Day of Darkness II

I wanted to share this video with anyone who reads, or follows this blog. It's an EVE video made by Dire Lauthris. I frequent EVEtube quite a bit and this video had been uploaded to EVEtube this morning when I stopped by the website looking for my daily EVE movie fun. It's probably one of the best, if not the best, EVE movie I've seen since I became a capsuleer. The credits of the movie note it's based on the EVE Chronicle "The Breakout". I hope you enjoy what Dire has put together as much as I have. Awesome job Dire!

This video can be streamed, and downloaded from EVEtube.com


EDIT NOTE: Sorry folks, I uploaded it to the blog, but the silly player wouldn't play the video. So, if interested follow the link to EVEtube.com where I found the video.

Poppin' in High-Sec

Viper57, 13 out, screaming inbound, weapons hot

Sunday afternoon. I was out and about doing some scouting work for a couple of my corpmates who were wanting to mine, but needed to pass through a couple low-sec systems to get there. I checked out the low-sec areas for possible gate camps, and also scouted out the belts they were interested in mining.

The two Low-Sec systems they would have to traverse where clean. No gate camps, and only a hand full of other capsuleers in the systems. I forwarded the intell to the corpy in charge of the small mining op, and they eventually headed out to start shredding rocks in Horaka.

Horaka is the new home of my Corp, [OS] Origin Systems. We just set up a new corp office in one of the Horaka space stations this last sunday. So, after finishing my scouting work for the miners, I headed back into the low-sec systems I had scouted earlier. I wanted to scout these systems more thoroughly - for future patrols. I also needed to lay out some Safe Spots within these low-sec systems for those future patrols.

I do a lot of solo roaming in my Rifters, as such, without the back-up of a small fleet, safe spots in space are invaluable. First and foremost, as a good place to scan the system belts with my ship scanner as I look for potential targets. Secondly, Safe Spots are escape points. I'm a newb at solo roaming. I'm a newb at pvp period. I am bound to get myself in over my head (as I've already documented in this blog). So I set about these objectives in a new Rifter I purchased and had fit specifically for our new home system.

The scouting op in these two systems was uneventful. I scanned a few potentials down as I traveled around the systems dropping safe spots, but everyone I scanned down appeared to also be out in their own Safe Spots. Not wanting to make myself easy prey, I didn't spend a great deal of time hunting them down.

As I was finishing up this work, 2lost came across Corp Comms. He was out mining in Josekorn, and someone had just flipped his can. I responded that I was on my way, but I had 13 or more jumps before I'd reach Josekorn. Xochitl, Ged, and Dek started making also started jumping towards Josekorn.

Xochitl arrived first, but in an industrial (lol), luckily he had a small frigate he could fit out fast once he docked. Once I made it into the system I warped to the closet planet of the belt 2lost was mining in. I started scanning the belt looking for the can-thief. Before I knew it, 2lost said the thief was back, and that he had just stole some more ore out of 2lost's can. "Awesome!" I thought - the thief's criminal timer just restarted, and now he had a fresh 15 minutes of criminal flag time. Ged, and Dek were still 7 jumps away at this point, but racing to Josekorn.

As soon as 2lost mentioned the most recent theft of ore, Xo says he's on his way. 2lost replies, the theif is in the belt. Before long Xo comes back over comms announcing he had the thief jammed. "Shit!" I thought, Xo had engaged before the rest of our corp-mates had made it to the system. The fight was on.

"OMW!" I exclaimed in fleet comms. I hit the warp button and my warp drives roared to life, and my Rifter threw itself into warp. Space blurred all around me. I checked my 200mm auto cannons to make sure they were fully-loaded. I checked my scanners and targeting systems to make sure they were primed. I checked my warp scrambler, and webber to make sure those modules were ready for the fight. Everything checked out.

Space started to come back into focus, and I saw the belt come into view. My Rifter screamed into the belt, and came out of warp just 2500 meters away from our target. "Perfect!" I locked the thief up with my targeting computers. Xo had already worked the thief's Probe into structure. I hit my scrambler, and webbifier. This capsuleer was going no where, and he was on the brink of going Pop-Pop. I engaged my 200mm Auto Cannons, and the barrels span to life hurtling hot lead into the structure of the targeted Frigate. My cannons fired 1 barrage of lead and the Probe exploded, lighting up the belt.

The fight was over, almost as soon as it had started. I love getting these kills in high security space. After reviewing the Killmail Concord sent me about the engagement, I was stunned. I couldn't believe it. This capsuleer knowingly stole out of 2lost's can and only had 2 mining lasers fitted and a couple Tech 1 drones at his disposal. He knowingly committed a criminal act despite barely being fit out to defend himself from the npc rats in the Josekorn belts. Honestly, it made this kill even better - not only did we smack a thief in the ass, but, he really was quite stupid now wasn't he....

