Sunday 30 November 2014

[FICTION] The long kiss goodnight

Anabaric looked up from the console he was working on taking in the view from his small office which now looked out over the space dock. The Moros classed dreadnought filled most of the vista, Nashh's insignia was clearly painted on the sides, but something felt wrong. Nashh had a certain style about him and it was evident even when undocking Nashh's usual flying style was missing.

This pilot was observing the undock speed limit, rather than engaging the thrusters at maximum the moment he'd cleared his personal hanger. In fact this pilot was being extra careful, almost as if he didn't want to be noticed, he'd even turned the engines off as he passed a freighter so as not to cause turbulence...

This wasn't Nashh.

There was only one person that would even consider this today, Dame!
He pulled the comm unit out of his pocket, pressing the speed dial.

Over in Nashh's office the alliance meeting was in progress.

"What is it!" Nashh growled.
"Told you so." Anabaric's voice echoed out over the speaker phone.
"Fuck you"
Turning back to his console Anabaric entered a single line of code into the terminal screen.
"Don't worry, I've fixed it for you, he's having navigational issues..."
He could Lazy laughing in the background over the tinny speaker.

The jump drives of the Moros had spooled up and blue lines of electricity pulsed along it's hull, as the field lines converged a small explosion blew out several decks near the aft of the ship. The field lines stuttered twice then converged as the drives overloaded, purple sparks jumped over the hull, the ship vanished.

On board the Moros, Dame smiled as he made the jump, he was away, his cargo hold full of Nashh's rum and the Dreadnought fully fueled and ready. Then warning lights started to flash on the console, the jump was taking ages, something was wrong.

Reality shifted again and the ship dropped back into normal space, he started to take stock of the situation, the ship was in one piece, but why did his head hurt so much?  where was his cyno ship? In fact where the hell was he? Damage control was reporting minor damage to most systems, the jump drive was offline, fuel was showing depleted, navigation was showing errors, he couldn't possible be there... and why did his head hurt so much.

Checking his jump timer, Dame started to realize what had happened. An overload had caused the ship to use all the fuel in one single jump, he was lucky to still be alive, the moros was stranded with no fuel, and blown drives. Damage control teams were already working on the drives, 6 hours for the repair. Not really an issue, his head was killing him and he had 14 hours of jump fatigue anyway.

"So how did you know he was going to take that ship"
"I didn't."
"Then how did you do that?"
"I put a bomb on your ship"
"Just that one?"
"Maybe..."

Thursday 23 October 2014

Hauler Death Race II - The REDEADENING!

From the desk of Ithica Hawk - Director of The Bastards
Coming soon (Sunday October 12th 2000EVE) to a system near you (TBA) is the return of the most exciting sport in New Eden, the T1 Hauler Death Race. The first iteration was hailed by the pundits as "better than football" and "so good I'd suicide my nyx to take part".

Here's a little summary of HDRI from our very own Anabaric: http://imsdemons.pvp101.net/2014/01/bastards-hauler-deathrace.html

The T1 Hauler Death Race is simple. So simple even you can do it. All you need to do is turn up in the step off system with a T1 hauler before the start of the race. You can fit the hauler however you like (with a few restrictions) so if you want to eliminate the competition that's fine, and practically encouraged.

When the proverbial whistle is blown everyone will be fleet warped near to a can in space. Inside this can will be an exotic dancer and a mystery illegal substance (one of each for every contestant).

You simply take your load and set off to the destination station (given during the fleet warp). To win, simply trade the exotic dancer and illicit substance back to the organiser.

There will be no designated route. It may be possible to go through lowsec, highsec and nullsec but the final station will be in lowsec. If you get blown up en-route theres nothing stopping you buying another hauler and going back to the start, or possibly even a checkpoint TBC, (except that you'll probably have lost by that point).

I'll probably think up some sort of twist but that will be announced closer to the time.

Can anyone claim the crown of current World Champion TFS Tibbs?

There will be a grand prize (yet to be determined) for the supreme victor in the race but there will also be some other prizes for
* Most other contestants blown up
* Spirit of the race
* Most shit contestant

BSTRD, MEAT and anyone else who wants to play is welcome so tell your internet spaceship friends, blog it, tweet it, vine it, whatever people do these days. The more the merrier.

