New doctrine and watch-list changes

In my last encounter I attacked a Paladin, that I couldn't break with my three Dominix fleet. I could just shrug it off and continue with my hunt elsewhere, but where is fun in that? I went theory crafting, trying to find an alternative to my setup that wouldn't require an extra account, wouldn't break my bank, carry similar punch and have similar survivability. One necessary requirement  was extra neuting power since I struggle breaking well tanked ships or even spider tanking duo. I couldn't come up with many choices. Most tempting option was to train a character on unused trader account for a neuting Armageddon and use 5 accounts for my ganking, but upping the character count kinda rubs me the wrong way. I got my 4 pvp accounts not because I planned to kick ass "solo", but because I wanted to try many different things: PVP, scanning and exploration, be able to jump freight my stuff to low-sec and do production. And so my accounts were trained with that purpose in mind.

After having trained dedicated scanning, freighter and manufacturing pilots I needed a new roadmap. Reality was that exploration was still my main income and running DED sites took time. I had all these accounts sitting so why not train some support? And so I set skill plans to support my main in running DED sites. I went for three Dominixes as they had remote repair possibility and drone assist, meaning I wouldn't need to switch between clients to lock NPC. And it worked wonders. After finding a DED site, I would reship to a Megathron and three Dominixes, all fit with cloak and mwd for safe navigation in low-sec. Running sites was a breeze. Assisting three sets of sentry drones to the Megathron and shooting NPC was actually becoming an enjoying pve experience, something never heard of in EVE. I would do the routine scans in my area with deep space probes at the time, map 5/10s and 6/10s which I would finish very fast and later join my buddies for some pvp action.

While doing one of my favorite activities - gate camping (yea yea I know), we often would have targets escape us. Instant locking legions could only point, meaning a lot of speedy ships would gatecrash or burn out of range before Proteus could get a tackle on. Gosh, if only Proteus could lock any faster... ding, dong. I would refit my three Dominixes with remote sensor boosters, providing survivability for my shiny brick tanked strategic cruiser (back in the day gate guns shot you for the whole 15 minutes criminal timer). They would also be some sort of suicide repair squad if we got dropped. And thus I started using 4 accounts for pvp.

Time was passing by and it soon became natural. Me bringing extra accounts suddenly would give a fighting chance in small fleet engagements. Initial tackle Proteus with remote repair Dominixes worked very well in many situations. I could initiate tackle without big fear that my ship will be lost if nobody had a logi (everybody likes to pew pew instead of giving repairs).

And here we are. Many years later I am still using the same setup. Well, until now. I present you my latest meta:

Meet the Nestors. As some people suggested, I came to same conclusion that these battleships would be an upgrade I've been looking for. I have considered them before, but 1 billion price tag was too steep. Now they go for 700 mil in Jita and for three ships I save 900 mil.

They are quite similar to the Navy Dominixes I've been using, with few extra perks. The biggest is 7 high slots which lets me fit 2 heavy neutralizers instead of one. With now combined power of 6 heavy neuts, I'm ready to fuck shit up. But perks to do not end there. I also get an extra 50% remote repair bonus with 100% optimal range. That's quite nice which gives some moving room for my Proteus. Another big advantage is that I can refit without a mobile depot. That means I am able to swap for a third neut, which would make 9 in total or swap for an extra drone damage amplifier. Of course active refitting will be gone with upcoming changes, but that does not mean I can't swap out my cloaking device before I engage the target.

One downside is one less low-slot. I fit 2 instead of 3 drone damage amplifiers to maintain a decent tank. Another, and probably the biggest, downside is the prop mod handling. Using MWD increases the mass which makes ship very unresponsive. It basically gets the penalty of an over-sized prop mod, but none of the advantages. Since my engagements mostly happen at point blank range it should not be too big of a deal and MWD + cloak still works.

Buddy list

I really had hoped I would introduce my new fleet setup in a gank story, but things have been slow and here is why. Once I moved out of the previous system and setup the Nestor fleet, I needed a new place to stay at. Sometimes, when I encounter two interesting systems with potential targets, I bring my scout to one of them for "later". And so I logged one of my alts that wasn't on for months, scanned out the static high-sec and brought in the Nestors. Wormhole was active, with no anomalies present and potential targets at the tower.

