Thursday, November 21, 2013

What ship is that?: Interbus Ship Identification System

Look at all these ships!!!
My Amarr Ship Tree. 
One of the draws of EVE when I first started playing was all the ships that it had.  I saw my friends playing and talking about all these different ships and I remember thinking, " I want to fly them all. As I started learning the ropes of the game I saw that it was going to be much easier said than done because hey there are a love of ship in New Eden. How many you ask? There are 277 different ship hulls in EVE with 228 of them being able to flown by player characters. That is why I love the Interbus Ship Identification system because it shows all the different ships in the game, and with the Mastery System it shows you, your level at piloting the ship.
My Gallente Ship Tree.
If we compare these first two pictures we are looking at both my Amarr and my Gallente ship trees. I was impressed by my Amarr tree to be honest, because it showed I was closer that I thought to flying other ships. If we look at me Gallente we can see I can fly all Gallente SubCap ships outside Interdictors and Black ops . I also noted that I have must of them at level IV mastery only missing out a few certificates. I did a skill plan and found that I'm only 104 days out from mastering 85% of the subcap ships to V. I have a new goal cause like I said, I'm a sucker for this type of thing.
Cool ship, but what does it do?
Navy Comet Line
With the introduction of Teircide, (the ship rebalancing that CCP has been doing the past two years) one the things they often talked about was ship lines. Theses were supposed to groups of ships that all fit into the same classification. Such as the Navitas is a T1 frigate but is it part of the the support line of ships, that includes, Exequrors, Oneiros and the Nyx supercapital, as well as the Inquisitor and (in)famous Guardian.
With over 228 ships it can become overwhelming trying to know them all and their traits. This where the ISIS comes in. if you hold your mouse over a ship you can little blue boxes above it. This boxes give you the traits of that ships. If we look at the Navy Comet then we can see it uses small weapons, it's a combat ship, meaning it is used for frontline brawling.  It's main weapon system are Hybrid turrets. Last that it uses armor tanking for its main defense.
Phobos Line
If compare the Comet to a tech Cruiser hull such as the Phobos, we are able to see how this lines come together and cross. First we can see that the Phobos uses Medium Turrets. The circle after that shows that it's main purpose is not brawling combat like the Comet, but is Tackle for large fleets. It uses Medium Hybrid turrets as it's main weapon system and like the Comet it is mostly armored tanked. The last box shows that is uses a warp prevention system, interdiction bubbles.
Quickly looking at ISIS we see that both the Comet and Phobos share some groups of skills both are turret ships, both are armor, both use hybrids. In this way they both share some lines of training. But we need to look at one more ship if you want to see a full ship expressed.
Deimos Line
Where the Phobos and Comet only shared three lines, the Deimos are line members. They both are Brawling combat armor ships that use hybrid weapon system. Using ISIS we are able to see that if we are looking for a tech II Cruiser that uses the support skills we use for the Comet, then the Deimos is a good choice for us. This give us a clear line of what skills we need to train at each step to prove to our next system.
While ISIS and the ship Mastery System are not huge game changers in New Eden, I feel they are two of the cooler systems in the game and are only going to improve over all immersion in the game.

I don't often do this, but what new feature in Rubicon do you like most and why? Leave a comment below.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Crossing into Rubicon: New Mastery System.


I think that my favorite thing so far in the Rubicon expansion is the ship mastery system and the revamp of the certificate system. I am a sucker for this kind of things anyways, but in my opinion CCP as really flushed out whole system to improve gameplay for both new and old players. It is very clear and simple to understand and it does does not take much work to access it. in the old certificate system it was easier to use a third party system than the game to look at them. This new system under the show info tab and just players a better idea what skills they really need to fly ships.
If we look at the Incursus we can see that I have ship mastery to four. I have all the skills needed to fly the ship at a decent level. If you have read my skill training blog you can recognize some of the certificates on this page. A few new ones are the Gallente Target Management and Tackling certificate. Target Management is looking at you ability to target hostile ships as well as your ability to use ECCM. The Tackling certificate is taking in account your ability to use warp scrams, disputers and webifiers. The rest of them are the same as they were.
If you are new to EVE, I suggest that you train the skills for Armor tanking, Core ship, Tackling and navigation to their level 4 requirements as soon as you can, because they will be used for other ships and are not racial skills such as turrets and missiles.
Now if we look at the level V mastery we can see that I still need to acquire Target Management, Navigation, and Small Hybrid turrets skills to reach full mastery of the Incrusus. If I click on the certificates I can see each skill needed for lvl 5 mastery and even add time to my skill queue from that tab.
While I haven't played around with all the features the Rubicon has came out with, this one is becoming my favorite as it is showing me that even with my skill planning and different skill list, I have several holes and gaps with many of my ships. over the next few months I'm going to keep using the mastery system to close those gaps and fill in those holes on my ships to give me a larger edge in combat.
As a CEO this also is great skill so that can get new pilots into ships faster and they can have the plan for flying that ship at their finger tips in game.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

CCP Causes Tears: The Live Event that lives in Infamy

With all the hate on the last one, I want to say that all the people complaining are wrong with telling CCP to stop doing Live Events. They need to do more.  They need to keep trying to find new ways to get more player interacting with each other. That is what Live events are all about.  They are about players interacting with players.
Did the event have some flaws, sure it did. But it got players out of comfort zones which is a huge win for CCP. It got people out there doing something that they never would have done before. It also brought all three systems of the game together, High, Low, and Null, it was more inclusive than other events that CCP has done in the past.
CCP needs to do more events like this one. They should be encourage to keep doing events. If you look at through the eyes of pvp, no one wins their first ship fight, unless they are really lucky. CCP while this wasn't the first, this was the largest one that CCP has done. Over 3000 people tried to be involved.
I want CCP to do better events to be sure, but saying that should stop doing them is the wrong attitude about it. The event time needs more time and feed back for these events and needs to do more in terms of planing for sure. I have every confidence that this will happen and future events will be better.
On a closing note Alaric Faelen has the best note on any of these threads. This guy gets it. He understands, and is right. if only one guy that did this event, says "Hey I want another shot at them, or I want to be in that alliance."  Then this event is great success.

