane, Sexah McGoo, Ravenor, Johnny, Troyd, Blurtie, Nlor, Koner, Riikar, and to the others, not named but certainly not forgotten, I wish you could all come and see and experience and journey with us once more.

MMOs are just games, but it is the people that make them mean something to me, and you are all fondly remembered, either good or bad, whether you know it or not.  Memories are the best kinds of treasures, and only the fortunate figure this out at such an early age as I have.  I feel grateful to know that I will remember the lessons I learned from each person, and the stories I can tell about each and every one of them.  Grateful to know that pixels mean nothing to me compared to the people I share them with, a hard fought lesson to learn, but one that sets me apart from other gamers, ceaselessly trying to conquer a world full of intangibles at any cost to themselves or those around them, intangibles that one cannot even touch in real life.

Capital Fleets

Capital Fleets
Scout's Perspective





The Client
Can't See Can't Fight

It is absolutely imperative you setup your client properly before a capital battle. You may be using a NASA supercomputer in some basement in a government complex in Florida, but that still does not mean you are going to have the bandwidth to function in a capital engagement with hundreds and hundreds of ships on the grid at one time.

• Turn off ALL effects.
• Turn down ALL graphics.
• Zoom out!
• Close unnecessary channels.
• Do NOT play in windowed mode.

The Overview
Holy Brackets Batman

You can easily find yourself lagged out for thirty seconds if you so much as flip over to a new tab in your overview that has all brackets showing in space. In addition to that, without a proper overview setup, you'll play hell even finding the primary target regardless of whether it has been broadcast or not.

• Turn off ALL brackets on ALL tabs.
• ONLY reds and neutrals on your primary tab.
• Create the following overview settings*:
  
  
  
  • Planets, Stations, Sun, Control Towers, No Ships
  • Only carriers
  • Only dreadnoughts
  • Only battleships
  • Only interdictors and heavy interdictors
  • Only super capitals

*Note: It is assumed that you will have stargates, cynosural beacons, mobile disruptors, etc. on all overview settings listed above.

The Mechanics
Here's Your Memo

CVA and holders use a spider chain setup for their carrier fleets that is and should be required of all capital pilots in the future. I will post that setup here later tonight.

That being said, one of the most important things to know as a new capital pilot are the following:

• Flying a capital in a large fleet engagement is a lot like being a forward scout, you are going to be alive one minute and dead the next, so get used to it, and do NOT panic.
• As per the note above, pay attention to who the FCs are, and do exactly what they say, and nothing else. If they tell you to eject from your ship, you do it, no matter how crazy it sounds. Anything short of this can wipe an entire fleet. Never panic.
• Know your POS mechanics:
  
  
  
  • You must change your shield harmonic BEFORE initiating a warp sequence to a foreign POS bubble. Not during warp, not while aligning for warp, but BEFORE you click Warp To...
  • You must set your capital ship to KEEP AT RANGE of the control tower to stay within the bubble and avoid drifting or being bumped out.
  
  
• Do NOT activate needless modules before a cynosural jump as it takes a majority of your capacitor to initiate your jump drives.
• People are going to die, you may be next in line, so shake the nerves, and make sure you align, warp, fire, disengage, retarget, cycle your modules, move, stop, or whatever else the FC says the moment they say it lest you get trapped in a sling bubble and are relieved of your ship. Do not think, do. The FC does the thinking.
• Know your fleet window and how it works:
  
  
  
  • To change squads in a free move fleet right click your character portrait and navigate to the fleet drop down menu.
  • To jump to a cynosural field easily, watch the broadcast history for a new cynosural beacon, right click it in the broadcast window, and jump. You may also find all active cynosural beacons available to you through right clicking your character in any channel and using the menu.
  • Carry extra topes in your corporate hangar, you will not be able to jump to a cynosural field farther than your range, and may be forced to take more than one jump to reconnoiter with the fleet. This may or may not cost you extra fuel.
  
  
• Know your game mechanics. There are too many things to emphasize here, understanding that your ship will warp even at 0 cap, or that you cannot jump to a cynosural beacon while scrambled are some but certainly not all of the most important things to know. Without this basic knowledge, you are more liable to go down in a fiery ball of flames undocking from station or getting separated from the fleet, than going down in pitched battle in some epic engagement. We all wanna have fun together, not die alone and miserably.

The Lag
Syrup With Your Pancakes

Lag is the most important part of a capital engagement. Knowing how to operate your ship under these adverse conditions is the difference between idly sitting by as the rest of the fleet pelts hostiles, and watching your own guns light them up at the same time. The fleet commander of the engagement in D-GTMI could not stress this enough. If you know anything, know how to cycle your modules properly.

• Turn off Auto Repeat on ALL modules.
• Remove all weapon groups.
• Engage targeted weaponry and logistics in the following fashion:
  
  
  
  • Target ship; once a lock is acquired, a target box appears on your display.
  • Activate weapons or support modules
  • Double click all module icons next to the target box to deactivate the cycle.
  • Verify you did not double click space and have begun to drift.
  • Rinse and repeat.
  
  
• Engage self modules at will, bearing in mind that they will deactivate after one cycle and you will have to continually repeat each cycle manually.
• Be patient. Just because you cannot see anything happening, does not mean it is, or that it will not start shortly.
• Add your squadmates to your watch list.
• Watch your broadcast window for who needs what. It will be too confusing to watch some channel for squadmate X to announce he needs shields, a message which he may or may not be able to even send with lag.