Restrictions:
Only T1 haulers allowed.
Only T1/T2 modules allowed (no officer/deadspace/faction)
Only T1 rigs allowed
No links or boosts allowed
Dual boxing is allowed as long as the other screen is also a hauler
Implants are allowed but discouraged in the name of a fairer race
Fitting offensive modules and drones is allowed
Forming gangs and backstabbing each other is allowed
Name calling is allowed
Dirty play is allowed
No pod killing

Saturday 18 October 2014

Alliance logo's

We really must get these added to EVE, everything is so much cooler with an alliance logo. Who doesn't want to fly with their corp or alliance logo emblazoned on their hull.

The Bastard's LAV in Dayz EPOCH


Sunday 17 August 2014

Sorry not been about....

Ah so many things to do, so little time.

Hardly spent any time in game recently, needed a small break but mainly been spending time getting ready for the end of the month. For those I haven't already told I'll be getting married on the 30th August.

I'll be running a little ingame stag roam one night between now and then, expect terrible fits and large quantities of rum to be consumed.

Catch you all soon.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

Passing the torch.

When I took control of the Bastards Alliance 18months ago, it was a mothballed corp that down to 2 active members, looking for a new place to call home, the training corp was empty bar a few inactive alts.

I took control because The Bastards brand needed to survive past that point, we pulled them into Shadow Cartel and merged the Kadavr Black Guard into them, swelling the initial numbers. Slowly recruiting some of the pilots you see today. And with the return of Johnny Twelvebore from the Tuskers we had the final piece of the puzzle, someone who wanted to push forward again. 

We gave the Shadows a big hug and dropped alliance, pushing foward deeper into lowsec on our own. With all the members being active and pushing recruitment we moved to 60+ players, most of which are active. Opening the training corp allowed us to recruit very young pilots, many of which have gone on to become great solo pilots in their own right. 

With the brand rebuilding many of the old inactive members surfaced and rejoined for a while, some famous faces among them. Just this week TheHermit has appeared, bringing with him the code for the missing ransom board - more on that soon!

Being a CEO is a large responsibility and not something to take on lightly, much like running a business you'll have to deal with both recruitment and discipline at times, even harder you're not actually paying these people to do your bidding. You need to be active, organise events, roams, push recruitment constantly, and not still try to have fun yourself whilst doing all of this. 

This year real life for me has been hectic for those that don't know I'm getting married the end of next month, so between that and career changes I haven't been able to give the Bastards what it needs from a CEO. 
So it's been an easy decision rather than just letting the corp go to ruin I have chose to step back now whilst the corp is still growing strongly. I'll stay on in advisory for as long as they'll have me, but now I just get to turn up and blow stuff up again!

Johnny Twelvebore takes over as the new CEO, a graduate of the Meatshield Training corp and has largely been running the corp in my absense anyway, only fair that he takes the shiny crown with it. 

And no, you can't have my stuff, I'm not quitting eve. 




Monday 7 July 2014

The Bastards vs The Meatshield (internal alliance PVP tourney)

Over at Bastard HQ we're always looking for fun ways to spend an evening, and once in a while we run a little tournament. 

It's not just for shits n giggles as we get to see who in our training corp is ready to move up into the main corp.

Within the corp forums we have two private corp channels set up which where fits and theory crafting take place. After the match the channels are opened up for the whole alliance to see. 

This is a proposed version of a our new tournament improving on the last version, you're welcome to suggest improvements or use for your own corp. 

Anabaric

(It is deliberately biased in favour of the training corp) 

Quote
This plan modifys the rules to still give the Meats several significant advantages, but also giving the bastards a fighting chance. This should make it alot closer and make the meats work for a victory.
It should make it much more fun for everyone involved.

Ithica

Format
Tournament to consist of 5 rounds of a maximum 10 minutes each, upto 10 min pause/break between rounds. 
This means the entire event should only take 2 hours or less.

Pilots
Bastards can field a maximum of 5 pilots
Meatshield can field a maximum of 7 pilots 

For every Meatshield pilot over 7 bastards can add another pilot.  (Meats retain a +2 pilot advantage)

Issue: What if Meatshield cannot field 7 Pilots ??

