Getting Whooped

  So, I've been in this game a long time and I'm proud to say I've made a lot of friends.  There are some of these friends that I've alienated in the course of this stupid game and given the fact that you can't please everyone, and there are also those very few friends who have accepted me as I am and enjoyed the ride (yep, it got dirty fast!).  One of the issues that has always divided myself and many of my friends in this game is their view on many of the fights I take part in...  They are of the firm opinion that any fleet that is made of more than 10 people is a blob and that 0.0 alliances somehow cannot PvP by their very nature.  They always fail to take into account the strategic significance of 0.0 fights and the fact that sometimes it's better to discourage attacks with overwhelming force than to encourage good fights in a space where you are trying to make a home.  Many people seem to forget that as a sandbox game, there are a lot of EvE players out there striving for more than just the next great 1V1 fight.  But I hope they never forget that in the crucible that is 0.0, true combat happens daily and I try to prove it whenever I can.

  Of all the things I've done in EvE I've never really scrapped a fleet, but I did that tonight in epic style.  I'm man enough admit that as an FC I got whooped once tonight and had some success later on.  To be fair, the bomber fleet was supposed to be engaging a T1 cruiser fleet but the intel was  bit spotty:

http://www.fatal-ascension.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=62102
http://www.fatal-ascension.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=62116
http://www.fatal-ascension.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=62115



A corpie's vision of one of the good fights we had this week

New PC

With EvE getting prettier and my old graphics cards melting like butter I decided to upgrade to a brand new PC.  Wife thinks I went overboard, I think I need a bigger monitor :)

So Pretty

  So, as it's all over the blogosphere; Crucible has landed and it includes some sexy new visuals.  For the bitter vets it also includes an array of changes that are both small and huge at the same time.  Little things like fixing the font and making destroyers actually work are going a long way in repairing a bit of the rift that had grown between CCP and the EvE community.  A lot of people are wondering what amazing things could have been done if CCP had put this type of energy into EvE all along.  For my money, I'm so glad these changes have come but I understand CCP's need to expand their repertoire.  I do hope CCP keeps up the good work they've displayed with this patch even when they do move back to the other projects they had to put on the back-burner to keep EvE from fail-scading.

  For me it's been a good month even if I haven't written anything; I'm lazy :)  Had a fair amount of kills http://edk.evemeatay.info/?a=home&m=11&y=2011 and had a lot of fun which is really all that matters.  Luckily I was able to do this without getting as much playing time as I'd really hoped for; and also spending about a metric shit-ton of my time doing logistics.  I'm looking forward to the new POS fuels personally, but just in case I've put far too much current style fuel in the POS's in the event something goes haywire on us.  I was a little sad about the delay in seeding the new fuel BPO's but I managed to get a set for cheap so I'm happy in the end.  I'm not sure how much research effort I should put in but it appears I should put in at least some.

-Meatay

Crazy Month

  So, it's been a while... again...  Taking over as the NT CEO has been a little more time consuming than expected; but in a good way.  I've certainly found myself more engaged in the overall game thanks to my duties and as a result have had one of the better months in my career PvP wise:  http://edk.evemeatay.info/?a=home&m=10&y=2011 

  There has also been a lot going on in EvE in general which is exciting.  I know it took a near player revolt but I'm really excited to see the new energy in CCP.  While I know they can't give up on WIS I'm sure happy to see a little focus placed on FIS now.  I'm not exactly sure I like these new tier 3 BC's though.  Don't get me wrong, they look great and I've been begging for new ships, but I'm not sure if these are something anyone really wants. Time will tell, and the real world use of course, hopefully I'm wrong.  On the plus side we're getting some hybrid gun love, even if it isn't a lot.  Hopefully it's a test run and a precursor to further balancing :)

  Anyway, have a good weekend.

Capital Re Balance

  Capital ship re balancing is coming and it looks like it may be a bigger step than many of the naysayers previously thought.  I'm not exactly sure how this will all play out but I am pretty certain there will be some angry super capital pilots.  Of course they have spent a lot of time and energy getting that ship so they have a right to be angry but it seems to be the general consensus that the changes are good for EvE.

  As a very big fan of my Moros despite it's long lived lack of usefulness to me so far, I'm interested in the dreadnought changes.  I am sad to see the Moros' drone bay go away because that was the feature that really made it one of the more useful dreads.  It's a bit odd that in buffing dreads they decide to take away a feature BUT; I understand the point being made by removing drones from non carrier capital ships of all sizes (looking at you Titans).  I do hope that as a subsequent re balance they decide to give the dreads back their drones.  In the long run I know those 5 drones don't make that much difference but I have always found having them much better than not, perhaps that's just the Gallente influence though.  I'm interested to see how this plays out and here's hoping my Moros gains a role in fleet fights because I really like that ship for some reason.

  Except for ratting carriers I'm not seeing too much change to standard carriers; they will be a little less effective against smaller ships but they aren't losing their standard drone bays so they will continue to be able to field heavy or medium drones to help with these. We'll see if this sees further changes in either direction, I'm sure this will need a bit of tweaking to get just right.

  The new logoff mechanic is such a big change and something that I think has been lacking for far too long.  I think many will agree that this is an important addition.  Still I hope they keep an eye on this to make sure it isn't too far in the other direction.  With all of these changes CCP will need to keep to their word and monitor the effects because these changes could have big ripples in EvE that we may not completely realize yet (as these things have been seen to happen in the past).


Also, maybe this will lead to some new ships?  Maybe even new capitals?
  -Meatay

Site Redesign (and back from summer)

  It's been a while since this place got a fresh coat of paint.  As a part of shaking off the summer rust in EvE I thought I would take the time to spruce things up around here as well.  First off I contact Rixx Javix over at Evoganda for a shiny new banner design (which also carries over to my killboard).  I really like what he's done with the banner(s), his work is always impressive though.

  In other news things have been active but nothing much worth posting about sadly.  As a new CEO there is plenty of work to be done in and out of game but luckily the Night Thiefs are a strong group of mature guys and it's been pretty fun so far.  There has been plenty of work settling in the new alliance and everyone is trying to shake off both the rust of summer and the distrust of CCP that have combined to make logging in harder and harder this year.  I think Helmar's Post goes a long way towards re-establishing the faith that this game won't just up and quit on us in the near future but it's pretty easy to say the right things so I'll be waiting a bit.

Wicked Twisted Road

  Well it's been a long hot summer here and my EvE career has continued to take some twists and turns since I've been away from the blog.  I won't kill you with the boring details but to sum up I started by re-joining my original alliance in EvE with a good chunk of my original friends from the game, we took a break from running the alliance and focused on the corporation, the corp CEO took a break and I became CEO and now; I'm back in Fatal Ascension, this time with my fellow Night Theifs behind me.

  I've taken quite a long road to be here, having been a part of FA during the fall of Providence up to the early days out in Fountain.  It's not always been pretty either but that is probably a tale for another time.  Anyway we're now members of FA, hopefully the summer rust is shaking off of everyone, and there should be more tales to come.