It was a great way to end the weekend.

Epic Fleet of Pew-Pew

Manasi, over at A Mule in EVE, has posted about a huge fleet operation in Null-Sec. Over 1700 capsuleers in one system. This, is what EVE is all about. I'm looking forward to further details about how this battle ends. I'm sure this is intense.

Viper01 Down!

Set ResCAP Bosena V....

The last couple days ops have not been as successful as early this week. I lost one frigate Tuesday evening because...well, I jumped into a fight I really had no business being apart of. I wanted to see how my Rifter would handle a, uh, larger target. All was well until some drones popped out from the drone bay of the target ship, and then its Energy Vamp basically one-shotted my capacitor - I took too big a bite, and my Rifter went POP. I knew I'd probably loose, I wish I'd have paid attention to my what my instincts were telling me. Please note, when in New Eden I'm learning I have a really bad habit of ignoring the greater sensibility of my instincts, letting my itchy trigger finger be my guiding compass - really need to stop doing this.

Fast forward to this morning - before heading off to work for the day. I was drinking my morning cup of coffee, and decided that there was enough time that I could log into EVE and do a short roam through Bosena. It was close to server down time, and I thought I might be able to catch something on it's way to docking before the server went down, or perhaps even someone salvaging in the belts - trying to make that last little bit of isk before logging off. So, I undocked and proceed towards the Bosena jump gate.

I jumped into Bosena, checked out the vicinity of the jumpgate before dropping my cloak and warping to my first safe spot. Everything was clear at the gate, so I set the navicomputer to my first waypoint in Bosena. I hopped around the system checking things out, when I finally I stumbled across a ship 60k away that was flashing red on my overview. "Bingo!" I thought. It was obvious from the outset that the capsuleer piloting the other ship was experienced at PvP - the Skull and Bones was a tell-tale sign that this pilot had plenty of blood on his hands. After a quick investigate with my ships scanners it was clear this other pilot was flying a Recon Ship.

I have absolutely no experience with Recon Ships, as a pilot, or flying as wingman with one. I had no idea what their combat capabilities were - in short, I had zero intel on this target. I decided to warp off to another asteroid belt and see if the Recon ship would follow. I expected he would since he was flashing on the overview, it was obvious he was out doing the same thing I was. Looking for last minute targets.

I warped 70k outside the next asteroid belt, shortly thereafter, the Recon pilot did the same, except he must have expected me to warp to zero as he came out of warp smack-dab in the middle of the belt several kilometers away from me. I realigned my Rifter towards another belt, and warped to it. The Recon pilot followed suit and, again, landed smack-dab in the middle of this new belt.

So, it went for a few more warps around the system. Me warping here, and the Recon pilot shadowing me. I thought I was good and safe because I set warp to exit several dozen kilometers outside the belts we were hopping around to, but this Recon pilot kept warping in at zero. Finally, me luck ran out, I'd been enjoying making the Recon pilot hop around the belts shadowing me, but he eventually got the best of me.

I warped into the last belt just I had the others, and the Recon pilot warped in at zero as usual, but this time, he achieved lock on me when we were separated by 60-65k of space. Much to my surprise (and I can't emphasize how much I was surprised) he warp scrammed me???? I didn't even know that was possible at that distance. I couldn't believe it. I tried warping continuously over the next 5 seconds....all that happened during my frantic mashing of the warp button was Aura shouting at me "So and So has you warp scrammed dumbass! Find another way to evade!".

All I could think of was to turn towards my opponent, hit the afterburner to gain some speed, and try to keep my transversal speed as high as possible to make it harder for his guns to hit my Rifter as I closed the distance between us. I needed to get to him within atleast 4000 meters if I was to have any good chance of landing some shots on his hull.

I started roaring towards the Recon ship, then, much to my horror I see 5 drones pop out from under the Recon Ship. I knew at that moment this was going to get ugly, and get ugly real fast. I turned 180 degrees away from my opponent. I made the decision to try and use my afterburner to get out of the range of his scrambler (having no idea still what it's max range actually was). This seemed to me the only chance I had to save my Rifter.

Beams of laser pain shot past my cockpit, the drones where now orbiting my Rifter gouging it's armor to nothingness. I was slowly pulling away from the Recon ship, but he was still able to land a few good hits on my ship. With the drones, and his beam turrets he quickly evaporated my shield. Next, my armor started melting away under the onslaught. My armor-repper couldn't keep up with the damage and I knew the fight was going to be over soon. I was now about 30-32k away from my opponent. Still too close to break the grip of his warp scrambler.

