EVE is REAL...The True Stories.

EVE IS REAL

While most people that watched FanFest on the live stream were excited about New EVE trailer, improvements to DUST 514, improvement to scanning and new ships. They thing that stuck out to me was the EVE True Stories. For the past month CCP as been gathering stories from EVE players about the last 10 years of the game. They have all made it to EVE: True Stories. While some people felt that was just a way to celebrate 10 years of the games CCP decided to up the ante. With a partnership with DarkHorse Comics, CCP is going to be taking those true stories and creating a Graphic Novel series. This series will be  sold in stories and online. That really caught my eye. As a comic book fan knowing that my true story could be shared to the world in a comic makes me very very very excited. The deadline for submitting stories is May 5 2012, so if you have story please submit today. That was not enough though. 

EVE TV

For years people have been asking CCP to make an EVE movie, based off the Tony Gonzalez books or Eve Lore. CCP said that this would not be good enough as it does not tell the true story of New Eden. So there is no movie coming out, but don't get down, cause CCP did say that they are doing a live action Mini Series such as Game of Thrones and Walking Dead. Where are they getting the stories? They same place that got the stories for the comics. They already have teamed up with a director to start talking about the project.  

Monument for the Ages

The last thing that CCP is going to do is create a Monument of EVE in Reykjavik, Iceland. They monument will have a metal base that contains all the names of EVE characters That log on in the month of May. This Monument will be in a city park and stand 4.5 meters high. All the detals are still in the air about what it will look like, but it was say that it will have an Amarr structure on it. 

Since Fanfest 2010 CCP as said that EVE is Real. It was mad fun of by the player base, but CCP was not laughing. They watned a game that seemed real to those that played it. With the Comics, EVE TV, and Monument CCP is straving to make EVE a game that it truely real to those that play it. 

Loyalty Agribussiness...DV-MS LP Farming Guide

Editors Note

I am by no means a superstar at running missions. I also well not claim to know everything about Faction Warfare Misson. This is guide for those who want to start running these missions, but are unsure how to start. 

Faction Warfare Loyalty Agriculture

     Faction Warfare Missions are missions that you can do while in Faction Warfare, it is a simple as that. Like normal missions that they contain both an Isk and Loyalty Point pay out. Faction Warfare Missions also come in four different levels I, II, III, and IV like a normal mission. The major difference is that all Faction Warfare Missions take place in Low Sec.  They are also not clear missions like most High Sec missions where you have to kill everything in the site. In a Faction Warfare Mission you only need to kill one ship, or a small group of ships. This means that every mission can be blitz and completed in under 10 minutes minus the time of flying to the mission site. The second and major difference is the Loyalty Point pay out. On a good non Faction Warfare Level 4 miss on the LP payout is 3000-5500 LP, in Faction Warfare this LP gain is more than three times that and depending on the tier could be more. For example with Social to 5 and the Security Connect skills to 4 you will be making 27452-33642 LP a per level 4 mission in a level 5 upgraded mission hub 0.1 system such as Intaki. If your faction makes it to tier 3 you are looking at 76738lp. The last thing is that they provide is huge standing boost. In under of two weeks of running FacWar missions you can get your standing to +9 in the Federal Defense Union and with each rank there you get 1 rank of Gallente Federation. 

     The good news is that standing wise it will only take a few weeks of plexing or a couple days of running level 1-3 mission to get the standing to run a level four mission. The bad news that you will have to skill up to Tech 3 Strategic Cruiser such as the Proteus, Tengu , Loki, or Legion.  It will take just over two months to train into these ships with out even the support skills. During the time I would suggest simply running plexes as they are in many ways safer than the lower levels missions, and sense you are PVP fit you are more able to fight off an incoming enemy. This will also give you a chance to earn some Isk for you T3 Cruiser. 

Planting the Seeds

(This section is assuming you have trained into a T3 cruiser or have the ability to fly one.)

    The first thing that you need is a farm, or mission hub. A mission hub is a system that supports the missions you want to farm, ideally this system also has other mission hubs near it. Since we want to do Faction Warfare Mission for the Gallente Federation we need to find some level 4 agents for the Federal Defense Union corporation. Using the Agent Finder we can see their are more than 15 different agents for this NPC corp. Picking the right one can be tricky if we are unsure what to look for. What I suggest is using Dotlan Maps with the Agent Finder to see where the systems are to each other. You all want to choose a 0.1 system as they give out the better payouts. The system that I choose was Intaki. The reason why is cause it is 0.1 system, there are two more FDU station only three jumps away in Moclinamaud and Eugales. Cause many of the missions that I take out of Intaki go through these systems I can also take missions from those agents as well. Depending on the location of the missions you can do all three in 20mins to 80mins. If I am fast on my warps, I usually can do 6 missions an hour, which at tier two is about 170,000 LP.
     The second thing that you need to need to do is some skill training. The first skill that you want to train up is the Social Skill to 5, this skill will give you a 25% increase to your faction standing. The second skill is Security Connection to at least 4. It would be best to get it to 5 for a max LP pay out, but a 40% increase is fine for the standard LP farmer. I would recommend training it to 5 if you plan on being in Faction Warfare for a long time and you are using missions as you major source of LP.

