Surviving transitions.

I thought that in my first year in EVE I've seen enough to survive anything thrown at me. I lived in high sec, low sec and 0.0. I fought in Providence during the invasion and in Scalding Pass during Goon's attack. I moved from Providence to Scaling Pass to Pure Blind (those who have many assets know how difficult is relocating many times in a short span of time). Yet none of this prepared me for the transition period that we are living in... and it is killing me!!

Lets go back a couple of months. -FA- had just moved to Scalding Pass and rented 4 different systems (which were 2x too many). We were getting settle down when leadership decided to pack and move North. This conceded with the announced Goon+Coven invasion of the area, but supposedly it was a coincidence more than a result. While in SP there was some friction between AU-F leadership and other corps. The move, combined with the restructuring of the alliance (many corps merged together while others were kicked out) created a very volatile environment. By the time the move was over, the communications completely broke down. The writing was on the wall. It was just a matter of when.

Around 2 weeks ago AU-F leadership did the sensible thing and left -FA- (I wish them well). This is the first time since I'm in AU-F that we are on our own. A couple of ideas were thrown around, but eventually we decided on an explorer life. AU-F has some WH goals. We'll see in the next weeks if we are able to pull it out.

In the mean time we are in a transition period. We are not roaming low-sec or 0.0 as a group. Basically the majority is PVEing to make some extra ISK for our next project. I tried for 2x weeks to do L4s, but I can't anymore. The level of boredom for the crap of pay is impossible to bear. I really don't understand how people can do L4s all day.

Without any industry or PVP options available I'm tied to L4s for survival. It is not easy.

I'm currently working on Salvage V, but once done I'll get Dante Styx on a tech2 gallente frigate to help explore and find a suitable WH space.

Not sure what the future holds for AU-F, but hopefully we can survive this transition period and reach our new goal.

Providence and CVA.

Rixx Javix (EVEOGANDA) published a very interesting editorial about CVA. Rixx was part of LFA's alliance when the Catch's invasion started. As I said before, I hold not grudge against CVA. I was not part of CVA or any of the holders. My interaction with them was also very limited in the 8 or so months I lived in Providence. If they were arrogant or inept at defending their space I can't say.

There is one thing that Rixx mentioned that was exactly my thoughts in those first days:

Why? Because there wasn't anything behind the curtain. CVA spent more effort on building stations in systems they couldn't defend than they did on building their fleet to defend it. They lined their pockets instead of lining the perimeter. They fiddled while Rome burned.

Where were they Titans? Where were the super-carriers? With 50+ stations between CVA and holders and no Sov wars in a long time, I was certain that they will show up in the field with an infinite number of super-capital and capitals. Not only that, but the fleet would be completely coordinated. These were pilots that knew each other for so many years and had complete control of these constellations! Then D-G happened.

Anyway, that is all in the past. If you still care about one more opinion about old-Providence head over to EVEOGANDA.

While in the subject... via Kugu I read a post about life in new-Providence. Stupid pilot says:

Fighting U'K in the daytime before we fleet up with them at night to come sort out SW Providence, we have plenty of fun, even-ish number fights, so that's some consolation.

That is the most retarded thing I've ever read. And to think that these people said the old-Providence was bad. For more of this fail click here.

Late Spring Cleaning.

I know we are officially in Summer, but I never heard of a "Summer Cleaning".

As some of you may have noticed -FA- is on the move again. All the systems we owned in Scalding Pass were released and Primary owns them now. The time in SP was good for many of us. I, for one, had a great time PVPing and PVEing. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to last. It was hard being so deep in 0.0 space (Empire space was many jumps out thru hostile space), but I really liked it. It really felt like null-sec when compared to the Providence days.

The reasons for the move I wont comment on. I'm a soldier. I just do as I'm told. AU-F leadership believes and agrees with the alliance leadership that a new home was needed and I trust them. So I packed all my ships and moved them out. For the last 10 days I've been either gone (finished Magician) or doing L4s in Gallente space.

This last change/move generated a lot of internal discussion in the alliance. A lot of old friends have left and new ones have joined. I will miss many, but the actions taken were needed. There was a lot of leeway in our move to SP. Many corps never moved there, so we were a split alliance (some in Empire some in SP). I hope the alliance learns from this and we move as an entire unit to our new home.

With all the changes around us, the AU-F leadership decided to take a long look in the mirror. After close examination multiple problems were found, but thanks to a positive interaction of its members a roadmap is in the works that should define AU-F and put us in the path to greater things.

The changes coming made me reconsider some of the training. Specially Armand's. Both Dante Styx and Dante Darkko will pursuit their training plans with little change, but Armand will finish the current exploration training to focus on market PVP, followed by T1 production. After finishing all the mining training, Armand has been without a clear goal. Maybe logistic, maybe freighter, etc. That is all gone. The original idea for Armand was to be an industrialist and that is the goal again.

