Hunting in wormholes is often feast or famine, honestly most of the times it famine with a few tasty morsels you come across, but recently it truly was a feast, a bloody, bloody feast. My wingman had located a cruiser and dominix. He had eliminated the cruiser before I showed up, but the dominix was in a site and he waited for me to show up in my typhoon. When I showed up in the hole, he had not popped the wreck, which had been on scan for the dominix for about 20 minutes. We got a warp-in on the dominix mid fight and made short work of him. Normally I’d go into a bit of philosophy, but I’m not even close to finish.
It turns out a few jumps over the pilot of the earlier cruiser and his buddies were poking around in tech one frigs and a cruiser. We showed up and started playing cat and mouse. I switched to my hurricane to fit through the hole and another wingman showed up. As we were trying to catch the guys on a timer or at a planet I noticed that there was a wolf on scan at a safe spot. Eventually I concluded he was worth pursuing and I combat probed him. I warped in cloaked and he was stationary uncloaked at a safe spot. The pilot was Ushra’Khan, whom I have a profound respect for after living in Catch/Providence for a few months. I suspected a trap of some sort, but decided to bite. I warped in with my hurricane and he cloaked immediately. Knowing he wasn’t moving I warped off and warped to 0 on his old scan hit. Sure enough he hadn’t moved and I uncloaked him, then I killed him.
I warped back to the exit hole at about 20km to be greeted by a cynabal at the hole. Presuming he was going to run through the hole I started to burn towards him when he started burning towards me, knowing I had two cloakers around I moved away from the hole and disrupted him. I suspected his buddies at any time, but he went down quick. Just as he popped a Drake from his alliance showed up out of warp and engaged. After a botched warp out and return we dispatched him as well. We looted the wrecks and decided to call it a night, as I left we noticed a small gathering of ships outside of the alliance we had just greased. We politely left and gave them the courtesy of burial rights on the two corpses.
One night with four combat ship kills, it was awesome. What were these guys thinking? Here are a few really good pointers, 1) Leave wrecks on in your overview for wormholes, it gives a great indicator via scan what is going on. It is completely inexcusable to go 20 minutes and not notice a fresh kill lingering by a wormhole. 2) You are far from untouchable while running a sleeper site, sleepers may retarget and do a lot of damage, but a decent buffer tank will last long enough for my omfgdiarrheadps to kill you. 3) After you cloak, move somewhere it’s as simple as that, just drive in a random direction. 4) Don’t engage people without a warp disruptor (cynabal), what do you expect to do? 5) Don’t engage targets that are very likely out of your class with no escape plan. 350M faction cruiser versus my 60M hurricane… bring it on. 6) Don’t engage people without a warp disruptor (drake), what do you expect to do? 7) Don’t active tank a drake.
I’m no pvp champ, but I think that’s all pretty good advice.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
And then there were four
In four days I have managed to fall behind with 8 kills to post. Amazingly enough they are all great stories too, so here goes.
We had a hole probed close to home and 4 of us on when I stumbled across a hole with a few Dominix on and a Loki. We fleeted up into BCs and BSs and prepared to engage at the time two Dominix and a Loki. We warped in on them, but by sheer coincidence they warped off a the same time and we all scrambled to get back through the wormhole and off scan. In the confusion, Kiritsubo warped to 0 on planet one because he didn’t have the exit hole. I happened to warp to 100 to check the inner planets and one very unfortunate cloaked prober was already sitting at 0. Kiritsubo uncloaked the frig as he came out of warp and made short work of him. He warped off to the exit and I looted and salvaged the frig. In the meanwhile the dominix had grown to 4 and with the loki were running a magnetometric site. The domis were all remote repping about 60km from the site center while the loki looted the boxes clustered in the center about 50km from the domis. It was the perfect time to pounce and we all warped right on top of the loki. The domis could do nothing but watch the loki be cut to pieces, which was the best part. They completely conceded the loss and in fact never even stopped running the site, concluding that we would likely not engage four RR domis, they were right.