The Combine

     A Combine Harvester is machine that farmers use to reaper, thrash and separate the grain from the chaff. Like the humble farmer needs a combine, so do you. Introducing your combine the Proteus Strategic Cruiser. It is made for farming LP, it is a reaping, thrashing and winnowing machine. While some pilots use the Tengu, I use the Proteus as I can use med slots for ECCM modules and still keep it cap stable. While it lacks the DPS and Speed of the Tengu, it is hardy ship, without a lot of bling.There are only Faction modules for this fitting is, a Corpum B-type Medium Armor Repairer and two Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizers (currently I am playing around with some different fits that might bring the price up, but increase performance). With 390 DPS it is able to deal with all missions and the with 93% and 93% Thermal resist it able to tank 1300 Caldari DPS.  This well easily tank even the harshest Level 4 missions. The two ECCM give it 70 sensor strength which will prevent you from being perma-jammed over heated it increases to 94. This should cost you around 1bil ISK.

     The most important part of this Combine is the Covert Op Cloaking Device II. This will allow to fly more safely from mission to mission (note that I said more safely and not safely, these missions have a bit of risk to the and if you are not paying attention you will lose your combine). With the ability to warp cloaked makes a T3 Cruiser a hard nut to catch. Not impossible but hard. Like all things you have to fly it smart.

     The last thing you want to do is make sure that you have enough ammo with you at all times. I run with two types of ammo, Faction Antimatter for high DPS and Null if I have to have better tracking to kill frigates that have me tackled. 

Reap What You Sow...

     This basically as simple a regular level 4, with a few twists. First you need to get need to pick up your missions. Since you can only pick one mission up at time from a single agent, I recommend picking up at least three from three different agents. Like I said that is why I like Intaki, because with in 3 jumps on a the normal routes are two more mission hubs that I can farm from. When you first start if you are worried about losing standing with the agent then you should run every mission that he gives you. After you build up some standing with him you can be more selective in your missions choosing to only take those closer to your farm. I try to take missions that are with in 10-13 jumps from Intaki. Some systems in Black Rise are pretty big so limiting your jumps will make make sure that you still making the best time on your mission.
      REMEMBER TO ALWAYS USE YOUR CLOAK WHEN WARPING. Not just some of the time, but all time when warping, the less intel that you give people on what you are doing the better. The other thing is that if you use your cloak all the time, during prime fleet times, people will think that you are just the fleets booster. This means that they'll still try to kill you, but they will not usually chase after you after the miss you.
     Some people would suggest to use a scout for jumping through gates, and if you have an alt then I suggest that you do to. But if not simply being smart and following intel channels well go a long way to keeping your combine alive. It is not always perfect and every now and then you'll run into a gate camp. The first rule if you do is don't panic and hold your cloak. See if you are already aligned to anything. If yes then right click warp to it and hit your cloak as soon as you do. Even a boosted Loki is not fast enough lock you it you do. As soon as you land warp to you out bound gate and you should be clear. If you are not aligned still don't panic, you can still should be able to get out by doing what I said just said cept to your out bound gate. If they manage to point you then you need to turn on all your tank and over heat your after burner and burn back to the gate. Depending on their ships you ships should make it. But sometimes you can be unlucky it does happen even to me.
     Once you are in the mission system you need to make a safe spot. I simply warp to the sun at 100 and make a bookmark in space as I warp. When you get into you mission site you need to see your D-SCAN to 147,000km and start scanning. When you engage your targets that are not ships, stargate or POS tower, then you need to align out to your safe spot. If you see a ship come on scan then you just need to warp to your safe and cloak up simple as that. Once you make your kill just warp back turn your mission in and repeat.

List of FacWar Mission

and Tasks

Mission	Completion Task
Uproot	Kill Main Reactor (have to refit Railguns)
Supply Interdiction	Kill three Industrial Ships
Shades of Grey	Kill five Industrial Ships
Lethal Strike	Kill Field Commander
Halt the Invasion	Destroy Stargate
Cutting the Net	Pick up cargo past the second gate
Dead Man Tells No Tales	Destroy the POS Tower
The Reprisal	Kill the Sector Commander
Roidiest Rage	Kill the 4 Industrial Ships on the left of the warp in.

Harvest

     I have found that this have been a great way to gather LP. While you do not find the PVP that you do in plexing it is less disruptive and much more profitable. In the short week that I have conducted this study and tired different tactics to improve my LP gain, I made just over 2.1 million LP, I used 500k upgraded systems that I was farming from. While I did lose a ship I found that made enough ISK to pay for that lose three times over and still have enough LP that I can start again. I am already fitting up a new combine and gathering the modules for when the Gallente Federation reach Tier 3 and then the farm will be a great place to live. 

Burning Jita...Goonswarm ruined the game...

     Burn Jita 2.0 was released last weekend and the massive walls of text that is has brought to the interwebs have hit every blog, and news site about EVE Online. Despite that it was announced on several several different locations, The Mittani, Eve24, and ISG, people have been raging the event, where Goonswarm and TEST gank freighters and other ships outside Jita 4-4. There are some good responses here and there but most are screaming that Goonswarm is ruining EVE.
     I will say it up front that I like the event. While CCP ran events such as The Battle of Caldari Prime do see good player turn out, the fact that they are planned by CCP makes them staged and no different than an event in any other MMO. Burn Jita is not staged, as a player ran event anything can happen. It is EVE Online at its best, a group of players creating chaos in the game. So why do they complain when an they lose a ship in Burn Jita and not for a CCP event?  I feel that it is cause they fail to understand the culture of EVE (that CCP promotes) and the "Evil" Goonswarm.

