December 30, 2014
Zhubin, Trealeon, and Ailu Pearl had found a special wormhole system. Wormhole systems can only be entered by jumping through a wormhole and these wormholes must be found using probes. There is no chat room to tell you if someone is in the system with you. This can quickly lead to paranoia.
This system was special because only small ships could fit through the wormholes that led to it and small weapons do much more damage.
Ailu was in a scanning ship. She had probed down all 27 signatures. They were a combination of wormholes, sites that could be mined for gas, and relic and data sites. Relic and data sites have containers that have to be hacked into. This system had relic and data sites that are normally in wormhole systems, but it also had sites normally found in known space. These didn't have guards so Ailu would scan the cans and hack them if they contained anything valuable. She found a Dread Guristas White Noise Generation Battery Blueprint in one. You only get 2 tries, she failed the first, but got it on the second.
The day before, Zhubin had traded his Wolf assault frigate for a new Confessor tactical destroyer. He had been able to kill all the guards in the most difficult gas site with the Wolf, but it was slow work and this new destroyer would do far more damage. The plan was to have Trea also use a Confessor. They would each have a remote repairer that could repair the armor on the others ship. Trea was in a mining frigate he had used to salvage wrecks, and Ailu would need to find him a way out to known space. She found it quickly. The first system she checked led to a system not far from a market hub. Ailu gave Trea the loot she had gathered and he made his run to the market. He was carrying about 60 million isk, but the ship he was flying had cost under a million. Even in highsec someone could scan his cargo and suicide attack to get it.
Trea made it without issue, sold the loot, created a contract to sell the blueprint for 20 million, and bought a Confessor. He could not fly it until he learned the skill. While I waited the 20 minutes, I buy all the modules the Confessor will need, and name the ship. I decide on "Tell Me Do". Before he leaves, I grab some salvagers and the probes Zhubin had forgotten to bring. Trea returns to the wormhole, and I take a break.
Later, Ailu checks the directional scanner out of habit. There are ship wrecks. How dare they. Someone is in my system and taking my loot. The D-scanner shows me that someone is using probes and points me towards the site with the wrecks. It's a data site, and the wrecks are mostly unlooted. His probes moved around the system and I know there is only one more data site. I wait. A Talwar destroyer arrives, followed by a Buzzard covert ops frigate. He keeps warping out of the site. The Talwar distracts the guards while the Buzzard hacks the containers. This is not a trap. Did I say always? I am able to bookmark 2 warp in spots. Bookmarks are places you can save and warp to later. I can't save his location, but I can save the closest piece of space garbage. There is so much of it that I don't think Ailu could maneuver through it and stay cloaked. I decide to log on Zhubin and warp straight to the 2nd bookmark. When Zhubin arrives in the site, the Talwar is 100km away, oops. I choose the Talwar as a reflex because it could be dangerous. The Buzzard is closer and would explode immediately if I got a little closer, but I ignore it burn towards the destroyer. My microwarp drive increases my speed to 2 km a second. On the way, one of the guards begins shooting me. A few laser beams and it explodes. I cut my speed, but too soon. I am 30km from the destroyer and my lasers will only hit at a little over 20km. I begin firing anyway and miss. The destroyer warps away, and the frigate follows soon after.
I wait and watch, but see no one else. Hopefully my point was made, but I think next time I'll go for the frigate and get a better warp in.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Monday, December 29, 2014
It is a trap. It is always a trap.
June 3rd 2008.
I had made my money mostly by mining, but had started running level 4 missions in battleships with Aitu and Hiljah. Level four missions are the hardest missions you can do in highsec. Highsec is the area of the galaxy where police come to (attempt to) save you if another player tries to kill you, and battleships are the biggest ships you can have in highsec. Zhubin had just learned to fly his battleship and tested his artillery cannons in one of these missions.
I was bored from making piles of cash, and dreams of shooting actual players danced in my head, so I started making short ventures into lowsec. I first learned about lowsec when my corporation's CEO invited me to run a mission there. She lost her battleship during that mission to players that knew her by name.
Now that I had 3 battleships, I decided I would try to kill someone. Aitu would act as bait, Zhubin and Hiljah would wait cloaked.
I jumped everyone into Vitrauze late one night. Aitu warped directly to an asteroid belt. Hiljah and Zhubin warped to within 100 kilometers of him. A 100km was close to their maximum range, but I wanted to be able to run if things went bad. They cloaked and I waited. I had been worried no one would take this fight. I knew from past experience that people did roam through these systems, and some of them could find me here, but would they want to fight me?
The local chat room would let me know if anyone new jumped into the system. If there were too many people, I planned to cloak everyone and wait them out.
I didn't wait long. A ship warps right next to Aitu. We target each other, tie each other down so neither of us can escape. Combat drones are out, guns are pounding. Both our shields are gone, our armor repairers are keeping us alive, but I don't think mine will hold. I decloak Hiljah and Zhubin. I try to target but nothing happens. The decloak delays targeting by 30 seconds, something I had forgotten. I'm panicking but there's nothing I can do. It's hard to tell but my armor seems to be slipping lower and lower after every repair cycle and his is fine.
An eternity later the 30 seconds is up, and I start the target lock. More waiting. The lock finally completes. The cannons roar and cruise missiles launch. The other ship's armor starts to fall. Aitu is in trouble though. His armor repairer hasn't been keeping up with the incoming damage, and chunks of his ship's hull are being destroyed. The race is over fast and a Deimos becomes a wreck.
It worked, I won, but now what? Loot, in missions you check the wreck for loot and then salvage. I take the modules that weren't destroyed from the wreck. The wreck is "advanced", I must salvage it, who knows what treasure it could hold. I did not bring a salvager, could I go and buy one quickly? I search the market. Do I have the skill for an "advanced" wreck? I search the internet.