Ships
Both corps are limited to T1 frigate hulls. No pirate, faction, or T2 hulls allowed. The only exception to this is the flagship rule.

EWAR rules
ECM may only be fitted to a griffin
RSD may only be fitted to a maulus 

Ship hull limitation (Logi/EAF rule)
Each team may only field one EWAR hull per match
Each team may only field one Logistics hull per match
Bastards may only field either a logistics or an ewar hull - not both
Meatshield may choose to field both at the same time. 

Module Limitation
Meatshield may use all meta levels 1-5 (T2 included)
Bastards may only use meta 1-4 items (this removes overskill bonus's)
No pirate/navy/deadspace items. 
No cloaks

Ammo
Navy, or T2 is allowed - no rare pirate ammo please. 

Flagships
Bastards flagship can be any navy hull, they can use T2 highslots.
Meatshield can choose any frigate including Navy & T2 (but must not break the Logi/EAF rule)
No pirate frigates (no worms!)

Flag ship fittings have to be registered with the admin, no fitting changes may be made to these ships throughout the tournament. It must have the prefix "FX:" to it's name, no other ships may use this prefix on name. The admin will not be required to disclose the hull&fitting to the other corp. 

When it's gone it's gone rule: only one flagship per team, it can be fielded at the start of any match

Issue: - can it be flown EVERY match?

We know what you're flying rule
Bastards will get on grid at the secret location first. Meatshield will have the option to scout their fleet with a single pilot warping on grid in a shuttle or pod (no ship scan) This gives them time to choose a counter fleet... 

We still know what you flying! Lock-in rule!
Should the Meatshield loose a round, they have the option to lock in the Bastards fleet and face it a second time, this rule can only be used once in the tournament and only in the event of the Meats loosing a round.
(in the event that a flagship was destroyed it can be resurrected for the lock-in match: this applies to both teams)

Issue: Admin keep spare parts? 

Scoring
Each ship kill is worth 1 point
Bastards start with a -2 points per match, they will need to kill 2 pilots to achieve a draw!
Bastards will forfeit the round if they are not on grid before the end of the 10 minute break
Meatshield will forfeit the round if they are not on grid within 1 minute of the break ending (time to counter)

Arena size
The arena is 100km radius from the central beacon. Moving more than 100km from the central point results in disqualification. 
No on grid warping. 
No cloaking. 

Notes & Additional rules:
Spider tanking is allowed!

Loot
All loot is the property of the alliance, and will go back into the slush fund to provide ships and modules for the corps

No podding 
There is no excuse for podding friendlies, anyone doing this will be dismissed from the alliance.

Honour amongst Bastards
No pirate implant sets

Sunday 27 April 2014

EVE Online Meta Levels - explained again.

A very simple explanation, I've been asked this several times so I figure it's just easier to write it all down.

Meta Levels are at the simplest explanation graduations in the quality of the item.
A simple rule is the higher the meta level the better the item.
You can check the meta level of an item in game by clicking the show info property in the menu.

From the EVEWiki:

The Meta level of an item indicates its quality. The higher the number, the better the item often is.
Tech I items have no Meta level displayed. They are considered to be of base quality.
Tech II items have a Meta level of 5. They are the highest quality items that can be manufactured and sold by players.

Certain faction or other items may have Meta levels higher than 5. 

Their attributes, however, may not always be better than those of the Tech II variant of the item.

Meta 0 "Tech I"

Tech I items are meta level 0, they are the most poor quality of all the versions of an item in game. They often have poor bonus, combined with high CPU, PG, and Capacitor use.

They are created by players from minerals, as such they have a cost fixed by the mineral market which is largely stable. Due to the nature of the market and production the price is largely dependant on the cost of materials. There is no good reason ever to use these items directly on your ship, not even cost.
They are often more expensive than the named versions.

Meta 1-4 "named versions"

The named versions of the modules are dropped in varying quantities from NPC's in missions, belts, and complexes. They have the same skill requirements as the Tech I versions, however they usually have significantly better bonuses, lower fitting requirements and in terms of active modules, often lower activation use. Due to the source of these being loot drops, they are often seen as having little intrinsic value, mission runners often dump these onto the market at very low prices to bulk buy orders. There is often more being dropped per month, than meta 0 (T1 items) produced by the manufacturing process, hence oversupply of mission loot combined with no fixed cost (ammunition+time) to produce means they often sell for less than the Tech I counterpart.