Finally a tech 3 kill that was a bit of a challenge. From my previous posts you know that I love killing ships while others stand watch or know I’m around. I don’t think these guys knew we were around, its pretty cocky to keep out like that knowing there is someone snooping around. It surprises me that 5 pilots never noticed us come into the system, combat probe them, botch a warp in attempt, warp to the inners uncloaked, kill loot and salvage a ship, and then exit. Regardless, It was a great kill.
Then we killed a mining cruiser… boring.
We had a hole probed close to home and 4 of us on when I stumbled across a hole with a few Dominix on and a Loki. We fleeted up into BCs and BSs and prepared to engage at the time two Dominix and a Loki. We warped in on them, but by sheer coincidence they warped off a the same time and we all scrambled to get back through the wormhole and off scan. In the confusion, Kiritsubo warped to 0 on planet one because he didn’t have the exit hole. I happened to warp to 100 to check the inner planets and one very unfortunate cloaked prober was already sitting at 0. Kiritsubo uncloaked the frig as he came out of warp and made short work of him. He warped off to the exit and I looted and salvaged the frig. In the meanwhile the dominix had grown to 4 and with the loki were running a magnetometric site. The domis were all remote repping about 60km from the site center while the loki looted the boxes clustered in the center about 50km from the domis. It was the perfect time to pounce and we all warped right on top of the loki. The domis could do nothing but watch the loki be cut to pieces, which was the best part. They completely conceded the loss and in fact never even stopped running the site, concluding that we would likely not engage four RR domis, they were right.
Finally a tech 3 kill that was a bit of a challenge. From my previous posts you know that I love killing ships while others stand watch or know I’m around. I don’t think these guys knew we were around, its pretty cocky to keep out like that knowing there is someone snooping around. It surprises me that 5 pilots never noticed us come into the system, combat probe them, botch a warp in attempt, warp to the inners uncloaked, kill loot and salvage a ship, and then exit. Regardless, It was a great kill.
Then we killed a mining cruiser… boring.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
It's the ghost of Abraham Lincoln
It is not often that you come across a carrier in a c3 wormhole, it is even less often that you come across a nightmare. Finding both together was a real treat. I had a bunch of corpmates out patrolling with me when we came across a chimera and a nightmare. They had quite the operation going, running the whole system in about an hour. I assume the guy was dual boxing, running the carrier as a remote repper and fighter launcher and the nightmare as a dps platform. We had managed to sneak 4 guys in under the radar and each time he finished a site we were working into position to catch the nightmare if the carrier jumped first, but the pilot was very disciplined warping the nightmare first. To make a long watching story short, he finished 3-4 sites and then came back in two destroyers to loot the sites. Having already bookmarked good warp-in sites for the sites, we quickly deployed to the sites and popped both the destroyers simultaneously. A small convo erupted.
Logit Probit > great job
Kiritsubo > i learned the truth at seventeen
Kiritsubo > that love was just for beauty queens
Genocide Forge > nice carrier
Genocide Forge > you are slick with how you warp, we were gonna have you if you warped the carrier first
Logit Probit > ok
Genocide Forge > fly safe ltr
No philosophy today, just a good story.
Logit Probit > great job
Kiritsubo > i learned the truth at seventeen
Kiritsubo > that love was just for beauty queens
Genocide Forge > nice carrier
Genocide Forge > you are slick with how you warp, we were gonna have you if you warped the carrier first
Logit Probit > ok
Genocide Forge > fly safe ltr
No philosophy today, just a good story.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Lost in a floyd hole
Although I typically prefer to stay in class 1-3 holes I typically “dead-end” holes. Dead-ending a hole means I probe out every system I come across until I have completely mapped that little wormspace pocket. The process is surprisingly quick, often an hour of probing will set me up with 2-5 systems that I can roam around and terrorize. Class 1-3 systems are typically occupied making the exit holes very easy to find because the occupants usually keep the sites cleared out. The high occupancy rate makes each system a possible source of kills. Class 4-6 however have a drastically reduced occupancy rate making them not only harder to navigate but less likely of coming across active players. The flip side of this argument though is that generally small corps occupy class 1-3 which are often inactive most of the day and never really have much that is worth any large amount of money. I kill more in them, but typically make only a few million each kill. Class 4-6 on the other hand is sparsely populated, but when you do find an occupied system it is often very active with a lot of players all going about their business. They also don’t see a lot of travelers that deep in wormhole space and are generally less cautious. In fact once a wormhole hits a certain occupancy rate it becomes very hard to tell if you have an intruder around. Scans become an infinite wall of hits, and trying to pick out who doesn’t belong can be very hard. Most importantly for me class 4-6 systems are where the real money is. The corps are nice enough to have 5-20 people on clearing sites for me and then packaging it all up in a destroyer.
