A Mule in EvE

Archive for the ‘Lessons Learned’ Category

Wollari, creator, designer and coder of Dotlan maps has one hell of an excellent tool that he added to the arsenal.

Radar.

You ever tried to coordinate different groups of people that need to know tactical battle information? Holy Cow do I have a nice tool for you.

Radar!

Try it out I think you will find it REALLY useful.

Not too tough to use.  Powerful, simple in design, elegant in it’s scale…hot damn!  Wollari my hat is off to you, if in FanFest this year ( grr god damn 2011)  I promise to buy you a drink or two.

No he didn’t pay me a damn cent to say that, I used it last night in a Black ops Jump we did to harass some folks. Talk about a good imagination, well done bro.

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We punished  fail fit Taranis, a  Drake, and a third victim.  Most people know my feelings about Drakes, I do not hide the fact that I REALLY do not like them and yell at any CEPTA guys that bring that piece of crap.  DO they have a use?  Yes, is that use in PvP?  No, not in my opinion.

Anyways we black ops jumped to irritate some folks and it worked quite well.

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In terms of Corporation Security I have been thinking that I am excessively paranoid. My brain trys to come up with some reason to allow me to believe folks but, sadly, that does not seem to be the case all that often.  For the most part,  I think people are lying to me , which I loathe more than you can even imagine.  My only advice… stand up and be counted, even if you terribly wrong… I will at LEAST admire your conviction and sticking to your guns.  My thinking is that I am just a bit too cynical as of late so I will see if I can take the cynicism notch down a peg or two, we shall see how that goes.

I do not enjoy being a mean ass bastard and at times I ahve been called the Iron hand in  the velvet glove.  That is a new part of my personality as to most people I meet I go out of my way to be kind etc…might just be EVE getting to me.  Either that or I am becoming more grouchy as I age.

Oh and a thought if you want to join a PvP alliance have a damned killboard.

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Work seems to be moving forward for testing the lag fixes that CCP has done.  In other news it would seem that Massively got a good scoop on the upcoming expansion, Avatar redesign, fighting off invaders all over, do you think for one GOD DAMNED second that will umm perhaps give us a new ship? I can only hope so but we shall see.  After their grand design reveal at last years FanFest, (yes I paid attention and watched every single bit of info that I could) This EvE gate things better hit critical mass damned fast or they will be screwed.  Oh yea maybe DUST, whatever good that might be to a non-console gamer, maybe they will fix the damned click fest with PI.

Let me know your thoughts I am always interested in hearing them.

TC and Good Hunting

For new players we continually stress getting into interceptors. The reason is to get people used to engaging and not hiding(cloaking).  Before you run at full speed you have to walk and the skill learned in a ‘ceptor’ will make you a better pilot in the long run.

This does three things:

1. It gets new players used to actually getting into the fight.
2. It provides something that many larger ships cannot do ( holding the enemy ship)
3. Some of the best scouts in the game are the fast interceptors
4. It takes very LITTLE time to train for Interceptors.

Getting people used to charging into the foray is critical.  If a pilot hesitates at engaging they will die. Training people to get in close (20 KM) to the enemy with a small inexpensive ship again is a key point.  Too many times people want to scout in a cloaked ship rather than engage in a fight. Overcoming the desire to survive to actually engage is the first hurdle.

Working together with other pilots is also critical.  The service that tacklers provide is critical without tacklers your fleet will not be able to pin the enemy down.  A good tackler is worth their weight in ISK.  If you have ever been in a fleet and needed some good tacklers ( and didn’t have them you will know what I mean)

Training for an interceptor for a new character with the learning skills is 20D 21H. If you use standard skills ( without learning) you are talking 32D 20H 36s. Granted Navigation skills should be trained as well as guns kills but they can be trained to a degree while you start to learn you ship,  (“point” first guns second) breaks my normal advice but seriously how much DPS you going to get out of a ‘ceptor’ ( except the Taranis) with 3 guns.