~Meatay

The Recruiting Trail

 Well, as much as we've always tried to avoid it -NT- is finally on the recruiting trail.  Check out our post at http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1555012 and at least give us a bump if you aren't interested.

Missed Oppurtunity

  Yesterday I was bored so I decided to do a little random flying around in my trusty Nemesis.  I managed to find an active group of pilots who were gearing up for something and puttering around in front of a station.  Obviously the battleship heavy fleet didn't have much to fear from a single stealth bomber but I did think I had a shot at popping a few of the smaller ships stuck between battleships.  I picked out a little flycatcher who was nice and far from the un-dock and looked to be stuck between some Abadons and unable to warp.  I setup a safespot on one side of the blob and worked my way to the other so that I could align...bomb...and warp away without too much trouble.  I successfully caught the group off guard as no one even bothered trying to lock me but I wasn't able to kill a single damn thing despite getting damage notices on every ship in the system.  In retrospect I should have locked the Flycatcher and target painted him.  Maybe I should have even thrown a torpedo or two at him prior to warping out.  While I hate to have missed out on the kill I am always happy to have a successful bomber run because there are very few things more thrilling in EvE then using a SB.  The run needs to be setup perfectly so that you are aligned to warp out, you must time your warp properly so you aren't too early (no detonation) or too late (locked and pointed), and you are in a paper then boat that relies on the first two things being done right as it's tank.  Always fun :)


-Meatay

Say what now?!?

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=937

I've mentioned this before but it's clear CCP knows that the greatest marketing tool EvE has is the player community and player generated content.  Despite that fact CCP has seemingly pursued a general goal of limiting the strength of player content in favor of their own over the past year or more.  Now it seems they are asking us to provide more examples of the content they aren't exactly helping us create in order to further their marketing.

I want EvE to succeed because this is really the only game I play and its awesome; so I'm not saying the community shouldn't help promote it.  BUT: I do think its kind of a slap in the face to a player-base who just united against content they didn't want. Now they ask them to promote the part of the game they used to have.  If CCP was a person I would probably advise they visit a doctor about their unusual mood swings.


-Meatay

Night Thiefs is Looking for PvP Pilots

  Night Thiefs is currently recruiting active PvP pilots.  If you are looking for a true PvP home with plenty of freedom to handle your business however you like; then come give Night Thiefs a try!  With an permanent invite only policy we are only looking for a few fresh faces which we will be interviewing before accepting.  You don't have to be the best player in EvE, you just have to be ready and willing to join in some hot and steamy PvP.  Of course a limited API will be mandatory.

The blah blah:
-We do PvP and do it well, that's about it.
-We don't care what you do with your free time (in or out of EvE) as long as you can take a joke and like seeing other players go boom.
-The only game play guidance we provide is expert advice on request and designation of main areas of operation.


Mail "Meatay" in game or speak to another Night Thief to discuss joining and plan a short interview.

Why so Serious?

  Noldevin made a nice post right here on this blog the other day and I just finished listening to the Fly Reckless community shoutout Pod Cast  in which they make some interesting points but also miss on a few (at least in my opinion).  There has also been a ton of talk in chat channels, on the #tweetfleet , as well as the general EvE blogosphere about what is going on.  I think there are many people who are missing some of the reasons for this public outcry for two main reasons and countless smaller ones:

1. They are caught up in the anger of others and/or themselves and aren't seeing clearly, or even considering why they may be so angry.
2. The general issues aren't affecting their game play so they just see it all as a stupid thing to be upset about.

  I would like to talk about some of the reasons I think this past week or so has been so insane in EvE.  I believe there are many reasons and some of them are actually old at this point but they created a base for the new anger to build on and "overflow the banks."

Why all the secrecy?

  I understand that CCP is a company and as such they have some things they don't want to flat out tell their rivals via a forum post.  On the flip side of that coin; there has to be some detail they can share with the player base about upcoming changes or just general ideas that may be kicking around in the office.  This seems especially true as the date for a new feature gets closer where the time frame for a rival to use that information is shrinking.  There is also the issue of the CSM being held to such tight NDA standards while supposedly being the voice of the players.  I think it would go a long way for everyone if the CSM was allowed to pick one thing (by vote) every so often that would be exempt from the NDA, even if CCP forced some things out of contention for this.

  There is a general feeling in the older EvE player base that CCP has basically stopped talking to us.  This is a company who has grown a lot and as a result their communications with their customers have gone from personal and often direct to being handed out in PR crafted press releases and dev blogs.  A lot of people understand this but that doesn't mean it hasn't upset them a bit, even hurt their feelings on some level.  This issue was blown to astronomic proportions during monoclegate when CCP could have really cut down some of the fire early but reacted more as a slow moving giant than the plucky little company many of us used to love.  That leads directly into the next issue:

Where's the love?

  This has been brought up by several on the tweetfleet and in other places and I don't want to exaggerate the truth because some of it is just nostalgia.  Still, there was a time when the actions CCP took were directed more by the emergent game play happening in the sandbox than by game play styles they wanted to push down on the players.  I have no idea when this changed but for me the last time we saw this was the introduction of the heavy interdictor based on the play style in 0.0 space.

  Obviously CCP introduced a lot of their own ideas in that time as well, but it was widely appreciated when something was added that was directly drawn from what we were doing as players.  There was a sense that our actions really did matter in  shaping the future of EvE on an even grander scale than taking space and destroying alliances.  In recent expansions CCP has largely done the opposite while claiming that this is not true.  A part of this is the recent treatment of 0.0 space which has not been well accepted by a large portion of pilots.

0.0 is the lifeblood of EvE...

  Now; that is very likely an overstatement but it's also important to note that most of the PR push for EvE (prior to Incarna) has basically been a re-telling of player generated content that is happening out in 0.0.  They love to brag about giant fleet fights, huge coalitions going to war, and players truly making the sandbox their own in lawless space.  However the actions of CCP over the past few expansions have clearly shown that they are more worried about getting new players to swarm into hisec than keeping the most energetic part of EvE alive.  Patches have changed the way 0.0 anomalies work several times now, added costs to living in 0.0 on multiple occasions, and have generally been geared at making it less hospitable to live anywhere but hisec.

  The addition of Incursions which basically boil down to 0.0 gains in the safety of hisec are another example of this.  Ignoring the fact that EvE players are a special breed and many have died thanks to these incursions, it is pretty clear they are meant to be a lure out of null-sec for borderline players.

  Many veterans are feeling a cold shoulder from CCP these days as they are actively courting new players with the fruits of veteran labor (a rich game universe) while seemingly not caring if those veterans stick around at all.

Do you think we are stupid?

  I understand the tricks of business including the price anchor theory are aimed at making money but to expect to sale virtual goods for more than the real world counterpart is just insane.  Many people were upset about this and took to the forums to ask why they thought we were so dumb as to buy a shirt for $20 that could be destroyed by pixel based lazors.  This hasn't really upset me that much as I don't have the slightest interest in playing dress up with my characters in EvE, I have the Sims if I want to do that.  I looked at that price and said "meh, that's an awful lot, doubt they'll sale many of those widgets."  However this is one of the issues that started to push all the recent problems between CCP and it's customers towards an explosion.  