The only players that lost, were those that didn't participate. Doesn't matter whether people came out in kitchen sink high sec fleets, or shiny null sec doctrines. Just so long as they came out to play. CCP didn't create an ounce of content with their live event.....the players that undocked and came out to fight created the content. It's CCP that owes you a thanks. For the new PvP'ers and care bears that showed up- GF's to you. Don't let the people too scared to lose fake spaceships pee in your Cheerios. You came out, fought and died. That's all any of us did. Hopefully you had fun. Hopefully you realize that being blown up in a game is still fun. If just one care bear realizes that losing internet spaceships doesn't matter and moves out of high sec, then the live event succeeded. 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Invasion Halted: Fortress Nisuwa

The beginning of the month saw some new events in Black Rise. The rise of TEST in the West and in the SouthEast, Talons of Blood began an invasion of the Gallente Fortress of Nisuwa. What looked to be a full invasion was stopped in only in 7 days.  Thanks to the efforts of QCATs and DRACO.

It all kicked off when Talons of Blood put a staging POS in Nisuwa. Before the POS could be taken down they completely "DickStarred" it. Meaning put up ECM, warp Scramblers and Guns to the max. Inside the POS there was only Ship Maintenance Hanger. With all the CPU and Powergrid in defense the only thing left was to stock it with ships. And that they did fast. Within 2 days over 500 ships were brought into the POS and made ready for their invasion.
Seeing this QCATs and members of DV-MS  began to stockpile ships of their own in the Nisuwa Station. FC's called for standard Gallente Fleets of C*ckbags and derptrons. C*ckbags fully fitted only cost about 2 mil and derptrons cost 1.3 mill ISK. These fleet were also supported by three new fleets. Sniarpies, (rail harpies), Tweed Kestrels, and Win button Kestrels.  While the Sniarpies have a great tank, the two Kestrels fits were set up for attrition fits only costing 1.6 mil each.
On the first day of fighting the story in local made it look dire for the Federation in Nisuwa, as State pilots out numbered them 3-to-1 to even 5-to-1 at one point, do the fast reships and a great FC, the Gallente militia was able to hold Nisuwa stable after 7 hours on constant fighting.  As the EU TZ logged off the US and AUS TZ, kept chasing Squids out of plexes and set the stage for a round two.
On the second day the Federation employed a new trick. They would let the State take small complexes while hold both Novices and Mediums. This forced the Caldari to use only one fleet doctrine while the Federation was able to change into different doctrines to hold the different plexes. So with the State mostly in an expensive Cormorant fit costing 9 mill each, the Federation would simply  use cheap attrition ships camp the outside of the small complex gate and kill anything going it. all the while holding the other plexes.
The next trick was the FC called for everything to burn on the beacon once it hit a 1 min left on the timer. to force the Caldari close their site first. Once the Caldari closed the small the Federation was able to closer either the Medium or Novice resetting the contestion bar for the system. This type of deplex was a huge kick in moral for the Squids as all they could only watch as their work was taking away before they could mount a defense.
At the height of the Nisuwa Invasion, Talons of Blood pushed the system just over 7% contested, with the help of Dust Mercs on the ground. But without a strong US TZ, these gains were quickly lost. While I will not call the Invasion of Nisuwa over,  I will say that it has been Halted for now, and the that brave men and women of the Federation will continue to fight for control over Fortress Nisuwa.
FUN FACTS:
Leaders of the State Assault on Nisuwa are former Gallente Pilots and FCs
At one time Nisuwa was the most dangerous Low Sec system, seeing more than 500 kills in 24 hrs
Derptrons were only called for twice, both times leading to a successful fleet.

Happy Birthday: Never Pheed the Troll.

While I'm a few days late, I feel that it is still a good time to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Never Pheed the Troll.  In this past year it has had 8500 views, 92 different post, 27 comments and read in over 22 countries. Thank you all for reading and here is to the next year.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Gallente Militia: Excitement Grow

Now we wait.
TEST is coming, TEST is coming. When we do not know. Their internal mails suggest that they are waiting on one or two corporations to reach 0.5 standing with the Caldari State, which should happen then the next two days. So by the weekend TEST will be here.  Exciting times are head for us in Black Rise and Placid. 
If you are not excited, then you should be! TEST is going to bring a whole lot of people to the Warzone. This means more targets than we have had for quite a few months. But is it just not TEST, the CFC, N3, Black Legion, and every other person in space is going to come and try to rain on the TEST Parade. So get EXCITED!!! Black Rise and Placid are about to become the most dangerous places in New Eden and we are right in the thick of it.  
I was happy when I logged into a OMS Fleet today to hear the excitement about TEST. I was glad to hear Old Vets, Line Militiamen, and New Bros all talking about TEST and what ships we had to have. What we needed to do, tactics we should employ. It was more excitement on coms than I has heard in a long time. KEEP IT UP!!! We will need it. Just like with EV0KE this is going to become a war of attrition. We need keep fleets excited and active.
While TEST will surely learn somethings from us, there is something that we can learn from them. We have to keep the excitement HIGH. We have to fight burn out. If you want to know why TEST lost the Fountain War that was it. They couldn't keep excitement, they couldn't fight the burn out. Their FC became burnt out, then their line members lost the drive to fight. Sure they managed 1000 dudes at 6-DV, but who cares about 1000 dudes in one battle when it doesn't when the war. 
Steps to Fight Burn out 
  1. New FC's need to rise: We need new bros or more line members to take up Fleet Commanding. It just has to happen. It does not take much to FC a 4-8 man gang. But we cannot relay on our Major FC to run every event. If our FC get burnt out then we will lose. 
  2. Manage Expectations: Don't then that we are going to win every fight with TEST. We won't. Yes, I said it. While I would rather fly you than another other group in New Eden, we simply can't win them all. So expect to lose some, but learn from the engagement. 
  3. Fleet Change Up: Change up the fleet. If all we do is run Armor Cruiser fleets then we become predictable. Stay fluid and stay flexible. We will need doctrines for ever ships class, and different ones. DERPtrons are a great doctrine because who cares if it lost C*CKBAG is another great one, but we need to have more. Rail-Cats, GankRax, Derptorn, lAHACs, S.AF, Scramkites, Kiterles and C*CKBAGs will all have a place to fight TEST. We need to keep changing it up. Talk to you Alliance and Corp leaders about which ships you should train into. 
  4. Clearing Coms: While the excitement today on coms was great, at time it was bit Benny Hill. We need to clean up our coms for major Militia fleets. Listen to your FC. I'll repeat that, LISTEN TO YOUR FC. If he says align out, you align out. It is very simple to do. I know that we have been solo and small gang for the past two months, but we need to get better at being in fleet. This means cleaning up coms and humbling ourselves. 
This is an exciting time to be in Black Rise and Placid.  We need to keep the excitement up. Burn out will be our hardest enemy. We will lose some systems, we'll keep others. But no matter what we must keep move on. Where ever TEST pushes, we push back. We saw what Level Up did to EV0KE we can do the same thing here. Always remember, "We are Freedom, We are the Justice of Black Rise and Placid. WE ARE THE FEDERATION!!!!"