Meta 4 items or "Best named Meta" often have the same bonus as the Tech II item, but with lower fitting/activation costs, and no extra skill requirement. These items are often very valuable, and the market knows this, you can expect to pay more than the cost of Tech II items for these. They are often used over the Tech II versions on very tight fitting ships, or by pilots lacking the skill requirement for the Tech II version.

Meta 5 "Tech II"

These items are mainly* created by players using the research/invention process, the cost fluctuates based on several index's but is still relatively stable. In a change to all the other meta levels, Tech II items also need a higher level trained of the required skill to use. They usually have good bonuses, and marginally higher fitting requirements than the Tech I item.
Tech II weapons allow the use of advanced Tech II ammunition, which you are unable to use in any other meta level items, including the higher faction and officer meta levels. Tech II weapons also gain a second damage bonus from the weapon specialisation skill. Meaning that a Tech II weapon can have more damage with the same ammunition as a faction or best named meta weapon which has exactly the same damage bonus attribute.

They can be easily identified by the yellow flash in the top left corner containing II

Meta 6-15

This is where it gets a little grey, they are split into the following categories, but the line blurs between the exact levels. The easiest way to split them is by the colour tag in the top left corner.

Meta Storyline Items 

These are rare items, due to their limited source, they usually have similar bonus to the Tech II versions, often with very low CPU/PG/Activation costs. They are dropped as specific loot for completing some of the COSMOS and Epic Arc missions. They are often very overpriced, due to their rarity.

Amendments
COSMOS items do not drop, they are manufactured from materials and BPC obtained from COSMOS missions and sites. They require specialized skills to manufacture, and very few people bother to manufacture them at all, as there are often cheaper faction / deadspace alternatives. Few people do COSMOS missions, so supply and trade volume is low and prices usually higher than the actual value.
TauCabalander

Storyline AFAIK are ALWAYS worse than T2 - but have lowest possible CPU/PG need.
Tetlanesh

They can be easily identified by the green flash in the top left corner containing a O

Meta + Navy Faction items

These items claimed from loyalty points stores from the various factions in EVE. They are relatively rare and expensive due to the LP requirement, the best items are often only available to faction warfare members, and thus command a good price.  They vary in quality but they will have at least the same bonus as the Tech II item, without the skill requirement. They are often much better.

They can be easily identified by the green flash in the top left corner containing a diamond

Meta + Pirate Faction 

These can drop from Special NPCs in asteroid belts though low and null sec. They are relatively rare, and thus command a good price, they vary in quality depending on the item, but they will have at least the same bonus as the Tech II item, without the skill requirement. They are often much better. 

They can be easily identified by the green flash in the top left corner containing a diamond

Meta + Deadspace Items

These drop only from inside of NPC complexes they are often of very high value. The bonuses are much better than the Tech II versions, however some have higher activation charge to balance them. There is usually several version of the item C-Type being the lower version, with B, A, and then X-type being the best. Due to the loot table changes it is often worth looking at the market value of all version, as often the prices do not reflect the best versions.  

They can be easily identified by the blue flash in the top left corner containing a cross

Meta + Officer Items

These drop from special officer NPCs in deep nullsec, they are elite items, with some massive bonuses over even the Deadspace items, expect to pay billions of isk for the good ones. Some of them also have massive PG requirements, thus are unable to be used on smaller ships. 

They can be easily identified by the purple flash in the top left corner containing a star

Compare Tool

There is an option in game to compare items, open the info of an item in game, and look at the other variants far right tab.  At the bottom there is an option to compare versions, you can select the attributes you want to compare and quickly see which version of the item is the best. 

Notes:

In terms of the invention process of Tech II items, the meta level comes into play, the higher the base meta level used, the higher the chance of successfully gaining a Tech II BPC.