Wrapping Up
Yes, You Have A Dirty Mind

I had never flown a capital into an engagement prior to D-GTMI nor would I say I jumped into the system knowing what the french toast I was supposed to even be doing half the time. However, knowing basic game mechanics, listening attentively, not talking out of line or spamming fleet chat with frivolous questions, and being patient, calm, and collected, pretty much allowed me to catch up with the veterans the entire time and run with the best of them. Do not be nervous or apprehensive, your fleet commanders are seasoned veterans who will and can explain all the subtle nuances of the engagement to you before you actually cyno into the fight.

It is not the most complicated thing in the world, nor is it really much different in some sense than any other encounter. Just remain calm, listen carefully, and do not over analyze things during battle, just do what you're told and do it right. Most of what you will be asked to do is no different than piloting a rookie ship. It is just on a grand scale. If you ignore the price tag on your ship, and resign yourself to losing it, as it is just pixels on a screen after all, you will be a boon to the fleet, not a burden. I cannot say the same for the few dozen pilots who cyno'd out on our fleet without orders when things got sketchy at the POS in D-GTMI. If I were their FC I would woop some serious ... for how selfish they were. The capitals were being reimbursed by CVA, and those pilots needed to grow some.

Judge, Jury, And Executioner

Judge, Jury, And Executioner
Sometimes Your Choices Are Made For You

We have been cast off, expelled as it were, from the proverbial pool that spawned the corporation we are today, no longer a member of the Apotheosis of Virtue, but still pursuing that long term goal, finding a place to live, be it by the flag over our corporate banner and the people that it entails, or the physical space we reside in, that every member of this corporation can thrive in. Because this corporation was founded on the platform that every person gets their shot at all things EVE, and we do not restrict ourselves to solely PvP, PvE, or Industry endeavors, it makes it rather tricky for us to achieve this lofty goal without an alliance of brethren to make it happen.

For us AOV no longer supported this goal if in practice not if in principle. Content to chase hostiles in small roaming fleets night after night, declare war on neutrals in Empire with some history of hostilities against Providence residents, and play it safe politically, while dreaming of greater glory, the alliance executor offered us every opportunity to rise to our own occasion, wholeheartedly, but unfortunately little incentive to do so in the end. What with half a dozen burgeoning capital pilots, members aching for frequent fleet activities involving more people than you count on both hands, and for strength in numbers, it become more and more of a burden for us personally to support long term goals that we so often felt were all on our shoulders alone , whether this was merely our perception or a reality, which in some sense is one and the same. Our alliance numbers dwindled over the course of a full fiscal year while our goals remained the same. The formula was simply not working.

Four weeks ago when we met with the alliance leadership to discuss plans to move North because the AU-F was struggling under its own weight and it looked like were going to lose a good enough portion of the members that make this corporation what it is that I simply had no choice but to take action, at which time we were told by the leadership a lot of "You cannot do this. You cannot do that." insofar as it concerns gaining ground with the powers that be up in the North. It was not that this was right or wrong, it was the principle of it. Here the AU-F was gasping for breath living in an environment, the alliance, where we were struggling to find reasons to even log on at night, and I was being told we should not do what is best for our corporation, and should instead consider moving everyone in one fell swoop out to NPC 0.0 and make a stand. The ubiquitous chest pumping campaign, as it were. It confused me to be honest. Our corporation, burned out and frayed around the edges, was gasping for relief, to be able to enjoy the content of the game again and be a part of a larger whole not the larger part of a whole as far as activity levels are concerned, and we were being asked to pick up all our stuff, jump into the gaping maw of hell, and fight to the death. We needed relief not fire and brimstone.

Thankfully, we came to an agreement, given that everyone just wanted what was best for the alliance, which in turn meant best for the AU-F as well, that we would continue to pursue a campaign in the North because AOV was not nearly large enough to make any further progress in Providence under its current platform and approach, and too small to entertain and sustain itself and moreso its lofty goals in the ever more bustling and packed Providence systems.

Due to factors well beyond our control, the Northern campaign had to be scrapped merely three weeks after it began, and we started trickling back to Providence. Now, I had told the officers, there would only be two reasons why I would return to Providence and ask them to come with me.

1. The format or environment of the alliance drastically changed in a way that I felt was conducive to the growth we needed to survive as a corporation while maintaining residency in greater Providence.
   
2. The environment of Providence vastly changed so that it became apparent a corporation or alliance of our size and with our particular goals could begin to flourish once more OR would be better off by comparison to NBSI 0.0 space.

Well, we never got a chance to meet with the alliance leadership to discuss the first point, and the second point as you all well know, has come to fruition even if merely by the fact that NBSI 0.0 itself has now deteriorated to the point that I believe our best opportunity to participate in the grand scheme of things and throw our lot in with good people, is now in Providence ever more so, and in some sense, specifically because we are now a free agent corporation, which vastly changes the potential we have to join an alliance that has the numbers, environment, and goals we have so dreamed of ourselves for six months or more. An alliance comprised of corporations like our own; a family environment where everyone knows your name.

Aside from this, because it is all behind us now, and while we wish our former alliance brethren the best of luck in their own endeavors, we have ourselves potentially been given the golden opportunity to join an alliance that is on the verge of everything we have dreamed of, has a wonderful power structure, and a leadership that strives for everything we have in the past six months. Meaning, all things EVE, and all things Providence. It was only when I felt like our alliance could never achieve these things with its present approach in Providence that I had to consider getting out, and finding NBSI, which would be more appropriate for an alliance of AOV's size and activity levels. However, Providence is more than amazing for this potential alliance of more than six hundred members, and by joining them we add to the whole, both bettering them, and being bettered ourselves in return. We will make our own difference, be it small or large, but that difference will not weigh heavily on our shoulders alone, it will be a shared burden.