Thursday, October 10, 2013

New Squids on the Block..Test to Join Caldari Faction Warfare.

Sorry for the image, my PS is down
so I had to use an online editor.
PSA to the Federation Militia:
First I want to say is do not panic, Nul alliances have come before and they will come again. All we have to do is unite and stand strong.  In the first State of the Alliance from new TEST CEO SkierX, he has announced two major operations for TEST. The first is TEST is going to join the Caldari State militia, the second is "Top Secret". This move is so they can make some ISK and train up some TEST FCs.  The two main points of this deployment are the Talwars are going to be their main fleet, and are staging our of Tamo.  TEST wants to use this time to build up some steam and while trying to get them secure in ISK as members. I can see the point of it, and I have to say that I like it. 
Some Thinking Points.
  1. Don't panic. Nul blocks have come before and we have weathered them, we will do the same to TEST. SkierX has said that this is a short time goal for TEST ranging from weeks to months, so they won't be here for long term. 
  2.  Be ready for deplexing. Home systems are always number one, but be ready to deplex systems. TEST is here to make money, so they will be Offensive Plexing like crazy, we have to be ready to hold the lines.
  3.  Bend Don't Break. They may only do small scale 10-15 man fleets they may do 200 man fleets, it doesn't matter we need to bend and not break. We know the systems, we know the mechanics, and we know small gang. It is all about the long haul here. C*ckbags and A-Cats will win the day.
  4. Have fun. It is not often that we get the chance, to have 4000 new dudes to come and play with us. We have been complaining lately that targets have been few and between; well that is not going to be case. While this DinoSquid is large in numbers, I'd rather fly with one Gal Mil guy than 10 of them. 
From the sound cloud it seems that at this time TEST does not have the standing to join FacWar. So they are beginning a Standing grind. Which is double awesome for them cause a grid for 4000 people is impressive.  They will probably lose some guys in the move, so don't expect all 4000 people to come to FW. I'm not going to pretend to know when they will be joining but I imagine it is going to be within the next few weeks.  I also imagine that other Nul groups will at least follow TEST here, not to join FW, but to rain on them every chance they get. I would expect to see CFC Harpy fleets around the Warzone once TEST gets in and settled a bit.

Black Rise and Placid had more kills it than the Fountian War in the last month. That is about to happen again and I'm excited about it. There is no better place in New Eden to be right now than Black Rise and Placid if you want fights, get your Comets, VNIs, and ENIs ready TEST is coming, Lets welcome our new overlords with overheated Blasters and more drones than a Pandemic Legion Super Fleet. 
Test SOTA sound Cloud