I waited for my Rifter to pop, took one last look at the cockpit. BOOM, escape pod released, selected a jumpgate to warp to, and initiated the warp. I sped away from the fight. Hit the jumpgate, and jumped back through to Teon. Back in high-sec now, I hailed the Recon Pilot over comms, and we had nice little chat for a few minutes.

I docked my pod in the station I had left about 15 minutes before...in my Rifter :(

Searched the marketplace, and placed an order for a new Rifter which should be ready for pick up sometime this evening. I unstrapped myself from the pod, and walked out of the hanger. I set my eyes towards the bar just outside the hangers. It was definitely time for a smoke, and a quick drink.

[Intel Update] After a bit of research, I've learned a little more about the ship that turned my Rifter into scrap metal. It was a Force Recon ship, namely the Arazu. Up to now, I had not read about, nor encountered this ship. I've learned that the Arazu has a bonus to Warp Scrambler range (20% per skill lvl - frickin' sweet for the Force Recon pilot). So, this explains why the pilot was able to scram me from so far away. As I said previously, I wasn't aware any ship had that kind of scram bonus. Lesson learned though, stay the "fudge-nut" away from Force Recon Ships. I want one now :)

Run Wild, Run Free!......or try atleast.

Just after our first jump of the Roam, in Bosena, right after the first engagement. I was, again too focused on what was going on around me and completely forgot to get shots of the action. I'll try to remember next time.

I was hot of the freshness of my first PVP kill from the evening before last. All day as I sat at work I kept thinking about the next opportunity to grab another Killmail. I thirsted for more. One of my corp-mates (Xochitl) and I are good friends from our college years. We've kept in-touch since then via phone, and many many different MMOs. So, naturally, we talked one the phone yesterday about my first Kill, and we both were in the mood to find more for our logbooks. We planned to form up after work and go do a small roam together, our minds set on unknown prey. Our eyes glowy-yellow like a Sith.

After putting my son to bed for the evening I suited up for another evening of New Eden bliss, walked out into the hanger where I had parked my Rifter the night before. After settling into the cockpit, running through all the pre-flight checks, I started powering up my Rifter's systems one by one.

Power, Fuel Control, Displays, NavComp, Targeting Comp, Communications, Weapon Systems, & Lighting all check good. I hailed Xochitl over comms as he was already loaded and running a couple errands before our little excursion into Low-Sec. At this point, he informed me he had lined us up with an Alliance fleet that was forming up to go on a roam through neighboring low-sec looking for targets of opportunity. Splendid!

I joined the Alliance fleet channel, and called for the rally point. Teon was where I needed to head, so I quickly loaded up my ammo, made a slight adjustment to my highpoints loadout, checked for clearance from the Station Control Tower, and undocked to set out for the unknown.

I was still in Josekorn where I've been based for mining operations lately, so I had little bit of a jaunt to Teon. Nothing too bad, about 13 jumps if I remember correctly.

Once I arrived in Teon, I quickly joined up on the wing of our Fleet Commander. And then it was time to just sit and wait for the rest of the fleet to finish preparations and form up. After about 20 minutes or so, everyone was fitted out and either formed up or well on their way to Teon to meet the rest of us. Within another 10 minutes our Fleet Commander came over comms and ran through the flight plan for the evening, and the general strategies we would employ.

Once he was finished running through this briefing, he came back on comms, announced the fleets alignment target, and within another couple minutes he announced fleet warp. We were hurled through the system to our first gate in unison. Definitely one of the coolest things I had ever seen in EVE. Our fleet had grown at about 10 ships - 2 Rifters (me and Xochitl), and a bunch of various BCs.

We jumped through the first gate, anticipation and itchy trigger fingers throughout our small fleet. As the fleet members came through the other side of the jump gate our Fleet Commander immediately started calling primaries. There was a small gate camp of a few other BCs waiting for prey. Me and Xo (being in Rifters) were told, prior to the jump, not to fire on anything that was not flashy red because the sentry guns would make short work of our fragile Rifters.

So I sat, and I sat, waiting for the flashy to happen. Explosions and Missles lit up the blackness of space. Utterly amazed at the firepower that was being poured into the small little gate camp we found. Then, as the target ships started to fall I hear Xo over fleet comms (screaming like a little girl mind you): "Oh shit, Oh shit I'm taking hella damage!" "Oh shit Oh shit".