I look forward to the future. I think that the next 6 months will define our corporation and our alliance. Let the pew-pew begin!

I'm not going to dumb it down and paint it pink.

That is a quote from an interview posted by Worlds in Motion with CCP senior producer Torfi Olafsson. It is a very short interview, but still worth the read. I do feel that CCP has proven again and again that they are not the typical MMO company that will change anything for more market share. Yes, the game was changed since it came out in 2003. I know that some bitter veterans will say that it is "so easy" now, but I would argue that it has evolved.

This game is a business and without new blood it would die. There have been changes specially in the intro section, but I still feel that it is hardcore in its core. No matter where you are you are not safe. It is likely that no one will shoot your rookie ship, but not impossible. Some ass that juts like griefing can seat on a destroyer and blow you up before he does. Sov wars are no kids game and entire alliances can be destroyed overnight (right Goons?).

Follow the link for the full interview.

HTFU

Today there was a link from mmorpg site to an article in the Gamasutra by The Mittani. The artcile entitled The Icelandic Model of MMO Development it is interesting because of the information provided about CCP history, but nothing new to anyone that has been following MMOs for the last 5+ years.

Reading thru the comments in the Gamasutra website, one of them mentioned a music video made by CCP. Thinking that it was going to be some funny reference to CCP I followed the link to youtube which took me to a video called Permaband - HTFU.

I laughed all thru (specially the Techno Viking part). CCP is not perfect, but are things like this that makes me feel closer to a company and make me want to play their games more. Thanks for sharing CCP!

Pop the cherry.

Tuesday night I logged hoping to get into a fight. We knew that Coons were already jumping thru our systems constantly. All I needed was a good group.

I logged in and found that there were no big fleets active at the time, but then I noticed that a small group of -FA- players were running a fleet in EIN-. I asked in alliance channel and immediately got an OK to join them.

We moved to S-E gate in EIN- waiting for a Hurricane that was spotted in S-E. He changed his route and was no go. Instead we got a Cynabal that jumped into system. After playing around we were able to tackle him at the GN- gate at EIN-. After a short battle the Cynabal was gone.

Did you see that? Yep, that was me getting the final blow. That was my first ever kill mail!

I don't have a very extensive PVP carrier. Since the first entry on 05-27-2009 I have a 19-6 record. Not bad, but not very extensive. I really hope that changes this year. We have a couple of good FCs in -FA- that I feel very comfortable flying with. Hopefully we can utilize this invasion as an opportunity to improve our skills and become a stronger PVP force in the future.

One idea I have to improve my skills is using Darkko with smaller ships that I can dispose of without a hit to my wallet. Very similar to the practice that TooNu described in his blog. I won't be a Wensley or a PK or a Easley Thames but will try my best.

First engagements.

Yesterday saw the first engagements between the Scalding Pass Defenders (trademark pending) and the Coons (Curse + Goons name suggested in Kugu). The big fight of the day occurred in the Q-GQHN system. Looking at the killboards we see that the fight didn't go really good for the SPD on this first engagement.

• Curse KB
• Atlas KB
• Gentlemen's Club KB
• Cult of War KB

It is interesting to see the setup that Curse ran used for its Dominix fleet. I've heard a lot before the wicked RR gangs they run, but have never seen the fittings myself. Looking at some of the Domis that were killed shows a really heavy plated battleship with armor repairers and neut in high and depending only on drones for dps. I have been in RR fleets before, but nothing like this. I have to imagine that it has to be tough to take one down, but on the reverse side the dps is so low that I don't know if the time to stay alive compensate for it.

In this engagement they ended up with the upper hand. This mess was explained by user Baumi in the Kugu forums.

A smaller engagement took place between SPD and the Goons in XV-MWG later (Wed EVE time). In this engagement the good guys came out with the upper hand:

• Primary KB
• Gentlemen's Club KB
• Cult of War KB

I haven't seen any battle reports for this engagement.

The North.

I try to keep up with the IT + Friends offensive in the North. I don't have any vested interested in either side, but I do care about it. Any big conflicts between power house alliances is bound to eventually affect all 0.0 dwellers. I follow the conflict thru Perseus Kallistratos' and Easley Thames's blogs. I don't participate in large (100+) fleet battles, so these blogs allow me to do it vicariously.

The last couple of posts painted a very bad picture for the IT side, so I decided to look at their killboard. In the front page they have a link to the 5 most expensive kill or loss in the last 5 days:

• Avatar
• Revelation
• Revelation
• Thanatos
• Thanatos

Yep. Every single one of them is a loss for -IT-. The campaign has taken a turn to the worst since the H-W attack. I guess it was no surprise to see these emails from Bobby all fired up and sending Atlas back home.

The next couple of weeks will be very interesting in our neck of the woods. Atlas is mad and looking for a butt to kick while from the other side of the stages the Goons appear. Is like a match made in heaven.

