Moving South

        Knee noticed the level of activity around the station was higher than normal. Things were usually quiet around Deklein these days, as the military operations were focused in the South. Knee took it as an opportunity to continue his recovery and soak up some training on the fine arts of Jury Rigging.

        Today, however, was impossible to ignore. Nearly every capsuleer was either on the hangar floor or in motion to and from it. Knee asked a hangar attendant what the story was.

        "We're moving."

        "What? Where to?" Knee inquired.

        "Fountain."

        "Everybody?"

        "Everybody. TEST is packing up and giving Deklein back to the Goons."

        Emotional reaction would normally be the first thought to such sudden and life-changing news. Instead, Knee's mind was already worrying about logistics. He had a lot of ships and cargo stashed here. He was already familiar with liquidating assets from leaving Lonetrek to come here. He just wasn't used to having to plan things so quickly.

        First to go were the ships. He went through his ship inventory and stripped the lot, repackaged all but one, and priced them aggressively: 30% below market. Only fools would pass up such prices. He was not among fools; the ships sold within a matter of hours.

        Next was his stash of ammo. Ammo was disposable, fungible, cheap, and took up too much volume in his bay. It had to go. 30% off.

        Then there was the mass of equipment. A load of modules he couldn't possibly go though in a short timeframe to sell individually. Luckily the alliance was hosting a courier service for just a couple of days to deliver things like this to Fountain via Jump Freighter. Only problem was the launching point for the freighter was several jumps away. He quickly bought a Wreathe and loaded it with the whole lot. Nearly 4600 m³ of goods. Before leaving, he bought one final piece of equipment - a cloaking device. That one piece was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was simply too large to fit in cargo, but it was necessary for the final step. Knee grumbled and pondered.

        "Wait. This ship's got a high slot, doesn't it?" He quickly consulted the fitting. It had one. Perfect. "Plug it in!"

        The lowly industrial creaked its way out of the docking bay. Knee swore at its sluggish operation due to the heavy load it was barely carrying, and at his own ability barely being adequate to fly the thing. An industrialist he was not.

        At the rendezvous point, Knee set up the courier contract, stripped the Wreathe and put it up for sale, and headed back for the last piece of equipment - his most precious one: The Darkblade.

        The last time Knee made a suicidal solo run through nullsec was in a Reaper with nothing to lose. This time he had something to lose. His implants. Clone jumping would not transport them, it would simply transport his consciousness into another body. The only way to move the implants was the old fashioned way.  In person.

        The ship of choice for the mission was his beloved Dramiel, named after Kirith Darkblade, a Matari pirate famous for using frigates as his ships of choice. It amused Knee that the smallest ships had potential to be the most devastating when used correctly. He purchased the Dramiel after learning that Kirith's had achieved over 70 kills before finally meeting its demise.

        Knee fit for absolute worst case scenario. Inertia and Warp Core stabilization, Microwarp, Medium Shield Extender, and the Improved Cloaking Device he hauled in the high slot of the Wreathe. He couldn't force anything else into the hull without starving its CPU. The ship would only do so much and Knee would have to do the rest.

        Satisfied that the rest of his logistics were taken care of, he set out for the 30 jump journey. The jumps out of Deklein were quick and uneventful. It wasn't until he entered Pure Blind that he encountered a threat. Three hostiles in Local among the friendlies. No vision on any of them. He quickly warped to a planet near the gate, cloaked up, and waited. No change in activity. They were either hiding or waiting. Knee consulted the solar system map and looked for a route to lead him to the next gate. A series of planets was in between the gate and his current position. He warped there and cloaked again. He was now about 16AU from the gate. He activated the directional scanner. Drake, Daredevil, Guardian. No way to tell if they were friend or foe, better to assume the worst. The cruisers posed no threat, but the Daredevil made him uneasy - another pirate frigate potentially deadlier than his own when up close with blasters. Knee couldn't fit dual-prop to escape such a situation - there simply wasn't enough CPU. One warp scramble and he was dead.

        Wait. 16AU from the gate. That's too far for Directional to reach. He narrowed his angle of scanning and pointed at the gate. The ships disappeared. They were behind him, but were there more at the gate? Knee warped to 100km from the gate and triggered the scanner for all it was worth. Still no ships. He was safe. He burned for the gate like a madman, screaming into the jump at 5000 m/s.

        Cloud Ring was empty save for his allies from Wildly Inappropriate. Fountain was equally quiet, despite gatecamps reported on intel. He had made it. He docked into station, chatted with his corpmates for a while and made arrangements with Medical to transfer his emergency clone to this new station. He found the market to be sparse, but that would improve once the logistics team finishes their fine work.

        He sat back in his new suite and wondered how difficult it would be to procure a Daredevil for his hangar. He would have to restock his ship collection, after all. Might as well make it interesting...

Happy Birthday Dreddit

        One year ago, a small corporation with its meager frigates sought out a small portion of 0.0 space.

        Today, that corporation has succeeded in toppling one of the largest power centers in the EVE universe. IT Alliance has officially disbanded. Fountain is ours. Quite a nice birthday present, don't you agree?