Though I have interacted directly with the leader of this alliance only a few times in the past, I can tell you right now, if you have ever extended your trust to me as a friend and not just a CEO, you should extend it to him as well. This I can assure you, by my word.

To Fatal Ascension and to Raven Shadows, executor of Fatal Ascension, the AU-F extends its utmost offer and pledge of unity, camaraderie, and resources to better support, defend, and expand upon the interests, principles, and faculties of the greater Providence region, its holders, and its residents.

We who are about to die, salute you.


Disclaimer: Do not toss in the victory towel or start partying and getting excited about a wealth of opportunities opening up to us just yet as I will be formally applying for our membership in the Fatal Ascension alliance this afternoon at 23:00 EVE time pending we are granted final approval of the move. Nothing is as of yet written in figurative stone.

Veteran's Curse

Veteran's Curse
It Can Happen To You

So, I have been milling about since my vacation in October, desperately grasping at straws to figure out, as I say to myself often upon logging on, "After more than twelve months in this game, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

• Logon
• Undock
• Shoot Stuff
• Drink Beer
• Make Merry
• Share Stories
• Entertain Friends

It sounds simple, right? Well, I had been told previously by a number of old timers, that there would be this wall I would hit, with the scope of the game suddenly laid out before me, and having experienced enough of it, I would then wonder, is there anything left, and why do I keep logging on anymore. This sounds ludicrous right? EVE is a huge sand box, there is no endgame? But at a personal level, there is. We all set long term goals for ourselves in EVE once we have had enough experience under our belts to know how to plan ahead six months or more, and when we finally reach that place we had hoped to be, and are then faced with even more planning, we start to wonder, is enough enough? Now, amazing friends to keep me entertained nightly and vice versa aside, I had always assumed this would not happen to me. There's a wealth of wonderful content to experience in this game, so surely I would not run out of steam right?

I did.

So I decided, I guess it was around the middle of November, or so, that the corporation as a whole should just take a huge load off, as we had been going hot and heavy for almost ten months straight at that point, trying to conquer the world, as it were. This was right about the time BEOR, GRIEV, and friends came on board to the AU-F. Unfortunate for them, though I could not really explain at the time, that half the officers were feeling and acting burned out and needed a nice long break from it all. So we lost them. Okay, shit happens. I can live with that, sad as it may be.

Then Dominion drops, and everyone comes back bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the world, and toss their lot into the grand scheme of things. Oh woe is the pilot and group of players who discovers all that glitters is not gold, quickly, and drastically. Dominion brought change alright, but not the kind of change we can believe in, to be cliche.

However, after mucking around in Dominion for almost two months, and having launched our immense Northern Campaign and seen a rejuvenation of corporate incentives, energy, and motivation, I personally feel as refreshed and ready to take on the game as ever before. Maybe it helps that I just purchased, fit, and dazzled at my very first capital ship in the game, my Thanatos, named Simulacrum, because I still have a hard time believing I can now pilot one, let alone that it is physically sitting in a station with my character on board, even though I have been training towards it since September of last year. Maybe it was seeing everyone rush forth to pursue the campaign up in the far reaches of space more than well enough across the entire universe from where we have lived, breathed, and died for a year or so now.

So, I am back, and I am hungry for all things EVE, but here is the catch...

You are sitting down, right? You did not have a big lunch and you do not have a mouth full of milk at the moment with which to conveniently spew out of your nose?

The Northern Coalition is evidently going to turtle their primary assets, RAZOR and Morsus Mihi space, and retreat from Geminate, in order keep at bay the hounds of Triumvirate.

Our Northern Campaign? Poof.

I already shit my pants, don't worry about me.

So what now? I really do not know, I do know that I am continuing with my own project, the empire project, which I am now calling, the Gremlin Campaign, as I am just enamored with that term militarily, merrily dreaming of a some amazing ship model ingame named the Gremlin. This campaign will base out of Caldari high security space so no one needs to throw up their hands and pick up all their PvE or mining ships and mingle back to Domain or anything. And Varian's VERSA project, being a glorious success in my opinion, will continue as planned, but the scenery may change, though I am not certain on the details as it is all being hashed out still.

So what is the bottom line? More change is on the horizon but no one should panic and pick up all their stuff and retreat en masse back to Providence. However, it is in all likelihood that we will have to regroup there, and figure out what to do next, as far as a corporation goes, esp. since we will have to consider the alliance as a whole in the grand scheme of things too. I will be meeting with the heads of the alliance this weekend hopefully, to discuss options, etc.

The next post, hopefully later tonight, or tomorrow, will detail the various competing factors we may or may not have going for or against us, as it concerns gaining access to NBSI space, or taking what we can get and being happy with it. It will help me solidify my sense of the patterns laid out before me, and with any luck, ease the concerns of anyone who is thinking:

What the french toast? We just spent four weeks on a huge campaign only to have it disappear before our very eyes! Mendolus, your untimely death shall be by my hand! Have at thee!

Hopefully to ease those concerns with calming talk such as:

Well, the campaign was only meant to last 6-8 weeks anyways, succeed or fail, so we simply had to cut it short, due to factors beyond our control.

In the end it seems Dominion has opened some doors to us demographically but closed just as many if not more.

Crossroads

Crossroads
A Fork In The Road


The Path Already Traveled...
There are not very many times either in real life or an online environment where things really matter so much that it is almost palpable in the air. Sure there are tumultuous sometimes violent encounters between opposing forces, ideals, or peoples, but I am talking about times of pivotal decision making.