My research is cut short. A ship has joined me. It is above and behind me, looming. A picture of terror. I have flown Dominix battleships before, this was different. This was a Navy Dominix with large blasters and heavy combat drones. Hiljah and Zhubin were still cloaked. Do I decloak and come to the rescue? Aitu's armor is vanishing, this will be over before the others are even able to target. I get ready to warp Aitu away from this, as I do my first Megathron explodes. Aitu warps away in his escape pod before anyone can stop him.
I watch my attacker from behind my cloak. Another ship joins him, a heavy interdiction cruiser. It is a ship designed to catch other ships. This ship begins to dart around the battlefield, faster than I had thought possible. If I had decloaked, this ship would've caught me. The ship is darting around because if it bumped into my cloaked ships I would be decloaked and caught. I watch how close they get and wait. They give up without getting close enough to scare me. I'm able to retreat back to highsec space.
I had made my money mostly by mining, but had started running level 4 missions in battleships with Aitu and Hiljah. Level four missions are the hardest missions you can do in highsec. Highsec is the area of the galaxy where police come to (attempt to) save you if another player tries to kill you, and battleships are the biggest ships you can have in highsec. Zhubin had just learned to fly his battleship and tested his artillery cannons in one of these missions.
I was bored from making piles of cash, and dreams of shooting actual players danced in my head, so I started making short ventures into lowsec. I first learned about lowsec when my corporation's CEO invited me to run a mission there. She lost her battleship during that mission to players that knew her by name.
Now that I had 3 battleships, I decided I would try to kill someone. Aitu would act as bait, Zhubin and Hiljah would wait cloaked.
I jumped everyone into Vitrauze late one night. Aitu warped directly to an asteroid belt. Hiljah and Zhubin warped to within 100 kilometers of him. A 100km was close to their maximum range, but I wanted to be able to run if things went bad. They cloaked and I waited. I had been worried no one would take this fight. I knew from past experience that people did roam through these systems, and some of them could find me here, but would they want to fight me?
The local chat room would let me know if anyone new jumped into the system. If there were too many people, I planned to cloak everyone and wait them out.
I didn't wait long. A ship warps right next to Aitu. We target each other, tie each other down so neither of us can escape. Combat drones are out, guns are pounding. Both our shields are gone, our armor repairers are keeping us alive, but I don't think mine will hold. I decloak Hiljah and Zhubin. I try to target but nothing happens. The decloak delays targeting by 30 seconds, something I had forgotten. I'm panicking but there's nothing I can do. It's hard to tell but my armor seems to be slipping lower and lower after every repair cycle and his is fine.
An eternity later the 30 seconds is up, and I start the target lock. More waiting. The lock finally completes. The cannons roar and cruise missiles launch. The other ship's armor starts to fall. Aitu is in trouble though. His armor repairer hasn't been keeping up with the incoming damage, and chunks of his ship's hull are being destroyed. The race is over fast and a Deimos becomes a wreck.
It worked, I won, but now what? Loot, in missions you check the wreck for loot and then salvage. I take the modules that weren't destroyed from the wreck. The wreck is "advanced", I must salvage it, who knows what treasure it could hold. I did not bring a salvager, could I go and buy one quickly? I search the market. Do I have the skill for an "advanced" wreck? I search the internet.
My research is cut short. A ship has joined me. It is above and behind me, looming. A picture of terror. I have flown Dominix battleships before, this was different. This was a Navy Dominix with large blasters and heavy combat drones. Hiljah and Zhubin were still cloaked. Do I decloak and come to the rescue? Aitu's armor is vanishing, this will be over before the others are even able to target. I get ready to warp Aitu away from this, as I do my first Megathron explodes. Aitu warps away in his escape pod before anyone can stop him.
I watch my attacker from behind my cloak. Another ship joins him, a heavy interdiction cruiser. It is a ship designed to catch other ships. This ship begins to dart around the battlefield, faster than I had thought possible. If I had decloaked, this ship would've caught me. The ship is darting around because if it bumped into my cloaked ships I would be decloaked and caught. I watch how close they get and wait. They give up without getting close enough to scare me. I'm able to retreat back to highsec space.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Introduction
What drives a man to blog...
This is just another blog about Eve Online, but I am going to try to write it so people who don't play will enjoy it. People that play Eve have probably felt the need to write about that crazy thing that happened or at least understand that feeling.
For me, the feeling comes from being alone in the game most of the time, and needing a way to explain the game to people that don't play it.
I have 3 accounts and 3 characters on each account. This isn't uncommon for Eve. People usually use 2 of the 3 characters on an account for making isk (game money). This is usually done by mining, manufacturing, playing the market, and hauling. They do this because you can do a little bit of work and then make isk while offline or playing on a different character. I've done this but won't be telling stories about it.
I will tell you about the adrenaline rushes, and the racked nerves. I'll also include the screw ups, of which there are many.
So sit back, relax, and get ready to read about the things you would've had to see to believe.
This is just another blog about Eve Online, but I am going to try to write it so people who don't play will enjoy it. People that play Eve have probably felt the need to write about that crazy thing that happened or at least understand that feeling.
For me, the feeling comes from being alone in the game most of the time, and needing a way to explain the game to people that don't play it.
I have 3 accounts and 3 characters on each account. This isn't uncommon for Eve. People usually use 2 of the 3 characters on an account for making isk (game money). This is usually done by mining, manufacturing, playing the market, and hauling. They do this because you can do a little bit of work and then make isk while offline or playing on a different character. I've done this but won't be telling stories about it.
I will tell you about the adrenaline rushes, and the racked nerves. I'll also include the screw ups, of which there are many.
So sit back, relax, and get ready to read about the things you would've had to see to believe.
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