The skills set I used includes: T2 Warp disruptors, T2 Overdrive Injectors:

Skill list

• Hull upgrades
• Propulsion Jamming
• Long Range Targeting
• Afterburners
• High speed maneuvering
• Mechanic
• Evasive maneuvering
• Interceptors ~ Aprox $900,000
• Minmatar Frigate

Here is the fit ( no I did not add the T2 guns)  Guns are not the primary mission of a ‘tackler’ the Warp disruptor/ Scrambler is)

[Stiletto, test]

250mm Light Prototype I Siege Cannon
200mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon

Warp Disruptor II
Sensor Booster II
Warp Scrambler II
1MN MicroWarpdrive II

2x Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

2x Small Auxiliary Thrusters I

so 20D and you can fly a fully fitted claw or Stiletto ( as an example)

A Bomber on the other hand has three things going against it that may matter to a new player:

1. They cost more to buy and to fit
2. They hold 3 bombs
3. They take a much LONGER time to train for
4. The skills you need for an interceptor can also be used for a bomber

The skills needed for  a bomber are some of the same skills for a Interceptor + you will have to pay  15M just for the extra skills, (which is almost the cost of 1/2 the hull) Not only that but bombers only have space for 3 bombs, maybe 4 which limits your usefulness in longer engagement + bombs hurt your friends as well as any enemies.

The Time needed to train for a bomber without learning skills is 57D 6H 20M, with learning skills 33D 22H 38M

Skill list for the bomber

• Missile Launcher Operations
• Bombardment
• Bomb Launcher operation   $7.2M
• Electronics
• Cloaking    $3.1M
• Hull upgrades * same as Inty
• Afterburner * same as Inty
• High Speed maneuvering * same as Inty
• Target Painting
• Mechanic
• Electronic Upgrades
• Covert Ops  $3.6M
• Minmatar frigate

The long and the short:

Interceptors a 900K skill plus the 20D needed to sit in one(or 32 D with no learning skills)  (not using it till nav skills get better, but test flights and dogfights against corp-mates would be fine.)

Bombers 15M in skills plus the 33D needed to just sit in the ship ( or 57D without training skills) Again not flying it till navigation skills and other related skills improved to at least level 3-4.

TL;DR:

Train both but train interceptors first to get exposed to tackling, then train bombers. you will save extra time, gain good skills and always be able to fall back from a bomber to a very needed ship.

Having done Corp/Alliance recruiting now for a while I thought I would let folks know some decent truths.

Safety ~ ” I do not want to lose my precious”

• Sovereignty claimed 0.0 is safer than high sec space
  • We know where enemies are all the time
  • There is only 1 way in and 1 way out for enemies, of where it is we live
  • We are DEEP in 0.0 so people must commit if they are to come and attack us

Money – ” tis what make EVE revolve”

• We make more money than level 4 mission runners
  • Anomalies continually re-spawn
• Escalations ( 6/10 and 10/10 complexs happen more often than you might think
• Even mining ( which I find boring beyond belief ) can net you excellent money
• Ice mining in 0.0 is good as well
• Arkanor, Bistot and Crokite are very common
• PI resources especially are more plentiful
• The ISK level of ships ( in Anomalies/gates/etc) is higher

Convenience – ” I want it , and I want it RIGHT NOW”

• Jump bridges are used tactically and for transportation
  • There are major network of jump bridges than can take you 40 jumps away using 3 or 4 of them
  • It is very difficult to get surrounded when all we need to do is jump through a bridge 7 gates away

Yes we walk a balance in 0.0 you have to make some money.  Those that know me know I do not risk a ship if I cannot drop into a new one at a moments notice.  As such I have many ships setup for specific roles, yes you have to invest the money but no one expects new people o come with 40 ships, start small and work up.

A given market can be smaller ( but can also be an excellent way to make money, especially with T2 components now being available now in 0.0)  One complaint is that ” You cannot get gear if the market is bad” true you cannot get gear IMMEDIATELY but many corps stock their own versions of the market for their members, and honestly except when things are REALLY scare I cannot ever remember finding a module in our corp hangers.

Targets – “stay on target”

There are always targets, living next to a NPC 0.0 area there is no lack of targets, not to mention with the resets that .-A-. did.

Political – ” All politicians lie the good ones you actually do not mind when they lie to you”

We do not like  XXX or YYYY Alliance.  Have you actually flown with them?  There are  few Alliances I do not care for but, for the most part even they have some excellent pilots and others I would just a s soon push off a short pier.  That goes for all Alliances though.

Still I cannot find a reason people do not leave the ” safety of Empire Space” Did we have any Hulks, Makinaws etc blown up from Hulkageddon III?  Nope, they never even came here.

SO with all this why do people still avoid it?  Fear of loss.  This is the number one thing I can put my finger on.

To some it up one of the newest recruits said it quite well to me:  ” well damn Manasi I did not know that it is safer here than in empire I always feared what I did not know, and frankly I did not know shit about 0.0″

Come on in, the water is fine.