Silence is not golden

  The "rabble, rabble, rabble" for this started slowly and pretty softly but when the internal newsletter was leaked it got a lot of people thinking.  The key points of contest in the news letter were the possibility of selling advancement in EvE for cash.  I don't think *most* of us actually thought the news letter was policy but it was clearly very one sided which lead a lot of us to believe it may be indicative of a policy shift taking place.  The refusal to tell us, in plain english, whether this was true or not is actually what set off the powder keg in my eyes.

  I think it would have been better if CCP had just said "yes, we like the idea of selling you stupid shit for ridiculous prices, and some of that is going to be unicorn ammo!" The silence was taken by many as yes, but it was also taken as a serious slap of disrespect by a pretty big group of players.  Then, CCP did the unthinkable, they threw CCP Zulu at us without any answers and told us that was all we were getting.  It was too late, by the time Hilmar's internal mail was leaked it was just more fuel on a fire that had grown largely out of control.  By that point spin wasn't going to work and even CCP taking the step of bringing the CSM to Iceland didn't appease a lot of players.  Many of us have decided to see how that meeting turns out but unless the whole CSM gives us a giant thumbs up I don't think this will be over.

-Meatay

Words in Anger

So it appears Zulu has finally felt the pressure of our action and not our words, just as they wanted to. In the latest Dev Blog Zulu comes to grips with reality and realizes that we the EVE community will not stand for such blatant bullshit. He claims his rather unfavored post was a result of heat of the moment. I almost forgive him, here's why: While what transpired this weekend was unacceptable to us players, many CCP employees recieved insults, harsh treatment, and hatred that was undeserved. It seems many CCPers are friends, so it is only natural for them to feel anger or frustration in defense of their comrades. I would probably have done the same to be completely honest, though that does not make it any more acceptable. Please remember, I DID say almost.

Is the CSM meeting just a PR stunt? Most likely, but since the CSM answers to the community using it as a stunt would backfire tremendously and just further prove that they are ignored. Hopefully they take what the CSM brings them to heart, for once. Because they are pretty much in the exact same position as this guy...




You guys (and gals), the EVE community, have done an excellent job in showing that our wallets dictate their business, and not the other way around. It is important that we continue to do so, lest CCP make another attempt at emptying them.

That being said, please make sure to contact the CSM and make it extra clear that we will accept no less than a guarantee that there will never be pay to win items. Ignoring our wishes, for CCP, would be like our friend in the picture digging another foot forward.


-Noldevin

Protesting In Jita Today

click to en-gigantasize

Wow, What a week!

  In the understatement of the century, this is a big week in EvE.  Walking in stations (or more accurately, walking around a room trying to figure out why you are there like a frat brother on Monday morning) was already slated to cause some "discussion" among the EvE community.  Then, in a comedy of errors, the situation has escalated beyond anything that could have been imagined.  For the sake of brevity I will just hit some of the high notes for you:

----------
This CCP internal memo was leaked, it's "Interesting"

This was confirmed as real by CCP Pann

CCP released some news about 3rd party apps that upset about everyone

Amazing unrealistic prices on the new store (for items no one wants anyway) have left many questions in the commnunity

Incarna has been *reported* to cause graphics cards to overheat, even acceptably high quality cards **Note that this did happen to me on a formerly stable system with no overclocking**

Helicity Boson has been banned -- although I am a bit happy to see his tears as the organizer of Hulkageddon

CCP Pann is the first to come out of hiding

Some of EvE's major community contributors are up and quitting:  Here and Here and others but I didn't feel like looking everything up.
----------

  As you can see, there is A LOT to talk about here.  I don't think I can cover all of this and I don't even know how much I care to.  Instead I want to talk about why there are so many problems with the changes and why so many people are upset, at least in my opinion.

  The first and most obvious problem was that there was some misdirection leading up to this launch which I can only assume was meant to keep the "bitter vets" on a low key as CCP was actively courting new types of players into New Eden.  I'm not sure what CCP thought would happen when everyone realized they had been lead down an alternate path, but I think the reaction was more venomous than they expected.  This lead to CCP making the decision to circle the wagons and try to wait out the storm by not really making any public reaction.  They probably couldn't have made a worse decision short of just posting on the forum HTFU and locking it down.  The player base worked themselves into a fury as only EvE players can do, and the fire was far too hot to put out by the time CCP broke out the water buckets.

  The second major issue I see is that EvE is a very (very!) complex game and even casual players have put a lot of thought and effort into being a part of it.  No matter the intended direction CCP has allowed a feeling to creep into the community that they want to make this game "easy" now; so that they can get new people to play.  Their actions leading up to this release have all been geared at getting players back into high security space: from the nerfing of null sec anomalies to the incursions that basically serve as hisec anomalies.  CCP has seemingly made a point of stomping out emergent gameplay in the past few months.  EvE is a game that is about as boring as watching paint dry when played by the original CCP rules, so you can imagine the backlash to losing the "fun" things to do in the game. Now, I don't know if this was CCP's intent at all, but they allowed that feeling to grow from the initial seed into a terrifying force in the community without ever stepping in to clarify.

  Another big issue was the claim that was stated over and over again: Incarna was something that the EvE player base REALLY wanted.  In truth most of us understood that it was necessary for the growth of the game but I don't think many of us actually cared whether or not we ever got it.  In fact I believe most current EvE players would have chosen a single new ship for each race over being able to see our bodies in the game.  When you first start in EvE it takes about a week to get used to the idea of a spaceship avatar, and then it's over, you never care about not having an avatar again.  In my opinion if CCP had been honest and told us that they had to do this to keep the game relevant or risk us all loosing it forever: everyone would have been happy to help, most would have even been nice about it.  Instead they chose to try revisionist history and tell us that this is something we always wanted.

  At this point the overall fire has reached a pretty serious point and there have been a lot of mistakes from both the players and CCP.  I'm not sure where this is headed but I do know I've already turned off my station graphics so that I can get back to playing EvE.  For me, Incarna is a non-issue until they take away the option to leave the station off.  I'm not going to quit EvE, even though I did consider it for a moment, but I'm also not even going to open the new store again because I really don't care about my avatar having a monocle that could buy me a new carrier.

-Meatay

Piling on CCP

  First off, don't forget to set long skills training for the upcoming Incarna release.  CCP has made incredible strides in streamlining patch day since I first started playing but I think we can all expect some growing pains when adding a whole new technology to the game.

  Many people have been jumping on CCP lately, but I plan to reserve my judgement for Incarna, at least for a while.  While it isn't something that is very important to me I understand the reason it is necessary within EvE.  New players look at this game with a reference and fear that nothing else on the market can match.  Getting those new players to stick around is going to take something that they can sink their teeth into, and considering the time it takes to even get a ship worthy of PvP that something is going to be Incarna.  I'm sure there will be players who never un-dock thanks to the new feature, but there are already a lot of those thanks to an odd pleasure they get from being in Jita.  So even though I'm not all that excited about the new feature I think it will end up being good for the game: *as long as* CCP continues to care about ships in space and doesn't focus entirely on a feature that is aimed at WOW players.