The waiting game began. In time I have mapped a lot of pilots from the corp and became suspicious. System was always clean, but they would not do any anomalies while I'm on. I would log in evenings and log out before midnight and yet, nothing would happen. Furthermore, even when having a lot of pilots on-line, only few of them would be present at the time. Occasionally I would spot covert ops ship jumping to high-sec or some other wormhole, but never appear at the tower. I started thinking they keep scouts on exits for majority of time and might know I'm here. Even though I have been discrete and did not scout any connections I still think my presence was felt. System was large and I would have my ships at safe spots, out of d-scan range from any celestials and I would do safe log off every time. Yet, no opportunity would present itself for several days.

Then a patch hit which removed ability to see on-line status of any pilot, unless you both add each other to the Buddy List. And guess what.

I am being watch-listed! That was a quite awkward and funny feeling. As I feared, I have been spotted coming in by their scout and never seen leaving. Could be that my Nestor was spotted by chance on another day when failing to safe log out. Many theories, but one thing was clear - they know I'm around. There was nothing left for me, but to move out. I don't know if they spotted me jumping out to high-sec, but I left the contacts in the Buddy List for another few days. There's nothing like a little of healthy paranoia to keep my nemesis on their toes.

Thoughts on friendly fire changes in corps

Yesterday CCP finally announced ETA on friendly fire changes within corporations. Changes are to go live on February 17th. Starting that date, corporations will have an option to turn off friendly fire which means corp mates won't be able to shoot each other unless duel is initiated. This option will be off by default.

Awoxing game

There have been some discussions ongoing about these changes, however I was surprised to learn that initial thought was to remove friendly fire altogether instead of making it a toggle on/off option. Giving corps more control seems only reasonable thing to do.

To be honest, I did not care much about awoxing playstyle. I know some people focus in this activity, but it never appealed for me. Even though I like to be an asshole, joining a corp that don't know any better and killing their Orca and mining fleet (usually) just doesn't get me off. You can, of course, aim for more shiny ships, but to solo kill those, like shiny battleship or a marauder, t1 destroyer might not cut it.

Main reason I don't like awoxing is that you get blacklisted after first awox if corp bothers to report it on the forums. Also your killboard shows you awoxing. Having done that, you are blocked from all decent corps that put minimal effort in their recruitment and do background checks. Then you can only join some miner or very newbie corps that don't know any better. Not to mention your char is a throwaway. God forbid if character is on the same account as your main. By giving your full API you expose yourself. So many disadvantages and so much effort for mediocre kills. You might get a lot of tears, but I am not sure they are worth it. There are many more useful/profitable activities with much more impact that dedicated account can do.

Bigger picture

While I do not do awoxing, I am concerned about the changes. Highsec play has changed dramatically since I first joined EVE. Starting with crimewatch and now with friendly fire changes, I can't help but fear for the future. All "improvements" made may somewhat make sense, but it all adds up to safer environment. Just put all your safeties on and you won't have to worry much about screwing up or being screwed over. CCP might get the opposite effect than what they expect. With no dangers present, people will die out of boredom.

Once changes are live and assuming corps go for maximum security, only way to get at someone will be wardecs and suicide ganking. My biggest fear is that this trend will continue. Imagine if suddenly they implement player corps equivalent to NPC not to be wardecable with 10% tax. As Gevlon names them - friendly corp. Then imagine suddenly they change suicide ganking and forbade -5+ players from docking in highsec stations. These might be extreme examples, but if safety changes continue to be implemented, we might end up being more close to theme park than unforgiving universe. I believe  for each change CCP needs to give something in return. Like being able to shoot the deployables implemented in Rubicon expansion. Stuff like that brings new forms of emergent gameplay.

Leaving job half finished

I usually finish what I start, but that is not always the case. After getting multiple wardecs in highsec, I cut my ninja salvaging activities with already enough material to make several posts about it. Unfortunately, non intentionally, this also cut on my gaming time in general, where I basically moved back to my home wormhole and stayed afk for almost half a year and left those wonderful adventures unpublished.

protip for my future self: make drafts as you go instead recompiling posts from the memory.