Last night the corporation convened for a rare but important meeting to talk about what we want out of this game not as corporate or alliance members but as individuals. Though most of the leadership suspected as much, we were all pleasantly surprised and overjoyed to hear that the sentiments were largely unanimous. We want to have fun, and we want to have fun together. Wherever it is, whatever it is, as long as its fun, and we are adhering to our ideals as a group, then we go for it. This is what the AU-F started with, and if I have my scruples, that is what it will continue with. We are here to enjoy an online game and the friends we choose to play it with. It is as simple as that.

The Pause...
Now, the lingering question in everyone's mind is, why are we not doing this now and why did we stop doing this in the past month or so? As per the last post made here an unfortunately long time ago I implored everyone to take a much needed breather in anticipation of a flurry of activity after Dominion dropped. The former happened, the latter, having something to do after Dominion actually dropped, did not. Not because of us, but more so because of the content of the expansion itself. Things did not pan out like we had all hoped they would. So since then we have been trying to apply this same formula (having fun for the sake of fun) to the alliance as a whole. Sparing you the gory details, this has been easier said than done. Our idea of sacrifice versus personal entertainment differs greatly from others, it seems. However, we are giving it everything we have got within reason, without sending the lambs to the slaughter, so to speak.

So because of this, the corporation has voted to not take on the Stain Project after all. And by corporation, I mean, we asked for volunteers to go out to Stain, and got no more than we could count on one hand, and with room to spare at that. This is the AU-F as a whole that has spoken on the matter. And I take very seriously what the majority of the corporation desires as a group at one point or another when opportunities are presented to us. What does this mean? I do not know. But we hope to find out soon after meeting with the leadership pool of the alliance. One thing that is clear, however, is that at this time Providence has gotten just a little bit too crowded for our tastes. CVA itself, sovereign power and one of the most respectable power blocks in the game, have no part in this, per say. They set forth on this path years ago, and could not have fathomed that the changes in the game mechanic and the player base would yield such a relatively inhospitable environment financially, rather devoid of the means which we all need to maintain our personal levels of entertainment. When I can squeeze out an L4 and bank more in fifteen minutes than I can in an hour on any average night out in Providence, then you know it is time to look to the horizon for a time and find another herd to track.

The Fork...
Now, CCP is talking under their breath about looking into adding NPC agents to player controlled space, and I think the reason being, is exactly what has happened to Providence. Providence is like a thermometer for all of EVE. It has both elements of Empire, low security, and null security all wrapped into one. And so you get this sort of massively complicated dichotomy with which if you were to take educated samplings of, you would get an idea of what is and is not working in the game itself, except for capital engagements of course. And so I think at some point in the next six months Providence may be viable again for pilots in our position, loyal to Providence, but unable to make a day's wage out there, so to speak. But I no longer have the patience personally to waste away another six months waiting for something to happen, to give me purpose out here. I want to have fun sooner rather than later, especially after spending the past few months wondering what we are supposed to really be working towards out here in the end.

Bearing this in mind, it behooves the Alliance to take up this initiative and find us space to live where we can prosper and flourish but not directly oppose or risk harming our brethren in Providence space. The AOV leadership has taken up this charge, which is what the Stain project is about. And the charge is, gain standings with the north. The north, comprised of the power block known as the Northern Coalition, with such alliances as RAZOR, Wildly Inappropriate, and Morsus Mihi, are not directly at odds with Providence residents or sovereign powers, and are the most logical choice of a place for us to go prosper and flourish and maybe maintain a long term and permanent residence should we find ourselves liking the space so much that we do not want to return to Providence. Not only this, but in the two years I have been gaming in EVE, I have only seen good from these alliances, rarely bad. In fact Morsus Mihi has always had my utmost respect, because they fly incredibly professional PvP fleets that are awe inspiring the few times I have seen them.

The Decision...
Now, the elephant in the room is, that the Alliance has chosen to take on the Stain Project, but we have not. So what does this mean? I do not know. I want to go back to the drawing board, but I want decisions to be made in days, not weeks, as this has already gone on long enough, the confusion, and lack initiative that is. We are going to convene with the alliance leadership at the earliest convenience, and bring these issues to light. The first order of business is we are temporarily and/or permanently leaving Providence. The second order of business is we do not wish to pick up our pilots, drop them into inhospitable space, and tell them to fight tooth and nail for survival. The third order of business is we want to primarily live in an environment that is conducive to wealth and progress first, and an environment that is target rich for combat fleets second. We had the former for the first six months we came out to Providence. Now we seem stuck in perpetuity with the latter, which is not good for the bottom line. Wars are waged with the dollar not with the soldier, in a philosophical sense. If we cannot fund our operations, what does a target rich environment give us? A whole lot of nothing.

The Path Yet To Be Traveled...
So before us lies two paths. One path leads to compromise between what the alliance thinks it needs and what we think we need. The other path leads to compromise between what we need and what the alliance thinks it needs. Which comes first? I am apt to believe after having devoted twelve months to alliance initiatives thus far that we need to make a few decisions for our own benefit that do not hinge solely on whether or not it benefits the alliance first and us second. I am trying hard to include the alliance in the grand scheme of things nonetheless but only time will tell if I am able to maintain this particular initiative.

The Rock...
So, times are changing and with those changes comes uncertainty. But to give everyone a rock to lean on I would like to announce the advent of the long awaited Empire Project. I have tried, unsuccessfully, for more than half a year, to get a project rolling that provides all pilots, new or seasoned, with a consistent, stable, safe, and lucrative environment in which they can prosper and flourish in every way. So far I have been largely unsuccessful because my time is so micromanaged that I rarely had more than a day every other week to devote to this end. Now, however, having come to the realization that things are not going to get done unless I have help doing them, I have a tactical director, Varian, able to take over the combat responsibilities that I have tried so hard to also maintain over the past six months, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This leaves me much more time for administrative responsibilities and for infrastructure development, such as the Empire Project. So for this reason, regardless of what we do or do not do as a corporation or alliance, you will find, someday soon, in a system near you (if you live in Caldari High-Sec) a wealth of PvE opportunities with which to pursue both in missions, exploration, and industry. I have little to no details at this time because I have been unable to make a move on the project with all the uncertainty lately, but I can tell you it will happen regardless of all else.