I happened across a class 6 (I think it was a 6) that had at least 20 pilots on running sites in their command ships and tech IIIs. I noticed a few salvage destroyers out looting the sites the groups were finishing. I managed to combat probe one and sneak in undetected. I quickly killed and looted him and slipped off before the hive got too stirred up. He had a decent haul which will pay for the next bomber I afk through low sec. Miraculously enough not a single pilot broke radio silence and I slipped out relatively easily.
On a side note CCP has reported that planetary interaction will be possible in wormholes. I’m excited about anything that brings more players into wormholes. Especially things that cannot be done under the shields of a POS. That being said I do have a concern for the buildup of “tower trash” and the inability to destroy a tower in the low class wormholes. I know it is feasible, but the practicality of even trying to sustain a wormhole fight over a day or two are horrifically lopsided to the defender. I’m glad they are giving holies more things to do in holes, but I’m concerned about the safety cushion having a tower in a system allows. I guess since there is relatively small amounts of isk to be made via class 1-3 its not really all that important.
It may never come to reality, but RS may be bringing the fight to a class 1-3 tower, we need to decide if the logistics of it will fit with our RL timetables.
I happened across a class 6 (I think it was a 6) that had at least 20 pilots on running sites in their command ships and tech IIIs. I noticed a few salvage destroyers out looting the sites the groups were finishing. I managed to combat probe one and sneak in undetected. I quickly killed and looted him and slipped off before the hive got too stirred up. He had a decent haul which will pay for the next bomber I afk through low sec. Miraculously enough not a single pilot broke radio silence and I slipped out relatively easily.
On a side note CCP has reported that planetary interaction will be possible in wormholes. I’m excited about anything that brings more players into wormholes. Especially things that cannot be done under the shields of a POS. That being said I do have a concern for the buildup of “tower trash” and the inability to destroy a tower in the low class wormholes. I know it is feasible, but the practicality of even trying to sustain a wormhole fight over a day or two are horrifically lopsided to the defender. I’m glad they are giving holies more things to do in holes, but I’m concerned about the safety cushion having a tower in a system allows. I guess since there is relatively small amounts of isk to be made via class 1-3 its not really all that important.
It may never come to reality, but RS may be bringing the fight to a class 1-3 tower, we need to decide if the logistics of it will fit with our RL timetables.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The dreaded Candiru
I read the EVE forums pretty regularly and am always amused by the posts about the death/rebirth/lack/bounty of solo pvp in EVE. As a (mostly) solo pvp’r I feel the need to weigh in.
Firstly, most people who claim there is little to no solo pvp in EVE don’t count ganking as true pvp. I’d like to clear a few things up, first of all, although the kills I make are typically straight up, cold hearted, remorseless ganks. I sneak up on helpless miners, haulers or looters, uncloak and annihilate them. That does not mean that I am not pvping. The simple act of flying my high value bomber, which is effectively uninsurable, into a wormhole is a dangerous art form. I’ve jumped into bubbles, campers and am rarely met with open arms. Once I am there, I must locate and sneak up on my targets undetected, which often requires very advanced, personally developed, tactics. Only then do I get to uncloak and gank the guy. After ganking the guy, I need to loot the wreck unable to cloak for a time period and then exit safely as his corp mobilizes. There is so much more that goes into my kills than just F1-F4. There is just as much skill in what I do as solo frig or cruiser encounters in low/hi sec. What people often fail to recognize is that EVE provides long term pvp, instead of instant gratification. PVP in EVE counts so much more than you’re the bad guy… I’m gonna get you bad guy. Everything goes into it, your wallets, your experience, your political stances, your friends, the location, and finally and almost least important your ship and fit. That’s EVE love it or leave it.
