Late night Flights...

"The Piranha Brutix" 

"There's a man going round taking names..." opens up a Johnny Cash classic "The Man Comes Around", an old world favorite. With that tone in the back of our minds we set out to create a Low Sec Gank ship, that in the gang could take names. We looked to the "Wolf Pack" Talos of null with its speed and high DPS, what we wanted was a cheaper ship with higher tank, and could be thought of as a light weight brawler.  Enter what we call the "Piranha" Brutix fitting code HEB-ASB-MSF-VI. Un-boosted it has 30k EHP with okay shield resistances for an armor hull, and with Null ammo and Hammerhead II hits for 640 DPS, with the booster the EHP hits 40k with a 1500 shield recharge.

I know that I will hear that we are not fitting the ship right and that we need to use the armor bonus, and while most of the time I will agree with you, what we were going for is a bit of speed and gank. For long 26 jump roams we want to be able to get to gates quickly. With the armor ship we are not able to catch cruisers class ships and or burn back to gates before we are webbed and bumped off gates.

The Man Comes Around....

So we began our roam from Nisuwa, 26 jumps through Black Rise, Placid, and Essence.  There were three of us with a Tengu Booster scout.  Six jumps out in Aivonen our scout comes across a Myrmidon that is looking for a fight, we send the booster and two "Piranhas" into the system next door Pavanakka while the "bait" waits at the stargate on the other side.  The Myrmidon lands on the gate and our bait jumps into Pavanakka with the Myrmidon following where we are ready. The Myrmidon pilot is thinking this will be a easy kill Myrmidon vs Brutix, but when he finds three of us there now he is not as excited. With 3v1 he holds his cloak and sends an message of help to his alliance. Being at 0km on the gate we wait for him to uncloak, once he does he becomes the primary. As we apply DPS and move to bump him away form the gate, he has a Loki booster and two Tornado Attack Battle-cruisers jump in. We are unable to make it the Tornadoes as they pull range to apply their high Alpha Damage nearly 13k a volley. 

Quickly we switch back to the Myrmidon hoping that at least we get him down before the High Alpha eats through our low tanks. We are successful killing the Myrmidon usually fast for a hull of its class.  Myrmidon down we began to burn away from the Tornadoes hoping to get out of warp scram range, but with the Loki on the field and their Warp Disruptors over heated they manage to grab one of us before we get out. 

 Minmatar Attack Battle-Cruiser Tornado  

        Caldari Tengu Strategic Cruiser      

 Minmatar Loki Strategic Cruiser

                         

20 more jumps...

The downed pilot reships to a "Piranha" Thorax and we continue our tour of Black Rise. The rest of the flight we don't meet any more pilots that want to fight our small gang even in one case where they had 14 pilots in system to our 3.  Ending the roam, we finally look at the kill mails to see how we fared. Our Burtix lost was 80mil isk while their Myrmidon netted 90mil so the isk war was won. But looking Myrmidon I start shaking my head as I see why it died so fast to our gang. Only two reps and no Ancillary Armor Repairer this ship was lost before the fight started. If it would have dual repped and ARR it would have been much harder to kill and could have killed at list one of us before going down.

I like flying the "Piranha" Brutix and want to do more of them in the future. They lay out nasty DPS and in larger gangs can really ruin peoples days. Here is hoping for more of these gangs. 

You Never Know How Strong you Are....

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.~Unknown

While on evegate (Yes, people post on evegate) and looking at what some of my contacts post I came across this. It was the second time that I had read it in a couple weeks the first being on facebook.  I thought about it and make sense in some ways. Then I thought about EVE and forever war between the Gallente Federation and the Caldari State.

After 6 months of owning the battlefield, we began to believe in our strength  We had became the Kings and Knights of Black Rise and Placid. Our immortality was sealed we would never die.  We conquered all the fleets we saw. Our Armada sweep through the stars, bring death on swift wings. As the numbers of Star Systems crept up and we began to own it all we saw that had arrived. We achieved that greatness that few have tasted, not as a single alliance or corporation, but as a coalition of free pilots that sought to spread the glory of the Federation. But we wrong, we not who we thought we were. We were not the Kings of our Destiny, we were in fact pawns, on an ever growing board. 

Slowly the State began to take systems back as we looked in the mirror of our greatness. Their horde from the depths of 0.0 roared. Yet we still did not wake from our apathy. We still believed that we were there, we were unstoppable, not seeing that we stopped ourselves.  The tides of the war turned. 

With the flood of Caldari State Plexers and Combat Systems invading our systems, we have no choice, but to stay strong  

Stay Strong Gallente Militia, Fight on.  

NEWS FLASH

Maybe the war won't happen at all just released on the THE MITTANI.  CFC-HBC have hugged it out....

Link below

HBC/CFC Drama

HBC vs CFC....The Next Great EVE War???