Destroy to Create

     First lets look at the culture of EVE that CPP wants. This culture of EVE is that of harsh harsh universe. While World or Warcarft and Guildwars tries to convince us that we are living in a harsh worlds we don't feel it. I was part of a  primer Guildwars Guild. We did Elite Mission only and held the record for the world the fastest time completing Fissure of Woei in the world, yet something was missing. If I was with my group I never died as we had the best monk in the game. If I was solo I could use the 3 necro system and agian never died. As much as NPCs were telling me about how harsh and dangerous the world was I didn't see it.
     EVE Online is not like that. It is always a harsh world. From the first time you undock your ship to when you log off it is a harsh world. CCP created it that way. Even in a High-Security system such as Jita  there is risk to fly around in. That is the point,  there is no space where you should feel safe to undock your ship. It is when people forget this and the get comfortable they lose ships. The design of EVE is that to create a culture of harsh players for a harsh world. People that in the real world will have a drink with you at bar and make sure that you get home safe, but when they undock they have the intent of blowing up ships, yours, theirs, or NPCs, they don't care as long as it explodes and they were there. I contend that everyone who plays EVE Online does with the intent to blowing up spaceships. Even miners are guilty as it is the materials that they mine build the ships.
     Thus the culture of EVE Online is shown to us. It is a harsh culture of destruction and creation. With out destruction there would be no new creation in EVE. There is not part occupation in EVE does not lend its self to it. Miners and Mission-Runners who cry and rage about gankers and griefers fail to see that they are in fact creating them. It is the miner the supplies the materials for the ship and the Mission-Runner who give the ganker his cheap meta level weapons. This is just a fact of the life in New Eden.

"Not here to ruin the game, just here to ruin your game."~Goonswarm

     The second culture here is Goonswarm. Unlike most alliances in EVE they did not form in EVE. They came together on a forum called Something Awful. Like most forums this one was created for people with like minded ideas. Their liked minded idea is that everything in the world is a joke and should be made fun of. They them selves will admit that they are nerds, who are actively involved other MMOs, olds school computer games, and Dungeons and Dragons.  I will admit that Something Awful is not for everyone, but as there is a place on the internet for everyone, Goonswarm found theirs at Something Awful. So Something Awful became home to the biggest group of trolls on the Internet.
     It was here that they created a subculture of the forums, The Goons. A Goon's post tend to be a more vile than a typical post on Something Awful, but that is really it. Again it is all a joke. While people try to paint members of Goonswarm as vile, homophobic, racist children, they are in fact more like the average netcizen around the world that uses the Internet to say things that normal they wouldn't say not truly believing things they post, but more for shock value and laughs. They are also on other sites such as Reddit, or Imgur. If you spend a couple minutes on the forum though and don't mind reading more than a couple vulgar post, you will find the most Goons are well read and educated about what they are talking about. Why then to they act the way the do you ask? The simplest answer is that they're trolls.  That is the nature of their culture.
     Inside EVE the Goons created the same culture, Goonswarm. Why, because they could and the very nature of EVE allows it and encourages it. They created an empire out of being trolls and "being bad" at the game. Groups like Band of Brothers and IT Alliance called them a plague to the game and tried to kill them off, but instead to hiding from it and saying,"we're good," they said, "you right, we are." In many ways Goonswarm is the biggest Roleplaying alliance in EVE, as they all love to RP the bad guy. The more tears and cries on forums only makes them want to do it more.
    So even in Goonswarm we can see how the culture of EVE helped to shape their own. People calling them the bad guys, in fact encourages them to be bad, and if I was honest I would say that if Goonswarm didn't do events like Burn Jita or Hulkagaddon I would be more concerned.
     As for ruining the game, I laugh. Many Third-party programs such as EVEmon was created by Goonswarm members to help their members but also to help the players of EVE. Because of their huge player base they a strong voice in on the EVE-O forums in terms of ship changes. They also have been leaders on the CSM in trying to make the game better. One thing about having a lot of people is in your alliance and corporation is you are bound to get quite a few that are good. In many ways Goonswarm has helped make EVE-Online a more enjoyable place to live. While people scream Goon conspiracy at any action they do, they are simply choosing the ignore many of the good things that Goonswarm has done for New Eden.