The Goons.

I always knew there will come a day where we would be directly faced with a Goon invasion. The Goons are probably on of the most recognized alliances in the game. Usually more because of their antics than their flying. In the last year they went from taking Delve , to loose it completely when Kartoon disbanded the entire alliance and now trying to come back has been all well documented on multiple forums and blogs.

Three days ago the following post showed up in Kugu:

Goons, a lot has transpired the past few months. Some of it was good. Some of it was bad. All of it done with the overarching goal of trying to re-establish some of our swagger. We embarked on a series of offensive maneuvers which comprised of us taking a spiritual journey through the regions which served as a foundation for our past successes. The general idea was that we would perform a vision quest of sorts to help us remember who we were as Goons without all of the fluffery that being a major 0.0 power was comprised of. Before we were to embark on that path again we had to relearn a lot of what we'd forgotten not just insofar as running an alliance or being a member of one, but about who we are and why we're here. When broken down into the sum total of our parts we are not and never were the behemoth who owned Delve... we were the pile of raucous faggots who conquered it in the first place, the foundations of which were all seated in a land called Syndicate.

Having taken Cloud Ring we then proceeded on the second leg of our journey. Here we lived under the auspices of our brosefs farting around essentially headless, integrating into their fleets and remember what we dislike about the status quo as well as a bit of what we like about the game. This certainly does not apply to everyone, but there was a period of relative serenity where we no longer had to be concerned with daily survival, a thing which is both a blessing and a curse as we grow fat and lazy from our sloth and underuse. Sure it's cool to help fight someone else's war. Sure it's nice to be helping brosefs but where does that road lead us? Where are we headed as an alliance? Where lies the fun? Where is the destruction of other people's shit and the tears?

The answer to those questions lies now in the next leg of our journey to another ancestral homeland. The motherland of Scalding pass where Goons finally established our swagger lies covered in terrible renter alliances. Atlas has literally become a less competent LV, and provides us with the perfect opportunity to establish new bonds of friendship and usher in a second age of Goon power in space. We will root out these pets where they live and we will mouthfuck them unmercifully. This also aids the NC as with their homelands considered safe these shitheels can send fleets at their leisure to bolster "The SC's" horribly managed monsterfleets.

Beginning Monday we will move combat operations to xx9 in Curse. From there we will work with our brosefs Cursed, OEG and Dreddit to remind Atlas's pets why they are paying rent. We will cleanse the south of the stain that desecrates this Goon mecca and we will once again remember what it is to work together, hand in hand with brosefs and newbies, in order to establish a New Goon Order in the south. Dread reimbursement in full is back in place for this operation. I cannot stress enough that while EVERY SHIP COUNTS, it will be the number of Battleships and Logistics ships that will serve to cement our dominance so I will do my best to incentivize their frequent use via reimbursements and market seeds.

Details insofar as logistical routes will be posted between now and deployment day. Spend the weekend MAKING MONEY so that you can afford what you need. We will run caravans but the bulk of what you need should be purchased nearer to the theater. We ARE NOT abandoning DKUK. This is your jew vacation home for now away from the front. We will conquer space only as necessary to remove the insurgent faggots who live there or as will demands. There will be logistics chains set up for capitals and I HIGHLY encourage squads and small groups to work together to help people transport combat ships as there is spare space.

I am truly looking forward to this endeavour and there is solid support and excitement within the leadership for the first time in a while to see it happen. Mister Vee is your skymarshal for this engagement and I will do my best to be around regularly as I have a hankering to kill some atlas faggots myself. I hope you are all as excited as we are. I will see you Monday.

This was followed by a lot of cyno jumps during the weekend as they moved assets to the Curse region.

I really don't know much about Curse capabilities or Goons-post-Kartoon capabilities. I feel that COW/GC/Primary are able to repeal Curse, but not sure if they can compete with a Curse+Goon coalition. I do believe that many of the renters are ready to provide numbers to boost COW/GC/Primary fleets or help with logistic. Hopefully we can make a difference in this conflict.

On the down side, Dante S just finished heavy drones V. I was looking forward to go thru those Havens in record time with Noldevin and/or Falgoria. I think I have a good amount of ISK in the wallet to get BCs and BSs replacements for a bit. If that runs dry early I may be forced to get a couple of GTCs to pay for my PVP ships. One thing is for sure, I want to be involved so whatever it takes for me to have a ship I will do.

Super-carrier info series.

Kirith Kodachi did a great 5 part series covering this amazing ship. For the benefit of friends that don't follow Kirith I'm linking here the 5 parts.

• Part 1 : Drones
• Part 2 : Tanking
• Part 3 : High Slots
• Part 4 : Cargo
• Part 5 : Veteran Advice

As a request he also did a one-time post about carriers that is linked here.

Thanks to Kirith Kodachi for all the information!