  I do want to give CCP some recognition for handling the lulz DDOS attack pretty well.  They seemed to put in a lot of honest effort and did a pretty good job of updating the player base.  I think everyone understands that there were some "op-sec" concerns with giving out details too early and the updates we got were just fine in my opinion.

  I'd also like to thank CCP for the much improved alliance tournament coverage.  Although we weren't able to watch the first rounds, and I missed much of last weekends rounds with RL, what I did catch was very well done.  It was a lot more exciting than the US Open.
--Congrats to Hydra Reloaded--


-Meatay

Alliance Tournament and Random Updates

  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) I haven't been able to log into EvE very much because of the beautiful weather here in NC, USA.  I've read a bit about the Alliance Tournament but haven't been able to catch any of the matches.  What I've read has made this sound like a pretty good tournament though; although some teams are obviously playing things close to the vest (PL for certain).  I'm looking forward to the matches hitting YouTube a bit down the line.  I found it very nice of CCP to have a series of "Pick the Winner" contests during the tournament @ http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1525902

  I was pleasantly surprised on catching up with the news today that CCP will be implementing an option on Captain's Quarters, at least for a period:  http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=922  This is great for me because I have an older computer that I like to play EvE on so that I can have separate controls in some situations.  I'm going to update/replace that computer but the longer I can put it off, the better it will make the issue for a lazy bum like me.

  I've gotten out of the loop in 0.0 politics pretty quickly in the short time I've been away, especially because things have been moving very quickly for certain segments of the 0.0 population.  Delve is an interesting hotbed of activity and a very convoluted political structure which includes old blues, new blues, sometimes blues, and just about every kind of political relationship in EvE.  I'm not really sure what is going to happen there because there are a lot of old and new "big players" with at least some presence or stake in that area.
  The "fall" of the NC is still ongoing although the news now focuses more on those leaving and the actions of those who have already left.  I'm interested to see where the DRF make their next move and if they are concerned at all with the growth of old enemies in the south.

 I have managed to get in on a few kills with one of our random wardecs as well as some other action despite my short time playing.  We are pulling out of the current wars because we have a series of major changes coming down the pipe and we need to be free to make those steps without other concerns.


-Meatay

Summers in EvE

  Summer is barely underway and I've already started to notice a downturn in activity in New Eden.  This happens almost every year as students head home/abroad and weekend days are spent outside.  I have certainly felt it myself as I have been on vacation or outside instead of in game for at least the past week.  This really provides a nice downtime to help stem the burnout many people are probably reaching at this point, especially given the hectic year it has been for some alliances.

  Personally I hope to spend the summer with at least a toe in the waters of New Eden, even if I don't log in anywhere near as much as I normally would.  Hopefully this will be a good time to tick off some of those extremely long skill training paths that are so hard to start when you are logging in more often.  Perhaps I will have my fully maxed out T2 guns for all races by the end of the summer?  In reality I'm sure I'll be sidetracked by a shiny new skill (as I always am) and be only a little closer to my plans.

  I do certainly plan to enjoy my summer though with as much EvE as I can fit in.  For those of you who won't be on until the days get short again, fly safe!


-Meatay

Enjoying PvP - My Path

  I don't mind saying that for much of my EvE career I wasn't really that "in" to PvP.  I never really minded going on roams or joining ops for the good of the corp/alliance but it wasn't really something I sought out.  Over time I did come to enjoy seeking kills a bit more but always hated the "inconvenience" of PvP.  By that I mean the trouble getting properly fitted ships to a target location and then re-shipping if you lose them.

  Recently though, I feel like I've found my "groove" as far as PvP goes.  After completing cross training on cruiser sized hulls I found that there were many ships out there that I was missing (such as the Hurricane) which make PvP a lot more fun.  I discovered that it is important to find some ships you like flying because it makes it a lot more fun to go out and shoot people.  Even if you end up flying something different occasionally because of fleet needs you will still have a ship out there that you like to fly waiting for you.

  It's also important to find good people to fly with, and I can't overstate that part enough!  One of the great things about AoV is that (despite being a PvP alliance) no one hassles you about stupid losses on the kill board.  I've had many stupid losses so I should know.  I have always hated corps/alliances that fuss at players for losses.  Unless they are out there specifically trying to junk up your kill board you should just be happy they're out there and willing to fight.  It's also important to find a group that makes it fun.  Good FC's help but if you don't like the people you are roaming with you won't be very likely to do it again.

  As a cap pilot I have a bit less trouble these days getting my ships around; but if you aren't a cap pilot make friends with one.  Be willing to light him cynos every so often and throw some fuel (or gas money) his way if you ask him to move some ships for you.  More often than not he will be happy to help you get your gear to where ever it's going.

Also, get new shinies like a fresh KB :)

-Meatay

New Shinies - My New KillBoard

I have experimented with the Eve-dev killboard before but decided to give it another try today.  I had to go through several updates and I'm still trying to get older mails accurately updated but it's been a good start:

http://edk.evemeatay.info/

Obviously there is some work to do in the looks department which is something I need to do a little research on. If anyone out there can help me out here I would be very appreciative.

-meatay

Relaxing in EvE

  It's been a while since I last posted, mostly because of vacations and general lethargy.  Not a whole lot happened in the past week or so except for the loss of two interdictors in a row http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9607 & http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9608.  That Sabre had seen me through a lot of good fights and I was a bit sad to see it go, but learned a lesson about keeping alignment up when facing Machariels.  Don't be lazy kids, keep moving to stay alive.

  I was going to post something about the jump bridge changes but actually decided against it.  I'm not upset with the changes themselves but I would like to ask CCP for some clarification on one thing.  It seems they love to promote player driven play with their words but they work so hard to break up actual player content in favor of content that they direct.  That's pretty much my only opinion on the subject as the only people this is really going to hurt are the guys who have to set the jump bridges up and negotiate JB systems amongst allies.

-Meatay

Roaming Under the Influence: part Duex

  I had the whole weekend off (wife was out of town) so I settled down for a bit of EvE.  It was certainly an interesting time.  As AoV continues to regroup and wind down from the exceedingly intense activity of earlier this year we are settling back into what we do best; PvP.  We do have plenty of logistics still on the board as well as commitments to other entities that we won't ignore but all in all we're getting back to a bit of "business as usual."

  As a part of that I've been trying to do my part and improve my abilities in the realm of PvP.  I'm not trying to bite off more than I can chew so for now that has been limited to attempting to stir up fights and small roams with relaxed rules (this weekend's was another drunk roam which is always fun).  It turns out it isn't very hard to stir up fights if you bring the right bait, but that's a story for another time (maybe I'll let noldevin tell this one).  This weekend's version of the party roam also wasn't shaping up too well until we decided to pack it in and head home.  At which point we managed to run into this unusual fleet: http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=9354 and http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=9355 (two parts because of two different systems).  Following this little gem we were baited by a pair of Ravens with a >40 man gang attached; which we sveltely out maneuvered (ie ran away from).  As this was the end of our op we waited these guys out and continued to head home after being sprung by a nearby blue fleet who cleared us a path.