Taking off the Tinfoil Hat

     At some point you just have to look around and take off your tinfoil hat. I will admit that when I first started playing I feared Goonswarm. I saw them as the most evil thing in the game and thought that they were trying to ruin the game. But as I watched and developed my own style of game play I saw I needed more help. I looked for better tools, guides, and advice in how to run a corporation in the game. I found that many were created by Goonswarm members. I talked to former members and even have made several Goon friends and they are not bad people. Do I say, "F@%! Goonswarm." sure I do, but it is a troll as much as anything. In fact the saying came from a one on Goonswarm's on FCs.
     Events like Burn Jita and Hulkagaddon are in fact good for the game and are not ruining it. Goonswarm in not using some different game mechanics than everyone. They are not cheating, instead they are using the tools given to them to create an event in the game that truly player based and shows the "real" dangers of New Eden. How is ganking freighters good for the game? Simple it reminds people that nowhere in New Eden is safe. It shows what a committed group of people can do. Do they make a profit of it, sure I imagine that they do. Is the wrong? No its not, even in the real world you would be hard pressed to find a job that didn't make a profit off at the expense of another person.
     The truth is while CCP is getting better at Live-Events, for the sandbox of New Eden to survive for ten more years then it still needs player driven events. While some groups have tried, many times they are simply not big enough to pull them off. Small groups of roleplayers get in game items created every now and then that has no real value accept a trophy that you get to have in your item holders. Other events like Frigate Fridays in Ammuke burnt the people doing it out so it fade away. The Great EVE Deathrace was another event that was good for the game but only a few hundred people did it.
     You need large alliances like Goonswarm and TEST to do these types of things. Null Sec alliance are the only groups that can bring large numbers of people to gather and make play events felt by nearly every player in the game. While I venture to say that some people quit cause of events like Burn Jita, many more people will read about it and join the game cause they want to be part of events like it. It is one major thing that separates EVE Online from other MMOs is that player events can change the course of the game.

"New Eden Superstar" April~Lord Maldoror

Pilot Note

In New Eden there are many many different pilots and many different ways to play. It is the greatest sandbox, where your dreams come true as well have you watch as they are crushed into thousand pieces. New Eden superstar is a look at a different capsuleer that Phox has encountered in New Eden and their take on EVE Online. I do not fully support them, but I feel that their views of the game are important to get a greater grasp of the New Eden Universe. New Eden Superstar are those chosen players that play EVE their way 

New Eden Superstar

Lord Maldoror

I can remember the first time I heard of Rooks and Kings, and Lord Maldoror. I was in highsec and we were talking about how to be good at PvP you needed to have Sov. Rooks and Kings didn't so they were not good.  Then a couple days later I was talking and someone posted a youtube video. Naturally I clicked on it. It took me to video called Clarion Call 3. Not knowing what it was I took the bait and clicked play.  The video was crazy long for an EVE video,  just over 37 mins. Unlike other videos that I had seen at that time about which only showed hundreds of purple and red squares in space, this video showed the ships, zoom ins and outs, fighting and flying.  It also had a narrative to go with it, a story. It was not a random battle in space. It was a war documentary showing one of the many wars in New Eden. Rooks and Kings would become my envy in New Eden. And they are the envy to many other corps and alliances. They all but wrote the book on Triage Warfare, they created the doctrine for small gang cap support, and they set bar for what is truly Elite Small Gang PvP in EVE.  The New Eden Superstar for April is Rooks and Kings and their CEO Lord Maldoror. 

What was your job before Rooks and Kings in Ned Eden? Did you always seek PvP? 

     Eve memories are rich and time is always short, so I'll answer the second part of that (because it's simpler). 

I started the game with some friends from Counter Strike. We had little idea of what to expect and after an evening of mining in high-sec, we went straight to 0.0, where we set up shop in a dead -end system in NPC 0.0 (Great Wildlands). This was in the spring of 2006.

     However, we were not necessarily seeking PvP. We spent most of our time ratting - first in Mallers, then in a Prophecy and finally, in battleships. During that time we lived out of a POS which we anchored to refit on and then unanchored an hour later (keeping scouts in nearby systems to ensure there were no incoming locals from the regional 0.0 power, to discover it). 

     All our assets were stored in Bestowers at 1000au safespots that we'd made. 

     It was in fact pvp that found us, rather than the other way around. A number of incidents took place.         Firstly, my friend Arumin (Archivian) was tackled at the kick-out station in N-DQ by a Sacrilege. He proceeded to accidentally kill it with his Prophecy. I say accidentally because we didn't fit any warp disruptors or scrams to our ships at that point. We thought it might be uncouth to hold an opponent down and that it was more important to 'best thine enemy in battle and that be the end of it' as they warp off. 

The fight was so close, however, that the hostile Sacrilege and Arumin's Prophecy both went to structure. Both felt they might win and by the time the aggressor realized he wouldn't, it was too late to get out. 

     Arumin immediately telephoned me with the news - sounding for all the world as if he was standing over the body of a dead stripper - that "I've killed someone".  Thereafter the locals decided to pay us more visits. 

     The second incident was when someone entered our system, telling us we needed to pay for a Hunting Pass to rat there. In retrospect this really wasn't too extravagant at all but at the time it was shocking: a monthly fee of two million isk. Outrageous! We immediately resolved to conquer the entire region (which actually, in the end, I suppose we sort of did, thereby also reminding me to never underestimate a carebear's threats). 

     We realised that to go about this dark business we'd need to build some ships. Totally ignoring the common sense of 'if you can't afford to lose it, don't fly it', we decided to farm up some officer/deadspace fitted battleships which we'd theory crafted in Quickfit (the EFT of the day). We agreed that if our ships were destroyed, we'd  kiss farewell to Eve and move on to the next game . 

     My ship was an Apocalypse Navy Issue called Bitter Moon. I don't remember the exact reason for the name; perhaps it was linked to the Polanski film. 