One Month Till Remap

        The agonizingly-long Int/Mem skill plan is nearing completion. Today marks the end of training all Astrometrics skills to IV. Next on the agenda is about 9 days' worth of Rigging.

        I mixed up the plan a bit - added some things and took some other things out. I decided to put off all the Subsystems skills until later when I finish training Cruiser V. It may be less efficient but I'm getting impatient. In place of Subsystems I substituted Anchoring IV so I can use Large Warp Bubbles. Should be a handy skill to have in 0.0.

Incursion = Raiding 101

        EVE is beginning to catch up to World of Warcraft.

        What? Heresy you say! How dare I suggest EVE is inferior to World of Warcraft!

        Well, in terms of PvE content, it is.

        Before Incursion, the toughest PvE content in the game was Class 6 Wormholes, requiring 9 to 12 pilots faction fit for spider tanking. Incursion raises the bar up to 50 ships for the largest encounters. Capsuleers are finding it hard to handle these larger encounters. Welcome to World of Warcraft about 6 years ago. I was there.

        Molten Core was the first Raid instance in World of Warcraft back in 2005 - the first of several 40-man dungeons. The encounter immediately preceding it was Upper Blackrock Spire, a 10-man dungeon. Noticing a trend here?

        Such a transition was a huge wakeup call. The first encounter of Molten Core was two humongous lava giants. It took literally months to figure out how to defeat them. They weren't even a boss. They were the first of many groups of normal enemies in the Core!

        Learning how to raid took a huge amount of coordination, planning, and threat management, and this is a discipline that the EVE community is just beginning to learn on a large scale. The wormholers may have had a head start on it, but now it's something at the forefront of every Capsuleer's mind, and much more easily within their grasp.

        The days of soloing the toughest PvE content are over. People are going to have to get used to cooperating with each other instead of looking for the easy gank. Making progress within these encounters may seem slow and fruitless and first, but as soon as a group starts making headway, the morale boost causes them to steamroll over everything they meet. It happened to me. It can happen to you.

A New Face

        After driving himself to the point of sickness over a month ago, Knee had to take time out to recuperate. While the infection was cleverly dispatched via a clone jump, he still remembered his doctor's orders. Being in a pod for weeks at a time was taking a toll on his body. No amount of clone jumping could solve that problem because it would be the same body, with minor variations, as the one he transferred from. The only solution was good old-fashioned diet and exercise.

        After the diagnosis, he was placed on doctor-enforced medical leave until he could show signs of improvement. That meant no piloting of any kind. It was a cruel sentence, considering the recent news of the Alliance making headway in the Fountain region against IT. He wanted to join them. He turned his fervor towards helping the war effort locally - moving equipment in station, preparing ships for docking and undocking, and assisting capsuleers on the hangar floor. The physical labor was helping his body to recover, and the cerebral downtime helped him relax and concentrate on the long term plan - becoming mentally equipped for the future through skill training.

        Today was his checkup. The nurses took his vitals and sent the data off to be processed. A few minutes later the doctor entered, busily scrutinizing a pad in his hand filled with the diagnostic results. He seemed satisfied. He turned to address his patient and paused with surprise. "You look different somehow, Knee."

        "I tied my hair down. It keeps it out of the way when I'm moving stuff."

        "No, aside from that. You look healthy. You look like you're ready to fight a war."

        Knee smirked. "That's why we're all here, isn't it?"

        "Indeed. You've improved dramatically. I'm ready to sign your release. Let's take a baseline so we can update your clones."

        After what seemed like an eternity of scans, the clone update was complete. Along with a clean bill of health, the doctor handed Knee a small envelope.

        "What's this?"

        "Photographs. I thought you'd like to see how much you've improved."

        Knee studied the photos for a moment, shrugged, and made his way to the hangar to board his pod.

Before:

After:

EVE Blog Banter #24: Whooooo Are You? Who, Who? Who, Who?

Welcome to the twenty-fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the "Where the frack is my ship" blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

---

       Ah, a wonderful topic. How does my roleplay mesh with my gameplay?

        Long story short, I play the game for myself, not for Knee. I don't play in-character and I don't think about Knee's role in things until later when I start writing. This causes some roleplay conflicts at times. I have portrayed Knee as terribly racist, with a loathing for the Amarr and a strong dislike for the Caldari by association. How could Knee tolerate working for the Caldari, to the point of killing his own brethren sometimes in missions? Such an act must be abhorrent to his character, so the answer is simple - he doesn't tolerate it at all. I make him regret his actions and attempt to atone by quitting his service to the empire. The real story was that I was bored of solo missioning and I wanted to give nullsec a try. But that makes a dull story.

        Knee's character is half newbie, half badass. A flawed hero. He grew up proficient in physical combat, but translating that knowledge into piloting a ship as a Capsuleer is a very foreign concept to him, a huge learning experience. It's fun to write about the triumphs and humble to write about the failures. In this way I can express my own little successes and failures as I play.