I turned to look towards where I last had seen Xo's Rifter and just as my eyes came about to his vicinity I see nothing but the grey spider legs - the tell tale sign of an explosion. Xo, in his anxiousness (it was his first roam too), had forgotten the instructions to not fire or engage anything that wasn't flashy red to us. First jump, and one Rifter down. Luckily Xo managed to get his pod out. He wouldn't be able to catch up with the fleet for the rest of the Op though. I was now the lone scout for the fleet.

We made several more jumps, but the first jump into Bosena was the only engagement we were to have last night. The rest of the roam was uneventful. We saw a couple lone frigates, some Industrials, and some mining ships passing through, but nothing worth the 15 minute criminal countdown.

It was probably one of the most fun (despite somewhat uneventful) things I've done in New Eden since I became a capsuleer in January. I'm really looking forward to the next roam with the Alliance members. Big thank you to the pilots of Dark Star for getting the Alliance fleet together last night, and for being patient with a couple Rookies in the fleet.

Viper01, Cleared Hot!

Last night, me and a corp-mate were out in Josekorn doing some mining. We had been out in the belts for about and hour or so. I filled up my jetcan about halfway, and decided to go grab my Industrial from the dock and haul in the ore I had mined. I typically don't like to make alot of trips in the Badger so I normally don't fill my jetcan all the way before hauling my ore back to station. I reprocessed my haul and sold the Trit and netted approximately 1.3 million. I had mined off and on throughout the day so I decided to bring out my Rifter to play in the belts while my corp-mate continued to mine.

We were fleeted up, and as he is relatively new in the world of New Eden he doesn't really have the luxury of being able to mine, and provide himself protection against the rats in Josekorn. So, the plan was simple, I'd meander around the belts picking off the rats I came across and salvage the wrecks. When needed, my corp-mate would come across fleet comms and call me back in for support - I'd take out the rats pestering him so he could continue to mine without worry.

Things went very smoothly for about 45 minutes or so, I'd warped around through the belts slaying rats like the little bugs they are. I'd left several cargo containers floating in the belts after I salvaged the wrecks. I wasn't really interested in the loot dropped by the deceased rats, just the salvaged materials. Since I had watched over my corpy in the belt he was mining in, there was a high concentration of left-over cargo containers floating about. One capsuleer found the left-overs too enticing for their own good.

I was off in a belt several AU away from my Corpy when he came across fleet comms:

2lost: "uh, dude, there's someone here flashing red to me???" (As I said above, he is new and had never encountered this.)

Vasavia: "No prob, on my way!" (I knew exactly what it meant, someone was going through and "stealing" the loot I had left behind).

I quickly jerked my Rifter in alignment with the belt my corp-mate was in, flicked the warp drive active, and my little Rifter threw itself into warp.

I reloaded my turrets and rocket launcher so I'd be ready to engage for the duration of the fight.

I saw the belt come into view and my Rifter exited warp, and there she was in the over-view. The target was 13k away when I warped in, and within a couple seconds of me warping in she started flashing red to me.

The target was at my 2 o'clock low, and I threw the Rifter into a hard turn, pulled hard and started barrelling towards my mark. I flicked the AB and was Roaring towards her - I figured my intent was clear, and expected her to warp out.

I quickly checked info on the target - A Gallente Catalyst, a destroyer. I knew then I had to get extremely close and get under her to avoid heavy damage.

As I closed, I engaged the targeting computers and achieved lock in very short order. I engaged my warp scrambler, engaged my little battery of turrets and rocket launcher. The fight was on!

Adrenaline started racing through me to my arms. I didn't have much experience at pvp, and what little I did have had left me warping in my pod. So, I was nervous, and excited. I didn't really know what tricks to expect from the destroyer.

The first little sliver of white fell from her shield, and I thought there was no way I was going to be able to damage her enough to outpace her tank. It was early in the fight though, so I kept the pressure on. My shield was holding better then I thought it would under the guns of the destroyer, and before I knew it my target was down to half her shield. I still had well over half of mine at this point.

I got the destroyer a quarter into her armor tank, and I started to take damage to mine as well. I throttled my repper once and received a nice boost from it. My tank was holding well, the warp scrambler had her pinned, and my AB was doing it's job of making me harder to hit. My guns blazed, my rockets blew into her armor further. Before I knew it, the Gallente Destroyer was into her hull, and I still had 90% of my armor tank, and 80% cap left. I threw my arms into the air, knowing I had this destroyer - that this fight was mine.

Before long, the destroyer blew and I was blinded for a second from the explosion. The capsuleer's pod warped off. The fight was over, and it was finally my day to be the victor.

I came back over fleet comms - weapons on target, the area was clear.