So, if you are uncertain about what we are going to be doing in a week or two, as am I to a degree, one thing you CAN do is start pounding out Caldari missions to gain standings, or moving your mining and exploration ships to The Forge region. As early as tonight. Or sooner if you are bored.

See you in space my friends!
Mendolus

Hurry Up! And wait...

Hurry Up! And wait...
You want relaxation, I've got
your relaxation... right... here!


Hey hey! It's been a long month since I posted here. Wonder why? Well not much has happened to be honest. No that is not a bad thing, it's good. Why is it good? Because Dominion, it is coming. My favorite phrase at times, has always been the tried and true, if you cannot do anything about it then the only thing you can do is hurry up and wait for it. This old cliche could not be more appropriate for our time ingame at the moment and for the past few weeks.

For the past month, if I haven't been on vacation, I have been taking it easy, playing this or that game, hanging out with these or those friends, taking a much needed EVEcation to get my druthers together in anticipation for what I am hoping will be the biggest expansion yet in EVE insofar as its likelihood to dramatically change the landscape of the entertainment experiences possible to us.

Because of this, and because of a number of other issues, namely that lately a significant and somewhat alarming portion of our more active members have had real life issues come in between them and a nightly jaunt through space, I have issued, though not directly until now, a sort of moratorium on hardcore gaming within the corporation. Now is the time for everyone to sit back, soak in all the hard work they have done for this corporation and for themselves over the past ten months since we first deployed a POS, and to enjoy all things non-EVE related. Go out, buy or play a console game, sub again to an old flame MMO, and enjoy yourself. When Dominion comes out there will likely be more things to entertain or occupy us than we can even mention in one sitting, so until then, take a break! That's what I am doing. I have run this corporation since the spring of '08 and rarely taken more than a week here or there to just sit back and relax until this past month. So I highly recommend everyone else do the same to avoid the inevitable burnout of putting one's nose to the grindstone at any one thing for more than six months at a stretch. Just make sure you check in on the game every day or so for emergency dispatch or critical information. For example, the showing we had two nights in a row for the CVA incident was simply amazing.

Dominion releases in December. We have a few more weeks of utter carefree time to simply smell the flowers, so have at it! While you're at it, pick those flowers, give them to your significant other or hopeful flame, and get some! Lord knows you have plenty of free time right now while things in EVE are in a holding pattern and nothing major is going on.

:)

Your friend,
Mendolus

In The News Vol. #4

In The News
Vol. #4

• AFK

Well, I am going away for a bit, and I have left the care of the corporation in the hands of the Senate. I do not anticipate any wild debauchery or occurrences while I am away, nor any critical emergencies, but just in the rare event that something does happen, all the officers and some of the managers know how to reach me.

You know the drill, although I will not be updating the corporate/casual schedule, considering we are at a time of war, and all days are corporate anyways. Pairing up in twos or greater to achieve safety in numbers is paramount during a time of open conflict, not that I expect our WTs to do more than fit officer gear and piss their ships away in pitched 1v1 combat against crazy odds. Seriously, a gankfit Nighthawk worth 1.3bil against an Abaddon? Can we say no contest.

• Instinct; alive and well.

So last night we ganked a mission fit Cerberus. He happened to be coming our way as we went his way. Funny thing is that he nearly got away, but my instinct kicked in. Having done all the intelligence reports myself, I know this guy never flies Cerberus in combat, so I had a sneaking suspicion he was trying to earn some ISK to afford to PvP more, esp. in HAM Drakes, since he seems to like high yield missiles.

So we land on the gate two or three seconds too late to tackle him and he warps off, we pursue, our scouts making best speed to keep up with him. A jump into the pursuit, he warps off first to a gate, then off into a safe. Bingo. I know this game, it's called bait and switch. He was betting on the entire fleet running in a straight line like a hive mind. Only this mind had not one but three wholly capable FCs. So as the report is coming in that he warped off to a safe, I holler over comms that he is doubling back on us, and we should get tackle on the gate we just came through. Sure enough he lands on grid seconds later as our tackle are in route. Needless to say, he left shortly thereafter without his ship, and short 180mil that he had before, and was now relieved of.

Sorry, but bait and switch is the oldest trick in the book, and it does not work if you remain in local and are visibly seen to jump to a safe. He had no aggression, his best bet would have been to dock or log off like a chump. Thankfully for us, he had some nerves, and decided that it was more honorable to give chase and let us have our opportunity to dare and catch him. Good fight, my enemy, good fight.

• Border null, a killing ground.

I have noticed a discouraging amount of losses in the border systems of Providence along the low security pipeline. Please, do not linger in major pipelines, esp. those near capital systems. It is just no good at all. And do not travel more than 3-4 jumps without a scout or stabs if you are in a battlecruiser or larger.

• Suddenly questions...

I am usually a pretty helpful guy and pretty understanding, but there is one thing that gets in my craw every time. Nosy endless questions. Where are you guys? How many ships are you flying? What fit do you have? Who is FC? Who is scout? What belt are you mining? Are you hauling valuables? How much are they worth? Can I join? Can I come? Is there a fleet? Why can I not get into fleet? Why can I not get into your private ventrilo channel? Why can I not know every single tiny security detail about your covert operations? Can I loiter in the system you are trying to operate discretely in and blast all the intelligence reports into alliance chat or warp about and act suspicious?