I have read several different blogs on this subject and I don't really feel like i should muddle the waters any more than they are. At the same time, I feel that is I didn't address it in my blog then my whole goal of trying to show some of the politics in EVE to people that are not aware of them will be lost as any conflict with Honey Badger Coalition and Cluster F*ck Coalition is worth noting.

First I will take a quick look at the two coalitions, I will mess some things up here, so bare with me. Basically the CFC is  Goonswarm Federation, Razor Alliance, Fatal Ascension, Tactical Narcotics Team, Fidelas Constans, Spacemonkey's Alliancse, Excutive Outcomes, Gentlemens Agreement, and Gent Off my Lawn.  Honey Badge is made up of TEST Alliance Please Ignore, Pandemic Legion, Tribal Band, The Intiiative, Raiden. THORN Alliance, Li3 Federation, EntroPraetorian Aegis, Banderlogs Alliance, Squee. Hig Rollers Dark Therpy, Unclaimed., Kill it with Fire, Executive Outcomes, Out of Sight. Test Friends Please Ingore, Initiative Mercenaries, Mistakes Were Made, The Gurlstas Associates, WALLTREIPERS ALLIANCE, Insidious Empire, and Zombie Ninja Space Bears.  While both coalitions have a lot of members the real players to watch here is Goonswarm Federation and TEST Alliance, as either coalition will not do anything without one of those two alliance's blessing.

All of the drama that is going on right now with these two has to with TEST and Fatal Ascension where TEST thinks that FA was the cause of another alliance falling apart, do to some backhanded and under handing. What this caused was TEST leaving the CFC and forming the HBC and resetting the CFC to Neutral while keeping a non conflict pact of some sorts. The only member in the CFC that was not reset was GoonSwarm Federation, who TEST says is their BFFs.  The ideal about the non conflict pact was to have "good fights" with other the CFC while still working with each other to conquer other parts of Null Sec.  At first this seemed to work but over time it fell apart and with both FA and TEST claiming that the other has broken the deal.  I will not go future into it as it really is it that important to me who started the bickering what I will look at is what it will mean for EVE and who I think will win.

First I'll say is that this will be a good thing for EVE.  EVE is an universe that is based on fighting. It is the only game out that had dedicated it self to fighting and finding more ways to open up conflict. EVE is based on the ideal of the WAR Economy, and in times of conflict the economy in EVE has grown well as 2012 showed. Also Alliance like TEST and Goonswarm were started and founded on such conflicts, so the raise of new alliances and old ones to power will come as well. This is all good for EVE and the people of EVE. Personally I hope that it will happen sooner rather than later.

Second what the CFC and HBC have done is created a giant blue doughnut around empire. While on paper this looks great, what happens is you start to get people who are bored. I think back to the Mongolian Empire when it started declining because they had nothing more to conquer. That is what has happen with the Fall of AAA in 2012. With no more enemies outside they have begun to look with in. For TEST is FA is a good choice cause of past bad blood. And as with all true empires they never fall from the outside but from within. Do not kid your self while most hate each other the CFC and HBC both have craved out and Empire in Null Sec together.

The real question as one EVE 24 news blogger put is "not if they start but when they start the war?"  My guess is that sometime around the middle of May this year.  The reason I have put it off for that long is because this wars take a lot time to plan and in terms of moving ships and supplies and gathering wealth it will take a bit. I also think that each side is going to try and grow in numbers, I will not be surprised if both the HBC and CFC add members to side.  To me the real wild card is Pandemic Legion in that whole set up as they have traditionally went to who ever could pay them the most. While BFF's with TEST I think that Goons could bring them to their side if they made the right offer. The reason PL is interesting to me, is they have a large Capital and Super Capital Fleet.

The last thing before I pick the winner, is what will this fight be for. First it will be about size of the victor's Epeen and bragging rights. While some will say it will be about Tech Moons I do not think so the CFC does hold the most Tech Moons in the game and I am sure that HBC would like to have them. But I don't think the HBC has it them to go and crash all the CFC Pos'es. What I think this really would be about the the destruction of the other side. While TEST and Goons are both cut from the same cloth, if they went to war then it you be to destroy everything about the other. I do not think that it would end in a sue for peace. Both side would seek the complete destruction of the other.

This is why I think that the CFC will win. While yes I know that TEST and HBC has numbers, Goons has survived these kind of war before, Band of Brothers, NC. Dot, the Russian Block, and IT Alliance have all tried to kill Goons out of EVE. But have failed.  Goons will not be killed out EVE by HBC as much as they want to believe they can. Goons are a fleet inside and out side eve. They live in somethigaweful.com, that is where their game takes place. So trying to break them in EVE if pointless in my opinion. While people will shout about Dreddit where TEST leaves and that is true, TEST does exist outside of game, I feel that it not the to point of Goons. And with surviving other fights before this I feel that Goons understands what is going on and how to act better than TEST.

To read more about it there are two links below that talk about the tensions and where the two coalitions stand.