Setting your priorities straight

Eve is like a bucket full of holes. You can keep pouring your time into it all you want, but it will never be enough. Leaving my poor analogies behind, I am happy to have quit eve as a full time job and treat it more as a hobby. It's very hard to do it for a such competitive person as myself. Even if it's pixel stuff, progress is progress and I like to win.

Even though I love EVE, it doesn't earn my bread and butter. It only make sense that person invests in himself in order to get better returns. Investing in EVE, unfortunately, gives very minimal returns if any. So I decided to reorganize my time and invest in myself. So what I have been up to?

• Learned basic programming to remove a lot of shitty tasks at work;
• Learning bloody swedish language with little success;
• Bought a guitar (hardest part done ech?);
• Kicked a lot of asses in dota 2 with techies release.

Continuing Cloaky Bastard adventures

Slowly getting back to EVE...again.... for the N^th time.  I packed my bags and set off to the unknown. Nowdays it is a bit harder to find a proper wormhole to stalk people since CCP removed API for kills information. Now I have to be creative and investigate corp towers, signatures and anomalies and make the best judgment call if I am likely to find any targets.

Being sneaky bastard makes my game. I feel like a well hidden predator watching his prey and waiting for the right moment. Best part of this is that I can do any other activities while stalking. It requires minimal effort. The only requirement is to be online and check that D-scan once in awhile.

Good old days

I miss my lowsec smartbombing pods days though. Back then, I even had timed all covert ops warp time to the second. If everything went right, I could kill those  pesky cloaky frigates without even seeing them. It really brought a sense of achievement. I even had plans to multibox several battleships to kill blockade runners, but after checking out the math, I did not have enough accounts to do it nor I felt like creating any more of them. I was never interested in an even battle. Killing someone who doesn't expect to be killed brings me most satisfaction.

Bittervet disease

Winning EvE

I've read somewhere that winning EvE is quitting. I haven't been around much. It all started with my trip for a party weekend to London to visit a friend of mine. It might have been alcohol poisoning, or should I say, alcohol cleansing my mind, but when I came back, I completely lost interest to log back in. 

It's not news to hear someone burning out from the game and doing a break. I had my fair share of vacations too, but always came back, sooner or later. Now it's been around 1.5 months since I did anything more than spin my ship and update queue. Even that has been a challenge lately. I have read about these bittervet diseases. In my younger days I did not know how one gets it and what are the symptoms, and how one can get it in such a brilliant* community. Well, I think I got it. If f 20 day skill queue looking too short is not a symptom then I don't know what else is.

Biggest problem

Eve is a huge time sink. I've been an active lurker of blogs and forums and I've seen people come and go. Especially people that subbed during their younger days and got more busy with their RL stuff after celebrating their N^th birthday. What's the main problem? It takes too fucking long to do anything. It's not your average insta-action game.

If you wanted something more than to blow up a shitty frigate then you are in the world of waiting pain. I think its a problem for most people, regardless what they do or where they live. Some places take more time than others. Like W-space for instance. If your goal is to find something to spew some ammo at, then you can cross out at least 2 hours right there. Scanning, waiting, hunting, scouting and more scanning. Suddenly you find some activity and spend another hour or two laying the ambush or running from one, such as outwaiting camps.

But it's everywhere like that. God forbid you lose a ship or two and a pod. If you fly something bigger than a frigate or a cruiser, good chance is you wont have a lot of spares fitted and ready to go, as also implants ready (if you live outside null). All logistics involved in market buying your shit, warping to location, fitting ship and realizing you are you are missing 2 items which are for sale... 5 jumps away.. opposite directions.. in heavy camped pipe system..

Someone who was/is living in the remote areas, with no near market and no self logistic capable pilots/alts will know what I'm talking about. Even for me, who has 7 accounts. Neutral freighter, jump freighter, basically free ISK from market with very little effort (even that's too much), was a pain to organize logistics. Good luck bringing various ships/types/doctrines and have spare ones with modules and implants. It's like a god damn full time job.