DV-MS Skill Training 104: Advance Cruiser Hull

DV-MS Newbie Skill Training 103
Advance Cruiser Hull
Editorial Note
This is a greater look at the DV-MS Skill Training. This training guide is requiring that you had looked at and completed DV-MS Newbie Training 101 and 102. This guide is to give pilots the support skills for their Tech One Cruiser Hulls. Remember that Deep Void Merc Syndicate is engaged in Faction Warfare, so there is not a heavy stress of getting new pilots into larger ship hull such as Battle Cruiser and Battleship. 
DV-MS Skill Training 102 preface
     Welcome back to Deep Void Merc Syndicate Skill Training. In DV-MS S.T. 103 we are going to be looking at some of the more advance skills that you'll need to fly the  tech One Cruiser Class Hulls. This skill plan will be a bit longer around 142-148 days, but as we all know EVE is a long term game. If you have not completed Class 101102 or 103 please go back to them and make sure that have the skill recommended there.  Lets get started.
Advance Cruiser Training
Normally here we would be looking at a list of pre-skill that you should train for your T1 cruiser hull. For our last lesson there are no pre-skill except the ones in the previous lessons. What this course is all about it stream lining you cruiser and getting you into a position to be effective in this class of hull. This means that we need to get you the support skills that will make you cruiser hit hard and tan more. Lets open up EvEmon and begin.
As you know we have already trained all the Certificates for our Blaster Thorax that we have been skilling for. Now all that is left is to give us more tank and gank. Go to you Certificate browser and click on Core. Here we need to click on Comp Competency and right click and train to standard. Now we want this to elite and I suggest that you do train it to Elite as soon as you can. but these skills are going to help you moving forward with fittings, your cap use, and even you tank to a small degree. Total time 50-59 days depending on settings.
Once you have Core Comp to Standard, then you want to go to you Defense tab in your Certificates. Now you have several different ones to choose from, but we only need three of them , Armor Tanking Improved (25 days), Armor Reinforcement standard, (included in Armor Tanking Improved), and Logistics Chief Standard.  Armor tanking Improved is giving you good skills, for both a buffer tank and active repairing. Armor Reinforcement is increasing the amount of resist that your ship gets with both passive and active armor hardeners. The four skills here are EM Armor Compensation, Explosive Armor Compensation, Kinetic Armor Compensation, and Thermic Armor Compensation. The Standard level puts all these skill to III, you need to update your plan to train them to IV.  Again having these to all to V would be great, but IV is okay for now. The Logistic Chief skill, will give you basic remote repping, shield transfer, and energy transfer skills for T1 Logistic ships. It is included to give you the chances to possibly fly Logi in fleets in future. We should be at 73-80 days on our train.
Now that we have built up some okay fitting and tanking skills we need to increase our DPS. In the Certificate tab go to turrets and right click Turret Control, train to Improved.  This will begin to give you the more advance support skills for your turrets, increasing your rate of fire, fall off, optimal range, tracking, and over all damage. Like Core Comp skills, and Tanking support skills, you can never go wrong with training the skills in this certificate. This should bring our total days to 96-100 days. 
Now we only need two more skills and this course is over. In the skill browser you need to find the Spaceship Command skill Gallente Cruiser train to V and then under engineering you need to find Advance Weapon Upgrades train to V. This puts your over all Skill queue up to 142-148 days. 
DV-MS Skill Queue
Advance Cruiser Training
Rember to Order Shortest to Longest
Capacitor Systems Operation IV
Capacitor Systems Operation V
Capacitor Management IV
Energy Grid Upgrades III
Energy Grid Upgrades IV
CPU Management IV
CPU Management V
Electronics Upgrades II
Electronics Upgrades III
Electronics Upgrades IV
Electronics Upgrades V
Long Range Targeting III
Long Range Targeting IV
Signature Analysis IV
Target Management V
Advanced Target Management I
Spaceship Command IV
Navigation IV
Evasive Maneuvering III
Warp Drive Operation III
Mechanics IV
Shield Management IV
Mechanics V
Repair Systems IV
Repair Systems V
EM Armor Compensation I
EM Armor Compensation II
EM Armor Compensation III
Explosive Armor Compensation I
Explosive Armor Compensation II
Explosive Armor Compensation III
Kinetic Armor Compensation I
Kinetic Armor Compensation II
Kinetic Armor Compensation III
Thermic Armor Compensation I
Thermic Armor Compensation II
Thermic Armor Compensation III
Shield Emission Systems I
Shield Emission Systems II
Shield Emission Systems III
Shield Emission Systems IV
Capacitor Emission Systems I
Capacitor Emission Systems II
Capacitor Emission Systems III
Capacitor Emission Systems IV
Remote Armor Repair Systems I
Remote Armor Repair Systems II
Remote Armor Repair Systems III
Remote Armor Repair Systems IV
Thermic Armor Compensation IV
Kinetic Armor Compensation IV
Explosive Armor Compensation IV
EM Armor Compensation IV
Rapid Firing V
Motion Prediction V
Surgical Strike I
Surgical Strike II
Surgical Strike III
Trajectory Analysis I
Trajectory Analysis II
Trajectory Analysis III
Trajectory Analysis IV
Gallente Cruiser IV
Gallente Cruiser V
Advanced Weapon Upgrades V
Closing Thoughts
This is the last of the 100 series classes for you skill training plan. Once you complete this training  you should have a good base of fitting, tanking, and damage skills for your tech one cruisers and down. Once you complete this training you all should have okay skills for your Battlecruiser hulls as well, allowing you to fly bigger ships while still using the your medium gun skills.  
Future Classes of Skill Training we'll look at plans for ship specific skills. In those classes we will look at each module and what we need the skill to be at for that fit. These classes will be based on our fleets that are on Fleet-up.  Please keep looking for future classes. 




Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Gallente Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny is the belief that a group has the right to expand. Through history humans have used this caused to expand their ideas across planets and into space. On the Earth of old the first modern democracy The United States used it spread it's ideas across the North American continent. In modern times our grand-fathers and fathers have used it to spread the ideas of the Federation, and the Truth and Justice that it stands
for. So we too will follow in their steps declare our own Manifest Destiny throughout the region of Black Rise.

We have fought hard my friends. We have hunted the Caldari through the region. But we must not relax. While we enjoyed the benefits of Tier control we lose sight out the goal the eradication of the State in Back Rise. We let into out mist the most dangerous force to the Federation, our own pride. We pushed the the Squid into Tier 1 but that is not good enough. Like the Kraken they simple lay in wait. We must not let up we must fight on.
Militia Check List
  1. Upgrade Home systems, ask your Alliance Leaders which systems. 
  2. Upgrade and Deplex Station Systems, clones stations are top of list.
  3. Deplex, Deplex, Delpex. ( I know that the LP is bad but we need to drive systems under 60% down)
  4. O-plex squid staging systems, Unna, Inna, Rakapas, Asakai and Prism.
  5. Train Heavy Armor (if you have been on coms the last week you can know that we need it.)
We are moving forward my friends. The long summer has come to an end and fall and winter are here. We must be ready. The Federation is expanding and it needs us to spread its glory. Control over Black rise is our goal but it is our Destiny. We are strong. We are free. Fight on my Gallente Brothers. Fight on.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Podcast #2:

Faction Warfare Ideas



TL;DL Some ideas that I have about changes that could improve Faction warfare. I posted these ideas on the EVE forums and you can find them here. Please comment on what you think about them .

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

A Comet, Hookbill, and Firetail warp to a plex....