        Knee is a follower, not a leader. This is because of my own style. I don't want to be the FC. I want to be the loyal soldier who brings the pain. As a heroic type, Knee tries to be a good guy despite his shortcomings. But to contradict this, I've contemplated exploring the darker side of EVE. I want to participate in Hulkageddon. I want to ninja loot someone's mission and smash their carebear Marauder with a Machariel. I pod people without question in 0.0 if I am able. How can I justify such actions in-character? This forces even more creativity into the creative writing, and creates a better product. Life doesn't always turn out the way you planned. That's what keeps it interesting.

        Now, how has EVE augmented my own story? For starters, being a member of Dreddit has unsurprisingly gotten me hooked on Reddit and awestruck by all the things they have done for the common good. Just like in EVE, it makes me want to be a part of something grand done entirely by the community, without any kind of external prompting.

        I guess EVE has also made me more wary, since EVE is scam and gank central. Creating months-long skillplans is also a lesson in discipline - creating a plan and sticking to it. Now if only I could train a skill to cut my taxes by 10%. Sigh.


Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #24:


CrazyKinux's Musing - Be, All That You Can Be, And So Much More!
Where the Frack is my Ship? - Behind The Keyboard
EVEOGANDA - Real Life & EVE
A Mule in EVE - RL + EVE =
Confessions of a Closet Carebear - EVE and Real Life
The Hydrostatic Capsule - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Alt
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - Reflections
A Scientist's Life in EVE - The Other Side of the Screen
The Durzo Chronicles - Who is More Real??
A Lush in Space - Worlds Collide
Captain Serenity - Personalities
Diary of a Space Jockey - I Am Me
Freebooted - You Talking To Me?
Drifting Through The Stars - EVE and Real Life
EVE A to Z - EVE and Real Life
Fiddler's Edge - Game Face
Yarrbear Tales - In Real Life
Victoria Aut Mors - Where EVE Meets Real Life
Prano's Journey - I Am Prano
Mike Azariah, A Missioner in EVE - Who Are You, Who Hoo Woo Hoo [Great Minds Think Alike]
Roc's Ramblings - Me
EVE Blasphemy - EVE and Real Life
Phoenix Diaries - EVE and Real Life
Play the Game - Personalities In Game And Out Of Game
Progression's Horizon - Synonymous or Anonymous
Aggressive Logistics - Do Unto Others...
The Lathspell of Mithrandir - To Play Or To Live...
Wanderlust - I Am Not Who I Am In EVE
Latro's Bunker - EVE and RL
Shall We Not Revenge? - Multiple Personality Disorder

New Year's Resolution - The Master Skillplan

        For quite a while now, I've been working on my master skillplan. My ultimate goal is to be able to fly any sub-capital warship and be awesome at piloting it. This will increase my versatility and hopefully my overall experience. Thanks to EVEMon, that ultimate goal is about 2 and a half years away.

        Such planning takes discipline. Support skills in EVE are more important than the ship skills themselves, as the ship is useless if the pilot can't use it to its full potential. To that end I have been training exclusively Int/Mem skills for the past few months. Today marks the day when the Navigation branch of the plan is completed.

        Without further ado, commence pretty graphs! Here's my current skillpoint distribution:

        As I promised in School's Out, I dumped my reimbursed Learning skillpoints into Leadership fleet boosting, an excellent investment that will be useful in a Battlecruiser, a Command Ship, or even a Strategic Cruiser.

        I'm still debating at what point I cut the umbilical cord and get into the sweet, sweet combat skills, but it's looking to be sometime between Mid-February and the beginning of March. At that time, the distribution will look like this:

        During that time, I'm planning to train some more levels in Rigging, Astrometrics, EWar, Tech III Subsystems (Defensive, Electronic, and Engineering), and a couple of other vital skills.

        After that it's remap to Per/Will for a long long time, hence why I want to get everything else out of the way beforehand. First priority will be to skill for a Tech I Maelstrom since that's the current fleet flavor of the month. That's just a few days away. After that will be a fairly logical progression:

Tech II Minmatar Frigates and Tech II Small Projectiles

Tech II Minmatar Cruisers and Tech II Medium Projectiles

Battlecruisers V and Command Ships

Advanced Weapon Upgrades V and Tech II Large Projectiles

Minmatar Subsystems (Offensive, Propulsion) and Strategic Cruiser

All other Gunnery Support skills to V (Rapid Firing, Surgical Strike, Trajectory Analysis)

        The remainder of the year will then go to cross-training Amarr, starting the process anew - Frigates and Small Lasers, Cruisers and Medium Lasers, Battleships and Large Lasers. This will allow me to be useful in Armor fleets. By the end of Perception / Willpower Year 1, the skillpoint distribution will look like this:

        2012 is devoted to boosting up my Drones skills: getting Tech II Sentries and Heavies, as well as Drone Interfacing V. I also sneak in Gallente Frigate V and Cruiser V so I can play around in an Ishtar and use Dramiels and Cynabals to their full potential. The remainder of the year is devoted to the Caldari, training all the Missile skills as well as Caldari ships. After 2012, it will look like this:

        2013 wraps things up by skilling up Gallente and Hybrids in the same manner. After that, who knows? Capitals, perhaps?