Getting the fix

Now don't get the wrong idea. I love everything about eve. The fact that it was so time consuming and "hardcore" was the style I liked/like. It's something that you could put a lot of effort and be proud of your achievements. I think this game is more suited for competitive people. These people don't get their fix from shooting bunnies on some retarded facebook game. They like to suffer, feel pain and once in a while, get that little feeling of bliss to keep them going. 

Of course there are many style of plays and to each its own. I'm sure there are a bunch of people who spend 30-1h a day and are happy with it,. Unfortunately for my style, to get my fix, I need to kill some helpless, unsuspecting victim. I need to hunt or camp or set a trap. I don't enjoy gf., but I do enjoy a good fleet fight if i get to FC. Otherwise I find no satisfaction of killing someone who is prepared to lose his ship. And to find such prey, it takes time. And time, is hard to come by.

In the end, I continue my yearly subs. I believe that one day I will find casual play and continue playing EvE. 

Choosing a career path in eve

Early days as a ninja salvager

When I started playing EVE I went with the route like the most new players. That is, I started with the tutorials and did missions afterwards. When I was approaching needed standings to start lvl3 missions, I understood that it's not for me. Missions and me don't mix like oil and water. That is when I started looking around to see what else could be done in this game. Randomly I stumbled on a few very interesting Ninja Salvaging blogs. One being Velocity Prime and the other - Mylootyourtears by Paul Clavet. It was a fantastic read. I knew right away what I was going to do the next foreseeable future. Worth mentioning that in early days I barely got skills to fly a battlecruiser. That did not stop me though from stealing loot and salvage. The payout was much better than missions with armor plates costing 250k isk and some meta 4 modules netting a couple of mil.  Very quickly I got accustomed and addicted to the taste of tears and once I got to fly my trusty Myrm, I had an opportunity to start hunting. Hunting carebears back in the day, with old aggro mechanics could easily have a full topic on its own.

As all good things, everything comes to an end. I think the golden Ninja Salvaging days were 2009-2010, while 2011 was ok, but already declining. Mostly due to the fact of many ninja blogs going up and all missioners having learned their lessons and not shooting you. You could always find someone somewhere, but following with some aggro changes later on made most of ninjas find another activity. Though with the recent introduction of mobile tractor units I think HighSec might bring a new era of ninjas v2.

Exploration

Being Ninja meant having at least a scouting/scanner alt, which surprisingly was very compatible with exploration. Shortly, me and my corpmates moved to lowsec where I continued doing exploration as my main income. I like exploration for various reasons. Mostly because it is not as tedious as missions. It can become like it, but it all depends on you how you spice up your game. While most explorers were sighting when finding a wormhole, I was excited. Low sec normally has c3-c2 connections as those are the wormholes with most statics to it. such class wormholes mean there can be easy targets to gank. After finding targets it was just a matter to give a shout to my friends and we are right on top on them, just like a pack of wolves. So in the end you get to find sites to earn some isk and occasional pvp opportunities. If you get burnt out and tired of scanning, there's nothing a low sec gatecamp couldn't fix. The life was good.

Exploration can provide an ok income. However it can be extremely time consuming/dangerous to clear sites in hostile areas and the ones closer to home usually has much bigger competition as you would not be the only guy with a probe launcher. Comparing to my mates, that were rolling missions and earning 200mil+ in an hour, I felt like a poor bastard (story of my life). Then I decided to change my game

Trading

I moved to trading which became my main source of income until the present. It's no secret that trading is where the money is at. Often you hear tips on forums for guys asking how to earn isk, telling them to do some form of trading or industry. It was not often you could find a blog dedicated just for this style of gameplay. People knew it's lucrative, but did not have good idea on how get into it and most would just ignore it and continue shooting red crosses for their isk. Trading as a profession is also not for everyone. It is very easy to burn out and lose money if one does a break. My burnout happened before and during odyssey patch, when exploration changes made decryptor prices crash down tenfold and I lost 25bil+ plus just because I had a lot of stock and a though of logging in my trade alt made me sick. Anyhow there are many forms of trading and you can earn isk just as being active as also being passive. The way you do business and strategy you choose will define your income. I will write a couple of more posts dedicated just for this part later on so I won't expand as much right now.