Sunday 29 January 2012

FFS its a battleship! Why is not probed out already?

..it was late.

I should have been asleep an hour ago but I'd roamed out in the dual rep rifter and managed to catch the same guy in a vexor twice, was just flying the rifter back to dock in home station. 
Entering our home system, I noticed a couple of Amarr Milita pilots and some big shiny battleships on scan. That's unusal, they're a long way from home, jumping back into alliance comms I hear a couple of people discussing them. They've only just got here apparently. But no one is sure where they are, or what they're doing... Yadda Yadda!

Maybe look for them??

My alt was in a cloaky hauler so I docked up the rifter whilst I had him scout the relatively small system, quickly getting a approximate location with the d-scanner. I warp closer, d-scan around them finding them away from celestials with lots of wrecks!
They're in a mission! 
We start to form up, its going a little slow it's late EU timezone and the yanks aren't quite on yet.
Someone starts to probe them. As I'd given them clear location, within 2au of a gate, and the direction and height to drop probes and with a Macharel a Tempest Fleet, and a couple of T3's all in the site this should be an instant probe out.

Yet our prober was struggling, they've moved he said, no they haven't I shout back FFS!! checking d-scanner I can see his probes are off by a long way, and that point I get the sinking feeling as I realise he's also only using 4 probes and just T1 not even sisters... this is not going to go well. This chap probably doesn't have the support skills for this. Now was not a good time to be learning this trade.

Time ticks by. It's been too long now, the probes have been on scan in the same area of space for far too long, these boys would have to be complete idiots to get caught now.

Fuck this! Realising the original prober was never going to get a warpable in time, I dock the alt, and jump into a probing ship, warping 15au off to the far side of the system I deploy my probes, set range to 2au's then drop them over the site.

97% hit! I'll have them on the next cycle, guys get ready.

Got them! Shouts another voice on comms, tackle get ready to warp to [#########].
One of the other alliance guys had obviously had the same thought as me!

We warp in tackle, but unsuprisingly they were all aligned by this point, and the first thing we saw was the back end of the macharel as it entered warp.

Shit! Fuck! Primary is [########] in the fucking prober.

+++

It's not rocket science, it doesn't even take long to get maxed out in the skill tree. And even with 4's in the support skills you can probe 90% of people in one or two cycles. I've written two guides on this subject, the first is about the directional scanner, it discuss's how to pin point someone to a celestial in a few short steps. The second is the probing guide, for when they're not at a celestial object you use the same technique to work out their approximate bearing and range using the known items, the planets, the sun. Then you deploy short range probes directly ontop them, you can start with 2au probes, getting 100% hits on battleships, getting most other ships in the second cycle. This drops the probes in space down under 30-40seconds. Many people don't even check that often, so the first they know of your probing is your in their mission/site with a scram on them!

+++

This story does have a slightly happier ending, deciding to let loose the little carebear still in us, myself and one other pilot decided to clear the remains of the site.

We might not have got 3-4billion in kills we'd hoped for, but we did pick up a A-Type EANM worth 1.4billion.

Thanks for the escalation guys ;)




Saturday 28 January 2012

Sometimes the best fights...

...are actually the ones you loose.

I took the dual rep rifter out for a spin, and didn't have far to go before I cross jumped a Sentinel on a gate. Deciding to wait on the gate to see if he came back, I didn't have long to wait before the pilot eager for an easy rifter kill jumped back, warping off to the sun at 100, he landed shortly after me but at zero, oh well least I get to see a little of his fit before he gets to me.
Quick check, shows no guns, but a suprising turn of speed, neuts and a MWD.
Would have to get him into scram range...

Waiting till he was about 20km away, I hit the AB, and burned into him, catching him with the overheated point then settled for a 7500m orbit, to lower the traversal on his drones, cap zero'd fast as I'd expected, but timing the capbooster with the reps meant I could keep the drones from killing me, and keep my scram on him to try and prevent him running after I'd killed his drones.
It was a long slog, I managed to kill lots of his drones despite the tracking disruption, but he kept launching more, damm that large dronebay! My tank had been holding nicely, and the drones were dying fast but I was also burning though cap boosters!

Eventually the size of the rifters cargohold just wasn't big enough to cope with the size of the drone bay on the sentinel, and there just wasn't any more capboosters to feed the hungry reps.
It had been an epic fight lasting over 6 minutes, but inevitably the mighty rifter sucumbed tanking over 5,000 raw hitpoints of armour.Well done little rifter.

Nothing to do but warp my pod out to safety, offer the good fights in local, which were happily exchanged. 

--
Anabaric



Saturday 21 January 2012

NEWSFLASH: Slaughter in Vitrauze

News reports are just coming in of a recent slaughter that has occured in the quiet system of Vitrauze.

Early details are sketchy but it appears that the notorius pirate Anabaric gate crashed a mining party in the mining belt 2-1.
The miners fresh out of school were busy collecting omber and other high end minerals, when the pirate landed in the belt and proceeded to destroy the entire operation before starting to shoot the escape capsules of the miners, 3 were killed before the rest finally warped their pods out to safety.

The miners had fought valiently, their ships were ill fitted for the battle but had still valiently tried to swarm the Wolf class assult ship. Unable to significantly damage the craft they were quickly overwelmed by the deadly autocannons. Concord has registered the following kills in the system.