Secondly, I’m sick of people who idealize honorable PVP, and slam gankers, scammers, ninja looters, and pirates. Most of these people grind missions, manufactur, mine, trade or some other activity to make money. Well some of us don’t enjoy any of that (although I’m starting to like manufacturing) and have found ways to actually enjoy the way we make isk. Of course we appreciate and depend on those of you who grind your isk, so we can operate our “businesses”. Let me preface my next statement by saying I hate pvp in virtually all MMOs. That being said, EVE is a pvp game through and through, no matter what you are doing, you are pvping. Everything is competition, nothing comes for free. Missions used to be solo content, but thankfully ninja looters have filled the void. Also remember that what many of us do is actually profitable for us, so that we don’t have to grind for enough money for honorable pvp. EVE’s pvp takes place over a longer time scale, who can get to where they want to be or how they want to play first and then who has the most fun. Of course if that’s true, I’ve already won.
This is a blog about cold blooded kills though, and I have a great one for you, It’s even against not one, but three combat ships. I scouted out three ships running an anomaly, a Raven, a Harbringer, and a Drake. With my interest peaked I info’d the pilot and discovered that the two BC pilots had only about a month of training time and the Raven had about 1.5 years. Liking my odds against such inexperienced pilots I jumped out and got in my ‘phoon. I warped to zero on the Raven and opened up. The Harbringer actually targeted me back before warping off and the drake simply ran. The Raven didn’t even fight back, it’s like I wrote the script for that battle before it ever started. I warped out and later crossed path with a stabber. Scared of engaging such a fast ship in my bomber I returned to my now trusty ‘phoon, combat probed him and warped to about 5km on him. He put up a meager defensive, but quickly popped. Then I saw his fit… WTF? Who leaves ALL your lows empty?
Firstly, most people who claim there is little to no solo pvp in EVE don’t count ganking as true pvp. I’d like to clear a few things up, first of all, although the kills I make are typically straight up, cold hearted, remorseless ganks. I sneak up on helpless miners, haulers or looters, uncloak and annihilate them. That does not mean that I am not pvping. The simple act of flying my high value bomber, which is effectively uninsurable, into a wormhole is a dangerous art form. I’ve jumped into bubbles, campers and am rarely met with open arms. Once I am there, I must locate and sneak up on my targets undetected, which often requires very advanced, personally developed, tactics. Only then do I get to uncloak and gank the guy. After ganking the guy, I need to loot the wreck unable to cloak for a time period and then exit safely as his corp mobilizes. There is so much more that goes into my kills than just F1-F4. There is just as much skill in what I do as solo frig or cruiser encounters in low/hi sec. What people often fail to recognize is that EVE provides long term pvp, instead of instant gratification. PVP in EVE counts so much more than you’re the bad guy… I’m gonna get you bad guy. Everything goes into it, your wallets, your experience, your political stances, your friends, the location, and finally and almost least important your ship and fit. That’s EVE love it or leave it.
Secondly, I’m sick of people who idealize honorable PVP, and slam gankers, scammers, ninja looters, and pirates. Most of these people grind missions, manufactur, mine, trade or some other activity to make money. Well some of us don’t enjoy any of that (although I’m starting to like manufacturing) and have found ways to actually enjoy the way we make isk. Of course we appreciate and depend on those of you who grind your isk, so we can operate our “businesses”. Let me preface my next statement by saying I hate pvp in virtually all MMOs. That being said, EVE is a pvp game through and through, no matter what you are doing, you are pvping. Everything is competition, nothing comes for free. Missions used to be solo content, but thankfully ninja looters have filled the void. Also remember that what many of us do is actually profitable for us, so that we don’t have to grind for enough money for honorable pvp. EVE’s pvp takes place over a longer time scale, who can get to where they want to be or how they want to play first and then who has the most fun. Of course if that’s true, I’ve already won.