  The rest of the weekend was taken up by a bit of logistics (to you guys who are waiting on me to move things for you I promise to get around to you) and hopping on to some other fleets that were bouncing around.  One of these turned out to be at least interesting if not exactly a full success.  A small group of alliance-mates were burning down a POS in lo-sec to stir up fights and apparently annoy a corporation for fun (I didn't ask why).  I decided to hop on over and throw some dps of my own into the fire.

  I'm really not sure what was going on in the target corp but they started by bringing in 3-5 complete failures of cyno attempts (and the odd PvP ship) which either died or left the fight.  Eventually they managed to get a stable cyno up and promptly jumped an Erebus on us (50 KM from the POS shield).  The pilot had obviously meant to bridge a PvP fleet in and both sides cleared the field as we had no clue what was going on until we had a second to digest what just happened. After the laughter wore down in voice chat I went for a scanning boat but the Erebus had already worked out his return cyno by then. Sad to not get a titan kill but if you have never been fail dropped by an enemy titan I would suggest the experience.  From the obligatory "what's an Erebus" in fleet to the chatter that this generated in local I haven't laughed so hard in EvE in quite sometime.  If I can dig up the local logs I will post them later, once I edit them to take out some of the off topic chatter that was also going on.

-Meatay

Old Friends (faggy friendship post)

Many of us have probably forgotten our first months of Eve by now, probably including the people you flew with (that is, if you even had friends)...

I haven't. My starting months in Eve are what made me fall in love with this game, and I have never found anything like it since. When I joined the Aurelius Federation most of us were total noobs. We learned, grew, and adapted together. We died in a fire in our first wardec together - yes that's right, we actually FOUGHT VALIANTLY in a wardec, something you almost never see anymore. We did get a couple kills, though it was more of a failed bum-rush than actually fighting. It was some of the most fun I've ever had in any video game.

Aurelius Federation has since disbanded, and many of the members have left Eve for almost a year.... Until this month :D

This month saw the return of Mendolus and Kuroda Tsu, my fellow officers in AU-F. Out of everyone in Eve, I talked to them the most and developed a friendship that will probably extend beyond Eve. Also returning (and already in -NT- with us) is Falgoria, our resident fail expert and secondary sarcastic smartass. I'm the primary of course.

I'm quite looking forward to much epic YARR with all of them and their return has re-boosted my interest in Eve greatly. Now if only days were 5 hours longer >:D

-noldevin

What a view

  Jumping onto the new test server (Duality) to see the new Captains Quarters.  It's certainly different having a body in EvE and I would recommend you go check it out.

*Edit: if you want to check out Singularity (SiSi) or Duality I suggest you use the tool that CCP has created vs. the old method of downloading the clients manually.  Check out this thread for details and an official download link http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1377944

  One thing I would like to have changed is the scaling of ships from the balcony.  CCP has always tried to express just how massive these ships are but when you look out over the balcony everything seems small.  I understand that they need to scale it to fit in the most massive ships but hopefully they will add in some auto-zooming or something to work on this.

  For example, even a Thanatos looks a bit puny:

While the Moros looks a lot more like I was expecting (because it's really really big )

Ouch, that's got to hurt

  With our new favorite war targets now disbanding in an attempt to escape the effects of war it seems that they forgot a few things about EvE.  One thing you should always remember is that "war decs" take 24 hours to drop even when you leave an alliance and surrender.  Another thing you should remember is that lo-sec is a horrible place that you should never go to; but when you do, you should try to avoid gate camps in a freighter.  Also, if you are flying something that even the kill board estimates at over 8 billion isk (freighter + cargo), probably a scout or support fleet would help:  http://killboard.apotheosisofvirtue.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9038

War!

  One of the things that AoV has always like to do for fun has been launching a hi-sec war against someone who has been either hanging around our 0.0 homes or looks to give us decent fights.  On that note we recently set off on a war with Hun Reloaded and Valor Empire.  Hun Reloaded has been a bit hard to find but Valor Empire is based nearby and has been much more active.  As a result our war with them has been much more entertaining.

  It looks like we are winning right now as you can see from Dotlan and our campaign to eradicate them.  Fun times :)

*Since Dotlan is subject to change here is the printout for posterity:

Roaming Under the Influence

  This weekend had been a bit of a bust for a lot of us in AoV.  After completing several CTA fleets and navigating hundreds of systems without seeing much in the way of targets we were a bit disappointed.  Saturday night, with not much left to do we decided to have a bit of fun and take out a fleet with every intention of getting blown up and having a blast doing it.  We grabbed some beers and some cheap ships that we didn't mind losing and took off in a random direction.

  With bad FC'ing (ie me) and a group of about 7 random ships from rifters to vexors we were sure to have a good time, and we certainly did.  We got off to a good start when one of our fleet mates decided to pop this guy while waiting for the rest of us to get our act together.  After that (and the rest of us finally showing up) someone tackled a curse and after debating it for a bit I decided to go ahead and take the kill.  He took out my rifter before we popped him and some of his friends showed up in drakes to push us off the field.  Since we had just started and were doing very well in our K/D value ratio so far we jumped right back into new ships (those of us with losses) and took off again.

  After meeting some drakes that blobbed out the sun and everyone having to scatter in a zig zag motion to avoid dieing horribly we moved on to nearly killing a Rattlesnake who was just one lucky "bump" from not being able to dock up in time.  The Rattlesnake pilot had a friend in a Raven who was pretty elusive.  I managed to slow boat to one of his on grid safe spots (under cloak) and when he returned one of our guys had him tackled until this happened  (one shotted by smart bombs fyi) and we all laughed so hard that no one else was able to tackle him, including me.

  The night continued on until our glorious alliance leader hero tackled a zealot  and we were forced to avoid the blob his death created; including the zealot pilot making the AWFUL move of reshipping into a Thanatos and warping directly to the gate.  Please, if you ever fly a carrier, never do this people, especially not alone! With it getting late we packed up and headed home after not being able to catch a few dramiels and a drake.  All in all a very fun night and a good break from the serious business that has been too much of EvE lately for a lot of us.


-Meatay

On Recent Events

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together to hurt you to the heart...
~Mark Twain

   As many of you know Fatal Ascension is Under New Management and AoV has had what I'm calling a misunderstanding with Test Alliance Please Ignore-- --further reading on the topic--  --and here as well-- .

  I will limit my discussions on the overall situation or how I feel about it because there is just way too much going on and I know almost none of the most intimate details.  I will say that having flown with Raven Shadows for a while and having known him long after; there are very few finer people in EvE.  Growing -FA- from the ground up could not have been an easy task and I will always admire his work.

  I will also say that as a former corp mate; the new leader of -FA- (Zagdul) is a very capable nuts and bolts guy and I have a strong suspicion he will do quite well at the head of a large alliance. I hope he does not burn himself out in the heady early days of something this major.