I was so nervous, and so preoccupied with the fight I forgot to grab any screens. Very disappointed with myself for this - my first pvp victory and no screenies to remember it with. I'm sure there will be more opportunities.

The pilot of the destroyer eventually hailed me over private chat, and I obliged, half expecting to get bitched at. Much to my surprise, the pilot was very gracious about her lose and we had a very pleasant conversation about the fight, and EVE in general. We chatted about 25 minutes or so and I had to dock, and hit the sack for the evening. Never-the-less, this pvp encounter was an absolute pleasure because I finally came out on top, and because of the graciousness of my opponent. I enjoyed the conversation so much with this pilot I decided to help her with the remaining cost of after her insurance payout. I also did this because she was my first Kill.

Niamh, you have my respect, and hope to fly with you soon.

Quick Lil' Note

I've been out of town the last several days for work, so I've not had much EVE time - well none at all actually. I'll update sometime soon as soon I get back into New Eden and find something new to write about. I've been hungering to try to find some new wormhole space and do some more exploring. I ramble, I'll get the blog updated soon!

Blip On The Scanner

Apocrypha is upon us! I've really been looking forward to the expansion, and kudos to CCP for giving us a great expansion. I was absolutely stoked to delve into the new probing system once Apocrypha was released.

After spending an evening with it I finally got my first 100% return. The scanner window revealed it was an Unknown, Unstable hit - so right away I knew it was a Wormhole from the information I'd been reading on the forums. Despite knowing, I was full of excitement, recalled my probes (absolutely love this ability - thank you CCP!), and initiated a warp to 10k within the Scanner return.

I grabbed a few screens of the different hits I was able to pin down last night. Enjoy. I'm loving the new probing system! I know you're probably wondering if I went through them. I was too afraid of what was on the other side. Most of my Corp-mates that were online at the time were also trying out the new explo-probing, so I didn't try to organize a fleet to go exploring on the other side. But soon, very soon, we'll be burning through to the other side of the Looking Glass :)

My first successful hit on a hidden object! Yes, I was giddy.


And thar she be! My first wormhole Discovery!

This was the second wormhole discovery of the night.

As a general note, if you're trying out the new probing system, and having difficulty just keep at it. You will eventually figure it out. At first the new system is intimidating (of course I'd never probed under the former system either so that might be why). With a little patience it can be done though! If I can do this anyone can.

The Phoenix's Redemption

A Phoenix Rises

I have a thing for the Phoenix. I've named all my ships after it. The latest being my Rohk - "Phoenix Redemption". Yes, Vasavia has finally stepped aboard her new Rohk. It's seen very limited action thus far. Partly because I'm so terrified of loosing her either in pvp, or due to my own stupidity (like what happened to my Drake over the weekend). The Rohk has been through one lvl 4 mission, and I used her to run down an anomaly I picked up on over the weekend. Both went very well in the Rohk. Big thanks to my corpy, WarAngel, for the cap and shield boosting he helped provide during the missioning. Here's some screens of my Rohk's first test run - taken from where I picked her up back to my home station.

Initiating her first warp

Pretty Blue Twinklies


And off into the great unknown!

Relocation Success!

My Drake taking it's turn traveling through the great move!

It is done! Well sort of. The process of moving my larger ships, and other valuable assets went smoothly. It was quite a long haul though. The largest hauler I had at my disposal was a Caladri Badger (pictured in previous post). It's 5700 m3 of cargo space was basically worthless when it came time to move my ships.

I ended up flying my Battlecruisers out to my new home in Josekorn manually. Each trip, one way, was 27 jumps total. So, it took a "hot minute" (as my bud Xo likes to say). I took small breaks between moving each ship and that helped, but it of course stretched the move through the whole day. It's done though, and I'm happy to be in Josekorn.

Now to start working on my crappy Minmatar & Gallente Standing :(

Interstellar U-Haul

Today is moving day!!! Actually, it's not so exciting. I was thinking yesterday I only had a handful of ships to move. Some Frigs, a couple Battlecruisers, and a Destroyer. In reality I've discovered I a few ships I had forgotten about because they've been parked in systems I've long since ventured out of. I only have this Badger above to perform the move, and even repackaged most of my ships are way to large to fit into the cargo hold of this ship. So, I'll be flying most of them to our new home manually.

Speaking of the new home, I'll be moving out to Josekorn today to start flying with my good pal Xo, as well as my little brother Recon. They both have been out in that area of space for a week or so. It'll take me the better part of today to get everything moved. I'm not even sure I'll get it all done today. Oh well, here we go....

*requests undocking permission*