     NOS worked differently back then - you always gained directly the capacitor of the enemy. So the concept was simple - a full Chelm's tank, a Talisman set and a lot of NOS in order to drain the enemy, power the tank and slowly kill them (complete with officer rechargers to coast over cap dry targets and, when fighting gangs, a long range boosting ship for sensor strength).

Our first target was a poor Raven who was camping the same kick-out station where Arumin was attacked. Having no clue about what went on in Eve, we calculated in EFT that he may be full Estamel's fit, and so made preparations in this regard. Needless to say, he didn't have much chance.

     Bitter Moon went on to terrorize the region for a good amount of time. There were numerous attempts on its life, most notably when Velios dropped his Hel and some carriers on one side of a gate, with a gang and more carriers on the other. However, it was in low sec and, unable to break its tank, Bitter Moon was able to crawl back to the gate while popping fighters with the aid of gate guns. During that time the second group had cyno'd over to join the first group (since the ship wasn't dying), allowing me to warp off safely after jumping. 

     It's strange to think that whilst once upon a time a Navy Apocalypse was thought of as a reasonably rare ship, today it's one of our stock battleship doctrines (albeit in a very different form). 

     The ship is still alive today. A good thing too - since I'd promised to leave the game if it died. Sensibly, the ship is retired and will remain so until the day I actually do decide to leave (if ever). Of course, it would need something of a refit now, since the build stopped being relevant over many years of changes in game mechanics.

What is your greatest time in EVE? Many people see you dual boxing repps and still FCing, what is the most exciting moment you have had? 

     Probably being phoned for the first time at some hour of the night by Princess Aricia and being emphatically told "I NEED YOU NOW" (even if the next part of the sentence was "in a triage"). 

When you set out to make a video, about a Fleet comp that you have or being jumped in a Low Sec Incrusion, how much work goes into it? Do you story board it out? Or like a many PvP do you turn on FRAPS and hope the fight goes you way? 

     Each main video needs to show something different. Usually there's a doctrine, theme or tactic I want to highlight and then it's a matter of choosing from the available recordings. Very few of our fights ever make it to a released video - I often feel bad when people say, "hope I see this on Youtube!"  after a fight, since most likely it won't be. For example, my favourite fight of 2011 never made it onto a released video.  2012 still might.

What advice do you have to young alliances and CEOs that watch your Clarion Calls and Mr K an dream of having an Established PvP group like Rooks and Kings?

     I'd advise them to focus on finding the right group of people and then the rest will come naturally. When people speak of communes in the 1970s or great, drug-fuelled gigs, they usually say that they didn't see the significance of it all until later - a certain sense of immortality is hard to let go of, I suppose. But  I suspect many of us will look back on Eve with similar nostalgia one day. It's a deeply strange place, in many ways - the language, the culture, the drama. Who knows when you next find an experience like that online, so one might as well spend it with the right people. 

     And it goes beyond Eve, too. I like to know people who I can then break into abandoned mental hospitals with, or tunnel complexes, and then post 'battle reports' on the urban exploration site, 28dayslater.co.uk. I plan to make a trip to the Chernobyl sarcophagus one day, too, with the RnK core. If I can't trust in someone's scouting, I probably can't trust their reading of a Geiger counter either...

Rooks and Kings will continue to fly the skys of New Eden, and Lor Maldoror well continue to lead them. They are still creating new doctrines and finding most interesting ways of taking the fight to their enemies. The video below is Clarion Call 3, the one that made me a fan. I hope you enjoy it as much as did. 

DV-MS Newbie Skill Training 102..

DV-MS Skill Training 102

Advance T1 Frigate Skills and Destroy Hulls.

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. This training guide is to give pilots the support skills for their Tech One Frigate Hull as well as supporting skills for destory class hulls. Also remember that Deep Void Merc Syndicate is engaged in Faction Warfare, so there is not the heavy stress of getting new pilots in to larger ship hulls such as Battle Cruisers and Battleships. 

DV-MS Skill Training 102 preface

     Welcome back to Deep Void Merc Syndicate Skill Training. In DV-MS S.T. 102 we are going to be looking at some the more “advance” skills that you should train to help improve your self in DV-MS. This skill plan well be some time longer, 38-42 days, but as we learned in DV-MS S.T. 101, EVE is a long term game. This skill plan also requires that you have looked at and completed DV-MS S.T. 101 So lets get started.

Advance Tech One Frigate Training

     Good job pilot on completing the first set of training. Hopefully you have taking the time to continue on training some of the core skills, that will help with fittings. I know that you are hungry to fly something bigger and we want to help, but first we need to improve your frigate. So open up your EVEmon and the first skills that you need to load up into you training plan are Thermodynamics train to level 3, Jury Rigging train to level 3, and Cybernetics train to level 3 (at least). These skills will allow you to become more dangerous in your Frigate. The Thermodynamics skill is needed to “overheat” your mods to get more power out of them. Jury Rigging is needed to fit rigs on your ships. Rigs are helpful modules that get your ship to increase power-grid, CPU, speed, or damage. If you are trying to fit a module a ship but are lacking in one of those then play around with different rigs to see if you can get it to fit. Cybernetics is a skill that needed if you wish to install implants on your clone. These implants will alter your learning attributes, decreasing the time it takes you to learn skills. I put this skill in this training section as while they are important, it is more important to get you out into your ships flying. (Note that some rigs will require your to train another skill as well to use, Armor Rigging and Shield Rigging. Make sure that you also train those skills if you are going to be using those rigs.)