On September 2nd, YC115 I decided to go out a a bit solo in my new Federation Navy Comet. I had been trying several fits for it the last months but finally come across one that I really liked. It is a Scram/Kite fit that people have been using on Daredevils and Incursus Over the pass few months. The idea is simple, that instead of fitting close range blasters, you fit rail guns so that you can apply your DPS from further out, then the web and scram are used to slow your target down while you keep at your opt range of 5-7km.  This fit is distracting to people trying to fight you, they are expecting to for you to brawl them. at a close 2-3k range. It is still hard to hard to engage true kiting ships with this fit as it is not fast enough to really chase them down, but if you are set up inside the plex and with your web and scram over heated you can still kill these ships warping into you. The ship is best against brawlers as they are not able to apply damage on to you.
 SCROMET Fit
 The Roam
As I was flying around I came across GOrbag in his Caldari Navy Hookbill. I have never fought a Hookbill with this set up, but I have come close to killing them in an Incursus using a similar set up. So I figure, lets test this out. I warp to him inside the complex. As I come in I see that he is not at 0 on the warp-in but at 5k off, this is good for me and I get him locked up and begin to apply my DPS. Using missiles he is able get his damage on me as well, so it becomes a race to the finish. During our fight we began to pull away from the warp-in, just as a small local spike happens. We keep up our brawl, when I click on d-scan and see that a single Firetail is outside the complex, remembering the local spike I figure that it is that gang coming to gank us. We both enter structure yet the Firetail has not came in yet.  As I enter 45% the Firetail comes in and the Hookbill explodes, I try to make it out, but the Firetail gets me locked and scrammed. Knowing I am going to die, I simple click keep at 8.5k range and open fire on the Firetail.
The Twist
I have committed my Comet to die, I simply know that it must, but a weird twist of fate happens. For some reason the Firetail its unable to apply any DPS to me. My AAR finally reload  and I am able to recover some
much needed armor hit points. another thing is that while I am hitting him with both rails and drones he thinks it is the drones so he begins to shoot them letting me get to full armor before I overload and plunge back into the fight. This also allows for full minute to pass allowing my AAR to reload a second time, giving me a solid chance to fight him. It was all I needed. releasing my last three drones and with everything over loaded I broke him into armor, then structure, then dust.  Knowing there was a gang still in local, make the decision to just grab the Firetail's loot, and find that I now have over 300 million ISK in my cargo. Confused I quickly pull range off the button, and check the kill mail.
September Christmas
Sometimes in New Eden stars align and fall into place. You are there at the right time and the right place, this was the right time and place for me. I had just killed a 700 million ISK Firetail, and 300 million dropped. I have only killed one other ship solo that cost as much, but it was loaded with skill books and other loot. This was truly a first for me.  While I will admit that I do not fly the Firetail, and I am sure that this fit is alright, I
was more shocked that the pilot was brave enough to fly it. As a general rule, outside T1 one Frgates you should never fit anything on to your ship that cost more than the ship, for example a dead space mod on a T1 Cruiser. Well T2 ships that changes a bit, but still it is a good rule to follow. But some people sail by a a different star, and to his credit  Espiritu Santo took it to a whole new level with his fit.
While a full Faction, Dead space, and tech 2 rig fit is more common for tech threes, pirate battleships, captial ships, and titians, this is the first time that I have ever seen one on a Faction Frigate. And I would say that I was not impressed in how it preformed. The whole fight he only used is armor repper twice, and the Federation 200mm plate is unless when you look at it fitting stats. The Faction Guns, while costing 600 times more than T2, are not able to use the T2 ammo that he needed to apply is DPS to me. While I enjoy the loot pinta and it was nerve wrecking to have to engagements so close together over all I think I would all this roam opp success.
On a sidenote I have added Espiritu Santo to my watch list as I saw that he likes to fly and lose billion isk Tengus. Here is hopping that we meet again for a round two.

Fly Safe #20

Remember to update your clone after your pod is destroyed. Not doing so means that you will lose your highest ranked skill.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Ancient Bees...

New Eden of the Ancient Past....
YC 108 (2008 A.D.)
     In the ancient past of New Eden there was an alliance known as Band of Brothers. While BoB was not the first alliance in New Eden, they were one of the most power. Ruling over the Southern half of New Eden with an Iron Fist, BoB became the most hated people in New Eden. Why? They were "evil" slumlord landlords. Where other alliance in New Eden had allies, BoB had "pets". These pets were supposed fend for themselves if they ever were attacked, act as a meat shield for the BoB fleets, and pay dues to hold space (if your are to believe the modern stories.) Personally I have no dog in the BoB was evil fight, they were before my time.
      At the same there there was a young alliance that was just formed in southern Syndicate, Goonswarm Federation. While they say they started off trying to be the good guys of New Eden, they soon found that it was not that fun. So they found a couch in Null Sec to crash on, then made their name.
       As their name grew, in the south the first "grrr Goons" could be heard. Band of Brothers began to called Goonswarm a plague to New Eden. Goonswarm fed on this calls and even egged them on. And as time went on the 'pets' of BoB began to chomp at the the bit and the whole New Eden seemed to turning against BoB. This lead to the first "Great War" of New Eden, and the destruction of BoB. BoB would come back as IT alliance then be destroyed again in quite a laughable manner, the whole time sending a message out of "Grr Goons" to anyone that would here it.
       While some alliances would have rejected this propaganda, Goonswarm Federation simply embraced it. It fitted their culture, they saw that cluster needed a bad guy and a "hell why not us" attitude was encouraged. The motto in alliance became, "Not out ruin the game, but to ruin pubbies game". In Jita local and on the forums you would read about the Goonswarm scams and the millions or billions that was stolen. BoB built is empire on the back of renters and Goonswarm would look across the cluster and declare that these slumlords had to go while they built the strongest collation the, Cluster F*CK Coalition in New Eden.The leadership would always make it clear that an alliance that rented space out was bad and should not hold that space.
A Harsh Truth
       During the last conflict in Fountain, a disgruntled director of Nulli Citizens, Nulli Secunda renter alliance, decided that he didn't like the leadership, and wanted to make a name for himself. So he dropped all of Nulli Citizens space and took a 1/2 the months rental dues, about 400 billion ISK. 400 BILLION ISK!!! And that as only half. So Nulli Secunda and N3 coalition could be making over 700 billion ISK a month. This is more that CFC could make with all their current moons and the moons that they won in the Fountain war.
       This was a harsh truth, moon mining was dead. With Northern Coalition. and Nulli Secunda making nearly 700 billion ISK a month the CFC could be left holding the check. They would have to get find a new source of income and quick. The CFC needs a way to continue their expanding Shipping Replacement Program, their leadership saw that they needed to change.
A Goon of a New Age
       So a new campaign has stated, not an invasion or conquest, but change the minds of Goons and the CFC. Not wanted to be left behind the CFC had decided that needed to open their renter alliance. This goes against everything that Goonswarm, and the CFC line membership was built on. It very well maybe the hardest battle that CFC has to fight. Already there have been post that have called out a stop to rental scam and to inform the grunts that this is needed to make the ISK needed for their SRP and other collation services. They need renters as hard as it is for them to say.
       They have began an interesting campaign for this. To the line members and grunts they are saying that pubbies renting from Goons is the great way to oppress this scrublords. To the scrublords they say, "There was a group of people trying to ruin your lives in High-sec....Band of Brothers".  It seems that they are glossing over their hate for the pubbie scrublords in the past to say, "Hey, we rent space better".
        There has also been people saying that the Goonswarm Finance Team was caught off guard by how much Nulli was making renting. I want to say that I believe that is not true. Goonswarm likes to gloat about having the best finance team in New Eden, and I believe it. It is not one guy in his mom basement pushing around trillions of ISK. It is 10-20 guys in their moms basement pushing around trillions of ISK.  They are very effective at what they do and they are very smart. I think the real proof of the Goonswarm having some knowledge of needing to rent was shown on April 1st, when TMC released a "fake" report about Goonswarm renting out parts of space.
         It was said to have been an April fools joke at the time, but I think that it was Goonswarm testing the waters. They wanted to see if people out there would rent. Also they had known since January the end of the Tech Train was coming, maybe not when, but they new it was coming. I think back in April they knew they would need a system of income. Okay the Fountain  moons right, well if we believe they have the best finance team in the game then it would make sense they that they knew the Fountain moons would not be enough.  I mean these guy crunch numbers on everything that they do, do you really think they didn't know they would have to have a new source of income. I know a bit tinfoil hat, but it makes a lot sense.
Will They Come? 
        The last real question is well the renter come to the Goonswarm renting empire. In two words, "Hell, Yes".  I mean why not? People want to say no they won't because Goonswarm has always hated on pubbies. That they tired to ruin the pubbies game. I will say people look past all that once Goonswarm opens it doors, cause the ISK they believe they were earn in null.The ISK will bring them. Also Goonswarm is smart, they understand that they need make their space look more live able than say N3 or PL. It is know that PL and NC. will hotdrop renters, and the CFC will say we will never do that. The CFC will also make sure to provide good security and services to their renters. If you think that they won't then you are fooling yourself.
        If Goonswarm is anything they are business men first. As business men they are going to prove the best possible space and services that they can. They want renters to come and they will make sure that once they stay and are undisturbed. They see this business as a huge way to make ISK and they want to be part of it.
      Would I have my corp rent from Goonswarm? Yes, I would, if that is what my corp wanted. The CFC would provide good space and we would be left to our own space. They would make sure that we mostly out of the way and that other people stayed out of space. They would provide intel channel and services that kept renters informed. Sure they would make remarks and snicker at us, but in the end they know that we pay their SRP, and if they don't want us paying NC., PL, or N3 then they make sure that we are taken care of.
       The ancient bees are gone. They still may roam highsec with ice-interdiction or burn Jita. They may still troll forums and EVENEWS 24. But as long as they are renting they no long will be out to "ruin our game." They need the pubbie scrublords.  It the end the ultimate troll is on Goonswarm, cause in order survive in they have to become what they fought against and what hate. 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