Tech I items have a valid use in terms of mineral compression. Currently with the correct skills/installation you can manufacture items from raw minerals which take up less space than the minerals used. As you can also reprocess these with minimal/zero loss you can transport abnormally large loads on minerals in this manner. Linky

*A few Tech II blueprints originals are in existence, these rare blueprints were given out (with some controversy) early in EVE's life, and can produce Tech II items without the invention process.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

EVEnt - EVE Nottingham 2014

Linky



EVEnt 2014

On September 13th my good friend Nashh Kadavr will be organising an EVE-player meet in Nottingham UK. I hope to attend, along with several of the Bastard alliance members, you can expect a good turn out from Shadow Cartel as well, along with many other fantastic people. This is a great place to meet some of EVE most notorious people, along with the legend himself Nashh. 

Doors open at 11 am until 11pm
Food and drinks offers available
Skype interview with a CCP Dev
Games on several very big screens (EVE, DUST and some indie games)
Discounted rates at local hotel
Minimum age is 18, if you are lucky enough to look under 18 bring ID

Location;
Antenna Media Centre, Beck Street, Nottingham, NG1 1EQ

How to get there from Nottingham train station;

Hotels with discounted rate;
holiday in use the group-code ‘EVE Nottingham’ 

RSVP;
If you are coming please make sure you post on this thread or contact him directly, he's opening the business out of normal hours, and needs to ensure attendance is high enough. If for whatever reason you are unable to make it please let him know on this thread or email him directly at givemeisk@gmail.com

Please spread the word to all your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and in game.

PS.
Nashh can also be bribed for beer tokens with isk, contact him in game to discuss.

Linky


Watch  #EVE_NT for more details! 

Thursday 6 March 2014

His First Solo and still only 6m SP

Radyt'h


After i trained abit up for the "mighty" incursus, i tought it was time to take it out for a drive.....alone....
You never know, Small kids grow up..... someday... Mayby today i might have found my balls of steel.. or mayby still keeping the choclate balls....

There is nothing wrong with choclate......When you use it on the correct way...(For tips as Marco)

Anyways... 

It was quiet at home, just 1 neut. A '08 char in a slasher. Why not !  :twisted: 

I warped those the small and medium installations and everytimes.. i just abit to late.... just a left over wreck.... Until he vanished from the scanner and i noticed there was just 1 possibility left for him to be around......... Medium Outpost.

I warped in and i met my new "BFF" inside. We had a nice dance. He was trying to gain speed and move away from me, but i was so much in love with him. I was humping his steel like a 40 year old virgin. I was sitting and talking to myself:

Dont forget the second repper... dont forget the second repper.... Dont forget the drones... drones.. SHIT i forgot the drones...... Cap.... how is the CAP... oohhhh we have enough cap.....DAMN the second repper..... uptill then i noticed his name was Forest.... he was running like a madman, but i noticed he still needed some male love, even without Marco. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.

But at the end:

https://zkillboard.com/detail/37309436/

Nice learning curve in a new ship i would say !

Killboard Links
Battleclinic
Zboard

The above was posted to our forum, but as you guys aren't all part of The Bastards Alliance you'd never have seen this.

Just goes to show what a little bit of pointing in the right direction can do for you. Radyt'h has less that 6million skill points, a positive kill ratio, and the start of a promising Solo career. It takes work, and the willingness to listen. But you too can do this.

Join "Dbastards" channel in game for more information.
We run open roams every Monday, and most people that try them tend to stick around.

If you enjoyed the read, and want to support him feel free to send him a little isk in game and pay to put some holes in some spaceships!

Monday 20 January 2014

Bastards Hauler DeathRace

So one of the Bastards Ithica Hawk had a fun idea for an evenings entertainment, we would all jump into T1 Haulers and rather than just try to explode we would have a race across part of New Eden. We would have to pick up some special loot items on the way just to ensure we completed the course.

The rules where quite simple, and deliberately ambiguous.
  • Restrictions: 
  • Only T1 haulers allowed.
  • Only T1/T2 modules allowed (no officer/deadspace/faction) 
  • Only T1 rigs allowed
  • No links or boosts allowed
  • Dual boxing is allowed
  • Implants are allowed but discouraged in the name of a fairer race 
  • Fitting offensive modules and drones is allowed
  • Forming gangs and backstabbing each other is allowed 
  • Name calling is allowed
  • Dirty play is allowed
  • No pod killing
Unsurprisingly the dirty play started immediately, with myself offering a bounty for TFS Tibbs immediate destruction. We all undocked and started to the fleet align to a distant planet, a sorrier collection of pirates in haulers you'd be unlikely to see. A mixture of lasers, blasters, had been bolted onto the haulers. The Nereus was king it would seem, with several bastards realising that 3 drones could be very effective.