Okay, so maybe I am exaggerating some but last night was pretty bad. Look, if there is something going on, and you are not immediately invited, there is always a reason, it may or may not be you, but there is a reason. So do not ask. The more you ask, the more I grow suspicious, and I am not a paranoid individual. Only a small handful of our freshest recruits do this kind of thing and I hate to be a hardliner but it needs to stop. No, we will not tell you when we are moving hundreds of mil in various materials, no we will not tell you why we have people in a private channel in ventrilo, and no it is not a fleet, we are just comparing epeens like its the locker room after a winning game and Big Bill has it hanging all out and is talking about the girl he banged last night, and no if we do not answer, it is because you are not privy to every tiny security detail of our alliance, so just chill, the more you ask private and sensitive questions about our operations, the more unsettled and frustrated I get, and I do not easily frustrate.

Capice? :)

• Advocated is back.

The alliance we love to hate, Advocated Destruction is back in low security on and off again. What makes these guys so frustrating? They are like cockroaches. They loiter about, in T2 cruisers, battlecruisers, and T1 battleships, in numbers of typically a dozen or more, and wail on people in low security. Let's face it, these guys have come into 0.0 a handful of times and gotten the holy snot pounded out of them every time within minutes, so it is obvious that they cannot cut it, and simply overcompensate. Oh yea, real tough guys, floating around in more than a dozen ships all tanked to the max, and docking up the moment real trouble arrives. It took them five minutes to gank my single Brutix, and all I had was a DC, EANM, and a single plate, no rigs. I mean seriously, five minutes? Takes the game to a whole new level of pansy ass scarebearing if you ask me. Ooh look at the scary fleet popping solo blues and neutrals here and there, shaking in their own booties because they are deathly afraid of real competition showing up. Sad shit man, sad shit.

• Lessons learned.

Let me paraphrase how our present war came to be and you tell me if this makes sense.

We declared war against a small corporation that was harboring a known scammer who we owed a debt of repayment to, by force. Said player then biomasses a 24,000,000 SP character, in order to hide his main account's identity from us. Said corporation then joins a NEUTRAL alliance. This alliance automatically enters an active war by admitting the corporation. Aggression between our own alliance members and theirs is immediately possible so long as the war was active in the first place. It was.

So, let me reiterate, this alliance executor accepted a warring corporation into his alliance in the middle of the afternoon on a week day. A few of our alliance members pop a Hulk of theirs. Logic goes to negotiate terms with these guys when he logs on to find that they have joined an alliance, because all he wants is the scammer, he is not here to aggress and combat a neutral alliance. He knows nothing of this Hulk as of yet as the first thing he does is convo the opposing executor. Everything seems to be going well, until the executor is alerted of his member's loss of a Hulk. In a nutshell, the guy goes batshit, talking about how he cannot believe that Logic is talking to him about a CEASEFIRE knowing that his guys have been popping his pilots.

First off, wild flailing accusations are pretty facetious, second off, do not accept a warring corporation whose own TZ and that of his aggressors is in the USA in the middle of the day on a weekday and expect the hostile forces to distinguish between one corporate avatar and the next. You have a red background with a white star, you are going to die. How ffs hard is that to understand? Seriously? I bet even a preschooler could understand that. You jump on a Merry-Go-Round as it is spinning real fast, and guess what, you got yourself a nice booboo, ya numbnuts. What did you think was going to happen, "Oh noz, big scary alliance took in our war targets! Cease and desist, we must huddle in the the corner and weep in fear!"

Right.


Anyways, we honored the CEASEFIRE once it was publicly declared, they did not, so who's at fault here?

• Gremlin squadron.

Gremlin squadron flew last night, with a dedicated crew of old salts in fancy ships. We snagged that Cerberus pilot real good; it was a joy. I hope to lead some of these Gremlin gangs here after I get back from vacation. One can only hope this war, and the combat experiences it has thus yielded, never ends.

• The price of war.

What is it, about inexperienced pilots, whose wallets are bloated from carebearing, that makes me cringe every time? Oh, maybe it's seeing damage control fit bombers, or solo gankfit Nighthawks worth more than five of my own, or battlecruisers half-ass fit with plates and trimarks that likely do jack for giving it good EHP, or projector rigged Falcons, or a solo gank fit CNR worth almost a bil, or people mining in an Orca who are in a time of war and are not aligned to a station in the system or warp stabbed, or just undocking an Orca period in a time of war, I mean ffs yo. These guys forced our hand on this war, and now I see them zipping about in daddy's new shoes. Better dig deep in the closet for those old loafers with the hole in the toe, because you are about to run out of shiny pairs of Doc Martins with which to roam about on the unsafe city streets, ya friggin' idiot. Who flies solo in ships worth +1bil when they know we run in gangs? Seriously? How dense do you have to be? But no, please, continue, I am looking to score a 500mil drop myself, so please fit that officer booster, I can haz shinies?

In The News Vol. #3

In The News
Vol. #3

• Taking that big leap.

PvP. I know a lot of people will not PvP without a group to back them up. But it's been my impression that most kills outside of blob warfare stem from small groups of 1-3 players who band together to pound on another similarly small group that literally just entered their area. If you are still apprehensive about your knowledge base or experience in PvP game mechanics not measuring up you need to do one of two things. Get out there and do it, or get on the test server and let a veteran show you. Fear keeps us at bay, but knowledge and experience set us free. I want to see more groups of 1-3 members out there living it up gangsta style in the coming weeks, with or without an official AU-F or AOV Fleet Commander at the helm.