This is a blog about cold blooded kills though, and I have a great one for you, It’s even against not one, but three combat ships. I scouted out three ships running an anomaly, a Raven, a Harbringer, and a Drake. With my interest peaked I info’d the pilot and discovered that the two BC pilots had only about a month of training time and the Raven had about 1.5 years. Liking my odds against such inexperienced pilots I jumped out and got in my ‘phoon. I warped to zero on the Raven and opened up. The Harbringer actually targeted me back before warping off and the drake simply ran. The Raven didn’t even fight back, it’s like I wrote the script for that battle before it ever started. I warped out and later crossed path with a stabber. Scared of engaging such a fast ship in my bomber I returned to my now trusty ‘phoon, combat probed him and warped to about 5km on him. He put up a meager defensive, but quickly popped. Then I saw his fit… WTF? Who leaves ALL your lows empty?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The buddy system
The stealth bomber is a phenomenal ship with some really outstanding capabilities. I have no real experience in using them in anything bigger than a small gang, but I know the 0.0 alliances use them to some impressive results. For me they do very respectable damage, close to 500 dps and 5000 alpha with my skills. The bombs are nice, but as my loyal readers know I don’t even carry them anymore. What makes the stealth bomber such a stand out platform for me though is one unique quality that is virtually unmatched in EVE. The bombers ability to lock targets immediately after uncloaking is the one defining feature of the stealth bomber that allows me to have the amazing success I do. Paired with a great scan resolution and the ability to warp cloaked, the Stealth Bomber is the king of guerrilla and psychological warfare.
Recently I watched a corporation start up a mining operation. They had 3 mining barges and were using a Typhoon as an overwatch. The Typhoon had its light drones out, but had managed to station itself about 10km from two of the barges. I carefully worked myself about 22km from the isolated barges and over 30km from the Typhoon. I have been in the situation of not enough points for all the targets, but have learned to lock and point the covetors while shooting the retrievers or haulers. I uncloaked and did so to a covetor and retriever. Both were down in the blink of an eye and I started to lock the third barge, when the Typhoon finally woke up and started to lock me. With the third barge being out of point range, I warped off as his light drones came screaming in. Cackling evilly I returned to the site to find the Typhoon guarding the wrecks. I estimated his reaction time plus lock time and uncloaked, popped a wreck and then recloaked. I repeated for the second wreck and both jet cans they were mining into. At some point he broke radio silence:
ColeMega > come on
ColeMega > get some or not ?
ColeMega > donny
ColeMega > whats up ?
ColeMega > you gonna fight or run ?
Of course, the answer to that was; “I’m going to take a few pot shots from extreme range and then head out to a new hole with fresh targets.”
There is very little in EVE that is as satisfying as killing people while their friends stand guard and watch. Encounter after encounter that I go through people don’t even start reacting until after the first ship pops and only then usually in a desperate scramble to get out. Without the ability to immediately lock the psychological effect of such a rapid kill would neuter the bomber.
Recently I watched a corporation start up a mining operation. They had 3 mining barges and were using a Typhoon as an overwatch. The Typhoon had its light drones out, but had managed to station itself about 10km from two of the barges. I carefully worked myself about 22km from the isolated barges and over 30km from the Typhoon. I have been in the situation of not enough points for all the targets, but have learned to lock and point the covetors while shooting the retrievers or haulers. I uncloaked and did so to a covetor and retriever. Both were down in the blink of an eye and I started to lock the third barge, when the Typhoon finally woke up and started to lock me. With the third barge being out of point range, I warped off as his light drones came screaming in. Cackling evilly I returned to the site to find the Typhoon guarding the wrecks. I estimated his reaction time plus lock time and uncloaked, popped a wreck and then recloaked. I repeated for the second wreck and both jet cans they were mining into. At some point he broke radio silence:
ColeMega > come on
ColeMega > get some or not ?
ColeMega > donny
ColeMega > whats up ?
ColeMega > you gonna fight or run ?
Of course, the answer to that was; “I’m going to take a few pot shots from extreme range and then head out to a new hole with fresh targets.”