  I have to admit that I am a bit heartbroken that the situation between us (AoV) and Test had to happen because as a small alliance we put in a ton of work to assist FA and Test whenever possible and create a long lasting and self sufficient existence in Fountain.  I myself put in days and days of work; and I don't even consider myself a major contributer.  Although there were some issues with participation in non FA fleets, AoV leadership had already taken great pains to rectify this.  I believe we were moving in the right direction (and still are now that we have worked out our next steps in Fountain).

  One of the biggest issues in my mind was the logistics of existing at least 3 capital jumps from an acceptable lo-sec staging system.  This was certainly putting a hurt on our re-supply lines as a relatively small alliance.  Our greatest claim to fame has always been punching above our weight class, but that type of thing is hard to extend to long range logistics.  As we are now pretty well settled in the area I fully expect our combat readiness to increase as we mobilize for a new objective now: supporting our (extremely) long term allies in FA as well as our Test buddies.

~Meatay

Updated About Me

  I finally updated the About Me section after quite some time.  It's not very good as I'm not really into RP or anything but it's there.  I'm going to try and guilt noldevin into doing one as well; or even better I'll just make one up for him.


Happy patch day btw...



~meatay

Fallout: Revenant

Click for Revenant Details

  The Revenant is quite a ship even if it doesn't flat out best current super carrier class vessels as noted by Kirith: Revenant versus Wyvern rematch

  With one finally coming up for sale (in BPC form) it looks like we may soon see the first player flown Revenant on the field (as far as I know there are none yet, please correct me if I am wrong).  To me this raises an interesting question.  What is to become of this ship when the "Incursions" are over?

  I may be wrong but I assume that CCP doesn't plan to have these incursions by Sansha forces run for the rest of the life of EvE.  With this being the only source of the Revenant BPC they are already an extremely rare and lucky find.  By the time the incursions run their course I assume there will be less than 20 BPC's dropped and at least some of these will be lost to treachery within the fleet or just bad luck.  With this first BPC offered at a 50 billion isk starting bid these things will certainly not be cheap.  That price will rise to an astronomical level if the ability to gain new copies of this ship is gone, likely making this ship a completely un-usable resource that it's pilot would be stuck in.

  It's just an interesting thought to me, I'm sure CCP has some plans for alternate means to earn this ship (and hopefully other sexy faction capitals *cough* *cough* *wink*) but the thought of these behemoths being such a rare find is also a neat idea.  Of course, if they are truly going to be that rare I would like to see them get a bit of a boost, even if I never see one.


~Meatay

Hot Drop!

Last night, I had the opportunity to do something Meatay and I have been BADLY itching to do...
A hot drop. Of any kind. All we knew was we had to do one.

Well last night while I was supposed to be doing a research paper, I saw a friendly SB gang zipping around station with a few pilots I have flown with in the past. Since I was sitting in station spinning my Sin around and procrastinating, I decided to hop into their comms and ask if they wanted to do a blackops drop. Much to my delight, I got a resounding "OF COURSE!"

Even though it was a very slow day and we were only able to scrounge up 5 pilots, we decided to go for it. We do have the advantage of picking our targets afterall. Our makeshift cyno pilot bumped a hurricane belonging to an alliance that has been harassing our space quite a bit. Cyno was lit immediately upon decloak, but the hurricane quickly reacted and destroyed the makeshift ship mid-bridging.

Did I mention we were unprepared for hot dropping, but wanted to do it so badly that we didn't care? Because that was the case, and that means we basically only had one bomber and one blackops with tackle...

Well, somehow that bomber with tackle ended up bridging into the center of the sun, probably via some bug with destroyed cynos and bridging. He was flung out in a random direction faster than a capital ship in warp, while our Hurricane "friend" made his escape. That's okay though, I already helped kill one of his buddies earlier in the week.

Now that the Sin's cherry is (sort of) popped, I think I'll be doing this quite often :)


-noldevin

I ain't machinery I'm a man

  This weekend I managed to get into a mildly heated argument with several people in a public channel about various aspects of larger alliances, most notably the idea of blobbing.  I'm sick and tired of having this argument, and I'm fully unapologetic for my point of view.  Giving something a negative connotation by associating it with a name like "blobbing" is funny for pirates and those who don't enjoy larger scale warfare but it is wholly unrealistic.  The idea that a small force can expect to enter the domain of a larger force and disrupt operations without being handled by overwhelming force is completely, utterly, stupendously fucking stupid... excuse the language.

  I am 100% fine with the choice to seek out small gang warfare.  I am a huge supporter of all play styles in EvE because this is what makes EvE great.  What I cannot support is the derision that is leveled at those who use force to protect assets they invested time, energy, and isk into.  I especially hate when that talk comes from a person or group who claim to just want "goodfights" but really just want easy kills with less threat of retaliation.  If you are dumb enough to think you can interfere with the work of a group who has superior numbers just for fun then please, take a bottle rocket to the White House and see how that works for you.  When someone threatens something you have worked for the only answer is to bring the full weight of your might down on them.

  Of course if that threat is just a pest, such as a small roaming gang, the best answer is to let it pass because the work you are doing will continue after that gang has gone by and had whatever "goodfights" they are looking for.  Expecting the occupants of any given system -at any given time- to be ready and willing to engage your passing fancy for even fights is -well I don't even have the words for how self centered this is-.  If I am in a system (say mining for example) and an enemy comes in who I can out-wait in a safe place, why would I give that enemy the pleasure of a fight in which I would likely die when I can simply cause him to be bored and leave.

  In the course of our argument I brought up these thoughts and many more and of course I was greeted with the idea that the small pest of a group should have some ability to affect null sec politics, specifically that a small gang should be able to reinforce a station/tower/IHUB/whatever.  To this I ask; in what world would a small band of anything be able to pose any real and lasting threat to the inhabitants of a space?  That is without said merry band being able to bring a force of arms that was equal to the task in the first place?

  The most amazing thing about EvE is that it allows us to expand our own universe within its sandbox.  This universe has taken on a mannerism very similar to human history which is not surprising.  But asking CCP to change the game so that the "little guy" (who hopes to expend almost no resources in comparison to the bigger groups) has a chance to simply login, grab a ship, and cause trouble for those who have been logged in all day working on something... is stupid.  Really it's far more than stupid but I'm not sure if I could express the extent of it.



-Meatay


edit:  some of the intelligent conversation from the other side:

 [06:40:03] -censored-  You are literally the dumbest person I've ever had to talk to in EVE, Meatay

Bupkis

  We took off last night for a frigate roam, hoping to snatch some kills or die in a fire.  After 3 hours of roaming we had only run across a Manticore who was passing by.  He got away because we were heading the other direction and basically ready to give up by that time.  Having roamed our entire home region as well as a bit of the neighboring region we took off for Delve just looking for anything; still nothing, not a soul to be seen.  It was a bit creepy!  As we started bleeding fleet members to RL aggro we called it quits and headed home, still unsatisfied in our blood lust.  Maybe next time we should go "blob" the pirates in lo-sec.  At least if we don't get any fights we can still get some verbal abuse from them.