• Longevity, tough job.

There is a hurdle in this game, that most people reach about three or four months in which peaks at around twelve months. If you have ever seen that amusing diagram on the learning curves in popular MMOs, you are likely to know what I am talking about when I say that the cliff face is indeed as high as it seems. I would like to call this hurdle the T2 Slump. About three or four months in you start to think to yourself, "Learning skills, check. Core skills, check. Can fly up to battlecruiser, check. Stable income, check. Now what?"

Well, for some, you start looking at one of two things as I've described at length on the forums. You either go T2 in BC or lower, or you go hog wild in battleship or larger, and whether that means T2 or not depends on your choice in ship. But that Cruiser V, that stupid skill is +20 days! What maniacal bastard designed this game anyways? Okay, well in all honesty, let's look at it this way, what T2 cruiser are you going to be using in anything other than PvP? Maybe an Ishtar or Zealot for ratting, okay, or a Logistics ship in PLEXs or L5s, okay. Is there much else? Not really. So while you wait for that agonizing skill to complete, nothing much changes for you, and nothing much changes in some sense when you get it. So relax, do not dwell on what will be, enjoy the fact that you're still going to be lining your wallet just like you always have, and while you wait on being able to fly those pricey T2 ships, it is business as usual.

What happens when you get into that ship? You get to have more fun, that's about it. It won't make or break you ability to adequately participate in small to medium sized gang warfare, nor will it make you unstoppable, but it will be one more shiny ship you can be proud to fly and learn to utilize. Looking down the line you realize that a lot of ships are like this; one more shiny tool that goes on my belt, along with all the rest I already have. So when you get to the place, where you are like "Why am I spending months training all this junk? I could go play FPS and just find fancy stuff laying around, pick it up, and start blasting folks with it," just think to yourself, that all this training, does not MAKE the game more entertaining for you by somehow making you more capable than you were before. Only your perspective, stance, experience, and effort do.

• Diplomacy paramount.

We recently had a diplomatic incident with a friendly corporation who had been hanging out in our public channel for a week or two. Nice, personable, congenial people can still sometimes take things well out of context, however, as it seems they have done. For some reason, it appears that their sister corporation, built for combat, had a member who fired on blues down the pipe from the PN4 corporation and the Einherjar Alliance. Said corporation was then reported as hostile for the remainder of the day in the security channel. Our alliance executor thus set them red as a KOS was pending at the time.

Let me clarify at this point. That's his job. And he's very good at it. Maybe, maybe once every month or two I will report a red I see in local only to be rebuked for them actually being neutral. So our members take this at face value. If you're red, you're dead. Members of our alliance, other blues, and the Providence residents at large thus began actively hunting, eliminating, and podding our new friends because they were now considered hostiles. Suddenly I am logging onto the game to watch my public channel filled with griping for six hours straight, asking us "Why why why?" over and over. Not my responsibility. Nor the alliance executor's, nor the people who fired on those pilots. Neither do I want to be forced to turn blink off on my own corporation's public channel because it is nothing but complaining and questioning for something that is not even our responsibility. PN4, Einherjar, and said parties should have immediately presented their case in the CVA-Diplo channel and sorted it out right then and there.

Diplomacy is a gentleman's game, and it requires one of two things, transparency or erudition. Our alliance executor is a man of transparent motives. He will tell you to your face what the problem is, regardless of whether you spill your coffee in shock or not. This is transparency, diplomatic relations are immediately out in the open, and the problem is rooted out. I myself use erudition, the artful measure of learned knowledge to the extreme. I will kill you with the facts, and let you come to your own conclusions after you have already been burned beyond recognition in light of the public sphere. Combined, these diplomatic measures ensure A) We always have a clear voice and B) We always cover our asses while laying it on you thick like butter.

I saw none of this in the public channel for hours which creates a sour taste in my mouth. If such a small relatively benign situation causes such upheaval, what of truly momentous events and disasters? If we are already at our peak for something so trivial as a common misunderstanding, how much more volatile can it get for when it really matters? Thankfully our members were gracious enough to explain that it was not our responsibility and if said corporation had diplomatic issues to raise them with the parties in question at the representative level, aka our executor, and the executor and/or CEO of the other corporation and alliance. Not our public channel where we relax and enjoy casual conversation and camaraderie. Do not barge into a poker game, waving a political flag crying foul on everyone in the room for something none of them were involved in while they are smoking cigars, drinking vodka, and dealing cards. You are likely to get shown the door very quick and in a less than gentle manner.

Where is the respect these days? I understand it is an online environment and people are free to mouth off all they want, but from a veteran CEO I would expect much more. I guess I am mistaken.

• Doing most by doing nothing.

Dominion. This expansion seems to be the greatest upheaval in game mechanics yet, so much so that I am not sure that the majority of the EVE gaming populace even has a solid opinion or has even had the chance to gasp yet at the idea that sovereignty will become much more solvent in a few short months.

However, while people begin to suffer egregiously from sovereignty fever the alliance executor and myself have deliberated on the subject and come to a firm conclusion. We are going to sit on the sidelines, not angle or negotiate for sovereignty of any kind, watch as the expansion drops, and we are going to protect CVA's interests first, and our own second. Why? Let's face it, every luxury, ISK, and good time we have had out in Providence has stemmed from CVA members who spent years cultivating, maintaining, and defending the space they worked so hard to conquer. My own gaming experience has been wonderful because they provided an open forum for me, the corporation, and people at large to grow on their own terms without the proverbial ball and chain to restrain us. So let us toast their blood and sweat with some of our own, and ensure that others who decide to try and take that which is not theirs, are stamped out, ever so quickly, when the Great Sovereignty Rush occurs. Trust me, it's in our best interests.