     You also need to train Scout Drone Operation to 5 and Mimnatar Drone Specialization and Gallente Drone Specialization to level 3. This will allow you to use the faster and more deadly Tech II drones. Since many Gallente Ships use drones we need to make sure that we are using them to our full advantage. Ships such as the Tristan, Federation Navy Comet, and Algos are all ships that will need Tech II drones. 

     You also will want to increase the damage your blasters and railsguns are doing. So this is a good time to do that. So back to EVEmon, and you want to look in your Certificate Browser and under Gunnery find the certificate named Turret Control, you want to add this in your plan to Standard. It only takes ten days. The Turret Control Certificate is giving you the basic ground work for you supporting Gunnery skills. You will need a second certificate from this group as well, so find the Frigate Hybrid Turrets certificate and train to standard. With these skills you now will have some basic levels gunnery skills to help aid your Frigate. (Note that if you are flying a different Races ship you can use the Frigate (weapon system) Turrets certificate ie. Frigate Energy Turrets.)

     You well also want to find the skill Shield Upgrades and train this skill to 5. Yes I understand that most Gallente ships are armor fitted. But sometimes we like to change it up, shield fit a Frigate for maxed Damage out put. In DV-MS we give these Derpy Atrons away, so if you want a free ship it is in your interest to have Shield Upgrades to 5. I know that it is a nine day skill, but it is worth having. 

     The last certificate that you'll need to plan is High-Velocity Helmsman. These skills are found under the Navigation skill. This certificate is used to improve your ships navigation and warp ability. It is key to have these skills trained if you want your ship to move, align, and warp faster. As well as giving your more control over your capacitor use. In Eve your capacitor is life and with poor navigation skills you risk halving that life, before the fight starts. The total training should take 42-46 days depending on implants.

Skill List for Training Advance Tech One Frigate Section

Remember to re-order shortest time to longest. 

Cybernetics I

Cybernetics II

Cybernetics III

Jury Rigging I

Jury Rigging II

Jury Rigging III

Engineering IV

Engineering V

Science IV

Thermodynamics I

Thermodynamics II

Thermodynamics III

Scout Drone Operation I

Scout Drone Operation II

Scout Drone Operation III

Scout Drone Operation IV

Scout Drone Operation V

Gallente Drone Specialization I

Gallente Drone Specialization II

Minmatar Drone Specialization I

Minmatar Drone Specialization II

Rapid Firing III

Rapid Firing IV

Sharpshooter II

Sharpshooter III

Motion Prediction IV

Spaceship Command IV

Navigation IV

Evasive Maneuvering III

Warp Drive Operation III

Afterburner I

Afterburner II

Fuel Conservation I

Fuel Conservation II

Fuel Conservation III

Fuel Conservation IV

Acceleration Control I

Acceleration Control II

Acceleration Control III

Acceleration Control IV

Afterburner III

High Speed Maneuvering I

High Speed Maneuvering II

High Speed Maneuvering III

High Speed Maneuvering IV

Shield Upgrades I

Shield Upgrades II

Shield Upgrades III

Shield Upgrades IV

Shield Upgrades V

Destroyer Class

     The Destroyer class hulls are ships that were created to be anti-frigate support ships for large fleets. There are two types of Destroyers hulls for each race, the Turret Platforms, Catalyst, Cormorant, Coercer, and Thrasher, and the Support Platforms, Algos, Corax, Dragoon, and Talwar. While all Destroyers are heavy DPS Ships, the Turret Platforms rely on gun turrets to apply damage and the Support Platforms apply damage with Drones, Missiles or Energy Neutralization and have a little be better tank. 

     Destroyers also share the same modules, rigs, and turrets of Frigates. This means that with the right support skills you will be able to get into an effective Destroyer in a short time. Once you complete some of your basic and more advance Tech I Frigate training you will be better prepared to get into your Destroyer. The first skill that you are going to need the Destroyer Skill train to level 3. (Note that in the Odyssey Expansion this skill will be four racial skills, Gallente Destroy, Caldari Destroyer, Amarr Destroyer and Minmatar Destroyer.)

     Now we have to know what destroyers we want to fly, the Algos or the Catalyst.  If you trained the skills listed above the good news is you have the making of a great Catalyst, but we are going to need a few more skills to get our Algos into working order. We know that the Algos is a Support Platform that uses drones, so its best that we train some drone skills to go with it. Go to the Certificates Browser, and under Drones, you need to find Drone Control and you need to train this cert to Standard. Then you need to find the Combat Drone Control and you need to train this certificate to Standard. This will give you basic drone skills that you can improve on as you learn to fly more ships that require them. This skill set should take 6-10 days depending on Learning Attributes and skills.