The Best Kind of Kill

  Last night was another CTA to reinforce another enemy tower, somewhere (I didn't ask for directions, I just followed the guy in front of me).  While this isn't the most glorious job in EvE, I actually enjoy these actions and they can have their own kind of fun.  Not the least of which is getting drunk and blathering in fleet chat;  especially when you are a capital pilot and you don't have to pay as much attention to fleet movement orders (compared to conventials who are often bouncing around or moving the old fashioned way to the theatre of operations).

  This one turned out to be quite fun for me as I got to drag out the Moros for the first time.  Thanks to a pretty respectable turnout from both capital and conventional pilots we were able to pop in and out while the enemy was still mustering their response fleet.  We didn't expect any real resistance to the first stage of POS warfare (reinforcement) but there isn't any reason to stick around longer than necessary.  To some degree I was hoping for a bit of a fight because the nice turnout allowed our conventional fleet to focus on securing the system/PvP instead of the POS.

  I also got to do something I've been wanting for since I first saw a Dreadnought take the field:  pop a shuttle.  It's (almost) the biggest possible gunboat vs the smallest possible enemy ship.  As we were staging for the attack a neutral warped to our cyno.  He was obviously a scout which we weren't concerned about but the fun came when he didn't escape immediately.  Acting quickly I started my lock as soon as I saw him on grid which most of the other pilots didn't do.  This allowed me to at least fire a volley at his shuttle from my dread (dreads having a horrendous lock time on small ships).  Of course he was dead before my charges even landed but I am a big fan of overkill! Killmail:  http://meatay.mindflood.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9150029

-Meatay

EvE Ideas: Service History

  There are many idea posts out there.  Among the best are Rixx's continuing "Gooder EvE" articles.  I remember this idea being discussed before but I couldn't find it in the 20 seconds of attention span I could spare to try.

  The idea: ship service history.  Basically from the moment a ship first pops off the assembly line it starts accruing data in a simple text based database field.  Whenever any major even happens in the life of the ship it gets a note appended to this field.  I wouldn't want an idea like this to be a drag on the system so it would only need to make these appends when an event was already causing a database action, or even at downtime.

  The nice thing about this is that we would actually be able to know how old a ship is, how many times it's been repackaged, how many times it was involved in a killmail (obviously on the winning side...duh), and more.  I for one would love to know about my ships, especially those I buy blindly off of the market.  I don't think you should be able to view the service history of a ship being sold on the market because that would just be a drag on the market and my time.  But it would be nice to buy a ship and open it's service history to see some cool fact like: it fought at the CVA fall in DGTMI, has been repacked 10,000 times, or has scored 2,000 kills (of course the specific battle would only be know by time/location codes and good ol' fashioned assumption but you get the point).


-Meatay

Change of plans: shoot stuff

  Last night I logged in strictly for a set of skill changes aimed at getting me in a range of fancy new ships by the weekend.  Before I had finished my login warp Alliance, Corp, and even my "hang-out" channels were pinging with chatter about a big fleet op that I was already late for.  I am not normally one to be comfortable just hopping into something I unprepared for but I felt lucky so I scrambled to log in my carrier so I could re-ship Meatay and Meatay Speeday into a hurricane and hound respectively.

  The fleet was calling for high DPS or Alpha BS (which kind of gave away the goal) which unfortunately I didn't have any of, at least not in the time available since I was already about 10 minutes late.  I decided that my hurricane fit well enough as it is basically a miniature version of that BS anyway.  I also didn't care if I lost it so I jumped on into the fleet.  Sadly I just didn't have enough time to get my capital pilot ready as the carrier was not properly PvP fitted AND it was sitting at the POS; not in the station with my Moros.  That would mean lining up a jump to the station and then catching up with the fleet which was already waiting for me and a few other pilots.  So, I left the carrier behind due to my own unpreparedness :(

  The fleet wasn't too exciting, we received orders (POS bash, duh), bridged, and started in-capping POS mods.  The hurricane did better than expected but didn't measure up to Large projectile turrets while the hound stealth bomber hits POS mods pretty hard.  No counter fleet arrived (which was expected for an in-cap only op)  and dreads made short work of the task.  With that done we headed home where we had a bit of a laugh Titan bridging our 100 conventionals fleet on a group of campers that have been annoying us all for two weeks now.  Even though they escaped I love sharing that "oh shit" feeling of thinking you have something dead and 100 of his buddies suddenly appearing all around you.  I don't care if that is the epitome of blobbing; it's fun!  It's also happened to me plenty of times.

  With the capital fleet safe and standing down we made our rounds dropping people off and re-shipping for some roaming action.  We ended up attempting to engage a group of pilots I used to fly with just last month (Dashavatara pilots) who are crafty PvP'ers.  We weren't able to grab them but the fleet did manage to get an EOS belonging to Prometheus Exenthal, which I missed out on by lagging behind :(

  There was some talk of me being a spy for the Dashavatara pilots because they are experienced PvP'ers who managed to elude out fleet.  Luckily the FC was a long time friend who I flew with all the way back in Providence when I first flew under the AOV flag, then in FA during their efforts to gain sov out in the Curse area.

  Needless to say I will be getting my capital assets within easier reach for these types of operations as well as grabbing a Maelstrom, Megathron, Tempest, or Rokh to stash nearby.

-Meatay

CSM: Supporting

  I have decided to share who I will be voting for: Trebor Daehdoow (Robert Woodhead IRL)


  Mainly Trebor did a nice job in CSM 5 and the fact that he will be hitting the ground running is something I find comforting.  Also he is from North Carolina, USA which makes him a home-town boy for me (in EvE terms I consider the same state close enough).  Add in the fact that he's offering a good ol' fashioned bribe to spread the word about his campaign and he's just my type of guy.  Plus I agree with most of his stances to at least some degree and I do believe he will be a transparent CSM member to the extent allowed by the NDA...

Visit his site here



  I do have another candidate who may get some of my votes.  I am still thinking over how I feel about Saleene (Mark Heard IRL) being a former CCP'er.  On the one hand that gives him a very good start and a better knowledge of how the CSM will actually work but on the other hand it seems a bit... I don't know... untoward.  Either way I really like most of what's he is saying so perhaps I will split my votes.

Click here for Saleene's site

CSM Candidates

  Before it's too late and you have to either not vote or just pick someone please head on over to the Candidate Profiles and read up on the candidates.  I won't say who I am voting for just yet (if I decide to say at all) but I do encourage you not to just vote for someone with a list of things they would do if they were in charge of EvE because that's not going to work in the CSM.  The CSM is a forum for ideas and bouncing things off of current players for CCP, not a platform to yell at CCP about things they aren't doing for you personally.  It should be about shared growth towards an improved game.  Also, please don't vote for someone who obviously just wants a trip to CCP headquarters or wants to learn some shiny bit of inside information.

http://www.eveonline.com/council/voting/candidatesview.asp?sid=807719446

-Meatay

Intense Debate

I have added Intense Debate vs. the standard Blogger comments.  We'll see if it doesn't blow anything up.