EVE VR....Valkyrie

During Fanfest this pass year CCP let people try out a new dog fighting game, known as EVE VR at the time. The demo used the tool call Oculus Rift and put the pilot in the sit of an Amarr Templar fighter. This was one of the most successful demos at FanFest. Today CCP announced that EVE Valkyrie will becoming out in 2014 on the EVE-O forums and on IGN. It's a good write up and the trailer looks great.


Podcast #1

The first podcast for Never Pheed the Troll, a quick look at the war in Fountain and what it means for all the major players there.

This is a little late of a post. I was having some trouble upload my file to soundcloud but I finally got it done and not it is here. The Fountain war is over the CFC won, Test is moving to low sec or re-invading Fountain, who knows.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Battle of J7-25...After Action Report

Editor's Note
While I try to keep most thing on Never Pheed the Troll to my life in New Eden, and the game EVE online. This is an important event in my real life and I feel that I have to write about it. But I will keep it in line with most things here and I am writing it as an After Action Report. Also I did this cause I am a Role Playing nerd.

Called to FC
At 22:00 EVE on July 24th YC-115, I received a call that I was needed to FC an op with my wife ZhangLi Jorkarzul. We needed to go to our staging Hospital and wait for the incoming fleet to come in a engage. As time clicked on we talked and sang songs trying to relax for the fight ahead. At 03:00 EVE we began to induce movement trying to force the Force of Birth fleet to take the fight. We wanted to fight in our staging system as we had a ZhangLi's  Mothership proving boosts, and fighter bomber support. At 14:00 EVE after 11 hour of waiting and no movement from the Birth fleet, and ZhangLi in more pain than anything, we decided that if they were not going to jump into us we would jump into them. I had our fleet burn to zero on the gate and gave the order, "Jump, Jump".

The Battle and Reward
We jumped into the hostile fleet and we began to make quick work of  PAIN warfare ships that they had on field. They called ZhangLi primary and focused all DPS and PAIN warfare on her. But the T2 morphine ECCM module that ZhangLi was using making sure that PAIN was not jamming her out of the fight. Also our logi team did a great jump keeping her tank up and she was able to take all incoming damage. After a 30min slugfest the moment of truth came, and I was presented with my beautiful blue eyed baby girl, Molly 茉莉Jorkarzul.
Everyone welcome Miss Molly 茉莉 Jorkarzul the newest member of Deep Void Merc Syndicate.
Op Success
I am proud to say that after nearly 16 hours of fighting we can say that we won the Battle of J7-25, and July 25 YC-115 will go down in major victory for Dv-MS over Forces of Birth. Here is to more successful ops in the future and thank you all for all the support that you have given me and the corp. 

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Alliance Tournament XI..Winners and losers Round 2

Round 2 Flight 2

Round 2 Flight 1
 Winners and Losers
Flight 1
Round Two is in the bag and the winners and losers have been decided.  In the first flight the big winners Your Votes Don't Count, TEST Alliance And Red Vs Blue. I don't think that too many people thought this alliances would be moving on in the winning round. It should be noted that all the losers in this flight are not out of the tournament only on the backside. I am hoping that The Ronin, Rote Kapelle, TEST, Exodus., RvB, Hydra Reloaded and Pandemic Legion all continue to have good showings and keep winning.
                                                                                                                                                                             Winners and Losers
                              Flight 2                                 On the backside of the bracket we have the first teams out of the fight. Or Sound Mind, Goonswarm Federation, Noir. Mercenary Group and Kill It With Fire are the big one that are gone. On the backside I like Sicarius Draconis, SCUM, and R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.  I hope that they keep up the good fight and keep winning. The tournament is just heating up and more good fights are sure to come. Stay tuned for more info on EVE Online Alliance Tournament IX. 