• A few good men.

While it may seem that we are vastly outnumbered when blobs of more than a dozen ships roam around Providence and we are floating around in half a squadron, I would like to point out that we are honing our combat skills to a fine degree, unlike those in large blobs who have the luxury of strength in numbers where whether one person or the next is as skilled as he can be matters little. Be proud of your combat experiences, as a skilled pilot is worth ten who are not.

• SiSi, your fine friend.

In line with the first topic in the news this week, I would like to encourage anyone who is unsure about the basic capabilities of their PvP ship and has not had as much experience testing that ship in real combat situations, to come onto the Singularity server, and test their mettle against any of my combat pilots. I can fly pretty much every ship type battleship or smaller except Logistics, so game on!

• Change is brewing.

Our format is working, we have 95% of our members living in low and null security on a daily basis now, and our combat fleets continue to excel in every encounter. However, we need to continue recruitment. We need combat pilots who are ready to help foster, acquire, and maintain sovereignty if and when we do find ourselves with it. We need 0.0 combat pilots, lots of them, just like the good people we have now who are rich in both skill and personality.

• AU-F Public goes stealth.

The Aurelius public channel has been set to Blocked operation which means it only admits those who have been manually entered into the Allowed list. A corporate mailer has been sent detailing the process to get your friends, our blues, or other miscellaneous people into the public channel.

• Jay (Mia) sells/looks for new char.

Jay is at it again! He has sold his Gallente character, Mia Dandoro, and is pursuing a set of characters with which to ensure he is able to maximize his limited time in the game. With a newborn only a few months old, even as he wraps up the harvest in the next week or two, he will have a baby in one hand, and a mouse in the other, on various occasions. Thus he is acquiring two Hulk pilots, and of course a combat pilot, and merging them onto one or two account. This way he can mine ore to fund his blood thirst, but will be able to simply walk away if his wife or son need his immediate attention. Look for him showing a new face in the next week or two. Let's hope his new character is named Inigo Montoya!

• Vacation nearing for Mendolus.

I am going AFK on October the 2nd and returning the 11th and I will likely not be taking a computer with me. However, the officers and managers know how to reach me in the event of a complete and catastrophic emergency such as Jacob nearly stepping on a bee and getting his junk stung when it flies up his pants in a fit of rage and burninates him.

• Providence space grows some.

Blobs. EVE Online: The Blobby Blob Age. Blobs. The slumbering beast has awoken in Providence, and fleets of dozens spring up everywhere in sight at the drop of a hat whenever there are reds inbound to an area. Providence residents are no longer content to play coy with our enemies and casually form up fleets to take them out as they have overstayed their welcome in the past few months. The fighters are scrambled the moment the blip hits the radar panel and I have seen some amazing response times in Providence in the past week or so. Blood for the blood god!

• War!

Well, we are at war. The reasons have been discussed at length both in private, public, and ventrilo, but suffice it to say, our war targets are carebears and scammers and we are not likely to get much of a fight out of them whatsoever. In fact, to my knowledge, not one of those muggles has logged on since the war went live. Shameful.

Liquid Woes

Liquid Woes
Interminable ISK

Last week went by quick for me, partly because of my frequent and annoying jaw and muscle pain, but also because I've been somewhat floundering on what to do ingame from one moment to the next lately.

I need ISK, and I need it fast, but it seems like every time I go to burn some ol' rats at a belt there are a dozen others with the same idea, or complete a string of L4s only to find some week old rube looting and salvaging my wrecks, which results in a half an hour long private conversation about being careful who he freely loots from because certain alliances are rather bloodthirsty at this time and will use any excuse to open up the flood gates and unleash fiery hell upon others. I am proud of that fact, by the way, as an alliance should have brass balls and nerves of steel. Something we do very well.

But the main idea is I need money, and I needed it last month, let alone this month. How much do I need, you ask?

Well, the skillsheets for getting into a Thanatos cost around a billion. The skillsheets for getting into a Rorqual cost about a billion. The cost of getting both ships is about a billion or more a piece. I am also getting a Golem the first week of January to alleviate the problems listed above ^. I'd like to see the hyenas salvage my wrecks faster than I can when they cannot tractor them and are forced to occupy my grid while NPCs spawn. The Golem will cost a billion, btw. So that is what, oh around five or six billion ISK, no worries, I'll just open up my wal...*gasp* Holy Flappin' Mothras Batman, we have no ISK! Okay, okay, so I'm not exactly broke, but I'm getting to where I cannot afford to replace some of the ships I fly, and we all know what they say about that.

So, big deal right, everyone needs ISK to fund their gaming habit in EVE. Yes, it must be nice to rat 75% of the time, and PvP 25% when there are official gangs and I covet the fact that our corporation is set up so that people can do that if they so desire. There is much to be said about leading a relatively carefree gaming lifestyle and I work myself too hard to make sure others have that luxury. So I could do that too, or could I? Well it would be nice, for sure, but for me it will always be more 25% ratting/missions and 75% administrative. But I think mainly I need to just batten the hatches, cinch up my belt, and use these new casual days the way they were intended. So from now on, on casual days, I do literally nothing but personal stuff, like earn ISK. Sorry random PvP gangs. Sorry last minute manufacturing or administrative needs. Daddy needs a shiny new Golem, Thanatos, and Rorqual and there is only one way to do it beyond selling my left nut, aptly named Wrinkles, to science.

;)

So if it's a casual day and you find some reds who need pounding, please do not take it the wrong way when I say no thanks, I have priorities that I must meet.

Six billion in the next three months is quite a bill and I do not intend to skimp on the tip.