EVE 24News
The Mittani

Fly Safe #14

Faction Warfare complexs now have a button range of 30km. You must be within that range to collect LP. 

Making that ISK

I am often asked by new recruits into the corp or by people that I am recruiting how I make money in Faction Warfare. Often I hear about people who go "space broke" in Faction Warfare because they get tied down with PVP side of it and lose large amounts of ships. Just as often I also hear about those who achieve great wealth and become "space rich."  Some players use two accounts with one in Faction Warfare and the other sitting outside it to run missions or incursions for extra cash, several guys in my corp do this. I also know of people that have trader alts that simply play the EVE market buying and selling to make it rich. 

Do to "real life" I am unable to run two accounts on EVE, but I can make use of about 5 days of training that I did when I first started to playing EVE. So I began to play the market as other do, but I use my main and not an alt. I also use the bonus that Faction Warfare gives me to gaining Faction Loyalty Points to buy items cheaper that on the open market and sell them back at a higher value. 

One thing that you have to do to play the market successfully is a bit of study and for studying the EVE market, the best tool out of game is EVE-Central. This website pulls from the EVE API system to look at the market value of all items sold in the game. All you have to type in the item that you are looking for and EVE-Central can tell you how much that item is in all trading hubs.

The second you need to decide if you want the fast sell or the long wait. Some items on the the market sell very fast, due to how fact they are used, Ammunition is great at selling fast because the two largest professions in EVE need ammo, PVPers and Mission Runners.  Other Items like ships tend to sell slower because they more specialized in who uses them and the market for them is lower, and even in ships some ships, frigates sell faster than battleships because more people can use a frigate in compared to the battleships. So to recap selling Ammo will generate a small profit very fast, while selling ships with generate a larger profit but at a slower rate. 

Third you need to look at Loyalty Point Store for the faction that you are gaining points from. What does that faction offer to sell and how does that compare to the regular market? In almost all cases items that I looked at in the LP store cost less to buy using LP and ISK than if I was just buying the item on the regular market. So look at different items and see how selling trends for the item and choice one that you think is going to make the income that you are looking for.

LEARNING IMPLANTS

This is what I sell in from the LP store.  In the LP store you are able to buy the Learning Implants from 6-30 million less that what you can buy it for on the open market depending on the implant grade (basic around 6 and to improved 30 mil), and which implant it is (the Cybernetic Sub-processor seems to sell for a bit less that the others). The new thing is that in the LP the price for all the Implants is set the same across the board for implants of the same grade.  So that basics will be the same, all the standards will be the same, all the improves will be same. I also choose Implants cause like Ammo once they are greatly needed. Very rarely do veteran pilots not use implants of some kind. Also when the pod is lost so are the implants meaning that the buyer has to return to the market to get new ones.  

I deal in the selling the standard implants over the basics and the improved. First is while the improved can net me a 30 million ISK profit over the standards 10 million ISK, with 100,000,000 ISK I can only buy one 1 improved implant and I can buy 8 standards. While with that hundred mill I could buy 19 of the basics, they tend not to sell as fast as the standards (I wish that I knew why this is as I have about 50 million ISK tied up trying to sell basics).  I also like the standards because it is easy to get an average to how much the investment is going to make you. a simple 10 million ISK per unit. I average to 10 million because when I buy them from the LP I buy the same amount of each unit. So every set I buy generates 100,000,000  ISK when you figure some are sold at 21 mil and others 23.

In Faction Warfare I do not run complexes  for the LP, if I did I would generate a lot more LP than I do. What I do is run a complex for finding PVP and doing so I am able to generate 360 LP  ever two weeks which with a 360 million investment I make a cool 360 mill on top making a net 720 million. Cause of how I PVP not buying crazy amounts of ships and using LP to pick up Faction Ships, and flying what I can afford to lose, I am able to save back ISK and start this 360 process with more and more ISK in the hold each time

I also look at in terms that Faction Warfare is paying you to PVP which no other place make that offer. It is this that keeps me in Faction Warfare as a method of ISK generation.  It is also what confuses me about when hard core PVPers say that they would never do Faction Warfare , because it is like printing ISK. Also people that complain that they are losing money in Faction Warfare are doing it wrong. 

I hope that this is help for those doing Faction Warfare and are looking struggling to make ISK. 

DV-MS Department of Truth

I have liked propaganda posters. So I decided to do a couple of my own. I have several done but these two are my favorite. I will post more of them as I work on them and edit them out. I have several that are still in the planning phase and not completed yet.

This one was and old WWI British poster that depicted a German Solider eating a baby. I did some light editing and now as you can see it is the Caldari State that eats babies, which is a fact.

This second one is a People Republics of China poster. The original one has no words and is just a fist with a "rising sun" back ground. I simply added in the Deep Void Merc Syndicate cog and some text to create it. This was also one of my first ones to do. So it is not super great, but it is one of my favorites.