Sunday, July 21, 2013

Chasing the Dream...Round Two of Alliance Tournament XI

Winners and Losers

While I wish that I had a better showing from the teams that I wanted to win. Over all the matches on the first night were good fights. to the left are the winners and losers. Winners in green losers in white. I am surprised by Urine Alliance and Scum. didn't win and that Scum really didn't put up a great fight. But overall I think that the team that were meant to win did. C.V.A. had a really good fleet, though R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N didn't have a great set up. Over all it seemed that Drones were in and that is what the major players wanted. 
Matches to Watch it round Two.
Some of the more interesting matches coming up in round two will be CVA and The R0NIN they both had a really good set up. Rote Kapelle and Sleeper Social will be good. And DnD will be taking on Pandemic Legion, this match should be good.  In the second half of play Urine Alliance vs Kill it with Fire, and Noir Mercenary Group vs Hun Reload. All four of this teams have a strong alliance showing so it is sad to think that two of them will be out after tonight. 
Twitch TV Link

Watch live video from twitchernest on www.twitch.tv

Full Schedule of Sunday the 21st

Who we want to Win 
The R0NIN
Rote Kapelle
Verge of Collapse
Exodus.
Hyrda Reloaded
Red vs Blue
Drunk 'n' Disorderly
On the Backside
Scum. 
Sicarius Draconis 
Noir. Mercenary Group
Urine Alliance







Saturday, July 20, 2013

Dominixes, Drones, and Death...DnD holds off the Kadashi

Good Fight, just too late...
The Kadashi put up a good fight, but it was too little too late as Drunk and Disorderly pushes to victory.  The Kadashi entered the field with a lot of tank, but not a lot of damage, and as it was said in the twich.tv chat, tanks are good but the DPS is needed. DnD on the other hand showed up to the game with heavy Dominix fleet and Sentry drones. As the match went on the heavy DPS from the Sentries took it toll on the Kadashi's mallers and their cruisers went down, but DnD all lost a domi, cutting into their applied DPS. Finally reps stabilized and DnD was able to get back on top of the fight. It was a slow push, and it was hard push to victory. Tomorrow DnD has Pandemic Legion, it was going to be a hard road to go.
Thoughts on the Tournament
The flavor of the day in AT XI so far has been drones, and lots of them. Outside one heavy brawler set up, by Co2, nearly every other match fielded heavy sentry drone setups. This gangs are really quite good as most EWAR does not work on them to the same degree of other fleets, and heavy tanks that can be fitted on these boats, Vexor Navy Issues and Ishtar's can pump out 750 dps with good skills, and Dominixs can pull out 1000 all while keeping a good tank. With new rules of the tournament and chance to ban ships, so that they can not be used. I get the feeling that with huge showing of drones in the AT, that Domis are going to be at the top of everyone's banhammer list. The tournament has been good so far. Lets hope that fights stay as good as they were in this first round.





Scum. Down

Welp, one match and Scum. is on the backside of the bracket and Circle of Two advances.

What can I say Co2 had a good game plan from the start, seeing a heavy damp fleet on the field the burnt in to close the range and get under the damps. There their two powerful Macharels would punish Scums Vindicator battleship. After losing the vindicator SCUM no longer had the DPS to put up a good fight, it was only a matter of time to knock out the rest of their fleet. 


Death is coming....Alliance Tournament IX

Alliance Tournament IX is starting today, and many alliances are screaming "it's a good day to day."  All major alliances in EVE are trying to be ranked #1. CCP is also live streaming the fights on their twitch channel which is embedded here. 

On thing that set EVE apart from other games is meaningful PVP.  In a game where if you lose your ship its goon and you now have spend a few hours grinding isk to get it back, it means a lot more in say LoL or WoW where you just respawn. It is also what sets Alliance Tournament apart from the rest of PVP in EVE, is that is the closest to a "normal" PvP experience from another game. Except in true EVE fashion there are no respawns. One ship per pilot.  

The Alliance Tournament breds a different culture in EVE. Alliances like Pandemic Legion, Rote Kapelle, and Hydra Reloaded all have a strong tournament culture. Every year these alliances put up strong fleets. These alliance don't just fight for bragging rights, they also want the sweet sweet faction ships that go with winning an alliance tournament, new Alienware computers, and Razor Headsets.  

Never Pheed the Troll will follow the matches as they take place and I'll try to make sure that get a bit of a blurb about the matches that is see. Day one matches are post under the feed. 


Watch live video from twitchernest on www.twitch.tv
First round of Fight on Saturday, July 20th



Who we want to win Day One.
SCUM.
The R0NIN
Verge of Collapse
Rote Kapelle
The Fourth District
Late Night Alliance
Sicarius Draconis (Gallente FacWar)
Exodus. 
Noir. Mercenary Group
Hun Reloaded
Urine Alliance
RvB (purple fleet)
Pandemic Legion
Drunk 'n' Disorderly (Former Gallente Federation FacWar)
All other alliances I could care less about. Personally I want Goonswarm Federation to lose but I also hate Sleeper Social Club. Over all I want DnD to when the whole thing, cause I know pilots there and have flown with them too. So go DnD.  I hope that you all enjoy the matches. 

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Fall of Pride....

Pride costs more than hunger,

thirst, and cold."


-Thomas Jefferson


While it is said that Caldari are the proudest race in New Eden, we Gallente are a proud people too. We have pride in the Crystal Boulevard. We have a deep love for the Federation and the freedom that it give us, but this pride has weaken us.
"For the Federation!"
"For the Federation!" is our battle cry. For Freedom and Justice are what our fleets are based on. We built our fleets on our pride. A pride that told us we were better than we really were. We forgot about the hard work that brought us to the top. We stopped plexing, we stopped running system to system to chase the Squids out. We let them plex and wear us down. We said, "Tomorrow I will deplex that system."  We passed the buck to each other. We forgot that while we are all different alliances and corporations we all are in this fight together. We have let internal politics and fighting break us up. The once drama free coms of the Galmil have become a beacon for it. We held the war zone in our hands and let it slip away in our pride.

For the pass four months while we won battles the Caldari have been winning the war. They took system after system and we let them. Our killboards have shown huge gains, but we hold less space than we ever had. Our fortresses hold the line, but for how long? All of New Eden is watching us waiting for our fall.