In a related incident it would appear that a local good samaritan had tried to avenge the miners in his rupture class cruiser, but was also slain.



Friday 20 January 2012

Blog Banter 32: Non-Consensual Combat Restrictions



"A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons' Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an "opt out of PvP" option. 

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?"

So last week the new Concord Directive on Highsec PvP came into force, finally making highsec a total safe and secure place to be.
In honour of the event, all the corp loot we'd gathered over the last few months on intense ratting in 0.0 had been loaded into the freighter. Roughly 60b of loot was crammed into every last cubic meter, and ready for transport. Undocking the freighter, I set the autopilot, pressed engage and as the hulking Fenrir entered warp I turned on the holoflicks and opened a quafe.

Some time later, the alarm went off, not the usual one of ship scan detected, but the Jita gate traffic one. Excellent 30 jumps, 60b of loot, and no drama.
Entering Jita, I was suprised by the lack of local channel chatter, none of the usual scam artists were talking, no one was offering to double my isk, or trying to sell me a not quite Navy Issue Raven.
How odd I thought to myself, but that can only be for the best. Noticing the concord local on the billboard I take a look whilst the freighter slowly alligns to the station.
Concord Directive Enforcement in Progress
All forms of scam and con's have been prevented. This is for your protection.
Have a nice day.

Docking in 4-4 I busied myself unloading the shiny loot, so much of it imported fresh from 0.0 C-Type this and A-Type that, this will make a pretty penny for the corp.

Setting up the first contract, I quickly refresh the local contract market to see what prices these are currently on sale for, hoping to make a quick buck by undercutting the market price.

Thats off, all the prices are the same, oh well 10m less should definately sell it fast.
*Error Concord mechanics are in force, no PvP action may occur in highsec*
This is for your protection.
Have a nice day.
WTF!!??? pressing the button again
*Error Concord mechanics are in force, no PvP action may occur in highsec*
This is for your protection.
Have a nice day.
OMFG!!

Quickly I check my market orders, everyone else's orders are now the same as mine.
*Error Concord mechanics are in force, no PvP action may occur in highsec*
This is for your protection.
Have a nice day.

BlogBanter Link

Sunday 15 January 2012

KBG recruitmemt info

OK listen up grunts, we still have a few limited places available for the right people. 
If your attitude sucks, if you act like a hormonal teenager, then don't bother applying even if you have a "elite" killboard, you won't get in. 
We're not interested in Drama llama's.

There is a few specifics you will need to have, or be close to flying:

1 racial T2 cruiser hull, with full T2 weapons/modules and Tank. ie HAC/Recon/Logi
1 racial T2 frigate T2 Weapons/modules where required.
Battlecruiser trained to 4 minimum, with approriate fittings.

This means you will have a bare minimum of 10m skillpoints, and in the right areas.

We fly the following gangs, you will be expected to be able to have fitted and be able to fly something suitable from your hanger.

Frigate wolf pack
Shield Battlecruiser
Shield Nano Battlecruiser
Tier 3 Battlecruiser Alpha

Battleship, Dread / Carrier fleets - we do these, occasionaly.

Corp ops are non mandatory, however if you don't want to fly with a gang, why join a corp?

Combat experience is preferable, as is a positive kill / death ratio, however for the right people that are willing to listen, we can break your bad habit of dying and make you into a solid combat pilot.
We have solid logistics in place, with regular freighter runs to/from Jita, and lowsec/highsec hauling.

You will also need the following:
Working Mic, and audio. We use Mumble/Vent/TS3 depending on who we are flying with.
Self sufficent isk source. We can assist by providing Alt access to lvl4 missions, and to our WH for isk.

We are mainly EU/US timezone. Background checks may apply.
Contact Anabaric, Acute Dragonis, or Nashh Kadavr in game, or Join Kadavr Public for more information.





Thursday 12 January 2012

NEWSFLASH -

So I moved again, can I just point out I hate moving. I like having my stuff where I want it, my piles of looted modules, my ammo, my cap boosters, my spare ships, so the thought of moving is a little bit of a mission. A few carrier jumps later, and I've got most of my usual ships, and the big shiny pile of ammo and modules all in its new home in Goinard. I've left a few ships and a clone up in Bosberger so from time to time I'll still come back and upset the locals, don't worry AUTOs I still wuv u <3

Other news
Corp
KBG is having a holiday away from heimeter, and playing with some new (old) friends in Goinard, a chance to get in on some bigger fleets, and try out some different tactics which we haven't had as much experience with. If it works out who knows, maybe will stay.

Kills
Nothing noteworthy of late, had a good fun december with 35 kills to only 2 losses, one cyno rifter, and a Wolf in a 1v1 with Turbular Knight, I derped, and hit approach in my kiting wolf... wasn't good lol.

Isk
Arthouris sold in the end, so I have now have a healthy wallet again, and a new stock of shiny stuff to make pretty explosions with.

Training
I've now finished all the armour compensations skills to V, and Assult ships V should be finished shortly in time for whatever buff comes along, after that its the month long drag to HAC V, and then I've finished my current training plan and will need to sit down and look at what I want to do next. I'm still undecided about training Caldari Cruiser V, I probably should as that would be all four races, but its Caldari... yuk.

Recruitment.
KBG is still recruiting, however after recent discussions we're increasing our minimun skill points, and required fittings. More on that in another post.
If you're interested drop me a line in game, or join "Kadavr Public"