List of Skills for Destroyers Section

Remember to re-order shortest time to longest

Destroyers I

Destroyers II

Destroyers III

Gallente Cruiser I

Gallente Cruiser II

Gallente Cruiser III

Gallente Cruiser IV

Drone Navigation I

Drone Navigation II

Drone Navigation III

Drone Navigation IV

Drone Durability I

Drone Durability II

Drone Durability III

Drone Interfacing I

Drone Interfacing II

Drone Interfacing III

     This completes DV-MS Skill Training 102. Total training time should take 50-54  days depending on Learning Attributes and implants. These skills will help you to build a more solid foundation on your current skill list. Stay tuned for DV-MS Skill Training 103.  

Fly Saf #18

Train the ECCM Sensor Compensation skill to import your ability at using ECCM Modules. The Skills are: 

Gravimetric Sensor Compensation- Caldari Ships

Magetometric Sensor Compensation- Gallente Ships

Ladar Sensor Compensation- Minmatar Ships

Radar Senor Compensation- Ammar Ship

DV-MS Newbie Skill Training 101...First month of skills.

It is often asked by younger pilots, what do we train and how do we know what to plan? This is a very basic guide to help the New Recruits of DV-MS in their training. To start off is a list of help skills to look at. You cannot go wrong with training these skills to 5 as they are core skills.

Drones V: maximize amount of drone control on subcap ships 5

Engineering V: maximize the power core.

Electronics V: maximize the CPU.

Energy Management V: maximize the capacitor capacity.

Energy Systems Operation V: maximize the capacitor recharge rate.

Energy Grid Upgrades V: to reduce the CPU requirements of installing power modules.

Mechanics V: maximize structure hitpoints.

Gunnery V: 10% weapon damage for all turrets.

Missile Launcher Operation V: 10% weapon damage for all missiles.

Shield Management V: maximize shield capacity.

Shield Operation V: maximize the shield recharge rate.

Hull Upgrades V: maximize armor hitpoints.

Repair Systems IV: be able to operate the best armor and hull repair modules. If you train to V, some of your cap stable ships may become non cap stable, because the armor repairers will run shorter cycles.

Welcome to Skill Training 101

     Welcome to DV-MS Newbie Training program. We were all once Newbies in the game and some of still are (cough cough me cough). So we all can benefit from having having a bit of knowledge on what to train. If you haven't please take time in reading my other post on skill planning. We will be creating a skill plan for PvP and combat. Some skills may cross over into combat pve, ratting, but most of this will be PVP only. This will go over a short term skill plan that requires just under a month of training. More advance skill plans will be shown in the future.

Getting Started

     Now to start all you all need to download EVEMon. This is a tool that is greatly needed for your skill plan to work. Have it, good. Once open you need to put in your API information. Then click on your characters profile, then under the plans tab at the top create new plan. It will ask you to name the plan. So name it and now we are ready.

     Once the plan is open you will see a lot of opinions at the top. Do not get overwhelmed, where are just going to look as few tabs and I'll let you play with the rest. The first tab that I want to click on is the Ship Browser tab, and then find the Atron, under Gallente Frigates. Once you find look at the right side and you will see two boxes. The first is Recommended Certificates the second is Required Skills. Look at the Recommended Certificates and first one you will see in Core Competency to Basic. Now find the ship class Vexor. If you look at the Recommended you will see that Core Competency Basic is recommended for this ship as well. (The item tab is similar to the ship tab in that will show you the skill needed for the item you look up.)

     What is Core Competency? Well the Core Competency Certificate is a group of basic skills that help with fitting, cap usage, tanking, and targeting. These skills are sometimes so basic that they are over looked, and not sought after because they don't directly affect what every wants and that is DPS.

     Now some you may already have Core Competency to basic and that is good. The second tab that we want to look at is Skill Browser tab. This tabs allows to see all the skills in the game. They are list just like in the market menu in the game so they are easy to browse and find. This is useful if you know the skill that you are looking for you can just go find it, click add to skill plan and look for the next one.

     The last tab that we need to focus on is the Certificates tab. Remember the Recommended Certificates we looked at with the Atron and Vexor, this tab shows all the certificates in the game. Like Skills there are crazy amount. In EVE Online there are no “skill” trees as there are in other games. The closes thing to it are certificates. There are Certs for basic Core Skills to Leadership skills to Industry. All of these make up a group of skills that affect the same “Tree” in the game. For instance the Certificate Armor Tanking, are skills that affect how well you Armor Tank, and the skill Battleship Hybrid Turrets are those skills that allow for more control over your Battleship Blasters and Railguns. Take some time to look at some different certificates. Note that on the top right there is a blurb about the certificate, and on the right middle and bottom there is a list of ships that it is recommended for.

Lets Build....

    Now lets build a simple basic plan. The first step is decide what ship you are going to fly. Let say we want to fly the Tristan. Click on the ship tab and find Tristan. Look at the Required skill can you fly it now? If yes okay great, if not right click added to plan train to 5. If you can right click and plan to 5. Now look a the      Recommended Certificates. Core Competency Basic, Armor Tanking Basic, Combat Drone Control Basic, Frigate Hybrid Turrets Basic. Right click all of these add to skill plan.

      Now have the basics we still need a few more skills. If we look at out plan we still do not have anyway of putting a point on ship and keeping it there were we can kill it. So lets go to the Item Browser and find the J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler, it requires the Propulsion Jamming Skill to level one, right click add to Skill Plan, train to 3. We need a tackle as well, so find the X5 Prototype Engine Enervtor, right click train to 3. Now you need to go to your Plan Queue tab and find the skill Gunnery and Drones, right click train both to 5. Should say that it take 25-30 days depending how your Learning Attributes are set up and if you have implants. With the current plan if you remap to full attributes on Perception and then Intelligence it will take you just over 27 days of training without implants.