The first task, a simple warp to a safe spot and pick up a single loot item from two different cans, to make it more fun the cans were also 50km away from each other.

As the haulers landed on grid the fights immediately started, with drones launching and blasters tearing chunks out of everybodys shields. Tibb's hauler started smartbombing. Launching my drones at Tibbs, I burned 10km straight up away from the furball, then headed over to one of the cans. 
At this point I also decloaked my dual boxed loki and started webbing the other ships, it took them several minutes to realise quite how much dirty play I was willing to use. 

Tibbs soon exploded, and dove off to station to reship, I continued to cause chaos with the loki, whilst having collected my two loot items was off out of system and heading towards to the waypoint 12 jumps away in lowsec. 

Many of the other haulers were still on grid fighting each other, rather than trying to run with the loot. Tibbs reshipped into his nano'd cloaky hauler and soon had both loot items and was in pursuit. 

I was making good time, but then jumped into the middle of a hostile faction warfare fleet...
realising that I should probably have fitted a cloak rather than a neut, I had little options but to deploy drones and look scary! Strangely the ships that had me pointed immediately ran away!! I was a little shocked at first, then as the Shadow Cartel gang landed on grid I realised they assumed I was bait :D
I waved at some of my old alliance mates in Shadow Cartel, who obviously a little confused why I was in a hauler, and quickly warped off before someone had the sense to point me. 

Punker met one of the gangs en route and was exploded

The rest of the journey was a little less eventful, Tibbs was starting to catch up in his cloak+mwd hauler, whilst my 400mm plated hauler was feeling a little fat off the gates, offlining the plate (still not sure that helps) I hoped to gain a little agility. As we hit the final system Tibbs caught me up and docked first to pick up the return trip loot. I landed on station just as he was undocking, but not close enough to scram and kill him. 

Meanwhile the rest of the group, had either started their journey behind us, or after reshipping into a combat ship, and where planning to ambush us on the way back!

On the return leg, Tibbs extra agility was making huge differences, and he quickly was one jump, then two ahead, I could only hope that he would be exploded on the way home!

We didn't run into any trouble on the way home, and the "gate camp" that should have prevented our return were too busy shooting each other to actually stop us. Tibbs arrived home, and finally managed to force Ithica to accept the trade and win the race. 

I arrived shortly after, traded my loot for second place, then undocked in the hauler and flew back to the gatecamp planning to suicide myself. In fact I actually made short work of Tekei's Rifter and was happily chewing on the somewhat surprised tristan belonging to Punker, when Lazy decided to shoot me.

All in all a great fun race, and thanks to Ithica Hawk to running it (who as official observer should have brought a bigger ship!)


--------------------------------------------

The final scores for the Deathrace where:

1st Place and congratulations to TFS Tibbs for coming back from behind and winning the grand prize

Congratulations also to Sarcos for winning the 'Spirit of the Race' for stopping multiple times en-route and trying to kill passers-bye. 

Anabaric takes home the 'most kills' prize and bonus title of 'dastardly motherfucker' for his legal, yet unexpected use of a loki to web the competition. 

Commiserations to Tekei for being the most shit and being destroyed and put out of the race at the earliest opportunity.

From 7-8 starters only 3 returned safely: Tibbs, Anabaric and CPT Shannon Igans so well done. 
Especially to ShannonIgans for successfully running the 'bitter-vet' gate camp formed of Anabaric, Tibbs, Punker and Lazy who couldn't catch a single T1 hauler between them.

--------------------------------------------


Nereus

The Death race was a good laugh for all involved, we'll be running this again soon, and opening the doors to all of new eden. Whilst I expect it to be a clusterfuck it should be a giggle. To stay posted on events by the Bastards, or for recruitment information join the Dbastards channel in game.