There is very little in EVE that is as satisfying as killing people while their friends stand guard and watch. Encounter after encounter that I go through people don’t even start reacting until after the first ship pops and only then usually in a desperate scramble to get out. Without the ability to immediately lock the psychological effect of such a rapid kill would neuter the bomber.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Action, Action, Action
I’m back in the cockpit and flying sorties regularly again. Luckily I’ve had a flurry of action in the few times I’ve been out recently. One of my first stops brought me to a WH that I recognized the tower names in. I caught a few different ships on scan as I first entered the hole, but they thinned out really quickly. There was a Drake still at one of the towers acting very erratically and the pilot eventually jumped into a caracal and went out to the entrance hole. Meanwhile my wingman and I were switching over ships, me into my phoon and he was in his bomber at the hole. We eventually took the bait and engaged with my wingman’s bomber as I jumped through in my phoon. A whole mess of backup showed up in the form of an Onyx, Harbringer, and Dominix. My wingman vacated before the cavalry showed up and I traded a few blows, but jumped back to high sec once I hit armor. They convo’d my alt which they knew was still likely in system.
Kalex Khan > We really wished we had a mining site up, or something better to bait you with :)
Mynril > update your blog ;D
Bodega Cat > Trying for another blog update right?
Genocide Forge > yeah
Genocide Forge > im back in the game
Mynril > we were missing ya ;)
Genocide Forge > i know rl is kicking my butt
Kiritsubo > it tastes like fail
Genocide Forge > o/ ltr good hunting
Mynril > take care
I’m not sure why they didn’t point the bomber early. I can only imagine that the caracal had a scrambler vice a disruptor. If they had pointed it, they would likely have gotten it. I’m sure they will chime in and I’d enjoy hearing the other side of the story. I stopped by the next morning to check up on them.
In the hole next door we had a whole lot more fun that night. We quickly located and popped a Covetor and his pod. The pilot's alt jumped into a Manticore and disappeared off scan. We tried to get him to uncloak near the hole for a little bit, but he was either too smart or not around. We moved on, but returned later that night. I jumped through and cloaked up and was met in local with this:
Sanne Allows > aw, comon, it was one little bomb.. lets play.....
Sanne Allows > ok, if yer gana be pussys about it, at least tell me if yer still hear so I can get back to work.
It seemed that he had been playing a game of cat and imaginary mouse with us since we had left. Not appreciating be called a pussy and loathing his particular brand of new age leet speech we decided to camp his system for the rest of the night. He left out to high sec eventually and we terrorized a large number of transients through the hole including this guy and an anathema that we had to about 50% structure. In a very short time we managed to get a lot of action, which was refreshing.
On a separate note, I lost my first bomber in a long time. I would have preferred Mynril’s gang get it, but instead I lost it to AFKing into low sec to buy skill books. It had been a while since I “newbed” a ship.
Kalex Khan > We really wished we had a mining site up, or something better to bait you with :)
Mynril > update your blog ;D
Bodega Cat > Trying for another blog update right?
Genocide Forge > yeah
Genocide Forge > im back in the game
Mynril > we were missing ya ;)
Genocide Forge > i know rl is kicking my butt
Kiritsubo > it tastes like fail
Genocide Forge > o/ ltr good hunting
Mynril > take care
I’m not sure why they didn’t point the bomber early. I can only imagine that the caracal had a scrambler vice a disruptor. If they had pointed it, they would likely have gotten it. I’m sure they will chime in and I’d enjoy hearing the other side of the story. I stopped by the next morning to check up on them.
In the hole next door we had a whole lot more fun that night. We quickly located and popped a Covetor and his pod. The pilot's alt jumped into a Manticore and disappeared off scan. We tried to get him to uncloak near the hole for a little bit, but he was either too smart or not around. We moved on, but returned later that night. I jumped through and cloaked up and was met in local with this:
Sanne Allows > aw, comon, it was one little bomb.. lets play.....
Sanne Allows > ok, if yer gana be pussys about it, at least tell me if yer still hear so I can get back to work.
It seemed that he had been playing a game of cat and imaginary mouse with us since we had left. Not appreciating be called a pussy and loathing his particular brand of new age leet speech we decided to camp his system for the rest of the night. He left out to high sec eventually and we terrorized a large number of transients through the hole including this guy and an anathema that we had to about 50% structure. In a very short time we managed to get a lot of action, which was refreshing.
On a separate note, I lost my first bomber in a long time. I would have preferred Mynril’s gang get it, but instead I lost it to AFKing into low sec to buy skill books. It had been a while since I “newbed” a ship.
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