Lets not give it to them. Stand up my fellow Gallente and fight. Let your pride humble you,  but do let it bring you down. Your are pilots of the Federation. The Federation has given us the greatest star ships in the Cluster. We have the best Fleet Commanders in four militia. We most versatile doctrines out in space.  We are still in this fight. It will be hard no doubt bout that, but we are still in this fight.

We need you to deplex the Fortresses, Nennamaila, Nisuwa, Vlillirier. Then the FDU systems of  Moclinamaud and Frarie need to be deplexed and we need to take Intaki  back. The Reclamation of Placid well be hard but we stand our ground. Hold the line my friends and fight to the last ship, "For the Federation".


Monday, July 1, 2013

Fly Safe #19

Train Thermodynamics to use the overheat function on your modules. Though it damages the mod, overheating allows you to deal more damage with weapons, go faster with with prop mods, and have more range with EWAR modules. 

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

DV-MS Skill Training 103 Basic Cruisers Hulls


DV-MS Newbie Skill Training 103
Basic Cruiser Hull
Editorial Note
This is a greater look at the DV-MS Skill Training. This training guide is requiring that you had looked at and completed DV-MS Newbie Training 101 and 102. This guide is to give pilots the support skills for their Tech One Cruiser Hulls. Remember that Deep Void Merc Syndicate is engaged in Faction Warfare, so there is not a heavy stress of getting new pilots into larger ship hull such as Battle Cruiser and Battleship. 
DV-MS Skill Training 102 preface
     Welcome back to Deep Void Merc Syndicate Skill Training. In DV-MS S.T. 103 we are going to be looking at some basic skills that you'll need to fly the Cruiser Class Hulls. This skill plan will be a bit longer around 60-65 days, but as we all know EVE is a long term game. If you have not completed Class 101 or 102 please go back to them and make sure that have the skill recommended there.  Lets get started.
Pre-Skills
    First lets look at some good pre-skills that we need.  The first pre-skill that we want is Weapon upgrades to V.  Many of you have probably already training this skill, and you are a head of the curve to the rest of the class.  The skill to IV will allow you to use the Tech 2 damage modules such as the Magnetic Field Stabilizer II, but we want the skill to V for the next skill it unlocks, Advance Weapon Upgrades. This is you second pres-skill, and I suggest that you train it to IV right from the start. This will give you your first 18 days of training. "Do I need Advance Weapon Upgrades?" is what some of you will ask, I will respond with, "YES  YOU NEED IT TO V AS SOON AS YOU CAN."  AWU, is a very important skill if you are flying power grid heavy weapons such as hybrids and lasers. This skill can be the deference from Heavy Neutron Blasters and Heavy Ion Blasters, which could be the deference in killing your target or them killing you. The next skill that you need is Hull Upgrades to V. This skill will allow you to Tech 2 fit your whole armor tank which is needed in Cruiser Hull combat. That should bring your total up to 27-28 days for you skill plan depending on your attributes. 
Basic Tech One Cruiser Training
    Now that you some of the meat and potato skills out of the way, lets see what cruiser hull we want to fly. For the sake of it, lets choose the Thorax Blaster Boat. Go to you ship browser in EVEMon and find the Thorax. Look at that Recommended Certificates. You already should have Core Competency Basic, Armor Tanking Basic, and High-Velocity Helmsman Standard. If not please add them.  Now you need to get into those medium guns, add Cruiser Hybrid Turrets Basic. These skills will help you with the basic Turret skills that you need use Heavy Blasters and Medium class Rail Guns. The medium class gun skills in my opinion is the most import as more hulls use them over an other weapon system in the game. This should point you at 28-32 days of total training. You are at the basic level of flying your cruiser, but in Faction Warfare the Cruiser is work horse so we need some more support skills. Open the Certificates Tab in your EVEMon and go to Turrets.
     Once in Turrets you need to certificate Cruiser Hybrid Turrets. Find Standard click and add to still plan.  I know that it says that basic is needed to the Thorax, but you need to make your Thorax as good as possible as fast as possible. The Standard training only take 15 days so it worth getting it there first. The next certificate you need to train is Cruiser Advanced Blaster Turrets Standard. This will give you access to Tech 2 medium blasters and support skills for them. While there also train the Cruiser Advance Rail Turrets to Standard. Now you should have all skills for Medium Hybrid Weapons.
Skill List for Advance Tech One Cruiser
Remember to re-order shortest time to longest
Weapon Upgrades I
Weapon Upgrades II
Weapon Upgrades III
Weapon Upgrades IV
Weapon Upgrades V
Advanced Weapon Upgrades I
Advanced Weapon Upgrades II
Advanced Weapon Upgrades III
Advanced Weapon Upgrades IV
Hull Upgrades IV
Hull Upgrades V
Medium Hybrid Turret I
Medium Hybrid Turret II
Medium Hybrid Turret III
Medium Hybrid Turret IV
Controlled Bursts III
Controlled Bursts IV
Small Hybrid Turret IV
Small Hybrid Turret V
Small Blaster Specialization I
Small Blaster Specialization II
Small Blaster Specialization III
Small Blaster Specialization IV
Medium Hybrid Turret V
Medium Blaster Specialization I
Medium Blaster Specialization II
Medium Blaster Specialization III
Medium Blaster Specialization IV
Sharpshooter IV
Small Railgun Specialization I
Small Railgun Specialization II
Small Railgun Specialization III
Small Railgun Specialization IV
Medium Railgun Specialization I
Medium Railgun Specialization II
Medium Railgun Specialization III
Medium Railgun Specialization IV

Closing Thoughts
   I know that some of you are looking at the skill list and see skills like Small Hybrid Turret to V and you are wonder why those skills were not on the Frigate training skill list. You are right they should be, but most people train them already simply cause in less than a week you can have Tech 2 Blasters and Rails. if you already have Tech 2 smalls hybrids then you can subtract 6 days off this train. I put Tech 2 medium hybrids on here because they are needed for basic cruisers hulls.  Without Tech 2 guns your Cruiser hull will simply not be effective. While the 2 months of training for this class seems long, the propose is to give you the basic skills that will help you become more effective in this class ship as well as given you the chance to continue becoming more proficient in Frigate and Destroyer class ships. Skills for Advance Cruisers Hybrids als help your frigate hrybrids and so on. In the next class we will look advance Cruiser Hull training.