Mobile Version

Finally figured out the mobile version for the blog...  Took me long enough eh?

http://aufescapevelocity.blogspot.com/?m=1


-Meatay

BB#25: The Condition of Mere Nature

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

This month’s topic comes to us from @Tetraetc – “Tetra’s EVE Blog” – who asks: “Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts wherever. Would the reduction of the alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (or the modification of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?”

     The primary question here (in my mind) is “does the alliance mechanic affect PvP and is there anything we can do about it?”  The answer to this is probably complex enough to write a dissertation but can be boiled down to:
1) Yes, of course it does

2) Hell No!

As Thomas Hobbes argues, people are not very fond of death and are actually very fond of protecting their lives and livelihood.  While EvE is clearly just a game that only goes so far in changing human nature.  Alliances were formed long before there was a mechanic for them and coalitions now exist outside of a structured mechanic.  These alliances represent humans attempting to bring law to a state of nature because without this there would be 

“no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” (Again; Hobbes)

     In a sense these alliances act like states in the real world and conflict is all but assured in this case.  So the belief that alliances remove PvP is flawed; they merely alter it because they aggregate a group of humans into a more unified structure.  So removing this would theoretically thrust us all back to some form of the state of nature, but would that help PvP?  Let’s look at lo-sec for a very brief example. 

     Lo-sec is the most representative of EvE without alliances and as such it is wild and almost completely useless.  There is no commerce, no infrastructure (other than that we have been provided by the almighty CCP), and most importantly very little traffic that isn’t only passing through.  This is sure to draw much criticism but lo-sec proves that the removal of alliances from the game would cause the portions of space now dominated by them to become useless.  Of course individual PvP would go up without the protection of numbers but why would anyone want to go to this environment except for PvP?  So the players who would seek this out already have a place: lo-sec.  That is even going so far as to imagine that we can “force” people to behave as we want them to.

     Any reasonable person should know that without overwhelming force acting upon them people will act according to their own moral imperative and only follow the stipulations of another if it benefits them.  This means that out of the ashes of the crushed alliances new ones would be rebuilt and people would once again group together for mutual defense and the projection of power.  This has already been expressed in the original creation of alliances as well as in the current coalition structure.  Beyond that, this whole argument revolves around the supposition that one on one PvP is even a probable outcome.

     Ignoring the idea of honor or the seeking of glory there is never any reason for a person to fight another person in a fair fight.  Even those who espouse the idea of “1v1” or "small gang" battles follow this notion.  How many times do you see a Rifter attack a Dramiel or a Drake jump on a Widow?  How often do you see someone let a Hulk pilot go free because they are no match for a Hurricane?  If you remove the outliers (who exist in standard human nature as well) it is clear that in most cases the proponents of “1v1” or "small gang warfare" are themselves seeking out weaker targets to prey upon in order to improve their own livelihood.  If the champions of this ideal don’t feel a need to “fight fair” why should they expect anyone else to.  Human nature does not work this way; if their enemy has backup they will use it to remove the threat.  These pilots would do the same given the opportunity or an equal feeling of threat.    The point of conflict is to win and if a person or group has superior resources available they will use them towards the goal of winning the conflict.

   Anyway, that is enough of that.  Fly Safe

Participants

1. CrazyKinux's Musing: EVE Blog Banter #25: And by Alliance you mean.....?
2. BB25 What sov changes will come? | A Mule In EvE
3. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: Alliances and Sovereignty
4. Blog Banter 25: Nerfing Nulsec « OMG! You're a Chick?!
5. Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? | Nitpickin's
6. Blog Banter #25: Alliance and Sovereignty Limiting PvP in 0.0? | Sarnel Binora's Blog
7. Blog Banter #25 - Mad Haberdashers
8. Alliances and sovereignty | Eve Online Focus
9. ...Shall we not Revenge?: BB 25: What if the Alliance vanished?
10. Blog Banter: Alliances and Sov
11. EVEOGANDA: BB25: Sov 'n Go!
12. » TBG:EBB#25 – Alliances and Sovereignty To Boldly Go
13. Freebooted: BB25: Leviathans of the Deep
14. Wrong Game Tetra ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
15. EVE Blog Banter #25 – Human nature what art thou? | Way of the Gun
16. Who cares about Sov? - Hands Off, My Loots! ~ well sorta like an entry! :p
17. The 25th EVE Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty - The Phoenix Diaries
18. Achernar: The space commute
19. Wandering the Void…my EvE musings. – Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty
20. (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #25: How To Break EvE. « Prano's Journey
21. Captain Serenity: Blog Banter #25 - Crappy mechanics
22. Helicity Boson » Blog Banter #25 Nullsec and sov.
23. BB #25 – “With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?”
24. Boom! Hull-Shot?: It's the End of the Eve as We Know It
25. sered's lives: EVE Blog Banter #25 - Size does matter
26. 25th EVE BB – Medieval Solutions to Spaceship Problems | Inventions of a New Eden Industrialist
27. Eve Blog Banter #25: “Have Alliances and Sov Limited PvP and RP in 0.0?” « Align Outbound
28. Banter 25: Sovereignty, Alliances and Power Blocs | TheElitist
29. Blog Banter 25 – But I just left all that! « A Scientist's Life in Eve
30. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
31. >>>Vigil Ant: Alliances and SOV by Munny's eyes.
32. Latro's Bunker: Blog Banter 25 -Nullsec and Sov
33. A "CareBears" Journey » Blog Banner #25: Alliances and Sovereignty, and their affect on PVP and RP
34. Blog Banter #25 – Unstoppable « Roc's Ramblings
35. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
36. EVE Blog Banter on PVP in Null Sec « Evehermit's Blog
37. More to come...

Shameless Battle Report Theft

  I just got this corp-mail and I thought I would share it because it's a very funny story.  Ignore the fact that it's a single sentence, he's foreign and spends way too much time is ECM ships ( I <3 U bro)

earlier in week i mentioned a small private war i was having with a Russian Wormhole Alliance..after killing a few ships i decided i'd like 150million isk as a payment to leave them and their Wormhole in peace.So yeah they refused to pay and during the 5 days i ended up destroying over 1 Billion isk worth of ships and netted myself around 100million in loot..at the cost of 1 Hurricane(o\).So the Russians were pretty pissed..lots of Cyrillic in Local-not much of it complimentary..aaaaaand they really started to log in the numbers so i was fighting 5,6,7 at a time.I decided to leave them alone for 24hours and on making my way back to their system earlier today i noticed that their POS was almost gone..only the Large Gallente Tower remained with <30 minutes til it unanchored.lol..yeah so...a bit of frantic toing and froing saw me get a Badger arranged and waiting logged off in hi-sec when the timer hit<1 minute.In goes the Hurricane to sit right on the tower..the Russian Hauler appears to try scoop it and is 2 volleyed and so i am left with a splendid used Gallente Large Tower to collect-value seems to be about 275 million isk.Total cost to the Russians then...approx 1.3 Billion and they forced out of their "Home"lawlz...all i wanted was 150 and id have been happy.

-Meatay