      So we have skills in our plan which ones do we start first? It may not be right but as a Rule of Thumb I train shortest time longest when first starting out. So on your plan queue tab, click the 'Training Time' marker, it will take one or two clicks but you get your skills lined up shortest to longest. The reason I do this is to train as many skills in 24hours as I can. There is no reason to wait nine days for Gallente Frigate to 5 if there are other skills I need. So shortest to longest allows for me to train to the most skills I can while letting me be valuable in my ship in the short time. Also this gives me 57 new skills to train, when 'I don't know what to train next?'. You can never go wrong with training any of the core skills to 5.

      Here is a list of all the skills on the DV-MS Newbie Plan. Month one.

***Remapping (active) : i21 p27 c17 w17 m17***

Energy Systems Operation I

Targeting I

Signature Analysis I

Warp Drive Operation I

Repair Systems I

Drones I

Energy Grid Upgrades I

Electronics Upgrades I

Long Range Targeting I

Evasive Maneuvering I

Hull Upgrades I

Rapid Firing I

Sharpshooter I

Motion Prediction I

Controlled Bursts I

Energy Management I

Shield Management I

Propulsion Jamming I

Energy Systems Operation II

Targeting II

Signature Analysis II

Warp Drive Operation II

Repair Systems II

Drones II

Energy Grid Upgrades II

Long Range Targeting II

Evasive Maneuvering II

Hull Upgrades II

Rapid Firing II

Motion Prediction II

Controlled Bursts II

Energy Management II

Shield Management II

Propulsion Jamming II

Mechanics III

Gunnery III

Energy Systems Operation III

Targeting III

Signature Analysis III

Repair Systems III

Drones III

Combat Drone Operation I

Combat Drone Operation II

Gallente Frigate III

Hull Upgrades III

Motion Prediction III

Energy Management III

Shield Management III

Propulsion Jamming III

Gunnery IV

Targeting IV

Drones IV

Gallente Frigate IV

Propulsion Jamming IV

Gunnery V

Drones V

Gallente Frigate V

A more advance plan is coming in the future. I hope that this help to all the DV-MS guys and to newer pilots reading the blog.  Note that while I used the Tristan for this plan, you can create your plan using any frigate in the game and begin pvping your first month of game. It would be wish to note that these are still basic skill level and that it takes time and practice to get good at using your ship.  

DV-MS Department of Truth...The Deep History.

  

Editorial Truth

In lieu of the most successful month of combat in the short history of Deep Void Merc Syndicate, the Department of Truth want to look at what brought us to the point, and why DV-MS still holds true to who it is no matter its name.  

The Humbling Begining....

     Great things never come into being magically. They are created over time, with hard work dedication to those that began it. So holds true the story to Deep Void Merc Syndicate, but that was not always its name. Deep Void Merc Syndicate is the second corporation created by myself, and is the reincarnation of my first corp Deep Void Industrial Group.
      DVIG started out as a High sec griefer corp. Meaning that when it was it would be engage in PVP with high sec targets and steal from miners to get fights. It only performed at this for a short time when in the fall of 2011 it joined RAGE. Alliance, in low sec then Null. It was here the some current DV-MS pilot cut their teeth on PVP. But this was short lived as the move to Nullsec proved to be the death of RAGE.
     Looking for a new home DVIG move to Palcid, then Syndicate where the core group of pilot continued to fly together and work on improving in PVP. Here is where it also gain new member and grow to high member count of 24 people. After six month in Syndicate and leaving Damned Nation Alliance as it failed. Deep Void was once again on the move, but was unsure where.
    After looking at opinions it was decided that we had two choices to move to Faction Warfare, move into a wormhole or completely disbanded. After some research it was decided that a wormhole move was not a great idea, and after being the CEO of my own corp for a year I knew that didn't want to move into a new one with some else telling me what to do. So Faction Warfare became the outlet in which DVIG could still be itself and continue to PVP. But due to my poor standing with the Gallente Federation, which had carried over to the corp, I had to close the doors on DVIG. It is still on of the saddest days in New Eden for me. for most of my EVE life DVIG was who Phox Jorkarzul was. But like the Phoenix, in the ashes of DVIG rose DV-MS.

A Rising Star....

    Deep Void Merc Syndicate still holds true to the founding principles of DVIG. First is that strong pilots make strong corps. Second that corp is here to serve the pilots not the other way. Last is to build the corp into an elite PVP gang.  DV-MS joined FW for the fleets and fights, and to learn a new aspect of EVE.
    Since joining we have steadily grown from a humble eight active to players to more than 30 active pilots that span the world.  We are primary a USTZ corp, but we have 4 players from AUS, 3 from EU, 5 from the UK and as the CEO I  live in China. Our skill points range from under 1mil pilots that fly our Derpy Atrons and A-Cat into plexes with success to 102 million carrier pilot. What brings us all to together is good fights, good friends, and laughs.
   Here is to many more successful months in Faction Warfare and in GMVA.